[Small Talk: The Library]

every new person in the house was a new person she attempts to dominate, which requires people training every time

Indeed, she and I had a staring contest once. Bol made me aware that Cordy was trying to stare me down, and told me how to handle it -- stare right back until she submits and looks away. And it took a while. She really wanted to win. If @Boliver hadn't clued me in, I wouldn't have figured it out.

[Small Talk: The Library]

Rimshot!

[Small Talk: The Library]

Oh, poor Cordy. I am going to miss her when she's gone, that big ol' control freak of a dog. Maybe Superkitty would like more space? If only they would just learn English, then they could tell us. They really aren't putting much effort into it. ;)

We were supposed to see a house this afternoon, but the listing agent (who has to be there to show the property, since it has an alarm) is going to be in Incline (up at the lake. Tahoe, I mean, heh) all day, so it has to be tomorrow. Poopy.:/

Bleu, you're doing great work trying to find good homes for kittens.

Yes indeedy. That's awesome. :)

[Small Talk: The Library]

AnnieF when is the big day?

I have no idea, because we're thinking that we're going to withdraw our offer. Stuff just keeps turning up that makes the place seem less like "perfect" and more like "well, the yard is an amazing fixer-upper opportunity!" Yeahno, I'm already going to have to deal with remodeling on my current house; I don't need to deal with it in my new house too. There's another place that came on the market just a couple of days ago that we want to look at, so the real estate saga continues for a while. Yay?

Hapoy Wednesday, everyone. :)

[Small Talk: The Library]

I want Circus peanuts now.

No, I refuse to believe this. No one wants circus peanuts. They continue to be made to show us all that evil exists.

AnnieF, I am glad the house inspections are moving along nicely. I am excited for you! What do the boys think about the move?

@Harvester, thank you. :) The F-let is excited, mostly because fireplace! The F-ster is grumpy about it, but has not articulated his reasons for being disgruntled (being 14 years old accounts for a lot of it, I think). I'm going to have to drive the F-let to school every day next year, since he'll be at the same elementary (6th grade, then we'll finally be done with that school after nine years). Hallelujah. I'm not even going to ask for a variance -- who's gonna know?

That's two squirrels a DAY! :)

Shhhhhh!!!! Are you trying to blow my cover?

It was an artisan pizza that made me sick

Did it in fact have fromage on it? A soft one, like goat cheese? 'Cause that could've given you listeria. Sorry, the old culinary school training kicks in and I start wondering which ingredient might have given you which illness. ;)

[Small Talk: The Library]

Hee, small safe skunk. It should stay away from me, I'm the rodent killer (just the one squirrel. Okay, two squirrels, but that's it, I swear!) Of course, if it's safe then by definition it's not near me? Hmm.

Furry little bastards. ;)

[Small Talk: The Library]

There is a small safe sunk into the concrete floor in the garage of the new house. It has the combination written in a spidery old-person hand on a little note on top of the safe, but Mr F could not get it to open. Mystery! :) When we started speculating about what could be in there (gold bullion, worthless old receipts, Al Capone) our realtor chimed in with "an urn." Mr F and I both looked at her, and she just shook her head and said "I have stories, let me tell you." Hee hee.

Things look mostly good on the house. Every inspector we've had in has mentioned that the construction is high quality -- this place is a flip, and lots of flippers are corner-cutters, but evidently they did a good job on this house, which is always nice to hear. I just want to be done with this part.

I'm still nauseated by the idea of circus peanuts on a sweet potato casserole. So wrong, so terribly, utterly wrong.

[Small Talk: The Library]

One Easter my mom was out of marshmallows and used them as a substitute on a sweet potato casserole. If anyone is curious, this does not work out well.

Oh blegh. Serious no, gaaaaaaaah. In my opinion, of course. ;)

Gotta go meet with realtor and inspector now. And it's raining. Since we are in Droughtville, this is very very good. But it would happen today, of course. Ah, weather.

Vibes to all. :)

[Small Talk: The Library]

@harrie, not dumb at all, that's the kind of thing that'll bite you in the ass if you don't check, so thank you, seriously. I looked at the quote:

The tree’s stumps will be removed by stump grinder at a depth of 12"- 16" below grade. All debris cleaned up and void where the stump was will be backfilled to original grade with quality topsoil.

So, complete removal, which is what we need. And the quote is actually $495. I'm inclined to go with this guy, not just because it's cheaper, but because this company has been around a lot longer and this guy has more experience. (And yes, I am ignoring the fact that the "tree's stumps" will be removed, although it is so tempting to ask "which tree are we talking about here." Snerk.)

@Earl Is Dead, my wish for your thieving coworkers is that all the candy turns to circus peanuts in their hands. Worst. Candy. Evar.

[Small Talk: The Library]

More inspections today, whee! I've had two different arborists give me estimates for stump removal (there is a row of four big evergreen stumps between our house and the neighbor; the trees served as the fence until the power company hacked the trees to near-death and the previous owner had them all cut down). The first estimate I got for stump removal was $2K. This one that I just got is for about $600. Um?

I want this to be over. I am super-excited to move, and fortunate to be able to do it, I know. I don't take that for granted. I just want it to be a thing that already happened, heh. Can someone wake me in about two months? That'd be swell. ;)

@KPC, ditto to the nth. Weight loss what? You have NO NEED.

[Small Talk: The Library]

we will not be discussing NLL or Lacrosse for another seven months.

Not a problem. ;) I'm sorry, Erratic. Sports are indeed stupid.

The answer to "How many bottles of Elmer's?" was six. Six bottles of glue. I don't have any defense for that one, either. Every year when the classroom supply list said "bottle of Elmer's" I bought one, and some years they came back home at the end of the school year. And went into the cupboard. And were apparently never heard from again. Huh.

Happy weekend, everyone. :)

[Small Talk: The Library]

Well, in today's episode of "Why Do I Have All This Crap?" I have discovered an amazing treasure trove in the craft cupboard -- the place where we store all the construction paper and crayons and colored pencils and pipe cleaners and safety scissors blah blah etc. Guess how many bottles of Elmer's glue I found? It is ridiculous.

Sending you super-strong get-through-the-day vibes, @Endeavour. :)

[Small Talk: The Library]

AnnieF, there are also charities or thrift stores that cater to crossdressers

I realized this after I asked, and I also realized that I have a good friend here in town who does all kinds of theatre, and she's probably got some ideas too. I'll get rid of these dresses somehow, dang it. I have a really pretty purple dress that's never been worn, just sat in my closet for two decades. Time to say goodbye to stuff like that. :)

@Loandbehold, it could be worse. You could be a Cubs fan. ;)

[Small Talk: The Library]

AnnieF, what about a local high school drama program or theater?

@Harvester, great idea, thank you!

I see you haven't still strayed from that story AnnieF. Consistent, yes you are!

Yep. Is my lawyer here yet? I have nothing else to say.

I'd actually root for the Mets if they were in the World Series(hah!)

Let us take a moment to acknowledge @Loandbehold. We laugh at the idea of the Mets in the Series because we love. Honestly. I totally, totally mean it.

(They are only three games out of first in the NL East. Could they please attempt to get ahead of Atlanta? Fucken ATL, they suck. Go Mets, already. ;P)

[Small Talk: The Library]

AnnieF, squirrel assassin

They ran out in front of me! I couldn't help but hit them! The furry little bastards. ;)

My brain is almost fully consumed by the new-house-buying process. So many inspections! And sorting and getting rid of stuff is...blergh. Sometimes satisfying, sometimes annoying (there's a place where I could donate the prom-type dresses that I somehow ended up with, including my sister's maid-of-honor dress from my wedding. [Why do I have this peachy confection?] but it only accepts donations through the end of April. What to do, what to do...) Anyway, forgive me if I'm in vapor lock. I want to have moved. Sigh.

I wish I could do the quizzes. They just stress me out. It's ridiculous, I know, but that's my brain. I love that Hostile does them, though. She rocks. :)

val, I dissed the American League over in the other place. ;) In a Mets-Yankees game, there can be only one team that I can root for, and it ain't the Yankees. Hee hee.

[Small Talk: The Library]

Don't look at me. @Loandbehold started it. ;)

[Small Talk: The Library]

As it's a Saturday night [insert song lyric here]

Deftly done. The Bay City Rollers congratulate you.

S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y, NIGHT!

S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y, NIGHT!

[Small Talk: The Library]

You know you can't hide, @KittenPokerCheater. Don't even think it.

:P

[Small Talk: The Library]

Annie, is there a Freecycle listserve in your area?

Indeed there is. I am going to be giving them so much stuff.

I had accumulated many, many new baby gift bags and my friends were not reproducing enough for me to reuse them.

I feel you. I have a weird imbalance with birthday gift bags -- I have a TON of them that are Spiderman-themed, or Transformers-themed, or Spongebob-themed, etc etc ad nauseam. Have I not given away an equal, or at least similar, number of gifts? And haven't I been recycling birthday bags since the kids were little? How did I end up with all these extras?*

*Grandparents. Damn them ;)

[Small Talk: The Library]

I hope you don't have to tear down any trees

I wish we could go back in time to 1958, so we could tell the people who planted the damn trees that they should not put them directly under power lines. Sigh. Especially because the power company does not give a crap about the health of the trees, and will come along and hack the everloving shit out of them to get them away from the utility lines. Siiiiiiiiigh. This is what we get for looking at older houses, and I knew we'd have these kinds of issues, so I'm not really all that stressed about that stuff. It was expected. I do get wistful, though, and wish I could just tell people in the past to plant the trees some other damn place.

And my mom said she'd take a bunch of wrapping paper and gift bags, yay! It's a damn Hallmark store in my closet, sheesh. I just always kept every gift bag that someone gave us a gift in, so I have gift bags for birthdays, Valentine's, anniversary, so many for Xmas holy carp, new baby, new house (!). I haven't bought paper or gift bags in at least five years, probably longer. Just kept recycling from out of my closet. Geez. It's weird, the stuff that accumulates.

[Small Talk: The Library]

^^^^^^^^^THIS.

That right there is every conversation my hubs has had with a cable provider over the last decade. They cough up a better rate when you threaten to quit. Happens every time.

[Small Talk: The Library]

Thanks for vibes, everyone. :) The sewer looked pretty good, right up until the obstruction that they couldn't get their camera past. This is a major deal in that it has to be resolved before we buy the place, but also a minor deal in that the inspector said that the obstruction looked like construction debris that could be easily removed with a powerful-enough shop vac, so maybe not really a thing. Which would be nice. There are some tree issues too, but nothing huge. So, things continue to roll along. Next week we've got pest, chimney*, and general inspections. Wheeee!!!

*This house has an actual woodburning fireplace, and it's grandfathered, so we can actually burn wood. New homes here can't have actual fireplaces because of air quality concerns in the winter, so we've never lived anywhere with a real fireplace. The F-let is SO excited.

@Harvester, I continue to hope for good things on the job front. That "fuck you, crappy boss" fantasy is so satisfying, isn't it?

@Endeavour, have you ever tried telling your cable company that you're quitting them? They often seem to be able to produce a lower-priced plan when you do that. We did that to DirecTv for years.

[Small Talk: The Library]

Why do I have so much wrapping paper? I'm going through my bedroom closet (this closet is ridiculous. It is the size of a frelling studio apartment). Great for storing crap in over the last decade, but now that I'm cleaning it out, holy shit. Anyone need to wrap some gifts? Because I have any kind of wrapping paper you might need. WHYYYYYYYY.

[Small Talk: The Library]

What are folks doing this weekend?

This afternoon I get to meet with an arborist and a sewer line inspector, because we're starting inspections on our new house. Since the neighborhood was built in the late 50s, the trees are mature, and we need to make sure that there aren't any big trees that need to be removed, since that is expensive. Ditto with the sewer line; they use a camera to make sure that there isn't any root impingement on the sewer. Fingers are crossed that those go well (anything that needs to be fixed would be the seller's responsibility. I'm just hoping that there's nothing).

Yesterday I took an entire SUV-load of books to the library. So many nice books, too, but we're being tough about getting rid of stuff, so adios, gigantic "Art of Star Wars" book. I hope some kid finds you in the library and has her mind blown, heh.

Happy weekend thoughts to all. :)

[Small Talk: The Library]

Yay @Harvester! Vibing hard over here. :)