It snowed all day yesterday and we realized when we were staring at the 6" of snow on the car that we packed our ice scraper in the household goods. New car did not come with one (missed opportunity for the dealership there - branded ice scrapers). So we have to buy a scraper today. Other Cat hid under the bedcovers for two days to recover but is now feeling pretty saucy, crying for pets and food. It's good to see her happy again. Life in the hotel is not bad, all things considered. They have a guest laundry so we don't have to go to a laundromat. It's not a fancy hotel but the hot water is plentiful, the free breakfast is decent, the parking lot gets scraped and there's coffee available 24/7. The bummer is we only have a microwave and an electric kettle (spouse's idea) for food prep.

We are working out house repair stuff and everything is going fine. Apparently the seller has decided she likes us. We were discussing a water heater issue (it does not have a pan underneath as required by current code, but to move it to add the pan is labor intensive and expensive - turns out water heater is old and will need replacing in next year or two anyway so why go to the trouble of adding the pan now? - we agreed that waiting until the new heater was needed was the better option). The seller, of her own accord, went and bought us a new water heater! How kind! Our realtor is blown away. Also apparently some other agent showed up at her door asking how the sale was going and promising her a better offer on the house and she said she was very happy and turned them down flat! So things are going well and we are feeling confident we can negotiate repairs to everyone's satisfaction. You can't buy that kind of goodwill in a home purchase and i love the positive energy it is generating.

Another house, same floorplan, right across the street went on the market for $40k cheaper, but i looked at the photos on zillow and it's not nearly as nice. The interior is butt ugly and it doesn't have the front bay window or the sliding glass door in the kitchen. The bathroom(s) are gross and ours are freshly updated. It doesn't have vinyl siding or a metal roof. It probably has similar internal problems, being built about the same time, but ours has so many nice updates there is really no contest. I feel very very good about our soon-to-be little house.

We had dinner with spouse's oldest brother (the one with the wife who went and had an affair in jan and told him they were separating). He seems to be doing well. He's doing some home renovations and decorating to his taste - the wife would veto but since she's moved out she doesn't get a say. They are trying to figure out whether to get back together or divorce. Apparently she wants to come back already, but BIL wants her to do some stuff like stop drinking so much and quit her recreational drug use. He works local law enforcement in a small town - it looks very bad when his social butterfly wife is openly doing naughty things and everyone knows. The wife has always been a "free spirit", as spouse puts it, but i just think she is spoiled and wants to have her cake and eat it too. You marry a leo, you automatically sign up to follow the rules. Leos should be held to a higher standard of law-following and being married to one means you gotta do the same. You don't get to bend the rules, you have to be a super square. That's the "price of admission". I realize i am being hypocritical considering the grey project, but i also made a decision to keep that shit super sekrit and this is the only space i can say a word about it. The wife has a lot of friends in a small town and is flaunting her habits. I guess it's also a bit different since the BIL is local law enforcement and spouse is federal (spouse gets poly'd every few years - if he knows i'm doing anything naughty, uncle sam WILL find out). For a local leo it looks bad, but most likely won't result in hard consequences.

Plus state laws are more open than federal concerning certain substances so standards are different. Anyway i think the wife is plain stupid. Just fucking hide it, lady. Do what you want discretely and don't rub your cop husband's face in it, jesus. Why would you want to stir up all that drama? Doesn't make any sense to me. Will the wife truly stop her drinking and partying for the marriage? I think she has a bad drama habit, that's what i think, so no.

I have successfully smuggled the grey project. The movers didn't give a shit about what was in the boxes we packed. Spouse insisted we leave the boxes unsealed so they could poke around and see we didn't have kilos of coke (ha ha ha) but i seriously don't think they cared. I took some capsules on the flight with my regular supplements, no sweat. Once spouse eventually escapes uncle sam's clutches i will tell him of my nefarious criminal enterprise and it will be hilarious.

I halfway wish i could talk to the wife about the grey project, but she's obviously untrustworthy. Shame. Theoretically she could be a friend amongst the in-laws, but the fact that she can't respect her husband's livelihood is a big red flag. She wants to spend his $$$ but not accept the responsibilities that come with it. She wants to wear the identity of the free thinking rebel, not the square cop's wife, but with no risk. I kinda get why she acts out because it is tough to reconcile. Obvs the law enforcement system isn't perfect and often it is there to protect the machine, not the downtrodden citizen. Some cops just want to get their jerkoff authoritarian jollies. People are right to be unhappy with the rot in the justice system, and lately there's a lot of rot on display. How do you "rage against the machine" when you are directly bound by it, and to it, via your marriage partner. A cop's spouse either goes "thin blue line" cheerleader or has to muzzle themselves. Law enforcement skews conservative, republican, traditional values - that's the default. How do you express yourself authentically if you aren't into that? I think she goes party-hippie to show everyone she's still independent, that she hasn't lost her soul, that she's not one of the bad guys. She's just doing it in a dumb way, imho. Shoot, i don't know how to go about it either. I might have it easier than her because spouse's job has an incognito element, no uniform, no community presence. Nobody's going to harass me over what spouse did at work to so-and-so's friend.

We'll see how it shakes out for them.

We have to go down and see spouse's parents soon. Speaking of muzzling yourself vs being authentic. At least the drive should be very pretty.