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

I always build in a buffer after some time off, especially if it involves travel. There’s always something that needs to get done afterward, like laundry, grocery shopping, etc. This trip was no different. The day after the anniversary trip we had the ground floor of the townhouse power washed, and had our handyman over to finish fixing the owner’s suite bathroom ceiling and wall.* And, naturally, laundry and grocery shopping.

The trip itself was wonderful. While the forecast called for constant rain, that didn’t materialize. There was a lot of rain, but it generally held off to mid-morning, allowing me to get in some morning walks. Only one day did it impinge on the front porch with some wind creating a small lake there. Otherwise was perfect, and I got four and a half books read.

Went into the office Friday for a day of email catch up while it was still the holiday week. Mostly caught up and I know the projects I’ll have to get to this upcoming week. Not that it’s going to be a full week – I’m taking tomorrow off for a doctor’s appointment, and Thursday to see the new Masters of the Universe film with the husband. He’s a HUGE fan, as is his sister – they have matching tattoos of He-Man’s and She-Ra’s swords. So the movie is a big deal, hence the day off.

* Some time last year a bird got into a vent on the front of our townhouse. Called a trapping company, they confirmed there was evidence a bird had gotten in, was no longer there, and they put a new vent cover on. Around the same time we had some water damage on the wall toward where the vent was. I had surmised that the bird had broken the duct when it got in and we were pumping moist air into the wall when we ran the exhaust fan. Finally got someone in to fix the duct, they put a hole in the ceiling to get at it and discovered … there was no duct. As in, the vent cover didn’t connect to anything. Apparently on the other models that’s where the clothes dryer vents out, but on ours the dryer vents to the back. The builder put the hole and cover in the wall for the vent, but didn’t connect it to anything. The exhaust fan piping goes up to the roof. Oy. The water damage was from something else, but wasn’t anything active, just a coincidence with the bird intrusion. Hence the need to get the ceiling patched and painted and the water damage cleaned up and painted.

Puttering around the house this morning, doing all sorts of little maintenance things. Watering the new grass-and-clover mix in the back yard, brushing a cat, refilling the dish soap dispenser. The foaming hand soap dispenser in the kitchen is starting to run low so I looked online to remind myself what the ratio of soap-to-water is (1 part soap to 5 parts water). In doing so I discovered that the designers made it easy for you – fill the clear part at the bottom with soap, then fill the rest to the ‘max fill’ line under the metal portion with water and voila – just the right ratio without needing an external measure. I love little details like that, where designers work with the product to make it easier to use and aesthetically pleasing.

The husband is off with his sister for their annual remembrance of their mother, who died of COVID this weekend in the first wave back in 2020. So I’m on my own, and taking a quiet weekend of it. Catching up on comics – I had a month plus backlog that I’m about halfway through as of this morning. Not helping has been a sore throat that popped up yesterday with a mild fever. Still sore this morning, but no fever. Bodies are such fun.

Did manage to solve a longstanding eyesore of cables and needed accessories by the TV yesterday, relocating and hiding them all inside the entertainment center. This has long been an issue, and was one of the first things you saw when you came around the corner and saw the TV setup. Now, no more loose wires and doodads hanging out, and all the peripherals that needed them are working. Yay!

Got chosen as the president of my HOA. Oh joy. It was something of a game of hot potato, with the three (of three total) board members trying to be nice and defer to each other, but effectively passing the baton around and around before I said yes.

The pressing issues of the day are parking, lighting, and rats. The Facey-B group for the HOA has the torches and pitchforks out for a business in the boundaries of the HOA that has some (if the photos are to be believed) pretty serious rat problems at their foundation. No indication that they’re inside, but the business isn’t doing anything to control them outside, either. City Code Enforcement has been out to inspect and warn the owner to get on it. The owner, however, claims to be an attorney and is threatening slander and libel lawsuits. Which is why we’re going to let the city go at it. In the meantime, the HOA itself does not control the Facey-B group, thankfully, so there’s no there there for a suit. D-R-A-M-A.

Thankfully our newish management company is much more on top of these things than the last one, so the manager has things well in hand with addressing what we can address (calling the city, having the HOA pest people out to handle our stuff).

London was lovely. Didn’t quite sleep on the plane. Rested with my eyes closed (under a mask, with ear plugs in), but didn’t really sleep. Not for lack of trying. Got in easily. Took a very expensive taxi ride to the hotel (we would not have been in a position to figure out the tube right then, though we used it a lot aside from that), got settled, then took off to wander the city. So much walking, which I loved. I miss that from living in SW DC.

Saw most of the main touristy stuff with the husband before he had to do his work stuff. On the days when I was solo I had a massive headache (migraine?), but managed to hit a couple of museums on my own. Did not realize that folks dine there at later hours than we tend to in the states. Several times I was the first person in a restaurant before it filled up completely, because I hit them too early.

When we left, it had snowed just a day or two before, though it melted before noon. We still had large piles of snow left from the previous big snow storm. London was a delightful early spring (mid-50s-F/low teens-C), with daffodils and cherry blossoms going everywhere, and very lush grass. Then we came back to late spring temperatures (it got up to 86F/30C here today). And now we’re leaving tomorrow for what we consider summer weather in deep southern Texas, aka North Mexico, where it’s going to get up to 97F/36C on Sunday. Cultural and weather whiplash, for sure.

Worked for one day yesterday, catching up on email and what not, and now I’m off until next Friday. Unfortunately the time off when we’re back will be spent getting the shelving in our owner’s suite closet fixed because one of them collapsed after we got back from London. Ah well.

Monday was most definitely a snow day, but you couldn’t tell that from the flurry of work emails. As I said to one fellow lawyer, ‘bored scientists gonna science’. ‘Twas crazy busy on a day that people really should have been more chill, no pun intended.

Rest of the week has been okay so far. The husband dug out our driveway, much like the next several neighbors down to our left. Then we watched the HOA contract crew dig out the driveway to our right that hadn’t been touched. Wish they’d make up their minds. First few years they dug out everything. Then suddenly they would only do the sidewalk and we were responsible for the 3 feet from door to sidewalk (which was still the case this year) as well as the driveways for those of us who don’t have driveways on an alley (which is most of the townhomes). Cue the rolling of the eyes. But in any case it was all clean for our housecleaner to come over today, a couple days early because she has a doctor’s appointment on her normal Friday.

Escaped the house to go get comics this afternoon, then hopped right back inside. We are braving pizza delivery this evening after being assured they were open and delivering. I tipped more than usual in recognition of the road conditions, which are okay, but not stellar.

Bed at a normalish time yesterday, but still slept in until 7 or 8 something this morning. We watched Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves last night because our young friend had read some Reddit post about it being a good post-breakup movie (?), he hadn’t seen it, and we love it, so it worked. Ordered pizza in for them, a sub for me, and movie time. Perfect.

This morning the husband did some more of his graduated Xmas cleanup. Two of the three trees are now down, and all of the legos. Supposedly the focus on the rest of the stuff will be this weekend. I just show up and help, and happily leave the organizing to him.

Because of the young friend’s moving to his own place and needing to get new furniture the husband has been spending a lot of time with him at the local Ikea, and I think he’s grabbing some shelves to help organize the utility closet downstairs. He showed me what he’s thinking, but again I’m leaving this to him.

Currently waiting for the new bread maker he got me for Xmas to finish the first loaf. The volume versus weight measures seemed a little off in their recipe, or the flour was too tightly packed, but I ran with weight side, as that’s usually safer when baking. This first loaf is all for the husband, being regular wheat flour and having dried milk in the ingredients (both of which bother my digestive system). I’ll try a piece, but that’s probably it. Next will be trying a gluten free loaf with brown rice flour and the manufacturer’s recipe.

The family got underway around 6 this morning. I went back to bed after they left and slept in until 10-something. In the meantime the husband was still very much awake, so he cleaned. Worst part was that we had at some point attracted at least one mouse into our garage, so he spent most of that time cleaning up mouse poop and clearing out attractants. On the plus side, that side of the garage looks much better, and we tossed a bunch of stuff we no longer needed.

Now we just have to figure out where to store the stuff we got for Xmas. The bookshelves are already packed, and we always get more. I think a donation/used bookstore run may be in order soon.

While we were hoping for a relaxing next week, one of our young (late 20s) friends broke up with his fiancé on Boxing day, and I think we’ll be hosting him to help work him through the emotions there. First long term relationship, so all of the attendant stuff that goes along with that. Ah well.

My coworkers seem to be settling back into the fully remote routine. I think it helps that it’s so close to the year-end holidays, so much of the normal business of the agency is quieter than usual. Not to say that we’re not working, but the normal urgency isn’t quite as bad as the norm.

Comics, dinner, and a Target run. I was surprised at how quickly we were able to get out of Target. The husband’s sister had ordered something for her husband that she had us pick up, and then we went ahead and got the candy for stockings while we were there. I also picked up a Roku stick for the monitor in my office, as I slowly turn my office into a pseudo-man-cave. Hoping that the better seating and some TV will be conducive to more knitting and cross stitching. In unrelated news I finally finished the first section of dark grey yarn for the latest scarf so now I have to refresh my memory of how to switch colors. I know it’s not hard, I just haven’t done it in a while. I did some knitting on it while we were in Ocean City, and managed to finish the section today while waiting to pick up the husband from the Metro.

Actually went into the office for a few hours today, to pack things up because we’re getting kicked out some time after the first of the year. We’re moving not quite a mile down the road to a very dated building that another agency vacated a couple years ago. This is mostly because a cabinet secretary who lives in the suburb where my office is located doesn’t want to commute downtown to his agency’s long time (and admittedly quite decrepit) headquarters. As my small gubm’nt agency has no political leadership at the moment, there was no fighting this, so we’re moving. Whee. I went in, packed those things I wanted to drag home with me, boxed the stuff that the agency movers can haul over, and tossed things that were no longer needed. Only other thing I ended up doing was certifying my time for payroll, because nothing was really pressing. As expected, the drive took half as long as usual because of the holiday, and the cart came in handy to get everything back to the car in one haul. Now I just have to figure out where to store and/or put the stuff I brought home.

The husband, in the meantime, was off work, and put up the Xmas trees. Poor guy is under the weather; we suspect food poisoning from something left out too long yesterday (that only he fixed and ate). Once I got home I helped unbox ornaments and stage them for him to hang. He crashed earlyish, after fretting over all the holiday lego sets that were sitting in bags on the kitchen island that needed to be sorted & repaired. I insisted he leave them for tomorrow, then waited a sufficient time before going in and fixing them all so he’ll wake to that tomorrow.

I’m dragging today as well, from two days of not sleeping well. Yesterday was for love – I stayed up until midnight to make sure I could snag his Star Trek lego set online, which I did get after a few minutes wait. I dropped the directions and the legos for the miniature version when I got home from work, but he was so ill that the reaction was … muted. Poor guy. He apologized all over, but he really is sick, so he gets a pass. We’ll see how the advent calendar goes. Unfortunately the last of those bricks aren’t arriving until the later end of next week, so he may have some half built sets until they do.