'The 100'

was very good tonight, for the finale, and had a great twist at the end, which I won't disclose here. They're showing the episodes from the beginning again starting next week, so if you haven't seen it, you might want to check it out, especially if dystopian survival stories are your thing.

I broke down and called my doctor's office today about the knee issue, and getting a general checkup, and I have an appointment at 8:30 tomorrow morning. I just got in a little while ago from my friends' house and from watching the show, have put away groceries, have eaten a light snack, and I am very seriously considering going to bed. But first I must mention something YKWIA found and it so hurt his brain that he called me this afternoon and told me. It's a reality show, 'I Wanna Marry Harry', where American women are set up Bachelor-style to supposedly get coupled with Prince Harry (as in the fourth in line for the British throne, if I'm doing my math right), when in actuality he's just a guy who's not-really-that-closely-resembling Harry and the girls don't get it. As if the Queen would allow her grandson to pick a wife that way. Apparently if you start to get an idea that this whole thing is fishy, they bump you from the show. Gee. I think reality shows in general are stupid (and they shouldn't call them that, as they are far from it; unscripted might be a better term), but this one seems dumb, dumb, dumb.

YKWIA also showed me a 'M.A.S.K.' episode (you know, the animated series from the mid-80s) that was set in Australia that is, shall we say, beyond the pale of racism. The Aborigines are drawn as dim-witted savages who make ape sounds when encountering a guitar. It's like they took the worst of racial stereotypes of Africans and American Indians and put them together and set them down in Australia. They also blew horns (yes, the mighty horned marsupials) and had lots of minted gold in their temple under Ayers Rock. It was terribly 'ooga booga' and just plain horrible and the worst thing of all is that this series was released in Australia. Hello, the Aborigines do have TVs. Granted it was 30 years ago, but that's really no excuse. And don't even get me started on Bruce Sato, the inscrutable Asian that no one but Matt Trakker can understand because he speaks in riddles. Also, you really have to suspend disbelief, as YKWIA pointed out. After all, where do those masques go in terms of storage when they're not using them? In the vehicles, right? So where does the motorcycle one store its, or the sports car with a low roof? YKWIA also pointed out that Matt Trakker is quite possibly the worst father in the TV world. He leaves his son Scott with random strangers or a ineffectual robot, usually right where he's going to go into danger, only to need a rescue from the team. It's yet another one of those precocious kid with either cute robot or animal sidekick that was once so popular on TV (often having both, like the original 'Battlestar Galactica' with Boxey and his Daggit, but sometimes one or the other (Wesley Crusher on 'Star Trek: the Next Generation being an example of annoying super teen, or the Bear on 'BJ and the Bear' as the chimpanzee companion to the trucker BJ.)) It was a plague in TV land which with any luck has run its course. Dont' believe me about the racism? Check out io9's article: The time M.A.S.K. took a super racist Australian vacation". It's a little inaccurate (Scott says at one point that the Aborigines are doing a 'war dance', not a 'water dance'), and the author admits to knowing nothing about Aboriginal culture, but hey, he got that it was racist as hell. Sorry to trample over a beloved childhood show, but, goodness it's so wrong.....

Okay, enough about TV; time for bed.

Not feeling the best tonight

A walk was out of the question today as I've been having a lot of pain in my knee. This has been going on since the beginning of May, and I think it's past time to have it looked at. Unfortunately, when I got home there were storms coming in, so no pool visit, either. So I watched the news for a bit and then propped my leg up on some pillows where it felt better for a good long while.

I'm hormonal, and while I was doing fine at work, interacting with my best friend, which is sometimes difficult (think dealing with Sheldon Cooper from 'Big Bang Theory' or PL Travers from Saving Mr Banks) was nigh on impossible. So I took him to an appointment and then dropped him off at home so I could go sit in the hut alone and away from folks and wait for my menstruation to begin, which it is just now starting to, so hopefully I will feel better soon. I'm not weepy or anything like that, just a little irritable and not thinking at my best.

I found out that my colleague at our hospital in Los Angeles had her position eliminated, leaving even fewer librarians in our system. Today I also found out that the job I'd applied for at the Lexington Public Library was filled. So that was disappointing, and I'm starting to feel more stressed over job security. I mean I have none, we know the library won't be going to the new building in a couple of years, but I'm afraid they'll make cuts before then, and the job hunt, while pretty active, is not going well. I've revised my résumé, which I'll update soon online, that is more concise, leaving the full list of things for more of a vita. But there's nothing in the area that I can drive to in a reasonable commute at the moment.

Tomorrow I have to:

1. Call my family doctor and make an appointment about my knee and also to get my refills renewed.
2. Call my dentist to see about adjusting the partials, which I haven't been wearing because I can't get them in.
3. Call my student loan administrator about recertifying my income contingent repayment and discuss some issues with them.
4. Call my optometrist and order new contacts.

All that in addition to a full day tomorrow at work. Then there's the season finale of 'The 100' to watch with YKWIA, assuming I'm up to company tomorrow night.

Okay, time for bed. Good night. Hopefully tomorrow will not be quite so depressing.

I feel like Sleeping Beauty

except without the prince, the fairies, and I'm pretty sure she didn't wake up with her hair sticking up and feeling slightly hung over.

See, I went to bed very late last night. It was almost 2 am. I couldn't sleep after the storms and 'The 100'. Then I got a call from an insomniac friend at 6 am asking if I could please fix his internet connexion, which had been down all night. So I did that (I just had to unplug and replug in the router). I went home and I tried to get a little more rest to no avail, and had just enough time to clean up in the sink without washing my hair. Now, I'm one of those people who simply must wash my hair every day, for it is fine and oily and it goes flat and awful when I leave it that long. I can't even wash it in the evening and have it look fine the whole next day. So I sort of fretted over my hair all day.

Despite the lack of sleep, work went well, and I was very busy. After work I paid my rent and signed my new lease. Then I came in and debated on going for a walk (I should have) before lying down for a half hour, thinking that it was early enough surely I wouldn't sleep the evening away. That was at 5:30. I got up at 10:45, so I got over five hours of sleep. Now I'm up for water and medicine. The way I feel, I think I'll be able to go back sleep some more.

So I feel like I wasted a perfectly good evening, but at least I got some rest. Tomorrow I'll be helping with some baking and a grocery run, so I'll need to be rested, and even though it's a slower clinic day on Fridays, it's my catch-up day for all sorts of things.

A little tired tonight

One of my co-workers mentioned today that sometimes it seems the 'short' weeks with holidays seem longer than others. This week has been very busy, plus for whatever reason I wound up with a cluster of doctor's appointments. Yesterday was my ophthalmologist, today the endocrinologist. I learned that I really should go to see the ophthalmologist in the later afternoon, as it takes several hours for eyes to recover from the dilation. My vision was blurry, and of course I was sensitive to the lights in my office. I had trouble reading things on the screen to the point where I had to put my head up and look through the bifocal part of my glasses to see. Right now I have a morning appointment in December, but I'm thinking that's going to have to change.

My endocrinologist gave me a new metre today that hooks up to a computer and downloads the data, syncing it into a tracking program. I tried it out today and I like it very much. My old one still works, but it's probably about thirteen or fourteen years old and had no way to do that. The new one is a One Touch Verio IQ. I thought she'd give me a prescription for one, but they had one on hand they could give me. Yay!

Both appointments went pretty well. I dreaded today's especially, because my blood sugar's been up. She put me back on Invokana, but at a lower dose to try to prevent the side effects I was having. I'm going to try to make some changes in my lifestyle, really work on them this time. She wants me to lose 30 lbs to help increase my sensitivity to insulin. I'd really like to start walking more but my knee is still giving me issues if I overuse it. However, my pool at the apartment complex is now open, so perhaps I can do a workout in it without the stress on my joints.

This week I've applied for a job, run a friend to appointments, gone to the pharmacy, did my own appointments, watched 'The 100' and 'The Big Bang Theory', and I've worked a lot on the revenue cycle issues at work. Tomorrow I really need to get a book order in to our vendor. Through July 15th there is a special being run that ups our discount on one order. I've had two people really wanting access to the current Publication Manual of the American Psychological Associatio, and it would be nice to get it soon so they can use it for school and research. So it's definitely on my to do list, as well as getting the referral queue down. But I'll get it done, I'm sure. At least it's a light clinic day, so I can concentrate on those things rather than a lot of data entry, hopefully.

Okay, I really think it would be best to go get some rest. I have something I need to do very early in the morning, and so I'm going to turn in early. But I'm very glad tomorrow is Friday!

Wow

I got home from watching 'The 100' with a friend about 10:45 pm, after the major storm had passed which drenched the city but while some others were coming through. I was hot and sticky (yes, serves me right for wearing polyester), so I came in with all intents and purposes of blogging but instead I took out my contacts, took off my clothes, turned on the fan in the bedroom, and propped my feet up on the bed. I'd been aching everywhere, and my knee is still bothering me a lot, so it felt good to have the breeze on me. I told myself I'd lie there for a minute or two, then go get my glasses, something to eat, and some ibuprofen. Than was three and a half hours ago. :) So now I'm doing all that, plus I cleared out some algae that was invading the fish tank's filtration system.

I got an e-mail saying the second of two positions I'd applied for had been filled. :( There is another one that just opened, though, so I'll go ahead and apply. I'm thinking that indicates an internal candidate got at least one of the jobs.

I submitted two book reviews today, was very productive at work, and then came home and had dinner and about 45 minutes of resting (no, I didn't nap). Then it was over to YKWIA's where we watched the first episode of the British comedy 'Clone' and then 'The 100', which is getting better and better as it goes along. I wonder how close it is to the book upon which it is based, by Kass Morgan? That might be worth looking at after the season's over, which will be three more episodes. Soon there will just be 'Salem' to watch, as 'Grimm' is over for the year. But hey, that's what Amazon Prime and Netflix are for. :)

Okay, I've had a little cereal and I'm going to take that ibuprofen. Time to go back to bed. Good night!

I unfortunately broke something this morning

It's not terrible, but I woke up this morning with glass on my bed. There is a floor lamp that stands by the bed that has an upward-facing torchiere and two side reading lights, all with glass lampshades. Apparently I thrashed around in my bed while sleeping and must have hooked the lamp, which fell on the bed, breaking one of the side lampshades. So I unplugged it and decided after picking up the glass not to try to unscrew the shade, as I was running slightly behind this morning and I was afraid that if I hurried I might nick myself with the remainder of the shade.

Fast forward to tonight, now that I'm home from watching 'The 100', and I managed to unscrew the one that isn't broken with no trouble so that I can take it to the store and find something similar. The broken one was really on there, but I finally managed to get it off. Now the glass pieces are thrown away and the light bulbs are back in and both, oddly enough, are working. Strange that it should break falling on the mattress but not hurting the bulb itself. Oh, well.

Tonight I visited for awhile and then we watched the show, which really has kept my attention and I'm interested in what is happening next, as opposed to its predecessor, 'The Tomorrow People', which has been cancelled. In all fairness, I was biased against the latter from the beginning because it was loosely based on a beloved British show from my childhood, and never captured my love for the original. 'The 100' has different plots and subplots going through it, as well as the necessary-for-the-CW love triangle and some angst thrown in. Plus, the grounder guy Octavia is so into, Lincoln, is hot. :)

What I forgot to do tonight was call my mom to confirm that I'm coming down to Danville tomorrow to visit my family. I'll call her first thing in the morning. I've got to get some gas before I leave and do a few minor things, so I'll probably get there about mid-morning.

So now I'm sitting on the bed, under the light, with the fan oscillating back and forth and my phone charging. It's been a good day, although very busy. I really worked hard to get caught up on everything I needed to before I left at work. Also, it's almost time for the Medical Library Association meeting, so I was fielding inquiries for some Hospital Libraries Section business (I'm chair of the membership committee). Between that and work, I kept on my toes. My optometrist's office called, too, saying that while they found my records, the contacts they were going to prescribe and which I'm trying now do not come in the prescription for my right eye, so they wanted me to come by and pick up a different pair to try, which I did. I also went the library and picked up an interlibrary loan.

Okay, I'm going to go do a few things before bed. Good night.

It is very quiet in the Rowan household

I got in from visiting friends about 9 pm, and did not pass go, did not go to the computer, did not collect $200. Instead I turned on some Loreena McKennitt and promptly went to sleep. I think I heard two songs, or maybe one-and-a-half, before falling into slumber. Now it's 1:30 am and I'm up. It was a very busy day at work today, and I had a lot of things that popped up that I had to attend to right then, putting off some of my other work, but I got all the vital stuff done. Then I went to the pharmacy to get some medicine for a friend, then to the dentist to get a permanent crown, then over to my friends' house, where among other things I did some troubleshooting on the computer. Tomorrow I'm going to check how the partials do with the new crown. If all goes well with the bite and everything, then it's time to start thinking about making permanent partials, which means taking impressions again.

Tomorrow the plan is to finish up everything I need to as I will not be at work Thursday, but have taken some time off to be with my family. After work it's over to my friends' house for 'The 100', after picking up an interlibrary loan book from the Lexington Public LIbrary. Friday it's back to work and then over to watch 'Grimm' (it's the season finale). Saturday my friends are visiting family. Sunday there is no game because Brenda is going to an SCA event. So things won't be in their usual routine. Tomorrow I should be getting Saving Mr Banks from Netflix, so perhaps we can all watch that Sunday instead.

I guess I'll try to go back to sleep. Sorry, it's been sort of quiet here of late, without much to write about. That's not actually a bad thing. I've worked hard to minimise the drama in my life. :)

Well, that was gross

I opened a container of Philadelphia garden vegetable 1/2-fat cream cheese and it was positively soupy. It could have been used in place of ranch dip. I'd just bought it at the store; it wasn't out of the refrigerator long. It didn't smell bad; it just never set up, apparently. But it's scary, so no eating it. So I am now eating Havarti cheese on my everything bagel instead.

It's been a couple of busy days. Yesterday I went into work early to make up some time from an appointment. Afterwards, I looked up something without success for a friend (but not for lack of trying--it had to do with chemistry and Jewish religious literature). After admitting defeat, I laid down for a bit and listened to some music. Then I went over there for 'Grimm', and went to bed once I got home about 10:45.

Today I tried to get up early to do some things around here, but to no avail. I started my morning trying to chase two Yorkshire terriers (no, I don't have any dogs, these were just running loose down Pimlico Parkway towards of Man O'War, but I couldn't catch them). I do hope they found their way home. The smallest one was really hard to see from a car. Then I visited my friends, took one to pay a bill, get some things from the pharmacy, and go to the grocery store. We all ate, and then YKWIA showed me a video on YouTube and we discussed it. Then we went hunting for an item or two at Macy's at the mall.

Now it's almost 8:30 pm and I am home and am listening to Of Monsters and Men's My Head is an Animal. I don't have to do notes tonight (I finished those last week). I have watered all the plants inside and out. I should work on the house, but frankly, I'm not sure I'm up to it right now. I'm afraid it's a little overwhelming at the moment. I have things strewn everywhere. Funny, I can be so organised at work, but at home it's chaos if I don't really work on it. But I'd like to get it straightened up so I can have company over to watch a movie. Maybe I could try to wake up early (assuming I go to bed earlier than normal). But tomorrow's already going to be pretty busy, between game prep, game, 'Salem', dog washies, and helping a friend do a project. Oh, and I have to finish a class by Monday. I have some videos to watch and a small project to do if I want to finish. Whew. So Monday might be better for housework. Or, several of our doctors are going to POSNA next week (Pediatric Orthopaedic Society of North America), so it will be pretty slow at work, especially on Wednesday. I don't have much personal time off, but I may try to get off then. That would give me most of the day to work on the house, until it's time to go over for 'The 100'. [Which, incidentally, YKWIA had a very good point the other night--the name should be changing each week to reflect the people in the group who have died on the show.]

Okay, I think I will go try to do something relaxing and fun. I feel I've earned it.

I got my new glasses today

These are a little stronger, both in the regular prescription and the bifocal, so I'm having a bit of a fishbowl effect going on. But I'm getting used to them already. I can see much clearer. My other glasses were about three years old, at least (although I've been wearing bifocal contacts the majority of the time, so it hasn't been that bad). These are more rectangular than my old ones, which were circular. I'm hoping they will give the illusion that my face isn't quite so round. Oh, and of course, they are my favourite colour--purple, though a little thicker and darker than the ones I had. I also put my order in for new contacts, as I've been wearing a trial pair for a couple of weeks now, and they should arrive in about a week.

Yesterday we wound up cancelling the game, so I got those applications into the library. First thing this morning, I renewed my American Library Association and Kentucky Library Association memberships, which had lapsed, so my résumé would be entirely accurate. :) I'd meant to renew, anyway, but that added some extra incentive. I also belong to the Medical Library Association, but that was renewed in January. Tonight I took some library books back, both for myself and for a friend, and then got some books on job interviews. Please keep your fingers crossed that I get that far!

Last night YKWIA watched 'Salem' on WGN. It was well-done in terms of story and suspense. It's not the most historically accurate show there could be (as YKWIA pointed out, the most glaring bit of wrongness is that while the trials were in Salem, the events happened in nearby Danvers Village, which was never mentioned). But overall, I am intrigued and want to see where they go with it. So right now we're mainly watching that and 'The 100' on Wednesday's CW lineup.

I'm home now. I think I'll do a bit of reading and listen to some music. If for some reason I don't write again tonight, have a great evening.

Tomorrow I need

to call my optometrist and order new contacts (my glasses are already ordered at the optician's) and then call my dentist and make an appointment for the restoration and crown on that troublesome molar, which the endodontist could not totally take care of. Apparently one channel is still calcified. She said if I ever had trouble with it, I would require some minor surgery. She wants to see me in a month, too. I also need to tell my dentist about the broken partial. We'll see what can be done about that. It is a temporary one, at least. And there is a warranty on the finished product of about six months, too. So hopefully it won't cost much more. I am reminded of the skeleton that Charlton Heston finds in the original Planet of the Apes, where the person had various aids to help his body's deficits, or the snake in The Seven Faces of Doctor Lao, who makes fun of the frailties of the human body. Between my eyes, my teeth, and my aches and pains, I'm feeling my age of late.

I just haven't felt myself lately. Partly it's my blood sugar, which has been higher since I changed from the Invokana to Byetta, and I haven't been eating particularly well the last couple of days, either. I'm going to try to be better on that. But even with just the medicine change, I'm suddenly up in the 300s in the morning, which is not good at all.

Tonight I went over to YKWIA's and watched 'The 100'. I hadn't seen it in a couple of weeks. It was a really good episode. I like the show quite well. It really keeps one's interest, going back and forth between the ark in space and the kids on earth who are the test subjects for whether mankind can survive in a post-nuclear world.

But now I'm home, and I think I'm going to just turn in. I'm still working on waking up early enough to do something around the house. If not, I usually stay home on Thursday nights, so I can work on it then. Friday's 'Grimm'. Saturday I've got a project already lined up, but I won't be taking A to the grocery, as he'll be out of town. Sunday may be the game, so tomorrow I should try to do the game notes. Anyway, have a good night.

I'm going to try to keep this short

because it's been an exhausting day, and I'm ready to turn in for bed.

Yesterday evening I:

1. Watched Frozen, the DVD, with YKWIA, who enjoyed it a lot and was very happy when he realised the DVD was a present for him
2. Watched several YouTube videos with him
3. Stayed up late requesting free credit reports

Today:

1. I managed to get to work on time despite waking up a half-hour before I was supposed to be there
2. I spent three hours at the dentist, only to find out that:
   • My partials weren't going in because they were off, and rocking when they were put in (it wasn't user error)
   • I have to have a root canal, to the tune of 400 more dollars, in addition to the two crowns I'd already had in my treatment plan
   • After the temporary crowns were put on, my partials went in snugly
   • But after I took them out later, I couldn't get them back in again, which is very frustrating
3. The colour copier at work was fixed by a technician, who had to replace a drum, but the moment he left it said it needed toner but refused to load the toner, even trying two different bottles, so that it would print maybe 10 pages and then quit, saying the toner was depleted, when the bottle was obviously full
4. And of course, while dealing with this and trying to get my other work done, I suddenly had all these calls with information requests; don't get me wrong, I don't mind that--I want them to call me--but it was very frustrating in terms of timing
5. I had a co-worker for whom I've been picking up the slack who according to reports is apparently spending quite some time at her desk playing games online, so another co-worker and I came up with a strategy to track my work vs. hers so that it's more apparent who does what
6. At least my 'check engine' light finally went out after a quarter of a tank of gas with STP fuel injector cleaners in it
7. I went and got a friend from work
8. I picked up some fish sandwiches for us
9. I watched 'Star Wars: Clone Wars' with YKWIA, along with some YouTube videos
10. We watched the premiere of 'The 100', which I've been wanting to see since it was announced last summer. I liked it quite a lot. It's already got more depth and interest than the remake of 'The Tomorrow People'

Now I'm home, and I'm going to go to bed. Spending time with friends perked me up for a little bit, but I'm quickly getting tired. Good night. Oh, and while it's 50 degrees, the wind is howling appropriately for the last night of winter. But according to the calendar, at least, tomorrow spring arrives. Yay!

Well, despite a nap, I have finished the notes

although Brenda had to cancel this week, for good reason. So tomorrow I'll go over a little later than usual, do the usual Sunday things, and visit. Maybe later in the day I can do that laundry; I'm not really wanting to do tonight.

One of the tangents we went on during the game was the costuming of the upcoming show, 'Reign', which is supposed to be about Mary, Queen of Scots in the court of the French, but which seems to be mostly, as I put it, 'teen angst in fantasy mediaeval dress'. Of course, it should have been Tudor-style. Brenda is a professional costumer and long-time Society for Creative Anachronism participant, and the game master is a gay man with a history degree who also studied theatre. Nothing was architecturally correct, the clothes were just completely Renaissance Faire, and as I (also a history degree, and lots of graduate level classes, mainly dealing with Europe form ancient to French Revolution) looked up earlier, Mary didn't go to France as a teenager for the first time--she was five and grew up at the French court. In other words, there is nothing vaguely historical about this show. There was much frothing. See for yourself:



Now there were a couple of interesting trailers we saw, also from the CW network. There's the 'Tommorow People', which originally was a British show that both YKWIA and I grew up with in the 1970s and loved, that was then remade in the 1990s (it was okay, not as good as the original), and now it's made it to America, with a much darker feel and yes, teen angst. The jury's out on that one. Here's it's preview:



Another was 'The 100', which looked interesting. It's about 100 young prisoners who did not fit into an overcrowded society in a space station sent back to Earth decades after a global nuclear war as a test to see if humanity can return. Here's that preview: