The New Neighbors

Pablo and Raquel (plus Raquel Jr.) seem lovely, and Pablo is a big comics fan! He was thrilled to see Robin's studio, and Rob gave him a Supergirl compendium which pleased him so much he gave Rob a big hug in return. He's very effusive! I think I'm going to love our new downstairs neighbors! They're coming back from their current location in two weeks to actually move in, so I assume all the renovations are finished and it's just a matter of waiting for them to take up residence. Work was pretty quiet today so I was able to take things slowly and relax, watch some World Cup, and prep for tomorrow.

Brief Holding Pattern

Today was pretty much a do-nothing day, but a nice quiet one. I'm fairly sure they're about done with the downstairs renovation, and now it's just a matter of waiting for our new neighbors. I caught up on the local paper and finally filed not only my personal finances but the myriad estate papers (we're far from over the distributions but we're actually getting to the point where things are becoming manageable). Oh, and of course lots of footie, and even some baseball. All set for tomorrow if I can get some sleep!

Productive!

Alas, my circadian clock is still a bit out of whack, as this was the third day running where I got up at 4 AM. While I went back to bed around 6:30 I don't think I slept much before Robin and I both got up, although thanks to the new temporary normal quiet I did get an afternoon nap. I don't take any of this for granted! Shopping done early (landlord had to move his van so we could park in the spot he's allowed us to use), two World Cup games watched (the first admittedly with my eyes closed, having given up switching channels between that and the two NY baseball games), getting ready for another one or two now, and financial stuff printed and organized in prep for entering and filing tomorrow. And now I've exhausted myself just typing all that!

Quiet Reigns!

OMG, much needed afternoon nap and everything! It appears the construction downstairs is finally over, a few heavy appliances are now in place, and now begins the wait for the landlord to start showing the place to potential tenants and possibly even buyers. Whatever happens, I think we can wait things out until I retire. I caught up on lots of work stuff and even personal financial stuff, making a couple phone calls regarding my pension from my first job as well as Mom's inheritance stuff. And I got to watch the World Cup games with Robin from the comfort of my recliner, rather than at work by myself even though there were a number of coworkers there (none of whom even brought team jerseys as I did). The only minor drawback was when the home office AC noise kicked in and made it hard to hear folks over the phone, but considering how hot it is outside I'll take it. I also informed the folks I support of my upcoming plans for England in September, so maybe this weekend we'll actually book the flights and hotel. And of course I'll catch up more on personal finances. In between World Cup and baseball games, of course. A nice full quiet weekend at home beating the heat!

World Cupery

Today my firm sponsored a watch party in our dining lounge for the opening game of the World Cup. I wound up only making it for the second half due to a meeting, but I'm pleased to say that, by the time I got up to that room, I had very little work on which I needed to catch up. Almost every quarterly meeting for all three of "my" big clients are now done, important as two of those clients have multi-week inspections coming up and I now need to concentrate on that. I really need some time off, and I'll be getting some: next week I have some medical stuff to take care of, plus Friday is Juneteenth and a firm holiday; the last week of June/first week of July is our annual Summer Shutdown (no plans other than getting my orthotics reupholstered since I won't be going anywhere else); then in September we're hoping to go back to Merrie Olde to begin scouting possible retirement areas. In the meantime, we have to deal with World Cup Madness in the NY/NJ area as the MetLife Stadium is home to a lot of the games. Oh, and I did have fun watching the footie, except folks were encouraged to wear team kits and I was the only one who brought one (England of course). Oh, and also, they cut away to ads while the game was still going on! Bet they won't do that with the Oo-Ess-Ey game tomorrow...

Wrung Out

Despite working from home on a fairly quiet day (I really think, nay hope, that the downstairs construction is winding down) and actually putting away most of the laundry, I still feel buried under my workload. I know this too shall pass, but it's been like this all week so far, and the older I get the less able I am to rebound. Maybe I'll catch up with my inbox tomorrow in the Manhattan office; for today I've done all I'm capable of doing.

One Day After, One Day Before

Crazy day at work, but it could have been far worse; yesterday and tomorrow constitute the NBA playoffs, whereon the area around Madison Square Garden (a block away from our offices) is cordoned off and majorly secured and it's all such a mess. So I kept busy, much more so than I'd expected, just grateful I can work from home tomorrow. If I sleep well I hope to take care of some financial things in the morning, but that's all dependent on my circadian rhythm. Robin and I will be turning the mattress tomorrow while the laundry is being done, so maybe the "hard" side will help with my IT band issues.

The End in Sight?

The noise has been minimal downstairs, so with any luck they're in the home stretch. Now we just have to hope that whoever rents the apartment downstairs is quiet enough to make the next few years bearable...

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...