(Old) Everybody's hiding under a rock in the MMP

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
141

Morning all. Up at 5:15am for B&B (Bladder and Bowels) and then back to bed until nearly 8am. Still have one more soccer problem to solve, then hopefully can close that down and get to actually playing games. Practice with the Under-10’s tonight, we’ll go over some of the set plays (corner kicks, goal kicks) and I’ll do my “Goalkeeping 101” training, so that will keep the night occupied. May make it to the gym, we’ll see how the day goes. It’s bright and shiny outdoors, heading to 65F and into the 70’s by the weekend.

And just got a call from the Appliance folks, they had a cancellation and will be out this afternoon. So maybe no gym but a working dishwasher…I’ll take that trade.

I see I didn’t get a posting in last night, so trying to play a little catch-up.

FCM, don’t blame you for being skeptical, lots of good ‘tell-tales’ on-line, if they want her to buy a lot of expensive stuff that ‘they’ll send a check or pay for’ (like Wheelie), that may be a warning. I really do hope it works out, so much stuff is Work from Home these days.

shoe, not sure you can ever correct slow. Just try and give him the jobs earlier than most or the ones that don’t require speedy work. Or just learn to cuss under your breath…

Oopsie, hope the PIP works. And love the Legos!

Flyboy, dentist bills can add up. I have Dental insurance via the US Government, but so farI haven;t had to use it much.

I set my alarms at odd times, like 6:36am or 7:02am; why? I really don’t know.

JtC, I probably couldn’t sharpen a pencil here either. Don’t even think I have one in the house anymore. Would think most stores would have one, though.

Pilot, I’d go for the 2BR/2bath place but that’s just me and too many books. The other place sounds like it’ll fit your lifestyle better. Your call. And I like your point on the 'rust out/wear out" choices of living. I think most of us here are trying to ‘wear out’, but I know folks who are rusting away and I feel for them. And that must be one fat grackle…

wet one, hooray for no broken bones, enjoy your slothing.

Sticky Buns, glad you found the tax workaround.

red, good on ya in making the newbie feel like she can do the job after the people responsible for training FUBAR’ed it.

:smile: :smile: :smile: Best line of the week.

Shady, we have a lot of geese around the park the soccer fields are at. They are usually rather peaceful, but will take forever to cross the road which messes up traffic in the park on soccer days.

Bat Boy, your call and changing jobs too frequently can show poorly on a resume, but like shoe says, if you have spare time and one of them is an offer you can’t refuse, well…

Apologies to anyone I missed, hugs, yeah, boos, and general positive waves to all, now onward into the day.

142

Hooray! :tada:

Clocking in at 49 and 9 months, I am definitely finding this to be accurate.

Huh. I never knew that. Very interesting. I did find this on vocabulary.com. Well, you do learn something new everyday!

I finally made myself call physical therapy place 2 because the first one didn’t take my insurance. Surprisingly they had an opening today at 5 which is great, but it effectively cancels my nap. Oh well. Now I’m waiting for MusicMan to come downstairs as he just woke up about 45 minutes ago. I have managed to do most of the things on my list for today already, so, yay!

143

Today is a do nothing day, although a load of towels is in the dryer and I cleaned my bathroom. I am now in my chair with my foot on a pile of pillows. Slept about 8 hours and I know I’ll need a nap later.

Shoe does Monkey drink from your water glass? Ursala Kitty does so I’ve resorted to putting a coaster on top of it (as well as under cuz I’m not a heathen).

144

Seems to me that ought to be your default setting. Maybe set aside an hour or two each day to get back to people who’ve left messages. Then they might come to realize you’re not going to immediately jump at every fire drill they throw your way.
I know, I’m living in a fantasy world. But as per Shoe’s advice, at least consider using DND more often. You should be the one deciding what’s urgent and what’s not.

A friend from San Francisco is in town and I’m meeting him for a couple hours this afternoon. Should be fun, he’s a great guy and I miss hanging out with him. We usually have a beer or four together, but I’ll be driving so I can’t do that, dammit. Well, I could, but I don’t want to shell out $70-$80 for Ubers there and back. At least he’s staying a couple blocks off-strip at a place with free parking, so I won’t have to deal with that mess.
I have a doctor’s appointment in the morning; otherwise I’d consider finding a cheap room and making a night of it. Oh well. First world problems, as they say.

145

The usual smalls heaving to start, then cleaning up the 100 table, finishing off doing irregs in Blue 128. Apparently a couple of more senior people quit in a huff. [The Hunger Games]May the odds be ever in your favor.[/The Hunger Games]

Spot does, if it’s full to the top. Otherwise he sticks his foot into it.

Dunno, I’m 53 and chugging along just fine. apart from the times I’ve crippled myself by sleeping wrong. :crazy_face:

146

Busy couple of days at the hizzle. Both of wife’s nieces are coming over today: her airline pilot niece has an overnighter, and her critical care nurse niece has a rare day off. I think we’re headed for Matt’s, which is the home of the original Juicy Lucy burger.

Managed to snag a doctor’s appointment for tomorrow. I need an annual checkup, but I really need some relief from this hip bursitis that causes me a lot of misery at night. At least, I hope that’s what it is.

Daughter is coming over on Saturday, so we’ll have some fun. Gotta talk to her about maybe cat-sitting at some point.

Speaking of Q’itih, we’ve been putting down pee mats in front of her box. She doesn’t always get herself properly aligned in there and there’s no joy in stepping in cat pee in the morning. We were both having a sad this morning, thinking that she may not have a lot of time left with us, and that this is likely the last pet that we will have. Other than for a couple of years, we’ve always had a cat over the past 30 years together. It will be odd not having a fur ball in the house. Now I’m feeling weepy; cripes I hate old age.

147

She’s constantly asking FCD - Did you hurt your back? Drives him crazy. And she keeps worrying about what BIL eats or doesn’t eat - he’s 64 and she keeps hoping he’ll cook. Yeah, that’ll happpen.

So far, so good. They’re not requiring anything upfront from her. They’re going to send her a computer, printer, and work cell phone as soon as they get her NDA. And the original contact came thru a State of Merrylande site, which adds legitimacy. She seems to have done due diligence in researching the company - she’s no dummy - so it may well be the great opportunity it appears to be. Cautiously optimistic.

Roxy and I had some good clay time. I need to get my kiln hooked up then do some firing. But not today. Still waiting for the septic guys.

148

There was an issue with my employer’s Business Credit Report. There were five different BINs (Business Identification Numbers) and three or four different addresses – one of which was vacated years before I joined the company 17 years ago. I had Big Multinational Credit Reporting Agency merge the BINs and correct our address. Our report looks much better, but… BMCRA’s report had an OFAC (Office of Foreign Asset Control) alert, which created a High Risk Alert on the report. That is, the U.S. Treasury thinks we might be doing business with a sanctioned entity (Ukraine-/Russia-related Sanctions Regulations, 31 CFR 589.201 and/or 589.209 UKRAINE-EO13685 if you’re into the minutiae). The only reason I can see for the linkage is that the first two words of our company name appear in the name of the foreign entity. :roll_eyes:

All this alert does is to let people who are pulling a credit report know that there may be a connection with a sanctioned entity; not that there is a connection.

Below are the details of a possible OFAC match. Any action taken regarding a commercial entity must be taken based on a complete investigation of the commercial entity and not based solely on the OFAC information

Anyone who looks at our report will see that there is no connection, and that the alert is no biggie. But since we’re a credit reporting company, I think having the alert on our report is a bad look. I called the 800-number, and it was very unhelpful. I left a VM anyway. Then I went to the OFAC website and sent them an email. I doubt that anything will be done, but at least I tried. And I’m a very trying person!

Now that I’ve bored the hell out of everyone, I’ll go back to irk.

149

ah, i had it in my head that you were condo shopping not rental shopping. yes, moving when need be is easier when you rent.

my condo building is having the shower vs tub debate constantly. the building opened in 1940 and it has huge low cast iron tubs. to remove the tub is a big, expensive undertaking, yet many buy into the building as a retirement flat. that big slippery tub is concerning.

i have zhuzhed the coffee table/trunk. the pomegranite shaped box moved to a diffrent location and was replaced with a seasonal display of faux tulips in a bunny vessel and peep tins. i guess it will be a seasonal tableau thing.

150

And I’m waiting for the appliance guys. I think that is the most frustrating thing, just waiting for the phone to ring or the knock on the door, and as it gets later and later it just becomes more frustrating, at least to me. Probably won’t make it to the gym today, so the girls will have to run me ragged at practice. So just going through my You Tube channels and waiting.

Sticky Buns, hope the PT appointment works out well.

Cookie, enjoy the company, niece’s appear to have done well for themselves. And hope the Doc can help, I’m about a month away from my annual checkup. And a {{ }} for Q’itih is it a Klingon cat?) and you.

FCM, sounds promising; so many jobs are going to WFH these days, it’s a world we ‘old folks’ never know.

Flyboy, hoping for a miracle and US Government actually moves promptly (but ain’t betting on it).

rocky, my house has separate shower/tub in the main bathroom, but I’m considering replaing the tub.shower combination in my second bathroom with a walk-in shower instead. Since I’ve been going to the gym on such a regualr basis I do most of my personal cleaning using their showers, so my stuff doesn’t get a lot of work.

Back to waiting…

151

Started Typing: 1:42 PM ET
Clicked Reply: 2:22 PM ET

The planets have aligned such that today I have a (virtual) voice lesson at 3:30pm and a personal training session at 5:15pm: I could go back to work after the lesson, but only for a half hour…so, I’ve decided to “leave early” and log off work for the day at 3:15pm. Just 90 more minutes to go!

Tomorrow evening I might get to see my BFFs for the first time since Christmas. :crossed_fingers: Wife BFF has health issues that have foiled various attempts in the past few months, but Husband BFF’s sister and BIL will be visiting from West Virginia for a couple days so we’re going to try to all have dinner together. They used to come here for Thanksgiving (and one or two other holidays) every year, and over the decades they – and their now-grown sons – have become like family to me, too. The holiday tradition never started up again after 2020, mostly because the BIL’s elderly mother moved in with them (she’ll be with other family this weekend), and it’s been a few years since I’ve seen them. I’m hoping it will work out, but Wife BFF’s condition varies daily and she has strict instructions to not hesitate to tell me if she winds up not feeing up for it.

Saturday morning I’ll go to the gym for another personal training session, then after a shower and lunch I’ll head to a volunteer-related event – but, one that I won’t have to “work.” One of the other committees has organized a Women’s History Month event, and all I have to do is bring one of our banners and a handful of brochures (to put out on the tables). So, I’m actually kind of looking forward to it. :slight_smile: Saturday night there are some local musicians playing in DC that I’d like to go hear, but I’ll need to see how tired I am by the time I get home from the event. I’ll also be feeling kind of guilty about effectively having left Bailey home alone all day, but if I’m not too tired to head downtown I might just tell the doggy to suck it up. I have no plans on Sunday (Easter), so I can do the quality time thing then. She’ll probably care a lot less than I do. :wink:

Speaking of the canine, the mobile groomer came today: Bailey’s all clean and clipped, and looking even cuter than usual as she snoozes in the dog bed next to my desk chair. :dog: The lawn guys also came today, and cut the grass for the first time this season. It’s been a big day for her!

Yay!! :tada:

…which, of course, I consistently read as “Careless” Co-worker. :grin:

If it didn’t seem all that frenetic, what was exhausting? Just all of the “new job” stuff?

Go on with your bad self! :wink: Woot!

I used to do that every now and then, when I did more writing/editing: there were definitely times when I needed to be heads-down and not bothered for a while. No shame in that!

Pilot kind of beat me to it, but…do you not have potable tap water?

Money well spent, IMO. Finances permitting, I’d almost always rather lose a little dough if it means keeping my options open longer.

Just as long as they are truly sending her the equipment and not sending her a check so she can get the equipment… :slight_smile: (Sounds good, though!!)

I say they will arrive…right…NOW!

152

Me too, I’ve done this every time. :laughing:

153

Me too.

I almost always have a pencil tucked into my hat behind my ear. Being a builder of things, I need it constantly. And there’s a sharpener built into my tape measure.

Interesting (to me, anyway) there is an optimal length for pencils worn this way, about 2/3’s of a full pencil is best, longer gets into the peripheral vision, and any shorter than half really doesn’t work.

154

That’s awesome - I hope she really enjoys it (or finds it tolerable enough and well-paying enough to make her life more amazing).

155

I sold my stock.

My employer changed our 401k from Fidelity to John Hancock because Fidelity kept raising their prices and wouldn’t work with us. I had 401ks from my current and previous employers, and those were transferred to John Hancock a couple/few months ago. But I held a minuscule amount of stock from my previous employer. Only about $2,800 at today’s prices.

The Catch: My previous employer was Big Multinational Credit Reporting Agency, and it was headquartered in England when I worked for them So my two ‘positions’ were foreign stock subject to a $50 fee each. One of the positions was BMCRA, and it was doing fairly well. The other one was a company that used to own BMCRA but now does the UK equivalent of Home Depot. Or it might have been Burberry. I don’t remember. Anyway, those stocks were utter crap. They consistently lost value over the years. After the $50 foreign stock fee, my net was [drum roll]… 72¢.

Anyway, liquidating those, plus the couple-hundred in cash I had in the account, gets me a little over $2,700. That’s not even enough to pay off the work on the house we had done last year. But it’s better than nothing. I’m not sure if I’ll have to pay capital gains taxes, or (since they were compensation for employment) if it will just be ‘income’. I’ll worry about that in a year.

156

Ugh, that’s hard - will definitely be thinking of you.

The signing is done, and it’s a relief to have one more piece of paperwork done. Now for the last tax return. The administrative side of death is a lot more overwhelming than I was expecting.

It’s beautiful outside, though, and my keychain is lighter. One less place to go at night, fewer other people’s things for which to be responsible.

I did a silly thing, though, and dropped mom’s taxes off at one of the big box tax preparers; looking back, it was a mistake. The return is pretty straightforward, and said big box tax prep people are horrifically bad communicators, which is probably understandable since they’re likely inundated - it’s like the McDonald’s of taxes. I shouldn’t have tried to hit the easy button. Hopefully they’ll be done in the next few days; if not, I can go grab everything and do it myself (and, of course, pay the lady for any time she spent working on them because I try not to be a jerk).

Anywho, that’s what my brain has been chewing on this week: taxes and real estate. And real estate taxes. I’m sure it’ll shift to other things soon, like kids and college and kids going to college, then I’ll spiral over that instead. It’s like if I don’t have something to obsess about, I’m at a loss for what to do.

I should probably find a new or additional hobby - knitting keeps my hands busy, but my brain just goes off the rails.

157

Howdy Y’all! I spent a little over two hours makin’ candles all purty for Easter service. Well, actually somebody else did the makin’ purty stuff by cleanin’ all the brass which is now all shiny. I put the holders and drip holders back on both candelabra, and put new wicks in all the candles, which is a tedious task, but now 'tis done. Then we went to the hog trough GC and pigged out. This was followed by nappage. In a little while it will be back to the church house for Maundy Thursday service.

I read all, but retention ain’t my thang right now, so yays, boos, hugs, noogies, chitlins, trouts, and how you doin’s all around, as needed.

158

Afternoon, mumpers! It’s currently 6c/44f with no predicted change, and sunny. Weather app says “You can take that fucking sun and shove it up your fucking ass.” No, thanks…it’s been very nice walking around today.

I have read much but retained little so take what you need from the bottomless supply of yays, boos and hugs.

Pilot yay for a new home, whichever you decide on.

Oopsie I am sorry about the PIP, I have done that too. It’s not fun for either side and sometimes you just want the person to fail because you’re just postponing the inevitable.

Taters you should use the Do Not Disturb more often! Might make your problem children start thinking for themselves a bit more.

Moooom I hope the new job is genuine and it suits Daughter, ypur family is due a break!

We had a late start to the day, but it’s bright and shiny outside so we have been pounding the streets of Milwaukee - nice little place so far.

159

It’s always a mentally taxing experience in the first week when overloaded with new information. Also my ancient creaking body had to relearn standing around a lot and carrying heavy things, which I was three months out of practice for. The pace of work, however, seemed normal to me, but they said that counts as busy, so now I am expecting a casual experience most of the time.

160

Y’all ain’t gonna believe this. The Treasury Dept - OFAC called me back. The same day I contacted them! They said they couldn’t help, and that I’d have to contact BMCRA. So I did.