We have arrived, and taken tea, explored the garden, watched or participated in lawn tennis, depending upon our inclinations and abilities. I believe the cat-dragon is now patrolling the attics, where I trust it will account for any vermin without incinerating the roof over our heads. The dinner gong will soon be heard, and at present we must retire to our rooms and don appropriate attire for a formal meal.
If you choose to take this directive metaphorically, you may do so. Or you may wish to describe your toilette. As an elderly lady, I shall of course wear my black silk, though I draw the line at a lace cap. My hair remains thick and shiny, though grey, and I shall let it crown the glory of my grandmamma's diamond ear-drops, the ones she gave me after I eloped with Sir John all those years ago. (Dear Papa came round eventually, thanks in part to Grandmamma's approval, not to mention her threat to re-write her will.)
Other preparations include reviewing goals set last week, and planning the week to come.
Daisy
1) Finish data analysis and figures for paper-that-everyone-forgot-about-and-now-need-done-fast
2) Finish photography for figures in new local paper and send away samples
3) Pick another old paper and start on revisions
4) Assemble Baby Albatross paper and send to co-authors for review
5) Get kid activities and a bunch of doctor’s appointments sorted out
6) Run at least 3 times
Dame Eleanor Hull
*Outline chapter on women's households, move in chunks of text, note holes to fill.
*As
usual, correct work done by Johnson and Miss Baddesley.
*Speak to Canon Thomson about pupils for the winter.
*Put away various papers in my study, so the maids can dust without fear of disturbing my work.
*Try again to arrange concert tickets.
*Continue to retire at appropriate hour for a lady of my age, and to take suitable exercise.
Elizabeth Anne Mitchell
(held over)
Go through one box in the home office, and deal with everything in it.
Get better.
heu mihi
1. Run x 4, yoga x 2, sit x 5
2. Read relevant portion of graduate thesis
3. Finish book I've been slogging through
4. Compile and edit first 4 essays for WH
5. Draft grant budget
Humming42
1 submit two book reviews
2 submit midterm grades for 6 week class
3 work on lit review for Photos conference presentation
4 rake the front yard
5 brainstorm early October conference talk
JaneB
1) self-care: do 3 songs worth of exercise each day, "basket swap" at
the end of the week, clear off the reading chair in my work area, take
car for walk and put petrol in it
2) teaching: get initial versions
of VLE sites for all modules (7 in total, 1 done) up by Friday, with a
list of eevrything else that needs doing made
3) admin: get caught up on stupid CPD videos and things
4)
research: read over what we said we'd do for the grant that got funded,
and make some initial notes. draft possible PhD idea for internal
competition. big edit of results and discussion for Ferret.
Karen
- Teaching: record next week's lecture, get assessment FAQ page done, send around marking instructions for the upcoming round
- Research: feedback to O, chase P for writing/meeting; 3 pomodoros on SoTL and finish abstract
-Self and home: 3 x pomodoro on home office, 3 x yoga/online exercise thing; increase weekly steps average, be kind
Susan
1. Two sessions on famous author
2. Finish article prize citation
3. Finish tenure review letter
4. Read materials for pre-tenure review
5. Do 3-4 hours on self-study
6. Keep up with teaching
7. Call about yard stuff
8. Do fun things
9. Keep up with exercise / healthy eating
On behalf of Jane B., I'm copying her post from last week's comments here:
ReplyDeleteDoing a small review because it's Sunday night here and I have to put my home laptop away again. This was a very up and down week, emtionally, work-wise etc. Just whined about it on my blog so will not repeat here!
GOALS:
1) self-care: do 3 songs worth of exercise each day, "basket swap" at the end of the week, clear off the reading chair in my work area, take car for walk and put petrol in it mixed - but did move nearly every day and averaged 3 a day. No - not sorted last week's yet. started but did not finish (couldn't work out where to put the stuff that was on the chair because everywhere is full of stuff, and got upset by it so left it), yes
2) teaching: get initial versions of VLE sites for all modules (7 in total, 1 done) up by Friday, with a list of eevrything else that needs doing made yes
3) admin: get caught up on stupid CPD videos and things one out of three stupid things done
4) research: read over what we said we'd do for the grant that got funded, and make some initial notes. draft possible PhD idea for internal competition. big edit of results and discussion for Ferret. no, no, no
GOALS FOR THE COMING WEEK:
1) self-care: do 3 songs worth of exercise each day, "basket swap" at the end of the week, clear off the reading chair in my work area
2) teaching: prepare for skills week, get week 1 materials prepared and fix all the "list items" for my VLE sites (6 sites)
3) admin: get caught up on stupid CPD videos and things (2 to go)
4) research: read over what we said we'd do for the grant that got funded, and make some initial notes. draft possible PhD idea for internal competition. big edit of results and discussion for Ferret.
I always misread VLE as "vile."
DeleteOn my bad days, I'd say "vile" is a good descriptor. (I've mostly made my peace with the things I want to do in teaching that our LMS doesn't want me to do, but every now and then I rant!)
DeleteVILES are very appropriate right now... we're having disappearing module issues, "the systems aren't talking to each other so your student lists are seevral weeks out of date" issues and other delights of the new academic year.
DeleteOh, dear, what have I been doing? I fear I must have nodded off rather than writing my letters. I do hope the maid unpacked correctly and that I can find my taffeta petticoat. I can't think what happened to last week's goals!
ReplyDelete*Outline chapter on women's households, move in chunks of text, note holes to fill. SOME PROGRESS but I wouldn't say this is done.
*As usual, correct work done by Johnson and Miss Baddesley. NO (Johnson = undergrads) and YES (grads).
*Speak to Canon Thomson about pupils for the winter. YES (= spring course descriptions)
*Put away various papers in my study, so the maids can dust without fear of disturbing my work. NO.
*Try again to arrange concert tickets. NO.
*Continue to retire at appropriate hour for a lady of my age, and to take suitable exercise. YES more or less . . . skimping on yoga/stretching lately.
*OTHER: went on long-postponed House Walk, about which I had forgotten until Sir John asked Friday night what time we were leaving in the morning! A pleasant day out, but totally shot my plans to work on Saturday morning.
New goals:
*Keep working on chapter, send some part of it to RL writing group
*Correct Johnson's exercises
*Regular language study of my own (3-4x)
*Regular scholarly reading (3-4x)
*Filing
*Arrange tickets
*Usual resolutions about sleep and exercise
House walk sounds nice!
DeleteGood luck with this week's goals, some weeks just get away from us entirely...
It's been a long time since I dressed for dinner. I have a beautiful teal silk dress that I will wear with velvet leggings, a change from my usual black; I'll wear my diamond and pearl earrings, as well as my necklace with diamonds. I hope my dinner companion is one of the very interesting women I met earlier this afternoon.
ReplyDeleteHow I did:
1. Two sessions on famous author YES (short, but I've ILL'd a lot of books)
2. Finish article prize citation NO, waiting for committee person #3
3. Finish tenure review letter YES
4. Read materials for pre-tenure review YES, and DONE
5. Do 3-4 hours on self-study 3 done, including minor drama
6. Keep up with teaching YES
7. Call about yard stuff NO
8. Do fun things YES
9. Keep up with exercise / healthy eating YES,as long as peach cobbler is healthy!
This has been a fairly successful week: getting the tenure letter off and the internal review done is a huge load off my desk (never mind the pile of paper!). I'm chugging along on the self-study, with much of the information I need; there is some stuff I don't have, but the person who has it is out till October, and it's not clear anyone else can find the information. I have a meeting later today with an administrator who had a snit fit last week about my getting a (small) bit of compensation for work that is above and beyond normal service... There have been a few minor mini-crises, but nothing unmanageable: for instance, I had to find a balloon to welcome a friend of my mother's back from the rehab hospital, and it turns out most balloons are not designed for the 90+ crowd!
Goals for next week:
1. 2 sessions on Famous Author
2. Get as much of self-study done as I can without the relevant information (3-6 hours)
3. Read two journals
4. Schedule guests for graduate class
5. Schedule duct cleaning, call about yard and floor refinishing
6. Do work in garden (take Saturday off work for home & fun)
7. Read for pleasure
8. Keep up with exercise/healthy eating
And I forgot that left over from last week is the article prize, and I need to get committee member # 3 to respond. I reminded her last night.
DeleteWhat a relief to get the reviews done and sent! I would say peach cobbler is both healthy and fun, and you're doing well to keep on with healthy and fun things---very important for mental health!
DeleteWell… Dinner… Dressing… Since I’m still basically mentally Arthur Dent and completely forgot to bring luggage except for the bottle of wine I may have already opened in the garden earlier… I have asked the butler if he can rustle up something more appropriate than the dressing-gown in which I left home… He looked a little shocked by the request (or by the dressing gown, I could not tell which), but he said something suitable will be ready soon. Have to say I’m really enjoying the running hot water in my guest room. (IRL for dress-up I bought new leggings to replace the old ones I wore to shreds last year!)
ReplyDeleteSometimes when one does something one has been putting off for a while it is really quick once you get started and you think “wow that wasn’t hard at all, should’ve done it earlier”. Other times you do it and you remember exactly why you had put it off because it takes forever and is just as much work as you feared… I had the second option with the samples and photographs, but it is done, it will stay done, and I think I did it well enough that future me will not be disappointed in current me when we open the files in a few months… Not a bad week for goals, even if I did finish a few on Sunday night!
Last week’s goals:
1) Finish data analysis and figures for paper-that-everyone-forgot-about-and-now-need-done-fast DONE
2) Finish photography for figures in new local paper and send away samples DONE
3) Pick another old paper and start on revisions NOT DONE
4) Assemble Baby Albatross paper and send to co-authors for review DONE
5) Get kid activities and a bunch of doctor’s appointments sorted out DONE
6) Run at least 3 times DONE
This week’s goals:
1) Write 2 sections of original text for new local paper
2) Do modelling work for new local paper
3) Ongoing grad student feedback
4) Read a selected pile of literature on new-to-me technique
5) Fun patio visit with friends
6) Attend all the appointments I so dutifully set up
7) Field trip on weekend! Yay!
If the butler here is anything like Morrison, he'll hand you over to the housekeeper. A place like this should have a room full of things used for charades and impromptu masquerade parties, as well as attics full of boxes and trunks. I'm sure they'll find you something suitable and becoming! You're welcome to borrow my second-best black silk, of course. But compared to some of the things I've seen on my travels, your dressing-gown is a marvel of decorum.
DeleteOh my goodness, I’ve been in the kitchen soothing Cook and then relaxing in the garden, so I completely lost track of time. As for dressing for dinner--my black silk, appropriate to my age, with my emerald earbobs. My hair frizzled in the heat of the kitchen, then got blown even more awry by the breeze (albeit welcome) in the garden, so, unlike Dame Eleanor, I will wear a lace cap so I won’t be even more behind time.
ReplyDeleteLast week’s goals:
Go through one box in the home office, and deal with everything in it. Yes.
Get better. Slowly, yes.
Well, I did get through one box in the home office (given our setting this semester, I keep wanting to capitalize Home Office). It took a while, but I did manage it. As for getting better, I am still not back to normal (or my version of it). The up side of all this is that I am bored with all the television shows I have watched, and have turned back to writing. I didn’t expect that, but I’m grateful for it. So far, I have been updating the literature and guides for “my” collections, but I am starting to read scholarly articles again, so there’s hope.
Being back on campus is difficult. My university is emphasizing the “residential, in-person institution” with “all faculty back on campus.” None of the teaching faculty are allowed to have virtual or even hybrid classes; there is no social distancing in the classrooms, and mask compliance is close to non-existent among the undergraduates. Oh, and the administration has declared that we will not “pause” or close at all this year, no matter what our infection rate. Yes, we have a vaccine mandate and a mask mandate, thank goodness, or we would be even more of a powder keg waiting to explode. Thankfully, I am in the class of persons who will get a booster, but I am not looking forward to my time in the classroom next month, even though I will get to do some show and tell with some of my favorite books.
Pardon the grumpiness. I need to recite the Serenity prayer on an endless loop, and stop chafing at the things I cannot change. I hope everyone has a lovely and productive week and that everyone floats like mist.
Thank you for mollifying Cook, dear Miss Mitchell. I feared returning from this delightful visit to find a cold stove and empty kitchen. You and Dame Susan and I can all admire one another's earbobs over dinner!
DeleteOops. I forgot:
ReplyDeleteNext week's goals:
2 pages per day on the French drama guide.
Read 3 articles.
Clear one square foot x 3 on campus desk surface.
Float like mist, everyone!
We at least have some faculty allowed to teach remotely, and in my class the mask mandate is followed. It's so strange.
DeleteI hope you recover some more!
Here I am, showing up late, and therefore lacking the wherewithal to concoct an entertaining Character or Context for my dressing. All I know is that I'll wear something knee-length, swishy, flattering, and impossibly comfortable--one of those dresses that always looks very Together but really takes exactly 30 seconds to don. (I have a couple of these and they are divine. I can recommend a website if anyone is curious!)
ReplyDeleteLast week:
1. Run x 4, yoga x 2, sit x 5 - Why yes, yes I did this!!
2. Read relevant portion of graduate thesis - Yes. It was MUCH longer than anticipated, but I got through it. I will ignore the rest of the thesis for the time being; possibly forever.
3. Finish book I've been slogging through - Not really. I did finish it, but yesterday, which is actually this week.
4. Compile and edit first 4 essays for WH - NO. I did two. These are MUCH more time-consuming than I thought!
5. Draft grant budget - Yes. It's highly questionable.
One bit of news to share: The Death article that I submitted this summer came back yesterday with a provisional acceptance! I haven't really read the readers' reports yet--I always have to work up to that--but my quick skim tells me that they're positive and the suggestions will be helpful. Hooray! --And, of course, now I have more work to do.
This week:
1. Keep up usual exercise, sitting, self-care. Go to the woods at least once.
2. Catch up on my (soi-disant) "research plan" and figure out what I need to do next; do that thing.
3. LORs for two grad students
4. Photograph house to seek renter for next fall's sabbatical
5. Apply for small internal grant
6. Work through 3 WH essays
Congrats on the article acceptance! That's great news!
DeleteI would love to see the dress website, comfortable and flattering together are hard to find!
I'll just post it here--it's https://www.karinadresses.com/. I learned about them from someone I met at a conference when I walked up to her and said, "I love your dress!" Fun patterns, nice non-wrinkling material, and flattering cuts.
DeleteThus ends this evening's product placement. Enjoy, all!
Thank you! I would certainly have asked if Daisy hadn't got in ahead of me!
DeleteA bit late here since I have been in the dressing room sampling many different outfits. I’m considering something silky and flowing, since that’s how I am hoping to channel my energy. I am quite concerned about finding the proper shoes. At home I am mostly barefoot but have a splendid collection of footwear. I also have not had a haircut since January 2020, so I am hoping there will be someone who can help with an appropriate style. How wonderful it will be to dress for dinner! Too many months have passed without a splendid outing.
ReplyDeleteLast week:
1 submit two book reviews: one done, one in progress
2 submit midterm grades for 6 week class: yes
3 work on lit review for Photos conference presentation: no, now TRQ
4 rake the front yard:no
5 brainstorm early October conference talk: no
I have a family trip planned for the last weekend of the month and lots of deadlines between now and then. Managing schedules is imperative if I hope to get everything done. Of course there are the things I need to do and the things I want to do, but I’m hoping to get the things I want to do done as well.
This week:
1 submit now late book review
2 write remaining assignments for 7 week class*
3 present at photos conference
4 submit proposal for teaching class
* Even though there are only 6 weeks for these classes, I’ve been told that the administration has determined they are 7 weeks long based on the number of contact hours. Strange math.
Flowing gown and hair over bare feet suggests a Greek goddess, or an Edward Burne-Jones portrait. You can be the Bohemian at our formal dinner!
DeleteOoooh thank you! I will consider embracing the Bohemian persona for future dinners as well!
DeleteAnd once again arriving late or overly early! The cat-dragon is clearly always perfectly dressed in its own skin, scale and fur, but it is deigning to make an additional effort and is wearing a splendidly barbaric crown (occupants of the house may recognise the string of rubies it has wound around for extra glitter - it may have checked out a few boxes in the attic).
ReplyDeleteLAST WEEK:
1) self-care: do 3 songs worth of exercise each day M-W yes, but then I wasn't well on Thursday (ate something that disagreed with me and on top of the levels of anxiety, well...) - starting over today, "basket swap" at the end of the week haven't even done last week's, clear off the reading chair in my work area Noooooo
2) teaching: prepare for skills week I have one class left to do, but it's not until Friday, get week 1 materials prepared and fix all the "list items" for my VLE sites (6 sites) no and no
3) admin: get caught up on stupid CPD videos and things (2 to go) 1 done and I can't find the other one! I assume if it's urgent someone will remind me?
4) research: read over what we said we'd do for the grant that got funded, and make some initial notes nope. draft possible PhD idea for internal competition yes but not sure I can be bothered to finish it. big edit of results and discussion for Ferret. yes, we're into the final nitpicking now - I have remade multiple figures multiple times...
This week was bad. Uni removing remaining COVID precautions in favour of vague recommendations, students ignoring recommendations, students just not attending events...my anxiety is having a field day.
GOALS FOR THE COMING WEEK:
1) self-care: do 3 songs worth of exercise each day, clean out the flipping "basket swap", clear off the reading chair in my work area
2) teaching: get week 1 materials prepared, fix all the "list items" for my VLE sites (6 sites), start on week 2
3) admin: get caught up on stupid CPD videos and things (1 to go if I can find it). Send email to sort out local chatty group.
4) research: read over what we said we'd do for the grant that got funded, and make some initial notes. decide whether to submit possible PhD idea for internal competition. finish details & submit Ferret! Please let Ferret get submitted...