Sheep Guarding Llama

Medifast Status: Day 272, Down ~74.5lbs (26lbs to go)

Finally down another pound and just in time to go to my Medifast appointment this morning.  I was supposed to have an appointment there on Friday but I could not make it as I was home sick that day so I had it today instead.  I hit a new low weight on my weigh in this morning at home and matched it when I got in to Medifast around lunch time.

I was in the office this morning and was sneezing quite a bit.  Before I left to go to Medifast Dan said that I sounded sick and that I should be staying at home.  Once I went home for lunch I was feeling worse and worse and decided that I needed to stay home once I got there.  Dominica took one look at me and said, “You look awful!”  I could barely keep my eyes open due to the heavy sinus irritation going on.

So I worked from home all afternoon which was nice as I got more time with the girls although it would have been much better had I not felt so awful.

We finished Star Trek: Voyager today.  We both felt that the double-length final episode was rather anti-climactic and not a good ending for an otherwise awesome series.  I’m not sure if Dominica feels that Voyager kept up with The Next Generation but I would certainly rank it as being competitive with that series and, in some ways, it was superior to it.  Without a doubt, Voyager was the spiritual successor to TNG in a way that Deep Space Nine completely failed to be even though DS9 was of a closer era and shared more staff and crew.  TNG and Voyager really feel like they “go together” whereas many of the other series including the original each seem to stand mostly on their own and are disconnected from these two that seem to almost act like one, long series that simply switched from following one ship to anther halfway through its run.  To TNG fans I highly recommend taking the time to watch Voyager.  It is available on Netflix so few people have any excuse for missing it now.

Medifast Status: Day 271, Down ~73.5lbs (27lbs to go)

Today was a mix of trying to get caught up on my backlog of work and getting in family time.  I used Dominica’s workstation much of the day so that I could stay out in the living room with the girls rather than hide in my office.

Since we finished watching all that there was of How I Met Your Mother yesterday, today we moved to watching Star Trek: Voyager as we are on the final season and very near the end of the show.  Only a few episodes left to go and that entire show will be over and done with.  We got up to the final episode today and just have the very last one to watch and that will conclude the entire fourth series of Star Trek.  After this only Star Trek: Enterprise remains for us to watch and we will have seen every episode of Star Trek ever.

I mixed some drinks today.  One of my first real tests of my bar tending skills.  A friend of ours who used to work in IT but now makes signage and other swag stuff (I have no idea what that stuff is called, I just call it all swag – printing on things for marketing) came over and is helping us figure out what to do about getting some lighting, shelves and a sign for the bar.  It is going to be really cool when we are all done.  We need to buy bar stools soon too.  Right now everyone just has to stand at the bar which can be awkward.  Once we have stools it will be a halfway decent place to work from a laptop too.

Medifast Status: Day 270, Down ~73.5lbs (27lbs to go)

Dominica had wanted me to go out and to do some shopping for bar supplies last night but it was late and I did not feel like going out so we postponed it.  We weren’t going to be using anything last night so it didn’t really matter.

This morning I got up and went out first thing in the morning and drove up to Centennial up on Parker and Josie which is brand new.  I’ve never driven that far up Josie before to the region of Carrollton known as Hebron.  It is like wilderness up there.  Nothing but fields.  Very strange.

The new Centennial that just opened there is awesome.  Hardly anyone using it as it is so remote so parking and everything is really easy.  I spent quite a bit of time shopping and ended up with rather an impressive lineup for our bar including nearly everything that we could possibly need for mixing drinks.  It was rather a sizable haul that I brought in this morning.  We have gone from being severely understocked to incredibly well stocked in one fell swoop.

I am really happy that we found such a nice liquor and wine store so close to the house.  We thought that we had to drive a really long way to find one which is what we have been doing previously.  This is very close and very convenient – no tollways, no traffic and no crowds.  Not to mention it is in the country rather than in a rough part of town.

I came home and was home for a few hours.  Today is our relaxing day.  Dominica is still recovering from her bought with strep throat but is feeling mostly better today.  She should be right as rain by tomorrow.

Dominica sent me out to do some additional shopping at Target in the early afternoon.  We needed some food items and bar supplies like a jigger, strainer and hand juicer.  While I was out I ran over to Tom Thumb to grab some produce and swung by Centennial again to fill in the gaps on what we had already bought.  I had missed a few things once we had done an inventory.  We are well stocked now with items like Cointreu, Triple Sec, vodka, gin, vermouth, cognac, Canadian whiskey, scotch, Irish whiskey, rye, bourbon, tequila, sloe gin, rum, flavored rums, spiced rum, liqueurs, etc.  Enough to make most anything.  It is truly amazing how much you have to have in order to be able to mix drinks for people.  Just a set of basics is an onerous amount of alcohol.

Add to that the mixers that you need on hand.  We have Sierra Mist, ginger ale, Mountain Dew, Pepsi, Coke, tonic water, seltzer, club soda and cranberry juice.  Plus then there is grenadine, lime syrup, limes, lemons, oranges, bitters – the list goes on and on.

This afternoon I spent almost entirely with Liesl and Luciana.  We hung out and played, read and snuggled.  It was a great day and the weather was amazing too.  Dominica and I finished watching the sixth season of How I Met Your Mother and, as of this evening, we are now completely caught up on that.  Nothing more for us to watch on Netflix until the seventh season comes out which will likely be a while since it is airing currently.  They have already been picked up for an eighth season so there is a lot more to watch in the future.

Medifast Status: Day 269, Down ~73.5lbs (27lbs to go)

I am at home today as I have strep throat and don’t want to be spreading it around the office.  I am contagious at least until tonight and possibly until Saturday.  So best to be safe and just stay home.

It was quite a busy day at the office so I got very little time to spend with the girls during the day.  Still, being home all day means that I do get a bit of time with them even if I am in my office for nearly the whole day.

Today has little news.  We are all sick so we are taking it easy.  I didn’t have to work all that late this evening either which was brilliant since I was already home and able to just go hang out with my girls.

I felt pretty good all day.  The strep really never wore me down and I could barely tell that I had it at all.  Dominica felt pretty awful all day, though.

We watched more of How I Met Your Mother tonight and are nearly done with the sixth and final season available on Netflix.  We are nearly caught – years after we first started watching the show.

We’ve been talking about getting our bar set up in the house and to that end I got a couple of books on bartending for the Kindle tonight.  Dominica wanted me to go out shopping for supplies but the liquor stores close pretty early and I didn’t want to go out shopping while the girls were still awake.  That is a waste of family time.

Medifast Status: Day 268, Down ~73.5lbs (27lbs to go)

I got up and went into the office this morning, a normal day.  By mid-morning Dominica said that she was feeling worse than she had yesterday so she was going to make an appointment at CareNow and I would stay at home and watch the kids while she was there.  So at around noon I went home and let the office know that I would be at home until we found out if Dominica had strep or not, but we were pretty confident that she did.

Dominica’s throat culture came back immediately as positive for strep.  So she was out for a while making runs to the pharmacy and getting supplies.  I will be staying home this afternoon as I am very likely contagious, even though I feel fine, and will make a trip to the doctor’s myself later on once work settles down to see if I am sick too.

So I had a nice afternoon at home with the girls.  Work was pretty busy, though, so I never really got a chance to relax much.  I had to work pretty late, in fact.

At six I ran down to Brookhaven and picked up dinner.  Dominica didn’t feel like going out, for obvious reasons, and did not feel like cooking.  A perfect day to get takeout.

We ate dinner and watched How I Met Your Mother on Netflix.  I got a bit of time with Liesl and Luciana today since I was home nearly all day, even though work was busy.

At eight I went in to CareNow and got checked out.  I felt fine but we wanted to be proactive.  I got the throat culture and, lo and behold, I have strep.  The doctor was pretty amazed that I knew to come in with strep and even told him that it was going to be strep when I had no symptoms and felt completely fine.

So I am on antibiotics now as well.  I stopped by at CVS on the way home and picked up my meds and some meds that Dominica had waiting for her.  I got home around ten or so and we called it an early night.