Personal Digest Saturday: April 30 – May 6

Life news this week:

• I went on vacation this week! New photo gallery for the trip is here.
  
  
• Saturday I woke up late after falling asleep with my contacts in, ew. Chatted with Mom on the phone, worked on my Not-So-Giant Women podcast prep, worked on blogging, and did some Polos for others. Then I worked on my next webcomic so I could get it finished before leaving town. Weirdly, my internet went down for several hours so I was glad that everything I needed to do online was done before it happened--except then it extended into when I was supposed to be online for the podcast. Ended up doing half the session on my phone using data and the Zoom app, which was NOT ideal, but we made it through and the internet came back halfway through so we resumed on the Wi-Fi. We recorded our discussions of "Beach City Drift" and "Restaurant Wars." Then I wrapped things up and went to bed.
  
  
• Sunday I accidentally made coffee with double the water necessary. (??) Jumped into laundry and packing and chores. Got the packing done after a lot of wrangling. Managed to squeeze everything into the suitcase! Took out the trash, redecorated the house for early summer, and got some files organized to take with me on my trip. Arranged my Lyft pickup and worked on the next Not-So-Giant Women podcast. Talked to Jeaux on the phone.
  
  
• Monday was a much chiller day than I'd expected because we had three letters due but we were well prepared and got them all out in reasonable time. It was Steve's birthday! But he was dealing with some tough stuff. I had some drama with plumbers not coming and thought the sink that had been clogged since last week was going to have to be fixed after I came back from vacation, but they pulled through and unclogged my sink! I was able to run the dishwasher without worry. Also, my comic that I had been missing arrived in the mail! Very happy. Finished the podcast edit and posted it. Ate a bunch of carrots and ranch dip so it wouldn't spoil while I'm out of town. Played online games with my friends and went to bed early after some wrap-ups.
  
  
• Tuesday was the first day of my vacation. I got up at 4:30 AM and had a double breakfast so I wouldn't be hungry during the travel. Got my Lyft to the airport, boarded the plane, and arrived in Charlotte with no issues at all. Patricia's flight got slightly delayed though, so I had to wait an hour for her in the airport. She arrived and we got to see each other for the first time since before the pandemic! We went off to sit at a nice outdoor table where we had our coffee and a waffle treat, and later had Himalayan food for lunch. We spent several hours doing that before we trekked out to our AirBnB in a Lyft car and we settled in at the house. After a little while we walked to the grocery store and picked up our staples for the week. When we got home we ended up eating grilled cheese sandwiches and soup. We stayed up late talking even though she had had a VERY long time with no sleep!
  
  
• Wednesday was the first day we got to see our sister Lindsay. After breakfast, she came over with Mike and we sat out on the deck just chatting and catching up. We ordered pizza and played a couple games, and later we ended up watching some of everyone's favorite episodes of The Office. (I'm the only uninitiated one.) After they went home, Patricia and I stayed up and chatted again. After she went to bed I updated some photos and went to bed too.
  
  
• Thursday I had cereal with Patricia in the morning and we took a refreshing walk. After a while, Lindsay came over and chilled with us for a while and we ate some veggies and dips, and we talked to our dad on video chat so he could see us all together. After Mike got off work he joined us and we went out for sushi, but the outdoor area was under maintenance so we got takeout and ate it at home. Then Lindsay brought out the surprise cupcakes she had picked up for Patricia for her early birthday present. She was so surprised. We ended up watching silly internet videos and laughing our butts off and after they went home Patricia and I watched a few more of them and also a cartoon from Steven Universe that I thought she might like (and she did). She checked in for her flight and we went to bed.
  
  
• Friday Patricia and I decided to go to the Rose Garden after breakfast. It was great! We saw lovely flowers and also a ton of babies. When we came back, we saw a couple more cartoons and then Lindsay joined us for just a short time before Patricia had to head out to catch her flight. Lindsay chilled for a short time more before heading to work. I spent a little time relaxing before my friend Fen came over and we caught up, had some sandwiches, and watched cartoons. Great time! After they left I did a little relaxing with silly videos and went to sleep.

Health Plan Update:

• Weight stuff: I only have stats on this from Saturday through Tuesday since I've been on vacation. High weight: 116.4. Low weight: 115.8.
  
• Nutrition stuff: Vitamin consumption has continued as normal, but just about everything else was pretty wacky this week since I was vacationing! Considering the grilled cheese and the pizza, I would say I had a high-fat diet and didn't get enough protein, though I've had some yogurt and did get some fruits and vegetables in.
  
• Activity stuff: I missed my step goals two days this week because of sedentary days with people I'm visiting! I still made it most days but there was one day where we barely got off the couch. That was Wednesday and Friday. My low day was Wednesday at 1,310 steps, and my high day was Sunday at 14,301 steps.

Books Read: 

• Finished Reading: Nothing this week.
  
  
• Currently reading: Dirty Job by Christopher Moore. I'm on page 168.

New singing performances:

This week's karaoke song is "Times Like These" by Foo Fighters.

Stuff drawn:

Webcomic Negative One Issue 0886: "Only In Our Hearts." 

Videos Made:

Not-So-Giant Women #35 is out. Join Daria and Ivy as they watch and talk about "Lion 3: Straight to Video" and cover such topics as the mechanics of Rose's pregnancy and Steven's existence, the contradiction in Greg's hairline, whether Steven is the only hybrid and what being a hybrid means, the multitude of abandoned projects and scattered messes and messages Rose left behind, Pearl's creepy sleep-watching habits, how much Lion knows about how to help Steven, Gem heights, the mysterious bubbled Gem in Lion's mane, and whether the episode made us cry.

New photos:

The variant comic I was waiting for

The complete album for the Charlotte visit is here, but here are the selected highlights:

Tampa airport

Plane selfie

With Patricia at the Charlotte airport

Finally got coffee!

Our waffles

My waffle: graham cracker pieces and cookie butter

We found honeysuckle!

More honeysuckle

Pizza time!

Cards Against Humanity

Lindsay & Mike go head to head

Three cute sisters

Blue hat, pink hat

Looks like our album cover

Surprise cupcakes for P!

The cupcake kids

My cupcake

P is happy about her cupcakes :)

Coffee at the Rose Garden

Really big rose!

The giant rose

Lovely petals

By the Rose Garden's mural

Tiny flowers!

Lacy flower!

Dogwood!

Plant selfie!

Social Media Counts: 

YouTube subscribers: 5,412 for swankivy (2 new), 673 for JulieSondra (no change), 17 for v & V Vids (no change), 140 for Not-So-Giant Women (no change). Twitter followers: 923 for swankivy (no change), 3,079 for JulieSondra (12 new). Facebook: 297 friends for swankivy (no change), 638 likes for JulieSondra (1 new), 82 followers for Negative One (no change), 236 likes for So You Write (no change), 89 followers for Not-So-Giant-Women (no change). Tumblr followers: 2,457 (lost 1). Instagram followers: 242 (lost 1).