Monthly Archives: August 2006

A is for Adler and Ashcroft-Nowicki, B is for Budapest and Bonewits, C is for Cunningham and Crowley…

I just spent half an hour rearranging my Craft books alphabetically by author, because I couldn’t find something that I needed to reference. Argh.

I kept the herbalism books and the cultural/mythological stuff separate, though, because with those it’s just easier to zero in on the subject and then look for what I need within it.

And I just realised that I have about twenty books piled next to my desk, because I’ve been using them as research for ESTC. I’ll have to try to fit them back onto the main shelves eventually. No wonder there was enough room for everything. I should have known it was all too easy.

The Weekend Recap, In Which She Grouses About Sleep and Illness

I spent the weekend thoroughly ill. I’m fortunate that HRH was home and dealt with Liam much of the time. He enabled me to finally get the nap I’d been trying to have all week on Saturday, which was a good thing because I’d only had about three hours of bad sleep on Friday night due to a stuffed-up nose. No one called, rang the doorbell, or walked in and woke me up after ten minutes of napping. It only lasted an hour, but it felt so damn good after being denied it for five days running. Mind you, I spent a lot of Saturday in bed not sleeping as well, because I was so sick that I got dizzy when I stood up.

A decent night’s sleep on Saturday, then over to my in-laws’ for a barbecue celebrating my father-in-law’s birthday. Early-ish to bed, because the cold was still knocking me out. Then, of course, I woke up at three this morning when Liam cried for four minutes. He went back to sleep on his own, but I lay awake till about five-thirty. Woke up half an hour later when the steam from HRH’s shower set off the heat detector, wretched thing.

So now my sleep patterns are all out of whack, and I’m still recovering from the cold, and I have no energy to direct anywhere. Gnash.

Liam’s still working on those bottom molars and had sniffles over the weekend too. He alternately wanted absolutely to be carried around, and left totally alone to go through books. Some of his naps happened, some didn’t, and if they did they were short. I’m hoping this week settles down more, particularly since we leave Friday morning to go to Oakville for the long weekend.

All right. I’m going to go make myself a cup of tea, now that I’ve caught up on correspondence and news, and then get to work.

ESTC Update

That’s more like it.

Total word count, ESTC: 16,434
Total words today: 2,013

Zokutou word meterZokutou word meter
16,434 / 50,000
(32.9%)

Today was all about animals, expanding the notes I’d jotted down a few weeks ago. Not thrilling, not writing about which to be very excited, but solid. And progress.

I’m about a thousand words away from where I have to be at the end of next Friday. That kind of margin keeps me feeling comfortable. If I lose my lead, then I’ll eventually be in a position where I’ll have to produce my daily quota or more every time I sit down to write, and as we’ve seen over the past week, for various reasons that doesn’t always happen. Being ahead gives me room to move, as well as covering the days I won’t able to work, like the two long weekends in September when I’ll be travelling, as well as Thanksgiving. And since I now have Liam’s cold (it was going to happen sooner or later), I may need one of my work days next week to just sleep, or at least curl up in bed with boxes of Kleenex, cats, a pot of tea, a highlighter, my notebook, and a pile of research books.

Now I’m going to make apple muffins for the CMS open house tonight, then go get Liam. Or at least mix the batter, seeing as it’s 4:30. I can bake them once we get home.

ESTC, Liam, Etc

Again, got next to nothing accomplished work-wise yesterday. I think I’ve figured it out. If there’s a lot of stuff scheduled, even if the schedule gives me a clear two hours to work, then I still can’t settle down because I’m too stressed by the pile of stuff that has yet to be done at some other point. I’m busy thinking, “Oh no, I only have two hours in which to accomplish X amount of work!”, and despite correcting myself and recasting the thought in a positive light, I still can’t just get it done, and end up with half the amount of work I needed. The stubborn sinus headache on its third day didn’t help either.

But, for the sake of consistent records:

Total word count, ESTC: 14,421
Total words, Wednesday: 746

Zokutou word meterZokutou word meter
14,421 / 50,000
(28.8%)

And again, even though I’ve produced under the daily quota two days running, I’m ahead of where I need to be as of the end of Friday to be on schedule. I’d really like to have two working days in a row, so that the momentum I finally gather by the time I have to stop is actually carried over instead of dissipating during the next day when I have the boy at home.

Speaking of the boy, I think we’ve finally hit the toddler on again-off again appetite thing with Liam. For the past two or three days he’s had a surprisingly low appetite. Then this morning, he ate two bowls of Cheerios and milk, plus half a freshly-baked banana muffin, and chased it all with a half-cup of milk before passing out for his morning nap. The cereal and milk thing is new; he refused his oatmeal on Monday and I was desperate to get something into him before sending him to daycare. So I poured Cheerios into a bowl — so what, he’d seen this before, we do it all the time — and then poured milk over them. His eyes boggled, as if he was trying to figure out what I’d done to his perfectly innocent snack. Then I produced a big-person spoon for him to use. It was a hit; he ate up the entire bowl. He also has a cold, which isn’t surprising considering that about three of the people he deals with on a regular basis also have colds. And those bottom molars are really giving him a hard time. Things are tough for him right now, and he’s been taking it out in a most uncharacteristic fashion on his caregiver and his playmates, with hair-pulling (where did that come from?) and pushing and the occasional bite when he’s really frustrated.

HRH had a day off yesterday, which he spent doing a glorious amount of nothing as he deserved, apart from taking the car in to the garage. (Four new brakes, one new tie rod. Yikes.) But the car drives beautifully now: steering and braking are creamy and thick and smooth. Like a good milkshake or something.

The stylist cut two inches off my hair yesterday. I can’t tell, apart from the bottom being neater and less tangly. This is a good thing. And I got new bubble bath and scent and stuff, too. I had the choice last night to either pull out my notebook and do something for August Writing project, which I haven’t done in four days because of schedule and stress and exhaustion, or take a bath instead. I took the bath and went to bed. It was the right choice.

Maggie is doing quite well, thank you everyone for inquiring.

Lovely weather we’re having, yes? Days in the low 20s, nights in the low teens… terribly civilized.

Retrospective ESTC Update

I had a dismal day on Monday, what with headaches and cats and vets and such, but even so, when I sat down today to begin working I discovered that I had accomplished more than I thought:

Total word count, ESTC: 13,675
Total words, Monday: 701

That’s about twice as much as I’d thought I’d written. And over half my daily quota. Go me!

Now, after running around to the garage and daycare and getting my hair cut, eating (finally) and handling three days’ worth of correspondence, I’m up for today’s quota plus more to cover the latter part of Monday. To battle!

And whee! The rest of those books just arrived!