A little of everything
5 June 2025 09:26![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
missdianeBullet 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.
- 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.
no subject
Date: 5 Jun 2025 13:40 (UTC)Yay to the majority of the move going smoothly, at least. Thank heavens for small mercies, right?
So your apartment lease is through the end of June? That's helpful then, to allow you more time to move all the little stuff over and clean. So. Much. Stuff. It's a real issue, isn't it?
I'm really glad that you have moved in with Emily, to give support to each other and hopefully reduce your costs of living. Hope all continues well for you.
no subject
Date: 5 Jun 2025 13:57 (UTC)Thanks for the well wishing. We're doing good, though I want to pull my weight. She offered to do my laundry today which I politely declined (I still need to bring over dirty clothes from the old location anyway). Yeah it's going downstairs but she has enough of her own mobility issues that unless I'm in bad shape, I don't want to take advantage of her good nature. I also want JonJon to approach her more and get comfortable with her before I schedule my surgery, though.
My lease originally went to the end of December and they're being kind enough not to impose penalties to end it early. I picked the end of June for that overlap since I knew that it would take some time to get it all cleared out and cleaned up before handing over the keys.
no subject
Date: 7 Jun 2025 15:23 (UTC)Does this house have air conditioning? I hope so for your sake!
How is JonJon adjusting?
no subject
Date: 7 Jun 2025 18:17 (UTC)I now have central air - BLISS. I went to the apartment this morning to try to sort and clean more stuff and it was so horribly muggy. The wall AC unit would not have lasted me another season as it was barely making a dent in the humid stuffiness. It's going to take me the rest of the month to slowly pack, move, clear and clean since it's so yucky now so I'm glad I built that in.
The boy is still working on it. The visit from the electrician set him back a bit and he was back to not wanting to eat but fortunately that resolved itself later in the evening. I'm expecting that with Emily's family coming over on Tuesday that it'll be another thing to deal with. I'll shut the door to the bedroom so hopefully he bounces back ok. If he starts crying, I'll go hang out with the little guy.
no subject
Date: 6 Jun 2025 03:23 (UTC)Y'all are SO NICE to be willing to host the birthday parties - I don't think I would be nearly as nice in your situation :D ESPECIALLY since "hosting" has morphed from "providing the space" to "planning the damn party and paying for everything" - wth?
no subject
Date: 7 Jun 2025 18:20 (UTC)The poster turned out well hehehe. We're going to do the best we can to get the place looking mostly done (which also might involve stashing some things in the basement LOL). Part of this is to show that it's OUR place now, not her sister's.
no subject
Date: 8 Jun 2025 02:29 (UTC)hah I love that you are metaphorically peeing in the corners :D