News

Saturday

Saturday Aaron and I played our Escape the Underdark D&D campaign for the first time in 6 weeks. Then he played Spore with IL5 and I cooked dinner. In the evening, Aaron and I had a date at a board gaming cafe. We only stayed a little over an hour because my brain was fried, but it was fun.

Sunday

Sunday, I worked all day. Aaron cooked burgers, fries, and corn cobs for dinner. In the evening, IL5 watched M12 play Spore, and Aaron and I watched a couple episodes of Supernatural. At bedtime, I finished up a Minecraft book that IL5 was really excited about.

Monday

Monday, I woke late because I had had a hard time falling asleep. I felt like half the day was gone. Aaron played Spore with IL5 and I made some chickpea curry and cooked M12’s pork chops for the week. (He warms them for dinner.) Then I took a short nap before D14’s high school orientation

The orientation consisted of an activity fair, which D14 found frustrating since she couldn’t find the D&D club table, a pep rally, which D14 found stressful because of the noise and crowd, and walking through her schedule so we could listen to each teacher talk for a while. The orientation was supposed to be 3 hours long, but they let us out after 2.5 hours due to severe weather. D14 and I had to walk around the parking lot searching for the car in the rain and wind because we couldn’t find the car. D14 was pretty stressed at the end.

Tuesday

Tuesday, I came home from work in the morning and filled dad’s, M12’s, and my pillboxes for the week, as usual. Dad was out of a prescription that had one refill left, but the automated system gave me an error message, and sent me to a human. The human said that dad’s doctor “closed.” I’m like: “What? He’s not closed!” So I called dad’s doctor up, and the phones were out. So I don’t know what’s going on, there.

After that wasn’t cleared up, Aaron and I rented a tiller. Aaron tilled the ground where the tree stumps used to be. When he was done with the first one, I began laying manure down on the tilled soil and mixing it with a pitchfork. I had moved 1880 pounds of manure before I was staggering around and decided I had had enough. I hadn’t even finished the big tilled area.

Aaron had finished tilling the other stump area, and had a meeting with his placement agency. When he was done, I’d stopped working, so he called it a day, too, since tilling was hard work and he was exhausted, too.

The family went out for steaks later in the evening, and then D14 and I sorted school supplies for the kids.

Wednesday

Wednesday was D14 and M12’s first day of school. Both went well. D14 auditioned for the school play and didn’t make it to callbacks, but still hopes to do crew. M12 signed up for wiffleball as his “Irish Time,” which is his mid-day break.

Aaron took dad to his audiologist appointment, and then to the clinic that we were having difficulty contacting. Their phones and computers were down. They tried to relay my message, but unfortunately some more info from me is needed, so I’ll have to try calling until their phones work.

Then Aaron and I mixed the rest of the manure with dirt on the tilled land. He used a roller to flatten the area as much as possible, then put down the grass seed. We used some cloth that has seed in it, and apparently the cloth will dissolve and the seeds plant themselves. I helped by pinning them to the ground so they don’t blow away. We will water 3x daily until the grass comes in I guess?

I then picked up IL5 for his literacy assessment. I sat on the floor of the gym while waiting and he curled in a ball in my lap and tucked his head in. I don’t know if he was tired or overwhelmed by the people and noise. But he seemed to like his teacher. She said he did well, though didn’t listen to instructions well – which problem I forewarned her of in an email (warning her not to assume he doesn’t understand the instructions, which is tempting to new people). I also warned her about his speech, refusal to poop in the toilet, ADHD, and dislike of eating at school. She seemed to appreciate the warning. But she may have just been being polite, of course.

After his literacy assessment, I went to the library to pick up the next minecraft book in the series I started reading to IL5), then to the grocery store and to pick up cupcakes to add variety to M12’s high-calorie snacks (he has to eat one a day to keep his weight up).

I read to D14 – Everblaze, by Shannon Messenger – and relaxed for the rest of the night.

Thursday

Thursday morning was rough. I got off work at 9am and drove home a different route than usual because of construction. I missed my turn, which dumped me off somewhere that added 10 minutes to my trip home, then I got stuck behind a train for another few minutes. I only had 15 minutes to prepare to leave for my next job. When I left for my day job, I stopped for gas, but had trouble with the chip reader in the gas pump, which means I can’t get my card out of the pump till it reads the chip. So I had to wiggle the card around for a while until it read. Frustrated, I decided to take my anxiety meds because I was getting all worked up. But when I opened my bottle, it exploded red Crystal Light on my favorite sweatshirt. So I told my client I’d be 15 minutes late and went home to take care of the sweatshirt.

I worked till 5, but it was a calm day, and I was able to calm down and get a few things done like sending emails, making some necessary purchases on Amazon, writing letters, and reading.

There was a severe thunderstorm watch on the way home, but I was only sprinkled on. However, the roads were flooded and a signal out when I got to my city. The electricity was out at my home when I arrived. Aaron had been cooking chili. So we went to Olive Garden for dinner because he couldn’t finish in the dark on an electric stove. On the way out the door, Freyja, one of our kittens, made the usual dash for the door and experienced rain for the first time. I hoped he would show an ability to turn around and ask to get back in, but instead he hunkered down and waited for me to rescue him.

After dinner, the electricity was back on, and Aaron finished the chili. We sat and chatted about the book I was reading, and eventually D14 and M12 joined the conversation, because my book is a conversation-starter. Then I left for work at 9:30pm.

Aaron had managed to get several errands and tasks on his honey-do list Thursday

Friday

Friday after work, I took IL5 to speech therapy. Then I took a nap and did some reading before helping D14 in a virtual appointment, then taking her to an in-person appointment. Upon returning home, the older kids left with their mom for their grandpa’s. I sat and chatted with Aaron until he went downstairs for his weekly gaming session. In a while, I put IL5 to bed, and collapsed under my blankets.

Letters Written

• One letter Michigan
• Two letters Massachusetts

Reading to myself

• The Week: Wave Rider
• Newsweek: A Class of Their Own
• New Scientist: Mission to Europa
• Mr Ballen Podcast
• Eye of the World, by Robert Jordan
• Behave, by Robert Sapolsky
• Alan Turing: The Enigma, by Andrew Hodges
• Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, by Haruki Murakami
• Maskerade, by Terry Pratchett

Reading to IL5

• Minecraft Woodsword Chronicles: Into the Game, by Nick Eliopulos
• Desmond Cole and the Scary Library Shusher, by Andres Miedoso

D14 reading

• The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak
• The 57 Bus, by Dashka Slater

Media Completed

Morgan and his friends get VR goggles that transport them into Minecraft for realsies. Cute book which was mostly character and setting development for a series.

Mr Osaka is having a midlife crisis. He quits his job and explores his purpose in life. Life seems surreal and out-of-control. He meets strange women who twist his life in unexpected ways. Like all other Murakami books I’ve read, I was kept interested by the narrative even though I was often thinking “What? Really?” It’s a suspend-your-disbelief sort of story. Very well done.

Desmond and Andres have a school project at the Kersville Public Library. They are both excited about the books. But then they start flying off the shelves. As usual, this Desmond Cole book was appealing to IL5. Cute story and black-and-white drawings. About second grade reading level.

Games Played

News

Saturday

Saturday Aaron, IL5, and I went to lunch with my friend Liz. Then we went to the bookstore to buy 2 Minecraft books for IL5. They are way above the level I’ve been reading to him, and he didn’t even ask for them to be read to him in the evening – he was excited about the next Desmond Cole book I had out from the library. But he had requested Minecraft books, so there you go. The rest of the day was spent with a couple chores and reading.

Sunday

Sunday I deep cleaned the kitchen, including junk drawers, played Spore with IL5, and read. In the evening, the family played D&D. IL5 was especially wound up Sunday night and was very recalcitrant at bedtime. I was beginning to despair by about 12:30am.

Monday

Monday I accidentally slept through swim lessons for IL5. I turned my alarm off at 9 and fell back asleep till 11:15. Oh well. D14 helped out at the middle school library. M12, IL5, Aaron and I went to the pool and had a lot of fun, though IL5 threw a temper tantrum when we left. Then we all went to Buffalo Wild Wings with D14. By then, we didn’t have enough transition time to get IL5 cheerfully to soccer, so we skipped that too. M12 went to Boy Scouts. Freyja, one of the kittens, dashed out the door when I left for work, and I had to chase him down. So I ordered a tag with our phone number on it, and hope it comes before he escapes longer-term. People around here tend to grab up kitties.

Tuesday

Tuesday I did chores, had a virtual appointment for myself, and then an in-person appointment for IL5. I played LEGO with IL5 when we were done – I had some LEGO I had intended on giving him when we were visiting his grandma, but we didn’t go, so I gave them to him Tuesday. Then my friend Liz came over and D14 & Aaron joined us as we watched a little Doctor Who. We discovered dad has better without-glasses bision than me. I’m going to be so blind at his age!

Wednesday

Wednesday I got home from work at 9:20am, left for my second job at 9:55am, got home at 5:30pm, and left for work again at 9:25pm. That gave me 4.5 hours of non-work time, some of which was spent doing necessary tasks instead of relaxing. Aaron took IL5 to soccer, then played Spore with him when they got home.

Thursday

Thursday, I repeated Wednesday’s schedule. So by the time my shift is over on Friday morning, I’ll have had 9 hours off work in a 60 hour period of time. D14 watched the last episode of Monk. Dad and I watched the first episode of Queen’s Gambit.

Friday

Friday after work I mainly relaxed until the afternoon, when IL5 was ready to go on a bike ride. I had carefully picked a park with no playground, so that he’d actually ride his bike, but there was a lake beach, and he wanted to play in the sand after only a short jaunt on his bike. I’ll have to find another park for biking.

Week’s Photos

Letters Written

• 1 letter Massachusetts

Reading to myself

• Behave, by Robert Sapolsky
• Eye of the World, by Robert Jordan
• Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, by Haruki Murakami
• The Week: Good Catch?
• New Scientist: Oceans in Chaos
• Mr Ballen podcast
• Newsweek
• Nurk, by Ursula Vernon
• Alan Turing: The Enigma, Andrew Hodges

Reading to IL5

• Night of the Zombie Zookeeper, by Andres Miedoso

D14 reading

• Book Thief, Markus Zusak
• Everblaze, by Shannon Messenger (I’m reading this to her.)

Media Completed

Andres and Desmond go on a field trip to the zoo, and run into a zombie. For second or third grade.  Loki loves these books and chooses to read them ASAP.

Nurk wants to go on an adventure like his grandmother, but is afraid of getting his socks wet. For third or fourth grade. Very cute and mildly funny. (Read it to myself, not IL5.)

News

Saturday

Saturday I mostly spent in bed, as did Aaron. D14 watched IL5, but had a headache at the end of the day and Aaron took over. The most I did was order a few essential groceries, McDonald’s, and pizza to be delivered, cancel our pet-feeder, and publish my blog. That was exhausting (even though my blog is mostly complete by Saturday morning, it was the hardest).

Sunday

Sunday Aaron was feeling much better, and I was able to stay out of bed for most of the day. I was even able to put IL5 to bed, though my voice didn’t hold out for much reading.

Monday

Monday I was feeling a bit foggy-brained in the morning, but otherwise I was ok. I took dad to the doctor for an appointment for a new-this-week back pain. She wasn’t very helpful. She diagnosed him with back pain and assigned him physical therapy. So I played appointment-roulette and moved stuff around until I got 3 PT appointments scheduled. Then later in the day, I was putting lidocaine on his back, and realized the pain was exactly where his last broken rib was. He probably rebroke it while COVID-coughing. This hopefully means I can cancel the PT appointments.

The trip to the doctor tired me out, so I took it easy for the rest of the day except for cooking dinner. I played some Spore with IL5. Then Aaron took IL5 to soccer. M12, dad, and I watched “Taken,” which dad complained was too dark and over-the-top. His complaint about “Identity Thief” the day before was that it was too silly and over-the-top. So I can’t win.

Tuesday

Tuesday I was feeling a bit fatigued, and pushed myself more than I should have. I did some laundry and other chores, played Spore with IL5, did some cooking for the week, and then crashed for 3 hours. While I was asleep, D14 cooked the meatloaf I had been planning on cooking for dinner. Then I did a couple more chores, but I still had energy to read to IL5 before bed. Aaron applied to a few jobs, did some chores, and played Spore with IL5.

Wednesday

Wednesday I was still feeling fatigued, but I managed to wash a load of dishes. Aaron weeded and played Spore with IL5. I tried reading to D14, but my voice wasn’t holding out. IL5 stood happily on the soccer field while his teammates played.

Thursday

Thursday I felt pretty much normal. I ran some errands, played Spore with IL5, did things on my to-do list and cooked shrimp for dinner. Aaron had a honey-do list which he completed. D14, Dad, and Aaron watched Seventh Son in the evening, then D14 and I watched Penelope.

Friday

Friday I was feeling pretty good, besides a little pokiness in the morning. I played Spore with IL5, did some chores, took a walk with dad, and read. I had been hoping to go to the pool, but it was too cool out. Aaron did chores and watched “Land of Bad.” The kids went out to dinner with their mom.

Letters Written

• One letter Arizona

Reading to myself

• Nurk, by Ursula Vernon
• Eye of the World, by Robert Jordan

Reading to IL5

• Mega Mole Girl Digs Deep!, by Thomas Flintham
• Surf’s Up, Creepy Stuff!, by Andres Miedoso
• The Goat Who Chewed Too Much, by Tom Angleberger
• Super Game Book!, by Thomas Flintham
• Bear Country, by Doreen Cronin

D14 reading

• The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak
• Everblaze, by Shannon Messenger (I’m reading this to her)

Media Completed

Diana steals Sandy Patterson’s identity and uses it to commit crimes and max out credit cards. So he sets out to bring her to justice. This is a silly, over-the-top comedy of an unlikely friendship. It made an entertaining evening with my dad (who didn’t really like it).

Bryan Mills’ 17-year-old daughter goes to Europe to be a band groupie. She is kidnapped on the first day, and Mills goes on a rampage to find her. This is an old favorite of a lot of people. I enjoyed my rewatch. Dad thought it was too dark and over-the-top for his tastes.

Andres and Desmond go to an awesome beach and settle in for a nice day. But then mersurfers start mixing up the action. IL5 is really enjoying this series. It takes me about a half hour to read one of these books, and he enjoys the whole thing.

The chicks go in search of their missing human, Barbara. Funny. Cute. Enjoyable.

Games Played

News

Saturday

Saturday we relaxed at the campground for a long time. Then we went on a short walk, and went to a bar and grill at a nearby town for dinner. It poured rain in the night. M12 couldn’t sleep because of his allergies, so after trying a few different things, he decided just to sleep in the car. He then woke us up at 6am because: “The sun’s up!”

Sunday

Sunday we packed up camp (after letting IL5 and Aaron sleep in to 8:30). The evening at home was pretty relaxing, with not much going on. IL5 was pretty thrilled about the second Desmond Cole book, so I promised to get more from the library.

Monday

Monday IL5 had swim lessons. Aaron met with HR about his severance package, and got a call-back about a job. The gastroenterologist got back to me and said that hospitalization won’t be necessary to get IL5 clear. They want us to give him yet more daily laxatives. I’m not 100% certain giving him 3 Exlax, 1-2 Dulcolax, and 2 tsp of Calm Magnesium a day is good for his gut in the long-term. I read to D14 in the evening.

Tuesday

Tuesday was calm. D14 had a video appointment with Aaron and myself. I had 3 hours to relax – I took a nap and read. Aaron had an interview with a placement company. He also ran errands and weeded so I could rest.

I used to pay myself 25c for every task completed on my to-do list, $1 for every weekly goal, and $2 for every monthly goal. The money goes to my fun budget for the family (and myself). But while Aaron’s looking for a job, I switched to a point system where each dollar converts to a point, and I pay 25 points an hour for time off where Aaron does “my work.” He has kindly agreed to this.

In the evening my friend Liz came over, and we all watched Doctor Who (except M12 and IL5 who were playing Spore and Creature Creator respectively). IL5 was thrilled when the new Press Start book arrived in the mail – I had pre-ordered it months ago. Instantly, he saw the ad for the next book that won’t be out for another several months. He paused his video so I could read the new book to him (usually he only wants to read at bedtime, so I only get to read to him on the three days a week I don’t work nights). So that was fun for both of us.

Wednesday

Wednesday felt a bit long and lonely. I went almost directly from my overnight job to my day job, and didn’t get home till 5:30pm. There’s no one to talk to at either job, due to my clients not really being verbal, and the day job is simply sitting around (though I bring books, work, and cross-stitch with me).

When I got home, I really wanted to stay home, but I also wanted to talk, and Aaron was taking IL5 to soccer. So I went along. IL5 didn’t do what the coach told him to do at all. I’m wondering how he’s going to handle kindergarten. I guess he really belongs in a Montessori that actually follows the original Montessori structure (letting kids pick their educational activity) rather than the college-prep-during-kindergarten structure that so many people associate it with (not sure when the spirit of the teaching structure changed). But we can’t afford a private school, so IL5 is going to have to learn to do what he’s told…which I don’t see happening quickly. I don’t know if he doesn’t hear the instructions (his ADHD), doesn’t understand the instructions (his language difficulties), or just doesn’t like the instructions (personality). Plus he is hyperactive – gets up and runs around in circles for no reason – so how is he going to sit still for kindergarten? Plus his inability to clearly talk. Plus his fear of the toilet. I’m actually scared of kindergarten.

Thursday

Thursday was another long day of going directly from overnight job to day job, and then arriving back home at 5:30pm. Dad was out of bed – he’d been bedridden by a virus for a couple days. We had a quick dinner, and then I started feeling super tired. Then the awful chills. I put on long underwear under my clothes and still felt cold. Finally, I decided the responsible thing to do is take a COVID test so that I don’t expose my overnight client (again). The test had a very faint pink line that Aaron couldn’t see, but D14, M12, and I could see. So I called in to work and went straight to bed.

Friday

Friday I was very sick. Aaron called his mom and they decided we would not have our trip to Oregon in the morning. Aaron started having symptoms by Friday evening.

Letters Written

• One letter Pennsylvania
• One letter Texas
• One letter Massachusetts
• One letter Maine
• One letter Belgium
• One letter Missouri

Reading to myself

• Eye of the World, by Robert Jordan
• Behave, by Robert Sapolsky
• Wind-up Bird Chronicle, by Haruki Murakami
• Alan Turing: The Enigma, by Andrew Hodges
• Mr Ballen podcast

Reading to IL5

• Super Rabbit Boy World, by Thomas Flintham
• Mega Mole Girl Digs Deep, by Thomas Flintham

D14 reading

• Queen of Shadows, by Sarah J Maas

Media Completed

In this humorous anthology Holly and Justine introduce stories which demonstrate each of their points – which are better: zombies or unicorns. I listened to this with M12, and both of us found it funny and refreshing.

Andres and Desmond have another ghostly adventure, this time with haunted bikes. IL5 absolutely loved this book, and its ghosts. He asked me to get more of the books.

Mega Mole Girl must rescue Super Rabbit Boy and all the other heroes of Super World. IL5 has made us read this book to him 3 days in a row.

Games Played

News

Saturday

Saturday I continued my readathon, but I got close to the same number of minutes read for all day Saturday as I did on Friday night from 7pm till midnight. It was fun, though. I’ve been trying to take days off for reading once a month for a while, but haven’t found the right day. Maybe I should take a “relaxation weekend” once a month where I don’t try to be productive – I just do my hobbies.

In the evening, D14, my friend Liz, and I went to Little Shop of Horrors at the Guthrie theater. They did a fantastic job! It was the Aquacentennial in Minneapolis, though, so we had to compete with traffic that slowed our trip home by 30 minutes. 20 of that was just sitting in line at the parking ramp.

Sunday

Sunday, I exercised on the stationary bike for a short stint, then went to work. Afterwards, D14 and I went to Frozen Junior, which was well-done. I took her to dinner, then home. We might have had family night afterwards, but one and then the other adolescent was occupied. So I called an early night for IL5 and myself. (Since IL5 cooperated, I guess he was tired, too.)

Monday

Monday was a difficult day. I had to cancel all of IL5’s activities because he hadn’t pooped properly in 8 days and I was trying really hard to get him to poop. No success, though.

On top of that, dad started the morning screaming at me because I asked him to tell me how far he walked and for how long so that we could keep track for the next peripheral artery disease physical therapist. I guess it reminded him about how angry he was at the last therapist, so he took it out on me.

Because the day was so stressful, I mostly relaxed, trying to keep myself functional. In the evening, I read to D14 for over an hour, and she had a fun time listening to my theories about her book. We did that while sitting with IL5 in his bed because he wanted to cuddle under a blanket in bed, as he wasn’t feeling well.

Then, the hard day continued when I got a letter telling me one of my pen pals had died. He’d been sick for a while and hadn’t been answering my letters, but I’d kept writing because I knew how much letters can brighten up a life. That makes two non-RL friends to die recently.

Tuesday

Tuesday was busy. After arriving home for work, I tried to fill the pillboxes for dad, M12, and myself, but only finished dad’s because I realized that I had forgotten to pick up his prescriptions last week, and I had to go get them. (So of course I never got to mine or M12’s, which became apparent when M12 went to take them in the evening.)

Then dad and I went to his dermatology appointment, followed closely by a virtual appointment with D14. I had to leave that appointment early to get to dad’s balance PT intake. Dad, thankfully, seemed pleased with with the therapist, and actually did his exercises later that night.

Before driving home, I needed to call dad’s doctor’s office to tell his clinical pharmacist that we would be 15 minutes late to her phone appointment, but luckily she was running late, too.

I was relaxing after that busy day, when IL5’s gastroenterologist’s nurse called and suggested we try magnesium citrate to get him to poop, and that she’d talk to the gastroenterologist and get back to me Wednesday. I told her I would do my best, and rushed off to the drug store.

IL5, of course, didn’t drink the magnesium citrate after any amount of cajoling and bribing. He didn’t even try it. And because we cajoled him to drink that, he decided not to drink anything we wanted him to drink…so we switched to trying to bribe and cajole him into drinking his normal daily laxatives. That became a big argument, because he wanted Dairy Queen, and we wouldn’t give him Dairy Queen until he drank his daily laxatives. That went on over an hour until finally he said “ok, I’ll take ice cream from the freezer instead.” That sounded like a stalemate-breaker to me, so I gave him some ice cream from the freezer. After eating that, he agreed to drink the medicine. I went to work before seeing that happen. He thus completed his 9th day without pooping.

While the cajoling was going on, M12, Aaron, and I played a game of Settlers of Catan.

Wednesday

Wednesday was a tough day. Aaron’s work downsized and he got laid off. Everyone was stressed about that.

IL5 pooped overnight, but not 10 days’ worth. I got a call from his gastroenterologist and they ordered an x-ray and told us to go in on Thusday or Friday if he didn’t contine pooping.

Aaron and I took M12’s trombone in for maintenance ($400, and they’ll have it for 6-8 weeks. They gave us a loaner, though.) M12 hadn’t been taking it apart and putting it away daily, despite being told to, and I suspect it was stepped on. New rule: put it away, or he’s grounded.

Then Aaron and I picked up some cupcakes – something we’ve been buying from a bakery to help M12 keep his weight on. I don’t get any, but I color code the rest so there’s no confusion.

And then we spent some of my saved up for-fun money to go out and eat and get lunch and a beer. We needed to discuss plans for insurance, etc. Luckily I can get insurance through my job. Probably not great insurance, but we’ll get by. We left D14 babysitting, and when we got home, D14 was babysitting while on a video call appointment. I felt so bad that I forgot about her appointment. It was supposed to be a private appointment, so it wasn’t on my personal schedule, and I just forgot. But both she and the provider were very understanding.

Then I had a bariatric MD appointment. She prescribed a med she thought my insurance might cover, since the ozempic is a no-go. This one has a generic, and isn’t necessarily a weight loss med, so might slip by. Of course, my insurance is about to change, but I doubt it’s better than what we had.

Then I called insurance and made sure my insurance covers step-kids, as they need to be on my dental and will qualify for Minnesota care through the state for medical (they’d have to switch dentists with Minnesota Care dental). My insurance will cover them, thankfully.

After that, I wasted time sitting around feeling stressed. Soccer was cancelled due to rain, so now I have 12 kids’ worth of snacks to get rid of.

Thursday

Thursday, I took IL5 to an appointment and then Aaron took him to get an x-ray while I was at work. I worked a couple hours extra to help save money, and it was a bit disorienting to get home at 5:30. But if they let me do so while Aaron is searching for a job, I’ll do that.

D14 had a friend E spending the night, and M12 was playing a fun computer game that IL5 really wanted to play and felt left out with E around, so Aaron got out his computer and we played the game with IL5 for the rest of the night.

Friday

Friday morning after work, I took IL5 to speech therapy. Then we packed up the cars and headed out for our last camping trip of the year. (Just the guys and me, again. D14 is with her mom.) We set up tent and chatted for the evening. IL5’s x-ray results came in while we were lounging. Apparently the radiologist found a “small-to-moderate stool burden,” but the gastroenterologist disagreed and said it was “a larger burden.” They will call on Monday with further steps, so I get to worry all weekend about potential hospitalization.

Week’s Photos

Letters Written

• One letter Louisiana
• One letter Massachusetts
• One letter Michigan
• One letter Washington

Reading to myself

• Behave, by Robert Sapolsky
• Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, by Haruki Murakami
• Mr Ballen podcast
• Eye of the World, by Robert Jordan

Reading to IL5

• When Glitter Met Glue, by Karen Kilpatrick
• The Three Little Guinea Pigs, by Erica S Perl
• Super Rabbit Boy Blasts Off, by Thomas Flintham
• Super King Viking Land, by Thomas Flintham

D14 reading

• Queen of Shadows, by Sarah J Mass

Aaron reading

• The Book of Lost Things, by John Connolly

This is a sweet story of friendship where each friend brings out good qualities in the other. IL5 wanted me to buy him glitter glue after reading this book.

The Three Little Guinea Pigs was a twist on the three little pigs. Cute

Games

News

Saturday

Saturday we mostly relaxed. I spent campground lounging time to write 6 of the 9 letters I need to write this week. We went to the playground and got overheated, then we sat in the Air conditioning in McDonald’s and got Dairy Queen. Aaron and IL5 had a water fight. Aaron, M12, and I played 2 games of Exploding Kittens. We played a form of flashlight tag, but IL5 didn’t like the rules once he got tagged, and threw a temper tantrum. I got him in the car to take him home, and he said he was ok to go back to his sleeping bag, now. So we all went to sleep.

Sunday

Sunday, we woke up to rain on the tent. We quickly broke camp and drove away. We had about enough time for us to unpack the car and me to take a bath before it was time for me to go to work. When I got home, I cooked a quick dinner and then I DM’d our first family session of D&D. IL5 bailed about 15 minutes in, but that’s ok.

Monday

Monday was relaxing. All three kids had a virtual appointment in the morning. Afterwards, we met with Aaron at Buffalo Wild Wings for a lunch date. I tried to convince IL5 to play outside, go to the library, and play with crafts, but he wasn’t interested and I didn’t push. I cooked pork chops for M12, split pea soup for Aaron’s week’s lunches, and meatloaf for dinner.  I washed dad’s laundry. And I relaxed.

Tuesday

Tuesday started with a virtual appointment for D14. After that one, we were supposed to talk to the orthodontist tech for her final appointment, but we were having trouble getting pictures of her teeth to send to them. But they helped us figure it out, and we ended up scanning her teeth with my phone and rescheduling the appointment for later in the day.

I took M12 to get a haircut – he’d been annoyed at the length of his hair. I then picked up IL5 for a virtual appointment. Afterwards, he and I went to the library. He played with the toys and on the computer, then picked out books.

D14 had her orthodontist appointment, and was told she’s good, no more appointments. Yay! She’s done! Then my friend Liz came over and she helped D14 learn the magic loop in crochet and we watched a couple episodes of Doctor Who. David Capaldi made his appearance.

Wednesday

Wednesday, pretty quickly on the heels of arriving home from work, I jumped on a virtual appointment for D14. Then, I took dad to see his vascular doctor, who said dad’s peripheral artery disease is a lot worse than last year. He wants dad to start physical therapy three times a week, and to do further testing.

Because we were a distance from home at that appointment, and in two hours dad had another appointment that was in the same area, we just stayed in the area and went to the fancy upscale Perkins to kill time.

His second appointment was just a follow-up with  his primary after his hospital visit, so nothing new there. Then we rushed home, and I shoved three cats in cages. Puck didn’t fall for the tuna-in-cage trick again. He saw me put it in the cage and skedaddled. I had to recruit D14 to close the cage. I risked my arms and hands to grab Puck and shove him in. Freyja was easy, but he was so terrified at the vet he was shaking. Then Sake also scrambled and struggled. I think I may do one cat at a time with the vet from now on because they see another cat going in a cage and run.

After the vet appointment, Aaron and I took IL5 to soccer. As usual, he ran around in happy circles a lot, but this time he ran after the ball a few times – and kicked it again. He also was goalie once, and was great at paying attention. Though not at stopping the ball, but there’s nothing wrong with room for improvement. He’s enjoying himself, which matters more.

Thursday

Thursday I went from work to work, with a half hour break in between. Then I ran errands, relaxed, and went back to work. Aaron stayed home from work, so he did the school shopping! I had been DREADING that task.

Friday

Friday morning I had a meet-and-greet with the petsitter that will be coming during our vacation in August. She is pet CPR certified. I wonder how many pets she does CPR on? Then I horribly lost at a game of Magic against M12.

In the early afternoon, dad had peripheral artery disease physical therapy. I had been dreading it, because I didn’t want to take him to three appointments a week again. I managed to set up medical transportation for him (for future appointments – this was his first), but he was resistant to trying it out. However, at the appointment, he was acting confused and wobbly, making me hesitant to be sending him on appointments alone, anyway. The therapist didn’t want to work with him, because she said he was too wobbly. She wanted him to go to physical therapy. Probably for the best, because dad took a disliking to the therapist and refused to ever go back. I suppose if we ever get the referral again, we’ll go to the facility farther away to get a different therapist. I’m a little skeptical the wobbliness is going to go away with physical therapy, and don’t know if dad will consent to the physical therapy, because it was the other therapist who referred him. Maybe I can manage not to tell him who referred him.

After the appointment, dad wanted to go to lunch. I wasn’t in the mood, but dad really enjoys going to lunch. I could have told him the truth – that I had been planning on taking IL5 out on his bike, and I’d really rather do that, but I felt bad about being annoyed at him when he wasn’t feeling well…and who knew if IL5 would actually want to go? I wasn’t in the mood to drag IL5 kicking and screaming to a bike ride, and if I told dad that I didn’t want to go to lunch because I was taking IL5 on a bike ride, then I actually had to make it happen regardless of IL5’s feelings on the subject. Then, of course, dad pressed his luck and asked me to go for a walk, but Deirdre wasn’t in the mood to babysit more and I didn’t think dad was steady enough. Besides, he was really stressing me out.

In the evening, I was sitting on the couch waiting for my 24hr readathon to start, when D14 started asking me questions about it. I asked her if she wanted to join. She seemed excited by the idea. Then Aaron agreed to join us too. (Though then he bailed after one hour to play his weekly game with his friends.)

Week’s Photos

Letters Written

• One letter Virginia
• One letter Maine
• One letter Pennsylvania
• One letter Maryland
• One letter Arizona
• One letter Massachusetts
• One letter Alberta
• One letter New York

Reading to myself

• Mr Ballen Podcast
• Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, by Haruki Murakami
• Alan Turing: The Enigma, by Andrew Hodges
• Ophie’s Ghost, by Justina Ireland
• Eye of the World, by Robert Jordan
• Behave, by Robert Sapolsky
• Nurk, by Ursula Vernon
• Journeys through the Radiant Citadel

Reading to IL5

• Super Rabbit Boy Blasts Off, by Thomas Flintham
• The Haunted Library, by Dori Hillestad Butler
• Super Rabbit All-Stars, by Thomas Flintham

D14 reading

• Queen of Shadows by Sarah J Maas
• Everblaze, by Shannon Messenger (I’m reading this to her)

Aaron reading

• The Book of Lost Things, by John Connolly

Media Completed

When Kaz is blown away from everything he knows, he meets Claire, a young solid who can see ghosts. They solve a mystery together. This was a cute book with nice pictures.

Henry goes on a field trip and digs for dinosaurs. As usual for this series, cute and engaging. Good ratio of pictures to words.

Games Played

News

Saturday

Saturday I spent the morning cooking – baked beans for this week’s lunches for Aaron and me, quinoa salad for meals for me, and pork chops for M12’s week. In the evening, Aaron and I had a date. We went out to dinner at a new (to Aaron) restaurant where we had a coupon, and then walked from home to a tavern.

Sunday

Sunday I worked, and then Aaron, dad, and I had dinner out. I got to bed after midnight due to IL5’s dawdling. Then at 3am, dad woke us up saying he had chest pain and pressure. The EMTs wanted him to go to the hospital, but seemed to want me to drive him there. So we are sitting in the ER as I write this.

Monday

Monday, I spent from 3:30 – 6:00am at the hospital with dad. They decided to admit him and do an angioplasty, so I went home to sleep, as it was unlikely they’d rush to get that done. It wasn’t really easy to sleep, though, since at 8am my phone started beeping and ringing away.

I kept myself busy during the day. IL5 had swim lessons. Then I worked on cleaning the house. I even read for a little while.

In the evening, I took IL5 to soccer. I found out that I had missed the first week. Apparently it started last week. 🤷‍♀️ Oh well. IL5 did better than last year – he stayed on the field when he was supposed to be on, and stayed off when he was supposed to be off. Maybe by the end of the season, he’ll notice the ball.

M12 had a Court of Honor at Boy Scouts and was awarded his tenderfoot rank, and the climbing and astronomy merit badges.

Tuesday

Tuesday, I rushed home from work and did a few necessary things, then had a virtual appointment with D14 and Aaron. Immediately afterwards, I went to the hospital, in hopes they’d release dad. I was there all day. I took a nap by pushing two chairs together and curled up in a ball. I went through my phone to-dos. I read. I watched YouTube. Finally, at 6pm, they released him, only having done a stress test. Which came up uninteresting.

On the way home, we popped over to a hotel to help my homeless nephew J20 a room. Then, we went home, and I did a few more necessary things before work.

IL5 had soccer pictures, but we think they’ll not work out because the coach gave another kid IL5’s order sheet, so there will be two under his name. Oh well. We have T-ball pictures.

Wednesday

Wednesday, I went to Perkins with M12 and dad. Then dad and I ran errands. Dad had an ultrasound on his leg, checking for peripheral artery disease, and I didn’t like the sound of the results, but we won’t follow up with the doctor till next Wednesday. After the appointment, dad and I ran another errand.

In the evening, I took IL5 to soccer. He kicked the ball (in the correct direction) and he was very proud. Most of the time he was happily running around in circles on the wrong part of the field. But he seems to enjoy being out there, as well as going to the playground afterwards. (We played “monster” in the bushes.)

Thursday

On Thursday I went to my day job, then we all watched Whose Line is it anyway after a salmon dinner.

Friday

Friday, IL5 had speech therapy. Then I spent the day preparing to camp. I cooked swordfish steak for the first time that evening, and it was quite delicious. Then M12, IL5, Aaron, and I left for our camping trip. It was a campground only 15 minutes from home, so we still had plenty of time to have a fire after the tent was set up. M12 burned some of his old math homework

Week’s Photos

Two bizarre instances of Hero coexisting with another cat. There was a third time, where Hero was on the bed with both Polyphemus and Sake. She doesn’t like other cats, and this bed is her territory.

Letters Written

• One letter Maine
• One letter Netherlands
• One letter Missouri

Reading to myself

• Behave, by Robert Sapolsky
• Lords and Ladies, by Terry Pratchett
• Eye of the World, by Robert Jordan
• Nurk, by Ursula Vernon
• Mr Ballen podcast
• Wind-Up Bird Chronicle, by Haruki Murakami

Reading to IL5

• Super Rabbit Boy World, by Thomas Flintham
• Super Rabbit Boy’s Team-Up Trouble, by Thomas Flintham

D14 reading

• Queen of Shadows, by Sarah J Maas

Media Completed

In this book from the witches arc of Discworld, the witches deal with some elves that are released by wannabe witches. Funny, as usual.

Games Played

We showed Malcolm flags from various countries and had him guess. He got most of them. He didn’t get Sri Lanka and Djibouti.

News

Saturday

Saturday was a busy day for me. I had lunch at Olive Garden with my friend Liz. I took IL5 along for the ride. Liz and I discussed Poor Things, by Alasdair Gray and picked our next book. Then we picked up D14 and went to Michaels for crafting supplies. Usually I let IL5 craft with whatever is lying around the house, but I thought maybe he’d have fun with some pipecleaners and construction paper. He had a lot of fun when we got home.

Then Aaron and I ran a bunch of errands, including getting a new tent (the old one broke), popping by the pet store to get clippers for the kittens, going to get some manure for our yardwork, and stopping by two pharmacies for prescriptions.

In the evening, I met another friend, Estelle, at a brewery and had a nice chat. I got a flight, and really liked all the beers I tried.

The next morning, dad said he’d probably had a heart attack while Aaron and I were running errands, but he didn’t call 911 because “it would scare D14.” More likely, he just didn’t want to go to the hospital.

Sunday

Sunday M12 left for his week-long Boy Scout Camp.

I worked during the day. In the evening, I had a another date with a friend. This was someone I met on the app Bumble BFF. I started chatting with people one day when I was stuck somewhere with my phone. This person and I got along well. She wanted to meet up, so we made plans for dinner.

On the day of, I messaged to see if we were still meeting, and she didn’t answer. I was worried that if I skipped, she would go and I would stand her up. So I drove a half hour to have sushi alone. About a half hour after she was supposed to meet me, she messaged with the excuse that she only got 5 hours of sleep, and then spent the day doing things around the house with her boyfriend. (She only said sorry for not meeting me, not that she didn’t tell me she wasn’t coming.) Then she changed the topic. When I didn’t answer, a few hours later she said sorry (again, no mention that she could have told me she wasn’t coming), but her legs really hurt, and she wouldn’t have been good company. Could we meet up during the week?

So I answered and told her that I was annoyed that she didn’t tell me she wasn’t coming, and that wasting people’s time is really rude.

Aaron went out with his good friend Genevive for dinner. She was in town for a convention.

Monday

Monday I took it easy. IL5 had swim lessons. I was thinking of taking him to ride his bike somewhere, but it was supposed to rain (it didn’t). Anyway, I was tired from not sleeping well. So we relaxed except for some minor housework.

Tuesday

Tuesday was productive. It started with a virtual appointment for D14. Then Aaron and I cleaned the garage. He took the day off especially. It would have taken me (alone) 5 hours to clean that garage, instead of about 2.5 hours with Aaron. It was quite the workout, and I didn’t feel like cooking afterwards, so we went to Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner. After that, Aaron and I watched a couple episodes of Supernatural.

Wednesday

Wednesday D14 had a virtual appointment. Then I rested during most of the day. D14, Aaron, dad and I had lunch together. Dad and I took the old garage chemicals and some old computers to the county recycling center, and ran a couple other errands. I cooked shrimp for dinner. 

Thursday

Thursday IL5 had an appointment. I was feeling very fatigued and thought maybe I was sick, so I called into my day job. I got some reading done.

Friday

Friday I still wasn’t feeling well, but it was clearly a mental health thing and not a virus, so I went ahead with my day. Not that I had much choice for some of it.

First, I took IL5 to a playdate with his friends at a splash pad. They had a lot of fun. D14 made some chocolate chip cookies while we were gone. Then I left and picked up M12 from Boy Scout camp. We had a pleasant ride home.

When I got home I was exhausted from my tumultuous mental health that day, and struggled to stay awake while I was putting IL5 to bed.

Week’s Photos

Letters Written

• One letter Maryland
• One letter Michigan

Reading to myself

• Lords and Ladies, by Terry Pratchett
• Eye of the World, by Robert Jordan
• Behave, by Robert Sapolsky
• Mr Ballen podcast
• Alan Turing: The Enigma
• Mr Ballen podcast

Reading to IL5

• Robo Rabbit Boy Go, by Thomas Flintham
• Super King Viking Land, by Thomas Flintham

D14 reading

• Queen of Shadows, by Sarah J Maas

News

Saturday

Saturday Aaron and I had D&D, then I watched a couple hours of Monk with D14. I had been going to take her to an amusement park, but they were under 14 feet of water (but still open). We went out to Olive Garden, then I became super tired (sleeping disorder) and just lay on the couch. I couldn’t even read to IL5 before bed, but he didn’t think to ask. Maybe he saw I was tired. He was actually very good at bedtime.

Sunday

Sunday I worked in the afternoon. Then we had family day and watched Resident Alien.

Monday

Monday, Aaron’s sister Kate was in town, so the kids and I went bowling with her family. IL5 really enjoyed learning to bowl. The older kids enjoyed seeing their cousins. In the evening, we went out to a “gaming restaurant” which had pinball machines and arcade games. It was a fun time.

Tuesday

Tuesday, D14 had a virtual appointment, then I went to work. In the evening, my friend Liz was over and we watched Inception with dad and the kids. Aaron was at a Twins game with his sister Kate.

Wednesday

Wednesday started with an appointment for D14. Then I had lunch with dad and ran errands. Feeling super tired, I took a nap with four cats. In the evening, Aaron grilled.

Thursday

On Independence Day it was raining. I cleaned some rooms (avoiding IL5’s room because it’s overwhelming). The family played M12’s game The Goonies: Never Say Die. The rules made it seem scarier than it was. It was fairly easy and fun. It’s a progressive game, with 5 sessions. In the evening, Aaron and I watched Supernatural. We’re on season 15. That’s only taken 6.5 years.

Friday

Friday I took IL5 to his speech therapy and then we went to the pool with M12. They really enjoyed themselves, but M12 wanted to leave before IL5 was ready. After dinner, I read to D14.

Letters Written

• One letter Massachusetts
• One letter Maryland

Reading to myself

• The End of the Affair, by Graham Greene
• Mr Ballen podcast
• Lords and Ladies, by Terry Pratchett
• Behave, by Robery Sapolsky
• Mr Ballen podcast
• Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel
• The Eye of the World, by Robert Jordan

Reading to IL5

• Super Rabbit Boy vs Super Rabbit Boss, by Thomas Flintham
• Super Rabbit Boy World, by Thomas Flintham
• Llama Destroys the World, by Jonathan Stutzman
• Llama Unleashes the Alpacalypse, by Jonathan Stutzman
• Llama Rocks the Cradle of Chaos, by Jonathan Stutzman

D14 reading

• Queen of Shadows, by Sarah J Mass

Media Completed

Dom Cobb is recruited to introduce an idea into someone’s head. This movie was mind-bending and a bit confusing.

Games Played

Cross-stitch

News

Saturday

Saturday was another relaxing day. Aaron took the Toyota in for a recall – now our front bumber won’t fall off. I got some reading done, both to IL5 and myself. We went out to Red Lobster.

About halfway through the day, my headache got worse despite my increased intake of tea. So I ran a Google search and found out my tea doesn’t have caffeine. That would explain the withdrawal. So I drank soda the rest of the day, and ordered some appropriate tea. I also found some sweetener-free water flavor to disguise the taste of our tap water.

Sunday

Sunday I worked my day job. I got a couple of letters written. Aaron cooked chili. Dad went on a walk and got super tired – he came back tilting to the side and lurching. We started setup for M12’s new board game, but 45 minutes in to setup, it seemed obvious that setup was only half over, and it was getting close to IL5’s bedtime, so we put it away with expectation that it would be easier to set up now that we’d done it once.

Monday

Monday IL5 woke up at 5am. I tried to keep him in bed, but he got up not too much later. I did some cooking for the week and did dad’s laundry, then I took IL5 to swim lessons in the late morning. We were going to go to the big pool with M12 after I dried out IL5’s swim suit. But he fell asleep. So instead I just bumbled around the house getting stuff done, read, and got sucked into the black hole that is Grey’s Anatomy. (D14 is on season 6.) I should have ridden the Peloton bike while IL5 was asleep, but I got pinned by Puck, and that seemed a good reason to watch Grey’s Anatomy. In the evening, I cooked the family chicken, and I ate a salad. Then I read to D14.

Tuesday

Tuesday I ran errands and took my dad to lunch. In the early evening, I had a 4 hour training for my work. I had been dreading it for over a month because my ADHD makes such meetings torture. It was better than my last training, at least – they didn’t give breaks last time. Aaron dropped M11 off at his baseball game (they lost), then took IL5 to his t-ball game.

Wednesday

Wednesday was an unproductive day for me. My brain was still recovering from the 4 hour work meeting, so it was hard finding motivation. I had lunch with Aaron, then took the kittens to the vet for vaccinations.

In the evening, I got a call from my dad’s cousin Joanne. She had been trying to call my aunt Anne (who doesn’t have a phone any more), and finally called my aunt Virginia, who told her to call me. We talked for about an hour, and then I gave her my cousin Bob’s phone number, because Anne lives with him.

M12 played D&D instead of going to his playoff game for baseball. I let him do that, since it’s only his second D&D game. But his team lost, so there’s no more left of the season. His DM thanked me afterwards for adding M12 to his game, since he’s a really good fit.

On a side note, I have interesting news. Polyphemus, my 1yo cat, used to literally stalk Hero, my older cat. Hero found it really stressful. Polyphemus has stopped doing it now that he can stalk the kittens, who love being stalked. So Hero is better off with the kittens here. And my dad likes them, and they get along with Loki. And they’re cute. So maybe 5 cats aren’t so bad.

Thursday

Thursday was a calm day. I went to my day job pretty quickly after my night job. Work was a little less relaxing than it usually was, but I made it through. In the evening, it was raining for IL5’s last t-ball game, so Aaron didn’t take him. Instead, Aaron, M12, and I played a game of Magic. Then I went to my night job early because a coworker had a family emergency. My client at my night job was already in bed, so I just sat and read a book, then went to sleep early (making me wake up early, so oh well – at least I know I got enough sleep? I could have used that extra hour on Wednesday night…)

I had time Thursday to partially estimate the cost of the 10th anniversary road trip Aaron and I were going to save up for. But, as usual, I planned too big. Just looking at hotel costs and car rental added up to a fortune. It was a bummer because the trip would have been a lot of fun. We’ll have to just save up a reasonable amount of money and decide at that time what we’ll do for the anniversary.

Friday

Friday, I took IL5 to an appointment and then to a playdate. He was excited about the playdate, then wouldn’t play with his friends, then asked for another playdate immediately upon getting home. In the evening, we went out to eat (I tried a black bean burger, it wasn’t particularly tasty). IL5 volunteered to go to bed an hour early, which was nice. 

Week’s Photos

Letters Written

• One letter Maine
• One letter Oklahoma
• One letter Pennsylvania

Reading to myself

• Mr Ballen Podcast
• Madame Bovary, by Gustave Flaubert
• The End of the Affair, by Graham Greene
• Behave, by Robert Sapolsky
• Journeys Through the Radiant Citadel, by Dungeons and Dragons
• The Eye of the World, by Robert Jordon

Reading to IL5

• Press Start: Super Game Book! by Thomas Flintham
• Looniverse: Stranger Things, by David Lubar
• Super Cheat Codes and Secret Modes, by Thomas Flintham

D14 reading

• Queen of Shadows, by Sarah J Mass
• Everblaze, by Shannon Messenger (I’m reading this to her.)

Media Completed

Madame Bovary learns that men suck, and she’s terrible at finances. Yup, that’s what this book is about. I was disappointed, because I had expected a story of a strong woman who took control of her sexuality, but nope. However, the book was well-written and was more pleasing to me than Anna Karenina because all of the characters in Madame Bovary were more likable than all but one character of Anna Karenina.

Ed finds a coin that makes everything stranger than before. This is a cute little book about self discovery that is about second grade reading level.

Classic scientific literature about genes/evolution.

I didn’t like this book. It wasn’t what I expected. I DID expect Dawkins to come off as pompous about religion (expectations met), but he was just generally pompous. He had numerous humble-brag footnotes. Like, for instance, one rather long one was in the meme chapter. Apparently, he made a mistake in his first edition of Selfish Gene‘s bibliography that was also made in Edward O Wilson’s book Sociobiology, which came out slightly before Selfish Gene. Gasp! Did he adopt an error from someone else’s book? Oh, horror of horrors! But, (sigh of relief), the mistake was also in a bibliography he had handed out to his class before Sociobiology was published. Really? We needed a commentary which put him above being humanly influenced by memes?  Just fix the mistake and stick to your point – which is that humans are influenced by memes. (I may have over-emphasized the emotion he put into that footnote, but not by a lot. He made it known how mortified he was at the idea of picking up a mistake from another author.)

I also felt this book rambled a lot about things that were not biological. Like a whole chapter on chess programs. I mean, I understood that Dawkins was trying to explain a concept by using a similar concept in another field, but if it takes a whole chapter to explain the other field’s concept, then it’s not a good example. That amount of time should have been spent talking about the field of evolutionary genetics with simple examples that are easy to relate.

Finally, (and this is my problem, not a problem with the book), I was confused at first by some of the statements he made because they were in contrast to what I had learned in college 20+ years ago. Then, he started repeatedly saying that he didn’t agree with Stephen J Gould’s theories, and I realized that’s the disconnect. It’s not that I didn’t understand what Dawkins was saying, it was that I had learned from Stephen J Gould’s theories in college (in fact, some of his essays were required reading).

Ummm. So. This is a classic that I feel I should have read with my interest in biology, but not one I enjoyed reading (except maybe for the differing theories, which were interesting).

Weight loss

I didn’t lose any weight this first month without Ozempic. But I learned some things about effectively restricting calories. First, I need to program in a little extra deficit each day to allow for cheat days when I go out to eat or feel very hungry. Otherwise the diet isn’t maintainable. Second, I need to eat when I am hungry before I get very hungry, because once I get very hungry I cheat big instead of only a little. It’s better to eat a few extra calories that can be soaked up by my planned deficit than to just pig out because I tried too hard to wait until lunch-time.