Monday Things

[lydamorehouse]

 
Image: Rhubarb and Buttercup in the basket by all our fabric piles.

I don't know that I have a huge amount of news to report today, but, if you can't tell, I've been trying to post something every week day. I'm not talking about it as any kind of New Year's resolution, because I suspect that as soon as you label something that, you jinx it. So, forget I said anything. This is just a habit I've been trying to get into.  No pressure. No expectations.

Speaking of things like that, I am currently nearly at a 60 day streak in Duolingo. For those of you just tuning in, I have been trying to learn Japanese since.... what is it now? Forever? Yes, I think since forever. I am no closer now that I was when I started, I swear, but honestly, this has become a weird sort of hobby for me, much like quilting or drawing. Anyway, having a streak for this long is kind of new thing for me. I've stayed at Japanese for a long time, but I tend to not be great at a daily habit. So, this is exciting. Did I also tell you that I found a podcast that proports to teach me Japanese while I sleep? Yeah, I don't really think it will work either, but I also don't see how it can hurt me.

In other news, I just locked our escape artists (pictured above, Buttercup) into the bedroom because we are about to have a handyman come by and.... Ope! He's here. That's exciting. He's going to (hopefully) be fixing a drain we broke mumblely-mumblely years ago. If he can do it, it will be super lovely to have an upstairs bathtub available again. It's our clawfoot. We have another bath, but I have two very long-legged people in this house (or rather, often do, with Mason off at college again,) and the other tub is less comfy for them. I'm fine? But I could probably bathe in a washtub, I'm so short. I make up for my stubbiness by being round, so maybe not.

Tonight is my class, also, which I was smart and prepped BEFORE the handymen came. I mean, I could probably do some now, but it's always so distracting when people are in the house, banging around. Like, just now, trying to remember which circuit goes to which rooms of the house is very ??? in our 100+ year old place. 

But, anyway, it's good that we're getting this done, finally. 

Class will be interesting tonight. It's hard to gauge participation since, while I "assigned" homework, I made it clear that nothing had to be turned in. So, people may have done the assignment outside of Google classroom. I guess I'll find out when I ask. Two out of five people officially turned things in, so maybe that's also not a bad participation rate? If one other person half-assed it, that's 50%.  

Sigh.

How are you? How was you weekend?

Comments

[xochiquetzl]

Good luck with the Japanese! I'm doing Duolingo Hebrew and have a 29 day streak. I'm also poking at Yiddish and Esperanto, but very low effort.

[lydamorehouse]

Yeah, I poked at French (a language I took in high school) and just couldn't get very into it. Japanese is so HARD that it's something I can chip away at forever. An important feature of a hobby, IMHO.

[carbonel]

Cool! I've been doing Duolingo Hebrew for several years now (streak over 2K days). I've learned a lot but I'm still very slow at languages in general.

(I'm on Duolingo as carbonel17 if you'd like to friend me.)

[xochiquetzl]

Done!

[sabotabby]

Look at them snuggling!

My weekend was good! I very unexpectedly ended up going to the skull store and I got two tiny fossilized squids and a resin printed dinosaur skull and got to pet a tortoise. And see some frens. But mainly now I know that the skull store and associated museum are worth a visit and not far from my house.

[lydamorehouse]

FOSSILIZED SQUIDS?????

Does this store have a website??? I might need something like this for several friends of mine.

[sabotabby]

It certainly does:

https://www.skullstore.ca/

Despite their claim to being ethical I am not sure that selling any human remains is ethical, as well as certain artifacts. Even though obviously I wanted some. But I feel like extinct animals or fossils are absolutely fine, as are replicas. So they had these little squid fossils that were polished and so cute, so I got one for myself and one to mail to a friend. They're not recognizably squids, just like, random bits of squid. But whatever. Who wouldn't want a squid fossil?

[carbonel]

I just sent the info to someone who does weekly squid blogging.

[naomikritzer]

Did I mention that before going back to college, Kiera had a heart-to-heart talk with me and Ed about how Fluffy needed more love? Fluffy is the cat that spends her days on top of the china cabinet because Lottie (also a cat, for those unaware) bullies her. I shut up Lottie at night so Fluffy can come down, and Kiera noted, I was usually *in my office, where I shut up Lottie* when Fluffy was at liberty to roam, and this was extremely unfair to Fluffy.

So I've been making an effort to wrap up what I need to do on the computer by 10 p.m. (when I feed the cats snack and shut Lottie in) and then hang out in the living room for an hour or two, reading.

And holy SHIT I'm reading a lot, suddenly! WAY more fiction than I have in years. (Way way WAY more than I have since 2016, when the Internet truly ate my brain.)

[naomikritzer]

I mention this because it was not in fact a New Year's resolution or anything to spend more time reading and less time on Twitter but it does seem to be working out that way.

[naomikritzer]

LAST year, I actually DID make a resolution to spend more time reading and less on Twitter and broke it almost immediately, lolsob.

[lydamorehouse]

Yeah, the thing that is really working for me, oddly, is that I am doing Duolingo in the bath at night. I don't bathe every SINGLE night, but I do bathe just regularly enough that I have fully equated bath time = Duolingo, and that has totally kept me on track.

So, yes, I should do the same with reading. Pick a time and stick to it.