Wednesday night was our long anticipated excursion to A’Mews in Glebe for their Winter Pie Special. Apparently the chef has a tradition of designing a new meat pie each year which is only available on certain days in June and July. This year it was “Black Angus Beef, Madeira, Eschallot & Kipfler Potato Pie with Creamed Parsnip”. We were joined Fiona, the Sock Victim, Emily the Car, and Clare. It was fantastic. Without a doubt one of the best meat pies I’ve had. The restaurant is cozy and inviting, and the staff are friendly and helpful. My only complaint at all is that the prices are pretty high for Glebe, which will limit how often we go there. But if you can afford a fancy night out – and you enjoy a bit of meat – you should definitely try the pie while it’s still available…

Interactive Packaging. Neat. I didn’t know that Jiffy Pop was invented in LaPorte, Indiana. I can remember my parents making some on a camping trip when we were little and my brother Anthony absolutely freaking out because he thought it was going to explode. Also, man, I miss pressurized biscuit dough. That stuff just doesn’t exist outside the US.

HIDA Scan
Well, that was the boringest medical procedure in history. Seriously. Other than a one-second pinch when they put the IV in my hand, there was nothing painful or scary. I just lay there on a “bed” (which was more like an industrial table) while they pushed the radioactive stuff through my IV. Then they wheeled this big metal contraption over my midsection and I just had stay still for an hour. I could see a sort of a screen above the machine with some sparkly dots on it, which the doctor said was my liver. (Later the dots coalesced into a single big bright spot, which was apparently my gallbladder.) Anyway, I put on my iPod, snuggled under the blanket they’d given me, and pretty much dozed the whole time. Then they trickled something else into the IV and took more pictures for another half hour. It was pretty relaxing… until I was presented with a bill for $500. Ouch. (Apparently Medicare covers the great majority of it though.) No word on the results yet; apparently the doctor has to do some analysis and then send the verdict over to my GP.

As for my superpowers… Nothing yet. I’ve been trying unsuccessfully to read minds without much luck. I asked the doctor about the half-life and he said it was six hours, so I’m sure it’ll all be gone by tonight. I wonder if that’s enough time for my DNA to finish mutating?

Bex says that the next time I enter a race, she’s going to be holding up the first sign. It’s great to get encouragement from your friends.

Radioactive Girl
In the continuing Saga of Kris’s Stomach… now my doctor thinks it might possibly NOT be my stomach. Apparently if your gall bladder is malfunctioning, it can present as ulcer-like pain. Interesting. So in 14 hours, I’m having a HIDA scan. I’m going to get injected with radioactive dye (!!!) and then scanned to see if there are any problems. Fun, huh? Worst case scenario: They don’t find anything and the mystery continues. Best case scenario: My gallbladder is at fault; I have surgery to get it removed; I’m all better; and I get super powers from the radioactivity! I’m kinda looking forward to it.

From the Snook: Chicks dig whiskers. Well, a little bit of whiskers, anyway. Personally, I’m a big, big fan of the scruff.

What a difference a week makes. You know how sometimes you just fall into a rut? Last Sunday I told the Snook that I was feeling cross and frustrated. Sometimes we enable each other’s laziness a little too much, you know? And it was starting to get to me. This week, though, my mood went through the roof. It was like turning on a light switch. We spent time hanging out in the evenings (without automatically burying ourselves in Warcraft/knitting). We crossed off a lot of errands on our To Do list. We kept the house relatively clean. On Saturday afternoon, we went for a long walk to Newtown and back, and then headed to Broadway to buy a new DVD player (since ours died). Sunday I went for a long run and finished off a few knitting projects. It was… nice. It’s always a surprise to realise how much a difference simply deciding to be in a good mood can make. I feel rested and happy.

Although, part of me wonders how much of my good mood can be attributed to the sunshine. We had a week of fine weather and it certainly improved my outlook a lot. So maybe that was part of it.

Pushups! Okay, so I nearly killed myself trying to do Day 1 this morning. I don’t think it’s my arm strength so much as my lack of core stability. (My wrists were also kinda hurting.) My form is seriously crap. So I’ve been reading up on ways that I can ease into it a bit more…

• “Help a weakling achieve her first pushup” on AskMetaFilter
• “Pushups giving women a bad rep” at SF Gate
• “Mistressing the pushup” over at Stumptuous

Based on what I’m reading there, I think I’m going to start each workout doing my best to do full pushups, but I’ll switch to knees when my form starts to suffer.

Any else make a start yet? (The Snook managed 15 in his initial test – much to both of our surprise – but he nearly killed himself trying to do the first day’s workout.)