Today is the day we celebrate the birth of Gudanov! We are so grateful for you. I sincerely hope that this is a rewarding year. May the stresses of recent years dissipate.

Also birthday wishes for Sean K. He doesn't venture in here often, but often in my thoughts. Updates from him on FB of late have been joyful and for that I am delighted.

Sorry about the stress, Consuela, but helpful to have an understanding boss.

Happy Birthday Gudanov!

Many Happies to both Gud and Sean!

Happy birthdays!

Yesterday I found out that my boss, when he was 18, got cited for drag racing with Mike Tyson. Which is extremely random and yet entirely surprising.

ETA : unsurprising! That should say unsurprising.

Happy birthday, Sean and Gudanov!

Work is stressing me out. Some of it is good—the responsibility for a major, high visibility project. But some of it is not. Maybe the major, high visibility project will impress someone up north and they'll help me out of this humid, kudzu infested hellscape.

But hey, I have a 2-day work week next week, so that'll be nice.

My great-grandparents' home is back on the market.

Jim says he is very sorry, but he cannot buy the property and teleport it here: we would, in fact, have to live in Pennsylvania. I think this is a failure of imagination on his part. LOOK what those heathens did to the kitchen, never mind the bathroom! That price, I could afford to bring in people who knew what they were doing in to put it right, provided I could distract my dad with something shiny to keep him from assuming the general contractor role . . . .

(This is the moment when Bev and Plei and Atropa rush in, sit on me, hide the keyboard and sing the "No More Old Houses" song until I come to my senses.)

The thought of the Seattle peeps saving Parker from herself is going to make me smile all day.

But - but - they kept the sunroom mosaic tile! Most of the woodwork's unpainted and I think the pocket doors are intact! (All right, the goobers painted the picture rail, but at least it's still there.) I could put gas coal baskets in four of those fireplaces and it would look amazing! Those curtains are a TRAVESTY; if I showed Jim's mom those pictures I'd have a FedEx envelope full of linen samples 20 minutes after I signed the paperwork.

I COULD FIX IT.

Cute, and very fixable, but yeah, the location is problematic.

Do people have plans for the holiday weekend?

I took a chance with my vaccinated self and went to the Korean spa. New place I hadn’t been to. The facilities were nice, the body scrub was good, but omg maybe the worst massage I’ve ever had.