kismet

Way too tired for an actual entry. Will update tomorrow. Had a big full busy day. zzzzz. 

The title is related to the fact we reached out to our friend in Rhode Island and he was free to come hang out so we had a lovely dinner, great time, and it was totally kismet that we had this time together here at the end of my stay. 

The plan is to get up hella early and hit the road. Linda is going to spend an extra day here and do some cleaning at Shirley's. Hopefully I'll be home before dark.  

Gonna miss this jerk.

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. 10k+ steps by midnight

blood glucose:

9:30am: 140
4pm: 183
11pm: 122

food & meds:
9:30am: jardiance+phentermine
noon: scallops+fries; met+glip
4:30pm: high noons
8pm: chicken tomato tortilla soup
9:30pm: met+glip
white wine

Check Engine Light

My check engine light came on in the mini yesterday which pissed me right the hell off. We just had a butt ton of work done to it for all the seals in the stupid engine because she was leaking oil. And we have to get the brakes done, that's next. She has 143k miles, she's a go kart with a BMW engine. She is fun and good and I like her but. 

Shit, bitch we just took care of you so much so hard. The hell? 

Because we're at a hotel, there's stores and stuff all around us, and after work I took her over to the Auto Zone to ask if they could read her, let me know if the code was benign or deadly. 

Turns out it's somewhat benign, but it will need to be fixed before the end of the month when she needs to go for her emissions test. Fair. The guy told me "there's nothing for you to buy from us, just take her probably to a dealership for this one, not a regular mechanic. That way they'll get it all figured out for you." 

No charge. A saint, a gentleman, lovely. 

Today I had an afternoon of meetings, and Linda went over mom's to work over there, take her to lunch, and possibly go through mail and futz with some cleaning. She said mom didn't need anything cleaned really, she didn't have a lot of laundry. So she was able to get work done while I talked in meetings. 

She brought my lunch back late, so that was dinner. I pondered just ordering delivery or running over to 5 guys but there wasn't a big enough break time between meetings. The hotel internet went out right before our Office Hours for work, so I ran downstairs and the kid behind the counter and I did things, tested things rebooted their router in the office, and he ended up calling tech support while I pulled the meeting up on zoom on my phone, after downloading the update, and re-authenticating into the platform blah blah blah. Only 5 minutes late. Not too bad. 

Lin and I played videos and songs, listening to the Trans Canada Highwaymen, a bunch of Tiny Desk, I introduced her to Muna (both in Tiny Desk and in "real" format) and Foxing. 

Before we knew it, 11pm got up on our faces. Bed time.

No picture today. Probably stuff tomorrow. I am taking the morning off, I haven't pulled my weight with mom this week, and I'm sure there is shit I can be doing before my 1pm meeting, 2pm meeting and 3pm meeting. 

Digits below. 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. treadmill for a quick break 15 min/.82; 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:30am: 127
4pm: 91
10:45pm: 129

food & meds:
8:30am: jardiance+phentermine
10:15am: apple w/pb
1pm: met+glip
4pm: buffalo fingers over a small salad w/bleu cheese dressing
6pm: small piece of cheesecake
6:30pm: bowl of trail mix
7pm:met+glip
wine+diet gingerale 

BBQ Ride

Today we drove over to the new restaurant one of mom's favorites (and one of our favorites) is working at. LL wasn't happy with the situation when the foodrinkery that mom loves changed hands. Her brother opened a BBQ place (he owns a food truck but was ready to stop rolling). 

Mom has only seen her once since she left the foodrinkery, so we wanted to take her over. And we'd get to see her too. 

It was further than I thought, and I ended up taking a 2 hour lunch but made up for it by working through the evening. 

We had a lovely visit, it was great catching up. LL looks super happy but she misses everyone from the old place. Her brother is a lot of fun, full of stories and loves to tell them. 

We bought "merch" because he had t-shirts and sweat shirts for sale. And we got a slice of cheesecake (LL bakes all the desserts!). 

I highly recommend the joint, if anyone is on the north side of the canal in the Buzzards Bay/Bourne area. Get the cheesecake (we are saving ours for tomorrow). 

Digits, below. Mom and LL, and a fun whale.

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Treadmill this morning, 15 min/.88 mi; after lunch 10 min/.46 mi; finishing the day, 20 min./1.03 mi. 10k+ by bedtime

blood glucose:

7:30am: 124
5:15pm: 140
10:15pm: 132 

food & meds:
8am: jardiance+phentermine
9am: 2 sausage patties w/ american cheese on english muffin
1:30pm: pulled pork sammitch on a nice roll w/coleslaw and a lil'bite of mac & cheese; met+glip
5:45: bowl of trail mix
wine+diet ginger ale

Lunchies with Mumsie

We had a pretty busy day. Lin was spreadsheet crazy and I only had one meeting, but there was a lot going on. I left around 12:30 to go get mom to go to the foodrinkery, and one of her friends was sitting there at the bar so we joined her. A favorite bar tender, a favorite waitress, people coming over to say hello. There's a guy who hangs out there who is a Steelers fan so he and I always like to catch up and talk football.

I had her home before 2, and I asked her if she wanted me to hang out. She said no, it was naptime. 

I stood in the driveway and watched her as she made it to her front door and unlocked it. Just to make sure she didn't trip up the steps. 

Back at the hotel, it was back to work and crafting an emergency alert for the team. I am (I think) getting better at this. I hate the process. It is complicated and easy to mess up a step. I prefer to write the alert and let someone else send it. But it worked and I was glad. 

Lin was still working so I went down to the treadmill. I didn't walk around as much as I usually do at home, so I needed a lot of steps to hit the goal. Made myself go 30 min, and if I made myself go to 40 min, it would have been 2 miles easy. But the goal is met. 

We didn't order dinner. I was still pretty full from lunch, and Linda had a pizza I brought back for her, so it was snacky snacks and winey wine for supper. 

Tomorrow another adventure. We're going to have lunch where one of mom's very favorite bartenders has moved to. No bar at this location but it is a BBQ joint, and hopefully lunch will be stellar. And it will be nice to see one of mom (and our) favorite people. 

Here's a mirror selfie from today. Digits below! 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. 30 min/1.83 mi on the treadmill; 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:30am: 146
5pm: 150
10pm: 104 

food & meds:
8:30am: jardiance+phentermine
9am: egg mcmuffin-ish brekkie sammitch in the hotel
1pm: chicken cutlet sandwich w/lettuce, tomato, american cheese, onion rings; glass of pinot grigio
2:30pm: met+glip
7pm: trail mix, some cheese & pita chips; wine+diet ginger ale
8pm: met+glip

Sunday and Monday at the South Shore

Sunday
Lin and I woke up Sunday morning at stupid thirty because her body at 6:30am said it was 7:30am because, you know. We flopped around the hotel room and at some point I said, ya know, I will go now to the treadmill and get it out of the way. 

Good plan. 

We had some fun together here at the hotel and before we knew it, time to go over to mom's. She normally does not go to the foodrinkery she's fond of on Sundays but called us to tell us what time we should go. 

We pointed out it was Sunday but okay. We'll go out of turn. The restaurant recently changed hands, and there has been a lot of staff turn over. But one of our favorite long-timers is still there and she was behind the bar. We love her. I left her an obscenely large tip and we held down the corner of the bar for quite some time.

Jess came down and met us for lunch, which was nice. After lunch we took mom back to her place and she was ready for a nap so we felt it was good to leave and go hang out at the hotel. Jess hit the road and got home around 9.

Gotta say, it was super fun watching a Patriots game with a ton of Pats fans because it got wild there at the end!

Linda and I then spent the evening listening to music and talking. I introduced her to The Frames and Glen Hansard, Fitzcaraldo still kills me every time I hear it. 

Monday
I didn't take time off of work this week except for Thursday when I'm driving back home. So both Lin and I set up our laptops and started working. I always try to bring the lap desk so can lounge on the bed! I kind of regret not taking the whole week off or anything, but there's a lot to do. 

Hit the ground running today with our devs who were working on the problems of one of our products last week. Had a couple meetings, very productive. Linda and I basically didn't leave the hotel room, it was just all work, all the time. She had a late call with her boss and we decided to just walk across the parking lot to the 99 restaurant. "The Nines" as the kids call it, I guess. 

On our way down, we discovered the pool was drained and being worked on. That's disappointing! We were hoping for some pool time before I go home Thursday. Alas. Well. Next time, pool! You heard me.

Dinner was good. We bitched about the gubbmint. 

Found ourselves forcing awakeness until 10pm, because bed at 9 is dumb. I went to the treadmill at 8pm because I was over 2500 steps away from the 10k, so that was a good choice and I crushed it. I even was trotting. Not jogging, not running, trotting. Like a great big horse. Thump, thump thump... 

Daylight Saving messes me up so very badly, I swear. 

Tomorrow, lunch with mom. We didn't go see her today. Just basically worked our asses off and ate dinner. 

So Excite. But hey. I did it with my sistew. And that's all that matters.

Here's a picture from Sunday lunch of us hanging out! Digits for two days below. 

Sunday digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Treadmill early in the day, 31min/1.83mi; 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

9am: 107
xpm: forgot to tak a reading
9:30pm: 150 

food & meds:
9am: jardiance+phentermine
mimosa morning
9:30am: small plate of scrambled eggs, sausage patty, slice of cheddar 
I forget if I took met+glip at some point. Didn't record it, won't say i did.
2pm: buffalo chicken salad
8pm: met+glip
trail mix from ronnie
white wine (a bit too much)

Monday digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Short treadmill walk waiting for lunch delivery. 15 min/.78 mi; 8pm revisit, 22 min/1.25 mi. 10k+ by bedtime

blood glucose:

8am: 139
5pm: 107
9:30pm: 167 (wanted to wait to test after 10pm but could not stay up... )

food & meds:
8am: jardiance+phentermine
8:30am: hotel bacon and one small egg and veggie "frittata"
1pm: buffalo chicken wrap (delivery from local pizza joint); met+glip
7:15pm: smothered steak tips (w/onions & peppers) broccoli, mashed potatoes, gravy; white wine
8pm: met+glip

Before 5am after Midnight

Woke up at 3am, per usual. Too early. Didn't have to pee. Made myself fall back asleep. 

Woke up at 4:10, also per usual. Had to pee. Decided to get up. I hit the bathroom, started the coffee, put the cookies in a container, unloaded the dishwasher, loaded and started the dishwasher. I wanted to be on the road by 5am but I sat down on the couch to finalize laptop loading and Toffee got all cuddly. 

I didn't have the heart to just boot her. So we had some time here, and I started this entry. 

Good morning. 

I was on the road at 5:15am, a brand new way to drive up this way that I've never gone. And it was beautiful and still very fall. Didn't run into nonsense until Connecticut (which, you know, how much I love). Made it to mom's at about 2:30. I tried to nap while Linda was on the way but there were leaf blowers going. 

We had dinner at the 99 with mom, and after she left we got into our hotel to hang out, listen to music, and we talked to our cousin Jimmy a lot. A lot. 

And I'm exhausted. Thankfully the clocks turn back tonight so we get an extra hour of sleep tonight because your girl is exhausted. 

More tomorrow.

Here is a picture of a cat that showed up at our front door and Geoff took this picture for me. Hi cat. And my breakfast. Digits below.

digits

exercise: 11/12 hours.  missed 9am. Managed to hit all the hours otherwise and the treadmill. 25 min/1.34 mi. 12k+ by midnight 

blood glucose:

4:30am: 149
4pm: 87
9pm: 120 

food & meds:

4:30am: jaridance + phentermine
8:30am: sausage, egg, cheese croissant at Wawa
11:30am: met+glip
1pm: 4 chicken mcnuggets
5:30pm: buffalo chicken fingers & cole slaw; white wine
8pm: met+glip
one chocolate chip cookie
white wine+diet cran

It's the Spoopiest Day of the Year

This morning, I hit the ground running with a small emergency accidentally caused by our developers on one of the products. They pushed a bunch of little code fixes, but one of the things in the package was our Daylight Saving code that changes all the calendars. 

Ha. 

Several direct emails and some angsty help desk tickets... I reached out to the team and one of them said "well, it'll correct itself Sunday." 

Oh honey no. Please roll this part back. 

But here's the thing, I'm not a product owner or the boss of them. I can point stuff out but I can't tell them what to do. So I had to wait for the director on that team to come online, and she usually starts at 9 or a little later ... thankfully she caught our slack conversation because I pinged her directly. 

It was all fixed before 9am. Before my boss even knew what was happening. He asked if we needed to do an announcement/alert and I told him that since it is fixed, I'm not a fan of letting people know after the fact. 

In the afternoon, another thing with this product broke and yes. That did require an announcement to alert all the clients. 

Do you know how hard it was for me to not make all kinds of monster, ghost, halloween references in the announcement? So hard. So. Very. Hard. I'm very disappointed in myself. 

After work, we got our bowl of candy ready to go, and Doug and I set up on our porch. We didn't do a bonfire, the wind was 20mph with gusts of 40+, so we thought better of it. 

We had about 30 kids come by, which I think was a goodly amount. I had hoped for more because we had enough candy for 3000.

Earlier today I discovered one of my bedroom bureau drawers is busted. Must have been a casualty of the move but because I have not even touched my clothing to start putting it away, I hadn't noticed. Fuck. Not sure what to do about it, but I can't do anything about it tonight, right? Moving along.

After Halloweeners were done, I packed a bag, and folded 9000 pounds of laundry. 

I talked to Linda for over an hour. Getting ready for my trip tomorrow. I remembered that I promised Geoff I'd bake cookies tonight and then there I was at 10pm mixing up a batch. 

All told a really great day even with the work shenanigans. Looking forward to my trip tomorrow. One last thing to do before bedtime and we are good to go. 

digits, below. I didn't take a lot of pictures of the Halloweeners, but this mom and her baby cracked me up.  Taken with mom's permission. 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours.  Quick walk before halloweeners came, 25 min/1.31 mi. 11k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8am: 102
4:30pm: 107
11pm: 87 

food & meds:

8am: jaridance + phentermine
10:45am: english muffin w/pb & low sugar j
1pm: met+glip
3pm: roast beef & swiss on 647 bread
5:30pm: shrimp & alfredo sauce over a little bit of spaghetti; white wine
7:30pm: met+glip
11pm: 3 toll house cookies
more white wine

Wildlife Management Guy

Oh, the show we're watching with John Hannah that I didn't remember the name of last night is Rebus. Looks like we're in for a big surprise - Hannah leaves the show and is replaced by someone else.... Hmmm. 

Anyway.

Earlier this week, I'd reached out to the pest inspection company we did our home inspection with to see if they do squirrels. They do not. The lady in the office said "No, we help with pest control for bugs and things, but you need a wildlife specialist." She referred me to "the best in the county."

Being new here, it is good to know one or two folks to reach out to for things. Our realtor gave us her favorite contractor, painter, handyman, and plumber and told us to always mention she sent us. I didn't ask her about this, I just figured I'd start with the already really good pest control folks (so nice) and then later emailed her to see if she'd say the same and she sure did. 

So Mr. The Best In The County came over yesterday morning. This is a busy time of year for them because critters are needing to check themselves into warm cozy places for the winter. But he was in the neighborhood and came by to do an assessment. 

What a character. This guy was amazing. He's rather old. And I say that with kindness realizing soon I'll be 59, then 60, then rather old myself. But he has to be in his late 70s if not his 80s. He told me he and his dad started the business and he recently sold it to a friend "on just a handshake, like the good old days." 

He and Doug talked about where the squirrels are coming in, and he's coming back Sunday while I am out of town with his two nephews to get up on the lift, pull off the vent, and set up a one-way out, no-way back in setup. Problem solved, 450 bucks. 

I am kind of disappointed I won't be here for this. 

The guy told us all kinds of critter tales. He's working over at the local cemetery because there is a red fox who is really interested in attending the funerals. An entire giant family of woodchucks under a house a few towns away, like 10 of them. 

Party time. 

He showed us his right pinky and how it is just flaccid. It just hangs there. He's having surgery for it in December when things are much slower. "And then therapy after that! Can you imagine?!" Yes sir! Do your therapy. I showed him my Duputryens and joked that John Elway and I are buddies. He thought that was hilarious.

He had this incredibly thick Mid Atlantic Accent, we call it the Big O sound. Pittsburgh is close to this too, but around here between DC and the burgh, it's very prevalent. More than Pitt. Very interesting.

I went to the supermarket this morning to grab milk for coffee and I happened to see the marked down for quick sale baked goods in the dairy area. I ..... was tempted. Sticky buns and donuts, they were calling to me.

A woman came over, and she was commenting on how good this discount rack always is. She was missing quite a few teeth, and was telling me that she lost over 100 pounds recently but loves to come get a little treat once or twice a week. 

"They have really good cheesecake slices, I wait to see when they're over here. None today! But over in the bakery they are $6 a piece! Can you believe that?! Six whole bucks!" 

"Well, that would keep me from buying them, I guess. It'll help me lose weight! If they were 3 bucks a slice ... I'd be tempted!" 

I bought a tube of 6 plain bagels. Marked down from 6 bucks to 2 bucks. 

The market is very very expensive. Worse than the Giant by our old house. I got milk, crisco (I want to make pie crust), 2 focaccia loaves (I was disappointed in the bakery choices), some pumpkin pie filling and evaporated milk. It all came to 30 bucks. Damn. 

It was fun to go to the market at 10am. No one was there. I thought about heading over to the Pennsylvania Dutch market, but I didn't want to go to two stores this morning. 

All I really needed was milk. 

Busy work day with a very quiet morning. Two sleeps and I'm off to see my mom and sister. Thankful tomorrow is Friday. Yes please.

No image - but digits below!

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours.  walk, 18 min/.9 mi; indoor walk, 10 min/.53 mi. 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

7am: 134
4:30pm: 154
10pm: 187 

food & meds:

7am: jaridance + phentermine
10:45am: bowl of mac&cheese w/bacon
noon: met+glip
2:30pm: apple & pb
6pm: 2 bowls of chicken soup w/ a few big pieces of focaccia bread
8pm: met+glip
gin & diet tonic 

Late Flowers

Meant to do a full post with a story and all, but after dinner we watched a TV show about some Scotsman Detective Guy played by John Hannah, which is pretty good. Can't recall the name. Suddenly it was 11pm. 

Managed 3 walks today? One because I had a half hour break between meetings and needed a stretch, then somehow 15 minutes in the house doing stuff, followed almost immediately by a walk with Doug and Toffee. 

The zinnias and the roses keep giving. I cut some today and I'm happy I did. It is going to pour rain tonight, and maybe be frosty. I'm wondering how long they'll go?

Digits below!

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. first walk, 17 min/.85 mi; second walk around the house inside, 15 min/.25 mi. (not sure what I was doing but the fitbit said I was walking!); final walk with Doug and Toffee, 40 min/1.88 mi. whew. 12k+ by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:45am: 144
5pm: 124
11pm: 87 

food & meds:

8:45am: jaridance + phentermine
9am: last of the oatmeal cookies
1:30pm: chicken salad and small side salad of mixed baby greens, cherry tomatoes, Caesar salad dressing
2pm: met+glip
6:30pm: country style pork ribs (2) in low carb fajitas w/cheddar, sour cream, and fresh sliced avocado
8:30pm: met+glip; ramekin mixed nuts
2 beers 

Soup Season

It is officially fall for me. And officially a sign of I live in this house now. 

Last night was cookie baking night, and today I made chicken salad for me and Doug for lunch. I realized I still had the chicken carcass from the roast the other night so whipped that into a pot to make stock. 

Everything was amazing smelling and looking. I fit things in between helping my client get her site ready for launch. She was so good and wonderful to work with.  

I took a walk before my series of three one hour meetings. Around 4:30 Doug went for a walk and invited me, but I was still in the middle of all the things, so he took Toffee solo while I made dinner. I was going to make meatballs but went with just a basic meat sauce. Too tired after all the things. 

Around 8pm I noticed that even with all the movement today I still managed to be way short of the 10k steps. 

The playlist worked well for me, and the 1900 steps I needed turned into 3k. Going from Gorillaz to Rage to Ghost to the Monkees to Guster to C+C music Factory to Rush .... I didn't do any running, and I would have finished up the Killers but it started to rain and was rather chilly, to be honest. 

Busy day. Busy yummy day. House smells great day. Digits below. 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Two walks, one solo, 19 min/.98 mi (should have gone that extra minute!); after dinner solo 27 min/1.43 mi. 11k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8am: 108
5pm: 91
10pm: 141 

food & meds:

8am: jaridance + phentermine
8:30am: 2 oatmeal cookies w/coffee
12:30pm: met+glip
1:15pm: large bowl of chicken salad w/apple, walnut, mayo, cream cheese
5pm: 2 oatmeal cookies
6:30pm: beer
7pm: bowl of pasta & meat sauce
8pm: met+glip