Week of December 30, 2012

Sunday December 30, 2012

I got quite a lot done this weekend! Saturday night I did a lot of the work I usually do on Sundays (well, really it was very late Saturday, early Sunday morning). I made up the weekly TV primetime schedule, from all the network press releases, and found all the appearances from them.

Then later on Sunday I woke up pretty late, around 5pm, and we went to the grocery store to get a few things. I am trying to go back on my diet, so I didn't buy much.

I put up tons of stuff on my site and then did the soap scoops, and also wrote some TV reviews.

I also did the dishes and laundry, unpacked and straightened up the house. I also recorded a lot of shows to DVD.  Lots of stuff done, yay! I also took some extra time to read, for a change, on my Kindle.

Monday December 31

Tonight is New Year's Eve! We are all ready :)

We just mostly sat around, had some snacks, drank, and watched TV. Nothing too exciting. We don't really go out on New Year's. It's hard to get a reliable cab, and all the drunks are out, so it's not too safe to drive or even be out. Also, we don't have any parties to go to, and can't really have one, because most of the people we know are professors, which means they are out of town during the holidays.  We tried having one years ago and no one showed up!

A lot of our neighbors shot off fireworks and you could hear them out there all night. I went out after midnight to see if I could see any, but they were all too low to the ground to see. I could just hear them, and see some light reflected  over the trees.

We picked up Bugs today, so he spent most of the day in bed.  He always has to sleep a lot when he comes back from being kenneled... My guess is that he's so stressed out when he's there, that he doesn't sleep very well.  Even the fireworks did not wake him up or disturb him.

We  have been having pretty nice temperature lately, so I can't complain too much. It's mostly been in the 50's.

I drank some gluten free beer, and I had a hot chocolate with Bailey's, and then later, we shared some Champagne.   David went to bed after 1, but I have been on a very lately schedule so I was up until sometime the next morning, around 9 or so. I had trouble getting to sleep because of allergies and itching.

Tuesday January 1st, 2013

Happy 2013! I hope the year is good for all of us.

Before I went to sleep, I took down all of the outdoor Christmas decorations. David doesn't like having them up past new year's, and I knew he would take them down if I didn't. It was not even very cold early in the morning.

I don't have a resolution, but I plan to lose the 50 lbs. I really need to get rid of. I would really like to get off 2 or 3 of the medications I'm on, and hopefully, my allergies will get better, too (wishful thinking, I'm sure).

I finished reading the last Harry Potter book on my Kindle, so that is kind of sad. They are so fun to read.  I get to borrow one book for free per month, so I was hoping to get the George RR Martin books, but they are not on the "lender's list". I am not really sure what to read next, or else I might just buy the Martin books. I did get some free previews of some books to see if I want to read the rest.

I got up late, a little after 5, but then I went back to sleep for a couple of hours. It was dark when I woke up. I need to get back to an earlier schedule. Yes, I say that a lot.

I spent part of the evening taking down more Christmas decorations. I got everything gathered together, except the two trees. I just have to un-decorate the two trees and then put everything away. I really hate that part. Putting them up is fun, taking them down is NOT! Especially since I usually wrap them all up carefully and pack them as if we are moving...just in case we do.

I did more laundry, watched some DVD's and did a little bit of work here and there.

I've been having a lot of tooth pain and I'm not sure why. Back in the summer, I had a lot of tooth pain, as you may recall, and the dentist said I had one cracked tooth, and one chipped tooth, both on the left side (one is right below the other). So I got crowns in both, and a root canal on the bottom one. The top one still hurt a little, but they couldn't find anything wrong with it. So I got a cleaning, but they were doing a deep cleaning, I guess, so they only did half and then scheduled me to come back in October for the second half. However, I had to cancel the appointment and never got around to rescheduling it.

The last month or so, the pain has been getting worse again. The dentist had said that after the cleaning, my tooth pain should go away. Apparently he thinks some plaque or tartar is still causing problems. I think he may be wrong, but we'll see. I think that either I have a new problem, or I have been grinding them, or - and here's the real answer, I think -- the new crowns are not set quite right, so my bite is uneven, and that is causing the pain.

I thought at times it might be related to my sinuses on that side, which have also had some pain, but that would certainly not cause me to have pain when I eat or drink. It has been hurting more the past few days, so I made an appointment tomorrow to get the rest of the cleaning. Then hopefully they can figure out what else the pain might be from. I just hope I don't need any more root canals or crowns. The root canal was not too bad, it was quick and not very painful, but not sure if I had it on the upper tooth that it would be that way because that's a more awkward place to do it. The root canal was only about 12 minutes, but if it had been much longer, not sure how I would have been able to stand it because they put this thing on your mouth that forces it open, and it is very hard for me to have that on and not spit or gag or get rid of the nasal junk.  And I don't want more crowns put on-- they are painful. All of this is very expensive so I hope it's none of this stuff!! Keep your fingers crossed.

Wednesday January 2, 2013

I made an appointment tomorrow with my dentist to get the rest of my cleaning, and hopefully they can also figure out why I've been having pain. I didn't go to bed until almost 11am.

It's been nice that everyone's on vacation because I was able to catch up with so much on my site without having to worry about more news, more email, more press releases etc.!

I woke up after 6pm when David came home. I made him dinner and then went back to bed for a little while.  I need to stop doing that and go walking with the dog instead! He and I both need it badly.

I took down all the decorations off the two Christmas trees, and I took batteries out of the decorations that had batteries.  Tomorrow I just have to take the trees apart and then wrap everything up to put in boxes. Actually, that's the hardest part and it  may take me two days.

What else... my anti-spyware program, SecureAnywhere (which used to be SpySweeper), interferes with my browsers and some other programs, especially this macro program I use a lot called Keyboard Express. So they have been having me do things like reinstall it etc. but nothing has helped so far. Friday or next week they're going to do a remote thing on my computer to try to fix it. Hope it works. I don't like not having the protection of the program, but it does me no good if my browser is not working properly. I've used all these program for years, so it's weird that now one of them is having these problems.

Today was the first day back to work for many people, so now I already have 5 new interviews set up! Sheesh.

You should really check out my Twitter feed or Facebook page because I probably left out some stuff.
 
Thursday January 3, 2013

It's 7 am - of course I haven't been to bed yet! We'll be leaving about a half hour or so, and David will drop me off at the dentist. My appointment isn't until 9, but I'll get there early, anyway. I have my Kindle etc. to keep me busy in the meantime, and they have a nice waiting room with beautiful fish. I always sit near the fish tank if I can because if I am bored, I can always watch them. I always thought fish were kind of boring, but they have so many of them there,  and all different colors and sizes, and they don't all act the same so it's fun to watch them.  Not that I'm saying I would necessarily buy my own fish tank because fish seem to be a lot of work and they die easily. Maybe if I had a maid who took care of them for me, ha ha!

After the dentist, I'll probably spend some time at the university. I hope the student center's food places are open because otherwise I will have to buy snacks from vending machines.

Well, the dentist visit was pretty awful. For one thing, I had a lot of pain beforehand. My gums were throbbing. Then the women who did the cleaning was not very friendly (they are usually really nice there). This was the deep, under-the-gumline cleaning, and it was very very painful. And then afterwards, it started hurting much worse for a while.  Instead of going to the university, I went home, and I rinsed with warm salt water and took a Tylenol. That helped quite a bit. I had some lentil soup  and some sugar free chocolates, and it was no problem at all. Then I had some sugar free gum. That was probably a mistake. Right after that, it started hurting a lot again and the salt water rinse didn't really seem to help. But my sinuses were really hurting so I took another Sudafed, my allergy medicine (Clarinex) and another Tylenol. However, what really helped was just blowing my nose and clearing out my sinuses, so I don't  know.... I made an appointment with my doctor for Saturday in case my sinuses are still bothering me by then. I might try that sinus or nasal rinse kit tomorrow to see if that helps.

I watched some "Dexter" and now I must go to sleep since it is almost noon!

I slept for a few hours and then the phone woke me up. Then I had trouble getting back to sleep. I stayed up for a few hours and then went back to sleep around 3:30 and slept until about 8:30. My teeth feel better. I just have a little soreness/sensitivity in the gums.  I am still having some occasional sinus pain, though.

I slept most of the day and night time!

Friday January 4, 2013

I was still in pain, so I didn't do too much all day. It especially hurt to eat. I only ate soft or liquid foods (mostly soup), but it still hurts. I tried rinsing with salt water, which doesn't help. Brushing the teeth makes them feel a little better. I phoned the dentist and told them I was still in a lot of pain, so they gave me a prescription for Tramadol, which I've gotten from them before. I couldn't get it until David picked it up on his way home from work, though. I also tried the Nasal Rinse Kit, which maybe helped a little. Not as much as I'd hoped. A hot shower really did make me feel better, though. The pain sort of comes and goes.  It will be fine for a while and then start throbbing again, or I'll suddenly get really intense pain. Then it feels like someone is stabbing me in the face. My whole face hurts then.

In the morning, I just watched TV. I had some Lifetime movies to watch online, on their press site, so I watched those while I did my nails (I didn't feel like doing anything else). I'm not very good at doing my nails, but I got this cool kind of nail polish called Sally Hansen's Color Quick Chrome. Instead of a real brush, it's in a pen, and you press down to get the "ink" (nail color) to come out, and there's a little brush at the end. It's pretty cool, gives you more control over the polish, makes it easier to put on. I need all the help I can get!  My nails are not getting very long. They keep breaking. Such is the life of someone who types a lot, I guess.

I had hoped to take the dog out walking, but I wasn't feeling up to it. We both need more exercise!

I had two conference call interviews in the afternoon, and then I was going to go to bed, but I had more soup and that set off more pain... I was able to only sleep a little bit when David came home, and I took the Tramadol as well as more Sudafed. Then we went out to our usual downtown places. I had to take my pills with food, anyway, so I figured I'd find some soup or something. We ended up going to the Thai restaurant, and they have some pretty good chicken noodle soup (made with rice noodles, so it's gluten free).  And it still hurt. I mostly had broth and took the rest home.

I went to bed really early and slept well after taking more Tramadol, but then I woke up around 3 in the morning, itching, and hungry, so I took more Tramadol and had some more soup. It still hurt.  However, I do have to say, it feels now more like it's just my bottom gums. Before it felt like my whole face. Maybe my trip to the doctor will be wasted - we'll see! I'll have to go back to the dentist next week if it is. UGH!

Saturday January 5, 2013

We went to see my doctor in her office. She usually works only Mondays and Fridays, and sometimes on Saturday. Weird hours! I'm guessing she does something else during the week, like work at the hospital, but who knows? Maybe she just stays at home with her kids.  Anyway, she checked me out and did not find any infections. That is a relief, but only partly because I was hoping it was something easy like that. She did, however, suggest I take Aleve or some other kind of anti-inflammatory pill along with the Tramadol, and that helped immensely.

We got a gift card for my sister-in-law and mailed it with her birthday card at the post office, along with another package I had. We went to the grocery store and then went home, as I recall.

I slept for most of Saturday and felt much better when I woke up.

I forgot to write in here for a while, so I don't remember what else we did on Saturday. Not much, I don't think. I stopped taking the Tramadol because it was no longer needed. I felt much better.

Let's hope that 2013 is a much better year for everyone! Less dental work for me, I hope!