Fri-yay

ei34 · August 1

Hope everyone’s day goes smoothly and all have moments this weekend that bring joy!

ei34 · August 1

Woke up to a blissful 63 degrees this morning (real feel in the 50s)- it’ll go up again, 70s into the 80s is average for here right now, but I’m going to enjoy this anyway.

Just in from Trader Joe’s, stocked up on some of my sister and her family’s favorites. About to make a bunch of chicken cutlets and bring most of those plus the TJ goods her way a bit later. The kids are dying to see the baby again but I’ve warned them it may well be a front door drop off, I don’t want to crowd in, especially while my BIL is still off from work.

We have a Mets game tomorrow - I’m a bit concerned about getting there. Crazy storm yesterday evening and our train line on the LIRR (commuter rail) was totally flooded, I’m hoping it’s fixed by tomorrow bc I haven’t driven to Citi Field (baseball stadium) in years and don’t particularly want to.

Sunday is a brunch with friends, but extra bonus is it’s a milestone surprise birthday party for one of them, so it should be a lot of fun.

Casadena · August 1

Finished my book club book last night and had a couple glasses of wine. I feel like it's the first night in a while I've had time to just chill by myself. We read Funny Story by Emily Henry and it was very cute and light - I liked it a lot.

Boys are going to a birthday party tomorrow morning at a splash pad then I think G and I are going back to school shopping. He needs a backpack and a water bottle and a couple new clothing items. Should be a fun little mom/G date. Sunday morning H is golfing and i'm taking the boys to the local park for an incoming Kindergartner play date. Hoping he makes a buddy and at the very least will recognize a few kids on his first day.

Been listening to Amy Poehler's new podcast and it is so nice. Just her semi-interviewing and hanging out with friends essentially. Very enjoyable.

VarunaTT · August 1

I just hate the 1st sometimes. So much stuff just comes pouring out of my checking account. At least there's not rent coming out now too, but yuck. Have a few errands to run after work now. I also need to get my printer situation fixed. It's basically just that I need to hardwire it to my work computer, not my personal. But I have all the cords connected nice and neat, which is awesome...until you have to move one.

I'm off early today. I'm trying to figure out what to do with my remaining PTO. Do I want to use all of it or save some to rollover? If I rollover, I still have about 30ish hours to use. And, oddly, they pressure you to use it and not lose it. Which is so fundamentally different from what I'm used to. My work nervous system is still jumpy and like, "Are you sure you're happy with me?!?!"

Quali is tomorrow, plus sugaring appointment, then some errands, then a movie. Sunday is the race and then I simply must clean. Things are rough around here. But it's been hard to clean when I was still working on getting everything put away.

levioosa · August 1

I'm glad it's Friday. Work felt really long this week.

I am trying to give my Mom grace, but she's really frustrating me. I am trying so hard to remain objective but H and I are so burned out from the years of broken promises, hard work, and basically living like Sisyphus where my parents are concerned. It's difficult not to feel incredibly pessimistic about it all. H is in a huge funk and there's just no break for me emotionally at work or at home. He tends to be behind me in making realizations. His latest one is something I've been saying for a long time. Our area is not good. We need to move out. But we can't afford it now. Every single one of our neighbors has moved out except for one across the street, and for all of those homes 2-4 extra units have been placed on their lots. I felt like I had more breathing space when I lived in a literal one bedroom apartment. In fact, things were nicer in the apartment because the landlord kept it clean, parking wasn't a nightmare, and the common spaces were well maintained and rules about smoking, loud noises, etc were enforced. H is just feeling really disheartened and upset about all of the hard work he's put into the house for the rest of the neighborhood to become so bad so fast. I have a lot of feels about it in a socioeconomic sense, but mentally it's not going to be sustainable for us to stay here. Anyways, I'm just a complaining mess today.

I hope everyone has a good weekend.

short+sassy · August 1

@ei34, I know you are a lot further north from me, but dang! It's not even 10am yet and the temp is 86, with the "feels like" temp 97 because of the high humidity. The outdoors feels like a community steam room, lol.

Coolinary month starts today! Yeesssss!!! It's like restaurant week, but for the entire month of August. I already have my list of restaurants targeted.

One of them is a crazy value! It's mainly a restaurant but also has a distillery. Their coolinary brunch special is three courses for $32. With the first "course" being their bottomless vodka bar, that includes fresh squeezed juices and Bloody Mary Mix. Then you also get soup or salad and an entree (crawfish omelet, avocado toast or huevos rancheros). WHAT?!?! How are they even doing that so cheap!

I'll need to hit that one twice this month, including this weekend. Fortunately, the bus ride from my house isn't too bad because you know I'm not going to be driving there, lol.

After work, I have a mammoth shopping trip to make at Walmart. I need to both pick-up and return Amazon purchases at Whole Foods. One of them was funny.

---

I regretted not having a hat for my Catalina beach trip. I tried to buy a bucket hat, once I got to CA before we sailed. But apparently adult hats are too big for me and I didn't see any kids ones that I would wear. I want a plain, single color. Not Disney princesses or cartoon animals, lmao.

I already shop the children's section when I need new eyeglasses, so I guess I shouldn't have been surprised.

When I got back, I ordered a kids bucket hat from Amazon for like 8-12 year olds. That was too big and I sent it back. Ordered another one and this time took my head measurement. According to that, I needed a baby's hat (6-24 months), smh. That was what I ordered, even though it didn't seem right. It did fit on my head, but was a little too tight and would pop up a bit.

But I liked the hat other than that, so I'm returning it and will re-order the next size up. Wish me luck that the third time's the charm and a PRE-SCHOOLER'S hat (2-6 years old) will be the right size, lmao.

short+sassy · August 1

@VarunaTT, I've worked at two places that want people to use their vacation time and not lose it or have it paid out.

The first was when I worked for a defense contractor who were headquartered in Maryland (I think they all are, lol). Maryland allows "use it or lose it" vacation time, which was my company's policy, but about half the states don't. Those rules apply to where an employee works, not where the company is headquartered.

My manager had about 400 people under him and they were all over the country. One of my jobs was to track everyone's vacation time. But then I ALSO needed a separate vacation spreadsheet for people who worked in "use it or lose it" states. Shockingly, Louisiana* is not one of them despite being so politically conservative and not usually caring about the peasants.

Around the beginning of Nov. each year, I'd individually send each of those employees their vacation hours to date with a reminder they needed to be used by Dec 31st or they'd be lost. I'd send two more reminders in early and mid Dec.

*Where I currently work, they only roll over 80 vacation hours each year. But because of Louisiana labor laws, they have to pay people out for any vacation time that isn't being rolled over. They do NOT like to pay out vacation time. Both human resources and an employee's manager will start becoming increasingly insistent that vacation time be taken as the deadline gets closer.

short+sassy · August 1

@levioosa, I'm sure you've seen the same headlines, but it's a bad time to be selling. With that said, real estate is local so that is not necessarily true everywhere. I'm frustrated also since I want to move to Cincy, but don't want to sell my properties at the bottom of the market. And real estate prices here have already been losing value over the last few years because of the insanely high property insurance. I assume CA is facing some of the same issues because of fire hazard.

I wish I had a crystal ball I could use for both of us! I'm really sympathetic to you and your H. Neighborhood is a big part of value and can also limit the pool of buyers interested. But there usually isn't much an individual homeowner can do about improving it.

I've heard CA has become pretty carte blanche about ADUs because of the housing crisis. But this is where it becomes maddening. Overall, the country has spent decades being TOO restrictive about multi-families and ADUs, ie NIMBY. But being too lenient, especially when it's relatively sudden, can cause huge issues also. "You can fit 4 tiny homes in your backyard? Do it! Permits approved." And now it's easier to find a parking spot in Downtown L.A. than it is on someone's own residential street. Not to mention longer term problems like stressed infrastructure and expanding classroom sizes, because population shifts happened too quickly.

There needs to be more balance and moderation in many laws/policies and not just for real estate. But I'll get off my soapbox now.

I'm sorry you all have become unhappy there. I hope something changes for the better.

levioosa · August 1

@short+sassy we don't necessarily want to sell, we want to keep it as a rental if possible because probably having some property is the only way we'll have some financial freedom here. But things have gotten so incredibly expensive. Like, just 7 years ago, the next step "up" for us would have been a home in the $600-750K range (we're talking CA prices over here). Expensive, but do-able. Now? Those same homes are anywhere from 1.2-1.7 MILLION depending on the area. Our home has nearly doubled in value (and it doesn't deserve its price tag). And we still overpaid when we originally bought it. The flipper made an obscene profit off of it. It's nuts. And I agree about the infrastructure. We are not set up to have this many people without increased support.

ILoveBeachMusic · August 1

@short+sassy, yes it does vary a lot on location. DS2 bought a house in Centerville, Ohio. It is a suburb of Dayton and a little over an hour north of Cincy. The market is hot there! He had to move quickly just to put in offers. He closed in March. Now a almost identical house down the street from him is listed at about $15K more than what he paid. I'm sure it won't remain on the market long. He was in the $225K-$300K market - I know that also matters for demand.

We took the boys to the zoo this morning. We forgot ComiCon (don't know if I'm spelling that correctly) is in town. The zoo was full so plan B was the Children's Museum. It was fun and the weather was great(75*) - there is a HUGE interactive sports complex at the museum that boys just love. We are home now and totally exhausted. H is fixing dinner and the boys are chilling out in front of the TV for a couple of shows. My back and hip are yelling at me for all the walking we did. We will hit up the zoo early next week.

Tomorrow is the farmer's market and setting up for communion (the boys love to help) then a relaxing day at the house. They want to do "yardwork" lol. H told them money earned will be based on volume of work done. We shall see how that turns out. Sunday is church, cleaning up after church then we may do pony rides in the park and/or some tennis at the park courts. All the boys are taking lessons but really only one of the twins is catching on. The other two just want to hit the ball as hard as they can.

Hope everyone has a great weekend!

MyNameIsNot · August 1

ILoveBeachMusic said:

@short+sassy, yes it does vary a lot on location. DS2 bought a house in Centerville, Ohio. It is a suburb of Dayton and a little over an hour north of Cincy. The market is hot there! He had to move quickly just to put in offers. He closed in March. Now a almost identical house down the street from him is listed at about $15K more than what he paid. I'm sure it won't remain on the market long. He was in the $225K-$300K market - I know that also matters for demand.

Small world! My BIL lives in Centerville. We were just up there in May for niece's graduation.

I'm thrilled that it's Friday and we have a really low key weekend. I'm just wrapping up work and getting ready to log off. I've got to do a couple of chores, but mostly we'll just be lounging tonight. Tomorrow we'll get in an early run before the rain starts, and then not much. I was planning to set up my tent and air out all my backpacking stuff, but with expecting it to storm all weekend, I probably won't. Maybe a movie tomorrow night. Sunday the only thing we have is dinner with my parents. It should be a relaxing weekend.

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