Sewicked

Ugh, I stayed up late last night to read Thud by Terry Pratchett. I've read it before. I knew who did it. But I was enjoying it so much and I'd had an otherwise crappy evening.

I caught the next to last bus home so at least I wasn't walking home in the dark but I still like to get home a little earlier than I did. I'd ended up staying at work just long enough to miss the first possible bus and somehow missed the 2nd bus, too. I was packing up to leave when my phone rang. I could have ignored it but something told me to answer it, despite the fact that I'd already turned off my computer. Frankly, if it had been a call to someone else in the office I would have transferred the call & just counted myself as being off work at 5pm. But I had to sit down because it was a call for me to handle (which I did this morning). However, if I'd let the guy go to voice mail I'd be so frustrated this morning. He has a good command of the English language but a thick accent and talking to him, being able to ask him to repeat key portions was massively helpful.

When I got home I found some unexpected fall-out to my roommate's loss of checkbook. He hadn't paid the power bill. So they'd cut the power. Luckily, there was still some light & I have a flashlight on my keys. Plus, Mom gave me a really fabulous flashlight for Christmas (wind up & LED). So I called my roommate, got his credit card number & called the power company to get it switched back on. Did you know that they do not post their phone numer on the disconnect notice? It's very annoying. Once the bill was paid & the connect fee the voice said 'your power will be connected by midnight.' Oh frabjous joy. That blows my evening.

So I went to get some supper & by the time I got back it was dark. I pulled out a couple candles & the flashlights to read & eat supper. They actually got the power back at about 8pm, just before my Mom called. Luckily we have an old-fashioned phone with a cord because the cordless was out of juice. We made plans to meet, in November probably. My month of October is tied up already.

Today's outfit: braided hair (I didn't feel like doing anything else with it), green amber post earrings (lost the back to one this morning), matching green amber necklace (5 cabochons), matching ring, same flat silver rope band, black & green Harrington Steading polo (acid washed black overdyed green), black jeans, 'nude' kneehighs (another cold start & hot finish day), black flats with sequins & beads.

Tatting News: all things considered I got very little done on Linda's necklace yesterday, just a couple rings before work. Nor did I finish the bracelet or get started on blocking. Guess what I hope to accomplish tonight?

Books: Re-read Stephanie Laurens's The Truth About Love yesterday then, of course, read Thud, as I said. Now I'm reading The Hero Strikes Back, by Moira J. Moore. It's a sequel to Resenting the Hero. The cover art is very different between the two books. Resenting looks more Renaissance while Hero looks later, maybe as late as 18th century.

Speaking of books; some authors have gotten together & started a charity help other authors with emergency assistance. They've started auctions on eBay to seed the charity. That way if an author gets hit with a disaster, or long-term illness, there's a fund to help see them through it. This is intended to be a longer term assistance than the usual short-term (like the assistance web comic artists are compiling for Lea Hernandez). Not to dismiss the value of such assistance by no means, but having funds in place for long-term problems is also a good thing.

Addendum to today's outfit: I'm also wearing an owl pin in my collar. I picked it up, & two others, on Saturday at a discount store. It's an enamel pin & pretty good quality.