Ok, I'm an idiot. Did I work while R was home today, as I said I wanted and need to?

No.

I was overcome by Rearrangement Demons. The living room is ... different now.

I don't know if I win -- I'm already sore. I am woefully out of shape.

Snow day!

Good in many ways, but damn I need to get work done. Argh. But peaceful and planning for Christmas and playing "office" with Morgan (***laugh***) and getting the cat littler done (finally) and laundry. Mix and match, as usual.

Trying twitter, but critical mass is not ready.

And thanks to T for a purchase, too!
(See, stowaway_geek, I'm learning... )

In case you were wondering, I'm slow with everything, not just work.

For example, we carved a jack-o-lantern on Tuesday, finally.

Although we have started opening the doors of our Advent (in a naturalist secular sort of way) calendar.

Just sharing.

Cookies cookies cookies. Thank you, ToadQueen and TurboCat and DarkMouse for awesome deliciosity. I can't stop eating TurboCat's Crazy Choco Cresents. Wow.

I may wind up making more cookies in a couple weeks, with my sisters. Aw, shucks.

---

Went to the Judy Collins concert at Higher Ground with my youngest sister. We shared Irish coffee, folk music, and time. It was great.

If you're in the area and like toys (or need to give some), check out Jamie Two-Coats in Shelburne. One of the lovely people there (who used to babysit my sister), gave us the tickets. Super kind. I'd never been there (more fool me!), and I'm so going back. Preferably with actual money to spend... MonkeyBoy liked it too (not a surprise). Thickly-packed, nifty, non-plastic toys (except for some of the ones from Schlieff or whatever that company is called). Focus on make-believe, costumes, stories, pirates, some cool games, faeries, trains, treehouse dollhouses and such like niftiness.

I think I forgot to mention I've been trying to get in a rhythm of adding posts to Small Measures and to Little Birder, too. These are not necessarily cross-posted here, for no real good reason either way. (Both links go to October. I figure you can sort it out.)

This is one of the consequences of adding the Remember the Milk and GTD plug-ins to Firefox (they apply my Gmail account, so I've add to add them to several computers, which is a little odd because I don't always exactly remember how I've categorized things. Whoops... At least Foxmarks synchs automatically)

Off to fetch the ShortGuy! A pretty productive day, with the usual amount of server thwartage. And I have tomorrow too!

Changed the blog title. More accurate now, surely.

Taught an art class. This boggles my mind. It was a sketching-as-birding-tool sort of thing. The peculiar irony of not having enough to really fill the walls for a coffee-shop-size show (certainly nothing large enough, my gods), and having even less that is bird-related did not escape me. On the other hand, it was incredibly fun, from the tweaking and shuffling of what a Real Artist did when she taught the class to the actual teaching. I tell ya, everything is practice -- in the yoga sense, that is. I loved doing it. I would do it again.

Would I like/recognize myself if I had fewer things I wanted to do, try, accomplish? What about if I actually was organized and fast enough to get them done?

It occurs to me that it's just about time to submit to Fantastic Portfolios again. I still have nothing I think is good enough, although I have two things that might be if I get them finished. I certainly have not improved enough int he past 6 months to get in.

By the way, I posted "Snow Fleas" to Artwanted. Will get it up elsewhere when I get a chance.

I would love to post my list of Things I Want to Do in the Next Week, but it's inordinately silly, as the pre-school will be closed for In-Service for the next two days M's supposed to go, so I'll just sign off and use that 15 minutes doing a bit of one of the Things. I hope.

All bills are paid except property taxes and the last cord of wood. I hate October finances.

Precipitate causes or feeling some emotional turmoil:

* Bank Appraiser coming ... ah .. right now.
* Stupid food choices this morning
* Not getting stuff finished as desired and losing track
* Too Much Stuff
* Planning a social event
* Probably not enough sleep
* Possibly hormones

Gotta love synsergy!

*laugh*

Back later.

So I went into the attic this morning, to collect things I could give to my sister/her baby (due in a month or so). I'd kept stuff for this reason, or in case we had another.
It then occurred to me I could give things also to J (9 months) and L (5 or 7 months) and if I checked, maybe E (2 years) also.
And that MonkeyBoy was growing out of stuff and I should find his next sizes in the hand-me-downs.

That was HOURS ago.

I've got: 2 small bags for J, 1 for L, about 4 boxes for my sister, 2 old-fashioned air plane gift/carry-on sizes to give away/consign, and more pants for MonkeyBoy than I think we've ever had at once.

The attic is tidier.

Still, it's almost 7 p.m., so I think the STUFF is winning...

• Made ad banners: good.
• Answered some minor emails: OK, could have waited.
• Fiddled around with a newsletter sign up box: fun, not really necessary. Good in long run no doubt. (See below)
• Downloaded newsletters to have local, browseable copies: good, not urgent. Need ann index page
• Updated content on the homeiest of my home pages: satisfying, not anything like urgent. I still like its simplicity.
• Looked at the time: freaked out.

In next 1.5 hours should take photos, update page with photos and upload FF site, wash 3 sinks of dishes, start wood stove, finalize invoice and send with list for feedback, update VYC site...

Errr. I is idiot.

Also hungry and cold, because I forgot lunch.

Thanks goodness it's sunny.

Sign up for the Whimsical Dreams newsletter!

Spent a little time last few nights/this morning catching up in May in Small Measures, Little Birder, and eBird (I don't know how to link to just my observations). Phew. Some pics I like in Small Measures, so you might too...

Perhaps luckily for us all, I got busy and have less to catch up on for the summer.

Now to make some cards... or clean ... or work...

About a week behind in reading LJ, partly out of time and partly avoiding HP spoilers. Much further behind in getting any news, although that's more me letting M choose the sound in the car (we've recently shifted from a kid's version of "Mr. Tambourine Man" to bagpipes, but I cannot figure out which one is the "sheep" one he's asking for).

Am on Chapter 8 in Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. Er, yes, I decided to re-read them all before the 7th, which is both ridiculous and enlightening. I'm a little too colored by the movies. Different people said/did things than I remember being said or done. Different people involved in various activities and events. Funny little by-comments that I now wonder, "Wait, that's a hint, isn't it? And this other things that's repeated in different ways about a dozen times, that is too, isn't it? But how? Heh!" It's a good thing I'm not letting myself browse all those Galadriel Waters books/forums. I'd lose SO much time doing that (enjoy myself, of course, but still.)

gannet pointed me to Chore Wars. *snicker* I might have to put together a party, not so much as to prove I'm doing too much as to make me laugh more about getting it done or not getting it done. At any rate, I've made a character, named after the eastern chipmunk (I was thinking of a conversation with nellorat & her suggestion about rodent energy/productivity when I did so.) Anyone else is welcome, we can make up a party (I haven't made one yet). See, I knew I'd get sucked into this. *laugh*

Have imagined I have the time to write up several posts about M, muscle weirdness and physical therapy, seeing friends and birthdays, various other thoughts I can't even recall right now. Have been mistaken. Gah!

Got slightly caught up for three ... no, four! .. .clients this week. Mind you, this is all stuff that should've been done at best a few weeks ago. But hey, this is something! (See what I can do if I don't read LJ and news and HP forums? *laugh*)

Off to read some more and Go To Bed. Happy dreams from the moon, y'all!

We bought a 2005 Pontiac Vibe at end of June. More money and fewer miles and fewer years than I have ever paid for a car. Let's hope this was the right mix. Enjoyable to drive, except the chrome trim on the dash is evil.

Had some lovely recent times with lepi and turbocat, involving freewheeling conversations, sushi, raspberry sodas (oddly, no coffee either time).

No Harry Potter spoilers follow this line -- at least, not written by me. No promises about anything linked or commented...

Noted in draft of this post: Another reason I want to see HP: OOP.... I've now seen it. Enjoyed it. Might go see it again with R, now he's home from CO (we both saw it while he was gone, and both thought we'd rather see it it with the other's company).

Can't find my copy of the book (raven_albion do you still have it? No big deal; I re-read my Mom's when last re-reading it. Re-read Half-Blood Prince in the last few days. Had forgotten tons of it. Probably missed much more... Today got lost at http://newclues.mugglenet.com/nc6/index.php .... ooops. Very fun. tapas, in re your recent post, go over there and check this out. Very fun, lots more ideas to tweak/expand/shift what we've been thinking. I become more and more in awe of JK Rowling. I find I _really_ want to re-read them all before midnight tonight, and all the clues books and guidebooks because they make such lovely outerconnected trails in my head. Yeah, well, I don't have a TimeTurner, do you? Darn.

Oh, re midnight tonight: my mother-in-law, having discovered by happy accident ("I saw this and thought you might like it as a late birthday present") a few books back, has pre-ordered the 7th for me to once again celebrate my Birthday-in-July (it's nowhere near July, btw). Yay for Mother-in-law! Nevertheless, no idea when it will arrive in my hands, and whether I will re-read the others before ... yeah right, I so won't postpone reading it, who am I kidding?

Got less work done in last 10 days than needed. Sigh.

I never did take my nap today, and now everyone's up! Oh well, it's all good!

Dropped off some BookCrossing books at Uncommon Grounds recently

Am loving my printer (HP 7110) for doing such a damn nice job with my sister;s wedding invitations

Am loving InDesign CS1 for making such nice small files (contrasted with Photoshop)

Am impressed with myself for whipping together a website to go with the invitations, which may go to show my best designs are the ones I don't really think about. This is not to say I am a good graphic designer; I am, I hope, adequate and improving.

Have not bought a car. SIGH. It gets more needful every dang day.

Have seemed to be always in motion, which does not translate to getting enough done or being efficient, although it does have some entertainment value.

Was unsurprised to realize I'm sleepy.

Someone's icon chuckled me up: (It's actually someone named cartazon, a friend of nutmegger.

No posting in 2 weeks? Ack, sorry. We've been home and away, healthy and sick, inching along with work. Don't have to get a tax extension this year -- yay! Not doing enough art, I think. Lots of projects, nothing new there. I guess this not a very useful post, but I'm about to go to bed and nothing really new is happening and I don't remember what people already know/what I already wrote/what cool things I might've wanted to be writing about. Hrm.

One note: one year later, and I still don't really know what to feel about Easter. I mean, I just don't feel attached to it in any spiritual or even celebratory way.

Maybe I should write early in the day, not late. Bedtime, maybe... ran out of steam.

Today (which includes very late last night) I am...

• accountant (look, ma, another invoice done! and no more bills before we go... and I even managed to get cash for the trip, or will after going to the bank)
• hazmat technician (there was this cat, see...)
• chef (noodles are good for breakfast!)
• travel agent (the weather in Texas means we should pack...)
• laundress (with a short assistant)

Soon I will also be

• chauffeur (in which we go to bank and post office)

I just turned around and noticed that MonkeyBoy has a post-it note on his bum. *snerk!*

The dog has recently taking to lying down when M tells her too, so he's trying this with the cat today. You can imagine the success rate for that, can't you? *giggle*

Anyway, an ETA is likely, as I become more things later :)

Just been busy. Haven't had time to post to LJ, let alone read. But am alive, am happy, am unsuprisingly behind in work, and we're inching forward on house projects (trim up in loft! Shelves in MonkeyBoy's closet!).

MonkeyBoy is great, except for testing boundaries involving kicking and hitting. Ergh!

Right, gotta go get him now. (Am I late again?)

But that's likely to continue for a while yet.

Working, and sometimes not working, just trying to get my act together enough for working. Very happy with a funny little PHP form processing script I put together. No doubt has much room for improvement (let me know if you want to see/review/comment/improve it!).

Mothering, and sometimes sleeping. Incoming canines, though pointy and sharp, do not seem to come in any faster, and certainly cause much more drool and pain. Daycare includes new viruses, sometimes more than one at a time. What a combo with teething! Badger Winter WonderBalm is a good thing.

Travelling, and coming home. An excellent pastime, especially if you are fortunate enough to see fondly-regarded relatives and good friends, such as eclectic_boy [Hey, happy birthday, you!] and mst3kforall.

Spousing, or whatever a good word for this might be (would Láadan have such a word?), and thinking about that, because one does, as well as in response to relationship change activity among friends and siblings. (My brother, for example, is getting married. Probably in in two weeks or so, when his sweetie is arriving from Poland. Assuming he's that organized. Er... but I digress!)

Strangeness: The Red Cross requiring background checks. As a volunteer in the past, I got a mailing from our local RC, so checked out the link. I think will not have my background checked. It seems ... well, a kind of shitty thing for them to ask of volunteers trying to be of community assistance. The mailing did not explain why they decided to do this, and I couldn't find anything on the Red Cross site.

Why should my son sleep? I'm not.

Actually, in my case, that's because most nights in the past week and a half I've been up til after midnight. Why? Because I'm working.

Now if only I were more efficient and more billable. But this may yet come. At least I'm getting more caught up than I was. (pause to edit the To-do list a bit...)

In his case though, he's back to waking every 2 hours or so. But no obvious signs of illness or teething (the hives-generating virus seems tobe in that weak "hah, I managed to give him one, count 'em, one hive still, nyah nyah" stage; the right bottom second incisor finally is peeking through and he's not chewing fingers). Maybe the spicy foods he's been eating a couple times a week pretty much since he started solids are giving him weird dreams?

Maybe I can swing a super long nap for both of us tomorrow... ('course, he'll be attached the whole damn time... but maybe it's worth the try...)

Hey! Happy birthday, gannet!!!

I'm all alone all alone all alone!!!

*bounce*

The lovely hubby took the lovely MonkeyBoy for a ride, car inspection, and stuff.

Now I just have to get up the will power to go in the basement and change the cat litter. (If it's been more than 2 days, it's been too long... and it's been much, much more than 2 days.)

Just thought I'd share...