Sunday Update - Week 4

 Fair warning: I don't have a whole lot to talk about today, so this might be boring.

I spent last week laid up for the most part with a head cold.  I'm still not 100% over it.  It's lingering.  And now Hubs has it.   Weee. 

Sick or not, things had to be done, so I ran errands yesterday.  Walmart was Walmart.  I picked up necessities and stuff to combat this cold.  Then I stopped at the feed store and picked up supplies for the critters.  I got home and unloaded the groceries.  Hubs unloaded the feed.  Then we spent the rest of the day laying around.  

A brief thought on Robitussin Honey... not worth the extra money you pay for better tasting cough syrup.  And yeah, that's the only reason I bought it.  I took some last night to try and kick the last of this stuff in the ass.  Now I have medicine head like you wouldn't believe.  I could've gotten the same for about $5 less a bottle. 

If you checked in yesterday, you saw I didn't read much last week.  I got about 138 pages into a book that I DNF'd.  One would think that since I was home and sick, I would've been reading a lot.  Nope.  Wearing glasses was not an option.  They sat on the bridge of my nose, weighing on my sinuses and making me sneeze.  Which was part of the fun during that short span I was at the office.  

Don't even ask about activity.  Bleh.  However, being sick has reduced my weight.  Weight: 160.0.  Yep, lost about 4 pounds in 10 days.  I do not recommend this as a weight loss plan, though.  I expect that I'll go back up again after this.  We'll see.  On a brighter note, I learned yesterday that despite my lack of activity, I can still heft around a 40 pounds bag of birdseed.  Go me.

I worked about 20 hours last week.  Monday, half of Tuesday, and Friday.  Friday was playing catch-up for the days I missed.  And there are still things left undone which are running around in my head like a hamster on crack.

The big snowstorm they predicted last week ended up dumping about 2-4 inches of the white stuff.  So, totally not the 4-8 or 6-12 they'd predicted days earlier.  It was mostly gone by the time I went to work on Friday. Yay.  

My month of Ancestry ended on Wednesday.  I learned a lot this time around - mostly about people closer in the tree.  Cousins and whatnot.  The best part was talking to Mom and hearing her stories about people.  (Might not have been the best part of her... me rattling on endlessly about genealogy.)  I got to hear about the guy who worked as a clown, marketing cookies in the metropolitan Detroit area.  And the great aunt my grandmother hated, who apparently stunk.  And how my grandfather built the addition on the house she grew up in.  (I googled the address, so I could see it, and then we talked about her growing up there.)  Dudes, if you still have older people in your family that you can talk to about this stuff, do it now before it's too late.  I don't have my dad to talk to and I lost all his stories.  Thank goodness, Mom remembers his stuff as well as her own.  Also, thank goodness Mom's memory is still as sharp as a chef's knife.  

Okay, I think that's about it.  Maybe this post wasn't as boring as I thought it would be when I started.  And the medicine head is going away, too.  Yay.  Have a great day everyone.  I need to hit the Dollar General today because, wouldn't you know it, I forgot to buy Kleenex.  Derp.

How was your week?

Saturday Reading Wrap-up - 1/27/23

This wasn't the most exciting week in reading.  In fact, I spent most of the week reading a book that I DNF'd yesterday.  

I got one new used paperback last Saturday.  It's a romantic suspense by an author I love.  I got another paperback new from Amazon (which I just discovered I actually read before - derp).  No new ebooks.

Books Read:

None

DNFs:

1/27/23 - paranormal... horror... I can never tell with Anne Rice.  Okay, so I DNF'd Tales of a Body Thief.  I had read it years ago, but as I was reading it this time, I wasn't quite as impressed as I remembered.  Lestat is whiny.  And by the time I reached page 138 or something, he was approaching too stupid to live.  I suppose when you've got a character who basically can't die and you're tasked with writing another book about him, you have to go somewhere.  :shrug:  I couldn't take it anymore so I closed the book and slipped it back on the shelf.  I'll keep it, but I don't think I'll read it again.  I need to buy The Vampire Lestat and The Queen of the Damned to complete the set and read those again.

Currently reading... a cute little cozy I picked up to round out my last Amazon order.  Apparently, I've read this before, but I don't remember it so whatever. LOL

What was on your reading plate this week?

Thursday This n That

Well, the big news of the week is this head cold from hell I managed to come down with on Saturday.  All sneezing and some coughing, but no fever.  I worked Monday, but only worked half a day on Tuesday and took all of yesterday off.  You know if I'm taking time off work, it's gotta be bad.  I've blown my nose so much that it and the space between it and my upper lip look like raw meat. I've gone through three boxes of tissue and a roll of toilet paper.  Between coughing and sneezing, I think I've pulled every little muscle in my rib cage.  I slept ten hours last night and I'm weak as a kitten.  I could probably sleep another ten hours.  I just wrote the office that I'm not going in again.  

The other day, I discovered a good channel on Direct TV that I didn't know we had - COZI TV.  It's got reruns of old shows - like Quincy ME, and Emergency! I accidentally scrolled too far up and ended up in the shopping channels, and it was nestled right in there with another good channel that runs old western shows and movies.  Anyway, they'll be running a marathon of Emergency all day Saturday.  Yay.  Ah, nostalgia.  I had a serious little girl crush on Randolph Mantooth.

My soap arrived.  I thought it was 16 bars, but it was only 8.  (I went back and checked.  My fault.)  $22 for 8 bars of soap.  Cringe.  But it's necessary to my existence, so I pay it.  Pre-'rona, this was easy to find on store shelves.  Now?  Nope.  

Okay, that's about as much as I can think of right now.  I'm going back to bed.  Blerg.

Sunday Update - Week 3

 Three weeks into 2023 and I already missed a Sunday Update.  Derp.  This is not an auspicious start for the year.  

Okay, anyway, I ate some things on Monday that did not agree with my stomach and spent part of early Tuesday morning praying to the porcelain god.  But I couldn't just not go to work because there was something very important that I had to do first thing, so I went to work.  Did the thing, made the call... and the dude wasn't answering his phone, so I left a voicemail.  Then I waited to see if dude would call back.  I gave up at 11 and went home.  I spent the rest of the day sleeping and reading, so I was all better when Wednesday came.  Yay.  Unfortunately, that little bout of whatever must've side-swiped my awesome immune system because I woke up yesterday with a scratchy throat which developed into a full blown head cold.  Anti-yay. :shrug: I've had worse, but I am a little bummed that I get to spend my two precious days off blowing my nose.

On the upside, sitting around doing nothing leaves lots of time for reading, so I actually finished 3 books last week.

Despite the cold virus, I made parm-encrusted pork chops last night for dinner.  Yum.  No baking otherwise.

In the weight/activity sphere, I cleaned the office bathrooms and then swept the whole office.  Cleaning is activity, damn it.  I sure felt it the next day.  Weight: 162.6 as of like five minutes ago.

I'm still playing in the family trees.  Mom set me a task yesterday morning, so I spent the afternoon tackling that.  Nor sure if I accomplished anything toward what she wanted me to find out, but I think I have the entire twig filled out, and I can ask if I found the person she was looking for the next time I talk to her.  In doing this, I discovered a bit about this one person in my family who was written up in the paper for wife-swapping in rural Michigan in 1939.  She moved in with the neighbor and the neighbor's wife moved in with her husband, they divided up the kids, and then they got divorces and remarried the new spouses.  Weird.  My month of Ancestry is almost up, though, so this will end and I'll go back to my usual pursuits.  I ought to have people pay me to do this for them.  

I did a little online shopping.  I bought soap.  Lever 2000 Aloe & Cucumber.  It's the only soap that keeps me clean without making me want to itch my skin off or douse myself with perfume to cover its scent.  It hasn't arrived yet, but it should be here before my last bar becomes a sliver.  I also bought 2 CDs - both by AJR - a book to round out my free-shipping amount.  (The soap couldn't be included in that, damn them.)  I haven't received those either, but I already downloaded the music to my computer, so YAY.

I think that's it for me today.  Work is work.  Life otherwise is unsurprising and unexciting.  How are things in your little piece of the world?

Saturday Reading Wrap-up - 1/21/23

Three weeks into 2023 already?  Gah.  Anyway, it was a good reading week for me.  Yay.  Okay, part of that was being sick on Tuesday, so I had almost a whole day to sit in a chair, reading.  I'm 4 books ahead on my reading goal.  Woohoo.

New books?  I got my first new ebook of the year! It's a suspense.  Big surprise there, I know.  LOL  

Books Read: 

6) Three Men Out (Nero Wolfe) by Rex Stout (1/20/23) - Crime - 5 stars. Neither new to me nor underappreciated.  Picked up for 50c at St. Vinnys.
Review: "Rex Stout never disappoints."

5) Domino by Phyllis A. Whitney (1/17/23) - Romantic Suspense - 5 stars.  Super not new to me - I started reading and collecting Phyllis in high school.  Snagged this at St. Vinnys for 75c.
Review: "Another excellent novel by Ms. Whitney."

4) Spinsters in Jeopardy by Ngaio Marsh (1/14/23) - Mystery - 5 stars.  Not new to me, but I haven't read nearly as many of her novels as I'd like.  And she's got plenty of lovin' for this one.  Also a St. Vinny's find for only 75c.
Review: "This one started out a little weirder than I was expecting, but it turned into a good mystery with plenty of thrills."

No DNFs.

Currently reading... I didn't start anything new after I finished that Nero Wolfe last night.  I might go with Anne Rice next or dive into that one suspense ebook I picked up.  Either way, good times ahead.

What was on your reading list this week?

Thursday This n That

Hey, it's still Thursday!  

I had a gentleman call me 'kiddo' this week and it made my day.  And although that gentleman will never read this, I just want to say 'not knowing how to use computers very well certainly does not make you stupid'.  Think about how much of human existence and innovation happened before the computer was even invented.  And I've known too many people who could use computers who certainly weren't smart.  

Anyway...

A fly lands on the ceiling by putting its front two legs on the ceiling first and swinging the rest of its body up.  On day in college, I spent an untold amount of time watching a fly to come up with that observation.  You're welcome.  See, all that money wasn't totally wasted.

I don't actually remember a whole lot about college.  No, not drugs.  Car accident.  Achieved the same effect.  Moral of the story?  Don't do drugs.

Speaking of the car accident... the anniversary was last week. 29 years.  A while back, I had a gal ask me if I was alright.  I was all like 'sure, why?' and she said she asked because I was limping.  My answer was that I always limp.  But that's not strictly true.  For a long time, it was true.  And then it wasn't.  Tada. Of course, when I do limp, I don't notice it because part of me thinks I always limp. Silly wabbit.

There's a stack of bricks behind the office that I covet.  I keep thinking they'd make a nice retaining wall under the deck where the slope is bad enough it's washing our pea gravel down the hill.  I wonder if the boss would sell them to me, but I keep forgetting to ask.  :shrug:  It's not like I have time to futz with a retaining wall these days, but the idea has been tickling the back of my head for a while now.

Monday night, I ate somethings that didn't agree with me and spent part of the wee hours of Tuesday praying to the porcelain god.  If you're not familiar with him, his name is Ralph.  Sometimes they call him Huey.  

Crass?  On occasion.  I also once knew some of the dirtiest jokes you would ever hear.  I don't tell them anymore.  Every rare once in a while, I'll remember one and laugh to myself.  I told one to a friend back in the summer of 2021.  She couldn't remember it well and she kept asking me to repeat it, much to my dismay because it is particularly nasty.  She rolled every time she coaxed me to tell it again.  She has since moved away and I will never tell it again.  Never.  Don't even ask.

Seriously. I mean it. Don't ask.

And on that note, I'm going back to my Nero Wolfe.  Have a great night.. day... err, whenever you're reading this, make it great.  

Saturday Reading Wrap-up - 1/14/23

Heigh ho.  Not a whole lot to talk about this week, but hey, it's another Saturday and I did some reading, so it's all good.

I didn't get any new books.  :sadface:

Books Read: 

3) Kill Shot by Vince Flynn (1/8/23) - Political Thriller - 5 stars.  Not new to me (especially since I read it in 2012) and well-appreciated.  I picked this up from St. Vinny's for $1.
Review (added to my previous review): "I didn't remember reading this, which made it even more awesome. And since I wrote my review, they did a movie with Mitch Rapp. I haven't seen it and I don't want to. I'd rather Mitch live in my imagination. =o)"

No DNFs.

Currently reading... Spinsters in Jeopardy by Ngaio Marsh.  Another thrift store find.  I do enjoy Ngaio Marsh, but this one started a little weird.  I kept at it and it's pretty good stuff.  

What's on your reading list for this week?