This morning I looked at a few more places which reviewed jewelers and they all confirmed that one really close to work was perfect for cleaning and appraising the pieces I'd inherited. Their web site is just a placeholder, but it had the addy so I printed that out.
Got to work at about 10, launched into the test cases for the machine I was working on, but between the machine being slow and the daunting number of tests hidden in many of the test cases, it was pretty grueling work. I did all the protocol stuff first, planning on spending tomorrow playing full movies and TV episodes to judge the overall video quality, but got email from the boss that me and a bunch of others are being pulled off of what we're doing tomorrow, and attacking a rush item. In theory five engineers can certify a device in a day, but in reality too many of the tests take two or three hours to do, and some need a lot of set-up, so it's really more like 3 days. I haven't seen next week's schedule though, so maybe this will be more than a 1-day wonder.
Multi-tasked, because some of the tests were of the "set up, push the button and wait 10 minutes" variety. Phone the court clerk's office up in Seattle to get paperwork which said my parents' trust had never been revoked, but they didn't have a record of it being filed. They transferred me to records, who also didn't have it, but that was because the computer records only go back to 1976, and the trust was done in '75. They tried to transfer me to archives, but the line was busy. I had the number, but decided not to call because I don't need anything from the archives, I just need something that says a search did not turn up anything. Which is probably the clerk again. Gave up on that for now.
Called five of the brokerages (I'd called the 6th yesterday) and each has their own rules. One has a 12-page pdf form to fill out and needs originals of everything, one will fedex me some forms, but all they need back are copies of things, and one said just pop into the office nearest me with originals or copies, it doesn't matter to them because they will just make copies anyway. And so on.
Worked till a little after 7, then headed for the jeweler's, which is open till 9 on wed-thu. Nice place, friendly staff, and expensive-but-worth-it. One of their gemologists spent about half an hour with me, gave me some good advice on what pieces were not worth appraising (which is itself a free appraisal) but he cleaned everything I brought in, since he needed to clean the good pieces in order to just write up the ticket and they could all be done together. Long story short, I left a ring to be resized for me, and two pieces for appraisal, one of which they will also do some repair on. One piece he spent a lot of time admiring, which did not surprise me, for a number of reasons. The work should be done this time next week, give or take. I'll do a full review of the place then.
And in other news, I've heard nothing from the person whose baritone horn I bought on eBay at the beginning of the week. And all his other items are gone from the site. And he hasn't replies to my ETA request message. Very suspicious.
Plans for tomorrow:
If I can get up early enough, go to one of the brokerages and do their paperwork.
Work
Stuff
