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Blah

Blah, is there a better word to describe your first day back in the office after two weeks off? I mean maybe, but Meta would probably take down my post if I used it. I’ve been back at work since 8:00 am this morning with the picturesque view of my two monitors, laptop, and flat-screen television. Fortunately, the call volume and quality have been decent today, so I can’t complain too loudly. I am, however, exhausted.

Today is day two of no afternoon latte and what a terrible New Year’s resolution. I could go for a nice, hot latte right now. To be clear, my afternoon homemade coffee is still in play. I’ve almost finished it. Yet, here I am at the peak of exhaustion. I had hoped the lunchtime spin class would give me a boost, but nope. I guess being tired is just a constant state of being as an adult. Somehow I must have missed the warning on the lameness of adulting.

I had high aspirations for my time off, but I accomplished very little. At first, I was a bit annoyed with myself, but after the year we’ve had I decided to give myself grace. More than anything, I needed to rest, relax and reset. The to-do list, which is never-ending, could wait for the start of the new year and our return to routine. That’s not to say I did nothing as I still managed to knock some meaningful items off my to-do list.

So my blah day back to work also means the return to routine, which I crave. At this point in my life, I need routine. It keeps me disciplined and working on my goals. The Mayor’s all set for school, so no longer chasing labs, endos, or medical records is a big weight off my shoulders. The remainder of my to-do list is quite manageable. And with that, I’ll get back to it.

2025 Goal Tracker:

  • Run a 5K: in training
  • Complete Kayla Itsines program: in progress
  • No afternoon Starbucks (except for travel/vacations): compliant so far
  • Top performer at work: it’s been one day, but so far so good
  • Travel: working on it
  • Eat to lower inflammation: in progress
  • Read daily: in progress
  • Get out of debt: in progress
  • Financial independence: in progress

Do you play in your daily life? What says “playtime” to you?

I play with my puppies everyday. It’s just goofing around in the house or on our walks. We have a lot of fun.

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Cold Weather

How do you feel about cold weather?

How do I feel about cold weather? Well, I moved to South Florida in 2005 from Minnesota and haven’t looked back. To be fair, however, I would love for the heat index to be lower than 100 today. That said, I prefer the steadiness of Florida’s heat to Minnesota’s rollercoaster weather.

Ironically, I couldn’t tolerate the cold when I lived in Minnesota. Now that I live in Florida and have been diagnosed with Graves, I can’t tolerate the heat. Thank god my kids play hockey! One of the nice things about a warmer climate is your old injuries don’t hurt as much. Those old injuries resurface as soon as I travel north into the cold.

Enough about the cold weather though, we had an awesome weekend. We played games, ate pizza, and watched the Panthers beat the Bruins with Jake, Melly, and Company on Friday night. It was an awesome hockey game and fun to share the experience with our expanded family. Saturday we headed to Fort Lauderdale for a birthday party. We had the best time. It was nice to actually leave the house.

I spent yesterday trying to shake off the sinus headache that had started Saturday. It took all day and several Aleve, but I did feel better by the end of the day. I did, however, manage to make some bread and get the laundry done. Unfortunately, I didn’t get around to making the cookies our graduate wanted. The hubby and I started watching the Timberwolves game last night. It was game 7 of the series. Sadly, it didn’t start well. Consequently, our superstitions from hockey left us to turn off the game. It was a happy surprise waking up to see the Wolves win.

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Off He Goes

Off he goes to Vegas. The Hubby is heading west for some much-needed time off with his boys. Hopefully, they’ll do well in the casino since our washing machine just broke. We’ve been in the house for 18 years (this coming July) and this is our 4th or 5th washing machine. These appliances are shit. I wish we could buy appliances that lasted decades like our parents and grandparents. Instead, we’re forced to buy overpriced shit that will last less than five years. Appliance manufacturing is an exercise of mediocrity.

While he’s off in Vegas, I plan to do mostly nothing. Saturday morning the Mayor and I will be meeting my brothers for brunch, which will be nice. Enjoying brunch on the ocean never gets old. It’s simply divine. Aside from brunch, I’ll probably bake some more bread and some puppy treats. I liked the rustic Italian loaf I made last week, so I’ll probably make that again. Additionally, I may try my hand at focaccia afterward. Otherwise, I’ll continue to do what I do all week, which is binge shows on streaming services.

For the rest of the afternoon, I’ll be watching yet another show on Acorn because I’m bored. Afterward, I’ll head to the airport to drop off the hubby. Hopefully, the weather will cooperate and won’t be the proverbial fly in the ointment to his trip. Otherwise, he’ll spend his night gnashing his teeth at FLL or MDW, which would not be fun.

What Olympic sports do you enjoy watching the most?

I have two answers to this question, which I think is fair given there are both summer and Winter Olympics. My favorite summer Olympic sport to watch is women’s gymnastics. I can’t wait to see Simone Biles and company in action in Paris later this year. Gabbi Douglas is back as well and I’m hoping Suni Lee can compete.

As for the winter games, I love watching hockey. I cannot wait for the NHLers to be back in the games. One of my favorite memories from the rink is coming off the ice from a mite game to watch the end of the US vs. Russia game. The third period ended in a 2-2 tie. Bob (Sergei Bobrobsky) was in the net for the Russians while Quick was in the net for the Americans. The shootout went several rounds until TJ Oshie put it away. He had Bob’s number scoring on 4 of his 6 shootout attempts. The lobby of the rink erupted; it was awesome.

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Update to the Update

Well, here’s our update to the update on the Mayor’s finger. It continues to heal, albeit slowly like a snail. He is finally out of a splint much to his relief. Unfortunately, his finger looked pretty angry and red this morning, so they’re concerned it may be infected. Consequently, the Mayor is starting a course of antibiotics today. Hopefully, those will take care of the infection.

The bigger issue in our update is that he hasn’t been diligently working the joint. It is quite painful for him to move it, but he’s got to start working on it. As the PA was moving it this morning, you could see he was in a lot of pain. This is problematic because it will cause a permanently stiff joint in that finger. As a result, he’ll need a lot of OT to get the top joint of the finger moving again.

What movies or TV series have you watched more than 5 times?

I think I’ll answer this with memes from each of the shows. We have a few favorite shows in this house. The Office was the background to our lives for most of the 2010s. It then became Family Guy or for me, It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. My morning routine always includes my Dunkin’ coffee and the Great British Bakeoff. Additionally, when I run on the treadmill I watch Curb Your Enthusiasm. Larry David makes me laugh and helps me get through my runs.

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Getting Started Again

This week I found myself getting started again on my workout routine. Illness knocked me out of my routine over the holidays. I had resumed it, but a trip and then another stomach bug interrupted my progress. Unfortunately, last week’s bug knocked me out, so I took a week off to recover. Yesterday I started again with an amazing cycling routine with Emily on Apple Fitness+. Today’s workout was a Rihanna-themed treadmill workout by Sherica. As always, the workout was fire.

Taking a week off every few weeks is a nightmare scenario for me. It’s challenging after making so much progress over the late summer, fall, and early winter. Now I feel like I’ve lost some of those gains and am back at square one. Thankfully, the difficult part, which is getting started, is over. The trick is to be consistent and disciplined like I was throughout the fall. Hopefully, it warms up just a tad, so Arrow and I can return to running outside again. I’d run with Anakin, but honestly taking him outside to walk is akin to a CrossFit class. He wears me out.

What do you complain about the most?

At the risk of alienating myself or sounding too cliche, I complain the most about the quality of consumer goods. Not only does this make me feel old and that I’ve turned into my mother, nay my grandmother, but it grinds my gears. For example, we are on our 4th washer and 4th dryer. We’ve lived in our house for 17 years. These appliances should have a shelf life greater than four years. When they sold my great aunt’s house a few years ago, it had a washer and dryer from the 1960s that worked better than my current duo work.

One could argue that three hockey-playing boys take a greater toll on a washer and dryer than aging adults. However, I don’t expect my washer/dryer to last fifty years. I do expect them to last at least ten years. Honestly, I don’t think this is an unreasonable ask. I know I’m not alone in this as family and friends have experienced this with several different appliances, so there’s some truth in the cliche “They don’t make things like they used to.”

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Stormy Weather

There’s stormy weather everywhere today. My weather app is beeping constantly with new watches and warnings for the areas I track. Unfortunately, my oldest two are currently under tornado watches. Here in South Florida, it is exceedingly rainy. I don’t think they expect storms here until later this evening. Hopefully, it won’t be anything severe.

I’m thankful the storms don’t bother our dogs. Otherwise, we’d be in for a long evening. Since the weather isn’t great, I opted to spin over lunch instead of running with Arrow. It’s also a nice break for my joints. Although I have to be honest, since I started wearing On Running shoes, I have very little pain after a I run. This is truly a miracle given I have torn tendons and ligaments in both ankles and feet.

What is your mission?

My mission is to make this world a better place. I became resolute in this mission after working with a woman so toxic and terrible that my only response was to be the exact opposite. When I tell you she was a terrible person, I am not overstating it one bit. She is the kind of person that can find something wrong with every person, moment and situation. Further, she would make it her mission to make people feel as terrible as she clearly felt about herself. After working with her, I should have been awarded a diploma in abnormal psychology.

It was the realization that her self hate drove her behavior that drove me to take another approach. Obviously, we can’t make someone not hate themselves. We can, however, be the antithesis and go out of our way to make people’s days brighter. We can be a harbinger of joy and kindness that seeks to make the world a happier and better place one interaction at a time.

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Why?

Why must all Mondays be a clusterfuck? Is there an unwritten law in the universe that I’m unaware of? My Monday started when I woke up late for work. Now this is truly an astonishing feat as my desk is five paces from my bed. Yet here I was sleeping away like Sleeping Beauty until 8:06 am. Whoops! Fortunately, I was able to get up and on the computer without much effort. I just wasn’t mentally present for the first forty five minutes. I was so tired, I felt like a martian.

On top of my late start, my allergy/exercise induced asthma has been wreaking havoc in my lungs today. If you listened to my last phone calls, you would think I had just ran ten miles after smoking 59 cigarettes. I’d love to say that my voice sounded raspy and sexy prompting my custom get to buy , but I think they felt sorry for me. Thank god for prednisone and rescue inhalers. Albeit, I had to go out and get both since the stuff I had on hand was used up or expired. Nevertheless, the meds should help clear up my lungs pretty quickly.

In between the wheezing and phone calls, I completed my annual compliance training. It was a wonderful reminder that I longer work at a place where work place bullying is venerated especially for the upper echelons. Honestly, I miss the workplace bullying about as much as I miss smelling the reheated five day old fish. Anywhere else, HR would have put a stop to both, but hey that’s not my problem anymore. And guess what I guarantee you, there will be no reheating of five day old fish in my new office.

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Whoops

Whoops!! I was so exhausted when I got up this morning, I couldn’t figure out why. I’m usually pretty tired by Fridays, but even with the additional workouts it didn’t make sense. And then I realized I forgot to take my thyroid meds that last two days. Whoops!! No wonder it took two cups of Dunkin’ this morning to make me semi human. Now that the thyroid meds, specifically the t3, are on board I’m awake. Before you tell me to set a reminder and an alarm, I’ll let you know that I’ve set both and still manage to forget.

This weekend our excessive heat warnings will a change into heat advisories. Nevertheless, it is still sizzling hot out there. Did you know the word sizzle is a onomatopoeia meaning it’s name is how it sounds. Another example of this would be the cuckoo. You can thank me the next time you play Scrabble and score a million points with that word. Anyways, I’m so glad the insane heat is finally breaking. It was borderline pleasant when I took out the dogs at lunchtime. The last few weeks it’s been an absolutely miserable enterprise to walk them at noon.

Tonight we’re having Sushi Yama for dinner to celebrate Goalielocks last night at home. Tomorrow he’ll head back to Orlando to start school. He’s got a beautiful apartment for the year and amazing roommates. He and his roommates have been best friends since middle school. They do a good job taking care of each other and keeping each other in line. Meanwhile, I’m looking forward to a decrease in my grocery, light and energy bill. Our FPL bill last month was over $700. Anyone want to guess what it will be next month when it’s just Luke and I at home. My guess is is will be around $200. We shall see!

What change, big or small, would you like your blog to make in the world?

The only change I’d like for my blog to make in this world is to make it a better place. Not because it’s profound, but because kindness and family are the major themes. I think it’s a nice change to read stuff that isn’t overly serious. While I’m am empath, the blog doesn’t usually get too deep or too serious.

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She’s Home

She’s home. Yesterday Goalielocks picked up Athena’s remains from the funeral home. They did a beautiful job on her package just as they did on Maya’s package. Now Athena will join her sister in our bookshelf next to her sister. They’ll both be watching over us while we’re hanging out watching television or eating. Additionally, I’m buying a memorial stone for each puppy to put out front in the garden. I’m also going to add some orchids and a fountain, so it will be a beautiful peaceful space.

Last night we had a great dinner with my brothers’ families, less my younger bro who got stuck at work, in a Boca. It was an adventure getting out the door per usual. Three of us are ready to go waiting on Goalielocks. He then comes out the door flounces out the door angrily as if we had kept him waiting. As for the restaurant, this place has the best nachos in the world. Honestly, I don’t know why I order anything else because the nachos are so good. Of course, the company was just as good as the nachos. I realized this morning, however, that much to my mother’s chagrin, we neglected to get a picture of all of us together. Whoops! Hopefully, we’ll be able to see them again before they head North and Goalielocks heads to college.

Since we forgot to take pics last night, here are some pics from their last visit.

We ate in Boca, so we ran into a people we knew. We saw the Berner’s from hockey, which was a nice treat. Additionally, the boys saw one of their favorite teachers from middle school. Consequently, the ride home was full over funny stories about that particular teacher, middle school and all of our school experiences. It was a really enjoyable ride home.

I started running again this week and boy am I tired. Fortunately, today was a cycling day, which is a much easier workout. Well, it may be an easier workouts but it’s not easy. Bakari, one of my favorite Apple fitness instructors, legit kicked my butt with his long as intervals today. While I was cycling over lunch, the hubby was enjoying a beautiful view of the water including two nice sized sharks. It’s a beautiful and overwhelming experience to see sharks live and in the wild. They’re such majestic animals that I would not want to share the water with.

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Halfway

We’re more than halfway to the weekend and what a glorious feeling it is. I’m ready for a nice chill weekend. Before we get there, I supposed I have to finish the work week. Work has been going well. Fortunately, the lead volume has picked up in the last few weeks. It’s only going to get busier, which is awesome. Tonight we’re heading to Boca to meet my brothers for dinner. My older brother and his family are in town for the week, so it will be nice to see them.

I started running again this week. Instead of just running a mile or two on the treadmill, I started doing treadmill workouts on Apple Fitness +. Initially, I was nervous that I wasn’t in good enough shape for it, but I was wrong. The workouts give you the flexibility to run, walk, or anything in between. Now that I have three of them under my belt, I can confidently say I really enjoy them. I don’t always enjoy them at the moment, but I feel great afterward. The treadmill workouts also take the banality out of a treadmill run. I love the coaching and the interactions between the Apple Fitness team.

One thing I really like about both Apple Fitness + cycling and treadmill workouts is that they’re a great way to interval train. Interval training can activate both the aerobic and anaerobic. This supposedly helps with improving insulin sensitivity, heart health, and caloric after-burn. That being said, I do think steady-state cardio is still an important part of training. Nonetheless, for me at the moment interval training is really helping me move the needle.

Tonight, before we head to dinner, I’ll do a Pilates workout. For these workouts, I also use Apple Fitness +. The Pilates workouts max out at thirty minutes and have really improved my strength. There are some crazy moves included like cat and cow while in beast. Imagine doing cat and cow with your shins off the ground maintaining balance as you move through the poses. It’s absolute insanity!