There have been changes at work, and it looks rather unfortunate. My boss has been made redundant and been replaced by someone in New York. There will be a bit of … um … learning involved, as he seems to be a technical whiz, not a management whiz. This is every manager’s worst nightmare. We will see how it goes, but it seems that it might be more challenging in the form of trying to supply him with information rather than letting me get on with managing the QA process. Argh! If the engagement turns into a bodyshopping project (one where the client does all the managing, just requiring test analysts from us) then I will probably be removed from the project simply because I will no longer be needed. No skin off my nose, as I get paid whether I’m on a site or not, but the project is interesting so I’d be a bit upset if I had to leave.
This afternoon, after work, I had an appointment with Raja the Tailor. Raja is a Hong Kong company (run by Indians, however) which travels around the great cities of the world selling tailor-made suits. They take your measurements, you pay, and then they send you one suit later on (which you try on; if it’s good, then they send the others if you’ve ordered more than one). I got two shirts and three suits, one of which will be suitable for Masonic functions and the other two suitable for work.
I won’t tell you how much I paid for them, but it’s well into 4 figures. They are an investment in good dressing that will pay dividends at job interviews, if such were to happen.
The bad thing is that, on the way (it’s a short walk from my current place of work) I tripped and fell flat on my knees and palms on the pavement. My knees still ache and my palms are still red and sore. There are no bruises that I can see, but I wouldn’t be surprised if some appeared by tomorrow. Rats! I will probably have to forego yoga tomorrow if it’s still uncomfortable.
I have decided to give up caffeine and see whether it has an effect on my blood sugar. I’m hoping it does, because giving up caffeine would be preferable to the needle. There have been news reports lately that suggest it may have an effect. I shall lay in some decaffeinated espresso coffee tomorrow and start using that in the morning. I love my coffee, but the caffeine may be so bad for me that giving it up is the only way forward.
Made a cream of potato soup yesterday according to a recipe. It was quite, um, stiff, almost but not quite batterlike. So today, when I reheated it, I added a cup of chicken stock. It is now edible and I have one more bowl for tomorrow. Note to the person who sent me the recipe: ditch the garlic: garlic and milk do not really do well together, in my opinion. I shall leave it out the next time I make it.
For
owie!
in the positive direction, at least you weren’t wearing one of your rather expensive suits when this happened, as (sure as the toast falls butter-side-down) such an incident would have holed the knee for sure.
hope the bruising is absent/minimal, and good luck on the blood sugar front.
Funny that I did the same thing as you. Was talking to my friend one minute, then turned and tripped over my sewing machine cord. Fell with a loud thump on the wooden floor. Both knees hit first, though I tried to break my fall with my palms. The pain was so intense it took my breath away. Laying face down I couldn’t even utter a word when my friend screamed and asked if I was OK. She actually thought I had had a heart attack and was dead as I couldn’t move. She heard a faint whisper “I’m OK”. My knees are pretty bruised and painful and a lesson was learned…unplug a draping cord when not in use.
There are two kinds of coffee, Arabica and Robusta. Robusta has much more caffeine than Arabica. It is cheaper, though, because it can be grown in lowlands in orchards that make it easy to harvest while Arabica grows in highlands and is labor-intensive to harvest. Decaffeination doesn’t remove all of the caffeine. When you buy decaffeinated coffee, it is usually made from Robusta beans and the resulting coffee has more caffeine than unmodified Arabica would have given you. Simply switch to Arabica coffees, which have much better flavor than the cheap substitute.
I don’t believe that caffeine increases blood sugar. Actual tests (rather than “informed” opinions) have shown that women who drink six cups of coffee or more per day are much less likely to become diabetic.
Giving up coffee when you’re addicted to it could lower your blood sugar for a while, until you recover from the addiction. I quit cold turkey once, for about three years, and I felt horrible with terrible headaches and other problems for several months, although the first ten days were the worst. Withdrawal could lower blood sugar but so could the belief that your blood sugar was going to drop, at least for a while.
Unless you have seen the result of actual tests performed on a non-addicted population — and know how to look at the numbers to assess significance — you shouldn’t believe anything suggested.
No bruising, but both palms and knees are still pretty sore, and my left buttock is sore (which is odd, as I fell flat on my face, but I must have pulled something while I went down). Yoga is thus out today.
Oh gosh! I hope you’re ok now. I wish that I could learn a lesson from this, like: “Vote for someone who’ll make sure the sidewalks are fixed when the paving stones become uneven.” but I’m afraid it wouldn’t work very well.
A very recent study has shown that caffeine increases insulin resistance. I figure that, heck, it’s worth a shot. I’ve given up coffee/caffeine before and have never had the withdrawal symptoms you describe. I drink maybe three cups a day and a Diet Coke at lunch. It will be an interesting experiment. I love my coffee, but I love not having to inject more than coffee and it’s an experiment worth trying.
First, the study was flawed. The sample size was small, 14 subjects. They used caffeine capsules whose strength wasn’t indicated; it makes a big difference if they were giving the equivalent of twenty cups of coffee or considerably more or a lot less. They used those liquid meals that are mostly carbohydrate in a form easily and rapidly assimilated but never suggested that the liquid meal was the cause of the problem, as I would suspect.
Unless you know how much caffeine was necessary to produce the indicated results, preferably in equivalent cups of Robusta coffee, you have no idea how much or in what direction your coffee consumption changes your insulin resistance.
At the time I was addicted to coffee, I was living in Panama, a coffee-producing country growing both Robusta and Arabica coffees. Packaging at that time never indicated which variety you were getting. I was drinking two or three pots of coffee daily. We went on a vacation with my wife’s family, who brew their coffee very strong. Ten days of drinking large quantities of very strong coffee burned a hole in my stomach (they let me look through the fiber-optic device they shoved down my throat to see the ulcer that had formed at the bottom of my stomach). Told that continued consumption of such strong coffee would delay my healing, I quit cold for three years. I did some studying, learned the difference between coffee varieties and methods of decaffeination, and, when I felt it was safe, returned to drinking coffee … but in smaller quantities and almost exclusively of the Arabica line.
Well, giving up caffeine won’t hurt me and might help me. If it doesn’t do anything, then fine. I’ve adjusted to decaf already.
There are also various implements you can buy that will make the cord more trip-resistant.
I came home from work early today because I was so tired and my leg hurt too much.,.. 🙁
Caffeine, or at least coffee, seems to improve your health in a number of ways, such as increasing your intelligence and awareness, based on a number of studies. I’ve heard of no benefits other than, as in my case, breaking an addiction or allowing a damaged stomach to heal, neither of which apply to you.
And remember that you’re still getting plenty of caffeine from your decaf: decaf Robusta has more caffeine than ordinary Arabica. They decaffeinate Robusta to extract the caffeine to add to sodas and other foods and the reduced-caffeine decaf is mainly a byproduct, one they push strongly because if they can’t sell the decaf, it has to be thrown out. Robusta works well for this program because it is cheap and has lots of caffeine (but little flavor).
Carefully worded statements, such as the article you linked to, try to create an atmosphere of suspicion of caffeine although almost every legitimate test of caffeine’s effect on the health, usually initially intended to show how evil it is, have wound up clearing caffeine’s good name and showing a variety of health benefits.