This week I put together a lot of furniture–I don’t care if I never see another Allen wrench again–and unloaded the POD I spent two weeks loading in two days and burned rice onto my AllClad pan because I was unpacking more flat pack furniture and . . . I’m so tired and achey I could die. Okay, exaggeration.
I’m really tired and sore. But I also proofread Rest in Pink, although I probably still missed stuff because I wrote parts of it, and I got a lot of things put together, and I had dinner with my pal Pat Gaffney twice, so things are looking up. Now if Emily William will just get his butt in the cat carrier . . .
What did you work on this week?
WORK is the result of moving a FORCE through a DISTANCE. I’m still in the same place, regardless of energy or effort expended, therefor I did no WORK. Ask any physicist.
Yes, but moving an idea through the brain is moving a force through a distance because you arrive at a different place.
Define your terms. Any physicist who defines “distance” as a physical space has not considered the power of ideas to move bodies.
All true, but mathematicians have already kicked physicist’s butts by using calculus to examine increments of work performed in very small time periods and then summing all the increments. Neither argument affects the joke. I did stuff – it just feels like I accomplished nothing useful.
See, Gary is using Newtonian physics, while Jenny, being more sophisticated, is into quantum mechanics. Her definition of work is executed on the nano scale as electrons move through neurons in her brain. Har.
That’s it I am totally lost.
Love it! This gave me a good laugh!
Yes, I started by abusing Newtonian Physics. It was humor, like:
Sounds like GaryJ deserves a piece of pi! Okay, three point one four one five nine two six five three five eight nine seven nine three two three eight four six two six four three three eight three two seven nine ….
What, no Cool Whip? No French vanilla ice cream? Keep in mind that I only like Apple Pi and because the Apple ][ and the Apple //e were eight bit systems, they could only calculate pi to eight significant digits. About two bytes worth.
Okay, Apple is the only fruit pi I like. I suppose I could go fro quiche or chocolate cream pi or cottage pi…
I have a dental patient who bought Apple a couple of decades ago. Grrr.
Not to put too fine a point on it, that song is brilliant. I had it on a mixtape of kid-suitable songs in my minivan days. Keep a little birdhouse in your cassette player…
Also a goodly selection of Boney M. Ohhh, those Russsians.
I meant to point out that Jinx was being irrational.
Irrational, eh, Gary? I see what you did there… . We will never be able to divide that Pi evenly; someone will have to get the whipped cream spoon to lick in compensation for a smaller piece.
Whoa. I came onto Argh to enjoy the companionship and gentle thoughts of our community and…this. It’s still too early in the day.
Dunno. I’m soaking up these ripostes.
I always learn something here.
And in Jenny’s, as well as Jenny and Bob’s, books. (I used triangulation, as learned from Agnes & the Hitman, in a piece of fanfic.)
I was motivated this past week to get some of those nagging tasks done that I had ignored the previous weekend. I used the rug cleaner so I wouldn’t have to look at the cat yak stains in front of my bedroom door. It was very satisfying to see them get sucked up into the machine. Of course, less than a week later, new stains have been deposited. Sigh.
I also had the leaning tower of filing that I took care of. There are several smaller piles of stuff I need to sort and put away (or shred).
I got the binding on the two little quilts I made for my friend’s granddaughters. The pink for the toddler, and the smaller floral for the brand new baby. I showed them off to my quilter friends last night, so I can send them on now.
And I put the final border on the teal quilt. That now goes into a pile of tops that need to be quilted, once I find a backing for it.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CvuCX0luVui/
If you remember the pieces I showed you from last weekend – all the little blue ones. I also put that top together. I don’t know if you were thinking those pieces belonged to a circle, but they did! Link to that in the next comment.
The blue circle quilt top. This one is also in the pile of tops that needs a backing and then to be quilted.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CvlH517J26c/
They’re both gorgeous! However, that cat is looking at those white circles like they’re targets for him to barf on. Just saying. 😉
Amazing!
I love that so many of your quilts are cat-inspected. 🙂
All of them really. I try to take pictures of just the quilts, but most of the time the cats help themselves.
That’s because they know they have fans over at Argh who want to see them.
Your work is, as always, amazing.
Wow! Great work! Those lines on the first one are those all little pieces of quilting? That’s a lot of tiny folding and stitching.
I am thinking about trying for an opening at work. I’m not qualified for it, but feel sure I could learn given the chance. I don’t know if they would be willing to consider me given my lack of experience and training.
Also, I am not a fan of the supervisor in that area. And there are two unpleasant people back there that I would have to work with.
On the plus side, better pay, no nights or weekends…
Good luck Lupe. At least, you know what you are getting into. Is it worth the benefits to put up with the jerks? I guess you will figure that out.
I’ll share the best job search advice I ever had: “Never turn down a job until it’s offered to you. Up to that point, your role is to MAKE THEM LOVE YOU.” Yes she said it in caps to me.
Lupe, most women I know ponder whether they should apply when not 100% of the qualifications are met. Only very few men have the same doubts.
The points about the supervisor/colleagues is valid, but by applying you’d show that you are interested in learning/growing.
Why not try anyway?
Because:
“Only one thing is ever guaranteed, that is that you will definitely not achieve the goal if you don’t take the shot.” (Greztky)
Or: “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”
Said the heroin addict. **sorry**😬
I want to not work anymore but I am not quite old enough, wah. Probably changing work is the answer.
On a non-related and hypothetical note, if one was dating a man whose favourite author was H. P. Lovecraft, is that sufficient reason to dump him?
I am married to that man so I hope not.
Honestly, my husband is a sweetie. But he has ghoulish tastes in authors.
maybe if his second favorite author is Ayn Rand.
or anywhere in the top ten….
Or on the list at all
I too am not quite old enough to retire but don’t want to work anymore. #8moreyears
I am quite old enough to retire, but too poor. Also addicted to my job, so there’s that. The conflict of wanting to stay home All the Time, but also not wanting to miss anything at work makes me reluctant to even cut back my hours.
(Cut back my hours after I finally get Social Security to start paying me. I’ve been working on that for six months, and this week I may actually be making progress. Now I have to go present myself and my ID at an office to prove I’m real and not a fraudulent account.)
What area of work are you in?
Is that for me? (The replies get confusing this far down the thread.) I work in an animal hospital and boarding kennel. Endlessly interesting.
I work as a project manager for a university library. It’s less about not liking my job as it is about wanting to do other things at home, like gardening, quilting, reading, …
Also, Mary Anne, thank you for what you do! Fur babies need good people to care for them when they are unwell.
I have 20+ years to go, I despise “my career,” I hate every job I look at. I have zero interest in any of this and yet I must drag on forever.
Have you ever seen a career counselor ? Or read “what color is my parachute”? Both might be worth considering.
Don’t drag on. Take a lesson from the Duke of Wellington: stop, tie a knot and continue on with a modified plan.
I bought Cthulhu stuffies for my nieces and nephews. Just saying.
What?? where did you get them?? I need to buy one for my husband!
I got them at BAM last year. Quite adorable. Yes, I am the bad aunt.
Oh no that is Best Aunt behaviour.
My brother came from Vancouver to help my nephew/his son move from our house to Kingston to attend law school. It’s actually great to spend time with my brother – so far I narrowly avoided one political argument by channelling it into a discussion of the film Oppenheimer. He also borrowed my car and got a parking ticket which I paid. Says he doesn’t understand Toronto signage. Then he parked the car in front of our house but left it running. I only realized that when I took the dogs out for a walk an hour later. And the puzzling part is that for a living…he’s a driver. Family – what is there to say.
Early Alzheimer’s? Wow.
It’s more a scattered brained thing. Perhaps with a dollop of thoughtlessness thrown in.
ADHD?
Uh oh. How old is he?
I swear this is not a medical issue – he has written 12 complex, political/historical books and finishing up another.
So basically, he’s a guy. (Apologies to the couple of guys here.)
Exactly.
Double exactly. But now I’m feeling warm and fuzzy about him because he fended for himself for lunch, cleaned up after himself and took out my garbage and compost.
Men. At least when my sister screws me over, I know it’s on purpose.
I feel for you, Jenny. Been there, done that. Those instruction sheets are not the greatest, either. I like the smell of the wood in those kits. And it feels like I am a capable and powerful woman, once one of those becomes furniture out of the void.
It’s pouring today, so no mowing. I am going to stop obsessing about it, and just let nature do its thing. I will get to it when I can. In the meantime, I am getting steadier on my feet, and stronger each day.
I sorted through three boxes of “stuff” and ended up with a large pile of old purses, and cloth bags, and freebie cosmetic bags, from buying makeup at the department store. It will go to Savers, who support Big Brothers and Big Sisters with the donations people give to their thrift store.
I tidied my desk! It was DEEP! Then I finally, FINALLY, got the borders on my sampler quilt from last year. I hate borders. Then this weekend I’m going to a quilt retreat, and will hopefully finish another quilt top! Woohoo!
Congratulations!! And hope you have a great time at the retreat!
I’m sleeping badly for quite some time now, so work is dragging. But I have to urgently finish some job by tomorrow. Cause then I’m off work for two weeks. Yeah.
Since in July the weather was so incredibly hot, we decided against a beach holiday. Since then it’s cool and rainy. I hope it’ll be better next week when we’ll be off on a bike tour. Me the not-sporty one 😉
I am still wrapping up details on this weekend’s parties (Saturdays commitment ceremony preceded by a restaurant dinner for 24 on Friday and drop in brunch at our house on Sunday for 51 plus 10 or so who never rsvp’d.)
DD is not helping by sweetly offering that we will take her in laws to see various sights — i had arranged with them that they would come from England a few days early to adjust to jet lag but stay late so we could do things together after the celebrations.
The house is filling up; I drove to the airport four times since Saturday, twice waiting for hours until people were through passport control, and will go again Thursday. Two guests arrive at midnight and one Friday midnight; by Saturday there will be 8 in the house plus 5 sets of family elsewhere that need food drop offs, chauffeuring, entertaining ….
I am still sorting papers and cleaning up and trying to deal with last minute items.
The hardest part was driving back from the airport when DH and I went to get a rental car ( we needed a second car with functioning AC) in the middle of torrential rain, 5 mile an hour traffic, and terrifying news reports about how an 80 mile an hour wind thunderstorm was moving right to the highway we were on.
I hate it when people suggest that *I* could do something social and/or time-consuming for *their* guests (friends, clients, etc).
Yes. Especially when I’m trying to prepare for her event!
Yes, and it sounds like invading Afghanistan would be simpler.
That’s how it’s feeling. And on that drive back it also felt like invading Afghanistan would be safer !
The (weird) request I always get is from friends suggesting I call their spouse/family member for their birthday. Um…are they going to call me on my birthday??
WTF
That sounds like they are afraid the people won’t get calls —it’s kinda sad.
It rained last night. Full nights sleep, finally. Continuing the purge. Shifting stuff. Happy with my sewing space and looking out at the garden. Planning a brunch for niece and her husband this Sunday. A brunch buffet for four.
I spent time last week at a conference. Since I’ve been home, we’ve been dealing with a cat who is refusing to eat. She’s getting an appetite stimulant and subq fluids (although that went very poorly yesterday). Good news is we got the blood test results and she’s not as far gone as suspected by the vet. While her numbers were up from last time, she’s not at a dire point yet. (She has kidney disease.) This has taken up all my attention and caused much stress. We’re happy for the new from the blood test but still need her to eat. She’s 21 years old, mostly deaf, has arthritis and kidney disease, and has been with us for her whole life but the first 8 weeks. We know we’ll lose her eventually but it no longer looks like it will be this week.
I did get the laundry done.
Keeping a cat alive is enough work for one week. Hugs.
Yea Kitty!
Are you doing the subQ fluids by drip or pushing them? Some cats prefer one method, some another. (Of course, catching the cat is Step One.)
I’m thinking of our frequent boarder at work, who is not on fluids, but is a 21 year old diabetic cat who has been on insulin for most of her life, and now has seizures, and is on medication for that, and is so incredibly good for us. Every time she comes in, we know it may be the last time. So I’m sharing a little of your stress.
It’s by drip. She doesn’t like it. We were partially successful today in that we got about half a dose in.
I hope your 21 year old is well for a long while yet!
If only pets could speak our language so they could tell us what’s wrong and we could explain why we’re “torturing” them.
When Jupiter puss wouldn’t eat earlier this year, I ended up syringing food into his mouth. It was special high protein convalescent wet food from the vet. That worked. I didn’t get a lot of it into him but it was enough to keep him going till his meds kicked in enough that he’d eat again.
I wished he understood English so I could tell him to force himself to eat because he’d feel better once the meds kicked in and he wasn’t going to die, damn it.
I’m very happy that Jupiter made it through the rough patch and had such a good human to take care of him!
I have had house guests, which is very unusual for me and definitely makes work. Last week a friend came through Monday night on her way to visit relative, and then on Friday on her way home. That worked out very well, except that she was really wound up after dealing with her siblings, so required much wine and some patience on Friday, No problem.
Then changed the sheets in the guest bedroom and readied it for my favorite cousin and his eldest son, who were on a pilgrimage to the Baseball Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, about a half an hour from my house. I haven’t seen either of them in about 8 years, since his son was 11. Now he is 19 and taller than his dad. They arrived late, so dinner was late, and bedtime was later, but overall still very happy to have them here. We’re getting takeout tonight. And I need to pick up another case of wine…
This week a lot of work went into camper maintenance. New ceiling fan arrived yesterday so today’s project will be swapping out the dead fan for a working one and that’s the last task. Also lots of getting ready for back to school.
I’m not working on much of anything? We have one pickup rehearsal tonight (why? dunno) in between shows and that’s it.
I am getting dumped by one therapist and the other is now refusing to start for weeks until she declares me 100% done with the old one. I’m really unhappy and uncomfortable with both of their behaviors on this topic. I don’t feel like I can say something because they obviously can do what they want and set what boundaries they want, but this is not okay with me.
they are both shitty at their jobs. so sorry you have to work around that kind of crap.
What I’m working on for my three days off is getting Social Security to acknowledge that I exist. I’ve been working on drawing SS since February, and three weeks ago FINALLY managed to complete the online application, not that I tried more than once a month or so, since the website is maddening. Monday I received a letter saying to call [number] which I did for three days; this morning I got a call back saying I need to go to the “local” office (in another county) with my ID and prove I’m me because my account has been marked “potentially fraudulent.”
Government Work.
(At least I don’t have to move.)
Oy vey!! I sympathize. I hope the trip takes care of it.
We shall see. The trip took an hour and a half (only ten minutes of it in the office).
Working Wednesdays are going to be great for me – at least every other week when the cleaning ladies come. I had no idea how much I would love having cleaning done for me again (it’s been 30 years). Without all that stuff hanging over my head, I have had company to stay, company for dinner, cleaned out some cupboards to take stuff to Goodwill (I haven’t made a soufflé for 25 years, why do I need a large soufflé dish and 9 small soufflé dishes. Why do I need 3 complete sets of champagne glasses. I never give large parties). And we are cleaning the massive light fixture in the kitchen which I would not expect the cleaning ladies to do. They barely come up to my shoulders and even with my tallest interior ladder, could not reach the top of it.
If this continues up until Christmas I might have enough stuff cleaned out that the closets will be useable again.
This is why I pay someone (more than I can really afford) to cut my grass. In the time I would be cutting grass I can do things that only I can do.
My problem is I ask those questions and the answers from DH are “but it still works” “you never know when you might need it “ “ but six months ago I used x from that collection to fix y”.
DH has clear hoarder tendencies.
I’m more like your DH.
Final step of putting away camping stuff was accomplished Monday when the last re-seasoning of the Very Heavy Cast Iron Skillet was completed (not sticky after coming out of the oven this time) and returned to my cache of infrequently used pots, pans and other implements of cooking.
Finally getting around to typing up the minutes from June’s committee meeting and putting together the agenda for this Saturday’s meeting (we took July off).
Watched DH build a complex PVC pipe (framework) and plywood shelves to go in a 1995 right hand drive Honda mini-bus he purchased to ferry his remote-controlled airplanes to the model air club he joined. Now he just has to over come the hurdle of getting the thing registered. Apparently its a problem to get a title for a vehicle with a lien against it (he borrowed a few thousand from a credit union to purchase it) if there is no title to start with. And there is not title to start with because it is OLD and was imported by the seller from Japan….
Jenny, my experience with AllClad pots and pans is that soaking over night does eventually get all the burned stuff to release from the pot…done it too many times myself…and I guess its one of the reasons why it is so expenseve!
Today I’m very grateful for my accountability partner, though she may not be grateful for me. I have been erratic of late. I think I figured something out, though, so things will get better.
Beyond writing, I have plans for work that I hope I can accomplish quickly. Somehow we managed to accumulate about 20 boxes that need to be broken down & taken to recycle and my laundry has built up again.
I want to work on another collage, as well.
And I want to thank people who recommended Fleabag. We really enjoyed it.
Also – does everyone know Hulu is dropping new episodes of Season 3 for Only Murders In the Building?
Finally – last nights critique zoom was so much fun. Mostly because I got into a very fun dialogue using the chat feature that has continued today in my email.
Your accountability partner is totally grateful for you. Don’t ever let her say otherwise.
😉 I won’t!
Well I could be dusting. Humor, har. No reason to exert myself this week so I’m not going to.
I’ve a few ripe tomatoes so tomato sandwiches!
I finished my freelance job – the last for a while – and drove down south to help a friend with her big sort-out (she wants to move next year). It’s going slower than I hoped; she’s finding it quite challenging. I saw some of her local friends this evening, and am hoping they’ll be able to help her keep the momentum going. I’ll be glad to get back to my own stuff – it’s frustrating having to sit and watch (and help) rather than sort things out myself. I really want to go full steam ahead!
I’ve been working on having a cat again. She is settling in well. The full name is now Miss Kitters O’Scruffian. She was introduced to my work group today (during Teams meeting; yay video) as my new antidepressant.
Also back at work (finally) on the big city-small town, age-gap, marriage of convenience novel. Wrote a chapter yesterday and will finish another today, hallelujah for a quiet week at Day Job.
Also disciplined the grapevines and wisteria again, watered other things, and took a carload of stuff to Goodwill. Ordered a new work surface for the kitchen to replace the thing I had to give away because the old thing ate up floor space where the litterbox needed to go. The neighbor who picked it up from curb mart actually spotted me outside last night (me on my wisteria-whacking ladder, she in her car) and thanked me for the thing. 🙂 Said she is using it in her hall, with a plant on top. I said Perfect! Glad it has a good new home.
Is it ok that I imagine you in black leather while disciplining the grapevines and wisteria?
PS: They May be Giants do a lovely ‘Istanbul, not Constantinople’. If you’ve a date in Constantinople, she’ll be waiting in Istanbul.
Yes, I have been drinking.
It’s nobody’s business but the Turks.
Thanks so much for the music – starts the soundtrack to my work day 🙂
Good music – good vibes – work completed more easily.
Hahahaha I love the idea of being a leather-clad dominatrix of vines!
Yay for a new kitty! If you’re up to putting a photo on Instagram and tagging us (#WorkingWednesdayPix) it would bring joy to see her!
I am enjoying my newly replaced back deck. Technically, it’s only 99% done, but that’s the point when my interest wanes, so it may be waiting for that final board to be cut/installed for some time. The puppy is enjoying it too–especially the fact that her favorite tennis ball can no longer get stuck underneath and be lost forever.
I hung a strand of globe-lights around the front porch (they’d been in a box in the garage waiting to be hung forever). I wanted to put them in the backyard around the deck, but there was no feasible place to attach them, so the front porch is where they wound up. Not sure how often I’ll turn them on–they are very bright–though they do make the porch seem festive.
I also finally finished shredding all of the paperwork that came home with me when we had to move out of our work office in June. It’s amazing how easy it is to decide you don’t need to keep assorted files and papers when keeping them means you have to figure out where to store them.
Next up are 5 moving boxes full of work-related books. My co-workers were just going to throw them in the trash (crazy!) so I said I’d take them and donate them to the library so at least someone could get some use out of them.
My work this week is flying to Queensland to help my mother discipline (thank you for such a perfect phrase chacha1) her entire garden. We started today with the vegie patch and have weeded about half, savagely pruned the pomegranate, and put in some new seedlings. We’ll finish that this afternoon and then move on, to either the rose terrace, the fruit tree avenue, or the many murraya hedges that have closed off their pathways. That alone could take the whole rest of the week. It’s an exceptionally large garden.