Vegetarian recommendation

I am usually not at all impressed with "meat substitutes" such as Gardenburgers, Tofurkey, etc. Some of them taste all right, but not remotely like the meat product they are supposedly a "substitute" for. Well, I finally found one such product that actually tastes like the real thing:

Morningstar Farms Veggie Corn Dogs

I gotta tell you, as a meat eater, I always enjoyed a good corn dog, and when I ate these veggie corn dogs for lunch today, I couldn't tell a difference from the "real" thing. I don't believe I've ever tried any products from Morningstar Farms before, but if everything they make is as good as the veggie corn dogs, I am about to become a loyal customer.

Better day today...

Jacquelin surprised me this afternoon by dropping in on me at the office. I hadn't gone to lunch today, so we were able to go to the deli downstairs and chat for an hour or so. It was great to see her and have time for a good chat! She must have known on some level that I'd had a rough day yesterday and needed to see her. :) She's doing very well -- she has a lot on her plate at work right now but is handling it with her customary aplomb and skill. I am going to have to drive to Driftwood one Saturday or Sunday in the near future so that we can stay caught up with each other and I can see Alex, as well! I think today was the first time since Alex was born that I've seen Jacquelin by herself. On the one hand, it was nice to be able to have a nice, long, adult conversation without interruptions, but on the other hand, it was strange to see Jacquelin but not Alex.

Oh! Jacquelin is going to send me some of Steve's poems so that I can post them on my blog. I am looking forward to that!

I'm not sure if I've mentioned yet that we are expanding again at work. We hired another new attorney last month and the construction on the new addition to our office space began this week, so it's very noisy, hectic, and disorganized around here. The good news is that after it's over, I'm going to move to a new location in the new back part of the office, where it will be much more quiet and there will be much less distraction. The construction is supposed to take about three weeks, so hopefully by the end of next month, I'll be all set up in my new digs.

I'm really glad that it's Friday. Yesterday's RA flare-up has dissipated somewhat, but it's not completely gone, and I'm looking forward to going home this evening, putting on some pajamas, doing my stupid methotrexate injection (well, I'm not looking forward to that part), crawling into bed, and sleeping for as long as I can. Then, with any luck, I'll get up and manage to be at least somewhat productive this weekend, but I'm not going to push it. If I have the energy for it, I'll work on phase two of my New Year's house-cleaning resolution: the kitchen. Otherwise, I'll just sleep all weekend and the kitchen can wait for another week.

De pain! De pain!

Today was rough. I woke up in excruciating pain and would have called in sick, but knew I had to be at the office for a ten o'clock meeting with a client. Everything hurt with that awful, bone-deep pain -- my feet, knees, back, arms, hands -- and I had a nasty headache, as well. I managed to get to the office right at ten, but I really should not have been driving, which I didn't realize until I was already on the road. I hadn't taken any pain medication, since I was planning to drive, but the pain itself was so bad that I had difficulty concentrating on the road. I just wanted to go back to bed and curl up in the fetal position for the rest of the day.

I also had an appointment to get a bunch of blood work done this afternoon. My rheumatologist had tacked on a bunch of additional tests to my usual monthly standing order at the lab. I had to ask one of my co-workers to drive me there, and when she asked if I was okay, I started to cry. Then I turned around to see my boss standing right behind me. I hate that! I am the type of person to cry at the drop of a hat, but I absolutely hate to cry in front of anyone, particularly my boss! Ugh. He's a great guy and was very sympathetic and asked if I needed to go home, but it was just so embarrassing. I hated having to ask my co-worker to drive me to my appointment, too. She's a very sweet girl and was happy to do it, but I hated having to ask. I can't stand not being able to do things for myself, and feeling as if I'm a burden on others. It is very depressing.

All day long, I was walking like a little old lady with a broken hip or something. I had to keep taking off my shoes because my feet hurt so badly. By the end of the day, I was able to drive myself home without too much trouble -- RA flare-ups are always the very worst in the morning and tend to abate somewhat as the day goes on. That kind of pain is really exhausting, though. I am so unbelievably tired right now. I think I will go to bed early and hope that there will not be a repeat episode in the morning.

New Years Resolution Check-up

Let's have a look at how I'm doing on my resolutions, shall we?

1. Once the glut of tasty but fattening holiday food disappears, I am getting back on my Whole Foods, more vegan products kick.

Hey, I'm actually doing really well on this one. I've eaten almost no junk food at all since New Years, and I've lost five and a half pounds so far.

2. On a related note, for Christmas I received a check with which to purchase the stationary bike I've been wanting to get. I found a nice one on the Sears website and am going to order it and pick it up this weekend. I resolve to bike my ass off and get back into decent shape.

The bike is completely assembled except for the pedals, which have still not arrived from those bastards at NordicTrack.

3. I will waste less money ordering things from Sephora, and put more money into my savings account. I mean, really, how many lip glosses, lipsticks, and lip balms do I really need, anyway?

So far, so good. I have cut down my impulse purchases not just on Sephora, but everywhere, and I've put 50% more than usual into my savings account each payday (okay, there have only been two paydays since New Years, but still -- so far, so good).

4. I will spend more time visiting family and friends, and in particular, Jacquelin and Alexandria. It is inexcusable to have let nine months pass this year without seeing them!

Definitely need to work on this one!

5. I will spend less time posting on Yahoo message boards, in particular, the board known as the Hate Board, which has become not much fun for me lately, and just basically a huge waste of time and effort.

This one is going very well. I've spent days at a time without posting on Yahoo, and on days when I do post, I don't post nearly as much as I used to.

6. I will read more books, or at least continue reading at a good pace. I actually read quite a few this past year, but I still have a large stack waiting to be read, plus many more that I'd like to purchase and read. In the past year, I read: Balzac's Pere Goriot, Steinbeck's Cannery Row, Gogol's Dead Souls and a collection of his short stories, Tolstoy's War and Peace, Schiller's The Ghost Seer, Gunter Grass's The Tin Drum, Nabokov's Pale Fire, Giuseppe di Lampedusa's The Leopard, a collection of 19th century Russian poetry, and Julie Powell's Julie & Julia. Next on my list is Norman Mailer's The Executioner's Song, then some more Balzac and some more Tolstoy, a couple of books on the Holocaust, and then we shall see...

I'm on page seven hundred and something of The Executioner's Song and have just over 300 pages to go. It is a very gripping book -- difficult to put down.

7. I will do a thorough cleaning of my house, clear out the clutter, and make some improvements such as new paint on all of the interior walls, new flooring throughout, and some new appliances.

This one is going very well so far! I cleared out several trash bags full of clutter from the utility room last week, and started on the kitchen, which I plan to finish over the weekend. Woohoo!

8. I will update this blog more often and try to make it a bit more interesting.


Okay, that one needs work. :)

All I wanted for Christmas was an exercise bike...

So, I picked up my sweet new exercise bike this morning, and set about putting it together right away. Assembling it was not all that difficult, except for one minor issue:

The fucking pedals were not in the box!

I have a beautiful new stationary bicycle with no fucking pedals!!

Sort of defeats the purpose of the bike, don't you think?

I called Sears right away and got the run-around for half an hour before finally reaching someone who told me I could bring the bike back and exchange it for a new one. That sounded like an awful lot of trouble to me, seeing how the bike was already assembled (minus the pedals) and I'd have to rent a truck with which to return it, since it won't fit in my Honda now that it's assembled, and then I'd have to assemble a whole new bike.

Then I noticed that on the front page of the owner's manual, it states that if the bike is missing any parts (apparently this happens often?), NordicTrack guarantees "complete satisfaction through direct assistance from our factory." They give an 800 number to call, but of course, it is open Monday through Friday from six a.m. to six p.m., so I guess I won't be pedaling this weekend, and probably not for the next week or two. God knows how long it will take the bastards to ship me my fucking pedals.

Dammit.

My horoscope for today

Dear Catherine,
Here is your horoscope
for Thursday, January 5:

Your words have amazing power. What you say -- and how you say it -- can help people to heal. Others instinctively admire and trust you, as well they should. Can you use some of these abilities on yourself?

Elder's Meme (what is a meme, anyway?)

Four jobs you've had in your life:

1. Babysitter
2. QS9000 auditor
3. Manufacturing capacity planner
4. Paralegal

Four movies you could watch over and over:

1. The Princess Bride
2. Pulp Fiction
3. Real Genius
4. Desperado

Four places you've lived:

1. Chicago, IL
2. Hong Kong
3. Moose Jaw, Sask., Canada
4. Austin, TX

Four TV shows you love to watch:

1. South Park
2. Seinfeld
3. House
4. Okay, to be honest, while I do like the three above shows, I really don't watch t.v. much at all, and haven't seen any of these shows (or any others) for quite some time.

Four places you've been on vacation:

1. Playa del Carmen, Mexico
2. Port Aransas
3. Key West
4. Grand Cayman

Four websites you visit daily (or at least every weekday):

1. Go Fug Yourself
2. The Animal Rescue Site
3. Yahoo
4. Manolo's Shoe Blog

Four of your favorite foods:

1. Chips and queso
2. Risotto
3. Spinach lasagna
4. Potato cheese soup

Four places you'd rather be: (I'm assuming at the moment, not lifetime)

1. At home in bed
2. Key West
3. Italy
4. Jerusalem

Four books you'll read over and over again - not counting Torah:

1. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe
2. The Moonstone
3. A Confederacy of Dunces
4. The Woman in White

Four that I'll tag with this Meme:

1. Um, no one, but any of my vast number of readers who want to repost it on their own blogs or whatever, feel free.
2.
3.
4.

All of these stupid songs remind me

That everything's wrong, and it's become plain
Even if I am strong, I'll never be the same.
~Bree Sharp


Have you ever had a moment in your life where you felt something break deep inside you, and you knew immediately that whoever you had been until that moment, you were never going to be the same? You might be able to pick up the pieces and put them back together, but they would never fit together in quite the same way they had been before. No matter what happened from that moment on, you were changed forever. You might not be a better person, and you might not be a worse person, but you were going to be different. I think this happens to everybody at least once.

Happy New Year!

The best thing about today is that I don't have to go anywhere! It was really nice to see the family for various holiday gatherings over the past week or so, but I am now utterly exhausted and I'm thrilled that I don't have to leave the house again until Tuesday morning. I think I'll sleep for the better part of today and then spend tomorrow doing a good New Year's house cleaning.

Paul, Kristen, Scott, Bridget, and I went over to cousin Cathy's place for awhile yesterday afternoon. We went over to Nau's for some ice cream and then walked several blocks to a nearby playground where Scott had a fabulous time, and I got to push Bridget in a little baby swing, which she enjoyed immensely. Then Cathy had to go babysit a friend's kids for New Year's Eve, and the rest of us went over to my parents' house for dinner. I was back home by ten and in bed by 11:45. I thought about staying up another fifteen minutes to ring in the New Year, but then decided I was too tired and just wanted to get some sleep. Besides, it was already 2006 on the East coast, so that was good enough for me.