Why hello there, LJ Land...
I may be checking in just for the sake of checking in. It feels like there isn't much to report. [Note: Now, having written it all out (what I remember, at least), there is a lot! I've sorted the cuts by topic, so you can pick and choose what to read. I'll also warn you that the recipe is for a green smoothie, instead of a delicious treat, so you aren't disappointed with what you find. Cheers!] Also, if there is anything not covered by this update, feel free to ask questions. :)
The foot thing (I can't remember if I mentioned the foot thing back in February) is apparently my Achilles tendon complaining bitterly about my tight calf muscles, and not cancer or gout or my thyroid, or any of the other things the doctor (not codtor), made the vampires test my blood for. Now that I know what I am dealing with, I am doing stretches, exercises, and waiting for my tax refund and retropay before I go shoe shopping.
I am slowly whittling down my pantry. All of the packaged, processed crap (and not-so-crap) is nearly gone. All of the stuff with refined sugars and flour is also nearly gone. I have gotten whole wheat and all-purpose organic flours (these have no added gluten, so I will have to remember to sift, and to add a tablespoon of lemon juice if I do any baking with it, so my breads rise properly. I also have some course buckwheat flour, rice flour, and either quinoa or almond flour.
I have switched from converted rice to almost any other kind of rice and quinoa.
I am also going to slowly (slowly!) get into making my own juice by making smoothies. A little extra fibre can't hurt, and I do need to bump up my consumption of fruits and veggies (not that I was slacking). I signed up for Pintrest about a month ago (a close friend asked me to be one of her bridesmaids, and then she asked me to pin things for her *blink*), and found a few juice and smoothie recipes that I'll be working up to.
Actually, the acupuncture doctor suggested in April that I start making my own juices this summer. I'm just jumping ahead of schedule. I figure that I may as well, since I'm behind track on reducing the refined sugars and gluten.
I made a smoothie this morning for breakfast that was too heavy on the fresh parsley for my beginner tastebuds, but it was not a disaster. I drank it, and didn't hate it, at least!
1 1/2 handfuls of mixed baby lettuces
1 chunked up mini cuke
1 sprig of fresh mint
5 sprigs of fresh parsley
1/2 avocado
1 chopped apricot
1 chunked up banana
3/4 cup of frozen saskatoon berries
1 cup water
2 tbsp milled flaxseed
2 tsp honey
I would drink it again, but I'll either knock back the parsley and bump up the mint, or keep it the same and bump the honey up to a tablespoon.
My mom was reading something in a cookbook that came with a bread machine that we got for her many years ago. Apparently, flour is best stored in an airtight container in the freezer. Doing so kills any larvae (another point in favour of sifting), and prevents insect eggs from hatching... Charming.
Let's see, what esle is there?
Job1 attained a new collective bargaining agreement on April 26, and on May 31 the part-timers should all get their retropay (and, in some cases one or two raises, too!). I also have a new supervisor, and one of my friends is also a Senior Science Explorer. Some of our summer staff have begun work. I think we have a promising group of hires, but one left for a month in Africa after only three shifts, and another won't be working in July and August at all... Good for them I guess. One of my coworkers will be going on maternity leave in a couple of weeks.
Union1 is kind of low key for me this year. My vice presidential duties are slightly reduced from last year, but there isn't as big a push to get me out to things and my industry doesn't have a lot of cool conferences that they can send me to. Let's face it, there aren't a lot of unionized science museums, so there isn't a huge labour movement in the museology sector... The president felt kind of bad that I don't have a lot of things to go to, though (especially since I'm not on any committees now that I've aged out of the Youth), so they are sending me to Toronto on June 7th for UFCW Canada's annual Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Gala. So, I'll fly out at 6 am, arrive at lunch, hang out for a few hours, go gala it up, sleep, lollygag a bit in the morning, check out, and wait at the airport for my 2pm flight home.
Job2 has been on an extended hiatus, but we may have a project starting on June 3. We had a bargaining unit meeting a couple of weeks ago to gather proposals and select someone for the bargaining committee. I am so glad I was not volunteered! Bargaining committee duties at Job1 was plenty for me!
Union2 is something in which I am less active. One of my COPE buddies was in town this past week for committee meetings, though. Over sushi, he told me the story of how COPE is the only Canadian union to have been formed in the USA (Florida, to be specific). We also discussed potential changes to COPE's shop steward training, and just got caught up on each other's lives before collapsing into delicious food comas.
I think that I'll be looking for other employment opportunities again after summer. I keep thinking about getting a third job, but a wise friend recently told me to replace both jobs with a single one that will pay enough, if I can. In my field, there are absolutely no permanent full-time jobs. There are plenty of six-month contracts. I may look at taking classes for a certificate in either Adult Education or Public Relations, since there seem to be more opportunities with those - one-year contracts, rather than six-month ones, and even the occasional permanent part-time job.
Even a permanent part-time that pays more than I currently make, and does not conflict with Job2 when it's running, would be an improvement.
Being on the bargaining committee for Job1 has made me less comfortable staying there. Some of the managers are rational creatures, but many of them live in a world where part-timers are out to screw them over, and are lazy, self-entitled, unreliable jackasses. It's no wonder they micromanage the shit out of things, really. Mind you, most of them are in no way qualified for the positions they hold. Incompetence leads to feelings of insecurity, which leads to needing to trample everyone else down. C'est la vie...
I have been pecking at a couple of writing projects for a while now. I have two anthologies I'm working on with friends - one hoping for traditional publication, and one destined for self-publication. One I've been working on with more and more determination (braving the sketchy netbook of doom), and the other I've not thought about since January, to be honest. :( I am now committing to spending more time on it.
Since April 26 I have noticed an increase in frequency of klutzy accidents. A friend suggested I may be the object of a sinister gypsy curse...
It all started when I tripped over a replica of one of Da Vinci's gun machines at work. That same day, as I was putting away Gizmo the leopard gecko, I scraped my clothed back (without damaging my shirt!) on the metal door latch. Since then I have: fallen five separate times into snowbanks while walking home from work, tripped over nothing and fell down a little knoll near the dumpsters while taking out the trash at work, nearly tripped coming downstairs (I would have landed on a teacher's head!), smashed my watch wrist into various door jambs, walked into benches, hit myself in the face with small objects, cut the side of my index finger while washing a knife, and I can't remember the rest. Those are the big things, I guess. Oh right. I singed off my arm hair during the Space Show again on Wednesday. Hmmm....
The foot thing (I can't remember if I mentioned the foot thing back in February) is apparently my Achilles tendon complaining bitterly about my tight calf muscles, and not cancer or gout or my thyroid, or any of the other things the doctor (not codtor), made the vampires test my blood for. Now that I know what I am dealing with, I am doing stretches, exercises, and waiting for my tax refund and retropay before I go shoe shopping.
I am slowly whittling down my pantry. All of the packaged, processed crap (and not-so-crap) is nearly gone. All of the stuff with refined sugars and flour is also nearly gone. I have gotten whole wheat and all-purpose organic flours (these have no added gluten, so I will have to remember to sift, and to add a tablespoon of lemon juice if I do any baking with it, so my breads rise properly. I also have some course buckwheat flour, rice flour, and either quinoa or almond flour.
I have switched from converted rice to almost any other kind of rice and quinoa.
I am also going to slowly (slowly!) get into making my own juice by making smoothies. A little extra fibre can't hurt, and I do need to bump up my consumption of fruits and veggies (not that I was slacking). I signed up for Pintrest about a month ago (a close friend asked me to be one of her bridesmaids, and then she asked me to pin things for her *blink*), and found a few juice and smoothie recipes that I'll be working up to.
Actually, the acupuncture doctor suggested in April that I start making my own juices this summer. I'm just jumping ahead of schedule. I figure that I may as well, since I'm behind track on reducing the refined sugars and gluten.
I made a smoothie this morning for breakfast that was too heavy on the fresh parsley for my beginner tastebuds, but it was not a disaster. I drank it, and didn't hate it, at least!
1 1/2 handfuls of mixed baby lettuces
1 chunked up mini cuke
1 sprig of fresh mint
5 sprigs of fresh parsley
1/2 avocado
1 chopped apricot
1 chunked up banana
3/4 cup of frozen saskatoon berries
1 cup water
2 tbsp milled flaxseed
2 tsp honey
I would drink it again, but I'll either knock back the parsley and bump up the mint, or keep it the same and bump the honey up to a tablespoon.
My mom was reading something in a cookbook that came with a bread machine that we got for her many years ago. Apparently, flour is best stored in an airtight container in the freezer. Doing so kills any larvae (another point in favour of sifting), and prevents insect eggs from hatching... Charming.
Let's see, what esle is there?
Job1 attained a new collective bargaining agreement on April 26, and on May 31 the part-timers should all get their retropay (and, in some cases one or two raises, too!). I also have a new supervisor, and one of my friends is also a Senior Science Explorer. Some of our summer staff have begun work. I think we have a promising group of hires, but one left for a month in Africa after only three shifts, and another won't be working in July and August at all... Good for them I guess. One of my coworkers will be going on maternity leave in a couple of weeks.
Union1 is kind of low key for me this year. My vice presidential duties are slightly reduced from last year, but there isn't as big a push to get me out to things and my industry doesn't have a lot of cool conferences that they can send me to. Let's face it, there aren't a lot of unionized science museums, so there isn't a huge labour movement in the museology sector... The president felt kind of bad that I don't have a lot of things to go to, though (especially since I'm not on any committees now that I've aged out of the Youth), so they are sending me to Toronto on June 7th for UFCW Canada's annual Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Gala. So, I'll fly out at 6 am, arrive at lunch, hang out for a few hours, go gala it up, sleep, lollygag a bit in the morning, check out, and wait at the airport for my 2pm flight home.
Job2 has been on an extended hiatus, but we may have a project starting on June 3. We had a bargaining unit meeting a couple of weeks ago to gather proposals and select someone for the bargaining committee. I am so glad I was not volunteered! Bargaining committee duties at Job1 was plenty for me!
Union2 is something in which I am less active. One of my COPE buddies was in town this past week for committee meetings, though. Over sushi, he told me the story of how COPE is the only Canadian union to have been formed in the USA (Florida, to be specific). We also discussed potential changes to COPE's shop steward training, and just got caught up on each other's lives before collapsing into delicious food comas.
I think that I'll be looking for other employment opportunities again after summer. I keep thinking about getting a third job, but a wise friend recently told me to replace both jobs with a single one that will pay enough, if I can. In my field, there are absolutely no permanent full-time jobs. There are plenty of six-month contracts. I may look at taking classes for a certificate in either Adult Education or Public Relations, since there seem to be more opportunities with those - one-year contracts, rather than six-month ones, and even the occasional permanent part-time job.
Even a permanent part-time that pays more than I currently make, and does not conflict with Job2 when it's running, would be an improvement.
Being on the bargaining committee for Job1 has made me less comfortable staying there. Some of the managers are rational creatures, but many of them live in a world where part-timers are out to screw them over, and are lazy, self-entitled, unreliable jackasses. It's no wonder they micromanage the shit out of things, really. Mind you, most of them are in no way qualified for the positions they hold. Incompetence leads to feelings of insecurity, which leads to needing to trample everyone else down. C'est la vie...
I have been pecking at a couple of writing projects for a while now. I have two anthologies I'm working on with friends - one hoping for traditional publication, and one destined for self-publication. One I've been working on with more and more determination (braving the sketchy netbook of doom), and the other I've not thought about since January, to be honest. :( I am now committing to spending more time on it.
Since April 26 I have noticed an increase in frequency of klutzy accidents. A friend suggested I may be the object of a sinister gypsy curse...
It all started when I tripped over a replica of one of Da Vinci's gun machines at work. That same day, as I was putting away Gizmo the leopard gecko, I scraped my clothed back (without damaging my shirt!) on the metal door latch. Since then I have: fallen five separate times into snowbanks while walking home from work, tripped over nothing and fell down a little knoll near the dumpsters while taking out the trash at work, nearly tripped coming downstairs (I would have landed on a teacher's head!), smashed my watch wrist into various door jambs, walked into benches, hit myself in the face with small objects, cut the side of my index finger while washing a knife, and I can't remember the rest. Those are the big things, I guess. Oh right. I singed off my arm hair during the Space Show again on Wednesday. Hmmm....