Well, our plan to start Rocky Start in January is moving along nicely: Bob says we’re at 11,000 words, which is impressive because we were only at 7000+ when I gave it back to him. We’re at the interesting part of the beginning where he says, “How about this?” and I say, “Oh, I like that, how about this?” and he says, “That’ll work,” and then we look at what we’ve got and it’s too many characters and doesn’t make sense. That’s okay, we’ll fix it.
So what did you work on this week?
I learned how to clean fabric softener stink from a dryer. I think it worked, sense of smell is intermittent but I can’t taste chemicals when I’m near it so there’s improvement for sure. I strongly disagree that dryers belong in a kitchen. Especially if “venting” involves the duct coming through a hole in the counter top ready to be stuck out an open window when in use. When not in use, it’s been covered by a, not at all air tight, flower pot. In the middle of the tiny counter by the sink. Please forgive the sliding into rant. Nobody here gets why these are problems.
I also spent time walking around, getting to know this newest neighbourhood in the sunshine. I found a really good Asian grocery for future shopping and I bought a velvet plant in a friendly cafe. Looks a bit like a peace lily with ordinary leaves but if you touch them, velvet!
Our washer and dryer are in the kitchen and we love it. More because the house predates dryers… so when the original owners put one in, there was no place for it in the kitchen-which is where the washer is.
Up until a few months ago the dryer was in the den and covered in woodgrain contact paper so it would blend in with the wood paneling. But it is now next to the washer in the kitchen and we no longer have to lug the wet laundry into another room!!
My favourite was my grandmother’s. Laundry shute from bathroom to garage. As a child I loved the magic of stuff dispearing into the dark. Convenient for her too, change loads over when you go in/out. Then get a kid or grand kid to cart stuff up when it’s done. Though easiest was the three storey place where I worked as a nanny that had a dedicated room on the bedroom floor. Only had to climb stairs for the kitchen towels. Or the occasional guest room towel set. Out of sight, scent, and especially sound, if at all possible, is my theme here. I’d truly rather hang stuff outside on a line than listen to a dryer for hours.
It’s why a laundry room is a luxury for some people, but a necessity for others. I’m in the UK, we usually have them in the kitchen. Also never underestimate the value of a good local Asian grocery
My laundry is in the basement, and evidently the makers of these machines think people have very acute hearing, or they have the laundry in the kitchen, like you do, because the things finish and ding, and I can’t hear them in the back of the house. Very frustrating. So I set a timer, and then run down and up several times to check, until it finishes.
The only time I had the laundry in the basement (just as my arthritic hip was getting bad; it’s one of many reasons I moved) I could see the washer and dryer from the top of the stairs. I could, in fact, hear them ding–if the furnace/AC was not running ten feet away from them.
When I think back to all the different houses and apartments I’ve lived in, the laundry arrangements have been quite varied. There was one house with the laundry in a bathroom. Another in the garage. Another in the basement (first house we owned). The house I rented in Waverly had a laundry room. I had stacking washer/dryer combo so the leftover space went to an upright freezer. The dotter’s house has a utility room with laundry, water heater, and exercycle. I’ve liked them all. MUCH better than using the coin-op units in a common room, or going to a laundromat.
I am participating in nanowrimo so I worked on my contemporary gothic romance wip titled Black Windows.
I have recently accepted a seat on the board for Pinellas Writers Group which is wobbly at present having lost 2 crucial members. I was also asked to moderate the Zoom meeting last night. That went well.
On the home front I’ve made some moves to make showering without falling easier.
Someone is coming to repair our washer on the 23rd YAY!
Someone is coming to install a dog run on the carport so we can more easily sit outdoors during this gorgeous Florida weather.
And I am doing a lot of happy dancing about the lack of a red wave!
Yes! Only the red TV stations carried the announcement, and they cut him off after a while. I am very pleased, too, that people made themselves heard and rejected the chaos and lies and stupidity being foisted on them.
I’ve been working a bit around the house – making lists, checking things off, removing other things from the list. I did a bunch of quilting on one of my projects and got a thrill from that. But, it’s now time to move on to a new section and I don’t quite know what to do. So yesterday I moved to a different one and started going to town. It’s just outlining the piecing, but it needs to be done, and I can look back and say yay internally when I see it. So, currently nothing to see here.
I will be going to quilt the llamas on Friday afternoon, so I can try to get them to my sister by the end of the month. It’s her birthday, and I think she needs llamas to celebrate.
I am in go-mode, alternating between making things for my upcoming arts and craft show (two weeks) and cleaning my house for Thanksgiving (one week). I usually try to pace myself, but sometimes a mad rush is kind of good. I actually feel energized.
After that I will have to start sorting Christmas gifts and cards. But I am almost looking forward to that too. It feels good to be getting things done.
Thanksgiving is in one week??? How did that happen? No wonder my husband thought I was nuts when I said I wanted to have friends over for dinner before Thanksgiving. And he said you remember we have tickets for a concert this weekend and I said so?
Oh, as long as I am here. I have been cleaning bricks and dismantling my neighbor’s raised bed that runs along the side of her patio and my side yard (at that point, my yard his about 6′ wide and her’s is about 10′.(Houses are close together in the city). She is having her side patio redone in January and said I could have the bricks if I wanted them. I am averaging about 5 – 10 bricks removed and cleaned a day. I must be insane.
Hey, bricks are expensive (and useful in landscapes). Salvaging them isn’t at all insane!
Time is moving so fast! I am low key panicking.
I have a side project. There was this writer, you see – not of the same caliber as Herself*, but a humorist who fans insisted on putting together a vanity book. Naked Through The Snow and other bits of silliness by Sailor Jim Johnston. It was $10 from Quarternion Press in 2002. It’s out of print. But nearly every word in it was published for free on Newsgroup alt.callahans and I’ve been tracking them all down and assembling ebooks. One HTML ebook, to be the source of an epub and a mobi ebook. For personal use, of course. I have purchased no less than seven of the paper books, to loan and to share and gift. I have one left. I need this ebook.
Picture if Jenny cherry-picked the best of Argh Ink and published those posts. That’s what the NTTS book is like.
Sailor Jim was asked why he chose that title, when he is most famous for On The Subject of Penises. (It’s in there.) He replied, “Would you buy a book with Penises on the cover?”
_______________________
* If Jenny is a .357, SJ is a .22 at best. All of SJ’s work is in the form of short essays or observations. 60 made it into the book. It’s a skinny book. š
Update: I located, copied, and formatted all sixty of SJ’s essays from Usenet. I compiled it all into an ebook. What I lack are the introductions and an original essay, which I must hand type. But I have everything important in HTML and MOBI formats.
I made a pan of boneless chicken thighs with basil pesto, sliced tomato mozzarella cheese, then made a batch of chicken chili in the crock pot; followed up with stir fried chicken,Swiss chard, mushrooms and onion served over long grain and wild rice. I do not have to cook again for several days.
I have finally adjusted back to US time instead of Spanish time; the 6 hour difference between the two really messed up my internal time clock. I even managed to stay up past 9:00 last night!
I am housebreaking a puppy that Google says is too young to even attempt to do that with. That said, she’s already made the connection between squatting and receiving a treat. And, she’s mastered getting up the back steps to the house on her own. So, progress.
Another pic: https://www.instagram.com/p/Ck3pS1WOj3N/
She is adorable!!!
I donāt think itās ever really too early to start getting a puppy used to the idea of going outside to potty. Sheās too little to have much control but if she knows that going outside to relieve herself gets her a reward, it will make it easier in the long run.
She is adorable!
So much cute.
Your puppy is adorable, Jeanne. My “puppy” is now 7-months old, is going through her teenager phase, and has apparently forgotten all of the training she got in the first 6 months. She also seems to consider it her personal mission to prove that toys marketed as “indestructible” or for “aggressive chewers” can easily be destroyed in 15-minutes or less.
Good thing she’s cute.
I stumbled quite by chance into early Christmas shopping. Already have three gifts a-coming. I’d rather enjoy the holiday without all the panic of shopping for a change.
Over the weekend watching Lidia on her Italian cooking show, she had the most interesting knife for cutting a fruit pizza (focaccia bread). It was an offset serrated knife with the handle on the upward side, a really handsome tool. In another lifetime it could have been a small sword (scimitar), just needed a shield. They’re designed for crusty breads, slicing tomatoes etc. I went looking for one and went down the rabbit hole in investigating them, finally bought one made with German steel. I’m going to admit what I’ve been using to slice tomatoes and that is the blades of an old electric knife that I don’t know what happened to the mechanics of it. I think they’ve been a temporary fix for years.
Also, over the weekend I made applesauce cupcakes with caramel, cinnamon and rum frosting. Next time I make the frosting I’ll use real rum not rum extract.
Let’s see… my job has been taken over by a ridiculously all-consuming project that just won’t die, but I keep reminding myself that it’s not worth stressing out over and also I really don’t care, so I should do what I can and let it go after that.
Current writing project is a dark fantasy related to a disaster that happened a decade ago at a magical academy, and is coming along pretty well. Not as quickly as I’d like, but it’s coming.
I’ve also started a new patch jacket. I had one in high school, and it’s incredibly earnest and covered in punk and metal band patches along with some things I’d repudiate now (rebel flag, for example). I’d thought about reworking the thing, but ultimately decided to leave it be and just make a new one. The new one is a bit less Painfully Earnest, but still bears witness to my long-standing desire to be one of the Lost Boys. (“They’re only noodles, Michael.”)
I’ll be camping in the very cold weather this weekend, so I’m also pulling supplies together for that — and running laundry, etc. preemptively.
All in all, I think we’re doing pretty well over here.
I went to a doctor’s appointment with my parents (92) and they signed DNRs, and now those documents are in the patient records, and we have some at home. This is a relief to me, to get that done. I cleaned out my In file, and I’ve re-started a monthly get together for drinks at a friend’s house. She has Parkinson’s, which has progressed so that she can’t participate in the 3x weekly walks that group of friends takes. This is a way for her to stay in the loop.
I’m thinking about making Christmas cards and wondering… I have a college literature textbook that belonged to my mom. It’s marked up and battered, it probably smells like basement, and similar copies can be found online for $5 or less. I was thinking about using the pages with her handwriting to make cards for my siblings. But the book is 80 years old. If I tear out pages, would I be a book-destroying cretin or an artsy recycler?
Artsy recycler. Do any of your siblings want the book? Probably not, but Iāll bet theyāll love a card with her writing on it.
Artsy recycler. I am hanging onto a decrepit 130-yr-old complete Shakespeare for no other reason than to turn it into wallpaper someday.
Used bookseller here. Artsy recycler.
Maybe you should save it in case she becomes famous. Steve Jobs’ sandals, from the 70ās, just sold for a shocking amount of money.
Absolutely kidding. Handmade art of a loved ones thoughts and writing is a worthy ending for a well loved book.
Another vote for artsy recycler. I’ve never really understood the worship of books as objects (until they’re really, REALLY old and then it’s about the history, not the object). It’s the story that matters or, in this case, the handwriting/memories.
Which reminds me of a rant I meant to do on good book Thursday last week, when people were talking about audibooks counting as having read a book (and everyone agreed it does count) — I heard the organizer of a book festival being interviewed on the radio a few weeks ago, and she was asked whether audiobooks were real books (sigh), and she avoided saying they weren’t real books, although I could tell she wanted to say it, because she went off on a riff about how retention was better with physical (or digital) books. And I was just so annoyed, because, seriously, why does reading have to be about retention and passing a test afterward? Can’t it just be about enjoying it in the moment? Really made me angry that here she was, someone who’s supposed to be a reading advocate, and she was basically saying that “real reading” involved studying and hard work and having to pass a retention test. Great way to make reading sound appealing, right?
ARGH
Snobs and gatekeeping everywhere. Like how handicraft isn’t “real” art. This is why I was a problem child in art school.
I thought art school was FOR problem children. Or is it just the artists I’ve known?
I spent the entire weekend doing writer stuff, which was enormously productive but also relaxing and helped me get my head straight after a month of scatterbrain.
Also sorted out another stack of books to divest; these will go to Goodwill since they are things that may find new life as gifts or school resources.
And my biggest news for years in the writer category, a small California publisher wants my new holiday romance novel. It’s not a done deal till it’s signed, and it won’t be a significant amount of money, but it will be a giant leap toward getting my name and backlist in front of people who buy my kind of book. So I’m extremely excited and in no mood to sign on for Day Job; but alas, I must.
Congrats! Let us know when the deal is done!
Congratulations!
Yay! I started with a small California pub (but mystery, not romance), and it was a great experience. Hope yours is even better!
Congrats! That is great!
Chacha1 congratulations! That’s wonderful.
Iām flying to Allentown. First snow of the year in Toronto so of course my flight is delayed. I should still make it for dinner which is going to be at an Italian restaurant called Melt. Looking forward to it!
Safe travels!
I’m not doing much at all except for knitting! Rehearsals are now over…possibly for a long time for me, sigh.
I finally managed to dig the old redcurrant up at the allotment. It took three goes, plus help from my neighbour. Still need to weed the wider area and let the soil settle before I plant the new blueberry. Also dug out the big climbing rose that insisted on flowering four or five feet above the fence, replaced the soil, and planted a smaller rose in its place. Plus dug out the finished compost from the bottom of the garden heap.
For the day job, I finished a short job and started another, longer one; the third oneās delayed but should be here by Monday. Iām going to do my best to get through this one a.s.a.p., since itās a bit of a downer. Iām hoping the next one will be fun.
Yesterday morning I set up my new printer. So Iām hoping to master printing photographs on it this next week. And this morning I photographed the nasturtiums on the allotment, since I need to pull them up soon before a dip in the temperature turns them to slime: https://www.instagram.com/p/ClCA6LLMISp/
Love the photos. Nasturtiums always remind me the garden of childhood home.
I just booked my flight to Australia, where, starting on the 2nd of January for 7 weeks, I will be working as a volunteer at a flying fox rescue in Northern Queensland. Itās baby season and the tick paralysis and human interference (netting, barbed wire, power lines, cars) ravage mothers, who die while their babies survive, and I will be helping with the process for caring for, raising and releasing them back to the wild. They are major pollinators in Australia and are under under great threat right now.
My bit for the environment and biodiversity!
Plus, I have been dreaming of going to Oz for literally decades, so am thrilled to death.
Hubby arrives Down Under in mid-Feb and we will then spend 5 weeks roaming down the east coast to Melbourne with various longer stops in between before flying home.
It had been on my plans for last fall (after my retirement), but covid interfered, so it got delayed to this year. So, long awaited and overdue ā now is the excitement of getting ready and flying off!
This sounds wonderful! I hope it far exceeds my wildest dreams.
Me too!!
That sounds awesome!
That sounds amazing. Good for you!
Ooh. You will give us reports right?
I hope you have a wonderful time. May I recommend Daintree Crocodylus as place to stay? Queensland.
And if they are still offering a guided, and catered, kayak trip to Crocodile Island? That is one of my more vivid and happy memories from living in Australia. I’d highly recommend
Thanks for the tips! Weāre starting to snoop around for the stuff for our āgotta see and doā lists. Iām going to be in the Atherton Tablelands, and not far away from the bat hospital is Yungaburra where you have a pretty good shot at seeing platypus in the wild
Iāve read some stuff about Crocodile Island and have that on my ālook into furtherā list.
For the first 6+ weeks I will be working 10-12 hr days 7 days a week, but should still be able to scout around a bit. I am also hoping some of the local denizens will have good insider tips on where to go and what to see!
They, the local denizens, will be happy to share good insider tips and cheerful about it. Oh, the places you’ll go. Australian people are why we keep going back, and the country in its various formats is beautiful.
I’ll second Daintree Crocodylus. Great place to stay.
I’m still working on my NaNoWriMo-lite manuscript, sticking to my goal of 1.5K a day (except for the days when I give my permission to not write), have passed the midpoint and am closing in on 30K words (another day or two to get there). Which was my goal for the month, so now I’ve increased it to 40K, which is most of a first draft for me.
And as a reward, I’m going to watch the new Leverage: Redemption season tonight. Well, two of the three available episodes, since it secretly released a day early (yesterday), and Twitter followers of John Rogers got a hint to go check it out, so I watched the first one last night and saved the other two for tonight as a reward for today’s writing. For anyone who hasn’t seen the reboot (don’t worry, no spoilers), I really like the relationship between Hardison and the new character, his foster sister. It was a major part of the first episode of the second season.
Oh, thank you for mentioning that. I’d forgotten all about it! I guess I know what I’m watching tonight.
I hadn’t heard about that! Cool.
I am trying to get some idea of what I should or Thanksgiving at Harriet’s house and “second seder” at my sister’s on Friday so I can go grocery shopping for supplies. Kitty and I have sub-divided the nagging in an effort to not make Harriet’s daughter feel overwhelmed, but since both Harriet and Ella drive everywhere, they have no idea of the extra time those of us without a car or with limited access need to get around. Since this is not the first year we’ve shared in preparations for this holiday, I think it will be easier to figure out how much to make. And this year I will know that I am the only one who needs to have a fresh vegetable and plan accordingly.
I am really happy that so far, my ego is being far less involved than last time. And if the table is big enough, perhaps nobody will give me any grief about having to eat anything for the sake of tradition. I have enough to feed my sense of nostalgia without green bean casserole.
That was supposed to read should bring for Thanksgiving.
I’m working on writing things: the book for an new oracle deck, but also I need to write an article and a guest blog for Llewellyn as promo for the book coming out in early January, and a small publisher just asked me to write a foreword for the rerelease of a very good witchcraft book I actually have on my shelves. (My first foreword!) Plus continuing beta reading.
Doing more winter prep, like pulling all the many humidifiers out of storage and getting them up and running, and chasing down a contractor to put up a small covering for the back entrance where I put on a metal roof a few years ago and now snow and occasional frighteningly large chunks of ice threaten to take out either me or the UPS guy.
Dealing with Thanksgiving on my own as usual, so not much to do there, except figure out whether I want to experiment with duck breast or Cornish hen in my air fryer. It feels strange no to be frantically prepping the shop for the holiday season, although I’ll be going in and working a few hours here and there as a plan old artist. Mixed feelings is an understatement. Too many changes this last year in a short time for a woman who doesn’t like change.
In unrelated news, I might have just ordered a large amount of chocolate from Burdick Chocolates.
Burdick!!
I got next year’s Home Warranty plan and fee statement in the mail and immediately began researching alternatives. I found one with good ratings and reviews and they had a discount, so I signed up. This has to be better than what I have, even if it’s not great. And it’s half as expensive.
I dug out the humidifiers and hooked one up. Still looking for a plug in a convenient place for the second one. I got the heating pad set up at the back of my reading chair, so I can sit back and read while my back cooks.
We had over 2″ of snow a couple of days ago, and the temperatures and windchills have all been below freezing the bulk of the time, and for the future for at least a week. I went to IKEA to have lunch and walk the warehouse for exercise. It was a sad experience. The coffee tasted awful and they did not have cream for it, just those little packets of the flavored fake stuff. The plant balls were OK. {Plants have balls? How anthropomorphic.} They didn’t have my favorite dessert. When I shopped, the candles scents were a mishmash of three to five fragrances which equated to no distinct scent, and were just bad. Nothing else really appealed to me. Another of my nostalgic favorite places, down the tubes. š¢
I researched winter robes and finally found one in flannel in a color that did not make me look half-dead, AND with a set-in, sewed on belt!!! The one I wear now has that feature, which is why I keep wearing it, despite the walking dead effect. The tie is right there when I reach for it, and it’s the right length, and I don’t trip over it. Can’t wait for the new one to arrive.
I haven’t been getting these notifications. But I was too busy on Monday and Sunday to write, anyway. As always, I love the humor on this site! And that puppy is toooo cute! More puppies! And kittens, too!
I remember reading Maybe This Time and at a certain point, Andy hoping Alice wouldn’t ask her what she-bop meant. I looked it up. Color me pink.
The same thing just happened here:
https://www.collectedcurios.com/SA_1223_small.jpg
Look up “No Nut November”. Color me pink again.
I’ve been working on my moonrise painting, https://www.instagram.com/p/ClC7lGlSeAN/. No moon yet but the mountains are progressing nicely.
The rest of my life feels way too busy. I can tell because last night I dreamt about trying to catch a flight to Fiji (yes please!) and hitting every snag possible while trying to get to the airport, just to realise I’d left my passport at home. This time the dream ended okay: I managed to duck home, fetch my passport and make it back with seconds to spare. Anyone else have this as a recurring stress dream, or is it just me?
I have had that dream. Also, being on stage, but no one will tell me which show I’m in.
Mine is Halloween. I dream that it is time to start trick or treating and I don’t have a costume, or my sister isn’t there or it is raining or snowing… Halloween every time for years.