Alien Spouse

Frenemy Status Update.

Today I noticed that Facebook had changed it's privacy filters, again, to make it easier to fine tune individual posts privacy. It is kind of cool to be able to just post photos to a few individuals wall, but I hate how every time there is a change of this type it ignores my previous settings.

I went in and set everything up the way I'd had it before, and posted a status to suggest other people do the same.

Is it ironic that the first person to comment on that status was precisely the woman that my privacy settings were supposed to prevent seeing anything? And did it strike her as odd that the very first wall post of mine she can comment on is a warning that the privacy settings seemed to be in a bit of a pickle? Is this really all too daft for a woman in her mid thirties to be giving a sod about? I suspect the answers to these questions are no, no and yes.

Vote Cranberry.

Brittany, my department's fantastic work study student, adopted a fish today and didn't have time to take him home before she came to work. So we've had a mini fish tank with a beta fish swimming around on my desk this afternoon.

He doesn't have a name yet, but Brittany liked my suggestion of Cranberry. She has joint custody with her room mate though, so there is going to have to be some serious discussion of the matter this evening.

A Busy Day for Cats.

The big news of today is that Nancy has finally discovered that we have a new sofa and that it is a comfortable place for a little cat to sit. She is an extremely cautious creature.

Edith, on the other hand, has been a very bad cat today; because Nancy can't jump up on to the kitchen work surface and I'm confident that neither myself or Doc threw up cat biscuits next to the kettle. It's a damn good thing she is such a lovely cat when she's not being a raging nut-job.

Tiny Tasty Tartlets.

Doc C's department had a party this afternoon, which everyone brings some food too. This year Doc had checked ahead and ascertained that the main courses and side dishes would be fully covered, so that meant he felt honour bound to make two kinds of dessert. Damn.

He made coconut and almond maracoons, which were and will always be damn delicious; then he extended his baking repetoire to lemon meringue tartlets.

From the pastry cases to the lemon curd to the meringue, all you see was made from scratch in out little kitchen this morning by Doc C on a baking kick. My only note would be that the pastry could have been a touch thinner, but certainly not at all bad, particularly not for a first go.

Moody.

When we are at home, going about our tedious human business, occaisionally one of us will notice that there is a grey pool of The Malaise on the floor and the cry will go out "Oh no! Edith has Flopped!" to which the other person in the house will reply "Oh no! Edith flopped? Whatever shall we do?"

It is always Edith, probably because Nancy is so convinced that the entire world is out to get her that her little cat brain is full of conspiracy theories at all times and so she is always on alert; Edith knows the world loves her, and sometimes she finds this beyond tedious. yawn. She is the very picture of boredom in these moments, just staring blankly into space and generally behaving as if sighing were far too much effort. Usually if you throw a ball for her, or try to get her interested in one of her other toys, she'll just ignore the toy and give you a look that quite clearly says that you do not understand her.

I suspect that Edith in this mood is probably excellent experience for parenting teenagers. I should rent her out.

Gathering My Strength.

Wow, the first week of classes is exhausting - And that's just for me, answering questions, scrambling to sort out room mix-ups and giving out permit forms like it's going out of fashion (which it will next week, when the add/drop period ends. Hooray!) If I was actually going to classes as well, I would have been asleep on my feet, which, now I think of it ,might explain a lot about the students this week.

I told Doc C categorically that I would not be leaving the house today. That I needed to sleep late, make toast, watch DVDs, play video games, drink several mugs of tea and take a long nap after lunch; and that is exactly what I did, except for the video games and there is still time for that.

Second Day of Classes - Much Less Earth Shaking.

No earth quakes today - But I did get to go to the pub with my friends after work, and that was pretty damn nice following a day of intensive multi-tasking. Guinness is good for you! It also goes really well with veggie burger tacos!

First Day of Classes = Earth Shaking.

I always dread the first day of classes, which may sound odd as I'm not actually going to be in a classroom, but it is incredibly busy. For the whole day I know that I'll be answering questions, handing out forms, collecting forms, processing forms and keeping track of all of the class rooms, faculty, offices etc. This usually comes in waves, so during class there will be a lull and in the 15 minute windows between the end of one class and the start of the next I will be deluged.

We've only had one squabble over who is teaching a class, so we're doing well.

At lunch time I went to Doc C's office for lunch, and a well earned nap. I was slightly annoyed to feel the sofa shake whilst I was dozing, and I thought the agitation was caused by the ride on mower cutting the grass outside the window. It was not a lawn mower. It was an EARTH QUAKE.

A freaking EARTH QUAKE, so today was kind of interesting all around.

Saturday Lists.

Morning - Tea. Toast. Honey.

Afternoon - Asheville. Sushi. Window-shopping. Haircut. Iced latte. Home.

Evening - Pizza. "Eureka". Cats.

The Week in Review.

The Good : Doc C is having the best week ever, professionally speaking, and has got papers accepted by two of the top journals in his field. My husband is a philosophical rock star.

The Bad : Nancy Wake-Cat was named after the WWII heroine Nancy Wake, and I was very sorry to read about her death at 98 this week. The White Mouse was an incredible woman. (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/aug/08/nancy-wake-white-mouse-gestapo)

The Ugly : Following my minor surgery for further mole removal I've posted a photo of my potential scars on Flickr! Yay!

Flowers!

One of the faculty brought in flowers today for me and Amy to show her appreciation of us. That made me happy!

Recouperating.

Stupid stitches. I wasn't able to get much sleep last night, the problem was that if I slept on my left side it put pressure on the stitches, but sleeping on my right wasn't an awful lot better. In the end I discovered that hugging a pillow gave me some support, but I didn't realise that until about 9 o'clock this morning.

Considering I was really tired and, after reading the possible side effects of the pain killers I'd been prescribed, I decided to stay at home today. Edith kept a close eye on me, and we watched "Inception".

More Mole Removals.

So you know when is a really daft time to decide to do a month long fitness challenge? When you have minor surgery scheduled that requires you not to do anything for at least two days slap bang in the middle of that month. My instruction sheet actually says two weeks, but I checked with the doctor who performed the procedure and he said that because my surgery site is at the top of my left breast I can still Zumba as long as I wear a supportive sports bra! Yay!

Anyway, it was all fine. I took my valium, well it was actually tamazepam, with breakfast and was considerably more relaxed about the whole thing then Doc C was. He has been taking a lot of interest in my remaining moles since my last visit to the dermatologist, and asked me to get another one on my shoulder checked out too. So that one has been taken too! I'm not going to have any moles left at this rate!

Before getting out the scalpels for the main event the doctor drew me a picture to explain exactly what the procedure was, and the picture looked a bit like a knitting pattern that requires short rows. There almost definately will be some pink scarring because I am so damn pale, but the plan was to give me a curved scar line rather than a big blotch. Should I feel the scarring is too bad then they will give me some laser treatment to fade it. Or I could get another tattoo to cover it up, that's an interesting option, right?

I was a model patient (the doctor really said that!), and it was all very quick; so after we left the clinic I insisted Doc C take me out for early lunch before coming home to sleep off the tamazepam on the sofa. Right now I feel fine, if a bit itchy, but, once the local anaesthsia fully wears off, then it is going to hurt so I've got some over-the-counter pain killers and, if those don't work, then I've got some prescription meds too.

All in all I'd say it was fine, but not exactly my idea of a fun way to spend a morning and I don't really want to do that again any time soon.

I Don't Like Mondays.

It was a really hectic Monday, which I half-anticipated, but when I found myself quite glad that tomorrow I am having minor surgery and therefore will not be going into the office... Well, I think you will agree THAT is a hell of a Monday.

The Miniest of Breaks.

At about lunch time yesterday I spontaneously decided to take the afternoon off, because there was really nothing happening in the office and Doc C has had a paper provisionally accepted by a journal that is, like, a really big deal in his field of philosophy so I wanted to celebrate that with him.  It was a lovely day, not too hot but with beautiful blue skies; so we went for a walk around a lake, had some from frozen custard and then went home for a cup of tea and a nap. It was very pleasant indeed!

What with one thing and another it's not been a particularly great summer (Note to Self: A great summer involves me having at least a week off from work for starters), so I am very pleased that I decided to take three hours of my holiday time on the spur of the moment to actually do something nice.

Of course I still wish I'd had days and days and days of walking around lakes whilst chatting with my husband and eating delicious food before having a nap in the afternoon, but one takes what one can get and tries to preserve that nice afternoon in mental amber to be enjoyed again later.

Hankering for Autumn.

  

This is an approximation of the outfit I am particularly looking forward to wearing as soon as the weather cools down enough. I put this together from the options available to me on Polyvore, and when I totted up the total worth this particular version costs $2292.

Gulp.

Fortunately my Mum gave me a pair of gorgeous red leather gloves a couple of years ago so I don't need to spend $345 to get those. Then my new herringbone jacket is from L.L. Bean rather than D&G, so it cost $50 in the sale rather than $635, and my jeans were $10 not $80. The major saving though is in the boots mine are Doc Martens that were under $200, and the boots in the picture here are Rupert Sanderson riding boots which retail for $1145. Good grief! Who wants riding boots that cost over a grand? That is ludicrous!

The real-life ensemble would therefore be under $300 (if we're including make-up and socks etc), which is roughly $2000 cheaper then the fictional version. I suddenly feel very thrifty indeed.

I don't have a red leather flower brooch though, but at $6 I think I could splurge. 

Seasonal Changes.

Is it nearly autumn yet? I noticed some fallen leaves this morning so I'm hopeful.

Mostly I just want to be able to wear jeans and boots again.

Up-Beat with a Hint of Mint.

You know what really cheers a girl up on a Monday when there is fricking rioting going on just round the corner from her old house? An 80's music internet radio station and the delivery of her internet purchases.  I think it's the combination of heavy synth and a free lipgloss that is really making all the difference.

It's good to be distracted by something, because otherwise I'd be hitting renew every 30 seconds on Facebook to check my friends in London are all ok. I don't like this one little bit.

Face Paint.

I've recently been updating my make-up collection, in particular I'm adding more colours to my eye-shadows and I have bought actual proper brushes with which to apply the cosmetics once I've got them. Today, as you can see, I've gone with a simple pink wash over the lids with an asphalt grey shadow as an eyeliner and black mascara.

My main problem with every day make-up is that I get raccoon eyes from my mascara, yes even water-proof, but the very nice lady at Sephora in Charlotte (Hi Cindy!) gave me a sample of Urban Decay's All Nighter setting spray and that plus a mascara primer seem to have sorted me out.

I ran out of the sample on Monday, so I ordered a full-size bottle but went with De-Slick in the hopes that will also keep my t-zone in check. When I mentioned that I'd just ordered some more stuff from Sephora, Doc C asked what I'd bought. I hesitated for a moment, then said that I didn't want to tell him because most (straight) men don't understand make-up and he wouldn't get why I needed it. He laughed and admitted that was probably true, and that his question had been prompted by thinking that surely I had enough make-up already.

Ha! Poor fool! Enough Make-Up? There is no such thing as enough!

 

When Life Gives You Lemons... Juggle With Them For Someone Else's Amusement!

At lunch time Doc C and I went to get a coffee (this was to supplement my lunch because the apples we got from Lowes' foods were all duds. They were enormous and looked fine from the outside, but the inside of the apples was soft and floury; not to mention marbled with patches of brown. Ergh.) I took my coffee back to my desk, and after taking a sip decided that the air hole in my paper cup's plastic lid needed to be widened slightly. I do this all the time, all it takes is something pointy like a ball-point pen or a paper clip, and voila it's easier to drink the coffee. This time I managed to spill coffee down the side of my right breast, it wasn't too hot so I didn't get burned or anything, but I was wearing a white t-shirt so I just looked stupid. Well, stupid is a little harsh, I looked like I can't drink a cup of coffee without wearing some of it. And I still can't work out the trajectory that the coffee took, how on earth did it get from the cup on my desk squarely in front of me to the side of my t-shirt, practically under my arm? That is gymnastic for an inert fluid!

I mopped myself up, and then called Doc C to tell him. This was not because I wanted sympathy, but because I knew it would make him laugh. And it did.

 

(By the way, I washed the t-shirt as soon as I got home along with a whole bunch of other white clothes and added some stuff that's specifically supposed to whiten things. All of my t-shirts came out with rusty looking sulphur stains on them. Not what I was after. I re-washed the bloody things twice after that, and at this point I don't think there is anything to be done for them, they are all offically night-shirts.)

The Plan for August.

August, starting from Tuesday the 2nd because I wasn't feeling well on the 1st, is officially dedicated to a rigorous weight loss plan so that I can achieve my target weight. I'm trying to lose 10 pounds this month, which is barely an episode arc in "The Biggest Loser", so it must be achievable! Right? I dunno really, but I may as well give it a whirl.

My plan is two-fold:

1. I am going to be calorie counting, as ever, but being much stricter with myself about pastry and sugar.
2. I will do both Pilates AND Zumba every day for at least 20 minutes each, but with at least one hour long session of each once a week. Probably the Zumbathon will be saved for the weekend, but an hour of Pilates followed by twenty minutes of Zumba should be do-able on a weekday.

That's it, that is the whole entire plan.

Basically eat well, exercise more and keep reminding myself of the Pilates non-negotiables (Powerhouse engaged, chest lifted, straight spine and even weight distribution).

Half Awake.

This is, I think, the first summer when I haven't taken a week or two off, and that, combined with it being blatantly too warm, is really hitting me hard - in other words I am sodding knackered!

Yesterday I felt very tired and headachey, and I tried to just push through it, but even after a shower and breakfast I felt no better; so I called in sick (well, e-mailed) put in ear plugs, and promptly went back to sleep for 5 hours. Today I went in, and somehow dragged my carcass through the day but I am very tired now.

I am still dressed for some sort of exercise though, some pilates and at least 20 minutes of Zumba will get my blood circulating and maybe then I'll feel less sluggish. It's worth a go, right? Besides, I am determined to lose ten more pounds, and sitting around just isn't going to accomplish that goal.

More's the pity.