duckwhatduck | Reading

1.5 miles again. Definitely finding it harder to get up that incline than I should, but now that my legs aren't sore (yesterday was a rest day, Sunday was mostly a rest day), the best way to address that is to start hitting the cemetery hill, for some more intense cardio in smaller doses.

Due to the fact that I'm sleeping till midday, work makes this hard, but certainly by the weekend, if I don't report running in the cemetery, call me on it!

mildred_of_midgard

Every day, it's something.

So just as my wife and stepdaughter's prospects of staying with someone (for a couple of months) to save on expenses has fallen through, my prospects of living with my best friend to save on expenses are dimming:

My friend says googling indicates the law considers the roommate a subtenant even if he's not on the lease, doesn't pay rent (he does pay internet and I think contributed to the installation of the mini-split AC/heater), and only lives there part-time. This means he can't be evicted without cause, nor have the rent raised, except under specific conditions that aren't met here.

So now, instead of informing him of his last day in October or November, we're down to strategizing how to ask nicely and offer money for best chances of success, and I'm back to looking at properties on Trulia.

mildred_of_midgard

On a more cheerful note, two pieces of humor:

Back when I started studying geology last year, I focused on igneous rocks, which are so far my favorite. Thus, the word "igneous" came up a few times at the table, and my wife joked that it always sounds to her like a bad thing, like "igneous behavior." She pronounced this in a very haughty, disapproving voice.

By analogy with "ignoble" or "ignominious", apparently.

So "igneous" has come to be an inside joke for something we disapprove of.

Well, last week I was looking at touristy places in Europe that we could meet up at in future years, and I read aloud from Wikipedia that such-and-such a hill was made of igneous rock.

My low-energy, out-of-shape wife: "All hills are igneous. A hill is a very igneous thing to do to a person."

I'm still laughing.

(I, of course, am lamenting that I'll be leaving a hilly neighborhood for a "flat-as-a-pancake, biker's paradise!" neighborhood, to quote a real estate agent on Trulia. How am I supposed to get in my daily hill reps??!)

*

I like backrubs. Backrubs are awesome. I will miss them.

My wife likes to give silly backrubs: I have been a piano, a samba drum, a hippodrome, and many other things while her fingers dance around according to her whim.

A couple days ago (we've been trying to fit in as many as we can before the end of the month!) she announced that what she was doing was an arpeggio.

Later on, she was doing something similar, and my unmusical self asked, "Is that an arpeggio?"

Her: No, these are horses! But if I were playing the piano, this would be a trill, not an arpeggio.

Me: I'm sorry, I need to learn to tell trills, arpeggios, and horses apart!

Me: ...Which is now a sentence that has been uttered in this house, lol.

mildred_of_midgard

First my stepdaughter breaks a tooth and is in a lot of pain. Then her mother talks her (she's agoraphobic and generally phobic) into going to the dentist, because broken tooth extractions are super easy, barely an inconvenience!

Well, no one had reckoned with her giant roots, nor with the fact that the broken tooth was adjacent to an impacted wisdom tooth that was pressing on it. "This tooth is my brother, and I'm not letting it go!"

It took 30 minutes to get the tooth out, and another 30 minutes to dig out all the residual roots. Stitches were required. By the end, she was shellshocked.

In addition to her obviously much greater suffering and my wife having to try to manage the situation and to accompany her, this meant that my week consisted of a lot of "Can you take her? She's going tonight/tomorrow/Monday?" (with constantly postponed appointments bc agoraphobia), "Can you get her meds from the pharmacy?", "She might need to go to the emergency room", and "She thinks she has an infection."

*

Then the plan was for them to stay with my stepdaughter's grandmother for a month or two after they arrive in Brazil, to save money while they look for an apartment. So Murphy's Law dictates that elderly grandmother suddenly gets hospitalized last week, she's going to be in the hospital for a while while they figure out what's going on with her, she will probably need surgery, and she will probably be post-op, with lots of people coming and going and probably staying over, when my wife and stepdaughter arrive in Brazil in 10 days.

So now there's the inconvenience and expense of scrambling to find an Airbnb, and then the pressure to find an apartment as soon as possible after arriving, to cut down on the Airbnb expense.

*

Then, on Saturday, when I was coming home from my 8-mile geology walk, still on the phone with my friend working out living arrangements, I came up the driveway to find my wife on her e-trike heading out to cancel her gym membership (which has to be done in person) and pick up her daughter's meds.

She interrupts me.

"There's something wrong with the bike!"

She pedaled around in the parking lot while I inspected it.

"Yeah, looks like you've got a flat."

Of course this is the first time this has happened, so neither of us has any idea how to change a tire.

So that's why immediately after my hike Saturday, I had to head out again to the pharmacy, while my wife watched YouTube videos on how to change a tire and tube, ordered spare parts, and asked around the neighbors to find out who had a pump we could borrow.

And now I'm going to have to watch the videos she found and learn how to change a tire, because she's completely overwhelmed, struggling with a depression flare-up (guess why!), and "Technically I'm an engineer (software engineer)" (said in the same tone of voice as "Technically, I'm a doctor (PhD in dead languages).") I am a bit more savvy than she is, though I still intensely dislike anything that requires me to work with my hands and pay attention to what I'm doing.

And, of course, we still have to figure out how to sell this bike on short notice.

The one spot of bright light is that she was able to cancel her gym membership over the phone. I'm still skeptical that in a month they'll be like, "What? No, you have to come in person!" but maybe it will work.

Things keep happening so much!

mildred_of_midgard

At this rate, I might actually finish this set of posts about the last adventure before the next adventure starts! I think there are only 3 more installments to go, and one doesn't have pictures (converting to a DW-friendly format is the single biggest holdup).

After capturing the elusive dolphins on camera, I took a nap that I badly needed. I had stayed up late on my balcony enjoying the waves in the dark and then woken up early to watch the sunrise and frolicking dolphins from the same balcony.

My friend went off to enjoy the grounds of our fancy Hawaiian ocean resort hotel.

When I texted him that I was awake and ready to go exploring, I got this amazing text back:

Very good! Do you mean here or check out and go elsewhere. I'm hanging out with a mai tai at the saltwater lagoon and almost finished, but can hang longer if you are wanting to walk the grounds.

Remember, our fancy Hawaiian ocean resort hotel came with a private saltwater lagoon and complimentary mai tais! (Because it was 10 am and he had to drive, he got a non-alcoholic one.)

I read this text to my partner later and she laughed at the "mai tai at the saltwater lagoon" part. Luxury!

So we enjoyed the lagoon and the grounds for a bit, then we went for ice cream and hiking.

( Here is the lagoon )

As we were driving along the coast toward the ice cream place, we saw this spot by the coast where the ocean turned this amazingly gorgeous color, which I decided to call cerulean after my favorite crayon as a kid.

( Read more... )

It's that blue streak right along the coast.

My friend and I kind of really wanted to go there, but we had a flight to make and I had already picked out our hiking spot.

So we drove on and got our ice cream at Gypsea Gelato. We sampled several flavors, and the tom kha turned out to be the best. It's a Thai flavor made with ginger, lemongrass, coconut, and turmeric. (Remember, as we established in installment 6, my favorite ice creams are herbal.)

So after we sat on the bench outside the strip mall and finished our samples, we shamelessly went back inside ten minutes later. "We're back! We want more ice cream!"

I got a PINT of tom kha. Considering we had checked out of the hotel and had a flight to make, and we were in Hawaii, known for its warm climate, I had to eat it pretty immediately. That was my lunch. You will hear no complaints from me.

So what we did was we drove along the coast toward the hiking spot I had picked out, while I ate ice cream. As we approached, I realized we were directly opposite the cerulean water.

"Omg, I hope the trail goes all the way to the beach!"

I ate more ice cream in the car (I had a whole pint to finish! and it had been sitting in a freezer, so it was pretty solid and hard to get a plastic spoon into), while my friend started hiking. As noted, I'm a much faster walker than he is, so we knew I would catch up quickly.

After getting about halfway through the pint, I put the rest in the plastic bag, looped the bag over my arm, and started hiking. Every so often, when I got ahead of him, I would stop, take out the ice cream, and eat some more while I waited for him to catch up.

The trail did indeed go to the beach!

( Kiholo Bay )

Then I was leaning down to point to the rock and explain about the lava formation to him, using what little knowledge I managed to acquire and retain about geology last year.

( Look, it used to be lava! )

I pushed away what I thought was a piece of driftwood that was in my way. Then I had to push it again when pointing at something else, and then I realized--

"Omg, it's an animal!"

We both startled in alarm, then realized it was dead. Eventually my friend identified it as an eel, and I said I thought perhaps it had been buried in anoxic conditions and become mummified.

You could see the belly had been ripped open and the dried-up bowels were spilling out--possibly how it died. Being a slight biology geek (not a particularly knowledgeable one, but always on the lookout for cool stuff*), I took half a dozen pictures. Here are two. Caveat viewer if a mummified eel will bother you.

( Really most sincerely dead )

* Except insects/bugs, I have a squick. I wish I didn't, and maybe it will go away someday. It's definitely easing up--I was able to sit through a lengthy work conversation last year about eating cicadas without getting distressed, like at least one of my coworkers did.

kaberett

Reading. I continue to make slow progress with both What An Owl Knows (Jennifer Ackerman) and Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell (Susanna Clarke).

Writing. Grumpy e-mails to Labour, mostly? Grumpy e-mails to Labour. Oh, and separately to the DWP courtesy of My UC Journal.

Playing. I have tripped and fallen back into 2048. I do not know why I have tripped and fallen thus. There are other things I would rather be doing. Brain whyyy.

I Love Hue current status: just started The Alchemy/Knowledge/12.

Cooking. Two new-to-us recipes from East: caramelised fennel and carrot salad with mung beans and herbs, of which I am a fan but about which A is a bit meh; and Amritsari pomegranate chickpeas, with the decaf English Breakfast I bought the other week, which I also quite liked but A was mildly dubious of.

Today has featured a different Welsh cake recipe, from one of the charity-shop books I acquired for the purposes of the special interest in EYB indexing. This one includes honey and ground mixed spice; I am decidedly disconcerted by how much they taste like Wrong Texture Mince Pies when cool.

Eating. ... yeah it's been A Migrainey Week, and has consequently contained two rounds of Wagamama. TRAGICALLY I decided on the first of these to branch out and try Not My Usual. Not My Usual turned out to contain The Dread Mayonnaise (I had been lulled into a false sense of security by the number of things called "slaw" I had recently encountered that did not contain mayo). It was mostly salvageable...

Exploring. ADVENTURES in VAN HIRE for the purposes of moving SHED. This involved heading out to Hatfield, because the one fifteen minutes up the road was already Thoroughly Booked. We got to observe MORE FLOWERS and lo they were good.

... I think that's it? I think that's it. (A also went on another adventure to acquire roof box and appropriate rack, but I stayed at home for that one.)

Making & mending. I have not, technically, actually resumed A's pair of gloves, BUT I have now got the information from A I need in order to do so! So that's a progress.

... there has also been. Event prep. So much event prep. The meal ticket booklets for crew are all done; the potions are all sliced and folded ready for laminating (except for the one that needed someone to actually finish writing what it did); ... progress?

Growing. SO MANY SQUASH. Not all of the ones I sowed, but... a lot... have come up.

Somewhat irritated that somebody found my Bravest Dwarf Pea, which had actually managed to find and attach itself to the pea sticks, and severed the stem a little below said attachment. :|

Main infrastructural progress this week was getting all the railway sleepers and shed bits up to the plot (with significant and indispensable help from A). I've not done anything with them yet but they are there, I have plans, necessary hardware is en route, etc.

What else what else? First of the beans are in the ground. I was feeling decidedly surly about my redcurrant but this turns out to have been premature and unfair -- since last weekend it's unfurled a little more and is looking much more promising in terms of potential harvest. The raspberries also seem to be very much enjoying the mulch + semi-regular watering, which is pleasing.

Observing. I totally forgot to mention in last week's section on this topic that on the ride back from Anglesey Abbey we observed Many Cowslips, including at least one that was red!

Tulips continue fantastic. Irises are getting into the swing of things at this point. The bindweed is definitely waking up...

umadoshi

Reading: Still working my way through The Spear Cuts Through Water--somewhere past the halfway point now.

Watching: I finished my Guardian rewatch!

scruloose and I finished season 1 of Kingdom and did indeed opt to hold off on season 2 until after we finish season 2 of The Last of Us. (Is Kingdom complete at two seasons? Anyone know offhand? Fear of spoilers makes me not want to search up the info.) We also saw the season premiere of TLoU and the first episode of The Pitt.

Playing: Because the evil 368chickens game keeps track and springs the number on you when you beat it, I know that when I finally rescued 368 chickens a few days ago it was after 454 tries. And for reasons that are not clear to me, the victory screen (at least in the browser version) also informs you that you can't play anymore and is all that shows if you reload. (There are ways around it, of course--incognito tabs, simply using a different browser, whatever--but it just seems weird to me. I have thus far avoided going back to it, but that just means returning to my default couple of games that I play endlessly when my brain is completely incapable of focus but needs to be doing something. >.<)

Adulting: Mid-week,

scruloose and I took the day off for my birthday and both dropped off our tax documents with our tax guy (bless our tax guy) and voted in the federal election at the Elections Canada office. I'm glad we got the voting taken care of so early--sounds like lineups for advance polls have been unusually lengthy this weekend (and here's hoping that's a good sign for the outcome!).

( under the cut: fruit and meat consumption (separately) )

Current Mood: okay

mildred_of_midgard

For once.

I did an 8+ mile (exact distance not known) geology hike today (okay, my friend called just as I was arriving at the geological phenomena, so I didn't do any geology, but I went to the spots!), followed immediately (10 minute rest stop?) by a 4 mile walk to the pharmacy and back. (ETA: That's 4 total, 2 in each direction.)

There was even a fair bit of scrambling on this hike, although admittedly I went easy on my knees on the worst of it.

My knees held up, my ankles held up, my legs held up, my feet held up! My feet were starting to hurt around 12 miles, but that's expected, and I think maybe somewhat better than last year. My glutes even held up! I've been noticing lately that they haven't been bothering me for short walks, and I hoped that would translate to long walks. And it did!

My legs held up in the sense that they were still moderately sore and tired from the last week of running, and they're sore and tired even just walking around the house, so when I set off, it was kind of slow going at first. But I warmed up, and at the end of 12 miles, they were feeling noticeably stronger than at the beginning. I think I could easily have done 18. Then, after a few hours of rest at home, I went out just now, did a mile+, felt really good and restless, and really wanted to keep going, but it's 10 pm and I shouldn't.

I'm hoping my legs stop being sore this week, I can hit the cemetery hill, and next weekend, I can do a proper long forest walk. There are two nice forests about 6-8 miles respectively from here, that I never get to because the walk there and back is kind of long and boring (4-5 hours in transit), and historically my body has not held up for 12-16 miles of boring walking *plus* forest hiking. It would help a lot if I could get up to doing a 6 mile run, a 2-3 mile forest hike, and a 6 mile run home. That's been one of my running goals, which I've never achieved, because I inevitably get injured once I work up to running 5 miles.

But even without the running, I've been to the closer forest a few times, I know now to bring my spiky massage ball on 13+ mile walks and give my feet rest breaks, I've got a geology podcast for the boring parts (admittedly I cannot listen to a podcast for 4 hours in one day, but it helps a lot), and I think it might be okay at least once in the near future.

Anyway, it's good to know that while I lost all my running stamina, I didn't lose all my walking stamina. The key is to be able to do a 16-mile walk without trouble, and I think I can still do that.

The stretch goal is to work up to 30 miles (with trouble) before moving to LA, and if my feet cooperate, it's still a possibility, when I had been thinking that it wasn't.

mildred_of_midgard

Not quite finalized, but I talked with my friend today, and things are looking good!

He's preparing to tell his roommate that he needs to be out by October, and if the roommate haggles, conceding as far as November. But it sounds like a foot may be put down for no later than November.

Either October or November works for me; any later than early December, and it doesn't work financially, weather-wise (driving a U-haul cross country through some dicey weather), or really in terms of spending most of the academic year at UCLA.

October is slightly better for me: if we can do one trip before the October 24-25 conference, then I don't have to fly there, fly back, drive there. We can just drive there. And I don't have to pay for a month's expensive rent here in November. But if the roommate pushes for November, then darn, I guess I'll just have to enjoy another month in my favorite place I've ever lived at the best time of year. :D

Also! When I texted with my friend last week, it was all about how he'd love to do a national parks road trip this year, but he's too busy until October.

When I talked to him today, I used the magic words: "Glacier National Park" and "possible snow and road closures in October," and he was all, "Oooh! Glacier! That's the number one place I want to go! I bet I can make this work in September." See, he had a trip planned to Glacier some years ago, but it got cancelled, and he's still disappointed about that.

So now we're on for circa September 5-September 18: Minneapolis to Glacier to Yellowstone to (maybe) Grand Teton to Crater Lake. And that's enough time to make spontaneous detours if we want.

If all the parks (or any of the parks) are shut down because DOGE, then, we agreed, just driving around the surrounding areas will be gorgeous and fun too! One of our most amazing road trip experiences was post-Yellowstone, just driving through Wyoming, and it was one scenic overlook or geological phenomenon (complete with informative plaque) after another.

So it's all about motivating him properly.

Similarly, last summer, I mentioned to him that my partner and stepdaughter might need to leave the country, and if so I would like to move in with him. He was all, "That would be great, but I'm not sure if I'm willing to kick out my roommate over it."

Then I took him to Hawaii in November, and suddenly when I mentioned living together, he was all, "Yeah! That would be great!" No mention of roommate.

And now he's all, "Yeah, let's do it."

Anyway, I haven't finalized any plans on my end, because he's enough of a pushover that his unwanted roommate may still win this round, but it's looking good! He was brainstorming ways to fit the sofa bed in. ("If it doesn't go through the front door, I bet we could hire someone to lift it over the balcony with ropes and through the sliding doors!") And also "I will help my roommate look for a place to get him out sooner!"

At some point, I will blog about why I want to spend most of the next academic year in LA, but that is a future post. For now, enjoy the knowledge that my nebulous future is solidfying in some pleasing ways.

mildred_of_midgard

Lol, I did it again. "I can't think of the English word, so let me put 'Nachlaß' into Google Translate and ask it how to say what I'm trying to say in my native language." So far this has happened with Lehen (fiefdom), Wappen (coat of arms), and Nachlaß (estate--not the kind you live on ("Gut"), the kind you leave to your heirs after your death), where I could think of the German word and for the life of me, could not think of the English word.

selenak, even if I can still only write emails in one language, you should be proud!

kaberett

Conveniently I can no longer find the bit of the allotment rules that says No Bringing In Gravel, so I am making plans to blithely bring in gravel for the sake of a base for The Shed, which is Definitely going to Happen this time, Honest.

The chief component I am now missing is a floor. Conveniently, there's an almost-complete house being built just up the road, with a big skip outside it, which currently contains several large sheets of plyboard. I can't actually get at them (it's all behind gates), but I am intending to show up on Tuesday morning and look hopeful at whoever's working there then.

(I am also missing enough sharp sand to level, and the gravel, but gravel at least should be fairly readily acquirable. It is possible I am also missing Some Important Bits Of Wood, but I care less about that because I have so many bits of misc wood at the allotment that I am pretty sure I can cobble something together.)

I am not going to manage to get all of this together before I disappear off to a field for a week, but I'm optimistic about getting it done in time to e.g. actually fill the greenhouse with chillis for the summer (an irritating amount of said greenhouse is currently functioning as storage space and actually I'd prefer it to be growing space. Actually.) Even I have now read enough guides to putting sheds together that I'm at least half-convinced I can probably actually more-or-less work it out.

... I will report back either triumphantly or shamefacedly in a few weeks' time. Watch This Space, etc.

mildred_of_midgard

1.5 miles. (Today Google Maps tells me it's 1.7 miles, it used to say 1.3 last year, I'm rounding. Someday, if I keep this up, I'll get a Strava watch, but not while I'm trying to save money.)

I noticed I was struggling more, and I wasn't sure why until partway through the run, when it occurred to me that I thought I was moving slightly faster, and that might be it.

On the last leg of the run, a young woman crossed the street in front of me. When I turned the corner, I realized she was jogging in the same direction as I was. Having something of a competitive streak, I eyeballed our respective speeds and decided I was sliiiightly faster, but not fast enough to pass her before I got to my driveway and turned in.

So naturally, I put the pedal to the metal and did pass her well before the driveway.

I think my competitive streak is good for me, because pushing forced my heart rate and breathing up, and if I want to improve my cardio before the cemetery, I need to be doing more of that!

I swear, I need someone slightly in front of me and slightly slower or slightly faster than me on all my runs.* I would never have run that fast at the end of my run without the dopamine hit of closing the gap, and then the triumph of watching her glance behind her over her shoulder, then move to the side to let me pass.

[* I discovered this in high school on the one day they let us run with the boys in gym class; none of the girls were ever anywhere near me, but there were some boys in front of me on that day. They should have had us do that more often! I could have been much faster/better!]

Then the hard part is maintaining that speed until the driveway, so she doesn't catch up again and I don't look like an idiot. ;) I often find that if I can channel my desire not to let people see me quit, I will push a little bit harder, and then sometimes that helps get me through a slump and back into a rhythm. A little pushing at just the right time can go a long way.

Just waiting for the slight hamstring soreness to fully go away before I go back to the cemetery. Then it's going to be all about how many loops, aka hill reps, I do.

ETA: Oh, and I've started timing my runs. I shaved a full 40 seconds off my run today: 15:24 instead of 16:04. (Both rough estimates; I don't always take my phone out of my pocket at the exact same point in the driveway.)

kaberett

Okay. SO.

Via THE GATE APPRECIATION SOCIETY on Facebook, earlier today I became aware of the Ginkgo Gates at the Adelaide Botanical Gardens. I took one look at the short sections and went I WANT TO KNIT IT.

Ergo lireavue went and poked Ravelry with sticks, and... this shawl fell out.

There Was Shrieking.

And then the shrieking Intensified because all of a sudden the outline of a possible character for the game that Admin: the LRP supports Arrived All At Once. Namely, one of the nations of the Empire is Navarr (summary of influences: "wood elves"). From the look and feel page for Navarr:

The Navarr look draws heavily on the forests for its inspiration. The colours are primarily greens and browns with occasional splashes of dark autumnal red or yellow. Materials are practical, primarily those that come from hunting - leather and fur. [...] Rather than rich materials or unusual colours the Navarr personalise their appearance by adorning their costume with embroidery, beads, feathers, fetishes, and other accessories. It is also common to weave such items into the hair. [...] Layers of well-worn, practical wool and leather in natural shades often serve as the foundation of Navarr costume.

Also relevant context: the existence of magical items that grant you Additional Tricks. Like, for example, mage robes, where I am raising particular eyebrows at the part where the information for Volhov's Robe notes that even the Navarr "see great value in a skilled individual being able to help an established coven".

Additional and further relevant context: there are four events a year. In-game, these events take place during the Winter Solstice, Spring Equinox, Summer Solstice, and Autumn Equinox.

It Is Also The Case That: a particularly distinctive piece of kit can get very strongly associated with The Specific Character Who Wears It in the general cultural wossname.

... I abruptly very badly want to make myself a set of three shawls identical except in colour: spring green, summer green, autumn blazing yellow. Obviously the conceit is that it is not three shawls, It Is One Single Magic Shawl. It Changes With The Seasons. Do I know anything about this potential character other than "Navarri, magician, magic shawl"? NOPE. Have I ever actually LRPed? NOPE. Am I nonetheless actually kind of tempted? ...

mildred_of_midgard

1.5 miles. Once my legs stop being sore, I think my cardio is ready to start doing a single cemetery hill loop. And experience shows that if I do those almost every day, in a sustainable manner, I can work my way up pretty quickly. So hopefully I start being able to do some proper runs in May.

Crossing everything for NO. MORE. INJURIES!!!

(Ball of foot continues to show noticeable improvements every 2 months. Ankle will let me run and walk, even if it twinges sometimes when I'm crouching down. Knees are wildly inconsistent, but let me run at least. Not sure how they will feel about long walks, since they didn't even like Monday's 4-mile walk. But maybe they will heal! Debating whether to do a geology hike (~7 miles) tomorrow when on the phone with my friend. The weather will be lovely and warm.)

mildred_of_midgard

My friend has gotten me measurements, pics, and videos, and I *think* the sofa bed is going to fit. Hopefully into the bedroom, but almost certainly the living room. For some reason (possibly to do with $$$ ;) ), he doesn't mind having a huge bed in the living room if it comes to that!

So he's going to talk to his roommate in the next week or so. But based on our texts this evening, it's sounding like he thinks an October/November move might be doable.

I'm trying to talk him into a road trip: Crater Lake, Glacier National Park, Yellowstone. The problem is that his summer is packed full, and October is dicey when it comes to the weather in these places. We saw snow in June in Yellowstone in 2014! We had our Crater Lake trip cancelled for a blizzard last Halloween.

But we'll see.

Nothing finalized, but this is the current tentative timeline:

May 1: Wife and stepdaughter return to Brazil (this part is finalized, barring emergencies).

May - October: Me in this nice (expensive) condo, enjoying the long walks and trying to get back in shape, working on Peter Keith.

Early October, or late September if he can get the time off work: Road trip.

Mid October: Return to Boston?

October 24-25: Conference in LA that I need to be there for. Hopefully a guest lecture on pedagogy from me to my PhD program. (They have expressed interest, but no timing discussed.)

October - sometime November: Enjoy New England autumn!

November sometime: Cross-country U-Haul trip to Los Angeles.

That will give his roommate about 7 months to find a new place, which I think is reasonable. (We'll see what roommate thinks.)

If I weren't so attached to where I live, what would make most financial and UCLA sense is combining the move with the October road trip, living in LA in time for the conference, and not all this going back and forth across the country. I may end up deciding to do the sensible thing, especially if roommate doesn't need that extra month. (But walks! Leaves! *pout*)

No hard data yet, but hopefully soon. My friend and I are set to chat on Saturday, although it's unlikely to be after the roommate talk. Maybe the convo in which I talk up the many benefits will light a fire under him.

Stay tuned!

mildred_of_midgard

Tuesday: Rest day
Wednesday: Rest day
Thursday: 1.5 miles

I think my cardio improved since my last run! I feel like I was going at least as fast, if not faster, yet my chest never hurt, my diaphragm never hurt, and I didn't feel like I was struggling up the slight incline that I refuse to dignify with the name of hill. I definitely noticed it, whereas last year I wasn't noticing at all, but until today, I was struggling on it.

Soon I will be ready for the cemetery hill reps again!

P.S. Legs (hamstrings) definitely sore, though. That was some fitness drop!

P.P.S. ~~Geometry~~ Geology studies via podcast continue, especially during the post-run walks.

seekingferret

Ha! A couple years ago I ranted about Emily Hanford's Sold a Story podcast, which I thought perpetuated some misleading myths about how science works even though she was probably at least partially right about some problems with American reading education. Now Hanford is back with a three part followup series. I feel vindicated.

In my previous essay I questioned why we didn't see a magical school bucking the educational winds, where they used the science of reading and every student was an expert reader. Even if Hanford were wrong, I argued, one would typically expect outliers. Here Hanford shows us a school bucking educational trends and every student is an expert reader- and it doesn't exactly use the science of reading!

The premise of the new miniseries is that there is a school in a poor district of Ohio that has consistently delivered far better reading test scores than would be expected- nearly every student in this school district can read. And yet! Ohio state law changes inspired by Hanford's podcast were threatening to force this school district to make changes that might disrupt its educational model.

The Ohio school district's main innovations seem to me, based on Hanford's descriptions, to not actually be about the pedagogy, because I've been insisting since the beginning that probably the pedagogy is not the most determinative factor and nobody has convinced me otherwise. Hanford of course disagrees with me. She claims that it is things like an emphasis on teaching students lots of verbal language at an early age, and giving them significant time to practice. But while discussing these strategies and others, she plays recordings of the teachers and what their strategies seem to have in common is that they are extremely high touch, they are being implemented in classrooms with small class sizes, and the teachers are enthusiastic and engaged. My entirely unbacked by science intuition is that these factors matter more than pedagogy. This is why I've always referred to schools like this (ironically) as magic. These are of course the most expensive and difficult strategies to scale, so it's like saying, we've figured out the way to get every student to learn to read! Get more engaged teachers and don't overwhelm them with too many students! But this school district actually does have some clever ideas about the economics of teaching reading, such as enlisting gym teachers and music teachers as auxiliary reading teachers and giving them training, to allow the school to teach reading in small classes without having to add additional reading teachers. And also putting resources into solving problems of truancy so that you aren't wasting teacher time while students aren't there to benefit.

Hanford's starting point in the first series is that the science of reading says that three cuing is harmful and phonetic decoding is helpful, but this time around her theme is that implementation matters, not pedagogical theory, and again I must repeat that I am not an expert on teaching reading and I am talking without any authority, but I am so here for the new Hanford. She spends a lot of time on the intersection of new educational ideas and government's limitations, like the fact that federal law actually prohibits the Department of Education from endorsing specific programs, for fear of government overreach, putting schools in a funny position where they're required to meet specifications in laws like NCLB that can't actually be communicated, pushing them towards unreliable private organizations with unclear ideological objectives for guidance.

The whole thing was way more satisfying than the original series, and since I much prefer praising things to criticizing them, I had to note the improvement.

kaberett

Four daffodil flowers, with yellow petals and a white crown.

From Sunday: I did not quite believe what I was seeing initially? Or perhaps better I did not quite understand what I was seeing. Brain was entirely made of "daffodil??? backwards?????"

As a consequence of attempting to hunt down the variety (which I had failed to make a note of while actually in its presence) I realised I could ask the RHS to show me a list of all the daffodil cultivars they know about. Apparently this is actually a subgenre with several members! But the thing that has thus far made me squawk WHAT most loudly is, without contest, Narcissus viridiflorus.

kaberett

Allotment: railway sleepers now ALL AT THE PLOT. Shed bits: not. Questionable contemplations include "dolly?" and "... Tramper?"

Partway through this particular Adventure, there was Rain. Accompanied by Thunder. I am very amused by how muddy the front of my clothes wound up compared with the basically pristine back.

EYB: decided I was going to start adding personal recipes and did that, along with sending in several Messages about Errors and/or Links. In the process of failing to find Waitrose Food Magazine recipes online in any useful format, tripped and fell into Highgate Hill Kitchen, and promptly indexed... most of the cakes? and. some of the salads.

The discover/rerealisation that I can in fact do a combo of indexing misc recipes from The Internet and Actually Making The Personal Recipes Go as a way to scratch the Indexing itch while waiting for things to be Approved is both welcome and Potentially Dangerous.

mildred_of_midgard

So if you remember that my wife has an e-trike that we call "Horse" and that I am her squire, I was lamenting the fact that if she were to get a new "horse" in Brazil, I would not be there to squire for her.

Her: Yes, you're going to transition from being my squire to being my satrap.

Me: I can tell who's been studying Mesopotamian history!

*

Some time ago, long before recent developments, I was telling my wife about the Hawaiian trip. She teased me about my best friend being my "platonic sidepiece."

Me: *when I was done laughing* Isn't that just a friend?

Her: No, you got him a room with a corner balcony! You surprised him with a corner balcony! That's the equivalent of buying your mistress fancy clothes and jewelry.

A couple of days ago, when I referred to my "platonic sidepiece," she quipped, "I hope your platonic sidepiece votes in his own interests."

Me: Same!

So far, no developments on that front (busy times at work for him). He's planning to measure the front door, and if it passes muster, talk to his roommate this week.

I'm just mentally trying to visualize the layout of the front entrance (a potentially very tight spot; we might have to ask the neighbors to open their front door and let us step inside their unit briefly), the living room (if the bedroom is a no go, is there even enough room to maneuver around a sofa made out into a queen bed?), the hallway (would we have to move two couches and two bookcases out of the way to clear a space?), the bedroom door (will the sofa fit in)?, and the bedroom (will there be enough room for a twin mattress to sleep on next to the sofa bed workstation?). Many potential obstacles, as you can see.

But in the meanwhile, I will be my partner's satrap in the United States for the next few years!

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Morgan

October 2019

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