Category Archives: Weather, Seasons, & Celebrations

Lest We Forget

War’s not the answer most of the time. And it’s often a trumped-up excuse that veils another agenda. But that’s not going to stop me from honouring the men and women whose job it is, or who volunteer, to go out and risk their lives in confrontations beyond what most of us can envision. It’s their commitment and courage I honour on Remembrance Day. I honour our peacekeepers, too, the people who go to other countries to help rebuild after times of turmoil. And support staff — doctors, drivers, cooks, all those people who are necessary to the machine of war and who rarely get recognition for being in danger as well. And those left at home, who carry the double burden of hope and dread for their loved ones.

There has to be a better way. But even when someone figures it out, I’ll keep on saying thank you to all those individuals who gave lives, limbs, time, and innocence to the wars. I honour and respect their personal decisions, even if I disagree with the governmental decisions that created the need for them.

This Week So Far

Scattered flurries are called for later this afternoon. Not that I want winter to be here any time soon — for some odd reason I’m actually enjoying the seasonal weather at the moment, possibly because the cold, damp, and very windy thing is still novel — but I’m feeling moderately insulted and stood up by the snow fairies. Everyone else has had snow, it seems; where the heck are our first snowflakes? It’s Montreal, for the love of cats. We wrote the book on spastic weather.

Liam and I had a great playdate with Arthur and Curtana yesterday. This was followed by a less than stellar nap for Liam (and none for me at all because I used the first hour of his nap to clean up and check mail, and then suddenly there wasn’t a second hour for me to use), and a good shopping outing where we picked up Ratatouille and the Pixar shorts collection on DVD. I also got doorknob safety covers to keep Liam from getting out of bed once we’ve put him down to sleep, or wandering out in the middle of the night to cheerfully ask his father where his toy trains have gone. He’s also thrown open our (accidentally unlocked) front door and tromped out into the staircase on his own.

I had an insanely productive editing day on Monday: many hours of work with Mousme during the day, where I worked myself into a fried zone, then another couple of very enjoyable hours with Sandman7 and Talyesin in the evening at our inaugural NotNoWriMo meeting, despite a bad headache. (Oh, we are all so very pleased not to be doing the usual November thing; so very, very pleased. We’ve all been there and done that with multiple wins, and now we need to move on.) All in all I edited a third of the book yesterday, and now there are only around seventy pages to go.

Our coven celebrated Samhain with a quiet, good ritual last night, featuring a needfire that burned bright and long enough to make up for the lack of needfires over the past couple of years.

Today’s mail yielded me a free copy of Author 101: Bestselling Book Publicity, sent to me by the publicity department of my publisher. Enclosed was a form letter of publicity tips that began by saying, “Welcome to our company!” I am very amused, as the pregnancy book coming out next fall is my fourth with this publisher.

Today, I read a new book and write a note-form review, as well as write a second note-form review for another book I read a couple of months ago and I need to reacquaint myself with it first. Then Friday, I will expand the point-form reviews into real live reviews and send them off. Today, though, I mainly need to focus on staying upright; I’m exhausted, despite a good night of sleep, and I ache all over. Good thing I bought acetaminophen yesterday. I will not be sick, damn it. I’ve had a dry cough over the past week that I am certain is directly connected to turning the heaters on, but the aching? Not a good sign.

Huzzah!

Now that I’ve made sure the news has been appropriately posted elsewhere…

NEW BABY!!!

To be specific…. NEW GODSDAUGHTER!!!!!

We are so happy for the Preston-LeBlancs. We spent the day scurrying around collecting things for them, because we of all people know what having a premature baby is like. Not that anyone else doesn’t… just that, well, we’ve been there in a way most people haven’t. And we were honoured to have been called for help last night. It’s wonderful to share good news; it’s harder to call and ask someone for help. We know what that’s like, too.

And while HRH was off helping in one way, I was pulling off one of the strongest magical workings I’ve done in a while. Wow.

It’s great to hear of everyone scrambling to do the food assembly thing — we did it today, too. I love how our chosen family pulls together when one of our own is in need. “It makes us all weepy,” Jteethy said to me on the phone today. I know exactly what he means.

We toasted the newly expanded family at dinner tonight, and Liam eagerly volunteered his milk cup to clink against our glasses of Jackson Triggs Proprietor’s Reserve red. He knows there is a baby, but she is much less important at the moment than his beloved Devon. Once he’s seen the baby things will be different, I’m sure; she will be real to him then in a way that she isn’t just yet.

And now, the rest of that wine calls me, as do some freshly baked cookies. Good night.

Break Time!

Liam woke up at 5:20 this morning, and because I have begun doing Clocks-Back-Math in preparation for Sunday (later bedtime, later nap, later getting up… the latter is still theoretical at the moment but the to-sleep times seem to be going well) it meant it would have been 4:20, and there was no way I was going to let that become a precedent. I got up and asked him if he needed to go to the bathroom, and he did (the night-time diaper was only a teeny bit damp, too!). Then we went back into his dark room and I read him a quiet story, put him back in his bed, and said night-night. He played quietly until he fell asleep, and slept almost two more hours till 7:45. (Well, 6:45 if I carry the Clocks-Back-Math through properly.) The one good thing about the sun not rising till seven-thirty these days is you can tell a toddler it’s the middle of the night and he believes you.

He asked to wear his Incredibles shirt again today. I’m going to have to get transfer paper for dark colours and do a better one for him. I foresee a series of cool personalised shirts as treats, now that we’ve begun. There’s a Totoro one in his future, maybe with soot-sprites on the sleeves.

Newest cool word he uses: ‘dirigible’.

No more Hallowe’en photos as of yet; we didn’t get any more ourselves, but somewhere down the line there may be some from his caregiver. He had a wonderful time with his playmates there yesterday, bobbing for apples (he got one!), watching It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown, and reading monster stories. He even got a little loot bag from his caregiver at the end of the day; we tried to get him to say “trick or treat!” for it but all he managed was “Please? Treat?” When he opened it at home, it was hilarious to see him pull out the candy and discard it beside him, ignoring it in favour of the Hallowe’en pencil and eraser.

He asked me to draw myself with my cello today while we ate breakfast.

I’m sure some people are wondering when I’m going to get around to wishing the world a blessed Samhain. I’m one of those people who calculates the four fixed-date festivals astronomically, as the solstices and equinoxes are calculated, so my Samhain happens sometime next week; November 8 this year, if I remember correctly. (If you’re curious, they’re as follows: 0 degrees Aries – Vernal Equinox; 15 degrees Taurus – Beltane; 0 degrees Cancer – Summer Solstice; 15 degrees – Leo – Lughnassadh; 0 degrees Libra – Autumnal Equinox; 15 degrees Scorpio – Samhain; 0 degrees Capricorn – Winter Solstice; 15 degrees Aquarius – Imbolc.)

Right; back to work.

Hallowe’en!

That Hallowe’en costume I said I’d do for Liam for his benefit?

It was a major hit with the boy this morning. We showed him the shirt and a small smile flitted across his face. He touched the logo gently and said, “Incredibles?” Then he enthusiastically helped take off his Nemo jammies and get the shirt on, and even was very interested in getting the ‘super-pants-socks’ on. Not bad for an iron-on transfer, a pair of black woollen tights, and a pair of red socks with the foot part cut off. It won’t win any prizes, but he adores it, which is what counts.

Perhaps there will be a better photo later. He wouldn’t sit still this morning. (Naturally!)

Gnarr

This has been what is known as a Bad Day.

The boy has been simply crazy. I have managed to make soup, and cupcakes, and bread all from scratch in an attempt to keep myself sane. I’m trying to find comfort in that. But there were laundry issues that threw my daily plan out of whack, and that potential client still hasn’t gotten back to me to confirm a contract that begins tomorrow. There has been no reply to my last two messages. The former outlined my fee and delivery bid; the latter reiterated the information and also courteously pointed out that I required confirmation, as I have the rest of the week to schedule. Still nothing. At this point, I am severely tempted to send them a polite message saying that as they have not replied to me I can only assume that they will not be availing themselves of my services, and that I have taken another contract that came up instead. (Granted, the other contract consists of paying work next week, but I may also be on the verge of selling a book; I’ll know tomorrow.) My week is in a holding pattern; their last communication was on Friday, to which I replied Monday morning. I am not a fan of freelancers being ignored until they’re suddenly needed yesterday. Particularly for a three-day deal with a ‘we must have it by this date’ deadline.

On the brighter side of things, HRH had good payroll news today: they’re treating each year of animation experience as equivalent work experience, and each year of education beyond the required level as two years. He just needs declarations of term of employment from his past employers. And once it’s all settled, he will receive a retroactive cheque to cover the deficit beyond the base salary the job offers. Very nice indeed.

The boy may have a Hallowe’en costume tomorrow, more for his entertainment than anything else. We shall see how creative I can be tonight. No stress, just fun.

Monday Miscellany

The word for the weekend: sick. The damn cold went into my chest and knocked me out. Most things got cancelled. I passed out during Liam’s naps both days, and messed up my night sleep patterns as a result. Or maybe I napped hard because my night sleep patterns were already messed up by not being able to breathe. I had to sneak into the boy’s room Saturday night to borrow his Ventolin. (Why do I not currently have one of my own? Because I only use it once every couple of years and it keeps expiring before I’ve used it.) It was not a pleasant weekend. At least today I can walk from one room to another without having to sit down and catch my breath.

I made chili and applesauce and apple crisp last night. Despite the unseasonably warm temperatures (which I have been enjoying, along with a sense of guilt because it’s just all wrong) I appear to be gearing down into comfort food mode in anticipation of Real Fall.

As Hallowe’en approaches, the requests to borrow my costumes begin landing in my inbox. Especially the Van Helsing set, just like last year. So just as an advance announcement: really, I can’t lend anything out to anyone, whether I know you or not. I am a firm supporter of hot glue and safety pins for a costume that will last one single night, and nothing is in any kind of state to be lent out. Also, everything’s in storage. And my costumes are so ridiculously small that I doubt they’d fit the average person.

Speaking of costumes, this weekend HRH and I realised that it’s just not going to be practical to introduce the boy to Hallowe’en this year. Between getting him home from daycare, making and eating dinner, HRH getting home from work and me leaving for orchestra… it’s just not going to happen. I don’t think we’ll even be handing out candy, for the same reasons. Wednesdays are just too tightly scheduled and there’s no room to move. I’ll put all the fabric and trim and patterns aside and make him his swashbuckling coat next year instead, when his bedtime won’t interfere with the fun.

HRH has been having a wonderful time at work, thank you for asking. The irony of the nice new job is that the way paydays have worked out, things are going to be uncomfortably tight for the next week and a half, especially because we have several direct payments going out in the next five days. And we had to buy a new vacuum yesterday because the one we’ve been using and patching for the past eight years self-destructed in an impressive cloud of white smoke and the smell of burning. Fortunately, we got a great bagless one on sale, and it’s light enough that I can use this one. Still, it would have been nice if it had waited two weeks to die its final death.

More editing today, with Mousme to keep me honest and supplied with tea while I have a cat on my lap. Maggie has been alternately very clingy and kittenish over the past few days, and today appears to be a clingy day.