Sleepless night/slow start

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!  Don't forget to send me your pictures for a chance to win a PALE DEMON ARC!

I'm really glad it's Friday, but it's one of those Fridays where the weekend only brings more stress, not less, because I'm taking two days off when there's a pile of virtual work sitting on my desk.  Ouch.  I've got ten hours to shake the feeling, and I will shake it.  I just have to remind myself that I have scheduled plenty of time for everything, even weekends.  The birds that flew in this morning to check out my water feature helped.

I've been working on my waterfall/bird bath for about a month, spending a weekend on the dirt, one on the plants, and two on the water itself, and though it's not pretty yet, it is FINALLY holding water.  The upper fall was leaking, dropping the water level by a gallon an hour.  Turns out the lip of the upper pan was directing a small bit of water to run underneath the pan itself, thereby emptying it drip by drip.  After trying to modify the pan lip, (disaster) and tape to catch the drip and redirect it (effective, but not long-term) I finally ran a screw through the lip to give the water something to run off on into the lower pan.  It worked, and there was no water loss last night.  A fish tank heater should keep it ice-free through the winter.   And today, I had my first avian visitors.  The stress is falling away already.  ;-)

Rough draft is almost turned into first draft.  New Guy is still a little rough, but he's in there.  I've got about two days of work, and then it sits for a bit before I go over it one last time.  Next is Book eleven rough draft.  (Crap, eleven?  Already?)  Plotting is me away from my desk with a clipboard and about 30 sheets of paper.  Very relaxed, very spontaneous.  Timing is perfect.

And now I have to go chase the neighbor's cat away.  My birds have flown.