Back home with the shrooms

Writing this on Monday night, since Sunday turned out to be a very big do nothing much kind of day. 

I'm exceptionally thankful I came home Saturday because I could never have just started back at work if I traveled Sunday and had to do a Monday immediately. 

On Sunday, I slept in until 10:30. Doug said he was starting to get worried about me. Why, dude? I'm wiped out! So what I slept in more than an hour longer than usual on a Sunday. 

It be like that sometimes.

We surveyed the garden and yard. Last week a giant outcropping of mushrooms appeared in the yard and Geoff felt bad about mowing them. Which is hilarious in a lot of ways. I'm glad he left them, they were cool to see. 

In the spring, Doug threw down a giant bag of zinnia seeds and they didn't seem to take. Well, this month they all decided to grow and boy are they lovely. He said they will come back every year but I'm not sure that is true. I feel like we should mix in cosmos, and let the height of the very colorful collection of flower friends bring joy to the yard. 

We had also planted dozens of daffodil bulbs in the spring and none of them came up, so I do hope next year they work out. It'll be sad if they do not. 

Over the last (almost) year that we've been here, Doug has thought about planting trees in front of the house. I'm slightly ambivalent about it, I don't mind no trees but also, trees are pretty. He finally decided what he's most attracted to and thinks will be a good addition to the house. So he is going to order them. He also wants to get a lilac tree (not bush) for the back yard between the arbor vitae and the shed, to block the view of the house on the other side of the alley and all their cars and trucks and junk. I'm all for that one. 

We sat out on the patio and talked and talked about my trip and all the excitement. He told me all about things they did here which basically was not much. We talked about maybe thinking about starting to go up to his mom's over labor day but she has already waved us off. 

Life is too busy! Too many things going on! Our niece has a bridal shower 3 weeks after labor day and oh my goodness so much to do. 

She's not even hosting it. What is she going on about. It is frustrating, we both want to spend time with her, but she's just such a pill sometimes. 

It does not help that Doug keeps saying he is going to bring his wonderful well behaved dog with him, and she gets bent fifteen ways out of shape. The dog is not welcome at her place. 

There is a lot of drama with her otherwise that I won't talk about, but, suffice to say, if he wants to go up Labor day weekend, he may have to go solo because I'm not kenneling my dog, and Geoff will be back in school on Thursday and Friday, so we'd have to go up Saturday and come home Tuesday or something. 

To be determined, I guess. I just don't want the drama. I just would like peace. 

Speaking of Geoff and school, we've been trying to figure out how he's going to do this commute. He has calsses on Thursday and Friday, so he said his plan is to drive the 2 hours there, 2 hours back, turn around drive 2 hours there, 2 hours back... 

"People do this as a regular commute all the time," he said. We said "yeah, but you do not have to."

 I had looked into furnished rooms but they want people for every night of the week, not just one or two. Okay. Maybe for the future, we'll keep that in mind. 

So we suggested that he get a hotel on Thursday nights. He didn't understand why. We outlined why. Wear and tear on the car, price of gas. Just drive down for your Wednesday 9am class, go check into the hotel, come back for that 4pm lab, then you have your hotel room waiting for you. Free breakfast. Check out of hotel and make reservation for next week. Wash, rinse, repeat. 

He was dead set against it and didn't want to do it. He had 20 different excuses and reasons why he wanted to go back and forth. Doug asked him if he was scared. He said yes, a little. He also said he wanted to come home "because I like it here."

I told him I absolutely understood that. This is weird and new and different. Doug said "thousands of kids go away to college when they are 18. You are going away to college for one night a week." Doug gave him the link to a hotel near campus. It isn't a Marriott (heh) but it is decent with good reviews. It has an outdoor pool. It is not walking distance, but free parking and butt up against a mall where if he wants he can go over and get a meal.

I got notification he used the credit card. He booked the room. And we'll see how he does. I believe in him. I know he'll be great. He'll do great. But please, as always, say a little prayer for him. Change and new things are a little hard, so I'm proud of him for listening and adulting. 

The car got dropped off tonight for an oil change and a look-see-over the things because that's due. And he'll be off. Fly, bean. Fly. 

After work tonight I made an apple pie. Doug had been talking about pie since yesterday, and I noted there were 8 small apples in the hopper in the fridge. Let's make do. I peeled and chopped and coated in lemon juice and set aside. Doug and Geoff went to drop the car off, and I got everything all mixed together and into the pie plate. 

While they were out and pie was doing its pie thing, I also noted we had heavy whipping cream, so I made some. Geoff sometimes buys a half gallon when he only really needs a pint for some recipes. So we end up with a lot of extra dairy and if it doesn't get used, ya know. 

It came out great, and I'm glad I put the effort in. Not every day I whip up a pie.

It was a crazy busy day, and it will be again tomorrow. Digits below some pictures of pie, mushrooms, and flowers. 

Sunday digits

exercise: 10/12 hours; slept through both 9 and 5; 5k (barely!) steps by bedtime

blood glucose: 

10:30am: 142
4:30pm: 116
10:30pm: 123

food & meds:

10:30am: jardiance, new meds
1pm: met+glip
6pm: chicken in a basil/pimento cream sauce (not bad, thanks Geoff)
8pm: met+glip
no wine/alcohol

Monday digits

exercise: 12/12 hours;  20 min walk/jog on the treadmill, 1.3 mi; 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose: 

8am: 101
4:15pm: 119
11:15pm: 207 (* see dinner & dessert)

food & meds:

8am: jardiance, new meds
8:15am: everything bagel w/cream cheese
12pm: bowl of mac&cheese with extra cheese sauce and 2 steak tips 
1pm: met+glip
4pm: new meds
6:30pm: mac&cheese with bacon (again? lol) 
8pm: slab of apple pie w/homemade whipped cream; met+glip
no wine/alcohol

some pictures

 As previously mentioned, I had a hard time getting these pictures up to my computer from my phone. I wanted to remember to put them in, so here's an extra post for anyone who is reading along. 

Pancake Cupcake Cakecake

This morning, C woke me up at 8:30. I guess GinnyDog did try to wake me up but I was out cold. I pretty much tossed and turned all night, sadly. I just kept waking up, being awake, and eventually falling back asleep. So around 6 am I found the super duper thread of sleep and latched onto it. 

I organized my stuff, stripped the bed, and came down for a little coffee. We headed out to meet Jess for breakfast in Exeter at the big bean. I have been feeling pretty good about the blood sugar, and really wanted a pancake. I always want a pancake, but every time we go there, I get the Yosemite omlet. Today, really wanted the pancake so I did. 

I always think of Mike Birbiglia and his pancake bit from his Netflix special "The Good Life" (and I highly recommend it, truly, go watch it), you can see it on the trailer here. Go to about 35 seconds into the trailer and learn how Jenny knows the right amount of pancakes for Mike to eat is ... pancake. Same with me. I can have pancake. 

Jenny would be proud.

The place was hopping. I really love the vibe and the place. Always a favorite when we are in the area. I got a mimosa, which they serve in a pint glass (so generous!) 

We stopped by Jess' since I didn't get to see it at the first part of the trip, such a cute place and I'm so glad C had this apartment for them. The dog was so excited to see me, and I just wanted to scoop them both up and bring them back to Maryland.

After breakfast, she dropped me off at the airport a little before 1, and offered to come in. I figured she'd want to get home and settle in for a couple days before her next travel and have merciful laundry time and spend time with GinnyDog time and just relax. 

Plus, there are no bars at the main level where the general public can hang out, so. 

I prepaid my bag. Southwest, you jerks, bags used to fly free but now you nickel and dime us all to death. I may have to figure out another airline, maybe. Gotta look into who serves the BWI to MHT or PVD or ISP routes because that's where your girl flies the most.

I got checked in, dumped my bag, and I looked at the arrivals/departures board. My flight is already delayed by a half hour. Nice. Last night, C's flight was horribly delayed getting back here to NH. So I was hoping this would not also be my fate. 

I updated the app on my phone so I could make sure to follow along for when shit goes better or worse.

Okay then. Take a walk.

C and I had talked about taking a walk before coming here but I'm, as has been established, sometimes concerned about lateness. Even getting here 2 hours early is sometimes stressful to me. We totally could have done a nice walk somewhere out in the world.

But there I was, walking around the first level of the terminal. I walked around and around and a security person lady person was eyeballing me as I walked to the un-used area of the first floor. 

I passed her by and said "I am not a dangerous person, I am just doing my fitbit steps." She laughed and said "Oh trust me, I'm on break and I gotta do mine! I get it, I get it."

"Just didn't want you to think I was some sort of weirdo." 

She laughed and I invited her to join me. "Naah, that's okay. But it'd be fun though to just walk around with you. I like how you weave around the posts and the luggage carousels." 

"Gotta keep it interesting," I said as I wove around the planters. "Sean Duffy wants us to get exercise when we're at the airport and not wear pajamas and dress well and stuff. At least I'm doing one thing on his Americans Should Class Up Their Travel Like The 1950s idea." 

She cracked up, and said "PFFFTH Sean Duffy," which cracked me right up. 

I went upstairs and breezed the hell right through security. I do have to say that Manchester Airport is just delightful. I walked more, and ended up with a solid 31 minutes, so I figured I earned a beer.

I also realize that I tried to send myself and download all the pictures from my ginormous walk at the canal, and for some reason they would not upload from my phone to my computer, but I finally figured her out and will save those for tomorrow.

My flight boarded and we got home at 5:30ish. Doug was already nearby, so I got my duffel, met him at our agreed upon meet up point!

We went out to dinner at an Indian restaurant in Columbia. It was very very good, and I'm glad we didn't over order because what we got ended up being absolutely perfect. There is a cupcakery (what a made up word!) next door so we went in and spent a stupid crazy amount of money on 6 cupcakes. But they were delicious, and I'm not mad. 

The ride home was uneventful, Geoff and Toffee were both very glad to see me, and, Toffee assumed the position that she obviously had not been able to for weeks now. Off to bed. Quite exhausted, and so very glad I baked in a day off at home so we can get ready for our next adventures. 

digits
exercise: 11/12 hours; lost 1 hour due to being on the airplane. inside airport walk, 30 min/1.52 mi. 11k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose: 

9am: 155
xpm: n/a didn't take on the plane
11pm: 160

food & meds:

9am: jardiance, new meds
11am: pancake (hat tip to Birbiglia). mimosa. coffee. tater tots
2pm: 2beers; met+glip
7pm: indian food: chicken 65, lamb vindaloo, rice, garlic naan, one beer
9pm: cupcake, met+glip

Back to Camp and Walking

Thursday
I completely didn't realize today is actually Thursday. C was texting me this morning to let me know that she'd be home tomorrow evening, and I should help myself to all the things. 

Huh, what? I mean. Wait a minute. Oh yeah...

Literally there are days I don't know what day is the day. And today is one of those days. 

I feel like I've been here forever. I'm looking forward to camp, then home. Huzzah. 

We did our lunch trip to the foodrinkery and had a nice pleasant time. As always. There are people there who are always looking out for mom. We took her neighbor, and she is exceptionally caring to mom. Runs errands for her, makes her food. Just an exceptionally kind human. 

She will be helping out a lot more with mom. Which is great because mom knows her, we don't have to hire a stranger to come in and do stuff, she's already cooking meals for mom and will just continue doing that but with more frequency. 

It's a relief. Because I love my mother, but I can't come up and spend 2-3 weeks at a time all the time. 

I feel like since March/May my previous visits, she's on the decline. Cognitively, she has been doing/saying weird things. For instance, she wrote a check out for 4500 for the masonry work we're having done next week, and put 4500 in the money field, and wrote Forty Five in the field where you spell it out. So the mason had to come back and get a fresh check. One night, she woke up and was walking around the house looking for "the screen." 

What screen? I asked her. 

"The screen that goes in there" and she pointed at the vent system for the furnace. "You mean the filter?" I asked.

"No, the screen. The screen. It was right here," and she points to a space between her couch and an end table. "But someone moved it and I can't find it." 

No one moved it, mom.

S Jr. brought up 2 of them, put one into the filter slot, and stood the other one up near the filter slot. That is what she did, last week. 

"Why are you thinking about this at 11:30 at night?" (she goes to bed at like 8pm). She shrugged her shoulders and said "I don't know. I was just wondering about it." 

I don't feel like she needs someone sleeping in the house all the time, but a motion detector/camera that S Jr. would get a notification on when she leaves her bedroom at night might be good.  

Her paraphasia lately has been very noticeable. 

I'll be more comfortable knowing S Jr. will be there checking up on her often, spending time with her daily. A stranger wouldn't be a good fit, I don't think. So this is helpful.

Jess got to me around 8pm and picked me up. We had a good yap driving. back and I was so happy to come into camp. We had some wine and continued to yap. It was midnight when they left and I fell asleep with great joy.

Friday
I slept a little later than I intended today, and forgot I had a 9am meeting so I made it just in time, and looked like a normal human being. Whew. We had something called sprint review today, and I subbed in for my work-son, who is living his best life on vacation with his entire family. 

Being at camp all by myself is an interesting feeling. I'm just chill. Working, but also doing stuff. Watching the hummingbirds at the feeders, drinking ALL of C's coffee (gotta get more pods!), I vacuumed, dusted, did my own laundry, did some C laundry for the bed downstairs, just an overall vibe for me today. 

I realized I have not been alone-alone other than sleeping in a bed in a hotel, since August 4th. 

The only thing missing is a dog of any sort. C's dog, my dog, any dog. 

I vacuumed, puttered around. Talked to myself. Talked to Linda, did a bunch of work things, basically had a good day. I took a walk around 4, Camp is really nice to walk at. I thought about going back and getting my bathing suit on and going to the PoolPond, it literally is that - kind of a pool, kind of a pond, PoolPond. 

C's cousin was out walking too, and we stopped and chatted for a bit. She said that all my walking has been an inspiration so she was happy to see me out. I thought that was hilarious. "Camp is soooooo good for walking!' I told her, and we laughed. It is! 

Jess wanted to get together for dinner but since I was here at happy camp with no car, I asked if they'd buy some chinese food. So they did, and miss Mol and Mr. Mol came over too, and we had a lovely catch up over lo mein noods and box wine. 

C's flight was super delayed, and I figured when she got back here she'd want to not have a house of yappers. I asked the kids if they could clear out when C texted me and they were completely unoffended. It's nice to have people who get it. The person who's house you are sitting in and having some wine and chats is gonna be wiped so get outta town!  

Jess was getting in the car after helping me clean up and get dishes running, and C pulled up so they came back in, and we did have a nice chat. 

They both were recently in Cleveland. So a lot of shared notes about their experience. 

I miss the kids already and I know I'm leaving to go home tomorrow but I feel like I'd love another day of just catching up with all the children. I love that I got to connect with "Bad Cat" but there's also Sara&Joel, and other kids I love who love me. And my friend Amy, and some others, man. 

It's hard to go home when you still have stuff and people you miss and wanna see. 

Anyway. Here we are from tonight. This time tomorrow I'll be getting in my own bed. That's a wonderful thing, yes?

Tomorrow. Breakfast! 

Digits below

Thursday digits
exercise: 12/12 hours; 20 min/1 mile walk, should have done a bit more but that's okay. 7k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose: 

9am: 128
4:30pm: 114
xpm: n/a - forgot to take before getting in bed

food & meds:

9am: jardiance, new meds
1pm: met+glip; scallops, beets, coleslaw
4:30pm: part of the new meds
7:45pm: met+glip
10:45pm: fritos and boursin cheese; white wine

Friday digits
exercise: 12/12 hours; 34 min walk, 1.61 mi. 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose: 

8:45am: 123
4:15pm: 192
10:30pm: 160

food & meds:

8:45am: jardiance, new meds
12:30pm: met+glip; pb& low sugar j on the last of mom's butter bread (I brought the sandwich with me)
3pm-ish: a bunch of hard pretzels
7pm: chinese food (lo mein, peking ravioli, general tso's chicken, fried rice) white wine; met+glip 

Bridge to Bridge

Previously here in the blog, I've mentioned there are cats all over the neighborhood and I get to see them on my walks. Up the street from mom is this sweet little cat, he is missing his right eye. The owner and I talked a year or so ago when I was here, and she told me the cat (I can't remember his name) had some sort of horrible infection years ago and they had to remove the eye. 

Poor bean. But. So it goes in the life of pet stewardship. 

Several walks now through this neighborhood, I haven't seen him. I was kind of worried that he was gone, had passed away or something, you know, like the lives of many outdoor cats end. But today was the day. He was sitting on his porch, looking out across the land and saw me. 

He's one of these cats that likes people a lot, and he meowed, I said hello, he came walking over. I paused my fitbit tracker so we could spend some quality time. 

I took a couple different pictures but he was moving around a lot, this one was the best of the batch. The tail was flicking all around, and he was looking regal in his little tuxedo. Oh I love him.

Work today was pretty good, my boss and I are trying to solve for a big problem, so we met at 3 in our check-in. We have a contractor coming on Monday to do some work at the house, and I need to make sure mom's neighbor friend knows what is happening. She said she's going to come to lunch with us tomorrow, so that's fun. I will buy her 100 lunches for all the help she provides. 

After work, I decided to go for a walk down at the canal, it was a gorgeous day and I couldn't just justify doing neighborhood walk, so I drove there and hit the trail. I parked by the train bridge and started walking, I figured, eh.... I should walk to the Bourne bridge. She's right there. 

About 3/4 of the way there I questioned my sanity. I mean, it's not a big deal. I can do this but uhhhhhggggh this is boring. I didn't bring my earbuds, so I didn't have a podcast to distract me. Eventually I got there, took a small break, took some pictures and went the rest of the way back.

With a headwind! hahhahahha. no. ugh. 

But, when you can't do anything about it, and you have to get back to the car, you ... do it. And I did it. A full hour walk, and yeah. worth it. 

It took me 60 minutes to do the round trip, and I've said previously that my fitbit may be slightly off with distance measurement, but, 27 min out, 33 min back is accurate. 

Voof. 

I went to the market to buy a bunch of stuff mom needed. I thought about getting a big greek chicken sub from the pizza place in downtown but I just grabbed some cranberry walnut chicken salad, and ate that for dinner. Having regrets about wanting that good good sub from the shop in town. Damn. 

All told, a pretty great day. Minor mom complaints. A long chat with Linz, and a good chat with Work Wife today that really gave me great joy. 

Digits below. My computer is not cooperating on downloading pictures so. Here's a pic. Digits below.

digits
exercise: 12/12 hours; huge walk, 60 min/2.89 mi. 13k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose: 

9am: 115
4:30pm: 128
10:30pm: 106

food & meds:

9am: jardiance, new meds
12:45pm: pb&low sugar j on butter bread; met+glip
7pm: shaws supermarket cranberry walnut chicken salad; white wine; met+glip
9:30pm: more trail mix
white wine

Scallops

I took mom to lunch today at her foodrinkery where her favorite barkeep works on Tues/Thurs/Saturday. The quality of the place has gone downhill since the new owners bought it, but, mom goes because she knows a few of the people that still work there, who didn't run away angry when the new management showed their asses to them. 

There are other places we could go if she didn't turn her nose up at them. Suit yourself lady. 

Today she surprised us all. Normally she wants a tuna boat or a hamburger off the kids' menu because it is smaller than the adult sized food. She never wants the fries - she gives them to the barkeep.

For lunch today, she wanted scallops. Gasp. 

Mom always hated seafood, she grew up on Cape Cod and hates fish, hates everything, won't eat lobster. She may eat clams once in a while but they have to be fried whole belly clams. 

Fuck scrod, fuck haddock, fuck shrimp. 

And she convinced us growing up that fish was disgusting. I didn't enjoy fish until I was in Florida with Doug long before we got married, and his grandfather went fishing and got lake fish for us. 

I wasn't very gracious about it, and Doug let me know that was rude. And yeah - it was and I still sometimes think about what a rude little shit I was at times before I learned to not be a rude little shit. 

But mom kind of raised us to voice our negative opinions when we thought something was gross rather than grin and bear it with grace and thankfulness. And who knew, I like fish. I love fish. And boy do I love scallops.

Anyway. 

The barkeep asked her if she wanted the scallop boat size/portion and she said no, she didn't want the roll. But the price difference between the scallop boat serving and the full lunch serving was five bucks. Barkeep told me she was ordering the scallop boat and she'd take the roll away and mom would never know it. Also, mom probably wouldn't eat all the scallops anyway.

There were 7 nice sized scallops on her plate and I was instantly filled with envy because I opted for a virtually zero carb lunch. I will have scallops on Thursday. 

She ate all her scallops, and she didn't want fries or coleslaw, but barkeep got her mashed potatoes and corn. Which she ate a little bit of. 

All told, a surprisingly big meal for the old lady. And then I got take away buffalo fingers to go on top of my left over salad, so I'll have the same thing for dinner as I had for lunch, just so I don't have to go out tonight for anything. 

I do need to go to the market for her, for a few things. I have procrastinated, but will probably do that tomorrow. Again, I was lectured about locking the car again today. 

This time she said that thieves are stealing hangers from the cars. 

I looked at her funny. 

"What .... hangers?" I asked, picturing pants and shirts on hangers. 

"HANGERS! HANGERS!" she yelled pointing at her handicapped placard attached to her rear view mirror. 

I wondered the other day if I was not hearing her right but for sure yesterday she was saying cameras. I didn't correct her. Sometimes she forgets the words she wants, and sometimes she insists the words that are coming out of her mouth are the right words. Then the next day, they are different words. 

This case, for sure, it was different words and now she's got the right word (sort of). No one is stealing cameras. They're stealing handicap permits. I wouldn't even call them hangers. 

She went to bed at 8pm last night, came down and locked everything up even though I told her I was probably going to do my last steps outside. I let her lock things, and then I went out and locked up after myself again when I got back. 

Around 11pm she came down to the bathroom. I was watching Law & Order SVU for some reason and working on some things for work. She waved and went back toward her room, but she turned on all the lights, weirdly. 

She keeps all the lights off most of the time. I like to keep the oven hood light on in the kitchen, especially at night, and she turns it off every time she comes to the kitchen, which turns into a quiet battle of me turning it on, her turning it off. 

When I noticed she had the dining table light, the light above the inside of the door, and the living room light on, I could not figure out what she was up to, so I went to check. 

She was walking around the living room and I asked what was up. 

"I am looking for the screen," she said.

What screen?

"The screen that goes in there," and she pointed at the intake vent for her furnace, which weirdly is in the corner on the floor. 

Oh! 

"I found it. Shirley (her neighbor) bought them for me and put them here," she gestured between the couch and the end table, "so I found them." 

Great. I'm glad you found them. Why are you looking for something like tat at 11pm? 

She shrugged, "I just thought of it just now. And then I couldn't find them. But I already moved them."

And she always says, "Ta-daaa!" at the end of some weird thing like that. 

Okay great, Ta-daaa! 

She started to shuffle back to her room and I made some music noises, like a little tune, like she's some sort of video game. Which made he laugh. She told me I am a whackadoodle. I said I was guilty as charged and asked if she liked my song. 

I asked her, do you like my song or do you like.... And I started doing Yakety Sax. Which do you like better?

She told me Yakety Sax, so. I'll sing that to her when she is puttering around. 

Back to lunch. 

We had a nice fun lunch. The barkeep brought me cucumbers from her garden and I'm super excited because I will add those to my salad dinner tonight. I wish I had a bunch of extra cherry tomatoes to go with, but. Mostly greens and my new fresh cukes. 

Her friend Sue was there, and another lady named Sandy. They were pounding down beers and I was thinking to myself jeeez I wish I didn't have to go back to work! 

Our visit was fun and nice, I'm looking forward to lunch on Thursday and I am ordering the full boatload ton and a half of scallops for lunch because heck. You have to when you are here. 

When we got back, I had a bunch of complicated work things to work on. My boss and I met for an hour to filter through what seems to be a rather enormous bug that someone brought to our attention which made him say "oh my lord," and I wanted to add "a-rama." which only Linda would know and understand. 

I took a walk after a right proper head explosion with the boss where we both just had to shake our heads and plan on getting with the devs tomorrow. 

There is a road that has a bunch of cats that live on it, and sometimes the cats come out and say hello. Tonight only one of them did, and it came over and rubbed all over me and purred like a boss. Hell yeah, cat. You just lifted my heart 20 stories high. 

Thank you, cat.

Digits below. Cat was doing winky face at me, and also let me take a picture of it with its beautiful eyes!

digits
exercise: 12/12 hours; walk 25 min/1.23. mi; another walk, 20 min/.93 mi. 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose: 

8am: 116
5pm: 116
11pm: 94

food & meds:

8am: jardiance, new meds
11am: atkins peanut bar
1:30pm: buffalo chicken on salad; met+glip
5pm: half of new meds (almost out of one of them so pacing that); the last dunkin donuts donut that mom had that she has been ignoring for 2 days. white wine
8pm: the rest of the salad and buffalo fingers and a whole giant cucumber, bleu cheese dressing; met+glip

Hotel Waffle as a Treat

I treated myself to a waffle this morning. When I stay here, I try to do it only once during the time. And today was the day. Check-out day. Let's do this.

Love me a hotel waffle, I tell ya. 

Lin was working this morning, she has had crazy thing after crazy frustrating thing after crazy you've got to be shitting me thing happen on this trip. And of course, she's the only one who can fix it. Truly an invaluable and also severely undervalued human with this company. 

We checked out and headed to mom's. I had misplaced my power cord for my phone, and we needed to reorganize all Linda's things before she left, so we tided up, moved things into bags, unpacked things, looked in things, and never did find my cord. It has to be in her car. She'll find it someday. 

I had a call with a client at 11:30am, so I set to doing that and she popped in to let me know she was leaving, she got a ferry reservation and if she didn't go, she wouldn't make it. I asked the guy to hold on a bit, and I went to hug her goodbye. 

I miss her already. 

I missed her when she was still on the porch. 

After my call, my mom told me she was mad because I put a Tidy Bowl tablet into her toilet tank. 

I asked if she could please just get over it, what does it matter? You don't like a clean toilet?

"I like to see what my poop looks like sometimes."

Sigh.

So it begins. The weird, very weird, and sometimes horribly annoying mom things that I'll put up with for the next 4 days.

"Well, you get to see your poop in about 3 weeks I guess," I replied.

There are some things she needs, like dawn dish soap, new Q-tips and cotton balls, laundry detergent, so I told her I was going to head out today or tomorrow and get those.

I got a full lecture on making sure I lock her car. 

Mom. I always lock your car. 

"Well. They're breaking into cars and stealing their cameras!"

Okay, well, I always lock your car, mom. 

"They will steal my camera so you make sure you lock it!" 

For spite, you know how I feel but for goodness sake, I always lock your car. 

"and BE CAREFUL." God, how I want my sister to come back right now. Also, my mom has no idea the cameras in cars are actually outside of the car so. I won't tell her that. I'll just leave things be. 

Geoff called tonight to check up on me. "I realized I hadn't heard from you in a long time so I thought I'd check in," which really is the sweetest thing. I appreciate a check in from home once in a while! 

Mom went to bed at 8. Told me she was turning off the internet and we had an argument about it. I asked her not to, because if she does, I can't work, surf, or watch TV. She got huffy and told me she doesn't want her computer running all night. 

Well, those are two different things friend. Turn your computer off, not the internet. 

I went down to her room and we talked about it, and I showed her how to keep it on, turn the computer off, and leave it that way. 

Day one down, three to go. I'm sure we will have this same discussion tomorrow. I think that us being here upsets her routine and apple cart. I'm trying to approach all of this with grace, but there is no waffle machine here in the morning, ya know? 

Anyway.

Here's a pic I stole from Linda,  of Linda and Me, and the other person in the picture is our friend V. He's the best. We love him. He is sunshine in human form. The eyepatch is because he's had some surgery for a detached retina (oh no!) and has to keep his eye protected. Poor bean! 

Digits below!

digits
exercise: 12/12 hours; walk around the neighborhood, 27 min, 1.27 mi; 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose: 

8am: 120
4:45pm: 108
11pm: 94

food & meds:

8am: jardiance, new meds
9am: hotel waffle, bacon
1:30pm: pb&sugar free j on butter bread; met+glip
4:45pm: new meds
5:45pm: an obscene amount of trail mix
7pm: met+glip; some ritz crackers
white wine

Bathing Suits and Blue Drinks

Oh - Yesterday, I asked Lin to text me the picture of us with the cousins and she sent it after I published last night's entry. So here' it is - Cousinfest part 2. We cute.

Anyway.

This entire trip we have stayed at hotels and places with awesome opportunities for bathing suit time. And each place, something has prevented us from putting suits on and getting in the pool or ocean. 

Today, we spent time at mom's. Linda crashed in the bedroom (a much needed crash, I must say) and mom was down in her room playing her video games. She has had an issue with mice recently, so, Lin wanted to clean out her bathroom vanity. 

I beat her to it, not that is is a competition or anything, but, she was resting and I had flip flops on, and couldn't take a right proper walk around the neighborhood. No fun doing a big walk in flip flops. 

I got into the bathroom and started pulling everything out from under her vanity. 

The mice. They have been busy. 

She had SEVERAL bars of soap that these little jerks ATE. They ATE DIAL SOAP. Why, mice? Why? Soap is not food! 

They pulled the cotton ends off of hundreds of Q-tips, and ruined two entire boxes of them. Thanks, mice. They pulled apart dozens of cotton balls. Two giant bags, mostly destroyed and filled with poop. 

Ugh, thank you again, mice. You little fuckers. 

I always say it is a hard world for small things but fuck you, you fucking fucks for fucking making a fucking mess out of everything in my mom's house, you little shits. 

Two trash bags full of stuff later, I had just about everything cleared out of the bathroom vanity. The entire vanity floor is trashed, and the stupid vanity needs to be replaced and all that. But. We are reluctant to do it because in replacing the vanity, we may as well replace the flooring, and if we replace the flooring, it runs to the hall and kitchen and all that would need to be replaced, and then there is the carpeting in the living room and her bedroom, both of which suck and need replaced. 

Oh My Lord-a-rama. Projects! This is a total project. An absolute project. Not to be done today.

But for right now, friends, the vanity is cleaned out, and we are going to do some Mouse Remediation work.

In cleaning out the vanity, it was an archeological dig back through time. Mom has several different brands of sink decloggers, several containers of CLR, about 9 curling irons, a giant hair dryer. There were boxes of Dial and Dove soap, which the mice ate! They ATE SOAP. (I know I freaked at that earlier but still jebus, they ate soap). 

So many things went straight to the trash, a bunch of things are out on the porch and I'll sort through anything that can be salvaged (ie: Drano bottles and boxes of Clorox toilet tablets). 

Linda and I came back to the hotel and I told her that she better put her bathing suit on, because there is no way we are on vacation and we didn't get in a pool once. I'll be damned if we do not get in a pool.

So we did.

And the pool was FREEZING. 

Indoor pool, absolutely fucking freezing. Oh my god so cold. I got in, for SPITE and swam around and made the best of it. I told her not to. She'd die. She does this thing in pools where she pulls her arms up and we call it "T-Rex Arms" because it is impossible to get in and you suffer and struggle the entire time you're trying to get used to it. 

But I got in and I made it happen and I wanted it, and I got what I wanted, I got pool time. Fuckeveryoneelseontheplanet, I got pool time. 

We needed some dinner and there is a nice hibachi/asian fusion restaurant near our hotel, so we walked over. We thought about getting take out but got blue drinks (which, you know, you can't take out!) and a lot of appetizers. It was very very nice. And I'm glad we ate there instead of bringing back. Sometimes take-out food can make your hotel room smell of the funkies. 

Digits below. 

digits
exercise: 12/12 hours;  45 min treadmill, 3.1 miles (hey, that's 5k motherfukkahhhhhhs); 14k+ steps by bedtime.

blood glucose: 

8:45am: 115
5pm: 121
9:30pm: 166

food & meds:

8:45am: jardiance, new meds; last of the cookies I baked
11am: dunkin' donuts glazed donut
1pm: met+glip
4pm: new meds
6pm: trail mix; white wine
7pm: gyoza, edamame; tempura, tom kha soup; blue drink; met+glip

Some more cousin time

This morning, Lin warned me the hotel coffee was no more than brown water. She said something to the lady who runs the brekkie, and the lady said she made it the same way she always does and can't explain why it was super gross. 

I volunteered to go to Starbucks. 

One cannot begin the day on little or no caffeine, right? You with me on that? 

Starbucks is doing some weird unicorn drink thing, and everyone in the place was all about pimping out the unicorn drink thing. Note, I went inside because the drive through was 20 cars deep. 

I saw them put this on the counter and I had to get a picture of it just for the message. 

"Oh look," I said, "she is so cute!"

The kids behind the counter turned around and all said some variation of "oh yes! She really IS so cute!"

Heh. She. Using She instead of It is something "the kids" do anymore so it is something I find adorable and have adopted for my own. 

Back to the hotel, I ended up on the treadmill for a while. I have not done any sort of running since that 5k thing, where what I was doing was not running, it was surviving and finishing. It felt good to get going a bit and listen to some music and ignore how many minutes were going by. 

I wanted to get a shower and get ready to head to mom's so I did 20 minutes for an easy peasy trip. 

We had a nice visit. We took her to her favorite foodrinkery. Lin and I knew we were going to be having dinner with our cousin and his wife later on, so we didn't want The Big Lunch. 

Mom ordered chicken fingers, and she usually gets the kids' size portion. I told her to get the full size and I'd eat some. Linda said the same. So between the 3 of us, we polished that off quick. I was the driver so minimal wine, and when I say 2 glasses, you know how restaurants pour wine. Cute little wee carafes and about 1/3 of a glass. 

I pour wine to the full glass because yes. That's the way to do it. 

We headed back to mom's and she was super ready for a nap. We had put laundry in the wash but didn't put it in the dryer, so I moved it over. We headed back and changed to look cute for dinner. 

B&L live in a planned community in Plymouth with single family homes, townhouses, apartments/condos. There is a restaurant and bakery, a big fire pit spot, places for games and fun. They're rly happy there. They sold their house on the cape and moved up when my aunt had to move nursing homeeals. 

Their community is full of neighbors who are all fun and very exuberant. I felt a little weird mixing in for dinner with all their neighbors but everyone was super nice.  I thought of how Doug would either be super into this or recoil a little and be introverted.

We had a great catch up. Never enough time with the cousins, I tell ya. 

Tomorrow my cousin's daughter is hosting a clam bake, and we're invited. Lin and I didn't do anything at mom's today, so we're feeling like we should both stick around and help her out with what she needs. Also, I do not see well at night for driving, and in order to not get stuck in traffic for 9 hours to go 10 miles, we would probably have to stay until after sunset. 

Hmm. 

Jury is still out on our plans. 

In the meantime, enjoy this picture of how Lin spelled "Emergency" on the little white board at mom's... 2 years ago and I just realized it. And please note, we are not correcting this. It is perfect. No notes.

digits
exercise: 12/12 hours;  treadmill, 20 min/1.48 mi. 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose: 

8:30am: 122
4pm: 82
9pm: 197 (note how close to met+glip. but I'm tired and wanted to go to bed)

food & meds:

8:30am: jardiance, new meds
9am: 2 starbucks bacon gruyere egg white bites
1:15pm: met+glip; 2 chicken fingers; 2 glasses of wine
4pm: new meds
5pm: fish & chips
8pm: met+glip

From Plymouth to Mom

I was bummed to have to leave our hotel. We didn't do pool, indoor or outdoor, I wanted to go down and walk the beach or something, we didn't. 

Someone remind me that ya know, Chris... you don't have to work while you are on vacation. You can take a day off. 

Part of me just felt like I'll get so much done just quietly sitting working. To some extent yes, I did. That was good. But I didn't get as much done as I planned. My boss and I had our 1:1 check in and he talked to me about how we both need to go back through our old tickets and clean house. Trust me, dear sir, that was my plan. 

Maybe during this week. 

I will be working from mom's starting Monday, and I have one meeting set up Monday. I bet I can get down and dirty with old tickets and clean things up. 

Not for nothing but this week I discovered 2 bugs in the new product, and a possible third. So yeah, I did things. 

Lin and I cleared from the hotel around 11:30 and headed to mom's with a stop for coffee along the way. Mom was happy we were there, in fact she called Lin at about 10 to ask where we were. 

Lady, we're coming. 

Part of me felt like we both should just put our bathing suits on, jump in the pool and have fun before driving over but. 

We have a pool in our new hotel. Friends, we'll make use of that. Off to mom's! We got there, settled in, Lin had to work, I had two meetings on Zoom and my last meeting of the day was with my work son/bestie/partner in crime. He traded off on some tickets to me and we talked about his huge family vacation they're going on, four generations and some cabins, fly fishing and him hanging out reading books and watching his nephews. 

I am still technically on vacation and I am jealous of his week ahead. 

Mom was in good spirits and happy to see us. We stayed there until about 5 and headed over to the hotel. Our friend Rosie is also staying here, and she's delightful. I'll miss her when she heads back home tomorrow. 

Speaking of tomorrow, we're meeting with the mason that we met with in May that I never got things buttoned up with. But we'll get that all buttoned up. We will button. I believe we're going to take mom to lunch tomorrow, and we'll see how much cleaning or whatever we will get done. 

Digits below. Cheers.

digits
exercise: 12/12 hours; did a quick run on the treadmill, 10 min/.62 mi; 11k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose: 

9am: 136
4:30pm: 104
10pm: 193

food & meds:

9am: jardiance, new meds.
1pm: met+glip
4pm: pbj sammitch; new meds
6pm: met+glip ( i... think?) 
7pm: 2 slices of pizza and some chicken fingers; white wine