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What have I been up to since my last post?
Thursday: During the day I attended an interesting talk by this year's winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, and even made time to blog about it (best line of the talk, for those of you with no time to read the whole post: "science is the ultimate game for adults".
In the evening we went to the Julfesten for my work.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
lord_kjar and I participated in the mini choir for the party--we had three sopranos, two alts, two bases, and a tenor. We sang to short holiday songs, and one longer one. The longer one is one the student choir he and I sing in had performed on the weekend, so we both already knew it. It amused me that the folk sitting at our table complimented me on singing in Swedish "already"--one commented that she watched my lips closely to see if I was really singing, since she knows that I am an English speaker. I laughed and let her know that it was easier that night as we had the text in front of us on paper, but at the Lucia performance on the weekend we had to sing from memory, since we were holding candles. After people had a chance to eat there was a band, so once the music started lord_kjar and I danced every dance. We got a few compliments on our dancing from my colleagues, both that night, and the next day at work. I love dancing.
Friday day: Finally got the data from the mining company I need for my research. Sadly, I hadn't yet achieved the goal of finishing up the papers from previous research before getting this, but it is way closer than when I started this job at the beginning of November. So now I get the fun of balancing my time finishing up two projects and starting another.
Friday evening-Sunday: We drove down to Umeå (three hours south) to spend the weekend visiting a friend. A nice relaxing time--just hanging out, some singing, they played some music on recorders, a long walk in the woods. A very nice break from the work week. It was still warm and rainy at the beginning of the weekend, but it cooled off just enough to snow on Sunday, so our walk in the woods was through a pretty wintery looking setting (if one didn't pay attention to the puddles and mud on the path itself--I am so glad that my winter boots are waterproof!)
The snow continued to fall through to today, so the walk in to Uni this morning was beautiful, but by the time I came home this evening the path was really slushy, so the nice cold temps don't seem to be sticking, yet. This evening I got to talk to my mother via video call--today is her birthday, so it seemed like a good excuse. My niece was with her--she still looks so much like my sister (her mother) did at that age that the resemblance is stunning (if one discounts the colouring--my sister is blond and blue eyed, but her husband comes from Oaxaca, Mexico, so the girls are dark haired and eyed). However mom keeps saying that my nice reminds her of me, and I can so see what she is talking about from watching her interactions tonight--reminds me of me at that age, too.
This morning I didn't accomplish what I hoped to at work--just about the time I finished exchanging emails planning an upcoming trip to the mine headquarters in January several of my colleagues paused by my office door on their way to the thesis defense of one of our PhD students to ask if I was coming along. So rather than working I hoped up, locked my door and went to the talk. Since I am hard of hearing I sit (alone) in the front row, and my colleagues all sat further back. When the talk ended I didn't notice that the folk who invited me along left the room before the question session started. In hindsight I should have left then, too. The talk was interesting, but on a topic (rock mechanics and geophysical investigations of the bedrock near the town of Kiruna, Sweden--the mine is rather close to the town, and the mining is progressing towards (but under) the town) totally unrelated to my own research. The question session took a while, and I wound up sitting in that room from 10:00 to 12:00. Oops. So much for work that morning. Since I was in the front row I didn't really feel as though I could leave once the question session started.
This week I will try to make progress playing with that data at work, and I hope to also work on the older papers, too. On Wednesday the local SCA shire has its holiday potluck gathering, and on the weekendlord_kjar and I will head to his parent's house for Jul (which is how they spell that holiday in this country).
PS Despite having a lazy weekend, I still remembered to read my 1000 words from the geologic literature each day, so I am now up to 75 days in a row of reading that each day.
Thursday: During the day I attended an interesting talk by this year's winner of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry, and even made time to blog about it (best line of the talk, for those of you with no time to read the whole post: "science is the ultimate game for adults".
In the evening we went to the Julfesten for my work.
lord_kjar and I participated in the mini choir for the party--we had three sopranos, two alts, two bases, and a tenor. We sang to short holiday songs, and one longer one. The longer one is one the student choir he and I sing in had performed on the weekend, so we both already knew it. It amused me that the folk sitting at our table complimented me on singing in Swedish "already"--one commented that she watched my lips closely to see if I was really singing, since she knows that I am an English speaker. I laughed and let her know that it was easier that night as we had the text in front of us on paper, but at the Lucia performance on the weekend we had to sing from memory, since we were holding candles. After people had a chance to eat there was a band, so once the music started lord_kjar and I danced every dance. We got a few compliments on our dancing from my colleagues, both that night, and the next day at work. I love dancing.Friday day: Finally got the data from the mining company I need for my research. Sadly, I hadn't yet achieved the goal of finishing up the papers from previous research before getting this, but it is way closer than when I started this job at the beginning of November. So now I get the fun of balancing my time finishing up two projects and starting another.
Friday evening-Sunday: We drove down to Umeå (three hours south) to spend the weekend visiting a friend. A nice relaxing time--just hanging out, some singing, they played some music on recorders, a long walk in the woods. A very nice break from the work week. It was still warm and rainy at the beginning of the weekend, but it cooled off just enough to snow on Sunday, so our walk in the woods was through a pretty wintery looking setting (if one didn't pay attention to the puddles and mud on the path itself--I am so glad that my winter boots are waterproof!)
The snow continued to fall through to today, so the walk in to Uni this morning was beautiful, but by the time I came home this evening the path was really slushy, so the nice cold temps don't seem to be sticking, yet. This evening I got to talk to my mother via video call--today is her birthday, so it seemed like a good excuse. My niece was with her--she still looks so much like my sister (her mother) did at that age that the resemblance is stunning (if one discounts the colouring--my sister is blond and blue eyed, but her husband comes from Oaxaca, Mexico, so the girls are dark haired and eyed). However mom keeps saying that my nice reminds her of me, and I can so see what she is talking about from watching her interactions tonight--reminds me of me at that age, too.
This morning I didn't accomplish what I hoped to at work--just about the time I finished exchanging emails planning an upcoming trip to the mine headquarters in January several of my colleagues paused by my office door on their way to the thesis defense of one of our PhD students to ask if I was coming along. So rather than working I hoped up, locked my door and went to the talk. Since I am hard of hearing I sit (alone) in the front row, and my colleagues all sat further back. When the talk ended I didn't notice that the folk who invited me along left the room before the question session started. In hindsight I should have left then, too. The talk was interesting, but on a topic (rock mechanics and geophysical investigations of the bedrock near the town of Kiruna, Sweden--the mine is rather close to the town, and the mining is progressing towards (but under) the town) totally unrelated to my own research. The question session took a while, and I wound up sitting in that room from 10:00 to 12:00. Oops. So much for work that morning. Since I was in the front row I didn't really feel as though I could leave once the question session started.
This week I will try to make progress playing with that data at work, and I hope to also work on the older papers, too. On Wednesday the local SCA shire has its holiday potluck gathering, and on the weekend
lord_kjar and I will head to his parent's house for Jul (which is how they spell that holiday in this country).PS Despite having a lazy weekend, I still remembered to read my 1000 words from the geologic literature each day, so I am now up to 75 days in a row of reading that each day.
