Re: What's everyone up to?

2:12 PM |

I had a wonderful career as a science librarian at both Louisiana State University and then later Boston University, but unfortunately my health deteriorated and due to several chronic issues I can no longer work full time.  To be honest, it was really bad for a couple of years, but now I'm mostly settled in Lowell, MA - a bit north of Boston but much cheaper, so I can live on my own but still be close to my Boston-area friends. I now work part time as an evening receptionist at a nursing home (one of the chronic issues that was discovered was delayed sleep phase which makes it nearly impossible for me to keep a job that starts before noon), and get additional support from family to make up the difference.  It's not what I would prefer, but it is quite rewarding in its own way, and I still get to help people, which is the part I have always loved best.  

I have two amazing cats, both rescues - Oisín and Meira.  Meira is 13 and Oisín is nearly 11.  My first and most beloved cat Robin unfortunately passed away in 2017 from complications from diabetes, but Meira and Oisín make his loss sting a bit less.  They are the main reason I make myself get up every day and I don't know what I would do without them.   

It may not be where I originally intended my life to go, but I'm relatively stable with a roof over my head and animals who love me so I'm just putting one foot in front of the other these days.

Gwyn

Search Results

Search Resul

Search Results




On Sat, Mar 1, 2025 at 9:47 PM Katrina Knight <kknight@fastmail.fm> wrote:
Since we're talking here again, how about updating each other on
what we've been doing? I've missed our old discussions about
what was going on in our lives. I'll start.

I moved across the country, to eastern Washington three years
ago. I like it here and being on the opposite side of the
country from my evil parent is good.

I've been running the Tumbleweed Music Festival
(https://tumbleweedfest.com), which is not quite a folk festival
(it is somewhat more varied than just folk music).  I've also
been helping my friend Dan Maher with his weekly radio show.
("Executive Producer" is such a fancy title!) That can be hear
on Folk Music Notebook (folkmusicnotebook.com or their phone
apps) from 7-10 pacific time, and it is archived at
https://www.mixcloud.com/danmahersgoodroad/. If you like folk
music, you might want to listen.

--
Katrina Knight
kknight@fastmail.fm

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Tamson House" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to tamson-house+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tamson-house/7.1.0.9.2.20250301184749.0442ab28%40fastmail.fm.


--
Rain and sun shall feed me now,
and roots, and nuts, and wild things,
and rustlings in the midnight wood,
half-mad, like Myrddin, wandering.

--Terri Windling

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Tamson House" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to tamson-house+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tamson-house/CA%2BAYG3j-Wj8%2BTeQTiHf0ZMutRgzOPLkq%2BBZPCvHwrTPZ78mq5g%40mail.gmail.com.

  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • RSS
Read User's Comments0
Posted by Unknown

Re: What's everyone up to?

10:28 AM |

I think I mentioned what's going on earlier, but:

Tony and I moved to NC nearly three years ago. My parents have both died (before the first you-know-who presidency, which was actually good because it seriously might have killed both of them, as they were both in ill health). Tony's family (and my sisters) live in NC, his fam near Winston-Salem, where we are, and my sisters outside of Asheville.

I did catch covid before the vaccines were available--T was in the hospital for other reasons and his roommate was asymptomatic. It was miserable. (Get all your vaccines now if you're in the US!) T never caught it.

The silver lining from covid is that everyone was allowed to decide if they wanted to work remotely. Much of my department moved to various places around the country. (New hires are encouraged to come to the office a few days a week; it's pretty much all flexspace there now.) I am still working for Penguin, which is, of course, now part of Penguin Random House. I'm still in the same department, though I was promoted to executive production editor. This is the first year that title is available for the Penguin imprints. I'll have been there 33 years in November. I have my sabbatical this year and we are currently deciding when I should take it/where to go. 

Obviously T and I are still married: 24 years in August. We've got two cats, a brother and sister named Jack (Jack-Jack) and Eleanor the Warrior Queen, named after Calico Jack Rackham and Eleanor of Aquitaine. They'll be seven in April. 

T is now retired, which gives him a lot of time for video games. He's been playing Return to Moria online with our grand-nephew (who is twelve). He's aiming to become the coolest uncle ever. (He's also running a D&D game for me, the grand-nephew and his mom and stepdad.) 

I haven't made many friends down here, so I'm spending a ton of time reading. (I've got so many books going right now it's ridiculous, but jumping around from book to book at work has kind of trained me to do this.) 

I do very much miss NJ and NYC, and I'm thinking about heading up for a visit with some of my overabundance of vacation time this year. 

Jenny

On Sunday, March 2, 2025 at 08:33:18 AM EST, Ellen Rawson <ellenr@fastmail.com> wrote:


Hi all,

I'm in my sixties now, but I still teach English full time. (We still have mortgage.) Oh, and I'm my school's union rep, so that takes time. I also do a lot of work for an A Level exam board with A Level English Language: examining, external moderating, NEA advising etc. Come late April, that job will take up a lot of my time since external moderating starts then. This year, for the first time, centres have to upload student work instead of sending it in the post, so I'm sure there will be a learning curve on both sides. Regarding examining, it's similar to AP examining in the US, but instead of sending all the examiners (graders) to one location to get it all done, the exams are all scanned once centres send the completed exams to the exam board (yes, scanned handwriting), and we mark online. The exam may be held in early June and, if we're lucky, we finish marking the last ones in early August. That's why we don't go on holiday when my teaching term ends in mid-July nor do we go on holiday during half term at the end of May. I'm marking exams online and supervising my team of markers in July, and I'm trying to get through all of my own moderation by the end of half term so that when my examining work starts, I only am supervising my team's moderation. Whew! It's extra money, and it does actually benefit the school where I teach in that I can train teachers in the subject well, and I can help teachers understand other mark schemes also. But it's tiring.

All this work and responsibility means I don't get to as many SCA events as I used to. I just don't have the time/energy. :(  But I am active in the SCA through editing Compleat Anachronist, the SCA's quarterly historical research booklet (50-64 pages) series. The latest one went to the publisher last week -- on recreating 16th-century bonnets using sprang. I'm working on the next one. It's on Hanseatic Cooking -- translations and redactions of recipes. (Drew, if you're here, yes, it's by Giano.)

We still try to get out to music and theatre, which generally seem to be cheaper here than in the US. And we still read a lot.

And, yes, Ian and I are still together. It'll be our 23rd wedding anniversary at the end of the month, believe it or not.

Ellen

  Ellen Rawson
  ellenr@fastmail.com


On Sun, 2 Mar 2025, at 12:58 PM, 'Leslie Valente' via Tamson House wrote:
We've moved so many times, but are fairly settled on Long Island five minutes from the ocean on the Great South Bay. Very suburban after always having elbow room in the country. But it has its perks. 

My husband sold his business and retired. I retired from professional singing several years ago but lately have the itch to pick up the guitar and do the folk thing again. We are still snowbirds but my horses live in Florida, so I only ride six months of the year. 

I'm still an old school liberal, doing some activism, some philanthropy. Check me out on Facebook if you're brave. I'm still agitating.

Reading a lot lately. Just finished up Book 5 of Samantha Shannon' "The Bone Season." Highly recommend the series!

Good to hear from you all!

Love, 
Leslie
Sent from my iPad

On Mar 2, 2025, at 7:46 AM, Grey Malkin <grymalkyn@gmail.com> wrote:

Nothing nearly as exciting going on here.  I am still working at the same agency -- yesterday was my 31st anniversary, in fact (and I did work yesterday; a few of us were there for Saturday overtime).  For the last five months or so, I have been doing all by myself a job that, at this time last year, was done by three people.  Nothing horrible happened; It's just that we were already short-handed, then someone left, then someone else was on medical leave for a couple of months, then someone took a temporary promotion and transfer to another unit, and that left me on my own.  To say I am swamped is something of an understatement.  It would be more accurate to say that I am enjoying a lovely luncheon in the first-class dining room aboard the Titanic.  It should end in another month or so, when the person who took the temporary promotion comes back to the unit, but it the meantime, I am working a lot of overtime, some of which I am even being paid for (which is unusual for our agency; they don't like to give overtime).

I am looking forward to retirement; I am both old enough (even though I'm only in my late 50s) and have enough years in that I could actually retire at any time, but now doesn't seem like the best time to give up a job.

Otherwise, my house hasn't fallen down yet, and, in fact, I even had some work done on it.  I finally got the upstairs bathroom rebuilt and then some months later, had the same contractor come in and replace the windows in my bedroom and fix the walls that the late, lamented Jack damaged.  Next up, I'm thinking about getting an electrician in to fix some stuff like the outlet that the ex-husband left the bared wire just hanging out of the wall in (which I have had checked and have been assured is not live) and maybe check the bedroom outlets to see if they can handle an air conditioner because after last summer's sleeping in front of the open front door on a folding bed with fans going, I think maybe I'm ready to see about a/c.

After over a year without a pet, I adopted a couple of cats from the SPCA at the very end of December.  One might even say the "tail-end" if one were in a cheap pun sort of mood.  *ahem*  Things are certainly a lot livelier in my house than they used to be.  I have to remind myself to speak to them, because I'm used to not speaking at all when I'm home.  Even when I'm playing with them, I have to remind myself to make some noise -- and we do have a daily game of Chase The Red Dot.

The snowdrops have come up in the front yard, so I am hopeful that this winter is actually going to end.  But then comes Bug Season and Lively Critter In The Garage Season and Mowing Season and....

Laurie
(Also, I set up this email address years and years and years ago, back when One Did Not Use One's Actual Name On The Internet and no matter what I do, I can't get it to now display my actual name, so I eventually gave up.  It's all good; I was never part of a Collective, anyway, so I'm just the same Laurie as always.)



On Sat, Mar 1, 2025 at 11:09 PM Mina Ellyse Warren <ellyssian@gmail.com> wrote:
I'm preparing to move *partially* across the country... back to New England, although skipping over Massachusetts and going to New Hampshire.  Pretty sure I mentioned that in one of the other recent emails, but prepping for that move is about all I do right now.

I still do software engineering, and still database stuff.  The place I've been at 5 years later this month has exactly one customer for our very extensive development department: the business.  We keep joking we'll write our own database engine one of these days because that's how we do things.

My oldest son is married, and I have one granddaughter (they also gave me my first grandchild, my grandcat Jasper).

My middle son is currently doing casino security, but is a linguist and English teacher.   He might be heading overseas to take a job using both of those skillsets.

My youngest, who was born around the time I first stepped into the House (plus or minus a bit), and who supplied the world with Brandonisms that still make my heart happy when I think of them will be 21 this Autumn.

I still play music (just ordered my first nylon string guitar... finally! wanted one for four decades!) but I stopped "touring" back in May 2019.

And also somehow my world fame didn't come from my music or my writing... but as a model (and a photographer; and no, I can't figure it out, either.)   I may not be doing (much/any) poetry or fiction writing, but I've had fans write both for me.   Boggles me completely.

Cheers,
        Mina Ellyse


--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Tamson House" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to tamson-house+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.


--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Tamson House" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to tamson-house+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.


--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Tamson House" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to tamson-house+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Tamson House" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to tamson-house+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/tamson-house/c484b15b-0c98-4545-90f1-9cba4d4dc472%40app.fastmail.com.

  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • RSS
Read User's Comments0
Posted by Unknown

Re: What's everyone up to?

5:32 AM |

Hi all,

I'm in my sixties now, but I still teach English full time. (We still have mortgage.) Oh, and I'm my school's union rep, so that takes time. I also do a lot of work for an A Level exam board with A Level English Language: examining, external moderating, NEA advising etc. Come late April, that job will take up a lot of my time since external moderating starts then. This year, for the first time, centres have to upload student work instead of sending it in the post, so I'm sure there will be a learning curve on both sides. Regarding examining, it's similar to AP examining in the US, but instead of sending all the examiners (graders) to one location to get it all done, the exams are all scanned once centres send the completed exams to the exam board (yes, scanned handwriting), and we mark online. The exam may be held in early June and, if we're lucky, we finish marking the last ones in early August. That's why we don't go on holiday when my teaching term ends in mid-July nor do we go on holiday during half term at the end of May. I'm marking exams online and supervising my team of markers in July, and I'm trying to get through all of my own moderation by the end of half term so that when my examining work starts, I only am supervising my team's moderation. Whew! It's extra money, and it does actually benefit the school where I teach in that I can train teachers in the subject well, and I can help teachers understand other mark schemes also. But it's tiring.

All this work and responsibility means I don't get to as many SCA events as I used to. I just don't have the time/energy. :(  But I am active in the SCA through editing Compleat Anachronist, the SCA's quarterly historical research booklet (50-64 pages) series. The latest one went to the publisher last week -- on recreating 16th-century bonnets using sprang. I'm working on the next one. It's on Hanseatic Cooking -- translations and redactions of recipes. (Drew, if you're here, yes, it's by Giano.)

We still try to get out to music and theatre, which generally seem to be cheaper here than in the US. And we still read a lot.

And, yes, Ian and I are still together. It'll be our 23rd wedding anniversary at the end of the month, believe it or not.

Ellen

  Ellen Rawson
  ellenr@fastmail.com


On Sun, 2 Mar 2025, at 12:58 PM, 'Leslie Valente' via Tamson House wrote:
We've moved so many times, but are fairly settled on Long Island five minutes from the ocean on the Great South Bay. Very suburban after always having elbow room in the country. But it has its perks. 

My husband sold his business and retired. I retired from professional singing several years ago but lately have the itch to pick up the guitar and do the folk thing again. We are still snowbirds but my horses live in Florida, so I only ride six months of the year. 

I'm still an old school liberal, doing some activism, some philanthropy. Check me out on Facebook if you're brave. I'm still agitating.

Reading a lot lately. Just finished up Book 5 of Samantha Shannon' "The Bone Season." Highly recommend the series!

Good to hear from you all!

Love, 
Leslie
Sent from my iPad

On Mar 2, 2025, at 7:46 AM, Grey Malkin <grymalkyn@gmail.com> wrote:

Nothing nearly as exciting going on here.  I am still working at the same agency -- yesterday was my 31st anniversary, in fact (and I did work yesterday; a few of us were there for Saturday overtime).  For the last five months or so, I have been doing all by myself a job that, at this time last year, was done by three people.  Nothing horrible happened; It's just that we were already short-handed, then someone left, then someone else was on medical leave for a couple of months, then someone took a temporary promotion and transfer to another unit, and that left me on my own.  To say I am swamped is something of an understatement.  It would be more accurate to say that I am enjoying a lovely luncheon in the first-class dining room aboard the Titanic.  It should end in another month or so, when the person who took the temporary promotion comes back to the unit, but it the meantime, I am working a lot of overtime, some of which I am even being paid for (which is unusual for our agency; they don't like to give overtime).

I am looking forward to retirement; I am both old enough (even though I'm only in my late 50s) and have enough years in that I could actually retire at any time, but now doesn't seem like the best time to give up a job.

Otherwise, my house hasn't fallen down yet, and, in fact, I even had some work done on it.  I finally got the upstairs bathroom rebuilt and then some months later, had the same contractor come in and replace the windows in my bedroom and fix the walls that the late, lamented Jack damaged.  Next up, I'm thinking about getting an electrician in to fix some stuff like the outlet that the ex-husband left the bared wire just hanging out of the wall in (which I have had checked and have been assured is not live) and maybe check the bedroom outlets to see if they can handle an air conditioner because after last summer's sleeping in front of the open front door on a folding bed with fans going, I think maybe I'm ready to see about a/c.

After over a year without a pet, I adopted a couple of cats from the SPCA at the very end of December.  One might even say the "tail-end" if one were in a cheap pun sort of mood.  *ahem*  Things are certainly a lot livelier in my house than they used to be.  I have to remind myself to speak to them, because I'm used to not speaking at all when I'm home.  Even when I'm playing with them, I have to remind myself to make some noise -- and we do have a daily game of Chase The Red Dot.

The snowdrops have come up in the front yard, so I am hopeful that this winter is actually going to end.  But then comes Bug Season and Lively Critter In The Garage Season and Mowing Season and....

Laurie
(Also, I set up this email address years and years and years ago, back when One Did Not Use One's Actual Name On The Internet and no matter what I do, I can't get it to now display my actual name, so I eventually gave up.  It's all good; I was never part of a Collective, anyway, so I'm just the same Laurie as always.)



On Sat, Mar 1, 2025 at 11:09 PM Mina Ellyse Warren <ellyssian@gmail.com> wrote:
I'm preparing to move *partially* across the country... back to New England, although skipping over Massachusetts and going to New Hampshire.  Pretty sure I mentioned that in one of the other recent emails, but prepping for that move is about all I do right now.

I still do software engineering, and still database stuff.  The place I've been at 5 years later this month has exactly one customer for our very extensive development department: the business.  We keep joking we'll write our own database engine one of these days because that's how we do things.

My oldest son is married, and I have one granddaughter (they also gave me my first grandchild, my grandcat Jasper).

My middle son is currently doing casino security, but is a linguist and English teacher.   He might be heading overseas to take a job using both of those skillsets.

My youngest, who was born around the time I first stepped into the House (plus or minus a bit), and who supplied the world with Brandonisms that still make my heart happy when I think of them will be 21 this Autumn.

I still play music (just ordered my first nylon string guitar... finally! wanted one for four decades!) but I stopped "touring" back in May 2019.

And also somehow my world fame didn't come from my music or my writing... but as a model (and a photographer; and no, I can't figure it out, either.)   I may not be doing (much/any) poetry or fiction writing, but I've had fans write both for me.   Boggles me completely.

Cheers,
        Mina Ellyse


--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Tamson House" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to tamson-house+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.


--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Tamson House" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to tamson-house+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.


--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Tamson House" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to tamson-house+unsubscribe@googlegroups.com.

  • Digg
  • Del.icio.us
  • StumbleUpon
  • Reddit
  • RSS
Read User's Comments0
Posted by Unknown
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)