Chilly days

It's cold in this house. Last night's low was predicted to be 41, and today's high is supposed to be 68 degrees. Currently it's 62 in the house and 57 on the front porch. It could be worse, of course -- it could be snowing. Six months ago, in April, our furnace died, and at the time, I never dreamed it still wouldn't be fixed by October.

No, that's not true. I totally dreamed it. Rocket Boy was sure he'd be able to fix it sometime this summer, but there wasn't enough time on his two visits, and his move home kept getting delayed. He's still in St. Louis as I type this. He should be leaving today, but he's driving around donating things, mailing boxes at the UPS store, dropping off his recycling. I don't think he's going to spend another night in his apartment -- I think he'll call me from a hotel tonight. But at this point we may not see him until Tuesday. Maybe Monday night. We'll see.

To warm up the house, I turned the oven on to 400 degrees and left the door open. I also have the front door open (we still have the screen on, haven't switched to the glass yet). The sun is shining, so it feels warmer outside than in.

The latest disaster connected with RB's move is that his credit union account in St. Louis has been compromised, so he can't use his debit card. He has a credit card too, but he lost it months ago (probably somewhere in his papers, not "lost" as in "someone else has it"). And of course it's Sunday, so the credit union's not open and he can't go in and get cash or a replacement card. Fortunately he can use his debit card from our Boulder credit union account, but I told him, very sternly, "Don't use your PIN! Use the debit card as a credit card." "Uh huh," he agreed, vaguely. I know he's going to forget. We have had our bank accounts compromised two or three times in the past -- it's a pain! We got all the money back each time (this was in Ridgecrest), but sometimes it takes a while. And Rocket Boy cannot get it through his skull that you should not use your PIN except at the credit union, preferably INSIDE the credit union, when you're getting cash. I do also use mine at the grocery store, I admit, but only there. Everywhere else I either use my credit card or I use the debit card as a credit card. No PIN. PINs get stolen!

Arrrggghhh. Last night I dreamed that someone broke into Rocket Boy's house and killed him. I feel as though St. Louis is trying to hold on to him. If he makes it back to Boulder in one piece I think I will collapse in shock.

Other than Rocket Boy's issues, it was an OK week. I managed to cook all five weekdays, which is unusual for me -- usually 4 is my max, although I plan for 5. 

• Monday I made goulash with a new kind of fake ground beef, either Impossible or Beyond Beef, I can't remember which. It tasted weirdly authentic. The kids loved it (Teen A had requested it).
  
• Tuesday was spinach cheese burritos, baked in the oven, and they were good, but way too rich for me. I ate one and got sick. 
• Wednesday I made ratatouille and served it over rice, which the twins thought was weird, but they ate it, even had seconds. It actually turned out really well. My recipe calls for a lot of tomatoes, but I only had one, so that's what I used. Teen B doesn't like tomatoes, and they bother my stomach, so really, cutting back on tomatoes was the way to go. 
• Thursday we had sweet potatoes, twice cooked with black beans and cheese, so incredibly yummy. I could eat that every week.
  
• and Friday we had Thai pineapple fried rice with tofu. Everybody likes that (Teen B had requested it).
  

We have leftovers of every one of these dishes in the fridge, so "forage night" (tonight) will be quite tasty. 

So, a good cooking week, but exercise was a total bust. Did not take one walk until yesterday. Some of that was because it was cold and some because I was cooking at the time I would have been walking. I took a great walk yesterday, though, 44 minutes, so I'll try to do better this week.

It wasn't a good weight loss week either (possibly related to the lack of exercise?), but that's OK.

• Weight the morning I took my first shot: 254.6
• Weight last Sunday: 233.6
• Weight this morning (after 18+ weeks on Mounjaro): 233.6
  

So I didn't lose any weight, but I'm still down 21 lbs in a little over 18 weeks, for an average of 1.17 pounds per week. Staying the same is fine. Maybe I'll lose this week, but I'd be OK with another week of staying the same. I took the shot last night, a day early again. I've got one more dose of 5 mg and then I can go up to 7.5. 

We're up to 66 degrees in the house! This is the result of having the oven on and the front door open, plus the sun shining on the house and through the windows. It actually got warm enough at one point for the cat to leave the oven and go sit in the window.

This coming week looks a little complicated, especially in terms of meal planning. Monday night I thought Rocket Boy would be home, but now I don't think so. If he is, it will be very late, past dinnertime. Tuesday he should definitely be home, but Teen A has a haircut appointment at 5 and then my book group meets at 7 (fortunately not at our house). I won't eat dinner that night, so that I can eat book group snacks, but what should I have for the family to eat? Wednesday is conferences, from 4:30 to 7:30, so I won't have time to cook and we won't have time to eat until late. Thursday is a normal day, but Friday night we'll probably go to the Haunted House at the kids' high school, so we might eat early or we might eat late.

Hmm.

We had a little bit of weather this weekend, some light rain on Friday and Saturday morning, but then it cleared up. It wasn't enough to damage the pretty leaves, just enough to make the house absolutely freezing. 

Still, it's odd -- a lot of trees haven't changed yet. For instance, our next-door neighbor's honey locust is almost done, but ours has barely started. Yesterday, on my long walk, I went west on Dartmouth to look at my favorite fall tree. I was afraid that it might be done, that I'd missed it. Instead, it's barely started! Look at that tree. It may be in full color by next weekend -- I'll go look at it again then. 

Am I mixed up? Do some trees always wait this long to change? My memory is so screwy these days. We went to CU yesterday for our yearly check-in at the long-term study that the twins participate in, and I had a terrible time answering the questions on my surveys. Some of the questions are so ridiculous. "Was there ever a time when your child acted in such and such a way? When was that? Give month and year." Ummm. I just made things up.

The other thing I did this week was fill out my ballot. I'll wait to turn it in until Rocket Boy gets here, because I'm sure he'll want to discuss it before he fills out his. But I filled the whole thing out, four pages worth, colored in all the little circles. I read about each proposition, amendment, question, issue. I read the review of each judge that I needed to approve (that's a Colorado thing). I researched who was spending money to get each proposition passed. I read people's opinions. In a couple of cases, I changed my mind. It took hours, but it was worth it. At the end I felt more knowledgeable, and as though I had done a good thing (though it won't really be DONE until I drop it off at the rec center).

I'm still panicking about the presidential election. Earlier in the week I started to worry about my reactions. I felt as though I was going to get sick from the worry, have a nervous breakdown or something. I was having trouble sleeping. I still feel that way, but having spent the time on my ballot helped calm me down a little. Also, I'm avoiding reading about the polls, because those REALLY upset me. I'm not reading the news at all as much as I normally do. I know I don't need to -- I've already voted (almost). I'm reading Kafka, and ghost stories, and I'm cooking. This week I'll try to take more walks. In fact, I think I will go take one right now.