Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Tuesday, July 21, 2009
New Moon
Pluto Retrograde
Jupiter Retrograde
Uranus Retrograde
Rainy and humid

Yesterday turned out to be really busy, but flew past. I had a lot of business stuff to catch up on, which is a good thing, and I got out a requested partial on one project and a batch of queries on another. I found some interesting submissions listings that I will work on over the next few weeks, and did some work on the brochure.

In the afternoon, I took a load of stuff to storage, repacked some of the boxes that needed a little help, and reorganized things a bit. I can’t find the lamp I wanted, which is frustrating, but oh, well.

Some books arrived, one of which is LIBRARIES IN THE ANCIENT WORLD, which I need as research for a project. The other is REBORN, the first volume of Susan Sontag’s journals and notebooks. I was never a big fan of hers — to me, she always seemed far too impressed with her own intellect, quite judgmental, and demanded a level of adoration from her admirers that I found off-putting. Our paths crossed a few times, and, while I certainly can’t claim to know her, even as an acquaintance, the fleeting in-person impressions I had of her were not very positive. And yet, her journals are fascinating. I definitely have more respect for her and her work through reading them, while still convinced that we would not have gotten along well, had we spent a lot of time together!

I had a decent writing session this morning — not brilliant, but decent. I found a lot of the “great house” brochures and photos from my various trips, and I’ve got them handy for research. Of course, I keep getting distracted by happy memories! I’ve got some more business correspondence to get out today, some more groundwork for Prague, and I start my attempts to learn some rudimentary Czech today. I’ve also got some client work to do, another load of boxes to take to storage (darting between the raindrops) and more to pack. Oh, yeah, and grocery shopping. That’s kind of important!

We’re supposed to get a lot of rain in a short time, so I’ll be checking the brook regularly. I hope to have a productive morning, so that I can have a fairly quiet afternoon.

I did my weight training work out last night, so I’m getting back on track with the evening workouts again. Boy, missing a whole week’s worth was bad. It’s amazing how quickly one back-slides.

The morning glory vines reach almost to the ceiling, and the tomato plants are nearly five feet tall — no little tomatoes, though. The plants are gorgeous, so I don’t really mind, but I don’t think I get enough sun with a northern exposure.

The telephone forwarding problem seems to be solved, although it would have been nice for the person who caused it to apologize for the inconvenience. Dru, I never even thought about the fact we’d be charged for those minutes. Thanks. I will write a formal letter stating I want the minutes credited back.

Iris is running up and down the living room, playing with one of her favorite balls. It’s really cute. Oh, now she’s brought it to me and is meowing — I’m supposed to throw it so we can play “fetch.”

Back to the page.

Devon

Friday, June 12, 2009

Friday, June 12, 2009
Waning Moon
Pluto Retrograde
Rainy and cool

Yeah, it’s STILL raining. I hope that means we’ll have lots of gorgeous flowers when it finally lets up.

Speaking of gorgeous flowers, my morning glories are blooming! Imagine! In a north-facing window! Beautiful! Hopefully, the moonflowers will bloom, too.

Hop on over to FEMMEFAN to read my Belmont Stakes wrap-up.

And if you haven’t read my interview with Kim Smith, please drop by here and leave a comment!

Yesterday was caught up in business, and I didn’t get much other stuff done. I helped my mom with a bunch of stuff. We stopped at our favorite Chinese restaurant on the way home and got some take out. The food is always excellent, and the prices are great. AND they’re really nice.

The issues with 1and1 seem to be cleared up, at least for the moment. Let’s hope they remain so. And Canon sent me the fixes for both printers, so that seems to be resolved. Many thanks to both of them. We think that, with the big printer, someone else’s wireless crossed communication with my printer, and my printer was printing from someone else’s computer. We hope that’s now fixed. I don’t have wi-fi, I don’t have my printer set up for wi-fi, but . . .

I’m a little behind where I’d like to be on client projects, although no deadlines are in jeopardy. I have to reshuffle a couple of projects over the next few days, but everything will get done. And I need to get back to my own fiction. I’m behind where I’d like to be on that, although, again, no deadlines are in jeopardy.

I’ve got some more business to take care of today, and if all goes well with that, the next few weeks will be crazy. Most of it will be great, some of it will be frustrating, it will be exhausting, but the outcome should be quite good.

I don’t plan to be online very much today. I’m a little cranky because someone broke the city code and woke me with a leaf blower (yes, in the middle of the rain) at 6:15 this morning. And ran it for 45 minutes. Leaf blowers are banned entirely by the city code from May 1 – either September 1 or October 1. So I have to put in a call to City Hall. I don’t care what day of the year it is — I should NEVER be woken up by a leaf blower at 6:15 in the morning.

I think leaf blowers should be banned anyway, all the time, especially around here. All they do is kick up dust,dirt, and noise pollution. The guys who run them just walk around pointing them randomly at the asphalt. I have yet to see them ever use them on LEAVES. And as far as leaves go? Use a damn rake! Much more eco-friendly. I understand if it’s the Town Park and there are acres and acres of leaves in the fall — but handkerchief-sized yards don’t need them, especially when they’re not used properly.

Come by Sole Struck Fashions tomorrow. It’ll be my monthly post.

I didn’t do anything particularly interesting that can be discussed on the blog. Sorry.

I’ll put in a good day’s work today. Tomorrow, I’m up early, because I have a meeting with a Congressional Representative at 9 AM. And I have another Mac class in CT at 2 PM. I’m going to go a little early and play with the iPod touch and ask some questions. I’m not actually going to BUY it tomorrow, but at least I’ll do my research, so when I’m ready, it’s just a case of the cash changing hands. I can Tweet from it, so soon — none of you will be safe!

I have another Mac workshop on Sunday morning, and one on Monday night. Then I think I’m done for about a week. Yeah. I’ll have taken nine workshops in a month. And I’ll know how to use my computer! These are the free workshops Apple offers. They’re incredibly helpful. I feel like I should bake them all brownies or something.

Speaking of brownies, I baked some for myself yesterday afternoon. Just because there must always be something chocolate in this house. It’s a requirement.

It’s supposed to clear up this afternoon. I’m going to run over and check the brook in a bit, and determine whether or not I need to move the car. Hopefully, I don’t.

I got my confirmation yesterday — I am officially a member of Broad Universe! Woo-hoo! I can’t wait to get involved supporting my fellow fantasy and science-fiction writers. And my renewal from PEN arrived, along with the new membership card. I’m delighted. I need to talk to them about the plans for the Laura Ling/Euna Lee situation, and also about Prague.

Slow day on the Matty book. The Lucy Gothic is starting to pull at me again, but I’ve got other projects to complete before I can get back to it.

Have a great day!

Devon