*happy fanfare* I locked in, buckled down, and got the paper revision sent off to co-authors!!! Then jumped on my bike and rode home. Have a couple hours to chill and eat some dinner before I have to be at show choir.   Had a good visit with friend, too, haven’t had a chance to catch up with her in a LONG time! We used to work out together at the campus gym, but she wisely jumped ship to another privately owned gym that’s apparently way less crowded. I should consider it (well, not the same gym, but one closer to my place).  

I do not keep up with movies so hadn't heard of this, but the picture is beautiful, and your description makes me want to see it. 

It's how my parents always handled money. It's how I've always handled it too. But I'm at a point in my life where I don't need to live paycheck to paycheck. Things aren't so tight, but money is still leaking through my fingers, and far too often with nothing to show for it. So, lets gamify part of my spending and see how it goes!    

Meeting was cancelled, so I rested, because last night was a very bad sleep night. Made some miso soup to warm up and hydrate.     This is an excellent cool weather miso soup. The recipe has mushrooms and spinach and milk and melting cheese, like mozzarella. I had my miso premixed with seaweed and grated carrot and sesame seeds and garlic, and I had no spinach, so I added mushrooms and a couple of slices of my harvested ginger, and a little of the leftover corn. Just enough for color, especially since mine focuses on the water for hydration.   It's still basically a broth with decorative bits, but they're very cozy decorative bits. This recipe is autumn-approved. (With spinach, I guess it's cold early spring approved.)   Now that I'm refueled, I shall have to go think about mentally difficult work and strength training, which has been a bit of a physical trial lately.

Morning   Well, husband left for work at 2am and won't be back till tomorrow 😭   So I got the kiddos up, fed and off to school. Took Bear out for a nice walk, had Brekky, did chores, errands then paced when I got home. No workout today, I'm still feeling a little under the weather and my stomach hurts. So I leisurely walked 20k steps then sat down to enjoy my girly drama shows, I'm watching "the real housewives of Beverly Hills" and "vanderpump rules".    I was so tired after watching tv I took a 30 min nap. And I felt much better after! Here I thought I needed a long nap to feel OK, but nope, a short nap works too.

Wednesday October 16 Wild Robot destroyed us last night.  In the best way. This plot of found family sure, but making a new normal together, and the larger themes of vulnerability that can make an opening for community to grow out of? It could have so easily been saccharine or Bami-style trauma porn, but it all worked so damn well. Bambi is a great touchpoint though with this film firmly in the lineage with Totoro and Fern Gully, but focused on parenting in an eco-system and the cost of vulnerability. The voice acting was exceptional - some animated movies use voice actors with a wink, where Timon is just Nathan Lane in a meerkat suit and Dori is just Ellen DeGeneres with fins - we hit the credits for Wild Robot and were floored to see the star studded cast who had disappeared into their roles.   

Got a walk in this morning. Partially for just getting moving, partially to assess any progress in debris clean up/storm aftermath. FEMA crews are supposed to start picking up some of the big debris around the county today, but apparently they are not starting here.

😆😆😆 Yeah, you're right   Good reminder. I got asked if I wanted to start doing the things that are "my responsibility" and I'm like "until I know I can do it right, I'd like to at least do it with others."   Glad to have you around. You excited for a new challenge thread? 😉 (Also, dang, it's almost November... Good thing I got my outline ready! NaNoWriMo here I come again!)   So far, no brain melting today. Last night's recovery included a short nap where I made sure to take time for my body to recover, some animal crossing because dopamine is effective, made and enjoyed dinner (Cid and I made homemade poke bowls, and it was interesting and fun, though I think that restaurants make it easier), and then played RockSmith together because Cid found the connector to make it happen! I also made time to review the rules for tonight's game of If I Were a Lich Man since we're gonna give it a try tonight instead of resuming our Humblewood game (prioritizing spooky games for the month of October).   I'm gonna prioritize bringing a gym bag tomorrow so I can visit the YMCA close to my new job location. 👀   I'm headed back to work now. Hope you're having a good day. Maerad

It's so awesome that you stuck to the strength training and enjoyed it! Erm. Is this is same unfavoured guest who was there recently?

Slightly late challenge wrap up post!   Things did not go at all how I expected, but I think I'm getting back on track.   So far on the new diet I have lost 7 lbs.  With the lack of groceries, I have gone back up a little bit as I flail in the general direction of the diet, but it's not by a whole lot.  I did get the grocery list sorted - it was a lot less intimidating once I realized the week 1 list had a bunch of dry goods for the entire month, not just the week.  Didn't go grocery shopping yet, because my Sunday evening got taken up with unplanned medical stuff.   Little One took a weird fall during the scrimmage right at the end of practice, and slammed his head into the ground.  He came and sat down, with a headache, for the rest of practice.  Then, right after we walked out of the building, he ran back in to throw up.  So, off to urgent care we went.  Which ended up being way more time consuming than expected, because apparently the "walk in" place near us takes appointments and can fill up.  The doctor said it was likely he had a minor concussion.  Blergh.  I have a whole bunch of complicated emotions about that that I'm trying to work through, with mixed success.  But, after coming home from school early Monday and staying home yesterday, he got cleared by his regular doctor to start doing things again as long as he doesn't have a headache (and sit out if he gets one).  So that's good news!  Just need to get him a new helmet before Sunday, so he can skate in the fundraiser.   Haven't gotten my regular exercise habit back on track yet, but I am having success with sneaking stuff in - like walking for 45 minutes while on the phone with my best friend.   Slowly getting my shit back together, likely just in time for it to be upended again, because 10% of the company I work for is getting laid off.  But, maybe this time I can use the couple months I have before things go crazy (because I will be shocked if I don't end up getting another layoff notice) to build habits that will survive the chaos.