You're inferring I'm stupid.

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.

I foolishly left the box of pads behind at the apartment and guess what decide to crop up and say hello this evening? It was such a joy to drive the few blocks and enter the stuffy apartment to grab the box of Always - thankfully I put the blinds most of the way down so it was gross but not totally a heatbox even though it got a little over 90F today.

While there getting that, I grabbed the two small grocery bags with cans of kitty food just because I didn't like them sitting in the heat and some other odds and ends to make the trip more worthwhile than tending to my damned pesky uterus with its giant attached blobs.

Small mercies I suppose that I didn't get the unpleasant surprise while down in Princeton at that conference yesterday but still. Bah.

Yeah, I know I need to schedule the stupid surgery. Need to get the apartment stuff done and dusted this month and hopefully by that time, the boy will be adjusted to the new place and his silly auntie Emily.

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.