So my parents and I had expected to be in Virginia by now with the cabin that they are building finished, but not yet. Contractors are notorious for delays, and ours is no different. So we're still in Tampa, three weeks after we had planned to be on vacation already. And we'll be here until at least July 14th.

To keep busy, I've been making things for the cabin. Knitting washcloths and dishcloths, sewing napkins and placemats. I want to make rugs, but they take so long and can be kind of boring and repetitive to knit. So I'm thinking I'll make a painted canvas floorcloth for the dining room, and at least another one for my bedroom as well.

Like this sort of thing:


So it's kind of like the wooden signs I was making last year, but on canvas and bigger...

I'm going to stencil some Latin on mine, and I've been going through lists of Latin mottos and phrases for ideas. While going through lists online, I found this:

Abutebaris modo subjunctivo denuo.
You've been misusing the subjunctive again.

My goodness, how just a reminder of the subjunctive and how difficult it is takes me right back to class!

I hope y'all are doing well! We should think about trying to organize a lunch get-together or something in the next week or so, I think...


~Rachael

SALVETE

Greetings from Gainesville! It is officially the middle of the semester. Scary. I have come to the conclusion that I do not like Ancient Greek. Latin is SO much better! It's not that I hate the language, it's just that it is too much, too fast. This class is Anc Greek 1&2 in 6 weeks, but it is disguised as Anc Greek 1. That is just not right. In summer B we finish the last two chapters of the Hansen and Quinn book and translate Medea! WOW. But (and this is true about many things in life) we feel like what we are doing is impossible and too hard for us, then we push through it and do our best, and in retrospect it doesn't seem so bad. Which proves that when we push ourselves, we exceed our own expectations. Hopefully this is like that. GO LATIN!

-Anne

Maxima

We got a new puppy yesterday! She's a German Shepherd. We're trying to figure out her AKC registration name now. Her father's name on his AKC registration papers is "Argus Maximus," but they call him "Max." My mom wants to call our puppy "Maxie"... So I'm thinking "Maxima" should go on her papers, just like "Maximus" on her father's papers. But the breeder we got her from requires all the puppies for each litter to have AKC names that begin with the same letter, that way they can easily identify which litter each of their puppies comes from in the registry. Maxie's litter letter is "N." So I've been tryng to find a Latin word that we can use that starts with "N" (even if it's not a word that would have been used as a name)... I've been asking friends to pick their favorites from a list that I compiled and it's now tied with five votes for "Nova" and five votes for "Nitida" and also 3 votes for "Nivea" and no votes for anything else. I've had several people point out that "Nova" and "Maxima" are both cars, and that "Nivea" is a handcream. LOL! So I'm leaning toward "Nitida." What do y'all think?

Also, pictures:






~Rachael

Addendum: We've decided on "Nitida Maxima" for her AKC papers.

Supernatural Season Finale...

There was Latin in the Supernatural Season Finale, which aired this past Thursday night. I made a video of those clips to share. They did three rituals: finding the location of demon, summoning a demon and making holy water. I was a happy girl. LOL!



There's something wrong with YouTube right now, and it doesn't seem to want to show embedded videos. I don't know why, but it seems to be across the board and not just me, although it could be my computer. So if it doesn't show up above here, you can click through to the YouTube page here.

There was a lot of other uses of Latin in this season of Supernatural that I never made videos of... I wanted to, but it takes so long to do it on my computer, and I was so busy, you know... I'll probably get to making those over the summer, but I may or may not subject y'all to them. :D It depends on what else I come up with to post about here. After all, I must keep in touch.

I hope everyone is having fun with whatever you're doing now, and that you'll post about it every now and then.

Since school let out, I've been helping my parents pick things out for our cabin in Virginia. Construction is almost completed and by this time next month, we'll be moving things in. I've also been very busy with my vegetable garden and work around the house. If you want to, you can keep up with these things in greater detail (there are pictures!) at my own blog.

I miss you all!

~Rachael

I MISS LATIN

So, I am taking Ancient Greek @ UF right now, which is gorgeous btw, but I miss Latin. I never thought I would say this but it's easier. The class I am taking is accelerated and they were not joking. It's day 3 and we have: learned a new alphabet and its pronunciation, learned the 1st and 2nd declensions of nouns, and learned the present, imperfect, future, and aorist tenses in the indicative active. whoa. Oh, Latin! How I miss thee! Let me count the ways...

I miss that you only have 4 principle parts as opposed to 6!
I miss that your perfect tense is not split into 2 tenses!
I miss that you only have 2 moods!
And most of all, I miss your alphabet!

; P

-Anne

P.S. I almost forgot! I miss the ablative case too! And even though the alphabet is foreign when I look at the page and actually understand it, it is extremely satisfying. Almost as satisfying as translating De Brevitate Vitae...but not quite!

Interesting Translation

Many of you know that I found an interesting translation for Ovid's telling of Romulus and the Sabine Rape. The translation was something to the effect of "The king gave the long awaited signal. Project Rape was on. The men jumped up..." Well, I found this so amusing that I had to make a bumper sticker for FaceBook about it. Thought I should share it here as well!



Could be a whole series. With a lot of complaints.

My Little Roman

Latin as a class may be over for me now, but I wanted to share my son's shared love for the ancient Roman world.

He recently requested that he get a "Caesar" haircut and wanted me to take pictures of him in a "toga":


This was partially due to our recently having read a book about Pompeii from his favorite book series The Magic Tree House. In the book the two heroes, Jack and his little sister Annie, are tasked with rescuing a scroll of Roman mythology from the city before it is covered in ash by the explosion of Vesuvius:


So watch out, Dr. Manolaraki; you just might be seeing my little guy in your Beginning Latin class in about, oh, 13 years or so. :)