laura705

Today is another rainy gray day.  I wore my long down coat because it’s also chilly – in the 40’s.  Tomorrow is supposed to be better and Thursday & Friday better still.  I finished reading my book club book on the train -  A Thousand Splendid Suns.  It was a good book, but I’m glad to move on to a book that isn’t so sad.  The new admin is out sick again. 

Work was okay yesterday.  No meetings, so that was good.  At lunchtime I ran out to the Walgreens down the block and bought a couple egg dying kits on clearance.  Unfortunately, I also succumbed to clearance candy and bought two vanilla cream eggs and two peanut butter eggs.  Not good, but I guess the bright side is that I didn’t buy a bag full of Dove chocolate eggs. 

Shame on me for doing this at work, but I finally ordered a couple pair of shoes from zappos.  My punishment was that the boss came by my desk and saw the site on my screen.  Most unimpressive.  She didn’t appear angry, however.  In fact she mentioned what a great site it was and her good experience with it.  It wasn’t like I was browsing for shoes for hours – I ordered two pair of the same loafers I’ve purchased in the past for work and found comfortable.  But still…

Yesterday I skipped the gym, but both bf and I exercised at home.  He did some exercises on our Total Gym and I did the upper body portion of my Margaret Richard “Triple Threat” dvd.  It was an hour long workout with six segments, three working the pecs, triceps & biceps and three working the delts, back, & obliques.  It was a good tough workout, but didn’t have any ab segments, so I did some afterwards.  I’m already sore. 

We didn’t make the egg casserole for dinner, so I had a can of chicken corn chowder soup. 

I brought a sandwich, yogurt, cheese stick and edemame to work today.  It’s crummy outside so I don’t mind staying inside. 

Tonight we’re going to see the movie “Sunshine Cleaning”.  It’s not at a nearby movie theater, and it starts sort of late, but it’s only 90 min. long, so it shouldn’t be too late of an evening.  I bought a bag of bbq soy crisps from Trader Joe’s over the weekend, so I have my movie snack ready to smuggle into the theater.

Okay, time to post this puppy. 

I left work at 3 pm on Friday and it was nice to get home early.  I looked through the mail and was ticked that the village returned the check for our water bill because I hadn’t put the date on it.  We also received a past due notice, since they didn’t accept the check.  Grrr!  The check had the month and year on it, but since I’d filled it out early I stupidly left the date blank and thought we’d fill it in when we put it in the drop box.  But bf didn’t even look at it, and he was the one who dropped it off.  And it probably didn’t matter what the date on it was as long as it wasn’t post-dated.  Anyway, I phoned the village to complain that they wouldn’t accept it, and that why couldn’t they fill the lousy date in themselves.  And told them not to charge me the late fee.  The woman I spoke to gave me over to her supervisor, with whom I left a phonemail.  I figured she was gone for the day already, so I left my work phone number.  I got her message this morning.  She can’t talk to me because my name isn’t on the account.  I love how they can accept a check out of an account with my name on it, but can’t talk to me.  Anyway, I phoned bf and he told me I shouldn’t get my undies in a bunch over the extra $4.  Jerk!  Why do I get like this?  It’s $4.  I spend $4 on junky snacks over the course of a few days, and often in a single day.  Obviously I like snacks and not stupid late fees.  Anyway, I now have this fantasy that if I must pay the stupid late fee, I’d love to go to the cashier at village hall and dump $4 of pennies on their counter.  What is wrong with me?!

Friday after work I also unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher, boiled a dozen eggs, washed a load of workout clothes, and went to the gym.  I went by myself, since bf had a friend over.  I had a good workout and, as usual, was glad I went. 

Dinner was pierogi and green beans.  Saturday I slept til 10 am!  I didn’t do much in the morning and early afternoon – read my book, sorted through some coupons, made a shopping list.  I also took the dog for a walk.  BF and I went out for an early dinner.  (I had Hawaiian pizza.)  Afterwards we went to Trader Joe’s and to the market.  We actually have some planned meals for this week.  Not all healthy, but still.  It’s a start.  Tonight will be an egg casserole that just sounds good to me.  Other meals this week will be tacos and salmon. 

Watched some tv with what was left of Saturday.  Sunday I woke up around 7:30 and looked through the newspaper all morning, did a load of laundry, drank tea w/ a biscotti, and ate an English muffin.  I woke bf up to make the jello dessert he said we’d bring to dinner at his mom’s.  We also dyed our dozen eggs.  I use regular food coloring, but I notice the red is not a true red, and so you don’t really get a nice pink.  I might try to buy an egg coloring kit on clearance today for next year.  Maybe the colors will be nicer. 

Dinner was at bf’s mom’s place, with his aunt.  It was tiring – the aunt talks non-stop and the mom and aunt talk over each other.  There were only four of us, so I don’t know why there always needed to be two separate conversations going on.  Sigh.  When we got back home, it was very nice to sit quietly and read our books.  Well, bf and I read and doggy slept and received rubdowns.  I’m reading “A Thousand Splendid Suns” for book club.  It’s not the type of book I would normally choose on my own to read, so I’m glad for the chance to “broaden my horizons”.  But it’s a rather grim story – about the lives of a couple girls/women in Afghanistan from the 70’s onwards.  I’m very grateful for my life in the US.

What else?  I ate oatmeal for breakfast this morning and packed up some more of the brown rice w/ tomato-chickpea dish for lunch.  I also packed a cheese stick, cottage cheese and mandarin oranges for snacks.  I’m thinking of putting a chart on the kitchen cabinet so bf and I can mark the # of fruit & veggie servings we eat each day.  Maybe a competition of sorts will get bf to at least use up the all the stuff he bought for juicing before it goes bad, although I think beets last quite a while, don’t they?   

Okay, better post and get to work.  Oh yeah, the new admin called in sick today.  She’s still swollen and on pain meds from her wisdom teeth removal on Friday.  Better her than me!  (Although I recall losing several pounds during my recovery from the same oral surgery, so it wasn’t all bad, LOL.)

I’m here at work.  Yesterday felt like it should have been Friday.  I don’t feel like working today, and that makes me feel guilty.  Well, not the part about not feeling  like working, but actually not working.  The big kahuna sent an e-mail this morning telling us we could leave at 3 pm today.  There’s an earlier express train I can take.  That’ll be nice.

Yesterday after work bf and I decided to go to Ikea and buy another of the candle holders like I bought last weekend and also eat dinner in their cafe (Swedish meatballs sounded so good).  We got a late start and arrived just before they closed the store at 8 pm.  We were really surprised - thought they’d be open til 9 or 10 pm, but maybe they’ve started closing earlier.  Anyway, no meatballs, probably for the best.  We bought the candle thingy and some more tealights and left.  We stopped at the market and bought some frozen foods and ate dinner at home. 

Watched some tv while I ate (cheese french bread pizza) and that was about it. 

Nothing going on tonight or tomorrow.  The weather’s still on the cool side, so no outdoors stuff planned.  I would like to dye some eggs, still enjoy doing that.  Sunday we go to bf’s mom’s house for dinner.  That’s about it.  I should get to the gym tonight or tomorrow. 

I’m feeling a bit indifferent about everything at the moment.  I look forward to my time off, but it’s mostly about no work and not about doing things I want or need to do.  So when I’m off work, I don’t have plans and tend to squander my time.  I need to start planning, no doubt about it.  And my calendar needs to include some fun amongst all the obligatory stuff like the 1st communions, health and beauty appts, etc.  Sure there are movie nights and book club, but I feel like I’m in a rut with that and need to do something different. 

Okay, better get this posted or I’ll just keep rambling random thoughts.  Have a good Easter if you’re celebrating it!

Yesterday.  Work was alright.  After work I managed to find the paper work for the waterproofing company given to us by the previous homeowner (without tearing up the entire office).  BF will make an appointment with them to come out.

I went to they gym by myself.  Bf seems to have been slacking lately.  Just a week or two ago he was all motivated and had bought a big container of some kind of protein powder (”for muscle recovery”) and a bunch of fruits and veggies for juicing.  Sigh.  Actually, he said he didn’t have any clean workout clothes to wear.  And he proceeded to move his mountain of laundry to the basement and start on it. 

I wasn’t overly enthused about going, but I made myself go.  I was ready to leave by 6:30, but got held up by our continuing search for the missing laundry detergent we bought at Target a couple weeks ago that apparently didn’t make it home.  As we’re completely out of detergent now and bf  had his mountain of his laundry to do, it had come up yet again.  I ended up giving bf the Target receipt, making sure we’d actually been charged for it.  It was a small bottle of the superconcentrated stuff and yes, it rankles that the clerk didn’t just put it in the bag and give it to us.  But it’s $4.54, we have to get over it!  Well, in our defense, it’s not just the money, it’s the inconvenience.  Bf told me the gym wasn’t far from Target, and could I go there?  Uh, no.  If you want to ask the store for a refund, you can go do it.  Some stores post a notice that they’re not responsible for purchases left behind… 

So six minutes later, I finally drove off.  Got stopped at the train, another 4 minutes.  Got stopped at the big intersection by the club, another 3.  I finally got there and had a good workout.  Glad I went.  Too bad bf missed the excitement.  While I was working out, a PA announcement was made – “In a couple minutes, men will be entering the women’s locker room.”  Of course I’m wondering why, but the announcement was repeated again with still no explanation (but a few whoops and hollers from some male gym members).  I overheard a couple people and they mentioned seeing flashing lights, and sure enough there was an ambulance outside the club.  So it was a medical emergency kind of thing.  I didn’t bother to ask anyone what had happened.  Maybe someone overdid the sauna. 

Dinner was a grilled pork chop and garlic noodles.  Watched some tv and that was about it. 

Nothing special today.  I have a meeting in a few minutes.  It’s jeans day, a ploy to get us to read an e-mail invite to an open house about training.  But I’ll take it!  I’ll go to the open house this afternoon, and maybe they’ll have some good refreshments.  I brought the tomato-chickpea thing for lunch today.  Oh joy. 

Oh, the new admin told me the dentist (she left work early for an appt) told her he wants to remove her 4 wisdom teeth, and she made an appointment for that for tomorrow.  Good Friday.  Interesting.  The other day she asked if we get that day off.  No, I said, but she could take one of her floating holidays for it.  Kind of odd that she’d have her wisdoms removed right before Easter, but holiday’s aren’t all about food for some people.  But I don’t have her working on any big projects, so I told her it was okay w/ me and to double-check w/ the boss. 

Okay, better post now. 

Yesterday was alright.  I’m not being very productive at work this week for some reason.  I’m getting bogged down by the piles on my desk and by the e-mail piling up I my inbox.  I am woefully behind in moving the e-mail into folders and the dreaded departmental mail box.  The day of reckoning will come when the boss will not be able to find something that should have been placed in that dept mail box. 

I had lunch w/ a friend yesterday and it was nice to see her.  We vented about our respective jobs, and she also vented about her frustrations about the home building process.  Her house was lost in a fire last year and she’s rebuilding.  What a project.  It’s bad enough doing improvement projects in an existing house, let alone building a whole new house from the bottom up. 

I ate tomato chickpea stew over brown rice for dinner.  Whoopee.  Yes, sarcastically typed.  This recipe was too bland for me, even though it had some good spices in it.  I don’t like the recipe enough to play around with the quantity of spices, etc.  Bf likes main dishes with meat or fish, so I’ll just steer clear of recipes like this for the time being.  Maybe I’ll try Renee’s artichoke chicken recipe! 

I took some water and pretzel rods to the movie theater.  I’ve considered making my own batch of popcorn at home to smuggle into the movie theater, but time usually doesn’t permit (and I’m not a microwave popcorn fan.)  My movie theater club card awarded me with a coupon for a free small popcorn, but after last week, I doubt I’ll be tempted to have movie popcorn for a while.  Besides, I had some good homemade popcorn last weekend.

We saw “Duplicity” w/ Clive Owen and Julia Roberts.  It was entertaining.  I’m looking forward to seeing the movie “Adventureland”.  By the way, our group buys discounted movie tickets and we usually pay somewhere between $6 - $6.50 for our tickets.  I wouldn’t be going to the movies nearly as much if I had to pay $9 or $10 per ticket!  I wouldn’t even like paying $7!  If the $2 theater ($1 on Tuesdays) were closer, I’d be going there more frequently!  I also think I’ll be enjoying our new Netflix subscription a lot. 

So while I was ogling Clive Owen, bf was at home removing some paneling from part of a wall in our basement “wreck” room where water has been seeping in during heavy rains.  He said it looks like some repair was done in the past on that part of the foundation.  When we bought our house, the prev. owners had a receipt from a waterproofing co.  We took that to mean that they had waterproofing work done.  But we get occasional seepage, so a few years back, we phoned the waterproofing co and inquired about what work was done.  It turns out they did certain spot repairs, not the whole foundation.  Anyway, I thought bf had arranged for this same company to come out and give us a quote today, but last night when I asked him about this, he realized he’d made the appointment w/ a different company.  Sigh.  He’s going to cancel that.  If the company that did the work last time actually did work on the spot where there’s still seepage, maybe they will cover the work under warranty or something, so we need to get them to the house to look at this. 

I had oatmeal for breakfast today – I keep forgetting it’s sitting in the fridge.  This batch used up the last of the container, so I won’t be buying any for a while.  I know it’s good for me, but I feel like it’s not as healthy when I add brown sugar to it.  I just have to try other stuff, like different fruits, etc.

I checked my seedlings again and more had sprouted, so I brought them down to sit under the grow light.  Only the bell pepper seeds haven’t sprouted yet.  We’ll see about those.  I still remember the first time I tried to grow peppers.  The rabbits ate the plants.  But now we have doggy and we don’t get many rabbits in the yard anymore…

Tonight will be the gym.  As for aches and pains, I’m still sore from my lower body workout on Monday night.  My lower left side of my back (hip?) has been bugging me.  I notice it when I’m sitting on the train or on the sofa at home.  Not so much at work or while standing/walking.  Nothing severe, so I’ll just wait it out. 

That’s all for now, so I’ll post.

Well, I got a call this morning from a vendor of ours who asked me for something I’d forgotten to send him.  I just wish he hadn’t waited two weeks to ask me.  Better yet, I just wish I hadn’t forgotten to send it in the first place!  Sigh.  I’m such a butthead.  He told me he specifically didn’t phone my boss about it, which was nice of him, but on the other hand, I don’t like keeping secrets.  Of course, if she goes to that e-mail for whatever reason, she’ll know from the e-mail date that I sent it late.  Oh well.  I goofed up the project timeline by a week.  Hope it doesn’t present a problem.

Last night bf and I took doggy for a quick walk.  Bf didn’t plan to go to the gym.  I decided to do a workout at home.  I did the 50 min. lower body portion of my Margaret Richard Sculpture dvd.  I’m trying to decide if it was more difficult than the upper body part of the dvd I did last week.  I think it was, because there were no weights used.  I couldn’t move to lighter weights when the going got tough!  My outer thighs are already sore.  I expect everything else to start feeling sore later in the day.  I think the workouts on that DVD are good for when I don’t feel like going to the gym.  I don’t find the Body Electric shows as difficult because they are only ~25 minutes long, and part of that is eaten up with a warm up and cool down.  Even when I do two of them one right after the other, it’s still not as good as what I do at the gym.  If I do the BE shows, I guess I need to do three of them to get a good workout and cover more body parts.  Next time I do a home workout, I will do the Margaret Richard’s “Triple Threat” dvd.  I bought it at the same time I bought “Sculpture”.  I think it’s at least as challenging as Sculpture, if not more so.

After a shower, I made a sandwich for today’s lunch and also packed some snacks for today.  Of course I’d forgotten that I’m meeting a friend for lunch today, so the sandwich isn’t needed today.  It’ll keep for tomorrow, or bf will eat it. 

Tonight is movie night.  We’re seeing “Duplicity”.  No theater popcorn!!

That’s all for today.

The weekend was uneventful.  I don’t remember what I did Friday night.  I was online at the journals and saw that April 10^th is the day they go away.  That’s sad.  I sent an e-mail to hopefully get my journals in a text file.  Haven’t gotten a response or confirmation of that yet.  

Saturday morning I woke up early and puttered around the house, finishing a book I was reading.  I checked the seeds I started last Sunday and was surprised to see many had already germinated!  It seems really quick to me.  I guess using special seed starting soil made a difference.  In the past I probably just used potting soil.  I brought the seedlings down to the basement and placed them under the grow light. 

I took the dog for a nice walk and then went shopping.  I went to Ikea and The Container Store.  If there are two places I can spend a LOT of time, those two are them.  At Ikea I ended up with a table top ironing board (lately I am loathe to drag out the big one, set it up and then put it away), and a couple things to help organize my closet.  I also bought one oblong candle holder for 7 tea lights for the fireplace mantel and once at home, realized that two holders would look better.  I have to go back and buy another.   I don’t mind!

At The Container Store, I bought a purse organizer, a covered glass bowl to reheat stuff at work, and another thing to help organize the closet.  I may or may not return the purse organizer.  I have to give it another try.  Before I put it in my purse, I emptied my purse and then pulled the liner outside the bag so I could get rid of any lint, etc.  When I put it back in and then put the organizer in there, it didn’t seem to fit.  So I took it out.  But then when I put my stuff back in without the organizer, the liner still seemed goofed up and didn’t sit properly inside the bag.  I think it got caught on something between the liner and the outside fabric that I couldn’t see.  So this morning I dumped everything again and played with it and finally fixed it.  So I may have to give the organizer another chance. 

I skipped lunch but ended up buying a shake from the Mcd’s drive thru onthe way home from shopping.  Bf and I ate dinner out and we both had grilled sole for dinner.  I also ate soup, bread w/ butter, and ice cream, but I was full (gee, ya think?) so I had leftovers to take home.  Later on we watched a movie (Carried Away, 1996, w/ Dennis Hopper, Amy Irving) and had popcorn because we were hungry again (guess the big dinner didn’t make up for missing lunch). 

Sunday I spent all morning looking at the newspaper.  I finally got dressed and went to a couple home improvement stores for a couple things.  Skipped lunch again, went to the gym late in the afternoon w/ bf and did 25 min on the elliptical.  Not much of a workout.  In addition to being a short workout, I didn’t feel like I worked hard enough.  I think I need to listen to my body and not feel like I need to stick to the heart rate ranges.   Maybe the “fat burning” workout uses lower ranges.  Or maybe I’m in better shape than whatever guideline the machine is using, and how can the machine know that if all I tell it is my weight and age??

Sunday night we watched another movie, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead (Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, Marisa Tomei).  I managed to cook – a batch of steel cut oats, tomato-chickpea soup, and a batch of brown rice.  The chickpea soup didn’t turn out as planned because the newspaper recipe showed a photo of crushed tomatoes, but the words called for chopped (diced) tomatoes.  I had the crushed tomatoes in my head and so I bought those, and didn’t have any diced tomatoes on hand.  Grrr.  What I ended up with is more like a sauce than a soup.  That’s why I made some rice – something to serve it over.  Dinner was corned beef w/ boiled potatoes and carrots. 

So the weekend wasn’t anything special, but I felt better getting out to some stores by myself and browsing at my leisure, which is something that doesn’t happen when bf and I go shopping together. 

Friday and today, the boss and I revamped my job description to reflect my change in duties, and the boss met with hr/comp today to discuss it.  She reported that all went well and the process to rid me of my direct reports will be mostly a formality.  Yay! 

Yay for Friday! 

Last couple of days have been nice because the lead is out of the office. 

Yesterday was okay.  My desk is still a major fright.  After work I was completely lazy.  Dinner was a bowl of Trader Joe’s butternut squash soup and some garlic bread.  Watched some tv and read and that was about it.  My upper body was sore from the prev. night’s exercise.

Today’s going well.  Discussed with boss the specifics of the exchange of my supervisor duties for other assignments.  She will discuss how this is done with hr and go from there.  Yesss!

Nothing planned for tonight.  BF and I are out of sync on our exercise schedule, but I might try to go to the gym tonight regardless of whether or not he goes. 

Lunch is a sandwich from home. 

That’s about it for now.  Everyone have a great weekend.

Very blah day.  I wish it were Friday – this week has just been bad.  My desk is a nightmare.  I wish I were able to get in the habit of taking 10 minutes at the end of the day to jot down what I did that day so that I wouldn’t feel like the day was unproductive when I don’t finish work that I intended to.  It would help to see why that happens – meetings and conference calls, time spent on unexpected/unplanned assignments or problems. 

I didn’t go to the gym last night, but I did get a good workout in my basement.  I decided to do my Margaret Richards “Sculpture” dvd – the upper body workout only.  It’s 50 min long and it’s a toughie (for me).  My shoulders were burning, and I think I will be in a world of hurt later this afternoon.  My shoulders and pecs are already sore.  My abs were still sore from Monday’s workout, so I was feeling soreness in my abs during the ab section last night and expect more soreness later in the day.  I bought a couple MR dvds several years ago that I find challenging, but I prefer MR on the Body Electric exercise series because her personality comes out more in the shows and because there are 20+ shows in a series/season, I don’t get tired of doing the same workouts.  I’m generally not a video exerciser anyway, but I do like MR.  It’s a nice change of pace to exercise at home every once in a while. 

Dinner was a hot dog, potato salad, and baked beans. 

This morning I had to buy a ticket on the train because I didn’t have my new April monthly pass – it came in the mail, but I didn’t put it in my wallet.  I already bought my ticket home so I don’t run out of time tonight and get stuck paying another surcharge for buying my ticket on the train when I could have bought it from the station ticket window.  So any money I saved bringing my lunch today went towards paying almost $10 for my train tickets.  Grrr.

For the first time this week, I did finally bring lunch from home today – a turkey sandwich.  I also brought some edamame and some carrots.  I have an apple as well. 

I’ve got two meetings this afternoon, otherwise I have a bunch of stuff on my desk to organize and address.  Ugh. 

Happy April Fool’s Day.  Today is the 20th wedding anniversary of a friend, so I need to give her a call.

Not too much to say today. 

Last night was the movie “Knowing” /w Nicholas Cage.  I found it entertaining.  Sometimes a bit creepy, but good.  There was also what I’d call a religious aspect to it, which was interesting.  It was good to get my mind off of other stuff for a couple hours.  I had a frozen lc type meal for dinner before I left the house, and then had some lousy popcorn, small size, at the theater.  I’d say I buy it every few months or so and I always regret it.  I need to have movie-ready snacks on hand at home!

Trying to play catch up today at work, but a couple conference calls have cropped up for this afternoon. 

Tonight will be the gym.  My lower abs felt sore last night after Monday’s workout.  I can now do several sets of leg raises on the vertical bench with my knees bent (your elbows/forearms support you).  I think I am ready to start trying to do some reps with my legs straight. 

I don’t have any particular aches and pains the past couple weeks, except I can still sometimes feel pain in my left foot where I overdid the calf raises and overstretched something in the arch of my foot.  That’s easing up and becoming less frequent, so at some point I will (carefully) resume calf raises. 

Okay, time to post.