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random busy
Feb. 10th, 2009 08:56 am1. Yes, I'm still alive, for all those who asked. Saturday we spent the day doing yard work. There is still plenty more to do. FEMA says that the cleanup is comparable to a category 1 or 2 hurricane (certainly more than the 73-mph tropical storm that we experienced as a direct hit in Charleston), and estimates six months to recover from.
2. Sunday was also kind of busy. I had to play piano/organ for three events, plus substitute for my daughter's primary class. And find a time to feed Lap Boy. Yikes. Someone else wants to learn organ, too, so I've got to carve a time to gather some useful suggestions/information for her. I love playing, but it would be very helpful to have someone to spell me off for those times I can't be there.
3. Ever-leaking bathroom...ongoing water damage...I am going to pull my hair out...please let us be gone before it gets any worse...
4. The sister of a friend of mine lives in South America and is trying to buy something on line, but they only ship to the US. So we're trying to work out a deal where she gets it sent to me, and I forward it on. She wants to use Western Union to send me the reimbursement for postage. Anybody know how Western Union works?
5. One of my hobbies (yes, I do have hobbies for all my spare time--snort) is genealogy. I've done a lot of German genealogy in the past several years because the Germans kept awesome records, and I speak German, and DH does stuff with paleography in Latin. It's kind of a fun family activity. Well, I discovered the other day that the church records for the area of the Czech Republic where my grandfather comes from are now on line. My dad's been trying to do genealogy there since the 1960s. He's paid researchers and had long waits for information because the government has kept a very tight control over their historical data. Well, it looks like they've changed their mind. I've spent quite a lot of time in the past few days looking at the digitial state archives. Whoa. My family names are very uncommon in the US (and at least one is very uncommon, even in the Czech Republic), and to see name after name of my family is kind of mind-blowing. The exciting thing is that a) I can read the older records (not the 19th century ones so much--the handwriting of that time is distinctive and horrible), the Latin is simple to navigate, and I can figure out the Czech. It's formulaic, and while I can't give you a direct translation of every word, I can tell you how to find the important parts. Coolest of all, though, is finding that my brain still works. All those vocabulary items and roots I had to learn for Russian class way back in college keep popping into my head, and I know what the words say! (Czech and Russian are like Spanish and Italian, in that the roots are the same and you can guess back and forth. But with Czech being in the Latin alphabet, which makes it easier when you're dealing with handwriting.) It is a just a weird feeling to find mention of someone with my very own name back in 1700, and realize that that person is mine.
6. Junie B. Jones. Never read her. But my older daughter has been checking out Junie books from school. Yesterday I deciphered names while DD read out loud. Junie's pretty funny! I think I've somehow overlooked some great early readers.
7. And speaking of books, I scored a review copy of a book from Harper Collins' First Look program that I really, really wanted to review!! My first one. I am excited.
8. In 45 minutes the playgroup is coming to my house. We're having a birthday celebration for Little Sweetie. Pin the Tail on the Donkey, bubbles, cupcakes, and um...lots of free play. I don't know what else to do with kids for three hours when I have to hold Lap Boy the whole time. I hope we survive. But for right now I've got to take out the recycling and make some treat bags and cupcakes. See you later!
2. Sunday was also kind of busy. I had to play piano/organ for three events, plus substitute for my daughter's primary class. And find a time to feed Lap Boy. Yikes. Someone else wants to learn organ, too, so I've got to carve a time to gather some useful suggestions/information for her. I love playing, but it would be very helpful to have someone to spell me off for those times I can't be there.
3. Ever-leaking bathroom...ongoing water damage...I am going to pull my hair out...please let us be gone before it gets any worse...
4. The sister of a friend of mine lives in South America and is trying to buy something on line, but they only ship to the US. So we're trying to work out a deal where she gets it sent to me, and I forward it on. She wants to use Western Union to send me the reimbursement for postage. Anybody know how Western Union works?
5. One of my hobbies (yes, I do have hobbies for all my spare time--snort) is genealogy. I've done a lot of German genealogy in the past several years because the Germans kept awesome records, and I speak German, and DH does stuff with paleography in Latin. It's kind of a fun family activity. Well, I discovered the other day that the church records for the area of the Czech Republic where my grandfather comes from are now on line. My dad's been trying to do genealogy there since the 1960s. He's paid researchers and had long waits for information because the government has kept a very tight control over their historical data. Well, it looks like they've changed their mind. I've spent quite a lot of time in the past few days looking at the digitial state archives. Whoa. My family names are very uncommon in the US (and at least one is very uncommon, even in the Czech Republic), and to see name after name of my family is kind of mind-blowing. The exciting thing is that a) I can read the older records (not the 19th century ones so much--the handwriting of that time is distinctive and horrible), the Latin is simple to navigate, and I can figure out the Czech. It's formulaic, and while I can't give you a direct translation of every word, I can tell you how to find the important parts. Coolest of all, though, is finding that my brain still works. All those vocabulary items and roots I had to learn for Russian class way back in college keep popping into my head, and I know what the words say! (Czech and Russian are like Spanish and Italian, in that the roots are the same and you can guess back and forth. But with Czech being in the Latin alphabet, which makes it easier when you're dealing with handwriting.) It is a just a weird feeling to find mention of someone with my very own name back in 1700, and realize that that person is mine.
6. Junie B. Jones. Never read her. But my older daughter has been checking out Junie books from school. Yesterday I deciphered names while DD read out loud. Junie's pretty funny! I think I've somehow overlooked some great early readers.
7. And speaking of books, I scored a review copy of a book from Harper Collins' First Look program that I really, really wanted to review!! My first one. I am excited.
8. In 45 minutes the playgroup is coming to my house. We're having a birthday celebration for Little Sweetie. Pin the Tail on the Donkey, bubbles, cupcakes, and um...lots of free play. I don't know what else to do with kids for three hours when I have to hold Lap Boy the whole time. I hope we survive. But for right now I've got to take out the recycling and make some treat bags and cupcakes. See you later!
