#372 - Paper Muncher

We went to bed early last night for once. I spent the last hour awake listening to the Dune audiobook with some earbuds while Robyn slept.

The book is much different than I imagined, but that could be due to the overacting going on by the cast of narrators. Not that it isn’t enjoyable, just a bit over done sometimes. There are scenes in the book that have never made it into the movie adaptations of course and I like those because they are unknown to me. There is a lot more time spent on winning over the nobles still on Arrakis, while the movies just basically skip it or mention it in passing.

The viewpoint jumps quite a lot within scenes as well. It’s not jarring, but just something I am aware of as a writer. I’ve taken a course on jumping viewpoints, and it still fascinates me to see it done well whenever I come across it.

I stayed in bed until just before nine.  was up at six AM to get ready for school and to work on some paintings before she left. The blackout blind was up and I think that made it easier to get out of bed. Or maybe it was the going to bed early part that did that. Or maybe it was the combination. Either way I was in a good mood first thing in the morning.

I got to my desk straight away and logged in so I could continue on my task of approvals. The paintings I had today required more work than usual and were from the same painter. Sometimes certain painters have bad weeks. It’s just the nature of the business.

I spent the morning revising one painting and then by noon I had it finished. Perfect timing to get a walk in before the one PM meeting we had on the books. It was a cool day and windy, but the sun was out and I was just happy to be enjoying the fresh air. Being away from a computer was nice too.

I made a ham, cheese and tomato sandwich on sourdough with a slathering of Dijon mustard. Grabbing a Dr. Pepper from the fridge I bounded upstairs and ate while the meeting went on. The movie, Digger, was discussed although none of us had seen it.

Soon I was back to doing approvals and revisions and managed to fix another of the paintings that needed some work. Then another painter handing in their work and since they looked nearly perfect, I switched over to approving them. This would allow me to get more work to the next department faster and keep them busy while I worked on the more difficult ones.

It was a nice way to end the day. There hadn’t been too many distractions throughout the day and I felt better at the end of the day about work than I did at the start.

I was feeling like I wanted to relax a bit, so I put on a new episode of Lanterns. Robyn came home and she told me about her day for a while. Then she took a nap while I finished watching my show. She had to leave for her second job shortly after and I watched the rest of my show.

When she returned neither of us was interested in cooking and the kids had already fed themselves, so I made up some grilled cheese sandwiches really quick and then we headed back upstairs to watch some TV. We were both interested in having a chill night. First, we watched Bill Maher, who had Canadian Malcom Gladwell as his first guest.

Then we watched John Oliver who spent the entire show talking about the Secret Service in the US. Not my favourite episode of This Week Tonight but it was still fun and entertaining. We were both getting tired by ten, but I put on the first episode of The Great Canadian Baking Show on CBC Gem. We both like to watch creatives work under pressure to win a contest. Sometimes, I even make some of the featured cakes. I had the cookbook for one of the contestants from the UK version and it made for a tastey cake.

If I was smart, I would probably order the cookbooks written by one of the judges instead of the contestants!

After the show was finished, Robyn went to bed and I headed downstairs to write some words for this blog and to make some quotas for the word challenge, since I am still in the running. I have to remember to email my September results into the contest.

I am about a day behind so far this month, but I am confident that I will catch up by the end of the weekend. I also have Monday off for thanksgiving if I want to do another big catchup day. Not like I did at the end of the month, but a mini version!

I’ll be bringing my DJI mic mini up to the cottage to make sure I am getting as much word count down was possible. I still have to try things with the new transmitter as well.

Today, I heard a munching of paper in my office and when I went to see if kiddo #2’s new hamster was in its cage, I couldn’t find it. Turns out the munching sounds were being made by the little rodent. He’d gone under a storage unit and had started making a new nest. It didn’t try to run away when I found it. It just sat still and let me take it back to its cage. The calmest hamster I have ever seen. Maybe it had just got lost and was happy for the free ride home?

Strange little creature.

It’s eleven thirty and I am feeling the pull of the bed, again.

I’ll keep this one short and see you all later.

Until tomorrow.