Outside Runner

Today. I figured today was the day. I've been waiting for it to not be freezing. Or raining. It's a little warmer than I like, and for sure it was windy. 

But today I decided I'd try to run outside. I've been doing so well on the treadmill, and everyone told me it would be better and easier running outside. 

Those people are dopes. 

Fuck this outside bullshit. 

Like I said, warmer and windier indeed. I left my house and turned left and that's an incline. It's not a hill, it is a very gentle slope of an incline. 

It kicked my ass. 

I stopped after about 90 seconds or 2 minutes. I paused the fitbit and changed from Run to Walk for the setting. This is not going to be a run. 

I got to the top of the road and turned left, trotted a little but not a lot. The road has no sidewalk here, so I usually play it very carefully. Cars come rather fast through the area. Just a couple blocks ahead there's a sidewalk, and it is tree lined and lovely. I ran a little through there too. 

My goal was the park at the end of that block, it's a big park and there's a trail that goes to the Fairgrounds, the really big park where the dog park is. Initially, my goal was to get to the fairgrounds, turn right, walk back along the main building until I got to a road that literally comes back to my house, but I was already wiped. 

I opted to walk past the hockey arena and over to another road the heads over to my street. No shame in cutting this short. 

I felt like it was over two miles but no, this was only 1.83 miles. Felt like so much more. I made it to my porch at exactly a half hour, slow pace of 16+ min mile. Headwinds both ways. That kind of a vibe. 

Will try again. I'm not going to let outside conquer me. Yet. 

Work was incredibly busy today, and I usually try to hit 2k steps by noon, which I did, but then I didn't pass 3k steps by 3pm. Which should tell you how busy things were. 

I had some fun chats with Linda who is at mom's, and I'm a little jelly that she's there not so much that ya know,,, I want to hang out with my mother or anything but because we could be at a hotel with a pool cranking out Ghost songs until some family comes in and we have to turn off the Satan music. 

Doug and I watched a really interesting series called The Night Manager, with Tom Hiddleston and Hugh Laurie, and the delightful Olivia Coleman. 

I've decided that I do not like when Hugh Laurie is a baddie. Nope. 

Anyway, I wasn't into it at the start, but eventually it grew on me. I do like that Olivia Coleman is so lovely even when she's a British Foreign Office director being bad ass. It makes me like her more, in fact. 

Alright. Bed. No picture. Just know. Your girl will do better tomorrow. Maybe. 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Outdoors walk, 30 min/1.83 mi. ugh. 11k+ by bedtime

blood glucose:

9am: 156
4:30pm: 135
10pm: 121

food & meds:

9am: jardiance+phentermine
11:30am: english muffin w/pb and low sugar j
1pm: met and glip
6pm: chicken enchilada slow cooker thing by Geoff
8pm: met+glip; ramekin of mixed nuts
white wine+diet ginger ale

Shepardstown and Williamsport

Yesterday I said I'd post the picture of the light fixture once I cleaned the mirror. With three lightbulbs, the bathroom is painfully bright and overwhelming. I guess I'll get used to it? 

This morning, I made a marinade and got things ready for dinner. Doug needed to go over to the farm store and pick some things up. I needed a shower desperately so I told him to go without me, I'd treadmill and shower and maybe afterwards we can go on a joyride. 

I got into a really good pace on the treadmill, almost broke a 13 min. mile, sustained pace, for the half hour. So close. I started a little slowly and that unfortunately cost me a few seconds on the pace. It's okay though because honestly, who knew a year ago I could run a regular 12-13 min mile pace anyway. 

Doug had suggested we go to a brewery near Cumberland MD, but that's like 30 miles away. I wasn't thinking of going that far afield at 3pm. So we ended up cruising down the backroads to Shepherdstown, West Virginia. We had driven through there a month or so ago and it looked cool so he thought we should check it out. 

And it was a great little town! There's a college there, and tons of students were just out and about, chilling on lawns and hanging out at the coffee shop or ice cream store. It was a vibe. 

On the way there we drove through the Antietam Battlefield area in Sharpsburg (or, if you are a confederate, it's just Sharpsburg and not Antietam. We know not to fight about that with some relatives. ahem.)

We took Toffee and even Geoff came (he never wants to come) and we had a great time. We were looking for this Wildlife Viewing Area that signs kept touting, only we drove all over and couldn't find it. So we kept heading west-ish and eventually got to the highway. 

And then over to Cushwa Brewing. Geoff hadn't been there, so we figured we'd take him to a place he had not been yet. 

We didn't get any pizza, although we could have and saved the marinading chicken for tomorrow. But Doug said we should go home and eat. 

I grilled it up - it was very good but the peanut sauce was super salty. Possibly the fault of the soy sauce. Still, I love me some peanut sauce so I was NOT complaining. 

Linda is up visiting mom, only mom doesn't know she's there just yet. She checked into the hotel, so she could have a night of peace and alone-ness, and she's going to work there all morning and THEN show up at mom's as if she just drove up. "Pretty sneaky, sis." 

Alright. Tomorrow. More busy work stuff. I'm proud of myself for not touching the computer all weekend to do work things but it's all looming in my head what needs done. 

Some pictures! and digits below.

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours.  Treadmill, 30 min/2.29 mi; walk in shepherstown, 18 min/.62 mi. 13k+ by bedtime

blood glucose:

9am: 132
n/apm: x
10pm: 167 

food & meds:

9am: jardiance+phentermine
1pm: english muffin w/pb & low sugar j; met+glip
5:30pm: 2 beers at the brewery
7:30pm: chicken satay, peanut sauce, white rice, grilled asparagus; 2 beers
8:30pm: met+glip; entenmann's chocolate donut

Very Very Busy Day

 

Started out normal like we do, phones, music, couch, coffee. Doug got up and started puttering around. A few weeks ago he had ordered a new light fixture for the bathroom. 2 of the 3 light dealies weren't working. I thought we should check with an electrician - they all worked when we had the house inspected and when we moved in. He changed the bulbs to no solution. 

The previous owner was an electrician by trade, but I think he did sloppy work? He certainly wasn't a painter, that's for sure. The paint job in most of the rooms in this house is absolutely crappy. That's another project. 

Anyway. We had two bathroom things needed done. The light fixture and recaulking the tub. He started with the tub, and we can't use it until tomorrow. I had a bit of a disagreement with him because I wanted to bleach clean the area after he scraped the old caulk out, but he said then we'd have to wait a couple hours to do this next part and he didn't want to wait. 

It is done, it .... still looks like it needs to be clean so I am going to wait and apply toilet bowl cleaner to the area to see if it penetrates the caulk. I'll do that tomorrow. 

Then he started on the light fixture. Jess sent me this a couple weeks back and they thought it was hilarious and on point. I agree. But yeah, not this bad. I hope this shows up, If not - just click on the view this post on Instagram. or hey. Click here?

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Cruz Salgado / Personal Trainer (@electricluchador)

There was some swearing, mostly because he dropped things or something didn't quite fit. He wanted the lights to point upward, and they wouldn't ... cooperate.  So he pointed the shades downward. I agree with him on the point upward part... Maybe he'll get to putting them that way, maybe we can have our handyman fix it or help him fix it sometime. 

Now it is so incredibly bright in the bathroom that I feel like I need to toothbrush and toothpick scrape clean every nook and cranny. Just so bright compared to the one bulb that was there before.

He ended up needing little wire cap things that were bigger than the ones in the wall and on the old fixture, so he went to Lowes. While he was gone, I vacuumed. As you all know, he hates the vacuum. So that got knocked out the park. Done. 

He took a nap, I hit the treadmill. Under my right kneecap started to hurt, so I stopped running at about 15 minutes in, and slowed down to a walk. Then I called it at 20 minutes. Just. Ouch. No. Okay. Please don't be like this, knee. We've been doing so well. 

I made homemade meatballs and Geoff made the spaghetti and sauce. I didn't want pasta again, but I had a marinade for chicken that was missing a couple crucial ingredients, so we opted for that for dinner. Tomorrow, different options! 

As for tomorrow, not sure what we've got planned if it is more stuff like this, cloud talk about paint, something outdoors-ish. It didn't get above 42 today and was super windy. Tomorrow might be 60? Fingers crossed for something nice. 

Here's a picture of where the light goes. Tomorrow I'll post the installed victorious light! (Note what I said about the paint job, look at that ceiling meets wall nastiness!) 

Digits below. 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours.  Treadmill 20 min/1.44 mi run. Fitbit tracked me while cleaning/vacuuming, 29 min/.35mi walk. ha. 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:45am: 113
4:15pm: 165
9:15pm: 180 

food & meds:

8:45am: jardiance+phentermine
11:30am: bowl of mac & cheese w/bacon
1pm: met & glip
5:30pm: spaghetti and home made meatballs
6pm: entenmann's chocolate donut
7:45pm: met+glip
no alcohol

Last Friday of the Month

I manage all our payments for things, some I mail checks in for (our electric and water bills because I can't figure out how to set up online payments for the city, and Doug's student loan because they have blocked him from accessing his account online. Don't ask why). 

So today is the day I put a lot of things in for payments. I set everything up at the beginning of the month so I can pick the date things clear. I am not a fan of autopay, I like checking the balances, looking at what's going on with the checking account, how much money do we have. 

First thing I do is pay mom's lot rent. Her online payment portal accepts auto pay setup but it doesn't let you pay until the first, which is the due date. She gets very anxious about that, because the website says it can take up to 48 hours for the payment to process. She always used to mail it in 10 days in advance of the first, so she wants it paid before the first. I manually do that every month on the 27th usually. I use her bank account, and she will sometimes go to the bank to check her balances two or three days later and say "you didn't pay my rent, did you." 

Um. 

Yes.

On the 27th. I paid it. I did.

"Well it hasn't cleared yet." 

"Well that's not my fault." Today is a Friday, which then means it isn't going to clear until like Monday or Tuesday so I bet money I hear from her. 

Then, I check my bank balance. I get paid every other Thursday and Doug gets paid every other Friday and it is never the same week. This week was my pay week. So our balance is nice. 

What has cleared? The utilities that I pay by check, Doug's student loan, our mortgage, which I schedule for whatever the last Friday of the month is (today).  I pay the Capital one, it's almost fully paid off but this month I paid less than I usually do but still way more than the minimum amount due. I wanted to throw the usual gianter amount at it but.

Taxes are due. And we've got a big huge ass payment to make to the feds. Doh. 

So I'm spending a lil'less and not throwing as much around as I want to. 

Doug gets paid next week, I get paid the week after, we'll have a substantial pile of cash in the account and can pay the piper, as it were. 

Doug also got a raise, and it'll be retro to the beginning of the year which is nice. 

And then after the 15th of April I can go back to paying my debts but also... spending money. 

I bought 8 tickets for 2 nights each for Guster at Wolf Trap in September. People will reimburse me, for sure, but I'm not asking anyone for money yet. 

In the 25 years (holy shit) that I've kept this blog it is nice to be in a position where alright, okay. Alright okay. We're good. We're fine. I don't have to pay my taxes on my credit card. 

So the last friday of this month, we're good.

Today was a good day. I had a 1:1 with my department head and she is delightful. Last one we had was in September and she reminded me that I really should get on her schedule more often, just for fun, because it is delightful to talk to me. The thing that I was working on last night is still not resolved and no one touched it today but we'll revisit that Monday. 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Toffee Walk. Went to the dog park, 28 minutes round trip, 1.38 mi. 11k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8am: 125
4:15pm: 142
10:30pm: 119 

food & meds:

8am: jardiance+phentermine
11:30am: grilled cheese and turkey on 647 
1pm: met+glip
4:15pm: 2 good yogurt
6pm: kielbasa and pierogis
8:15pm: met+glip
8:30pm: ramekin mixed nuts
red wine+diet ginger ala

It's for Science

At work today, someone at HQ was trying to solve for a problem where content she was publishing was not going out to our clients' website. We couldn't even search and find the content in our network. A huge discussion unfolded about what to do and how to approach this, when finally she did something and asked me to pull it in to my test site "for science!" 

I thought that was hilarious. Just, do this "for science!" 

It worked but did not work. The expected results were not met. So more work would need to be done, and a lot of other people got involved talking about business practices and strategy decisions and why this kinda content doesn't "work" through the network. Which frustrated her, because her assignment was/is to put it out there for clients. 

At some point tomorrow we will probably have a strategy discussion.

I was able to use the term in another meeting only the developer was not in a good mood and he was not amused when I told him I wanted to give the thing a try, "for science!" 

I'm usually very good at reading the room and missed that this guy has no sense of humor. 

Later, he slacked me and said "I am not mad at you, I am mad that it is 7pm and I have other things to do, and I asked about this first thing in the morning today and no one got back to me, but then at 5:30 everyone starts telling me what to do and how fast to do it." 

I told him that I completely understand, and I'm here to help him with anything he needs just tell me. Tell me to grab a client and have him jump into the thing and test the log in process. I have three guys at the ready, and they'll do anything we ask, even late. I have their personal cel phone numbers. 

They know this is important and they're here to help too. Just yell when you're ready to go. 

The thing failed. Another thing for science, and it failed. And he started suggesting "well we can try it with another profile." But I told him no - he did great, we'll revisit tomorrow and try again. We're fine for tonight. Amazing thank you so much.

Science can wait until tomorrow for sure. 

I spent the evening writing help articles for the new app we're rolling out in May. I got a few done but I want to do screenshots for the next batch and I think I need my second monitor set up. Dragging my feet in setting up the office, well. It's my own fault isn't it. 

Maybe the dining table. Maybe. We'll see. Digits below.

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Treadmill 30 min/2.20 miles. Broke 14 min and held steady at 13.30 pace. 11k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8am: 140
4:45pm: 91
11pm: 112 

food & meds:

8am: jardiance+phentermine
12:15pm: turkey and 2 pieces of muenster on 647 multigrain bread
12:30pm: met+glip
4:45pm: small ramekin of mixed nuts
6:30pm: rigatoni w/spicy sauce, pancetta, mushrooms, geoff style. Extra leftover sausage from the other night's dinner.
8pm: met+glip

Work Dreams and Dresses

It's been a long time since I've had a dream about work and co-workers. Last night I worked very late on some things and had a lot going through my mind about the big project. 

So of course, it all leaks into my dreams. 

One of our contractors in Europe was working for a chop shop that was located next to a bar where I was going to meet my friends Ben & Amy. It was very dark, and the parking area for the bar was incredibly full. I was riding a Vespa style scooter, and parked up in the grass between the bar and the garage. 

My co-worker, R we'll call him, came out of the garage and demanded my scooter. He was covered in grease and smelled horrible. Looked like he hadn't bathed in years, and I said no, get away from me and I tried to steer the scooter away to somewhere better lit, somewhere maybe safer. 

He kept trying to pull the handlebars away from me, but his hands were greasy. He tried to wipe them with a nasty rag, but nothing was helping him. 

Then he pulled a knife on me, and I left the scooter and ran into the bar to my friends. 

Of course. 

So the funny thing is, this guy is one of my favorite colleagues on the contracting team. He bathes! It's true!  He is nice, and sweet and funny. Not at all someone trying to murder me, or steal something from me, or give me a hard time about anything. 

Dreams are fucked up, yo. 

Last night Doug and I were talking about this wedding we are going to in NH in May. It's an evening wedding, "semi formal attire, black tie optional." So I wanted him to be aware. Evening wedding, semi formal, he has nothing. So he's a little chuffed about having to go buy a suit. He has sports coats and blazers and ties and dress shirts and all, but nothing that is a suit. 

And I'm in a similar boat. No I don't need a suit but I need a something. 

For Friday night, I think there's a cocktail thing so I have a cool blouse that I got for the Kennedy Center Guster show when we all did dress-up. 

And the only like, actual factual fancy dress I have is the dress I wore to Aaron's wedding in 2014 when I was his best man. 

2014, friends. Feels like forever ago. 

I've worn this dress repeatedly over the past decade. Doug's office party in 2018, Kennedy Center, another wedding. It's a solid go-to. 

But it is time for a new dress, I think. 

Where do people go to buy dresses? I am serious. I basically shop at Kohl's... I wear yoga pants and t-shirts (sometimes from one band, a lot). I spend most of my time barefoot. 

I bought this dress at Macy's, so I'm thinking I just go back there. I think Molly wants people to wear floral print to the wedding according to Jess, maybe? I have to double check that truth of that so I know what to buy.

Also shoes. 

Shoes. 

I had a pair of sweet kitten heeled sandals for Linda's wedding way back when, God only knows where they have ended up. 

I also have a comfortable pair of silver lamé sandals that I got for Aaron's wedding to match that dress, I still have those but they're looking a little worn. They can do, and Lord Knows they're the most comfortable things on the planet. 

That and a good pedicure the week before, my feet could be all set. 

Here's that silver dress in action again and yeah, you can see how it no longer fits me compared to the Aaron Wedding shot up there. 

Also. Maybe a haircut. I don't want bangs again but maybe layers. For fun curly fun. Or something. 

Also. Me and my sister are super cute. 

Digits below. 

digits

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

blood glucose:

8:30am: 109
4:30pm: 83
10pm: 160 

food & meds:

8:30am: jardiance+phentermine
12:15pm: english muffin w/pb and low sugar j
1pm: met+glip
6pm: shrimp and rice with onions and bell peppers (a Geoff recipe) very good! 
8pm: met+glip, last big piece of bread that Geoff made the other night.
vodka tonics

Squishy Squeeky Stuffy Toys

Yesterday a box came for me in the mail. I was surprised. Doug asked me if I knew anyone in XYZ New Jersey and I had no idea who this was. 

I opened the box, and it was FULL of boxes of Girl Scout Cookies and a beautiful hand written kid note from "Quinn" thanking me for the Tiny Desk. 

Um.

My memory sucks sometimes. 

She had pictures of Guster's "Big Friend," so at first I thought it was just a thanks for helping set up their Tiny Desk (which honestly, I wasn't responsible for). 

Then I remembered a mom from the Guster fan group who emailed me last year to ask if I could give a tour of the office to her and her 8 year old daughter. I had already moved and I think I was even away at the time. So I could not, but I connected her with one of my team members who is always in the office to do a tour, and, there was a Tiny Desk that day which my co-worker suggested they go to. 

Quinn is a musician, and she was very interested in Tiny Desk. She'd watched Guster's many times, and watched many others so even though the artist who was there the day of their visit was someone they had no exposure to, she was thrilled to witness. 

15 minutes or so, but an impression to last a lifetime. Mom emailed me later to let me know that Quinn was buzzing on this for days. "Someday, I'll play the Tiny Desk," she declared. 

One of her favorite radio shows is From the Top, which is younger kid musicians play

I'm all for it, Quinn. 

So this surprise box of joy that arrived was a surprise. Mom doesn't use her "real" name on Facebook, so this was a little bit of a challenge for me to piece together to figure it all out. 

They also sent gifts for Toffee, which was so sweet. The cookies were lovely and there were some stuffies for her to play with. 

We know the Toffee vs. Stuffies adventures. I gave her one of the toys and she obliterated it. Hilariously. I sent a bunch of pictures to mom this morning, and they both thought it was hilarious. I think Quinn was a little sad for the destruction but I told her that stuffies are an investment in happiness, joy, entertainment. And even though they don't last long, Toffee sure does love the experience. 

Before and after pictures, below.

digits

exercise: 11/12 hours. Somehow missed 8pm, I think I was loading the dishwasher.  Treadmill, 31 solid fast minutes, almost broke 14 min mile average. 2.21 miles. 11k+ by bedtime

blood glucose:

7:45am: 130
4:15pm: 142
10:30pm: 139 

food & meds:

7:45am: jardiance+phentermine
protein shake in my coffee
1:45pm: leftover creamy chicken stuff w/a few potato chunks; met+glip 
6pm: 2 sausages w/sauce and cheese, and a roll with butter
white wine
8pm: about 6 thin mint girl scout cookies
8:30pm: Met+glip
9:30pm: bowl of popcorn 

The Sentimental Type

When we bought our house, the previous owners had a lot of kids. Like, 6 I think. Our yard is full of toys and toy parts. 

I'm not exaggerating. There are hundreds of tiny plastic toy pieces are all over the place yard, from legos, and cars, and hair clips. Mardi Gras beads, a couple of crocs/sandals. It is kind of unbelievable. Doug goes out and finds things, brings them in and puts them into my houseplants. There are little trucks, and rubber ducks (sounds like song lyrics there!) 

All left behind, forgotten, unwanted. Makes me really think that kids maybe don't need toys if 90% of the parts of them are going to be abandoned in the yard. Where are the rest of the toy? Did they move? And these 9 lego pieces are left behind? 

One of the other things they left behind are these cute round garden circle tiles that look as if they were made as part of a summer program or Vacation Bible School or something. We have four of them. I took a picture of one while planting the bulbs.

It kind of makes me sad. I wonder if mom just forgot they were there, or if she just to be honest was not fond of them? 

I have an incredible soft spot in my heart for kid art. I have boxes and boxes of stuff my kids painted and made over the years going back to early elementary school. I have saved everything Hen has drawn for me. My favorite is when he writes "Hi Christine,  it's me! Henry!" on things. Like I don't know this is from Hen.

I admired the little circles and I'm kind of happy they are here even if they were not made for me by my own kids. 

That's another piece of sentimentality for me, the bulbs. I thought about how I had planted a dozen or so bulbs that Doug's dad dug up for us back in 2015 and brought to us at Geoff's graduation. I put them in front of the porch at our last place in West Newbury, and I don't even know if they are still there since the house got rebuilt and refurbished. 

I hope they are. I hope very soon they pop their little heads up and the new homeowners or renters love them. I kind of wanted to go by and knock on the door and ask if I could dig them up. but I thought better of it. And I hope ours come up happy. It is supposed to get super cold tonight and I'm worried. 

Digits below.

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Toffee walk for 15 min, back home to finish on the treadmill, 30 min total/1.53 miles 10k+ by bedtime (slacker!!).

blood glucose:

7:30am: 119
4:30pm: 146
10pm: 186 

food & meds:

7:30am: jardiance+phentermine
11:45am: bowl of mac & cheese w/bacon
12:30pm: met+glip
2:45pm: apple w/pb 
6:30pm: steak marinaded by Geoff, slice of homemade beer bread; big salad
7:30pm: about 6 thin mints
8:15pm: met+glip
no alcohol

Not as much done

We started off this morning the usual way, coffee, toffee, tv, phone games. We had ordered a microwave to replace the one we've had for 8 years that started giving off wicked smells and some smoke (bye, you were used almost every day for 8 years, friend. Thank you for your service). 

The box sat in the living room for days (not weeks, just days) and I knew Geoff would need it before too long for dinner prep and snacks. We got her unpacked and on the counter. Counter got a deep clean. She's fancy. She makes music. I have a microwave that plays tunes. Hilarious. 

Then, I started to organize pots, and measured the front porch for the redwood table. 

Doug came out and looked at his tape measure on the ground - a placeholder/visual so he could see how big the table was edge to edge (58 inches). He said it wouldn't work, it was going to be too big. But I thought we could just try it. 

He got it pulled out of the car port, set it up, got the three benches, it fits. It looks good. 

So far, he likes it too. She needs a cleaning so the internet gave me some advice on how to properly clean redwood patio furniture. I'll look into doing that tomorrow. 

After futzing with the table, chilling out front, and talking about pots and stuff, I asked if we were going to buy flowers. 

He looked at me funny. "On a Sunday? Places are gonna be mobbed! No!" 

Well then, sir, when do we go get flowers if not a Saturday, when places are also going to be mobbed, or a Sunday when places are going to be mobbed? 

It started to feel like we weren't going to go out on an adventure or anything, so I said I was going to go on the treadmill. He said, "Well, no how about we go for a walk?" He suggested a revisit to Gathland where we went in November last year for a walk. I thought that sounded great, and I was ready to go. The dog was ready to go. Geoff was even going to come (shock).

And then he said he didn't feel well, and we did a pivot with him napping and me on the treadmill. After all. I think that's really why he didn't want to go buy flowers. Just not feeling well, and not feeling up to shenanigans at a nursery.

Geoff went and picked up milk, and a few other sundry items needed around the house. Toffee didn't get a walk, so I feel bad. If Geoff doesn't take her tomorrow, I'll get a loop in with her. 

Linda and I checked in for a long call, and then my phone died. Timing was right because dinner was ready. 

All told, not the most productive day ever but yeah, we did stuff. A balanced weekend, one could say. 

I have some pictures but they need explaining, so I'll just post this and save those for tomorrow. 

Digits! Below.

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Treadmill 32 min/2.19 mi. 12k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:45am: 135
4:30pm: 91
10:30pm: 117 

food & meds:

8:45am: jardiance+phentermine
1pm: small zero carb wrap w/cream cheese and sliced turkey; met+glip
6:30pm: pasta primavera, 6 buffalo wings from the pizza parlor re-cooked on the grill
vodka+zero sugar lemonade
8:30pm: met+glip

Bulbs

When Doug went to his mom's in the fall, he brought home a gianormous box of daffodil bulbs that were dug up from his childhood home. He and his sister split them, and received a really good sized box full. 

They sat in the mud room all winter, waiting. I thought we should have planted them around Thanksgiving but we didn't. Then winter came. Then it has been super cold and stupid out there so we didn't. 

Doug opened the box and the daffodils were starting to sprout. We thought hey - if we don't get them into the ground, they do not stand a chance. They won't make it through spring in this box. 

First thing to happen was Doug took down the bird feeders. You know winter is over when those get put away. It makes me sad, because I love to sit and watch them but it's true - birds need to eat bugs all damn summer so don't feed 'em! Then we prepped the side gardens of the house. We wanted to split the bulbs up evenly between the left and right sides of the porch. I started on the side closest to the driveway. I had no idea what I was doing - I just grabbed a trowel, dug a hole, dropped a bunch in, rotated my butt, dug another hole. 

When I felt about half of the bulbs were in on that side I went to the other side. The plantings over there are different, we used google lens to determine what was growing and how to handle the dead stalks and flowers, and Doug cut things down and back, pulled out what looked to be a wooden baby gate that was trying to be a trellis for something to grow up, which never did.  

There was bark mulch on that side of the porch but not the other, so that was a little bit odd. And there was that stupid black landscaping fabric which I couldn't dig through, could not penetrate, did not want to deal with. We agreed okay, go around the side of the house and put some over there around the window wells (Geoff's bedroom and the storage room). And I still had bulbs left over, so I went back to the area I started with, and put the rest there. 

Doug went to Lowes and got some spray paint for these two huge planters we got 2 years ago from one of my co-workers when she was moving. He thought they could use some livening up, so. He spraypainted while I planted. 

He fixed the leg of the picnic table he brought back from his mom's. It broke in transit, and had been sitting in the car port since arriving. We got that all situated, and we're trying to decide where to keep it. I would like it on the front porch, he thinks it is too big. We'll tape measure and discuss tomorrow. 

He also swept the carport up, where the squirrels made a giant feast of the 8 boxes of black walnuts he had harvested, and then he never received the nutcracker he ordered in November (they canceled the order on him. We think it has to do with imports and tariffs). I was thankful he did that because it made me scream internally every time I walked past the disaster of shells and ripped boxes. I think there are still 2 boxes worth of walnuts back there - maybe he'll renew his vigor and get a nutcracker from somewhere that will fucking deliver one to us. 

Geoff went to the market, got stuff for burgers and he said "oh this was a great idea tonight," as he wolfed down his dinner. 

Tis the Season for grillin', babe. 

Oh, he gets SUPER mad at me when I call him babe. I asked why he was mad about that. He pointed at Doug and said that's your husband, call him Babe, not me!  I asked what he wanted me to call him. He said nothing. You don't have to call me anything. 

"Okay, shithead." 

Doug thought that was hilarious. 

We relaxed on the front porch for quite a while. She's coming along. 

While Doug was at Lowes I did my "mile" which was a mile and a half, and, because of all the shit tons of walking outside all day I went over 14k steps for the day. 

I hurt everywhere. 

Doug said "well, you were using limbs you don't use while running in a straight line on the treadmill," and this is true. My elbows. My lower back, shoulders, neck. Oooof. Today was a workout. 

Not sure what tomorrow's shenanigans are. I do want to get flowers for all the pots we have, do a bit of an audit over coffee while Doug watches the stupid morning news. Our realtor suggested a nursery in Pennsylvania, but they are not open on Sundays. And Doug said he didn't really feel like driving up there when plenty of people around here have plenty of flowers we can buy. 

So, we'll see. 

Took a ton of pictures today. Digits are below. 

Before we got started: 

Daffodil Party Time and Spraypaint Party Time

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours.   Lots and lots of steps! Treadmill, 22 min/1.52 miles; 14k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

7am: 140
4:30pm: 128
9:30pm: 142 

food & meds:
7am: jardiance+phentermine
11:30am: 2 small brekkie burritos w/scrambled eggs, bacon, shredded cheddar on zero carb wraps
12pm: met+glip
6:30pm: one cheeseburger on bed of baby greens and tomatoes, w/bleu cheese dressing and a couple french fries
7:30pm: big piece of carrot cake (she's almost gone!)
8pm: met+glip
white wine