We've been working on "getting our affairs in order" for a really long time. Even before I was diagnosed with cancer, we had our legal documents done. We've got wills, revocable trusts, powers of attorney, health care proxies... all that is in good order. We know where all our assets are on an up-to-date(ish) balance sheet. We use Lastpass for ( Read more... )

I came back from an all-too-brief vacation yesterday because - reasons. I'm not ready to be back at work yet. But today I turned my attention to the future. I feel like a horse whose reins are pulling me around in a 180. No, don't look that way, look THIS way ( Read more... )

57 to go includes: 35 ready for me, 9 who still haven't gotten me any materials at all, and 13 who are going to get me the rest of what I need later ( Read more... )

I have about sixty houseplants. It occurred to me this evening, as I watered two rooms, that other people don't do this. I wouldn't say I spend a lot of time on them. I repot a few plants maybe twice a year. I water every ten days to two weeks. I have a bunch of cuttings on a windowsill. I look for nice pots whenever I am in the thrift store. I ( Read more... )

I am pleased with how much progress I've gotten on getting our house ready for the Bouncy House Party. It's a ton of work and I think I skipped it last year. But this year we're on track for an extra big version of it because Small Boy is graduating from high school and we'll have family visiting ( Read more... )

It was really hot yesterday, in the 90's, and I'd had the livingroom shut up all day to trap a rat. That's a south-facing sunroom and it was brutally hot in there. I opened the door to the deck to let some air in because the screen isn't on that door yet.

A bat promptly flew in.

The exterminator got 7 rats last night. It was pretty quiet, I didn't hear much scurrying or squeaking last night. When I got up this morning I was really worried because there was a lot of big stuff moved in the kitchen. But then I remembered that the roomba does stuff like that - knocking off the broom propped against the wall, that sort of stuff ( Read more... )

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I'm not getting much sleep. Around 10:30 the rats in the basement wake up and start scampering around in the walls. I chase around the house banging on things and discovering ways they can get from the basement into the first and second floors. (There are no signs they've gotten into the attic, thankfully ( Read more... )

Walking the dog one day I asked one of my neighbors who he'd gotten to do his beautiful stone walkway. My asphalt front walk was ugly and breaking up. It was time to replace it. I wanted to go up-market for a variety of reasons: the house is grand, the business is snooty, my geophysics-major husband loves stone (and so do I.) There's a local ( Read more... )