Too Far Behind on TUESDAY

kvruns

Hi All! Haven't caught up on many threads - been too busy with work and DS was home last week so that made it a challenge.

kvruns

Normally this is a quiet week for me but I've had lots of client questions and then the new stimulus bill meant I was working until 9pm last night to decipher and woke up at 4am thinking about it some more. 

Really need to wrap presents - I'm normally done well ahead of Christmas but I wasn't motivated when I had time and now I don't have the time. 

charlotte989875

So my sisters MIL when to a salon on Friday (everyone was masked) but she just heard that her hairdresser tested positive. Well my BIL saw his mom the day after she was at the salon. Then my mom went to their house yesterday after leaving our house (not knowing) and she talked to them outside, masked but then briefly went into the house and talked with them there. So while the likelihood is low that anyone is sick we’re taking all the precautions. My Mom couldn’t come over and watch baby M today, our plans for everyone getting tested, isolating so we could see each other Thursday are out the window and 2020 sucks. 

mrsconn23

OH NO @charlotte989875  I'm sorry.  This fuckin' year. 

This is my last day this week.  I'm whatever about everything.  DH and I have a few errands to do.  I need to take DefConn shopping for him. 

I'm hoping my two packages I'm waiting for come in today.  I'd like to finish wrapping and clean up my office.   Of course the tracking has stalled out on both.  

It was too cloudy to see the Christmas star last night.  Hopefully we'll be able to see it tonight.  

banana468

charlotte989875 said:

So my sisters MIL when to a salon on Friday (everyone was masked) but she just heard that her hairdresser tested positive. Well my BIL saw his mom the day after she was at the salon. Then my mom went to their house yesterday after leaving our house (not knowing) and she talked to them outside, masked but then briefly went into the house and talked with them there. So while the likelihood is low that anyone is sick we’re taking all the precautions. My Mom couldn’t come over and watch baby M today, our plans for everyone getting tested, isolating so we could see each other Thursday are out the window and 2020 sucks. 

I'm so sorry Charlotte that really sucks. 

DH had to go to the office yesterday.  He was masked the entire time but it cheeses both of us off that his supervisor couldn't get someone else to take this task (something that required a person with their level of clearance to be on site) and then his 1 hour task turned into 6 hours on site due to tons of people pulling the "Oh and while you're here," cards.  

He still managed to take Chiquita to the beach with the telescope to see Jupiter and Saturn and has fewer hours he needs to work today. 

I MUST start wrapping.  

One of DH's gifts is stuck in an Amazon black hole.   I ordered a backup and we'll see if it can be here for THursday and if not, dude just doesn't get a t shirt.  oh well! 

MissKittyDanger

@charlotte989875 dumb question, but is there no contact tracing when people go out?
If we sit in a restaurant or salon, we have to give name and number so they can date back if needed.
If you're going in and out for a coffee for example, there is none of that.
Fx everyone is negative.

charlotte989875

MissKittyDanger said:

@charlotte989875 dumb question, but is there no contact tracing when people go out?
If we sit in a restaurant or salon, we have to give name and number so they can date back if needed.
If you're going in and out for a coffee for example, there is none of that.
Fx everyone is negative.

Yeah that’s how the MIL was notified about the positive test from the salon; MIL can’t get tested until tomorrow so we won’t actually know if sis & BIL (and thus my mom) are considered to be exposed (that would only happen if MIL is positive). So to be one the safe side were all acting as if MILs test is positive (and thus everyone was exposed) until we know for sure she wasn’t. So contract tracing is working the best it can here, but the exposure windows are such that we don’t know for sure yet. 

charlotte989875

mrsconn23 said:

OH NO @charlotte989875  I'm sorry.  This fuckin' year. 

This is my last day this week.  I'm whatever about everything.  DH and I have a few errands to do.  I need to take DefConn shopping for him. 

I'm hoping my two packages I'm waiting for come in today.  I'd like to finish wrapping and clean up my office.   Of course the tracking has stalled out on both.  

It was too cloudy to see the Christmas star last night.  Hopefully we'll be able to see it tonight.  

Exactly what I said to H last night. 

We’re still waiting on a ton of packages too. I had two that shipped the first week of December and are somewhere in Michigan. I could have driven to Michigan and picked them up faster than this. 

MissKittyDanger

So we are changing xmas because our fucking province is shutting down.
Between Quebec and Toronto, they're the reasoning.

Unfortunately we've had to change a lot of plans, but part of it is good.
MIL and SFIL are going to facetime opening gifts on xmas eve. They have other stuff wrapped for BK that is staying at their place, so she will open those later on in January when we can see them again. Tbh it might be February because Jan 31st I'm seeing my mum {it was my dad's bday} and that is probably the first weekend we can see anyone.
At least other thing is, after that is my exam so I'm finally FREE!!!!

ANYWAYS
My mum is coming xmas day for breakfast still but they aren't staying long.

We usually wrap everything and drink on xmas eve but some stuff needs to be given out xmas eve - so we're getting some stuff together tonight.


Is this year over yet?

ei34

Oh no! Sorry @charlotte989875
I’m behind too.  I have to find the motivation to just get stuff done when the kids are in bed.

We tried to view Jupiter and Saturn last night but it was too cloudy.  We drove to the ocean so the kids had a ball tearing it up on the snow-covered sand anyway.

banana468

Here's the shot DH got:



And of Chiquita but when it was cloudy:


I'm hearing that distribution centers for USPS are super backlogged.  I had a pair of pants in the Springfield, MA distribution center for a full week.  I have a gift for Chiquita that was put there this  morning and have little hope I'll get it for Christmas.  

Rumors I'm hearing are that there's a MD distribution facility and one in Cleveland that are also super backlogged.  

MissKittyDanger

I ordered an adult colouring book, markers and a pillow+case for BK from Amazon lol

BK will be 3 in May {wtfff} when did you ladies give your kids a pillow? We decided to because she loves laying on pillows and figured now is best so we can watch her during nap.

banana468

MissKittyDanger said:

I ordered an adult colouring book, markers and a pillow+case for BK from Amazon lol

BK will be 3 in May {wtfff} when did you ladies give your kids a pillow? We decided to because she loves laying on pillows and figured now is best so we can watch her during nap.

Pretty sure when the kiddos went to a bed that they got pillows.  Chiquita got a smaller "adult" pillow that was just mostly flat and deflated.  Chiquito is 6 and sleeps w/ a toddler pillow and has for the last 3 years. 

kvruns

good news for those who have leftover health FSA or dependent care FSA money - the new covid relief bill will allow a plan to permit someone to carryover those funds. I can't imagine any employers not allowing this, especially on the dependent care side, so it is great 11th hour news.

Although also as a reminder if your needs for paid childcare change you have always been permitted to make an election change in your dependent care FSA so really folks should have made these changes back in the spring but I have a lot of clients/employees who did not and found themselves with a lot of unused money for year end 

short+sassy

@charlotte989875, I'm so sorry to hear the carefully laid out Christmas plans might blow up!  I especially hope your sister's MIL's test comes back negative and bonus points if it is in time for the Christmas visits to happen, as scheduled.  

I think I told you all, but my loan package for my big refi went out to a 3rd party reviewer last week Wednesday.  The underwriter handling my loan said it can take up to 5 business days for them to review so, closing can happen any day!  But will probably be early next week because of the holidays.  ((Knock on wood)) everything has been going smoothly, so I'm not expecting any bumps.  However, I'll be on edge until after I close, because sometimes crazy things can come out of left field to blow things up.  There is also a decent chance my middle credit score will drop below 700 because of my credit card utilization rate.  I don't think that will happen.  But it could.  It shouldn't affect being able to refinance, but that would trigger a higher interest rate for the loan.

Work has been surprisingly busy this week.  Including all kinds of requests from people that I don't usually get.  Why aren't most people on vacation already so I can coast through Wed., lol?

short+sassy

kvruns said:

good news for those who have leftover health FSA or dependent care FSA money - the new covid relief bill will allow a plan to permit someone to carryover those funds. I can't imagine any employers not allowing this, especially on the dependent care side, so it is great 11th hour news.

Although also as a reminder if your needs for paid childcare change you have always been permitted to make an election change in your dependent care FSA so really folks should have made these changes back in the spring but I have a lot of clients/employees who did not and found themselves with a lot of unused money for year end 

Interesting!  I hadn't even thought about those kind of programs.  At least they are getting adjusted in the 11th hour.  Because they should be and that should have been done months ago.

None of it affects me because I don't have children and, for medical, my work only has HSA plans (I think that's what it's called) which roll over year to year anyway.  But I am familiar with those programs from other jobs I've had.  I had not even thought about how this crazy year could have really affected what people are spending on both childcare (especially childcare) and OOP medical expenses.  

MyNameIsNot

kvruns said:

good news for those who have leftover health FSA or dependent care FSA money - the new covid relief bill will allow a plan to permit someone to carryover those funds. I can't imagine any employers not allowing this, especially on the dependent care side, so it is great 11th hour news.

Although also as a reminder if your needs for paid childcare change you have always been permitted to make an election change in your dependent care FSA so really folks should have made these changes back in the spring but I have a lot of clients/employees who did not and found themselves with a lot of unused money for year end 

We were talking about that with my book club last week. I think a lot of people don't know that you can change them through the year, but I also don't think most of us thought we'd still be home this far down the road! But I'm glad they finally got the extension. Letting people keep their own money is kind of the easiest thing you can do in a stimulus package. 

Nothing much going on here. I'm supposed to be working a half day, but I kind of doubt that's going to work out as planned. Oh well, I'll feel less guilty about skating out early tomorrow and Thursday. The reorg announcements last week are coming with a lot of opportunities to move around. I'm trying to figure out what that means for me. Hopefully I can at least get out in time to go find a stocking stuffer for my niece and some booze for my dad. Then I can wrap and be done. 

OliveOilsMom

Charlotte - I'm so sorry to hear about this!  I hope that everyone stays negative! 

MKD - NJ has a ton of trained contact tracers and even then, their success rate is only about 70% of people providing them information.

I still have 2 packages in limbo, but they are extra bonus items and not needed.  One is a gift and when I ordered it last week, I made sure it had more of a happy new year message instead!  An Amazon distribution center about an hour away has had to close due to a Covid outbreak there, so even Amazon is not going to be delivering as accurately.

I have to head out soon for a run to the post office.  I am sending my brother cookies and they are vacuumed, but I'm sure they won't make it to his place in NY state until next week.  But I figured they might as well start on their journey now!  After, I will meet H for some pizza slices, then a final stop at Produce Junction to get some fresh herbs for my rib roast on Christmas Eve.

kvruns

short+sassy said:

kvruns said:

good news for those who have leftover health FSA or dependent care FSA money - the new covid relief bill will allow a plan to permit someone to carryover those funds. I can't imagine any employers not allowing this, especially on the dependent care side, so it is great 11th hour news.

Although also as a reminder if your needs for paid childcare change you have always been permitted to make an election change in your dependent care FSA so really folks should have made these changes back in the spring but I have a lot of clients/employees who did not and found themselves with a lot of unused money for year end 

Interesting!  I hadn't even thought about those kind of programs.  At least they are getting adjusted in the 11th hour.  Because they should be and that should have been done months ago.

None of it affects me because I don't have children and, for medical, my work only has HSA plans (I think that's what it's called) which roll over year to year anyway.  But I am familiar with those programs from other jobs I've had.  I had not even thought about how this crazy year could have really affected what people are spending on both childcare (especially childcare) and OOP medical expenses.  

If I'm being honest I lost sympathy with employees complaining recently about unused dependent FSA $ because we've shared the news a lot and their companies have too; FSA vendors shared the information, mainstream media shared the news so if you still never changed your election months ago when you were allowed I didn't have any sleep to lose over it. They got lucky this time though. Obviously I don't want to see people lose money so this is a good thing but cmon you were told a bunch at least for our clients (I know that isn't true for all)

edit: my comments above also stem from several conversations I had with the CEO of one of our clients. He and I had a looooong conversation about this back in June and i advised him to change his elections and then if his DD went back to school he could change again. He never changed and every month would be asking if the rules had changed and if there was anything to do to not lose his money. By the end I pretty much gave up because clearly he didn't want to listen. 

kvruns

I'm writing something silly to the tune of 12 days of Christmas but saying the days before Christmas. 

Sunday December 20th - is that the 5th day before Christmas or the 6th day? 

levioosa

I’m so sorry @charlotte989875. That’s really frustrating. 

Woke up in a good mood. Got to work and was instantly annoyed. I need this week to be over. At least I got two really sweet gifts from coworkers today and that was unexpected and really nice. 

Otherwise SSDD. Cleaning and meal prepping for Christmas tonight. 

kerbohl

MissKittyDanger said:

So we are changing xmas because our fucking province is shutting down.
Between Quebec and Toronto, they're the reasoning.

Unfortunately we've had to change a lot of plans, but part of it is good.
MIL and SFIL are going to facetime opening gifts on xmas eve. They have other stuff wrapped for BK that is staying at their place, so she will open those later on in January when we can see them again. Tbh it might be February because Jan 31st I'm seeing my mum {it was my dad's bday} and that is probably the first weekend we can see anyone.
At least other thing is, after that is my exam so I'm finally FREE!!!!

ANYWAYS
My mum is coming xmas day for breakfast still but they aren't staying long.

We usually wrap everything and drink on xmas eve but some stuff needs to be given out xmas eve - so we're getting some stuff together tonight.


Is this year over yet?

Yep, same boat for me!  Toronto messes everything up.  That and university students (where my sister lives, about 60% of the cases are from students at the local university.  That's insane)

kerbohl

kvruns said:

I'm writing something silly to the tune of 12 days of Christmas but saying the days before Christmas. 

Sunday December 20th - is that the 5th day before Christmas or the 6th day? 

I want to say 5th day ...

kerbohl

I did something amusing stupid.  I discovered on Saturday that a rabbit shaped ottoman exists, and ended up buying it because RABBIT SHAPED FURNITURE!!!  Anyways, I put a bow on one of rabbits and took a picture of him on the ottoman and shared on Facebook saying how excited I was for my new bunny.

People think I got a new actual rabbit for Christmas now, despite the fact that I share tonnes of pictures of my rabbits all the time, so I thought the fact that the ottoman was the new rabbit was clear.  I was very wrong ... and now to hide this I'm thinking of getting a new actual rabbit.  

MissKittyDanger

kerbohl said:

MissKittyDanger said:

So we are changing xmas because our fucking province is shutting down.
Between Quebec and Toronto, they're the reasoning.

Unfortunately we've had to change a lot of plans, but part of it is good.
MIL and SFIL are going to facetime opening gifts on xmas eve. They have other stuff wrapped for BK that is staying at their place, so she will open those later on in January when we can see them again. Tbh it might be February because Jan 31st I'm seeing my mum {it was my dad's bday} and that is probably the first weekend we can see anyone.
At least other thing is, after that is my exam so I'm finally FREE!!!!

ANYWAYS
My mum is coming xmas day for breakfast still but they aren't staying long.

We usually wrap everything and drink on xmas eve but some stuff needs to be given out xmas eve - so we're getting some stuff together tonight.


Is this year over yet?

Yep, same boat for me!  Toronto messes everything up.  That and university students (where my sister lives, about 60% of the cases are from students at the local university.  That's insane)

What university? My boss' daughter goes to St Lawrence and the restrictions are insane  

Apparently it's because Quebec is going into shut down also and to prevent them coming across to Ontario.
Honestly I had a long bitch fest about how the premier SHOULD NOT have said that if we did well and sacrificed Thanksgiving we would be safe for Christmas.
DON'T MAKE PROMISES YOU CANNOT KEEP

I am just ragey today.

MissKittyDanger

kerbohl said:

I did something amusing stupid.  I discovered on Saturday that a rabbit shaped ottoman exists, and ended up buying it because RABBIT SHAPED FURNITURE!!!  Anyways, I put a bow on one of rabbits and took a picture of him on the ottoman and shared on Facebook saying how excited I was for my new bunny.

People think I got a new actual rabbit for Christmas now, despite the fact that I share tonnes of pictures of my rabbits all the time, so I thought the fact that the ottoman was the new rabbit was clear.  I was very wrong ... and now to hide this I'm thinking of getting a new actual rabbit.  

Please share the cuteness

short+sassy

kerbohl said:

I did something amusing stupid.  I discovered on Saturday that a rabbit shaped ottoman exists, and ended up buying it because RABBIT SHAPED FURNITURE!!!  Anyways, I put a bow on one of rabbits and took a picture of him on the ottoman and shared on Facebook saying how excited I was for my new bunny.

People think I got a new actual rabbit for Christmas now, despite the fact that I share tonnes of pictures of my rabbits all the time, so I thought the fact that the ottoman was the new rabbit was clear.  I was very wrong ... and now to hide this I'm thinking of getting a new actual rabbit.  

Ummm.  Where is OUR picture of one of your rabbits on your new rabbit-shaped ottoman?  lol.

GBCK

@kvruns , I was hoping the late bill wasn't going to screw over everyone's holidays, but I thought it might.  bah.

THe clouds and rain made us getting out the telescope impossible yesterday which annoys me. 
And porch pirates stole my niece's birthday gifts, so I just finished wrapping the replacements I had delivered to me. I feel bad we're combining Christmas and birthday gift giving, but, I can't help it if bastards make it  hard.

We have today off and I've got 3 things to do--make more cookies (we're virtually decorating via zoom.  As in, I make cookies here, the Texans make cookies, and we zoom together us screwing them up. Because that's my family.  I already made us bingo cards for predictable saying things.  I made them nice-ish to not insult my parents.)

And I gotta take the kiddo to speech therapy.

And she and I are going to the cemetery in a bit, because we always do stuff there for Christmas.  (I've told y'all that my grandparents were married Dec 25, right?  that sort of love story gets you poinsettias even after you're gone)

I work part of the day tomorrow and then we're just chillaxing through the holiday

kerbohl

kerbohl

MissKittyDanger said:

kerbohl said:

MissKittyDanger said:

So we are changing xmas because our fucking province is shutting down.
Between Quebec and Toronto, they're the reasoning.

Unfortunately we've had to change a lot of plans, but part of it is good.
MIL and SFIL are going to facetime opening gifts on xmas eve. They have other stuff wrapped for BK that is staying at their place, so she will open those later on in January when we can see them again. Tbh it might be February because Jan 31st I'm seeing my mum {it was my dad's bday} and that is probably the first weekend we can see anyone.
At least other thing is, after that is my exam so I'm finally FREE!!!!

ANYWAYS
My mum is coming xmas day for breakfast still but they aren't staying long.

We usually wrap everything and drink on xmas eve but some stuff needs to be given out xmas eve - so we're getting some stuff together tonight.


Is this year over yet?

Yep, same boat for me!  Toronto messes everything up.  That and university students (where my sister lives, about 60% of the cases are from students at the local university.  That's insane)

What university? My boss' daughter goes to St Lawrence and the restrictions are insane  

Apparently it's because Quebec is going into shut down also and to prevent them coming across to Ontario.
Honestly I had a long bitch fest about how the premier SHOULD NOT have said that if we did well and sacrificed Thanksgiving we would be safe for Christmas.
DON'T MAKE PROMISES YOU CANNOT KEEP

I am just ragey today.

Queen's U.  Very well known for being a party school.

Then again, so was the university I went to.  Covid finally shut down their stupid and destructive St Patrick's Day parade that caused property damage and a bunch of arrests each year.  

No, Ford really shouldn't have made promises.  I'm pretty sure we were all aware that Christmas wasn't going to be safe this year.  Though didn't he go after Trudeau for keeping flights open to the UK?  That I was cool with - we shouldn't have a lot of flights coming in regardless.  But people gotta travel apparently!  I can not imagine the nightmare that is airports right now.  Someone was telling me that you have to pay $200 for a required COVID test before you get on a plane.  

MissKittyDanger

kerbohl said:

MissKittyDanger said:

kerbohl said:

MissKittyDanger said:

So we are changing xmas because our fucking province is shutting down.
Between Quebec and Toronto, they're the reasoning.

Unfortunately we've had to change a lot of plans, but part of it is good.
MIL and SFIL are going to facetime opening gifts on xmas eve. They have other stuff wrapped for BK that is staying at their place, so she will open those later on in January when we can see them again. Tbh it might be February because Jan 31st I'm seeing my mum {it was my dad's bday} and that is probably the first weekend we can see anyone.
At least other thing is, after that is my exam so I'm finally FREE!!!!

ANYWAYS
My mum is coming xmas day for breakfast still but they aren't staying long.

We usually wrap everything and drink on xmas eve but some stuff needs to be given out xmas eve - so we're getting some stuff together tonight.


Is this year over yet?

Yep, same boat for me!  Toronto messes everything up.  That and university students (where my sister lives, about 60% of the cases are from students at the local university.  That's insane)

What university? My boss' daughter goes to St Lawrence and the restrictions are insane  

Apparently it's because Quebec is going into shut down also and to prevent them coming across to Ontario.
Honestly I had a long bitch fest about how the premier SHOULD NOT have said that if we did well and sacrificed Thanksgiving we would be safe for Christmas.
DON'T MAKE PROMISES YOU CANNOT KEEP

I am just ragey today.

Queen's U.  Very well known for being a party school.

Then again, so was the university I went to.  Covid finally shut down their stupid and destructive St Patrick's Day parade that caused property damage and a bunch of arrests each year.  

No, Ford really shouldn't have made promises.  I'm pretty sure we were all aware that Christmas wasn't going to be safe this year.  Though didn't he go after Trudeau for keeping flights open to the UK?  That I was cool with - we shouldn't have a lot of flights coming in regardless.  But people gotta travel apparently!  I can not imagine the nightmare that is airports right now.  Someone was telling me that you have to pay $200 for a required COVID test before you get on a plane.  

Ah fuck. Yeh. Idk if he's still there but I believe my bff's brother is there.

Apparently Ottawa might get revised after 14 days {our numbers are extremely low and we've been doing great - so Ottawa is pissed}

Yeh Ford is pissy with Trudeau about flights but the rest of Ontario is pissy with Ford for not forcing Toronto/GTA  to get their shit together.