I just finished a 75-minute open-level French test as part of a QA study that Duolingo invited me to participate in. What an eye-opener. And quelle épuisement!
The test started well enough but got a lot harder as it went on, for two principal reasons. First, the order of sections went precisely in the order of my abilities: reading, writing, listening, speaking. Turns out I read French a lot better than I write it, write it better than I understand it, and speak it like a reject from a Pink Panther film. Some poor evaluator will have to listen to me going on for nearly three minutes about how hard the job of cat-herder is. What's worse, I only just now learned the word berger. "Herder des chats" is, apparently, not a thing, but berger de chats potentially is. I hope whoever scores that response at least has a sense of humor.
The second reason it got harder is that "open level" bit I mentioned. Each section got progressively more difficult, such that by the end of the listening part I could barely pick out the topic let alone individual words. Senegalese fishermen, you may be surprised to learn, are harder to understand than recorded announcements at train stations.
Still, I'm glad I did it. I don't know if they'll share the results with me, because they only want the data to calibrate their language-learning product. I hope they do, particularly before I pop out of the Chunnel just over two weeks from now.
I'm dog-sitting again, so a nervous beagle wandered up to my office during the test to see why I hadn't fed her yet. I suppose they both could use an around-the-block and some kibble. I will try to speak French to them, if only for my own practice.
Oh, and if you haven't been able to get to Weather Now this afternoon, that's because I shut it down for a bit while I root out a connection-exhaustion problem. I believe there are too many bots hitting it the last few days, but it still shouldn't crash when they do. Until I can fix the problem, or get rid of the bots, I'm only going to have it up a little bit at a time. (Its data collection continues unaffected, however.)
I spent 56 minutes trying to get ADT to change a single setting at my house, and it turned out, they changed the wrong setting. I will try again Friday, when I have time.
Meanwhile, elsewhere in the world:
Finally, Slow Horses season 4 came out today, so at some point this evening I'll visit Slough House and get a dose of Jackson Lamb's sarcasm.
Before I bugger off to get at least a couple of daylight hours in this sunny, 22°C afternoon, here are the most interesting stories that popped up today:
Finally, the Chicago White Sox have surpassed their team record for losses, going 31-108 through yesterday. If they lose 13 of the remaining 22 games—which would actually represent an improvement over their performance so far—they will surpass the 1962 New York Mets' record 120 losses in a season. For reasons passing understanding, they're still charging for tickets, with box seats going for $69 and some tickets as high as $309. They have lots of seats left, though, so maybe I'll just take the El down there this weekend to see the Athletics beat them?
As promised, I took a 25-kilometer walk up the North Branch Trail yesterday, which did not disappoint:
The weather cooperated brilliantly (though it did get a little warm towards the end), and my multiple applications of SPF-50 sunscreen seems to have kept me from crisping. The trail, of course, is lovely:
In total, I got 40,707 steps, which would have been a personal record back in the day but I'm pleased to say didn't even get into my top-10 step days since 2014.
Cassie spent the day at her usual day camp, but still got an hour and a quarter of walks. Of course she didn't accompany me on the 4-hour trail hike, but she nevertheless plotzed before I did:
Also, a shout out to my Hoka Stability shoes. My feet feel just fine today, and in fact given the forecast (23°C and sunny) I will probably get another 10 km today. Or, at least, spend lots of time outside.
During this last full week of summer, I haven't had a lot of time at home because we had to work in the office every day. And what a week.
I got home from work (and got Cassie home from day camp) right before some pretty impressive storms hit on Tuesday:
After discussing with a friend how a lot of the humidity we've experienced this summer comes from corn and soybean transpiration to our west, he discussed it with Bing's DALL-E 3:
(Not sure what happened with the spine of the book...or the windmill in the cover photo...or the title...but I did laugh.)
Relief is coming, though. A line of thunderstorms went through just before sunrise, and the cold front driving them will drop the dewpoint from 21°C now to 15°C by this time tomorrow:
Then Wednesday night my doorbell camera picked something up that I didn't expect:
Turns out, I have a new houseguest, who has politely set up shop by my front door to help keep mosquitoes (and one unfortunate cicada!) out:
That is a furrow or foliate spider, as far as I can tell.
Wednesday evening she even got a visitor:
Sadly, as is typical of orb weaver romances, her gentleman caller probably did not survive the evening. I don't judge; she's caught a lot of mosquitoes, she's entitled to celebrate. And I think I saw some baby spiders last night, so maybe I'll invite a couple inside?
Today, I'm taking a PTO day to catch up on everything, and to clear a path for my 4-hour walk tomorrow.
A few weeks ago I planned a PTO day to take a 25 km walk tomorrow along the North Branch Trail with pizza at the end. (I'll do my annual marathon walk in October.) Sadly, the weather forecast bodes against it, with scattered thunderstorms and dewpoints over 22°C. But, since I've already got tomorrow off, and I have a solid PTO bank right now, I'll still take the day away from the office. And autumn begins Sunday.
Good thing, too, because the articles piled up this morning, and I haven't had time to finish yesterday's:
Finally, Washington Post reporter Christine Mi spent 80 hours crossing the US on Amtrak this summer. I am envious. Also sad, because the equivalent trip in Europe would have taken less than half the time on newer rolling stock, and not burned a quarter of the Diesel.
The forecast still predicts today will be the hottest day of the year. Last night at IDTWHQ the temperature got all the way down to 26.2°C right before sunrise. We have a heat advisory until 10pm, by which time the thunderstorms should have arrived. Good thing Cassie and I got a bit of extra time on our walk to day camp this morning.
Elsewhere in the world:
Finally, Garmin has released its latest fitness watch that doubles as a freaking Dick Tracy wrist phone. I mean, first, how cool is that? And second, how come it took 90 years after Dick Tracy got one?
I just walked Cassie about 7 blocks (1.4 km) and she took her sweet time, sniffing every blade of grass. Part of that I'm sure was that she spent 3 nights boarded, which she finds exhausting. The other part was that it's still 30°C just a few minutes before sunset.
And yay, woo, we get even worse tomorrow:
As Chicago Public School students return to class Monday, the heat index is expected to break [38°C].
The National Weather Service in Chicago issued an excessive heat warning from Monday afternoon to Tuesday evening due to the “dangerously hot and humid conditions.” The city is opening cooling centers and urging Chicagoans to stay indoors when possible.
Heat index values could reach [42°C] Monday and [43°C] Tuesday. Meanwhile, overnight temperatures are only expected to drop to [the high 20s].
This anticipated extreme heat arrives after the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency declared an Air Pollution Action Day for Chicago-area counties Sunday due to high ozone levels, which are caused by pollutants emitted by cars, industrial sources and wildfires such as those currently blazing in Canada.
But hey, we have only had a handful of days like this so far this summer, and autumn starts (meteorologically) next Sunday.
Still, I look forward to the slice of the year where I don't feel like I need to shower every time I go outside. The NCDC predicts that will start Saturday. One can hope.
Welcome to an extra stop on the Brews and Choos project.
Brewery: Big Time Brewery & Alehouse, 4133 University Way NE, Seattle
Train line: Sound Transit, U District
Time from Chicago: about 4 hours by air
Distance from station: 300 m
Let me start by saying Seattle had beautiful weather last week...until just before I arrived on Thursday. That didn't stop my friend and me from visiting Seattle's oldest brew-pub, just off the University of Washington campus. As you can see, though, we opted to sit inside, and we left Hazel at home.
Now, it's important to understand as you read what follows, my friend does not like beer. Wine, sure; cocktails, no problem; beer, never. So don't take her comments as indictments of what I thought were perfectly serviceable drinks.
I tried a flight along with an unpretentious Caesar salad, starting with the Big City Pilsner (4.8%), which I thought had good malt, wasn't overly sweet, had a long-ish finish. [She: "I'm trying to think of what kind of sock this tastes like..."] The Primetime Pale (5.2%, 35 IBU) had a very hop-forward beginning and a long finish; I liked it. [She: "This is water wrung from a sock someone wore for the entire Appalachian Trail. Maybe with a broken toenail clipping."] The Scarlet Fire Northwest IPA (6.8%, 70 IBU) had a great, full-hop balance; a good PNW beer. [She: "This is like an iced tea that someone left in the sun all day and it went cloudy."] I finished with the Coal Creek Porter (5.5%, 25 IBU), which had chocolate and coffee at the beginning but an odd tart note and just enough hops. [She, pulling a face: "This tastes like vinegar and chocolate, and not in a good way."]
Well, my friend, I know what I'm not getting you for Christmas this year.
Pity the rain didn't let up. I think Hazel would have liked watching the people go by on University Way. Maybe next time.
Beer garden? Yes
Dogs OK? Outside only
Televisions? A few, avoidable
Serves food? Full pub menu
Would hang out with a book? Yes
Would hang out with friends? Yes
Would go back? Yes
Garmin has a feature on some of its watches that helps you avoid jet lag by coaching you on sleep times and other things at various points around a trip. This morning, my watch advised me to get lots of light between 7am and 9am (Seattle time). So I have ensconced myself in the best-lit room available to me in the SEA-TAC terminal, with windows on three sides. Just one problem:
Since arriving, I've heard that the city "really needed" the non-stop rain and gloom Seattle has "enjoyed" since the evening before I got here. The last time I visited, Seattle had temperatures 10°C below Chicago's in the one cold snap of the winter—only for Chicago to have near-record-breaking cold the day after I got home. It's hard not to take this personally...
I've got a short connection in Dallas this afternoon and an upgrade on the DFW-ORD segment, so I don't anticipate posting again until tomorrow. But I've got a Brews & Choos Extra Stop coming then, so check back soon.