8hyenas

Well that was an eventful day. After I signed off yesterday, my sister and Yoda got up. He had apparently thrown up repeatedly, and was just not feeling well. We watched him closely and decided after I got off that he needed to be checked out. The thing that clinched it was his difficulty getting on and off the couch. That freaked me out. Unfortunately, I had my doctor's appt, so we had to wait til I got back to do that. Fortunately, the BIL came through and took Yoda and Jess up to the urgent care. We got there about 5:30 and I was the last to leave, since I was staying for his discharge paperwork. I got to my car at about 9:45.

After being sedated for labs and xrays, because he was being a little shit about it, it was determined that he had an upset tummy. Bloodwork was good, xrays were clear except some gas, and some mild changes to his spine that show he's getting older. So, a nausea shot, some subQ fluids, and we were taking our small stoned puppy home. Well, Shelly and Jess were. I was there another 35 minutes for the privilege of paying $1400 for gas. *shrug*. Oh well. We took him home and he was seriously stoned.

It was a good day otherwise. I had my meeting to go over my new position. I'm going to be doing what I'm doing, plus backing up the other leads. That could be anything from working the PET queue, emails and faxes. Or it could mean jumping into the team chat to answer questions from my coworkers. At least once I'm announced as a Lead. I've already been told that one of the other leads is out for 4/7-4/8, so I'll be helping then. My schedule will stay the same, though if they need me early or late, I let them know that I'm willing to do that. On especially heavy call days, I may take some calls, just to try to bring it down, but it'll be considerably less. Basically, it sounds like the job is still evolving, and will be what I make of it. Which is both terrifying and cool. They're going to go in and adjust my parameters for my review, so we'll see what that ends up being.

After work, it was off to my long-awaited doctors appointment (The fucker's cancelled my last two as the provider wasn't available, moving me at least 3 months out each time.). The doctor was like "Oh, it's been a while!" And I had to gently point out that little fact. We talked about all the shit I wanted to cover plus a bit. So, I'm going to be changing my primary diabetes med to Mounjaro, as the Rybelsus just isn't doing it. My HgbA1C was utter shite at 9. Two years ago it was a 5. Time to get a new drug. The Mounjaro is a once a week injectable, so that's not bad. One less pill I need to take daily. I don't have a needle phobia, so it should be just fine. In addition, we added a statin med, because it's suggested that everyone over 40 with diabetes should be on a statin. Sure, whatever. Then, I also got 90day scripts for my inhalers, and the seasickness patch just in case. My doctor applauded my preparedness for the cruise, which was nice. She's apprarently had patients run out of meds while on cruises, and it's a pain for all involved.

I finally sat down to dinner at 10pm, but I was more tired than hungry by then. I ate a few bites of chicken curry and then put it in the fridge. It was very good, but their mild is on the border of my spice limit. I mean "give me white people spice." And they hear "Mild for me."

We're officially under 50 days for the cruise, And I'm having some stress, especially after the dog had to be sedated to get an xray. I'm hoping that he does better when he's feeling a bit better, but ugh, one more anxiety that I can't relieve for like a month. I'm hoping he feels a little better this morning. Less stoned at least.

Today will be a day of quiet, and double checking myself. I'm a wee bit tired from the early morning combined with the late night, so I will be double checking that I'm replying to the correect email, and scheduling appointments appropriately. It's definitely going to be an early night.

Tomorrow, we have game,, Saturday we have two games, and Sunday, I have one game.

I think on Saturday, between games, I may make the pasta shells and bake them. I think I'll have time. It should only be about 30 minutes to boil the pasta, 20 to make the filling and stuff the shells, and then bake for 30-40. So that's only about 2 hours. We have four between games, so that should work well.

Sunday, I think it'll be beef stew of some sort. I've got the mirepoix ready to go, and we have some beer, so I'm thinking a nice stout stew. I'll chunk up some potatoes, throw in a bay leave and some thyme, and it'll be great. I might need to get some bread, since we'll probably eat the loaf we have with the shells.

Today, we shall have hash brown casserole with chorizo. It's the easiest dump meal. Hashbrowns, two tubes of chorizo sausage, cheddar cheese soup and cheese for the top. It's perfect for when you want an easy night. Some of my packages came yesterday. I have another bathing suit which is okay, but the bra doesn't do a thing for the tatas. I also got more food. This time it's Lilikoi vinagrette salad dressing (very tasty), granola for jess (they said it's delicious, but a little sticky and fresh) and last was Pineapple macadamia nut pancakes with coconut (can't wait to try these this weekend.)

Puppy is up! He's still a little subdued, but seems to be perking up a bit. He came out from the bedroom, which is more than I expected. Now he's toddling after my sister who is getting coffee. Apparently he had the runs more last night, but he seems maybe a bit better.

We'll see how he does. All we can really do is watch him.

Okay, time for me to go forth and drink some coffee and try to wake up. Oh, Yoda just jumped up on the couch with no problem. Now I feel a bit better. Everyone have aperfect Thursday!

Here we are on at the halfway point through our work week already. It's hump day y'all. Boodle kindly woke me with a paw to the forehead at 4:15 am. She needs her claws clipped, so that definitely woke me up.

Today shall be a busy day again, no doubt. I have a meeting at 11am to go over the new position. It's set for 30 minutes, so they dont think there's a ton to impart, I'm guessing. I have a few questions, but I'm going to see what they say first and then come up with slightly smarter queries. Right now, my questions, per the word document I started was basically "What do?" "Am I still supposed to be backing up the queue? How often? Again, what do? Is my schedule changing? When will you announce it?" I should have more, but I was blanking yesterday. I want to ask more in-depth questions, but I don't have the information to formulate them yet. Hopefully, by noon today, I will have a clear idea of what I should be doing on a day to day, minute by minute basis.

Yesterday, I was only on the phones a little bit. I had too much other stuff to do. I feel like that might be a factor. Some days, there will be a lot of stuff. Other days, maybe not so much. I ended up doing 25 calls total. Which is fine. Even before the promotion, they were going to be changing the metrics for my calls per hour, which is good. The rest was trying to get people to call me back. They did, just very slowly. And one never called back. It's always the one who's diagnosis codes alarm you that don't call back.

I started the Corned beef and potatoes at 3:30. Probably should have given it a bit longer. It wasn't quite fall apart yet. Then, once I got out of work, I sautéed up the cabbage with bacon, which is my favorite way. Sadly, I only had the European style bacon, so it's not as fatty. But it was still really tasty.

We had our very Irish meal, an off we went to take the dog out for his brief walk. It was motherfucking cold last night. It's no wonder I had a freaking headache last night considering how far the temperature dropped. It's going to be cool today and then the rest of the week, it's going to climb until Sunday, when it's 71 degrees. Ugh.

Today I also have my doctor's appt. I'm supposed to come every 6 months and get an A1C test to see how my diabetes is doing. And apparently also get my blood pressure done. I want to talk to her about switching my GLP-1, if the other is still performing poorly. And then I need seasickness patches, just in case. Last, I want to switch my inhaler prescriptions to a 90 day supply. That way when we go in 51 days, I'll have two of each inhaler, just in case. I'm a big believer of just in case. I know I can't get 90 of my psych pills, but I'll get them the weekend before we leave, so I'll have plenty of those.

The doctor's office pissed me off a couple of weeks ago. I had put in for a Lisinopril refill. It's a blood pressure medicine, so it's fairly important. The medical assistant wrote me a somewhat snotty email about not having come in in over a year. I ended up sending an annoyed email back, pointing out that I had been scheduled no less than three times during that year, and the office cancelled every single one. Then, I would be rescheduled 3-4 months out, because I could only do late appointments. I also pointed out that I had this appointment, and would be there, unless they cancelled me again. They did not cancel me, and I did get the prescription refill, so that's something.

I am going to have to get dressed during lunch, since I get off work at 3:30 and Jess has therapy at 3pm. I don't want to have to wait til their done to get dressed, since that'll be 45 minutes, and I kind of want to leave at like 4pm on the dot, just in case traffic is a problem. If I get there early, I'll stop in IKEA and get some dill mustard sauce and some pear drink. Then I could bake some of the salmon topped with it. I actually like salmon that way. Or I can tolerate it at least.

I went to wash out the dutch oven to make the cabbage in, only to find that despite soaking, I could not get the burned on crust off the pan, so into the trash it went. It served well for over a year, which is all you can ask for a ceramic coated pan. The frypan is going next. It's not doing a great job on being non-stick, which is literally it's only job.

I already got a replacement for the fry pan, a nice coated pan that still has it's non stick surface. It cooked up the sandwiches two days ago and the bacon and cabbage last night like a dream.

The dutch oven, having given it's life for our jambalaya, has been replaced by a larger 7 quart enameled cast iron pan in bright orange. I'm looking forward to making something nice and hearty in it. I've got some bite sized beef, so it might be time to make some stew or beef bourguignon. Or French onion soup. I'd need to get a few things for those, and have time to cook it. Sunday, I only have 1 game at 12p, so that would give me 3 hours to make it afterwards. It would be good to make that again.

I also need to get some jumbo pasta shells. I was going to make stuffed shells, with spinach and cheese, but they sent me large shells. Which are not the same as jumbo. I'll need my new cast iron to boil all the pasta. I'm going to do a cheese and spinach filling, then top with mozzarella and sauce and bake til tasty.

I might do the stuffed shells on Saturday. I have two games, but there will be about 4 hours between, so I could conceivably do that. I may also get a pastry bag with a tip so that I can pipe the cheese mixture into the shells to make my life easier and neater.

But first, we're going to get some thing tasty for dinner tonight. My appointment isn't til 5, so I won't get home til 6-6:30. That's an ordering night. Or, I could get some salad and a rotisserie chicken and have that. I've got a package with a Lilikoi Vinagrette that may come today. Looking at it, it'll probably be tomorrow, so I can order it then.

As of today, we are at 50 days til we leave for the cruise. It technically doesn't leave til two days later, but we're going to get in early so that we can properly sightsee. And of course, catch the new Mortal Kombat II movie that comes out on the 8th. I keep haunting the box office in Vancouver, waiting for tickets to go on sale so I can see the showtimes. I definitely want to do it at like 6 or 7 pm. Our wake up call is probably going to be aroud 7am on Saturday so that we have time for breakfast, and the porter to pick up our luggage and take it to the ship. Then, we shall go hit the Tim Hortons next door and get some good coffee and Timbits. That was the highlight of our trip to Detroit for Jess' Dad's funeral, so I assume it will be good in Vancouver as well.

Still fretting a bit about the dog being boarded. We're only going to have time for one stay before the trip. He can't go until 2 weeks after his second flu shot, and that doesn't happen til 4/9. So he'll stay for 4-5 days, and see how it goes. I'm hoping well. If not, it'll be a stay at Jarretsville Vet and Kennel. He's just such a prissy dog, so I'm worried.

He was being a little asshole last night, not wanting to take his pills. I finally got him to take it by taking a knife and hollowing out a chicken treat and putting it in. He refused cream cheese, peanut butter, fudge and a cake pop.

Stubborn little shit.

I have been on a book buying spree. I now have enough books to cover me reading non stop on the trip. I won't, but I at least have things for the plane. I've got a Scalzi that I haven't read, plus a handful of Kindle Unlimited books that have been recommended on Smart Bitches, Trashy Books. I trust their recommendations.

Okay, time for me to hop off and have a nice hot shower. Gotta be clean and pretty for the doctor. Everyone have an Excellent Wednesday!