I worked until 4:30 this morning and got up thinking it was Tuesday. Nope, Wednesday, hence a late WW. But hey, we’re almost done with the first book and Bob is tearing through the second one, killing characters right and left. Don’t worry; I will rewrite and resurrect. PROGRESS.
What did you work on this week?
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
58 Responses
I continue to work on Congress, a thankless task. I did, however, get five replies in two days from Mitch McConnell’s office. One of them to a letter I wrote yesterday! (I continue to believe his staffers have all this spare time because they’re not working on reelection.)
The State of the Union made me realize I will be doing this for three more years. Argh. (I did not watch it. I last watched a SOTU in the Reagan years. I read the analysis this morning.)
I spent Saturday at QuiltCon – where I bought yarn!! – and Sunday recovering. I did search about for some pattern to use for the new yarn, but ended up starting a shawl with some yarn I bought at Christmas. It is a long-change cotton yarn, that starts with red. So far so good!
https://www.instagram.com/p/DVLt6KCjvZ8/
I also finished up the baby blanket. The newborn had the teremity to come a month early, so I had to hustle to finish it up. She is apparently not quite out of the NICU so, the blanket will be delivered before it is needed. I had to tape a piece of the wrapper to the card, where I could point out that it is indeed machine washable.
Back to work work!
It is a beautiful blanket!
Reminds me a bit of Harvey Weinsteins quilts with his puppies ♥️ He is ridiculously talented.
Mostly I read and did chores, with a little writing thrown in. I’ve got a Zoom meeting coming up, which I hope will be enjoyable. Sometimes it isn’t, when someone goes completely off topic or into on-topic regions of no interest to me.
Yesterday I collected my mail from the cluster box and found three pieces of mail, namely two large first-class envelopes and one newspaper, none of it mine and going to three separate addresses. As I recall, they were within the condo complex, but none of them even near my building. I’ve never had three items that far astray delivered at once before. I marked them as misdelivered and put them back for pickup. I wonder if any mail of mine was similarly misdelivered.
Still working on finishing this book. I go from loving it to hating it during each session. Also working on the Swedish death cleaning project and my latest cross stitch project in between editing/writing sessions.
Walking upstairs with alternating feet. Doesn’t that sound like a toddler? And a lot of related PT. I am aiming for a 2 pm walk when it might be reasonably warm. I plan to try for 24 minutes. It’s been 11 weeks since surgery and while I do see consistent progress I am also getting frustrated by how slow it is.
Day job is very busy. This is particularly true since I took daytime to watch Olympics. (The joy of being a consultant is that you can work when you want. The challenge is that you can’t just say the work day is done at 5.)
We got invited to submit a grant proposal on something I am passionate about which is great but may be more work than I really was planning to do in the coming year. Sigh.
Also working on getting rid of out of date foods in my pantry. My spice drawer is now much more streamlined and I have a list of what I need to replace the next time I need them for a recipe. I just don’t use coriander seeds and mustard seeds, among others, that often. But then my neighbor asked to borrow cocoa powder and it was a decade old. So I have more to do. And I have yet to get DH to go through his shelf of pizza making supplies. My goal is to avoid DS turning up his nose at me next holidays so I have time.
I totally hear you re the consulting challenge. People always tell me they want to become a consultant for work-life balance and I tell them that’s the last reason on earth they should do that. Flexibility yes – work-life balance not so much.
That reminds me of a recipe I used to make for my family from when my boys were not even in the double digits. I went looking for it and couldn’t find it in my oldest cookbooks. It is roast chicken stuffed with curried rice and raisins. Not where I thought it would be. I know I’ll find it when I’m not looking.
Debbie, i wish i could walk up the stairs with alternating feet. Just got the results of the MRI on right knee. Complex tears, cartilage loss and meniscus something or other, (old injury). Much like a pirate with a peg leg, one step at a time. Here’s to your recovery, may it be a little speedier now.
I am on vacation, so the answer is “not much” other than packing, getting along with Mom, and yarning it up.
Have fun!
Day job as usual, supporting kiddo as sounding board for a school assignment (she’s got more hours at school homework not included than I in my almost-full-time job, so supporting her by listening is fair imo).
And trying to get back my focus (calm is impossible) after watching the US hockey team “celebrate”.
I know that what we see in press coverage/team social media is not how they are but it’s been a blow see players I thought were ok be anything but.
The Wild have been one of my fav team in the US. Not any longer, not with three huge disappointments attending the WH reception.
Celebrating a win by treating the other team badly – expected. But making fun of their own (more successful) women’s team? Foul.
I’m glad two players of my fav Canadian team were not appointed to the team. I don’t need to see them not having a backbone either.
I guess it’s time to get some distance to real life hockey – I’ll still cheer for my local team and watch out for Sid, and the Macs, but will mostly stick to the fictional kind. Less of a disappointment.
Rant over.
Now back to proof reading my research report for the day job.
I had been rooting for Canada to win. My husband was happy the US won but then saw and heard how the players acted and said I’d been right to root for Canada.
I truly believe one of the primary goals of DJT is to always bring out the worst in people. And he certainly succeeds.
I’m pretty sure history will note that both “he brought out the worst” and “broke everything he touched.”
I’m glad our women’s hockey team chose to decline his offer to be shown off at the SoTU.
A number of US presidents could contend for worst human being to hold the office, but I think the orangutan wins for president who has done the most damage to the country, with James Buchanan as his only serious competition. And yet voters were so blind as to elect him for a second term.
It’s been a day already. Starting with finishing *another* Rosalind James (how did I not know about this author?? Thank you!) book at around 6:15am, then errands. So many errands. Dropping off Jenn MacKinlay’s Library series book 9, picking up Ann Cleeves’ The Killing Stone. Groceries. Bagels. Blood test at doctors (why I needed bagels in the car), more groceries, then Goodwill.
You know that part of Pratchett’s (maybe) Guards! Guards! where Vimes realizes the rich stay rich by buying really good shoes once, instead of crappy shoes over and over? I am living that truth, although with sheets. I dropped off 2 sets of sheets to Goodwill, given I finally saw enough of a sale to get the “good” sheets, and man, they’re awesome. (LLBean, NYT Wirecuttter recommended. And aside-aside – Wirecutter is not recommended for those with the on sale trigger finger.)
Ignoring the whole SOTU thing except I read my VA governor’s response.
I thought I was the only one who spent paychecks on sheets! Thank you for the tip.
I spent paychecks on sheets, too.
I’ve started cleaning little spaces in my house each day. That’s going well.
Also trying to decide how to spend my bonus; house stuff or bootcamp for Bright Line Eating.
I have working on knitting a market bag – loose, open-knotted with handles. It was a slow start as I kept losing or gaining an extra stitch every few rows. However, once I got the hang of it and started counting every row, it was easy. Almost finished the body and will on the handles. Also cleaned my house (with DH’s help) as it’s my turn to host the weekly walking/knitting group. Followed up on a letter I received about an old investment account. Apparently, I’m owed money – will be interesting to see how much.
I’m working on digging out from the blizzard of ’26. We got 30″ or more baseline, with lots of drifting on top of that. You can see some of it here: https://www.instagram.com/p/DVHIkg-Ek1a/
Well, I’m not literally digging (no allowed), and my neighbor took care of plowing and snow-blowing the basics, and my excellent, kind tenants shoveled where the heavier equipment couldn’t go. Just dealing with being snowbound and juggling plans that were messed up by a travel ban and ongoing poorly plowed roads. The plows are just overwhelmed and there’s nowhere to put the snow.
Meanwhile, a house a few blocks away (as the crow flies, but more like 1/2 mile if going by roads) exploded this morning, apparently due to snow-clogged gas vents.
Yeah, pretty sure I’m not getting any of my usual work done this week. Took a snow day (reading in bed) on Monday, but now I think I need an entire snow week! Except I need to go out and find a place with a level 3 charger for my EV, since I can’t get the car close enough to my house to reach the outlet here.
Wow! My car was snowed and iced in for a week-plus from the storm earlier in February, but down here we got off lightly from the current round. I’ll probably do a library trip tomorrow.
Gin, nearly twenty-five years ago a house across the road from me (luckily quite far from the road!) exploded due to a gas leak. It was unoccupied at the time. It was quite well built–the entire flat roof came off in one piece and lay upside down in the yard with all its insulation showing. The blast rattled my windows and knocked over one picture, but did no other damage. I’ve never forgotten the sound.
It looks like my house except this time around I remembered to pull the screen over to the door’s edge, so the snow doesn’t pile up against the glass. Makes it easier to let the granddog out but still a challenge. That poor baby didn’t know what to do when she got out to do her business, but what I expected she would do and did. She used the deck; I used the shovel. All is forgiven.
Gas vents ? Why would houses have gas vents (I say nervously, since we heat and cook with gas and have fans but I don’t know of vents.)
I had to Google to see if my first thought had a basis in reality, but apparently it does; gas appliance burn gas to operate. They need air intake to ignite, and a vent to exhaust their waste (carbon monoxide and particulates). If the air intake is blocked by snow, I believe the appliance’s ignition would fail (though some might persist by using oxygen from your breathable supply). If the exhaust is blocked, carbon monoxide will build up and the appliance could also become pressurized. I do hope the house that exploded was vacant. 🙁
Very helpful. We have CO2 detectors but now I need to figure out where the vents are. I think the intakes are not direct to the outside so wouldn’t get blocked but will confirm.
And yes, I too hope no one was there!
We had a friend and neighbor whose house blew up due to a construction failure/malpractice. Fortunately no one was home but they lost everything — all the pictures of their son, his childhood books, (he was 9 when it happened) all the things that matter emotionally. It destroyed everything. It was really hard.
My parents’ house (where we now live) has a “ventless” gas fireplace that we never use because it exhales crud into the room. Planning to replace it with an electric fire. We also have a gas stove that I hate because, when you turn on the oven to heat, the entire house reeks of gas. I open windows, turn on exhaust fans, etc. Not optimal during the winter! There’s a whole house generator but it lives outside, so venting isn’t an issue.
The house was occupied and two people were injured (burns, I assume), but that’s so much better than it could have been. Most residents werent home and the house itself is nothing but rubble, so it’s hard to believe anyone could survive!
Wow, that’s so lucky that they were OK.
I keep meaning to switch over from gas to electric – so much safer even just from not breathing in the gas particles, but it keeps getting put off.
Yeah, I’ve wanted to switch everything to electric for a while, with heat pumps and induction, but I hadn’t felt particularly motivated. Now, I really want to make the switch!
I’m working on recovering from sprained hand/wrist from a few weeks ago, and a recent injury on the other hand when I managed (no idea how) to slam it in the car door. On the plus side, I discovered that “finger ice packs” are a thing (much better than using a big old ice pack).
Other than that, I’m stepping away from my computer (I work from home, so it’s a challenge) and taking the dog for more walks to the park. She loves to run and fetch, so she definitely approves of this new outdoor focus.
The big storm was not so big here, lots of wind, not too much snow. So glad to have the neighbor’s snow blower available.
Next Saturday is my Mom’s memorial, and it’s gone from being far in the future to next week. Lots of family coming in, arranging for the service to be broadcast (as we broadcast our services over YouTube). Meals, houses, etc. Having days of nothing done, to days of not much done, to days where two big things are done.
The end of February is soon, which is always good to know.
I want to say something supportive but I’m not sure what to say. A memorial is a huge amount of work, practically and emotionally, and I hope that it all goes well and that you are able to find some comfort in being able to remember your Mom with your family.
‘That was the week that was. It’s over; let it go. Oh, what a week that was! That was the week that was.’
It wasn’t that I did nothing. I did a lot of little things that added up to not much of anything. For instance, I drilled some holes in some pod covers and inserted level indicators, so that now all my gardens have float-type level indication in addition to the original-equipment level indication.
I mixed up a few quarts of non-fat dry milk. It tastes amazing with a squirt of chocolate syrup.
See? Nothing to declare. It was a weak week.
Boy, TW3 takes me back! I remember the non-satirical Kennedy memorial show, but has forgotten it was shown at the start of the show’s US version (per the internet).
I can relate to the late nights. I put in a lot of those lately, too. But I finally got my new covers up for my mystery series and I love them, so it’s definitely been worth the wacky sleep schedule:)
It’s a complete series revamp and has been in the works for month. A wonderful Canadian artist did the illustrations, and she was so fab to collaborate with that I had a lot of fun. The testing for the print versions took a while to make sure they got the colours just right (read lots of arc version piled on my coffee table, lol), but they turned out great.
There’s more info on my insta if anyone’s curious:
https://www.instagram.com/katyleen_author/
I’ve also got a Goodreads giveaway on for one of the books. But now that everything’s up and running, I plan to work on sleep for next week;)
Here’s hoping with your progress on the new series, you can bank more sleep, too.
I’ve been at a two day training course. My roots are in training so I’m like a doctor who makes a bad patient – I gave them a ton of feedback about their training process. The content itself and the trainers were great – but if I had to do one more piece of silly group work with convoluted spreadsheets and incomprehensible instructions I was going to kick someone. Also, the course was in Miami where it has been COLD. WTF?? I did not come from Toronto to be underdressed in chilly weather!!
I have been packing up boxes, and today I spent an hour vacuuming up dust bunnies, dead cockroaches, and cat litter from the basement floor. The realtor came over and we completed the “discovery” paperwork, and decided not to list the house before I go to AZ, but to hold the Open House during that weekend, so I won’t have to go for a long walk. She thinks it could sell then, or within a few weeks. I have also texted with the AZ realtor about what I’m looking for. Everything is moving fast. My son and I put some furniture out for Large Item Pickup, and some people came and took away my huge dining table and the IKEA chair. They may come back for the dresser. Yay! That stuff was still full of useful life. The “Coming soon! For Sale” sign is now in my yard.
I got my new glasses and they are driving me nuts. I saw the Neuro Opthalmologist, who said my eyes are too far apart to get back together. It’s possible, but not probable. I see the therapist on Monday. Maybe she will know something. The doctor said there is a nerve surgery to fix that. He got a referral from a Neuro friend in Phoenix to a Neuro surgeon, there, and I just heard from the hospital offering to send me dates for a consult!
We are having very warm weather, now, and then heading for cold weather, again. Geesh! I like my realtor and she gave me the number for a cleaning person. The pod will be here Friday the 13th, and I hope I will have enough boxes packed to hire the moving helpers to fill the pod before I need to fly away.
That sounds like a lot of progress even if disappointing that therapy may not work. Yay for possible surgery. Looking forward to updates.
I’ve been dealing, slowly, with stuff to do with end of life – not that this is imminent, hopefully, but that I ought to have things in place in advance. Doing a will seems straightforward – I’ve got a video call tomorrow to firm up my online draft. But it’s taking me a while to get my head round what I’d want to happen if I became incapacitated. I’ve got to create lasting powers of attorney but also draw up guidelines for the relatives I appoint. I’ll be very glad when this is done. I am getting clearer about the best ways to arrange things – leaving flexibility so I can evolve my wishes if I want, but making the legal stuff watertight and straightforward.
Been balancing that with a bit more gardening – I actually sat in the garden for ten minutes today: first time this year.
I have found it really helpful to discuss with my brother because as a doctor he has information that makes a difference about what I decided to do. If you have a family member or trusted friend who works in medicine you might want to get their thoughts.
Thanks, Debbie – I was just thinking I should consult my niece, who’s a district/community nurse.
Day job has been pretty dead recently. Due to relocation pay cut, I am not running around asking for more work. It will arrive soon enough (March has a number of deadlines and April/May will be a circus). Managed to keep my mouth shut during a meeting introducing us to the wonders of ChatGPT, while conducting an entertaining alternative chat with my work friend who has been in this business almost as long as I have and who is equally unimpressed by a business tool billed as “will revolutionize your working life” when nobody can, as yet, substantiate that it does anything we actually need. The examples provided in the meeting boiled down to “it reads for me” “it writes for me” “it does data entry for me” but since, in all examples, the number of operations required to achieve a result is 3 to 4 times greater than the number required to get the task done without the stupid thing … No. Not even “no, thanks.” Just No.
Got first three chapters of the latest novelette drafted. Did more research.
Ordered treats for Mom’s upcoming 86th birthday. Scoured out my gmail inboxes. Uploaded all the tax documents currently in hand so my accountant can proceed. Cleaned the humidifiers. It’s a very exciting life around here.
As a recipient of AI’s talents, I would agree with you Cacha1. It certainly wastes my time when I’m trying to solve a problem only a human can solve. I hate when that fake voice comes on to “help” me.
I almost forgot to tell you: there’s a new business in a building near my coop and therefore a new sign which reads (in four lines) Iyengar yoga; spiritual meditation; stress reduction; Argentine tango.
“No, I don’t want the article summarized. I want to read it.” The constant pop-ups are distracting and there’s no way to eliminate them. Argh!
Payroll today, and trying to get a CARM portal set up so we can get some goods held at the border.
I really need to go through my emails.
And file.
I want to finish a toque that’s been taking too long.
Dishes.
I had a massage mid-day, which is weird, but I am rather chill at work, so it’s nice not being stressed out I guess.
I’m working on a remodel of a staff work area with 36 folks. So many details! Also, my parents are not well and belong in a care facility but won’t go, so I’m working on persuading them to at least get on a list of where they’d like to go while also messaging with my aunts, who are helping me with the folks. Then there is my own health that I’m also working on. Started PT again today.
I’m trying to plan a trip to Singapore and Turkey. The Singapore part is easy as we’ll be staying with relatives, but Istanbul is a different story. Any tips would be appreciated. I still need to book the hotel in Istanbul, which is stressing me out. Turkish Airlines offers 2 free night stay, but we’ll be there for 3, so trying to research which one to pick and then contact them to extend the stay.
Can’t help as I’ve only visited Istanbul once, in 1987, but wanted to say I’m sure it’ll be worth it – an amazing place, with wonderful people. I remember asking the way back to my hotel in a little shop, and the shopkeeper insisted on shutting his shop and escorting me there!
It’s 9:12 pm. I’m sitting in a plane at Logan airport in Boston. We left Boston at 7:00 pm bound for London, only to turn around 20 minutes into the flight. A pallet of stuff had mistakenly been put into the hold of our plane. So it was removed. Then the plane needed to be refueled. The pilot has just said that we’ll leave soon. I hope.
I am trying to return to Warsaw to continue to help my son and daughter-in-law as my son recuperates from knee surgery. The fun part is taking care of my 22-month-old granddaughter. My husband and I returned from 3 weeks in Warsaw this past Thursday. I refilled my pill cases, had the dentist prep for a bridge by grinding down 2 teeth for crowns, and I am on my way back to Poland.
I will miss my connecting flight in London, but hope I can catch one of the later flights to Poland tomorrow.
The weird aspect of all this is doing it alone. I will be gone 17 days. That’s the longest time by far that I have been away from my husband in 46 years. And, I am the one traveling. My husband used to travel a lot for work, but seldom as long as a week. I am in a strange new world out here.
It’s a rather fun, daring feeling.
Good luck with all this traveling, Elizabeth!
And enjoy the adventure!
I did some solo travelling last year and found that I like it. A lot.
Monthly bills are all paid. Three days grace until the cycle begins again.
What’s the difference between a ‘fairy tale’ and a ‘sea story’? A fairy tale starts, “Once upon a time…” A sea story starts, “Now this is no sh*t…”
Now this is no sh*t, one of the benefits of my garden configuration is that all of the shelving is on wheels. So, I’m looking at water levels in all of those AeroGarden Aerovoir reservoirs (the blue water tanks you can see in the photographs) and I ask to myself, I ask, “Why not unplug and just roll the whole assembley over to the deep sink?” and myself says, “Let’s give it a go!”
So I did. And nothing went wrong, mostly. All the reservoirs, fourteen in number, are filled and nobody died.
Wheels are good.
The day job is on my last nerve lately for a variety of reasons. I need a vacation!
But I got a book up for pre-order and ordered some paperbacks of it and of my other books for the Sacramento book fest in April. I need a friend to read it and tell me I’m wonderful (or not, but how to fix it)
I have a novella I’ve been sending a chapter at a time to my newsletter subscribers. I need to do a serious edit and proof so I can get copies of that for April, too, even if I call them ARCs.
So many meetings this week, but I think finally finally we’ve made a decision about new project management and things will get started again.
Also I’ve been meaning to clean properly for ages, and then I needed to call a plumber, and the impetus of anyone, even a tradie, seeing my floors etc was enough to get the carpets vaccumed, the bath scrubbed and the tiles mopped. It’s really nice having a clean house but I’m laughing at myself for the reason.