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Working Wednesday, November 20, 2024

I’ve been working my butt off and getting a lot done, but never enough. I mean, the progress is real, I can see it, but there’s so much more to do. Some of it is finite–getting the website revamped and updated, working out a good compromise on the newsletters, finding the top of my desk–and some of it is over and over again, like emptying and filling up the dishwasher, although even that is a kind of a good thing because I didn’t have a dishwasher in my previous cottage. Since the only solution to the dishwasher is to stop eating, I’m just going to cowgirl up and keep doing it, while keeping my focus on getting The Honey Pot Plot out the door. The really good thing is, I love my work. And now it’s even more fun because I’m not alone in fighting my way through the book. I’d say,”Nothing but good times ahead,” but let’s be real, I’m American, we have some rocky moments ahead of us. Still lots of good times, though, and a reason to keep working on things we love.

What did you work on this week?

76 Responses

  1. I made major inroads in cleaning up my office and my bedroom closet — places that held all the stuff that belonged somewhere else.

    I was looking forward to my new oven — being installed Friday — when, after a day of making cackling noises to itself — the broken oven started working again. (The inner computer board went bad and is no longer made, so we’re replacing a machine that is fine but whose tiny electronic brain belongs in a madhouse.) My husband responded by going nuts and trying to cancel the new oven. I tried every way I could — short of a sledge hammer — to make the oven go bad again. Finally, it returned to its previous Err F1E2 state. We can safely toss it. Whew.

    Anagram: Elon Musk = Lone Skum

  2. I’ve been knitting. Almost finished my first hat – hipster beanie for my nephew. Also planning our trip to Italy – it’s fun choosing our accommodations. Lots of time to change our minds but at least we have an outline of a plan. The rest of the week will be taken up with volunteering and more knitting.

  3. Slowly chipping away at housework, room by room. Slowly. Today is probably the last day when it is going to be warm enough to wash the outside of the windows. I suck at window washing (I swear, they look worse when I’m done), but I’m going to try and tackle at least the couple of the ones I look through the most.

    Juggling my doctor appointments and vet appointments, along with doing energy healing work on my regular client and tarot readings via Zoom. Somewhere in there I should be starting a new book…any day now.

    1. I subscribe to the philosophy that exterior window washing is best left to the professionals and I hire it out. Works a charm, except that all smudges are then on the inside.

  4. The kids and I deep cleaned our bedrooms on the weekend in preparation for a birthday sleepover (K2), hiding Christmas presents (me), and just because (K1).
    DH folded the previous week’s laundry, I washed all the floors, and then folded more laundry. Now we just need to decanter the hall and dining room tables. Again. That is never ending.

    This weekend is full of cake baking and birthday dinners and kids sleeping over. I’m thankful that there’s no school Monday, and I booked the day off, so I will have a day to recover (after the kids leave).

  5. (1) Working/volunteering at my library (book sale coming up 12/4 and 12/7 plus semi-monthly homebound deliveries),

    (2) Trying my hand at altering a truly hideous cat sweater into a jacket (it is awful, so I won’t miss it if I mess up),

    (3) Just recovering from a week of babysitting while my kids were in Punta Cana and G3 and G1 grandkids were left home with grandma,

    (4) Gtting ready to volunteer at Christkindlmarkt [https://www.steelstacks.org/festivals/christkindlmarkt-bethlehem/] here in Bethlehem, PA.

    We’re not called ChristmasCity.org for nothing! We would love to see you here! [https://www.visithistoricbethlehem.com/christmas/]

  6. Working on getting this book out the door today! I’ve been getting a few hours sleep and then back to work. And when the editor says “What is this?” at a particular scene or passage, I can say “I have no idea. It was 2am when I wrote it.”

    Got up at 4:30 and worked for 2 hours then went walking with my neighbor and we spotted 2 deer. It was very foggy here this morning and when I first spotted them I asked when that neighbor had gotten deer lawn ornaments. Then they crossed the street in front of us.

    Now, back to work because raw or well-done this book is leaving today!

  7. I had been staring at a leaning tower of paperback books. It was one of three stacks in my bedroom, the “I’ve read it and I want to keep these” piles. I had decided that I needed to put them on one of my book shelves but that necessitated getting to said bookshelf, evaluating the current contents and deciding honestly which ones I was going to keep and which could go. I finally tackled this project on Saturday morning, so now the three very tall piles have been reduced to one medium and one small pile, and I have about 50 or so books ready to leave the premises. I felt really good about that. In the process I also unpacked a box from my move 8 years ago (it was in the right room, just blocking the book case.) Some things from the box were also trashed, and others were actually put away, so hooray for small cleaning.

    I did some more work on quilting, but it is all basically invisible stabilizing stitching, so no pictures to see. But I think I’ve reached the point on this one where I can just start quilting. I am planning on going to the longarm shop on Friday afternoon to see what I can do with two other quilts. Just need to get the backing pinned and ready to go!

  8. I applied the Holter Monitor, brought by UPS, as soon as it arrived, per instructions. It looks kind of like a thick watch, with clear plastic for the band, except it goes on your chest, and the two “wings” hold it in place. I had to shave the upper left chest area, (I didn’t even know I had hair there!), abrade it with a little circle of fine sandpaper, and use six alcohol swabs on it, then apply the weird butterfly to it. It itches and irritates, but it’s only for a week. The new doc said it’s just to make sure there’s nothing strange going on with my heart.

    We got lots of rain, so no mowing, yet. Maybe I’ll use the leaf vacuum on the larger leaves.

    I have boxes stacked in the basement that I’m eyeing. From being a United Methodist Minister, and moving often, I learned to save my moving boxes. Some of them got wet, and some of them are for things that no longer exist, like the stereo set that died, and a printer that has been replaced. I’m thinking the really cold, windy weather that is coming would be a good incentive to work down in the bowels of the house.

    For fans of Con Riley, I pre-ordered His Until Christmas on Kindle, and it came in today, well planned, at a week before Thanksgiving, and a little over a month before Christmas.

  9. Mostly helped my friend to move. Plus bits of proof-reading, gardening and admin. Today I’m sorting and cleaning the garden passage, which has been on my list for five years. Hoping there’ll be a wide enough space so that I can wheel my shopping trolley through to the kitchen from now on, although the recycling box will be a challenge.

  10. I put the second book of a three part series up on pre-order, and I’m now working on graphics to put it out on social media. It will come out on December 10, and then I plan to have a joyous holiday.

  11. I’m working on catching up to my volunteer commitments for my church and an arts organization I sing with. Friday is a Friendsgiving at our church, a fun event, and I’m in charge of the turkeys, gravy, and some dressing. We (the church) have a commercial-grade kitchen, so it’s a great place to cook. Then prepping for 15 people (all family) at the Thanksgiving table.
    I was called in for a second mammogram, which is on Friday. I’m thinking about it on Friday, when I know what’s going on.

  12. A couple of my tasks are similar to Jenny’s—filling and emptying the dishwasher and working on finding the bottom of my desk. Since I’m still convalescing, I tell myself I have excuses. The dishwasher got run and is almost empty again, preparatory to being refilled immediately from the sink and vicinity. I ran a load of laundry yesterday, and may get another done today.

    I had a medical appointment on Monday, checking that last month’s procedure did what it was supposed to. Now no more information to be expected for a 2 or 3 months, unless I get a call very soon. I had been feeling run down that morning (expected side effect) but adrenaline got me going for the couple of hours I was at the clinic. Then the adrenaline departed, and for Monday evening and all of Tuesday, I spent a lot of time sitting down. (I did stand up at least one or twice an hour, so I’m not threatened with leg thrombosis, but staying standing and moving around still tires me out quickly.)

    While sitting I at least have read a lot, including some Crusie titles, and have written comments via my tablet on this site and elsewhere. I also commented on the draft minutes from a Zoom meeting last week that had been passed to me for input. I was able to add some things.

    Today I’m hoping today to get some chili made from scratch. I’m running low on variety regarding things to eat that don’t need extensive preparation. Having chili for today and frozen for later should help. I may wimp out and use canned beans, though. We’ll see.

    1. Got back from my trip with my friend to Vienna last night (which was amazing and I can’t recommend it enough—have a long list of recommendations for anyone considering a trip).
      So I’m working on unpacking, laundry, figuring out what came up while I was gone that I have to add to the calendar, scheduling an appointment about DD house purchase, sorting out trip expenses ( we agreed to more or less pay alternately and then balance it out when we got back), setting up a new electric toothbrush because my old one decided to turn on randomly and we decided not to risk having it in the luggage, and generally just getting life back on track.

      1. Your electric toothbrush turns on randomly? Did it get bumped in the luggage? That’s really strange.

      2. Spontaneous on/off usually means that a waterproof seal has failed and water or toothpaste has gotten into the guts. Unless it was an expensive high-end unit, replacement is best option.

        1. Oh! That explains why DH’s toothbrush started up while in a drawer. Except we had forgotten he even had an electric toothbrush, and we thought the bathroom had been invaded by a rattlesnake.

  13. It’s tech week for Robin Hood, so….that. I’m finishing off my sweater–have one sleeve to go! I will hopefully be able to wear it next week. I’m happy I figured out how to finish off an armpit on the sleeve since I hadn’t done that in a design before.

    I have also spent the last 24 hours trying to look for crap to buy my mom for Christmas. At this point I feel like I’ve tried buying her everything and she is just not into anything I get her. I’ve gone shopping with the woman 12 billion times and I somehow can’t pick something that she’d pick for herself? She’s also anti-gift card, anti-money, anti-food gifts and I have no clue on an experience gift idea for her. Basically she has turned into a boring person who you can’t find anything for. Last year I pretty much gave up.

    Yesterday I went through like 20 Buzzfeed gift guides of random shit you find on Amazon and bought her mostly weird household goods (ironing mat, drink dispenser, that book Jenny recommended the other day on house cleaning, stuff like that), since she buys ME weird household goods that I can’t figure out why anyone would want or what you do with them. I guess that’s what she wants?

    1. I think you’ve hit on something, Jenny. For years, I bought people things I thought were cute and/or handy, instead of asking what they wanted. It made a difference when I asked. What a lot of money I wasted on senseless things they didn’t need or want!

    3. I use the holiday season as an exercise in supporting small businesses that I want to survive. I don’t really care if the recipient likes the gift as long as the money stays in my community and I feel good about it. This year, I found someone making soap out of her house for a reasonable price and put in a large order back in August. My extended family and random work people are getting either a shampoo bar or a dish soap bar. She even gift wrapped them for me! It hits all the points for me, as I am always trying to edit endocrine disrupters out of my life and for those around me, and soap will be used up, so I don’t feel guilty about adding to someone’s clutter.

      Or you could always donate to a charity in her name.

    4. I’ve been buying my friends bottles of wine and posh biscuits for years now, since they are always welcome for Christmas, if you get desperate, get her stuff to keep warm, since it is winter, mugs, warm socks, furry blankets, scarves, thermals etc or those Chilly drink bottles are pretty good.

  14. On newsletter compromise, I get it. I have nowhere near your followers, but every person who works on my website on online presence tells me I am missing out on the greatest connection by not having a newsletter. I resist b/c I have a good list of subscribers to my blog and these days I use that to fill readers in. It only goes out once a month and only to people who signed up for it. Good enough for me, but Molly knows best where your socials are concerned.

  15. So anyway working on…website. I went to a new one that is supposed to be only for authors and very easy. It’s called PubSite. It looks clean and professional. But it does not have ability to store thousands of blog posts. So I kept Word Press for that and just linked it on new website. Now I need to update new website which is supposed to be “easy” and it isn’t. My son, who helps me, is in Japan. I can do it!

  16. I’ve been working on promoting my new release. For anyone who’s read or planning to read the Bourbon B&B books, there’s a bit of flash fiction featuring the sisters over at Dru’s Book Musing today: https://drusbookmusing.com/jess-walker-2024/

    But what I was most proud of was how hard I worked at motivating myself to bring some electronics to Staples for recycling. And yet ….

    See, I had this great idea to make myself go to Staples in person. I mean, it’s only two miles away, but I’m never in that corner of town, so I never think to go there, even though all the old electronics are in my car, ready to drop off. But I needed a new printer, and it was the same model/price at either Amazon or Staples, but with Staples, I’d have to pick it up instead of having it delivered to my door (by choosing “pickup in store”), and that would force me to go there in person, and while I was there, I might as well bring in the old electronics that have been sitting in my car (first the old one and then transferred to the new one) for months.

    Great planning, right? Except the in-store delivery was delayed by a day, so without asking, and doing me what they must have thought was a nice thing as an apology for the delay, they switched it to be delivered at my house instead, and there it was on my deck this morning. So no need to go to Staples in person. Sigh.

    I may have those electronics in my back seat for as long as I have a car.

    1. I just checked their site, and Staples accepts for recycling a lot more stuff than I thought. I must keep that in mind, although other decluttering is more urgent for me first.

  18. One of the areas that I have responsibility for at the university (in addition to teaching, research, etc) has to do with student well-being. As such, I speak with so many students struggling with poor mental health, and I manage a large support team. It is really quite alarming how mental health in young people has plummeted in the past few years. This has been a grueling week, with many such sad stories. Sometimes it gets to me.

    1. When I was in college, I used to feel discouraged when there was never any mail in my mailbox. After I confided this to the college counselor, he suggested that I cross the hall and buy myself a candy bar after I faced an empty mailbox. When I asked if that wasn’t rather Mickey Mouse he replied, “It may be Mickey Mouse, but it works.” You aren’t going to be able to solve all the problems making the students troubled, but you can suggest some diversions. And the fact that your institution has a large staff already in place is a good start.

      1. micro dosing on dopamine is a valid strategy that I use myself. It’s why I bought the cheese advent calendar at Aldi.

    2. It’s sad isn’t it to see how much some students struggle. Sometimes, I just want to give them a big hug as I would my own kids but obviously I can’t.

      1. Well, you can once they finish your course. My Mom worked at the second largest University in our state and couldn’t believe all the personal stuff her student workers told her. I told her that it was because she wasn’t their mother and they didn’t have to worry about whether she would be shocked or judge them.

    3. Sending sympathy, Kelly. My partner teaches at a big state school and has been trying to help a lot of struggling students too (this week, and over the past few years). Hands down, the hardest part of the job.

    4. Take care of yourself too, Kelly. I hope you have some good destress techniques in your self care toolkit.
      Box breathing is a fairly new addition for me and I find it works quite quickly if I need to stop ruminating or holding on to things I can’t change.
      For many years I used 4,7,8 breathing to centre myself & do still use it but I find box breathing a really helpful quick fix for clearing negative thoughts/energy e.g. post workplace behaviour investigations, mediations etc.

    5. Take care of yourself too, Kelly. I hope you have some good destress techniques in your self care toolkit.
      Box breathing is a fairly new addition for me and I find it works quite quickly if I need to stop ruminating or holding on to things I can’t change.
      For many years I used 4,7,8 breathing to centre myself & do still use it but I find box breathing a really helpful quick fix for clearing negative thoughts/energy e.g. post workplace behaviour investigations, mediations etc.

  19. Removing filler words from my manuscript and filling up the freezer. Begone “like,” “about,” “some,” and “think.” Hello granola, candied nuts, and blueberry-cranberry muffins.

  20. Oh, I’ve been trying to remember what my MIL used to say about housework and I can’t come up with her exact words, but it sounded lovely in French. Something like, “Faire le ménage, c’est un éternel recommencement.” (Housework is an eternal starting over.) Maybe not original to her, but she had a way of saying it… very doom-laden and resigned, and yet poetic. C’est la vie.

    2. It can’t be original to her because I don’t know her and I know that saying. Where did I pick that up? I have no idea.

  21. More working stuff:  By tomorrow I have to pick up a library hold, but I think I’ll run it to the last minute and instead work on chores here today.  I’ve decided that it’s warm enough out for tuna salad for lunch today.  So chili for supper unless I cook dried beans today instead, probably pushing the chili off.  I’ll check my dried bean inventory.  (I know I’ve got canned beans, but those aren’t as good in chili.)

    Not that present-day Jenny is responsible for what 1990s Jenny wrote, but I’m still working on the revelation (disclosed on the character-chart topic) that Riverbend is based on Cincinnati. I lived in Cincinnati for about a year (in the late 1970s), not really long enough to have a good feel for the place.  I think I had figured Riverbend might be more Columbus (minus being the state capital), a city of which I know next to nothing.  Kentucky does get mentioned in Bradley, but I didn’t see it as lying just over the river.  Maybe I should have; we’ll see after I finish relistening to the audiobook. (I’d read the other books set in Riverbend long enough ago that they’re fuzzy in memory, except for those I’m working on rereading now.) Cincinnati’s hills bulk pretty large in my mind (as a flatlander raised in and near Chicago), more than I detected of hills in Riverbend.  There is an isolingual that cuts through the middle of Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio.  South of it, “pen” becomes “pin,” “creek” becomes “crick,” and other things.  Possibly all of those Riverbed characters all speak like my Southern Ohio relatives did (all of them are now dead or moved away), not as I imagined Riverbenders speak (with a Northern Midwestern accent).

    Riverbend’s neighborhood of Overlook is accordingly presumably based on Cincinnati’s Over-the-Rhine, which per Wikipedia had a bad few decades but is reportedly now moving upscale.

    Yesterday Jenny also said that Burney in Liz Danger is based on New Richmond.  I had figured that out from hints dropped previously, but it seemed to me that as the geography is described, it had been moved to more like the location of tiny Neville OH, near to where the Ohio turns north.

  22. I had an appointment with my Urologist on Monday. We decided that ‘wait and watch’ was still a valid plan, so I’m good that way until August, when we will probably schedule an Anal Probe (biopsy).

    Today, we got the scheduled visit from our new HVAC guy. He replaced a thingy in the heat pump and did routine overdue maintenance on the furnace/air handling unit. He even showed me how to replace the condensate pump and where to find a new one on Amazon for under $100USD. (Aside – if I type $100 is the ‘USD’ redundant or is the ‘$’ redundant if I use ‘USD’?)

    Tomorrow is the follow-up with the cardiologist to go over my echocardiogram. No worries.

    The first of two sweet pepper plants has sprouted in the Smart Garden. Just two leaves and a stem, so far. I need to harvest green onions.

    1. I think I’d type US$100, though US dollars tend to be assumed unless you specify otherwise, or the context is a different country that has its own dollar currency, such as Australia.

    3. When I worked for Uncle Federal, the style book said that a dollar sign meant US dollars and we were not to use USD. I think we were supposed to spell out other currencies. But in certain non–US-government contexts, those alternative abbreviations avoiding special signs like $, £, € are standard. Moreover, I have noticed that the Canadian press seems to uses “$xxx Canadian” rather than C$xxx, although that and, similarly, US$ A$ NZ$ (etc.) appear elsewhere. (Mexican pesos at least used also to use a dollar sign. I’m not sure about currently.)

      2. And all those 3-letter currency abbreviations like USD turn out to be governed by ISO 4217.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_4217?wprov=sfla1

        I can think of a few ways to get that as a clue into a mystery novel (see the above link for how the abbreviation updates with revaluations and so forth). Maybe it could figure in a romance Big Misunderstanding, with some inge.

  23. We haven’t had a litterbox related incident since Saturday, so I am tentatively hopeful on that front. Our dishwasher took a dump instead, metaphorically, but seems to be restored to functionality after being taken apart and clean. I still have plumbing issues in the basement, but it’s not raining down there so I am calling it a win. Also, I laughed instead of crying. Mostly.

    Otherwise, I just feel really scattered. I don’t know what to work on. I have tons of half started projects laying around.

    Sales on Etsy are down about 20 percent for me compared to last year. I blame the orange alien for that too. People are spooked. Still, it’s increased sales over my regular weekly activity, so I am working on packing and shipping. I sold one of those old lighted ceramic Christmas trees and I am dreading shipping it. That will happen tonight when I get home.

    1. The news tonight said even Target is suffering, and will have a diminished season this year. Inflation and an uncertain future are making people very careful with their money.

  24. I’ve been baking this week. Because of my difficulties with dizziness and fatigue lately, I haven’t been willing to risk increasingly expensive ingredients on my presently unreliable attention level. But I managed a double batch of pine nut cookies that turned out perfectly and delivered them safely to what is left of my crew of retail warriors.

    Last night I set a new record for how close to the actual date I baked my friend Dave’s Birthday Cake (or in this case, pie.) His birthday was last week and I will deliver the pie today. Usually I wait until blueberries go on sale in the summer, because his favorite cake requires 2 pints and they are hard to come by at this time of year. But they never really came down in price this year, so I never baked the cake. Which meant that I now owe him 2 cakes and the out of season blueberries look rather desiccated. So I baked him a Key Lime Pie instead. It looks scrumptious! Now I just have to whip the cream for the topping and deliver it in one piece before my dizziness makes that impossible.

      1. Thank you. I have an appointment with the “Dizzy Doc” in mid January and I hope he will have some ideas on what is going on and how to treat it.

  25. Seeing as how I will be exchanging Christmas gifts with my parents over Thanksgiving, I purchased and wrapped Christmas presents. We also put up our outdoor Christmas lights before the cold weather hit.

    Seeing as how I will be exchanging Christmas gifts with my parents over Thanksgiving, I purchased and wrapped Christmas presents. We also put up our outdoor Christmas lights before the cold weather hit.

    I finished the two customer quilts that I was paid to do the quilting for. You can see them here: https://www.instagram.com/p/DCmyDQUxEFl/?igsh=MWZoY2JreTJmYmduZw==

    At work, we are approximately 80% done with the move of our special collections material. The official ribbon-cutting ceremony will be Friday. We’re going to take a break during Thanksgiving week and not move anything. My body will be so thankful.

    Also did the household chores like dishes and laundry.

  27. worked on writer bizness; approving cover for my Advent-calendar story for JMS, then signed contract for a new story going into an ACLU benefit anthology.

    worked on the yard; resized the pile of bougainvillea cuttings that didn’t fit into the bin for yesterday’s pickup, stuffed them into the bin, added to them by ruthlessly cutting back some sprawl that probably wouldn’t have dealt well with the threatened / promised storm on our way. Also, watered my new plants again, since it’s been dry as a bone pending said storm.

    worked on getting myself right with the IRS. It’s been 5 months of letters etc back and forth. One-hour phone call Monday accomplished nothing, but another hour today solved the problem. Whew! Still need to set up my account at IRS.gov so I can view the transcript etc “live” and reassure myself while I wait for the official letter to arrive.

  29. The secret to dishwashers is to stop thinking that you have to fill it up before running it. They use less water than hand washing- a friend who is environmentally conscious says as few as 16 items in the dishwasher is more efficient than hand washing but I don’t know if that includes silverware so I don’t count it. Anyway, they clean better and the dishes get put away faster if you don’t overfill.

    On the other topic, I will just point out that there are still worse places to live. Actually, even before there were worse places right here; and there will continue to be better places right here as well.

  30. I spent the day clearing out the historical stuff in my Facebook account and making sure my security settings were all set the way I wanted. The activity was partially in response to finding that someone had used some of my pictures and posts to create their own profile and also because of a swarm of mean, ignorant, hateful, and basically horrible comments that I got after I had made an innocuous “Thanks for all of the work you’ve done” comment on a post from the president. It is sad that there are so many people (0r spambots) that feel so free to spew their hate, discontent, and lies all over. At least I’ve managed to block a few hundred of them.

    In other news, I’m waiting for my new washer and dryer to arrive this weekend, after my existing dryer suffered a fatal problem (which could not be fixed because it was too old for replacement parts to be found). Sometime between now and this weekend I also need to re-assemble the old dryer, since the repair person left it completely disassembled after the failed repair.

    Nothing but good times.

About the Author

Jennifer Crusie is the New York Times, USA Today, and Publisher’s Weekly bestselling author and co-author of twenty-three novels, one book of literary criticism, miscellaneous articles, essays, novellas, and short stories, and the editor of three essay anthologies. She lives in a cottage in Pennsylvania, where she often stares at the ceiling and counts her blessings.

Find out more about Jenny’s published works by visiting JennyCrusie.com

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