Galentines and Get Stuff Done Days

I was so tired last night so apologies to C for not posting an entry. I know she looks for things to have something to read. But you get a double post today. 

Our girlies weekend kicked off with just a day visit yesterday. I left the house at 9am, stopped at our bank to deposit some checks and traffic made it that I didn't get to S's house until 10:30 when I'd promised to be there by 10. It was funny because I completely forgot there was a branch of our bank right by S's house and I could have gotten her and then stopped. Moving away, you forget things. 

I was very sad to drive past a favorite restaurant and see it closed. Doug said we moved out of town and they went out of business! 

Traffic was merciful to us on the way to H's north of Baltimore. If you know where I live, you know how far I drove from here, to Silver Spring, to north of Baltimore... 

But it is worth it for the girlies! 

My task was to stop and get champagne for the mimosas, so S & I stopped in at a little place near H's house (since the restaurant I mentioned was closed down, so was the beer and wine store that was attached. Such a loss... so sad!) 

We picked up a couple bottles and saw they had these super cute boozy presents, with Cutwater cocktails, candy, little stuffed animals. What a smart thing to have for sale on Valentine's Day at a liquor store as we're on our way to brunch. We grabbed H and R each a bag, and I put the cookies I'd made into each bag. 

It looked very much like we planned it ahead even though we bought them 5 minutes before arriving. 

I am not good at planning ahead for gifts sometimes, so I am your retail point of sale target for cute shit. Keep that in mind, retailers! R had little stuffed animals and candies for me and S. So gifts all around for the girlies!

We played with H's cats, chatted, caught up, and ate. H made a lovely spread for us. Because I was driving, I didn't have a lot of mimosa action, but what I had made me happy. 

You can see H's cat David Wallace up in the window there. Her cats are so sweet. It was nice to get some kitty love. 

After we ate we played Cards Against Humanity. I've never played it so they gave me the run down on the rules. It is kind of like Apples to Apples, which we played a lot with the kids when they were little. But grosser. S said they have "clean" family friendly versions, but they're actually quite boring. A lot of the answer cards in the family version mention pooping or farting, which some families STILL find disgusting and not appropriate. 

I remembered one of my college professors telling a class that he and his wife were at dinner with their three daughters and some of their daughters' friends, and somehow they started joking around about farts. And the girls were screaming laughing. 

Even evangelicals can find fart jokes funny, y'all. Farts are funny. Don't you ever forget that. So I smiled thinking about that memory and played a card where the answer was Donald J. Trump and it was disgusting and I won.

Have to say I did very well, didn't win (R did) but when the goal is to be gross and ridiculous, not just funny, and you make your friends scream because they literally didn't expect you to put down certain cards, I call that victory.

S had made plans for us to do an escape room. Escape rooms are her thing, kind of not mine. But her husband and son were coming up to meet us, and R's husband was coming from their place nearby, and seven of us took it on and beat it with 10 minutes to spare. 

I would kind of enjoyed just playing more Cards Against Humanity, but this was fun too. S and her family are very very very into the escape rooms and solving puzzles. It can be intimidating for me. I'm easily confused and I fail if the challenge is too hard. 

But winning with a team is always fun. We each had bits that we solved. Hen and I found the UV light money, and figured out the password to the computer. 

After the escape room, R and her husband were headed home to get ready to go to the Baltimore Symphony for a date. H, SS&H went to dinner, and I headed home. I got home before dark, which is lovely. It's still light at about 6pm so that worked out perfectly. 

S is planning to host our next shenanigans, whenever that will be, and I'm already looking forward to it. 

When I got home, Geoff had made dinner. Doug did a few things around the house and yard. He replaced our windshield wipers on the mini, cleared more snow out of our driveway so now it is 100% accessible. It was over 50 degrees yesterday so a lot of the snow and snowcrete on the ground is gone. Ready for this all to be finished at this rate. 

I needed to get my mile in for the town challenge so I hit the treadmill after dinner. Kind of a mistake because my belly was full of food and blah. No running, just walking, and getting it done. I crawled to bed at 10 and passed out. 

On Sunday we somehow woke up very early. It was raining, and Doug had a case of the Olympics, and then he went and took a nap at noon. 

I had hoped we'd do something fun, but that didn't happen. So I hit the treadmill, and started futz about with putting some things away. I cleaned up some boxes for recycling, took all of our luggage and duffel bags down to the basement and put them away. Doug had suggested we put all our shoes into this little cubby closet in the bedroom so I put all mine in there (I do not own a lot of shoes) and located all of his from the mud room, and put them in a laundry basket for him to sort through. Some are keepers and some are maybe just lawn mowing shoes at this point. 

Then, I looked at some of the basement situation and emptied out a couple book boxes. I stacked up some plastic boxes that were just hither and dither all over the place to compact things. Geoff has several half emptied boxes that are mostly trash now (in my opinion) and I want him to sort those so tomorrow I'll see if he wants to have at it and get some of the empty boxes up out of the basement. 

Once I have the lingering boxes put away I think I actually have no further excuses, I should set my office up downstairs. A project for another day! All told, a decent weekend.

Digits below the pic of us girlies. 

Saturday digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Treadmill, 30 min/1.63; 10k+ steps by bedtime (almost 11k, but I just could not. lol)

blood glucose:

8am: 83
xpm: n/a
10pm: 143

food & meds:
8am: jardiance+phentermine
8am: large pan bang chocolate chip cookie
noon: scrambled eggs w/cheddar cheese, 3 pieces of turkey bacon, some fruit salad, 1 piece of toast; 1 mimosa
1pm: met+glip
6pm: piece of chicken parm
8:45pm: met+glip

Sunday digits

exercise: x/12 hours. Treadmill, 31 min/2.01 miles; 11k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

7am: 103
xpm: n/a (forgot to test)
10:30pm: 142

food & meds:
7am: jardiance+phentermine; small piece of pb pan bang cookie
11:30am: bowl of mac & cheese w/hamburger
12pm: met+glip
6pm: 3 slices of buffalo chicken pizza
8:45pm: met+glip
white wine (3 glasses)

Project Managing

In the midst of this big project we're doing, I'm not the project manager but a person on the team. A few people, my boss and another director on the team, are doing an exceptional job herding the cats. 

It is kind of funny, not my boss but the other co-worker J is very good at sending (somewhat constant) reminders of where I am on certain spreadsheets. Today was "Good news, there are only 40 of these things that still need verified!" 

Considering I was supposed to be done with this earlier in the week, I feel that is an exceptionally kind way of telling me "hey. Finish this, dummy!" 

I'm thankful for his gentle coaxing.

He's also VERY good at filtering the google sheets so what I need to see at the top of the sheet is those 40 rows (hey....!!! Four of them have been accounted for! I rule!) The data are a freaking mess, so a sheet with 2000 rows so many of them "TBD" and that's what I'm supposed to be doing, he has filtered out the "cancel" and "archive" and "active" statuses for me. 

My brain cannot sift through and find the TBDs with all the other things. And several of us are in this sheet, so if I sort things so TBD is at the top, basically, someone comes in and unfilters my filter while I am looking at it. Which sends me spiraling, and usually to the kitchen for a snack, or I pick up my phone and doom scroll. 

I'm not a good project manager, except for the checking in, looking at things, and reminding colleagues "hey. Finish this, dummy!" 

Today was supposed to be a revisit of our fun girlie's day in November, this time with a sleepover and an escape room. Then one thing happened, another thing happened, some bad medical news for one girlie, and we cut out the sleepover. We're still doing the escape room tomorrow, since one of our girlies prepaid it. I'm going to pick S up at 10am tomorrow, we'll go to H's house, R is meeting us there, and we'll do brunchies (H is insisting on cooking for us, even though I offered to chef some shit up) and I'm going to allow it. And I should be home before dark. 

They all know I have a difficult time seeing to drive at night, but I did say this won't be a problem if I'm on the road before 5 because of the snow, it helps define where road is. Instead of everything being grey and dark brown and there not being any street lights and no paint on the road, I feel relatively safe.

I had planned this afternoon off since I thought I was going to get S today. Then I thought, I'll take my time off request back. Then I thought screw that, take the damn time off!... and finally I had enough to do today to keep me crazy and busy, so I worked. In the end, the time off request was taken back. 

That helped me to actually focus on the spreadsheets and the work. The QA user testing, the note taking. It wasn't wasted time. I worked until 4, and then started with some wine.

Geoff made a nice dinner, and I ended up baking more of the pan banging cookies. Chocolate chip and then Peanut Butter. Both are outstanding. I used our potato masher to make patterns on the peanut butter cookies because that's mandatory! 

Alright. Bed. So tired. Up early tomorrow for shenanigans. Digits below this cute picture from A's school of rock show.

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Treadmill, 32 min/2 miles. 11k+ steps by bedtime.

blood glucose:

8am: 113
5pm: 145
10:30pm: 91

food & meds:
8am: jardiance+phentermine
noon: a bunch of the buffalo chicken dip left over w/pita crackers (a lot of pita crackers)
1:45pm: met+glip
6pm: 2 italian sausages w/onion and pepper, red sauce and mozz. cheese. I skipped the roll. 
9pm: met+glip
red wine+diet ginger ale

Thinking of Big Things

This morning, the neighbor dogs woke me up around 6am with barking. Toffee woke up too but continued to snooze. I had to pee, but didn't want to get up and go downstairs so I cuddled with her, drifted in and out for another hour. 

Finally, it was futile to stay in bed so up we got. Last night I was working on something for work until 10pm (at least) and I thought our dishwasher was full, that Geoff hadn't unloaded it so I left the dishes for today. I hate leaving the dishes in the sink, but I wasn't about to unload and reload after working so late. 

This morning the dishes welcomed me. 

I fed the dog, I went to the bathroom, I started the coffee, I let her out. Sigh. 

Still thinking that the dishwasher was full, I wasn't about to wait for him to come upstairs so I opened it up reluctantly. 

Well then. 

He had emptied it, not sure when, but good on him. Thank you. I got the dishwasher loaded and running all before my first cup of coffee. 

The dog came back in, and it was clear that it was Cuddle Time and not Chrissie gets on the Treadmill Time. That's okay. I really wanted coffee and the afternoon free of meetings was perfect to get the walk in on the treadmill. Treadmill came after work. 

In other news, The Cousin has been haunting my texts. His birthday is a week from tomorrow and he doesn't want to be alone in the "hell hole" that he is in. Hell hole is his terminology, as well as gulag, concentration camp, among others. 

Doug and I are going to go visit on Saturday. We can't make it on Friday the actual birthday. 

Everything with him is very dramatic and over the top. The nurses are all gestapo, Dr. Mengele tortures him, the hospital is a concentration camp or a Siberian prison. It's a little exhausting to me because while I get it, it is true, his life isn't awesome, it isn't what he thought it would be. It's hard. 

But he isn't one of the 10 million people who died as a result of Hitler's Holocaust of Stalin's Great Terror. 

He is such a student of history, and historical facts are very important to him.  If you say something wrong about the Civil War (ie: Calling it the Civil War is not the right thing, it is the War of Northern Aggression. My response: NO IT ISN'T IT IS THE CIVIL WAR AND I'LL FIGHT YOU ON IT). 

I find this hyperbolic references to these events, well, offensive to be honest. It detracts from the reality of what happened. It lessens and waters down the evil that was borne upon the world just because he is inconvenienced. And it steals from survivors, the few who still walk this earth, and the memories of those lost. 

I told C in an email that I feel like flipping the script on him. Turn the tables and say: "Yeah, you're really in hell! Just like the Union soldiers who were held by the Confederacy at Libby Prison on Belle Isle! Only a handful of Union Officers were supposed to be held there, but then they crammed hundreds and hundreds of captured Union soldiers, prisoners of war, starved them, tortured them, and set dogs upon them to rip them to shreds! Yeah i totally see that." 

I too am a student of history.  

Anyway. Digits below. Oh - my friend Amy posted this picture of us from a visit 15 years ago. She may be coming to visit in March. But I'm noticing how much less face I have now, compared to then. Still, we're cute. 

digits

exercise: 11/12 hours. Missed 8pm because of a TV show. Treadmill: 30 min/2.02 mi. Broke the 15 min/mile pace for the first time! 14.47 min! yay! 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

7am: 139
4:15pm: 103
11:30pm: 153

food & meds:
7am: jardiance+phentermine
9:30am: slice of cheese and cherry danish
noon: chicken salad on 647 bread
12:45pm: met+glip
1:15pm: more chicken salad, just on a plate
6:30pm: giant bowl of Buffalo Chicken Soup a la Geoff
8:45pm: met+glip
no alcohol

Olympic coverage

For some reason this year, Doug is absolutely into the olympics. He watches skiing every night. Curling. Hockey. 

I'm sitting here working on a number of things for work and he's got a running commentary about everything. I think he finally caught on that I'm not paying any attention. 

Kind of hilarious how he's just invested this year. He heard one of the commentators say something like "and we all know what happened to her..." 

He yelled NO WE DO NOT! And I just happened to have read an article on NPR about the skier in question  so I told him what happened to her. 

So I am paying attention, I guess. In my own weird way. 

Busy day today. A couple meetings and I still have to have my face in a spreadsheet but I wrote up help documentation for something instead for something completely different that is a lot more timely. I have a friend who was in serious crisis all day, checking in with me, and me checking in with her. In the end things are close to being worked out but she was beside herself all day. 

The treadmill was helpful today. The wind is too wicked, so I wasn't about to go out there with Toffee and walk anywhere. So happy this is here. 

Digits below! 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Treadmill. 32 min/2 miles. 11k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:15am: 154
4:45pm: 103
10:45pm: 182 (thanks apple pie. lol)

food & meds:
8:15am: jardiance+phentermine
10am: protein shake
1pm: met+glip; bowl of mac & cheese w/ ground beef
6pm: geoff's fried rice, with bacon (no other protein available)
8:30pm: met+glip; slice of Apple pie w/whipped cream
no alcohol

Outside Walking

The electrician came, fixed a breaker in the panel that had a short wire. So far, so good. We then spent about a half hour talking about metal music, Guster, WWE/Wrestling, and cartoon network shows we love. 

I wanted to just give him Geoff's phone number and say, "He hasn't found his people here. He could use a friend, and you're the closest thing so far that we've found."

So far, our electrical situation is smooth. We still need to figure out our icemaker, and there is one more troubleshooting thing Doug wants to do for it before we give up and disconnect the water and just ... make ice forever. 

Until the fridge dies and we replace it. Who knows when that may be! 

Work was so busy today. I got swept up in a late in the day ask from a colleague that turned into a whole "you've got to be kidding me, why didn't you ask us to test this a month ago?" moment. 

After futzing for a half hour, I said to him (and the entire thread, including my boss) "Okay. I've got to take my dog for a walk or she will die. I'll test this when I get back." 

I closed the laptop, leashed her up, and off we went. I had wanted to be done at about 4 but there I was after 5 still working... I don't mind it, I just thought I'd get a good walk in and come back and finish up another hour. As is, it was getting dark, I wanted an outside walk for Toffee, and it just had to be put to a stop. I had to think of us and our needs. 

I also wanted a walk outside for me, not just her, to be honest. 

Finally it was over 10 degrees and not windy. This was the day if ever there was a day, to get some miles under the feet. It was a good walk.  Where the sidewalks were clear it was fantastic but there are so many houses where the people just did not shovel, so we had to loop out onto the road. And people drive like absolute idiots. So it was a bit frustrating.

There's a stretch of the walk that I like to do where there isn't a sidewalk, so you're walking on the shoulder of the road. But that's not plowed or shoveled. So we cut it short about a half mile sooner than I planned. Still, more than a mile, Done and dusted. 

My dog also acted like she completely forgot how to walk on a leash. Take that discipline away for a week or so and she goes feral.

I got back, I built a web presentation for what I think things should look like. Sent it to the team. Said... well, we won't know until tomorrow morning if what I built works because we have to see if it magically updates when the content is updated. Cross your fingers.  It is supposed to show up on multiple other websites that have subscribed to that content. 

But it may not work. It may be all for naught. And I'm so mad no one talked to my team before building the thing they built. 

How many years have we been doing these things? sigh. 

Geoff made a great dinner but not enough protein in it. I need to nag him about doubling the chicken or beef in recipes. 

A good day all told. And we do it again tomorrow. 

Digits.... below. 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours.  Walk with Toffee (finally "warm" enough outside). 25 min/1.36 mi. 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8am: 92
4:15pm: 102
10pm: 154

food & meds:
8am: jardiance+phentermine
10am: breakfast tart
1pm: met+glip; roast beef + swiss on 647 white
6pm: chicken and rotini in vodka sauce a la Geoff
8:15pm: met+glip
vodka & diet tonic

Electrician

We need an electrician now. 

I feel like it is one thing after another per usual, when you buy a house. You already know we replaced the dishwasher. We replaced the hot water heater last week. Our washing machine is making a squeeking noise when it is running so maybe she's on her way out. Who knows. We're waiting for our new microwave to arrive. The ice maker on the freezer stopped working, we cannot figure out how to get it started again. But I can make ice with ice trays. 

It's always something. 

But the electrician. Here's why. 

A couple weeks ago, a breaker tripped. The one that runs the fridge, dishwasher, and under cabinet lights. Geoff flipped the breaker back for us. It happened again. And again. I came down the other night and I thought that the under cabinet lights had burned out (which, I hope they never do because I don't know how we'd replace these things). I told Doug and he said "oh, the breaker tripped. Ask Geoff to take care of it. 

Well, it was 5:45am. I wasn't going to go downstairs and bother him. Or text him. I decided to wait. The fridge had not been opened, so everything was safe until he could take care of it (oh - the electric panel is in his bedroom). 

So he did. And it tripped again. 

And. Again.

Yesterday was four times. 

It doesn't matter if the dishwasher is running or whatever. It just goes. 

So I checked the list of contractors and stuff that our realtor gave us and the electrician on that list did not return my calls. 

Google is my friend. So I found an outfit not too far from the house and called. The person who answered the phone was super nice, got us set up with a visit tomorrow between 10am and 1pm. I told her I have a hard stop at 2 pm so if he'll be later than 1 we can reschedule. 

I gave her my Capital One card and it got rejected. Which has been happening a LOT lately any time we try to use it online or do something over the phone like this. I know Capital One is trying to protect us from fraud and shit but come the fuck ON. 

She and I joked around about how fraud-ish I was being right then to line up an electrician. I said "well, I appreciate them protecting me from fraud but it SUCKS when I'm trying to buy concert tickets on Ticketmaster and I get a two factor authentication screen, and I am waiting for a code and it doesn't arrive until AFTER TICKETMASTER CANCELS MY ORDER and I lose my place in line." And she did the whole OH I KNOW!  and told me how she lost second row seats to a show in Baltimore recently that she really wanted and ended up getting kicked back in line and it sold out before she could get back in. 

We both shook our fists together and it was funny.

I gave her my bank card, and it went right through. We're trying not to put things on that card. And I told her yeah... we're looking for a new bank because the bank we have, well, the nearest office is in Frederick and like, I have to go in person to deposit a check that their ATM rejected last weekend for some reason and I hate having to drive all the way to Frederick to do banking, so we're looking for something local to switch to. 

She said "Oh! Well. If you don't mind me suggesting. You don't know me and it isn't my business but since you mentioned it. My wife works at XYZ Bank and is a new customer account representative, her name is [redacted] and you should reach out to her and get hooked up." 

Reader.

This gave me pause. 

And I immediately loved her.

She doesn't know me. She doesn't know if I'd be all uppity about her having A WIFE!!!??? How many people might just flip out at her? 

A Wife!? For fuck's sake! 

But no. Not me. 

Honestly. I felt like that was something that could be dangerous to say to some people. There is so much hate in this world about who people love, or how they spend their lives and time. And she didn't bat an eye or hold back or anything. She told me about her wife. 

I told her I'd take that under advisement, because Doug had already decided on a bank locally but we hadn't gotten our shit together yet to go open the account. She said she totally gets it. And this bank is a little bigger than a "local" bank. "Local banks are super great but they sometimes get bought." 

"Yes, that's exactly what happened to the bank that we used when we lived in Silver Spring. They got bought by another bank, and if we were still down there it wouldn't be a pain but now? We're far. And thankfully there's Frederick but we'd like a nearby banking experience. 

She texted me later to give me her wife's name and the location of her branch. It is literally less than a mile from here. 

Maybe that'll be our bank. Gotta check with Doug about what he was thinking. 

And reader, I had a really good feeling today. I felt like honesty and openness reigned today. It brought me great joy to have this conversation. 

And I hope their electrician kicks ass and knows why the hell we're tripping balls up in here with our breaker. 

Digits, below.

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Treadmill, 30 min/2.01 miles. Was trying to break a 15 min per mile pace, but fell just short. Good effort though! 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:30am: 132
4:30pm: 150
10pm: 84

food & meds:
8:30am: jardiance+phentermine
12:45pm: bowl of ham and bean soup, 2 small pieces of crusty italian bread
1:30pm: last of the soup; met+glip
6:30pm: 2 boneless pork chops in a mushroom cream sauce (a la Geoff)
8:30pm: met+glip
9pm: ramekin of mixed nuts; vodka & diet tonic

The day of the superb owl. Long may he fly

Doug's cousin and his wife came through today on their way home from the DC area. Their son plays water polo so he had a big scrimmage or game or meet or whatever they call it. I can't believe how much he's grown. He's literally a giant human grown up man. I remember him being a tiny baby. 

I started the day early with a run on the treadmill, and then dishes and folding laundry. I thought about baking cookies to send home with the cousin but my mom called and she derailed those plans. 

The cousin fam arrived around 12:30. We had a great visit and initially the plan was we would all go out to lunch and they'd head out from there, but they confessed they were not hungry. The hotel had a big giant awesome breakfast that they all chowed down on. And that was perfectly fine. We pivoted.

After they left, Doug, Geoff, and I headed out for lunch, since we had shoes on and everything. We hit up the Broad Axe in downtown Hagerstown. I didn't want a full meal or anything because I was saving my appetite for snacks. 

It is Super Bowl Sunday, after all. Geoff went to the market for our game snacks and dinner fixn's for a couple days. Doug crashed with a big nap. And when Geoff got home I whipped up buffalo chicken dip and pigs in blankets. 

And the Patriots whipped up a big bowl of ugh for us. That was not a great game. I didn't think they would win but I didn't think it would be this bad a loss. Seattle is legit. Tough defense all that jazz. 

Long week ahead with a lot of work and I have to focus and buckle down with my friends The Spreadsheets. Several client meetings during the week, one of which I feel like I'm going to say "okay, so what is it you want me to do because none of this is going to work" as I crush someone's dreams. It's like that somtimes. 

No picture today, but the digits are down below.

 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Treadmill, 33 min/2.11 mi (I was working towards the end of a song so that's why the numbers are whack). 11k+ steps by bedtime.

blood glucose:

8:30am: 122
5pm: 101
10pm: 181

food & meds:
8:30am: jardiance+phentermine
9:45am: pop tart from Ted's Bulletin
1pm: met+glip
2pm: buffalo wings, 2 crab balls, 2 beers (at Broad Axe in Hagerstown) 
4pm: 1/2 of one of the big pb/chocolate whoopie pie cookie I bought yesterday for the boys
2 beers
during the football game: pigs in blankets, buffalo chicken dip w/celery; vodka and zero sugar cran (1) 

A DC Saturday Adventure

Saturday's entry on a Sunday morning

Yesterday I planned the treadmill in the morning first thing but didn't. Before I realized it, time had come to thinking about starting to get ready so I got a shower, got all figured out how I was going to get to DC. Doug and I talked about if I should metro or drive. I was leaning towards driving since it was a Saturday morning, and probably would be easy parking once I got down to 14th street maybe. He said that from what he'd been reading, the DC streets and sidewalks were covered in ice concrete, or "Icecrete" as people have been calling it. It is unmovable, solid, and everything is hard to deal with in town. Metro it is! So I  headed out at 10am thinking I would get there well before the 12:30 start time. 

I got there at 1. It was not as bad as Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, but it was DC Winter frustration. 

As I drove down the highway, someone recently lost control of their car in Montgomery County and the rescue teams were there, blocking the right lane off. It was around the bend so no one in the right lane could SEE the situation and get over so that was a challenge. We got past the accident as the ambulance was leaving and a couple of tow trucks were trying to figure out how to get the car out of the trees. 

Truth be told, I hope they did because it was a sight, and someone driving fast would have come along and seen it, and it would have been a big distraction. There was a crew dropping salt melt and things on the lane. I guess it melted just enough and froze solid again in that area. 

Wicked dangerous! 

After getting past there, I got to Shady Grove metro which is the closest metro station to me. It usually takes about an hour to get there if traffic is moving nicely but we were way over that. I parked, ran to the entrance, charged up my metro card, and waited 10 minutes. 

Everything got better for a while, the train was moving, things were good. But when we got to until we arrived at the Van Ness metro stop we were informed the trains were single tracking due to work being done, so we waited another 10 minutes. I'm sitting there, envisioning arriving after Henry is completely done with his songs. Well, I'll be on time for lunch!

Finally. Moving again! We got to Gallery Place where I was hopping on the green line, and they were only going to McPherson Square, 2 stops away from where I wanted to be. Something about electrical problems ahead.

Now, mind you... NONE of the single tracking or power issues were mentioned on the Metro website or the App. Which I used in order to make my decisions on how I was going to go from point A to B. 

I'm standing in the metro station, looking at my watch, already 15 minutes late. The fuck. 

Okay, pivot. Let's walk. Google maps told me it was a straight shot north, and should take 23 minutes. I bet I can do it in 20. But oh no, oh God, OH GOD it is so cold and windy. WINDY!!! The wind was taking layers of skin off my face. And um, yeah. Um. The sidewalks. The sidewalks are covered in large boulders of ice. There's nowhere to walk. I watched a guy trying to walk his dog past the convention center. 

Nope. Uber. Let's Uber. 

I fire up Uber, which. I cannot remember the last time I used it. Oh... of course. Let's install an update from Google Play. Oh yes, let's reverify our identity with texted codes. And yeah. What's your password? Don't remember your password? Here's an email to reset your password. Okay! Password reset. Finally. 

The uber was requested, it said he was 5 minutes away so I ducked into the Subway sub shop (to clarify so no one reading this who speaks different mass transit language thinks I ducked into the Subway aka the Metro) to keep warm. 

The guy literally showed right up. He got me up to my destination. 

I only missed two of Henry's songs. Not bad. Not bad at all. 

They played until almost 2pm. There were several kids missing so others filled in for them. Henry plays with the teen group even though he's just 11. And the teens are super impressive. The singers could use a little how to rock and roll and have some stage presence lessons but other than that it was wild watching these kids perform. 

Henry did great, sounded great. Flubbed a little bit at the end of a Talking Heads song and kept playing when the song was over, which was kind of cute because it was like he was in the zone and rocking it all out and unaware of the rest of the band. 

After, Sara had made reservations at a restaurant so we could celebrate Hen's birthday with Sean's family. Usually Sean's family comes to things and they don't go out to eat with us after but this time they were in. We had a blast, I really like Sean's brother in law. He's great to talk to. And their toddler is really cute. Her language skills are amazing. She's 2 and speaks in full sentences and just talks to people like a grown up. She's super into the solar system right now and told me the sun is too hot to step onto so we can't go there. 

I started to think about what I was going to do in order to get back to my car. S&S live close to where we used to live at the other end of the red line and I thought about driving over that way to park just to get the ride home with them but opted to do the west end of the red line instead. 

I could uber to a red line station. My original plan was to walk back to the green line stop that I was headed to in the first place but no - there's probably no way I'll get from that stop to a red line stop to get home. 

Sara said, without me asking, that they were going to drive me back to my car. I told them that was crazy, out of their way, but she said her office is right near there and getting home from there is no problem. Sean agreed. So we went, and for some reason the GPS sent us through Georgetown instead of some smarter way, and straight to a bridge that is closed and under construction. Kind of a shit-show, and an unwanted detour around Georgetown, which was so poorly plowed, with people trying to parallel park giant SUVs the size of aircraft carriers, and all kinds of shenanigans. 

They got me up to my car a little after 5pm and the ride home from there was a piece of cake. 

One must have an exceptionally strong constitution in the first place to deal with getting around DC. And yesterday was a perfect example of that. Thankful for Sean and his skills in the adventure. 

When I got home, Doug had done a goodly amount of tidying up. The boys had not made dinner or anything so it was decided there would be pizza. 

I brought home pastries from our restaurant where we had lunch and I overbought. But everything looked so amazing that I could not resist. 

Digits below. No pictures of Hen playing because we were too far away for good shots. But he was great. So great. I love seeing him improve and evolve as a musician. 

digits

exercise: 11/12 hours.  Missed 5pm driving in the car. Treadmill: 22 min/1.38 mi. 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:30am: 132
xpm: n/a
xpm: 114

food & meds:
8:30am: jardiance+phentermine
9:45am: Protein shake
2pm: met+glip
3pm: French Onion Cheeseburger: double burger patties on brioche bread, topped with gruyere cheese, and a small bowl of french onion soup onions (w/a little soup in the bowl). side salad. I wasn't going to eat the roll, but I used it to dip in the soup and have no regrets. Several of Henry's french fries
7pm: buffalo chicken bites
9:30pm: met+glip
no beer/wine

Out on a School Night Tired on the Next Day

I had mentioned recent posts that our microwave died on Monday. Doug ordered a new one online, did his price comparisons, shopped for the best deal, and ordered one up for us to be delivered today. 

Wednesday night he got an email from the company that they canceled our order. No reason. Just. Canceled. C and I had a whole email discussion on just buying shit you need on demand from Amazon. Doug shopped on Amazon and found better prices outside of Amazon and decided to go that route instead. Even driving across town to Walmart, this was cheaper even with the shipping.

As of late, Doug and I both have been making a concerted effort to shop locally, and not just order a bottle of HP sauce from Amazon to have it shipped when you can drive over and get it at the British Market the next town over.

For the most part, this has paid off well for us. Getting to know the local area, supporting local businesses instead of the Bezos Empire. 

Unfortunately. This is the second or third time that this has happened where he's ordered something from somewhere (not Amazon) only to have the order delayed horrifically or canceled. He had ordered an industrial nutcracker for the walnuts from some farming/hunting company, and it was delayed for months - and he finally canceled it out of frustration. I wondered on that one if imports and tariffs were the reason for the delay. Not the company's fault but also, shit. I had wanted fresh cracked walnuts to candy and send out to friends for Christmas. So. No. He still hasn't picked a new nutcracker for our needs

And then this one, canceled with no reason given.

Amazon was looking better and better. So I asked him if he wouldn't just buy one from Amazon. He said no - and told me that after work he wanted to just go over to Walmart and pick one up. Okay. Great. Let's go. 

On Thursday he was looped into a big meeting, and had to do a slide deck and part of the presentation. The meeting was at 5:30pm. Then he looked at the agenda and the meeting was running until 7pm, and his team was ... at the end. Of course. 

I did a quick walk on the treadmill after I was done working around 6:30, nothing fast. I had on my jeans so it wasn't a workout. He came down at 7:05, ate some dinner, and we left. 

It was weird to be going out this late to go microwave shopping, but we had a list of stuff to get as well, and we had a nice time. Big date night out, right? 

They did not have the microwave he wanted in stock, so he was disappointed. We got what we wanted to get otherwise. 

Shopping builds up a big thirst, and in the plaza next to Walmart there is a local brewery. We've gone a couple times but hadn't been in months because this is a little out of the way, not like the brewery that is in downtown that we could literally walk to if we wanted. 

We pulled up and they looked closed. All the screens were turned off, there was one guy at the bar, and a girl behind the bar. The lights were dimmed down, and it looked to me like they were wrapping for the night. The website said they were open until 10, and it was only 8:30. We tried the door and it was open. 

The girl said they were open for sure, but usually if there are no customers they wrap things by 9pm. We asked if it would ruin her night if we had a beer and she laughed and said no - come on in.

We ended up staying there until after 10. The guy at the bar and the girl beertender are best friends. We all got to talking, she works days at the local gym running the front desk and the office, I forget what he does for a job currently, but he used to work in a local coal mine until he got pinned by one of the train cars and broke his spine. He showed off his scars from the surgeries he had. For such a young person, what a horrible experience. They couldn't have been older than Jess. 

She told me about her dog - a Great Pyr mix, 6 months old, 70 pounds. She shared video of her playing and it was such a good time. I think when the snow is gone we may try to meet up for a play date. She said she needs to socialize her (her name is Poppy) and I can think of no better way to do it than with Toffee in our yard. 

At some point we talked about this donut shop, Krumpe's, that is the stuff of legends in these parts. They're only open to the public at night, 7-11pm. I said to Doug "we should totally go there, it is on the way home." And the two of them were "HELL YES you should go there!" Getting that vote of approval was enough for me.

So we did. I didn't realize how close it was to the gym where I was going before we got the treadmill. It is tucked down an alley way, in a residential neighborhood. Good thing they're only open at night or I would have been stopping on the regular!

The donuts were great, very homemade, you could see the how ancient all the equipment was. The kids working there were super sweet. I mentioned we were new to town, this was our first visit and the kid handed us each a small glazed. Just to tease us into the dozen we were going to buy anyway! 

A customer came in and an older man, maybe the owner, came over to talk to him and shake hands and catch up. 

Worth it. Totally worth it. When we were leaving there were aboug 7 more cars pulling up. The kid at the brewery said that at 7pm, the line is around the block to get in, so we went at the perfect time.

My blood sugar kicked my ass so I fell into bed and fell right asleep. Dreaming of donuts. 

Today, Friday, was a quiet day. Doug flex timed the morning and loafed around until maybe 11am. I had a pretty wide open morning and I did a lot of tickets and work on spreadsheets for this afternoon. I didn't get as much done as I liked which is actually good because we ended up changing what I'm doing with the spreadsheets. Lucky me. 

tomorrow I get to go to DC to see Henry rock out. Very exciting. It should be a treat. I'm hoping I get up early, hit the treadmill first, and then shower and go. Not sure what time I'll be getting home and if I'll be up for doing the walk. 

Digits below Donut.

Thursday digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. easy slow walk 1 mile/21 min. Additional 3/4 of a mile walk inside Walmart over a 30 min period. 11k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

7:30am: 135
3:45pm: 101
11:45pm: 210

food & meds:
7:30am: jardiance+phentermine
12:30pm: apple + pb
1pm: met+glip
5:30pm: spaghetti and meatballs
9pm: beers at the brewery
10pm: a couple donuts from the dount side quest
10:45pm: met+glip

Friday digits

exercise: 11/12 hours. Somehow missed the 2pm hour by a few steps. Miscounted! Treadmill, 2 miles/35 min. 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:30am: 180
4:30pm: 112
10pm: 165

food & meds:
8:30am: jardiance+phentermine
9am: donut from krumpe's
9:30: protein shake 
11:30am: bowl of mac & cheese w/bacon
1pm: met+glip
6pm: some sort of "tater tot taco" casserole Geoff made in the slow cooker. Surprisingly good. Hungry enough for 2 bowls after the treadmill.
9pm: met+glip
no beer/wine

The Early Option

I woke up to go to the bathroom at about 6am. Then went to the guest room. Doug came downstairs about a half hour later to do the same, and he fed the dog. 

At 6:30am.

Like, 2 hours too early. 

So I came out of the bedroom and asked why he did that. "She asked for breakfast, so I fed her," he said. 

I went back to the guest room, he went back upstairs. 6am is my "too early to actually really be awake" hour. And Toffee came back to bed with me. 

I drank a pint of water, and woke up naturally at 7:30, thanks glass of water! An on purpose alarm clock. I knew my day was meetings up the wazoo, so I brewed the coffee, I got on the treadmill, I got that out of the way. 

And then was on my ass except for the hourly steps for the rest of the day. It's nice to pre-load the day with close to 4-5k steps! But at 10pm I was still under 10k (how'd that happen!) so I made up for it and walked around the house. 

Toffee had a serious case of the zoomies tonight. A giant dog like her with the zoomies is a lot of fun but also can be slightly dangerous! She pushed our mattress off the bed by running and jumping on it. She ran down the stairs and crashed at the bottom. She ran back up the stairs and it was like a herd of elephants. 

She's been so cooped up. I keep saying, maybe tomorrow will be a good day for a walk...

Speaking of tomorrow, I'm going to take some time in the afternoon to drive to the clinic for some blood work. I may take the whole afternoon off. 

sigh. 

Here's a picture of the amaryllis we got at Aldi the day before the blizzard. It smells so amazing. Digits, below!

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Treadmill, 30 min/1.64 mi. 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8am: 154
4:30pm: 98
10:45pm: 127

food & meds:
8am: jardiance+phentermine
9:15am: protein shake
1:30pm: giant bowl of BLT salad w/Tuna salad mixed in
1:45pm: met+glip
3pm: part of one of the big chocolate chip cookies
5:30pm: some sort of dirty rice/chicken thing that Geoff whipped up (it was a little dry, so I'll see what his recipe was and make notes/suggestions) 
8:30pm: met+glip; ramekin of spicy cajun trail mix
no beer/wine