Today’s Hello Fresh meal included a quinoa side dish.
It was my first bite of quinoa since the surgery. It’s been almost 11 months. After having a plate full of it 3-4 times a week (at least), I have returned to the land of the quinoa…
…and it was delicious.
My stomach has been bothering me this morning, but I think it’s because it has been empty for a long time. I had breakfast very early. I had a snack at 11:15 and after a little while I felt better. That is so weird.
Anyway, here’s an unrelated picture. Photo a day photo #191/365.
Well, today’s time lapse is pretty boring. Next time I will start the video before I light the candle. That seems to be what causes the best stuff.
Dinner is putting up a fight tonight. I didn’t notice anything bad happening but after I was done with my piece of chicken it started hitting me. 45 minutes later I’m still waiting for whatever went wrong to clear out. I blame the uninteresting time lapse video for the stomach fun.
It is 44 degrees outside, which almost feels like Spring. It’s 66 degrees at my desk in the cellar. It feels like 22 degrees. I’m freezing. No one warned me that losing 200 pounds would result in me being ice cold 24/7. Brr.
I have nothing really to write about. It’s almost 2:00pm and I am super late for starting lunch. I had to turn off the space heater while I was on a conference call and it feels like the temperature dropped 180 degrees. I’m cold!
I am doing a lunch time experiment. I am air frying some frozen french fries. The plan being to use french fries as a salt-delivery -system. Salt is supposed to help with whatever causes my occasional bouts of light headedness. Over the last few weeks I have honestly felt myself craving french fries. That might be the weirdest thing that’s ever happened to me, dietarily speaking. I’m craving salted peanuts too. It’s so weird. Peanuts and fries for lunch, babie.
Change of subject. Did I mention last night’s episode of The Last of Us yet? Season one, episode eight of nine. I’m still pretty screwed up over it. It was good, but it was dark. Like, super dark. Like, disturbingly dark. I almost watched it again this morning during my jogging (yogging) but I couldn’t bring myself to and switched to a Deep Space Nine episode. The one where we meet The Grand Nagus for the first time and thus usher in the annual Ferengi comic relief episode.
Back to the french fries thing, I suck at estimating small amounts of weight. We are supposed to track our food intake by weight, but we are supposed to weigh everything after it’s cooked. I shook what I thought was just a couple of ounces of frozen fries into the air fryer basket only to find that when they came out of the air fryer there were 5.5 ounces. That’s WAY too much for me today. I’ll eat as much as I can handle and see what happens.
Okay, I have to get back to the grindstone now. I really don’t have anything to write about anyway. Consider the bottom of this particular barrel scraped. We did dodge a bullet at work today. I won’t give details, but it made me happy. Okay, that’s good enough for now. Go eat yer lunch, Robert.
Today is Sunday and I did what many of us do on random Sundays… I overslept. My alarm was set for 5:30am. I got out of bed a couple of minutes before 7:00am. I also had a minor hangup that kept me from getting the day started for about 20 minutes and both of those things together mean it’s way too late for me to tackle car music today.
My exercise is done for the day. Yesterday I bumped my four mile morning jog (pronounced “yog” with a soft j) to five miles. Mostly because there were many days over the last month or so where I was not reaching my move/calorie goal without doing extra exercise, so for now I am just going to build that into the morning routine. I am eating breakfast right now and when I am done I will take a Covid test. I have been symptom free since my two exposures on Monday and Tuesday so I am confident in another negative test, but I am still going to test for another couple of days. Just to be sure. I have to go into the office on Wednesday and I don’t want to risk passing anything on to anyone.
What does the no-car-music-today change mean for the music project? I still have five songs that need lyrics, so I can take care of some of those. I think I might also try to add another song or two. Yeah, it’s overkill but I am seeing guitar leads on the horizon and my playing is so incredibly rusty that I could really use an excuse to just play/practice a little. That would be a good thing.
I did something silly yesterday. I started watching the directors cut of Star Trek the Motion Picture. Shatner’s Star Trek V is often considered the worst of all of the Star Trek movies, and while that may be generally valid, that first movie is pretty awful. I’m only halfway through the director’s cut but I haven’t seen anything obviously different. The endless exterior establishing shots are still endless. Endlessly endless. The acting is often less than stellar in Star Trek movies with the original series cast, but this one… this one is bad. Overall though, the movie isn’t quite as awful as I remembered. Maybe #5 really is the worst of the bunch.
Okay, let’s get the ball moving. I need to get myself something for breakfast that is more substantial than the protein bar I just finished. I’ll probably post a film pic too before I really get the day rolling. For now, talk to you all later. Good Day.
The last few days have been weird, weight loss surgery wise. I assume it’s stress over the upcoming services for my mother, or something along those lines at least, but I could be wrong. I’ve been hungry. A lot. Like, all the time. I’m not going too far overboard, but I am snacking between meals way more than normal and the meals themselves have been much larger than usual. When I say “much larger” what I really mean is instead of 4-5 ounces at a time I’m like 5-6 ounces. When I say I’m snacking I mean 1-2 ounces of peanuts or two little sugar free pudding cups instead of one. I stepped on the scale this morning out of fear that I was screwing things up and I was down a little since Wednesday. Not much, just a little. So I don’t appear to be ruining previous progress but… what the hell, Robert?
On a weight loss related note, I am finding myself oddly aware of my physical structure. I have bones I didn’t know I had. There’s one in my chest that I first became aware of a few months after the surgery and I thought it was a growth or a tumor or something. I told the doctor. She checked it out. No, nothing to worry about. That’s just your sternum. Duh. Now it’s my rib cage and my shoulders. I can actually feel the space between my ribs. I have no padding on my shoulders anymore so when I played my guitar the other day it actually hurt.
I added a new discovery to the list last night. I haven’t shaved in a couple of weeks. That’s going to change later today, but I was sort of rubbing the stubble on my neck and I felt something. Apparently Robert, your humble narrator, has an adam’s apple. I mean, I always assumed it was there but I never actually found any evidence to support the assumption. Now I can feel it.
Who knew, right?
Now if I could just shake what my mother used to call “the hungry horrors” and start eating better again. That would be aces.
As I type this I am watching season one episode three of The Mandalorian. The tribe of Mandalorians just came out of the covert to help Din Djarin and Grogu (we don’t actually know their names yet) escape the guild. Absolutely epic.
My mother passed away on Sunday. On Monday, my brother and sister and I met with the funeral director. He gave us a packet of homework. We need to pick readings and music and some other things related to the funeral service. I didn’t do much on Tuesday or Wednesday. We’ve had some discussions on things over text but nothing concrete from me. I am getting back into the swing of it tonight. We bought a suit for my father on Monday. We’re (Jen and I) going to him tonight to let him try it on. It’s probably not going to fit very well, but hopefully it’s close enough. After that, we’re having a meeting to go over the homework. Speaking as an Atheist, I don’t have a lot of interest in the readings that happen during the mass. I’ll give my $0.02 but I might have more input on the music. There is one song that was played at my grandmother’s funeral that brought my mother to tears. That one will be included. They played it at my Aunt’s funeral a few months ago as well, for exactly the same reason.
It might be a mildly long night tonight. We’ll see. I am working today and need to try and have actual food for dinner at some point. I’ve been so dependent on protein bars and supplements for the last few weeks that I expect my stomach to start rebelling at any moment. I just had eggs for breakfast and I hope to have some chicken for lunch. Dinner… we’ll see.
With all of this going on I am starting to think that my RPM Challenge success streak is in jeopardy. Not that that matters at all. I am, however, about to finish season one, episode three of Star Trek Picard. Maybe I should have been working on some recording instead of watching TV. Forgive me, I am a little screwed up right now. Working on Tuesday and Wednesday was a little tough but the normalcy felt pretty good after the insanity of the last couple of weeks. I’m working from home today and tomorrow and then taking three days of bereavement time on Monday through Wednesday next week. I am allowed to take five days, but I don’t want to. I was even hesitant about taking the third day, but I think it will come in handy, mental health wise.
Okay, it’s time to start getting ready for work. Wish me luck today.
My father has been in a rehab hospital for weeks now. Today we got some good news. He is very likely coming home tomorrow. We’re not 100% sure, but it’s looking that way. Oh, what a relief.
Changing the subject, dinner last night was meatballs and gnocchi. It was delicious. Today for lunch I had leftover meatballs. Again, delicious. I had scrambled eggs for breakfast and they gave me a little trouble. Not a lot, but enough to make me pause for a while in the middle of the meal. Lunch? No trouble at all. 3.9 ounces of meatballs without issue. Oh, what a relief.
I think I have one more person to get an xmas present for. Not sure when I am going to take care of that. Tonight after dinner maybe? Depends on what else is going on. I should try to play guitar tonight but I kinda don’t see it happening. I should do what ever needs to be done outside of the house today though, as we’re going to get spanked by a huge storm over the next couple of days. Yeah, I should go out tonight. Shit. I don’t want to. Oh well.
I really want to go out to shoot some pictures tomorrow. I don’t think the storm will hit until later in the day. I should have gone this morning though because it was sort of sunny and tomorrow will likely be cloudy. I wonder if the weather will be clear on Saturday. Should I go to the ocean for sunrise on Christmas Eve? That would be fun.
Okay. Lunch break is over. Clicking that little blue publish button now. Until next time, my reader(s) and only friend(s).
I just ate a French fry. Just one, but it was my first since surgery.
It was pretty good.
Happy French fry day.
Last night, as expected, I achieved another post-weight loss surgery milestone.
I ate pasta.
Oh the glory! I only ate a tiny bit. 1.5 ounces to be exact. There was a little red sauce and about four ounces of meatballs as well. Protein, dontchaknow. No stomach issues. No nausea. No anything but happiness. Tiny amounts of pasta are back on the menu, boys!
In today’s episode of That Pedal Show, which was almost exactly the length of time I needed for my morning walkies, Dan buys a new Telecaster and gets it refretted, rewired, and has a pickup respun.
Oh, has that lit me up or what. Both of my 70’s Gibsons needs to be refretted, one needs to be rewired, and one is in line to get new pickups. I want to sell my USA Stratocaster to pay for some, if not all, of this work but I’ve been afraid to actually list the guitar anywhere. After watching today’s show… the guitar might go up for sale this weekend. We’ll have to see. There’s a distinct possibility that today’s photo-a-day submission might be for-sale pics of the Strat. I am equal parts excited about this and really scared to do it. I honestly have no clue how much I should ask for.
Speaking of this coming weekend (eight hours and 11 minutes to go!), the agenda includes hanging new curtains in the living room and getting a flu shot and the new Covid booster. I expect to be wiped out for at least some of the weekend. We’re trying to arrange things so that the worst of the vaccine push back will happen over night while we’re sleeping… or at least trying to sleep. I’ll let you know how that goes. My first three shots didn’t really affect me. The fourth did. It wasn’t terrible, but I definitely felt ill the next day. Fingers crossed.
Inside the Red Head's Head 