Musings of a marginally sane feline-appreciating female.

Car dealership only took ~45 minutes – oil change, tire rotation, and they washed the car, which was perfect as today is car wash day.

Lily has toys and treats for her stocking. AND THERE WERE TWO DOGS IN THE SHOP THAT I GOT TO BE FRIENDS WITH!

And I shit you not – Trader Joes on a Saturday afternoon – in and out in 15 minutes and that included a bathroom break. Granted, I knew exactly what I was looking for – quick trip down the frozen aisle just grabbing anything that looked tasty, and a quick stop in the wine section.

And a little box of mini biscotti. No idea how that ended up in the basket, LOL.

Now I have to summon the energy to get everything else knocked off today’s to do list.

Granted, I will have to pop online on Monday briefly to see if a client sent a file our devs need, but that’s nothing, I MADE IT TO PTO!!!!!!

And you’d think with a whole ass pandemic, I would have very little to do for Christmas, and yet…

I beat my ADHD brain this morning and hit the grocery store as soon as I got up – despite my brain going, “BUT THE OIL CHANGE ON THE CAR IS AT 11:30!” We now have everything for Christmas brunch except a danish, and ancient items in the freezer are gone.

The new Jeep gets free oil changes for a while, so I’m taking it to the dealership – supposedly the car has a light that comes on when the oil needs to be changed, but I barely trust the automatic lights, there is no way I’m waiting for a light to come on about the oil. Seriously, what happens when that light burns out or the sensor goes? Then the oil change light becomes the check engine light, and we’re not going there.

Then I’ll be getting Lily some Christmas presents from our lovely Felix & Oscar – it’s such a great little shop and Lily deserves ALL THE TOYS for being the bestest little pandemic buddy.

And if I’m feeling really, really brave, I will be hitting up Trader Joe’s for Christmas Eve appetizers.

And if all that doesn’t flatten me, I’ll be digging out crappy caulk from the tub and doing some re-caulking. I have the tools and everything for that.

I’ll be lucky if I’m still awake by the time movie time comes around tonight, LOL.

And it’s a good thing everyone in my chain of command is on PTO because I am not sure I’ll be bringing 100% to the table today.

We’ve got a combination of PTO starting at 12:30, the holidays, being caught up on deadlines, and being up a little too late last night & consuming a bit of holiday cheer all contributing to a wee bit of sluggishness this morning, LOL.

Just gotta drag myself through the next 4 1/2 hours.

Honestly, one of the great things about *not* being in support and client facing – I can have days like this, and it’s OK – show up and do what you can and maybe it’s not going to be a slam dunk of a day, but you can just quietly get through it.

And it genuinely doesn’t happen often, and it’s not that I don’t care, but sometimes you’re just mentally checked out.

The house between here and Starbucks has put up the Festivus pole. I don’t know why it cracks me up so much, but it does.

I may have killed my silver nerve plant – fuck youuuuuu, Planta and your terrible watering schedule that resulted in my drowning it. (I’m going back to my “a little water every day” schedule, it was working fine and I shouldn’t have abandoned it.) I’ll keep Planta around for fertilizing schedules, but that’s it. I’ve cut it all back as it’s got new growth at the base and we’ll see if I can bring it back. If all else fails, I can certainly get another one from the nursery, but dammit, it was one of my favorites and it had been doing so well.

At least the calathea I knocked off the shelf when I was moving things for the tree seems to be doing OK – I thought I may have broken it at the root stock – it’s still leaning a bit, but it seems stable.

Work theoretically should be back on an even keel today, the Sunday work and two long days seem to have gotten me back ahead of the curve. Granted, those three days SUCKED but I think that should be it until the new year. I don’t stick to an 8 hour day cause I’m lazy, I stick to an 8 hour day cause I’m usually fucking useless after that.

But, 2 1/2 days and then I’m on PTO, YAY! Time to go slog through a couple meetings and get some shit done.

You have a great day, and don’t forget to schedule your Airing of the Grievances. I’d say we have more than a few this year.

Yes, I *did* get up at 6AM today, why do you ask?

But, things are semi-under control at work, though it’s gonna be a loooong week.

V.0 & V.1 testing all knocked out. Today is V.2 feature 1, which theoretically is supposed to be all done tomorrow, but there are a bunch of bugs that dev hasn’t even touched yet, and the feature overall had the added fun of the dev marking it done while still also working on it… (Legit was all, “You put in so many bugs, but I’m not done yet” so I asked, “So, should we put the dev task back to In Progress?” “No, then QC wouldn’t know to start testing.”)

My partner in crime on this feature is the testing lead on it and sent the dev an email asking if things would be done, cause, deadline, and got an amazing non-answer back… I sent her a rundown of what I have left to do – I suspect the deadline will be moved back, but I am prepared for it to be otherwise. (Though please universe, let’s move this deadline, it will not be the end of the world.)

Then after that, it’s V.2 features 2 & 3 – due the 16th & 17th… But, I think I should have feature 1 done today, or as much as I *can* do today, considering everything, and then 2 & 3 should take a day each, and that puts us at the end of the week and I think that is everything I need to have done before PTO.

But, it’s all good, I have it all plotted out on a spreadsheet and once I log on, I’ll have a good clear idea of what is happening when. You’d think I’d remember given that it was the last thing I looked at before I logged off, but this job has given me the ability to not think about work when I’m not at work, so that’s pretty awesome.

And speaking of “I have it all written down so I don’t have to worry about it” – that is something I’ve done on the work front pretty much forever. There is always a spreadsheet of some sort with a list of tasks and due dates and whatnot and no one ever says “ugh, why do you have to write everything down?” I finally realized that has to translate to getting shit done in my personal life – and my hand to god, if I even have the most mundane shit on my to-do list – I don’t forget it and it actually gets done.

Who knew?

You have a great day and if you need to write all your shit down to get it done – then do it. Don’t wait 49 years to figure that out, LOL.

Our VP of our product line sent out a very nice “thanks for everything” email and basically said, “thank yous are cheap, we setup a little shop, go get yourself a present” – and it had a half dozen kinds of jackets, a duffel bag, and some other tech-y things to pick from, and guess who has another fleece jacket on the way? Sure, it will have the company logo on it somewhere, but still, it’s nice.

And I know the company is getting a decent discount on this and whatnot, but it’s nice and certainly a bit better than the tumbler & blanket that started shedding the moment it came out of the package year before last that was sent to the whole company, LOL. (I think everyone made them pet blankets. ROFL – but all the pets have loved them it seems.) I know, it’s the thought that counts. (Though that thought may have been, “Oh shit, maybe a gift is in order!”)

And I got a card from my supervisor in the mail today with a very nice note a Starbucks gift card! That will absolutely be put to good use.

Sure, I have days where I beat my head into the wall (like today) but I gotta say, our engineering department is pretty damn good.

Fuck me, it’s Monday already and I AM NOT READY FOR THIS.

Work is probably going to be ridiculous this week.

Additional holiday things have reared their heads which require a few more errands, but at least they’re very local.

I probably should have gotten up earlier today, but too late for that, LOL. I think the rest of the week will be 6AM wakeups, ouch.

Indulge me while I plot out my day and week – if I say it “out loud” it will stick… V1 testing is done, knocked that out yesterday. V0 testing today. V2 testing the rest of the week.

CVS today at lunch. Acupuncture appointment tomorrow after work, with potential return to work afterwards. Little stitching project needs to be done mid-week so I can get it in the mail. Handful of holiday cards need to go out, because my supervisor is apparently sending some out, so I find myself in a bit of a corner there. Hair appointment Friday afternoon, with a possible return to work afterwards despite the half day, just depends on how things are going.

Last of gift shopping needs to be done by Wednesday.

Also realized if I am going ahead and getting the two bathroom faucets replaced next Monday, I have to clear out the cabinets under the sink, and also get the powder room spiffed up a bit. That can hold until Saturday at least, and thankfully the powder room is in pretty good shape to start with.

Cookies? Fuck if I know. That may be a trip to the bakery next Tuesday morning. I’m just not sure I have 2 days of baking in me this year.

I just hate how everything seems to get exceptionally bunched up before holidays and PTO.

I know the important stuff will get done, and anything else is probably not that important. But yikes, it’s gonna be A WEEK.

I hope your week is nice and calm!

Our deadlines are all screwy this month and it’s gonna be a hella long workweek before I go on PTO – so I’m realizing I’ve really got to hop on the work laptop today and at a minimum, get as much prep work done for testing as I can for the week. Bleah. I may make a concession to the weekend and bring my laptop down to the living room. (I swear, this always happens around holidays and my PTO…)

On the one hand, the excessive hours have greatly decreased since I kinda put my foot down and said, “I have 30 hours a week to test” – cause that other 10 hours is admin/meetings/aww shit this took longer than I thought it would. But I still get a bit resentful about working nights or weekends, and I still have my suspicions that the folks on the other side of the world are working off the books when they shouldn’t be.

COME ON, VIRGINIA LOTTERY NEW YEAR RAFFLE!! LOL, no, I don’t think I’ll win, but I always grab a couple tickets every year, cause it’s fun. (And sadly, wouldn’t be enough to retire, but it would speed up the process.)

So, the cleaning discord server that got all weird – it’s totally dead, no one has posted since the mod scared everyone off. One person said, “yeaah, I’m gonna take a little break” after the weirdness – and the mod booted them from the server. So, she setup a new server, basically the same format, invited everyone who was active on the old server and we’re all back in business cheering each other on as we try to get shit done around the house. (And the person who requested the channel that got the mod all twirled up and set off the shitstorm – he’s got his channel now, and no one minds at all.)

I did still setup my own personal server just to play around with it and see how it works – it’s kinda neat.

But, it’s time to stop playing with tech toys and do some work. Bleah, again.

Glad I got out to the Christmas market (and happy it even existed, it seems 95% of them were last weekend.) Getting out of the house and getting some exercise definitely did me some good.

It was small, but nice and I showed great restraint at the Japanese ceramics stand. The local library foundation had a booth with gift boxes, and I got one for my brother – it has a mug, coaster, tea towel, candle & a little succulent, and helps the library.

Bopped around the historic district and got a little disgruntled at all the restaurants cause I’m still not eating indoors. :( Popped into a little gift shop and realized it was a VERY religious gift shop, which isn’t really my jam, but there was a puppy.

And I spent a LOT of time playing with the puppy and felt like I had to get something – but they had little stained glass angels so I got one of those and it’s going on the tree. Perfectly acceptable puppy tax to pay.

Second Covid test negative! Guess I was just feeling punky on Thursday cause I was just feeling punky.

When I told my brother my first concern was Lily and not him, he said, “Well, I’m vaccinated and boosted and she’s not, so of course she should be your first concern!”

And today, I made TWO phone calls, and I may have to go lay down now. But, the plumber is scheduled and we’re gonna have a new valve & guts for the toilet, two new bathroom sink faucets, and a new handle/valve for the shower/tub. I don’t have remodel money for that bathroom, but I do have new faucet money, and I am weirdly excited about it.

And I added a haircut to my Friday color appointment, cause I got it cut a fair amount shorter last time and I realized, I want it even shorter than that – I’m finding that when it’s shorter, it actually has a fuckton of curl to it, and I like that!

And I have also decided I am going to get my ass out of the house today and go to a Christmas market – even though it’s grey and threatening to rain, it’s 65 degrees out there, and I am just gonna take an umbrella and spend some needed time OUTSIDE. Also, it’s right next to a great Tex-Mex spot and I think I see some empanadas in my future.