Soledad's Journal

I started with doing a food run in the morning. Our favourite soft drink (ginger ale) war on offer; now we've got enough for several weeks. Pushed the shopping cart home because they were bloody heavy. It's a good thing that Lidl is at the next corner.

Then I've worked a bit on my baby elephant #1. It still needs her ears and eyes sewn on, then I can stuff her and add her to the herd.

After that, wrote the additional scene to the first chapter of EMV III. I'm still not entirely sure that it should end there; have to think about it. Shifting the POV to the Klingon side was a good idea, I think. Sometimes it's hard to decide when to end things.

I also made lunch. The pork knuckle I bought at Lidl proved delicious; not to mention the fact that there was very little actual work included. I just put the whole thing into a fireproof dish, shoved it into the oven for 35 minutes and that was it.

In the afternoon I was then accordingly exhausted. Did some crossword puzzles, took a short nap, watched some telly with Mum and now the day is over again.

Cleaning was unpleasant as always and ate the entire morning, but by 1pm I was basically done with everything and could collapse. Especially as we still had leftovers, so no cooking was required. Yay!

Despite the workload, I managed to put in a bit of writing. Not much, but I did finish Chapter 2 of EMV III - Hunter, Prey, and even started Chapter 3. This story requires more effort to take shape, as I only have a vague idea what is supposed to happen, and have to figure things out as I do. Still, I'm cautiously content how it's gone so far.

I've also worked a bit on Lola, the very floral elephant. I'm considering giving her flower-shaped eyes, assuming I can find flower-shaped buttons in the right size and colour, which is always a pain. If I can't then she'll have the same round black eyes as the other three. That's pretty, too.

I was very nervous in the morning because AO3 was down to maintenance and I was worrying if the iPad mini will be able to connect after the archive comes back. The poor thing is unable to show that Cloudfire "verify that you are not a robot" thingy, and consequently I can no longer access the stories on FF.Net with it. Fortunately, AO3 came back and allowed the mini to connect, so it's good. On new iPad I can only read things with proper illumination, which isn't very helpful. Well, I'm sure it does have a night modus, I just haven't found it yet. It is so insanely complex; too smart for me, just like my phone. So I use the mini for nightly reading escapades (when I don't fall asleep after two sentences, that is), and I'm really glad that I still can connect to AO3 with it.

So, that was basically my day. Tomorrow there will be kitchen duty, as we've run out of leftovers after four days. But it's okay, since I've also planned some comfort baking that's long overdue. *g*

And no, I don't mean them darkening early in winter. Actually, we have no light at least an hour longer than, say, in early December. But the usable hours fly by with such a frightening speed - how is it Thursday evening again?

Of course, the fact that I was on a shopping tour around midday might have played a role today. I was only away for a little longer than two hours, but that meant the day was broken into two fairly short parts, with and even shorter break in the middle. Granted, I could have gone in the early morning... theoretically. But getting up early when you're staying up deep into the night isn't easy. Even so, with barely six hours of sleep I was befuddled all day, despite a short nap in the afternoon.

In any case, I worked a bit on the girl doll's dress. It consist of two identical panels (well, as identical as I'm capable of making any two things, which is not much), and I've almost finished one of those. Whether it will be the front panel or the back one depends on which of the two will turn out prettier - that one will go front. Yeah, it's all about appearances. *g*

I've also started typing up Chapter 4 of EMV II, which is good. The story has only five chapters, so I actually might finish transcribing it to the computer in a reasonably short time. *fingers crossed* When that's done, I might try bringing up enough brainpower to continue EMV III. I'm at a point where I have to describe a duel between Malcolm Reed and a female Klingon warrior, and that would need the right mindset... and a lot more sleep. We'll see.

Social and family life was represented by two phone calls, one to a colleague who's managed to break her leg (again) and one to H. and the set of grandchildren who live in the same house. So, it was a fairly busy day, but tomorrow I attempt to do more things for myself.

I've decided to take a crafting break before frustration would overwhelm me and do some necessary tasks instead. Starting with the grocery run, which went well enough, I only forgot two things I intended to buy (one of them even stood on my written list and I still managed to forget it). I shoved the shopping cart home, on which short way an old fart started bothering me about doing it, with the old b*tch on his side making disapproving grimaces.

( Rant behind the tag )

After breakfast and some telly I felt completely drained and decided to take a nap - which lasted two hours! Fortunately, we still had tomato soup (this time made from the scratch) and spanakopita from yesterday, so I didn't have to cook. What's even better, we'll still have some of it for tomorrow! I've bought Cesar salad and pork sausages and chitterlings, so that will take care for another two days. And a pot of quark, which means quark dumplings for the third day. Yay! I love it when I don't have to agonize about what to cook in the next couple of days. Cooking in itself is enough!

So, after lunch I continued my decluttering programme and sorted out six entire shelves. Well... five and a half anyway. Half a shopping bag is full of paper, which I'll take down to the selective waste, soon. Among other things I got rid of my very first (unfinished) Star Trek story, written half in Hungarian, half in German. It was a hard thing; Dame Agatha Christie compared such an act with the cat killing her kittens that are incapable of living. But I realized that a) I'll never finish that story, as I've switched to writing fanfic in the original language of the fandom, and b) I can no longer subscribe to the original storyline and idea anyway. Not to mention that I could hardly read it, as it was hand-written in very small and faded letters my eyes probably wouldn't be able to deal with. But it was hard.

So, all in all, it was a productive if not entirely pleasant day. Hope for a better one tomorrow.

May you be a more peaceful one than your predecessor was!

For starters, the first day of the new year started peacefully indeed. We got up late, watched the New Year's Concert of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, I did a bit of crafting, and then we both took an extended nap.

In the afternoon Mum attended to Mass via telly - unfortunately, it was broadcast from Rome (I think) and was accordingly long and pompous, not to mention that a lady with a horribly shrill voice was translating the whole thing. For an hour and 45 minutes. I don't know how Mum could bear it - I got a headache two rooms farther!

Which means that no intellectual activity was possible in those nearly two hours. Therefore I've started with the decluttering programme. Following elwenlj's wise advice, I began with one small corner: the lower shelf of my bedside table. Hard to believe, but I've sorted out enough paper to fill a large shopping bag; old Star Trek and other sci-fi magazines mostly, that I had once bought in Vienna or got gifted by online friends from the States or the UK. They were pretty, and I had once enjoyed them very much, but I had to admit that I hadn't even took them in hand for... well, for a decade and a half. So I was rigorous and only kept a few selected ones with the episode guides and thematic articles I might be able to use for my writing. I've also thrown out some old fanfic stories I'll likely never read again - one of them was a Sherlock story, printed out in 2012, and not even a particularly good one!

In any case, it was a cathartic experience, not to mention the practical thing to do. Now my background research notes are ordered by fandom and laced in file maps (physical ones), so that I might be able to find them more easily next time I want to pick up one of my never-ending WIPs. *g*

We expected you with tentative hopes; hopes that you would turn out better than your predecessor. Well, you did not. Still, I for my part am grateful that things hadn't gotten worse than they in the end were. Despite the great scare with Mum in February and the constant fear of what is happening beyond our Eastern border. Nuff' said about that.

The last day of the year was both busy and comfortable. I worked a bit on my rag dolls: two bodies, two arms and two heads are now more or less done. And the face of the second one looks indeed more like a girl's, although it isn't entirely finished yet.

I also did all the cooking and baking I planned. The sausage roll wreath is once again of the "ugly but delicious" kind, which is much better than the other way round, so I'm not complaining. The scones turned out way too heavy and a bit hard. I've probably overcooked them, and perhaps there was an actual reason why the original recipe asked for homemade butter; it has probably more fat than the bought one. Ah well, Mum liked them nonetheless, and eating them with the soup made them soft, so they'll do.

I called my friend Evie on the phone in the afternoon, and then I was basically just lazing around. Lying on my front with Methuselah-the-laptop who deigned to connect to my favourite solitaire games (even though I'm afraid to visit any other website since the antivirus programme couldn't be installed on the laptop - probably too old for this new version), and then re-reading some of my unfinished stuff, both fanfic and original fiction. I still enjoyed those fragments, so they can't be all that bad, I guess.

So, I hope you folks have a fun New Year's Eve and a happy new year afterwards. But we'll discuss our expectations in tomorrow's post. *g*

This was a hard day - hopefully the last such one until Christmas.

We started with the big cleaning frenzy. Our cleaning lady was on time, and we went through the entire flat in just two hours. While she was working in one room, I put the already finished ones back into order, so I finished about the same time as she did. But getting up at 6am really hurt.

Afterwards, Mum and I had breakfast, and then I left for my second weekly shopping tour. I usually go to the shops twice a week because I just can't haul home everything at once. It was a successful one but took forever; the supermarkets were overcrowded, mostly with old people blessed with the unique talent to block everything with their shopping carts and make it impossible for others to reach the shelves. *sigh* I'm an old hag myself, but I still get frustrated by my generation sometimes.

Coming home, we had lunch - leftover soup and Zwiebelkuchen that I bought at Lidl, so that I wouldn't have to cook - watched some telly, I called H. on the phone and then fell asleep for about two hours. Got up to watch the next episode of "The Repair Shop" - only to find out that the stupid channel took it off the programme. Grrrrrrrr!

At least I finally took the time to post the last chapter of "Enterprise - The Maiden Voyage, Part I." to AO3. I'll start posting the already written Part II. in the new year.

... that we did so much slave labour on Sunday. *g*

Not only did we do the laundry, I also did the cooking (two different dishes with cauliflower, noadvertising would be shocked), prepared things for tomorrow's baking session (like grinding pistachios and the likes) did some crafting and even a bit of writing.

Yeah, Grandma would be shocked, but I'm quite content with my day. Especially as I got to take a nice nap in the afternoon, too, and had a long chat on the phone with my friend Evie on the evening. ;))

... is here. They are a mix of the old and the new versions: with paper ball heads but with Nespresso hats instead of red felt ones. Also, the faces are drawn, not glued.

I also made the body for a third angel; I intend this one to be pale pink or pale purple, depending on the shades of felt and tulle I have in my stock. Found chenille wire in both colours for the arms, so I'm all set. She'll also have yellow hair, I think.

Other than that, I did a bit of writing; not much because this is a tough little scene, but at least some words were created. I also cooked lunch - if making instant soup and frying French toast to the leftover salad can be called cooking - and put things back to their places after the workmen's visit yesterday.

And, of course, we had choir practice. We have our 20th anniversary this year, and the jubilee concert takes place on November 23. There isn't much time left for practice, and we'll have our annual Christmas concert only three weeks later, so things are a bit hectic choir-wise at the moment.

Tomorrow I'll attempt another battle with the government office re: Mum's personal data. I hope I've managed to gather every document they might possibly require, but you can never know with government offices. *sigh*

My second little angel is finished. I'm still not entirely happy with the face, but at least I know now why: I shouldn't have drawn slanted eyes (which I did in both cases). So I'll just have to make a third one to get it right. ;))



Also, the promised pictures of Christmas cards 35 and 36:



Today I also wrote my preliminary baking list for Christmas; I'll post it as a pinned entry later. Right now, I'm at 30 different biscuits. That might change later; perhaps I'll leave something out, replace something or add more... we'll see. Yes, I am insane; I think we've already established that fact.

Other than that, we had laundry day, I made pulled turkey for lunch, wrote a bit, and that was basically it. I tried to make the most of a day when I didn't have to leave the house but it still doesn't sound too much. *sigh*