That sucks a lot, Sean

Yeah, but at least I have a badass GPA.

ETA: And, as my therapist reminded me today, I'm keeping a 4.0 while living in constant pain, that tends to spike when I walk anywhere, which I do all the time because no car.

I hope Matilda is better soon.

Sean, I'm sorry about the money stress. I'm still very proud of you (and an eensy bit envious, so you know you're doing something good).

Color me a brand new Seahawks fan. Bosslady called their front office to ask if they could send a poster or autographed something to one of our guys who has decided to root for them in the Superbowl. First she got through to an actual person (similar attempts with the Vikings, The Wild, and the Twins have yielded voicemail limbo). Second, she made that call on Thursday. Today he opened a package from them that had two small posters, a sticker, a rubber bracelet, a yearbook, and a hand-written note saying "Dear __, We hear you are a Seahawks fan and thought you might like some swag..."

Back to the weight loss thing, earlier in the year, another person at that house got started on a new psychotropic medication which ended up having some seriously bad side effects. She spent a month essentially doing nothing more than lying on the floor. On a good day, we could get her to drink three whole cans of Ensure. There were a lot of bad days. She lost weight. She had been carrying maybe twenty pounds extra. She lost those 20 pounds before they got her stabilized and completely off that medication. Her mother was thrilled. In my mind, her having those 20 pounds to lose is what kept her out of the hospital (something the parents devoutly wish to avoid). When she gained them back, mother and physicians were highly displeased. So now there is a demand that we get her to lose that weight again. The PCP has issued a calorie limit. The ... get this, she doesn't have a psychiatrist.... At the local clinic where many disabled persons in the area go, she sees a pharmacologist who makes recommendations and gets an MD to write scripts off them. Rural area. Not really enough psychiatrists to go around. Anyway, the pharmacologist says, go low carb with her. So I write menus reflecting these recommendations (I shy away from a full-on Atkins style plan, but I can definitely swap in lots of non-starchy veggies and whole grains for the noodles and white bread, happily and in good conscience.) Well, she went back for a re-check, lost 5 pounds last month.... instead of being pleased at the progress, the mother and pharmacologist are saying "you're gonna have to go NO carb". Riiiiiiiight. During a staff meeting, I asked, "Do they really want her to lose this weight as fast as she did when she was sick? Really? Cuz I've got a baseball bat that wants to share its opinion on yo-yo dieting with their heads." Bosslady says, "Think about who this is coming from." I said, "OK, I'll make it look like an accident."

Incidentally, sloppy joes served over mashed cauliflower? Teh Yum. Tonight's masterpiece? Turkey sausage (that was an accident, I thought it was regular ground turkey) browned, sauteed an onion and a bag of Callifornia blend veggies, pour in a jar of store brand spagetti sauce, simmer that for a while... served over spagetti squash. Good stuff. Nobody's walking away from that table feeling deprived.

The three times I've lost weight from being sick I've enjoyed it.

To be clear - these were digestive issues and I wasn't in any DANGER, I just couldn't keep food inside of me properly. And finding pleasure in my clothes being looser was about the only fun I was having.

Of course, to make that weight issue worse, one of the other staff members who A) doesn't show up to staff meetings, and 2) works most of the nights that I am not there, has decided to disregard the menus I plan. Mind you, all the other staff are pitching in, sharing recipes for healthy, veggie-ful meals that meet the criteria, enthusiastic and happy to work with the menus the way I have been planning them. The one who isn't on board with this, she adds spagetti to chili, and thinks it wise to substitute a tuna-macaroni salad for brussels spouts. And she won't use the whole grain pasta that we've been buying - no, she has to go to the store and buy the white stuff. And when I put something on the menu that I have taught a younger coworker to make in a healthy way, Mrs. Loves Starches manipulates the younger one, sending her out on errands and outings so she can take over the kitchen and make it her own starch-loving way. She leaves notes saying "I don't think they like this new 'healthy' food very much" but the folks who live there eat it up and ask for seconds when I'm there. Then again, the woman who needs to lose this weight is the sort of person that if she hears anyone saying they don't like some food, will say the same thing. Even if she has eaten it and liked it well enough before. Generally speaking if you ask her to try a bite, she will and will then eat the whole serving. But if you say "I don't like this" and she then says she doesn't like it either, and that is the answer you were hoping for, you don't bother to try to sell her on perfectly good healthy food.

Eh, I'd apologize for the work rant, but I'm not really sorry.

I am home! Miss Erzabet No Biting has sat on me and let me know I am not supposed to abandon her like that. Vlad and Ruthven are happy to see me, too, but Erzabet is the kitty I belong to.

Welcome home, Human Who Belongs To Ezrabet.

I hope Matilda is feeling better! It's rotten luck to miss not one but two social engagements! Luna is sick as well, but it's not uncommon for her. I just strapped her to the nebuliser and we're just going on with the day. We did decide to stay home instead of going out, but that has more to do with her extreme desire to stay in her jammies than anything else.

amyth, please give Darth a big hug from me. He was my best friend once upon a time, but after I moved away we slowly and surely lost touch. Now it's just the occasional Internet drive-by. I miss him frequently!

I hope the nebulizer does the trick for Luna.

So I was just thinking how the few inches of snow we got yesterday was just about right.... when I heard the forecast for 18-24 more inches tomorrow. OK then!