Monthly Book Review: April 2020 + Quarantine Life

I had a separate deep thoughts post all ready to go but it's lost. I blame my husband's touchscreen laptop that defies me at every turn. I hit 'save' like a hundred times and it still popped up with the first two sentences from first draft a week old when I went to do final edits. Blurg!!!

I'm in my seventh week of working from home and the days ebb and flow - sometimes there are huge holes in the day and then I'm working into the evening hours to catch up on the flurry of emails and decisions for action the next day. Other days my butt is parked in a chair in the same position for hours while on conference calls or prepping documentation. Working in the health insurance industry provides a unique vantage point. I see daily care delivery emails that balance grim reality with positive we're-all-in-this-together messaging. I chair meetings where we discuss experience - employees who fear losing coverage and patients who fear whatever ills they feel could be the dreaded virus. It's very sobering. I am very grateful to have the love of family and friends, a home where I feel safe, and a job where I can work from home.

Without a commute, I find myself lacking as much opportunity to "read". With terms such as unprecedented, pandemic, social distancing, furlough and lockdown part of our everyday vernacular I found it hard to find something to get into. So I chose the shortest of all the books in my queue, The Silent Patient by Alex Michaelides. #lazy

The Silent Patient is a psychological thriller, a good whodunnit with a rich plot. It reminds me of a certain Shyamalan movie. Alicia is an artist in an asylum for the criminally insane following the murder of her husband. Theo is a psychotherapist intent on “helping“ her. Why? What’s in it for Theo? Why won’t Alicia speak? 

Queued up next:

• Everything I Never Told You by Celeste Ng 
• The Gown by Jennifer Robson
• The Kept Woman by Karin Slaughter
• Winter Solstice by Rosamunde Pilcher
• The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton

Bullets & Links

What I'm loving:

• My treadmill ... I do 30-60 minutes a day with a break here and there for commitments/laziness. This is major for me. I even broke out in a jog ... twice ... on two separate occasions. Who would have ever thought?! Yay me and since today is Tuesday I'm counting this as my first Take It Off Tuesdays post of the year because this is my blog and I can do what I want here (within reason of course)
• A smart, sexy man who loves his wife and kids, isn't afraid to show it and knows how to use curse words to emphasize a good point
• Only 15 days until the XXII Olympics ... where's the torch? 
• I made homemade caramel sauce and feel like I conquered Mt Everest ... how beautiful are my apple crostatas with salted caramel?! They taste even better than they look if you can believe it.

What I'm not loving:

• Cancer ... my friend's mom has it, two of my friends have it and it sucks. Big time.
• Food waste ... this is provocative and I am on a mission to be more conscientious. On that note, I used leftover half & half singles and sugar packets from a recent catered office event for the crusts of my crostatas above ... I sort of feel like my great-grandma who took sugar, creamer and jelly from restaurants

Trouble on the Tundra

This was the title of a local newspaper article about our weather. We're getting hit hard here in the Midwest, but so are lots of folks (except the coasts).

On the bright side, the winter Olympics are in 32 days and summer is only 166 days away!

RIP Maddie Rose

Our sweet Maddie (aka The Moose or Madagascar) went to the great doggie park in the sky today. We discovered a mass on her side just 10 days ago and it turned out to be an aggressive cancer. She was getting weaker and not her self by the day so time to let go. So sad. Chunky and Sassy went with me to the vet ... Chunky had some alone time with her before, nuzzled her head during and carried her in when it was done. The vet has an outside area for euthanasia during good weather and it was perfect ... Maddie loved to be outside - so much so that she went on many unapproved adventures over the years. Hard to believe how fast the time has passed the last 12 years.

 

The Long Way 'Round

My 10-12 page ethical leadership research paper is due in 12 days. I only landed on my research question last night. I'm trying to decide if I should panic or not. I'm leaning towards not ... I have today, a few light work days, another entire weekend and a few weeknights before then. Just think what all went down in the 12 days of Christmas! I'm sure I can pull it off. Now I'm not so daft that I had absolutely no clue what I wanted to write about, but it has not been easy for me to come up with the ONE thing for which I want to create an argument with rational connections to theories presented in the course as well as counter-arguments. That may prove to be the easy part. I've got 12 pages of notes and counting (read three books on the topic- one enormous at 1000+ pages and two at 100 pages each - as well as four scholarly journals). The reference to "scholarly" is intentional - the instructor emphasized repeatedly that web resources and opinions alone are no-nos. 

Are you ready for it? Drum roll ...............................

How Does Consensus Building Demonstrate Ethical Leadership?

Dilemma

Read and watch movies for fun or for grad school?

These are the two movies for school - good but not light.

These are the books - all six of them! Definitely not light.

Cosmopolitanism: Ethics in a World of Strangers by Kwame Anthony Appiah
Meeting the Ethical Challenges of Leadership by Craig E. Johnson
Practicing Relational Ethics in Organizations by Gitte Haslebo and Maja Loua Haslebo
Relational Being: Beyond Self and Community by Kenneth J. Gergen
Leadership: Theory and Practice by Peter G. Northouse
What Money Can't Buy: The Moral Limits of Markets by Michael J. Sandel

And there's more! This doesn't include reading for reasearch paper. What have I gotten myself into?!

Summer reading / viewing just isn't the same.

Sad Saturday

Unfortunately Hubby and I did not make it to the annual fun fest. He is under the weather with an infected pressure wound/skin ulcer on his right elbow. Not sure if it's the infection or antibiotics that are making him sick (or both). He was given a general antibiotic (clindamycin) at the doctor's office the other day, but they called yesterday to say he needed something more specific (ciprofloxacin) based on culture results. The wound clinic associated with his primary Dr doesn't have an opening until the 19th so on my mother's recommendation I called the vascular center seen for a wound while in the hospital almost two years ago. Thankfully he can get in on the 9th so we can get this under control. In the meantime we're hanging out in bed sleeping (him), reading/paper writing (me) and watching TV (both). The kids went to the farm without us and they're having fun. Rain is predicted later but I'm hoping it holds off long enough for them to enjoy fireworks.

The change in plans - we had an inking yesterday - means I didn't go crazy with food. I bought a cut up grilled chicken from the grocery the other day so sent that with a bag of chips and previously made pinwheel cookies with the kids. The cookies don't look like the recipe photo, but they sure taste good. I think I need to roll them tighter. I bought coconut milk to make grilled corn on the cob and decided to extended it for a new kabob recipe (used red pepppers instead of apricots). The corn "bath" didn't really add a lot of flavor so I won't go to the extra trouble to do that again (corn was tasty enough on its own). Accompanied by some wild rice I keep in the freezer it was a super yummy supper. I just wish Hubby had enough an appetite to enjoy it with me.

Help Me Rhonda

The original title for this post was "Fruity". I had a detailed description of the trials and tribulations of planning 8th grade graduation at Chunky's school over the past few weeks and specifically this past weekend (7th grade families are responsible for hosting). Then I accidentally deleted everything and Blooger doesn't have an "undo" button. The short story: herding cats, diverse interpretation of the term 'responsibility' amongst 15 7th grade families and I cut up 100 lbs of fruit for 200+ people. My main task was food (shocking I know) and I couldn't have pulled it off without Sassy's help. She artfully arranged cookies and cupcakes, washed dishes and helped load/unload a carful of food at midnight following a wedding reception in the space adjacent to the next day's blessed event. I treated us to mani/pedis yesterday and it was the best money I've ever paid. Needless to say I'm over my alternative career dream of catering ala Martha Stewart.

I start my summer grad school course tomorrow. Lord willing I make it through the next two months. I will savor every moment of August. I got an A- in Marketing and am so over my perfectionist complex it's not even funny. That class was HARD! There was not a lot of synergy between actually working in Marketing (Product), going through Pragmatic Marketing training (required at work) and this class. I've OD'd on Marketing. Oy! My summer course is Professional and Organizational Ethics. I just turned in my first assignment moments ago - commentary on this article. Interesting read!

The view from here

Drama Magnet

I recently lost my you know what. I'm not happy and need to take responsibility for that as well as action to change it. I'm weighing meditation and therapy. I won't even go into work - that would be a novel with secret decoder ring required. In the past week, one of our dogs had a seizure with accompanying pee and doo-doo, Chunky was elbowed in the face during a basketball game, Hubby has had multiple "accidents" and someone called my new haircut a "lady mullet". WTF?!

I like my new 'do ... it looks a little like this -

Sadly, I'm not as cute as Mandy Moore. sigh

Abbie, our youngest dog is okay - we think she ate leaves from a plant that's been inside for the winter (why a problem now?) so it's been watered and moved to the shed until last frost. I gloved up and cleaned the mess ... wipes, shower (for dog and me) and a new dog bed work wonders.

More trial and error needed re: Hubby's issues. He's in denial that it could be his buddha belly but I think we both need a nutrition overhaul.

I saved the best for last ... there's a small chance Chunky could lose a top front tooth. There is a visible gap between root/nerves and bone. 70% chance he'll need a root canal and slight chance it could move back over months/years (I guess this happens when some people have their braces removed). The dentist says it's a wait and see game. I was totally bummed because 1) while he has dental issues from poor enamel, his teeth were perfectly straight, and B) I hemmed and hawed over spending a bit of money to have his teeth professionally whitened. Poor enamel and discoloration go hand-in-hand. He's been going to the dentist since before Christmas to even out dark spots and was to be fitted for a custom whitening tray next week. Now that's on hold and I'll likely spend 4x the whitening for treatment. Poor kid is on a soft diet (good thing he loves smoothies) and has to keep his teeth super clean to prevent infection. Try getting a 13 year old boy to brush after every meal, even at school, and use a mouth rinse multiple times a day. My nagging has increased ten fold.

Lord Philip Sucks

You know what I mean if you watch Downton Abbey. Here's a good recap of last night's episode ... click here if you watch or want to know more, else feel free to go about your life.

Choices

RIP Golden Dragon. Cause of death: motor fried because the driver didn't put oil in it (known oil leak).

I needed a new obsession for spending (wasting) time on my month off so started watching Breaking Bad. I'd heard good things about it and once again discovered I am late to the party. How was I not watching this awesome show for the past 4-5 years? Hubby and I are finishing season 4 now and anxiously awaiting the release of the first half of season 5 to catch up completely before the last half (and final season of the series) this summer.

Each of these has me thinking about a quote regarding consequences I once wrote down but can no longer find so don't know the source or accuracy ~

When you make bad choices, it is likely bad things will happen.
When you make good choices, it is less likely bad things will happen.

Real or fake?

I am referring to Christmas trees! Good gravy, get your mind out of the gutter. I was in favor of the good old fake "pencil" tree this year (which I wrote about briefly here two years ago), but Sassy just had to have a real tree. I give her major props for going to pick it out, load it up, and decorating with lights and ornaments. She does not however remember to water it. Hence my hesitation about real trees ... aka major fire hazards. I'm not feelin' real Christmasy this year. I've kind of been muddling through thinking I'll fake it 'til I make it, but it hasn't hit yet. I watched my favorite holiday movie of all time, Miracle on 34th Street (the original 1947 version with Natale Wood and Edmund Gwenn of course!). Nothing. I even made cookies thinking that would help. It only fueled my guilt about needing to drop a few lbs. Sigh. 

left to right: Rugelach - Peanut Butter Blossoms - Tea Cakes - Pizzelles

Bad news - time is running out as it's Christmas Eve; Good news - only a little over 24 hours to fake it if the spirit doesn't kick in.


May your days be merry and bright, and may all your Christmases be white

Ever feel like this?

http://inkadinkado.eksuccessbrands.com/Product/Good+Day+Rubber+Stamp.aspx

Deep in the heart of ...

I discovered a deep wrinkle (line!) at the corner of my lower right-side lip this morning. It was not there yesterday. I know ... I thoroughly check every day. I consider myself moderately vain when it comes to my face so I've invested in good skin care products, I exfoliate regularly and use sunscreen daily. What the heck?! If you saw me you would probably say you could barely see it or it's small because you'd be being nice ... it's not small, it's a mini Grand Canyon on my face! My grandma P was right ... it's hell getting old. I think it could be related to my previous bad habit as a casual smoker. I quit weeks ago in preparation for a wellness screening at work which allows me to lower my health insurance premium by meeting specific goals like being tobacco free and cholesterol/blood pressure readings below a certain level. That was pretty motivating, but this, THIS is super motivating. I'm done - no more smokes or lines for me!

Leavin' on a jet plane

While visiting hubby this morning I decided to check my bank account online to confirm recent activity while he took a short nap. I was surprised to see a charge for $1,000 to Southwest Airlines and several others for online dating services (match.com, hotornot.com, etc.). I wonder where I'm going and with whom? I contacted Wells Fargo and they pressed into action. It took a little while to walk through everything and find that I had almost $2,000 in charges I didn't make! I'm confident all will be reversed though. When I returned home there was a voice mail message from Southwest Airlines asking me to authorize a $1,000 gift card. The thief hadn't bought a plane ticket, rather a gift card they could turn around and sell. Some peoples' kids!

Frown

Summer is officially half over :(

Happy Wednesday!

New Word Wednesday is on hiatus for the rest of the summer (perhaps the rest of the year). While there are plenty of interesting words to discover and share ... I'm just not feeling it.

It's the week of appointments - eye appt today, hair appt tomorrow and two Dr appts Friday. The joy of it all. I ordered two new pair of glasses today - one "regular" and the other prescription sunglasses. I've never had prescription sunglasses - I feel so decadent.

We are officially caught up through season 3 of The Big Bang Theory. Season 4 doesn't come out until mid-September. How is that enough time to catch up before Season 5 starts? Hello DVD release people, get it together! Geesh

Sassy is working at Nordstrom for their big anniversary sale this weekend. She hasn't been working other than babysitting and Grandma jobs so will likely feel overwhelmed being on her for 9 hours a day. She will be an absolute joy to be around at home this weekend. Not!

Well, that's all I have to say about that. Happy Wednesday!

Lunch

Chunky is attending summer camp at the Y 3x/week and it's awesome. They hang outside, go swimming and have field trips almost every day. It keeps him active and gives a much needed break from video games. The only thing that's not awesome about summer camp is lunches. For me that is. I hate making lunches. Coming up with fresh items, some of them healthy, packing it all in and the chore of prepping is NOT my favorite activity. This is why I gladly fork over the moola for the decidedly unhealthy hot lunches during the school year. Here's a breakdown of today's lunch -

First position the ice pack so that it keeps the drinks cold as well as the sandwiches, yet doesn't take up too much room. Then add drinks and tuck in an applesauce or fruit cup with plastic utensil.


Then layer in TWO sandwiches (he's a growing boy afterall) - today it was PB&J, but it could be turkey bologna, salami, ham or turkey. I'm partial to this brand of lunch meat.


Add a snack such as a bagel, crackers, chips or today's selection, beef jerky.


Finally, more snacks like peanuts, fruit rollups, or something super healthy like carrots or grapes.


Ta da - all of that fit in this bag!

The view from here today ...

is just wrong.