What are you doing today?

We had to drive across the bay today to deliver the tax documents to the accountant. Beautiful day, beautiful drive. We decided to stop at a restaurant while we were there (so as not to totally waste the one hour drive). Lake view with wonderful outdoor seating. I called a friend who lives right near the restaurant and she came over and joined us. I had a MESS of crawfish. Brought home a lot and finished it for dinner.

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Alli said:
We had to drive across the bay today to deliver the tax documents to the accountant. Beautiful day, beautiful drive. We decided to stop at a restaurant while we were there (so as not to totally waste the one hour drive). Lake view with wonderful outdoor seating. I called a friend who lives right near the restaurant and she came over and joined us. I had a MESS of crawfish. Brought home a lot and finished it for dinner.

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Oh man, that looks good ... to quote Macklemore & Ryan Lewis:

Supposed to be on a diet, I wanna be like Ryan
He lost thirty pounds on that paleo
But fuck it man, I love fried shit

:D
 
Alli said:
We had to drive across the bay today to deliver the tax documents to the accountant. Beautiful day, beautiful drive. We decided to stop at a restaurant while we were there (so as not to totally waste the one hour drive). Lake view with wonderful outdoor seating. I called a friend who lives right near the restaurant and she came over and joined us. I had a MESS of crawfish. Brought home a lot and finished it for dinner.

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Gorgeous (I adore crustaceans).....and am quite greedy (as is Decent Brother, who also loves them) when about to tuck in to a dish of such culinary delights.
Apple fanboy said:
Busy morning of gardening. Got two of our five Japanese maples (or Acers as we call them) planted. Mrs AFB did a lot of work. I was mostly the manual labour!
Also went for a walk as it was a gorgeous sunny day.
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saw these and thought of you @Scepticalscribe
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Gorgeous. Absolutely gorgeous.

And thank you; yes, I am smiling.
 
Laughing at this guy's tweet about directions for a hand held vacuum cleaner. Whoever created it (or translated it) must have been doing shots and beers or better/worse as time went on. Anyway by around #7 its hilarity outweighs any annoyance one might have regarding relevance of the instructions.

https://www.Twitter or X not allowed/i/web/status/1365831922849615872/
 
lizkat said:
Laughing at this guy's tweet about directions for a hand held vacuum cleaner. Whoever created it (or translated it) must have been doing shots and beers or better/worse as time went on. Anyway by around #7 its hilarity outweighs any annoyance one might have regarding relevance of the instructions.

https://www.Twitter or X not allowed/i/web/status/1365831922849615872/
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Now I know what 7th-grade French teachers look at when they grade papers…
 
fooferdoggie said:
man thats some google translation there for sure.
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There's the need to translate from engineering to layman's terms -- if an engineer wrote the original usage instructions-- and a technical translation may also cross a major language family, which gives rise to syntactical as well as lexical challenges.

In addition, it matters whether the source or target language is the one native to the person doing in the translating... e.g. from German to Asian, or Asian to French etc.

"Everybody knows English" only goes so far. The limitations of that often show up in documents that may combine technical and cultural concepts, so in user manuals for sure. No one's really looking for art there, but it can be down to luck that any ambiguities of translation only end up amusing and not actually dangerous.

Oh, and then finally the legal counsel's ideas of what matters. Those get layered into all translations meant for end users.
 
When heading out for a walk (and a very agreeable socially distanced coffee on a park bench, - by arrangement - with a cousin who had phoned me yesterday), I realised that my overcoat (for, after all, it is still February) was both excessive and unnecessary.

But, sigh, happy sigh: Let us salute the welcome arrival of Spring, sunshine, warmth, (still cold at night, though,) better quality light, daffodils.......
 
Alli said:
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Just checked my expression to realise that I am smiling and hadn't realised it.

(Normally, I know when I start smiling; with daffodils, I think, "aaaaaah, (insert happy sigh) daffodils," and then, realise that I am already smiling. No, actually, I am beaming.

Thank you.

Ah: Today, for the first time this year (better light, warmer rays, longer days), I can see that next door's cat is sitting on our (angled) garage roof, (a favourite spot on sunny days) catching the warmth of the southern facing, angled roof. Sitting closely curled up, (it is stil only the first of March), and not happily stretched out (which is what happens later in the year).
 
My French class has concluded for this week, and homework (devoirs) shall be sent by email tomorrow.

Now, to think - perhaps - about a beer.
 
Alli said:
As I used to tell my high school French students: Friends don't let friends use machine translators.
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Machine translation might suffice in a pinch on the street, like "where is the nearest camera repair shop?"

But for poetry or anything else that may lean away from literal interpretation, machines can mess up even when armed with translations of some common idiomatic expressions. And one could end up at a fruit stand asking a machine to translate "where is the nearest Apple Store?"
 
7.30am Work > 9am school run part une > work > 11.30am school run part deux > work > 3.05pm school run partie finale > work > 6pm cook dinner and hopefully relax!
 
Today, I visited the Farmers' Market (nice and early, when there weren't many people around) for the first time since before Christmas.

The Farmers' Market - a market that dates to medieval times and is to be found in the old city centre beside a church that is over 700 years old, was actually quite lovely in the cold, clear, bright light of an early spring morning.

A lovely crisp, cold (but bright and sunny) morning, and I bought fruit (apples, oranges, blood oranges, lemons, grapefruit, and mangoes), honey (from a chap who keeps bees), free range, organic eggs, vegetables (tomatoes, cucumber, chilli peppers, garlic, onions, leeks, carrots, celery, tomatoes, sweet potato, lamb's lettuce, chard), cheese - in the cheesemonger's - (Gorgonzola, Blue d'Auvergne, Comte, St Nectaire, Délice de Bourgogne, and Dent du Chat), cannoli (lemon), in an Italian coffee shop, and French bread in the French bakery.
 
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Gardening. Keeps me busy. Why did we want such a large garden? My usual assistant has been replaced by robin who checks every hole I dig. I was surprised he didn't take this giant worm. He obviously prefers the smaller ones.
 
Apple fanboy said:
Gardening. Keeps me busy. Why did we want such a large garden? My usual assistant has been replaced by robin who checks every hole I dig. I was surprised he didn't take this giant worm. He obviously prefers the smaller ones.
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You loved the idea of the space and privacy afforded by a large garden.

Chateau moi, a crate of beer was also delivered.
 
Re market shopping, I also managed to purchase ramsons - they are in season at the moment - that is, wild garlic (the leaves of garlic plants, within a few months, by early summer, the bulbs will have grown from these).
 
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