It was nice to be back to work today

We celebrated Mardi Gras with doughnuts and King Cake, and I've probably screwed up my weight loss by a couple of pounds today alone.  Tomorrow we're having a potluck to celebrate Valentine's Day and also our volunteer's birthday.  It being the day before payday, and with me having about sixteen cents in my account, and a slightly smaller cheque due to the lack of time off to cover everything (although it wasn't too bad--I was less than four hours short total, and it amounted to about $13 in pay after taxes, etc.), I suddenly realised last night that my best bet was to make bread.  So tonight I'm making two loaves--a wheat bread that is really good and completely vegan (one of my co-workers is a vegan), using applesauce or olive oil (I used applesauce) for the creaminess, and honey for the sweetener.  Later I'll try to make an herb bread as well.  We'll see how it goes.  I haven't made the whole wheat in a while.  I put together the dough conditioner just the other day.  I love the recipe and both the bread instructions and dough conditioner ingredients can be found at https://beanland.wordpress.com/2009/05/03/whole-wheat-bread-machine-recipe/.  The only difference is I use olive oil instead of canola, sometimes. I don't like canola oil, to be honest, and olive oil works fine.  But I used unsweetened applesauce this time.


So, with the bread making, I swept the floor in the kitchen and mopped it.  Of course, it's going to start raining soon, and it's supposed to rain for most of the week.  On Thursday I think the high is supposed to be 62.  In Lexington, we tend to have localised flooding, but up in the hilly areas to the east of us, schools have been closed and the flooding has been pretty bad.  So I wish we had a drier forecast, for their sakes, and for the sake of the kitchen floor.  But that's okay.

I am working this weekend for about four hours to help make up for the lost time, as well as Monday, which, as it is Presidents' Day, we are technically closed, but a few of us have permission to work on rescheduling the grids.  That way I won't have to use my very low personal time off.  My boss said she was able to use some of the extended illness bank for yesterday and part of Friday, so only part of Thursday wasn't covered.  But working will help offset the loss of personal time off, anyway.

After work today, I took a co-worker somewhere and she gave me a little money for gas, which was great, because I was on my gas light, and this should get me through to payday.

Now I'm listening to some music.  I may lie down on the heating pad for a little while.  It was great being back at work, but I am a little tired and my back is still hurting.  I think after that, I'll watch Netflix, maybe the next episode of 'Sherlock', because YKWIA is studying and reading tonight.  I think he was very happy to have me at work today. :)

PS

The kitchen can wait until tomorrow to be mopped.  I waited until after dinner since invariably some vegetable winds up on the floor (and the dogs aren't particularly into vegetables), but I'm too tired after helping prepare the salad and some other chopping, along with the cleanup afterwards.  My back is hurting quite a bit today, and so the bending to unload and load the dishwasher and then to stand and do the rest of the dishes was painful.  YKWIA did most of the cooking, and it was an excellent meal (a frittata, cream of asparagus soup, and an arugula, radicchio, shallot, and fennel salad with balsamic vinegarette with garlic dressing).  We didn't even need to get into the bread.  I've taken my nightly medicine, and I added some tizanidine, which I use occasionally on orders of my doctor, when my muscles are in spasm, as it relaxes them.  It's a tiny dose, just 12 mg (three 4 mg tablets at bedtime).  I'm also thinking of using the heating pad for a little while.  I did finish all my other tasks for the day, including my laundry. Yesterday I did his, today mine, and tomorrow I'll do the dog blankets and bath mat.

Okay, I'm going to get on that heating pad and listen to some music. I already feel a little fuzzy.  These are not things I can take and drive, for example.  Usually, I go straight to bed, and they don't make me groggy in the morning, really.  I usually wake up before my alarm.  But I stayed up once and it was a weird feeling, where I wasn't coordinated and slightly drunk.  So I use them very sparingly.

I guess the cat has forgiven me...

He came and sat on my chest just now (as I was typing, of course).  Now he's moved over to the bed.  But he purring and cuddling, and obviously had put the nail trimming behind him.  He's lying on the blouse I just mended, of course, because it isn't enough to be on the quilt on the bed. :)

Unfinished business to do today

1. Trim the cat's claws.
2. Mend a blouse, including sewing on a button and fixing a ripped seam.
3. Take out the trash.
4. Clean the toilet and tub. 
5. Sweep.
6. Mop the tile. *plus*
7. Run an errand with YKWIA.
8. Run by the pharmacy. 
9. Help with dinner.
10. Clean up after dinner.

The cat is distinctly not happy.  YWKIA is studying right now, so I don't want to make much noise doing the chores, so I'll do those later.  We're going out in about an hour to run an errand.  It amazes me how quickly today is going by.  I got up at 8 am, got something to eat, watched a couple of things on Hulu that he was watching, then went to bed from about 10 am to 11 because I'd only gotten about 6 hours' sleep.  I felt better.  I only actually slept about 15-20 minutes, but it was a nice nap. I'm mostly recovered, of course.

So I've written about Habitica before

Which is a role-playing game-themed task system to help you do things in life you might otherwise not be motivated to get done.  I subscribe, meaning I get gems and other goodies every month to use for various items such as quests (which I invite members of my party to) as a way of having more accountability in terms of doing tasks.  So they have new 'hatching potions' that can be used to create 'pets', which in turn can be made into 'mounts', and this Cupid hatching potion is available for gems and they are only available through February 28th.  I was lamenting the lack of gems until I suddenly realised, hey, it's February, a new month, I have plenty of gold to buy gems with, and as a new month, I can get up to 45 as a subscriber.  So I did so, got a new quest (the badger pet quest, which has just come out) and five of the Cupid potions.  I still have 31 gems, so I have some for other things, and they don't go away at the end of the month or anything.  But if I don't buy them, I don't think they build up from month to month.  Can't believe we're almost halfway through the month and I totally forgot I hadn't gotten any gems yet and was kicking myself for having no gems.

I'm an 86th-level healer, the only one in the party.   At 100 you can use an 'orb of rebirth' to become to go back to level 1 and at level 10, you can choose another class.  I've been a mage, a warrior, and a healer, so the only one left is rogue.  I'll do that.  Then I'll have done all four. :)

It's fun, but it also helps me get things like floss, take out the trash, and most importantly, take my medicine as I should.

The dog

is sitting in the middle of the backyard barking at the sky, or more specifically, a crow sitting on a powerline pole.  Now the other dog is barking because, while it's not raining, the yard is wet, she is unhappy, and wants to be let in.

At least the first one isn't jumping up above the fence today.

The cat, meantime, is on my blanket on the bed, still unmade, mainly because I don't want to disturb him.  It's very fluffy and he's very comfortable.

It's so weird

not going to work tomorrow.  But that should be my last day, per doctor's orders, and I've been taking my antibiotic faithfully and feel much better.  I need to call tomorrow and make the two-week follow-up appointment they wanted.  When I spoke to the receptionist Friday, they were getting ready to close (they leave by 1 pm on Fridays).  Maybe I can figure out what's going on.  Also, it occurred to me to look up my lab results through their portal.  Looking at them, the following were all high: White Blood Cell Count, Red Blood Cell Count, Hemoglobin, Hematocrit, Platelet Count, Absolute Neutrophils, Absolute Monocytes.  Also, there are two things that are always just off, and I think they have to do with the liver, which scares me sometimes, as my mother's liver disease started like that.  They are Alkaline Phosphatase and ALT.  There used to be a reference guide in my health library that gave some indication of what these values mean.  That went to India, of course, with the other materials.  So I'll have to have Dr Nesbitt explain it to me.  The white blood cell count was the worse; most of the others are slight elevations.  So I guess it's an indication of infection and he wanted me on the antibiotic.  Not quite sure why he wanted me off another four days, though, unless he felt that 1) I needed more time to build up my strength in the face of infection or 2) maybe I was infectious.  I guess there's no way to figure out what was wrong with me.  But he wouldn't have put me on an antibiotic for a viral issue.  So, who knows?  I'll talk with him in a couple of weeks, by which time I'm hoping I feel normal (I have still tired out a bit, I must admit).

The bread came out

so big, I could barely get it out of the pan.  I dented in one side of the top doing so (there tends to be a lot of air up near the crust).  Oh, well, it's not as pretty as when it was in the pan, but I'm sure it will taste wonderful.  Now to let it cool completely before putting it into the container.  And I put the dough conditioner together, too.

So I learned two new words tonight

from the Caesar's Footprints book:

chador--noun, a large piece of cloth that is wrapped around the head and upper body leaving only the face exposed, worn especially by Muslim women.
atelier--noun, a workshop or studio, especially one used by an artist or designer.

Not bad for one chapter. Nine more and an epilogue to go.  I like his writing, and it really puts me back when I was studying Classical languages and history.

Reading Plan

So, in this order:

1. A Darker Shade of Magic--3 days left [to be renewed so YKWIA can finish it and I can read it afterwards]
2. Caesar's Footprints--6 days left (new/14-day book) [to start with immediately] 
3. The Landmark Julius Caesar--6 days left (new/14-day book) [next]
4. Anatomy of a Genocide--14 days left (new/14-day book)
5. La Belle Sauvage--20 days left (fiction)
6. The Oversight--26 days left (fiction)
7. The Forgetting--26 days left (fiction)