A long and sort of funny day. First, the SHET app I was trying to connect to, and mostly managed to, still develops new quirks I didn't find before. The guy who wrote it isn't at SHET, the remaining guys are talking in riddles and circles and generally have no clue as to what this guy did.
she found a nice old house somewhere between Martinsville and the Appalachies, just 30K$, built likewise in 1930, bigger than this one, 4 acres lot - googling the map reveals a forest cleared up in places around the street, and a lot of such streets. Seems to be one of those places with 100 people per square kilometer.
Didn't have to pick Lena from school today, no extracurricular stuff. She liked the idea and within an hour called her friends at V-Tech to announce that we may visit.
My parents called on Skype, and we talked for almost an hour. News (singular of news is?) of the year is that our street there is finally getting paved and asphalted. The cobblestones were fine in 1990, but after they were unsettled in 1996 they weren't put back properly and it sucked.
The plan is to just find something where to sink the money we have so it doesn't lose value. They passed this bailout bill, which can only mean the start of inflation. Got 129$ of interest on our savings the other day - at 1.5% it's way below inflation.
Had a couple of beers outside at sunset, celebrating my year of almost not smoking. I have counted five cigarettes altogether, all since about may - I mostly enjoyed the taste, which is possible if you don't hit it that often, and also wanted to see whether I'm an addict. I guess I am, I first managed eight months of cold turkey and then had to have some :). So I still smoke, when I really want to, but have no obligation to do it the next day too.
Nina came in the evening to pack, travelling to Japan tomorrow morning, with or without Ender. He seems to have another day when his syndrome is acting out. Did a lot of last minute packing - plugs, health insurance (won't cover Jeremija's preexisting stuff if it takes for worse, and works on refund anyway). As they say, science has found a cure for hypochondry, called placebo, and she seems to be willing to shove him one upon return if he doesn't stop this and start behaving responsibly. Her car's new engine is ready but not ready for more than a year now, and meanwhile he replaced one in his car, changed cars twice, and when her car finally got in line few weeks ago, his mom wouldn't let them do that outside - "what the neighbors say" can have legal consequences here, it the neighbors (i.e. homeowners' association) feel that what you do is uglifying the view and lowering the price of their real estate, so he had to clean up the garage to get ready. He wasn't feeling well since.