I work too hard. People tell me that all the time. Even if they didn’t I sort of figured that out on my own. But I like work and I’m happiest when I have lots to do. If I don’t have enough to do, I go looking for more. I don’t even own a television or a couch and if I have to sit still for too long I go a little nuts. So I end up working too hard. And believe me when I say I’m tough enough to handle it. 

Do you believe me? Because most people don’t. I get fussed at and admonished and told to slow down all the time. You can probably guess that I rarely do as I’m told.

But this week I had a domestic tragedy befall me and things in my working life came to a crashing halt. My coffee maker died. One morning I poured in the water to make a new pot of coffee and all that water came out of the bottom of my coffee maker. It was some sort of catastrophic seal failure. And I found out I’m not nearly as tough without my coffee maker. 

It turns out I can’t work one and a half jobs and write regular blog posts without coffee. It turns out when I don’t have coffee I’m sort of slow and I need sleep and I need to eat. Who knew.

All is well now. I have a new coffee maker (and therefore I have coffee and I can make more anytime I like). I also got myself a day off. I need to recover from trying to work two jobs with no coffee in me.

You know what’s going to come at me tomorrow? Questions about what I did on my day off. And when I say “nothing much”/”some knitting”/”read a book” there will be looks of disappointment. Excuse me while I laugh a bit and coffee spurts out of my nose. I like working but most people just don’t get that. I think being busy is my excitement. Days off are for no-excitement. They are for sitting quietly and not doing much at all so I can go back to work the next day and kick ass.

So here is my day off of doing nothing much/some knitting/reading a book.

There will be knitting.

And there will be all stuff that supports the knitting.

As you can see I have coffee. Yes, I’m very happy about that too. There is also a healthy breakfast box of doughnuts waiting to be eaten. There is a fresh box of kleenex (I have allergies and I refuse to take antihistamines unless I’m really dying). And I have The Gunseller on CD’s. Its a novel by Hugh Laurie (yes the Hugh Laurie from House and Black Adder). I’m not sure what its about. I didn’t buy it. Its on loan from a friend who thinks I will like audio books while I knit so today I’m giving that a try.

You know what else I’m giving a try? Keeping a blog post updated with my progress throughout the day. I’ll be doing that for this post. So if you’re enjoying a lazy day off too, feel free to check back in. I’ll literally keep ya posted!

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A Noon Update

The knitting is going well.

The doughnut eating is going well.

The coffee drinking is going very well.

 

You don’t need a picture for that do you?

You know me well enough to believe that I’m drinking that coffee like a pro, right?

Right.

The reading listening to my book… hit a small snag. I put in the CD and hit play. Then I thought “this must be one of those stories that starts in the middle and the author fills you in later”. After a few minutes I thought “and the story is told out of order”. Then I thought “wow, I’ll I have to listen harder and concentrate because I’m completely lost”. Then I realized my CD player was set to Shuffle On and the chapters were playing in random order. Ahhh. Well, that would explain why I’m having such trouble with my audio book experience.

Then I turned the shuffler thingy off, restarted, and its all making much more sense. So far The Gunseller is very Film Noir but in a British sort of way. For example, the hero is tough enough to kill a guy (who is trying to kill him) with an alabaster table lighter but British enough to find the alabaster table lighter, and all the rest of the room’s decor, completely hideous. Also there is a gorgeous but tough American babe who drinks whiskey.

So what are ya’ll up to?

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5pm (ish) Update

The knitting.

Its a cowl. Or that is what it will be. I only have this 100 or so yards of handspun, I’ll never get any more, and that seems enough to make a nice sized neckerchief style cowl. I started with what seemed to be a right amount of stitches, increased by 4 stitches every other row until I had used up half the yarn. Then I started decreasing by 4 stitches every other row. It will be a pretty thing to wrap around my neck on a cold day.

 

The food.

I had to make myself a real meal. Sadly, one can’t live on doughnuts alone. But I’m not in the mood to cook much so I made one of those meals that you can whip up in one skillet: pan fried potatoes, a weak white gravy and some over-hard eggs. Then I tossed in a few slices off a store bought baguette and voilà, a good lazy day meal.

The book.

I’m up to Disc three of The Gun Seller. And to all who have asked, no Hugh Laurie does not narrate the story. Its read by Simon Prebble. I looked him up. Prebble is an English stage actor and I’d bet a zillion dollars an old buddy of Laurie’s from when he was a broke and working as a Shakespearean actor.

The story so far is wildly complicated and the side commentary is wildly sarcastic.

“Now, where did I leave my time-machine? Oh I know, next Wednesday.”

“Later, a very fat woman came in with a trolley and put a plate of something brown and foul-smelling on a table beside me. I couldn’t imagine what I’d ever done to her, but whatever it was, it must have been bad. She obviously realized that she’d over-reacted, because half an hour later she came and took the plate away again.”

My favorite (so far) is from the scene when our hero goes to his bank, is served a cup of disgusting coffee, and

“I was trying to get rid of it behind a rubber plant when a nine year old boy with ginger hair stuck his head out of the door, beckoned me in, and announced himself as Graham Halkerston, Branch Manager.”

Later on the hero meets his doctor… who is young enough to be a branch manager.

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