Weekly Round Up: Catch Up Edition

A weekly round up: eats, workouts, watches, and reads. Around here, we use the term "weekly" pretty loosely, so this post is to catch us up on everything that's happened since I got back from The Great Maritime Bender.

But First - Blog Admin

Two things to share:

1. I added a travel index page so that I have a one stop shop for my trips.  As of right now I only have the big trips listed, but I plan to fill in all of the "Let's Go Places" posts later on.  Don't worry, The Rust Belt Travel Guide isn't going anywhere, but my travel zone has expanded.  The RBTG is more of a long form guide specific to my part of the world and the travel index is a link list to everywhere.

2. I added the link to my postcard list over on the right.  This is a google form where you can provide me with your address if you would like to get in on my very irregular postcard mailings.  Sometimes they will just be from me, and sometimes they will be from me and bloggy friends depending on who I am hanging out with at the time.  The same terms and conditions apply (if you're already getting mail from me you don't need to sign up again, international addresses are welcome, if you don't comment but want a postcard that's completely fine, and you don't ever have to mail me anything in return).  

Life Update 1 of 2 - I'm Almost Done With Werk!

My last day at work will be October 31st!  14 working days left to go!!!  On paper it's going to be here soon, but in reality I am not sure how I am going to get through the 14 days.  I have no regrets about leaving, that's for sure.  I've got a plan for money and how I plan to spend my days, which I'll write up soon.  On a related note, today is Indigenous Peoples Day, so it is my last paid werk holiday!  Woo hoo!

Life Update 2 of 2 - Doggo Is OK But She Gave Us a Scare

Toward the end of my Maritimes trip, Doggo came down with a case of "doggy belly".  The normal cure is a few days of a bland diet, which is generally plain boiled chicken and rice.  If that doesn't clear it up, a round of antibiotics plus the bland diet usually does the trick.  When that doesn't clear it up, the treatment is a few hundred dollars in x rays and blood tests.

All of which is to say that we've been through the ringer for the past two weeks.  Doggo would start to get better and then she would get sick again.  Then out of nowhere her symptoms cleared up and she's been back to normal for the past few days.  All of the testing came back negative for the Bad Things, so the current line of thinking is that her gut bacteria is off.  The current plan is to feed her a special gut biome food for the next month.

I will never take for granted that I am home during the day, that we live five minutes away from the vet, and that we have the budget for emergency vet visits.  

Let's talk about normal round up things!

Eats

Meh, nothing notable since I got home.  Between work stress and Doggo my heart has not been in the kitchen.

Workouts

We finished the bike trail!

We had company for the last few miles of the ride.

The end of the bike trail just means that we'll be focusing our weekend time on fall hiking.  Next spring we'll find a new bike trail to work on.

In other fitness news, the Cool Bloggers Waling Club is underway.  Doggo is here to let everyone know that she is not a blogger but that she is a die hard member of the challenge.  She also said to let everyone know that while the goal is to walk for 10 minutes a day that life happens and that it's OK to miss a day or two if you have doggy belly.

Watching

We finally finished Seinfeld.  That is all.

I also finished season 1 of The Gilded Age.  I love this show so much that I'm only watching it on the treadmill to make it last.

I started a new movie watching project that I've been thinking about for a while, and it's going well.  I wrote up an intro post at some point during all of my Maritime recaps, and I'll reel that out soon.

Reading

Reading has been slower lately, but I've still got some good stuff to talk about.

I read Anne of Green Gables approximately one million times in middle school, but that was, ahem, quite a while ago.  I had the idea to reread it in preparation for my Maritimes trip, which turned out to be a brilliant idea if I do say so myself.  The writing is so good!  Her descriptions of PEI were dead on, even 100 years later.

There were some parts of the story that I remembered, but many more that I had forgotten.  One part that I had forgotten was the scene in school where Gilbert gets frustrated with Anne and grabs her braids and yells "Carrots!  Carrots!"  It was horrifying and yet...so funny.

After I finished Anne, I picked up the next book in the Alphabet Murders, which was O is for Outlaw.  For me it was one of the weaker entries in the series, and it felt like it took forever to read it.  Oh well.

I needed an extra audio book for the road during my trip, and Elisabeth's friend Joy was the hookup for Fawning: Why the Need to Please Makes Us Lose Ourselves—and How to Find Our Way Back. You've heard of flight, fight, or freeze as responses to danger, and there is also the forth f: fawning, which is people pleasing your way out of a bad situation.  I've had this conversation with a few folks off line, but I'm trying to find the balance between treating people well (one of my values that is not going to change) and not getting taken advantage of.  I'll circle back on this when I have more of a conclusion.  The book was really interesting.

My next reading move was one that Engie put on the cool kids' radar: I Who Have Never Known Men.  A young girl is living the only life that she has ever known, which is in a bunker with 39 other women with male guards keeping everyone in line.  One day the guards disappear, and the women venture out into the world.  I picked up shades of The Handmaid's Tale and 2001: A Space Odyssey, but it was just a hint of inspiration plus the author's original work.  If you would like a very short book that makes you think, this is for you.  

Currently I'm reading two books.

• The Joy Luck Club for CBBC.  I'm only reading the assigned portion each week, so I've got a bit to go.
• American Dirt.  I was going to tell you that I picked it up after Elisabeth raved about it, but when I looked just now to get the link, I see that I got it wrong.  The book that Elisabeth raved about was Good Dirt, and I remembered the title wrong so I ended up with different dirt!  But it's a good book, so everything is working out.

Peace out!  Happy Fall y'all!