Pan Banging Cookies

I woke up early this morning, around 7:30. I had one cup of coffee and decided to do treadmill before work. Got a good walk/jog in, showered, and was still on time for getting things done. 

The day was pretty busy and before I knew it, 5pm was here. I felt like baking cookies or something. My work son told me this past weekend he made these bomb ass chocolate chip cookies, and he sent me the recipe. Here's the link. They're called Pan Banging Cookies. I've never heard of this method of baking cookies. My life is changed. 

I mean, these cookies. Unbelievable. 

You only get about 8-10 of them depending on how big you make them. The recipe says to make about 4 3 inch balls or 3/4 cup scoops of the dough, freeze it, and then bake. The recipe says "trust me," and so I did. I've never heard of baking cookies part way and then "banging" the tray so they collapse and spread. 

I used chocolate chips because I didn't have the kind of chopped chocolate she recommends. And I should have done the little sprinkle of extra Kosher salt on the cookie top while it was baking. But. It was all good.

My buddy Brendo said to take the tray out of the oven and drop it on the counter top or stove top for even "banging," and that was my plan anyway before I started making them. The instructions say to reach into the oven and lift one end of the tray up about 4 inches and drop it. 

Nope. 

I took the whole tray out and dropped it 3 times on the stove top, put it back in 3 minutes, take it out, do it again. 

10 minutes for the first round of baking, and 3 removals and drops. Perfect! Success! 

Pictures, and digits below! 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Treadmill before work, 40 min/2.5 mi. 11k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

7:45am: 125
4:15pm: 83
10:30pm: 147

food & meds:
7:45am: jardiance+phentermine
9:45am: english muffin w/pb & blackberry preserves
1pm: met+glip
2:30pm: ramekin of mixed nuts
4:30pm: some spicy cajun trail mix
5:45pm: piece of a chocolate chip cookie (split w/Geoff)
6:30pm: bowl of fettuccini w/ mushrooms, tomatoes, red pepper, olive oil, roasted chicken breasts; 2 big assed cookies
8:30pm: met+glip 
no beer/wine

Hardest thing you have to do all year

This morning we had our hot water heater replaced. It didn't go as smoothly as I'm sure the kid thought it would. 

First, his boss showed up to help him. His boss is the guy I thought was super funny last time. I guess he can be kind of a pain in the ass. 

After the boss left, the kid told me that when it came time to drain the hot water heater, instead of doing the pump and hose over to our toilet in Geoff's area of the basement, the boss had a cunning plan. 

We have a small dehumidifier in the basement, and there's a hose that goes into a tiny hole drilled into the cement floor. 

Where does the hole lead? Where does the water go? This I do not know. Every house I've lived in has had a drain in the floor that's like ... a real drain for where water can flow out of the basement if need be. You probably have had that too. 

Well, not this house. Just a tiny hole, just a thin garden hose, just a little dehumidifier. 

So the boss wants to drain the water into this hole. Kid says "I don't think that is a big enough hole, and, we don't know where the water drains to."

Boss says yeah, yeah, yeah it'll be fine. Only it wasn't. 

The amount of water flowing into said tiny hole overwhelmed it, and, the water started to back up into the basement. 

As they say in the midwest.... "Ope." The boss left. And a little bit later I went down because I'd made a cup of coffee for the kid. He was sweeping water. towards the hole, and I was visibly surprised. Boss went to get a Wet-Vac, and I said I would get some towels after checking to make sure none of the boxes on the floor were wet/damaged. 

None were. He explained the situation, and I said that's fine as long as, ya know, none of the water was getting anywhere other than right where we saw it. 

Wet-Vac arrived and they set to cleaning up, and the pump and hose were deployed to get the water out of the tank. 

No harm, no foul overall. And it's funny because the kid obviously was annoyed because if they had just done things the way it was supposed to happen there would be no water on my floor. 

But there they were, cleaning up and draining the tank. 

After a while the boss left with the Wet-Vac, and I could hear the hose pump working. Mission back on track. The kid came up to let me know that he was sorry for all of this. "This is taking longer than I thought it would." 

"As long as I won't be charged for that extra time, I've got no problem." He nodded, yes ma'am. 

And he came up a little while later to let me know he couldn't get all the water out of the tank. 

"There is calcification in the bottom of the tank, about 10 inches, so the water won't drain all the way out," he reported. 

Oh dear. That sucks? "Well, what do we do? You're pretty strong, can you work with your boss and get her out?"

"I think it weighs about 500 pounds right now, to be honest. I have an alternate plan to get more water out. You may hear a lot of noise." 

"As long as whatever water that's left isn't going to end up on the floor too," I said. "You do you. You're the expert. You know what needs to happen." 

He kind of laughed. "Yeah, I'm not feeling very expert right now." I really felt for him. It was okay, nothing was damaged, but I could feel his frustration. 

Boss came back and the two of them got more water out of the tank, enough that it was able to plop onto a dolly. They brought it upstairs, and the boss showed us a couple points on the tank that were corroded because of the calcification. 

"It is a very good thing you had this done now," he said, "I won't say she was about to blow but this isn't good, and hot water spraying everywhere would be really dangerous. 

Well thanks. Thank both of you for the work you put in. 

The new tank, she's lovely. And the hot water came on almost immediately. 

Another home improvement project done and dusted. 

Now to replace the microwave that literally caught fire this morning at 6:30am, get a new toilet seat, caulk the tub. You know. The usual. Joys of homeownership! 

Digits below!

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Treadmill, 25 min/1.66 mi. 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

6:45am: 109
5pm: 70* recheck 6pm: 111
10:45pm: 125  

food & meds:
6:45am: jardiance+phentermine
9:45am: english muffin w/pb
1pm: met+glip
2:30pm: can of tunafish, w/mayo, tomatoes, diced onion
5pm: 2 cookies (see blood sugar above); ramekin of cajun peanuts and spicy cracker thingies
7:15pm: bowl of left over ham and bean soup w/ some cheez-it crackers on top
9:20pm: met+glip
no beer/wine

Rock Concert

I got an earlier than usual treadmill time in because Geoff was lollygagging, and I knew I had to leave around 1pm to get to A's rock concert. I made it there just in time, over an hour trip to the venue but thanks to an accident on 70 westbound, we had rubber neckers trying to see what was happening. 

I missed most of the first song but totally loved the rest of it. Compared to his last show, he's doing so much better. He absolutely killed the bass part on "Sunshine of Your Love." We had a nice visit all together after, and they went to Baltimore to get ice cream. I stayed later to listen to the House Band. They absolutely killed it - I think it was an all girl ensemble (the bassist may have been male or trans, not 100% sure but who cares, they were amazing). 

They even did a song by local legends Turnstile called Blackout. And Turnstile won a Grammy tonight so good for them! 

I'm not allowed to post pictures of my little buddy on the internet per mom's request but I got some really good ones. 

Got home and Geoff was making dinner. Dishwasher was running, it was nice to not have to lift a finger. 

Digits below! 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Treadmill: math, a 10 min. run which I'm measuring at .5 miles (based on the treadmill reading); 25 min/1.5 miles on the walk setting. 2 miles total. 10k+ by bedtime

blood glucose:

7:30am: 119
5:30pm: 115
9:30pm: 116  

food & meds:
7:30am: jardiance+phentermine
10:30am: zero carb soft taco wrap w/pb & j
1pm: met+glip
3pm: 2 beers, buffalo fingers, some french fries
6:30pm: bowl of chicken cacciatore (chicken thighs, mushrooms, tomatoes, peppers, carrots in a tomato sauce) over some egg noodles
8:30pm: met+glip

What are you looking for now

We did absolutely nothing today. Our plans of going to the bank were just fantasy talk. I was going to clean the bathroom. Ha. 

I did do the treadmill, and I was surprised that Doug did too. 

After he finished the treadmill he got it in mind to make an apple pie. He had found an apple cookbook at a little free library (with a recipe from a woman from the orchard near where he grew up). 

Basic apple pie recipe. 

He's going through every drawer in the kitchen, opening every cabined. It crosses my mind - he's never really made anything since we've been here. 

I hear him bumping around.
"What are you looking for?" I ask.
Sugar.
I point right to it.

More bumping around.
"What are you looking for now?"
Apple peeler. 
I open the drawer. He doesn't like the apple peeler. 
Where is the other one?
The one that doesn't work? Here. 
He ends up using the one I handed him.

He's going through the pantry.
"And now what are you looking for?"
Cinnamon.
Over next to the stove, with all of the spices and stuff. Those are the things for basically every day normal use. What's in the pantry is the stuff we very rarely need. 

Doug gets acquainted with the kitchen. Finally.  

Apple pie goes into the oven. It smells great. I'm already dreading what it is going to do to my blood sugar but I will indeed have a slice since he worked so hard at finding things. 

The apple pie came out nice, tasty, but something was missing. It was almost watery, soupy. I asked if he forgot flour or an egg. He said the recipe didn't call for those. But upon re-reading the recipe, indeed. flour. 

It wasn't a waste, for sure that was a nice gift for me to not have to be the one who bakes or makes .

Tomorrow we have to leave the house. It's my work wife's son's big rock show. Second one. He's getting better and better at it. Next weekend is Henry's. 

And my work wife told me she isn't sure if any of her family is coming. So I feel like I gotta pull up hard and be the best auntie ever. 

Plus, it's at a brewery. Bonus. 

Digits below. 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Treadmill, 40 min/2.02 miles; 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

9:30 am: 133
5pm: 113
10pm: 142  

food & meds:
9:30am: jardiance+phentermine
11:30am: bowl of mac & cheese w/bacon
1pm: met+glip
6pm: chili (beans and meat, cheese, sour cream) 
7pm: big slice of apple pie w/cold foam cream
9pm: met+glip

Hot Water Heater

The plumber came today. Turns out, he owns the company and they're literally across the street-ish from us, a block away on the main drag. He called first thing this morning and apologized because he was supposed to call me back on Monday to follow up and just forgot.

It is okay - I let him know that if it had turned into an emergency, I would have called another plumber. 

Dude just about died laughing. 

Kind of like with the wildlife guys, I got this guy's vibe and knew he'd have a laugh. I told him in all seriousness, Monday was kind of apocalyptic and he had things to do and take care of and I totally understood. 

He brought a really really young guy with him. Like, I felt like this was a high school kid but he isn't. He's a little younger than Geoff but looks 15. 

The super young dude is coming back on Monday morning to do the install. I guess he isn't at apprentice level, he's a made man in plumbing. So he flies solo. 

It'll be nice to have this done. One less thing to think about. And we can move onto the next thing to think about. 

Work was incredibly busy. I had a good client meeting, and then I had a great meeting with a co-worker in the analytics department. I love her. I canceled a meeting with the work son because I just had so much to do, and scheduled two meetings for Monday with clients and kicked myself for it. 

I hate meetings on Mondays. 

But best to get these ones out of the way and gone. 

Treadmill happened, Geoff made a really good dinner but didn't include enough protein and that was a little bit of a bummer. Please, kid. Protein. 

Tomorrow Doug and I have to go to the bank before the nearest branch closes so we'll get up and at it early. And who knows what the rest of the day is going to be. Adventure!

Digits below!

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Treadmill, 36 min/2 mi. 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

7:30am: 113
4pm: 121
10:30pm: 142

food & meds:
7:30am: jardiance+phentermine
1pm: pb & j sandwich on 647 bread; met+glip
6pm: bowl of rotini w/chicken breast and homemade creamy alfredo sauce
7pm: ramekin of mixed nuts (only ate 1/2)
8:30pm: met+glip
no wine/beer

Pre Load the Day

I woke up early this morning and figured going back to sleep would be dumb. Early for me is 7am. If I wake up earlier than that well then, yeah, it makes sense to try to get more sleep but to be honest, getting up is always a good idea. Just get up. Do it. 

Also, I was super hungry. Last night's dinner was minimal and I didn't have any sort of snack around 8pm or anything. So 7am was hungry time. 

If you look at the log of meds/food/etc that I've been keeping you'll notice I don't usually eat until after 10am, sometimes not until after noon. One of the medications I'm on is an appetite suppressant and it is effective. I take it in the morning and I am absolutely not hungry at all. Which is good. But after being on it a year you'd think I'd have lost 100 pounds by now. 

So I made an early english muffin, sat with Toffee, played phone games until it was time to start working. I did some banking, noticed that the student loan payment I sent in for Doug still has not cleared and I mailed it 10 days ago. Everything else I've paid has cleared. My town doesn't have an online service for payment for electric or water/sewer so those go by check. And the student loan people will not allow Doug to pay online, which is ridiculous and stupid. I hate them. 

Work was super good. Busy, a couple good meetings, 1:1 check in with my boss. Fun times with the work son. And we do a bi-weekly office hour with the clients and that is always my favorite meeting. I got dinner started, shoved it in the oven and hit the treadmill. 

I was interested in hitting the mile, but not interested in trying to break 15 min. pace so I just semi-jogged and sometimes walked. It helped that the playlist knew my vibe. Great songs but all around a 19 min. walking pace until Mr. Brightside came on, and I did run to that one. Such a great song. 

Doug and Geoff took an errand today to the registry, and while they were gone I vacuumed, dusted, did the general cleaning for the living room and that made me happy. I thought Doug's cousin and his family were going to be coming through this weekend but it turns out that's next weekend. I have a lot to do between now and then, like clean the bathroom, hang up some art. Vacuum upstairs and the guest room. Little things. 

Managed to hit 10k+ steps after the treadmill time at 6:30pm which is super early. I always feel like I am on a good steps trajectory if I break 2k steps before noon. I broke that by 10am (thanks, getting up early!) so having that time to pre-load the day was very helpful. I sometimes find I'm only at 8k by 8pm, and need 2k more steps to hit the goal so I go back on the treadmill for 15 min or so. In nicer weather, that's a Toffee time walk. 

So happy tomorrow is Friday. I have some meetings and some dive in face first spreadsheet stuff that needs done before Monday, so I'll do as much as I can tomorrow and poke at it a bit over the weekend. There is no football this weekend, so no excuses for lollygagging. Maybe I can get Doug to help me do some things that I need done around the place. 

Maybe we'll go out adventuring. 

Who knows. 

Digits below! I took this screenshot from Facebook. Not sure why Lidl market is selling panties in their super random section.... I'm used to kids winter coats, kitchen ware, painting supplies... but panties? dude.

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours.  Treadmill, 31 min/1.72 mi (had to let a song finish so that's why 31 and not 30). 11k+ by bedtime

blood glucose:

7am: 84
5pm: 90
10pm: 152 (* see dinner, should come down in an hour or so) 

food & meds:
7:30am: jardiance+phentermine
8am: english muffin w/pb and raspberry jam
12:45pm: roast beef and mild cheddar on 647 bread w/mayo. met+glip
6:45pm: 1/2 of a baked stuffed chicken breast w/cornbread stuffing and mixed veggies, gravy
8:30pm: met+glip
no wine/beer

Not bored but boring

I feel like we're snowed in, we can leave at any time we like but still, it is stupid out there on the roads in the neighborhoods. I've never been more surprised at how poorly they handle snow here in the "south." 

Anyway. 

I was going to bake cookies today during our all staff but I listened to it and worked. There was a client who needed a lot of help with something and I spent a good deal of time exporting content to send her in spread sheet form to make her life better. 

I got on the treadmill and didn't take it as fast as I have been. I wanted to get to 2 miles, that was my goal, and managed that but not at about a half hour. Still. A good go. And the playlist was slower than usual so nothing got me running. 

Toffee has been doing a really good job with the snow. Right now I wish she had a playmate though to run around with incredible exuberance. She hasn't had a walk in days so she seems sad. I wish it was 10 degrees warmer. 

Right then. Still no plumber! I need to call them tomorrow and find out what's the haps! 

Digits below! 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours.  Treadmill, 37 min/2.07 miles; 10k+ by bedtime

blood glucose:

8am: 112
5pm: 94
10pm: 82 

food & meds:
8am: jardiance+phentermine
1:45pm: met+glip; roast beef & muenster on an english muffin
2:45pm: ramekin mixed nuts
6:30pm: half a bowl of beef and mushroom stew (Geoff really should double the recipe. it was delicious but by the time I made it to the kitchen ... not much was left!) 
8:30pm: met+glip
no wine/beer

A no muffin day

A very busy day, no muffin baking. But we have a big huge 2 hour long all staff tomorrow afternoon. My work son bestie buddy gave me a really good looking recipe for some next level chocolate chip cookies and I think I'll whip those up while the all staff is happening. Now that I have wireless headphone ear bud dealies, I can move around and the laptop can stay on the counter. 

Toffee has finally, if you'll excuse the pun, warmed up to the snow. She went outside several times today. She even went out front off leash with Doug while he moved snow around. She just stood there "looking mad and resentful" which made me laugh a bit. 

Alright, no picture today but probably tomorrow. Digits below! 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours.  Treadmill, 31 min/2.02 miles. 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:15am: 140
4:30pm: 95
10pm: 129 

food & meds:
8:15am: jardiance+phentermine
8:30am: blueberry muffin 
1pm: met+glip; english muffin w/pb and a little full sugar raspberry preserves (out of low sugar smuckers)
4:45pm: ramekin of mixed nuts
6pm: bowl of rice w/ chicken. not very fulfilling.... guacamole & chips
8:30pm: met+glip
no beer/wine

Muffin Morning

Our plumber was supposed to come this morning but called at 7:30, two of his guys called out, he was also snow plowing and had an emergency pipe burst situation. "I can come after 1?" he suggested. I told him to not worry, but touch base tomorrow morning. 

And. I was up. 

I actually was up anyway. Didn't really sleep well. Miss Toffee needed to go out at 3:30am and let it be known. I'm glad she told me. And then we went into the guest room together where she slept and I didn't really. So when my phone rang at 7:30, it was just right and normal to be up and start the day. 

Doug and I were both goofing off on our phones, and he went up to start working. I picked up my laptop. 

No internet. 

Whelp did not see that coming. Since we didn't lose power or anything, I didn't even imagine the internet would be out. 

I messaged my boss and my team, and we waited. 

Trying to get ahold of our internet company was a bit annoying. The virtual attendant by phone was shit. And the website's "status" page said there were no outages, but, I poked around and found that our neighborhood was experiencing an outage and there was no estimated time for restoration. 

To the kitchen! 

I decided to use the time and make muffins. Doug had commented that we still had a pretty full bag of blueberries in the freezer, so I wanted to have at it. 

The recipe is super easy but I think I forgot the milk. They came out a little hard, but nothing horrible. They were a big hit with the guys! 

The internet came back on around 1pm. I went on the treadmill for a bit and then got ready for a 2pm meeting and got to work for the rest of the day. 

If the internet had stayed off, I was getting ready to make carrot cake. but. Work had to happen. 

Hoping the plumber can come tomorrow... we shall see! 

Digits below

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Treadmill 24 min/1.43 mi (had to cut short for a meeting); second little walk to make to 10k, 11 min/.49 mi. 11k+ by bedtime

blood glucose:

8am: 109
5pm: 164
10pm: 149 

food & meds:
8am: jardiance+phentermine
9:30am: 2 blueberry muffins w/butter
11:30am: bowl of mac & cheese w/ground beef
1pm: met+glip
6pm: one small meatball sub w/cheese, and then a few meatballs from another sub (no roll) 
8:30pm: met+glip; hummus+pretzels snack
no beer/wine

Trying Something New

We survived the snow. 

It has stopped here in our part of Maryland. I have to say, the media and "social media influencers/hobby meteorologists" pumped this storm up. Pumped the hell out of it. We were forecasted for over a foot. Doug said he thinks there maybe are 7 inches out there. The sleet we got helped push things down, but the hype surrounding this storm was sick. 

The kind of thing that would make anyone stop listening to the weather prognosticators in the future. 

Still, 7 inches is more snow than this area has seen in a long time. My neighbors two doors down have 2 boys and they were out shoveling the hell out of peoples' parking spaces and driveways. I admired them from a distance. They didn't even knock on doors for money. I did see one lady come out and give them hot cocoa. 

It was endearing and made me smile. They didn't make it to our house, but if they did, I would have paid them, but also would have said "hey, I have two boys who do this for me, thanks!" 

I woke up around 2am and couldn't fall back asleep so I went downstairs. At that hour, you could still see the grass popping up through the snow. By the time I woke up - it was in full rock and roll mode out there. 

After it snowed all day, we ended up getting sleet on top of the snow, and that pushed the measurements down. Doug and Geoff went out to shovel after the Patriots game (yay Patriots!) and Doug estimates about 7 inches of actual snow out there. 

Toffee hates it. I kind of miss the years of opening the back door and Jack, Gonzo, and Brodie just tearing ass out into the yard, making trails in 2 foot deep snow. I stood looking wistfully out the back door thinking of how they would have loved the hell out of this, thinking of those days when the snow was taller than all three of them. When Jack and Brodie walked out of our yard by just jumping up on the high snow and walking over the top of the fence. 

But after breakfast, our girl Toffee put her paw out the back door and just noped right back in. Noped right the hell out of there and back to the living room with a look of terror on her face. We had adopted her in a December when she was already over a year old, and I often will wonder what her life was like as a stray on the streets. Which explains probably why she hates the rain, hates the cold, hates this snow.  

Eventually she went out, around 3pm. But truthfully this little princess pittie is no snow dog. And I don't blame her.

I had promised Geoff I'd make breakfast sandwiches today for our big snow day. He took out all the ingredients and left them on the counter as a big fat hint. 

I also had threatened him with hash browns for a couple weeks. We had 6 small potatoes left over from another meal, so before they went bad, I figured today was the day. 

A quick google search resulted in a recipe to try. It was pretty straight forward, the only thing that I didn't know about was to rinse and then drain and press the shredded potatoes to remove all the liquid from them. Glad I read recipes to make sure I know how to do something. Otherwise these would not have turned out great. 

I used our giantest cookie scoop to make the patties and squished them flatter once I got them in the oil. 

They were crisp and tasty, and a little extra salt and pepper next time I do this. For sure. The hardest part was shredding the potatoes. I hate using the box grater, so next time - food processor! Or make Geoff do the shredding.

After we got everything cleaned up, Doug started making a new mess. We still had left over ham and he'd been threatening to make a ham and bean soup. When we were at Aldi the other day he found the16 bean mix that he likes, so we got the ham out of the freezer to defrost and be ready for today. 

That also came out great, the only thing I wish I'd had was some nice rolls or a big fat crusty bread to dip in. 

There are tons of left overs, so maybe I can get a big ole loaf this week. There's a woman up the street who runs a little bakery out of her house, maybe I can see if she's got some sourdough baked up. I've been meaning to reach out to her anyway. 

While Doug was cheffing up his soup I hit the treadmill. My goal was 2 miles in 30 min. I fell just short. I got a slow-ish start, but the last song on the playlist was a banger so I did my best to keep up with the beat. Failed at that but almost hit the 30 min mark. almost. 

Challenge on the table for future efforts. Watch this space.

Tomorrow between 8 and 10 am we are supposed to have a guy here to come see about replacing our hot water heater. I'm not sure he will make it, I'm wondering if his company is gonna have a lot of emergency plumbing and heating things to deal with tomorrow. If he cancels I'm okay with that. But the boys got everything shoveled out nicely and the walkway is ready for him. 

I took a couple pictures of the snow. Snow that Toffee hates. No picture of Toffee because she didn't want to be out there any longer than to pee.

Digits below! 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Treadmill, 31 min/2 miles. Wanted to do it in 30 min, but was just short. Slow-ish start, but the last song on the playlist was a fast banger and I went as hard as I could. ha. 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8am: 139
4:15pm: 124
10pm: 90 

food & meds:
8am: jardiance+phentermine
11am: egg mcmuffin 2 sausage patties; one hash brown 
1:30pm: met+glip
5:30pm: 2 good bowls of ham & bean soup
white wine
8:30pm: met+glip