Good evening everyone!
Apologies for the late post… It has been quite the day in production land! First, for anyone who was worried, the raccoons are safe. The entire clan has been relocated, babies and all, and are now living their best lives in the nearby wildlife reserve where they have access to a well-stocked fishing stream and all the invertebrates they can eat. It was just in time too, the family is expecting a happy event sometime soon, and everyone at the wildlife rescue agreed that the carefully constructed den in the fuse-box that houses all the trip switches for the castle was not a great place to raise well-adjusted baby raccoons.
In slightly related news, did you know that the Italian for raccoon is “orsetto lavatore” which translates as “little washing bear”? I think that is delightful! And in a weird coincidence, turns out in my mother tongue it translates exactly the same, I never noticed that…
Ok, back to business!
Thank you to everyone for hanging out in the lodge during the storm, the soup was glorious, the kitten was happy, the regular set cats had all their people in the same place (herding humans is haaaaard!), and we had a great time with the board games, puzzles, yarn, and books.
We had a lovely response to our Secret Santa plans, so this week there is a new jar to fill. We’ve relocated the jar to the counter where the coffee and seasonal baking lives so we are hoping for a good turn-out. This week we would love to have you leave gifts of words... Tell us about your favourite expression, phrase (bonus for languages not your own), or saying and tell us a bit about the significance… We all love words so this might get competitive!
Ok, that’s it from me. I have to go to a meeting with the lawyers representing the grumpy grant-writing elf union representative…
Last week’s goals below as always! Have a lovely week!
Julie
1. Start
marking assignments (will have about 70 in total by the end of term)
2. Teaching prep for this week.
3. Schedule meetings for dissertation students.
4. Grade posters for conference URGENT
5. Post two Christmas parcels.
6. Renew daughter's passport.
7. At least one house job.
8. Take a couple of hours Friday to go to annual Christmas fair (lots of craft
and food stalls).
Contingent Cassandra (held over)
Professional:
--Finish grading the lit midterms
--Finish grading the comp proposals
--Keep up with writing/posting post-conference summaries (including preliminary grades for truly complete drafts; not sure how many of those I'll see)
--Grade at least 2 sets of lit process work
Household--
--It would be nice if I got the books boxed, dining table cleared, and the fall/Thanksgiving tablecloth put on.
Personal:
--Make progress on one church project that is now time-sensitive: write preliminary publicity copy; correspond with potential speakers
--Try for even a modest amount of movement each day: a short walk, some stretching, and/or some weight-lifting.
Dame Eleanor Hull
- swim
twice, weights twice, cardio thrice, yoga 5-6 times
- grade two late-with-permission papers
- research 1 hour x 5, mainly Latin, conference paper project; ten minutes a
day on KW chapter
- look at some MS images (being consultant to another scholar)
- write two new-course proposals
- finish book for book group
- sew a thing
heu mihi
1)
Prioritize exercise! Classes will mostly take care of themselves. (I did read
ahead.)
2) Research and writing: Add article to ch. 2; clear up some more ch. 2 loose
ends; read for ch. 6
JaneB
(Recovery Mode)
Susan
1. Catch up
with admin stuff and lots of meetings
2. Read 2 more essays from big collaboration
3. Don't work too hard
4. Do something fun
Daisy
Several concerts with logistical challengesMore lab stuff, so much lab stuff…
End of term class stuff, mark, set exams, do review sheets etc.
Waschbaer in German, raton laveur in French; I'm not surprised Italian is similar. But in Spanish it's mapache, which I had to look up, and that did surprise me. There's a very charming French poem by Jacques Prévert called "Inventaire" that features raccoons in an interesting way: https://www.lapoesie.org/jacques-prevert/inventaire/
ReplyDeleteI tried to memorize it when I was in college, and got about halfway through then, but I can't call it up now. Fortunately we have the internet.
This expression is not so much a favorite as it is characteristic: if something good were to happen, then "we'd be in tall cotton." It pops out of my mouth sometimes. I can't remember, though, if I picked it up from my grandparents or from a grad school boyfriend. It would be geographically appropriate for them, but it's not at all associated with the area where I grew up.
How I did:
- swim twice, weights twice, cardio thrice, yoga 5-6 times: Yes, yes, yes, slacking a bit on the yoga (3x?).
- grade two late-with-permission papers. ONE (the other isn't in yet, sigh).
- research 1 hour x 5, mainly Latin, conference paper project; ten minutes a day on KW chapter. UGH. I did the ten minutes (at least) through November, as my AcWriMo project, but I think that may be all the research I got to.
- look at some MS images (being consultant to another scholar). NO. The shame! I have to do that this week, as I may see this person on Friday.
- write two new-course proposals. NO but one of them is sorta kinda in progress.
- finish book for book group. YES. Did not much care for it.
- sew a thing. YES! Two things. Two of my friends are going to get small things from me this week, if I can get to the post office.
ALSO: attended a retirement party, solved a computer problem by rebooting the router, cooked a lot (including another crumb cake), looked over a draft grant proposal written by two colleagues.
New goals:
- swim twice, weights twice, cardio thrice, yoga 5-6 times
- grade everything turned in
- research 1 hour x 5: some translation, write an abstract, return to A&F chapter
- look at some MS images (being consultant to another scholar)
- write two new-course proposals
- sew a different thing
- go to post office
- Life Stuff: pay bills, e-mail nephew, make appt for eye exam
I love the poem!
DeleteOh that poem is lovely! There went an hour down the Prevert poetry rabbit hole!
DeleteGood luck with the week!
I'm very curious about your sewing!
DeleteI'm glad the raccoons have been safely relocated: cute though the babies are, they are not good for the kittens!
ReplyDeleteAs for words/expressions, I'm going pretty blank, but there are two family words that I sometimes use and people look at me like I'm nuts: one is a mutilation of the French, so we say "Mercy buttercups" instead of "Merci beaucoup". Goodness knows where that came from, but I do love the image of the buttercups, so it's nice. From the David Fry Nixon album, instead of chutzpah we say "Shitsbar". There are definitely people for whom this is a needed expression.
How I did:
1. Catch up with admin stuff and lots of meetings YES
2. Read 2 more essays from big collaboration NO
3. Don't work too hard MOSTLY
4. Do something fun YES
Well, I'm almost caught up with the admin stuff I should have finished 2 weeks ago, but it's the end of term (last week of classes this week, exams next week) and we have ALL THE MEETINGS. So pretty much survival mode.
Goals for this week:
1. 3 essays from big collaboration
2. All the meetings
3. Be kind to myself
I'm sure there is something else, but I guess this shows it really is survival mode!
I love "mercy buttercups"! That's a very charming image. (I've heard "buckets," of course, but this one is new to me.) Yay for fun things! I hope you have a good week, and do be kind to yourself.
DeleteMercy buttercups is great! My husband used to say 'Murky buckets'. And absolutely be kind to yourself.
DeleteGood luck with all the meetings! Hope you have some time for restorative tea in between them at least, and can catch up with enough things that it all feels ok.
DeleteI love strange expressions… Dame Eleanor’s comment about tall cotton (never heard that before!) reminded me of something fun for a similar expression. My first language is one with a strong Calvinist history and the general approach is all about hard work and suffering and so on… But we have a great expression used exclusively used if one has “a turn of good fortune that came by luck and not from hard work or effort”… Directly translated it goes “you’ve landed with your arse in the butter”! No idea where that originally came from but it always makes me happy to hear.
ReplyDeletePerennial favourite is “not my circus, not my monkeys” which may or may not come from Eastern Europe somewhere. Also the term “yak shaving” from the world of programming, it is an excellent descriptor of every lab project I’ve ever done…
Last week’s goals:
Several concerts with logistical challenges
More lab stuff, so much lab stuff…
End of term class stuff, mark, set exams, do review sheets etc.
The weekend of concerts was fabulous, everyone had a blast and it all went well. I have one more with different music. I’m leaving for a lab trip in Europe on Sunday, and I am 100% not mentally ready. I have tickets and samples and all those kinds of things but have not spent any time thinking. I did book a few tickets for festive music shows while there, no intention of spending every night in the lab when I could be getting a good dose of culture and music!
This week’s goals:
One more big concert
End of term marking, set exams, do review sheets
Trip preparation
One more day of lab work
Something fun with friends
So glad the concerts went well. The lab trip sounds like a lot of work this close to Christmas, but if you get some festive shows out of it, hopefully worth it!
DeleteYou can use the plane flight to catch up with yourself and get mentally ready! I hope you have a wonderful trip and get enough done this week so you're ready for what you'll do abroad and have left things at home in good shape. Booking tickets for shows was an excellent idea!
DeleteI hope that the trip is restorative and fun even if it *is* work! Sometimes just being away (and eating in good restaurants) makes a huge difference.
DeleteOh, great prompt. I grew up with Spanish and Catalan, so a lot of colourful swearing. If anyone's read Hemingway, For Whom the Bell Tolls, he translates Spanish swearing literally, which was quite confusing when I first read it. A phrase for the cat lovers: if someone is being very demanding, particularly wanting material things, you say 'Hasta los gatos quieren zapatos' which is literally 'Even the cats want shoes'. There is a phrase in Spanish: 'cundir el tiempo' which doesn't have an equivalent in English, but is very apt for TLQ. It translates along the lines of 'making the most of time/having enough time', so if someone asked 'Te ha cundido el tiempo?' it would mean 'Was the time enough for you?'
ReplyDeleteMy Spanish/Catalan friends always think 'raining cats and dogs' is hilarious. The equivalents are ''llueve a cantaros' (it's raining jugfuls) or 'plou a bots i barrals' (it's raining buckets and barrels). Not nearly as colourful. In my family we say someone has 'mala leche' or 'mala llet' (literally: bad milk) to mean they are in a bad mood.
Last week:
1. Start marking assignments (will have about 70 in total by the end of term) - YES (but so, so many left to do)
2. Teaching prep for this week. - YES (a bit minimal, tbh, but the students were even less prepared, so it wasn't noticeable)
3. Schedule meetings for dissertation students. - YES
4. Grade posters for conference URGENT - YES
5. Post two Christmas parcels. - YES
6. Renew daughter's passport. - NO
7. At least one house job. - NO
8. Take a couple of hours Friday to go to annual Christmas fair (lots of craft and food stalls). - YES (and Christmas shopping with daughter on Saturday)
We had lots of snow this week and it was well below freezing. Very pretty, but a nightmare driving. Today we are having torrential rain, so the snow and ice are mostly gone.
This week:
Last week of term, hooray!
1. More marking.
2. Review a set of postdoc applications
3. Meetings
4. Resubmit article now journal has finally replied
5. Do at least half a day on grant application (elf still on strike)
6. Start reading the other PhD I am examining before Christmas
7. End of term admin
8. House jobs
9. Christmas stuff
10. Daughter's passport.
Lots of YES there! And congratulations on making it to the end of term! Good luck with the grant and the resubmission! I loved the expresssion "hasta los gatos quieren zapatos," muchas gracias para eso!
DeleteAny expression with a cat in it is great - and now I have visions of Puss in Boots!
DeleteGreat week for stuff done, glad you got to the Christmas Fair and had fun.
Ooh snow! We've had a little--a few dustings--I would love something more substantial.
DeleteAs for teaching, I'm practicing "the pedagogy of being radically underprepared" (patent pending) this week, and it's kind of fun! I'm usually radically overprepared, or at least *somewhat* overprepared. But I'm finding that making the students do most of the work is actually pretty great.
My favorite word in all the world is...
ReplyDeleteHobbledehoyhood.
A hobbledehoy is an awkward youth. That word in itself is glorious. Then Trollope made it into a state of being: one must suffer through one's hobbledehoyhood. Just say it. Feel how the aspirations swirl across the tongue! I love this word.
Last week: I didn't really stick to plan.
1) Prioritize exercise! - NO! It was very cold! I was busy and tired! I ran on Tuesday and then did nothing else until Saturday.
2) Research and writing: Add article to ch. 2; clear up some more ch. 2 loose ends; read for ch. 6 - Some, yes, at least I did some of this!
This week: is the last week of classes.
1) Get ch. 2 ready for printing and hard-copy revision (even if I can't track down the Latin for that one book...).
2) Keep plugging away at ch. 6
3) Get in a few runs, go to yoga class
That's pretty low-ambition--but that's where we are right now!
That is a splendid word, and though I am a Trollope fan I have not run across it! (There is a LOT of Trollope, in my defense.) It is hard to be ambitious at this time of year. Better to set the bar low and meet it.
DeleteBrilliant word, thanks for sharing! I'd never heard/seen that.
DeleteGood luck with the week! Anything done counts as win at this point I think!
There *is* a lot of Trollope. I read all of the Chronicles of Barsetshire while we were in Strasbourg; "hobbledehoyhood" appeared in "The Small House at Allington," which I chiefly read during a week-long research trip to Brussels. (I read a lot on my research trips--all those solitary meals and long evenings!) I have subsequently taken a break from Trollope (in part to finish Proust, which I did in the spring), but I just ordered a complete set of the Palliser Novels ($24 on ebay!) and I can't wait to wallow in some Victorian prose this winter!
DeleteI'll have to think about a word. There are some delightful ones out there, but my brain is fried.
ReplyDeleteIn the meantime, a quick check-in on the much-held-over goals:
Professional:
--Finish grading the lit midterms (I did, finally, a while back now. Finals from the same group are currently arriving.)
--Finish grading the comp proposals (still have a few of these left to go; they really dribbled in)
--Keep up with writing/posting post-conference summaries (including preliminary grades for truly complete drafts; not sure how many of those I'll see) (I kept up with this pretty well this time -- so yes, a while ago)
--Grade at least 2 sets of lit process work (yes, but still plenty to go)
Household--
--It would be nice if I got the books boxed, dining table cleared, and the fall/Thanksgiving tablecloth put on.
Personal:
--Make progress on one church project that is now time-sensitive: write preliminary publicity copy; correspond with potential speakers (yes -- some parts successfully completed; some canceled or deferred)
--Try for even a modest amount of movement each day: a short walk, some stretching, and/or some weight-lifting (I've been making progress on this one, especially since classes ended)
And goals for this week:
Delete--Keep grading all the things
--Keep moving
--At least make progress on clearing off the top of the dining table and the windowsill (and related moving-things-around tasks)
Sooner or later, the midterms do give way to finals! And things get done or deferred, and life keeps steadily on.
Delete