Good news, everybody!

(And how many of you just heard that in Prof. Farnsworth's voice?)

Thanks for all the input on meatless baked beans. I'm going to look up the ideas, maybe combine a few, and give them a try, perhaps this weekend. (I'm wondering if hard cider might not work as well as beer. I don't keep beer on hand but I did buy a six-bottle pack of "Angry Orchard" to use in soups and stuff. (And, sigh, I wish I had discovered cider before going on meds where I'm really not supposed to drink. I tried a small amount of it straight and it's the only alcoholic beverage I could see myself drinking...no, I'd never consume to excess and I'd probably want to drink it with a meal, but still. I don't know how much of a "lightweight" the Toprol and antihistamines would make me and I'm not interested in experimenting....)

I like the idea of adding a little butter for mouthfeel; that makes sense. And molasses and mustard are the flavors I remember from when my mom made baked beans, and I have both molasses and dry mustard on hand.

I miss doing a big pot of beans in the oven. Especially when it gets colder out.

***

I had a regular check-up this afternoon (that is to what the title referred). The doctor concluded that with the medications and dietary changes, my blood pressure is "under good control" and I don't need to go back until January unless something goes wonky.

It was high in her office but then it's ALWAYS high. It was high this time but not scary-high like it was on earlier visits. And also, I think she's concluded that the causes of my hypertension are mainly physiological rather than psychological (I have a pretty darn strong family history of it. Then again, I probably have a strong family history of being a bit too tightly wound....). At one point early in this journey she was floating the idea of anti-anxiety meds, but (a) I don't want another med with another suite of side effects if I can avoid it and (b) Most of the anxiety I have these days I can handle by sitting down and doing whatever task is getting to me - and I think that kind of anxiety is maybe even kind of healthy because it helps me not be a slacker. (And I am a lot less uptight than I was, I think. I still have my moments but I'm better at letting stuff go).

(And I will say: I don't really have any more of the "wake up at 2 am and stew over the dumb things I've said in the past, or worry about what I have to do in the coming weeks" thing any more, which used to be a not-infrequent issue for me.)

***

Also, the meetings this year? Were a LOT better. More focused, more organized, less "here's some random gee-whiz stuff" and more "here's some practical stuff you can actually use, like some little hacks you can do to make BlackBoard work better for you." AND they had scheduled breaks - I guess a lot of us complained about that last year and I know I specifically told my chair, "If you have any input, please ask them to schedule bathroom breaks in advance, rather than making everyone wonder when one will be."