Taste Like Chicken Tuesday 12/8

Thanks for the start, Chele, I thought that must mean you were feeling at least some better. I get that neck and shoulder tightness due to arthrits but most of the time if I get a headache it's not too bad. How's your energy level? I guess you saw that your Buckeyes and my Wolverines won't be playing this year.

Kathy, did you get the tree finished? Was yesterday your deadline for choosing a health plan, like it was for the Medicare Advantage plans? I'm fortunate that the state takes care of us, so I just go with whatever they negotiate. When we were working, several of us would joke about how lousy the pay was for state employees so we were essentially working for the retirement benefits. I hope your weather is better today. We were discussing mail service the other day and yesterday we were expecting 3 packages and a bunch of mail (mostly investment stuff) and got nothing. One of the packages was delivered at 7:30 this morning but that has been it. We have 2 more packages we are expecting today in addition to what we didn't get yesterday. Quite bizzare! MG meeting went well and I would like to say that's it for the year, but now I have to make sure I have committee chair slots filled for next year and get a start on budget request and expected income. Has your drizzle cleared out? Frost Advisory?? YIKES!! I hope they are just being cautious that it MIGHT happen. I was happy to have a flannel lined face mask when I stopped for gas on the way home today, as it was in the 30s and there was a little breeze.

Tree looks great, Linda! How was the roast? If you can get good premade bread dumplings, I say go for it! Save yourself some work. What kind of Italian cookies do you have from DSIL? You only have 300K cases of CV-19 since Feb? We're well over 400K here so far. I have to look into county level data and do a little math to figure out how many active cases we currently have. Have your sinuses cleared some since you posted this morning?

Becky, I hope there have been no additional "pops" and both upper and lower body are feeling better today. IT bands can be really stubborn to resolve. I hope yours is at least improving a little every week. I'm sure they have added to the Zilker trail of lights since the last time I saw it, which was probably about 1994. I'm envisioning your cloudless sky. I always loved that amazing shade of blue. Great news that DN is improving. I would guess she will have that throat swelling for at least a little while longer.

If the one accident was all Zoe had, Liz, that sounds like an improvement. When it's raining, Arya doesn't even want to get off the porch. Did Gary get a Christmas tree? I had to replace some of my window candles and found an awesome sale last week at Hobby Lobby. DM always had a lot of luck on artificial trees at Michaels. We had over 8K new covid cases yesterday and over 6K more today. It's getting out of hand, but I don't see our Republican governor actually doing much of anything. Positivity has been 18%+ both days. Will your dental work be completed by Christmas? How are the aches and pains?

Denise, are you working a lot of OT today? I guess you heard about the armed mob at your secretary of state's house. Some people think they have a right to misbehave right now.

I had a dental cleaning today and things were quite different. The plaque was scraped off and my hygienist was practically in a haz mat suit. The only weird thing was that the dentist checked my teeth (and before I could put my mask back on ) then he took his mask off. I hope he's had a recent negative covid test. I got a strange VM yesterday from someone in Hawaii with questions about the doctoral dissertation I successfully defended over 17 years ago. It's very strange that someone has any interest in a document that old, given that I wasn't permitted to have any references more than 5 years old. I haven't returned the call and am not sure what I'll do. I have no idea how she would have gotten my home phone number. Before I went to the dentist, I stopped at the gym and then went to WM Neighborhood Market and stocked up on organic ground beef and turkey plus frozen veggies for Arya, and did the rest of our shopping for the week. There were only a couple of checkout lines open and the lines at the self-check were even longer. Not happy!

Chele, as if I owned any footie pajamas!

Karen, LOL on getting the tree finished! I finished spreading the branches out, put the tree skirt under it and put the angel on top and made sure everything lights up. Then I got 6 big boxes down from the closet. I was up and down on the step ladder, so that is it for the tree for today! I also attended a genealogy webinar and did a load of laundry. The deadline for Obamacare is the 15th, so I still have a week. If I do nothing, the plan I'm on now renews automatically. None of the companies I've worked for had health benefits in retirement. DS can get them since she works for county government, but it's very expensive. They haven't decided whether or not to take that or do something else. Strange on the phone call. If your number is listed, she might have gotten it that way.

For those experiencing issues with the mail, I just got this from a GF who is ass't postmaster and a union rep. She has covid and is recovering.  "Mail volume is crazy. Many of us have COVID, from work. Carriers are taking two routes apiece because too many quarantined. Plants have trucks blocking highways where they are too many to unload. Clerks are in PO until 10:00pm trying to get all the mail out and/or sorted. You may have multiple carriers over the next days. One may bring mail and another pkg."