39 thoughts on “Working Wednesday, August 28, 2019”

  1. I’m with you–it’s so much fun to work with a friend! Liz and I are headed to Michigan in three weeks for our biannual writing retreat. Can’t wait! Enjoy your time with Krissie!

  2. I’ve been editing my garden design research, but am switching to packing for my holiday – otherwise I fear I could fill the rest of the day with work and not be able to start my trip in good time tomorrow morning. I finally finished sorting who I’m staying with when this morning, and plan to drive down to Surrey via two gardens. I’ve banished the Guardian app to the furthest corner of my iPad, and plan an extended artist’s date, exploring gardens and other interesting places in Surrey, London and the Sussex coast.

      3. Jane, it looks like you have pretty good chunk of land to work with. I noticed there is a pathway to each lot and garden sheds on the plots. There’s plenty to keep you busy.

        1. Oh, yes. I’m mulling over replacing the tumbledown shed and possibly adding a greenhouse (I’m really lusting after this), plus planting dwarf fruit trees and cordons. It should be a lot more manageable once I put the permanent paths in – and have a go at digging out all the bindweed.

          1. Oh, no! Bindweed is the worst!
            My backyard is all vegetation but not productive. I’ve let it go this year to promote any bees, etc. (That’s a good reason, right?)
            What I really need to do is identify some of the plants (weeds) to see what is truly beneficial and what can go.
            Someday (at this rate, next year).

  4. I have a …sorta callback? today. Not for the play I wanted, which I definitely did not get in. We shall see on this other one. I’m not sure if I want in or not at this point because it might interfere with other things I want to do in the future, but … what the hell. Unless they have the bare number of people, I’d be surprised if they took me anyway, so what the hell.

    Other than that I am trying to write up all the details of the conference I went to a month ago, which is exhausting and taking me forever.

  5. I viewed / removed a lot of things from my DVR while I was finishing up the other front of the sweater. I’ve now started on the sleeves (having cast on both sleeves, and worked about 10 rows). It will go faster when I’m out of the cable cuff and don’t have to keep referring to the chart. I’ve also put in a few hours on the trio blanket. Right now I’m at the part where all three original colors are fading, soon to be replaced with the brighter colors at the other end of the whirl – so probably in the middle.

    The one issue I have is having yarn (or my knitting needles, or my stitch counter) moving and dangling seductively from my hands in front of the nose of the cat is way too much temptation. I almost have to put everything away when Stanley decides he wants to be in my lap.

    On the quilting front, I finished up my squares, sewing all the pieces and trimming them to a uniform size. Now I need to decide the arrangement and put them together. That will probably happen this weekend.

    I also decided to take Friday off to extend my weekend. I just bought several large clear plastic bins in which to store some of my stash not already in a bin. My intention is to make my workspace a bit more usable. I’m half afraid I’ll be distracted by all of the great stuff I’ll find when I start this project!

    1. I could really use an “edit” option. Rereading after posting makes me cringe with the run-on sentences! No attempt to fix it here. Just know that I know and am abashed.

      1. We do not edit comments because we are spontaneous and non-anal here.
        Although auto-correct can be a real bitch.

  6. Thinking of getting one of those little bells like they have at hotel check-in counters. Not to ring for service but to signal rounds of house repairs.

    This week’s round will thankfully be over soon. Pup is not fond of people pounding on her house:)

    But it is amazing how one repair can beget so many more…

  7. Little things. I’m doing little things.

    I live a few miles from Fort Lee Army Base. I haven’t been on base in something like twenty years. They have a Commissary and a Post Exchange which my military retiree status permits me to use, whose prices should be lower than Walmart, and no sales tax.

    To get on the base, I need to show Retired ID, drivers license, auto registration and proof of insurance. I couldn’t find my auto registration. The document that must forever reside in the vehicle, I could not find. So I went to the DMV website… and downloaded and printed a copy at no cost. A little thing.

    I did laundry. A little thing, but the normal deal is I put it in the dotter’s laundry room and it appears miraculously clean a day or two later.

    I finished Irish Magic. Four stars. Moving on to Murder with Peacocks. Little things.

    I added four more of the tiniest 32GB thumb drives to my thumb drive collection, then donated one of my bigger ones to a grandson for school. I love thumb drives, especially the tiny ones. Literally, “little things.” 🙂

    I’m doing little things.

  8. I working on sending ARC of the last book in the Bendixon Sisters Series out to reviewers. Also – this happened:

    Chapter One

    It didn’t look dangerous. It looked like a grubby and slightly damp-damaged journal, with less than half of the unlined pages covered in loopy, childish handwriting.

    Leeza should have known better. She knew words were weapons, knew that, whether written or spoken, they could destroy happiness, batter pride, and bring the haughtiest low.
    But it was only much later that she realized the power of the small book she held in her hand.

    It was barely bigger than her palm. The spine was black leather, as were the curling corners, the rest of the cover red and a thick, rough cardboard. How had it ended up jammed in between a paperback Robert Ludlum and a hardcover Clive Cussler? She put it in the big tote she used as a purse to examine more closely later, and continued to fill the box at her feet with the books remaining on the shelf.

    “Did Grampa-Great really read all of these?” Drew, a stack of novels clutched in his large hands, gazed with disbelief at the dozens of books still lining the walls. Her son had offered to help clear out the backroom, but she didn’t think he’d anticipated quite the amount of work it would be.

    “I imagine so. He loved to read.” She folded the flaps of the box and tucked them neatly under each other to hold them down.

    “What are you going to do with them? You don’t sell used books at your store.” Drew handed her what he held so she could start filling a new box, and reached to the top shelf for more. At just over six feet, he was almost a foot taller than her, inheriting his height from his father.

    She was not going to think of her ex-husband. Not when she was already emotionally drained from dismantling her grandfather’s life.

    There is nothing better than starting to write a new story. You’d think it would be eclipsed by finishing one, but by then I’m usually so sick of it I can barely look at it. But starting one – ah, that’s bliss!

    1. I should have added astericks or something to indicate the last paragraph is not part of that snippet. But Arghers are smart – you’ll figure it out. 🙂

  9. Trying to get back into the work groove after 7days and 6 nights with granddaughters here. Boy, it’s quiet! Get them back Sunday night to surprise mama and daddy at the airport.

    Off to the salt mine. Hot and muggy here. 😑

  12. Obviously don’t have enough UFOs… started to knit an elephant despite still having 4 current knitting projects I could finish. But it’s cute…

    But so is the tiny teddy bear, when I finish sewing his face

  13. In the expectation of soon being re-employed, I have been seriously engaged with novel #11 which got shoved into a corner after novel #12 jumped out of a box at me. Goal is to finish the alpha draft by the end of Labor Day.

    still have some work to do on the screenplay. that is going to be tedious (formatting). but must be done so I can get the effing thing registered before re-employment. it will not, however, be done today.

    have errands to run, and some of them should be run right now. am going to do that so I can then re-engage with #11.

  14. I’m spending a lot of mental energy trying to figure out if my distrust of one of my managers is just me being petty and resentful because they’ve snapped at me a couple of times, or if it’s based in something more solid. This is a person everybody else likes, as a manager and as a human, so possibly just me. And yet…

    I’m also still working on my sister’s shawl. Out of the black and into the grey!

  15. I am working on a cozy mystery story for my agent to send out. Completely out of my comfort zone, but she seems to like what she’s read so far, so yay?

    Also getting ready to announce a new nonfiction Llewellyn contract (you Arghers get to hear it first, because you’re special). So yay?

    And discovering that fostering kittens and their mama is not so easy, which isn’t a surprise, but also, not so much yay. Little girl kitten has the eye goop, which is very normal for 4 1/2 week old kittens, but is still freaking me out. Mama keeps trying to get out the door of the room I have them in, into the rest of my house.

    Please pass the wine.

  16. I spent the day working on a teapot. Or rather, it started as a teapot, and ended as a deranged rabbit, and now I am wondering why our brains sometimes just HAVE to follow an idea all the way through. Not sure I will end up keeping it, but what fun.

  17. I am so tired I don’t even know what to say. Today was the first day of school. I’m in charge of attendance among a million other things, and a bunch has changed. And of course, people are coming to me for things that I used to give them and the “new” person doesn’t. To be fair they cut the position I’m doing from the office last year and she really didn’t have time for extras.

    I don’t feel like I can say “that’s no longer my job” when I clearly know how to give then what they want – but I’m already up to my ears. Plus I’m supposed to answer ALL THE CALLS, and the bosses keep asking me to do things while I’m on the phone.

    However, I am keeping my sense of humor, and doing what I can.

    Tomorrow my co-worker will be out of the office. I WILL have someone to help with the phones, thank goodness, and anyone asking me for anything will be told to come back in on Friday.

    I did know what I was signing up for, but I didn’t anticipate being so exhausted at the end of every day. It will get better after all this year’s registrations have been entered. 350 records for me to check are correct. What fun!

    And I am quite happy about the paychecks.

  19. School is working on killing me, but I’m putting up a fight. Half day tomorrow to go to the preschooler’s fake birthday celebration (the skipped him in April due to a clerical error) and I can’t WAIT. I get to miss my most difficult class AND my hated weekly lunch duty, to boot! 😃

  20. I’m working on trying to remember how to have a social life. On Monday night before book club we tried a different bar for dinner. Not only were the burgers better, the place closer to the library where we meet and the waitress nice (very important because we all arrive at different times) but they also run a reduced price special on burgers on Monday nights. It was the best time we had since the owners of our previous haunt retired and closed their bar and grill. And the new place has a long list of hard ciders I am planning on tasting my way through.
    And today my sister and I went out for lunch someplace new and just lingered and talked as long as we wanted. When her grandson wanted a ride home from school, she got to tell him, “Sorry, dear, I’m too far away.” We did have errands to run after lunch, but they did not include a trip to the grocery store.

  21. I have been watching Leverage (for the first time) over the last few months, watching an episode or two most evenings. Yesterday, we loaded up the next episode and when it ended we realised that it was the end! The last episode! How strange to have it end without realising that we were at the end. (In fact, I thought we still had a whole series to go.). Now I am sad that it’s over.

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