Massage Therapy Day

I really want to write up the whole massage therapy thing because it is hilarious and I had a great time. But I'm super tired. Again, did not sleep well. Brain full of work. Meetings. Stress. Meh.

So I'm going to save it for tomorrow and just give you the digits. Good night.

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Treadmill between meetings, 18 min/1.12 miles (super slow start but wanted to knock the mile out while I had some energy!) Another treadmill tour, much slower but got some good distance, 34 min/2.03 mi. 12k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:15am: 104
4:45pm: 103
9:45pm: 200 *notice when I took my meds and last thing I ate

food & meds:
8:15am: jardiance+phentermine
protein shake mixed in my coffee
12:30pm: pb & low sugar j on 647 wheat
1pm: met+glip
7pm: one small piece of stromboli and salad (did not enjoy stromboli) 
9pm: bowl of 2 good mixed berry yogurt w/granola bar smashed up in it. Met+glip
no alcohol

Gloomy ass day

I have not been sleeping well. Today was exceptionally damp and gloomy. And it made me a lot extra tired. 

I had late meetings today, and a ton of morning time wide open so I opted to treadmill before lunch. Strangely enough, I felt really good even though I was basically exhausted (4 hr. of sleep last night AND the night before). 

Usually I aim for hitting 2k steps by lunch time. If I'm able to do that I know I can get to 10k. Today, I was at 5k by lunch time. Whew. 

Work was exceptionally busy this afternoon, we're getting closer and closer to the big project product launch and it is time for my work son and me to send out notifications to the clients we've chosen for testing. I started drafting the emails tonight, and set up a meeting for him and me to hash it all out. 

There are still some futzy things happening and I'm so thankful my own manager is doing the bulk of the user testing and discovering things. Because I have not touched it.

There is a quarterly reporting requirement for this product, and the quarter ends at the end of April. Our goal is to have the product launch fully right after that, and training and everything done the first week of May before I go to Molly's wedding in NH. 

Wish me luck. 

Geoff made a kick ass fried rice dinner but he really has got to start adding more protein to things. Still, I'm not complaining, it was delicious. 

If he didn't live here I'd probably just have an english muffin w/pb and low sugar j for dinner most nights. 

The only other exciting thing is I bought a new lint filter for our dryer. It kicks ass. It's the right part but the door does not want to close right unless you kind of lift it up a wee bit. I had to demo that for Geoff tonight when he started his laundry. 

I scheduled a massage therapy appointment tomorrow. I've been having that problem with my hip, and now my left shoulder is like restless shoulder or something. And the bottom of my right foot is being stupid like the left one was when we went to Vegas in 2024. 

I'm looking forward to that. It's been quite a while since I've treated myself. Expensive but do not tell Doug. ha. 

Anyway. Bedtime. After you look at my cuddly doggo.

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Treadmill, 30 min/2.16 mi. (almost broke a 14 min mile! so close!) 11k+ by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:30am: 114
4:45pm: 168* (see meds below)
10:15pm: 110

food & meds:
8:30am: jardiance+phentermine
protein shake mixed into my coffee
12:30: small container of mac & cheese with hamburger
3pm: atkins protein snack
4pm: met+glip (completely forgot to take at 1pm) 
6pm: bowl of fried rice w/shrimp a la Geoff
white wine
9:30pm: met+glip (since I messed up the lunch dosage I went later tonight with the dinner dosage).

Good eye, sniper

10pm, ish. Nightly. Toffee signals she wants to go out, I let her, go brush my teeth, take the blood sugar reading, go back down and let her in. Sometimes I'm a few steps away from 10k so I walk around the house while waiting for her. 

Then I grab a cup of water and my laptop and head upstairs for the nightly playtime. Toffee grabs a dead stuffed animal carcass, or one of her indestructible destroyed rope balls. And the entire second floor is back and forth, top speed, jump on the bed, turn around, flip around, I take the ball and throw it again, and we do it over and over. 

This lasts only a couple minutes. She is not like C's Frenchie who can do this same game for hours but on a tinier scale. And then Toffee crashes out, and I get ready for bed. 

She's hilarious because she knows what time 10pm is, and she knows it is playtime. And then we're in bed and that's a happy place.

Everyone needs ritual. 

Today I started feeling flat out exhausted around 1pm. I sat in a meeting and listened to my colleagues present findings on a thing they did and I was so impressed but also, it hurt my brain. What they did and worked on together was so good it actually makes me very scared for when I will have to do this very thing by end of summer once everyone is onboarded to our new product. I'm so thankful I have my work son side by side with me. And I'm sure between the two of us, we'll present something amazing. But it is just daunting to think of. 

I had a 3:30 meeting to teach someone how to undo some horrible stuff they did. They caught on fast and I let him drive while I narrated him through item by item. He was so thankful and said "I never would have figured that out."

Well, you might have if you read the actual help documentation for this action because word for word we built it the way it shoulda been built. But that's okay. We survived. 

Doug got on the treadmill at 5 right as I was tying my shoes to do so myself. I'm pretty passive and docile, and he hasn't done it for a couple days so I didn't bitch. I had things to do. Geoff made dinner and it was ready by the time Doug was finished with his time, 44 minutes. I wish I had that attention span. 

I didn't want to get on the treadmill. 

I did, and said okay fine, make it to 15 minutes. Okay you're at 10,  you're being a little slow today. Pick up that pace. Oh, this song by Coheed and Cambria is a good running song so, run. Pick up that pace. This is... Alright. Twenty minutes, well done. Keep jogging. 25 or 6 to 4 is a good pace for running. Go go go. 

You're at 26 minutes don't end on a dumb time. You should have stopped at 25 and now what, you can't go 4 more minutes? C'mon man. Do it.

30 minutes. 2.05 miles. a hair under 15 min pace. Not bad for someone who did not want to do this. 

But fuck that 44 minute bullshit that Doug did. 

Gah. Digits below and here's the Coheed and Cambria song that got me a 12 minute mile pace today. Are you in? or are you out? 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours.  Treadmill, 30 min/2.06 mi; 11k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8am: 110
4:30pm: 101
10pm: 161

food & meds:
8am: jardiance+phentermine
noon: english muffin w/pb & low sugar j
2pm: 2 slices of muenster cheese w/ turkey slices 
3pm: hostess ding dong 
6:30pm: some sort of pork loin in a ginger sauce (very interesting) pierogis. White wine
8pm: ramekin cashews
9pm: met+glip

Found Things

Back in November, Doug came home with that giant basket I mentioned yesterday, a giant trunk, two whole ass dining tables, a bureau, a small bookcase, a Nazi sword that his grandfather liberated from Germany in WWII, some sort of antique-ish rifle, and a bunch of other things that his mother didn't want anymore, his sister didn't want, but mom didn't have the heart to give these things away (or throw them away). 

All I was thinking he was bringing back was the redwood picnic table I wanted for the front porch. But there we were, unloading a bigger U-Haul truck than I thought he would be bringing. 

Yesterday, I was going through a bag with some sweatshirts in it. His dad had gotten a sweatshirt with our last name on it and the family crest. Probably off the internet, you know - you can get those things off the internet. I am not even sure it is correct but he was proud of it. 

And there was also a sweatshirt from his branch of the Armed Services. 

I sighed. 

This also looks like something bought at the Rogers Sale or a flea market in Ohio, it doesn't look super official. But I know he bought it, and I know he loved it. I can picture him puttering around the yard and garden in it, early fall, cool weather, picking up sticks for the pile. 

His mom gave both sweatshirts to us, and Doug said he couldn't ever fit in them. She asked if Geoff could, and Doug said, Less So.

So she said "Well, maybe Christine will like them." So they came home.

They fit me, but I feel weird wearing a sweatshirt with our last name on it, walking around town. And I feel even weirder wearing the Air Force one. 

I always admired and respected him for his service. He was a navigator in Viet Nam.  He never ever talked about his war experiences. I sometimes really wanted him to, I wanted to know about things other than "Thai food in America is not as good as Thai food in Thailand. I don't even know what this is that we have here." But I honored his choices. 

Sadly though, I don't think I can wear this, but also, I can't donate it. 

I'm really unhappy with our government. I do not like the 2020 "No War In Iran" people now cheering the bravery and courage it took our president to do what he's doing now in 2026. I don't disrespect those in the service, but I'm not rah rah siss boom bah about our military today. 

I think of Mike Birbiglia and how he loves the troops because if they weren't the troops, HE'D be the troops. And he'd be the worst troops. As would I. So yes, thank you for the Troops. 

I feel a little sick to my stomach when I'm thinking about the situation this weekend, with everything happening. And I'm not putting on the sportsball sweatshirt "I'm With Them" kind of things, even for my beloved Father in Law. Just can't do it. 

So it is going into the closet. Until some other time. Both sweatshirts, together. Kept and not thrown away. 

I also found something else. Quite a while ago, Doug found two bedside tables (or livingroom end tables) on the side of the road. One of them is on my side of the bed, and today I opened the bottom drawer to start tucking some things in from the boxes. 

There were two Christmas cards in the drawer, one from the pastor of a church with a lovely photo of the Reverend and "Lady" [last name redacted]. I thought that was pretty awesome to be married to the reverend and be known as Lady. 

And there was a second card, which made me feel a little sad that we have it and they don't. 

I don't remember the address of the house. It is in our old neighborhood, I'm sure I could drive by and drop it off some one of these days. But what if Rick and Abby are no longer together? What if he or she is absolutely fine with this card being gone and out of their lives. 

I put it back in my bottom drawer, like I put the sweatshirts in the closet. 

It's a Monday, and feels like a Monday. We had a lot of meetings, and a colleague did a swoop in share a lot of opinions that are wrong, and I panicked and reached out to my boss who was already emailing the group. 

I had a super long email chat with a client in Michigan who is lovely and wonderful and he is going through a mess in his personal life, and his office is moving. Over the weekend he had to be at the office packing and moving AND at his dad's house packing and moving there. 

We talked a lot about our aging parents, and how hard this is to deal with. He said his wife has been a partner in crime, a ride or die, a saint. I told him that I've been that for Doug for his aunt, and he's been by my side too with things regarding my mom. 

Where he lives, the house can't be unoccupied for a certain period of time, but for some reason no one will tell him how long, so he's rushing to pack it up and get everything out so they can sell it. I told him about Doug's mom and her Bonnie Two Houses situation. I think if it was against the law for her to have an unoccupied house, Doug's sister would know, and that would be something she'd be on top of. 

Doug called her tonight, he's been meaning to for a week or so. She just sounds super depressed. Doug told her she should take a trip, do something fun. She said she'd love to but she can't lift up anything heavier than 10 pounds (Doctors' orders) so she can't go alone. 

She mentioned a convention in Corning NY that she would love to go to, so I googled it and sadly, well, maybe not sadly but, unfortunately, it is the same weekend as Molly's Wedding in NH. 

But maybe we can take her to Corning NY some weekend. My friend R has been doing glassblowing up there, and I messaged her to find out when she'll be there. I bet Bonnie would love to go and see R's work. 

So put a pin in that friends. I'd like for her to have some fun. 

Anyway. That's about it. Feeling sleepy, ready for bed. Still have some things to finish up for work before I shut down for the night though.  

Digits below.

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Treadmill, 31 min/2 miles (almost a 15 min mile split but a few seconds off!); 11k+ steps by bedtime.

blood glucose:

8am: 102
5pm: 121
10pm: 84

food & meds:
8am: jardiance+phentermine
protein shake mixed in my coffee
12:30pm: 647 everything bagel, 2 pieces of muenster, turkey
1:15pm: met+glip
6pm: Southwestern chicken and corn chowder (a Geoff Specialty, one of his best meals!)
8pm: ramekin of cashews, met+glip
one vodka and diet cran (just to kill the diet cran bottle)

Puzzle Table and Unboxing

We were all three of us in the kitchen today, well four if you count miss Toffee. It is nice to have a kitchen big enough that I'm not freaking out because someone is crowding me opening the fridge while I'm trying to make eggs, or getting coffee while I'm trying to open the oven. 

"Your pants are on inside out," Doug says to me. 

Oh. 

He grabbed the tag and tugged it a couple times. "You've got a little tail." 

I always bring my yoga pants downstairs with me when I wake up in the middle of the night and retreat to the guest room. I must have taken them off funny, resulting in them being inside out, and then I never noticed it when I put them on. 

"Where would I be without you?" I asked. "What if I'd left the house to do something or go somewhere, and I was like that. It would be so embarrassing. Thank you for saving me from myself." 

Doug is doing our taxes. He set up in the dining room with the JBL speaker and all the paperwork. He cranked some music, and I busied myself upstairs (lest I looked like all I was going to do today was play phone games). 

One of my goals has been get things out of the mud room and put away where they belong. I have a toy box that my parents bought me when I was small and wee. The summer between my freshman & sophomore years in college, I refinished it (with my dad's help. He sanded it, I stained it). I have usually kept blankets or big bulky sweaters in there, but right now I had the need for somewhere to put all the sweatshirts. I own a lot of sweatshirts. 

Blankets are now in this GIANT woven basket that Doug brought back to his parents from his mission trip to Haiti in high school. His mom divested herself of it, and he came home here with it. He put it in our bedroom closet, I filled it with blankets. 

So if. you're visiting and need a blankie, you know where they live. 

I also had a lot of laundry to fold, and process, and ponder. One of the things I wanted to do lately was get things ready to donate. I'm very good at divesting myself (love that term as you can see I've used it twice so far) of clothing I'm no longer interested in, never wear. In my mind, I hear an old friend following me around the house when we were packing to move once saying "oh! Did you miss that? Have you needed it in five years? No. Goodbye." (gone). So that got done. 

I have two large boxes that ended up in our bedroom, that needed to be sorted through. What stays up here, what do I want in my office (once i set up my office) what is for storage. Oh, here are stamps and envelopes. Wonderful. Oh! an extension cord. Yes. Hooray. So that got started and I found the puzzle that was on the puzzle table in the livingroom that I disassembled when we moved. She has a new home. 

We bought ourselves a really nice Turkish lamp when we were in New Orleans a few years ago, and the bulb burned out. It is kind of a "special" looking bulb and I've put off trying to figure out what it is. 

Enter: Google Lens. 

I took a picture of it with my phone and found out exactly what it was. Found a link to Amazon, ordered a two-pak since it was less expensive to buy two than to buy one (go figure). It will arrive Tuesday.

The day was getting away from me, and I realized I needed to hit the treadmill. I didn't want a run-run but I wanted to dedicate a full half hour to this effort. Spotify gave me a daylist called "flannel baggy jeans Sunday Afternoon," which actually had some good fast-ish songs so I doubletimed some of the walking, ended up with a little over a 15 minute mile on both miles (2 total). Not bad. 

Doug was napping after doing the taxes (and we owe a lot more than I thought we would so I'm slowing down on paying off the credit card (so close) and I'm not shifting my retirement plan back to 13% where it was before we started saving for the house. Doug told me to do it before New Years, I need to call the retirement company to do it personally, no online changes for this (which is obnoxious). Thankfully I've delayed, and to be honest, I'm super okay with that. 

I jumped in the shower and after I got out, dressed, etc he told me his cousin called and wanted to come by. 

I mean.

No? Like no? I am not in the mood. Initially I was kind of mad, but honestly, he has no one else. And for some reason he likes to hang out here. And I put away my shitty attitude, poured a glass of wine, and ate dinner. 

When he got here, I asked if he'd had dinner yet and he hadn't. 

So I warmed up some of ours for him. We had some random ass beers because Geoff buys these mixes from places and there's always a Mango something or a Coconut Chocolate thing in the sampler, and no one likes those. Oh, or lite beers. Mix packs lately are coming with lite beers. 

He accepted one we had that wasn't too fruity or sour or high in ABV. I loaded the dishwasher, and thought about baking cookies but then just felt like nah. I didn't want to go through the effort. So I sat to watch TV with them.

Doug pulled up an anime he had watched a long time ago and kind of stopped watching. I went upstairs to set up the puzzle table that I'd been jonesing to do for a super long time. Sorting the pieces, I think the small square table isn't going to be big enough for this one, so maybe we need the big rectangle one I was planning for my desk (the puzzle table from the last house). I'll give it a shot. 

Realizing that if anyone is going to evening puzzle work, we're going to need a lamp over in that area, and my little light bulb refilled Turkish lamp will be just the thing.  

Not a bad day but also, not exactly what I'd envisioned for end of day. I've had worse, ya know?

Before and after pictures of the corner by my bedside are below. As are the digits.

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours.  Treadmill, 30 min/2.03 mi. 12k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:30am: 150
4:30pm: 140
10:15pm: 117

food & meds:
8:30am: jardiance+phentermine
protein shake mixed in my coffee
12:15pm: 2 eggs, scrambled w/goat cheese and bacon
the rest of Geoff's mac & cheese w/bacon (i'm weak)
1pm: met & glip 
5:30pm: cheesesteak filling with some onion rings (mushrooms, red pepper, onion in the mix)
9pm: met+glip
red wine

Dead Birds and Dry Turds

Oh my gosh, you guys, it was gorgeous out there today. 

Up early again today and Doug slept until almost 10. I heard the news about the Iran situation and opted not to turn on the TV. 

I poked around the kitchen, ate two donuts, played phone games, cuddled the dog. When Doug came down, he put on the TV and I walked away. I went upstairs and cleaned a bit, stripped the bed and got some more stuff organized. 

Then, I went outside because watching the news and listening to "that guy" talk about stuff was not going to make me happy. And it was beautiful. I got the dog shit rake and shovel out, got a bucket and lined it with a trash bag and I started picking up. Toffee came outside with me, and she was romping and playing and having a good old time. 

90% of the dog crap was picked up and I gathered up a bunch of sticks. I thought about the phrase "Stick Season," and how this isn't the same as what it means in Vermont (or, Noah Kahan's album title) this is a different kind of stick season. I like this stick season, getting ready for a little camp fire action in the yard. And boy, is our season plentiful! 

There were more toys in the yard, hair clips and matchbox cars. Honestly every time I go out there, I find more and more toys. One would think I would have found them all by now. 

I looked over at Toffee and she had something in her mouth and was throwing it up in the air, letting it drop, grabbing it and running. Having the time of her life.

I realized it was a bird. A very dead bird. Good Lord, gross. No. 

And people wonder why I don't let the dog lick me in the face, any dog. Nope. 

I tried to get her to drop it but she did not want to give it up. Doug had come outside to see what I was up to (I guess he also tired of the repetitiveness of the news and wanted to check out the weather). 

"Your dog has a dead bird in her mouth and she won't drop it," I let him know. He tricked her into coming into the house for a bully stick, without the bird, so I was able to clean it up. Into the bucket with the poop. 

We sat on the patio for quite a while, Doug looked like he wanted to take a nap and I told him it was okay if we didn't go do something. He asked if I knew tomorrow's weather (what do I look like, Harvey Leonard?) I said I heard it was going to be cooler, much cooler, like high of 40. Today was a high of 73. He said we should seize the day. 

Geoff went to the market, and we went to the C&O canal in Williamsport. We only walked about 2.5 miles total, coulda gone longer, but both of us were feeling like we wanted to get home. Geoff made dinner, I worked on some work stuff, Doug took that nap. 

Even if it is cooler tomorrow, I think it is not supposed to be windy. Maybe we will get a second good day of walking in. 

He's going to start our taxes tomorrow, which is always fun because he has to reset the password, and gets yelly at the software. 

Maybe I'll take the dog somewhere solo. 

Digits below some pictures. I did take a pic of the dead bird but will not post it here, lest you be super duper grossed out! 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. C&O canal walk with Doug and Toffee, 56 min/2.53 miles at a nice pace. 12k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

7:30am: 102
4:30pm: 147
10:30pm: 174

food & meds:
7:30am: jardiance+phentermine; 2 Krumpe's Donuts
1pm: small bowl of tuna fish w/ the last of the salad greens and some cherry tomatoes; met+glip
5pm: small bowl of cashews
6pm: spicy "dirty" rice with ground beef, shredded cheddar, sour cream.
9:15pm: met+glip
no wine/beer 

Early Bird gets the Late Nite Donuts

I was awake at 4. Went to pee, drank some water, put on some Biofreeze on my hip and right knee. Back to bed. The dog came to join me because I am, of course, the best and most wonderful dog parent to snuggle with and she loves me. 

I woke up a little before 7. Tried to go back to sleep but it wasn't happening. 

So I got up and fed miss thing and let her out. I did my blood sugar, I made the coffee. When the dog came back in, I felt like ... well. I could sit on the couch, drink coffee, play my phone games or damn it...

I could get on the treadmill at 7:30am. Are we doing this? Are we doing this! 

We did this. I did a solid mile but not at a fast clip. Just to get it done, get the mile out of the way. It was going to be a busy busy day. 

As you can see, ya gurl has crushed the 100 miles, we're halfway done with the challenge, and who knows, maybe I'll hit 500 miles by the time this is buttoned up in April. New goal set, I guess. 

But this morning I was sluggy and tired and I forced myself to finish the mile. 

Note to self: drink coffee first for best results.

After the treadmill, I got a shower. I've been putting off showering most days until the afternoon so this was nice. Felt like a human being who goes to a job. And working before 9am. 

There were a lot of meetings today and a lot of helpdesk tickets, but I had a nice wide open time slot in the middle. 

I was going to take toffee for a walk but Geoff beat me to it. Probably a good plan because I had a lot of work to do still before leaving for dinner. 

A friend of mine from college and her husband were passing through, driving down to South Carolina and then to Florida. They thought this was a good stopping point before making it to SC and arrived last night. They went for a long walk on the C&O canal. 

We tried to remember when we saw one another last and it has to be maybe 1994. But it was like we saw each other the other day. Lots of catching up, talking about the kids, houses, work. Doug and the husband hit it off really well and it was fun to sit there chatting and listening to the two of them talk as well. 

We mentioned the donut place and told them about how it is only open to the public from 7pm-11pm. "Let's go," she said. She has Celiac's so she can't eat the donuts "but he's entitled to indulge!" 

There was a big line but it was moving quickly. They were horribly entertained by the concept of this late night donut thing, and he got a dozen so he could eat one or two and bring the rest to his sister in SC. 

When I got home, I took my evening medicine (90 min. late) and my blood sugar (a little too high) so I passed on the donut treat. We'll see how things are tomorrow. 

I also got on the treadmill when we got home, because I was 2k steps or so short for the goal. I stayed seated at the restaurant while we were all chatting away, so there was that to make up for and more. 

So I crushed that and got ready for bed.  

Tomorrow, the weather is supposed to be amazing so I hope we can get some yard work done (maybe) or a nice walk somewhere (more likely). 

Digits below this shot of the nighttime donut gang.

digits

exercise: 10/12 hours.  Missed 7 and 8pm for sitting at dinner. Early Treadmill, 18 min/1.06 miles, Late Treadmill, 20 min/1.29 mi.  11k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

7am: 119
4pm: 91
10:30pm: 191

food & meds:
7am: jardiance+phentermine
8:30am: protein shake
1pm: met+glip
1:45pm: ramekin of tunafish 
4pm: handful of trail mix that had a bunch of sugar coated thingies (oops)
6pm: beef brisket w/some BBQ sauce, a little coleslaw (gross) 
9:30pm: met+glip

skipped the donut, no wine/beer

TV Time

Tonight, I watched TV. Doug put on the Rowan Atkinson version of Maigret, which I really enjoyed. Have to say, Rowan Atkinson plays a lovely serious old man French detective. Then we started watching the 1960s version, which was also very good. 

Nothing really good or interesting today. Tomorrow we're going to dinner with an old dorm mate of mine from college, she is a Pokemon friend and she and her husband are toodlin' aboot our area, so she remembered I sent her Pokemon gifts from our town and she hit me up to invite us out. 

I haven't told Doug yet but ... I will! 

And that's about it. Digits below, noting I think my blood sugar has been kinda high the past week or so, so I'mma tryina to better with it and not bake and eat cookies and stuff. Reel myself in. 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Treadmill twice. First was 16 min/1.03 mi running; 22 min/1.04 walking slowly just to get to 10k. 11k+ by bedtime

blood glucose:

7am: 122
4:45pm: 128
10:30pm: 151

food & meds:
7am: jardiance+phentermine
10:45am: 647 everything bagel w/cream cheese
2:15pm: met+glip (almost forgot!); ramekin of mixed nuts 
5:45pm: 2 boneless pork chops shake & bake, peas,  6 pierogis
9pm: met+glip
no wine/beer

In the 14 minute range

Funny note. I went to the guest room last night after 2am when I had to pee. Immediately fell back asleep which was nice. 

Around 6am, I heard what I thought was a thunderstorm. It was part of my dream, it seems. I opened my eyes, expecting to see some flashes of lightning but only heard this rolling thunder.

It was Toffee, snoring in my butt. Tucked into behind my legs super tight, and just snoring her brains out. I shifted so she could breathe, and I laughed. Brian Rosenworcel is the Thundergod, but I'm sleeping with the Thunderdog. 

Since I've been using the treadmill almost daily, and  simply walking a mile takes too long. I started jogging. Then actually running. I was super proud of myself if I did a mile in 16 minutes. Running.  Actually running. Doug said that he could do that walking. 

I said good for you, you walk fast. But my fat little joggy body is doing great breaking a 16 minute mile. 

He also said "why would you do that to yourself?" Which made me laugh.

Doug is not a fan of runners and running, races resulting in road closures and detours so that people can take over miles of a town. 

He thinks it is a stupid waste of time, resources, space. I get it but it is like, no harm no foul to me.

It is similar to the way I feel about golf courses. I hate golf courses, and the maintenance of them. So wasteful. So much water. Road races don't piss me off so much. 

It took me a long time to break 16 minutes and get into a 15 minute mile pace. And over the past couple of days I've been solidly in the 14 minute mile pace. The trick for me is to do a good warm up amount of steps and then turn on the Fitbit tracker and start running, this way my first couple minutes are not at 19 min/mile warming up but I can just get right into the fast. 

I've cracked into the 12 min and 13 min areas, and it evens out when I have to slow down but I try not to let it get over 14+ min and back into the 15 min range. 

Today was a good run. I've had an attention span problem the last couple days where I get to 15 minutes and I'm so very done. I know I've hit the mile, so I stop and go back to work or whatever. The problem then turns into not having enough steps to hit 10k by bedtime. I get my mile in, sure, but then end up having to do a lot more steps or get back on the treadmill for another 10- 15 minutes just to do 10k steps. 

When we go to bed, Toffee is exceptionally playful lately so we bring some formerly stuffed toys upstairs, and she runs around. We play keep away. I can sometimes get an extra thousand steps in before tucking in. 

We went outside this afternoon and she ran around like crazy while I surveyed the yard. Wow. So much dog crap. Gotta get the rake and bucket out to handle this and start cleaning it up. Never thought I'd hope for another 2 inches of snow to just cover it all up again and hide it. 

I may get that wish from what it sounds like, Monday into Tuesday from what I read. 

Today is a crush 11k steps day. I was thinking we'd get a good second walk outside with the dog and Doug but he took a nap and I cooked dinner. Geoff cooks so much for us that I gave him a break on things for a change. 

Busy work day and another busy one tomorrow. Digits below!

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Treadmill, image above. 30 min/2.13 mi; 11k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:15am: 138
5pm: 135
10:45pm: 122

food & meds:
8:15am: jardiance+phentermine
9am: Entenmann's chocolate donut
11:45pm: bowl of mac & cheese w/bacon
1:45pm: met+glip
6:30pm: chicken fajita - one wrap (low carb) but a pile of filling on the side. A little spanish rice, some sour cream, shredded cheddar
8:30pm: met+glip
red wine

It Was Almost Operation Rescue Shirley Up In Here

Work was chaos today, we had a small outage due to something happening outside our control with one of our vendors. Once it was assessed and fixed, everything went back to normal. Except one other thing. My work son and I had a meeting to troubleshoot the hell out of this other thing, and we think we figured it out for one client but not the other. 

While I'm dealing with the outage, Doug comes downstairs and asks if I'd heard when mom is going to get her power back on. I told him the email we got from her trailer community said "several days, most likely" and that I didn't have any idea what the current status was. 

Her neighbors came and got her on Sunday so she didn't have to be in the trailer in the cold alone if the power went off, and it did go off.  They have a generator, and made it clear she was to stay with them. Linda and I were very comfortable with this. So she'd been there since then. Her neighbors are sweet and kind, and I so appreciate they got her... 

Doug felt it was asking too much for them to host her for much longer. 

"We should go extricate your mom from the situation. Operation Rescue Shirley." Doug likes to call things "Operation" whatever, so this was his name for the plan. 

Um.

Well? I kind of agree but hell if we drive up there, literally the entire city of Providence is closed to traffic. All the bridges are closed. The airport is closed. We won't be able to fly up, rent a car, get her, and turn around and head this way. Plus, with our luck, we get up there, get her, head back this way, and while we are on our way here the power is restored. Or. She's here for one day and the power gets restored. 

Maybe I drive up, get her, and take her far enough away from where she lives where there is no power, get a hotel, like maybe Connecticut or upstate NJ... and what, two days? see how that goes? Go up to New Hampshire? stay up there near Jess and C? For my sanity please? 

Maybe I go get her and take her to Linda? But Linda has a board meeting to run today, and her guest room is not ready, and it would be asking a lot. 

So. Maybe we wait and see if the power comes on? One more day? Wait one more day. 

The power was restored this afternoon, and her neighbor came up to her house to make sure the furnace was running, the pipes had not burst, cranked the heat a little bit, and then brought her up the circle back home. 

So tonight I'm reflecting on the fact that my husband feels it is very important for not other people to be taking care of our family members and he was willing to right then step up and start driving. I agree with him. Other people should not have to take care of her. In fact, I thought about canceling my trip to John and heading to her instead... but that would maybe have made me a villain to him. Maybe. 

I'm using the word maybe a lot. 

But my husband is a good egg with a big heart. He's a big damn hero sometimes. And while I'm trying to write a customer wide outage email announcement, he's grilling me about maybe taking off to head that way (it was 10am). 

I'm incredibly relieved that he is the person he is, and that we didn't have to enact the Operation Rescue Shirley adventure. But also wanted to talk to Linda first before buying plane tickets to try and go up there, or like, how do we do this at all. Fly up? rent a car? Drive back? Drive up and back? He was suggesting somehow that I fly back here with her and I'm thinking Jesus No. She is going to say no fucking way - she won't even go on a road trip somewhere close to home much less fly on a plane. That would be a challenge and a half.

So once I heard the power was on, that she was secure and back home, I hit the treadmill (sent the email missive) and crushed a mile with a 14.37 min pace. Anxiety will do that for ya. 

I fell short of the amount of steps I usually have by 7pm, so I got on the treadmill again (too cold for a dog walk) and just slow strolled while reading the news. I realized today was the SOTU and I wanted nothing to do with it, so I unpacked some more boxes up in my room and avoided it all. Mentally, I feel better for it. 

Here's a pic of mom that neighbor friend sent us. Thanks neighbor friends! 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Two walks, first an early-ish run 17 min/1.17 mi. Make up steps, 15 min/.69 mi. 10k+ steps by bedtime (tried for 11k, ran out of time). 

blood glucose:

8:30am: 138
4:30pm: 150
10pm: 160

food & meds:
8:30am: jardiance (waiting on phentermine)
a handful of mini-reeses pb cups
11am: very large apple w/pb
1pm: met+glip
4:30pm: ramekin of cashews
6pm: black bean and kielbasa soup (a la Geoff) 2 Kings Hawaiian rolls
white wine
9pm: met+glip