Check In On The Kids

I haven't written much about the kids as of late. Mostly, because they are adult humans, they could tell their own stories. But there are things going on. Here's the haps.

Jess
Today was a big day, Jess moved house. 

The place they were living in got sold, and after some stops and starts and unsure of moving dates the closing is happening, and the moving commenced. 

I offered to come up and help, I felt like when we were up recently they were underprepared for where I think I would personally be for a move in two weeks. But. They waved me off and said "I have lads, and Shane is going to come help with Dijon day of, so we're covered." 

Movers were hired (no one was available on the first, of course) and so it was good to go today. 

I also am thinking of C, who is Jess' landlord. This whole move was a saga in the making! The house was sold, and 2 of the 3 units had to vacate. C had to move first, so the first guy had a place to go, so Camp was the destination for C. Makes sense until the fall. 

Good, right, okay. 

Then, Jess. Where's Jess gonna go. 

C has a house that had a unit under construction (and it had been under construction for ohhhhhh, forever). That unit had to be finished, and a guy in one unit in that building would move in there, and Jess would take his unit. 

But. 

The under construction unit really had to be finished. It was maybe 98% finished as of this weekend. The kid moved in there, okay okay okay great super okay, and Jess was able to move today. 

His unit will hopefully be fully finished this weekend when he goes out of town. Sending good vibes for completion. 

So in offering to help Jess, and getting waved off, what I should have thought of was what C would have to do to get that unit ready for Jess. 

A lot of work went into painting and freshening that up, C really went all in on it. And I feel like I could have been helpful. 

With as not-exciting as our anniversary was, yeah. I could have gone. And maybe another week at mom's if I drove up. Or something. 

But. things got done and the chessboard is set, the Rook moved there and the Bishop is here and now the Knight can be over here and the Queen is in her camp, and we'll know where C will end up in October. 

Apartments are expensive, and C is so good to her tenants. The going rate for things, for one or two bedroom apartments is outrageous everywhere. See Geoff's update below.

For instance, we rented a whole ass house when we moved here for 2300 bucks. A DC apartment is 3000 for a one room, english basement style in kind of a crummy area of town. 3500 for something in one of the hi-rises. A studio in one of those is well over 2k. And this was before the pandemic. Since then, things have gotten wilder. And people pay it. 

When Doug and I were looking to move here, we were frankly astonished. And that was in 2017. 

Jess called at around 7:30. One more trip back to the old place. The guy in the next apartment laughs at TV loudly and this honestly confuses her dog. Which is sort of funny. WHY! WHY IS MAN LAUGH! WHYYYYYY! 

Jess told me their movers didn't come until VERY late. They were scheduled for 11am-1pm, but arrived at like 3pm. Which had Jess in an absolute tizzy of panic. But. They came. The movers were, as they put it, "bangers." And the apartment was empty and moved over to the new place in an hour. 

One of the movers felt sick, and almost passed out. Jess was hyper concerned (like, I mean, I would be) and had him sit down, gave him crackers, water, asked when he last ate, and he couldn't remember. "My dude, you did a move this morning and now you're doing this like.... you need to eat. Food. Important." 

He was concerned with dropping something and Jess was like "my stuff is just stuff. It's just stuff. I am worried about you." 

Honestly, this kind of thing makes me extra proud of the kid I've raised to adulthood. Just, don't drop my 80 gallon fish tank though. 

I hope they (both Jess and Dijon) are able to settle in tonight, really relax. I was surprised they didn't take yesterday, today, and tomorrow off but I guess they have a week off in 2 weeks so they didn't want to press their luck. Moving is hard though, and just trying to get everything done while only blocking off one actual day off, that's rough. Very rough. 

I raised my kid with too strong a work ethic? or something? Maybe? Anyway. 

I need to call my mom to make sure she didn't mail Jess' birthday card yet. I told her to wait and I'd get the address. So. Just put a meeting on my schedule to do that in the morning.

Geoff
Last year, the boy missed the deadline to apply for his associates degree at the community college where he got his certificate. He said "oh well" and was unbothered even though Doug was a little ... furious. He had a job, he was perfectly happy doing that. And figured he'd wait until this year.

Well. For this year, we moved two hours away from his school. I will say, if he had gotten into that program, we'd probably still be back in Silver Spring there. This house never would have happened, or at least, not yet. Well, this specific house wouldn't have happened. Personally, I'm not mad that he missed that deadline and we did what we did.

He had his plans upset by us, but, we figured it was workable. He could go to the community college over by Winchester. A year out. He commenced to applying for jobs. Tons of interviews, no offers. He has had some lessons in geography. Gettysburg and Harrisburg are way too far away. Don't apply for jobs there. Or Baltimore, for fuck's sake. Just because there's a highway that goes directly there from here, no. that's like .... 80 miles or some shit. Jesus. No.

It has been frustrating for him, because he has the marketable skills to get a damn job but he's applied for things and applied for things, and nothing. Bupkis. 

In the fall, he did take one class through the community college he got his Certificate from, at a location much closer to our house. But still a long long ride. Once a week was enough for him to know that.

So there he was. In February, he applied to the community college close to us but still in Virginia. He got accepted, but then... they emailed him to say they were not running the program after all. Sorry. And oh, they may not be running it in 2027 either. Not sure if not enough applicants or what. But what a let down. 

The next nearest program is where he went for the certificate, way back east. Way. Back. East. Like a 2 hour drive. 

I told him to reach out to that program, see if they had a spot, even though it was past the application deadline. Again. You can't tell if you don't ask. This was through no fault of his doing. They accepted him, they had him lined up and ready to go, and then boom - rug pulled out. You can't tell if you don't ask. You can't tell if you don't ask.

So he did, and they did, and they had him apply. 

There were 2 open slots, 3 applicants, and the two students from Virginia would have right of first refusal.

Geoff is a very negative person sometimes. He said "Those two Virginia students are going to take the slots so. Oh well. That means another year. I'm almost 30. I live with my parents. I can't find a job. My life sucks." 

You live with your parents and have a safe place to be. You are greatly appreciated here. Everything will work out. Everything will work out. 

So sure enough, one of the Virginia students declined the offer - the space was Geoff's for the taking. 

So now here we are. He's working with the college to figure out what his class schedule will be. He is still applying for jobs, here and closer to the school. In fact, he applied for a job at the hospital where Doug works. Which is actually aligned with the academic program he's going into. 

It would be nice, really nice, if he got that job. 

The one problem then is honestly, he'd have to move. 

If he had a job out there, and school out there, yeah. He'd not be commuting from here.

Problem is.... 

Rent. Rents in the DC area, especially Virginia are outrageous. Rooms for Rent, outrageous. We'd probably be better off if he only has school to put him in a hotel one or two nights a week. 

But Jesus, I've asked this before. How the hell do young people get a start these days. My first apartment (and yes, I'm an Old. And I'm crotchety). My first apartment was $400 a month. I could barely afford it. But I did. And I lived by myself. And I worked my ass off. 

So we'll see how things go with him. I kind of feel like No Job is the best solution, and ... figure out the housing. He has money in the bank, the only thing is he'd have to build a credit history in like 2 months. Ha. I could always co-sign on a lease. Something. Whatever. 

Or do the hotel thing and have him come back and forth but stay a couple nights during the week, depending on his schedule. 

Anyway. Those are the updates on the children. I pray for them daily. It is a hard world to get your feet in, and under you, and stay upright. 

Digits below this excellent picture of Jess' friend Shane who came to help today. Because Shane knows, blue drinks are the best drinks. 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours.  Treadmill run after work. 30 min/2.15 mi. Thought about pushing further but dinner was ready. 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8am: 140
4:45pm: 174
11pm: 190 (check the strawberries and ice cream dessert below)

food & meds:

8am: jardiance + phentermine
noon: english muffin w/pb
1pm: met+glip
through the afternoon: four nice little chocolate chip butterscotch chip cookies that I baked 
6pm: some sort of shrimp and bacon concoction with a heavy cream tomato sauce over shells. Really good. 
8:30pm: met+glip; bowl of low carb vanilla ice cream w/ a strawberry sauce that doug whipped up last night (before the 2 pints of strawberries went rogue). Really good. 
red wine 

Year 35

(Monday's entry on Tuesday morning)

Mondays are no good for anniversaries or birthdays. 

We should have planned something for Sunday night, but Doug has this kind of hard and fast "rule" of sorts that you don't celebrate a thing on a day that isn't the thing's day. So mid-week birthdays for the kids meant ... no weekend party? Naah. We bent that rule for the kids but we don't for ourselves. 

Every good restaurant in town is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. 

Looking back on the blog here, if you open up year by year and go to June 1, you get Denver, Vegas, an "Elvis" concert at a local brewery, New Orleans, a trip up to my parents' when it wasn't just parent, a pandemic trip to West Virginia that wasn't the trip we'd planned to take to West Virginia, Quebec and Montreal, and .... yeah. We usually always have something planned. 

Because we just went away to NH for the wedding and alal that, it wasn't in the cards that we plan a to-do fête of any sort. We just are here. And that's okay. 

Geoff asked me on Friday if we were going to go away for the weekend or anything, and I let him know no... we're here. Sorry. 

He seemed surprised, and yeah, I was too. Doug's been a little meh and tired for the past week or so and we didn't have any major discussions on what to do. Like, if I didn't go to the little rock concert on Sunday sure, we maybe would have taken Monday off and gone away for the weekend. Not in the cards. 

Around 4:30pm he came do the living room and asked if I wanted to go out to dinner. Absolutely, yes. Where? 

"Literally everything in our town is closed on Mondays. Thoughts?" 

He suggested we drive over to Frederick, which is not too too far away but sometimes I feel like it is a challenge if the highway is backed up. But Sangria and Tapas sounded nice. Off to Isabella's. We got to town after 6pm and parking is free, and we scored the spot right in front, almost like a gift from the universe. 

We got a carafe of red sangria, cheese fritters and bacon wrapped figs. Both were outstanding. I kind of hate it though when you go somewhere and the appetizers are 3 on a plate for a party of 2. Restaurants, seriously you are on notice. C'mon man. Give me one more of a thing for a couple bucks more. It won't kill you. 

So we each had 1.5 of those, and because it is tapas, you literally can just sit there and order and order and order but we got a third of roasted artichoke bottoms full of crab. Outstanding. Delicious. 

And then we got paella to share. It was a smaller serving than I expected for two to share, and it was burned on the bottom of the skillet, so like 1/3 of the rice was not gonna come off. But the shrimps and the scallops were very nice. Would have been nice to have 2 more scallops in the mix. 

We actually ordered dessert because anniversary. Doug got a strawberry rhubarb pie and I got the Crema de chocolate. Both were very nice. I've never been super big on rhubarb but Doug loves it and when it is rhu season, he's there. 

 If we were staying at a local hotel, a second carafe of sangria would have been welcome. But we were responsible humans. 

I had thought we'd take a walk around Frederick. It's a great town to walk around in, but Doug wanted to head home. No worries, no biggie, except your girl was about 50% through her steps. Always thinking of the steps. A good 2 block walk would knock out another 2k easy. But we headed back. The ride home was rather swift, right after rush hour and right before the sun would shine in our eyes in a deadly fashion. This stretch of highway can be a big pickle.  Home by 8.

We sat on the couch and watched TV. Geoff had made himself dinner, and had taken Toffee for a walk in the 2 hours we were gone. No hockey, the games start Tuesday. 

Because I was over 3k down on steps, I thought about just not caring. But it isn't a nice way to start a month, right? 

Doug and Geoff had some bourbon which we brought back from C's cabin. So they were having a bit of a sampling/tasting. I don't like bourbon, so I looked at the clock and figured heck - I can and should do the steps. So. I fit in a 30 min. run. 

I didn't take pictures at dinner, I thought about it. Thought about having the cute waiter kid take a picture for us, but passed on it. I regret that. We were super cute, and it would have been nice. 

So the pictures below are the stray zinnia and my monstera that I took care of at lunch yesterday. 

Digits, below.

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours.  Quick walk/jog in the afternoon to make up some steps, 11 min/.76 Run at 11pm to get the miles in. 30 min/1.99 mi. 11k+ steps by bedtime 

blood glucose:

6:45am: 135
4:30pm: 119
11:30pm: 158

food & meds:

6:45am: jardiance + phentermine (out of phentermine)
10:30am: plain greek yogurt, diced strawberries, crushed granola bar
11:45am: pizza cheese from Geoff's pizza bagels
12:30pm: last 2 slices of keto bread w/pb
1pm: met+glip
6:30pm: sangria (probably 2.5 glasses total) & tapas; dessert; met+glip
no home alcohol

All Around the DMV

This is Sunday's entry on Monday morning. Jess called as I was writing it, and I thought it was more important to yap. 

This morning, I left the house around 10:30am to go on my massive solo tour of the DMV. 

First, over to Columbia to see my work bestie's boy rock the bass with his music lesson group. It was pretty fun. The older kids are the "house band," and they warm up the crowd. This particular group is so impressive. The harmonies, the instruments. They banter with the crowd, they play off each other. The guitarists face each other and just rock out. 

Then A's group ... little kids. Not as good. But you see the promise. This was the third concert I've been to for A. He graduated to the next group and this summer will have 2 weeks of intense focused summer camp. I really hope he enjoys it. And I hope somewhere along the line there is a concert. 

Mom doesn't want pictures on the internet, so ... nothing to share for you.

After his portion of the show, I stayed with the work bestie and her new girlfriend and we had a great visit. I really love spending time with the two of them. They have an adults version of the music school, so it was fun to watch the grown ups get their 80s on! A quick stop into the hardware store next door for some bamboo stakes and twine, and some other needed bits of things and we were ready to leave Columbia.

Right then! Next part of the journey. 

I knew I had to get bloodwork done but also had to go to the bank. 

The bloodwork would be in Gaithersburg, and I couldn't remember where the nearest bank was to there and Waze and Google Maps were sending me to Bethesda, and I knew that was crap... My bank was bought by another bank right before we moved, so the branch I used to go to is gone (stupidly).  I needed to be in DC for 5pm and it was 3:30-ish, I kind of had time to go over to G'burg and maybe to Bethesda but decided to hold off. So I just drove south on 95. Which I have not been on in forever. 

Memory brought me to the knowledge of a branch in Silver Spring, really close to my friend S's house. As much as I love her, I didn't want to risk a visit! I knew I'd be there forever. So I went to the bank and opted to do the bloodwork after I saw Michael. 

I didn't want to drive into the city. So I parked in my old neighborhood's metro station. I was tempted to toodle aboot the neighborhood and go by my old house. I was tempted to reach out to Meg dog's parents and say hi. But I felt like it was too short notice. 

I got on the metro and headed to the city. I was about a half hour early for our meet up so I took a walk. We picked a brewery near my office, that we both love. And he ended up arriving 10 minutes earlier than he expected which was nice. 

He was at his sister's house for the weekend, celebrating his niece's 7th birthday and having the family visit. He was taking the bus back to Richmond where he was halfway through a work training for his cool new job flying drones for a realty outfit. Really cool stuff. 

We had a really good visit. He facetimed his husband in California so we could have a yap too. 

He only had about an hour to spare for this visit, which was not enough. We talked about his new job, our new house, my fall and landing on my face, family stuff on his side and my side, spiritual journeys, Quakerism and Buddhism, and then it was time for him to go. I am glad he let me know he was in town, and very glad to make a huge diversion in my day and go spend time with him even if it was just a tiny bit of time. 

He told me that with this 2 week training, this is the longest in 29 years that he and his husband have been apart. Before that, the longest was 5 days. He said it was hard to deal with, very stressful, and I thought that was just a beautiful thing to hear. What an amazing love they have for each other, that they pine for the other when they aren't together. 

While he needed to jet and get back to Union station to get his bus, I bought the boys some take-away beer, and headed back north to the car. 

Okay. Bloodwork. Off to Gaithersburg. My doctor's office has a 24 hour urgent care and lab office right on the highway. I had to pass it anyway. Best let's do it. 

No one was there, which was great. I walked right in, got the bloodwork done and boom, back in the car before I knew it. 

Hardest part of the trip home was the angle of the sun while driving due west on the highway. Very scary a couple times when literally I could not see the road, or the cars in front of me. Whew. 

I got home and Geoff was cleaning up from dinner. I warmed up my share, caught up with the boys, had another beer with them. 

The whirlwind trip was done! I should have stopped for gas on the way back to the house but that can happen this week. Here's a picture of me and M. Digits below! 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. measured walk around DC while waiting for my friend, 17 min/.82 mi; 11k+ steps by bed

blood glucose:

8am: 128
xpm: x
10:30pm: 119

food & meds:

8am: jardiance + phentermine (out of phentermine)
10am: turkey on everything bagel w/cream cheese
12:30pm: beer
2pm: chicken fingers, some fries; met+glip; beer
5:15pm: 2 beers w/Michael
8:15pm: some sort of steak dealie in a red wine mushroom sauce by Geoff, the rest of the potato salad; met+glip; one more beer

Strawberries and the State Line Flea

We up and left the house "early" for us. 9:30am. Destination: Strawberry picking. The farm Doug picked had no strawberries, and was closed up tight, with a sign that said wildlife had done a job on their crop. Sorry. 

No worries, go up the street, around the corner, and there's a farmstand for a different orchard, with tons of strawberries, peaches, tomatoes, everything. 

Strawberries procured, now what. 

Doug suggested we check out the State Line Flea Market, everyone had been recommending it to us. So. Okay. Off we go, up Rte 11 a ways, and there it was.

Not as big as I expected. The Rogers Sale in Ohio is kind of what I was expecting. This was nowhere near that. But. We did score a pair of panini presses (a big, and a little, but she said 50% off both so 4 bucks total) and a Missouri license plate for Geoff's collection. 

I don't need to go back, but, it was nice on a sunny May day with a gentle breeze and cool temps. Tons of dogs. I'll give them that. Vendors all had their dogs and I got to pet and love on several. Made it worth the while.

Next, what do we do, go home? Naaaah... It is a gorgeous day so let's visit a town we haven't been to yet, Chambersburg. And lo and behold, a brewery appeared. I was parched. Inhaled some dust at the flea market. Cough Cough Cough. Let's get some food. A beer. Check it out.

It was pretty good. The wings were done well (after I asked if they were crispy, the beertender said no, but I can ask them to give them more time... they did a good job). And the beers were nice. 

The only complaint I have is the place was full of soccer fan dudes watching this ... important soccer game, I dunno. And after watching so much hockey, your girl found her disdain for soccer rising in her gullet. Bunch of floppers. Gah. Booooo! 

We finished up and hit the road.

When we got home, Doug declared it Strawberry O'Clock, and we each had a bowl done to our liking. He had his with milk and a little sugar because that makes strawberry milk. Mine was with zero sugar vanilla ice cream (been waiting for a reason!) and some crushed walnuts. I almost put whipped cream on too... but I controlled myself. 

Doug napped and I watered the garden, then made potato salad. It is painstakingly long. Make the hardboiled eggs, cut and boil the potatoes, peel the eggs, throw those together, make the bacon, make the dressing, mix the eggs & potatoes and wait for the bacon. Add the bacon. Over a half hour just to get that all done. But. In the end, absolutely worth it. 

Geoff grilled some brats, I skipped the bun and went with the potato salad. 

Because there is no hockey tonight, Doug thought it would be a good idea to take a walk. And it was. It was a beautiful day, and a perfect evening. Absolutely great. I think the walk was longer than the fitbit told us it was because I didn't start the walk with it measuring, it kicks on when it "detects" a walk. So. I'll go with the device reading and not my actual thought about the distance (It should be 1.81 miles) 

Bed. And happy for it. There are fireworks going off somewhere, not sure the reason. But they're a celebration of something. 

Tomorrow, more adventures. Digits below! 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Three measurable walks, 2 at the flea market for a total of 49 min/.99 mi; after dinner stroll with Doug & Toffee, 32 min/1.47 mi; 12k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8am: 143
4:30pm: 103
10:30pm: 165

food & meds:

8am: jardiance + phentermine (out of phentermine)
noon: buffalo wings & some chili cheese fries; 2 beers
2pm: met+glip; bowl of strawberries w/carb smart vanilla ice cream and crushed walnuts
6pm: 2 cheesey brats w/homemade german potato salad
9pm: met+glip (forgot to take around 7:30
no home alcohol in addition to the 2 beers from lunch

Walking the neighborhood

As of late, I haven't gone out on walks in the neighborhood. The treadmill has been a good thing to have to fall back on, fit it in after work, eat dinner immediately. I did a short run today and felt sluggish and fat. I gave up after 20 min, not wanting to push further, even with a banging playlist selection. 

After dinner, I knew I had about 3k steps to meet before bedtime to hit the 10k (day 8 of the new streak, friends!) Hockey was coming on, so, I decided to go out solo. Doug didn't want to come. The dog wanted to come, but my right arm hurts elbow to wrist, this is new, and it is annoying. She pulls so much on the leash that I just didn't want to deal with her. I knew I'd just enjoy myself alone. 

Alone is okay once in a while, right?

One of my neighbors has these beautiful flowers that I had never seen before, so I stopped to Google Lens them. The dad of the house came out, looking like he was just putting something on the porch, and I said hi. 

"I've never seen flowers like this before," I told him. "Google says they are Red Hot Poker lilies."

He laughed and said, "I have never heard them called that, thanks Google! We call them Torch Lilies because they look like tiki torches." 

And they do. 

He told me I'm welcome to dig some up if I have a garden. "They spread really well," he told me. He wasn't kidding. His fence was full of them. 

I may take him up on them, talk to Doug, see where's a good place for us to plant some crazy lilies that look like fire. 

There was a ballgame at the field, the big lights were on and I heard the ding of the aluminum bats and the cheers rising up. I went one block short of what we usually do when we go for this specific walk, or, this is the way to the Dog Park and I cut left to come back around to the main drag and head home. 

I passed a yard that had 5 dogs in it. Four were some sort of chihuahua-ish beings, and one was a mutt that had some cattle dog fur with spots, but his face didn't say cattle dog. They barked the whole way along their very long fence. I told them "Oh hello, I see you too! Hello! What a nice night to be out for a walk! Hello!" When I reached the end of their fence, they stopped immediately. As if there was a force field that prevented me from being seen. 

Down the main drag, I passed the plumbers' shop, the dudes who did our hot water heater a couple months ago. Someone has an RV for sale in their parking lot. They were doing a check up on it, and got in their car. 

They waved to me like they knew me. I didn't recognize them, but I did wave back and say hey! "Tell your dog I say Hi!" I called to them. The dog barked and barked out the passenger side window, and they smiled and said "will do!" 

No idea who that person is. 

Back at my house, a nice 23 minute walk that I could have extended by going up the street, past the house of kittens, to where the sidewalk ends. Instead I sat on the porch and listened to the ding of the bat and the cheers from the ballgame a block away. 

I realized I should have watered the garden, but it was late and you shouldn't water when night is falling. I'll do it early tomorrow. Doug mentioned something about going to a U Pick strawberries place across the border. I was surprised by that. He always said he hated U Pick farms because he's not the farmer, and doesn't work at the farm, and shouldn't have to do the work to pick the berries. It is the same reason why he doesn't use the self check out at the market. "I don't work here." Okay. But. We would be done by now. 

Weird flex, sometimes. 

So who knows. Tomorrow? We pick strawberries? 

Digits below. Here's a picture of a "baked potato" in the sunshine today. She loves to lounge out in the yard in the sunshine. 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours.  Treadmill run, short 20 min/1.38 mi.  Neighborhood walk 23 min/1.11 mi, 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:30am: 134
4:30pm: 95
10:15pm: 190

food & meds:

8:45am: jardiance + phentermine (out of phentermine)
9:45am: 4 celery stalks w/pb
12:15: tuna salad on toasted keto bread
12:30: met+glip
6pm: cheesesteak by Geoff in 2 little rolls; shoestring fries
7:30pm: met+glip
handful of caramel corn
no alcohol

Box of Kittens

 You never know what you're going to see. I went outside after I taught our last training class this evening, whew, and after the treadmill, whew. I wanted to look at the garden weeds and see where I need to dedicate my time once I have some gloves. This weekend. The ever ongoing discussion between Doug and Me is "we have xyz thing. In the shed," says he. "Oh okay - I didn't see xyz thing, can you go out and grab it for me?" I reply. "Seems I was mistaken. We don't have xyz thing." 

insert:

Garden gloves
Tomato stakes
Twine
A Watering Can
other various and sundry things

While fussing with something that Google lens says is related to dandilions but grows up like a damn giant monster hydra with 900 heads, I noticed a young girl was walking down the street. She had a box, on a dog leash, and she was pulling it down the sidewalk. She was in between our house and the next, and she was talking to a cat that was a couple sidewalk squares up the way behind her. Looking anxious. 

I smiled at her and asked if it was her cat. She said yes, and the box has kittens in it. Her kittens. "I'm trying to get her to get out and breathe a little, and my mom told me to take the kittens for a walk and she'd follow me outside."

Um. In my heart of hearts, I feel maybe that mom is super stressed out by cat + kittens + her kids all up in her house but. Okay? I hope the box doesn't fall apart on you when it is full of kittens. 

"Would you like to see them?" she asked me. 

Hell yeah I want to see some kittens. Everyone out of my way! 

There were five in the box, very young, and all are polydactyl with 6 or 7 toes on their feets. I picked them up and they were so cute. Mom cat sat a little bit away and looked at me threateningly. The girl told me "this one is the quiet one. This one he yells all the time. And these two are my favorites..." and I got the whole story about their individual personalities. "They don't walk very well yet. I'm trying to teach them how to walk." 

They'll learn honey, and soon they'll run and ... well.

I asked what the plan is. She said her mom said as soon as they are a little older, they'll try to find them homes or take them to the animal shelter for the county. 

I asked if the momma cat was hers, she said yes - this is Moon. Oh hello Moon kitty. I've not seen you before. I've seen the black kitty and the orange menace, but you are new. 

I want to get more information, like, how old are they, do they have plans to get momma fixed. Don't tell Doug but I'd even pay for that or donate towards it? 

But fuck yes, kittens. They were so cute. 

I posted pictures to my socials, and on FB one of my local friends wanted to know where the kittens are. Her son wanted to see them. Well. That was earlier today and I don't know the exact house but I know the exact kid, and when I see her next, I'll give her my phone number to give her mom, and maybe arrange a visit? 

Her son is obsessed. He may die if he doesn't see the kittens. Die! I tell you! Yes, he will DIE! 

I'm all over here connecting strangers to see kittens. I can just imagine him sitting on my porch swing with kittens on his lap, and watching him melt. 

So who knows, that could be my next kitten adventure.

We're happy I'm not writing about work and the treadmill, right? 

Well here's that. 

Training went great. Last class before we launch. Next week we have an open house. Two hours. Come one, come all, bring your questions, problems, ask how-to, etc. We have a big email to send out tomorrow that I have to proofread so my boss can hit send. 

The treadmill thing was good today. I got started at almost 5:25, and felt like I should stay on for the full half hour, but then I'd be 5 min. short of the top of the next hour to do that hour's steps so. I stayed on. And when I looked at my distance I said "feh." If it was past 2.5 miles, I would have stayed on for 3.1 for another 5k. But I was hungry. 

And who knows, if I had done that, I may not have met kittens! 

Digits below! 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. treadmill run, 33min/2.38 mi (wasn't aiming for 5k, just wanted to get into the next hour's 250 steps); 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:15am: 123
5pm: 103
10pm: 133

food & meds:

8:15am: jardiance + phentermine (out of phentermine)
11am: small bowl of mac & cheese w/bacon
1pm: met+glip
1:45pm: small tuna salad sammitch on keto bread
6:15pm: bowl of dirty rice w/chicken (not enough chicken, geoffrey!) mixed in queso; beer
7pm: met+glip

Back in the Day

Part of my job means I get to talk to people in radio. Sometimes, they are very famous people. People who host nationally syndicated music programs. 

The vast majority of them are so exceptionally cool. And today, I got to talk to someone I've listened to and admired for years. Once we figured out what I needed to dig in for him in order to fix his problem, I asked him how much Guster he plays. 

Because, you know, your girl takes every opportunity to pimp the band out. 

He said he loves them, the last album didn't have anything on it that he could play/feature because his program is mostly acoustic music. "But I loved it. I love the album. I want them to release a few acoustic tracks like they did with the last record in 2019."

We then basically talked for an hour about the music scene in the Boston area back in the 90s, He asked if I knew some folks and for sure I did. It was a great yap. And one of the reasons I love my job. Yappin' with dudes like this. And not just about Guster. 

It was a pretty good day today work, wise. Excellent check in with my manager, a wild discovery about something that someone has been doing wrong accidentally, and I brought it to his attention so we could have an "oh no" moment followed by a "okay let's do this thing" plan. 

I got on the treadmill and planned for a half hour but the playlist was banging, and I found myself at 35 min, 40 min, almost a 5k? yes? Okay, stick with it and do the 5k! I slowed down a lot for the last half mile, but I did it. Yay. 

Big fun work day tomorrow, I kept thinking today was Thursday but no. Sadly no. 

Digits! Below.

 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Treadmill run, 5k/3.11 mi. 46 min (thereabouts); 11k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

9am: 124
4:15pm: 135
10:45pm: 192* (note, bag of popcorn and met+glip timing)

food & meds:

9am: jardiance + phentermine
10:30am: one slice of sourdough bread w/butter (to get it out of the way as it was left behind and unloved)
12:45pm: 1.5 pieces of left over pork loin w/creamy mushroom sauce, 4 pierogis; met+glip
6pm: small bowl of spaghetti w/alfredo sauce and a lot of shrimps
8:30pm: bag of kettle corn
9pm: met+glip (forgot to take w/dinner)
no alcohol

Sluggish

All day today I felt like a slug. A great big fat slug. 

I didn't sleep super well (although the new Google Health app that replaced my Fitbit app said I slept great. Piece of shit. That's another story). 

I got up a little on the later side, and skipped a shower since I showered last night before bed. Also, last night had the forethought to publish/schedule some questions for people and the answers started rolling in around the time I started feeling the coffee. I like that approach. Maybe I should do that more often. 

The forecast was for no rain until tomorrow night, so I got the monsterously long hose and dragged it all over hell and half of Washington County to get to all the things that needed watered. I was going to weed out front, but that sluggish thing was really keeping me down. I need to get Geoff to mow the lawn. I need to find out where the weed whacker is. And where the batteries are. Time to tidy up the edges.

Around 5:30, I was feeling really shakey and dehydrated even though I'd already had plenty of water to drink today. My pulse was super high. Oh yeah. That happened a few weeks ago. Your blood sugar is crashing, stupid. Have a snack. 

I've not really ever had to experience this, so this is new to me. I took my blood sugar at 4:30 and it was really nice, but I guess after watering the plants and stuff it started to decide to be gross. 

Granola bars for the win. Always have some granola bars on hand. 

I instantly felt much better. Geoff was making dinner and I think he was confused as to why I was snacking when chicken parm was on the way. I didn't explain. 

I was going to do the treadmill early today but found myself going at it after eating dinner. Note to self: don't do that. You always feel like you're gonna puke when you do that. Treadmill then eat. Someone remind me of that. 

We watched hockey. I went to bed. 

Work tomorrow is a lot of meetings, and I thought our all staff was tomorrow but it is Thursday. There are some voluntary buy-outs hapening for some of the staff. I'm not eligible. I'm kind of thankful for that. They are also going to be re-evaluating the remote work setup. I'm actually not thankful for that. 

We bought this house, it is far from my office but some people may think it is close enough for me to be called back into the building. Everyone on my team lives away. Chicago, Vermont, 2 in Connecticut, one in Pittsburgh, one in Atlanta. I'm the "closest" to the building with a 90 minute on paper commute. I'm not doing that. I'm done doing that. I'm never doing that again. I don't mind going in once in a while, like in 2 weeks I'm going in for a couple days... 

If I felt sluggish today, I can just spend a minute recalling my old commute. 

I'm not sure what I would do if they decided to call folks back in who live X amount of miles away. 

Anyway. 

No picture. just digits below. 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours.  Treadmill run, rather slow. 30 min/1.97 mi; 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

9:15am: 95
4:30pm: 98
10:30pm: 154

food & meds:

9:15am: jardiance + phentermine
10:30am: some beer bread w/butter
1pm: turkey on keto bread
1:30pm: met+glip
5:30pm: 2 granola bars (sweet & salty) some mixed nuts
6pm: piece of chicken parm
8pm: met+glip (forgot to take w/dinner
no alcohol

The Memorial Day Farming Report

Your girl was lazy last night and didn't want to write an entry so you get a twofer today. 

Memorial day holiday, I love having 3 days off. 

I also love and respect those who gave the ultimate sacrifice for us as a nation and died in the service of this country. I feel a lot of big ways about how things are now, about our leadership and military leadership. I'm full of disappointment over it all. How far we've come in 70 years or so. 

Gah.

Anyway.

We did our usual lazy Sunday thing in the morning with coffee and quiet game playing on our phones. At about noon, Doug hauled the dirt he'd gotten at Lowes up into the back yard and we commenced to filling in the planters. 

We didn't have any wood or yard waste to fill the containers with to displace area. We have a giant black walnut tree, and a lot of downed branches, but those won't be good for the garden bed because of the juglone it produces which is toxic to so many plants. So we went with straight on in dirt. 8 bags per bed, and one extra bag Jess gave us that they aren't using because they have to move soon. 

No need to put a garden in at a house you're leaving. 

All the stuff growing outside the beds, according to google lens, is some sort of wild lettuce. It is inedible, prickly, and everywhere. Our entire damn yard is full of that shit. What the hell. 

I've never seen it before in my life, and it was a bitch to pull up. Doug mowed over it, and I pulled what I could, but feh. I hate that guy. 

We used a ton of left over cardboard under the raised beds to hopefully prevent crap like this wild lettuce from growing up and in. Fingers crossed. 

After all the dirt was in, Doug declared it break time, and we sat on the porch and chilled. I was afraid this was as far as we were gonna get because I know our track record when breaktime is declared. 

Yesterday was supposed to be another wash out full of rain, but it didn't happen, and we decided to seize the day after all and went to Lowes and get plants. 

Doug always over buys, his enthusiasm for gardening is nice but it's always a bit too much. I had told him to get 3 raised beds, but he got 2 "to see how it goes," and now we have what I think is a little too much. 

There hopefully will be a bounty of a variety of tomatoes, some cucumbers, zucchini, and yellow squash. And a lot of peppers. He loves peppers. I always feel like we end up with too many peppers because I just don't care to eat them. He's enthusiastic for them. Horny for peppers, I guess. 

We also got seeds, and we got too many fucking seeds. 

The herbs are all in individual pots, and I feel like we'll need big containers in the yard in a couple weeks when they start to germinate. He told me to plant all the seeds in the pots, and .... it's too many seeds. So many seeds. But... Okay. Farmer Chris can take instructions and say "see, I told you so" later. 

Herbs a plenty! Six different ones: Greek oregano; rosemary; dill; peppermint (always has to be sequestered from everyone else); parsley; and thyme. I'm not a big oregano fan, but Doug likes it. I am looking forward to dill, and parsley is always nice in meals. 

For the veggies, he bought two kinds of lettuce, a spinach, and onions. The spinach we'll hold until late summer to plant,  he says it does well in the cold.  He told me to put all the lettuce seeds in the end of each of the planters, and we'll thin them out if there are too many (there will be too many). 

And the onions were planted down the middle of each of the beds, in between the plants. Hopefully it'll all come together nice, and full, and bountiful. 

On the left, the pepper and squash team. On the right, tomato and cucumber town. Where it is just dirt at the ends, on the pepper side are the seeds for Bibb lettuce, on the tomato side is butter crisp. I will be monitoring daily for germination.

This morning was another good sleep-in, and Toffee came to wake me up. Geoff fed her at about 7:30am but didn't let her outside. So she came to get me at 9 or so. 

I let her out, went to find my yoga pants, did my blood sugar and took the morning meds, came back down and got a cup of coffee. I walked outside to find my dog standing in the middle of one of the raised beds eating dirt. 

The actual fuck, dog. So there was a major scolding. She got out fast when I busted her ass, and she received NO cookie for going outside. No cookie for dirt eating dogs. 

I went out to survey the damage, and she'd walked in both beds, huge paw prints everywhere. Two tomato plants stomped on like Godzilla on Tokyo, and a cucumber firmly shoved to the depths. I fixed everything up, repaired the stompage, and we'll have to keep an eye on her. Can't believe she did that. 

Jerk. 

Oh, one other thing. I'm a big fan of cherry tomatoes, and sometimes the Big varieties of tomatoes don't do well in the garden. They start to get nice and big and stupid bugs find them. Cherry tomatoes are always just ready to be picked and popped in your mouth or a nice salad. 

But we did get an heirloom tomato because for real, y'all. Who can say no to something named Mr. Stripey. Here's to hoping he does well in our garden and produces some nice 'maters.

Digits below!

Sunday digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Treadmill run, 10 min/.64 mi (i had to pee, and dinner was ready, so i stopped). treadmill walk to make up for steps, 9 min/.51 mi;   10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

9:30am: 165
4:45pm: 164
11pm: 119

food & meds:

9:30am: jardiance + phentermine
I forget what I ate Sunday during the day. 
1pm: met+glip
6pm: bowl of spaghetti w/sausage and meat sauce
7:30pm: met+glip
no alcohol

Monday digits

exercise: 12/12 hours.  Treadmill run, 30 min/2.2 miles; 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

9:30am: 125
4:45pm: 125
10:45pm: 85

food & meds:

9:30am: jardiance + phentermine
12pm: english muffin w/pb; about 3/4 a cup of mac & cheese (not enough to put in the fridge for later so I ate it)
1pm: met+glip
6pm: 2 cheeseburgers, no rolls, some curly fries
7:30pm: met+ glip
8pm: vodka & diet cranberry

To Do to Ta Daaaa

This morning, Doug and I loafed around until about noon. He was ready to go to Lowes to get our dirt but I wanted to shower. We opted that he go without me so he can move something off the To Do list and onto the Ta Daaaa list. 

I'm all for that. 

While he was at Lowes, I hit the treadmill. 

I wanted to do a 5k inside today on the treadmill as a training, but he got back before I was done, so I got off to help move dirt. 

After dirt was moved, I showered and he built the second garden bed and then napped. Geoff got dinner ready. 

It wasn't a very exciting day overall but it was a good day overall.

Happy that I got some things done, and Doug got things done.  And the Ta Daaaa list has a thing on it. 

Tomorrow? perhaps we have enough no-rain time so we can prepare the garden, and maybe think about starting to get ready for what plants we want. 

Tomatoes, ahoy!

Digits below.

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours.  Treadmill, 28 min/2 miles; 11k+ stesps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:30am: 145
4:30pm: 148
10:30pm: 103

food & meds:

8:30am: jardiance + phentermine
2pm: turkey and colby jack on plain bagel w/mayo; met & glip
6:30pm: porkloin sauteed w/mushrooms & garlic; pierogis
7:30pm: met+glip
red wine & diet ginger ale
10:30pm: kettle corn