Homework of one kind or another

Well, I’ve gotten two out of three of my homework assignments done for the big AMWA meeting coming up in Atlanta. I’ve looked over the last assignment, and am just not sure what the assignment has to do with the class. I am also grateful that I can submit it via e-mail as I don’t know when I’ll be able to work on it. Did I say these assignments are due on Tuesday?? Did I say we are headed to Louisiana on Monday?? Did I say we are still in the middle of both a bathroom and kitchen renovation??

Ah, but, I did finish painting the bathroom today, and now all it needs is tiling, trim, and installation of the vanity and toilet–did I say all it needs? And if I hadn’t broken my glasses today taking the above mentioned homework assignments to the post-office, I’d have a good chance of getting the kitchen paint finished tomorrow. Instead, I’ll get the first of two coats on and spend a couple of hours at the eye doctor tomorrow.

While “The Last Mimzy” plays, I sit here and think. . .

It seems that lately I spend all of my time worrying about getting things done, but not getting them done! I’m so overwhelmed with trying to get this house in shape to sell, that I’m stuck. I certainly haven’t been working on my writing or my new ezine project! I had to tell my clients that I’d be out of circulation for the next 6+ weeks. Yuck.

We had a minor disaster here at the house this morning that ruined my plans for the day. A tree root that had probably been growing for years in our septic line, finally caused a clog so bad that we were in deep, well, you know. Why on earth couldn’t it have waited until we sold the place?? My oh-so-dear husband nearly had (okay, had) a conniption fit (don’t believe I’ve ever written that one down, although my southern upbringing let me hear it frequently! – had to look it up). Anyway, we lost yet another day of work on the house – after losing three a couple of weeks ago due to the weather-induced power outage.

We had a dumpster delivered yesterday. I’ve managed to get about three things into it. Hope it doesn’t rain tomorrow.

It’s the weather’s fault, really!

That, and finding out that we are moving to Texas. And losing my babysitter – because I’ve not had enough work this year to keep paying her. And realizing that we have about two months worth of work to do before dh’s new job starts and (as of today) three weeks to get it done!

Don’t look for much from me in the near future!

A Lesson Learned

Okay, I just finished my first official assignment from my new client. I’m working with a company that edits manuscripts written by non-native English language speakers and intended for English language scientific journals. Sounds good, right? Yeah, it will be, once I figure out how to estimate how hard a particular editing project will be!

I spent about 30 minutes looking through the introduction of the manuscript to try and determine the difficulty level of the editing job. Getting this right is important, because that difficulty level is what I base my fee on. The intro looked pretty good, so I estimated a mid-range difficulty level. I really should have looked through the methods, too. Oh. My. God. It took me 10 hours (over three days!) to slog through the whole thing!

I really lost some money on this one. Oh, well. I guess I’ll have to consider it a lesson learned and move on, now won’t I?

Oh, the thrill of discovery . . .

I’ll be reading a new blog from now on. I just found Inebriated Press – funny stuff, The Daily Show good! I just hope that one day I can write in the same voice!