telecommuting

Cold and wet and miserable outside at the cottage yesterday. Which made it a perfect indoor workday, of course, since neither Jeff nor I were at all tempted to go outside. We both spent most of the day with our laptops at the dining room table.

It took ages for the boathouse to heat up yesterday despite a huge blaze in the fireplace. I was so cold that I wore a fleece hat and put a space heater right beside my feet for a while.





Things I did online yesterday from the cottage, in addition to working on my fiction novel:

- Researched current publishing news, uploaded my Market Watch column to WritersMarket.com (based in Cincinnati)

- E-mailed with my literary agent at Curtis Brown Ltd. (based in New York)

- E-mailed with some writers re: their poll answers for my column for Writing-World.com (based in Maryland)

- E-mailed with interviewees for my Chatelaine article.

- Researched NaNoWriMo communities and writers for my article on the topic for a newspaper in Ohio.

- Worked on my outline for my own NaNoWriMo project.

- Was interviewed by e-mail for an online magazine.

- Got an e-mail from our real estate agent about a potential house. Jeff and I looked at the picture of the house, checked out the info, checked out the exact location via online maps, made an appointment to see the house in Toronto next Tuesday.

- Researched hotels in downtown Ottawa (Jeff and I are staying in Ottawa Sunday night), looked up locations via Yahoo maps to find a hotel close to Jeff's client in Ottawa.

I love the Internet.

I've added a Permalink link at the bottom of my main Blatherings entry, by the way, and have also (with Parki's help) turned on RSS 1.0 (activated? added?) in case people want to check on updates that way.

Jeff and I worked until 4 pm, at which point we had a sauna then a short nap. Jeff, who rarely cooks at home, made a yummy ginger-pear chicken dish with steamed snow peas and a salad on the side. In the evening, he taught me how to play Carcassonne, a pretty cool board game.





NaNoWriMo Update:

I downloaded Eric's NaNoWriMo Report Card, which is an Excel Spreadsheet that records all kinds of stats as you write your novel, including generating pie charts, charts output progress, etc.

I'm working on an outline in MS Word in preparation (it's allowed! I asked!). Using outline mode, I'm doing an overview of the main characters, their background, the plot.

Links/News:

One year ago, I was hanging out with my friend Andrew in Santa Clara.

Four years ago, I saw Antz with Jodi, Allison, John and David.

Five years ago, we were eating Walkers' Chocolate-Covered Ginger Cookies (from Lissa and Phil).

---

Today's Blatherpics:

	Me, yesterday morning.
	Our set-up in the boathouse. We shared one long phone cord which we passed back and forth whenever one of us wanted to go online. I wore headphones whenever I was in my "I'm writing don't talk to me" mode. Jeff hung the blanket up over that window to try to conserve some heat. Yesterday's headphone workmusic: Kim Robertson harp music and Manhattan Sleeps.
	Still more fall colours from our walk earlier this week. Sadly, these already seem to be fading somewhat.

poll: bathing rituals

Jeff and I spent our first afternoon alone together mainly doing our own thing. Don't get me wrong...it's not like we were purposely avoiding each other. It's just that after three days of fairly intense family/group activity, we both needed some solitary time. Neither of us specifically discussed this, but after being with someone sixteen years, you develop a sort of telepathy.

Jeff did cabin handyman stuff, then took a sauna, shaved. Meanwhile I worked on my laptop. After he came out of the sauna, he worked on his laptop while I did the sauna thing. Despite the new shower, I still opted for washing up in the sauna. It's pretty darned cold outside now, and taking an outdoor shower tends to be more of a quick dousing than a relaxed soak since the bits of your body that are outside of the water spray get cold very fast.

Washing up in the sauna takes more work than a shower, but I still love it. First, you heat up a big pot of water on the sauna coals and also get a bucket of cold water from the lake. Have biodegradable Camp Suds ready (my favourite is mint). Get the camp shower (basically a plastic bag with a shower nozzle at the end) and ladle in some hot water from the pot on the coals. Don't burn yourself! Ladle in enough cold water to desired temperature. Hold shower above head until hair soaked. Shut nozzle and soap up. Blind from suds, grope around until you find the camp shower again, fumble with nozzle. Accidentally open nozzle and let out some of precious hot water. Manage to shut nozzle. Hold camp shower above head and THEN open nozzle. Rinse before water runs out.

Later in the afternoon, Jeff and I went on a short hike, on the Gill/Sam Lake portage. Still don't feel as if I've exercised enough to work off all that pumpkin pie, though. I had pumpkin pie AND whipped cream for breakfast on Monday! I'm so bad.

Poll: bathing rituals

Do you prefer showers or baths? I know I asked this a while ago, but it was a while ago. Do you shower/bathe every day? Every other day? Weekly?! Morning or night? Do you sing in the shower? Soap or shower gel? Do you like experimenting with different shampoos and soaps, or stick to one brand all the time? What's your favourite shampoo? Mine is Origins minty shampoo. I used to buy it when I lived in Philadelphia, but haven't seen any in Canada, sadly. I also confess to a love of hand soaps of all textures and fragrances.

Links/News:

One year ago, Beckett talked about time management in her Guest Blathering.

Four years ago, David and I made the last sandcastle of the season.

Five years ago, I complained about the fact that the love of my life, Spencer Powell, had not updated his Web site in a long time. His new site, however, IS being updated, yay! I found out at the Cottagers' Turkey Bowl, however, that Spencer no longer remembers me. How fickle it is, the adoration of the young.





Today's Blatherpics:

	I took this photo on our hike with JBR and Ginny a couple days ago.
	Brittany and me in the motorboat. i took this photo by holding the camera out in front of us.
	Fall colours.

dreaming

So I'm sitting at the dining room table in the boathouse, admiring the way the morning sun slants across the surface of the table. The sky is a brilliant blue, and the reflection of the sun off the lake is so bright that I can't look at it. Very blustery outside, the waves kicking up whitecaps as they hit the shore.

Behind me, birch logs crackle merrily in the fireplace, and a space heater hums nearby, struggling to heat up my corner of the cabin. I suppose I could take my laptop and sit in front of the fire, but then I know I'd get too warm and sleepy, and I actually do have work to do. Right now, it's cold enough where I'm sitting that I'm comfortable in fleece tights, a t-shirt, sweatershirt, fleece vest, wool socks. I love this time of year.





Larkin, Rick, Brittany, JBR, Ginny and their three dogs have left. Jeff and I are alone the rest of the today, Wednesday, and Thursday, then Parki and his friend Angela come up on Friday for the weekend.

Yesterday morning, Jeff's sister and her family went home. After they left, the rest of us did some cleaning up. I chopped some kindling, one of my favourite cottage chores. There's something immensely satisfying about thwacking a big axe into a piece of wood, chopping it into little pieces, and using it to make a wonderfully cozy fire.

Looks easy, but requires concentration. Jeff chopped the tip off one of his fingers while we were chopping kindling once. While we were waiting in the hospital treatment room, Jeff (who seemed remarkably perky for someone who had just lost a piece of himself) entertained me with grisly stories of friends he knew who had chopped parts of themselves off. I hadn't felt queasy until then.

After a lunch of soup and turkey sandwiches, JBR, Ginny, Jeff and I took the boat to the Joe Lake dam, then walked along the old railroad track to Brulé. Stunning fall colours; as I mentioned before, it's so rare that we're at the cottage for the peak of the colours.

The Algonquin Park fall colours are apparently popular in Japan; we saw many canoes full of Japanese tourists in the Portage Store bay on the weekend, heading out for a paddle around the lake. Unfortunately not many of them are familiar with paddling or canoes, making it a much more risky venture than any of them probably realize.

The reason: the water is VERY cold right now, so cold that if your canoe dumps and no one is around to pull you out, you stand a good chance of dying from hypothermia. Jeff and I get especially upset when we see little kids in these canoes.

Last year, Jeff went over to one Japanese family in a canoe, struggling against the winds, trying to get out of the bay, and told them to go back. You should go back, he told them, trying to make them understand. The water's very cold. You fall in, you die.

They must have understood the word "die", because they went back.





As much as I'd like to take the rest of the week off, I can't. I have two columns due next week, the Chatelaine article due the week after, my current novel to finish before I take off for OVFF at the end of the month, and my daily Market Watch publishing column. I also plan to send out a ton more queries as I continue to ramp up my nonfiction writing.

Can't really complain, though...how many people could work from the cottage? As long as I have Internet access and my laptop, I could do my writing pretty much anywhere. Jeff and I plan to spend a major chunk of time at the cottage next spring and summer to build a new sleeping cabin on the property, further up the hill.

Look like things are going to be pretty work-intensive (in terms of writing) for me over the next month or so. And it's all WRITING-related, which is probably the reason I'm looking forward to it instead of dreading it. This is such a contrast to how I felt about my work a couple years ago that I still can't believe how lucky I am sometimes.

I mean, here I am doing exactly what I've always wanted to do all my life. I spend my days WRITING. People PAY me for my writing (well, for my nonfiction writing, anyway...I eventually will sell my fiction! I will!!).

Sometimes I think this must be a dream. When am I going to wake up? But heck, I'll enjoy it while I can. :-)





Links/News:

One year ago, I was hanging out in Santa Cruz with Paul and Beckett and the twins.

Two years ago, I reminisced about childhood games.

Four years ago, I forgot Annie's pacifier while babysitting the kids and vowed NEVER TO DO SO AGAIN.

Five years ago, there was a man outside my window.

---

Today's Blatherpics:

	Fall colours.
	Willi and Shirley Powell, daughter Emma, son Spencer.
	JBR, Ginny and Jeff on our walk.
	Me in the motor boat.

snow!

(written yesterday afternoon)

Today began depressingly drizzly and grey. Ordinarily I don't care, but I'm not looking forward to a Turkey Bowl in the rain. Unpleasant for the players, of course, but also for those of us on the sidelines. I hope secretly that the game is cancelled. It isn't.

I've been going to the Cottagers' Turkey Bowl for years now. Every Thanksgiving weekend Sunday, the cottagers from the north and the south ends of the lake battle it out in a game of touch football. It's a pretty casual game, with a wide mix of players, from little kids to guys who played semi-pro football. Girls only recently started participating, though they were never banned.





JBR is the referee, though also on a casual basis. Being deaf in one ear makes it more of a challenge, and he sometimes gets distracted from the game by a good conversation with the other onlookers.

This year was the first year that Jeff didn't play. Neither did Willi Powell. "I've done my twenty years," Willi says, as he and Jeff nurse bottles of beer from the sidelines as they talk about computers and cottage life. Rick (Larkin's husband) decides to play, but is injured after one play, pulling a calf muscle. :-(





For most of us non-players, the Turkey Bowl is a strictly social event. From time to time, one of us will ask about the score, especially if we're getting cold or have turkeys cooking in the oven. Otherwise, we're catching up on gossip, admiring babies, getting reacquainted. People bring blankets, hot drinks, snacks, beer.

On warmer Turkey Bowls, a few straggler blackflies come out to keep us company. More often, it snows. This time, it hailed. Not a lot, but enough to make it to the unofficial Turkey Bowl history books, I'm sure.

A whistle blows. Woohoo, the game's over! We all pile into our motorboats and head back to the turkeys in our cottage ovens. The wind is much fiercer now, however, and the dark skies look threatening. After slowly chugging through the waves for a bit, we decide it's not safe to go all the way back with a fully loaded boat. Jeff, Brittany and I get off at the next point of land and wait for JBR to drop the others and head back. The wind is roaring through the trees, and we climb the hill to the shelter of an empty cottage at the top, huddle together on the porch.

Brittany finds it all very exciting as we watch other motorboats full of people struggle home in the wind. JBR soon arrives, and we get back to the cottage. The boathouse is full of mouthwatering cooking fragrances. Brittany and I decorate the cottage with red and orange leaves we gathered earlier in the day.

Dinner: turkey with stuffing, homemade cranberry sauce, roasted vegetables. Dessert: homemade pumpkin pie with whipped cream, pumpkin cheesecake that Larkin and Brittany baked the day before.





Links/News:

One year ago, people did Guest Blatherings from Paul's and Beckett's house.

Two years ago, I gave Pearson Airport Escape Tips.

Three years ago, I went to the International Small Business Congress.

Four years ago, I agreed to babysit Annie and Sara for the first time by myself.

Five years ago, I fell in love with a boy named Spencer.

---

Today's Blatherpics:

	Brittany does a dance of joy over the first snow of the year.
	Larkin and Rick and Brittany at the Turkey Bowl.
	Turkey Bowl team photo (both teams). The game ended up being a tie.
	Brittany and I spent part of the game drawing pictures in the dirt along the road beside the camp horse paddocks (is that the right term?) nearby.

cottage shower

Jeff and I are at the cottage for Thanksgiving weekend right now. Usually by the time Thanksgiving rolls around, most of the fall colours are over. This weekend, however, the colours are at the peak, a glorious riot of scarlets and oranges and yellows, above and below.

The big news at the cottage this weekend is The New Shower, replacing the old one. I love taking outdoor showers; there's something liberating about being doused by hot water in the middle of nature.





Larkin is noticeably pregnant (she's due mid-December). I asked her eagerly whether she thought it might be twins and she gave me the same "I'm going to kill you" look that other pregnant friends have given me when I asked the identical question.

Larkin's husband Rick is a chef of great skill at Oasis restaurant. He brought several dozen hand-picked Malpeck (sp?) oysters, shucked them in the kitchen, served them to us on ice with wedges of lemon and green tabasco sauce. It was the first time we'd ever had oysters at the cottage! Yummmm....





For dinner, we had Rick's homemade Montreal-style tourtiére (a sort of spiced meat pie) which was to die for, peas, salad with blue cheese dressing, tomato marmalade. Ginny made apple crisp with whipped cream for dessert.





Jeff, Ginny, Brittany and I had a sauna and quick dip in the lake before dinner. VERY quick dip in the lake...it's pretty darned cold! The kind of cold where you're swimming to get out even before you hit the water. Very refreshing. :-)

Today's the Annual Cottage Turkey Bowl (football game between cottagers in the north and the south ends of the lake) and Thanksgiving dinner.

Have a great weekend, everyone!





Links/News:

One year ago, I arrived in California.

Three years ago, we hung out with Reid, Luisa & John Swain.

Four years ago, we played with Olivia and Brittany at the cottage.

---

Today's Blatherpics:

	While JBR was showing us the new outdoor shower, I took this photo of myself in the reflection of the showerhead, looking straight up.
	The new outdoor shower.
	Oysters.
	Rick's tourtiére. (drool)
	Brittany.