Danielle Blog

More odds and ends

Well, this was the first full work-week that I’ve had since before Christmas. I found that I did okay. Didn’t want to get out of bed most mornings, but that isn’t really a new thing.

Some of the highlights/lowlights were that the week started out oddly, because over the break, a former graduate student came in to do some experiments. He used the confocal microscope (which I use for my experiments) and changed the settings and didn’t put them back to normal when he was done. This meant that we spent the whole morning trying to figure out what was wrong with the software. And then, once we got one problem fixed, all of the images were dimmer than usual. My advisor was at a loss to figure out what was wrong and he thought I should try it the way it was, so I did my analysis with it those settings and it was all goofed up. The next day, he realized what was wrong – thank goodness – so I did it all over again (ugh). At least now, it will be normal for my future experiments.

I had a physical with a new doctor – new for me and evidently new to the practice, but very experienced. She spent an hour and a half with me! It was terrific. We covered every single health thing that I could think of and even some things that I hadn’t thought of. This also means that I’m back to having a prescription for my really strong migraine medicine, which usually gets rid of a full-blown migraine really well. Hopefully this will mean no more vomitting/days of missed work – which aren’t too frequent – but feel pretty awful when they are happening.
It is good to have a job where I feel like I can take the time to go to the doctor.
Now I just have to go to the dentist and the OB/Gyn and I’ll be all caught up.

OH, the one really bad thing though is that my BMI is way worse than it was before. According to her scale – which I still need to verify – I’m on the high end of overweight and am headed for the obese catagory. The last time I calculated it, which was a few years ago, I was on the high end of the normal range, so this was quite a blow. We talked about portion size, since that is the main area where I have trouble and being committed to exercising. I guess this is added incentive for me to make it to the gym and to try to eat less. I may also try eating lean cuisines and fruit + yogurt at lunch, instead of sandwiches with cheese and fruit + yogurt/cottage cheese. We’ll see. Mainly, I need to eat less at supper, which is hard, because the food tastes so good.

But my cholesterol was really great – so at least I’m doing something right, food wise. Must be the cheerios.

In other news, I’m excited because Texas Seestor started posting photos to Flickr. So I can keep a closer watch on my niece! Yay!

I’ve also finished 3 books in the Artemis Fowl series. They are books for pre-teens, so are a bit short and a bit elementary, but they are also entertaining. My friend at work recommended them. I liked the 3rd one the best, so far. It had a bit of a Mission Impossible feel to it with the need to break into a highly secured building where a nefarious guy was keeping some technology he’d stolen from the main character.

I ended up coming down with a throat/sinus thing at the end of the week and it is getting better, but is still a drag. I guess my defenses were down with the previous bug. I think this weekend will be mostly staying in. The weather has been in the single digits this week, but luckily my car is in our garage at home and I park in a garage at work where I can take a tunnel to my building. This means I don’t really have to go out in the windy cold or scrape my car off each morning and evening.

I finally watched The Family Stone last night. I’d heard that it was pretty good. Well, I found it to be amusing, but not up to the hype. I was disappointed in the ending, which was pretty unbelievable – I’m trying not to give anything away, of course. I’d say that it is worth watching, but don’t go into it thinking it is going to be some movie that really blows you away.

In other entertainment news, I’m bummed that American Idol once more conflicts with one of my favorite shows – NCIS. I’d like to watch both, but that just doesn’t work with our Tivo/cable set-up.

The Girlie-girl has been keeping us amused lately. She is sitting on the heater vents again and meowing at us (to turn the heat on that moment, evidently). She is also really packing up against my legs to sleep at night. Cats can be so goofy.

I guess that is all for now. Probably way more than you ever wanted to know, but well, my blog – yada yada – skip it if it is too boring.

Hope all is well with you.