Sweet bejeebers, it was 47C here with the humidity today -- that's 117F according to Google for the Americans. I literally nearly passed out, was dry heaving, and barely made it home last week when I went out and it was, like, 33 or something. I'm seriously housebound until this heat wave ends. Thankfully I'm stocked up on food and we have glorious central air that Amy & Garry are not stingy on.

Things are still sparse on the work front. It's a five pay week so I've been able to keep on top of things. We'll see what happens next month.

Okay books.

What I Just Finished Reading: Three books this week, but only one really good one. I read Dead Eleven by Jimmy Juliano, After Oz by Gordon McAlpine, and He's To Die For by Erin Dunn. Reviews below.

Oh, I also had another DNF, the serial killer book I had mentioned, No Lie Lasts Forever. What I read, admittedly not more than a few chapters, was filled with choppy, incomplete sentences -- fine occasionally, or in a small group to set a pace -- and realllllly bad analogies. I'll pass.

I got that one and the other horrible short story I read by Freida McFadden from Amazon on their Prime free book thingy. So from this I'm guessing that those books are the Prime equivalent of the crap you can get on Stuff Your Kindle days. Good to know I can give it a miss.

What I'm Reading Right Now: I'm almost done Last Another Day by Baileigh Higgins, a ridiculous zombie book.

What I'm Planning to Read Next: I listed some options at Give Me 5 but nobody's picked yet. If I don't get a pick by tomorrow I'll pick something from my Gridlock list. Not sure what.

**

( 59. Dead Eleven by Jimmy JulianoCollapse )

( 60. After Oz by Gordon McAlpineCollapse )

( 61. He's To Die For by Erin DunnCollapse )
.

Week Three! Belated check-in today.

First up, the results: I lost 1.2 pounds.

I'm marginally happy with this. I mean, at least I didn't gain. I just feel like I could have done better. I did very well again with my food intake, averaging 1167 calories a day. I went for one walk and did the bike three times.

I feel like this is just yet another reminder that exercise makes all the difference. I have to walk more if I want to see a 2 pound loss, which is my (general) goal for the week. The problem is trying to fit a walk into my every day.

With not having regular hours I need to be online when files drop, and there's no way of knowing when that will be. For example, last Thursday there were only single digit files alllll day, of which I manage to snag two, which meant I had to then stay at the computer trying to snipe files after supper as well. Contrast to Friday when there were probably 60 or so files in the queue all day, but which also meant that I had to stay on the work website all day and night (worked till after midnight) snagging files to make up for the day(s) that were shit.

All this whining to say that I don't know how I'm going to work walking 3 times a week or so into my schedule, but I've gotta figure out it!

Anyway, at least I lost. Hope everyone else had a good healthy week!
.

Things are pretty good here. Still using the old computer and have had one more 'Aw snap' but I restarted the computer and it was fine (knock wood.)

I had one work issue in which I apparently lost my mind and let a file get through with tons of errors -- I seriously don't even know, except it was the day that I wasn't feeling well -- and of COURSE that's the random file that gets chosen to get graded. Luckily I had a grade forgiveness voucher left over from two years ago, so I applied that and now I feel better. But now I'm paranoid and am triple-checking everything, which of course means it takes longer to get through a file.

On the good side though, I got accepted into the Legal transcription section so now I have access to quality legal files that others don't get. There is literally 30+ pages of guideline instructions as to how they must be formatted, but I seriously love them.

Last weekend I got together with persnickett for a outdoor Christmas bazaar and lunch and drinks, which was super fun. And today I met up with my sister Margie, because tomorrow our local transit goes on strike! The last strike we had here was in '98/'99 and lasted 12 weeks, so Margie and I wanted to get together just in case. Since neither of us drive (me) or have access to a car (her), if it's another long one we won't be able to see each other again until Christmas (which, ouch, that cab fare is not going to be fun.)

Margie had told me that she bought me a present the other day, which I assumed she meant for Christmas. Nope, she brought it today!


Advent Calendar!


Stuart Christmas tree ornament! He takes a battery and sings too, but I haven't installed that yet. SO CUTE. Now I have Bob and Stuart... only Kevin left to find, lol!

So all in all it's been a good week. Because I've gone out more than usual it means that I've had to make up for that time by working longer on the other days, there's been a couple where I've worked till 11pm, so that's why I wasn't around for a few days. But at least it was because of fun stuff this time!

I am sooooo eager to put my tree up. I am making myself wait until the last weekend in November.. I hope.
.
.

So, I'm still not around here much and I thought I'd just give a quick update. First, things are still stressful for me. There are some bug-related things. Not roaches or anything normal-people-scary, but practically every bug is scary for me so I have a hard time dealing when things that shouldn't be in my home are just crawling around. I also did have a normal-people-scary scare when I got bit by something, but we've searched everywhere and cannot find a culprit or signs of anything alarming. So anyway, all that results in not sleeping well and paranoia and wanting to just not engage.

Then there's been a few related family issues. My sister is going through something, which of course affects me because I love her.

Then there's internet issues. We all in the house share one internet connection, and lately my connection has been dropping. We have these little boxes that go into the outlet to boost the connection, but there's no outlets between the router/modem and me to add another. I tried buying a TP-Link thing that goes in the computer and has a disc that you run to add a boost to the wifi signal, but it won't work. It says something like, "cannot connect to this device" and one of the suggestions is 'move closer to the router'. Geez, if I could do that I wouldn't need a damn booster!

So anyway, it's super frustrating and also stress-adding because I use the internet to work. If it cuts out and comes back in a minute that's fine, but sometimes it cuts out and then doesn't come back, so I have to go downstairs and disrupt whatever TV show Amy and Garry are watching (or when Amy worked from home, which just ended, make her disconnect from work because *I* had to) because I need to reset the modem/router/whatever it is, which is super annoying for them, and then I feel bad for being a pain, etc. It also means that I'm kind of trying to limit my computer time to the daytime when there's less disruption if I need to reset. Ugh, it's just frustrating.

If anyone has any other thoughts on how to boost wifi signals, please feel free to share.

Anyway, so I just feel stressed out over a whole bunch of different stuff. So, that's why I'm not around much. I do hope everything is going wonderfully for you guys.
.

This has been a stressful day. Not much work, though that part is semi-okay because I figured that there might not be many files with it being President's Day in the USA and Family Day here in Canada, so I'd picked up some late last night. The worrying bit is that our pays haven't been deposited to PayPal yet. Normally they are in by 10am. The company says that it's an issue on PayPal's end, but that doesn't stop me worrying when I literally have no backup. UGH.

Anyway, I decided I needed some fun music to flail around to, so here's Australia's finest, The Hoodoo Gurus!


.

Well, I've just finished my first week staying at my sister and brother-in-law's apartment. So far things are going well, I think. I'm pretty sure I'm not annoying them too much. Working is a *little* difficult because I'm sitting at their dining room table. Between the small table (reaching for the mouse) and the hard chairs, it's a bit painful. But it's certainly doable for a few weeks. Plus side is I'm motivated to not take any breaks during work-time so I did well financially this week.

The only time I really get to just play on the internet and check my flist and stuff is Friday and Saturday nights for a few hours. So I'll be behind on everything for awhile. Tomorrow my niece Krystle is coming over so I'll ask her about calling Acer for me then.

Still getting my daily reading in, of course!

( Book 78. Ex-Communication by Peter ClinesCollapse )
.

Working self-employed/freelance means that there's no holiday or vacation pay, no sick days, no paid time off. If I don't work, I don't make money. It used to be that I could take a day off here and there and make it up on the weekend, but there isn't weekend work anymore. BUT my BFF Amy, who lives downstairs and whose house I live in, is having her husband Garry's British family over for 2.5 weeks in August. So they asked me if I was willing to make arrangements to stay with my sister Margie and her husband Dan for that time so that Amy/Garry could then sleep upstairs in my spare room, thus eliminating the need to pay for expensive hotel rooms... and in return they wouldn't charge me rent in August. Margie & Dan agreed. So the rent money that I would normally have to earn in July to pay on August 1st I don't need to have, which means I was able to take some time off for the first time since February 2020. Woot woot!

So I spent the last 4 days with Margie. Her husband is away so it was just the two of us, which was super fun. We watched the premieres of The Amazing Race Canada (we both love it), Big Brother (for her) and The Challenge CBS/USA (the new, probably cleaner and less difficult version of my reality TV show love, MTV's The Challenge, but which Margie was very happy to watch because this version has a lot of BB and Survivor players that she loves.) I also got down on my hands and knees over two days and SCRUBBED her floors. It was quite a job and I was/am quite sore but it was worth it coz it looks phenomenal.

OH! And we watched the rest of The Umbrella Academy. EEEEE.

I also ate tons of her great food. I'll do the Let's Get Healthy post tomorrow, and I reasonably sure I might be back to the drawing board! *shrugs*

Hope everyone has had a lovely week!

I have an unexpectedly free day today.

My plans: Get up early-ish. Eat turkey sandwich. Work for a few hours. Turn on the Zoom event for HEEFS Cowpie Bingo (scheduled from 2pm to 4pm, because who knows who it'll take a cow to poop.) Work a few more hours. Something fun in the evening, like reading or a puzzle.

Actual day, as far as 2:40pm: Get up early-ish. Eat turkey sandwich. Log into work site and see that there are a total of 4 files available. Okay, so apparently I'm not working today. Play around online looking for habit tracking graphic ideas for my January 2022 not-really-a-bullet-journal. Work on my journal. Turn on the Zoom event for Cowpie Bingo. SIR DENVER POOPS AFTER 11 MINUTES. He does not poop on my square. Oh hey, I know, I should update my LJ!

Ah well. Hopefully this means I can finish my January journal pages today.

I've been binge-ing on movies lately. Loved Eurovision Song Contest, Blinded by the Light, and Don't Look Up. Hated Thunder Force and Everyone's Talking About Jamie. Patient Zero was okay, but I think that was mostly because everyone in it (Matt Smith, Clive Standen, Natalie Dormer) is ridiculously attractive. I rewatched the LotR trilogy because haldoor was talking about it. *heart clench for Boromir* *drool napkin for Aragorn, Legolas, all the elves but especially that one that goes to help in the fight at Helms Deep, Boromir, Faramir, random Rohirrim, et cetera, et cetera* I rewatched Last of the Mohicans because it had been too long and I WILL NEVER NOT LOVE EVERY BIT OF THAT MOVIE. Also watched the usual Christmas movies (Die Hard and Elf) and PETER RABBIT 2 is now out for free streaming eeeeeeee! It was not as good as the first one, but they never are. It was still adorable and made me laugh out loud within the first 4 minutes, so yay! (It was the pig. I love that pig.)

( Christmas!Collapse )

Also, yesterday ended ( Week 23 of 101 Things in 1001 DaysCollapse )

Hope everyone is well. :)
.

**POP** I hadn't realized how long it had been since my last entry. Been busy working because this month my workflow will essentially come to a grinding halt on December 22nd, when most of the companies that submit files go on Christmas/New Year break. I've got to get as much work in as possible between now and then. Which of course meant that going off and spending 3.5 days with my sister and brother-in-law was not ideal, but I needed a sis fix! We laugh so much together. I pointed out that most of our laughter comes from mocking each other and probably a lot of people would think that was weird, but that's us. LOL

Today, my local CFL football team made it to the Grey Cup (Canada's version of the Super Bowl) set for next weekend. I don't watch sports, but my sister was very excited, so yay. Oskee Wee Wee!

Let's see. What else has been going on? OH. I discovered a really great website that lists organizations that run campaigns to get snail mail to elderly people who are isolated. This month I am focusing on some of the people highlighted on Love For Our Elders, as well as some local nursing homes that are asking for letters or postcards through the Library. This was one of my goals on my 101 Things List, but I am hopeful that I'll be able to keep it up throughout 2022. I already feel so psyched about doing it. :)

Speaking of 101 Things in 1001 Days, here's my latest update:

Weeks 20 to 21 – November 21 to December 04, 2021

In Progress

06. Post one 5-star book per month on ATY's best book of month thread. (11/39)
* November's book was Seven Perfect Things by Catherine Ryan Hyde

11. Finish TV series already started (4/5)
* Finished Season 3 of Preacher

92. Donate 500,000 grains of rice at freerice.com (116,000/500,000)
* Donated 9,000 grains of rice this week

Completed

05. Move all 2022 books/library books/fave author books to Goodreads
* created a whole bunch of new shelves

59. Track fave authors/series in 2022 book journal

60. Make sure regular books are probably tracked in 2022 book journal
* made a huuuuge list cross-referencing all the different types of books (physical, ebook, library, kindle, kobo) and made sure that they were all in the right place.

74. Order stationary
* I ordered some small notecards and a set of writing paper with matching envelopes. Looking forward to getting started.

**

Has anyone heard from fansee? I sent her an LJ nudge a while ago but she hasn't posted.
.

It might seem silly, but I'm feeling so proud that I've stayed really well on track with work for the past couple of weeks. I've really been slacking for a long time, and I have buckled down and put in full days and I am starting to think that maybe I will be able to see a teeny little light at the end of the tunnel soon. I still have soooooo far to go to get out of debt, but I'm back on the track and that is something!

Part of my new routine is always reading before bed, even if it's only a couple of chapters. In this way I've been able to keep up with my goals. And staying on work track has also meant that I've had my evenings mostly free, so I've been puzzling a bit, watching a few things online, working on my 2022 not-a-bullet-journal book journal, etc.

Here's the two more books I read this week.

( Two MoreCollapse )

( StatsCollapse )
.