Last day of January...already!

Well, it's been a little while - I've managed to keep up with reading friend's entries but with little else. (I shudder to think what my cumulated Google Reader entries number now).

I'm typing up some longhand I did on Sokoll's Hawks (God - when will it end? It was only supposed to be 6k long!). I did manage to write some longhand during the week, not as much as I'd have liked because my coughing has meant disturbed nights and therefore knackered days. Ended up with a migraine on Tuesday which probably had nothing to do with the cough, but certainly didn't help. :o(

And then on Thursday night I read Josh Lanyon's The Ghost Wore Yellow Socks. I was only going to read a couple of chapters before going to sleep but ended up reading to the end (at 00:50hrs) as every time I got to the end of a chapter I had to read 'just one more' (yeah, yeah - I should know better by now!)

Today I've:
Read Passage - book 3 in Lois McMaster Bujold's Sharing knife series - loved it. Want to read it again.

Recieved Jim Hines' Goblin Quest, as well as the I Do anthology today - so they've been added to the TBR pile

Made chicken stew and discovered we had hardly any potatoes, so then made dumplings with Tuscan herbs to with it (thank you interwebs for a 3 ingredient recipe)

Thought about doing the washing up but then allowed myself to get distracted. ;oD

Anyway, not a day of huge achievements - but I didn't spend it in bed asleep either, so it's not all bad.

Current word count on SH = 10,891 / 6,000. And it's in third person when it should be in first. ::Sigh:: That's a job for another day.

Update

I'm a bit behind in the cumulation of my daily goal of 2.5 pages a day minimum (although, in making up for not writing at all for four days I did manage to crank out 9 pages yesterday as well as doing some longhand afterwards (while watching the Dark Knight which my DVD player didn't want to let me see the last 10 minutes of ::grrrr::), so it's not all bad.)

I went swimming despite the cough that will not go away and I also did a load of laundry and swept the upstairs carpet, so I'm feeling productive in one sense, anyway!

I'm looking forward to properly light mornings, though. I can't quite get into the joy of getting up when it's pitch black outside and wazzing it down with rain. It just makes me want to curl up under the covers for another couple of hours - even the dogs don't want to get up when it's like that.

Anyway, past time for day jobbery. Onwards and upwards.

Update

Word count for today achieved - it's brought me back up to where I want to be; I skipped a few days so had to make up for that. 10 1/2 pages so that's good. I know it's technically Sunday, but as I haven't been to bed yet I'm still classing it as Saturday!

And now to bed, for there will be early rising tomorrow and the shopping of staple foodstuffs. (We haz no rize) ::mopes::

And then there will be the consumption of stew which was gorgeous. Nom nom nom. The collies thought so, too. Had to fight them off with my elbow while I ate. Tsk.

Anyway. Night night. Time for bed, said Zebedee.

Half the day gone and not a dish washed...

I did get stuff done today, even if it wasn't everything I wanted. The car's in the garage (the water pump is disintegrating) so I'm borrowing one of the garage's - a Peugeot 306, which is about 1/3 again bigger than mine. I will be driving very carefully to work on Monday.

The Allotments are paid for for another year (£50 this year - it's gone up £34 - which is a lot for a completely unmanaged, rural plot of land. Basically a small field.)

Stew has been made and is burbling away on the stove. I should have used a bigger pot, as I had to stop adding vegetables when I ran out of room. I'll wait until everything's settled down and add some leek.

The fire is lit (and didn't go out - it can go either way when I'm in charge of it) so the radiators should be heating up now. It was -1 degC at two o'clock - 2 hours ago - and it feels a damn sight colder now. Hot water bottles and socks tonight, I think. And China will probably stay curled up in the airing cupboard except for emergencies. Smart cat.

Right. Another cup of coffee, quick stir of the stew, and then more wordage - want to add an extra 2.5K today if I can.

Hope your day is warmer than mine!

Let it snow, let it freeze, let it snow...

Snow at 05:30 Monday, followed by lots of freezing and exciting driving to work (I have to drive up 2 1/2 un-gritted roads to reach a bus route that is gritted. Always an exciting prospect in icy weather!) Then last night it got down to about -10 (thank God for hot water bottles and border collies - bottle on the feet, border collies down one side, so nice and toasty!)
Tonight it's supposed to be a bit colder so socks will probably come into play at some point. It's not as bad as when we first moved in and were getting to grips with the fire / back boiler situation though - I haven't had to resort to the wooly hat in bed yet, although if it keeps up that night may come.

It's only the second day back at work and I'm looking forward to the weekend already. No afternoon off this week, in return for the late night, so I shall be flagging a bit by Friday.

But on saturday I have a mission! I have to clear out all of the non-essential / underused / never used pots and pans from the kitchen cupboards and restrict the contents to those that have a clear and useful purpose, as well as a more than vague chance of actually being used in the next decade or so.

Then I have to re-organise the tinned foodstuffs (mostly spicy mixed beans) into one cupboard, before heading off to a metropolis to stock up on all of the foodstuffs we do not have. And make stew. I will no doubt be persistently aided by collies and a cat. Such is life.

Goals for 2009

I've done a new plan for 2009, looking at the goals I want to achieve, so:

Complete Model of Perfection & revise (novel)
Edit & revise 3's Company (novella)
Complete Kieran's Kiss (novella) *
Do Sokoll's Hawks (short story)
Do Phelan's Fate (novella)**
Do Rapunze (short story)
Do Stranger at the Door (short story)

* & ** - it may be that these two can be blended into one novel, rather than two novellas with Kieran's story being at the forefront. I'll have to see when I re-outline K'sK and outline P'sF

And, as a new endeavour goal, I want to work on haiku and see what I can produce.

2009 got off to a good start with 3,301/ 6,000 words on Sokoll's Hawks done. If tomorrow goes well I may be able to complete it before I go back to work.

Happy New Year!!!

Happy New Year to you all!

I have the lergy, but am still cheerful for all that. Had a lovely New Year's Eve, with home-made lamb chilli and nibbles at a friend's house to ring in the New Year. It was nice and relaxed (and warm!)

Hope you all had a good New Year's celebration.

Merry

=^..^=