The German chocolatier for whom I work has his online catalog ready. If you click that link, you can buy his nice chocolates for all your friends' and family's Christmas gifts, and I plan to do so myself. I'll probably get a good quantity of the chocolate-covered sunflower kernels, because they were a big hit with #1 son and also make good cookies. I think I showed you the chocolate version last week, and the butter ones are this week's HGP freezer cookie -- there's a picture at the bottom of this page, and both recipes are at the blog.

Last night our director was having a gallbladder attack. That may not be the correct terminology, but he was sitting down and sweating, and he blamed his gallbladder.

He was courteous and correct, but you could tell how much of an effort it was. He accused the sopranos of acting like toddlers, told us altos that we sounded like a Buick on a cold morning, requested the basses not to shout but to attempt to sound as though they were singing, and asked the tenors to quit barking at him.

And, as I say, I could tell that he was struggling to be nice.

Before rehearsal I made chicken soup with lots of vegetables and whole-wheat muffins with granola stirred in.  Before that I met with The Computer Guy, who had ten new projects for me. He also showed me what progress he had made with our Freshplans project.

I was dismayed. He gave the task to his minion, it seems, who removed all the interesting layout, and indeed all the things I'd done. He had also rebuilt it in asp.net, which I don't really know, rather than leaving it in html, which I do know.

"It's not an improvement," I told him, looking at solid blocks of lorem ipsum and the same ugly header it had when I sent it over.

I hope I clarified the assignment, and I hope the cost of the minion's work will not be excessive. I was dismayed to learn that all the careful notes I had put in the code never even got looked at. I figured that was a good place to put it, but the minion seems just to have wiped the whole thing out.

"I wanted video in the place where there was video," I said. "I just wanted the header and footer changed."

Ah well.

I also have an interesting new article for the media company I've been doing a lot of work for. Apparently, part of the new health care reform package is a move to get rid of physician-owned hospitals. I don't know what the controversy there is. We have one of those here in our state, and they're consistently ranked #1 in our state and in the top 5% in the nation for all kinds of stuff. Hard to see why the fact that the doctors own it would be a bad thing, compared with the county owning it, or the VA, which is I believe how it is with the hospitals in our town.  There's another in the town where the physician-owned one is which is owned by the university. As a potential hospital patient, I don't care.

But I figure there must be wheels within wheels, and I plan to find out about it. I'm definitely looking forward to that. In fact, I have a fun day planned. Fun, I mean, in the sense that I get to work without interruption on lots of interesting projects.

Walk first, once it gets light.

If, by the way, you have any thoughts on the subject of doctor-owned hospitals, I'd love to hear them.

I went to the grocery yesterday after church. I was in the pasta aisle trying unsuccessfully to find roasted red pepper sauce, when a lady near me asked, "Honey, do you know what durum wheat is?"

I clued her in, and she shook her head. "I'm 80 years old. You'd think I'd be able to buy noodles."
"There are too many choices," I suggested.

And indeed, the grocery store was ready for the holidays, with special products in merchandisers in the aisles and cheery boxes of weird stuff. For example, you can now buy Ritz crackers dipped in dark chocolate, and I am not making that up. I was looking for Rye-Krisp, or Ak-Mak or something healthy like that, without success, but I could have had chocolate-covered crackers.

These are also the people who brought you Mock Apple Pie. 6 Ritz crackers, I'm told, are the caloric equivalent of a brownie, so maybe they're on the right track.

They didn't have Orowheat bread, either, though they had myriad squishy loaves. Nor plain lemon yogurt, though they had Trix yogurt and yogurt with special stomachic properties and yogurt pretending to be dessert.

But you could I guess go into the grocery store every week and marvel at the sheer range of options. I felt more as though I was having to look through lots and lots of nearly identical things in order to learn that they didn't have what I wanted (no dried fruit bits, either, though they did have cherry-essence-infused prunes and yogurt-candy-covered raisins).

And I'm not even 80.

That website is just about finished up. It has taken me 12.5 hours. I've quite enjoyed it. I worked for about five hours yesterday, but I also took some time to enjoy the day, and I got cookies into the freezer.

It's garage week on the HGP, and I find it unlikely that I'm going to clean the garage. Here's the rest of the list:

• Make one batch of Holiday Goodies.
• Make one extra meal for freezer again labeled HOLIDAY MEAL.
• Buy two canned food items from menus (get 2 of each item, one to use and one to donate to food drive).
• Buy 1/8th of TO BUY gifts. Save all receipts, note return policy before buying. Ask for gift boxes.
• Wrap and label packages. If needing to ship, get some shipping boxes now and store packages in them.
• Work at least 1 hour a day on homemade gifts.
• Review and revise menus and other plans.
• Plan table setting
• Plan centerpiece, make as much as possible now (or order it from florist).
• Reserve any items needed to be borrowed or rented.
• Get everyone's holiday clothes purchased/cleaned/pressed.

I've done some Christmas shopping, actually, and I've done a bit of thinking about Thanksgiving. The table setting, at least. My parents bring turkey and dressing, and I think I'll make mashed potatoes, rice, sweet potato casserole, corn, squash casserole, cranberry sauce, spinach salad, and pecan, apple, and chocolate pies.

I could make the bread shown in the video on this page, or I could just do a normal sort of bread. Sometimes I even use hot roll mix from the local grist mill. #1 son and I are thinking about going out there today, and I could pick some up.

First I must sing "The King of Love My Shepherd Is" in church. This is the hymn I have chosen for my funeral, by the way. Here is a peculiar YouTube, with the camera fimrly on the back of the organist as the organist's sleeve occasionally enters the frame.

I had better get ready and warm up, I guess.

I've been having a lot of fun building a website for the bookkeeper, and I've been learning a lot, but it's clear that using a template doesn't make the process fast and easy. Well, I guess that in theory you could just pick a template and type stuff in. But if you want to make your site look a particular way, then you won't get that with a template unless you put a lot of time and effort into it, and you still have to know html and have software for photo editing and all that sort of thing. I certainly have spent enough time on it that I could have earned enough to pay the Art Teacher to do the design -- and his would have been better. Still, as I say, I'm having fun.

I'm showing you pictures of this as a WIP. #1 daughter helped me make a logo (the client hasn't been able to get one done; this may not be what she wants, but it's better than having nothing there). #2 daughter says that all the pages should have big pictures. I don't know yet.

I'm actually a little bit nervous about using the photos. I don't know whether the client has model releases or permission from the photographers, or whether she just sent me everything she had on her computer.

I think I could get in trouble for using these images, even if she's the one who said I could without getting proper permission first.

My efforts at improving the whole non-work life thing have been spotty.

I have a book where I write down my goals. I went to it today and saw that I hadn't written anything since December 29th of last year. I went back a couple of years in the book and saw that I had goals of fixing my work life, which I think I've now done, and of getting all my kids safely off to college, which I've done, and of acquiring a wardrobe and dressing and grooming myself like a grownup, which I mostly do, and of developing adult friendships (as opposed to seeing only my children and their friends' moms, and the moms out there know what I mean), and I've done that, too.

I had a goal of having a nice, orderly house, which I sometimes do, especially now that I have a cleaner come in once a month.

I also had goals about diet and exercise, at which I've failed miserably since I became a Computer Guy. In fact, I now have new health concerns. Getting enough sleep and avoiding destroying my back and my vision weren't even on my goals list before, and now these are real concerns.

I think that most of us who try to take care of ourselves probably have to get up every day and start over, when it comes to meeting those goals.

But that little book of mine has become a record of dismal failure where health goals are concerned.

I did go out yesterday, when I went to the bank, and I roamed around the bookstore. I was actually there to get the new issue of Practical Web Design magazine, which had a scary article in it about the physical consequences of sitting for long hours in front of the computer in poorly-designed chairs as well as the article on layout that I wanted, but I saw on my way that Georgette Heyer's mystery novels have been reprinted. While I had to resist buying the whole series (I have tuition payments to make, after all), I did buy two of them. And then last night, less than hour after my computer binged at me to tell me I should quit working, I did in fact shut down and go spend the evening reading. It's pitiful that this seems like an accomplishment, I know, but I've already had clients contact me this morning. Having taken an evening off is a big deal.

Today I have to work, but I also plan to clean house, get some cookies into the freezer, and do some reading. I hope. I also have a lot of Christmas gift knitting to do. And I'm determined to fit in a walk or some Pilates. Maybe a nice vat of vegetable soup for my lunches this week. That's the plan.

Yesterday was a really satisfying work day.Apart from the usual barrage of emails from my really persistent client (several of the emails were insisting on a phone call, too, but I just had to refuse that), I got to sit down and get my work done. I started the day with a walk, and it's lovely even as the leaves fall.

You can see from my Toggl pie chart that I did a lot of different interesting things. I had 8.25 hours of billable work, and only a couple of unbillable ones, and I got to rehearsal. The largest piece of the pie is me building a website with a template on a barter basis. Probably a mistake, but we've been considering whether we could do this ourselves effectively and avoid hiring a designer when a client's budget is limited.

The answer is no. It's going to take me just as long to build the site with the template as it would take a designer to build it, and it won't be as good when it's finished. It requires tech skill to do it, too, since you have to be able to use html and resize photos to the correct number of pixels and stuff like that. This is why people's template-built sites often look disappointing.

The next largest one is the Kennedy Center. I was hoping to get some feedback before I turned in the last of my initial three assignments for them, so I've sort of been delaying. However, I've sent in two without hearing back, and I don't want to seem slow, so I'll probably finish that up today. The next largest slice is a press campaign. That guy has me on a retainer, so my time for him is up, but I'd sure like to do more. There's always next week.

Then comes my own site -- I updated my client list and wrote the blog, both unbillable -- and then unbillable work for the llama farmer whose site just launched. I mostly don't list unbillable stuff, but these two I want to keep track of. I don't put teaching on Toggl, so it evens out. The last two little slices of pie are a quick fix to a writing assignment and another client on retainer. I also graded papers, did a little minor networking in the form of actually answering emails and tweets, and helped #1 son with his lit paper.

Overall, it was a nice relatively uninterrupted day doing exciting, creative work, with some music, movement, and conversation in it. I can't claim that I ate right, and I didn't get enough sleep, but I was pretty happy with it.

The book False Economy begins with a comparison of Argentina and the United States. At the beginning of the 20th century, both were new, expanding, largely agriculture nations with immigrant populations and bright futures. By the beginning of the 21st century, the United States was a rich and powerful nation and Argentina was a third-world country. The author claims that there were a few bad economic choices involved, but mostly a lot of bad attitude -- Argentina had a small ruling class that kept all the goodies, while the U.S. tried to share things out a bit. It is possible, the book suggests, for the U.S. to share Argentina's fate if we allow that bad attitude to creep in.

In addition to reading a chapter this provocative book yesterday, I also taught classes, worked for various clients, interviewed for one new job and accepted another, and went to rehearsals for bells and choir.

In bells, a new person arrived and I snookered her into sharing bells with me. With her playing two and me playing two, instead of me playing four, I was able to get through large sections of the piece we're working on with some measure of success.

The piece sounds, at least from where I'm standing, like a car crash. Maybe a car crash involving lots of broken windows. Punctuated by complaining, whining, and bickering, which would actually make more sense in a car crash than in rehearsal. Maybe it sounds better from the front. The new person found the rehearsal humorous. I seriously hope she comes back.

Then we had choir practice with six people and no accompanist. It was sort of grim. It's one thing to have a rehearsal of a small ensemble, but quite another to have just a few from a choir. It's easy to feel that there's a big party going on somewhere and the people who showed up at choir were the ones who weren't invited.

I've been invited to a bit of a party this evening, but also have rehearsal. I'm hoping to have enough work done that I can get to rehearsal, never mind the ladies' night out. However, all my jobs today are fun and exciting, so I have no complaints.

Yesterday I finished up the second of the Kennedy Center things and sent it off. I've had no response to either so far, so I hope I'm sending them to the right place.

Then I went off to do some training in Google analytics. This took three hours and was unbillable, but I felt that it was worthwhile and gratifying. Then I spent six hours putting together someone's e-commerce. This is a person on retainer, so here it is Wednesday and I've already gone over his paid time by several hours and it's all volunteer from here. That isn't gratifying at all, frankly.

So I had a long day. There was also grading of papers, and my husband and I took the dogs for a walk. it was a slow, brief walk. My husband is not good at going for walks. I don't think he grasps the concept. We walked around the block slowly, with him trailing behind me with Toby the dog, who was trying manfully (or at least dogfully) to catch up with Fiona the dog, who was hauling me along down the street as though she had somewhere to go.

We got back to the house and Toby wouldn't go up the walk. We hadn't, he seemed to suggest, done a long enough walk. He knows how long walks are supposed to go on, and we hadn't even left the cul de sac. Once Fiona saw that he was taking this position, she turned back and gallumphed over to where Toby was making his stand. Solidarity, she felt, might lead to a proper walk instead of this strolling around the block bit.

No such luck. My husband works all day in a factory, and I still had several hours' worth of work to do.

Poor dogs.

We had some trouble last night with "All We Like Sheep." The director wants separations between "all," "we," and "like," and then wants "like " and "sheep" sung together with a lot of K and very little SH. The choir in the video rarely looks up at the director, which is probably because they don't want to see his frantic signals about making "we have turned" more staccato.

I had some trouble with "The Lord Gave the Word," and also with "Let Us Break Their Bonds." we have a month to get it perfect, though.

#1 son tried to persuade me to skip rehearsal last night and instead to stay home and watch "The Big Bang Theory" with him. However, a chemist friend in the bass section told me that it has been established that singing choral music makes positive changes in brain chemistry.

I can use some of those.

Actually, aside from the too much work problem, I'm fine. And, since the tuition payments just squeaked through my bank account, I clearly need as much work as I have. But it's good to have evenings of singing.

We're beginning our research papers in my writing classes. 

Here you see the sayings I have on my office wall:

"Never try to teach a pig to sing! It wastes your time and annoys the pig."
"If we knew what we were doing, it wouldn't be called research."

The problems my students are having probably fall into these two categories.

First, there are those who still haven't grasped the concept of the Review of the Literature, largely because of not coming to class and not reading the book. These are joined by those who are scandalized at the thought that I expect them to read things in the course of doing their research paper -- mostly they explain that they don't have time. And I still have a few who are most inclined to copy.

And then there are those who still can't write coherent paragraphs, or owe me four or five assignments, or respond to every assignment with confusion and alarm.

At this point, I'd like to be able to drop everyone who hasn't been working. Instead, I give a little speech saying that some of the class has been doing all the assignments and getting good grades and attending, and they know they have good grades, so this is their opportunity to dig in and really get good at research papers, for the sake of their grades in all their future classes.

And some of them aren't sure they're going to pass, and this is their last chance to prove that they're capable of succeeding in Comp II next semester -- because I'm not allowed to pass anyone who isn't.

This speech is scheduled for today.

I did almost no work yesterday. There is a sense in which this is positive, since I'm trying to have a normal life, but there's also the fact that people expect me to get their work done.

Sometimes I feel that they have unrealistic expectations -- client who call me early on Saturday morning to chat about their social media are being unreasonable, right?

On the other hand, I could say no to some work and thus avoid the problem. Then I'd be able to give people a higher level of service without feeling so overwhelmed.

On the third hand (thinking of one of those Hindu goddesses, here), I have helpers now, and will be able perhaps to combine complete service with a balanced life.

Eventually.

But yesterday, even though I had work to do, I mostly read.

I had no frivolous novels around, since I have a stack of things I need to read for work and a stack of things I need to review. However, I do have a Kindle. Thus, I was able within moments to go from a choice between ASP.net MVC 1.0 and Landing Page Optimization to a seat on the front porch with a lovely colorful tree in view and Plum Spooky to read. .

I took a walk in the brisk fall air, and then moved into the house, to my special reading corner.

There were a few trick or treaters, and the boys were in an out, but mostly I had a nice day of reading.

Today I feel better.

CD and I had our lesson this morning on the importance of recognizing that all work is about service. If you start out trying to make yourself happy with your work, our lesson said, you will inevitably fail. It's only when you focus on the people you're helping -- whether they're physically present or not -- that you can find your work satisfying.

That could be true.

This afternoon, I'm back at work, and finding it satisfying. It may be that without taking some time off, I can't expect to be able to think about the people I'm serving, because I'll just be too tired to do so. Anyway, I think I can look after the Aussies before midnight GMT if I get right to it.