Got it! Salary is only ~5% more than I was making at the last NH job a couple of years ago, but who the heck cares? Actually, they split the difference between what I'd told them I was looking for and what they had originally budgeted, so I do care and I'm pleased. Wasn't asking for or expecting the very high level I was getting at the last full-time place, which even at that salary turned out not to be worth the aggravation and stress. (BTW, not only has my successor there left, jumping before she was pushed, but both QC supervisors I had are also gone, replaced by a single manager for both areas and the new guy still has to manage the individual QA folks as I did. Good luck with that and not working 12 hours a day including weekends and holidays.)
All benefits start from day 1, which nowadays is unusual. Working on getting another week of PTO so I won't need to worry about vacation time for visiting the new grandkid when he greets the world. ("Hi kid! I'm your grandpa! Sorry about that.") HR said that shouldn't be a problem, so maybe I left some money on the table. I repeat, who the heck cares? I mentioned the best part before - their east coast warehouse is 15 minutes from BD and family and I'll need to go down every month or two. That's worth a heckuva lot more than the extra bucks.
Will be heading out later to get some good champagne for tonight. Also some potatoes to go with the T-bone steak I'd already bought to grill for dinner. Celebrate, Celebrate, dance to the music!
