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Good Sunday: Just Wing It

I’ve been trying to get things done–the things aren’t difficult, there are just too many of them–and I sat down with a ball of yarn I don’t actually like much, but I needed something to do with my hands while I thought.  So I started with a granny square–I can do those in my sleep- and after four rows realized I was going to be boring myself with yarn I didn’t like.  Practical but not . . . good.  So I just started to rif, turned it sideways, switched stitches, only worked on half of it, and it became fun because I didn’t know what was going to happen next.  This is why Bob is against turning points: he wants to find out what happens next as he writes it.  Me, I need turning points, but I forgot that aside from those things to aim at, I don’t need to know anything else.  I have no idea how this crochet thing is going to turn out–no turning points–but I’m having a great time finding out as I go, which is what I need to do with WIPS.  Which Bob has told me several times. He should be sighing soon.

The moral for today: I’ve got to start winging more of life.

What was good for you this week?

89 Responses

  1. Sunshine. A whole week of fine, dry days, and some brilliant sun. Plus an old friend came to stay, so we enjoyed it together. I even cast some clouts, though the may is nowhere near out. It’s got cooler again, so thermal vest back on for the time being.

    1. Oh yes! After such a gloomy rainy winter in the UK, it finally feels like spring is here! I have lots of flowers sprouting on my untidy lawn and I love it!

    2. Love that expression: “casting clouts”! Picturing you inin your garden.

  2. It has been fairly cool this week. Since we are in anew house, I am enjoying looking for new things sprouting in the yard. Some are known but some are unknown. I am hoping for tulips.
    Alot of the week has been unhappy. I found out that due to budget cuts, my job will probably go away in September. We have enjoyed the new state and were looking forward to settling here. I also hate moving and don’t want to do it again so soon.

    2. It sucks to lose a job. I have found it usually meant I was getting a better one next! Hope the same for you.

    3. I’m so sorry this is going on with your job, Phred. I hope it means that you will find a better place to live in a better job, eventually.

    5. Oh no! I am so sorry to hear about your job. How stressful. I hope a solution will present itself when you least expect it. Sending hugs and strength!

    7. Sorry to hear about the job. I hope that something works out so that you can stay where you are.

    10. So sorry about your job Phred. I was laid off (mass lay offs) four times – twice went to work and came home with a cheque by lunchtime. It is never pleasant, always stressful. I never had to move though, (two of the lay offs were because I wouldn’t move to a new location) and I always found a better paying job. Every. Time.
      Sending hugs and hopes that you find something else close to your new home soon.

    11. Moving is bad enough without a job loss to go with it. (I would like to hear from anyone who likes moving–not the intriguing possibilities of a new place, but the actual work of moving!) I hope for the best outcome for you.

  3. There are usually hundreds of comments by the time I get here, being on the west coast. Thanks to insomnia, I’m here early today! Getting through recovery from my surgery is about all I have going on right now. I think it’s going as well as can be expected. Hoping not to feel nauseous today. I had a nice text exchange with my SIL yesterday, plus my brother accidentally FaceTimed me after sending a text, so we actually talked for a minute. On top of that, I’ve been having vivid dreams about having strange adventures with childhood friends. So having a very social recovery!

    1. How fun with an unexpected Facetime-call! Glad to hear you have people around you that can cheer you up while you heal. Wishing you a speedy recovery!

  4. We had a get together to do crafts yesterday , and though it was not exactly how I imagined it, I think all 5 of us had a good time, and the 2 who couldn’t come were sorry they couldn’t. We will do this again.

    The last Phryne Fisher is finally available for preorder in the US. Won’t drop until some time in November I think, but still anticipatory goodness.

    I am done with my 7.5 weeks of extreme food virtue and am enjoying carbs (hopefully in moderation!) and fitting into my smaller jeans.

  5. We started Spring Cleaning yesterday! K2 washed walls with a flat mop, K1 did the windows and screens, and outside too because we found the telescoping squeegee, DH did the livingroom windows and behind the cabinets that sit below them (so he could watch hockey), and I got through a few kitchen cupboards.

    I also hung planters in the window above the kitchen sink and planted some herbs. Today I’m starting some seeds for the outside garden, and this includes some perennial vegetables I found that require cold stratification, so even though I have 2 feet of snow and below freezing temps at night still, those ones go outside.

  6. Well, the newest batch of light snow melted right away, even though our temps are below normal for March and it has been gray and rainy, so there’s that.

    My witchy gang is coming this afternoon for a slightly belated spring equinox celebration, after not managing to get together since Yule due to weather and illness. I’m having a high pain and migraine day (thank you, weather shifts), but I am determined to have a good time anyway.

    I’ve been slowly chipping away at cleaning and reorganizing my mudroom, in part because I want to put floating flooring down over the concrete this spring (I’ve only lived here for 24 years…and it is the first room you see as you enter the house). Finally pulled out all the paint cans, large and small, and discovered that all but a couple are ancient and probably not usable. The good part is that I found a local place where you can take paint to be recycled, and put it all in my car yesterday and now it is gone. Huzzah.

  7. The weather here is too hot and we need more rain, but it’s also really pretty out and everything’s blooming. I picked the last of our oranges and lemons except a few that are so penned in by branches that I can’t get them with our long handled picker thing. The trees are already in full flower for next winter’s oranges and lemons and the bees are buzzing happily (and none of them stung me for bothering them while I picked).

    I’m getting ideas for a new book I want to write and a quilt top I want to finish that’s been languishing for years since my non-girly-girl said she didn’t want flowers after all. I think I’m going to finish it instead of writing right away. I have to try to do some promo for an upcoming book and I’m basically hopeless at that, so flowers it is.

  8. It’s been a week of ten hour days. Argh! We continue to take care of the baby, now my DD has gone back to work. It is the best job though.
    Also some beautiful days to walk outside with DH.
    Yesterday I emptied many dead flower pot’s earth into a hole in the yard where there used to be a wasp or bee hive and it caves in all the time. I have a black thumb and a black walnut tree, which makes it difficult to grow plants outside. What can I do with the old pots?? How can I recycle? Are there places that take them?

    2. I would ask a local garden store what they recommend. It will be different for plastic and terracotta and depend on whether your community recycling has provision for them.

    4. If your pots are usable, offer them to local florists, garden centres or local horticultural society or garden club Or my local church and schools has a Plant Stall at fundraisers, their volunteers grow cuttings etc to sell, so might use the old pots for people to take them away in. Alternatively if they are just for trash. I believe fundraisers still want damaged crockery and pots for smash the crockery stalls

    5. My Lowe’s has shelves in their nursery area. People drop off or pick up. I buy more plants there because of it.

    6. Enjoy your baby caring days. They go fast and then they are teenagers in a blink of an eye. Special days.

  9. There was a snowplow naming nomination in Chicago in February: someone actually submitted a public record request and learned that of 13,300 submissions, 9,200 of them were “abolish ICE”. One of the six was named that.
    I have developed a lovely pattern with my neighbor of weekend tea every other weekend or so.
    My DH’s business partner came from Austria for a week of work. (I had not realized they were holding the annual retreat in my house; even with only three of them it was intrusive. Oh well.) He brought authentic Sachertorte.
    It was a low key week.

    1. I checked the official City of Chicago site, and the all-caps stylization of ICE in the snowplow name is indeed the official version, if a little unsubtle. No ambiguity there, anyhow.

  11. We ate outside at a yummy new-to-us restaurant last night. We were with my SIL, her husband and my kids’ adopted grandmother. Great company, good food and a beautiful evening.

  12. I have found a house in Arizona! Some people would say it needs a lot of updating, but I don’t really care about that. It seems to be sound, and I think it will work for me and my pets. It is a mile from my Arizona son’s home. So it’s just about perfect. When I get back home I think I will have to get a dumpster, and another small pod in order to make this move. “Nothing but good times ahead!“

  14. Good yesterday was writing four chapters, not of the GeoIV story, but of another new novelette in the Sierra foothills group. Also doing a polish pass on the first of those and a read-thru of the second, debating whether it is too low-conflict, deciding that it isn’t.

    Good last night was pork chop dinner provided by DH, plus wine spritzers, because it was hot. (do not approve)

    Good this morning was planting the 18 purple tulips Mom brought home in a container. I probably didn’t do it right, but it probably doesn’t matter – the squirrels & chipmunks are likely to dig them up anyway. It was some outdoor activity, which I need a lot more of.

  15. Good visit with DHs neice and partner. Plus a big Lab and a something cross little yappy dog. We are currently looking after Juno, the granddog. So…wholly doodle! 0 to 1 to 3. Lots of barking, running around the back yard, and muddy paw prints all over the floors downstairs. Lovey visit, BILs daughter. BIL passed in December, very difficult time but we are all getting through it. We have extra bikes, taking two over to them on Wednesday. Two left to give away or sell. I am giving her mine. It is a bit heavy. So…a new lighter bicycle should be in my future. Knee still protesting. Can now walk up half the flight of stairs normally. That’s Good Sunday news. And another sunny day on the west coast. Yeah. Not so good, DH’s knee replacement op has been postponed. Disappointing. Bone on bone knee. Back to pool for water exercises. It has helped my knee too.

  16. Right! Too many things! Today I did dishes, laundry, cleared off the dining room table and changed the table cloth – yay! – and filled the salt cellars. Now I need to write a little e-newsletter we put out every two months, but instead I am here hanging out with you. 🙂

    I always enjoy writing this thing once I get going. In case you are interested to find out about Traumatic Incident Reduction, here is how to get the free six-times a year TIR Association E-Notes: got to http://www.tira.org and click on the envelope icon.

    Wishing everyone a relaxing and happy day.

  17. On Friday I checked Amazon to see if a more precise estimated delivery time had appeared for a package. By coincidence, it turned out that the delivery van was already in my neighborhood, and Amazon displayed a map with my location and the van’s, moving the latter icon in almost real time. As it got closer, the site even provided a countdown of how many stops were left before mine. An amusing gimmick that comes into play only if one happens to check near actual delivery time.  I made a point of putting on my outside shoes in case I once again had to check multiple doorways for a misdelivered package, but Amazon has now gotten it right twice in a row.

    The package was mostly just OTC meds, but also included what was probably a lifetime supply of pencils.  I had gotten tired of hunting around for one to do my Wordle calculations or (less frequently) for other purposes. Of course, until such time as the pencils have randomly wandered all over my place, I must be careful to keep in known places the two boxes (pencil box and original container) holding most of them.

    On Thursday I felt a decidedly off and canceled a planned supermarket trip including a prescription refill pickup. I’m not sure if it was a virus or dehydration, but I felt better by the next day and picked up the prescriptions. Groceries were not urgent and I still haven’t done that.  But I seem to be feeling increasingly healthy, so soon.

    While straightening up the kitchen (task far from complete), I realized that, for long-obsolete reasons, I had a large stash of paper plates, and I decided to use up some of them.  The warmer weather has me eating more sandwiches, where paper plates work well, as they do for certain other non-goopy foods.

    1. A lifetime supply of pencils: I inherited a great many pencils from my father, and although I use some every day (for writing in my desk calendar and for adding to the grocery list as well as other odds and ends) I don’t think I get out a new one more than once a year, if that. I still have more than a dozen, and I’m 73, so maybe.

  18. I managed to actually do a fair amount of housework, wash the car, have a nice dog walk and read as well.
    That’s a good Sunday for me. The housework bit is exceptional!

  19. I did not have to deal with P yesterday. P called in sick. I suspect P realized that despicable me would be present at the party, and since she has told the birthday-boy that she doesn’t want to visit him here because I am here too, well. Anyway, I could breathe a sigh of relief and enjoy the evening instead of stuffing myself to the gills with anti-anxiety-meds and worry about how to manage. So, yay!
    Sven was thoroughly surprised, he hadn’t suspected anything before we arrived at the restaurant. He was close to tears, so happy people gathered to have a nice evening with him. The food was very good, we had a lot of great chats at the table and because Queenie and Dazzler got mobility service taxi-troubles, we acquired surprise guests for the night. Sven and Dazzler and I sat up playign games and talking until 5AM this morning. I made grilled ham&cheese-sandwiches for Sven and the ladies for brunch, then we did some more easy hanging out today. Queenie had told me ages ago that Dazzler wants to try her hand at embroidery, but finds it hard to get started because she can’t thread a needle. I’d worked out a solution last summer that I kept forgetting to show her, so I took the chance now, and it worked! She knighted me an excellent and very patient teacher, and I was very flattered and so happy I could creatively solve a creative problem to help someone else. It’s been a very good 2 days. Best in a looong time.
    Other good things: I co-wrote a song with my uncle this week, a celebratory little tune because my big brother also turned 40. I hadn’t spoken with my uncle since around the time my dadma passed away, and it was a lot of fun. We’re now sending silly emails back and forth to keep in touch. Speech-therapist told me I can start singing again, carefully testing what feels okay and what not. Housemate of my sib has commissioned a mosaicked frog from me, so I’ll have to look into that and practice frog-making. Triple only needs 3 more days of a quarter of an astma-pill, then we’ll take a medication-break and see what happens. And somewhere in April, I’m having a song-writing session with the maker of an upcoming documentary (about Sven, I’m in it too) and his brother to make the theme/end credits track for the whole thing. Exciting times!
    Lo and behold: ONLY good news today!

      1. But, when I think about it, I am not really surprised that P did not show up. With all those other people around who had come to share love and happiness, she would have no audience and would therefore be powerless. The fact that you had arranged this party that everyone was so obviously enjoying totally undercuts her point that you are an evil harpy who fails at everything she does and will only cause harm to Sven.
        I am especially glad that Sven enjoyed reconnecting with the people who care for him and that his birthday marked the beginning of a happier time for both of you.

        I hope that both your efforts at singing again and Matcha’s getting off the asthma pills will go smoothly on the first try. That would really give you happy things to sing about! But even if they don’t fully succeed on the first try, you will still be one step farther along the road to where you want to be. And all of us will be one step closer to Spring. So I feel hopeful for the first time all week.

    3. I’m so glad you had a wonderful weekend, Shass. You deserve it (and many more to come)!

  20. Today’s happy was the belated realization that the tick that munched on me for two days (found it on Friday) was too big to be the kind that carries Lyme disease, so I don’t need to deal with getting antibiotics, etc.

    That sounds like a pitiful thing to be happy about, but really, it made my day. I was NOT looking forward to the whole medical rigmarole, and the antibiotics always make me feel terrible for a whole week, and now I’ve reclaimed my week, except for a blood draw (unrelated) on Monday.

    For a happier happy, I got the cover art for the (new) fourth book in my Garlic Farm mystery series, and it’s always fun to get new cover art. You can see all the new covers here: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GSXB8H18?binding=kindle_edition&ref_=dbs_s_ks_series_rwt_tkin&qid=1774215931&sr=1-1

  21. It’s been sunny, things are blooming, my toe has healed enough that I can wear closed shoes for walking outside again. That’s all good.

  22. My tricolor crocuses are blooming, just a few days after snow disappeared.
    I just relistened to the Lavender trilogy, and I’m hoping Imani Cole will get her own story.

  23. So much stuff has happened over short time that is out of my control, so stressed out. Positives found an almost finished UFO that I had forgotten, I just need to knit another tusk, add some eyes and sew on the ears and I will have a stuffed elephant that I forgot about. I also ate Japanese honey toast today, would recommend

      1. “It is a thick-cut Japanese milk bread (shokupan) that is buttered, drizzled with honey, and baked until caramelized, crispy, and golden” It is so good

    2. Out-of-own-control stressful things are a real challenge to deal with. Sending hugs and strength! Good luck on finishing up the elephant. I’m sure it’ll be gorgeous and bring a lot of happies when it’s done.

  24. Spent the weekend “mom-sitting”, i.e. my father and kid #1 went to see family in South Tyrol and as I feel uneasy when my mother is left alone – she’s bright, very lively and young at heart and mind but had some health troubles not too long ago, so having someone around makes all of us feel better.
    I’m usually a bit high-strung when I find myself the sole focal point of a parent, but it didn’t take me too long to calm down and for us to find the right groove. We both had quite a lovely weekend! Also slept like a baby which isnt’t the case often enogh thanks to meno-chaos.

    Happy, too, that kid#1 and his grandfather came home fine again too.
    And I’ve got the best kid ever – he’s really so not a romance reader, but he braved the bookshop in Bolzano to get his mom her favourite smutty hockey romance: The Italian edition of Heated Rivalry, with beautiful sprayed edges (reading “I’m coming to the cottage”) and lovely, lovely illustrations on the inside of the cover.
    The best nudge ever to finally read a book in Italian again.

    Also happy that the new Sarina Bowen book My Kind of Guy dropped early (by 2 days) into my kobo!!
    Alas, I still haven’t finished neither Star Shipped (I’ve decided not to continue listening) nor It Started With a Text by Jax Calder (such a lovely read!) though I’m at ca. 80 % with both. But kiddo asked me to be her sparrings partner in finding her research focus on a paper about Twelfth Night and I cherish those moments when a mom can help even just by giving her .2 cents.

    Happy that this Tuesday it’s the first playoff game for my DEL team. The tickets for all of the first 4 games were sold out within less than 30 minutes! Yet to my family’s big suprise (they also tried), I was the one to get us four tickets. For seats almost as near to the ice than last time. Just one or two rows further from the guest bench (i.e. the stench of the guest players… hubby and I are short enough not to have sniffed it, but the kids are taller and did, LOL).

  25. I’m finding it easier to wing it (with writing and with life) as I get older. But I too still need my turning points.

    Had my 75th birthday last week – really nice long walk on the mountain with my niece, followed by a picnic. This is pretty much my favourite thing to do, so I could just copy and paste this for Christmas, birthdays, etc.

    Also I’m starting to get a bit more of a handle on the uni work. No longer feel so overwhelmed. A different niece helped by pointing out that when she did her degree, the rubric for a pass was ‘has made some effort’.
    That’s a very low bar! But it helps reduce my anxiety to something manageable, despite the fact that returning to study has reawakened my deeply competitive self.

      1. Jane, I’m enrolled in a Diploma of Creative Arts and Health. Current unit is Arts and Dementia, which looks at the use of music, visual arts, dance and theatre in improving well-being and cognitive function for people with various forms of dementia. It’s fascinating stuff, but makes me immensely sad that I didn’t know about it when my aunt had dementia 40 years ago. We could have made her life so much happier.

        I had intended to do several more units next semester, but have discovered that it cuts too deeply into my novel writing time. So given that I’m just doing it for fun, after this semester I’ll probably withdraw.

  26. Last over-scheduled week went better than I expected. I got through all the appointments and meetings including the extras of getting two new tires and taking my cousin to the doctor. The next two weeks is just an eye appointment and No Kings.

    After not making a sign for the last few rallies, I’ve got one started for Saturday. And so far, no rain in the forecast.

    Looking forward to those easy weeks.

    1. I’m actually off that Saturday and I’m thinking about going (depending on how I feel, considering I am working the Sunday). I intend to wear my First Amendment t-shirt, but will it be warm enough to wear an open sweater over it?

      1. It’ll be cold here but no rain or snow. Putting a positive spin on the weather, I can wear my ‘Melt the Ice’ hat I made.

  27. Off topic but great fun…from NYT Book Review editors’ compilation tool:

    I want an over-the-top, thrilling rom-com
    Agnes and the Hitman
    by Jennifer Crusie and Bob Mayer
    (2007)

    For contemporary romantic comedy, Jennifer Crusie is unparalleled — and this book’s significant body count means it has aged spectacularly well for a time when murder books are hot again. Agnes is a cookbook author and new homeowner suddenly harassed by criminals who think she’s in possession of a secret, so her beloved Uncle Joey (a former member of the mob, which turns out to be relevant) sends Shane, the best hit man he knows, to protect her. Agnes’s secret violent side (the frying pans!) and Shane’s hidden vulnerable heart turn out to be a perfect pairing, and keep the story sweet even as the bodies pile up.

    If you read it and love it, try … a book by Kate Clayborn, Lucy Parker or Helena Greer.

  28. I had a couple of goods too. After waiting a year to make sure I was eligible again ( health reason, long story) I donated my 71st pint of blood. One more time and I will have donated 9 gallons. My goal is to make it to 10 gallons
    I did laundry (as usual) yesterday and when I went to the upstairs closet to put the jeans away, on impulse, I started clearing out all the clothes I had stashed there waiting for me to lose enough weight to wear them again and now have a large garbage bag of jeans, shorts, and shirts ready to take to a donation bin. And my closet looks so much better!

    1. I admire your impulse, Rouan! I have jeans taking up space that I’ll never fit in again…

      I mostly worked this weekend, so not much fun. One good thing was deciding that this isn’t the year to put in a raised vegetable bed. I haven’t started any seeds or planning yet, and I’m already behind on pruning and early spring chores. So that’s one less thing to worry about while dealing with an unexpected need for root canal treatment.

  29. I made almond and cherry cookies, and cinnamon and raisin muffins yesterday (Sunday). Both are now in the freezer and don’t take long to defrost when I get a yen. I love having home-made goodies in my home because they are so much less sweet than bought ones, and I know exactly what is in them. This was a happy Sunday for me as I love baking and the flat smells amazing after.

  30. I spent a mostly delightful week in the Dominican Republic enjoying sunshine and warmth. Took walks on the beach. Swam/walked about, in the pools. Enjoyed being waited on and an abundance of delicious food prepared by someone else, with all the chores also being done by someone else. Travel was smooth and mostly easy. I’m just sad to be home in Michigan where the weather is grey and cold and hurting my head. Also, I now have to cook and clean for myself again. Sigh.

  31. It’s been awhile since I’ve been here, but it’s so good to see everyone and hearing your news. I’m back in Guam. We’ve had guests! A couple we know from San Diego one week and my niece for another. Fun to show them around the island. (Kelly S., your week in paradise sounds divine). Other than that I’ve just been writing, trying to start a writing group at the Navy base library (Hit a snag. Bummer.), cooking up some Guam dishes (everything with coconut milk and served over rice, yum!), and going to Zumba & bellydance classes.

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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