Daily Archives: November 23, 2007

Hearthcraft Book Update

Total word count, hearthcraft book: 7,551
New words today: 2,511

I originally ended at 6,721 to yield another 1,682 word day, but that was too much of a coincidence, so I did a short expansion on spoken magic and ended up with 6,905. That gave me a day’s total of 1,866 and I said heck, I can add another 44 words to make an even 1,900. So I did, talking about the use and care of cast iron, and I just kept going, because I might as well finish the section. Of course, that left me fifty words below 7,000, so I did it again. And then again when my daily total was 2,487, because 2,500 looks so much better.

Heh.

So much for stopping at four o’clock to give myself some time off before I have to go make supper. But an extra eight hundred words in half an hour? I’ll take that any day, thanks.

(Twelve percent done! Woo-hoo!)

The Good And The Bad

HRH found the combo brush/scraper in the garage. Yay! Just in time for umpteen centimetres of snow!

We have a Monday appointment to have our snow tires put on. More yay!

WHY are there so few new words in this book? I have been working ALL DAY. There are references all over the floor! I have tracked down historical information from everywhere! I have expanded incomplete phrases! Okay, there’s a tenth of a book here already, but it feels like there should be more.

That’s it; I’m working till four and then I am stopping.

Kissmas

Late last week, Liam came up to me and put his arms around me, saying, “I love you, Mama.”

This is a big thing, because while he has done this with prompting he’s never initiated it all on his own before. Over the past week he’s done it frequently, and it does wonders for the morale, especially coupled with the recent increase in spontaneous kissing.

And in other kissing-related news, a neighbour across the street became rather overzealous and put their Christmas lights up along their outside banisters last weekend. Liam got out of the car last Monday evening and stopped dead.

“Mama, what that?” he said. “Kissmas! That Kissmas!” he answered himself. Then he stepped out of the way of someone coming along the sidewalk ( “Uh-oh, people on the sidewalk”), and as she passed he turned and called after her, “HAPPY KISSMAS, PEOPLE!”

Two-thirds of the way through November and my son is already wishing people the joy of the upcoming season. Gah.

But… Kissmas. I love that the way Liam puts it, it’s a festival revolving around kissing. Not a bad idea at all, when it comes down to it.

Even cuter, he sang me his very own Kissmas song yesterday, which sounds suspiciously like Happy Birthday but goes: “Happy Kissmas…. to you…. Happy Kissmas, Happy Kissmas to you!”

This holiday season is going to be a lot of fun, methinks. This year he has figured out what presents are, after all. Come the beginning of December we’ll do a holiday collage, with a new picture or object to stick to it every day at breakfast, a twist on the Advent calendar thing. I’ll see if I can interest him in making paper chains, too.

Friday Morning

It feels odd to be sitting down to work at eight-thirty. HRH took the car to work today, dropping the boy off at his grandma’s on the way. Usually I’m not at my desk before ten o’clock. I like it. I may ask that this become a regular thing on Liam’s grandma days.

There’s nice light in here this morning. Although it’s overcast, there are lazy snowflakes drifting in the air, and what light there is is bouncing off the snow on the ground. Yesterday’s freezing rain completely coated the maple tree out front, and every single twig was coated in a glistening sheath. When we went out this morning to put Liam in the car, the breeze brushed the branches and I heard clicks and cracks, a sound that I haven’t heard in months. The poor blue cedar in the corner of the back yard is equally frozen, and already bending towards the snow-covered ground. Every year it happens earlier, and every year we think we’ve lost it to the weight of an ice storm. We’ve tried tying it to the telephone pole behind it, propping it up with wood… we’ll see if the roots actually stay in the ground this year, and if so, for how long.

Liam and I made our first loaf of bread in the new bread machine (or, if one reads the French on the box, the ‘robot baker’), and it’s delicious. The texture is nice and even throughout, not too light, and not too crumbly. The crust is even, too. It’s good to know that I can bake one or two of these a week, that it will be fresh right up until it’s eaten (yesterday’s is half-gone already) and not preservative-ridden. I like knowing exactly what goes into the things I cook. My one regret is that the smell of baking bread doesn’t permeate the house, but if I’m craving that then I can always take the dough out of the machine after the second rise and bake it in the oven instead. I’ll try a whole-wheat version next, and buy some seeds to make a flax-sesame-poppyseed version too.

There was a Liam-related accident with my cello bow yesterday, resulting in a snapped frog. I have another bow but it’s heavier, and as I haven’t practised this set of music with it I’m concerned that it will adversely affect my performance or cramp my hand. Some of the Grieg requires a light touch, for example. HRH is bringing home some Krazy Glue tonight, so we’ll try to fix it that way and I’ll see how it works tonight at the dress rehearsal. If it doesn’t work the frog can always be professionally replaced, but that’s not going to happen by tomorrow night. The temporary solution doesn’t have to hold beyond the end of tomorrow’s concert. I’ll bring both bows, just in case.

Research books for the hearthcraft book are starting to arrive, and there are more second-hand ones to order today. Except I’m currently watching my outgoing cash flow very, very closely at the moment. One of the problems with doing freelance work is that you do the work and get paid at an unspecified time later, on someone else’s schedule. It makes for a nice surprise when the cheque finally lands in the mailbox, but the watching of the mail until that point isn’t as much fun.

fps 2007 Charity Auction!

First things first: Today marks the launch of the annual fps on-line charity auction! It will go live on eBay later today (that’s November 23 2007, for anyone reading this in an RSS feed). Every year the fps readership chooses a different charity to whom the proceeds of this auction will be donated, and in the past recipients such as the Canadian Cancer Society have benefited from an astonishing amount of money raised through this charitable venture. This year’s recipient charity is the Canadian Cancer Research fund. There’s a slew of awesome stuff like DVD box sets, books, animation artwork, t-shirts, software, posters, and rare limited-edition collectibles such as pins, promotional items, books, commemorative stamps and PVC figures to bid on. It’s the perfect opportunity to find something special for the animation fan in your life. (Or, you know, buy stuff for yourself. You deserve special cool stuff too.)

fps On-Line Charity Auction 2007

Please help us spread the word, and to raise funds to help improve the quality of life for those living with cancer.

(As soon as the auction is live, that image will become a direct link to it.)