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

Linda on the Metro

As promised, I went to the office. Please be proud of me. 

I set an alarm for 5:30, but woke up right before the alarm went off. Lately, that's been my superpower. I was up, showered, dressed, and out the door by 6:15. Yeti full of coffee, tank of gas is all set, Waze running, and here we go. 

Sunrise was lovely ("sun's up, mmm hmmm, looks okay. world survives into another day." That's a call back to the post from the other day about songs that take you places). 

Traffic was pretty merciful until I got almost 2/3 of the way to the Shady Grove metro station. Then the GPS brought me into the kiss & ride and not to the actual parking place so I was a little discombobulated. I figured my way out and around and into the actual parking lot. 

Whew. 

I managed to arrive at the office by 8:30am, which is probably record time from this location. Just over 2 hours. Wow. 

Walking from the metro to the office, there were so many dogs. So. Many. Dogs. And I absolutely loved seeing them. I miss that aspect of my office trips.

We had scrum, and there were issues with the roll for the access to the test version of the new product. Tons of tickets were flowing in, my colleagues who do first tier support were short a person so I was willing to step in. 

Except.

My work wife and her new bae were coming to the office. And I didn't want to have my visit with them ruined by, I don't know... work. They arrived a little after 10, and I did slip away for coffee and socialization. Mandatory.

Oh and on top of it all, a part of this product and the product it is replacing relies on iTunes, and well, it was down. Completely. 

Lots of helpdesk tickets continued to flow in, on many fronts. 

But I was so happy that I got to have some time with the New Bae while the work wife went and picked up her new laptop and all. I like them! Work wife texted me tonight to ask what I thought, and I approved, and told her I look forward to our next visit. Which makes her very happy.

At about 4pm, I left the office. Walking back to the metro there were more dogs. I miss all the dogs. I took the long route to the station, just to see more dogs. 

If I wasn't so tired, I would have slipped into my very favorite brewery to have a pint and get some take away but ugh. I just wanted to go home after all the chaos and the tickets and everything. 

On the metro, I had an empty seat beside me and a sharply dressed older woman with a shopping bag and her cane slipped right in and saw it. I gestured to it for her and her smile brightened. 

"I saved this seat for you," I told her.

"So thankful!" she replied, and gently tapped me on the thigh a few times. "I slipped into town just to go to the Phillips today, and of course, I couldn't resist buying something!" 

"Well, you gotta treat yourself sometimes." 

She asked me how far I was going and I told her to the end. She told me she was headed to the Strathmore in Bethesda to see the Baltimore Symphony tonight. She loves to go there and see shows. I told her how I saw Black Violin and Amythyst Kiah there. She was very interested in both, and got her phone out to take notes. I typed out Amythyst's name, and Rhiannon Giddens and "our native daughters" for her and she said she would look into them and keep an eye out for DC dates. 

She told me she was 87, and that she feels like she's in far better cognitive and physical health than our current president. She looked at me and said "oh I hope I'm not offending you by saying that." 

"No, for sure, you are way more spry and on the ball. I believe that!" 

She told me next month she and a friend are going to Venice for a week. She's been there several times over the last 20 years, and she rents this lovely little apartment for them with a balcony and a water view. There's a museum or two they love to slip into and visit, "but we don't overdo it, the tourist thing. I get tired." 

I told her that it sounded lovely, and I bet there's a good cafe close by this apartment for ... tea or coffee.

"Or..." she looked at me through her eyebrows, "wine?" 

"I wasn't going to assume, we just met, but yes. Wine." 

And she laughed heartily. 

Wine indeed. 

I noticed when I was helping her with her phone that her name is Linda. That made me smile. 87 year old Linda, slipping into the city to a museum and a gifty poo for herself, off to the symphony, living her best life and looking forward to her wine in Venice. 

And I'll probably never see her again. And she made me think of my Linda and her wine. And our mom who doesn't leave the house and travel and go anywhere. May we be like Linda on the Metro, and be our adventurous selves in 28 years.

The drive home took longer. There was an accident on the highway heading south, which had traffic backed up for 10 miles by my estimation, and I was exceptionally thankful it wasn't on my side. But, everyone was rubbernecking the 6 cars, the ambulances and fire trucks, so we were at a snail's pace heading north. 

I hope everyone is okay. 

Once I got home, Geoff had dinner basically made, more carbs than I wanted but I didn't have to cook so I was thankful for that. I watered the plants, so Farmer Chris had some time to stretch and walk about and dead head pansies and enjoy the porch for a bit. 

I didn't take any pictures today, dogs or otherwise, work wife and bae. Just very happy that I went in, and made it home. 

My work wife and I talked about being there, in the building, and "do you believe we used to do this every day? Come in here? All the way from our houses?" Well, my old house was so much closer to the office but, I can't imagine going in there even one day a week. I'd have to stay with my friend S the night before on the regular if I had to do it. 

Foof. 

Can't wait to go to bed. Digits. Below. 

digits

exercise: 11/12 hours. Missed 5pm for being in the car.  Walking around DC, 1.18 miles/22 min total combined. 12k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

5:30am: 151
7pm: 90
11pm: 120

food & meds:

5:30am: jardiance+phentermine
11:30am: oatmeal cookie w/raisins that my bestie made
1pm: lunch at the office! wonderful piece of peruvian grilled chicken thigh, arugula salad w/strawberries; met+glip
5:30pm: Protein shake
7:15pm: bowl of dirty rice & grilled chicken. Met+glip
9pm: 2 oatmeal cookies
vodka tonics (3?) 

Cookie Day

I woke up around 4:30am and had to pee, so I did the usual. 

Went downstairs, did my thing, and got in the guest bed. I saw I had email and my friend Matt who asked me to proofread his latest book draft, so I was thrilled and said yes. Emailed him back at 4:30am, like you do. 

He emailed me back about 1/2 hour later. Which I guess is what people in their 50s do. They wake up in the middle of the night and get business done. 

So I have a fresh manuscript to read, fit that in between all the other things. The help documentation, the training, the product release. And I'm happy to do that to be honest because I have to do something different with my brain once in a while. 

Toffee came downstairs and found me around 7. We snuggled for a bit, I like that she isn't all "hey get up, hey get up lady, hey. hey. hey lady..." and is willing to have some half awake snuggling. Of course I did have to pee, so we did get up and we did our things. 

It was gorgeous out this morning, but a little wet from the rain that actually did come through last night. My patio furniture was sopping wet, so I couldn't sit out back, and the benches for the redwood table weren't pushed under the table, so they were wet too. Had to retreat back inside. 

I decided I wanted to make oatmeal cookies. For some reason, we have two giant containers and we don't need two giant containers. I should really make some granola, but, cookies sounded nice.

We had a webinar at 10am, so I put my laptop on top of the coffeemaker, and set to mixing. One of the things I like to so is add some milk in with the oatmeal and leave it soak for about an hour before mixing in the rest of things. So I did that around 9:30, and then during the webinar I finished up the full mixing, and got things in the oven. By the time that happened, I realized it was after 11 and I'd missed my 10am steps. Oops. But that's okay, I knew I'd make it up. Some hours are like that. I got over 600 in the 9am hour, it's all balance.

I paid my mom's taxes for her online, and let her know yesterday I was going to. She called today to make sure I did. Of course. I'm so untrustworthy. C'mon lady. Who are we talking about here!

Then I had two good meetings about the training sessions we're doing tomorrow and the documentation we just published. We have to go back and adjust a few things but overall, things are looking splendid. 

I took a break at 4:45, and went to the treadmill. It was pretty brutally hot out so I was happy to do my walk/run inside. Doug took Toffee for a walk and he was not out there very long. I was surprised he came back so fast, but not really.

And I am indeed going to the office tomorrow. 

If my brain and body do weird things to me like they did this morning, I should be leaving so early it's not funny. I was wide awake around 5, and thought "jeeesh, if this was tomorrow I could get in the shower right now and be gone by 6." Let's see how things go. 

No picture today but I did water all the flowers and everyone is feeling the heat! I'll have Doug take care of things tomorrow in my absence. 

Digits below.

digits

exercise: 10/12 hours. Missed 10am by a few steps because I was mixing cookie dough. Missed 8pm by 5 steps because i was not paying attention to the time. Treadmill 30 min/2 miles. Initially planned on 15 but the playlist was a bop. 10k+ by bedtime

blood glucose:

7:30am: 122
5pm: 116
10:30pm: 192* (one finger stick was 192, another was 130. because they are so wildly different, I'll record the high one here and see what is happening in the morning) 

food & meds:

7:30am: jardiance+phentermine
9:45am: 2 cookies from Aldi, protein shake (mixed in the coffee)
12:15pm: last of the fajita chicken salad
1pm: oatmeal chocolate chip cookie, met+glip
5pm: oatmeal cookie w/o chocolate chips (I made an assortment)
6pm: pork loin w/peas and some pierogis. 
7pm: met+glip
no alcohol

Bees

When I was out on the patio a few times this last week some bees started harassing me. I looked everywhere for a nest starting, up in the rafters of the porch, out around the exterior edges. We have a lot of carpenter bees, but mostly they are hanging out around the carport. 

This morning I was out having coffee and enjoying porch life with my new plants and my dog, and I watched a bee go up under the patio table, and into a wee little hole under one of the legs. 

I watched another bee go up under one of the seats, and do the same thing. 

You little jerks. 

Tiny little holes in the bottoms of metal furniture is not a smart place to go building your nests, friends. 

So now, well. I don't think these are honey bees in any way, and they are smaller than yellow jackets, but they gotta go. They're getting evicted. 

I believe we'll have to wage some war. 

It was hot today. I've been comfortable just hanging in the living room with the ceiling fan going but upstairs has gotten untenable. Doug and I need to put the AC in our bedroom window. There is only one very small vent up here, thankfully it is in the area. that our bed is in, so the winter was comfortable. I prefer it cold anyway... and the window AC unit is just to help this overall area, reach over to where Doug's desk is. Having 4 kids up here as the last family did, that window unit was essential. I'm glad they left it behind. 

Doug came downstairs and invoked Cool Zone, closed all the windows, fired up the AC. It was downright chilly downstairs in the afternoon, I must say. 

I had a late meeting with my boss, and then we had a 3pm Team check-in which was good. After that my brain was a little fried. I needed to work on more help articles but did one and opted to regroup tomorrow. 

Toffee had her dinner and Doug was still working a project so I took her on a solo walk. It was hot as balls out there, humid, high 80s. Feh. We did our mile and a skootch more and I brought her back. 

Because I haven't been doing a lot of extra steps per hour, I took myself out for a second walk a couple hours later. The 100 miles in 100 days challenge comes to an end this weekend, and I realized today I'll surpass 500 miles. There are some people who are way up into 1000+ but they are also cycling, so I feel like that shouldn't count. But. Good on them. 

And good on me. 

The neighbor I met who is also doing this is at 775 miles and she thinks she can hit 800. If she runs in the morning and the afternoon. She also realized how it's hot and that sucks. So she isn't sure she'll accomplish it. I told her that I believe in her. Come use my treadmill if you want!

Today's two walks got me to almost 2.5, not quite. If it hadn't started storming on walk number 2 I would have kept going. 

This has been a fun challenge, I've enjoyed it. I also didn't push myself so hard that it was no fun as a result. I'll miss logging the tracker. My fitbit counts the steps for the day, so I usually end up with 4-5 miles a day but this challenge is to measure actual exercise, not the overall steps. So I may have 11k steps which is about 5 miles, but we measure the timed walk/run and not the whole day. That's why I put down the overall steps plus the walks/distance/times. 

Maybe I'll do that on a google sheet for myself or something. 

Like I need another hobby.

We had our first big huge thunderstorm tonight. It started up when I was walking Toffee and looking to the south, it was super stormy. No real lightning but a ton of thunder. Then when I did walk 2, I went up by the ballpark, the field lights looked so cool against the black sky, and the way they lit up the trees was just amazing. Then the lightning came, the low clouds to the north beyond the field were etched and edged with the flashes. I turned to head home to beat it back to the house. 

The back porch was lovely, sitting and watching the lightning, and then there were fireworks at the ballpark. I was thinking to myself I'd get the hell out of there instead of shoot off fireworks! 

Linda and I were chatting and the storm just came barrel assing in. I had to go chase my watering can. 

I hope all the plant babies are okay from the wind! 

We got a decent chunk of rain but not a lot. The lightning and thunder was the main attraction. 

Tomorrow is also going to be super hot, close to 90. I think it'll be a treadmill kind of day. 

Thursday I was planning on going to the office, and we have two trainings to do for the new product. One is a test run and the second one, we're going to record and just have my boss and me running it, no audience, no questions. But I'm super bummed because my work wife and their new love interest are coming to the office (tbh, this is the only reason why I'm going in. To see her and meet the new squeeze).  I'll get a lot of steps in because commuting in is always a big step day. 

Here's a picture from this morning's coffee time. Before the bees found me and I retreated inside. Digits below!

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Two outside walks, one with Toffee 23 min/1.15 mi; one solo to talk to Linda (came home instead of continuing due to the thunderstorm) 25 min/1.17mi. 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:45am: 132
4pm: 123
10pm: 134 

food & meds:

8:45am: jardiance+phentermine
12:15pm: leftover fajita chicken & veg turned into chicken salad. 2 low carb wraps. 
12:30pm: met+glip
4pm: 2 big celery stalks w/pb
6:30pm: a geoff creation - left over ham in a noodle casserole with swiss cheese and peppers. Not bad! 
7pm: met+glip
no alcohol 

Some kind of ecstacy's got a hold on me

Over the weekend, Doug and I were chilling in the morning, and he grabbed the JBL speaker and said "okay ear worm..." and put on some tunes. To purge your brain of an ear worm, it is said .... play that damn song. And sometimes Doug's ear worms are very amusing.  The other day, it was a Bruce Cockburn song, Wondering Where The Lions Are.

I put in the video to the studio album here, 1979's fantastic Dancing in the Dragon's Jaws, here's the link to the full album. 

Kind of amazing but it transported me back to college, hanging out with friends listening to this masterwork. Some of the most beautiful lyrics, some of Cockburn's most religious/spiritual/mystical writings like Hills of Morning, and Creation Dream. The joy of listening to the French language "Badlands Flashback," and everyone singing one word.... de coquille. 

Wondering Where The Lions Are is seminal to my foundational memories. On face, a sweet little up beat ditty, but when you peel back the layers it sure is a song about waiting for the next shoe to drop. Everything looks beautiful, everything looks perfect, but where are the lions that are gonna devour me shortly? Dance and play in the meantime, I guess, while we're thinking about eternity. Let that some kind of ecstasy get ahold on you. Sing harmonies with Chrispy and Kevin, whatever it is we're doing and working on in the lobby of the dorm or somewhere out in the campus. 

Everyone get into Northern Lights and imagined what they may be to look at someday. 

I still haven't seen them but this song, this 40+ year old song. This is my vision.

The sky full of rippling cliffs, and chasms that shine like the sign on the road to heaven.
I've been cut by the beauty of jagged mountains, and cut by the love that flows like a fountain from God.

The man is a genius, and I should listen to his older stuff more often because it is just so beautiful.  

It put me in just such the best mood, and I started my workday today putting my heart into that same state and listened to the whole album. 

I sometimes tell people that my faith was written by the music of Bruce Cockburn and U2. What a time to be a young Christian, to have the first 3 U2 albums and that early Bruce stuff, along with some other things, to write onto your heart and soul what love is, what God means, the absolute joy, the tears and the praise. 

To me, it feels nothing like what I watch on TV of what the young Christians of today have. They are truly missing out, and honestly, I don't get what they're getting sucked into. None of it feels good and pure and magical. I hear none of it in the clanging gongs and screaming singers, nothing. Nothing.

Here are more flowers. And more to come I think. Digits below!

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Outside walk with Toffee, 30 min/1.56 mi. 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

7:30am: 112
4:45pm: 94
10pm: 114 

food & meds:

7:30am: jardiance+phentermine
11:45am: one left over chicken satay piece w/peanut sauce, peas & broccoli left over from other dinners
noon: met+glip
4:45pm: ramekin of trail mix
6:30pm: cheeseburger over salad w/french fries and bleu cheese dressing (like a steak salad only, not). 
7pm: met+glip 
no alcohol

The Return of Farmer Chris

 Yesterday was all about messing around the house with chores and stuff. Today. Today was about the plants. 

Doug and I headed to Lowes and we picked up our annuals and got everything we wanted. Hilariously, I still have a couple more pots that I could put flowers into. 

I didn't take any during and after shots. And somehow we ended up with 2 flats of yellow pansies (one is more orange and the really yellow ones are the ones with the tiger faces). 

Tomorrow is picture day. 

I am sore from head to toe, I used muscles today that I haven't used. So sore. Ha.

There are a ton of pansies and we got big pretty arrangements for the two front planters, and a pretty yellow thing that I think is going to pour over or I can trellis up. We'll see how she does. 

It was a busy full day. It was fun. 

I realized that I didn't do my mile today around 7:30pm, so I wanted to get a pokemon stop and turned it into a longer walk which was really good and I felt accomplished. Yay. 

Digits below the one picture I took today.

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours.  all movement, all day. Did a walk very late in the day. 1.3 mi/30 min; 13k steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8am: 122
4:45pm: 143
10pm: 188 

food & meds:

8am: jardiance+phentermine
11:45am: turkey and mayo on an english muffin; met+glip
4:45pm: ramekin mixed nuts
7pm: slice of pizza; 6 buffalo chicken bites; 2 mozz sticks
8pm: met+glip
no alcohol

The Busy Saturday

We had a super busy day today. Lots of work around the house. 

Doug scrubbed up the redwood table last weekend (the one he brought back from his mom's) and today it was tung oil application day. It looks so wonderful. 

He ordered a plastic table cloth/cover for it, and a cushion for the porch swing. 

I swept and rearranged the back porch, until some bees decided they were going to fuck with me. They aren't carpenter bees, but I don't know what kind they are, and they were mean and aggressive while I was sweeping. I looked to see if there was a hive or nest being built up in the porch roof or anything but could not find one. I finished up, and got out of there before I was completely done.. 

All we need now is flowers for all the pots. All. The. Pots. And our veggie garden. We're having a disagreement about raised beds. Doug wants raised beds that are on the ground and I said no - I want raised beds that are table beds, because I don't want the rabbits getting into the garden, I don't want Toffee getting in the garden, and I don't want to be on the ground weeding because even with ground level raised beds you had better believe weeds are gonna find their way in there. 

So. If we end up with Ground Raised, I'm not weeding. Fuck it. He can weed the garden and tend it. I get stuck with this task every year and I fucking HATE it. So. That's the line I'm drawing in the dirt, sand, soil, whatever.

Early in the day, the house down the corner had a yard sale. I went down and the girl running it is the homeowner's niece. Her son and his girlfriend were sitting in lawn chairs being surly. They got dragged there to help and they were being no help. The niece was super friendly, and pointed me to her Aunt so I went over and said hi and introduced myself. I guess they do this often - the niece does not have a yard for yard saleing. So she comes here. The homeowner was nice ish, but a little weird. I met her dog. The dog was also a little weird. 

I had a long chat with one of our next door neighbors. Not the family with the beagles, but the other side. She's a teacher in town, and she saw me out doing back yard work and hollered over that this is great weather we're having. Indeed. So I went over to chat and got her whole life story/download. She told me stories about the kids that used to live here. "They were nice enough..." she said. Ha. 

One of them, the youngest girl, was a screamer. My sister can relate to this because her neighbors behind her house have screamers. The little one would scream like she was being murdered. MURDERED. She would be very patient, because, you know, kids. Just like I'm pretty patient with the beagles (almost). But one day she went out and asked for them to stop the screaming. It had gone on for hours. The dad heard her and came out and didn't apologize to her or say anything but made the kids go inside and said "She don't like your screaming." 

Sir. No? Just come out and talk to the kids, talk to the lady? And then they moved a couple weeks later. I told her I promised we wouldn't scream. She also said how much she loves Toffee because she is so quiet. She's very nice.

I cannot remember her name though. And neither can Doug. 

Doug finished our taxes and paid them. Bless you, 8,000 dollars on your journey to the gubbmints.

We didn't do a Toffee walk, probably should have. She seemed like she wanted a get out and go, but Doug showered and took a nap and I futzed in the kitchen. Geoff did the grilling for dinner and made an excellent marinade for us. 

I thought for sure we'd go somewhere, run errands, do something, but it was late before we knew it. 

Maybe tomorrow?

Digits below.

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours Treadmill, 20 min/1.41 mi; yardwork walking, 19min/.48mi. pokemon walk, 10min/.39 mi. 11k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:30am: 103
4:30pm: 154
10pm: 100 

food & meds:

8:30am: jardiance+phentermine
8:30am: 3 girl scout cookies
11:45am: 2 slices of super seeded bread w/pb; met+glip
6:30pm: pork loin and broccoli
7pm: met+glip
8:30pm: popcorn; cheese & crackers
red wine+ginger ale

We made it, Bestie

 My work son is on a very well deserved vacation. I missed him all week. On Fridays, we always message each other with "we made it! WE MADE IT!" 

I said that to Doug this morning and he grumped at me "yeah we still have to make it through today though." 

Wow. Way to take the fun our of a Friday Celebration. Forget I thought of you as my substitute BESTIE!

Can't wait for my boo to come back to work and be on MY wavelength with me. 

I spent the entire day aside from one meeting with a client doing help articles. At the end of the day my manager and I were having a mini-argument over "fake" content vs. "real" content that we have permission to use from one of the clients. 

He thinks I'm going to be silly and write silly fake content, when I know perfectly well how to right serious fake content. Pfffthhhh like I haven't worked here all this time. 

I don't really want to use the client's fake content. 

So my screenshots are in the end perfectly fine and he has no arguments against them. We have one more help article to write and we can't, literally can't, until we have some dev fixes put into place. And then there is this whole new feature that is still to be tested.

By 4:30pm I was basically baked, done, and over it. 

And could then honestly say "We made it, Bestie" to no one but me. 

I chatted with Linda for a bit, did the treadmill, grilled dinner. Talked to my mother for a bit. There's some drama but I'm not going to dredge it. Suffice to say, I thank God for my sister. 

All that said, time to pack it in for the night. I guess it is going to be about 90 on Sunday, tomorrow should be a very nice day but then it's going to turn into the Devil's Bunghole quickly. No spring for us! Just straight into the pit of hot and despair. 

Ugh. 

Digits below.

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours   Treadmill, 25 min/1.62 mi.; 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8am: 112
4:30pm: 102
10pm: 106 

food & meds:

8am: jardiance+phentermine
11:45am: small ramekin of mac & cheese w/hamburger
noon: chicken salad in a bowl; met+glip
6:30pm: 2 chicken fajitas, low carb wraps; white wine
8pm: met+glip