Surprises, Unpleasant and Pleasant

I wanted to surprise my boys yesterday with a dinner of roasted duck legs. It's actually cheaper to buy individually packaged cryosealed duck legs than it is to buy a whole duck, which will go to waste because everyone wants a leg, and no one wants the breast. I found a recipe online that called for the legs to be placed on a bed of fresh rosemary and garlic, roasted for an hour, the oil poured off and then the legs braised in a wine and black currant sauce.

I made two pans so I could put cut up potatoes in each to roast with the duck. Then I scooped all the potatoes into the pan with just two legs, and poured the wine-jelly sauce into the other pan with 4 legs. My hubs is eating low carb, so he doesn't get any spuds, but he also doesn't want any wine-jelly sauce.

The recipe calls for 1 1/2 cups red wine and 2 tbspns quince or black currant jelly, but it's damn near impossible to anything other than grape or strawberry in the mega marts. An online reference says I can substitute seedless blackberry or cranberry jelly instead. Whew! I buy the last jar of blackberry jelly on the shelf and wonder if everyone is making the same recipe as I am. Dinner smells awesome, and everyone fills up on duck legs. I also nuked arugula with a bit of salt and butter to provide some greens. The recipe used almost half a bottle of red wine, and I'm drinking the rest. But opened bottles don't keep so I have 2 glasses of the cheap malbec. It's not awful, but not the best wine I've ever had. I feel very full, and want something citrus, thinking that will help my digestion. I peel two navel oranges and don't finish the wine.

At 3 am I am awakened by a familiarly unpleasant sensation of burning pain in my middle back. I try to find a comfortable position but I can't. Then I realize that the pain is also front, under my rib cage. Because I'm half asleep it takes me 15 minutes before I actually recognize what is causing this discomfort. It's not my back. It's my stomach. Or more precisely, it's my diaphragm and my stomach is the culprit. Something isn't digesting properly and has to leave the premises. Through years of experience, I've discovered that's the only way to ease the pain. I fill a mug with water and drink it quickly, then march into the bathroom. Ugh.

It doesn't take much for me to upchuck, just a lot of hard fast breathing and an ability to get my stomach to squeeze. I don't even have to stick a finger down my throat. I feel better, except for the nasty sensation of stomach acids on the back of my teeth. I drink more water and brush my teeth to rid my mouth and throat of the corrosive fluids. It still takes me several minutes to find a comfortable position. When the alarm goes off at 6:30, I'm finally comfortable and don't want to get up. However, my face looks like it got the worst of it! I have a red streak under my right eye, and red blotches on the left side. This reminds me of the time my son got food poisoning at a luau in Hawaii. He vomited so hard that he gave himself two black eyes, and we took him to the emergency room just to make sure there wasn't anything more serious. There wasn't but he had those shiners for several days.

It was a gray hoodie day

I suspect my princess stomach couldn't handle all the acids and rebelled by shutting down abruptly. I mean, seriously, potatoes are considered fairly easy to digest! I don't think I'll be touching wine or oranges for a while. I feel wrecked, and I look it too. However, that's never stopped me from working out. So at the gym, I proceed with HIIT cardio and a basic Pull Workout. I'm good everywhere, except... the Lat Pull Downs. Yeah, well, I'm not beating myself up about it either. My arms and shoulders just felt really tired by the time I got to the heaviest sets.

Today, I notice that my lowest pulse rates while doing cardio, happened in the minute right after the hardest part of the up cycle. So pedal as fast as I can, and as I slow down to just a moderately fast pace, the pulse rate disappears then shows up at 115, dropping to 113, then disappears again and shows up closer to 165. So weird, or the Raynaud's is having fun with the sensors.

While online over the weekend, I joined a Glaucoma support group just to get a better take on treatments and opinions. The general consensus is that while exercise is great, heavy lifting is definitely out. I wonder if pulling those Smith RDLs caused my IOPs to spike. Since I'll never know for sure, I'm perfectly happy to let go of heavier weights. I'd rather keep my vision, and not have any more procedures that I can't really afford. Which means I'm not going to pull anything heavier than 120 lbs the next time I do RDLs.

I have a 30% off coupon for the CVS. I never shop there unless I need a prescription filled, or I have a coupon, because their prices are 3x higher than every other store. Breakfast cereals are on sale so I get a few boxes of my son's favorites. But really, what I'm looking for is makeup to diminish these red blotches and streaks on my face. My skin is already discolored by the glaucoma drops I take, the lids and skin around my eyes are darkened. Patient info warns that irises will get darker as well, but these side effects dissipate once medication is stopped. I don't really care about that.

I haven't bought make up in years so I'm a bit unsure as to what I'm looking for. There's a wall of differently-hued bottles. I look at the different skin tones but can't figure out which one is closest to my face. Hands can be a different color and tone. And there's no mirror or samplers. The Maybelline section has faces of models with different skin tones and ethnicities to help customers figure out which shade might be a better match. There are no Asian faces though.

I choose a shade called 320 Natural Tan and cross my fingers. At the register, I ask the cashier what happens if I've purchased the wrong color since there are no samplers or mirrors. The cashier is a young chirpy, very happy and enthusiastic gal. She says "Oh just bring it back with your receipt and we'll exchange it or just take it back! No worries!" I'm quite pleased to hear that because I've made mistakes in the past. I've managed to get away with not wearing any makeup since I stopped commuting into the City, but lately, the dark spots near my eyes seem more prominent. And these red blotches make me feel like I have a contagious disease.

At home, I take a tiny dab on the tip of my pinky and blot it on my red areas. And they magically disappear! The formula for the concealer is so smooth that I can't quite believe how easily it blends. No streaks, no weird obvious demarcation lines where makeup begins. Wow. Now if only my biopsy scar would disappear as easily as this! It's better, but still looks like an oddly-placed nipple on my thigh. Lol!

Rough Night Monday

Au Natural bare skin

Norwegian 4x4
5 min w/u (4 min on / 3 min off) x 4
5, 9, 12, 16, 19, 23, 26, 30, 33
Calories 259
Miles 2.51
HR 135-170 (113)

HGPU 23

Concealer dabbed under eyes only

Push Ups 50
Crunches 30/30
Bicycles 50
Side Planks 2 x 60s
Bird Dogs 2 x 60s

T-Bar Rows (reg position)
Bar x 20
25 x 15
35 X 15
45 x 20 x 3

Lat Pull Downs (close neutral grip)
70lbs x 12
85 x 12
100 x 10
115 x 6, 7, 7

Seated 1-Arm Cable Rows
30lbs x 12 reps ea x 3 sets

RG BB Curls
30lbs x 25 reps x 3 sets

Stretch