Bellini-induced Brain Freeze

 Tonight was "throw anything you've got 'pending' in the fridge into a pan" for dinner. I browned a pound of ground beef, chopped up half a head of garlic, threw in what was left of my clamshells of spinach and cherry tomatoes, and a carton of sliced mushrooms. I cooked up the spaghetti squash in the Instant Pot and then threw in the "noodles" with the mix. Finished off the pan with grating the leftover asiago from my "shark-coochie" board and a little bit of remaining marble cheddar. Boom. It was pretty good! I might dabble with adding more spices and seasonings next time. My ankle is a little sore after my treadmill walk today -- total of one hour in 3 sessions. I had my ankle support on also. It's kind of frustrating. We'll see how it feels tomorrow. Apparently walking too  slow is also bad for a healing ankle because it needs to work more to stabilize.  Go figure.

 I was craving a burger so Butch was a sweetie and ordered us dinner from Triple O's. I got the monty mushroom burger with bacon in a lettuce wrap and sweet potato fries. He tried their feature pizza burger. Fantastic stuff and I feel well fed. I'm making my egg bites for the week right now. I grated the remaining reggiano, sliced up the remaining olives, and tossed in the leftover bruschetta from my birthday "shark-coochie" board as well as some spinach. It should be done soon. I'm having a hard time getting up early like I used to so that I can fit in more walking. I did not get to walk at all before my shift and so today I only walked an additional 15 minutes from my deficit. I'm still walking at a slower pace because I don't want to push things. I was at a loss for what to add to my April habit tracker so I threw in "jump rope." I'm not sure what kind of target frequency/duration I'm going to put on that just yet. Wow, my keto sacrifi

 Today was my first day in weeks (other than my overtime Saturdays) where I was on the phones for my full shift rather than helping out the new hires in chat room support. They're starting to wean them off of our chat assistance -- how quickly they leave the nest! It was also my late shift -- got to sleep in a little bit and take a relaxed morning before work. I walked for 90 minutes on the treadmill but at a slow pace to not freak my ankle out too bad. But it was almost too slow of a pace so I kept punching the speed up one press at a time every once in a while. I did wear my ankle support to be safe. So far so good, knock on wood. My best friend from elementary school wished me a "happy birthday" out of the blue. I haven't heard from her in forever and she did not reply when I texted her last summer. I have not told her about dad. The siblings and I are now hooked on playing Yahtzee against one another. Thanks a lot baby sis!

 Woohoo, Butch got me a pink keyboard with rainbow underglow...I'm sure you more tech-savvy folk are rolling your eyes at my description of my new keyboard but I call it as I see it. It's so pretty. :) I think my finger is feeling less tingly today whenever it touches anything, but I have been faked out before. I know I should be letting the finger "breathe" by now but I'm so nervous for it to come into contact with anything. I will have to buck up and do that soon. For dinner last night my brother surprised me by getting me both options I gave to him -- wowza! Paul's keto crust, well I wasn't sure what to expect, but it was decent though I had hoped it would be crispier. That's probably not an option with this crust. But the cheese and toppings Paul's lays on their pizza make it more than good enough. But my steak!  Holy smokes that was delicious. I ate that one with gusto. I didn't have enough room for my caesar salad or to finish my side veg

 I lounged in bed a lot longer than I intended but there were no concrete plans so it wasn't upsetting. We scrambled up some eggs and enjoyed the rest of the charcuterie board. My brother asked if I had planned dinner yet and offered to pick up or deliver something. I thought of steak and caesar or the keto pizza at Paul's in Shawnessy. I watered my plants with the plant-food infused bottle Butch put together. The poor things have little hopes for survival in my care. I also watered the orchid plant, as I do. The stem and bloom are dried out and have had it but the leaves are still very green and firm and the little vines growing along the base seem to be healthy. I would love to see it regain its strength - I think it would make dad proud.

 It has been pretty mellow day. I took mom and my sister to the hospital for her pre-surgery assessment -- they were supposed to budget 3 hours for the appointment. I dropped them off, picked up my birthday Starbuck and then came home for a bit because Daisy and our other friend were having a delivery sent to my house. I missed the delivery but there waiting for me on the porch was a lovely charcuterie arrangement. They clearly had my keto Lent in mind. Unfortunately, this year my birthday also landed on a Friday. I enjoyed the caprese skewers and a container of olives, one of the mascarpone figs and a fungi tartlet. My birthday cheat was the cup of tiramisu. Mom and sis were done an hour earlier than scheduled so we then grabbed some poke bowls from Banzai and had lunch in my car. Then since it was my birthday and I was enjoying the company I decided (with their permission) to risk it and have a shopping jaunt to Winners and HomeSense. It actually wasn't all that busy and I found 

 There is still snow happening in Calgary. I shouldn't be surprised but we had some great weather in the middle of the month. At least it isn't cold, but it's chilly for sure. No icy roads, but it's wise not to swap out the tires quite yet. An hour and a half until my birthday -- I have already had numerous greetings from my relatives in the Philippines. Still not all that excited about it. I will be a full pandemic year old. The finger still bleeds a little and still tingles way too much. Since my sister has to be at the hospital tomorrow I considered having my finger looked at in emergency if it's not too busy there. Not a fun birthday activity but possibly worth the peace of mind.

 The tingling I get every time my finger touches something by accident is so unsettling I refuse to type with it anymore until things get more under control. When Butch changed the bandage last night I let out a tiny yelp, we think he pulled off some of the scab by accident and the new bandaid held more blood...it must have stopped at some point but I can't tell how long it took. We'll have to use more polysporin to avoid any more sticking to the bandage. 2 more days until my birthday and I'm in too much of a funk to get excited about it. It's a Friday so I can't have meat, I'm doing the keto and committed to sticking to it for the homestretch, can't celebrate with my family and friends and I miss my dad fiercely. I don't even feel safe enjoying my birthday Starbucks at the shop...I'll have to drink it in my car unless I want to sit at the park by myself. Have to take my sister to the hospital for some pre-surgery procedures so at least I'll get

 My boyfriend helped change the dressing on my finger last night...mostly because I can't bear to look at it. Off came the bandaid the nurse gingerly  put on my finger and then all the gauze he tightly wound around the bandage...oh and then all the medical tape. In it's place he put one of the bandaids the nurse handed to me and I slapped on a latex glove because now the finger isn't all chubbed up and too big for the gloves. Onward and upward. It made typing easier, much easier -- still did not type at all with the finger but now the other surrounding fingers could hit their mark a teensy bit easier. But I'm not a fan of the sensation of the fingertip touching anything yet. So Butch thought of another solution to try and make things easier: a box of rubber fingertips in 5 different sizes. Here I am typing this blog out now. The second largest rubber fingertip (really they're like thimbles) fits best over the bandaid at the moment. It doesn't squeeze on the fing

 Sigh, my finger was tingling pretty much all day and I couldn't figure out if it was due to how it was bandaged up or if it was damaged nerves from my finger tip. As predicted, my typing at work was slow. That kind of worked with the students though because it gave them more time to research for themselves. A few times they would tag me and say they found the answer before I finished getting my response all done up for them. We also got our extension letters today...full time up until May 2022! Dad is really looking out for me. At that point I only need another 6.5 months extension and I will reach permanent status! I'm totally intimidated by knives or anything that cuts now. I boiled eggs for my future breakfasts instead of making my egg bites. I haven't even opened a can of tuna for my lunches.  I have not tried going for a treadmill walk yet. Maybe I'll try a bit tomorrow morning.

 I don't know what's wrong with me. I was making eggplant lasagna noodles when I sliced my ring finger on the mandolin. Butch was taking a shower. I couldn't get the bleeding to stop and my head was starting to spin from panic or anxiety. By the time he was done his shower I had my head on the dining table with my finger in the air and I was breathing deeply to try and keep from swooning. I had to break keto and had a pineapple soda and a couple of shortbread cookies to get my blood sugar up. The medicentre (did you know you need an appointment now?! What are you supposed to do if it's not quite an emergency but Urgent Care is closed?! Luckily they took me in.) had me putting pressure on it for almost an hour and a half and then they would apply a pressure bandage. The backup plan was cauterizing the wound.  The bleeding was slowing down but not stopping so cauterizing was in order. They weren't joking when they warned it would likely hurt. I had to have them give m

 This morning I had a dentist appointment and I did not want to get mom's aircast dirty outside so I decided to try my luck with just my ankle support in my shearling boot. I did not have to walk far from the car to the dental office and I even took a couple of side trips to Torrid, Hot Topic and the food court. It was pretty much a success! I feel like I was barely walking with any limp at this point. The only time I feel any discomfort is when I test my ankle's range by flexing it in different directions. I think tomorrow I will try doing some walking on the treadmill but at a slower pace than my usual, maybe I'll try 3km/h...it's slower than a leisurely pace but I don't want to jinx anything right now. We'll keep Zumba on hiatus. Then when Butch was done his work in the garage we went wandering around Walmart to grab our groceries for the week and just spend some time together out of the house. More walking! I guess if I'm really honest the ankle was a li

What a frustrating dinner! We already decided last night what we were going to order for dinner tonight since I'm all keto and it's a Lenten Friday. So I ordered it from Globefish (yum!) and it was going to be taking longer than usual but that was fine. The big problem was that they gave us the completely wrong order! The driver was long gone and SkipTheDishes just refunded our money but that left us with no food. I was annoyed and hangry so Butch ordered McDonalds while I browsed where we could possibly get more food that I could eat. I got two filet o fish patties with lettuce and no bun.  I ended up getting more food from Kiro Sushi -- it was good and thank goodness they were still open, but it's not my Globefish order. What was more frustrating was that it looks like drivers are allowed to take more stops in between picking up your order and dropping it off. I'm not sure if they have factored that into the estimated wait time or what. Not to mention it's not fai

 I need to get better at meal planning. This week we have ordered so much delivery for dinner because either I have finished work too late or dawdled too long and it would take too much time for me to prepare dinner or when I find a recipe that I could make (that also works with my current keto-ness) I'm missing ingredient X or Y. It has been an expensive week for food and probably not great for me salt-wise. Today I had a great steak but now my stomach is rumbling pretty bad -- not sure if it was due to dinner or from my lunch (I made a falafel salad). Mom's aircast is fantastic! I can move so much faster, with less discomfort, and my ankle is well protected. Win win win. To the point I sometimes become too comfortable and forget that my ankle is still healing, especially during my first steps in the morning before I put the aircast back on. Hopefully I will be able to walk on the treadmill again - even if it is slower - by next week.

 Today was not as painful as I worried it would be. Maybe it's because the family was together for at least a couple of hours. I know mom gets comfort from being at mass but seeing the altar where dad's coffin was facing during his final hours on Earth still choked me up. Being at mass hurts me. We were able to get my sister's x-ray and lab work down within the morning.  J.Lo got a fill-up and a much-needed wash. And then we reunited with my brother and his girlfriend at Brokin' Yolk for lunch before visiting dad. It was the first meal all four of us have had together since well before Christmas. I think that helped a lot. Social media kind of hurt but I still checked in a few times to see comments left by family and friends...good friends also texted me and my great-uncle even called this morning but I missed his call. He sent his prayers and birthday wishes and lit a candle for dad and all of those who have left before us. Regarding a more physical pain; I was lucky e

 In a few hours it's going to be dad's birthday again. He would have turned 71 tomorrow. Thinking of him still takes my breath away. Gone too soon and leaving us all with a hole in our hearts that I don't know how to fill, or how long we must live with this ache until we are reunited. And once again, it's a pandemic birthday. So we bend the rules a touch just so we can at least have one another in this time that should have been a celebration. Just a mom/wife and her three grown children. The partners have to work; cousins and friends cannot come and join them because of gathering limitations imposed by the government. Lonely and heartbroken. Sigh, it's very dramatic. I'm sorry. I'm not sure how to heal, or if I even want to heal much at all.

 The care manager at my grandma's nursing home replied to my email and even sent us some photos. It looks like grandma did have a sore where she was sitting. I'm sad it took so long for them to find it but I'm glad it is being attended to now. I also asked them about her missing watch. Good news: they found a watch!  Bad news: it's not her watch. Hopefully it's just in her drawer, I really wish we could go to her room and help her look. I think it would be comforting for her.

 I am so annoyed with myself. After our visit with grandma my sister and I were walking back to my car when I twisted my ankle. Even thought I caught myself and didn't fall, I twisted my ankle a second time literally two steps into continuing my walk. I have not twisted my ankle in years although I was notorious for twisting my ankle when I was a kid. I'm unsure whether it's a sprain but so far I have not been able to "walk it off." My brother and Butch advised me to RICE (Rest, Ice, Compress, Elevate) but it feels like it was such a wasted opportunity of a gorgeous day. It felt better walking to the dining room for dinner but it's still not 100%. Hopefully tomorrow morning it will be better yet. I did not get to do my walk or Zumba today. Butch said maybe it was a sign to take a rest. I think so long as I'm on decent footing for dad's birthday I can take a couple of days off of my workouts.

 One of my favorite shows to watch while I'm on the treadmill is RuPaul's Drag Race -- any of them.  Right now I'm going through All Stars 5. Love Jujubee and Ongina!  Yeah, I guess I'm kind of partial to the Filipinos. :P I truly wish I could catch a drag show here. With COVID it's made even less possible. Last night I thought to check on our local drag troupe "Carly's Angels." It looks like this would have been their 20th year doing the show, but unfortunately there are no planned shows at this time. There's also the drag brunch at Twisted Element, I'll have to see about that one as well. They may not be RuPaul's Drag Race level but it would still be super entertaining. "If you can't love yourself how the hell are you going to love somebody else!"

 Everyone knows that Tim Hortons is my least favorite coffee out there yet I still drink their coffee out of proximity and convenience (never turn down a coffee!) But I become even more contrary when it's Roll Up The Rim Time. As if the universe is playing a prank on me, the prize vehicle this year is a VW Taos. Since when do they ever partner with VW?! Since I didn't want to drink their coffee, that's when. That being said I still have not bought any coffee from them, plus of course they made it less convenient...the rims aren't on the physical cups now. You have to scan when you're at the store or roll on your app after you buy.  Ugh. But a new VW would be nice.

 I am still so tired. Babes figures it's due to the keto diet since I do not have much sugar going on. I'm not sure if I should consult my doctor yet or not. They offered more overtime at work, closing at 11 all weekdays in April. It exhausts me even thinking about it. It's really too bad. I love being helpful around the centre because I am so proud of what we do, but I can't do more at the cost of my own energy and time at this point. Next week is daddy's birthday. The family and I are going to go to mass at Church; they have been pretty good about Covid protocols but I still would prefer to keep the family safe, but it's for dad. It's been months since I have walked in there so I don't know how painful it will be to be there again and imagine dad's casket in front of the alter. A high school classmate mentioned on Facebook today that she was missing her and her dad's birthday breakfast tradition for the 13th year...and she said the same thing a

 Mom has spooked a couple of relatives, such is the problem with her having shared a tablet with dad. The one time she tried to FaceTime with one of my aunts. My poor aunt texted me all concerned that someone might be impersonating dad or stolen his information/identity. Turns out it was mom not realizing she was in dad's account and not her own. And this morning she greeted another relative happy birthday. Never mind that their actual birthday was last year, and the greeting seemed to come from dad from beyond. Again, she was signed in under dad by accident.  I think it's finally time to sign dad out of their tablet. I still have his signons if ever we needed them, but it will help mom just use her own account. :P I did it from my house, so hopefully it worked remotely.

So we finally got a warning about the ice on our sidewalk. Serves us right. Butch had to tend to his mom's car in the garage so after I finished work and my walk on the treadmill I made use of the time alone and tried to chip away at the ice. I made some satisfying holes but I don't think I got to even a quarter of what needs to be done...maybe not even a fifth. So we sprinkled more salt all over the place and I hoped we'd get it done tomorrow easy peasy.  Only I guess the warning states we have to have pavement showing the whole way through by 4:17pm tomorrow.  How are we going to manage that when both of us are working? I guess hopefully enough melted these past couple of hours that I can try to (quietly) get more of it off the concrete tonight. Needless to say I did not manage to do a workout video tonight, I'm way too sore for that. In a way I would say it counts in lieu of the video but if I'm going by the exact words I wrote in my habit tracker -- unless I was

 Another Monday where I work the late shift = another Monday I was able to get al my habit tracker check-boxes ticked off before starting work. I even (finally) put the thawed shrimp in the fridge to good use. We have some italian shrimp spaghetti (squash) which should serve us well for two meals. Since my dinner break is only half an hour Butch has been a doll and arranged our meal on Mondays so I have it all ready for scarfing as soon as I go up the stairs. I had to chuckle to myself on the weekend. Butch and I were talking and I was quite proud of my keto efforts so far...telling him I wouldn't mind having similar meals peppered into our weeks after Lent is over because it has been manageable and I don't go hungry. Turns out I should slow my roll a bit...Lent is only two weeks in! Ah well, all I can say is it's going well. This morning as I prayed the rosary thoughts of dad again came flooding back. His birthday is 9 days away, he would have been 71.  Luckily I'm tak

My sister has another gout flareup. This is her fourth in the past 3 months so I don't know if we should be more concerned. The medication does not seem to be taking her uric acid levels down as much as it should. Is there something wrong with her kidneys? There does not seem to be a gout specialist in Calgary that we can request a referral to. At least our brother has more experience with gout so he can probably give some advice.

 Today I learned that one of my grandma's cousins lives in the States.  Or, rather, he lived in the States. Last month he was out for his usual neighborhood walk when he was randomly attacked. A stranger struck him in the face and he fell to the ground hitting his head. He was brought to the hospital and they initially thought he just had a few scratches but then the hospital learned that he had fractured his skull and was suffering a brain bleed. He sadly passed away a couple of days later. Recently the media announced that they had found the suspect. (And this was when I came to learn about this incident and how he was part of my family.)  He was only a few years older than my mom; so a pretty young cousin of my grandma. He immigrated to the States in the early 00s.  There are rumors that this was a hate-based attack -- that the suspect mistook him for someone Chinese.  And the attacker? Another minority! You would think that one visible minority would not harm another minority -

Tomorrow I will be working my first Saturday of the tax season; also it's a full day of overtime. This should be interesting -- I'm so tired still. My back is kind of sore and my legs feel heavy. The blood pressure is starting to "normalize" back to what I'm used to at least. I tried a curry chicken bowl at Edo with cauliflower rice. It wasn't as good as the Tex-Mex cauliflower rice I had made so that made me kind of proud. Tonight I had a poke bowl from Banzai. Yum! I think that is my favorite go-to when I have to find something to eat on this keto thing. I also had these chocolate coated cookie dough bars that were no sugar and keto certified. They were surprisingly good.

D for Disneyworld  Feel: The excitement and energy of one of the happiest places on Earth (the happiest being Disneyland) See: Mickey and Stitch and Cinderella  Hear: The deep voice of the narrator at the Haunted Mansion  Taste: A Dole whip!  Smell: Those scrumptious churros  E for England  Feel: Disoriented when you look the "wrong" way before crossing the street  See: Those adorable double decker buses  Hear: The lovely accent  Taste: A jacket potato. I thought "it's just a baked potato." I stand corrected.  Smell: The wonderful fragrances at Harrods  F for Fort Santiago  Feel: The historical significance of the walls  See: The big boulders stacked and sealed Hear: The children running around the field  Taste: Halo halo after your tour. :P  Smell: The warm fragrance of the air

I'm going to try something different. I'm going to think of a place or destination for each letter of the alphabet and then list one thing for each of the 5 senses from that place.  A for Alaska  Feel: The cold air emanating from the glaciers  See: Those glaciers calving right in front of you up on deck  Hear: The clap of that calving  Taste: That freshly baked salmon  Smell: The clean refreshing air    B for Banff  Feel: The small town vibe with the buzz of all the descending tourists  See: Lake Louise and her gorgeous blue water  Hear: The rush of the waterfalls  Taste: Beavertail pastry :P  Smell: The warm fragrant air inside Beavertails  C for Calgary  Feel: The warm Chinook winds in the winter  See: The beautiful Rockies just over there  Hear: The country music bombarding you during Stampede  Taste: The delicious barbecue at Prairie Dog Brewery  Smell: The yummy coffee at Analog

Mom actually coordinated a Facebook video chat with all us kids. I'm glad she reached out; it seemed to cheer everyone up. Sometimes we don't realize how much we need "together" time until we actually get a taste of it again.  We were all goofing off with the photo filters and the sleepy teddy bear filter got our attention for a while. My brother captured a few group photos of all us "teddies" in our respective beds. It will be fun to show grandma sometime.  Unfortunately I did not contact the recreation coordinator at the care facility early enough to nab a visitation spot for the weekend so me and my sister can see grandma. Hopefully my Facetime slot is still there in its place. Also, as a consolation the coordinator already secured us a spot for the following weekend. I still remain grateful that my grandma's sense of time is kind of murky now.  Tonight I made a Tex-Mex cauliflower rice for dinner. It wasn't too bad; I would make it again. It cert

I'm not sure if it is due to my keto Lenten sacrifice or my heavy period, or maybe my brother's girlfriend's Thrive kickstarted it...but my blood pressure continues to be low, to the point where I actually looked up what is considered to be an unhealthy reading for blood pressure.  Normally I'd be thrilled that the blood pressure readings came down but it was a pretty dramatic and swift drop. Not to mention that since the weekend started I have just felt exhausted and drained. I suppose that part could also be mental wellness. I miss just snuggling with Butch and watching tv. It's amazing how much it factors into things when all of a sudden it's not as available. :P  Not sure when to contact my doctor about these concerns yet. I'm working all this week including Saturday. Maybe next Monday morning. I knocked out all of my habit tracker checkboxes again this morning. Working late shift seems to be pretty productive on a Monday. :)