1) I turned 40.
2) I ate too much cake at work and sugar-crashed soon after. Can't wait to see what I've done to my data tomorrow. o_0
3) Hubby is bringing me delicious Chinese food from down the road and if I hadn't already married him, I would just for that.

1. I too have totally not been watching the Olympics while working...

2. This is the Week of Lunching Out. Lunch with my mum yesterday, and with colleagues last Friday and today. For a freelancer this is a pleasant novelty :)

3. August is usually a quiet month for work, and this year is no exception. Really appreciating the space to get other stuff done and catching up on sleep.

Senyar, the canoeing looks great on TV so I'm sure you'll have a fantastic time, and I hope there are many more dates with the OKC man.

ninazer0, happy birthday!

1. I have legitimately not been watching the Olympics, because I don't have a TV and can't be bothered to figure out how to stream the events from India.

2. I'm leaving Delhi on Saturday for a month at home in the States, then off to Bangalore!

3. The not-bf is really sick with a throat thing, and I'm trying to convince him to let me come over and keep him company.

happy birthday, ninazer0!

1. No Olympics watching for me. Too lazy to turn on the tv plus no cable so I'd only be able to see the NBC replays.

2. I'm giving myself a four day Labor Day weekend. So I've started counting down to Aug 31. 20 work days to go.

3. I decided to try hard baked eggs instead of hard boiled. They turned out pretty good except I should have peeled them while warm as doing it cold has been a bit of a pain.

1. I'm off for naughty camping this weekend.

2. I'm supposed to be out the door at 830.

3. I still haven't gotten in the shower yet. Crap.

1) Working the first 5 day week in a while. Thursday - honestly never thought I'd make it so far!

2) The last two weekends have been just amazing times. Canadian woods at their best. One was a camping/music festival of which I am one of the organizers, and the most recent was my brother's bachelor weekend, held on his best friend's uncle's boat, on Georgian Bay. We anchored in a beautiful bay for 2 days and had AMAZING weather and great company. Just unreal times. Makes it hard to sit in an office on Monday!

3) I've been seeing someone new and it's fantastic. I'm a lucky, happy man, on more than one front!

Viva La Canadian Summer!

1. Woke up to see a gold medal for NZ, woot! That's three now at this Olympics and I believe we are third on the medal table per head of population.

2. Have to somehow get an entire day's work done, clean apartment, visit kid's new after-school care place, make 7 or 8 phone calls and do 5 loads of laundry by 4.30 pm.

3. Yeah. Like that's gonna happen.

1. Wishing I were living Senyar's day today. :-)

2. Feeling good about my workout program for the first time in a while.

3. Going to a BBQ tonight to welcome new students to campus. I love this time of year at work; the energy that students about to embark on new experiences generate is renewing and refreshing.

sperose? Does "naughty camping" mean what we think it means?

Happy Birthday, ninazer0!

'pode, I was watching Brazil and NZ in futbol yesterday and I was wishing that the match would just end. It seemed like a cat playing with a bird.

1. Got my teeth cleaned the other day, for the first time in about a year. I did not like the dental practice that I had been going to and kept putting off finding a new one. So went to a "holistic" dental hygienist and liked her. Need a bit of root planing, though, and I have never had that done before.

2. Went to a memorial for a guy I knew. . .not quite a friend, but someone who, 30 or so years ago, was hired by the school district, but hated it, so they hired me. I met him, to debrief him on the job and had run into him now and then. And it is amazing that I have been coming to the same address for over 30 years to work now.

3. I am peeved that NBC is acting like May-Walsh is the only volleyball team in the world. They are fun to watch, and I do hope that they medal again, but still. I would love to see more vball. Plus don't have cable, and apparently there are ways to steal the feed but I have not found any of those ways yet.

1. Having a mildly frustrating time refinancing my house. I had to send the same form to Ryan-the-Clueless 4 times (via email, hard copy, fax, email) before he finally got it. I picture him sitting at his desk, buried under piles of files that he can't keep straight.

2. Supposed to donate blood tomorrow. Never done it before.

3. Not feeling well, but I can't tell if it's sickness or just summertime malaise.

danf, I watched it too. Not good times. Still, NZ vs Brazil, what else would anyone expect in football?

1. The hormones are kicking in strong now and I am super emotional. This is making it a lot harder for me to visit my mom and dad, and so I find myself avoiding it then feel wracked with guilt.

2. Smooshie is back to his old tricks and pooping all over the place. He was doing so well for years! I don't know what's going on and I loathe the idea of a million more expensive veterinary diagnostics that show nothing, like last time. My husband stepped out of bed and into a pile of cat poop the other day.

3. We are selling our house and buying another, and one of the last big things we are waiting for is the mortgage commitment from our buyer, which is due by tomorrow. I am terrified that they aren't going to get it, the sale will fall through, and we are going to lose the house that we are buying because we can't afford to pay two mortgages.

1. Every time I read an askme like this one I want to say "you have a husband? Shut the fuck up." But I don't, because I recognize that other people aren't me. What a concept!!

2. I'm going to drive to Vermont soon to get my spinning wheel fixed.

3. I can't donate blood, apparently I don't have enough of it. (That would explain a lot!) The two times I tried, I turned grey and almost passed out before there was the minimum amount to donate and they turned off the tap. They said that some people just can't donate blood for that reason.

1. This weekend is just a big ball of performative stress. Concerts tomorrow and Sunday, and then in between is a wedding AND my 15-year high school reunion. And the store was out of my preferred dress, ARRRRGH! I ordered one online (god bless Zappos and free one-day shipping), but it's a little... odd.

2. Didn't get the job I'd hoped for in another department. Applied AGAIN for an internal position here.

3. If I hear one more time about John Orozco's Achilles injury, or anything about poor Michael Phelps (and I mean that sincerely... what a bunch of dicks, continually asking him how it feels to simultaneously be the greatest in the world and yet WATCHING YOUR OWN CAREER DIE A SLOW DEATH ON THE INTERNATIONAL STAGE)... I'm gonna puke.

1. Today is 15th anniversary of getting hitched to the Bear!!!! Best thing I have ever done besides meeting him in the first place.

2. Feeling revved to get much much fitter so I can parade the deck in style when we go on our Mediterranean cruise in September. Starting to plan for that, as we've never taken any cruise together before.

3. Really saddened to hear of sudden death of someone I admired, and also because the woman I work near, who is a dear friend, has to move her office location. Hate that.

Feeling vicariously happy for Senyar and richat and gaspode's gold medal count.

Our Olympic watching pattern is to DVR tons of it so we can speed past the NBC blather and all the ads and actually see the performances. Resigned to the fact that US TV doesn't seem to care that there are OTHER nations at the Olympics too.

People are actually watching/paying attention to the Olympics. Wow. But then I feel the same way about all sports. It's like sex; if you're not involved, what's the point?

I picture him sitting at his desk, buried under piles of files that he can't keep straight.

During the refi boom, this is very much what my desk looked like. I spent the first hour or two of every morning going over every single file, and then either calling clients on behalf of the underwriters, or calling the underwriters on behalf of the clients.

Uh, three things?

1. I am desperately searching for a new job before my current one is eliminated. I am well into the interview process with one place, waiting to hear back about the final round.

2. I have found a coach for the improv show I'm creating. Now if I could just get a few more players...

3. CPAP is starting to work and/or I'm getting acclimated to it. I have more energy. Which is all the more blood for work to squeeze from my stones.

Oh hey happy birthday!

Sleep patterns still out of wack, still driving SO insane

Cleaning house to avoid working on things

Trying to decide if I'm feeling the gym today...

1. Power brownouts as the road construction crew in front of my house monkey with the power lines.

2. Work has been bonkers (unlike altolinguistic, who shares my profession). For the past month and a half, I have been putting in ten-twelve hour days Monday through Friday, and half that on weekends. I don't expect there will be much relief any time in the near future (I am working on projects for both the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics in Brazil), and I need to learn some better time management skills.

3. Because of number 2, I haven't been cooking as much as I would like, and ordering takeout makes me CRANKY. I hate paying extra money for food that isn't as good as my own.

Hey alto, do you do any Portuguese translation (Pt-En)? Because if you do, I could probably throw some work your way.

1. Every time I read an askme like this one I want to say "you have a husband? Shut the fuck up." But I don't, because I recognize that other people aren't me. What a concept!!

Yeah. And she's bipolar. I mean, really. Having a husband is not the be all and end all.

Sorry msali, I don't do PT>EN, and in any case I'm happy with my workload just now - I worked my tail off in May, June and July so am enjoying the downtime. Remember the "free" in "freelance"!

Eide, I do lots of performing, as I know you do, and for me it wouldn't be very enjoyable without an audience. For the Olympics I'm very happy to play the role of spectator.

1. I signed up for the Metafilter Health Month team; today is the second day. My goals are modest, but I'm looking forward to the support and --- let's be honest --- the accountability of being on a team.

2. Cooking up a storm! I'm having some friends over for an all-day brunch/ early sorta-birthday party this weekend.

3. The unexpected plumbers are back! Or at least, they're due: turns out, my landlord arranged for plumbers to show up and take out our toilet again. TODAY. Without notifying us. I found out last night because he happened to dial a wrong number and before he could hang up, I asked if he had planned the plumbers' visit yet.

Obviously, I told him NO, SIX WAKING HOURS IS NOT ENOUGH NOTICE FOR ME TO EMPTY MY BATHROOM AND REARRANGE MY SCHEDULE TO VACATE MY APARTMENT FOR AN ENTIRE DAY, please reschedule. But since the last visit was such a perfect fiasco, his offhand promise to change it to Tuesday is not sufficiently reassuring, nor is his failure to send the promised follow-up email once he talked to the plumbers.

The most anxiety-provoking part: the houseguests who were here asleep when the plumbers removed our toilet on Monday morning, a day ahead of schedule? They'll be here this Monday morning, too.

Hey, happy birthday, ninazer0! Mmm, cake. Happy anniversary, bearwife! And break a leg, Madamina! (Is "break a leg" for musicians, too? Is there a musician-specific phrase for that?)

Good luck donating, JanetLand! For some people, it's absolutely a breeze; here's hoping you're one of us. I really love donating blood* but I got out of the habit after I flunked the blood test a few times in a row. I'm being careful to eat iron-rich foods now, so I ought to see if I can pass the hematocrit level test and sign up for platelet donation.

* boy, that sounds weird, but I just do.

1. After nine months on disability, the mister's first day back at work was yesterday, yay! He's on a graduated return to work program, so it's two days this week, then three days a week and so on for a month then he'll be back to full time, yay!

2. I've been having some odd female-type stuff going on and have been giving urine and blood samples out left and right. I hope it's either menopause or a chance to have the innards yanked out.

3. Oliver the Cat is very clingy today. He's either right in front of me with his ass planted on the keyboard tray and gazing at me with what appears to be adoration or sitting on my desk chittering at me like cats chitter at birds. I'm not sure what that indicates.

I've also been taping and fast forwarding the Olympics and enjoying the gymnastics and diving.

Donating blood is a great thing to do. When I was in high school and doing lots of sports, I was underweight and couldn't donate, but now that I am good and plumped up, I like to donate.
Although I did donate before my 5th date with my bf, and it was going to be a big museum, dinner, then sleepover date, but then I almost passed out while donating and had to re-think the whole night. Anyway, giving blood is good and you get juice after!

1. I took a day off today thinking I would go to the museum, but looks like I slept pretty much all day instead. I guess I needed it.

2. I'm very behind in my co-op shifts and I am dreading going back and having to make them up. We joined a CSA this year as well, so I feel like I am constantly feeling guilty about shifts or wtf I am going to do with all this zucchini and kohlrabi. I think next year it's going to be either co-op or CSA but not both. Too much responsibility!

3. I should clean the apartment and do laundry and cook some of those damn zucchini since I'm home doing nothing, but I am so laaaazy today. OH! but I did experiment with my new gel nailpolish kit and it worked! We will see how long it lasts and if it's really a 2-3 week thing. Hope I don't get bored of it before then.

I'm going for a #4, because it's just that important to me:

4. I've been reading Unf*** Your Habitat* lately. Just reading, nothing else! But it's already had a profound effect on my aspirations to get this place into shape. For example, a stock UfYH rule: laundry and dishes have three steps, wash, dry, and PUT AWAY. You aren't done with the laundry until it's PUT AWAY.

This is so obvious and simple, yet something I have managed to overlook for, ooooh, 6 years. When I lived alone, I had a half-assed system for sorting and storing clothes. Now my system is quarter-assed at best. But it took reading that rule to realize, oh right, I never put the clothes away because there is no AWAY to put them. I just have wicker baskets of clean clothing stacked up in the bedroom, where we drape dirty clothing on top of them until they are dirty again themselves.

I am inspired: for my birthday, I'm going to treat myself to some sort of storage system and while away some time sorting it out. YAY ME.

*SALTY LANGUAGE ALERT!

*SALTY LANGUAGE ALERT!

Umami! Savory.

Senyar, I wish I was watching the Olympic canoe slalom live! Saw a snippet of it live on TV this morning before I went to work and it looked the bomb diggedy!

1) The mister and I suuuuck at planning, laughably so. We halfassed our plans for my birthday dinner last night and couldn't get a table at our preferred place. Which meant we walked around on Pearl St. for an hour, starving and despondent, and finally settled for our usual meh brewpub that we always go to. (cue Shaun of the Dead: "wanna go t'th Winchester?"). Fie. It's my fault, too, because I can't be arsed to make a decision under duress.

2) Work schmerk. They fired my boss in January (major suck) and I've been transferred to the Quality Assurance department. Which, you know, is fine because I have a job and I like my colleagues, but Quality is just a fancy term for Everyone's Whipping Boy at a manufacturing site. So, the beatings shall continue until morale improves, hey? :P

3) The mister and I are slowly working our way 'round to getting another kitty to replace our poor little Kronos. Of course the first thing we did was find out if Marlowe's mom's litter had been spoken for (they all have). So we started researching getting a kitten or retired show cat from a Birman breeder. It's going well so far, except for the parade of judgy disapproval from some of our friends. Hey, you know what? The mister and I (not to mention our families) have adopted so many strays, shelter cats and rescue cats during the course of our lives; dozens and dozens of them! We donate to our local no-kill shelter, generously and frequently. We will never be able to adopt all, or even a small percentage of the needy strays out there, it's simply unpossible. So it's our own damn business if just this once we'd prefer to go with a well respected breeder who knows all about the history, health, socialization and temperament of their kittens or cats, thanks. It's not like we're buying from a kitten farm or pet store. Not to mention the fact that this plan gives us a darned good excuse to go to the Denver CFA cat show in September. A CAT SHOW!! I ask you, can you imagine the fun to be had? I'm looking forward to it. Besides, we'll get to talk to a couple of the breeders we've contacted, too, so there's that.

rmless2, I don't think I could ever do a CSA because I'm sure I'd run out of ideas for the mountain of vegetables every week.

1. Baby is 3 weeks old today. Can't believe it's already been 3 weeks! Can't believe it's only been 3 weeks! 9 weeks of maternity leave to go. That sounds both long and short.

2. Left the boys at home this morning to go shopping on the UES. Needed bras. What a PITA bras are. So expensive! The number of bras I've had to buy over the past year, I just can't. Meanwhile, I also looked in H&M and I think I've forgotten how to buy real clothes; basically haven't shopped for anything but maternity clothes in a year. Hopefully I'll be more inspired to shop once I get closer to going back to work. I should pass some of the blame on to H&M, though- that's one of those stores I always look in but never find anything in.

3. Dad comes to town on Saturday. My Mom is helping to manage his expectations on how much running around town we're all going to do together. He generally likes to get up with the sun, leave home immediately, walk around all day, and see a show at night. We can't exactly do all that with the baby! Hopefully he'll understand that. We're more of a "lie around all day and watch the Olympics" family these days.

TPS, try Town Store on the UWS, on Broadway and about 84th or thereabouts. Great bra store.

I bought some, actually- went to "Yummy Mummy", I needed nursing bras. "Upper Breast Side" was closer (it's here on the west side), but A, that's a really dumb name, and B, the Yelp reviews says the woman who runs the store is crazy.

wtf I am going to do with all this zucchini

If you haven't decided how to cook 'em tonight, may I suggest zucchini fritters? [self-link] That's by far my favorite way to eat zucchini. The shredded zucchini cooks up tender and almost creamy, the crispy-soft outside has so much flavor. Man, I miss having a garden.

Just popped back in to say Welcome to Health Month, Elsa!!!! Also, your storage plans sound awesome. My life changd when I finally had the same realization that there had to be a Place for the Clothes.

TPS: did they specify crazy, crazy or fun crazy? I agree that name is kind of wtf?

bra shopping is a unique species of hell no matter what your shape / size / needs and don't get me started on the pants rant again

Thanks Elsa! I'll try the fritters.
Last week we made scallion/zucchini Korean egg pancakes and they turned out ok. (Actually, the ones I baked turned out well and the ones the bf fried were a mess. So there!)

I also saw that you can grate and freeze the zucchini, so I might do that so I don't have to see it anymore.

Next project: Cucumbers.
Complication: I hate pickles. And cucumbers. BF likes them both, but seems to just be amassing a collection (8 now) of them in our crisper drawer. Maybe I'll surprise him with quick pickles when he comes home tonight.
Anyone have a favorite recipe? He likes them when they are still crunchy and a little sweet.

Ever since I found a bra brand and size that fit me, I just buy online. But now I seem to need a new size, so the search begins again.

TPS: did they specify crazy, crazy or fun crazy?

The former.

holy buddha TPS, you weren't joking. how on earth do expectant/new mothers ever survive the constant barrage of assholes? wait, don't answer that. And here I was whinging about judgemental cat people being annoying.

We avoid the assholes and go elsewhere! The salesgirl at "Yummy Mummy" (another dumb name but what can you do) was lovely.

1. Battling annoying bureaucracies is annoying.

2. Made a lovely dinner of roast sausages and grapes that had both butter and balsamic vinegar in the sauce, which is always lovely. (I cook with butter so rarely that when I do I get all excited about how good it is.)

3. Wish they were showing more martial arts on the US Olympic coverage. That would be cool to watch.

occhiblu, we are so lucky here with the BBC - they are showing every session of every single sport - you just press the red button and choose what you want to watch.

I have no voice today after all the cheering at the Olympics.