I just can’t turn down a challenge June 14, 2006
Posted by irishmadness in Arts and Crafts, Fanfiction, Personal Finance, Running, The Guys, Trixie, Trixie Friends.2 comments
This one’s a doozy, too. I just signed up to write at least 500 words a day for 30 days. They have to be fanfiction, which means any writing toward my book doesn’t count (nor does writing for work).
So now I have to find two hours each morning to run (slog), about 30 minutes each day to write fanfiction, at least that much time to write my book, plus find time to clean my apartment. Can somebody invent a 30-hour day?
In other news, I took a break from running over the weekend, which ends tomorrow. I had blisters on the bottoms of both feet from my old orthotics and while they weren’t painful and they weren’t getting worse, they also weren’t getting any better. Since I walk around in bare feet a lot, there was a decent chance I could step on something and pop one. With Mal coming in for the weekend and the associated walking in DC, I figured it was a good time to take a break. The good news is they seem to have finally healed, so I can start running again.
I started designing Christmas cards last night, and I’m going to figure out what I need for each and assemble a mock-up during the weekend. I know I need ribbon, but I’m not sure what else I need that I don’t already have.
For those who don’t read my other blog, my quest to kill my credit card debt by the end of the year is on track. That means come Jan. 1, I can start saving for a house and a new(er) car. The house is top priority, but I’m still going to be putting a decent amount away for the car in case mine starts falling apart. Fortunately, I’m putting so much to debt now that once it can go into savings, the money will start piling up pretty quickly.
As I mentioned before, Mal came to DC over the weekend and I got to meet her, plus see the Jix Chix. Aleta and Mary are the only ones I’d seen lately. We had a blast! My sister’s stuffed animals are now jealous because we got our picture taken with the Swedish Chef at the American History museum in their muppet exhibit.
The good, the bad and the ugly May 31, 2006
Posted by irishmadness in Running, The Guys, Work madness.2 comments
Today was one heck of a day. It started when I actually got up at 7 to go running, only to realize it was raining outside. So I waited about an hour to get up, which meant it was almost 9 when I finally headed out. It was nice when I started, but got very hot and muggy by the end of my five-mile run. (Well, slog really. It was a little too slow to be called a run.)
So I headed home, showered, lay in bed with the fan going and made a strawberry soy protein smoothie in a vain attempt to cool down before work.
I got to work, started working on the inside pages of our weekly entertainment section, and discovered that instead of fairly basic pages, the desk guys left me with a two-page non-linear feature. Now, I’ve done stuff like that once or twice before, but I generally have plenty of time to think, plus it’s in a news section where it doesn’t have to be too feature-y to look cool. So I headed out for a walk to chill out. I was smart enough to fill my now-empty smoothie squeeze bottle with cold water first. By the time I got back, I was calmer, but back to being all hot and sweaty. *sigh* Fortunately, EE was back from lunch and promised to help me when he was done with the cover story design. Just knowing that helped, so when I finished everything else, I started playing around, figuring he could help me rip it apart and build it new again better than starting from scratch. By the time he had time, I had pulled together a rough layout that he actually liked. He made some suggestions to police it, mostly regarding evening out the white space, but that was about it.
Meanwhile, my sister and WG have been bickering via e-mail – my e-mail. She sent a comment today I knew would get a great reaction from him, so I called him at home tonight to fill him in and get his response. My end of the conversation was necessarily restricted because I was in the middle of the mostly empty newsroom, but his wasn’t. I had to bite my tongue a few times because the smart-ass response would have either revealed who I was talking to or not been appropriate for work. But it was a funny interlude in the night.
Little else new here, but my annual review should be either Friday or Monday, so expect another post then with either a rant or rejoicing.
