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Well, it's officially winter when the door locks freeze...

Incidentally, my door locks froze. I get about one good opening/closing before they won't catch right... makes getting to work a bit tricky, but by the time I get there they'll usually catch if I open and close the latch a few times. More coldness is coming overnight, with possible/probable snow forecast for tomorrow afternoon. (I tend to be skeptical when they call it this far out, though...) At least I got the car covered so I won't have to scrape the windows tomorrow morning (save the back window, which I usually just let defrost deal with.)

Work was worklike. Down two people, so what should've been an easy day wasn't.

And I shopped my way home, which ate up what little daylight I had, so no going out to my workshed today. Dang it.

Away I wander. Need to get dinner started soonish (potato soup night... well, potato with ham and carrot, so I can pretend it's a balanced meal.)

Well, and I thought it was cold here.

I'm messing around. Need to add a few items to my grocery list and get eding.

I am sitting on a rock in the saddle between Mt Ruapehu and Nguaurahoe (otherwise known as Mt Doom). Somehow, someway, there is 3G coverage here.

Lavern08 said:

Getting ready to make a Smoothie using a pint of Chunky Monkey™ a banana, and some Cinnabon-flavored International Delight™

Who wants some?

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Hooooo. Chunky Monkey . . . and with a banana. My kind of snack.

Brightdreamer said:

Well, it's officially winter when the door locks freeze...

Incidentally, my door locks froze. I get about one good opening/closing before they won't catch right... makes getting to work a bit tricky, but by the time I get there they'll usually catch if I open and close the latch a few times. More coldness is coming overnight, with possible/probable snow forecast for tomorrow afternoon. (I tend to be skeptical when they call it this far out, though...) At least I got the car covered so I won't have to scrape the windows tomorrow morning (save the back window, which I usually just let defrost deal with.)

Click to expand...

Winter has arrived here too, although the promised snow did not arrive. Slop and fog will have to suffice.

Albedo said:

I am sitting on a rock in the saddle between Mt Ruapehu and Nguaurahoe (otherwise known as Mt Doom). Somehow, someway, there is 3G coverage here.

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What else could one possible want?

Albedo said:

I am sitting on a rock in the saddle between Mt Ruapehu and Nguaurahoe (otherwise known as Mt Doom). Somehow, someway, there is 3G coverage here.

Click to expand...

Vacationing in Mordor, or trying to get rid of a pesky piece of jewelry? (And I'll quit with the lousy LOTR references, already.) Always wanted to see NZ, myself, but I can barely afford a car trip these days.

Well, it's a chilly morning, and I ought to head out soon to warm up the car, if I can get into it. There's still talk of snow later today, which is now supposed to shift directly to rain overnight (what fun... not.) On the plus side, I got enough dinner options yesterday to not have to shop my way home unless I feel like making a last-minute desperation gift run ('cause I still have no flippin' clue what to get my aunt, unless I can find a real cheap copy of a DVD or something. Wonder if they do gift cards for Redbox or DVDXpress... and if she'd use it if she had it.)

Right now I'm writing a marriage ceremony. I'm set to marry my oldest niece to her high school sweetheart in January, and I keep having dreams that I failed to write the ceremony or that I failed to bring it with me to the wedding. It's kind of slow going because of course I want it to be perfect for her but I also want to get. it. done. already.

Currently cooking. Catching on news and about to play fishdom. Stuck on the same blasted level.

About to nod off on my keyboard despite the fact my right calf acts like it's going to cramp. Got to do some toe raises.

Well, that was a day. The car was happily frost-free when I got to it, incidentally - which was good because the wind had knocked the tarp off. (Nowhere to anchor bungee cords on newer cards, unfortunately, so I'm stuck with magnets and hope to hold the tarp on.) Work was light enough we got out early, so hopefully tomorrow will be more of the same. And so far there's no snow or rain or anything, though it has clouded up significantly in the last hour. Too chilly and too close to darkness to get out to my workshed, unfortunately, though I'm cautiously okay with my rate of progress.

Right now, I'm wondering what I'm supposed to be doing about dinner. Mom and the Negative One took off after I got home from work, and if they're out late enough sometimes they eat, so it's not worth my while to start anything fancy (like the sockeye I got the other day) - may just not do anything and throw together turkey burger and fry or something if they get home and want food. Still got leftover potato soup if push comes to shove.

Yep, my dinner dilemmas must make for fascinating reading.

Guess I'll do something Useful - maybe another Lynda video. (CSS Page Layouts, now - really trying to get the the ambition up for a site overhaul early next year. If nothing else, I'll need the distraction.)

Up and late for work. Feel like kack with a cold that won't stay and won't go. More house move shenanigans with the bank today. Stress levels to max. Need to get the boy, currently curled up on the sofa beneath my exploding tardis blanket, which kind of what I want to be doing, dressed and out to school. I agreed to adjust some data this mornng, a nice switch off task.

The soupir.

Working on the second draft of TSG 2, and trying to come up with a better title.

Well, I made it down from the fires of Mt Doom intact (apart from my knees, which didn't like the 9 km downhill one bit.) Funny enough, I couldn't actually see either mountain: Tolkein would have described it as a land in perpetual shadow. Except I don't think it rained in Mordor.

Now I'm in the middle of the strait on a ferry to the South Island. And yes, there is 3G here! How does New Zealand do that??

The weather actually called it for once - there was indeed snow, but it was melting by this morning. Then we got some snow while I was at work, but that was melting by the time I left (early - light day, and the snow was threatening to mess up one of the major routes home for many people. Well, not so much the snow as the accidents that tend to go with it.)

Keep getting depressed by the news, feeling even more helpless by the day. And the book I'm reading on Kindle isn't helping, as it's showing just how far back a lot of this crud (economic disparity, oppression of women, etc.) goes... back to the roots of civilization itself, apparently, and possibly further than that.

Got myself a pot pie for lunch, 'cause I haven't had one in a while. So I'm eating that while I lurk online. Later I need to get a book review written. (YA fantasy set in a corrupt near future... another bad reading choice, given current events.)

ETA - Just heard that our rat guy, while checking the traps today, had a first: he caught a flying squirrel on our property. I've only ever heard them (you hear the "tok" when they land on a tree) in deep woods, usually older growth and away from people - I had no idea we had them in our relatively suburban neck of the woods. He'd never actually seen one in all his years trapping animals; he took a picture before he let it go. (We picked this guy because he live-traps, and releases anything that isn't a problem animal. The others he takes back to observe for a while, and if they haven't gotten into poison he donates them to raptor centers and other places that need rodents as food.)

No bloody coffee in the house. And the survey valued the house less than what we offered so now have to renegotiate price and get repair estimates. There were bound to be set backs. Hope this is the only one. Arggh.

Kids are watching star wars, littlest one, just after the opening scroll of text looked at me and said 'that was a lot of letters daddy', which made me smile. I might be able to use that too.

Today is packing to do. Lots of packing. And its terrifyingly close to Christmas. Need a holiday. Want to write.

I just had a huge scare. Yesterday, the puppies (9 days old, c-section) barely gained any weight, so I called the emergency vet who told me to wait till today in the morning and weigh them again. To my dismay, 3 lost weight, 1 stagnated, three gained a fuckton. So I took Marie aside and squeezed her nipples like I did when they were first born to see if she had milk, and to my even greater dismay, only 2 produced a tiny little bit - while she has a gigantic udder under each nipple. So I called the emergency vet again, he tells me to start bottle feeding - every 2 hours, day and night. Fine, I had bought a puppy bottle and puppy milk powder for this kind of emergency. But to my further dismay, THE BOTTLE DOESN'T WORK.
I am this close to despairing, when I decide to try Marie's teats again. Nothing. So, I remembered how Marie gets her babies to poop: by massaging their bellies. So I gave her a teat massage, teat by teat, and lookie there! Big drops of milk from each teat but one! I wish I'd thought of this yesterday, but I hope they'll catch up. Their weightloss wasn't significant, so I'm not too worried Will buy syringes for manual feeding later.

I am taking care of 14 dogs today. My 3, their 7 puppies, 1 boarding guest, and 3 dogwalking clients. This evening I'll meet another walking client.

Writing more horror. Looking forward to some Beer at my local German Market later on!

Besides freezing? On the verge of walking and then my devotions.

Getting ready for the book signing at the local library.

An emotionally bleak day today and for some reason on emotionally bleak days I feel drawn to bleak places that are easily accessible by road. Everywhere between here and the Scottish border is bleak on a dank foggy evening such as this, and I always return wanting to write some desolate horror or other. A lonely beast wandering the moors, picking off some weary twilight straggler lost on a forsaken hill top as the sun sets and the mist descends.

Got washing up to do and a turkey leg to roast though.

Ravioli said:

I just had a huge scare. Yesterday, the puppies (9 days old, c-section) barely gained any weight, so I called the emergency vet who told me to wait till today in the morning and weigh them again. To my dismay, 3 lost weight, 1 stagnated, three gained a fuckton. So I took Marie aside and squeezed her nipples like I did when they were first born to see if she had milk, and to my even greater dismay, only 2 produced a tiny little bit - while she has a gigantic udder under each nipple. So I called the emergency vet again, he tells me to start bottle feeding - every 2 hours, day and night. Fine, I had bought a puppy bottle and puppy milk powder for this kind of emergency. But to my further dismay, THE BOTTLE DOESN'T WORK.
I am this close to despairing, when I decide to try Marie's teats again. Nothing. So, I remembered how Marie gets her babies to poop: by massaging their bellies. So I gave her a teat massage, teat by teat, and lookie there! Big drops of milk from each teat but one! I wish I'd thought of this yesterday, but I hope they'll catch up. Their weightloss wasn't significant, so I'm not too worried Will buy syringes for manual feeding later.

I am taking care of 14 dogs today. My 3, their 7 puppies, 1 boarding guest, and 3 dogwalking clients. This evening I'll meet another walking client.

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Oh, good! Glad to hear things worked out for you and the puppies.

Getting ready to shower.

Latina Bunny said:

Oh, good! Glad to hear things worked out for you and the puppies.

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They're so perfect! Look at these little lumpies! Three are reserved! Two couples - for Balmer and Lala - came today, another one is coming tomorrow for Kubbe. I'm worried about Mirabella who's lost 7 grams since yesterday though

Baking toll house cookies and ready to watch a hockey game.

Just got back from a signing at the local library.

Sold 4 books.

LPT: when using Square Reader, you still have to have people sign up for your email list. Turns out Square's privacy policy prevents you from exporting the email address captured for the receipt - unless you spend money on Square's marketing tools.

Blowin' through on an evening breeze... don't mind me...

Today was suspiciously productive for a Saturday. Got more workshed time in (still cautiously okay, if not overly happy, with the rate of ornament progress), posted another review, got the room tidied, and washed a load of laundry.

We got our tree up. A little pink lighted tree, currently topped with a Death Star. It's something...

Debating whether to do a Lynda video tonight, or listen to holiday tunes or something else frivolous. I'm feeling an itch like I want to write, but can't seem to settle on a project yet, nor can I come up with a new one.