Category Archives: Spirituality

Update

Tired, ill, and scheduled six ways from Sunday, so this will be brief:

Family lunch on Sunday? Awesome. Presents all a hit. Liam ate salmon and orzo salad for dinner like the rest of us, and a cupcake of his own for dessert. Pictures eventually.

Liam has another new tooth, for a total of eight.

Reading Charles de Lint’s Widdershins. Good, but I can understand why he didn’t want to write it, because to finish Jilly’s story means putting her though even more crap that’s not fun to read and was probably not fun to write.

I have consultant stuff to do and proposals to finish, and a toddler who doesn’t want to play by himself, which means work I’ve already been paid for and work I don’t get paid for unless the proposal is accepted and no time in which to do it.

The Quebec government hasn’t clued into the fact that we filed taxes for 2004. Duh. The federal government has, and did so long ago. Get with the program, people.

Coven tonight, and despite my best efforts the work that was supposed to be done for this evening is only three-quarters finished (see above about the time thing). I am irritated about this, because I hate letting people down.

Now it is dinnertime. That is all.

Quick Weekend Recap

We are so very, very tired of the rain. HRH has been cranky because he’s been working outside in it all week, Liam’s been cranky because he’s been stuck inside, and I’ve been cranky because their crankiness has been getting on my nerves. There was a brief period of sun over on the South Shore mid-afternoon when we dropped Liam off at his grandparents’ house today, and it did wonders to lift the general depression, even if it was only for a little while.

We did an elevation ritual this afternoon and because it started late we had to race off to pick up the baby as soon as the ritual was over, which meant we didn’t get to stay for the dinner afterwards. It was disappointing, because we’d really been looking forward to sitting down and sharing time with everyone involved. It sounds like the Rocky Road ice cream pie I made went over well, though. I’ll have to rely on other peoples’ reports.

Yesterday was a fabulous magic of cooking class, too, possibly the most successful one we’ve done so far.

I finally had the opportunity to restring the cello tonight (I so want to say “I restrang the cello”). These new steel strings are so thin! And they haven’t gone out of tune since I put them on! Steel strings are very stable, but I’ve never used them, because generally they’re a lot brighter than synthetic or gut core strings and I prefer a rich mellow tone from my strings. We’ll see how they settle in over the week. The tension is very different as well, so I’ll have to adjust my playing both at orchestra and at band.

A warm bath and bed are in order, I think. The gloom and rain have been sapping my energy.

To Do

While we were out dropping Liam off at his grandma’s, naturally the parcel postperson came by with a parcel for me. It’s probably one of the secondhand books I ordered for research, and I’ll have to go pick it up after five.

BUT! When the regular postperson came by, I got my consultant check! Now I can schedule a trip out to the bank, to deposit it and put my bond in the safe deposit box along with some CDs of Liam photos and a computer backup. The mail also brought me a set of coupons for the office supply shop, for insane amounts of mailing labels and sticky notes. I love sticky notes, but I’m still working with the package my father in law gave me a year and a half ago, and after that I have the package from this past Christmas to use up. And really, would I ever use 3700 mailing labels in my life?

As of this morning, all Important Papers have been filed at the Palais de Justice and/or mailed to the respective correct governmental offices to put the final touches on t! and Janice’s wedding. There’s a significant weight off my chest. The entire time I had the papers I was sure something was going to go wrong. I’m still vaguely suspicious; it all seems to have been much too easy.

To do this afternoon:

– read and give feedback on a short story (yet another one I’ve had for too long)
– finish reading book for review, and write the review
– completely restring the cello with the snazzy new Evah Pirazzi strings (yes, I finally got to the luthier this morning to buy the new A)

Last Friday I got 312 words written in Swan Sister while Liam napped, but it looks like I’m not even going to get a chance to open it this afternoon.

A Good Thing

There are two more positive reviews up on Amazon, one for Power Spellcraft and one for Solitary Wicca. Each of them focuses on something I tried hard to do in the book reviewed, namely to be non-path-specific and to not preach love and light in Spellcraft, and to encourage the reader to modify and write their own rituals to express themselves in Wicca.

I feel all warm inside, like I did something right.

(I know, I know. But still, positive feedback from people I’ve never met, reassuring me that I got my point across: It’s a good thing.)

Weekend Catch-Up

Happy Beltane!

Not turning on my computer for four days running is a very good method of dealing with stress. I like it. It does, however, mean that I have a bunch of stuff to catch up on when I get back to it. The good thing is that it was over the weekend, when there’s generally less stuff to handle anyway.

Let’s see. My parents were in town for a conference, so they came over Friday night and I cooked a belated birthday dinner for my Dad. Roast breast of duck glazed in ginger marmalade and soy sauce, wild rice with oyster mushrooms and toasted almonds, organic spring greens salad with homemade vinaigrette, followed by a dessert of chocolate sponge sandwiched together with strawberry coulis folded into whipped cream, then topped with fresh strawberries and chocolate ganache. And my parents brought an excellent Australian shiraz called [yellowtail] and it was the perfect accompaniment. It was so incredibly perfect. I’m not sure what happened, but it all worked. I’m always surprised when special dinners work.

Band practice was very okay. We miss our drummer something fierce when she’s not there. We talked about what to drop for the upcoming private gig (we’re playing a wedding! okay, it’s the guitarist’s wedding, but still!) and ran through stuff. I think most of us feel better about the gig in general after a week of distance.

Liam’s naps and sleeping-through-the-night went out the window again. Saturday was very, very bad. Last night he only woke up once around midnight, and today when he woke up after a scant twenty minutes of nap he was soothed back to sleep, so I am cautiously optimistic. We thought a tooth had made its appearance Saturday morning, but it’s still covered by a thin bit of skin, damn it. Like the other three, now.

We had coven yesterday and wove a beautiful Maypole. We slipped the weave off and tied it into sections and everyone took a bit home. Our feast was really good, too.

I’ve been going to bed very early to cope with the sleep fragmentation I’ve been suffering courtesy of the waking baby. It seems to be helping a bit.

Reading an excess of Connie Willis (not that there really is such a thing) makes me want to write desperately again.

Okay, baby’s awake! That makes for a total of over an hour of nap this morning. Hurrah!