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Mother’s Day
It’s nearly at the end of my Mother’s Day here and it’s gone pretty well overall. This morning, the Scientist and I drove up to take his mum out for lunch at an Indian restaurant that has some nice food. The boys opted to stay home, which was okay as it was far less expensive without hungry teens to feed. :) The restaurant was mostly empty so it seemed like we should get good service, at least at the start. However, the woman who served us was as unsmiling as on our previous visit. The food took a long time to come but it tasted good, so was worth the wait. The Scientist got the meat thali (a combo of three small dishes of meat curry plus dahl and a couple side dishes…and a small dessert slice). His mum and I both got the vegetarian version and the curries were quite nice. There was a lot of rice served with the meals plus a naan bread and a pappadam…they were all very nice. We should have gotten a can of soft drink with our meals as they were lunch specials… but completely forgot until after we were on the way home…Anyway, it wasn’t offered. The Scientist recalled this happened on the previous visit too although we did remember to ask for it then. The two previous times I’ve eaten their food, it was incredibly hot but this time it was quite mild…Had we known we could have asked for more heat…anyway we will know for next time. We then took his mum home and hung out for a short while before coming home.
We went to the gym soon after we returned home then came home to prepare for the evening. The plan with the boys was to play some board games and watch Doctor Who at 7:30pm. The decision as to which game(s) was rather difficult due to the significantly increased choices now available. I finally decided upon Discworld and used the special day as an excuse to encourage Lego Lover to play this time. I wasn’t sure how that would work and it seemed like it might go a bit pear-shaped as he was rather crotchety about it at the beginning. We’d tried to insist once before and he was totally uncooperative and uninvolved so we switched it to just three players that time. Today, however, he did take a bit more part in the proceedings and I think he kind of liked the game even if he never admitted it. It went pretty well this time but was quite interesting as the dynamic changes quite a bit with the extra player. The Scientist won this time and it was time to decide on another game.
In an act of some goodwill towards Lego Lover for taking part, I asked him which game he thought we should play next and he chose Puerto Rico. It’s a fairly long game so I wasn’t too sure about playing so late in the day when we had a tv program to watch afterwards. Game Fanatic wasn’t at all keen to play as he finds the game kind of boring due to the theme of it. I decided to make a go of it since Lego Lover was so put out…Obviously this meant we wouldn’t be watching Doctor Who tonight…which makes it every episode we’ve watched after the broadcast this season. What I had forgotten most was how terribly long the set up for the game is…There’s no good way to hurry it along either. Once set up we also had to refresh our memories of how to play. Eventually we got into the swing of it and all went pretty well. Lego Lover particularly enjoyed it and I noticed how much better his game play was this time compared to earlier games. Game Fanatic had a fair bit of bad luck so eventually stopped making much effort at the game and I just plugged away at it. After nearly two hours, we reached the end and the Scientist had won again…so  it was a good night to play for him.
Last night I also played a second game of Summoner Wars with Game Fanatic since it’s one of his favorite games right now. It’s only a two player game  (can be expanded though) so it’s not had a lot of play as yet. It’s only been a few weeks but I’d forgotten most of the game play. Also I had a different deck of cards this time which made it a bit harder. Our first game only took about 45 minutes but we went well over an hour last night and I managed to win by some luck and a bit of help from Game Fanatic…he didn’t let me win but he did point out a few moves in the course of the game. I told him we have to play more often so I don’t forget and so that I learn to play well enough to be properly competitive. I found the game a lot easier than Magic the Gathering was when we last played nearly two years ago.
Now it’s late night and I’m hoping to get in touch with my mom soon to wish her a happy day. Or I will wait until tomorrow morning and catch up with her.
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A few odds and ends
My temporary job finished a few weeks ago and a Kenyan-born Indian woman invited everyone to lunch at her house. She cooked a lovely vegetarian meal with a dry potato curry, a mixed dahl soup, rice, chapatis, papadums, raita, and a carrot halva for dessert. It had some beautiful spices that just burst forth as you continue to eat. It was all quite delicious although it was a bit heavy on the carbohydrate with the rice, potatoes and breads. It was a pretty healthy meal but the dessert was rather rich and filled with butter.
I got home late in the afternoon feeling a bit sleepy so decided I should do at least a bit of exercise. All was going pretty well until the last part of my personal training routine when I had to do an exercise where I lifted my knees repeatedly. Towards the end of that I think my left kneecap popped off track, causing some pain and discomfort. I took a short break and managed to complete the last couple of minutes of the program although it I had to modify one of the exercises a bit to complete it. At the time I thought it was just a bit sore but hours later I notice that knee is quite swollen and this after taking anti-inflammatory painkillers. Hopefully the swelling will go down tomorrow but I will probably need to switch to some other exercise for a few days as most of the exercise program includes lots of knee movement.
Last week Lego Lover and I went to see a doctor with regard to taking part in a medication trial on low-dose Prozac to treat certain autistic behaviors. I met this doctor many years ago when I took Game Fanatic to see him about anxiety issues. He still remembered us after all these years even though we only met him once or twice. He thought our boys had some interesting neurochemistry going on. We have to go through three pre-trial interviews and assessments before it starts so we are still in the early stages and don’t know for certain if Lego Lover will be eligible.
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Viscious cycle of injury
A few weeks ago, I managed to injure myself in the form of a mild calf strain after several weeks of exercise. I dropped my exercise back to just walking for most of the past couple weeks. I also cut the number of sessions back so that I had more rest between sessions. After taking it easy on the exercise for a couple weeks, it was much better and seemed to be pretty close to being healed as of Friday. At least, I felt it was just about healed because I no longer experiencing any pain.
I guess I was wrong though. Friday afternoon, I had an earache and had gone to lie down after taking an ibuprofen. After I’d been resting a while, there was a knock at the door so I rushed to get to the door. That’s when I felt another popping sensation on the back of my leg and had to hobble, or perhaps hop, my way to the door before the person left. Turns out it was the delivery of the board games I’d ordered a couple days earlier. I signed for the package, then had to hobble back to the bedroom where I could collapse.
This business of injuries is very frustrating. When I exercise, I try to take care by warming up and cooling down. And yet, I seem to struggle with minor injuries. Sigh…
I felt a bit more mobile today so thought I might try to go for a walk this evening. The weather has cooled down enough that it’s quite pleasant in the evening. I had to put that idea out of mind because I am simply not up to it. The Scientist had already expressed doubt as to whether it was very advisable this morning, but I found out the hard way after a trip into Perth. Lego Lover and I had met up with a friend and her young son for lunch at Annalakshmi (a vegetarian Indian restaurant in Perth where you pay what you want). The area was a bit of a mess because they are setting up for the Perth International Arts Festival and streets were blocked off in various places so that regular parking wasn’t possible. I was driving down past one parking area and the road was blocked, well past the entrance to the paid parking lot, so that cars had to make U-turns to get out of there as it had stopped where the exit to the parking lot came out. Anyway, I ended up going back in the opposite direction to find free parking and we had to walk a fair ways to get to our destination. Every time I tried to hurry to cross a road I’d end up in pain from straining the muscle further. The walk back was much easier because we weren’t in such a hurry to be anywhere and could take advantage of benches and rest occasionally as we walked alongside the Swan River. I think I’d had enough exercise for one day by the time we reached our car. In hindsight, it would have been worthwhile to pay the parking fees and limit myself to a shorter walk.
I’m contemplating seeing a physio to help figure out a better plan before I do any further damage. And this time I might actually do it…