aishabintjamil

Friday. Cloudy and sort of snowing. Cold.

Firefly has once again joined me on my lap to celebrate the happy lite and to look out over the long backyard. She even had a taste of my tea. Firefly has previously not liked tea, but Sprite used to demand a drop out of every cup, so it looks like she's found both Sprite and Belle's books.

I slept badly, and have been arguing with myself about whether or not I'm going to eat breakfast. I think I finessed that. Macaroni and cheese is breakfast, right?

Today the taxes take top billing, followed by writing my remarks for my talk next month. After that, we'll see.

How's everybody holding up?

Dictated to my phone

And my tablet has arrived. Thank you, Robert of FedEx for ringing the bell, and wishing me a good day. Screen signed and package inside. 11:37 am

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New tablet. OMG so cute!

Of course, I have no idea what I'm doing and I'll need to find a translation for what the icons mean, but I repeat: OMG so cute!

Ahem.

So, after a brief, doting new-parent, delay, dinner is in the oven -- a chicken breast patty with a slice of mozzarella on top, and crushed tomato sauce on top of that, under a tin foil hat in the oven.

Leftover peas for veggies, I think, and maybe a slice of bread.

Yeah, that sounds like lunch...
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Well. Speaking of rabbit holes. I sat down with the Boox, which has made Many Assumptions about how people deal with their devices. I've managed to figure out how to annotate, which is, along with the e-ink tech, what I wanted the thing for, so that's a plus. Having figured it out, I'm not sure how useful it will be, but it's early days.

I increased the font, monkeyed with the refresh rates, got the stylus paired, and a bunch of all those other things that you do when you get a new device. I'm still a little hazy on what the symbols on the navigation bar mean, but I halfway solved that by changing them out for symbols that I recognize.

I'm baffled by the absence of what is to me a recognizable home screen, but there's probably a way to finesse that, too. Later.

The biggest frustration so far is that the on-board manual ain't on-board. It helpfully gives you an address where the document ought to be on the device, but it's not there, and the web download instructions simply make no sense. Oh, and I just tried that address from this machine, and there isn't a manual for the B&W Go-7, which would explain why it can't be downloaded, hey?

Well.

Tomorrow is, they say, another day. However, I really can't play with my new toy all day tomorrow. No, I mean that.

I did a second go-over of the tax questionnaire, but I didn't make my phone call, so that'll have to happen tomorrow.

The cats have been checking in on me. Tali has made it her habit to join me here in the business office after lunch, which is very pleasant. Rook usually checks in a couple times, but he really does love his basket back on Steve's desk. It's funny that Firefly will use the basket on my desk -- last known as Trooper's Basket -- but neither of the new kids use it anymore, though they liked it a lot when Grandpa was still with us.

So, I guess that it's for the day.

Everybody stay safe.

I'll check in tomorrow.

Wednesday. Sunny and cold. Minus three F when I got up. Minus 1 as I sit here in the comfy chair in my office overlooking the Long Back Yard with Tali on my lap, taking full advantage of the electric blanket.

FedEx seems quite sure that my package, which even it acknowledges I have to sign for, will be delivered tomorrow.  I have no less than three emails in my inbox assuring me that this is the case.  So! That means today I'll be going to the grocery and the post office and do another errands out in the world, after it gets a little warmer.

Breakfast, when I get around to it, will be oatmeal with something. I still have chocolate chips, I think and I certainly have almond butter.

Right now I'm drinking a cup of chocolate tea, which is interesting, but probably needs milk. Well, I'm going to the grocery today. I'll pick up some creamer. The possession of tea infusers has widened my horizons considerably.

I'm feeling a bit less oppressed today which is a good thing. This is usually the result of taming piles, so well done, me.

I think that's all I've got.

How's everybody holding up?

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All righty, then!

Breakfast et, first load of laundry drying, email answered, some phone calls made -- haircut, annual check-up appointment for Firefly, PT -- blinds ordered.

Time to put on my boots and go do some errands in the sunny 17F-feels-like-6F day.
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So, FedEx, which swore three times in my email that it would be delivering my package tomorrow, Thursday, February 29, so I arranged to go out today so I could be home tomorrow to receive and sign for that package?

Yep, came home to find a note on my door from FedEx: "Sorry we missed you!"

A company that can't even keep track of its own schedule is ... useless. As I explained at length to poor Muhammed, who won my phone call.

The theory is that they will try again tomorrow. I just hope nobody decides to use the package for a football in the meantime.

Here have a portrait of the snowbank along my driveway.  Subaru provided for scale.

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Well, except for the paperwork I haven't gotten yet, I think I'm finished the tax questionnaire. I still need to double/triple check, get hold of the Actual Accountant who will be working with this form, and then input everything into the Blessed Portal, but for values of having gathered all the information, I'm done.

February has somehow become completely full with appointments for me and the cats, which is -- kind of astonishing.

In other news, I thought I'd gotten off easy yesterday what with SnowJoeing the deck. May I just say -- Ow? Back, arm, knees, shoulder, wrists and hands.

I have achieved an item for my When It Gets Warm Enough to Walk Up and Down on the Earth List -- I wanna take an alpaca for a walk, and it turns out that I can do that right up in Unity.

I've had Tali with me all afternoon. Rook was holding down Steve's office for most of the day, but just recently came in to quiz me on my progress with the taxes before he took over my chair in the dining room. Firefly . . . Firefly has apparently been reading Belle's Book. She located the heated and often-sunny bottom shelf in the built-in bookcase that Belle used to favor and has been tucked in very contentedly napping since just before lunch.

I b'lieve that the last load of towels has just finished drying, which means the only laundry left to do -- tomorrow! -- will be the cat blankets. Progress, so they tell me.

Everybody have a good evening. Stay safe.

I'll check in tomorrow.

Business First!

1 Today is the Book Day for the Diviner's Bow mass market edition! Those who prefer this format may purchase from their favorite vendor, and we here at the Cat Farm and Confusion Factory thank you very much!

2 eARC consumers! A Liaden Universe® Contellation Volume 6 is now available from Baen

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Yesterday's big event was the arrival of my socks, the culmination of a month-long tour of New England:

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Tuesday. Sunny and cold. Sitting in the comfy chair in my office with the happy light looking out over the long backyard, where Snow Devils are dancing in the Sun.

In my quest for rest, I've been going back to bed after I wake up at 5:00 or 6:00 instead of going to work, and sleeping for another hour or so. I did that this morning, so I'm late getting the day going.

Checking the mail, I see that B&H thinks my new tablet will be here tomorrow. That will be exciting.

Aside from the Gala Celebrations for the release of the mass-market edition of Diviner's Bow, I'll be cleaning up the piles as I've been swearing to do for 3 days and looking at the taxes. I'm probably calling the CPA.

An arduous day.

How's everybody doing today?

Firefly was helping me keep an eye on the Snow Devils.

Dictated to my phone
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Wow, it got late. I guess you'll either rest voluntarily or rest will come for you.

For those curious about the alpaca socks -- I'm never taking them off again. They are soft, they are warm, they are (bearing in mind that I am a Sock Person and not a Socks are the Devil's Work Person) -- comforting.

They are pricey at full-price, so yay! after-Christmas local shopping for the win.

I need to strip the bed and start a load of laundry -- any laundry at this point, and then I'll get with the piles (yes, yes, I keep saying this). Lunch will be canned salmon, veggie, and rice stirfry, Because I Can.

. . . I think I may need some rock 'n roll music to motivate me. And a glass of cold tea.

Onward.
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Aaand, I stoopidly corrected my email address with an organization where I was chief babysitter for a while, and now my inbox is ... annoying.

. . .

Let's go with annoying.

The SnowJoe is still charged, so the battery doesn't have to come out to be charged. Which means I have time to acquire a C-clamp, which I thought I had at least three, but I can't find them, and the crescent wrench won't open wide enough, nor the groove pliers, and as the problem is hand-strength, tongs is not my tool. I have to depress a button on each side of the battery while simultaneously pulling the battery off of its prongs. And Joe isn't heavy enough, even with my foot on him, to serve as a counterweight.

I did not, I'll note, have this difficulty last year.

Getting old sucks. You heard it here first.

I don't like to leave the battery in Joe, but I guess that's gonna hafta be how we go.

Lunch will be now, and I do believe it will include a rum 'n coke.

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Stirfry turned out great. I used some orange marmalade in my stirfry sauce. Also -- no rum 'n coke. A little while ago, a friend gave me a bottle of Barefoot Boy blueberry wine, which announces on the label that it! is! sweet! It's also very light -- 7.5% -- and? if you mix it into Sanpellegrino Limonata? makes a really nice drink.

And I? only have one more pile to bring under my dominion.
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Note to self: Do not listen to "Run away to Mars" ever again.

Still working on beating the last pile into submission.

In reviewing my email from B&H Photography, I note that my tablet is supposed to be reaching me tomorrow through the agency of FedEx, so I'm glad I didn't put any money on that proposition. The original prediction was that it would be here on Thursday, which is fine. The only thing that makes any of this tricky is that -- in B&H's worldview, anyway -- I have to sign for the package, and in order to do that, I need to be home.

I say the above with a certain amount of irony. The last time I remember us being told that someone would have to sign for a package was when we had ordered our Edge phones. I was due at radiation and Steve had been driving me, but I assured him that I could drive myself (which I did, so -- not forsworn, and we will skate lightly over the dicey bits) while he waited for the package.

Which! -- You're ahead of me, aren't you? -- The FedEx guy blithely left on the steps, and wandered away without even ringing the bell, which is where I found them when I came home.

. . . I wonder if there's a horror anthology in FedEx stories?
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In housekeeping news, helpful helpers are helping

Today's blog post title brought to you by the self-same "Run Away to Mars," from Talk

The Long Back Yard

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Monday. Snowy and cold. Swept the snow off the front steps so I could open the door. About 7 in of really light fluffy stuff so we're fortunate it's so cold.

I am presently in the comfy chair in my office which doubles as my pillow fort, watching the snow fall with the happy light on, drinking my tea and eating a blueberry breakfast bar.

Pretty soon I'll start in to finish proofreading the page proofs and then I can get going with my day.

How's everybody doing?

Dictated to my phone
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Page proofs are done. I still need to get together a list of errors, and send it to Baen, but that can wait a minute.

Did PT homework, ably assisted by Firefly, who tells me that she's Scared. I told her that I'm Scared, too, but that I'm going to do the best I can to keep her and the other kids safe, as long as I can.

Swept the front steps again, to clear the door -- it looks like we're up to 10 inches on the ground here at the Confusion Factory. The plowguy came by around 9:30/10 last night to clear the drive to that point, but he didn't do the steps -- an observation, not a complaint -- so that's where I've been taking my readings.

The city plows were running the road last night, even after I went to bed, around 10:30. I think I've only heard one team go by this morning. The road looks sanded, none of the (very few) vehicles that have been past seem to be having any trouble. I'm not up on whether we're expecting sleet to finish this off, but we're not supposed to see the end of the storm until early tomorrow morning.

I believe my Plan going forward into the day is to clean up the piles I did not get to yesterday, do my duty the cats, warm up something for lunch -- oh, there's soup. Good deal. -- then start in on making my list of corrections. Tomorrow, I'm going to have to face the taxes again, but -- I just can't at the moment.

And that's the more-or-less midday report from Central Maine.

The Long Back Yard

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Saturday. Sunny and bright and just as cold as you can want. Minus one now as I sit in the window under my heated blanket. Minus five when I got up.

I am dressed for success today in heavy sweatpants and Steve's red wool drover shirt and alpaca socks.

Breakfast was potatoes fried with onions and a side of cottage cheese. Speaking of things I need to remember, I need to remember that I really don't like Daisy cottage cheese. It's not them. It's me. WAY too creamy.

I'm intending to make black bean soup or black bean chili or something soupish for lunch today. It'll work out.

Speaking of alpaca socks! Right after Christmas, I ordered a bunch of alpaca socks from a local business and apparently hit the wrong button, saying that I would pick them up. A couple weeks went by and they called and said when are you picking up your socks? and I made arrangements to have them mailed to me which they have been. Their trail has gone from Lincolnville to Belfast to Nashua, and now they're expected by the post office to arrive. Oh Monday. Quite an adventure for a bag of socks.

Today's plan is to read Page proofs this morning, make soup, and do some taxes.

I'm looking for ways to get some rest in between all of this because I really need some rest right now but it's not being easy. Well, the snowstorm may actually help with that goal.

How's everybody doing this morning ?

Dictated to my phone
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Soup's On

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Moving right along. Biscuit baking to have with the soup -- which is kind of a black bean, mushroom, veggie, sausage thingy with a crushed tomato/veggie broth base. Smells yummy. And yes, there are going to be leftovers.

My duty to the cats has been performed. I signed up for two "courses" from the local Adult Ed -- a couple-hour Zoom discussion of Maine's Death with Dignity law, in March, and a three-hour (yeah, yeah) cruise of Messalonskee Lake, in mid-July.

After lunch, I'll stare at the taxes for awhile. This morning, the cats and I proofread two short stories from LUC6, and may I just say that "The Last Train to Clarkesville," turned out really well.

What's for lunch at your house?
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Rookie had some after-lunch advice to give me.
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And that? Is enough fun for one day.

The tax paperwork is a zoo. For last year, Steve of course was TAXPAYER, but this year, I'm TAXPAYER, which the CPA has already gotten wrong once. I foresee a serious boondoggle, if I try to use their damned online form.

Well. Another phone call in my future.

In any wise -- Everybody have a good evening. Stay safe.

I'll check in tomorrow.

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Addendum:

And I see the weatherbeans have adjusted the timing and upped the stakes of the incoming storm. Now predicted to start tomorrow evening and go through to the early hours of Tuesday, 10-18 inches for a projected total, though it looks to me that we're still looking for 10ish inches.

Which is enough, really.

Still calling for Pretty Dern Cold tomorrow, after minus 10 on the overnight.

Tomorrow may be a pillow fort day, after I cope with the various piles. Might be I'll bring the page proofs with me into the fort and finish those. At least that's a task I feel like I have a firm handle on, and which won't cause me headache inducing amounts of angst.

Well. Plenty of angst to go around. The snowmen apparently came into Maine with a quota, if not an actual shopping list. They aim to disappear 1,400 people, and they've taken to threatening observers -- following one woman home, pulled a vehicle across the bottom of the street, another at the top, and a third at the curb, rang her bell and said, "We just want you know that we know where you live."

Stopped another guy who was following a car, and told him he was "impeding" them and that they were delivering his first and only warning. If he "impeded" them again, he would be arrested.

And, because the Portland Police Chief was mean, and said they weren't behaving like real Officers of the Law, they took 50 or so people they had stolen off the streets and stashed in the Cumberland County Jail out of the Cumberland County Jail and I'm not finding that anyone knows where they are now.

Not to mention the random killing of folks in Minnesota.

They're trying to start a war, just like the bully in the schoolyard, pushing you and pushing you and pushing you until you break and launch into a fight you can't win.

God, I hate this timeline.

I do believe I'll serve up Coon Cat Happy Hour, and have a glass of wine.

Summing up:  Many many people have applied for the beta reader slots.  I can't possibly accommodate everyone -- it's me, not you -- but I am truly amazed and honored by the outpouring of generous offers of help.  Even more are the little catch-up  notes some folks have included.  I love you all.  Thank you.

Because the Universe is aria performed by Chaos, yesterday afternoon the page proofs for Liaden Universe Constellation No. 6 landed, sending all my happy thoughts of glass art and gathering up the tax documentation in a non-crazy kind of way out the door.  I did, however, bake a loaf of bread.  Damn, that's good.

This?  Catches us up to Friday morning

Sunny and chillier than yesterday. The 'beans have been moving the /f/u/r/n/i/t/u/r/e atmospherics around to achieve a more favorable feng shui. We're still looking for colder'n a frog's ear starting tomorrow, but the snow has been shoved over to Sunday/Monday, with a forecasted accumulation of 8-13 inches.

PT may not happen on Monday. I think I'm OK foodwise for the cats and myself. The generator light is showing green, and I've got plenty of blankets to snuggle under while I sit in the window and read page proofs.

Breakfast for those keeping count was fresh-made bread-n-butter. Because I am an adult.

Sarah's due in realsoonnow to defur the joint, which will be much appreciated. I need to make some hot tea for my thermos and another mug, and then I'll be heading back to Steve's office to!

Yep. Read page proofs.

How's everybody doing this morning? Weather, much?