I worked with a new PT this past week. She thought my exercises were looking too easy so she switched some things up and oh my. I guess they were too easy because I feel like I've been put through the wringer this week! One thing she changed was my mini-squats. I could never go down very far because I have a wonky knee due to an old ACL tear. She had me try more like a chair squat and oddly enough going down to the bench is more comfortable on my knee than going down just a little. My quads (and other assorted muscles) were so unhappy the next day! But building up those particular muscles are key to controlling the hip problem and kicking that replacement down the road for a while.

On Friday I got my flu and COVID vaccines. I would probably do it anyway but I work in a hospital and you have to get your flu shot (or jump through hoops to not have it and still be able to work). I believe in science and I don't wish to get either of those diseases so vaccines it is! Sometimes they affect me, sometimes they don't. This year they decided to kick me in the butt. I got the vaccines around 5 pm on Friday. I was feeling off later Friday night and I was out for the count all day Saturday. Typical vaccine reaction, kinda feels like the flu. Sensitive skin, eyeballs hurt, body aches. It sucked and disrupted my weekend. I'm a little resentful. I was also really missing having a kitty to keep me company.

This week, on Thursday, is Thanksgiving. For several years now I've been the one hosting not really because I want to but because my tiny little house is apparently the only place that can accommodate everyone (my mom-in-law/2nd mom and her husband, my son, his girlfriend, her daughter, maybe her niece if she's in town and me). I used to cook the whole meal but the past couple years I've been ordering it from restaurants. Last year I ordered from Cracker Barrel, this year dinner is coming from AJs Fine Foods, a bougie, fancy supermarket. I have high hopes for this one! Cracker Barrel was decent but their sweet potatoes are weird. Anyway, it's definitely made my hostessing gig easier. I also took Wednesday off from work. I'm going to make a sugar-free pumpkin cheesecake for my mom's husband (he's diabetic) and I'm also going to make some Garden Herb Bread in my bread machine (you can find the recipe for that in my recipe section!) and a cauliflower side dish (add bacon, cheddar cheese, cream cheese, green onions and you probably counteract any nutritional goodness from the cauliflower but everyone loves it and it is delicious).

Reading

I did it! I finished Into the Narrowdark this week! That concludes the Last King of Osten Ard epic fantasy series. It was awesome. Usually after finishing something so intense it's hard to dive into something else meaty so I'm reading some anthologies. I started on Terrible Lizards, the dinosaur/horror anthology and um, wow, the stories are kind of ... mid. To be fair, the site where I found out about the book said the same thing but even one of the stories they called out as one of the better ones wasn't really that much better!

I'm also catching up on my issues of Clarkesworld science fiction and fantasy magazine. I subscribed to them in August after reading about how much the cessation of Amazon digital subscriptions hurt them. I popped for the print version so once a month I have an awesome magazine full of short stories, non fiction (like interviews) and really cool cover art. I've been letting the issues pile up while I was immersed in the Last King of Osten Ard.

By the way, if you enjoy science fiction/fantasy, I have a couple of links on my library page (down at the bottom) that lead to lots of online magazines.

Watching

I started watching Scavenger's Reign this weekend. I've only gone through the first episode so far but I love it! Very reminiscent of old animated films like Wizards.

I think I'm going to end things here. It's been a short weekend for me and I'm still catching up with stuff like laundry and housecleaning.