First day of 2014?

Really? It is already HOT! It is also humid. I am not a comfortable cat this morning. I am also sleepy and cross.
No, it was quiet around us last night, very quiet for New Year's Eve but there was smoke somewhere - always worrying at this time of year - and I woke at about 2:40am and realised that the Senior Cat had left the hose on the fruit trees at the side. He had put the timer on the hose but the timer had not switched the hose off the way it is supposed.
I have been awake since then. This is not a good thing.
I am now staring at the list of things I must do this year. I will ignore the "real work" list - the academic things - and assault you with the rest of it.
There are two knitting patterns which must be written. These are for my friend Prudence and must be done, proof read and double checked, before the start of the round of Quilt and Craft Fairs. She already has some of my patterns. The money raised from selling the patterns goes to my friend who runs the centre for unaccompanied children in Africa.
There are two books which must be written - one is on the way. There are rough notes for the other one but the characters are refusing to tell me what happens. "Finish the other one first," they are - quite rightly - telling me. I will do as I am told.
I need to go agent hunting again. Where I will do this I am not sure. My friend Vanessa is quite right. I need an agent. Living Downunder demands that. Vanessa has been very kind and encouraging about this but getting an agent seems to be as difficult as getting published... I doubt I would continue except Vanessa has insisted I can do it. We had both pinned our hopes on a personal recommendation from her to an agency she personally knows. I have a sneaking suspicion that the submission was sent at a time when they were busy with other things. It was probably never read.
Sigh. One member of the agency is almost certainly unaware that she follows me on Twitter.
Some of the people who follow me on Twitter puzzle me. It is not that I don't enjoy their company, I do. It just surprises me that they should bother to follow someone they have never met when they have such busy lives. It is nice of them. I will try to do some lively, interested-in-them-and-others sort of tweeting this year.
Then there is knitting to be done. My friend E... needs a new cardigan. Yes, needs. Unlike other people she needs clothes with deep armholes making it easier to dress herself. Her arthritis is now so bad her breathing is severely affected. I can't help her breathing but I can help in other ways. And will I have time to do some other useful-to-others knitting? I hope so.
I need to keep a watchful eye on some other humans too...not just the Senior Cat. Not all of them will be here next year.
Oh yes, the books I need to read. The pile is growing higher. How do I manage to balance on top of it? Read more? When? Read faster? I probably read about as fast as I will ever be able to read - and that is a good deal faster than most people I know. But, I will read.
Write the occasional letter to the paper? Oh yes, I often have something I want to say and other people will tell me I need to do it. It is good to stir the thought pot occasionally.
I am not going to make any New Year's resolutions though. I think I have enough to do.