Days of Shades

(So when is it NOT, you ask? I don't know, dear reader, I really don't know).

I'm hoping to head up to Port Townsend for a few days at Fiddletunes Sunday, and come back down on the 4th. The job I want to apply for closes the fourth, so really I need to get that application in by Sunday, before I leave. We have a rehearsal Sunday, too, and tomorrow I've arranged to go help my coworker, Nancy, with cleaning the winter-muck off some of her horses, which I'm really looking forward to. Tonight there's a concert to go to. Time grows tight. Oh, and I have francophone guests-I-don't-know (daughter of a friend of a friend sorta thing) staying over Thursday the 6th, so the guest room needs to be clean and habitable, and the guest room WAS being the tool room for like three years and is now 'ex tool room dirt explosion', so that's fun.

On the good side, doing the cleaning rush for the guests from Quebec means that I'll have a headstart on the bigger cleaning push for later July, when Erik's mom is finally coming out to visit. She's not staying with me, but I still want the house to be nice, and yarden to be... as nice as I can manage. Erik helped with the latter last night, cleaning and re-arranging the back storage-patio (I have a covered patio running along the back of the house that accrues stuff, and then an uncovered patio that's actually used for sitting or grilling and what not). Then he called me 'nouveau white trash' because A) the storage-patio is always a disaster and B) part of the disaster is a bike tire I have yet to install. But at least I no longer have a lawnmower up on blocks, which I did for awhile. 

(Erik is from Connecticut, and he doesn't like most of the middle-class trappings he was brought up with, but I swear the super-Connecticut-ness comes out when confronted with my trashy patio. I never care about the patio because it's the catchall place for the detritus of actually important projects, like big home and yarden improvements -- I have a hard time working on 'tidy' when I want to spend my time working on 'big change'. Even though tidy DOES make it easier to work!).



Oh, and I need to add 'installing that bike tire' to my to-do list. I've been putting it off 'cause the sidewalls are so stiff that installing it is really difficult on my hands. I already switched out the back one (old tire had come apart), and I gave the tube a pinch -flat in the process and had to do it all again. So I'm not eager to do the front.

Oh! And speaking of Trash In My Yarden (because I am hippy trash, my yarden totally shows it, it can't be denied), dad is supposed to finally come 'round with the trailer this weekend and take a bunch of stuff to the dump. YAY!

Top priority (must be done this weekend)

• ME secret santa artz (I'm even prepared with an audio book to keep me focused)
• Finish three emergency face paint kits for mom to give as gifts
• decorate Christmas rent-a-tree (I picked it up this morning)
• plant new mini shrubs (3x cornus s. 'kelseyi', also acquired this morning!)

Second priority (would like to make progress this weekend, but nothing dire will happen if I don't)

• finish chapter four of SaES
• de-flash, trim and sculpt modifications onto Kim and Erik's new minis, and continue work on Viva.

Third  (things I can do after the weekend because I'm actually taking a week off holy shit!)

• finish sculpting minis and start painting
• WRITE ALL THE THINGS
• Art for art's sake -- probably working on the painting of Viva (I'm in love with my little gnome)
• maaaaybe make New Year's cards (I wasn't planning on it because I finished up the series I was doing last year, and didn't have a new idea, and also because I killed my printer. But maybe).

These last few week, where I haven't had studio work to structure my time, I've been experiencing that old pattern where I'm stressed and overwhelmed during the week and then on the weekend I can't remember what I'm supposed to be working on. It sucks, because not only do I not get caught up on things, I know I'm forgetting something, so my relaxation isn't that relaxing, either.

With that in mind, I'm going to set some clear intentions for Friday (the start of my weekend), so I don't wake up tomorrow thinking "Damn, I have a lot to do. I wonder what it was?"

1. Yoga at 8:30, which means waking up early. BLECH. Haven't done it since the Caving Incident, though, and I think the stretching'll probably help my recent hip issues.
2. Grocery shopping. I'm in charge of dinner for our gaming crowd tomorrow, so I need to hit Hong Phat and Freds or Safeway (lotus root, bacon, pork, more black fermented beans, bell peppers). If I remember to choose something for Sunday tonight, could pick up that stuff, too.
3. Work on music to show solarbird.
4. Play enough ME3MP so that I can finish ME3. This is on the 'work' list because if I finish the damn thing I can go back 'round to the beginning, which would be really helpful in continuing my writing.
5. Return to music (I find doing multiple short sessions helps my rememberer.)
6. Do some dishes and prep the food. With stir-frying mis en place is super helpful, and if I slice and measure everything before I go pick up E ('cause I'll have his car), I should be able to throw it together quickly enough that it's all hot and tasty, even doing two batches.

After that I get to pretend to be a joyous gnome who likes to explode things with a free conscience.