Long week

The last couple of weeks have been . . . interesting. The week before last was mostly cleaning, trying to keep getting the new place in order to move in. I, of course, didn't do much of the heavy stuff, but I was there for part of it, and did some cleaning of the kitchen, and quite a bit of packing at the old place. And working, too.

Then the long holiday weekend, which I don't really even remember. Bob went to a graduation party for a friend's daughter, and I stayed home and worked on some freelance stuff and did housework and rested, mostly.

We moved on Tuesday. I spent most of Tuesday morning standing in the elevator holding the "door open" button, since someone else in the building found out that propping the elevator door open breaks it, and we didn't want to break the elevator on our last day. So I'd hold the button while the guys loaded the elevator, then I'd take it downstairs and hold the button while they unloaded it, then we'd go back up . . . Lather, rinse, repeat.

Then we ordered in pizza, had lunch sitting around the conference tables out in the middle of the floor, then I drove back out to my neck of the woods for a five hour meeting with a client.

On Tuesday I went to work and spent most of the day setting up my office. Dave built my desk for me, and carried my monitors and file cabinet around, and I manhandled (woman-handled?) the bookcase and the computers, and crawled around under the desk connecting up all the cables, and wonder of wonders, it worked! The whole key was that I have a wireless card in my Mac. The PC wasn't so lucky. We were going to install a wireless card in it, but apparently the CD drive has died, so we couldn't install the software, and it wouldn't recognize an external drive that we had, so it's just sitting there, unconnected, now.

But that's okay, it's just my "testing" computer, mostly. I use the Mac for everything, I only use the PC to view websites to see if they look okay in that environment. I also use it to do credit card processing, since that site won't work on Macs, but I guess if I have to do that before we figure out what to do about my PC, I can go find someone else's PC to do it on.

Most of us are on Macs, actually. Cello, me, Kristi, and the four creative guys are on Macs. John has PCs, and Dan and Eugene, both of whom are usually offsite working at client offices, share a PC.

Anyway. It's been a long couple of weeks. The guy who moved us last week is going to come in sometime this week, I think, and paint the offices that need it. Mine needs it the most desperately, I think. There was one wall that was almost covered with dark cork tiles. They had been there a long time, and some of them were warped and crumbling, so I pulled them off. They had been nailed to the wall with tiny nails, except for two tiles, which were glued to the wall. We figure they started gluing, then got tired and nailed the rest, although who knows?

So removing them left a million tiny nails, and removing the ones that were glued tore off the sheetrock. So it needs it badly.

I had thought they might paint before we moved in, but since they didn't, I thought, well, it will happen sometime. If I had realized it was going to be so soon, I might have left some of my furniture outside my office, because I'm obviously going to have to move everything at least away from the walls, if not completely out. The office is so small that I'm not sure they can get a ladder up against the wall with the desk in there. We'll see, I guess.

Bob left on Friday for his annual fishing trip to Minnesota. I always kind of look forward to it -- it's nice to have a week to myself once in awhile, nice to stay up late and watch television, eat out, not feel like I have to be home at a certain time. Although, really, I do what I want most of the time anyway, and eat what I want, and I can't really stay up that late without falling asleep on the couch . . .

I don't find myself lonely often; I'm perfectly comfortable with my own company, I have a lot of things that I can do by myself, and I love to sit and read, or knit, or surf the web on the computer. I have stacks of unwatched DVDs, and stacks of unread books (I'm on a "themed" mystery kick right now--I'll list them out in the next entry). So it's not like I have nothing to do. And it's kind of nice to have the bed to myself. I can stretch out. But this morning I woke up with the cats pressed up against me, just like always, so it doesn't really do me any good to have the bed all to myself.

I have a feeling it's going to be a long week.

previous | next

Good book

I read a great book today -- California Demon, by Julie Kenner. The subtitle is "The secret life of a demon-hunting soccer mom." It's a follow-up to last year's Carpe Demon ("Adventures of a demon-hunting soccer mom").

They're both quick, fun reads; they'd be perfect for the beach or, like today, a rainy day inside. You know pretty much all you need to know from the titles. A young mother was a "Hunter" in her previous life; her husband, also a Hunter, died, she retired, remarried, and has been doing her best to be a normal wife and mother, but those darn demons keep showing up and, you know, someone has to save the world . . .

Kate Conner has a politician husband, a teenage daughter and a toddler son, so her days are pretty full with PTA functions, volunteering at the local retirement home, attending (and hosting) dinner parties, showing up at school assemblies, and not incidentally, killing a few nasty demons who have taken up residence in some otherwise normal-seeming people. Bad breath is the main clue that someone may not be who they seem, also, an aversion to holy water. The books are certainly more "chick lit" than horror -- humorous, too. I highly recommend them.

previous | next

New place

We're moving the office next week. The new space is just about a block away from the current space. It's the basement floor of a building, a really exciting space with a full kitchen, an exposed stone wall, and lots of room for expansion.

There are several small offices and meeting rooms building along one wall, but most of the space is open, with an industrial feel--hanging lights, exposed pipe, bare concrete floor. We have a lot of plans for it.

The previous tenant didn't leave it in very good shape, and we've had a crew working over there for several days cleaning and hauling away trash. They're coming back in on Tuesday to move everything from the old space over to the new building. It's not as bad as moving a house, I guess, but there's a lot of stuff anyway.

Bob and I went to the wholesale club tonight to pick up a few things, and as soon as we walked in, I saw an office chair that I wanted. It's a sage green microfiber suede "manager's chair," which I guess is somewhere between a normal "office chair" and what they call "executive" chairs, i.e., it doesn't have the high back, but it does have arms.

It didn't have a price, and it was the last one, apparently the floor model. I liked it so much that I didn't want to leave without finding out how much it cost; we finally found someone who went to look it up, and she came back and said it was just under $100, so I decided to go ahead and get it. My chair at work isn't very good, but I haven't been motivated to get a new one--I just can't get excited about most of the bland, black chairs, and it's hard for me to spend that much money on something that I really don't care about.

Luckily, we were in the van, and Bob had taken out the back seats in preparation for going on his trip to Minnesota next week, so he was able to put it in the back. He said he'll take it down to the office for me sometime this weekend.

I'm looking forward to moving. It's always fun to get used to a new place, I think. It will be nice to have a dishwasher, although I can't imagine we'll use the stove much. Dave and Cello and I spent a good part of Friday cleaning out the kitchen cabinets and throwing away a LOT of old stuff. It'll be nice to have storage space, too. I guess I can keep my cans of soup in the kitchen now instead of in my file cabinet.

previous | next

Bathtime

I was sitting in the living room watching television last night, and looked over at the sliding glass door that opens onto the backyard, and noticed Pyewacket sitting there intently watching something. I got up to see what she was looking at, and saw a little chipmunk sitting on the patio. I grabbed my camera and got one picture of him before he scampered away.

We see chipmunks at my mom's occasionally, but I've never seen one here. I suppose seeing one means that there's a whole family somewhere. I know they can be destructive, but they're sure cute.

When I was downloading the chipmunk picture from the camera, I noticed a series of videos that I took of the kitties one morning, and I don't think I ever posted here. They're of Pyewacket giving Dinah a very thorough bath one Sunday morning. Here's one snippet:

Video Hosting - Upload Video - Video Sharing

I love how Pye holds Dinah down with her paw, and how Dinah submits so quietly. Dinah always initiates it, Pyewacket never does, and Pye is always the one to do the washing. I just think the dynamics are interesting.

And this is what inevitably happens at the end of one of these baths:

Video Hosting - Upload Video - Video Sharing

previous | next

Falling in love

Earlier, I posted a picture on the moblog of Dinah and Bob, and Liora commented that we (you) don't often see pictures of Bob with Dinah, that Pyewacket is always the one that's sitting on Bob's lap. That has been true until recently. Dinah has fallen in love with Bob, big time.

She still sleeps on my side of the bed, and she stakes out her territory on my lap in the mornings when I'm reading email before I go to work, but there are certain specific times that Bob--and no one else--will do.

Most evenings when I get home, Bob will have made my dinner and I'll sit at the dining room table to eat while he sits in my chair in the corner. This is prime cuddling time for Dinah--she'll rush from wherever she is to jump up into his lap as soon as she sees him sit down. She's a very wiggly cat, and she has definite preferences. She practically climbs him, and he has to hold her up in his arms. She won't just sit in his lap like she will with me--with him, she requires more active cuddling.

He has to hold her in his arms, and when he does, she tucks her feet in and settles down, sometimes as long as twenty minutes. It's pretty funny, actually. I'm not sure what happened, but she's decided that he's okay.

Pretty pictures of Pyewacket

When she's lying in the cat tree in the front window, she likes to brace one paw against the window screen.

previous | next