Category: introspective

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Week in Review – October 4, 2026

Happy Spooky Season!

This was a bit of a stressful week, so I was glad for the weekend. I had to go into the office for two days to do some training, which always takes a lot out of me. I did have Wednesday off, though, so that was nice.

Michael is debating whether to stop going to his social skills group. He has been unhappy with it for a little while but isn’t 100% sure what he wants to do yet. They are playing D&D together today, so he is going to see how it goes.

We did get some good news from the neurologist that his bloodwork and brain MRI were clean. We had been referred to her based on the results of a study the GI doctor did. Now that anything neurological has been ruled out, we will likely be following up with a specialized motility clinic for help with both his swallowing and constipation issues.

My friend Kim was over on Saturday and we had lunch and watched a new movie called The Love Hypothesis. It is based on a book by Ali Hazelwood, whom I have not read. The movie was excellent! I think her books can be pretty steamy, but the movie only had one explicit scene, so that was good. We both enjoyed it very much.

I only finished one book this week – Time to Shine by Rachel Reid. It is an MM hockey romance and I really enjoyed it. It is a slow-burn romance but definitely has a lot of spice once it gets going. I especially liked the character of Langdon as he tries to figure out if he is asexual or demisexual.

I hope everyone is enjoying the change of seasons! I am very happy for fall to be here in Pennsylvania!

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A Quiet Week

Peanut Butter is slightly obsessed with his new catnip toy!

This was a pretty quiet week for me. I didn’t have any appointments and I didn’t have to take Michael anywhere other than work. On Friday, I did have a friend over who had a rough week and needed some company. We ate Chinese takeout and did a puzzle, which was nice.

I only finished one book this week – Nobody’s Perfect by Sally Kilpatrick. It was one of the Amazon First Reads I got for free back in late 2024, and I finally got around to reading it. I stopped getting those over a year ago because I have so many books I am more interested in on my list, but I am trying to read the ones I did get.

The story was enjoyable and had some funny moments. It was a good entry into the “finding your way after divorce” genre. Here’s the blurb about it:

Vivian Quackenbush enjoys a typical life. She has winesday evenings with her two best friends. Her son is in college. She and her husband, Mitch, are planning the next move for their empty-nester future. But to Vivian’s blindsided surprise…not together.

After nearly twenty-five years of marriage, Mitch wants a divorce. He confesses that he doesn’t love her anymore. He never even liked her chicken salad! Brutal. What is Vivian to do but channel her anger, frustration, and pain into a video she posts online. Ill advised? Perhaps. Cathartic? Absolutely. Overnight, Vivian goes viral. Millions of views and counting—to Mitch’s fury, her son’s embarrassment, her mother’s support, and the media’s delight. For Vivian, it’s a moment of hide or lean into it. Vivian 2.0 chooses to lean—maybe even toward the younger single father next door.

Now Vivian is wondering where she goes from here. She’s discovering that somewhere in her trending if upended life, she’ll have to figure out who she really wants to be.

I have to go into the office to do some more training on Monday and Tuesday, but then I have Wednesday off, which I am looking forward to.

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Mini Staycation

This week was a good one. I took three days off of work and really appreciated the break, especially after having to go into the office and train a new employee for the first two days. That went well, but it took a lot out of me.

On Wednesday, I took Michael for a brain MRI. The doctors want to see if his swallowing issues are neurological given that one of the earlier tests indicated there might be a nerve related problem. He did great during the test. He said the gave him headphones and a blindfold and he was pretty comfortable. After that, we dropped off a puzzle I had picked up for a friend at the thrift store and then we went out for breakfast.

On Thursday, I went for some routine bloodwork. After I took Michael to work, I went to a nearby library that was having a sale. I was mainly looking for puzzles, but I only found one I wanted. Then I went to the orthodontist to get my next set of Invisalign trays.

That was the end of my appointments for the week. I did have some things on my to do list at home, but I spent the bulk of my time watching the livestream from the 2026 World Jigsaw Puzzle Championship happening in Valladolid, Spain.

On Friday evening,our friends Bill & Jenn came over for dinner. I made chicken teriyaki and they brought killer brownies (brownie base with blondie top). We had a wonderful time with them and made plans to get together sooner next time!

Today it was back to my usual weekend routine of hanging out with my friend Kim for lunch and a movie at her place and then logging into work for about an hour for some reports I do. I am looking forward to one more day of relaxing before work starts again on Monday.

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Mid-September Catch Up

We have had quite the year with the laundry in our apartment building. Our apartment is on the first floor and the laundry is across the hall, which is quite convenient. There have been two occasions this year where something went wrong with the washer and there was water all over the floor in the laundry room when I went to wash clothes. The laundry machines are provided and maintained by Clean Pay, not by our apartment complex, so I contacted them and they came out and repaired the machine.

I was able to do a couple of loads, but then another time I went and there was an out of order sign on the washer. I emailed Clean Pay and got no response. After a few days, I called them and after being in a queue for about 5 minutes, I got sent to a voicemail. I left a message but got no response. After that, I talked to the apartment leasing office about it and learned that the machines were going to be replaced soon.

We did go to a laundromat one time, but since then we have been able to do laundry at a friend’s house. She has four dogs, and one of them, Darcy, thinks warm laundry is the best thing in the entire world. Anytime he can get in a basket or pile of it, he is right there, as evidenced by the picture above!

One of the puzzle stores I order from offers 20% off for three or more puzzles plus free shipping over a certain dollar amount. When I am very close to the free shipping, I will sometimes add a mini puzzle to my order to get over the threshold. This is one of those, a 100-piece puzzle from New York Puzzle Company. The artist is Loré Pemberton, who has had many puzzles made of her art.

I did this one on a midday break one day and really enjoyed it. This brand is know for its random cut, which I sometimes find difficult in a larger puzzle. This size was the perfect puzzle snack.

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Happy Anniversary to Me!

Today marks 10 years since I started posting on this blog. I actually started blogging back in 2008 and have had a few different ones over the years, but this one has been going for a decade now!

I primarily blog as a sort of journal for myself to look back over and see what I have been interested in or thought worthwhile to document over the years. I am really thankful to have a small group of readers and commentors, though, as it adds so much to the experience to share it with other people.

Here’s to many more years of sharing whatever I get up to on this blog!

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Week in Review: July 26, 2026

I met with my psychiatrist this week, and we decided I would come off the new med I have been trying out. We are going to give it a few weeks with just the two I was already taking and see how I feel. I am hopeful that things will be okay; it would be nice not to have to try any other meds. I am also very hopeful that I will be less tired soon.

Work is going well. I went into the office on Tuesday to train two new employees. They are not in customer service, so they just needed the basics to be able to use the computer system in their area. I was pretty tired by the end from talking so much, but we had a really productive day.

I got some sad news this week that my library will no longer be offering Hoopla, which is an app that allows you to borrow ebooks and audiobooks as well as movies. I have a bunch of books on my to read list that were only available through that method (as opposed to Libby or as a physical book), and I really wish they had given us more notice so I could have prioritized reading those titles. I picked the one I most wanted to read and am working on reading that before access is cut off at the end of this month.

I found out later that they are offering a new app called Cloud Library. I downloaded it and looked for a bunch of titles from my list, but didn’t find many. I don’t know if that means they haven’t added many titles yet or if they don’t have the types of books I like on that app. The new app does not offer movies, either. Most of the books I want to read are available on Libby, so I am really hoping nothing happens to that avenue for borrowing ebooks.

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Week in Review: July 19, 2026

Last week was pretty quiet for me. It was also a short work week because I took Friday off. It was so nice to have an extra day to relax. I did some reading and watched a couple of shows I have been wanting to see. I also caught up on taking pictures of my finished puzzles and getting them put away.

Today I decluttered and organized one of my hall closets. I made enough room to move three boxes of Michael’s old Lego pieces/sets from one of my bedroom closets and pile them in one corner of the hall closet. This gave me room in my bedroom closet to get two new storage boxes for puzzles. I probably keep too many puzzles, but I like to hold onto any that I think I might like to do again.

I am so thankful for the amount of storage in this apartment. I have more storage here than in either house I have previously owned! I ran out of steam before I filled the new storage boxes, but I’m still happy with the progress I made.

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Week in Review: July 12, 2026

This is going up a day late because I did not feel like getting on the computer yesterday. I had a pretty quiet week, but I did have a quick dinner with Suzanne on Friday and lunch/movie with Kim on Saturday.

My psychiatrist and I are still trying to figure out the new med I am on. I was taking a small dose twice during the day and a bit larger dose at bedtime. I was experiencing a lot of tiredness during the day, to the point where I was falling asleep at my desk. After reducing the daytime dose a bit didn’t help, we switched to me only taking the nighttime dose.

I thought it was getting better, but this morning I fell asleep at my desk again. I am going to give it a few more days and then contact her again to see what we can do. If this doesn’t change, I would like to get off the medication altogether. I already struggle with sleepiness due to diabetes and staying up too late sometimes; I don’t want to compound it with meds.

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Week in Review: July 5, 2026

Yay for a long weekend! Although due to a severe storm in our area, many people lost power, including me. I was taking a nap on Saturday afternoon and woke up in the early evening to find a serious storm taking place outside and the power out. I was on my sectional with the recliner fully reclined and, since it is electric, was unable to put it down. I didn’t want to break it by climbing over the end, so I had to crawl out sideways!

My phone was at pretty low power and our power banks were not charged, but luckily a friend who I texted recommended charging my phone in my car. So I went out and sat in my car for a couple of hours to charge my phone as well as one of the power banks. By 10 pm, I had gotten up to 40%, so I went inside. Thankfully, my power came back on at 2:30 am.

This morning, I went to Brunch Church, which is an annual combined service at our church where we sit around tables and eat brunch during the service. I really enjoyed it, although it got a bit loud and I was a little worn out mentally by the end of it because of all the noise. I had been planning to go the puzzling group at a local library this afternoon, but a large tree came down near them and I don’t know if they have power or not, but they did close for today.

I hope everyone else has had a good holiday weekend and that anyone who lost power will get it back very soon.

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Week in Review: June 28, 2026

This week I started taking the new medication my psychiatrist prescribed for my anxiety, and it has been a struggle. It can be quite sedating for the first couple of weeks, and I am definitely experiencing that. It got to the point on Friday that I couldn’t keep my eyes open at my desk and I had to log off work to lie down. I really hope this effect goes away soon!

On Tuesday, I had a meeting with my son’s new therapist so that he could get some background information before starting therapy with him. I really liked him. I felt like we covered all the important topics and that he seemed to understand a lot about autism. Michael will start meeting with him this coming week, and I’m hopeful that it will go well.

In other news, I won a $50 gift card to Puzzledly from an Instagram giveaway! I was able to order two regular puzzles and one mini puzzle. It was so exciting! I’ll post the puzzles when I get them; they are new releases so they won’t be shipping for a couple of weeks.

I have still been puzzling a lot more than reading. I am only on my fifth book this month. I am currently reading Christmas Island by Natalie Normann.