Every week I ask myself what I did all week. That's why I started writing this blog. I usually can remember what I did as the week draws to a close, but after some time passes, it's harder to remember if I did anything more constructive than sitting on the couch and eat bonbons. Sometimes someone asks me a question like, "Which flavors of Kool-Aid did you use to dye that yarn?" I can look for my blog post about that activity.
Well, I didn't get much knitting done this week.
A few rows only. A photo like last week's wouldn't look much different, so I decided to straighten it out so the design shows better.
What did I do all week? Well, in addition to the usual laundry, cooking, baking bread, walking the dogs, checking out social media, choir practice, etc., I've started on the next book.
This year's book, Mandy's Little Science Lessons, is still only available for pre-order from booksellers except for BookBaby Bookshop, which has copies available for sale. Amazon, Barnes and Noble, ThriftBooks and others have it for pre-order only. It's good to see it listed.
Book promoters have been contacting me with glowing AI-written praise for the book, offering to help me increase sales...for a price. Some of them claim to have actually looked at the book in-person, which is odd, because the only copies out there now came from me, and I know where every copy went, although some of the copies I sold at the Condega Celebration may have been passed on to recipients elsewhere, having been bought as gifts for children living in other parts of the country.
The "Vermont Book Club," for instance, wants to interview me via Zoom. Readers in their last meeting absolutely gushed over the stories and the illustrations, according to the person who emailed me. I was skeptical that they could even have had copies, so instead of responding to the email, I contacted them through their website, and they said, yes, the email had come from them. Now I think the website is for a nonexistent organization.
One email offered to made a trailer for my book that will help potential buyers visualize the characters and make them come to life. (Um...the book is full of photos of the characters in action. I didn't already make the characters come to life?) If a real person seriously contacts me for an interview or to include the book in an existing book fair or reading program for kids, I probably won't believe them.
I have been responding so far to these "people," if they actually are people, by telling them that I have no money in the budget for promotion. If I do have any expendable funds, I would pay BookBaby to promote the book, a service they offer. They have been very good to work with, and I know they are a real company.
So, to the dogs: Dusty had a vet visit on Monday. He started limping last Sunday, so we thought it should be looked at. He had been busy chasing the ball earlier, and as an older dog––he's 10––there's always the possibility of an injury. The vet diagnosed it as a luxating patella. He didn't think that an X-ray was needed, so we got away with just paying for an anti-inflammatory medication. Dusty was better by the next day, but he's still on the medication. We will have to watch it as he gets older.
We got a few walks in during this past week. By "we" I mean mostly the dogs and me. Charlie has been working in the yard, which is enough exercise, but he did go on one walk with us.
Dusty and Sandy's favorite part of the walk has been the wild area, where we can let them off-leash.
On Friday I peeked over the new fence around the development under construction where we walk. The houses that look finished (at least from the outside) now have house numbers. I wonder if anyone is already living there. I thought I saw some plants sitting on the inside windowsill of the front window in the little house on the right, and the apartment building that looks finished had regular passenger cars parked in the parking spaces next to it on a Saturday.
Here's Walk for a Dog's depiction of our usual walk. It's close to 1 3/4 miles.
While we're on the topic of dogs, I thought everyone would like to see Dusty's "tattoo." It isn't really a tattoo. Dusty is a silver, and if he scrapes himself so the skin breaks, the hair grows in in black where the scrape was. I think his "tattoo" looks like a bow. Or maybe a butterfly. I don't know how he did this. He and Sandy play roughly, but Dusty also goes after the ball in some confined areas, such as under the deck.
We had the annual "Blessing of the Animals" on Sunday. Besides the usual choir practice before church, coffee hour after church and then bell-ringing practice after that, then our weekly Zoom call, we followed up by getting the dogs into the car to go back to the church for the Blessing of the animals.
In the past, we have done this inside the church during a regular church service, but this year we held it outdoors in the afternoon. (That big building on the right used to be a school, but now it's a museum. Their big lawn is right across the street from Trinity Episcopal Church, so quite convenient.) Dusty and Sandy got their blessings and behaved themselves, as did the other dogs and the two guinea pigs who came for a blessing.
Elizabeth, our priest, led the singing. Her daughter, who read the lesson, also helped by holding the program with the lyrics.
That was the last scheduled event in a packed day at the end of a packed week. It was made even more packed by "social storms" on Thursday and Friday, sponsored by DemCast, two hours each day with a hashtag related to a specific topic to attract attention to important issues. Most of the time, we're busy verifying photos and rumors, spreading information and calling out attempts at disinformation or the more accidental misinformation. The people I work with are active on BlueSky and Twitter/X, but other people do the same kind of thing on other social media. It's a hard job now, with AI deepfakes floating around. People tend to believe what they see. Four hours out of a very busy week meant no knitting.
To end with some cuteness, here's Soren riding an accessible trike he was trying out.
I have a lot of difficulty responding to comments to my blog posts because of technical issues beyond my control (my lack of understanding of how things work). Message me on Facebook, Ravelry, BlueSky or Spoutible if you need information.
What's in The Doll's Storybook: Marmalade and Freckles have a conversation about children, cats and dogs in Cats and Dogs, this week's story in The Doll's Storybook.
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