This blog post reminds me of my standard description of an ICD shocking my lifeless body after some sort of horrific accident (usually punctuated by slamming my fist into my hand). Turns out I am right!

I have been Lil Miss Involved at work lately. And the more involved I get, the less I want to know.

I visited some of our residential sites this week. At one of the sites, I am greeted at the door by a very flat sounding client. I had to ask twice if there was a staff person there. I try to talk to the client once inside, just a general “Hi, this is who I am and why I am here. How is it going?” She tells me, in a flat mumble, that she left the hospital today before she could see her doctor because people were staring at her and that she is off meds. Well, could have guessed that 2nd one. She said she was off meds because she is pregnant but it sounded like a doctor previously told her she was not pregnant. Her shirt didn’t fit very well and she is overweight so it was hard to tell if there was a baby bump. After I get this story I ask the staff person if she called the agency’s psychiatrist. She can always see clients right away if they miss appointments.

“Oh, no. Should I have done that?”

Yes, doing your job would be supercool. The client hugged me goodbye (woo mismatched behaviors!) and I declared myself done for the day.

Then today, I was in a meeting and the HR director announced a new policy about rehiring former employees. It’s pretty basic, we won’t hire them until we have reviewed their file and only if they got above average reviews while they worked here. It’s not a revised policy, we just never had a policy on this issue before.

Later that day, I’m talking to a coworker and she shows me an email conversation where a pain in the ass coworker resigns, rescinds his resignation and then is told he has to re-apply for his job. Oh, maybe they’re trying to get rid of someone with that new, well timed policy? He has resigned and rescinded resignation one before.

And I actually learned something in another meeting. Non-profits always have to stay in the red a little bit because if they have any money left over or break even, they risk having their funding cut for the next year. So I thought my agency sucked because they’re constantly playing catch up, it’s actually more about receiving payments on time to pay the bills but staying in debt just enough that we can keep asking for more.

I brought my mini cupcakes and cherries in snow to the parents’ for Easter and some of it was actually eaten! The cupcakes were a bit misshaped because I couldn’t find mini cupcake baking cups so the cupcakes stuck to the bottom of the pan and I had to pry them out with a knife. Everyone made fun of their appearance and likeness to poop but everyone ate them.

Cherries in snow was a bit harder sell. A few of my family members ate it. I thought it had a good contrast between the sweet cherries and milk gelatin. I took the leftovers to the boy’s place and since he doesn’t actually have food in his fridge, he is probably reading this, thinking about how he forgot about the dessert in his fridge. Yes, it’s probably still good.

I’ve been trying to eat healthy so I’ve been making more food rather than buying prepackaged. I like to take recipes down to a basic level, something I can make anytime. Tonight I made guacamole and chips. Guacamole consisted of some leftover avocado, tomato and onion powder. Chips were flour tortillas baked in the oven. Tadas! Chips and guac.

I have been making an effort to lose weight for a month now and I recently weighed in on a good scale and found out I have only lost a couple pounds. I’m eating better and more active so there is obviously a need to rework the plan. I’m also tired a lot. I started using FitDay again to keep track of my foods and activity. I talked to a few people that have lost weight in the past, consulted the internets and to my surprise I need to be eating more. My calorie intake was too low (which is why I feel OK about just eating a snack).
The elliptical was betraying me, too. So I started doing a short, hard workout on the elliptical then moving to weights. I’ve just started doing these things this week. I’m sore already. I need to weigh in more and it’s a pain to hunt down my coworker that owns the “official” scale so I’m going to buy a scale. I should have been weighing myself weekly all month but my previous superstitions about motivation and weight loss kept me away. This time I am giving myself a week and if there is no change, reworking the plan again.

I’m going to the parent’s tomorrow for Easter. I don’t actually celebrate the holiday but I do like food. I’m being nice this year which means no blood of christ filled communion cake and no burning cross cake.

I am bring my Xmas tree butter in case my aunt that brought lamb butter to Thanksgiving last year comes to dinner. I will warn people not to eat it since it has been in my freezer for a couple years (at least). It keeps my lamb butter company!

Since I am trying to lose weight I offered to make a low fat dessert. I was thinking a fruit tart but I know how my family rolls. Chocolate, icing, pie..fruit wouldn’t go over well unless it was covered in sugar. So I found an awesome recipe for mini chocolate cupcakes. I just baked my first batch and they are really good and only 177 calories per serving (3 mini cupcakes). They are kind of expensive to make because unsweetened Dutch processed cocoa powder is $8 a box. I probably could have substituted something cheaper but I’m not even sure what Dutch processed is and the first time I make a recipe I look to do it by the book then improvise later.

I also found an interesting recipe called Cherries in snow. It’s milk gelatin covered in a cherry/port mixture. It looks good but I am not sure my family would agree. I am going to make it anyway but I have the cupcakes as a sure winner and the gelatin as something to chase them around the kitchen with yelling “just try it!”

Last time we were attacked by the Roman Army and I got a face full of mystery water balloon. You think that is going to stop me from doing it again?

I know, if it wasn’t blogged about, it didn’t happen. Well Scanner blogged about it first.

Anyway, check out this awesome FoxNews page. No really, FoxNews can be awesome. Especially when there are sad genitals and misplaced anuses involved.

From CuteOverload

ICD’s are hackable!
Researchers hacked an ICD (Implantable Cardiac Defibrillator) using a computer and a software radio. The researchers were able to get patient data, settings and change settings causing the ICD to deliver a shock. Link to the full IEEE research article is in the linked article.

What is the first thing you think about when you set up a wireless network?  “Do I want to let my neighbors access my network?”

Depending on your level of geek, illegal porn downloading and sense of community, you set your security level. So where was Medtronic’s security level? At the “what is the internet?” level?

This weekend was my first meditation class. We(boy, coworker and I) ended up going to a different temple than originally planned. The first temple we looked into increased the price for the meditation class the day of the first class. Spending an extra $30 to meditate does not help my zen. So we went to the temple/dojo that my roommate practices aikido at. Their classes are free! They accept donations, of course.

There was a lot of talking and not a lot of meditating which was actually good for a first class. Meditation hurts. My knees and back were not happy. It reminded me how poor my posture is. The leader recommended concentrating on only one thing at a time when you start, either posture or breathing. When you concentrate on breathing, you try to breathe from your stomach and have each breath fill your body. You count your breaths and try to focus on only your breathing, without letting any distractions in. The leader has been practicing for 18 years and cannot always do this. I couldn’t get to 2. I think that says a lot about Western society. We are so rushed and overstimulated, we cannot concentrate for 10 seconds but this is probably something a Buddhist 12 year old in Asia can do.

After meditation we went to Southport Grocer for brunch. That place is soo good. I tried to be a little good and got granola pancakes instead of the incredibly delicious cupcake pancakes (my pancakes were still good, too). I’ve been having a really hard time finding healthy things at restaurants. Some restaurants even fuck up salads and turn them into dressing and cheese covered fat bowls with some lettuce in them. I hate ordering things at restaurants that I could have easily made at home so I’m not down with ordering a wilting fruit plate or a bowl of plain oatmeal. I should just cook more and go out to eat less. But the whole idea that restaurants cannot make at least a few items that are yummy and not dripping with grease pisses me off!

My parade plans were almost thwarted by the time change and a cell phone that was slow to change but I made it out to the South side to celebrate being a dirty Mc.

I went to a party at high school friend’s mom’s house. Nothing makes you feel old like seeing little brothers all growed up. Then I went to my parent’s house where I ruined my diet with corned beef and “just a tiny slice” of cake. No wonder my family has trouble losing weight.

And look at this article. “A vast array of pharmaceuticals — including antibiotics, anti-convulsants, mood stabilizers and sex hormones — have been found in the drinking water supplies of at least 41 million Americans, an Associated Press investigation shows.”

I totally knew about this from a Cafe Science talk. Unfortunately, it looks like I didn’t blog about the talk but the professor said that the estrogen in the water supply from birth control pills will eventually decrease penis size. We must do something about this now!