A Few Words on Ebooks

I haven't crunched the numbers, so I don't have exact data, but I know that over the years, I have read more and more via ebooks*. I still read physical books, mostly from the library, and sometimes I purchase them too, once I know if I love the book enough (have to support those authors, you know). 
*Largely but not exclusively Kindle.

This (unknown) number went up last year, when I started using Libby and then Hoopla to get library books that way, especially when I figured out I could use Hoopla with the second library card I have, giving me a total of 30 borrows per month that way. 

Then last fall I signed up for a Kindle Unlimited trial (two months for $0.99 at the time), and liked it so much I'm going to keep it for a bit longer, at least. I can borrow 20 eligible books at a time, and while not all books are available that way, enough are that I'm roaring through them.

Which meant that I was reading an enjoyable-enough, but not fabulous book when I came across this:

And I'm largely the same. Because honestly, at this point when I request a physical book from the library, by the time it comes in, I've forgotten what grabbed me about it, or I'm not in the same mood...Who knew I was such a reader of impulse? Are you?

Meetings and More Meetings

If they don't stop having "kick-off" meetings at work this month, I'm going to start kicking things.

The good news is that they did switch the meeting originally set for 4 on Friday to 10am instead. The less-great news is that puts it right after the other kickoff meeting at 9, but I'd rather have two hours in a row than anything at 4, so oh well.

We had another meeting that I absolutely did not need to be in this morning (which was originally Thursday, then Tuesday? I don't know), but the few pieces of good news were:

1. It wasn't run by a cameras-on person.
2. He actually did keep it to the promised hour, despite the ambitious agenda.
3. I figured out how to switch the sound source on the new laptop so that the volume was not way too loud when set at the very lowest level. I don't understand the setup at all, but at least I felt less like I was being shouted at. (Apparently one of the (many) ways in which I am a delicate flower is in volume control.)

On the down side, though, in addition to the two meetings on Friday, we got invited to another one, for next Wednesday. Which brings us to 6 kick-off meetings, totaling 7 hours. And so far, not one bit of it has any real relevance to my actual job.

I suppose I should be glad that the rest of the year isn't like this, for me. Just because I can knit through them doesn't make them not annoying. (It does make them less annoying...)

That Sinking Feeling---Literally, but also figuratively

Yeah, I need a new office chair. Mine is only a few years old, but it's started sinking now and then, which I really don't appreciate, so clearly I need to put a little more money into a better one, that will hopefully hold up to the use. Is that a vain hope? Who knows. 

It actually started doing this at least a month ago, but it seems to be getting worse. I will say that it is mightily unnerving to be sitting, concentrating on work, and feel it sink down an inch, out of the blue.

Meanwhile, speaking of work, it's January, and the company likes to have "kick-off" meetings to start the new year.

So. Many. Meetings.

Last week, we had an hour-long CEO kickoff on Thursday, and a two-hour-long kickoff for the healthcare division (two hours over lunchtime, by the way, and cameras on, people, everyone turn your cameras on).

This week, we have an hour for strategic intelligence kickoff on Thursday, and an hour for people and culture kickoff Friday morning, and then today they sent an invite for a pharma kickoff---another hour, on Friday at 4.

Friday. At four. Before the long weekend.

Seriously, what the hell are they thinking? Even setting aside that absolutely none of this has anything to do with my job, what the hell? 

Plotting and Planning: Six Weeks Out

As I knew it would when the time got closer, my trip at the end of February is starting to feel real. We leave six weeks from Sunday, and I've been doing things both more and less practical:

• choosing outfits, which isn't done yet but I started
• ordering things like travel-size toiletries and a universal converter/plug (of course I went with what Kyria recommended: thanks, Kyria!)
• buying a new roller carry-on bag; my old one is pretty rickety, so I got a new one in a pattern that I don't love, but will stand out among the black ones that so many people have:

• And, finally, deciding on a travel knitting project

Yes, my current knitting project is near enough to the end that I need to bring something else! I started the edging today. Which, since none of my current projects feels like being at the right point, means I need to make plans!

Back in 2019, I made a not-a-shawl project, named Across the Waters, and as I really like wearing it, I've been thinking about making another one. I decided that now is the time, and stash-dove for some yarn.

So, that's something! I'll wind the yarn and start it off before the trip, but since I've made it before, it ought to be straightforward enough, knock on wood.

On the Twelfth Day of Christmas

Now that I have finally mailed my holiday cards, I can share with you!

Front:

And back:

May 2025 be good to us all.

On Again, Off Again

The week before Christmas, I worked four days, then was off four days for my trip.

Worked a day, off a day (Christmas).

Worked two days, off two days, then I'll work two days, be off a day (New Year's), work two days, and off two days. 

What I'm saying is that the first full week in January is going to be a shock.

I'm feeling a bit under the weather today, but I'm hoping to write about my trip soon. Other than the weather, it was a great trip!

Merry Christmas

If that's your thing, merry Christmas! If not, well, I hope you're having a good Wednesday. Happy today to you.

This is where I would usually put up my Christmas card, but as I haven't sent a single one out yet, I think I will post it on the twelfth day of Christmas instead. Hopefully I will have them sent by then!

(I'm cheating, this is my friend's tree. But I did take the picture!)

Home

I got home safely last night, after a very fun and totally effing freezing trip, and eleven minutes after I walked through the door, I had a lap cat:

More to come.

Thanks for the Recommendation

Someone wrote about the magic of packing with compression cubes, and I decided to give them a try, but this is the first trip where I've used them. Magic! Who do I have to thank for this knowledge?

My winter coat is the kind that compresses down to pack into a pocket, which is great, but it's slippery, and though there's a drawstring to the pocket, it doesn't have a clip or anything, so although it's easy to squeeze the air out and get it into the pocket, it starts trying to decompress right away. Not without a fight, I managed to stuff it into this cube:

But I wasn't sure it would want to compress more. Turns out that, though it was a struggle to get all the air out of it, when I did, it was a much smaller, tidier package:

Isn't that magic? I'm off to use the other cubes for the rest of my packing. Time to get to it! I leave tomorrow, and it looks like I may never take my coat off:

Bubble Lights

When I was a kid, our Christmas tree was always a real tree---some years we even went out to cut our own (we have some pretty-funny-in-retrospect home movies of those treks). The house where I grew up had a large living room and the front, round end, was perfect for the tree. 

We had colored lights, mostly what I consider regular bulbs:

But also some of these snowball ones (not a whole string, but mixed in):

And some bubble lights mixed in as well:

Once I was old enough to "help," I got to help Dad put the lights in the tree, which made me feel very important. I loved watching these once they warmed up and started bubbling.

In our current situation, Mom doesn't want a tree enough to deal with the bother, so I haven't had a tree for a few years now. Which, given the last few years, is fine, but I was happy to pull out my bubble light night light this year. It gives a festive feeling. It looks like this:

Where are you on the lights spectrum? 

A Work Story with a Satisfying (and Funny) End

I have worked at my current company longer than I ever worked anywhere, which is a funny thing to have happened considering my work history includes four layoffs. I worked there from 2012 to 2014, then elsewhere for a year, and then came back in August 2015 and have been ever since.

When I re-started, I was given a laptop, and it was not new-out-of-the box, but it worked, I wasn't complaining. I had to send it in a couple of years ago to fix something, I don't even remember what now, but otherwise, it has continued to work, mostly---the battery wouldn't hold much of a charge, making it less portable than it should be, but I largely work from home and can keep it plugged in, so it was fine.

A few times this year, the battery stopped charging, and the first time I mentioned it, someone asked if I had tried plugging it into a different outlet. My expression at the question would have been something like this:

But I tried it, and I'll be damned, the battery started charging again. (There's no reason I understand why that would work. It's the same power source.) So when it happened again a few times, I did the same thing.

Then last month, that didn't work, and the battery dropped lower and lower, until finally I reached out to IT to ask what I should do. They asked if I could try a different charger to see if that was the problem, but my personal laptop has a different plug shape, so no. They said I could go to Best Buy and buy one and be reimbursed for it, or they could send me one. I wasn't in a rush, as the machine was working and this was right before my vacation, so they said they would send it, and it arrived during Thanksgiving week.

But when I was back to work and looked at it, oh, surprise, it wasn't the right kind of plug for my machine. I sent them this picture to show why this wouldn't work.

One of these things is not like the other...

The IT person who answered said that the person who could send me another was out on vacation, and would be in touch. At some point this week, someone asked me to look for and send them the specs for my computer, which I did.

Then on Thursday, I got an email from IT saying they had sent me a message in Teams, please respond. (I don't keep Teams open, unless it's for a meeting; the editors use Discord for our chats.) I opened Teams, and the chat literally just said hi. I said hello, and he asked if my laptop was an HP. I said yes, and then nothing for a while. (I admit, I was a bit miffed. We needed to use Teams for this?)

A while later, though, he came back into the chat and said, "would you say your laptop is pretty old" and "judging from these specs and the info I got, it seems a little outdated"! Oh, do you think? Are we just realizing that now? I said yes, it is old (I got my years mixed and told him it had been given to me in 2014, not 2015, but honestly, close enough), and he asked if I'd be okay with getting an updated one---he did not say new, but it has to be newer than this one. Of course I agreed, and he said great, he'd send it out. I thanked him, and said just tell me what to do with the old one.

His first answer was, "is there a trash can near you?" I just about fell off my seat laughing! He went on to say he was kidding, he'd give me the info to mail it back to them. I can only assume they want to destroy it themselves. Which is fine with me.

The new machine arrived safely on Saturday. When I saw that it didn't have the right kind of port to plug in the separate monitor I use, I put out a call for help on Facebook, and one of my friends knew exactly what I needed to get to make it work (I figured there had to be some sort of cord-plug-converter thing that would work, but had no idea what to search on). Now that should be all set, too! It remains to be seen how much of a pain it will be to set it up, but one thing at a time.

Preparing for This Crazy Trip

Okay, the trip itself is not crazy. I'm going to see my second family, and go to a fun party with a big friend group, and it will be very fun, I know.

Boston in December, however? For little Florida me? Is looking pretty crazy. This is the forecast as of Saturday morning:

Holy cats.

It is a week out, and that may change, but you know, better for me not to expect it to.

So my plans this weekend involve organizing my packing, and I am pulling out allll the hand-knits. For instance, I kept three hand-knit hats when I moved: should I just bring the warmest one, or the medium-warm one as well? To go with the leather gloves I kept, pull out the knit wrist-warmers to wear under them. Fingerless mitts to wear inside the house? Cowl(s), scarf(ves), shawl(s)...how much can I cram in a carry-on? We'll find out!

I Can't Regret the Lost Hour

I mean, I could have used another hour of sleep last night, sure. But this view was worth it.

Where

Where in hell did I put the holiday cards, when I was tidying up for my brother's visit. Where are they?

Okay, I've been looking for days, but apparently it took planning to blog about it to made them come out. Good grief. I am so tired.

Now I just have to find the holiday stamps. Sigh. 

Uncertain Center of Gravity; Yarn

I've had some sore spots on my feet recently, and finally got myself to the podiatrist on Thursday. As is so often the case, treatment makes things temporarily worse, and I was very wobbly walking on Thursday afternoon/evening (turns out, you really use your big toes a lot for walking). They've been a bit better each day since, and we'll see how things are this Thursday, when I go back to see him again. 

Hopefully things will have fully calmed down before I go up north for the weekend before Christmas, as obviously I will be wearing closed shoes that whole time! I got some warm-and-dries to wear.

They're pretty cozy. And I have a warm winter jacket; no, I don't need it down here, but it's good to have one ready for the need. And I will bring lots of warm, cozy layers, as many as I can fit in a carry-on.

Meanwhile, almost two years ago, I wrote about an enormous yarn windfall that came to me, and I'm not sure if I mentioned it earlier this year, but the same woman said she was going to have more to give me. Sign me up! 

We agreed that I would be happy to come pick it up, and leaving it in bins was also fine (rather than her rebagging it and bringing it to me, as she did last time). After some delays, Friday was the day, and I went to her house to pick up what she had; she said she 'only got through about half of it' and it did fit into my car, but only just.

So....lots of nice yarn for ccr, some set aside to mail to my knitting friends up north, and making plans for my local knitting friends to come by in January and "shop" here. Then I'll contact the woman I know locally who has a charity knitting group, and she can take the rest for that.

Oh, and at some point, there might be that theoretical other half. Phew!

Maggie This Morning

We have had Florida-chilly weather recently, with temps going down into the 40s overnight, meaning that last week we had the air conditioning on part of the time, and this week it's the heat! It warms up nicely during the day, but that warmth doesn't come inside well enough for this working person at her computer.

The reason I start with this is that, while Maggie likes to be on my lap year-round, these mornings, we are deeply into a mutual heat exchange. She was extra-cute, progressively, this morning. Look:

My baby girl.

Deep Post-Vacation Thoughts

Wow, working for a living sucks, doesn't it?

Meet It Is I Set It Down*

I have much to catch up on, but I wanted to make note of this one thing, for my own future reference. 

Any time we have someone stay, the "guest" bed is an air bed (which it's about time to replace, so if anyone has a brand to advise for or against, hit me up), and in the past, I have had to wrestle the damn thing to get the air out after, so that I could pack it away again.

This morning, I didn't feel like fighting it, so I turned the gauge thing to where it would let air out, and walked away.

I just came back into the office, and all (or almost all) the air had come out. I was able to easily fold it, and roll it down, squeezing out the last little bit. It was approximately 105% easier, for less effort. How about that! I hope that I will remember it for next time.

*You knew I was an English major, right? This is from Hamlet. Because of course that's what sprang to mind when I was thinking of writing about this.

Explain

So, yeah. We're (mostly) fine here, but there have been Things. 

• Like Mom was just in the hospital for five days, and is home now and slowly getting better but yeah. 
• Things. Like my brother arrives Saturday, which is a good thing, but still a thing I need to get ready for. 
• Yeah. Mostly that. Just a lot of things within those things.

Overall, fine! But posting might be light for a bit. 

New Katherine Addison, yay

I've been a fan of the author Katherine Addison since The Goblin Emperor came out; to quote myself, "excellent world-building, with its own language and speech conventions that are conveyed without confusion (or without much, anyway)." And as much as I love it, I have been equally-if-not-more pleased by her subsequent related-but-not-directly books, The Witness for the Dead and The Grief of Stones (not to mention her supernatural take on Sherlock Holmes, The Angel of the Crows, which is also great but very different). The books are great, and the audio versions are wonderful: honestly, I think I would struggle a lot more with the names of people and places, except that I can "hear" them from the many times I have listened to the books. 

Anyway! As a member of her Patreon, I saw recently when she gave away a few copies of the new book in the series, The Tomb of Dragons*, which comes out in March, and though I wasn't quick enough to win one of those, she next gave away advance copies of a new novella, The Orb of Cairado, which is in the same world but with different characters, and comes out in January (Subterranean Press is printing a limited, signed run). And guess what, I won! 
*One of the reviews on Goodreads states, "The Tomb of Dragons did not disappoint me in the slightest, except that it ended" which is very promising!

It arrived yesterday:

I liked that she signed it with both her name and her pen name (that's Sarah Monette).

I read it (of course), and I quite liked it, though I would not at all suggest jumping in with this one if you haven't read the series. You could read the books about Thara Celehar without having read The Goblin Emperor first, though I would argue you shouldn't, but in my opinion, you'll really want to understand how this world works before reading this novella. If you have read the others, then yes, I recommend this one!

I Did One Thing

In the spirit of both "just one thing" and not letting the perfect be the enemy of the done (I know, I'm mangling that), yesterday I ordered my holiday cards. As in the past few years, I used a Groupon to get half off cards at Staples, and in fact my order was ready to pick up last night, when my knitting group meets, right next to Staples. So now I have the cards, and they can wait until after Thanksgiving to be addressed, but I have them. Phew.

You'll see them on Christmas day here, as is my habit! In the meantime, perhaps you would enjoy this total piece of randomness.

I know, I'm a Shakespeare nerd, but the idea of Hamlet and Othello switching plays and each taking care of business very competently just tickles me.