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Working Wednesday: The Scathingly Brilliant Idea Edition

I’m in the middle of digging out this hellhole of a house–the house is fine but I am a truly terrible housekeeper–and I was trying to figure out whether to put my office in the half of the living room near the kitchen or in the half near the windows, when it hit me.

What if the office wasn’t in the living room?

The living room is where I talk to people, or it was before it descended into madness. The small bedroom is where I live and write and do business and sleep, leaving the big bedroom for guests and yarn and fabric. But I’d rather write in my bedroom even if you’re not supposed to write in bed 24/7. It’s where I write. Therefore, my office stuff should be there, too.

I mean, that’s just brilliant. (Hey, I take my wins where I can get them.)

And then I looked at the logistics, and the bedroom was too small to take a bed AND my writing table. That I love but never write on. Which led me to Scathingly Brilliant Idea #2.

Move back into the big bedroom. I don’t mind yarn and fabric staring at me. And there’s room in there (I think) for the writing table, too. Possibly room for printers and papers and notebooks. I think it’ll all fit.

God, I’m smart.

Of course the amount of work this is going to take is horrendous, but I can do it. Slowly. Very slowly.

What brilliant ideas did you have at work today?

109 Responses

  1. I had this Scathingly Brilliant Idea (I was a Hayley Mills fan, too) for a one pot dinner. It started with 2½ pounds of frozen boneless skinless chicken thighs and two cups of vegetable stock and a slow cooker. Next, I had this box of instant mashed potatoes, and reading the destructions on the back, I thunk to myself, “What if I let the vegetable stock substitute for the two cups of water?” That sounded excellent, except there was only about 14 ounces of stock, not the full two cups. So I used a whole stick of butter instead of three table spoons. Then instead of milk I used heavy whipping cream.

    Of course, the result was about a thousand calories per serving, so I only served it to myself twice. It was glorious!

        1. I’ve mentioned rereading NAKED THROUGH THE SNOW by Sailor Jim Johnston> One of SJ’s “bits of silliness” is titled, “Death by Pizza”. If you follow the link to his post, I must point out that the first poster in that thread snuck in somehow ahead of Sailor Jim – read the second post and any others by Sailor Jim.

          The part of his bit o’ silliness applicable here is:

          “I had sliced my pie into fourths (I wasn’t hungry enough to cut it into six or eight slices), so I liberally sprinkled tabasco all over the pie. About – oh, roughly – half a cup of tasbasco soaked into the melted cheese.”

          I added the bolding. In other words, I divided the crockpot’s contents into two servings, because I wasn’t hungry enough for seven or eight. (In all truthiness, there was 1.5 cups/351 grams left over, but that’s not as funny.)

  2. That IS brilliant. And maybe you can move some of the fabric and yarn to the smaller bedroom. You don’t have guests that often, and they won’t mind being stared at by those things either. I love rearranging my house so it works better.

    I’m working on two articles for Llewellyn annuals that somehow in my head were due in early October, but when I (thank goodness) glanced at my Post-it note reminders are due September 2nd and 5th. Yes, that IS next week. So that’s what I’m working on until they’re done. I’m also still shooting ideas back and forth with my agent for how to increase the tension and risk for the magical cozy, and trying to tackle the garden and start to process the harvest.

    Which would be easier if the intercostal muscles I pulled on Saturday didn’t hurt so much. I mean, I’m fine if I don’t move. Or sneeze. Or cough. Gah.

    Once I’m done with the articles, I’ll be back to working on my Cranky Crone’s Guide to Life and Other Difficulties book, and I’ve got two more videos to post on Instagram and TikTok today and tomorrow of my weekly Cranky Crone rant and tarot card pull. I really need to figure out how to put them all up on my YouTube channel…which means I have to figure out YouTube. SIGH.

    1. Cranky Crone’s Guide to Life and Other Difficulties ! Can’t wait to read it. I feel it will help me.

    2. I heard an article on bartering on NPR recently that sounded so exciting and effective. I think I am going to start bartering ideas for myself.
      Cranky Crone’s Guide to Life and Other Difficulties ! Can’t wait to read it. I feel it will help me.

    3. Of course her guests won’t mind staring at fabric and yarn. They won’t mind using it, either. But it’s already in the guest room to be stared at, so I suppose Spontaneous Guest Creativity hasn’t been a problem.

    4. I pulled my intercostal muscles a couple months ago, and every time I thought of them my brain said “intercoastal muscles” and then snickered, because I am also a sailor and the intercoastal waterway looms large in my mind.

      I hope yours get better quicker

  3. I have a brilliant idea to suggest to Ms Jenny Crusie that she hire help. It will be faster & more efficient. You can get the move made & the office going in a day or 2 instead of weeks.
    I am taking my own advice. Someone is coming to do floors & clean windows. Someone else is coming to clean the carport & haul crappie away. And a third person is coming to take care of issues with the blinds.
    What am I doing? Laundry. If it is cloth & in my house it is dirty. And grocery shopping.
    I double dog dare you to hire help Ms Crusie.

    1. I second that notion. My dad once mentioned that the best tool in your toolbox is a checkbook. It gets things done and you can concentrate on the stuff you actually want to do, like writing, etc.

    2. Or get a friend to help. I have a friend who is a bit of a hoarder, and periodically I go over and help her hoe out. It’s easier and more fun with another set of hands. She returns the favor in my garden.

    3. I love the idea of hiring help in theory. I just feel like I would have to clean before they come. Catholic guilt never dies, I guess.

    4. I have a friend who says you can get a lot done if you throw enough money at it. I like your ideas and suggestions, especially because I am also a terrible housekeeper.

    5. Yes, hire someone. That was my first thought when reading your post. Make it your birthday present to yourself. It will be done in no time at all. And no guilt about cleaning first. Just like all the bedding, etc somewhere, move your paperwork to the kitchen table and supervise. Says me, the one with the very stacked banker boxes and stuff from dead people and current year end stuff to do.

      Yup it will get done if one throws enough money at it. Before retiring that all it did was to hire someone. I still do just more defined jobs.

      Took Juno to the groomers just now. Heading to the Apple Store. Pressure washing the back fence.

      1. Oh, and measure the desk etc before you throw money at it. Have the plan drawn out. Tape to wall.

    6. And if I were a focused, organized person, I would do that.

      But, alas, I am not. And don’t intend to be. I’ll get there.

  4. My brilliant idea:

    So the only room in my house that still has carpet is the den. I’m having it removed (because there are hard woods underneath) and in my effort to get the furniture moved out I had a teacher friend bring a couple of football players over to move the sleeper sofa (heavy as heck) into another room where it will live forever, cause we had to take the doors off the hinges to get it out of the room and because I hate that piece of furniture.

    Once the floors are done I have decided I would rather have different chairs to make seating groups instead of big bulky furniture pieces. Now it’s a matter of finding those chairs!!

  5. No brilliant ideas as of yet because today is my first day back after two weeks of holiday (camping in Bella Coola), but the Brilliant Idea will probably be along the lines of putting a sign out my office door that states that if people want to get paid, they should probably leave me alone today (payroll run today).

  6. I’m still pondering brilliant ideas that will make living in our smallish house more manageable. Probably the biggest one is to start lightening the load of stuff that is in the house!

    As for crafting (yes, I should lighten the load here too. I once had the brilliant idea that I’d sew myself out of trouble, but that hasn’t happened! LOL!!) I’ve been stymied by my next quilting mystery step. I need to just buckle down and attempt it, but I’ve been staring at it for weeks mulishly. In the meantime I’ve been working on my crochet project. It’s looking great, and it’s inspiring and I can do it while plopped in front of the TV.

    In the meantime, I’ve been entertained by cats. I figured if nothing else, I should provide pictures. There is Charlie and his buddy Teddy – a difference of about 10 lbs of cat!
    https://www.instagram.com/p/DN26mi-3HeB/?img_index=1

    Charlie continues to grow like a weed. We’ve started taking him out with a harness and a leash and he’s so proud strutting around looking over everything. It’s quite comical. DH takes him out for long walks (it’s good for both of them!) while I only traipse about the yard a bit. Hopefully I’ll get a picture of him soon.

  7. As everyone here knows, I released the first book in my Ice Planet Barbarians series on July 1. What you may not know, though, is the second book came out August 1. And here’s the thing. I’m only selling a handful of books, but I’m getting about 40% readthru to the second book.

    So my Scathingly Brilliant idea is to finish the third book (which is about 75% complete) and get it out there.

  8. I need to be doing the final proof of my upcoming book, but I’ve read it 500 times and my friends haven’t gotten back to me with comments yet. So I’m going to have to do this without their comments.

    And day job. Always day job. Might be “sick” Friday to get this proofing done in time

  9. My very favorite (and only) son-in-law once told me to look at a problem and decide (1) was it worth my time/hours or (2) easier to throw money at it and hire a pro/helper? It has saved me hours of backbreaking work by being able to organize the logistics in my head of the order of what needs to be done then telling others what to do.

  10. I spent the morning finding audiobooks that I want to own because apparently Audible credits expire? I don’t remember this being a thing, but I have a month to go and 10 credits left. Amazon is the devil. Rocky Start is only $2 an audiobook right now, btw. So now I just need to decide if I am going to cancel my subscription or not. I am still banning the Zon, but a lot of indie authors only release audiobooks there. I am torn.

    In other news, my cat is continuing to have litter box issues. He is in solitary confinement in a nice little back room with open windows, toys, food and water in the hopes that we can retrain him. We think it is marking behavior against our other cat, his sister and have a list of things to try but I really need him to stop leaving a pile in the middle of the bed and covering it up with my quilts. Ugh.

    Thankfully Little League is finally over. We had so many bad accidents this year. It felt like more than usual. Kids are back in school and the weather is beautiful. It is full steam ahead to Fall and Halloween. Wheeee!

    1. I’m still buying the majority of my books from Amazon, because so many authors/publishers are Amazon only, and I’m not going to punish those authors/publishers for the shittiness of Jeff Bezoar. Also I nearly always buy on sale, which doesn’t do much for the authors royalty-wise (oh, how personally I know this), but at least pushes their sales numbers higher.

      If you *can* get something from another vendor, by all means do so! I’ve been buying more frequently from Smashwords. Since I don’t audio, though, I’m afraid I don’t know a good alternate platform.

      1. I am trying to switch to Kobo almost entirely, but I don’t like the formatting nearly as much as kindle. Darn it.

      2. Same here:
        Books published by German publishing houses for the German-speaking market are subject to fixed book prices, so no need to compare prices. The prices for books from anywhere else is up to each distributor/book shop and an vary greatly. The big A. had the huge advantage to outdo anyone else, so in the past, I ordered from Amazon as often it was the only source for ebooks and physical books were horribly expensive anywhere else. But things have become much better. I don’t know how they managed to do it, but the big-big Germany book chains manage to offer most ebooks for nearly or exactly the same price as A and even the prices for physical books are (almost) competitive to A now. So that’s where my money now goes mostly.
        Some authors are offering their books directly – e.g. the latest Jax Calder was available directly via her website pre publication date on Amazon and although it cost more that way (taxes!), I opted to support her that way instead of getting the KU.
        But for indie authors who are dependent on Amazon as sole distributor, I will stick to A in order not to punish those.
        One downside: having ALL my books on one device (kindle) is far easier than – as is the case now – having the majority on the kindle and the growing library on tolino (and unfortunately I still have to figure out how to get the one book I purchased via buecher.de on any of my reading devices, yuk, their AI-based customer service sucks).

        Alternatives to Amazon, see e.g. https://lgumbinner.substack.com/p/good-alternatives-audible-kindle
        There are the obvious audiobook alternatives like libro.fm – seems far more interesting plus you get to own your audiobook. Saving my audiobook library of the past 15 years is the main reason why I haven’t yet cancelled our subscription. And figuring out if I can join libro.fm…
        Plus, the German book chains also stepp up in regards to audiobooks, now offering something similar to audible, but for less money. Will have to check out their foreign-language-section though.

    2. Lupe, I didn’t realize that credits expired either. Thanks for the info.

      You might consider using your stash for pre-orders if you know something is coming out soon.

      1. That is mostly what I did. I want to get my money’s worth so was saving them for up and coming must haves, but it has been a light year for my favorite authors. Or my other avenues of listening cover the big ones. Library, spotify, etc.

      2. Thanks for the info ab out expiring credits, Lupe!!
        I didn’t realize this, either. Have just checked on the .de-site: credits expire after 12 months. One more reason to finally cancel my subscription, sigh, after I’ve decided on what to use my saved up credits and after having saved my audiobooks.

        I hate being so clueless about IT-technology.

    3. Well, your cat has certainly found the spot where he can get the biggest reaction to his protest. On the other hand, bedding, unless antique, is easier to clean than the carpeting.

      1. The quilt is sentimental, made by my mother who as passed and the rest of her sisters. Even my sister and I sewed on it as very small children on the underside. But it will wash. It’s more the surprise factor, I think, and ick. He did it one morning while I was getting ready for work, moving back and forth between the bathroom and bedroom, while my husband was still asleep in bed!

        Yesterday was a tentative success and the prisoner was allowed supervised visits back into the house. Fingers crossed for today. I feel terrible when he cries at the door but I need a pattern of multiple days before I spring him.

        Thankfully I have a Bissell little green machine for carpet and upholstery. I find them pretty regularly at estate sales and love giving them as gifts. So helpful for spot cleaning.

        1. When my parents bought the house I grew up in, they intended to rip up the carpets because my Dad was convinced there was hardwood underneath them. They had also just recarpeted the house we had outgrown before they finally sold it. And although they hated the maroon carpet at the new house, this was also the year that my oldest brother started college and they owned 2 houses for a year. So we spot cleaned the cats’ statements of displeasure and left the ugly carpeting where it was as my parents spent their money on college and music lessons for their 5 kids and, eventually, European vacations for themselves. I’m sure our cleaning lady would have LOVED to have a little green machine to help, but they had not yet been invented.

  11. My brilliant idea was to use DH’s 10 day trip to work my way through chores that take up space. So my dining room table is covered with my grandmothers silver which I have been cleaning and storing in tarnish proof bags and trying to identify the silver mark so I can learn more about it. I think they brought it with them on the train out of Germany in December 1939 so the history part is important.

    Brilliant idea 2 is to use his trip to toss all the expired cans because he keeps thinking it’s safe to eat.

    Brilliant idea 3 was to recognize that I will never read years of Funny Times and toss them and start fresh —but keep reading the New Yorkers—I think I have read and tossed 10 in 5 days and have only 30 or 40 to go.

    Brilliant idea 4 was to stop gardening until my tendinitis heals. My garden is suffering but I really need my shoulder

    1. Tendinitis is the worst! And in my experience, it never goes away until I give it a complete rest for at least three solid days. I have to re-learn that lesson over and over. Usually, it feels better after two days and I start using the joint again, and it comes right back, sand I remember, oh, yeah, gotta give it at least three days. So I end up having to start the three days all over and am on the injured list for five days instead of just three.

    2. Expired cans that neither buldge nor smell funny probably ARE safe to eat, although the quality may have deteriorated. I remember that in my grad student days I had limited access to the small embassy commissary in Moscow, and it seemed that practically all canned goods there were expired (an exaggeration), but they came with a notice that a military veterinarian (!) had inspected them and they were safe to eat.

      2. Well, it’s the “probably” that makes me unwilling to use them. Especially when they are years past their use by date

        1. It’s usually not worth taking the risk.
          I’d take the chance to bin it while your hubby is away.
          (P.S. I come from a family where my mom gets rid of everything that’s 1 hour past expiration date and a father who’s like your husband).

          1. I ask myself how much would I pay to not have food poisoning? It makes throwing away expired food much easier.

  12. I’ve been reorganizing my outdoor space all summer and it is indeed brilliant. Last spring’s garden rebuild project is now rewarding me with eight-foot-tall tomato plants, though at the moment they are nearly drowning in all this rain.

    With autumn sliding into view, I suppose I will shift to indoor space reorganizing at some point soon. Pretty sure it is all a coping mechanism to help take my mind off [gestures at the world full of things I cannot control], but there are worse ways to spend my time.

    Agree with the people suggesting hiring help. Great ideas are even better when the can be effectuated quickly!

    1. It’s tough being a collaborator, right? That’s why I never do it unless I’m being paid to.

      But theoretically a reorganized workspace will mean more efficient work. 😉

    2. Oh, please. This reorganization will be a HELP.

      I don’t sigh at you about the dump or all the house stuff you do. Jeez.

  14. My working week was moving prep and some murders in the garden. Took out five more plants that cluttered up the front yard without delivering significant beauty or ecological benefits, when considered in combination with the other plants.

    Oh, and Day Job, which got a little busier.

    Nothing on the writing front. I have three projects mentally cooking, but now is not the time to try to put any fictional words in order.

    1. Do you want an Argh Author?

      If I get swamped, that goes to the bottom of the list, but as long as any of you want one and send me all the stuff so I just have to copy and paste it into the blog, I’m fine. Expect me to do any really work and you’re toast.

    2. Oh, dear. I’m going to buy that (which I can now afford since I’m back at work though still not completely healed) but you have introduced me to another source of interesting queer books. The list of books I am waiting to afford is extremely long already.

      1. Mary Anne, feel free to email me [to aycaluen at gmail dot com] and I’d be happy to send you an ePub or PDF of anything. 🙂

        1. I have pre-ordered it. It had better be worth the struggle to set up an account! (I am confident that it will be, based on 32 previous reads.)

  16. My brilliant (?) idea this week was fixing the mat under my chair. The old one was splitting and the wheels on my chair kept getting stuck so I put down a new one but it’s a lot less sturdy than the old. I’m thinking it’s probably better on a hard surface but my office is carpeted. So I put the new one over the old one and so far it’s been okay with a few pieces of gorilla tape in the corners so the top one doesn’t slip.

  17. I can’t say I’ve had any brilliant ideas this week, but I have written a lot of words—maybe 6k? The rewrites on this manuscript are going to be daunting.

  18. I LOVE when it finally clicks in my brain that this is my house where I live with two cats and who the hell cares if I turn a corner of the living room into a craft area and another awkward corner just fits the 1990s computer desk for the home computer and bill paying? WHO IS GONNA come into MY HOUSE and make any kind of scathing remark about my horrible horrible living room layout? No One. Because I HATE doing the dishes (no dish washer) so I am confident that will startle them to not noticing anything else. Also, I am so so lucky to have a whole attic space remodeled for my sewing and paint supplies (note I said “supplies” not paintings because “one day”) and holiday storage, and oh yeah, my work from home computer office. I’ll tell you what else, I bought wall paper (against unsolicited commentary) 4 years AGO! and I WILL put it up in my bathroom because – see statement above – even tho I’ll have to do it myself. Time to take ownership of my space for goodness sakes. It’s too late to try and impress anybody. This is me. Behold and get to know me better!

  19. Getting help is DEFINITELY the way to go. It took my daughter several years to convince me of this fact. But she and Clever Cherry are right. I now have a professional handyman on speed dial and my very, VERY helpful grandchildren are also available. So when I look at a project and get that “OMG this will take forever” feeling, I have learned to hire or ask for help. It was a HUGE learning curve and I had to bat down my pride 97 times, but it has all been well worth it.

  20. Nothing that qualifies as brilliant, but I have talked myself off the ledge and decided if the cardiologist isn’t worried, I’m not going to worry either. And I let myself write something silly yesterday, just ’cause.

  21. No brilliant ideas recently, because I’m taking a vacation from thinking and I’m doing instead. Will resume thinking next week.

    For doing, I finished three lap quilts (and two quiltlets) and almost finished a fourth lap quilt, except the thread I need to quilt the border is on backorder, so it’s done except for quilting the border and adding binding. Pic of the three lap quilts here: https://www.instagram.com/p/DN3SGVVWg2l/ Once again, apologies for the lack of cat model, since they were, once again, sleeping. Makes the photography easier, but less cute.

  22. I’m still working on my lines, which are mostly done. I AM ALMOST DONE WITH PAPILLON, I JUST HAVE THE BINDOFF TO GO!!!!!! So I’m excited about that. Ready to do other things instead.

    Privately, I’m working on some writing contest entries and another job application. I heard back from the Dept of Rehab and I need to schedule an appointment there.

    As for work, I’ve finished all of the procedures I’ve been working on–which is to say they will sit indefinitely waiting for adult proofreading– and am seriously watching YouTube videos for work on “soft skills.” Love it.

    I have a one on one with my boss again today, so I’m nervous about that. I don’t know how that’s going to go since last time was the dreaded “this job is not for you” conversation. Not sure if I want to eat today or make sure I don’t get nauseous.

      2. It did! I’m not getting fired, they’re going to keep me, just “focus on my strengths.” I’m SO relieved.

  23. It actually got into the 50s F last night outside, preposterous weather for August here, but great for sleeping. Very bad, though, for waking up the next morning. I’ve been up for at least 5 hours and only now is alertness seeping in. So no brilliant ideas from me today.

    I’ve got a medical appointment and other things going on tomorrow so I may end up skipping GBTh entirely, for the first time in a long time.

  24. My brilliant idea this week was to put toothpaste on a wasp sting. I got stung on a walk with a friend and wasn’t at home. Dr. Google suggested toothpaste or baking Haven’t been bitten in decades and this is second one this summer. Wasp’s have smooth stingers and can go deeper than bees resulting in a painful sting. Toothpaste is helping but it’s still uncomfortable.

    It’s much cooler here – happy to be wearing pants instead of shorts every day. Good for walking and gardening. Crossing my fingers that forecasted rain materializes later this week.

  26. Well, when my quick and easy quilt top that I was making for retiring coworker turned out to be really bad choices as to how I divided up the fabric (I decided it by colorway versus busyness. I should’ve put calm fabrics in one batch and wild ones in the other.), I decided to start over. That was my brilliant solution. So here is a quick and easy lap quilt that I put together over the past three days. https://www.instagram.com/p/DN3n5q83p4g/?igsh=MW45anRmNGF2MnMzOA==

    Now I just need to figure out what to do with the 72 blocks from the first attempt. I think it’ll get broken up into two small quilts.

  27. I used to own a furniture moving kitty that worked well. It has a lever to Portland up the corners one at a time and four disks to slip under them. One side of the disks was for moving furniture on carpet, the other on bare floors. Fast and easy. They might be sold at hardware stores or online. In case the writing table is heavy.

  28. No brilliant ideas today just frustration because everything I had to do was taking too long.

    Time for bed a happier day tomorrow. Oh, wait. I have a dentist appointment.

  29. I finally finished my last huge crochet project, with several balls of yarn left over. There’s a Little Free “Fibrary” in my neighborhood, so I walked the yarn over and popped it in.

    I was dubious if anyone would want it. Nice yarn but not enough of each color to make one thing. But it was all gone hours later and different yarn was in the box. That felt oddly productive.

      1. Me too. It often has knitting or crochet books in it, and sometimes tools. But my favorite is when it’s got lots of yarn. It has a cute sign on it featuring yarn and needles.

  30. I’ve been trying to think of an appropriate response for Citibank who sent me a letter this week saying that they are raising the interest rate on my credit card by more than 4% because I don’t use it enough!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have had that account since 1983 and in recent years have worked very hard to not buy anything I can’t pay for in one month. And they say that I should be running up debt at my age? I will need that money topay for medical expenses as I age, but they think I need more consuner debt? Who the eff do they think they are?

    1. Leave them! Or at least threaten to unless they reduce your interest rate again. There are probably many companies happy to take your money.

    2. Years ago one of my credit cards started charging interest on the charges BEFORE the due date for the first month. I called customer service and asked what was up and how could I possibly pay the bill before I received it (in the day of paper all the way) and they said blahblahblah “company policy” blahblahblah and I said “Well, I’ll just have to stop using it, I guess,” and didn’t use it for about a year. (I had another credit card.) They did not cancel my card, and continued to send me paper bills for zero. Whatever the interest rate may be, zero is zero. This must have been unpopular with many customers because they canceled this quite soon.

    3. While I do think if it annoys you enough, you should call and threaten to cancel your card and possibly cancel it. However, I pay off my credit cards every month too, so I don’t really care what interest they charge me because I won’t have to pay it.

      1. I want to go back to NZ and Australia before my friend loses any more of her memory. Since the ticket will not be free this time and the first charges will come in while I’m gone, and quite possibly draw interest, I want to get everything fixed before I leave. If the charges start to hit before I return, my extremely overworked niece will have to try to sort through them all without any input from me. Although she would probably do much better dealing with all the many different offshore departments that Citicard will shuttle her through, I don’t want to waste her time, especially since she is presently using a week of her vacation taking my mostly deaf brother to all his medical appointments. Citicard won’t let me talk to anyone in the appropriate department until after the rate change goes into effect, so there is nothing anyone can do for another 3 weeks. I’ve had a moderate amount of success negotiating with them in the past, so I think I can get them to take a little bit off the size of the increase.

        The reason opening a new account may not work very well for me is that I have a trust which doesn’t count as my income and they do not see when I apply for an account. Therefore, any new account will come with a very small credit limit. Any other year that would be fine, but if I am taking a trip of this size, the new account probably won’t be big enough. Because the previous road trips were made in my friend’s car and we split all the other expenses, that trip was a lot more affordable than this would be. And this time I will not be getting a free ticket. But I will try not to worry about that for the next 3 weeks. I didn’t believe I would get there the first 2 trips, but thanks to the generosity of 2 sets of friends, I made it. So maybe a stranger will gift me with a huge amount of frequent flyer miles and that will make all the difference.

  31. I’m in the middle of a consultation so insanely busy. My brilliant idea has been to take a deep breath every now and again and remember that its very easy for people to miss things even when you have provided all the documentation.

    And I’m very frustrated at tardy responses from some our partners, as then I can’t respond in turn to the consultation participants. Particularly as the people in those partner roles are relatively new so I haven’t had time to build up relationships with them to draw down on in peak periods like this. *Deep breath*

  32. My (not really scathingly) brilliant idea this week was planting ground covering plants like perlwort and sempervivum, plus shrubs like echinacea in our smallish front garden soon. My original idea (planting nice herbs like thyme and lobelia and throwing some left over wildflower seeds) backfired as the few wildflowers that took dominate the lobelia etc., however, they are not really very nice to look at and the whole area looks unkempt.
    Also, I suspect the neighborhood cats had their way, too, as there’s a clear path visible across the front yard – including relocated shards that I had put there as edge for the planted area. We do have one cat queen called Nala (who came to inspect our house on moving day and shortly afterwards) who’s very loudly patrouilling the area nightly. I’d think she disagreed with my layout.

  33. Jenny do you actually use your office stuff when you are writing ?
    I write and work in the living room. All my office stuff is in the study. I only use it when I am speaking on a webinar but it’s where I file things and keep mailing supplies .
    Just saying maybe you can move the writing table in the big bedroom but stay in the small bedroom and have a people friendly less cluttered living room with much less effort?

    Also I support restoring the living room to a people friendly space . If you can keep one room like that it can be your refuge from chaos too.

  34. I’m at the end of a three week tour of mainland schools for Book Week. A week in Brisbane, a week in Sydney and a week in Melbourne. Heading home tomorrow, exhausted and longing for time on my own NOT TALKING TO ANYONE.

    Despite the exhaustion, it has been pretty good fun, and has reminded me that I actually enjoy this stuff, as long as I don’t do it for too long. So next year it’s going to be two weeks instead of three. Which is my contribution to brilliant ideas of the week.

  35. My brilliant idea was putting some extra time in the photoshoot schedule for today. Which meant that when something went wrong (missing tutus! oh dear!) we were able to pivot, fix it, and still get the shoot finished on time. I’m feeling quite victorious. I might even walk to the grocery store and treat myself to some potato chips.

  36. My mother died 5 years ago. She left my brother and me each a savings bond, (originally my father’s). My brother was the executor. No living person knows the number. Multiple calls to the treasury. I sent a notarized okay from my brother with appropriate forms. Just got a rejection letter. Argh.

    1. That sounds awful and frustrating Amyll.

      I was just talking to a friend at lunch about how important it is to have all your documents in order. Sometimes even with the best efforts some vital document can go astray. Commiserations, and good luck in finding a solution.

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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