Month: December 2020

Still Trying To Do Everything

I have to repeat one more time: our book and Christmas do not go well together. Even wrapping the presents and finishing a relatively small chapter – that’s what I was trying to do today – resulted in not completing either. Twenty other small things were not even started.

However, when I thanked our reviewer for returning the last chapter and added: I should have asked you for your postal address to send you some cookies; well, next year then, he emailed me his address immediately :). That being said, package number 19 is ready to be shipped.

I took Mom to the nail spa, and we both did our nails, and I left a small bag of cookies for each of the staff (these days, you can’t bring a cookie tray to any business).

The weather was nice and sunny, and I biked to the forest preserve on both Saturday and Sunday.

The country (at least, the State of Illinois) is experiencing the Christmas supplies crisis. All stores I visited over the weekend have close to nothing of Christmas decorations, lights, or packaging. I didn’t want to buy any extra wrapping/packaging until I figured out what I needed, and when I figured it out, it was too late. Now, I had to improvise with what I have.

I do not know who does not feel like Christmas – I certainly do 🙂

Trying to Finish Everything

“Everything” means the book and the rest of Christmas. With the book, after two or three extremely nervous weeks, I feel a little bit better. We are done with the first twelve chapters, meaning we already received the reviewer’s feedback and replied and/or made changes. We are making final edits on Chapter 13, and we have both Chapter 8 and 14 more than half-done. (We realized that we missed something after we were already on Chapter 11, that’s why it is out of order).

After those two will be completed, we will only have Chapter 15 and a Conclusion left; those two are small and do not require new examples (examples being the most time-consuming part). It is still a lot, plus we need at least one Appendix and a Glossary, and some pictures clean-up. So, it is still a lot.

Christmas. On Thursday, I finished decorating sugar cookies, partially in the morning before work, and the rest – in the evening.

Today, I baked one more batch of Russian Tea Cakes because I suddenly ran out of them, although I baked two batches at the very beginning of the cookies marathon. Also, I tried one more time to bake pumpkin and dates cookies. Last year, I didn’t like the results, but though it might be because I used my own pumpkin puree instead of the canned one, and I thought that the problem could be in the wrong consistency. This yeat, I used preserves, but I am still not sure whether I like the outcome.
I mailed the last batch of parcels on Wednesday; all the rest will be hand-delivered. And I am very glad that almost half of the parcels had already reached their destinations.

774 cookies. 118 sugar cookies decorated. 18 parcels sent. 15 boxes of cookies hand-delivered so far (or ready to be delivered), plus one giant box for the youth shelter.
… Now, it’s time to start packing the non-cookie presents 🙂

In Chicago

On Tuesday, I went to Chicago, mostly to deliver cookies for several people in the city. I was surprised and delighted to see that they put up a Christmas tree inside the Palatine train station.

There is way less people n the train that in was in October, but still more than in March and April.

Continue reading “In Chicago” →

Christmas Shipping

During the Christmas season, I try to ship my domestic parcels in the USPS kiosk, and I try to do it late at night when there is no line (they are open 24X7).

I planned to do it on Saturday, but since I didn’t have access to my car, I could no do it, and Vlad came only on Sunday afternoon, and after all the other things I had to address, I when to the post office late at night on Sunday.

Unfortunately, the outcome was expected: by that time, there were so many parcels left in the course of the weekend that the loading door won’t open. I thought that I could at least print the labels, but the kiosk screen was also stuck in the “Please wait” mode!

i did not want to stay in the line on Monday, so I finally learned how to use Click&Ship, and printed all the labels at home, and paid online :). I could even arrange a pickup at home, but I didn’t want to wait for another day, so I drove to the post office to drop them off.

Christmas baking – the second installment
Continue reading “Christmas Shipping” →

How Many Things Can Go Wrong In One Day?!

It all happened on Saturday. For a start, I knocked off a cup full of coffee when reaching out for my Karl Fazer Advent calendar. I had to change my jeans and clean the kitchen floor.

Next, I reached out to the plant, which I temporarily moved from the stand to the top of the bookshelf. I move it every Christmas season, each time when I put up a Christmas tree, and move one of the plants stands away. And it was never a problem for the past twenty years. But this Saturday, the pot falls, and the wet soil is everywhere. Let me tell you, it’s not that easy to clean the wet soil from the floor and the walls!

Next, the garage door won’t close and was making all these weird noises. I decided to leave it open, and since Vlad was planning to come the next day, I called him and asked whether he will take a look (he installed this garage opener a while ago).

On my way from the garage to my house, I thought that I should text my neighbor because she will worry when she sees my garage door opened. But it turned out that they returned thirty seconds after I left the parking lot, and they saw my door opened and thought I forgot to close it and tried to close… after which, the door got stuck in the middle, so I could not get the car out!
And that was not it! Next, when I was baking my last batch of sugar cookies, I left the last portion in the oven, which was turned off, but still hot, and the cookies were completely burned. Ok, just ten, but still!

And the very last thing: I need to bake another portion of kolacki, and I accidentally set the oven temperature to 400F instead of 350F! They were not completely ruined, but still got some tan 🙂

Can you imagine that it all happened in one day?!

I Have a Christmas Tree!

On Friday, I finally got my Christmas tree. Since I got my new car (it is not new anymore, but anyway), I can’t bring a tree home without external help. And this year, I was hesitant to ask anybody. Actually, I asked Vlad a long time ago, and he said he would come to help, but then it turned out he mixed up the days. I already planned to take a day off, and I also knew that there will be rain in the afternoon and for the whole day on Saturday.
Long story short, my co-worker who lives close to me told me that he could help.
I went to the place where I go every year; there is a family farm in Wisconsin, they come every year, and I am getting trees from them for over twenty years.
Guess what happened this year! By the time I came, then ran out of Fraiser fir! I still can’t believe it!
I got a Canaan fir, a cross between Balsamic and Fraiser, and I didn’t have much choice – there were just four or five left! I guess I should feel lucky 🙂
My co-worker helped me to install the tree, and then I spend a couple of hours decorating. This year, I made sure that all my special ornaments are on the tree, and I left many others in the box. And I nearly forgot to hang the chocolate ornaments, but now everything is in place.

I feel way more content when the tree is up and decorated, and the whole house in decorated, too!

Each ornament has a story!

Listening to “A Promised Land”

I started doing audiobooks instead of real books first because it became difficult for me to read and because I could listen on the go. After all the eye surgeries of this year, I can read the regular books again. However, I already got hooked on the convenience of listening, so more often, I listen. 

As for this particular book, Obama’s “Promised Land,” there is an extra incentive for listening: Barack himself narrates the book. 

Thirty hours of listening to the voice we do not hear that often anymore! Small suppressed laughs here and there. And the ability to travel back in time and relive all these amazing years again! 

I remember it so well – exactly how he describes it in the book! I remember this feeling: now it’s the time! I remember how everybody was saying: it’s too soon, and at the same time the feeling was mounting: now IS the time!

I remember everybody in the City of Chicago building where I was doing my consulting work saying: he is our future president. Before anything happened, before Springfield. I remember Anna happily telling the story of her encounter with Barak on Melissa Bean’s campaign trail: you are still above us, but we appreciate the gesture! She was so happy that she made Barak laugh.

And I remember this cold February night, the night before the announcement. I remember her calling her coach: can I be excused from practice tomorrow? There is somebody who can drive me to Springfield! And I remember the silver bells in her voice: Thank you, coach! 

Continue reading “Listening to “A Promised Land”” →

A Week From Hell

That was quite a week! Tuesday and Wednesday, I was trying to participate in the conference held in the GMT timezone. For Thursday morning, I was invited to participate in the Roundtable for Women Influencers of Chicago (yea, apparently, I am an influencer – who would have known!) It was a virtual business breakfast, so my personal time in the morning was gone for one more day.

Work was all meetings, which meant that I had to spend at least two more hours after work to do some work :). Next is a virtual pile of professional – not work-related messages, which I have to respond to because when people reach out to you, you have to reply with words of support and encouragement.

And only after that – any personal emails, trying to shop for Christmas gifts, trying to put up just one decoration…

And it was all good and important, I didn’t have any meetings, which were useless, it’s just – too much! I need another me!

I took a day off today to catch up with life and to clear a weekend. I hope I can still write a couple of pages for the book because I am behind the way I do not want to be…

United

Anna sent me this link today – I’d say my suspicions on my way to Helsinki were justified! Good thing, I never took my mask off!

My Talk at the PostgresBuild Conference