I swear I scheduled a WW post, I even took a picture for it, but where the hell it went, I do not know. Since so many of us are working from home now, asking “What are you working on?” takes on whole new levels of complexity.
So what are you working on?
I’m still going in to the office for work work. We are a small company and over half are working from home. I get too distracted there, so I prefer coming in. It’s easy to keep social distance when there are only 5 people in the building!
Meanwhile, I’ve been working on a corner to corner baby blanket for one of the expected new arrivals. I’ve gotten through almost two skeins and have turned one corner. (I’m making it a rectangle, so there is a section that decreases on one end and increases on the other. It is also the longest and most boring part of the blanket. )
https://www.instagram.com/p/B-DwClKB_I4/
When I’m not crocheting or playing games on my tablet, I’ve been sewing. I’m almost done with the new project that I started a couple of weeks ago. I don’t know when I’ll get it quilted as the longarm shop where I rent a machine is currently closed.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B-KDA13BCLX/
And Sunday, there was a Quilt Along. Lots of quilters around the world used their stash and downloaded the same pattern. It was pretty fun to do this. The colors are bright and cheerful. This was supposed to be crib sized – but that’s a pretty giant crib. I’ll probably put a border on it and make it a “big girl” quilt for my great niece.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B-KNHYxhSjR/
Hello! I work from home, and I know it can be bloody hard, and my desk is way too close to my kitchen, but I’m begging you to stay home.
Reading any of the many resources on it is scary and depressing, but as an example. “If your son visits his girlfriend, and you later sneak over for coffee with a neighbor, your neighbor is now connected to the infected office worker that your son’s girlfriend’s mother shook hands with.” There is very strong evidence that if there’s any contact at all, the virus will win. It stays active on surfaces for up to 3 days.
I live in a country with 5m people and so far 200 cases. One of those cases was at a dinner function with a woman in my dance class. One is a student at the University I teach at. One was on a plane with one of my besties. We are all scarily connected. This is another great resource. https://thespinoff.co.nz/covid-19/25-03-2020/the-side-eye-viruses-vs-everyone/
We don’t want to lose any arghers. Please stay home if your can 🙂
Argh, stay well Allanah!!
My classes. Advising. All day. Every day. Everything takes longer online.
Working from home, I don’t have meetings as a tech writer, although I should, so it’s pretty isolated.
I have kept up the ukulele online class, and now have 4 chords!
we should play duets!! When we get bold! I also have four chords, plus a bunch that take a minute to get organized. I need a song now, to go with them.
I think I’m working on some kind of illustration for Surprise Lily but I keep getting distracted by cats… apparently, that is the most salient part of the narrative for the girls in my basement.
Dog woke me up at 5:20 this morning and I’ve been going every since. I shoveled snow, hauled stuff out of the master bedroom closet, gave the dog his medicine, gathered up all the laundry to do, put the duvet cover back on, and tidied the ensuite bathroom.
I have not, however, put the stuff from the master bedroom closet away yet, I have to go through and purge.
I also have to go to town and mail some stuff. On the upside, I can buy more plague snacks. Downside is I have to leave the house. I left the house yesterday. Under normal circumstances I don’t like leaving the house 2 days in a row, let alone now.
When I get back I have laundry to do, crap to sort, and violent thoughts not to think.
Rant Alert. Feel free to ignore.
One of Paul’s coworkers is a conspiracy theorist/anti-vaxxer/flat-earther moron. I am not going to apologize for calling this man stupid beyond belief and wanting to scream at him. I do, however, wish him the best of health right now because I know that if he were to become sick he would not self-isolate and he would infect the entire damn town, including my husband. He thinks the virus is a government hoax and yet they are not doing enough to stop it, they are just ruining the economy so that “a few thousand sick and dying old people” can be saved. Intellectually, I understand the mindset behind conspiracy theorism (which is probably not a word but you know what I mean) and the need some people feel to believe that they are not sheep and they know what’s really going on in the world and they can see behind the curtain and they are superior to the rest of us. I understand the sense of fear and insecurity that drives people to need to scoff at the rest of us to make themselves feel better and stronger but your right to be an idiot ends when it butts up against my right to be healthy.
Rant over. Thank you, I needed that. I feel much better now.
I’m also going to work at the day job, even though it’s pretty slow right now. I really want to do some sewing but that can wait for the weekend when there’s no work. I was going to go to an orchid show/sale this weekend, not that I could keep an orchid alive for 5 minutes let alone get one to flower. I’ll have to settle for looking at orchid pictures on line.
Orchids are extremely easy to keep. They just need to be watered now and then and being left alone. Mine do, anyway.
Thank you for that insight into conspiracy theorism (we should totally make that a word if it’s not already). I’ve never given much thought to why people liked to believe some scheming entity was behind everything bad that happens. It makes sense.
That was a GOOD rant!
Yep, doing work at home. Actually making significant progress on more long term projects since all of my immediate supervision activities are on hold, as is the case with my project collaborators.
Meanwhile, speaking of vikings, the Met Opera is streaming the entire Wager’s Ring Cycle, one opera per day! Yesterday’s (which is still available until this afternoon!) was Das Rheingold, which established that the Norse gods are all a bunch of gigantic assholes. Frigga suspects that her husband Odin will go off filandering like Zeus, so she demands that he build them a home. He hires the giants to build said castle, and offers Frigga’s sister as payment without telling either of them. This doubly sucks for the gods because said sister is also the source of their immortality (great job, Odin). Then Odin tries to renege on the deal, and steals a Ring of Power (made by an incel dwarf spurned by bully mermaids) and a whole bunch of gold in order to swap out for his sister-in-law. The dwarf put a curse on it, so the giants fight over the ring and one murders the other. The one decent demigod of the entire cast says that he’s considering just burning all of these dicks with fire, and I agree with him. So now everybody has a grudge against each other, and that will drive the drama of the subsequent operas. Hooray?
This would be a good plot to swipe sometime.
Why not. I believe Wagner did.
Well, if any one has the patience for it, Anna Russell has a great mock of the Ring Cycle. This is a really awful visual; I first heard it in high school on a recording. She’s very funny, but only if you have a certain warped sense of humor. Also very over-enunciated, British on steroids.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07E5sLsJQe0
My kids played this Anna Russell piece so many times, I’ve got it memorised.
Oh, my heavens, what a hoot! I forwarded it to our opera loving son who is currently “interred” for the duration in his apartment with a couple of roomies.
😂
Ha! Alberich the Incel, too perfect!
My Wednesday involves two kinds of work.
The work I *should* be doing, which involves writing, phone calls, meetings, and getting myself outside (maybe for a bike ride?).
And the work I am actually doing, which involves staring blankly at my computer screen, or sometimes staring blankly out the window, and calling it “editing.”
I am doing the Arne and Carlos Quarantine Knitalong every night after work. You make cute little flower patterns squares. It’s fun.
Oooooh, I haven’t been on their site for quite some time so I missed that! Gotta go have a look and pass it on to my BFF who’s also a A&C fan..
Trying to write, but keep checking my sale stats for my new release today. So far they’re pretty abysmal. I don’t know if it’s me or if all book sales are down. If anyone would like to try something different to read during these crazy, stressful times, please consider FEARLESS (The Survival Race book 2).
This enemies-to-lovers, fated mates paranormal/sci-fi romance has action, adventure, and romance. It’s a stand alone story in a series where each couple gets their happily ever after. Available for $2.99 at Amazon, Apple, B&N, and Kobo.
https://books2read.com/SurvivalRace-Fearless
Escaped gladiator Kedric wants revenge on the alien rulers who bred him for blood sport and genetic experiments. Nothing will prevent him from leading an attack on his enemy, not even the irritating–yet arousing–spiritual healer hell bent on stopping him.
Myia holds the power to heal Kedric’s lust for war…if she can control her emotions long enough to soul jump him. But how can the shaman-in-training find inner peace when the stubborn warlord refuses her touch and ignites her temper?
When Myia embraces Kedric’s darkest secrets, their destinies unite in a fight to save their loved ones. But victory will demand they surrender more than their hearts.
Did we do an Argh Author for this? (Mind is tapioca right now.)
No. But I’d be willing if you are. 🙂 Thank you for the opportunity!!
Sounds like my kind of jam so I bought both books in series so far. Great price and I like supporting Arghers.
Thank you so much!! I greatly appreciate that!! 🙂
My major questions: is it cliffhanger? Is it in first person pov?
Thank you for your interest!! There are no cliff hangers. Each book’s couple resolves their story problems and gets their own Happily Every After. It’s in third person POV. 🙂
Sure Thing! How are you going with the school closures in SA? (Sorry, very off topic.)
I wasn’t going to work today. As I think I mentioned last week, I am – or at least I was – using some of my annual leave to self-isolate from the job on days my Coworker has the shift covered.
The boss just called. Coworker called in sick, so I either cancel a leave day (maybe two) or a day shift guy has to pull a double. I agreed to come in.
No word on what’s wrong with Coworker. He’s over 50, diabetic, and has horrible allergies to pollen, with which, considering the color of my car, the air is quite thick. I sincerely hope it isn’t the China Syndrome. (No, nor the nuclear one.)
If it is a typical day at work, I’ll be able to finish Book 19 of Danger Cove mysteries, or book 3 of Goodlett and Huff’s star wings series – The Rat Rebellion – or listen to book 3 of Bujold’s Sharing Knife saga. Those were all going to get a mention for good book Thursday.
Coworker had an emergency tooth extraction. He’ll be off tomorrow, too. He’s taking some kind of cotton for pain, I think he said. Anyway, he’s not fit to work. I got it covered.
Love your description of your probable day! Reminds me of the story told by a friend of my dad’s who took his wife to tour a hydro-electric facility. At the powerhouse, she teased the supervisor, who was sitting back in his chair with his feet on the desk.
He said, “Mrs. Meeks, as long as I have my feet on the desk, the company is making money. When I have to put my feet on the floor and dash off, we have a problem!”
That’s an excellent description of my job. A large part is “fire and security.” Another large part is supervising the “automatic” controls that sometimes vibrate loose. I get to analyze boiler chemistry and treat or adjust it. And sometimes I read books and listen.
I did some yoga this morning and am doing my best to think of ways to help my students review for their midterm. I really like to give them scrambled sentence fragments and have them unscramble them. But that’s kind of hard to do online.
I popped sauerkraut, potatoes, and sausage in the slow cooker for dinner. Kind of heavy, but today is a strangely chilly drizzly day. Plus then we have no dinner stress this evening.
Full credit to my husband for doing the heavy lifting with home schooling this week. Next week is on me. . .
I’m still going in to my job (credit union, we are considered a necessary business) so no down time for me. I am grateful, don’t get me wrong, it’s just boring right now as no one can actually come inside; everything is being handled through the phone and the drive through tellers. As the receptionist, I handle the incoming calls (overflow from the actual call center) and cannot get up and roam around like the account reps can do as the powers that be don’t want any missed calls.
My credit union is open by appointment only, which makes me happy, to tell you the truth. Sorry that it’s boring, but boring is probably the best possible outcome right now. 🙂
I’m lucky to be working from home; the college has figured out they can pay the reference staff to monitor a 24/7 online help service. No takers so far, which means I’m more or less stuck in the office. It’s a mess I’ve been ignoring, but with 12 hours a week with basically nothing to do, I have decided to begin cleaning it. Today I conquered the top of the four-unit bookcase and strung little white lights on it. That’s all. I’m pacing myself.
I baked bread last night, and have bananas for muffins to deal with.
Also freelance work. So not yet scrabbling at the doors to get out.
I’m retired, and my volunteer job is on hold while the senior centers are closed, so I’m cleaning closets!
Ok, I’m thinking about cleaning closets while working the paper’s crossward puzzles and halfway-watching a movie called “World War Z” about a zombie plague. It seemed fitting?
I’m waiting for the resolution, I figure the movie and the crosswards will finish at the same time.
I’m writing. Quel surprise. Also editing for a writer friend, doing final pass revisions for an earlier book, and being driven insane by a hyperactive 8 month old kitten.
I’m making banana bread and actually going to bake bread. I found the bread recipe I used years ago. The original written copy is stained and faded. Shiny new copy to start the bake.
Worked at home for years, so standard isolation for me. Music or cable on. As little news as possible now. First news in the morning and last news at night. Nothing in between. So far we are all doing well. Family business, few contact with actual people.
Chicos package arrived just now. Nice surprise, forgot I had ordered a few things.
Onward and upward, arghers. Stay well.
I made some face masks – to use when I go out (hoping it will keep me from touching my face), and move a vegetable garden from the front yard to the back (in hopes it will get more sun).
Was delighted to discover a lot of garlic bulbs that I hadn’t pulled in the fall, and was able to separate. Each piece will grow an entire bulb. Thrifty and I didn’t have to go anywhere to buy things. Stay safe argh folk. My brother who lives in Buffalo has it. Fortunately it hasn’t progressed past the bad bronchitis stage. 11 days later he still has a fever and cough and he sleeps most of the day. He believes that his cpap machine has helped him at nights. I guess it forces oxygen into his lungs, so that’s good.
Things discovered during the pandemic:
1. I have enough stationary to open a store, provided people want slightly aged and banged up paper goods, many with the logos of oilfield supply stores or various charities.
2. I have a lot of socks that I don’t wear.
3. I like to write down recipes and not label them with what they actually are. Sometimes they are easy to identify, different fruit jams for example, but some of them are very confusing.
Like #3 — reminds me of the fictional character who had a pantry full of canned goods with the labels removed, whose dinners were occasionally rather ODD.
I also discovered recently that I’d hamstered away socks (why??) and have been pulling them out and using them around the house (I wear socks instead of slippers so I go through them relatively quickly). Some were so old, the elastic’s gone. 😏
I’m trying to keep to my usual cleaning schedule so today I have a clean kitchen. I also walked the dog, as usual. And I carmelized some onions, before I cleaned the kitchen.
I’ll be making a cheese sandwich with those onions soon.
And, I suppose, I’ll also balance my checkbook-ugh.
Worked from home, didn’t have to call IT today to sort my computer yay!!
Also sewing up up my quilt squares, I sewed them horizontally in rows of 6, now I have to sew the rows together and the loose threads and …get side tracked by the knitalong Jennifer is doing so pretty. Focus no more new projects until I finish something, preferably the knitting project I started in 2013ish
Both my husband and I are working from home. It’s interesting. And weird. I finished one knitting project (https://knitigatingcircumstances.com/2020/03/21/colour-me-happy/) and started another. I think I will get lots of knitting done this spring.
I love it!!
Today I improvised a felt board with a flannel pillow case attached to our fire place screen. It mostly worked. I am not an accomplished felt board story teller at the best of times so it’s probably a good thing that the two year olds the video is for do not have high standards.
I also made soup and some cookies. I went for a walk and saw almost no one else.
I’m still in quarantine for the next week, so have been relying on friends to bring me food and garden supplies. One particularly wonderful human brought me mulch and seed raising mix yesterday, so I have transplanted the last of the artichokes into their new dedicated bed and taken more herb cuttings than anyone could possibly need. I’m planning to give them to my coworkers to help out a little now that we’re all stood down from our jobs. The brassicas I started last week are sprouting, as is my silverbeet. I may not have a job anymore, but by goddess I’m going to have a productive vegie garden!
I haven’t started looking for a new job yet, mostly due to the quarantine but also because it doesn’t seem socially responsible to deliberately try to increase my human interaction right now. Even once I’m allowed to leave the house, should I?
Unfortunately, no. Whether your country’s in lockdown or not, the more people stay home, the quicker we’ll all get on top of this and the fewer people will die.
This explains it really well: https://thespinoff.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/Covid-19-Transmission-graphic-01.gif
We are not in lockdown yet, but I expect us to be before long. Australia: always behind the eight ball.
Apropos of which, I would like to revisit that proposal to become a vassal state of New Zealand, please. Or maybe we could just borrow Jacinda for a few days?
Only if you promise to give her back! ;-D
Day 8 of working from home. My employer is probably giving serious consideration to keeping us all out of office at least through the April 19 date suggested (sort-of-required) by our governor. Works ffine for me. I don’t miss the commute.
OMG neighbors walking along looking at my psychotic yard LOL. One side is relatively well-dressed but currently dominated by giant sunflowers. The other side is a disastrous weed-fest that looks like a truckload of green Muppets exploded on it.
Otherwise hmm I have written 28000 words of a new novel since March 11.
I spent last week at a retreat, which was fantastic. Came home just before the whole country went into lockdown for 4 weeks. I brought my giant montor home from work and I’ve been working on setting up a decent home office within my corner of our office. It’s all lovely and clean and shiny now, makes me feel much better :-). Now I just need to get on with the work properly, sigh.
Finished another baby blanket of my aunt’s stash just today! Gonna kick out two scarves that are almost done, then I think I have one small blanket I can complete. From there, big blankets that will take some time, or weird blankets I dont entirely know how to do yet. Will probably ship a box up in July.
I wanna wash everything before I do. Stupid question, can I throw all the different colored blankets and scarves in together? Or try to minimize color mixing a bit and do 3-4 small loads? Hmmmm…..
What kind of yarn? If it’s acrylic, probably. Try rubbing with a wet paper towel to see if any color comes off.
Thanks!
I was able to watch MISS FISHER AND THE CRYPT OF TEARS, a delightful piece of fluff (I love the books and enjoy the screen version and think Essie Davis is an excellent choice to play Phryne). The view was shared by two cats who don’t want to miss a thing.
I’m making my house look orderly again, post-painting. Taking my time (have to, the dust from the painting process aggravates my asthma), and awaiting picture hooks from Amazon (Friday!) which will speed the process along. We have a *lot* of art.
Tomorrow I will sous vide a tritip.
I forgot I had a sous vide. Must try doing something with that. Next week.
Still a few work projects, though the list is getting shorter and filled with “hold for now.” Working mainly on being patient. So far, so good!