What are you looking for now

We did absolutely nothing today. Our plans of going to the bank were just fantasy talk. I was going to clean the bathroom. Ha. 

I did do the treadmill, and I was surprised that Doug did too. 

After he finished the treadmill he got it in mind to make an apple pie. He had found an apple cookbook at a little free library (with a recipe from a woman from the orchard near where he grew up). 

Basic apple pie recipe. 

He's going through every drawer in the kitchen, opening every cabined. It crosses my mind - he's never really made anything since we've been here. 

I hear him bumping around.
"What are you looking for?" I ask.
Sugar.
I point right to it.

More bumping around.
"What are you looking for now?"
Apple peeler. 
I open the drawer. He doesn't like the apple peeler. 
Where is the other one?
The one that doesn't work? Here. 
He ends up using the one I handed him.

He's going through the pantry.
"And now what are you looking for?"
Cinnamon.
Over next to the stove, with all of the spices and stuff. Those are the things for basically every day normal use. What's in the pantry is the stuff we very rarely need. 

Doug gets acquainted with the kitchen. Finally.  

Apple pie goes into the oven. It smells great. I'm already dreading what it is going to do to my blood sugar but I will indeed have a slice since he worked so hard at finding things. 

The apple pie came out nice, tasty, but something was missing. It was almost watery, soupy. I asked if he forgot flour or an egg. He said the recipe didn't call for those. But upon re-reading the recipe, indeed. flour. 

It wasn't a waste, for sure that was a nice gift for me to not have to be the one who bakes or makes .

Tomorrow we have to leave the house. It's my work wife's son's big rock show. Second one. He's getting better and better at it. Next weekend is Henry's. 

And my work wife told me she isn't sure if any of her family is coming. So I feel like I gotta pull up hard and be the best auntie ever. 

Plus, it's at a brewery. Bonus. 

Digits below. 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Treadmill, 40 min/2.02 miles; 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

9:30 am: 133
5pm: 113
10pm: 142  

food & meds:
9:30am: jardiance+phentermine
11:30am: bowl of mac & cheese w/bacon
1pm: met+glip
6pm: chili (beans and meat, cheese, sour cream) 
7pm: big slice of apple pie w/cold foam cream
9pm: met+glip

Hot Water Heater

The plumber came today. Turns out, he owns the company and they're literally across the street-ish from us, a block away on the main drag. He called first thing this morning and apologized because he was supposed to call me back on Monday to follow up and just forgot.

It is okay - I let him know that if it had turned into an emergency, I would have called another plumber. 

Dude just about died laughing. 

Kind of like with the wildlife guys, I got this guy's vibe and knew he'd have a laugh. I told him in all seriousness, Monday was kind of apocalyptic and he had things to do and take care of and I totally understood. 

He brought a really really young guy with him. Like, I felt like this was a high school kid but he isn't. He's a little younger than Geoff but looks 15. 

The super young dude is coming back on Monday morning to do the install. I guess he isn't at apprentice level, he's a made man in plumbing. So he flies solo. 

It'll be nice to have this done. One less thing to think about. And we can move onto the next thing to think about. 

Work was incredibly busy. I had a good client meeting, and then I had a great meeting with a co-worker in the analytics department. I love her. I canceled a meeting with the work son because I just had so much to do, and scheduled two meetings for Monday with clients and kicked myself for it. 

I hate meetings on Mondays. 

But best to get these ones out of the way and gone. 

Treadmill happened, Geoff made a really good dinner but didn't include enough protein and that was a little bit of a bummer. Please, kid. Protein. 

Tomorrow Doug and I have to go to the bank before the nearest branch closes so we'll get up and at it early. And who knows what the rest of the day is going to be. Adventure!

Digits below!

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Treadmill, 36 min/2 mi. 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

7:30am: 113
4pm: 121
10:30pm: 142

food & meds:
7:30am: jardiance+phentermine
1pm: pb & j sandwich on 647 bread; met+glip
6pm: bowl of rotini w/chicken breast and homemade creamy alfredo sauce
7pm: ramekin of mixed nuts (only ate 1/2)
8:30pm: met+glip
no wine/beer

Pre Load the Day

I woke up early this morning and figured going back to sleep would be dumb. Early for me is 7am. If I wake up earlier than that well then, yeah, it makes sense to try to get more sleep but to be honest, getting up is always a good idea. Just get up. Do it. 

Also, I was super hungry. Last night's dinner was minimal and I didn't have any sort of snack around 8pm or anything. So 7am was hungry time. 

If you look at the log of meds/food/etc that I've been keeping you'll notice I don't usually eat until after 10am, sometimes not until after noon. One of the medications I'm on is an appetite suppressant and it is effective. I take it in the morning and I am absolutely not hungry at all. Which is good. But after being on it a year you'd think I'd have lost 100 pounds by now. 

So I made an early english muffin, sat with Toffee, played phone games until it was time to start working. I did some banking, noticed that the student loan payment I sent in for Doug still has not cleared and I mailed it 10 days ago. Everything else I've paid has cleared. My town doesn't have an online service for payment for electric or water/sewer so those go by check. And the student loan people will not allow Doug to pay online, which is ridiculous and stupid. I hate them. 

Work was super good. Busy, a couple good meetings, 1:1 check in with my boss. Fun times with the work son. And we do a bi-weekly office hour with the clients and that is always my favorite meeting. I got dinner started, shoved it in the oven and hit the treadmill. 

I was interested in hitting the mile, but not interested in trying to break 15 min. pace so I just semi-jogged and sometimes walked. It helped that the playlist knew my vibe. Great songs but all around a 19 min. walking pace until Mr. Brightside came on, and I did run to that one. Such a great song. 

Doug and Geoff took an errand today to the registry, and while they were gone I vacuumed, dusted, did the general cleaning for the living room and that made me happy. I thought Doug's cousin and his family were going to be coming through this weekend but it turns out that's next weekend. I have a lot to do between now and then, like clean the bathroom, hang up some art. Vacuum upstairs and the guest room. Little things. 

Managed to hit 10k+ steps after the treadmill time at 6:30pm which is super early. I always feel like I am on a good steps trajectory if I break 2k steps before noon. I broke that by 10am (thanks, getting up early!) so having that time to pre-load the day was very helpful. I sometimes find I'm only at 8k by 8pm, and need 2k more steps to hit the goal so I go back on the treadmill for 15 min or so. In nicer weather, that's a Toffee time walk. 

So happy tomorrow is Friday. I have some meetings and some dive in face first spreadsheet stuff that needs done before Monday, so I'll do as much as I can tomorrow and poke at it a bit over the weekend. There is no football this weekend, so no excuses for lollygagging. Maybe I can get Doug to help me do some things that I need done around the place. 

Maybe we'll go out adventuring. 

Who knows. 

Digits below! I took this screenshot from Facebook. Not sure why Lidl market is selling panties in their super random section.... I'm used to kids winter coats, kitchen ware, painting supplies... but panties? dude.

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours.  Treadmill, 31 min/1.72 mi (had to let a song finish so that's why 31 and not 30). 11k+ by bedtime

blood glucose:

7am: 84
5pm: 90
10pm: 152 (* see dinner, should come down in an hour or so) 

food & meds:
7:30am: jardiance+phentermine
8am: english muffin w/pb and raspberry jam
12:45pm: roast beef and mild cheddar on 647 bread w/mayo. met+glip
6:45pm: 1/2 of a baked stuffed chicken breast w/cornbread stuffing and mixed veggies, gravy
8:30pm: met+glip
no wine/beer

Not bored but boring

I feel like we're snowed in, we can leave at any time we like but still, it is stupid out there on the roads in the neighborhoods. I've never been more surprised at how poorly they handle snow here in the "south." 

Anyway. 

I was going to bake cookies today during our all staff but I listened to it and worked. There was a client who needed a lot of help with something and I spent a good deal of time exporting content to send her in spread sheet form to make her life better. 

I got on the treadmill and didn't take it as fast as I have been. I wanted to get to 2 miles, that was my goal, and managed that but not at about a half hour. Still. A good go. And the playlist was slower than usual so nothing got me running. 

Toffee has been doing a really good job with the snow. Right now I wish she had a playmate though to run around with incredible exuberance. She hasn't had a walk in days so she seems sad. I wish it was 10 degrees warmer. 

Right then. Still no plumber! I need to call them tomorrow and find out what's the haps! 

Digits below! 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours.  Treadmill, 37 min/2.07 miles; 10k+ by bedtime

blood glucose:

8am: 112
5pm: 94
10pm: 82 

food & meds:
8am: jardiance+phentermine
1:45pm: met+glip; roast beef & muenster on an english muffin
2:45pm: ramekin mixed nuts
6:30pm: half a bowl of beef and mushroom stew (Geoff really should double the recipe. it was delicious but by the time I made it to the kitchen ... not much was left!) 
8:30pm: met+glip
no wine/beer

A no muffin day

A very busy day, no muffin baking. But we have a big huge 2 hour long all staff tomorrow afternoon. My work son bestie buddy gave me a really good looking recipe for some next level chocolate chip cookies and I think I'll whip those up while the all staff is happening. Now that I have wireless headphone ear bud dealies, I can move around and the laptop can stay on the counter. 

Toffee has finally, if you'll excuse the pun, warmed up to the snow. She went outside several times today. She even went out front off leash with Doug while he moved snow around. She just stood there "looking mad and resentful" which made me laugh a bit. 

Alright, no picture today but probably tomorrow. Digits below! 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours.  Treadmill, 31 min/2.02 miles. 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:15am: 140
4:30pm: 95
10pm: 129 

food & meds:
8:15am: jardiance+phentermine
8:30am: blueberry muffin 
1pm: met+glip; english muffin w/pb and a little full sugar raspberry preserves (out of low sugar smuckers)
4:45pm: ramekin of mixed nuts
6pm: bowl of rice w/ chicken. not very fulfilling.... guacamole & chips
8:30pm: met+glip
no beer/wine

Muffin Morning

Our plumber was supposed to come this morning but called at 7:30, two of his guys called out, he was also snow plowing and had an emergency pipe burst situation. "I can come after 1?" he suggested. I told him to not worry, but touch base tomorrow morning. 

And. I was up. 

I actually was up anyway. Didn't really sleep well. Miss Toffee needed to go out at 3:30am and let it be known. I'm glad she told me. And then we went into the guest room together where she slept and I didn't really. So when my phone rang at 7:30, it was just right and normal to be up and start the day. 

Doug and I were both goofing off on our phones, and he went up to start working. I picked up my laptop. 

No internet. 

Whelp did not see that coming. Since we didn't lose power or anything, I didn't even imagine the internet would be out. 

I messaged my boss and my team, and we waited. 

Trying to get ahold of our internet company was a bit annoying. The virtual attendant by phone was shit. And the website's "status" page said there were no outages, but, I poked around and found that our neighborhood was experiencing an outage and there was no estimated time for restoration. 

To the kitchen! 

I decided to use the time and make muffins. Doug had commented that we still had a pretty full bag of blueberries in the freezer, so I wanted to have at it. 

The recipe is super easy but I think I forgot the milk. They came out a little hard, but nothing horrible. They were a big hit with the guys! 

The internet came back on around 1pm. I went on the treadmill for a bit and then got ready for a 2pm meeting and got to work for the rest of the day. 

If the internet had stayed off, I was getting ready to make carrot cake. but. Work had to happen. 

Hoping the plumber can come tomorrow... we shall see! 

Digits below

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Treadmill 24 min/1.43 mi (had to cut short for a meeting); second little walk to make to 10k, 11 min/.49 mi. 11k+ by bedtime

blood glucose:

8am: 109
5pm: 164
10pm: 149 

food & meds:
8am: jardiance+phentermine
9:30am: 2 blueberry muffins w/butter
11:30am: bowl of mac & cheese w/ground beef
1pm: met+glip
6pm: one small meatball sub w/cheese, and then a few meatballs from another sub (no roll) 
8:30pm: met+glip; hummus+pretzels snack
no beer/wine

Trying Something New

We survived the snow. 

It has stopped here in our part of Maryland. I have to say, the media and "social media influencers/hobby meteorologists" pumped this storm up. Pumped the hell out of it. We were forecasted for over a foot. Doug said he thinks there maybe are 7 inches out there. The sleet we got helped push things down, but the hype surrounding this storm was sick. 

The kind of thing that would make anyone stop listening to the weather prognosticators in the future. 

Still, 7 inches is more snow than this area has seen in a long time. My neighbors two doors down have 2 boys and they were out shoveling the hell out of peoples' parking spaces and driveways. I admired them from a distance. They didn't even knock on doors for money. I did see one lady come out and give them hot cocoa. 

It was endearing and made me smile. They didn't make it to our house, but if they did, I would have paid them, but also would have said "hey, I have two boys who do this for me, thanks!" 

I woke up around 2am and couldn't fall back asleep so I went downstairs. At that hour, you could still see the grass popping up through the snow. By the time I woke up - it was in full rock and roll mode out there. 

After it snowed all day, we ended up getting sleet on top of the snow, and that pushed the measurements down. Doug and Geoff went out to shovel after the Patriots game (yay Patriots!) and Doug estimates about 7 inches of actual snow out there. 

Toffee hates it. I kind of miss the years of opening the back door and Jack, Gonzo, and Brodie just tearing ass out into the yard, making trails in 2 foot deep snow. I stood looking wistfully out the back door thinking of how they would have loved the hell out of this, thinking of those days when the snow was taller than all three of them. When Jack and Brodie walked out of our yard by just jumping up on the high snow and walking over the top of the fence. 

But after breakfast, our girl Toffee put her paw out the back door and just noped right back in. Noped right the hell out of there and back to the living room with a look of terror on her face. We had adopted her in a December when she was already over a year old, and I often will wonder what her life was like as a stray on the streets. Which explains probably why she hates the rain, hates the cold, hates this snow.  

Eventually she went out, around 3pm. But truthfully this little princess pittie is no snow dog. And I don't blame her.

I had promised Geoff I'd make breakfast sandwiches today for our big snow day. He took out all the ingredients and left them on the counter as a big fat hint. 

I also had threatened him with hash browns for a couple weeks. We had 6 small potatoes left over from another meal, so before they went bad, I figured today was the day. 

A quick google search resulted in a recipe to try. It was pretty straight forward, the only thing that I didn't know about was to rinse and then drain and press the shredded potatoes to remove all the liquid from them. Glad I read recipes to make sure I know how to do something. Otherwise these would not have turned out great. 

I used our giantest cookie scoop to make the patties and squished them flatter once I got them in the oil. 

They were crisp and tasty, and a little extra salt and pepper next time I do this. For sure. The hardest part was shredding the potatoes. I hate using the box grater, so next time - food processor! Or make Geoff do the shredding.

After we got everything cleaned up, Doug started making a new mess. We still had left over ham and he'd been threatening to make a ham and bean soup. When we were at Aldi the other day he found the16 bean mix that he likes, so we got the ham out of the freezer to defrost and be ready for today. 

That also came out great, the only thing I wish I'd had was some nice rolls or a big fat crusty bread to dip in. 

There are tons of left overs, so maybe I can get a big ole loaf this week. There's a woman up the street who runs a little bakery out of her house, maybe I can see if she's got some sourdough baked up. I've been meaning to reach out to her anyway. 

While Doug was cheffing up his soup I hit the treadmill. My goal was 2 miles in 30 min. I fell just short. I got a slow-ish start, but the last song on the playlist was a banger so I did my best to keep up with the beat. Failed at that but almost hit the 30 min mark. almost. 

Challenge on the table for future efforts. Watch this space.

Tomorrow between 8 and 10 am we are supposed to have a guy here to come see about replacing our hot water heater. I'm not sure he will make it, I'm wondering if his company is gonna have a lot of emergency plumbing and heating things to deal with tomorrow. If he cancels I'm okay with that. But the boys got everything shoveled out nicely and the walkway is ready for him. 

I took a couple pictures of the snow. Snow that Toffee hates. No picture of Toffee because she didn't want to be out there any longer than to pee.

Digits below! 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Treadmill, 31 min/2 miles. Wanted to do it in 30 min, but was just short. Slow-ish start, but the last song on the playlist was a fast banger and I went as hard as I could. ha. 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8am: 139
4:15pm: 124
10pm: 90 

food & meds:
8am: jardiance+phentermine
11am: egg mcmuffin 2 sausage patties; one hash brown 
1:30pm: met+glip
5:30pm: 2 good bowls of ham & bean soup
white wine
8:30pm: met+glip

Awaiting the Storm

I hope if you are reading this and you're in the path of the storm, you are prepped and ready. Be Careful!

I believe we are all set. Doug told me he was going to head out to get propane and I wanted to come. I wanted a day out doing stuff before it will be many days in and unable to do stuff. We got 2 tanks of propane, success! Then we went over to Aldi where it was not at all crowded and hey - they had all the bread, milk, eggs, everything. They had bottled water but Doug pooh poohed buying bottled water. 

We don't have an electric well pump, we are on city water, everything should work and be fine. 

I wanted to get some candles, so we got 3 nice big fat ones with 3 wicks in each. I told Doug we should buy the small flat of 9 of them and he told me that's overreacting. I kind of wanted 9 candles even without a storm coming but okay. 

After that, we headed over to the liquor store because we had no vodka, no wine, and only some very high ABV beer. Can't day drink and watch football with 9% alcohol beer. 

We went to the wrong liquor store. And it is funny - I'll tell ya. This town. There are more liquor stores here than anywhere I've ever lived. Every single plaza has anchor stores on either end, and in the middle there is a nail salon, pizza joint, chinese restaurant, and a liquor store. Every last one. 

But we turned too soon onto the highway where everything is, and ended up at not the one we wanted to go to. Oh well. They had boxed wine though, and a lot of places don't (that's why we wanted to go to the one we wanted because they have box wine). And because your girl is low rent, ain't fancy, and I mix my wine with ginger ale, well... boxed wine is alright by me. 

We got more beer, some vodka, had fun looking at all the different bottles of things. The give aways, the bourbon company cutting board thing with cute cheese spready knives... They had quite the assortment. 

Then, to the Farm store where Doug was hoping to score ice melt. I was kind of convinced we would find none, but, they had a bunch. A manager came over and said "hey, I have two damaged bags of this particular pet-friendly ice melt that I can't sell for full price but I'll give them both to you for 10 bucks. 

Hell yeah. 

After that we drove around for a while because Doug wanted to see where a road went. I told him I knew where it came out, and lo and behold, it did!  I suggested hitting the brewery but Doug didn't want to leave our haul in the car in the parking lot because of the super cold temperature.

Back home, he got shovels out, got the propane tank hooked up, put the salt in the bin with the half bag of salt that we had bought a couple years back. 

Done. 

Well. 

The gas stove won't stay lit. The pilot keeps going out and that's annoying. He futzed with it for a good long time, and decided for tonight it is fine. He will fight with it in the morning. 

For tonight, the house is warm and comfy. As long as we don't lose power we're fine. 

The rest of our day was alright. Doug took a nap with Toffee and I resisted the same temptation and hit the treadmill while Geoff cooked dinner. Did pretty well and got over the 2 mile mark. That was my goal. 

And again, as long as we don't lose power I can get my mile in and 10k+ steps and it will be fine.

Right then. Off to bed. Tomorrow will be an interesting day. Digits below. 

digits

exercise: 11/12 hours. Somehow missed 7pm because the stove clock is 2 min. slow and that's what I was looking at when I did those steps. Doh. Still. Treadmill walk/jog, 40 min/2.31 mi. 11k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:15am: 130
5pm: 109
10pm: 82 

food & meds:
8:15am: jardiance+phentermine
1:30pm: met+glip
2pm: handful of candied cashews
5:30pm: bowl of shells w/meat sauce
8pm: last tiny bit of cranberry goat cheese w/a few pretzel rounds
8:45pm: met+glip
no wine/beer

The disappointing buffet

It's Doug's birthday and he chose the Asian Buffet for dinner. This sounded like a good plan to me. Aside from the fact that I'm usually not a big fan of buffets, especially those that are going to send my blood sugar through the roof. 

I always feel like I have to make it worth our wallet's while to ... eat. At a buffet. The boys took Toffee over to the dog park because she was needy, and I finished working. Then we all (except Toffee) headed over. 

The place was doing a fairly good business. So I thought it was hopefully going to be a good experience. 

What should have tipped me off immediately was that it was incredibly inexpensive. Like, super cheap. And the food was not so good. You get what you pay for. 

Doug was excited and I can tell when he knows something is not so good, he plays it up like Yay! Alright! This murder hotel is great! That kind of thing. 

The hot and sour soup was okay. The broccoli mixed in with the weird chicken was good. I ate a lot of broccoli. 

Just kind of overall disappointed in the quality of the food. At least the one chicken finger I ate was hot and crispy and had chicken in it. Not just a husk/shell of crusty crumbly batter. 

Oh and the other thing is they didn't have a liquor license, so no mai tai. No scorpion bowl. No suffering bastard. 

Hardly a birthday festivus like we're accustomed to. 

After the less than awesome meal, Doug wanted to head over to the used bookstore in the plaza. I hadn't been there yet but Geoff had gone independently, and Doug took Jess there when they were visiting. 

Doug loves a used bookstore. 

It was fun looking around, there was some interesting Civil War stuff, and tons of kids books. 

Doug found me and said "I need to go, like, now." 

"Okay Bob Belcher," I replied (Bob's Burgers reference. Bob can't poop anywhere other than at home. Whereas his wife can poop anywhere and knows all the good bathrooms in town). "You should go back to the chinese buffet restaurant, return the rental food." 

"No, I just feel like I won't make it. We need to go." 

We grabbed Geoff and headed back to the car. Got home in time for Doug to rush into the bathroom.

Um. Happy Birthday, honey. I guess?

I felt bad because after the bookstore I wanted to hit the shoe store next door and look for warm socks, maybe boots that are one size bigger than the ones I have had for a lot of years. I wanted to stop into Aldi and get some cake product to celebrate at home for him. 

But we were home. Not headed back out. 

We can make up for it tomorrow. I'm going to try and go to H's piano recital. He performs at 1:30pm, so I'll be able to get some shit done in the morning, head out, get wine, go see piano man, and get home before they declare a state of emergency before a single flake falls. And get Doug a little cakey cake or something fun. 

Doug and Geoff have some work to do around outside to get ready for the storm. Doug didn't go get propane for the gas fireplace, so I hope we're not too late and he can get some from someplace. I wanted him to do it yesterday or today so we could make sure the line is working well, test it, and then it will be ready when we need it - if we need it. We have shovels, we have ice melt, I think the plan is to put one car in the car port (the mini) and back the volvo into the driveway pretty far back. It will make shoveling easier. 

In the morning I'll make some fun brekkie sandwiches for us and hit the road by noon. 

Some pictures below from our excursion, and then digits. 

I thought for sure being welcomed by this interior that this place would freaking rock.
But sadly, it did not.

Little Bluey figurines (ahem, the blue one is Dad and that's Bandit
and the brown one is Chili and that's mom. Know your kid characters!)
Why they're hanging out on a shelf in the bookstore, I do not know.

If you know, you know.
If you are a certain age, you recognize these...

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. treadmill, 30 min/1.97 mi. If I just went 5 min more... 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

7:15am: 103
4:30pm: 113
10:30pm: 120 

food & meds:
7:15am: jardiance+phentermine
12:30pm: roast beef and medium cheddar on english muffin
1:30pm: met+glip
5pm: a bunch of tiny wee chocolate donuts
6:30pm: chines food buffet
8:30pm: met+glip
no wine/beer

Through The Night

I don't usually sleep all the way through the night much anymore. At one point in life I laughed at my mom for such things and here I am doing them. Up at wee hours, unable to see to drive in the dark. I deeply apologize for being young and stupid. 

I'm usually up anywhere between 2-4 am. I will go down to the guest room (if no guesties are in it) and I will play on my phone a bit, turn on a podcast, go back to sleep. 

Most of the time, I do my best sleeping between 6-9am. 

There have been several nights lately though, where I find myself waking up between 6-7am. Making it all the way that far is miraculous. But then I have to pee so much. So. Very. Much. Part of it is I do well with not drinking alcohol at night - when I do, that adds a lot of liquid to my body and yes, I gotta pee so I wake up. 

Last night was one of those nights. At 6:50am, I hightailed it downstairs (please note, someday there will be an upstairs bathroom so help me God) and by the time I was done I was just ... all the way awake. If it was closer to say 6am than 7, I may have gone back to sleep. But no. I was up. 

Back upstairs, find the yoga pants, take the blood sugar, take the morning meds, creep back downstairs. I set up the coffee, did some steps around the first floor while waiting, just to sneak a couple hundred in early. It is funny because it is still so dark here at 7am.

The trash guys came and I realized there is a giant piece of plastic in my yard between us and the neighbor. It must have blown free last weekend when I put it out to the recycling (it is from the treadmill packaging). I was putting on my boots when they arrived so I figured eh, I'll get it later. 

I pondered an outdoor walk because it is 41 degrees, but the wind is howling. I pondered the treadmill but was afraid I'd wake Geoff up. I don't know what it sounds like downstairs for him. 

One thing I forgot to do yesterday was take pictures of the hot water heater. When we bought the house, our home inspector said the beast was on its last legs. She leaks, and while she does heat water very nicely she's 20+ years old and he recommended we get a new one. We negotiated that with the seller, and it is time. 

On Monday, I have a plumber coming over to evaluate the situation. 8am (dear God). He asked me for pictures of the hot water heater, model number, pictures of the hookup to the water source. So I went down and took those and texted them to him. 

My realtor gave me three numbers to call, she recommended all three. One didn't return my calls at all so I moved onto the next and they are not taking on any new customers at this time. So that left the third. They had a wonky voicemail messaging system that asked you for details, one thing at a time. Please state your name after the beep. Please state your phone number after the beep. Please state your address after the beep. What appliance are you calling about? please state.... 

I guess it cuts down on people (like me) rambling for months in a message and cuts to the chase. 

And then I didn't hear back from them either. I was ready to go to Nextdoor or Facebook to ask for recommendations, and their office manager called me at 7:50am the other day (so early) absolutely apologetic that my message and several others were incredibly delayed in getting to her. So yay. A connection. A human. And an appointment. 

I'm wondering if the big storm this weekend will delay our appointment. We'll see. I'd hope not but this is Maryland. 

Mornings include coffee and Toffee and couch cuddles. And phone games until I'm mentally ready to start working. So we got a lot of that in today. 

Work was good. Not sure how I managed a whole day without a single meeting but that was a thing! I did the treadmill at 1:30ish, and before I knew it, 4pm was knocking at the door. I made some candied cashews out of a container Geoff bought that were unsalted. I really don't care for unsalted nuts. So I doctored them up and they came out perfectly. I made dinner, which is usually Geoff's job but I wanted to make the meal and give him a break. We'll be asking a lot of him this weekend, I think. 

Dinner was very good, I must say. I used a different recipe and it kind of makes its own gravy which is nice, because your girl had none. 

After dinner, Doug hit the treadmill and Toffee was desperate for a walk. So I went outside to see the howling wind from earlier was no longer an issue. It was 45 today, and at 8pm down to 35, with no wind, you know it's a good to go kind of thing. 

I put on the winter weight fleece yoga pants and we headed out. With no other dogs out walking and hardly any other people, Toffee is a joy to walk. I thought about extending the trip and going off to the left instead of turning home but we did over a mile, and I think she enjoyed it very much. 

So we'll see how I sleep tonight! I made sure not to drink too much water and no wine/beer. Maybe we'll get two nights of me sleeping alright! 

Digits below. 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours.  Two walks. First, Treadmill, fastest average pace to date! 30 min/1.84 mi. Wanted to make it to 2 miles but meh. Second, Toffee walk! 20 min/1.17 mi. 12k+ steps by bedtime (woo hoo!)

blood glucose:

7am: 135
4:15pm: 97
10:45pm: 148 

food & meds:
7am: jardiance+phentermine
noon: english muffin w/pb
1pm: met+glip
4-6pm: some candied cashews as I was cooking them
6pm: shepherd's pie (left over mashed potatoes from the meatloaf night, corn, peas, ground beef)
8:30pm: met+glip