July 30, 2005
Bestest Bandmates Ever
I love my bandmates. At the last rehearsal, I arrived in the new practice space to discover the absence of the chairs I thought were already there. I ended up perching on the edge of Scott's new tube amp (nice amp, not terribly comfortable to sit upon) as it was the only thing even remotely close to the correct height. This week when I walked in, there was a lovely padded drum stool festooned with colourful ribbon sitting right in the middle of the room, and a birthday card waiting for me. I've never had an adjustable stool for cello-playing. The cellist is very happy. So is her lower back. And I can swivel from side to side!
Bestest bandmates ever.
And even though we were at only 3/5 of our roster, we managed to get three songs somewhat worked out. Now ai731 and I have somewhere to go from as we work on our own at home.
All three of us slept in this morning, which was lovely. Apart from an unexpected rescheduling of the middle of the day, and the woman downstairs doing her laundry while I was taking a last-minute shower before dashing out to pick up ai731 (resulting in first the hot water, then the cold water vanishing as well, just as I'd finished shampooing my hair), the day has been rather good.
(BTW, that sketch is the one done in my birthday card by Karine, lead singer and artist extraordinaire.)
July 29, 2005
Pictures!
Caught Reading Power Spellcraft for Life! (updated with new photos)
To Do
So now that the green witch book is temporarily off my radar, there's a list of things I can address:
- 2004 taxes (hey, there was packing, then a move, then a baby, okay?)
- a pile of thank you cards
- update the photo pages
- write the food article for WynterGreene due next week
- review a book for WynterGreene, also due next week
- read the two books for the next WG issue in preparation for those reviews
- collate the second appendix for the GRW book
- practicing for the gig might be a good idea too
And all I want to do is curl up and read Howards End, and nap. But there's that baby, who's doing odd things with his feeding, making them last forever and still managing to not fill up (I think he's developed a really lazy latch on top of his tendency to fall asleep).
The tentative date to have the first round of line edits done on the GRW book, by the way, is August 24. My line editor's out of town till August 8, however, so that will likely be revised.
The Numbers Game
Liam is 38 weeks gestational age today, or minus two weeks old. Tomorrow he turns 7 weeks chronological age. On Tuesday when the doctor told me she wanted to see him again in two weeks' time, I was a bit surprised, as he was in excellent health.
"Well," she pointed out, "he'll be two months old then, and that will get us back on track for vaccinations to begin."
Two months old. I keep thinking he's two weeks and a bit, because that's when we brought him home. My mind is wiping right over the five weeks of visiting him in hospital.
I'm never going to be able to keep his real age straight.
July 28, 2005
Calling All Writer-Types!
This writing challenge is a fantastic idea, and I'm proud to post the invitation as issued by ai731. As of right now, I won't be doing it because I haven't not been writing a book for a contracted deadline since the beginning of January, and I'm giving myself the gift of not having to write for a while.
Of course, I have until midnight on August 1 to change my mind, and knowing me, I probably will.
The invitation is as follows:
So I was thinking about how I don't write as much as I'd like to, and how NaNoWriMo worked so well for me because of the group thing, the peer pressure/support, and the structure, and the time-frame. So I was thinking that what I need is a group of fellow writers to kick me in the pants and get me going, and a structure to work with...So I hereby announce:
Jan's August Writing Challenge:
Write something every day in the month of August.
Sounds tough! What do I have to do?Write. Something. Anything. Any length. Prose or poetry. Every day. For a month. And share it.
Sounds cool! How do I sign up?1. Join the august_writing community
2. Link to this post in your LJ [or blog]
3. Post either your writing or a link to your writing on your LJ/blog/website to the community every day in August, starting on Monday, August 1st
Sounds simple! Are there any other rules?Nope. Well, not really. It has to be creative writing - prose or poetry, of any any length, on any subject. Stuff you would normally be writing anyway counts (so, for those who write serials, that counts) but stuff you write for your job doesn't. But it can be anything. Short fiction, short-short fiction, essays, character studies, stream-of-consciousness, writing exercises (I'll try to post a bunch of these over the next few days to give people ideas), etc. Anything at all, so long as it's a self-contained piece of writing that you did that day.
You don't have to know anyone to join; that's the fun of the Internet. If you've wanted to write and never seem to get around to it, then this is a terrific opportunity to challenge yourself. All you have to do is write something non-work-related, and be willing to put it somewhere so that others involved in the challenge can check out what you've been doing, if they are so inclined. It doesn't have to be totally public; you don't have to tell the world you're doing it if you don't want to. It just has to be there to prove you did it. Plus it keeps you honest: we all have days where we don't want to write, but having to have it handy to show others is good insurance against skipping a day. Kind of like keeping your tax receipts in case you're audited.
Interested?
July 27, 2005
July 26, 2005
Liam Update
Just back from the doctor, and I'm pleased to say that Liam was an absolute angle getting in and out of his carseat. I think it's because I have small hands and fingers and they take up less space when buckling and unbuckling and feeding hands through straps, as opposed to HRH's HRH-sized hands which crowd the baby a bit.
Anywhats, for those of you waiting to update your scorecards, Liam now weighs 2kg 650g, and is 49 cm long. His growth is perfectly in line with the normal curve.
And now, some lunch and then more reading.
The First Day Of The Rest Of My Life
Thank you, everyone, who emailed or called or posted congratulatory comments. I think you're all more excited about the book being finished than I am. Ironically, as I was finishing my quick proofreading of the appendix, I was struck by a much better idea of how to collate and present the information. Unfortunately, it's going to take about three days to do because I have to go through every single page of the 278-page MS and pull out information. So when I submitted the MS file, I told the copy editor what I was planning to do, and that I'd send it in seperately or just add it in the first round of edits. No response as of yet, but I can't see what the problem would be. It would have been easier, of course, if I'd had this brilliant idea three months ago or more, but if I had then I wouldn't be using the word "ironically", now would I.
It was terribly civilized to wake up and realise that I didn't have to trudge to the computer ASAP to work, though. I actually cleaned the house up a bit.Not exactly the lounging in bed/reading the new Harry Potter/cuddling with baby fantasy I'd been entertaining, but baby's asleep (hurrah!), the kitchen counter was a mess of baby stuff, and the bathroom really needed a quick wipedown. Just knowing I didn't have to slog through the MS was relaxing.
Speaking of Harry Potter, I started it late yesterday afternoon while feeding Liam, and I'm about a third of the way through. Certainly a different tone, but not a bad one. Well, bad in that there's dark wizards commiting terrorist acts, but not as in poorly written or not enjoyable.
Silly_imp stopped by just as I was finishing up the book yesterday afternoon to drop of some review materials (including some tiny Pagan magnetic poetry, what fun!) and gave us a jar of her homemade pecan-basil pesto. We had it for dinner over multigrain pasta, and it was delicious. If my basil bush keeps growing the way it's been growing, then perhaps I too will be able to make a decent amount of pesto of my own this summer. We shall see.
I didn't get my ice cream last night... I got something better! The three of us drove out to meet Kyle and to give Chantale her own nursing pillow, since I find mine absolutely wonderful. Kyle is lovely, and so very different from Liam -- different body type, different colouring, and so forth. It's just incredible that two little creatures can be so much alike, and so unlike as well. It was so wonderful to sit and chat with Chantale and Mike, and to talk about our experiences, and the gut-twisting fierce love that immediately set in as soon as the babies were born, and the pain of being apart from them, even if it's just in the next room. We've got lots more to talk about, but the gentlemen of the family were beginning to look at the time and tap their feet in a polite manner.
Later this morning Liam has his first regular doctor's appointment with our family GP. And late this afternoon my parents are arriving in town for a two-day stay, so that they can meet Liam face to face. Between those two events, I plan on reading, perhaps napping, and sharing quality time (at last!) with my son.
July 25, 2005
Final GRW Update
Final word count, green witch book: 66,450
Submitted: 4:17 PM
It's all over but for waiting on the edits now.
I wish I felt more enthusiastic about it, but I'm too numb, and too tired. I think I'll feed my baby, then pass out a bit.
Further GRW Update
Chapter 10 -- done
Chapter 1 -- done
And now the general scan begins. I know I still have to write those two seasonal rituals, and that two-page intro to the spiritual dimension of food. I need to get a handle on what's in the book first, to set the right mood and so that I don't repeat myself.
I can feel the brain cells frying.
I wonder if I can con HRH into taking Liam and I out for ice cream when I've done.
GRW Update
Chapter 9 is done. And if it isn't, well, tough; it's a finished as it's going to get.
On to Chapter 10.
Edit, 12.15: Damn it, no it's not -- I forgot about the two-page intro. Gnash! At least the concluding chapter is half-done.
July 24, 2005
GRW Update
Chapter 8 is done.
Chapter 9 still needs that two-page intro on why food is important spiritually, about twenty entries on magical associations for various vegetables, and a couple of my bread recipes, and it's done too.
Then there's just Chapter 10 (the conclusion), a quick rewrite of Chapter 1 (quick rewrite, ha -- they're never quick), and a skip through everything to make sure I've handled all the places I've highlighted in blue (either to delete, or to add a sentence or two). Oh gods, and those two seasonal rituals.
HRH has been told that he absolutely has to stay home as long as possible tomorrow, and that I can spare him only to go in for the meeting that's supposed to happen tomorrow afternoon sometime after three. If Liam stays awake like he did today I'll get nothing done again, and since the MS has to be delivered tomorrow afternoon, that just can't happen.
By the way, ai731 makes the best zucchini-nut loaf I've ever tasted.
The Amazing Dictating Baby
I've been trying to type one-handed since HRH left for his lecture at 10.45. Liam won't be put down, not for a moment. He ate for an hour, during which I had a lovely chat with my mother, but then he decided being relaxed and happy was old news. So whenever I put him down in the Moses basket or in his bed, he woke and cried and worked himself up until I had to pick him up again. He's tiny, and feels more secure when sleeping next to someone.
So I tried the dictation program again. I discovered rather quickly that when Liam cries, it picks him up, not me, despite the fact that I'm closer to the microphone. And babies cry in vowels, mostly. Thus, we get things like:
hey hey and and I have the end of the yeah energy
when he cries. This amuses me, because it sounds like song lyrics. It would amuse me more, however, if I had managed to type more than forty-seven lines in the past four hours. This is not getting me anywhere at the speed that this book needs to travel. I'm now behind again.
HRH just came home, and Liam's all his. I love the baby desperately, and I'd like nothing more than to just curl up with him in one arm and a book in the other hand; then both of us would be happy. But that can't happen till Monday night.
Bitter? Yes.
If it was just about word count, I'd let Liam go to town. Alas, this is not NaNo, and the sentences must make sense.
July 23, 2005
GRW Update
Now I have 64,630 words, and Chapter 7 is done!
Chapters 8, 9, and 10 to go. Chapter 8 is a lovely haze of brainstorming of oil recipes and such, and I'm actually looking forward to it. But that's on tomorrow's schedule. I've done enough today, what with four hours of writing and a rehearsal. I think I'll do Chapter 10 tomorrow as well, leaving the two-page intro to the food chapter for Monday, when I'll also tighten Chapter 1.
Down to the wire. It will be messy,but it will be done.
Random Colour Rehearsal Joy
Damn, we're good.
And, damn, it's good to be back.
Apart from wanting to shoot tabbers who don't tab an entire song in the proper order (grr -- were these people even listening to the same song?), I feel fantastic and I enjoyed this afternoon's rehearsal very much. It pays to have chords written down in advance, even if one hasn't tried them out on the instrument to see if they're 100% correct. It gives us something to go on.
I can't wait to see what we accomplish next week.
New Morning
When I finally called a stop to the insanity last night: the book stood at 63,370 words; I'd added 3,064 over the course of the day; Chapter Seven was a couple of pages away from being finished; Liam had only slept about three hours since eight in the morning; and HRH and I were both on edge.
But Chantale and Mike now have beautiful baby Kyle to hold, and Liam slept hard all night (so hard that we're having trouble waking him up for his second breakfast), and it's a gorgeous day outside. The rehearsal space might actually be bearable in this lack of humidity.
I actually want a real breakfast. Bacon and scrambled eggs it is.
July 22, 2005
GRW Update
Chapter Six is done!
It took a lot longer than I expected, because a certain tiny someone decided to not sleep at all this morning after his elevenses (which he had at ten). In fact, he didn't sleep until twoish, which meant I lost the entire morning because he wanted to be held and played with and fed.
On to Chapter Seven!
And Chantale's labour is coming along nicely. Baby! Baby! Baby! (Sure, I've got one of my own, but this one was supposed to be here first, after all.)
Excited
Liam's going to have a brand-new playmate very, very, very soon!
Strength and courage and serenity to all three of you. You will feel more alive than ever before, and it will also be the most surreal thing that you've ever experienced.
July 21, 2005
At Last!
Total word count, green witch book: 60,306
Total words today: 1,425
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Ta-da!
Okay, now I can go back and cut out all the nonsense and things that belong in another book. And finish rewriting (and just plain finish) the last five chapters, too.
So far, this is how it stands:
Introduction -- done
Chapter 1 -- needs final touch-up and polish
Chapter 2 -- done
Chapter 3 -- need to finish short section on earth deities, and section on plant spirits
Chapter 4 -- need to write those two final seasonal rituals, otherwise done
Chapter 5 -- find three more trees to write entries for, otherwise done
Chapter 6 -- polish intro to crafts, otherwise done
Chapter 7 -- finish gardening chapter (mainly short definitions and pointers on container gardens left to do)
Chapter 8 -- brainstorm some more recipes for oils, teas, bath salts etc
Chapter 9 -- finish entries on magical associations of food, and write two-page intro to topic
Chapter 10 -- expand notes to full paragraphs, and polish (This is the chapter that pretty much doesn't exist. Fortunately, it's the conclusion to the book and doesn't need to be very long.)
It's finicky stuff. Some of it will go quickly, like the "otherwise done" chapters, and the rest will just take the time they need to take.
Breaking For Dinner
HRH got home, and I handed Liam to him so that I could actually get some work done on the book. HRH has been very good over the past couple of days, either working at home all day or in the afternoons so I can get this damn thing finished without having to get up every hour or so to take care of the baby. Don't misunderstand: I love being with Liam all day. It just isn't conducive to getting the necessary work done.
HRH is making dinner now, and I just wrapped up Chapter 5 (finally, the damned thing!). Just for kicks, I ran the word count.
"You have got to be kidding me," I said when the count popped up.
"What is it?" HRH said, coming to my office door.
"I'm two words short of 60K!" I said. "I'll have to write something."
"'The End'," said HRH.
We may simply be sleep-deprived, but this made us laugh and laugh.
So yes. Current total word count, green witch book: 59,998. I'll knock it over 60K after dinner.
Yup, It's About That Time
Delivery day minus four, and:
- I hate my book.
- I hate my lack of interest in my book.
- I hate my inability to work up enough interest to even sit down and open the damned file, despite the looming deadline.
- I hate the stupid numbers/rewriting game that happens around now. It reduces the concept of success to how many chapters are left to do correctly, or how many words are needed to add or remove to be closer to the target.
- I hate the loss of distance that means I can't tell if what I'm writing is dreck or of passable quality, which in turn means I get no reward or satisfaction for writing at all.
All I want to do is curl up on my bed with my baby and nap in the sun. And eat chocolate, good chocolate. Like buttercreams. And read until I fall asleep.
But I started rereading Howard's End while nursing Liam (because HRH had moved all my current books in progress off the coffee table, and I couldn't reach them; this was on the shelf right next to me) and it reminds me of how much I love words, and the eternal cycle between Those Who Have and Those Who Have Not, and Culture, and Idealism, and Practicality. I love Forster's work. It's perfect to read in the summertime. It has nothing to do with what I'm working on, but I feel better somehow.
Back to the MS before Liam wakes up and wants to nurse yet again. (They tell you babies run on roughly a three-hour schedule. What they don't tell you is that an hour and a half of that is taken up by nursing, changing, settling, tidying up after it all, and other baby-related actions, so that in the end you really only have just over an hour of time between round one and round two. It wouldn't be as much of a problem if it wasn't taking me half an hour to settle into the MS every time.)
July 20, 2005
Save Energy; Throw Your Country Out Of Whack
So the US has decided to extend Daylight Saving Time by two months, so that it begins in March and ends in November. This is to save energy.
This has Canadian governments in a tizzy, because it plays havoc with our trade, apparently.
Honestly, why are we worrying? For March and November, we'll just be an hour off, and I'm fairly certain we can remember that. I don't think extending the DST is a bad idea; I'm just bothered because once again, US internal policy is affecting our own. Why do we have to do it simply because they've done it?
Grumble grumble.
First Public Outing
Our first family outing went swimmingly well. We have learned that if we tank Liam up on 80 to 100 ml of milk via bottle, he'll sleep for three hours. So that's what we did before we went out. It worked very well indeed. We also kept the outing down to two hours. The infant seat, we have discovered, fits directly into the stroller we bought -- not clipping onto it, like travel systems, but in it -- right inside the stroller's seat area. Nice and secure. It works well.
Absolutely every single person who saw Liam cooed and exclaimed at his cuteness. Grandmothers stopped dead in the aisles of Sears. Cashiers leaned over counters and asked to have his blanket pulled back so that they could see all of him. And everyone, naturally, says, "He's so small! How old is he?" And when we say, "Six weeks," they're taken aback. So we add that he was two months premature, which actually makes his age minus three weeks. What is it about small things automatically being adorable to the general populace?
This is evidently going to carry on for a while, this explaining thing. Because preterm infants have a bit of catching up to do, no one expects them to hit the same milestones that term infants do. For example, when Liam is one chronological month old (which is now) no one expects him to do what a full-term one month old can accomplish, because in reality Liam's only 37 weeks gestational age (and thus minus three weeks); he won't technically be the equivalent of a one month old term infant until he's chronologically three months old.
Apparently Liam didn't get the memo, though, because he's doing one month old stuff like lifting his head up when he's lying on his stomach, tracking moving object with his eyes, looking at faces, and responding to facial expressions.
Frankly, as jteethy said the other day, there's no formula for predicting when any baby will do anything, let alone preterm vs full-term, and Liam will develop at Liam's speed. Which is precisely the outlook we had already established.
Final Frontier
LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- James Doohan, the burly chief engineer of the Starship Enterprise in the original "Star Trek" TV series and motion pictures who responded to the apocryphal command "Beam me up, Scotty," died early Wednesday. He was 85.Doohan died at 5:30 a.m. (1330 GMT) at his Redmond, Washington, home with his wife of 28 years, Wende, at his side, Los Angeles agent and longtime friend Steve Stevens said. The cause of death was pneumonia and Alzheimer's disease, he said.
Things I didn't know:
- Doohan was Canadian (how on earth did this escape my Canadian artist-radar?)
- "He was among the Canadian forces that landed on Juno Beach on D-Day."
Out of all the Trek alumni, I always had a soft spot for Doohan. Go well.
Relief
France, our CLSC nurse, is absolutely fabulous. We like her very much. She is of the opinion that one of the reasons Liam is doing so well because he's surrounded by love, which is a nice thing to hear. She also liked the cats.
Liam weighs 5 lbs 3 oz, thank you very much. It's good to know all that milk he's downing at an alarming rate of knots is having a positive effect. (For those of you hovering over your scorecards at home: that's a gain of three ounces and a bit in almost exactly three days.)
Now -- to the shops!
Fidgety
The nurse from the CLSC is due to arrive at ten this morning to continue Liam's follow-up care. (Yes, house calls from the local health clinics... terribly civilised. And everyone gets it, not just preterm infants.) So naturally, HRH has cleaned the house from top to bottom, and even though we're both being casual, I know we're both slightly anxious about what will happen. She's not coming here to judge us on our fitness as parents caring for a child in a proper environment; she's here to make sure Liam's still gaining weight, and that he's feeding well. It's support, not a test.
Gah. Still nervous.
Once she's done her thing and left, we feed the baby again and pack him up, then head out for our First Family Shopping Trip! I have gift cards and gift certificates to use for myself and Liam, and there's gifts to buy for others as well in other shops. Groceries must happen, too.
July 19, 2005
We Knew This Was Going To Happen...
... and yet we still weren't psychologically prepared for it. Fnyeh.
Total words, green witch book: 58,881
Total words today: -125
I have no earthly clue how many words I actually wrote, or how many I deleted in the eight hours of work I did today. If, however, I do the simple subtraction thing, the result is a negative amount of words written, which is dreadfully depressing even though I know that now it's all about the quality of the product, not the quantity. It still feels like I'm going backwards somehow. This is why I wanted to actually hit 60K first.
Chapter Five is closer to being done than it was, but it isn't finished. On the other hand, there's more material in other chapters now because I moved some of Chapter 5 material around.
Target word counts: They're not rules, they're more like guidelines, really...
Repeat as necessary to soothe injured pride.
Backsliding
Gah! After snipping a word here and a sentence there as I rewrite, I'm down to just over 58K!
I so wanted to pass 60K before I began hacking at the MS. And I haven't actually been deleting large amounts of text: more than anything else I'm tightening fifty-ish words down to three. And it's a good thing, really, for the product. Still, it's somewhat disappointing for that goal-oriented part of me.
Almost There...
Reaching 60K is taking for-ev-er, because I keep deleting stuff I don't want to deal with.
Gnash.
Have I mentioned that my new power supply is blissfully silent? It makes me realise how incredibly loud the old one was.
If Only
Hey, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NY is looking for a full-time assistant editor for its publishing branch.
Well, we can dream, can't we?
Silver Lining
Instead of ranting about the scarcity of pediatricians taking new patients in Montreal (and I was warned by the hospital pediatrician, I just didn't realise how demoralising it would be to call and be turned away over and again), I will instead sing the praises of my own GP, who just so happens to be a family doctor as well and is happy to take Liam on as a new patient.
It's good to have an established relationship with a doctor, yes indeed. It means I don't have to spend time bringing a new doctor up to speed on my medical history. And above all else, I trust my doctor, because I know her.
New Toy! (No, Not The Baby)
The baby slings arrived this morning. Mine's a bit big on me, but I can take the shoulder seam up a bit, and then remove it later if I need to. It's great, because it's similar to Liam being swaddled (which he likes) without all the hotness-inducing material (which hasn't been such a hit the past few days). He seems to like it. At least, he hasn't complained yet.
I feel like Kanga.
I also feel remarkably smug, because Liam's napping in it while I type. Muah-hah-hah. I can't use the keyboard tray, but putting it on the desk isn't a big deal. I can also walk around with my hands free. Woo-hoo!
July 18, 2005
Unscientific Research
Open call!
This question is open to regular readers, lurkers, first-time passersby, and the like. This means you.
1. What are your favourite herbs/trees/plants?
2. What's an area of your life you'd like to improve at the moment? (No specifics, no life stories, just a general subject. For example: finances, or communication, or education, that kind of thing. I'm not prying, I don't need to know details, I just need a jump-start for something.)
Go! Answer in the comments, please.
994 Words To Go Before The Magic Number
Total word count, green witch book: 59,006
Total words today: 2,132
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Don't let the wordmeter fool you. I may be close to 60K, but I'm far from finished. Maybe once I hit 60K I'll cut out all that nonsense I highlighted, just to have a better sense of where I really am. I do want to hit 60K first, though, just for the thrill and the ego-boost it will provide.
And today while feeding Liam I rethought the final appendix, half of which had already been written. I can delete the whole thing (or, all right, cut and paste it into the file of Stuff To Use Another Time) and reconstruct a more useful one, once Chapter Five is done. So with that gone, I'll have an even more accurate sense of where I am.
I gave up on Chapter Four; I'll go back to it and those two missing rituals later. I seriously need a break from it. Everything I did today was for Chapter Five, namely pages on solar energy, lunar energy, and wildcrafting. Now I'm in the middle of quickly checking the lore entries on trees, flowers, herbs, and stones (twenty of each, why did I do this to myself?), and to my delight I'm only missing a couple of trees, info on a lot of the flowers, some of the herbs, and none of the stones. I'll be finished this chapter tomorrow.
Looking at the chapter outlines, I can remember that Chapter 6 (crafts) is 90% done; Chapter 7 (the gardening one) actually has more than I thought and just needs rewriting; Chapter 8 on teas and such needs recipes (which are fast); Chapter 9 needs a couple more food recipes and a three or four-page intro on the magic of food (which, incidentally, is also the basis for the feature article I've been asked to write for the Harvest issue of WynterGreene); Chapter 10 is the wrapup and suggestions for further growth; and then the appendix. I feel much better. It's still going to take lots of time and focus over the next seven days, but it will be done, and done acceptably.
Everyone Is Doing It
Someone should tell Liam that the story's not going to make much sense unless he reads the first five books.
Ceri, This Is For You
Although the other book-lovers and aspiring quilters of my readership will get a kick out of it, too:
Since the publication of her first Elm Creek Quilt novel, bestselling author Jennifer Chiaverini recreates the quilts her characters make in her stories.
In her new novel, THE SUGAR CAMP QUILT, Dorothea Granger sews a quilt using the Album block, a traditional "friendship quilt" pattern. Instead of the customary signatures of her friends, Dorothea obtains scraps of muslin autographed by authors and "other personages of note." and raffles off the finished quilt to raise money to build a public library.
In real life, Dorothea's project inspired Jennifer to create an Authors' Album quilt for an organization close to her heart: Capital Candlelighters, the Madison, Wisconsin branch of the Candlelighters Childhood Cancer Foundation.
And she's gotten 61 authors to generously autograph patches for the Authors' Album patchwork quilt which will be raffled at the Wisconsin Quilt Expo on September 17, 2005.
Participating authors include Dave Barry, Elizabeth Berg, Judy Blume, Ray Bradbury, Eric Carle, Beverly Cleary, Sue Grafton, Sophie Kinsella, Ursula K. Le Guin, Jacquelyn Mitchard, Tom Perrotta, Anna Quindlen, Nicholas Sparks, Jennifer Weiner, and Rosemary Wells.
(From Buzz, Balls & Hype.)
Chiaverini has a page on the quilt here that lists all the participating authors, and has lovely pictures.
Who else is drooling about the idea of owning this?
Mine!
I have my Harry Potter book.
And on the box, it is clearly marked, "Deliver on July 16 2005".
::checks calendar::
Uh-hunh.
(I read the first twenty pages of HRH's copy last night while he was off changing the baby before I fed him, and I laughed out loud a couple of times. I'm looking forward to being able to settle down with it on July 26.)
On the good side of things, the leftover crap that belonged to the previous deadbeat scuttle-off-into-the-night tenants is gone! Yes! Gone! We have a full garage to ourselves! Or we will once our landlord comes to take the final two items tomorrow.
Surrender
Well, the best-laid plans and so forth... by ten o'clock it was just too hot and sticky, and there was a little boy who wanted his evening meal and it wasn't fair to give him a bottle after the two he'd had earlier. So I managed to write the two seasonal intro paragraphs and tidied up the two meditations, but didn't get to the rituals. That's next.
Total word count, green witch book: 56,874
Total words yesterday: 3,792
And all of those words were in Chapter Four. Ye gods. That's about fifteen pages' worth of work.
I don't remember what the rest of the book looks like or what kind of shape it's in, I honestly don't. I sincerely hope the remaining chapters don't suck up time and words like this one did. I think there's only one that will, the chapter on teas and baths and oils and such; everything else has some sort of structure and substance. And if they don't, they can be blissfully short.
Oh, damn; there's that chapter on gardening. Drat. That ought to be the only other toweringly huge obstacle. Even the oils and teas will be easy compared to that.
July 17, 2005
The Light At The End Of The Tunnel Is An Oncoming Train
HRH came home with HP&THBP around four o'clock, took the baby, fed him, and then spent the rest of the afternoon in the air conditioned bedroom reading the first few chapters of the penultimate installment in the Potter drama. Yes; seven books, remember? This is the sixth and hence penultimate book.
I, on the other hand, have spent the rest of the afternoon writing one.
Total Word count, green witch book: 56,154
Total words today: 3,072
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Again, gentle readers, I'm not after quantity now, I'm after tying up the chapters and filling the gaps. Still, to see that I've managed over 3K of work today is rather gratifying. I'm STILL on Chapter Four, but I'm only two rituals away from being finished. I'll make them short, unlike the three-page rit I wrote earlier. (It takes longer to describe how to make flower chains step by step than to actually make them, I've discovered.)
Sixty thousand is coming up awfully fast. Good thing I'll be able to cut out a couple of thousand words of nonsense once I'm done, because it's obvious I'm going to sail right past my target once more.
HRH also fed the baby again, and made dinner as well so that I could keep hacking away at Chapter Four. Liam's sleeping better now that it's cooler, too, thank goodness. HRH has promised to work at home at least two full days this week, and stay for only half days the others so that I can concentrate on finishing the book for deadline. I love my baby, and I've been sneaking little breaks with him, but it's so much easier to focus on this when I don't have to spend an hour feeding him and then whatever time is necessary to get him to settle down for a nap in this awful humidity. By the time I'm back at the computer and trying to regain the proper mindset, it's time to feed him again. Just seven more days; we can do this.
I refuse to stop tonight before Chapter Four is basically done. That means two rituals, and a paragraph each for the fall equinox and winter solstice.
And You Don't Need A Stamp To Apply
Y'know, ADZO posted a go-to sending readers to Rick Mercer's blog for the Photoshopped Ralph Klein pics (which are certainly amusing), but this entry amuses me even more.
The writing fraternity in Canada is abuzz with talk that the Prime Minister’s speechwriter, Scott Feschuck, has decided to vacate his post. This means that for the first time in decades there is an actual job opening for a writer in Canada.
Speechwriter for the PM? Not the happiest of careers these days. Speechwriter for Stephen Harper, where you must dance the dance of fixing his verbal fumbles, however, would be worse. Or perhaps better: it would qualify as creative writing.
Short Break
It's a good thing the baby sling I ordered last week will be here in a couple of days. Liam's fussing because of the humidity, and when I hold him, I can only hit the page up or down buttons on the keyboard; I can't even type one-handed. The idea behind the sling wasn't just the baby-wearing concept; it would also allow me to cradle him and get writing done at the same time.
HRH was moping earlier but being valiant about not moping too obviously, so I sent him out to buy his very own copy of HP&THBP. We each had our own copies last time too, and it worked out well. Someone borrowed our second copy of OOTP, though, and it vanished.
So much for that short break; back to the hot and confused baby.
July 16, 2005
Erm
My copy of The Half-Blood Prince did not arrive today.
Hmm.
Doesn't upset me overly, as I'm not the one reading it. HRH, on the other hand, is trying to pretend that it doesn't matter that much, not really...
It will probably be here Monday.
Blade To The Rescue, Again
On Friday, during the writing jam, the power supply in my computer died.
So very not good.
I called Blade. Did I need to use my computer over the next little while, he asked, or could I wait?
Well, yeah, kind of. That deadline thing? And the old laptop not being too reliable these days? Yes, I needed a new power supply. Blade was free that evening, so I picked him up, we bought a new power supply and installed it. Hurrah!
Now, I could probably have bought a new one and installed it on my own by looking at how the old one was connected, but I like having Blade do the requisite computer surgery in front of me because when I ask him questions, he explains everything plainly and clearly, so that next time I can do it all by myself with no problems and full confidence. (Blade and I have learned that my system needs regular maintenance, and rather than having Blade do it every time, I just call him, describe the problem and all the solutions I've tried, and he talks me through it.)
The only drawback? The only unit the shop had which matched our desired specs glows blue, a cold neon blue. Said glow shines through the back of my tower and hits the wall, as well as out from the ventilation holes on the sides of the unit to illuminate the shiny hardwood floor, and it looks silly.
However, the lame-o neon is a small price to pay for a working system.
And he got to meet Liam, which was a nice bonus for him.
Liam Update
Ceri met Liam at yesterday's writing jam.
"Oh!" she said as we handed him to her. "Goodness, Liam. You're much bigger on the Internet."
He may be smaller in person than he seems in his pictures, but today at his post-release follow-up appointment, he weighed in at 4 lbs 15 oz. That's a gain of about 100 grams in three days. The doctor is pleased. We are smug.
Liam also met his paternal grandparents today, and it was wonderful to see them interact with him for the very first time.
July 15, 2005
Reading
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is being released in under fifteen hours, and I am beginning to realise that I really oughtn't read it when it arrives on my doorstep.
It's not that I don't want to read it -- oh, heavens, of course I do. Even though I know I'll read it too fast, in great glomping swallows, as I did the last two. I've been reading Harry Potter since the first book came out in paperback.
No, it's that I have ten days left to finish chapters in my own book, and to cut out all the deadwood and otherwise highlighted material that either Belongs In A Different Book (Which Has Not Yet Been Written Or Conceived Of), or is Just Awful And Should Never Have Seen The Light Of Day. And if I didn't have a baby fresh out of the hospital, I might have gone ahead with the new Potter installment anyway, despite the deadline. The original plan, of course, was to have the green witch book handed in on July 1, and to read the new Potter book in my last two weeks of non-baby life. Now, I think I could handle a new baby and reading the new book: in fact, having to put the book down every hour and a half and spend an hour doing something else would probably solve the reading-too-fast problem. But finishing the MS for deadline, plus a new baby, and the new Potter? It would have a devastating effect on the poor green witch book.
Thus, I think HRH will have the unlooked-for and certainly unexpected luxury of reading it first. Don't say I never make sacrifices for you, dear.
Besides, I'm reading other wonderful stuff. While I feed Liam, I'm reading Nigella Lawson's How To Eat, the irony of which amuses me terribly. Since I enjoyed reading Feast so much my parents gave me Nigella's first two cookbooks for my birthday, and I'm enjoying the first quite a lot. I've never been one to just read through cookbooks; I find it too difficult to envision what the end product of a list of ingredients and basic directions on what to do with them could look or taste like. In my world, cookbooks are practical manuals, not relaxing or entertaining reading material. But Nigella has pages and pages of narrative with the recipes nestled within it, so I understand what the goal is and how she's thought the recipe out. Her style is so breezy that it's refreshing to read just as literature.
And I began reading The Dream of Scipio byIain Pears while I was in the hspital earlier this week. It's simply lovely: nice and full yet clear and flowing, rather like ice-cold stream water with that taste of rock and green. It's intellectual, yet doesn't ask you to work hard to get the story. I really enjoyed Pears' mystery series about art theft, and I'm discovering that he has the same excellent handle on historical fiction involving poetry and philosophy.
I also have Kelley Armstrong's new Haunted to read next, and Kim Harrison's Every Which Way But Dead. And Paze lent me not only Tipping the Velvet but Eats, Shoots and Leaves which I've been dying to read but waiting in vain for a paperback edition. And of course, then there's Nigella's Domestic Goddess over which to drool once Liam and I are done How To Eat. So you see, I have more than enough to keep me busy over the next little while. The real problem is going to lie first with HRH as he heroically struggles to not talk to me about The Half-Blood Prince, and second with ignoring what everyone else is saying, as the world will have read it by the time I get there. I've always been good at dealing with spoilers and such -- for me the joy of books or films is how the story is told, not just what happens -- but one wonders how long one can last against a barrage of Potter-related conversation.
P'raps I shall simply ignore the Internet for a week. That ought to do quite a lot to help.
July 14, 2005
Caution: Armed With Baby And Digital Camera...
... and one bunny.
The idea behind the Moses basket was that it would be in my office, and Liam would sleep in it while I worked so that he would be near me instead of in the bedroom at the back of the house. Apparently, however, it's the playtime basket.
I swaddled him, thinking it would help him calm down and put him to sleep, but he's wriggled his way completely out of it and is back to staring at the bunny in total fascination. Not at quite such a close range as he managed earlier, as the picture illustrates, but Liam's world is back to being all about the bunny.
Go to sleep, child. Goodness. Aren't you tired after eating lunch, and playing with fun things like blankets and fists and feet and bunnies for so long? How am I supposed to get serious work done when you're being cute?
Hmm
I just might make this deadline. It won't be pretty, but it will be a relatively complete MS that can be cosmetically altered in edits.
I think I will have leftover birthday cake.
Day Two Of Full Family
Baby's sleeping.
Fun, this baby thing. We have a new sport in this house: babywatching. The cats do it. HRH does it. I do it. The stuffed bunny does it.
It's all about the stuffed bunny, gentle readers. It's all about the stuffed bunny.
He loves that bunny. He gazes at it for ages. Well, ages for an infant, anyhow, before he conks out. There will eventually be a photo page called "It's All About The Bunny", collecting the various bunny pictures.
The schedule established by the hospital nursery lasted for all of four hours, which was longer than I expected it to, but not as long as I'd have liked it to last. As far as I can tell, his personal schedule is about two and a half hours between each set of waking/changing/feeding before an hour or so of sleep. Of course, there have also been a couple of three-hour stretches, and a couple of one-hour stretches, but in general it seems to be two and a half hours. We're doing that responding to cues thing instead of watching the clock, and finding our way nicely. Last night was a good night, like the one before (and thankfully nothing like the first night we spent together).
I somehow thought that I'd only be pumping when we gave him a bottle, but to my complete and utter dismay I have to use the damn thing to ease the pressure so that the poor baby can actually drink properly. Looks like the Incredible Milk Store I've got in the freezer won't be used for a few months. I'm getting my money's worth out of that pump, and while I should be glad of that, I just wish things would ease off a bit. In the meantime, just as lanolin was my best friend when I was pumping in the first couple of weeks after Liam was born, cabbage leaves are now my friends.
I had a nice little birthday dinner last night with chosen family, complete with a spectacularly chocolate cake for dessert. (Yes, spectacularly chocolate, as opposed to a spectacular chocolately cake. There is a difference.) The cake was delicious and wonderful and exactly what I wanted in a birthday cake. There were even candles. And a social baby who really didn't think bed was the place to be when there was food and company to be had. And speaking of food, how's about a nosh, Mum? Everyone else is eating, after all.
Thank you, everyone, for your excitement and jubliance at Liam's homecoming; you've all supported us so strongly over the past month, and I know you're all genuinely pleased for all three of us. And thank you yet again for the even more birthday wishes and greetings and gifties that have come my way. I am incredibly lucky to have such thoughtful, enthusiastic, and loving friends, both here and afar.
July 13, 2005
Item: One Baby
Guess who came home today?
I spent Monday and Tuesday in the hospital with Liam, doing the 24/7 thing so that they could see we wouldn't break one another accidentally during full-time use, and to make the gradual switchover to mostly breastfeeding. There was the possibility that we might have been able to come home yesterday (and what a birthday present that would have been!) but the pediatrician decided to watch us for one more day to further montior Liam's weight gain (which is, as usual, alarming: today he weighs 2150 grams). Our first night together was a bit rough, but by the next morning we'd worked out a routine that fit into his feeding schedule, and we sailed through the next day and night and morning with flying colours.
Meeting the current residents actually went quite well. Naturally Maggie-Cat was the first in line to check him out. The verdict: he's okay. A bit boring, but okay.
And he seems to be fine here too. The AmbyBed is a hit so far. And he just drank 83 ml of milk. The five-minute car trip must have taken more out of him than we thought.
We are so, so very glad to finally be a family, all together where we supposed to be. Thanks for your patience while I was off-line, everyone, and for your birthday wishes. And I hope this news does away with the fnyehness that has been hovering about, and helps everyone to forget the oppressive humidity around here.
July 11, 2005
Redux and Plans
What a lovely weekend -- we unpacked some more, put more things up on walls, did laundry (still a novelty to walk downstairs with a basket of clothes and not have to scrape together coins or tokens), spent some quality time with Liam in hospital, and had a lovely early birthday dinner with my in-laws last night. The only drawback to the weekend was the four hours of being very, very ill I had to endure in the wee sma's of Sunday morning as the result of some bad spaghetti sauce. And that meant I had to lie down and nap while at HRH's parents' house, just before dinner. But the rest was worth it, because wow, as always, dinner was fantabulous. And they gave me gift certificates for my brthday, so that I could spoil myself. Hurrah!
Yesterday Liam weighed in at 2090 grams, and after a mildly challenging beginning to breastfeeding we're doing much better at it. As we go in twice each day, I've been feeding him once in the morning and once at night, with a bottle chaser to see if he needs more milk. Each time the amount of milk he takes from the bottle afterwards decreases, which is remarkably heartening and smugness-inducing. The nursing pillow my mother bought us makes a huge difference to our comfort and positioning, and is positively heavenly.
Today, I'm going to work on the green witch material in my notebook instead of staring at the computer screen, since making notes longhand worked so well last weekend. I tried to sit down at the computer to write yesterday but it just wasn't going to happen. So I'll draft things longhand and transcribe them tomorrow. It's good to not shackle myself to the keyboard, I've discovered, because I think differently when I work longhand, and this Other Mode seems to work well for drafting meditations and such, which is what I need to do now for Chapter Four. It's also gearing up to be another really hot week, so I want to be kind to myself while still finishing chapter by chapter.
July 09, 2005
And Yet Along
Total word count, green witch book: 53,082
Total words today: 1,323
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Not bad at all for someone who's been thinking incessantly about her baby all afternoon. And I'm only a quarter of the way through the gaps of Chapter Four.
And just so everyone knows, I'm not stressing about the total word count; I'll fix that later. I'm not going to have a problem hitting 60K. I'm more concerned with filling in the missing pieces of the book right now.
Working On That There Book Thing
Each time I type the word "equinoxes" I wonder why the plural isn't "equinoxen."
Chapter Four (appropriately enough, on the four seasons) is going, but going slowly.
Best-Laid Plans
So for once I had actually arranged a small birthday thing, on my birthday, no less, where I'd get together with a small group of friends to celebrate. This is unusual; I usually assume that no one really wants to be with a lame thing like me, and hide my head in the sand until the fateful event has passed and hope that people forget.
Because life likes to laugh when I fall on my face, there have arisen obstacles and I've had to temporarily cancel this birthday thing, pending a rescheduled date and time.
Thump. Voila, the sound of me falling on my face. How ironic, I think to myself, that this has happened on perhaps the second or third time ever that I have not only admitted it was my birthday, but planned something, and have been genuinely looking forward to it. And it's certainly the first time that I openly said I'd welcome gifts, if people wanted to give them to me. (Gifts make me uncomfortable and I usually make a plea to have a gift-free birthday. But I've learned my lesson from the shower.)
Oh, and the faint laughter you hear in the background over that resounding thump? That would be life, sniggering because I've eaten a piece of floor. Possibly a couple of gods snickering too. Certainly cats, who snicker at humans every chance they get.
So what's the first e-mail that comes back to me, ten minutes after my cancellation goes out?
That's it! I've had it! Being your friend is just too unpredictable and unstable :P
It is a sign of how much I have grown, and how good I have become at accepting being teased about my birthday shyness, that I could respond with:
Oh yeah? Well, I just can't work under these conditions; if you want me, I'll be in my trailer!
So pardon me while I go off in a mock huff.
(And yes, I will reschedule, unlike years past when I have said I'd reschedule and then just didn't, hoping that people would forget (see above). It usually worked, too. But not this year; I promise. I want my birthday thing. Gifts, damn it; if I'm finally openly allowing gifts, gifts I will have!)
Co-operation, An Important Lesson We All Learned From Sesame Street
Looks like MT, cPanel, and my host TCH have finally all agreed to play together nicely now that the buggy modules of mySQL on my server have been rolled back to the last known good versions. Due to a buggy mySQL update done by cPanel, MT users everywhere were experiencing technical difficulty. I was getting rather ticked off at having to republish my entire existing journal every time I wanted to publish a single entry, and it had been happening for three days straight. I knew what the problem was once I'd checked out the MT, cPanel and TCH support forums; I was just hoping TCH would figure out what to do and apply it across the board without needing to be asked.
While they didn't go ahead and roll the modules back automatically, I'm glad to say that TCH answered my help ticket within minutes when I asked them to make sure it was done on my server. They even let me know that a bug-free update would be integrated into my server in a day or so.
I'm always so surprised when tech support comes through. That's rather sad.
July 08, 2005
And Along
Total word count, green witch book: 51,759
Total words today: 1,621
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I've just seen that I'm going to have to delete about six pages of nonsense that I discovered in Chapter Three, but I'm not going to do that till the end when I have to. Don't worry, I've clearly marked it; there's no way the MS can be handed in with great gashes of bright turquoise highlighting over six pages of text.
Just started Chapter Four. Yay me.
The Daily Liam News
Liam finally had that EKG this morning while we were there, given to him by a pretty young technician who seemed to fascinate him. He sucked on my finger through the entire scan. Then HRH got to give him a bottle for the first time right afterwards, which was after the forty-five minutes of quality Da and baby cuddling.
As you can see, he has yet another new hat. I think the little blue one he wore originally when transferred here was the smallest one they had on hand, and it's now gone to the new tiny baby who's still in an isolette because it was the only one that would fit. This one makes Liam look like a UK football or rugby fan of some kind.
We also spoke with the doctor when he came by on his rounds, and he says that Liam is doing incredibly well. He lost a few grams of weight since yesterday, but since he's gone to pretty much total bottle-feeding and only the rare gavage, that's understandable: it takes more energy to suck milk from a bottle than to just let someone feed a tube down your throat and fill you with milk. This happened when he went off his IV as well; it just takes a day or so for his body to stabilise and figure out how to deal with the new system.
We were there for almost two whole hours, and we're planning to be there for two or three tonight, as well. Tonight I intend to bring bottles of water and snacks along with us, because wow, it doesn't take long for me to get hungry even if I ate a meal just before I left. At home I can just graze on crackers and cheese or vegetables when I get peckish, but there I'm kind of stuck. This time I intend to be prepared.
Le Jam!
Ceri is coming over for a writing jam this afternoon, which is good because I'm feeling a little overwhelmed today and it will be nice to have a grounding presence here.
It's funny; Ceri wanted to try to get the jams going again but thought, "Nah, she's got too much to do," and I was thinking how much a jam with her would help me buckle down and get things done, but that she had a Real Job now and wouldn't really have the time.
Ha. How silly we humans are. And the interesting thing is that on the very evening I had a minor meltdown over the book, HRH suggested calling her to ask for a jam, and she emailed me to suggest one. Great minds think alike.
Plus, she's bringing brie. I think I know where the four remaining bottles of pinot gris are in the garage, too. In our experience, wine and cheese make it a real writing jam. There's writing too, of course. But the brie and wine make it even better.
July 07, 2005
Merrily We Roll Along
Total word count, green witch book: 50,137
Total words today: 1,308
Look at that: today I broke the 50K barrier.
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I love you, little wordmeter. You make me feel all warm inside.
Chapters One and Two are done, and I'm now expanding the notes left over in Chapter Three. And if I actually start writing earlier, I could get more done in a day, too. Sheesh. I'm not sure where the time is going (apart from the time I spend preparing food, eating food, and spending quality time with my pump, that is).
Mail Joy!
Oooh, a UPS truck! I think the AmbyBaby bed is here!
Moments Later: Yes! Hurrah! This is one of those recommended things for preterm infants, and it will be ideal to put by our bed for night-time use to facilitate feedings and getting back to sleep for both mum and baby. Plus it comes apart and travels well. I think it's really nifty that HRH's parents bought Liam's crib, which he'll use when he's bigger, and my parents bought him the AmbyBaby, which we'll be able to use right now (or when he comes home, anyway).
I stick my tongue out at UPS, however, for charging customs and import fees on an item that isn't available in Canada. Nyah.
More Shameless Self-Promotion
Witchvox now has a page on Solitary Wicca for Life up and available for viewing!
Now to buckle down to the green witch book. Particularly since the doctor said this morning that we should take Liam off gavage feedings and get him breastfeeding as soon as possible.
Oh, and they cancelled the EKG because the "swish" has vanished.
Innocents Abroad
Can everyone spare a good thought or ten for Jan and t!, who are over in the UK on holiday? According to Jan's itinerary they're in the Reading/Oxford area today, so they're not in London, but terrorism isn't the nicest thing to have happen in the country on your holiday. I have a feeling that travel and such may be difficult for them over the next few days.
So good thoughts, wishes for strength, courage, and continued safety to them, to those who are scheduled to be at the wedding, and for all the others who are in England at the moment, London or otherwise.
Liam Update
When we walked into the nursery last night, we headed for the corner where Liam's isolette installed, and he wasn't there.
"Uh," said HRH. "Where's the baby?"
"No, wait," I said, "look, look, he's over here!"
Yes, dear readers, Liam has graduated from the isolette to a big baby bed, the open plastic bassinettes into which they put regular newborns. We can just reach in and pick him up. No wires, no portholes with doors on them, nothing. Just a fuzzy terry sleeper, wool booties, his new hat, and lots and lots of swaddling, like a regular baby.
There's more good news. He now weighs 2000 grams, or about 4 lbs 5 oz. He gained another forty or so grams in one day. This is probably the result of each feeding now being 50 ml of milk. Fifty! That's 400 ml a day, or just over a cup and a half! The nurse showed us the graph of his growth, and he's climbing steadily, right smack dab in the middle of the average percentile, following the projected growth curve perfectly.
He turns four weeks old on Saturday. And Friday he hits 35 weeks gestational age. (Yes, we have to keep both ages in mind until he's a few years old, otherwise we'll be expecting him to do things a couple of months ahead of schedule.)
The camera still isn't transferring pictures, but I got around it by going into My Computer and listing the contents of the Removeable Device, then copying and pasting the photos. So in celebration of all the good stuff going around, here's that photo of first bottle we gave him that I wanted to post yesterday:
The nurse told me that we can't start trying to breastfeed him until he's completely off gavage feedings (he's still at one gavage, one bottle). But when we do, the hospital has a few rooms where parents can stay for a couple of days to be with the baby all day and night in order to teach both mother and baby to breastfeed correctly, before releasing them into the wild to fend for themselves. This is a relief to me because I had visions of driving in every few hours, or three or four times a day and then having to apply the knowledge gained from a select few encounters to the home front eight to twelve times a day. We're going to continue bottle feedings at home, though, so HRH can feed him half the time. It makes no sense to discontinue it completely if the baby is fine with it. Options are good.
Last night I whispered to the baby that now I had even more reason to write lots and finish the book, because if he was out of his isolette, it was a big step towards leaving the hospital. I can think about every word bringing Liam home. That will help enormously.
July 06, 2005
Items Of Good News
Wow. When did it get to be five-thirty?
Anyways. This is a post full of Good News.
First Item of Good News:
Last night we got to take Liam out of his little aquarium, and not only did we get to hold him for an hour and a half, I got to feed him his bottle for the first time. There's a picture, but it's not downloading from the camera for some reason. Maybe later.
You know, I love seeing Liam once I'm there, but I always drag my feet when it comes to getting things together to go to the hospital. I can't even imagine what it would be like if we were still travelling to Ste-Justine twice a day.
Second Item of Good News:
Total word count, green witch book: 48,829
Total words today: 1,119
Yes. Yes, yes, yes. This makes up for the limp counts like 285 and 449 that I've been doing here and there in unfocused and infrequent sessions over the past couple of weeks. Today I expanded and refined the second half of chapter 1 which was mostly random notes in point form, and I also expanded some of chapter 2. Soon I'll be able to incorporate the work I've done in dribs and drabs away from the computer, like the sketches of meditations for chapter 4 and exercises for chapter 3 I did during our coven lesson jam on Sunday.
My wonderful little wordmeter says:
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I feel terrific. I feel like I've finally managed to get back in the swing of things. It feels right.
July 05, 2005
More!
Guess whose isolation was over when we walked in at nine o'clock this morning?
I held him for almost an hour. He cuddled into me and made little baby-sigh noises. And we get more together time tonight.
Potpourri
1. Liam is, as of last night, 4 lbs 5 oz. He's really making up for the early thing. Still taking 40 ccs of milk per feeding, though, and I'm glad that finally levelled off, because the steep increase in milk intake was insane. (Also, my milk production has levelled off and begun to dip a bit, so I'm glad we're on the same wavelength.)
2. No news yet on the EKG they ran on him yesterday. We ran into the pediatrician for the first time a couple of days ago, and he ordered one because of a tiny little "swish" he was picking up when listening to Liam's heart. He drew a diagram for us while he explained, and as far as I can tell the "swish" likely comes from a sharp turn in a T section in one of the arteries above his heart. It would be perfectly normal for an infant his age, and he'd grow out of it. The pediatrician is just being responsible and making sure that he doesn't have to refer us to a cardiologist. (A sign of how tired I am is that I didn't even bat an eyelash or express anxiety at the idea of Liam needing a cardiologist. Yeah, sure, whatever; more doctors, more hospitals, blah blah blah...).
3. It would appear that I was premature in announcing that our road was paved. In fact, our road has the first layer of asphalt. It requires at least another layer, which means at least another day and likely four because it's supposed to rain today, and this crew has a tendency to vanish for days at a time. And then they have to paint lines and such. Well, at least the car doesn't bash its nose going over the cliff that is the sidewalk any more.
4. I am becoming remarkably despondent over the green witch book. I lack any sort of enthusiasm for the project. I can't get myself to focus on it for any amount of time to produce more than a hundred or so words a day or so each week. I haven't been posting my progress because it upsets me. (Although I'm about 1.2K further than I was last time I posted word count. That's what happens when you don't post updates for a while: it looks impressive when you clump all the little days together, as long as you don't think about the fact that it's four or five days' worth of work over a month.) I'm so tired that all I can do is stare at the screen. I think the past three weeks are finally catching up to me.
5. Pursuant to #4, and to how well Liam's doing, I'm worried that they'll send him home before I'm done the book, and I'll be so busy adjusting to taking care of him 24/7 that I won't be able to finish up the book, and I'll miss the new that's-absolutely-the-latest-we-can-get-it deadline. So the fear of that puts even more pressure to write write write and get it done done done on my shoulders, which freezes me up so it's even harder to write. I'm my own worst enemy. It gets especially bad when I curl up in a ball on the bed and think that I used to be able to whip 3000 words off in two hours, and then I look at my output in the past few weeks and sink further into despair.
This is all happening for a reason. Liam was born early for a reason. I have to try to live without my baby, and finish the last 10K or so of a book while wanting to be with him and fighting fatigue, for a reason. That which does not kill us makes us stronger, etc, but you know, I'd settle for a just little bit of time off without worrying about something or pining for someone, like I was supposed to have in July after the book was finished and before the baby came.
July 04, 2005
Grr
Not only has Firefox gone wonky on me, losing all the formatting I'd done and eating three-quarters of my bookmarks, but my log-in for Moveable Type crashes repeatedly.
Grrrrrr.
But! Half our street has been paved! Yes! Of course, it's the other side of the street... but I have high hopes for this side to be done as well, even though they haven't done anything since eleven this morning when they finished the first half.
Later: Gasp! Is't possible? They've paved our side of the road! Huzzah!
Pictures!
I've done a photo page for the shower, and I've also begun one for the Caught Reading Power Spellcraft for Life project. There's the latest batch of photos from the CMS camping trip to Awakening Isis still to be uploaded to that, but I really have to get back to work.
Ah Yes, The Orthographical Inconsistency of Celtic Mythological Figures
Matociquala (aka Elizabeth Bear) says:
Memo to me, memo to me: Pick *one* spelling of Manannan and stick to it.
I feel her pain.
Yikes
I opened my e-mail this morning and found approximately forty-ish pictures waiting for me, sent by various people.
The CMS gang got very silly this weekend while camping at Awakening Isis and took several pictures of students and teachers reading the spellcraft book. I also got a couple more photos from other people for the spellcraft "caught reading" page that's in the works. And my father sent me about thirty pictures taken at the shower, too. I can see that a good hour or two of my day will be occupied by uploading photos to various web pages!
Not that I'm upset, mind you, particularly since I've just discovered that I can change my address online for provincial government services so I don't have to go out today (whee! this didn't exist last time I moved!). I love all the pictures and I'm looking forward to sharing them with you.
July 03, 2005
Thank You Etc
A huge, huge thank you to friends and family for making yesterday so special. We have so many friends that making a short list of who to invite to the shower was difficult, so it was basically people we've known for ages and people who saw us through the pregnancy from beginning to end. We would have loved to invite everyone, but really, when the guest list hit 29 we knew we had to start drawing the line somewhere! It's okay; we'll do a housewarming/Liam-warming in late September, and we'll be able to catch everyone who's been neglected lately, or who had made huge contributions to our sanity reservation since Liam was born.
I'll do a full report later, once my dad has sent me pictures. But I do have to say thank you to everyone who gave us gifts even though I kept saying we didn't want them. Not only did it entertain Devon for a good long while, but opening things like Ceri's hand-made baby quilt and this unique and apropos onesie (from whom other than t! and ai731?) was worth all of you ignoring my wishes. (The blanket beneath the onesie was knitted by my mother, in a lovely soft cream-coloured wool, and also much admired by shower attendees. And the onesie/blanket picture was taken with our new digital camera, the wonderful and deeply appreciated group gift from the gang.)
Ceri quite deservedly got a spontaneous round of applause from those gathered when we unfolded the quilt. You can go here to see pictures and read about the making of it. If you haven't already, that is, because apparently she's had it up for over half a week.
Your daily bit of Good News From Liam: the pediatrician has put him on a one bottle/one gavage feeding schedule, up from one bottle/two gavages. I have a suspicion that in a week's time, he'll be totally off the gavage tube. And it's been confirmed: As of Tuesday afternoon, we're free to cuddle and hold him and kangaroo for as long as we like!
July 02, 2005
July 01, 2005
Ahem
The Lady of the Dominion extends warm wishes to His Royal Highness, King of Canada in exile, on this national day of honouring his kingdom from sea to shining sea.
And what do you know, so does the heir. Crown Prince Liam wishes his da a happy Canada Day, too.
As you, my gentle readers, may have guessed, there are Canadian flags up everywhere -- on the front balcony, the back balcony, in Liam's room...