Friday, September 7, 2012

Friday Chaos


It’s Friday, and I almost forgot to blog. Things have been chaotic all week.

  • I finished the line edits on Screwing Up Babylon, the sequel to Screwing Up Time. I should be tossing confetti. Instead, my stomach gets queasy when I think about it. I only have one final read aloud and a final proofread. Then, I send my baby out into the world. Ack.

  •  This morning, child number three has his first exam in college (a physics/engineering class), which necessitated pancakes this morning. And I was out of pancake mix. I hate pancakes made from scratch, especially the “quick pancakes” recipe I found. Instead of pancakes, they were more like weird-paper-thin-dough-like-substances. Child three and husband ate the pancakes. I ate Cheerios.


  • I’m helping child number four with physics. Not my strongest subject. If child number one is home, I say to child four, "Go ask the resident physics expert." If he’s not, I say “Oh, honey, I’m sure you can do this. Just plug the numbers into the right equation.” Which works unless the child needs to derive an equation…then I take a deep breath, pray, and hope I know what I’m doing.


  • Last but not least, I’m surviving the heat. It’s so hot and humid that the heat index is predicted to reach 105 to 110 today. Seriously. It’s September. I want cool breezes. I want to leave the windows open at night and crawl under a down comforter. But for now, I’ll crank the air conditioner, print up my manuscript for a final read aloud, buy pancake mix, and try to figure out how to use a TI 38 plus for physics—this scientific calculator does everything. Except I still haven’t figured out how to “clear” it. And what is “syntax error” supposed to mean?


It’s going to be a long Friday.

7 comments:

  1. Oh dear, that heat sounds bad. When it gets hot (not a very common occurrence in England, certainly not this year) I head out to the East Coast where a freezing wind blows straight from the arctic.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good luck! I'll be rooting for you, and I can't wait for your new book to come out.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Ooh, physics... #boltingintheoppositedirection

    Haha!! Just hopped over from Katie's blog. Lovely place you have here!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Yay for finishing line edits, boo to Physics! Physics and I are not friends. I tried really hard to be in high school, but Physics was having none of it. :P Good luck with that!

    On the bright side, yeah those calculators are amazing! Too bad I never really learned how to use mine...

    ReplyDelete
  5. Ugh, I never liked physics. I was like, "Can't I just throw the ball, instead of having to calculate where it's gonna land?"

    Hope the tests went well!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Congrats on finishing your line edits! Good luck with the final proofread.

    105/110?! That's roasting. Hope you get some cooler weather soon.

    Maybe this would explain the TI 38? (I've never used one personally, though I've used other scientific calculators.)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Congrats on almost having your second book ready to burst onto the scene. Oooh boy, I don't miss the years of helping the kids with calculus. The other classes, no problem, but I really had to work at calculus. (I mean, in all these years since I've gotten out of school, I have personally NEVER found just cause to figure out a derivative.)

    ReplyDelete