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Working Wednesday: Supporting Animals

We’re sloooowly finishing the first book in the new series (still no title) and Bob has said no flamingos and no llamas. So I am creatively stifled. And then he said something else that gave me a wonderful idea.

Zombies.

He’s gonna love it.

What did you work on this week?

117 Responses

  1. I have an interview next week for a position in the commercial (business) loans department at the bank. It’s not customer facing and has work from home flexibility and I really want it. Fingers crossed.

    And today I have my second appointment with my new therapist. I don’t know if she is a keeper yet, but I will give it at least three trys before shopping around and it feels like progress.

    It’s Little League Season here, so all is locals are avoiding downtown for the next few weeks until the tourists leave. It’s an odd thing because while we have a massive influx of people, the local businesses usually don’t see any of the traffic and it’s quiet for them because the regulars go into the woodwork. I am not a fan and look forward to it being over.

    Lastly, the Etsy app has been down for me since yesterday so I am on a forced vacation it seems. As I am trying to get fall and sweaters listed, I am less than thrilled but trying to enjoy the break.

    2. Lupe, that position sounds great! Maybe there will be less training of newbies, too? Good luck.

    4. Good luck with both the interview AND the new therapist!
      I restocked your pocket-hugs for whenever needed.

    8. You’ve got this! See yourself sitting in that chair thinking about your desk decor! ( I am a huge believer of visualizing results) plus think of all good you can do in commercial loans space!

    9. Lupe, See yourself sitting in that chair thinking about your desk decor! ( I am a huge believer of visualizing results) plus think of all good you can do in commercial loans space!

    10. I am sending good vibes for both the job interview and settling in with your new therapist.

      I have to laugh because one of the suburban teams is advancing through regionals for the Little League World Series and the local news is going nuts about it and will be doing live broadcasts of all their games. But I remember when I lived closer to the parade route for the Gay Pride Parade, I always tried to be out of town that weekend. And I really don’t miss living a block from Wrigley Field during night games or the play offs.

  3. I worked my but off for long hours at work getting things done so that I can enjoy 2 weeks camping in Bella Coola.
    Worked on packing yesterday.
    We leave today. Just have to pack the coolers.
    Everyone enjoy the rest of August 😊

  4. I tweaked my knee on Friday, which led me to go to the ortho urgent care on Saturday. I’ve called to follow up with the regular doc. The urgent care gave me a dose of prednisone, so Sunday I started feeling better. (You know that pain scale? Zero is supposed to be no pain, not your regular level of pain. The tweak then boosted my level up from a steady 3 to a 6 or 7. )

    Anyway, that’s all to say that I didn’t do much besides resting and elevating the knee for most of the weekend. But Sunday evening, I did start feeling better, enough to put those colorful blocks into a quilt top. This project is now moved to the “trim, sandwich and quilt” side of the equation, and can rest there for quite a while.

    Here’s the top:
    https://www.instagram.com/p/DNSw8sIxoC_/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link

    Note, I have a matching kitten decorating the top left of the picture. He knows what it means to be a quilter’s cat! I also included a close up of him this morning. (Color description – the 8 colorful blocks are arranged in diagonal rows – 1, 3, 3 and 1, which is creating a rectangular quilt top. They are set in a black background. Charlie, the black kitten is hard to discern unless he is lounging on the colors!)

    3. That’s a great-looking quilt! I like the navy background, which brings out the bright colors. Charlie definitely knows his “job.”

    5. Love the colors. They will be influencing what I choose to cut out for my next dress this week, I can tell. (After the Osnaberg test of the top-to-dress conversion, I am done with beige! Mind you, over the years I have worn a lot of beige because the coffee stains blend in.) I love black cats, always.

    9. That quilt gets better looking every time you post a new picture. As for Charlie, he is always cute and it is fun watching him grow into his ears.

    12. the quilt looks great! Charlie is adorable as always. I do hope your knee heals up quickly! Hmm, 0 is supposed to be no pain. I so wish I could get back to that.

  5. Mostly working on writing this week. I’m hoping to have a first draft (or maybe I’ll call it a zero draft, because it’s going to need more work than a first draft at this rate) of this done by the time we leave for our trip at the end of September… I think it’s a reasonable goal, but I do need to get the plot moving along. Maybe llamas would help…

  6. Bless my little ADHD heart, I ordered a 2025-2026 calendar, with the months and the weeks.. Maybe it won’t be helpful, but they used to work well for me, pre-menopause. My long project has been to do some Swedish Death Cleaning for my parents’ house, but it’s been uphill. The calendar will help me see time passing better, and it puts my notes in one place.
    I decided to take a week for each area, and this was supposed to be the linen closet, vase, many hats, party decorations, and jams and jelly storage room. But on Monday I cleaned so ruthlessly in the heat that I knocked myself out for Tuesday. So today I hope to get a bit of a start. I realized that as the oldest daughter I’m carrying the history of so many objects, but my siblings simply don’t know and don’t care. That’s very freeing, as I can let things go without anymore thought.

    1. Betty, I have a monthly calendar and a spiral-bound weekly one, and it’s a great place to write in chores for the day and other detailed notes. I hope it works for you.

    2. Good luck on the Swedish Death Cleaning for your parents’ house. When I cleaned my parents’ house it took me forever (as the only daughter)–partly because it was hard to decide what was of value and what could be given away (mom worked at a museum at one point). When my brothers did “help”, they just chucked everything into a dumpster.

      1. Yup, that will be son #2. All in a dumpster. Son #1 will pause and remember first. Granddaughter #2 will take it all. Best to do start the process and let go.

    3. Oh good luck!
      My mom won’t throw anything out — she will donate. I am sure 90% of what she pays to clean and donate then gets trashed. And my sisters make it worse because they treasure so much and have no room (they live in NYC). I’m the executor so when we have to clean out the house I will have to find a balance between agonizing over each choice and throwing 95% out.

    4. I always treat myself to a pretty day planner with month and week pages as well as lots of pictures. This year is Totoro and I am already looking for next year’s. Previous years were Katie Daisy, an artist with a bright cheerful style and the New York Botanical Gardens. I usually cut them up after to save them for collaging.

  8. I talked to a handyman about repairs needed on my sunroom, and he will do it for a reasonable price. One wall and the windows have to be removed, so that rotted wood can be replaced, and the foundation under the door is crumbling, due to settling. No one would buy this house with that eyesore so visible on the outside.

    I found another handyman to replace my kitchen sink, which is a 50’s era white enameled mess. It is not level with the counters, collects water at the back, and it stains easily. The handyman has to wait until the end of October, because of work. It’s my KC son! Yay! He actually volunteered to do it, and I didn’t have to beg.

    I continue to sort through my “junk” whenever I get the urge, or a mess presents itself. I ran across some valuable jewelry I no longer wear, for instance, to put in the “to sell” box.

    Zombies? Really? I thought you were opposed to Zombies, Jenny. I guess it’s good to be flexible. LOL

  9. Hey, what about a dog? I hear dogs are good.

    I just finished up the copy edits from hell on my latest Llewellyn book. New young woman said she’d done “just small edits.” She didn’t mention she’d done them on EVERY single paragraph in the book. It took forever to go through and stet all the changes to my words, voice, and meaning. Sigh. I would like to borrow a zombie please…

    Back to work on the current nonfiction book while STILL waiting for feedback from my agent on the novel. And eying all the things that need to be done around the house and garden and hoping they will magically take care of themselves.

    2. Deborah! Because moderation (I think, didn’t check today) ate my reply to your reply on my t-shirt post Sunday, I sent you the link via Bluesky. I know Gin and Mary Anne have seen it, so just wanted to give you a headsup for in case you had not yet. O, if you would prefer to receive it on Twitter, let me know.
      And I think out with the zombies, in with some cats! Or why not a kangaroo? Those are feisty little bouncers, I’m sure it would feel right at home in a book Bob’s involved with.

    3. Oh, that happened to me once. I wrote many sharp refusals in the margins and finally put, “Who’s writing this book, you or me?” So many of the changes were voice, just her way of making things sound “better.” I was irate.

      1. L. Sprague de Camp once had an editor who “corrected” all the Portuguese in his story (it was set in a future where Brazil is the leading power) to the equivalent in Spanish. If it was a short story for a magazine, he probably did not even see proofs and the story likely got into print in that form.

  10. Hmm, art heist scenario … the animal kinda depends on which character it’s bonded to, doesn’t it? For some reason I immediately thought “profane parrot.” IDK, that’s where my brain is these days.

    Working: Day Job continues mostly not busy. My trip to the Actual Office last Thursday was productive, though it did further expose management’s failure to fully address the Original Mail Handling Problem that is now 5 years old.

    Checked off several moving-prep tasks, including: Secure Shred came to collect 9 bags of shreddable old records. That’s a lot of dusty paper outta the house. $50 and a very handsome, charming employee. I’m going to miss all the gorgeous people of LA.

    Also, last night I disassembled the two slender console tables that stood along the wall in my bedroom, underneath a huge piece of framed art. It was a visually-pleasing composition that we’re going to replicate in the entry of the house we’re moving to, in which the staircase from ground floor to upper provides a wall facing the front door. It’s offset, you don’t open the door and immediately see a wall, you see a waist-high turned landing with railing and banisters; to the left of that is the wall. Previously the home of a big piece of embroidery art I made for Mom years ago, but she’s taken that to their new downstairs suite. 🙂

    Anyway, the consoles are now completely wrapped up and ready to be loaded.

    1. Thank you Chachal. I have a beautiful very heavy plaster on metal art piece made by friends and have great fear of hanging it. A slender wall table sounds like a beautiful safe way to display it.

        1. I would! What’s sold here as “earthquake straps” would do. 🙂

          Our big piece of art is, while huge, lightweight – silk painting in acrylic frame with plexi instead of glass – so it’s actually hung on the wall.

        1. My first thought was “Beautiful!” My second thought was “He’s going to reach out of the frame and knock things off the consoles.”

      1. I suspect they continually revert to “but eventually we’ll all be back in office, we’ll sort it then” but they are delusional.

    3. Oh. I thought you were going to be in the basement suite—or is downstairs here referring to ground floor and you will be below that ? Or is my memory completely off?

    4. chacha1 – Rachel Gibson wrote a romance novel titled It Must Be Love. MC was an artist & there was a profane parrot. The ending was sweet.

    5. Oh yes!!! I think a profane (or weirdly affectionate) (or both) parrot would make things EXTREMELY interesting, and also funny

  12. I work with a profane parrot, so I could offer direct quotes from a 57 year old Amazon with attitude.

      1. She tells anyone she’s annoyed with “You go to hell!” She knows she’s not supposed to say “m*therf*cker” so she whispers it. She argues with Opal every day: “Lemme out!” “You can’t go out.” “Go to hell!” “No, you go to hell!”
        She once told a barking dog “Shut the hell up!” so firmly he was quiet for an hour.
        She does not live in a client adjacent space….

  13. I’m still working on physical therapy. Last Sunday was my first day of work in seven weeks, and I hope soon to be working more than one day a week (back to the three I am supposed to get, please$?), so I’m slowing down my Summer of Catching Up on All the Things, but I’ve still got sewing plans. Catching up on the garden is a lost cause. The weeds are all going to have to wait for fall, when they won’t irritate my allergies every time I go near them. Then there are things like “mend table” for which the garage is either too hot or too cold.

  14. I am working at the store today. I picked up 13, maybe 18 more hours this month which is good.

    Yesterday Paul and I put a new storm door on the back. We splurged and got one that you can have either the top or bottom part open, so two movable pieces of glass, in the hopes that Hannah won’t wreck this screen. She scratched a hole in the screen on the old door trying to get out, then she jumped through it. The door frame was also pretty badly damaged so it was time.

    Now we are making jam.

  15. Zombies, please just be joking! The two things I will not read books that have them in are zombies and vampires. Although I do have to admit I liked Robin McKinley’s Sunshine, which does have vampires in it.

    For working related activities. I finally deadheaded the nasturtiums in the hanging basket by my garage. Then I went further and removed the yellow and brown leaves from some of the front porch plants. I knew it needed to be done, but the direct sun and the heat (we just had a heat wave of 3 in a row 90+F days) killed any desire I had to be out in it for more than a couple of minutes so I put off doing more than watering the plants.

    1. Metaphorical zombies. Nate tells Anna he’s a zombie hunter, and from then on “zombie” becomes a code word for “something’s wrong with that person.”

  16. I’ve had to do a lot of anxiety management because of an extended period of worse than normal bad sleep and nightmares, and because Person sent me a message I felt I had to respond to (a birthday invitation for a child). I finally found a book that’s helped counteract and smooth out the roughest edges of the nightmares, thank goodness. (Hopefully I did not just jinx it.) As for the message, Queenie’s wife (who is NOT Switzerland anymore! She told me she never was, really) helped me out with the message by reading it and giving her impressions on politeness, friendliness and non-encouragingtofurthercommunicationness. So, I have sent a reply, AND I have now archived the chat with P so it can not jump out at me when I least expect it. Whew.
    I’ve been doing some experimental knitting in preparation for a future project… well, I’m doing a lot of that lately. Lot of fiddling, not so much actual project-work.
    What I HAVE done today though is work on a possible future logo for myself/my stuff. The guy who will eventually design its final form is a graphic designer and videographer and one of the best people I know. We were brainstorming a bit when he was here last November, and a little bit again two weeks ago before he and Sven went to Vegas. His idea is that I create the shape and general impression of what I’m envisioning, and he’ll “make it work” visually and as a logo. Teamwork with the right people is such a lovely thing.

    1. Been there. Somebody who really hurt me in the past has tried to reconnect, and the Good Person part of me says to give her a chance, but the majority of me says, “Not going back there again.” So I said, “Good luck, no.” It’s hard though, so I sympathize. It’s not even about forgiveness, it’s just not putting yourself in a bad place again.

      1. Jenny, I’ve done exactly the same thing. With a great deal of soul searching but…no. I don’t owe anybody who has hurt me anything. And I’m allowed to forgive but not reconnect.

      2. Yes. It’s not about forgiveness. It’s about not putting yourself in a position where you will be abused in the future .

    2. Shass, so sorry to hear Person is not abiding by boundaries. Sending hugs for that and nightmares.

    3. Thanks all for the encouragement and calming words and comfort. My physical reactions to P are so acute and severe that I know I need to keep this distance, even if Relation doesn’t get it at all. When I saw that message, my adrenaline went through the roof. I’m trying to be charitable and think: “They sent me the message because they really think I want to be included”, but it was a “chain letter” and not exactly a personal invitation, so I don’t know. It could just as well be their way of making sure that I can’t ever say THEY are not trying, for there they have proof. (And now my brain shouts at me that I am mean for letting that thought even cross my mind.) I STILL keep second-guessing my thoughts and feelings about them, so I’m trying to hang on to how people around me have reacted when I’ve told them about the things that bother me.
      Why is this so incredibly difficult? Why?
      Anyway, I’m trying to stick to having done the right thing, and if they will make a problem out of it, I can still fall back on my message from June: I need space and a break, please respect that.

      1. It doesn’t matter what Relation thinks because they do not have to live with the consequences. Women are all raised to believe that we are responsible for everybody’s emotions, but that is depriving the other person of the right to their own feelings. Relation is entitled to their feelings about your actions, but not to declare themselves judge and jury over them.

  17. Working on keeping my roses bindweed free after the gardeners pruned and mulched them. I didn’t have the strength or heat resistance for it.
    I don’t understand zombies unless they are the Haitian kind. I definitely prefer animals to zombies, cats, pigs, koalas all of which can be violent.

  18. Did All. The. Things. Don’t have much to show for it, but August always has a lot of that. The run up to Dragon Con always entails a lot of prep and a surprising amount of input into the visuals for various literary panels. Used to be the authors just sat at a table, jabbered, and answered questions. Now, several of the tracks turn it into a slide show. For example, for my historical romance panel, I’m assembling images of book covers which I need to copy into pre-formatted slides.
    Meanwhile, SFWA’s recent website update hosed some of its webpages, including the Estates-Legacy Kit site, which I cochair and write quarterly reports for. The communications person–she’s a saint, really–and I are trying to identify and fix all the glitches, because neither of us want the references and links to go sideways. But it’s complicated.
    But that’s life for all of us, right now. And there’s Dragon Con at the end of the month. Better yet, I’ll be seeing friends I haven’t seen in years, and I’ve signed up for a Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab fragrance workshop before my panels start. So there’s a lot to look forward too, including a parade.

  19. Stressed out between things medical (nothing alarming, just hassle) and chores. Am writing some book reviews today as a soothing activity (but still one that keys me up if done close to bedtime–go figure).

    1. I try to avoid anything mentally challenging after 9 p.m., so my brain can relax – otherwise I can find my brain going round in circles when I want to sleep.

  20. It’s still v hot and dry in my region. Temps in the 30s but humidex over 40C for the last several days. We got some rain this am, which will help the garden. Apparently, temps will be more agreeable next week.

    I spent the better part of the last few days listening to my book club book. I’m not a huge audiobook fan but for reasons I’ll explain in GBT , it works brilliantly for this book.

    Despite the hot weather, I’m spending lots of time in the garden. I’ve re-seeded lettuces and hoping for mid-September harvest. I’ve harvested 101 garlic cloves which are currently drying in my basement. Hopefully, they won’t go mushy early like last year’s garlic.

  21. I’m losing my job. I was told I’m a failure at it, I am not understanding anything (which is true), this job is not for me, and in a few hours we have the meeting to talk about getting rid of me. I made probation because my boss was nice and let me, but obviously I didn’t deserve to make it and I’m not sure what happens after that in state employment.

    My work this week: saving my files that I want to keep, updating the resume, applying for 3 unlikely jobs, applying with Dept. of Rehab for help again.

    4. So I had a surprise meeting with my grandboss today. My boss was unaware of it (and unconcerned when I told her about it, since I thought she’d be going). My boss had not immediately run to grandboss to tell her I need to be fired yet! So I told grandboss what was going on, she was quite sympathetic, and interested in trying to make my situation better. At least this wasn’t the “You’re getting fired” conversation I was expecting, it was just a general “check in with everyone to ask how things are going” meeting. So I said. So she’s aware.

      I feel a lot better now.

      1. That sounds good. At least, there’s someone who knows what you’ve been facing with that boss, who never finished anything, keeping you in limbo.

      1. Oops — I posted this before I saw your update. I’m not sorry about the meeting with the grandboss, but about the original stuff!

    8. Jennifer, I am so sorry! There’s a job out there that will be just right for you. Sending virtual hugs.

  22. I had to shelve the idea of buying new carpet for a while. Both the dishwasher and my computer died the same week. Had to replace both. But I can still look. The prices of computers have sure skyrocketed. I ended up buying a laptop. Now I have to get used to typing on a flat surface. Maybe I can put something underneath the keypad to raise it up a bit.

    I stopped using the boot on my foot after a month and a half. Not only was it annoying taking it off and on throughout the day but I notice there is a dent in my shin. It couldn’t have been that tight. I also drove for the first time in over two months yesterday. It was so good to be able to take myself out without anyone having to drive me.

    I’ve been watching Grimm I think on Amazon, no zombies but a lot of hairy faced monsters. It’s not my kind of show but anything in the drought of summer viewing is a change.

    1. The canonical hack for laptops is two rectangular erasers to put under the back corners of the laptop. There are more expensive, more custom things but try that first. I got my first laptop in 2001 and my erasers are still on the desk in the same place.

      If the computer and the dishwasher had to die, at least they didn’t wait until you had ordered the carpet.

    2. If putting something underneath the back of the laptop isn’t enough, there are little laptop-stands you can buy and put it on so it’s sat on an angle. They are usually adjustable, so you can find an angle that feels right for typing and looking at the screen. Both Sven and I have those, not so much for typing, but to prevent the cats from walking on the keyboard. It works a treat.
      Another solution is to plug in a USB-keyboard (or bluetooth) of your choosing into the laptop. If you don’t need to look at your keys when you type, that might even be the best option, since you can then put it on your lap, making your shoulders and back happy. If you still have the keyboard from your old computer, give it a go.
      And you can of course combine both worlds, too! Laptop stand to get the laptop in a more comfortable position for seeing the screen with the additional perk of keeping the laptop keyboard cat-free, external keyboard on lap to be nice to the shoulders and back. 🙂 That’s how we’re doing it, even if we’re only using the stands to keep the kitties away, not to see the screen better.

  23. I’ve done various bits of gardening, including sowing autumn/winter salad leaves and some hardy annual flowers – I also want to direct-sow a bed of those, but need to get the soil workable first. Most of the allotment, where I’m not watering it every other day, is like concrete, and there’s no rain forecast.

    I’ve also taken the plunge & bought an under-the-counter freezer to double my capacity and store – first – my plum harvest. I’m also hoping to do more batch cooking/freezing. It’s due tomorrow, so I cleared a route through the house for it and scrubbed the kitchen floor this morning.

  24. When I think of art heist and animals, for some reason ferrets come to mind immediately. An old boss of mine had ferrets, they were quite adorable. They loved to steal shoes.

    I’ve been pulling all the preliminary work I’ve been doing on my two main projects at work into a nice, neat report. I’ll be gaining a collaborator on one of the projects soon so I need to make sure everything is in order so he can pick it up quickly. I also have to see about showing my ideas for the next phase of the other project to the project lead.

    I recently downloaded a neat little app called Focus Friend (I think that’s the name) where you ignore your phone so a little bean person living in your phone can focus on their knitting. It’s adorable and surprisingly effective at getting me to put aside my phone! It was developed by a science communicator whose work I really enjoy- Hank Green, who does projects like Crash Course.

    1. My son is a huge Hank Green fan and was absolutely delighted that he would be the speaker at sons graduation

    2. I think more of Martens or Ermine. Spell check disagrees and keeps changing martens to matters which makes no sense.

  25. My (along with about 200 other people’s) internet has been down for the past two days. It’s supposed to be back up tomorrow. I hope that’s true. It’s hard working on my tiny phone!

    It’s been hot and dry. I emptied my rain barrel. Fortunately, we had nice storm. Enough to refill the barrel.

    So some good some bad.

    Pixie’s getting back to her daily walks. She goes to the groomer on Saturday.

  26. I went to a Thai Buddhist funeral on Monday. I had checked out a book from the library about how to be a good guest at religious rituals you know nothing about and at least 60% of what they said in the book was wrong. However, since the service was 100% in Thai, nobody expected me to be able to follow along. I spent a lot of time with a friend of the person I came to support and it was interesting to be able to put a face to one of the people I had heard about off and on for several years. And the one friend I had met when my friend was a kid is now a mother of 3, including a fairly young infant that she kept passing back and forth with her husband.

    One thing that seemed to cross all cultural boundaries is that everyone kept trying to feed me. I love Thai food and for at least a dozen years I used to eat in my friend’s aunt’s restaurant every week, but I just didn’t feel hungry. But the grandmas trying to feed me felt very familiar, despite the difference in language and cuisine.

  27. I am not gardening, largely because of tendeniris in my shoulder. The garden looks ok and I’m just hoping I am not creating a weed legacy for next year. I am harvesting squash blossoms every day and cooking them every two days and we are eating squash blossom soup and blossom quesadilla and blossom scrambled eggs. Those plants will just not give up. I also bought and cooked a lot of sorrel —some of which will be made into soup and some of which makes a lovely tangy no cal summer drink. And I made enough scape pistacho pesto to get us through the winter —then DH made basil pesto and now I need to make a lot of recipes with pesto this winter.
    . At day job I got the three grant reports in and gave a webinar and am prepared for the next webinar (not all this week but the finishing touches were this week) so now I have many things to write. But no hard deadlines. Whew!

    DH has another trip planned. His last one, to spend time with brother and cousin, was five days and I managed to reorganize my drawers and closet and found all the summer shirts I enjoy wearing as well as a lot of paperwork. So while he spends 10 days in India I plan to plan my trip to see both kids when DD goes to Boston, and file papers, and clean all the silver that my mom asked me to take and store. I can get a lot done when he’s gone. I may even prepare two Navajo rugs for hanging.

  28. I harvested another handful of Orange Hat Tomatoes today. I still have just the one pepper out of six plants. A seventh plant committed suicide by collapsing back on itself, bending the stem in compound fractures. (I should have been tying it off every few inches, I suppose.)

  29. I’m almost almost ready to press go on a communications project and am just waiting on a few more answers from other people. And the updated mailing list. I hate waiting on other people lol!

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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