Mall Walker

I've been missing my Teva sandals. 

I recently had to ditch them after like 15 years or more of happy wear. I am always reluctant to buy shoes online because I am never sure if I'm a 10, 10.5, 11. So I thought I'd go buy in person. 

Also, shout out to shoe stores that are carrying Ladies' Shoes at sizes 11+ because I see you. I see what you're thinking of client-wise. And you're doing great. Thank you for thinking of those girlies, friends!

Local big shoe store chain allegedly carries said Tevas so I have delayed going actual shopping. I told Doug I was going to go today and asked if he wanted to come. Normally he says no. Not interested. But. Today? He felt like coming. 

Alrighty then. 

We went to the store, and no. They had Tevas but they were like .... fancy? Pretty Tevas? no. Not what I wanted. I wanted something like my hiking sandals. That I've worn forever. That I sadly parted with. 

He suggested we go over to the mall, so. Okay? Mall? Doug? I guess. 

We headed over and parked, and it turns out the mall was .... um. Very Busy. The site of a collectables convention for pokemon cards, sports cards, all kinds of shit. The place was mobbed, and we were parked at the far end of the mall away from the shoe store that we wanted to go to. Lots of walking past table after table of nerds and cards and Magic the Gathering and whatever. 

Where are the shoes. Where are they hiding shoes?

We tried Dick's sporting goods and no luck.

Another store, no. 

We kept walking the mall, past the tables of collectibles and ... the nerds. So many nerds. 

We finally found a shoe store where two staff people told me they'd never heard of the brand "Teva." Really? huh. 

I was ready to quit when Doug found some sandals that were .... passable? 

Not exactly what I wanted but they'll do. They're cute. But.

I am a little worried about just outright ruining them if it pours rain and is mud-fest central. 

You never know what it is going to do weather-wise out there for the fest. 

And, when I got home, I went online and ordered Tevas, not sure they'll be the right ones I want or fit or whatever, or even get here in time for me to leave Wednesday but. Alright. 

After we went shopping, and walked one end of the mall to the other, we drove over to Cushwa Brewing and enjoyed some time, some beer, and some Detroit Pizza at Rad Pies. 

I was happy he wanted to come with me. Honestly, we aren't going to see each other again until late August, so. 

A nice day out together was fun. 

We got home and he took a big nap. I made dinner for Geoff because he was getting hungry, and I knew Doug wasn't going to want dinner, but I was okay with having a little bowl of pasta and meat sauce. 

Walking the mall I got a butt ton of steps. Who needs the treadmill, friends? 

Here are a couple more pictures. My neighbor was throwing some things away and they've been sitting out in front of her house for a couple weeks, so I salvaged a weird flamingo fisherman guy, and another flamingo that lights up when it gets a lot of sunlight, which is not today. So much rain. And our big tall sunflower up front is doing gangbusters out there. Loving all the pollinators that swarm around the flowers, and I absolutely adore having her out there. 

digits
exercise: 12/12 hours, Mall Walkin' 46 min/1.19 mi. 12k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose: 

9:30am: 166
4:30pm: 165
10pm: 116

food & meds:

9:30am: jardiance, new meds
11:30am: English muffin w/pb and nice cherry preserves
1pm: met+glip
3:30pm: detroit style pizza, 3 beers
5pm: new meds
6pm: small bowl of fettuccine w/ meat sauce and one piece of garlic toast
7:30pm: met+glip
red wine w/diet ginger ale 

We Run, We Nap, We Eat

I play a game with myself when it comes to sleep. If I wake up and it is after 6am, I'll stay up. But before, I'll try and go back to sleep. 

Today, I woke up at 5:50. 

Ha.

I had to pee so I went downstairs, did the duty, and got in the guest bed and put on a podcast. I heard Doug come down at about 6:30, he fed the dog, and he made coffee. I stayed in bed and fell back asleep quickly again. 

Eventually Toffee came in to check on me, have a cuddle, and I got up. Let the day begin. I went out and watered the garden. Farmer Chris is happy with the flowers but the zucchini is not well and we have one semi-decent cucumber. The lettuce was knocked out by a whistle pig, and the bumper crop are the peppers and the tomatoes. They are doing quite well. Lots of green tomatoes that will probably all come ready while I am away. 

Kind of disappointed in the veg garden, but. Oh well. I think everything just got fried to death in the heatwave. And that makes me sad.

Doug went and took a nap around 11 and I figured it would be a good time to do the treadmill. I want to try and do 5k more frequently before ... gasp! A week from tomorrow! I started out on the faster side of things and then just felt slow and fat and gloppy... so I finished in about 48 minutes when I usually do it in 43 or less. No worries. I will take it. 

And, It was nice to get that many steps out of the way by noon.

I asked Doug if he wanted to do anything today and he was kind of "meh," It kind of bums me out because starting Wednesday I am not here for like almost 3 weeks. I'd like to do some fun together before Wednesday. 

Around 4:30 I felt like I also could use a nap, so I did that. I don't usually but I guess I needed it. I slept through the 5pm hour and missed those steps but who cares. I was already over 10k steps for the day anyway!  

Geoff cooking dinner woke me up. He was browning apples and onions to go over some pork chops. It was very tasty and I ate a lot more than I should have. But it was so good. 

The one notable thing that happened is Guster and their partner organization Reverb do a volunteer service day on Saturday during the weekend, and I was selected for one project and Linda was selected for the other. We decided we wanted to do the project I was selected for. We'll be cutting apples for a dehydration machine for a food project. I'm all for it. 

The other project Linda was selected for was trail maintenance, and neither of us want ticks or exhaustion. And Linda's back may not agree upon doing it. I think I'd be alright with it, but ... August and trail maintenance and I are not best friends. 

Digits below! 

digits
exercise: 11/12 hours,  Slept through 5pm. 11k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose: 

8am: 159
4pm: 169
10:30pm: 177

food & meds:

8am: jardiance, new meds
9:30am: ramekin mixed nuts
12:30pm: met+glip; large bowl of mac & cheese w/bacon
6:30pm: new meds
7pm: red wine + diet ginger ale; pork chops in an apple/onion/raisin reduction sauce (mmmm)

Shot to the Knee

A couple weeks ago, my right knee was hurting a lot so I stopped running, just did walkies, and things got better. Imagine that, dear hearts - when you run the impact on your joints is immense, and when you weigh 190 lbs, that is a lot of boom boom. BOOM. 

I would be limping around in the mornings, and by afternoon it would have worked itself out pain-wise, and I'd run after work, and ouch. Heating pad, ice pack, biofreeze. 

My doctor and I talked about it, she ordered an X-ray and then said that things look okay but if I wanted to get a Cortisone shot she'd make the referral. 

I wanted the Cortisone shot. 

I've had several over the years, mostly before vacations where I knew we'd be walking a ton. And since I'm doing a 5k in real life, not just on the treadmill in my air conditioned house, I wanted to make sure that knee pain was not going to be my reason for flaking out or not doing it or anything. 

The interesting thing is, for the past week or so, it has not hurt at all. But I didn't want to cancel this appointment. We talked about how I've been running and I'm doing a 5k, he seemed a little surprised and I didn't want to shame the fuck out of him for saying "um, yeah, fat people can run a 5k, dude," right before he jammed a needle into my knee. 

I told him how much I used to weigh, how over the years I've managed to lose weight gradually. He asked if I was on wegovy or anything, but I told him our insurance does not cover wegovy or any compound medications. He seemed surprised. I told him I was kind of relieved I'm doing things the way I'm doing things. If I make it to 180, I'll refocus my goal to 175. If that is 2027, so be it. 

But in the meantime, yeah bro. Yeah I'm runnin' a bunch and running a 5k so shoot some cortisone in my knee and make her feel better.

He seemed really cool, and at the end he told me, "you know, you're the nicest patient I've had all week. Maybe ever. But no, there is this one lady, I did her knee replacement and she came back in to meet about her second knee and she hugged me and cried and told me that I saved her life, I've changed her life. She wants to do something for me..."

"Cookies? Can you accept cookies? because heck, I'd take a dozen wonderfully made with love cookies." He laughed and said "that's a great suggestion."

I told him about how I do technical support and one of my clients that I'd never spoken with before accused me of being a bot because I'm too nice, and I maintain composure and approach situations that he is struggling with, and I told him that he deserves kindness. I'm not a bot, and to be honest, ALAN! the guy's name is Alan, To be honest I've been doing this job for 13 years and nothing that I deal with is brain surgery or nuclear war. No one is dying, no one needs an ambulance, and we can get through it all. And don't you call me a bot ever again. 

Traffic sucked going down there, and sucked coming back up. Doug's mom gave him a check when he visited recently, so he wanted me to deposit it. That got me off the highway where the highway was most horrible by 5pm. 

And then where I get back on the highway it is far more reasonable and not congested. 

Alright. Bedtime. It has been a long day and I have some catch up work to do tomorrow to ticket some things to the developers and work on my vacation coverage plan. 

knee feels pretty good. Didn't get a run but took an almost hour walk, and that was great.

digits
exercise: 11/12 hours, missed 3pm due to being stuck in traffic; walk while talking to linda, 53 minutes/2.25 miles; 12k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose: 

8am: 120
n/a pm: n/a
10pm: 222 (why? lol)

food & meds:

8am: jardiance, new meds
1pm: met+glip; tuna salad on small sub roll (about 4 inches) 
5pm: new meds
6pm: one hamburger, a couple french fries
7:30pm: met+glip
red wine & diet ginger

How much lettuce would a woodchuck lettuce if a woodchuck could lettuce lettuce

Farmer Chris is displeased.

Doug was looking out the back door before letting Toffee out this morning and there was this big fat giant woodchuck eating our lettuce right out of the raised bed. 

Sonofabitch. So how am I gonna feed my whole family all winter long on no lettuce? Funny enough, I asked Doug the other day if I should harvest the lettuce and he said no, give it another couple days. 

Well then. 

The woodchuck saw Doug and hid under our shed. Maybe this is why I have not seen the bunny recently, she got evicted by this big ass mofo. 

Toffee and Dijon spent a lot of time sniffin' round the shed last week and I guess I can see now why. 

I went out with her to investigate the lettuce, she sniffed and I huffed. 

I told Doug we need a little fence around this, and he said it is too late now. 

I want to call the wildlife guy that took care of our squirrel situation, Doug seems to want to wait a bit. Not sure why. It isn't like we can cuddle it, or hang out with it. It is not as cute as the bunny. 

There is a rather large hole in my neighbor's fence, overgrown with some of her perennial flowering vines, but for sure that little jerk is moving around between our yards. 

Bah. Madenning. 

I decided that I didn't want a run-in with a woodchuck for Miss Toffee so I reached out to a veterinary clinic. She's due for shots/tests/etc and we've been here almost a year so I bet she's out of date on some of her vaccinations. It is something I've been meaning to do. 

Anyway, I have a horrible hangnail on my right index finger, and that is making typing super uncomfortable. So I'll just post this. More tomorrow, digits below. 

Wednesday digits
exercise: 12/12 hours, Treadmill run 30 min/2.25 mi. 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose: 

8:45am: 145
4pm: 79
11pm: 135

food & meds:

8:45am: jardiance, new meds
9am: last 2 cookies; mixed protein shake in with my coffee
4:15pm: cheese and crackers and a little trail mix; new meds
6pm: piece of chicken parm
7:30pm: met+glip
red wine on ice

Thursday digits
exercise: 12/12 hours, treadmill run, 15 min/1.11 mi. dog walk, 17 min/.77 mi. 10k+ steps by bedtime 

blood glucose: 

7am: 119
5:30pm: 86
10pm: 220* see ice cream below

food & meds:

7am: jardiance, new meds
8am: protein shake mixed in coffee
11:30am: English muffin, one half w/pb and cherry preserves, the other half with butter and cherry preserves (on the recommendation of Doug!)
1pm: met+glip, small bit of the potato salad left over from the weekend (about a cup) 
5:30pm: new meds
6:30pm: small bowl of tortellini, ramekin of ice cream; met+glip
7:30pm: ramekin of normal ice cream

I shall eclipse you - on the loss of Glen Hansard

Damn sad news today. 

Glen Hansard died in a motorcycle crash in Dublin today.

The Guardian has a non-paywalled story if that link does not work. Thanks The Irish Times...

Now, I know I mostly talk about Guster here in my blog, right? You know they are my literal north star. But in my life there are many constellations that interconnect and shine and sometimes they burn out. They mark my pathway through this universe.

Glen Hansard has always been a part of the me soundtrack, from The Frames to Swell Season to his solo work. He just has always been there. 

When a famous person dies, when a musician I love dies, it honestly is usually when they are old and while I mourn the loss, and it hurts, we give thanks and praise for a life well lived, well sung, well done. I am thinking most notably of how we recently lost Bobby Weir from the Grateful Dead. I feel so lucky to have seen him perform so many times. 

But then, there is misadventure. Death by misadventure is an actual term that is often used, I think, mostly in England, for accidental death when someone takes a risk of sorts and there are no other circumstances attached to the death. And this usually befalls someone young. 

And we least expect it, right? 

And by young, 56 is young. Really and truly. A life well lived and sung yes but also the realization now that there won't be more. There will not be more. 

Misadventure, like a motorcycle accident. Like how Glen died this morning. Toxicology results pending, of course. From what I read he was at a pub, a musical night out, and it sounded like a regular open mic or a rather typical Irish Bar kind of thing where the fiddles and guitars get whipped out on a random Tuesday night and everyone has a grand time. 

Motorcycles. A single vehicle crash a few kilometers away from the fun night with friends. 

I've never been a fan of motorcycles to be honest. So many of my friends have them and ride them. But I don't get it. You don't have to take the time to try and describe it to me. 

I don't understand gun ownership or smoking either. Truth be told. I don't understand why anyone would want to own a bunch of guns or would be a teen and start smoking. Make good choices in life, right? 

But motorcycles.... 

I don't understand the desire and draw to be out in the open air with nothing to protect me other than maybe a helmet. Nothing to protect me from cars. Nothing to protect me from myself. Nothing to protect me from losing control and crashing into trees or a fence or whatever. There's nothing to protect you. Maybe you have a nice kevlar jacket, maybe you're wearing protective gear, gloves, leather pants. You're still going to get very badly hurt.

But here we are today. 

We have lost (and I say we because this entire world has lost) a wonderful human, a soul singularly beautiful, a voice for the ages. And it makes no sense. Absolutely no sense. 

What's worse is that it weighs on my soul right now that this is absolutely an unfairly balanced universe, when some walk this earth for ages too long wreaking havoc and ruining lives, and a man who plays guitar and sings and does love and charity suddenly vanishes. 

I spent a good part of the day numb. 

I have read remarks from so many musicians and so many of my friends. I ran on the treadmill and found myself crying to "Fitzcarraldo" and doing ... I'm not kidding, a 12 minute mile while allowing the violin and guitar and Glen to wash over me in such a true and pure way, and feeling every part of that song. 

On Fitzcarraldo... One of my favorite memories was meeting my friend Matt when we both briefly worked together for the publishing company in Newburyport (where I left after 3 months when I got re-hired by my former job and he found out he was being replaced by a friend sending him a job posting for his own job and he called the guy out on that bullshit!) and finding out our shared love for Glen. A true kindred spirit.

And I thought back hard on how unjust and unfair life seems sometimes, you know, when horrible humans just keep living. But it gave me solace. 

When you die, when you are lost to this world, I truly pray that people say things about you that are stunningly moving and profound. And that if you hear people say wonderful things about the world's most horrible humans, that you know they are lies and clanging gongs. 

The tributes to Glen have been so painfully beautiful to read. Fellow musicians, artists, friends of mine, friends of mine who actually knew him. Honestly if only one nice thing is said about me after my death that is half as amazing as what people are sharing about him, that will be a life worth living. 

I won't quote them, you can find them. But honestly, do go search them out. Be like Glen and very unlike many others. Promise me that, dear hearts.

I will let his voice and music speak for itself. 

First though, go listen to this Christmas Eve Busk with Bono and the choir of the audience and read his wonderful words.

Sometimes I would wonder if Glen Hansard really existed….

Seriously, he was such an angelic presence… not otherworldly…in fact, very present this presence…

and I’m telling myself this morning that if he never existed, then he can never cease to exist. For me, he will always be everywhere I see a coin spinning into an open guitar case.

 

The Swell Season, Marketa Irglova and Glen were indeed the Swell Season and won the Best Song Oscar for this song from the movie they starred in "Once."  

This version of Fitzcarraldo with The Frames (the title of this entry comes from the song) is a very favorite of mine.  

This version, from Lollapalooza 2014, with the heartfelt introduction about taking the long way to get to where you need to go... The horns, the broken string on the guitar, the violin...

Fill to him the parting glass, dear friends. Thank you Glen for your voice and life

Oh how it rained

It was a super rainy day here today. Humid morning but a low temperature. Then heating up and turning dark and stormy. 

I had a lot of meetings today, and thankfully the weather didn't knock our power out during the busy parts of the day. I hate when it does that. The rain came straight down. Not an angle to be seen, no wind. Just pouring. Around 4pm we lost power and the lightning felt like it hit the street a block up with a crack of thunder like I've not heard in a very long time. 

Truly a dramatic afternoon!

After it cleared out, around 8pm, it was nice enough for a walk and Doug wanted to take one. He always invites me, and usually I say no but it was super nice after the storm had cleared out and I had no excuses.

I made an appointment for Friday afternoon to get a cortisone shot in my knee so it'll be feeling better hopefully for Maine. 

Kind of hard to believe a week from tomorrow we'll be on our way to the best weekend in the year. 

Didn't get a picture today, so digits are down below! 

digits
exercise: 12/12 hours,  Treadmill run, 25 min/1.81 mi; walk with doug & toffee, 21 min/.96 mi. 12k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose: 

6:45am: 138
4:30pm: 154
10:30pm: 153

food & meds:

6:45am: jardiance, new meds
7am: 2 cookies w/coffee 
11:30am: left over tomato/cuke salad w/ last steak tip; met+glip (may have accidentally taken 2 met? not sure. It also may have fallen off the bureau and into my clean laundry). 
3pm: another cookie (sorry not sorry)
5pm: new meds
6:30pm: geoff's fried rice and steak
7:30pm: met+glip
red wine (no ginger ale) 

Belated Yahrzeit

The other day I was out poking in the garden and cutting some flowers for a little vase that is on the TV table, and I was wondering if I'd missed the anniversary of dad's passing. 

And then suddenly I couldn't remember the date. 

Or the exact year either. I know it was a July. but it all feels ethereal and far far away.

Why does life feel like an absolute blur? I didn't blog anything around the anniversary, and now July is almost over. While I was deadheading the petunias, it occurred to me that I'd missed it.

I mentioned it to my sister and she said she also kind of let it slip from mind as well. But she's been a bit emotional all month because of all the reasons and this would just add to that. We talked about how neither of us called Mom to specifically mark the date. It is different for birthdays since their birthdays were right next to each other, so if you call her on the 7th, you also acknowledge the 8th.

Still, I was disappointed in myself that I didn't remember. 

Year 3 gone by. 

I have some friends who rotate around dates and milestones and they never forget, never ever. They spend days leading up to anniversaries of births and deaths alike, focused on their joy or loss. But that's kind of never been me. 

The memories remain but I don't get so focused on a specific date on the calendar. The loss is the same whether it is a Tuesday in November or it is July 15th. 

Anyway. This morning, again, I was out deadheading the petunias, I thought of him. I don't feel a lot of grief, really. I more just feel a sad and a sort of disbelief that this is life as we know it, three years on without him. 

Work was very busy, I spent a great deal of time writing a help document and an announcement that I should have really had done on Thursday and I'd intended to finish it yesterday but I didn't touch my laptop. I let my boss know that I needed more time and he said that was fine, he'd look at it after 2pm. I don't think he did. 

It is one of those important things that we need to do and have done, but it isn't like a system outage or product down. We just need for people to know and do and get things caught up before we turn off an application that many are still accidentally using. Get them ready. 

I had two meetings with the work bestie. I hit the treadmill and then got a phone call from a co-worker asking for some immediate assistance. "Are you free right now, I could use your eyes..." So I jumped off the treadmill to go help him. 

At about 5 I decided to bake cookies, and Doug came home at 5:30 as the last batch came out of the oven. I usually anxiety bake but I wanted to welcome home bake. Just for him. 

He hasn't talked much about news from the homeland there with mom. Not sure how things went or what was said or anything, but maybe he'll share later. 

I also made dinner, Geoff usually does, but he had gone downstairs after he went to the gym and I got the impression he was napping. Since he cooks all the time for us, I cooked for him. But he did prep for tomorrow's dinner, he makes an interesting fried rice dish, and he used one of the containers of steak tips Jess brought from the north. So dinner tomorrow is ready to go. 

After dinner and clean up, I needed 3k steps to 10k, so I took myself for a walk. I went further than I'd intended but it was a good night to be out and about. Far exceeded the steps I needed in the end. Made up for the short run. 

Tomorrow, Doug has a 7am meeting so I need out of bed. I also have an important site launch in the morning at 10, so I want to actually be showered and looking like a human being for it. 

Toffee was very sad without Dijon but when Doug came home, boy was she thrilled. We had a big cuddle after my walk. She held me hostage. I wasn't mad.

Digits, below. 

digits
exercise: 12/12 hours, Treadmill run, 10 min/0.7 mi; Walk after dinner, 36 min/1.75 mi. 12k+ steps by bedtime.

blood glucose: 

8:45am: 118
4:15pm: 129
10:15pm: 103

food & meds:

8:45am: jardiance, new meds
1:30pm: english muffin w/pb; met+glip
4:15pm: handful of peanut butter m&ms
4:30pm: new meds
5pm: 2 chocolate chip walnut butterscotch cookies
5:30pm: small bowl of fettuccini and meat sauce (lots of meat) 
white wine, no available ginger ale

Toffee, Dijon, Face Fight, On Lawn

Title of this post comes from us making huge fun of a song by a country music guy, very very famous country music guy, and his horrible horrible song. I won't mention either of them by name because I don't want people finding this post because they're searching on the person but... Go read this excellent evisceration of said person and said song.  And search for the song if you want to hurt your ears, but sing along with your new lyrics that you make up. 

Two syllables, or one syllable words 2 times, over and over. And boy did we laugh. 

Since this is a two day post, I'll start with Saturday. 

I woke up at about 6:45am, had to pee, and then dogs knew I was up so I fed them and we went outside where they were Toffee, Dijon, Face Fight, On Lawn for quite a while. We headed in and I decided to do the treadmill early, once again thought about going a full 5k but got to a half hour and stopped. 

When I came out, Doug was up, sitting in the living room drinking coffee and looking at his phone. Jess and their friend came out from the guest room, dogs were here in the middle of things face fighting and playing, then crashing and sleeping.

The plan was that Doug would leave in the morning to head to the family reunion up north of Pittsburgh, about a 4 hour drive. He had been dragging his feet and procrastinating. Jess mentioned that it almost seemed like he didn't really want to go. He said they are very perceptive. 

I said to him, honestly, you don't have to go. But I personally kind of think you should because you and your sister should spend time with mom and discuss her plans about the house (long story, she has finally decided it is time to sell the house, and has started talking to a realtor. That discussion did not go well. I will leave it at that). 

He was kind of miffed with me when I also reminded him of the fact there was one meal served this year at 2pm and he should go if he wanted to partake in that.

 In years past, there was an early and late meal, and he knew he'd miss the early, but figured he'd get there at 4 for the late one. I had mentioned this single-meal serving to him a couple weeks ago, that there was one meal... and he didn't remember me telling him that. He said that, and Jess looked at me knowingly "you told him, I know you told him" in their eyes. 

Do not lay your lack of listening to me back at my door like it is my fault you don't know something. Bro, I tell you things. You do not hear me. So he got his stuff organized and hit the road around 11. 

It is the 75th reunion and every year his mom says it is the last. We shall see if she is right. 

Jess and A sat around the living room and we were yapping, chilling, drinking coffee, singing that song. 

Coffee, Chillin', Dog Snores, Alright. 

A wanted to go to a little antique-ish shop. She likes to get a little trinket or doo-dad from each place visited. So I wanted to go to this antiques mill. I called up and they were not open. They are not open kind of ever? Special times? The woman said that they'll be open "sometime maybe mid-August. Oh, okay. I won't be here and for sure A and Jess won't be here. I guess I'll catch them some other time. 

"Did you look us up on Google and it said we're open?"

Yes ma'am, I did. The Googles lied to me, then.

"Yeah. We can't get them to change that. We've tried," she said. "Which is why on our facebook page we say to call ahead. We're retired, we open when we have time." 

I did indeed look at their Facebook, and all the pictures are so pretty, and she posts several times a week with picture captions of next time we're open... 

Sigh. I really wanted to go there myself. So a new plan.

I told them maybe they should head to Frederick. There are some antique malls around here, but I do not think they are open Sundays. And I didn't Eventually they got ready and made an excursion. Frederick was the destination. They asked if I wanted to come, and to be honest that would have been nice but I sort of wanted to just be here. Geoff went to the market and did the shopping, and we meal planned for that night. I wanted to do steak tips on the grill and potato salad, but it was too late to make the potato sald... need to do the eggs and bacon, and I ended up not doing that while he was out. 

Linda called me, and we had a long yap. 

The kids came home from their Frederick jaunt, and they had a grand time. They had lunch at a BBQ joint, did some shopping in town, went to the cute river and bridge thingie in town, and just enjoyed themselves greatly. Jess said Frederick is a must re-visit place next trip out here. Duly noted. 

I mentioned to Jess that it would be nice if they stopped at the dairy/creamery and picked up some milk and Chocky Milk (as they called it) so they did on the way home. It is off the beaten path, and you gotta want to go there for a destination, especially from here, but it is easier to get there from Frederick. 

Since they had big lunch they both were not hungry for dinner, so I didn't grill. Geoff made a dinner he usually makes but he doubled it, in case there was a desire for foods. Not so much. So we have a lot of left over pasta alfredo and chicken. No worries. It'll be good later on. 

After dinner, we sat around and yapped and Jess wanted me to show A some Tiny Desk videos, and suggested we put them on Youtube on the regular TV instead of the computer. So we pulled a few up. Then Jess saw Guster on the menu, and told A about my obsession. I figured I'd show her some things, so we watched Brian play bongos, we watched the ships & dips video from like 18 years ago when Brian couldn't go on the cruise because his wife was having a baby, and they filmed a video that looked like he was calling in by satellite. Hilarious. The Three Rivers Stadium duet with Bill Peduto about snowstorms and dogs and dumpsters. And then I had to show the video of the actual dumpster set they did in Pittsburgh that is referenced in the duet. 

We then watched some Amythyst Kiah. I think we have a new fan there. 

It was getting late, Jess knew that they wanted to get on the road early so ... we packed it in. Our agreement is that one should always leave in the Single Digit hours. And those single digit hours come early. 

Sunday

We got up around 6:45, all of us. Dogs and humans. 

Feed dogs, pack car, breakfast, go home.

Jess asked for an egg mcmuffin because I guess I make the world's greatest breakfast sandwiches. So everyone got one, Geoff too because he came upstairs. 

We sat at the kitchen counter. Doug insisted we buy stools for the counter and I said "no one is ever gong to sit here," so he sometimes very much on purpose does. Then he taunts me "look at me, sitting at the kitchen counter!" Okay. nice. Glad you are doing that. I mentioned this to Jess and A and they both wanted me to take a picture of them for him. 

A's flight out of DC wasn't until 8pm but Jess really needed to be on the road as early as possible. I offered to give A a ride but Jess said nah - they'd go to a metro station in VA, do the drop off, and then Jess would continue north, but do so far away from the 95 corridor. We've all grown to prefer driving up through Pennsylvania that way. You barely touch New Jersey. It's fantastic. 

A said she can self-entertain. She was going to check her bag, and walk around downtown DC. Maybe go over to the zoo. Maybe just find a neighborhood. Who knows. The day belonged to her and she would do what she wanted with it. 

And they did leave in the Single-Digit hour of 9:40 am. Well done. 

The rest of the day was quiet. 

Toffee, big sad, on couch, sleepin'

Without Dijon here, it was quiet and very still, no wrasslin' no face fighting no chaos. And Toff slept the entire day. Geoff did take her for a walk, she deserved a treat. 

I hit the treadmill at 2-ish, and committed to a 5k. Slow! I felt like it took forever to get to 2.75 miles and then oh my lord-a-rama I gotta make it to 3.1! Gah! 

Ran more than I walked, but ran slow. My pace was mostly in the 14+ min/mile range. But hey. Done! 

I made potato salad and seasoned up some steak tips Jess brought from New England. I also made a nice tomato, cucumber, bleu cheese salad and put red wine vinaigrette on it. What a great meal. Way more than I should have eaten, especially in the potato salad department. But she was so tasty. 

When Doug isn't here, I kind of don't watch TV. I yapped again with Linda and Jess called from the Mass Pike, and then checked in once they were home around 10:30. Long trip with the extra taking the friend to the Metro. I mean, I did offer, right? 

I didn't vacuum today so I will probably try and do that in the morning? Maybe? I also have to get blood work done. Again. So I am going to flex time the hours tomorrow. Not sure what time Doug will be home, but Geoff is working and I'll have to wait for one of the two of them to get back. 

Digits for two days below! Pics of Jess and A. 

Saturday digits
exercise: 11/12 hours,  somehow missed 7pm while sitting yapping. Treadmill, 32 min/2.17 mi. 11k+steps by bedtime

blood glucose: 

7am: 203
5pm: 179
11pm: 111

food & meds:

7am: jardiance, new meds
throughout the morning: lots of ritz crackers nibbling
1pm: met+glip; roast beef & giant tomato slice on potato roll
through the afternoon: trail mix snacky
5pm: new meds
6pm: bowl of cheesy pasta alfredo w/diced chicken
wine and diet ginger ale

Sunday digits
exercise: 12/12 hours,  treadmill, 5k/3.11 mi - 46 minutes; 14,000+ steps bybedtime

blood glucose: 

8am: 190 (? why?)
4pm: 99
10pm: 95

food & meds:

8am: jardiance, new meds
8:45am: english muffin w/pb & full sugar j (small amount)
(a little chocolate milk in my coffee after noon-ish)
1pm: met+glip
4pm: some peanut butter M&Ms and some crackers
6pm: steak tips, tomato/cucumber/bleu cheese salad; potato salad
7pm: met+glip
white wine w/diet ginger ale

Jess' Guest is Our Guest

Jess stayed down here longer than they usually do, because they have a friend who was in DC attending a conference. They asked if it would be okay for their friend to come here for a couple days and stay until it was time for her to go to the airport on Sunday. We said of course! 

On Thursday, Jess went and picked her up at the metro, they drove over to Virginia to a Dinosaur park (Jess had been there before but her friend A wanted to check it out). They had a blast, then went up to Winchester VA (a town where we looked to move to, but couldn't find the right place). Doug and I had let them know it was a great little town, so lunch was needed, and they had a good walk about. Then they came back here late in the day, after dinner time. 

Jess' friend is darling, very very sweet, and we sat on the patio until late just having a big yap. Doug made drinks, mixologist that he is, and it was a lot of fun. 

The dogs played like crazy, everything was perfect. The weather has been spectacular, almost like late September. I think we're getting spoiled. 

Both Doug and I had to work today, but the kids were off. They slept until about 11, and then hung out in the living room with me while I worked. Surprisingly, I got plenty of things done even though there was plenty of time for yapping. I have to do one thing that I didn't fully accomplish this week, and write an announcement and link to help documents. I also kind of want to make a video on how to do the thing that needs done, and I should have time to do that on Sunday. 

Tomorrow Doug is going up to Pennsylvania, his family reunion is Saturday so he's going to surprise his mom. Even though she poohpoohed him from coming last year, and then this year she said she NEVER told him he shouldn't come and that everyone asked after him. And last week she poohpoohed him coming and said he didn't have to come. 

So he's going. And she may freak out. Because she probably does not have the guest room made up for him and it'll be TOO MUCH! and she'll be upset. I told him if that's the case get a hotel. 

Jess is taking her friend to the airport on Sunday and then will head north and home. 

I miss them already.

The other night, I couldn't download any pictures to my laptop, nothing would cooperate so here are pictures that I wanted to share! All in one post! 2 days of digits below! 

Thursday digits
exercise: 12/12 hours,  Treadmill, 15 min/1.05 mi. 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose: 

8:45am: 136
5pm: 150
11pm: 108

food & meds:

8:45am: jardiance, new meds
9am: blueberry muffin
1pm: bowl of mac & cheese w/extra cheese; met+glip
3:45pm: new meds; ramekin mixed nuts
6pm: small bowl of chicken and rice
7:30pm: met+glip
white wine, red wine, diet ginger ale

Friday digits
exercise: 12/12 hours,  treadmill run, 20min/1.41 mi; 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose: 

8:30am: 108
4:45pm: 90
10pm: 222 *close to dinner & met/glip. will come down

food & meds:

8:30am: jardiance, new meds
9am: blueberry muffin (the last one!)
1pm: met+glip; tiny slice of seeded bread w/pb
4pm: part of a ramekin of mixed nuts
5:15pm: new meds; chunk of cheddar cheese
6pm: several ritz crackers
8:30pm: buffalo wings, crab dip & crostini, fish & chips (only a few chips) 2 beers; met+glip

Porch Life and Sangria

Big product outage today, lots of drama. Very stupid day work wise but overall, an amazingly fun time with the family. 

We went up to High Rock and Pen Mar Park with Jess. Doug has been wanting to go up there to see the sunset, and tonight it did not disappoint. 

We wanted to stop at a brewery on the way back, but they don't open until tomorrow at 3pm. They lost out on having us as customers. 

Lucky for us, I whipped up two carafes of sangria, a white and a red, before we left. So they were here waiting for us. Huzzah. 

Doug headed to the TV and Jess and I headed to Porch Life. I chastised him, and he came out to join us. 

Porch life rocks, y'all. 

I didn't get any pictures because the phone was in the house on the charger but we sat out and talked about A.I. Translation and how it is a failure, The Regular Show, Jess' friend who is coming to stay with us tomorrow, fun things for Jess to do with her tomorrow. Doug made more sangria after we killed the two carafes I made, and his was decidedly more "fun" than mine. 

Like I said, great day. Stupid work. Tomorrow might be some more stupid. But we'll survive. Still having internet problems with this laptop, so pictures maybe tomorrow? who knows. I did manage to get that one there of Doug uploaded. 

Digits, below!

digits
exercise: 12/12 hours,  quick treadmill just to fit it in (glad I did!) 15 min/1.13 mi. 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose: 

7:15am: 146
4:30pm: 154
11pm: 153

food & meds:

7:15am: jardiance, new meds
through the morning, some crackers
1:15pm: 2 blueberry muffins, met+glip
2pm: english muffin w/pb
5pm: new meds
6pm: bowl of cheese tortellini; sangria
more sangria. no snacks