some life updates
Maia paid her yearly visit to the vet on Tuesday and has a clean bill of health across the board. She has lost some weight since last year, so I'll be keeping an eye on that; the vet said she's still in a good range and her bloodwork is all solidly normal including the thyroid marker, so he didn't voice any concerns about that. Also her teeth look good so she doesn't need a cleaning yet, either. I have a couple of theories related to her stress-eating (i.e., she's a stress eater but having me home so much in the last year has her feeling good about life), and I'm already planning to try her on a different food (for dandruff reasons), so I'll be monitoring her appetite and weight anyway. She is definitely in the age range where weight loss can be a signal of developing health problems, after all.
I also went to the dentist for a cleaning on Tuesday, and that didn't go quite as well, haha. My teeth look great (well, except for the spot I chipped on my front tooth*, lol--masks are really handy for hiding that sort of thing in most situations, it's rather nice!), but the in-betweens are weak and prone to cavities (which I attribute to not flossing for the first 25 years of my life, lol oops). And now some of my (many) fillings are aging and starting to crack, so I'll be looking at a couple of crowns in the near-ish future. Well, that's what flexible spending money is for... ;-)
*fun fact: the bottom edges of my front teeth are just fillings thanks to an unfortunate encounter with the edge of a swimming pool when I was in middle school. So they periodically crack/break since the amalgam used for fillings isn't as strong as my tooth enamel.
But also I should avoid eating anything too hard, especially things like almonds (softer nuts are okay). I don't eat a lot of loose almonds (just occasionally the chocolate-covered kind), but I have a fair number of nut bars as breakfast options, and many of them have almonds... sigh. So almonds are now on my generally-avoid-list along with popcorn, popcorn balls, red vines licorice... probably should throw conversation hearts on the list, too. I definitely had some of those this year, heh.
My left SI joint has been acting up and I have absolutely no idea what I did to annoy it. Sigh. It could be worse, and is slowly improving, but still.
My apartment people tested the fire alarms in all the buildings today, which apparently needed to involve opening apartment doors to make sure things were working. Since, of course, I am back at work, that meant I had to shut the girls in the bedroom for safekeeping. (Hana goes under the bed at the first sound of the fire alarm, but I could totally see Maia trying to take advantage of the opportunity to explore the building.) They weren't thrilled with me shutting them in, LOL. Fortunately, freeing them as soon as I got home and then offering them dinner was sufficient apology and I have been forgiven. ;-)
This week is crazier schedule-wise than I've had in a good long while. Between the appointments on Tuesday, virtual conference sessions each afternoon, and student research consultations scattered here and there, plus not always sleeping well, I'm tired. Yesterday I opted to skip the virtual conference sessions so I had a bit of a breather and could get some hands-on stuff accomplished, and tomorrow I'm going to work from home.
Hard to believe that a year ago on St. Patrick's Day I was starting the work-from-home life (the library was closed on Monday the 16th last year, but the staff were still in the building). I only worked remotely full-time for about five months, but it sticks in my memory like it was longer.
Also, if you could spare some good thoughts for my friend J, who has COVID. :( She's been symptomatic for over a week now, so hopefully she's on the downswing, but it still sucks for her.
I also went to the dentist for a cleaning on Tuesday, and that didn't go quite as well, haha. My teeth look great (well, except for the spot I chipped on my front tooth*, lol--masks are really handy for hiding that sort of thing in most situations, it's rather nice!), but the in-betweens are weak and prone to cavities (which I attribute to not flossing for the first 25 years of my life, lol oops). And now some of my (many) fillings are aging and starting to crack, so I'll be looking at a couple of crowns in the near-ish future. Well, that's what flexible spending money is for... ;-)
*fun fact: the bottom edges of my front teeth are just fillings thanks to an unfortunate encounter with the edge of a swimming pool when I was in middle school. So they periodically crack/break since the amalgam used for fillings isn't as strong as my tooth enamel.
But also I should avoid eating anything too hard, especially things like almonds (softer nuts are okay). I don't eat a lot of loose almonds (just occasionally the chocolate-covered kind), but I have a fair number of nut bars as breakfast options, and many of them have almonds... sigh. So almonds are now on my generally-avoid-list along with popcorn, popcorn balls, red vines licorice... probably should throw conversation hearts on the list, too. I definitely had some of those this year, heh.
My left SI joint has been acting up and I have absolutely no idea what I did to annoy it. Sigh. It could be worse, and is slowly improving, but still.
My apartment people tested the fire alarms in all the buildings today, which apparently needed to involve opening apartment doors to make sure things were working. Since, of course, I am back at work, that meant I had to shut the girls in the bedroom for safekeeping. (Hana goes under the bed at the first sound of the fire alarm, but I could totally see Maia trying to take advantage of the opportunity to explore the building.) They weren't thrilled with me shutting them in, LOL. Fortunately, freeing them as soon as I got home and then offering them dinner was sufficient apology and I have been forgiven. ;-)
This week is crazier schedule-wise than I've had in a good long while. Between the appointments on Tuesday, virtual conference sessions each afternoon, and student research consultations scattered here and there, plus not always sleeping well, I'm tired. Yesterday I opted to skip the virtual conference sessions so I had a bit of a breather and could get some hands-on stuff accomplished, and tomorrow I'm going to work from home.
Hard to believe that a year ago on St. Patrick's Day I was starting the work-from-home life (the library was closed on Monday the 16th last year, but the staff were still in the building). I only worked remotely full-time for about five months, but it sticks in my memory like it was longer.
Also, if you could spare some good thoughts for my friend J, who has COVID. :( She's been symptomatic for over a week now, so hopefully she's on the downswing, but it still sucks for her.