Little fiend is 19 years old

My morning eyes read that as Little Friend and thought it was a very sweet way to refer to the kid sister.

Yay holiday. I stayed in bed until 9:30, but it doesn't count much since I was up until 4 cleaning viruses off DH's tablet. Good grief, he had no virus protection at all. And not only does he engage in unsafe computing, he has teenage boys that use his computer. I think I got it all, but it needs a bit more scrubbing. I'd sleep, but my body still woke up at 6. Stupid body.

I plan on dragging my laptop back into bed and catching up on some BSG.

My morning eyes read that as Little Friend and thought it was a very sweet way to refer to the kid sister.

Hey, "little fiend" is a nick name. "Criminal" is my mom's choice. I love my sister, but the creature never heard of tact and sometimes allows herself way too much because she knows she'll get away with a lot because she's so gorgeous and adorable. Hence nicknames. Right now with "being in dangerous zone to have your army service in and having other people's lives on your shoulders responsibility" she basically gets away with almost anything, and the way she returns to be a 5 year old around us never stops to amaze me. Oh well, she is a funny one.

Finished work. Going to have a nap, then volunteering and cooking. Which reminds me, we have here other Buffistas who are not from U.S. here, right? Because I might need some help for some comparative research.

Hivemind question: I just took a freelance job, designing and editing a short how-to book for a friend of my boss. I have no clue what to charge for this! I said yes because of who the man is. I've worked with my boss for 15 years and this friend of his has been visiting him the whole time, so I've gotten to know him, his sons, wife, daughters-in-law and grand kids.

So, I want to be fair to both of us. the complicating issues are having to brush up on InDesign, and I'm using some of my work assets while doing my regular job. I've been going into the office this weekend to get this jump started because my tiny old iMac's screen can't contain all of the InDesign pallettes very well. I will do some of it at home, but I needed my bigger screen at work to get started.

So, if anyone has done this kind of freelance work and can give me advice on how to figure this out, I would very much appreciate it.

my profile address is good, or here would be good too.

Which reminds me, we have here other Buffistas who are not from U.S. here, right?

Have you visited the UnAmericans thread? It isn't very active, so easy to keep up with. The thread name is All Ogle, No Cash -- It's Not Just Annoying, It's Un-American .

Have you visited the UnAmericans thread?

No, actually I haven't. Thanks!

I just put two loaves of banana bread in the oven (one baby-safe with no nuts, one parent-safe with nuts, chocolate, and rum) and am waiting for DH to come back from the park with D so we can eat lunch. I will be so sad when this long weekend is over.

Ooh, I have to do something with some bananas today. Must think on that.

I had a mini baguette from TJs that got rock hard in a week of sitting on my counter, so last night I sliced it up and made a french toast batter with milk, eggs and coconut. Poured it over top and baked this morning - so delicious. Came out as kind of a cross between french toast and bread pudding surrounded with a custard from the excess liquid.

I'm also still so amused at how much the dog likes veggie bacon.

Oh, Shir, if you want to post red dress options I'm sure people will help you out. I LOVE vicarious online shopping!

I'm working at home today so that I'm not scrambling to get stuff done before I leave on vacation on Thursday. Would resent not being able to go enjoy this beautiful day more I think if I wasn't pretty hung over. Campari cocktail, so delicious and so headache making.

I just got back fromt he vet. Pico has not really been eating much for the last few days, and started moving very slowly this weekend, and not interested in his usual things (food, catnip, and going outside) $400 later, the vet can't find anything wrong with him.

Of course, I fed him some special cat food when we got home, and he gobbled it up. Maybe he's just a very expensive fussy eater.

I think I need a scotch.

So, if anyone has done this kind of freelance work and can give me advice on how to figure this out, I would very much appreciate it.

quester, in terms of *design* only, not editing -- how many pages is it, and what is the layout like? For instance, since it's a book, I'm assuming that the design/content of each page is more or less the same (unlike a newsletter/brochure/etc.) Which would make it less time-intensive than a project where the contents of each page are variable.

If that's the case, can you do a quick-and-dirty test case to see how many pages you can reasonably do in an hour? Then you have a rough time estimate for the layout part of it.

$30 an hour is the lowest I go, and that's for the nuns whose newsletter I do, since they run the high school I attended. It's a combination "friend"/okay-I-won't-grift-nuns rate.

Pricing for editing is a hard call. You *could* fold the editing into the overall rate. Say, $40/hr, design and editing inclusive, depending on how much editing the thing needs.

I have a hard time with quoting freelance rates, too.

I don't know how many of these links are still active, but here's a site with some resources on how to price your freelance work: [link]

Here's another article (from 2000) about how to charge: [link]

Here's a page from 2007 with sample rates from around the country for design, desktop publishing (it annoys me that these 2 are separate, but whatever), and web design: [link]

t edit Seattle Writer Grrls have an excellent resource page: [link]