i've been a lot more snappish than usual lately, and i'm pretty sure it's more than menopause doing it to me. the stress of this move, with it's "gonna happen/not gonna happen/gonna happen again" history is a huge source of what's making me snappish. it IS on and next week (oh my god!) i give our notice to the hud office. today was full of phone calls and emails:

our cooler is out and it's the electrical since the switch seems to be the source of the problem. you would think an electrical problem would bring someone out the same day. nope! we get to spend the weekend suffering the low grade heat.

emailed the person whose name i was given by the director of the atlanta special ed. i was surprised that the director couldn't answer my questions. as the director of the special ed program of atlanta schools would think she would know the answers to questions about special ed programs there, but apparently not. i so hope i'm not going to be chasing people down for answers. it's certainly not the best way to introduce your district to a parent of a special ed child. but then, maybe they don't want to. educating special ed kids is a bit more expensive than regular education kids.

then i had to call the vet about taking the animals in and getting the cats chipped and gypsy's chip info changed. the vet doesn't do that, the humane society does. and for gypsy, the info can be changed, but we have to get the name of the chip manufacturer from the person who chipped her. yea, that's going to happen. she's made it pretty clear she wants to remain the contact and that if she feels she has a reason she can come and take the dog back without reimbursing us our $200 we paid for her. i'm hoping she won't be a witch about it when i call. knowing gypsy is moving to a better place and a home with a yard may help. she threatens to take my son's dog, though, and we're going to have a problem. i would rather wait until we've moved to call, but i better not do that. might make the whole thing worse.

then i called the humane society and found out it's going to cost $35/animal to get them chipped. lordy, my vet fees for the three animals combined will be less than $70! (course, we licensed gypsy and that was pretty outrageous too!)

beyond stuff like that, i've been dealing with net stuff, including clearing out the spam boxes at domynoes.net and my forum at domynoes.net. after trying the hacks offered for ikonboard several times, i gave up and switched to invisionboard. it will do what i want, it's just a real *itch to customize the skins. i have one skin up, but it's not done yet and unlikely to be done before we go - things are already crazy around here as we finish up preparing for this move and are only going to get crazier over the next 5 weeks (yes, it's that close!).

but all this means i haven't been writing. i've looked at a few things to revise, a thing or two to maybe crit, but no writing. the rough draft of my second novel is waiting. the next few chapters of assassin's choice need to be revised and sent out. but the big thing is i need to write. i've finally gotten in a habit of writing every day and the last week or so i haven't been. i've been taking care of other things, things that need to be done, no doubt, but other things. and when i'm done with those things for the day, i'm too stressed and out there to try writing. and i need to try. i need to write.

i seriously think that's an answer to my destressing. writing.

after joan of arcadia, of course. ;)