The baking and the running

Note: I did write an entry and post it much earlier today that wrapped up the Guster weekend. Go read it there, if you missed it and you're coming in fresh for today. 

Monday after a long travel weekend. I am so glad that I have an absolute boatload of vacation time that I can use. I took today off, as a gift to myself. So thankful I did. 

Doug's alarm went off at 8, mine at 8:30. he was already up and downstairs and I slept until 10 something. 

For most of the day I sat around happily doing nothing. At some point, I realized we had a couple bananas that really needed to be used. Two isn't enough for banana bread (I like at least 4) so I found a recipe for an apple banana muffin and made those. They were pretty great, even though I did not have any apple sauce. I used apple cider. I shredded the apples on the cheese grater, didn't even bother peeling them. Damn these are tasty! 

Then, I made a pumpkin pie. Doug had gotten a nice container of whipping cream from the fancy dairy, so I was sure to make that. It was super good. Justification for making pie! 

It got to be close to 5pm so I fed the dog, and got on the treadmill. I was listening to a podcast, finished the episode I'd started on the plane and the next one started. It was good enough for to hold my attention, and next thing I knew it was over 30 min. 

Why not do 5k, eh? Sure. I haven't gotten in any good distance in a bit so today I made use of my day off to do the baking and the running.

Here is a picture of my sister's dogs. All legs, all day. Digits below! 

digits 

exercise: 11/12 hours.  Missed 9am for sleepin'... Treadmill run 44 min/3.1 mi (5k) 12k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

10:15am: 134
xpm: n/a - not recording because schedule out of whack
11:30pm: 103

food & meds
10:15am: jardiance
11am: 2 pieces of pork loin, last of the coleslaw 
3pm: met+glip; apple banana muffin
6:45pm: dirty rice+chicken by geoff; 2 more muffins
white wine
8pm: slice of pumpkin pie & homemade whipped cream
8:45pm: met+glip

Guster and Sistew and Ronniw Weekend

Gonna do my best to fully record the trip here. Some is a blur. 

Friday
I got to Long Island so late on Thursday due to flight delays, Lin picked me up, dropped me at the airport, and headed home. 

Sometimes when I travel, I have a really hard time falling asleep, and that night was pretty much a good example of it. I got almost 3000 steps before getting into bed, and falling asleep around 3am. 

I slept in a bit on Friday not too worried about getting the 9am steps. I got up at 9:30 anyway, so, that worked out. I knew Linda had to work, and check out wasn't until noon. 

For breakfast, I got myself a bistro sandwich at the Starbucks in the lobby. It was really good, and I kind of wanted another one but holy shit 24 bucks for a sandwich and a coffee? Nah, son. 

After I ate, I got my stuff organized and I hit the treadmill. I wanted to go super long but, I was watching the time. After my shower, I headed to the lobby. Linz came to get me. 

Fun times were then had - I got to meet their new dog, and play with both of the dogs, Gus & River. Absolute chaos and fun. 

Lin was ready to go after 1:30pm which had me a little nervous. Not because of being late for the show or anything, but neither of us see well to drive in the dark and I knew the weather was going to be a challenge on top of that.

Things went super well until we got rerouted through the back roads in some town in Connecticut (partly the fault of the roads because these bastards do not put "right lane must turn right" signs up and you don't know you're fucked until you get 3 cars back from the light. Thanks Connecticut, ya jerk!) 

But, we were rewarded with a kick ass rainbow and a burningly gorgeous sunset behind us, before, it got dark.

Pictures do not do it justice.

It got really dark. And then it got really stressful. Pouring rain, road construction. Jesus. I was doing my best to watch for any indications of paint on the right side of the car, she was doing her best to not hit any road construction things or invisible in the dark Jersey Barriers. Oh! Left lane? We have to exit to the left? 

Serious death fears for both of us at certain points. Not sure how we survived though!

We got to the hotel which I ... didn't think I reserved. I thought I booked us in East Hartford but when I looked up my reservation, I had us in Downtown. Kind of sketchy area but, the hotel itself was pretty nice and it was a really cool loft room. 

We were impressed and had a good laugh at me being extra forgetful and fucking things up a little, to our advantage! 

We poured glasses of well earned wine. Lin showered, I got dressed, we called an Uber. It was less than a mile away, easy walk and we did have plenty of time to get there, but it was raining too hard and we were ... tired. 

We want to go ENJOY a show, not fall asleep during it, ya know?

No pictures of us together, strangely. But Lin did get one of me here. 

It was so busy saying hi to friends and catching up it was hard to get pictures together. 

My friend Abbey joined us. She hasn't been to a concert in years due to some medical and familyissues. Lin had an extra ticket and I messaged her to see if she wanted to come. I'm so glad she said yes! 

The last time I went to a show with her was, I believe, Guster+Garlin in Boston. We made a point to sit together during intermission and catch up. What a joy to spend time with her. 

There was a wild mix up with tickets for a lot of people. Linda thought she bought tickets about 4 or so rows back, but, we were actually in the front row due to the orchestra pit being covered up by the part of the stage Guster would be on top of - the orchestra was behind them. 

But.

The venue actually sold the tickets that were under the covered part, the "pit" seats. Three or so rows of seats, a couple hundred people. Absolute screw up on their part. 

Folks were a mix of outraged and understanding, depending on the person. Some people absolutely lost their shit in the building and in the fan group. 

The venue did their absolute best to get people 

• Refunds
• Seats
• Comp tickets to a future show

To be honest, I think I would have been mad initially, but, if all those things were offered to me, I'd take them and be alright with it. After all, it is really nice to be in the building in the end. 

The show was amazing. I'm always absolutely impressed with them when they do an orchestra show. 

And seeing friends was so wonderful. 

Always good to have someone with a long arm to do a selfie! 

This is where they did the encore from
 I coulda reached up & untied Brian's shoes, we were that close

After the show, a bunch of people went to East Hartford to a late night mexican restaurant. Funny, had I booked us into the hotel in East Hartford it would have been easy to go out and have someone drop us at the hotel, but fate wouldn't have that. Also, I didn't want to go out there to E. Hartford, and have to find our way back at a very stupid late hour. 

The pizza shop next to the hotel was open until 11 so we got slices, and a piece of cheesecake, and that was a treat. 

Crashed.
Sleepies.
ZZZZ.

Saturday

In the morning I had made plans to meet up with one of my co-workers. She suggested a place for us to get coffee and chat. It was a lovely visit. We are on the same team and maybe see each other once or twice a year. Bonus, she got to meet Linda and I got to meet her husband! Good times! I love her, and I think I convinced her she should come to the holiday party in a few weeks. Let's see if that works out! I absolutely would love it.

Because we didn't want another repeat of we can't see in the dark to drive, Linda was carefully monitoring the traffic. We thought about the ferry, but there were all kinds of indications that Bridgeport was gonna be a shit show with road closures, so we opted to drive through the city and whatnot. 

We hit the road and got home to Linda's just before it was super dark. She can get around in the dark around her house, but it truly was a relief to not have to white-knuckle though traffic! 

We opted to go out to eat with Ronnie when we got back, and picked a restaurant they've been driving past forever. 

One of our friends likes to send us pictures with fancy drinks or craft beers so we took one for him! 

The restaurant is named Shenanigans, so, how appropo, right?

I stayed over with them on Saturday since every single hotel on Long Island was either booked or 900 a night. 

And, their new dog River really really REALLY loved sleeping with me. 

Sunday

We all were up and active around 8:30am. I thought about us going for a walk with the dogs but we wanted coffee, and Linda started making brekkie, and then there was wine, and a 9:30am football game followed by the Giants game. My BIL is a big Giants fan so we had to watch the game, no dog walkies. 

The game finished just in time for me to go to the airport. I usually like getting there a lot sooner, and maybe walking laps or finding a beer, or both. In this case, I did the laps. 

Doug picked me up and we stopped for gas, and there was a Burger King next door. Part of me wanted "nice" restaurant but at 9:30pm, Burger King was sufficient! 

We got home, watched football, and I passed out. 

Travel, man. Wow. Exhausting. 

I took Monday off, so I'll do a whole separate entry for today (I am writing this on Monday) but that, my friends, was the Guster and Sistew and Ronniw Weekend! 

Friday digits 

exercise: 12/12 hours.  Treadmill at hotel (google health app won't let me see how far)  13k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose: 

9:30am: 121
xpm: n/a
11pm: 90

food & meds
9:30am: jardiance
11am: starbucks breakfast sandwich w/ bacon, egg, cheese
at some point (not sure when) split 20 mcnuggets w/linda on the road
wine at the hotel. wine at the venue
11pm: slice of pizza, cheesecake w/cherries
wine 

Saturday digits 

exercise: 7/12 hours.  Missed many hours due to being in the car. 5k+ steps by bedtime (lolz, did not even try) 

blood glucose: 

9:30am: 121
xpm: n/a
11:30pm: 71

food & meds
9:30am: jardiance
11:30am: caffe Nero brekkie sandwich, egg, sausage, green goddess dressing, english muffin
2pm: met+glip
6pm: wings, french onion soup; 2 beers
8pm: met+glip

Sunday digits 

exercise: 12/12 hours. 26 min. walk in the airport. 15 min run on the treadmill at home 1.14 mi. 11k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose: (have to backtrack and record)

xam: x
xpm: x
11pm: 175

food & meds
8:30am: jardiance
11:30am: brekkie by linna; grits w/ egg & shrimp; biscuits
wine wine wine
1pm: met+glip
8:45pm: burger king Bacon King; met+glip

A quick touch base post travel

 For the two or three actual humans who read this, as opposed to the thousands of bot hits I get on a regular basis, I just wanted to say hello. 

Too tired to write everything up since like Friday night or whatever but I'm home safe, in bed, Toffee is snoring and soon I shall as well. 

more later. good night.

bumpy ride

Post dating this to Thursday since I am writing it Friday morning.

Whew. So. 

I took the morning off, got a haircut, went on a non-successful search for shoes. I got home in time for a 1:30pm meeting that I scheduled deliberately, and sometimes I am amazed that in person, people can be nice but in writing? Holy shit. Jerks? Jerk Much? 

We had our monthly team meeting after that, and then our office hours with our clients. My favorite meeting. 

I washed clothes and then folded them after office hours, packed. Doug was still working but we left around 6 and stopped for dinner at a diner in Ellicott City on the way to the airport. Great meal, and he got my dessert that came with the Greek Dinner. I hope he loves the baklava. 

When I got to the airport, hilariously I had 2 hours to kill. I walked up and down the entire concourse and stopped for a beer at Miss Shirley's and watched some football. 

My flight got delayed, once, twice, again, and I was seriously sweating it that they were going to call it.

But we boarded and got off the ground at 11, with the captain telling us "Yeah, this is not going to be a fun trip so I'm having the flight crew stay seated. No beverage service, and please do not get out of your seat to use the bathroom."

He was apologetic about the weather conditions but in my heart I said honey, don't apologize unless you're the one making it be stormy and gross out there.

It actually was not that bad, until the last 10 minutes when it got mad rough. I heard a woman crying. 

I sat and read my book. 

The guy next to me was fast asleep. 

What should be over an hour (slightly) flight worked out to less than an hour, amazingly. The captain said that we were delayed in taking off so he could get special super fast gas in the tanks and boost us to NY in a hurry because they love us... 

Southwest may be nickel and dimeing us to death, but thankfully the flight crew and pilots still have a sense of humor. 

Lins got me and brought me to my hotel for the night. I felt so bad that it was so late. But. She got me wine, and we had a short tiny visit and I sent her home. 

One of the super nice things about getting here so late is the "pre loading" of the steps for the day. I am already up 2300 steps just from walking out of the airport, walking in the hotel, going in search of ice.... that was a journey. So hopefully I won't have to work too hard to make the goal.

Tomorrow, it's off to Hartford, off to Guster, off to Friends and loved ones. Lin has to work in the morning for a while so I'm going to be a woman of leisure, hit the treadmill, get some coffee and bistro thingies in the lobby (not free or complimentary but. I'll be hungry by then. 

Digits below. A beer from Long Island at a place named for my mom. 

digits 

exercise: 12/12 hours. Airport concourse walk, 30 min/1.23 mi. 11k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose: 

9am: 120
4:30pm: 125
after 12am on Friday: 139

food & meds
9am: jardiance & new meds
11:15am: small bowl of chicken salad
2pm: met+glip
4pm: new meds
6:30pm: greek diner dinner, lemon egg soup (gotta learn how to make this); open face gyro w/some spinach/rice mix, small wee adorable potatoes; met+glip
9pm: beer at the airport
after midnight: wine at the hotel

Hot Glue is Hot

Today I started my arts and crafts portion of the cork board.  My "correctly" sized glue sticks came last night and now the glue stick is perfect. What a difference.

And hot. 

I have some cute wee glass bead that I was putting around the frame of the cork board and was holding one of the little buggers in my hand. I put a dollop of glue onto it, and whoa! the heat transmitted through and burned my fingers.

Not the glue itself. But the freaking little monster flipped over onto the cork board and then would not come off. So I had to decorate around it. And I learned to apply the glue to the frame and plop the little stone thingie onto the glue. Much better.

And it dries very very quickly. 

And it leaves stringy gossamer threads all over the damn place. So I have to figure out how to clean all that up. 

It was fun doing what I've done so far but I'm realizing I'm missing a bunch of things from this summer's shows. Some stickers that I really want to put on the board. 

I'm sure that they'll turn up, because I also was looking for my multi-color thin point sharpies (found them) my lobsters (I have a ton of rubber lobsters, I do), my strings of flamingos that I forgot to bring with me last year, and this year (found them) and some other little things that I've wanted to use towards this project. 

Tomorrow, I did take the day off but there are three meetings in the afternoon that I am interested in attending. So in the morning, I think I'll head over to get a haircut, maybe. I need a haircut. 

This time tomorrow, I'm on an airplane. Not using a hot glue gun to burn myself while trying to make beautiful things. 

Digits below! Oh and you do get a picture today. 

digits 

exercise: 12/12 hours. Treadmill, 20 min/1.53 mi; Toffee walk, 34 min/1.4 mi. 12k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose: 

7:30am: 120
4:30pm: 94
10:30pm: 148

food & meds
7:30am: jardiance & new meds
11am: pb&j on 647 white bread
12:45pm: met+glip
2pm: last small piece of fish
skipped new meds
4:30pm: baby bell cheese wheel 
6:15pm: chicken breast, some stuffing, coleslaw 
white wine
8:30pm: met+glip

Up With The Sun

Huzzah, the glue sticks arrived, they seem to be the right size, and I can arts and crafts tomorrow. Fun! I got too busy today but did have a nice hour gab, yap, catch up with the work wife. There was a lot of work things going on, and our team had a really good meeting, which is always nice. I like our little team.

I slept through the night, which as you know happens not very often, and I had to get out of bed at 8:15 to pee. So desperately. Doug was already up working, so, I didn't have to start work until 9 and didn't feel like dedicating some extra time just to dedicate extra time. So I hit the treadmill. 

It's kind of nice knocking that requirement out of the park so early in the day. Note to self, maybe do that again? Maybe? 

After dinner, I took Toffee for a walk, the weather is so perfect. My sweatshirt was a little too warm, to be honest. November 3rd and I'm loving this. It could please stay this way please for a while longer please. 

Doug has a doctor's appointment in the morning at 9am so he has to be up and out the door to deal with traffic. He's been feeling extra shitty lately, and so I'm glad he made the appointment. Let's see what's going on. Probably "you need more exercise, and your A1C and blood sugar are  too high, again," kinds of things. As we're heading into the winter, when he tends to slow down anyway, and get more hibernatey, less active, I'm hoping she encourages him to do good things. I think he needs a fitbit. 

Maybe then he'll stop mocking me for doing my hourly steps and 11pm treadmill walks to make it to 10k before I go to bed. Although, lately, I'm managing to knock that out of the park too by 7 or 8pm! 

 I think Geoff is working, I forgot to ask.Thursday he'll be in Virginia at school and Doug will be taking me to the airport for my late ass flight. I asked myself why I booked such a late flight and then I looked at the ticket prices for the earlier flights and said, "oh, yeah. That's why..."

 Gonna go have some Linda Fun for the weekend and see some band, you've probably never heard of them. Guster or something. 

Anyway. 

Not much else to report. Just looking forward to arts and crafts at some point tomorrow. Digits below. 

 

digits 

exercise: 12/12 hours.  Treadmill 20 min/1.46 mi; Toffee walk, 27 min/1.23 mi; 12k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose: 

8:30am: 120
4:30pm: 179
11pm: 152

food & meds
9am: jardiance & new meds
11am: English muffin w/pb & j
2pm: big bowl of left over chicken soup, 2 kings hawaiian rolls; met+glip
3pm: new meds
6:30pm: 2 chorizo sausages w/sauteed onions and peppers in a lemon sauce
8pm: met+glip 
8:30pm: apple pie slice (small)
white wine

Arts and Crafts

I had a little time mid day today and thought I'd do some bedazzling on my corkboard (that I built into a frame and then ignored for a week). I had ordered a new glue gun, since the one I have had for years was kind of dead. Wouldn't charge, wouldn't heat. DED Dead.

The glue gun arrived and today I was all psyched to use it. I charged it, I put glue sticks in it, and it all backed up out the opening where you put the glue sticks into the body of the gun. 

Dafuq? I hate you. 

I read the instructions, I didn't do anything wrong. But. The troubleshooting guide said that a certain size of glue sticks needs to be put in, and that is 0.43. Nothing on the boxes (and, I have many) of glue sticks said what size my sticks are but OBVIOUSLY they ain't the right size. 

Damn. 

So I ordered some 0.43 sized sticks from the actual manufacturer of this glue gun, and hey - if you have a freaking glue gun and want 9,000 glue sticks, I've got your hook up. 

Waiting now for the hopefully right sized glue sticks to show up. 

Still don't have a desk setup downstairs anyway. 

I strung up some tiki lights on the mantle and added cute little party shades that should go over bulbs on a string of lights. I also have hot chili pepper bulb covers and more tikis too. I should pull out one of my strings of white lights and get everything looking pretty. 

It's almost time. It isn't fully time until the Sunday after Thanksgiving, but we can at least get the strings of lights organized and all. To coin a phrase, thinking about starting to think about getting ready. 

I decided to go for a Toffee walk while it was still light out and we got home just as it was starting to get dark. She was very into all the cats and squirrels we saw along the way. I think I like walking her in the dark better! 

Linda and I had a chat while I ran on the treadmill, and I got plenty of steps in to make up for yesterday! 

No picture again, I had hoped to have one of my bedazzled corkboard, but. Nope. 

Digits below.

digits 

exercise: 12/12 hours. Toffee Walk before dinner (while it was still light out) 38 min/1.69 mi. Treadmill, 20 min/1.48 mi  12k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose: 

8:30am: 105
4:30pm: 179
10pm: 161

food & meds
8:30am: jardiance & new meds
8:45am: slice of apple pie 
12:45pm: grilled turkey and 2 slices of muenster on 647 bread
1pm: met+glip 
skipped afternoon new meds, forgot to take
4:30pm: 2 celery stalks w/pb 
6pm: small bowl of spaghetti and meat sauce; red wine
7:30pm: met+glip

These apples are delicious, as a matter of fact they are she said

Sunday's Entry back dated for accuracy

We did some rearranging of things today. What was going to be my desk downstairs, Doug loves that table. Can't say as I blame him. If you were ever at our old house in Montgomery County, this was the puzzle table in the living room. She is the perfect size. But somehow she ended up downstairs, and I thought for sure that'd be my desk. 

He suggested we bring it upstairs and put it under the front window. Then, the table that was under the front window for this last year (which I think was his uncle Pete's dining table) moved over to another wall in the living room. 

This table is much bigger than the one we had there, so I put more plants and some pictures on it. 

The short, wee table now doesn't have a home but I'll find a use for it, I'm sure. It is a little too big to put beside the love seat here that I'm currently sitting on. Maybe in the kitchen by the back door? Maybe.

And now I feel like I need more plants maybe. ha. Of course I do! 

But now, I need a different option for a table/desk. We have options. One is in the car port (and has been for a year, so it just needs moved). It's the old dining table from Doug's mom's garage (I think it was in the garage since before I met Doug). It is sturdy as fuck, the way people used to make furniture! 

We also have another table - it was in the basement of our last house and in fact, it was what I used as a desk, shared with Geoff, back there. It just needs to be assembled. In theory, I can use both! Give myself a corner office.

After we moved the tables, I watered all the plants. I should have done it a week ago but I sometimes get distracted and don't think about them. They're all very happy now. I loaded the dishwasher, and made more dirty dishes, you know, like ya do. 

I decided to make a pie. I recently bought some bryers carb smart vanilla ice cream, but didn't want to use it with the pumpkin pie. Pumpkin pie is for homemade whipping cream. 

Doug bought a whole veritable ton of apples, and I don't usually eat them so I asked if these apples were good for pie because I felt like they were going to start to go naughty. He said yes, so I set to peeling. Two apples were not usable, so I shared them with Toffee. She loves a good apple. Even a kind of rotten apple. 

I opted for a recipe for sour cream apple pie, which you make a mile-high, and you make a crumble for the top. You do. Yes you do. Delicious. 

When we were first married, I remember Doug finding a recipe for a recipe quite like this, and I've always loved it. I lost the news paper cut out of the recipe that we had forever, but in my mind, I know what she is like. 

He took the dog for a walk after the 1pm football games were over, before it got dark. I grilled two chicken breasts and gabbed with Linda about our upcoming trips. For some reason, around 4pm, Doug wanted iced coffee and I jokingly said "do you want some Kahula in that?" He said sure! So I made us both Kahula & coffee with the last of the whipped cream. 

Kind of a mistake? I'd already had wine, since it isn't day drinking if you don't start during the day. The combination kind of knocked me on my ass, and I ended up fast asleep on the guest bed around 6:30. Ooops. 

When I woke up, I didn't have any pie, I just watched a little football and was up to bed around 9. Missed an hour of steps and fell short of the 10k goal for the day. That's okay. I sort of hate starting a month with a short day, sets the tone? a little bit? but. We'll make it up this week. I thought about taking Toffee for a walk (I wasn't very far from 10k) but she was all cute and curled up on the couch under a blankie, I didn't want to disturb that cuteness!

No pictures yesterday (Sunday) so, digits below! 

digits 

exercise: 11/12 hours. Short treadmill run, 13 min/.63 mi (while pie was cooking) 8k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose: 

9:30am: 101
5pm: 189
9:30pm: 154

food & meds
9:30am: jardiance & new meds
10am: the heels of the loaf of sourdough, toasted & buttered
2:45pm: met+glip; new meds
3pm: red wine & diet ginger ale; apple pie making - several chunks of apple while cutting/prepping
4pm: kahlua & coffee
6:30pm: bowl of chicken soup
8:30pm: met+glip

Friday and Saturday

I did not feel like working on Friday. I was incredibly drained from the jury duty experience. Just couldn't rouse myself to be alert, awake, alive and on task. I thought I'd take the morning off and then I took the day. 

Doug joined me. Because it is hard to watch me sitting around doing nothing. After we loafed around, we knew we both needed to get bloodwork done. So we got showered up and ready and headed the 45 minute drive over to where we do that. 

In and out, plus a flu shot, Good times. 

We stopped at a brewery we had not yet been to, and it was very good, very nice beer, very nice staff and they are dog friendly so we know we can bring miss Toffee inside. Most breweries are okay with dogs on the patio, but, here they're family. Nice. 

On the way home, we had to stop and grab some subs. I didn't feel like cooking, Geoff was not home from school yet, and Doug ... well. He'd just eat a peanut butter and jelly sandwich if push comes to shove when neither of us want to cook. 

Plus, the Halloweeners would be coming. Halloween was Friday night in our neighborhood because the city does a big parade on halloween, so, some neighborhoods buck the recommendation to do Halloween the night before so the kids can come to the parade. 

We had about 25 kids. Hoards of kids all at once, families traveling around together. Super cute. 

A very small boy dressed as The Joker from Batman sang "TRICK OR TREAT! SMELL MY FEET! GIVE ME SOMETHING GOOD TO EAT!" 

And I sang something back about how he had to smell MY feet so we'd be even, and I lifted up my bare foot into the air. 

All the kids squealed and laughed. 

Everyone got a big fat handful of candy. We had enough. Lord, children please save me from the candy. 

Today I woke up and thought it was Sunday. I was all ready for some football. But lo and behold, joke's on me! 

We loafed around, as is our usual behavior on a Saturday and Doug mowed the lawn while I ran on the treadmill. I thought maybe we'd go out and about but he went to nap. 

And the phone rang. 

It was Geoff, only not Geoff's voice at the other end. It was the police. He was in a minor car accident, right up at the top of our street, and the police officer said the insurance card in our glove box was expired. 

If I'd be so kind as to obtain the insurance card and text a picture to Geoff, ..... Yes officer. You got it.

Doug was ... annoying. I asked him where the insurance cards were, and he said "well go to the app on your phone." 

Bitch, you think I have the app for the insurance company on my damn phone I do not. Can you please participate in this and find it for me and ... I don't know, print it, text it to me, something? 

He found it (he has the app) and handed me his phone. 

"What do you want me to do with this?" 

"Well, text it to Geoff, I guess." 

Like YOU CAN DO THAT! please participate in this? 

I texted it to me and Geoff, and I took my phone, and walked up the street. 

"Where are you going," he says to me. 

Dude, your son just had a car accident, I'm going to walk up there because I care about him. 

I spent the rest of my evening rather grumpy. But I made dinner, something new and I must say very good and I'll make it again. 

After dinner, I took Toffee out for a walk, I wasn't going to but. Meh. It's still nice out. Make use of the nice weather. 

I also realized at some point that fuck all fucking hell - it is Daylight Saving time tonight and I'm so pissed off. I fucking HATE this. It is going to be pitch dark at 6pm. I thought we had like 2 weeks until this happens. Fucking crap on a cracker I hate. 

Okay. Got that out of my system but I hate it. On record as ten thousand percent - full of hate. You heard it here first. 

Didn't take a bunch of pictures but here are a couple. Digits, below. The truck amused me.

Friday digits

exercise: 12/12 hours.  Toffee Walk 22 min/1.01 mi, Treadmill run, 15 min/.93 mi; 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose: 

9:45am: 113 
5pm: 156
xpm: x  (fell asleep before taking reading)

food & meds
9:45am: jardiance & new meds
1pm: met+glip
2 beers at Steinhardt brewing
3:30pm: new meds
6pm: Jersey Mike cheesesteak sub (note to self - get extra cheese next time)
red wine+diet ginger ale
7pm: met+glip
some halloween candy

Saturday digits 

exercise: 12/12 hours.  Treadmill, 30 min/2.25 mi; Toffee walk; 28 min/1.2 mi; 14k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose: 

9:45am: 113
4:45pm: 167
11pm: 101 

food & meds
9:45am: jardiance & new meds
11am: very small bowl of mac & cheese w/hamburger
a couple of bits of halloween candy
2:30pm: english muffin w/pb & cherry preserves; met+glip
(skipped new meds)
6pm: chorizo & chickpeas & chevre over couscous (w/spinach, onion, red pepper)
red wine+diet ginger ale
8pm: met+glip

Trying My Best

This image is of a sticker that was stuck to the bench in front of me, as I sat waiting this morning during jury duty. 

Trying my best, indeed. 

I went to jury duty this morning. I had hoped to be dismissed even though you know your girl feels it imperative that we do our civic duty and we participate in things like this. 

Part of me felt like hey just showing up means we participate, right?

Well. 

I got placed on the jury. 

When I got out of the bathroom, my fellow jurors said "we nominated you because you weren't here, you were in the potty," and honestly. We all kind of laughed but I accepted. 

"It would be an honor and a privilege to be the foreman of this jury. Thank you." 

There was one other guy who I felt would have been my pick, personally. In fact, now that we are not on the jury anymore I kind of am mad we aren't friends. He was AWESOME. 

Anyway. I don't feel comfortable discussing the case, but, let's just say that it isn't anything that I thought I'd have to be a juror for. 

We had a nice lunch break, and I went to that bookstore I've wanted to go to. 

When we got back the trial went on. The state did its thing, there were witnesses. The defense only had one witness, and I didn't feel they added anything to the process. 

Closing arguments, your friend me is your jury foreman. Okay let's go deliberate.

Everyone was incredibly thoughtful. We all felt the weight of this decision making process. At one point in the discussion I turned to the man next to me who had been very quiet and I said "we haven't heard from you, brother, how are you feeling?" 

He seemed to be kind of a religious guy, he had Jesus bracelets on and a straight-edge kind of t-shirt. He may have been a serious serious seriously serious evangelical. 

He said "everything you are all saying, I feel. I see it all the same way." 

"So you're okay with it if we say he's guilty of all three charges?"

"Yes." I put my hand on his shoulder. He seemed like this was a lot. But he was there. And in agreement.

I thanked him. Then, I said okay friends, show of hands. Charge one? 

All raised hands.

Charge two?

All raised hands.

Charge three? 

All. 

Raised.

Hands.

All 12 of us on that jury ruled that the defendant was guilty on all three of the charges that the state charged him with. 

The case by the state was made, and strong, and yeah. Sorry. But I do not feel like the public defender really did any actual defending to convince us of otherwise.

I texted Doug when we were done and he suggested he'd meet me at the downtown bar we like. 

I texted back, "Please."

In the lobby, before leaving the building, I was putting on my sweatshirt, and the public defender came down and walked past me. He said loudly something along the lines of .... And I'm not quoting him exactly because I do not remember what he said but, it was along the lines of....

Fucking Juries. I never want to deal with another fucking dumb ass jury again. 

The security guy at the front desk, and a woman who had exited her office as the "Family liaison" person (or something of the sort, I'm not 100% on the title) were standing in the lobby with me. They had been talking about halloween candy and a specific neighborhood where they hand out the BIG full sized candy bars... so the three of us were right there when the lawyer went out.

I think this guy looked over his shoulder at me, noticed who I was as he left, and stormed off.

So. 
Now.
Friends? 

I looked at the other two people in the lobby with me, and I said "okay, not for nothing you guys, but...." 

"I was the foreman on this jury. and. I will say, I'm kind of sorry we had to rule the way we did, but, the evidence being what it was, and the fact that his client didn't get the opportunity to testify in his own defense. This guy did not make a clear and obvious case that reasonable doubt existed for his client. I'm sorry, but. The evidence was what it was." 

The woman made a face, she said something like "that guy doesn't have a good track record, I think about 90% of the cases he is on, he loses." I said that was sad. 

Everyone is entitled to representation, but so help me GOD do not ever have that guy ever ever ever represent me or anyone I love. Ever. 

I said to them "I've watched enough TV, I hope that guy isn't headed to the same bar I'm going to." One of them said something along the line of "I know him and let's just say, he can't go to a bar or drink any more, medically speaking. I'll just say that much."

"Bless him for that," I said, "But. I sure the fuck can." 

And I walked outside. The woman in the lobby, I think she almost died laughing at my comment. I heard her laughing "I sure the fuck can!!!!" 

Friends, believe me. I sure the fuck did.

I beat Doug to the bar. I ordered a beer, and another beer, and wings. I sat reading a book I've been trying to finish for YEARS that I'd brought with me to pass the time during the jury selection process. There was a girl at the bar that a guy was zooming on her, and at some point, she said something that made me tune in, and she and I started talking. 

We were nerding out over Richard Ayoade, and animes like Death Note and Avatar, and then the news about Patrick Stewart came on the TV and she and I both nerded out all the way on him. The guy seemed annoyed, but, I think I helped her out by derailing his efforts and getting her to talk to me instead of be subjected to him. 

Doug showed up, and we had our food and drinks and I wanted 90 more beers but we left while the sun was still up. 

We got home, and I took Toffee for a walk because my steps were way behind at that hour. Seeing as I thought I may walk the 1.5 miles home, and I ended up not.

Thanks to the Toffee walk, I crushed the 10k steps, and got some wired energy out. After a day of mostly sitting it was good to walk her and have some time to be outside and all that.

Here are some pictures from the day, from my lunchtime excursion, to beers and wings. I have to say I'm humbled and wildly overwhelmed at times about my life and how anything can happen. Anything. 

Anything. 

Wow.

Digits below.

digits

exercise: 9/12 hours. lost a couple hours to sitting in jury duty. Toffee Walk, 30 min/1.4 miles; 12k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose: 

7:45am: 105
xpm: n/a
10:30pm: 167 

food & meds
7:45am: jardiance & new meds
1pm: 1/2 panini w/turkey, cheddar, ltm; italian wedding soup; met+glip
4:45pm: new meds
5:30pm: buffalo wings; 3 beers
7pm: brownie that I bought at the bookstore cafe
7:45pm: met+glip
white wine, more brownie (finished it up)
9pm: ramekin of mixed nuts