tracking progress and counting them up
I followed-up everything left from tax season, finally. Made a call to the accountant with some questions and put everything in the appropriate files. Since I was handling all that stuff anyway and I don't expect to be in my office much of the next two weeks, I went ahead and paid the estimated taxes, too.
I just got the bid and forked over the big deposit. We decided to replace the storm door at the same time. The door guy said that our door is called a "war door." It was a standard size between World Wars I and II, but is no longer a standard. That's why the deposit was so big.
The door guy also wrote up a bid for replacing the storm door on the side and putting up shutters (I guess I can't say "replace them" since we took them down years ago but never put up anything instead). I didn't commit to that by myself since I want to talk to Rick first and he wasn't around this afternoon.
It will be about two months before this item gets checked off, although there won't be much more effort on our part. That's just how long it takes to get a custom door made, cut down, and painted.
I did a big chunk of a records management project that I'm working on for a business I'm associated with. It's pretty boring--really just filing--and I've been procrastinating for weeks. What finally worked was to do it during the Indy 500 (wasn't that an exciting race!). So I think I'll note other race dates and try to work on it this summer on race days (I don't have cable, so I can only watch races on the broadcast channels). All the following dates are from the NASCAR, IRL, and CART websites:
This is a big project and not all of it is just filing, but surely with all of those races I will manage to finish it!
We had a late afternoon storm. I went outside immediately after and pulled up every onion in our yard.
This is a tip I picked up just walking one day in the Lafayette Square neighborhood of St. Louis. I was continuing the house tour, the first weekend in June, after being holed up in one house while waiting out a storm. I walked passed a woman working in her damp garden and she looked up and said "best time to pull onions--right after it rains." I've never forgotten that advice and use it at least once a year. So I owe a complete stranger for an onion-free yard.
As an (almost) librarian, I am quite capable of compiling a bibliography of the very best embroidery books and a webliography of the best internet sites. But that's not what I did.
I went to my small local branch library and checked out the two books on the topic that they had on the shelves--one in the adult section and one in the children's section. It looks like they will serve me well, so here are the citations:
The encyclopedia of embroidery techniques / Pauline Brown.
New York : Sterling Pub. Co., c2003.
Embroidery / written by Judy Ann Sadler ; illustrated by June Bradford.
Toronto : Kids Can Press, c2004.
We went to a locally owned and operated door store, today--one that sends out its own employees to do the installation. Can you tell that we have had a bad experience with a national chain of hardware stores that uses subcontractors for installation?
So far, we've been pleased. It looks like we'll get a basic steel door in redwood and a glass storm door with white trim.
Next step: wait for a call from the guy who will do the estimate to set up an appointment.
I had two goals for my gardening work today:
Do you like this idea of doing 43 things in a year? You might also like the 1001 Day Project--completing 101 things in 1001 days (about two and three quarters years).
Here is the something:
There are two stories behind this embroidery project.
The first is from junior high. The only art project I remember being satisfied with was the one where we embroidered chambray shirts (was that a fad for both boys and girls for a short while in the mid-70s?). I wasn't very confident of my art abilities, but I could be patient and precise with needlework. Given enough time, I could produce quite beautiful things. My art teacher helped a bit with the design (drawn on with pencil) and I did the embroidery over several weeks both at home and at school. The result was something that truly expressed my young teen self--one of the more delightful things that art and craft can do.
The second story has to do with this shirt:
Obviously, I have worn it nearly to rags. It is physically comfortable and, emotionally, a comfort. My brother, who works for Edward Jones, gave my dad this shirt. My mother gave me the shirt shortly after my dad died. Wearing it is like getting a hug from my whole family.
I've been wondering how I can replace the shirt and how I can do it in a way that corresponds with the recent professionalization of my wardrobe. I decided that it would work if I embroidered a chambray shirt with a book or library theme. It won't be my most professional look, but I will be able to hang the shirt on the back of my office chair for days when the library is chilly or for times when I need to cover up nicer clothes while doing a dusty job in the stacks.
Now, I just need a design and to re-learn a few stitches.
8 down, 22 to go. I'm going to have to read a lot of books this summer to complete this goal. This one went fast though. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger has the same delightfully unsettled effect as an amusement park ride. It reminded me a bit of The Four-Gated City by Doris Lessing in the creation of a near future landscape, slightly but significantly different from the one we experience every day. Niffenegger's characters are more sympathetic than Lessing's, which only intensified my association with them so that I was being whipped through time with Henry and worrying at home with Clare.
To do these 43 Things, I will want a Getting Things Done implementation that works. My most recent implementation worked reasonably well through the semester, but now I'm looking for a method that will take me into the work world. It will likely involve a PDA rather than a three-ring binder.
There is one low-tech tool that I won't be giving up anytime soon: The Crescent Moon Mind Map. Traditionally, the waxing moon (new moon growing to full moon) is considered a good time to start projects or to help them grow. The waning moon is the time to complete things.
Since I tend to have more energy for starting projects than for finishing them, I find it conducive to completing things if I organize my life around the moon phases. New moon to new moon is a bit less than a month, so the waxing moon lasts about two weeks and the waning moon lasts about two weeks.
Within a few days after the new moon, I make a mind map of the things I want to accomplish in the next month, thinking about what I can start or grow during the waxing moon to finish during the waning moon.
Many print calendars display the full and new moons. I put them in my PDA calendar at the first of the year.
The Old Farmer's Almanac has several tools for moon watchers. This visualization shows the moon phases through the month. Another tool computes the moonrise and set, so that you will know when you can see it. There is also a nice listing of the names of the moons.
I reorganized my site today so that the architecture makes more sense. A bit of history...until a few months ago, I had my site in a user's domain at earthlink.net. At that time, I had my blog, Wanderings of a Student Librarian, as the top page and everything else under it. For the most part, it made sense, since most of what was on my website had to do with school.
A few months ago, we got our own domain name (mollprojects.com). To get things up and moving quickly, I just moved everything over together without changing the architecture. But things started getting confusing.
Now that I am gradually moving away from studenthood and into professional status, I can imagine wanting a website that is not necessarily dominated by my blog. I am also finding things to put on my website that have little to do with being a student or (gasp!) with being a librarian.
So, a more flexible architecture that is pretty evident from my top page, joy.mollprojects.com.
Obviously the top pages need some design work. But getting the architecture correct was a prerequisite to updating my website in more interesting ways.
The normal long walk that we take from the cabin is over to the dam of Lake Wanderfern and up the next hill. We call it the "dam hill" walk.
Rick measured with the truck's odometer this morning and it's 1.8 miles to that hill, a 3.6 mile round-trip walk. Since we often take a slight short cut on the way back, I'm going to think of it as 3.5 miles. So I walked 7 miles in the last two days!
I don't know how, or if, I want to track the progress of taking a walk everyday here. 365 entries that say "I walked today" will be pretty boring. I guess I won't write about walking unless I have something new to say. Otherwise, it's really a matter of just doing it.
This morning I entered the annual Graduate Student Paper Competition associated with the Missouri Library Association conference. Winners get a waiver of the conference registration fee, a $100 honorarium, and a 25-minute slot to present the results at the conference in October.
To enter, I just had to write up the abstract. I submitted my idea for a study that I believe would be publishable in a peer-review journal. I'll pursue the study whether or not I win the competition, but winning would give me a deadline--as a student, I find deadlines very useful for structuring my time to complete projects.
So cross your fingers, send postive vibes, include me in your prayers, or employ your favorite method of virtual support. This is a goal that will require a bit of luck along with effort.
Does creating a new second blog mean that I'm twice as good at blogging? I suppose not.
It does mean that I have a new venue for exploring alternate features and software, starting with comments.
I think of my first blog, Wanderings of a Student Librarian, as an online professional portfolio. I'm not willing to have spam, flames, or comments from trolls on it for even a little while.
The new blog, 43 Things at 43, is obviously more artistic and personal. While I won't be hiding it from potential employers, I won't be advertising it, either, and I expect it to be viewed differently and more tolerantly. This may be fantasy, but there it is.
All that is not to say that 43 Things at 43 will be a haven of free speech. This blog is not a democracy and the dictator is not inclined to be benevolent. Spam will be deleted immediately. So will anything that might offend two of my favorite readers, my mother and my aunt, who came of age when discourse was expected to be civil and when insults were considered rude, not humorous.
I already learned that the default at Blogger is to only allow registered users to comment. I changed that to allow anyone to comment this morning.
My reward for opening up comments? A birthday greeting from a perfect stranger and one from a fellow member of the library blogosphere. Sweet.
Birthday walk haiku
A breeze rustles spring
leaves, cools my cheek
Hope's kiss
Today is my birthday. While I am 43, I plan to do these 43 things: