I miss sick days.

I just want to go to bed and sleep off the cold that is brewing, but money.

Things I will not say in my conference call: Whoever you are, can you stop breathing loudly into your mike?

Things I will say: Would everyone please remember to mute your phones unless you are speaking? The background noise is incredibly distracting and rude to the current speaker.

Ugh, my smoke alarm started beeping for a battery change last night at a quarter past three and would NOT shut off, even when I actually removed the battery. If it were mine rather than the landlord's I would have ripped it off the wall and thrown it out a window.

In my old house, the smoke alarms and sprinkler system were hardwired. Removing the battery and/or removing the entire alarm set the whole thing to shrieking. My current house is 115 years old, and didn't have any smoke alarms until I moved in. It does have a CO detector because of the oil heat.

Huuuuge case of the don't wannas. Two bids due tomorrow, but I can't respond to one because they haven't answered our questions and yet have not extended the due date. The other is just a PITA.

If I could just curl up in a ball, cry a little bit, and shut out the world, I'd be good. I have no desire to deal with any of this bullshit any more.

Matt, can you just take yours off the wall? You know, without throwing it out the window, though I understand the urge.

No, it has wires connecting it to the wall mount. I mean, I could just rip the whole thing off, but at best I'd be on the hook for the cost of replacement and I can just envision the poetic justice death of exposed wires setting my wall on fire after the alarm was destroyed.

So we got the estimate today for rewiring our house. $16K. Ugh. I was mentally prepared for 10. The second people walked through today and gave a verbal estimate of $16-20, so I can;t even feel like the first people are delusional.

Maintain your house's electrical systems, people! Don;t let them sit with half-assed, probably un-permitted upgrades for 50 years!

Hugs, Maria. I'm not sure I can help with the don't wannas, other than to say do what you can and make do with the rest.

I am staring at a massive deadline next week and a lot to do between now and then. But it will get done.

Don;t let them sit with half-assed, probably un-permitted upgrades for 50 years!

Too late, already there. Although it did pass inspection when we bought, so I'm going to continue to assume it is okay enough.

So we got the estimate today for rewiring our house. $16K.

When I was looking at houses in March, there was one place I was willing to put an offer in on until it was disclosed that the HOA was requiring it to be rewired and the seller wasn't willing to give any room on the price to cover the cost. Very glad I walked away from that place (though, honestly, that would have cost less than the new windows here, so nevermind).

Maintain your house's electrical systems, people! Don;t let them sit with half-assed, probably un-permitted upgrades for 50 years!

That's my house you're talking about there. We finally took out a loan so we can get started on the very much needed renovations. Pretty sure most of the money will be going to needed upgrades to electrical and plumbing, but I hope we can at least redo the kitchen and dining room. No idea when we get to the new siding, or the repairs to the retaining wall in the back. Sigh. And we are lucky enough to have the money to take care of this stuff, I realize that.

I have to admit I am loving this new look of guys with long hair needing to find creative ways to put it up. LA is awash in boys with beards and buns. I think what amuses me is to see men with the same messy hairdos I've been sporting for years.

Would everyone please remember to mute your phones unless you are speaking? The background noise is incredibly distracting and rude to the current speaker.

Sometimes it can be amusing, like a conference call I was on this morning. Someone asked whether anyone objected to a certain course of action. As if on cue, a dog started barking.

I have to admit I am loving this new look of guys with long hair needing to find creative ways to put it up. LA is awash in boys with beards and buns. I think what amuses me is to see men with the same messy hairdos I've been sporting for years.

I had to show Tim how to make a messy manbun. Sheesh.

t edit I am endlessly amused that I ended up marrying a man with the kind of hair we lusted after in college. It was the early to mid-90s, so the Ur-hair was Michael Hutchence from INXS. Long and curly. So 18-year-old Steph is SO HAPPY. As is 44-year-old Steph.

(No beard for him, though he's willing to grow facial hair to be Ichabod Crane for Halloween. Specifically, skinny jeans!Ichabod Crane, because [1] HILARIOUS, and [2] he owns skinny jeans already, so his costume is done.)