Work, work, work

About done with the 80% of the work that takes 20% of the time.  Doing it with as little prep as possible.  No plastic on surfaces, no masking tape anywhere.  If I slop a bit of paint, I wipe it up right away, but generally I don't slop a drop.  

The beige is a good neutral shade and a big improvement on the deep tan that was there before.  One more coat tomorrow, and then PG and I will share the trimming duties.

Besides the painting, I did my day job for the standard 8 hours, and I wrote about 500 words for supporters of a Special Needs cat.  My secret?  All month long, I'm taking notes, scraps to put each visit in memory.  Also, I'm looking for cat-related items to work into the letter.  This month, the praying imam who was climbed by a cat; Charles Barkley's deliberately offensive take on cats; a photo story in a NJ newspaper.  

If I write something that doesn't fit in the 500 words one month, I save it for possible future use.  At the end of the month, we're given a summary of the health of our assigned cat.  So I'm assembling something consisting of medical news, pop culture references, and a little story involving the cat.  The framework looks like this:

1) Hi (I usually don't spend much time on it, because often I wind up writing about myself instead of the cat.  Address the reader; "May greetings to you, and to all Buddy's buddies!")

2) Health (the cat's medical issues are the reason for this letter, so put it up front for the sponsor)

3) Anecdote (I've learned that something always happens to write about.  Just keep your eyes and ears open and be ready to record it.)

4) Kicker (always leave 'em laughing)

5) KTHXBAI (thank the donor and sign off.  Keep it short and simple.)

I reserve the right to shuffle the order of the five steps, and even to skipping one of them.  #2 and #5 are the only mandatory ones.