mdlbear | Done last week (20170305Su

It's been a busy week here at Rainbow's End -- last weekend was g's Bat Mitzava and the associated parties; this weekend my Mom is visiting, and we had a few of the local cousins visiting yesterday. In preparation for last week's parties, we had the Great Room almost completely cleared out.

That, of course, made things interesting for this week's party, especially since many of our folding chairs are also in the pod. But between the purple sofabed, my desk chair, what was once Colleen's sewing chair, N's old recliner, and a couple of clunky metal folding chairs that had been languishing on the porch, we managed. We used three of our folding tray tables as a makeshift buffet for cheese and crackers, the blue coffee cups as wineglasses, and had a great afternoon and evening of food and conversation. Never found an opening for music, but...

We are trying, so far without success, to find an apartment for Colleen and I to move into for the next couple of months. Furnished apartments rented month-to-month are mainly for corporate clients, which can afford to pay hotel-room prices: 3-4K/month is typical. There's one place for about 1600, but the rooms are small, the "kitchen" is a tiny microwave, and they don't allow pets. We could manage unfurnished, though it would mean hauling our beds and Colleen's chair.

I was on call this week at work; I found someone to swap with for the weekend, so I'm off the hook until some weekend in May. $PROJECT officially launches (dialed up to 1%) on Monday, which is my actual birthday. So there's that.

I'm not in the best shape physically -- anything that requires me to bend over, like cleaning the floor or changing the bed, is likely to be very bad for my back. Bringing in the desk chair from the Great Room, however, is definitely helping. At least half my problems were caused by trying to use a computer from a folding chair. It also helps that the desk chair lets me use my heating pad.

I'm almost certainly not in terribly good shape emotionally (modulo alexithymia, of course). Leaving the house is hard. Well, grief counseling is one of the Middle-Sized Bear's job functions. I should probably re-read "Mark Elf" to remind myself of that.

Notes & links:

0305Su
* up 6:30ish; W=199.2; laundry
* 9:00 Chris coming over with offer details. Looks like it will work. It'll be 5K
earnest money, but that'll be easy. This could work.
@ WSDOT - How to drive a roundabout (nextdoor)
: Took shelves down in the RR, except for one 12" shelf that I brought in from the
bedroom. All but two standards are down; need to take down the rails.
* 12:30ish kids + other parents + uncle + cousins here for party prep.
* 2:30 kids' party
@ Poem - Revenge (alatefeline)
" And of course it’s not fair but rest assured,
anxious America, you brought your fists to a glitter fight. "
: The party is loud.
% 4:30ish restless. The noise doesn't help - I have a lot of trouble concentrating in
high sound levels. There is, however, plenty of food in the house. I have had
breakfast and lunch, and Colleen has had brunch and a snack. The folding chair in the
Rainbow Room is tolerable with the heating pad.
% I seem to have cut down on FB and Quora considerably. Q because a lot of the
questions are repetitive or stupid, and FB because, well, ... not sure. But it's good
for me, I think. It's bad for my blood pressure.
: I appear to have restarted my DropBox account at some point; it's a free account with
2GB. Not much, but enough for an encrypted tar.gz of ~/Secret, so I can use that for
access to the password and tax files.

0306Mo
* up 5:15; W=199.6; sorting
packed up most of my dresser.
Started taking down Elfa rails in RR. I kept my drill out of the pod, but cleverly
packed up all the bits. There are plenty of 1/4" hex bits, but I packed the magnetic
holder, too. :P
* call Accredo (see 0302); new scrip should be ready now
* finish benefit signup; restart FSA
* Oncall - looks like Harsh will take the weekend; have to confirm tomorrow
: LinkedIn's "new desktop experience" is absolute, fscking, CRAP. Slow and buggy, and
even after telling it that my version of Chrome is "unsupported", it doesn't work.
-> Oh, right. They're owned by Micro$oft now.
: My aunt Jean died last night. I haven't had much contact with her recently, but she
was a wonderful, gentle person and I will miss her.

0307Tu
* up 5:30ish; W=200.4; laundry, sorting
* organizers coming for our room
Not much to do, actually.
@ 9 Types of Tiny Homes - Salter Spiral Stair (ysabetwordsmith)
@ How to Get Out of Bed When You're Depressed
* 8:00-10:30 work (deployment)
* Pay mortgage, amex, sound

0308We
* up 5:45; W=199.6; laundry, shelves, dishes
@ siderea: [curr ev, womenslib, Patreon] The Other Strike I Think Women Should Hold
Social media that don't give you complete control over your own space, e.g. DW
* change password at work
: N found some nice-looking apartments at 4th and Denny, which would be only 17 minutes
from work.
: Colleen and my stuff is now downstairs in the Rainbow Room.
* Finished taking down shelves in bedroom. Will do hanging strips tomorrow.
& Dragged down blankets, pillows, night bag, clothes for Colleen
-> I'll have to leave my underwear etc for tomorrow, because I'm wiped.
% I'm not getting enough help. I maybe could if I could be home to supervise it, but as
it is I'm stuck doing too much myself.
% mentally and physically exhausted. Barely coherent. Moving slowly.
! Depressed? Probably; though as usual it's hard to tell.
% have a cold; can barely breathe -- had to water my nose a second time and take a
chlortrimeton. Ugh.

0309Th
* up 6:15; W=199.6; dishes
% still extremely congested.
* brought underwear and socks down
~ 9am Verve Apartments to look at studio apartments with shower.
-> very nice but they don't rent month-to-month. There is, however, a company that
sublets apartments there. Starting to wonder whether we could sublet to
them or someplace like them after July!
% still having trouble breathing, and a headache.
* 15min: removed shelves, started on hanger strips.

0310Fr
* up 6:20ish; W=199.6; shelving, dishes.
all shelving down in bedroom
: Arrived home; most of the stuff upstairs have been moved.
* 7:30 leave for airport - hopefully N will be up for driving. (G will be taking the
kids to their other parents') -> N drove.
* 8:25 PM, Flit. 727 on Alaska Airlines
* 10:30 Mom installed in g's room (g selected the best mattress)

0310Fr-0313Mo
* Mom visiting

0311Sa
* up 6:30ish; ; laundry
@ Adaptive wind instruments - flutelab (ysabetwordsmith)
15 Lesser-Known Berries You Should Try | Serious Eats
& Moved chairs from Great Room to Rainbow Room. Now using my desk chair, which is much
more comfortable. Will probably end up podding the monitor -- the less we have in the
apartment the better.
* 11:30 Hungates picking up Mom for lunch at Duke's
* 2pm Emmy and Martin arrived; there's a community college and a remote campus of
Goddard in Port Townsend. We have a plan.
* Mark, Robin, and Jenny; Jenya and Candace; Emmy and Martin visiting ~2:30
... so in all we had 11 people, though G and N stayed downstairs for the most part.
Mark et. al. brought cheese, wine, crackers, little cheesecakes, and salmon. I made
pasta and Bolognese sauce. Getting 9 people into the Rainbow Room, with three tray
tables for a buffet, actually worked pretty well. We could have handled a couple
more, though I rather wish we'd kept out the rest of the camp chairs.