Excused

Nothing big to post today but I started training my replacement. She gets two full weeks of training. We all know it's overkill - I'm a receptionist and as great as I am at my job and as much as everyone loves me (they do, they really really do) it's not rocket science. Everyone agreed that it is better to have two weeks of training than none because if something happened, like I had to go on bed rest or Monster Jr. decided to come a month early then the office would be up a creek.

My replacement is nice. She has a cat that looks just like Gwen (fat, fluffy and white) - I have 'My Pictures' rotate on my computer monitor as a screen saver so she got to see a lot of my family and animals. Lucky her.

This may come as a shock but I'm actually a bit sad about my time in my office coming to an end. Sure, I grumble about my job and how boring it can be but I've been going to that office day in a and day out for over 2 years. When I joined it was a lot smaller and I was able to make a difference in the day to day operations since there are only 3 full time employees.

I'm going to miss seeing the agents everyday although I'm keeping my license there I know I'm not going to be anywhere near as much as when I was trying to make a go of it selling real estate. By the way, my license is active. If anyone knows someone buying or selling real estate I can do the footwork of finding the agent for you. What's in it for you? I interview the agents and try to find someone that would be a good fit for you based on your needs and personality. I know tons of agents in the Seattle and Portland/Vancouver Metro area. Outside of the area I can do a lot of the ground work for you. What's in it for me? Since half the work of being a real estate agent is finding clients when someone offers you up a ready buyer or seller they are so appreciative they will give you a referral fee. See, win-win.

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Ryan doesn't think the basement is going to be finished in time for the baby. I'm really sad about this but am trying to keep it to myself (well, except for publishing how I feel about it on the world wide web - he doesn't read this blog so no fear of him finding out about it here). He works so hard at his day job then he comes home to work on the basement in the evenings and on the weekends that I don't want to nag him or make him feel bad because he has nothing to feel bad about. He should be really proud of all of the work he has done since he had to learn as he went along.

Once the insulation is in then he wants to find someone to come in and knock the rest of it out. It seems like there isn't much left to do but in reality there is a lot. Before carpet can be installed the doors have to be hung which is a time consuming process then before the bathroom can be completed the tile needs to go in and since the floor is smooth but not exactly level (it's in an old basement so everything is kind of sloped) we had to buy small tile which takes longer to put in because there are more tiles and therefore more cuts and more tiling and more grouting. Once the tile goes in then the toilet and sink can go in but not a moment earlier. Then the wet bar area has to go in and the cabinets and counter top and sink installed. Once all of that is done then we need to put in the trim, putty the trim then paint the trim then paint the walls THEN put in the carpet then pull everything from storage and give it a home in the basement.

It's kind of sad that I'm going to have so much time off next month but won't be able to help out in the basement. I tried to some work yesterday but after 5 minutes of vacuuming up dry wall dust (I was wearing a mask) my back was screaming at me to stop. I'm a useless lump right now. The only thing I can do is play the part of incubator. I thought I could do the insulation because I insulated the whole kitchen one night in just a couple of hours last Spring - I really thought I could do the same in the basement but no such luck. : (

We are going to have to figure out something to do with the stuff in the baby's room if we don't finish the basement because I will FREAK OUT if I don't have adequate time to make the baby's room into a cutesy nursery. FREAK OUT, you hear me? FREAK OUT! We can't have it's closet jam packed full o' crap and have the computer and random sporting equipment in there and filing cabinets and the bookshelf full of stuff that is there by default because it gets it off the floor.

Oh, boy. Need to find my happy place.

Before I go find my happy place - the whole reason I started this post: being excused. A letter came from the King County Superior court today. My heart actually sank a little when I saw it because you are notified of an accepted request for an excuse by lack of response (kind of scary if you think about it. What if your request for an excuse was lost in the mail)? So, I read it fully expecting a statement along the lines of, "We don't care that you may deliver your baby in our grand courtroom; excuse denied." Instead it said the case was dismissed for which I had been summoned and was for that reason excused.

Third summons, third time off the hook. Now watch when I'm retired and have all the time in the world there will not be a summons.