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Working Wednesday: I Have the Master!

Bob was called out of town until Friday, so I have the master of the current book until Saturday! I am feeling very powerful, especially since Bob added to it and it’s now at 82,000 words. I was afraid it was going to be short, but that’s about 18,000 words for a final act, and that we can do. Very happy about work this week!

What did you work on?

114 Responses

  1. I’m making creeping progress on the current nonfiction and zero progress on the cozy (waiting for feedback from my agent and an author friend). But finally getting somewhere on an oracle deck idea that illustrator Mickie Mueller and I came up with a couple of years ago, and she’s finally got on her desk. We might even manage to get it submitted sometime in the next few months, which would be wonderful. So meh, meh, yay?

    Glad to see you back. Some of us were getting a little worried when you missed Sunday. xxx

  2. Cleaning. Washing floors. Harvesting beets, lettuce, rocket, cucumber, and lots of tomatoes. Planning the road trip to big September wedding in Edmonton. Will visit my cousins at the lake on the way up. Heading to Ladysmith to visit brother and niece today. Will make dinner to give niece a break.

  3. I decided to take a break from the miniature blocks and work on something a little more substantial. I’ve got some pictures – an untrimmed piece, followed by a trimmed piece. Two pieces sewn together to form a unit, and finally four unites sewn together as a block. (These are colorful fabrics, generally in yellow, pink and green. When sewn together they look similar to a spray of tulips.)
    https://www.instagram.com/p/DNAuaF_xw5f/?img_index=1

    Of course, I had to include two pictures of Charlie. In the first, I had been working at my desk when he hopped up behind me and then crawled over my shoulder to nuzzle and purr at me. In the last picture, he’s nestled against my legs as we both relax after a hard day.

    Speaking of Charlie, he’s come down with the sniffles. We hear little kitty sneezes occasionally. I took him in, since we’ve had the feline plague here. He has to suffer oral antibiotics twice a day for a bit. The older cats had a single antibiotic shot that did wonders for them but that wasn’t an option because of Charlie’s age.

    Other than that, things have been low key – keeping up with work, and trying to increase the amount I sleep each night – which is harder than it sounds.

    8. I could just roll in those colors. Charlie is adorable, and he claims his human so thoroughly. Wishing him wellness.

  4. I went in to work on the Stat holiday to catch up/get ahead for my upcoming holidays. Got 4hrs work done (had the building to myself, no phone calls, no emails, and no interrptions), did my workout at lunch, and the power went out while I was changing in the windowless bathroom. Thank you, phone flashlight.

    Looked into the outage and it was going to be a long one, do I went home after taking an hour for myself to eat and read.

    Everyone was back to work yesterday, emails rolled in, printers and card readers went down because of the power outage (surge when it came back online I’m guessing), etc., etc.

    I hinesy got more work done in 4 hours on Monday than I did yesterday, and probably today, combined.

    1. Honestly, not honest. Oh. Oh now you auto-correct. Stupid phone. Not *Hinesy. *Honestly got more work done…

      1. When my father was taking me to school in high school and I had to be there an hour before school because I worked in the library, I apologized to him once for making him get up so early and he told me he could get more done in the hours and a half before the switchboard opened (1960s) than he could all day.

        1. 100%!
          Right this minute I am finding interruptions so frustrating. I put my headphones in and it’s taking 15 minutes to get through a 3 minute song…

        2. I know that customers are vital to the success of any retail business but, damn, sometimes I wish they would stop coming in for even just half an hour.

  5. I’ve been sorting my gardens – deadheading & weeding & tying in. Today I’m harvesting potatoes – with difficulty since the ground’s like concrete. (The slugs are encroaching so I can’t leave it any longer.) I’ve finished organizing my ideas for future photography/non-fiction writing projects and am happy with what I’ve come up with – so I must get going on them. But I’m also keen to finish the big sort-out of my workroom I started last winter. It’s partly dragged on because we’ve had such amazing weather since March: not enough rainy days.

    1. Hi Jane, any chance you can include photos of your garden-work-in-progress?

  6. Putting the finishing touches on the gallery of black-and-white family photos (my great-great grandfather is in one) that I’ve been working on for a year and a half now. I remember originally posting about this about a year ago and a number of you gave me suggestions about how to do it, including Lupe suggesting cutting out black squares to represent the pictures and putting them up on the wall first and I was like not a chance am I going to all that effort! Well, guess what? I hired the neighbours daughter and she went to all that effort and now I really appreciate the guidance in retrospect, so thank you.

  7. I just finished the latest Julie Miller book about K-9 military and police dogs. I love good books that include a dog or two.
    That’s why I love Dogs and Goddesses!

  8. Does anyone have experience of essential tremor? I’m finally going to see a neurologist in a fortnight, and I’m gathering all the info I can. So far, I understand doctors don’t know what causes it and can’t cure it, although beta blockers can suppress the symptoms in some people. I’m particularly keen to know if any complementary therapies can help.

    1. Yikes, Jane. Sorry to hear that. My SIL has a consult with the leading neurologist at the MNI next week whose life focus has been essential tremors. I’ll let you know if she learns anything useful. My sympathies.

      1. Oh, thanks, Elizabeth! I’m expecting to see a junior worm – I’ve waited ten months for the appointment, so they obviously don’t see my case as important. (Which is good, sort of: I definitely wouldn’t want to be a neurological emergency!)

    2. I’ve had one since puberty and I’m not sure if my experience will help you. Beta blockers were some help, but also exacerbated my depression. Since the anti depressants were what triggered the tremor in the first place, we spent several years of trial and error until the tremor went down to a reasonable level.

      If I’ve had an argument or stressed myself out trying to not say something, I will excuse myself and either walk around or do breathing exercises until my pulse and blood pressure return to normal. The tremor usually recedes at the same time.

      Drinking iced tea in the summer always crept up on me. Since it came with free refills and without sugar, I used to think that I could drink all I wanted. Now I limit myself to 2 glasses and then switch to water.

      I get bored having only one choice of sugar free beverage everywhere I go. Since I can’t control what my choices will be when I am out, I try to keep 3 different jugs in the refrigerator filled with things that are both sugar and mostly caffeine free so that I always have some choices. And I try not to stick to the same flavor of herb tea every time I refill the jug.

      I try not to stare at my hands to see how bad my tremor is. That just increases my tension which, in turn, increases the tremor.

      If the beta blocker doesn’t help, you can ask your doctor about trying an anti-convulsant such as Tegritol. That helped me for a few years. What also helped me was working closely with my pharmacists. Most of mine were much more up to date about new medecines on the market.
      I really hate the idea of carrying a diary of my symptoms around with me every day, but it is a lot more accurate way to isolate whatever might be easing or exacerbating your condition.

      1. Thanks! The diary’s a good idea – I haven’t been able to see a pattern. I refused my GP’s offer of beta blockers last year, but will try them if the neurologist’s keen. I’ve had it for two years, gradually getting worse.

    3. My son was diagnosed with them as a teenager. There were drugs suggested at that time to suppress the tremors, but the potential side effects were not worth the risk.

      Over the years, working on stretching and strength training has helped somewhat, as has making sure to get plenty of rest and keep stress down whenever possible, but mostly he’s just gotten used to living with them and working around the symptoms.

      With the initial diagnosis (which felt like “we couldn’t find anything else, so they’re essential tremors”), he was told they might or might not progress over time.

    4. My husband is prescribed Propronolol. He says the medication alleviates, doesent eliminate. I understand there is brain surgery, ablating wire inserted to the relevant control section. Wire must be used precisely.

      1. Thanks, Thea. I saw an operation in a documentary; it was nail-biting stuff, but the patient’s tremor was extreme.

  9. Pretty much nothing. Last Wednesday I got knocked over by a rambunctious German Shepherd at the dog park. I initially thought I’d cracked a rib, but the ER assured me it’s just bruised.

    Since then I’ve been sporting a lidocaine patch and knocking back muscle relaxers.

    Hoping to get back to work on Ice Planet Octogenarians Book 3 today.

  10. It’s good to have Argh up and running again! I’m happy for the great progress on the new book, too, Jenny. I was worried that something had happened again, so I checked FB, and you posted there over the weekend, so that was a relief to see.

    I emptied out the tall curio cabinet, packed up what I want to keep, and put some of the rest in the Goodwill donation box. I decided to sell all but three of my Pocket Dragons. I’m filling a box with valuables to sell. Then I packed up all but a few of the family wedding, school, pet, and other photos lining my long hallway. It looks so bare, now! And much brighter, without all the dark frames and two cork boards along it.

    When we got a cool front, it brought Canadian wildfire smoke along with it, so going outside was a gamble. I don’t know how the Canadians are surviving! It finally got clear enough to mow, thank goodness, because heat is moving in again.

      1. Indeed, Natasha. Love the map. Where I am (southeastern Quebec), we’ve had truly spectacular sunsets (great balls of fire!) but not noticeable otherwise.

      1. Shass, I’ve mentioned them before your time here. They are light green, and about 2-3″ tall, and have little pink snouts and small ears and small wings, and arms and feet. They were made by Real Musgrove, but he has retired, now. They are childlike, and full of mischief. One that I’m keeping is holding an umbrella, and sadly looking up at the sky, with a little duck in a puddle by its side. Another favorite is making tracks of ink, and looking behind itself at a puddle of ink that it walked through. There are several either holding coffee cups bigger than they are, or sipping at coffee in a huge cup with a straw. Another favorite is lying on its tummy on the floor, reading a storybook in Runes. They are adorable.

        1. That. Is. Adorable! I would have loved to adopt some of the ones you’re selling, if only the shipping hadn’t been insane from across teh pond to here. 🙁
          I am sure they will all get great new homes, though. You’re keeping the one with the umbrella – are you also keeping the one with the ink-splotches and rune-reading tummy-dragon, or two others?

    3. Someone else with pocket dragons! I had two from my mother and then a friend got me another which was adorable and suddenly I had five more – at which point I told everyone no more! They are cute, but when people decide you’re collecting something, one can become quickly overrun 🙂

  11. BTW, I received an Argh post with no comment or headline this morning. When I clicked on it, it led to this page.

  12. I finally finished the copy edit of my next book (paranormal romance called Train Wreck. Should be out next month. What is the email address to ask to have it posted here?)

    I keep coming up with little details I want to add, but really need to get the back cover copy done and get it to me beta readers.

    And day job. Always day job.

    1. If you email me: Gin at ginjones.com, I can send you the Argh Author address. I think Jenny’s put it here before, but I worry about posting it in public.

  13. Day job, which continues to be light in the Actual Work area, though I have to go to the Actual Office tomorrow to ship out original documents. And also to have lunch with my work friend who I’ve only seen in person three times in the past 5 years. We are not likely to see each other in person after I relocate, so achieving some kind of rendezvous is a plus.

    Yard work, including cleaning up the last batch of weeds that I’m going to bother cleaning up before the move (I mean, unless I get some kind of motivation boost). Moved most of the big landscape rocks out of the front yard and into the back, because it’s more likely that the next tenant will want to do things in front than in back. And I’m going to suggest to our BFFs/landlords that they consider a fence, because there are more unhoused people in the neighborhood lately, and someone’s begun using the front yard as a toilet. Argh.

    A good bit achieved on the scanning old files front. Have a few more to do but am almost ready to call the local secure shredding company to come collect all my bags of detritus. Would like to have those out of the house before BFF brings the prospective next tenant over for a quick look at the place.

    Not much achieved on the writing front. I did download the latest Calibre update and sent that guy some money. Depending on my mental state immediately post-moving, I may use the last quarter of 2025 to update some of my self-published titles rather than try to start writing something new. As I re-read, I am constantly finding little things I want to tweak (and sometimes bigger things, like too-frequent or clunky shifts of POV. Argh).

  14. I declared August to be a non-writing-projects month (although then of course I dove into a writing project that needed a few days to finish, so I’m doing a little of that, but at a laid-back pace).

    Mostly, I’ve been working on the release next week of the Helen Binney novella, A DELUSION OF DEATH (sending Argh Author request today), and slowly catching up on a year’s worth of house/yard work, and doing some quiltmaking with pink fabrics, which are not my usual faves but I had a sudden obsession with pink recently: https://www.instagram.com/p/DM5hih1xPcf/ If you scroll, you’ll see a couple more pix, and I’ve got one more yet to take later today.

    1. Hello Gin, I see you’re using the metal raised beds: how are you finding them? I am considering moving my gardens to them next year given the state of the current wooden ones I’ve used for the last ten years. Do they dry out more quickly? Get too hot? Can’t trust the promotions I’ve heard. Thank you.

      1. I’m loving mine! I absolutely could no longer garden at ground level, and these are two feet high! I can’t bend at all (spinal stenosis), but if you can bend some, an 18″ version would be great too and might alleviate some cost and some dehydration worries. It does take a ton (not literally) of stuff to fill them — starting with cardboard (save up for a while) and yard waste (branches, etc.) helps, but it still cost me about $200 in soil/compost, and I didn’t even get it all the way to the top (plan to fill it more this fall or next spring). But that would have done it for an 18″ version.

        I can’t say whether it will be durable, since this is my first year with it. The brand I got was kinda’ lightweight and cheap, but I wanted to try it out before investing a lot, because I, too, was skeptical of the ads.

        We’ve had an exceptionally hot and dry summer, and I’m too cheap/lazy to water often, but with the exception of some nasturtium seedlings next to the edge of the bed which dehydrated during a heat wave, I’ve been surprised by how well the plants have done without more than once-a-week watering (at most) with a hose, plus some occasional spot-watering with a can/bottle of anything that seemed particularly droopy. Factor in that I get (barely) 8 hours of full sun, so it might be different with ten or more hours.

        Bottom line: I’m trying to figure out how to convince my neighbors (we’re good friends, but it’s right on our property line, so need their permission) that we should add a second one for next year. I grew sun-gold cherry tomatoes for the first time this year, and they’re enjoying them a lot, so promising to grow more of them next year might get me my permission!

        1. Gin, can you line the sides of the metal with cardboard to help with the heat? That sounds great!

          1. I haven’t really had any issues with the heat, even in the crazy hot weather we’ve been having. I mean, I am growing heat-loving plants (tomatoes, peppers, squash) for the most part. I’m also growing swiss chard, which loves cool weather, and it’s growing slowly, but I’d sort of planned for that, so it’s shaded by the summer squash (more than I’d planned really), and will come into its own when I pull up the squash plants later this month, and then it will have a chunk of the garden to itself.

    2. Lovely pink quilt! Looks like something I would buy for my upcoming granddaughter! I love pink!

      1. I may put them into the next Romancing the Vote auction, so I’d suggest getting ready to bid, but I don’t think it will happen in time for your granddaughter! But for anyone who wants to stockpile a coupla’ baby quilts, keep an eye out for the auction. I’ve got two others that are complete and will definitely go in the auction, although they’re not pink. One’s blue and yellow, and I can’t recall right now what the other one is.

  15. My play went great this weekend!!!! People think I’m awesome.

    This week’s work: memorizing lines for the new play and starting rehearsals for it. I was annoyed that I ended up with a smaller part than I was told that I got, but given that rehearsal schedule is a month early, that’s probably all for the best. I’m down to one page left to do on the Papillon shawl, so I’d like to get that done. At work I have to rewrite a bunch of crap to be shorter, sigh. And I’m trying to read up on prediabetes, which depresses me.

    I am still doing intermittent fasting (hungry right now, sigh) and trying to get in 7k steps and lift weights and blah blah blah. I bought a scale and I weigh the most I’ve ever weighed in my life, sigh. I hate that I have to shame myself about what I want to eat now (no sugary drinks, no snacks when hungry, etc), but that’s a requirement. Also I want to keel over reading about diet stuff. I hate it.

  16. Jenny, I don’t know if you’ve watched the BBC series Fake or Fortune, but it might be interesting as research for the art market! Every episode, they look at a piece which might be by a famous artist and try to determine if it is through scientific testing (are the materials consistent with artist and date) and historical archive work (can we track where it came from back to the artist). The episodes run 60 minutes, and can be surprisingly tense! They deal with the possibility that items were stolen and/or looted on a couple of occasions, and that’s always interesting. (“This was bought in Germany in the 1930s” is always a phrase to make the heart sink)

  17. Finishing up the second of two odd short stories that the Girls in the Basement offered up this month. Then it will be time to prep SFWA’s Estate-Legacy Project Quarterly Report, my newsletter, and for Dragon Con. Geez, the year seemed to take forever, but it’s gone so fast!

  18. I try to organize my summer schedule to maximize the days I can work on the flower farm. The hot weather and low air quality (wildfire smoke) have meant I have’s worked much in the last couple of weeks. This has left me with big chunks of time I often struggle to fill. Too hot to spend much time in my own garden. Lots of reading and sitting on my back porch under the gazebo which is peasant on all but the most humid days.

    1. Ooh, shiny new project! That’s my fave variety of project!

      (Sorry, not helping, am I? Slinking off to force myself to ignore my own shiny new projects in both writing and quilting.)

  20. Naked Indoor Gardening. “Same thing we do every week, Pinky – try to take over the farm.”

    In my case, I weeded out all the pods that hadn’t germinated after months and reduced the number of boxes of AeroGarden Herbs by planting everything everywhere. Okay, a dozen pods. A third are basil, then about a third each of dill and thyme. Of those, a single dill has germinated.

    The Dotter’s SO gave me a single cannabis seed. THAT has germinated and is growing like… weed. 😀

    The tomato plants refuse to coordinate. I have beaucoup little yellow tomatoes and there are even more little green balls promising ever more. The two red varieties are not quite so prolific.

    Other than gardening, I’ve been giving Mobipocket Creator a workout assembling *.PRC (Mobi/Kindle) files of webcomic-to-graphic-novel books and the like.

    1. I had, for reasons I’ve blocked out, a cop inside my house once many years ago, who saw tomato seedlings growing under lights and felt obligated to make the “hur hur, whatcha’ growin’ there” comment. Yeah, tomato seedlings do NOT look anything like … weeds.

      1. My mom, when I was a child, had a greenhouse on the side of the house and grew tomatoes. The house next door burned down one night, and the cops were looking at her greenhouse with great suspicion. She assured them that it was just tomatoes. Actually, my dad probably did the assurances because she has zero pomer face capabilities.
        I don’t think the cops believed her, but they left it alone.
        I’m not sure what she did with the pot plant that was among the tomatoes…

        1. I did the research. Marijuana is legal for personal use in the Commonwealth of Virginia, up to four plants per household.

          In my 74+ years on this earth, I have never smoked or consumed the weed wacky, nor the shroom of visions, nor any controlled substances. I am looking forward to s spaghetti sauce seasoned from Mary Jane’s Garden. Better late…

  21. I am not working on what I intended to. AT&T Fiber’s installers have broken the water main for my road (right in front of me so I can watch the water company’s progress) so I am not doing all the yard work that I would want a shower after, or the laundry that I had j u s t started in the washer when they hit the line. I am not cooking anything.
    I have two gallons of drinking water and a gallon and a half of washing water and I will make sure it lasts until the water is back on.

    1. I am certainly not working on cutting and stringing cayenne peppers. That would need really thorough hand washing!

      1. I have rubber gloves, hand sanitizer, and six gallons of bottled water (and 48 drinking-type bottles). I also collect the condensate from my dehumidifiers for toilet tank water if needed. The dotter collects rainwater.

        I have lots of empty gallon jugs and the means to refill them.

      1. It only took the water company three hours to have it on. The water company’s truck drove up at ambulance speed and six men jumped off to start dealing with it. I suspect they were waiting for something to happen. I’m holding my breath, though, because the AT&T truck that broke it is back, trying to do whatever they failed to do.

  22. Jenny having full control of a project is so empowering! I’m glad you’re enjoying it.

    Enjoyed a couple of cooler days, finally. Working on making the most of my time before baby granddaughter comes. Or making the least of my time. Trying hard not to lose any more plants to the heat and reviving some zinnias that were torched. I have a very bad gardening thumb, but improving.

  23. DD went back to England last week and foster daughter went home and I feel like I spent a lot of time putting the house to rights. Great young women and they manage their professional lives well but their ADD means things got left behind, things got strewn around the house …
    I’ve also been working on helping foster daughter with financial adulting.
    Also working on three grant reports and prepping for speaking in two webinars. One of the grant reports is a big deal—needs lots of metrics and compelling descriptions of our work. It’s for probably our most important funder and while I know the program officers love us I need to give them the amunition to use with their bosses.
    Also DH is on a road trip with his brother so I’ve been working on house chores that are easier when he is gone. Filing papers, organizing the closet, deep cleaning the shower, throwing out out of date foods…
    It’s been a busy week.

    But I did see my great next door neighbor twice and caught up with a woman who I really like but who I had only seen in passing for many years. And another woman who had kindly dug an interview with DD out of her recycling bin . So some social life too.

    I’ve been thinking about social isolation because that’s DD’s next book topic. I consider myself an introvert. If I see three people besides DH socially (not work related ) in a week I feel I had a social life . DS is like me . DD and DH feel isolated if they don’t have real conversations with multiple people every day.

    I do believe social isolation is a real problem but I find myself trying to convince DD that my level of interaction is healthy and she obviously considers me to be lonely and alone. So I am working on how to get DD to think this through for her book.

    The last thing I’m working on is keeping my mouth shut and not saying I told you so. When she started her PhD in political theory had a topic which I thought required her to look at psychological research. She insisted it didn’t need it. Final thesis used it extensively and in her book and book tour she talks all the time about how much psychological research she has reviewed on this. I’m staying quiet and laughing inside.

    Oh two more fun things. I worked on helping neighbor identify obscure objects she was given as part of her work taking donations for a refugee organization (they included a knife sharpener, a candle stick with removable hood, a metal mortar and pestle that looked like colonial candle sticks, some kind of solar lamp,

    And DS has been bringing me up to speed on how peacock feathers can be lasers. I think Bob and Jenny need a peacock in the next book.

    2. Debbie, could you tell me your daughter’s name and the title of her book again? One friend I sent the link to didn’t pick it up for a fortnight, by which time it no longer worked.

    3. She needs to interview me. I live alone and work three days a week and if I have live social interactions with three non-work people in one week it’s Too Much.

      1. Whole weeks go by when the only other human I see & speak to is DH. I’m interested to see how my overall mood reacts to having two other humans in the house and others nearby who I will surely see and speak to weekly. I’m definitely a hard-core introvert – to the hermit end of the spectrum – and always have been, but there’s no denying the end of our social dancing life coincided with significant depression. Of course, it also coincided with getting laid off again and a major surgery, so … .

    4. Does the social interactions have to be physical, or do phonecalls count?
      Not that I am a champion at calling either, most of my social interactions are through text. If I see 2 people besides Sven weekly, that’s a lot. Mostly it’s him, our cleaning-help and MIL. Sometimes I don’t see MIL either.
      I know I’m an introvert. I don’t generally feel very lonely or isolated. I will not say it never happens, just that in general I’m fine with not having a score of social interactions every week.

      2. I have suggested that she try to look at whether online interactions “count”
        And whether housemates “count”

        She says the research does not generally make these distinctions.

        There is one cool piece that looks at artic researchers or maybe Antarctic?

  24. I’m working through grief and guilt. My very senior cat is going to her last vet appointment today and although I know intellectually that this is an act of love, emotionally it feels like an act of betrayal.

    1. Georgia, I’m so sorry. Such heartbreaking news.
      Hugs. So many hugs. Many many many, and then some.

    3. I’ve been going through the same thing, Georgia- I had to say goodbye to my cat who had incredibly aggressive cancer that didn’t respond to chemo. He had started to go downhill rapidly so we had to say goodbye, but it still was an incredibly difficult decision. I hope you can hold on to the knowledge that it was an act of love, and that she appreciates your strength in this incredibly difficult time <3

    6. Georgia, it is an act of love. I think I have waited too long sometimes, to do that, but it’s really better not to. They don’t understand why they are suffering. What you are doing is so merciful.

      1. Thank you all. It does help to hear it repeated. Tinker Taylor, I’m so sorry you’re going through the same thing.

  25. It’s been a quiet week for me. Aside from running a few errands, I finally mailed my sister the items that got delivered to my house the day after she left from her visit in June. In my defense, she said to take my time, she wouldn’t need them for quite a while.

    I also packed and mailed a baby gift for my niece whose baby is due sometime this month.

    Even though we had some really nice low humidity over the last several days, the Canadian wild fire smoke has made it uncomfortable to be outside for any length of time . Unfortunately, it’s not going away any time soon. When I walk out the door, I can clearly smell the smoke.

  26. Sven was at a videogame tournament in Las Vegas from Wednesday last week until yesterday, so I kept myself busy by doing some tidying up and reorganizing here. I finally decluttered my desk so it’s actually possible to use it, threw out a bunch of unusable stuff, moved some storage bins and filled some with crafting materials like fabric I want to use for upcycling projects. I went through our wardrobe too, removing everything too small for him and too large for me and ended up with two large bags stuffed to the max. It’s nice to have cleared out the clothes that aren’t used, but it also means I’ll need to do some shopping for myself soon, and that is unfortunately not my favourite passtime. I also did a bunch of laundry, and MIL and I teamworked on cleaning a bit as well, since it’s vacation-times all over and we didn’t have cleaning-help for the past 2 weeks.
    I discovered that the vocal-recordings I did a while ago and hadn’t listened to yet were not useable at all, so Monday I kicked my own butt and did it all over again. I haven’t listened to these either yet, but the test-recordings sounded like they were better than the last batch, so there’s hope, I think. Now I just need to sit down and put things together.
    Much to my frustration, I still haven’t managed to knit stripes properly in the round (without a jog, I should add). An odd ridge kept on happening, no matter what I did or whose directions I followed. After cleaning-teamwork, MIL tried to help me out by watching a video on the subject and then watch me do exactly the same thing as in the video. She’s not a loom-knitter, but she has working eyes! But, despite me doing the same thing as in the video, I STILL got a slipped stitch-ridge in my knitting and it was driving me insane. I kept having the feeling that I either missed something important, OR that I am too stupid to do this thing that is supposedly so very very easy. I hate feeling stupid, especially when I’m doing the exact thing I’m supposed to and it STILL doesn’t work. I had to take a break from all of it for a while. Hopefully(!) the mystery has been solved, but I won’t know until I knit swatch 328476… Stay tuned for more exciting news about stripes in (possibly) next week’s episode of Shassie Does Not Know What She’s Doing, Really!
    A whole bunch of what I had intended to do past week, I never got around to do. Then again, I still did a lot of things, and I also allowed myself to do nothing and just recover my possibly-on-the-verge-of-burnout-brain, so I think I can consider it all time well spent and work well done.

    1. Good for you, Shass. I know from experience how agonizing the decisions are about what to keep and what to get rid of. I’m sure you will figure out the knitting, too. Sleeping on it might help.

    2. That sounds like a LOT to me. And a lot of things that are done permanently—don’t need to be redone next week or next month. Congratulations !

  27. My poor brain has given up the ghost today. I worked a 9 1/2 hour day working on research proposals and fixing a thorny problem for a student I cannot STAND. However I think the fix is solid and should work, we’ll find out tomorrow. For now I’m just sitting and rewatching Murder She Wrote and considering a bath and an early night.

  28. Pixie passed inspection at the vet’s yesterday. So she’s cancer-free and wound-healed. We went for our first walk in almost six weeks ( https://www.instagram.com/p/DNAuaF_xw5f/?img_index=6 ). She very much enjoyed it.

    I bought a new desk lamp. The old one’s bulb burned out and they no longer make the specific replacement. I can get a converter and a new bulb but I never really liked that lamp and the new one cost less than the fix for the old one.

    Slow week this week. Meetings will pick up next week.

    .

  29. When the dizzy doc sent me the latest prescription to try, he said that if it didn’t work it would mean that my headaches are not migraines. Well I guess I don’t have migraines. So I am really wondering what I do have and how to treat it.
    Tomorrow’s emails should be interesting.

  30. Good luck! (My first attempt to say this went to moderation – turned out my tremor had added a random letter to my name. Sorry, Jenny.)

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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