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jenn

Murder by Death

I read cozy and historical mysteries, a bit of Paranormal/UF, and to mix it up, I read science and gardening books on occasion.

MbD not quite MIA

This is one of those posts that mostly falls under irrelevant, although there are books involved.  

 

As many of you know, my workload for the last 6 months has been...challenging... by anyone's standards.  Unfortunately, it's been unsustainable for someone with narcolepsy.  I was given an ultimatum by my doctor, and put on medical leave for two weeks.  This was a good thing for a number of reasons, but a great thing because it coincided with a 2 week school break, meaning I could take the time without using holiday leave OR stressing about a replacement (as a contractor, I don't get the breaks, but with the schools empty, my absence doesn't matter).  Medical leave is good; medical leave without guilt is better.

 

The leave/holiday serendipitously coincided with a nice sized shipment of new books, including Anne Bishop's newest release (review forthcoming).  I started reading it, then realised I didn't remember enough of the last relevant book, and ended up grabbing it off the shelf, intending to "skim" read it.  That worked about as well as you'd expect.

 

In the midst of this unscheduled re-read, Easter cat had to go to the vet for some very minor surgery to her ear that we've been putting off because A. it wasn't bothering her, and B. we knew the surgery would be massively stressful for her.  But we had to get it done in the end because she'd scratch it, it would start bleeding like crazy, and when cats' ears get wet, they shake their head.  Our house was starting to look like a CSI classroom for blood spatter.

 

The surgery went just fine, but as is usual with these procedures, the vet put a cone-of-shame on her head. THAT did NOT go well.  Her reaction can only be described as ... well, imagine The Kraken being hit with a cattle prod.  Sort of like that, only faster, with more thrashing.  I make light of it now, but it was awful.

 

So, the vet agreed that the cone had to go. Luckily, I've been home to keep a constant eye on her to make sure she doesn't pull her stitches out.  She's been an amazing patient, sticking close to me and making no effort (so far) to worry the wound.  Once it heals a bit more I'll be able to put a bit of ointment on it that will hopefully keep it from itching and scarring too badly.

 

All this has meant I've been a true lady of leisure these past two weeks, and I had plans...BIG plans.  Plans that involved adding more books, organising my library, and generally getting caught up in all ways bibliophilic.  But after re-reading Etched in Bone, I had to read the newest one, Wild Country.  And when I was done with them, I just HAD to re-read the whole series from woe to go.

 

So, instead of all my BIG plans, I sat in bed with Easter-cat beside me, and binged on all 7 books of The Others.  Nothing else got done; no tidy library, no great laundry catch-up, no books added.  This is the first time I've picked up the laptop since last week.

 

But boy I feel great!  ::grin:: and Easter-cat is mending quicker than I dared hope.  There are still 5 days left to my holiday, and next week is a short week, so it's possible that SOME of my original goals will get done.  On the other hand, the weather this weekend is supposed to be pretty amazing so if I disappear again you'll know why.