Monday, March 18, 2024

Storyworth

 Last night, I drank too much. 

We were out of wine, we were out of beer, and I wanted a drink so I made gin & tonic. I had three, glasses filled to the top with ice, so that always makes it so I won't get drunk so to speak. That's usually well enough.

It was the fourth one, the fourth one was the big mistake. While I was making it I said, it's late enough, you should just not do this. You should just go to bed. But, I didn't listen to common sense. 

And, we were out of ice. So. Extra stupid because I pour a stiff drink. 

I paid for it. I went to bed, and was spinning and dizzy. I ended up puking. I had the enough of a right mind to get the bucket, and sit on the toilet (because, you know, sometimes when you throw up, you poop at the same time and that's no good). I threw up repeatedly, cleaned the bucket, cleaned the toilet area. 

Even completely drunk, I'm cleaning house. 

I got back in bed and brought the bucket to the bedside, just in case. 

Doug was still awake and said "all emptied out?" 

Yeah. Yes. I am. Thank you for dinner that you made for us. It. Is gone. Said goodbye. Sorry. That must be insulting. Hi I threw up the dinner you made because I'm dumb. 

I fell asleep and slept all the way until 4am, no other issues. I got up to go to the bathroom, and double checked my cleaning. 

I would have called out today, but one of my colleagues is on vacation and another got Covid (again, the poor dude). I muddled through. 

One big thing we had to take care of was getting the car towed to the mechanic. The mini stopped working a couple weeks ago, and we were having work done on the Dodge at the same time, so the Mini has been sitting there waiting for some love. I called the garage this morning and they said to bring it in, so I had to call AAA to get it picked up. 

It was a challenge - the Mini is missing the tow hook, which goes where the license plate goes and the driver pulls the car up on the flatbed. The driver said on some Mini models, there's a box in the trunk that contains all the stuff you need, like the jack, the tow hook, or a tow-bar that is super awesome. Because he had no way to hook it onto the draggy thing to pull it up on the flatbed, he had to improvise and eventually got it to work. I reported this lack of thingie to Doug who is ordering one for us for the future. 

The rest of the day was rather dull. I didn't get any cleaning done (felt kind of like shit, see above) but got a lot of work done for work. Seeing as two people were out, I was impressed with the amount of stuff I got done. 

Doug took Toffee for a walk at 4:45 and I was still in the thick of it. I regret not going. I was going to step out while he was cooking after he got back, but I just wasn't motivated. Will make up for that tomorrow. 

Anyway, my girl C got me a subscription to Storyworth, which comes with writing prompts. It is a way to record life memories so you can leave them to your people. I appreciate that very much because a lot of times, I don't know what to write here and I do want to write. So I'll write there and import entries of note. 

One of the things is that a lot of the stories will need pictures, and I may have to find some! "Tell us about your wedding day" was the first one that came up. That stung a little because my girl C is going through some rough stuff and I somehow feel horrible writing about what was the funnest day I've ever lived in a life of fun days. 

Maybe the first writing prompt should have been "get it off your chest, what's the worst, dumbest thing you have done because of alcohol." 

Last night wouldn't even be it. Thankfully I can count on one hand my super dumb things, and I'm usually surrounded by people who protect me from myself. This is a good thing. 

Here is another picture from yesterday. The sheep is not headless. It's just in shadow.
Digits below.


digits 

exercise: 12/12 hours of 250 steps. No exercise. 4600+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

9am: 166
5pm: 157
9:30pm: 230 (see dinner should check after midnight)

food:

coffee/water 
12:30: english muffin w/pb and low sugar strawbs; metformin
3:45pm: 2 pieces of celery w/pb
6pm: doug stir fry rice: left over chinese white rice, stir fried with veggies, soy sauce, left over chicken breasts. I added peanut butter to mine to mimic a peanut sauce.
7pm: metformin+jardiance. 3 beers





Sunday, March 17, 2024

A little hike

Ugh I'll write a better entry tomorrow. Goodnight.  Here is one picture from today. It was a nice day.








digits 

exercise: 11/12 hours of 250 steps.  Missed 9am cause i slept through it. exercise: 49 minute walk, unsure of distance, good hard scramble. 7900+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

10am: 175
5pm: 156
10pm: 208

food:

coffee/water 
1pm: metformin; salad w/bacon (BLT style)
6pm:metformin+jardiance; mac& cheese w/ ground beef, bacon, mushrooms etc
8pm:ritz crackers

gin&tonics hayyyyy

Saturday, March 16, 2024

Two-a-days

Lucky you, I decided to post the Guster JOTR post by itself earlier today, and do a separate blog for today's events (whatever, how exciting, etc) with the digits and all. 

When we went to bed last night, Doug closed all the windows. He says it is noisy outside, what with a car that goes down the street sometimes. I love the fresh, cold air. I love when the birds wake up and I hear them sing. 

It was about 2 am and I was wide awake, so I went in the guest room (which I need to clean and change the sheets etc for Thursday when Linz arrives). The window was wide open, the room was freezing, and I snuggled into bed under the sheet, thermal sheet, and comforter. I never ever use all three of these things. But it was cold, and I got cozy. I thought about closing the window, but that would mean I'd have to sit up and stuff. So nah. 

I have a to do list for now until Thursday, it is a little ambitious. I'll share this and cross things off as I go


Water the plants
Wash the shower curtains and bathmats
clean the upstairs bathroom
Vacuum
sweep/mop kitchen
Kitchen counter top 
cabinet doors wiped down
reorganize refrigerator
Guest room sheets/bed/etc (Thursday morning most likely)
dining table cleanse


We didn't take a walk or do anything. I did some things inside while Doug cut some ivy growing on the exterior of the house. I felt like baking cookies but was doing so many other things today. Doug took a big nap. I did something with a game I play where I have Cats, and they make Soup and juice and stir fry. I started a spreadsheet to track which cat had what skill and what clothing, and I've been slow at getting the clothing put back on. They get special powers based on their skill clothing and when they're all naked, you don't earn as much money. 

It was a worthy use of time but seriously, I coulda gone to the gym. 

Anyway. I was happy Doug made supper because I did a bunch of other things today and wasn't in the mood to cook. I would have preferred he grill the chicken but. Okay. Dinner. Made. I made the salad. It was very good and I loved it. Dinner was great. 

Alrighty then. Digits below. Here's a pic of me and toffee from when we were enjoying coffee time on the couch this morning, listening to birdies. 

digits 

exercise: 12/12 hours of 250 steps. no exercise. 5100+steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

9:30am: 179
5:30pm: 159
10:15pm: 156

food:

coffee/water 
1pm: metformin
1:30pm: english muffin w/pb
6pm: ramekin of fritos
7pm: roasted chicken over big salad (romaine, cucumber, tomato, celery, feta, pepitas
white wine
beer

5 AM, March 16th

Happy JOTR (Jesus on the Radio) day to those who celebrate. 


5a.m. March 16, Jesus on the radio, you took a photograph of me on your yellow bucket seat
It's too high, it's too wide, you're so low you don't know
To get through to go around 

So don't look back, there ain't nothing there to see
Was once like you, can't say I recognize that face in that picture that you keep
It's too high, it's too wide you're so low you don't know
To get through to go around
To get through to go around


What I love most about this version of the song is all 5 Gusters are on stage. Joe Pisapia (in the hat) had left the band to do other things and they brought on Luke Reynolds (all the way to the left) to fill his shoes. 

But at the Caverns at in Tennessee, near Nashville where Joe lives, they brought him on for the encore. 

Jesus on the Radio has become their encore/closer. They usually sing it at the edge of the stage or in the audience even, without amplification at all. Someone asked me once when this tradition began, and I have no idea. I just know it doesn't feel like an encore/show finish until we're all singing along with the band like a family campout.


Not me, close enough to the edge of the stage to grab this decent photo, but also not me singing along and then Adam acknowledging I nailed the harmonies and sounded great. 

If they ever get their Tiny Desk, this is the closer too. Manifest it, willing it into existence. Please.

Friday, March 15, 2024

See the Funny

I had a CT Scan today for a future procedure to remove my IVC filter that I've had since 2014. It went really well, and when they pulled me out I asked for the tech to hand me my phone so I could take pictures of the signs in the machine. 

"Why?" he asked.

"Because they made me laugh. First, don't tell me to not look at the laser. If you tell me not to look at the laser, you know the only thing I'm ever going to want to do for the rest of my life is look. at. the. laser.

Second, the icons mean "Breathe" and "Hold your breath." But I saw "Eat the bacon" and "Chew the bacon."

I explained this to him while chuckling and he said "oh I guess I see that. I wish I had a sense of humor. I mean, I know how to tell a joke, but, sometimes it takes me a long time to just see the funny around me."

I hope he takes the time to think about the stupid funny things all around us all the time. 

Enjoy "Eat the bacon" and "Chew the bacon." Maybe you'll laugh too. 


digits 

exercise: 12/12 hours of 250 steps. no exercise; 4900+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

9am: 174
4:30pm: 156
10:30pm: 174

food:

coffee/water 
11am: metformin; 1 oatmeal blueberry muffin (came right out the paper, unlike the ones from yesterday. hell yeah)
1pm: grilled pepperjack cheese & ham sandwich
6:30pm: teriyaki chicken, nepalese dumplings (from Aldi); 4 beers
7:30pm: metformin+jardiance
8:30pm: pretzels and spready cheese

Thursday, March 14, 2024

Baking and Junk

I boxed up the wee tiny angel collection that we place under the Christmas Tree. The Tree got put in storage weeks ago. The angels? Well they were just cute sitting there. Today I opened the windows and watered the plants, and they were sitting there looking sad, ready to go rest. 

These are little Hummel angels, Doug's mom collected them the years that they were made. They are date stamped and I believe year one was 1971. They go up through the 80s. She marked the boxes with "Doug" in her immaculate beautiful script. 

All of the little angels got put up into a box and I got the plants watered. And felt happy about that. 

See you next year, sweeties. 

My 2pm meeting was canceled because the client totally figured out the thing he was doing wrong. That was very nice. 

So I took that hour and baked some blueberry oatmeal muffins. I used paper liners and the muffins stuck to them, and they were ruined. I was super pissed off about it. But. If you use a spoon and dig the fuck out of the paper, they taste pretty good. 

Doug asked me why I did it with the paper and not ust a straight up in the pan bake. I told him that I was worried about the freaking muffins sticking to the muffin tin, but look what we ended up with. Booooo. 

Tasty, but ... booooooo.

We had a 3pm meeting with all the clients that we call office hours. It went exceptionally well and it is literally my favorite meeting that we have. Highlight of the week to be sure.

Then, we had a meeting to talk about the thing that broke on Sunday. It was not as fun. I felt horrible after it was done and just shut the computer down for the day and went to the grocery store. 

Yeah ... ya gurl left the house and went to the grocery store. 

We have lots of grocery options around here and I went to the expensive specialty store because 

a) they have wine
b) they have beer

And I hate going to Target, Aldi, Giant and then having to go to the beer store. 

And your girl wanted some wine.

Doug is deep in a project that he has to have all of his data buttoned up tonight for. He had a 7am meeting, and then went back to bed for about an hour, and has been at it since. I have been poking at work and goofing off at the same time. My sister flies to FLA tomorrow, and she and Ginger are going to Orlando to see Guster on Sunday. 

Your girl, is sorely tempted, to just fucking GO. 

Anyway. Today was a challenge. But I made muffins that sucked and a good dinner and my day ended with a lot of wine. That is acceptable. 

Digits below. 








digits 

exercise: 12/12 hours of 250 steps.  no dedicated 10. 5300+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:30am: 183
4pm: 174
10pm: 177

food:

coffee/water 
11am: Metformin
noon: 2 eggs scrambled in a failure of an omelet because I made too much stuff to go in it. Mushrooms, Spinach, Red Onion, Taco meat, goat cheese. It was a hot mess and I topped it with Salsa and it was perfect. 
7pm: bowl of penne pasta with homemade meatballs and sauce. Several slices of garlic toast. White Wine. Metformin+Jardiance

Wednesday, March 13, 2024

A kind of gorgeous day

Oh today. Weren't you lovely? The forecast was for cloudy but 70s. And I like that. These are the days. And the next probably 2 weeks are going to be perfect. I'll then go to Massachusetts for a couple weeks, come home and it'll be intolerably hot and miserable in mid-April. I'll be intolerably hot and miserable until October. 

So I'm going to soak it in and enjoy what I can.

At about 2pm I went out and cleaned off part of the top of the patio table and worked outside until my battery was close to dying on my laptop. I took a meeting with a client in eastern Washington State who was socked in with snow, from my backyard. And I didn't hate it. 

I wore flip flops today. I walked laps around the yard with Toffee, just like I used to with Phineas. She had a big ass stick and ran past me repeatedly, whacking my calves. Ouch. But also, yay. 

It was a really nice day. Very busy but lots of fun. Got a lot done. Started thinking about getting ready to do garden junk. 


After he was done working, and Geoff was home from work, Doug decided since it was so beautiful out we should all go to the local brewery. 

I didn't want to take the dog, because it is exhausting. She needs more training. But. He wants to socialize her more. 

Okay but I'm just being the go get the beer person, you be the keep the dog semi-under control person. 

We left after two beers because it was just too much with her. We didn't think we could get sandwiches or food truck stuff and enjoy eating. I was slightly disappointed but also ready to go. The place was packed, lots of screaming children. Several other dogs, including a gorgeous golden retriever named Fern who I want to hang out with every day.

Near the train station where we park, there's a dog park so we checked it out. It is a good size, needs more shade because I can just imagine this place in June/July/August/September heat. We had the place to ourselves and she enjoyed running around and chasing a ball. 

I took a bunch of pictures there, I think I'll save them for tomorrow's entry because it is so time for bed. 

Digits, below. 








digits 

exercise: 12/12 hours of 250 steps.  no exercise really but short walks to and from the parking area to the brewery. 7500+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:30am: 189
5pm: 154
10pm: 208

food:

coffee/water 
11am: Metformin 
12pm: bowl and a half of left over doug's cream of chicken soup
7pm: meatball sub (I ate the bread). 2 beers at the brewery. Metformin+Jardiance
8pm: 2 beers at home


Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Doug to Office Me to Office

This morning I woke up early enough to get a jump start on the day. Doug was going into the office for meetings and I thought, "Well, I should go into the office. I think. I'm supposed to? Go into? The Office?" 

Weeks and weeks ago, I saw that there was a Tiny Desk that I wanted to go to. I even invited my friend Jeff who lives in Baltimore to come down. 

And I forgot all about that. Completely.

Actually, I knew about it I just forgot it was today. Not sure how I could forget it was today but I didn't realize today was Tuesday. I forgot today was today. 

Huh, like that. I do things like that.

Yikes. I messaged Jeff to see if he was still coming down and he said yes. 

Ope. I can't be a jerk and cancel now, can I? No. He's coming all the fuck the way from Baltimore I can come from 10 miles away.

I jumped in the shower, dressed and got ready for a meeting at 10:30, and was hoping it would not go long. My coworker messaged me and said "you know the TDC is noon, not 1pm, right?" Texted Jeff the time change and he said he'd be able to make it.

Another Ope. 

Meeting ended before 11, thankfully.  I called an Uber. I knew I wouldn't have enough time to walk to the metro, ride it, walk to my office to get there by noon. Nope. NOPE.

Jeff texted me that he was at the office at 11:30, cool, I was literally around the corner in the worst DC traffic ever. But I'll get there. And I did. My Uber driver was awesome. She actually lives in the neighborhood here, and was awesome. I kind of want to be friends.

Jeff and I went in, the line was hugely long which disappointed me because we should have been arriving for a 1pm show and first in line. But whatever. We were there. We were there. We stood on a riser in the back. It was very good. Very very good. I really like Sleater-Kinney. I can't wait to see this one when it is released. 


They were just unbelievably good. The strings. Oh man, the strings. Corin said they basically just wrote the string parts that week, that day, this was the first time anyone was hearing them. And they were so good.

Afterwards, Jeff and I  had some lunch in the cafe, I saw a lot of coworkers and friends. Even saw a friend who left our office in 2020 who came in with her husband for the TDC. I was absolutely delighted to see her. I love her. Look how cute she is. 

I miss the people I work with and used to work with. Sometimes, people are just super amazing.

Jeff is pretty amazing too. He was a little mean to me when we were kids back in middle school but we've gotten to know each other wonderfully and happily since becoming adults. And I got over all the middle school weirdness. He goes to a LOT of rockshows in the area between DC and Pennsylvania. I'm super impressed. He said his mission this year is to be the "Plus One" for people who have tickets or access to things. He'll be at the Guster show in Baltimore in 2 weeks. And I don't even need to treat him as a plus one. 

After Jeff left, I ended up working until about 3, and then packing up to head home. I knew Toffee was in the kennel, and wanted to break her out. 

I took the metro home and walked from the station. Felt nice to be out and about in the city and do the commute thing. Sort of. It isn't quite a mile walk home from the metro station, but if you count the inside of the station it probably is a full mile. 

Yeah. I'm happy I've been going to the gym and walking and doing all the things. 

I was still sore and tired when I got back though. I took a 4pm meeting after letting the dog out of her kennel (such a good sport for being in for 4 hours) Doug came home at about 5, and promptly took a nap. I ordered Indian food, and we had a heck of a delicious feast. 

Also realized Geoff bought full sugar tonic water so. Boo. My vodka tonics should be diet tonic, but .... 35 grams of carbs per serving and 3 servings in a litre and I've had 2 litres so. Damn. 

Oh well. Next store run, we know better. 

Considering that if I had not remembered today was a reason to go into the office, well, I would have been vacuuming. 

I'll save that for Friday when Doug has to go to the office again. 

Digits below this wonderful shot of the beautiful and amazing Carrie Brownstein. Goddamn she's good. 

digits 

exercise: 12/12 hours of 250 steps.  22 min walk from the metro home (approx .8 miles) 8500+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8am: 176
5pm: 174
10pm: 288 (forgot to take my meds at dinner) 

food:

coffee/water 
11am: Metformin
1:15pm: chicken in a nice sauce over smashed potatoes, corn
5pm: some pretzels+ spready cheese
7pm: chicken curry, lamb vindaloo, 4 samosas, biryani rice, chicken tandoori
vodka tonic
9:45pm: metformin+jardiance (forgot to take at dinner) 

Monday, March 11, 2024

When you would rather

Today was a challenge. Thankful for my good colleagues. That is all. I told a colleague that if given the choice of working today vs. scrubbing the bathtub or reorganizing the pantry and scrubbing all the shelves, I think I would side with the scrubbing. Today just sucked.

Doug is going to the office tomorrow. In theory, I can go to the office tomorrow, but I also can throw a fit and take a mental health day. We'll see what the morning brings for my attitude.


digits below. 


 






digits 

exercise: 12/12 hours of 250 steps. No exercise etc. 5000k+ by bedtime

blood glucose:

8am: 165
5:30pm: 155
10pm: 154

food:

coffee/water 
noon: english muffin w/pb and jelly; metformin
2pm: leftover chicken fajita & peppers
6:30pm: 2 cheeseburgers, no buns. 3 sandwich pickles; 6 oreo cookies
7:30pm: metformin+jardiance
vodka tonic

Sunday, March 10, 2024

Small Children, Dogs, and Our Software All Hate Daylight Saving

When Geoff was a small human he would get knocked out of orbit by falling back and springing forward. His brain couldn't deal with it. He'd pace the house, be unable to sleep or adjust for weeks after, especially the Fall Back portion of the dance card. 

My friend Sara told me her son Henry is boycotting the time change this year. "It is stupid, useless, and I'm not participating this year." 

Good luck with that there, buddy. 

A coworker told me his son was completely broken this morning because the coffeemaker had one time, the microwave and oven had another, the automatic feed on netflix matched the coffeemaker, and he was confused. What time is it really. What. Time. Is. It. My colleague had no idea his son was so in tune with the appliances.

Our dogs, who always tell time with their bellies, would always be confused. Toffee was taken for a walk today  at 4:30, which her body thinks is 3:30, and she ate dinner when she came home at 5pm, which her belly things is 4pm. She ate, but I think she's not sure we did this right. 

We have software that our clients use that relies on time. Start time, end time, what is the time. And everything is an hour off. A full hour. 

So yeah, that happened. It has never happened. And clients are .... panicking. It's kind of a bad thing, but here we are on a Sunday with no way to fix it. I thought about taking tomorrow off but I'll have to get up early to mitigate this issue and get pulse checking with the devs. Make sure this gets fixed. 

I am not on call but somehow my Slack indicated I was online, so my colleague (the same one with the little boy who was broken about the coffeemaker and microwave) reached out to me to ask for help with this product. I'm kind of the "Subject Matter Expert" on it, the SME, Smeeeee. I looked into things and for a client who was expecting to see X, they were seeing an hour earlier, Y. 

Yikes no. 

So he and I poked some things and talked about the stuff and yeah. Nothing we can do without a developer. And the developers were not responding to me knocking on the door at 1pm on a Sunday. 

It'll have to be looked at on Monday. Here's a work-about to keep things looking decent. Have a nice day. 

After my colleague and I got things mostly settled down, I went to the gym. Doug was napping, so I was bored. Got up. Went out. Gym was not at all crowded at 4pm. Got everything done that I wanted to get done. I went to Lidl, got Geoff some Mac & Cheese, and some parsley and scallions for a marinade for dinner tonight that I had started.

My house smells like soy sauce and ginger. 

Doug was kind of a lump in the road this weekend, usually I am the lump in the road. I have no reasons to be mad at him or anything, we are all entitled to our lump days and weekends. Especially with hating Daylight Saving.

All told, a pretty great day but not a perfect weekend. They can't all be perfect, right?







digits 

exercise: 12/12 hours of 250 steps. 1 mile on the treadmill, 26 min registered on the fitbit. Full circuit room. Hell yeah. 8000+steps by bedime

blood glucose:

9am: 174
5:30pm: 210
10pm: 150

food:

coffee/water 
10:30am: english muffin w/pb and cherry bonnie maman's
11am: metformin
1pm: piece of bacon; bowl of mac & cheese with bacon
6pm: vodka tonic; metormin+jardiance
7:15pm: salmon (marinade: tbsp brown sugar, soy sauce, sesame oil, garlic, parsley, scallions, lime juice); tiny baby potatoes roasted in olive oil, s&p
8pm: oreo cookie imitations from Aldi. So Lame. Vodka tonic.
9pm: mixed nuts