Some knitting, a little cross stitch. And work, of course. The usual pandemic tedium, but now with 'exciting' news coverage of the waning days of the current would-be-dictator.

Too cold out for my tastes, and it's not even the depths of winter (nor are we down to our normal average temperatures for this time of year). But since living a year in the subtropics I've been spoiled away from the cold, and would happily stay where it's hot, so long as I was able to fully acclimate to it as I did in Taiwan (i.e., no AC, and lots of time out walking). Not that I don't go out in it, but I'd prefer not to if I had my 'druthers.

The Small Gubm'nt Agency emailed to say, "hey, you passed your background check, so we can negotiate a start date for you now!" This amused me to no end that there was any worry that I'd pass a basic "get in the door" background check, as I've had a [reacted] level clearance since like 2009. ;) But hey. They even made me come down and do the fingerprints in person at their office building, instead of just going to any old federal fingerprint site (like, say, the one on the first floor of my current office building). Whatevs. But it sounds like I'll be set for going on their rolls the Sunday of MLK/MAL weekend.

At the current office, I've been trying to clean stuff up, toss old stuff that I inherited when I switched jobs (and some stuff my immediate predecessor inherited from her predecessor), and make lists of who does what and what stuff is outstanding. I've also been lobbying one of my current subordinates to take my job on an acting basis. I think she'd be great at it, it's just that it's a bit earlier than she thought she might be doing it.

Overall I do feel like while the current office will have some challenges, that they have a good leadership team, good staff attorneys, and that the folks who will step up into new leadership rolls have some really good people to learn from. So I'm feeling less and less guilty at leaving (not that I felt that guilty, but there was a little bit of that there - see paragraph above re: cleaning stuff up). I will, however miss the view from my office, which looks out over the National Mall. The new office is waaaaay down in Alexandria, and the office looks out toward the Potomac, but it isn't the same as seeing the Capitol down the street, and all the museums, and the occasional demonstration, right outside the window. Eh, for more money I'll take a river view.

In unrelated news, I've still been dealing with the plantar fasciitis (PF), but one of my tri club buddies recommended a cold roller for my feet, and after googling a study on the timing of cold therapy for PF I've been using it consistently for 20 minutes before bed for the past 4-5 days and the difference in the morning is striking. I don't have the pain right when I get out of bed. I'm still getting some toward the end of the day if I do too much walking, but overall the roller seems to be making a big difference.

Done with Xmas shopping and wrapping, save candy for stockings, which is always done in Massachusetts so it's one less thing to haul. We're taking the cats with us this time because our preferred cat sitter is out of town and we didn't feel like trying out a new one for an entire week.