Between training at my new job, finishing my Associates degree on Easter Sunday, celebrating our sixth wedding anniversary ditto (and Easter brunch), Norwescon this weekend, +Laston Kirkland's book publishing, children's plays and cookie sales and school and projects and Mom-where's-my-green-sweater-so-I-don't-get-pinched and egg hunts and google-only-knows, and the repeated depredations of colds and pinkeye, March has been... exciting.
And about as full-tilt, run-on as that sentence just above, links included.
But our main tool is offline at the moment, so it's a good time to catch up.
A few real screamers this week, one from Abby: "But I can't go to bed! I need to kill a cow so I can plant another one and make room for more ocelots!"
One from Lizzy: "Mommy, don't ever go to the moon. I want you to keep loving me." When asked why a lunar adventure would preclude parental love, she said, in that eye-rolling teenage way she's picked up from her older sisters, "Because, mom, the book says the mommy loves the baby to the moon and back, so if you never go, you won't stop loving me. Duh."
Indeed.
And one from a barista; she asked me what my plans for the weekend are and I told her I was graduating with my AA. She said, "Um. I thought AA was like a lifetime thing. I didn't know you could graduate from it. Congratulations!
Um, no. Not that AA. An Associate of Arts. In communications. Which I apparently did not do well with you... communicate, I mean.
And tonight after work I go to Norwescon! My parents have paid for a room as a graduation gift, and my fairy godmother gave me some cash ditto, which I intend to spend on the services of this wonderful lady, there at the con.
Add in the usual Norwescon fare, and polishing up these papers, and I'll be dead dog tired but happy by the end of Sunday.
Friday, March 29, 2013
Thursday, March 21, 2013
Isn't it Beautiful?
But look at this. Isn't it lovely? +Laston Kirkland's writing and +Nadica Boskovska's cover art combined.
$2.99 (US) on Kindle.
I've read several rough drafts - I'm the front line editor - but I have yet to read the finished work. I'm so excited!
A few things I have learned... yes, it is available on amazon.co.uk and amazon.ca. I also tried the Spanish store (amazon.es) and it is available, but it has not been translated; it's still in American English there. I have not tried the other amazon stores.
It is now searchable in all the amazon stores I've tried it on.
It's Young Adult Science Fiction - call it rated T-for-Teen.
And most importantly, it's written by my husband, and dedicated to the three daughters we share. And published in time for Norwescon.
Sunday, March 17, 2013
A Two-Week Hiatus This Time
Well, most likely.
Two more weeks until I am officially a college graduate, with my Associate of Arts in Communications. On Easter Sunday. Which also happens to be my anniversary this year and (as is usual) the last day of Norwescon. As a rule, we go for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and then spend Sunday doing Easter with my family. Busy busy. Then I have a break for a week and a half (just a couple three-day workshops, ungraded) before I start my Bachelor of Science in Intercultural Communications. Somewhere in there I also have to apply for extra grants because any student loans I don't have to pay back are a bonus.
Image Editing (aka Photoshop 101) isn't difficult, but as I am doing it on the school's virtual desktop, it's super time-consuming. Citrix is all well and good, and I'm thrilled we don't have to buy Photoshop for the class, but it takes forever to do anything.
Mass Communications is a great class, and I love it. Rather more challenging than the other Comm classes though. And there's always the amusement factor of, "Jenn! Did you say Ass Communications? I don't even know what that is!" from the 12yo stepdaughter (who then blushed about ten shades of red and apologized for saying "that adult word that means butt." Poor baby; she was so sure she'd be in trouble for that, but it was an honestly misheard word.)
And then there's work. Work! Work work work! I heart it. I'm having a little trouble with the learning curve, because watching someone else demonstrate how something works does not suit my learning style. But the minute we have practice time and I can just ask questions about those things I didn't soak up in the demonstration part of the day, I do okay. Not the best of the bunch, but not the worst either.
Girl Scout Cookie season is almost over (just a couple more people to deliver to, and money to give to the Cookie Lady for our troop). We had a fun time, and I think Abby sold considerably more cookies to support GSWW and Operation Cookie Drop this year than last.
The school play Abby was in went super well (if a bit too quiet for lack of enough mikes), both Thursday and Friday nights, and maybe since those two things are over I'll actually get some sleep, which should help the learning curve at work as well.
Oh, and did I mention I have pinkeye? Again? I seem to have reinfected myself. Lovely.
Two more weeks until I am officially a college graduate, with my Associate of Arts in Communications. On Easter Sunday. Which also happens to be my anniversary this year and (as is usual) the last day of Norwescon. As a rule, we go for Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and then spend Sunday doing Easter with my family. Busy busy. Then I have a break for a week and a half (just a couple three-day workshops, ungraded) before I start my Bachelor of Science in Intercultural Communications. Somewhere in there I also have to apply for extra grants because any student loans I don't have to pay back are a bonus.
Image Editing (aka Photoshop 101) isn't difficult, but as I am doing it on the school's virtual desktop, it's super time-consuming. Citrix is all well and good, and I'm thrilled we don't have to buy Photoshop for the class, but it takes forever to do anything.
Mass Communications is a great class, and I love it. Rather more challenging than the other Comm classes though. And there's always the amusement factor of, "Jenn! Did you say Ass Communications? I don't even know what that is!" from the 12yo stepdaughter (who then blushed about ten shades of red and apologized for saying "that adult word that means butt." Poor baby; she was so sure she'd be in trouble for that, but it was an honestly misheard word.)
And then there's work. Work! Work work work! I heart it. I'm having a little trouble with the learning curve, because watching someone else demonstrate how something works does not suit my learning style. But the minute we have practice time and I can just ask questions about those things I didn't soak up in the demonstration part of the day, I do okay. Not the best of the bunch, but not the worst either.
 |
| Marvelous and fantastic, mystic and delightful Oompa Loompa Abby |
The school play Abby was in went super well (if a bit too quiet for lack of enough mikes), both Thursday and Friday nights, and maybe since those two things are over I'll actually get some sleep, which should help the learning curve at work as well.
Oh, and did I mention I have pinkeye? Again? I seem to have reinfected myself. Lovely.
Saturday, March 9, 2013
She's an Original
It's been quite a week.
I started a new job (yay! I love it, aside from the commute), Lizzy was sick (just like the last time I started a new job; I think they do it on purpose), Abby is over pinkeye, I got over pinkeye, I'm a little behind on my school work, we went our Annual No-Spouses-No-Kids play, (this year we had Trouble, my friends, right here in River City. Really well-done Trouble), it's cookie season, Abby's in the school play so there are rehearsals every night after school. And I caught Lizzy's cold. At the moment I sound like a foghorn.
When I am working, the Hubs steps up, although it takes him a few days to adjust to the carer role. At the moment, he's on a cleaning kick, which the kids interpret as "daddy's going to throw away our stuff." This does not exactly match the actuality, which is "find a place for this to go that is not the floor or the dining room table, or I will throw it away." But that's how they see it, so there's some angst involved. He's so very in the Daddy role right now that the neighbor's baby crying woke him up last night; I didn't even hear it.
So my plan for today was laundry and homework and preparing easy-to-cook things for the upcoming week so we can crockpot and go. Good, I can sleep in.
Except that Lizzy wants to chat, and she crawls into bed with me and starts babbling away about what they're learning about at her preschool, which is Australia (and thank google she has mostly outgrown the Elmer Fudd Rs).
"We are learning about Australia. Australia has kangaroos and koalas and they say g'day mate for good morning and it's on the other side of the planet but we learned about planets last month, remember?" (Here she takes a deep breath). "And the first people there are called Aboriginals and is that 'cause they're the original people? And platypuses are from Australia and they draw funny pictures for some of their writing like a campfire looks like a target without a dot in the middle and they have x-ray art."
My eyes weren't even open yet. I was lying there wondering how the platypuses draw funny pictures and whether the kangaroos and koalas are greeting each other with g'day mate.
Organized she's not. But she retains well.
And my brain hurts.
I started a new job (yay! I love it, aside from the commute), Lizzy was sick (just like the last time I started a new job; I think they do it on purpose), Abby is over pinkeye, I got over pinkeye, I'm a little behind on my school work, we went our Annual No-Spouses-No-Kids play, (this year we had Trouble, my friends, right here in River City. Really well-done Trouble), it's cookie season, Abby's in the school play so there are rehearsals every night after school. And I caught Lizzy's cold. At the moment I sound like a foghorn.
When I am working, the Hubs steps up, although it takes him a few days to adjust to the carer role. At the moment, he's on a cleaning kick, which the kids interpret as "daddy's going to throw away our stuff." This does not exactly match the actuality, which is "find a place for this to go that is not the floor or the dining room table, or I will throw it away." But that's how they see it, so there's some angst involved. He's so very in the Daddy role right now that the neighbor's baby crying woke him up last night; I didn't even hear it.
So my plan for today was laundry and homework and preparing easy-to-cook things for the upcoming week so we can crockpot and go. Good, I can sleep in.
Except that Lizzy wants to chat, and she crawls into bed with me and starts babbling away about what they're learning about at her preschool, which is Australia (and thank google she has mostly outgrown the Elmer Fudd Rs).
"We are learning about Australia. Australia has kangaroos and koalas and they say g'day mate for good morning and it's on the other side of the planet but we learned about planets last month, remember?" (Here she takes a deep breath). "And the first people there are called Aboriginals and is that 'cause they're the original people? And platypuses are from Australia and they draw funny pictures for some of their writing like a campfire looks like a target without a dot in the middle and they have x-ray art."
My eyes weren't even open yet. I was lying there wondering how the platypuses draw funny pictures and whether the kangaroos and koalas are greeting each other with g'day mate.
Organized she's not. But she retains well.
And my brain hurts.
Monday, March 4, 2013
School Daze
Leanna is sitting at our dining room table, doing her math. She's good at math, but this is harder than it might seem, because we have three kids and 1100 square feet. However, there is a TV moratorium during homework, so it's only other children's homework distracting her.
Abby is rummaging in the kitchen for recipes to read, because March Madness in the fourth grade equals one reading activity for each day of the month. Today she has read a recipe, directions on how to make something, a silly poem, and a picture book to a younger child (and Fox in Socks is perhaps a bit ambitious for her). She's working ahead because between the school play rehearsals and Cookie Sales Season, she doesn't have a lot of free time. And her grade has a concert tomorrow night as well.
Lizzy is thrilled because she got to stay at her Montessori school for Kindergarten today and she gets to tomorrow as well. This is because my new job was going to start today and my mom (my child care provider) is out of town. So she was going to stay late, and when the new job moved up to a Wednesday start date, she was sorely disappointed that she might not be able to stay. So stay, great, gives me a chance to do my school work without interruption.
Right. My school work. A visual person I am not. I pretty much make Crop and Red-eye Reduction my tools of choice. But the Image Editing class is required for an AA in Communications. I'm getting there, but I am slow and not particularly good at it.
And the Hubs is writing a story, having another one edited, teaching himself Blender and SketchUp and AutoCAD 123D, and generally living to learn. It's what he does, and at the moment his focus is on learning the tools.
Oof.
Abby is rummaging in the kitchen for recipes to read, because March Madness in the fourth grade equals one reading activity for each day of the month. Today she has read a recipe, directions on how to make something, a silly poem, and a picture book to a younger child (and Fox in Socks is perhaps a bit ambitious for her). She's working ahead because between the school play rehearsals and Cookie Sales Season, she doesn't have a lot of free time. And her grade has a concert tomorrow night as well.
Lizzy is thrilled because she got to stay at her Montessori school for Kindergarten today and she gets to tomorrow as well. This is because my new job was going to start today and my mom (my child care provider) is out of town. So she was going to stay late, and when the new job moved up to a Wednesday start date, she was sorely disappointed that she might not be able to stay. So stay, great, gives me a chance to do my school work without interruption.
Right. My school work. A visual person I am not. I pretty much make Crop and Red-eye Reduction my tools of choice. But the Image Editing class is required for an AA in Communications. I'm getting there, but I am slow and not particularly good at it.
And the Hubs is writing a story, having another one edited, teaching himself Blender and SketchUp and AutoCAD 123D, and generally living to learn. It's what he does, and at the moment his focus is on learning the tools.
Oof.
Thursday, February 28, 2013
Well, Isn't THAT Interesting...
They weren't. Better, that is.
They still weren't on Thursday morning when I put the drops in at eight. And they were still that bright flaming red, not just pink, and not only red where the burst vessel is, either. Maybe even worse than Saturday or Monday, but certainly not better. At all.
At noon I used the drops, and it wasn't until about three hours later that I realized I had only used the artificial tears rather than the antibiotic drops. But now my eyes look like this. Barely pink in both, and even the red from the burst vessel is clearing up. Huh. Go the Hubs to verify ("yep, they look a lot better") and look the Rx drops up on the Internet. Okay, so side effects include redness, itching, burning (check, check check). Allergic response to said antibiotic can include... redness, itching, burning, and swollen eyelids.Well.
Do I discontinue use of the antibiotic drops until tomorrow's followup appointment, and just use the artificial tears? I think yes, but I'm waiting on a call back from my doctor.
Because I'd rather not look like this, no matter how much Lizzy wants me to. For Halloween, you understand.
ETA: Doc just called back. I should hold off on the antibx drops until she can re-evaluate tomorrow. Good.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)