We're under a winter storm warning/winter weather advisory (depending on elevation) tonight and tomorrow. If I didn't already know this from checking the forecast, I would have known a storm was brewing because my ankle has been very cranky all day. It's swollen and is all kinds of red and purple. Ibuprofen and Tylenol are my best friends right now, and I also had to revert to using my cane. I suppose I got ahead of myself yesterday by walking around all day without it because I felt so good. I forgot that sprain recovery takes several weeks and has its good days and bad days.

This is bringing back memories of the YEARS it took (literally) for the same ankle, which I sprained in college, to quit hurting before every front came through. With this current sprain being much more serious, I suppose I'll have advance warning of weather changes for the rest of my life.

Other than that? I'm so glad this work week is over! I spent the greater part of the day catching up on yet another project that had languished in the absence of anyone to do it. I worked a short day because I stayed late yesterday, but because I normally work until at least 6:00, leaving a hour early put me squarely in the middle of rush hour traffic and a crowded grocery store. The fact that folks were panicking about the whopping 1 to 4 inches of snow in the forecast made it even more crowded. When I finally got home, I proceeded to not get much of anything done all evening. I had planned to catch up on e-mails but instead I just farted around on line, including listening to a lengthy interview of a certain baseball boyfriend that I had bookmarked -- I just really needed to hear his voice, so I listened to it twice, which ate up half an hour, and that's sort of how the entire evening went. Better luck tomorrow, I guess, although the first thing I'm going to do is get a sorely needed good night's sleep.

Today is my last day of recuperation time. I think I'm FINALLY in good enough shape to go back to work, although I'll have to pace myself for awhile. Still...my "paid time off" fund will thank me, as will the folks at work who have been patiently waiting on the piles of work that haven't gotten done for...yikes. A long time.

I'm feeling pretty good today and chose to be lazy this morning. A little bit of snuggling with the pillows, a lot of lingering over coffee and a salsa and cheddar omelet. I've got Internet stuff to do today, as well as a couple of errands and some food prep for the week. I've got to go to bed ultra-early tonight because I have a early morning medical appointment and need to get up around 5:15. Yikes again!

I can't let the day without wishing a wonderful birthday to xhereonearthx -- what is it with all the November babies on my f-list, anyway?

instrumentality

In other news, I head back to my place this afternoon. I feel better than I did yesterday. Baby steps. Only issue is that I slept wrong on my bad ankle (on the side that's not sprained) so it's really sore. Ibuprofen and Tylenol are my friend, as are the usual other measures. It'll be a quiet rest of the day so I can take care of that annoyance.

I hear the lunch bell ringing (well, not really, but...) so I'm outta here. Hope all y'all have a wonderful day!

Just because I feel like it. He's just such a happy-looking guy. What a joyous grin! I tinkered with it on Picnik to obliterate the uniform because he played for You-Know-Where at the time and I don't want to upset my fellow Red Sox fans. Incidentally, there are a whole bunch of fun new effects available on Picnik just waiting to be used for iconage. :::evil grin:::

Time to bed:  11:20 and fell asleep immediately.

Time awoke with muscle spasms: 12:30.

Time finally fell back to sleep after taking several measures, including finally putting slipper on over cast to further immobilize foot:  Approximately 3:30.

Time finally woke up for good:  9:30.

So I managed to cobble together about 7 hours of sleep and am hoping to do even better tonight.  After all, I do have a long week of work to deal with.  I'm going to sleep with the slipper on again, or maybe even an athletic shoe, because the more my foot is forced to stay in place the less the spasms bother me.  I think in any case I'll be calling my neurologist tomorrow to see if there are any other measures I should be taking.  I'd like to avoid taking the maximum dose of my muscle relaxant, because my regular prescribed dose is 4 mg per night and I've been taking 6 mg and don't want to run out before my next fill date.

My foot is still very sore, so this will be another sedentary day for me.  I've got quiet stuff I can do on the computer, and small house chores that involve standing in one place (which doesn't hurt as much) or sitting.  This is going to get better, I swear it is.  Baby steps, as I like to say.

And now...brunch.

Up at 7:15 on a Saturday morning?  Me?  Really?  If anyone had told me a few months ago that I could even DO that I wouldn't have believed them.  But I did just that today so I'd be all fed and watered and ready to walk out the door after my neighbor stopped by at 9:30 to load a bunch of dead computer components into my car so I could take them to a special dropoff that the county recycling program was running this morning.  Afterwards I ran a couple of other errands, including bringing another chair to Goodwill...it's sturdy as hell but needs reupholstering because the [very ugly] fabric is very musty/dusty.  Someone'll be able to make use of it, I'm sure.

So here I am, just after 11:00 (when normally I would be fixing a late breakfast if I had even gotten that far), and my busy day most definitely does not end with this early flurry of activity.  In an hour or so I'll be heading over to the hospital for my final Solu-Medrol infusion, after which I will GRATEFULLY have the catheter apparatus removed from my arm.  Then I''ll get my oil changed and hopefully get home in time for the start of ALCS Game 6 (if the weather holds in New York), and do my exercises in front of the TV before using the game as background noise while I get my butt into the kitchen and start on the dishes and do some cooking prep.  Then I need to muster the energy to do my daily work in the back room -- it'll be sit-down stuff this time.  Going through papers and triaging them into "recycle" or "shred."  I suspect that the "keep" pile will be neglible.  And maybe, just maybe, I'll get some Internet time in before bed.  I owe e-mails to treasured old friends, and hopefully I can make a dent in that.  I also started a pretty fascinating book yesterday, but more on that later because I realize that I'm getting longwinded.  I'll probably read in bed for awhile, but tired as I'll be by tonight, that probably won't last long!

ETA: Ahaha...FAILHAT on the game time, yes?  And it got postponed to boot.  I've crossed off everything described above except for cooking, which I'm about to do.  That said, I am so utterly exhausted that my evening will probably consist of reading that book rather than trying to formulate thoughts and express them to my two closest childhood friends.  If I get up early again, with Game 6 not starting until 8:20, I have a big honking chunk of time in which to be productive again.  Me likey!

I held out as long as I could, I really did; however, it was around 40 degrees this morning and I could no longer stand the chill in the house. Yep, I did it -- I turned the thermostat up to 65 so the furnace would come on. Although it's by no means toasty in here, between my coffee and the small bit of manufactured heat, I feel a little less frozen. It's supposed to be in the mid-60s today, so I can probably turn it back down after awhile, but y'all, I absoutely HATE turning the heat on this early!

On the bright side, I was out of bed by 8:30 this morning, although I have little to show for it so far. I'm about to swing into action, though, and have a full day of decluttering stuff on tap, with some baseball thrown in for good measure (GO SOX! GO CARDINALS!), although I will probably only watch intermittently, last games of the regular season or no. Weekends are my time to get stuff done, and I already figure I'll be putting my big project on hold during the playoffs so I can soak up plenty of baseball to sustain me through the winter.

Finally, I couldn't resist sharing this -- one of a pile of screencaps that I made from the Cardinals game on September 5.  I went back to the MLB.tv archives last night and spent an hour or so grabbing some closeups of My Little Guy for posterity. This was one of my favorites, because he's got his signature "peer at the pitcher intently" thing going on.  Always makes me laugh, and it was the very first thing I noticed about him when he initially caught my eye, now a full two years ago.  How time flies.  And one of these days I'll get my act together and make a Photobucket account so I can post pictures full size.  Another winter project!

I wish I hadn't parked my car in the yard yesterday (I did so in order to sit outside in the carport and sort through books).  It is POURING and apparently has been doing so since the wee hours.  The area has already seen a couple-three inches of rain, and the radar looks like more of the same for the rest of the day, seeing as how this stretches all the way down to Atlanta and is moving really slowly.  And...I have to go to the laundromat TODAY -- no way around it.  Hello, muddy floors.

Today's decluttering will involve more books, as I'll obviously have to work indoors and the books aren't as yucky as the two boxes of ancient VHS tapes that I was going to clear out.  Between that and the laundry, I'll have to miss today's Sox game.  At least I can do some work on the bedroom while watching the Cards on Sunday Night Baseball.  I'll probably sort through a couple of drawers of clothes.  I'm sure the local Goodwill store would be glad to see another bag or two from me!
 

My newest icon!  That's the city/county building complex in downtown Asheville, taken from the ridge that runs just east of town.  I tinkered with it a little bit on Picnik, and I really like the way it turned out.
 

That's all for this evening.  I'm going to go lie by my open bedroom window, where it's cooler than here in the kitchen, and read a bit before I go to sleep.  Hope things are well with my f-list!

It amazes me to look out the window at the drizzle and realize that it was so brilliantly sunny yesterday (and in the 70s, too!) that I was awakened by the light around 7:30 and had to blindfold myself in order to fall back to sleep.  Tired as I was, I actually slept until 11:00 after that, and proceeded to wear a FAILHAT for the rest of the day as far as getting anything done, largely because I wasn't feeling all that great (migraine and cramps).  Middle-aged hormones for the fail!

This, of course, means that I have to buckle down today.  I'll be heading to the laundromat shortly, having realized (much to my chagrin) that if I hope to maintain some semblance of productivity in the coming months, it means that I can't necessarily watch every single Sox game.  So it goes.  At least I'm listening to the beginning of today's game.  Note that I would have already finished said laundry were it not for the irresistible urge to a) sleep in a bit this morning and b) lie around thinking pretty thoughts (oh, my darling Baseball Boyfriends, how you charm me and divert my attention, you rascals!).

Nice little win streak we've got going right now.  I'm loving this turnaround and hope it continues.  Lester looks great so far today.  And golly, it cracks me up when these fans read the lineup on TV and call all the players "Mr."  Also...too funny, the hurting that Cleveland put on the Yankees yesterday.  I need to make time to watch that second inning, man.  It must have been epic!
 

Okay...on to the laundromat.  I hope to make some progress on e-mails and comment replies later on (I absolutely hate it when I can't keep up with that).  So...you folks who I've been neglecting can (hopefully) expect to hear from me soon. 

Ciao!
 

Good afternoon!  I'm having a lazy day, on account of some nagging physical ick (although I toldhorsecrazyliza earlier today that I'm all better, I seem to have relapsed, alas).  So here I sit in my warm snuggies, trying to figure out what chores I can do that will require the minimum amount of physical exertion, most likely dishes and really old non-LJ e-mails.  Oh yeah, and I have my very last homework assignment to do as well.  So it looks like I've got plenty to keep myself occupied while I wait for the ickiness to pass.  I would have liked to watch the Sox game, which has FINALLY started, but it appears that MLBN decided not to show it even though it was on the schedule.  Bah.  At least the highlight reel shows that have been playing all afternoon have been heavy on Albert, which always puts a smile on my face.

I decided yesterday that given my recent grumpy/sad spell, it's time to inject some positivity into my life.  With that in mind, I've been trying to actively observe things around me that are positive or for which I am thankful, and I plan to post about those as I notice them.

Yesterday I had to run an errand at lunchtime, and although we're having a cool snap (cool, not cold!) at the moment, I got to enjoy the flowering trees and forsythia, which have popped out in the last week or so (I meant to post about that earlier...I just LOVE forsythia).  The regular trees have started budding as well, so it won't be long before the first tiny peeks of "young green" start showing themselves here on the valley floor.  It's always a treat to watch spring inch its way up the mountainsides.

Another thing I felt really good about is that yesterday I had a totally calm and easy time in traffic while commuting and running errands.  Road stress tends to be an issue with me, and I was really thankful to not run into any situations that raised my blood pressure.

Today?  Well, I just sent a couple of cool "baseball eye candy" links to a new partner-in-drooling at my office.  I'm glad to have someone to share those interests with in real time, and equally glad that I have fun things to send her.

Time to do dishes!  See y'all later.
 

It was in the upper 70s again here today. I'm already loving the sunshine stretching into the evening, but maaaan, do I feel jetlagged right now. It's amazing what a difference an hour makes. I'll definitely be heading to bed early tonight. 
 

That's it for the evening. I've got to get some sleep because I want to be able to function in class tomorrow night. Comment replies and such must wait until Tuesday, most likely. Have a great night, y'all...

Happiness (after being angstified last night, as my f-list knows) is getting a good night's sleep after being so tired that I actually fell asleep while reading in bed and didn't wake up until 8:30 this morning, at which time I was momentarily puzzled as to why my bedroom light was on.

Happiness is deciding that it's okay to spend the day being a slug...for the first time in three weeks!  I didn't even get out of bed until noon, such was the depth of my laziness, but I'm not beating myself up about it because I deserved it.

Happiness is the first warm day in awhile...into the mid-60s, and we're supposed to stay more or less this warm for a full week!  I actually had two windows and my kitchen door open for several hours, so the house got a decent airing out before the sun went down and I had to bundle up again.

For all of the above...I'm thankful.  Just had to share.  Plus, I had to show off my newest icon, because I can't have just one Saadiq icon.  Yeah, I know, he has really strange looking ears, LOL.  Anyway, I was hoping that my CD shipment would arrive today because I can't wait to hear that new album, but alas, the U.S. Postal Service must be lazy too.  It's up for three Grammys, and I hope tomorrow night's awards ceremony brings good news for "Ray Ray."

I guess I should try to get something done around here before day's end, so that's all for now.   :D