CafeChatNoir

I am still amazed with the utter inconsistency of required documentation when trying to distribute an estate. It has ranged from having to have medallion guarantees and affidavits of domicile to, “fax us copies of these two pieces of paper and just tell us where you want the money to go” - kinda crazy and frustrating, because every time you make a phone call, you never know what to expect.

Off to see the painters for final payment & inspection, thank god that’s finished. Now that the abundance of tarps, painting equipment and plastic sheeting are going to be gone, I can get back to getting little things done around there. But at least I’ve got a big thing crossed off the list there.

The markets decided to play very nicely this first full trading week of 2007, thanks to oil dropping and some short covering today in anticipation of the long weekend. Here’s to it being a good omen for the rest of the year. Of course, we’re going right back into another short week, with a boatload of economic news and earnings, so the wheels could easily just fall right off. It’s nice to have the time to be able to actually pay attention to this stuff again.

Discovered today that apparently the previous owners of my townhouse had wallpaper in the office. And then painted over it.

This was discovered when the painters cleaned/prepped the walls and walked back in the room 20 minutes later and the painted-over wallpaper was falling off the walls.

One saving grace is that it’s vinyl wallpaper, so at least it’s coming down easily.

And frankly, I don’t know how those three guys doing the work are not high or dead from the paint fumes.

Thank god for progress.

The dividend fuckup has been corrected.
The painters are painting.
The window install is scheduled and can likely be moved up if I get word back from the HOA sooner than expected.

More will be accomplished this afternoon, but first, more coffee.

Every time I go to the townhouse I think to myself, “Grab the small dark wood bookshelf.” Every time I manage to forget. Today, I got it out of the room it was in and as far as the hallway and got distracted. It’s still sitting in the hallway.

Perhaps tomorrow when I go to let the painters in I will actually remember to put it IN THE CAR.

OK, highly unlikely, but here’s hoping.

Dinner tonight: Pan seared scallops with a quick simmer in meuniere sauce. MMmmmmmm, good.

Another question for the local geeks: Any recommendations for laptop repair in the area? Specifically replacing a DVD/CD drive.

Note to self: Turn the damn alarm clock OFF on days I don’t have to get up at a set time. Hitting the snooze button just makes me sleep even later.

Trying to figure out what I need to do today besides picking up a prescription & getting the townhouse ready for the painters - I feel like I’m forgetting something. Maybe it’s cause I have a whole slew of phone calls I have to make, but I can’t do anything until tomorrow on those.

Oh, and minor note to whoever does the guides for TiVo - AHQA competitions are very cool, but it is not “Horse Racing”.

Oh, did I mention that I don’t seem to have a dog anymore? Well, Moxley still lives here, but he has definitely made himself ’s dog. He’s discovered that there is a bed in the basement, and has put down floor runners so the dog doesn’t have to slide on the concrete to get there (spoiled much?), as well as finding the step-up made for our old dog that had arthritis so it’s easier for Mox to get on the bed (he doesn’t have arthritis or anything, we’re just suckers.) They’re down there watching football right now. Sure, I’m good for food, biscuits and the occasional tummy-scratching, but that’s about it.

Feeling a little less “I hate the world and everyone can DIAF” today. Just despise those times in life where it seems that there isn’t anything more to it than a string of bad jobs, bad relationships and then you die.

I am greatly lacking in motivation right now. Or overdone with frustration, one of the two, or quite possibly both.

Got a call from the painters today, they’re coming on Monday. Mind you, this was originally scheduled for the 16th, and I guess got moved up - except that this was the first I’d heard of it being changed.

Just seems like there are so many hurdles to get from point A to point B and I just want to fucking get to point B already. Except that point B is several years away. Which obviously means I need to find some closer points in between to work towards so I don’t lose my mind. At the moment, I guess that is getting things ready for the painters on Monday. Fortunately it shouldn’t take much of anything, as there really shouldn’t be much of anything left on/near the walls. Next step - wrangling an approval out of the ACC for the windows so I can actually schedule an installation. (I may just schedule the installation anyway and if they drag their feet I’ll reschedule.)

Estate stuff is not as critical at this point, cause we’ve missed the “try to get it all done before the end of the tax year” goal anyway, and it’s not like we’re broke because of what is still unsettled. Still on the radar, just not the “Oh fuck gotta get it done RIGHT NOW” it was before. The brain trust over at Computershare managed to do the distribution the day before another dividend posted…so now I have to find out if I have to fill out another set of papers to get *that* distributed… So freakin’ close.

Also need to start making inquiries next week as to how long it would take to have the DVD drive on this laptop pulled out and replaced. It’s not under warranty anymore, so it’s not like it would have to be shipped off to Toshiba. In theory, that should be a quick fix, shouldn’t it?

Guess there will just be a flurry of activity of fixing a bunch of little things I don’t give a damn about in order to ignore the fact that I can’t figure out how fix the things I do care about.

It’s probably a good thing I know that drinking myself into oblivion doesn’t fix things, make time travel possible or any number of other things. But damn, I can understand why people try it.

The carport has a 2 light/bulb fixture. went to great lengths (or heights I suppose) to replace the one bulb that had gone out last week.

Tonight, I went out to turn off the Christmas lights and turned the carport light on and…yes, of course, the other bulb blew out.

Of course.

Now is so NOT, NOT, NOT the time for the deep sink in the basement to overflow.

NOT NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!

& I got it running again, but NOW IS NOT THE TIME FOR THAT SHIT.

Fortunately the backup was from linty pet goodness from dumping the dog & cat-hair-filled gunk from the carpet cleaner vs. nasty sewage backup or anything truly gross, so anything that got wet can just be washed again with no worries, but SERIOUSLY, NOT NOW.

I seem to recall saying that if anything in the house broke within 24 hours of my grandmother’s arrival, I would be packing my bags and leaving town. Well, so far we’ve had the vacuum cleaner die, and the entry hall closet door is broken. Can I go now?

By some miracle, things are at least in a state of “good enough” - I will be quick to point out to my grandmother that we just got a ton of stuff out of storage and are still getting organized.

2 weeks.

Things still suck mightily in general. The past 4 days have been massive karmic retribution for something horrid I apparently did in a past life.

No word on my friend from work, either.

when the sun rises tomorrow. The carport AND porch are completely filled with crap. The pieces of three dressers, parts of a couple beds and bed frames, a box spring, and various and sundry other things that no longer belong in this house. A lovely white trash Christmas scene. (It will be gone by noon, but what a great thing to wake up to.)

On the bright side, it’s snowing!

Yesterday it was 70 and sunny, today it’s cold, grey, bleak and well, November.

Any outdoor activity today will be me running from car to building and back.

Went out for a nightcap last night, and sat there with my notebook and wrote up a to-do list. My lordy it’s long.

At the townhouse yesterday, I realized that the place REALLY needs new windows. The existing ones are crappy (original), they were crappy when I got there in 1994, and they’re definitely worse now. I honestly don’t think I can put it on the market with those windows. They’re near 30 years old, and it shows. The upside is that I’ve only got 9 windows in the entire place, I know a good contractor to do the work, it’s not that ungodly expensive, and shouldn’t take more than a day for the actual work to be done. The fun will be pushing the approval through the HOA.

The bulk of the estate will be split into our own accounts this week, so after that, I can really go great guns with the contractors, as I’ll actually have money to give them. :) (Weird how they like that.)

Rain was coming down in buckets for a while last night and I’ll admit I had a small panic attack over the townhouse gutters and then remembered…they’re already taken care of. Whew.

So, time for a quick trip to the market for soup supplies (mmmm, baked potato soup), some laundry, get some more boxes emptied (yes, I still have unpacked moving boxes), maybe swing by the townhouse and pickup some of my remaining kitchen stuff that is still there and generally try to get this place a little more under control.

OK, really, going. I swear. God, this weather does NOT help me get motivated.

Just heard from him - he cleaned the gutters, blew out the junk that collects on the windows, blew out the front & back yard, and found the spot in the eaves/soffits that the HOA was talking about that had the damaged board.

AND HE’S GOING TO FIX IT FOR ME!!!! He apologized for not having the right tools on the truck to do it right now - it will be done within a week.

Seriously, if you need a really sweet, conscientious, trusting, old-school good ol’ boy who does good work in NoVa, let me know and I’ll forward his information on to you.

OK, so I need to seriously stop tempting fate with some comments I make… The upside is that I can truly see the absurdity and humor in it all…

On a roll this morning, kicking ass and taking names and generally getting shit done. Then I left the house… We’ll just leave the Terminix experience at: what a complete friggin’ waste of time, and I left the townhouse a little riled up to say the least.

Off to the Cox customer service place in Herndon since I was over that direction anyway. They told me I needed to bring in the death cert so I wouldn’t have to deal w/ any reconnect fees. I’m thinking, “Cool, at least they’re not trying to screw me on fees.” I get there and discover that apparently the cable was in my Dad’s name, not my Mom’s… Yeah, something I should have checked ahead of time… Of course, I don’t carry around his death certificate. At this point I’m already not in a pleasant mood, so I tell them screw the reconnect fee, just do it. Nope - they can’t even disconnect without the death certificate. OMFG. I tell the guy that I realize this is not his rule, but this is damn ridiculous and this should not be THAT difficult.

Dominion Power, Washington Gas, Verizon, Fairfax County Water Authority. All transferred with a phone call, no questions asked. This is a damn cable bill, not a numbered Swiss bank account.

Get in the car and sit for a minute and of all the things to think about, I realize that none of the trance I have is on my ipod, and I should tend to that when I get home. I think it was trying to drown out the other part of my brain that wanted to drive the car through the lobby.

Go back home, take a little time to attempt to compose myself, realize I still need to drop the check for the gutters at the townhouse. Checkbook? God knows where, of course. So, on to the next book of checks from the box…

Get the other death cert and head to the office in Kingstowne since it’s actually closer. First, they must get a lot of angry customers at that location, cause they actually have a security guard there. Get things put in my name, and then I ask for the full account number, since I know I’ll need it if I want to get registered online. Guess what? They can’t give it to me. They can give me the last 6 digits, but they don’t know what the full account number would be. WTF? Whatever, I’ll just wait for the bill I suppose. I confirmed more than once that there would be no interruption in service and this was a transfer on the billing side only - oh no, no interruptions, no worries.

Head home, stop & drop off the check for the gutters, and then arrive at the house to be greeted by a cable box that has - - - - instead of the time, and a message on the screen that says “Your Explorer Settop is not authorized for use. Please call 703-378-8422.”

This is where Cindy’s head explodes. I took a moment, picked up the phone and called. I did not yell or take off anyone’s head. They had it fixed within two minutes of getting on the line, thank god. Had it been any longer, I would have someone’s head on a stake.

Yep, more townhouse & estate shit. ;) I find writing about it keeps me a little more on track, so lucky you, LOL.

Sent off 3 of the 4 sets of paperwork for the annuity stuff week before last(?) - little bro missed a signature on 1 contract so I held that back so I could get him to sign it. Got a letter from the annuity people saying they had everything (how, I still had 1 set of papers…), except the death cert. How did I manage to miss THAT?? So, last week the last set and the death cert went out. Just got off the phone with them, only thing left is the death cert, which I’m thinking they’ll get in the next day or so, then it’s 5-7 days for processing. Excellent. The paperwork said something about don’t plan on getting anything w/in 30 days, so that must have been on of those “just in case things are more complicated than usual” timeframes.

Once those cash out, then the mortgage will be paid off, and I’ll have some cash freed up to finish off the more expensive townhouse stuff. (I’m semi broke right now, cause I’m carrying 2 mortgages and all the expenses out of my own funds. I can always write a check off the estate account, but trying to avoid it if I can - I’d rather things get split, *then* write checks off “my” funds. I’m keeping meticulous track of the couple times I’ve had to do that so far, as well as what I’ve paid on my own, so it’s not like little bro will get screwed or anything, but you know what I mean…)

Then it’s clearing the NFCU accounts (waiting until after the mortgage is paid off since that is w/ NFCU as well.) Also getting with the broker soon to get a couple new accounts setup so we can (hopefully) just do a direct transfer from the “big” estate account into accounts for my brother and myself. After that, just a few small bits and pieces left. Woot.

Terminix is coming out tomorrow to inspect the house and figure out what’s going on with the neighborhood critters. If nothing else, everything will get sealed off as a preventative measure, otherwise I’m figuring bait/trap/remove/seal if there is anything wandering about.

Friday I get a free termite inspection to boot. Can’t hurt to have a recent one of those when I put the house on the market.

Now it’s off to finish the yard and windows. Going to hit Hunter Hardware for decent gloves and any good removing-latex-paint-from-glass advice they have.

Gutters will be done on Thursday. Of course, it’s supposed to rain between now and then. Don’t care if it rains this afternoon, I will still be in the yard.

Next “big” townhouse task is getting the painters in once we get some more cash freed up from the estate, which looks like it will happen in about a week or so with the annuities.

Seems like every time I see a light at the end of the tunnel, it turns out to be an oncoming train. Let’s hope that trend has passed.

Yeah, time to get back to reality. Finished off vacation time with a jaunt up to Adams Morgan with the Marine on Friday night - nothing quite like charging headlong back into the DC scene. He’s probably going to be deployed here soon, so no way I would pass it up.

DC drivers didn’t improve while I was gone, either.

Tons to get done this week. Gotta get back on the training wagon in a big way, get the painting scheduled on the townhouse, and a slew of other annoying miscellany that I didn’t miss one bit down at the beach.

On a completely unrelated note, I think I’d like Grey’s Anatomy more if they threw Meredith Grey out a window.

In the sine wave that is my life, it’s “flurry of activity” time.

Talked w/landscaper dude, he’s done the estimate and will take care of everything I need to have done and most likely before I leave town on Friday.
The painting estimate is tomorrow. They can give me the estimate on the spot, and I’ll probably just hand over the keys right then and there.
The title signing party (or whatever it actually is, I just know to show up with ID and a pen) is Wednesday.

So, in theory, I should be near ready to put the damn house on the market within a month. Woo-freaking-hoo. And once that is done, it will be a couple months of being a complete lazy sloth again, at which point something else will be approaching critical mass and I’ll have to deal with that.

Yeah, not so good at the “pacing myself” in life.

Little bro is back home, which I am very happy about - sounds like he had a really good time in NYC, so I’m happy about that - can’t wait to see his pics - apparently the building he was staying in had a killer view and he got some great shots of the city from the roof.

Other than that, though, today was kind of a “blech” day. Did my scheduled ride on the trainer cause when I looked at the radar this morning, it looked like there were storms coming through - of course, they didn’t come through until much, much later so I could have been outside after all.

Despite the “blech”, it was a fairly productive day.

I have health insurance! Well, I’ve got new health insurance - my individual plan is in force now. My brother went through the same company - he was good to go in a couple days. Mine took 2 weeks because apparently the computers ate part of the quote and as a result it went into limbo until someone pulled it up and got the missing pieces in.

Made a bunch of phone calls on the townhouse to start my day. Have someone coming in to give me an estimate on interior painting for the townhouse next week. They said they can give me the numbers on the spot. At which point I will likely hand over the keys and say “Knock yourself out.” Waiting on landscaper to call back. Get the last of the stuff out that is there and then it goes on the market. Yeah, it’s taken too long, but it’s also taken this long to get to a point where I don’t wake up in the morning completely over my head in work stress. What can I say, when I burnout, I go all out. It was more important to get myself feeling better physically first before tackling anything else, cause I was seriously dragging tail for a long time. Guess it sounds kinda lame, but it is what it is.

Also have an appointment for all three critters to get their checkups and shots tomorrow so they will be good to go for the kennel.

So, definitely a more done than undone kind of day.

Back again. Master bath is cleared out. Have to still move a few things out of the bedroom, but not too much left - upside is that I don’t have to be on for work til 10, so I’ve got a decent amount of time to finish up.

Still would have preferred to finish it up last night, though.

Done with 4 minutes to spare. Bedroom wasn’t bad in the first place, and once I got the mattress and box spring leaned up on one side of the room, it was “Oh WOW look at all that empty-doesn’t-need-to-be-packed space!!”

However, right at the end of the bedroom packing, I ran out of small boxes and packing tape. This is a bit after 8. Box store of course, does not open until 9.

Now, let me tell you - the temptation to just sit around and do nothing until 9 was OH SO LARGE. But instead, I went downstairs with trash bags and got a ton of crap tossed out, more things moved to the utility room and by the time 9 rolled around, I only had about 3 small boxes worth of stuff left. Unfortunately I had to wait about 20 minutes at the storage place to get checked out as all hell was breaking loose there (3 customers w/reservations, only 1 truck, one person working who doesn’t normally work that store…) But he gave me 10% off everything for my troubles, and was SO HAPPY when I told him I was just there for boxes and not a truck.

And in a stroke of utter brilliance, I have booked the junk haulers to come one last time on the 26th - there is enough crap in closets and such that I have no desire to keep and can’t just dump at the curb that it will be worth it.

I was going to go marketing after this, but I also told my grandmother I’d likely be back by 10… And I am sweaty and nasty and generally gross, so I think I’ll go home, get cleaned up and worry about getting food later.

Back. Wow, I can think of MUCH better reasons to only get 4 hours of sleep. I might as well have just stayed up. Didn’t much help that the sleep was filled with strange dreams. First, one about waiting to hear about my running bud - she had surgery yesterday, word this morning is it all went well, but it was obviously weighing heavily on my mind. Then one about meeting , another about my boss trying to get me to work on Monday, and then one where I was stuck in some damn trial and whoever was in trouble was a suspect because he had these business cards that had pictures of really expensive sculptures on them, and that was a problem because he was broke. (Too much damn CourtTV lately.)

But I’m here, bleary eyed and taking a few minutes to have my Starbucks and snack and trying to get my brain cells to all face the same direction.

OK, off to do fantastic things in a very short period of time.

Let me give you a tip: Combining a major holiday, a full time job, a relative visiting for a month, and getting a property ready to rent is simply not a very good idea. Three of the four I could manage, but all four is starting to test me just a tiny, tiny bit. Yeah, I’m kinda whiny & ranty & list obsessed these days, but it gets it out of my system.

Back to the house in the morning to finish things off for the carpet folks, and load up the car with as many boxes as possible. Then the grocery store for baking & dinner supplies. Back here for decorating and baking and cooking. (I get the impression we were supposed to have the decorating done before Grandma arrived. Oops.) Need to look around the TH and see if by any chance my good cookie sheets are not packed yet. I know I already packed up my good glass loaf pans and put them in storage, completely forgetting I’d need them for breads. Sunday and Monday I need to do more moving - just getting boxes from point A to point B, but I’m concerned that this could become a point of contention. An additional twist to Monday is the cleaning service coming over - I should have canceled it for the month, but decided against it (idiot), and promised Grandma I’d be around when they showed up. (I had a very hard time convincing her that she doesn’t have to do a damn thing in preparation for them or while they are here.)

On 9 to 6 next week here at home - planning on shooting for a box run each morning and then one or two in the evenings after dinner. Where the hell I am going to stash these boxes once they are over here is absolutely beyond me. I am considering turning the living room into a temporary storage area.

I have 10 hours to finish getting things out of the way for the carpet install - completely doable - all I have to contend with is the master bedroom and then the basement.
5 days to get as much out of the townhouse as possible for the cleaning service to hit over there. (Unless they end up coming on the 27th, which would be divine.) 3 box runs a day should accomplish that.
8 days til Christmas - thank god 95% of the shopping is done. Stocking stuffers, one trip to the mall, and wrapping presents will likely end up being on Christmas Eve at 2 AM.
10 days to get everything out before my renter comes in - again, 3 box runs a day, plus weaseling whatever time I can to finish packing up closets and the utility room, it should be doable.

Yes, I do have a spreadsheet with all the deadlines I have over the next 3 weeks. :)

The 27th is the biggest hurdle. Once everything is cleared for the carpets, really all that is left is a) moving packed boxes and b) packing the closets, a few things left in the kitchen, and the utility room. Once I get past that, I should be able to relax - my renter is a wonderful gal who understands my current familial insanity at the moment and if I still have a few things over there to get out it’s not the end of the world as long as there aren’t so many boxes that you can’t get through the house, LOL. (Currently, you can’t access the upstairs bathroom for the boxes, nor can you get terribly far in the kitchen.) I did make a point of leaving the powder room clear so the carpet guys can actually use the bathroom while they’re there.

I do need to find one day to play electrician back at the house and replace the front light, the ceiling fan, and the entry hall light - not quite sure when I am going to squeeze that in, but I’ll find a way.

Combine all this with the fact that I will quite likely not be spending any quality time of any sort with anyone I’m not related to over the next 3 weeks, and I’m starting to get a little twitchy.

OK, off to bed to get a few hours of sleep - lets hope I wake up when I need to.

And those of you who voted know me way too well. :)

Still, managed to get the living and dining rooms emptied out, and the office is DONE. (It had been completely untouched until today.) Not too bad for 4 hours with a boatload of interruptions. Had a moment of brilliance and called the carpet people to get a ballpark idea of when they’re planning on showing up tomorrow - somewhere between 10 and 11, so I’ve got plenty of time as long as I get over here early tomorrow morning.

So, tomorrow morning will consist of finishing off the master bedroom, which isn’t too bad since I’ve already gotten a fair amount out already, and then the basement. (Cue scary music)

I am already starting to hurt all over. It will be a miracle if I can still move by Sunday morning.

I took today OFF so I could have things moved out of the way of the folks doing the carpeting tomorrow. I did have some of my own work related things to tie up this morning - that’s all on me, I handled it, things were looking good, and then got sucked into the problems of others which delayed my arrival here and the continued to interrupt it for the duration of the afternoon. I am finally DONE with that now, but it just pisses me off in general that I have such a hard time escaping work. (I know it’s a large part my own doing, but our newbies also have nary a clue as to the concept of “boundaries”)

I now have 2 hours, and still 3 rooms. (Yes, I should stop typing and start working, but I am feeling ranty at the moment and need to get it out of my system…)

Being back at the asscrack of dawn is looking more and more like a very real possibility - were it not for Grandma being in town I’d say screw it and just pull an all-nighter. As it is, I’ll have to warn her that I will likely not be at the house when she wakes up in the morning. (Or hopefully, already be gone and back.)

Right now, I’ll be happy if I can get the master bedroom and the office squared away, then I can handle the basement in the morning - even if I’m still working on it when they get here, they’ll have two full levels they can work with, they can’t get too perturbed that the basement would need to be last, right?? (Besides, they saw it yesterday and will be amazed at what I’ve accomplished anyway.)

OK, betting on “complete tonight” vs “asscrack of dawn” closes at 6 PM, winners announced at 6:30ish… has already placed his wager on “asscrack of dawn”…

In the very good news department - I found a stash of lightbulbs in the hall closet, which is definitely a good thing since a large percentage of the lights here have burned out and it’s getting dark…

Onward!

OK, no shock that I dragged the laptop over here, need some form entertainment while I’m getting this crap done. However, due to work related crap tying me up this morning, I didn’t get here until 2. (And there are still work related interruptions going on…)

The good news is that the main level is good to go.

I am expected back in Springfield by 7…with dinner in hand, which means I need to be out of here by about 6:30.

So, I’ve got roughly three hours, and three rooms to go.

So, the question is - will I be able to pull it off, or will I be here at the asscrack of dawn tomorrow finishing things off and telling the carpet people “Do this room last!!!!”?

Place your bets now…

Long cause it’s gonna be 4 days and cause I have got so much to get done…

Spending most of my day today in Burke getting everything out of the way so that the new carpets can be installed tomorrow. Went through a mental checklist last night and it’s not as bad as I’d originally dreaded. Main level is just relocating the packed boxes from living room to kitchen, dining room doesn’t have much left to pack up at all. Upstairs, the guest room is already empty, the bedroom doesn’t have much left to pack, and the office… Well, there’s just gonna be about a dozen boxes generically marked “Office Crap”. And the basement, which doesn’t have too terribly much to tend to, and all the boxes there can just be put in the utility room for the moment.

Tomorrow is Christmas decorating, Sunday & Monday will be more fun with moving things and more Christmas things to tend to.

Damn, it doesn’t sound like near so much when I have it written out…

Off to do great things…