Working Wednesday, September 27, 2023

~ Jenny

Today I am working on unpacking, painting furniture, and making freezer meals, but mostly I’m working on Rocky Start. In other words, the same thing I did last week.

What are you doing this week? Last week? Any week?

34 thoughts on “Working Wednesday, September 27, 2023”

  1. On Friday, I learned how to use a computerized quilting machine, and got two tops quilted during my class. I’m scheduled to go back again this next Friday afternoon.

    We had all day rain on Saturday, so I spent the time making little blocks for a Halloween quilt. I have a couple more to go before I can finish that up.

    While I was waiting for the pattern for the last Halloween block, I rummaged around for something else to do. I remembered I had bought a panel that I thought would be perfect for my aunt, whose birthday is coming up in October. I decided to get that ready so I could take it with me to the quilt shop on Friday and “git ‘er done!”

    The first thing was to figure out what colors of fabric to use for the borders I would add. I found the black, blue and brick in my sewing room – freshly bought, not even put away – and I think they were perfect. I also had some leftover white that with it’s pale blue leaves was a wonderful fit.

    The next thing was to figure out what I was going to do. I cut off the four smaller squares and placed them at the four corners of the larger panel. I measured everything and started sewing strips together. I intentionally put some strips sideways, so it mimics the New Mexico state flag a bit. I ran out of time this morning before work to put the final blue border all the way around but I’m sure you can see it in your imagination. I’ll knock that out tonight and be ready to quilt it on Friday!

    https://www.instagram.com/p/CxsiiqXL_R3/

    Time to get back to the grind!

  2. I am weeks(!) behind on a book deadline. I have a lovely editor who is being very accommodating, but it’s getting seriously scary, the amount of writing I have to finish this week.

  3. I, too, am working on the same things I was working on last week: the living room reno and clean up outside. We will get the flooring done today and I can do the last bits of mudding and taping then put the drywall tools away and focus on a big fall clean up.

    We bought paint, primer, and window trim yesterday and I think we decided on some crown. We found some architrave that we like but I’m going to price out a slightly chunkier version just to see.

    We finished tidying the garage yesterday and got one fountain put away. I have some geraniums to lift and another plant I think I can overwinter. We have to pull/clean up the community garden plots, they have been badly neglected this year I’m afraid.

    I can’t believe it’s almost October.

  4. No hot water in our house this week since Sunday – guy coming to fix it tomorrow. In the meantime, I am relying on the kindness of our neighbour to shower, plus doing a kitchen sink hair wash here and there. I feel like a pioneer.

      1. This is in the city in downtown Toronto! The gas company cut off our gas for reasons and then were unable to relight the gas water heater so…we’re waiting until we can get a contractor in tomorrow to fix it. As a side note, I learned my nephew didn’t notice while we were away because he takes cold showers for his circulation! Yikes.

    2. I did laundry in the bathtub with a washboard when I was a teenager (our washing machine was broken). Very labor intensive – including hand-wringing the clothes before rinsing the soap out and after the final rinse. Almost too tired to hang them out to dry… Our ancestors were tough! Taf

    3. We watch Country Life Vlog videos on YouTube. We are amazed at how tough the Azerbaijani couple is. They seem impervious to the weather and she frequently has her hands in food that is steaming hot as part of her canning perserving efforts.

    4. Ugh. I hate it when that happens.

      My husband regularly underestimates how long his plumbing adventures are going to take.

  5. This week the old bookcase was reassembled and most of the books from it were reshelved, some were boxed up to go to goodwill. Then I made freezer meals and started on refinishing one of the gum wood doors for the pantry – a job I should have finished after the kitchen remodel 5 years ago. Oh and I made a pumpkin pie. Good week so far despite the rain.

  6. This week I need to do a blurb for a forthcoming book. Or rather, redo a blurb. I had a working one, but I know it’s not there yet. Le sigh.

    Also, trying to decide on a cover for a short story.

    Normally, I’m pretty fast about these things, but the last year of home renos has put me in decision overload mode and now making even small decisions feels like a lot. So aside from the usual house/family things, basically my week is writerly stuff that should be easy but isn’t quite working out that way, lol.

  7. This morning I made a strata with half a loaf of challah bread that I bought yesterday that was on the clearance shelf of the local grocery store. That will be for supper tonight to give it time to soak. Next, I started my annual shift of summer to winter clothes. Up and down stairs I went with armfuls. That was in between resting in the rocker with my kindle reading Jenny’s office post. I don’t know if I’m the only one but sometimes I go back in the way back machine to her posts of previous years. This time it was her office post of 2007. From there I went to the Cincy and Dayton post with her and Bob on the flamingo and Agnes and the Hitman tour. So much fun.

    From there it was being a helper to my husband as he started to take out the ACs. My help included trying to get the window to open and getting the screwdriver, sort of like nurse to doctor on the operating room floor. My other contribution was to suggest putting the AC in a laundry basket and nudging it to the cellar stairs. Two more to go.

    Other than that, I’m on my way over to the library to put a bug in someone’s ear about getting a copy of One in a Vermillion. I thought for sure I put in a request.

  8. I finally got a chance to watch the podcast and it was lovely to see && hear Jenny and Bob.

    Question: who’s Anna? I remember Nadine & Alice. Both of those books are frequent rereads for me. But I don’t remember Anna. I feel like a bad cherry.

    I am also working on same things as last week; collage poem, rearranging house, finishing up Healing Kitchen, learning to budget better so I can buy a house.

    Tonight I’m going to dinner with my Aunt to a deli place right on the water.

    Surviving with a touch of thriving.

    1. I finally listened to the podcast as well! I also don’t remember Anna. And I agreed with Bob on Anemone’s name. It was kind of a blessing that Jenny’s wifi went out. It forced Bob to talk. 😉

  9. “What’ll we do this week, Bob?” Snark!
    “Same thing we do every week, Jenny – try to take over the world.”

    or

    “Are you pondering what I’m pondering, Jenny?”
    “I think so, Bob, but how could we get a Viking longboat full of flaming zombies up a creek in the Appalachians?”

    That’s what I picture when you write, “In other words, the same thing I did last week.” (Sorry for casting you as Pinky.)

    I, on the other hand, am doing the same thing I did last week, plus preparing a monthly hydroponic farm report.

  10. I am working on changing my life. Changing my sleep patterns, new way of eating (including different foods), new way of moving, new way of working. Apparently, I’ve been doing everything wrong for more than 60 years. Ugh. I feel just a teeny bit overwhelmed. And cranky. Let’s not forget cranky.

    1. With all those reconditioning objectives I am not surprised you are feeling a might testy. And change is frequently very hard work initially, but hopefully produces the rewards you are seeking. Hang in there & be kind to yourself. After all you can’t have been doing everything wrong if you have made it to 60+ years. Best wishes

  11. After the disassemblage of my old compost bins, which included digging up the tree roots that had gotten entangled in the chicken wire from underneath, I (with the help of my ex husband) got the new ones assembled and in place. I seem to have lost my get up and go over the past few weeks. Strange, since the weather is cooler, I should have more energy and want to go for long walks or hikes, but I don’t feel like it. I am going to have to push myself a bit if I want to stay in shape.

  12. I lost a week to gardening plus a visit from my nephew, who developed Covid the first night (his third dose; he’s an EMT). So I’m hoping I don’t get it. And now he’s gone home (it was a two-day thing), I’m back to havering over actually starting to write; and trying to get my head around how best to research lost rights of way. I finished the reference book today and concluded I really don’t want to do the research or make the claims myself. It’s like the copy-editing & proof-reading I’ve just retired from, only much worse. So I need to type up my notes and see if I can be useful – and enjoy – just coordinating other researchers. Or hand over to one of them.

  13. A ton o’ work accomplished over the weekend, and finished chapter 2 of the new novella today. Also made a very long list of things to do in the yard between now and the new year.

  14. Finished the “retreat” at work.

    I got a bunch of labels and sleeves attached to quilts that I entered into my guild’s quilt show. I also made a bunch of scarves, mittens, and hats out of fleece for a charity – Widow’s Mite that intends to distribute them to widows in Ukraine. https://www.instagram.com/p/Cxt72J6LFrV/?igshid=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==

    I’m also reading Vermillion or I wish I was but I’m actually on a Zoom call. I’ll get back to Vermillion as soon as I can.

  15. Usual stuff except for helping to proofread the general election ballots which will be going to the printer soon. Proofreading isn’t my strong suit but I did catch one error and everything gets multiple passes by multiple people.

    I made a list of everything I need to do through the end of October. (Three flu/covid/rsv shots!) I love lists and crossing things off.

  16. Day job: buried under a mountain of work. Silver lining: if we’re lucky not only one new colleague is going to join us in November, but our head of department might come back early from maternity leave for a couple of hours each ween for the big, big accreditation project (that’s her other “baby”).

    Family: researching year-abroad-options for dd, having talks with sales persons of various organizations helping with this year abroad stuff. Getting input on experiences is HARD: Thankfully dd wants to go to Canada, where chances seem far fewer to end up in a less than stellar family and school than in the US.
    Anyhow: We clearly vetoed the US-option years ago and she’s fine with that. Sidenote: I rather have her sound Canadian if Scottish or Irish or Australian or NZ is not an option 😉
    Sadly, the UK is no option at all – thanks to Brexit. Back in the 90s, I didn’t need any language test when planning to go to uni in the UK. Nowadays year 10 students have to pass tests aimed at uni-students. She might manage those, but heck, when the cost is the same she better go where she’s more welcome (I hope).

    Housing: We’ll be moving after 20+ years. I dread the work looming ahead, getting rid of loads of stuff. I try to see it as therapeutic death cleaning. Looking forward to being “lighter”, but all 4 of us are collectors, so it’s giving me nightmares already.

      1. Yes, it’s sad.
        I had the opportunity to spend some quality time at uni in the UK (Durham) and when we visited the year before Covid, she set her sight on going there, too, after her Abitur.
        I’d love her to get the British accent (well, a general British one, I know there are MANY9:
        Well, neither the time abroad nor the accent thingy will happen.

        Now, she’s made up her mind to go to British Columbia, Vancouver Island.
        Though I have heart palpitations every now and then, I can understand her Fernweh.
        It’s probably easiest to go abroad when that young (she’ll be 16 then).

  17. I got two big seasonal chores done (washing all the blankets and quilt; sealing the counters and shower). Almost finished the taxes. Made two desserts for a Yom Kippur breakfast; ate the leftovers. Scheduled my gum surgery (and promptly learned I need surgery on a cancerous spot on my face).
    Make a really thorough work task list for the next six months and scared myself. Wrote a letter for the divorce lawyer for our friend with early onset Alzheimer’s which she is using. Also convinced him to wear his hearing aids which should help slow down his dementia .

    Individually it didn’t feel like much but that actually is progress.

  18. I love batch cooking. I’m on a mini chicken pot pie obsession. I just made 15 and tossed them in the freezer. Now I’m going to do beef pot pies for my 91-year-old dad. With both kinds, I cheat and use store-bough refrigerated pie crust, and with the chicken ones, I really cheat by using Costco’s hand-pulled rotisserie chicken breast meat, shrink- wrapped in 46 oz bundles. I just do a mire poix and dump in turmeric and chicken broth and thicken it a little. Then add corn and peas. I’m a messy, disorganized cook, but in the end all the little pies are lined up so sweetly. I bought a huge bundle of mini aluminum pans I use over and over.

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