Cirdacian What?

Ugh, I've been up since around 4:30 AM, very uncomfortable and too warm in bed, even with the AC on. Fortunately we were finally able to give the ACs a rest during the morning, it's been either too hot or too humid to turn them off, but they were back in business by early afternoon. Such is summer! A nice easy day at work, as most of my partners were either busy with inspections or out of town, so that made for a nice change and I was very grateful considering my lack of sleep. Robin and I both dozed for a bit before putting on the ACs and then again after dinner this evening, so I'm feeling almost human now and ready for whatever comes up at the office tomorrow. But first, perhaps a bit more sleep?

Back on the Bike

Well, at least for today, and it was only ten minutes. But when I actually feel rested enough and I have the energy and incentive from watching the Tour de France, yeah, I can do ten minutes. Besides, I relaxed the rest of the day, watching the boring-ass World Cup final (yesterday's game was so much better!) and bits of baseball games (Mets won, Yankees split their day-night double header) and even some golf. Mostly sports-less tomorrow, but that's a work day anyway. I hope my body kicks into gear and makes the bike a habit! Particularly since I now have new flexible watch bands in multiple colors (and some wires to hang them on) so wearing my Apple watch to time my exercise won't bother me as much. And if I don't go on? Not beating myself up over it, I have to listen to my body and whether it needs sleep or movement.

A Game for the Ages?

England has moved up in the FIFA world rankings with today's defeat of France in a truly bizarre and memorable World Cup third-place game. They were up 4-0 at halftime, and it was clear to most thinking people that France had no real intention of playing. I mean, I wore an "I Love England Football" t-shirt today, i know they're good, but they're normally not "beat France" good. AI claims "France's lack of effort or intensity in their games stems from two main issues: tactical frustration in their World Cup exit to Spain and morale issues," but considering FIFA's longstanding corruption I believe money changing hands must also have been involved somehow. Alas, we'll never know. At least I can take some comfort in believing that Tadej Pogačar won this stage of the Tour de France fair and square, he's phenomenal and so pleasant to watch! Mets lost today, of course, and the Yankees game has been postponed until tomorrow as the weather is really nasty. It started raining about when we exited the supermarket so we got a tad wet when bringing up the groceries, but driving conditions weren't dangerous until a bit later and now... well, I wouldn't want to go out in this mess. Maybe it'll finally cleanse the air quality. In other unsurprising news, we continue to organize for our England trip, and Robin's been amazing at frothing heavy cream so it almost got to the consistency of proper English cream so I could enjoy it with my strawberries, as well as sorting my iPad charger as the one I'd been using suddenly stopped working. All I've done is consolidate some more shopping bags as the ones we've been using are starting to fray, file away the Mom's estate paperwork, apply a solution on which to hang my Apple watch bands so I can sort through them the way I do my earrings, and of course buy more watch bands as I don't have any real vibrant ones (or blue ones that resemble KPMG's corporate colors and I want one of those for our Family Day at the Bronx Zoo in two weeks). Nothing much really.

Ping Ponging

Fun day at work and at home, trying to juggle lots of job and personal stuff at the same time. I feel like I'm at a ping pong game or something. But personal stuff (more things from Mom's estate) is done, I have a bunch more papers to file, and I'm in good shape at work as usual. Even had a chance to speak with my uncle this afternoon in his new senior living complex (via FaceTime no less, Mom could never have done that!). Big weekend awaits for footie, with England/France tomorrow in the consolation game and Spain v. Argentina in the big one, commandeered to a ludicrous extent by US insistence on four quarters throughout the tournament (these "hydration breaks" totally ruin the flow of the game) and an actual Halftime Show. And maybe, just maybe, I'll get back on the bike over the weekend, if I can breathe by that point.

Choking Hazard

I can't remember being this masked up out of doors since 2023, when Mom was still living in Bayville and we wore masks in the car driving down to New Jersey to see her. Today it was all public transit and walking, but even crossing Ninth Avenue to the Moynihan train station was difficult. The office was nicely hermetically sealed, however, and I'm fairly well caught up with job work. Maybe things will get better tomorrow, when I don't have to leave the house anyway.

Quality of Life

The air quality rose to dangerous levels today due to the Canadian wildfires wafting down to cover much of the northern US. Thank goodness I work from home on most Wednesdays so I didn't have to go out anywhere, although I believe some of the bad air did come through to our apartment. Certainly it affected us both physically, because we're Olds. Something else that came through our apartment was our downstairs neighbor with his daughter - huge comic book fans, and the daughter is an illustrator. She was positively drooling over Robin's work, and they showed us photos from the various cosplays they've done at comic conventions. Made me long for my "previous" life before it got too unwieldy to travel and Friends of Lulu's mission was more or less accomplished and Robin wasn't really having that much fun any more (hey, those cons are work for him). But it's wonderful to have "fans" living in the same house as us! Not coming through today was England; I honestly didn't expect them to win the semi-finals against friggin' Argentina, but I also didn't expect things to get so nasty. Ah well, I get to see them battle France for third place in the Hundred Hours War on Saturday, sans England shirt as that's finally in the laundry.

Gearing Up

A very hot, windy day where I work, but no issues walking, so the hallux is holding up okay. I schlepped an Amazon return into Whole Foods, where I usually get my lunch, and because of the weather I decided to splurge for a 2-liter bottle of iced tea to pour from during the afternoon. Well, enough of it was left over by the time for my homeward commute that I took it home along with my laptop and, while I was glad to have it during the few minutes in direct sunshine waiting for the local bus, I really can't carry that much stuff any more over great distances. But I'm home now, the All-Star game is underway, I cannot believe France is out of the World Cup on Bastille Day!, and I'm ready for bed again. More heat tomorrow but I'm working from home again.

The Calm Before

No baseball (Home Run Derby doesn't count, particularly as they've changed the rules again and none of it really matters anyway), no footie, weather is decent enough to have had the windows open for a few hours this morning but we're back to AC... I feel like I'm in a holding pattern again. I got nothin'. Work is well in hand, took a couple hours PTO as I felt positively drugged, but nothing much to watch...

Steamy

I didn't go out today, although Robin's been downstairs to the front door at least once with an Amazon pickup (I laid out my weekly pills and supplements this morning and found I needed to order more of the latter, so those will be here any minute), but the heat still permeates and makes us both feel kind of drugged. So I watched some Tour de France and both NY baseball teams (so not worth it) and odd sports like cricket, but mostly rested and did the dishes and... oh yeah, steamed about 7 shirts for work, so I consider that a good day. Next I'll have to get up enough energy (which I did NOT have today) to get back on the exercise bike. But for now, I'm catching up on my debit accounts...

Through to the Semis!

I can't believe I'm undergoing World Cup withdrawal, but I really got into it this year. I mean, I'm not as obsessive as our mayor, but once you get to the quarter finals (even the Gang of 8) there have been some enjoyable games. And I didn't expect England to beat Norway, so the fact that they did made it even more fun for this binational household. Certainly more fun than the crispy rice hot dog we had at Kura. Folks, please stay away from that, if you value your palates and stomachs. Other than that, the sushi was lovely, the food shopping reasonable, and my hallux behaved. Next on the weekend agenda, catching up on personal finances (as opposed to inherited ones) and steaming some tops to wear to work because I'm definitely not going to want to do that with the rising temps.