Weekly Randoms w/o 5.10

inthewoods23

[Deleted User]

LMAO @inthewoods  You caught me!  :D   This is very me atm, as I try to "multi task." lol

But seriously, has anyone else tried Duolingo?

IDK what took me so long.  I am obsessed.
Also, will someone just pay me to learn all the languages?  P&TU
<img alt="10 Perks Of Having Friends From Different Parts Of The World" src="https://external-content.duckduckgo.com/iu/?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.storypick.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2014%2F11%2F4th-learn-different-languages.gif&f=1&nofb=1">

inthewoods23

@BusinessWife did I just call a lot of us out? I was just going to do a random funny one searching on google and then I thought about how I end up on TB for the million and one mini breaks I do during the work day because work isn't exactly riveting these days.

I very briefly used Duolingo for German and to bring back what little I remember of Spanish from my high school days. Never stuck with it. I had better luck with those brain game apps like Lumosity. Do people still use that these days?

rachelredhead

@BusinessWife I should re-download Duolingo. I used it for French (which I’m sloppy at but fairly strong) and Portuguese (DH is fluent and I can say “I love you”). I do love how short the different chapters are so you feel accomplished pretty much every time you open the app!

b_1029

@inthewoods23 100% called me out 😆 I’ve been the worlds least productive today. Zonked after our drive back from my parents’ yesterday, we got home at 9 which in old person time is basically 2 am 

kgg2241

@BusinessWife I used Duolingo to learn some Norwegian before a trip to Norway. It was super helpful and I feel like I learned quite a bit fairly quickly. 

And yup, called out by that meme 😂. I'm waiting for IT to get back to me at work. I can't really do much until they do. So hi guys! 

[Deleted User]

Norwegian!  That's awesome @kgg2241 I can see it being really helpful for that.

@b_1029 lol I feel your pain there.  I don't even know how late we got home Saturday, but we didn't get to bed until 1AM which in old person time means we pulled an all-nighter.  STILL HURTING! 

@rachelredhead That is why I started it this time, too, for French!  It's the one of all the languages I've dabbled in I feel the most weak, especially with phonetic pronunciation.  So I'm hoping it will help me feel more confident reading it as well as speaking.

@inthewoods23 German is the language I probably am most fluent in, so I went ahead and added that too, to help brush up and keep it a little more front of mind.  I added a handful of other languages as well, so now I'm like  eep!  I am still focusing on the French first, but I need to come up with some kind of schedule or something to rotate through the other ones so I can make some progress, but not get mixed up by trying to spread myself too thin.


I am having trouble making it hear me when I speak, tho.  Did anyone else have that problem?  I already emailed tech support and flagged it in the ap, but I'm not sure what else I can really do... :/

inthewoods23

@b_1029 oh gosh that was so us driving the 13 hours back from Chattanooga! Had to make sure we were up and left the hotel at the crack of dawn so we wouldn't be getting home late. It was 8 or 9 when we did get home. Which of course after so much driving feels like the middle of the night haha.

@BusinessWife what device are you using? I've never had a problem with my iPad.

I am of course disappointed Duolingo doesn't have Icelandic. I'd be all over that in preparation for the day we finally go back (TBD obviously haha). DH found some basic app for learning Icelandic in which they tell you stories. You can switch between the text being in Icelandic and English as it tells the story in Icelandic.

I know tak tak is thank you and that's about it. I can't remember what I love you is but it's one of those words that has a rolling R and I can't do that for the life of me so only DH says it to me.

[Deleted User]

I'm on Android. <<shrug emojii>> @inthewoods23

That sounds so fun!  I learned a little Swedish from a friend in HS, which I feel like might be similar?  <<scurries off to see if they have Swedish>>

acleverusername

How do y'all have time to learn languages!? Lol. I started learning German a few years ago when planning a trip to Germany, but ended up canceling the trip and learning. I'd definitely give it a try again if I plan a trip someplace that speaks a language I don't. Except maybe Chinese because I heard that's a hard one to learn even if you're taking LIVE lessons from someone. I've also tried learning Arabic... and let me tell you, as easy as languages come to me, I've had to call it quits on Arabic. 

inthewoods23

@acleverusername I've never thought to ask my cousin how they did learning Mandarin a couple years ago. They learned it in China as part of their mission trip there for a year. It is the hardest language to learn right?

I just learned the other day that in Swedish, they have different words for aunt and uncle when you're talking about the relative that's not blood related. Like my mom has 1 sister and 5 brothers. The word for uncle that is describing my mom's brothers is different than the word that is describing my mom's sister's husband. So weird.


I started transitioning my cat to new food yesterday cuz she's officially senior status. Since I know people have struggled with getting their cats to take to new food/brands I decided I'd buy a small bag in case she didn't like it. Well boy do not give my cat enough props. When the bag came yesterday I dropped in 25 pieces of kibble so I could easily tell if she was eating it. Maybe an hour or so later I check the bowl and I'm pretty sure the new food is all she ate. I'm stupidly giddy at how much she seems to like it I'm just inching closer and closer to crazy cat lady lol

kiki047

@acleverusername haha same, we started learning Portuguese for our trip to Portugal last year and I feel like we did really well... but then Covid happened and the trip was cancelled aaand we just deleted the app because we were annoyed by all the reminders to do our lessons that we had no motivation to do anymore. It was fun to do it together though, and maybe someday we'll try another language (or take another stab at Portuguese if we ever make it there). 

Oddly enough, I just got an email from Expedia yesterday about my refund status... and it was all in Portuguese. I booked with Air Canada so it isn't as if it's a refund from TAP or something. I ran it through Google Translate and best I can gather they're still working on a refund from last April. Awesome.

kgg2241

@inthewoods23 I love that 😂. We tried to switch my cat's food and he acted like we were starving him. It also gave him gas lol. He is an indoor/outdoor cat, and I suspect our elderly neighbor gives him wet food too. He comes home and turns his nose up at our dry food. 

inthewoods23

@kgg2241 cats are so dramatic haha. I love those stories of people who find out their cats have another family because they're indoor/outdoor. I saw a story once that an owner was told by their vet to put their cat on a particular diet food but the cat was still gaining weight. Turns out the cat was scamming 3 other families in the neighborhood for food and that's the cat had gained so much weight in the first place

fameonmain2

@kiki047 that’s a really long time! We had a Portugal tripped booked for last august and got refunds in December/January. 

kiki047

@fameonmain2 yeah, only recently the gov't bailed out Air Canada but only on the condition that they issued refunds. We were originally only given a voucher but it was supposed to expire in March 2021 and we obviously hadn't used it by then so... we'll see if I actually get my money back.

[Deleted User]

@inthewoods23 Do you have any recs for yummy (readily available) GF+DF cookies?  Asking for a friend.

[Deleted User]

Okay, so remember when I said I was obsessed with Duolingo, and I had added Italian and Latin to my list of training languages earlier this week?  That was Sunday actually.  Then a friend of mine sent me a link to some t-shirts a local WFH makes, so I was checking that out, flipping through during morning monitoring, and I saw one that caught my eye, that said, 'There's no place like Rome!'  And I was like, oh that's so cool, but I feel like you can't really wear it unless you've actually BEEN TO ROME.

And then they announced the pilgrimage the next day????  I am more than a little excited.  Has anyone been?

rachelredhead

@BusinessWife I went in 2015! It was wonderful! I spent 4 days in Rome before heading to Florence and Cinque Terre. Italy is just such a magical place and a great place to be a tourist. Do you know how long you’ll be there? Is it just Rome or will there be other areas you explore? I also spent a long weekend in Milan in 2013, when I was in Geneva for a few weeks for work. 

kiki047

@businesswife I looooved Italy. I went on a school trip in high school and cannnot wait to get back there. Florence was my personal favourite. Excited to go back and actually eat what I want and not just wherever they had pre-arranged for 30+ teenagers. 

[Deleted User]

oh awesome! @rachelredhead @kiki047 You know, I'm not sure yet.  I think it's a week long tour of Rome, but I didn't have a chance to look at the itinerary that closely.  I feel like it would be nice to take a second week to do our own exploring as well, though!

fameonmain2

@BusinessWife Italy is beautiful!! If you have the chance to spend some time in Florence I would highly recommend. Absolutely gorgeous 

gardenvariety88

@BusinessWife Italy is phenomenal! I've been twice, once post college graduation and again for our honeymoon. I second @kiki047 Florence is my absolute favorite as well. Rome has such great history but if you want the picturesque Italian vibe Florence is it! We also stopped at several smaller villages in between the two as well as day trips to Cinque Terre, Naples, Pompeii, you can't go wrong...I will never NOT highly recommend a trip to Italy.

acleverusername

@inthewoods23 regarding the wondering cat, there was a mega thread on Nextdoor about this exact topic this weekend. LOL. It was the poster (cat's owner) asking what her cat does when he's away most of the day. I.e. does he play with your kids? Do you give him food? Etc. There were SO MANY funny replies. 

babyodo

TL;DR: I'm pissed off at work and mother nature, and I hate that hormones control my moods.

Okay, so this is kinda random and I've had two glasses of wine, so I'll try to make this make sense.

I know that I, as a feminist, should be a progressive woman and not dismiss my behavior or thoughts because of my hormones, but goddamn...it's day 2 of my period and I've wanted to murder faces all week.

It started Monday morning when I got to work and someone from our outlying offices verbally attacked me not only in email and instant message, but also over the phone. She actually had the audacity to say (sarcastically), "This person is moving to Honolulu, which is on the island of Oahu" to me on the phone. Now, this person has known me for sixteen years. When I first met her, I had just moved from Honolulu to Seattle. She knows this about me. Which makes this all the more infuriating.

She also continued to be pedantic and obtuse to the point where I almost hung up the phone on her. But, since she outranks me, I continued to be polite and kill her with kindness, while simultaneously trying to be gracious in pointing out how wrong she was in her refusal to provide us with the required documentation we needed.

This has been eating at me ever since, so it's bled into other parts of my work and home lives. (I use "bled into" as an intentional pun, since my period arrived last night.) I couldn't sleep at all on Monday night because I was tossing & turning, ruminating on all the things I could have said in my defense. It doesn't help that I got my second COVID shot on Monday afternoon after the above altercation, so I just f*cking crashed last night and it was not fun. I basically just powered down like a droid on low battery. I'm still bothered, and haven't addressed this situation with this person because 1) I've been so ridiculously busy that I haven't had the time or headspace to even go there, and 2) I'm not 100% convinced that what I have to say will even resonate with this person, because I'm fairly certain she thinks she did nothing wrong (that's just her personality type).

/sorry for the novel

kgg2241

@babyodo ugh, I'm sorry. That stress on top of your second dose and period just sounds super rough. I wish I had advice for you but I think you're right. People like that usually know they are being jerks and just don't care. It might be a competitive thing too. 

acleverusername

@babyodo sorry girl; sounds like you had a rough start to the week that's just impacted the rest of the week. Is it any consolation that today is Thursday, tomorrow is Friday, and hopefully AF is easing up and the memory of that rude outranking colleague is fading?