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Things going on
I keep forgetting that Wiscon is in a couple of weeks. I heard from the folks organizing the readings--my slot is on Saturday morning. We'll be limited to 6-7 pages, given the timing. I'd like to read a section of the new J5 Chapter 1, with my idomeni POV. Pick a nice, tense section at the end. Haven't yet written the chapter, but I know how it ends. My books in microcosm.
I also have three other panels, including one where my books are mentioned in the panel description. This is a first. I'm still not sure whether it's a good idea for me to sit on that panel or not, but Syne Mitchell will be on it as well and her books are also in the description. Might give us a chance to explain why we think the description isn't quite 'on'. Our female protags are compared to Gibson's Case, and while I haven't read NEUROMANCER, folks who have told me that Jani and Case are not alike.
Anyway, looking forward to seeing Madison, and staying at the Concourse, and visiting the shops and restaurants I visit each year.
In day job news, I found out that a few of us will be moving to a new office area. On April 1st, a layout of this new area was posted, along with a note telling us to pick our new cubes NOW or they would be chosen for us the following week. So I picked a cube, as did a few other folks. A few hours later, we found an Apirl Fool! sign stuck to the board. Funny funny hah hah.
Now it looks like I'll be moving after all. I doubt I'll get the cube I picked, though, a corner with views out two windows.
House obsession has me by the throat. I've applied for a home equity line of credit--if I get it, I'd like to put an addition on the house. A master bedroom with full bath, and a mudroom. With two big dogs, a mudroom is a necessity. The hardwood floors took a beating this past winter.
I also have three other panels, including one where my books are mentioned in the panel description. This is a first. I'm still not sure whether it's a good idea for me to sit on that panel or not, but Syne Mitchell will be on it as well and her books are also in the description. Might give us a chance to explain why we think the description isn't quite 'on'. Our female protags are compared to Gibson's Case, and while I haven't read NEUROMANCER, folks who have told me that Jani and Case are not alike.
Anyway, looking forward to seeing Madison, and staying at the Concourse, and visiting the shops and restaurants I visit each year.
In day job news, I found out that a few of us will be moving to a new office area. On April 1st, a layout of this new area was posted, along with a note telling us to pick our new cubes NOW or they would be chosen for us the following week. So I picked a cube, as did a few other folks. A few hours later, we found an Apirl Fool! sign stuck to the board. Funny funny hah hah.
Now it looks like I'll be moving after all. I doubt I'll get the cube I picked, though, a corner with views out two windows.
House obsession has me by the throat. I've applied for a home equity line of credit--if I get it, I'd like to put an addition on the house. A master bedroom with full bath, and a mudroom. With two big dogs, a mudroom is a necessity. The hardwood floors took a beating this past winter.
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So a mudroom is not a room full of mud, but a space where you remove it?
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It is fun.
You'd be quite at home there with the lit-crit side of things. I can't say that it's a business con, although editors do attend. But Madison is a great small city and it is overall a neat way to go from Spring into Summer.
>So a mudroom is not a room full of mud, but a space where you remove it?
Aye, verily. A place to leave wet brollies and coats and garden-muddied shoes, shake off snow, wipe down wet dogs, and swear at the weather. I would like a tile floor and a washable wall surface. The coat rack would go here, as well as a box for gloves/hats/coats. A co-worker suggested a sink, which I confess I hadn't thought of but seems a darned good idea. It needn't be a large space--5x9 might suffice--but oh it comes in handy when the weather's bad.
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As for mudrooms, I can't even imagine having an umbrella. (That is, we do have one somewhere--I know we bought one when my daughter was young, and I did find it to take back east last summer, but it's vanished again.) I guess out here that would be a sun room--where you block the sun, but can send the kids to play if it's not too hot, and have plants all around, and the like.
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*Kaygo makes note to post con reports*
>As for mudrooms, I can't even imagine having an umbrella. >(That is, we do have one somewhere--I know we bought one >when my daughter was young, and I did find it to take back >east last summer, but it's vanished again.) I guess out >here that would be a sun room--where you block the sun, but >can send the kids to play if it's not too hot, and have >plants all around, and the like.
For all I am beginning to dislike winter, I don't know if I'd do well in a place without 4 seasons. Because as much as I gripe about the snow, there are times, such as when I'm walking the dogs through drifts, that I really enjoy it.
Maybe I would sacrifice the snow and move somewhere a shade warmer, if only for the growing season. We're still experiencing nights in the 30s, and some of the flowers can't take it.
In a weird weather note, I puttered around outside this morning before leaving for work, and saw that we did not receive the rain that we were supposed to have received. A few drops, barely enough to disturb the dust on the car. Note that I live in North part of town. Got in car. By the time I arrived in South part of town, all of a mile and a half or so away, I noticed wet roads, and puddles, and other signs that much rain had fallen in the recent past.
Talk about your scattered showers.
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2) Coat rack. Um, not the best idea, unless you're sure that your dogs will never ever jump up on the coats hanging from the rack, wiping their muddy paws on the garments (and we will not even talk about the potential for trouble if you forgot that you left a few doggie treats in the pocket of the coat you left hanging on the rack). Put in a closet instead.
And yes, mudrooms are incredibly handy. Sartorius, you saw our mudroom - the windowed room with the sliding glass doors. During non-mud seasons, it is more of a sunroom then a mudroom.
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I had my eye on one of those nice storage benches with the coat hooks lining the top. Don't know if there will be room for a closet in the space I'll have. So far, the dogs have never jumped on the coatrack currently in the dining room, so odds are they'll pretty much leave alone any coats in the mudroom.
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We set up the room with the idea that even though the dogs currently in residence were perfectly trustworthy, the time would come when they had moved onto the big doghouse in the sky, and new, untrained puppies would take their place. This proved to be the case. Terrie, Alex and Sara, the dogs in place when the addition was completed, could be trusted totally. Vera, a.k.a. VERA YOU IDIOT!!!!, has even figured out how to bounce open the closet door if it is not latched shut. We also had to take the table out of the room because she decided she could get a better view out the windows by standing on the table. So she did.
She was a year old in March. She's seems to be calming down a little. Sorta. Mostly. At least, that's what we keep telling ourselves.
Mud Rooms
If you haven't investigated the "Not So Big House" concepts of Sarah Susanka, you need to check them out--good wish books.
http://www.notsobighouse.com/
Re: Mud Rooms
I checked out the website, and liked what I saw. I may check out one of the books. I see a great many too-big homes around here. Vaulted ceiling and two-story entryways and rooms running into one another--you wouldn't think that all that open space could become boring and repetitive, but it can.
My living room defines this house in that it's very informal, more a family room than a living room. Hardwood floor, all wood walls, and floor to ceiling stone fireplace. A little on the dark side, given that the only window faces north, but warm and lodge-like. I'd like to keep that informal feel throughout the rest of the house, with a gradual shift to garden-like in the kitchen/dining area.
There's so much I want to do. I don't know if it's restlessness or building backlash from losing Dad or the midlife crisis that I swear started 10 years ago. It's as though my life is a car and I keep fighting the urge to jerk the steering wheel. Or that my Inner Crab is finally asserting itself, and I'm starting to build my home around me.
Re: Mud Rooms
I can relate to Inner Crab--I am finally ready to do things to the house, but we had to put so much into new A/C and ducts, electric, etc. I don't know that there's anything left for fun stuff.
But some nice nesting with pics on the walls again will go a long way toward my being able to write--including an herb garden outside the window....
PS--
Taunton Press books are wonderful for ideas and basic info. Their kitchen book was awesome; haven't seen the bath one yet.