Friday Five!

4.) Funeral on Monday.   Going to be so hard, just supporting hubby and family as best I can   

It's especially hard at this time of year. Thinking of you and your family. 

I was going to post last night to make it officially on a Friday, got it typed in, got called away for a moment, ended up watching Hogfather on the Roku, and never hit "submit".

So here it was, updated to present tense:

1) Have been working very hard lately. We had a government audit two months ago that didn't go well. It triggered a more in-depth government audit that requires I have something like (the total right now so far) about 1,000 individual documents  sourced, put in a specific format, and readied for the auditors by next Friday. Of course, since I'm relatively new at the place I have had an interesting time finding out where the information actually is located. To my horror, some of the records were never actually either kept or generated, so some other departments are now madly scrambling to produce documentation of said non-records.  I keep telling myself it's not my dumpster fire. I inherited it. But I find it upsetting that they have been so lax. A bad result on this audit can directly impact a significant number of students and that just is an intolerable thought.

2) I will be away for two weeks, starting literally the day after the audit materials go in. We're going to do some road trips - the first big one is Boston. With the guinea pig in tow. (Very easy to sneak a guinea pig into a hotel room, they are so quiet! )  I am hoping to have some really good seafood. They say that it's "scallop season" and I'm more than willing to take a few of those off the hands of a good restaurant!

3) We are going out to get some supplies in a couple of hours - Walmart has King Arthur flour on good sale and I'm getting low. I now keep bags of it in a beer cooler on my balcony - it's cold enough that it's like putting it in a freezer, for all intents, and it's safe from vermin out there as well. We go through at least two loaves of bread a week and I've discovered hot water crust pastry (THANK YOU John Kirkwood) and have been making lots of savory pies lately. Very nice to be able to take them to work to heat up for lunch. Walmart is one of the few places around that also has shelf-stable milk, otherwise I don't go in there very often. (It's like a zoo. And that's on a good day!)  I like to have some in the house for those days when the weather is ghastly and we run out of regular milk - no slogging to the store!  I also have to pick up three grow lights I've ordered - I got one on sale for $20 and it's fantastic, so I've ordered more and my kitchen indoor garden will be a very, very bright place. A lot of the higher-light-requirement houseplants are currently lounging in their pots on the floor under the lights like tourists on the beach in Jamaica.....

4) My mom's been dead for over a year now. That seems so very odd. All those years we were told she was so medically fragile (my lifetime, really) and she made it well into her 100s and died of a heart attack,  a by-product of having had Covid and some really stiff arteries. I bring her memory up only because people always ask if we are going to be traveling to see family at the holidays. The answer is no. Even if the last generation was still alive, life was so miserable with them that  my generation scattered and do not keep in touch with each other.  We all have our "adopted" families now and mostly have happy lives (as far as  I know). All this marketing about "going home for the holidays" and people making ill-considered comments (not meaning anything ill by them) got old long ago. The other day everyone at work was talking about their holiday plans, and of course that came up. We are not suffering and we are not deprived by having a quiet holiday at home.  All this is much like people always asking the kid when she was little about what she was getting her father for Father's Day (deadbeat dad, took off when she was in diapers), and teachers assigning essays about "My Dad" or having the kids make a Father's Day card. (They'd fall back on, well, how about your granddad? - They were all dead.) Poor kid was put on the spot every year. People can be so... yeah, they can.

5) It's colder than balls outside right now, but is supposed to warm up to freezing this afternoon. We're supposed to get maybe four inches of snow tomorrow. They are saying it'll be the fluffy stuff, not wet and sticky, so I'm hoping to be able to put on my "combat gear" (heavy wool coat, thermal long johns under heavy jeans, etc.) and go for a walk in it. It's like being in a snowglobe, when the light is right. Very pretty, so quiet with the snow coming down.  We pre-emptively filled all the bird feeders. While I'm shopping today I'm going to keep an eye out for a heated bird bath dish. We have quite a parade of them visiting now, so I hope they don't have it too bad with the cold and snow that's coming.

Happy Friday!

1.) Been a tough week, but getting though it. 

2.) My friend is a teacher at a school for children with complex additional support needs and a group of us are going to play at their Christmas assembly this afternoon 

3.)  Went to our favourite gardening centre yesterday to get a tree and they only had 3 tiny ones and 1 medium ropey looking one left yesterday. Hrm. Now where to? 

4.)  Brass band carolling in Tesco's tomorrow 

5.) Had mega mega drama over a band booking this Sunday. Total clusterf**k. I'm not happy.   

Happy Friday!

4.)  Brass band carolling in Tesco's tomorrow 

That sounds very nice indeed! A little music while shopping....

1) We have a snow day. They were predicting snowmageddon. It's actually freezing rain in most of the area, with snow in the higher elevations. So most employers have closed up shop since it's only marginally safe to be on the roads. Supposed to continue overnight. So far the power is still on and probably will be, in our area. Lines have gone down a bit farther out, from the ice.  Our exceptionally industrious apartment complex snow plow guy has been out there since about 4:00am trying to plow what actually isn't on the ground, but I guess he doesn't want to have to go back to fixing people's toilets and things today.... (Oh, ok, on closer inspection he's actually plowing about an inch of slush, so I'll give him that one. They really are good - sidewalks are cleared promptly, etc., when needed.)

2) The audit at work... I've done what I can do. Upper administration is balking at providing some critical info. Not my monkey, not my circus.

3) The grocery stores near here are having absolutely spectacular sales. King Arthur Bread Flour $2.50 for five pound bags, rump roasts (beef) for $2.99 a pound.... Guess I'll get some beef for the freezer, as it'll probably be in short supply or expensive later on, since they had to cull so many cattle late last summer because of drought. And I can always find somewhere to store bread flour!  I wonder if they overstocked, and now are having to unload it at cost?

4) They're saying to expect a polar vortex for Christmas. Well, won't that be special.

5) My co-worker who came back from London spent about a half hour in my office yesterday afternoon chatting. Before I realized I hadn't put my mask on and had forgotten to turn my air purifier on when I came back from lunch. Uh oh. (No she hadn't worn a mask the whole time she was going to or from, or while there.) Oops. I was just so tired (minimal sleep the night before) that I let my guard down.  I do not want Covid. I especially do not want Covid on my vacation. The Daughter's close co-worker called in sick yesterday - with Covid. Daughter never takes her mask off at work, so hopefully all will be well. We have so many fingers and toes crossed that we are pretty much unable to do much else. 

Happy Friday. At least it's written from home before work while sipping a mug of hot cocoa and wearing my favorite fuzzy robe! So that makes it a good Friday.

Happy Friday!!!  Have a great Christmas and New Year UKY!

1.) Last day of work for the year for me as my company shuts down during this time period. Whoot! 

2.) One more Christmas carolling gig to go tonight, another one in Tesco.

3.)  A quiet, sad and subdued Christmas this year

4.) My husband and I stayed up far too late last night putting the worlds to right (as it's been a long time since we have had a good proper catch up with everything going on).  Luckily,  he has a half day and I'm just drinking lots of coffee!

5.) Gonna make some beer tomorrow! 

Wow, it's Friday already! One week of my two week's vacation gone then.

1) The weather. I'm not going out in it.    Except maybe to haul the trash out to the dumpster before it gets really cold outside later.

2) My house looks like a hoarder had a manic attack - the daughter tends to leave stuff around and so today is going to be a massive clean-up day. I used to think I was a slob, when I was younger, but find that disorder really annoys me on a subconscious level.

3) Donny the Bettafish finally died this week. He had been fighting a disease we could not identify and despite having the best (and varied) medications he finally lost the war after two months of a good fight. I was able to bury him out under the same tree as we put the hamster under when it died.

4) Went out to check the garden this week. The snow and the frost has displaced an entire side of the chickenwire fence. It's been in the ground for two winters now so it needed to be redone anyway this spring, so I just propped it up as best as I could for now. I was hoping to dig up the last of the carrots but they were somewhere under six inches of packed snow so I left empty handed.

5) I am happy to have another week of vacation. I will he happier when I can retire again permanently, although I'll miss the extra money. It's paid for several nice, short regional trips to see the sights and replenished what it cost me to get us back over here from the UK and set back up in a household with a car again. I have definitely enjoyed sight-seeing.

And now I am going to go enjoy a nice hot cup of tea and some toast and watch the birds at the bird feeder. Lots of visitors, and I have a special woodpecker treat suit slab I need to put out there.

I just realised it's Friday!

1.) Hope everyone has had a nice Christmas and will have a good new year. Let's hope 2023 is better than 2022! 

2.) Finally finished off the Christmas turkey last night. So many good leftovers though!

3.) Today is my wedding anniversary. Hubby has been helping my MIL with a fence that blew over (horrible horrible timing)  and I have been cleaning the kitchen from top to bottom. We sure are romantic. 

4.) I really need to bottle up a beer that is ready.  Maybe tonight if I can be arsed, but certainly tomorrow.   

5.) Think it's supposed to be fairly snowy tomorrow, but the chicken coop could do with a cleanup.  Hopefully in the next few days I can get that done.   

1) Last Friday of freedom.    I have to go back to work next week. I am still considering at what point I will hand in my resignation. I won't have a lot to do otherwise at home until the spring thaw when I can get back to my gardening. So I'll give them a couple of more months, with a long notice period at some point. That will give them a good month or so to hire someone in before I leave so that they can have more training than I got. The more I do, the more they ask me to do, for a salary that is what I could pull down at Starbucks. Oh, well.... It served its purpose, more or less.

2) I haven't gotten the house cleaned sufficiently. I made good progress, though more needs doing. Once I can take the Christmas tree down (we haven't done all 12 days yet!) a lot of the boxes that normally contain decorations can be re-filled and sent back to storage. That will help a lot. I'm literally tripping over things daily.

3) We went out to lunch at our favorite Mexican restaurant yesterday - not a soul in the place other than the staff. Food was excellent and they piled it on so much that we got take-away containers and brought what we didn't eat home and will have another full meal from it today.

4) It's supposed to be in the 50Fs today. We're going to go on a nice walk up to the nearby shops. There is no telling when we'll get to do that again. It seems that winter here gives you a couple of arctic blasts, with relatively decent spells in-between, and then in January it sets in with a vengeance. So a nice walk out on a pleasant day is quite a luxury, right now.

5) Making another stab at growing lettuce & greens hydroponically. The seedlings are starting to come up now, so it'll be a matter of if they make it to true leaves. I've had a lot of trouble with them damping off (growing them in soil at this point, to transplant to hydroponic media later) in the past. Have new, much stronger lights, and all the other plants are thriving, so fingers are crossed we get a good solid start on this batch.

5.1) It's hard to believe that 3 years ago we were still in Scotland. The time has just flown by - this last year especially. It's as if I blinked and missed 2022. Even after all this time I still wish we could go back and do it over again, knowing what we know now. And I do still wish we could have stayed. But I guess it's all for the best.  Still wish I would walk down Great Western to Chai Ovna and spend the afternoon with my daughter in there, today, drinking tea and talking about things in her life. I used to so look forward to doing that every Friday. Nothing like that here.... oh, well. Life goes on. (Thanks a lot, Brexit!    )  As I am not planning to be online for the next couple of days, I'd like to take this chance to wish you all the best for what's left of the Holidays and a happy and safe New Year. Spring will come....     

Friyay!

Happy anniversary PB!

1.  Had chemo #5 of 6 today after a 2 week postponement.  Postponed 2 weeks ago because my adorable kids brought home sniffles, which turned into a nasty virus for me. Crazy cough, breathlessness, and exhaustion. Really sucks how something so minor on a normal immune system can absolutely wipe me out. But at least I’m approaching the end of chemo now.  I’ve had all my tests that needed repeating after 3 months now and my body is handling the drugs well (always good to have your heart working!).

2.  While it’s been a long time since I’ve needed to have my lungs drained (over 8 weeks now!), they do need to be drained again.  I think I need to have the catheter put in, but…. It is slowing. My body is doing what it can to eliminate it.  <sigh>  I want this fixed.  It’s a genuine quality of life thing.  I want to be able to go for a walk! 

3.  Think I’m going to cave and be signed off work until I’ve bounced back. The cumulative effects of chemo have caught up with me. I’m tired, mine brain doesn’t work.  Just need to get healthy and then worry about work.

4.  Really wanting 2023 to be a fantastically positive year. Basically what I had hoped for this year.   I could use a couple of fabulous holidays and quality time with my family. I think they’d like it too.

5.  I’m really scraping the barrel for tv series at the moment. Give me suggestions. Seriously…. You guys would be ashamed of what I’m watching. LOL! 

I would like no one at UKY to be diagnosed with cancer in 2023 please!  It is truly the most awful disease on the planet! 

Happy Christmas & New Year UKY.

Glad you're making it through chemo safely KFDancer, and happy anniversary PB!

1. We spent Xmas at home just the two of us this year. It was really nice after last year's upsetting holiday overhearing some horribly ableist comments from the in-laws about what they think of me.

2. Have really struggled with healthcare some more, but *finally* may have had something show up in routine blood work. See Dr on the 10th for the results (got all the normal ones via Epic and could see which they withheld - so glad we finally have digital health records) The things that are off could explain the muscle weakness and blood pressure issues I've been having, and some of the other things, so *fingers crossed* they care enough to treat it. But as it's new I might be able to have private insurance help if the NHS won't.

3. Used Xmas money to get lovely bright woolly things. Learning wet felting with a resist next week to make little bowls and hats. Once I've saved enough going to learn how to spin wool too (after researching - hoping to get a Navajo supported spindle to get started on and then a nano electric eel e-spinner)

4. Out of things to share because this has been the most challenging and isolating year of my life. 

Sent from my Pixel 6a using Tapatalk

Friyay!

Happy anniversary PB!

1.  Had chemo #5 of 6 today after a 2 week postponement.  Postponed 2 weeks ago because my adorable kids brought home sniffles, which turned into a nasty virus for me. Crazy cough, breathlessness, and exhaustion. Really sucks how something so minor on a normal immune system can absolutely wipe me out. But at least I’m approaching the end of chemo now.  I’ve had all my tests that needed repeating after 3 months now and my body is handling the drugs well (always good to have your heart working!).

2.  While it’s been a long time since I’ve needed to have my lungs drained (over 8 weeks now!), they do need to be drained again.  I think I need to have the catheter put in, but…. It is slowing. My body is doing what it can to eliminate it.  <sigh>  I want this fixed.  It’s a genuine quality of life thing.  I want to be able to go for a walk! 

3.  Think I’m going to cave and be signed off work until I’ve bounced back. The cumulative effects of chemo have caught up with me. I’m tired, mine brain doesn’t work.  Just need to get healthy and then worry about work.

4.  Really wanting 2023 to be a fantastically positive year. Basically what I had hoped for this year.   I could use a couple of fabulous holidays and quality time with my family. I think they’d like it too.

5.  I’m really scraping the barrel for tv series at the moment. Give me suggestions. Seriously…. You guys would be ashamed of what I’m watching. LOL! 

I would like no one at UKY to be diagnosed with cancer in 2023 please!  It is truly the most awful disease on the planet!

I'm just in awe at how brilliantly you're handling everything that's been thrown at you. You are amazing! 

Nan, hope 2023 means you can retire! And grow lots of amazing vegetables!! 

KFDancer, best of luck on this last round. I hope you feel better soon and taking time off work to just recover sounds like the best plan. I hope 2023 is much better for you!!

AnotherUKYankee, I hope you finally get some help with all the medical stuff going on in 2023. And I hope that the felting goes swimmingly and that 2023 is a better year for you! 

Happy Christmas & New Year UKY.

Glad you're making it through chemo safely KFDancer, and happy anniversary PB!

1. We spent Xmas at home just the two of us this year. It was really nice after last year's upsetting holiday overhearing some horribly ableist comments from the in-laws about what they think of me.

2. Have really struggled with healthcare some more, but *finally* may have had something show up in routine blood work. See Dr on the 10th for the results (got all the normal ones via Epic and could see which they withheld - so glad we finally have digital health records) The things that are off could explain the muscle weakness and blood pressure issues I've been having, and some of the other things, so *fingers crossed* they care enough to treat it. But as it's new I might be able to have private insurance help if the NHS won't.

3. Used Xmas money to get lovely bright woolly things. Learning wet felting with a resist next week to make little bowls and hats. Once I've saved enough going to learn how to spin wool too (after researching - hoping to get a Navajo supported spindle to get started on and then a nano electric eel e-spinner)

4. Out of things to share because this has been the most challenging and isolating year of my life. 

Sent from my Pixel 6a using Tapatalk

This is so encouraging!  Glad you guys stayed home and protected you!  I really hope the GP follows through.  I’ve always found they are happy to give referrals privately, I hope if you need to “pull that card” that it gets you the treatment you need at least.

Fun that you are learning a new skill!  I learned to make Pom poms in December and we all sit here making Pom poms all the time. Husband enjoys it the most!

Happy Friday!

1.) Longest short week ever 

2.) Quickly back to the grind, was there a holiday? 

3.) Out to lunch and drinks with friends tomorrow. Yay, I need some laughs!   

4.) Needing to do some mega clear outs and decluttering 

5.) Time to take the tree down - We put it up really late due to the sadness and madness of December, so decided to keep it up a few days longer than we normally would. Still, ready to have my living room back.     

1) Agree on the longest short week! OMG. Went back on Tuesday, home unwell today. My stomach has been trying to dissolve itself again.  I had made an appointment with a different GP to start care with that office, and had an appointment set for last week, but she was stuck in an airport so it's postponed until next week. Yesterday went to a different new doc (dermatology) and had some precancerous lesions removed. So that's three in the last 12 months. Not real happy about that - I was the one who always avoided the sun! The darned things pop up as scaly and then go itchy and red, relatively quickly in the grand scheme of things. Hardly reassuring. But at least I know what they are.

2) It's as dreary and dark today here as it used to be in Scotland. Not terribly cold, though - in the 40Fs. If I was there I'd have bundled up and gone out for a walk to the tea shop.  But I'm sitting looking out a window and drinking a cup of mint tea, and watching the birds at the feeder. Considering taking the Christmas tree down. Maybe after another cup of tea.

3) The Daughter is STILL waiting to hear if she got the remote job - they asked for her references before the Christmas Holidays. I hope so - she needs to get on with her life. Her mental health is suffering, which adds to my anxiety load.

4) Am cycling the fish tank - the betta fish had died, so I scrubbed the tank out, threw out all the decorations (in case they harbored pathogens) and have the new one set up.  Has a nerite snail in it - Gary.  Waiting for the water chemistry to be ok for a new betta. The way it's going, it looks like that time will be towards the end of next week.  The snail is an escape artist -we had to put netting over any opening at the top of the tank or he goes on walkabout.

5) Used the leftover roast from Sunday's dinner, and the "Syracuse-style" potatoes*, and an onion and some garlic as the filling for a nice pie. It came out really well - very tasty!  Excellent way to deal with leftovers.  I'm trying to decide if I want to risk heating it up, or if I should just have some crackers and chicken soup for lunch.... 

*Apparently it's a local thing. Two quarts of water to like a cup of salt to boil small potatoes in. Really a lot of salt. But they come out surprisingly unsalty and good.