The Good, the Bad, and the In-Between

What is it about the start of the year? Is it a summer thing, or does life just regularly go a bit haywire in January? Last year this time was not a good time ... seems like this year is trying to catch up. Doing my best to stay positive, though. Kinda.

The GoodI've finished the book! Yes, 11:15 pm on Saturday night. Hurrah! Never thought it would be over ... over 3,100 files created in 3 months. I put in a 14 hour work day on Saturday to get it all done, to get a whole two days off. There was champagne!

This isn't the end of the process, though. I've now got 4 weeks of Author Review - addressing all the edits / comments / suggestions made on the text and puzzles by Sarah (Project Editor), Megan (Copy Editor), and Raymond (Technical Editor) One quarter of the book each week. So I'm not out of the woods yet. But at least I'm working on existing stuff now, not having to write new material. Fair bit easier.

I've got a second book waiting in the wings, too, for Hinkler Books - a sticker / puzzle book for 5-year-olds. To be finished by early March. This one is worrying me for reasons below.

The Bad

Hubby's lovely Uncle Paul isn't going well. He got bowel cancer a few years ago, and in fact has lived longer than anyone expected. But the doctors now say they can do no more, and are setting up palliative care in his home. Paul is a professional, and very talented, watercolor artist. His wife is the one who designed these crazy and wonderful knitted vegetables. He is a handsome, softly-spoken, intelligent and lovely man. Hard on his sister (Hubby's mum) too. It's all rather crap.

The In-Between

Hubby's dad is still in hospital, but hopes to be out in a week or so. He keeps threatening to 'walk out'. The Aged Care Assessment was done yesterday, and we were able to give the nice young woman assessor a pretty good idea of his situation. She's going to recommend an at-home Community Aged Care Package for him - and largely as way of supporting us, too, which is really good - fingers crossed that it's approved. He doesn't really understand what's going on, though, and is - shall we be nice and just say 'somewhat wearing' ...

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I called the hospital yesterday to find out where I was roughly, on the waiting list for my hip replacement. Remember when I signed up back in September? A year's wait, they said. Plenty of time, they said. I was cool with that! Well, they lied! Next bloody month!! "February - early March at the latest," said the chirpy young thing on the other end of the phone. What, this year?! Aaaaaaaaaaah!

I know it needs to be done, and I still think I've made the right decision, and my doctor and physio are really happy – but I really wasn't counting on it happening quite so soon. I'm feeling a little tense about getting my contracted work done at the same time as dealing with all the hip stuff. I don't feel ready.

I hope that working on the various books will be a distraction while I'm in hospital, and that I'm not in so much pain / doped out on pain killers etc that I can't work, and there aren't any complications. Ideally I'd like to have taken a good month off for the operation and recovery. Bugger.

I've already put time restrictions on my surgery booking, and can't keep changing the date otherwise I'll be dropped from the list altogether... here's hoping the exact date will be early March, and not in February. And hopefully my publishers will be understanding. I've been working towards having all of March off, so hopefully that can still work for my rehab (although it won't be quite the holiday I was imagining!).

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Insert general complaint about living with two young adults, and a chronically-ill husband. Nothing specific, have just generally had enough at the moment. Working practically non-stop while the rest of the family is in bed or lounging around for whatever reason (illness or school holidays) is starting to get to me. Funny, that.

To mitigate the above, here's Dotter in a slightly red wig - crazy, or cute, or crazy and cute?

I probably shouldn't be writing when I've only had 5 hours sleep, so please take the above with a dash of salt, and I'll catch you on a happier day before too long, I'm sure.

A week in photos

In the last 4 days of writing for the book, so this means I'm 1) exhausted 2) procrastinating by blogging and 3) really don't have time to write much. So you get piccies!

Rodger's 20th Birthday. He wanted a Mexican meal - Chicken and Refried Beans in tortilla 'baskets', Guacamole, plus Christmas Salad (watermelon, pomegranate seeds, orange, cucumber, fresh mint, and a splash of lime juice - delish!).

Summer Pudding - swoon ...


Cheers! Mango Daiquiris all round!

Our 19-year-old Simpson top-loader washing machine (that we got second-hand 13 years ago) finally gave up the ghost. Thank goodness for post-Christmas sales. Introducing Washy, our new Whirlpool front loader machine, with 4.5 water efficiency stars and a 3 star energy rating! It only uses 64 litres per wash!! W00t!

There's been a bit of knitting time. First sock for Rodg all done ...

Looks good on, too (6 ply Opal). I'm past the heel on the second sock already, too. 6ply knits up so quickly!

We hold our 'Christmas' on New Year's Eve - mainly so we can spend 25th Dec with my horrid FIL and not feel like he's ruined our Christmas; plus we can have Rodger's birthday celebrations first, shop at the post-Christmas sales, and generally diffuse a lot of the 'Christmas madness' stress. It works well.

The day always begins with Bircher Muesli - a quadruple batch! My mum's recipe from my childhood ... yum. Oatmeal, freshly squeezed orange and lemon juice, almonds, grated apples, plain yoghurt, brown sugar, and more, soaked overnight. Perfect comfort food.

Ham with Maple Syrup. Scalloped Potatoes. Green Beans, Asparagus and Tomatos with a Balsamic Vinegar Dressing ...

Fruit Mince Stars. Super easy, fast, and tasty! We'll make these again!

A few lovely pressies - Jeeves and Wooster Series 2 on DVD from Rodg, a super cool TS14+ necklace from Dotter, some great books (knitting and puzzles) and 2 skeins of llama / silk from Abbey in Alaska (!!) ...

Hubby got me this wonderful little 'glasshouse' (really a plastic tubing & vinyl house) - just what I need for raising my seedlings!

I clearly need some practice / advice though - this is what happened to my lovingly raised 2-month old tomato seedlings after being overnight in the glasshouse ... the early morning sun completely fried them. I probably should have left the door rolled up. Or something. Cry cry cry!!

FIL is still in hospital - hoping to get out next week. He got a 'day pass' for Christmas Day, and spent the afternoon with us. The nurses were happy to have a break from him for a while - they said "You can keep him!" somewhat hopefully when Hubby picked him up. The Aged Care Assessment thing is happening next Monday.

Monday - ah next Monday. The Deadline. I've got 8 puzzles to go - 5 are quick, but 3 are quizzes, which are not quick. But the end is in sight, and I'm on track. Of course, there will be no real break, as I'll go straight into 4 weeks of Author Review, editing 1/4 of the book each week. But at least the writing work will all be done! Yay!

Hope you're well and enjoying a good break at the start of 2009!

Twenty years

Twenty years ago today I was in labor ... it went on for quite some time (32 hours); our planned home birth ended with an unplanned emergency Caesarian (because of my deformed hips and pelvis). But our gorgeous first child Rodger was finally born, and we were both fine, despite the bruise on his forehead from being stuck, and my row of stitches (metal clamps actually, yuck).

Wasn't he a sweetie at 2? Blonde with brown eyes ... he even won a Beautiful Baby competition!

Over the years we've got to know each other quite well. I home schooled him until the end of Year 10. We've gone through the Lego phase, the dinosaur phase, the catalog-itis phases, the lizards phase, the archery phase (he can still shoot an incredible score without having practiced at all, little toad!) ...

He's a lot bigger and hairier now, but he's still a sweet, smart, and funny guy. He's into indy / prog rock music, plays guitar, bass and drums (!!) - all self-taught - and loves huge mugs of milky tea, puppies, Red Eye, Kingsley's Chicken, pizza, anime, rock concerts in Sydney, Mac computers, and playing EVE Online with his dad. He's a good cook, especially when it comes to cakes! I'll always be thankful that he introduced me to Nine Inch Nails, Muse, Queens of the Stone Age, and Ratatat!

Tomorrow he turns 20 (now I really feel old!). He's not much one for big parties, so we're having a nice family meal, Mexican 'cos that's his favourite, with Summer Pudding for dessert (a treat I've never made before!).

And the best present of all - a few days ago Rodg was offered a place (in the first round of offers, too!) in the Advanced Diploma in Graphic Design at the Canberra Institute of Technology! Yay!!

This is the same degree that I did, 22 years ago, at the same campus! I was in the first intake of students who ever did the course, and they didn't really know what they were doing. It's a vastly better course now. I'm really tickled pink that he's following in my footsteps - he has natural ability, and I'm sure he'll do fantastically well. He starts in early Feb 09!

Happy Birthday my boy. I'm so proud of you, and love you to bits.