Awesome, Lisa! So happy for you. I hope you love it.

Yikes, askye! All good healing~ma to your dad. That's scary. I'm glad things sound like they are looking better.

Thanks everyone! I slept in a bit, then made a detour to my favorite sandwich place on my way to the train station. Grabbed a sandwich to eat on the train up to Orange County, went to dinner with my cousin and her daughter and SIL. Then we've just been chilling on the couch while I watched a couple of eps of GBBO - she's never seen it before! So, low-key, very pleasant day!

Congrats, Lisa!

Recovery~ma for your dad, askye. That is scary.

Sounds like a very nice day, Epic.

OK, I come to pat myself on the back -- we just went to breakfast, because it's so hot, I figured morning would be my only outing.

I came home and tidied up the dining room and kitchen, and THEN I broke down a mountain of cardboard boxes for recycling. Like, months' worth. I feel slightly bad about not.passing them along, but, honestly, a lot of them were not reusable, and OMG it's so pleasant to have that corner of the dining room clear again.

(It sounds worse than it was -- a dining room 1/4 full of cardboard -- the room is large and basically empty except for our high table that is collapsed down to a generous four-seating but can be expanded to eight. But it was a big job, so I am gold starring myself!)

I have heretofore sucked at making lovely spaces for myself the way, say, Allyson, Aimee, Hec & JZ, and so many more of you have demonstrated over the years.

But at least I killed it with industriousness this morning!

Thanks, everyone!

Yay for industriousness! It is a rainy day and I should get some organization done. It is still a mid-construction disaster area, but much can be done to improve it.

So far today: emptied dishwasher, folded laundry, brought one box down from upstairs storage/disaster room to distribute, and really I need to make this list much longer soon.

In the meantime, I did the usual making coffee and brunch for myself, and taking care of the animals.

I did reward myself yesterday and subscribed to Disney+ so there has been quite a bit of Doctor Who in my life the last couple days. My plan is to alternate chores and Who.

I skipped a bunch! because Tilly is kind of demanding. And I was camping in the woods, which was lovely and restorative. I recommend.

I did see a number of parental health issues, and I wish swift recoveries for all. I also want to pass along this post from an online acquaintance, which summarizes quite a lot of eldercare advice that I could have used when I was in that situation.

Which reminds me, I really need to get with a lawyer and get my estate planning done. I keep putting it off because it's a hassle and expensive, but needs to be done.

I hope everyone on the east coast survives the hot weather without too much difficulty. It's going to hit 86 here today, which is really not that bad by comparison.

Hot as balls. Alas no pool today due to music festival in the park where the pool is.

I ran two errands and returned home to eat and cool off.

I could clean or grocery shop or meal prep. Also need to get passport photo taken and application started. Cannot find my most recent expired passport so have to start all over.

I have heretofore sucked at making lovely spaces for myself the way, say, Allyson, Aimee, Hec & JZ, and so many more of you have demonstrated over the years.

I'm afraid our place has fallen into heavy messiness, as I just let things go while organizing the Memorial. I do want to spend some time digging it out today.

As I've noted before, not having JZ here to share the housekeeping tasks has proven difficult. And while I'm ready to spend on a housecleaning service, I would need to do a fair amount of organization first to even start that process.

Congratulations, lisah!

Well done, JenP! Full marks.

Consuela, I'm not sure what your estate requirements are, but we did a Living Trust which turned out to be incredibly valuable. Really liked our estate attorney too, if you need a rec. It did cost about $5K but was necessary considering the value of the estate.

Ours was very straightforward though, with no cutouts. JZ and I were equal members of the trust. The survivor inherited the whole thing. When that survivor died, then Emmett and Matilda get the entire estate 50/50.

The only extra element we added was that the estate would be distributed in two parts if the kids were young: half at 25, and half at 30. If Matilda was under 25 when the surviving parent went, then JZ's brother Chris would administer her trust until she was of age.

If I [knock wood!] die after Matilda and Emmett are both over 30 then they just inherit the whole thing 50/50.