We’re redoing the bathroom, organizing the basement—we’ll see how far we get with this. But we have plans.
So what’s everybody planning for winter?
by CJ | Nov 8, 2010 | Journal | 31 comments
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I’m hoping to conquer my workload, including getting things sorted and unpacked.
I want/need to get my master bath’s tub and related redone. ‘Spensive but needed.
Hoping to write *regularly*, and get on with personal goals, despite the chaos of Real Life.
I’d love to find/make time for a social life too.
Yep, I’ll be lucky to get all that done.
We’d love to get the reorganization done so we could find time to do our ship models. We have a kit to build a wooden ship plank by plank—a very small one, of course! And we have had it forever and haven’t ever had time to do it.
Honest to god, you two are like a pair of beavers!
With any luck, we’ll get most of the books on shelves and off the ironing board.
Summer here in Sydney – finally, having been more winter-like the last two months (ie 65-70 and damp). Still would be a good time to catch up on things, since the combination of Christmas and holiday season at the same time means very little happens here from mid-December to Australia Day (26 Jan). But, we’re going to London for Christmas, so wasting that space …
@Daze: my sister has been complaining of the wet and even my brother has been moaning about it and he’s outside Lismore.
I remember pretty good heat when I was in Australia—had an indigo blouse that hadn’t been ‘set’ with salt, silly me. I got off the plane in Perth, hit that heat, and dyed myself indigo for the better part of two months. Coming from Oklahoma, I understand heat, but I’d underestimated the fact that Australia pretty spans a good deal of the distance from Antarctica to the certifiable tropics.
Australia’s top third is north of the Tropic of Capricorn whereas the US is north of the Tropic of Cancer (even the Florida Keys). For those of us geographically challenged it means the Land of Oz is vastly closer to the equator than is the US.
When I went there, I was extraordinarily stupid and didn’t take advantage of a potential stopover in various tropic isles. I flew straight from Oklahoma to California to Sydney: don’t do that! My only memory of Hawaii is a flat area with no view and then being herded off into a lounge while they fumigated (the tropics are extraordinarily vulnerable to hitchhikers).
Since weather around here changes minimally — temperature drops maybe 10 degrees, and we hopefully get more rain — it’s pretty much business as usual. I have my laundry list of issues I’d like to tackle, from repainting the bathroom and captain’s cabin, to getting the remodeling plans whipped into shape for submission to the zoning committee, to updating my resume. I’m hoping the jump in our water bill was attributable to my watering the heck out of our new hedge so it ‘takes’, rather than something more ominous.
Number 1 priority is obedience training for the new puppy. I want a well-mannered canine companion, not a pushy dog. If obedience goes well then maybe we’ll do some basic agility training to keep both of us in shape. All the rest of the round tuit list are maintenance items that I can catch up on as time and inclination allow.
ooooh, puppies. What sort?
Pepper is a 5 to 6 month old mutt from the pound (I searched through PetFinder.com). He has a very handsome profile and looks to have retriever or setter of some sort. His coat is a soft ebony black with chocolate tips on his head, but with curls and “feathers” like an Irish Setter’s. He has a white bib on his chest with the merest sprinkling of white hairs on his nose and chin plus a few white hairs on his toes. The coloration is much like ground peppercorns, hence the name. It’s still too early to tell yet what he will finally favor, nor how large he will become. I’m hoping for the 45 to 55 lb range. Big enough to sound protective, but small enough to be manageable for grooming, loading in the car, etc. Of course he is still showing that puppyish playfulness, getting into everything, including ripping his outdoor bed to shreds while I am at work, but he takes correction well, and you can see his mind turning over trying to understand what his humans are saying. He really wants to be a lapdog and give kisses to all the members of the house. ReadyGuy is respected; readyDaughter is fawned over. When she is in the house he heads to her purse, shoes, and jacket, and tries to lie on them, so she can’t leave without his knowledge. We know for certain that he is NOT a music critic as her cello practicing does not offend him whatsoever. readyDaughter is making great strides, having taken up the cello (her first instrument) in September, but as with all string instruments when first started, pitch is still iffy. He watches her attentively, but doesn’t seem to care about wrong notes, bad timing, flat or sharp pitch. It’s all the same to him.
Ah, love. He sounds like a total sweetheart who’ll do anything to please. If he figures it all out, he should be a very special dog.
My sympathies to readyDaughter. I attempted the violin, and it takes a while to figure the exact finger position on the neck. Guitar is easier in that regard. [My highschool instrument was flute.]
What am I going to be up to this winter?
I will be using ground penetrating radar at the Crenshaw Site, better known as the Old Slave House, to look for foundations and unusual ground disturbances. Setting up a grid and excavating as many test units as I can till the weather makes it too miserable to dig. Then depending what is found, will be cleaning and cataloging artifacts in the lab. After that, will be on a hiatus till March when I start again for nine months directing a full crew.
The site is a manor house from the early-mid 1800’s where slave labor was used in salt production and is about the only known slave plantation in Illinois. It has a sorted history and a lot of local lore built up around it that I’m hoping to dispel and write a definitive history for.
During my break I have two tentative speaking engagements on Wildland Fire Archaeology. Will also be dusting off my manuscript for the epic fantasy novel I have been working on. Will be working on it while waiting for the phone to ring for any incoming work opportunities before March.
No real plans for the holidays, so besides working, I will be catching up on reading and some video games I want to complete if I have any extra downtime.
Archeology? Neat stuff, aside from the mess. 😉 Good luck finding the real history.
Current hobby equals working on my 日本語. For the wintertime… I plan to catch up on some long-delayed gaming before the next set of sequels come along.
Wolf,
I like your alias. There probably aren’t too many folks here who have read Leslie Barringer’s Neustrian Trilogy. (I bet herself has but probably not many others.) The books are out-of-print in paper, but there are supposed to be (cheap but not free) ebook editions. Those interested should check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_Barringer.
“Face Campscapel face death.”{
Grabbed my copy of Gerfalcon used from abebooks, based on a reference somewhere. Haven’t got around to the other books in the trilogy yet, but Gerfalcon made an impression.
And Mr. Saturn, you’re the first to get the reference and comment on it. Took a few months. 🙂
Oh, man….jealousy! I’ve tried so hard to learn Japanese and simply managed to remind myself I have no talent for learning things visually. I’d have to dump myself into the middle of Japan and learn it by ear. Then, maybe, I’d be able to learn to write it. Sigh.
One thing that I think got cut out of BRM was Sergei’s determination to learn Japanese from Peter. 😀 I’m sure it’ll come up in the sequel.
And the JLPT exam coming up in… three weeks. Eeep! Panic time. I rather expect to flunk it. 🙂
Survive the complications of a badly infected tooth….going for another follow up and filling today. (@BlueCatShip, you have my sympathies! 🙁 ) Finish cleaning the outside, including a *big* dumpster. (Which leads me to ask the question “Where does this c#!p come from?” Two years ago I filled a fifteen yd. dumpster!.) Finish replacing the high wattage grow bulbs in the ‘green room’ with low wattage florescents. (cheaper and brighter 8) ) Make new hats, scarves, and leg warmers for the flamingos in the yard. (Very quick projects that use up yarn scraps.) Get back on track with pottery business and diet. That should take me through the end of the year! 😉
I’m going to finish building a boat. The cold weather up here is a good time to work in a heated garage…
and, Smartcat, make them give you a stiff course of antibiotics for that tooth—consult your MD if they won’t. I lost a good friend to a simple tooth-cleaning. Don’t let that stuff go systemic.
The worst is over, had a semipermanent filling put in yesterday. Now we wait six months to make sure everything is in order before proceeding to the expense of a crown. Between all my visits to various docs I was on antibiotics for almost four weeks. (2 to the oral surgeon who paled when he saw me and kept emphasizing how people *die* from this type of infection; 4 and counting to the root canal doc; 2 and counting to my regular dentist) I called my dentist on a saturday, she called in a scrip and had me in her office first thing monday morning, sent me immediately over to the root canal doc who had me at the oral surgeon within two hours. It all went so fast I barely knew what happened until after the fact. This has been going on since I came back from my clay conference in September.
Hey! It’s always somethin’! 8) (think baji naji smiley)
Eeep! Glad it all went well. I think sometimes I’d rather have my broken wrist reset than extensive dental work!
No argument there!
Wow, kinda been there. I went from “Gee I must have strained my TMJ yesterday when I got my filling”, to an ekg to rule out a heart attack and IV painkillers and antibiotics overnight at the hospital because I was still at pain level 9 after taking percocet and my BP was 30 points over normal. It turned out that I really shouldn’t have passed up that optional root canal when I had a broken tooth crowned 60 days before and ended up with a massive infection in a very dead root.
Sympathies Brennan. I don’t think we *really* believe a tooth can cause so many problems until it does. ;(
ENUFF OF ALL THAT!! It’s a gorgeous day; not a cloud in the sky. The temp is reaching 50 and will go higher. I am going out to the pond to drink tea, pick up my chain saw at mr. fixit,plan and do the rest of the yard. 🙂 😀 😆
We had a few flakes of snow amongst the rain. It slushed at us.
AAARRRGGHHH!!! Your weather seems to take 4-7 days to get to us We had about an inch of *very* wet snow last week. It was supposed to be rain. HAH! I just need to finish getting the dahlias and canna toes in and then all we need to do it clear leaves. Next up the dumptser.
the next 3 months see the final couple of orders getting finished and shipped, the start of “r&d” for new items to add to the product line before my first wholesale show in feb and the completion of the studio re-org. i also hope to sort out the office chaos and cleanup the downstairs piles from the remodeling 2 yrs ago…..
ugh! i HATE cleanup ;P
of course with the holidays, a planned trip to see my parents between xmas and new years, and anything else i can use to procrastinate, it’s gonna take alot of effort to not piddle around with shtuff and get things done ;P
D