From the Hall of Medi-Pedi to the Shores of Triple A

At long last I was going to see my podiatrist first thing this morning about my hallux issue and to get my medical pedicure. As the hallux has been causing me pain I didn't want to walk the six blocks if I could help it, so I got in the car, turned the key, and... nothing. A few clicks. Dead battery. So I wound up walking a few blocks and grabbing a bus for the other 3-4 blocks (worth it!). Turns out the hallux (big toe) is where the sciatic nerve winds up, which is why I've felt the pain so acutely when my gait or IT band issues or whatever causes things to rub against that area. anyway, one trim later I was able to walk back up the hill six blocks to home without lasting pain, and immediately called AAA to give us a jump-start. Their road assistance guy Joel came in amazingly short order, gave us the needed jolt, told us to leave the engine running for an hour to recharge, and that the battery was definitely going. So I made an appointment tomorrow with my local Mavis, and about 90 minutes later we were off to the supermarket. Alas, we ran into the same issue when I tried to start the car to get out of the supermarket parking lot. Turns out the battery was so much on its last legs that it wouldn't hold a charge. So Joel swung by again, this time to change out the battery completely. Upon arriving home, I cancelled the Mavis appointment and started gathering all the files I had on my current car in anticipation of buying or leasing an new one. Turns out this 22-year-old baby is worth at least $1K trade-in according to KBB, so when we finally get to a local Hyundai dealer let's hope they honor that. After all, it's got a brand-new battery.

The Neverending Salad

I woke up way too early with a calf cramp, and by the time I got going for good I'd decided to try and stand in the kitchen for awhile to ease the calf and make myself an omelet for breakfast. I'd initially intended on using the lox, but I opted to do that tomorrow instead and then I realized I needed to pan fry onions and mushrooms, as I wanted to put cold shrooms into a salad later on. So that got done, then throughout the day I prepped other ingredients for the salad, and made myself enough for at least three meals. There's always something I forget to add, and today it was the tomatoes, so they'll go into the storage containers along with the leftover salad. I must have done at least three rounds of washing up as well, as I generally like to clean up after myself soon after food prep. Oh, and I finally finished compiling a list of all my bank accounts, credit cards, and stuff I'm in the process of inheriting from my parents' estate, a project that had been in the works for some time. Now I can sleep!

Silly Site o' the Day

Unusually for me, I had more down time than usual at the office today, so busied myself with my usual visits to the in-office partners I support and my fellow exec assistants. I didn't move around too much, as I didn't want to aggravate my foot (seeing the podiatrist at last on Saturday, well overdue), but if I were able to walk better I'd check out some zebra boards:

 Via Laughing Squid.

Not Taxing At All

As we've already received our tax refunds, we were unfazed by the Ides of April, and I made some more incremental forward movement on my assets, deciding to have my paychecks direct deposited into my newer checking account with a bank offering a higher APY (and the ability to bank in the UK) than the one I've been with. It took me a few tries to change the direct deposit procedure on my work laptop, but with Robin looking on I finally got the hang of it. Let's hope it works when I get paid on Friday! Next up, finishing my financial assets Excel file so I can better keep track of things and not have to use checkbooks to duplicate effort. At my age, it's much easier to see spreadsheets than a tiny checkbook!

Silly Site o' the Day

Are you not entertained? You may be by Minerva:

Via Laughing Squid.
 

Silly Site o' the Day

Witness the pure genius that is Pure Genius! Great, great AI takedown. Via PZ Myers.

Incremental Forward Movement

Like a friggin' wristwatch's second hand. I gave myself two major chores to do today: steaming some lighter tops with the summer-like weather on the horizon, and catching up on finances. Both were accomplished, and I even made some headway on my list of Where I Have Money Now, but that felt way too much like work so I'll finish it another time. (Especially after throwing away lots of old maps and timetables made obsolete by yon internet.) Tomorrow we get the laundry done, put away my winter comforter, and get back into the weekday routine.

Blossoms Everywhere

And of course that means allergic lethargy (allethargy?), at least in the Riggs Residence where we seem to be affected more and more every year by the colorful and lovely and very welcome spring buds. I mean, welcome in the sense that it's really been a tough winter, but it's very hard for us to sustain any kind of energy when we're this wiped all the time, despite allergy meds. So we had been thinking about car shopping but, after seeing the craziness on the roads despite it still being spring break (commuting to and from the fairly empty supermarket was a breeze), we opted to stay inside. I still want to accomplish some things, and even made a spring cleaning list of sorts, but it's all dependent on our pollen tolerances (pollerances?), outside noise (lots of screechy childers during this spring break), and not overdoing it.

Down to Earth

Well, both NY baseball teams are losing, so it's a good evening to watch the crew of Artemis II splash down in the Pacific off the coast of San Diego. Everything was so lovely and precise! I'm both elated that we're exploring space again and disappointed that it took us this long. Without a made-up international rivalry things just don't get done, I guess. But we're certainly trending in the right direction there, and I hope the same for my personal and professional life...

Silly Site o' the Day

Still a bit too cold for me but things are trending upward weather-wise, so check out this interactive isometric pixel art map of almost all of NYC (via Laughing Squid). I say "almost" because you cannot see our house from there, this map considers us part of Yonkers rather than the Bronx so, you know, bummer.