The one good thing about being up so early yesterday morning is that I was able to finish up a project and get it ready to ship out even before my normal wake-up time, so I was able to spend the rest of the day cleaning up a few nagging loose ends and getting ahead on one of my other projects (the one that will continue to eat this afternoon, despite my being a little ahead of schedule on it now).

I’ve got two weeks of constant motion and progress and plans in front of me, but I don’t mind. I’ve been working a lot this past year on the concept of flow, and working with my projects and obligations and such to swim through them gracefully, rather than treating them as objects that have to be hurdled or bullied or broken down into submission, and it’s made a huge difference in my work and how I feel about it.

I started out with catching up on the women’s figure skating from last night. The winner totally blew the others out of the water — just gorgeous! My husband will be thrilled that the skating is over, though, if only because it will stop me from yelling “Shut up, Scott Hamilton!” at the TV until 2014. (Seriously, someone get to work on the technology whereby one can turn off the inane and negative commentary and hear only the music. You’ve got four years: GO!)

The rest of the day, who knows?

Our little white friend over there walked right by my office window the other day. I grabbed the camera, opened the front door, and took that shot a split second after he started to take off. His coloring is called skewbald, and it is caused by a genetic variation. Originally, I thought we had three different skewbald deer, but in looking at earlier photos, this one, which I thought was a female, has the same exact pattern as a one-antlered male I photographed a few weeks ago. (I didn’t know until today that deer lose their antlers over the winter and grow new ones in the spring.) I can’t lay my hands on the photos we took of the one with the huge rack of antlers soon after we moved in, but now I’m curious if it’s the same one after all.

However, I did head out yesterday for my massage, which was badly needed. After, I wandered over to Borders and B&N and Books-a-Million, since yesterday was the official pub date for The Cat Lover’s Daily Companion, and I’m just dying to see in on a shelf. Call me easily amused. No sign of it yet in Borders, although they did have two copies of the dog version, which I did some editing work on, and I failed to check their stock to see what was coming. B&N didn’t have it on the shelf yet, although the clerk told me there were four copies in the store (I’m guessing in the back room), but their database had it under the very old first title, not the new title. (So, if you’re looking for it at B&N, you might need to ask for The Cat Owner’s Devotional.)

Books-a-Million is the closest of the three to me, but I rarely find what I want there and it has a weird vibe, so I don’t often go there. (And really, what’s with nearly a quarter of the store being taken up with religion books, when most other subjects are given five or six shelves at best?) However, they came through for me this time, and the one copy they ordered was sitting on the bottom shelf of the stunningly small cat section (two shelves), so I guess I should be honored. In trying to be inconspicuous, I managed only two blurry photos; this was the better one.

Overall, it’s been kind of a slow, crappy, unmotivated week. Little annoyances have been getting to me, and more than once I’ve had to bang out some nasty e-mail just to get it out of my head, then delete it. And I feel like I’m starting to come down with something. There have been a few bright spots, though. I finally got my new printer (through some clever maneuvers after one of those major annoyances); we got it set up last night and holy carp that thing spits out the pages quickly. And the printing is really crisp. And the pages come out straight (unlike the last printer, where everything was slightly crooked on the page). I’m working on a couple of really interesting projects right now, mainly in history and theatre. And I was able to pick up some fabulous beads at the wholesale bead show last week, so I’m hoping I’ll have time to dig into those later this afternoon.

Sunday will be my last summer show of 2008, the North Olmsted Juried Arts & Crafts Show at Frostville Museum in the Metroparks in North Olmsted. The show itself is a small one and, sadly, not terribly well publicized, but the setting is just lovely — plenty of nature and nearby hiking — and there will be food and music. And, as a bonus, it’s not supposed to be blazingly hot that day, either.

This show will be the last chance for a bunch of items that have been following me around from show to show for a little too long now. These older necklaces and bracelets don’t quite fit in with the direction I’ve been going lately, so they will all be half price at the show this Sunday. After that, they’re going to be taken apart for parts to rework or sell off in the Etsy supply shop I’ve started but haven’t stocked yet.

Today, right now, it is snowing. I’m not kidding. My sinuses hate me.

Dinner with friends last night was cancelled, and my dentist’s office called this morning to reschedule today’s appointment, so I’m enjoying another day of not having to leave the house. I have my turtleneck, my chunky British wool sweater, a fuzzy blanket, unlimited tea, soup for lunch, a great view of the crazy snowdrifts outside, and plenty of projects to keep me busy. Sounds like a good day to me.