Bit by Bit

I am overwhelmed.

Late last month (and early this one), I made a list of all the things I must (actually should) do ASAP. You know, projects I've started that I want to finish, web sites that I'm supposed to maintain that have not been touched in years...that sort of thing.

I feel like I have no energy, no space and no time to do what needs to be done.

Every time I contemplate that list, I feel like taking a nap and not waking up until the next day.

So, I have developed a strategy for dealing with the (at least half dozen) projects which need attention: work on them bit by bit, break them down into manageable pieces.

For instance, I haven't updated my "home" web site since 2005! Up until that point, I had been trying to put everything I was into and all my favorite links, etc on that site. 

It had the oldest version of the Piece by Piece site as my jewelry page, with pieces long since sold or taken apart and remade. It had my flying page, when I haven't been able to afford to fly in over 8 years. It had links to projects from classes I took over 5 years ago.  

Needless to day, it needed to be cleaned up!

What prompted my contemplation of my sites is that I'm looking for a place to post the new quilt block directions which I have decided to write once a month.

My first thought was to post them on my Dear Jane site, but I have been planning on reorganizing and recoding that site longer than my home site and it's in much worse shape (although probably a better place for handling alot of web traffic.)

Then, there's the Rafael Sabatini site, updated every January to a greater or lesser extent.

Then, there's the several dozen quilt projects, jewelry projects, chores, etc that need to get done.

The only way I can do them, I have found is to schedule myself to work on 5 Rafael Sabatini pages per day, 3 Dear Jane pages per day, 5 quilt blocks per day, 3 chores per day, etc. If I get MORE than that done, great, but that's the minimum.

It seems to be working for now, though the results are mixed.  My home site is mostly cleaned up (except for my resume.) And I have come up with new templates for Dear Jane and the parts of Sabatini that were not redesigned last year.

I finished my sister's half of the DNA project except for one final border and the embroidery.

I have time to work on my kumihimo (although not as much as before, since I'm scheduling time to work on these other projects as well) and my jewelry, which is good since we're looking at scheduling a jewelry sale/fund raiser for Peg in the spring.

And I can now actually think of things like SCHEDULING and ORGANIZING the jewelry fundraiser (and, oh joy, gathering and updating things for my taxes) without also looking longingly for the bottle of No-Doz.

Tidings, Glad, Seasonal and Otherwise

Well, we had snow last night. I appreciate snow much more now because it's not ice. I had gone to the Chelmsford Quilt Guild's holiday party last night and heard all sorts of stories about the Chelmsfordians still without power due to the ice storm last Thursday night. (Luckily, we didn't lose power here, but the shopping center less than a mile away did.)

Still, when I woke up this morning, I was surprised (and happy I had left extra time so I could clean off the car and still get to the doctor's office on time.) I love snow, but not when it's between myself and a gazillion errands I have to run.

After the doctor's I had to go to Walmart for a prescription. We have dubbed Walmart, especially between Thanksgiving and New Years, "the eighth circle of Hell." (Although I don't mean that as a negative reflection on the staff of Walmart!) I swear people pull into that parking lot and just turn their brains off or something.

Anyway, it took about a half hour to get the prescription, and when I got back, I had to clear off my car again, although this time it was ice. I don't like ice, I'm thinking of staying inside until the Spring Thaw.

In other news: Peggy has definitely decided to get the WalkAide, so we're looking into fund raising to help her out.  The first bit of fundraising will take place in our etsy shop. The purchase price of pieces marked "PWWAF" will go entirely to Peggy's WalkAide.

We're also looking into holding a jewelry party in the Spring closer to Boston as a benefit for Peggy's WalkAide. I'll post the details as soon as I know where and when.

Until then, the only way to purchase Piece by Piece pieces is through our etsy site. I'm still revamping the main site, but shooting the photos is taking longer than I thought.

One down note. My friend, Jesse Knight, writer, raconteur, Sabatini scholar, and all-around nice guy...whom I never got to meet in person, died on Dec 6.  It was unexpected. I met Jesse when I was searching for inspiration to work on a historical fiction book that I had started a while before.

Before long, I discovered Jesse was a SERIOUS expert on Rafael Sabatini and was looking for a place to gather information he had posted at various places on the web. Thus the Rafael Sabatini web site was born. It was the online "presence" of the discussion group he had founded.

Eventually, about a dozen people on the discussion group founded the Rafael Sabatini Society. Jesse was the first President.  He was just stepping down so he could give more attention to his (many, many) other projects when he was taken away from us.  I hope that his wife, Dollie, can get his last big Sabatini project published: the definitive Sabatini Bibliography.  If she does, or if the RSS helps to self-publish the book, I'll, no doubt, post here and on the web site.

I have no pictures of Jesse, so here's a picture of Sabatini!

October's September Update

Well, you know and I know I planned to write more in September after catching you up with the previous month, but it didn't happen.

What did happen was our apartment got flooded just about Brimfield (like the night after Katie, Joe and I came back...Katie was sleeping on my futon in the living room!) so I didn't get to go to New York and see Makiko Tada (and shop at all those legendarily wonderful suppliers like Metalliferous.) Actually, I didn't even get to do the research to plot on WHERE to go.

*sigh* 

With the help of Jo Ann and Shelley (and Katie, before she had to return to NYC), we carted boxes and boxes of books, so the property maintenance guys could move our bookcases so they could replace our under-carpet padding so we wouldn't have  mold.

Unfortunately, they only did half of the front room and the hallway. No one thought to check Peggy's room, so the second half of the month was spent cleaning her room up (which is now mold-free, but still exceedingly cluttered) and going through our belongings, 'cause, yes, I finally admit, I've got too much stuff.

You heard it here first.

We've gone through the storage bin and gotten rid of 9 plastic bins of 

clothes.  Who have I been kidding? Am I ever going to wear those suit jackets and skirts ever again? It was hard, but I kept only 2 out of 9 jackets, and a similar ratio of skirts.

Peggy was not as brutal, but she did trim her clothing in storage by at least a third.  And I can now say that I know what is in each and every box in that unit. (AND, they're all labelled this time!)

Other than that, I've been studiously trying to avoid the political discussions (Does it bother anyone else that the news/broadcast people seem to be treating it like professional sports? Who's ahead? Who "won" the debates? What "new revelation" about their personal lives has been planted as a story on Entertainment Tonight?  Do I really care?)

AND, I've been working on my kumihimo.  I'm up to 16 strand braids. I hope to have new  photographs up on the Piece by Piece web site, and new product on etsy. I've shot some earrings outside (see above), but I have to do close ups and write copy before, so it may be a bit.

Slow Day in Princetonville

I'm kind of enjoying a slow day today since the past couple of weeks have been filled with crises of one kind or another.

Peg's Tegretol levels came back okay, but since her symptoms were as bad as they were when she fell, we prevailed upon the neurologist to represcribe her Keppra. In a day, the change is astonishing. 

Before she was depressed, forgetful, complaining about spasms in her leg and tightness in her arm. She was barely talking, very frustrated and didn't know whether she wanted to stay at home or go out just to get out.

Now, it's as if a light were switched on again. She's talking (so much so that I can't concentrate to read my new book on thyroid problems so *I* can figure out how to help me concentrate better.) She cooked something complex, it's astonishing.

In fact, she's been following me around looking for me to provide entertainment. I'm sure she's got plans for me to take her hither and yon (mostly yon, since gas is so pricey these days.) Unfortunately, watching me program in HTML for the Puppet Showplace isn't much in the way of entertainment, even if it does pay some of the bills.

By the way, in HTML-land, when it rains, it pours, it seems.

My sister and brother-in-law decided to set up a web site to add to their antiques business and consulted me about how this is done. I know one shouldn't work for relatives, but it could be fun. I just hope my skills are up to the task.

Talking to them reminded me that Piece by Piece's web site could use an upgrade (or at least new photography), and I'm STILL upgrading Sabatini's site with the new look.

Add to that I have my friend, Katie, coming to stay prior to Brimfield (for which "much cleaning needs to occur") and we will be seeing doctors, there's a bead show (InterGem, this weekend), Brimfield itself on the 17th (hi Diane!), and then I'm off to visit the parents in Pittsburgh (or just "off".) Maybe I should just savor this slow day...

The Peggy Report

One of the reasons that I started this blog was so I could keep Peggy's friends apprised of what's going on with her.

For those of you whom I haven't called or emailed, at the end of March, Peggy had a bad fall in the bathroom at 4 in the morning. She was admitted to the hospital for two days for tests to find out why she fell.

It turns out that her Tegretol levels, though therapeutic, were just too low. I guess she's become acclimated to the drug after 10 years on the same dose. Anyway, it was allowing stray neurons and nerves to fire, cause the tone in her arm and the spasms in her leg, in addition to nausea and dizziness at night when her blood pressure was low. The neurologist at the hospital put her on an anti-seizure medicine called Keppra, even though she was already on Tegretol.

Her neurologist took her off the Keppra, wanting to keep her on as few medicines as possible. I'm not sure why, but I think he was afraid of having side effects of her having two anti-seizure medicines. Anyway, she was supposed to get a blood test two weeks later to determine her levels.

It's not quite been two weeks, but we've both noticed changes.

When she got home from the hospital at the beginning of April, she was much more fluent, verbally. Now, her aphasia has returned in force, making her all that more frustrated because she remembers how much easier it was to speak only a few weeks earlier. Also, to me, she seems depressed and uninterested in anything, whereas before she was really pushing me to get the jewelry package, photographed and onto the web.

She has complained of tightness in her arm and spasms in her leg, just like she was experiencing before she fell at the end of March. Last night, she had to buzz me for help to get her to the bathroom, something she hasn't had to do since a couple of days after she left the hospital.

I decided that she didn't need to wait the full 2 weeks to get the levels since she was showing such obvious signs of decreased levels. I hope her neurologist gets the results and increases her dosage ASAP, because watching her slip backwards is just too sad. We went this morning.

I'm hoping she shows as much progress with an increased Tegretol level as she did when they put her on the Keppra. This will, I hope, also avoid any potential side effects we haven't encountered because she's been on Tegretol and we know how her body reacts to that.

Keep your fingers crossed!