It’s been a rough week in terms of writing, and I’m not sure why. “Frustrated” and “overwhelmed” aren’t the adjectives I’d really like to use to describe my mindset a month before The Last Deadline, but that’s been the deal so far this week. I haven’t been idle, though. The house is cleaner than it’s been in months, and I’m making good progress with catching up on our financial records (it’s been six months since that happened, which probably contributes to the money meltdown I’ve been having recently). I did some reading for my critique partners, though I still haven’t sent them comments and I feel horrible about that.

Randomania:

• I found jeans that actually fit me, waist, hips, and length–and they’re only $50. It might be a certified miracle, and I might be a Wrangler girl for life. For any other tall, thin gals, check out both styles of their Ultimate Riding Jean. They are love.
• While I was at the store looking for jeans, I found a fantastic pair of boots. Too bad I don’t have a real reason to get them, other than their utter yumminess.
• We’re in the market for a french coffee press so we can cold-brew our coffee without as much fuss as it currently takes. Cold brewing leaves out the acid and oils that upset my stomach, but maintains all the benefits of full, rich flavor. Matt usually drinks his coffee iced, anyway, which means up until now we’ve been brewing hot coffee and cooling it. And, you know, I can heat it up if I’m in the mood for hot coffee instead of iced. Unfortunately, to get one that seems like it will serve us well for some time to come, we’ll need to spend a bit of money. See the aforementioned money meltdown to deduce my feelings on that score.
• There’s a fantastic incentive for hosting a Pampered Chef show in September, and I’d love to take advantage of it, but I fear that between The Last Deadline and the money situation, I’ll have to watch it pass by.
• So far, staying on track with the Wii Fit stuff. I am such a push-up weenie.
• I’m going for a bike ride to clear my head before returning to the novel for some manuscript-kicking this afternoon.

I was just making a list of the things I need to do in the next few months (and the things I’m doing whether I need to or not, like driving to central New York) and I feel a distinct knot of panic settling somewhere in the vicinity of my stomach. The next month is particularly panic-inducing.

Someone (*coughcough* Will *cough*) suggested that I might have to curtail my reading for a while. Can you hear me wailing like the Wicked Witch of the West in the shower?

Remember how we’re out of chocolate chips and potatoes? Harbingers of the apocalypse? Clearly, I was not exaggerating.

It’s been a pretty boring week, as long as you take out the mild panic building about all the things I’ve put off until the last minute before I leave for residency, and the moderate panic Matt’s been tossing around as he gets ready for his upcoming week of leading camp for the 5th and 6th graders at the church, followed by another week of helping with the camp for the 7th-12th graders. Mmm summer camp.

I was sick for a while (seem to be mostly better now, aside from still wanting to sleep extra) and the dog’s tummy got all upset at her and so we had a few days of finding gifts in various corners of the house instead of out in the grass where they belong, and of the dog not eating at all. But she’s finally back to normal, and we’re very glad.

I feel mildly bad that I don’t have much of anything interesting to say here – I should really be reading The Lies of Locke Lamora (Scott Lynch), which is the required text for this residency and which I have to have finished by Wednesday morning at the latest, and which is really stinkin’ long (but good, so far) – but I thought I should let you all know that we’re kicking here in Colorado, just doing it mostly away from the blogosphere.

And now, to make up for the decided lack of entertainment these past few weeks, I give you a lovely example of public service:

I’ll try to update more next week!

Sorry for disappearing this week. Somewhere between pushing myself to finish the manuscript, cleaning and packing before we went to Ohio, the busy weekend, and then the horrid return trip, I came down with some kind of compound head cold cum fatigue blast. Even while we were in Ohio, I took big naps every day – two or three hours each, and they didn’t make it hard to sleep normal hours at night. That should have tipped me off in a big way.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t until I was back home that I conceded defeat to the sickness-gremlin. I’ve continued the mega-nap trend, which really takes up huge chunks of productive time during the days. My brain seems to be working better during my waking hours now, but the fatigue is hanging on. I don’t even have the extra energy to be witty about it.

If all goes well, we’ll be hanging up the newly framed art in the office today, so I’ll post pictures when that happens. Whee! Pretty art!

Otherwise, I just need to get all my books read and critiques finished before residency in a week and a half. Woo residency!

We’re home.

It’s 6pm, Denver time, and I’ve been up for 17 hours.

Airline score:
US Airways – Negative 26.7 bajillion
Midwest Airlines – Way more than that.

My brain can’t compute anything complex at the moment, but aside from being a little late (maybe 20 minutes?) nothing went wrong as soon as we shook the USAir dust from our feet. And we even got warm cookies, which is darn hard to beat.

Especially after the total idiocy we experienced in the predawn hours today.

I’m ready to collapse.

Halting, stunted progress on the novel is better than none at all… and I am getting back in the habit of getting into Kerris’s head for writing, which is good. And I don’t work the day job until Thursday, so I have no excuse for not getting plenty of writing done in the next few days. Here’s hoping the groove (what groove there is) doesn’t get knocked.

Also, between Airborne, Tylenol Cold Nighttime, and Dayquil, I seem to have convinced my body that it doesn’t want to be sick. Woke up this morning feeling more tired than what I think of as normal, but little else. Ok, maybe a little bit of still-sick snot hanging about in my sinuses (is that too much information?) but even that seems to have dispersed since I woke up. Must be the tea.

I don’t even feel mildly bad about going to the movies with Stef and her mom this afternoon, either because I’d rather be in bed or because I’m afraid I’m contagious. I appear to have emerged victorious this time. w00t!

Now, it’s time for me to get a shower, dress in something suitable to be seen in public (as opposed to my current 3-times-too-big fleece and sweatpants ensemble), find some lunch, and go about the rest of my day.

Love and hugs all around.

It’s the Friday between Christmas and New Years. There is no one in the office except the finance department. Non one is calling, except to talk to the finance department. It works, but it’s dead boring. I’ve stuffed about 1,000 envelopes today and have about 500 left, give or take. Also dead boring.

It looks like a big chunk of our Christmas money will end up going toward car stuff. We’ve got it in for routine maintenance plus another attempt to fix the dratted alarm, and there are various belts and brakes and other things that have come up needing replacement. Luckily, we only have to spend this much every three or four years. On the whole, considering how littler we’ve had to do for the last few years it’s not that much, but it sure does take a big chunk out of the checking account at once. A really big chunk.

On the upside, I have baklava for dessert, and once I’m done with this batch of envelopes I’m done stuffing for 2007. Whee!

Tonight, the agenda is cleaning the house, so that I can take tomorrow as a writing day. Yeah, you read that right. Ten days on the meds and I’m feeling like I can handle a creative day. It’s a good feeling. De-funking is good.

Lunch time for me, so I’ll catch you all later.

We just realized our kitchen sink leaks.

Rather, the garbage disposal is leaking, which means it’s not just water, it’s nasty brown food particles that turn into sludge in the under-sink cabinet.

Oh, and apparently it’s been happening for some time.  The dishwasher detergent box shows signs of having absorbed two inches’ worth of liquid, though it’s dry at the moment.  Other various bottles and boxes are thoroughly wet and/or covered in the food sludge that’s been dripping.

Lovely.

The cabinet has been cleared, the worst of the sludge wiped out, and a pot placed under the offending area of pipes.  It will keep until morning.

We’ll see how quickly the maintenance people reply to sludgy food-water dripping under our sink, as opposed to rusty water dripping into our bathtub from the emergency a/c drainage (two weeks and counting on the latter).

I am SO ready for bed.