7/31: finding
...this sentence in the August 1, 1804 entry of Clark's expedition journal: "What a field for a Botents and a natirless."
7/30: clearing
...sink clogs without Drano. I used vinegar, baking soda, hot water, and then--for a tough clog--a plunger. Satisfying.
7/29: reading
...Christian Bök's Kazimir Effect. White on white, paint chips and paint names, found poetry. What's not to like?
7/27: orange & chocolate
...cookies. And while I was making them, Chris found the Chocolate Orange Chicks on YouTube and we watched one of their videos.
7/26: negative
I took a drive-thru COVID test today, and it came back negative. I'm vaccinated and have continued to be careful even as restrictions have relaxed, but since I came down with a cold at the same time that the delta variant is sweeping through Arkansas, I thought I should have a test to rule out the possibility that I got a breakthrough case. I'm glad it's just a regular cold!
7/23: kayaking
...with the moon. And when I paddled back to the dock, Chris was waiting to help me back up the hill with the boat.
7/22: mixing
...a non-alcoholic drink for myself at dinner time: herbed simple syrup, pureed strawberries, lemon juice, and fizzy water. It tasted like a juice I used to buy at Erewhon, as a treat to myself, when we lived in Los Angeles.
7/20: getting reacquainted
...with Rainbow Rowell's Baz and Simon. I loved Carry On, but somehow Wayward Son didn't click with me. Still, I was glad to see that a final book in the series--Any Way the Wind Blows--came out this month, and I enjoyed hearing Baz and Simon's voices in my head as I read today.
7/19: being charmed
...by The Squirrel's Birthday and Other Parties, written by Toon Tellegen, translated by Martin Cleaver, and illustrated by Jessica Ahlberg.
7/18: waking up
...to this (link) write-up of one of my pamphlets at De Villo Sloan's Asemic Front 2. I've been feeling iffy about my work recently, so it was especially welcome.
7/17: the sound
...of rain on a metal roof. We're getting part of our back deck screened in so that we have another screened-in porch where we can read and the cats can enjoy the outdoors. The whole process has been one of fits and starts, due to weather and shortages of construction workers, but it's nearly done now. This afternoon Chris went out into the new space while it was raining, and I (and Emma and Tilde) joined him. I think Chris and I enjoyed the amplified beat of the rain more than the cats did.
7/16: finally watching
...the Olive Kitteridge miniseries, something that had been on my list since it first aired in 2014.
7/15: finishing
...three books within 24 hours: Anna Karenina (35 hours of audiobook time!), Legendborn (I'll be interested to see where the series goes with the next installment), and Never Look Back (a re-read in preparation for an online book discussion of it this evening).
7/13: coming across
...this sentence in John Bradley's Illuminated Manuscripts (published in 1905): "Illuminists were not illuminators."
7/12: nearly alone
...on the public walking track this evening. As COVID cases rise in Arkansas I'm grateful when I can be out in the world but relatively distant from others.
7/11: thinking about
... Legendborn by Tracy Deonn and how it uses fantasy and magic to meditate on the legacies of colonization and slavery.
7/10: recent kitchen time
...spent making scallion pancakes, lemon shortbread with candied fennel seeds, and orange flavored meringues.
7/9: the opening sentence
...of Emerson's essay on circles: "The eye is the first circle; the horizon which it forms is the second; and throughout nature this primary picture is repeated without end."
7/8: accepted
I got news today that my abstract on the uses of Classics in historical romance novels was accepted for the annual Classics conference in January. An earlier version of the abstract had been accepted for a conference that got cancelled due to COVID, but I've kept reading and thinking about the topic, and I'm excited to pull all my gathered bits and pieces together into a paper at last.
7/7: not getting too flummoxed
...by some delays in construction work (and the chaos in which it's left our house) nor by some cookies which I over-baked. I'm not always good at taking things in stride, so I'm counting today's relative equanimity as progress.
7/6: reaching
...a part of Anna Karenina in which Tolstoy spends more time with Dolly's thoughts than he had up to that point. I was glad for that, and glad that he held off until now so that I really wanted to "be inside Dolly's head" for a bit.
7/5: wrapping my wrist
...so I could enjoy an evening on the lake, hopefully without too much wrist trouble. I've been worrying recently that my kayaking days might be nearly over, given my ongoing wrist trouble. But this evening I realized that, if wrapping doesn't help enough and my wrist doesn't heal in the long run, I could buy a kayak with pedals, and knowing that made me happy.
7/2: feeling better
...today after some troubles with arthritis earlier this week. I worked on a pamphlet in the morning, finished revising an essay in the afternoon, and went to the walking track in the evening.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)