Category: irl: health

[belated] weeknotes (oct. 5-11, 2025)

Life Updates

This week had some bummer personal things happening– mom went briefly into the hospital and had several tests done for potential mini-stroke, but luckily(?) it turned out to probably be an autoimmune thing instead. She got some meds for the symptoms and is doing better! (Or so she says, anyway.)

I had headaches 3/7 days and am sure part of it was the pillow I’m using, which is insufficiently cushion-y. But probably also partly the stress, and dehydration.

🐈‍⬛ The most curious cat, Mr W, has started going up onto the counters and sniffing every single food item I make, plus then trying to touch it and/or eat it. If I put a dirty dish in the sink, he tries to get in there at it. He also started drinking dirty sink water, which is gross, so I put a water bowl up on the counter to distract him from that and it seems to have worked.

Miss K is a little more chill but only because she doesn’t like jumping higher than the bed OR going into cabinets. She does like to sit on my lap for 5-8 hours a day, though, and despises my laptop. ;D

Continue reading “[belated] weeknotes (oct. 5-11, 2025)”

📝 weeknotes (sept. 14-20, 2025)

Life Updates

Well, that was a longer gap than I meant to do! From my last update to now:

  • have left my Ann Arbor catsit
  • flown to California to visit parents and sat in a SoCal heatwave for a week
  • bought new suitcase, repacked items, swapped out clothes, etc.
  • flew to new catsit in undisclosed location (in the Western part of the US, anyway)
  • settled into new catsit for about a week, then
  • became vaguely ill for a week and
  • only now picked up laptop and felt energetic using it

I’ll do a more precise (friends-only) catsit update to introduce y’all to the new kitties, but overall I’m really enjoying this new location– though I miss the garden from Ann Arbor! I do have a balcony with a view of the river with an enormous amount of ducks here, though.

Continue reading “📝 weeknotes (sept. 14-20, 2025)”

📝 weeknotes (july 27-august 2)

Life Updates

Finally starting to feel settled into this housesit in Ann Arbor. Though the bed is comfortable, I haven’t been sleeping well. I wake up exhausted, which isn’t good. Feeling tired when I wake up makes me not want to go out and do things, so I’ve mostly been in the house slumping on the (admittedly very comfortable) couch with my books and my Roku.

But this week things changed! I dragged myself outside and did a walk around the neighborhood on Tuesday, one of the less-hot days, and I’ve switched to spending my mornings outside in the garden with my book and coffee mug. It’s an urban area, but this particular plot/neighborhood is ripe with tall trees and plants, so there’s lots of creatures to watch. Yesterday I spotted a goldfinch, and today I saw a chipmunk and a groundhog.

This morning I woke up feeling normal, so I think it’s working. I may start going on sunset walks when the temps cool down in the evening.

🐈‍⬛ The cats continue to mostly ignore me, but in a benevolent way. Miss F and Mr N have started letting me pet them more, but Mr B still runs if I get closer than 10 feet away. I suppose the upside is they’re very independent and I can get a lot of work done without having to shoo them off my keyboard.

Media Consumption

🎧 Lots of podcasts this week. Caught up on My Brother, My Brother and Me episodes from the last two or three months. I used to listen to eps regularly but this past year in particular it’s gotten increasingly obvious that they are aware that they’re, like, being watched? Like, it’s a little too much “looking for the bit” so they can clip it and put it on TikTok.

Also caught up with Too Many Tabs, which has topics I enjoy but which has gotten maybe a bit more shout-y since they started recording videos for Youtube. I’m sensing a trend.

Also listened to a great episode of Gender Spiral Podcast, which I wrote about here (DW).

📺 Continuing on my Midsomer Murder binge-watching. I’ve made it through DS Troy and have gotten into DS Scott’s episodes.

One thing I’ve been thinking about more during this rewatch is what happens to all these victims and secondary characters after the episode ends. So many people who find a dead body, lost a loved one, had a family secret exposed, etc. and they just disappear from the world entirely.

Hardly anyone shows back up again– there were a few times in the early seasons when a character from a previous episode would be referenced, and there’s one memorable time in season 10 (I think) where the same two character actors show up as the sister/nephew of characters from season 1. But other than that it’s just a swath of murder and misery in this one small UK county and nobody talks about it!

Which obviously has to happen, or else the story would never continue. But I think it’d make for an interesting story (perhaps a satire), to focus on what happens after a TV murder mystery. Anyone know if something like that exists? I’d be very surprised if a satirical author hadn’t put something out already.

📖 Still reading Moby-Duck, and am about halfway through it now. Very much enjoying it (especially when I’m reading it under a tree in a garden).

Food & Dining

I ate a salad and am very proud of myself.

Basically I ate all the good stuff from my major order (DW) and am down to eggs and beans, so I need to head out this week to get rice and potatoes and other starchy things I can put eggs and beans on.

Besides that, though, I actually have quite a bit left from my last order and I think I can put off ordering again for at least another week. Or at least until DoorDash gives me another coupon.

Web Updates

Joined heaps of fanlistings and a few cliques, as well as two site directories (Smooth Sailing and LinkLane.net) and a webring (No AI Webring). I joined the MelonLand Forum and am dipping my toes in.

New page added to the main site:

And blog posts:

Looking Forward

Keep working on my website, write more blog posts, finish Moby-Duck and maybe one more book, perhaps start an animal-spotting log for this garden because WOW and catch up on my Dreamwidth correspondence.

🗨️ 5 things is a post

1. Had an awful dream about my gums/teeth where basically I would need surgery to fix whatever was wrong– I never have medical stress dreams EXCEPT about my teeth, which is very annoying because it’s always some exaggeration of something that could legit go wrong. I think my main issue right now is gum recession, probably because I keep sleeping with my mouth open which dries my gums out. So I’m going to find some mouth tape and see if that helps.

2. I found some great conductor POV train videos in the UK on Youtube. These are (I think) tourist train routes, so the focus is on beautiful landscapes and such which is more interesting than the warehouse views you usually see.

3. I also really like watching “walk around town” videos, especially in tourist destinations. It gives me more of an idea of what a place is like and whether I’d actually enjoy visiting it, or if it’s way too crowded and chaotic and I’d rather just avoid it. Like, Capri is beautiful but it’s practically wall-to-wall tourists so idk if it’ll be on my to-visit list.

4. My old iPod battery is finally kicking the dirt, as it’s charging but not showing that it’s charging. I’ve resisted opening it and replacing things because a) it’s hard to crack this one open and b) I’d want to replace the harddrive as well and that costs $$, so I’m hoping it can hang on for a bit longer so I can maybe source some discounted parts on eBay.

5. Currently reading the second book in KD Edwards’ Tarot Sequence and really enjoying it, though it DOES have a lot of (mostly off-page) trauma happening to a lot of characters, including the protagonist, which is tough to read. But I like the mix of fantasy and mystery (with a bit of romance) and the writing is very good. And it’s queer! Yay!