Author Archives: Autumn

Woe And Teh Sad

Things are kind of tentative around here. Liam has his first gastro thing happening, and is now living on toast, a bit of juice, and Pedialyte. He’s cheerful and playful during the day, although with a low appetite and he’s operating at a less breakneck speed than usual. He’s sleeping a bit more (I could get very used to this part!), and does that throwing up thing once or twice at night, although he has no temperature. We’ve done more laundry in the past day than we’ve done in the past two weeks. He’s so good: once he’s been sick he just wants to sit in someone’s lap and lean his head against their shoulder, while the other parent changes sheets or washes his bunny or finds new pyjamas. If he’s awake enough he even wants to play a bit, or coo softly to us while he cuddles, or read a book until he drops off to sleep again.

It will be over soon. In the meantime, there’s lots of love going around.

ESTC Update

Things are rolling along nicely. Adequately. Well, not badly.

The total word count currently stands at 44,730, and there are 201 pages. Chapters 1 through 3 are pretty much complete, with only a couple of highlighted sentences to be rephrased when I have more of a brain. Chapter 4 is seventy-five percent finished as well, although that final 25% is going to be a pain in the neck to complete because it’s lists and correspondences and will likely take most of my day tomorrow.

Then it’s Chapter 5, where I have to write a set of instructions for basic meditation, expand a ritual, clarify and expand the breathing meditation, outline a basic circle-cast, and cover basic shields (can’t I just say “read this other book I wrote”? — only I won’t do that because I hate it when someone deliberately leaves something out so that I have to go buy another book in the middle of the book I’m reading). All these things seem huge in my brain, but they’re really only a paragraph or two each. And then in chapter 6 there’s only one thing I have to fix/tweak/expand.

Which brings me to Chapter 7, the chapter of grief and sorrow and the icky things one doesn’t want to have to think about, which only needs three rituals and some polishing. If I don’t finish it on Friday, then it, Chapter 8 (which needs some moderately substantial things added to it), and Chapter 9 (two rituals need to be created in entirety) will be handled Monday and Tuesday. Wednesday will be the final finicky bits and read-throughs and checking of appendices. Oh, and I have to fit looking for visual references for the art department in there somewhere too.

‘Cos next Wednesday’s it. By five o’clock it has to be in someone else’s inbox on someone else’s desk in another country. The End.

I’m looking forward to November. Odd to say that, but I am. It will be nice to have some time to myself.

Orchestra tonight, and yet another week has gone by where I’ve been working so much during the day and being so wiped at night that I haven’t rehearsed anything. This is yet another reason to be looking forward to November: I’ll actually be able to practice.

Every Day We’re Dumping The Body

Yes, we’ve reached the hack and slash part of the game, where I wade through the MS and am merciless with the cut-and-paste-into-a-Deleted-Materials-file sequence of mouse clicks. Get rid of those useless paragraphs and those vague thoughts! Make room for the rituals and meditations that exist only in the [insert ritual here] sense! And since I’m also at the low self-esteem I-hate-myself-my-writing-is-awful point of the process (right on schedule, I must add), cutting things out to make it as focused as possible isn’t being hindred by any sense of maudlin attachment.

This is where I stop counting words. The final count will be what it is when the dust settles mid next week.

Nothing Last Year, And Now:

You would not believe the volume of email I have been receiving about the Anna Valerious costume I made for Hallowe’en 2004.

For public edification and reference, the corset pattern I kitbashed was Simplicity 9769. I can no longer find the pattern I used as a basis for the coat, but something easy like Simplicity 4323 would work very well as a basis, if you lengthened the body a bit and cut the ends of the sleeves wider.

You’re welcome.

PS: No, it’s not for sale. Didn’t you read the bits about the hot glue, and safety pins?

Schadenfreude Gathering

Someone described last night’s hangout here as a wake for people’s recently lost jobs, and I think it’s a good way to describe it. It’s been a dreadful week for a remarkably large number of people I know, and half a dozen of us kind of gravitated together to support friends. I made a huge pot of chili and garlic bread; Ceri made Schadenfreude Pie (schadenfreude being the German term for reveling in someone else’s misfortune, and to be perfectly clear we weren’t reveling in the misfortune of those who had been laid off, we were reveling in the misfortune of those who did the off-laying, because they lost excellent workers and will officially be up a creek without paddles or boats come Monday morning, but that’s their problem, isn’t it?); and Paze brought over some Bailey’s (both original and chocolate mint) and wings and Asian noodles. And for fourish hours we all sat on the floor and chatted and ate, and provided the right type of distraction for everyone, no matter what their week or job situation. The neighbours from upstairs drifted in. We actually got to see Scott, whose employer allowed him to leave the premises at a sane hour for once. The whiskey came out. We opened a bottle of Soave, courtesy of my FIL. We talked and talked and talked, in a companionable way that I haven’t enjoyed in, oh, ages. It’s good to be there for friends. That one has the opportunity to unwind at the same time — well, it was a really nice bonus.

It was a miserable day weather-wise yesterday afternoon as well, with the first official appearance of That White Stuff on top of nasty wind and cold cold rain, causing absolute havoc on the roads and forcing me to call my MIL to ask her to feed Liam dinner over there because I was stuck in Ville St-Laurent. When Liam eventually got home to see friends in the living room he took serious stock of the situation, then wandered around talking to cats and persons alike, sharing books and macaroni before going to bed (beautifully and calmly, hurrah, yes).

Mousme even managed to clip the claws of two cats while she was here. Nixie, The Deceptively Soft-Spoken Kitten From Hell, made it known in no uncertain terms that while Maggie and Cricket may have fallen to Mousme’s blade, she had no intention of going down until Mousme was lying in a pool of her own blood first. It was generally agreed that perhaps more Bailey’s ought to be enjoyed instead.

Despite the preponderance of badness in the lives of many this past while, we had something terribly, staggeringly nice happen to us this week. The people involved know how we feel, despite our sense of not being able to communicate just how thankful we are.

Oh, and the pie? Ye gods. I couldn’t even finish my slice. By this morning, the single piece left in the pie tin had begun bleeding a dark syrupy liquid. I fear it. But then, one really oughtn’t overly enjoy schadenfreude.