Not again

Song of the day: “One way or another” by Blondie. I blame one of my chat buddies on the for a who posted it. Darn it. Luckily the song isn’t half bad. Hah.

Yesterday was a busy one. Since I was going stir crazy with the knowledge that we haven’t made any decent progress in the kitchen these past few weeks, I decided to skip one morning editing session and start on the kitchen ASAP. Of course that meant that I could start around one in the afternoon, because first there were loads of other things to do.

First there were the normal chores that seemed to be taking forever. Then grandpa asked me to check out our paint supply so we could see if there was a paint that I want for my kitchen windows. There wasn’t of course. So for the next half hour I mixed colors until I got the one that matches the window frame we’ve got in already. I think it will look good…the color, that is. Very warm and intense. Good contrast. Am happy that I managed to match it so well, because otherwise grandpa would have insisted on sanding and priming those frames too, just so it’ll look perfect. Very sweet, but he’s working his ass off for my kitchen.

That done, and with Cousin Ed seeing to visiting Sally at the hospital, I fetched tenant from her place and brought her down to keep me company while I started on tiling my kitchen. First I had to clean out the place, of course. There were like three inches of leaves on the floor, due to a particularly violent wind storm during the night.

Got most of the vertical surfaces that will disappear behind the cupboards covered up. I’m playing it smart this time round and will tile everything so that I can keep it all properly clean. Sure, it’ll be a mosaic of different whites, but it’ll be clean for sure. Hah.

Next, big brother and I left for the veggie distribution center to get left over veggies for the dogs. It took some time to sort through the lot, and then we needed to head for town for a donation, which took forever too, but we did get home in time to eat my patties like genuine burgers. They were good, I tell ya. Very tasteful, not to mention filling. I had made two and a half for me but only managed one and a half before I was seriously stuffed.

We did finish putting together the five paragraph synopsis yesterday, along with a query letter, a bio and the first ten or so pages of the book, so we sent that off, at last. Yay. Keep your fingers crossed folks.

Was late getting to bed, of course. Nothing new there. *sigh* And couldn’t pry my eyes open until my alarm had been ringing for at least fifteen minutes. Had to rush through the morning chores because of that, and then, asap, got to work on the last edit of C.H…you remember, right? The book that I was asked to revise a little before sending it back? Well, we’re getting there. Managed to get 20 pages done this morning, and then another ten this evening, so we’re well underway. Would be fun if we could get that done so I can start again on E.D. Or maybe on “Gun” which has some wonderful aspects that I would love to explore. I mean, seriously, there is something awesome about writing assassin stories. Ah well, we’ll see how it goes.

In the mean time, I found a rather nasty, not to mention big lump on Knight II’s chest, darn it. It’s about the size of a hamburger and really hard. That means another trip to the vet.

Edit done, it was time to head on up and start loading the Land Rover for tomorrow’s market. It took some time, but I think we got it all. By the time we were done, Cousin Ed came home with the news that the doctors are calling Sally’s condition rather delicate and that it will be a 50/50 thing to see whether she recovers from this latest problem. A bit depressing that.

Big brother and I headed for the vet next. Had the appointment to have his operation wound checked one last time, and I had her look at the swelling immediately as well. She’s not saying cancer yet, in particular since just a few weeks ago there was nothing there, but she can’t be sure. Instead I’m going to put him on an anti-inflammatory for the next three to four days. If that makes it disappear, I for one will be happy about it. I am not going to put the poor darling through another operation. Not again.

By the time we got back it was time to make supper, today consistent of satay on macaroni with baked cauliflower on the side. It went down splendid. Finished with another bit of the edit around ten thirty, and then got totally distracted on the for a, only to end up writing my blog late. *sigh*

Okay, gotta go. Have to get up again in less than seven hours.

Hospital toils continued

Right. Let’s do this again. I'm writing this while While waiting at the hospital I had "Coconut" by Harry Nillson in my head, which was a nicely smooth song that kept me properly entertained while we waited. Sally had to be admitted to the hospital, which meant endless waiting once more while the annoyed doctor ordered us about. Something got her knickers in a twist for sure, and it wasn’t us. Very unpleasant.
Isn’t the state hospital fun. Oh, if only we were filthy rich and able to go to some private place where you’re more than just a number, right? Ah well, on to the past few days.

There were of course the normal chores. The beauty of laundry (*snort*), getting food ready for the dogs. They were their usual monstrous selves, naturally. Flying into the food as if they hadn’t eaten in a week rather than the previous morning…and whatever snack they managed to steal, meaning a lot, because I can’t tell you how often I turn around and find a sandwich gone, or a block of cheese, or a tub of butter. Nasty dogsies. They’re a sneaky lot for sure.

What else. Well, I got a little distracted chatting online yesterday. It happens sometimes. I start talking, having fun, and before you know it quite some time has passed without me doing a single constructive thing. *sigh* But okay, just a few hours lost that did lift my spirits a little. And afterward I also managed to get the basis of the five paragraph synopsis down. Gawd that’s hard. I mean seriously, condensing a big story down to that is almost criminal. Hah. But anyway, I persevered, managed to win that battle, and can now spend some time sorting through it, polish it, and in the end send it to an agent I found who is actively looking for new clients.

Considering cousin Ed and Sally spent the entirety of the day at the hospital, first for her scan and then for the docs to check up on her leg, so I cooked a nice cauliflower soup for their return, and left it to simmer.

What else? Well, there was the yard to see to, of course, but regretfully I didn’t find the time to go there because before we knew it, big brother and I had to head for town to return a non-functioning blender to the shop, do a few groceries, and pick up a small donation. Regretfully such things cost time, and we didn’t get back home until after nine in the evening.

Luckily we still had leftovers from yesterday, so cooking was just a matter of tossing stuff into a pan and letting it heat. We managed only a little reading after that and decided to go to bed early for a change so we could have an early start. I was in bed at one. Yay!

Did have to get up earlier this morning, though, because there was a lot to do before we could go to our lessons. The usual chores, naturally, and then doing a quick run of this weeks homework because I simply didn’t get to it until this last moment. Time went way to fast, of course. Barely had time to stuff some food in my mouth and before you know it we were on our way to our lessons.
It didn’t go bad. Not at all, in fact. Had actual conversation with good sentences, and apparently most of the phrases I did for my homework were correct. Yay. Progress at least. If I ask myself if I’m learning anything, I constantly worry that it isn’t working, but considering that I can actually make our teacher understand stuff, means that I am getting somewhere.

Our lessons over, we had to head for town to pay our car insurance. A thing we get to do again in a couple of weeks for the friggin’ Opel. *Sigh* Did get to chat with our insurance agent, who’s always friendly and takes care of everything rather beautifully. She’s not looking so well lately, though. A tad pale, so I think she’s not getting out enough.

Headed back home, arriving there just after three for me to eat that obligatory bit of meat. Yes, I choked one down again (Good Sammie) which I celebrated with a much needed nap. Now, if only I had crawled under a blanket, because I only dosed until I thought of it and thus only slept deeply for about fifteen minutes. *sigh*

No matter, though. While big brother made supper (spinach with cheese on macaroni) for us, I made some for tenant who still isn’t willing to eat normal meals but insists on mashes. She finds chewable stuff to be too tiresome, for some reason. Regretfully, she doesn’t realize that that won’t get any better until she trains herself a little.

Sally had a doctor’s visit this morning where she was told, once again, to move more, and to wash herself more frequently. Hygiene is a problem for her, in particular now, when she finds any movement too much effort. This was, of course, before we got ordered back to hospital.

I was just starting on my blog when the call came. In fact, while I write this, it is almost midnight, and it doesn’t look like things are going to go any faster any time soon, darn it.
Ah well, I’m gonna see if I can post this just as soon as I arrive home. Gawd, I do hope we’ll get to bed at a decent time after getting Sally settled for the night.

I made it home after all. Hah.

Interrupted

Song of the day: “Things” by Robbie Williams and Jane Horrocks, again. Splendid song to have in your head. So very entertaining. Of course I had the Sugar Hill Gang with Rapper’s delight in my head yesterday. Hah.
…………………

Okay, sorry, but the blog is going to have to be postponed today. Got a call, so I’m off to the hospital with Sally, who has a blood clod in her lung, according to the test results from yesterday. She's probably going to be have to admitted. I do hope that tonight won’t be an all-nighter again. I’ll try to put up a decent one tomorrow.

4 in one

Song of the day: “Coconut” by Larry Nilsson. Awesome song, right.

Now how on earth am I going to get four friggin’ days into a single blog, for crying out loud. I’m just going to have to hit the highlights and leave it at that, what do you think?

Well, like I mentioned the last time, there was the whole tie dye session. Yep. Treated about fifteen items of clothing, which improved on our slowly dwindling selection somewhat at least. Had some really nice specimens this time round…and I ended up seriously sunburned for my efforts. Added to that we spent at least an hour in the yard, taking out a field of broccoli because disaster struck the evening before.

Did I mention that before, or did I forget? Well, whatever the case, the tap of the basin didn’t close, meaning we lost our entire supply during the night. Aaaaargh. You should have heard big brother swear a blue streak. I didn’t know what was wrong, of course, so I pretty much ignored it until he came up to tell me. I did my own swearing then. Hah. But anyway, due to that we headed out into the yard the next morning to yank out anything that was excess in the garden. Got a nice big batch of broccoli plants that we’ve steadily been mixing through the dog food ever since.

Also, since the whole thing with the pie for middle sister’s birthday went wrong (I’d given it to mom to give it to her, only to have the dogs eat it, grrr) I decided to make her a top. I’d planned one for her, but when she came up I of course let her look through the lot to pick one herself…I found it tremendously funny that she picked the one I’d done with her in mind. Another one I gave to little sister, there was this tiny little hole in the side that made it impossible for me to sell it. I think she liked it, so it was an excellent solution.

There was a session of making patties, which took me a couple of hours. Again the three basic flavors, beans, chickpeas and lentils. Had about ninety of them, which explains for the time, doesn’t it? Got the packing down pat now, though. Works too, since those of last week unwrapped perfectly when I used them for supper the other day.
Though I made a small error salt-wise they didn’t do bad at the market this Sunday. Sold ten patties again, paying for the expenses, and had several requests for my sauces. Am going to have to think of something for that. This was the first time that I only took a little along, and yet there were three or four people who wanted the sauce with the patties.

Sent Saving Nina out queries to a couple of publishers. We needed a break from the editing before we start on the last round, so we decided to start on a last round of sending it out. Gawd, sometimes I think about what it would be like, to have a publisher, or whatever, interested for real and then being able to resume working on the series, because let’s face it, not only are the four wips just begging for attention, there are two more stories in the series somewhere in the back burner of my mind demanding for a voice. *sigh* If only, if only.
Sent out another package this very morning. Can’t know what the answer will be until you ask, so you have to ask.

Bad thing that happened was that Ollie, tenant’s dog somehow ended up outside when I got there with my dogs, and he got grabbed pretty bad. The disadvantage of him being tiny and my big ones, Knight, Sitabah and pesky little Dax is that whenever I got one off, the others would pounce enthusiastically. Ended up with Knight held by the scruff of his neck, Sitabah kicked aside with the flat of my foot, and Cousin Ed scooping Ollie up before they ripped him apart. Phew. Stuff like that gets your adrenaline flowing for sure. Luckily he didn’t have any major holes or tears, so all is relatively well.
Didn’t need to do the Saturday market this week, and considering Cousin Ed and big brother loaded the car for Sunday while I was making the patties, was able to focus properly on my task of the evening.

Sunday market day started a little on the late side for us. Not because we got up late, or anything, nope, it was because the preparation of the taster patties took longer than expected. Luckily we’ve got the unloading down pat these days, meaning we were set up proper at 11. Had quite a bit of takers for the taster patties, chatted with folks, but didn’t have time to write because in the middle of the day we got a call from home telling us that Sally had a massive infection on her leg and that big brother was driving her to the hospital. That meant that Cousin Ed had to leave to help her out at the ER while big brother joined me, and later helped me pack up for the day…I burnt even more skin there, seeing as I was wearing a sleeveless, and stood in the full sunshine most of the day. It was wonderful. There was a cool breeze from the sea, so my day was swell.

Luckily, Sally didn’t need to be admitted. Instead they did tests, took photos and allowed her to go home at the end of the day…more or less by the time big brother and I went home and started unloading. Since big brother offered to do the cooking, I was able to take a couple of minutes in my room to put up my feet. That was so nice. Seriously, the blood was pounding for several minutes, and then slowly subsided. Such a relief that.

Four nights in a row now, I have not slept enough, nor well, in the case of Saturday onto Sunday. Hardly slept a wink that night, in fact, which didn’t do me well by the time we got back. Was friggin’ ass tired at the end of the day.

Grandpa finished grouting the pool, and filled it up yesterday. Now if only the mornings start being a little less nippy, I might actually get around to taking a dip, for crying out loud. It would be so nice to wake up like that again.

There were the normal chores of course. Laundry, cleaning, feeding the dogs. Nothing all that fascinating, as you know. Heck, at the moment I can’t even complain about edits, since we’re not doing one at the moment. Don’t you just hate that limbo time between two edits. They pass way slow.

Cooking was all about rice and red beets today. Worked out well too. I love beets baked in cheese. It’s the best way to eat the darn things.

Practiced a little with tenant. Not much, though, considering she is complaining about exhaustion. Lots of folks don’t seem to understand that doing less only makes things worse. If you chip away at your abilities bit by bit for long periods of time, you’re going to end up with less ability. That is fact.

Had to take Sonia to the vet again. She’s doing poorly. She’s bloaty, losing gas, and is once again constantly going through her hind legs. The vet is not entirely sure about the cause. At least not without a battery of tests. Instead she suggested an anti inflammatory, which seems to do it’s thing a little tonight. Pool Sonia.

Then tonight when we got back from a small donation, we unloaded, at which point big brother closed the door and had Dax scream at the top of hi lungs. Poor darling. Once again he lost a small strip of his ear. *sigh*

Gawd, I can’t keep my eyes open anymore. Looks like my bad four days caught up with me.
And here I had wanted do some Spanish tonight. Grrr. Gotta go.