Archives for June 2018

Woke up from the alarm which usually is a sign that I got to bed a little late.

Then no writing or anything and making breakfast a little late. Still within normal tolerances, though.

I knew that my husband would be up earlier than usual so still no writing. (Yeah, there’s a theme here.)

I did start knitting the first clue of Ysolda’s mystery knit along, and it did go very well. The thing is that I wanted to do all.the.things in the morning but then I got hooked on the knitting and that meant I started a little too late.

And then I got off kilter because we were planning to go out for lunch.

That would usually mean that the whole day would go sideways with me totally cranky and nothing done at the end of it.

But.

I did recover. I skipped washing my hair, did a quick surface cleaning and was done with most of the things when it was time to go out.

Lunch was great with my husband and the boy, only there were only two waiters in the place instead of three and it was hopping, especially with people ordering takeout so we had to wait more than fifteen minutes before we could get our bill.

But we were early enough that there was still some time left before my first student.

I used the break between students to cut the video for the podcast and uploaded that while I was teaching.

Then I waited for an hour for the boy who was rather late for his piano lesson.

And then we watched loads of Netflix while I was spinning.

And then to bed. A little too late because the boy took a shower at the time that I would have liked getting ready for bed. Pity. But I did write 400 words while I was waiting, so that was good.

Today will be busy as well, I am planning an 8 k run and a lot of spinning and writing and then I will ride my bike 6 k to a summer party.

I am really looking forward to it.

And that won’t work forever. At some point my life will explode in my face.

I do that all the time, though. A lot of us do, I think. So I’ll be thinking a little about what to take out today while I clean the house. (Cleaning time is excellent thinking time, I find.)

So. Yesterday I woke up from the alarm which doesn’t happen often but since I was out the night before and since I then stayed up an hour afterwards to decompress I really needed the sleep.

I was a little late making breakfast and then I did not write but instead I started preparing for the podcast some more. And then I started swatching for the Ysolda MKAL:

And that showed me that the colors I chose and spun won’t work. Which means that I will have to spin some more. I already have an idea and I ordered more fiber. I want to use the yellow and the orange and make a third yarn that has one strand of yellow plied with one strand of orange.

More work but I think it might be worth it.

I went grocery shopping. It was raining a lot and the grocery list was rather short so I opted for the smaller shop that I can walk to instead of the bigger one that I need to bike to. Oh, and apropos biking, I actually did get two hours of exercise in the day before that by running and riding my bike into the city. Great!

Then I helped making lunch. We had opted for tortellini arrabbiata and since my husband is who he is he had declared that we needed salad with that and then he decided to make fried zucchini blossoms as well. Of course.

We might have eaten lunch a little late.

The boy ate with my mother-in-law. Here’s a picture of the first course, I forgot to take a picture of the pasta:

Then I was already a little late with recording the podcast but I managed to squeeze it in regardless. And then my first student didn’t show without canceling. Which was weird.

Then teaching and then a little ukulele playing and then another webinar with the fabulous Jessica Abel again. I did a bit of spinning during the webinar but not much. There really was a lot of information to process and write down.

Then I started writing this, and then I wrote a few words and read some and then I managed to go to bed on time. Yeah!

So today will be a really busy day yet again. There will be writing and podcast-publishing (not that I have cut the video yet) and practice and cleaning and going to the Chinese restaurant for lunch and then a lot of teaching and then in the evening I will collapse and watch something while spinning.

Phew.

Woke up early-ish, had breakfast and decided not to write right away because I didn’t feel like being interrupted while writing. Of course my husband got up a little later than usual.

I went running and the run went very well. I feel like I am getting fitter which is good:

This was my halfway point today. Just after meeting my husband. Here’s the view to the other side:

I was early enough that I had time to go to the health food store. Then it turned out that we needed parmesan so I headed out again to yet another supermarket. On the way I got a little irritated because someone was coming up from behind on a bike but it turned out to be the boy. We had a nice talk while buying cheese and bananas. And we looked at razors because the boy is starting to need one. He wants an electrical one but my husband uses a blade and soap and a brush so we need to do research.

Then there was shrimp risotto for lunch:

Now we have reached the level of daily food photography where my husband leaves out extra basil for decoration. No idea where this will end…

Then I procrastinated a bit instead of writing, wrote a little after all, phoned the father of a student back who canceled so she could watch the soccer game, German versus South Korea. Which meant that I could watch the game.

It wasn’t really worth it but I managed to get some spinning done.

Germany lost, apparently. I couldn’t watch the second half because I had to teach after all. I gather that that half was about as exciting as the first one so while I would have liked Germany to stay in the World Cup they actually didn’t really play well enough.

Then I practiced ukulele form about five minutes or so because I made a pact with two students yesterday that each of us has to play ukulele every day until next Tuesday. And then I hopped on my bike.and went to the Stammtisch. Well, it was only the woman who organizes it and me. We still had a nice evening, I had very good pizza and a beer. And I am thinking about volunteering. Which isn’t exactly in my nature. We’ll see.

And then I biked back and wrote most of this and read a little and went to bed a little late.

Today there will be no running. But there will be writing and music and the recording of the podcast and another webinar. I am really looking forward to this one. It is part two of the one by Jessica Abel that I attended some time ago. I really like her and her webinars.

I did sleep slightly longer that night but only a little. So the sleep deprivation goes on.

I did manage to write a little after breakfast but my husband was somewhat early. I can’t blame him, though, because I heard him open the basement windows half an hour before showing up for breakfast. And he waited that long so that I could have my precious writing time. Aw!

By then the day seemed already hectic because we both had quite a bit of stuff planned. So I went running a little earlier than usual while my husband cooked lunch ridiculously early. So that I could cook jam afterwards.

And it worked.

I ran my 3.22 k:

Then I made sour cherry jam. Thirty-nine jars of sour cherry jam. Why yes, that will last us through 2019 for sure. Especially since I don’t eat any jam at all and the boy only very little:

Then there was chili con carne (and sin carne for the boy):

And then there was an epic washing-up. I had used all the pots in the jam-making.

Then I taught my students, and because one of them is away to rehearse for the school’s summer concert I taught one if my guitar students how to knit. I really like her and she is picking things up very fast. It only took her two weeks to learn the picking on ‚Behind Blue Eyes‘ which is slightly crazy. It did take me quite a bit longer when I learned it a couple of years back. She also picked up knitting pretty fast.

And then I taught a very new, rather delightful new student.

My husband was meeting a friend for dinner so the boy and I decided to sit down and watch some Star Trek together. I did spin a bit.

So. While I would have preferred to get more writing done I am rather happy with how the day went. And this is it for the jam-making, unless I decide to go and buy apricots. Which I probably will. Because my husband loves apricot jam. And apricots are one of the very few fruits that we can eat because they are low in fructose.

Today there will be running, a little farther this time, and teaching, and writing at one point, and ukulele practice because I made a promise to my two rather small ukulele students that I’d practice every day for the coming week (they are supposed to practice every day as well), and then, just after my last student I will head out to the parents of gifted children-Stammtisch. (You can also attend if you’re just a gifted parent. These things go hand in hand rather often.

And I want to prepare the podcast. Yeah, slightly busy day, I guess.

Unfortunately the red currant jam didn’t set properly. That always happens despite me doing everything the way I should. So I hope that I will remember for next year and change something.

Woke up early after no enough sleep. Did actually manage to write about 100 words after breakfast.

Then I went and bought sugar for jam-making and chocolate and minced meat as one does. After that I ran:

Running went pretty well. I helped making lunch, we had capellini with homemade pesto and a salad. I didn’t take a picture because I forgot.

Then I started cleaning sour cherries. After two hours of that it was time to teach my students.

Then more cherries.

No more writing because by then I was so tired that I was feeling cold all over and unable to focus.

I did manage to go to bed a little earlier, so that’s good.

Today there will be jam-making, a short run, teaching – including a knitting lesson for one of my guitar students) and a new ukulele student – and a little more writing than the last few days.

This week is a little full. But at least my mood is better.