One of my coworkers at the library is the wife of the Rabbi and she brought in a dreidel and gelt for the book club for disabled adults today, and they apparently had a great deal of fun! So there is some light in my little world for Hannukah.

Good stuff, flea!

That reminded me to go see if the menorah that usually sits on the receptionist's desk in December was turned on to the right number of candles (it has generally sat there completely unlit unless I wander by and turn it on) and it doesn't seem to be there. Probably packed away where no one has come across it since we have been back in the office (I don't think I thought to look last year. I don't generally go in and out of the building near reception)

'each one of us is a little light, but all of us together are a strong and steady light'.

That is a beautiful truth. If I had heard it before I had forgotten, but I needed to hear this. I'll try a little harder to be a bit brighter.

Looks like I may not be going to NC for Xmas

I'm sorry this is such a grim holiday for you, smonster. May you find some moments of joy.

That reminded me to go see if the menorah that usually sits on the receptionist's desk in December was turned on to the right number of candles

I've been impressed that our lobby has been up to date on this! The residents in our condo are a pretty wide international variety, but the staff is close to 100% Hispanic, so not so much Jewish. We have two buildings and both lobbies are beautifully decorated with Christmas and Hanukkah decorations. I think the building manager lights the candle when she leaves for the day.

It was a very long work day, but helpful that my son covered for my routine day work while I was out working on site. So tired. It has been a long time since we had a new practice and it is easy to forget how stressful the first couple weeks are when the doctors and staff adapt to new software with a full patient load. No one has time to learn new things.

Chag sameach to all who celebrate.

In me-me-me news, I have accomplished the difficult feat of burning food in the microwave. And I don't mean overcooked, I mean full-on end-of-Time-Bandits smoke billowing out of the oven.

Fortunately I did not explode when I grabbed the charred remains, but the smoke alarms did go off and the smell is impressive. I set a water and vinegar mix boiling in the microwave, which also served to test it was still working. I turned on all the fans and opened the door and bagged the garbage and took it out, which seemed to help. I wiped down the inside and left it closed with a cup of baking soda inside, so hopefully the smell will have abated by morning.

• Sigh*

Chag sameach. I've been lighting candles, but not doing much else for Chanukah, since I'm in the middle of grading.

We haven't decorated. Well M's Mom has put up a tree in her room, but there isn't room in the living room and honestly I just... I'm once again trying to get into the holiday spirit and feeling like I probably won't until actually after Xmas and then I'll be feeling like it's the holidays.

M's mom is going to have to have surgery on her back, she was supposed to have dr's appointment today but it was telehealth and it never clicked with M or I that she wouldn't know how to navigate a telehealth appointment so she ended up missing it. She then asked me "does this mean I'mnot having my surgery?" And I told her it meant she needs to call the dr's office back and reschedule and tell them it has to be in person. Because of who she is and the fact she's on pain medicine she's now convinced herself someone is going to steal her medicine. Like just now she was upset and yelling at M to come help her right now! She'd hidden her pain medication and couldn't find it. I ended up going in there to help. And it was where she always puts it on her side table. I guess she thought about hiding it but didn't. When I asked who she thought was going to steal it she told me "people are in and out of here all the time." The only people who have been in and out have been her niece and her granddaughter and us. That's it. She tells me " Pain medicine makes people crazy. Makes them do crazy things." All I could say was "yes it apparently does"

Mom came down and took me and M to lunch so that was nice. She didn't stay long. She said her landlady and someone from Habitat for Humanity came and looked at the house and said they can put in a ramp for her and when reassess about the bathroom accessibility if that becomes an issue. So that's good.

Hit my 3 month anniversary at work. It's been slow and they cut hours. Full time is only asked if they want to go home and not cut. But my shoulders and back were killing me on Friday so I left early. I'm going to regret it when I see my pay check because I'll finally have health insurance deducted from it. When I was trying to figure out how much I'd take home here vs what I as making before I went on leave at Belk I thought I would come out about even but I forgot to tally in 401K contribution.

And then for some reason I thought I had Chewy set up to auto ship flea treatment every 2 months but I had it set up for every month. And M kept telling me we didn't need any more but I hadn't been paying attention to when the autoship payment happened or when we were getting the packages. So we have a stockpile of flea treatment now and I can cancel that for the time being.

I had a meds check and annual doctor's visit combined. Had some blood work done and everything looked really good. My triglyceride levels took a nose dive and everything else had modest improvements. The only thing I've done different between now and last December was increase my exercise level because of work.

Holy shit, I completely forgot that Ben McKenzie of the OC and Morena Baccarin are a couple with two kids.

ita would have loved that. Or at least found it very intriguing.

Our neighbor's DoorDash delivery ended up on our doorstep, so I took it over to them and got to pet their dog! Good deed: rewarded!

Holy shit, I completely forgot that Ben McKenzie of the OC and Morena Baccarin are a couple with two kids.

They were in Gotham together, IIRC.

That sounds right