Busy

Bit of a mentally challenging day today. Nothing major, just lots of administrative stuff at work. Meetings and meetings and meetings. There is hardly anyone here in the office today but weirdly all of the conference rooms are booked. What’s going on with that?

I have a doctors appointment tomorrow morning so I am only working a half day. Next week I have another half day on Friday. That one is so Jen and I can jump in the car and get an early start on our drive to Florida. Yeah, we’re driving again. Road trip, babie! Seven business days left before vacation, and two of those are half days. It’s too far away to start suffering from vacation-itis, but we’re getting there.

I tried to take a photo a day picture this morning while I was jogging (pronounced yogging, with a soft j) in place and they came out blurry. Duh. Of course they did, you putz. I took another one after I finished. It’s meant to guilt me into playing the damn guitar this weekend. Come on, Robert. You’re about to go on a trip. You need to play the guitar a ton before you go. Get on with it, Red Head!

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258/365

Yes

Daily writing prompt
Are you a leader or a follower?
View all responses

I have thought long and hard about how to answer this question (we’re talking at least five minutes of internal debate here) and I think the best way for me to answer it is:

Yes.

Am I a leader or a follower? Yes, yes I am.

I am a supervisor at work with a small staff reporting to me. I have to be a leader for them or else I’m not going to be terribly good at my job. Outside of work I feel much more comfortable letting other people take the lead so I can just follow along. I would like to think that in my relationship with my wife we are both leading some of the time and following at other times, but I suspect that I do a lot more following than leading. I suppose I could be a leader in the cover band, but I prefer to let other people take the reigns and just go along for the ride. I feel like I am playing that leadership role more today than I used to before our singer left, but I suspect as time rolls on I will step back again. We’ll see.

So there you have it. Am I a leader? Yeah, sometimes. Am I a follower? Yeah, sometimes.

Yes, yes I am.

Still Alive

Oh thank the Old Garden Gallery Gods, the Bruins live to see another day!

They beat Florida tonight in game five of their second round playoff series, 2-1 to stave off elmination!

Oh, happy day!

Florida still leads the series three games to two, but game six is Friday (Friday? Not Thursday? FUUUUUUUU) back in Boston.

Oh happiness! Oh sweet hockey rapture! We get another game!

WOOHOOO!!!!

Hipsta-Kitty

For ages during the earlier days of the Hipstamatic Toy Camera App for iOS, this film/lens filter combo was my favorite. I’ve used it for a couple of days, for old times sake, but now Lily is telling me I should probably pick a new combo to use for a while. We’ll see, Miss Lily.

Lowell, MA: Hipstamatic Style

I went to the hospital in Lowell this morning for some blood work. I took the obligatory bad iPhone pics (with a super overdone Hipstamatic filter) on the drive home. The Merrimack River is pretty much a looker in parts of Lowell.

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Stoplight theater
Ouch town, population me.
Hurry up and wait

Deep Discussion

Daily writing prompt
List your top 5 favorite fruits.
View all responses

Well, today’s prompt is going to lead to some deep, heavy discussions. I’m a little hesitant to contribute as I don’t want to upset anyone today (yeah, right).

Also… do I have five favorite fruits? I haven’t had a lot of fruit since the gastric bypass surgery. Something about the few things I’ve tried have made them difficult to handle so I’ve backed off. A lot of this will be pre-surgery opinions, but it’s not like I was a big fruit eater when I was eating party sized bags of chips in one sitting almost every day. You don’t get over 400 pounds by eating things that are good for you all the time. Once in a while, sure, but doubtful it could be a regular (ya know, healthy) kinda thing.

Here is my super detailed list. Enjoy!

  • Grapes. Specifically green grapes. Post-surgery, the thin layer of skin is tough for me to chew up to a small enough state to not get stuck trying to get into my newly redesigned stomach. I’ve been mostly okay eating grapes, but every now and then they bring on a nasty case of The Foamies.
  • Apples. When I was a kid apples were my favorite by a mile. As I got older I sort of lost the taste for them. Not completely. Every once in a while an apple would be great. Post-surgery I haven’t had one. My hesitation is the same as the grapes issue. I’m worried about not being able to break down the skin enough. I could peel them, of course, but I just haven’t tried it. Also, there’s a lot of sugar in apples. Would that lead to dumping syndrome? On a related note, just after surgery while I was in the pureed food stage I tried some apple sauce. It went down fine, but the gas it produced. WOW.
  • Oranges. I love a seedless orange. I haven’t tried one post-surgery. One of these days.
  • Pineapple. I’ve tried a couple of bites of pineapple since the gastric bypass and it went fine. Pineapples are delicious, but do they go with pizza? I’ve never tried it so I recuse myself from the debate.
  • Okay… one more… now we are firmly into, “is that a fruit or a vegetable” territory. Also… I’m having a hard time thinking of something else I like. Is celery a fruit or a vegetable? It’s a vegetable. Also, the stringy nature… there’s no way I could eat celery without getting savagely nauseous. What about olives? Google says it’s both, though technically a fruit. We have a winner! I always loved seedless black olives. I haven’t had one in ages though. Maybe I should revisit them. There was a time in my younger days when I really liked them.

And there you have it, friends, neighbors, and gentle readers. Five fruits that I like or liked, some of which I might still be able to eat without vomiting! Enjoy!

Is Today a Beautiful Day?

I just heard a coworker say that it was gorgeous outside. I can’t tell. There are two buildings in our little complex here. I am in building number two. The cafeteria is in building number one. I guess said coworker had just come back from picking up lunch.

I don’t go to the cafe anymore. I used to, back in the dark days before the pandemic. I used to order a grilled chicken sandwich and a side of fries. I could get that today, but the portions are huge and I would waste 75% of it. No, I brown bag it. A little breaded chicken, a few peanuts. Maybe a sugar free snack of some sort. Those get the lunch time job done for me.

I would like to think that if I were working from home today and it were truly gorgeous outside, I might setup the patio in the back yard and try to work from there. Fresh air. Nice breeze. Warm air. Working outside. It’s kind of the American Dream in a way, isn’t it? Maybe not. I don’t know.

I did take a picture of the clear blue sky as I was leaving the house this morning. That will have to do for me today.

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256/365

Happy beautiful Monday, everyone. Where applicable, at least.