Category Archives: Diary

Weekend Roundup

So, that increasingly bad fibro thing on Friday wasn’t my fibro getting out of hand. It was actually me getting ill. No wonder doing all my usual Soothe The Fibro! things weren’t working. It also explains the somewhat below normal two days leading up to it. I fought bad nausea all afternoon, and after consultation with HRH and Paze I cancelled my appearance at the Friday evening outing. Good thing too; I reached the falling-over dizzy stage of the Sick not long after I tendered my regrets.

However, I passed out and slept almost twelve hours straight, and woke up Saturday morning feeling a million times better. So much better, in fact, that we decided to hit Ikea as soon as it opened to see the new bed we’ve been thinking of getting in person. Not only did we agree on the bed but also on a redesign (read: actual thought-out coherent design as opposed to using the mismatched things we had — I cannot tell you how grown-up this makes me feel) for the bedroom, and a reading chair for my office. We introduced the boy to the concept of bunk beds on the showroom floor, which threw him into a level of cooled out far beyond what we’d expected. This is a good thing, because HRH is buying a set for the boy’s room from his office mate at the end of the month. We will be the Coolest Parents Ever when this happens, I’m sure.

We came home with a new duvet cover, a new carpet for the living room floor, a magnetic knife strip for the kitchen, and proceeded to clean the heck out of the house. I moved the books and bookcase that was serving as my bedside table downstairs to the communal office. We got rid of HRH’s highboy (which also served as his bedside table), I put three drawers’ worth of things into plastic storage containers and stacked them in the cupboard, and we now share the six-drawer bureau. We have two short tables on either side of the bed at the moment, rescued from other uses. Suddenly there’s lots of space and the bedroom isn’t so, well, not-relaxing. The clean-up continued: I moved a bunch of things out of my office closet, and I took down one of the shelf units in my upstairs office, condensing my herb collection down to about an eighth of what it had been. As I did I was struck by how familiar some of the smells were even though I hadn’t worked with those specific herbs in years, because they were the first ones I worked with: angelica, marshmallow, hyssop. Reorganising the storage for all my spiritual practise-related supplies made me think about how my practise has evolved over the years, and how my focus has flowed through certain areas and into others, and what sort of techniques appealed to me at different times.

Absolutely everything in the house got dusted, swept, and vacuumed. I tell you, it was like we combined spring and fall cleaning. We’re nesting, I suppose, getting things ready for winter. It certainly felt like fall late last week.

On Sunday we had brunch with the neighbours, a once-weekly event that got dropped when people ended up booked for other things on a regular basis. We’re going to try to get it going again on a semi-regular schedule. It was wonderful to sit and talk and munch. Blade introduced his Rubbermaid tub of Lego to the boy, who had lots of fun playing with the Lego people and dragons and vehicles, but wasn’t completely clear int he concept of building with the bricks. There’s nothing like a box of Lego to get all the adults in the room interested in what’s going on and mucking about with it.

Sunday afternoon HRH and Blade swapped our washer and dryer for the ones in the communal office space, and HRH moved things around in the garage yet again, making even more room. His bike is now ready for use; all we need is an extra coupler attachment for the bike trailer and we’ll be set. There was gardening done, groceries obtained, and I made my very yummy and creamy much-less-than-seven-teaspoons-of-sugar (gah! who knew!) version of iced cappuccinos in the blender. We finished the day off with a truly delicious homemade spaghetti sauce and garlic bread. I made two loaves of bread yesterday because the first one was completely gone by the end of the day. Yikes.

Despite the amount of work and the being sick at the beginning of it, this was the best weekend we’ve had in a long, long, long time. I think we’d forgotten what being relaxed around one another was like.

I leave you with a six month old Foxtrot cartoon. Yes, I am behind the times.

(Oboe! Hilarious!)

TGIF…

… except the day of the week doesn’t really have much effect on the day to day argh that’s been going on. At least I’m going out to dinner tonight with two excellent women, so that’s something to look forward to.

There’s been lots of argh and grr happening, and I feel like I’m being nibbled to death by ducks cats. Did two installs of XP on the dead laptop; it died twice. Swapped the hard drive, started again. So far things are okay, except it won’t connect to the Internet via ethernet cable, nor will the screen accommodate a resolution above the halfway mark, leaving a frame of black around the display. And the most annoying thing is that I can’t find my wireless card, despite turning out the laptop bag, my desk drawers, and most of my office closet. It has absolutely vanished. It’s a little thing but it was what gave me mobility, and not findign it made me very, very cranky. If I haven’t found it by the end of the weekend I’ll have to buy another one.

The boy has made up for his sweet twos by hitting us with the Terrible Threes. That’s all I’ll say on the subject.

I started reading Elisabeth Le Guin’s Boccherini’s Body, a music analysis text based on the performer’s physical experience playing Boccherini’s music, specifically the cello sonatas and his quartets. It’s a fascinating theoretical approach and I want to be enjoying it much more than I am. The first two chapters were all I could handle; after that I had trouble focusing and following the theory and analysis to such a point that I’d reread a few sentences over and over and the meaning wouldn’t sink in. I hasten to add that this is in no way the fault of the author or the material; it has more to do with the fibro fog. So I switched to Elizabeth Wilson’s recent bio of Rostropovich and am much happier.

I’m going through a tough fibro week with worse than usual weakness in the hands, and joints that feel like they’ve never been oiled, ever. This morning is particularly bad, and it isn’t improving the way it usually does as the day progresses; in fact, it’s getting worse. Good thing today’s freelance work is simple online research and filling in blank fields in an Excel sheet. If it doesn’t clear up by this afternoon I may have to cancel on the dinner out, though, which I really don’t want to do.

Busy

Yesterday was mostly good, with one huge time-out-worthy aberration just before dinner. Ten minutes’ worth of time out, in fact.

I made a single jar of jam this morning. I ordered new glasses, paid some bills, crossed another couple of things off my To-Do list, and now have (of course!) run out of steam, twenty minutes before Jan is due to show up for our weekly writing jam. If I am completely useless at the writing thing I may switch to doing the local freelance stuff that landed in my inbox at lunchtime.

I also had a half-hour conversation with an orchestra contact this morning. Looks like we have an executive meeting next week, and while I’m not an official member of the executive I seem to be invited along like last time because I have Valuable Input.

I need to reformat the laptop at some point today (or possibly tomorrow) as well, so I can give Liam something to do while I work (he is in love with Youtube because it has Veggie Tales and Thomas episodes, and there is always Peep!). Because if I’m on the computer he wants to be on the computer, which makes working while he’s at home somewhat of a challenge.

Off to write, come what may. There’s a thousand words of Orchestrated on my list of Things To Do that needs to crossed off.

Yesterday…

… was a complete washout. I spent the entire day struggling with technology in some form or another. A USB port that had been working perfectly well up till yesterday around noon, and into which was plugged my external hard drive, decided to malfunction (yes! I show as a drive! no! there is nothing on me!). At first I thought my external hard drive (you know, the one that holds everything as a backup, plus all my music?) had given up the ghost, so that’s where I focused my attention once I recovered from the heart attack. After a couple of hours I discovered that it was the USB port creating an I/O problem. The tower won’t recognise the USB hub I own, so I had to juggle my peripherals. (Six. I have six things that require a USB port. There are only three ports that function now. Oy.) Then I tried to get the printer my dad had sent home with me to work, with zero luck. There were power issues (no matter where I plugged the damn thing in it wouldn’t turn on) and when I finally resolved that (by, erm, hitting it) I discovered that it won’t print anything. Oh, it thinks it’s printing, but nothing appears on the page. Even when the ink cartridges are full. Even after cleaning both sets of contacts and the ink intakes on the printer itself.

I did cross other things off my to-do list, but it was the kind of day where there wasn’t enough accomplished to account for the energy invested, and the grr of the hardware issues mightily outweighed the minor relief of crossing things off the list. So I got exactly no work done, other than sending an invoice for hours worked so far on the local freelance project I did before I left for Toronto. The boy’s thirty-eighth month post is late as a result. I can’t return a book to Amazon because I can’t print out the return form; I’ll have to beg Scarlet to print it out for me tonight.

Rawr. And gnarr.

The boy and I are running errands today. Wish us luck.

Non-Cello Content

I discovered yesterday, while the boy and I tested the new bike and trailer for the first time, that the trip to the library involves going uphill both ways.

I am serious. I will be using this fact as guilt trip material somewhere down the line.

The good news is that I am not dead today. This is huge, because of the limited energy/chronic fatigue thing. And despite the bike being a one-speed (while reverting to the use of coaster brakes was surprisingly easy, many were the times I forgot I could not simply reverse the pedalling to reset my legs) it generally handles well. Sure, I wish I had at least three speeds when going uphill from a stop (which, as I pointed out above, happens an awful lot), but it’s very good for what it is. The boy decrees the trailer Very Cool. I was somewhat surprised to find that we can carry on a conversation at a regular decibel level and hear one another while cycling.

The boy had his first ever Official Pro Haircut yesterday. I’ve been trimming it when necessary, but I lack the knowhow to do it properly. So off all those lovely curls across his brow came. He was very, very good, and got a certificate and a lollipop.

Saw the doctor this morning (and a medical student, who played the role of main doctor while my doctor oversaw the appointment) and we’re upping the dosage of my meds a wee bit to help with the lack of deep sleep thing that’s creeping up again.

I have just discovered Schumann’s string quartets. Not sure why it took me this long.

I picked up Guitar Hero: On Tour last week for my DS (after wibbling about it since its release, but Ceri finally told me I could do it, so I did). After failing miserably for a few practice songs I suddenly understood what the game was asking me to do and how I could do it. Even though most of the songs are unfamiliar to me I have an advantage in being able to absorb rhythm and therefore hit things at the right time. I flew through two levels on Monday night. The grip is made for someone whose hand is slightly larger than mine, and I have to lie my left forearm on a pillow in my lap to keep my hand relaxed enough to play, though. There’s a decent amount of humour involved in it too, so it’s not as annoying as I feared it might be.

Gryffindor went to the vet last evening for what looked like an abscess that was leaking on his tail. Turns out one of our sweet little hellion girls bit him, and the bite became infected while we were gone. When we came home it was bald from his obsessive licking. He got a huge antibiotic shot and came home in a little Elizabethan collar, which he managed to ditch within the first four minutes at home. Not only did he ditch it, he hid the damn thing. After searching for it allover we found it on the lampshade of my little reading lamp next to the bed.

Monday saw 1300 words added to Orchestrated. They were transcribed from my longhand work. Maybe today there will be new words. Despite having a brief synopsis and expanded outline, I still don’t know exactly what happens where. This is frustrating, because I know how the overall story goes and how it ends (that’s new for me), and still can’t write the thing. Grr. I may choose key scenes that I know happen and write them, then figure out how to link them. Give me a break, I’m trying an entirely new process, here.

Books I Read This July

The Magicians and Mrs Quent by Galen Beckett
Mr Darcy Takes a Wife by Linda Berdoll
Wit’s End by Karen Joy Fowler
Kushiel’s Justice by Jacqueline Carey
The Soloist by Steve Lopez
Gentlemen & Players by Joanne Harris
A Romance on Three Legs by Katie Hafner
Band Geek Love by Josie Bloss
Second Honeymoon by Joanna Trollope
Runemarks by Joanne Harris
The Lollipop Shoes by Joanne Harris
Ink & Steel by Elizabeth Bear
This Lullaby by Sarah Desser
Small Favor by Jim Butcher
Body and Soul by Frank Conroy
Charlie Bone and the Hidden King by Jenny Nimmo
Charlie Bone and the Castle of Mirrors by Jenny Nimmo
Birds for Dummies by Gina Spadafori & Dr. Brian L. Speer
Guide to the Quaker Parrot by Mattie Sue Athan

Quick notes:

Mr Darcy Takes a Wife by Linda Berdoll: Epic fail. Got halfway through. Tries too hard to be Regency-style, tries to pull in too many new characters in a very un-Austen manner. I could take the basic subject matter; I couldn’t take the execution. Gah. I’m including it even though I didn’t finish it because I need to note it down somewhere.

Gentlemen & Players by Joanne Harris: Wow. I so didn’t see the twist coming. I should have. This reads like Robertson Davies meets Patricia Highsmith.

The Lollipop Shoes by Joanne Harris: A well-handled not-really-a-sequel that addresses further wanderings of certain characters from Chocolat, but whose protagonist is someone new. I read it in one afternoon.

Runemarks by Joanne Harris: Yes, I went on a bit of a Joanne Harris rampage this month. This was an interesting take on what comes after Ragnarok. She got most of the Norse deities bang-on, albeit reduced to one or two traits.

Ink & Steel by Elizabeth Bear: Brilliant Elizabethan/faerie parallel story with really sharp characters and a story that draws one in and really makes one care about the characters and events. And yet, it is completely different from Brennan’s Midnight Never Come. Let’s see, what did I say about it earlier…

Last night I finished reading Ink & Steel, the first part of The Stratford Man duology by Elizabeth Bear. I’ve already geeked out on her journal about how excellent it was. I direct you to her website to read the available excerpted material and get yourself hooked. No, you don’t have to read Blood & Iron and Whiskey & Water to read Ink & Steel and Hell & Earth; they’re all part of the same universe but not in a serial fashion (beyond the loose duology of the first pair, and the definite duology of the second pair). Very, very worth reading. Bear continually astonishes me with her versatility and her ability to handle any genre at which she tries her hand. The heart of her success is most likely related to the fact that she writes a good story, about real characters with flaws and irrationalities as well as strengths, and makes it happen in a setting that has enough detail to create an entire atmosphere without going overboard. Also Elizabethan England, vile playwrights, and Faerie pretty much covers all the stuff I squee about, so when tied together, huzzah!

All I can add to that is: Eight days till Hell & Earth! Let the stalking of the bookstores looking for early copies begin! [SQUEE! I just checked stock and there are already two copies in at Chapters! I know where the boy and I are going after dropping HRH off at work tomorrow…]

Quick Post-Trip Update

Hullo world; we are back safe and sound. I have much cello news to jot down, but it will have to wait until Monday, most likely. Other than that: lovely trip, am proud of the boy in general for behaving very well, loved seeing the parental units. We got a bike trailer. The car trunk has been officially dubbed The Trunk of Extended Holding, because there is no way it could possibly have held all our bags, the bike trailer, a box with a printer inside it, assorted things we bought there (like a bike helmet for the boy and a couple of toys to be put away for Yule), and a cello.

Did I say a cello? I did, didn’t I. Oops.

Okay, all you get until I have the proper time to post is this: No, I did not buy one of the 7/8 Jay Haides I tried out, although they were lovely and smooth and dreadfully easy to play and had nicely balanced tone throughout the complete range, especially the second one. I came home with a turn of the century German-made one instead.

That’s all the explanation you get till early next week. Maybe sooner, if I have the time. Muah-hah-hah.