This week I got a co-op sampler of every color of my favorite yarn, 76 mini-skeins. So this week and for several weeks after (off and on) I’ll be up close and personal with all these colors. So much fun.
What was fun work for you this week?
59 thoughts on “Working Wednesday, December 29, 2021”
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Recharging mode here. Keeping my foot elevated as much as possible. Picking up and cleaning after the guests (who arrived at their homes as scheduled) in a very leisurely way. Eating chicken and spinach as if they were manna instead of a return to the norm.
I’m feeling fulfilled.
Moved craft room from upstairs to spare bedroom downstairs because knees
Mostly trying to play catch-up with all the things that didn’t get done during the rush at work during December. Tons of paperwork at the shop, and all sorts of writing-related things at home, including responding to revision notes from my Llewellyn editor (and starting to work on said revisions), writing the first chapter in what we hope will be cozy mystery #4 to submit to Berkley in early January, and finding a new author’s assistant to help me prep and put up the three novels and four novellas I got the rights back to earlier this year.
Plus house cleaning, and prepping for a new member of the family, arriving this Friday just in time to start the new year of with a forever home after almost three years at the shelter.
That’s a wonderful thing — is the new family member two-footed or four-?
She’s a little black cat currently named Pierogi (the name will change). She’s about 4 years old, a stray, who has been at the shelter for almost 3 years. Very scared, but also affectionate. I’m hoping that she’ll eventually learn to feel safe and come out of her shell. She’s their longest resident, and once I met her (accidentally, at a shelter event I was doing a book signing for), I couldn’t stop thinking about her, even though I was NOT planning to get another cat on top of the 4 I already have.
I was hoping you’d come back for her. She desperately needs you.
Me, too! Little black panthers are especially loveable! So are the ones that need you most.
And a new name. What fun!
You don’t choose cats; they choose you.
Good luck helping her adapt to the pack.
Adapt to the Clowder.
Good luck.
The cat? The little orphan cat? TELL ME YOU RESCUED THAT CAT.
ETA: Read ahead. Oh, good. I’ve been worried about that cat since you posted about her. Emily does this thing when she wants to be petted where she sits very close to me, puts her paw gently on my chest, and stares deeply into my eyes. Since she’s a huge Maine Coon bigger than my dogs, this is very effective. So glad the shelter cat will now be able to look deeply into your eyes.
There is nothing like looking up recipes when you’re hungry. Today started with an add for appetizers and I just had to go through it. Landed on cheese balls, the mini version. You know the kind where you can add dried chopped cranberries and other fillers then roll that tiny mess in crushed pecans or chopped parsley or chopped bacon, your choice. And stick a pretzel stick in each one before serving.
Oh well, now for actual work, I took down the decorations yesterday, today will be the tree. The grandkids have come and gone and I really didn’t think that they paid that much attention to tree lately until my granddaughter brought her boyfriend over and pointed out to him her favorites. Pleased me on end.
I started a shawl project on Christmas day. My hook is a little larger than suggested, but my gauge was on target, so I’m not going to worry too much. Hopefully I won’t run out of yarn and have to frog it all!
I also made the spirit of my mother happy by getting all my thank-you notes written and mailed. My goal is to do that before I use the item in question, or before Christmas is put away. I’m good on both counts.
I’m trying to get back to working, which should be more fun than vegging, but I keep oversleeping – 10.15 again today. At least the sun’s come out, so I’m off for a walk before the sun sets at 4.
Need to research energy tariffs, since the one they’ve switched me to is more than double the price, and my cooling-off period ends tomorrow. I’m hoping to get in the garden at the weekend: the forecast is for mild, dry weather. Was supposed to be having a friend to stay for New Year, but she’s an anti-vaxxer and flatly refuses to do a lateral flow test. Which has wound me up, so that I’m getting no on her coming. I don’t want to lose my temper; and I hate feeling judgemental. Might suggest we go for a walk instead – she doesn’t live far away.
Hard–I’m having lunch today with a dear friend who’s anti-vaxx and anti-mask, and I feel the same emotions. I don’t want to lose her longtime friendship, but this is crazy-making! Hope the walk works out for you and your temper remains calm.
Thanks, Judy. I’m OK (ish) with her refusing to be vaccinated; it’s her choice. But I just don’t get/can’t agree with not taking steps to limit spread and protect other people. Best of luck to you, too!
I don’t get the anti-vax thing. Waiting around to see if the vaccine kills people or is made by aliens was almost understandable–I’m paranoid, too, just not about vaccines–but it’s been a year now. A nice walk sounds good. Six feet apart. Take mace in case she decides to hug you.
I don’t understand either. Two of my nephews are unvaccinated as are their families. Their mom has begged, cajoled etc. and I’ve certainly joined that chorus. One nephew now has 3 of his children and his wife testing positive and the other nephew tested positive 2 days ago… for the THIRD #$%& time in 13 months. I could just scream and if I thought it would do any good, I would.
Seriously, at this point almost everyone who’s vaccinated lives. Not getting vaxxed may very well kill you. I just don’t get it. I would have sold a kidney for a vaccine. Unless the vaccine made my limbs fall off, I wouldn’t have refused it.
Added to everything already said, the unvaccinated are sickening the vaxxed with COVID and overwhelming medical time, space, and energy that should be shared with the vaxxed.
Two of my grandparents were doctors. My mother and her sister had polio in 1929 (they were lucky, they survived without permanent major damage, though my mother had to learn to use her other hand and was pretty ambidextrous the rest of her life). When the Salk vaccine became available in the 1950’s, my grandmother saved a couple of doses for me and my brother.
When I hear that we have a decent vaccine for some new disease, I cheer the vaccine.
I will never understand why the unvaxxed are insisting on taking up hospital space and ICU resources for something they swear is a hoax.
I just love the last sentence: “Take mace in case she decides to hug you.” I was drinking hot tea and spewed it out laughing. That line is a Jenny Crusie gem in miniature. Made my day.
Mine, too; this thing has been getting me down.
I work in a Covid ICU and a couple of people I work with are leaning that way. The reasoning was we don’t know the long term effects of the vaccine. Wish I would have said we don’t know the long term effects of Covid either. At least my PPE hid my open mouth.
I am working at readjusting my circadian rhythms. After years and years on the four to midnight shift, coming home and not going straight to bed, but decompressing until three to five AM before bed, I want to return to the same diurnal rhythms as the vast majority. I stayed awake to make it possible to sleep “earlier,” and went to bed just before midnight. I told Alexa to wake me at 8. She didn’t. I got out of bed at 9:30. That’s better than noon, but this biorhythm stuff is not easy. I’ll keep working at it.
Is it weird to miss my old job?
No, but it will get better once your body adjusts to your new schedule. Congratulations on your retirement and good luck adjusting to your new life.
Your job gave you routine… structure, a reason to get out of bed. My parents worked long hours, both struggled with retirement for a long time (Dad took us golfing we were so bored including Dad). Make sure you stay active, get up, actually dress and talk to people. Schedule to do something everyday even it is walking somewhere to pick up a newspaper. Someone I know took a year out, had great plans and spent it watching TV and occasionally picking up her sister’s kids from school. Keep your brain sharp and your body healthy so you can actually enjoy retirement. Now there is time to read everything you want to read
It would have been weird for me to miss my job. Not necessarily weird for you to miss yours.
Kay is right. I liked my job much more than you liked yours, Gary, but you had many more years of yours than I had of mine. The hardest part was living 5 minutes away from my school and having the school schedule shape my life. I suggest selecting something every week or month which you could not have fit into your former schedule. Something you’d enjoy. Like bowling, a burlesque show, a movie in a movie theater with popcorn (count the calories), a sci-fi con. Parks and libraries are great freebies. Overnights — maybe visit your son? I’m trying to remember where you live — in Virginia? Lots of great historical sites there.
I liked most of my job. Really. The parts I didn’t like were the constant reorganization that changed nothing. The upgrading of equipment or software to a less capable but more expensive version. The failure to upgrade or replace the things that desperately needed it.
I thought I might visit Monday the 3rd, if the boss is there, to teach him the computer stuff he never made time to learn before I left. Also, to dress in totally non-uniform clothes (including my rainbow suspenders)… because I can.
I have plans. Counting flowers on the wall, that don’t bother me at all. Playing solitaire so long with a deck of 52. (Microsoft refuses to lose a card just to make some song work.) Not smoking cigarettes nor watching Captain Kangaroo…
And cooking. I will be able to stop cooking when I have a week’s worth of leftovers. Just this minute, I’m out of onions, so TTFN.
“Failure to upgrade or replace”; “constant reorganization” Oh, yes. I won’t miss that part at all. It’s the rest of the job that will keep me working part time after the next 13 months.
Give yourself six full weeks to adjust to a new schedule — that’s what it always took me when a new position made different physical demands. You may find that you enjoy sleeping in, too.
Have to say that at the end of December, the cats demand that I stay in bed a bit later to keep them warm . . . .
Six full weeks?! Okay then. I’ll do that.
It’s half past midnight and I need to stay up just a leetle bit longer. I was cooking. I prepared a dish of baked chicken thighs on carrots, onions and green peppers, for service on brown rice. I also made 7.4 pounds of Trust Me-It’s Chili. I ate the 0.4 pounds, the rest is put up in 1-2 pound doses. The difference between this and I Can’t Believe It’s Not Chili is no beans. The dotter doesn’t like green beans in her chili. I could have added the green beans anyway, as an anti-theft measure, but I like her too much to do that. Another difference is green bell pepper versus red. And carrots. No carrots in ICBINC. And tomorrow I’m eating steak, so go figure. Steak and hash browns. Maybe eggs. And toast.
Time for bed.
Now it’s Friday the 31st, coming up on 5 AM and I am wide awake. Didn’t fall asleep last night before 3. Went to bed at 11:30 tonight. Here I am. I figure I’ll stay awake all day, so I know I’ll sleep tonight.
I also know that won’t work. I’ll end up napping and fall further out of sync.
Six weeks. Bah. Humbug. (Time to get my curmudge on.)
My big project this week is trying to fill my prescriptions before the change in insurance coverage. I called the pharmacy this morning to order refills and they said no before even checking the fill date and said they’d have to call my doctor(who is on vacation). My insurance carrier was bought out by another company and I tried to get authorization to use this medicine instead of the one they prefer last week but they refuse to look into it before January. Today is the first day the old insurance company will process a refill, so I hope that if I show up with the old bottle in my hand that they will fill it once more and give me 4 weeks I can use to document my exemption with the new carrier before I start vomiting up acid. I just wish that my pharmacy would, for a change, not say No before looking up the details of a case.
Good News! After sending me an email saying they wouldn’t fill my prescription, Walgreens decided, after putting me on hold for 10 minutes, that maybe they would fill my prescription after all. I really wish they would fix their computer programming, but at least I am okay for this month. What a relief.
Yay!
Good for you! Mine, CVS, is texting me that I have a refill ready and they want me to do something about it IMMEDIATELY. However, it’s a three-month refill that was done in November and therefore shouldn’t be filled again until February. Apparently it’s impossible to communicate with the text generator any nuance, and YES and NO don’t quite cover my problems. Now it’s texting me that there are more refills, of which the monthly ones shouldn’t be scheduled until mid-January; I have everything up to date in December.
It also wants me to sign up for some system that will pre-package everything and issue me a daily round of pills, but at this moment for some unknown reason I don’t quite trust the setup (besides, I take a handful of dry — water soluble — vitamins for absorption reasons, and their system wouldn’t include those).
You know what they say, “To err is human, but to really screw things up you need a computer.”
I took all my scrips off auto refill and blocked their phone number because the notifications were making me crazy. It’s also annoying to keep on top of the refills myself, and there’s one they won’t let me take off auto refill, but the automated system just doesn’t work right for me, and I feel guilty when they fill scrips I don’t need and I have to refuse them. I don’t want to be stressed by something that’s supposed to simplify my life!
Never just rely on untested new systems, they might not have worked out the bugs yet. Just tell them you have a pill organiser… my dad has one (weekly, but he only uses one day), very handy, specially when my mum went away for a few days, she filled up the different little one day boxes and I would slot one in every night for him. I could have just refilled it for him, but that idea made her fret more.
Having focussed heavily on Getting Things Done leading up to Christmas, I’m now finding pleasure and leisure in the joy of random non-Christmas projects: my miniature Christmas House from Robin Betterley (I know, but it’s not a project FOR Christmas), a small stuffed bear in a nightgown, Dear Jane Quilt (as ever), clearing out the masses of stuff in the basement (yeah, sure…)
No pressure.
Except tomorrow, I will be welcoming my daughter’s Springer Spaniel, Ripley, for a few days. This will be different….
Puppies, my sister has foster puppies and they’re gorgeous squirmy wiggly bundles of cuteness.
Also, snow, there’s something about a white Christmas that reeks of magic.
And, after days of stewing, figuring somethings out.
And, telling someone this is enough. I can’t do this anymore.
And, making a decision to tell someone else the same thing.
Whew!
This week I got my January title up for pre-order;
made arrangements for a new advertising program;
played the role of a diligent employee at Day Job;
did a lot of thinking about how to balance actual writing with writer business such that the business part of things doesn’t suck all the joy out of writing;
sent a card to the friends-of-friends who were there for my unofficial godmother in her last years (she died aged 90 on the 23rd);
packed another box and ordered more flat-rate boxes for the Send Books Away project;
cancelled the Backblaze subscription for the old laptop, purging of which now moves up my to-do list; and
watched ‘Starstruck’ from the Scottish Ballet (it’s based on a piece called Pas de Dieux by Gene Kelly, set to music by Chopin and Gershwin – on Marquee TV). That was not exactly work but it goes in the ‘consume culture in forms other than romance novels’ 2022 goals column.
I’m on vacation and not doing much. I do rehearsals for the show at night (we’re going full show now) and otherwise am vegging out. I tried to finish someone’s Loki doll for their birthday yesterday, but that thing is complicated and she wanted to do her birthday (I can’t be around for it next week due to the show) yesterday, so I gave up and just gave her the Croki Loki I had already finished.
I decided to end the year as I mean to begin, by going on morning walks. I developed plantar fasciitis last year and diligently did not walk for a while and kind of got out of the habit. I am very much not a morning person, but if I do it first thing then I don’t have to worry about it the rest of the day. The hard part will be next week when I will need to get up earlier so I can be at work [be at the computer] earlier, since we will be getting into the busy part of the year again. This will mean going to bed earlier than I have been… it’s a vicious cycle. When I can finally retire, I will end up on a Jenny schedule and let myself do things into the wee hours and sleep until I wake up.
I’m trying to do the same, Karen. I tell myself I’ll find some time in the middle of the day, but I get sucked into work and don’t. Will try mornings.
Trying to take care of things in my “Take Care of This” box, like moving $$ accounts around so they are all in the same place, filling out some forms. Trying to think about the year in terms of what I’d like to have done or experienced or achieved when the end rolls around. I know all kinds of things happen to us that we must react to, or enjoy, but I want to give myself some goals of my own making.
Big news: today I cleaned out the pipe to the bathroom sink! I disconnected the stopper and pulled in out and yuuuck. But it’s gone now, and I rule!
This week we worked on feral cat shelters! Brought on by the discovery that the black kitty and striped kitty who frequently visit our yard were actually sheltering on our patio furniture under its cover, and that wasn’t going to be good enough with single digit windchills. Christmas eve we ran around getting materials and Christmas day they got built and put out, with a heated water bowl and kibble (which doesn’t freeze as easily and is therefore best for cold weather feral cat feeding). And now we are always watching the Feral Patio Cats as they come out for food and retreat into the shelters for warmth. As a bonus, we had a ton of leftover reflective insulating wrap that we added to the greenhouse and I think all my plants survived the cold, hooray. Haven’t opened the door to check because I don’t want to let out the heat until it’s back up above freezing. (the insulating wrap basically lines a Rubbermaid type storage bin w/ lid, then you stuff in straw and cut a cat flap and cat goes into box and beds down, all cozy)
I’m not sure what my fun is but Pixie’s is having someone around to let her in and out whenever she sees movement in the treetops.
Trying to use some stuff in the kitchen. Some ginger cookies and heavy cream are going to be come an icebox cake. (I’ve got to clean out my freezer!)
And the water company will be replacing the main on my street. The work starts shortly (ending who knows when). I have some creeping phlox and sea thrift planted right where the connection is. I’m going to try to dig them up and overwinter in pots. The temps will be above freezing for a few days. So fingers crossed.
I’m almost working on making crocheted pillow covers for our beat up sofa pillows. I found a pattern that’s supposed to be easy and bought the yarn. My crocheting experience is almost nonexistent–my grandmother taught me how when I was little; she crocheted afghans, hats, scarfs, etc. and made clothes for our dolls. The last project I tried to do was placemats, but they kept curling up and I got frustrated. Anyway, it turns out I need an L size hook (I have two old aluminum ones–F and H–from my gram). Does it matter what kind I get? I know there are crocheters on here.
It doesn’t matter to me-most of what I have are aluminum and have been inherited. I know there are wooden and bamboo ones out there. If you crochet ‘tight’ like me, you may need one size larger.
Thanks, Audrey! I saw the variety of handles and immediately felt overwhelmed.
I’ve been doing work that isn’t fun in its own right (decluttering, cleaning the kitchen, hemming a bunch of jeans bought on Black Friday, other household chores that I’ve ignored too long), but it pays off in happiness later, when I have clean clothes to wear and I’m able to put dinner in the microwave without wondering if I’m going to poison myself with the accumulated grunge on the sides. It’s nice to be able to walk through the house without constantly noticing things that need doing and thinking, “Oh, yeah, I really need to deal with that someday.” There’s always more stuff to do, but it’s starting to be a little less overwhelming.
I am still recovering from the holiday rush at the day job. Hopefully the next couple of days aren’t too bad…
Anyway, I have decided to get rid of all my ratty work/pajama clothes. I don’t know what I am going to replace them with, but I want to feel less slobby when I am comfortable at home…
I’m finally starting Operation Scan, setting up the workflow and distribution plan to get 3,000-ish snapshots from my guest bedroom to all my siblings. Optimistic about finishing by July.
I’m gearing up to deal with some problems — my ladies’ group had planned to use our January 8 meeting to honor high school prize winners, but our chair for this has Covid as does her husband — he’s in the bedroom with the computer with the information about the students in question, so I can’t get it. The group has agreed to reschedule the meeting — not much choice — but I don’t think I can reach any of the schools before next Monday, January 3. Will also have to find a proper program for the meeting since we won’t have the students there. And worried about my chair and her family, since she has a daughter with an auto-immune condition and a mother who isn’t vaccinated, reason not given.
Just a bit of grocery shopping and my booster. Resting today and tomorrow. Hoping just a sore arm. Half dose of Moderna after two full Pfizer shots. I, too don’t get the anti vaccine thinking. Find it totally selfish. Crazy.
Working flat out sorting and cleaning. After much talking with families and trying to honour Mom’s wishes, more things are going to the hospice charity shop next week. Lifting the weight of responsibility.
I’m working at the day job (there’s actually work!) and trying to fit in some more drawing practice. I got 2 very cheap sketchbooks from the drugstore so that will help as I’ve been burning through printer paper like crazy.
Earlier this week I baked muffins for Paul’s lunch. Like dozens and dozens of muffins, 5 double batches of Andi’s banana muffins minus the nuts and chocolate chips but with cocoa powder instead. He has enough lunch muffins to last until August.