Decorating our bulletin boards with colored paper circles.
Cuddling with Tilde.
12/28: a conversation & a sighting
A talk with my brother.
And the sight of 4 bunnies near our house!
And the sight of 4 bunnies near our house!
12/27: burns words
I've been looking through a concordance of Robert Burns' poems and songs, and today I found two great words: hansel (a good-luck gift, particularly for the new year) and imp as a verb (to engraft or repair feathers to improve flight)!
12/24: carols and cleaning
Tidying the house while listening to Christmas albums--a good way to spend a chunk of the day.
12/22: unexpected photos
The weather was good (and it doesn't look like it's going to be great for the next few days), so Chris and I decided to go flying in the afternoon. The plane had some troubles, though, and we cut our flight short. As a result, I didn't get the chance to take many aerial pictures (which is fine in the circumstances--safety first!), but I did pause outside the airport to photograph the frozen roses. It had been warm a few weeks ago and roses all around town started to rebloom--then we had a cold snap and the roses got caught.
12/21: looking
...at art in the "Art of American Dance" exhibit at Crystal Bridges today. "Ghost Dance" by Oscar Howe was amazing (here, but the colors aren't as rich as they appeared in person); "Music" by Florine Stettheimer was a great find (here); and after admiring reproductions of Arthur Mathews for years I was glad to get to see this one (here) first-hand.
12/20: a surprise
I'm reading Madeline Miller's Song of Achilles because I'll be teaching it this upcoming semester. I'm not sure I love the book overall, but I think it'll be good to talk about with students. I did, however, love what it did with the sacrifice of Iphigenia. It made total sense within the logic of the book, but I was still surprised and enjoyed being surprised.
12/19: star wars
I'd been reluctant to go to the new Star Wars film--I loved the original Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back, but all the ones since then not so much. Still, it felt weird to avoid it, so we went, and I'm glad to have seen it. Plus it strangely spoke to a personal problem I had been wrestling with earlier in the day.
12/18: walking & listening
It had been too long since I had gone to the walking track! This afternoon I was feeling stir-crazy at home, so I went--and a bunch of other people must have been feeling the same way, because there were more folks there than usual. It was good to move.
It was also good to be listening to something other than Therese Raquin as I walked: I wouldn't have finished it if Kate Winslet hadn't been so interesting to listen to, but--gosh--was it a depressing slog. (Perhaps part of its point, but not providing motivation to keep listening....) Today I started listening to Arabella by Georgette Heyer. It feels like a "guilty pleasure" book, but after TR I don't mind that.
It was also good to be listening to something other than Therese Raquin as I walked: I wouldn't have finished it if Kate Winslet hadn't been so interesting to listen to, but--gosh--was it a depressing slog. (Perhaps part of its point, but not providing motivation to keep listening....) Today I started listening to Arabella by Georgette Heyer. It feels like a "guilty pleasure" book, but after TR I don't mind that.
12/16: experimenting
...with sewing on top of a collage of squares cut from books. I'm liking the effect.
12/15: bright and deep
...the colors of today's sunset. I wasn't at the lake to watch it, but Chris and I saw it as we were driving around town.
12/14: calmly
...working through the last one-on-one student meetings and the stack of grading. It's good not to feel rushed.
12/13: two things in twos
I bought a nice sweater last month at the grocery store (of all places!), and today when I went back I got two more in different colors. They were on sale this time and the woman working the clothing area gave me a coupon.
And at school today I met with two students about co-curricular projects of theirs that I'm supervising, and it felt good to work out some details.
And at school today I met with two students about co-curricular projects of theirs that I'm supervising, and it felt good to work out some details.
12/12: sharing
...my pamphlet from the weekend. A lot of them went into the mail, but some of them I could deliver on campus, and I've already gotten some sweet feedback from a student and a colleague.
12/11: downtime
...with Chris. There's still plenty of end-of-semester work to do, but we both needed to recuperate and rest a little, and it was good to do that together.
12/10: made!
I made a whole stack of pamphlets today based on my idea from yesterday. They're solstice-themed, so now I need to send them out pronto.
12/9: another idea
I got another idea for a bookbinding project today (two in one week!), and I've already started to put it in motion.
12/8: chris in the audience
The senior Classics majors did research presentations today, and Chris came to listen. He asked really good and helpful questions; I was grateful for his presence and contributions.
12/7: bonuses
In addition to working through a big list of things to do today, I found some time for pleasure reading and for thinking about a new bookbinding experiment.
12/6: an unexpected turn in the day
I spilled coffee all over my desk at school--not a good thing. And my iPhone was one my desk at the time--even more of a not good thing. But I was going to replace the phone this month anyway (since it's no longer update-able), and I got all my absolutely-necessary work done for the day by mid-afternoon, so Chris and I went to Little Rock to get a new phone and have dinner out.
(And oh my goodness is it a good thing that I can replace a phone without having to worry about the cost's effect on my budget.)
(And oh my goodness is it a good thing that I can replace a phone without having to worry about the cost's effect on my budget.)
12/5: arranging poems
In the intermediate Latin class today we experimented with different orderings of poems by Catullus, and I thought the students did a nice job of explaining their arrangement choices and the interpretive consequences.
12/4: compline
I haven't built Sunday compline into my regular schedule this semester, but I managed to go this evening and was glad I did.
12/3: more practice
I have one more bookbinding session with students before the end of the semester, and I spent some time today practicing the form we'll be making and figuring out how I want to teach it. In the process I tried some new-to-me variations that I'm glad I now know.
12/2: early night
It was a long week and included some nights of little sleep, but my light will be out by 9:30 this evening!
12/1: candidus, candida, candidum
It's a Latin adjective for "bright," "white," "shining." I looked at all of its occurrences today in the poems of Catullus and in the text of the Vulgate--very fun, very interesting, and (yes) very nerdy.
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