Three steps forward/Two steps back

This morning I handed in version 1.0 of the big fat day-job project and then commenced to errand-running. I've been putting off errands as I scrambled to get a bunch of work done, so things were piling up. I almost finished the last of my Christmas shopping, packed up and shipped everything that's ready to go, took the car to get its oil changed, and did a swift cleaning of the apartment.

To unpack everything further:
(1). I still have two people to cover, as well as my mom's birthday gift. (Her b-day is on the 19th.) Everybody else has goodies on the way.

(2). When I was finished packing up all my Stuff to Send Back East, I had a pile of boxes that I could scarcely carry between my fingertips and my chin. Naturally, this meant that the postal place nearby was empty and locked - its owner having left a sign saying he'd be back in ten minutes. "To hell with it," said I, so I sat down with my boxes and waited. While I camped there, other people came up, read the sign, and scowled. Then they started leaving packages with me, and giving me money. I guess they figured that I wasn't going anyplace, what with my Fort of Boxes and everything; and maybe I just have a trustworthy face or something. By the time the store guy came back, I needed two other people to help me carry it all inside.

(3). Somehow the Jiffy Lube guys managed to switch the car's digital temperature readouts to Centigrade. I have only the vaguest idea how to swap between Fahrenheit and Centigrade, and I have no idea how to fix this weird and exciting little quirk - which I only noticed when I was almost home ... and thought to myself, "Self, no effing way it's only four degrees out there ..." Eh. I'll drag out the manual and figure it out later.

(4). It turns out, my apartment is getting new windows. Yes, I know it's December, and only four degrees (Centigrade) out there, but hey, that's not stopping our building owners. Having been through this joyous experience once before, in our previous apartment, I'm aware that this should only take a day or two. Somehow, I am not finding much comfort in this - because it means two days of insulating and repeatedly relocating a small aquarium while keeping one frantic cat out from underfoot, in an apartment without any doors that shut correctly.*

Which brings us to this evening, wherein you find me diving back into the day-job work. In a matter of hours, I was informed that I wasn't even halfway through with the project, and in fact had handed in version 0.45 (at best). So ... back to the grind for me.

Consider yourselves all caught up!


* Except for the front door, natch. Nothing else actually closes right.