Several payments turned up yesterday, and I found four of the books on the textbook list at a used bookstore, so I'm feeling less panicky today. I also got a few more assignments, but I'm trying really hard not to think that I have to do them all today.

Yesterday was, frankly, ridiculous. From 5:30 to 8:30 I had a sort of mixture of business and personal stuff. I checked my mail and found an invitation to apply for an ongoing gig with a company in the capitol and a group of sales letters from The Northerners needing editing and an expression of concern from the chocolatier requiring response, but also stuff from my kids and friends. I made my husband's coffee and packed his lunch and fixed breakfast and got dressed and changed my dentist appointment (something came up with work).

At 8:30 I got started with my writing assignments and had phone calls from the college and from the chocolatier about his dev site. One assignment finished, I did the blogs for the day and Twitter for almost all the people I tweet for and fielded emails from concerned clients and started a series of tweets and emails in search of a designer for a proposal that went out yesterday. I got a weekend assignment from The Computer Guy and he also asked me to follow up with a client, and I followed up with a couple of prospective clients as well.

I stopped for lunch around 1;00 and then got back to writing, and then the temporary crown I've been whining about popped off and I dealt with that (sort of) via IM and did interviews for my articles and took a check to the bank and #2 son's book list to the used bookstore and then got home in time to greet my husband and have a scrambled egg and then got an urgent writing assignment. I had one last phone interview with a guy I'd been trying to track down all day, and then drove to do a two-hour training session for a client with a new blog.

At 9:00 p.m. when I got home, I did the urgent assignment and sent it along to the client, asked the designer to shoot the files for a new site to the webmaster, made a quesadilla, and went to bed.

It struck me that, had I been in an office on a salary, all the communication I did would have added up to a busy and productive day, without any writing jobs at all.

What's more, if I never got communications from prospective clients and current clients and former clients, then I wouldn't have writing assignments either, so I shouldn't think of those things as unbillable interruptions.

Well, the dental and textbook issues, perhaps. But the rest of it, that's business.

However, I am planning today to work on the writing projects without checking email from 7:30 to noon. This is the time I plan to be gone from my computer -- commuting, teaching, gym, and lunch -- beginning next week. So nothing dreadful should happen if I take it as concentrated writing time today. I have to finish up those three articles and a marketing kit for some Canadians, plus blogs and Dark Art shenanigans. I also have to go to the bank. Then I'll GTD process the stacks of paper that have piled up in my office, and stop working at 5:00. Really.

I will have to work a bit this weekend. However, I'm hoping to join Janalisa tomorrow at the annual shindig, and perhaps even to work a bit on the quilt which so obviously isn't going to get finished before school starts.

Yesterday's lunch? #1 son drove through Backyard Burgers, and I had a bacon cheddar burger with my bento box of squash strips and blueberries. So yeah, the bento box lunch makeover has not been an unqualified success this week.

I'm feeling slightly panicky about tuition and books. The amounts of money needed in the next week or two are just so much more than I actually have... People keep offering me jobs, though, and if I keep working lots and lots of hours, perhaps people will pay me before things get desperate.

This is the problem. Working more is the obvious solution to needing more money. But it only works out if the payments come in before I need to pay the tuition and buy the books. Which they don't have to, since I invoice people. I don't even invoice for a lot of the stuff I'm doing now until the day before the tuition payment.

I have one guy who owes me enough to pay for all the textbooks. I haven't been able to collect from him, though, in spite of extensive efforts. #1 daughter says it's time to take him to court. I don't have time, though. Sigh.

ODesk is the rescue in this situation -- there's a regular payday, and guaranteed payment, so working more there is directly and fairly quickly connected to being paid more.

Obviously, I haven't been to the gym. I did walk to choir last night, though. The air has changed, the light has shifted, it's possible to believe that fall might be coming.

My bento box lunch yesterday was successful in the healthy foods department, with bean soup and produce. It was satisfying, too. It was not cute, and of course I didn't pack it ahead of time. My plan to get into the habit of packing lunch in the mornings is not going so well.

#2 son moved into his dorm yesterday. I talked with him by phone a couple of times and he seemed always to be in loud places. His sister says his roomie looks like this guy.

They have the same name. What were the housing people thinking of, putting two guys with the same name into the same room? I'd have thought that would be one of the basic principles of roommate arranging: don't put two people with the same name together, or it'll be confusing.

Since #2 son is under 18, he needs a signature from me in order to go on a trip, so I'll need to start my day by finding a fax machine so I can fax the signature page back to the school. They're leaving on a rock climbing trip tomorrow. The paper says I realize he could die and it wouldn't be their fault.

I got the Canadian's first draft finished. I was trying to remember whether I have had a Canadian client before. Perhaps not. This would bring me up to 6 different countries. I also did half a dozen blog posts, got most of the online class set up, responded to student emails, got approval on the mockup for our latest website, and corresponded with various people needing various things. Today I have another page draft to do for my German  client, and three articles for the [initials] Media people, assorted blog posts (I really need to look at that Windows Live thing Cancadian National was praising), and the whole faxing thing.

Yesterday I didn't pack a bento box. Instead, I had this, at my computer, after#1 son gave up on any hope of lunch and went to Wendy's. It's about the same size as my bento box...

Here's a nice normal lunch of sandwich (cut in thirds as I see the bento crew doing in their pictures), fruit, and squash, plus a square of dark chocolate, not fitting into my bento box.

That was fine for experimental purposes, since I merely made the lunch and "served" it in the compartments. I need to get into the habit of fixing it in the morning, though, since classes start next week.

Last night, I made couscous and steak and peppers, thinking the leftovers would be perfect in a bento box, but #1 son ate it all. I'm glad he liked it.

#2 daughter is also bento boxing, since she too finds herself turning to fast food when time is short, and she has a two-tier box (so that she can actually pack in all three compartments), but she still says she doesn't have enough room. #1 daughter says the portions are correct: 1 cup and two half cups. However, she works for a weight-loss system company, so she may not count.

On the other hand, I could definitely benefit from weight loss, so perhaps she's right. This lady's lunch doesn't look skimpy. She has quick, practical suggestions for packing your lunches, as opposed to the art focus often found. And here is a place with lots of bento gear, and they say they're discreet, in case you don't want it widely known that you bought a pink bento box featuring the popular robot cat from the future.

I packed my husband's sandwich, chips, and piece of fruit in a 9"x5" Tupperware box this morning, wanting to include him in the bento boxing experience at least slightly, but he took it apart and put everything into sandwich bags so he could fit it in his pockets, which is probably just as good.  In his country, they carry these things, which we call tiffin boxes here in the U.S. You take it apart and there's your rice, meat, soup, vegetables, and whatnot, all in separate metal bowls. You spread them around yourself while the bento box people with their wee rice balls and apple slices cut into bird shapes look at you enviously.

I had many exciting work-related adventures yesterday, including a slightly testy-sounding email from The Computer Guy (whose iron self-control doesn't allow such things normally) saying that since he hadn't gotten a response to his email, he assumed we hadn't received it (which is humorous coming from someone famous for failing to respond to emails), a really nice design for the current project of The Firm, and a guy who wants help with his website detailing angelic visions.

Also, we had a meeting at the church, which was probably the last thing I needed, but someone has to do it. we're changing the time of the choir rehearsal. Our choir is becoming dangerously small. The director doesn't see any problems, but I'm the only audible alto much of the time, and we have two very elderly tenors who can't exactly carry their part strongly, and it's just luck whether we have sopranos or not. The pastor is hoping that putting choir rehearsal during the time when there are kids' programs and childcare will swell the ranks. I hope so.

Today there is a meeting at the college. I am not entirely sure that I'm going to go. I obviously ought to. However, I have websites to write and Dark Art stuff to do, and I haven't yet gotten my online class up or my class lists printed out for roll-taking purposes (we're required to take roll) or my syllabus updated or... well, I have a lot of work to do. Attending the meeting will take, counting the driving and actually getting properly dressed and all, several hours, and it's not necessarily a very useful meeting. I mean, we don't rehearse music or anything. Last time we had a presentation on dealing with ESL students in our writing classes. Since I taught ESL for a decade or two, this wasn't new stuff for me.

On the other hand, it looks bad if you don't go to these things. Hmmm. I guess I'll see how much I can get done beforehand.

Yesterday began with church, and then a wedding shower which was a salad and casserole potluck. The church secretary is getting married, so of course there was a fine turnout for the event.

There was also a meeting of the ministry I head up. There were three of us present -- two staff members and me.

I reported back on our progress toward the goals we'd started the year with -- pretty good, actually -- and insisted that we make a decision on an issue we've discussed for the past three months.

"We can't shilly-shally any more,"   I said. There are wheels within wheels on this particular decision, so I don't know whether we're making the best possible one or not. We're doing our best, though, I guess.

Our choir is down to about ten regular people, and we should have 40. We discussed ways to be more welcoming and less intimidating, and stuff like that. I hope we'll succeed in swelling the numbers.

I also worked on my new quilt. I now have eight blocks, and a large pile of scrap as you can see. The smart thing would be to go ahead and throw it all away right now, so I don't have to come up with a project using tiny, tiny triangles. A project for which I won't have time. Meaning that I will therefore have to store a bunch of tiny tiny triangles for the foreseeable future.

If I can do a couple every evening this week and take next weekend as PSDs, I may finish this before school starts.

Because along with school is the beginning of Tuesday class, Master Chorale, handbells, book club, and choirlet rehearsals. I have to decide what I'm going to do about all the evening commitments. On the one hand, I may be too busy, and perhaps I should stay home in the evenings with my husband and knit while he watches guy movies.

On the other hand, I might stay home in the evenings and work, since my husband likes to spend his evenings watching guy movies on TV. In which case it would be more restful to go out and sing.

Another issue that arises with back to school is lunch. When I'm teaching, I have a tendency to spend the drive back from class feeling ever more alarmed by how much work I have to do, to the extent that I give up all thought of making lunch when I get home and drive through someplace for lunch for me and the boys.

My plan is instead to make myself a bento box before I leave for class in the morning.

I bought a couple of bento boxes for my girls -- both in corporate jobs where they carry lunch -- in Little Tokyo last month.
  I got them because they had near-English and near-French and were very cute.

When I got back, I became steadily more charmed by them and decided to get myself one, which you can see here. Mine has only one layer, while the girls' boxes have two. There are two half-cup containers in this box. That's enough for rice and chicken, and then I can put a salad in something else.

In looking for a bento box to order, I discovered the whole online cult of bento boxes. There seem to me to be three elements.

First, there is the charm of bento boxes, whether this kind of little plastic one or the traditional lacquered ones. Second, there's the idea of a healthy, satisfying little lunch of bites of nice things. Third, there is the extreme cuteness element. This is where you put those hotdogs made into octopi and hard-boiled eggs molded into elephants.

While I naturally can see the appeal of dressing up rice balls with wee faces cut from seaweed, the websites on the subject claim that you can pack a normal, non-art bento box in 5-15 minutes in the morning. You can do it in Tupperware, too, if you haven't succumbed to the lure of the bento box. And you can find planning forms here
and here.

I'm hoping that adding this habit will, along with my office space and gym schedule, help me to move away from the negative aspects of life as a Computer Guy.

After all, I haven't taken up MMPRPGs or extreme awkwardness when I meet individuals of the opposite sex, so there's no reason I should have to live on carry out, right?

I've got a list up over at Flashlight Worthy Books. They're worth supporting.

Yesterday, after doing a bit of work and grocery shopping, I began on a new quilt.

You'll be thinking that I shouldn't have done this. I have a lovely quilt that's been waiting around for me to quilt it for a year or two now, I have a couple of blocks pieced for the Art Nouveau quilt I'm planning, and I have Salt Peanuts in a state of distress, so the last thing I needed to do was to start a new project.

I did anyway.

I brought the sewing machine out to the desk which is still sitting in the living room waiting for me to figure out what to do with it, put on a disk of Coupling for background amusement, and got to it.

I'm using a quick method from Layer Cake, Jelly Roll, and Charm Quilts to make the traditional Dutchman's Puzzle. Usually, you cut millions of little triangles and sew them all neatly together.

This way, you have rectangles. You layer  one over another and sew a triangle. You can do this in a long chain, doing the whole block's worth before you cut the thread. Split the top layer up the middle, open it out, and Bob's your uncle. At this point, you're supposed to cut away one extra layer of fabric and press the other one down, though I experimented with cutting away both.

I should probably follow the directions.

You can do this with any Flying Geese type of quilt pattern. It's fast and as accurate as your normal method of piecing. The downside is that it is wasteful.

However, I have a Jelly Roll, which is a collection of 2.5" strips of a whole lot of fabrics. You can see it down at the bottom of the page in its tidy little carrying tin. In this case, it's Moda's Patisserie collection, which I quite love. But let's face it, being careful with the fabric would just give me a larger quilt -- there's nothing useful you can do with a few extra inches of 2.5" fabric, is there?

And of course I'm now thinking of all the things I could do with it. Never mind. Time is sort of a huge big deal for me right now, and this method will produce another lovely quilt top for me not to quilt.

As you can see, my triangle points are mostly chopped off, as usual, and this method, simple and precise though it seems, hasn't caused me to become any more precise than I usually am.

Nonetheless, I made three blocks last night and plan to continue today. Theoretically, I could have this quilt top put together by the time school starts again.

"Theoretically" doesn't always work well for time. I spent a bit of time last night figuring out my schedule for the fall semester. I have three classes, so I'm teaching from 8:00 to 10:15 most days. I'll go to the gym on my way home, have lunch when I get home (I plan to pack up a bento box before I leave in the morning to avoid those "Oh my Lord I have so much work I'd better grab a sandwich on the way home" things), and easily have 1:00 to 6:00 at the computer. That's my twenty-five billable hours.

I have eight Dark Lite clients, my two agencies, plus a website a week, so theoretically I can do all my billable hours in the afternoons. So as long as I get up early enough to do the unbillable hours before I leave, all will be well. My daughters are doing some of the unbillable and some billable stuff now, so we should be able to maintain business growth even if I go to the gym as planned.

It doesn't seem impossible. I had a system wherein I had 10 theoretical teaching hours a week, 10 for the agencies, 10 for Dark Art Lite,  and 10 for the other random stuff I pick up and unbillable, adding up to 40 working hours a week. #1 daughter didn't like the theoretical nature of this system.

Three classes means nine contact hours, plus grading, which isn't actually ten hours in our dimension. Ten for the agencies is usually real, though it's so variable that I can't be sure of it.

Eight Dark Art clients makes for more than ten hours, for sure, but they can be fitted in among other things. Other random stuff includes the websites we're doing for our future firm, so I'm supposed to increase those things. I also have all this tuition to pay, so I don't want to cut back much.

However, teaching three classes actually covers #2 son's tuition and about half of #1's. and that's definite. If I keep the current number of Dark Art clients, that covers all our housing costs, and my overhead. So I could, if need be, cut back in the other areas without serious consequences.

Still and all, I had probably better do my best to finish this quilt top before school starts.

The picture shows Salt Peanuts turning out completely wrong.

I'll have to frog it clear back to the armscye shaping.

You know, back in the days when knitting patterns were written in a special code known only to experienced knitters, they might have been hard to read, but at least those of us who could read them always knew what was meant. Now, when people try to write their patterns in plain English, there's a lot of guessing involved. Maybe they meant this... or that....hmm... I'll try this... and they say to do this "about every four rows"... Irritating, really.

I was going to do some quilting this afternoon, but it is August in my subtropical state, and though it is cool for here, it really isn't quilting weather.

Yesterday I had a meeting with a client I'm sharing the The Computer Guy, and then a training with a client whose lovely site just went live, and then a phone meeting with the chocolatier, and then a phone interview with a Chinese man from Calgary. I don't know quite why I find myself slightly surprised when I meet emigrants from China to places other than the U.S. It's not as though I think we have a contract with China so that we should get all their emigrants. I don't know. Anyway, I got the job, writing up a website and marketing materials for a company whose business is booming because of swine flu.

I have a couple other clients who should, I think, be jumping on the swine flu bandwagon, but the marketing possibilities of H1N1 don't seem to appeal to them.

This morning I met with a local businesswoman who needs a website, and I got right to #1 daughter to have her draw up a proposal. How cool is that? I did my grocery shopping while she asked probing questions, and now I get to come home and knit while she does the proposal.

Or not knit, perhaps, but just pull out knitting and try to decipher the directions.

I have a bunch of meetings today: visiting one of The Computer Guy's and my shared clients in the Next County to the North, then going to train a client to use the blog in her website, then a phone interview with a Canadian company, and then another phone meeting -- a brainstorming session with the chocolatier.

So the question becomes: what can I do before I leave? I have this long long list, after all, and I can't do everything. I will be working this weekend as well, of course, so it may not matter. It'll all get done eventually.

Last night I was supposed to go to a bunco party. #1 son needed the car for work, so I emailed a friend to see if I could catch a ride with her, and got back to work. Fifteen minutes before the party, #2 daughter IMed me to say I should go to the party -- but my husband had gone out and there were no cars available.

I was talking with my New Yorker at the time. He invited me to join the fantasy football game (game? sounds wrong) all the far-flung workers at his company are playing. I declined, and we got into a brainstorming session. Mostly about his business and marketing, but we did look at my business as an example at one point.

He develops custom software to do with accounting. When I said something along those lines, though, he corrected me sternly. He builds systems to run businesses, he said.

He recommended an assortment of cheap or free online programs I could use for my business. I had to wonder: does productivity software really help? I mean, when he builds it for someone, he integrates everything. But if I'm taking the time to use Toggl, Nozbe, Basecamp, Google Docs, Gmail, Microsoft Workspace Live, and Freshbooks, am I going to increase my productivity?

In a way, this seems like a silly question. If someone said, "Don't you lessen your productivity by using Word, Dreamweaver, Blogger, WordPress, and Corel Photo?" I'd think they were being crazy. That's like saying your lessen your productivity as a knitter by using needles and yarn. Those things are tools. I suppose I could work entirely in Notepad, but it would be ridiculous.

There's just time involved in figuring out which one works best and getting used to using them.

I've fallen behind on my work,and I still have a couple of meetings this week.

I guess I can't really say that I've fallen behind. I have stuff I need to do this week, but it's just Thursday. I can't be called "behind" till Sunday, right?

Yesterday I had lunch with Blessing, and went to choir practice, and talked with most of my kids.

#2 son is out with The Guys in the Deep South, probably gigging frogs or tracking wild boars. I assume he's having big fun. I haven't heard from him. But all the rest have interesting things or at least interesting thoughts going on.

In choir, I was the only alto. There were two sopranos, two basses, one baritone, and two tenors -- one was brand new last night, which is good, because as you can tell, the choir has dwindled badly. The pastor seems to think it's the director's fault, but I like the director. I've worked with directors who would make a person give up choir in sheer exasperation, but it doesn't seem like that.

The Master Chorale is starting up again in a couple of weeks, as is the school where I teach. I really need to be getting ready for school -- figuring out where my classroom is, or at least the building it's in, and updating my syllabus with all the new dates, and stuff like that. I should probably get my roll book ready and organize my closet.

Last night after choir, though, there was a tech mystery with the Northerners. They have a host of tech guys, so while I have pointed out to them before that they had this tech problem, it hasn't seemed to me to be my problem. But when I got more mystified emails about it last night I went and found the problem -- or at least the visible part of it. Emboldened, I tried to solve my own site's little tech problem, and failed.

Kept me from getting conceited, right?

My east coast client has already called and asked for a phone call. Of course, it's 8:00 here, and I'm not even dressed yet, so I can't complain. I slept in till 6:22. I also was in pain yesterday (I guess spending an hour with a couple of people shoving metal tools into your mouth is bound to do that) and fell behind a bit, so today I'm really behind.

This is what going to college looks like, by the way.

Once you get the old suitcases full of clothes, bicycle, computer, fridge, climbing gear, and collapsible laundry hamper in, there's no room for the clothes hangers.

So this morning I made sweet rolls. I had read that it was possible to make sweet rolls from hot roll mix and caramel ice cream topping, and had planned to do this while all the kids were here. For some reason, I didn't. So I decided to do it today. I can't explain this, except that I was sort of half asleep at the time, and it seemed like a good idea.

It's not a good idea.

I've used hot roll mix before -- the multigrain kind from the mill -- but ordinary grocery store type hot roll mix doesn't make a dough. It makes a batter. This means that any attempts to roll it out, fill it, roll it up, and slice it into rolls is doomed. You end up with mutant-looking lumps some of which contain filling, and then they taste like Wonder bread, which to me is not like food.

So I guess it's a good thing that I did it while I didn't have a houseful of people to feed. Now I'm even later, though. Off to work for me!