Overbooked and Underpaid: Notes from a Yes-aholic

Goals Update

So, I was tooling around the blog yesterday and realized there are some spots that haven't gotten any attention lately. Namely the goals section. Here is the updated set of goals for 2011:

 

*Short Term Goals: (Summer 2011)

Get son #2's drivers license  - this is left over from last year as the local DMV does not seem to accept appointments for the driver's test in the summer months. Your only chance to get your license is to go sit at the DMV on "standby" and see if a spot will open up. Like folks have nothing better to do. Although, this is my lucky son (read about him here) so maybe we should give it a shot.

Build new shed - also left over from last year and unlikely for this year as we will have to replace our driveway instead. You can read why here: 

Replace Driveway (see above)

Redo entire backyard which includes:

Build Patio with Pergola - now that we have a sunny backyard, we'll need to engineer our own shade.

Create stone paths - the goal is to make them look random and planned at the same time.

Rip out back yard and replace - our yard has become a veritable temple to Creeping Charley. A complete reboot is the only option

Install privacy fence - we have decided to bite the bullet and cut ourselves off from our neighbors. I have resisted this for years because our yard is so small and theirs is so large that keeping a short fence gives the illusion that we have more space than we actually do. But the neighbors would really like some privacy and have promised to remove the "living fence" of Mulberry trees that has substituted for real fence for years.

Repair and recover awnings for the back corner of the house - again, the big summer storm that took out our driveway also took out trees that shaded my teaching studio. It is now an oven in the late afternoon. Luckily for us, all the former owners of our house have saved the original fittings, including the awnings and their frames.

Repair leaky roof on back porch - when we redid the roof 2 years ago something didn't turn out quite right and it leaks in a number of places. And - again, thanks to the big storm, it is now so sunny on the porch that it is an even hotter oven than my studio. We're hoping to tweak it and solve both problems at once.

Indoor projects:

Refinish hallway floor - this floor used to have carpeting but a visiting dog saturated it with a puddle. We've never been able to fully eliminate the smell and had to rip up the carpet. But the floor is a mess underneath and needs to be refinished.

Strip, sand and repaint all the interior woodwork that has chipped - you can read about that ongoing project here.

General housecleaning and organizing of stuff that never seems to have a good place to live.

And the grandaddy of the summer projects and the reason for much of the above - drumroll please,  - organize and execute the Kenosha Festival of Cartooning which you can read about here.

 

Long Term Goals: (By Christmas 2011)

Start work on college search and financial aid for son #2

Lose 20 pounds (OK, 10) - leftover from last year - still no progress!

Get attic door installed - leftover from last year - ran out of $

Move 90% of stuff that's in basement into attic - from last year, can't do without attic door

Start Teacher's Corner section on Harp blog and do a better job of updating.

Build twitter followers list and boost traffic to "Spot The Cartoonist" 

Make more harp videos

Make Cartooning videos

 

Bookings for 6-13-11

I shall call today a "secretarial" day as almost everything I have to get done falls into the category of organization.

First on the agenda is coloring the last Edison strip for last Friday.

Next up is processing events for Spot The Cartoonist - I am backlogged so this will take quite a while....

Then it's time to finally get all the ducks in a row for my daughter's summer camp. I've been procrastinating because she doesn't leave until July. But it turns out she needs a camp physical before she goes and - guess what? the pediatrician is booked until August. Oops! (But the receptionist suggested that I can take her to the walk in clinic instead)

Then I have to track down several parties involved in the planning of the fall cartooning conference which, it turns out, is a little like herding cats. I have already discovered how important it is to connect with people in person or by phone as emails can go unanswered for days....

Later I may have to call the critter grabbers as we might have a family of raccoons nesting over our garage.

Finally, I have to have to have to write my reflections of our Border Collie. I've been putting it off because it is still too painful.

 

Bookings for 6-10-11

Today will be a "catch up" day of sorts.

I need to catch up on lots of little bits of blog organization and put together at least one decent post....

There are strip scripts to go over (no coloring til the weekend - our "Friday" deadline has once again turned into Monday).....

I have two more days of dealing with son #2's finals schedule before we head into the blissfully unconstructed days of summer......

Many, many emails must be sent surrounding the cartooning conference.......

I must feed my ever growing addiction to twitter.......

Plus the usual assortment of household odds and ends like laundry, groceries, bills,......

On a separate note - I am taking a poll. Who likes clicking on hyperlinks to the silly photos I add to my posts and who would rather just see the photos embedded into the post in the first place?

I'll take your answers in the comments section or else "off the air"' in my email box.

Bookings for 6-9-11

Last night's storms brought in the 50-60 degree weather so one of today's jobs is opening all the windows to air out the 100 degree stuffiness of the last 3 days. We only have a couple of window air conditioners upstairs  and no air conditioning downstairs (1928 house with radiator heat - no duct work for central air) so this will be an important thing to do.

The good news is that our little corner did not seem to get the damaging winds and nothing fell on our house, garage or cars. 

As I was saying last night, before I was so rudely interrupted by Mother Nature, I am organizing a cartooning conference in Kenosha for next September. Said conference will involve several local institutions including Carthage College, The University of Wisconsin Parkside our Public Museum and possibly others. And, while it seems as though I have 3 months to get everything lined up, I really only have a few weeks to get the schedule and the guests in place.

Why, you ask? Because much of the fall schedule for these places is already set and also the faculty for the College and the University all take off for the summer to exotic climes like France and Italy.

So, what I am attempting is a little like trying to plan a big lavish wedding in under 6 months. (For those of you who have never attempted to plan a wedding, you have no idea how hard it is to book a hall, cake, flowers, DJ, etc on less than 6 months notice - these things book up well in advance.)

The good news: most of the guest speakers I approached have confirmed they can (and would like to - very important) come and every local "official" I have met with is excited and on board.

The bad news: figuring out which lecture halls at which institutions are available during the required time period - a little like doing one of those puzzles where you move the tiles around.

But I'm hustling and, while I may be completely delusional in my optimism, I think I'll be able to git 'er done.

The other big news - which will seriously hamper my ability to get anything done this summer - WE GOT A PUPPY!

Not only a puppy but THE CUTEST PUPPY EVER!

Which, of course means any kind of schedule I plan is going to be impossible to stick to...

Anyway - today will be divided between work on the conference, teaching harp, working on my blogs and videos and dealing with said puppy.

Should be interesting.......

Bookings for 6-8-11

 

Who am I kidding - it's over 100 degrees here in the shade. I was  lucky to even think about getting anything done.....

Which is why I'm posting today's bookings backwards. In hindsight, as it were.

Today still included shlepping son #2 to and from school (finals begin tomorrow and end Monday)

There was the usual assortment of emails to answer, groceries to buy, bank run to make, and harp students to teach....

I remain behind on blogging on all 3 blogs and am unlikely to catch up very quickly because I have (as usual) taken on two huge projects that are going to eat up the next 3 months. 

Project number one is very, very, very exciting! Carthage College is bringing the stellar "One Fine Sunday in the Funny Pages" to its gallery next September and I (moi) am organizing  a cartooning conference to go with it.

Hold that thought - big storm sirens going off and TV warnings of 100 mph winds in our area - the rest of this will have to wait until tomorrow as I don't wish to be fried by lightening at my computer.......

 

Bookings for Thursday 1/13

Taught most of the day.

Meant to blog in the evening.

Chose instead to walk away from the computer, take my daughter to the craft store for some needed tools, and spend 2 hours with her making things out of polymer clay.

This is in keeping with one of my New Year's Resolutions (which I haven't posted yet) that I need to spend less time at the computer and more time living life.

Therefor, I rate today's grade an A

Hoping to take tomorrow to clean up grades on the blog overall.

Bookings for Wednesday 1/12 Updated

The usual driving and walking.

Plan elementary music class and print out materials.

Review Son #1 financial aid package for college and figure out where the rest is coming from (someone else's bank account would be my first choice but we can't have everything)

Start working on financial aid proposals for Son #2

Get Son #2 enrolled for eschool for his academics so that he can cram a boatload of advanced art classes into his on campus schedule.

Start getting organized for the Big Studio Move - more about that in another post.

Surprise laundry - cat peed on daughters bottom bunk bedding. Exactly why is a mystery - this is not like this cat.

Do research for several blog postings and columns I'm planning.

Teach harp students - 4 today.

Harp practice - big concert coming up in February.

Calculate grade for yesterday.

Shovel more snow - see previous post.

Update: been working non stop, including 2 hours of Spot The Cartoonist info - too pooped for posts or grades and too sick of the computer to spend one more minute on it. Clocking out. Will tidy up tomorrow.

Bookings for Tuesday, January 11

Didn't drive the carpool - photoshopped final strip instead. Also didn't get to walk the track - shoveled snow instead - pretty sure the cardio winds up about equal.

Most of the rest of the day will be spent tidying up. Tidying up blogs and websites, my basement, kitchen, bedrooms, bills, you name it.

Then it's on to teaching and running the parent meeting at the school in the evening.

Bookings for 1/10/11 Graded 11:30 pm

Bookings for 1/10/11

The bookings are back!

Well, sort of. Not the complete version I did before but some semblance of them anyway. It's taking me a while to get myself back together after a much busier than usual Autumn and Christmas season.

Here we go:

Driving kiddies to school and then walking the track. I have to come clean - I haven't been walking the track since September. I threw it under the bus because I simply didn't even have that extra 25 minutes to spare in my schedule. Plus, until the snow started, I did manage to walk outdoors 3 days a week with my walking partner. Got everyone to school and got my walk in - A

Zip into grocery store for more of the cereal we always seem to run out of. Either my kids are voracious piglets or there isn't as much cereal in the box as there used to be. I'm leaning toward the second explanation. Price is still the same though......    Wound up spending $ when I intended to spend $6 - you can never get out of the grocery store with only the items you went in for..... B

Go get my neck fixed by therapist. I have neck and back issues I picked up at the ripe age of 15. My job as a harpist doesn't help any. Occasionally I go for a tune up and today's the day. Went well - I can turn my head again. Happy Days A

Color all the daily strips that were due last Friday. What? We missed another deadline for the strip? That doesn't sound like us! Oh wait, yes it does......   6 down, 1 to go  B-

Start setting up meetings with teachers and counselors to change my son to a different curriculum. That will be tons of fun. And a speedy process I'm sure......  Did not get to this F

Double check that I didn't completely screw up the other son's return train ticket to college. I did the cute thing where I booked two tickets here and one ticket back - we weren't sure of his finals schedule. I cancelled on of the coming here tickets but must now make sure I didn't accidentally cancel the return one as well. Doh!!  Didn't get to this either   F

Call all the families at my daughter's school that are invited to a listening session I set up when I was being tremendously overoptimistic about my ability to effect change as a board member. This session will probably teach me a lesson. This took over a week but I finally got it done - tomorrow the fun begins  A

Plan the meals for the week and get the shopping done. I think mac and cheese for 5 days sounds splendid - don't you?  May get ambitious and add frozen pizzas C

There's more, but I have to dash as my carpool leg starts in 3 minutes. Maybe more later today - we'll see how it goes........

Update: stuff I forgot to put in - prep and teach music class, pay bills, do laundry, teach harp. Got these done A

 

Today's grade: A-

Rundown: most of the important stuff got done, the rest I'll deal with tomorrow

Bookings for Monday, November 8

Work Schedule for Mondays click here.

Extra stuff for today:

Once again, finishing Friday's strips is at the top of the list. 

Hopefully some good blogging but unlikely the way the day is filling in already at 6:00 a.m.

Start a Christmas present tally that will replace the jam tracker.

Try to get a nap and use up that extra hour from yesterday because I sure failed to seize the opportunity then.

Make that eye doctor appointment - eyes still wonky

Figure out Thanksgiving - especially tricky now that the two sons have independent lives and a million conflicts. You'd think the University of Minnesota would have a better policy about Thanksgiving - son #1's classes go right up through Wednesday pm. Meaning that we have no choice but to shlep ourselves up to the bus station in Milwaukee at midnight. Since the rest of our family lives more than 4 hours in the opposite direction, a traditional family Thanksgiving seems unlikely.