Archives for May 2024

I went to bed only slightly too late and woke up early but then my husband showed up an hour earlier than usual because the window guys had said they’d be in between 8 and 9. Which they were, first guy rang the doorbell at 8.10.

The installment went fast and was way less noisy and dusty than I would have thought. Including a lunch break they were all done and gone by 3 pm.

I spent most of the morning sitting around playing silly iPad games and scrolling through Instagram but I did manage the dishes and talk briefly to the boy. I also had plans to call the clinic because of the slightly weird bulge in my neck where my thyroid used to be but then chickened out and wrote an email instead. With bad pictures of my neck attached. Which was what my doctor had told me to do in the first place. I hope I’ll get an answer, otherwise I will have to try calling them some time next week.

Afterwards I decided to bike to the supermarket because of today’s holiday. That went pretty well, even if I had to go to the drugstore as well because I couldn’t get some things at the supermarket.

We had spinach, potatoes and fried eggs for lunch:

I ate a mountain of sweets afterwards. You know, as a little treat. Did I mention that all those „little treats“ over the past week have led to me gaining almost two pounds already? Well, I guess I should find something non-calorific to treat myself with. Maybe naps or something.

These are my new windows, by the way. From the inside:

And from the outside:

When I sent my mother the first picture she said she was envious of my view. Well, don’t be, if you stand only a bit more to the left you are presented with a magnificent few of the neighbor’s garage, stacked tires and their compost heaps.

The windows being done does lift a heavy weight from my shoulders. I’ve been anxious about that window falling off every time I opened it since 2020 or so.

I folded all the laundry, helped my husband decide some things, admired his handiwork because we had another window with issues in the old hallway. The window had sagged so that my mother-in-law couldn’t close it anymore. When I had looked at it (in a hurry) I had found that the hinge had some give so I thought the whole window was lose. We had wanted to talk to the window guys about it but then my husband looked at it properly. It turned out that the thing that wiggled was just the hinge’s plastic cover and when you pulled that off there were the usual screws and such. My husband fetched an Allen wrench, tightened the hinge and – voilà – the window is working again. Phew.

I also printed a stack of grocery lists, found the notice that Microsoft Office couldn’t be updated anymore, bought a license to Office 2021 (no subscription for me, thanks), had to fiddle with the whole installment process until I made it work and am now the proud owner of a version of the bloated office software that everyone uses that is only three years old.

I ate dinner, I talked with the boy some more and delegated the dishes, I finally took a much needed shower, watched an episode of „Handsome Siblings“ (I could do with something actually happening for a change) and went to bed on time because I did not start writing this post in the evening.

Oh, and my doctor actually called me in the afternoon and told me that my thyroid hormones are perfectly fine. Which is great. Really. Only now I need to do something else to fix my tiredness and exhaustion and low energy. Sleep might be an idea…

Well, going to bed at 1 am never bodes well for the day after…

Since I had to fast until my doctor’s appointment and was not supposed to take my meds I did not have my usual trigger point for the morning routine (you know the one, the one that I only manage to do one in three days or so), so there was no yoga, no morning pages, no meditation and also not much of anything. Until I had to rush doing the dishes and brushing my teeth to leave in time for my appointment.

I had blood drawn, then saw my doctor and realized that it was a tad too early to talk about the results of the blood draw. Oops. I did tell him that I’m really, really tired all the time and hurt everywhere. He agreed that signs are pointing towards low hormone levels but of course we’ll have to wait for lab results. I also spontaneously decided to show him the slight bulge above my incision that has been low-key worrying me for a while. I expected him to say, „Nah, that’s normal, nothing to worry about,“ but he made a worried face, asked about possible infection and told me to contact the surgeon because it probably needs to be drained. Meh.

He told me to send the surgeon some pictures in an email but I don’t have an email address. Nor do I know who actually operated on me. I guess I’ll call the clinic later today and ask how to proceed.

After breakfast my husband and I talked about our plan to go to Munich today to buy clothes and go out for lunch. We even looked at the menu and chose our meals. We had wanted to go to the same restaurant as the first time we ever went out for dinner together but that restaurant is closed during the day. So plans were made and we looked forward to spending a day in the big city.

Well. Then my cell phone rang, it was the window guy and he said, „Your windows are in. How about we mount them tomorrow?“ And of course I said yes. First, because you never say no in these cases because otherwise you’d have to wait for half a year longer and second, apart from out plans the day is actually perfect because I don’t have a single student today. But I had looked forward to shopping and lunch.

On my way back from the doctor I went to one shop for yogurt and to another one for diverse groceries and all the chocolate and then I ate some yogurt and honey.

Lunch was only forty minutes after that. This time the gnocchi were ready early because it was all heating up leftovers:

After my husband did all the prep work for dishwashing to make my life easier:

Yes, it did look even worse before. And that is the carnage of the boy eating leftovers the night before and my husband and me eating leftovers for lunch. The white enamel pot under the faucet is there to catch the drips. We need to change the seal on that faucet but that would mean turning the water off for the whole house and/or calling a plumber.

Since the night before had gone sideways because of dirty-dishes overwhelm I decided to reintroduce my rule that if I can’t do the dishes right after lunch for whatever reason I at least have to sort and stack:

There is a little more space, one sink is usable as is half the stove. It makes a huge difference for me even though I know it’s silly. After that I ate all the chocolate but then managed to actually wash the dishes before my Zoom meeting at three. I also have listened to all the classical pieces now that I missed last week and am completely up to date.

And in addition to that I have also reintroduced my old rule that the answer to anyone asking me if I’d like help with the dishes is yes by default.

I hope this is the first step to getting enough sleep.

Zoom meeting (one of Becca Syme’s Patreon calls was extremely helpful and I took a ton of notes and started a plan how to tackle book publication. Then I had a short break, taught two delightful students, cleared the space around the window for today, ate dinner, talked with a friend over DM, started writing this post, did a bit of Duolingo (I’m in the Diamond Tournament semi-finals so I need lots of XP. And yes, I know it’s silly.)

I watched an episode of „Handsome Siblings“ (also silly but fun), drank a beer (I know), read a bit and went to bed.

Today there will be window replacement (fingers crossed), maybe grocery shopping and a shower, I hope. Oh, and the phone call with the doctor. Phew.

I went to bed past midnight, slept well but was wide awake at 7.15 or so. I had big plans to do yoga and morning pages but was too slow and too late. Eating breakfast at home was wonderful. On the other hand the 5% Greek yogurt does not taste as good as the 10% one, so next time I‘ll go back to more fat.

Husband and I talked over breakfast, decided on what to make for lunch, I did the dishes, husband offered to dry them and put them away and then I talked to my mother. I told her everything I did in Italy and our plans for next week, and since my husband and I are planning to go clothes-shopping in Munich next week she reminded me (for the fourth time or so) that I really need a light summer skirt. I mean, she isn‘t wrong and I plan to make myself one soon but skirts are pretty easy to sew. What I need desperately are summer tops, a pair of shorts, maybe a pair of light pants and something along the lines of a jean jacket or light blazer. If I found a rain jacket and/or one that works for spring and fall that would be wonderful.

Meanwhile my husband had started prepping lunch. Unfortunately he started peeling and boiling the potatoes too late so we ended up eating an hour later than we would have liked. On the other hand lunch was excellent and homemade gnocchi are really worth the effort:

After lunch I ate a bunch of cookies (bad choice, I better don‘t buy any more of these) and sat around playing silly iPad games for a bit and just when I thought it would be a good idea to start doing things again the boy showed up to eat. We talked and showed each other things from Twitter for an hour or so.

I hung up the first load of laundry that my husband had started. I put most of the travel things back where they belong, I planned the week and was online talking to people and updated my lists of books that I read this month and books that I bought this month. I booked an eye doctor appointment. For August. Harumph. Earliest available appointment.

I looked into tense muscles and thyroid hormones and guess what? Yep. Lack of thyroid hormones can make your muscles super tight. Huh. That is definitely something I‘ll talk about with my doctor on Tuesday.

Eventually I did the dishes, ate dinner, started writing this post, did Duolingo, finally took a shower, watched episode 3 of „Handsome Siblings“ and went to bed.

Today there will be some teaching and some grocery shopping, maybe some yoga for a change.