Personal Digest Saturday: January 20 – January 26

Life news this week:

• Saturday continued the Megstravaganza. She and I went to St. Pete for some art museum fun, and then we had sushi at Lemongrass and rested at my house for a while before going out to shop for a jacket at Target and out to dinner at Mandola's. I brought my plants inside because I was afraid of them getting zapped by the cold.
  
  
• Sunday it was finally cold enough in my house that I turned the heat on. Meg and I had coffee and then met Adam for brunch at Brunchies. We got our birthday gifts from him and hung out a while chatting. Then after a little bit of chilling at my place, Meg went home and I started laundry. Unfortunately the plumbing issue got even worse and both my bathtubs had water backing up into them. I was very frustrated because no matter what I do I don't seem to be able to get this issue addressed even though the first time I reported it was in OCTOBER. I just began hardcore trying to get my community manager's attention with texts, e-mails, and voicemails, plus calling the plumber directly and trying to find someone else associated with my community management to help me. Hours later I finally got a message that suggested he was on the case (although he was acting like the issue was actually caused by me not communicating properly, somehow). I spent the evening catching up on book reviews, photo posting, and blogging, and when I went to bed the plumbing issue was not resolved.
  
  
• Monday I got a call saying my house doesn't have a septic tank after all, despite that I had been told it did when I moved in in 2017. (It did have one, but it had since been bypassed to the city sewer system. Therefore the problem cannot be due to a full septic tank. They scheduled a plumber for Wednesday.) I knocked out a proposal package, edited a letter, went to a meeting, and updated some reports. My boss asked if I could draw some figures for the team on our interview the next day, and I agreed. After inviting some subconsultants to a team for our next effort, I went over to my mom's to sell a bed to a guy. Then I went home, cleaned my very gross shower out (it had been backed up with sewer water, so ya know, I don't want to use it without cleaning it), and used the shower very quickly in case it might back up again (it didn't). Took a weird nap, talked to Steve on Polo, and got ready for the interview.
  
  
• Tuesday I sent a letter and some utility coordination reminders before heading out to DeLand with my boss for our interview. We chatted about work and life, and unfortunately we did not have enough time to meet the rest of the team for a meal or anything. We went into the interview and I did fine on drawing the figures on the white board (but it was too high up for me so I was on my tiptoes!) and answering the one question that applied to my work on the contract. I felt like it went okay and I hope we win the job. Afterwards my boss took me out for Mexican food and then we drove back. I jumped in to do some research and catch-up at home before calling it a night. Did some walking and Polos and ate an artichoke. My house got messy because I cannot do laundry.
  
  
• Wednesday we had a meeting and I updated some stuff on our proposal that was due that day, and I did some updates, tracking, and debriefing stuff, as well as doing some data entry. The plumber came and snaked some pipes and said he thought my stuff should be good. (He was also a cool guy who liked my cartoon decorations.) Also had our community handyman here fixing my door. Unfortunately after I started doing laundry I still had weird bubbles popping up in the toilet (the initial complaint I reported). Great. It isn't fixed after all. Took a weird nap and then went out with Jeaux. We ate at Saki and shopped, then watched Colbert and took a walk.
  
  
• Thursday there were more plumbers and they did more stuff. They said there are tree roots growing into the pipes. For now it's been cleared out but they need to do more work down there. I worked on our proposal and got it sent in, and then I took a walk to drop off some eBay purchases from Meg's stuff. Finished my data entry and wrote my comic. Played games with friends like usual. Then another eBay item sold so I packed it up, recorded a song, worked on Mom's taxes, and cleaned out Mom's e-mail.
  
  
• Friday I worked on timesheets and reports all day. Took a walk to the post office again and dropped off the latest package. On the walk I called a realtor and we made an appointment to see the house. Also made some calls about taxes. After work I did my comic, researched some stuff for story submittals, did some reading and walking, and played my ukulele.

New Reviews:

• Loretta gave The Invisible Orientation a four-star review on Goodreads.

Health Plan Update:

• Weight stuff: Still just kind of staying in the same range; negligibly lower. High weight: 122.6. Low weight: 121.6.
  
• Nutrition stuff: Eating lots of fruit and veggies and getting great vitamins! I've had a sweet tooth lately and there is candy in my house, so that has been a little bit of extra sugar and stuff, but it's fine. Still consistently taking vitamins.
  
• Activity stuff: I met my walking goal every day this week. My low day was Tuesday at 10,231 steps, and my high day was Saturday at 11,693 steps.

Books Read: 

• Finished Reading: Nothing this week.
  
  
• Currently Reading: The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik. I'm on page 29.

New singing performances:

This week's karaoke song is "Heart of Gold" by Neil Young.

Stuff drawn:

My weekly fantasy webcomic, Negative One: #0976: dax #143: something to offer.

Videos Made:

None.

New photos:

My interview outfit

Figures drawn during interview!

Social Media Counts: 

YouTube subscribers: 5,448 for swankivy (1 new), 676 for JulieSondra (no change), 17 for v & V Vids (no change), 196 for Not-So-Giant Women (no change), 70 for Tides of Time Band (no change). Twitter followers: 845 for swankivy (lost 2), 3,872 for JulieSondra (lost 2). Facebook: 299 friends for swankivy (no change), 647 likes for JulieSondra (no change), 82 followers for Negative One (no change), 246 likes for So You Write (no change), 97 followers for Not-So-Giant-Women (no change). Tumblr followers: 2,445 (no change). Instagram followers: 265 (1 new).

Personal Digest Saturday (but posted on Sunday!): January 13 – January 19

Life news this week:

• Saturday I went to USF's botanical gardens with Dare and we looked at cool plants, ate some SoFresh bowls, and spent some lovely time together. They got me a CD I've wanted for a long time for my gift! I took a nap after they dropped me off at home, and then I did my blogging, reading, and perusing old annoying conversations.
  
  
• Sunday I had a nice morning with a smoothie and cleaning up in the house. Then my friend Scott picked me and Ben up and we went out for a snack before heading out to Lettuce Lake Park for bird watching. We saw some great birds but my photography isn't any good so I only got one cool picture of an egret. (Ben and Scott got lots of good pictures because they know what they're doing and have cool cameras.) Then we ended up at an Ethiopian restaurant and stuffed ourselves. I spent the evening on chores, laundry, walking, Poloing, and watching a super long analysis of cartoons.
  
  
• Monday I did not have the day off like most people seemed to. I spent the day doing a transcript mostly, and also dealt with visits from two maintenance people. George fixed my sink and bought me chocolate when I told him my birthday was Wednesday. The plumber came and said my plumbing problems are due to a full septic tank, so he said he would relay that to my management company. In the evening I looked for clothes to give to an upcoming donation, ate a potato, did some Polos, and posted some cartoon stuff.
  
  
• Tuesday I had to get up early to go get my blood taken for labs. It was fine. Then I did data entry and three meetings. I was gonna go to Mom's to sell furniture but not a single person confirmed appointments I offered so I didn't go. I cleaned, cooked, ate, vacuumed, and finished picking out donation clothes. And I did more laundry and drew some comics.
  
  
• Wednesday was a cold morning and I had a slow start. Happy 46th birthday to me! At work I had a debriefing, some training with our bookkeeper, a meeting with a subconsultant, and some updates. My sister Patricia called and we talked a while--nice to have real-time chat with her! I played around with some toys Meg wants me to sell on eBay. Dad arrived to take me to dinner! Later Jeaux came too. We ate at Vallarta's and had a great time! Then we shopped, watched Colbert, and Jeaux helped me figure out how to work an R2 robot toy.
  
  
• Thursday I did proposal stuff with my boss from early in the morning and also worked on two other letters. I made a mistake on the proposal so that was annoying. Found out I am part of the interview team next week in DeLand so I will have to write some utilities stuff. Did some more eBay listings for Meghan and then she showed up to hang out for our birthday weekend. Meg helped make a pad thai dish with zucchini and mushrooms. It was pretty good but we had a lot of leftovers. After she went to bed I washed dishes, put more stuff on eBay, and dealt with an eBay package that sold pretty much immediately.
  
  
• Friday I did some work on reports before Meg and I headed out to our appointment at the Florida Aquarium. We saw a bunch of great fish, birds, and other animals. Ate at Yard House and picked up cupcakes, went to a housewares store and went a little crazy buying cool stuff, and picked up SoFresh bowls. I worked on my comic and got it done while Meg was waiting around, and we had some cupcakes before we went to bed.

Interviews, Articles, Mentions:

• The account @rainbowaisle Tweeted about my birthday, in Japanese, with an edited photo of me.

Health Plan Update:

• Weight stuff: Still just kind of staying in the same range. High weight: 123.5. Low weight: 122.0.
  
• Nutrition stuff: Birthday stuff with Meghan led to some high-fat restaurant meals, and there was one day that I got really low protein, but I'm still doing GREAT with the fruits and vegetables! Keeping track of it and making an intentional effort is working wonders. Still consistently taking vitamins.
  
• Activity stuff: I met my walking goal every day this week. My low day was Monday at 10,086 steps, and my high day was Sunday at 14,032 steps.

Books Read: 

• Finished Reading: Loveless by Alice Oseman. Four-star review.
  
  
• Currently Reading: The Last Graduate by Naomi Novik. I'm just starting it.

New singing performances:

This week's karaoke song is "Africa" by Toto.

Stuff drawn:

My weekly fantasy webcomic, Negative One: #0975: weaver #151: lucky.

Videos Made:

None.

New photos:

Went to the USF Botanical Gardens with Dare:

 

 Achiote:

 

 Atala Hairstreak Butterfly:

 

 Went bird watching with Ben and Scott:

 

 Egret:

 

 Me in nature:

Eating Ethiopian food with Scott and Ben:

 

 My last day of being 45:

 

 My first day of being 46:

 

 Jeaux playing with lightsabers:

 

 Meghan was happy with the slippers I bought her for her birthday:

 

 Florida Aquarium day! Ruddy ducks:

 

 Roseate spoonbill: 

 

 Ring-tailed lemurs:

 

 Cool fish:

 

 Panther chameleon: 

 

 Pelican:

 

 Northern pintail:

 

 Goldeneye: 

 

 Tricolor Heron and Scarlet Ibis:

 

 Snowy Egret: 

 

 Fish selfies!

 

 Cupcakes we bought for our birthday cake:

 

 Sushi in St. Pete with Meg:

 

 Italian food in Tampa with Meg:

 

 Birthday Girls in Comfy:

Social Media Counts: 

YouTube subscribers: 5,447 for swankivy (3 new), 676 for JulieSondra (lost 1), 17 for v & V Vids (no change), 196 for Not-So-Giant Women (1 new), 70 for Tides of Time Band (no change). Twitter followers: 847 for swankivy (no change), 3,874 for JulieSondra (1 new). Facebook: 299 friends for swankivy (no change), 647 likes for JulieSondra (no change), 82 followers for Negative One (no change), 246 likes for So You Write (no change), 97 followers for Not-So-Giant-Women (no change). Tumblr followers: 2,445 (lost 1). Instagram followers: 264 (no change).

Personal Digest Saturday: January 6 – January 12

Life news this week:

• Saturday I sold furniture at my mom's (a bookcase and a set of shelves), and I reached a milestone: everything in my mom's house is cleared out and packed up for donation or disposal (except furniture people are buying). It's weird. When I got home I had dinner, did blogging, did some editing, and sent Polos.
  
  
• Sunday I got my chores done (laundry, trash & recycling, unloading the dishwasher), but otherwise just relaxed. Got some photos sorted, did some reading, and read some old comics for fun.
  
  
• Monday I got buried at work (two letters, proposal stuff, shortlists, resume updates). Argued with people on Reddit. Did Polos and made too many dishes with my cooking. Was very sad that Meg had to put her doggie Barney to sleep.
  
  
• Tuesday I finished my proposal preparation, coordinated with teaming partners after a meeting, developed a resume for someone, and wrapped up a package for a shortlisted job. I gave a de-smokifying treatment to the last of my mom's clothes (some winter stuff I found in the back of her closet) so I can donate them. Did some editing. Worked on photo sorting. Washed a sinkful of dishes. Got one of Rebecca Sugar's songs stuck in my head freaking all day.
  
  
• Wednesday I turned in our proposal package at work and did some reports. Talked to my lawn maintenance guy Tony and paid him for the work he's done on my mom's property since June. Did some karaoke and dealt with the de-smokified clothes. Jeaux picked me up and we ate at Which Wich, got groceries, took a walk, and watched Colbert and the last two episodes of Koisenu Futari.
  
  
• Thursday I had a very frustrating day where communication fell through on at least half a dozen issues all at once. I couldn't get my property manager to answer me about a major maintenance issue at my house (water backing up into my showers when the washing machine runs). I couldn't get texts through to my friend Ben because his phone sucks. I couldn't coordinate with the bookkeeper at work about a task they need me to help with. I couldn't get an online merchant to answer any of my messages about a mix-up on an item. My maintenance man (for a different issue) said he'd be at my place and didn't come or notify me that he wasn't coming (found out the next day he hurt his back and couldn't come). Game night with friends started super late for various reasons. I've been trying to coordinate with a tax representative and I had missed one call from him last week and now just can't get a call back. And out of SIX people who said they'd buy furniture at my mom's, only one of them did. (One of them it wasn't the lady's fault because the chair turned out to be bigger than she wanted, but it was still frustrating.) Also found out we had to withdraw from the selection process on the job we were shortlisted for because my boss got sick. Just not a great day all around. But at least I sold a hard-to-sell item at Mom's, got some reports done, had fun at game night, worked on my comic, and sorted some photos.
  
  
• Friday communication was in general way better--maintenance wrote back about a plumber, I found a more reliable communication option with Ben, and everything was good at work (though I was busy with reports and other obligations). Had to spend a bunch of time completing a form to receive distribution of my mom's investment account (which, um, had like $60 in it and isn't worth the trouble but we still had to do it). I got my comic done in the evening and wrapped up my walking while listening to Polos.

Interviews, Articles, Mentions:

• A new article "Belonging to the Ace Spectrum: Correlates of Cognitions, Feelings, and Desires of Ace Individuals" by A. Catarina Carvalho & David L. Rodrigues, published in Sexuality Research and Social Policy, cites my book several times.

New Reviews:

• Rifa Coolheart gave The Invisible Orientation a three-star review on Goodreads.

Health Plan Update:

• Weight stuff: Can't say there's been much progress but we'll see where it goes from here! High weight: 123.8. Low weight: 121.8.
  
• Nutrition stuff: I am again super happy with my nutrition this week and didn't have any days that were super out of whack (even if I did have a high-fat day on Wednesday because of an avocado). Still consistently taking vitamins.
  
• Activity stuff: I met my walking goal every day this week. My low day was Wednesday at 10,103 steps, and my high day was Saturday at 14,892 steps.

Books Read: 

• Finished Reading: Nothing this week.
  
  
• Currently Reading: Loveless by Alice Oseman. I'm on page 336.

New singing performances:

This week's karaoke song is "Don't Stop Me Now" by Queen.

Stuff drawn:

My weekly fantasy webcomic, Negative One: #0974: adele #239: you have choices.

Videos Made:

None.

New photos:

None.

Social Media Counts: 

YouTube subscribers: 5,444 for swankivy (lost 1), 677 for JulieSondra (no change), 17 for v & V Vids (no change), 195 for Not-So-Giant Women (no change), 70 for Tides of Time Band (no change). Twitter followers: 847 for swankivy (no change), 3,873 for JulieSondra (8 new). Facebook: 299 friends for swankivy (no change), 647 likes for JulieSondra (3 new), 82 followers for Negative One (no change), 246 likes for So You Write (no change), 97 followers for Not-So-Giant-Women (no change). Tumblr followers: 2,446 (4 new). Instagram followers: 264 (no change).

Personal Digest Saturday: December 30 – January 5

Life news this week:

• Saturday I had plans to see Meg and Adam but they canceled due to feeling under the weather, so I didn't do much all day besides updating my blog (which was extensive due to holiday photos) and making Polos. I got my comic So You Write planned and doodled, but other than that I got a lot of naps in.
  
  
• Sunday I got my belated Meg and Adam visit--and they brought donuts. We hung out and had coffee and cocoa too. After they left I talked to Steve on the phone for several hours and colored my webcomic while chatting. Did laundry, posted the comic, and ate nothing but donuts until dinnertime. Spent the evening deciding on my New Year's resolutions and doing my year-end survey.
  
  
• Monday I had the day off at work because IT WAS NEW YEAR'S DAY. I got off to a good start with my New Year's resolutions because since it was a day off I had time to do a little of everything. I worked on editing my book, played my ukulele, did some reading, and sorted some photos. Also updated my site to the latest year, recorded some Polos, put away laundry, and recorded a karaoke song. Had to wrangle some furniture buyers as well.
  
  
• Tuesday was pretty busy--wrapped timesheets, worked on proposal invitations, and did digital errands. Went to Mom's and sold furniture to three people. Then went home and finally did some dishes I'd been putting off and did some Polos.
  
  
• Wednesday involved proposal planning and troubleshooting. Did some more photo organizing and Polos. Jeaux and I ate at SoFresh and shopped for groceries, and then we watched Koisenu Futari and realized that one of the characters was reading the Japanese version of my book onscreen. So that was kind of a fun whammy! (Jeaux was very excited.) Jeaux put my tables away so my living room is open again.
  
  
• Thursday we had an internal meeting and a debriefing meeting, and I did some proposal planning. I wrote my webcomic and read a book. I played games with my friends and then I put away laundry and finished walking and wrangled furniture buyers again.
  
  
• Friday I did my weekly project reports and worked on a proposal. Had one of my favorite foods at dinner: an artichoke. What a treat! Did all my webcomic drawings, posted them, and messed around on Tumblr and Reddit.

New Reviews:

• Courtney shelved The Invisible Orientation as "did not finish" and explains why.

Health Plan Update:

• Weight stuff: Maybe it has something to do with water weight and adjusting (because I've been drinking more water), but dang, I don't know where these high numbers came from. I thought I was on the right track so *shrug*. High weight: 123.8. Low weight: 121.5.
  
• Nutrition stuff: VERY balanced diet this week (especially once I started trying to incorporate more fruits and veggies intentionally!). Even my one restaurant day was super balanced because I knew where I'd be going so I was able to eat my other meals to balance it out. I am super happy with my nutrition this week. Still consistently taking vitamins.
  
• Activity stuff: I met my walking goal every day this week. My low day was Wednesday at 10,038 steps, and my high day was Saturday at 16,101 steps.

Books Read: 

• Finished Reading: Nothing this week.
  
  
• Currently Reading: Loveless by Alice Oseman. I'm on page 280.

New singing performances:

This week's karaoke song is "One Night in Bangkok" from Chess.

Stuff drawn:

My monthly writing webcomic, So You Write: #151: done

My weekly fantasy webcomic, Negative One: #0973: ivy #302: seasick.

Videos Made:

None.

New photos:

None.

Social Media Counts: 

YouTube subscribers: 5,445 for swankivy (2 new), 677 for JulieSondra (1 new), 17 for v & V Vids (no change), 195 for Not-So-Giant Women (no change), 70 for Tides of Time Band (no change). Twitter followers: 847 for swankivy (no change), 3,865 for JulieSondra (4 new). Facebook: 299 friends for swankivy (no change), 644 likes for JulieSondra (no change), 82 followers for Negative One (no change), 246 likes for So You Write (no change), 97 followers for Not-So-Giant-Women (no change). Tumblr followers: 2,442 (no change). Instagram followers: 264 (no change).