under the black flag

last night, delicious dinner with the radiant naomi_traveller and her charming spouse. i got home much too late and got too little sleep, but still managed to catch my train this morning. i was buoyed by the excellent news that qmarq will be in town for a couple of days in March. it has been much too long since our co-evil-twinness has been loosed upon the unsuspecting populace. it will be good to see him again.

i'm really hating the aftereffects of having spent so much time too depressed to get out of bed. my feet and ankles are throbbing from the unaccustomed exercise, and i've put on so much weight that only three of my pairs of pants fit anymore, and one of them is too dressy to wear to work here. i have a similar dearth of tops. i need to hit a thrift store or something and see if i can pick up a few things to tide me over till some of this weight comes off.

i hung the jolly roger in my cube this morning. it's doing a fine job of filtering the excessive sunlight as well as being entertainingly decorative. i hope it will also help people find me, since there is no nametag on my cube yet, nor have i got a phone (although i do know my extension number).

last night before i crashed i tossed the makings of split pea soup into the crockpot and put it in the refrigerator. this morning when i got up i pulled it out and turned it on, and when i get home (hopefully bearing a tasty baguette), i'll have soup all ready to go! god, i love my crockpot. i expect with this long commute i'll be using it more than usual. there's that fantastic recipe i found for lamb shanks with red wine and caramelized onions that simmers all day... i wonder if i could use the crockpot to caramelize onions during the day and have them ready for me at dinnertime! i must research the issue.

BART continues to rock, but this morning i was reintroduced to that most odious of public transit users, the large person who sits next to you, crowds you against the window, and doesn't get up to move when other seats become available. i was too wrapped up in my book to move myself, though. (check my lj page for the latest on what i'm reading -- i finally updated it!)

i must be feeling better. i'm actually writing about things other than how much my life sucks! nevertheless, when they took my picture for my badge, i felt like i was smiling but my mouth is a grim line... i guess i've been frowning so much that any less frowny expression feels like smiling. hopefully this will improve along with my weight as things progress.

also

i am having a freakishly good hair day.

the latest

word is that my job is indeed safe for now. the up side of this is that it's halted development, more or less, on the toolkit i'm documenting -- which gives me some time to catch up with its current state before they start messing with it again.

the down side is that a couple of the people who developed it may be bailing out, and i don't know how that will affect the project.

we shall see. either way, so much for feeling like i was in a safe spot for a while -- now i'm all freaked out again.

i bought a new pair of jeans and a decent-looking oversized button-down shirt so i'll have at least one more tolerable-looking outfit to wear to work that doesn't make me feel like i'm being sawed in half whenever i sit down, which is most of the time. i gotta lose some of this weight.

the crockpot split pea soup is a mixed success -- the flavor is incredible, but oddly enough, it needs more peas than the regular recipe. so i put some more in, and am waiting for them to blend in with the rest. meanwhile, Daddy-O is blissfully gnawing on the bones from the ham hock.

i feel guilty that this upheaval at Maxis is actually good (more or less) for me and so horrible for everyone else, so i'm going to bake a batch of cookies and take them in tomorrow for the team.