Scheduling stuff:

1. My Anthro final mini-essays are submitted and I am officially DONE for the semester. Of course, my summer classes start on the 30th, but I plan to enjoy the heck out of my week and a half of freedom. :D

2. WIP Big Bang snippets are due tomorrow evening. That's not really a problem for me -- I have ~45,000 extant words of "Lemonade" to choose from, after all -- so I just need to pick three that are A) characteristic and B) would maybe make good illustrations.

3. I return Dottie to NJ on Sunday. On the one hand, this is sad: no more dog. On the other hand, this is wonderful: no more dog. I always underestimate how much having her around throws off my schedule.

4. I agreed to work overtime again this coming week, since we still don't have a replacement for Miss Cactus. "The extra money is worth it," I tell myself. I am starting to wonder if I'm telling myself the truth. *wry*

5. I need to get a haircut in early June. (Should I talk to Vicky about potentially dyeing it purple while we overlap at the cabin...? Hmm. Something to consider.)

6. Should I try to schedule an optometrist appointment this summer? I feel like it's been a while since I got my eyes checked...

7. I failed to give blood yesterday morning -- low hemoglobin, to nobody's surprise -- so I'll try again in a couple-three weeks.

8. I need to buy several new work-appropriate short-sleeve shirts to replace the ones I'm going to pull and donate to my church's recycling sale. (If I don't actually wear them, there is no point in having them take up space in my closet, especially when they would be perfectly good shirts for somebody who isn't me.) I must remember to get to the mall soonish.

9. Maybe I can see Infinity War while I'm out there?

10. I should also remember to buy a replacement pair of brown dress/work shoes sometime this summer.

11. I need to unpack and set up my small floor fans.

12. I should check the book requirements for my summer classes, in case I need to buy actual physical stuff from the TC3 bookstore. That would require a dedicated afternoon and also a cash fare for the return trip, because of TCAT's fare zones.

13. I think I will try weeding the "garden" and planting some squash seeds this coming week. Probably not Monday, but maybe some other evening since I won't have a dog to wrangle anymore.

14. Oh god, I need to start thinking about tax preparer continuing education courses, don't I.

...

Right, that's more than enough to be getting on with at the moment.

The bus left Ithaca about 5 minutes late and arrived in Ridgewood about 15-20 minutes late, but eh, whatever. Mom and Dad have headed in to the city for a New York Philharmonic concert, leaving me alone with Dottie. I have fed her, piddled her, and spent an hour with her on my lap while I finished reading Ninefox Gambit by Yoon Ha Lee, which I'd started on the bus.

(Without spoilers, yes, it really is that good. And I need to check the sequel out from the library ASAP!)

Tomorrow morning I will meet Susan for breakfast at Bagel Chateau, after which I will find some way to kill 3 or 4 hours until Mom and I go to an Indian buffet in Morristown for lunch. And then it's back to Ithaca, dog in tow. :)

Stuff, in no particular order:

1. This morning I had another follow-up appointment in re: depression. We agreed to stick with the 30mg Celexa dose for now and see if the gastrointestinal issues shake out. If not, I may drop back to 20mg in January and see if that works as a maintenance dose. I also got some other therapist names/numbers to call and see if they either have availability or can give me other people to call.

I have entered the therapists as contacts in my phone, which reduces the psychic barrier I have to calling them. But I think I won't try calling until next week, since I have a different stressful phone call I need to deal with first.

2. Skills training for Not the IRS is now available, and I attended the required live session this afternoon. I will do the online training over the next week. (It's paid training, because this is all company-internal stuff. Yay money!) There will be another live session toward the end of the month, schedule TBD.

3. I need to email somebody at Not the IRS about potentially taking an exam to move up a certification level. I don't think it should be too hard (I do returns at that level anyway; I just don't get auto-suggested for them by our scheduling program), and it would both make me look more professional AND up my not-actually-a-commission rates.

4. Mom and Dad dropped Dottie off Wednesday evening (we also did dinner) and will pick her up again Sunday afternoon (we will do lunch). She is much less mopey than I expected, at least in the sense that she's willing to leave the house and take lengthy walks, though she has been a bit quivery and anxious to keep close to me.

5. I need to make a phone call about some college stuff and I don't want to, blargh. I will try to fortify myself and get that done on Friday, but if not, Monday shouldn't be too catastrophic. (I need to arrange a three-hour orientation/advising session, which I'd prefer to do in November while I still have a car. Otherwise I'd have to catch a bus to and from Dryden and I really don't want to deal with that.)

6. I have been plowing through some backlogged reading material, which is nice both because I have pulled myself together enough to once again do a thing I enjoy, and because I can then dispose of the magazines and books instead of having them sit around in accusing piles.

7. I raked two bags of leaves today, from the front verge of my house and a bit of my driveway. I have not touched the actual front yard, nor the side verge (ugh), nor the back yard (which has become a complete mess since I raked it two weeks ago). I may rake a bit more on Friday... or not, considering it will be both cold and windy and raking in those conditions sounds like a recipe for frustration and misery.

8. I think I will make a batch of Laddie's hotdish next week. That suddenly sounds very appealing to me.

9. I arranged phone dates with Vicky, Susan, and Cat. :)

10. Saturday is my church's annual service auction. I agreed to work as a checkout cashier, which means I'll punch out of the rental office half an hour early, head home to feed and walk Dottie (and feed myself, of course), and then scramble to get to church before the live bidding starts. I will, as always, attempt not to purchase much (if anything), but if there are concert tickets going cheap, I can't speak for my self-control. *wry*

...

And now I am going to take Dottie out for her bedtime mini-constitutional, after which she gets her bedtime snack and we'll both hit the sack. I got up at 6:30am and it has been a long day.

1. I totally forgot today was the eclipse -- I plead lack of sleep and also distraction (volunteering at the final day of my church's annual rummage sale) -- but fortunately I got my two sale rooms closed down by 2pm and was able first to see several pinhole projections other church members were using out on the sidewalk, and later to get a direct look through some glasses that Upstairs Neighbor E lent me while I was out walking Dottie.

It was pretty cool to see the moon take a bite out of the sun. :) It was also vaguely disquieting, because the sky went... not dark, you couldn't remotely call it dark... but noticeably gray. The color desaturated. Also, when Dottie decided that her midafternoon walk should end with a five minute relaxing lie-down in a sunny patch of grass, the direct sunlight was not nearly as warm as it should have been for that time of day and the ambient temperature. So, nothing dramatic, probably nothing I would have noticed if I hadn't been aware of the eclipse and therefore actively paying attention, but still. Pretty cool. :)

2. I called the doctors' office about getting a psychiatric evaluation/anti-depressant prescription, but was unable to make an appointment yet because I'm in a weird limbo where they're not sure if I count as a new or a returning patient, since my last appointment was apparently three years ago. The clerk who answered the phone took some information about my insurance and has sent an inquiry to their billing department. A representative should call me later this week, after which I will be able to schedule an appointment.

3. Three of my squash plants seem pretty definitively dead. The fourth (which was worst hit by the powdery mildew but seems to have escaped the wilting sickness that subsequently struck the other three) might be in the early stages of slow recovery. So I think I'll uproot the dead ones on Wednesday or Thursday and plant new seeds.

4. My church's rummage sale went pretty well, all things considered. I worked 12-4pm on Sunday, and 10-2pm today. The sale runs Saturday-Monday. Saturday is full-price, Sunday is half-price, and Monday is free with a donation box placed prominently at the exit. (We used to have Monday be 10-cent day, but that was immensely aggravating to everyone involved, so we swapped over to "free, but have you seen this donation box???" It turns out we not only save time this way, we actually bring in more money!) Monday is also the day we do preliminary breakdown, starting around noon -- first we start taking down a bunch of the shelving, and then we box everything up and cart it downstairs to the parlor so as to make things less inconvenient for the people hauling the unsold items away Tuesday morning.

(I think the unsold books go to the Friends of the Library book sale, but I wouldn't swear to it. The remaining fabric scraps probably go to one of the local sewing co-ops. I am also unsure what happens to the unsold linens and toys, though I think again there may be arrangements with various local charities. The rest... well, most of it goes to the dump. *sigh* But hey, it was going there anyway, and the sale does save an astonishing amount of stuff from being scrapped.)

5. Cornell classes started today, which meant that last week (and specifically Saturday) were the crush days for students moving back to Ithaca. And also students panicking and realizing they've forgotten to rent parking spaces. *wry* So the rental office was VERY BUSY -- in fact, Mom Boss and Aunt Boss came in to work from ~11am-4pm so we had four people in the office (usually Miss Cactus and I cover Saturdays alone), and that extra staffing was NECESSARY.

We will continue to be busy through... hmm... early October, probably? Here is why: A) people working out the glitches in their new apartments and returning their damage deposit inspection forms; B) the final parking rental rush; C) quarterly rent payments are due; D) people hurrying to pay for internet service after the free trial period ends; D) price listings for the 2018-19 year go up and we start apartment tours; E) current tenants get a couple weeks to renew or switch apartments before open renting starts; and F) open renting starts halfway through September.

But at least we're mostly done with key returns and sign-outs, we have the nice new folders for next year's leases set up, damage deposits and summer photographs are all done, and most of the giant packages in which people ship furnishings to themselves have arrived and been picked up. So that's something!

Greetings from New Jersey!

I drove down from Ithaca this afternoon in order to kidnap my parents' dog, mwahahahaha!!!

Or, in less dramatic terms, to pick up Dottie so she won't have to spend the next two-plus weeks in a kennel while Mom and Dad are off gallivanting around Norway. (Dad is giving a paper at the 11th International Conference on the History of Chemistry in Trondheim -- his conference papers are often their nominal excuse for trips to interesting places -- but they will spend most of their time on general tourism stuff.)

We went out to dinner at Charlie Brown's, I have washed a bunch of laundry, and tomorrow I will head back north through A) rain, B) far too much roadwork, and C) god only knows how many families flooding into Ithaca to drop their kids off at Cornell for the start of classes on Monday the 21st.

And then I will have a temporary dog. Yay dog! :D

Mom drove up to Ithaca today to collect Dottie, so as of about 3:30pm I no longer have a dog. Woe!

On the other hand, I have a lot more available time now. Pets are wonderful, but they eat time like nobody's business.

Anyway, we went out for lunch at the Heights Cafe, a restaurant we hadn't yet been to (discovered via a listing of pretty much every restaurant in the greater Ithaca area, which was published in a recent-ish issue of the Ithaca Time and which I duly saved and took down to NJ for Mom's use), which turned out to be both pretty easy to get to and a place we think Aunt Cara would like, and which we may therefore end up visiting again on either the Tuesday or Wednesday before Thanksgiving.

(We are doing Thanksgiving at my place again this year. That pattern began several years ago for perfectly sound logistical reasons, but I have a feeling that this repeated confluence of work schedules and transportation options means that I have accidentally 'inherited' Thanksgiving, whereas Vicky's the one who will 'inherit' Christmas if and when our parents get tired of hosting it. We've done Christmas at Vicky's place twice now (once in Spain, once in DC), but she's never hosted Thanksgiving and I've never hosted Christmas. I'm still gonna make Vicky do all the Thanksgiving cooking, though, while I handle the cleanup and leftover-packaging work. That split ends up making everybody happier than if we tried to split the work 'evenly' or I cooked while she cleaned.)

We also went to Michael's (an artsy-craftsy supply chain) to buy some gold paint and paintbrushes, so I can attempt to touch up the frames of some old pictures my parents inherited from my paternal grandmother. This would be by way of a Christmas present to Mom, who doesn't want to do the work herself.

...

The reason I had Dottie this time is because Mom and Dad compressed a ridiculous number of home renovations into a single two-week period and for obvious reasons could not have a dog around for any of it. (In fact, they couldn't have themselves around for the second half, and duly drove down to DC to visit Vicky, Aunt Jan, and Uncle Charles & Aunt Ji-lan.)

The first week, they had several ceilings repaired and replastered, had the massive hole in the living room wall repaired and replastered (the hole being a side-effect of a water pipe fix from earlier this year), had the hideous wallpaper in the stairwell stripped and destroyed (which should have been done thirty years ago, and I am not exaggerating that time period in the slightest), and then had the entire downstairs plus the stairwell and the main upstairs hallway repainted. The second week, they had the wood floors of the dining room, living room, staircase, and upstairs hallway stripped and refinished, because they were beat all to hell, aka ugly as fuck and a bit splintery in places besides.

So now they are slowly moving furniture back into its normal locations, and also trying to decide what they want to do with regard to carpets and/or area rugs. I think they have decided against wall-to-wall carpeting, but I will be curious to visit at Christmas and see what they've done with the place.

I think from now on, work is going to become one of the background events I don't bother to mention. Just take it as read that I am working three days a week unless I specifically say otherwise. :)

Anyway, the list!

1. Drove down to NJ on Saturday to pick up Dottie for another stint of dogsitting. Drove back on Sunday with the dog in tow. This time I remembered to bring Aunt Cara's present with me -- Mom had it sent to my apartment when she pre-ordered it, because the shipping date overlapped with one of their summer trips.

I have been feeding Dottie twice a day, walking her twice a day, and piddling her in the afternoon except on Tuesday when Upstairs Neighbor E took care of that for me so I didn't lose my lunch break at work.

( more items under the cut )

14. Mixed a new batch of dental hygiene water for Dottie after the old one ran out today. I also made several new meal additive containers, by combining little blobs of frozen wet food with some of the pre-cooked vegetables Mom also sent along. At the moment, I am two containers short of what I will need to use before my parents pick Dottie up next Friday. I have a whole bunch more wet food blobs (Mom packed them in a large Tupperware, in layers separated by wax paper) but I ran out of pre-cooked vegetables. So I think I will buy a bigger yellow squash than usual when I go grocery shopping tomorrow evening (I have made a list) and use a few slices as Dottie-food instead of putting the whole thing into a batch of veggie sidedish.

1. Went to church, mostly because I'd signed up to do coffee-hour cleanup. I do not find services particularly compelling, which is undoubtedly one reason I am willing to spend almost every Sunday doing RE stuff instead of in the sanctuary listening to sermons.

While I was cleaning, a member of my old hospitality team (we rearranged all the teams this summer) asked me if I'd be interested in joining the Stewardship Committee. I said I wasn't sure I could make the meetings -- my job hours might interfere -- but barring scheduling conflicts, sure, why not.

2. Took the house's shared recycling bins to the curb for pickup. (Brought them back onto the porch the following day -- emptied, obviously.)

3. Took the house's compost bin to the curb for pickup.

( more items under cut )

17. I also photographed my peppers on Monday the 19th and Monday the 26th (plus a couple times in between, to document squirrel vandalism incidents) but I haven't downloaded or posted those yet because I only have so many spoons available each day. I may get that done this weekend, or I may just spam you with three weeks of pepper photos in one go on Monday the 3rd. We'll see how I feel, I guess. *wry*

1. Work, obviously. I may post more detail about that later this week after I have a functional computer again.

2. Went to NJ to pick up Dottie. Had dinner with parents on Sunday night, did two loads of laundry (clothes and linens), and visited Susan Monday morning.

( more items under cut )

Also, obviously, I have fed and walked Dottie every morning and evening, which includes successfully getting her to eat her joint medication pills, much though she dislikes them. Yay for determination, I suppose. *wry*

1. Talked with Upstairs Neighbor E about supplementary dogsitting and gave her my new spare key. I will drive down to NJ on Sunday and drive back Monday with Dottie, who will be with me until Wednesday the 28th when my parents will pick her up and head home while I'm at work. But my job at the rental office involves very long days and Dottie needs a mid-afternoon pee break, so I've enlisted Upstairs Neighbor E to drop by between noon and 3pm on Tuesdays and Saturdays to take Dottie outside for a bit.

On Wednesday the 21st, I will just have to take a 45-minute lunch break instead of a 30-minute break and get the person who has admin access to the timekeeping program to adjust my punch times for that day -- which shouldn't be a problem, but I didn't want to say, "Hey, you only just hired me and now I need to inconvenience you by taking extra-long lunch breaks for my next four days," because that is a good way to wear out any welcome grace period really fast.

( more items under the cut )

And now on to today's list. :)