8hyenas

It's Thursday! And I just realized that I have a game tomorrow that I need to prep for. So I'm going to be dong that when I finish posting. It's Frostmaiden, so it shouldn't be too bad. I can run that with my eyes closed. I'll upload a few maps and some characters, it'll be great.

Work yesterday was boring. It seemed to drag a lot. Hopefully today will be better. To speed things up, or more likely to add to the boring, I cleaned my inbox out a bit. In the process, I found the compliment from months ago that sort of started my path. She was so nice, and I can't even remember her name. I hope she's doing well.

Once I was finally free at 4;30, I made dinner. We had Fajitas with homemade tortillas. The tortillas turned out pretty well, They're dirt simple to make. I use this recipe to make mine. Except instead of butter, I use lard. They never look quite like hers, but they're very tasty anyway. (It's the lard, 100%.)

Once we were done with the tortillas, I threw in the peppers and onions. In retrospect, the peppers should have gone first--by the time they were done, the onions were pretty jammy. Still tasted good, though. The meat, which was purported to be stirfry meat, was very tough. I was not pleased with that. Next time, I'll make sure to get some NY Strip and cut it thin. That usually works better. It still tasted amazing, and I liked it a great deal.

I forgot how much I like making tortillas. It's kind of fun, especially when Jess helps me. I make the dough and get it ready, and then they will use the Mexican tortilla press and press the dough while I cook them in the cast iron pan. They come out really nice and tender.



Today, barring train wrecks, work should be pretty quiet. Of course, now that I've said that...

I need to put in an hour off on Tuesday, so I can take the dog to the vet for his monthly Cytopoint shot and maybe to get an antibiotic. He's been chewing on his legs a lot, and I'm worried that they're getting infected.

Three more days in my own bed til the Sister goes to NYC. I'm hoping things go well. She just identified a gap in the plan, so we'll see what that does to it. The company is stubbornly bulling this change through, so I assume they'll find a way. Though my sister's company is cheap, so it could be rough. The records are stored in Baltimore, and my sister's employee was in charge of searching for the insurance policies they needed on microfilm, and printing them, then they'd order more films, and the company would take them back. Moving to NYC, there's no way to send them back aside from FexEx and that's going to be expensive. We'll see how things go.

I'm looking forward to Saturday. I work in the morning, but not a ton else going on, so we're going to go to a Japanese place where a robot brings you your food, Izakaya68. It looked fun, and tasty.

Sunday, we have Arvandor. It's amazing how much easier it is to schedule when it's only 4 people. We were able to get a game within 2 weeks. It's lovely, because I forget less. Right now, the party is entrenched in Family Drama, so I'm looking forward to playing that out. Then, I have some more quests for them before they get to the big bad of this arc. Since this is the last one, I want to have some punch, and a good ending. I'm a little worried that I won't stick the epilogue, but I'm going to do my best. Archfey are kind of bonkers, so I'm going to have a lot to juggle. Plus there's definitely going to be some other enemies, just to make it tougher. They're basically invading this fey's home, so he may not be thinking too kindly of them. Though there's one more secret to be dropped that could change that.

I seem to have wrenched my back in a most unpleasant way. It's very sore and it kind of hurts to stand and walk. It's not unusual, I do this every so oftern. It's not fully thrown out, just hurts, and I'm moving a little slow, but it's not debilitating. Just requires some ibuprofen, and maybe a pain gummy after work.

We've been waiting two weeks for the final check of Dad's estate to come in. I'm not sure where in Timbuk2 they sent it, but two weeks seems excessive. This is the company that lost the account, so everything has been difficult with them--not just this. Hopefully, it'll come soon. That would be nice. It's $48k, and who can't use another $24k in their account?

I need to decide where to deposit it. If I do Wells Fargo, it's easy and I can go on my lunch break. If I want to put it in Cap One, I'll have to wait for the weekend. Chase is my other option, which I can probably also do on my lunch break. I need to look and see what my charging limits are on each. I'll put it in the account that has the best. I'm planning to transfer some funds into each anyway. I want a minimum of $5000 in each, just in case of emergencies while on vacation.

Next week, Jess goes for their 6 month follow up for their top surgery. I couldn't take the day off, so I hired my limo guy to take them down and back. I feel bad, but I just don't have the PTO to waste.

Okay, time for me to go forth and get my ass in gear. Everyone have an easy Thursday. Let's glide into that weekend!

Tuesday was a long day. Busy, but not terrible, but I had forgotten that we had our team meeting last night. As a result, my day spanned from 8am-6:30pm. It was a lot.

I did learn that the head of Outpatient Radiology has a high opinion of me. We had a patient that needed to be called, a VIP who was a close personal friend of our largest donor. And Peg specifically asked our manager, A to have me call them. So of course I did. And I was at my most sweet and courteous and informative. And the pt apparently called them back to tell the administration that I was just so kind and professional, and I made it so easy to make the appt, and answered all her questions and gave her tips on where to park and all. She also mentioned that at first, she thought the machine was calling her, because I have a voice that should be used for that kind of thing. So, Peg sent me a lovely note thanking me for it. It was very much a nothingburger, but slightly stressful with the donor hanging over my head. I'm not sure how I feel about being volunteered for tribute, but whatever.

The meeting was long and painful. Mostly just reminding people to do what they're supposed to be doing. You know, don't go into the status to send an email, sit there for 20 minutes and then send one sentence. They did debut a look at our new phone system, which is a VOIP. Thanks, I hate it. It's clunky and I don't think it's going to do what we need it to. Worse, it incorporates Copilot to transcribe the conversation as you're talking. And, eventually, that'll be how they score all the calls--with AI. This is going to be a clusterfuck. We've got about a month and a half til that all comes down.

I just have to mention how proud I am of my spouse. Jess has been working on a queer sword and sorcery book for about a year. They had stalled, but now they're back to writing furiously (3000+ words yesterday!) and I'm just really proud of how much work they've done. The end is in sight! Another few days, and they should have a rough draft done. We talked about the blocking for the climatic scene, and how to make it cinematic, and I think it's going to be excellent. I sent them Youtub videos of the Highlander the Series sword fights, so that they could see how a longsword battle can look. (What a chore, it made me look at Methos videos...) They were excellent at blocking things to make them look really good. I hope it's helpful when they start writing the final duel today.

Today, thankfully, I do not have any meetings, I can get off at 4:30 and take a nap. I'm trying to decide what to do for dinner. Last night, since I had to work late, Jess cooked pork chops. I've got stir fry strips out for dinner, but I need to decide if I'm doing Korean BBQ or if want to go all out and cook fajitas with homemade tortillas. Either could be good. I just have to make up my mind. I cleaned and oiled the cast iron pan if I go for the fajitas. I kind of need to decide, so I can marinate the beef strips for most of the day. I do love making tortillas, so I may go with that, even though it's a lot of work. But we'll see. I also love Korean BBQ. I'm just trying to decide which I want more. Either way, I'll be chopping up a bit of onions. If I do the tortillas, I'll need to order some guac, cheese and sour cream. I think I have everything for the BBQ.

I think I really want to do the fajitas, so I'll probably go with that.

Still no movement on the job front. I was busy enough that I didn't get a moment to ask Amanda about my pre-offer priorities. I'll try to do that today, if she has a few minutes between meetings.

Oh! They 100% called me out during our meetings. One of the things they mentioned again was using the template for emails to make it easier to just copy and paste. And they showed where the template was, and then reminded everyone that I had unlocked the mystic arts of the email signature, and had me send out the document I had made showing how to do it. Yet again, I felt like Prometheus, bringing fire to the mortals.

I worry sometimes that people are going to think I've got a swelled head, or that they'll resent me. On paper, I'm the same as them, but it's pretty obvious that I do way more than the standard. I get called on to call their patients back, and to fill in cardiacs, and I spend as much time in unavailable status as I do on the phone. I just don't want anyone to feel resentful or feel that I think I'm better than them. (I patently am, but I don't want anyone to not like me because of it--the joy of rejection sensitive ADHD!)

At Jess' suggestion, I have made a new google calendar for my schoolwork, so I can add in my deadlines. It seems like they're pretty limited-we get the assignments for the week on Thursday, and they're due on the next Wednesday night. Each class is 9 weeks, with a final exam at the end. I'm hoping I haven't lost my touch with testing. I used to be very good at taking tests. Since my semester starts in April, it means I am going to have to do some work on the cruise. But I get up early, so I should have time to knock out both my morning post and some studying before we start the day. I can sit on the balcony with my coffee and pastry and do my assigned reading and write my paper while the whales go by. I'm only taking one class, so it shouldn't be that bad. I know I'll have time on Sunday, since that's a sea day. Maybe I'll do some work on the plane on the way there, if the assignments are out when we leave. That'll be a few weeks into the class, so I'll know how best to manage it, and how much time I'll need to devote.

I also registered for the Johns Hopkins Tuition Reimbursement site, so I'll be ready to submit everything when April rolls around.

Okay, time for me to do my thing. Everyone have an amazing Hump Day!