forestofglory

*The school year ended for us last Friday. (It still feels very early to me!) Today was supposed to be the kiddos first day of summer camp, but we gave her a covid test this morning since that seems like the safe thing to do, and it came back positive! So no summer camp for her this week. Right now she's hanging out in her room watching minecraft videos and drinking water. She has running nose but not a fever. We are trying to keep her isolated as much as possible.

*in other news I have finally installed Zotero after having been told about it for years. And its great! If you give it a pdf it can mostly figure the title ect! Which is nice when you have pile of pdfs with unhelpful titles. Plus it has tagging! So now my horde of pdfs about Chinese history is much better organized and I can find things more easily. Also I made a pretty bibliography for my most recent fic.

*for June I've decided that I'm going to sew whatever I feel like! I've been working on a quilt top that I have no plans for I just want to make it. Its strip quilt and I had all the strips put together so its going pretty fast. I can't remember when I first started it but probably years ago, so it will be nice to finish it up. (It took me forever to bind the chicken quilt but it's finished now!)

This week I've been trying to finish up as many of my monthly goals as possible while also not overdoing things with my wrist. It's a *fun* balancing act. On Tuesday I realized that I would be happier if finished at least some of the goals rather than having them all almost done. I so I decided to focus on the easiest to finish goal and do that when my wrist allows, and then the next easiest, and so on an so forth. I've manged two goals this way, I'm not sure that I'll finish any of the others, but I do feel better about things.

Tomorrow I'm taking the kid on her first ever camping trip. She's so excited! I have not been camping in years, so I asked a friend who goes camping a lot to help us out. We are going car camping pretty close to where we live, so if things go wrong we will have the option to go home.

Hello new wiscon people! Welcome! I use this space to set myself monthly goals and help create more structure in my life. At the start of the month I look over the last month's goals and then set some new goals for the current month.

In May my goals where:

1) Write fic on 20 days
I managed 15 days. Due to wrist pain and travel I wasn’t able to write more. I thought I might be able to write while traveling but I really didn’t have the mental energy

2) Finish the improv rainbow quilt Finish the blue section of the improv rainbow quilt
I scaled this goal back due to hand pain, but I was able to meet the scaled back goal. This has become very much a slow and steady project.

3) Figure out what's next in Classical Chinese
I’ve been teaching myself Classical Chinese via self study. Its super fun and I love learning it! In April I finished the first unit in A New Practical Primer of Literary Chinese by Paul Router and I wasn’t feeling ready to move on to the next unit, so I had to think about what to do next. I’ve decided to start another textbook (An Introduction to Literary Chinese by Michael A. Fuller) and go over the basics again!

( Read more... )

In the last month I’ve both gone to the dentist and taken my kid to the dentist. Dentists offices are such particular spaces to begin with, with their special chairs and lights and tools. Going to the dentist has always been a unique spacial experience for me. With the extra pandemic safeguards in place dentist offices feel even more like their own slightly alien worlds.

My dentist’s office hasn’t actually changed that much. More of the staff wear masks now, and there are some extra plastic panels in the front office, but that’s it. Of course I can’t wear a mask while my teeth are being examined or cleaned. But it still feels different to go to the dentist now, perhaps just because I go into so few buildings these days.

On the other hand, the kid’s dentists has changed a lot. Just before the pandemic started their was a fire in the old office. So during the pandemic we’ve been going to a different, further away, temporary office. Before I used to go in and sit in the waiting room. Now we park outside and text the dentist, then when they are ready for us the text back. I walk the kid to the office and then wait in the car until they are done. So I’ve barely seen the inside of this new office. It gives the whole thing a feeling of isolation.

Dentists offices have always been something of a space apart and the pandemic has only made them more so.

1) Finish the Space Bees quilt
I have bought the supplies I need for this, and have based the quilt.

2) Finish Chicken quilt top
I'm so close to done with this! I have sewn all the blocks and mostly sewn them all together just three more seems to go.

3) Write two posts talking about what I've been observing in the built and natural environment around me
So far I've written one: Observational Bits and Bobs

4) Write something about my experience with language self study as an adult with APD
This is all written, and going to be posted at ladybusiness soon! It ended up not being very focused on the ADP aspect.

5) Work through lesson 10 in Classical Chinese for Everyone
I'm currently working on lesson 9, which feels like good progress. I think I'm managing the pacing a bit better now.

5) The kid's birthday
The birthday was earlier this is week and I think it went well. We made cupcakes together for her to bring to school, and R made her a special dinner. She seems to like the presents we got her too.

6) Halloween!
R has done some seasonal decorating around the house. We now have blinking orange and purple lights outside. Also I took the kid over to my moms to look at the Halloween costumes, that my mom made for my and my brother when we where young. We picked several that fit and that the kid likes! So now the Halloween costume is taken care of.

I made progress on all my goals! I feel accomplished! How is your month going so far?

Here are some adventures I've been having over the last couple of weeks:

*Our local botanical garden is no longer requiring reservations to visit, so and I was able to take the kid there one afternoon. It was not crowed at all, and we had a lot fun wandering around all the twisty paths. The kid especially enjoyed following the creek.

*I went on a hike with a good friend to celebrate my birthday! I made my favorite cookies, and packed us a picnic with those and strawberries and carrot sticks. We had lovely walk, it was sunny but cool with a bit of breeze, and fog banks in the distance.

*The local pool will let you reserve half the sallow area for 45 minutes at a time for "family swim. " I've now taken the kid three times. She loves it. She had few summer swimming lessons and was excited to show what she's learned! I don't know what it is about swimming but even this low key hanging out in the pool made me very hungry!

*My parent took me and the kid out to visit some family friends who live in rural area. They have 13 chickens and 2 kittens. The kid got to feed the chickens and gather eggs. Plus we fed the neighbor's horse some carrots.

Last Friday morning we drove down to Santa Cruz. I packed us sandwiches for lunch which we ate in the car. But we also stopped for a bit in Campbell, a city a bit south of San Jose and took a short walk, there was a trail by a creek and some fun wooden bridges.

We got to Santa Cruz too early to check into the house we were staying at, so we went right to the Boardwalk. Well the kid and R went to get tickets and I went to look at the beach and put my feet in the sea. But when I got back they were still in line. We waited around for a bit longer but finally got everything taken care of. The kid got to go on a couple of rides, and then we had timed tickets to the local art museum at 4 pm so we did that. It was fun, though they didn't have quite as much stuff as pre-pandemic.

Then we checked and unpacked and relaxed for a bit. After that we went shopping and got food to make our own breakfasts and lunches and also picked up pizza for dinner. My half of the pizza had mushrooms and roasted garlic with white sauce and was really good. R and the kid just had pepperoni.

On Saturday morning the kid and I went to the beach for a while and played in the waves and did a little digging in the sand. It was fun but the kid's mask got all wet, so we came back to the house and took showers. In the afternoon the kid and R spend a long time at the boardwalk and the kid went on a lot more rides. We got Chinese takeout for dinner.

Sunday we went for a hike in the redwoods. Which was very pretty but I ended up getting heat exhaustion. The hike wasn't that strenuous -- it was 2 miles mostly flat, but it was quite warm and I didn't pack enough water. I didn't realize how bad it was so I took a rest while the kid and R went to the boardwalk. But when they got back I felt worse, and started vomiting! R suggested I take a cool shower which really helped, but I was still really out of it and threw up several more times. Poor R had to take care of me and the kid.

Monday I felt well enough to walk around and hold a conversation though not totally fine. We weren't sure if we were going to make it to our Monterey Bay Aquarium tickets at 3pm. But we decided to try. First the kid and I wandered around downtown Santa Cruz while R got some time to play at the arcade by himself. The kid didn't like the snacks I had on me so we went on a snack shopping spree in the local grocery store. Then we mostly sat around and ate. After a bit we met up with R at a local bookstore. Then after an adventure finding a bathroom we drove to Monterey. In Monterey we had lunch then took a walk then it was time to go to the Aquarium. It was so nice! We got to see otters and the deep ocean tank and the kelp forest and the kid had fun with the touch pools.

Then we drove back home, arriving just in time for bedtime.

After a few days of recovery form the heat exhaustion I'm feeling much better, bending is no longer painful!

The days are so long now! It's light before I get up, and light well after the kid is supposed to be in bed. It's been effecting both of our sleep schedules, but not too badly.

We have been having many picnics lately. We get takeout from somewhere and eat in on a blanket in the park. It's so nice. It still keeps us socially distanced, but we get to eat restaurant food and get out of the house for a while. The Bay Area is still pretty locked down. Open air dinning is just starting to be a thing here.

There was one bad thing that happened on a picnic, the kid got her 1st bee sting! She must have just put her had down right on top of a bee. It was unpleasant experience for us all. We took her right home, and got her an ice pack to help with the swelling and she sat with one hand on the ice pack and played phone games with the other for long time. She recovered quickly and seemed fine now, but shes a bit wary of bees on our walks.

Since things are slightly opening up we have formed a social bubble with my parents and brother. Our social bubbles are very limited -- we can hang out together outside while masked. But I have now gone on several walks with my family, which has been lovely.

The kid still loves visiting the fish pond in our neighborhood. This week they have added about a dozen little fish to the pound, which is very exciting. Most of them are orange, but a few are black and one is white with orange spots.

I this morning I made cupcakes with N. We've been doing a lot of baking to keep busy. We made cake, and cookies and quick bread. I love baking with her, it so fun, but I don't generally do it. All the adults in the house are diabetic or at risk of diabetes so we try not to keep too many sweets around.

I enjoying cooking. It's nice to make physical things. When I was learning to cook and for a long time after I would always use a recipe. But now when I make dinner I rarely use a recipe -- or a use one I know by heart. Its nice just make things. I find a lot of cooking is knowing when things look, or taste or smell right. It makes it hard to explain things to other people, especially when they aren't there. But take say cooking an onion -- I know how to cut an onion from doing it so many times. I know what it should smell like cooking, and I know it always takes longer than recipes say it does, and know what it looks like when the onions are cooked. So things I can cook because I know them well are soothing but new recipes often stress me out.

But my favorite thing about cooking is feeding other people! I want to nourish people and give them yummy food. Sometimes this is a bit tricky -- right now everyone in my household is a bit picky and we all have different things we don't eat so finding meals for everyone is a bit less fun. I often struggle with meal planing, and sometimes when its my turn to make dinner I just don't feel very excited by what ever I'm cooking that evening. And I don't often have energy for really complicated stuff.

So I'm really enjoying this lock down baking. I don't have to plan it in advance, I can do it early in the day when I have energy, the kid enjoys doing it with me, its all pretty great.

Bits an bobs is my many short unrelated things make a post category. Comments on any topic welcome, no need to comment on all of them.

*It has been raining since Thanksgiving, and everyone in my household expect me has been sick with a bad cold. The kid stayed home on Monday (which is a work day for me) but was well enough to go to preschool yesterday and today. However this morning she slept in almost and hour and was late to school.

*Many of my internet pals have offered to send holiday cards and I have signed up for a lot of them. I'm excited that I will be getting mail, though I feel a little bad that I'm not sending anyone anything. I am however pleased that I realized I can used some of the space I created by getting rid of books that I'm not friends with to display all my holiday cards. I now have a nice empty shelf waiting.

*I have stared reading Winnie-the-Pooh to my kid! As you might have gathered form my icons, I'm very fond of Winnie-the-Pooh, and its lovely to share something something I love with my kid. Also rereading the stories again, I'm charmed once again by the characters and the the prose.

*I have been meaning to upgrade to a paid account for ages, and I finally did it yesterday since the sale announcement reminded me. I'm not sure if I will actually use any of the paid features, but I'm happy to give DW some money. Maybe I will go upload some more icons? I have been remembering to use different icons for posts and comments slightly more recently and it might be nice to have a few more. Anyone have recommendations for places to find icons?