The stores have HUGE stacks of Christmas candy to maneuver about while trying to think of healthy foods. Two full months pushing sugar. There oughta be a law. Since I avoided Halloween candy, I should be able to avoid Christmas candy. It's those d*rn pfeffernusse cookies that call my name.

My goal for the day is to finish moving a cable TV connector from one wall in the living room to another. It sounds like such a simple job, but is taking forever since I have to drill holes and snake wires up and down to the basement and then across.

Have a relaxed Veteran's Day to all who get the day as a holiday.

Hey Bill. Can you come over to my house and connect my desktop computer to the modem in DH's office with the 100 ft. long cable he bought? Definitely not as simple as it sounds, although the holes are drilled in the baseboards and a short cable, which I keep tripping over as it runs across the center of my office, is connected.

Our household progresses. DH now has a workbench downstairs that he built himself over the weekend from plan online.

Mudpie has apparently been replaced by a wailing banshee. Who begins wailing at 3 a.m. DH is not amused and has brought out the squirt bottles. We looked up wailing in cats and there are all sorts of reasons that fit out situation with her. I hope this is not permanent - she is LOUD!

Good week all!

Dagmar

Happy Monday, everyone! Though that seems a bit of an oxymoron. I get Friday off - it is the UAW's celebration of uh, Veteran's Day, yeah - it's easier to do it on Friday which happens to be Opening Day of rifle season, and it's not like anybody will be at work anyway.

Sincere thanks and gratitude from me to all of our veterans on today, the real Veterans Day.

I am not sure what happened to the weekend. I know I did a lot of cooking, not enough laundry, and not enough of the things that were on my list.

Good morning folks! We had a night nanny come take care of the girls last night so I actually managed to get one 3-hour and one 4.5-hour stretch of uninterrupted sleep. Hooray!

The doctor appointment Friday went pretty well. I like our doctor and I feel like she was definitely listening to my concerns. She checked them for lip tie and said they did have a tight frenulum, but that it is pretty common and in general does not require surgical intervention unless it is later in life for dental reasons. She recommended we try switching to a wider-base nipple bottles and make sure to pull their lip up instead of letting them roll it under to help them stretch it out and learn to keep their lip up. We ordered a couple different kinds of bottles off of Amazon that should arrive tomorrow. She also is having us continue with giving both prevacid and zantac for another week to give the prevacid more time to work, then either drop the zantac or drop the prevacid. I think they have shown some definite improvement the past couple days so maybe it's working? We also started giving one of them a probiotic (only way to tell if something is effective: use one baby as a control!) to see if that helps, and bought some gripe water to try too.

They've definitely been making some cognitive strides the past week or so. This morning they were much more interested in looking at each other and grabbing each other than they've been in the past. Also they love sitting in their new booster seats we bought and smashing their teething rings on the plastic tray. It makes a really loud noise and they will repeatedly smash it on the tray, then on the side of the chair, then throw the rings onto the floor. I can tell they're starting to connect the dots because they will look at me right after throwing the rings on the floor, like, "Mommy, go pick that up for me!"

Allison, glad Ringo didn't have a blockage!

Dagmar, I hope Mudpie calms down. Maybe she's just adjusting to the new house?

Hi Becky, Bill, and Silver!

Good morning all and Happy Veterans Day. I am thankful to have it off as I was able to have a great visit with dd in Tucson. Currently in the Tucson airport. My flight is showing a 30 minute delay. I'm praying it's not the three hour delay I had coming out Friday night. I planned an early flight home so I could still get stuff accomplished on my day off. Hoping to get home in time to grocery shop, get my nails done, and go to bikram. We will see.

I got some exercise in but my food was pretty indulgent. As was the sodium so I'm sure the scale will be horrendous.

I'm not sure if I'm having sciatica or I did something else to my ankle. I ran on Saturday and then my ankle started hurting. It's still hurting and is tingly. My back hurts but not terribly. Hmmm...

We rode horses yesterday in the mountains with cacti all around. It was gorgeous. I was nervous as I hadn't been on a horse in about five years but it was fun. My dd's horse was named Nelly. She kept wanting to trot so dd would say whoa Nelly! Ha ha!

Good morning everyone!

I just realized that due to the holiday we'll have no mail or banking to do today so it'll be really quiet for me at work. I'd like to leave early to get a mani/pedi. Let's hope I can!

Glad you got some good sleep Jessica! And glad the doctor visit went well, also.

Hoping that Michele gets home quickly and safely and that Dagmar doesn't fall over that cord.

No, my company doesn't observe Veteran's Day, though the absence of some thousand cars on the road this morning did make for an easier commute.

I've already done a 45-minute training session on the phone and with a shared laptop screen for a writer who's in the U.K. and heading to Beijing in a few weeks' time.

I'm physically tired. I had a spin class yesterday morning, then a four-mile run, and this morning dragged my carcass to a 6 AM spin class. It ought to be an early bed time for me tonight.

saef, at first reading I assumed it was with someone like me and that we were doing synchronised yoga or something. Hilarious mental picture. You were leading and I was saying, "No, saef! I really can't do that. I'm not as flexible as you! Stop!! I've run out of breath." Let's try it sometime.

Saef, I too am at work today. DH was annoyed this weekend because the BMV (Indiana's version of the DMV) was closed for Veteran's Day...on Saturday! BTW how is your managerial job going? You've been in it for several months now right? Or is my brain so fogged it's been over a year?

Dagmar, I was going to comment on something you said in the previous thread but forgot. To add veggies into your meals, I find it's much easier to cook stir-fries and casseroles and pasta sauces and such with veggies in them than to try to have veggies as a side dish. You can really put anything in. Soup is another easy one where you can throw in all sorts of veggies without really affecting anything else in the soup. Also if they're mixed with other things then you don't have the same taste of it as if it was separate. Like I enjoy having spinach in my pasta sauce, but plain cooked spinach? Yuck!

Well, Jessica, now I wonder why you wouldn't have complete total recall of my managerial tenure, what with your twins making you wake in the night over & over again? Of course it's okay. And I started in January, so not quite a year ago. My manager rushed through the promotion so that I could experience a full fiscal year of goal setting, midyear check-in and end-of-year reviews, which are going to be rolling out in a couple weeks' time.

Sometimes I like the job. Yes, sometimes I do. I really like coaching people, listening to them, bolstering them, making suggestions. ("Coaching" is the term everyone uses here for that kind of work. As in a "life coach" only we're a "work coach" or a "writing coach.") It's a bit like trying to help people here identify their issues and achieve their goals. I feel as though I were meant to be doing this.

What I don't like is trying to complete writing assignments on top of the managerial duties. We are always short-handed, with far more work than writers available to take it on. We've been down by two people for several months. I said "yes" to some things that I shouldn't have, to maintain my dept's reputation for being helpful & getting important things done. And I'm paying for it.

Birchie, oh my dear, you're perfectly safe. The Scotsman whom we've hired to travel to Beijing is not so lucky. We have analysts in China whose written English is not good. We end up rewriting vast reports sentence by sentence. I'm sure a lot of their meaning doesn't get through. We're sending a writer over to assist them, since this is an issue upfront in their drafts rather than something an editor can always resolve.

I am full of admiration for this guy who's traveling to China to live there full-time & work for an unspecified length of time. What stress, but what an adventure. I mean, I can barely get through a week in NY & CT.

saef If the guy going to live in Beijing is young and single and without many attachments he probably will have a great adventure - lucky him!

If I had opportunities like that when I was young I would have jumped all over them. If I had them now (and no DH or pets) I WOULD be jumping all over them. There's a whole big part of the world that I will never see and experience and that's a sad regret for me.

DH and I had major fight last night. We will have more. Until things (kitchen, kitchen and KITCHEN) are set up I am going to be very tired and cranky. DH is all gung ho about replacing the cable in my office. I will agree to that and help him but then we move the cabinet in the kitchen and get the electricians in. I am now quite determined to have a functional kitchen by next week.

Who was it invented daylight savings?

Dagmar

This is so very, very time-consuming. I am spending part of my week on this kind of thing (and translating to and fro to make sure as much meaning as possible does get through). It's an interesting development to send a writer to the source of the reports. I wonder whether it will save time in the end.

A friend was an 'English polisher' on China Daily in Beijing. He had a great time and so will your person, I'm sure.

It's a lovely autumn day here.

Morning all,

I spent my day off taking the dog to the vet and then back to the theatre to work on painting trim on the set. I had a moment where I felt self-indulgent for not thinking about the reason I had the day off, though, and tried to spend some time reflecting and mentally thanking our veterans (didn't see any IRL to thank yesterday). I have spent the majority of my time since Friday working on play things and at the theatre. The set is looking really fantastic! Rehearsals incorporating our technical aspects are also going well - more smoothly than expected, actually. Home stretch. I think I've thrown myself more into this one than any other show, but despite how tired I am I'm really enjoying the challenge. While painting the other day, though, I was thinking next time I do this I'll find a show where I can have an abstract minimalist set. Maybe a few chairs. No walls. Big sets are hard for a community theatre group to pull off!

The dog's intestinal troubles have continued, so I finally took her to the vet yesterday. Our vet has a new partner and I like her a lot. She is friendly and really listened to my plea of "I spent $500 on her UTI last month and I think this is related - please let's do the easy stuff first". I now have on my counter: the rest of a bag of white rice, probiotics, metamucil, prevacid, and antibiotics. I'm out of cooked chicken so I asked BF to cook up another batch of plain chicken for the dog's dinner before I left today. He was rather offended. I left the dog chicken and rice, and him some lettuce. I suspect he'll eat some of the chicken too. Love you honey!

*snort* The scientist in me really appreciates this. I'm glad you like your doctor - so important to feel you have a good repor and they are listening to you. And I'm also glad the girls are sleeping better and the reflux has been better. I don't comment a lot on FB, but the pictures you post are soooo cute!

Dagmar, I completely understand your wanting a functional kitchen. I think a lot of us maintainers in particular are into our food routines and used to being able to prep food for ourselves. I hope you get your kitchen soon!

Saef, I think I recall that your company's year also ends around December. Is that right - would that make this your busiest time? Is there an end in sight to this busyness? I'm sure since this is your first year in your new position there is extra pressure to prove yourself.

Michele, I hope you made it home ok. Glad you enjoyed your trip with DD. Your riding trip sounds beautiful! How is your ankle today?

Bill, Christmas things have shown up here too. Remember when it used to be an unofficial rule that Christmas stuff didn't go up until the day after Thanksgiving? I miss those days. I don't walk down the center two aisles at CVS.

Hi Silver! Hi to everyone else too!

I am still sane over here, I promise. Have a good day everyone.

It looks like Thanksgiving won't be as big a challenge. The OC folks chimed in with what they're bringing and it cut my food stuff in half. The only challenge now is seating and heating it all up once it arrives.