This Is Perfect

The weather right now is exactly, precisely perfection. 

Your girl hates the heat. Absolutely positively hates when it is hot out. I just cannot deal with it. If it is too cold, it's hard to go out for a walk, and being out in the cold is no fun. 

This morning it was 60 degrees. At lunch, 85. And then it started to drop around 4:30 and get cooler. 

I have a wonderful patio now. So sitting out and working is my very favorite thing. I wonder how long this will last? 

But for right now. God thank you so much. This is perfect. 

Doug and I went for a walk before dinner, while Geoff was cooking. I have been noticing a lot about my neighborhood. It is incredibly diverse. Very busy at times. Lots of kids. SO MANY KIDS! They all love Toffee and they've learned her name so when we're walking past they yell hello to her. 

We're chopped liver. 

The neighborhood changes as you turn corners. Today Doug took me across into a planned development neighborhood, the sign says it was established in 1985. Lots of ranch houses, long long long homes, it's kind of weird. It reminds me of Doug's childhood home, only twice as long. Lots of big beautiful established trees. Turn the corner, there's the elementary school and duplexes kind of like the end of our street. A lot of kid toys, on the lawn, in the driveway. 

And there are so many dogs here. Every single house has a dog. Some of them are very loud and let you know they know you are walking by. Toffee doesn't bark back. 

Toffee doesn't bark at anyone, which is something I absolutely love about her. She is not noisy. She does not fuss. There may be whimpering, if she is somewhat concerned or wants to see that dog there behind the fence. But she doesn't bark. 

Our walk today took us by the backside of a golf course where there are signs everywhere that "NO PETS ARE ALLOWED" but there were 10-15 geese shitting all over the green. Ha. Good for you, geese. 

We talked to Doug's mom for an hour or so after dinner. Doug had been calling her for a while but she's been at her old house going through things. Doug has repeatedly offered to come help her work/clean/do but she rejects his offers. 

She's been having Doug's sister fit things into her SUV to drive them up the new house (five years new at this point) and some stuff just doesn't fit, and she doesn't know what to do.

"Rent a U-Haul van." says Doug. 

And to Doug's mom, that either sounds impossible or an extravagance or something. 

He asked her if she still had her redwood patio furniture and she does - she has a 6ft table and benches. I've always been fond of that set. It is probably 50 years old at this point and she thinks it is just junk. But he asked her for it. 

So we may rent that U-Haul van ourselves just to get the patio furniture oh and while we're at it, the other things that are all too big for Doug's sister's car. 

Problem? Solved. 

We offered to come next weekend, we both have Monday off. But she said that's too soon for her to be ready for us to come. She has a lot of things she needs to do on her own first before that can happen. 

Okay. 

We can wait. 

And that's it for today. No pictures but just know, things were good today. And no walnuts were futzed with. Digits below.

digits

exercise: 11/12 hours. Missed 10am because of a meeting. Two walks, one with Doug and Toffee before dinner, 31 min/1.39 mi. During football, 16 min/.76 mi. 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:30am: 155
4:45pm: 125
10:15pm: 108

food & meds:

8:30am: jardiance (no phentermine until it arrives)
12:30pm: tuna, bacon, 2 slices of colby jack cheese on a fajita wrap that I thought was low carb. Oops. lol. 
1:30pm: met+glip
6:15pm: chicken breast w/ a "pecan dijon bourbon cream sauce" which wasn't half bad but way way thick. small salad, peas; beer
8pm: met+glip
2 more beers with football.

The Walnut Game

Over the past couple days, Doug has been cleaning up black walnuts in our yard. Allegedly, these are good to have, and, if you do it right you can yield a lot of walnuts if you carefully harvest them. 

The last people here did not harvest the black walnuts. Doug thinks that there are nuts on the ground that are at least a couple years old. 

To be honest, they did not take good care of the yard overall. With six kids, heck, who can blame them. We are finding toys, broken pieces of toys, all kinds of things in the yard. It's kind of crazy. So black walnuts were probably low on the priority list.

Anyway, the black walnuts have been his project even though, to be honest, I'd rather he help me unpack things but. He's out of my way and not a nuisance if he's out there. Playing the Walnut Game. 

"Come outside and play the walnut game with me!" he says. 

What does that mean?

"Pick up walnuts and throw them in the boxes!" 

Um. No. I'll.... work in here on moving shit around. 

He got Geoff to play the walnut game with him yesterday while I was at Henry's show, they got a lot of walnuts off the ground, the tree is still dropping them, and there are still plenty of walnuts on the ground...

And he so far has filled 8 boxes with walnuts. I shit you not. At least he's doing something with the boxes I was getting ready to flatten for recycling. Photo evidence below. 

This morning I went down to the guest room around 4am, smelled coffee and got up at 8. I was ready to slack my team and say "Good morning" but needed to charge my phone because it had been playing a podcast for hours.... Doug was sitting on the couch with the dog. 

"Did you have your 7am meeting?"

He looked at me and asked "What?"

"You were supposed to have a 7am meeting today," I said.

"It's.... Sunday." He said.

Oh. 

Okay. Glad I didn't slack my team, not sure how I thought only having Saturday was enough weekend for me but hey. I guess it felt like a lot. 

Coffee and then cleaning and stuff while Doug played the Walnut Game by himself. I was holding a canvas bag at one point and he said "Oh Hooray! Come celebrate the harvest with me!"

No, son. Not gonna happen. 

The dining room is almost done. I moved some bookcases around and started thinking about books. First floor or basement. Oh basement - what am I doing with my office. I haven't gone downstairs literally since we moved in so today was the first time. Geoff helped me move some things into permanent storage, and we talked about shelves and stuff that I want for upstairs and downstairs. 

Around 5:30, Doug woke up from a nap and took Toffee for a walk. I skipped on going because I'd literally been walking all day here in the house. I did go out for a short walk to the park and back to do pokemon, and got back while Geoff was making dinner. 

We watched football, I moved more things around. I found yet another box of glassware. Why do we have so many glasses? 

Anyway. Wiped out and I have an alarm set so we can get up, I can get out of bed and he can go to his meeting. His office is right in eye-shot of the bed so I don't want to be in here snoring. Chances are I'll be downstairs anyway since I invariably wake up and go down there. 

Digits below the walnuts. 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Pokemon walk, solo, 12 min/.56 mi. 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8am: 118
4:30pm: 135
9:30pm: 138

food & meds:

8am: jardiance+phentermine
10am: english muffin w/pb
11:30am: met+glip
2:30pm: key lime pie zero sugar yogurt w/granola
6:30pm: small bowl of spaghetti w/meatballs, 2 small pieces of garlic bread
7:30pm: met+glip
8pm: candied (not very) nuts
wine & diet ginger ale

Another Auntie at the Rock Show

Today, I went back to the old neighborhood area to see my friend Henry play in his school of rock show. He's been playing for a few years, and compared to my work wife son, he's in a band with much older kids who .... are extremely good. 

Henry knew his stuff and killed it. The theme was Michael Jackson vs. Prince, so all the songs were by those two artists. There were a couple guitarists that were beyond exceptional like the one on Beat It who played the Eddie Van Halen parts flawlessly. 

After the show, I joined the family at Henry's favorite foodrinkery. I was going to come straight home, but. 

Henry's grandparents were there, and they didn't want to go out to eat. Henry said "is everyone coming to the pub?" and his grandmother said "noooo,,,, I don't think so."

I heard Henry's heart break. Right there. I had already told S I was going to head home (since I now live a billion miles away) and when I noticed how sad he was, I said "oh yeah I'm gonna come." 

He was thrilled that I was coming, because his grandparents never come to things. They'll come to the show, do the bare minimum, and leave. They won't spend the whole day. They always have something to do. Something ... better to do.  Better than spend the day celebrating with their grandson. 

I know in life people are busy but. Block your day. This is family, this is your grandson. 

I drove to the pub with Sara and she unloaded on me how frustrating this is for her, and Henry is starting to notice their absence in his life. I told her I could see it, because when he gets upset his eyes flutter as he's blinking back tears. I know when something is hitting him hard, and because I knew this hurt him, I had to step up and be Auntie. 

This isn't the first time I've seen them do this. Grandpa gets a bunch of pictures, posts them to Facebook with "oh I'm so proud of the young man he's becoming" but. It's more than that. You gotta show up.

We had a fantastic time at the pub. I'm glad I went. 

I got home and Doug and Geoff had spent the afternoon cleaning up the black walnuts from the yard. It's become a landmine out there of ankle twisting opportunities and Doug's thinking hey - I can maybe ... shell these puppies and do something with them. He's been reading up on them (don't handle them without gloves on, they'll stain your skin!) He was napping, Geoff made dinner  and he and I ate. And I took a walk to try and make up for the lack of steps in the day.

When Doug woke up he said he wanted to go to Dairy Queen. He earned it. There are eight entire boxes of black walnuts out there. Jesus. 

So I had ice cream. Haven't had ice cream in forever. 

It was a busy day. Details below. Enjoy the pic of me and Hen sporting our Boston themed shirts. He had to wear purple for the Prince band, and this is his only purple shirt. Naturally. 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. 23 min. walk around the neighborhood. 1.09 miles. fell short of 10k though, 7900+ steps by bedtime and too tired to go out for the last good measure.

blood glucose:

9am: 92
5pm: 156
10:30pm: 158

food & meds:

9am: jardiance+phentermine (last phentermine until the prescription refill shows up)
12:30pm: cheese, salami, cucumber, tomatoes (snack at Henry's gig) 
3:30pm: met+glip. 5 buffalo chicken strips, a few french fries
6:30pm: chicken, melted cheese, sour cream (fajita without a wrap
8pm: chocolate/vanilla swirl soft serve ice cream
8:30pm: met+glip
wine

Happy Friday

Today was planning for the tech team so I sat in on a couple meetings that were very informative and helpful. Having a roadmap for the next couple months is nice. 

I had a few 1:1 meetings with colleagues, and one of them told me her husband just got laid off. Feeling super bad for them. And I had to do a peer review on one of my teammates so I basically asked her to tell me what to say for the "what can this person do to be better at their job, and stuff." 

I asked her what she wanted to do to get better at her job and it was very helpful. 

Managed to write all my other peer reviews, my review of my manager, and my own self-evaluation by end of day. Didn't get to do my helpdesk documentation reviews done but maybe I'll hit those over the weekend.

I also unpacked a lot of boxes between meetings. I put fancy glasses in the corner hutch, got some things ready for recycling, unpacked two boxes of books and put them on the shelves in the guest room.

Today was gorgeous. I sat out on the patio for most of the day, and Toffee soaked in the sun.

After work, Doug took Toffee for a walk and I thought about going with, but opted not to. Instead I did more futzing around the house and then took myself out for some Pokemon stuff. Almost a mile walk around the neighborhood.

Geoff made dinner for us, a soup recipe he found that he should have put more stock in because it wasn't super soupy. It was really tasty, just not enough. Thankful he got a nice crusty loaf of bread to go with. Doug made a little bit of a snack for us after dinner of apple, crackers, and a fancy cheese he bought at the farm stand last week. 

Tomorrow I'm going to see Henry and his school of rock band. Last week was my work wife's son, and this week is Henry. Gotta get the two of them together. They could be a band. 

Digits below this rando picture I took of a drawing on my neighbor's driveway. 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Pokemon walk solo (doug took Toffee on a very long one) 22 min/.98 mi. 11k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:15am: 124
5pm: 162
10:30pm: 125

food & meds:

8:15am: jardiance+phentermine
12:45pm: bowl of mac & cheese w/bacon
2pm: Met+glip
6pm: bowl of sausage and black bean soup w/nice slice of rosemary bread
7pm: apple, cheddar, and crackers snack
7:30pm: met+glip
white wine

Guest Bed

Last night I woke up around 1am, unable to fall back asleep. Doug has a timer set on podcasts so when the podcast is over, it's over. I don't usually like to start one up again, lest I disturb him, and make it so he can't fall back to sleep. 

I don't mind when he starts a podcast up again, it never bothers me. But I've woken him up by starting one, and he goes to the guest room. 

I opted to go downstairs to the guest room. 

Here's the thing though, the guest bed wasn't made up yet. There were piles of things on top of the bed to sift and sort through. Blankets, sheets of an indeterminate size, are they queen? are they full? Hmmm. More blankets. Mystery pillow that should be tossed. The folded up dog kennel. Freaking Dog KENNEL on the bed.

Jeesh, I realized earlier this week it would need to be done and should have tackled this because I knew the day would come when one of us woke up and wanted to go in the other room. I stood in the doorway with the light on, and just looked at it. 

Well, better get workin' kid. 

I got everything off of the bed and found the sheets I wanted. The flannel sheets I use for cold nights on this bed were folded up and put away. Mystery sheets were just dumped on the floor. Dog kennel, leaning against the wall. 

It all came together quickly and I will note that with the bed not pushed up against the wall the way it has been in the last two houses, the fitted sheet is so much easier to put on. 

Fuzzy blanket thrown on for good measure, even though I sleep hot. And there we are. A bed. 

I laid down and noticed my neighbors' second floor bedroom window. They had a tv on (it is 2am at this point) and lights and changes were flashing above me. I was too lazy to get up and pull the shade down so I just rolled over.

I wondered about how many people up and down this street in the incorporated and unincorporated parts of town were awake at that moment. A car drove down the street, perhaps someone needing to go to work at a bakery. 

Maybe even the Krispy Kreme. Or someone who works in DC who wants to avoid the traffic! 

I played games on my phone but not the one I save for the morning, temping as that was. I settled on the new episode of Lore, and eventually found sleep. 

The dog found me somewhere after 4am. And curled up behind my butt in her little (large) croissant shape. The trash guys hadn't come yet so it was easy to fall back asleep. In fact, the trash guys didn't come until 10:30am today.

Geoff found the kitchen at 7:30, and I heard noise and dishwasher unloading as he got the coffee going. He was surprised to see me come out of the bedroom rather than come downstairs. Having the upstairs bedroom is good because it is away from the kitchen so this cacophony of noises won't wake me up like it did, for 7 years. 8 years? Lord. 

I needed to get up, early meeting at 9 and I needed a shower. Dog fed, outside, shower taken, work. 

Today ended up being very busy, even though that 9am meeting was my only meeting for the day. Every three weeks my team has to QA code updates for the product team, an my colleague T usually carries the lion's share of the testing. But he was tied up most of the day with other things. We have 3 workdays to do this and today was the last day. 

So I started QA at about 11. Finished around 4. It was a lot. T ended up doing one of the more gnarly test cases while I did the other 7. A couple of them were easy peasy in and out yup this works but two of them were rough. Luckily our QA manager is a doll and she jumped on zoom with me to walk me through where the instructions did not meet reality. 

Then, tomorrow is the deadline for our reviews. Self evaluation, review your manager, and peer reviews. This year I had two peer reviews to write and finished those. I spent a good hour trying to think of what to say on my self evaluation. Struggled through it and got it done. 

We took the dog to the dog park, which was a lot of fun. There were a lot of dogs there, and Toffee was really good! I felt very proud of her. 

Home, football, pizza, wine, bed. So thankful tomorrow is Friday, 

No pictures. Tried at the dog park but they were all blurry from fast running doggos! Digits below! 

 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Walk to dog park, 12 min/.58 mi; walk home from dog park, 14 min/.63 mi; walk after dinner to finish steps, 16 min/.8 mi. 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8am: 111
5:30pm: 117
10:30pm: 124

food & meds:

8am: jardiance+phentermine
10:30am: double sausage egg mcmuffin (about 1/3 of the muffin given to toffee because the whole thing slid apart weirdly)
1:30pm: met+glip
3pm: very large apple w/pb
7:30pm: 2 slices of buffalo chicken pizza, met+glip, glass of white wine+diet ginger ale

Where the Sidewalk Ends

Today was a busy day and I was lucky to hit each of the hour marks on the fitbit. Almost missed two but hustled to get in under the wire. 

I was going to go out for a walk by myself after dinner but Doug decided to join me with the dog. I'm glad he did because we walked longer and further than I usually do. I pretty much was going to walk to the baseball field, hit the pokegym, maybe walk up to the end of the block and back? Meh? 

He likes to go on excursions when he goes.

We crossed a main road into another neighborhood and the county senior center is there. They have outdoor exercise equipment and a cute walking course with footie prints. There's a golf course in the neighborhood and you can look across it to the major big road (4 lanes, split down the middle) which has the Dairy Queen and the Krispy Kreme on it. I could see the "HOT" sign was on at the Krispy Kreme. Good thing there's a golf course in the way. 

That and neither of us had our wallets. 

We walked by the baseball field, which was hopping. Big game happening and Doug said "this isn't baseball noise. Why's that one kid screaming like that? Make baseball noises!" I have no idea why the kid was screaming "like that" but. Kids are gonna kid. 

Once we got back, we watched some TV and I played my phone games that I didn't play all day. It was a busy day. 

I realized I was about 2,000 steps shy of 10k, and it was 9:30. Hell. I can do this, I just can't do 2k steps walking around the house. 

Strapping on the sandals, I headed out. 

I walked up to the end of our road, turned around, came back. Fun thing about our road, about 4 houses up the street, the "city" ends and the unincorporated part of town begins. 

The sidewalk ends. 

The road that comes off our street is "Division Road," where the demarkation is for ... "us and them." 

Once you get on the other side, where there is no sidewalk, the houses all change. Mostly duplexes, and a LOT of cars for some reason. Each side of each duplex seems to have 4 cars. 

And there are no street lights. Down my end of the street, we have street lights. Everything is bright and visible. In Unincorporated Town, not everyone has on their porch or outside lights. When I walk up the street it triggers the light sensors, and lights come on, but they turn off quickly. 

It's a little spooky. 

Behind us, on the other block, the city is putting in new and improved sidewalks. I've never lived in a place where the sidewalks were all so shitty. On our walk tonight with the dog, there were places where walking in the street was better. 

All the sidewalks around the senior center are nice. They keep those nice so the shufflin' feet don't trip up on the cracked ass cracky sidewalks. 

I also wanted to go out because tomorrow is trash day, and I think there are rules about which direction you're supposed to "face" your barrels. Handle out or handle in? I wanted to see how my neighbors had it. 

Mixed results. Some were handle out, some in, some were 3 or 4 feet apart, some flush up against each other. The city actually has the big ass trucks with the power arms that lift the barrels up, so that's why I wanted to make sure we do it right. I think if you don't, the lid doesn't open right and your trash all sticks in the barrel or falls out onto the street. 

Last week they came at 4:30am. Which was bollocks. The week before we didn't hear them, because the AC was on. So I will probably be disturbed again by the big scary noisy truck with the monster arm and the sound of barrels crashing and thrashing. 

We don't have to pay for trash removal, that's part of our taxes, but up beyond where the sidewalk ends, they do. They have different barrels, with phone numbers and company names on them. I guess you pay the company and they come get your trash. Something like that. But the fact there are different company names on the barrels makes me wonder how the hell that works. One truck? Four different trucks? I have no idea. 

Anyway. 

I'm off to bed. No picture today but I did try to take one of Toffee sunbathing and enjoying the yard. But she caught me and got up and came over to see me. 

Digits, below. 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. 2 walks. One with Doug and Dog 32 min/1.45mi, one solo just to make the steps, 15 min/.8 miles; 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:15am: 108
4:30pm: 104
10:30pm: 142

food & meds:

8:15am: jardiance+phentermine
12noon: BLT Salad
2pm: met+glip
6pm: pork tenderloin, 8 pierogi 
8pm: last chunk of the pork tenderloin
9pm: met+glip
no wine/beer anything

Bluegrass and Beers

Geoff had his super long day with class tonight, so we took Toffee with us to a local brewery for Bluegrass night. 

Every Tuesday a mess of talented musicians get together and jam. Lots of banjos, guitars, an upright double bass, a couple mandolins. They ripped through some classics and it was delightful. 

I'm always reluctant to take Toffee places just in case there's another dog and she wants to do dog things. But she was the only one tonight, got lots of love and pats and ate a lot of popcorn. 

I was feeling really wiped out today, it was a busy workday and I almost told Doug that no ... I'd rather just stay home. Unpack more boxes. 

There are so many boxes to unpack still. 

Glad we went out. It was very nice. Marking it in my mind that Tuesday is Bluegrass night at the brewery. 

Digits, below. 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. 10 min indoor walk this afternoon. about .46 mil. 7800+ steps by bedtime. Fell short because I didn't go on the walk with Doug & Toff. 

blood glucose:

7:30am: 125
4:45pm: 104
10:30pm: 146

food & meds:

7:30am: jardiance+phentermine
11am: english muffin w/pb 
1:45pm: met+glip
6:30pm: 2 pieces of aldi chicken schnitzel and a little bit of german potatoes (with onion and egg); some mixed nuts
2 beers at the brewery
9pm: met+glip

My Unboxing Era

I took the day off today. I haven't taken a sick day in like a year or so... I feel sick, so I called out sick. How do I feel sick? Well. I am sick of everything. Sick of boxes and trying to put things places. I got mad at Doug because I feel like he isn't doing enough and I'm doing everything, again, as usual. And he got mad at me. 

Whatever. 

This is exhausting to feel like I do boxes and unpacking in between meetings, and instead of watching TV, and getting up stupid early. And I don't feel like he's doing the same. Things can't wait to Saturday or Sunday.

We couldn't find Doug's little tool kit. Geoff had unloaded it from the car, and .... forgot that he put it in the cabinet above the dryer. Like, 8 feet up in the air. Okay. We never would have found it up there. 

The vacuum cleaner was also missing. Geoff had unloaded the car into the carport, and we thought the tool kit and vacuum were out there and were stolen. Once we found the tool kit, we figured that the vacuum had to be somewhere in the house. But we couldn't find it. Doug actually kicked into high gear to find it because it was bothering the hell out of him. 

I figured heck, if someone stole it, I'm getting a new one. 

Hell yeah. Doug looked all over, everywhere. It was bothering the hell out of him. If someone stole something, they pinched the one stupidest thing on earth and okay. It's yours. 

Someone (Doug thinks maybe it was him) put it into our front closet. I was somewhat bummed. I wanted a new vacuum cleaner. 

Also, somewhat relieved that no one in my neighborhood came and pinched a piece of shit vacuum to resell for a couple bucks, especially when there were a lot of things out in the carport that were worth actual money. 

And very relieved about the tools.

Anyway.

I used my sick day to the fullest. I started pulling boxes in the mud room, sending stuff downstairs for storage. Geoff was a big help. I found a lot of things that had been horribly missing like the oven mitts, the silverware drawer insert dealie, and the pottery we put our spatulas and related tools into.

I set up the spices on the little graduated 3 step shelf dealie we got at Target the other day. I was going to put it inside the pantry, but, felt that area is so big, and who wants to walk all the way over there to get dried thyme. Instead, I set it up next to the stove, but now I may rotate it to be under the window.

Mentally, I'm happy they're just put up. I only put out the "popular" and sort of popular items, The less than popular items are in the cabinet. We don't use that much Gram Masala or Cardamom pods. 

I posted the fact that I've got boxes for free on Nextdoor to give away to people who are moving. I have a lot of boxes. I have been saving some, because there are items for storage that I'll need boxes for, but I kind of want to reserve the plastic bins for those so I can see through the boxes and say "oh that's Christmas lights." 

Anyway. I have pictures but don't feel like taking them off the phone right now. It's bed time. Good night. Digits below. 

digits

exercise: 11/12 hours.  Missed noon by a few steps because I was loading the dishwasher. Pokemon walk, 18 min/.83 mile. 11k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

7:30am: 127
5:45pm: 122
10:45pm: 140

food & meds:

7:30am: jardiance+phentermine
11am: bowl of mac & cheese w/mixed in leftover cheesesteak filling
2:45pm: met+glip
6:30pm: piece of chicken parm
8pm: last small piece of carrot cake
9:30: met+glip
shiraz+diet ginger ale

Rockstar and Dogpark

Today I went to a school of rock performance by my work wife's son. He started playing bass guitar this year. And of course I've been the most supportive auntie. 

I should say she's my work wife yes, but he's also my friend. We're friends. I'm for sure friends with an 8 year old. At his birthday party in 2024, a bunch of kids canceled, and he was very sad. He told her "it'll be a great party though, as long as Auntie Christine comes."

So I wouldn't miss this debut performance for the world. 

When he first started playing, he said his fingers hurt too much, and he wanted to quit. I reached out to rock star bass player Karina Rykman to ask her for some advice for a brand new baby bassist. She was thrilled to share thoughts, recommended a certain brand of strings for new fingers. 

I shared that with her, and she talked to his teacher. He said for sure to switch, but, he wanted to sit with A and work on how he holds the bass - see if they could solve the problem with finger work. 

A couple weeks ago, we found out he'd have his first concert. The school of rock does this twice a year, and this would be his first time. 

He said he wasn't going to go and perform because "I suck," and "our band isn't that good, compared to the other bands." I gave him a pep talk, that the other bands were first-season bands once upon a time too. I told him about my other friend Henry who plays keyboard, and how his first show wasn't that great. But I've gone to see Henry and his band play a bunch of times now over the last 2 years or so, and they are so much better than they were! 

He was afraid people would boo them.

Like in the game Guitar Hero, when you suck at playing Guitar Hero the crowd in the game will boooooooooooo your suckingness right before the failure message comes on the screen. 

My work wife said no... everyone there is there to support the kids. No one in the audience will be strangers off the street expecting a professional show. If anything, people will be more supportive of the bands that aren't good, to encourage them to get better. 

I gave him a similar pep talk. Then, I figured I'd ask a professional. I reached out to Karina again, and asked her if she'd just do a little video pep talk for him. 

And she delivered. 

Boy did she ever. 

At like 1am in a cab or an uber, she held her phone up and spoke into the video, straight to him. She was so happy to know he stuck with it over the school year and summer. It's hard to learn something new! And it is scary to get up in front of a crowd of people and perform. But "you got this little bro!" She let him know that it was going to be alright, and even if he sucked, probably no one would know. Once you get through it, you did it, and you're done. And hopefully you learned a few things to apply for the next show. 

I did the same thing a few years ago for Henry when he was super scared for his first recital. I didn't reach out to a famous piano player, I reached out to Brian Rosenworcel from Guster, because Henry admires him so much. Brian made a little video for Henry too about how piano is so hard, and Henry still watches it when he's feeling like he needs it. 

The little rock show was good. A nailed his bass parts and there were 3-5 young girls singing, loudly, to songs like "Island in the Sun" and "I Hate Myself For Loving You," and "Wonderwall." 

Afterwards, A said he was so scared going into it but that it all worked out great. I told him I could hear him loud and clear and he nailed his parts. So good. 

Worth the trip. 

 My work wife has a no pictures of the boy on the internet policy, so I abide by that. Got some good shots, and did send them to Karina with her permission. And Karina loved it, of course.

I drove home, and Doug said he was going to take the dog for a walk. I said I'd like to come so he suggested we go to the dog park. It is about a 10 min. walk from our house, and is pretty nice. There's a big dog side and a little dog side. When we got there one guy was there with his two dogs, Red Bone Coon Hounds. They got along really well with Toffee. A lady came in with two dogs, an English Cream retriever, and a golden. Those two dogs were disinterested in playing, but the English Cream did eventually play with her. 

A guy came in and said he was trying to resocialize his dog after many months of him (the guy not the dog) being in a PTSD hospital stay. 

Toffee and the dog got bitey with each other, and I felt horrible. The guy left and I wished we had more time to talk maybe and work things out. 

But.

Another guy came in with his "Potcake," which is a kind of mutt mix dog from "the islands," as he said. His name is Natty Boh, like the beer. And he and Toffee got bitey with each other and the guy was super cool about it. "This is how they learn. They learn by doing and doing it wrong. And we let them know they did it wrong and help them do it right." Eventually there was a lot of playing, Natty got a little snarly and kind of scary with one of the Red Bones, and that dog didn't enjoy it but he came and sat next to me on the bench, and I put my arm around him and let him know he was okay. 

All told, a good hour spent. Except for the guy with PTSD and his dog, and I hope maybe someday I see him again. 

It's not just about socializing his dog, but, socializing him too, I think. 

We got home, made dinner, watched football, the end. I folded two suitcases of laundry, I still need to put it all away. And I made candied mixed nuts which didn't come out right because Doug wanted me to add honey, and the honey kind of burned a bit. They're not ruined, but they aren't the best mixed nuts I've ever made. 

Digits below some pics. First pic is Natty Boh. Waiting for a cookie. Next is the dog dad of the Red Bone Hounds, his right arm sleeve is all ocean tattoos, so I wanted a pic of the octopus for Jess. His left arm is outer space themed. Pretty cool art! And finally, on the way home there is a house that has a couple holes cut in the fence for their dog to look out and bark at things. And he barked at us. He made me think of Phineas.

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours.  3 walks. to and from the dog park: 10 min/.47 mi and 15 min/.64 mile. to hit the 10k mark: 8 min/.41 mile. 10k+ by bedtime

blood glucose:

7am: 106
4pm: 107
10pm: 139

food & meds:

7am: jardiance+phentermine
8:30am: 2 little walnut sticky buns w/coffee 
11:30am: met+glip
6:30pm: bowl of rotini & meat sauce; shiraz+diet ginger ale
through the evening: candied nuts
9pm: met+glip

Moooooo

This morning Doug and I sat out together on the patio. 

I think it is the first time he has chilled out there with me. I'll start my workday out there, take my laptop, drink coffee. But he has his setup upstairs so when he goes to work he goes to work there. Not me. Patio please. 

Toffee stalked squirrels, and had a lovely time. 

And I always say coffee starts the day, and this mug speaks volumes.

At about 11am I figured it was time to do stuff. One of the things I wanted to accomplish today was clean the trash barrel. It was gross. I didn't want to move a gross trash can into a nice house.

 So, I sprayed it with the hose, sprayed it with cleaner, scrubbed the inner liner and the outer can. It's no perfect but it is better than it was. Victory! Then I wanted to unpack all the stuff for the bathroom. In the old house, we had a hallway closet that the first couple top shelves were all towels, and then all the health and beauty stuff you need. In this house, we don't have quite that. There are drawers in the vanity, and kind of a cabinet, but nothing fits in there right. I put a 4 shelf bookshef in the bathroom and the towels on it. Looks decent. I wish everything was the same color though. 

Two big bins emptied and everything put up. Organized. Nice. I'm thinking of a plant for on top of the cabinet over the toilet. That's all coming together. 

Doug's task today was to move stuff out of the carport and into the shed or basement, so he was busy with all that. The dog was confused by all our action. 

At about 2pm Doug wanted to go to the Dutch Market, which was a collection of vendors selling all kinds of foods and wares. We left with a ton of baked goods, carrot cake, mini-whoopie pies, walnut coffee cake thingies for breakfast tomorrow. 

Doug wanted to go to a farm nearby for apples, so we went 6 miles to the other side of town and had a nice visit with the cows. 

The cows were coming in because it was time for the evening milking. And some of them looked like they were ready to burst! The farmer was driving behind the cows in a golf cart, and I wished that they had a good dog to do this job instead.

We went into the shop to get our apples and had a nice visit with the lady running the farm stand. 

When we drove away, Doug said "huh.... with all those cows, they don't sell milk there. Strange." And indeed, they do not sell their own milk there. 

The cows were pretty and moos rose through the air around. 

I needed a trip to Target because we were out of dishwasher detergent, and the sink was full and there were no plates to eat off of. We ended up spending a lot more money on things like toilet brushes, and little pantry organizer shelves. They have a really huge market at this one, very different from the one down by where we used to live. So we got some food stuffs, and dry goods that were needed. 

Beer and wine stop on the way home and time for grilling. Doug made burgers, and the grill was a little too close to the lattice on the back side of the car port and melted it a bit.

At least no landlord or property manager can yell at us right now. We own the place. We'll have to deal with that fix up. Eventually. Maybe. 

Anyway. Here are some cows. Digits below.

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours.  20 min walk, .5 mi. I think that was in Target! 12k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:30am: 118
5pm: 123
11:15pm: 174

food & meds:

8:30am: jardiance+phentermine
1pm: pb sandwich on 647 bread
2pm: met+glip
6pm: 2 cheeseburgers, no buns. coleslaw, chickpea salad; slice of carrot cake
shiraz+diet ginger ale
9:30pm: met+glip