Podcast

Have all the components of a 20-minute show recorded, despite my less-than-optimal sickly voice. Have music bed and ID bumper selected. Have list of links to include in show notes. Have “April 21st” in intro to podcast #10. Have it half-edited together.

Have to go to bed. Can’t stay up another half-hour to complete the editing and post the show notes. My clamoring public will just have to wait another day, and pick up the new episode in the Monday morning rush (when my stats invariably jump by 50 listeners or so).

So tired. Ugh. Time to go to bed.

Twinkie-misu, Year #2

Work was surprisingly pleasant today, really. No one felt like being terribly productive, so we were all chatty and friendly and social instead of being isolated and, well, productive. And the boss was on vacation this week, so he wasn’t around to scatter us back to work, like he tends to do. That always makes for an enjoyable Friday.

Also, I guess I inadvertently advertised my birthday at this week’s department meeting. Usually, our department holds a monthly potluck in celebration of all the birthdays in that month. I haven’t been participating lately, though, due to my diet, and I had assumed that the person who usually organizes the potlucks had taken notice of that, and was intentionally skipping April for my benefit. At the department meeting, though, she said that she’s organizing a building-wide potluck for Relay For Life instead. I piped up and mentioned that I’d thought maybe it was because I was the only April birthday. 🙂

So, today, a few people came into my cube bearing chips and salsa and cheese dip and 2-liters of pop — oh, yeah, and an African violet. (Very pretty pale silky flowers, BTW, in contrast to my dark velvety-flowered one at home.) On top of that, Scott made Twinkie tiramisu for my birthday, for a second year in a row. Mmm, so good!

Of course, since my cube was where the food was, everybody in the department (almost) made it into my corner of the world for some chatter. I learned some interesting facts about my co-workers and their backgrounds, and got more comfortable with some of them that I don’t usually talk with. That made for an unusually talkative day for me, and a very relaxing day-before-my-birthday at work.

I ended up bringing a good deal of Twinkie-misu home with me, with Scott’s blessing, and even brought home the rest of the chips and dips for good measure. Twinkie-misu gets me so high… Twinkies (soaked in espresso) and coffee ice cream and whipped cream and fudge sauce… yummy, but wow.   o.O

We’ll see what happens tomorrow. I’m still trying to downplay it… but I know that at least one other person is involved, from what Aaron let slip. So, something’s happening, at some point. I’ll be pleased with whatever it is, I’m sure.

Something is Afoot

Aaron’s just as good at keeping birthday secrets as I am. Don’t worry, whoever you are (and I have an idea, maybe, but I’m not saying): we’ll be here at 4pm on Saturday.

I don’t want to know what’s up. I don’t want to spoil the surprise. Just knowing that somebody didn’t forget my birthday is pretty cool.

As for birthday present tallies so far: Amy got me a Lomo Oktomat and a DVD of Drawn Together (which I’ve heard is damn funny, but I haven’t watched yet) for Christmas and birthday. I’m pretty sure Aaron got me some DVDs, although I’m not sure which ones. I’m guessing that at least one of them is intended to fill out the Diana’s Favorite Movies Collection. Previous movies in this set include Victor/Victoria, The Goonies, The Princess Bride, Young Sherlock Holmes, The Dark Crystal, The Last Unicorn, Labyrinth, and probably a few others that I’m not thinking of right now. (We already had the Director’s Cut editions of all the Star Trek movies, so those were covered.)

If you’d like to get me something for my birthday, and I know this is a little late, but you can feel free to peruse my Amazon wishlist. I actually set the thing up so I can remember stuff I’d like to buy when I have money burning a hole in my pocket… but I’m not above pimping my wishlist on my birthday.

Definitely Still Sick

Were I not sick, I would scoff at the idea of heading up to bed before 10pm. Tonight, though, I’m seriously considering it. Head upstairs, lay down, read, play some solitaire on my Palm IIIc, and be asleep *well before* 11pm.

I suppose I need the rest. Hopefully I’ll be able to convince myself to get up when I wake up in the morning — which will most certainly be long before my alarm wakes me up. I’ll do my showering and assembly of lunch and snackies then.

Man, this cold is kicking my ass.

No Gnus is Good Gnus

Still sick. Headachy today. Every time I blow my nose (which isn’t as often as it was), my ears stop up, and it takes an hour for my hearing to approach normal again.

Tired. Undecided as to whether I should work out. I didn’t work out all last week, and I think I miss it. Still, though, I’m inclined to think that my body needs to use its energy to get well right now.

Appetite returning. I tried bringing a last-week-portion of lunch and snackies to work today, and that didn’t work out so well. Now that I’m home, around the food, I’m eating and eating and eating with no sign of stopping. Tomorrow, I bring a normal amount of food to work with me.

Haven’t done my measurements yet, but I did take pictures. If anyone wants to see a picture of me in a black one-piece swimsuit (I believe Sheryl would probably be the only taker on that), just shoot me an e-mail. Incidentally, I compared my earliest Before picture to yesterday’s In Progress picture, and I can definitely see a marked decrease in my abdominal fat. Good news.

No word on a monthly birthday potluck at work. I think I’ve been called out for failing to participate in recent potlucks. I’m the only April birthday in my department, so the woman who organizes them probably thinks I don’t want one.

I’m also concerned about what will or will not befall me at work on Friday, as my 30th birthday is on Saturday. I could either be totally forgotten (except by a few), or I could arrive to find black Over The Hill streamers and balloons festooning my cubicle. I’m going on the assumption that I’ll get a personal card or two, and no one else at work will care.

As far as birthdayness goes, I’m also trying to downplay the possibility of anything OMG-supar-kewl happening on my birthday proper. I mean, I threw Aaron a surprise birthday party, but I know for a fact that isn’t going to happen for me. He told me as much. See, all my friends (that would be most of you reading this) live so far out of town that you probably wouldn’t come to Toledo for an evening of drunken debauchery. So, once again, I’m trying to increase my appreciation of whatever does happen by assuming that very little will, in fact, happen.

Amy visited this past weekend, and we all traded birthday and Christmas presents. (Aaron = November, Amy = January, me = this Saturday.) That was definitely fun. Amy and I spent a few hours on Saturday evening/night in BG, drinking coffee and talking and walking around campus. For once, I felt kind of bad because my job/career situation appears to be more pleasant than hers. Usually we can commiserate about how we don’t know what direction to take, and are we going down the wrong path, and shouldn’t we be someplace better by now. I’m pretty content with working on my geeky database at work for now, though, while Amy’s feeling the pinch of being juggled by departments and not getting enough hours.

I could go on, probably, but I’m feeling like I want to go forage for some sort of tasty snackie. Already had chicken salad. Already had cereal. Already had ham. Feel like a hog… but am hungry nonetheless. Also have a headache that won’t go away, that’s making me nauseated. Or maybe that’s my drainage that’s doing that. Either way, it’s not good.

Food. Big Mouth hungry.