double onboarding

 i'm exhausted, psychologically as much as physically, but i have to get this out before i head to bed.

yesterday:

the mold treatment needed was much bigger than anticipated, the bloom was unexpectedly large.

i left for the session later than intended, arrived later than i should have, and struggled throughout because i kept distracting myself with my side project. the guy i'd partnered with the previous week told the boss he didn't want to work in pairs, and later the boss caught me out with a question while i was typing furiously at an AI agent...

we ended earlier than planned, and i came home in time to deliver the lovely flowers my new employer had sent me to our very sweet elderly neighbor, and discuss mr smear's new school with a single parent whose kid's apparently in a worse school than mr smear's old one.

mr smear had reading homework, it was really hard but i worked through it with him. i've only now discovered that the reading was only part of it :(

dinner was delicious, it was late but mr smear had helped prepare it. my shower was almost cold, because gd had turned off the boiler at the mains instead of putting it on the timer :/

i went to bed early last night in anticipation of the big day today.

today:

i got up alright, finished the epilogue of the ocean at the end of the lane with mr smear, and after seeing him off spent the rest of the early morning keeping an eye on the news and taking care of the dishes.

i arrived on time to my new office for a few hours of onboarding, very positive. then i raced home, dropped off my swag bag (and second-hand computer that apple won't let me use without a fight), pick up a sandwich (gd won the day with her black-salt avocado toast) and walk across the bridge to the new office.

where i found my new boss waiting for me, having waited more than an hour for me because (i discovered this evening) our sales guy had forgotten to tell him i'd be in later than originally agreed 🤦

so not the greatest first impression, but the rest of the afternoon was pleasantly smooth. it's a massive corporate, though, so there's looooooooots of onboarding bullshit to wade through and i'm somehow expected to already be contributing on my first day 😩

i got home just in time to set mr smear up with his math (revision) homework while i jumped in the (hot) shower, then get through hebrew harry potter reading, eat dinner starting the third episode of the a-team (what happened to the second?!), a whole ordeal getting mr smear ready for bed and into bed, then (after some procrastination) dabbling in a bit more onboarding, and now drinking a final cup of tea before crashing and praying for a simpler tomorrow.

sleeping beauty and the last of the workday naps

i didn't sleep much on friday night, but i got up earlier than everyone and got to enjoy some "me time" catching up on newsy youtube videos over my first coffee. between the news coming out of iran and venezuela, these are insane, but insanely-exciting, times!

mr smear waking up, getting dressed, making his bed and brushing his teeth on a saturday morning because he wanted to go to the comics library

...

heading out to the library with him, giving me some focus time on my side project. oddly, the comics library was open but nobody was there, so mr smear initially sat down on a comfortable couch outside to wait for them to return. a bit later i checked on him and saw that he'd been using his phone, so i disabled his phone expecting him to come find me... i had been in the middle of updating something on my phone control solution, so i used a phone call to him to test that it was working. 

he initially told me that he was just sitting on the couch, then admitted that that was a lie and that he was in the unmanned library reading comics. i told him to at least turn the lights on :P

a little later, i dragged him out of there to go find lunch. he really didn't want to - he wasn't hungry, apparently - but it was a beautiful day. we walked to a couple of places, ending up at miznon. he still didn't want anything, so i thought i'd get myself something and let him try it.

i tasted their lavan. he tasted their lavan. he decided that he was hungry, after all. i let him have it and ordered myself another, and then spent the next far-too-long stalking up and down desperately waiting for it with its taste still on my lips.

omg it was delicious.

we returned to the library for another reading/focus session, eventually going home when they started closing down for the day.

we were almost home when mr smear thanked me for the awesome day, and told me he wanted to get me back - i didn't know what he meant at first, but then found myself explaining that he didn't owe me anything, because i'd really enjoyed my day with him too ^_^

...

finishing the first a-team episode over dinner, finishing the main story of the ocean at the end of the lane at bedtime, revisiting con man with gd and getting through six (very short) episodes before passing out.

a long night's sleep, though not a good one

starting the ocean at the end of the lane epilogue over breakfast.

discovering mold blooms (we've had a lot of rain the past week or two)

between taking care of a bunch of admin stuff, developing AI agent fatigue from my side project. it's discouraging. i was hoping to be ready to roll by tomorrow, but i'm not so confident any more...

general sleepiness and taking what might be my last workday nap for a while on the couch.

now i'm finishing my (only) second coffee, and then gd and i are going to do a mold treatment, and then i'm going to be off to our offices soon for the second session of our agentic course.

jalapeño-powered

 my knees are threatening every time i get up, and my lower back's sore, and my neck's been giving me trouble on and off today. hello, mid-forties.

...

i'm very excited to report that before leaving the apartment this morning, i was able to complete the work on my side project's auth flows, and i'm hoping to have the whole thing essentially ready to roll out before i begin my new job on monday!

our first stop was dropping off the first challah-peño at the bakery. we're looking forward to hearing their review, it seemed like the wife thought it was good :)

gd and i walked to the light rail and made our way to the school, where mr smear was waiting, alone, playing with one of the school cats.

i thought he was allergic to cats? i don't know anymore.

we walked to our cousins, with gd stopping by the pharmacy on the way and mr smear and i sitting down at a coffee shop so that i could have a coffee and he could eat his lunch, then show me some really funny drawings he's been working on.

lunch was long, and mostly really nice. our cousin appeared to be more restrained that usual regarding overriding our parenting, and i think a lot of what we said and did really pressed her buttons... but all-in-all it was a pleasant afternoon.

unfortunately, gd had been getting more and more uncomfortable because of the cold, so the beginning of our walk home (we couldn't catch a cab) was a bit rough until she warmed up a bit. mr smear and i discovered jalapeño pretzels on the way home, which are really good.

after we got home, it was time to bake another challah-peño for ourselves (that's a lot of carbs for one day), and while we waited for them i caught up with the class whatsapp group which had gone a bit off the rails over the course of the day, which led to some important-yet-fun family conversations.

over dinner and after, we watched most of the first episode of the a-team, which we apparently tried to watch with mr smear before (but i can't look up "a-team" on my blog) - mr smear was skeptical at first, but once it got going he was all in :)

after everyone else went to bed (around 11pm), i completed my (relative) speed run through botopia, and now i'm sitting with my chamomile getting ready for bed.