Warhead On Legs

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EVERYBODY'S running late today. Yay. Wait, no, that other thing.

So, lyrics composing! I haven't done that in a while. I'm not terrified at all, particularly since this is kind of sort of maybe (okay, almost entirely) my fault and apparently the fate of the world rides on this. Pressurepressurepressurepressure /RDJ. Why no, I'm not panicking. Why would you think that. Shut up. Go 'way.

(Long story. Lots of pictures.)

Still need to check in and untangle the snarl that is my brain on semi-imminent book publishing. The "what is this how my life" moments have been coming thick and fast, and there's a huge amount of fiddly details that I need to do even apart from the line edits, which argh. Just in general, argh. My head's exploding as much from realizing all the little things I should be doing as from realizing that this could actually be a thing. And mostly, in short, writing and publishing? I'm actually doing it? The fuck? Five or six months worth of writing and putting it out there and having people read it, things which aren't fanfic, versus twenty years plus of writing original fiction and keeping it close or hidden, or only having a few people read it. And. It's a thing, okay?

Right, back to day job work, though. When I'm done with that stuff I can sit down and try to make sense of my scrambled egg brains. And at some point today I call Mom and freak out at her. And at some point tonight/tomorrow morning I crawl online and freak out some more at people oh who am I kidding. My online presence these days is one long slow-burning status of freakout.

( Gaeilge )

Okay, this morning's statement of intent before I forget it: finish up the paragraph of PoI that I was in the middle of last night before awakeness left me. Add to/finish up the Arcana, code, post. Check-in, because I haven't managed to do that yet. And then line edits on that and maybe if I'm clever I can take some of my worksheets to work and figure out how to code either both of those. Although dear god I do need to. And probably take my netbook to work, come to that.

Game this weekend. Yaaay. I need to figure out what if anything I'm cooking for it. I wouldn't mind making another bigger shepherd's pie, mostly because dammit I want some more of that for myself. And I wouldn't mind skyline chili because I never mind skyline. But then I also have to clean the house, and, blaaagh. On the plus side, that is clean the house rather than unpack the damn house. And do some more putting stuff away in the craft room, but that's a whole other thing. Cleaning is so much more preferable to unpacking, especially since we're managing mostly to keep it clean. Though there are a couple boxes that need unpacked (the knickknacks) or put back in the garage (books we need to get rid of yesterday). Because that's getting really, really annoying.

Things and stuff. Shorthand for, I still should have more things to blather about and I just don't. So I guess that makes it time to get my butt up off this couch and put some pants on if I want to keep fighting crime today.

This is actually way more fun than I expected. Despite morning routines still being skewered on account of ... well, mostly on account of not having my clothes unpacked so I pretty much have to get dressed for work right away, and it's hard to work out properly in my jeans. Though I suppose as soon as I'm done with this I'll do some, because it took me looking back at a nudge on my check-in post to remember that even some, yes, is better than none. If nothing else I can do push-ups and some stretches. And no, self, even if you do push-ups you're not going to push through the hardwood floor. Come on, you've lived with hardwood floors before, you're smarter than that.

(I have very weird twitches and tics while getting used to living here. Or maybe they're normal and no one ever talks about them so they just feel weird to me.)

And despite morning routines still being fucked I have memrise'd, I have watered plants and taken out some recycling and trash. I have fed, scooped, and watered cats. I have had breakfast, or such as I can cobble together with my half a kitchen at the moment. I have showered and pulled together clean clothes from the bizarre pile of boxes in which they are currently resting. How bizarre, you ask? I found an unopened container of vanilla extract in with my shirts and jeans. I have no idea why it was there.

I have turned off the hot water heater and the main gas line into the house so the boiler guy can hook up the last few radiators without difficulty. Contractor guy stopped in and was highly entertaining and surprised that we've moved in (DUDE. We told you. Several times. Don't be such a dingbat.) but was able to tell me at least that the electric county inspectors would be by today to check out our electric. If we're lucky, too, our bed will be delivered today and I won't have to throttle anyone. And then stove, maybe we can maneuver the fridge in today/tonight, but either way, we should actually start having a real grown-up house! Maybe tomorrow we can hit the hardware store and/or maybe this weekend we can look for furniture and I can have a real grown-up dresser. Craigslist is not working out for me so far, sad to say. But maybe if we just go with dresser and vanity table for now something will turn up! I hope I hope.

Meanwhile, for my remembering's sake, today I have to cancel cable at the old place and find out where to drop off the boxen, finish putting away the kitchen, and write all the Yuletide ever. I don't think I have anything else to do in terms of house logistical talking to people crap. I think. I hope, anyway. That shit is more tiring than being on the phone for five minutes has any right to be.

( Русский язык )

Not very much today, and I should go through the three notes I still have and fill those in, but it's progress! And it is getting easier. So fuck you, caterpillars. And in retrospect, translating the fairy tales is probably one of the best things for me to do ever, to practice this.

Slowly knocking down shit to do off my list. After a good night's sleep and a morning of exercise and talking it over with folks it is getting easier to think, okay, I still need to do these paperwork-y things. Today on the list, a couple of phone calls in the morning, one in the afternoon, and then that's it until evening when I might take the Aunt by the house, or end up just hanging out and talking plans for stuff with the boy. Which reminds me, I need to decide if all that pokeberry needs to go or only some of it, and keep the rest for dyes. Although it's pretty much a damn weed and all over the place. Maybe the one in the front that may or may not be on our functional property can stay and the rest of them can go. And then I need to talk to the aunt today about finding a hardware store to get copies of the keys made for her and Elf Lord.

See, Jag, how much of a difference a good night's sleep makes? And doing your exercises and so on. Probably it's doing the exercises, though my sleep schedule has been more erratic than it should be lately. Also sister courtesans helping my brainworms untangle. Stupid brainworms.

On the plus side, my weight is back down to what it was pre-Dragon*Con and pre-eating a bunch of crap food and then getting sick so I couldn't exercise. Bonus crappy points for it dropping down onto my lungs so I couldn't exercise for twice as long even though I felt fine otherwise. Stupid asthma. But then again I also only gained a couple of pounds from what I was pre-Dragon*Con, and that's still lower than I have been, so the downward creep continues. Definitely a creep, but the numbers are going the right way. And now that I've kicked myself into getting back in my exercise routine, hopefully the muscle mass will be going the right way too. Ugh. It's so damn hard to pick up the exercise habit again when things you could do previously feel like such a chore again.

Right. Let's start knocking shit off my to-do list. I've actually done a reasonable job so far, so let's see how I do over the next few hours. .... also, if anyone has an idea for a name for this house, offer it up? I keep drawing a blank. Other than Wayne Manor, because you know that road sign for the Bat Cave that floats around the internet? Yeah, I live near that.

( Русский язык )

I'm going to strangle my boyfriend, don't mind me.

But, yes. We've again reached a point where I'm pretty much sitting and waiting for things to come back, which I think is the final point of sitting and waiting for things to come back. And then when things come back we'll have a final close date and we can be done with this goddamn enterprise. I won't know what to do with myself when the house is finally bought. Well, no. I know what I'll have to do. Pack. But after we've moved in. I won't know what to do with myself.

Well, no, I know what I should be doing with myself. Getting back into routines. And, you know, it's funny. Now that it's finally getting to the point where this all might come out all right, I'm actually feeling a bit terrified of moving. And getting into the house. And not having something or not being able to do something or, well. Anything. I'm half expecting to start having those nightmares where I'm back in college but I don't have my class schedule or my ID card to get into the dorms or something. Logic, brain, the only things we don't have that we'll need to buy are the fridge, stove, washer, dryer. And that's easily enough taken care of. Everything else is manageable.

Except my brainspace, possibly. I need an aspirin and to sit my butt down and write. Especially since today seems to be a relatively quiet day. Oh. And at some point I need to refocus and come up with maybe a lesson plan that will gear me towards sufficient fluency to be able to test for translator positions in a couple years. Maybe just involving more stuff like I'm doing with Russian, but also constructing sentences... I don't know, and my brain is in too many pieces right now to figure it out.

( Gaeilge )

Lordy. I forgot how hard and tiring conjugating verbs can be. On the plus side, after this I can move on to the next grammar point. Which is more conjugating, but with different bits attached? Oof. And I need to reinforce my vocab of both Russian and Irish. Languages. So tiring. But so much FUN.

The feasibility study came back on the house as okay except for a couple details which need to be addressed in the bid, for which I want to strangle everyone ever. And my poor contractor is going to want to strangle everyone ever. And half of it is stupid shit I can do my own goddamn self. Fix the opening to the crawlspace? FINE. Give me a sheet of plywood cut to size at fucking Home Depot and a screwgun and some screws. THERE I FIXED IT FOR YOU. And vegetation that needs to be uprooted and moved or transplanted and and argh. I can do this shit myself fuck you. But of course now I'm not allowed to because rules. And the general contractor has to do it. Fuck your rules.

But, heh. Other than that the feasibility study was fine. The amount Renovations Lady estimates we'll need to close up the gap is less than the amount she wasn't seeing on account of it hadn't cleared in the boy's account yet (stocks and things), so that's still good, although I am going to kick my dumb ass to go ask for family help just to be safer. Worst that happens, I don't need the money, and I give it back. Or probably not, because they fuss, but maybe give some of it back. And yes, I realize I am incredibly lucky to be able to do this at all. My family is, in a word, awesome. So is the boy's, because we wouldn't be able to do this without them either.

So, long slog, hopefully almost over. Work as usual today, tonight I have DJing and Leverage saved up, and possibly I can manage to do everything that I need to do today. Somehow. Also, if this crush on Peter Dinklage gets any bigger it's going to have its own zip code. Just saying. It's rivaling the Sasha Roiz and Jeremy Renner droolpuddles.

Click the clickies!

( Gaeilge )

Right. That was a fairly productive weekend, some packing and picking up done, some window shopping for furniture for the house, some early voting and some going to see Avengers. Which was around as awesome as advertised, there was a lot of hype but it didn't disappoint overall. I did still kind of want to give Loki a hug. While in maximum security and ignoring everything he had to say (or chewing over it) but, give him a hug nonetheless. Tom Hiddleston you are not helping.

And now we go to the house and meet the plumber and see what there is to be seen, hope it's not that bad. And possibly take measurements for more planning of the insides of the house. Ugh, and after all that rain I'm almost afraid to see what the bathroom leak looks like, but we knew that needed fixed. I guess that'll be the second thing we tackle once we get into the house? Or maybe the first since evaluating and patching that won't take too long, whereas the heating might take longer to deal with.

I suppose I should have something to say about the Avengers film but, really, all I have to say is, it was fun and awesome and Joss does know how to do two things unquestionably well: write snappy dialogue and give an ensemble cast well-rounded treatment.

Besides, it's time to pack up and go meet the plumber anyway. Oh, and I have a question, when did I become tentative Twitterbuddies with fucking Jackie Earle Haley? The mind boggles. And squees, and jumps for joy, and so on.

( Русский язык )

( Deutsch )

Oh, hey, guess who forgot to post this morning.

So, I got my first Echoes of our Conversations book today. It's a book containing mostly old interviews that were never printed or aired with the cast and crew? of Babylon 5. I picked up this first one because it had an interview with Andreas Katsulas, rest him, who went beyond the Rim several years ago now. And I loved his character, I loved the actor, and I actually rather regret not getting a chance to meet him at the one con I was at that he was too. I don't often say that about actors, but he was one cool cat. So, I picked it up. It was on sale and it wasn't that much and, dammit. Interview. Now that I think about it, though, I might actually pick up all the rest of them. Babylon 5 was an amazing series for its day, and periodically I go back and revisit it, and it still wears well over time. I still love it and all its folk, characters and actors alike. Except that psychic we don't talk about.

Copies of things have been obtained for Law Firm for dropping off tomorrow, things progressing about as planned. At this point it seems also like it's progressing so fast that I won't make a victory post until it's done and we have keys in hand. Maybe not. Who wants to see a victory post?

At some point I need to make a breakdown of initial costs as far as what we have to toss around goes. I've got down payment and closing cost monies, the boy has settling in monies, at least as far as I can tell. Closing costs seem to be mostly an estimate until the invoice is in front of you. Still, I should have that covered. The fun part is going to be figuring out the appliances, furniture, all that jazz. Mostly the appliances because I'm not sure what fits where, we didn't take measurements when we were inspecting. Like dopes. And I've already got ballpark figures on the repair costs for the most needed of repairs. I can't even begin to tell you how relieved I was when the plumber gave his estimate. Literally, I had been crying a little as I put away the dream house in my head under "would be nice but probably too expensive" and then all of a sudden it was handed back all "Nah, you're good." And boy has taken over heating logistics, which is the Big Project of the house. Or at least he better have or I will donkey punch him. (Not really. But I will be cross.)

Tonight is a night of all the silly movies and knitting. And relaxing. And not doing anything that requires brainpower. And possibly lots of sleep. Tomorrow there will be more work, because there's always more work. Always a boom tomorrow.

( Deutsch )

Well. Fuck.

I was hoping the inspection would clarify some things. and it did! It ruled out a number of potential problems. The electrical is fine, the foundation, the roof is in surprisingly good shape given all the doom and gloom of earlier. The leak in the bathroom is probably rain coming through a couple of loose shingles and is, as I suspected, more time damage than great gallons of water damage. The attic is apparently huge, despite access to it being a hole in the ceiling bordered by wood edging and covered by a piece of plywood, no pull-down ladder. One would have to be installed. But someone was doing electrical work up there recently and left a portable light plugged in, the inspector said. That amused me. The outlets are almost all grounded (and there are a LOT of them) and almost all work, there's a couple on the second floor and a couple on the first that are either not grounded or don't work at all. When they re-did the electric they did it pretty well even if they put the case on backwards. There's some older water damage and other kinds of damage to some of the exterior wood, nothing major, nothing that can't be a five years down the road problem. The paint on the outside is still peeling but that's a cosmetic problem.

The heating is fucked. A new heating system needs to be put in place. The ceilings on the first floor are high enough and the architecture simple enough (essentially boxes on top of boxes) that I don't think it would be a more-than-standard major proposition to put in forced-air, but until now it's been running on hot-water radiators, almost all of which are cracked, and the boiler done died. As far as my admittedly limited research shows, a forced-air system would be 10k for dropping in new duct work and everything.

The other problem is that we couldn't get the water on. The city water was on, we had one exterior tap with a hose hookup that dribbled out some water and the inspector could hear water rushing somewhere, but nothing came out of any of the taps. And we couldn't find any valves that hadn't been turned on. So then we turned the water off again so it didn't gush all over wherever it's hanging out. According to Folks (both relatives and the inspector, from what I remember) it could either be as simple as something that isn't turned all the way on that we haven't found yet or a cracked pipe close to the source/intake from city water that might be easy to fix. Or not. It's Schroedinger's problem.

And those are, by and large, the only two problems so far. I just got in the results of the radon test, that's fine, the inspector didn't make any other noises about things being dire, he took moisture readings everywhere there was water damage (there was another place that had water damage on the ground floor, but it was by a radiator and didn't leak in the rain so I didn't think it was a danger, and it didn't give off an abnormal moisture reading) and the normal walls were about, um. A 10? I don't know what the units of these things are. and then the leak in the bathroom was about a 31-33. I don't know what any of that means in abstract terms, but in relative terms I know that means the leak area isn't wildly out of step with the rest of the house. Pretty sure, anyway.

My plans for tomorrow are to dig in to forced air heating systems and educate myself there, and collect phone numbers and maybe call around for very rough estimates on forced air heating system installation and plumber opinions and whether or not they can come out and poke the pipes and try and find out what the hell is going on in there. Also talking to Realty Lady first to see if they can do that. That really annoys me. Not knowing what the hell is going on annoys me in general, in this situation it bugs the everliving fuck out of me. So. Those are the plans. These plans are, of course, subject to change depending on what the boy and I discuss tonight.

Heh. I am kind of glad and grateful that I have family support, now that they've been reassured that I'm not chasing after this wholeheartedly even with the attendant problems. I almost chewed on people today, 'cause of oi, with the I don't know if you can handle it. Yes, I can fucking well handle it! I can handle it by doing some research, calling around, and getting more information before I make a really big decision, that's how I can handle it. Yes, I'm in love with the house. No, I'm not going to run and buy it if something's terribly fucked. The boy won't let me, first of all, and second of all I'm not that stupid. I'll be sad. But I'm not dumb. Argh. Still not five years old, people.

Really, really tired though, which is no doubt contributing to the cranky. So. Horsies forever, or at least for a little while, and then writing. Because even if I can't do anything just yet about Old Hotness the Alleged House, I can do something about my deadlines.

( Gaeilge )


( Русский язык )

Right. Slight reset on routines and hopefully that's reboot me Today, among the writing I need to do I need to dig into homeowner's insurance and real estate lawyers. And I find out if I have to step on the necks of some bank employees about the whole boiler thing, or, well, get my Realty Lady to do it for me.

There's apparently going to be some carpet splicing going on in the apartment on Friday, which means we need to pick up around here. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this, but supposedly it'll be quick and clean. For a relative value of quick and clean, I can't see any way in which splicing one piece of carpet next to another would look at all good, and for another I question what exactly they're going to do. They haven't been terribly specific. God I can't wait till this is all something we schedule. As much as maintenance is anything that's under our control for scheduling when it involves bringing people in.

I'm watching Human Target again. And shipping the hell out of Guerrero/Ames and I totally blame oldandnewfirm for this. It is kind of fun, though. There might have to be tumblr later.

... Yeah, other than that I got no news. Been really tired the past couple of days, not entirely sure why, but given that most of the people around me have had some form of virus or another I'm going to go with fighting off an illness. Still. Reset, back to routines, let's try this again.