Overadvertised and underfunded

Nope shawty

2025-11-13T22:40:46Z

My work computer kicks me off every hour or so. More in the morning and late afternoon. This has been happening for weeks. I can always get back on, it's just...exasperating.

Maybe they're trying to make me so pissed off that I can't get things done in my usual rapid-fire pace, that I'll quit in either disgust, or anxiety over not being able to demonstrate how awesome I am so that they give me a promotion.

Joke's on them. Fuck 'career advancement', I have bills to pay and a financial goal to achieve, and I'll just sit on their back and ride them all the way to my particular personal bus stop.

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thelaughingmuse @ 2025-09-06T11:21:00

2025-09-06T18:01:48Z

It's been a while. I've been busy.

I just placed my final order from a US-based or US-owned store. I have enough makeup and coloring books, I think, to safely get me through the next 25 years. I honestly think that that's as long as I'll live, if I live that long. (For everyone freaking out, that would put me at 81 years of age. The 80-90 decade is about as long as most family members live...after a relatively healthy life and a period of less slowing down than most folks, they start deteriorating fast and in six months they're gone.) During each trip I've made back to the US I've also bought vitamins and supplements, like magnesium and Pepto Bismol liquicaps, that I can't easily find here in Mexico. I'll likely have to restock the Centrum Silver in five years - that's about how long a bottle stays at full potency, even if it remains sealed. Maybe by that point I'll have found a gerontologist in Mexico who will actually prescribe me estrogen so that I won't have brain-fog or as much bone loss. The three doctors that I spoke with in the US, before moving down here, were either "it's all in your mind, you'll be just fine, take calcium-magnesium-zinc" (2 including my GP) or "we'll need a lot more tests, a lot of women don't need anything and they're just fine" (1) and I am really really tired of doctor-shopping.

I found a larger house (I gained about 35 square meters, which is about 376 square feet...or two additional secondary bedrooms) and am totally moved in. I still have some boxes to unpack, but after living here fulltime for about a month now, I've gotten almost all the furniture in place and MOST stuff unpacked. I am not living out of boxes or a suitcase, but I still also have some wardrobes to assemble. I want to hang my clothes in something with doors so that the cats don't shred my clothes.

I still need to:

assemble 4 wardrobes
assemble 2 bookcases
assemble microwave cart
assemble kitchen island
assemble cube-display unit
assemble the outdoor table-and-chair set

I've made an appointment for someone to help me with the wardrobes tomorrow. I've assembled 4 other bookcases, so that's a known process. The cube-display unit is totally new and totally tall - 72 inches tall and wide - but I looked at the directions and I think it'll be straightforward enough, if I can just find a large enough space to assemble it. I'll have to try and do that this evening or tomorrow before the wardrobes are assembled and take up that space.

It's almost Independence Day in Mexico, preceded at midnight on the 15th by Grito de Dolores. I'm looking forward to my first celebration of this holiday. I've already been involved in local celebrations for Christmas, New Year's Day, Constitution Day, Benito Juarez' birthday. (I was too tired to really participate in Dia de Muertos last year, since I crossed into Mexico in late October and it took four more days of driving to get to Queretaro.)

This coming year will hopefully be more peaceful! I need to start regular Spanish language classes. I'm able to understand more than I did when I got here a year ago, and I can do some basic things like pay for groceries and order at a restaurant, but I still can't hold my own in a normal conversation. I also need to start checking out the state that I'm hoping will be my forever-home. It's on the other side of the country, but it's also lower elevation, so my dad would be able to visit. I know an architect there, but I'll need help finding and buying land.

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No jumpscares, no rickrolls, just...rambling

2025-04-02T02:47:23Z

The jacaranda trees are blooming and they look gorgeous. The bouganvilla on the back patio is a riot of white blossoms.

The air quality is shitty. Lots of wind, lots of dust. My nostrils are a sneeze away from open revolt. (Bleeding. They're a sneeze away from bleeding. So dry. Vaseline, applied 2-3 times daily, seems to only be of limited utility.)

I have potentially found three current favorite coloring books. I also unpacked more boxes and found more of my Phoenixcolor pencils. Also some other supplies, but those are the item that I'm currently happiest about.

I haven't come any closer to choosing a really good air fryer because I haven't had time to do any research. Y'all got suggestions?

I think I'm going to buy the Breville this weekend. That'll give me a good countertop convection oven with some air frying capability and several accessories. I really don't love the fact that a Mexican oven can only really get up to the equivalent of 250 degrees Farenheit, and it can kind of struggle to keep a steady temperature. I really want my meatloaf...!

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thelaughingmuse @ 2025-03-13T22:16:00

2025-03-14T04:19:36Z

I just finished reading Onyx Storm. And...sorry, but I had a hard time taking the main Big Bad seriously.

The venin who kept telling Violet that she should come on over to the dark side. The female venin whose hair looked like Violet's. Her name was Theophanie.

Theophanie.

Fuckin' TIFFANY.

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Home decor, hobby supplies, et cetera

2025-02-15T20:00:30Z

I've bought a LOT of coloring books. I wanted to get things purchased and shipped before the tariffs hit. So I'll be all set for quite a while, especially since I scan all my coloring books so that if I end up loving just a few designs out of the book, I can print additionals and use different palettes or even emphasize different elements. I also bought a large set of glitter gel pens because I didn't really have any....and they weren't too expensive. (Shuttle Art, so probably not tip-top quality, but not utter garbage either.)

I also ordered some sheer curtain panels and tension rods. I have a few windows that get full afternoon sun, and I wanted to cut the solar intensity without entirely blocking the light. I found sheer curtains in deeper colors - evergreen, dusty blue, maroon - but could only get the sizes I wanted on AmaUS. Also, tension rods aren't easily found in Mexico, so I bought several of those too.

Command Strips were available during the winter holiday season (presumably for folks hanging lights, stockings, et cetera) but they kind of disappeared from store shelves. I tried ordering from AmaMex, but they arrived in different packaging and without the adhesive strips. So...there's another thing from AmaUS.

Taking into account the slightly uneven Mexican electric supply, with its tales of surges, mini brownouts, and of course lightning strikes during storm season, I decided to invest in some more surge protectors, especially for the big appliances that I bought when I got down here. Some folks that I asked online said "Yeah, no problems at all" and others said that new-bought appliances were basically irreperable after 3-4 years...so, yeah. Surge protectors for everything! (But more purchases from AmaUS.)

I'm eyeballing an air fryer/convection oven combo. I want to be able to bake without pumping a lot of heat into the house, especially in summer. Being able to bake smaller quantities is also nice, since it's often just me. I've almost narrowed my choice down, but I have to figure out the best way to purchase. The oven is about the same price through AmaMex and AmaUS, but I can't get all of the accessories (trays and shelves and whatnot) through AmaMex. I don't know if there are other places in Mex I can purchase this one. I may check out Liverpool or Coppel.

In some unreservedly good news, BabyJ finally got his proper meds to stop his snotty-sniffly-sneezy. (The vet put him on a different antibiotic that almost worked but didn't quite, and then had me to try this other antibiotic ointment that I had to PUT ON HIS EYEBALLS and from there the antibodies would work their way down the nasal passages. Neither I nor BabyJ were fond of that little experiment.) The upside: yay, doxycycline! The downside: pill form! In the US I'd always get Justin's liquid stuff from a compounding pharmacy. I don't doubt that such a thing exists somewhere in the country, but it's probably not super common.

I need to learn how to edit Google Forms to add a field. To save my own sanity, I'm limiting Radio Free Monday to personal and small-group fundraising links, but folks have been sending lots more types of links my way: notices about pet food recalls, notices about communities for community organizing and hyperlocal politics. If I'm not careful, I'll burn out faster than Copperbadge did. But at the same time, I know that these communities are important, especially with the Stonewall park scrubbing all mentions of trans and queer people and the CDC being muzzled and the US withdrawing from the World Health Organization and fucking Felon and fElon screwing around with peoples' faith in the financial institutions. (Personally, I'm so. very. glad. that I pulled the bulk of my money down to Mexico before they went on their ShenaniganStravaganza.) I want a way to permanently link to any communities that others start to share this type of information, so I want to set up a field that lets people indicate a mutual-aid community, or a fundraising link.

Today I made my breakfast, washed the dishes, swept the floors and the stairs, cleaned the catboxes, and took out the trash. That's enough housework for one day, though I do also need to wash my car. (Qro is DUSTY AF, y'all.) And I should change the bedding. And maybe organize my clothes so that I can empty another box. (Dammit, the list never ends...)

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Mutual aid: the strategic boycott

2025-02-02T20:49:26Z

I saw this reel last night on IG, and...I like it!

Lots of stores are rolling back their DEI initiatives/caving to 34F's craven bullshit, but not everyone is able to boycott these big stores 100% of the time.

Und zo, a strategic boycott.

During certain months, people will be boycotting Bezos, the Waltons, Le Tarzhay, or a combination. There's a schedule and everything! This makes it easier for people who cannot stop entirely because they don't live within easy distance of other alternatives that are equally inexpensive, but it does put definite pressure on the stores. (I just wish that I knew who the originator was. I'm a bit of an IG-idiot.) Here's the link to the reel, which I saw on Billy Porter's IG feed: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DFjgOm8ojAS/

This boycott makes a point of saying that in February, we'll concentrate on buying from minority-owned brands only when shopping from Target. (If we can do this all the time, that would be excellent. For example, concentrate on Black-owned brands in February, Asian-owned and Polynesian-owned brands in May, queer-owned brands in June, et cetera et cetera if you must shop at the boycotted stores.)

The full schedule is:

* February 1-28, 2025: shop minority-owned brands only, specifically Black-owned brands, at Target
* March 1-April 30, 2025: boycott Walmart
* May 1-June 30, 2025: boycott Target
* July 1-August 31, 2025: boycott Amazon
* September 1-30, 2025: boycott Walmart
* October 1-31: boycott Target
* November 1-December 31, 2025: boycott Amazon

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well...fuck

2025-01-27T18:45:42Z

Major tuberculosis outbreak in Kansas. I have some relatives that live in Kansas. (And I was born there, but my family left when I was still wee and tiny, so I don't personally feel any connection with the state.)

Avian flu is causing LOTS of poultry and duck farms to have to significantly cull, or in at least one case, totally destroy, their flocks.

And the CDC and all government agencies have been asked to stop telling the general populace any more information.

Oh, joy in the morning.

And yes, I'm in Mexico, not the US. But I still grieve for the US' descent into chaos. And...avian flu doesn't respect human conventions like international borders. Yes, I'm going to be able to get eggs and chicken for less than USians, until avian flu comes south to visit and wreak havoc.

Now it the time to form local networks for information. Now is also the time to start looking around for shelf-stable substitutes for milk and eggs, and if you easily can, it's time to start growing beans to harvest and eat as a reliable protein source.

But now, a palette cleanser. I've been following Sarper Duman on Patreon for several years now. He recently released some music through YouTube.

Concert Interruptus

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Monday, Monday (blah blah, blah blah blah blah)

2025-01-27T18:04:16Z

I spent the weekend feeling yuck, and today the head cold is attempting to become a chest cold.

No no no no no. We are NOT. DOING. THAT.

(Good reminder to me to get the second bit of my breakfast, which includes Emergen-C drink. I cannot get Airborne in Mexico, but I can get Emergen-C. I also have lots and lots of tea and cup o noodles ramen soups, and two more bottles of Electrolit.)

Over the weekend I did some jewelry organization, and the final load of laundry from the 3-month buildup. Not a lot...but seeing as I was staving off bronchial-somethingorothereth, I'm calling it a win. Last night I got a decent night's sleep without having to use Afrin, so I'm sure the sleep helped quite a bit. Night time temperatures are warming up - slightly - but they're still in the 40s. And daytime temps are staying quite firmly in the high 70s with the occasional 80 or 81. Once the nighttime temps get to the upper 40s/low 50s I'll be much more comfortable. That will start happening in about another month.

Today's tasks:

wash breakfast dishes
gather up the trash (I'm currently storing the large bags of trash on the patio until I feel well enough to load them into the car and drive to the bins)
sort out coloring books: two for display, one for scanning
pack another box to go to storage (I need strapping tape!)
figure out where to move the remaining boxes against the patio-door wall so that this coming weekend, I might be able to start putting together the big Kallax and put it in its place. (Yes, I'm blocking the patio door. The screen has a big ol' tear in the down-low corner, and I don't want my cats getting out, so I need to block that somehow. Repair it?? I'm not permanently repairing anything that was messed up when I moved in. And it's a Kallax! There will still be airflow through the upper three rows, which I plan to use mostly for decorative stuff; but the bottom two rows' worth will be blocked solid with books and, in the case of the bottom row, those storage cubes with doors.)

I'm still trying to figure out what I can do with the crocheted afghan panels that my Mom had completed, but hadn't put together. When she was still alive, she tried teaching me how to make these afghans, but she only had one page of the pattern-papers. Searching online or with the manufacturer didn't work, since the pattern was from 1974. I did find others looking for the same pattern, but none of us could help each other. So...I have to find another thing to do with the last of these panels. I never learned to crochet, so I don't know how to backwards-engineer these. I do have two completed afghans that my mom made for me, and they came in quite handy here in the armpit of winter.

Check out this week's Radio Free Monday, on Tumblr or on Dreamwidth.
Want to keep up with national US news but don't want to marinate in hatred, rage, or despair? Check out What the fuck just happened today for a quick headline-summary, or the Associated Press or Reuters for the longer stories.

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Community giving, mutual aid

2025-01-27T17:14:41Z

In January I took over Radio Free Monday, a fannish-community resource started by Copperbadge. This resource has been running for over a decade and has now expanded a bit beyond just the fandom communities. I created communities on both Tumblr and Dreamwidth, so that eventually, in another decade, when I hand it off to someone else, the URL won't change :) Copperbadge did an incredible job running this by himself for so long! When he announced that he'd be ceasing operations at the end of 2024, I asked if others could take the helm, and here we are.

If you want to find folks who could use an extra boost, if you could use a bit of help yourself, or if you see someone else who's sent up the "Help" flag, follow either community and add your submissions.

(I just wish that Dreamwidth had reblog capability...)

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The sniffling, sneezing, coughing, aching, stuffy head, fever, I need to rest weekend

2025-01-25T16:39:05Z

Perhaps the suckiest part about having a cold is not the many many naps, nor the runny nose, nor the diminished attention span, nor the feeling generally craptastic.

It's that I can't play with my makeup unless I'm willing to write off the entire palette/lip color/eyeliner/mascara. (I worry less about blush and highlighter, but there's only so much I can do with those without getting them near the eye or mouth.)

So...I guess it's reorganize-the-earrings weekend.

I also have about 35 face masks...somewhere. I remember unpacking them, but now I can't find them. Dammit! I think I know which room they're in, so that narrows it down.

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thelaughingmuse @ 2025-01-24T14:37:00

2025-01-24T22:32:07Z

Today is my birthday! And I've spent it mostly in bed, either resting or reading. I'm trying to fight off a cold, so have been drinking lots of fluids, eating soup, and sleeping when I feel like it. Not the way I would have chosen to spend my birthday, but a) I don't want to give this to anyone else; and b) I want this to go away as soon as possible.

I did get the final load of laundry done, and it's air-drying now. Only to find that I really do have another load of bedding and towels and socks and suchwhich, if I want to put that together and just get them done. I'm debating. While I don't plan to do laundry every week, I won't be waiting three more months either. 12 loads of laundry is a LOT!!!

I need to do a little bit of shopping this weekend. I need bottled water, more soups, facial tissues, and kitty kibble. If I can easily find cheddar cheese, I'll pick that up, but it's not easy to come by down here. (Mexican food is full of strong flavors in the spices, but they don't care for sharp or strongly-flavored cheeses. On the up side, gouda seems to be pretty easy to find, and it isn't priced as high as in the states, relative to other foods.)

I got my colored pencils organized. I need to organize my markers. I also need to re-organize my earrings because the movers wrapped the stackers in plastic, then put the wrapped stacks in a big box, but didn't mark which end was up. So things are thoroughly discombobulated and need to be cleaned up a bit. (At least each tray's stuff is all separate, even if it isn't properly paired or organized any more.)

I have gotten some more clothing put away, and some clothing and towels and bedding packed to go into storage. Small victories.

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thelaughingmuse @ 2025-01-19T15:48:00

2025-01-19T22:34:04Z

Laundry-load tally: an even dozen loads, with just one more to do (jeans and sweatpants). I'm going to put that off until mid-week because I need a break from that particular domestic chore. (Build up three months' worth of laundry, get most of it done in two days, and see how enthusiastic you are to finish one more load, even if that will mean a totally empty laundry hamper.)

I got my most needful grocery shopping done. I still want another loaf of bread, and I'd kind of like to splurge and get myself a pint of ice cream. I may go out this evening, or I may just...not. Tomorrow, my facilitator and I are going to Aduana to renew my TIP, since the TIP's validity is tied to my residency card. That'll take most of the morning. Once that's done, I'll have a break from Mexican bureaucracy until I go to import my car and get it a Mexican title and plates, which I'm currently planning to do in about 2 more years. It has to get done before I become a permanent resident, and that won't happen for another 3 years.

For anyone who may be interested, you don't have to live in Mexico to get or maintain temporary or permanent residency. (You need to maintain a residency - that is, have a Mexican address - but that's pretty easy to do.) You do need to meet income requirements when you initially get your residency, and will need to travel to Mexico to actually get your card and - for temporary residency only - when you renew it after your first year. Plan at least a week for that process - and unless you're fluent in Spanish, hire a facilitator. If you have special circumstances, you may want to bust out and hire a firm so that they'll be people with multiple specialties. If you intend to get Mexican citizenship, you will have had to live in Mexico for at least 18 consecutive months before you apply. The outfit I worked with did a good job and are a good price, but I was a single person who easily met the income requirements and had no major health or financial issues, so...if you feel like you need to shop around for a facilitator, definitely do that. 2025 seems to be a good year to apply for residency if you'd previously been an edge case, because the value of the peso relative to the dollar dropped so the amount needed to qualify is lower. If you earned at least USD$4100 a month for the last six months (2024/2025), you should be able to qualify financially for temporary residency. If folks want to learn more, I can post more; but there's a lot of info online, and things change a little bit every year, so definitely do your research.

I learned a word: jodido. It means "screwed." As in, "I'm stuck alone on the surface of Mars. I'm so screwed."

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thelaughingmuse @ 2025-01-18T16:36:00

2025-01-18T22:49:52Z

Yesterday: four loads of laundry.

Today: seven loads of laundry...so far. (It's only 4pm, and two of the loads are bedding and blankets, so they'll go into the dryer / don't rely on sun and warm air to get un-damp.)

Tomorrow: ...? Maybe some laundry, but then again, maybe not. After a dozen full loads of laundry, I'm done for a while. (I did find another load of pants and sweats under the bedding, so I could start them in the morning and have them drying on racks before the sun hits the back yard. Damn my completist nature.) I may spend some time packing things up for storage, but most of tomorrow is going to be lazing about and relaxing. Making my breakfast might be the only complicated productive thing that I do.

...dammit. Just remembered I need to go buy more water. So I will have to get up and get clean and get dressed. DAMMIT!!!

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Ending the week on a high note

2025-01-17T19:24:34Z

Today I renewed my temporary residency. I had two noticeable signs of my improving Spanish language comprehension during this:

I took a book to read while we waited for the process to ... well, proceed. (Bureaucracy is bureaucracy, no matter the country.) The book was El Marciano (The Martian, in Spanish.) In the 20-ish pages that I read, all monologue by Mark Watney, there were a lot of words that I figured out from context, and several more words that I didn't know. But the sentences that I did have a lock on, I "heard" in Matt Damon's voice. If Matt Damon knew Spanish.
As the final part of the renewal process, the clerk behind the counter asked me 6 questions (what was my religion, did I have kids, how many years of school did I complete, did I like living in Mexico, similar) and while I did need to ask how to say one of my answers in Spanish, I understood all the questions!

And my washer and dryer were hooked up yesterday, so today I can start doing my laundry!

I'm absurdly pleased about many things.

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thelaughingmuse @ 2025-01-13T14:34:00

2025-01-13T20:36:51Z

Going to post a thing that may be obvious to some, but is not to others:

If you went through some horrific abuse when you were a child, you must understand that the abuse you went through was not your fault. Not, not, not. Nothing you did, brought on that abuse. It doesn't matter what the abuser told you as they wielded the belt, as they forced you to lick the floor, as they raped you.

If you abuse others because your own childhood was so deformed that you still carry the trauma and you think that that's just normal or that you can treat others like that now that you have some power over them, you must understand that ABUSING OTHERS IS YOUR FAULT.

Being abused? Not your fault. You were in a position of a lack of power, either physically, mentally, emotionally, or all of the above.

Abusing others? Totally your fault. You, as an adult - even a badly hurt one - have the ability to make choices about your own behavior.

Not passing trauma on to subsequent generations or individuals is NOT easy. It's fucking hard. It's a shitton of work, and it can take years or decades. But you have resources. Make use of them. Ask for help. Get help from every resource you know how to. Learn to realize what was NOT your fault, learn how to make sure you don't hurt others.

Be the human being that you needed when you were abused, not one of the monsters who preyed on you.

(I speak specifically of abuse during childhood because that's when peoples' personalities are being formed. People who are abused as adults are also not at fault for the abuse that they receive. But I think that fewer people who are only abused as adults, turn into people who abuse others whenever they have the chance. They get far less trusting and more defensive, but I think that fewer of them take the same kind of damage to their personality as do people who are also abused as children.)

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Rain, rain, please go north

2025-01-11T03:01:35Z

It's pouring rain, and has been raining for about the past hour. It rained earlier this afternoon - not a huge long time, but long enough to thoroughly wet the streets and sidewalks.

I'm glad southern central Mexico is getting the water. But, hey weather-dudes, Southern California could SURE USE A RAINSTORM RIGHT ABOUT NOW.

Followed by several dry days. Then another good sizable rainstorm. Then another dry week. Then a pair of rainy days. Let the water soak into the ground. No mudslides. They've had enough, dammit.

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End of the week progress report

2025-01-10T17:27:32Z

I got two more boxes emptied (not just consolidated), and found my masks. During Covid, I bought several larger-size N95 masks...like, 4 dozen of them. The ones I actually used, I would use for a day, leave sit in a sealed plastic container for a week, then reuse. (Hey, if they claimed that was good enough for nursing staff, it would be plenty good for someone who lived with no other humans and didn't go out much.) I had a lot still in their wrappers when I moved down to Mexico. Well, I finally found them! Just in time too, with this year's nastiest flu strain making waves in China. (Yes, it's a seasonal illness like a strain of flu, it isn't another COVID.)

Since I had fewer boxes on the floor downstairs, I moved the furniture. The dining table is now where it will live, and one of the Poang chairs is very near its future home. I still have a big-ass box to get out of the middle of the floor - new executive chair, unassembled of course - and once that's gone there are still a few smaller boxes blocking the way. I have a box of hangers that can safely go into storage. I can put some of my office supplies in storage. I can probably box up some of my clothes and send them into storage, especially most of the ones I usually hang up. (I'm using the office space for my really lightweight cotton-sousdi and rayon stuff which I could only really wear for 2-3 months up north, but can wear all BUT 2-3 months down here.) I really want to keep all of my decor here, especially my dragons. I also want to keep all my standard candles here, even if I don't actually burn them a lot.

I didn't lose much in the move, but what I wasn't allowed to bring, I really miss. I had two brooms with dense bristles and metal handles. I'd had one of them since college, and the other one of them for 12 years. I couldn't bring any "cleaning supplies" but hoped that the brooms would get a bye. They made it onto the moving truck - loose - but didn't make it into my rental house in Mexico. The stores around here all seem to only have brooms with plastic handles. The one I have works fine for its intended purpose, but...it's the way it feels. It doesn't feel as substantial. It feels like I have to make more strokes to catch everything I can catch. I want my old brooms with their thicker handles, metal handles, and denser bristles. I am a child, whee whaw whine.

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Today's tally: 3 boxes down!!

2025-01-08T20:00:28Z

Three more small moving boxes emptied, and ready to start receiving items that I'll put in storage. I pulled out some clothes and a few books and put them away.

I now have precisely ONE row of boxes against the patio wall. There are some stacked boxes - I think 3 - but nothing stacked higher than 2 boxes.

I think I have an idea for how to store some office supplies that I don't completely have room for, in the office. I'm divided as to whether to put them in storage or in boxes out in the laundry room, but given that that's the laundry room and there will be damp in there...probably not the best idea. And as much as I don't want to put these items into storage, I can live without them for a year. (Or at least without immediate access to them.)

Last night was a little bit warmer (48 F) and today we may have scattered thundershowers.

This Saturday I'd like to meet up with a friend for breakfast. Next Friday, I've got an appointment to renew my residency for another three years. And tomorrow (Thursday) I should get a contact from the company delivering my washer and dryer.

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Baby steps, baby steps...but steps nonetheless

2025-01-06T22:31:39Z

I did it! Well...sort of. I consolidated five boxes into two, broke down three boxes (only one good enough to re-use), and got some more things put away. I also finally - FINALLY - got my work monitor set up and working do I don't have to try to work on a laptop-sized screen. I prepped two more boxes to go into storage, and wrapped up one ottoman to go into storage. Not perfect, but...baby steps. More boxes gone from the downstairs, so things are closer to Looking Civilized now.

I got my first Radio Free Monday posted, after taking that over from Copperbadge. I have the HTML rock-solid, but had some questions on the editing. This will be a weekly thing, and probably in a few months once I have a lock in it I'll see about recruiting another admin to help out every once in a while - both to avoid burnout, and to let me take the occasional vacation.

I've started learning how to cook more local soups, which will be nice to help me keep warm. Last night was very cold, the coldest predicted for a bit. Nighttime temps are starting to hover in the upper 40s, while daytime temps are edging up to the top half of the 70s more regularly. We may even break 80F later this month.

I'm trying to figure out what I can do to keep the master bedroom cool in the hot months. If I can hang an awning out on the deck-let, even something that's more of a "privacy" weight rather than "blackout" weight, that will reduce the sunlight hitting the glass, which will keep the room...well, maybe not "cool", but "less hot". Then at night, I'll open all the windows, have fans pulling air up and out, and cool things down. Now I just have to get permission from the landlady. I'm also noticing a knock-and-ping from the boiler when I run hot water to fill the basin for dishwashing, which I think is a sign that it's about to fail. She's not going to be happy with that.

Just checked, and my washer and dryer are, indeed, going to be delivered this week! The company is currently going to contact me to confirm on the 9th, and will deliver the appliances on the 10th. (Then, sadly, I will have to wait until the following week for the installers. But I'll have the appliances in place!!)

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No wonder I'm tired

2025-01-04T19:02:14Z

I just replied to a comment on my previous entry and really grokked how busy my past three months have been.

October: close on my old house, pack the moving van + car, clean out the old house, put some stuff in storage up north, drive from SEA to MEX (8 driving days, 2 rest days) with four cats.
November: set up new rental place, get extra keys, get car tags, start unpacking, start language immersion, start settling in...then fly north (work issue)
December: computer motherboard / charging port failure, buy new computer (and plan trip to pick it up), get backups off old computer, unpack some more, switch phone carriers, fly north Xmas week, pick up new computer and start setting it up, fly back home

And it shows no signs of slowing! Next month I need to: get MXN health insurance, get MXN driver's insurance, renew my residency (3 more years!!), finish xferring my money down so that I'll have money to buy land and build my house when I find the right spot (the exchange rate currently favors the US dollar, but with the upcoming leadership change I don't expect that state to continue), and then do some more - hopefully the last - unpacking. Then I have another flight north to finish packing the items in storage and hopefully arrange for them to be shipped to MEX at that point. (Depends if I finish packing during the next trip, or not. And if I finish, how early in the trip do I finish. I don't think I can give them just 24 hrs notice, that isn't polite and likely they can't be available that quickly.) If things go well, I should be able to start relaxing by...mid-March.

In all of this, I've taken the helm of Radio Free Monday, a fan-community resource that's been run solo (!!!) by copperbadge here and on Tumblr for about 15 years. This is a managed-scope project, I have all the necessary skills in spades, and it's good to be able to help keep a community resource going. Please pass the word among your various fandom communities that this resource is Still A Thing. (Once I've gotten the hang of it, I may ask for one or two people to volunteer to help out from time to time so that I, too, can avoid burnout. If you're interested, watch this space. And that one.)

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Oh, the pain, the pain

2025-01-03T20:12:19Z

I slept wrong. Actually, what I think might have happened was, I didn't move all night. This morning I'm sore and stiff and I can't find my heating pad. I do, however, know where the IcyHot patches are and I'm going to use up about half a dozen.

I have most definitely hit an unpacking plateau. I can't summon the spoons to even consolidate another box, even though I can think of two separate candidates without even trying. This is not great, because I really do want to set up the living room chairs with the throw pillows and soft blankets and cat beds so the cats have soft places to sit other than the bed (which, honestly, is probably where they'd spend the bulk of their time anyway.) I especially want to get the domed beds up off the floor, because I think they'd made spectacular actual beds now that it's winter and it's fricking freezing at night. There's the one up on the highest shelf in the makeup room, and Merry usually commandeers that one.

I still have a cat tower to assemble. It's just over 5 feet tall with a sturdy base and two boxes, a sling, and 3 platforms with padded ledges. I don't kid myself that all four would be able to be on there at the same time harmoniously, but if Merry and Pippin grab that one, it leaves the one set-up not-on-the-floor Dome for Ari to curl up in.

The downstairs is open-concept, and I'd love to put an open shelving unit in the middle as a room divider-cum-storage because I can always use more storage space. I've found what I want at Ikea, but (of course) the color that I want is sold out online. I don't feel like schlepping 300+ km to the one store that has it in stock, so...I'll wait a bit more and see when/if my desired color comes back in stock. (Dammit.) I don't know if it would make the room look smaller or not, but I could definitely use the extra storage. I've already filled all six of my bookshelves, and one does not stop buying books simply because one has run out of bookshelf space.

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I'm 20 degrees north of the equator, it shouldn't be this cold for this long..?

2025-01-02T20:26:08Z

There's a polar vortex headed for the eastern US, and folks are hunkering down. Here in the high desert (6200 feet above sea level), I'm wearing sweatpants, thick socks, a hoodie, and fingerless gloves. I've run the space heater twice so far today (one hour each time.) I've had my coffee and a large bowl of oatmeal, two mugs of tea, and I'm thinking of making myself a mug of hot chocolate.

This evening I'll order pizza early, so that it will be here before the sun goes down. I'll eat my dinner, climb into bed under my comforter and two large blankets and an afghan, with my 630-page book, read until I get drowsy, and then burrow into the blankets. Maybe, for heat conservation's sake, I'll bring a litterbox into the master bath and shut the bedroom door. The cats may not love not having the run of the house, but dangit it's COLD!!!

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Uh...yeah...somethingorother

2025-01-01T19:02:27Z

Happy new calendar to folks who change over today!

I've hit a plateau with the unpacking. I combined two kitchen-items boxes after taking out many of the things and putting them away, and to give myself one box to actually fold down and prep for storage, I combined the remnants. I think there's also still a box of books in the pile of about 15-20 opened-but-not-completely-unpacked boxes. But I've just run out of spoons. I've also kind of run out of house, so much of what is still boxed is probably going to end up in storage until I buy or build. By this point, I also figure - if I haven't gone looking for a given item yet, it's something I can survive without for a year or two. (Though I am also rather bitter that I can't find my pink pencil case with my two sets of Phoenix pencils. It wasn't with my other art supplies...and I really love those pencils.)

There's a lot I could do today.

I could find a lavanderia and do a load or two of laundry, even though I should be getting my washer and dryer delivered next week. (At which point I become a profligate water user.)
I could actually cook something. Even a bowl of oatmeal.
I could start researching how to use a Mexican oven, so that I can do some occasional baking. How do the numbers on the dial correspond to recipes that I'm familiar with? Is it as simple as 1 = 100F, 2 = 200F, 3 = 300F, et cetera? Or is it measuring something in metric values, in which case I'll need to create a cheat sheet for myself?
I could try unpacking and/or consolidating a box or three.
I could rewrap the chair and ottoman that I've decided to put into storage.
I could start organizing my books the way that I prefer - fiction, nonfiction, hardback/paperback, and then alpha by author.
I could color. I've organized my coloring books, identified the books that I like but not enough to get backups, identified the books where I accidentally bought too many. (I try to have 3 of each book: 1 for me to color in, 1 for a friend or guest to color in, and 1 for me to scan the designs so that if I really love some of the designs in the book, I don't have to keep buying more instances of that book just for those 3-4 designs. I figure since I'm printing them for personal use only, after having paid retail for three copies of a given coloring book, I'm perfectly justified in scanning one for my private use.) This means that I have about a dozen coloring books free to start coloring. I've even gotten almost all of my markers, pencils, and crayons unpacked and on the shelves.
I could finish unpacking from my most recent trip. I've gotten most of the items out, but there are still bits n bobs in each suitcase and in the gym bag. Heck, I could consolidate those.

Instead, I'm going to watch the LOTR extended trilogy while arranging my makeup pencils. I want them sorted by type (eyeliner, eye crayon, lip liner, lip crayon) and organized by color within the type.

Don't judge me.

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All things just keep getting better

2024-12-29T23:48:02Z

And after finding El Marciano (the book 'The Martian' in Spanish) I learned that Netflix's series One Hundred Years of Solitude is available, is in Spanish (with an English dub, for folks who need it) and is actually pretty good. So that's cool!

I've been making progress with the unpacking. I've put all of the books on the shelves, pulled all the clean clothing out, moved the docking station's box up into the office, and unpacked my eyeshadow palettes - all of which survived that trip intact - and nail polish. With the new acrylic organizers, I'll also have containers for storing the Churus. I'll just have to keep the cannisters up out of Merry's reach, because he is very determined, and a very good problem-solver.

I've moved all of my Documents, Music, and Pictures onto NuLaptop. I've installed a handful of apps and several browser extensions. I've also customized the browser wallpaper and Windows lock screen with my desired photos (cats. my cats. of course.) so things are beginning to feel more settled.

The nights are very cold now, so tonight will be an excellent night for hot and sour egg drop soup for dinner, and a mug of tea with my bedtime reading. (I want to learn how to make this myself, because a) it's soup, so it should be straightforward; b) Kikkoman is good, but has extra sodium, which I really don't need; and c) I have to buy Kikkoman from a US store and then try to import it, which is a non-trivial thing.)

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It's been a heckofa month

2024-12-29T01:34:37Z

I have a delivery date for a washer and a dryer!!!

This is big news. I originally bought a set from A Big Box Store on November 3rd. That's right - almost two months ago. No delivery. First, both were out of stock (the website lied like a cheap rug). Then 6 weeks later, the washer was in stock! But because I'd ordered them together, they couldn't deliver just the washer. They had to deliver them both at the same time. Then...both are out of stock again.

I gave up, got my money back, went to a closer instance of A Big Box Store, and fell in love with an LG washer with a pedestal...which wasn't in stock. I gave up (again), went home, went online, looked at A Major Department Store, and they not only had my new dearest darling washer, but its matching dryer - which A Big Box Store did not have, not even as a floor model. And wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles, the website GAVE ME A DELIVERY WINDOW. But I had learned. I went into a nearby instance of A Major Department Store, looked at floor models, confirmed that yes I wanted those two, and spoke with a salesperson who confirmed the exact same delivery window that the website had given me. (Honestly the data was probably coming from the same place, but who cares! I actually had something.) The delivery window is two weeks from now, which is entirely understandable given that next year is New Year's.

Kids, this is part of getting older. You get giddy at reliable delivery windows for major appliances. (Actually, that isn't the sum total. In the past month I have flown north, fixed a work-computer issue, flown back home, prodded A Big Box Store once for the delivery date, fried my old computer's (now known as Deep Fried Laptop) motherboard, gotten my data off of Deep Fried Laptop, bought a new laptop at a lovely Cyber-Monday savings point, had to get my gas refilled and the pilot light relit, flown north again, picked up my new laptop, found that I'd either lost or left at home the memory stick with most of my backups on it, found a few key websites that I **still** don't have access to and can't find the accesses in my backups, got my new laptop set up, dropped my car fob in a huge puddle of muddy rainwater, flew back home, noticed that the airline actually cracked my larger suitcase, found the "missing" memory stick right where I'd left it on the desktop, started moving over my backed-up data, and...found my new washer and dryer. So it's been a bit of a rollercoaster.)

I also stopped into Local Bookstore Chain and found The Martian in Spanish. On my last trip north, I discovered that several Barnes and Noble locations in south King County have a "Libros en Español" section that varies in size, and...well, my luggage on the way home was overweight. This even though I brought two suitcases in anticipation of all the Stuff I was going to bring back. 9 hardbacks and 20 coloring books are HEAVY. (Plus about 10 eyeshadow palettes, all of my clothing, several bottles of nail polish, some novelty note pads, cat treats, calming spray, and a particular expandable flatware tray because I **could not** find exactly what I was looking for here.)

I'm going back online to work tomorrow and the next day, then NYD off, so I'll have two 2-day work weeks, both of which will likely be ultra-placid.

Tonight, I'm ordering pizza. I'll have a pint of ice cream for dessert.

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