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11.20.2023

Let The Games Begin?

Last week was one of those weeks were I completely overbooked myself and this week is going to be more of the same. Last week every day I had something after work, culminating in a client meeting and dinner on Friday, of which I was very glad to see the back of, although it went well and we had a good time. Planning for work events with multiple personalities and likes/dislikes is not really my thing, although I always seem to be in charge of doing it, like it or not. Luckily everyone was happy in the end, but if I don't have to do that again for a long time, I will not be sad. On Saturday I went to a wine and music event with my friend E and we were talking about his Thanksgiving plans, which are going to be nothing social, and I was telling him how I completely understand why. Sometimes it just creeps up on you and you need to hide under a rock for a while. 

Fancy dinner

Wine & music with Les Claypool

Luckily although this week will be socially heavy, it will be fun and a bit more low key. I only have Thursday off of work, so will have to go back into the office on Friday, although I expect it to be slow, as the markets are not open all day. Then on Saturday, I will run the Quad Dispea, an annual trail race, for which I have not trained enough. It will be painful, but it is kind of the running community's "holiday" get together, where you will often see people that you may not have seen since last year's race, so it will be nice to catch up with them, or at least see them on the course. I am crossing my fingers that it doesn't rain, as there are some steep muddy and slippery rock sections that are much more fun when dry. 

The Dipsea trail is known for its 678 stairs

I am looking forward to Thanksgiving, which will probably just be a low key lunch/dinner, lots of games, some hikes and otherwise just catching up and drinking lots of coffee! I think we are looking at lows in the 40s and highs in the 60s, and no rain, which is a very welcome thing! Last weekend we had some thunderstorms which were good for the garden, but difficult when trying to dash from a car to a restaurant in high heeled shoes, which is what happened to me on Friday night. 

Quirkle, one of our favorite games

Besides the rain though, the weather has been pretty good and is still not getting too cold at night; our lowest low has been in the 40s still and the trees are still pretty and golden in most places. Of course, as I mentioned before, this still means that raking season is going strong, and likely will for some time yet. I have really been enjoying leaf peeping walks around the neighborhood lately though! 

Golden leaves

Fun neighborhood corner

After that, November will basically be over, and it will be the last month of the year! My Christmas cards are 99% done, so I will put the finishing touches on them and get them sent out at the end of the month. The other thing I always do in the last couple of months of the year is to get all of the pesky check ups done. I already went to the eye doctor, next up are the dentist (today actually) and all of the lady checks and then I am done until next year! I still have to do some more serious dentistry, but will wait until my new insurance starts in January, and will also do my normal wellness exam (blood panel for triglycerides, cholesterol etc.) in January once the calendar starts over again. 

What are your plans for Thanksgiving? Have you done all of your annual exams, dentist appointments, eye appointments etc. yet? What are your neighborhood walks like lately? 

20 comments:

  1. I MUST go to the dentist this year. It has been too long since my last cleaning. I have to pay for this OOP, so I put it off for as long as possible.

    I too am loving the fall leaves. A gorgeous carpet that is quite possibly my favourite sensory experience in all of nature. The crunch. The colours. The smells. Ahhh.

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    1. When I had to pay out of pocket, I only went once a year instead of twice. I don't know how much it is there, but back when I did it, it was about $80. It's kind of sad that at my job our cheapest dental is $10 a pay period x 26 = $260 dollars so even if you got two cleanings per year it would be cheaper (also the more expensive one is $19 a pay period!) I know it is for big jobs/emergencies, but insurance really gets my goat sometimes!

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  2. Planning for work events is never easy!!! There is always something!!! That table scape is beautiful!!! Your leaves are gorgeous! We still have a few hanging on, especially out where my Mom is. I've loved the colors this year! I made a last minute decision to run a 10K on Thanksgiving since we're going to be hosting at our house. I had been running 4 and Saturday I ran 5. I'm not necessarily trained for it but I know I can finish it. I haven't been able to do this race since 2019 and I have friends who were already registered so I impulse signed up. Hope it stays dry for your race!!! For my dentist I stay on their calendar, they book my next appointment before I leave the chair which is super helpful for keeping me consistent! I need to get my eyes checked, I'm due since it's been 3 years. I'm so bad about putting that off! I am good about the mammogram, I recognize the privilege of being able to have this so I don't take it for granted. To be fair, eye doctor is also a privilege but I'm not as likely to die due to bad eyesight, so there's that... Hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!!!

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    1. I do the same thing as you do with the dentist! I always book it before I leave the office; that way I don't forget! However, as you say, I do not do that with eye doctors or other yearly checks (gyno, mammogram) so those sometimes either fall by the wayside (mammogram) or I book them at the end of each year, and often leave it to the last minute.

      I commented on one of your recent posts and went back to see if you had replied but don't see my comment! I am not sure if maybe it went to spam! Anyway, it sounds like you had a nice trip to the lake!

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  3. Ahh amazing that you’re doing the quad dipsea! My husband and I did the double dipsea and that was enough for us… quad is immense! Good luck!! -RachelinWales

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    1. I do the QD every year, and actually you get a jacket after 10 years, and this will be my 9th, so I guess I have to do it at least one more time before I give up!

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  4. Thanksgiving will be chaos. My husband is one of five, so we'll have all of his siblings, their spouses, and their kids at my FIL's house. Twenty-four people is the immediate family only. Isn't that crazy! I hope you have a wonderful, peaceful holiday!

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    1. That sounds like fun/chaos! My Dad is one of 6 and we always had big family get togethers when I was a kid but now more often than not, our Thanksgivings are a little smaller. However, we still do a Christmas party, and there are about 30 immediate family at that one. It is fun to have a little bit of both worlds I think!

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  5. I have done all of my annual appointments except my mammogram - I need to schedule that today actually so I can get it done before year end.

    My brother in the west metro is hosting Thanksgiving so we do not have to travel which is WONDERFUL. I LOVE Thanksgiving so am very excited for the holiday. Phil and Paul are going to an early Thanksgiving at one of Phil's cousin's on Friday. It starts too late for Taco to attend so I will stay home with him. Then we have Thanksgiving at my brother's on Thursday and my parents stay with us that night. Friday Phil works (I'm covering Wednesday and my new hire is covering Friday - both are early market closes for bonds so should be light days) and then we are going to his mom's for a "thanksgiving" meal after quiet time but she's making chicken tortilla soup. We don't have any plans on Saturday and then on Sunday afternoon, my college friends and their kids come over for cookie decorating. So it's kind of a lot but all things I am looking forward to!

    We haven't gone on a neighborhood walk for awhile as the days are so very short now. We used to go after dinner but it's dark so not a great time to take the kids out for a walk. This weekend we opted to drive to the 2 different parks we went to rather than walk/scoot. But when more decorations are up, we'll have to do a neighborhood walk.

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    1. Wow, that is a lot of different parties, but they all sound like fun! We have often just had a "regular" dinner for Thanksgiving day and that is so much easier than trying to cook a turkey, and leaves a lot more time for fun things like games and walks. I don't mind doing it that way, since the entire point is to spend time with people. It sounds like you are hitting the nail right on the head with that one, plus you get the best of both worlds with your brother hosting the big meal.

      That is one thing about changing the clocks that I don't like. It is great to have the extra light in the morning, but I actually think it would be better utilized in the evening by most people, and doing regular things when it is already dark is kind of weird. At A's last soccer practice, we rode bikes there and by the time it was over, it was dark and I hadn't thought of that, so did not bring a light (bad auntie) so we just pedaled slowly and used the street lights, but it was kind of surprising (obviously, since I was not prepared) that it was already dark at 5 pm!

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  6. Your trail run sounds like fun -- although holy moly that's a lot of stairs! Love your picture of quirkle. That's such a fun game. I hope we play some games this weekend, too -- I love a good board game. Hope you have a wonderful Thanksgiving!

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    1. We also really like Rummicub and Sequence, and of course there are also many card games like Rummy, Spades etc. that come out regularly. Have a great Thanksgiving and I hope that you get to play lots of games too (and not spend all of your time making green bean salad!)

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  7. Thanksgiving will be 11 people at my in-law's house, and we all chip in so it's not too much work for any one person. I have 3 appointments in December - OB/Mammo/Mole Check. Good idea to start on the Christmas Cards. I may do some of those this weekend, though NaBloPoMo reading and commenting sure takes up a lot of time!

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    1. My dentist appointment is over, thank goodness, with a clean bill of health too, but I do still have OB/Mammo left in December as well. Those are not that bad; I would rather go to the OB 10 times than go to the dentist once, so I am just cruising through the rest of the appointments until the year ends... I hope you get some time to work on your cards! Sometimes you just have to buckle down and do it all in one go, or it is so (SO!) easy to procrastinate!

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  8. You've been so busy! I am a bit in limbo about appointments since moving. Our BC health doesn't kick in for a couple of weeks, and after that I'm going to have to find a doctor, etc., and get my mammogram. I think it will be easy to find a dentist but now that my husband's retired, and doesn't have the company dental plan anymore, it will be expensive! Oh well, what can you do.

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    1. My parents do not have dental insurance and the OOP cost is a lot if you have to do anything big, but for regular cleanings, it is not too bad. I think sometimes they will also give you a cash price, which is a little lower than what they charge to the insurance. Do they do that in Canada too? Also is your heath care by province? Some of ours are smaller, like Kaiser, which would make it hard to get appointments if you moved, but most of them are national, or at least some appointments would not cost anything or much (preventative ones usually).

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  9. I've done all of my annual exams EXCEPT my well woman's. I thought I had booked my 2023 appointment during my 2022 appointment (which I always do!), but apparently did not. I had it scheduled for last Friday but then had to cancel it because I had a mandatory meeting happening at that exact time, ugh. I'm going to try to get it done sometime in December, though!

    Happy Thanksgiving! We all pitch in to help out with the food so it's not all on one person's shoulders. I'm so excited to eeeeeat!

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    1. It is a great idea to book your next year's appointment at the end of this year's, but for some reason, I only do that with my dental check ups. I should start doing that with all of my regular appointments, because it makes it so easy to get it done! Luckily my OB has an online portal, but the mammogram place is only phone appointments and for some reason that makes me put it off! However, the place I go is very fancy and they give you a nice locker and a robe and the experience is not really all that bad, so that should make me more willing to do it! Happy Thanksgiving; I hope your day was great and that you ate lots of yummy things!

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  10. I will be done with all my annual exams by next Wednesday... woot! Always glad to get this all taken care of. I've been enjoying some foliage runs around our neighborhoods. Luckily, we have a gardener who does all the raking :)

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    1. I need a gardener...actually most of the time, I don't but maybe I should just hire one for raking season! I have been raking every weekend, since my trash day is on Friday and I always fill the compost bin fully, and it has not actually been too bad. It gets me outside and I get to say hi to the neighbors while I am out there...

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