Shredtastic

Still no roofers, although contractors did come by again to dump more stuff in the dumpster. Glad they stayed away, as I had two more international business trips to book for my partners, one in a 3-way phone call and the other - yep, one last change to the India trip. Meanwhile, Robin has begun shredding all our financial stuff from years past that had been sitting up in the now-vacated rafters between our apartment and the roof, as by law we only need to keep a handful of years of records (and the important ones are pretty much all online now). He also managed to put his old Cintiq drawing tablet back in its original box (another bit that had been stored in the rafters) along with various peripherals, and we're well on our way to getting the apartment in good shape to welcome Jonny's cat Mango when he leaves the weekend after we return to retrieve his car and drive it back from Texas. Been awhile since we've needed to make space for a pet! In the meantime we can now reach the steamer and our suitcases easily, which will make our upcoming trips that much easier. I'm as organized as I can be at work, getting ready to send out my reminders to peers and partners tomorrow morning, and feeling my usual nervousness about travel.

Lofty Ambition

When Robin met with the landlord in an unsuccessful attempt to get another mailbox key, he was informed that the house's roof is going to be replaced, which I'm sure it desperately needs. This spurred him to action to finally empty the loft space (really only rafters) which we've used for storage since we moved in a couple decades back, which of course we needed to do anyway but thought we had more time. As it turned out, Robin did a yeoman's job of getting all the various boxes, suitcases, etc. down into the apartment proper, and the only thing remaining up there now are a couple of dusters and two doors that were taken off what's now our larder and coat closet back when our wall-to-wall carpeting was installed, and have been used as runners of a sort to hold all the boxes and such. Now begins the wonderful job of sorting through it all. I suspect our shredder will be working overtime in the next few months. But it was, as Robin says, a job well jobbed, just in time for my godson's visit on Sunday where I'm going to ask him if he wants to give some of our old tech a new home. Slowly downsizing!

Movable AC

We got home from our grocery shopping and bonus H Mart visit around noon, to discover our landlord's van blocking our parking spot. Apparently there's going to be some gutter replacement shenanigans going on, but in the meantime he's asked us to move our living room air conditioner from its usual spot for the past 20+ years into one of the front-facing windows. This Robin did not need, as his back's been giving him issues lately. But by some miracle he was able to get it done, and I find I actually prefer the new setup, particularly as it allowed me to rearrange our corner table (which held lots of alcohol, most of which we don't really drink) and wine rack. We'll be getting rid of at least half the liquor when we visit our friends on Long Island tomorrow, and I'll be arranging the remainder so everything is together (including mixers and shot glasses and saki cups) and looks nice on the corner table, and so that all the pretty artificial and metal flowers are finally together atop the wine rack. The living room definitely needed a change!

Ironic

Today was the first of what will undoubtedly be many giveaways as we start to downsize. My iron and ironing board are gone. Considering they haven't been used since we got the steamer, good riddance to what I'm sure is a fine home. I also finally filed away my financial stuff (i.e., from Mom's estate) in preparation for actually giving it a good perusal once it's no longer too hot to think. Now off to read comics, about the only thing I can manage.

A Game for the Ages?

England has moved up in the FIFA world rankings with today's defeat of France in a truly bizarre and memorable World Cup third-place game. They were up 4-0 at halftime, and it was clear to most thinking people that France had no real intention of playing. I mean, I wore an "I Love England Football" t-shirt today, i know they're good, but they're normally not "beat France" good. AI claims "France's lack of effort or intensity in their games stems from two main issues: tactical frustration in their World Cup exit to Spain and morale issues," but considering FIFA's longstanding corruption I believe money changing hands must also have been involved somehow. Alas, we'll never know. At least I can take some comfort in believing that Tadej Pogačar won this stage of the Tour de France fair and square, he's phenomenal and so pleasant to watch! Mets lost today, of course, and the Yankees game has been postponed until tomorrow as the weather is really nasty. It started raining about when we exited the supermarket so we got a tad wet when bringing up the groceries, but driving conditions weren't dangerous until a bit later and now... well, I wouldn't want to go out in this mess. Maybe it'll finally cleanse the air quality. In other unsurprising news, we continue to organize for our England trip, and Robin's been amazing at frothing heavy cream so it almost got to the consistency of proper English cream so I could enjoy it with my strawberries, as well as sorting my iPad charger as the one I'd been using suddenly stopped working. All I've done is consolidate some more shopping bags as the ones we've been using are starting to fray, file away the Mom's estate paperwork, apply a solution on which to hang my Apple watch bands so I can sort through them the way I do my earrings, and of course buy more watch bands as I don't have any real vibrant ones (or blue ones that resemble KPMG's corporate colors and I want one of those for our Family Day at the Bronx Zoo in two weeks). Nothing much really.

Steamy

I didn't go out today, although Robin's been downstairs to the front door at least once with an Amazon pickup (I laid out my weekly pills and supplements this morning and found I needed to order more of the latter, so those will be here any minute), but the heat still permeates and makes us both feel kind of drugged. So I watched some Tour de France and both NY baseball teams (so not worth it) and odd sports like cricket, but mostly rested and did the dishes and... oh yeah, steamed about 7 shirts for work, so I consider that a good day. Next I'll have to get up enough energy (which I did NOT have today) to get back on the exercise bike. But for now, I'm catching up on my debit accounts...

Forward Into the Past

White Rabbits, and the heat wave begins. Although I decided to make an English breakfast (lots of different breakfast meets plus eggs plus caramelized onions) I knew I'd be taking it easy the rest of the day. But I'd promised a work colleague that I'd send her a photo of all the old gum wrapper chains I'd made during my childhood and even into my young adult years, so I had to get out the five tin containers in which I've kept them lo these many decades, and while I was at it I dragged out the three or so jars of buttons I've kept for nearly that long. I even tried my hand at lengthening a couple chains with some wrappers still in the tins and, hey, I've still got it. I'm not crafty but by golly I can still chain gum wrappers! Anyway, Robin and I will devise a photo shoot tomorrow in the hopes that someone may want to give these sentimental treasures a good home. Meanwhile, more World Cup (England won, hoorah, USA winning at the moment but down to 10 men) and sending out of laundry (since put away!) and just not trying to move around too much in this heat. The living room blinds and shades are drawn closed until at least Saturday. Ugh...

Floor, Bored

Before the extreme heat descends upon the NYC area, I decided to get some minimal house cleaning done (the only kind of house cleaning I actually do), and scrubbed the microwave clean-er (it's a quarter century old, there's only so much I can do) as well as wet Swiffering the bathroom and kitchen floors. The latter will still need extensive mopping but, as I say, cleanER as opposed to clean, and that will have to do. Tomorrow we venture out to pick up my reupholstered orthotics and grab some sushi at our favorite place, and then we hunker down for the rest of the week. Meanwhile, the downstairs family continues to wait for their furniture to arrive, but they're so lovely and quiet and nice I'm still thrilled with them!

Falling off the Sleep Cycle

Yikes, I was up around 3 AM, then back down around 4:30, then back up around 6, then down for the absolute count until the downstairs banging began around 8. After all, it's the weekend, why expect to rest? So I watched baseball (both NY teams won), tackled the linen closet and the vanity drawers, caught up on finances, put things in their new places with two shopping bags full of castoff t-shirts waiting to be donated, the trash has been taken out, even our couch is now reclaimed. Oh, and I made my first pitcher of iced tea of the season. As presumed, the Greek salad will wait until tomorrow, but I do feel quite the sense of accomplishment. Now if only I could sleep through the night without waking up in the wee smalls! Maybe watching the entire Tony Awards will help.

Vanity Thy Name Is...

I took a look this morning at the little cups holding my pills and said "I should really get new ones." I have a whole bag of the tiny things in... well, somewhere in either the medical shelf of the linen closet or one of my vanity drawers and... wait, why is this stuff all over the place? These vanity drawers need a cleanout! The perfect task to distract myself from the downstairs construction. The two left drawers were full of t-shirts from my comic convention days to my Firesign collection to other novelties, and the two right drawers had lots of electronics (Robin's department, and he disposed of them the way they should be) and OMG so many unused needles from when I was doing the Ozempic before I switched to Mounjaro and they just had to go because-- HOW many tubes of Parodontax toothpaste do I have again? And what do I have on that shelf in the linen closet that can go into the now-empty vanity drawers? So yeah, the t's are on the couch and I'll tackle the lot tomorrow, because today was early food shopping before it got too hot. I also have notions of making a Greek salad, but that may wait until Monday because I'm more in organizational mode than food prep mode...

Early to Rise

When I was living in my parents home, I trained myself to wake up earlier than they did (usually around 5-6 AM) so that I could deal with whatever was coming my way once Mom opened my did-not-lock bedroom door. I suppose that's where my morning-person habits (which have served me well during my working life) originated. The more things I can get done earlier in the day, the better off I seem to be. Now with the downstairs apartment renovations going on, it behooves me to get up before my alarm goes off (6 AM on the days when I work from home) and get stuff done before the noise distracts me. So today I did various personal financial things (which wound up continuing throughout the day talking to my family's financial advisors and DocuSigning papers) and straightening things around the house and even work prep before I actually logged on, changed my Windows password right away (with one day to spare!), and started my actual job stuff. The downside to doing things this way, of course, is that I usually find myself exhausted by the afternoon, and with all the renovation work I can't exactly nap until the workman leaves at around 6 PM. I keep reminding myself, this too shall pass. Hey, at least I got paid today!

A Cold Coming On

I think we picked up something yesterday, either at the dealership or the supermarket, and I was really not doing well today, so I just puttered around the house organizing things. All tote and shopping bags are now out of the car, and throughout the week we plan on emptying most of the rest of it in preparation for trading it in. Meanwhile I ordered arm rests for our recliners, which have become a bit threadbare and I think are contributing to my IT band issues the way I sit in the chair. Oh, and new Apple Watch bands, did I mention that? Got me at least a dozen that aren't metal so no more catching them on things. The construction noise downstairs wasn't as bad as we'd feared, but the dozen houses facing us all seemed to be celebrating Mother's Day very loudly. My first Mother's Day without Mom just feels kind of numb.

The Neverending Salad

I woke up way too early with a calf cramp, and by the time I got going for good I'd decided to try and stand in the kitchen for awhile to ease the calf and make myself an omelet for breakfast. I'd initially intended on using the lox, but I opted to do that tomorrow instead and then I realized I needed to pan fry onions and mushrooms, as I wanted to put cold shrooms into a salad later on. So that got done, then throughout the day I prepped other ingredients for the salad, and made myself enough for at least three meals. There's always something I forget to add, and today it was the tomatoes, so they'll go into the storage containers along with the leftover salad. I must have done at least three rounds of washing up as well, as I generally like to clean up after myself soon after food prep. Oh, and I finally finished compiling a list of all my bank accounts, credit cards, and stuff I'm in the process of inheriting from my parents' estate, a project that had been in the works for some time. Now I can sleep!

Not Taxing At All

As we've already received our tax refunds, we were unfazed by the Ides of April, and I made some more incremental forward movement on my assets, deciding to have my paychecks direct deposited into my newer checking account with a bank offering a higher APY (and the ability to bank in the UK) than the one I've been with. It took me a few tries to change the direct deposit procedure on my work laptop, but with Robin looking on I finally got the hang of it. Let's hope it works when I get paid on Friday! Next up, finishing my financial assets Excel file so I can better keep track of things and not have to use checkbooks to duplicate effort. At my age, it's much easier to see spreadsheets than a tiny checkbook!

Incremental Forward Movement

Like a friggin' wristwatch's second hand. I gave myself two major chores to do today: steaming some lighter tops with the summer-like weather on the horizon, and catching up on finances. Both were accomplished, and I even made some headway on my list of Where I Have Money Now, but that felt way too much like work so I'll finish it another time. (Especially after throwing away lots of old maps and timetables made obsolete by yon internet.) Tomorrow we get the laundry done, put away my winter comforter, and get back into the weekday routine.

Taxes Done and Dusted!

Well, that's a relief. The last time we do taxes on our own. With all the assets I'm inheriting from Mom's estate in 2026 it's just going to be too complicated to do this ourselves next year. Besides which, our eyes are getting to the point where we're having major trouble reading fine print, whether it's on a W2 form, a driver's license, even on a TurboTax screen. Best let a professional do it; after all, we can afford that little luxury now. My list of assets is going to wait until I see my brother next weekend at Mom's old house to go over all her belongings, decide what I would like to take or suggest giving to her brother in his assisted living apartment. Should be among my last trips to that part of New Jersey. But first I need to get through "PCAOB Week" at the office. Then only a few more days until April!

Sprrrrrrring!

I've decided to store my long winter coat in the home office closet tomorrow. Today we were so warm in the living room when we returned from food shopping that we actually ran the air conditioning for awhile! I know part of it is that the landlord has yet to turn off the heat, but knowing March (and after the winter we've had) I'm reluctant to mention it to his office as I'd rather the heat run and not need it than the other way around. I'm not even calling them about the annual rent increase letter, which ought to have gone out by now. Nope, that's on them! Meanwhile, we rested up a lot for tomorrow, when we plan to get our taxes done and when I finally start making a list of all my current and expected financial assets (which in the old days we used to call bank accounts and credit cards).

The Eyes Have It

Well, Friday the 13th done fall on a Friday again, but it's been kind of a lucky day for me. I got all my immediate job stuff done well before I logged off at 2:15, had to wait too long for the local bus (in each direction) but the doc gave me good news about my eye: the floater isn't affecting my vision at all, and I just need to be patient and let it drop out of my field of vision in time. But overall my eyes are fine, and so I can now get new glasses which I've wanted to do for awhile. Got a lot done electronically too - finally sorted the comics that came in last Monday, took care of emails regarding appointments I wanted to make (both the haircut and car tune-up will be tomorrow) and financial stuff, organized my phone apps so they made a bit more sense to me, even redid our kitchen inventory list so it's actually legible now. And so it's bad to the World Baseball Classic, a well-earned shower, and with any luck sleeping through the night.

Can't Trust That Day

Sooo much insomnia. Thank goodness I worked from home today. I can't remember if this happens to me every year after the clocks change, or if it's just a function of the suddenly-warm weather and not turning the bedroom fan on last night. Regardless, I powered through my two or three new jobs (personal, Mom's estate, and job-related) and set myself up well for going into the city tomorrow to actually deposit checks into the new savings account, as there's a branch at Hudson Yards near our office. In the meantime I'm still thoroughly enjoying the World Baseball Classic as well as the Milan/Cortina Paralympics...

Money Matters

I took a long lunch hour today so we could get Robin's prescription then go to the local branch of the bank I've chosen which operates in both the US and the UK (and isn't open on weekends) to open an account where I could deposit the checks I've received so far from Mom's estate. The process apparently takes a few days, so I couldn't actually do anything yet with the checks, but fortunately there's another branch near my office so I can do that part in the coming week when I'm in Manhattan. We got home from our sushi lunch (because of course) well before I'd anticipated, so I only wound up taking two hours PTO. Now that the snow is finally melting there are a lot more PTO days to come as I get into the swing of medical appointments. But for now I'm able to tick off one more thing from my Estate To-Do list; next up is organizing all the various beneficiary IRAs and other assets which I'm told are coming my way. Maybe this weekend, although to tell you the truth I'd just rather watch the World Baseball Classic, which I'm quite liking so far.