Reviews, Recipes, and Random Slices of Life

The last couple of weeks have been very busy with All The Things, especially last week. In my writing log, I wrote down the following:

Recorded "Breath Stirs In the Husk" for Pseudopod
Recorded “Drowning in Sky” for PodCastle
Did audio editing on PodCastle and Pseudopod readings and sent them off
Writer’s networking tea at Patisserie 46
MinnSpec writers group in Uptown
Updated market spreadsheet, wrote newsletter, and mailed it off
Researched self-pub cover art necessities
Wrote cover art contract
Met with cover artist
Processed “Diplomatic Relations” acceptance
Processed “Charity From a Thief” rejection
Processed writing expenses

In addition to this, we !!finally!! took care of the second mortgage balloon payment, a financial burden that has been becoming increasingly worrisome over the course of the last six months as we went back and forth with our mortgage banker about how we could refinance it. The short answer is that we couldn't, but he was too inexperienced to know that and too incompetent to find that out in a reasonable time-frame or even to return our phone calls EVER. Of course, back when we bought our house, we were assured that we could simply extend the term of our second mortgage without any problems. Now, that program has long since been discontinued. He eventually offered us a personal loan, but that has terms similar to a credit card, so, um, no. Instead we took out a loan against Phil's 401K. Not ideal, but at least we're paying the interest to ourselves. It also means that our 2nd mortgage will be paid off in 5 years instead of 10+ . . . because our monthly payment is going to be a couple of hundred dollars higher. Ouch. But still. Done! One thing to cross off the Worry List.

Speaking of the Worry List, Phil finally put lead encapsulation paint on the back staircase, which is a huge relief to me. Whew. Still not done fixing all the less-urgent lead stuff, but we're getting there.

So, lots of stress (and stress relief) this week, and lots of me trying to scrape out time to get things done. Not helping is that Theia has been waking up lots in the night again. Maybe teething? She's also been batting at her ears when she's sleepy, which makes me worry about ear infections, but Phil thinks it's because sometimes there's referred pain from teething. Basically, we don't know. It is worrisome. Also does not help with the exhaustion and having lots of stuff to get done.

Now that the mortgage's handled, our next big family project is figuring out preschool. Minneapolis folks, does anyone have recommendations or dis-recommendations for preschools in the Uptown/Downtown/S. Mpls area? We're hardly going to buy a second car just to ferry the small one to preschool, so it needs to be busable for us.

Sigh. Here's a picture of a water lily, for serenity.





P.S. Oh, and I bollixed up my left knee badly enough that it's been hurting constantly for the last few days. I'll try taking it easy for a week and see if it gets better on its own. If it's still this bad in two weeks, a doctor visit is probably in order, and who knows what else. I do not need this.

Phil is still quite ill with fever, though he doesn't have any other symptoms. He had a doctor's appointment yesterday, at which it was ascertained that yes, he has a fever, and no, he doesn't have any other warning symptoms. Turns out that when they say to go see the doctor if you've had a fever for three days, what they really mean is that the doctor just checks to see if anything else is going on and then sends you home without treating you, telling you to come back in a week if you've still got a fever. I disapprove! He doesn't have a backache, so it's probably not meningitis (If he gets a backache, he's supposed to go to the ER and get a spinal tap. You can guess how popular that suggestion was.). He's pretty sure it isn't an STD (i.e. that I haven't been cheating on him), so penicillin will do nothing. Lots of annoying questions, no treatment. Got back his bloodwork today, and his white blood cell and platelet counts are too low, so now he's supposed to get bloodwork done again two weeks after the fever goes away. And if the fever is still there next week, he's supposed to go back in.

Also, we know his judgment is impaired because he decided to drive to the doctor in downtown instead of taking a bus, despite having previously agreed that driving was a bad idea if he was running a fever. The doctor lectured him, I lectured him...and I don't trust him not to do something similar again.

Me, I worked a bunch. On the way home, I stopped at Target and picked up a couple of grocery-type things. I paid using the last of the Target giftcard NgithOwl gave me for Christmas.

It will be good to have hours in my paycheck again.

Dinner was cheese sandwiches and tomato soup. Then there was lots and lots of laundry folding as I watched Criminal Minds. And some writing (not while watching TV--I can't do that, though I've heard of writers who can).

Circus of Brass and Bone Total


3/2/11, Wednesday, full day of work
* Posted freewriting and writing log.
* A snippet of writing.
* Listened to writing podcasts at work.

I had one of the most bizarre health insurance customer service interactions I've ever been a part of yesterday. I was calling to find out what, if any, pre-natal classes are covered by my health insurance or are considered eligible to be paid with our FSA/HRA. Allina Hospital offers a dozen of them: baby CPR, baby sign language, preparing for labor, all about babies, etc. The insurance website had Lamaze classes listed as covered, but it wasn't clear about childbirth classes in general. So I call in and I talk to this lady, and it's like I'm actually talking to an automated system that's looking at the same sheet I am and doesn't have any independent judgment.

"So are general childbirth classes covered?"

"We judge by whether it is considered a medical necessity."

"Right. So is it considered a medical necessity?"

"We judge by whether it is considered a medical necessity."

"I'm looking at the list on the website--"

"That is the same list that I am looking at."

"So you can't answer my question?"

"No. Just that we judge by whether it is considered a medical necessity."

Commence banging of head. In the end, I think it comes out to childbirth classes might be, but childcare classes aren't. I'm still taking the "All About Babies" class. I last babysat babies when I was a teenager, and that was a long time ago. I mean, I know that you don't shake 'em, don't drop 'em, don't let their heads hang loose, and don't put 'em to sleep on their stomachs, but there's gotta be more to it, right?

I also started looking into refinancing under the HARP program (thanks for the recommendation, Laura!). A lower interest rate and smaller monthly payment would be good soon. Looks like we're eligible, and they've got free federal counselors to walk us through all the options and responses, so that goes on my to-do list.

Mostly, I spent yesterday writing. Given how annoyingly bureaucrat-infested the other things I dealt with were, I'm glad of it.

2/23/11, Wednesday

Circus of Brass and Bone Writing Log

Total


Episode 10


New words: 1,091
Total words: 59,138
Overused word: street
Gratuitous word: fly-bit
Type of scene: The city as it is.
Challenge(s): Balancing dialog and description. I've got a lot of explanatory dialog here. Hrm.
Which line is it anyways?A light dusting of snow gilded the wrought iron balconies and fire escapes.
Researched: Mostly I used the research I'd already done.
Notes: I didn't realize I was that close to my preferred episode length (5,000 words = 30 minutes). So far, it's more of a Point A to Point B, with interesting setting details. I wouldn't call it a "stuff happens" episode. Still, I could stick a hook on the end and call it done soon. Hrm. Also, I think that is a tracking thing I should keep track of.
Other writingy stuff:
* Posted freewriting and writing log.

And there was delicious and easy black bean soup for dinner. I'm trying to make something cheap with beans weekly as a cost-saving measure, but one bag of beans cooks so many--I've made beans and rice, black bean soup...and there's still beans left over.

Our financial situation is...very uncomfortable at the moment. We're not buying groceries, we're tapping out savings to cover bills, we're cashing in savings bonds, we're not spending any money-type uncomfortable. This is thanks to me not really getting work from NgithOwl for the last 3-4 months. We didn't immediately stop spending, mostly because these low points usually pick back up a lot faster than this. But it sucks. Basically, we're getting a preview of what will happen when I'm not working (except on those rare work-from-home projects), except without the raise that Phil's expecting in a couple of months.

One of the things I'm less happy about is that because of this, we've had to stop covering my parents' home loan, which is something we've been doing (from our own pocket) for the last several months. I just--wish there was more I could do.

Saturday was finances day. Sitting down and figuring out how we're paying bills for the next month. Emergency "this is our last hundred dollars"-type budgeting. It turned out okay, actually. Things will be really, really tight, but we'll cover everything and might even have a little extra to put against the credit card balance.

And then I started doing taxes, found out I hadn't recorded certain expenses, and swore a lot. So Saturday was mostly fussing with money. Had to be done, but wasn't pleasant.

But then there was a tiki party!



Not an emblematic tiki image, but isn't the art gorgeous? Plus, bonus eyeball creatures in spacesuits! And the artist has a process post about this piece here.

Phil had a basketball dunk contest he had plans to watch that evening, so we went for the early portion of the party. It was nice seeing and socializing with people (no work also means Abra gets cabin fever), and there was an impressive spread of food and beverages, including infinite permutations of Italian soda. Without the ability to drink booze, these things matter more to me....

I was tired, so I left when Phil did and went home instead of staying for the entire later portion. After lying down for a bit, I had energy enough to start doing taxes again. Blech. Also? Yeah, tracking expenses is important, because otherwise I'd have to be paying extra taxes on the money I made from writing last year. My book purchases saved me--although, geez, that was with me trying not to buy any books (due to critical lack of bookshelf space)!

As you might guess, that left not much time for writingy things.



2/19/11, Saturday writing log
* Posted freewriting and writing log.
* Worked on CoBB thank-yous.
* A smidge of writing on CoBB
* Character Clues: http://mysterywritingismurder.blogspot.com/2011/02/character-clues.html

I am a big bouncing stress ball lately. I have writing deadlines on top of writing deadlines, one of which used to be self-imposed but just became outside-forces-imposed. All of these things need to get done in times ranging from "tomorrow" to "end of June." I look forward to being past these deadlines. Sure, I did one of them to myself when I planned to write what is now being called, "Remediation Village (Probationary), Inner Mongolia" but one is finishing massive edits on "Alien/Whore/Mother" by tomorrow, and one is sending out agent queries which just got a lot more urgent, and I have a presentation to give on social media (thankfully, with others, and we're going with a pretty relaxed format) this weekend for my writing group, and crits done to get an MPC to get RV critted before the sub deadline. There is money stress, because of an not-yet-sorted-out but probably in the $1000s medical bills on top of old (smaller) debt. I wince away from money stress. There is personal-life stress, although at least I finally know where I'm at with that. There is upcoming family reunion, which is also stress over money and other things.

You know, a long rambling post where I write about where I'm at and what I'm doing and all the other things I think friends should know about each other but all too often don't these days. I encourage you to do one of these posts, too! I miss knowing these things about my friends (Twitter and Facebook have added a lot of little detailed information, but I think they've taken away some of the big picture).

( Read more... )

Now that the politics are mostly settled, I expect everybody's going to go back to being upset over the economy, right?

Turns out that, despite appearances, our car wasn't totaled as we'd feared. Costs to get it running were less than $1,000, and the person we had an accident with decided to file a claim instead of maybe having us cover it out-of-pocket to keep everybody's insurance premiums from going up. It still made about half of my "invest in a good DSLR" fund go up in smoke, but we are not financially screwed after all. And the car's now much easier to find in a parking lot (there are way too many silver cars on the road, and they all look alike).

Before Repair:




After Repair:


Our car is now 5% Geo Metro.

Ah, I finally get around to writing up the Bush Artist retreat highlights, from the perspective of the fly on the wall. The 2008 Bush Artist Fellows are an impressive (and photogenic) bunch. Follow that link to learn more about them and their award-winning art. As I said in my earlier post, everybody was witty and charming and talented, the orientation events were educational, the reception was fabulous, and the Fellows deserved their wins.


Did I mention the reception was fabulous?

( Notes from the educational presentations. )

Now I've finished getting the photos ready and writing up the retreat just in time to take a deep breath and dive into my next major event. That would be the Fourth Street Fantasy conference, which I'm attending this weekend. It's my first writer's conference. I hope they'll be gentle.