Scarlett at 11 Months / Low-Carb Diet / Work is Work / Xbox Shenanigans
Scarlett is eleven months old and is getting tantalizingly close to her first birthday. It's just weeks away at this point. In March, I'll be taking off the final couple weeks of Paternity Leave that I still have remaining and I'll be taking a bit more PTO after that too, so I'll be out the majority of March. That's something I've been looking forward to for months. Part of the birthday celebrations is having out Nicole's parents, Nicole's Montana-friend Abby and her family, and my sister for a quick party. That should be a good photo-op. I can't believe a whole year has gone by. Scarlett has been advancing so much lately, too. She's practically running and she's suddenly gotten really into having books read to her. Her personality is really beginning to shine through and it feels like she'll be communicating with us in some way in a matter of months. It's crazy how close she is to not being a baby anymore. She's so incredible it's wild.
In an effort to be healthier and live as long as possible for Scarlett and ourselves, Nicole is always looking for ways to improve our diet. Over the last few years, we've received some disappointing blood-lab results. Nothing too serious but it might signal declining health that could be argued lies partially in our diet. To that end, we've cut out dining out entirely and we're enjoying a reduced, low-carb, low-sugar diet. No bread, no desserts, and limited fruits. Thankfully, Nicole's cooking is amazing and her ideas for dishes make it work. We've been doing this about a month now (Perhaps a little longer) and I've already noticed that I've lost a bunch of weight. That wasn't exactly the intention, but I certainly feel lighter and healthier and I've lost twenty-something pounds since the holidays. I'm not complaining! Plus we're saving a bunch of money on not eating out. We're doing well and hopefully the next time we get any blood work done, it'll be reflected in that.
So my work situation continues to be difficult. Nothing has changed in the last month and I'm still in the position I'm not thrilled with. Thankfully, people mostly leave me alone and I've gotten better at communicating with people only when I have to. A major project has come along and taken half of my immediate coworkers away so that left no work to be done and in that respect, it's been a quiet month. I'm hopeful March will be a month of change; at that point, I'll have been in this new role a total of six months and that might allow me to make a better argument to be transferred somewhere else. Somewhere where I won't be doing issue triage and constantly bothering and pushing people to get things done. It's like I'm a manager without the title or authority. It's frustrating. But yes, I'll have these two-and-a-half weeks off starting this weekend and I'll be able to savor that for a moment before it all starts up again. Sigh.
If I'm not at work or sleeping, I'm helping Nicole with Scarlett. The only free time we have is the two hours every afternoon when Scarlett goes down for a nap. We try to cram a bunch of living and relaxing into that 120-minutes (Or less) and so one of the things I've been into lately has been tinkering with my home office. In January, I got an iMac G4 that's looking awesome on the short TV stand that's in this room. Elsewhere on the TV stand is an Xbox 360 that I was trying to mod but I burnt the heck out of the mainboard and broke it. I happened upon a fresh one at a thrift store a few weeks back and I had the opportunity to try again. One night I stayed up late to solder it up and I was on such a roll that I got it all done in one sitting. I've spent the last couple weeks loading it up with games and testing it out. I don't normally have soldering projects go this well, so I'm simply beside myself. Once this is done and I have a new television for the wall here in this office, I'll have quite the retro games setup. I'm looking forward to the day years from now when Scarlett can enjoy this console and play some of the vintage games I grew up with. Until then, it's a hobby I'm doing to have something to look forward to day-to-day.
In an effort to be healthier and live as long as possible for Scarlett and ourselves, Nicole is always looking for ways to improve our diet. Over the last few years, we've received some disappointing blood-lab results. Nothing too serious but it might signal declining health that could be argued lies partially in our diet. To that end, we've cut out dining out entirely and we're enjoying a reduced, low-carb, low-sugar diet. No bread, no desserts, and limited fruits. Thankfully, Nicole's cooking is amazing and her ideas for dishes make it work. We've been doing this about a month now (Perhaps a little longer) and I've already noticed that I've lost a bunch of weight. That wasn't exactly the intention, but I certainly feel lighter and healthier and I've lost twenty-something pounds since the holidays. I'm not complaining! Plus we're saving a bunch of money on not eating out. We're doing well and hopefully the next time we get any blood work done, it'll be reflected in that.
So my work situation continues to be difficult. Nothing has changed in the last month and I'm still in the position I'm not thrilled with. Thankfully, people mostly leave me alone and I've gotten better at communicating with people only when I have to. A major project has come along and taken half of my immediate coworkers away so that left no work to be done and in that respect, it's been a quiet month. I'm hopeful March will be a month of change; at that point, I'll have been in this new role a total of six months and that might allow me to make a better argument to be transferred somewhere else. Somewhere where I won't be doing issue triage and constantly bothering and pushing people to get things done. It's like I'm a manager without the title or authority. It's frustrating. But yes, I'll have these two-and-a-half weeks off starting this weekend and I'll be able to savor that for a moment before it all starts up again. Sigh.
If I'm not at work or sleeping, I'm helping Nicole with Scarlett. The only free time we have is the two hours every afternoon when Scarlett goes down for a nap. We try to cram a bunch of living and relaxing into that 120-minutes (Or less) and so one of the things I've been into lately has been tinkering with my home office. In January, I got an iMac G4 that's looking awesome on the short TV stand that's in this room. Elsewhere on the TV stand is an Xbox 360 that I was trying to mod but I burnt the heck out of the mainboard and broke it. I happened upon a fresh one at a thrift store a few weeks back and I had the opportunity to try again. One night I stayed up late to solder it up and I was on such a roll that I got it all done in one sitting. I've spent the last couple weeks loading it up with games and testing it out. I don't normally have soldering projects go this well, so I'm simply beside myself. Once this is done and I have a new television for the wall here in this office, I'll have quite the retro games setup. I'm looking forward to the day years from now when Scarlett can enjoy this console and play some of the vintage games I grew up with. Until then, it's a hobby I'm doing to have something to look forward to day-to-day.