Brain is tired.

I don't know exactly how long I worked on the revision today...I know I put in a good five to six hours at the computer, but of course some of that time was spent surfing around when I got "stuck."

I incorporated nearly all of the one reviewer's ideas. Fewer of the other one's, because incorporating all of his* comments would effectively gut my discussion and obviate the reason for even trying to publish the dang thing.

(*I'm gonna just use the generic pronoun here, okay? I was originally taught that "he" or "his" could stand in for both genders. I know that's Not How It's Done most places today, but I'm tired and don't feel like doing the "his or hers" or whatever right now. As much as I hate the idea of making a third genderless pronoun system - to apply to either males or females, or a mixed bunch - sometimes I wonder if maybe that's not what English needs, some kind of collective pronoun that means "him or her")

Anyway, his comments were not entirely helpful. The biggest thing was that he was requesting further statistical analysis, including something that I believe is not a valid analysis of the data, given how they have been collected.

So I dinked around with the other suggestions, adding in all the clarifications I could (Seriously, when you are rewriting a paper, you come to believe your reviewers must be as dense as Stimpson J. Cat, though of course it's partly because YOU did the research so YOU know what you're talking about.)

Then I gave up, partly so I could go get my allergy shot** before having to go to piano.

(** third time was the charm, today. I never had to do this before but the first time I went in - unannounced, but I was delivering something to a nearby office - the nurse was at lunch, and the second time the place was packed, and I asked the nurse if she was "slammed" right then and she nodded kind of weakly so I left and went back to work on the paper for a while...for one thing, I don't like waiting around when there are lots of people there because the waiting room is small and who knows what microbes might be being transmitted through the air. Also, just the human comedy that passes through that office sometimes...it's more than I feel like observing some days)

While I was waiting for the nurse to give me the shots, oddly enough, the solution to my statistical issues popped into my head: there WAS a way to analyze the data more, it's kind of uncommon and maybe not ideal, but it will work and will be valid for these data.

(Field data are rarely ideal. That's something ecologists just learn to roll with).

So: problem solved. I'm not sure if I'm going to have time to work on it tomorrow, but I will on Thursday.

I also ran home over the lunch hour and baked the Funeral Cake while I was eating. (It's a super easy cake, really, it's as fast as a mix cake: 2 cups flour, 2 cups sugar, 1 teaspoon baking soda, 1/2 teaspoon salt, you stir those together and then in another bowl mix two beaten eggs, a 20 ounce can of crushed pineapple with its juice, and a cup of chopped up pecans. Then you mix the liquid and dry ingredients, put them in a greased 9 x 13 pan, and bake for about 30 minutes at 350. After it comes out (while it's still warm) you put on an icing made of 1/2 cup butter, 8 ounces of cream cheese, 2 tablespoons of milk, some vanilla, and 2 cups or so of powdered sugar.

We call it Mexican Fruit Cake but I think it goes by other names. (I have no idea why it's "Mexican." I suppose it's possible the recipe was first passed on by someone from Mexico.)

I did that, dropped it off at church (It is supposed to be refrigerated for the icing to set up, but I had no room in my fridge) and went back and finished my day.

And then I had piano, including more work on the whole chording/"walking up"/improvising from a chord sheet thing, which I know is valuable to learn but my brain doesn't work that well with something so open-ended, so that made me tired, too.

I thought of bringing home the exam I gave today to grade tonight, but meeeeeeeh. I'm tired. I plan to do it tomorrow night, instead. (The class' next meeting is Thursday, so grading it tomorrow night will still allow me to keep my plan of handing back exams the next class day (unless someone needs to take it a day late because of illness))

So, I'm not sure what to have for dinner...I thought of making pancakes, but all my big cooking bowls are in the wash and I don't really feel like handwashing one for pancakes. I might melt down a couple of frozen eggrolls I have and, I don't know, if the salad greens I have are still good, have a salad with them.

(Times like this I really wish I had a Fritz Brenner working for me.)