Sparky has learned how to open doors. The two pantries, each bedroom, the bathroom — nowhere is safe. Fortunately my office door and the back door are still beyond him, being heavier or sticky.
Category Archives: Diary
Gig Countdown
We went out this morning to buy some new jeans for HRH, because I’m the one who has to look at him, and well-fitting jeans are infinitely preferable to the ones that are a size too large, and then we wandered around the local mall, just having a relaxing time looking at things like fountains and trees and patches of sun that shine through the skylights. I bought Liam a secondhand Finding Nemo game for us to play together on the DS (congratulations, Liam, your very first video game!), and HRH and I picked up a secondhand Goblet of Fire Xbox game to play together. That was one of the original reasons for giving him the Xbox and a second controller as an anniversary gift a few years ago, after all: so we could play together. We never have, because most of the games he’s interested in are one-person, and the ones we’ve found so far with a multi-player option don’t interest me. Apart from that, I got none of the books I went in for because they were all out of stock, despite having verified the store stock online.
While wandering I found an awesome short black skirt that would complement the corset. It looked fantastic on, and fit terribly well. Did not buy it. It was, erm, very short. Even with a pair of full-length tights under it, it was not conducive to cello-playing.
Rehearsal last night was lots of good, even though most of us were tired and everyone blanked or tripped up at some point. I’d sliced the inside of the first joint on my left index finger while opening the new keyboard box yesterday (the only thing worse than a paper cut is a cardboard cut, especially in a tender and frequently-used place like that), then proceeded to further slice it open again on a string while sliding during a shift last night. I felt mildly foolish, particularly since it was minutes after Mousme’s dramatic spatter pattern incident. Hers was more serious; it’s not like there’s blood involved in mine, just several layers of skin open to the air and metal of the strings, and it stings like someone is dripping acid into it when I wash it or accidentally touch it to something. I am investing in some of that liquid skin sealant stuff this afternoon; I don’t care how expensive it is. Metal strings and open wounds do not play well together, no matter how well-cleaned they are.
Thanks in advance to everyone planning to come to tonight’s invitational gig, and to everyone who wanted to come but was prevented by time, geography, or previous plans. We know you’ll be there in spirit. We intend to have a band-load of fun.
Tidying Up
Tired of not being able to sift out my cello-based journal entries, I decided to make a category for it and start sorting through posts. Then I decided to do the same for books, and for music. Because, you know, I don’t have enough to do. (I appear to often mention books and music in the same post. I am sure you are absolutely shocked.)
Friday
Poked abut Bureau en Gros this morning while HRH did some photocopying and came out with a new keyboard (requires some getting used to, because not only is it an ergo it’s peaked in the middle, so I’m learning not to move my hands too far and to really thwack the spacebar), and a new wireless card for the laptop (it works, except all the networks around here are locked, which is fine because I bought it for use in public places anyhow). Both on sale/at decent prices, too, so yay me. Then we went to Services Canada for the boy’s SIN.
My two-volume Oxford dictionary arrived on Wednesday, so I came home from my last day of work and had the pleasure of opening it.
Rehearsal Wednesday night was great in that I didn’t walk out of orchestra hating myself. When I’m actually playing the right notes, I like my intonation very much and my expression is decent, too. I lost focus not long after break, but I forgave myself for the stupid mistakes I was making because hey, tired; it’s not like I suck all the time. The entire section is sounding like a unit, which is always pleasant, too.
Yesterday was frustrating because HRH, Liam, and I were looking forward to a family day once he’d helped clear out the apartment downstairs for the floor people to lay the linoleum over the new floor he and the landlord had laid this week. Landlord and HRH started work at 7, were done by 8. The floor people were supposed to show up at 9. They showed up somewhere around 11, and took lunch at 12. We couldn’t really go anywhere because our garage was wide open with all the downstairs apartment’s stuff in it and the driveway. Because they started late, the floor people didn’t leave till fiveish, not noon as we’d expected. You can imagine how impressed HRH and I were, when we had planned to have the entire afternoon to knock about once Liam woke up from his nap. At least our landlord agreed to hang around for an hour and a half while we went out to ai731‘s open house at her art studio. It would have been nice to be able to relax the way we’d hoped to, though. There’s nothing either of us hates more than hurrying up to wait.
General note to all who have borrowed our Slings & Arrows DVDs: season three comes out July 3rd. Yes, I have pre-ordered it.
Gig tomorrow night!
Scratch Pad May 16
09:12:
Last Day! (Unless something else pops up yet again.) Pleasant surprise to open my file and realise that I am in fact more than half done, I am two-thirds done my final task. Go me! (I knew I was deliberately fudging the math, but not that much. I was so brain-dead yesterday it wasn’t funny.)
10:00:
And five words defined as “a stupid person”, with one “a stupid and foolish person” thrown in for a bit of variety.
10:02:
Oh, look. I have the riff from Till My Head Falls Off going through my head. Time for YouTube! (Except they won’t have the correct version, which is to say the Random Colour version. Only the original. I’ll have to settle.)
10:32:
Yuck. Well, that doesn’t work at all. Warped recording, and our arrangement is better.
11:39:
Today’s musical surprise in the cafe was another laid-back jazz group, this one a quarter with a violin, two guitars, and a stand-up bass.
12:35:
Okay, no idea what’s going on with my recording that was supposed to happen at noon; the sound guy isn’t in at all, and no one else who should know has any idea about it. I’m going for lunch.
13:49:
Back for my last lunch with Meallanmouse. Very sad. And less than a thousand words to go on the final pass!
14:36:
Done. No, really, really done. Now I’ll check the competition definitions, and then I’m very done.
14:56:
… or I’ll double-check some of the stuff playtesting and QA is bringing back on the previous version of the dictionary, just to make sure it’s all been handled. Plus I’ll deal with the last US/UK spelling issues.
16:44:
I feel awful, leaving like this. It’s as if I’m leaving something undone, or for someone else to handle. Except I’m not, really; I’ve done what I can, and I’m thrilled to the heavens with how much better the dictionary is than when I walked in six and a half weeks ago. There will still be mistakes; I’m not so arrogant as to declare that it is perfect. But I’ve caught all I can in the allotted time. Maybe if I assume I’m coming in on Friday, that will make me feel better.
Scratch Pad May 15
14:24:
I was in the studio today from 9 till 1 invigilating the actor’s recording of the last 400 words we needed. I am now mostly wiped out; the studio takes so much out of you. Or maybe it’s listening closely to someone trying to pronounce thousands of syllables correctly. Humans are lazy; we often don’t bother to pronounce words correctly because we know our listeners will fill the rest in and make the leap of comprehension. We can’t get away with that in an instructive recording, so there was a lot of splitting hairs. And beyond that, it was nice to be able to explain what a word is when someone says “What the heck does that mean?”, and to have people look at you and say “You must be the smartest person in the whole world.” It’s said in fun as a joke, of course, but it’s good to hear this as a fun compliment instead of the similar nasty cracks suffered during childhood. (Yeah, and I’m getting paid for being smart, too, all you people who used to tease me. Also working on something tremendously cool in an industry that would cause your jaw to drop, bullies. So there.) Had a short lunch with t! when I got back, now trying to settle back into regular work, but everything feels like it’s buzzing.
There was green crayon on my sheets this morning, where Liam helpfully coloured the papers I was cross-checking before I left for work. No one seemed to mind.
I should have given into my idle thought at lunch to bring a Coke up with me. God, I’m wiped.
Looks like my sound test/placeholder recording happens tomorrow around noon. They, er, forgot yesterday. (That happens; everyone is kind of dazed these days.)
14:58:
Eyes keep crossing. Body keeps trying to zone out and fall asleep. Of course, I had another night of five hours of broken sleep, so that plus the studio probably has something to do with it. Someone shoot me if I am not in bed by nine tonight. Preferably with warm milk with a touch of vanilla in it, and cats. Or maybe a glass of wine instead. (Instead of the milk, not the cats.)
14:59:
Oh, honestly — I want to go shoe shopping again. What is WITH this? What I really need are socks — my beautiful black trouser socks with the Pooh applique on the side have developed an embarrassing hole in the right toe.
15:31:
Where did half an hour just go? Oh, lord.
15:34:
Okay, so why am I suddenly unable to stop thinking about my Vivaldi novel?
15:30:
Be afraid: the group mind and collective consciousness is dredging up rare things that Ann and I discussed yesterday. Ook.
16:19:
Hmm. Possibly another in-house recommendation, this time to edit a 20K script down by 2K. No way to estimate how long that will take unless I see the thing. We’re thinking two work weeks. Can’t verify, as the script is currently in Japanese. (Er, yes, that would make it a challenge.) They have my contact info and my rates; it may happen a month from now. we’ll see.
Scratch Pad May 14
9:03:
I’m back at work, dee dee dee… every day is a bonus now.
I am very out of it this morning. I’m burning myself out working at home at night after working all day. I slept for an hour and a half in the middle of the day yesterday, and could have fallen asleep several other times as well. This morning I feel mildly ill and still out of it, and as if I could nod off any moment although I got about 6 hours of good sleep (less than I ought, more than I’ve been getting on average lately). Mind you, I was practically a somnambulist all of Sunday.
Weekend summary: Excellent evening out at the ADZO house on Saturday, with sushi and wine and four tired parents just relaxing. Very good. Earlier on Saturday: new shoes for Liam, tried to test drive a trike but he threw a fit because we passed toy cars first and he wanted to drive those instead. We’ll try again some other time. Bought lattice and supports for the backyard to give us a bit more privacy from the neighbours; the next thing is to plant climbing vines. Bought and assembled an excellent little composter, so now we don’t have to walk all the way across the yard to dump kitchen scraps. Liam enjoyed the assembly; he thought it was a playhouse. Pictures to follow someday. Played cello for half an hour in the afternoon; my strings were slack from the awful weather roller coaster we’ve been on. Sunday: groceries, then made omelettes and sausages for the weekly neighbour brunch, A Blessed Nap (best Mother’s Day gift I could have received, but the trio of roses was nice too), the in-laws coming over for dinner.
Remembered to sign my imprint specialist contract renewals and get them ready for mailing this morning. Yay me.
10:03:
I feel like I’m trudging through molasses today. Argh. Getting work done, though. Looks like others are slow getting moving today as well; some people are still straggling in, and there are empty desks around.
Gods, I feel like I could sleep for a week. Why don’t I have a cottage somewhere where I could go to do this? Water, trees, a breeze… Argh. Oh wait — that’s called a vacation.
10:08:
Aha! This project now has an official release name instead of a placeholder code name! Muah hah hah! [LATER: Ah, no; that’s yet another placeholder name. The official name is still being kept very, very secret. If there even is a confirmed official name. Heh. That makes three or four working titles I’ve seen the project listed under on various sales lists.)
11:35:
I am not, in fact, doing studio stuff after all today. All the more time to work. Also, lunch is a good thing, and as last I heard I was supposed to do studio stuff at noon, the consumption of comestibles instead is an attractive notion. I’ve been wobbly most of the morning, despite tea and granola bars and most of an egg/sausage/scone thing. Lunch is also A Good Thing because I missed my regular lunch out with friends on Friday.
11:43:
One of the reasons I enjoy Paul Tortelier’s recording of the Bach solo cello suites is because I can hear the fingers stopping the strings — there’s a small slapping sound as the finger hammers down. Live, in studio, no tampering. Real stuff. And I love listening to passionate classical music at a really, really loud volume on my headphones in an environment like this. It amuses me.
13:17:
Scott lent me games at lunch today! Yay!
13:47:
The demo and presentation over the weekend at the trade show went really well and got excellent feedback. Hurrah!
13:51:
I have just run into nine words all defined as “extremely large.”
13:55:
… and six defined as “extremely good”. *headdesk*
13:58:
… and now, seven words simply defined as “extremely.” If I do not laugh now, I will cry. Or throw something.
14:11:
So, why do ‘flammable’ and ‘inflammable’ mean the same thing, anyway? This is one of those things that has gnawed at me for decades.
14:16:
Yikes — just realised the gig is THIS SATURDAY. eep.
14:24:
I give up. The definition for ‘matronly’ completely misses the point.
14:40:
Cute things discovered on P’s trip to the trade show in San Francisco: Panda Z! We’ve spent the past few minutes cooing over the toy he got, and looking up the story and characters online. They have plushies.
14:56:
Wow – very sleepy here this aft. Hard to focus. It was like this on Friday too, but today there are people here to help keep me working. I’ve done more up till now today than I did on Friday, so I’m in better shape. Considering I’m in studio till one tomorrow, I’ll have another three and a half-ish hours in which to do work, so I should be done this by the end of tomorrow. Certainly polished by early Wednesday, and I may not even stay the whole day. Maybe till lunch only. Shan’t be coming at all on Thursday, mainly because I am booked elsewhere with the family. And I can’t see me in on Friday unless they discover something that desperately needs doing.
15:19:
…aaaaaand seven words defined as “completely.”
15:33:
This afternoon is creeping along. Not a bad thing, as I’ve been skiving and surfing, but also not great because going home seems a long way off, and I still have some work to do tonight. My left hip has been hurting me a bit more each day, and today it’s twinging badly as I sit.
15:56:
Woo! Only one hour left! Time is moving along faster than I thought. Or maybe I’m skiving more. (I’ve still done almost as much today as I did Thurs and Fri together, so ha.)
16:13:
Just ordered my two-volume Shorter Oxford to celebrate the end of my contract and the excellent work I have done in pulling this dictionary’s socks up. It won’t be perfect, but it’s a damn sight better than it was, immeasurably so. The Shorter Oxford should arrive on Friday. Also ordered the new Tori Amos CD and a manga that looks interesting (which I found out about, in reverse fashion, by seeing the Japanese video game advertised).
16:46:
And now that I’m leaving in 15 minutes I don’t have enough time to prepare for going directly to the studio tomorrow. Argh! (Well, I do, it’s just slightly tense now instead of relaxed.) I’ll get the references printed and cross-check it all at home tonight.