mousey health

Let me start at the beginning. Last Tuesday I woke up with a stuffy ear. I went to work, didn't worry about it, and then went to Mercury Grill with mother (prior post). As the night progressed, it hurt a little more. When I woke up Wednesday, I thought I had an ear infection. Since I'm a weenie about my ears and was having trouble hearing, I decided to go to the doctor. It's never a good thing when he looks at your "affected area" and can say nothing other than "Oh...hmmm." He thought it might be something called polychondritis, but it was most likely cellulitis. How the poo does someone get cellulitis in their ear? Whatever. He gave me a super duper dose of Augmentin XR, and then he told me if it wasn't markedly better by Friday morning to call him back so we could do IV antibiotics. I went back to work.

By Thursday morning, I was in the hospital. As Wednesday night progressed, the pain became unbearable. Within a few hours of being admitted, I was on IV antibiotics, IV morphine, and some sorta otic drops. As Thurday progressed, I saw my Internist, an ENT, and a Rheumatologist. The ENT caused the most pain EVER when he decided he had to suction some edemic crap out of my ear canal. My father said he was being super gentle, but I felt like he was using a jackhammer and an acetylene torch. He ended up putting a wick in my ear so it would be easier to get the drops down in the canal.

The next few days kinda run together because I was in and out of sleep, pain, and pseudoconsciousness. Simply put, they all together (doctors that is) believe it is not cellulitis. They are going to check the latest blood draws and the MRI from today (in conjunction with a possible biopsy tomorrow) and confer. I'm not the happiest person because if it is what they think it is, I'm in for a long haul. It's nowhere near a death sentence so quit freaking out (you know who you are), but it will be a lifetime of treatment and maintenance. But if there is one thing I have learned in the past 4 days, I HAVE AMAZING FRIENDS AND FAMILY!!!

Thank you all. I love you all! I'll post an update when I know anything new.

mercury grill 8/21/07

Ah the last official night of restaurant week for me! Luckily the immense pain hadn't hit by dinner time on Tuesday. I'll get to that in the next posting.

So mother picked me up and we went to the Mercury Grill. I've listened to her talk about this place for, oh, a couple years now. It always sounded good, so I let her take me there. It definitely lived up to the hype. It was no Craft, but it's a totally different kinda place. For my first course I had the wild mushroom risotto. If it had been a man, I would've married it and had its children! Damn it was good risotto! My main course was a dynamite filet (a perfectly cooked beef filet topped with crab, shrimp, and portobellas in a super spicy aioli). Yummmmm! Mother and I had the same dessert of a chocolate souffle with an amaretto sauce. She topped off her meal with a lot of cream in a little coffee and some port. I had the straight coffee with a bit of kahlua on the side. Such a good meal.

I'm definitely making up for all the good meals in the last couple of weeks with the *fantastic* hospital food now. Thank goodness for contraband!

proof I need a boyfriend 8/17/07

You know it's bad when your excitement for a Friday night is going to three separate stores to buy a vacuum cleaner, getting it home, putting it together, and vacuuming your house. The only thing that made it worse was that I called my mother to brag about my new purchase.

Wow. Someone needs a life!

craft 8/16/07

And then there was Craft. I was a little hesitant to go there at all. It's located in the W Hotel in the Victory Park area of Dallas--totally bougie! I didn't think I could even pretend to look rich enough to darken their door. Luckily Mother let me borrow her car (mine was too filthy for a valet to even deign to park).

I arrived to find Tim had beaten me to the punch. He had already been seated, but he chose to let me have the seat that had a view of the entire restaurant. It can also be said that the boy cleans up well; he looked quite nice in his slate grey shirt and black trousers. I did the simple little black dress with red shoes and red bag. All in all, I think we cleaned up quite well.

Craft had the best restaurant week idea. Most places have a restricted menu from which you choose your 3 courses (one app, one entree, one dessert). While Craft had a restricted menu, all we had to choose was the entree. They then proceeded to bring out small samples of 3 appetizers (romaine with gorgonzola vinaigrette and roasted figs, little shrimps in a lemon aioli, and an heirloom tomato salad with a soy reduction). I think we died a little and saw a glimpse of heaven. After that course, we received our entrees (me: filet of salmon in lemongrass herb broth, Tim: braised beef short rib with shallots and something else) and our selection of sides (braised fingerling potatoes with herb butter, roasted summer vegetables, and an assortment of awesome sauteed mushrooms). As if that wasn't enough to stuff us, they then brought dessert. We had an assortment of fresh ice creams and sorbets (vanilla, pine nut, red currant, and apricot), pannacotta with fresh berries, and a chocolate tort with coffee, brown butter, and white chocolate drizzle...! At that point, we did die and see heaven in that tort.

A fantastic evening of amazing food, good friends, and great conversation.

Kirby's

Last night was the local steak house Kirby's. My parents used to take me there when I was a kid. Mostly, I remember being able to pick a goodie from the goodie basket at the end of the meal (some cheesy little toy that made me behave myself during dinner). Last night, it was all goodies to be had!

The gang and I (for the most part) did well at not choosing all the same meals. There were only 2 choices for the apps so two of us got each. H-Bomb and I had the Lobster Cargot while Lemster and M had the wild boar sausage. Both were quite yummy. For the main course, M and I chose the Australian rack of lamb, H-bomb got the Filet Oscar, and Lemster got the Pepper Steak (my usual if I go now). Once again, yum city! For the last course, M and I once again chose the same thing: the cheesecake drizzled with chocolate ganache. That made for a great little breakfast this morning. H and L got the chocolate spice cake with walnuts and crunchy goodness on top. Damn that was a good meal. However, the best part of it all was the time spent with friends. I think we should all make more time for that in our busy little lives.

Tonight is Craft-Dallas. I'm so excited I could spit.

Hibiscus

Before I talk about the fan-freaking-tastic dinner Mother and I had, I must divulge my afternoon doings.

I started to feel really guilty about NOT exercising in a while. When I finished with all the bloodiness of the afternoon at work, I noticed that the poop pile was very small. I asked my boss if I could leave those samples until morning and leave early (since I'd worked 1.5 hours overtime the day before). He said okay, so I booked it home and did 35 minutes of pilates. Dear Lord, my quads and butt are sore today.

And then there was dinner.

1st course--Dungeoness crab dip with oven roasted crackers
2nd course--
Mother: tenderloin and tomato with Point Reyes blue cheese
me: candied pecan encrusted mahi mahi with pureed sweet potatoes
both: garlic spinach
3rd course: big as your head slice of chocolate goodness cake with ganache, fudgy icing, white chocolate accents and cherry drizzle of some sort (I think I died and went to heaven)

motivation

I lack motivation. I'm only 3 weeks into this new diet/way of life change, and I'm pooped. I haven't "officially" worked out in 6 days (I say officially because I did 2 days of housework during which I built up a sweat). I tried to go this morning, but the alarm clock wasn't far enough away from my "swinging hand of snooze." I'll set it again for the same time tomorrow morning and put it in the next room. Grrr! Why is this so hard? Why is it so easy for other people? At least the blood pressure is still under control. It wouldn't freak me out so much except that this week is restaurant week, and we all know what that means for the naughty mouse. Yummy fattening fantabulous foods from place I could not normally afford to go. Lord, please give me the strength to NOT clean my plate but, rather, to ask for a take away box.

Peace out.

AHA!

Well, I slept like a baby last night. No deconamine before bed must be the trick. Doesn't make sense since all it contains is antihistamine and decongestant. Oh well. Who cares as long as it works when I take it and lets me sleep well when I don't!

As a side note, I did not make it to the gym yesterday (naughty mouse!). However, I did move a crap load of bulky trash out to the curb. I look like I just moved in and pruned the trees--boxes, limbs, and branches all over the edge of my yard. And of course they are all carefully placed as to not block access to the fire hydrant. I think that was a good bit of exercise in its own right. =)

mother of all that is good and holy...!

Yes, yes. Two blogs in one day. But check out this biz-nassss.

Someone here at work was looking at the posted schedules and noticed something interesting about the current night crew schedule. They now have two people doing half of my old job. I had to work 2 benches alone, and now they have two people working one of those benches. Why is it that I was deemed a whiner and troublemaker when I couldn't get everything done as quickly as they wanted? Mind you, there are now 2 people doing in 8 hours what I had to do in as little as 6 hours. Does this mean that I am worth two average people? I'm twice as good?

I'll take that.

hormones, heat, or deconamine?

Long time no blog. Sorry.

I have been uber cranky the past few days. I haven't been sleeping well, so I've been sleepier than normal. Finally Wednesday night/Thursday morning when I woke up at 3:30am, I went out to the thermostat to check it (oh ya, I'd been really hot). Lo and behold, it was all jacked up. I'm guessing that the most recent time the power flickered (or died altogether), the program forgot what the true setting was. My house was 79 degrees in the coolest part. Ugh, no wonder I was hot and cranky. Thanks be to God it wasn't a hot flash. Then comes last night. Again, I awaken at 3am-ish hot and uncomfortable. Did I not reset the thermostat properly? Nope, it was a balmy 72 in the house. WTF??? So now I'm wondering if the deconamine the doc gave me Monday for my plugged up ears could have anything to do with it. I'm not taking that stuff before bed tonight and see if that makes a difference.

Other than that, things are boring and normal here. Still working, still working out, still getting bitten by the evil spawn of Satan cat. Later gators.

what a night!

Wow. I can't belive how much fun the H-bomb and I had shopping last night! At first I was worried because, like I mentioned in a previous post, I am fashion illiterate. I do, however, seem to know what looks good on other people. The best part of the shopping experience was when I told her how her current braziere situation needed to be remedied. After that silly sexual assault kit stint, I always tell people to change out their underthings at least once a year if not more often. And for goodness sakes, if something has a hole in it, throw it away!!! All this led up to a trip to Vickie's (aka: Victoria's Secret). Let me just tell you that their new fancy schmancy "uplift" bra is fan-FREAKIN-tastic! Once you hit the age when things aren't where God intended anymore, this is a must. In the dressing room, it was like "Dang! Look at that! They're back where they belong!" Okay, enough about boobies.


We then hit the local PF Chang's and gorged on dumplings and mu shu and garlic spinach. Unfortunately, we had the worst waiter in the entire universe. Well, maybe he wasn't that bad, but when he refilled my water glass and spilled water all over that corner of the table, the smirked and walked away. I had to ask another waitstaffer to bring me some napkins. Ugh!

On my way to work this morning, I got behind an 18 wheeler with the weirdest thing on it. On the back was painted "Haulin' Liquid Chicken." WTF?!?!?!? I sped up so I could see the side of the truck, but there were no other distinguishing characteristics. If anyone knows what this means, please let me know.

Anywho, my free lab lunch has arrived, and I gotta go chow!

ugh!

Well, I missed my first workout today. I figure in the name of health it may have been necessary though. I fell asleep last night about 10:30pm and woke up today at 9am. And that was only because I set my alarm just in case! I feel tons better than yesterday, but I still can't hear much from my left side. My left ear is all sorts of plugged up and icky. What do you do for that?

Anyway, it's time to go meet the H-bomb for shopping. For some reason, she thinks I can help her pick out clothes. Has she not noticed that I am (almost) completely fashion illiterate? Heck, she's told me as much! :-) Ah well, I use it as an excuse to see a friend.

And back to the gym in the morning!!!

people suck

What is it with people who no matter how sick they are think they should still come into work hacking and coughing and sneezing all over everyone??? Thanks to a super conscientious coworker, three of us at the lab came in this morning feeling like death warmed over. I still can't hear through my right ear--it's all plugged up. Grrrrr! Guess I'll just go home after work and hit the couch. Lucky for me, this is a "non-work-out" day (or as the gym guy called it, a "day of rest"). I hope I feel better in the morning because I'll hit the eliptical trainer no matter what. I can't fall off the wagon this early in the game.

Have a great humpday everyone!