Oh, fourth time! Twice I've taken two weeks over Christmas, although one of those times it was mostly sick days because I had the flu.

Timelies all!

I get 26 days a year vacation leave. I use a good amount of it each year, between conventions, the Jewish holidays and other trips. The maximum I can carry over each year is 240 hours, which I'm pretty far from.

I wish I could take off more than a week time. I have a dream of a cruise.

Maybe your boss or whoever would have a different attitude if you cite plans that require more than a week, Connie. Like a cruise. Worth running up the flagpole, so to speak, maybe.

It really doesn't seem like an unreasonable expectation, to be be able to do what you want with your vacation time.

Timeless!

I've been lurking a bit. But, I need some Hivemind advice. I've been putting off asking for it but I need to get the ball rolling.

I have to move. My new apartment managers have jacked the rent on my one room apartment by $70 starting in April. I have some help from my oldest sister to cover the extra for now. I also got an unexpected bonus from work and my income tax refund came a lot sooner than I thought it would. So I have money for the deposit and stuff.

My problem is a logistical one. you see, I've had bed bugs. I've been through an apartment wide heat treatment and supposedly exterminators are coming in every month, but I'm not convinced it's all working. as late as a month or so ago I still found bites.

I never see any of these critters so I don't know how many of few there are. I don't want to take them with me, obviously. And I don't want anyone who helps me move to accidentally take some home with them.

So, I'm trying to figure out what I need to get rid of and what I can keep. I know anything fabric can be thrown in a washing machine and dried long enough to be safe. And plastic and metal things could be hosed off at a car wash.

But there are other things like books, a family heirloom footlocker, my electronics, a wooden chest of drawers that I don't know what to do with. I don't know how to tell if they are "safe" or if I should chuck them.

I plan on ditching the futon couch I sleep on, but beyond that I just don't know how to tell if things are bug free.

any advice will be very much appreciated. I don't have a timeline yet because I just haven't wanted to deal with it.

Hi Quester! I've got some bedbug experience.

It was a house full of stuff, so they had it tented and fumigated to get the bugs out of the book cases, carpeting and stuff.

Fortunately the bugs themselves are quite large and easy to see. You will be able to brush off their leavings off of hard surfaces.

Empty and wipe out the foot locker and chest of drawers. Maybe with some orange oil. Those aren't good hidey habitat then. Bed bugs like soft fabric.

Perhaps a few days stored in one of those Pack Rat moving cubes plus a bug bomb would do the trick for unwashable things like books and electronics.

So there you go. Hope this helps.

Katie B (HI!!!!) is wise. When we went through our bed bug adventure, we were mainly concerned with the soft stuff. Getting rid of your futon is the main thing. They like fabric and they like body heat. Books and hard furniture aren't their usual haunts.

While I find my new officemates most helpful in most work related senses, I've completely lost respect for them as people I'd want to assort myself with.. Not kitten killers, but no inclination to even call them acquaintances. Not my people. Whooboy.

I miss my last officemate.

thanks Katbee and suzi.

I have literally never seen anything. I've vacuumed and mopped and washed the bedding repeatedly, but I've never seen a bug. just the bites.

Quester, if you never see anything, it could be fleas rather than bedbugs. That's what happened to me when we were given a blanket as a gift from someone with pets. We had the place bombed and the problem completely went away.