Et tu, coffee?
Feb. 2nd, 2026 04:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
koshka_the_catI cough choked on my latte this morning and made a disgusting big mess, about three minutes before the kids came into class. Happy Monday!
koshka_the_catBusy day!
Feb. 1st, 2026 05:19 pmkoshka_the_catI unexpectedly changed my newest earrings today. Before 7 in the morning. I'm now wearing my most comfortable hoops.
I woke up at my work time. Stupid internal alarm clock. It's amazing, but it should know weekends.
I was playing on my phone because I rarely go straight back to sleep when that happens, reached to touch something on my phone, my ring caught the earring in my third piercing, and ripped it out.
It was loud. Like a long scrape. It felt sore. I kept counting earrings by touching, one, two, no. Pointy butterfly black, pointy butterfly back, ew, why is it sticky? Earring gone.
So I got up and felt the earring front drop into bed. No sign of the back. I looked in the mirror, couldn't see anything, remembered I'm blind, went to my nightstand and got my glasses. Everything looked normal, except no earring and slightly pink. I sprayed it with saline, the back fell out. There was a little blood and it was a little sore, but it wasn't whatever I expected it to be.
My earring slid in easily. Whew.
I had already decided to wear my super comfortable diamond hoops when I changed earrings. They're hinged with a straight post and so comfortable.
I'm actually past the 6-8 weeks healing time--I had them pierced 9 weeks ago now--but had to decided to wait a little longer. My right ear, the one ripped out this morning, was right next to cartilage so I wanted to give it a little longer to heal. It still gets a little sore. Nothing bad, just like when you put too much pressure on an earring. It's the side I sleep on, so it gets more pressure than the left, especially with the larger than regular earrings piercing earring.
I thought about going back to bed and changing the left earring later, but knew I'd hate myself. It was really hard to take the earring out, like those horror ads about earrings getting stuck that I keep getting, but on try four, it came out, and my comfy hoop slid right in.
I had been wondering if I should change to a more comfortable earring because the piercing earrings are so big and could be why it was still a little sore. Decision made!
My right ear is slightly sore which isn't a surprise. I'm going to be gentle with it and treat it like it was just pierced. I changed to my other super comfortable hoops in my second holes too. And I'll sleep on my left side for a while.
After that, my mom, neighbor friend, and I went to a vigil for Alex Pretti. One of our congresspeople spoke.
And then, a little time travel experience, my mom needed to new walking shoes and wanted to try them on in person and I wanted Converse high tops with cats that I got a targeted ad for, but only came in kids sizes, so I wasn't sure what size to get, so we went to the mall. It was actually busy and there were so many places that who knew were still around. And I have new shoes with cats!
I woke up at my work time. Stupid internal alarm clock. It's amazing, but it should know weekends.
I was playing on my phone because I rarely go straight back to sleep when that happens, reached to touch something on my phone, my ring caught the earring in my third piercing, and ripped it out.
It was loud. Like a long scrape. It felt sore. I kept counting earrings by touching, one, two, no. Pointy butterfly black, pointy butterfly back, ew, why is it sticky? Earring gone.
So I got up and felt the earring front drop into bed. No sign of the back. I looked in the mirror, couldn't see anything, remembered I'm blind, went to my nightstand and got my glasses. Everything looked normal, except no earring and slightly pink. I sprayed it with saline, the back fell out. There was a little blood and it was a little sore, but it wasn't whatever I expected it to be.
My earring slid in easily. Whew.
I had already decided to wear my super comfortable diamond hoops when I changed earrings. They're hinged with a straight post and so comfortable.
I'm actually past the 6-8 weeks healing time--I had them pierced 9 weeks ago now--but had to decided to wait a little longer. My right ear, the one ripped out this morning, was right next to cartilage so I wanted to give it a little longer to heal. It still gets a little sore. Nothing bad, just like when you put too much pressure on an earring. It's the side I sleep on, so it gets more pressure than the left, especially with the larger than regular earrings piercing earring.
I thought about going back to bed and changing the left earring later, but knew I'd hate myself. It was really hard to take the earring out, like those horror ads about earrings getting stuck that I keep getting, but on try four, it came out, and my comfy hoop slid right in.
I had been wondering if I should change to a more comfortable earring because the piercing earrings are so big and could be why it was still a little sore. Decision made!
My right ear is slightly sore which isn't a surprise. I'm going to be gentle with it and treat it like it was just pierced. I changed to my other super comfortable hoops in my second holes too. And I'll sleep on my left side for a while.
After that, my mom, neighbor friend, and I went to a vigil for Alex Pretti. One of our congresspeople spoke.
And then, a little time travel experience, my mom needed to new walking shoes and wanted to try them on in person and I wanted Converse high tops with cats that I got a targeted ad for, but only came in kids sizes, so I wasn't sure what size to get, so we went to the mall. It was actually busy and there were so many places that who knew were still around. And I have new shoes with cats!
Protest
Jan. 30th, 2026 06:47 pmkoshka_the_catI went to the fight fascism Friday protest downtown today. I'm fortunate to live in a city where all of our protests have been positive and peaceful. They've had them for a while now, but I've only gone to the big protests. There was supposed to be a counter protest today, but only one man showed up. Thankfully!
I have an eye appointment for March 6. So that's good.
I have an eye appointment for March 6. So that's good.
Specialist!
Jan. 28th, 2026 05:42 pmkoshka_the_catI completely failed the eye exam. No surprise!
When I saw the doctor he confirmed I have cataracts and need surgery. He asked if my right eye has always been stronger than my left eye, and I told him my left eye was stronger. My right eye is stronger now. He wants to know why, so he referred me to a neuro-opthalmologist. I should get a call by Friday to schedule an appointment. He said the front desk would schedule an appointment for me, but I guess it was too close to five. I really hope I can get an appointment soon!
I'm not really worried, I'm sure it's just cataracts, but I still want to know what's going on!
When I saw the doctor he confirmed I have cataracts and need surgery. He asked if my right eye has always been stronger than my left eye, and I told him my left eye was stronger. My right eye is stronger now. He wants to know why, so he referred me to a neuro-opthalmologist. I should get a call by Friday to schedule an appointment. He said the front desk would schedule an appointment for me, but I guess it was too close to five. I really hope I can get an appointment soon!
I'm not really worried, I'm sure it's just cataracts, but I still want to know what's going on!
a good effect for the effort
Jan. 25th, 2026 09:53 pmkareina I was up way too long last night working on the places lived part of my blog, so it was around 01:45 that I managed to get to sleep. The dawn light was set for a weekend sleep in time of 07:35, and I woke with energy so I started my morning with a 30 minutes pilates session, focus on glutes.
I really like the part where my hips don’t ache anymore at bedtime since I started doing pilates regularly. So many of the exercises are the same as, or similar to the ones my physical therapist gave me to treat that hip ache back in 2012. They worked well then, but any time I forgot to to them for some weeks, back the ache would come. Now that my daily yoga habit also includes regular pilates too (not instead) my hips are always happy. Why don’t they teach us these basic body maintenance tricks when we are little?
The rest of the day slipped by without my making note of it, but we must have done something.
Lots of work on the blog
Jan. 24th, 2026 09:44 pmkareina This morning we woke to news that one of Keldor’s uncles has died. Not one I had met, but I know his kids as one of them is Keldor’s cousin who normally stays here with the cats when we go to Double Wars, and the other has also taken a turn watching the cats. Keldor and his uncle used to go fishing together often, and he is understandably sad to have lost both a friend and relative.
Then I walked down to take a quick look at Bryan’s house:
Before walking down to the ice:
Where there was also a nice view of the moon:
And then walking north on the ice for a bit:
Till the path ended:
That seemed like a good reason to turn around and head home and resume work on the list of places I have lived.
For me the weight seems a bit heavy, coming so soon after my Aunt’s death for Keldor to also lose a relative, but both of them were in their 80’s, and that is the most popular age for people to die, so I can’t really say it was unexpected.
So he took a day to just relax and be, and worked on my blog project. One of the things in the back of my mind when I started this GitHub blog was that I could set up a section for all of the places I have ever lived. Last night and this morning I have finally started that section. It took all day, but I managed to get a pretty complete list, pulling in locations and dates from a spreadsheet of places lived that my past self started so very long ago that mom had helped me fill in some of the addresses and approximate dates. I have even calculated my approximate age for each move (keeping in mind that some dates of moves ar accurate, as there are passport stamps and calendar entries for them, but others are guesses based on “it was summer” or other clues in my memories). So, without further ado, I present the folder of the Places I Have Lived, in all its first-draft and detail-lacking glory.
I did get a break from the project in the middle of the day. I had gotten up to look for something to eat, glanced out the kitchen window, and saw that it was a truly beautiful day, so I decided to go for a walk first. It was a beautiful day, with -10 C temps that mean the snow squeaks delightfully underfoot. My favourite sort of weather.
Even here at our house, it was looking pretty:
And I like the little crescent moon behind the neighbour’s tower:Then I walked down to take a quick look at Bryan’s house:
Before walking down to the ice:
Where there was also a nice view of the moon:
And then walking north on the ice for a bit:
Till the path ended:
That seemed like a good reason to turn around and head home and resume work on the list of places I have lived.
clean sheets!
Jan. 23rd, 2026 11:44 pmkareina I worked from home today, and had the energy to strip the bed and wash everything. I am really looking forward to going to bed tonight! The housekeeper came today, too, so the house is looking nice, and I am happy with it.
Keldor had to run some errands after work, and since he was in that part of town he stopped by the second hand store, where he found a drum, which followed him home. It looks like it was once part of those drum sets that one sits in the middle of and plays them all more or less together, if so it was one of the smaller ones from the set. It is sized around the right size to hang from a rope, little drummer boy style, and lead the army off to war, which is exactly what Keldor wants to do with it. He figures that if he wraps the sides with leather it will look reasonable at events.
After work we sat down to play Qwirkle, and at first I had a good lead, and then he suddenly got a run of Qwirkles, and I lost by a lot. This is 10 games in a row he has won, and it is getting a little old. Even he thinks so.
blueberry almond mousse ice cream
Jan. 22nd, 2026 10:30 pmkareina A busy day at work. Met a researcher studying seaweeds in the archaeological record, who did an interesting seminar talk today. We have an appointment next week to discuss the possibility of putting her data into SEAD. I really like the web page she has set up from her photo database of various Phytolits and Starch Grains one might find, showing how they look under the microscope, so others can identify what they are seeing from their finds.
After work I made blueberry almond mousse ice cream, which was a tasty, messy, adventure, and then took a relaxed evening.
a day of rest
Jan. 21st, 2026 10:30 pmkareinaToday was Wednesday, a work from home day, during which I took time during lunch for some yoga., and then did more that evening for our group training session. Nothing more of note happened.
an intense day
Jan. 20th, 2026 10:30 pmkareina I was so tired yesterday I did my yoga early, and was in bed just after 20:00. I
Slept through to just after 04:00 (not counting the normal middle of the night trips to the toilet, of course), then got up and did 25 minutes Pilates. By then Keldor was waking up, so I kept him company on the phone as he drove to work, and I got ready for work and walked to the bus stop.
Work was intense, we had a meeting in the morning to discuss a dataset I hadn't gotten to yet, but we will be meeting the data providers on Tuesday next week when we are in Uppsala, so we started looking at the mapping they'd started a couple of years ago, and we decided that I would use the time between that meeting and our after lunch meeting to go through and determine what info we need to ask about the data from them next week.
I managed to do a quick mapping of the spreadsheet columns to our database tables and columns, enough that we went through it as a group after lunch, and cleared up a few things I had been uncertain of, and wound up with a short list of questions to take to Uppsala. Definitely a day when I feel I am earning my paycheck, and that they chose correctly when they picked me.
It meant that I couldn't take my preferred bus home, which meant that by the time I got home it was well more than a 9 hour day (it took the whole bus rode to get my notes from the day's work converted to forms that my future self will understand, and metadata for the new spreadsheet properly recorded).
Home, I lost yet another game of Qwirkle to Keldor, that is 8 in a row he's won. This streak needs to end soon. Then I had a survey about Swedish politics to answer, so I did. I choose the answers in favour of governments taking proper care of all the people, not just their own citizens, of course. And the ones that indicate that certain problematic world leaders are unpleasant and not to be admired.
The rest of the early evening slipped by just relaxing on the couch looking at social media for a bit. Now it is 21:00, I have done my yoga, and think I will head to bed.
Tomorrow I get to work from home, but alas, the contractor won't be starting on the attic bathroom due to having come down with a fever. Poor guy. I hope he's better soon.
Friends and strangers the world over are enjoying intense Northern Lights, we have clouds.
Tomorrow
Jan. 27th, 2026 07:08 pmkoshka_the_catI have my first appointment for cataracts. I can't read my board at work, writing on TV, street signs, things are hazy, my glasses aren't even a year old, my previous glasses didn't last a year, I put up with the glasses before that for over a year because I mistakenly thought my eye insurance was every two years.
I was so relieved when I asked my eye doctor why and he said I had cataracts. Nice, normal, and fixable. He said the silver lining was they can put your prescription in your eye. I knew. I told a friend I was jealous when she got cataract surgery and didn't need glasses anymore!
I'm hopeful, but nervous too. I'd love to not need glasses, but honestly, if I can just get glasses to work again, I'd be ecstatic.
I work with a teacher who had the surgery in her early 40s and said it was the best thing ever. Our librarian's husband had horrible vision and had the surgery and it was also the best thing ever. So I may have high expectations! I like seeing clearly!
I was so relieved when I asked my eye doctor why and he said I had cataracts. Nice, normal, and fixable. He said the silver lining was they can put your prescription in your eye. I knew. I told a friend I was jealous when she got cataract surgery and didn't need glasses anymore!
I'm hopeful, but nervous too. I'd love to not need glasses, but honestly, if I can just get glasses to work again, I'd be ecstatic.
I work with a teacher who had the surgery in her early 40s and said it was the best thing ever. Our librarian's husband had horrible vision and had the surgery and it was also the best thing ever. So I may have high expectations! I like seeing clearly!
Welcome back
Jan. 26th, 2026 06:43 pmkoshka_the_catToday was staff development day. I wanted to get a lot of prep work done and reset my attitude because I've missed so many days.
But no. Our school budget was cut by another million dollars. We're losing teachers. Getting bigger classes. We'll probably have to teach multiple grade levels which I've thankfully never had to do. This is my 24th year and I'm fifth in seniority in my department, so I'm (fingers crossed, you never really know) fine.
We'll know more tomorrow, but one of my friend's positions is being cut. She may be able to stay at the school in a different subject since we're going to have to shift jobs. Apparently teachers who have been cut can take jobs at other schools if they have seniority, so I guess it's basically like a surplus, so that should be interesting.
Sigh. Things get better every day
But no. Our school budget was cut by another million dollars. We're losing teachers. Getting bigger classes. We'll probably have to teach multiple grade levels which I've thankfully never had to do. This is my 24th year and I'm fifth in seniority in my department, so I'm (fingers crossed, you never really know) fine.
We'll know more tomorrow, but one of my friend's positions is being cut. She may be able to stay at the school in a different subject since we're going to have to shift jobs. Apparently teachers who have been cut can take jobs at other schools if they have seniority, so I guess it's basically like a surplus, so that should be interesting.
Sigh. Things get better every day
Vacation-ish!
Jan. 22nd, 2026 05:18 pmkoshka_the_catI took a half day at work because I was on prep and caught up and why stay when there's nothing to do? Monday is staff development day so an easy day to come back to. I'm excited for a mini vacation! I'll only be gone one full day, but it feels like I packed for a month.
It's done!
Jan. 21st, 2026 06:01 pmkoshka_the_cat
With a night to spare! I'm very happy with it! As usual, floor pictures require imagination...
*sobs*
Jan. 20th, 2026 03:42 pmkoshka_the_catHigh schools are starting an hour and a half later next year.
Elementary schools are starting about the same time.
Middle schools are starting half an hour earlier. We're going to have to get there at 6 something.
I almost cried when I heard. I feel like crying now. I can barely get there at 7:10. My body clock just can't. Ever since we switched back to 7:10 from 8:10 I've been so tired it hurts every day. Getting enough sleep, which I usually do, doesn't help because it's the wrong hours.
They said it was supported by science and adolescents need more sleep. Which makes zero sense because middle school students are adolescents.
*sobs*
Elementary schools are starting about the same time.
Middle schools are starting half an hour earlier. We're going to have to get there at 6 something.
I almost cried when I heard. I feel like crying now. I can barely get there at 7:10. My body clock just can't. Ever since we switched back to 7:10 from 8:10 I've been so tired it hurts every day. Getting enough sleep, which I usually do, doesn't help because it's the wrong hours.
They said it was supported by science and adolescents need more sleep. Which makes zero sense because middle school students are adolescents.
*sobs*