Pay no attention to the glue behind the counter.

YES. The counter is installed. Soon to come will be the sink faucet, then disposal and water purifier, then dishwasher hookup, then all the plumbing will be done! Here are before (this morning) and after (2PM today):




























The only unsightly bit is the old brown glue from where the linoleum was glued to the wall before (you can tell how far to the left the added cabinets go). Hopefully it won't affect the tile installation. Let's not think about it now...

Keep your cool with author dealings

Why don't authors write back to your queries? Why don't they write back to your email asking if your queries arrived? Are they too busy to care if publication is delayed? What's the deal?

I just went through a bit of author query anxiety, in that my due date of an article, with queries addressed, was rapidly approaching. It was the first of four I had edited and the first of four I had sent a query letter for. I requested responses in 5 days, and when 6 days passed I sent a follow-up. Still no response. Oh, no! What if he is out of town? What if he just doesn't care that [insert what I would call important issues to the article]? What author wouldn't care? In the meantime, I completed all 3 of the other articles (editing, querying, cleaning up) I had started after this one.

I only say he may not care because in my previous position, the fast-paced world of grant proposal editing, many times authors really don't care about consistency, because they don't have time to. They only care about a product getting out the door by a specific time by whatever means necessary. I can understand the utter exhaustion that proposal writers feel at the end of the project, when it's in an editor's hands. It has already been through so much in the review process that there can't be anything else wrong, right? Well, that's a question for another day.

So, anyway, I finally realized that I could find this author's phone number, so I called him. I remember a certain blog post by Katharine O'Moore Klopf (editormom, see my blog links) about being telephonophobic. I am certainly that, to a degree. But it's a good thing I broke down and picked up the phone, because he never received my emails! My Gmail address was I guess blocked from his server as an unknown entity. And, he did care! I sent the queries to his personal email address, and he answered them within 24 hours.

I didn't have too much to worry about, in that the article isn't slated for publication until several months from now, but after my long wait I got the article in on its projected editorial schedule! This is very satisfying to me. Ah.

So, I have reaffirmed for myself that the authors for this new gig of mine care a lot more about their articles than people trying to kick a 300-page proposal out the door (so they can get to writing the next one).

Counters and (future) tile backsplash

Another unrelated-to-editing post: The countertops were installed today! Actually, they're still installing them. But, I took a good closeup photo and want to see it next to what I think we might use for a tile backsplash:

Solution to "cat draping"

Beacuse the cat thinks she absolutely must be in my lap and none of the other soft places in the house, I've come up with a solution to her draping herself over my arm and hindering my work: the cat bed. It seems to be working, though she has made it clear that it is not her ideal solution (though she probably wouldn't have called it a problem to begin with). I guess if she gets tired of it, I can leave the bed on my lap and have a few cat-free moments to type.

Cabinets

There's a story behind every cabinet. And four screws.

Taking a day off (it is Saturday, after all)

I just did some "spring cleaning," and I say spring because despite the fact that it's January, all of my windows are open and the thermostat is reading 70 degrees. Not too shabby for a Northeastern state. I made use of my AWESOME new Dyson vacuum, the purple "animal" version, which is just amazing. I mean, it was apalling to see what it picked up last week and this week (our old vacuum was apparently just moving dirt and fur around), but so satisfying to dump the vacuum container with one little click! So now I thought I'd post while I wait for my parents to come help wire outlets in our ever-improving kitchen.

In other improvement news, we got the final delivery of furniture courtesy of the in-laws that was in storage--piano, big TV for the basement, and a full mahogany dining room set. Now we are fully furnished (well, except for a kitchen counter and sink!). The movers did some "funny" stuff to the piano (like move it with one too few men), so I had my parents' long-time tuner come look at it, and he said all was A-OK. He also oohed and aahed over it. He looked it up in his book, and by the number on the piano determined that it was built in 1935. My grandmother-in-law bought it from friends in the late '40s, and my father-in-law and brothers proceeded to use it as a racecar track, so it was refinished (beautifully) within the past 20 years or so. It looks GREAT. Matter o' fact, here it is:

And, I've been working like crazy! Dear Husband is away for the next week, and I guess it's a good thing, because I've got so many projects going on in the next three weeks or so: magazine articles to write (2), social-science journal articles to edit (4), an impending education book to edit, and an upcoming flurry of proposal support for the research folks.

And, of course, I still try to hit my $1K power seller mark on eBay each month, but I'm not sure if I'll have time this month. If I don't keep it up, I lose power seller status. They do allow 1-month grace periods, but not two in a row. I may have to use it for January!

Parents just arrived (top down!) in the driveway...