Transplanting a Seattleite

Duo often has funny alternative options when giving three possible responses to something. They raise questions in my mind!

Like: the correct answer is NOT the fairies are athletic. But do fairies play sports? What sports?
Or, the cave does NOT have a donjon (which sounds like dungeon but is apparently instead a castle tower). I think a cave COULD have a tower tho? For suitable definitions of tower. Chimney, for sure.

In Seattle today, it is foggy, and difficult to see the difference between the water and the sky. I love it so much.

Today in decluttering: someone came to pick up two ornaments that are from Wizarding World UO, maybe around 2018 or thereabouts. They are little hangars with dresses on them, one for Hermione’s Yule Ball dress and one for Ginny’s. I wasn’t ever a True Fan, and as much as I do love a woman who makes an enormous amount of money giving people what they want, JKR made the entire IP much less fun for me. But these were still a little tough to give away, because they are super cool even without the IP connection, so cool I’d had them hanging on a nail on the wall in front of my computer in my office for years, even after JKR took all the fun out of it for me.

Anyway. I listed them. Someone picked them up today. And the person who picked them up drove down from Nashua to do so, and handed me a little envelope that turned out to contain a thank you note and what appears to be a $10 Dunkin Donuts card. (I only list free local pickup, because I don’t feel like getting into any kind of tax consequences of FB fees). I was a little surprised, because I’d made a small effort to figure out what these things might be worth and hadn’t found many listed, and those were all out of stock and not super recently. None had been crazy priced (over a hundred = crazy pricing for something along these lines), but they were all consistently over $30.

Anyway. I’ve learned so much through this whole process about how people think about what things are worth, and what people do to get things. This particular exchange was enjoyable, and a satisfying end to a minor tale of material culture in my life, showing me clearly that when you cannot find something for sale readily, and all recent sales were for not particularly astronomical prices, that doesn’t necessarily mean the price accurately reflects the value. The scarcity is a better indicator.

(Posted earlier on FB, but not all my readers are also on FB, so here ya go.)

Nice, normal, pleasant day. I had a great phone call with K. I did FF, and we planned our in-person meetup for while I am in Seattle. I had a phone call with EW about that in the morning, and then we finished nailing down the details in FF. Lovely!

I walked with M, still just a flat out and back, but I’m doing a lot better in terms of no feeling of swelling in the evening, or pain. I’m still doing all stairs backwards going down, because I know from long history how much that helps. I think I might try the loop again today.

I continue to work on The Closet Problem. I’ve decided to give up (for now) on drawers in reach-in closets. They are so impossible to make work. I may take a look at Elfa tho. I’ll use the drawers in walk-ins, tho. I finally came up with a pretty good layout for the non-laundry closet in my sister’s suite entry, so I’m feeling like I might be able to proceed from here.

The closet math on Lundia and Revashelf Edge is painful. The minimum width for a drawer in the Edge system is 20 inches. Lundia comes in 18” W, 24” wide and up. But if you need to center drawers in a reach in, the closet has to be really wide to do 18 ?? 18 and of course if there is any kind of center support you are just fucked. It’s an enormous cost driver to have that many frames in Lundia, too, so the whole thing is just not worth it. If someone really wants drawers in their closet, I’ll offer them the Lundia drawers, or a full custom build out or find another system or whatever. When I went to tell R. all this, he initially didn’t believe me, and when he did understand, he pointed out the other Revashelf closet system has more narrow options and I was like, I did lead with “I’m just venting here”.

I walked with M., just flat and I was very slow. I’m doing stairs backwards all day, in hopes that this will let me do more, but get me to the end of the day without feeling like I overdid. It mostly worked out.

I listed a bunch of Halloween decorations. The guy who picked up the robotics kit took the plastic bin. *sigh* It’s the one that fit so nicely in between the two seat configuration of the van. I don’t really care, because it was cracking on the bottom, but still. I do tell people NOT to take the plastic bin. I do have more bins, tho.

I had a meeting today about paint. Whee! Also we seem to have sorted out the fan situation. Or at least, my part of it is fine. And I picked Eero for the wifi access point for the big deck and probably honestly we’ll use Eero throughout the house because I think it will work well given how spread out things are.

I listed the 7’ bookcase in the garage, but I don’t have a taker yet, and only one nibble. I may work with R. and T. to drive it over to HG tomorrow and donate it instead. I’ve been seeing a LOT of bookcases listed on FB marketplace. Nice ones, too.

I cooked rice and made blondies. The blondies were extremely yummy.

And I’ve reached the end of the day feeling better. So there’s that. I can still go most of the way down a flight of stairs step over step (could do a whole flight early in the day). I had a visit with M.

No work here at the house, altho someone stopped by to do some measuring.

I dismantled the rest of Natural History Museum and packaged it up with the Vespa to ship to EW for offspring-in-law. I also took apart Grogu, listed it and it was picked up already. Woot! I listed some other stuff that will be picked up tomorrow. R. is clearing off some of the living room shelves too, so that’s great.

I really want to start Sunflowers, but I’m off to Florence tomorrow, followed by photos with JM, if weather / various health issues permit (her back, my knee).

Super happy about it! I did half of bedroom to main floor as well, but I think any more would be a mistake. No stabby pain, which is lovely.

The stairs keep creaking, making me think someone is coming down them. I think it’s because we opened window since it was cool enough overnight and so the humidity adjustment is wild. Nice, tho, not to have the AC on.

I took the Lego Natural History Museum off the front entry cabinet. I’m probably going to take it apart today (I was in the basement to retrieve boxes of ziplocs for that effort). That was the last lego kit on it (there was a little lego spaceman and a lego monkey, which went into a living room cabinet — the one with the jazz club kit on top of it), so I took the cloth off to run it through the washing machine, and I took the Remy / Ratatouille light up necklace from Disney off with the idea of posting it. But when I went to video it and show the lights, they didn’t work, so I’ve put it aside to open up the battery compartment and see if we can get it working again. I have the Disney snacks necklace upstairs, too, and I’ll probably list that also. It’s really cool that you can buy something awesome, love it for years, but then feel like, okay, I’m done. I still love it, but the draw is gone and something else can enter my life instead, and this can go to someone else who feels that pull.

I also ordered a bunch of Lego yesterday, because I saw the Neuschwanstein kit. *sigh* I think I’ll put that one in the entry hall, and work on clearing out more of my office after the Natural History Museum.

Last night I spent an unholy amount of time trying to figure out how bed + chair + rug would work in future bedroom. R. made the rug + bed decisions in our current bedroom, and at the time I had no idea how fucking rigid people can be about rugs and beds. I discovered that the carpet I really want (a Tibetan, kimono inspired design) is extremely broadly available and can be ordered online, so I’m also thinking about ordering it relatively soon and laying it in the new attic room so I can see how I feel about it in person.

We also had a discussion about the mud cloth curtains in the basement, that I had in the condo. I really love them, and have been trying to figure out where they can go. They are slightly short for the dining room in the new house, but there’s plenty (at least 4 panels lapa size, compatible colors, and the wider width, about 46”) for the 11’ span). After considering and discarding various alternatives, I ordered another, all black panel from etsy, that we plan on cutting up to create a top band with a pocket for a rod. The panels will need to have the crappy tab tops I put on them removed, and the narrow band seams have some gapping which will need repair as well. But in general they are in good shape because I had a liner between them and the window (uniform white appearance to the street rule in the condo).

The only remaining condo-era curtains that I could conceivably repurpose would be the blue and red ones in my current bedroom, and they have had a ton of use over the years and developed some fading, so I probably will not use them as curtains in the new house.

I walked the 1 mile loop with M. Very exciting! No pain. A little slower than usual. The downhills were a little tricky, but the uphills felt good in a strengthening kind of way, which I was really hoping for. I’m going to rest tho now because there’s no point undoing all this careful effort by overdoing again.

I had a great phone call with K.

I had a great phone call with JC.

Lots of pickups today, altho a couple people appear to have ghosted me, including one of the lego pickups which honestly is novel. I’ll wait until the next batch I list and then mark that one available again. Or maybe I’ll start reaching out to the very long list of other people who wanted it.

R. moved the thermostat in the attic, and now the upstairs AC is not turning on. Yikes. I mean, it could be worse — tomorrow is not supposed to be very hot, so we might even be able to get someone to come out and figure out what went wrong.

I took apart the mandalorian brickheads, the spiderman sketch, and the mini disney castle.

New decaf coffee has arrived. I got Counter Culture Slow Motion decaf and it is quite tasty. Since discovering the wonders of pourover iced coffee with fake creamer (usually unsweetened almond milk) and a little maple syrup, the decaf coffee disappears relatively quickly.

I ordered a pair of shorts, capris and two tops from Amazon. This is part of an ongoing effort to make everything some shade of wine / purple / eggplant / etc., and also have some kind of pattern so it looks nice when dining out, and also be quick dry for travel purposes. This is a truly ludicrous set of criteria and honestly I always it expect it to not work, but instead, it works fairly well and continues to get better. AY had some capris that were amazing, and that’s what I got for those. I got shorts from the same brand and they are absolutely astonishingly comfy. The tops are the result of searching on various top criteria (raglan sleeve is one of my favorites, and not very common).

I’ve been eagerly awaiting Hexes Fly by Jenny Schwartz, the second book in the Calderyn Parliament series.

SPOILERS!!!!! Probably.

The low-key agreement between Justus and Vanda includes going to the Spring Ball together. They go to the ball. Hexes Fly. No biggie, go outside to fix the hex. Uh Oh.

The book operates on several levels. Since Justus can’t really go anywhere without it being a problem for himself and potentially everyone and everything in his vicinity, he spends almost the entire book in Vanda’s conservatory, and she spends a lot of her down time cuddling up with him, Justus in his makeshift nest and Vanda on the couch. Justus’ protectiveness is highly reminiscent of the Griffin’s protectiveness of the heroine in the Faerene apocalypse series and is similarly found annoying and/or unnecessary, but even more so here. But not in a way that jeopardizes their growing friendship and almost certainly more between Justus and Vanda — especially since we get a preview of that protective cuddle vibe at the Spring Ball in the library (pre-incident) while they are comparing notes on their interactions at the Ball.

Evelyn stays entirely off-stage and Sloane appears only in a phone call to disavow any responsibility for the Incident. But just because Evelyn is off-stage does not mean she’s not pulling her usual shit. She appoints a highly problematic, too young, unmotivated (for numerous reasons) and under-credentialed Kavanaugh as Vanda’s apprentice. Still new to her job as Warden, and still navigating some complicated politics (even before the Incident) adding the complexity of what kind of mentor to be and how for this sullen and uncooperative young adult initially feels a little over the top, but over the course of the book proves to be key to Vanda understanding more of her own past, and more of how to approach her job. Not because of any kind of Wesley Crusher vibe. Exactly the opposite.

Reading a book in which the young folks are being punished (probably inadequately, given what they’ve variously done) and desperate to Prove Themselves, but in which the young folks are EFFECTIVELY squashed and kept from causing more trouble, is a revelation. This is so awesome! I didn’t just want to stop reading chaotic fools who have to save the world. I wanted to see chaotic fools appropriately managed / parented / mentored / shepherded to a somewhat older and wiser self so they don’t die and/or kill everyone else.

Giddy’s relationship to the transformed Justus is ambiguous but positive for all, and promises all kinds of future powers available to Vanda in her efforts to protect The Realm. It’s wonderful to finally see the hexes / curses resolved without mass death or too much permanent damage. But I think the wildest bit is saved for the last paragraph, and I just love Justus’ question: Who Am I Now? Because isn’t that the question we all ask after navigating a particularly tough part of life that fundamentally changes who we are?

I also read Casey Blair’s prequel The Quiet Side, but I have to go do stuff so hopefully I’ll be back later to review that. It’s really nice to have two new stories / books from two favorite authors. Summer reading!

ETA:

Casey Blair writes books that are somewhat bluntly inspirational / aspirational — in which the hero pays complete attention to the heroine, say, and focuses entirely on providing support and love to her. I will say this: the total lack of this elsewhere in fiction means I’ll keep coming back for more, even when it is a wee bit heavy handed.

As is typical of Blair, we’re just kinda dropped into the middle of this universe and have to puzzle it out as the story goes along, which is great. It’s all familiar enough that I rarely feel lost in Blair’s worlds. The hero — a Sage — and the heroine — a Null — have both been isolated by their differences, and while continuing in their willingness to serve, they are starting to enforce boundaries to protect themselves from the unthinking bad treatment they have been subjected to.

It’s good stuff and, as always with this author, highly readable. I’m looking forward to the novel that this is a prequel to.

I took AY out for Starbucks, then came back hoping to meet up with M. for a visit, but she was still at Barnes and Noble. So AY and I went to The Tack Room in Lexington for lunch, where I had the cauliflower and a very tasty old fashion. After that we went to Burlington Mall. I checked out Arhaus while she was at Sephora, then I went to Sephora and bought a bunch of stuff, which was fun, as I hadn’t been to Sephora to actually buy things in decades. As I once did back in the day, I bought Urban Decay. I got some great purple stuff. Very exciting!

Then we went to Joss and Main, and Lovesac, so that was three furniture stores in one day. Woot! She may wind up doing her seating project with Lovesac. It has a great deal of flexibility. I’m feeling a great deal of confidence in our decision to go with something by Norwalk, so that’s something. I thought about going to Boston Interiors and / or West Elm, but decided it was 5:15 and I’d had about enough for the day.

She showed me ExJW Panda Tower’s videos, which are impressively detailed and accurate, altho I seriously question using the term “hiring” for the colporteurs — more like commissioned salesperson at best. This generated some debate, until I pointed out it is the same structure as Amway or Tupperware, and we don’t think of those people as being hired by Amway or Tupperware.

I’ll probably go read book 2 in Caldryn Parliament by Jenny Schwartz or fall asleep trying to read it. Altho I might go disassemble the rest of Himeji instead. Decisions, decisions.