Of Moose And Men
The Best Laid Plans Of Both Often Go Astray

The lawsuits against 47’s crew and my agency in particular continue apace. Thankfully we hired another attorney last year partly to handle litigation tracking, so she’s been on top of all of that. One we got that was filed yesterday tried desperately to make overhead rates sound sexy, when they’re actually boring as fuck (but also very important to grantees). Litigation holds (on records) abound these days. Not that I’m in the habit of deleting any of my emails anyway.

Knitted a few more rows at lunch on the dishcloth. Keep this up and I might even be able to make these into Xmas gifts or something. Ha. As if I knit fast enough for that.

Finished The City of Blades by Robert Jackson Bennett today, second book in that particular series. Loved how he resolved the central conundrum at the end. I’ve become a fan of his books, from the Foundryside series to Divine Cities series. I have the Poisoned Cup as well, but the husband heard a recommendation to read it, so I lent it to him first. Will take a break and read the second book in Ken Liu’s Dandelion Dynasty next, before I turn to the City of Miracles. That is one good thing about the Metro commute – enforced reading time, and a lot of it, since it’s about an hour door-to-door (including time to/from the Metro stations themselves). And I’ve started putting books aside for our annual trip to the beach as well.

Took some time at lunch to start another dishcloth, this one in the opposite colors of the brick/honeycomb pattern, so the white is the structure and the blue variegated is in the ‘windows’. Needed the break from catching up from being out for a week.

Overall not too bad playing catch up. We’re losing two more attorneys, though, and possibly a third. One’s last day was today, the other is going in a couple weeks. The third has been attending every retirement seminar the agency offers, so we think she’s close to making a decision.

Thunderstorms are currently rolling through. I do love that about spring in the south (and yes, DC is still ‘the South’, geographically).

Made breakfast (egg bake) for the week. Prepped some chicken breasts for the freezer (pounded to an even depth, salted for a bit, then wiped down for freezing) because they had a good sale. Sautéed some squash for dinner & leftovers. Not bad. Also remembered that if one is getting tired of banana bread that topping it with vanilla ice cream is a good way to switch it up.

Men’s knitting group was good. I’m at the point in this shawl where it took me almost two hours to do four rows. I don’t even know how many stitches across it is, but I have another 50+ rows to go, adding 2-8 stitches per row. It’s gonna be pretty, but man this is getting long.

Back to work after a week off. Hopefully my work laptop won’t demand the damned bitlocker key again, which seems to be happening more often these days (it’s happened now four times).

Today was the annual “Free Comic Book Day” at local comic shops across the US. We popped in about an hour and a half after our local place opened to let the crazies clear out. Was busy, but not claustrophobically so. Then we popped next door for some groceries.

The husband had a friend over and they made a lemon pound cake, which we sent home with said friend. Smelled good, but as it was loaded with butter I forwent the experience. That’s okay, he made banana bread yesterday, so I wasn’t hurting for baked goods.

Slowly making my way back through the DLC for Horizon Forbidden West on the PS5. I had gotten up to the end, but never finished it, so I’m working through it now, including collecting some things I didn’t bother with last time around. Is a fun game, and I do hope they make a third one.

Work semi-emergency thing today so I had to get online and give advice, despite being on leave. Whee. If I hadn’t turned in my time sheet I’d switch an hour from leave to time worked. I’d make it by swapping time this upcoming week but apparently they’re checking badge swipes like we’re children, so it’s not worth the risk.

The husband and I went to go see Thunderbolts* in the late afternoon. So. Much. Fun. Best Marvel movie in a while. No McGuffin – no box/thing/etc. to chase after. Plenty of good character development, fun plot. 10/10. Loved it. Much needed after the rest of the week.

Gotta grocery shop tomorrow. Was in no mood for it today, so scrounged around the house instead. But we’re running low on staples, so I need to grab stuff. S’okay, have plenty of time, as I have nothing really planned for this weekend otherwise.

Got going early, but several “let’s close a lane or two for construction/mowing/an accident that’s no longer visible” things delayed us such that we ended up getting home about 11 hours after we left. Yuck.

Cats have sort of paid attention to us, mostly to make sure it was us coming home, and to get food when I filled the bowl. They’ll come back out for treats, but otherwise they seem miffed we left and are letting us know by ignoring us. Silly beasties.

Dishes are washing. Bedsheets are washing/drying. Was well disciplined and put everything away the instant we got in the house, so nothing is hanging over the head for tomorrow, which I also took off to recover from the drive. Well, grocery shopping needs to happen, but that’s not terrible in the middle of the day. I do miss telework for that (well, that and not spending an hour commuting each way).

Services went well. I didn’t burst into flames in the church, so that was a plus. But they also weren’t flinging around holy water (only incense), so who knows. Family was well behaved for the most part, and I have experience dealing with older relatives who simply want to talk, so I indulged them while the husband and his sister escaped after they’d had their (very short) fill.

Napped a little at the sister-in-law’s house while they played a couple games. The travel and hotel sleeping just caught up with me. A simple dinner delivered from a local place, and now the husband and I are back at the hotel, packed, and ready to settle in early for the drive home tomorrow. I kind of wish I’d filled up the car with gas this evening, but we’ll hit a station in the morning on the way out instead.

Made it through the first day. My sister in law is really good at small talk, and remembering who is who in the family. The husband is the youngest of the cousins on that side, so he didn’t really interact with a lot of them growing up, and having moved out of the area right after college has also not kept up with any of them. So it’s been good to have the SIL to tell us who is related to whom.

Trip to Walmart after everything to buy a pillow (I needed to replace one at home anyway). Here’s hoping that helps with sleep tonight. Tomorrow is an early one; have to be at the funeral home at 9:30, then presumably we move to the church at some point.

Good drive up, fairly uneventful, about 9 hours with lunch & pee breaks. Buying snacks ahead of time was definitely the right decision.

The immediate family is good. Wake is tomorrow evening, Mass is on Wednesday. Excellent dinner at a new-to-us Italian restaurant near the sister-in-law’s house, that had gluten-free gnocchi. Very tasty.

The hotel is an absolute dive. An extended stay place where they acted insulted that we asked for another pillow. Definitely not staying here again.

Mostly lazy day. Some packing, lots of video gaming, more packing, etc. Did a grocery run for snacks/drinks for the car so we’re not buying other (more expensive) stuff on the road. Filled the car with gas, pretty much all set. Dropped off keys with the neighbors to check on the beasties. Just need to pack the car and go at this point.

Have the work laptop with me as a just-in-case, though I don’t anticipate needing it. But given the rest of the craziness of the last three months (can you believe it’s only been three months?) I’m not taking chances. Another friend was told to make sure he’s in the office tomorrow, at a different agency, so who knows what that will entail. I’d appreciate it if we could get a moment or three of peace amidst 47’s dementia, but that appears to be too much to ask.