Thursday,
January 29, 2004
I'm back
As promised -- things are still going by at whirlwind pace, but I carved a tiny breather for myself, so I figured I might as well update y'all with what's happening at Casa Fletcher.
Sewing for Her Maj: No, it is not on The Royal Gown, la (although I have now been cozened into making a frock coat, vest, shirt and breeches for a friend of my sister's. Have sewing machine, will travel). Thanks to Susan Shwartz, I remembered that Her Maj had requested those who had volunteered to make chuppah squares to finish said squares and send them back to her by February. And so, Mellie spent the holiday weekend trying to figure out what to put on her square (dark blue fabric with lighter blue stars). After a browse through my Baltimore Album quilt book for motif ideas, a brainstorming trip to Michael's and a most serendipitous discovery in the scrapbooking section, I am pleased to say that the central bit of embroidery and stitching, beaded curliques and fabric paint are all done, and it looks a treat. Now I just have to let it all dry, then wash it (to get rid of the white pencil outlines), find something large enough on which to block it, and it's ready for a trip to Conn. Whee!
Writing: Between the day job and the evening job sucking up all available writing time, I think I added maybe 300 words to the novel in the past ten days, and I need to get cracking on the essay, like, yesterday. Bad Mellie, no PowerBook. However, I got an idea for a story while driving home tonight, so I plan on outlining that and seeing if I can finish it in time for FutureClassics next week. I've also been having some extremely funky dreams, which is my brain's way of telling me to get cracking on the creative side, dammit.
Lyndon: Still unemployed, although he's now signed up with a tech temping agency and had a phone interview this week, so at least it seems like things are picking up on that side. He's started deep cleaning the living room, he's so bored. The boy needs a job.
Or does he? Perhaps if the Employment Fairy can hold off until he's finished the kitchen, too. . .
Health: Don't even get me started. Between the stress, the plague that's currently going around my office and making it sound like a TB ward, and the Recent Unpleasantness, this has not been the best month health-wise. I'm hoping for some improvement in February, otherwise I shall be forced to write to the Management and Complain in The Harshest Terms.
DSL: We've discovered that a new company has taken over support of our DSL, and we are now getting about a quarter of the throughput that we are paying for. Needless to say, Mellie is not a pleased camper at all. I need to call these people and have a word in their ear -- either we want our promised throughput or we want the cheaper rate, by George.
Politics: I laugh because I dare not cry, and since I don't need the extra stress right now I'm trying to look on it all as a new kind of reality game show. It'll be interesting to see if John Kerry can win the next immunity challenge, and I think Kucinich is going to be the next one voted off the island, don't you?
Space Stuff: Isn't it neat about Opportunity landing so close to that rock outcropping? And it looks like they'll be able to get Spirit back up and running again, which is fabulous. Lyndon kept saying, "They obviously need me at JPL -- I would've insisted on a separate observation processing loop that could have been tapped for info if anything went wrong. We used to do that on a regular basis at Ericsson. . ." I told him that if he can get a job at JPL, I'll move to Pasadena with him.
And that's about
it from here so far. I'll keep you updated as and when stuff happens. And now,
back to work. . .