Working Wednesday, May 23, 2023

NOTE: I just realized it’s not Wednesday. Hey, it’s been a rough year. Sorry.

Apologies for the late post: When I went online last night, I couldn’t get into Argh. Did anybody else lose access seven or eight hours ago? I have Mollie working on it, which seems appropriate. Today I must clean the bathroom, revise my beginning scenes in Rocky Start, take pictures of a contract, and find my cat: Emily has gone missing and I’m worried. She was a stray for two years, so if she got out, she knows the drill, but she only has three paws, so I’m concerned. Just one damn thing after another.

What are you working on today?

38 thoughts on “Working Wednesday, May 23, 2023

  1. I’m sending my best vibes for Emily to come home. I know it’s hard to think when they’re missing. I bet she knows a good thing when she has it.

    It’s Tuesday, so I’m not really in gear, but I did actually write up a list, and do the things I was resisting doing, which seemed to be about phone calls. Which is weird, because I’m good on the phone. So checked off some things I was avoiding doing. Then I took all the seedling trays off of the dining room table and put them outside, It’s up to them now to live or die! And now we have the table back.
    Put together another of the big plant containers, meaning, I hauled the dirt to fill it. I used to do all three in a session, but now I do one per day and spare my back. This one is white geraniums, and tiny blue flowers, I can’t pull up the name. Lobelia!
    I’m looking at a screen play for a friend, which I’ve never done, but it’s an interesting challenge.

  2. So sorry to hear Emily got out. I hope she’s back by now. I’m meeting with a friend today to set up a website for her. A quick one without custom design. Get it done and dusted. That’s the plan anyway.

  3. A big pile of marking has landed… sigh… so it’s going to be working tuesday to monday, no break for the weekend… but after that I am done so that’s cool.

  4. Yes Jenny, it’s Tuesday, not Wednesday, so you’re not late – you’re incredibly early. I do hope Emily comes back quickly.

    I’ve been working on multiple projects – continuing to wash/fold the fabric I pulled off my shelves, in order to get it back up and tidy. And working on a quilt project, of course. I guess my biggest accomplishment was boxing up and mailing two quilts to my extended family members. Yes, there’s plenty more back at home, but I was torn between wanting to keep all the things and knowing that there are quilts that need to get out into the world and used. Since I was successful with these two maybe I can let go of some others. (I know when it comes time to move, I’ll be weighed down by quilts, books and craft supplies!)

  5. Welp, I’m confused.

    I went to an audition for Spamalot at Further Away Theater (45 min drive) on Sunday. Let me tell you, it was just for kicks. I didn’t expect to get in there, as the last time I auditioned there pre-pandemic it was crowded and clique-y and I only read twice when almost everyone else read 4x apiece. I was just doing this for fun.

    I also note I have another audition Thursday for Much Ado at one of my “home” theaters. I won’t have a shot at Beatrice because my Shakespeare expert friend who is basically their leading lady will get it, so my best odds are one of the serving wenches and it’ll probably be hard to get that.

    Anyway, the Spamalot audition had only *three* women in it (it’s a hugely male show anyway), so I got a callback for today automatically. I’d just be a generic woman in it anyway since the parts are for men and no way could I sing the lead/only female role, so I’m not sure why “callbacks” are a thing here, but there you go. So I might have better odds of getting into this one. Probably would not get notified for either show until the weekend. I don’t think I’d get into Spamalot otherwise since it’s Hot Chicks (something I didn’t remember from seeing it years ago) in skimpy clothing and lord knows nobody who auditioned was thin and sexy.

    So….now I’m considering what to do, here. Clearly I might be needed more in the Spamalot show, for sure, as opposed to having “extra” women at Much Ado. I was looking forward to Much Ado with friends and it’s closer, but also kind of a long shot auditionwise since that show doesn’t have too many “extra parts” to stick women in. Argh, I dunno….

  6. That was scary. For a minute there you had me convinced it was Wednesday and I had to go to work tomorrow. Instead I have another day off ahead of me. Tomorrow will be Not Working Wednesday as I need to rest up for the madness that is a boarding kennel on a major holiday.

  7. I think that we should name this Turmoil Tuesday. I hope that Emily has come home.

    1. I’m all for Turmoil Tuesday. Because on drama-y days, you’re all, “And it’s ONLY TUESDAY.”

      I note that I had FOUR possible activities today:
      (a) audition for show (have to move this one)
      (b) phone call with friend that’s been postponed a bunch of times (I give up here)
      (c) friend’s birthday party that she now moved from the day I COULD go (wah)
      (d) callback for other show.

    1. I have a huge box of Pogo comics, kind of a hand me down. I’ve dipped into them a bit.

  8. Hope Emily turns up safe, and very soon! I’m working on weeds. Not the fun part of gardening but has to be done. Also we have another room ready to re-floor, having taken the old carpet/pad to the dump.

  9. Er… since Working Wednesday arrived early, should I post about all the book I’ve read since last Thursday? Make that books, plural. Starting with That Serial, wherein Grey Wolf just fired off some of Checkov’s Arsenal, plot points which have been foreshadowed. Chapter 106: Naked in Nacogdoches. Cammie Clarke, who has lived under the shadow of parents who, if they but knew, would send her off to one of those “pray the gay away” mind-washing places, has escaped, naked and alone. Were she not able to find spare change in the vicinity of a phone booth [for younger readers, this story takes place in the early 1980s wherein devices called “payphones” were enclosed in a glass booth, and accepted nickels, dimes or quarters to make a telephone call on a landline] she would have been unable to contact Steve Marshall [protagonist] who threw together blanket and clothing and $10,000 cash and drove three hours to rescue her. Steve is a “time traveling solipsist” from 2021, who has amassed a small gambling fortune which he now will spend freely from to establish Cammie as an emancipated minor – her 18th birthday is in two weeks – and sue her parents to keep them from carrying out their plans for his friend and debate partner. Steve has money and lawyers and a desire to use them.

    1. Of the other books, there’s Tamer Enhancer 2 from which I quote:That earned a bout of laughter from Nira and Yxlyn. Voss laughed in a ‘I haven’t been here long enough to be in on the joke but it’s pretty obvious from context so I’m laughing along but not too hard because I’m the outsider’ sort of way.

      dynotaku. Tamer Enhancer 2 (Kindle Locations 558-559).

      Tamer Enhancer is Tamer fanfiction. Tamer was written by Michael-Scott Earle who was thrown out of Kindle Unlimited for gaming the system. Since authors were paid from a pool of money based on how many pages of a book were read, and since his books play with line height and text size to put fewer words on a page, I concur with Amazon tossing his ass. I liked the two “books” I read, but I suspect they were Novellas.

    1. Per the previous “Jenny’s Lost Purse” story, put in a prayer to St. Francis. I’ve had good luck with some animals returning with that one.

      Dear St. Francis: please see what you can do about getting Emily the cat back home. Thanks, Other Jennifer

      1. I hope St. Francis comes through. My friends, getting desperate to sell their acreage a few years back, buried a statue of St. Joseph in the back yard. Both MSc biologists, sceptics and generally rational people. I guess there are no atheists in the real-estate foxholes.

  10. Oh, no! Please keep us updated on Emily. Are you in your new place? If so, put her bedding or something that she will recognize outside where the familiar scent may help her find he4 way home.

    Even though, as everyone else has already mentioned, it’s Tuesday, I actually have some work to report! I mowed my lawn and planted the tomato plants I picked up a couple of weeks ago. I needed to get containers and potting soil for them as I have had no luck growing them in the ground. So maybe this year will be my lucky year of tomatoes.

  11. I didn’t lose access, but if I hit on the heart icon it reduces the number rather than adds.

  12. I just realized it’s Tuesday, not Wednesday.
    Yes, my brain is tapioca.
    No, Emily isn’t home yet and I’m really worried. No, I haven’t moved yet, that’s in July probably.
    Argh. I will get my act together, I swear.

    1. If you think she went outside I hear putting her litter box might help. But I have also heard of people losing their cats in cabinets. One neighbors cat was missing for a couple weeks and they ended up finding her in an underbed drawer. She must have snuck in and then drawer was shut with her in it. She ended up fine but a bit dehydrated. Maybe check all your storage spaces, boxes etc? It sure demonstrates how they are different than dogs! Hope Emily shows up soon!

  13. Doesn’t matter to me if it’s Tuesday or Wednesday during election season. The Board is adjudicating the write-in votes. Not too many ‘Mickey Mouse’ votes so far. I just wish that if voters are gong to write in a candidate they spell the name correctly. And we used all paper ballots this time. So much illegible handwriting.

    Must get more sleep.

    I hope Emily turns up soon.

  14. I’m off work this week, so I guess that makes this “not-working Wednesday”. So far, I’ve been dividing my time between stripping the paint off of an old $5 dresser that I picked up from a local salvage store and playing fetch with the dog who thinks fetch should be played 24/7.

    I’ve gotten through 5 layers of paint (no lead—I tested) on the dresser and am starting to wonder if there is actually any wood under there. I’m going to have to stop and do a little repair work before I go any further, since the paint turned out to be all that was holding some of the parts together.

    Trying to remember why I thought refinishing this piece was a good idea.

  15. Oh no about Emily. I hope she turns up soon and I’m adding my prayers to St Francis. And to St Anthony.

    And it’s Wednesday here so in my opinion you’re golden.

    I’m feeling pretty disorganised about work-work, but I’ve been managing to tick off quite a few home-work things. Today I did some planning towards replacing my ridiculously old switchboard, adjusted a security light that needed adjusting for the last year, washed the dishes, cooked some veges, and – the major achievement – fixed my rattling fridge.

    The ex, who knows about such things, listened to the fridge and made disconcertingly expensive noises about worn bearings. I winced, then consulted Mx Google the Appliance Repairer. Google told me how to figure out which fan might be rattling. That didn’t work on my model, so I randomly pulled shelves out to see if I could find the setting Google was talking about. And the rattling stopped. So I pushed the shelf back in, and put everything back on it. And hey presto, silence. I’m so glad I didn’t just call a repairer in. That would’ve been embarrassing as well as expensive.

  16. Cats are very, very good at hiding. When we had our gutters cleaned one hid under the bed. Fine, normal, but the other one found her way into the bathroom cabinet. I have no idea how. It took forever to find her and she wouldn’t come out.

    I hope Emily comes home soon.

  17. I am working on not losing my mind. A lot of weird stuff, and family drama, seems to be happening this week. But I had a half day at work yesterday and I cleaned and crafted and painted until I wasn’t in a weird mood anymore. I really am a better person when I paint. It’s like exercise. I know it’s good for me, I know I feel better, I even like doing it but somehow, allocating the time seems almost impossible.

  18. Spread the word around the neighborhood she could be in a neighbor’s garage or shed with the doors being opened to get at garden tools. Our onetime cat was locked in a new build house until they came to work on it again.

  19. It’s prom time. This time around it was my grandson’s turn. So handsome all dressed up with a boutonniere to boot. His date had some of the material left over from her gown and someone made a matching bow tie for his suit. They looked so cute. The school had all the prom goers meet at the high school and used school buses to take them down to The Cape for their event. Smart!

    1. They did that here this year. I hear the bus drivers all dressed up, but I haven’t heard details.

  20. Today is Wednesday and this didn’t show up in my inbox when it came out yesterday. Plus most but not all of my hearts are pre-redded (yes, I know that’s not a word). So clearly something is going on.

    I hope you find Emily soon! With all the commotion, it is possible she bolted outside, although it isn’t as though the moving prep hasn’t been going on for a while. I’d try sitting outside with a can of food and calling her. As people suggested, sometimes it helps to put the litter box outside. And I’d definitely check inside for places she could have accidentally been locked in, since you’ve been moving things around. (You’d think she’d cry, but they don’t always.)

    I’m working on trying to find a housemate. it isn’t going well. I’m also trying to work on my new novel. Ditto.

  21. I’ve been full on with my proof-reading job, which is going more smoothly now I’m a couple of hundred pages in. Should be able to get it done and also enjoy my friends’ visits, fingers crossed. In between, I’m planting up my gardens – I’m halfway through my summer pots, and managed to get a couple of structural plants to fill gaps at the weekend. We’re having a shot of summer, which is great – although I need to keep watering the transplants.

  22. Working on the now finally finished balcony railings installation. Helped H with all the pickets, checking all the levels. All flat black metal. No more scrapping and painting and caulking. What a big job that was. H engineered, measured to perfection. Good man. I washed the furniture, cushions on tomorrow. Will repair umbrella with a border to jazz it up a bit. And cleaned the leaf guard gutters too. Dirty job. Slept the sleep of a tired helper. Christening the new improved “room” tomorrow with son and DIL.

  23. I’ve been working on fundraising for my day job, writing more federal comments (I can’t believe how many requests for comments the Census Bureau is putting out), and the two commitment ceremonies.

    And hosting. My nephew is here for six weeks, my daughter for 10 days, my son and my niece and her partner were here last weekend, and my BFF from high school who is making DDs dress for one of the parties will be here next weekend with her mom. The laundry alone is a time suck. In 9 days I drove to the airport 6 times and the train station once.

  24. Any news on Emily yet? A very stinky solution: open a can of sardines, and leave a couple on your doorstep during the day. (remove at night as you don’t want racoons, etc.) It might draw her out.

    I’m sure you’ve thought of this, but Animal Control can be weirdly belated in entering animal descriptions into their logs. We once had our dog go missing for three days, we were frantic. It turned out that the people who found her had been calling the pound every two hours the entire time they had her, and we had been doing the same, and it took a new person on day shift to actually write down her description as she’d slipped her collar at some point.

    I can see someone thinking that a cat with three paws needed not to be allowed to wander back outside if they coaxed her into a garage with tuna or something.

Comments are closed.