The Clown Makes Fools of Us All

White Rabbits and happy April Fools' Day, Pen-Elayne on the Web's official high holiday! When democracy threatens to crumble around us it's hard to keep our sense of humor, but it's also critical because that's our way of being critical of the madness. Robin found some nice corporate April Fools' Day sites here, here are some from Auntie Beeb, and I positively love this one courtesy of the Great British Bake-Off. Want more? Here are some aviation-related AFD things, and I really giggled at this entry from our NYC mayor's office.

A Wander Too Far

It was so nice and warm today that I just had to take in at least the entrance to the High Line. Unfortunately my IT band acted up by the end of my walk to the subway, and I had no knee brace on, which meant tons of pain in my left hallux by the time I got home. Definitely sitting still for the next few days! I just hope I'll be able to sleep, I'm in way more pain than I'd anticipated. Fortunately I've gotten all my client meeting scheduling done and submitted month-end timesheets and expense reports for all my folks, so maybe tomorrow will be an easier day.

Silly Site o' the Day

Work-from-home was fine today, I was able to forget about my right arm pain whilst putting out fires, and I'm in good enough shape for tomorrow. The only frustrating thing to most of us exec assistants was that our expense application didn't work for much of the day, and of course expenses are due month-end. It wasn't quite enshittifiation but it did remind me of this:

 

Via BoingBoing. 

Diminisushi Returns

As expected, the trip to Jersey did a number on me, but we had to do our grocery shopping, so I figured let's make a treat out of it and go to the ShopRite in the same strip mall as "our" conveyor belt sushi place. Oddly, neither of us was in the mood to overeat, which was probably good for supermarket stuff but not so good for our preferred treat. Still, we were back and watching TV (currently catching up on Deadloch on Amazon Prime) and just resting by 2 PM, so that will help when trying to recover enough to schlep into the Manhattan office on Tuesday. In the meantime, hoping a nice shower tomorrow evening will loosen some of these arm muscles and tendons not used to driving so much.

Thanks for the Momories

Today I made my last trip to Bayville, to drop off my copy of the key to Mom's and Dad's final house and to sift through their belongings to decide what had the most sentimental value to me that I wanted to cherish it. Turns out, their lives were their lives, and I came back with a handful of photos and a bauble or two, but their lives ran their course and now even the love letters are All Just Stuff. I feel put through an emotional and physical wringer, having not driven four hours (2 there and 2 back) in almost two years, and of course all the tears and such. I'm quite the wreck now, but happy that I got to see my brother, go over a lot of estate stuff, and that I never have to make that drive again. Next time I go into NJ it will likely be to get a new car. Now to summon up enough energy for grocery shopping tomorrow...

Silly Site o' the Day

Here's a cool video about everyday items that have secret functions:

 Via Laughing Squid.

Silly Site o' the Day

Ooh, beware the scary numbers!

 Via Laughing Squid.

Limited Plans

It's still too, well, March-like to think about making any plans, but this Saturday Robin and I meet my brother at Mom's old place to go over some of her stuff as well as estate matters, and we've just solidified those particulars. I have two or three fairly time-sensitive medical things I want to take care of, dentist and podiatrist and blood draws and so forth, and lots of friends I want to see now that all is okay with the car and my eyesight, but all that will wait until April. I have a good handle on my job duties at the moment, had calls this afternoon with both my fellow EAs whom I'm mentoring as well as my supervisor ("I know what both your short-term and long-term career plan is" she jokingly began our call), and finally wrapped up at least the first stage of my client meeting scheduling (emails have gone out to all the EAs on that end). And I hate to say it, but I have even successfully created an AI agent to take information from my higglety-pigglety schedule and create a table for me putting all the meetings in chronological order, saving me at least a couple hours. As AI use is pretty much mandated by my firm and is part of my goal setting this year I'm glad that's done. We also saw the Paul McCartney bio about his life in the 1970's, which was very well put together and really tight visually, so that was another good reason to work from home today. And now pre-Opening Day baseball is on (Yankees versus Giants) so must go...

Meets and Greets

The weather wasn't rainy but had turned a bit colder, so I had to don the winter jacket this morning and wound up waiting 10 minutes at the transfer point from the express to the local bus, so that wasn't fun. However, I knew what awaited me at the office - a tasty bagel and lox sandwich with all the trimmings, and tons and tons of meetings with folks I hadn't seen in awhile. That's really my main incentive for coming into the office in the first place, seeing folks including the partners I support (even the ones I used to), fellow exec assistants, pretty much anyone I run into now that we're all in the same building rather than three different NYC locations. It filled my day pretty quickly, and guaranteed I don't have to come in again for the rest of the week as we're only mandated two in-office days a week and I'm pretty beyond exhausted. At least it kept me from thinking too much about how this would have been Mom's 95th birthday had she lived just a few more months. And yesterday was, I think, the 18th anniversary of Dad's death, so wherever my parents are (even if it's just in my heart and memories) they're together now, which is of some small comfort. The candle has been lit to remember Dad and now Mom, and now we move on because time travel does go both ways, but we move only forward in real life and look to our memories and dreams to move backwards.

Always Get Me Down

I schlepped into Manhattan on a very rainy Monday because I was asked to oversee the start of an inspection for which I was in charge of all the preparatory logistics. Fortunately it went off without a hitch, and since I'm doing two consecutive days in the office this week I was able to leave everything in a locker leaving me unburdened for the commute home. It's just about stopped raining now but the cold lingered. I think we were all taken in by False Spring.

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!