Scattered Reports

Ack, have I really not posted here at all this month?

It's been an insanely busy month, so let's see if we can sum it all up...

I took the kids to a children's play. And to the dentist. I threw an adults-only Valentisn't party (which is just like Missmas, only in February instead of January) that was a lot of fun. Both kids came down with the flu, weekend before last, so I spent all week last week working from home in an effort to keep germs isolated. It totally didn't work, though, because over this past weekend I caught a cold and am back in the office with it today. (I'm keeping my office door closed, though.)

I went down to Chesapeake to have dinner with KT and Kevin just before Valentine's Day. Then the next week I went down to VA Beach with KT to meet up with a fellow local erotica writer for coffee. That was fantastic, and I'm looking forward to doing it again.

I went to the theater with Elizabeth to see her dad in "Faith Healer," which was simultaneously hysterical and heartbreaking.

I went with Jenn and Brian to a bowling social for letting hopeful adoptive parents meet prospective adoptive kids. That was mildly awkward, but still fun. We had great plans for the afternoon and evening, too, but Jenn got sick before we could put them into play, so we just sat around their place and watched movies and got takeout Chinese. Which was also still good.

Long-time reader Ami told me on Facebook that she wanted to hear more about dating... Which is a little tricky, since the guys I've dated haven't really given me permission to talk about them (I'm not even sure they know about my blog). Let's see, what can I say...? Ah! I'll re-share a few observations I've made to some girlfriends:

• God, but I've missed kissing.
• I can understand why, when I was a young, it was so easy to confuse this heady exhilaration with actual love.
• Necking on the couch like teenagers is even more fun when you're not worried about your parents coming home.
• There are things that I sort of knew when I was younger, but hadn't really absorbed yet, that seem to have finally sunk in, over the years. Like: Confidence is incredibly sexy. It's okay to make mistakes and admit to ignorance. And it's okay to say no -- and equally okay to say yes.

I did stop seeing one guy, for a variety of reasons that boiled down to -- I just wasn't feeling it. There's another that I'm pretty happy with, but neither of us is quite ready to try to make it into anything official or exclusive. I'm still logging into my online dating account from time to time and seeing what looks good.

So that's the state of my dating life. I hope that's sufficient to keep your prurient interests satisfied.

I need to get back to work and throw down another dose of cold medicine so I can recover in time for my date this week...

Checkout

I don't know if it's the weather, or the cough meds, or a weekend of interrupted and/or restless sleep... but all I want to do is put my head down and take a nap.

So briefly, from the foggy haze of exhaustion: good weekend. Decent drive, pretty wedding, fantastic food.

Sat up way too late with KT and Kevin and Karen, playing Cards Against Humanity, then got up way too early and had breakfast with them before coming home. Got the kids, and had a great time with them, too.

This week has no big plans. The Newport News Park Fall Festival is this weekend; I might hit that. I might be going on a date Saturday. Hallowe'en decorations will probably go up, as the kids have been pestering me about them since last week. But other than that? As little as possible.

And hopefully, some naps.

A Mild Suggestion

I went back to the doctor on Tuesday for my cough.

(It's been going on for so long that no fewer than four people in my office stopped by to suggest their own remedies. Zinc and echinacea, fresh juice, tea with honey, vitamin C supplements...)

My doctor said, "There comes a time when we've tried everything else, and we just give up and throw antibiotics at it."

"Good," I said, "because that's what I want."

"Let's see... I can give you Zithromax, which is fairly benign and gentle and usually gets the job done, or Biaxin, pretty much kills everything but the host. I'm thinking we go with door number two."

"Yes. By all means, let's take no chances," I agreed.

"Okay." He started tapping at his Macbook Air, sending a (wireless, electronic) prescription directly to my pharmacy.

"Can we refill the cough syrup, too? Just to keep things even until the antibiotics kick in?"

"Yes, absolutely." He tapped some more. "Now, the Biaxin, you should take with food."

"Will do."

"I'm not kidding. Don't eat dinner and then take it an hour later. Take it with the food."

"Got it."

"No fooling around. And not just a little food. A whole meal. Take the pill, and then dump the food on top of it."

"Take the pill before I eat?"

"Yes. Just before you eat." He tapped at his computer some more, recording notes. "Did I mention you should take it with food?"

"Yes, I got it."

"Really. With food."

"Okay."

He let me go, and I went down the hall, stopping at the desk to turn in my charts. I opened the door out onto the waiting room and the exit, and my doctor came around the corner. "Take it with food!" he yelled. I think he startled some of the waiting patients.

I'm beginning to think he had a message to impart, there. If only I could figure out what it was...

(I took the fourth pill this morning. [With food, yes.] I'm still coughing, but it's already smoothing out and becoming less urgent.)

By the way, no post tomorrow -- I'm taking the day off to drive up to Charlottesville for a friend's wedding and -- not incidentally -- hang out with my other friends who will be attending the wedding. I hope to have pictures and stories on my return, Monday!

Sore

Whee, weather changes are fun! In addition to the cough I can't shake, I've now got a post-nasal drop sore throat from the changing weather.

I wonder if that would convince the doctor to just give me some dang antibiotics...

Probably not without a positive strep test, which doesn't seem likely. I'll give it through the weekend, and then call the doctor Monday if I'm still under the weather.

I actually gave up and went home at lunchtime yesterday, took an extra dose of cough syrup, and went to bed for a three-hour nap. I don't know if I actually felt better when I woke up, but at least that was three hours I wasn't coughing.

I foresee a lot of naps this weekend. Yay, naps!

(I'm rambling, aren't I? Sorry about that. I blame the cough syrup.)

Activity!

I am, as they say, keeping busy.

I have an appointment with my therapist today. Those are sometimes painful, occasionally actually fun, and almost always draining.

Tomorrow, I'm meeting Elizabeth for a movie and sushi. There was a Groupon a little while back for a local Japanese restaurant -- $20 for $40 worth of food. Which is a great deal for a restaurant I love eating at... but there's no way I can eat $40 worth of food on my own (especially within the limits of these sorts of coupons, which generally stipulate you have to use them in one visit, and alcohol is not included). So I said something on Twitter about being willing to split it with someone, and Elizabeth took me up on it. So yay, girldate! If we can both get out of work early, we're going to see ParaNorman; if not, we're going to catch Bourne Legacy.

Saturday's project is to start redecorating the dining room. I decided a few weeks back that I was going to gather all my Cancun stuff in there and give the room a Mexico theme. I found a border sticker that's not blatantly Mexican, but has that same sort of bright color going on for it, so that's my step one -- putting that up. Then I'll work on rearranging the artwork.

Saturday night, I have a date. I'm hoping it goes well. Or at least, better than the lunch date I had on Tuesday, with a gentleman who was very nice and ridiculously smart but not a terribly good conversationalist, so there were a lot of awkward silences. (Yes, for my concerned friends, appropriate levels of caution are being taken such as meeting in public places and not giving out more personal information than necessary. And at the other end of the caution scale, yes, I've got condoms. And no, I am not going to blog about their use, or lack thereof.)

Sunday's excitement, beyond the usual chores (whoo! chores!) is a meetup to see about possibly joining a local gaming group for an Ars Magica campaign. It sounds like schedule might be an issue, though, so I'm not holding my breath.

Now, if I can just bludgeon this stupid damn cough out of existence, I'll be ready to take on the world. (Yay, Happy Fun Cough Syrup...)

This Is Why

I've had a cough for coming up on a week now. No other symptoms, mind. Just a dry cough. Nothing coming up with it. No fever. No headache. No congestion or sinus pressure. Nothing. Just a cough.
I did this a couple of years ago and figured it would just go away on its own. Two months later, I finally caved and went to the doctor and the verdict was: bronchitis! A run of antibiotics and I was fine inside of a week.

So yesterday, sitting on the realization that the cough had not improved over the weekend, despite smothering it with allergy meds and cough syrup, I should maybe just swallow my irritations and go to the damn doctor. (I don't avoid the doctor because I'm afraid of it. I avoid the doctor because unless I need antibiotics, it never does me any good, and I'm left feeling irritable that I've wasted several hours of my life for nothing.)

But! Dry cough, not going away. I went to the doctor.

The doctor peered and poked and prodded and listened and said: Probably viral. Give it a few more days and if it doesn't improve, call me back.

She did prescribe for me a cough pill. It is apparently an expectorant, not a suppressant, because today it feels like there's gunk in the back of my throat that I can't clear, but I can't stop trying.

ARGH. This. This is why I avoid going to the damn doctor.

Inheritance

Right after we got back from Cancun, the kids had an appointment with their regular pediatrician for their annual checkups.

Alex was pronounced fine and fit and healthy, but the doctor didn't like the sound of Penny's breathing. And the more she listened, the more she didn't like it.

Apparently, Penny isn't quite asthmatic, but she's on the edge of falling into that abyss. And thanks to the Ultimate Fun that is combining diabetes with steroids (in which by "ultimate" I mean "absolutely zero"), the doctor doesn't want to treat this state of pre-asthma with the usual steroid regimen unless it's the only option remaining. So Penny's now got this awesome machine for doing breathing treatments three or four times a day, and she's also taking Claritin. And she's got a follow-up appointment on Thursday so the doctor can evaluate whether the breathing treatments are getting the job done and decide if they need to continue. (For what it's worth, Penny's still sniffling a lot, but she's stopped continually clearing her throat, so I have to assume that's progress.)

As much as I loathe the notion, I suspect allergy shots will be recommended, if not on Thursday, then at some point in the future. I don't know if I'll agree to it, though. I've been through two courses of allergy shots -- once as a kid, and once just a few years ago -- and both times, it's been an incredible amount of hassle and expense for what turned out to be a very temporary easement (not even a full halt) of symptoms.

This probably shouldn't come as a surprise to me. Both Matt and I are allergy sufferers; it was all but inevitable that the kids would be, too.

Penny sure got screwed over on the whole inheritance lottery, didn't she? Poor kid.

Quiet Weekend

I like a quiet weekend, but it doesn't give me much to blog about.

We hung out with the Hegemony, as usual, Friday night. Babysat for them on Saturday so they could go see Prometheus. Spent Sunday mostly at home, running errands, dorking on our computers, and reading.

Penny and I got haircuts Saturday morning. (Nothing exciting; just trims and I got my color refreshed -- it's about two steps redder this time around, and I'm still trying to decide if I like it.)

I tried a new recipe for Sunday's dinner -- bacon-wrapped hamburger patties -- that was very well-received by the whole family. I hereby formally and publicly kowtow to KT for linking me to this list, because I've been completely bored with everything in my usual repertoire, and it's hard to come by meals that a) are mostly healthy; b) everyone in the family is willing to eat; and c) can be prepared in a reasonable amount of time. That list is meal-planning gold.

***

After spending all last week feeling proud of myself for actually getting up when the alarm went off and going downstairs and exercising, I managed to twist my knee Saturday night. How, you ask? By performing the stupidly simple task of bending over from a sitting position to try to pick something up off the floor. Which is even more embarrassing than the time I ended up on crutches after a game of Frisbee -- at least that was an activity. And of course it was the good knee, not the one that's been sort of mildly dodgy for months.

All day Sunday, it twinged every time I straightened it -- you know, like you do when you stand up or walk? -- despite my popping Aleve like candy.

This morning when I woke up, I gingerly straightened my leg, waiting for the pain, and there was none. Oh, awesome, I thought. I guess it just needed some good rest. Maybe I can do some exercise after all. I got up (still no pain!) and went into the bathroom, pondering which of my 15-minute routines would stress the knee least (because I'm not dumb)... and when I sat on the toilet, my knee all but shrieked in protest. Yesterday it was straightening that was bad; today, apparently bending is verboten.

So no exercise for me and my knee this morning. Dammit.

(I swear, between my knees and my back, I'm about to say, "Fuck it, I'm just destined to be fat," and go out and buy a bunch of mumus so I can stop freaking out whenever I outgrow another pair of pants.)

Get Your Cheese!

...'Cause I've got some whine.

Apparently, if you stop going to the gym because you're sick and then spend the better part of a week eating junk food and drinking wine and then eating more junk food, you gain some weight. Who knew, right?

So now I'm not so much poking my toe at that line in the sand as have stepped boldly over it, and now I really, really, really need to get my act together and stop eating like I don't care. (Or else, you know, actually stop caring. But that doesn't seem like the wise move.)

Also on the whine front: bigwigs in the office today, so I had to dress up. My only winter dressy shoes are ankle boots with a four-inch heel, and I'm having feet problems again lately (possibly because of all the weight I've packed on in the last year -- I don't deny it) so I'm praying to all the gods that I don't have to do a lot of standing and walking today.

Sorry I didn't post yesterday, by the way. I had Penny with me in the morning and had to scramble to get my office set up and my computer back online so I could deliver software (of course it didn't go out on Friday) by the 8:30 deadline and then spent most of the rest of the day locating and unpacking all my stuff.

I rearranged my office while I was at it. I like the new arrangement; there's a lot more space in here now. But I need to move all the stuff on my walls, now. And I could use a brighter lamp, because the new arrangement no longer allows for direct lighting. Which means I need to make a Target run.

But not in these shoes.

Well, Crud

Bleh. In addition to the adorable little beaded bags (two words: turtle wristlet!) and the fun toys (ask Alex about his red blood cell) and flyers I brought home from MarsCon, I seem to have also come away with a case of the Con Crud.

It's nothing particularly horrible or serious, just a persistent, back-of-the-throat congestion, but I've got a mild sore throat, a croaky voice, and a lack of energy to go with it.

On the plus side, it's a slowish week at work, so I've been able to work from home for the last couple of days. I'm sitting on the couch and drinking a lot of fluids (thank you, Karen, for the 16-oz pirate mug you sent for Christmas -- I emptied it at least six times yesterday) and listlessly poking at my Pocket Frogs in between checking work email.

Back!

I'm back! Did you miss me? I missed you!

My holiday was mostly pretty good, barring the usual stresses and frustrations of travel and trying to live in someone else's space. But it was great to see everyone, and I got to hold multiple adorable little babies, and my kids were mostly really well-behaved (barring a couple of utter breakdowns, but if your kids can get through 9 days of complete routine upset without any breakdowns at all, then I suspect you have automatons rather than children). I'm only about halfway through processing my pictures, but I promise I'll post a link to the Flickr set when I get them all done and uploaded -- we did some really fun stuff even aside from visiting people, like going to the zoo (which I'd love to see again, though possibly in warmer weather) and a really nifty display of models of famous Chicago buildings build entirely out of plantstuff (and model trains to keep the kids interested) at the Chicago Botanical Gardens.

New Year's Eve was great -- We had our family Christmas that morning, and then brunch and presents with my family at John and Sam's house (instead of Mom and Dad's because they hadn't even bothered to decorate this year). Then we went over to Braz and Adin's for their New Year's Eve party, which was awesome: Rock Band and champagne and counting down to midnight and an epic 9-player game of Cards Against Humanity after we sent Penny (the last child standing) to bed. (We'd told Penny and Ripley they could try for midnight; Ripley gave up the ghost and conked out at 9:30 or so, but by gosh, Penny made it!)
New Year's day was a little hangovery (note to self: one glass of champagne, and stick to more familiar liquors the rest of the night) but it was lovely and calm.

I'd meant to start taking down our Christmas decorations on the 2nd, but after Penny and I went to Target and bought a bunch of stuff (I spent some of my Christmas money on a very pretty and nice enameled cast iron dutch oven to replace my old pathetic soup pot) I kind of ran out of steam and spent most of the rest of the day just sitting around.

But I'll be moving on it soon, I think; I did spent the last couple of days wandering around the house and developing that twitch that means I'm about to do some serious purging. I cleaned out some drawers in my dresser that were filled with sweatshirts left over from when I was nearly 100 pounds heavier that for some reason didn't go in the initial clothing purge. I kept my favorite two -- sometimes you just need a hugely baggy sweatshirt day -- and dumped the rest in my "clothes to donate" pile. So once the Christmas stuff is packed away and back in storage, it looks like I'll be making a run to the thrift store to donate a bunch of bags of clothes and old toys and random crap I don't want anymore. And another one to the bookstore, as well, as I have a couple of boxes of those ready to go.

As of today, I'm back on the diet, too. I'm embarrassed to say how much weight I gained this past year -- most of it in the final quarter -- so I'm going to be using SparkPeople religiously for a while. (Email me if you're a member, too, and I'll add you to my friends!) My first new big goal is 25 pounds. I'd like to get there before my anniversary in April, but that's a little bit ambitious, so we'll see.

That's my only big resolution for this year, though I'd also like to make some more headway on the writing, and possibly do some (digital) scrapbooking.

And of course, having been away from work for nearly two weeks, things are utterly insane, so I'd better get to it...

Humpty

So, the Day Job's HR/benefits department is making changes to the schedule for our holidays which essentially is going to screw us out of a day of vacation next year. (Worse, they're moving it around so that we don't get our annual holiday pool until after the Christmas holidays, which completely sucks. I liked that they'd been giving it to us just before Christmas, because it ensured that we always had that time available. It's now essentially a gigantic sandpaper dildo for people who aren't good at planning a whole year in advance.) They're also changing how much vacation we're allowed to save up, but that's much less of an issue for me since I'm barely keeping my vacation balance above water right now, anyway.

***

Speaking of barely keeping things above water... the schedule probably could have a few more things crammed into it, but it would take a crowbar.

Penny has a half-day today, and tonight we'll probably do our usual Friday night shindig with the Hegemony. Tomorrow, Jenn and Brian are coming into town to do some shopping and then stopping to visit with us afterward. Matt has his D&D game, so he'll probably miss some of their visit, but that'll be okay. They can help me take the kids out to dinner and then we'll figure out something to do once the kids are in bed.

Sunday, so far, has no plans. I'm hoping against hope that the Christmas cards I ordered will arrive today or Saturday so that I can spend part of Sunday signing and addressing them and they can go in the mail on Monday. And I did kind of promise Penny that I'd take her out shopping to try to find some fancy shoes to go with her Christmas dress. I'm not sure when that will happen, but I'm betting on either Saturday or Sunday this weekend.

Next week, I have two doctor appointments on the books, plus I'll probably have to schedule a bloodletting so that my GP will refill my synthyroid prescription.

Then, next weekend, I've got my book club meeting/Christmas party on Friday night, and then nothing on Saturday (except probably doing Christmas cards, if they don't arrive in time to do them this weekend, and shipping those gifts that need to be shipped -- which means we should probably get a move on the last of our gift shopping -- and a box or two of stuff to Matt's mom in advance of our trip, like some presents for the gang there, and we can fill extra space in the box with some of our bulkier clothes), and then Sunday Matt's taking Penny to a local production of The Nutcracker ballet, followed by dinner at my folks' to celebrate Alex's birthday (for which I need to acquire a cake).

And the following Wednesday, Alex and I both have appointments with the ear/nose/throat doctor at the same time that Penny has her quarterly checkup with the endocrinologist, and then she has a half-day of school. We'll spend that night and Thursday morning packing stuff, and then pretty much right after lunch that Thursday, we're off to Richmond to catch our flight to Chicago. (Which should be a hoot, as the flight was already slam-packed full when I booked it in September, and I couldn't get ANY seats together. We'll be relying on the kindness of surrounding strangers to swap around so that the kids can sit with us.)

Matt has been trying to impose some level of organization on our time in Chicago, but my impression is that he's getting a lot of, "Oh, let's just wait and see" responses, so... not so much. I'm trying to stay out of it, for the most part. I'm just chalking those 9 days up to a blur of alternating running around and trying to keep the kids from getting so bored that they wreck his mom's house, and otherwise letting the chips fall as they may.

We're coming back from Chicago on the 30th (at least our seats are all together on that flight), and then on the 31st we'll "do" a mid-day Christmas with my family and end up at the Hegemony to ring in the New Year. (I've promised Penny she can try to stay up until midnight this year. We Shall See how that goes -- and whether I manage to stay awake that late, myself.)

And then I'll have the 1st and the 2nd of January to catch up on sleep, unpack our bags, try to figure out where all the new loot fits, and start un-decorating the house.

Somewhere in all that, we need to find a time to match schedules and meet up with KT and Kevin and Jess so we can give them their presents (and I can get the stuff I ordered from KT's thirty-one show). I need to get some occasional exercise, stay on top of everything at work, finish editing the story I'm working on, and gin up a couple of promotional blurbs for my publisher. I also need to do something with an assortment of vegetables and fruits in my kitchen before they start to go bad on me, and I'd really like to try out the all-edges brownie pan that Karen sent for my birthday. (Maybe Alex will get brownies in addition to cake for his birthday. Just 'cause.)

What I'm saying is -- if I miss a day or two of posting in the next couple of weeks, don't worry; I'm not dead, just insane. And between the 22nd and the 3rd, you probably shouldn't expect to hear from me at all, though I may manage a post or two via my phone. My twitter account is much more likely to see semi-regular posts, if you find yourself saddened by the silence here.

Love Muffin

I've been aware of my not-so-slowly re-expanding waistline (and hips, and thighs) for a while, now. It's been on my "I should get around to that sometime" list. And on Monday, I actually started back up with my morning Wii Fit workouts -- it's not burning a ton of calories, but it helps my ankles and feet, and I do believe it at least helps get my metabolism moving for the day. And if I make it to the gym today, this will be the first week in I can't remember how long that I've gotten to the gym three times in a single week. I haven't started tracking food again yet, but I (mostly) put the kibosh on all the extra snacking that had crept into my day.

And according to this morning's Wii Fit weigh-in, I've lost about 2 pounds since Monday.

Go, me! Right?

Except that I put on my pair of "fat" jeans this morning. They've been slowly getting snugger over the past few months, but this morning, I actually had trouble getting them zipped, and when I looked in the mirror... Holy muffin tops, Batman! It's a good thing I'm wearing a baggy sweater, is what I'm saying.

And this weekend? Yeah. We're going to see the new Muppet movie tonight with the kids. And tomorrow is the Moon Cookie party. (And the local holiday parade, but that doesn't represent a danger to my diet.)

I am not. Not. Not going to miss out on moon cookies. So I guess I'm skipping the popcorn at the movie tonight, because this muffin? Not only is it unattractive, but it's also kind of uncomfortable. And I hate shopping for pants.

Sick of It

Weekend report: We had a nice evening with Braz and Adin and crew on Friday, after which I took the kids home and Matt went on to Vicki's birthday party. The next morning, Matt took Penny to a birthday party down at Chuck-E-Cheese, and I packed Alex into the car and went to the bank (to get our passports out of the safe deposit box and some cash for the trip) and then we went over to Target. I'd completely forgotten to get Penny's school supply list, but thanks to the miracle of the smartphone, I was able to find it pretty easily on the school's website. So Penny's all set to go back to school next month.

(Earbud headphones. Why the hell do third graders need earbuds?)

Alex went down for his nap before Matt and Penny got home, and I enjoyed a quiet hour reading. (I'm trying to re-read the whole Song of Ice and Fire series, since the fifth book just came out a couple of weeks ago.)

Matt and I had been idly bandying about possibilities for dinner, but we hadn't decided anything yet when Alex finally woke up from his nap. Matt went upstairs to get him, and Alex promptly threw up.

Le sigh.

It's the first time Alex has been sick for quite a while. Long enough that he doesn't remember the last time. Long enough for the whole experience to be not only unpleasant but also frightening. He felt hot, too, and the thermometer agreed, at 101.6. Poor little guy. (Unlike Penny, though, who when she's feverish just wants to cuddle on someone's lap, Alex didn't want anyone to touch him. He commandeered Matt's seat on the couch and refused to relinquish it.)

So he spent the rest of the evening sitting with a big plastic bowl on his lap, and while the rest of us were having Chick-fil-A for dinner, he got... some bread.

Which he threw up an hour later. I've got to hand it to him, though: he'd done a pretty scary cough, so Matt had him sitting in the bathroom so he'd be close to the toilet. I took over for a while, and he seemed to have perked up a lot, so I told him we could go back to sitting on the couch with his bowl. He followed me over to the couch, frowned, and turned around and headed right back to the bathroom. "You okay, honey? You going to throw up again?" He nodded yes and then grabbed onto the toilet seat and yakked. So while it was unfun, I have to give him credit for listening to his body.

Naturally, we put the trash can by his bed and I wedged a towel around it, but he made it through the night without a mishap. Sunday morning, he was much perkier, and his temp was down below 100. We still made him eat gingerly, and in small amounts spread out. Plain bread, crackers, oatmeal. Water to drink. He complained somewhat of being hungry, but seemed to understand when I explained why we were being careful about his meals.

He was definitely doing better, though, so after he went down for his nap, Penny and I left without guilt to go meet Adin and Ripley for our pedicures. I'd been thinking of getting Penny and me pedicures as a pre-vacation treat, and then Adin had suggested she and Penny get them as a birthday treat (the two of them have the same birthday) so obviously it was meant to be and we all went together.

Adin's usual nail parlor was closed, but that turned out to be a good thing, because the place we wound up at had a special section just for younger kids. It was so adorable I wanted to just eat it up!

And though I had expected Penny to waffle forever over her color choice, she grabbed a sparkly blue polish within seconds of walking through the door. Both girls really enjoyed the experience, and Adin and I had fun watching them. And of course, all our toes look fabulous now!

After that was done, I took Penny over to Coldstone to use her birthday ice cream coupon. Mmm, ice cream!

When we got home, Alex was just waking up from his nap and his temperature was back down to normal, so we went over to Braz and Adin's and I made chicken fried rice for us all for dinner with lots of extra veggies. Yum! (Though it needed a smidge more soy sauce. Note to self for next time, I guess.)

Overall, a pretty good weekend, except for poor Alex's bug -- but at least that was a quick turnaround!

And now it's only 4 days until my vacation starts, and 5 days until I'm in Cancun! WHOO!

Ache

It's not been the most fortunate of weeks for us.

Sunday night as I was cutting up lettuce for dinner, I managed to get my hand under the knife and sliced right through my fingernail. (It doesn't hurt so much anymore except when I tap on anything -- like, say, my keyboard -- with the end of the fingernail. So I'm having to keep that nail trimmed really short.)

Yesterday afternoon, Penny developed an ear infection. (Or, more likely, it has been developing for a couple of days and finally peaked yesterday afternoon.) Matt took her to the Urgent Care center, where all the doctors and nurses who looked in her ear were amazed she was holding it together as well as she was, the poor kid.

While Matt and Penny were at the Urgent Care, I got dinner for Alex and me and made lunches for today and gave Alex his bath. I picked up Matt's lunchbox without fully closing the clips, and a soda fell out and landed on my toe, and while I was cursing and wondering if my toe was broken, it sprayed about two-thirds of its contents all over my kitchen. And I mean all. Over. So then I had to finish making dinner and packing lunches and take a sponge to every cabinet and countertop, not to mention the (hot) stove and the fridge. Then I got out the Swiffer to take care of the floor, and while I was digging out a new head for it, I managed to unbalance the large and heavy boxes of trash bags, which fell on my head pointy-bit first, naturally.

(Also? All while wearing 4" heels.)

Tried to do some writing last night. Knocked out a solid 1000 words on a new story, only to realize that my hook isn't strong enough and I'm going to have to toss it and start over.

The antibiotic the Urgent Care prescribed for Penny tastes disgusting, apparently, so I had to wade through her stalling and making an assortment of gaggy faces before I could get to my morning exercises this morning, which set me back a solid 20 minutes later than I usually get started. And then when I got the kids to school I had to explain to the teacher and kitchen staff about how she's not having breakfast with the other kids because she has to eat at home so she can have food along with the antibiotic, and so while I'm not technically late to work, the whole morning has felt very hurried and frantic.

So? Slightly grumpy right now, but clinging to some vague hope of turning it around at some point.

I should post something, but my brain is completely nonfunctional this morning. Guess I'll just go for the dry weekend report...

Braz and Adin and crew (henceforth referred to as "the Hegemony" for reasons that would make no sense and be really boring if I tried to explain it) came over Friday night; we put all the kids to bed and stayed up late drinking and playing silly games. We did a couple of rounds of Guillotine, which was giggly fun, though I think what it really needs is for players to deliver a Last Words speech for each noble they collect or action card they play.

Then, since I'd spent an hour printing and cutting out the cards, we played a few rounds of Cards Against Humanity, which is like Apples to Apples, but offensive, NSFW, and politically incorrect. Needless to say, it was a big hit for us. (It especially worked for me, because while you gather points in the game, it's not particularly competitive.)

Saturday was mostly quiet. Matt took Penny to Ray's birthday party that evening, and while they were gone, Alex's cough devolved into a full-blown illness, complete with a 103-degree fever. He spent most of the evening laying on the couch with his head on my lap and watching videos. I let the fever burn while he was up, but gave him a dose of children's Motrin before bed, on the theory that helping him get comfortable enough to sleep was more important than continuing to let the fever burn out the germs.

In the meanwhile, Matt and Penny had eaten dinner at Ray's party (mm, pizza and cake!) and Alex didn't have much appetite, so I ordered sushi delivery. (The restaurant has a name, but I have no idea what it is, because thanks to Adin, we all just call it "Forbidden Sushi.") I ate my salad and was retrieving my miso soup from the bag when I realized the bag held no sushi. By that point, it was late and I was tired and I was debating even bothering to call them back to complain about it, but before I made up my mind, the guy came back with the sushi. Yay, Forbidden Sushi guy!

Alex was mostly better Sunday morning but still running a low-grade fever, but since it didn't get any worse, the Hegemony came over that afternoon to borrow our washer and dryer and stuck around to have homemade fajitas with us for dinner. Yum!

Alex was all better this morning, so yay for a quick-burn bug, I guess, and not having to miss school. (Though what with the whole needing to take time off thing, it wouldn't have really been a problem for me -- I just wouldn't be getting to do as much fun stuff.) Of course, Penny's blood sugar, after being low or borderline low all yesterday, popped up 100 points overnight, so we're half-braced for her to get hit with whatever Alex had over the weekend.

So, that was my weekend. 'Scuse me now while I go get some coffee.

Green

I rolled out of bed with the alarm this morning, like usual. Half-asleep, I went through the usual morning ritual. I was brushing my teeth when a wave of nausea swamped me. I rinsed out the toothpaste as fast as I could and sat down on the toilet to breathe. A moment later, still queasy, I thought it might be prudent to sit on the side of the tub instead. Just in case.

I didn't throw up, but it was a few minutes before I was able to stand up and leave the room. I decided to skip my morning workout. I'm not regretting that decision, either, because I spent the whole rest of the morning feeling... not quite nauseous, but a little wobbly, like I could be nauseous any second.

Matt was trying to talk me into calling in sick, but I'm still scraping together vacation time so I can go to Mexico in August and Chicago in December without violating my emergency buffer. I don't want to take time off unless I'm actually sick.

I'm feeling a little better now, though. I'm not sure if I'll be attempting the gym at lunchtime, but at least the thought of eating breakfast isn't making me queasy. It's supposed to be a really nice day, so maybe I'll just change my shoes and walk around the office park a couple of times. At least then if I take a turn for the worse, I can short-cut back to the office fairly quickly.

***

Matt reminded me last night that our anniversary is in a little less than a month. (He got a real kick out of it, too, because I had completely forgotten, and when he mentioned it, I went into a bug-eyed flailex maneuver for a while.)

Once I'd recovered and dusted off my dignity, I looked at the calendar, hoping to spot a convenient day for us to tag some friends to babysit so we could have a nice evening out together.

Alas. Our anniversary is on a Monday. The weekend immediately preceding is already booked (and possibly even double-booked). The weekend before that is booked. The weekend after our anniversary is Easter, so... kind of booked.

So we're thinking we'll probably just end up taking a day off from work together, which we've done before. But that doesn't settle the question of what we'll do. Gotta be something that we can be done with and home by 2:30 or 3 so we can pick Penny up from school. Want it to be something a little unusual so we're not just frittering the day away on reading and WoW. The last time we did this, we went to Busch Gardens, but that was when Penny was in preschool and could stay at daycare until 4 or 5.

Suggestions or ideas welcome...

Buh.

Alex had another perfect potty day yesterday! As they get more frequent, I'm sure I'll stop mentioning them. But for the time being, it's pretty awesome that he's doing so well. I can see the light at the end of the diaper tunnel.
He actually argued with me, this weekend, when I wanted to put him in a pullup for his nap. They've quit using pullups for him at daycare entirely, and he was determined to stay in his big boy underpants for his nap at home, too. What I couldn't make him understand is that, at daycare, he's on a cot, and if he needs to get up and go to the bathroom, he can. But at home, he's still in a crib that he can't climb out of without help, and the bathroom is farther away.

But I expect we'll need to graduate him to a big boy bed (or at least take the side off the crib) sometime in the next month or so, to let him attend to his own bathroom business.

***

I did the taxes over the weekend, finally. (I spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to figure out how to declare the $400 I made in royalties and for my editing side-job.) Then, because the math worked out to us owing instead of getting a refund, I pulled out last year's taxes and compared them, just to make sure I hadn't forgotten something. But the upshot is that last year's raises (pitiful though they were), combined with a big drop in our mortgage interest, put us into a new tax bracket. So yeah, we're owing a fairly large chunk of taxes. Ow.

But I admit that it's a problem that stems from good things, not bad ones. What am I going to do, cry because we make more money than we used to and owe less on our house? How dumb would that be? It's just one of those things that's a problem because we weren't expecting it. Guess I need to start doing some voluntary extra withholding.

The good news is that we hit the highest tax bracket for the state before we even got married (pretty much anyone employed full-time and making more than minimum wage is in the highest tax bracket for Virginia) so I can hope we'll still get a refund back from our state taxes. It won't be enough to cover what we owe the feds, but it'll put a dent in it, at least.

***

Not much else to say today. I want to go back to bed for another couple of hours, and then wake up and read for a while, and then go back to bed.

Given the ache in my neck, I think I have just a touch of a cold. Not enough to make me burn my precious vacation time to call in sick, not enough to even make me feel particularly bad. Just an ache in my neck and persistent tiredness.

Ah, well.

Weight For It

My weight popped back up this week, dangit. I knew I was overdoing it this weekend, but I didn't expect the numbers to keep climbing into this week, since I was back to being good on Monday. I even managed to resist the doughnuts in the office kitchen Monday! Stupid scale.

Tonight is book club, though Kris promised she'd pick up veggies and fruits, so I should be mostly okay there. But then this weekend is the Chocolate Affair. At which I refuse to count points. I'll just have to be good the rest of the weekend and hope for the best.

But dang, it sure would be nice to be back to baseline by the time my doctor's appointment rolls around in April; or even below that in preparation for the trip to Cancun in August.

Guess that means actually sticking to plan for a while, huh? Stupid cause-and-effect. I wish I could make myself not like food for a while. Then I could just eat-to-fuel and not care about anything else. Seriously, isn't there a switch in my brain I could flip? Come on, science, let's get on that!

Waiting for Five

It's looking like a cold and rainy weekend, followed by a cold (if mostly sunny) week.

But for a change, we don't have anything much on the schedule. Penny's got her swim lesson Saturday morning, and Matt has his D&D game Saturday night. That's it.

I'm hoping to keep my good writing streak going, if I can. I've got about four more chapters to write and one bit of rewriting to do before it'll be time to sit down and read it all the way through with my red pen in hand, so I'm feeling pretty good about this one. If I can keep going the way I have been, I might even have it done by the end of the month!

Though we'll see. Next week is looking mildly crazy at work (it was already a heavy week, and then several things that were scheduled for this week got postponed to next week -- including two software deliveries), and that always seems to interfere with the way my brain functions. I have trouble changing gears, I guess. Well, I won't get any better without practice, will I?

The other thing I'm hoping is not to fall off the diet wagon. I've been doing pretty good, but being at home is more dangerous than being at work, and Saturday is eat-out/take-out night (well, since it's Matt's D&D day, we'll probably swap it, but the fact remains that at least one meal this weekend will be eaten from a restaurant) and that's always dangerous, too. Especially since I don't have a very solid grasp on estimating points with the new system, yet.

Yep, the Super Bowl is Sunday, but Matt and I are not football fans, and the game isn't until fairly late in the evening, which combined with the kids makes the notion of just using it as an excuse to hang out with friends kind of unworkable, so we'll probably mostly just ignore it, aside from whatever leaks through on Twitter. We have enough friends who are big Steelers fans that I expect we'll find out the end result soon enough. And then I'll check YouTube for the good commercials.

But it's a weekend and it's not work, and I'm looking forward to it. Huzzah!