I’m trying to decide if I’m sick enough for a trek to the doctor. Trust me, I don’t say that lightly. I find the medical community as a whole about as caring and trustworthy as politicians
Sadly, my body has decided to kick my ass in an even bigger way than usual, to the point I’m beginning to suspect pneumonia or a particularly mean streak of bronchitis. I’ve had to weigh my love of breathing against my hatred of doctors. So far the docs are on the losing end of things. Stay tuned, because the jury’s out on how long that’ll last. For the moment I’m wheezing like an accordion with leaking bellows, curled up under a blanket and sniffling. Not naked, like the guy in the video. I’m on the sofa and the curtains are open. Displaying this body in public could be deemed cruel and unusual punishment for anyone who saw it.
My voice held out long enough for me to work a partial shift. There was a project deadline of tomorrow and nobody else to do it. It didn’t entail talking, so I kinda ran with that and stayed quiet until my boss kicked me out for the day (with pay, thankfully). To be fair, even at my best I sounded like shit, so I can’t blame him.
The project was something I started doing for a friend and colleague, just as we wrapped up our initial training session. It went from helping one person to being integrated into training and day-to-day operations. We acquired three more companies this week, plus one of our existing business clients had some changes, so there were updates. Lots of updates.
I had one legitimately fun thing happen today. Dell finally got around to crediting me for the computer I returned, so I went ‘puter shopping – online. I ordered one that cost about $300 more than the one I returned. Every extra penny went into upgrades. It has two hard drives – one SSD, one old-school with a ton of storage. It’s got a kick-ass gaming processor this time around – no more AMD crap for me. It’s got a vastly better graphics card. And it’s a 17-inch screen instead of 15. No HDMI connection, but I wouldn’t use it anyway with a screen that size. No touch screen either – again, not going to miss it. No DVD player because I traded that space for another hard drive. I’ll invest in an external player, which I’ll get for free with the bonuses I always get for buying their stuff.
I’m gonna have to get a bigger desk, mwahaha- *coughwheezecough* -ha!
As it turns out, the model I returned seems to have been problematic across the board. The Dell site has a bunch of that model for sale in its outlet store, 99 percent of which are “refurbished”. They cleaned them up and are reselling all those returns.
I was all jazzed because I have a membership plan to get free expedited shipping – except not really. This is a custom build so expedited isn’t an option. It’ll take about two weeks to arrive. Grr..
That counts for something, right?
Despite feeling like the walking dead, I cooked actual food yesterday. I used a shortcut for the entree — frozen stuffed chicken breasts – but the rest was from scratch, including a side dish where I totally winged it. I’d picked up some tricolor orzo, doctored it up with a packet of onion soup mix, some parsley, a little Italian spice mix, a hint of garlic, and a pinch of dill weed; thin-sliced some fresh mushrooms and added to the pot, even added some caraway seeds; put it into the water and let it cook. The soup mix added plenty of salt. With all the other flavorings I bypassed pepper. The dill was perfect – you could taste it, but it was at the level of “whisper” instead of ZOMG THERE’S A PICKLE IN MY NOODLES!
I added too much water and let it cook a little too long, but the husband person still went back for seconds. By cooking it a little longer than intended, it gave the whole dish a slightly creamy texture, without getting downright mushy. Hubby’s already put in his order for a repeat sometime in the near future.
Since the chicken breasts required the oven, I also roasted some fresh green beans at the same time, tossed with salt, pepper, and a drizzle of olive oil.
All in all, it was simple to fix, yummy, and very little cleanup. The chicken breasts and beans were on the same baking sheet, which I lined with foil because I KNEW I’d be out of commission within minutes.
My “cooking by the seat of my pants” genes still work, it seems.
You poor, sickly genius! Congrats on the new ‘puter, just make sure you live long enough to enjoy it. Damn, whatever you have sounds awful. I like breathing, I can’t imagine what it must be like having that skill diminished. Hang in there! Have more of that delicious sounding soup. Soup is god.
I have to admit, I’m fond of breathing, myself. The crud in my lungs is finally breaking up, thank goodness. I still sound and feel like Hell, but I know now it’s on its way out.
Here’s hoping THIS computer lives up to its promise. It had better, for what I paid. It sure wasn’t one of their $249 specials.
I didn’t put enough water in to make soup – but I like that idea too, come to think of it!
I’m glad to hear the cough is breaking up. I worry about you getting pneumonia so keep alert on your symptoms. The food sounds delicious especially since you were impaired when you made it. I hope there is enough left over so you don’t have to cook today.
I loved the Sounds of Bronchitis and stole…I mean…borrowed it for my friends and family to enjoy as well.
Luckily I had a pneumonia shot a few years ago because I’m prone to bronchitis. This is the first year it’s been this bad in a long time. But it’s better, thank goodness. I sound horrible with this cough, but it’s productive and I can breathe again. I’m camped out on the sofa for at LEAST the rest of today and probably all day tomorrow. By then, I should feel a lot more human.
Unfortunately, there aren’t enough leftovers to cover dinner tonight. I’ve got a couple of five-minute-fix meals or will order a pizza, something like that.