Y’all! My coworker who is a manager but not my manager is leaving. He told me today and will tell our mutual boss tomorrow and we figure there’s a non-zero chance that our VP will walk him out of the building. He apologized for leaving me with more workload but I’m happy for him. He’s been looking for a new job for 10 months!

So, slightly less worried about losing my job I guess? Pre-emptively stressed about figuring out one more time what my job is/should be . . .

Timelies all!

Boskone was fun. I mostly spent my time in the music room, though I did get to a reading by Jasper Fforde, who was Guest of Honor. Felt more relaxed than I had in a while..

Then I got to work to find out two of my co-workers were fired over the weekend with an extremely bullshit e-mail. (Not to mention very harsh) Sigh...One of my other co-workers took the day off(he had requested it last week) so we were extremely understaffed. It being the first day of the work week, there was a lot of samples to process. Fuck Musk and DOGE and Trump.

So, etiquette question: my cousin is married, and he and his wife have three little kids (a girl and twin boys), and he has a step-daughter, who just turned nine. My family (well, basically me) has been sending birthday gifts for all four kids. They've thanked us for the gifts for the little ones, but not for the gift for the older girl. I'm trying to decide if I should ask them if that gift was delivered. I don't want to seem like I'm being all, "Hey, you're rude, why didn't you thank us?" but if it actually wasn't delivered, then I don't want them to think that we only got gifts for his biological kids and not for his step-daughter.

I think that’s worth double checking. Especially if you frame it the way you just did, that you want to make sure something wasn’t misdirected.

Sheryl, I’m so glad you had a lovely weekend.

Very unglad about all the rest of it.

Could you ask, "Hey, how did [step-daughter] like [present]? Should I get her something different next time?"

Ugh. I am tired and my back is sore but I have excavated the bedroom.

Things that had not been moved since Jacqueline died are now off the floor and sorted.

It still needs to be vacuumed and dusted and some of the stuff needs to go to the attic or Garden Apartment.

But I can see the floor and the air filter is working again.

I did the onerous task of changing a lightbulb I can’t reach (it’s at the top of the stairs and I can’t put a ladder there and it’s very high!) Borrowed my neighbor’s extendible light bulb holder thing and managed to get the old one out and the new one in…but bungled it and now the outer liner bit that makes a nice edge around the hole in the ceiling fell halfway out and I can’t get it back up. Doh!!

DOGE wants to destroy the covid tests that were being sent out to the public, but were stopped for now. Grab them while they are there!

Zooming in to celebrate Beverly today! Happiest of happy birthday wishes. May the day be filled with treats and may the year to come bring an abundance of joy.

Happy birthday, Bev!

The team we worked with at OPM were all fired, the Office of Communication. We’re not sure what it means for our contract yet so we’re just keeping on keeping on.