Category Archives: Diary

August Eve

I’ve been cleaning up and sorting files and posts and things today. It’s Lughnassadh this week and I do a thorough backup of my system every sabbat, so that will happen later too.

It’s the last day of July, which means that tomorrow is the first day of August! If you haven’t signed up for the August Writing project yet, you still have time. For once I’m not actively engaged in contract writing, so I won’t be scrambling to try to fit not-work-writing into the schedule as I have done in previous years, breaking my brain and any chance of relaxation I had thereby. Last year I wrote a series of fairy tale-based poetry for half the month before things got too crazy. I had no idea what to write this summer, until as I was cleaning out files I found an idea fragment I’d typed out quickly and forgotten. It’s literally six words and a question mark. I think I’ll give it a try, which means sitting down later today and sketching out a schedule and breaking the writing down into thirty-ish parts, because I’d like to actually write the whole thing during the month for the sake of balance and completeness. It won’t be long, only a few thousand words, so that won’t be an issue. I just want to see if the idea will work.

Mighty Mighty

Am DONE.

Go me! Month-long project wrapped up! (Until the final files are sent to me for for integration, but no ETA on those.)

Taking rest of day off. There may be beer. But only because a glass of wine this early in the day feels odd.

The rest of you? Behave. I worked stupid amounts of overtime last week. I deserve this.

Weekend Roundup

Cats woke me up at four AM by knocking over an empty glass in another room. I got up four times in the next half hour to handle various cat issues. I gave up trying to fall asleep again and have been working since five.

We had a wonderful weekend! Thank you to everyone who shared it with us in some way or another. Not only did we pick up groceries (very necessary) and really really really clean the house (everything except washing floors and windows, including laundry and mowing the lawn and gardening, although by Sunday the bathroom was dirty again, possibly because of the latter two tasks), but Saturday I went on a lovely UK-foodstuffs-import recon and purchasing jaunt with Pdaughter (no Penguin bars in stock at our newly-discovered Bramble House, alas, but I have a packet of real dolly mixtures and Jacob’s club bars and Fry’s chocolate tablets, joy!), and then we had a visit with Ceri and Scott (who have a stunning new car, rendering us victims of new-car envy, and they also spoiled the boy by bringing him a Cars puzzle; “Picture Lightning and Mater broken, Mama, help Liam fix” is therefore the newest order I am given when he wants to play). Sunday morning saw us doing yard work at the in-laws’ house, then we went out to the farm roadside stall on the south shore that HRH has been going to since he was ten in order to buy strawberries and cherries and peaches and peas and peppers and corn. There the boy was carried around by the farmer himself and given a half-pint of blueberries and raspberries and strawberries to eat as he did; the child proceeded to stuff five huge blueberries in his mouth at once, and ate the rest of the fruit while sitting on the cart piled with corn watching the activity around him. He said “Bye bye farmer and strawberries!” when we left. We ended the weekend with a lovely co-coven Lughnassadh BBQ with piles and piles of seasonal food and excellent company all around.

I finally got that month-late baby gift in the mail on Saturday, as well as another small parcel that had been sitting around for just as long.

Despite the fact that the days were full, everything was relaxed and we didn’t feel rushed or overwhelmed at all. The weekend went so well that everyone woke up in a vaguely bad mood today because it was back the work routine again. The boy was cranky because he knew he was going back to daycare (he loves his caregiver and playmates and always has fun, but he misses us and we miss him too), HRH was cranky, and I was already in not such a terrific mood thanks to waking up two hours early. But this week we return to a more normal rhythm as HRH drops back to part-time and I deliver the current project. And then next weekend we’re in ON visiting with my parents, so there’s plenty to look forward to in the next fortnight.

Also this week: a trip to my bank branch on the West Island to deposit this US cheque that’s been sitting here for two weeks, so there will be money again. As it’s in that neighbourhood I’ll be stopping by the Bramble House for those Penguin bars, and possibly some whiskey fudge as well. The fretless bass will also be taken into the local music shop for its set-up, maintenance, new strings, and case that day. It feels good to be catching up on things.

Hello, Wall

Guess whose desktop computer won’t start up this morning?

*headdesk*

It turns on. No start-up sequence. Not even a system check. Everything was fine when I shut it down last night. No viruses were found in the virus scan I did at dinner yesterday. It must be a hardware failure of some kind.

And did I save the files I need to be working on to my thumb drive? No, I did not. I’ve asked the client to send me the last copy of the first file I returned to them last week and the original copy of the third so that I can pick up where I left off and work on the laptop. Hopefully Blade will be able to do something about the computer tonight, otherwise the second (and complete) file is stuck there unless we take the drive out and plug it into another computer to take it off. The good news is that I work with a partioned drive so that if we have to reinstall Windows (again) I don’t lose any of my important stuff, just programs and time. If the drive is dead, well, I’ll just have to completely redo the second file. And it will serve me right for not making an external backup, but still — argh, I DO NOT need that right now.

Rosy, smack me upside the head for NOT LEARNING.

And I was so optimistic about the day, too.

Needless to say, my access to email is going to be limited today. If you know my work Gmail address, use that instead, or leave me a shout here to contact you; I’ll be checking comments regularly.

Hanging In

Day two of unidentified stomach bug. I had to cancel my appearance at a lunch with friends, which disappointed me a lot because I’m going stir crazy being at home right now. I was so desperate for interpersonal communication that I sat on the steps and chatted with the mailman this morning. Thanks for the good wishes both here and via phone and email, everyone. Toast again this morning, and soup for lunch. I’m not dead yet, so I’m cautiously optimistic. Mind you, I was cautiously optimistic last night too, and woke up just as sick as I’d been the day before. We shall see. I’m done my work for the evening, so I can go to bed two and a half hours earlier than I’ve done the past two days.

The urgent project I accepted Tuesday at noon is back in the hands of the client after twenty-eight hours of insane editing, so I’m working on the more relaxed first project again. The urgent client has been told that I’m not going to be available again for a week if they need me, and I wrote a three-page memo outlining all the changes and suggested revisions/solutions to the problems involved so whoever picked it up next would have as much information as possible at their disposal, which took me two hours to do. There’s nothing like an insane urgent deadline to really refocus perspective on a regular project again, particularly when the pace had kind of slowed down on it. Of course, I have to put in some work over the weekend to make up for the two days eaten by the urgent project, but I seem to be moving through it at a very good clip, which is encouraging.

I’m glad it will be over next week, though; I miss the boy, and I know he misses us too, as much as he adores his caregiver. Today’s new word was ‘supernatural’, heard in a Rough Traders song. There is no telling what word he will hear and instantly take a liking to, to use as he pleases.

To my vague astonishment we will be seeing various people over the weekend, if only for a short time each, which will temporarily assuage my need to reconnect with the outside world. There may be Penguin bars and Fry’s chocolate tablets involved. There will certainly be corn, if I can swing it.

Ugh

So very sick last night and this morning. Possibly a bug; possibly a combination of the weather and how upset I got yesterday about a situation. Possibly both.

Tea is staying down. Am about to attempt toast. Cross your fingers for me.