This week I did a lot of planning. I love planning. You don’t even have to get out of bed to plan, especially if you always have grid paper and pens on your bed, along with your laptop and iPad and a Diet Coke and some pretzels and a cat and two dogs and an Echo so you can tell Alexa to play that damn song you can’t get out of your head and . . .
Today, I’m cleaning my bedroom.
What did you do this week?
This week we finally got some things OUT of the house! 3 small boxes of things and a bookcase to a friend. Should have 2 boxes to Goodwill today, stuff posted on OfferUp with a tiny bit of interest
Goal: clearing space to finally set up a desk for myself with work from home. Turns out the couch is NOT a good plan. Which I knew and did anyways for over a year like a dummy.
Partner got a new job which will be in office. That means his temporary desk will be off the kitchen table. We’ll actually have the table back! I’ll give it one week clear, then we’ll add a puzzle!
I started a couple of new crochet blankets to use up stash yarn. Inevitably bought new yarn to go with those, so I backtracked. I bought a ton of yarn for sale at an estate sale, and currently none of it will fit in the closet…
Hardest part for me once I decide something should go is apparently the removal. I try not to just goodwill things, or trash things, which means they sit forever. We have a carpet cleaning we need to redeem this month, which has helped me push things out the door. But still so much stuff…
Here’s to a lovely Wednesday for everyone!!
I like this theme. Instead of creating lovely things, getting rid of things! More my speed these days. We’re getting a new dryer Saturday, since the old one has lost a piece around the door frame and has started eating holes in things. My big accomplishment this weekend was cleaning out the whole area around the old one to facilitate the delivery. Not totally sorted in terms of finding new spots for it all, but the empty clean space around the dryer is motivating.
I’m not really working much this week. I hit my limit on vacation time so I have to start using up days.
I am going to do the light board for the next musical show starting tomorrow, so there’s that, I suppose.
I took a couple of days off and went to a quilting retreat. Such fun! I drove, with a ton of potential projects in the back of my car. The first day, I went to start working on a project and found I was missing stuff – the pattern called for 2 little packs of squares, and I only had 1. Oh well. That’s still in the to-do pile for when that second pack arrives. In the meantime, I did three quick quilt tops and started a fourth before my sewing machine broke. I’ll show them when I actually get them quilted. My little machine is now in the shop, to get repaired and have a nice spa treatment.
I made another crochet purse. I showed it to a friend who said it looked like candy corn “the best of candies”. I can agree on the first part, but not the second!! I also did two more squares on the Nearly Insane quilt, so that’s looking good. I also included a picture of Wendy enjoying her spot near my activity and the window.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CTj1B8Arhkl/
When I got back home, we worked on getting the drywall repaired from where the shower was fixed. It took all day, but it’s lovely now. My next project will be to sort through all the junk that I had piled up in the corner. Perhaps I could let some of that go?
I’m grateful for the short work week.
I really enjoy going on Quilting retreats. I have gotten into the habit of bringing a spare sewing machine with me. So I have my main one and usually a featherweight.
I am having a bad day, so I am working on my mood/attitude. I did pretty well last week, but the coworkers started talking politics today and that always shoots me right down to zero.
Otherwise, I broke 400 listings in one of my Etsy shops. The other still only has 350. I probably won’t make my goal of 500 each by the end of October, but it’s not too bad. Also, it’s a decent outlet for day job rage. At least I feel like I am moving the needle a bit.
I started a new author Pinterest page. Turns out, I’m not great with social media, but I do like popping into Pinterest where there are pretty pictures and no gloomy news.
This is my second Pinterest page related to my books, but this one is where readers can collaborate with me. It’s brand new and although a lot of the Pins are about my mystery series, I’m also adding areas where we can just schmooze about books. Most of the schmoozing happens via message since comment channels aren’t the best channel for that, but so far I’m having fun with it. If anyone wants to take a peek or join me, you can see it here:
https://www.pinterest.ca/Lora_weaver_reader_cafe/
Other than that I’m writing, doing house stuff, and listening to a lot of radio. The old-fashioned kind where I have a local station that plays songs mostly from 60s-80s and I’ve surprised myself with how many lyrics are locked in my head from songs I haven’t even heard in decades. Don’t ask me what I ate last Tuesday for lunch, but the lyrics to Run Joey Run, that somehow I know, lol:)
I am still dealing with the aftermath of – can you call it a binge if there was just the one burger and fries? From Five Guys. Plus the other crap I ate last Sunday. The result has been a six pound fluctuation (none of it official, because it wasn’t on a Thursday, and it’s back down a bit, but not back to 257, and I hate the 260s now, and I need to keep losing, damnit!)
Never mind. I think I’ve said before that barring catastrophic illness or limb loss, I’m never going to see my ideal weight (last seen in 1979) again, and who wants to be the healthiest corpse in the cemetery, anyway? Okay, just did the totally unofficial daily weigh-in, and it was 259.8, so there’s hope for tomorrow to be under 260, too.
I hate dieting.
Holding the thought for you!
Limb loss has also been on my list of diet potentials, she says somewhat sarcastically! >.<
Stop that. Do not be sympathetic with the old fat white guy angst. I didn’t pack that extra 120 pounds on overnight, and I don’t recall hating any of the pizzas, milkshakes, fries (OMG, the fries!), nor any of the other too-large portions of tasty edibles. So now I’m paying for it by being forced to eat chicken, pork chops, ribeyes, New York strip steaks… what was I whining about? Oh, yeah. No potatoes on the side. Just green vegetables and stuff.
I am not going to give an arm and a leg to get slender. So don’t joke about it. I will get there, kicking (both legs) and whining the whole way. š
You are wise, Gary. I once had my waist-length hair cut to shoulder length.
Didn’t lose an ounce.
Bwaha Elizabeth! Love it!
Gary – no joke, legit have the limb thought on my own weight loss (not-loss) journey. š and I too cannot say I’ve hated the various desserts that got me here. I mostly recognize that losing a leg wouldn’t reaaaally get me where I wanna be. But sometimes I wish there was an easy way. Sigh
Kicking is good! Itās exercise and burns calories! š
We are working on putting down some reinforcement for the subfloor and troubleshooting that. It is nice to have new plywood to walk on rather than the old, rough stuff that was a nightmare to clean. 40-year-old builder grade plywood is nasty. It’s not even good one side, it’s both sides crappy. We have the living room, hall, and front entry finished and the kitchen is started. We will finish it tomorrow then, with any luck, get the guest rooms done so that our company doesn’t have to walk on the icky subfloor.
Iām still battling the shed. Starting to win, though. Iāve done the front and the accessible side, apart from two coats of paint on all the woodwork (including the window & door) and attaching heavy-duty vine eyes and wire. All of which I hope to do this weekend. Then finish the back and the other side, but maybe not quite as perfectly, since they arenāt on view. Painting a roughcast surface is hard work. I tried buying a better brush and roller, but they were hopeless.
Am also deep in my editing job. Doing the initial edit on the last batch, which is the intro and first chapter, which need major restructuring & rewriting. Itāll be great when itās done – assuming the author doesnāt baulk. (Writing about history and garden design is obviously not his thing.) still enjoying the teamwork.
I’ve found a small sprayer to be the best choice for painting rough surfaces. Can be messy if you skimp on the prep-work though. Wish I’d thought of it *before* I re-painted the entire pebbly-ceiling in my house . . . but better late than never.
I was wondering about a sprayer. But donāt think it’s worth it now; and not sure itād work with the thick masonry paint.
I’m working on balance in my PT. I have been doing too many reps on one day and then skipping the next two because I can barely walk. I saw my regular therapist yesterday and will try to get to my homework before 9pm today so that I am not too tired.
I was supposed to go to Milwaukee today and walk around with a friend and then stay with my niece and her husband in their new house. I talked for an enormous amount of time with the friend in Milwaukee last night and hope to get some errands done this afternoon. Unfortunately, it is almost 1pm and I won’t leave the house for another hour, but I will still have a lot more time to work on the ToDo list than if I had gone to Milwaukee.
Many thanks to all of you who gave recommendations about the TGV in France. I have taken it from near Geneva to Paris and I think it is the greatest invention since sliced bread. It really makes me feel sad that we don’t maintain the rails well enough anywhere except on the East coast to run high speed trains here in the States. I didn’t believe my brother when he told me that the the only way you could tell how fast you were moving was by looking at the wire posts go by but he was absolutely right. I am looking forward to repeating the experience on a new route.
Aunt Snack, It bugs my train nut husband that the US trains are so badly neglected, especially passenger trains. They’re battered by the same sort of political mess that is working to destroy the post office. A powerful party in the US does not want public transport or public services. There is no high-speed rail in the US that compares to Europe or Japan.
However, my husband doubts that you can take the TGV from CDG airport to the Dordogne region. I just tried to check, but without knowing where in the Dordogne you’ re headed, I can’t figure out a route. I mean, you can take a train to get to where you’re going, but you might need to pick up the right TGV from one of the train stations in Paris. Or, you might want to fly down from CDG.
I tried to work on getting my daughter to start on revisions for the tests that her class will have to take at the beginnkng of next schoolyear, i.e. next week.
Failed miserably.
As I thought I would.
I never learn and always fret.
I sinply hate it when they complain about being too dumb to succeed.
When what they are is lazy as hell.
Yes, they are kids and I might not have been much different.
Still…
I don’t know the emoji-type gesture for patting you on the shoulder. Please imagine it.
That’s so nice of you Elizabeth!
Also, forgot to mention in case no one else has, more new Leverage starting Oct 8. Not sure if just in the US or everywhere but still new hitting and hacking and thieving and grifting and tax lawyering (now with more Elliot hair flips).
Lots of “back and for-thing” and pick up for company this last week: Had spent pre-Labor Day weekend plus a few days at family Cape House for sibling birthday celebrations. Home one night for laundry and doll house set up before daughter, SIL and 4 year old granddaughter arrived late Thursday evening to spend Labor Day weekend.
Friday was spent at the Norwalk (CT) Maritime Center which my daughter really wanted to share with the GD as it was one of her favorite places when she was a kid.
Saturday was back to school shopping for the GD: first time I had been in the mall in over 18 months.
Sunday, husband and I guest-led worship music at a church a few towns over, while the rest of the family went to a local park.
Daughter, SIL and GD left mid-morning Monday (pre-school started yesterday), while I changed all all the beds and washed the sheets and packed and organized to return to the Cape House to house and dog sit a very sweet Black Lab for a week while brother is on a business trip. This fun: two long walks around a cranberry bog plus shorter mid- and late day “watering” excursions. I’ll be getting my steps in, but my right knee/hip have gotten very stiff/painful over the last month. I hope that I’m not over-doing it!
We started building the greenhouse! Got all the materials and tools in place Friday and spent Labor Day weekend laboring on it. Still need to finish making the door, window, and cutting plastic to fit the peak above each of those, but it’s a real structure. Here’s a pic of it after 3 days of work prepping the site, leveling, framing, bracing, roofing and siding: https://www.instagram.com/p/CTgJ0uaH0Kn/
Hope to finish this weekend so the bougainvilleas, lemon, lime, passionfruit and rios can move indoors before the nights get too cold.
The design is modified from this one if anybody is interested in their own greenhouse project: https://nation.ryobitools.com/nation/projects/lemon-tree-greenhouse_13654?epik=dj0yJnU9MUZpRFhENDdJX0pFZ3ZDcVcwajZaaUZ6X3I4VGZ2ZXAmcD0wJm49OERGd0xEU0dLMXlZS0VpVm1lZy1pUSZ0PUFBQUFBR0NJMnFF&fbclid=IwAR2mbJ0M1llV91HMdBOxCIH1MsktTZb8jz37z3a0IFRPFo8yl3xyzWXr4XE
It’s beautiful.
We had a new roof done today. When the guys left I went out to eyeball the driveway for nails. Even though they used a magnetic wand over the area I picked up a half dozen nails. Then I came up with a brilliant idea after almost tumbling to the ground in the wind. It’s not as easy as it used to be. Our son has a metal detector so I texted him and he should be here any time soon.
Usual cleaning, weeding, dog walking and a ‘hybrid’ meeting with some major technical difficulties. Could’ve been worse. Now for the minutes…
I cleaned out the freezer. I was just surprised to see how much stuff I had there that I thought I’d eat (or thought I’d already eaten) that had really aged out. So the freezer was nearly empty when I did this week’s Elder Shopping and partially refilled it, but strictly with stuff I know I’ll eat in the next couple of weeks. The space won’t be filled again until the holidays, if then.
Next week: the refrigerator.
Coincidence! My freezer is now (nearly) empty. There are two ice cream cups (for the kinder, but flavors they throw out, so me, too) Ancient ground beef and sausage (they hit their dates and got frozen.) The only useful things in the freezer are plastic ice (six of the blue ones, 5 of the squishy ones that came with my Naked Bacon) and a first aid cold pack, and some boneless, skinless chicken breasts (breakfast of dieters), individually sealed. I ate one of those, sliced into strips and fried with pineapple rings. It was still good.
I, too, must tackle the reefer section next.
I used to take all the party food still in the freezer on New Year’s Eve to my cousins’ for their annual waltzing ball, but this event became smaller and smaller and, of course, wasn’t held at all last year.
I spent the whole three-day weekend writing and did finish (finally!) the first draft of my longest-in-progress novel. Having written several that flowed forth like lava (90000 words in a month, a couple of them), to have one take so long was slightly demoralizing. I kept thinking ‘you should just grind away at this,’ then backing away because this story had to be un-forced. And it is a Good Book, so letting it take the time it needed was the right course.
Aside from that, all I’ve done is Day Job and the usual reading, plus some editing. One of my golden currants has up and died, very swiftly, from no obvious cause. I’m curious if its proximity to a manzanita was the cause. Maybe they are antithetical plants? Will find out next year, I guess, once the currant corpse is long gone. If that manzanita doubles in volume the way its not-currant-adjacent sibling did this year, I’ll have the answer.
My biggest achievement this week was dealing with the drainage problem in our back yard. The whole lawn’s been under water all winter – 3 months or so. At first we weren’t worried because it’s always wet. But this year it was extra wet, okay, there’s been a lot of rain so probably normal, right? Then there were a few weeks of dryish weather and it still didn’t drain, so oh bugger.
So we started thinking seriously about expensive solutions like drainlayers and pipe inspections. Ouch.
On Sunday, I was grumbling about this to our neighbour and he asked whether the bore we’ve got in the garden was okay. I said, yep, it’s fine. I mean, I hadn’t actually looked but the flood didn’t start anywhere near the bore.
A few hours later I thought hmmm, maybe I should go look at that bore.
Reader, the bore was not fine. It has a pipe sticking out of the ground with a lever tap on it. That tap was on, just a little bit. So I turned it off.
I can’t work out whether I’m more relieved that the solution was that simple or embarrassed that I didn’t figure it out.