Angst Deferred

It snowed this morning. Melted once it hit the ground, but still. Snow flakes are discouraging to see on April 19th.

It makes me feel hardhearted not to join my friends in being sad that soon I won't be living here, and it's not that there aren't people (and things) that I will absolutely, definitely miss. It's just that right now, I'm so overwhelmed already with all the everything, and I can't add anything else in. It's like my brain is protecting me, by letting me not focus on this. I know that I will feel it when I'm in Florida, but right now? The decision is made, and it's the right one. Yeah, sorry, I'll miss you too, now hand me that packing tape, would you?

Condo-sale news: The latest thing I'm waiting for is the mortgage lender to come and do the inspection/appraisal thing, in order to decide if they want to give the buyer the money that they want to borrow. I had been hoping it would have happened already, but it hasn't, and now it seems it may happen* when I'm in NY for Grandma's birthday over this weekend.
*And now that I think about it, they had damn well better do it and get it done before Monday night.

Which means my mother and I have to leave the condo in perfect shape before we go, and that's annoying, but I am hoping (very, very hard) that this will be the last of it. Now that the countdown to closing-and-moving is counted in weeks, I need to start packing and getting rid of stuff, and that means making a mess. I'm tired of tidying up everything all the time.

So tonight, I will be packing and tidying and watching the Bruins. And then, well, take it as it comes.

A Mom Story

My mother is here! And she told a funny story that really says a lot about her.

She was at a dinner last week, a fish fry with other people in her building, where everyone was mixing and chatting about various things, and in one conversation, the topic of assassinations came up. As it does, you may say, but probably it was because of the recent anniversary of MLK Jr.'s death. Anyway, someone said John F. Kennedy, and then someone said Marilyn Monroe, and my mother immediately said, "No, no, Marilyn wasn't assassinated. I was having dinner with Sammy Davis Jr. when his wife called to tell him that Marilyn had overdosed."

And, being my mother, she was very matter-of-fact about it, and was surprised when the person she was talking to was faintly stunned.

So, if you want to know where my mother was, or for that matter where Sammy Davis Jr was, on Sunday night, August 5, 1962, it was in the dining room at the Hilton in Port of Spain, Trinidad. He had played a show earlier that day, and my mother (who worked at the embassy) was in charge of driving him around.

Cowl Details

I was asked about the details of the cowl I just made, and it's actually pretty easy to answer, which suits my attention span these days perfectly, so here we go.

After I bought the yarn, I did a search on Ravelry for patterns that might suit both the type and amount I had, and one of the ones I flagged was a pattern called the French Cowl. It's a free pattern, and it's very straightforward, being a two-row repeat. I did make a few modifications, though.

First, the pattern calls for most of the stitches to be purls, and I just wasn't in the mood, so I knit them instead. The way it comes out when knit, the "wrong" side looks very much like the right side would if purling. I like both sides equally, so it works for me.

I cast on 100 stitches on a 16-inch circular needle, size 8 US, and then did this:

1. K3, YO, slip-one-knit-one-pass slipped stitch over, repeat all the way around.
2. K3, K2tog, YO,  repeat all the way around.

The pattern calls for increasing at a certain point and knitting an at the wider width, but I liked the size/width as it was (at one point I put it on waste yarn so I could test how well it went over my head and fit), so I just did the same size all the way.

When I was almost out of yarn, I started to bind off, and at first I was doing a stretchy bind off, but I was also running out of yarn too fast, so I took a look at what I was getting, and decided that it was way stretchier than I need it to be. So I tinked back and just bound off regular, and ended up with a good match to the size/stretch of the cast-on, and just a wee bit of yarn left over.

Perfect.

Five Months

It's been five months since Carlos died. It feels like forever, and it feels like a minute ago. Isn't time funky that way?

I miss him terribly, and frequently. I wonder sometimes how different it would have been, if he had died when I wasn't getting ready for this move. I always called him my therapy cat, and I would have missed him awfully any time, of course, but lately, I have really needed him, and, well. There he isn't.

It's such a huge 10-pound hole where he used to be.

Once I'm settled in Florida, I'll start thinking about and looking around for another cat. Not to replace him, any more than he replaced Pan or Harold, but to succeed him. He left some big paws to follow in.

One Out of Three

Q. Any more certainty about the condo-selling process and timeline?
A. No. I hope/expect to learn more tomorrow, but not yet.

Q. Has lovely, spring weather arrived for the middle of April*?
A. No. Today it's 34 degrees, and there have been snow flurries.
*Freudian slip: at first, I typed March. It feels like March.

Q. Are the Bruins doing well as the playoffs begin?
A. Oh, hell yeah!

At least one thing is going beautifully!

And honestly, it's not that the condo-selling is going badly; it's going quite well, compared to how it could have gone, as I am well aware. It's still a huge amount of stress, though, and still not-inconsiderable levels of uncertainty, and, well. I told a friend at lunch today, "I thought I was tired, stressed, and short-tempered before." She assured me that I'm doing well, and sometimes I believe it, but other times, well. Even your best friend doesn't always see the full picture.

But last night was game two of the Bruins series against Toronto, and the Bruins won game one so decisively that there was considerable discussion about what Toronto needed to do to be better. Whatever they tried, it didn't work, and it was a very enjoyable game for a Bruins fan to watch.

I also got a lot of knitting done. I went from this, before the game started:

To this, at the end of the game.

I need to make sure I have enough knitting with me for getting through the trip to Grandma's next weekend, but I should be okay, I think, since this is the first of the two socks. As backup, I can bring the skein I bought yesterday, when I dropped in to an LYS that was having a spring sale.

They got my attention by offering 25% off anything with cashmere, and since my favorite socks to wear are the ones that have a little cashmere in them, and thus they wear out the fastest, I couldn't resist this:

Most of the colors they had in stock were more solid, but I liked the tones in this one.

And it's so soft. Soft pretty yarn, Bruins playing well, deep breaths ... I'll get through this.

Knitting? That Sounds Vaguely Familiar

I wouldn't blame anyone reading here recently for being a little tired of the continuous moving/condo-selling angst that has been filling the space, as it has largely filled my mind. Of course, that doesn't mean I'm not going to keep blogging about the same thing for the next month or two! My blog, my rules, after all. But I think it would be good for me, as well as possibly more interesting for you, if I mix some other things in. Like about the Bruins, who by the way did not disappoint last night, or about knitting. Because yes, I do still knit! A little, anyway.

For instance, the cowl I started in March with that amazing angora...I finished it last Thursday, April 5th, and started wearing it immediately. The soft-and-fuzzy was (is) very comforting in times of stress. Well, chilly times of stress, anyway. Which these are; today was decent, it might have been 60, but that's the highest point recently or upcoming. It even snowed last Friday. But anyway.

Anyway, the cowl got washed last night. Here it is before:

Slightly wrinkled up from wearing, but look at the halo on that. (It does shed a little, but it's worth it to me.)

And the reverse side. I like the look of both.

Washed, water toweled out, laid on a towel and shaped slightly.

And no, the wash didn't diminish the halo at all. It's still the fluffiest thing ever.

Any non-knitters who want one of these, if you pay for the yarn, I'll knit it! (They have an etsy shop, with a section for Angora Handspun & Fiber that I hope will be updated often.) My cowl took almost every bit of my skein, which was 2.3 ounces/158 yards, but the skeins I saw varied tremendously in size, so that's something to be aware of. It was lovely to work with.

In other knitting news, I was working away on the sock I mentioned last month, but do you see where I mentioned that the yarn was a bit prone to splitting? Cue the ominous foreshadowing music. It was actually difficult not to split stitches, and after talking it over with a knitting friend on Monday, I decided to put it aside for now. I need my knitting to be soothing, not even slightly annoying, right now. Even though I got all the way to here:

Instead, I started this one:

Using the other yarn I got at Webs in February.

It's being much less trouble, and that will do for now. I might even pull it out tonight, as I turn on NHL Live before the non-Bruins hockey game, to hear what they have to say about the Bruins last night.

Meanwhile

The Bruins start their playoff series against Toronto tonight, which perhaps may help take my mind off Things. I was quite incensed this morning when I saw the game would be on NBCSN, since the first round is usually on NESN and I'm not ready to say goodbye to my team of homer announcers, but it turns out it's on both networks tonight: the TV grid in the Globe showed the Red Sox game being on NESN, but in fact that has been bumped to NESN-plus so the Bruins can have the main network.

Which is as it should be. It's the playoffs. I don't care if the Red Sox are playing the Yankees, their season just started. I don't gripe in October if the Bruins get pushed to NESN-plus, and this is the same thing in reverse.

There hasn't been any further condo news today. I asked the realtor yesterday if I can start leaving boxes about the place, or if I have to keep it pristine until the lender's assessment is done, and she said that I can have boxes, but please don't "mess up" the condo until the lender has been through*, which should be in the next week or so. When that is scheduled, I will ask her if it needs to be showing-clean, or if it can be neat and tidy, but with trash cans and tissue boxes not hidden away; obviously, I am hoping for the latter, but I'll do what needs to be done.
*She told me previously that she has to sell the place twice, first to the buyer and then to their lender, so I knew it was important.

I spoke to movers yesterday, and while I haven't gotten the estimate by email yet, she said that they charge based on actual weight, and it works out to more or less a dollar a pound. So that's good information to have; I need to start going through my kitchen things, and that will be a factor in what I keep and what I don't.

Although I packed a box of books yesterday, I am going to try to keep my focus on the kitchen next, since it's full of so many awkward things to pack. In the past, one of the ways I have gone wrong when moving is to do the easier things first (like books), and leave the kitchen until later, without giving myself enough time. This move, I absolutely have to be ready, as close to 100% as possible, when the movers come. And if you think that goes without saying, well, it hasn't worked out for me that way before. Mostly ready, yes; completely ready, no.

All right, this is turning into "thoughts that induce migraines, or panic attacks," so I will stop that for now. One little step at a time. And go Bruins!

Signed

I have accepted an offer on the condo.

Doing so was terrifying. Not the accepting it part, really, so much as deciding which one to accept. I know, I know, it's a good problem to have, but still, eep. Where is the grownup who should be handling such big decisions?

Who, me? Nah.

That can't be right.

Man, I really need a cat to cuddle right now. Fuzz therapy.

My blood pressure must be through the roof today. I keep breathing deeply and trying to relax, but it just isn't doing much.

Breath In, Breathe Out. Repeat.

If you were to ask me how I'm doing right now, I would tell you a little story. It's from when I was a kid, maybe 6 or 7, and I went to a week-long camp, maybe a Girl Scout camp. By week-long, I mean it was Monday morning to Friday afternoon, and my best friend was there, and I had a good time.

Until Friday morning. When I started crying. And when they asked what was wrong, all I could say was that I wanted to go home. They reminded me that I was going home that afternoon, but it wasn't enough. I had had all I could, I was done, and all I wanted was to go home.

I made it to the afternoon, of course, and it isn't like I think about that experience a lot, but it came to mind on Monday, because I am really at the end of my rope, emotionally speaking. Nothing has gone wrong, nothing has been terrible, it's all proceeding as it should (and in a sellers' market, that means it's going well), but I just suddenly can't take it any more.

And I guess I can take it, technically; it's just gotten harder. The realtor called Monday afternoon and said that a potential buyer wanted to come in Tuesday morning to do a pre-offer inspection. I asked her to explain, and she said that if they made an offer, and if it's the offer we accepted, they will waive the inspection contingency as part of the process. And I guess that's a good thing?

It did show they're serious, anyway, as why else would you pay for an inspection before you even make an offer or know if it has been accepted? I honestly don't know why they wanted an inspection so much that they're willing to pay for it on spec now, but maybe it's supposed to give their offer an edge. I don't pretend to understand the nuances of these things.

I didn't actually object to the inspection at all, except that it meant I had to put everything away, again, and that was ... dispiriting. But I did it, and took the work computer to Starbucks, and got myself a brownie as some consolation. (It was decent, but not as good as the Ghirardelli double chocolate mix, honestly.)

I could have stayed with my friends longer, and avoided this, but part of good self-care is knowing what you need, right? And by Sunday night, I simply needed to be home again. It was better for me to have two nights and a day at home, and then clean up again. I'm just such a creature of habit and routine, as you may perhaps have picked up on if you've been reading here long.

Annnnnnyway. You may recall that the offers were due in today, and I am pleased to say that there were a few (and in fact, most of them waived the home inspection). Now I'm working with the realtor to go over them, since of course (of course) it's not perfectly straightforward which one is best. (The only down side: no cash offers. That would have simplified things dramatically.) Like so many things in life, I think it's going to come down to picking one, not at random, but in hopes that it will work out, more than in a clear case of this one is obviously best and will work out perfectly.

I also talked to an attorney today about handling that part for me. He said that it's his preference not to have the seller come to the closing, and I was quick to tell him that I am FINE with that. The less I have to do (and pretend to understand, etc.), the better.

It's all going so well, and yet it can't be over soon enough. I think it's time to get ready for bed. After maybe some chocolate.

Home Again

I'm back home after the four days of showings (about 10) and open houses.(2), and so far there is one offer in, and the realtor expects more by Tuesday. Apparently two people/groups came today for second viewings, which certainly sounds promising, doesn't it?

Everything went fine at my friends' house, and really it was a nice weekend, but it's a long time to be out of my routines, and stressing about everything, and I'm a zombie tonight. I'm going to zone out in front of the Bruins game. Last game of the regular season! They start in their playoffs on Thursday. Go, Bruins!

Getting Ready to Bug Out

Well, the Bruins lost decisively last night, which is a shame, but my head was moderately bad and I didn't stay up for the whole thing anyway. This year, when they were clearly going to be in the playoffs a month or two ago, and they've already been officially in the playoffs for a while, at least I don't have to worry about whether they'll make it at all. They have three more games, and while I don't want them to lose all three, it wouldn't be the end of the season if they did.

And I believe that they did get out of that game without losing anyone else to injury, at least, which sadly is saying something versus the last month-plus.

I'm getting ready to bug out in the morning, so that condo showings may commence. There are already three scheduled, and that isn't counting the one I got notified about first thing this morning, for tonight. Ah, no no no, starting Thursday, please! Being out of the house for half an hour this evening would not have been a problem--in fact, I was out--but I was not clearing everything up for a showing, then undoing it, and then redoing it in the morning. Thursday.

After the last week or two of being pretty much ready, and with not so much I could do around the house, it's been kind of a nice change to have a list of don't-forget-to-pack things to organize. Even if I don't love leaving home, I love my lists and planning. I'm off to finish all I can tonight, leaving as little as possible for tomorrow. Which bag do I want that in, and don't forget the other thing, and what about...?

A Quiet Day

While things continue to move forward, today has been mostly a quiet day. I have a bit of a headache, it's kind of rainy, work was quiet, all of that.

But! I did get to see the photos of the condo, and they are freakishly impressive. They actually look to me almost like they are computer-generated, or a very realistic artist's rendering, except that that's my stuff in there.

For instance, you may remember my photos of the kitchen area from when I was talking about the table-switch stuff. Here's a screen shot of what he did with that.

Impressive, right? And you can hardly tell it's snowing outside.

Then there's the listing. The realtor sent me a draft this afternoon and asked for any edits. I tried to resist the siren call of "there should be a space after that comma" in order to focus on the factual info (such as that she had last year's tax assessment amount, but I've gotten the 2018 one), though I did point out that the description shouldn't start, "If you have searching for..." Picky, picky, picky. Anyway, the listing is now up, and offers are due in by next Tuesday, so expect me to continue to be a bit of a basket case until then (and, let's be honest, probably after that as well).

Meanwhile, the Bruins, who are in first place in the Eastern Conference, play Tampa, the second-place team, in Tampa tonight. The Bruins have won all their games against Tampa so far this season, and I would like them to continue that tonight. The regular season ends on Sunday, and the playoffs start next week. Whee!

Another Step Checked Off

The morning (really, less than an hour) with the realtor and photographer went fine, as I figured it would, even though my subconscious was not so sure, giving me partial insomnia and some truly bizarre dreams last night as well. And nerves while waiting this morning! Including about the fact that it was snowing, no, seriously, it snowed this morning, just what I needed to worry about. So much for a sunny day for the photos.

But the realtor looked around, complimenting what I'd done, and finally said, wow, I really listened to her, didn't I? And I laughed and said, "I'm a rule-follower, I wanted to get a good grade!" She said I get an A+.

One of the few things she did that I hadn't done was to hide the roll of toilet paper. (I mean, I understand hiding trash cans and laundry baskets, but ... toilet paper?) I will never understand why, but I'm not asking. She's the expert here.

The photographs should be ready tomorrow, which I can't wait to see, and the listing will go up tomorrow afternoon or Wednesday morning. The sign is already up, and the lockbox is on the door. I'll tidy up again Wednesday night and Thursday morning, and pack my bags to go stay with friends until Sunday night. That way, she can have as many showings as she wants, and the open houses, and I don't have to keep putting things away and taking them out and putting them away again.

Hopefully by this time next week, things will be at least close to settled.

Meanwhile, I'm exhausted, and can't even think about next steps. I'm getting ready for bed.

Ahh, Bruins Game

Today was my Bruins game experience, and it did not disappoint. My friend and I took the T into Boston, and I had to snag a picture of this guy on the way.

Who knew there was a Bruins cowboy hat?

This is the no-zoom view from our seats. We had no seats directly in front of ours, and only a slight visual obstruction, or more of a distortion, due to the plexi barrier at the lower right there. It wasn't that annoying to see through, just something to notice.

During warm-ups, some of the guys get themselves into odd positions.

Off to our left, the bright lights of the broadcast booth before the game started.

A car on the ice? Yes, the presentation of the 7th Player Award. Congratulations to Charlie McAvoy, who sadly had to accept in a suit, since he's still out with an injury. Should be back soon!

In the starting lineup, Patrice Bergeron!

For the anthem before the game, there's always a Kid Captain who comes out to stand with the Bruins, and this time, it was a sled hockey player, so that was pretty cool.

I mean, why not, right?

The Panthers scored first, which was a slight letdown, but as I said to my friend, at least this year, you don't start to feel that oh-no sense when they let in the first one. And soon enough, they were celebrating their own goal, by Nick Holden:

And another, from Jake DeBrusk, in his return from injury:

In the second, Ryan Donato smoked one in:

My boy Bergeron got a beauty on the power play

And finally, DeBrusk got another: 

That was it for the scoring, though play did get stopped at one point on a suspected Panthers goal. Our seats were just about on the goal line, and we had had a very clear view of the puck taking a wild bounce across the net-front, off the post, and out, but I was certain it hadn't crossed the goal line, and after review, they agreed with me. Of course.

There were a couple of fights, and unfortunately a couple of injuries as well: Riley Nash took a puck to the head that seemed to injure his ear area, and Brandon Carlo went down awkwardly and hurt his leg. He had to be stretchered off, but he did hop onto the stretcher on his own, so hopefully that's a good sign.

Perhaps the bunny in the stands will send him good luck, this Easter weekend.

After the game, we went to the Pro Shop to fight the crowds and look over the merchandise, but I actually didn't find anything I couldn't live without. I did like one jacket they had, but the largest size in stock was a medium, so oh well. My friend bought me a pair of Bruins socks, which will be a nice reminder. I saw a guy on the concourse wearing one of those Life Is Good t-shirts, in a nice Bruins gold, that had a little flying hockey player and the Bruins logo, so maybe I'll be able to track one of those down online. He was wrangling a couple of little kids, so I didn't get a chance to ask him if it was a recent purchase.

I didn't buy this, either, but I took its picture.

Heading Into the Weekend

The other day, I saw a couple of references to the upcoming "long weekend" and was kind of annoyed. Do that many people get Easter Monday off? I don't think I ever have. Maybe when I was in Catholic school, so 1982.

But then I remembered that I'm taking Monday off for the condo photography, so in a way, I do get a long weekend. Hmm. Not exactly the same, but nice.

It's not that it will take all day, by the way. The photographer is coming at 10, and the realtor said she will be here around 9:45, I assume to look around and see if there's anything to change before it starts. I don't know how long it will take, but I would guess less than an hour. I just decided to take the full day so I didn't have to worry about it. If there's a delay, if the realtor wants me to do something after, whatever. Just take the day. Hopefully the rest of the day will be peaceful, and I can do some relaxing.

And hopefully I will get a nice, solid, peaceful night's sleep tonight to carry me into TOMORROW'S BRUINS GAME ADVENTURE! The game last night was great, and I would like to see some of that on Saturday, please and thank you.

I will report back.

Stretched, If Not Snapped

Lately, I often feel like this rubber band:

Even more than the stretch itself, I feel like other hands are frequently reaching in and pulling the rubber band in other directions, and if it doesn't outright snap, it twangs painfully.

I don't know, it wasn't a particularly bad day, but for some reason it has exhausted me. I'm puttering about, gathering things for one last trip to Savers before show week starts, as well as throwing some things out, but I doubt it will be long before I am on the couch for the evening. The Bruins make a good excuse.

What's for dinner?

Can. Not. Deal.

Something has been bugging me lately that I had decided could wait to be resolved until after the move, not just to avoid dealing with it, but because my desk setup there will be slightly different and that may affect the solution, but today it is officially Bugging the Shit Out of Me, so I may need to try to fix it sooner.

This is the crucial issue of a laptop stand.

Yes. I know. How annoying could that be, right?

Well. Let me tell you.

I've had this computer for a couple of years now, and although most things about the change from desktop to laptop are good, I don't like the angle of typing on it flat, and the way I have to bend my head down to see the screen at the same time. If I raise the entire machine up, then the screen is at a better height, but the keyboard is all wrong. I don't really want to use a separate screen, or a separate keyboard, all the time: I like the flexibility.

So a couple of years ago, I got a small, riser kind of stand, this one. Small, portable, allows for airflow under the machine. Good.

If you didn't click the link, it looks like this:

But because it folds down to this:

It is very easy for it to get just slightly out of whack, like this:

And the laptop goes off one corner and is crooked and drives me crazy. I guess since I did all the desk switching around a few months ago, I find myself sliding the laptop back and forth more often, and to get this to move, I can't just push it over, I have to lift it from both sides, carefully, and be lucky. (I don't actually mind the two hands part, but the "two hands and then it still doesn't frequently work right" part has been getting on my last nerve.)

So, back in February, I looked for something that would be similar, but not have the same kind of movable parts. I found this one, and put the old one under my work laptop, which mostly stays in one place, but benefited from the angle.

The new one looks like this:

It stands at a higher angle, but I adjusted to that. The problem was these little non-slip pads on the bottom.

They really, really don't want to let it be slid back and forth. In fact, they started to shift around, causing different but equally annoying problems in moving the stupid laptop. They annoyed me enough that the other day I switched the two stands, but today, the way the first one has of falling off one corner just drove me nuts enough to go back to using it without a stand, even with the physical discomforts that causes.

So, I need to look into a different one. If anyone has any tips, pro or con anything specific, I would be ever so grateful.

3,100

(Blogger tells me this is published post number 3,100. How about that, eh?)

The cleaners came today, and I lived through the experience. It was odd to have them here, and having sometimes-unidentifiable noises coming from the other room, etcetera. Also, my brain just wouldn't stop trying to understand their conversation, which was not happening, since it was in Portuguese. But the place is certainly much cleaner than it was; well worth the money, to me. Now I need to not mess it up too much before Monday, when the photographer comes.

Have I mentioned that he's coming Monday? Only a thousand times? It's hard to think of much else but this. However, I am trying hard to think instead about the Bruins game that I'm going to on Saturday, instead. Mixed results, but I will keep trying. It will be fun! If I can focus on it. That will be easier once I'm there, I'm sure.

Meanwhile, the Bruins are in Winnipeg tonight, so the game didn't start until 8 Eastern. As the second period starts, my eyes are already drooping. It's been exciting so far, dubious goal call to Winnipeg's benefit to the contrary notwithstanding, and I'd like to watch all of it, but ... sleep may win.

I'll Make It Quick

So, the house cleaners were supposed to come Wednesday, but oops, have to come Tuesday instead (sigh ... don't be changing things on me now), so I need to work on the tidying-things-away tonight before I fall into bed.

So just a few quick things:

• I went to the movies with friends last night and saw A Wrinkle in Time. Verdict: we liked it but didn't adore it, but felt they did very well with the story, considering, and the lead did an amazing job as Meg. If you wanted to see it, you'll probably like it, but I don't think it's an everyone-has-to-see-it movie.
• My neighbor knocked on my door midday and said, "Sorry to bother you, but ... do you have water?" And I checked my faucet and no, no water coming out, surprise! I had seen that there were a few cones at the corner blocking one street, so I walked down the block and asked the guys digging the extremely large hole in the road if there might be a connection, and they said yes, and they had put out notices last week. This building and its doors ... I will not miss that, not one bit.
• On the other hand, I had done a couple of loads of laundry before the water went off, and although I'd been thinking of running the dishwasher, had not turned it on, so it could have been much worse. And in fact, it was worse for my neighbor, who said she had wanted to shower before work. Ugh, poor thing.
• Why is that, when you go to turn the faucet to see if the water is back on, and you know that if it is it will be loud and sputtery, when it sputters loudly, you jump? That isn't just me, right?

Almost There ... Almost

It's been an oddly tough weekend. Partly, it hasn't been helped by being physically sore from all I've been doing recently, and tired (and not sleeping as late as I hoped to). Still, I've really done very little this weekend, in the way of physical exertion, but I am dragging, big-time.

But I guess it's mostly been emotionally tough. I'm just so on edge, so stressed by the whole situation, that I lose it over the least little thing.

• Like the fact that it's cold with a nasty wind and there were snow flurries today.
• Or the printer decided it was out of ink since one black cartridge was empty, even though the other black cartridge wasn't.

However!

Deep breath.

This week is the last week of pre-sale prep. Cleaners are coming in on Wednesday to spiff the place up. I will be putting away the last little "what do I do with this" things, getting ready for show week.

Saturday I'm going to the Bruins game!

Sunday is Easter, and I'm going to a family dinner with friends.

And a week from tomorrow, the photographer will come in, and show week will start, which will be the beginning of the end of this phase.

And then the actually-getting-ready-to-move phase starts, god help me. But something like two months from now, it will be over, I will be in Florida, and I can start the much more pleasant Recovery Phase. So looking forward to that.