A Fairly Routine Week
Nov. 6th, 2023 10:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fauxkloreEspañol: Estoy estudiando español con Duolingo para mas de 365 días. Yo lo disfruto mucho. Pero todavía no sabe muchas palabras. Porque mi vocabulario es tan poco, no entiendo todas las conversaciones que oi en el tren, por example. Leo mejor que yo escucho, y entiendo la mayoría de los avisos veo. Me parece que es una buena idea para viajar a Guatemala y practicar allí.
In other words: I feel like I’ve made a fair amount of progress on understanding Spanish, but my vocabulary is limited and my grammar is weak. I don’t really understand when one should use which form of the past tense and I am completely mystified by the subjunctive. The main thing I try to bear in mind is that my goal is to be able to make myself understood and that doesn’t really require proper good grammar. I can certainly manage to read ads in Spanish reasonably well and I can understand about 1/3 to 1/2 of the conversations I overhear (on the train, for example).
Pantry Archaeology: I was looking for where my baking powder had gotten to this morning, since I want to do some baking today. It turned out to be exactly where it was supposed to be. But the idea of looking for it triggered a pantry clean-out and I found five items which I’ve listed on buy nothing. Two of those are things that I bought for one recipe which I later decided not to make. Two were things I tried but didn’t care for. The last one is the funniest one. It’s a small jar of sour salt (citric acid) that I brought home from my mother’s house when we were cleaning it out after she died just about 9 years ago. It had never been opened and, in fact, it may have actually been bought by my grandmother or one of my great-aunts and never opened by them. I was once explaining this to a fellow storyteller, which led to a discussion of family relics and their possible folkloric significance.
I’m giving the Buy Nothing folks until the weekend, after which I’ll toss anything that isn’t claimed.
By the way, I am keeping a list of things I give away, to encourage further dishoarderly conduct.
Medicare: Still waiting. I called the Social Security office on Friday and, after waiting on hold nearly an hour, the person I spoke to said, “oh, it normally takes two months and I don’t see any issues so you should get your medicare card any day now.” In other words, the guy at the office who made the copies of my birth certificate and passport over a month lied to me when he told me it should take just about a week. Aargh.
Speaking of Customer Service Failures: I have a trip coming up in December for which I have been working with a travel agent in Canada for complicated reasons, related to the person I am traveling with. Anyway, she was supposed to send the rest of the vouchers in late October, so I sent her an email the other day asking when I would get them. And I got back an email that she is out of her office indefinitely. I did contact the colleague who that email referred me to, who basically told me that she’ll talk to her about it. This has reminded me of why I normally prefer making my own travel arrangements.
Ah, good, I just got an email from her that told me it would be a month before the trip, Which is not for a few days. She is checking.
Favorite Next Door Poat of the Week: “Is this fox carrying a soccer ball? Why?”
Other Stuff I Did in the Past Week: I only made it to the first half hour or so of the READ Book Club, because it conflicted with the Litvak Genealogy group that I’m the subject matter expert for. My life is a schedule conflict.
I played code names on line with friends three times. It's good for practicing my bickering skills. How can I possibly have friends who think "The Cask of Amontillado" is a Sherlock Holmes story? (And one of those friends saw me drink a glass of amontillado just a couple of weeks ago!)
I went to both of my crafting groups. One was virtual on Thursday and the other was in person yesterday. I am making progress on my Tunisian crochet afghan but need to put in a lot more time if I really want to finish it this year.
The group I didn’t go with to see the annular eclipse had a briefing on their observing results. It would have been a great trip, but it didn’t work out. And my San Antonio trip worked out fine, as well as being much less expensive.
In other words: I feel like I’ve made a fair amount of progress on understanding Spanish, but my vocabulary is limited and my grammar is weak. I don’t really understand when one should use which form of the past tense and I am completely mystified by the subjunctive. The main thing I try to bear in mind is that my goal is to be able to make myself understood and that doesn’t really require proper good grammar. I can certainly manage to read ads in Spanish reasonably well and I can understand about 1/3 to 1/2 of the conversations I overhear (on the train, for example).
Pantry Archaeology: I was looking for where my baking powder had gotten to this morning, since I want to do some baking today. It turned out to be exactly where it was supposed to be. But the idea of looking for it triggered a pantry clean-out and I found five items which I’ve listed on buy nothing. Two of those are things that I bought for one recipe which I later decided not to make. Two were things I tried but didn’t care for. The last one is the funniest one. It’s a small jar of sour salt (citric acid) that I brought home from my mother’s house when we were cleaning it out after she died just about 9 years ago. It had never been opened and, in fact, it may have actually been bought by my grandmother or one of my great-aunts and never opened by them. I was once explaining this to a fellow storyteller, which led to a discussion of family relics and their possible folkloric significance.
I’m giving the Buy Nothing folks until the weekend, after which I’ll toss anything that isn’t claimed.
By the way, I am keeping a list of things I give away, to encourage further dishoarderly conduct.
Medicare: Still waiting. I called the Social Security office on Friday and, after waiting on hold nearly an hour, the person I spoke to said, “oh, it normally takes two months and I don’t see any issues so you should get your medicare card any day now.” In other words, the guy at the office who made the copies of my birth certificate and passport over a month lied to me when he told me it should take just about a week. Aargh.
Speaking of Customer Service Failures: I have a trip coming up in December for which I have been working with a travel agent in Canada for complicated reasons, related to the person I am traveling with. Anyway, she was supposed to send the rest of the vouchers in late October, so I sent her an email the other day asking when I would get them. And I got back an email that she is out of her office indefinitely. I did contact the colleague who that email referred me to, who basically told me that she’ll talk to her about it. This has reminded me of why I normally prefer making my own travel arrangements.
Ah, good, I just got an email from her that told me it would be a month before the trip, Which is not for a few days. She is checking.
Favorite Next Door Poat of the Week: “Is this fox carrying a soccer ball? Why?”
Other Stuff I Did in the Past Week: I only made it to the first half hour or so of the READ Book Club, because it conflicted with the Litvak Genealogy group that I’m the subject matter expert for. My life is a schedule conflict.
I played code names on line with friends three times. It's good for practicing my bickering skills. How can I possibly have friends who think "The Cask of Amontillado" is a Sherlock Holmes story? (And one of those friends saw me drink a glass of amontillado just a couple of weeks ago!)
I went to both of my crafting groups. One was virtual on Thursday and the other was in person yesterday. I am making progress on my Tunisian crochet afghan but need to put in a lot more time if I really want to finish it this year.
The group I didn’t go with to see the annular eclipse had a briefing on their observing results. It would have been a great trip, but it didn’t work out. And my San Antonio trip worked out fine, as well as being much less expensive.
