Life is a combination of magic and pasta.

Did someone send me a thing via Amazon? I don't remember who has already asked for my new address and I'm SO confused. 

The moving estimate guy came yesterday afternoon. Really nice, down to earth and I felt comfortable with the company. As I suspected, the 27th really wasn't available but they did have the morning Friday the 30th available since they had a cancellation so I have paid my deposit and snagged it. They also rescheduled the junk haul to be the morning of the 31st which is handy. I'm not going to bother to change my Verizon appointment for the afternoon of the 29th since Emily will loan me her hotspot for that night. She's going to start sleeping at the house later this week since her bed is all set up and will work on bringing clothes and other stuff over gradually.

I'm glad that they're able to fit me in that day since the forecast looks like starting on the 31st, it's going to start getting hot again. I'm curious what the floors will look like once they're uncovered. Also, FYI, 3M velcro picture hangers come off far more cleanly than 3m hooks. I'm going to have a good amount of spackling to do in order to make sure I get the lion's share of my deposit back.

My "good" knee is not now so good and going up and down stairs truly sucks. Emily's niece offered to help so I'm going to book some time with her later this week/over the weekend to heft packed bags down my stairs and then we'll drive the couple blocks to the house. If I can get the surfaces all cleared off and most of the other small clutter moved before the movers come, all the better. I'll see if she wants cash or if she wants to go for sushi or dumplings for payment lol.

The house is slowly starting to look more like people are moving in though we still have plenty to do. Tomorrow hopefully the landscapers can come since the grass can used mowed and we're going to have a bigger bill this time since we're going to have them hack back bushes and stuff. Once the bushes are chopped back, I'll be able to get the hose stretched onto the back porch to see if I can get a few layers of green removed from the siding.

Ok, back to the work that pays for this move.

Hopefully with my fancy office, we can get me a more fancy title and pay rate. Working on it. Just glad that one of the moves is DONE. Long way to go on the home move.

The only other thing that needs done is to get the curtains up but I need to take down the curtain rod and metallic 3M hooks at home for that. I don't have a space to use one of them at the new house so may as well use them at work. That and they're no longer to drill into the walls to put anything up since there's asbestos up in there that needs to stay encapsulated. Lovely.

Anyway, a few pictures of the new space.
The window in need of curtains which yeah, I got some at Ikea that should cover most all of the window except for the half moon at the top. That will be needed with summer heat


The panels are also sound barriers. I left the green ones on the wall in the old office for the new gal. She may want us to order more panels for the wall between her and Josh since it's paper thin. This is the wall people will see when I'm on a Zoom call. Also, coffeeeeee


This should work fine. I may want to pivot one of my screens for zoom fun since otherwise it gets ALL the light right into the camera

Just randomness:

I went to all the trouble of getting a few pretty plants at the plant sale on campus and I potted them in the big urn looking pot thingie at the bottom of the steps at the house. The next morning? GONE. Evidently the deer went "OOO, SALAD!" and just ONNOMNOMed it. Guys, seriously? You couldn't let me enjoy it a while? Hmph. Well, not this year but maybe next year if I get into the gardening thing (aside from the pots on the back porch that I hope the deer don't go up the ramp), I saw on the list of deer resistant plants that they don't seem to like a lot of herbs. Well hey, I do like herbs and they're useful so the front yard splotch next to the steps might just become a small herb garden. Silly deerses.

Moving offices at the same time as moving house is tiring. Still have a long way to go with the house but the bedroom closet guts have been replaced, Ikea furniture is being steadily built and I'm taking over bags of random stuff about each day. I should see if I can figure out when I can actually clear enough to schedule movers and junk collectors for the big stuff. Still aiming before the end of the month in the hopes of beating the worst of the summer heat.

How to make simple carbs like white rice and pasta healthier? Chill it! Well hey, it is about the season for pasta and potato salads and I do like to cook rice in batches for later consumption.

Ok, back to work. I so tired.

Dude, the pope is now an AMERICAN????

Mind...boggled.

Yeah, I had to use the icon I did. I'm goin' to hell, I'm sure lol

I'm not quite certain but I'll stick things out a while and see. I brought my previous labs and such but right from the get go she was all strong pressure about statins (really don't want to go there), increasing my metformin (uh..why? My A1c went down and is almost back in the "prediabetic" range from January), weight loss injections (can we reeeally not add more inevitable side effects right now?), at home sleep study (good luck with that, feline interruptions as well as my bladder in overtime due to the masses on it won't play out well there). And this was with minimal actual questions about lifestyle, etc.

However, she did send a script for Xanax (used mostly for back spasms or when I'm on the edge of panic, not usually more than 20 pills for an entire year), did sign my paperwork to get my renewal of my handicapped placard (need to go there but not today) and we're going to retest cholesterol and A1c before making decisions on cholesterol meds. Oh and the calcium heart test that the previous doc wanted to do but they wouldn't answer their phone/online portal/DOOR.

Evidently being diabetic means being seen every three months? dayum. I have an appointment for August but I don't know if I can squeeze the surgery in before that depending on when I get moved.

I emailed the leasing company to ask about early termination and also tossed in some bits about moving to a place that has disabled-friendly amenities for a touch of insurance. They at first emailed the part from the lease saying that they'd charge two months rent for early termination but I hadn't yet seen that since I was on the way home and they called when I was sorting out lunch for the boy.

They said that since I was such a good tenant for so long that they'd waive those charges and explained about the walkthrough process and stuff. So now I gotta be out of here by June 30. I picked that instead of May 30 since while I'm hoping that I can move within the month, I didn't want to rush too much and end up screwing up my back. That and it'll give me plenty of time to clean and to patch walls (note 3M hooks don't always come off cleanly)

But now it's REAL real. Eeep!

House update

( Cut for pictures )

So that's the construction-y progress so far. The cleaner is going to come next week so once that's done, we're going to start slowly moving things over in bits in our zippered moving bags. I also ordered a full size daybed frame, a lumbar pillow for the daybed so I can lean against it when sleeping and a rug for the bedroom. I shopped sales and looked for discounts. I am obviously having them shipped to the new place and will drag them in when they arrive but won't open the boxes if they arrive before the cleaner.

Tomorrow is my annual review and thankfully Josh is going to do it. Hopefully we don't have to track down old bitch Bosslady to have her sign off on anything. We're going to be talking about upgrading my job. We had a surprise last week when Josh had a conversation with the head of the Business/HR/Budget office who mentioned to him that he was hoping that he could pass off the duties of the idiot business guy I've dealt with for a decade.

Um...wut? I mean while he's a dumbass and needs replaced, I wasn't thinking that *I* would be replacing his job. I'm not a business person and I've not done any of it though I guess I could learn it. Well, I'll be telling Josh that anything that doesn't have to do with the land-grant stuff can be passed to someone else in the business office. Also, one of the other people on my "team" is going to take some of it. We're going to talk about that. They also may have her report to me which woo, minion, I suppose. Though not really, probably more on paper. I don't like that it's also not being proposed to make me the same level as Elaine or as my equivalent in the Extension office. We'll see.

Oh and no, I won't feel one bit bad that idiot business guy will lose his job. He's been a burden and a waste of space for more than a decade. He does the bare minimum and does it badly and he STILL saves the shit from his side gig on our shared drive.

It's a lot, though. Everything's a lot right now and it's quite the Jenga stack with missing bits.

Emily got a quote of a little over $3000 for the basement demo work, including getting rid of stairs that are NOT to code (we suspected) and it also includes putting in a new set of stairs. Sounds like a reasonable start to me. We weren't sure when it was going to be scheduled and then she got a message today that he had a cancellation and can he start this Tuesday. YOU BET YOU CAN. They're going to put the dumpster in the driveway tomorrow and then one of us will need to make sure we're there on Tuesday to let him in to get work started.

After the demo and the stair reconstruction, since the ceiling the previous owners slapped in will be down and things will be exposed, then the contractor will call in the electrician to see what needs done there (only half of the basement has power at the moment). Our goal here is not anything fancy, make it safe and functional. Also half of the floor is dirt so that'll have to be taken care of too. Our aim is to have laundry, freezer and mini fridge (Emily has that at her current house) and storage, mostly wire racks and boxes.

It would be awesome if all of the work could be done by summer since I loathe being in this apartment in summer. Her sister still needs to clear some things out and near the end of this month, her sister's cleaning lady Millie will be doing a deep clean - thank goodness because it NEEDS it. Once her sister has cleared out the rest of her bits, Emily and I will be bringing over the contents of our places bit by bit to clear space for proper packing of the bigger stuff. We'll probably keep Millie coming every two weeks as long as we both stay gainfully employed. Maybe when I get my surgery, we'll have her come weekly to help out with cleaning.

I have a bag hanging out in my kitchen with two extra long shower curtains and extra long liners that I ordered - 84" since that's what the walk in shower needs. I also got new metal hooks. I'm wondering what I can do to restore the bar that they're hanging from without having to replace it? It looks old and rough. Well, I guess I can just clean it as good as I can and then put WD40 on it so things slide along ok.

I have to replace the bar and shelves in my bedroom closet to be and so I'm going to get this.
https://www.homedepot.com/p/ClosetMaid-Selectives-12-in-W-White-Custom-Tower-Wall-Mount-6-Shelf-Wood-Closet-System-7033/100597846
I won't have shelves on top because the top bars are about 82"-ish high and the while the inner part of the closet is 92", the outer part is 80" so it would be a pain to put anything on top. But they'd be high enough that I'd be able to use the floor space

This is the listing with pictures on the house from when Emily purchased it for her sister and the kids in 2020. The room with the daybed and the bathroom with the flowery curtain are next to each other downstairs so that'll be mostly my domain. The upstairs bathroom is honestly...well...not great so if Emily wants to use my shower, I've no issue sharing. I've measured and have some plans for the best use of the space. 

With her sister, three teens and then her sister getting a new wife, the house is...well...kind of beat up. So we're going to do our best to make it clean and nice before we bring our stuff into it.

I only took photos of the bedroom and bathroom that I feel responsible for making nice. I'll take pictures of the living/dining areas when I go over next time so that I can do some better before/after shots. But here's some of the before of the bedroom and bathroom:

( Snip for Pics )

So that's the so far. Wish us luck!

The Zoom was annoying because it's like they couldn't accept that I don't think hiring the person with no experience is a good idea. It's like they were determined to make me change my mind and agree so that everyone on the ~*~team~*~ is in agreement even though I'd tell them that hey, one dissenting vote is what it is. Hopefully I'll be proven wrong in my assessment and she'll work out well (which that got a passive aggressive reaction from Elaine,good grief piss off, what do you want from me?). If the rest of you feel she's the best person, then proceed with next steps (which they did).

Josh wanted to chat later in the day, which we did. He wanted to let me know that he respects and values my opinion, yadda yadda. I mean the sentiment is appreciated but ugh, that just feels so squicky. We are also evidently going to talk about potential upgrade and stuff next week. I said ok and will do but I internally absolutely cannot get excited for that. I mean yeah, he might try but there's been so many obstacles thrown in my way for no good reason since I'm always toted up as the all knowing, fabulous, wonderful, essential employee in the over 22 years at the University and the 13 years in the department I'm in that until the pay and title I deserve actually happens and I get some help for whatever they'd plan to toss on my plate, I can no longer get my hopes up that it will.

We found out in the meantime that the person they want to make an offer to cannot get a pay upgrade for coming over. It would be a lateral move for them and there isn't enough change in the job she's taking nor any evidence that her skills are high enough that it would warrant a raise. Elaine was allowed to make a verbal offer to see if the person really wanted this job change. We also heard through our campus HR that University HR is going through a conversion in systems and they're all flailing and angsting about it. Are you freaking serious? Candy asses. Their tiny minds would explode at the number of times I've had to learn, test and implement new and complicated systems on the fly. Hell, I'm still on a working group where I was recruited by USDA for the shit system we're using (BTW, just this week USDA finally implemented a change we've been wanting for years that I would bring up in every meeting - go me!)

Aaaanyway, Elaine gave me a call all excited and shit later that the person took the offer. Woo. Good for you. Did she actually expect me to be gleeful or something? I was friendly but ain't no way I'm going to match the manic energy. Also, be prepared to train her yourself since she ain't falling in MY lap until she picks up some skills.

I don't know if it was stress, sleeping wrong that night before or what but my stomach is SO distended since early Friday morning. Elaine looked concerned since yeah, I was not feeling good at all. Last night I had to sleep in the recliner since I couldn't sleep comfortably on either side. This morning it's still pretty big but a bit better than Friday. Just in case, I'm also going to avoid fizzy drinks and anything too acidic.

It's also 80F right now outside. Yuck. I had the windows open last night and was annoyed when the heat kicked on (I have no control of that) and so I put a window in the window and was able to get it just under 70F inside and then now I have all the windows shut. I'm hoping to avoid turning on the AC but I've a feeling I'll have to turn on the living room one this afternoon since my apartment is a heat-seeking missile.

Oh, next Sunday the 6th, I'm going to take the train in to NYC to have an early dinner with the sister and her husband. Reminds me that I'll have to text to see if she was able to find any family photos or mom's recipe cards to bring. At least we're going to go to a fancy dumpling place that she's been to in Vegas and loves. Hey, you had me at dumplings. Politics will NOT be discussed.