1. My summer runs from May 15 to August 15, contractually speaking, meaning that the first third is over today. I'm looking back at my list of summer ideas and trying to figure out how to make the most of the weeks that remain.
2. I got the best email today, you guys: my manuscript was accepted for publication. Accepted! Huzzah! For those of you keeping track at home, this was my early research project, the one I've written about off and on in this space since 2006. I defended it successfully in June of 2008, and then tabled it for a while to work on the dissertation. During my postdoc I submitted it to the flagship journal of my professional organization, from which it was rejected despite promising initial reviews. It sat on the back burner for my first insane year of teaching. Last September it was rejected again (I was aiming awfully high, so I can't complain), and although I got it resubmitted shortly afterward I was worried that one of the reviewers was going to torpedo my chances. But! He didn't! My first first-author publication finally has a home and I am so relieved.
3. Remember the balaclava that has been tormenting me? I told my son I'd do my level best to get it finished before he left for Scout camp on Sunday, and that deadline has been exactly what I needed. I am finished with the knitting and the seaming, and now I just (just!) have to weave in 7,592 ends. The rule for knitted garments is that they have to spend as many hours wearing them as I spend making them. I totally get it that it's easy to lose track of a hat. As long as it gets a reasonable amount of wear, there's no need to haul around excess guilt about it. For this balaclava, man, he's going to be wearing it every day until he's 35 to get those hours in. I'm going to have to write a note to his teachers in the fall: please allow my son to wear his tentacled balaclava in class, because he has to keep it on his face for as many hours as I spent making it and that's a really large number of hours.
I'm sure that would make a great first impression.
Isn't it a little funny that he's excited to take a wool balaclava to camp in June?
4. I watched Braveheart on Amazon while grinding out the last of the knitting and seaming. I'd never seen it before and I was surprised at how much I enjoyed it -- surprised, too, at its Catholic flavor. It's too bad Mel Gibson lost his mind, huh? One little detail that stood out to me was when the priest shriving soldiers before battle said "Ego vos absolvo..." That "vos" made me jerk my head up from my knitting and pay attention: general absolution means there's serious business at hand.
I would have been just as happy reading a synopsis of the battle scenes, though. I am bad at gore.
5. My Edinburgh-born son would love the movie, but he's only 13. We have been a little surprised at how early some of our acquaintances allow their kids to watch R-rated movies. My 11-yo has been asking me almost daily to watch various PG-13 movies. It's a tricky thing, isn't it?
6. One of my boys had a tetanus booster yesterday and his arm is swollen and red and sore today. Any tips other than OTC pain reliever? The last time I had a tetanus shot my arm was sore for weeks afterward, so I'm hoping his reaction is milder than mine was.
7. If I encourage the use of Super Soakers, watering my little herb garden is a task they're happy to do.
More quick takes at Jen's.
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