just be.

ermahgerd blerg perst!

Actual stuff to talk about! Tonight featuring correct capitalization! (WHAT IS HAPPENING HERE?)

I recently started reading The Eight-Step Home Cure. I've been trying to get a handle on the clutter (an ongoing struggle for me) and disorganization (same) but also my unhealthy habits with money. I'm working with some pros on all this, but this book is helping me too. 

Last week was week one and had a mix of mental and physical tasks:

• Make a complete list of repairs and solutions. Repairs needed all over the house, the kinds of things that one might note when renting a new apartment. And solutions for each of those. I got through the list of repairs but am still working on filling in the solutions.
• Vacuum the floors. DONE. We have someone who comes and cleans the house each week, and she had just vacuumed and mopped most of the floors, but I kept in the spirit of the task (which is to become more intimately familiar with the house and its flow) by using a Swiffer throughout the rooms.
• Mop the floors. DONE. Well, Melanie (the cleaning person) did the mopping, but I kept in the spirit of the task with the sweeping.
• Remove one item from the house and put it outside. DONE. The main goal with this task is to break the seal on getting rid of stuff if you have a hard time with that. Another goal is to signal to the world that you are freeing your home of stuff. Or something like that. Anyway, I had a mannequin that had been just leaning against a wall for years, ever since I bought it at an estate sale in Squirrel Hill. So out she went, and someone took her the next day.
• Buy fresh flowers. DONE Wednesday. This is the easiest one, and that's good because it's supposed to go on every week. I pick up groceries at Whole Foods each week, and there are always tons of beautiful fresh flowers near the customer-service desk where I pick them up and pay for them. This week, I chose some gorgeous ranunculus. Vibrantly pink, which is unlike me, but ranunculus always suck me in. Just gorgeous. I cut the stems and put them in water in a mason jar, and I've thinned out the stems and foliage once. I also printed out instructions for a simple solution for water for longer-lasting flowers. This one has me excited, if you can't tell.
• Sit for ten minutes in a part of your home in which you never sit. Weirdly, this was the one that I took the longest to get to. Today I worked in the dining room all day (more on that in a moment), so that was way more than ten minutes.
• Look into earth-friendly cleaning products. DONE. Mostly. I stocked up at Whole Foods Wednesday, but I might have forgotten some category or other. I bought basically the whole Method line of cleaning products. 

So this is week two of the cure, in which I focus on the kitchen. This week's tasks?

• Clear space for an outbox (a space in the home where I can stow things I'm thinking of getting rid of). DONE today.
• Clear one surface and use the outbox. DONE today. Cleared many surfaces, actually, all over the kitchen. Check out this kitchen island!  (the stuff on it is just tonight's dinner and the recipe, plus the flowers from last week and the cutting boards, which have no other home, at least yet.)
• Clean your kitchen from top to bottom, and throw away old food. Buy a water filter and use it. IN PROGRESS. I went through all the exposed surfaces (a couple of bookshelves and the kitchen island and countertops) and the upper cabinets to find anything that I could discard.
  
  
  I put a bunch of stuff in the outbox
  
  and started a Google Sheets list of most of it and shared it with local friends to see whether anyone wanted anything. My main goal is to get rid of the stuff, so I'm keeping that really simple. Not chasing down new homes for anything, just setting aside stuff if someone wants it. And it feels good to see some of this help someone out. As for the water filter, Mr. Bee researched this a year or so ago and determined that a reverse-osmosis filter is really the only kind that would be worth having, for us at least, and is actually really wasteful of water. So we're sticking with unfiltered tap water for everything except drinking, and he buys cases of bottled water at Costco for drinking.
• Fix one thing in your house yourself. I'm not positive what this will be. If assembling something counts (I have lots of those on the list), then that's what I'll be doing--probably assembling the dress form that Annette gave me. That's something that I wrote down as an obstacle to last week's sweeping chore, blocking the flow, because it's just sitting on the floor in the way. So that's probably what this one will be.
• Run your hands over every wall in your house. This is another become-intimate-with-your-space thing. The author uses a very cool image: Imagine that you're touching the skin of a whale and your house is this living, breathing thing. I love that. Especially because almost all of our walls are blue :)
• Buy fresh flowers (this is going to be a weekly thing, every week when I pick up the groceries). Determine your style. DONE. Turns out I like something called "organic modern," which incorporates the clean lines and humor of modern style but the wood and other materials of Asian and other organic styles.
• Find a new recipe and cook one meal at home. DONE. I cook from a new recipe five nights a week. Tonight I made carne asada.
  
  Choose the date for your housewarming. Haven't done this yet. Eight weeks from the start is the first week in June, but I might wait a few weeks. Also? We've been in this house for ten years this month. Is a housewarming really appropriate?

So that's what's happening Chez Bee. I'm having a blast with it, even though it's really time- and energy-consuming. Today what I did was work in the dining room, which is where the outbox is and next to the kitchen. I used the pomodoro timer in my current task-management app, KanbanFlow, which sets up 25 minutes of work then a five-minute break, but with a 15-minute break every fourth break. During each break, I'd get up and do another bit of the kitchen clearing. It worked out really well for my productivity both for work and for the home cure. A++ would try again.

so many things, so little time.

well. there is lots to say and i have little energy to write, but i need to get it all down tonight.

i'll start by saying that andrew and i celebrated our sixth wedding anniversary on saturday, and it was terrific. we dropped the dogs off at the cozy inn (warning: stupid music plays, but you can turn it off at the "music off" link beneath the changing pictures) and headed down to berryville, virginia, for the shenandoah valley fiber festival. it was my first time going to this one, and it was really nice. calm, friendly, spacious, a little warm but not too, and lots of vendors. and most indoors, making weather a minimal concern even if it had been bad. i was not very spendy and bought just two skeins: dragonfly fibers dragon sock in the titania colorway, which is a beautiful tone-on-tone emerald green and a nice sproingy tight twist,

and lizard toes isobel, which is a fingering blend of merino, cashmere, and nylon in a variegated grey and brown.

the dragon sock is earmarked for the tour de sock; my team is the team that rocks (slowly), made up of five members of the rockin sock club, and socks that rock is by far my largest stash, but dragonfly fibers is one of the sponsors and we get double points for using its yarn, so. i am competitive. what?

the isobel was just calling to me from the aisle and i waltzed into the booth and grabbed it, felt the cashmere and knew i had to have it, and THEN realized that it was a yarn by someone i'd met on lazy, stupid, and godless just a couple of days earlier. it will make beautiful weaving. on which more later.

after the festival, we checked into our hotel. we stayed at the aloft winchester, and let me sum up right here, unambiguously so that there is no confusion: DO NOT STAY AT THIS HOTEL. it is pretty. it has a snack bar. that's about all the good i can say about it. oh, and i guess it wasn't too expensive ($116 including taxes for one night). why did we hate it so much? here we go, chronologically: i was too stupid to check where it was located and should have booked something in the old town. my bad. not the fault of the hotel. but a bummer. whatever. so we walk in, and the young woman behind the desk is angrily flipping through a binder. chin on her hand, scowling, nearly ripping the pages out as she turns the pages, looking for something she's not finding. she doesn't acknowledge us (we are in her line of sight peripherally and the lobby was small--we know she saw and heard us) for literally about five minutes. when she finally does, she makes sure to tell us how crappy her day is going and that it's just beginning. this line of conversation continues throughout our (fortunately relatively brief) interaction. at the end of said interaction, she pushes a couple of card keys at me and starts to turn back to her computer problems (also a topic of complaint during our time providing hotel-desk-clerk therapy). so i ask, "what's the room number? is this it?" and i find it written in tiny letters on the card-key envelope. "what's the best way to get to that?" (any other time i've checked into a hotel, the checker-in has made sure to show and tell me my room number and then give explicit directions to the room. not this one. she had Things to Do.) so she tells us and then returns to her work. we head to room 226. it's cool. it's modern. sleek. we settle in for a little nap before dinner.

we walked around the pedestrian area for a little while before dinner, then headed to the restaurant. here's me on our walk. i was a hand-knits fool: february lady sweater, kalajoki socks, and earth and sky shawl.

 

dinner was AMAZING. i'd found (thanks, google!) and reserved a table for two at one block west. again, unambiguously, i'll offer this: DO EAT AT THIS RESTAURANT. so good! i started with this fabulous composed salad:

(oops, sideways; i'll figure out how to fix that). it's a mixture of asian pears, butternut squash, and spiced pecans with an apple-cider reduction. omg so good. also excellent french bread. very frenchy. i had a hanger steak with dragon-something (a theme!) wax beans and black kale. i love hanger steak. :) and then we shared a flourless chocolate cake called le bete noir. it was warmer and had a different texture from other flourless cakes i've had--almost like a flan, except that i don't like flan. not custardy, just soft and warm like that. omnomnom.

and then we were completely stuffed and drove back to the hotel. we were surprised (and, i confess, unimpressed) to see the desk clerk cozily adjusting the shirt of a young man who was enjoying the attention quite a bit, both enjoying pounding music and a lively party going on around them in the lobby bar. we were grateful to be headed to the peace of our room.

we thought. but we could hear EVERYthing from our room. we were annoyed. but we watched some tv and went about our business and tried to ignore them. this was doable until we tried to go to sleep. at 10:15 (yes, i am old), i phoned the front desk and asked about how late we should expect the music to be going on. "about 12:30, maybe a little later," came the answer. no apology, no concern. so i hung up. what could i do? 

then andrew suggested that we request a different room, so i called back. she had one more room, on a higher floor and at the other end of the hotel. why the hell hadn't we been given that one in the first place? i do not know. so we moved and had a decent night after that. but never any note of concern or apology from the desk clerk.

the morning-shift guy was a whole different kind of employee. genuinely aksed how our night was, just a general air of here-to-serve. too bad he hdn't been on the night shift.

we headed back to town for breakfast before hitting the road: the amherst diner. another good choice. not speedy, particularly, and not any prettier than any other old diner, but a good diner. i'd go again.

and that was our weekend. i'd spent a lot of it stressed and worried, despite the beautiful scenery and wonderful company, because i am having endometrial ablation tomorrow morning and had received a call friday afternoon saying that they couldn't clear me for anesthesia because of an abnormality on my ekg. so i'd worried all weekend about how i was going to chase down doctors and tests to get cleared by wednesday morning, given that i have a rush project at work right now that really needed to get to the author by COB today. (it didn't. sorry.) but monday morning i was able to get all the paperwork faxed and signatures transmitted, so i'm all cleared for tomorrow. i'm very nervous still, mostly about the IV needle (i HATE needles, serious phobia, like the only thing i'm actually phobic about), but also about the anesthesia not working and going through what i went through five years ago in the colonoscopy. but i remind myself that needles are not (generally) fatal and that i have survived being raped and the rape-like colonoscopy and that i shall therefore survive this thing tomorrow. i will be grateful to be under anesthesia finally and not worrying about this any more.

so. weaving: i start an eight-week course on weaving at the pittsburgh center for the arts on saturday, and i am SO excite. i learned to weave this summer at woven art in lansing but haven't had anyone here to help me learn more, and there are a few more things i'm ready to learn. the classes are three hours every saturday, and i am so excited to learn and make some more fun stuff.

and of course nerd wars and tour de sock both start on saturday, so those will be good for keeping me busy. 

oh! and i almost forgot: we brought nova flooring out today to have a look at our dr. seuss-ity house, and it looks like they might be the answer for us. we hope to have an estimate in a couple of days. now to choose actual flooring! i'm SO looking forward to entertaining at home again. :squeezesigh:

i am smug.

and you know how i love to be smug.

a few days ago, someone on ravelry shared a url that was new to me: what the fuck should i make for dinner? smitten by the humor of the site, i checked it a couple of times for dinner ideas, but i finally decided last night that i would shop today and cook tonight. so i clicked until i saw something appealing, and BOY is it ever: stewed apples with macaroni and cheese. i know: stewed apples? wtf is that? but the ingredients sounded yummy, and i've been jonesing for some mac and cheese lately. so smug 1 = finding an awesome-looking dinner idea for a weeknight.

so i went to whole foods after the gym (well, after the yoga place, which was after the yarn shop, which was after the gym—i have been working a ton and decided that i could stand a long lunch today) (smug items 2, 3, 4, and 5 = going to the gym and having an excellent workout that did NOT result in a migraine—hooray—stopping for a few minutes at my favorite yarn shop and catching up with some friends—also hooray—stopping at the yoga place and not only getting the information i wanted about starting some classes but also troubleshooting some printing issues for the owner, and then getting to go to whole foods because whole foods). i picked up the ingredients, plus a few other things (because whole foods). i asked the cheesemonger (i love that there's a cheesemonger in my universe) for some advice on the gruyere, and he recommended a wonderful-looking one, and i asked him to shred it and he DID. so: smug items 6, 7, and 8 were getting cheese shredded and thereby not having to pull out a shredder or food processor to shred a bunch of cheese, finding ginger-something apples that are YUMMY and so my new favorite apples for cooking, and finding some fig jam to use for smug item 9, which will be grilled cheese, apple, and fig-jam sandwiches for lunch this week. i will even have leftover caramelized onions from tonight's dinner to add to said sandwiches. so that would be smug item 10.

smug item 11 = snacking on other delicious cheese while cooking. smug item 12 = finishing the cooking in like 40 minutes. and smug item 13 = eating this delicious delicious dinner. i am going to have to insist that you try this recipe because fabulous. pay no heed to the stick of butter and 10 oz. of cheese. you will love yourself for making this. and making yourself fat just gives you more of yourself to love when that happens.

5, 4, 3, 2, 1 profile!

i love lists. so, natch: 

one project i'm particularly proud of

the scarf i wove in one day in my first-ever attempt at weaving!

for both warp and weft, i used a skein of brooks farm trio, a double knitting–weight blend of wool, alpaca, and silk, in a colorway that made me swoon from the first time i laid eyes on it at maryland sheep and wool this spring. i adore it.

two mistakes i've made in the past

me? i never make mistakes! 

ha.

okay, srsly. the big decisions that might seem like mistakes all must have worked out okay in the end, because i wouldn't have ended up here with this life i love so much if they hadn't. so that leaves me with smaller mistakes. or mistakes that i don't regret having made, if only because they helped put me here. so one mistake i made that always makes me shake my head when i think about it is deciding to quit grad school just a few weeks shy of the end of the year. this is back in april 1989, when i was just 22 years old and in my first attempt at an advanced degree. i was studying justice, law, and society at the american university in washington, d.c. i'd done amazingly well in my first semester, crazy-good gpa, good friends, living in a tiny studio apartment in upper northwest d.c., and really liking what i was studying. but i was a financial idiot and hadn't planned or saved for living in this very expensive place on a stipend of—wait for it—$5,500 per year (the apartment rent was $497 per month, if that helps put that stipend into perspective). so, in addition to the 20 hours of research and teaching i was doing for two professors (to earn the stipend), i took on a part-time job at a nearby waldenbooks. and my studies began to slip. by april, i was panicked that i was going to get a c or worse in my statistics class (and a c in that program was, effectively, failing, as it required retaking the class). so i withdrew. just like that. i remember that the dean, jim fyfe, even tried personally to convince me not to quit. he had such good logic and was SO right. i wish i had listened to him. but i didn't. i quit my classes, finished out what parts of my assistantship i could, and started working full time at kramerbooks and afterwords. it was a superfun time—i commuted from a bus stop directly in front of my apartment down to dupont circle every weekday morning to open the store at 7 a.m., sold george shultz his daily paper, and got to handle some really interesting stock. and i had lunch at the not-cheap-but-so-delicious cafe that was part of the shop. and on weekends i spent all my time in museums and galleries. seriously. like, what an awesome life was that? i did it for two months, until camp started again, when i returned to my one true love of my pre-andrew life, camp kittamaqund. (okay, "one true love" is overstating it—i love my friends and family—but that place had a serious pull on me for many years. i still miss it.) 

anyway. so. quitting grad school was a decision i'll never think was a good one.

a second mistake. really i don't know. marrying geoffery was a mistake, but if i hadn't married him, i wouldn't have become who i am or ended up in pittsburgh to meet andrew and start the career i have now and love. so a mistake but not a regret? 

three things that make my work unique

what makes my crafting unique is that i have, i think, a knack for choosing colors that i love, so i usually end up loving the *look* of the things i make even if the things don't turn out to fit or work otherwise :) (that's another thing that makes my crafting unique: it frequently comes out terribly, terribly wrong. wrong as in wouldn't fit anyone ever.)

what makes my workwork unique is the speed with which i can finish, usually, though that's changing. it's changing first because my physical ability to do it quickly has been declining; the narcolepsy has kind of taken over in the past few years, and i can't work the strings of 14- and 16-hour days, nights, weekends, and holidays like i used to be able to do. i just can't. it's very frustrating, but i haven't figured out how to change it. (brb forgot to take my ritalin this morning) it's also changing because my managers have made it very clear that i need to slow down. lots of reasons for that, some more understandable to me than others, but, if one wants to keep one's job, as i do, one does what one's managers require. so.

and the third thing that makes my work unique, regardless of what kind of work we're talking about, is that i like variety. i like to have a lot of projects going at once and to switch among them. and i like to start projects. oh, how i like to start projects. and plan projects. i want to make and do all the things.

four tools i love to use

ipad. easy. i adore my ipad.

iphone. also easy. more useful in most ways than the ipad. i can take photos and video with it, of course make and receive phone calls with it (though i loathe talking on the phone), and use my one million apps on it. i use it constantly. never want to be without it.

my signature knitting needles. such a pleasure to use, truly one of the things that makes knitting such a delightfully tactile hobby.

and my hands. i have loved working with my hands since i was a little girl, starting with drawing and painting, moving on to needlepoint and cross-stitch, later piano, and now knitting, weaving, and sometimes even crochet. even cooking. it's all about tactility and adroitness.

five inspirations

ravelry has to be the top name on this list. every day i see projects, patterns, and yarns that give me ideas of things i want to make and use. it's like the iphone of my crafting life.

my body. been cold lately? make a shawl. wish you had that sweater in blue? (surprise) make one. back hurting? try yoga. or massage. or acupuncture. or a different chair. or a different desk. or whatever. whatever my body tells me, i try to listen.

my friends. especially my crafty friends at my local yarn shop, natural stitches. this is my main circle of friends in town here, primarily because they all like to do the crafty things i like to do, but also because, within that, they also like to think about the kinds of things i think about: fit, color, tactile properties. 

goodness. (that's a fourth source of inspiration, not an exclamation.) with workwork especially, my values and principles are right up there in the list of motivating factors, and goodness is primary among them. yes, plenty of my work is dry. but i try to focus on the ways in which my contributions are helping the efforts of my employer (a policy-analysis think tank) make the world better. at least for somebody. maybe i helped shipbuilders be more cost-effective. maybe i helped policymakers understand housing and relocation after katrina or no-fault car insurance. maybe i helped police forces understand how to attract and keep excellent police officers. whatever we're doing, i believe in what we do and try to focus on improving whatever we're contributing.

lately, health. i've been trying to live more healthily, which involves purchasing healthier foods (and, of course, spending more time exercising). i love seeing what's in season at my local farmers' markets and figuring out what to make with what i find. we're eating a lot more produce here, and i love that so much of it is local these days.

the en dash

i love the en dash. i have observed that, like a dining hall, it has many uses. one of my favorites is its service like a hyphen but between compounds. from chicago:

6.80 En dashes with compound adjectives

The en dash can be used in place of a hyphen in a compound adjective when one of its elements consists of an open compound or when both elements consist of hyphenated compounds (see 7.78). This editorial nicety may go unnoticed by the majority of readers; nonetheless, it is intended to signal a more comprehensive link than a hyphen would. It should be used sparingly, and only when a more elegant solution is unavailable. As the first two examples illustrate, the distinction is most helpful with proper compounds, whose limits are established within the larger context by capitalization. The relationship in the third example, though clear enough, depends to some small degree on an en dash that many readers will perceive as a hyphen connecting music and influenced. The relationships in the fourth example, though also clear enough, are less awkwardly conveyed with a comma.

the post–World War II years

Chuck Berry–style lyrics

country music–influenced lyrics (or lyrics influenced by country music)

a quasi-public–quasi-judicial body (or, better, a quasi-public, quasi-judicial body)

A single word or prefix should be joined to a hyphenated compound by another hyphen rather than an en dash; if the result is awkward, reword.

non-English-speaking peoples

a two-thirds-full cup (or, better, a cup that is two-thirds full)

An abbreviated compound is treated as a single word, so a hyphen, not an en dash, is used in such phrases as “US-Canadian relations” (Chicago’s sense of the en dash does not extend to between).

here's my recommendation: learn about the en dash, become its friend, and use it. that way, when i try to use it correctly in works i'm editing, the authors won't respond, "i don't want to use that. our readers won't know what that is." friends, the only way readers learn what something is is by encountering it.

i'm a giver like that.

weird.

remember the mall? for my friends and me in high school and on college breaks, the mall was the destination. window-shopping and sometimes real shopping, people-watching, mock-profound conversation about trends and what we could tell about the world by what we saw in the shops.

this morning's news tells me that general growth properties, developer of hundreds of major malls in the united states, filed for bankruptcy. i don't know what this means for the malls themselves, but my guess is that the prognosis is poor. landmark mall in alexandria, virginia, was one of the malls i shopped when living in that town. and tysons galleria is sort of a mecca for shoppers in the dc area, or at least it was back then. the galleria in dallas was a stop when my ex and i visited his family the last time. all those are owned by ggp.

the news analyst said that these developers aren't suffering just because of the current economic downturn—which has hit them hard, of course, with their tenants having trouble paying rent. the 9/11 attacks and their aftermath were maybe even bigger causes: as a report i edited back in 2006 noted, property owners were concerned about security for their facilities, and maybe customers were, too. apparently, sales at stand-alone stores (e.g., target) have taken a chunk of sales away from malls. i'm guilty; i rarely shop at malls any more. we go to an open-air shopping center for our weekly errands, and i look forward to the opening of bakery square right next door to my local yarn shop and on the way home from whole foods and my office when i go in, but most of my shopping is online if it isn't in one of those places.

i'm lucky enough to be employed (and in a job i love and that affords me my comfortable life, so doubly or triply grateful), and i remind myself daily how lucky i really am and never take my good fortune for granted.

lady of leisure

you know, when i tell people that i work at home and have pretty flexible hours, i get a lot of envious reactions. in fact, in just the past couple of months, i've had multiple people ask to talk to me about how they, too, can sign on for this kind of career. everyone has his or her own reason, but many of them have kids with whom they want to be home, at least after school, or they like to sleep late or wake early and work whenever they want.

it's nice. don't get me wrong. i've never been someone who's been able to work regular, set hours in an office 40 hours a week. never. some days i just can't work, or i can't work as many hours as i might like, due to the frequency of my migraine attacks. and, frankly, i like the flexibility of being able to run errands when the stores are emptiest and lines are shorter. i like being able to have lunch with my friends, sometimes even on short notice. i like being able to put in a really long day on a project to get as much done as i can, but i get restless sitting at a desk (though i can sit for essentially a whole day in my living room working on the same thing, so go figure). i can't concentrate with people around, walking by and chatting in the halls or stopping by to visit. i can't focus on one project in an office, but at home, i can work for 16 or 18 hours straight.

yes. that's normal. here's what august has looked like, which is a pretty typical month.

friday the 1st, i worked 12.5 hours (almost half on one document, about a third on a second, and the rest split among three others).
the following monday, i worked 13 hours on one document, 2.5 hours on another, and two hours on three others, or 17.5 hours.
tuesday the 5th, i worked just 7.5 hours, most on one document and the rest split among three others.
wednesday the 6th, i worked 10 hours, almost all one one document. (yes, this one document is the same one that has occupied the majority of the preceding days.)
thursday the 7th, i finished editing the big document in another 9.5 hours, worked 2.5 hours on a second document, then spent another three hours formatting the first one--15 hours.
friday the 8th, i worked 15.5 hours, mostly formatting a document for another editor who went on vacation.

that's the end of my week, right? so that's 78 hours that week.

but wait! there's more! like ginsu knives. saturday the 9th, i spent 16 hours on six different documents.
i took that sunday off (!). monday the 11th, i took it easy: just 6.5 hours, mostly on that one big document (it's off in proofreading now, all 600-some pages of it, if you're curious). tuesday the 12th: 11 hours, mostly reediting a document undergoing its third round of rewrites. pray for that one to get published soon; if i never read anything about renewable energy again, it'll be too soon. (sorry, planet.) (ironic edit: just got word this instant that the urgency has passed on this one for the moment, since the intended audience will be consumed by party conventions and congressional debate for a couple of weeks.)
wednesday the 13th, nine hours, mostly proofreading--a welcome, welcome break from the editing.
thursday the 14th, 12 hours, about a third on the renewable-energy report and the rest spread across four other documents.
friday the 15th was just a regular old eight-hour day. most on that first big report (interesting, on ways to alleviate l.a. traffic congestion, in the short term).

did i work that saturday? well, just 3.5 hours. so that week was much lighter, at just 62.5 hours. and sunday i worked another 7.5 hours. we'll count that toward this week.

so far this week, i worked 17.5 hours on monday, 15.5 hours on tuesday, and 2.5 so far today. that's already 43 hours, and it's not even 10am on wednesday.

i have no idea what that all averages out to per day, let alone per workday, but it sure looks like a lot.

now, today i've finished all the current work on current edits except one. i'm expecting another one (yes, on energy--bleh) back from proofreading via fedex today, and i have a report waiting for me to finish editing, one i started weeks ago but that's been on hold by the author and his folks since then. naturally, it came off hold and back into my queue on monday.

and coming back to me any time--i never know when and never know how much work will be involved when it does--are things in authors', proofreaders', and proof checkers' hands. there's a couple dozen books and reports that fall into that category.

but i'm going to take advantage of a little breathing room and knit for a little while today. as you might imagine, i don't get much time to knit when my schedule is like this, which is most of the time. and i have gifties that need to be knitted (and others that need to be bought--why do both of my nephews and both of my brothers have birthdays all within a week of each other, right around labor day? how rude). and laundry to do, for that matter. thank goodness for smartboy, who continues to do most of the household errands and chores--i don't know what i'd do without him. eat a lot less (or a lot worse) and have no pets. and no house. (i don't get paid by the hour like i did as a contractor.)

so that's what it's like to do what i do for a living. at least, that's what it's like for me. i can't say i know what it's like for everyone, though i do know that my fellow editor here in the pittsburgh office works this way, too. i love what i do--i couldn't put those kinds of hours in unless i did--and i feel lucky about that.

update: that renewable-energy report that i just said turned out not to be a rush? yeah. just came back from author review. fuckityfuckfuckfuck. well, bethie, your daughter may not get her little pressie any time soon. blame congress. and the greenhouse gases. don't forget the greenhouse gases.