Patty Cryan's Blog

The boyo and I are both under some kind of illing, in which our eyeballs are frying and our bones are canisters to house pourings of molten iron.

I went home from work early yesterday, but need to go in at some point today to do banking and weekend orders.

I am thankful that we put the air conditioner in last week and that we have plenty of chicken to keep the crockpot stoked for soup.

::::points to significant icon::::

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NeKI8biAglU

Click, then close your eyes and just listen.

I so much wanted today to be the day I could post happy-making bits of fluff, like how much I like the black-and-blue outfit of lace and taffeta I put together for work this morning, or about the cute young guy from the nightclub across the street coming in on Friday night to leave us handbills and staying to squee with my cashier about Tamora Pierce, or about the utterly cool dad-and-daughter sci-fi biblio-and-audiophiles who stopped by yesterday and were agog at the Elskende collection.

Zounds, I was even hoping to get a START on the long-overdue tale of the Elskende collection to share with my Gentle Readers.

Today will not be that day.

Today I have to take time to keelhaul one of my nearest and dearest for doing something seemingly only mildly stupid, but insidiously destructive to self and others.

Thus the Sikozu "critical mass" icon.

There's never a good time for this, but a Monday morning is the epitome of bad timing.

ETA: ***********AND************* the first Monday of the month, too, when I do all my accounting.

Some random bullet points make a journal entry, or so they say.

* As I mentioned elsejournal, the current chilly and humid weather would be a perfect mood-setter if I were able to relaunch blogdracula, but as this week has shown me, I just do not have the time, not even to post daily links to the original dracula1897 from which The Blog Stoker's DRACULA Project was derived. This saddens me, but I think with dwindling LJ readership the Project was doomed anyway, and its time past. eye_of_a_cat and elettaria had the perfect timing and skills to do justice to Stoker-as-literary-salon in 2006, and I do not. I may still post random pieces here and there in this journal, but more for pleasure than dedication.

* I have been, determinedly and with forethought, committing irony all this week by reading Paul Gallico's THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE while bathing in a 1910's-vintage clawfoot bathtub.

* I am wishing the best of luck to those Gentle Readers of mine who are students at college and university and are beset by final exams this week and next. Most of my staff of volunteers at the bookstore fall under that description, which means that I've been at the bookstore for most of its open hours, and will be from now until the 20th. Heavy the head that wears a crown, etc.

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Such an exciting life. Why the heck do you people read me, anyway?

Thank you once again, Gentle Readers, for your patience.

I had announced here last month that we'd be sending out the rewards for our Peerbackers drive within a few days.

http://peerbackers.com/projects/the-bookstore-thats-bigger-on-the-inside-needs-you-1853035663/

The missing piece to make that happen finally just arrived on our doorstep.

We will be sending out our appreciation packages this weekend.

---pmc2

What a difference to one's mindset being able to accomplish things makes. I actually was able to balance out housework, Mike's Comics work and bookstore work, and relaxation yesterday on my "day off".

I'd like to do Barometer posts more regularly. No promises, but it's a goal.

TODAY'S ICON: Tina the chirpy barista and a feline friend from the webcomic Wapsi Square.

CHISWICK! FRESH HORSES!: Belated but heartfelt welcomes to new and returning Gentle Readers n3m3sis42, elven_wolf, whipchick, snacky, elfinecstasy, janetmiles, michikatinski, paisley_daze, alien_infinity, and cucumberseed. I apparently can't go back more than two months to find who has added me, so if I've missed you, I apologize!

BRAINSCAPE: Coming out of what feels like a very long tunnel, but with fresh air and sunlight ahead.

BODYSCAPE: Other than The Daily Headache, which is now more stress-related than sinus-related, doing relatively well. But I need to get out of the office more often and do my walks and ride my stationary bike. Everything Takes Longer Now, which is the most accurate indicator that I am out of shape.

THE DAILY HEADACHE: Still there after taking analgesic at noon. [It's 2pm now.] Ow.

SARTORIAL MATTERS: I am wearing a Spencer Reid-ish knit dark grey-and-white tweed vest over a lighter grey T-shirt with black flare jeans, white socks, and Mary Jane sneakers.

BIBLIOGRAPHIC ADVENTURES: I am primarily re-reading THE BOY WHO COULD MAKE HIMSELF DISAPPEAR by Kin Platt. When that gets too heavy, I am dipping into GAME CHANGERS by Mike Lupica.

THINGS THAT HAVE MADE ME HAPPY RECENTLY: The very nifty and addictive site Written? Kitten!, suggested to me by the very wonderful zia_narratora.

THINGS THAT I HAVE DONE RIGHT RECENTLY: I have joined writeallthedays and gotten encouragement therein, which will hopefully break me out of my blogging/writing funk. I'm also finally getting a handle on paperwork at home and at the bookstore.

Today is already a win.

* My boyo re-established our coffee station last night for the first time since The K-Tel Mouse Explosion, and thus I was able to make us a decent pot of coffee this morning.

* I figured out, all by myself, how to answer this new cellphone when it rings, instead of waiting until someone leaves a voicemail and calling them back.

Both of those feel HUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUGE to me. You may laugh now.

http://popfiend.livejournal.com/4492746.html

Gotta tale to tell. Something that's been brewing for a few weeks now.

I've assigned pseudonyms, and I've got an opening line.

You'll be reading a fair bit in this blog, hopefully soonish, about the impact of Penrod and Lilias Elskende on my life.

...will be receiving e-mail from me this week if I do ***NOT*** have a snail-mail address for me to start mailing out incentives to you.

Peerbackers funds have cleared into my account, and I am very, very grateful to all who contributed.

I may yet do a Kickstarter campaign at some point, or organize a "cash mob", as was suggested by one of my Gentle Readers, because I was only able to meet one of the five goals I'd set out to accomplish.

But one is better than none.

Thank you all again.

---pmc2