Daily Archives: December 17, 2009

Self-Defence

I just had to post something else, because looking at the last post was driving me crazy every time I opened my browser. I’m almost done the weekend roundup and the boy’s 54 mos post; I’m pecking at them and I’m kind of tired, and as the days go by I’m less interested in them, you know? This is why I try to journal ASAP.

Work news: Now that we’ve confirmed it, I am all backflippy to announce that I am doing the book design for Emily Wright‘s upcoming A Cellist’s Manual. I am thrilled to be working with Emily on this project, and to be working on a book about one of my main interests and areas of… er… I can’t call it expertise, but fifteen-years-of-familiarity doesn’t roll off the tongue too smoothly. Anywhats, yay for Emily, and yay for book design, and yay for working on a super awesome cool project!

Scarlet fever update: Still alive. Am I not infectious yet? Am I not infectious yet? Am I not infectious yet? How about now? Now? Maybe now?

Technology: Apart from discovering iChat and iDisk (thank you, Emily) I gave Google Chrome a whirl this morning. I am surprisingly impressed with the speed. Unfortunately the Mac version is only in beta and none of the extensions and add-ons function in it yet, so I’ve binned it for now because I cannot, cannot, cannot use the web without an ad blocker. The end.

Knitting: I played hooky yesterday because this project is going sooo slooowly. That’s because the yarn I’m knitting it with is terribly thin (mostly; it bulks up here and there and the unevenness is also preventing me from getting into a rhythm). Yes, that’s right; it’s going slowly so I didn’t work on it much yesterday. And yes, it has a Christmas deadline. I have never claimed to be logical.

Spinning: I spun up 2.5 oz of the packing fibre my bobbins and kate extender arrived in while knitting-avoiding and did my very first three-play yarn, huzzah! I chain-plied a leftover single and when the boy got home I had him help me mix up some purple dye to colour it, and he was very excited about dipping it in and putting it in the microwave and rinsing it afterward. It’s very purple indeed, and the boy loved the whole process.

Weather: Holy cats, it got cold fast. It was about minus thirty C last night. It was plus seven C about ten days ago. That’s kind of sudden. Above-average temperatures to way below-average temperatures; uh-huh. No climate change happening, my foot.

Holiday countdown: Two days till we pick up what few gifts we’re buying this year, groceries, and the first Yule celebration; three days till the local family Christmas celebration; five days till our godfamily Solstice sing-song and celebration; six days till we leave for Toronto; eight days till the other family Christmas. Which means that yes, I am doing a full Christmas dinner on Sunday. I have to keep reminding myself of this, because the rest of my brain is firmly convinced that I don’t need to worry about that sort of thing for a week.

There you are.

Now back to this freelance assignment, which I received last night, started this morning, and want done by the end of the day so it can be approved and I can include it in tomorrow’s invoice. (Why the rush? Because accounting saw fit to change the freelancers’ Dec 28 invoice deadline to a Dec 18 deadline. Grr. Also, I got all the material to start on Emily’s book this morning, and I want to be working on THAT, not THIS.) I need to think of something to make for dinner tonight, too.