The reason we are house-sitting is because my in-laws are on the Grand Voyage cruise with Holland America. They are doing the “Grand South America and Antarctica” section, and they set sail from Fort Lauderdale about six hours ago. Yes, that’s a two-month cruise! They booked the least expensive room they could stand (not sure if it’s inside or oceanview, but definitely no balcony) and they packed as frugally as possible…which is not very frugally, if I know my mother-in-law. They are going to go to all kinds of places that are mythical to most people I know. They are not going to set foot on Antarctica, I think, but they are at least cruising by it. Even though I will be spending 11 days in southern California next week and 11 days on a cruise next month, I am still jealous. Who wouldn’t be?! Damn, two months off work…my father-in-law works for the government, I guess that’s how he can manage it. Unfortunately they started the trip by leaving their $2500 camera in a hotel in Georgia…I’m pretty sure my mother-in-law killed my father-in-law over that, but they arranged to have it shipped back to us before they set sail tonight, so I think their minds are at ease for now.

In other news, I lost a game of Scrabble tonight, damn!

This is just another gripe about my in-laws being so noisy at night. My brother-in-law is really noisy by default, he grew up in a loud household and he doesn’t know how to close cabinets quietly, close doors quietly, etc. He also thinks it’s okay to talk to himself and sing to himself all the time, so he’ll blurt out all kinds of stuff to himself just walking around the house at night. He apparently never learned that doing the dishes makes noise, because he does them at 11pm sometimes. Bang clatter crash! And him and my sister-in-law have a habit of singing to each other…really loud…as if nobody else lived here. It just drives me crazy. They’re good kids, I like them fine, I think they’re great…but why do they hafta be so loud?!

I am working on my research project about accreditation. I think my thesis is going to be along the lines of “Despite the need for improvement in K-12 deaf education and despite the cultural differences between Gallaudet and other universities, we can retain our accreditation with MSCHE” etc. Something like that.

A man and a woman meet online. They enjoy each other so much that they agree to meet, and when they do it is love at first sight. They are so alike it is uncanny and they instantly feel a deep bond, so much so that it is unbearable to separate. They decide to move in together, and shortly afterward they become engaged. All of their friends say the relationship is moving too fast, but they know they were meant to be together.

The state they are in still requires a blood test to check for diseases. They know they are clean, but its’ required anyway. The results come back, and to their shock they are told they cannot marry. Read the rest of this entry »

I went geocaching with my dad today! We went to Savage Park, which is near where he lives. We started out by finding the Northbound Trading Post, which is located at the only rest area along I-95 between Dale City VA and Maryland House north of Baltimore - a distance of about 100 miles - and so there were a lot of people around. The GPS led us straight to the right area, and I didn’t even have to touch the foliage to spot the cache. I’d been meaning to pick this one up for a while, so I was glad to check it off my list.

We headed to the park next, where we found four caches - all of the ones up at the Wincopin end of the park. I’m not sure which one was my favorite - they were all pretty good. I think the nicest location was Hog’s Heaven and it was a nice cache too. I left a couple of stuffed Neopets toys from McDonald’s - even though people usually deride McDonald’s toys being left in caches, I am pretty sure that Neopets is popular enough to be more valuable than the other stuff.

I would estimate that we spent a little over two and a half hours walking around in the park. It was pretty good exercise, as there were some hills to go up and down, but as we approached the car I realized my knee was hurting (and it still aches). So we skipped Bunch of Savages in this Town, a micro at the far end of the park. We went out for lunch, and nobody harrassed me about bringing my own food, which is nice. I didn’t sleep well at all last night, so I went home after lunch. But I had a really good time! I’m looking forward to geocaching with my dad again soon. (You can read his post about today here.)

Time for another public-realm update. This month has proved to be exhausting for me so far. I spent 7.5 hours a day interpreting last week, which as my interpreter friends can tell you is exhausting. Interpreting requires about twice the brainpower as most other jobs, because you are concentrating intensely all the time, with no wandering thoughts, while simultaneously converting languages in your head. So, as I said, exhausting.

I’ve also been dealing with major family issues. The estate issue is still pending - can’t remember if I’ve already mentioned that I have a hearing in New Jersey on January 26th, so I’m mentioning it now - but things are also going on at home. It’s overwhelming for me, which means it’s falling on A to do a lot of it because I am simply not together enough to do certain things myself. I’m also more emotionally affected by what’s going on, so A can tackle things a little bit more dispassionately than I can right now. Not sure yet what’s going to happen holiday-wise.

I can’t even remember all the things I wanted to do. My brain is just feeling wiped right now. I want to hop on a plane and get out of here. And not to be overly cliché or anything, because I’d like to reassure everybody and say I’m doing fine, I’m not - I am, however, hanging in there, so don’t worry too much.

There are some emotional musings I need to get out. They’re kind of rambling and confused. I’m pretty open online about who I am and how I’m feeling, so I’m going to share these thoughts.
Read the rest of this entry »

We are not leaving for New Jersey tonight after all; there are a few reasons for this but the main one is Veterans Day. Government offices will all be closed, so we would have only tomorrow to get things done. Instead we plan to go up next week. A and I each get three days of bereavement leave from work, so I am thinking we will go up next Tuesday night and stay through Saturday morning (leaving earlier if we’re done earlier).

My father’s brother says the estate is worth $100,000 but I’m thinking it will be less than that. My father had $11,000 in a bank account, a heavily-modified (to hold ham equipment) Ford Escort that’s five or six years old, and his trailer. I did a little poking around and it seems trailers sell for between $8,000 and $30,000 - this one is apparently in bad condition so it will probably be at the lower end of that range. There is a bunch of electronics and ham equipment in the trailer too; no idea how much that’s all going to turn out to be worth. We don’t know who is the beneficiary on the life insurance, and we don’t know if my father had a safe deposit box, so I am thinking all of this will come to about $50,000 at most. (These numbers absolutely stupefy me, I’ve never had that much money.) $5,000 of that will be going to reimburse my father’s brother for the funeral (I’m still disappointed that I wasn’t found in time for that, and I think the delay might have been semi-intentional), and I also plan to give him a portion to thank him for doing the right thing and contacting me. The rest is going to be college money - I never finished, and I’m hoping there will be enough for me to cut work back to part-time and get a degree.