Post Be Eaten
Last night, I wrote half of an LJ entry in notepad. I went to bed. I woke up in the morning to discover my computer decided to auto-update itself. I lost the entry. I really need to spend an hour very soon and go through this computer and tweak it the way I want it fucking tweaked so it doesn't do that shit on me again.
As I wrote yesterday but was lost to the void of nothingness, I had a rough day. It was a day of housing, cat, and work craziness. In the case of all three, each had either a piece of great news or makes for the amusing story.
I started yesterday morning by getting up while still asleep. I had a dream about Starcraft if that makes any sense at all. I got dressed, went outside, and shoveled for Alice. My back was killing me. I went inside, drank coffee and said my good byes to people as they left for work. I even did a little writing. Then the email came in.
Back in November, I spent most of my week off working on stuff related to the house. There was a list of issues that the various inspectors wanted addressed. Kathleen and I took care of all of those issues except for one. This one issue we did not address was an electrical issue. The sellers hired an electrician to do the job. The job was a simple one. Replace a conventional outlet in a bathroom with a GFI outlet. Their electrician supposedly did the job. We found out yesterday he didn't do it properly. He forgot to run a ground wire.
If you know anything about electrical work, ignore that for a moment. What we have been told is that this must be fixed and re-inspected. Oh, and the sellers will be out of town from December 15th to January 3rd. At this point in time, it is looking like we won't be able to close until January 4th at the earliest. Things get turbulent really fast. Kathleen looks into the possibility of contract cancellation (a veiled threat but not a serious one). We are told that the sellers could sue if we did that. We are getting no where. I call my dad and talk his ear off. Dad, who happens to deal with electrical code points out that the electrician violated National Electrical Code and can get his license revoked. I pass this along to Kathleen who gets this to our lawyer. Points out that while they could sue, they were the ones who hired an electrician that did not follow code. The lawsuit would have to be with the electrician not us.
Around this point in time, Hercules starts growling at Puff. This is something that he has not done since the very first days of us moving up here. It is, to say the least, attention grabbing. Risu approaches Herc and Herc does the same thing to her. My undivided attention is on Herc. Herc sprints from the room into the dining room and turns around. I then see the mouse in Herc's mouth.
I walk over to Herc and pet him, calling him a good kitty. Any cat that catches a mouse is a doing his job. As I'm petting Herc, he drops the mouse. The mouse then sprints from the room. The house then consisted of three cats chasing around a mouse while a human moved obstacles the mouse was hiding behind or using a broom to scare it out of hiding spots. There is little progress for fifteen minutes and, at one point, Ninja Mouse vanishes. Ninja Mouse resurfaces a few minutes later and after a few minutes of chasing, Herc catches it again. I don't want Herc to lose the mouse again so I give him space. I actually also snapped a bunch of photos which I'll post in another entry behind a cut. I also attempt to record a video of it. While I'm recording the video, the mouse gets free again and runs like hell.
The epic battle for Ninja Mouse continues in the kitchen for a good ten minutes with Risu almost getting the sucker a few times. The mouse makes a sprint for the living room and this time, it is Puff on the attack. Puff corners the mouse and I use a broom to stop it from jumping into a hole in our wall. The mouse darts under Puff and hides. Puff spends a few seconds at a loss of where the mouse went. I shake the broom and the mouse runs out from under Puff. Puff pursues.
Given our housing situation, our room has random crap in it right now. One of the items in the house is a spool of fabric that will eventually be a cover for Kathleen couch. The spool has what basically is a long tube like a paper towel roll has. The mouse runs up the tube. I pick up the spool and shake it vigorously to shake the mouse down. The mouse gets to the end of the tube and dangles from it like a cliff. Risu is standing in front of me so I hold the mouse in front of her face. Risu (siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh) sniffs it. It isn't until Ninja Mouse realizes it is a cat and runs back up the tube that Risu figures out what it is.
The mouse jumps out of the tube and disappears again. Alice calls. I talk to Alice for ten minutes and notice none of the cats have found the mouse again but are all staring intently at my backpack. Ninja Mouse is in the side pouch of my backpack that is used for holding bottles of soda or water. I scare Ninja Mouse out. Ninja Mouse runs over to our coat hook which, of course, has a water bed cover on it. The three cats corner around the mouse and stalk it. Puff takes the best approach and comes in from the side. Puff carefully extends a paw, places it firmly on top of Ninja Mouse and pulls Ninja Mouse out. Ninja Mouse (can you guess what happens next?) escapes.
Ninja Mouse is back in the living room. It is Risu and I on the hunt. I use a dustpan and a hand brush, Risu uses her claws and mouth. She whacks the mouse good a few times. By now the mouse is slowing down. She pins the mouse down, I pin the mouse down with the hand brush and get it onto the dustpan. I step outside, fling the mouse (safely for those who are worried) into a snowbank. Ninja Mouse gets up, cross the street and disappears behind a tree.
I have an email now from Kathleen. Eric, our real estate agent, has basically bullied or done some sort of magic trick to push ahead closing. No date but we are going to close despite housing problems. This is good news. I shovel for twenty minutes, get picked up by Kathleen, and go to work.
Work was mixed. I found out I'm now expected to do all of my services and billing notes by the fifteenth of the month. I have 4 residents right now and I must do 4 services each month. As of yesterday, that left me with 14 services to do in 4 shifts. It would have been 13 but I now have to redo a service with that resident (again!). I managed to get 3 services done bringing that total down to 11 services in 3 shifts.
However, I found out some great news at work as well. Everyone is getting an 8% raise. This is a great news. Also, during the tail end of our staff meeting, Kathleen calls. We have a closing date now. We close on December 14th. We could have closed on December 11th but the sellers needs time to move out. I'll be glad to see those bastards out of the picture.
As I wrote yesterday but was lost to the void of nothingness, I had a rough day. It was a day of housing, cat, and work craziness. In the case of all three, each had either a piece of great news or makes for the amusing story.
I started yesterday morning by getting up while still asleep. I had a dream about Starcraft if that makes any sense at all. I got dressed, went outside, and shoveled for Alice. My back was killing me. I went inside, drank coffee and said my good byes to people as they left for work. I even did a little writing. Then the email came in.
Back in November, I spent most of my week off working on stuff related to the house. There was a list of issues that the various inspectors wanted addressed. Kathleen and I took care of all of those issues except for one. This one issue we did not address was an electrical issue. The sellers hired an electrician to do the job. The job was a simple one. Replace a conventional outlet in a bathroom with a GFI outlet. Their electrician supposedly did the job. We found out yesterday he didn't do it properly. He forgot to run a ground wire.
If you know anything about electrical work, ignore that for a moment. What we have been told is that this must be fixed and re-inspected. Oh, and the sellers will be out of town from December 15th to January 3rd. At this point in time, it is looking like we won't be able to close until January 4th at the earliest. Things get turbulent really fast. Kathleen looks into the possibility of contract cancellation (a veiled threat but not a serious one). We are told that the sellers could sue if we did that. We are getting no where. I call my dad and talk his ear off. Dad, who happens to deal with electrical code points out that the electrician violated National Electrical Code and can get his license revoked. I pass this along to Kathleen who gets this to our lawyer. Points out that while they could sue, they were the ones who hired an electrician that did not follow code. The lawsuit would have to be with the electrician not us.
Around this point in time, Hercules starts growling at Puff. This is something that he has not done since the very first days of us moving up here. It is, to say the least, attention grabbing. Risu approaches Herc and Herc does the same thing to her. My undivided attention is on Herc. Herc sprints from the room into the dining room and turns around. I then see the mouse in Herc's mouth.
I walk over to Herc and pet him, calling him a good kitty. Any cat that catches a mouse is a doing his job. As I'm petting Herc, he drops the mouse. The mouse then sprints from the room. The house then consisted of three cats chasing around a mouse while a human moved obstacles the mouse was hiding behind or using a broom to scare it out of hiding spots. There is little progress for fifteen minutes and, at one point, Ninja Mouse vanishes. Ninja Mouse resurfaces a few minutes later and after a few minutes of chasing, Herc catches it again. I don't want Herc to lose the mouse again so I give him space. I actually also snapped a bunch of photos which I'll post in another entry behind a cut. I also attempt to record a video of it. While I'm recording the video, the mouse gets free again and runs like hell.
The epic battle for Ninja Mouse continues in the kitchen for a good ten minutes with Risu almost getting the sucker a few times. The mouse makes a sprint for the living room and this time, it is Puff on the attack. Puff corners the mouse and I use a broom to stop it from jumping into a hole in our wall. The mouse darts under Puff and hides. Puff spends a few seconds at a loss of where the mouse went. I shake the broom and the mouse runs out from under Puff. Puff pursues.
Given our housing situation, our room has random crap in it right now. One of the items in the house is a spool of fabric that will eventually be a cover for Kathleen couch. The spool has what basically is a long tube like a paper towel roll has. The mouse runs up the tube. I pick up the spool and shake it vigorously to shake the mouse down. The mouse gets to the end of the tube and dangles from it like a cliff. Risu is standing in front of me so I hold the mouse in front of her face. Risu (siiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh) sniffs it. It isn't until Ninja Mouse realizes it is a cat and runs back up the tube that Risu figures out what it is.
The mouse jumps out of the tube and disappears again. Alice calls. I talk to Alice for ten minutes and notice none of the cats have found the mouse again but are all staring intently at my backpack. Ninja Mouse is in the side pouch of my backpack that is used for holding bottles of soda or water. I scare Ninja Mouse out. Ninja Mouse runs over to our coat hook which, of course, has a water bed cover on it. The three cats corner around the mouse and stalk it. Puff takes the best approach and comes in from the side. Puff carefully extends a paw, places it firmly on top of Ninja Mouse and pulls Ninja Mouse out. Ninja Mouse (can you guess what happens next?) escapes.
Ninja Mouse is back in the living room. It is Risu and I on the hunt. I use a dustpan and a hand brush, Risu uses her claws and mouth. She whacks the mouse good a few times. By now the mouse is slowing down. She pins the mouse down, I pin the mouse down with the hand brush and get it onto the dustpan. I step outside, fling the mouse (safely for those who are worried) into a snowbank. Ninja Mouse gets up, cross the street and disappears behind a tree.
I have an email now from Kathleen. Eric, our real estate agent, has basically bullied or done some sort of magic trick to push ahead closing. No date but we are going to close despite housing problems. This is good news. I shovel for twenty minutes, get picked up by Kathleen, and go to work.
Work was mixed. I found out I'm now expected to do all of my services and billing notes by the fifteenth of the month. I have 4 residents right now and I must do 4 services each month. As of yesterday, that left me with 14 services to do in 4 shifts. It would have been 13 but I now have to redo a service with that resident (again!). I managed to get 3 services done bringing that total down to 11 services in 3 shifts.
However, I found out some great news at work as well. Everyone is getting an 8% raise. This is a great news. Also, during the tail end of our staff meeting, Kathleen calls. We have a closing date now. We close on December 14th. We could have closed on December 11th but the sellers needs time to move out. I'll be glad to see those bastards out of the picture.