November 2: October Recap, November Intentions
Life’s been weird.
Today we just released v17.2 of our software for real life which feels like the gif of Michael during the fire at work screaming “Oh my God! Okay, it’s happening!” (I would embed it but Giphy/Wordpress is acting up and I don’t wanna.)
What this means for me is that work will be a lot more sane, at least for the time being. I’ve been working on a feature to implement Active Directory logins, and it’s been hellish, to say the least. I only picked up the ticket because it was the last one left in a sprint…two months ago. Cue major database table overhaul, creation of 2 new tables, and a wholeeeee bunch of refactoring to make it all work. I was pretty sure I was going to be fired over the whole thing; in fact, I’m not entirely sure I’m out of the woods yet. (Logically…I won’t be fired. Emotionally my brain is saying “EM YOU ARE A FRAUD!” But that’s maybe another topic for a whole different post.)
Anyway, moving on. Since one of my November goals is to write 4 blog posts (surprise!) here I am, miraculously two days into November and writing my first post. Go me!
Goals & Progress for October
Goal: Read 1 1/2 ClassicQuest novels.
Report: Done, kind of. I finished A House for Mr. Biswas in the middle of October and started Oliver Twist. I’m about halfway through it. But considering my reading plan only has 6 ClassicQuest books on it, and 10 is my stretch goal, I’m in a good place here.
Goal: Read 3 non-ClassicQuest novels.
Report: Done. Actually, I read 4 novels! Fortune Smiles (really enjoyed that one), The Thing About Jellyfish (really did not), Midwinterblood (eh), and The Rabbit Hutch (weird and beautiful put together).
Goal: Write an October update for A Hodgepodge of Huffmans.
Report: Not done. Yet. But it will be done, because it has to be done.
Goal: Write 4 Emily’s Notebook posts.
Report: Nooooo comment.
Goal: Write 10k words of Lucy in Love.
Report: Got stuck, didn’t do it. I’ll talk more about this month’s plan below.
Goal: Complete 31 3-ring days on the Apple Watch.
Report: Done, but with a little bit of fudging. Meaning: some evenings I had to put myself in Cooldown mode to reach the exercise goal of 30 minutes.
Goal: Complete 4 weeks of Thinner Leaner Stronger.
Report: Done, mostly! I haven’t been entirely consistent, but generally I’ve completed at least 3 workouts per week.
Goal: Get into the 140’s.
Report: Ugh, no. It’s killing me how hard it is to lose weight these days. Sedentary job + slowing metabolism, I guess. Not to mention too many sweet treats…
Goal: Start rainbow embroidery sampler.
Report: Done! I made so much progress on it that I’m actually almost done! See post photo for reference. I was really scared of those roses, but they’re super easy and fun to make.
Goal: Plant garlic and potatoes.
Report: Done, to the extent that garlic is (mostly) planted in pots & planters outside. Potatoes, I discovered, actually don’t get planted until spring. Ewps!
November Goals
Goal: Read 1.5 ClassicQuest novels. (A lot of these are regular goals and will sound familiar!) So, finish Oliver Twist and probably read The Bluest Eye, since the VCFA book chat has been poppin’ off about it recently.
Goal: Read 3 non-ClassicQuest novels. I’m currently reading All My Rage; not sure what I’ll pick after this (my list is here) but probably something lighter. The problem with reading only award winners is that a lot of them — most of them, really — are heavy.
Goal: Write November’s Hodgepodge of Huffman update. Yep.
Goal: Write 4 blog posts here. Starting with this one! See what I did there?
Goal: Write 10k words of Lucy in Love. But I need to really outline my scenes before I go gung-ho forward and get stuck again. I have an old Lucy in Love story grid/McCarthy outline that I’m going to shoehorn this new plot into. Heck, maybe I’ll even make it a Christmas novel, why not? Woo. I want a flirty, romantic Christmas novel. Might as well write it myself.
Goal: Get 30 3-ring days on my Apple Watch. Sigh. I wish I knew how to quit you!
Goal: Get into the 140’s. Hey, maybe this is my month! Sooooo close. Yet soooo far.
Goal: Finish embroidery sampler. I’m almost done with it; just need to finish up the big scary flower. But one petal a day and I can be done in a week! And move on to a fun Christmas pattern. *Proceeds to Etsy-search* OMG ok new plan. This is my next craft. Ooh but this is also a great intermediate step…the choices!
Goal: Make 2 recipes from the ScandiKitchen Fika & Hygge cookbook. Peppernuts and…something else. Rolls or something.
Goal: Make 4 old-timey cocktails. This may require me to buy more liquor. But I do want to try the silly old cocktails!
Goal: Finish CS50 Lecture #2. I just revisited my 2024 intentions post and was reminded that doing all of CS50 was a stretch goal for the year. Work has been blessedly quiet, so I may actually get a chance to complete this goal. Or at least chip away at it. Stretch goal to the stretch goal would be to do the Scratch assignment. We’ll see.
And that’s about it, I think! Stay tuned for an update on how the month is going. Plus 3 other entries for the month of November. (Dropping every Friday? Maybe?) Time to dust off ye olde thinking cap and get some post ideas ready.
mins
read
