the grid

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Sunday 13 June 2021

Summer Session, Week 4: Now with a title!

Hello! I hope that you're all having a delightful weekend and--if desirable--taking a break from all of your very active Doing.

For this week's prompt, I'll ask you a series of questions. You can answer all of them, some of them, one of them, or none of them. They don't mean anything, of course--I'm just trying to have fun with the prompting!

1. Have you given thought to any interesting animal species recently? If so: what animal, and why?

2. At what time of day is the light in your home most pleasing to you? At what time of year?

3. Do you nap regularly? For how long?

4. What did you have for lunch today (whatever "today" is for you)? Did you like it?

5. Who is most likely to interrupt you when you're working, and how do you feel about those interruptions?

6. What color do you most like wearing? What color (if any) do you dislike wearing? Why do we have preferences about what colors we wear, anyway?

7. What are you looking forward to in the coming week?


Last week's goals:

Dame Eleanor Hull:

Work on Albatross's intro & conclusion, send to reader.
Start work on Domestic chapter.
Read a friend's essay & comment.
Scholarly reading x4.
Latin & Greek each x4.
Grade things & change student's Incomplete to grade.
Move books back into my study.
Regular exercise & stretching.
Write letters, buy steamer and steam linen clothing.

Elizabeth Anne Mitchell (held over):

Set and breakdown June goals.
Finish peer review.
Read two articles on Prudence, making notes, and tracking citations.
Make appointments with two doctors.
Email co-editor.
Write and mail thank-yous and birthday cards.

Good Enough Woman:

1. Clean out the medicine cabinet.
2. Clean out dresser drawers.
3. 2 20-minute creative writing brainstorming sessions.
4. Float like mist through daughter's movie night with her squad. (We are boarding the dog for the evening, which will help tremendously. We boarded him for the first time on Wed for my son's graduation, which meant my folks could come for dinner without us worrying about him knocking one of them over).
5. Eat some of the greens my friend brought from her garden.

heu mihi:

1. 5 hours on My Project (reading/writing/note-taking)
2. Read and edit essays for first part of collection
3. Read painfully difficult (but short) book in anticipation of teaching it next spring
4. Prepare one new lecture for fall
5. Sit x5, Latin x5
6. Celebrate my birthday! Host son's birthday party! Host parental post-party visit! Too much celebration, frankly!
6a. Have private whatever-I-want time on the afternoon of my birthday, while the house is empty (start a fun new knitting pattern, maybe?)
7. Process journal article
8. Run stuff to thrift store for donation

humming42:

1 overdue poetry review
2 Road review
3 Novel review

Susan:

1. 2x 2 hours on Famous Author
2. Start reading for prize (assuming 20 books, get through at least 5)
3. Read article for review (it's an R & R I read for the first round, so should not be terrible I hope)
4. 2 more sections of program review
5. Have fun with my brother & his family when they come for the weekend
6. Exercise, sleep and read
7. Do fun things with friends



13 comments:

  1. Love the fun questions!

    1. Have you given thought to any interesting animal species recently? If so: what animal, and why?
    Capybaras and wombats! My daughter is a big fan of interesting animal facts and has been particularly into these lately so I get a constant stream of information. Also there’s a twitter account with a daily capybara that is lovely, watching them take baths is brilliant!

    2. At what time of day is the light in your home most pleasing to you? At what time of year?
    Late afternoon sun is beautiful and makes everything glow. Best in summer of course, everything is best in summer…

    3. Do you nap regularly? For how long?
    Never in a bed… I want to sometimes, but I just cannot fall asleep in the daytime if I actually lie down. However, if I put my head down on my office desk I sleep like a baby!

    4. What did you have for lunch today (whatever "today" is for you)? Did you like it?
    Leftover birthday cake baked by my daughter, with strawberry preserves instead of icing.

    5. Who is most likely to interrupt you when you're working, and how do you feel about those interruptions?
    My husband when working at home… It makes me crazy but he enjoys random chats and needs social interaction when working from home so I participate mostly enthusiastically… I don’t even remember who interrupts me in the office, it has been so long since I’ve been in one…

    6. What color do you most like wearing? What color (if any) do you dislike wearing? Why do we have preferences about what colors we wear, anyway?
    Blues, purples, dark greens, and some kinds of pink are great. I cannot stand anything yellow or orange because I automatically look ill and bilious and jaundiced in any of those shades. I think my preferences are mostly inherited from my mom who had the same colouring so when I borrowed her clothes they came in a particular palette and it stuck.

    7. What are you looking forward to in the coming week?
    Getting out into the hills and bushes and doing actual field work! Also, being able to come home on weekends because it is close enough and that way I get clean clothes and good showers!

    My goal of taking the weekend off was achieved admirably, I did puzzles with kid, she cooked dinner, , went for a couple of runs, read a few books, and generally took things easy!

    This week’s goals
    1) Cover as much ground as possible for student project field work
    2) Help students with field data and sample collections
    For extra “would be nice” goals, or options for terrible weather days:
    3) Send out letters for association stuff
    4) Start revisions for cool paper

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The summer glow is truly splendid. I am trying to slo mo summer as much as I can. Yay for the weekend off! And for working on a cool paper (assuming that's not a temperature reference...)

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  2. I'm paralyzed by my own questions! The dithering must stop. Here I go:

    1. Animals I've been thinking of: Whippoorwills, because they've been singing outside our windows at night! Axolotls, because my son just introduced me to them. And our aged, ancient, hanging-in-there cat, of course.

    2. Light: Sunny evenings in the summer, mornings on snowy winter days.

    3. Nap: Not regularly, but when I can. If I manage to sleep for twenty minutes or less, it does me good. Beyond that, I'm pretty sacked out.

    4. Lunch: Yesterday--leftover potato salad (I made about 8 times more than I needed to for my son's birthday party on Saturday) and a sandwich. The sandwich was less exciting than anticipated, but I do love me some potato salad.

    5. Interruptions: Probably the cat--but less so these days, since she's slowed down quite a bit.

    6. Color: I find that I wear a lot of blue. A *lot*. All shades. I don't much like wearing bright red--never have--and, while I've largely come around to more muted reds and burgundies, I'm still not altogether sure about them.

    7. Looking forward to: um---it was such a busy week last week, I think that I'm looking forward to some quiet!

    Between my birthday, my son's birthday, my son's birthday party, a quick visit from my parents, and a mild cold (from which I've almost recovered), I'm feeling rather off kilter and off schedule! I want to really re-focus and get back on track this week, although I think that I need to give myself another day or two off significant exercise.

    Last week:
    1. 5 hours on My Project (reading/writing/note-taking) - About 4
    2. Read and edit essays for first part of collection - To the extent possible; one still isn't in
    3. Read painfully difficult (but short) book in anticipation of teaching it next spring - YES
    4. Prepare one new lecture for fall - YES (finished yesterday!)
    5. Sit x5, Latin x5 - x5, x4
    6. Celebrate my birthday! Host son's birthday party! Host parental post-party visit! Too much celebration, frankly! - YES!
    6a. Have private whatever-I-want time on the afternoon of my birthday, while the house is empty (start a fun new knitting pattern, maybe?) - YES--relaxed with a TV re-run and my knitting :). Also ate cookies.
    7. Process journal article - Waiting on co-editor
    8. Run stuff to thrift store for donation - YES, except for one box (they don't take toys)

    This week:
    1. Sit x 5, Latin x 5
    2. 5 hours on My Project, including working through reader's comments on essay-in-progress
    3. Read less short, less difficult book for next year's grad seminar
    4. Prep two more fall lectures
    5. Journal issue second proofs
    6. Copyedit an essay for next journal issue

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Blue is a good color for many people, and it's soothing and inspiring. What kinds of things do you knit?

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    2. You had a super productive week! The variety of things is especially impressive: balancing the social time/birthday celebrations with quiet time for yourself and with moving projects forward.

      I am deeply impressed with your work toward setting up Fall classes.

      Delete
  3. 1. Animals: I re-read my posts here from around this time last year and was amused by the Mammoth of Moving and the Hippogriff of training to teach online. Otherwise, I'm pretty much always thinking about cats. =^..^=

    2. Light: the new house is rather dark. There's an east window that gets lovely light in the morning, but the way the windows are set means that mostly one looks out into light, rather than getting it in the house. The exception is the bedroom, which faces west and gets much too hot when the sum pours in.

    3. Naps: rarely, because they make me so groggy.

    4. Lunch: greens, a turkey burger, instant mashed potatoes. I don't have that many different meals! I made Official Brownies for dessert, since I forewent wedding cake at this weekend's festivities.

    5. Interruptions: husband or cats, and I rarely mind. They are all infinitely easier to deal with than the (invariably poorly timed) phone calls I used to get from my mother, who would pour out 30 minutes or more of uninterrupted anxiety and venting, just when I'd found some time to work.

    6. Colors: I like wearing periwinkle blue, also dark red, both because I find them attractive in themselves and because they flatter me. I think most of us are drawn to colors that are either flattering or make us happy. Orange doesn't suit me, but I like to sneak a little of it into prints, because I like its energy.

    7. What are you looking forward to in the coming week? Eating brownies. Finishing the &^%$#@!! Albatross. Completing the move back into my study. Taking things to Goodwill and checking out the racks while I'm there.

    How I did:
    Work on Albatross's intro & conclusion, send to reader. NO: I sulked over unhelpful feedback from my RL writing group. Possibly I am just stubbornly resisting good advice, but I think that they're not paying enough attention to the points I said I needed help with.
    Start work on Domestic chapter. YES, if one session counts.
    Read a friend's essay & comment. YES.
    Scholarly reading x4. ONCE, I think.
    Latin & Greek each x4. x3 (not bad), x1 (better than 0).
    Grade things & change student's Incomplete to grade. YES.
    Move books back into my study. IN PROGRESS. Books that were in the living room have come back; some books in the guest room for painting are here, but there's more to move.
    Regular exercise & stretching. YES (again, better on exercise than stretching).
    Write letters (ONE), buy steamer and steam linen clothing (YES). Ordinarily I would put clothes in the dryer with a damp towel, but the delivery of new dryer and washer has been delayed again, so this won't be an option for awhile longer.
    OTHER: I finally did some of the mending that I kept not-doing in the last session!

    New goals:
    Make the Albatross fly away.
    Finish moving back into my study (move books, file papers, organize a bit).
    At least two hours on class plans.
    Scholarly reading x4, Latin x4, Greek x3, Domestic x2.
    Walk daily, stretch x5.
    Write letters.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I’ll be back tomorrow to answer heu mihi’s questions. In the meantime, some goals

    Last week:
    1 overdue poetry review: No
    2 Road review:No
    3 Novel review: Yes

    This week:
    1 Magic wand for overdue poetry review: I don’t know how else to get this done, other than some magical sprinkles that will get me to sit down and think it out
    2 Road review: Working on it, but not getting around to finishing the book
    3 Submit revision for online course: again, magic sprinkle but also a specific deadline (Friday) will help. 4 Cross ten items off the list of things to do. Will help to have a goal, even if self-generated

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The questions are delightful.
      1. Have you given thought to any interesting animal species recently? If so: what animal, and why? Nothing unusual. I live with two cats and two birds and my social media is heavily devoted to other cats and birds.
      2. At what time of day is the light in your home most pleasing to you? At what time of year? It’s very late afternoon, not quite the velvet hour but close. We live in this house because of the huge window in the bedroom that looks out over the backyard. Sitting on the bed, it’s perfect.
      3. Do you nap regularly? For how long? A former never-napper, I’ve now moved to 30 minute naps, especially during the summer. It’s like resetting my brain from information overload.
      4. What did you have for lunch today (whatever "today" is for you)? Did you like it? Salami sandwich. Meh.
      5. Who is most likely to interrupt you when you're working, and how do you feel about those interruptions? Husband. On days when I don’t want to be interrupted, I move to another part of the house.
      6. What color do you most like wearing? What color (if any) do you dislike wearing? Why do we have preferences about what colors we wear, anyway? I wear a lot of red in various shades. I dislike yellow but a few winters back, I bought a black and yellow plaid shirt that I quite like.
      7. What are you looking forward to in the coming week? Finishing a book I’ve been reading, How to Take Smart Notes. It’s compelling.

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  5. 1. Have you given thought to any interesting animal species recently? If so: what animal, and why?
    Recently, I’ve been watching the pair of hawks who live across the street as they swoop and soar in an aeronautical display outside my garret window. I think about the glory of flying, especially when I’m in zoom meetings.
    Also, I mentioned my toy tortoise a couple of weeks ago. Since then, I’ve seen tortoises on various media sites, so tortoises are on my mind. I’m trying to be patient and deliberative with myself.

    2. At what time of day is the light in your home most pleasing to you? At what time of year?
    The light of early morning in the fall is the most pleasing for me. My house faces east, and the sun glitters off the frost on the lawn in small kaleidoscopes.

    3. Do you nap regularly? For how long?
    I’ve complained a lot about suffering with insomnia, but naps hinder more than help me. If I nap, it will not be in bed, but likely sitting on the chaise with my glasses still on my nose. The optimal time is roughly forty minutes.

    4. What did you have for lunch today (whatever "today" is for you)? Did you like it?
    I had the leftover shepherd’s pie from the local butcher shop. It was quite lovely!

    5. Who is most likely to interrupt you when you're working, and how do you feel about those interruptions?
    My husband, who does not count me in his avowed misanthropy. I think he gets lonely, so I try to be nice about it, but sometimes I just Want To Be Left Alone.

    6. What color do you most like wearing? What color (if any) do you dislike wearing? Why do we have preferences about what colors we wear, anyway?
    I like jewel tones, especially green, blue, purple, and red with blue undertones. I have preferences about colors because as Daisy said, some colors (red with orange undertones) make me look awful, if not downright ill.

    7. What are you looking forward to in the coming week?
    The automatic vacuum is coming today, yay! (High five, heu mihi!). On a less practical level, the iron is coming in a few days. As Dame Eleanor said, steamers are much better with clothing, but the iron will help me with the fussy seams needed to restore my grandmother’s quilt tops.

    Last week's goals:
    Set and breakdown June goals. Yes. Now, I just need to do them!!

    Finish peer review. Yes. My first outright rejection that was not a resubmit. I kept trying to offer suggestions for resubmission, but they were things like don’t use first person, avoid sentence fragments, write a lit review, write more than four pages total. Sigh.

    Read two articles on Prudence, making notes, and tracking citations. Only one.

    Make appointments with two doctors. Yes.

    Email co-editor. Nope. I need to draft a reminder call for papers, but then I can contact him.

    Write and mail thank-yous and birthday cards. Yes, slightly late, but yes.

    Next week’s goals:
    Put the goals in their appropriate places in my calendar.
    Read two articles on Prudence, making notes, and tracking citations.
    Draft a call for papers for the special issue.
    Scan a box of pictures.

    Enjoy the rest of the week, and float like mist.




    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hooray for the automatic vacuum! A life-changer, I'm telling you.

      Delete
  6. What interesting questions!
    1. Animal species? Not really, except for the constant drive to understand the cats

    2. The front of the house gets nice morning light, the back (especially the kitchen, and especially since I took down two large coastal redwoods) gets afternoon sun. But it's not nice light...

    3. In my perfect world, I take a nap of 10-30 minutes after lunch. Sometimes on my bed, sometimes I just fall asleep reading.

    4. My usual lunch is a hard boiled egg, sometimes on its own and sometimes on toast, and a second (or first) piece of toast with almond butter, cheese or some such, and some fruit. Pretty boring. When I go to school, it's a hard boiled egg, a yogurt and an apple.

    5. The cats. Or a call from my mother, who will not want to interrupt me but is worrying about something.

    6. I wear lots of blues -- my favorites are cobalt and sapphire, but in summer it's likely to be lighter blues. Back in the day when we did color seasons, I was a classic winter. I don't like wearing orange or red, which don't flatter me at all.

    7. Getting ready for my trip!

    Anyway, how I did
    1. 2x 2 hours on Famous Author Yes; if counting yesterday, 3x)
    2. Start reading for prize (assuming 20 books, get through at least 5) GOT LIST ON TUESDAY, have read 7 of 20 books, am easily doing 2 a day. Of course I've "done" the ones that don't meet the prize criteria :)
    3. Read article for review (it's an R & R I read for the first round, so should not be terrible I hope) NO (I forgot!)
    4. 2 more sections of program review ONE, but long talk with chair so I have a story
    5. Have fun with my brother & his family when they come for the weekend YES
    6. Exercise, sleep and read YES
    7. Do fun things with friends YES

    It was a pretty good week, though I had a difficult discussion with our Bishop on Sunday, and it wiped me out for that day. Also, there is progress on the bathroom renovation, which needs to be finished next Thursday when my sister arrives. I'm happy about it.

    Goals for the week ahead, helped by the fact that it will be well over 100 for the next few days and I won't leave the house if I don't need to!
    1. Read 9 more books (probably means reading on the weekend)
    2. 2 x 2 hrs on Famous Author
    3. Maybe? do R&R review
    4. Finish making new computer look the way I want it to and have all needed software
    5. Begin packing and organizing for trip
    6. Get rid of 3 big items to goodwill or facebook marketplace
    7. Do something fun with friends
    8. Eat, sleep, exercise

    ReplyDelete
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