Life is a combination of magic and pasta.

So much a Monday today. Aches, annoying coworkers, lots of work.

Elaine was pestering me again about belatedly celebrating my birthday since we couldn't do it when I was moving so I agreed on Wednesday for breakfast. We have a standing team meeting on Wednesday meetings so we'll do it remotely. I requested to go to Ellinikon which is technically down the street from where I live (so I may or may not go into work before that). It's a little place but they have delicious pastry, coffee, iced tea, salads, sandwiches, and omelets. Elaine full well heard me say I wanted to go there but then did "oh so we're going to Dish Cafe?" No, Ellinikon. I sent them the Yelp link and then Elaine whined that she wanted to go to someplace that has pancakes or waffles. WOMAN, this is to observe my 55th birthday, I PICK. Not my fault you eat like a three year old, you'll live.

I did have to give hugs this morning to Noor at work who had to put down her sick doggy on Thursday. We were talking on Teams the day before she had to euthanize him and clearly needed support that she was doing the right thing. She'd been taking such good care of him for the last six years when she inherited him from her grandmother when she died. Doggy had been sick for many years and just kept gradually getting worse no matter what she did. It was past time for the pup and I talked her through it that it was the most humane thing she could do for him. She's already a very sensitive gal and so it's a struggle for her right now. She did blow up my phone with texts on Saturday since she and her family watched KPop Demon Hunters like I suggested and she ADORED it. Heh.

I have an appointment Tuesday the 29th with the gyno to consult and likely schedule the hysterectomy. I'm going to shoot for late September/October. That'll get most of my work fuss out of the way where things should be able to sustain themselves for several weeks. Also, maybe I can get back on track with eating better to get some of the extra "fluff" off before surgery.

The other house is in no way ready for habitation yet so Emily's niece Nea will be in one of Emily's rooms upstairs sometime soon. To get ready for her, we're hoping that the guy that painted the two rooms for us can come and patch the wall that her nephew did a number on can come this week to fix it. He came to give an estimate late last week and it'll be a few hundred dollars. I asked her if she wanted to paint the room which she wasn't sure and I said hey, while he's there, at least paint the patched wall for a feature wall, maybe the kitchen yellow or the purple from my room. It can be repainted some other time but at least it'll be a uniform color. We'll see. Thursday Emily is having another Ikea delivery so that Nea will have something to sleep on. Emily had intended that room to be an office/guest space anyway so this just sped up the decision making. We're not sure still how long she'll be staying.

Anyway, gotta get back to work. Hope everyone is doing ok. All the hugs.

Have you ever seen these bells? A reverse image search tells me that they're mass produced by a place called Jasco.




Emily found them in a shoebox with her Mom's stuff at the house that we're clearing and I didn't notice them until this evening since she put them on one of the bookcases. They caught my eye because I thought they looked familiar. I asked her about them and she assumes that they were a gift from years ago meant to represent her and her sister.

Now here's the REALLY odd thing. I went up to them and picked them up, trying to see if they were Avon. My mom sold Avon. They weren't but then it keeps nagging at my brain that we had these figurines too! They are from 1978 and/or 1979. I messaged my sister with the pictures and she thought so too, that my parents kept them on the upstairs bookcase with our encyclopedias. Sis also thought they were Avon and evidently Jasco sometimes sold things through Avon.

But the most bizarre thing is that there were a bunch of these bells make by Jasco. Whole sets. But these two particular ones are the only ones that Emily has and the only ones that I remember ME having growing up.

Received a call from the doc's office saying the doc recommended Zetia and would I consider it. I did the quickest of googles and agreed to it. I'm not sure if the doc needs to call and talk to me or if they'll just send through a script.

Anyhoo, anyone take Zetia and if so, what has your experience been like? Looks like that I'll have no choice but to buckle down on a healthy and low-fat diet on that one. Well, that's fine.

My right knee (the "good" one that is becoming not so good) has decided to swell up all nicely from the tons of activity yesterday with the 2nd junk hauling round and then loading my car to the brim with stuff and then moving it inside the house even with Emily's niece's help. Thankfully, Emily was awesome early this morning and helped me get the rest of the crap out of the apartment that wouldn't fit into my car yesterday while I bustle-shuffled around and cleaned the stove and the sinks and put a little touch up paint on the fridge. The wet swiffering on the floor grossed me out but that's what happens when you move out the stuff that you can't move to clean under. It looks "good enough" for a place that didn't have new appliances and such when I moved in nearly a decade ago. Hopefully I'll get the lion's share of my deposit back.

I texted the maintenance/super and arranged a time of 9am Monday to do the walkthrough and key handoff. I'm sure it's going to be a quick one since tomorrow is supposed to get near 100 and Monday even worse. I left all the blinds down except I think I forgot the kitchen. Whatever, I'm not doing those damned stairs again. I'm absolutely THRILLED that I only have one more time up and down the blasted things.

Yesterday I finally received my check from my cut of Dad's life insurance. Sis had previously sent me $500 via zelle since she thought maybe the check she got was the only one but then I got one yesterday for $1023 so I sent her back the $500. We don't know whether our brother got a third piece of it and we're not going to ask. Having the extra funds will help with the extermination of the carpenter ants at the house that will happen on Tuesday (about $650). He couldn't find the source and there fortunately wasn't any considerable damage he could see but it had to be treated in the past and with the number of them we've been seeing, especially in the kitchen, yeah, it needs treatment. They'll spray around the outside perimeter and in the basement and will put baits in the kitchen. Nothing unsafe for JonJon (he is NOT ALLOWED in the basement anyway).

After a trip to the Stop & Shop mostly for drinks, Emily and I are inside today. We may sneak out early tomorrow morning to get some odds and ends at Wegmans tomorrow morning but other than that, with temps to be near and over 100, we're hunkering down. I'll have to see how the lined curtains in my office hold up when I return on Tuesday. Also depends on whether Elaine leaves the AC running. We're supposed to turn it off when we leave but she rarely remembers. I'll be digging out my coolest work acceptable dresses to wear through the nasty heat.

Hope everyone is doing well. All the hugs

As recommended by the previous doctor I had and the current one agreed to (but didn't go to bat to try to get insurance to cover it completely so I had to pony up $99), I went for a coronary artery calcium CT on Thursday morning and got the results on Friday.

On this one, the ideal score is 0 but since I'm on high blood pressure medication and have borderline high cholesterol and am diabetic (controlled with a lower dose of metformin) and also because I have a family history, I didn't expect it to be 0. It turns out my score is 91 all in my Left Circumflex. The text said this:

Interpretation: Calcium Score = 11-100. Definite, at least mild atherosclerotic plaque burden. There are likely
mild or minimal coronary stenoses. The implications for cardiovascular risk are moderate.

and
This patient's Agatston coronary artery calcium score corresponds to the percentile range: 75-90th.
This means that between 10 to 25% of people in this patient's demographic group (women aged 55-59) will have
a higher calcium score.

It doesn't seem super bad, thankfully, and makes me more comfortable for when I need to schedule the hysterectomy. However I should make some other changes. I'm still leery of incorporating statins but I do remember that both parents took the low dose aspirin so I might get some. I also need to continue to improve my eating and also get regular exercise. Right now my exercise consists of cleaning out the old stupid apartment and then I'll get back to the old people pool at the Y.

Anyone else take this test?

The birthday for her sister was awkward but going fine until they were wrapping things up to leave (they were only at the house for an hour and a half) and Emily's sister started gaslighting her and being an absolute diva for NO reason. I was in the bedroom hanging out with JonJon at that point since I knew he wasn't comfortable with the people noise. I resisted going out since I didn't want to aggravate the situation any further but I took note that if there are any more gatherings, I will be out in MY living room and if she makes an ass of herself again, she'll have a non-family audience for it which is something I know she doesn't want. From her passive aggressive commentary earlier during dinner, she seemed annoyed that we "made changes" to the house, that the outdoor rugs they left behind and wanted to collect that day were "ruined" (bitch, they were absolutely NASTY when we moved in, don't try to imply we did anything to them), that we weren't going to give them all the leftovers in our glass containers (that we knew we wouldn't get back). Just ridiculous stuff. She acted as if she liked the silly poster but I could tell it annoyed her since she has no sense of humor. She didn't take that nor the birthday card that Emily gave her.

While I was hanging with my fur boy, I could hear her blathering on about how she does so much for everyone and implied that she gets nothing in return...you know, not like Emily didn't just spend $350 on fancy catering and cake and hosted her family for her birthday. Mind, in the house that Emily bought back in 2020 for her sister and the kids to live in where her sister didn't pay anywhere close to the cost of the mortgage and only contributed the equivalent of less than half of what would be rent for our area (yet she thought she had equity in the house when it was time for her to move...yeahhhhh no). Her older daughter started crying and she started antagonizing her about that and trying to force her to come outside to "talk" to her about it.

Appalling to know that she's a social worker in a nearby school district.

As much as we want to be DONE with her and her jerk of a wife, next week is the twins birthday and naturally neither one of them want to do the same thing for the observance of their 19th. Emily's nephew wants McDonald's and ice cream. Emily's niece wants sushi and a confetti cake. There's no place near where the kids live to host the family aside from our house. The next morning, I suggested something to Emily which I hope we can make it happen to keep from hosting again anytime soon. I told her to tell her niece to go along with the McDonalds and ice cream plan so they can go OUT and do that. And then on Friday the 20th when Emily and I are already off since Rutgers will be observing Juneteenth that day, we can take her out separately for sushi and have a confetti cake for her. She wants one of those sushi boats which naturally isn't cheap but I'd split it with her. Emily doesn't eat sushi but I found a place nearby that does the boats and also has other stuff Emily can eat. So hopefully we can make the plan happen.

In other news:
- I got my heart CT this morning so fingers crossed for a low score.
- Poor JonJon can't catch a break since yesterday afternoon the landscaping crew came and were finally able to trim back bushes and trees and prickly things that were overhanging the ramp on the side of the house. There was SO much noise and he was struggling to find a place to escape from it. He ended up for most of it crouched down near the one side of the couch next to where Emily was lounging. Hopefully that means he's starting to see her as a safe person
- I have a three day weekend coming up since I'm taking the next three Mondays off to use up my use vacation days as not to lose any at the fiscal year end this month. It looks like I'd better use this weekend to try to clear out as much as possible at the apartment since the weekend after is forecast to be in the 90s
- Fingers crossed that a check shows up today or tomorrow. My sister contacted me since she was finally going through Dad's stuff and helped file the paperwork for a small insurance policy. She let me know that she received a check for a little over $1K the day before yesterday so hoping mine shows up soon. That'll certainly help my poor depleted savings.
- Work is...work. New person that I was "meh" about in the interview seems ok but I have no illusions that she'll actually be recruited to learn about my stuff. Paperwork to try to reclassify my position still needs submitted but Josh and Elaine are reportedly "working on it" and fingers crossed that Congress doesn't go along with the Orange Menace's plan to eliminate Hatch funding. We have hopeful news that the appropriations committee is working to not have it defunded.

Speaking of work, time to get back to it. Hugs for y'all. Hoping soon to feature some house fun pictures.

Bullet points would probably be easiest so here goes. Leaving out a lot

- JonJon is not a confident kitty, though he never has been. When moving, he at first was too scared to leave his carrier the whole time we had him confined in the new bathroom (with all the stuff we could put in there to make him comfy and smell like him). He did eventually move to the bedroom next door but it took a while before he was peeing, eating and pooing more normally. He is better on the bodily functions but is VERY clingy, shy of Emily and only wanders out of the bedroom on occasion. I had to put one of the litterboxes in the bedroom for now. But making some progress. He also does seem to love his kitty tree in the bedroom looking out onto the deck where squirrels frolic across and much more green small backyard.

- Move otherwise went well enough and junking too. I still have lots of dumb stuff to sort and bring over through this month. Amazing what can be tetris-ed into a small one bedroom place.

- The floors at the apartment looked far better than I expected after getting rid of the area rugs that were there for a decade. Still tons of dustbunnies and patching after I manage to get all of the stuff out.

- Emily is justifiably annoyed with her sister's wife who pushed us into hosting the birthday for her sister on this upcoming Tuesday but doesn't want to plan anything. Bitch. Fine, well since we can't do the screenprinting on the ice cream cake she wants, we're going to have a poster or banner made with more embarrassing pictures of her sister. We're also inviting her sister's ex since the ex currently has two of the kids living with her. We're getting catering from a local pizza/pasta place and I told Emily do NOT buy a gift because all this is more than enough.

- We may be hosting again for cake the week after since the twins birthday is then. Poor JonJon ain't going to get a break from STRANGE PEOPLE being in HIS house. Poor little dude.

- Had a huge OH SHIT this week. Looks like by the proposed budget, they are trying to completely eliminate USDA Hatch funding and slash McIntire-Stennis forestry funding in half (along with halving Extension funding and defunding SNAP-ED). If that happens, it will destroy many experiment stations around the nation. NJ will shrink and well, if it happens, I'll have a lot smaller job but eh, should still be employed. We got some hopeful news that the appropriations committee is going to fight to restore it but we need to make some hard decisions until then.

- I'm pissed off at the shitty union that I'm in by default. Thankfully I don't pay dues. But the raise this year is a flat fee which fucks me over. It's 3.5% of the average salary, but I am a grade 6 administrator (still underpaid and working on an upgrade) which means I get the same raise as someone many grades below me that just started. How is that AT ALL fair?

Ok, back to work. Whew.

As I was telling halfmoon_mollie, I think Emily's sister is jealous. I don't recall if I mentioned that Emily purchased the house that we're moving into back in 2020 for her sister, Eleanor, and the kids since her sister had to sell the house she was in due to divorce proceedings and her credit kinda sucks. Anyway, her sister has come by a couple of times to drop off/pick up stuff and while she grudgingly admitted that the kitchen yellow is much better than the shade that was there before, she turned up her nose at my purple. The other day she made a snarky comment about the fun colorful rugs that we have in the living and dining room. It's like she either thinks she some elite taste (no, no you don't) or that she has some say in how the house looks even though 1) She never owned the place and 2) She wasn't even paying the full mortgage price for rent (she paid about half of what someone would be renting in our expensive town) and yet was annoyed thinking that she some stake of ownership in the house for the five years that she was there and her teenage kids made a pretty thorough mess of it. Riiiiight.

Well anyway, Eleanor's new wife asked Emily if it would be ok if they held Eleanor's birthday in mid-June at the house since the kids live up here and they are down in Mount Holly. Emily asked me and I said that would be just fine, if nothing else, it'll give us the motivation to continue unpacking and updating and organizing. Emily has been getting railroaded by her sister pretty much her entire life, though, and Emily is just DONE with her bossy, entitled attitude. But for the kids and since it's not a huge request, sure, we'll host the shindig. Naturally that means we'll be feeding everyone and stuff. That's ok, if we want to cook, both Emily and I are FAR better at cooking than Eleanor so we can show off there (which I'm sure Eleanor will turn up her nose at stuff just to be petty). Then I had an idea last night which messaged Emily and she is ALL in for it. I was looking at what kind of cake to get for this and I knew Wegmans makes tasty cakes. I was looking at their options and an evil grin started on my face. What I asked Emily is if she has any dorky pictures of Eleanor so that we can get it screenprinted on the cake. This is what Emily has found so far:


Hopefully the resolution is good enough for the cake since that is FABULOUS. hahahahahahahaha.

Got a call from the movers to confirm our Monday appointment for the estimate and now while they can do the junk collection on the 29th, they can't do the move. They have "some availability" on the 27th or it has to go to early June. I am going to push for the 27th, otherwise I'll just find a different moving company. Because I've already booked to move my Verizon service on the 29th and I'd prefer not to mess with that. If I move on the 27th, Emily can let me use her little hot spot if I end up WFH on the afternoon on the 28th.

That and one of the things that needs junked is my bedframe and box spring since the mattress is moving to the house on top of a daybed frame so if the junk is before the move, well, I'll have to find a way to clean the floor so the mattress could hang out there until the move. Which reminds me that I need to find a way to get the few things out from under the bed.

They're still coming to tour the apartment to give the estimate for the move on this coming Monday afternoon. I'm going to see what small stuff I can organize and move this weekend so I can keep assessing what I have and what to do with it. Ugh. SO MUCH TO DO.

I bit the bullet and decided on when to move and picked Thursday May 29. I got hold of College Hunks and the junk removal is scheduled for 8a-10a on that day but before they can schedule the move, they need to come for an estimate so that's scheduled for the 19th between 3-5. It's not going to be cheap but I wasn't expecting it would since I've been at my current apartment for just about 10 years.

Each day I throw together a moving bag full of whatever random bits go in it and bring it to the house. Emily asked me to bring over most all of the dishes/silverware the other day so that we could run them through the dishwasher and so she can use them while she's at the house so got that done. I still have plenty of other cups/utensils/etc. to go there. I think this afternoon I'll try to fill two of the bags with clothing that I'm not likely to wear since I have the closet to hang them in. I'm going to make my best effort to get most all of the little stuff sorted through and either brought to the house or donated over this weekend and then over the holiday weekend.

When it comes to the office move, I've moved all of my supplies and files to the office next door, now I'm just waiting for the IT dude to get off his ass to move my computer, phone and printer since those will have to be configured to the network. Hopefully that'll be this week. Also, Elaine is annoying me since they haven't committed as to when they're setting up the system for her new person who doesn't start until the 27th. She also was REALLY pissing me off with her martyr-ish "Oh gosh, maybe I'll have to come in the office over Memorial Day weekend to get it ready for (new person)." She'd said this before and the fact that she's bringing it up again is sticking in my craw. So I raised a brow and said
Me: "What do you actually need to DO to *finger quotes* get it ready *finger quotes*? Are you going to somehow figure out how to hook up her computer system?
Her: Uh...no.
Me: So you're going to bring a carpet shampooer instead of asking Marciela to clean the carpet?
Her: Uh...no.
Me: So what is it? What do you need to come in on a holiday weekend for?
Her: Muttermutter

She didn't have an answer. Because it's RUDE AS HELL to insinuate that I'm leaving the space dirty which I am NOT. Right now I've cleared out and cleaned the 8 foot high steelcase file cabinet, the bookcase, the desk drawers and most of the desk. All that needs left is once my computer stuff is moved is to wipe that down and arrange to have the mini fridge thawed out in case she needs it available for breast milk. To insinuate that she needs to *flail, fainting couch* come in on the hoooolllidayyy is INSULTING.

Anyhoo, just occurred that I should see if Verizon can move my internet over that day or the day after...