Page 8 of 25

Posted on

Chill Day

After all of the action Friday and Saturday, today was a chill day for me. Originally, I was going to get up and take the Mayor to his ref seminar this morning. Fortunately, they moved the seminar to Zoom, so I got to sleep in later than anticipated. I spent the rest of my morning relaxing on the couch while the Mayor attended his seminar.

I was also quite productive today. After leisurely enjoying my coffee, I folded the laundry that bas been sitting for weeks now. Additionally, I went through my closet and dressers to get rid of clothes i no longer wear. Incidentally, I realized that while I love working from home, I do miss getting dressed up for the office.

For dinner tonight, I made slow cooker chicken cacciatore with cheesy mashed potatoes. This was my first attempt. For the chicken I used bone in chicken thighs and drumsticks. Before placing the chicken in the crockpot, I browned it on the stove to enhance the flavor. This is a semi-homemade recipe as it calls for jarred marinara sauce. Consequently, I used Michael’s of Brooklyn’s marinara sauce. Thankfully, the recipe was both easy and flavorful – perfect for a chill day. Consequently, I will definitely make it again.

Here’s a list of our day’s activities:

*I’m reading Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel.

*12 days until I’ll have all my boys in one place!

*I still can’t run because my toe. Honestly, I’m going to try running on it on tomorrow.

*We’re tracking the Tropics here in Florida. Fortunately, it looks like none of these waves will be impacting Florida.

*I made chicken cacciatore for dinner tonight in the crockpot, which was the perfect meal for my chill day. I loved it!

*The word of the day is goodbye. Honestly, we are all struggling to say goodbye to Maya.

*I took my puppies including sweet Anakin for a. I put on his harness every morning. Otherwise, I have difficulty controlling him on the leash. He’s incredible strong and can pull me off balance, which is why I’m now wearing a boot to protect my poor broken toe

Posted on

Finally Got Results

Well I finally got results after waiting forever for an X-ray on my foot today. Fortunately, the break was contained to only the pinky toe. Unfortunately, I wasted a total of three hours waiting to confirm the diagnosis. Originally, I was told that I could see the provider last night and just walk in for the X-ray today. The receptionist was implicit that I wouldn’t have to wait when I came back today. Sadly, I waited longer today than I waited last night. Apparently, the urgent in urgent care is not indicative of the speed at which you’ll be seen.

Mom life in a meme

At any rate, I can’t run on the broken toe for four weeks. Obviously, this isn’t great news since I just started running after recovering from a cold. I should still be able to go the BBG workouts with modifications now that my stomach is finally better. Since the X-ray took forever, I ended up working late to make up the time I missed. Hopefully, I’m able to get the workout in tomorrow.

Speaking of results, we finally got results from the Mayor’s PCR Covid test he took yesterday. Naturally, he was harassing me all day to see if I had finally got his results. Fortunately, I was able to get a hold of someone at the lab, who promptly mailed me his negative results!! In fact, we got the results about ten minutes before he had to leave for practice. He was so excited that he was able to go to practice tonight. Naturally, we’re super relieved that he tested negative for Covid.

Here’s a list of our day’s activities:

*I’m reading Wolf Hall, by Hilary Mantel.

*I still can’t run because my toe. It feels like deja vu. I’ll be unable to run for at least four weeks.

*We’re tracking the Tropics here in Florida. The tropics are heating up again. Hurricane Ida slammed into Louisiana today at a Cat 4 storm. That is a scary!

*The Hubby picked up coffee for me today since I was not feeling great this morning.

* I watched the live Safaris on YouTube today. The safaris absolutely inspire me. The vistas are extraordinary and the animals wondrous. I simply have to see it in person!

*For dinner, the hubby had leftovers and I made taco pizza. It was awesome!

*The word of the day and it is fanciful. I had a fancifully wish that I’d be back to running in two weeks.

*I took my puppies including sweet Anakin for a. I put on his harness every morning. Otherwise, I have difficulty controlling him on the leash. He’s incredible strong and can pull me off balance.Advertisements

Posted on

Another Day

Another day, another dollar. That’s how the saying goes anyway. Only today wasn’t like just another day or at least the morning was not. This morning was filled with crazy, I mean crazy clients. Honestly, I run into relatively few crazies given how many calls I make on the daily. This morning brought them all out of the woodwork. Perhaps they read their calendar wrong and thought it was Friday the 13th and a full moon with Mercury in retrograde.

It’s amazing the crazy things that set folks off. On one call, the lady lost her mind over the vision network VSP. She was screaming how all the providers in their network were awful. Never mind the fact her provider was in the VSP network, but I digress. The next caller’s wife was angry that she didn’t understand her husband’s Medicare coverage. Spoiler alert she wasn’t willing to listen to any explanations. Oh the joys of sales.

Fortunately, the rest of the day was pretty awesome. Like most other days, I spent my afternoon talking to really cool and gracious people across the county. One thing I have seen day in and day out is that people were ill prepared for their retirement. Consequently, I’ve gone into my 401K to ramp up contributions five times since I’ve started this job. If you’re in your 30-50 years old, you need to ramp up your retirement savings.

Here’s a list of our day’s activities:

*I’m reading Far From the Madding Crowdby Thomas Hardy last night. This is quite the departure from the world of Queen Asa.

*I’m still under the weather. Consequently, I took another rest day today.  Unfortunately, there will be no rollicking or running until I’m better.

*We’re tracking the Tropics here in Florida. Fortunately, all the tropical weather is moving away from us! Unfortunately, the heat has really cranked up with heat indexes in the triple digits.

*Uber Eats delivered my Dunkin’ this morning, which was awesome sauce.

*Today I watched the live Safari Cam, which is always amazing. I love seeing all the animals of the African bush in real time.

*For dinner, the Mayor made me chili. The hubby and Goalielocks are in Miami for practice.

*Today’s word of the day is rusty relic. Okay, it’s a phrase not a word. One of my favorite rusty relics is the antique iron my great grandmother used to use.

*I took my puppies including sweet Anakin for a walk. Today he didn’t pull my arm off or anything like that. I put on his harness

Posted on

School Eve

It’s school eve and I couldn’t be more excited. For the first time since March 2020, our boys will be attending school in person. In fact, tomorrow will be the first time the Mayor sets foot in his high school despite being a sophomore. He’s in good company as everyone else, but the senior class, has barely set foot in the school.


We celebrated the end of summer with wings and pizza. Post dinner, the Mayor and hubby ran out to get haircuts and some school supplies. As for me, I’m chilling on the couch watching The Office. My summer cold is still hanging on, which sucks. Today brought major back pain to go along with all the misery that is a summer cold. Since it’s school eve, aka the night before school, we’ll all be getting to bed a little earlier.

Here’s a list of our day’s activities:

*I’m reading the Raider Bride. This is the third book thing the Norse Queen series. I love the world of Queen Asa.

*I’m still under the weather Consequently, I took another rest day today.  There will be no rollicking or running until I’m better.

*I ran to Dunkin’ to get my own coffee this morning. Just kidding, I had it delivered again.

*Tonight I worked on a newsletter for our Pancan affiliate. Sometimes working in Canva makes me feel like a schmo, but it’s such a great tool. I definitely need to spend some more time playing around with it. 

*For dinner, the I ordered pizza and wings from Sal’s.

*My favorite surprise on the underwater cams, I watch during work, is seeing an octopus. Today I watched the safari cam, which never disappoints.

*Today’s word of the day is vision. This afternoon there was a raccoon in our avocado tree and it was quite the vision.

*I took my puppies including sweet Anakin for a walk. Today he didn’t pull my arm off or anything like that. I put on his harness

Posted on

Summer Cold

There are few things more annoying than a cold and one of them is getting a summer cold. Of course in 2021, you always have to preface your statement with “it’s not Covid” before telling folks you have a summer cold. Hence, the brief break in the blog. After the trauma and lack of sleep from Wednesday night, I’m not surprised I ended up ill. Thankfully, after two days of misery, the low grade fever is gone.

Since I first felt sick Thursday, I’ve been taking a ton of turmeric, zinc, vitamin C and vitamin D. I’ll continue the regimen this evening in hopes that it will shorten the cold and lessen the symptoms. Additionally, I’ve been drinking water and hot tea like it’s going out of style. While I can’t run today, I may hit my 10,000 steps from just walking to the bathroom.

The Hubby is working today, so I ordered some gold for the Mayor and I from Sushi Yama. Well, at least I tried. I’m currently on my third attempt to get the food delivered. Hopefully, the third time’s a charm or I may have to eat my arm. Grub Hub’s app malfunctioned when I added a fried rice to the order. In fact, it duplicated my entire order.

Customer service cancelled my order and refunded it promptly. In the interim, some guy picked up my food and never delivered it. The restaurant refused to make the order a second time despite the fact a second driver was waiting patiently for our order. Oh joy! At this point, nobody knows who picked up that first order. Grubhub refunded me the money for both orders, but we’ve been waiting for our food since 6:30.

This is the second major food delivery snafu we have had in the last two days. Yesterday the Mayor ordered himself Chipotle off Door Dash. Fortunately, they promptly and correctly delivered his food. However, we soon got a call form the gate that our delivery was there. The driver insisted in giving us the food even after we told him we had already gotten the order. When he delivered the food, it had another name all over it. As soon as I noticed this, I brought the food back out to him and he refused to take it. Honestly, it was just bizarre.

Well, good news, they finally delivered our food. In hindsight, a cup of miso soup probably would have been gold for this summer cold. Thankfully, the food was worth the wait. The driver delivered our food while it was still piping hot and everything was there. Consequently, I’m no longer hangry.

Oh and I almost forgot, we had a tornado today. The thing was literally less than a mile from our house. We had no idea that there was a tornado out there until somebody posted a picture of it on Facebook. Mind you, it was completely clear and sunny to the East of our house while there was tornado coming from the west.

Here’s a list of our day’s activities:

*I’m reading the Falcon Queen. This is the second book thing the Norse Queen series. I love the world of Queen Asa.

*My knee is feeling better, but I’m sick. Consequently, I took another rest day today. 

*I ran to Dunkin’ to get my own coffee this morning. It was nice to leave the house.

*Tonight I worked on a newsletter for our Pancan affiliate. Sometimes working in Canva makes me feel like a schmo, but it’s such a great tool. I definitely need to spend some more time playing around with it. 

*I finally straightened out the AirBnB snafu on Friday. AirBnB had listed the property in error. They had placed the listing as live when it wasn’t supposed to be yet. Lastly, they’re no longer keeping my deposit. I love the new property I booked.

*For dinner, the Mayor and I enjoyed some great food from Sushi Yama. I love their spring rolls and avocado egg rolls.

*My favorite surprise on the underwater cams, I watch during work, is seeing an octopus. Today I watched the safari cam, which never disappoints.

*Today’s word of the day is inspired carpet, which is ridiculous. Carpet has no place in Florida. I hate it!

*I took my puppies including sweet Anakin for a walk. Today he didn’t pull my arm off or anything like that. I put on his harness

Posted on

Rough Night

As long as my Tuesday was yesterday, it ended with a rough night. My sleep was interrupted by a nightmare in which I woke up only to find my Hubby and Puppy were missing. After scouring the house, I couldn’t find them anywhere. Naturally, my first instinct was to hit the find my iPhone button. Unfortunately, the phone was left behind on the kitchen island.

The dream quickly devolved as it. became clear that they weren’t in the house. So I walked out back towards the lake to see if I could find them. Spoiler alert, I didn’t. Next I went and drove through and around the neighborhood. The first pass turned up nothing, so I went home and walked out back to the lake again. Still nothing. Thinking that I had perhaps missed something inside I ran threw the house again.

After finding nothing, I ended up back in the car driving through the neighborhood with my brights on. By this time an hour had passed and I was hysterical. After the second pass through and around the neighborhood, I drove back home to call the police. Soon after I walked into the house, the Hubby and Anakin came down the stairs. Relief washed over me immediately, but the trauma of the past hour had its hold.

When I checked my sleep stats and heart rate after waking up from my dream traumatized, I was not surprised to see my heart rate sitting around 140. Obviously, tachycardia and sleep don’t mix super well, so I took a beta blocker to help put me back to sleep. Despite taking the beta blocker my heart rate as I woke up ranged from 167-185, which is a problem. Even when I run 2.5 miles, my head rate rarely gets over 171. Consequently, I sent a message to my endo to see if I should get my levels rechecked.

Needless to say, it wasn’t the kind of night that begets success at work. I struggled most of the day to stay awake and concentrate at her task at hand. I’ll definitely be going to bed early tonight and am praying for a better night’s sleep. Without question, I can not take another rough night. Had a dream ever left you traumatized?

Here’s a list of our day’s activities:

*I’m reading the Falcon Queen. This is the second book thing the Norse Queen series. I love the world of Queen Asa.

*My knee is feeling better, but with my heart rate all over the place I skipped my run.. Consequently, I took another rest day today. 

*I strugggled this morning, so I ordered coffee vis Uber Eats.

*Tonight I worked on a newsletter for our Pancan affiliate. Sometimes working in Canva makes me feel like a schmo, but it’s such a great tool. I definitely need to spend some more time playing around with it. 

*The AirBnB I attempted to book yesterday never responded to our request. As a result, the charge is sitting on my card with nothing to show for it. I’m still working on clearing this up with Amex and AirBnB.

*For dinner, the Mayor and Hubby spaghetti with meat sauce. Since it wasn’t fasting day, I enjoyed pasta and sauce today.

*My favorite surprise on the underwater cams, I watch during work, is seeing an octopus. Today I watched the safari cam, which never disappoints.

*Today’s word of the day is jiggle, which is something I’d like to get rid of soon.

*I took my puppies including sweet Anakin for a walk. Today he didn’t pull my arm off or anything like that. I put on his harness

Posted on

Is it Friday Yet?

Is it Friday yet?!? Today was the longest Tuesday in the history of the world. Honestly, it dragged on for like six weeks. And now at the end of the day, it is still Tuesday. Work went better today, but it was slow and still not as productive as last month. It didn’t help that my morning was hampered by vpn issues and our security system randomly going off.I repeat, is it Friday yet?

While I was in IT hell, the boys brought Maya and Anakin to the vet. Maya we going to get her nails cut and for a weight check. She gained 4 pounds! Anakin was going in for his annual well check. We didn’t have any issues with him during his last vet visit, but he was beyond anxious and afraid during his exam. Consequently, he had to be muzzled. The doctor did give us a prescription for anxiety meds to give him before his next visit.


Shortly after the boys got home, I realized they left the dogs’ prescriptions and all of Anakin’s records at the vet. Consequently, I had to go up to the vet during lunch to pick up the stuff. Thankfully, the Vet’s office is close to our house. Not too mention I managed to go during a break in the rain. It’s been pouring and storming here since this morning.

Here’s a list of our day’s activities:

*I’m reading the Falcon Queen. This is the second book thing the Norse Queen series. I love the world of Queen Asa.

*My knee is still hurting. Consequently, I took another rest day today. 

*I woke up on time and picked up my coffee today.

*Tonight I worked on a newsletter for our Pancan affiliate. Sometimes working in Canva makes me feel like a schmo, but it’s such a great tool. I definitely need to spend some more time playing around with it.

*The AirBnB I attempted to book yesterday never responded to our request. As a result, the charge is sitting on my card with nothing to show for it. Back to square one!

*For dinner, the Mayor and I made vodka sauce pasta with chicken. Since it’s a fasting day, I enjoyed some chicken with a little sauce and a side of broccoli.

*My favorite surprise on the underwater cams, I watch during work, is seeing an octopus. Today I watched the safari cam, which never disappoints.

*Today’s word of the day is diverticulitis, which is not much fun at all.

*I took my puppies including sweet Anakin for a walk. Today he didn’t pull my arm off or anything like that. I put on his harness

Posted on

Thank Goodness

Well, thank goodness I’m not fasting today because it was a hump day for the record book. And not the good kind of record books, the shitty make you pull your hair out kind of day. Otherwise known as every day at my old job. So maybe I’m exaggerating a little bit, but today truly did suck balls.

I have been in my new job since September and helping clients since October. Thank goodness, I have had a wonderful experience with clients who are nice and respectful whether they bought or not. Unfortunately, today was the day for all the assholes of the geriatric world to coalesce and make my day miserable. To be fair, if they had bought I wouldn’t have minded the Cruella De Vil impressions. However, when they’re total dicks and they don’t buy, it’s an energy sucker.

Thank goodness there was still ice team left over from the batch I made Monday. Honestly, it is super tasty and super easy to make. In fact, there are only five ingredients in the ice cream, which is incredible. My next ice cream adventure, obviously on a non-fasting day, is going to be chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream.

well, at least there’s an upside to look forward to!

Here’s a list of our day’s activities:

*I read the Norse Queen by Johanna Wittenberg.  It is so good that it’s keeping me up at night! 

*I skipped my run tonight to have dinner with the Hubby and our friends. We needed to finalize the grocery list for our Keys trip

*The family and I are watching the Seattle kraken’s NHL expansion draft. Sadly, the announcers are super cringey making it hard to watch.

*After dinner, I successfully ate ice cream! As if there was a doubt.

*My favorite surprise on the underwater cams, I watch during work, is seeing an octopus. Today I watched the safari cam, which never disappoints.

*Today’s word of the day is fractures. Knock on wold for a hockey season free of fractures.

*I took my puppies including sweet Anakin for a walk. Today he didn’t pull my arm off or anything like that. I put on his harness, so I’d have more control over him outside. Also, the flies are still here. Did I mention I hate gnats, flies, and mosquitos? I was finally able to hang the fly traps. Nobody loves flies.

Posted on

Long Day

It has been a long day for this lady. Especially given the late night and martinis from dinner last night. My long day started with a 6:00 am wake up, so I could take Goalielocks to practice. My saint of a Hubby was kind enough to run to Dunkin’ after hitting the gym, so I had coffee as soon as I woke up. Yep, he’s totally a keeper!

Me thinking about going to bed after waking up at 6

Of course the early wake up was well worth the pain. I love getting to spend time with my Goalie and time was plentiful since we drove to Miami. Additionally, I love spending time with some of my favorite hockey moms. A morning with them, even at the crack of dawn is a morning well spent. Obviously, it’s also fun to watch practice.

Post-practice I had trouble extracting myself from the couch. I was tired and love watching re-runs of The Office. Eventually, after the episode where they said goodbye to Michael Scott, I was able to peel myself off the couch to run. Thankfully, the last couple of runs have gone fantastically. Also, it woke me up.

I spent the rest of my afternoon rearranging my closet and dresser drawers. In fact, I even managed to get rid of some clothes. Baby steps. As I cleaned, I watched 8 Mile. Twenty minutes into the movie, the Mayor joined me for the movie. He loves watching tv from our bed. As for the movie, obviously, I’m a little late to the party on this, but it was really good.

Afterwards, I took the dogs out. The last couple of days, I’ve been taking Anakin to get the mail with me. This didn’t go so well. First of all, I thought about taking him for a walk in the circle. However, I abandoned this plan given the sheer number of basilisks running through the yard. Secondly, as I grabbed the mail out of the box, Anakin pulled hard to chase a lizard. In the process, I was pulled into the mail box hard. Consequently, I ended up bruised and scratched while the mailbox looks like it got hit by a car.

Here’s a list of our day’s activities:

*I finally finished Demons, by Dostoevsky. It’s my favorite book of his by far. I really enjoyed it. Last night I started, The Norse Queen by Johanna Wittenberg.

*I drove with Goalielocks to Kendall for hockey practice.

*I ran 2 miles and walked a mile. It went really well, which was fantastic.

*The family and I are watching Thirty Rock now that we’ve finished our movie and dinner.

*I made a wonderful Blue Apron meal kit for dinner. Tonight we enjoyed the sweet and spicy chicken. It was super yummy!

*My favorite surprise on the underwater cams, I watch during work, is seeing an octopus. Today I watched the safari cam, which never disappoints.

*Today’s word of the day is incandescent.

*I took my puppies including sweet Anakin for a walk. Did I mention I hate gnats, flies, and mosquitos? I was finally able to hang the fly traps.

Posted on

Happy Birthday Mom!!!

Let me start off this blog by wishing my mom a very happy birthday! Honestly, I wish we could be there to celebrate and with her a happy birthday in person. Hopefully, we’ll get to Minny sometime soon. Fortunately, they’ll be joining us on our trip west this fall to visit Jake.

As I celebrate mom’s birthday today , I’m reminded of precious years’ celebrations. Perhaps my favorite is when we celebrated her birthday as an entire family in Flam. It was wonderful seeing her sit between her mom and wonderful sister. Their smiles were boundless. Truly, it was a trip of a lifetime. I’ll never forget sharing this trip with my kids, my parents and my grandma. I’m also looking forward to returning to Norway.



Today was a great day for many reasons. First, we get to celebrate my mom – she’s awesome. Secondly, my friend and former employee (who I consider family) got great news today. His CT showed that the chemo is working! Hallelujah! I would, however, ask that you keep my friend B in your prayers. Lastly, I carried this positive energy with me all day at work. I freaking killed it today!

During lunch, I hung with the dogs and watch the ducks (Bitey 1 and 2) enjoy the mangos our tree dropped. Fortunately, the ducks didn’t find the mangos until after I took the dogs out. Before heading back to work, I spent some time meditating in legs up the wall pose to refocus for the rest of the day. This helps me expel the stress and energy of the morning. Consequently, Anakin tried to join me, which always makes me giggle.

Here’s a list of our day’s activities:

*I read Demons, by Dostoevsky. I am really enjoying this book so far.

*I absolutely slayed my day at work! That’s three days in a row!

*I ran 1.5 miles and walked a mile. Instead of working out in the morning, I decided to run after work. 

*The family and I are back to watching Thirty Rock. We’ve now moved on to season six.

*I made a new beef tips recipe in the Instant Pot tonight. It was super yummy!

*My favorite surprise on the underwater cams, I watch during work, is seeing an octopus. Today I watched the safari cam, which never disappoints.

*There were big thunderstorms today all afternoon. I really need to look into a surge protector for my work equipment.

*Today’s word of the day is self. I love to recenter myself before heading into the second half of my day.

*I took my puppies including sweet Anakin for a walk. Did I mention I hate gnats, flies, and mosquitos? Thankfully, the fly traps arrived today. Emphatically, I’m absolutely sick of those little buggers.