it's too hot to do anything useful. Katy feels like shit because of her IBS and the strain is starting to show physically and emotionally. I'm going to make another appointment for her on monday to see if she can get something a bit stronger then peppermint oil to try and releive the pain. It's a nasty cycle though. She feels like shit, so she doesn't sleep. She gets stressed, then exhausted, then depressed, all of which aggravates her IBS. Lather, rinse, repeat. I don't know what to do to break the cycle.
Tag: slice of life
It's the little things that make life fun :)
Katy's working on campus this week, so we've been having lunch together and then I walk her back to her office. On the way there today, I snuck a kiss. The following dialogue went something like this:
her: Behave :)
me: Why?
her: Because you're in a more respectable position than I am.
me: Yeah, but I'm more immature than you are.
her: No, you're not.
me: I AM! I AM! I AM! (while jumping in place and probably scaring a few of the construction workers on campus)
her: *blushing a nice shade of red*
Sometimes it's fun to have no shame :)
My sinuses hate me
My seasonal allergies have not been this bad for ages. Now granted, it's hot as hell and muggy to boot, and the pollen count is through the roof, but it's been years since I've had to take benadryl and a steroid-based nasal spray to complement a once-a-day antihistamine and still feel like shit and go through half a box of tissues. Not a happy bunny am I.
My contribution to EBI Service Day
Today was EBI's Service Day, where the various groups talk about what they do. I had to give a 5 minute lightning presentation on PRIDE. Didn't go too badly. Was nervous as heck, but I always am when I speak to a large crowd, so that's no biggie. I caught myself before I said a bad word in front of my bosses, so yay for self-filtering blathering. (The exact sentence was going to say “There are no entry points to browse the data, so if you don't know what you're looking for to use the query interface, you're screwed…pause…in trouble.
Amusing quote of the day was “I work in IT, I don't know what a tie is!”, which made me giggle.
It's been muggy as hell hereabouts for the last 2 days. A warm morass of humid air decided to hunker down and make us all miserable all of a sudden. For once, I wish it would rain. A lot. Maybe that would clear the air. It probably couldn't be worse than it is now. I have come to the conclusion that when we finally buy a house, the 3 criteria that it must have are a large kitchen, screens on the windows and fucking AC. The last two should not be a problem in a civilized country such as Canada, but in the wilderness that is Great Britain, it's near impossible to find. The whole concept is just… alien to them. Whatever. Barbarians, the lot of them, I say.
On brighter news, I've almost finished with the layout of ht wedding invitations, so I'll be able to get them printed probably tomorrow (and before the end of the week, for certain). I'm really happy about the results.
On more brighter news, we'll be getting the pussycat on July 22nd. The breeder is going to give him the last set of shots on the 17th, so he's ours any time after that.
In other news…
My coffee intake has been slashed dramatically! I'm down to one cup of coffee a day and drink green tea for the rest of the day at work. No caffeine and plenty of anti-oxidants.
The impressive thing is that I've not killed anybody yet!
Métro-Boulot-Dodo
My life is currently mostly long periods of humdrum routine, broken up with random, high-intensity burn-your-stomach-lining stress. Then again, I guess I'm describing the life of most everyone I know, really.
Don't have much to say. Work is ok. I manage to get some interesting and useful code written and deployed. My bosses seem happy and my coworkers appreciate what I do, so that's always good. I'll be jet-setting for a weekend in Poland soon, though I'd prefer going with somebody because travelling alone sucks. One thing I'm noticing is that I'm falling back into an old and evil pattern of getting sucked into work and not taking breaks to socialize. I eat at my desk while trying to get work done. Not good. I used to go out for walks with Phil, but since my allergies have kicked back in and given the increase in activity of the disturbingly large insect population, I'm really not tempted to go out in the fields just right now.
The weekend should be relaxing. Probably going into town. I'd like to get some ring molds and pastry cutters. Maybe cut the grass. Maybe have a BBQ.
Mood is a bit up and down at the moment. I need to hit the gym more (which also ties in with being one with my desk these days). I'm worried about my dad's back, money, wedding preparations, and other sundry things.
I find myself missing the boys back home, while at the same time being rather cross with them for their lack of contact. I email them once in a while, but it's always me. Their shout-outs are few and far between. Make that, I haven't really heard from anybody except Michel in far too long. Meh.
Boy, I'm just a little ball of sunshine at the moment, ain't I.
Good thoughts, bad thoughts
Good thought: spend an hour on the phone with Michel last night, talking about wedding stuff and his newly-bought condo stuff.
Bad thought: I'm losing contact with a lot of people back in Canada. I expected the out-of-sight, out-of-mind deal, but it's still hitting harder than I expected, at the most random times.
Good thought: we're going to have a BBQ this weekend.
Bad thought: the garden still needs a cubic assload of work.
Bad thought: my shoulder is still giving me grief
Good thought: but it's getting better.
All in all, I still feel a bit meh.
Busy busy busy!
The next month will be hell. I have meetings coming out of the wazoo and people trying to shanghai me for even more meetings which, luckily or unluckily, clash with the ones I already have. If I'm lucky, they'll just forget about me. If I'm unlucky, they'll reschedule them and add more entries in my already groaning calendar.
In other news, I slept like crap last night. I do believe that stress is starting to be a factor in my life again. My shoulder, the classic indicator in my life, kept me up for part of last night and apparently, my blood pressure is again on the dark side of elevated (slightly, so I'm not overly concerned, but it's still higher than usual).
I just need to get through the next few months (until the next crisis comes along that is – am I being too cynical?)
An update with some meat on the bone
Haven't written anything of substance in a while, so I'll make this one count.
We're slowly reclaiming our back yard from its natural wilderness state. I cut the grass for the second time last weekend under the watchful eye of a suicidal sparrow who kept landing in front of the lawnmower to get at the fresh bugs, with Katy going “watch out for the biiiird!”. It's still looking rough so we bought a rake to try and pick up the grass clippings that are left behind. Katy was off on holiday this wednesday and had a go at it. The lawn won in the end, but she still managed to get half of it raked clean. It's slowly getting better. Our goal for this year is to get it in a clean slate state that we can use to make something pretty next year.
She also had a whack at pruning the shrubbery in front of the house. We can now get in and out of the house without being attacked by the bushes now (even though it looks like a WMD went off in the front yard)
We're in Leicester this weekend. Since I was supposed to be in Canada at the moment, I had the week booked off as holiday time but I'm only taking Thursday and Friday off. Since we finally got the paperwork from the Home Office, wedding plans are officially underway. We bought the paper and envelopes for the invitations we're going to make. We bought the wedding rings (well, they're ordered, at least. We're paying them over 3 months to lessen the pain) and Katy knows which dress she wants. We stopped in a bridal shop today to have a look at suit styles. I'm going for the top-hat-and-tails look, with grey pinstriped trousers with a charcoal tail suit, cream vest and burgundy cravat. I need to buy some cufflinks, but I've seen some nice mother-of-pearl ones at the jewelers where we bought the rings.
And now for something completely different, we bought a BBQ! It's a pre-emptive wedding present :) It was on sale for 20% off, so that's ok. We just need to assemble it and get a bottle of propane and suburbia, here I come :)
worries, indeed
Been a very bleh day today.
Not sleeping well because I have weird dreams. My stressometer (i.e. my left shoulder) is telling me that I need to unwind or muscles and sinew will soon start to pop and hurt again. Hit the gym today, which helped a bit, but what will help more is when things start settling down.
Way things have been though, that won't be for a while, if ever. I guess that's called life.