long weekends always make me want to nap.
I am once again finding myself really grateful for public sector employment, in that the combination of Lincoln's Birthday and Presidents Day has aligned to provide me with a four-day weekend when the forecast was particularly nasty, and thus I have gotten to spend three very cold days indoors bundled up in blankets and covered in cats, rather than having to schlep across downtown in nasty wind and freezing hell.
In other work news, I had my review and it went very well, and apparently there may be extra money in the offing because leadership did a Big Damn Review comparing everyone's skill set and job title to market equivalents, and my department is relatively underpaid to the market, so that's exciting because more money is always good. (Review time is always stressful to me, even though I know - both because my boss has explicitly told me that this is what she does and because I have observed her doing it - that if there is a problem it will come up right when the problem happens, rather than letting it drag on until review time and then suddenly surprise bomb. But I'm still unlearning reactions to abusive situations, so anything that correlates to performance review is panic inducing.)
We went out this weekend for Valentine's Day, which was a very very fucking cold proposition (and also, I need to throw out that pair of shoes; I was limping in a very weird way by the end of the night and I barely walked at all, so goodbye shoes.) We went to 437 Rush, which is a fancy steakhouse. They had a prix fixe menu for Valentine's Day, which we decided to go for because frankly I can get really good steak a bunch of places without traveling downtown. For the first course, we both got an insalata caprese type thing made with triple cream burrata, which was absolutely amazing--fluffy, so creamy, and really intense. (Also oven roasted tomato and micro greens and balsamic vinegar with crispy capers and olives.) The other option had been octopus, which didn't really thrill either of us, so.
For the second course, paladin got a risotto with king crab and I had lobster ravioli in a cream sauce, both of which were delicious. Dinner was Alaskan halibut with spinach, mushrooms, and so much garlic for him, while I had veal medallions with prosciutto and cheese in a prosecco sauce, served with mashed potatoes and baby vegetables. so tasty. For dessert, he had German chocolate cake with rum-raising gelato, while I had a chocolate souffle with the same gelato but also amarena cherry compote, which was super intensely sweet--like, double the sweetness of maraschino cherries sweet. It was very good, but also intense.
Naturally the train schedules did not line up well for this adventure, so we ended up sitting in Ogilvie for an hour waiting for a train back north since neither of us felt like standing on the platform at Howard to switch trains taking the L, but we got home and had tea and it was nice.
Also of note this week: okay so I was reading this particular piece of historical fiction, about a time period and a person with whom I am fascinated, and it was quite good! So I get to the end and there's author notes, and I'm like fuck yeah author notes, TELL ME OF YOUR SOURCES THAT I MAY PERUSE AND ADD THEM TO MY COLLECTION. So, you know, articles here, books there, and then "and for this I relied on my research in the Akashic Record."
*record scratch noise, screeching brakes, crash*
Okay. The thing is, as spiritual practice, A+ for that, I'm totally down, you do you and that's cool. As historical research, I'm not buying it. (And I do not see anywhere in my MLA handbook that tells me how to cite this.) I'm probably being an asshole about this but wow no so many respect points immediately lost. I would've had substantially more respect for "I did x because artistic license."
Rina is a jerk, news at 11.
ANYWAY so my week has mostly been books and video games; I can't tell if I am just hibernating inside because it's cold, or if I'm interpreting seasonal depression in a new and interesting way, but at least I'm hiding inside and doing things instead of hiding inside, staring at the internet, and not bringing myself to boot up a video game or pick up a book, so that's something. I beat two games this week; I read two books and wrote reviews for GoodReads; I did some editing (which is admittedly probably why I'm being terrible at posting to DW because this particular piece is kicking my ass, edits-wise, which I knew was going to happen but isn't leaving me a lot of brain space for making new words.) I have made hella progress in FF14, and got to an appropriate gear level for current content and will actually be all caught up on current plot etc. by the time the next patch drops, which is exciting and also unheard-of for me. I am doing stuff! It is fun stuff! I am just doing it all indoors and mostly by myself, so. Not sure. *side-eyes*
And now, off to what is hopefully my last PT appointment, since my shoulder is behaving substantially better, and then for dinner I have made a lamb and vegetable casserole that smells great.
Also I should do laundry. Sigh.
I've posted this at http://lassarina.dreamwidth.org/1138194.html and you may comment there or here. On Dreamwidth, this entry has
comments.
In other work news, I had my review and it went very well, and apparently there may be extra money in the offing because leadership did a Big Damn Review comparing everyone's skill set and job title to market equivalents, and my department is relatively underpaid to the market, so that's exciting because more money is always good. (Review time is always stressful to me, even though I know - both because my boss has explicitly told me that this is what she does and because I have observed her doing it - that if there is a problem it will come up right when the problem happens, rather than letting it drag on until review time and then suddenly surprise bomb. But I'm still unlearning reactions to abusive situations, so anything that correlates to performance review is panic inducing.)
We went out this weekend for Valentine's Day, which was a very very fucking cold proposition (and also, I need to throw out that pair of shoes; I was limping in a very weird way by the end of the night and I barely walked at all, so goodbye shoes.) We went to 437 Rush, which is a fancy steakhouse. They had a prix fixe menu for Valentine's Day, which we decided to go for because frankly I can get really good steak a bunch of places without traveling downtown. For the first course, we both got an insalata caprese type thing made with triple cream burrata, which was absolutely amazing--fluffy, so creamy, and really intense. (Also oven roasted tomato and micro greens and balsamic vinegar with crispy capers and olives.) The other option had been octopus, which didn't really thrill either of us, so.
For the second course, paladin got a risotto with king crab and I had lobster ravioli in a cream sauce, both of which were delicious. Dinner was Alaskan halibut with spinach, mushrooms, and so much garlic for him, while I had veal medallions with prosciutto and cheese in a prosecco sauce, served with mashed potatoes and baby vegetables. so tasty. For dessert, he had German chocolate cake with rum-raising gelato, while I had a chocolate souffle with the same gelato but also amarena cherry compote, which was super intensely sweet--like, double the sweetness of maraschino cherries sweet. It was very good, but also intense.
Naturally the train schedules did not line up well for this adventure, so we ended up sitting in Ogilvie for an hour waiting for a train back north since neither of us felt like standing on the platform at Howard to switch trains taking the L, but we got home and had tea and it was nice.
Also of note this week: okay so I was reading this particular piece of historical fiction, about a time period and a person with whom I am fascinated, and it was quite good! So I get to the end and there's author notes, and I'm like fuck yeah author notes, TELL ME OF YOUR SOURCES THAT I MAY PERUSE AND ADD THEM TO MY COLLECTION. So, you know, articles here, books there, and then "and for this I relied on my research in the Akashic Record."
*record scratch noise, screeching brakes, crash*
Okay. The thing is, as spiritual practice, A+ for that, I'm totally down, you do you and that's cool. As historical research, I'm not buying it. (And I do not see anywhere in my MLA handbook that tells me how to cite this.) I'm probably being an asshole about this but wow no so many respect points immediately lost. I would've had substantially more respect for "I did x because artistic license."
Rina is a jerk, news at 11.
ANYWAY so my week has mostly been books and video games; I can't tell if I am just hibernating inside because it's cold, or if I'm interpreting seasonal depression in a new and interesting way, but at least I'm hiding inside and doing things instead of hiding inside, staring at the internet, and not bringing myself to boot up a video game or pick up a book, so that's something. I beat two games this week; I read two books and wrote reviews for GoodReads; I did some editing (which is admittedly probably why I'm being terrible at posting to DW because this particular piece is kicking my ass, edits-wise, which I knew was going to happen but isn't leaving me a lot of brain space for making new words.) I have made hella progress in FF14, and got to an appropriate gear level for current content and will actually be all caught up on current plot etc. by the time the next patch drops, which is exciting and also unheard-of for me. I am doing stuff! It is fun stuff! I am just doing it all indoors and mostly by myself, so. Not sure. *side-eyes*
And now, off to what is hopefully my last PT appointment, since my shoulder is behaving substantially better, and then for dinner I have made a lamb and vegetable casserole that smells great.
Also I should do laundry. Sigh.
I've posted this at http://lassarina.dreamwidth.org/1138194.html and you may comment there or here. On Dreamwidth, this entry has
comments.