I meant to type this up earlier and start the year off right by posting on the 1st, but alas, time has fled like a fleeing thing and it's after midnight. So, belatedly, happy 2015 everyone. To be fair, I've been busy, but I'm also several boards further along in Mahjong Towers, which is the crackiest crack to hit my brain so far this year. Eh.

( Rambling and photos ahead, enter at your peril! )

Yesterday's day of tiredness seems to have given way to general tiredness from not getting to sleep until 3am (better than the start of the week, hurrah!) and being woken up by a phone call from the Jobs and Benefits Centre. A very nice lady put up with my morning lack of brain and explained there's been an overpayment of Income Support, which she's trying to sort out so I'll know just how much I have to pay back either in a lump sum (ha!) or with a deduction from my IS (it'll be option 2, thanks). So we'll have even less coming in, but hey, it's spring officially and my father-in-law's vegetable patch is open for raiding by me (I usually give it a good weed while I'm pulling a couple of spring onions or a lettuce, or whatever). I'd set the dogs to catching their own dinner, but I'm afraid they'd ignore the rabbits (there's mixamatosis in the population, sadly) in favour of nearby sheep, chicken and cows. Doh!

After that early start (I'm working my way back to getting up by 7am, honestly!), my day was brightened by hearing Warren Zevron's Werewolves of London on the radio as I grabbed a shower - gave me the impetus to wrap up my nephew's birthday presents, then head out on my loop of many errands. Planck's dog license is renewed; I've paid the vet's bill and picked up more Loxicom and spoken to John the Awesome Vet about getting Planck his hip replacement surgery; got coal from the general merchant's; posted Dan's parcel; called by the bank; got the rest of the food shopping from Poundstretcher (dog munchies) and Tesco (gluten-free and dairy-free me munchies) and even picked up some free low-fat fries from Burger King for Jerry (today only, apparently, if your local BK's one of the franchises doing them).

The shopping is all away, the dogs have their stuffed bones (Newton's finished licking out his and is sitting behind me on my chair, watching the garden through the window to make sure nothing needs barking at), Jerry's had his fries and I've had a cuppa. That's probably me done for the rest of the day, but it's always possible I might actually get a little fiction writing done, woohoo! Or I could go look into how to turn Where's My Tractor into an e-book so I can email that to my sister. Or I could finish off that last winter-weight cowl for Uncle Ken and start on the summer lace-weight silk/wool mix cowls for the family...

Gosh, the possibilites are endless! Or something. Yes, well, I think I'd better quit while I'm ahead, don't you? Have a fantastic weekend, peeps.

( Newton and selfie... )

If I'm a bit quiet on LJ right now, it's not that I've decided you all smell, no, I'm just a bit busy right now. Nothing too interesting - just work, housework, etc.

( The past few days... )

From kyryn: November is G.E.D. Month! Which stands for 'Get 'Er Done' month. I am hereby signing up.

Since I got home on Friday I have:

• done 6? 7? loads of washing and visited the laundrette twice to get it all dried*
• done a 'proper' shop at Morrisons (and gone back twice to get 'just a couple more things' I forgot
• cooked up a monster batch of lamb stew
• cooked up a large batch of bolognese sauce
• finally cooked up the bag of apples my sister gave me into apple sauce (eaten by ravenlas), a crumble and a pie
• cleaned out and cleaned the fridge
• cleaned out the main food cupboard
• started work on the Pseudopod slushpile

Which I think is a pretty good start to G.E.D. month. Hurrah! I'm taking a leaf out of kyryn's book lj and planning on working on one thing every day. I'll be putting up a post-dated post with The List, which I'll mark up so I can keep track of what I do. Everything may not get finished, but at least it'll get worked on. Maybe I'll be so busy I'll forget just how grey, cold and depressing November is. Meh.

ravenlas and I also spent a very enjoyable (if somewhat jet-lagged) Halloween round at alasdair1076 and Kate's, watching suitably spooky films and Dead Set.

And tomorrow, it's back to work... *le sigh*

*Bendix launderette has awesome dryers: 11 minutes to dry 3 loads of laundry in one dryer? Wow! I think I'll be going there every week. Much, much easier than trying to find places for things to dry around the house (no radiators).

ETA: The List is up. Feel free to come round and give me a hand. Or shout encouragement. Or throw things. Your choice... Yes, you can vote on what you'd like me to do next, but I reserve the right to do something else instead. :)

I got up late, avoided talking with the Jehovah's Witnesses, wandered into town with ravenlas and nattered to folks in VJs. All good fun. I even got another 3 scenes of Squirrels edited - more to do. I have lapsang souchong tea from Whittard's, and I've ordered a rather spiffy pair of slide gloves for longboarding with. Must find an empty car park and go practise. It'd help if I had the oomph to walk back from town with any speed, but hey, never mind, eh? My brain's come back in part today, which is lovely. Hi, brain! *hugs* Also done a spot of laundry, refilled the bird feeders, and sat on the sofa with tea. That's about it. Oh, there were a couple of episodes of Firefly on earlier. So very, very good. (Train Job and Bushwacked)

Last night was Brett's birthday, celebrated at Fiesta Mexicana. Which was lovely, and great to see people. I suspect there may have been some cow milk in addition to coconut milk in the pina colada, though, as all of a sudden I felt very 'I've had dairy, oh dear' nauseous. Which, yes, is different from my 'I've had too much to drink' nausea. Because I hadn't. Ho hum, never mind, eh?

Weight: 150 lbs. Exercise: walked 3 ish miles. Alcohol: 0. Writing: 3 scenes of Squirrels revised.

Would anyone like a freezer and a fridge? Token cash value (iirc), freezer is 6' tall, fridge is around 5' tall. Both in good working order. Freezer is also one of those that doesn't need defrosting. The catch? You have to get yourself over to Huddersfield to collect. Let me know, peeps!

Also, Mister Devey has excellent silk for sale, and will be getting a new load in some time over the next couple of weeks. For them as is curious, go here to see his ebay store. I'll be driving down to his house (West Yorkshire) some time soon if anyone wants to come along. He's a very nice man, and his silk comes from James Brindley's, but at a fraction of the price. *grin*

And now, back to my slush pile...

Woohoo! My story The Whole Chicken is in this week's issue of Hub Magazine (issue 62). Warning: the story is both explicit and rather gross. Really. It's horror. So if that doesn't float your boat, don't read it. But I also have a book review in the issue, too, which is pretty harmless.

*runs around squeeing in circles like a headless chicken*

(Also, today I bought beautiful silk cloth at a fraction of the price from a very nice man who gets manufacturing seconds. Hurrah!

Who wants a Dell XPS gaming laptop? Any spec, approx 20% discount?

A group order is going in. From the date of the order, there's 45 days to pay up. It makes life a lot easier if you're in the UK, too.

Any takers? Let me or ravenlas know by the middle of next week at the latest.

In other news, there really isn't any. Correspondence Course is up to 17k words. Which makes it, officially, a novelette. Sad, sad, sad. Of all the things I have to write, fanfic shouldn't be top of my list! Never mind... I felted a naalbound bag. There are still mice in the compost bin, although I'm hoping there are fewer by now.

( My brain is mush... )

Edit: Interestingly, I took an online Aspie test to see how my brain is doing (thanks to John Scalzi). And today, I'm Aspergic. I scored 158/200 on the Aspie score, and only 98/200 on the neurotypical (non-Aspie) score. I bet if I take the quiz again at the end of next week, I'll score completely differently. Hmmm... Oh, the joys of being a Gemini, and having a brain which runs in several different configurations, making me several different people at once. What shall I wear today? Who shall I be today? Yeah... today I am an aspie and my brain is mush. How're you doing?