Archives for October 2024

I went to be on time but had to get up at six to wake the boy and so I didn’t get enough sleep again.

Because I was a little resentful about having to get up early I then went on the internet right away. Not the improvement of my day I would have liked it to be.

There were morning pages and breakfast and talking with my husband while I finally got the next section of the mystery shawl set up. Take two didn’t work out at first, just like the first try, but then I realized I had forgotten to pick up a yarn over at the end of the row and once I did that I finally had the right number of stitches. Phew.

My husband had planned an excursion for the day but ended up staying home instead so he could get the garden ready for winter. This decision threw me off because I had this tight schedule built on the assumption that he would be away. After breakfast I hurried to get out the door for the weekly supermarket run. I had a very long list of things to buy. I did very well, the only thing I forgot was dishwashing detergent and I think we’ll get by on what’s left in the bottle until then. I also have another bottle under the sink that I only use for cleaning drains. I could use that in a pinch as well.

I rushed back from the supermarket to preheat the oven, put the groceries away and then heated frozen pizza for all three of us:

The boy had arrived back home in the meantime. We all ate together, then I did all the dishes, took a shower and had twenty minutes of time to myself before teaching.

One of my students canceled which gave me another much-needed break. I taught until almost 7, then put some water in the piano’s humidifier and met the boy for bodyweight training. It was one of those sessions where you hate every single exercise in every single interval and keep wanting to just give up but we prevailed. The boy skipped squats again. Turns out when you only sit in a chair for months and then start walking around more your legs are tired enough already.

Then I could finally eat a stale bun for dinner after which I just sat there playing silly games because I wanted to start this post and work on the novel in progress and do all the things but was way too exhausted and tired.

So I made myself start this post and then went and watched some C-drama before going to bed. No writing again.

Two of today’s students have already canceled which gives me time to sit around and feel bad after today’s flu and covid shots. The plan is to go to the doctor together and then eat some Greek food before teaching a bit.

So, I went to bed on time but didn’t get enough sleep anyway because I had to get up at six to throw the boy out of bed for uni. I didn’t sleep all that well because I knew I had to get up in the morning and while I was pretty sure, an alarm on my phone would be mirrored to my watch while I slept I didn’t know.

Well, now I do. When in sleep mode – it doesn’t. I did wake up at 6.20 and woke him twenty minutes too late. He did arrive on time but he did not eat breakfast. Mea culpa. Next time I’ll do it differently.

I wrote morning pages but skipped yoga in favor of reading and having a more leisurely breakfast. Then I did some more knitting on the mystery knit-along, up to the point where I was done with counting and complicated stitches all to prepare myself for evening knitting in front of TV.

I did the dishes and decided to not go for a walk because the boy and I had planned to do bodyweight training in the evening. I listened to some meh Puccini and then sat down to write for half an hour. I’m not quite convinced of what I wrote then and also a bit unsure about how I wrote it so I guess it’ll take some more time to really get into the groove.

Then there was lunch, fried fish, potatoes, peas and carrots:

My husband had had a more strenuous morning than me, he went for a run and then cut the inside of the front hedge. Fortunately, his mother helped with the cleanup.

The boy came back home just in time for lunch so we could eat together and my new game controller came. Or rather, my two new controllers because I had been too impatient and ordered a second one, planning to cancel the order that would be sent off later. And I tried but they were in the exact same delivery.

We talked it over, I was all set to send the controller back but my husband decided to give it to the boy. While he does own a controller it’s pretty buggy and decrepit by now. But then it turned out that the Bluetooth on his computer is too slow for the wireless controller. But then I found out one can use it with a USB cable. So it might work after all.

Meanwhile I unpacked my controller, it connected with my computer with no problem, I started the game I had wanted to play with it and – nothing. The boy helped with troubleshooting but we couldn’t make it work. It did work with Steam and with other games just not with Gris. But look, how pretty:

I started researching but had to stop because of work. One of my Tuesday students had asked for an earlier slot a the only one I could offer was Monday at 2.30. Ugh. But it turned out to be a very good thing, he’ll be on a school trip next week and the week after is fall break.

So I taught some students, had an unexpected break when a student didn’t show where I did some more controller research, then taught some more. The missing student turned up an hour late and I had to send them home, there was no break I could use to teach her because I was teaching a new singing student.

I taught until almost 7, then waited for the boy because of bodyweight training until I really didn’t feel like it anymore, we decided to skip training, I tackled the controller problem again and managed to make it work, hurray!

Then I ate dinner and sat there, all slow and sloth-like for an hour.

I started writing this post, did the dishes, wrote for another twenty minutes, did Duolingo and went to bed.

I didn’t do all that badly, but I probably could have done better.

So, went to bed way too late but slept well, woke from the alarm at 6.36 and promptly fell back asleep only to be woken by the alarm to take my thyroid pill at 7.30. Yeah for seven hours of sleep.

I did not pick up my phone first thing but instead did the complete morning routine, so that was good. Had breakfast with my husband then we talked while I was knitting. I knitted along until I reached a point where I the knitting would be TV knitting again.

Then I called my mother on the phone, did all the dishes from the day before and only then did I do Duolingo and my internet morning rounds.

My husband had had plans to use the leftover bifteki and the leftover tomato sauce for something with kritharaki in tomato sauce. But. You can only do that if you have kritharaki. Or rather enough of them. So he decided to switch to farfalle, got a bit carried away with putting fried veggies in, cooked everything but the broccoli he had wanted to serve it with and – forgot about the tomato sauce. He did manage to get the broccoli on the table as well but it was pretty al dente and had no salt:

Yes, we have a lot of these flowers. My husband’s friend who wanted to help with the garden planted them because she thinks they are pretty. Which they are. But since they are edible and my husband doesn’t want things to go to waste we are eating flowers every day at the moment.

Then I wanted to get going as soon as possible but didn’t, so I sat around while the boy was eating his lunch. I did delegate the dishes, at least.

I went over to my studio an hour later than I had planned, texted back and forth with a couple of people, and tried to prep for coaching later and to plan the week. It was rather confusing to find out that I had apparently forgotten my coaching appointment the month before. Since I had been traveling I had never put it in my calendar and that was that.

Coaching was very nice and also helpful in a walking myself through my problems kind of way. Not that the coach’s input isn’t super valuable but I am currently not at the ‚shocking insight‘-stage.

Then I talked to my husband some more, ate dinner, had a beer while knitting in front of TV, sat around feeling bad for not writing for an hour and went to bed.

Today the boy goes back to uni after his break and I will teach all the students again. Now I just need to find a way to write thousands of words and do some publishing tasks as well…

I woke up from the alarm but was slow and while I did make a valiant attempt at the morning routine I did wander off after one page of morning pages. I was too pre-occupied with the new TV and some other admin stuff.

So I was still lounging in bed when my husband showed up for breakfast. We talked and I knitted and then he asked me to help him order a King Crimson t-shirt and with one thing and another I was late with basically everything.

My husband thought that cooking a bit Greek feast would be a great idea, so I went off to the supermarket again for Brussel’s sprouts and green beans, bread, potato chips and licorice. I was in a rather cranky mood because I knew setting the new TV up would take a lot of time and what I had planned for the day was writing and a Zoom call with some writer friends.

My husband did not want to start setting the TV up before lunch. And then cooking took ages and I helped chop things and make tzatziki and in the end we ate lunch an hour later than usual:

Not pictured is the tomato sauce from fresh tomatoes.

Next I canceled the Zoom meeting. We were already rather late, my husband likes to take a nap after lunch and all that meant we wouldn’t start with the new TV before 3.30.

Setting the new TV up did involve rearranging half his studio, including cleaning quite a bit and at one point I was sitting there waiting while he was ripping a wooden box from a chest of drawer that had contained his guitar effect pedals and had been glued on.

We also moved his computer back to a different desk and had to go and get several different cables to connect things. I did the automatic setup twice and had to figure out how to mirror his computer display on the new TV. Next up we need to buy two new cables (I think) to connect the TV with the stereo and with a wall socket and then we should be set.

The whole thing took 2 1/2 hours. After, the boy showed up, ready to leave for a friend’s house and asked for help with his bike. He had a flat tire and the last time he had tried pumping it up himself but had failed. The trick it to open the valve a bit, by the way. So I went outside and inflated his tires.

Then I had one of those terminal Saturday slumps. It took me another hour before I managed to sit down in front of TV with potato chips and beer to watch some C-drama. I ate half a pint of ice cream, then slumped some more, decided to let the dishes be dirty, tidied the kitchen, started writing this post and took a shower way too late.

So, clearly today I will do all the things I didn’t get done all week. Nods. Sure.