In 10 days we settle on our first house. We settle the sale of our apartment (which we're currently still living in) on the same day. At the same time. The real estate agent representing the vendor states they are legally unable to provide us the keys to our new house until after settlement. This means we need to have everything in the apartment packed and ready for the removalists to pick up at 8.30am, pay them to cool their heels until settlement occurs at 2pm or whenever, and make sure the apartment is vacant and clean by that same time. You would think it would be easy to negotiate early access to the house (i.e. pay them a couple of hundred to let us park stuff there the day before the formal settlement date), but so far no luck. While this occurs I have to draft an institution wide green paper by the end of the month while also drafting papers and organising agenda for two Council committees. It's a very busy time. Applied for a job at a different university (still in Melbourne). Not sure I want it.
It is for some unexplainable reason 80+F here and I have an estate to myself. My parents, whose day job it now is to look after said 150,000 sqft estate for a rich entrepreneur & family who live in Ibiza most of the time, are gone for a few days so I’m taking care of the dogs and working remote. It’s not what I’d describe as lavish, but the cabal of robot lawnmowers, the fully Ubiquiti network and being able to cast music to “Pond - Beachside” and “Bamboo Forest/Sauna” is amusing. There’s also a school holiday this week (and last week too in a lot of places). The weather plus half the office being empty makes me feel like it’s the middle of summer already.
I was looking at ridonkulous whole-house audio solutions and they were so shitty. So I bought a Wiim Amp and some $70 Polks and was stoked. I now have seven Wiim Amps and seven dozen Polks and I have "Pool - E" and "Pool - W" and all of it is sample-accurate sync. For some peculiar reason Ecobee thermostats are also casting targets and Wiim will totally integrate them. So I can create a composite cast "target" with like 11 receivers. It is, indeed, ill. Yes, the Polks sound substantially better than the thermostats.
Partner broke her foot a mere three weeks before we head out of the country on a two week vacation. It'll be gorgeous and we're really looking to it, but now worried about her ability to walk.