What are you doing today?

[Scepticalscribe]

Finally - finally - finished Hamilton.

Although I watched several scenes three or four times.

Superlative.

Just superlative.

Outstanding.

As politics, music (and musical forms), songs, lyrics - oh, those lyrics - history, costumes, choreography, acting, art, narrative, (yes, race and gender also feature) - philosophy - and not to mention the wonderful subversion of tradition (and traditional story telling) seeing people of colour fully own and inhabit with commanding confidence and gleeful mastery of these (revolutionary) roles.

Absolutely outstanding.

And so intelligent - this is an extraordinarily intelligent and thoughtful production, and demands much (by way of attention, concentration, focus) from the viewer, audience; blink, and you miss something important.

And not a show where you can "switch off' - this is intense and requires your full attention at all times; some of the scenes are incredibly dense with action, subtle insights, puns, asides, foreshadowing, - visually, orally, in placement - whereas the lyrics are incredibly layered, subtle, sophisticated, and exquisitely well written.

Anyway, absolutely superb.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Reading Ron Chernow's biography of Alexander Hamilton.

 

[Clix Pix]

Spent some time today finishing up yesterday's cleaning task of taking everything out of the computer workstation I use in the bedroom as a nightstand, and dusting/cleaning all surfaces, as I've been neglectful of that and then realized that recently, every time I've been in bed for the evening, happily reading a book, that I've started sneezing and blowing...... This isn't springtime and my usual allergy season, but I'm also allergic to dust so it wasn't too much of a stretch to realize that, ahem, oops, it had been a while since I'd last cleaned everything, not just the top surface of that workstation, and that of course the open shelves nearer the floor are going to be picking up more dust..... So took everything out, having first having put on one of my surgical masks (they're good for more than just COVID-19!) in order to protect my nasal passages from getting filled with stirred-up dust, and cleaned away. Last night as I was tucked into bed reading the new best-seller "The Push," I realized that, yep, my instincts were correct and that this is what had been causing the recent sneezing fits. All too often I've simply been wiping off the top surface but not paying all that much attention to the other part below, thinking, "I'll get to that later." Well, "later" arrived, announced by more than a few "achoo's" and I really do need to be more mindful of this in the future, not let it get quite so bad!

Shot a few photos but it has been cloudy, dreary and rainy all day here. Better this than snow, though!!! We did have a lot of mixed precipitation last night, though, from rain to sleet to ice pellets to snow to back to freezing rain to rain..... This morning, though, not a snowflake in sight and that suits me just fine!

Right now I'm all excited about the news that Sony released today about their new camera, a real gem which I know I want as it ticks even more of the boxes than my current, beloved A7R IV does. I won't be putting my name on a preorder list or rushing to buy the first ones available on store shelves, but I definitely want one of these -- maybe by late spring, early summer. It and my A7R IV will be great complements to each other!

 

[Scepticalscribe]

I fully understand - and sympathise with - the notion of "later" in this context.

Bins and books today.

Perhaps a beer later.

 

[Alli]

Taking a break from comps today. I think I’ve covered all the important issues so now I need to just let it germinate. I’ll go back over every question tomorrow. And if I’m satisfied I’ll go ahead and submit early.

 

[Clix Pix]

Alli, good luck with the comps! I'll bet you'll be happy to get that finished up!

Ah, I well remember those from when I got my Master's in 1968 -- at that time some schools were already skipping the comps but requiring a thesis, while other schools were doing the reverse -- no thesis, but had to take comprehensive exams. My school, the Catholic University of America, required both, alas, or at least for the MLS. Not sure about other Masters' programs at CUA. That was a brutal spring, as it was when MLK was shot and on the eve of our graduation in June RFK was killed, too. Somehow we all managed to get through our requirements in order to get our degrees, though.

 

[Alli]

Alli, good luck with the comps! I'll bet you'll be happy to get that finished up!

Ah, I well remember those from when I got my Master's in 1968 -- at that time some schools were already skipping the comps but requiring a thesis, while other schools were doing the reverse -- no thesis, but had to take comprehensive exams. My school, the Catholic University of America, required both, alas, or at least for the MLS. Not sure about other Masters' programs at CUA. That was a brutal spring, as it was when MLK was shot and on the eve of our graduation in June RFK was killed, too. Somehow we all managed to get through our requirements in order to get our degrees, though.

I will be so happy! I remember during my Master’s program we did comps but no thesis. In the doc program it’s both. I get it. Finally. Comps is the only opportunity to show off what we learned. The dissertation is to show we have become researchers.

I’m just glad it’s this week and wasn’t the week of the election, or during the impeachment trial.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

@Alli: The very best of luck re submission.

@Clix Pix & @Alli: Yes. I hear you both.

Political events, or political excitement, or political controversy, and thesis submission (and approaching deadlines) do not go well together.

 

[Alli]

@Alli: The very best of luck re submission.

@Clix Pix & @Alli: Yes. I hear you both.

Political events, or political excitement, or political controversy, and thesis submission (and approaching deadlines) do not go well together.

Thank you. And no, politics can such the air out of everything!

 

[fooferdoggie]

the range we ordered on the second we get a call saying that instead of the 2 to 3 weeks we wont get it till mid march. well ours turns up up to high randomly so its on the unsafe side. everyone is pretty much out of appliances because supply is so slow but I found the same model my daughter found it is I think the same as the one we bought but with the controls on the front. but of course instead of 1200 to is 1800 Hate to spend that much on a range but I just cant trust this one.

 

[Clix Pix]

99.99% of the time I use my microwave oven for preparing meals. I use my stove top only for boiling water for preparing pasta (spaghetti, angel hair, whatever). I haven't cooked a meal in the actual oven since the day I moved in here -- the only time that oven was turned on was when we were doing the pre-purchase inspection of the condo and just over a month later a couple of times when after I had moved in, my mother used it to prepare a meal for the three of us (my parents were here from out-of-state and at that time I was recovering from surgery for a herniated disk and couldn't do much of anything in the way of physical activity, much less preparing meals for all of us! Living on my own and not being at all motivated to spend time with recipes and cooking, I am very happy with my microwave, which quickly heats up whatever I need and that's the end of that. Over the years I have had a couple of the stovetop burners replaced, but so far (knock-on-wood) my stove/oven, builder-installed here at the time these condo apartments were built, back in 1984, is still going strong. At this point, though, yeah, I'd be rather reluctant to trust that oven as it has been way too long since it has even been turned on. I'll stick with my microwave!

 

[Scepticalscribe]

99.99% of the time I use my microwave oven for preparing meals. I use my stove top only for boiling water for preparing pasta (spaghetti, angel hair, whatever). I haven't cooked a meal in the actual oven since the day I moved in here -- the only time that oven was turned on was when we were doing the pre-purchase inspection of the condo and just over a month later a couple of times when after I had moved in, my mother used it to prepare a meal for the three of us (my parents were here from out-of-state and at that time I was recovering from surgery for a herniated disk and couldn't do much of anything in the way of physical activity, much less preparing meals for all of us! Living on my own and not being at all motivated to spend time with recipes and cooking, I am very happy with my microwave, which quickly heats up whatever I need and that's the end of that. Over the years I have had a couple of the stovetop burners replaced, but so far (knock-on-wood) my stove/oven, builder-installed here at the time these condo apartments were built, back in 1984, is still going strong. At this point, though, yeah, I'd be rather reluctant to trust that oven as it has been way too long since it has even been turned on. I'll stick with my microwave!

Different worlds, and each to their own.

I've never had a microwave, nor thought to invest in one.

And, I do like food, - I'd class myself as something of a greedy gourmand - and fine dining (though cooking for one in a pandemic can be a bit of a bore, and a bit of a chore, granted), and enjoy cooking, (and am a very good amateur chef), but - above all, if I am honest, I love the idea of a meal consumed with - enjoyed with, in the company of - family/friends.

Covid, and my mother's dementia before that - have - to a very large extent, - put paid to that life and that world.

 

[Clix Pix]

I come from a couple of generations of women who didn't like to cook: my mother and her mother! My father's mother, though, was quite a good cook and thoroughly enjoyed both cooking and baking, but none of those genes from her seeped into my being.

Some people live to eat, others eat to live, and some, left to their own devices do the latter simply because it really is necessary, given the alternative. That's what makes the world go 'round, though, eh, the fact that each of us has different interests and abilities?!

That said I do enjoy a delicious, elegantly and beautifully prepared meal as much as anyone -- as long as I am not the one one responsible for presenting it!

 

[fooferdoggie]

I can mostly only eat protein meat eggs cheese a few nuts and veggies a few times a week. got to have a stove for that. but my cooking is super simple. I use a good toaster oven to cook the bacon. but I don't enjoy it N ever really enjoyed my cooking before my food problems other liked it.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

I come from a couple of generations of women who didn't like to cook: my mother and her mother! My father's mother, though, was quite a good cook and thoroughly enjoyed both cooking and baking, but none of those genes from her seeped into my being.

Some people live to eat, others eat to live, and some, left to their own devices do the latter simply because it really is necessary, given the alternative. That's what makes the world go 'round, though, eh, the fact that each of us has different interests and abilities?!

That said I do enjoy a delicious, elegantly and beautifully prepared meal as much as anyone -- as long as I am not the one one responsible for presenting it!

That is pretty much my take on housework, which I loathe; suffice to say that I don't fall into the category of the house proud; or rather, I like a reasonably clean - (spotless is quite beyond me), - house but loathe (a verb my mother used to hate to hear me use, "that is a very strong verb", she would remonstrate, mildly, "and one you should reserve for something really serious"), the idea (and the reality) of the work required to bring about that welcome state of affairs.

In fact, I was always perfectly prepared (as was my mother, and my teacher grandmother before her) to pay someone to do the needful; unfortunately, with Covid, the world has changed, in the private sphere as much as the public sphere.

 

[Clix Pix]

Yep, that's another gene that somehow escaped me: the one which governs enthusiasm for cleaning and housework! I do the needful, of course, but being alone in the household and being retired, as well as this being the Era of COVID-19, all the responsibility falls on me these days. In the past, in my working days and especially when my husband was still alive, too, I indeed did have a woman who came in to clean, do the laundry, change the bed, all of that, once a week, but now that I am retired and at home much of the time, not to mention having much less to deal with in terms of everyday laundry, too, I'd rather spend the funds which would go to a cleaning woman on something else. The only problem is finding the motivation to actually get to those mundane household chores! Laundry isn't so bad, as I can simply toss the clothing into the washing machine and let it do its thing while i'm happily engaged doing something else, but unless and until I buy a robot vacuum to take care of that one particular chore or take the time myself to do the dusting of all surfaces around the house as well as the vacuuming needed, not to mention regular cleaning of bathrooms, I'm still locked into at least some household chores! Ugh!! First-world problems, eh?

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Yep, that's another gene that somehow escaped me: the one which governs enthusiasm for cleaning and housework! I do the needful, of course, but being alone in the household and being retired, as well as this being the Era of COVID-19, all the responsibility falls on me these days. In the past, in my working days and especially when my husband was still alive, too, I indeed did have a woman who came in to clean, do the laundry, change the bed, all of that, once a week, but now that I am retired and at home much of the time, not to mention having much less to deal with in terms of everyday laundry, too, I'd rather spend the funds which would go to a cleaning woman on something else. The only problem is finding the motivation to actually get to those mundane household chores! Laundry isn't so bad, as I can simply toss the clothing into the washing machine and let it do its thing while i'm happily engaged doing something else, but unless and until I buy a robot vacuum to take care of that one particular chore or take the time myself to do the dusting of all surfaces around the house as well as the vacuuming needed, not to mention regular cleaning of bathrooms, I'm still locked into at least some household chores! Ugh!! First-world problems, eh?

First world problems, yes, but still problems.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Received a fish delivery, including smoked salmon, rollmops, salted anchovies and other delights.

Well, yes, crab and shrimp, too.

 

[Scepticalscribe]

Out and about - for a brisk walk, paying some bills, and doing a little local shopping (plus ordering & paying for multi-seed brown bread for tomorrow).

Basics: Bread (a pretty decent baguette), butter, beer.....

And my organic milk and cream.

 

[Clix Pix]

Saw in today's paper that on Sunday we'll be having a snowstorm -- first fairly serious one in a couple of years. Sigh..... Tomorrow I'll run over to the store and get a few extra things to have on hand so that I don't run out inconveniently, as it may be several days before the snow goes away and the roads plus parking lots are clear again.