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In Bed Before Midnight...? Huh?
Jimmy got back into town today, which was very nice. We had a lovely dinner consisting of great big slabs of cow at Outback, and then went to Bed Bath and Beyond so I could get some pyrex food storage dealies. Somewhat on impulse, we ended up purchasing chairs, a storage unit, a rug, sheets, and a lamp for Jameson all in this horrible and yet wonderful shade of neon green. His new room at Isaac's house is going to look like a radioactive lime exploded all over it.
My classes (of my last undergrad semester, I hope) start tomorrow, but I managed to get what Martelle referred to as a "plum schedule" (or would that be plumb? What's the origin of that phrase?), meaning that I don't have anything before noon, and I only have class three days a week. So I sorta thought I'd stay up late tonight and keep working on Valmai #42, since it's already later than I said it would be (because I suck, yet again). But I've been developing a sore throat all day, and I'd really rather not do my first day of classes feeling cruddy. So I think I'll probably go to bed shortly, instead, and possibly recover my good health.
It occurs to me that I've not gotten more than six or seven hours of sleep in a night in longer than I can remember (and the norm this summer has been closer to four or five), so it's probably a good idea to try and get a full night while I can, anyway. I might even get up in the morning and write in daylight. That'd be something.
ETA: And because I'm slightly language-obsessed, I OED'd the plum question, and found the following definitions for "plum":
d. fig. A ‘good thing’, a tit-bit; one of the best things to be found in a book or article; one of the best or choicest things among situations or appointments; one of the ‘prizes’ of life; also, the pick or best of a collection of things, animals, etc.; the best part of a musical work.
1825 M. EDGEWORTH Harry & Lucy, Concluded IV. vii. 167 It is only the stupid parts of books which tire one. All that is necessary is to pick out the plums. 1853 LYTTON My Novel VIII. i, Much too old a world to allow any Jack Horner to pick out its plums for his own personal gratification. 1876 GEO. ELIOT Dan. Der. II. xvi, To fight it away for the sake of getting some sort of plum that he might divide with his mother and the girls. 1887 in G. Stimpson Bk. about Amer. Politics (1952) 258 The boys enjoying the plums will support anybody who is good for him or them. 1888 ‘R. BOLDREWOOD’ Robbery under Arms v, There were some real plums among the horses. 1889 Academy 2 Nov. 280 The reviewer who picks all the ‘plums’ out of a book is a person who is regarded with reasonable terror and resentment by both authors and publishers. 1901 Scotsman 5 Sept. 4/8 The posts named are justly regarded as plums of the Indian Civil Service. 1937 W. H. SAUMAREZ SMITH Let. 16 Oct. in Young Man's Country (1977) ii. 94 It [sc. the job] is definitely one of the three plums for the young civilian. 1967 Boston Herald 8 May 24/5 José has played his cards just right, and a rich little plum named Lucy falls into his outstretched arms. 1973 Times 20 Oct. 13/6 Its slow movement is its ‘plum’, a glorious, unbroken song. 1978 Time 3 July 42/2 Center directors receive only $11,000 a year, but Mendel offers them a plum: their kids can attend free.
f. (sense 4d) passing into adj. Choice, valuable, coveted.
1958 Listener 21 Aug. 277/1 Was the promotion of Chiappe to the plum governorship an easy method of shedding a dangerous man in a key position? 1959 Economist 2 May 455/2 While the aircraft industries of Britain and France are declining for lack of military orders, a plum military contract has been won by a company making its first serious venture into aircraft design since the war. 1966 Listener 26 May 746/2 After the Nationalists had come to power, they felt that they had to admit some Afrikaners to their boards and directorates. These were plum appointments and the Boers had been longing for them for years. 1970 Financial Times 13 Apr. 10/6 Europe (the present plum client in the German Railways advertising service). 1976 BOTHAM & DONNELLY Valentino xi. 85 The director..congratulated him on winning the plum role. 1977 Time 3 Jan. 50/2 The leader of L.D.P.'s largest faction, whose intellect had won him plum jobs in the Ministry of Finance before he turned to politics in 1952, has probably done exactly that.
My classes (of my last undergrad semester, I hope) start tomorrow, but I managed to get what Martelle referred to as a "plum schedule" (or would that be plumb? What's the origin of that phrase?), meaning that I don't have anything before noon, and I only have class three days a week. So I sorta thought I'd stay up late tonight and keep working on Valmai #42, since it's already later than I said it would be (because I suck, yet again). But I've been developing a sore throat all day, and I'd really rather not do my first day of classes feeling cruddy. So I think I'll probably go to bed shortly, instead, and possibly recover my good health.
It occurs to me that I've not gotten more than six or seven hours of sleep in a night in longer than I can remember (and the norm this summer has been closer to four or five), so it's probably a good idea to try and get a full night while I can, anyway. I might even get up in the morning and write in daylight. That'd be something.
ETA: And because I'm slightly language-obsessed, I OED'd the plum question, and found the following definitions for "plum":
d. fig. A ‘good thing’, a tit-bit; one of the best things to be found in a book or article; one of the best or choicest things among situations or appointments; one of the ‘prizes’ of life; also, the pick or best of a collection of things, animals, etc.; the best part of a musical work.
1825 M. EDGEWORTH Harry & Lucy, Concluded IV. vii. 167 It is only the stupid parts of books which tire one. All that is necessary is to pick out the plums. 1853 LYTTON My Novel VIII. i, Much too old a world to allow any Jack Horner to pick out its plums for his own personal gratification. 1876 GEO. ELIOT Dan. Der. II. xvi, To fight it away for the sake of getting some sort of plum that he might divide with his mother and the girls. 1887 in G. Stimpson Bk. about Amer. Politics (1952) 258 The boys enjoying the plums will support anybody who is good for him or them. 1888 ‘R. BOLDREWOOD’ Robbery under Arms v, There were some real plums among the horses. 1889 Academy 2 Nov. 280 The reviewer who picks all the ‘plums’ out of a book is a person who is regarded with reasonable terror and resentment by both authors and publishers. 1901 Scotsman 5 Sept. 4/8 The posts named are justly regarded as plums of the Indian Civil Service. 1937 W. H. SAUMAREZ SMITH Let. 16 Oct. in Young Man's Country (1977) ii. 94 It [sc. the job] is definitely one of the three plums for the young civilian. 1967 Boston Herald 8 May 24/5 José has played his cards just right, and a rich little plum named Lucy falls into his outstretched arms. 1973 Times 20 Oct. 13/6 Its slow movement is its ‘plum’, a glorious, unbroken song. 1978 Time 3 July 42/2 Center directors receive only $11,000 a year, but Mendel offers them a plum: their kids can attend free.
f. (sense 4d) passing into adj. Choice, valuable, coveted.
1958 Listener 21 Aug. 277/1 Was the promotion of Chiappe to the plum governorship an easy method of shedding a dangerous man in a key position? 1959 Economist 2 May 455/2 While the aircraft industries of Britain and France are declining for lack of military orders, a plum military contract has been won by a company making its first serious venture into aircraft design since the war. 1966 Listener 26 May 746/2 After the Nationalists had come to power, they felt that they had to admit some Afrikaners to their boards and directorates. These were plum appointments and the Boers had been longing for them for years. 1970 Financial Times 13 Apr. 10/6 Europe (the present plum client in the German Railways advertising service). 1976 BOTHAM & DONNELLY Valentino xi. 85 The director..congratulated him on winning the plum role. 1977 Time 3 Jan. 50/2 The leader of L.D.P.'s largest faction, whose intellect had won him plum jobs in the Ministry of Finance before he turned to politics in 1952, has probably done exactly that.