jenh526

I started reading a nursing forum during the start of the pandemic and never stopped because I learn so much there. Yesterday I learned there is a phenomenon called a uterine window, which happens when a scar from a previous c-section is stretched so thin you can actually see the baby through it. From my understanding this is a dangerous condition that can precipitate a uterine rupture, which is a medical emergency.

Anyone have any good ramen recipes?

Lately I’ve just been making stir fries. Last week I bought a plastic bin of cut up steaming vegetables (produce aisle), a pound of raw shrimp in a package, and a stir fry packet. Froze the unused vegetables. So this week I bought a package of cut up stir fry beef from the meat section. Took out some of the frozen veg and put it in the fridge to defrost. I’ll chop up the veg into smaller pieces. When I was buying the meat I noticed they had sliced stir fry pork too, so maybe have that next week. So easy. Made chocolate chip cookies yesterday and then put them in the freezer. I have 2 potlucks later this week so I will take some for each. This morning, scrambled eggs with a defrosted croissant and cocoa. I’ll stick the croissant in the oven for a few minutes to crisp up the outside.

They were huge when I was in college. Got reacquainted with them early on in the pandemic because of this video: Was really nice to see they’ve mended fences and I enjoyed hearing “Change” again, always liked that song.

I agree. She never got much height on her jumps.

Poor little Dominique. I remember watching a video of her falling on her head during a beam routine in competition. Apparently she wasn’t even checked for injury after this fall before going on to the next event. It’s absolutely disgusting, these so-called adults preying on children. When a society can’t protect its most vulnerable, well, I just don’t know. It’s heartbreaking. I feel so bad for all of them, Valieva and her teammates included.

Apologies if this has been explained already, but if Valieva has had negative results recently, then how is she able to do the jumps now without the PED? (Not excusing her or the Russians, just want to understand the mechanics of it)

Agree on Melancholia, a movie which probably very few people saw due to being foreign and a Lars von Trier movie to boot. Fantastic movie though and she was great in it. Just not really one to see if you’re in the mood for light fare.

Friend of mine was looking for a movie on Netflix called “The Big Yellow Dog”. I said, um... sure you don’t mean “The Power of the Dog”? He so (inadvertently) funny sometimes. I watched it, thought it was quite grim through most of it. But now that I’ve seen the ending I think I need to watch it again. Probably won’t though.

I’m a bit confused about the drug testing procedures. The test was done in December before Russian Nationals, right? Skaters can still compete if they haven’t gotten test results back yet? Seems like that should’ve been prevented.

Fast-forwarded through season 4. That one has only one possible outcome, and still, it seems like the producers gave them "hypothetical couples" in episode 9.

I just binge watched season 3 on Netflix. Pretty stupid show and sorry, but I *hate* when these young girls throw themselves at the guys. It makes me sad. They all end up "heartbroken". I was curious to see if there was an actual solution, given all the information that you know by episode 10. So I opened up Excel and went back through every episode, marking up what I knew for sure by the end (before the lighting ceremony). Then I cross-matched the lighting ceremony matches for each episode and ultimately came up with 4 viable solutions. In episode 10, Devin "discovers" that there are 2 potential scenarios. One of them is one of my 4 viable solutions. I then set to work looking at the other potential solution, and quickly found a contradiction. Ultimately, the coin was the genius of this show, and clearly they were handed a couple of potential solutions by the producers. I have no clue what Devin was doing with the cup thing. Probably gonna watch season 4 of this dumb show to see what my spreadsheets tell me this time! Maybe I'll fast-forward through all the "but I loooooove him sooooo much..." gunk.

I just started watching this show, flipped to it because I can only watch so many Olympic track racing events. I guess I don’t really understand the coupling up thing at the end. In a real world situation wouldn’t it be more like every guy saying “the girl I want to couple up with is <prettiest girl, preferably blond>“? Or is this more like PE in school where you can only choose from the ones left standing? Or is it all predetermined so they don’t all pick the same one?

I read about a study where they were looking at how long people stayed in a job with a toxic boss. The results were very interesting. They found people stayed about 2 years longer in a job with a toxic boss vs. non-toxic. The hypothesis was that people felt more beaten down in those jobs so found it harder to get the motivation to leave. One has to wonder though if that isn't a deliberate strategy in some places.

Sorry you’re going through the same.

I work in government and my boss' boss has been actively trying to keep me from advancing ever since she got that job several years ago. You can't apply for positions unless she tells you that you can (and she always has one person pre-selected). If you try, she will cut you down in the interview. I am so sick of seeing people who are much, much less capable get promoted over me. I'll be 55 this year and I'm trying to just hang in for another five years for the pension. But I don't know if I can. My physical and mental health are suffering. It's extremely hard to find something else. I'm at the point now where I have really slowed down my work. I used to be the most productive employee, even though I never got rewarded for it. Now I'm just done. I don't understand how people can be so cruel.

My sweet coworker who gently took my elbow today as we were crossing the street. I think he was concerned I was going to get run over.

I ride a train to and from work everyday, so have been reading quite a bit to pass the time. I love Maureen Corrigan’s taste in books so will typically try to seek out books she recommends. So in the past few months I’ve read: Educated by Tara Westover. She’s a very talented writer and I found the story compelling. Some parts were difficult to read but I thought she related her story in a fair and gracious manner, while still conveying the conflicted feelings of having love for someone who has hurt you. Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann. I’m not much of a history buff and someone had given me this book, so it sat on the shelf for a while. But oh my gosh was this an interesting and devastating story. I couldn’t wait to get on the train everyday to read it. A quick read, and definitely something I never learned about in school history class. Was more like a true crime novel I thought, which is maybe why it captivated my attention. The Ninth Hour by Alice McDermott. This was a Maureen Corrigan recommended book. I was partly interested in this novel because I grew up Catholic and my mom had been a nun. I didn’t think it was great. For some reason I couldn’t really get into it, and it was a bit of a slog for me to get through. But I did enjoy learning a bit more about convent life. Ghost Wall by Sarah Moss. Short novel, but I really enjoyed it. A good, creepy story fleshed out by well-researched history of the Ancient Britons. Hunger by Roxane Gay. There were parts of this memoir that I identified with. I also felt at times like she was going too far down the self-pity path. Writing seemed kind of uneven to me, but I wasn’t bored by it. A review I read described her prose as “lethargic” and I think I agree with that assessment. Currently reading The Body in Question by Jill Ciment. Another Maureen Corrigan recommendation. This is one of those rare novels that I wish would go on forever. Spare writing style. Two stories are interwoven and both of them are intriguing. The characters are well-developed and the story keeps a good pace. It’s like a good indie movie. My favorite so far, although I think it’s going to end in heartbreak. We’ll see.

I got into a discussion with a coworker about ways to dry your hands in a restroom. I mentioned this contraption that isn’t seen much anymore, a continuous roll towel. We both agreed it was gross, wiping your hands where other people have wiped theirs. Then I went online and found a study someone had done that found that the continuous roll towel was actually the MOST hygienic method, certainly far more than a hot air blower.

I work in the public sector which allows me to see salaries online. This past quarter many people got raises. I was one of the ones who didn’t. They don’t give raises based on merit, and I was told that the raise was for people who had been there at least x number of years without a raise. So I went online, did a comparison, and found 2 people who had fewer than x years who got the raise. I went to my manager and presented this (she doesn’t like me since I’m not part of the clique, and also I’m way more educated than anyone there and probably the most productive employee). She claimed not to know anything about the criteria, so I went to her manager who said she’d look into it. I’ve also talked to HR. I kinda feel like I’m getting the runaround, and the HR lady especially seemed pretty wary. I’m wondering if they’re concerned at all about a possible lawsuit since I’m over 50 and female. I’m actually really torn up about this. I do work hard and try to do everything they ask of me even though they are much more critical of me than anyone else. I know I should get out and I’ve been trying but it is very difficult.

Same here. Sometimes I can’t get back to sleep and then have to drag myself into work on 4 hours sleep (like today). I try to go to bed early but sometimes I just lie there awake. And still wake up too early. I read somewhere that this cycle is not that unusual. In the Victorian era they called it first and second sleep. Here’s something about it: https://www.news-medical.net/news/20180325/Sleep-like-a-Victorian-to-help-insomnia.aspx

The night my mom passed, I had woken up around 3 am, and felt a warm sensation of peace and contentedness wash over me. My dad called several minutes later to give me the news. She’d been living in pain for two years with undiagnosed (until much too late) pancreatic cancer. I like to think that was her way of saying goodbye to me. Also, the sailor’s clock next to her chair in the living room stopped that night. As an aside, I can’t stand when random strangers wish me a Happy Mother’s Day. I get that they mean well, but it’s just painful.

Not sure if this is the right place to ask this question, but here it is. I live at about 5000 ft elevation, so when I bake Tollhouse cookies I have to use the high altitude recipe. The recipe says to “add 2 tsp water with flour”. The first time I tried this I added the 2 tsp water to the flour mixture. Later I convinced myself this was not correct. So now when I add the flour to the wet ingredients I add 2 tsp water with the first addition of flour. Now I’m thinking this isn’t right either, and I should add 2 tsp with each addition of flour (I don’t have a mixer, doing all this by hand). The last batch of cookies I did turned out well with just the 2 tsp water added with the first addition of flour, if a tad dry. The batter was very hard to mix though. Anyone familiar with high altitude baking that has a suggestion?

Pumpkin pie pop tarts. Yummy! A coworker used to make Trader Joe’s pumpkin tarts at work because they smelled so good as they were toasting. He liked making the rest of us jealous. I like the pumpkin pie pop tarts better than TJ’s version.