fluffy ✨🍑✨ @fluffy@queer.party

So in summary, cats are terrible, but also amazing.

Windows got a lot better about this stuff with XP (well, NT in general). While macOS has had a slow steady decline over the past 10 years, and ever since Mojave it's gotten really fragile.

once upon a time, I'd have to reinstall Windows once a year, but macOS would just keep on trucking no matter what. Now it's the other way around, and it's getting so maddening. If only I actually liked using Windows. :P

Also this is an end of an era for me: I am decommissioning my last remaining FireWire device! You had a good run, IEEE-1394

Finally upgrading my desktop to Catalina, since my new audio interface arrives today. Amazingly enough the installer only detected a single incompatible app, an old version of PICO-8.

also love how while clearing out the storage under the sink I came across what looks quite a lot like mouse droppings, but I see no other signs of mice or any way that mice could be getting in or out

ghost mice I guess

or maybe there's a fun little surprise waiting behind the old cabinets

I mean I know how I got so many and they are ironically from prior workplaces “waste reduction” incentive programs.

Like “we don’t want to keep buying disposable cups so we’re giving everyone a reusable water bottle.” And I am pretty sure I got way more of these water bottles than I ever got disposable cups.

how do I keep on accumulating so many water bottles

they're all nice ones but I don't need, like 20 of them

after this is all over with I'm definitely going to be getting rid of a lot of Stuff

because holy heck I have a lot of stuff I don't use/need/want

(The thing with the contractor got worked out-ish and the remodel starts tomorrow, as it turns out.)

I’m feeling sleepy and I think I’ll take a nap on the cou....oh yeah

I’m feeling sleepy and I think I’ll take a nap on the cou....oh yeah

Anyway my next steps are to finalize the contract and schedule with the contractor and start packing up all my kitchen stuff, so I’m gonna be busy tomorrow. Also gonna have to finally do some tidying up so I can have a place for my stuff and also set up a little temporary mini-kitchen with my portable induction burner and toaster oven. Plus figuring out where the heck to wash dishes in the meantime. Bathroom, I guess.

Okay so the issue seems to come down to a miscommunication from the designer regarding some of the work items. Obviously I don’t want to screw the contractor over on anything and I think we can work out a mutually agreeable solution. Which will involve me still paying a lot more than I expected but it’s the designer (who’s already been paid) to be annoyed at, not the contractor. And to be fair the designer gave me a pretty good discount too so I’m still probably coming out ahead.

the way things are going I'm expecting that after the kitchen gets finished I'll end up having to sell my home again, thus continuing the curse of the unenjoyable kitchen remodel; every time I've ended up having to sink a lot of money into a kitchen, I end up selling the place and moving just a month or two later. I was really hoping the third time would be the charm.

I looked at so many alternate possibilities for how to do this as cheaply as possible without it being, like, garbage that would just fall apart again, and there were just so many ridiculous factors involved in how the kitchen works to begin with that made custom cabinets necessary, and I am absolutely incapable of putting in the actual installation work myself so I *had* to go with a contractor on this too

and I still have the countertops to pay for too

it's not like I wanted to get this damn remodel in the first place, but it's necessary. I was putting it off a lot longer than I wanted to in the first place. my kitchen is falling apart, my oven doesn't work, everything is terrible, all of my net worth is tied up in retirement accounts and this fucking condo that costs way too much to live in, and even if I wanted to sell it and move I can't do that until the kitchen is in working order

okay so I've asked the contractor to explain the various changes, both "why did this go up" and "why wasn't this on the original estimate" and his response was: "I’ll go through these presently addressing each one, and see if there’s anything we can do to trim it down."

Also as a correction, the original estimate was $2300 and the invoice was $9300 so it's "only" a factor of 4, not 5.

Still. Ugh, I really could use a heckin' paying job right about now.

yikes, I just got the invoice for the impending work to actually get my kitchen installed.

The quote/estimate I got: around $2000.

The invoice: nearly $10,000.

That seems, y'know, *questionable*. All of the items on the invoice make sense and need to be done but why weren't these things part of the initial quote? I'd have probably gone a very different route with this if I'd gotten a reasonable estimate.

Okay I shut the stream off for tonight. If it’s snowing again tomorrow I’ll start it back up. This was way less exciting than last year.

the stream is still up, incidentally. I wonder how long YouTube will let it run for.

oh I guess I should also make sure my iPhone has enough storage to keep going, if that shuts down the stream gets very boring