right at the borderline

I am v. tired, which is not my preferred state for Christmas Eve before two solid days of socializing, but I think I'll be able to power through. I spent this morning cleaning up my house and putting paint-type tings away so that I can host overnight guests tomorrow - the guest room looks great (if you like a vaguely dangerous vibe lacking in any outlet covers) and my kitchen / living room are as good as they're going to get for now (which is saying something, since the big bay window is covered in cardboard / styrofoam to block people from seeing in from the main road). I also did three loads of laundry, vacuumed, etc., so at least that's done.

Then I got roped into helping with a Google-related activity - or, I should say, I brought this on myself, since I agreed to help my dad order security cameras, and today was the nicest day of the next ten, so it made sense to install them. [Censored] and I have a gentlemen's agreement that [censored] is responsible for all tech support of the parents' wired devices and I'm responsible for wireless devices, but these floodlight cams operate in a strange purgatory because they're hardwired into the electrical system (something I can't do) but then are a wireless device from a connectivity standpoint.

So, I spent a couple of hours helping install some cameras - which was, hilariously, a three-person job, mostly because my dad had to lift [censored] fifteen feet in the air on a telehandler platform so that [censored] could wire the cameras, and then I had to install the firmware update, get it onto the network, etc. I'm glad we got this phase done, but it definitely took awhile. And somewhere in there I found out that you can buy a can of soda (aka pop) at the lumber yard for $0.40 (not a typo), so that's a fun fact.

After we were done with the cameras, I had to scramble around my house, figure out what groceries and clothes needed to come to my parents' house, take a shower, etc. I got to my parents' house later than I had planned, but I took a fifteen minute break before commencing the next phase - I made zucchini lasagna for Christmas Eve dinner, in an homage to the lasagna that my grandma used to make every Christmas Eve. Unfortunately, her china is in the wrong basement (my Denver one, not any basement in Iowa), but it was easier to eat it on normal plates anyway. I also browned some sausage for tomorrow's breakfast casserole, and I cleaned up after dinner so that the kitchen will be ready for tomorrow's activities.

After supper, I had to wrap a whole bunch of presents, and now I'm finally done and partially unwound. So, I'm going to try to get at least seven hours of sleep before commencing tomorrow's festivities - goodnight!