Saturday, October 29, 2022

Personal Digest Saturday: October 22 – October 28

Life news this week:

  • Saturday was my Halloween party so pretty much everything I did was related to that. In the morning I made the last two types of muffins (banana and pumpkin) and got my dishes and food labels organized. I spent an absurd 45 minutes doing fancy eye makeup for my costume, and then a little more on putting on face paint, a wig, and a costume. One of my guests came a little early and there was a weird glitch with trying to get a ride for one of my friends, but otherwise things went pretty well according to plan! Everybody I expected actually showed up and I had a nice houseful. Plenty of people enjoyed my food and music and we had some great catch-up times and discussions. Meghan, Katelyn, and Benjamin slept over.

  • Sunday my overnight guests got up and had party food for breakfast, and after they left I spent the day cleaning up and relaxing. Also did laundry and put out trash. Managed to get photos posted, sang a karaoke song, and caught up with my blogging since I didn't have time the day before.

  • Monday I mostly just had to put out fires and proofread letters. Did some walking, played games with friends, put away laundry, and ate party leftovers all day.

  • Tuesday a packet was due at work and I had a meeting. I was tired all day and had to take naps. I did a little prep work for future projects and again ate leftovers all day.

  • Wednesday I had some utility coordination and letter prep to deal with. Very tired again and took two naps. Jeaux and I ate at Hiccups & Churroholic (a new place for us, where we ate Thai food at their outdoor tables). We did our shopping, finally got to watch the latest Owl House, and caught up on Colbert and funny videos.

  • Thursday was another very sleepy day that required naps. I did some laundry for my bedclothes and worked on comics and watched The Office. At work I just had meetings and utility coordination stuff to do. Practiced music and ate a bunch of tortilla chips.

  • Friday was ANOTHER very sleepy day. At work I did proofreading, coordination, and reports. Drew the rest of my comic and posted it, and took a walk while learning some music. Watched a bunch of episodes of The Office.

Interviews, Articles, Mentions:


New Reviews:

Health Plan Update:

  • Weight stuff: Plenty of high-calorie eating this week because of all the party leftovers! That with whatever New York's weird eating might have done seems to have resulted in a small increase here. High weight: 118.9. Low weight: 116.9.
  • Nutrition stuff: This was in the toilet this week for the most part as I tried to chew through party leftovers. I still have a lot of chips and snacks that are less perishable than the sugary stuff, but I had a very high-sugar diet and low protein diet this week. That said, some of the leftovers were vegetables and THREE times this week I ate an entire bag of vegetables (with cheese) for dinner. So it ain't all bad. Still consistently taking the vitamins.
  • Activity stuff: I met my walking goal every day this week. My low day was Sunday at 10,008 steps, and my high day was Thursday at 13,833 steps.
Books Read: 

  • Finished Reading: Nothing this week.

  • Currently reading: You Too? by Janet Gurtler. I'm on page 64.

    New singing performances:

    This week's karaoke song is "Walking on Sunshine" by Katrina and the Waves.



    Stuff drawn:



    Webcomic Negative One Issue 0911: "Remnant." 






    Videos Made:

    None.

    New photos:

    There is now a complete Halloween Party 2022 album if you'd like to see everything.

    Otherwise, the highlights from this week:

    Desserts:




    And then some costumes:

    My Lapis Lazuli costume

    Costume closeup

    Meghan's Vanellope costume

    Katelyn as a butterfly

    Dare as Dipper

    Benjamin as Luigi

    Rachael in ren faire garb

    Michael in ren faire garb

    Rina in flowers

    Jeaux as Crystal Jamie Pearl

    Jeaux as Crystal Jamie Garnet

    Me enjoying the party

    Other fun party shots:

    Kari (in her med tech outfit) hugging Pumpkin

    Meg with Pumpkin Roll

    Kari with dessert plate

    Dare and Jeaux

    Meg and me in costume

    Party group

    Meg and Dare


    Social Media Counts: 

    YouTube subscribers: 5,424 for swankivy (4 new), 675 for JulieSondra (no change), 18 for v & V Vids (no change), 161 for Not-So-Giant Women (3 new), 32 for Tides of Time Band (2 new). Twitter followers: 906 for swankivy (lost 2), 3,447 for JulieSondra (lost 2). Facebook: 295 friends for swankivy (1 new, friended Dorian who came to my party), 636 likes for JulieSondra (lost 1), 81 followers for Negative One (no change), 237 likes for So You Write (lost 1), 91 followers for Not-So-Giant-Women (no change). Tumblr followers: 2,445 (no change). Instagram followers: 245 (no change).

    Sunday, October 23, 2022

    Personal Digest Saturday (but posted on Sunday!): October 15 – October 21

    Life news this week:

    • Saturday continued my busy week--another day of my vacation in New York. I did some picture processing after breakfast and we hung out in our hotel room after breakfast, and then we got ready to go to our Broadway show. We walked to the Lyceum Theater and saw A Strange Loop, which we discussed on our way to our early dinner at Haven rooftop restaurant. We were early so we were offered coffee in the lobby of this fancy hotel. We had hummus to share and both had pasta for dinner (mine vegetarian, Jeaux's with chicken). We found out some places we wanted to go to shop were nearby so we elected to do them after dinner and saw the Nintendo store and Midtown Comics. We took the subway back to the hotel, hung out a bit, went out for ice cream, and rested. I did the rest of my blogging while we listened to a funny news story, and I edited a letter for my office late at night.

    • Sunday we had a slow start at breakfast and went straight out from the hotel. We went shopping at Strand indie bookstore, where Jeaux actually found a copy of my book on the shelf, and we explored three of the four levels of books at that place. I met my co-worker Deepa for coffee while Jeaux went to a nerd store, and then we reconvened and met my friend Amin at Marta for pizza. We all hung out at the outdoor tables for a while and had a low-key visit, and then Jeaux and I had to head off for an early dinner at Peak. This was a restaurant on the 101st floor of a building and the elevator to go up there makes your ears pop. The restaurant was so beautiful and our food was incredible! I have never had food like this. I wished I was hungrier. I even had a strawberry daiquiri. Then we got to go outside to "the Edge" and look at the view of New York. Amazing, if a bit cold and windy. We enjoyed it for a while and then took a subway trip to a bakery where I got Jeaux a cheesecake and some rainbow cookies for Meggie. When we got back we just chilled watching The Office and I checked in at work one more time to send an e-mail, and then we went to bed.

    • Monday was the day we had to leave. We had an early breakfast, packed our stuff, and had time for relaxing in the room before checkout. We got a rideshare to the airport and everything went well except that somehow we ended up on the standby list?? But we got seats. Jeaux had a burger in an airport restaurant. On the plane I was seated next to TWIN BABY GIRLS and I enjoyed the babies. When we arrived back in Tampa we went to Jeaux's house, went grocery shopping, and retired to our respective homes. I threw in laundry and unpacked. Also a slug had gotten in my office while I was gone and tracked slime all over the rug so I had to clean the rug before I had dinner. Ew. Went to sleep early!

    • Tuesday I was back to work. I spent the day catching up. Had to make some illustrations for my boss and update all my records for marketing. I then did some drawing, sent a Polo to Meghan, had my air conditioner looked at my technicians, and talked to my mom. Made some ginger-molasses cookie dough and cut out the animal shapes and baked them before going to bed, and also drew the rest of my webcomic for Friday. And I filled out my mail-in ballot.

    • Wednesday would usually be Jeaux Day but Jeaux and I spent a lot of time together this past week so we didn't have it. :) I spent the day working on an upcoming letter, cleaning up some messy utility stuff, and collecting project information for a list. After work I talked to Tony, put away laundry while talking to Meg, read Twitter, put up my Halloween decorations, and baked two pies.

    • Thursday I did some reports and worked on some utility coordination and edited a memo and helped my boss with a document. After work I did some dusting, went to the grocery store with my mom to get a few things for my Halloween party, showed Mom my photos, and after she left I made cheesecake brownies.

    • Friday I did some proofing, looking stuff up, and timesheets. I baked some leaf-shaped cookies that broke and a beautiful pumpkin roll that didn't. Practiced some Halloween makeup. Got the house ready for my Halloween party, including getting labels ready and putting away some stuff that would be in the way. Ready for my first Halloween party since 2019!

    New Reviews:

    Health Plan Update:

    • Weight stuff: Since I couldn't check the stats while traveling, I got back on the record starting Tuesday. Surprisingly enough, my vacation eating doesn't seem to have significantly affected this aspect of my health! Of my recorded weights: High weight: 117.6. Low weight: 116.9.
    • Nutrition stuff: Well, while on vacation I was not able to get as much protein as I wanted, so I ate eggs at breakfast when I could and did my best to balance everything else. On Saturday I had pasta and frozen yogurt and on Sunday I had pizza and fancy squash and ferro and an expensive alcoholic drink. But once Monday rolled around I was back to spinach banana smoothies, strawberries and yogurt, and a lot of soy products, with very good balance. Still consistently taking the vitamins even while on vactaion.
    • Activity stuff: I met my walking goal every day this week (and then some, considering all the walking in the city that I did!). My low day was Monday at 10,236 steps, and my high day was Sunday at 19,099 steps.
    Books Read: 

    • Finished Reading: Nothing this week.

    • Currently reading: You Too? by Janet Gurtler. I'm on page 64.

      New singing performances:

      This week's karaoke song is "Cryin'" by Aerosmith.



      Stuff drawn:



      Webcomic Negative One Issue 0910: "Always Mad." 






      Videos Made:

      None.

      New photos:

      Subway with Jeaux:


      Seeing A Strange Loop on Broadway


      Haven Rooftop restaurant:


      Nintendo Store:


      Midtown Comics:



      Frozen Yogurt at 16 Handles:



      The famous Strand indie bookstore, where Jeaux found a copy of my book:
       

      Coffee with my coworker Deepa:



      Eating pizza with Amin at Marta:




       Dinner at Peak with Jeaux:


      Photos from The Edge at Peak:

       

      Snacks in the room after a big day: 



         


      Social Media Counts: 

      YouTube subscribers: 5,420 for swankivy (lost 1), 675 for JulieSondra (lost 1), 18 for v & V Vids (no change), 158 for Not-So-Giant Women (no change), 30 for Tides of Time Band (6 new). Twitter followers: 908 for swankivy (lost 1), 3,449 for JulieSondra (6 new). Facebook: 294 friends for swankivy (no change), 637 likes for JulieSondra (no change), 81 followers for Negative One (no change), 238 likes for So You Write (no change), 91 followers for Not-So-Giant-Women (no change). Tumblr followers: 2,445 (no change). Instagram followers: 245 (lost 1).