Musings of a marginally sane feline-appreciating female.

Our friend that we saw last weekend just texted and has Covid.

Granted, we were outside the whole time, and it’s been a week, but we’re testing now. I know I was negative before we went last Saturday cause I tested that afternoon – and I’d been meaning to do a followup test this week, guess that time is now!

I’m so very glad he let us know, and luckily before we headed out the door and onto a shuttlebus for the fair. I’m also worried as hell for him – he’s not at any particular risk, but you just don’t know WTF Covid will do to you, even vaccinated, and his Mom & sister are high risk. (He doesn’t live with them, but sees them a lot.)

Of course, if one of us is positive – easy enough to isolate and keep Lily safe with the negative person. Both of us? IDK what we’ll do. And of course the LilyMonster wants to be all lovey right now. I am petting her and breathing in another direction…

Just got a text back from him, he’s certain he got it on Tuesday, so while it 110% sucks for him, that is good for us.

Five minutes left on the test.

I will say, I’m pretty impressed with the fact that it’s been over two years and this is the first potential exposure either myself or my brother has had. We’ve worked hard at avoiding this.

Whew, solid negative, not even a hint of a line on mine. Waiting on little bro’s test… Negative!

Even though he is sure he got it Tuesday and we saw him 3 days before that, I am so appreciative that he let us know.

Now thinking maybe we’ll walk from the commuter lot to the festival vs. taking the shuttlebus, LOL.

I mean, I know why – war, plague, supply chain issues, and a lot price gouging being blamed on the previous three issues. But I haven’t really had to shop for anything outside of groceries since things went really nuts on the inflation front. And while I can’t point at a specific thing at the market and say, “Oh, that cost X a year ago” – I do know pretty much every time I check out, I think, “Fuck.”

But I wanted to snag another pair of shorts & summer pants. Hopped onto my beloved REI and searched for Kuhl cause they’re seriously good quality and HOLY SHIT BATMAN, nothing on sale and my hand to god, the prices are up 50%. Admittedly they were a bit on the pricey side to start, cause they’re so very well made, but this is nuts.

So…I think tomorrow I’ll go to REI in person and see what’s on the racks – maybe I can find something on sale or a different brand that fits and has good pockets.

Or maybe I’ll just wash what I’ve got more often. I mean, I make a decent living and if I’m balking at new pants, I know it sucks for folks less lucky than I am, especially with kids who keep growing out of their clothes.

And it’s not that I didn’t believe inflation was out of control, just outside of the market & gas station, I’ve just been able to avoid it for the most part – guess I thought I was more prepared for the sticker shock.

In silly Lily things, it’s pleasantly cool this morning and this furry one is totally full of herself. I’ve already had to retrieve her from behind the plants in the front window and now this.

And other fun things are afoot – I am going to the arts & crafts show down on the river today! It’s all outdoors, there should be lots of pretty things and food trucks! And I know myself well enough to know that this is one place I will not think a second about inflation, just getting cool stuff from local artists. I’ve been setting aside cash and got my backpack purse all cleaned out. FANCY SOAPS AND FOOD TRUCKS, HERE I COME.

And it’s Pokemon Go Fest Weekend and I will be spinning ALL THE POKESTOPS down in the cute river town to boot.

So, it’s gonna be a fun day with beautiful weather and being outdoors and food and arts & crafts and capri pants with cargo pockets and the hardest decisions being “long or short sleeved shirt” and “which food truck to hit for lunch.”

I hope your Saturday is awesome.

That actually felt like a short week! Who knew?! And for the first time in a while, I don’t feel like I’ve been hit by a steamroller on a Friday morning. (Not sleeping great cause of the news, but that’s a whole different problem.)

Still messy shit at work – having half the team on the other side of the world is haaaard. Yesterday, email with management about which version a bug needs to go into – I’m on it, team lead is on it (it’s middle of the night there) – I put in my 2 cents and go to lunch. Get back from lunch to text from team lead – “oh, have dev do X” – well, already overcome by events, dev has done Y instead, can’t be undone, all while I was at lunch. Why did he text me vs responding to the email, IDK.

He asks me a lot to ask the dev to do things a certain way. She’s not scary – he really doesn’t need me as a go-between here. Just very weird given that I’m pretty sure he thinks I’m an idiot who is very bad at my job and has been trying to make it worse, LOL.

Of course, the bug in question does need to be fixed in this next release, despite the fact we’re in code freeze, and I did tell the lead if we didn’t have space across the team for testing to just let me know and I’d handle it. We *should* have the capacity to squeeze this one in and spread it out across multiple testers, cause we do have the time. Now, am I expecting that this is going to be dumped on me as some weird punishment because I agreed with management that it should go into the next release and said we did have the time to get it in? Yes, yes, I am, LOL.

On a great note, I actually got work done on the new version yesterday!!!!!! Like, I haven’t been able to make progress on that in forever, cause the current version has needed so much TLC. There is a fucked up part of me thinking, “You could knock this particular task off the list over the weekend…” I’m trying to get that stupid voice to STFU.

This weekend the cute town down on the river is having it’s annual arts & crafts fair. I think that will be a far better use of my time.

Well, time to go see what is on my plate today – I have a feeling that new bug is going to be front and center. But, it will all get done one way or another.

You have a fantastic Friday and don’t let the bastards get you down.

Was so addled yesterday morning I forgot – I hope all of y’all are safe, well, happy, and loved. Remember kids, Stonewall was a riot.

Guess who got out of work on time TWO DAYS IN A ROW! That after having to hold my tongue so damn hard in the morning meeting I thought I’d bite it off – but I did not say anything to get myself fired, so, go me.

Once again, I was oversubscribed for June, scrum lead is “oh that needs to be fixed” – well, here’s an idea for our team lead: don’t overcommit me in the first place… Sub-lead reassigns ONE item, IM’s me that “you’re green now!” as thought I’ve been done a huge favor – and then proceeds to assign something else in its place that simply doesn’t show on the June schedule and in the midst of the meeting I was somehow assigned an additional demo – at that point, all I could do was just mutter “Fine, just let me know what I need to do.” So, still oversubscribed this morning.

I love looking like the jackass that can’t get their work done because the team lead & sub-leads keep over-assigning things, despite the fact that I provide a daily update of my capacity and have tried over and over to explain that every time Big Client 1 or 2 calls in, that’s two hours of my day out the window. (And they’re calling in multiple times a week these days.)

And I even told one of the sub-leads how I don’t like looking like I can’t get my work done. And got a line of BS about how they understand and appreciate my hard work.

And I cannot help but notice that everyone else is seriously undersubscribed for the month – the team as a whole? 301 hours committed out of 476 available. I am over capacity. One other person is at capacity. Everyone else is 5 to 32 hours UNDERSUBSCRIBED. And given that I’m only one of two people who has pushed back on overcommitting the team, it sure feels fucking intentional. I guess I haven’t been sufficiently deferential to the various leads of late to earn any grace in scheduling.

I’m not trying to get in a pissing contest with the team lead & sub-leads, but this is ridiculous. I mean, this is the type of shit you pull when you’re trying to get someone to quit. And that’s not going to work because I am too fucking old to go job hopping and I will happily stay and be a pain in the ass.

Cause I’m good at my job, and good at being a pain in the ass.

Between the day off Monday, payday tomorrow, and a half day Friday, I like this kind of week. Let’s do this every week, all summer! Heck, all year! I know, for someone who supposedly likes their job, I really like not working.

And we’ve got a shiny new month, too, which means time for some likely unreasonable goals!

• Keep daily work hours under 9 without getting fired
• Yoga or walking at least 3x a week
• Get daily housework done DAILY
• Get at least 2 non-daily items done off the list to get caught back up around the house

What’s frustrating is that pretty much everything depends on work not flattening me. Yesterday was a pretty decent day, no emergencies, no last minute stuff dumped on me, mostly just me yelling at the software going, “WHY ARE YOU SO SLOW TODAY?!”

Welp, time to go hit some meetings and see what we can do with this lovely new month.

You have a great day.

I’ve got two comp days burning a hole in my pocket, and I should have extended this weekend, LOL. So, a bit of admin time today at work is gonna be: when can I take some time off in June?

Didn’t accomplish much this weekend other than resting, some yardwork, and grilling, and I’m trying to remind myself THAT IS OK. Yes, the house looks like a tornado hit, but that is fixable and I don’t have to fix it all in a day. Just gotta keep hitting the basics and then pick one extra bit to work on each bday and it will be back in shape. I want to have it in really good shape before we go on vacation – so I’ve got 36 days for that, not that I’m counting down or anything.

Granted, this is somewhat dependent on work not being completely batshit, but things may be slowing down a bit on that front – fingers crossed on that. I did get hold of the utilization spreadsheet that the team lead is using and the availability is shockingly correct – which tells me that the issue goes back to underestimating how long anything takes, which has been an issue as long as I’ve been in the department. Not sure how to fix that given that every time I say something, it goes nowhere – but I’ll keep banging that drum.

Interesting to watch Canada deciding they are not going to be like their meth-head neighbors to the south. I didn’t realize they’d already banned AR-15 type rifles, and now a freeze on handguns. Canada – you’re not perfect, but well fucking done on this front.

Well, I’m gonna go get a jump on the workday and see if I can’t get out ON TIME every day this week. Can it be done?! We shall see!

You have a good day and take care of yourself – the news isn’t slowing down for any of us.

Cause we had dinner from the little charcoal grill and it was hot and not burned to a crisp!

Charcoal grilling is twitchy and takes time and patience and honestly, I kinda dig it, and I totally get why my Dad & Grandad loved sitting out and watching the coals.

And a definitive HAPPY start of summer! And there is always someone pissy about people enjoying themselves on Memorial Day weekend – so on behalf of my deceased Navy father – enjoy yourself. I have great faith in your ability to multitask and both spare a thought for those lost in war and drink beer and cook with fire.

And if you’re from a country that the US fucked around with and don’t feel super charitable to our military? That’s OK and I hope you have a lovely cookout.

In hyper local news, I think I know who knocked over the catnip plant – likely the big chocolate siamese that was just now sitting in the window. Props to Lily for not totally losing her shit upon seeing another feline seemingly floating in midair outside the window. (Lily was a little WTF?, but not bad.) I don’t think she’s a stray as she has a good coat and a bit of chonk and I’ve seen her once before quite a while ago – and I snapped a pic and it looks like there may be a collar. I gently shooed her off the window and went outside and assured her all was well, she just couldn’t be in the window.

All my good intentions of doing a reset around the house this weekend have fallen flat. I’m a combination of too tired and too…IDK, scattered? I have managed to keep myself fed and brush my teeth and take care of Lily – but beyond that, not exactly a barn burner of productivity around here. Did get this beauty assembled today, though, and we’re gonna have properly grilled brats tonight.

Yes, it’s tiny. But we also don’t need a giant grill and I don’t want a giant grill. A little charcoal grill will do just perfectly, especially since we now have a giant bag of charcoal, a 3 piece grill tool set, and a grill cleaner courtesy of the grocery store raffle.

I have also watched a fuckton of Letterkenny this weekend – I had seen bits of it on the web, but didn’t realize it was a full blown series, and on Hulu. It is so damn dumb it is fantastic, and it’s about the weightiest thing my brain can handle.

Though I am about to go prune a tree with my brother, so that certainly counts for something.

Being around people was good. Our friend has installed a big fancy tent (for lack of a better description) in his backyard with a hard roof and screened sides so we got to sit outside and enjoy the evening with no bugs and good food. He did the grilling miracle, which is chicken – somehow it did NOT come out burned on the outside and raw on the inside.

And there was a wonderful dog named Bailey there, too. Lily was a wee bit WTF when we got home. “You left AND petted a dog?!”

It was nice and weirdly exhausting – got home and stretched out on the couch to watch some TV and suddenly couldn’t keep my eyes open and despite a fair amount of sleep, I am still knackered this morning. Very, VERY happy we’ve got a three day weekend and very jealous of my coworker who is taking this entire week off.

I yearn for the day when everything – even nice things – aren’t so damn exhausting – it has to happen eventually, right?

I need to get a trail cam of some sort for the porch – something had some fun with the catnip plant last night. (Yes, it is to be repotted shortly.) I’d love to know what it was. Cat? Fox? Squirrel? Chupacabra?

At least our mystery guest left the cherry tomato plant alone. It has TONS of little green tomatoes on it! I have no idea what the varietal is, I picked it up at the farmers market and it had a bunch of blooms on it already and some little tomatoes, so I figured it at least had a solid start, and I’ve not killed it yet.

I’ve also got a new addition to the indoor plants – an orchid! From the grocery store, no less. (Not sure if my green thumb grandma would think that was awesome or horrifying.) And smart marketing on these – they call them 3 ice orchids – because you just have to put 3 ice cubes in the pot once a week.

And they’re cat safe, too! For whatever reason, I thought that orchids weren’t good to have around cats – but the googles tell me I am wrong, which is nice, because I do love orchids and have wanted to try my hand at them.

Not sure what I’m going to do with myself today – I think maybe some time with dirt, a few bits around the house, and try hard not to doomscroll. The doomscrolling is going to be the hardest part, I am sure.

Couple weeks ago the grocery store was selling coupon books for the USO and I got one and there was a raffle that went with it and I won!

And when I picked it up, I don’t know who was more tickled about it, me or the gals at the shop. And half the reason I got the coupon book was that the gal trying to sell them at the self-checkouts was having very little luck and I know it’s hard to sell stuff like that, and I’m a sucker for that stuff.

It’s a silly little thing, but it just made my day and with the shitshow that is this world, I’m absolutely glomming onto this bit of joy. Not only do I have a 3 day weekend, I have a new cooler, grilling supplies and a metric fuckton of free potato chips.

I’m supposed to go have dinner with some folks tonight and I am not sure I’m going to be great company given that I’ve been crying at the drop of a hat this week, and there will be a small person in attendance so we can’t really talk about current events. My brother says being around people will be good – I’m not wholly convinced, LOL. I guess I can talk about my cooler and potato chips.

And given how work has been the last month, I am very, very far behind in getting things done around the house – and my ADHD brain is refusing to move on any of it, because “event roughly 4 hours from now.”

Well, I’m gonna go try and get something done before leaving beyond a shower, but I’ll probably just admire my new cooler.