Thanks, Jen. It is definitely a time to sell and not to buy. I'm very fortunate to live where so many people are looking and so little is available.

Just hope that no one looking at the house opens a closet or something and an absolute avalanche of stuff you were hiding falls out.

So true, Todd! The realtor did make it clear and it was fine to stash stuff in closets. One of the rooms is empty so I left the closet open in that room. When it comes down to it we are living here, so yes there is stuff in our closets and cabinets. When I was a buyer some of the places I looked at had dirty dishes and pet/kid toys all over. At least I have cleared the debris field completely.

Scheduled my Booster/Flu shots for the 29th. Omicron isn't surging in SF but it will soon enough.

The good thing is masks have become totally normalized in San Francisco and Proof of Vax is required anywhere you might take your mask off. I'm wondering how long before they require the boosters to be considered Fully Vaxxed. Probably in January.

We've got Emmett, EM and my MiL coming to Xmas this year. Fingers crossed everybody stays uninfected this week.

I would like One Adulting Credit, please. I did the onerous task of transferring my son's phone over to my plan, AND retain his phone number. As he was coming from an AT&T Business account (with his mother's company) this involved a truly boggling series of extremely long numbers that I had to transcribe (IMEI, SIM Card number, Business EIN...) correctly whilst dealing with the online customer rep chat. I had been avoiding it but managed to line up all the necessary numbers onto one document before I started the process and [knock wood] it should go through today.

Have most but not all of my shopping and wrapping done and now shifting into meal planning mode for the holiday, though EM will do most of the Xmas eve cooking.

Filled with vague sense of unease as we head into Solstice. What fresh hell awaits in 2022? I'm getting flinchy.

Gold stars for the adulting, Hec.

I'm more concerned about the virus than I have been to date. I haven't been out and about except for medical stuff and that is all masked and vaccinated. I only do grocery curbside. DH on the other hand has basketball practice or games almost daily. He did say yesterday he is going to keep some distance from me until after my surgery to be on the safer side. We are both boosted. Florida of course is a Spike zone most likely due to a combo of an idiot governor and so many tourists and snowbirds this time of year.

On the good side, I was wrong about the showing times and they are 2:30 and 3:30 when I thought it was 1:30. So a bit more time for prep. The 2:30 dude has an avid water skiing son and I live on the most popular skiing lake around here. The realtor is very good about vetting potentials and says he is very qualified.

Mask frames have made my life so much easier in terms of claustrophobia. I would have had a really hard time wearing them for hours otherwise.

I'm very fortunate to live where so many people are looking and so little is available

Yes! Around here, you'd be in the same nice boat (heh, because boat). And now with an extra hour. Sweet!

Who Zoomed with Nilly, yesterday? How is she doing?

Steph, how is Tim's dad? How are you two?

Hec, you get THREE adulting credits: one for the task, one for doing it for Emmett, and one for doing it this particular week.

Filled with vague sense of unease as we head into Solstice. What fresh hell awaits in 2022? I'm getting flinchy.

You know how you jazz up or transform leftovers into a new dish? So far, 2022's fresh hell looks like that, but the GOP could take back the House come November.

This reminds me, I need to find an attorney in Canada, so my mother can claim her citizenship. We looked at the forms and she qualifies (both her parents were Canadian citizens when she was born here), but it's complicated by the Halifax explosion of 1917, because at least my Nana's birth certificate went boom.

I don't know how to find an attorney in Canada.

Cindy - feel free to blame me for your desire for a hammer dulcimer. They're lovely. I was once in an old factory converted to shops and, in an atrium, they had a bunch of hammer dulcimer players all playing in unison. Incredible effect.

Oh that must have been great, Toddson.

Congrats on you bonus! You didn't ask, but I'll just mention my son got his Pfizer booster and flu shot on the same day (cc: Hec), and was none the worse for the wear. Good luck with yours.

Laura, good luck with the house. Every time I look around this place and realize how much I'd love to have a dumpster and maybe some footmen for a week.

Hec, here is your adulting badge!

My daughter was exposed to Covid on the bus today and had to be picked up so she can quarantine, wheeeeee. I'm waiting for a call back from the school nurse to clarify the quarantine rules (I thought fully vaxxed kids did NOT have to quarantine) but OTOH maybe it's best that she just stay home all week because Omicron?

Steph, how is Tim's dad? How are you two?

Tim visited him yesterday, and he's not in any pain from the surgery, which is great, because bedsores happen in places where recovery might be painful (trying to not sit on an area, etc). His white blood cell count is sky high -- the nurse said when he was admitted, she had never seen a WBC count that high (like 46,000, and normal is between 5,000 and 7,000) (I kind of can't believe he didn't develop sepsis). It's slowly coming down, though -- last night it was at 25,000, which is still sky high but a significant improvement.

Tim and his brothers had a conference call last night about issues that need to be addressed with the nursing home going forward (ie, he was supposed to have an air mattress on his bed that's designed to help prevent bedsores -- but he didn't have it [and that's only one example of shit that didn't happen before things got worse]). The nursing home is attached to his (former) assisted living facility (you know, the one that ignored an 84-year-old man HAVING A STROKE), so I can't say I'm surprised that aspects of his care are being neglected on the nursing home side.

Tim and his brothers are only just now building up some anger and litigiousness about the neglect he's been experiencing, and because one of my worst character flaws is that I always, always need to be right, I am working VERY hard to *not* say anything like "Shoulda sued them into oblivion when they ignored his stroke, and then maybe this wouldn't have happened."

But aside from the essential I-Told-You-So-ness of my nature, this all just sucks. I feel like so much of this could have been prevented, or mitigated to a significant degree, by the nursing home, but because it wasn't, my FiL's quality of life is lousy. He's not eating much, and that's scary, but the hospital is aware of it and trying to address it.

This is a fucking complicated mess to deal with, and the best I can do is support Tim, but I really feel like there's actually nothing I can do that will make a difference. And also I'm letting A LOT of my feelings about being my Dad's caretaker bleed over and influence how I'm dealing with this emotionally, which is, of course, not well at all, so Merry Fucking Christmas.