75 thoughts on “Working Wednesday, July 20, 2022”

  1. I would like to thank Argh for alerting me to the existence of the flat whisk. Every time I make gravy, (or cheese sauce) it makes me happy.

    (Yes, I made gravy, from the roast chicken pan juices. With mashed potatoes, roast pumpkin, broccoli and carrots from the garden. Then banana cake.).

    The semester has started, yay new students always fill me with optimism. I’m very behind in my other work after Covid and would generally like to be less useless, so optimism is needed. I mean, imagine what I could achieve if I had the discipline to put my mind to it. I’ll just go get on to that. (ha).

    1. Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you. I have been touting the benefits of roux whisks for decades and Jenny is the only other person I know who uses one. I would regularly mention them and then be disappointed that no one ever seemed to use them. Of course, you have to go to a kitchen store to buy them so it takes an extra effort.

        1. I added three different styles to my Amazon Wish List. I think I’ll be buying the red ones. I only ever used my regular whisk to mix crepes, and I haven’t made crepes in forever.

  2. Getting nowhere with the WIP shoehorn third act mess, so I tidied up and rewrote the end (excellent advice Jenny, thank you). Killed my darlings, but hugely cheating because somehow resurrecting them for book 2, thank you the concepts of multiverses and timeline-rewriting. Still feel like I’m cheating. Or taking the easy path. But I have toast! And it’s cooler today which frankly yay

  3. Today is my last day off and I was completely surprised by the fact that it is Wednesday. Ah well.

    Trying to make the most of it, today we are going to a library book sale, then a farmers market and last, lunch with family who I really like but don’t see often.

    I will work tomorrow;)

  4. Happy Scantily Clad Gardening Day. I gardened, in boxers and a tee, and killed flies. I just turned on the gardens to make them stay lit until 11 PM. About the flies – I haven’t seen one since yesterday. Previous measures may have been adequate.

    The piri-piri in Ranch One is starting to turn red. The Red Fire Peppers in Harvey are purple – The Purple Super Hot in Ethel hasn’t bloomed yet, but the Purple Chili transplanted from Ranch Five to Ethel has blossoms but no peppers. It’s also huge, spread out to take up half of Ethel. I’m not 100% certain, but I think the Purple Chili and the Purple Super Hot are the same plant from different companies. I have three plants growing sweet peppers. One is definitely yellow, the others will show me when they ripen. I’ll eat them , whatever the color. Seble is telling me to Harvest more Romaine. Later. It’s time for a nap.

  5. So far with the nieces and nephews in town this week, we have gone seadooing to and swimming in the lake, paddle boarding and kayaking on the river, watched all three Hobbit movies (glad the kids are nerds but those movies are horrible), eaten Indian food, gone shopping at the Eaton Centre, visited Canada’s Wonderland (like Disneyland without the characters). Today we are going to iFly and swimming in a friend’s pool, and tomorrow doing the escape room at Casa Loma, plus visiting the local sci fi/fantasy book store (thank god they are nerds) and having Chinese food for my birthday. Thank you everyone for your suggestions and as you can see, we’ve made great use of them. Then Friday they fly back and I will be left exhausted, and sad, wishing they were still here.

    1. Tammy, which SF/fantasy bookstore? New or used books? There used to be one (back in the last century when dinosaurs roamed the earth so it’s probably closed now) between, if I’m remembering right, between King and Front off either University of Younge and down an alley that was beyond amazing. If I hadn’t been a broke student at the time I could have bought pretty much all of Charles deLint’s Triskell Press chapbooks. Sigh. That’s a good bookstore memory. Their horror section was incredible too.

      1. It’s Baka Phoenix (used to be straight Baka) on Harbord at Spadina. New books. I remember the used book store you mentioned off University – no idea if it’s still around. And I can’t remember the name – do you??

    2. Tammy, I’m so glad all of you are enjoying your visit. When you visit Bakka-Phoenix, I assume you are going south of College to eat. When you get to College and Spadina, the Merril Collection of Science Fiction, Speculation and Fantasy is in the Lillian H. Smith Library, as is the Osborne Collection of Early Children’s Literature. These are internationally renowned research collections and will have displays (I’m not sure what the displays are right now). Highly recommended for nerds (also I confess I’m biased, I used to work there). They may also admire all the animals on the facade of the library as well as the griffin and hippograff statues.

      1. Thanks for posting this! Lillian H. Smith was amazing, and I’m so glad I looked up the library and its collections and history. Canadians are so damn civilized, and I was ashamed to see that when the American army apparently occupied the Toronto area in 1813, soldiers looted the library! We are a country of barely civilized barbarians sometimes, I think.

  6. I had started a small crochet blanket as my travel project back in June, and I had to keep working on it when I got back, just to get it out of the way. It’s cute and warm and will be happy to cuddle a little one when I have the occasion to give it away.

    https://www.instagram.com/p/Cf-GBDapeZF/

    I also got back to the quilting part of my craft, which is slow and somewhat tedious, but will give me a good result when I’m done. Pictures when that happens (I’m hoping this weekend will give me some productive time to get this particular project done and out of my hair, but we’ll see.)

  8. I’m working through a watercolor book (a gift) with 21 lessons, deceptively simple. Got an exciting idea about what comes next, jumping off an idea in the book. I also tend the new website, which feels to me a bit like tending a baby–is the baby all right? has anyone checked on the baby? does the baby need anything more? Last night we had our Second Annual Reunion of women who used to work together in copyedit, and it was nice to catch up and see we are all still ourselves.

  9. I did a few quickie yarn projects because someone bought me yarn from the next state over, so I finished those to show off in office.
    I finally bound off the Encanto skirt and it’s blocking now. I still have to do a LOT on just the HEM alone–sew on the designs on the edge, make tassels, sew on “fringe” and sew the edge hem down–and then eventually do the REST of the darned thing. I’m insane.
    I am also making a Austen-ish bolero/Spencer sweater and have moved on to doing the sleeves after finishing the middle.

  10. This sounds stupid, but I worked at understanding people. We drove down to shunpike in western PA and western VA; then, we rode a tourist train in Cass, WV. The train is resurrected from an early 20th century logging business which had its own company town of — at the highest times — 800 workers and 2,000 people overall (adding wives and children). Men were recruited when they got off ships at Ellis Island. The people of Cass depended entirely on the company and company store for all their food and supplies. I tried to imagine the lives of the women and children there.

    In our 2022 world, I was appalled by the extreme right-wing signs, banners, and slogans that overflow the western PA and VA and eastern WV landscape. God, guns, and Trump. The Rapture. I tried to imagine the mindset behind these declarations.

    We returned home by way of picking up groceries in Northampton, MA. Some shaved heads or purple hair, some tattoos and piercings, and a general nonchalance about cues identifying gender; yet, everyone wearing a mask. I was thrilled to be home again.

    1. Waves at you from central Pa. The trump signs are taller than the corn here. Oh, and we spotted a flag on someone’s front porch of Jesus holding the American flag and weeping. Trippy.

      1. I can see how Trump, gun rights and the supreme court would make Jesus weep. I guess that’s not what they meant.

    2. NE PA here. There’s quite a few Trumpy signs here. I have to say I really enjoy the old Trump/Pence campaign signs that some people still have out. Don’t they realize Trump put a hit out on Pence? (It’s no laughing matter. Board of Election meetings are surreal with all of the flat out disinformation being pushed by the public.)

  11. I attached the binding to three lap quilts (still need to do the hand work of tacking them down): https://www.instagram.com/p/CgIF57UvosI/

    Also continuing to work on the novella WIP, but the heat wave started yesterday and looks to continue through at least Monday, and I do NOT suffer heat gladly. And it’s not just the heat, per se, but how long it’s lasting — a heat wave here is technically 3 days with highs of 90+, but this will be going on for seven days, with the days after it not cooling down all that much (upper 80s).

    So I’m working on not beating myself up for not working when the heat gets to me. And I’m hydrating.

  12. Today is my birthday, so I’m taking a break from work. I got to see Top Gun last night (loved it) and had a delicious dinner out. Today is lunch with friends and karate tonight. I’m grateful to be surrounded by wonderful people.

  13. Last night I had my friend over who had organized the move of our mutual hoarder friend over the weekend. He was mentally and physically exhausted. So I made him a comfort food meal of pot roast, potatoes, carrots with apple pie for dessert and made him take all the leftovers home. I let him vent his frustration out for about 30 minutes then called a cease fire.

    We proceeded to watch Barb and Star go to Vista Del Mar for its sheer silliness and we laughed and laughed.

    It was a great way to end the trauma of the move.

    1. I saw pieces of that movie this weekend. It looked pretty silly – and yet had a strong friendship between mature women.

  14. Let’s see… I got the specifics of my remaining three main characters figured out and sent them off to a friend to get them generated. (I’m using a role-playing game to handle details so I can add some randomness to successes when they try to do something, a different RPG from the one I used on Holly and the Wizards) I got one of my favorite research resources, radio airchecks, back. I also got a new progressive rock CD and took the time to relax and listen to it. Oh, and I bought a microphone. Writing-wise, I submitted three fiction pieces to an online magazine that seems to like my stuff, and I had an editing session yesterday. My editor will be on vacation until mid-August starting next week, sowe we avoided starting anything that’ll take a while.

  15. Working my 10th day in a row and probably acquiring superpowers (yesterday, I saw the future = Arghink’s post for 21July22).
    Being pretty close to concatenate mistakes (small and big).

      1. I spent a bit longer than I should have this morning trying to work out why I couldn’t see that post when I was sure I remembered responding to it 🙂 I think my brain hasn’t kicked in yet.

  16. My Working Wednesday is in the future. Today I am not weeding. Summer has arrived so we will have a few weeks of temperatures in the 80’s and 90’s , and please god, no 100’s. Last year’s temperatures of a week ranging between 105 and 116 almost finished off my garden. I only survived because we installed central air a few years back.

  17. I weeded and edited the garden at the end of last week; then did extra watering every day due to the heatwave. I managed at walk for an hour most days – getting up surprisingly early. I read gardening and fiction and started my accounts (last done in December; I’ve resolved I really must start doing them monthly – it’s too much of a marathon otherwise). It cooled down dramatically last night, and today I gave my friend Pam an introductory walking tour of Shrewsbury.

    I’m hoping to get my allotment looking better in time for the open day on Sunday – but there’s a lot to do. Apart from a major weeding session, the heat has accelerated my marigolds going over, and deadheading them will take hours. And my potatoes have got blight, so I’ve got to cut them all back and weed the area a.s.a.p. Plus the redcurrants need harvesting and making into jam (there’s no room for them in my fridge-freezer). And I’ve got a friend coming for the weekend.

    Not everything will get done.

    1. I have currant envy. Impossible to get them in stores/markets here, and some states, including mine, have stupid prohibitions on growing them (something about being mistakenly blamed for some sort of blight when it’s actually caused by something else).

  18. I’ve been reading a lot because I hurt my back. It’s getting better, thank goodness. I’ve been working on the ending of my book, and I got far enough into ithe beginning to write a sex scene which, amazingly, isn’t bad. I hate reading them, and I’m not crazy about writing them. It’s good to have the first one done. I’ve also been watering a lot, and watching things wilt, even with the watering. This has been the longest siege of high heat without rain that I remember since I moved here to Kansas in the spring of 2016. Also, I am going to vote early tomorrow. A constitutional amendment is on the docket to change the original state constitution from being supportive of a woman’s right to privacy and abortion, to making it possible for the male Republican legislature to completely outlaw abortion. Grrrr. This site will not let me edit that the with an i in front above. So ignore it, please.

  19. My day off Monday was very productive but tiring (four simple errands = nearly five hours running around in traffic + heat) so when I got home, all I did was turn on the AC, open a book, and crash on the couch in the den.

    It’s the ‘doing nothing much’ time of year in the garden. I am keeping the vines under control, tidying up the backyard sunflowers, and watering.

    Should be going to the man-cave for a treadmill walk right now but I’m tired. Signed on to work yesterday to 186 emails; signed off with 15. Today it was 68 to 16, and some of our functionality is nonfunctional, and I’m irritated, and argh. The Empress 1908 gin is calling me.

    1. I am in awe of your inbox management. I used to manage to keep mine around 30, but then there were so many not-actually-an-emegency emergencies that I am now struggling to keep it below 100…

  20. I have been mostly working double shifts since coming back from my leave, and agreed to overtime this afternoon that will put me at eight days on in a row. Not ideal, but people are sick and resources are desperate. Again (or still). Tomorrow I’ll do another split shift, then Saturday morning I get to sleep in, thank the stars.

    1. Take care of yourself, don’t work to your max. Think of it this way, they really need you healthy

      1. Thanks Kay. There are five of us doing split double shifts today, and another three doing 12 hour shifts so everyone is stretched paper thin. Small wonder we’ve got so many people out sick.

  21. Regrouping from a short vacation with friends–finishing unpacking, doing laundry, catching up on emails, sucking up to cats (who got plenty of attention from the cat sitter, but still). And writing, as much as I can manage with the still wonky eyes and headaches.

    I needed to go for a walk and to work in the garden, but it was over 80 F by 9AM, and hit 95 by late morning, so neither happened. I did a brief walk-through of the garden and found a few ripe tomatoes and all the weeds that had miraculously appeared in the five days I was gone. Sigh. Sadly, it is supposed to stay hot for days, so I suspect the weeds are going to continue to grown.

    So is Liz eaten by zombies?

  22. It’s technically past Wednesday but I’m here.
    My friend David texted and asked what I was doing – I told him during memoir class this morning I read a piece about my second husband cheating on me & now I was on the way to the dentist.
    He responded – “Perfect timing. Just remember. Sometimes writing is as difficult as pulling teeth so bring a pen and a notebook. LOL”
    It made me laugh.
    The tooth is out – thank goodness.
    I could report some writing stuff but Ibuprofen mumble, mumble aspirin.
    Oh and we started watching Landscape Artist of the Year which is just as good as Portrait of the Year – so yay.
    I better leave it here as I am getting goofier by the minute.

  23. I’m prepping talks for a trip to Toowoomba (Queensland) first week in August for school visits. Then a couple of days in Sydney doing promo for the new book. Usually I do this sort of stuff in the afternoon and keep the morning for writing, but it’s such a relief just taking time off to get it done. Also some of the more remote schools will be via zoom, so I’m trying to update my skills.

    1. quilting not wuilting, although it has been in the 90’sF and humid here. (I know, that’s not how you spell wilting.)

  25. I went for an ultrasound on my left shoulder last week. Turns out I have rotator cuff issues, a tear and a tendon that’s breaking down, so it’s off to physio I go. Of the three things they found, only one will heal.

    I’ve pretty much finished the new flower bed in the front and am just waiting on a few more plants. Everything looks half dead from the transplant shock so I’m giving it a few days.

    Paul’s dad and sister were supposed to come up for a visit so I took time off work to get the garden in order and the house finally put back together. I started taking it apart so we could put the flooring in, oh, about this time last year. They decided not to come because (waves hands vaguely) reasons. I’m still taking the time off. This stuff needs to get done and I can only do so much before I have to rest my shoulder. Closet doors need to be painted and rehung. Weeds need to be pulled. Flowers need to be smelled.

  28. It’s Thursday but I’m here.

    I find the intense heat bothers me more than intense cold.

    Had to drag myself out to a election board meeting. Three hours of bitching and complaining and general-all-around-gaslighting. A certain group has no trust in elections and are not happy that we are pushing our facts instead of their factier facts. If they don’t trust the system, why are they spending 3 hours of their lives venting?

    I went to my progressive group meeting after; it was pretty much over but I did get to connect with some reasonable people.

    Pixie did her happy dance when I returned with a small pizza.

    1. I have to admit that I feel some concern. But that is quite possibly based on the last few difficult years…

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