Busy April

Another busy week, and next week will be just as busy. Meanwhile, I am NOT adjusting to the new dose of Mounjaro, and I take long naps several days each week. It is hard to get anything done when you sleep half the day away.

Monday the kids were still off school, and Teen B had his yearly physical. He is now 5 feet 7-3/4 inches, so Dr. J. thought he may top out at a little over 5 foot 8. I always thought he would suddenly spurt up like Rocket Boy did in high school, but it looks like it's not going to happen. That's OK. Five eight isn't tall for a man, but it isn't super short either. It's a nice height.

I didn't hear how much he weighs, but Dr. J. said he was in the 10th percentile for weight (30-something-th percentile for height), so he's still very skinny.

On the way home, we saw police cars with flashing lights ahead of us on Broadway. It turned out to be an impromptu protest at the labs, because there was a rumor that DOGE was there that day. I honked as we drove by, embarrassing Teen B, and as soon as we got home I grabbed a sign and a hat, put on sunscreen, and Rocket Boy and I went out to join them. I stayed out for two hours (RB had to leave for part of that time to meet with a repairman). It was kind of exciting, thinking that DOGE was actually in the building, but they turned out not to be there after all. Our Attorney General, Phil Weiser (who's running for governor in 2026), came out to the protest, and so did our US Representative, Joe Neguse, so that was kind of cool.

Political task: the protest

On Tuesday morning, Rocket Boy and I went to meet with our financial advisor at our credit union. We've seen this guy before, and at first I wanted to find someone else, but he is a fiduciary, and he's nice, so we decided to go back to him. And he was very helpful! We explained our situation, he looked at our numbers (I'd figured out how much we're spending each month and how much we have in all our accounts), and he made some recommendations. The main one was not to get into our major pots of money yet, while we wait for things to play out. Wait to see if Rocket Boy can find another job, wait to see what the Trump Administration does to the economy, etc. 

I was so tired after that meeting that I slept all afternoon. 

Political task: nothing, just slept

Wednesday is Late Start day, and the twins come home for lunch, so nothing big ever gets done, but we did follow up on what our financial advisor had told us. Rocket Boy has a mutual funds account with only about $2000 in it, and he closed that out. They're sending us a check. And I got into my old TIAA account and looked at that -- and it has $30,000 in it! So they're going to start depositing $3000/month into our account (we're actually taking out $3750, but $750 goes for taxes) until we spend it all down. That will last about 8 months, until the end of the year, and then we'll look at what to spend down next.

In the afternoon we went to the high school, because Teen B was receiving an "academic letter" for maintaining at least a 3.5 average, two semesters in a row. We think it was this past fall and last spring. Anyway, the Academic Letter Program was short and not really worth attending -- but at the same time, it was fun, because it was the first time we've gotten to go to anything like that, and it will be the last. (This semester Teen B is doing very badly, has a 2.85 average including two D's, and we won't even mention Teen A's average.) Rocket Boy and I found seats in the auditorium near the front and texted Teen B to try to get him to come sit with us. He finally showed up and sat in the row behind us, refusing to clap when the presenter asked students to clap for their parents and refusing to stand up when the presenter asked all the juniors to stand. Then he had to go to the gym to get his "Letter" -- which turned out to be an actual letter, a large purple and gold "B," with a smaller bar saying "ACADEMIC" which apparently we're supposed to attach to the "letter" somehow. If he ever has another good semester (next fall?) he will earn a second "ACADEMIC" bar which we would also attach to the "letter." And then what? What do you do with this "letter"? I suggested that we could sew it onto the sweatshirt he got for participating in the spring musical, but he said NO.

On the way home we stopped at McDonald's and got Teen B a 20-piece order of chicken McNuggets (his favorite), which he threw up later that night, in the bathtub, and I had to clean it up, at midnight.

Political task: I wrote an email to Joe Neguse to thank him for showing up to the protest on Monday.

Thursday we didn't have anything scheduled, and I usually start feeling better by Thursday, but for some reason I still felt bad. I did manage to go out in the morning and do some errands (a smog check for my car, Target -- now that the boycott is over, Trader Joe's, and Petco), but then I slept all afternoon, just getting up in time to make dinner. I made easy coconut curry, which normally everybody likes, but the problem was that the week before I had made mattar paneer, which is also basically a curry, and so when the kids saw the coconut curry (plus rice, plus naan), they said, "But you just made this!" I had to promise no curry for the next two months, which means I am going to have to come up with some new recipes. No curry, no pasta (no one likes it). I guess we could just have tacos every night.

Political task: nothing, just slept

Friday was an extremely gloomy day, cloudy and drizzly, so after putting out the trash and recycling and paying bills, I decided to make cookies. I had bought a bag of toffee chips and I made the recipe on the back, so the kids had those to enjoy when they got home. I've been trying to bake more during this period between Girl Scout Cookie Season and Too Hot to Turn on the Oven Season. Last week I made brownies and the week before that, oatmeal raisin cookies.

In the evening we had tickets to see "Macbeth," which was being put on by the other high school (our next door neighbor was one of the witches). Since "Macbeth" takes place in Scotland, where it is always cloudy and drizzly, I thought our weather was really appropriate. I enjoyed the play, although they did it in modern dress, which seemed weird, and they had cast girls in some of the important male roles (Malcolm, Macduff), which was hard (for me) to accept. Actually, I was OK with Macduff, but Malcolm played by a rather short girl just seemed wrong, especially since her uniform was too big for her. I suppose this is old-fashioned of me. I did really like the actors who played Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, and Banquo. And of course the witches. It's such a fun play, and it was so hard to keep from joining in on "Double double, toil and trouble."

Political task: I attempted to sign a petition on Resistbot, something my friend Z'bet told me about, but I'm not sure I did it right. I thought I just had to sign (the petition was to support Afghan families in the US), but then it wanted me to send the petition to my elected officials, and for some reason I balked at that. So I may not have done anything. But the other thing I did was attend the play, full of young trans teens.

Saturday, Rocket Boy wanted to go out and do something, and I really should have gone with him (he went to History Colorado, in Denver). But I had gotten so little accomplished during the week that I wanted to stay home, or at least in Boulder. I went to the library and the grocery store, did laundry and dishes and took a nice walk. I also put away my winter clothes and got out my summer clothes. It's a little early for that, but I have some activities coming up in May that will require special clothes, and I wanted to look at what I have, see if I need to buy anything, etc.

I was pleasantly surprised by how many things fit well that didn't fit last summer. I feel as though I haven't lost any weight for a while, but looking back at my weight diary, on September 1st I weighed 239 pounds, and this morning... oh, I guess it's time for the Mounjaro report!

• Weight the morning I took my first shot: 254.6
• Weight last Sunday: 222.8
• Weight this morning (after 44+ weeks on Mounjaro): 220.4

You will recall (maybe) that I gained a pound last week, and was cross about it, so unfair, etc., so this weight is what I should have weighed last week. Anyway, it doesn't matter, but look at that number compared to September 1st! 18.6 pounds less! No wonder my clothes fit better!

Most of my pants don't fit MUCH better, because I still have a giant tummy, but most of my tops fit a lot better. I have a pretty periwinkle-blue sleeveless blouse that I bought online a few years ago that has NEVER fit, but I've kept it because, you know, maybe someday. This year it fits! I will have to think of someplace to wear it.

I still had to put back several things -- including some sleeveless cotton blouses that haven't fit in decades -- but I didn't mind. What made me cross was that some of the things I'd planned on wearing this summer weren't in the boxes! They'd obviously been given to Goodwill at some point because I figured I'd never fit into them again.

It's OK. You can't keep ALL your clothes, year after year, hoping that maybe someday... Usually, someday doesn't come. It's only due to the miracles of modern medicine that someday has arrived for me.

The reason I had to go through my summer clothes is that I have two trips planned for May, both of them to attend memorial services. My father's cousin's widow, Virginia, died a few weeks ago at the age of 98, and I am planning to attend her "Celebration of Life" on Monday, May 12th, in Grand Island, Nebraska. Since it's on a Monday, the kids won't be able to come, so Rocket Boy will stay home with them (and the cats). I am planning to drive down on Sunday (or should I say up? It's slightly north of here), stay overnight, go to the memorial on Monday, stay another night, and drive back Tuesday. It's a 431-mile drive, totally doable, although I haven't done anything like that in a while. 

I like Nebraska. I am pleased to have this excuse to go there, although I'm really sorry it had to be for Virginia's death. I really liked Virginia. 

I am also particularly excited at the prospect of two nights alone in a hotel room. Think of the sleep I'll get, with no Rocket Boy rolling over against me so that I have to creep over to the very edge of the bed, and no CATS jumping on and off the bed and snuggling too close so that there's no room to turn over and MEOWING for no reason in the middle of the night, and no teenagers coming in to tell me that they've just thrown up in the bathtub, etc., etc. Actually I'll probably miss everyone terribly, even the cats, but that'll be good, I'll be happy to see them when I get home.

The second trip will be to attend my old advisor's memorial service in Ann Arbor on May 30th. I am flying in to Detroit on May 28th, will spend three nights staying with my two old best friends from Michigan (who are married to each other) and two days hanging out with my other friends who are coming, and will fly out again on the morning of May 31st. I'm really looking forward to that trip, too. I wish I was bringing the family to that one -- I've always wanted to show the kids Ann Arbor -- but it seemed better to do it this way. 

The week ahead

So, we've got lots coming up this week, the last few days of April and the first few days of May. On Monday, everybody but me has a dentist appointment. Tuesday evening, Teen B has a band concert. Wednesday, Teen A has his physical and then I go to the dentist for a 2-hour appointment (fixing two of my bad teeth). Thursday is May 1st, and I believe there will be protests that day, although there's a lot of drama going on right now about the 50501 group being stolen by someone who's anti-trans, or something like that, I can't even follow it. Anyway, I think there will be a protest. And Friday is open for now, lol, probably won't stay that way.