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Working Wednesday: Oh, For Heaven’s Sake

It’s Wednesday? Who knew?

What did you work on this week? (I worked on my sanity. It’s taken a few hits lately.)

56 Responses

  1. Still working on my leg. MRI in the morning and the highway department construction has closed the end of my road nearest the hospital so I have no idea how much time it will take to get there as opposed to the usual.
    Before this, I would never have thought “numbness and tingling” could be as hard to deal with as actual pain. Who knew?

      1. Thanks. I survived, and await the results. That ringing sensation in your ears from loudness? Your whole body can feel that way, too!

  2. Finished annoying proofs today. Otherwise, I’ve been walking, gardening, making the big print for the upcoming exhibition, and doing The Artist’s Way. Looking forward to a few days’ holiday with friends.

  3. I’ve also been working on sanity. Also knitting on a dachshund. Knitting helps when trying to stay sane.
    I’m also FINALLY(!) working on one of the exercises from the Gaslighting-book: Write everything down, big or small, that gives you the feeling that you’re being lied to, manipulated and gaslighted. I keep thinking of more and more things and it makes me more and more angry. Argh.
    Have slowly started walking on the treadmill in addition to my physio-exercises, because I feel my body really needs more movement. 15 minutes feels like torture. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so bad stamina- and body-wise. Bleh.
    Today I did the thing and uploaded the video that was made as introduction for my (digital) appearance at the Art x Accessibility-event I was guest-speaker at last month. I know a few of you have seen the link via Bluesky and Instagram already, but for those who are curious and don’t use those socials, you can find it here:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmmkw3HnuYE
    I hope it was okay that I posted this, Jenny.

    1. It was delightful to see the video and hear your voice!

      “Knitting on a dachshund,” does the dog remain still while you knit on it and what are you knitting, a shawl? Is like when people yarn bomb trees and you knit around the dog while it sits on your lap? Or are you making a dachshund out of yarn by knitting it? These were the things my brain thought of by that phrase. 😆

    2. That’s a wonderful video, Shass, so interesting to watch. I had no idea that technology could tell you things like colour.

      And I too want to know what ‘knitting on a dachshund’ involves.

    3. “knitting on a dachshund” made me think of the Tom Daley video I just saw in which he knit a couture outfit for his extremely tolerant, if somewhat exasperated-looking, Italian greyhound. 🙂

    5. Thanks for the video-love, everyone! It was quite terrifying to post it, which I have decided I am allowed to say. People keep telling me I shouldn’t admit things like that, but then earlier this week I remembered how my idea of a voice-actor I like changed to the better and how much respect I felt for him when he told his followers that he’s struggling with social anxiety. So I’m saying it: It was very scary, but I did it anyway.
      Haha, the “Knitting on a dachshund”-bit was just me messing up the sentence. I’ve been laughign while reading your ponderings on this. I had incredibly little time to finish the video and voiceover; it was very stressy and I was so, so very tired, so eventually I just recorded a few takes of every part and then let the editor pick out the bits he liked the best. I didn’t write a script on beforehand, I freewheeled while recording. What I *actually* meant was that I was knitting a dachshund, as in that it is a thing one can work on as WIP. No doggies have been knitted on, or on top of, or been yarn-tattooed. Whether that is a relief to hear or a disappointment, I leave up to you. <3 That said, I very frequently knit on a demon, as in that my work is on top of her because she insists on being all ove my lap 80 % of the time.
      ANYWAY, thank you all so much for taking the time to check the video and for your very kind words. It helps to make sharing things less intimidating. <3

  4. I feel like I did a lot of not very much.

    I did finish up that blanket last week, so this past weekend was dropping things off at the State Fair. It opens tomorrow, so things should be judged by now. I just don’t know when I’ll figure out how I did. I submitted two quilts, the afghan and a baby afghan.

    I went outside and pruned by rose bush and some either iris or gladioli – it hasn’t bloomed in a while, so I don’t know what it is. I then read I should be trimming back my day lilies, so that might be on my list for next weekend. Then I took things to the fair, dropped off stuff at a thrift shop and picked up cat food. After that, I felt I deserved to take the rest of the day off, so I spent it trying to catch up on my Crochet-a-long (CAL).

    I’m also getting ready for my quilt retreat. I leave on Friday. Usually, I’ll have things already cut out, so I can just get straight to sewing, but it doesn’t look like that is going to happen this time. It’s just been too hectic between work and my other activities. I think tonight is the only evening this week that is unclaimed, and it’s my day to work late.

    Anyway, here are some pictures.
    https://www.instagram.com/p/DP2KNd9ErWd/?img_index=1
    I started with my gardenia. It is still blooming – even up next to the pumpkin! I’m amazed at that particular shrub! I’ll prune it back a little to shape it up, but it really loves it’s current location, so it will be a giant hedge before long.

    I also included some pictures of Teddy and Charlie out on their leashes this afternoon. The shadows make it difficult to see them clearly, but both of them enjoyed getting out and rolling around on the warm concrete.

    Finally, my CAL items. There are four corners. One is done, the other three are almost done. Then I can turn my attention to last week’s steps, before getting to today’s instructions. Ah – two weeks behind, but no worries, it’s not a race. I’ll get there when I get there.

  5. As usual lately, for me work consists of med stuff and chores. Follow-up appointment went well, except that one additional test planned “out of an excess of caution” got rescheduled for my next visit in 3 months because they were running so far behind. (This is the appointment I rescheduled because of flu? combined with car trouble.)

    Amazon maintained its recent average of about 1 misdelivery out of 4. I got the delivery notice around 9 pm and, finding nothing at my door, checked a bunch of doorways in my condo development in one direction before finding the package on a doorway in the opposite direction. I did not appreciate all that outdoor exercise that late (the latest-hour delivery from them [or anyone] that I’ve gotten here).

    I was also finally able to exchange the expired covid tests from my pharmacy for valid ones of another brand. Even those had only about 8 months left on them, but that was better than I got most recently from the Feds and subsequently the county when they respectively were still issuing free ones, and my insurance should cover new ones when these expire, assuming I don’t use them first. The pharmacist said his supplier had just shipped another batch of expired ones from the first brand, so somebody there was not paying attention.

    As for the home chores, nothing is getting done fast. I’d hoped to manage paperwork today, but no joy, and my GBTh backlog is also growing. I did indeed do some other tasks, though. At least light grocery shopping on the agenda for tomorrow in addition to everything else.

  6. Working on finishing Halloween costumes. I finished one top, I’m on the last few rows of the skirt, then I need to make two anklets and finish the yarn corset. I made some earrings today as well (off-topic).

    At work, I got assigned 2 more projects and otherwise am just diddling around fixing 167 pages of formatting.

    I have no rehearsals this week, so I actually have time off. I’m trying to figure out how to set up WordPress to replace all of my lost TypePad blogs AND I HAVE NO CLUE HOW TO DO THIS AND FEEL SO STUPID. Can’t get multiple blogs or domains or how to save my old blogs or anything figured out 🙁

    Tonight is the theater board meeting and it will be a horrifying trainwreck. I truly don’t know if the group will disband/declare bankruptcy and/or throw the embezzling, driving people out, making us bankrupt co-founder/treasurer out, or if by the end of the meeting everything will stay status quo disaster junction. We had yet another board member quit before the meeting, everyone is arguing about the agenda and trying to cram more shit onto the agenda, and NONE OF IT MATTERS IF THE THEATER GOES OUT OF BUSINESS, FFS. They will waste 45 minutes arguing over the children’s theater because we HAVE to discuss their fundraising ideas before we interrogate the treasure about his divey ways, they will waste time on the hospitality committee, they will waste time arguing about the artistic committee, and “oh gee, we’re out of time to discuss finances” will probably happen.

    I have seriously made a bingo card of this shit. I am rooting for it to go bankrupt and disband and put it out of its misery if we don’t dump the co-founder/treasurer, but I have doubts that will happen at this point since the president is Bartleby’ing the entire thing.

  7. I had my helper bring up all the Halloween decor from the basement today, and we put it out on the front patio. I have two skeletons in the two chairs, a large snake skeleton stalking a duck skeleton, and various cat and dog skeletons aguing with each other on the porch. There’s also a raven and a baby mermaid skeleton. It’s aways fun getting all the various scary things out.

    1. My favorite skeleton on my drive to work is not there this year. (He seems to be a mummy now.) A 20 foot skeleton sitting in the back of a pickup with a fishing pole, and he has caught a little skeleton fish.

    2. My neighborhood has gone all out for Halloween this year. So far I only have modest pumpkins and a patinaed mini Calderon I found at a rummage sale, but up the hill from me they have a graveyard of dinosaur bones, others have massive skeletons, and one giant gargoyle with fabric wings perched on a balcony. I really appreciate it. Halloween is my favorite.

  8. I’ve been working on eating all the things. Especially the things I should not be eating and generally don’t eat. Like donut holes. Was drawn to Dunkin’ for the first time in probably five years! Apparently my endocrine system has decided I should eat ALL the forbidden foods in a single week, and is sending me intense cravings. I’m guessing it’s a stress reaction, but can’t figure out what’s stressing me out, beyond everything that’s in even a cursory glance at the news.

    In more positive work, I’ve also made some progress with immersing myself back into (almost) daily fiction writing. And I’ve done a bunch of little promo projects (blogs, etc) for the anthology coming out in December, which I won’t actually share here or anywhere else until after Halloween, except I did put the cover at my website, only to realize that I never got around to updating the new-release section when the Helen Binney novella came out in August. Sigh. Yes, I’m a marketing genius.

  9. I spent all day cut and pasting info from interim reports into a final report.
    If they are going to do this it should at least use the same format!

    And I keep tentatively trying mild exercise so I am not a complete lump by the time I need surgery but so far everything I have tried creates more pain. Sigh.

    Sorry about the whining. Since DH is in Panama I have to do the more painful tasks myself and it makes me cranky. But he did leave me lots of left overs so i am not cooking .

  10. I am in the middle of enjoying my birthday week. It has been a challenge to come up with something “special” for every day that I would not ordinarily do (especially since I am now retired and don’t have to squeeze all the fun things in during one week), but so far I have managed it. Some of what I have done includes making pancakes for breakfast one day, getting a pedicure another day, walking to the local Barnes and Noble ( a two mile walk one way; I am currently unable to drive…long story, I may explain it one day) and treating myself to a chai latte and a book, as well as going out to lunch with friends ( which I will actually do tomorrow). Thank goodness birthday week only comes once a year! Lol

      1. Thanks Lian, I started this tradition several years ago, after my divorce. Suddenly I was on my own with no relatives nearby to celebrate my birthday, so I made the decision to celebrate it myself, for a full week, and here I am 15 years later still doing it.

  11. This probably should have been on Sunday as a happy, but I didn’t get to it. So, last weekend (Friday and Saturday) my quilt guild put on a quilt show. I helped set it up on Thursday and take it down on Saturday. I had 9 of my own quilts in the show and 1 that I participated in making by making 5 blocks and quilting it. I was also the Viewer’s Choice Awards committee. In my IG post you can see my quilts first and then the top 10 quilts as voted on by those attending the show. https://www.instagram.com/p/DP1q-0okQTN/?igsh=MThuNXI2Nms2NzRtNQ==

    Other than that, I’ve done some gardening/plant redistribution as we start to prep for winter. Mowed the lawn. Worked on my hand piecing project. And the day job takes up a chunk of time.

  12. We had our candidates’ forum last night and Paul did really well. I’m so proud of him. Municipal elections here in Alberta are on Oct 20 so it’s fingers crossed until then.

    I’m working Wednesday-Friday all day this week and I’m already frustrated and annoyed. My one coworker never takes responsibility for anything. Something went wrong with a refund yesterday and it didn’t record properly so the deposit record on the computer was showing one total when it should have been that total less the refund. So, instead of shorting the float like she is supposed to and has been told to do, she shorted the deposit. Fortunately, we only take the cash to the back twice a week (robbery is not a big concern) and I was able to fix it. I could see she was getting mad when I reminded her about it but I didn’t care, I’m the one nominally responsible when my manager is away and I can’t leave a mess for her to clean up in a week. Now I make my fair share of mistakes and I’ve fluffed more than one refund, but I own my mistakes and try to fix them. I don’t leave them for others to fix unless I don’t know to process to fix them.

    I also wound up getting dragged into working two extra afternoons last week and that may have something to do with my salty attitude.

    Also doing the last bits of yard work before the next snow. It should melt like this snowfall did but it won’t be long before one sticks.

  13. Finishing my out-of-house meetings and appointments. Two more meetings and No Kings to go and I get a week’s break before things start up again.

    Pixie’s doing well. I had her to the vet for a bunch of shots; neither of us are anti-vaxers.

    And I actually got an electrician to look over one project to finish and fix two other switches. He’s supposed to call me next week to schedule the actual work. It gives me hope.

    Also doing a bit of light yard cleanup. Our curbside yard waste pick up ends in a couple of weeks so it must be done.

  14. Formatting my books and getting them ready to go wide (other platforms than just Amazon).

    Day job. It seems the weird emails are multiplying.

    Writing about my 94 year old dad who ended up in the hospital with chest pains. But now my mom’s saying don’t come right now. Like… When should I come?

  15. I had no idea it was Wednesday until just now. I am working on normalcy and boundaries, as my father called me Friday night because he thought he was having a stroke.

    He was, so I called 911 for the second time in my life and my husband drove me over to get the lights on and doors unlocked. We spent the rest of the weekend in ICU, with my father steadily improving from a small brain bleed. He is in rehab now and making progress every day. Convincing him of that is sometimes challenging. He isn’t a great patient and I am bad at telling him no when he asks for things. Now that he is on the mend, I will have to get better at it, for both our sakes. I had already taken next week off for my yearly vacation, which I fear will be spent cleaning and installing safety measures to his house and possibly mine. I am happy that he is on the mend, but annoyed that he ignored his meds and stopped seeing his doctor. Grrrr.

    And he wants me to work on his canning he had planned. I should say no, but I will probably cave and try to do it.

    1. My sympathies on his poor self care, his stroke and his expectations; congratulations that he is recovering.

  16. I’ve been weeding, because it’s spring and the garden is going gangbusters. Also coming up with some schlocky romance titles for use in a project. My favourite so far is ‘The Werewolf’s Inconvenient Codpiece’.

        1. Mrs Adeline Morrison had no interest whatsoever in werewolves. Despite their penchant for elegant velvet doublets, and her own weakness for hirsute men (of whom the late Major Morrison was a splendid example), she found them boorish, ill tempered and smelly …

  17. Having nothing better to do… actually, I did laundry and dishes and sweeping, but once those were done I gardened. I harvested all the ripe patio peppers and put them in a jar of distilled white vinegar. The two plants have more ripening peppers, so there will be another harvest. I also harvested a cup of Orange Hat micro tomatoes, which plants are promising many more.

    Two of my AeroGarden Sprouts were fallow. Or at least, the pods in them hadn’t sprouted. I dumped the contents and washed out everything, including some green slime. Once clean and refilled, I planted more peppers red yellow and orange sweet peppers. They’re supposed to be short, but I’ll see.

    I’m almost out of lettuce. Time to plant Romaine again.

  18. I have been working on getting things fixed up before winter. Finally got a workman to come replace the crumbling chimney that vents the boiler, and fix some wonky gutters. Huzzah.

    I also have an author friend (Alethea Kontis, in case any of you know her) staying for a week, so I’m hoping to do writing and brainstorming and generally getting back into my writing head. Also she’s going to show me all sorts of things about YouTube and ring lights and stuff that she’s much better at than I am.

  19. I have been sick with a cold all week. Spent most of the time in bed and a few times, I felt too crappy to even read. Fortunately, I’m stating to feel better. Volunteered to lead the fall tulip planting event at the historic garden. The multiple hiccups that have arisen reminded me why I don’t want to be on any boards or committees. However, another volunteer who took the same Horticulture program as me, helped me measure the bed where the tulips are planted. We can now figure out how many bulbs to put in each bed Garden geek fun.

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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