Sunday Update - Week Somethin' Or Other

 I'm too lazy to look up the week # this morning.  

Anyway, it was a week.  Not much different from the week before.  

I did a fair bit of reading, all things considered.  I inhaled a book yesterday and finished it last night.  Woohoo.  I also hit another thrift store and came home with 7 books for a dollar.  Most of them for the shelves and not strictly for reading, but hey, a book is a book.  I have a little collection of old books on how to write, and I found another one of those.  Not super old - like 1955 - but it looks good sitting with the others.

I made Hubs' granola bars before work one morning and that's it for the baking.

On the activity front, we took a walk last Sunday.  Just under a mile.  Which puts me at a measly 32.3 miles for the year.  On the other hand, my weight is still inching down.  As of yesterday... Weight: 166.4.  That's 15 pounds down since I started work and 15.8 down since the start of the year.  I can almost fit into those slightly too-small pants I bought last month.  They fit awesome when I'm standing up but they still cut into my stomach sitting down and since I spend most of my day sitting, they're going to have to remain int he closet.

My wrist is not exactly 100%, but I've gotten to the point where it only really bothers me first thing in the morning.  Both of the braces I bought are duds, as far as I'm concerned.  I wore the new one at work for about a half hour before it started to irritate me.  This reminds me of the time I broke my foot.  I wore the 'cast' thingie for about a day at home, then I had to not wear it to work because I couldn't drive with it.  I bought a pair of crutches to use instead and dumped those at the end of the first day because they were bothering my arms.  I spent the rest of my recovery limping around the plant.  :shrug:  I don't got time for no medical impedances.

Earlier in the week, the leaky spot on our roof from a ways back started leaking again.  We woke up to a puddle in the smoking room.  Yesterday, I picked up two gallons of roof repair, and then it spent most of the day raining.  Not a single drop came through.  Near as I can figure it, that last puddle was created because we got 3.5 inches of rain and it was really windy, so the wind drove the rain up under a loose shingle.  Hubs will still paint the roof with the repair gunk, but it's not as critical anymore.

Work is still work.  Not much changed about that.  The only problem I can see is that I am now comfortable in my position.  (Or as comfortable as anyone can be in a busy environment.)  This is a problem because when I'm comfortable, the little voice in my head that reminds me 'don't say that' starts to goof off.  I'm an opinionated person... yeah, stating the obvious to people who stop here regularly... and when those opinions start dropping out of my face at work, it's a problem.  Need to rein that in.  I need to keep those thoughts for when I'm talking to Hubs or Mom, or in private emails to a certain friend of mine.

One awesome thing about working, my mom and I are connecting on a whole new level.  She understands what I go through at work because it's similar to what she did for years, and I better understand what she went through for all those years many years ago when I was too wrapped up in my own junk to listen to what she needed to talk about.  Dad was not a great listener.  Anyway, I've been close to Mom most of my life, but I feel closer now.  Which is awesome.

I wish I had that kind of relationship with my daughter, but I think Owl has written me off.  =o(

Anyway...

The birds are migrating.  The deer are doing their things.  We haven't seen Sebastian the fox in a while.  A few mornings this past week, there has been a hawk sitting in the same place when I'm on my way to work, and the time I leave puts it so the first rays of the sun are hitting the hawk as I drive by.  It's pretty cool.  I'd stop and take a picture, but I have a feeling if I stopped the car, it would startle him and he'd fly away.  I think it's a red-shouldered hawk.  So pretty.

And that's about it for me.  How went your week?

Saturday Reading Wrap-up - 10/29/22

Hello again.  Thanks for stopping by.  This week I have some things that might actually make your stop interesting.

I picked up one new ebook this week - a paranormal mystery I saw in my FB feed.  I still have two unread ebooks leftover from September - a paranormal mystery and a fantasy.  Plus, I have scads of hardcopies.  Yay.

Books Read:

59) Tunnel in the Sky by Robert Heinlein (10/28/22) - SF - 5 stars.  I hadn't read this one before, but it's Heinlein, so not exactly new to me and not underappreciated.  Picked this one up for 25c at the thrift store.
Review: "Awesome book! A perfect blend of science fiction, action/adventure, and literature. Now, Heinlein probably wouldn't have considered he was writing literature, but I do. This book entertains while giving you reasons to think. Rod, Jack, Jimmy, Caroline... they are heroic figures. And the end made me want to cheer. "

58) Murder, She Knit by Peggy Erhart (10/23/22) - Cozy Mystery - 4 stars.  New to me, but not underappreciated.  25c from the thrift store.
No Review.

DNFs:

10/23/22 - fantasy - 25c.  I picked this one up thinking it was something other than what it was, so when I tried to read it, I was expecting something else.  I stopped about 30 pages in and put it back on the shelf.  I'll try again another time.

Currently reading... well, I didn't finish that Heinlein until after my bedtime last night, so I didn't have a chance to start anything else.  I'll probably start that Ellery Queen I picked up a couple weeks ago today.

What was on your reading wrap-up for the week?

Thursday This n That

I just saw a recipe for butternut squash / pesto pizza.  Umm... no.  More like 'what are three things that should never go together, Alex.'

My second wrist brace arrived in the mail yesterday.  I am dubious.  But I'll try it.  If this doesn't work, I'm going back to my old standby of just wrapping the damn thing with an Ace bandage.  They aren't pretty but they get the job done.

The super cute tops I ordered must be on a slow boat from China.  They shipped before the brace.  Aannnd I just looked up the shipping company.  Yep, China.  Why do the only cute tops I could find come from China?  Derp.  I blame the unions.

We had Stouffers French Bread pizza for dinner last night.  I haven't had those in years.  And they are NOT what they used to be.  I mean, they were better than no pizza, but I was definitely disappointed.  :sadface:

On a different note, I also picked up Banquet frozen dinners, knowing full well that they are not great, but they were cheap and they were quick.  Surprisingly, they were way better than they had been in years past.  Go, Banquet.  

Which reminds me... I need to defrost something for dinner.

So, a few people in the company have gotten the 'rona.  They aren't in-office people, so I'm not worried.  But it makes things more interesting when we have several people out.

Which reminds me, I saw a meme thing morning with the boss guy from Office Space... "Yeah, we're going to be short-staffed forever, so if you could just work yourself to death, that'd be great."  ROFL

In my head, I still pronounce meme 'MEM' and not 'MEEM'.  Yeah, I'm ancient.  Bite me.

I also pronounce ROFL as roffle. And LOL as loll.  But OMG gets the whole thing spelled out.  :shrug:

Well, it's about that time.  I should probably shower and then make my lunch, get dressed, etc. so I can get to work on time.  Have a great day, everyone.

The Birds are Fine

Ya know, it is entirely possible to love nature and try to be responsible about it without turning into a raving eco-freak.  Derp.

One of the sites I follow is the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, cuz, like I'm a bird nerd.  This morning their headline was all about birds and how they're 'a multiplier for environmental justice'.  No clue what a multiplier is in this context, but :shrug: these people like to make up words or use words to mean other things.  

Anyway, the lead-in blurb talks about creating green spaces in cities so weary birds have a place to rest.  As if cities cover a bigger portion of the planet than they do.  Bird wants a place to rest?  They can easily steer left or right, avoiding whatever city is its path.  Or they can stop on the rooftops of whatever buildings they're passing by.  Derp.  Birds are versatile that way.

I just did a search - how much of the planet is covered by cities? Wow, the numbers are all over the place when you just look at the blurbs on the search page.  However, I think I found a more rational estimation.  It's .3%  Point three percent of the land mass.  Not the total planet.  (You know, because a big percent is covered by water, which would make that percent even smaller.)  

So, yeah.  

Even the larger estimates are only .6, although one obvious eco-freak site says 3% without the point.  Taking the hugely inflated number, that means that 97% of the land is city free.  

Basically, what I'm saying is don't worry about it.  The birds are fine.  They stay away from the cities whenever possible.  Like I do.  ;o)

Sunday Update - Week 42

It was a week.  Things happened.  I haven't had nearly enough coffee yet to rebuild what those things are, but I'll try. 

I worked 40 hours... I know that.  And just to set things straight, in case anyone stop by this blog who knows where I work and cares, they fixed the stuff they'd passed over at my 90-day mark.  All is well.  I'm still liking the job.  For the most part.  Say like 90%.  Which is better than most people get and more than I could've asked for.

I read... but I detailed that yesterday.

No baking.  Although, I probably should make Hubs some granola bars today.  

No exercising.  Well, I did sweep the office Friday afternoon, so that's something active, I guess. Weight: 168.2.  Hubs and I are planning to walk today, as long as it isn't super windy, and it's supposed to be super windy.  Derp.

My wrist is still wonky.  Typing and mousing are interesting.  I rearranged my desk at work to give my arm more support.  Yesterday, I bought a wrist brace at Walmart.  It fits good and it would work, but t's too tight around my thumb, so I order a different one online.  It'll be here Wednesday.  I think I know what the problem is - not carpal tunnel - and a brace should help.

I also ordered two sleeveless turtleneck tops.  In black and purple.  To go under my myriad of blazers.  They're cute.  And I got a super cute sweater at Wallyworld.  In olive green.

Speaking of Wallyworld, I did that yesterday.  The cupboards and the fridge/freezer are once again full.  Yay.

I saw a bald eagle yesterday!  I was driving home and it swooped down toward my car, so I got to see it in all its glory.  Big white head, big white tail, big black body.  Stunning.  So, the balds are back in town.  Sing it.  You know you want to.

Other than that, life is what it is.  Anything happening in your world?

Saturday Reading Wrap- up - 10/22/22

Okay, so I totally forgot to do a reading wrap-up last week.  So, here's what I've done since last I wrapped up...

First, last Saturday, I picked up twelve hardcopy book at a thrift store I'd never been to before.  I got four hardcovers and eight paperbacks - 4 mysteries, 5 SF, a fantasy, a suspense, and a NF - with loads of big names like Agatha Christie, Ellery Queen, Vince Flynn, Robert Heinlein, Gordon R. Dickson, Alan Dean Foster, Arthur C. Clarke, Larry Niven.  Cost me $4.  Yay.

Books Read:

57) Elephants Can Remember by Agatha Christe (10/21/22) - Mystery - 5 stars. Neither new to me nor underappreciated.  Picked up for 25c from the thrift store.
Review: "I read a different edition of this one this time. I can never seem to remember which of Christie's novels I own when I'm strolling through the thrift stores. Eh, it doesn't really matter. They're all awesome and the search continues to own them all. In old book form, of course. This was excellent, of course."

56) For Love of Mother-Not by Alan Dean Foster (10/16/22) - SF - 5 stars.  I love Alan Dean Foster, but I hadn't read this one.  Still, not new to me or underappreciated.  25c at my new favorite thrift store.
Review: "I'd never read any of these before, so I guess it's best I started with the prequel. Awesome stuff."

55) Assassin's Moon by Silver James (10/9/22) - Paranormal Romantic Suspense* - 5 stars.  Not new to me but certainly underappreciated.  Paid full price $2.99.
Review: "Another amazing re-release by Ms. James. This was an awesome book before, but she's made it deeper, stronger, better... with more feels. Most excellent!

54) Grumbles from the Grave by Robert A. Heinlein / Virginia Heinlein (10/9/22) - NF - 5 stars. Neither new to me nor underappreciated, but I don't understand the people who gave it low stars.  :shrug:  I paid $2 for this at my former favorite thrift store.
No Review.

No DNFs.

Currently reading...  I think I'll pick up one of the cute cozies I snagged from the thrift store next.  Fun!

What's on your reading wrap-up this week?  Last week?  What's ahead for you?

Thursday This n That

When your job requires a great deal of typing and mousing and other hand work, it's probably best to watch that you don't hurt your wrists.  Eh, my wrists were screwed years ago.  They wanna hurt?  Well, fuck 'em.  I've got shit to do.  So there. =op  Like the job I had where I had to be on my feet all day, but my legs are screwed.  Did I hurt?  Hell, yeah.  Did I do my job anyway?  Well, of course I did.  I'm not independently wealthy for pitysakes.  I think even if I was, I'd still be doing something.  Like writing, which lord knows is not easy on the wrists.  Can I get a what-what?

Why yes, I am full of vinegar this morning.  Why do you ask?

If you type FUCK or F*CK, it's the same thing.  You're not fooling anyone.  People don't think you're meaning FACK or FICK.  They know there's a U there.  Yeah, it's not a nice word.  That's the point.  Derp.  Fly and be free.

I try not to swear at work.  It's unprofessional.  So, I try to be creative.  Son of a motherless monkey is my favorite.  When I rack my knee on the edge of my desk... SON OF A MOTHERLESS MONKEY.  Although, I still catch myself saying 'shit' under my breath when something goes wrong.  It's sounds more like ssht but anyone within hearing distance knows what I'm saying.  

I got home from work to 4 spreadsheets that needed doing and today is payday at the side job, so if I wanted to get a check, I needed to get them done before the office opens at 7 (my time) this morning.  I did three last night.  Another one came in while I was doing those, so I finished the last of that and the new one this morning.  Yes, I am a working machine.  Got my timesheet in on time. Yay.

One good thing about the job is that although I am super busy, so is everyone else.  It would royally piss me off if I was this busy and someone was sitting around playing Candy Crush.  I've been in jobs like that.  I'd be there busting my hump while Little Miss Entitlement sat on her ass, doing her nails.  Know what effect that has?  Eventually, I stopped busting my ass.  Then I felt guilty.  Then I found a job where everyone was busting their asses, like they were supposed to, and the previous employer was stuck with no one busting their ass.  Good luck with all that.

Okay, it's getting close to time to get ready for work.  Have to make my lunch, and get dressed, and sundry other pre-work things.  Have a great day.  And feel free to drop your comments.  I'll approve them when I get home.  

Have a great day!