Dam 5 and the Four Locks

There was no argument about what to do today. It was a get outside and enoy the day kind of day. 

I let Toffee out, and noted immediately that hey. Oh, hell yes. OH YES! I'm having coffee on the patio. Fuck YEAH. 

I cleaned the table (thought about doing it last week but eventually said meh). Toffee was doing her usual tour of duty around the yard, and I came out with my coffee and just plopped down. 

Bliss. 

We had kind of a breeze coming from the north east, so a sweatshirt was handy. I enjoyed a good hour of just playing phone games and sipping coffee. 

One of the main reasons why I wanted this house was this spot. I'd love to screen this in, someday. Future plans, but for today and right now... this is what your friend needed and wanted most. 

I surveyed the yard and thought about all the things that need to be done. Mental notes, get the big rake and hand it to The Boy. Drink more coffee. 

Doug let me know that he didn't want to dilly and/or dally today but go out and have some fun. He wanted to take me up to Dam 5 on the C&O canal. He went there when I wasn't around at some point, maybe I was at my mom's. But he thought it was a super cool spot and I could get my mile walk in easy peasy. 

We headed up and the parking area is closed, everything is roped/guarded off. He was disappointed (Information on the work being done is here at the official website.) We parked up on the street and came down around the Lock House, and managed to get onto the trail at about mile 106.5 I think. 

We walked up to the next Lock House, before mile 108, and enjoyed a hang out there. Hardly anyone was on the trail. We did meet one family and the kids were in love with Toffee. We listened to Peepers and I took a bunch of photos. 

Doug suggested we go home and I was kind of like, um... no? Can we do some more fun stuff out here in the world? 

He suggested we drive up to Four Locks next, and we took another short walk. You can stay overnight in the house there at the locks, it seems pretty cool! 

We stopped at one more location, McCoy's Ferry. Not much happening there, a nice trailer put-in for boats, but the action probably kicks in there really soon. 

We were thinking we'd go to Cushwa Brewing but I had some chicken in a marinade waiting for us, and we opted to head home for dinner. 

Daylight saving meant neither of us were hungry at 6pm, so Doug took a nap, I got dinner ready for grilling and goofed off for a while. 

Then, I talked to Linda for 3 hours. Hi Linda. Reading this on Monday Morning. 

Digits below. Of course.

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours.  Big leisurely walks at the C&O canal. Combined/measured: 67 min/2.8 miles. 13k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

9am: 128
5pm: 113
10:30pm: 84

food & meds:
9am: jardiance+phentermine
11:30am: 647 everything bagel w/cream cheese and turkey
1pm: met+glip
5:30pm: beer 
6:45pm: big salad, 2 slabs of chicken breast. beer. 
8pm: met+glip
made candied cashews so I ate a bunch of cashews in process.

Sometimes it doesn't work out exactly right, so ... pivot

Both the men in my house (my housemates! lol) had rough days today. 

After a leisurely morning hanging out in the living room, I asked Doug if he wanted to go and do anything today. It was cloudy and dreary, a bit colder than they'd told us it would be so he said no. Okay. I'll get ready for the treadmill then. 

As I was getting my shoes on, he went to try and work on the light fixture in the bathroom. 

It has these 3 hangy-downy dealies, and only the middle one works. The other two flicker a bit, and then shut off. He thought it was the bulbs, but no. It's the fixture itself. Something is loose.

I need Doug to do things that are not this light fixture, to be honest. I need him to sort through 6 bags of clothes that he has schlepped from Massachusetts to half of Maryland. I would like him to caulk the inside of the bathtub so we don't get water dripping down into Geoff's bathroom and need a whole new ceiling down there or some shit. I need him to clean up the fucking walnuts he harvested and put in boxes in the carport, thus making it very easy for squirrels to just feast all winter long. I need these things to happen. Not the light fixture. 

But, Doug is gonna Doug. And if I ask him to do those other things he gets mad, and says he'll get to them.

So instead of getting to the things I would love to see done, he set to trying to fix the dumb light fixture. 

I got on the treadmill. I knew it was going to be chaos. I love him. I love him so very much, but he is not a fixer upper guy most of the time. And today the situation was on brand. 

Earbuds in, I could hear yelling. I thought to myself just ... let him rage or whatever. Keep going on the treadmill. Keep running. Keep running.... I got to my half hour mark and even went a little further just because of the song that was playing. When I came out, he was working with Geoff to get the breaker switched back on. 

His face said it all. 

"No luck?" I asked.

"I busted it. It's busted. Now we have to replace it." 

Okay, I'm not mad. Not mad at all.

I hate the light fixture. So not a big fan of it, so when he busted it (and was VERY angry about it) and he sat down to shop for a new one online, I said great. Go for it. 

So now, he can't find anything that has a full rectangular wall mount that he actually likes. He HATES them all. Running commentary about how shitty this one looks, "ooooOOOooOOOoo INDUSTRIAL CHARM!" He doesn't like clear glass covers and those are super popular right now. Industrial and clear orbs. 

Finally he finds stuff he likes, but. 

It's a small circle mount to the wall, not the big giant rectangle. 

"Oh, I like that," I say, very supportively. "But we're probably going to have to paint the ... bathroom wall. Right?" 

And he gets angry. The minute you try to do something, it turns into a full blown out of control project. So yeah, now he's extra mad as he buys the light fixture. 

"Yeah. That's gonna have to happen." 

So, okay. I'm okay with that too. I am not a big fan of the wall color in the bathroom. Heck, I'll even paint the bathroom. Heck, we have a handyman that will do it. I'm sure that Victor will do an amazing job. 

And yes, also do the grout dealie on the tub. 

But he's mad. He cheered up enough to suggest we take Toffee to the dog park. He asked if I wanted to go and I think he expected I would say no because I did the treadmill. 

But the sun had come out, it was warming up nicely, the gloom was lifting. So I agreed to go. We had a good time until all 9 dogs got into a fight. There was a male English Bulldog that kept trying to mount a very scared hound mix named Iris. She was trying to run away, other dogs came in pursuit, and Toffee. Well. She detects chaos and sayd "I'M IN!" and jumped in to fight with the bulldog. It was chaos. We made sure everyone was okay and I told Doug we needed to take Toffee home. Exhausting! 

Meanwhile, Geoff had picked a dinner to prepare for us from a cookbook, and he was prepped and wanting to make this for days. I told him he'd probably need my help, it was a complicated recipe. What was it? Chicken Croquets with diced ham. 

So while this looked complicated, I figured he could do it. He set to getting things ready, and ran out to the market to pick up the parsley because he had forgotten it the other day.

Doug (after buying the new light fixture) read the recipe and got really irritated. "Oh he is NOT. NO. He is not making this." I told him to relax - let Geoff try this out and if it doesn't work, it won't be the first time he made something that wasn't perfect. 

Personally, I like when Geoff gets adventurous and wants to cook something new. I get sick of chicken parm or cheesesteak. He's been branching out and doing all kinds of interesting things. Fried rice from scratch. Really amazing Southwestern creamy chicken soup. 

We worked on getting the mix all together, and when it came time to take the chilled meat out of the fridge and turn it into little balls of happiness...

Let's just say, something wasn't right. 

The croquets didn't hold together, they seemed dry and uncooperative. Also, we don't have a deep fryer, so he opted to use a frying pan with a lot of oil in it. Probably never got up to the right temperature. They fell apart almost instantly. 

I helped him get the food out of the frying pan and into a big bowl - it looked an absolute mess (smelled good though). I'm thinking that he didn't multiply up the butter and egg mixture, or something, because he had a LOT more meat product than what the recipe called for so I told him to math that out to "triple" what it was asking for. 

I asked if there was anything else we could have for dinner, and he threw the tongs at the sink and stormed off. 

Reminding him that sometimes things don't always work out, being mad isn't the best plan. I told him hey, you tried. This wasn't an easy recipe. I'm not mad. I'm proud of you for giving it a shot. But we do need dinner so what else is available.

He said chicken parm. Which made me laugh inside. "Sounds great. Chicken parm it is." 

"That's five hours of my life I won't get back." he says angrily. Indeed. The recipe as complicated. You had to do things, and chill things and then form these blobs of chicken and let them chill again. It was a long time. 

I wished indeed that it had worked out. Just like I wished indeed that Doug was able to fix the light fixture. 

Sometimes it doesn't work out exactly right, so.... pivot. 

I told Geoff maybe the stuff he made would be good re-fried and mixed with alfredo sauce over pasta? He seemed unsure. 

But I think that mix of stuff can be saved, and I'm willing to take a shot with it.. 

He made the chicken parm up, and threw it in the oven. He grabbed a beer, set the timer for 30 minutes, and went downstairs. 

Dinner turned out just fine with the pivot. 

Holy shit I did a lot of steps today. Funny how that works when you use the treadmill AND take the dog for a walk. Beyond Basics. 

Anyway, no pictures but not for lack of trying. Dogs are fast at the dog park. 

Digits below. 

 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. A day of walks. Treadmill run, 32 min/2.25 miles. To the dog park, 14 min/.6 mi. Home from the dog park, 19 minutes/.9 miles (3.75 miles total for the day's measurable exercise. 65 minutes). 15k+ steps by bedtime. 

blood glucose:

9am: 120
4:30pm: 103
11:30pm: 63* (tested 2x, both the same basically. rather low. Looking forward to testing in the morning. 

food & meds:
9am: jardiance+phentermine
1pm: met+glip; some chunks of ham from dicing up food for a recipe Geoff was working on
6:15pm: 2 chocolate chip cookies from Aldi
7pm: 1/2 a big slab of chicken parm (and it was damn good). 
7:30: met+glip
no alcohol

"You're an Athlete Now"

So I wanted to write about the massage therapy session. Also, last night was the first night in a very long time that I slept all the way through the night. Well, I did wake up a few times to roll over, or push Toffee out of the center of the bed, but I managed to fall right back asleep in my own bed without going downstairs. 

Yay, me.

Anyway, massage.

When I booked the massage online, I selected "I don't mind which gender therapist" because you could select male or female on the form. I understand when women may not want to be 1:1 massaged by a dude. 

Personally, I just want someone who is good at what they do. 

I was assigned a guy, no problem. 

He was a Geoffrey. I'm not kidding. When he came out to get me and introduced himself I had to smile. He is about 6'3", 250 lbs., big curly hair, little chin beard, glasses, great big smile. 

We had a chat before the massage to go over what I was hoping to get out of the session. I told him that my right hip was killing me, my knee hurt, and I have a good case of tech-neck. After talking to my family care practitioner, she suggested I start with massage and if things did not get better we could ponder arthritis.  

I told him that I'd entered the 100 miles in 100 days challenge, and that in the past few weeks I'd been running more than walking. He was stoked for me. 

"Your hip hurts because of running, not arthritis, I'd put money on that. So let's check in there and get the hip abductors and glutes taken care of." 

I also told him about how I can't take ibuprofen for pain, thanks to the blood clotting disorder situation and how it ... isn't good. And that my doctor has instructed me to not take tylenol because my liver enzymes and other blood tests over the last year have been high. I was taking a lot of tylenol, so I've super scaled back. Instead of daily, maybe twice a week max. But yeah, I'm feeling pain a lot. 

She told me to use biofreeze on the hurty bits. 

"And how is that working out for you?" he asked. 

"Not as good as taking tylenol, of course." I said, "but it is better than absolutely nothing."

Onto the table.

He started with my neck, back, and shoulders, said he could feel some tightness on the left shoulder and that is exactly where my tech-neck lives. 

Down my back, asking me if anything hurt from him pressing. "I'm a big guy and sometimes I get my whole body into this, so let me know if any of this is painful. Some people hate it but they think that's what deep tissue massage is. They're supposed to hate it. No. I want them to tell me if I'm going too hard." 

No dude, you're ... fantastic. 

We talked about how massage is therapy. You go to the doctor, you get meds. You get mental health care, meds or therapy. You eat food, fuels your body, you don't deny yourself any of these other things but really - massage is not a luxury or a "Treat Yo Self," but an essential therapy. You don't have to do it every day, but once a month, every other month. Get your muscles worked out. 

He got to my hip, my glutes, and the backs of my thighs. "Oh yeah. You're right. You're an athlete now!" I laughed. 

"No, I'm serious. You've been doing the walking challenge, probably doing a lot of walking before you started tracking the challenge, and now you're running. You're tight. Your muscles are screaming." 

I told him that's the nicest thing anyone has said to me in years. Calling my doughy fat body an "athlete," thank you.

He flipped me over and did my quads and I could feel it so much. He pressed on each of the muscles, adductors, abductors, quads, hamstrings, and tendons. I told him that before I recently lost some weight I had no idea what this .... thing was on the side of my knee, the hamstring tendon. And he laughed. Discovering and learning about my body is fun. 

We talked about how he played high school and college football, and blew out his shoulder 5 games into his freshman year season. Once you get injured and decide to not play football anymore you have no scholarship money, and you ... basically drop out. 

He took some gap time, he had some surgery and said "for the rest of my life my shoulder will be fucked up but I'm a very happy person. I tried. And the universe pointed me in a very different direction. I would be graduating this year if I stayed at a 4 year college, and now I'm fully employed, working on my Bachelors in Finance online, and making people happy."

Wait a minute. 

"You said, you'd be graduating this year?" 

He said yes. 

"How... old are you?" I asked. "If you don't mind me asking. You don't have to say." 

"I will be 22 in May." 

Holy shit. You are a baby. 

"Well, you present, if I can steal that phrase from gender identity discussions, you present much older." I said. "I would have guessed by this discussion and your skills, and everything that you were maybe 27 or 28."

My son doesn't present as old as he does. 

"I am an old soul, I guess. But also you're super easy to talk to," he said. "I'm an incredibly introverted person, and I think this is the most I've talked to anyone during a session. You just make it easy." 

I wanted to bring him home and have him become friends with Geoff or something. 

"I think I could talk to you all day," I said, and he laughed and agreed. 

He made it down to my feet, and talked about how my arches are a little stiff. I said I'm for sure feeling that. He encouraged me to go barefoot as much as possible and I told him for sure, I'm barefoot all of the time. A suggestion to use a golf ball to rub the bottoms of my feet daily, just kind of work it out. My feet will feel a lot better.

He finished up, I got dressed and he waited for me in the lobby. He asked if I'd come back, and I said hell yeah. We shook hands and parted with a smile. 

He said I'm an athlete. 

Thanks.

Digits below.

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Treadmill, 31 min/2.11 mi. 11k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:30am: 143
4:45pm: 103
11pm: 134 

food & meds:
8:30am: jardiance+phentermine
protein shake in coffee
1:30pm: english muffin w/pb & low sugar j; met+glip
4:45pm: hostess ring ding dealie
6pm: bowl of penne pasta w/meat sauce and a slice of garlic bread; white wine
7pm: ramekin of cashews
8:30pm: met+glip

Massage Therapy Day

I really want to write up the whole massage therapy thing because it is hilarious and I had a great time. But I'm super tired. Again, did not sleep well. Brain full of work. Meetings. Stress. Meh.

So I'm going to save it for tomorrow and just give you the digits. Good night.

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Treadmill between meetings, 18 min/1.12 miles (super slow start but wanted to knock the mile out while I had some energy!) Another treadmill tour, much slower but got some good distance, 34 min/2.03 mi. 12k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:15am: 104
4:45pm: 103
9:45pm: 200 *notice when I took my meds and last thing I ate

food & meds:
8:15am: jardiance+phentermine
protein shake mixed in my coffee
12:30pm: pb & low sugar j on 647 wheat
1pm: met+glip
7pm: one small piece of stromboli and salad (did not enjoy stromboli) 
9pm: bowl of 2 good mixed berry yogurt w/granola bar smashed up in it. Met+glip
no alcohol

Gloomy ass day

I have not been sleeping well. Today was exceptionally damp and gloomy. And it made me a lot extra tired. 

I had late meetings today, and a ton of morning time wide open so I opted to treadmill before lunch. Strangely enough, I felt really good even though I was basically exhausted (4 hr. of sleep last night AND the night before). 

Usually I aim for hitting 2k steps by lunch time. If I'm able to do that I know I can get to 10k. Today, I was at 5k by lunch time. Whew. 

Work was exceptionally busy this afternoon, we're getting closer and closer to the big project product launch and it is time for my work son and me to send out notifications to the clients we've chosen for testing. I started drafting the emails tonight, and set up a meeting for him and me to hash it all out. 

There are still some futzy things happening and I'm so thankful my own manager is doing the bulk of the user testing and discovering things. Because I have not touched it.

There is a quarterly reporting requirement for this product, and the quarter ends at the end of April. Our goal is to have the product launch fully right after that, and training and everything done the first week of May before I go to Molly's wedding in NH. 

Wish me luck. 

Geoff made a kick ass fried rice dinner but he really has got to start adding more protein to things. Still, I'm not complaining, it was delicious. 

If he didn't live here I'd probably just have an english muffin w/pb and low sugar j for dinner most nights. 

The only other exciting thing is I bought a new lint filter for our dryer. It kicks ass. It's the right part but the door does not want to close right unless you kind of lift it up a wee bit. I had to demo that for Geoff tonight when he started his laundry. 

I scheduled a massage therapy appointment tomorrow. I've been having that problem with my hip, and now my left shoulder is like restless shoulder or something. And the bottom of my right foot is being stupid like the left one was when we went to Vegas in 2024. 

I'm looking forward to that. It's been quite a while since I've treated myself. Expensive but do not tell Doug. ha. 

Anyway. Bedtime. After you look at my cuddly doggo.

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Treadmill, 30 min/2.16 mi. (almost broke a 14 min mile! so close!) 11k+ by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:30am: 114
4:45pm: 168* (see meds below)
10:15pm: 110

food & meds:
8:30am: jardiance+phentermine
protein shake mixed into my coffee
12:30: small container of mac & cheese with hamburger
3pm: atkins protein snack
4pm: met+glip (completely forgot to take at 1pm) 
6pm: bowl of fried rice w/shrimp a la Geoff
white wine
9:30pm: met+glip (since I messed up the lunch dosage I went later tonight with the dinner dosage).

Good eye, sniper

10pm, ish. Nightly. Toffee signals she wants to go out, I let her, go brush my teeth, take the blood sugar reading, go back down and let her in. Sometimes I'm a few steps away from 10k so I walk around the house while waiting for her. 

Then I grab a cup of water and my laptop and head upstairs for the nightly playtime. Toffee grabs a dead stuffed animal carcass, or one of her indestructible destroyed rope balls. And the entire second floor is back and forth, top speed, jump on the bed, turn around, flip around, I take the ball and throw it again, and we do it over and over. 

This lasts only a couple minutes. She is not like C's Frenchie who can do this same game for hours but on a tinier scale. And then Toffee crashes out, and I get ready for bed. 

She's hilarious because she knows what time 10pm is, and she knows it is playtime. And then we're in bed and that's a happy place.

Everyone needs ritual. 

Today I started feeling flat out exhausted around 1pm. I sat in a meeting and listened to my colleagues present findings on a thing they did and I was so impressed but also, it hurt my brain. What they did and worked on together was so good it actually makes me very scared for when I will have to do this very thing by end of summer once everyone is onboarded to our new product. I'm so thankful I have my work son side by side with me. And I'm sure between the two of us, we'll present something amazing. But it is just daunting to think of. 

I had a 3:30 meeting to teach someone how to undo some horrible stuff they did. They caught on fast and I let him drive while I narrated him through item by item. He was so thankful and said "I never would have figured that out."

Well, you might have if you read the actual help documentation for this action because word for word we built it the way it shoulda been built. But that's okay. We survived. 

Doug got on the treadmill at 5 right as I was tying my shoes to do so myself. I'm pretty passive and docile, and he hasn't done it for a couple days so I didn't bitch. I had things to do. Geoff made dinner and it was ready by the time Doug was finished with his time, 44 minutes. I wish I had that attention span. 

I didn't want to get on the treadmill. 

I did, and said okay fine, make it to 15 minutes. Okay you're at 10,  you're being a little slow today. Pick up that pace. Oh, this song by Coheed and Cambria is a good running song so, run. Pick up that pace. This is... Alright. Twenty minutes, well done. Keep jogging. 25 or 6 to 4 is a good pace for running. Go go go. 

You're at 26 minutes don't end on a dumb time. You should have stopped at 25 and now what, you can't go 4 more minutes? C'mon man. Do it.

30 minutes. 2.05 miles. a hair under 15 min pace. Not bad for someone who did not want to do this. 

But fuck that 44 minute bullshit that Doug did. 

Gah. Digits below and here's the Coheed and Cambria song that got me a 12 minute mile pace today. Are you in? or are you out? 

digits

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

blood glucose:

8am: 110
4:30pm: 101
10pm: 161

food & meds:
8am: jardiance+phentermine
noon: english muffin w/pb & low sugar j
2pm: 2 slices of muenster cheese w/ turkey slices 
3pm: hostess ding dong 
6:30pm: some sort of pork loin in a ginger sauce (very interesting) pierogis. White wine
8pm: ramekin cashews
9pm: met+glip

Found Things

Back in November, Doug came home with that giant basket I mentioned yesterday, a giant trunk, two whole ass dining tables, a bureau, a small bookcase, a Nazi sword that his grandfather liberated from Germany in WWII, some sort of antique-ish rifle, and a bunch of other things that his mother didn't want anymore, his sister didn't want, but mom didn't have the heart to give these things away (or throw them away). 

All I was thinking he was bringing back was the redwood picnic table I wanted for the front porch. But there we were, unloading a bigger U-Haul truck than I thought he would be bringing. 

Yesterday, I was going through a bag with some sweatshirts in it. His dad had gotten a sweatshirt with our last name on it and the family crest. Probably off the internet, you know - you can get those things off the internet. I am not even sure it is correct but he was proud of it. 

And there was also a sweatshirt from his branch of the Armed Services. 

I sighed. 

This also looks like something bought at the Rogers Sale or a flea market in Ohio, it doesn't look super official. But I know he bought it, and I know he loved it. I can picture him puttering around the yard and garden in it, early fall, cool weather, picking up sticks for the pile. 

His mom gave both sweatshirts to us, and Doug said he couldn't ever fit in them. She asked if Geoff could, and Doug said, Less So.

So she said "Well, maybe Christine will like them." So they came home.

They fit me, but I feel weird wearing a sweatshirt with our last name on it, walking around town. And I feel even weirder wearing the Air Force one. 

I always admired and respected him for his service. He was a navigator in Viet Nam.  He never ever talked about his war experiences. I sometimes really wanted him to, I wanted to know about things other than "Thai food in America is not as good as Thai food in Thailand. I don't even know what this is that we have here." But I honored his choices. 

Sadly though, I don't think I can wear this, but also, I can't donate it. 

I'm really unhappy with our government. I do not like the 2020 "No War In Iran" people now cheering the bravery and courage it took our president to do what he's doing now in 2026. I don't disrespect those in the service, but I'm not rah rah siss boom bah about our military today. 

I think of Mike Birbiglia and how he loves the troops because if they weren't the troops, HE'D be the troops. And he'd be the worst troops. As would I. So yes, thank you for the Troops. 

I feel a little sick to my stomach when I'm thinking about the situation this weekend, with everything happening. And I'm not putting on the sportsball sweatshirt "I'm With Them" kind of things, even for my beloved Father in Law. Just can't do it. 

So it is going into the closet. Until some other time. Both sweatshirts, together. Kept and not thrown away. 

I also found something else. Quite a while ago, Doug found two bedside tables (or livingroom end tables) on the side of the road. One of them is on my side of the bed, and today I opened the bottom drawer to start tucking some things in from the boxes. 

There were two Christmas cards in the drawer, one from the pastor of a church with a lovely photo of the Reverend and "Lady" [last name redacted]. I thought that was pretty awesome to be married to the reverend and be known as Lady. 

And there was a second card, which made me feel a little sad that we have it and they don't. 

I don't remember the address of the house. It is in our old neighborhood, I'm sure I could drive by and drop it off some one of these days. But what if Rick and Abby are no longer together? What if he or she is absolutely fine with this card being gone and out of their lives. 

I put it back in my bottom drawer, like I put the sweatshirts in the closet. 

It's a Monday, and feels like a Monday. We had a lot of meetings, and a colleague did a swoop in share a lot of opinions that are wrong, and I panicked and reached out to my boss who was already emailing the group. 

I had a super long email chat with a client in Michigan who is lovely and wonderful and he is going through a mess in his personal life, and his office is moving. Over the weekend he had to be at the office packing and moving AND at his dad's house packing and moving there. 

We talked a lot about our aging parents, and how hard this is to deal with. He said his wife has been a partner in crime, a ride or die, a saint. I told him that I've been that for Doug for his aunt, and he's been by my side too with things regarding my mom. 

Where he lives, the house can't be unoccupied for a certain period of time, but for some reason no one will tell him how long, so he's rushing to pack it up and get everything out so they can sell it. I told him about Doug's mom and her Bonnie Two Houses situation. I think if it was against the law for her to have an unoccupied house, Doug's sister would know, and that would be something she'd be on top of. 

Doug called her tonight, he's been meaning to for a week or so. She just sounds super depressed. Doug told her she should take a trip, do something fun. She said she'd love to but she can't lift up anything heavier than 10 pounds (Doctors' orders) so she can't go alone. 

She mentioned a convention in Corning NY that she would love to go to, so I googled it and sadly, well, maybe not sadly but, unfortunately, it is the same weekend as Molly's Wedding in NH. 

But maybe we can take her to Corning NY some weekend. My friend R has been doing glassblowing up there, and I messaged her to find out when she'll be there. I bet Bonnie would love to go and see R's work. 

So put a pin in that friends. I'd like for her to have some fun. 

Anyway. That's about it. Feeling sleepy, ready for bed. Still have some things to finish up for work before I shut down for the night though.  

Digits below.

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Treadmill, 31 min/2 miles (almost a 15 min mile split but a few seconds off!); 11k+ steps by bedtime.

blood glucose:

8am: 102
5pm: 121
10pm: 84

food & meds:
8am: jardiance+phentermine
protein shake mixed in my coffee
12:30pm: 647 everything bagel, 2 pieces of muenster, turkey
1:15pm: met+glip
6pm: Southwestern chicken and corn chowder (a Geoff Specialty, one of his best meals!)
8pm: ramekin of cashews, met+glip
one vodka and diet cran (just to kill the diet cran bottle)

Puzzle Table and Unboxing

We were all three of us in the kitchen today, well four if you count miss Toffee. It is nice to have a kitchen big enough that I'm not freaking out because someone is crowding me opening the fridge while I'm trying to make eggs, or getting coffee while I'm trying to open the oven. 

"Your pants are on inside out," Doug says to me. 

Oh. 

He grabbed the tag and tugged it a couple times. "You've got a little tail." 

I always bring my yoga pants downstairs with me when I wake up in the middle of the night and retreat to the guest room. I must have taken them off funny, resulting in them being inside out, and then I never noticed it when I put them on. 

"Where would I be without you?" I asked. "What if I'd left the house to do something or go somewhere, and I was like that. It would be so embarrassing. Thank you for saving me from myself." 

Doug is doing our taxes. He set up in the dining room with the JBL speaker and all the paperwork. He cranked some music, and I busied myself upstairs (lest I looked like all I was going to do today was play phone games). 

One of my goals has been get things out of the mud room and put away where they belong. I have a toy box that my parents bought me when I was small and wee. The summer between my freshman & sophomore years in college, I refinished it (with my dad's help. He sanded it, I stained it). I have usually kept blankets or big bulky sweaters in there, but right now I had the need for somewhere to put all the sweatshirts. I own a lot of sweatshirts. 

Blankets are now in this GIANT woven basket that Doug brought back to his parents from his mission trip to Haiti in high school. His mom divested herself of it, and he came home here with it. He put it in our bedroom closet, I filled it with blankets. 

So if. you're visiting and need a blankie, you know where they live. 

I also had a lot of laundry to fold, and process, and ponder. One of the things I wanted to do lately was get things ready to donate. I'm very good at divesting myself (love that term as you can see I've used it twice so far) of clothing I'm no longer interested in, never wear. In my mind, I hear an old friend following me around the house when we were packing to move once saying "oh! Did you miss that? Have you needed it in five years? No. Goodbye." (gone). So that got done. 

I have two large boxes that ended up in our bedroom, that needed to be sorted through. What stays up here, what do I want in my office (once i set up my office) what is for storage. Oh, here are stamps and envelopes. Wonderful. Oh! an extension cord. Yes. Hooray. So that got started and I found the puzzle that was on the puzzle table in the livingroom that I disassembled when we moved. She has a new home. 

We bought ourselves a really nice Turkish lamp when we were in New Orleans a few years ago, and the bulb burned out. It is kind of a "special" looking bulb and I've put off trying to figure out what it is. 

Enter: Google Lens. 

I took a picture of it with my phone and found out exactly what it was. Found a link to Amazon, ordered a two-pak since it was less expensive to buy two than to buy one (go figure). It will arrive Tuesday.

The day was getting away from me, and I realized I needed to hit the treadmill. I didn't want a run-run but I wanted to dedicate a full half hour to this effort. Spotify gave me a daylist called "flannel baggy jeans Sunday Afternoon," which actually had some good fast-ish songs so I doubletimed some of the walking, ended up with a little over a 15 minute mile on both miles (2 total). Not bad. 

Doug was napping after doing the taxes (and we owe a lot more than I thought we would so I'm slowing down on paying off the credit card (so close) and I'm not shifting my retirement plan back to 13% where it was before we started saving for the house. Doug told me to do it before New Years, I need to call the retirement company to do it personally, no online changes for this (which is obnoxious). Thankfully I've delayed, and to be honest, I'm super okay with that. 

I jumped in the shower and after I got out, dressed, etc he told me his cousin called and wanted to come by. 

I mean.

No? Like no? I am not in the mood. Initially I was kind of mad, but honestly, he has no one else. And for some reason he likes to hang out here. And I put away my shitty attitude, poured a glass of wine, and ate dinner. 

When he got here, I asked if he'd had dinner yet and he hadn't. 

So I warmed up some of ours for him. We had some random ass beers because Geoff buys these mixes from places and there's always a Mango something or a Coconut Chocolate thing in the sampler, and no one likes those. Oh, or lite beers. Mix packs lately are coming with lite beers. 

He accepted one we had that wasn't too fruity or sour or high in ABV. I loaded the dishwasher, and thought about baking cookies but then just felt like nah. I didn't want to go through the effort. So I sat to watch TV with them.

Doug pulled up an anime he had watched a long time ago and kind of stopped watching. I went upstairs to set up the puzzle table that I'd been jonesing to do for a super long time. Sorting the pieces, I think the small square table isn't going to be big enough for this one, so maybe we need the big rectangle one I was planning for my desk (the puzzle table from the last house). I'll give it a shot. 

Realizing that if anyone is going to evening puzzle work, we're going to need a lamp over in that area, and my little light bulb refilled Turkish lamp will be just the thing.  

Not a bad day but also, not exactly what I'd envisioned for end of day. I've had worse, ya know?

Before and after pictures of the corner by my bedside are below. As are the digits.

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours.  Treadmill, 30 min/2.03 mi. 12k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:30am: 150
4:30pm: 140
10:15pm: 117

food & meds:
8:30am: jardiance+phentermine
protein shake mixed in my coffee
12:15pm: 2 eggs, scrambled w/goat cheese and bacon
the rest of Geoff's mac & cheese w/bacon (i'm weak)
1pm: met & glip 
5:30pm: cheesesteak filling with some onion rings (mushrooms, red pepper, onion in the mix)
9pm: met+glip
red wine

Dead Birds and Dry Turds

Oh my gosh, you guys, it was gorgeous out there today. 

Up early again today and Doug slept until almost 10. I heard the news about the Iran situation and opted not to turn on the TV. 

I poked around the kitchen, ate two donuts, played phone games, cuddled the dog. When Doug came down, he put on the TV and I walked away. I went upstairs and cleaned a bit, stripped the bed and got some more stuff organized. 

Then, I went outside because watching the news and listening to "that guy" talk about stuff was not going to make me happy. And it was beautiful. I got the dog shit rake and shovel out, got a bucket and lined it with a trash bag and I started picking up. Toffee came outside with me, and she was romping and playing and having a good old time. 

90% of the dog crap was picked up and I gathered up a bunch of sticks. I thought about the phrase "Stick Season," and how this isn't the same as what it means in Vermont (or, Noah Kahan's album title) this is a different kind of stick season. I like this stick season, getting ready for a little camp fire action in the yard. And boy, is our season plentiful! 

There were more toys in the yard, hair clips and matchbox cars. Honestly every time I go out there, I find more and more toys. One would think I would have found them all by now. 

I looked over at Toffee and she had something in her mouth and was throwing it up in the air, letting it drop, grabbing it and running. Having the time of her life.

I realized it was a bird. A very dead bird. Good Lord, gross. No. 

And people wonder why I don't let the dog lick me in the face, any dog. Nope. 

I tried to get her to drop it but she did not want to give it up. Doug had come outside to see what I was up to (I guess he also tired of the repetitiveness of the news and wanted to check out the weather). 

"Your dog has a dead bird in her mouth and she won't drop it," I let him know. He tricked her into coming into the house for a bully stick, without the bird, so I was able to clean it up. Into the bucket with the poop. 

We sat on the patio for quite a while, Doug looked like he wanted to take a nap and I told him it was okay if we didn't go do something. He asked if I knew tomorrow's weather (what do I look like, Harvey Leonard?) I said I heard it was going to be cooler, much cooler, like high of 40. Today was a high of 73. He said we should seize the day. 

Geoff went to the market, and we went to the C&O canal in Williamsport. We only walked about 2.5 miles total, coulda gone longer, but both of us were feeling like we wanted to get home. Geoff made dinner, I worked on some work stuff, Doug took that nap. 

Even if it is cooler tomorrow, I think it is not supposed to be windy. Maybe we will get a second good day of walking in. 

He's going to start our taxes tomorrow, which is always fun because he has to reset the password, and gets yelly at the software. 

Maybe I'll take the dog somewhere solo. 

Digits below some pictures. I did take a pic of the dead bird but will not post it here, lest you be super duper grossed out! 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. C&O canal walk with Doug and Toffee, 56 min/2.53 miles at a nice pace. 12k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

7:30am: 102
4:30pm: 147
10:30pm: 174

food & meds:
7:30am: jardiance+phentermine; 2 Krumpe's Donuts
1pm: small bowl of tuna fish w/ the last of the salad greens and some cherry tomatoes; met+glip
5pm: small bowl of cashews
6pm: spicy "dirty" rice with ground beef, shredded cheddar, sour cream.
9:15pm: met+glip
no wine/beer 

Early Bird gets the Late Nite Donuts

I was awake at 4. Went to pee, drank some water, put on some Biofreeze on my hip and right knee. Back to bed. The dog came to join me because I am, of course, the best and most wonderful dog parent to snuggle with and she loves me. 

I woke up a little before 7. Tried to go back to sleep but it wasn't happening. 

So I got up and fed miss thing and let her out. I did my blood sugar, I made the coffee. When the dog came back in, I felt like ... well. I could sit on the couch, drink coffee, play my phone games or damn it...

I could get on the treadmill at 7:30am. Are we doing this? Are we doing this! 

We did this. I did a solid mile but not at a fast clip. Just to get it done, get the mile out of the way. It was going to be a busy busy day. 

As you can see, ya gurl has crushed the 100 miles, we're halfway done with the challenge, and who knows, maybe I'll hit 500 miles by the time this is buttoned up in April. New goal set, I guess. 

But this morning I was sluggy and tired and I forced myself to finish the mile. 

Note to self: drink coffee first for best results.

After the treadmill, I got a shower. I've been putting off showering most days until the afternoon so this was nice. Felt like a human being who goes to a job. And working before 9am. 

There were a lot of meetings today and a lot of helpdesk tickets, but I had a nice wide open time slot in the middle. 

I was going to take toffee for a walk but Geoff beat me to it. Probably a good plan because I had a lot of work to do still before leaving for dinner. 

A friend of mine from college and her husband were passing through, driving down to South Carolina and then to Florida. They thought this was a good stopping point before making it to SC and arrived last night. They went for a long walk on the C&O canal. 

We tried to remember when we saw one another last and it has to be maybe 1994. But it was like we saw each other the other day. Lots of catching up, talking about the kids, houses, work. Doug and the husband hit it off really well and it was fun to sit there chatting and listening to the two of them talk as well. 

We mentioned the donut place and told them about how it is only open to the public from 7pm-11pm. "Let's go," she said. She has Celiac's so she can't eat the donuts "but he's entitled to indulge!" 

There was a big line but it was moving quickly. They were horribly entertained by the concept of this late night donut thing, and he got a dozen so he could eat one or two and bring the rest to his sister in SC. 

When I got home, I took my evening medicine (90 min. late) and my blood sugar (a little too high) so I passed on the donut treat. We'll see how things are tomorrow. 

I also got on the treadmill when we got home, because I was 2k steps or so short for the goal. I stayed seated at the restaurant while we were all chatting away, so there was that to make up for and more. 

So I crushed that and got ready for bed.  

Tomorrow, the weather is supposed to be amazing so I hope we can get some yard work done (maybe) or a nice walk somewhere (more likely). 

Digits below this shot of the nighttime donut gang.

digits

exercise: 10/12 hours.  Missed 7 and 8pm for sitting at dinner. Early Treadmill, 18 min/1.06 miles, Late Treadmill, 20 min/1.29 mi.  11k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

7am: 119
4pm: 91
10:30pm: 191

food & meds:
7am: jardiance+phentermine
8:30am: protein shake
1pm: met+glip
1:45pm: ramekin of tunafish 
4pm: handful of trail mix that had a bunch of sugar coated thingies (oops)
6pm: beef brisket w/some BBQ sauce, a little coleslaw (gross) 
9:30pm: met+glip

skipped the donut, no wine/beer