(no subject)

Sep. 3rd, 2025 08:28 am
m_of_disguise: (Default)
[personal profile] m_of_disguise
Completely exhausted when I got home yesterday, so dinner was frozen taquitos. No chores were done. The baby had taken a 4-hour nap after being up so early, but she was completely loopy by the end of the evening, definitely overtired. She passed out as soon as I put her in bed, which was a welcomed relief. 

Showered, got into bed myself, then had a terrible night where the cats interrupted my sleep every couple of hours - let me in, let me out, the water is low, play string with me! -_- Y'all. Chill.

Today is going to be a busy day, and I totally forgot how busy until I got to work. I have to do the end of month reports at work, then Kate has her first speech therapy session at noon that I need to be home for, then I have an OB checkup this afternoon. I decided as I walked into work that I would be taking a half day, because driving to and fro all day just to be at work for a couple of hours at a time is ludicrous. 

(no subject)

Sep. 2nd, 2025 08:53 am
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[personal profile] m_of_disguise
A cold front moved in on Friday and the weather was glorious - overcast, a little foggy in the morning, didn't get out of the 70s until the very late afternoon. In August! I'd be thrilled if we've seen our last 100-degree day this year, but that may be a little optimistic. 

Friday night M and I went over the finances, since we're a little bit behind our savings goal thanks to so many surprise expenses lately. We figured everything out until our next paycheck...and then M got a call from his brother, who had broken his tail bone and was on unpaid leave from work for the next two months, and could we spare anything to help him with his bills? So we sent him a few hundred dollars to tide him over with the caveat that this would not be a regular thing, and so it's rice and beans until the 5th, which is thankfully just a few days away now.

Saturday was my birthday outing with my sister. We caught Weapons at the Movie Tavern, which was a good movie and good food. Afterward we headed to Cheesecake factory and stuffed our faces with cake. Was very excited to have the pumpkin pecan cheesecake, which is basically a pecan pie bottom half topped with a pumpkin cheesecake upper half. Very yummy. Made a brief stop at the grocery store on the way home to pick up a few ingredients for dinner, and once I was home, M made a bit pot of spaghetti. A pretty good day overall.

Sunday was such a nothing burger that I can't really remember anything about it. Ho hum.

Monday was my actual birthday. I woke up feeling down for no reason, and sort of lingered in the Blahs for most of the day. Once M actually woke up, he went to the fancy grocery store to get us cake and ice cream, and we spent the rest of the day eating vast amounts of sugar. 

Katie had gotten up super late on Monday morning, so she deferred her nap until the late afternoon. She crawled up on the couch and leaned up against me, covered herself in a pile of blankets and fell asleep on my side, which was very cute. Transferred her to her pack-n-play for a real nap, but she was up only an hour later, where I discovered her chewing on the edge of the crib and crying. Looks like those new canines are finally starting to bother her. 

The rest of the evening she cuddled with me and whimpered. We gave her motrin and soft foods to eat, but even drinking water was giving her problems, poor thing. Was able to get her down for the night only slightly later than her usual time, and she passed right out. 

But, she was up at 6:30 this morning, in much better spirits, so I made her breakfast and turned on Ms. Rachel so I could get some things done...aaaaaand I suddenly ended up having the worst nosebleed of my life. I woke up M to take over baby duty and I leaned over the sink for 20 minutes. Yuck. 

M had barely had any sleep when I got him up, so I'm going to attempt to get home a little early for lunch today so I can relieve him, hopefully get the baby down for a nap, and then he can rest. 

Got word from Friend at New Job that the approval letter for M's hiring was sent through to HR last Monday, so now we're just waiting for HR to pick up their feet and send the offer letter! 

Code deploy happening shortly

Aug. 31st, 2025 07:37 pm
mark: A photo of Mark kneeling on top of the Taal Volcano in the Philippines. It was a long hike. (Default)
[staff profile] mark posting in [site community profile] dw_maintenance

Per the [site community profile] dw_news post regarding the MS/TN blocks, we are doing a small code push shortly in order to get the code live. As per usual, please let us know if you see anything wonky.

There is some code cleanup we've been doing that is going out with this push but I don't think there is any new/reworked functionality, so it should be pretty invisible if all goes well.

denise: Image: Me, facing away from camera, on top of the Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome (Default)
[staff profile] denise posting in [site community profile] dw_news

A reminder to everyone that starting tomorrow, we are being forced to block access to any IP address that geolocates to the state of Mississippi for legal reasons while we and Netchoice continue fighting the law in court. People whose IP addresses geolocate to Mississippi will only be able to access a page that explains the issue and lets them know that we'll be back to offer them service as soon as the legal risk to us is less existential.

The block page will include the apology but I'll repeat it here: we don't do geolocation ourselves, so we're limited to the geolocation ability of our network provider. Our anti-spam geolocation blocks have shown us that their geolocation database has a number of mistakes in it. If one of your friends who doesn't live in Mississippi gets the block message, there is nothing we can do on our end to adjust the block, because we don't control it. The only way to fix a mistaken block is to change your IP address to one that doesn't register as being in Mississippi, either by disconnecting your internet connection and reconnecting it (if you don't have a static IP address) or using a VPN.

In related news, the judge in our challenge to Tennessee's social media age verification, parental consent, and parental surveillance law (which we are also part of the fight against!) ruled last month that we had not met the threshold for a temporary injunction preventing the state from enforcing the law while the court case proceeds.

The Tennesee law is less onerous than the Mississippi law and the fines for violating it are slightly less ruinous (slightly), but it's still a risk to us. While the fight goes on, we've decided to prevent any new account signups from anyone under 18 in Tennessee to protect ourselves against risk. We do not need to block access from the whole state: this only applies to new account creation.

Because we don't do any geolocation on our users and our network provider's geolocation services only apply to blocking access to the site entirely, the way we're implementing this is a new mandatory question on the account creation form asking if you live in Tennessee. If you do, you'll be unable to register an account if you're under 18, not just the under 13 restriction mandated by COPPA. Like the restrictions on the state of Mississippi, we absolutely hate having to do this, we're sorry, and we hope we'll be able to undo it as soon as possible.

Finally, I'd like to thank every one of you who's commented with a message of support for this fight or who's bought paid time to help keep us running. The fact we're entirely user-supported and you all genuinely understand why this fight is so important for everyone is a huge part of why we can continue to do this work. I've also sent a lot of your comments to the lawyers who are fighting the actual battles in court, and they find your wholehearted support just as encouraging and motivating as I do. Thank you all once again for being the best users any social media site could ever hope for. You make me proud and even more determined to yell at state attorneys general on your behalf.

(no subject)

Aug. 29th, 2025 09:12 am
m_of_disguise: (Default)
[personal profile] m_of_disguise
Fairly quiet evening at home. M and I both had leftover pizza, which served as dinner. I had intended to attack Dish Mountain to get it tamed, but my pelvis was killing me, and M was chatty, so we ended up just sitting on the couch together and talking for most of the evening. Much better than doing dishes. I felt physically awful, though, so the couch was really my only options.

When putting the baby to bed I discovered that her newfound love of putting things under her mattress (herself included) and her love of naked time, had combined horribly when I found a soiled diaper hiding under the mattress. -_- More poo cleanup ensued. At least this time I didn't have to wash all her blankets, and her mattresses are waterproof and easy to clean up. But yeesh, girl, that was not cool.

Set an early alarm so I could do dishes this morning, and got up at 6. And so did the baby, because of course she did. I made her breakfast and plonked her down in front of the TV with a medley of Ms. Rachel songs going to keep her occupied, then I attacked as many of the dishes as I could before it was time to get ready for work. Discovered that the kitchen sink's hot water knob is now broken, so had to wash the dishes with cold water. -_- Got about halfway through the dishes before I ran out of time.

Woke M up, threw on some clothes, and headed out. Hopefully the rest of the day is pretty quiet, and maybe I can sneak out of work a little early since it's a holiday weekend/my birthday weekend.

M made the executive decision last night that I am no longer cooking dinner for the rest of my pregnancy. He has seen me struggle too much lately with the body pains and exhaustion I'm fighting at the end of the day, so from now on no more cooking. I will absolutely not argue with that, it's definitely a huge burden lifted. Time to stock up on frozen meals!

Off to Middle Earth!

Aug. 28th, 2025 06:53 pm
hrj: (Default)
[personal profile] hrj
With the acknowledgement that I have often gone for two weeks or more without posting here, I'll just note that I won't be posting (or reading) for the next two weeks because tomorrow evening I'm heading off to New Zealand for my official "celebrating retirement" with my BFF. I will probably try to do some sort of trip report when I get back, but it might be little more than "had a fabulous time."

(no subject)

Aug. 28th, 2025 09:26 am
m_of_disguise: (Default)
[personal profile] m_of_disguise
M was feeling much better yesterday now that the house was clean. We chatted a bit while I was home for lunch, I put the baby down for her nap, and we decided to take it easy for dinner and pick up some pizzas. 

Dinner was a couple of take-and-bake pizzas from the grocery store, which were perfectly adequate. M had decided to get the baby up in the morning instead of letting her sleep until she wakes on her own, so when I put her down for the night she went right to sleep. Hooray! I watched a bit of TV once she was in bed, ate some ice cream, and finally took a shower. 

Unfortunately, when I tried to sneak into the bedroom to grab my nightgown, the baby woke up. So we had a 30 minute interlude where she had a bottle of milk and snuggled her freshly laundered blankets, which were finally dry. M gave up the office for the rest of the night so we could put her down in her own crib, and while she protested at first, she settled in eventually. We all got to bed after midnight, blah. 

Sister has purchased the tickets for our movie outing this weekend, hooray! I can't wait to have a day out, I've been feeling very cooped up!

Friend of M at New Company apologized yesterday that HR was taking so long. The way he worded things made it sound like M does, in fact, have the job, since he said they were "just waiting for Boss to sign off, and he's travelling this week." We're trying not to celebrate prematurely, but it does sound very positive. 

Eide posted the itinerary for their late-Victorian Vampire-themed New Orleans weekend in January, and MAN am I bummed that I'm going to miss it. There's a dinner with Bram Stoker's grandson (!!!), dinners at all my favorite French Quarter restaurants, ghost walks, cemetery tours, museum visits. It sounds so, so fun. 

(no subject)

Aug. 27th, 2025 08:36 am
m_of_disguise: (Default)
[personal profile] m_of_disguise
Yesterday went completely off the rails. -_- 

Got a call from M at around 10:30 that he needed me to come home immediately, so I took my lunch a tad early and headed to the house. When I got there, the baby was in the bath and M was rampaging through the house. Seems that the baby had taken off her poopy diaper before M had woken up, and just smeared it everywhere - her whole body, her crib, her blankets, everywhere. 

He'd just finished bathing the baby, so I got her out of the tub and got her dried off and dressed. M was not handling things well, so I took all the bedding and threw it in the tub with some laundry soap and water and let it soak so I could scrub it. I gave the baby a lunch plate, and then spent a good amount of time scrubbing all her stuff. Drain tub, rinse, repeat. 

Baby wanted to help, of course, so she started bringing her dirty clothes and throwing it into the tub. So those were scrubbed, too. I gave her a fresh sponge so she would stop trying to steal mine, and that kept her occupied enough that I could finish the task.

The baby had an absolute meltdown when she saw her blankets go back into the tub for the second soak. She loves them so much. It made getting her down for a nap nearly impossible, but she finally cried enough to exhaust herself to sleep. Poor girl was having such a weird day, she probably felt very thrown off.

Once she was asleep, I did the task that had originally been planned for my lunch break - pick up the grocery order. Got home, and the sound of the front door woke the baby back up, so once M and I had brought all the groceries in, I got her up, and she helped me put away all the food. Meaning mostly that I put stuff away and she snacked on pilfered strawberries. 

No dinner, too much happening in the house. Baby fought her bedtime because still no blankets, so we had to make due with some throw blankets from the couch, which she wasn't a big fan of. 

M got it in his head that the state of the floors was a Major Problem, so once the baby was finally asleep, we got out the mop and bucket and scrubbed every floor in the common areas of the house. He did the living room and kitchen while I did the hall, bathroom, and cat closet. By the time we were finished it was nearly 11 and we were both exhausted. 

I have blisters on my right hand from all the scrubbing and wringing of blankets. I can't actually remember the last time I took a shower. I haven't had a break in months. I am very, very tired.

I really can't wait for my lunch outing with my sister this weekend. It will be so, so nice to get away from the house for an afternoon! 

(no subject)

Aug. 26th, 2025 09:02 am
m_of_disguise: (Default)
[personal profile] m_of_disguise
Hit a wall yesterday with my ability to Human Whilst Pregnant. 

Came home after work and dove immediately into making dinner, which was an exercise in frustration because the baby kept getting naked every five minutes since I wasn't in the living room to keep her entertained. -_- Still somehow managed to get dinner done at a reasonable hour, for once, and by the time we were all finished eating, it was time for the baby to go to bed. 

Cue more naked baby shenanigans, as she kept fighting sleep and getting naked over and over and over. ~sigh~ All that bending over her crib trying to get her to lie back down took a toll on my stomach, which had already been weird all day, and I ended up throwing up a bit. Fun. 

Was woozy and extremely uncomfortable for the rest of the evening. Baby #2 must have been sitting just right up under my lungs, because breathing was a chore. I decided to try stretching out on the couch, where I ended up falling asleep. M woke me up around 10:30 so I could go to bed, and I slept like I'd just run a marathon. 

Achy and sore today. Pelvis, hips, legs, all hurt like I've been doing a million squats. Being pregnant sucks, yo.

Return of the Solar Saga

Aug. 25th, 2025 10:37 pm
hrj: (Default)
[personal profile] hrj
This morning's inspection was by the solar company's QA guy, checking on whether the installation folks had done the job properly. He was my favorite type of engineer: someone who loves explaining what he's doing and why. He found a couple things that needed improvement (mostly tightening connections) and one item they overlooked that needs installing (a more obviously robust grounding set-up -- he said it's quite possible that I already have a sufficiently robust set-up somewhere under the foundation, but it's required to be somewhere that an inspector can actually see and confirm it, so they'll install one).

Still no word from my electrician about retrospectively pulling a permit for the panel work, so I need to ping him. But nothing else is going to move forward until I get back from New Zealand in any case.

Despite all the chaos around the various inspections, I'm being favorably impressed by the attention to detail and layers of checks that are part of the installation process. Also impressed that the solar company's attitude is "Since we touched the system last, it's our responsibility to make sure everything will pass code."
denise: Image: Me, facing away from camera, on top of the Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome (Default)
[staff profile] denise posting in [site community profile] dw_news

I'll start with the tl;dr summary to make sure everyone sees it and then explain further: As of September 1, we will temporarily be forced to block access to Dreamwidth from all IP addresses that geolocate to Mississippi for legal reasons. This block will need to continue until we either win the legal case entirely, or the district court issues another injunction preventing Mississippi from enforcing their social media age verification and parental consent law against us.

Mississippi residents, we are so, so sorry. We really don't want to do this, but the legal fight we and Netchoice have been fighting for you had a temporary setback last week. We genuinely and honestly believe that we're going to win it in the end, but the Fifth Circuit appellate court said that the district judge was wrong to issue the preliminary injunction back in June that would have maintained the status quo and prevented the state from enforcing the law requiring any social media website (which is very broadly defined, and which we definitely qualify as) to deanonymize and age-verify all users and obtain parental permission from the parent of anyone under 18 who wants to open an account.

Netchoice took that appellate ruling up to the Supreme Court, who declined to overrule the Fifth Circuit with no explanation -- except for Justice Kavanaugh agreeing that we are likely to win the fight in the end, but saying that it's no big deal to let the state enforce the law in the meantime.

Needless to say, it's a big deal to let the state enforce the law in the meantime. The Mississippi law is a breathtaking state overreach: it forces us to verify the identity and age of every person who accesses Dreamwidth from the state of Mississippi and determine who's under the age of 18 by collecting identity documents, to save that highly personal and sensitive information, and then to obtain a permission slip from those users' parents to allow them to finish creating an account. It also forces us to change our moderation policies and stop anyone under 18 from accessing a wide variety of legal and beneficial speech because the state of Mississippi doesn't like it -- which, given the way Dreamwidth works, would mean blocking people from talking about those things at all. (And if you think you know exactly what kind of content the state of Mississippi doesn't like, you're absolutely right.)

Needless to say, we don't want to do that, either. Even if we wanted to, though, we can't: the resources it would take for us to build the systems that would let us do it are well beyond our capacity. You can read the sworn declaration I provided to the court for some examples of how unworkable these requirements are in practice. (That isn't even everything! The lawyers gave me a page limit!)

Unfortunately, the penalties for failing to comply with the Mississippi law are incredibly steep: fines of $10,000 per user from Mississippi who we don't have identity documents verifying age for, per incident -- which means every time someone from Mississippi loaded Dreamwidth, we'd potentially owe Mississippi $10,000. Even a single $10,000 fine would be rough for us, but the per-user, per-incident nature of the actual fine structure is an existential threat. And because we're part of the organization suing Mississippi over it, and were explicitly named in the now-overturned preliminary injunction, we think the risk of the state deciding to engage in retaliatory prosecution while the full legal challenge continues to work its way through the courts is a lot higher than we're comfortable with. Mississippi has been itching to issue those fines for a while, and while normally we wouldn't worry much because we're a small and obscure site, the fact that we've been yelling at them in court about the law being unconstitutional means the chance of them lumping us in with the big social media giants and trying to fine us is just too high for us to want to risk it. (The excellent lawyers we've been working with are Netchoice's lawyers, not ours!)

All of this means we've made the extremely painful decision that our only possible option for the time being is to block Mississippi IP addresses from accessing Dreamwidth, until we win the case. (And I repeat: I am absolutely incredibly confident we'll win the case. And apparently Justice Kavanaugh agrees!) I repeat: I am so, so sorry. This is the last thing we wanted to do, and I've been fighting my ass off for the last three years to prevent it. But, as everyone who follows the legal system knows, the Fifth Circuit is gonna do what it's gonna do, whether or not what they want to do has any relationship to the actual law.

We don't collect geolocation information ourselves, and we have no idea which of our users are residents of Mississippi. (We also don't want to know that, unless you choose to tell us.) Because of that, and because access to highly accurate geolocation databases is extremely expensive, our only option is to use our network provider's geolocation-based blocking to prevent connections from IP addresses they identify as being from Mississippi from even reaching Dreamwidth in the first place. I have no idea how accurate their geolocation is, and it's possible that some people not in Mississippi might also be affected by this block. (The inaccuracy of geolocation is only, like, the 27th most important reason on the list of "why this law is practically impossible for any site to comply with, much less a tiny site like us".)

If your IP address is identified as coming from Mississippi, beginning on September 1, you'll see a shorter, simpler version of this message and be unable to proceed to the site itself. If you would otherwise be affected, but you have a VPN or proxy service that masks your IP address and changes where your connection appears to come from, you won't get the block message, and you can keep using Dreamwidth the way you usually would.

On a completely unrelated note while I have you all here, have I mentioned lately that I really like ProtonVPN's service, privacy practices, and pricing? They also have a free tier available that, although limited to one device, has no ads or data caps and doesn't log your activity, unlike most of the free VPN services out there. VPNs are an excellent privacy and security tool that every user of the internet should be familiar with! We aren't affiliated with Proton and we don't get any kickbacks if you sign up with them, but I'm a satisfied customer and I wanted to take this chance to let you know that.

Again, we're so incredibly sorry to have to make this announcement, and I personally promise you that I will continue to fight this law, and all of the others like it that various states are passing, with every inch of the New Jersey-bred stubborn fightiness you've come to know and love over the last 16 years. The instant we think it's less legally risky for us to allow connections from Mississippi IP addresses, we'll undo the block and let you know.

(no subject)

Aug. 25th, 2025 08:48 am
m_of_disguise: (Default)
[personal profile] m_of_disguise
Went home for lunch Friday, intent on finishing up the last of the Serbian pork that I'd made a few days before. Baby crawled onto my lap, as she usually does when I'm eating, so I gave her a taste, thinking it'd be too spicy for her and she'd go back to her own plate of food. Well, joke's on me, she's into that that stuff, so we shared the last of the leftovers, and then she snatched the bowl away from me when it was empty and began licking sauce the bottom. Guess she likes spicy!

All of my dreams lately have been either Star Trek or costume-related. The other night? Vampires on the Enterprise! Last night? Dream brain was sewing a whole Regency wardrobe. Ope, now there's a dragon attacking the Enterprise, but Worf is going to handle it. Gotta get that ballgown finished!

Woke up Saturday at around 7:30, so I had a little bit of time to myself in the morning to toodle around, eat breakfast, and slowly wake up, before the baby was up. It was very relaxing for a while. The baby was a holy terror once she was awake, though, and fought her nap so, so hard, that it completely stressed me out. She finally went down around 1:30, so I took the opportunity to make a pot of potato and ham chowder, which lasted us the rest of the weekend. Baby was in a much better mood once she got up from her nap, so the rest of the evening was fairly pleasant.

While I was dealing with baby shenanigans and soup, M was out fixing both our cars. The tire on the Toyota was first, and it turned out that the replacement tire we'd put on had a nail in it. -_- At least it wasn't a bent rim like M had feared, so he went to a different shop, picked up another, much better used tire, and the Toyota was good to go. The Jeep was next, and while he'd expected to have to take the front end off the Jeep in order to replace some hard-to-reach hoses, a bit of research and a quick check revealed that the aftermarket thermostat that he'd installed a few months ago had actually warped, and that was what was causing all the overheating issues. So, he replaced it with a proper OEM part, and now it's doing just fine, which is great because it saved us about $300 in more complicated repairs!

Since M and I had knocked out most of our chores on Saturday, we mutually agreed that we would take it easy on Sunday. I woke up late at around 9, had a bit of breakfast, and when 10 rolled around and the baby still wasn't up, I decided to wake her. She was in a pretty good mood, she ate some food, and then went down pretty easily for a nap. She slept for nearly 3 hours, and was an absolutely cantankerous mess when she got up, and the rest of the evening was full of explosive tantrums. She finally chilled out after a good two hours of attitude and nonsense. I made her a sweet potato, which made her happy. 

She went to bed at her normal time and was asleep almost instantly. Then about an hour later I heard her up and fussing, so I checked on her, and AUGH, naked poo situation. M and I had to double team it, where he bathed the baby and I washed the mattress and blankets. -_- Thankfully, she went immediately back to sleep once everything and everyone was clean and sorted out, so I could enjoy my dinner and a bit of ice cream without interruption. Ended the night with a nosebleed.

Overall, things seem to be looking up. The two car repairs cost much less money and time than M anticipated. The insurance company of the guy that hit me said that they were assuming liability, so that's all over and done with and ended in our favor. A phone case I ordered and which had gotten bounced back to sender finally arrived on Saturday evening. Amazon reissued the baby flash cards at no charge, and they arrived quickly and were not stolen this time. And, my sister was paid early by a client, so she's treating me to lunch and movie for my birthday! 

We also got the word that M would be "hearing from HR soon" about the potential new job. Friend is being very vague about whether that is a good or bad thing, but of course we're hoping that it's good. We should know sometime this week, so fingers crossed!

The Solar Saga Continues

Aug. 22nd, 2025 04:36 pm
hrj: (Default)
[personal profile] hrj
With the preface that none of this is in any way time-critical or a problem, I'm amused at the slow progress of getting my solar installation inspected and approved.

While I was off at Worldcon, I got a call (actually, I always get simultaneous text/call/email for every communication) about scheduling the solar company's QA inspection. They wanted to schedule it for this past Monday (when I wasn't home yet) so I convinced them to reschedule. They said they'd get back to me with a new date. A couple days ago, I get notification of an inspection this coming Monday. I assume this is the company QA inspection and confirm by text.

The other pending inspection is the return of the city inspector to follow up with the to-do items. It turns out (which I hadn't been aware of before) that in addition to getting permits pulled retrospectively for my new water heater and the electrical panel re-build, they had neglected to include the solar storage battery in the scope-of-work for their side of the inspection items. (I discovered this when reviewing permits associated with my address.)

I'd been in contact with my electrician about the panel permit before Worldcon but we were both busy that week, so I pinged him and set about learning the online permit process. The interface is straightforward and very well documented with instructions and examples, so I got the water heater permit set up on my own. Once again pinged the electrician and explained that he didn't have to handle the inspection side, just the permit. He said he'd take care of that yesterday evening. (Spoiler: the permit wasn't in the system this morning, but it's not really a big deal, as further events will show.)

This morning, in the middle of my bike ride, I get another call from the solar company scheduler. She explains that since we don't have everything lined up for the city inspection, that they've cancelled the Monday appointment. Oh, I said, I thought that was the other one -- the solar company QA inspection. No, it was the city inspection. Ok, I said, I have the one permit pulled and my electrician will have the other in a day or so and I'll provide the information. But they can't schedule the city inspection until we have all the ducks in a row. She's just about to start lobbing dates at me when I point out that I'm about to be out of town for two weeks. Oh, she says, well then we'll make sure to work around that once we have the permit information. I heave a quiet sigh of relief because at this point I'd rather not be trying to cram all the inspection activities in before my trip. I repeat everything back to her "to make sure I understand correctly" and delete the Monday appointment from my calendar. I am left with the impression that I was confused about there being two pending inspections, because I asked about it several times.

This afternoon, I get a text/email/call to schedule the solar company QA inspection for Monday. Head:desk. By the way, the solar company scheduler is always the same person, though I suppose I can forgive her for not keeping track of all the accounts individually. (Though that's what notes in the file are for. She should have been aware of the pending QA inspection when we talked earlier today.)

So at this point the permit # for the water heater has been sent to my contact, I'll give the electrician some grace before poking him again because honestly as long as I get the permit # for the panel before I leave the country and can pass it along, it's all good. The QA inspection will presumably be taken care of on Monday. And then I'll get the city inspection ideally the week after I get back.

But one more thing...remember how I had a jury duty summons that I had to reschedule because of my trip? That is also now scheduled for the week after I get back. I provided that information to the scheduler: "Jury duty summons for Thursday." She noted, "OK, so we won't schedule it for Thursday." Um...that's not always how jury duty works? But at that point I figured it will work out somehow.

(no subject)

Aug. 22nd, 2025 08:26 am
m_of_disguise: (Default)
[personal profile] m_of_disguise
Been a banner couple of days, I tell you what.

The new/used tire that we got to replace the flat on the Toyota has also gone flat. -_- Since we were waiting on this week's paycheck to replace it, I've been driving the Jeep instead, which has been fine except that it has some sort of unknown problem with the cooling system and may or may not overheat depending on its mood. So I've been having to watch the temperature gauge closely.

Ordered a pack of baby flash cards to teach Kate new sounds at the recommendation of a friend. Amazon marked the package as delivered and sent a photo of it at our door at 8pm on Tuesday night, but when I went to get it, it was not there. -_- I hope whoever stole the package enjoys the flash cards that they probably thought was a phone or something. 

Got up Wednesday, started driving to work, and was rear ended on the highway just one exit from downtown. -_- It was actually a good thing I was in the Jeep, because I didn't end up with any real damage besides a small hole in the back bumper and a few scratches. But the Kia that hit me crumpled like tissue paper. We exchanged info, the cops took a report, and I called in to work and said I was taking the day. The Captain was very understanding and offered to come out to get me, but I was fine and made it home without any problems. The Kia looked pretty much totaled had to be towed away. 

Spent the rest of the day at home. I was pretty shaken by the wreck, so it took a while for me to cool down. I snuggled Kate, who had gotten up very early and was very tired, and put her down for a nap at around 10:30. M had meetings, I made us lunch. The rest of the day was pretty quiet, except that I had to give Tiger an unexpected bath when I discovered his butt was covered in poo. -_- He did not enjoy the experience, and was very indignant the rest of the day, staying in his hiding spot under the sewing table and giving himself his own bath for literally hours. 

One of M's friends sent us a gift card to Olive Garden after he heard about the wreck, which was extremely appreciated. Kate loved her fettuccini alfredo, and sat on the couch going "mmm! mmm!" with every bite. After dinner, she and I played with thread spools as I tried to teach her colors, and we had very nice time. She was very excited about our new game and had happy stompy feet.

M went to bed early, having only gotten about four hours of sleep, and I put the baby down at around 7:30 so she was asleep by 8. I sat on the couch and had a quiet evening, ate my last ice cream sandwich, and crawled into bed at around 10. 

I'm hoping this is the last of the shenanigans for this month, because I am tired yo. September is my birthday month, so it better give me an uptick in good stuff, the gods owe me.

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