Catch-up day

Today I worked on a number of boring things: Grocery shopping (I actually said I looked forward to being back to a shop with fresh vegetables and a real selection of wine!), sorting out some Digital Measures data entry fields, and watching Jack wait for Office 2007 to load on his laptop, knowing that I need to do the same.

More interesting things inlcuded taking with Ulla about our paper and the weather in Sweden, and watching the beachcombers-- there were lots of sea urchins and other shells washed up with the overnight tide.

And the really good thing was hearing tha Karen has been awarded a research fellowship to the Huntington Library in San Mateo to work with their archives! Well done, Karen :))

We ended the workday with a crabfest that did not require wearing the chili apron. The verdict? Good, but not as good as either Mark's or Jack's crabcakes!

Passing the baton on the paradignatic partnership

At 12:54 PM EST I pressed the send button to transmit the paper to Ulla.
It's 21 pages with 6554 words, 8 diagrams, and 76 references. The full title is, "Towards a better paradignatic parnership between design and management."
I don't want to even think about it for at least 24 hours!

I started the morning with an early beach walk -- in time to see backstage services and and the shells left by the tide before the shell-hunters took them. Then I went into "extreme Google Scholar mode" to locate missing references -- until it was finished. . . for now!

Three pieces of good news!

First: The paper is now in "pretty good shape." (I've worked hard on it today.)

Second. Henry at Endnote technical support helped me recover the Design bibliographic library that Ulla spent several days preparing and I was unable to open. (She did not give me a needed folder; I emailed the library to Henry, he recovered the missing file using his Mac, and sent it back to me. Now that's technical support!)


Third. For those of you following the Chili Apron Chronicles, we installed a new "extraction" (carbon filter) fan over the stove, so I shouldn't set off the fire alarm the next time I cook something special!

By the light of day

8:30 AM FL time.
After a careful read-through of the paper, maybe it's not so bad. But there's still lots to be done. Back to work!

DESPAIR!

I've reached a low point of the writing process. I'm unconvinced by our argument, my diagams are ridiculous, the references to ground the scholarship are either too few or too many, depending on the section, and the whole paper's a mess. It's not that I haven't worked on it -- paragraph by paragraph in short bursts throughout the day. But at the moment I know it will embarass us -- and Ulla's and my mantra is always that no matter how small our contribution, as long as we are not embarassed making the presentation or submitting the paper, it's OK. At the moment I'm embarassed.

Will I feel better about it tomorrow? Who knows? I've printed it out for a quiet read away from the screen, and Jack and are are heading out to dinner. I'll let you know tomorrow.

Return to a disicplined life!

Back to -- or into -- the March schedule: Walk on the beach as early as possible, then write, lunch on balcony, and more writing. To beach for professional reading after 3:30 (too hot before), swim in the pool, make a simple supper, followed by writing as needed to finish the day's allotment. And, most important, no checking email till late morning.

Why so strict? I need to finish the arduous task of turning our "first draft" Paradigmatic partnership paper into a proceedings-ready version. I must send it to Ulla by Swedish start-of-day Friday for her final reveiw and reference check, then back to me for formatting and submission by the due date in the middle of next week.

Who thought I was having an easy sabbatical life? (OK, check back later, to see how long I keep up this pace!)

One paper, two weeks, and three perspectives

Ulla says:
Here we are. I'm at the airport going back to Sweden. Two weeks go fast with hard work, good food, and fun company. Jill looks for what we have left to do -- and that's a lot. But I look for what we have accomplished = one paper in first draft and one paper in English editing (Jill for Katerina's reserach report for Volvo), plus two hours email a day (both). Sometimes 10-12 hours of work a day. I am awfully satisfied and look forward to the next time.

Jack -- On the Joys of Being Only an Observer:
I’m glad that I was somewhat distant from the paper that Ulla and Jill were writing. Quite frankly, I didn’t have the slightest idea what they were working on, so whatever they were doing didn’t really affect or distract me in any way. Just as well. But when it got noisy, then I paid a bit more attention as to what was going on.

Each had their ideas on some aspect of it, and tended to vocalize that aspect with some energy and determination. Bam! Bam! But! But! etc., etc., etc. At this point I might be inclined to look up just to make sure that blows were not about to be exchanged. It really never got to the stage of pounding fists on the table or anything like that, but I was watching. And just as suddenly as this volcano erupted, somewhere they found the thread of reason that they both accepted and then they joyously proceeded onwards. It was quite something to watch – but best at a distance!

They both agreed today that they worked harder on this paper than they should have considering their age. I can agree with that! Nevertheless, it was great to have Ulla with us for these two weeks – we had lots of fun in between the work - and we look forward to our next meeting.

Jill says:

And I'm left wearing the chili apron!

Until next time!