Unjapanologist

I decided to do an early post this week for the stuff I've read up through today, so they're fresher in my memory, rather than saving everything for when we get back from vacation.

Recently Finished
If You See Me, Don't Say Hi
A collection of short stories by an Indian American author centered around romantic relationships. They were good, but felt very samey. I think I would have enjoyed them more on their own than all together.

The Coffee Shop Detectives
Heist novel featuring a group of women in their sixties who decide to steal a valuable broach from the man who killed their friend forty years ago but was never punished, in order to pay for experimental cancer treatment for one of them. I really loved this! Listened to it as an audiobook and the narrator was great, too.

Black Cats and Butlers
Middle grade mystery set in an alternative Victorian England. When the MC's beloved butler is murdered, she is determined to find out who did it. This was cute, but I didn't like it enough to want to continue the series.

Ana on the Edge
Middle grade book about an ice skater coming to terms with being non-binary. I loved this so much! I did find it a bit unrealistic that despite living in San Francisco and having gay friends (including her coach), neither Ana nor her mom seem to have heard of trans people at all (even binary trans people). I also was surprised ( spoiler ) But those are minor quibbles and overall this is a great book.

The Inugami Curse
Second in the English translation series order of the Kindaichi Kosuke mysteries. I liked this one even more than the first. Definitely looking forward to reading more.

1. I have a decent familiarity with excel but only really use the basic functions and even though I know that there's formulas to do things faster, I usually feel like I don't have time to learn it, so I just do whatever it is manually. Well, today I finally decided the amount of time it would take to do it manually was not worth it and looked up how to use vlookup and now I know how to do at least this one thing and was able to get the work done really quickly.

2. I am working from home today and tomorrow, my last two days of work before vacation, both to save gas money and to reduce time spent around people and lower the risk of getting sick. Thankfully today I had a lot of deskwork to do (though it was made easier by #1 above) and tomorrow I've got meetings that can be done by web plus preparing stuff before vacation, so there's no need to go in.

3. Alex could not find the house keys we gave her last year when we went on our trip, so I went to a locksmith today to get an extra copy made. The front door lock is from when my parents bought the house in the early 70s (at the least) and when I got a copy made last year from a self-service kiosk it wasn't able to do it on the spot and had to have it mailed to me, but there was no time for that this time, so I went to Ace Hardware on Saturday but while their machine is not self-service, it is just a machine and of course the key was not in the machine so they couldn't make it. There are two nearby actual locksmiths but both are closed on the weekend, so I went first thing today and the guy was like wow, this is really old, but was able to make it in like a minute.

4. I think I'm fully used to my new mouse now and can confidently rec the Logitech MS Master 3S. I still miss the Microsoft Sculpt, but this is a pretty good replacement and once my work Sculpt dies, I'll likely buy one of these for work as well.

5. I used to be the sort of person who files my taxes in January as soon as I get my W2, but with the trust, we can't do that, because they need to provide us a document (K-1) and unlike work, which is required by law to give you your W2 by the end of January, they take their time and always get it to us by late March or even early April. I had asked if I could get it earlier this year since we'll still be out of town on April 15th, but they said they'd get it to us when they get it to us. I used to do my own taxes, but the K-1 is really difficult for me to figure out, so I have a tax preparer at H&R Block do it, and this is his third year doing our taxes now, so last year he said I should just submit everything online rather than coming in, so I submitted my W2 and filled out everything except the K-1 info and then told him I would get that to him as soon as possible, and they finally got that to us today, so I uploaded it to him and let him know. He said he should have it done by the end of the week, which means we will already be on our trip, so I downloaded their app to make doing the digital signature easier, but it should be pretty smooth. It's a huge relief to have that taken care of, though. I really wish the trust could get it to us sooner.

6. Suspicious Gemma is suspicious.

1. Got some tidying up done around the house to prepare for vacation. The house isn't a huge mess, but there are messy bits here and there and I want to have at least counters cleared off and cupboards easier to access for Alex and Nessie while we're gone.

2. I forgot I had another bag of Cadbury Mini Eggs and found them today when cleaning out the cupboard. As a kid I loved the Cadbury Creme Eggs so much, but as an adult they're way too sweet for me, but the Mini Eggs are still so good.

3. The usual day to give the cats their flea medicine is the 1st, but I didn't want to dose them the day before we go, since their necks stay gunky for a day or so and we wouldn't be able to properly pet and cuddle them right before they leave, so I did it today and was able to get all the cats easily, even Gemma, who is normally the hardest one to get.

4. Jasper's such a handsome man.

The Boysenberry Festival will be ending while we're in Japan, so this was our last chance to check it out and I'm very glad we made the time for it because, as usual, they had some really delicious stuff on the menu.

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