May 6

Some bits of good news:

1. The Albatross Paper did not get rejected upon resubmission. I have to appease Reviewer 2, but I think (I hope) (I IMPLORE HEAVEN) that our albatross will fly at last. Earlier this week I checked the journal's site and saw that its status had changed from "under review" to "decision in process." I've been flinching every time I get a new email, because that paper has had a hard life. But hey! This is a good journal and the feedback is largely reasonable. (It's academic publishing, so "largely reasonable" is as good as it gets.)
2. Today, the second time I did deadlifts in the basement, I realized that I could totally do 70 pounds. It helps if the weight is right over my toes, I find. I am also having much more success with the inverted rows. Today I did 16 in sets of 4, though I should admit that at this point I cannot get myself aaaaallll the way up to the underside of the table, just most of the way there.
3. Grades are submitted and the student emails asking for more points have been dealt with. I continue to feel a ping of irritated surprise whenever students just flat-out ask me to award them extra points after the semester is over. My "nope" is much less angst-ridden than it used to be.
4. The resolution to do a small thing around the house each day has been a good one. Sometimes it's really small, like scrubbing a collection of funny spots on the wall and ceiling with hydrogen peroxide. Today I took the old battered playhouse down to the curb and planted herbs and battled the everlasting overgrown weeds that creep through our back fence from behind the neighbor's garage. Entropy plus extraordinarily fertile soil: that combo mandates a lot of weed management.
5. It's almost #SAMDRAL time! I have finished four of the books I was reading last week (one of which didn't make my list last week, but I should probably tell you more about it). Your Blue Flame is my favorite of Jen Fulwiler's books so far, and I probably won't hurry through it for the sake of being done by Friday. But I can keep reading that one slowly and still dive into a Dickens novel.
6. Tomorrow morning is the last department meeting of the year. Because I'm on sabbatical in the fall (word from higher up is that they're not planning to cancel/postpone sabbaticals, unlike some universities), I won't have to attend another department meeting until February of 2021. Don't you wonder what the world will look like in February of 2021?