laura705

Just popping in for a short post.  Stayed home from work Friday because I was tired of all the coughing.  I’m still congested and that’s causing the coughing, but otherwise I feel okay, in spite of bf bugging me to get an rx from the doc because I’m not getting better (his opinion). 

I raked a lot yesterday because it was a beautiful day and there were a lot of leaves in the back.  I see more fell since then, so more raking is needed.  Bf will have to do that,  and before Wed, which is our last day for curbside leaf pickup.  After this week, we’ll need to bag the leaves - a lot more work.  In back, our maple is almost done dropping its leaves, but the oak is mostly hanging on.  It’s always the holdout. 

I went to Walmart to shop yesterday and have decided it’s not worth it for grocery shopping.  They don’t have nearly the variety of brands that other markets have.  So I still need to grocery shop some more today.  I also want to get to Kohl’s and use a $10 coupon I have - it expires today.  I’ve been wanting to buy some socks to match a pair of brown mary jane shoes I bought a couple months ago.  I need all kinds of other clothes, but I’ll just focus on the socks and maybe I’ll come across something else I like without scouring the racks.  I think I still have money on a Kohl’s gift card I can use…

Right now though, I think I’ll make some veggie soup with a recipe that has it going in the crockpot after sauteeing the veggies.  Bf won’t want it because it has no meat, but too bad.  I  want it.  I’ll thaw some ground beef and tomorrow he can either make the Italian veggie soup which has ground beef in it, or he can make something else w/ the beef. 

Okay, time to publish and get cooking. 

Feeling slightly better today.  Yes, I’m at work.  Maybe yesterday was pushing it to be back at work, but that morning before work I did actually think it would be better than it ended up being.  I switched up the cold medicine I’m taking today and I think it’s working better. 

I didn’t do anything after work except go through the mail and watch TV.  I finally watched an episode of TBL this season.  As usual, lots of tears and drama.  I kept flipping back and forth between that and other shows especially during all the commercial breaks.   For anyone who didn’t see it…here’s your spoiler warning.  Just wondering why they didn’t show how Shay looks today.  Now that I think about it, did they show how Daniel looked?   Hmmm.  My memory is going, but I don’t think they did.  What’s that about?

Nothing special going on today.  I thought the lead admin was taking a vacation day today, but no, it’s tomorrow and Friday.  She’s taking a lot of vacation time this month before she moves to her new department in December.  I once worked for her boss-to-be and I know he’s always had a bug up his you-know-what about people carrying over vacation days, so I’m sure that’s why she’s scrambling to take it before year end and before she moves to his dept. Fine by me, except the rest of us are also trying to meet w/ her to make sure the transition of her duties to the new admin happens smoothly.  And we’re all making sure we sit in on the meetings with the new admin so that the lead won’t give her a hard time.  Sigh. 

Nothing else to report, so I’ll publish.

Still feeling sucky, but I went to work anyway because why be miserable at home when I can be miserable at work?  Actually, after doing nothing but reading and watching bad tv all day and evening yesterday, I was bored stiff.  My tv taste was running to soaps and other fluff like the movie “13 Going on 30″, and some Hallmark movie about an American college girl who ends up marrying a Danish prince.  I was just killing time until I could take my nyquil and conk out.

A couple other people are sick on the floor because I hear coughing other than my own, and I think the guy whose cube is kitty-corner from mine went home early.  He sounded worse than me, and I think I heard him trying to record an out of office phone message and kept hacking away through it.  Poor guy. 

Anyway, last night I took nyquil and again slept soundly.  I showered this morning and felt semi-human for a short time.  I’m taking a daytime cold medicine, and was taking cough drops too until I finished the last one about 15 min ago.  Everyone in the dept has gone to our fundraising finale, but I stayed at my desk because who the heck wants to be near someone sick?  I might run out real quick to the Walgreen’s down the block and buy a new bag of cough drops. 

Food hasn’t been very good the past few days.  Strangely enough I can still taste food.  Today I used up a free lunch pass to the caf that I had sitting in my wallet that expired a couple days ago.  Sloppy Joe and tater tots.  Tasty and filling.  Not light or healthy though. 

Not going to the movie tonight, because, again, who wants to be around a sickie?  So I’ll just stay home.  No idea what I’ll eat for dinner. 

Not much else to report, so I’ll publish and go buy my cough drops. 

Ugh.  Feeling awful. 

Weekend.  Friday after work bf met me at the train stop near our friends w/ the new baby and we visited and had sandwiches with them for dinner.  Saturday I woke up too early again, 2nd day in a row, and felt lousy.  Just general tiredness - I thought.  Bf went with his mother to drop off her car for service and then had breakfast w/ her and visited with his aunt.  I dozed a bit and then puttered around all morning and finally got out of the house and did some yard cleanup.  It was a beautiful mild sunny day to do that. 

Later in the afternoon I took a shower, took a nap, and woke up w/ a sore throat.  Yup, a cold was on it’s way.  I skipped the book club, which I wasn’t all that enthused about anyway.  Dinner was a smart ones entree and I had popcorn and watched tv.  Sunday I still had the sore throat.  I puttered around in the morning and drank hot tea for my throat.  Took doggy for a walk by the creek because it was another nice day.  Did some laundry.  More throat gave way to the cold that evening and I took Nyquil.  I slept okay. 

I stayed home from work today because I felt lousy - sinus pressure and congestion.  And now my face and mouth ache.  I think part of that is keeping my mouth open to breathe through it, but I can’t figure out why the left half of my mouth/face aches.  I suppose that’s more of the sinus aspect of this cold.  Just took some ibuprofen to see if that helps. 

Food’s been off track all weekend, but I’ve been trying to drink a lot of water.  Don’t want to think about work tomorrow.  I could stay home again, or I can drug myself up and go.  I don’t know.  I’m sick of both tv and reading.  I kink of wish I could sleep through the next three days or so while this cold runs its course.  Reminds, me, I might need bf to run out for some more nyquil.  I don’t know if there’s enough for a full dose tonight.  It’s only 6:35.  The day feels like it’s gone on forever. 

Okay, I’m going to stop typing because all I’m doing is whining. 

Well, Friday.  I’m usually happier about it, but I dunno.  Pretty blah today.  I guess I just want the day to be over.  The work day, that is. 

We had a company meeting that was not very happy.  Tough times, and more tough times ahead.  No guarantees there won’t be more cuts. 

I’m working on a budget update, oh fun.  And we’re meeting this afternoon about transitioning the tasks that the lead admin does to the new admin, and eliminating what we can.  Like maintaining a lot of paper files will go bye-bye.  Which is fine by me.  I like to think that most of the time I have what I need either in e-mail and/or in the network computer drive.  That means that most of my “desk files” can be tossed after a while.  Yay.

Yesterday at work was generally okay.  Bf made chicken stir fry for dinner last night.  He didn’t start until well after 7:30, and I complained about that and was really irritated when he was finally going out to buy veggies for the stir fry because I knew it would take forever if he bought fresh veggies and chopped them himself.  I told him to buy a bag of frozen stir fry veggies, so he did, except for some fresh shiitake mushrooms.  He didn’t want help, so he did it all himself. 

We finally ate, and it was really disappointing.  Truth be told, bf loves to stir fry, but I hate bf’s stir fry.  He usually overloads our little wok and things tend to steam rather than fry.  This one was no different, in fact it was worse than usual.  Because we didn’t have enough white rice, he made brown rice.  We rarely eat rice at home, and usually never brown rice.  The box sitting in the cabinet was really old.  But I don’t think it goes bad, so I just think that brown rice is just something I don’t like and I’d forgotten because it had been so long since I ate it.  We’d just bought a package of jasmine rice and I wish he’d used that, but he thought it would be good to use up the opened box.  He didn’t use enough veggies, and they weren’t all that great anyway, for which I take the blame, because I told him to buy the frozen ones.  The whole dish was bland; I have no idea what kind of sauce he used.  And I even hated the shape he cut the chicken into.  I know I’m being horrible about this, but it was a pretty sucky dinner.  And I know he wasn’t thrilled with it either.  Overall, I really just wish I’d eaten a frozen diet entree instead. 

This weekend.  Nothing planned tonight.  We have another pound of chicken breast tenders to use up (I thawed a 2-lb package).  I should probably cook them tonight because Saturday we’re spending the day w/ bf’s mother and aunt, and then in the evening is book club.  There probably won’t be time for a proper dinner, and there’s always a lot of food at book club anyway.  I haven’t decided on what to bring to book club for a snack, let alone shopped or prepared anything yet.  Not super excited about this book club.  I read the book a couple years ago and didn’t bother re-reading it.  I did like the book, so I’m sure I’ll enjoy the discussion.  I guess it’ll be difficult trying to avoid overeating all the snacks people bring, so that sort of takes some of the enjoyment out of it.  Hopefully we actually discuss the book and not everyone’s kids and their friends, teachers, soccer teams, etc. 

Sunday I hope the weather is good enough to let me get out in the yard to get things cleaned up for the winter. 

That’s about all, so I’ll publish. 

Not much to report today.  It’s chilly, but at least sunny today.  Looking forward to the next few days because they are supposed to be sunny and milder. 

Yesterday dragged for me at work.  Not because I didn’t have anything to do, but nothing really urgent.  Our busy season is winding down, so that’s good because the boss won’t be so hyper, and it’s a good opportunity to catch up on things. 

Food was a bit over my calorie range, but not by much.  Today I brought my snacks, but not lunch.  I’ll eat out.  Not sure where or what.  I didn’t exercise last night.  I’ve just been so tired at the end of the day the past week or so.  I think maybe I need to eat more calories earlier in the day or something?  What I really need to do is get back to exercising.  Really my only physical activity has been walking during my commute, which is over a two miles a day, but less than I want.  I think exercise boosts energy. 

I find I’m looking forward to when the boss has her time off work, and to some time off of my own.  Neither are for a few weeks yet, so I might schedule a vacation day in the next couple weeks.  I always like to carry over a few vacation days into the next year because I’ve gotten so accustomed to doing that, but I’m going to try and limit it to 2 this year.  The new admin inquired about our 2010 work holidays, so I printed them off for myself as well and saw that we get Presidents day for a holiday next year.  Sometimes we don’t get it (usually depends on how the other holidays line up), so that will be nice because otherwise there’s a big gap between New Year’s Day and Memorial Day. 

Okay, I’m just rambling now, so I’ll post this. 

The text in my first post started highlighting itself and not letting me type anymore, but I didn’t want to totally re-write it, so I published it “as is”  with a dangling sentence at the end.  I couldn’t edit it either.  So, rest of post is here, but it’s not much more. 

One quick meeting today, scheduled by the boss.  It will be to tell us about what it going down right now, which is some employee cuts that boss told me about yesterday.  Sad, but our company is having a hard time like so many others.  Our department is okay, but only by virtue of the fact that the lead admin is transferring out of our department and her position isn’t being replaced.  So I guess what happened with the lead is a blessing in disguise.

Other than that, nothing much to report.  I brought my lunch and snacks from home today.  Nothing going on tonight.  I should exercise.  Maybe I’ll do something at home tonight. 

Okay, going to publish this before the text starts freaking out again.

Still chilly today, and it’s not sunny either.  Boo.  Need to start wearing my warmer outerwear. 

Last night was pot roast for dinner.  It was really tasty.  Overall, food was okay yesterday.  I smuggled my sandwich into McDonald’s and bought a side salad and a diet coke to eat with it.  Yeh, I could have just brought the salad back to work, but I figure once I venture out of the office for lunch, I’d just rather eat where I am rather than hauling it back to the office to eat at my desk.  

I brought a serving of pretzels and some water to the movie theater.  I didn’t really like “The Invention of Lying” much.  It had funny parts, and I really like Ricky Gervais, but overall it fell flat for me.  Right from the start, I started to split hairs.  Just because people don’t lie, does that automatically mean they voice every thought in their minds?  Because that sort of means they’re often cruel or impolite.  I dunno.  I suppose if there was a natural point in the conversation where a spoken response is expected, it makes sense to have the character voice their true feelings (you’re an idiot) instead of the usual white lie type of niceties (so nice to see you).   I think I liked “Ghost Town”, another Ricky Gervais movie, much better than this one. 

Well, there’s

Brrr, cold today.  Don’t like that at all.  Feeling icky today.  First day of TOM, and I’m having abdominal and lower back pain that I usually am not plagued with.  Waiting for the ibuprofen to kick in. 

Yesterday was alright at work.  No meetings, so that was good.  I haven’t mentioned the news in our department:  Last week, the boss told me the “lead” admin is leaving the department.  (Actually, the other manager told me the week before that, but I had to pretend I didn’t know because she wasn’t supposed to tell anyone.)  Anyway, that was the good news.  The bad news is that she’s going back to her old department in a newly created position (still administrative), but the department is situated on the same floor as ours, right next to ours.  So she’ll still be around.  The other bad news is that we won’t be replacing her because of company budget constraints.  But the boss thinks this is actually the best outcome that could happen.  After a lot of issues over the past couple years, it became apparent she really didn’t work well with others.  Once I was no longer supervising her, I pretty much kept my distance because I didn’t trust her.  I’ve also noticed the new admin didn’t mix with her much after she became comfortable with her job duties, and when the lead was assigned to work on a project w/ the other manager, they also butted heads with the usual problems.  So I guess I agree with the boss, because I think the lead was headed towards termination at some point, and it would have been ugly.  This is the best outcome.  Actually, the best outcome would be if she was working on another floor, or better yet, outside the company, but we’ll deal with it. 

Last night’s bone density test went fine, and I’m in the normal range, so I don’t need another one for two years.  Dinner was eggs and bacon and an English muffin.  I was over my calories for the day by the amount of the 3 pieces of Halloween candy I ate last night.  Bf took all the candy he wanted and put it away, so I took the rest to work this morning.  Of course I couldn’t resist digging into it on the way to work, how weak is that?  But it’s now on the counter in the coffee room and it should be gone in no time. 

Brought my lunch and snacks to work today.  No meetings again today.  Plenty to do though.  Tonight is the movies.  We’re seeing “The Invention of Lying”.  That’s about it, so I’ll get this published. 

Wow, November already.  Need to print my Nov. calendar. Need to get the rest of my vacation days scheduled!

Weekend.  Hmmm.  Oh, quiet day at the office.  In the evening, bf and I went out for dinner.  I suggested a Thai place we’d tried once before.  Not finding the food quite spicy enough last time, bf ordered it spicier (which our server called “Thai style”).  The beef salad we had for an appetizer would have been really delicious (it was more than just the usual pile of beef on some iceberg lettuce, it was a real salad w/ lovely greens and a nice flavorful dressing), but it was just too spicy.  Same for the Tom Yum soup I ordered as my main entrée.  Bf’s panang curry was just fine.  (We actually ended up sharing entrees.)  So next time, we’ll just order it Thai style, but ask them to back off the spice a couple notches.  Too funny seeing bf with his nose running and eyes watering.  I have a slightly higher tolerance for the spice, but my nose was running too.  Our lips were stinging too, LOL. 

After dinner we went to Walmart and bought our Halloween candy.  went to bed relatively early, because once again I was pooped. 

I don’t remember what I did all Saturday morning.  Just puttering I guess.  I put up some Halloween clings on the storm door (better late than never) and dug out a trick-or-treat pail to use for handing out our candy.  The candy, still unopened, was calling my name all morning and I finally succumbed and had a mini Twix.  Right around noon, I took doggy for a walk by the creek.  I took the looong leash, but soon realized I wouldn’t be letting go of it because doggy was moving pretty fast (full of P&V again) and I probably wouldn’t be able to even keep up with my end of the leash.  So I ended up putting the flexi leash back on him, which is easier to deal with. 

Lunch was soup and chicken.  In the afternoon, I did some laundry, swept the floors (a quiet alternative to the stick vacuum), drank tea, read my book, and greeted trick-or-treaters.  It was a brisk, windy day, so I didn’t want to rake leaves, nor did I feel like doing any other clean up in the backyard.  I did, however, eat (and logged) Halloween candy.  I made a point of eating one of each type we had, which was 8 pieces, and in all I had 10 pieces.  It sure adds up!  We didn’t get many trick-or-treaters, so we had a lot of candy left.  Didn’t end up giving it away to the last trick-or-treater to visit, so boo on that.  

Sat. night was ho hum.  I watched some tv, including Suze Orman, and went to bed early for some reading.  I didn’t sleep very well on Saturday night and ended up getting up in the middle of the night for a snack – some crackers and dip.   Then I read some more.  I finally went back to sleep and didn’t get up until about 8:30 the next morning. 

Sunday morning I finished reading my book, looked at the newspaper, and made a shopping list for a few items I needed for a couple recipes we might make this week.  I ate a healthy breakfast and plenty of water because I had my blood donation appointment.  Before the donation appointment I bought some fabric dye (sale at Joanne’s) for some sheets I want to dye.  After the donation, I had not one, but two bags of the tasty white cheddar popcorn they have for post-donation snacks, and I also started on a pack of Oreos (which I finished later in the day).  After that, I went to the market and picked up some groceries at Traders Joe’s and another store.  Back at home, lunch was few pieces of leftover pizza.  Bf and I took doggy for a walk after lunch.  Nice and sunny!  Dinner was fancy burgers bf’s mother had bought on sale and given to us.  Sun dried tomato and parmesan.  Nothing I’d buy or eat again.  Because we had leftover Halloween candy, I ended up eating some of that during the day.  We need to get rid of that!  I’ll have bf pick out what he wants (probably the Heath and Payday bars) and we’ll give away the rest.  Not a great eating day, but I don’t count calories on Sundays.  I still try to eat reasonably, but yesterday really got away from me with the snacks. 

Back to logging in my food today.  Today was the fundraiser’s bake/garage sale.  I bought a small brownie.  Have to work that into the day’s calories.  Brought my lunch and snacks to work.  Sandwich was on some low-calorie wheat bread bf bought for me.  Only 70 calories for 2 slices.  It’s not bad, not great.  Nice that bf’s catching on. 

No meetings today.  Tonight after work is my bone density test.  We’ll see if bf makes the pot roast for dinner.  I left the recipe on the counter, hint, hint, LOL.  I thawed the meat yesterday. 

Okay, enough rambling.  Time to publish.