Ramping up

As if there wasn't enough going on, Dad and Linda came to see the apartment before we leave it. He called me Wednesday, they showed up Saturday, and left Sunday. I'm really glad. They're fun to hang out with, and it wasn't that big of a deal to make the bed and move boxes out of the way, but oy vey, I need another thing! Here it is, in no particular order.

Houses:
No movement on the old one. The realtor organized what I hope will be the final wave of sprucing up.

On the new house, we're down to the VA appraiser. We did the occupancy paperwork Friday, which seems like something you'd do at closing, but I guess they do it early because you have to go to the courthouse to do that paperwork. We got a packet of info from the city clerk about trash days and parking permits and such, so that made it worth the trip. We already know more about living in Berwyn than our building manager told us when we moved in. We are on track to close the 28th, Lord willing and the creek don't rise.

Scotland:
We found a cat sitter! She's the friend of a friend, and the tabbies came to check her out as soon as she walked in the door. Tess pretended to sleep. She played with Chloe and Ryan, and ignored Tess until Tess was ready. She's going to be a good fit.

We have our itinerary and it's been distributed to some of the family members with a few more to go so they can track us down in case of emergency. I'm actively collecting the fiddly bits we'll need (power converters, luggage tags, etc), and probably this week I'll start putting aside wardrobe pieces. We're as ready to go as we can be right now.

Writing:
Not much, under the circumstances, but I'm digging deeper into Peter and Marsali's motives, fears, and needs so I can make sure I have the plot down. It's mostly so I can figure out what research I still need to do so I know what to look for in Inverness.

Work:
Oh my gosh, so much drama. We've been really slow this summer, so management decided to re-do the schedule and cut hours to minimize losses. The manager in charge of that sent me the schedule about noon yesterday, and we divided up the staff. She would contact some and I would contact some. Long story short, the boyfriend/girlfriend duo decided to quit with no notice (she didn't give a reason; he said it was partly that the new schedule doesn't work for him, and partly because he has a personal matter that needs his attention. We suspect he's knocked her up.). Then one of the other shift leaders, who is leaving for college next month, decided it wasn't worth his time to only work 14 hours a week and put in his notice. The irony is we were going to take three people off the schedule and have them on call for a while, but only one is a person who quit. Plus we have one more girl leaving for college mid-August, so within a month, my best closers will all be gone. I'm going to be working a couple of closing shifts a week, and I'm going to have to get the girls who are left to step up their game so we can promote more shift leaders. At least we didn't have to put anyone on stand-by! New schedule starts today, and it will work for a few weeks at least, but it means I have to make sure everyone covering for me can still cover for me. Working with teens is exciting!

I think that's about it, barring any more unexpected family visits. This week we need to concentrate on packing boxes and getting the logistics of moving set up. We're hiring movers to do furniture and some of the books this time. It should go much faster than the last couple of moves. Hope y'all are having a nice, relaxing week. Relax a little for me, would ya?