Planning for the North Country

We're planning our trip north for a big wedding on May 16th. I have a doctor appointment (well, the PCP, a boob squish AND a pap smear, yay me. Go Self CARE!)  I had taken off May 11, that whole week, and then Mon-Wed the week following. 

Mom had some issues this past weekend, and I decided since Linda was there last, I should go on up. And I can go up on Saturday early, and work from her house easily. Leave super early, drive on up. Ya know, like ya do. 

Only Saturday night there's a concert? of a ... Band I Like??? In.... Providence? 

Well. Okay. Twist my arm on that one. My friend Alex has a ticket I can buy off him, and I'll figure out where to stay in PVD that night before heading over to mom on Sunday. 

And then spend a week in the smoke-filled hotbox. Doug will fly up or take the train, and I'll get him in PVD. We'll have him visit with mom. Hotel one night at the hotel and I'll wash all my stuff and make it un-stinky, and yeah. Head north. 

I'm able to work anywhere on earth so the week of May 4-whatever I will be fine working from her house, as long as she doesn't walk down the hall while I'm teaching a training class and yell "Who are you talking to? What? Are you asking me something?!" 

Has happened more than once in the past couple years, I tell ya. 

So I'll call her tomorrow to let her know. She'll be thrilled. I know she loves when Linz and I come to visit. 

Now I'm looking for a Saturday night hotel, I've got my concert ticket sewn up. My friend Sara has NO idea I'm coming so this'll be a huge surprise. 

I kind of love a big surprise. 

Doug is shopping for his transportation. He's leaning to the Amtrak instead of the airplane. And I'll get hotel for while we're both by mom. Since we don't both fit in the bed at her house. 

Today was a good day. Doug took a nap and I took a Treadmill. Then I realized I was still a lot of steps short of 10k so I took the dog for a walk. Should have added an extra block for a full mile but I was happy to get back home for Hockey Night In America. 

No picture again, but it was a good good day. Tomorrow I have a training class at noon, slightly nervous but I think everything is going to go alright. 

Digits! Below! 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Treadmill run - 20 min/1.37; Dog walk - 17 min/.80 mi. 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:45am: 138
5:30pm: 95
11pm: 88

food & meds:

8:45am: jardiance (phentermine on order)
11:15am: egg mcmuffin sammitch w/double sausage double cheese; met+glip
3:45pm: protein shake mixed in iced coffee
6pm: nachos - a bowl with chips & melted cheese, meat, guac, sour cream
8pm: met+glip
9:30pm: small ramekin of mixed nuts
vodka & diet tonic

The RVA there and back weekend

A Saturday and Sunday entry! 

Saturday morning Doug and I headed down to Richmond to visit with my cousin. He's had a really rough time recently, aside from being on hospice. He lives in a nursing home and is miserable, and around Easter he twisted/pivoted to get out of a seat and broke his femur. It ... just broke. His bone cancer in his hip obviously is spreading (I'm no doctor but, you don't ust break your femur moving in a seat to stand up). I expect more of this as time goes on.

He is very angry, and very sad. Who wants to be living in a nursing home at age 58, losing your apartment, your livelihood, your everything. It sucks. The situation sucks. And hospice means he's just not choosing to have his medical situation treated any further except for the absolute most necessary things (like surgery to fix your broken femur). 

The facility is okay, I've seen worse but certainly there is better when someone can afford that kind of thing. And he, of course, cannot. He had a roommate that was stealing his stuff and threatening to kill him in his sleep. So they moved him and now he's got a roommate who is bedridden, sleeps all day, and talks all night. So he hates that guy and has select things to say about him. I asked if he could be moved again and he said that he could end up with someone even worse so. Remembering to charge his noise canceling headphones is important. At least he can put on music, and quiet the neighbor down. For someone who already thinks he's smarter and better than everyone, having this kind situation is obviously infuriating.

I sometimes think about hell, and hell on earth, and I'm sort of wondering right now if he's getting a taste? You hate "stupid/uneducated people" but those are the people in charge of your care, forever and ever. 

Hell isn't being tortured with pitchforks and flames. Hell, as Satre writes, hell is other people. Reminds me I should go re-read "No Exit." 

Before we hit the road we stopped at a used/new office furniture store. We both needed office chairs, so we bought 3 and one is for Geoff's desk. He's using one without wheels, and we figured he could use an upgrade. We also bought stools for the kitchen counter. Personally, I feel like we do not need these but somehow it has been Doug's dream or fantasy to have them. I pick my battles. If he wants it, okay. I just better see his ass sitting in them. 

He's going to pick everything up on Tuesday, rent a U-haul van for a bit. While I'm teaching my next training class. Making progress towards the downstairs office...

Traffic was decent, we took back roads down from our area to Fredericksburg, and according to Waze we saved 15 minutes by driving out of our way. And it is a pretty drive, getting prettier each time we go down as spring unfurls. 

Doug napped at the hotel, it's a long drive and he wanted a break. I was a little frustrated because I just wanted to go to the cousin, make the visit, leave? Eat dinner? 

I was not at all sleepy/needing a rest so I changed into shorts and a t-shirt, strapped on the sneakers, went to the gym. I got in a fast walk, not a run, still in pain in the knees but it was pretty good. 

The treadmill wanted me to program in things, and I entered 1mph to start but somehow, she went fast. Oh shit, not again! Not another Treadmilltastrophe! 

I pulled the emergency stop cord. Not again today, Satan.

This is a really old LifeCycle treadmill and I did not like it. Rattley, bumpy, sticky handles. Meh. That's going in my hotel review. ha. I am spoiled by my own treadmill (even if it tries to kill me) and the one at the hotel by my mom's house. Super top of the line machine. 

We headed over to the cousin and thought they locked the doors at 8pm. They lock them at 6pm, and we were there at 5:45pm. Front desk lady lectured us that we'd have 15 minutes to visit. I thought that was fair for Saturday night, and we'd come back for a long visit on Sunday. Get an early start. 

John had other ideas. He was asleep all afternoon so he didn't see/read my texts, but when we got there he was ready to go. GO. Wanted out. Wanted to go out to dinner. He was raring to go, fired up. 

"There's a mexican restaurant upstairs we're going to go to," he says. 

"There is no upstairs here in the building," I answered. 

"Yes there is, I'll show you where." We checked him out and they said to just come to the side door when we got back, and call the desk, someone would come open up for us. 

What upstairs meant was up the street, we drive past it all the time when we come down. Several times he had difficulty finding the words for things or staying on track for discussion. Doug likes to get him to talk about hockey.

Observations: he looks pretty good, to be honest. Really thin, obviously. But for someone who just broke his femur a few weeks back, he's getting around okay. Slower than before, a lot more careful. In pain but not freaking out over it. He was incredibly happy to be out. Chatty but also distracted. In good spirits overall.

We went over to the grocery store to pick a few things up. I had offered to shop for him and get anything he needed but he wanted to go to the market. Sure thing bro. It was raining, not pouring but also not insignificant. I ran his wheelchair over to the market across the parking lot and Doug drove the car over. We figured it would be faster to do it this way instead of 5 minutes to get in and out of the car for a 30 second drive. 

He picked up what he needed and Doug & I got some beer (the great thing about supermarkets in Virginia... beer and wine!) 

And sure enough, we got back to the facility. Before we had left I asked the nurse what the phone number directly to the nurses' station was because I only had the main number in my phone. He insisted he had it, don't worry, I'll call or give you the number. I told him that the last time we took him out and got back after hours, he gave me a wrong number and I called some lady's house. Nope. Not gonna happen again. He had it saved in his phone. 

You don't fight back on some things, right? In this case I should have. He of course didn't have the number saved, he didn't know what it was. The nurse told me it ended with 0009, so I had the main desk number in my phone, and just changed the last number to a 9 while he was scrolling through his phone back to February to find the number. 

I called, Doug got him in his chair, I walked to the door to meet the nurse, done. And he seemed surprised, "I didn't give you the number yet." But oh, John. I'm a step ahead of you sometimes. 

We got him inside and he was cold and shaking. He had been in such a hurry to get out of the facility he didn't grab a jacket and told me I didn't have to go back in and get him one, while Doug was getting him in the car. I helped him change into warmer clothing, got his wet stuff into the laundry, and got him settled into bed. 

The plan was for the next day that we'd come over between 11 and noon, and take him out to do his laundry. He won't let the facility do his laundry. He said they've ruined things and stuff has gone missing. So he has signs ALL OVER saying that the laundry service cannot touch his stuff. I'd noticed the basket was very full, and he said a friend usually comes over to get him to take him to the laundry but that friend hadn't been by recently. So I offered for us to take him. 

He texted and called me 3 times after 9pm, verifying that we'd be there between 11 and 12, that yes we are going to do the laundry, that yes, we will be there between 11 and 12. He also texted my sister questions about when she was coming by. He must have mentioned three times on Saturday that Linda was coming by too. 

Nope. Linda is in New York. Not sure when Linda can make it back down, but if she does, i'll be with her. So. Not on this trip. 

There were tears when I left. I held his hands and patted him on the head. I told him we'd be back in the morning. I really wanted to just go at this point, but I knew he wanted me to stay. It was late and it was a long day. Tomorrow, see you tomorrow.

Sunday we got ourselves up, caffeinated, Doug was showering and I thought I'd go to the treadmill and then said "meh" on that. More coffee. We got to his facility at 11:54am, and he was blowing up my phone wondering where we were.  Sometimes, this is just like my mom. And it gets frustrating to constantly be followed up on, or bothered, or whatever. But I just breathe and try to accept the fact there are different things going on here, and let it go. 

He was ready to go when we got there, so we grabbed his laundry and piled into the car. He kept saying the laundry was by the high school but fuck all if the high school does not have a goddamn sign on the road saying it's a high school. It looks like a damn manufacturing facility with no windows facing the main drag, so we blasted past it. He didn't know the address, he didn't know the name of the laundry, and he kept telling us it was coming up. I put it into Google Maps with "high school near me" and told Doug it was a mile behind us. John disagreed, Doug turned around and sure enough, there she was. 

We pulled into the street and the laundry was right there. Found you, ya bitch.

We were there a little over 90 minutes.

Observations: Plan on going over earlier in the day to get things done and out of the way instead of just doing things Doug & Chris Style. If I had been solo, I would have gone over at like 9. Eat breakfast, stupids, so you're not fucking hangry by 2pm. Eat lunch first before going to the laundry. When someone says "let's go to lunch at XYZ place after laundry," find out how far away that place is. Also, when someone says let's go to lunch at XYZ place, know they have an ulterior motive on why they want to go there, and be open to it, not question why the fuck we're driving 40 minutes to go have lunch. Trust the GPS and not Miss Daisy in the front seat who tells you where to turn and where to go because it is their town and they know it better than your GPS (sound familiar, Linda?) 

We got to the lunch place close to 3pm, Doug and I were both just feeling the grump. We drove by 900 places to eat but J's friends are always at this place on Sunday afternoons, and he knew they'd be there, and wanted to see them. I guess they don't come visit often enough. They were .... honestly? Surprised to see him when we rolled up. They were outside having a smoke and said "oh... hi." and when we got inside they went back to their table in the way back and didn't join us. I think John was hurt. 

One of them bought our first round though. I texted him to thank him "I wasn't gonna drink but hey! Thanks for permission!" The other guy came over and sat with us for a while, and we talked a lot. He's a character for sure. John was very very happy to be sitting with him, and talking shit about stuff. It truly was a lot of fun. He's a great guy, and I told him I've been listening to his partner's band a lot lately which he told me he'd let him know. It's pretty decent stuff. 

We figured we needed to hit the road, so we brought J back to "Prison" and got the laundry inside. There was a comedy of errors when we heard something all on the floor and we couldn't find it but we also didn't know what it was, and couldn't see anything obvious. And then we realized he couldn't find his reading glasses. 

But. Where were they? 

John raised his bed up as far as it would go and the bars underneath moved and there they were. When the bed was low, he asked me if I could see anything, and I said "nothing except the fact these people need to do a better job sweeping under your bed or some shit." 

Glasses secured, laundry stowed, hockey hat and pillow handy, a few tears. And we were off. 

The trip home was great until we got to about Stafford-ish, and we bailed to take Rte 1 up to Fredericksburg, to hit 17, and do the backroads again. It always feels like it is faster going down than coming home. But again, it is pretty going this route. There are a couple ways we can go, a straight-through higway thing of 17 to 66 to 81, or you can bail off 66 and do some backroads through Delaplane until you get to Winchester and 81. Maybe it is a little further but she sure is pretty out there. 

Happy to get home, missed my dog, my son, my house, my life. 

The next drama concerns mom, but I'll save that for the Monday night (today) entry. 

I took zero pictures. Digits below and I don't remember what all my glucose readings were, but will just publish without going to get them. Maybe I'll fill them in later. 

Saturday digits

exercise: 11/12 hours. missed 1 hour in the car. Treadmill, 20 min/1.31 mi. Fitbit measured our walk around the used furniture store as an exercise walk (hilarious). .44mi/17 min. 11k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

9am: 143
xpm: x
xpm: x

food & meds:

9am: jardiance (phentermine on order)
11:15am: english muffin w/pb
4pm: met+glip
6pm: shrimp quesadilla w/side salad; 2 margaritas, super light on the tequilla. Shoulda asked for a float.
8pm: met+glip

Sunday digits

exercise: 10/12 hours. missed 2 hours in the car. Treadmill: 18 min/1.26 mi (just to get to 10k steps). 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

9am: x
n/apm: x
xpm: x

food & meds:

9am: jardiance (phentermine on order)
3pm: met+glip
4pm: cheeseburger on small side salad w/coleslaw; 2 beers
6pm: Beernutz Cashews and some M&Ms; zero sugar powerade (thank you Sheetz)
9pm: met+glip; apples, cheese chunks, crackers, pb

Ouchies

Last night I didn't sleep at all well. My right knee couldn't bend comfortably. I put bandaids on my left knee where it got belt sanded just so nothing could hurt it if something brushed against it. Both my hips hurt. I bruised under my right arm pit. 

Just absolutely sore all night. I took tylenol around 8pm, up again at 4 and took some more. Finally fell asleep. 

That was a brutal tumble. Nowhere near as bad as last summer's fall at camp but. Ouch. 

The right knee is pretty good if I keep it rather perfectly straight. Bending is when it is a problem. I did manage to get on the treadmill, and watched some video podcasts of MBMBAM and that helped pass the time. I thought about going the half hour even at my snail's pace but dinner was ready.

Hoping tonight is a little more restful. 

Because I spent a great deal of time on my butt today, I was incredibly short on steps. That's why I did the treadmill. And then after dinner went out again. Toffee needed a walk so I wanted to make sure she got one. 

Doug is watching all the hockey. All of it. I love all the hockey but I need to get a walk. He indicated he wanted to go with me but then passed. 

Tomorrow we're going to see my cousin down in RVA. He's feeling kind of super blue, and asked for our company. I'll see if Doug can remember to bring the hair clippers, in case he wants a haircut. Neither of us can do a "good" haircut like you get at a barber but heck, we can at least cut it if it is getting way too long. 

I thought for sure today I wouldn't make the 10k+ steps but Toffee needed a walk, and I took her, and we had a nice time.

So tired. No picture today. Just digits.

digits

exercise: 11/12 hours. Slow roll treadmill walk; 1.07 mi/25 min; Walk with Toffee, .80 mi/20 min. 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:15am: 146
4:45pm: 139
10pm: 135

food & meds:

8:15am: jardiance+phentermine
protein shake mixed in coffee
1:15: bowl of mac&cheese w/a lot of hamburger and extra cheese; met+glip
6:30pm: bowl of meatballs, no bun
7pm: met+glip
no alcohol

Jane! Stop this Crazy Thing!

Oh I had a whole entry about being up early because of the trash guys, and how the training went super well. Geoff made a really good dinner but forgot protein so my blood sugar is stupid. But. All told, everything was great. 

Until. 

I got on the treadmill at 7. I was way behind on steps for the day overall, so I knew I had to go a full half hour. Which I did. But it was a slower pace. Not quite 2 miles in the half hour. But yeah. Alright. I did pretty good and would make 10k by bedtime. 

The treadmill was set at 2.8 mph, I can run or walk fast at that pace. Slow down if I can't keep the pace up on "Whip It," and pick up and run again. 

I hit stop. She didn't stop, so I hit it again. The display said "Press and Hold Stop to end workout." I did just that. Bitch still wouldn't stop. 

Right then, you know when something isn't right and your brain isn't quite knowing the perfect thing to do (ie: slow the treadmill down to .5? Pull the emergency stop switch?) That's where my brain was. 

So I held on to the hand rail and stepped my right foot onto the side of the treadmill. But I didn't immediately lift the left to do the same thing. My left foot was pretty happy on the belt. 

And my body started to go two different directions at once. I went down on my knee, but remember, I'm holding onto the handrail. And my knee is getting belt sanded. 

I scream for help. No one comes. I know Doug is in the living room, Geoff comes running from downstairs. 

I let go of the hand rail and now I'm in a heap at the foot of the treadmill. 

And that fucking belt is still going at 3mph. 

Geoff goes to try and help me up and I said to hang on, I want Doug to come here, and see what this infernal machine has done to his wife. Eventually he comes in, and asks, "What happened?"

I tell him.

He walks over to the treadmill and pulls the emergency stop.

"Oh," I said, "I didn't even think of that." 

I managed to get myself off the floor cursing that stupid piece of shit mother fucking asshole treadmill. 

"BITCH I THOUGHT WE WERE FRIENDS!" 

And of course I immediately call Linda who sends me an animated gif of George Jetson walking Astro on the dog walk treadmill outside their space apartment. 

This is what I felt like.

I got ice for my left knee, the one that got belt sanded. I thought about a strong vodka tonic but I passed on it. I watched hockey. I came up to bed. 

Not how I wanted to end my evening to be honest. I actually said "I should take Toffee for a walk, but. ..." and did the treadmill instead. In my mind I play "It could be worse" and what could have been worse is I took Toffee for a walk and we got run over by a car. Or she sees that cat and acts like Astro in the animated gif and I get pulled down on my face. I lose teeth. I break bones. There could be bears.

Off to bed. A better and less stumbly day tomorrow. Digits below.

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. 1.93 mi/30 min; 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:15am: 130
4:15pm: 136
10pm: one finger is 215, the other finger is 149. 

food & meds:

8:15am: jardiance+phentermine
1:45pm: slab of left over pork loin. Met+glip
6:30pm: Bowl of Geoff Fried Rice (not enough protein)
8pm: met+glip
no alcohol 

Barf

I finished work a little before 5 and Geoff had just fed Toffee. I set my laptop and lil'lap desk on the floor, she was on the couch beside me. 

And she barfed. 

Absolutely puked up the dinner she just ate. And it is so weird, it's just a cup of dog food but it seemed like 8 cups of dog food. And of course it stinks. So gross. 

I try to get her off the couch, but she starts eating her own barf. Naturally. Like dogs do. 

And well. 

I let her. I let her eat her dog barf because it was mostly pretty freshly eaten food. If I just sent her out, without letting her "take seconds" I wasn't about to feed her another cup so she could do it again. 

Geoff was kind of laughing and said "well that's a problem solving itself." 

Note, she has not puked again so I hope none of that will come back to haunt me. Doug told me that the Bible talks about dogs returning to their vomit and I just stared at him. I do not remember any of that in the Bible. 

He said "yeah, like a dog returns to its vomit a fool does the same thing over and over. You should look it up. It is great sermon fodder for someone to make someone feel super guilty about their sins." For the record, I did look it up. 

File that under "Today I Learned" or TIL like the kids say. Here, you can read it too if you want. 

Today was busy. 

First thing, super early, video meeting with one of the devs. They're oversea so by the time we're online, they're basically done for the day. I agreed to meet with this guy because he wsa confused about something. Glad we met. He then asked me two or three other questions, and we figured some stuff out together. 

My boss and I had our weekly 1:1, and he had made a discovery about a function in the product that is not doing what it says it is supposed to do, and, is not doing what the old product used to do, and it is something people are going to notice and freak out over. So he demoed it for me, we made a recording of it to give the devs. We'll skip doing that in our training until it is fixed! 

I went to do a treadmill walk after the aforementioned dog puked, and after I cleaned it up, and after I used the upholstery shampoo machine (which now I need to clean and put away but I don't feel like dealing with that now). 

My ear buds wouldn't connect to my phone, because the laptop would not relinquish control of them and I didn't want to shut her down. I knew I'd becoming back to do more work. Jerk. 

 I was already ON the treadmill so I did not want to start over. I decided to attach to the portable speaker, which was great for part of a song before the speaker died. Doug had used it, and didn't put it back on a charger. 

He may know scripture but I know (in fact, I may be obsessed) to put shit on the charger when you're done using it if you LOOK at the battery level and it is RED.

Harumph. 

...then, I realized I didn't start my fitbit to tracking the walk. I'd been on the treadmill for a few minutes, and didn't want to stop and reset so I just walked until the fitbit said 20 minutes. 

I worked late catching up on tickets, and organizing some complaints to take to the dev team. Work son is going to put those in the dev ticketing board. We had a nice meeting to go over some of the reports and see what the haps were. 

Tomorrow! busy day. We have our first training with actual live human clients. My boss and I will be doing it together. There's 90 minutes on the books and our solo training that we did without human students was 40 minutes. I think we'll need 60 for sure. Not sure they'll be asking 40 minutes worth of questions. 

I'm looking forward to it. Feeling prepared and ready, except for bugs we keep discovering or getting reported to us. It's a good thing our developers are super responsive. They're kicking ass. 

Alright. Bedtime. Digits below! 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours.  Treadmill run, 20 min on the fitbit, 1.2 mi. probably more like 23 min, 1.4 mi.  but who's counting. I don't have to track things accurately anymore now that the challenge is over. 10+ steps by bedtime.

blood glucose:

7:15am: 113
5pm: 108
10:30pm: 167

food & meds:

7:15am: jardiance+phentermine
10:30am: english muffin w/pb and zero sugar j
2pm: greek yogurt+crushed granola bar; met+glip
6pm: pasta fra diavlo w/chicken a la Geoff. met+glip
8:30pm: ramekin mixed nuts
no alcohol

Frosty but a 5k

After I published the entry last night, Doug noted we were under a freeze warning, not a frost advisory, but an actual holy shit ... freeze. 

Oy. Our plants. Farmer Chris' plants. We set to bringing them in. They're all doing so well, he and I were both actually concerned with the possibility of things dying. The pansies are frost tolerant, they would have done okay. But still. We didn't want to lose them. 

He said we didn't make a mistake and go too early with the plants, news about the local weather said this is literally an unheard of thing at this time of year. 

And tomorrow it'll be 80 again. 

So all the plants stayed indoors last night. Geoff was very confused because he had no idea this happened. This is what happens if you go to bed before mom and dad.

It was indeed very cold last night. Upstairs was chilly, so the blankets I put away were trotted back out. And they'll go back today because now it is hot up there again. 

I woke up around 3am and went downstairs. Big blankets down there. Cozy and curled up with Toffee, I slept incredibly well. So well that I turned off my alarm and slept until almost 9:30am. Oooops. 

After the morning meetings and a website launch that didn't exactly go well, I needed a break. I watered all the plants that were inside and I took them back out, except the giant ones.

 Doug has to lift those up. They are still in the living room. 

Everyone else went back where they belong. 

Work was insanely busy after that, as we are starting to get user feedback from people beyond our initial test clients. I answered more helpdesk tickets today than I have in a year. 

Doug also had a very busy work day. He worked until almost 8 when I finished at 6. I got on the treadmill and decided instead of music I'd watch this video podcast of Bullseye with Jesse Thorn, with him interviewing Griffin McElroy. It was delightful. And I was about 30 or so minutes into it and realized I could just keep going, and do a 5k. 

So I did. 

I probably could have gone faster with music, as was I tried to keep to 14 min or under, and that didn't work, so I just did it. 

I had signed up for a virtual 5k for a fundraiser and the 25th is the deadline, so I'm glad I got this checked off. 

Another fun day tomorrow, I have a 9 am meeting with one of the devs in Europe because that's their 4pm. I have another meeting at 4:30pm with the work son to go over the reports of bugs and things from the clients. 

Wish me luck! 

Here are some plants. 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours.  Treadmill run, 5k, 3.11 mi/45 min. 12k+ steps by bedtime 

blood glucose:

9:30am: 154
4:45pm: 80
10:30pm: 124

food & meds:

9:30am: jardiance+phentermine
protein shake mixed with coffee through the morning
1:15pm: ramekin of tuna salad w/celery; Met+glip
4:45pm: ritz crackers and pb 
7pm: chicken parm
8pm: met+glip
no alcohol

Videos

We had a lot of meetings today. Our first official in person training is Thursday. After my boss and I made a full training video Friday, I decided I'd start in on making individual step videos like "how to do this thing," "how to do it if you're pulling stuff in from others," "how to import and export in bulk..." etc. Stuff. 5 - 10 min. max for each training instead of the hour presentation we made that covers almost everything. 

I made two of them, went to make a third and got an error message letting me know I had insufficient privileges to do the thing.  Ohhhhhhhhh no. No I do not. And that can't happen when we do our in person training on Thursday.  

Sigh. 

Well 2 done so far is pretty good. Waiting for some feedback from my boss and my work son. Thing is, we do not have the ability to edit the videos, so if I flub or I don't do something perfectly, I either just have to deal with it or re-record it. 

My boss told me not to be so self critical because when doing things in person, we always say something not quite perfectly and we survive, and our trainees survive, and they get it. Just feel the same is happening with the video and we'll be okay. 

I really have to get my office set up downstairs but I want it to be full of all my cool shit and posters set up. Not just concrete walls behind me. 

Anyway. 

It was so cold today. Temp was about 40 but the wind was brutal. Doug thought about taking Toffee for a walk while I was doing my recordings, but he changed his mind and went to the treadmill. Geoff took her for a short one around the block after dinner. 

I did get to the treadmill and thought about going longer than the 20 minutes I did, but I wanted to get back to doing more work. 

Have to say, there are times I feel like I have nothing to do, or I could be doing more, and then there are times where I literally am doing it all because I absolutely want to. Those are the times I feel best about my job. 

No picture today. Just busy! so busy. 

Digits below.

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours.  treadmill run, 20 min/1.5 mi; another treadmill trip for just steps, 18 min/.75 mi. 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

7am: 126
5pm: 134
11pm: 140

food & meds:

7am: jardiance+phentermine
12:30pm: roast beef+cheddar on 647 italian bread; met+glip
4pm: protein shake
7:30pm: homemade lo mein with shrimp & beef
8pm: met+glip
9:15pm: small ramekin of mixed nuts
no alcohol

Passporting and Officeing

I mentioned yesterday that Doug realized our passport cards expire soon, and he wanted for us to renew them. We got passport cards 10 years ago when we went to Canada for our 25th anniversary. We didn't want to pay for full passport books at the time, since all we were planning to do was go across the border by car to visit Canada at any given time. 

Now we're getting the full books. Why not. 

One of the things I noted was the 10 years ago photo of me doesn't look like me anymore, and in 10 years when I'm about to be 70, I'll look even more different still. Funny that. There's a whole lot less face anymore. Also...bangs.

Part of the application instructions were to blah blah blah do this do that and staple this thing to that thing. 

Oh. 

Right. 

Stapler. 

Somewhere in a box, somewhere in the basement where I'm supposed to be setting up my office. sigh. Okay. I've dragged my feet on this because I'm nothing if not perfectly comfortable sitting on the couch, with the dog tucked in under my lap desk, and I can get all my work done on one screen. I don't need the Air Traffic Controller setup with multi screens and a rising standing desk. 

This is fine. 

I went downstairs and started rifling through boxes. Carefully, not like a feral animal looking for a snack. If I didn't find the stapler, I closed the box up, set it aside, moved onto the next. 

Doug found one in a box marked "mom office - unpack. downstairs" which was perfectly accurate. And he stapled things and did what needed done. 

But then I went down and continued to move boxes around and look at things. 

I do have to get things set up, because I'm going to be doing this product training, and want a good quiet away from everyone space. I hope the internet reaches down here, or it may be a problem. 

Toffee is going to be confused when I am down there because she won't be able to tuck in and snore. When I sit at the dining table for a change of scenery, she gets sad and sits on my feet sighing. 

I need to get an office chair (Doug needs one too) so we found a used office furniture store over by the mall. I also want to get more bookcases to put my office knickknacks on. I am going to get some Guster stuff framed. I have a table that needs to be brought downstairs and set up. 

It's time. Time to get myself a grown up professional looking office space after 5 years+ on the couch. Gonna be a truly badass sweet space for your girl. 

Aside from that, today was about doing a treadmill trip. Just because the 100 mile challenge ended doesn't mean I've ended things. That was my count as of last night's official last day. 520 miles according to their tool. 

Which is interesting. The app connects to the user's fitbit. And most days 10k+ steps is just under 5 miles. I pretty much always hit 11k steps, sometimes 12, 13, 14 (tracked at the bottom of every entry in the Digits section). 

So. I think that the tool tracked my overall steps every day, but, you were supposed to track/check your actual "exercise" miles and I also set the fitbit to measure walks and runs, and would total between 1-2 or so miles a day. 

I'm feeling like this is off-ish? to count the overall steps of a day isn't really logging your mile/s. 

Anyway, no matter what, I know I beat the 100 miles in 100 days with the measured exercise miles, and this 520 is reasonable for the steps for the period. I'm not complaining. My one big complaint about this challenge is people who did biking and/or walking. Their measurements are in the thousands because you can super easily bike 10 to 20 miles a damn day if you want on an exercise bike, vs. people who walked/ran. I feel like it woul be more honest to put those in 2 different counters. 

Who cares, really. It isn't like I got paid for this or won something big/impressive. I did it just to do it. And continue to do it. 

I'm also on like day 200 of 10k+ steps on the fitbit. I noticed in September when we were packing/moving/cleaning etc that I was consistently hitting the 10k mark, so I decided to just stick with it and do it. I kind of feel like I'll be mad at myself if I drop under 10k... when did I get so self-competitive? ha. 

I talked to my sister for two whole freakin' hours tonight and it felt like zoom ,,,,, time just flew. I made a really good potato salad to go with Geoff's burger grillings. Doug took Toffee for a walk but I was busy doing food things. I ended up still going out even though I did the treadmill because I needed a pokemon walk. 

So tired now. Digits below what my current office situation looks like!

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Treadmill, 30 min/1.5 mi; pokemon outside walk, 15 min/.6 mi. 13k+ steps by bedtime. 

blood glucose:

8am: 93
4:15pm: 105
10:30pm: 121

food & meds:

8am: jardiance+phentermine
10:15am: slice of multigrain seeded bread w/ pb
1pm: turkey sandwich on italian 647 bread; met+glip
5:30pm: one cheeseburger and a bunch of potato salad (w/bacon and hard boiled egg!) 
6pm: met+glip
9pm: popcorn
wine+diet ginger ale 

Thousand Miles from Nowhere

Today was a busy day for team us. 

This morning, I went to the gathering of the 100 mile challenge folks with the Parks & Rec. Got to meet my online friend, who it turns out is literally friends with everyone. She knows EVERYone in town. And her 5 year old son is the cutest, sweetest, most lovely thing.  

I met a guy who has a crepe food truck. There were whole groups of people from churches that did the challenge together. 

We all got raffle tickets for a prize drawing. I never win these things but it was fun to see a really small girl who had her ticket pulled and she got tickets for 4 people to go tubing in Harpers Ferry. Her older sister was extra thrilled. And, my ticket was 602. She wsa 601. So close! 

It was all very sweet. 

When I got home, Doug was filling out his passport renewal because our passport cards expire any minute now. We've been talking about doing this, so he suddenly remembered that we should. So he was doing his and I went to start mine and the travel dot gov website crashed. 

Nice. 

We still went to get our passport photos taken. And then we went for a drive. 

We ended up heading north towards Greencastle, where we turned right previously. This time we turned left. We were just cruising along listening to music, Dwight Yoakam was singing about being a thousand miles from nowhere, and it felt like it. 

There was a garage sale on one of the roads and Doug was curious enough to turn around and go back. Not a lot of stuff, but we did buy a tiered table for plants for the porch and a wacky metal sun to go with his wacky metal salamander that he got a couple years ago. The man had a ton of concrete garden dog figurines. Ton. Like 30 of them, mostly in epic bad condition. I thought about this one little black one, it looked like iron, and was missing an eye. 

This little 3 legged guy looks like he just needs a paint job. 

The man doing the garage sale was big, and old, and was missing two fingers. 

I didn't ask, but I bet there is a hell of a story. 

His neighbors have cows, and the cows come over to his fence in the afternoon for the shade and the fact he gives them treats. So I got to say hi to some cows. 

We left the treasures but he told us we should be sure to visit the Mason Dixon Flea Market. He used to go there. It's hard to get all his stuff loaded up and set up. His wife used to do it with him, and she's not able to walk anymore. 

He told me their life story and situation. It made me sad, so I'm happy we bought things from him. Ten bucks total. Back in the car, we drove more, and tried to drive to Whitetail Ski Resort, thinking there may be a road up there, but, we were on the wrong side of the mountain approach. We now know how to get there by going the wrong route. Kind of fun. The mountains were gorgeous, the trees are coming to life. This will be a lovely thing to come see in October. I got home and did some reading and the resort is on Two Top Mountain in the Bear Pond Range, which is part of the Appalachian range straddling Maryland and Pennsylvania. 

We started heading south, and were hungry and thirsty. We ended up at a foodrinkery we love in downtown, had a great meal and some beers. 

Both of us got home with ambitions which were thwarted by naps. I have not taken an actual nap in the middle of the day in forever. Felt good. 

Geoff made some sort of chicken dish with a buerre blanc sauce "ish" except no shallots were involved. He got a nice reduction on it, and the chicken was pretty good. He made way too much of it though, could feed a party of 10. But sauce enough for 2. 

That's it. That's the day. I think it is going to pour all day tomorrow. We need it. We went by a creek, almost bone dry. 

Digits below! Moo.

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours.  Last mile with the 100 mile challenge (really worked out to 1.17 miles so now I question my fitbit distance). 11k+ steps by bed

blood glucose:

7am: 126
4:15pm: 137
11pm: 117

food & meds:

7am: jardiance+phentermine
11:15: english muffin w/pb. Met+glip
2:30pm: 8 buffalo wings, 3 beers
7pm: chicken dish from geoff
9pm: met+glip (forgot to take closer to dinner. oops)

The Last Cookie

The other day I baked the oatmeal cookies, and they were a big hit. Geoff normally doesn't eat oatmeal cookies, but I saw him chowing down on a couple. This made me happy.

Invariably, when I bake cookies or muffins, no one eats the last one. It is hilarious. Kind of like a "I shouldn't because what if someone wants that last one..." 

So today I ate the last cookie. And I'm proud of it. 

The same thing used to happen when I worked at "Awesome," remember that place? There would be 5-10 people on a shift, Mama Jo would put out snacks and treats and always, always, there would just be one left. Because kindness. 

Eating the last cookie today meant that I could put away the cooling racks and all that, and tidy up the counter. So I did myself a favor. 

It was a great day at work, after 2 weeks of obstacles my boss and I recorded the first training video for the new product we're rolling out. Our action plan is to offer help documentation, this video (which will probably be re-recorded once a couple back-end bugs get worked out, and small videos on each topic. 60-90 second illustrations of how to do the thing. I'll probably just whip those out maybe even this weekend while the experience of what we need is fresh on my mind. 

After the epic monstross of a day yesterday, today felt great. 

I put myself on the treadmill at 5 and a run for about 2 miles. Then after dinner, Doug suggested a walk. So we took the dog, and it was a leisurely walk, but 2 miles! 

While I was doing the run, I remembered I signed up for a virtual 5k that I have until the 25th to complete. I should have just done it today and kept going but then I would not have wanted (I don't think) to take the after dinner walk. 

Tomorrow is the last day for the 100 miles in 100 days challenge. There is a gathering in the morning for people who participated to come together and do that last mile together. How cute. 

I believe I will get to meet the woman I became friends with in the "accountability" group that 1000 people were in, and only like 5 people actively participated in it. She and I were 2 of the actives. Baby's first "friend" in town! 

Doug and I thought of going to Richmond this weekend, and he though of going to New Jersey for some RV show to look at vehicles and trailers and such. 

He then realized that would be a more than 4 hour trip, which would probably be a 5+ hour trip with how traffic works. He gave himself permission to call an "audible meh" on both ideas. I kind of feel like we should go see my cousin, but maybe we can make that happen next weekend. It isn't a day trip - you gotta stay overnight to make it worth the going. 

We'll see. 

No pictures today. I realized I've been taking a LOT of pictures in the form of screenshots for the product. I can't share those though. 

Digits below! 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Two perambulations. One on the treadmill, 30 min/2.09 mi; then walk with the dog and the doug, 45 min/2 miles. 14k+ steps by bedtime 

blood glucose:

6:30am: 112
4:15pm: 123
10pm: 194

food & meds:

6:30am: jardiance+phentermine
7:30am: oikos zero yogurt (mixed berry) w/crushed granola bar
noon: met+glip, BLT salad
1:45pm: the last oatmeal cookie
6pm: bowl of baked ziti w/hamburger and mushrooms, a la Geoff
7pm: met+glip
no alcohol