I'm so mad at old boss lady. She had 30 yards of mulched delivered on Thursday in the front two parking spaces. Our group of volunteers on Friday barely moved five of it. I was told to introduce myself to the wedding people this morning, and they immediately freaked out over the visual and the loss of one handicapped spot (we're only required by law to provide one, and we still have one left) even though they're having valet parking. The ladies were still acting like poor hobbled people would have to walk far. They were all very polite and diplomatic, but they were also very insistent. "We have 24 hours to figure this out!" Uh, no, we don't because I was leaving work within two hours of that conversation. I'm not going to move 25 yards by myself on my off-time over the space of a day and a half. Also, we have only 35 (now 33) parking spots, and you have 275 guests and valet parking! No one is going to be walking far. And we are a working garden and it really isn't an eyesore. It's beautiful brown root mulch. Not rubble or construction fill.

We compromised that I'd move some urns and pots with flowers in front of it to dress it, even though I thought that drew more attention to the big piles of discreet brown. Then I hid.

Besides, it's going to pour tomorrow. The valet drop-off is past that, and any handicapped persons would not benefit from the location of the now-unavailable handicapped parking space. Also, valet parking!!!

So, thank you, former boss-lady, for that headached, grrr.

(I totally understand that two days out from being gone gone gone, she wasn't doing her usual thing of checking calendars for upcoming events or really thinking about the future implications and ramifications of having the mulch dumped where it was. Still.)

I actually don't care that it's there, only that I have to deal with the people who seem to think it's a big horrible obstacle. I almost took the time to print and laminate a sign that said "pardon our appearance..." but thought that would be even more visually detracting and ran away before the rehearsal wedding was over.

Anyone been reading xkcd's Time? Looks like it's done.

Cleaning house and watching Goblet of Fire with Matilda today. I will never, ever get tired of the heartbreaking comic end to the Yule Ball, with a handful of blissed-out dancers shuffling around in mingled exhaustion and unwillingness to let go of the delicious physical presence of a crushed-on person right in their arms, and the stairway outside littered with misery, bitter girls comforting sobbing girls and snarling boys kicking aside bits of fallen decoration and the shattered wreckage of the expectations for the night that they couldn't even articulate to themselves. I seriously wouldn't be that age again for any wealth or power on earth.

I actually don't care that it's there, only that I have to deal with the people who seem to think it's a big horrible obstacle.

I might be a bridethulhu here, but since I'm in the process of planning a wedding, yeah, I would be annoyed if our venue had a big pile of mulch or some other unsightly obstacle that was never part of the agreed-upon contract.

I'm sure a pile of mulch is beautiful to you, but when someone rents your venue, they rent it with the understanding that, unless specifically delineated in the contract, the appearance of the venue will be as they saw it. Actually -- do people pay to use the arboretum for events? If it's free, then they kind of get what they get. But if they paid, I think they're entitled to expect it to appear a certain way.

Will their special magical beautiful pretty princess day be traumatically ruined with a pile of mulch? No, of course not. But that doesn't mean they don't have the right to be annoyed that the venue they contracted with -- and paid for -- isn't as they expected.

t makes note to talk to B&B about landscaping projects

Stopping at Falling Waters on the way back tomorrow because architecture.

Because architecture is a fabulous reason.

Yesterday and today I deeep deeeeep cleaned. Which is really gross in this much humidity. But, dang, I should do this more often.

I need a shock collar to train my brother that sending out basically distress calls the second he can't find someone in the family he wants to talk with. At least clearly state that you just can't get a hold of them instead of "have you talked to X today?" Because I can catastrophize too, buddy. I was napping when the text came in. Clearly not now.

Steph, I agree. What annoys me is that the location of the mulch deposit wasn't my decision, and that there was nothing I could do about remedying it without a week or two lead-time, but I still was the person on the grounds having to deal with the frustration of the renters, trying to be diplomatic about a mess that I didn't make and couldn't possibly solve to anyone's satisfaction. And will probably have to deal with the ED's annoyance once he gets wind of the the wedding parties annoyance.

The rest is me just trying to make myself feel better about my own helplessness.

"Adirondack chair" is my brain's default answer to "going to stretch out and read outside not by a pool".

I want a zero gravity lounge chair something fierce.

Costco. I got one end of season last year for like 25 bucks.

I just took down the baby gate, and posted it on Freecycle!

I feel like I got my house back, but with extra dog.

Jesse, I don't think you're taking the right lesson from lunch: NO BEETS.

That's just wrong. Really I want all beets for lunch.