Day 5: the last day in boy town

Hit the ground running this morning with a 9am meeting, so I didn't get to walk to school with a Smol Boi. I did get a lot of steps in without the mile walk, which is nice, but that is something I am going to miss working into the day. The weather was perfect (it was raining a little today but we wouldn't have died from the drops), nice and cool in the high 60s low 70s. Just perfect. Just a lovely week. 

Tonight I thought we'd go out to eat so we went to a spot near their house that Doug and I have been to a few times, but they never had. We had a good meal, I ate low carb but got a gin & tonic (starting my vacation behavior a little early). Smol Boi wanted pizza and I knew this place was reliable for a good pie. 

While we were eating, I asked him if he liked the pizza and he said it is the best pizza he has ever had. His brother laughed and said "well, here in Maryland." Glad to introduce them to good pizza. 

I didn't get a lot of opportunity this week to hang out with the big brother this week.  He was grounded from seeing his girlfriend but was allowed to talk on the phone with her, so, he went to his room every night and talked to her on the phone until 10, and he gets up to leave for school at hella early. 

We talked about D&D, and music. He wants to learn the drums, his girlfriend loves Weezer and he doesn't really but he's been listening to them to try and feel the drums. I told him there is nothing more loving than giving your girlfriend's favorite band your attention.

We talked about true monsters of rock drumming, from John Bonham to Neil Peart, and Charlie Watts. He said he really enjoys jazz and kind of that simmering beat keeping, I told him Charlie Watts is the professor. He should invest some time in watching old Rolling Stones live tour videos, ignore Mick and Keith, and focus on Charlie. 

I also told him to check out Guster and watch Brian play drums. 

Of course I did.

Tonight I thought I'd show him some Brian videos but he's in his bedroom, on the phone, with the girlfriend.

I asked him about the girlfriend while we were at dinner, and if he had pictures. Tons of them. She's adorable, dyes her hair lots of color and has crazy cool fingernails. They make a cute couple. 

After dinner Smol Boi wanted to see my dog. So we came to my house and he patted the dog for a second and started playing with his Nintendo Switch. 

I told him he likes the idea of dog. 

So I snagged a pic of the older one giving Phin all the love and adoration. 

I let the Smol Boi watch tv while I came in here to chat with my sister and write this entry. He fell asleep on the couch sometime after 10:30. I thought about leaving him, but, bed is a great place. So I shuffled him down the hall and got him settled in. I told him how much fun I had this week and how awesome he was. And how I won't see him in the morning because I'll be gone by the time he wakes up, probably.

Tomorrow is going to come very early. I need to be back at the house at 6:30am to finish gathering up my stuff and get in the car to go to the airport. So I'm off to bed. 

But first, the daily numbers: 

Exercise: All over the place, nothing official, but still got over 5k steps in today without the walk. 

Blood Glucose:

8am: 165

1pm: 185

10pm: 160 

midnight: 173

Food: 

Coffee

Water

Seltzer

iced coffee

gin & tonic

2 "Truly" seltzers

2 leftover spicy sausages (11:30am)

leftover cucumber salad (11:30am)

a couple scoops of peanut butter (10am)

One chocolate chip cookie (baked by Geoff last night) (12:45pm

8 buffalo chicken wings caesar salad (with croutons) (6pm)

Gotta say, based on the amount of carbs involved in today's food, those blood sugar readings are surprisingly not horrible?

Day 4: Karate and many smol humans yelling "Ay-YAH!"

 

Oh no. 

At about 9pm last night, I realized Smol Boi has Karate at 4:30pm on Thursdays. 

I asked him if he wanted to go. Smol Boi very much wanted to show me his moves. 

I didn't anticipate this! Last time I babysat he didn't want to go so he didn't tell me he had class until 2 hours after class. This time, I was prepared with knowledge. And last night he showed me the boards he has broken, and some of his stances and those forms the kids do. 

Ohhhhh okay. I guess we're going to karate. 

First thing in the morning, I scrambled to rearrange my afternoon,. I canceled a meeting with a station on something we're trying to fix and I felt bad about it.

 Doug took the jeep to his office for a meeting and I didn't know what time he was going to get back. I was ready to set up what would be a very expensive Uber ride. Just to make a smol boi happy. 

During the day, Doug, Geoff and I chatted and texted and got it all figured out car-wise. Geoff came over here at 4, right when the boys got home from school. We were good to go.

Smol boi came in, and flopped on the couch and said that he didn't want to go to karate. 

Oh no.  Not after some stressful discussions I had with Doug about getting car arrangements taken care of. No. So I convinced him. I told him... well, I was planning to take him to McDonalds after. He brightened up, got his uniform on, and we went. I was so worried we'd get there late. Geoff normally is at the gym by 2 and found that arriving at 4:15 it was super crowded. There were things in his routine he couldn't get to do because of the amount of people there. I felt bad but he was easy going. 

Karate was fun to watch. None of the parents stay, which is so weird because I remember when Jess took karate we all stayed and watched. One boy said really loud that his dad likes to sit in the car and play on his phone. "It's his favorite thing." Oh honey. You should be his favorite thing.

He doesn't really have a lot of muscle tone and he kind of moves through his forms with not a lot of energy, but some focus and earnestness. It was cute.   

They all got to spar, which I honestly don't remember seeing Jess do when they went through this back in the day. It was interesting. The instructors were both women, and they don't mess around. Firm but incredibly kind. One little girl was crying when they lined up for something (she didn't like where she was in the order) and the instructor said "oh honey I'm so sorry we are murdering you but we'll change orders for the next drill. This is a no crying zone unless you're hurt. Which hopefully will never happen." It kind of made me laugh. 

A trip to McDonalds later, and picking up of Geoff, we came back to the house and he settled in to eat his meal. I told him he could eat it in the car, but he said he wanted to wait. 

All told, a good day in Stranded Boys land. No mice caught yet but one came out from under the ottoman and looked at me this afternoon so it's war. So help me, y'all better get snapping, traps!

Tomorrow is our last day. Smol Boi said "I want to do this again sometime."

Heh. a successful week. 

By the numbahs

Exercise: 1 mile walk to school and back

Blood Glucose

8am (fasting since 8pm) 187
2:30pm 168
10pm 155

Food

Coffee
Water
Seltzer
2 eggs with cheddar and a leftover spicy sausage with some hot sauce (10:30am)
handful of nuts
I cannot remember if I made a lunch? The eggs were later than breakfast time food, so I don't think I was hungry and the nuts were doing the trick.
Salad of baby greens and tomatoes, chicken breast, bleu cheese dressing

And for fun, here's a picture of my scrambled eggs and hot sausage mess. I liked the purple plate against the couch cushion.

Day 3: Blueberry Pancakes

 Yesterday's entry was very sad and I'm still very sad. I have a check in with my boss and I'm basically letting him know how deeply unhappy I am right now, there's a lot happening, and I don't feel like our jobs are respected and understood. And he got snippy with me last night during the problems, because I used Slack (his indicator showed he was there) instead of texting him after hours because he doesn't read slack after hours. So I got a lecture about texting him and not using slack, but dude, it said you were on/available. Ugh.

Okay then, very sorry. I made a mistake in protocol. 

But nothing changes, a whole bunch of children are dead, and I'm sick of it all. What the hell is up with this country.

Anyway. I just can't even today.

I didn't mention yesterday that J's house has mice. Last night I got to see them. Walking around like nobody's business. Probably a few and not the same mouse a couple times. She has some super old school mousetraps, and I was terrified of trying to set them and have them snap on me. This morning, I got brave and set two. We'll see if I put them in attractive places. I warned the boys to watch their toes.

I've always loved the quote "it's a hard world for small things," from "Raising Arizona," but small things need to not be in the house with me. 

Smol Boi was up before his 7am alarm clock this morning.

I heard the Pokemon TV show music and smiled, and got out of bed to go down and talk breakfast. 

I brought a box of pancake mix with me to the house last night (to get it out of my house) and asked him if he wanted blueberry pancakes. I showed him the box and he got super excited. I cheffed things up, and added fresh blueberries to the mix. Because that's extra awesome.

He politely ate the pancakes and then told me he didn't like the blueberries. He didn't like them hot like that and cooked. 

Oh. You should have mentioned. 

"I like it like the box has it, with the little blueberries in bits." 

Noted. I offered to make more. I told him that I thought it tasted like a blueberry muffin or blueberry pie when it's like that, with the butter and syrup and all. He shook his head disappointedly. I gave him 3 more non-berried flapjacks and he devoured them.

At least he didn't cry. He sometimes cries when things are not just so. 

For dinner tonight, I decided I would make them a lasagna. They had a box of the pasta and jars of sauce, and I got the cheese and some more sauce. I decided to skip the ricotta because I figured he wouldn't like that. Heck I didn't like ricotta in pasta until college really. 

When I dropped him off at school, I told him about lasagna night and asked him if he liked meat in the sauce, and he said no. Ha. I knew it. 

So I opted to make meatballs for them instead. 

We didn't get our walk in to school today. I mentioned to Smol Boi that we were halfway through the week and seeing mom again on Saturday once we got through today. He stopped on the way down the stairs and said, "oh no. It's media day," and ran back to his room. 

Me: What is media day?
SB: It's when we read and get to do things in the media center.
Me: Oh, like the library? Is this library day?
SB: There is no library at my school, it's the media center.

Aaaah yes. They were in the process of changing some of these things back when my kids were in school. When I was in college, the library was expanded on and renamed the Learning Resource Center. Not just a library anymore. When Jess was in school, it was the library but by the time Geoff got there it had turned into something else, I don't recall but media center sounds like something it may have been called. 

Doug made an amazing cucumber salad and buffalo wings on the grill for us. Worth coming home for considering I can't eat any of the stuff I made for the boys! Well, I did have a couple meatballs because I didn't load them up with panko. Very light, just to hold them together... 

Looking forward to maybe having a mousetrap snap tonight. We'll see.

I've got to go clean up dinner. The boys destroyed the lasagna. Made me feel good.

Digits for the day

Exercise: 

Did not get to do a normal walk because of missing books but may do a loop around the neighborhood when I get back to Stranded Boys.

Blood Glucose

8am 168 (fasting since the night before)
5pm 183 (last food, 1:30pm)
9pm 171

Food:

Coffee
Water
Seltzer
handful blueberries (8:30am)
2 meatballs, homemade, no breadcrumbs, using parmesan cheese (noon) 
mixed unsalted nuts, 2 handfuls (noon)
small plate of rotisserie chicken slices (mostly breast meat) red pepper hummus, mixed together. 
chicken wings, buffalo style; creamy cucumber salad 
2 more meatballs

Day 2: so much pokemon and so much sorrow

Smol Boi and I talk a lot about Pokemon. 

Back when Geoff was Smol Boi, we talked a lot about pokemon. Twenty years later, it's nice to see that Smol Bois are talking about Pokemon. It brings me great joy

This morning on the way to school he was telling me all about how he beat the Nintendo Switch game "Let's Go Eevee." We talked about our favorite Eevee Evolutions (there are 8!) and he asked what Eevees I have in Pokemon Go. He told me that we can battle against each other with my phone and Pokemon Go, and his switch, but I find that somewhat doubtful. 

I told him I'd show him my pokedex after dinner.

I thought about driving him to school today, but opted for the walk. It's cold and dreary but I'll take that over the massive heat we've had recently. It wasn't pouring, and he said he was alright with the walk so we went. 

Tonight, I had kind of a work-related meltdown about a lot of things. A Lot Of Things. 18 (as of this writing) people are dead in Texas after some shit went to a fucking elementary school and murdered over a dozen children. I work in a media org in the digital realm and our coverage didn't work as planned. I got snarky messages from a few end users about it, no one could fix the problem. 

There is some other stuff going on with work that I don't even want to talk about. But I'm frustrated and angry, and I know tomorrow there will be anger (I've turned off my slack notifications, but, I'm on call and I swear if someone calls me tonight I may not be pleasant). 

Tonight, it was going to be about chilling with my buddies. I had gone to the grocery store and got stuff to make lasagna for them tomorrow, so the big brother can just come home and pop it in the oven at 5pm for them after they get back from Soccer. Tonight Smol Boi said he wished he was staying at my house with the dog.  Tonight was supposed to be about playing with that yellow balloon and just bopping it back and forth and laughing when it hit the ceiling fan. Tonight, I had plans to finish a powerpoint after Smol Boi went to bed. 

Tonight was supposed to be a lot of things, but not me being angry about work and mad at the "pro life" state of Texas. And guns. And Fucking Ted Fucking Cruz and his "fervent prayers" for the families of the victims while the NRA coats his filthy pockets with their lucre. 

But everything is broken and sad.

Here's a picture of a bedroom. I stood outside in the hallway and kind of cried.

Smol Boi is in there nestled in his bed. He has his pandora stream playing. Katy Perry is caterwauling about fireworks. 

He is home, safe and happy. He got up this morning, ate scrambled eggs that I made for him, picked out a pokemon t-shirt to wear and I told him it was great. He was so proud. And he'll get up tomorrow to do it again. And I'll be here to shepherd him.

While I quietly fought with all the broken digital technology tonight, and sent multiple messages back and forth for over two hours, and things were all in all a shit show, I still managed keep my demeanor. I smiled, and  batted the balloon, and then showed him how to check my pokedex on my phone and catch pokemon. 

It kept him busy while I furiously typed and quietly fumed and fought back the urge to just scream and throw my laptop on the floor.

He was enthralled with the fact they were here in his house (I have bad news my little dude ,,, so are some mice! But I'll deal with that tomorrow). 

He headed to bed and I asked him to brush his teeth (he did) and I said "I love you."

He answered, "I will!" 

And there are families in Texas tonight who won't have that. 

There are families in Sandy Hook who had that taken away years ago and nothing changed since then. There are children and grandchildren in Buffalo and in Southern California who lost their grownups. They lost their rudders for their little ships. 

This is a sad and broken country. 

Anyway - the digits.

Exercise: 

Mile walk to/from school

Blood Glucose:
9am: 196
12:30pm (1/2 hour before lunch) 188
11pm: 168 (basically fasting 6 hrs)

Food:

coffee
water
iced coffee
slice of turkey (on the run out the door) - 12:30pm
handful of mixed nuts - 12:30pm
bowl of yogurt & berries - 2:30pm
piece of steak, asparagus spears - 5pm

Day 1: Stranded Boys Land

I got to my friend's house at about 6:30 Sunday night, waiting out the giant violent thunderstorm we had.  I took an Uber because Geoff had taken the car earlier that day to a show in Baltimore. I could have had him drop me off before he left for the show, but felt it was too early. 

I wanted to give them some elbow room without mom.  And as I suspected, the boys were alright. 

I got there and Older brother was on his computer downstairs, Smol Boi was on the couch watching video game playthroughs. He knows every character from so many cross over games, and "multi-verse" games, like The Iron Giant, but he's never seen the movie or some TV shows. 

I told him maybe this week we'll watch the Iron Giant. You should know the real story about Iron Giant. He is not a gun. He is not meant to fight. He should not be in any of these games fighting other characters. 

It kind of makes me mad. I mean. I'm watching Charizard fight Avatar the last airbender... Wario vs. Mickey Mouse? The heck? 

I'm so relieved these videos didn't exist when my kids were little. It's one thing to play a game and another to watch these weirdo people who think they are hilarious (but they are not really) play it, sped up and slowed down set to anime music. And they're screaming. A lot.

Bad picture here, but I don't even know why we'd cross over these characters. And that tree is astonished. 

So am I. 

He's allowed to watch these until 8:30pm, and when he goes to bed he can't watch videos, but he can listen to a podcast or music. 

Anyway, last night everyone went to bed, and I was in the guest room roasting to death. Absolutely unable to get comfy. So I picked up and went to the living room - where there is a ceiling fan and a giant (not kidding) vent for the AC to come through. Finally, I managed to fall asleep around 1. 

The big brother is supposed to get up for school at 5:45, and leave the house at 6:15 to walk to the bus stop.  When they moved to the house they are in here, he wanted to go to the high school closer to their old house. To be with his friends, instead of the high school literally behind the house. After much discussion and the benefits of sticking with your friends, Mom said alright but he would have to commit to this bus thing and get to the bus stop on time. 

I woke up at 6:45 thinking wow, he was so quiet when he got up! He got breakfast, got out the door... silently! 

I got up to go to the bathroom and noticed his door was still closed and thought to myself, oh no. 

I tapped on the door, opened it, and he sat up in bed. Yuuuuup. Overslept. So he got dressed and ready, I made him some scrambled eggs and cheese, and he got an Uber at 7:15. 

Thought about going back to sleep for a while, but Smol Boi came out. And he's allowed to watch TV before school. As long as it is a TV show and not the ridiculous videos of guys playing video games and screaming through them. 

We watched Steven Universe, and I forgot how much I loved that show. He made himself breakfast, followed the house rules of eating at the table, and we left to walk to school on time. 

My workday was busy and complicated, but because I was alone in the house it was weird to not have a little dog next to me. Or hear Doug's laugh downstairs. Or have Geoff come and unload the dishwasher while I'm trying to hold a meeting. It was so quiet and weird.

I came home at lunchtime to go to the dentist. I had a procedure done where he put composite on my top teeth where the gum line has receded too far, instead of doing the thing where they pull from the roof of your mouth and it is super incredibly painful and horrible. He said this could buy me some time. But I'll probably need that done someday. Ugh.

It was an unpleasant experience. 14/10 do not recommend. But I survived. I don't want to do that again. Or the worse thing. I've always taken great care of my teeth, so this is disappointing that we're here at this junction. Boo. 

Anyway. This just happened:

Smol Boi goes and gets a packet of fruit snacks from cabinet.
Me: Why are you getting those? You have to go to bed in 15 minutes.
SB: I'm still hungry.
Me: Well, okay. But you have to brush your teeth. You can have that if you promise me you will brush your teeth.
SB gets off couch to run to bathroom.... to brush his teeth.
Me: No! After the snack! Before bed! you can't brush your teeth and then eat the fruit snacks! Then you have to brush your teeth again!
SB Laughing hysterically, comes running back to couch. 

So silly.

Exercise: 

Walk to the Smol Boi School & back, over 1 mile round trip.
Walk to the dentist, about a mile total.
It's a good day for walking.

Blood Glucose

9am: 206 and i don't know why that is so damn high! We had a walk! We had zero carb brekkie! What is this bullshit!
1:30pm 160 (about 1/2 hour after lunch, better?)
5:30pm 182
9:30pm 196

This was not a good day for blood

Food:

Coffee, with almond milk, which i did not enjoy (it's all J had in the house)
ice coffee
3 eggs scrambled with red onion and pepper jack cheese
Bowl of yogurt with blueberries
Some cauliflower/sausage/tomato recipe Doug found in a cookbook that looked good to him and it was good. very good. 

Stranded Boys Redux

In case you don't remember who the stranded boys are, here's the first entry. When Doug referred to J's kids as "the stranded boys," my friend Dave thought they were a local band that we were going to see. 

Hilarious.

My friend J, mom of the Stranded Boys, once again finds her family unreliable.

She is going to her first conference in 3 or 4 years, she is presenting, nervous, anxious and almost bailed. But she decided to go. Her cousin (who lives locally) agreed to stay with the boys for a week. She then flaked "ohhhhhh, it's that week? oh no i can't. sorry." 

Sorry.

She reached out to me to ask if I'd just sleep at the house and walk the Smol Boi to school. Her oldest is really good and responsible, he could do this by himself if it wasn't a school week. The only thing I'll miss here, really, on the overnight is watching hockey with Doug. 

The good thing is I'll get a mile walk daily taking Smol Boy to school. And if I want, I can pass the house, turn right, turn right, turn right again and add another half mile. I don't have to pick him up, the Big One does that, he walks him home from school. They do their homework, they will have dinner, and I can come around 7. 

Smol goes to bed at 8:30 and he's allowed to watch a videos on his iPad until 9. Screens off. Big polices himself, he'll go to bed when he's tired. 

Friday night I'm thinking I'll take them out for pizza somewhere, and they can come back here so Smol can see the dog he loves so much. Big may have a date with his new girlfriend, we'll see what happens. Maybe I'll ask her if she wants to come. 

I'll pack and get organized during the week  (Doug will have done the laundry and everything). I'll bring them home, sleep there, and get up at 6am to come here and we'll go to the airport. 

J flies home that afternoon. While we land in New Orleans. Geoff will be home in case of emergency. It'll all work out fine. 

She was going to get someone from Care dot com or something similar to come to the house, and I told her that was insane. She hasn't made good friends that she'd ask to do this, and to be honest if I was in a similar situation I'm lucky I have my friend Sara. Sara's got her own 6 year old though so I couldn't imagine asking someone to come to the house and stay. 

Very happy I'm here and unencumbered so I can help. Doug and I have talked about when our lease is up, if they don't renew, where will we go. He's mentioned Virginia a couple of times to me and I have to be honest I'm not into that idea. Geoff will be going to school in Springfield, so we could move there to the west or south maybe find something affordable but it might put us 2 hours away from The Stranded Boys in case of emergency and that'd be sad. 

So, time with the Stranded Boys, we're getting the band back together!

Exercise: Still brutally hot, at the time of this writing, nothing.

Blood Glucose:

10am: 154
3:30pm: 162
11pm: 195

Food:

Coffee
Water
Iced Coffee
3 wraps: 2 pieces of bacon chopped up, 6 slices of turkey (thin sliced) wrapped romaine lettuce with a schmear of mayo
small bowl of yogurt and raspberries
several slices of boneless pork loin with spicy seasoning on a salad with feta and caesar dressing

Good morning, Farmer Chris

 This morning Doug woke up at about 7. Typical for Doug on a weekend. Hates getting up for work, up super early on the weekend. 

He normally comes out to the living room while my snoozes continue. I am rarely up before him. He then  charges his phone while playing games or reading Reddit or whatever. Around 7:30 and could hear the dog barking. It was annoying the hell out of me. Doug will let him bark and just sit here in the living room and ignore him. But that early, I don't accept that. Get your damn dog in the house when he's barking. 

I yelled out "Go get the dog!" and he didn't answer. So I got up, went to the bathroom, put shorts on, discovered he was not here in the living room per usual. So I whipped the front door open and he was sitting on the porch, drinking coffee, playing with his phone. While the dog was barking at the mailman, about 10 feet from him.

So they both looked at me like "whut." 

I went to get a cup of coffee, Doug came in for a refill. I said we should water the garden since it hasn't rained. 

"Knock yourself out," he says. 

So Farmer Chris went out to do the duties. I cut down some pokeweeds that he left on the fence (because they looked cool but I hate them). I watered the 3 garden beds. The tomatoes and peppers are looking good, and thankfully no birds or small animals have decided to eat and uproot our peppers (yet) like last year. Waiting for the tomatoes to get just a little taller before we cage them up. Watered the places where I put the morning glory and cosmos seeds, and noted that in less than a week I see that they are totally poking up and on their way. Excellent work, lil friends! I have some spots that I want to put more cosmos seeds but it is hot as blazes out there right now. 

I'll wait. 

Pulled the hose round back and watered the herbs. My dill looks a little bad in spots, and I noticed that maybe I didn't put enough dirt in the pot around the plant so I got some more from the shed and bolstered the soil. Everyone else is looking good. Watered the petunias and vinca and marigold pots. The marigold looks unwell, so I hope the water will help it. 

Doug (because he's an expert) has told me in the past that you don't water in the middle of the afternoon because that'll kind of bake/steam the plants in the heat. And you don't water in the evening because then the water just sits there and the plants can get mold. 

So you have to water in the morning. I asked him well, what about when it rains in the middle of the day or at night. What's the difference. He had no answer. I think he's working off some sort of old Western Pennsylvania Dutch/German wankery.

But baby, let me tell ya. I watered this morning. 

I finished up, got my coffee and sat out on the patio. Doug brought me breakfast (omelet with blistered grape tomatoes and feta cheese). It was lovely. Birdsong, breakfast, coffee, relaxation. Then it got too damn hot. 

Inside is much nicer. Heaven thank you, dear God bless you for AC. 

I've spent the better part of the day booking hotels for two trips. We're going to Massachusetts in June for a couple days, and my bestie is hosting us for 2 nights. Then we're spending a night in a hotel near where we used to live, and then to my parents' and the hotel near them. Then head home in one fell swoop and it'll be a Sunday in the Summer and I'm sure it is going to be The Suck travel wise. We will regret it, I'm sure.

I'm absolutely excited to see my friend. And oh yeah, my kid and parents. Whatever sure. 

Here is a picture of morning glory sprouts. They have a very unique almost "butterfly" look. I planted just a few at the fence posts but this is more than a few. And I'm spotting them in places I didn't plant them, so I wonder if they dropped seed from last year where the vines grew. And now I'm going to have billions of vines? We shall see!

 

Exercise: the gardening this morning was enough. My back was hating me pretty bad by the time I was done. 

Blood Glucose:

8:30am 147
3:30pm 141
9pm 157

Food:

Coffee
Iced Coffee
Water
Omelet with feta and tomatoes (and fresh thyme from our garden. Fancy)
6 slices of deli turkey, leftover coleslaw, about 5 oz sharp cheddar cheese
1.5 chicken breasts kind of done cordon bleu style by doug, with ham and gouda inside. roasted grape tomatoes and large salad

Chili

Tonight, sadly, I'm slightly irritated. Doug made chili for dinner and he does this thing where he does not drain the meat to get the grease out of the frying pan. He says "oh it's not that much.

Narrator voice: Doug was wrong It was that much. 

I almost gagged, and used paper towel to absorb as much of the grease as I could before sitting to eat. He kept saying "oh it's yummy!" and I was trying my best not to to utter "shut up, you know it is not." 

I didn't eat much overall today. I was going to make chicken salad, but it was busy all day and then we had a small emergency to deal with and so I couldn't just prep that for tomorrow. 

Meh. 

This afternoon I found my fitbit that I'd lost while making the guest bed a few months ago. I'd been thinking of buying a new one, but ta-daaa. I didn't realize that it had popped off my wrist and slid under the bed. I had given up on finding it, and recognized that mostly I was obsessed with tracking how much sleep I get, not so much how much walking I did. But now I have it and it's charged up so I can be equally obsessed about steps and blood sugar I guess. 

Here's the update

Exercise: none. It's also 900 degrees so I stayed inside.

Blood Glucose:

8:30am 141
11:45am 177
3pm 155
9pm 162

Food:

Coffee
iced coffee
Water
yogurt & berries
bowl of chili
small bowl of almonds

Super busy day and some Coleslaw

Busy day today. One of my colleagues scheduled a meeting (I asked him to!) and he set it up for 9am (I did not ask for that). 

I am not a morning person. I'm barely conscious at 9am. 

I usually wake up at 8:45, do email, slack, team check in, shower after 10. But today was all meetings right out of the gate.

Today I was up at 8, showered, dressed, ready. I did the call and got the impression I was the only one awake. No questions, and a little bit of the mid distant stares from the folks on the call. Then I had a 10. Another at 10:30. An11 that was supposed to be a half hour and turned into 90 minutes because there was a lot to go over. A lot. 

I took a short break but it wasn't long enough to make something and eat it before my 1pm. And then 2pm arrived, a full hour break. And I had lunch. Finally. 

I was starting to get headachey from all the coffee and talking and the 90 minutes of arguing about QA testing. I had wanted to make chicken salad, but it was too late. I was too lazy to make tuna salad. And nothing else in the fridge looked or sounded good. I found 3 sausage patties in the freezer, whipped up 2 eggs, found some leftover chili, shredded some cheese. 

And in 10 minutes there was a giant beautiful egg thing on a plate in front of me. 

I spent a great deal of time talking to my sister tonight about our trip in August, we are spending a ton of money on hotels. More than I can let Doug know, to be honest. Have to figure out something affordable for the Monday night we are in Boston. Linda has big dreams of ocean views and harbor walks. And those hotels are a 700 bucks a night so I chuckled at her. I'll find something, but. ha. Hahahahha. No.

Alright. Ready for bed. The dog is telling me he is ready. I'll listen.

Exercise: Short pokemon walk about a little more than a half mile.

Blood Glucose:

9am: 154
4pm: 134
10pm: 180

Food:

Coffee
Water
3 freezer burned sausage patties, 2 egg omelet, pepper jack cheese covered in leftover chili. 
handful of pepitas
handful of cashews
Salmon with butter, lemon, dill, parsley, scallions and coleslaw with homemade dressing (slaw package, mayo, lemon, apple cider vinegar, salt & pepper, keto sweetener)
Very large iced coffee, and I admit it, with some spiced rum in it. (mostly ice, some coffee, milk, sucralose, and then... rum) 

A note on the coleslaw tonight: Doug has always basically made us some homemade dressing with mayo, lemon, salt and pepper. But I always felt it was missing something. It just didn't taste right. Too mayo-ey, not bitey enough. 

So I went to the internet (to the internet!) for a recipe and found this one. I substituted the giant amount of real sugar with 1/3 the amount of sucralose. And it tastes pretty damn good. Waiting for him to get home and pass judgement. He went for a walk, I didn't - I (again) was (and still am!) working. Lots to do and finish today before it is tonight!

Walking Night

Doug always asks me if I want to go for a walk, and 99% of the time I say no. 

He goes out usually around 4 to 4:30, and I'm still working, usually to 5:30. So he goes without me. I start dinner while he's out so it's ready by the time he gets back. Tonight he grilled dinner, and it was great. At around 7 he decided it was a good night to go for a walk, and I had no excuses. 

Well, I could have backed out. 

My butt still hurts but, my knees feel great. He said we'd take it easy and not go on one of his monster walks. I took it slow, and, we even took the dog. So yes. Let's go.

Phineas is really bad when we walk. He doesn't go on a walk, he goes on a sniff. He wants to sniff things ever 3 inches. And we have to kind of drag him along and keep him from sniffing all the things. 

When Doug has been going for walks, he goes for an hour, and he walks fast. I don't. My favorite walk is up the street to the pokégym, and back down the street, past our house, to the other pokégym. And that's it. He'll go on 2, 3, 4 mile walks. I can tolerate a mile. 

Mostly, I get bored when I'm out walking. Even with Doug, even with the dog. Tonight, Phin did super well on the walk, he did more walking than sniffing. I think it has been a while since he's been on a good walk. We walked down the street to the pokéstop, turned right to the elementary school, through the trail in the woods to the street that comes back to our house. I mapped it out, it is almost exactly 1 mile for the loop so that's a goodly journey. 

The weather today was amazing. A perfect day.  

Anyway. It was a good walk and we had a nice time. Phin is sore, I can tell, and I know how he feels. He was dragging his back legs on the last leg of the trip. I could hear his nails against the sidewalk. So that worried me a little. But he hasn't had any exercise for over 2 weeks. So, again, I know how he feels. He's out cold right now. And I can't wait to be joining him.   

And oh - the Tramadol was such a blessing last night. Slept incredibly well all the way to 5:30am. I woke up before the dog. Which is unheard of in this house.

Exercise: 

A mile walk.

Blood Glucose:

9am: 159
4pm: 131
9:30pm: 151

Food:

Coffee
Water
The Big Salad. Bacon, avocado, red onion, tomatoes, romaine, mayo, salt, pepper.
A country style pork rib, grilled. Green beans with mushrooms, 1/2 avocado

211

Hopefully tonight I'll get a good night's sleep, maybe. 

Last night was not cool. I tossed and turned, and of course, trying to turn is incredibly painful. At 3am I thought I might just be up for the day but I headed to the guest room with my phone to tune into the Lore podcast. We've been listening to Lore forever, mostly when we go to bed. I miss a lot because I fall asleep, so I go back and relisten to episodes.  I've listened to some episodes dozens of times already and it never bothers me. Aaron Mahnke's voice and Chad Lawson's piano playing are very soothing. 

I usually get through one 30 minute episode fully and am asleep, then I wake up in a whole new episode wondering how I made it from here to there. How did I make it from an episode about the underground buildings in Glasgow to Salem Witches? Time and topic travel!

The dog came and woke me up at 4:45 because he needed help answering the call of nature. I also needed to pee, so we both took care of the needs. He wakes me up instead of Doug because either Doug is just so good at not hearing him, or Doug on purpose does not respond. 

It was too early to feed him (never before 5:30 am, sorry dude). He paced and whined and eventually gave up, and went back to bed with Doug. I listened to some more Lore, fell back asleep. Woke up when the trash truck came down the street. Tuesday is trash day. They always arrive 10-15 minutes before my alarm. Always disappointing. 

I started work at 8:30, realized I had a 10 and 10:30 meeting, and hadn't showered so I let myself just look crummy on camera for both, and survived. 

At lunch, I ran over to the pharmacy to pick up my prescription. My doctor usually would send it via mail, but, I think you can't mail Tramadol. While there, she had said to swing up to the office and she'd look at my backend. But she wasn't in, sadly. 

I asked to use the scale, as the one I have in my bathroom is in my opinion a liar. I weighed myself before heading over and it said 222. I knew that was not the case, because at the Orthopaedist I was about 214. 

The guy at the desk let me in and I headed to my favorite digital scale. 

211.8 with clothes on, so I'll call that a solid 211. They usually take 2 pounds off for clothing but I don't think the clothes I had on weigh more than that pound-ish there. 

Making downward progress. On the way to 199. 

The digits! 

Blood Glucose:

8:45am 164
5 pm 150
9:30 pm 159

Food:

Coffee
Seltzer
water
Yogurt with blueberries 
small peppers and celery filled with spinach/artichoke dip, like little hors d'oeuvres. I thought Doug would like them but I guess I get more tomorrow! (He passed)
Grilled chicken wings in spicy buffalo sauce, bleu cheese, celery. Really good.

I was wondering if maybe the elevation of my blood sugar is related to the snacky snacks of cashews after dinner? I did not have any snacks because I was busy paying attention to making a huge slide deck. So no need to munch much. The other nights were hockey game related and I was nervous and ate a lot of nuts. 

Cashews, according to the internet, are very good for me and all my ailments. So that's not the issue. 

Gotta keep pondering. 

 

A Case of the Mondays

I would have called out today if I didn't have two important meetings. The good thing about working from home is I can take a break in the middle of the day if I'm feeling really ill. The bad part is I never truly get a full sick day of recovery from whatever ails me. 

Unless I'm really sick. Then I will shut down. But honestly, there's nothing wrong with my brain, just my butt. And luckily I do not use my butt for work. 

I really was not feeling like getting into things today. Ramping up to work is hard for me sometimes and I can say that I'd much rather be horizontal and resting, but there's stuff happening. Luckily for me, I have a team, and I can turn to them to help out with things when I am feeling exceptionally blah. 

I ended up taking a huge nap, asked my colleague to handle my incoming tickets and a small emergency that rose up around 4pm, which was good. Again. Nice to have a team. Now I'm finishing some tickets and I'm done for the day. whew. 

My doctor emailed me back, she put in a prescription for Tramadol for me but it was unclear if they would be at the pharmacy or mail order. So I am slightly confused. Will email her back now... let's see where they are!

Blood Glucose:

8:45am 144
3:30pm 153
10pm 196 (grrrrr)

Food:

Coffee
Water
Seltzer
Big bowl of yogurt & blueberries/strawberries
steak and salad just like last night 
cashews

More Gardening Tales from Farmer Chris

I didn't take any pictures because what I did isn't picture worthy. 

Doug used the weed whacker to clear the edges of the chain link fence. Finally. 

Last year in June I planted morning glories on the fence, and it took a while for them to grow up but I left for Colorado for the Guster show and while I was gone, they went bananas. They were gorgeous through October. No one else in the neighborhood had them. No one has lilacs either. I wish we had a lilac.

We're doing morning glories again this year on the fence, just not right up on the gate. In September every morning I'd have to come out and rethread the growth away from the gate so we could open it. 

It was beautiful, but I really wanted to be able to get in the house.

So today, I dug holes, planted seeds, moved down the fence avoiding the gate. We have a corner lot, and last year I planted a ton of morning glories down there and transplanted some cosmos, which did very well being spaced out from the garden plot we started them in. It was too crowded and thinning them out was a great thing. This year, the plot is full of peppers, so I'm just doing the morning glories on this corner. 

I am super sore,  Sore top to bottom. Especially bottom. I have more spots I want to put cosmos, like up in front by the gate. And more spots for morning glories. 

Just not today. I took a hot shower and a bunch of Tylenol.  I told Doug I don't know why I did things yesterday and today feeling like I do. For spite? 

Last night, I saw that someone was selling a desk chair on nextdoor, so I reached out and bought it. They texted me after I was done gardening so I went over after my shower. Such sweet people. I explained that I probably wouldn't be able to pick it up because my butt hurt (I explained the stair fall) and the husband loaded it up for me. 

It is in the back of the jeep, waiting for someone (not me!) to bring it in tomorrow. 

Doug bought himself a desk chair about a year ago, kind of an old fashioned looking one, reminiscent of office days gone by. He's sat the ass out of it, it kind of is slumping in the middle, so he may end up with this one if he likes it. I have not been working downstairs because I've been sitting on a kitchen chair and it hurts my ass after a few hours. I've been happily sitting on the couch here with a lap desk, and I only go down there when I need to use two monitors. Which is rare since February. I can always ask for my desk chair from my office but I just haven't gotten to it. I'd rather not. If I ever do go back for any reason, I'd like for it to be there. So I don't have to steal one from another desk. 

Part of me is thinking about the office. The other part of me knows that I wouldn't be able to go back feeling like I do now. For sure.

Alright. The reason for blogging lately. The daily digits!

Blood Glucose: 

10:30am 155
6pm: 171
9:45pm: 153 

Food:

10am to noon - Coffee
Through the day: water
7pm onward Seltzers (splash of vodka in each one of them hoping to help with the butt pain. Jury is still out on whether it is helping)

12pm yogurt & berries
3pm big bowl of chicken salad
7pm steak & baby greens and tomato salad with bleu cheese dressing

The (sort of) return of Farmer Chris

Today was supposed to be a powerfully victorious return to the garden. It almost wasn't. Forecast was for rain, and my back and bum hurt a lot. 

It's also damp and chilly out. It is mid-May and still not 900 degrees (which for DC is wild and crazy). I had Geoff go out midweek to our 3 garden plots to turn them and weed them (he did a half-assed job but it is more than half of what I needed done and now I/we don't have to do it, so there's that). 

Doug and I went to the little garden center on the roadside in Kensington. I think it used to be a gas station, but for the past couple of years, there's been a proposed demolition of the existing building to put up some sort of something. A small local farm has been using the lot and building as a roadside stand and has grown the business over the last 5 summers we've been here. 

Their selection is decent, better than the big box stores, and the employees are super nice. But compared to years past, the plants looked beat. The weather is probably a huge factor, as it has been cold and dreary this spring. We will probably go straight from the 60s all the way to 90, the way weather works. 

Shopping was difficult because of how painful my back and butt are, but we picked out all the things we needed and got home. The rain was holding off, so I set up in the backyard and Doug went to do the veggies in the beds that Geoff turned for us. 

He got the tomatoes, peppers, and the seeds in for the sunflowers. Last year a bird came and pulled all of our peppers out of the ground which sucked, so we're probably going to go grab some netting and cover things up. Hopefully before the stupid birds get grabby. 

Also, Phineas is a cherry tomato fan and eats them right off of the vine so this year we'll want to protect them from him. He's a monster. 

Here are some pictures. 

Up top is some dill. I've been using a lot of dried dill in recipes lately so we got a little container. The middle picture is chives in front, and marigolds which were supposed to go up in a pot on the front porch but I opted to pop them into this purple-ish pot. Last is the petunias and vinca vines. The vinca should grow down from the pot and the petunias will hopefully expand and thrive. 

All of the pots came from Doug's Aunt's house, in part of cleaning up we also did some work in the yard and I asked her for some of the multitude of pots. She was very selective, there were some I really wanted but she didn't want to part with them. Okay sure, fine, they're yours. Maybe you'll put something in one of these nice pots someday. Maybe not. But the five we were able to take will be very happy here. 

It felt good to be out there, working and digging and filling pots. I was a little jealous that Doug had the garden plots to work on but to be honest, very happy I didn't have to do it. I don't think I could. I sat on the steps and used one of the small tables, which was the perfect height. I was able to move things all around to the left and right with minimal pivoting, and the step was the perfect height for me to be able to get up and stand if I needed. 

We got the hose out, and I watered the veggie plots and sunflower seeds, then came around back and hosed down the table that I got super dirty, watered all the plants in the pots. Dill and Chive joined their friends on the stairs, the overwintered Oregano, Parsley, Thyme, and Mint. And the petunia pots and marigolds went on the corner of the patio. 

Doug had found a metal plant stand in someone's trash a few weeks ago. We discussed spray painting it but I liked it rusty and rustic. Depending on how the vinca does on the one down low, I may need to put it up on something too, but for now it is on the ground. The marigolds may go on a little wicker table that Doug also found on the side of the road for trash day, and that's one we'll get a spray paint coat on and liven it up.

Ignore all the weeds and stuff behind the flowers there. Weeds and ground cover just take over everywhere around here, and it is super hard to keep up with. Part of my project is to weed all around there, but, I'll do it and a week later it will look like I've done nothing. Maybe best to just leave things go and let nature do it's junk. 

After cleaning up everything I sat down to rest for a few, and the rain started up. It was supposed to rain all day, so we were happy and lucky to have the reprieve to get this all done today. I anticipated we'd get things bought and they'd be sitting out until the next dry day. Which may not be until Monday.

I forgot to take a picture of the herbs so I'll save that for tomorrow. You'll have something to look forward to.

Alright, the digits.

Exercise:

Dude, just moving around was effort today. And the gardening was work.

Blood Glucose

10:30am: 166
4 pm: 161
9:30pm 163 (better than the wild highs of the past couple nights...)

Food:

Coffee
Water
Seltzer
sugar free iced tea (crystal light Peach)
Leftover cheeseburger with bleu cheese dressing & 7 grape tomatoes
2 bratwursts, a burger, cucumber salad with goat cheese (no buns) 6 grape tomatoes
Cashews

The right side of the bed

My trepidation about not being able to sleep last night due to the pain from falling down the stairs was unfounded. Thanks lone tramadol pill from a few years ago, and thanks sleeping on my side. I think I rolled over at least once, I know the blankets were pulled up on me at some point but I don't recall doing either. 

Around 6am I woke up and thought that Doug's cpap mask had slipped off his face, there was a loud roaring noise. This happens sometimes, and I nudge him and ask him to fix it. Sometimes that wakes him up fully, and then he's awake awake and goes to the guest room, so I woke up enough to listen. Phin was looking out the window, at the absolute pouring down rain. Ah. There's the answer! 

I got up to go to the bathroom, Phin followed and also had to go. I opened the door for him and there was reluctance but he went. The call of nature. 

He came back in, I attempted to dry him off but he was only interested in breakfast. I took some acetaminophen and grabbed my phone, headed to the guest room. 

When either of us wake up in the small hours, we have a tendency to go to the guest room. Rather than futz around with our phones and possibly wake the other up. Sometimes both of us are awake, but one gets up and takes the walk to the other room. Doug usually has a podcast on as we go to sleep and a timer that stops things after the episode. I don't mind if he turns it back on, even if I'm asleep but especially if I'm already awake. I'd like to listen to the next episode. But he still goes in the other room. 

The guest bed is an IKEA bed and mattress. The mattress is decidedly much better than the one we have on our bed. So I usually get my best sleep on that thing. Our mattress is 20 yrs old at this point, but the issue really is the boxspring. There are 2 twin boxsprings under the bed, because when we lived in the brown house, we couldn't get the box spring up the stairs - it was too big for our colonial house. 

The wood on the boxsprings is creaky so when you roll over it sounds horrible. I can roll over and wake him up. I get out of bed, and wake him up not from the bed moving, but the noise. 

The guest bed is quiet and lovely. The way a bed should be. 

Because there are two boxsprings under the mattress, there's kind of a ridge in the center. The mattress has gotten squished, but the center and its supporting wood frame are kind of up in the air. 

We're shopping for a new bed and having discussions. Doug would like a king sized bed, but we have a queen frame currently - it is part of a set. It looks good this way, with the bureaus and all. He's not married to the idea of maintaining the set just because it is a set. When Brodie was a puppy, she chewed on the footboard (I may have an entry on that....) so it's damaged. I keep my towel draped over the footboard, so we never see it. 

I'm concerned about getting a king sized bed if we have to move at some point. The queen bed barely fit in the bedroom of our last house. It fits wonderfully in the bedroom in this house - but what if we move again, and end up with a bedroom where basically the bed is the only thing that fits in there. It would suck. What, do we keep our bureaus and clothing all in the guest room and treat that as kind of a closet with a bed in it? 

Anyway, it is time for the new bed. We'll see what happens. There are a lot of products out there...

I think it is supposed to rain all weekend, which is okay. I could deal with some no-outside stuff, maybe if I can move better (the butt, it hurts) I can clean my room. Prepare for the possibility of a new bed in my future.

Exercise:

Blood Glucose

9:30am: 166
3pm: 131
9:30pm: 191 (again, seriously why so high?)

Food:

Coffee
Water
Seltzer
Leftover frittata (egg, cheddar, goat cheese, onion, parsley)
large spinach salad with tomatoes and caesar dressing, shaved beef, cheese, peppers (cheesesteak without the roll)

When I Fall

This morning, I slipped on the carpeted stairs and wiped the motherfuck out. 

I was barefoot, so it was not a socks problem. I deliberately do not carry laundry down the stairs because this is actually a big fear for me, falling down the stairs and really getting hurt. Thankfully Geoff takes the laundry down. Doug told me he's wiped out a couple times too. 

So note to selves... slow down and take it easy.

I was somewhat rushing down to ask Doug a question and was pissed because he had earbuds in, and does not answer texts or his personal email when he's working. So I was in a touch of a huff when I wiped out. Landed square on my ass and my yoga pants helped me slide down 5 more steps until I got to the almost bottom. I sat there for a while, Doug made sure I was okay and I pulled myself up, schlepped upstairs. 

My ass hurts so much. I feel like I probably won't be able to sleep tonight. I found one lone Tramadol in a bottle buried in the back of my bureau (thank you, past me) I wish I also had sleeping pills. Or something. 

During work, I got up and moved around a lot, probably should have set up a standing desk for myself instead of sitting. 

Getting off the couch is a huge challenge. I'm really annoyed because after the cortisone shot, my knees are finally feeling amazing but now my rump is screaming. This better go away fast. 

I will check in tomorrow with updates and I will ask Doug if it is bruised. It probably isn't. The hidden horrible pain of my butt. And no, no pictures of any bruising, cause no one needs to see my bum. 

Here's a picture of Phineas instead. He was mad at me and wouldn't make eye contact or look at the camera. I wouldn't share my chicken salad with him, it had onion in it, and that can really hurt a dog. But of course, he doesn't know that I'm saving him from dying. 

The digits.

Exercise:
Pokemon walk (short one because mah butt hurts)

Blood Glucose:
8am: 166
10pm: 188 (seriously, how's this supposed to work. So low carb today and a walk to burn some sugars. How come body, how come?) 

Food:
Coffee
Seltzer
Water
cup of cashews
Greek yogurt with blueberries and toasted slivered almonds
Cup of chicken salad
1 cheeseburger on top of a large salad with chipotle caesar salad dressing

Ants

(Should have been posted on 5/11 but I forgot) 

We have ants in the house. 

Not big ants, but wee tiny ones. Last summer we had some, but this year it is stupid crazy. 

They are mostly in the kitchen but I've found them in the bathroom and in my bedroom. I'm not completely freaked out by it. I don't like it, because they're just ants. 

And, I have a carnivorous plant garden.

So you can do the math on that. 

Christine spends time every day with a toothpick and a kitchen knife, forcing the ants with the toothpick onto the knife, and then scraping them into the plants. 

I feel like a monster in some ways, like how fair is this of some giant hulking beast to scrape up these dudes and feed them to a plant that eats bugs! 

Shouldn't the plant know how to feed itself! How would I feel if someone 6000x my size (at least) was grabbing me and putting me into another living creature so I can be eaten. It boggles the mind. But there I am, every day, scraping ants.

I put the plant garden out on the porch one very nice sunny day and some birds attacked it, pulled up at one of them (I can't remember the name) and uprooted it onto the sidewalk. Fuckers. 

So I repotted things and this little guy is still living, not sure how, most of it is dead but there are two parts that seem to be doing fine. The sundew is doing great, the one I accidentally plopped head down into the soil when I was planting it. The flytrap isn't doing as well but had a big growth come up out of it that didn't turn into anything. 

I'm hoping the diet of ants will keep all 3 of them alive. I want to put the little plant collection back outside now that it is nicer and warmer but feel like I need to sit with it and protect it at all costs. 

Birds, I want to love you, but you make it hard what with your waking up at 3:45 am and making all kinds of noise and your plant obliterations.

Exercise: 

Short Pokemon procurement walk. 

Blood Glucose:

8am: 155
12pm: 151
10 pm:188*

*I really am not sure I get how all this works. I spent a relatively super low carb day and didn't expect a spike to 188?

Food: 

Coffee
Water
Romaine & chicken salad
Chicken Parm 

Hmmm. Here's a thought. I checked the label of the sauce Geoff bought, my favorite Classico.  Noting it is higher in carbs and added sugar I would have liked, I figured the flour dredge and bread crumbs we use on the chicken was negligible, wouldn't matter much, but now I'm really pondering the sauce. 

I may have to make my own tomato sauce. Doug had Geoff  make his chicken with almond flour and parmesan cheese instead, and we did make his sauce with just a can of crushed tomatoes, which I augmented with garlic powder, oregano, salt, pepper, and even more parmesan cheese. May have to move onto something like that. 

Deviled Eggs and Recipe Talk

Because I cook a lot, I rely on a lot of online recipes. 

I will be in the mood for something like a mediterranean chicken marinade with yogurt, and the internet is super helpful in finding the right recipe, or at least one where I have most of the ingredients on hand or can fudge it. 

Recently I also learned you can use mayonnaise in marinades! And it is amazing. Highly recommend.

I'm not a big fan of sites with 9 miles of storytelling and pictures before getting to the recipe. Dude. I just want the recipe. It is so nice that your Nonna would make gravy on Sunday for the family and everyone would gather, and your mom's brother would play cards with the kids, and everyone would mangia mangia until they couldn't move. I am happy for you. Sounds like a lovely and loving family and wonderful memory. 

I just want to know exactly how much garlic. (In all seriousness though, there's never too much garlic so .... I can just deal with it). 

If the website doesn't have a "Jump To Recipe" link, I'm gonna jump back to the search results page to find another option. 

A lot of times, I just look for Alton Brown's recipes. I trust him implicitly, and Food Network or AB will just tell it like it is. No storytelling. Just recipes!

So a nice recipe like this one is the kind of just perfect option for me. Jump to recipe, I can skip the video, I know how to make stuff, I just need to know how much stuff to put in the stuff. Her site has a lot of good recipes, and it is grilling season, and so I go there a lot. And if I want to look at pictures, she's got some good ones. Well done.

I made that chicken marinade for dinner the other night, and it was outstanding. I used fresh oregano and mint, because my plants over wintered wonderfully. Every day I'm out there cutting herbs for something. I may run out of the parsley before summer even gets here. The oregano was a little too strong (probably because it was fresh) and it could have used a lot more lemon. But overall, this is a winner. I need to remember to make this a day or so in advance and just put the chicken in a ziploc with the mix, and take it out a couple times a day and just smoosh it around. It's better if you let it sit. Duh, marinades are like that, right?

Geoff has been using a cookbook that Doug had on the shelf for years and it has become his go-to for recipes he wants to try. He's made a few good things, made a few mistakes. He plans everything very carefully, studies the recipe for days, gets the ingredients all together. And it usually pays off for us to have him chef something up. Even if it is a lot more work than anything Doug or I would make. 

Tonight he's making a Spanish style braised steak (see image above). And I get to use my food processor for like the second time since I bought it! Now's your time to shine Kitchen Aid!

He went to the market after the gym, shopping for the week and getting the swiss steak and the everything we don't have (aside from marjoram, we have it all...) and food for the rest of the week.  I'm incredibly impressed when he picks a recipe and goes with it. 

It's in the oven right now and holy crap does it smell good.

Because he needed three egg yolks, I decided to go ahead and make a whole mess of hard boiled eggs for the team. 

Both Doug and Geoff enjoy them, I hate them. They smell. I hate making them. I hate peeling them. They stink up everything. 

All my windows are open, and I can still smell them from when I put them in the pot at 11am. 

We had a whole discussion on hard boiling. I asked Doug (and I always ask him, because I always forget) what's the best way to make them and he said 'ask the internet.'  

Then he told me how he thought it works... place eggs in pot,  cover them in cold water to about an inch above the top of the eggs, bring to a boil, turn the heat off, let sit for 11 minutes. Then, drain the water off, and run cold water over them for a few minutes. Peel and enjoy. He was, of course, spot on. Pfth telling me to ask the internet and then giving me the perfect instructions. 

They came out perfectly except I never get them to peel easily. It is always a challenge. It takes forever. This time was kind of okay, if I get that wee film between the egg and the shell just right I can pull of large bits of shell all at once. It's such a challenge for me though!

For Geoff's graduation party in 2015, Jess, Liz and I were making deviled eggs. We got eggs from our neighbor across the street but one rule we didn't know was that if you're using super fresh eggs, it is a totally different process. And we mangled the eggs. Complete and total disaster. We had a pile of busted egg whites and just a mess of stupid. I think we ended up making egg salad, but it was shame salad. We failed. Miserably.

I then found out the true instructions for super fresh eggs. You can read that here. Who knew. 

Waiting for dinner to be done, adding it to the food list below even though I haven't eaten it yet! 

Alright. The daily digits. 

Exercise: Short pokemon walk, about 3/4 mile total

Blood Glucose: 

8am: 144 

5pm: 155 (will test again before bedtime! because .... wine)

10pm: 132 (okay so.... wow? I thought it would be 312! with the wine and all) 

Food: 

Coffee  

Seltzer

Water with lemon

bowl of greek yogurt with raspberries

bowl of chicken salad

a couple of deviled eggs (and, the yolk mixture leftover. yum. my favorite part)

Braised steak a la Geoff 

Salad

Wine (yeah, I know) 

Dupuytren's Disease/Contracture - The next fun adventure

Longtime readers (all 3 of you) recall I've had some fun medical things going on in the last 20+ yrs of the blog. Let's see. 

• Subluxed kneecap
• DVT
• Factor 5 Leiden (blood clotting disorder)
• Hysterectomy
• Breast surgery
• Covid-19
• Type 2 Diabetes

And I bet I'm forgetting something. Before the blog I had my gallbladder removed (1994), so that was a fun one. That's a lot of medical junk all in one place. 

We get to add a new condition to the list: Dupuytren's Disease (DD) / Contracture. 

You have probably seen commercials with football legend John Elway talking about his experience with the condition. Essentially it is a commercial for Xiaflex treatment, but they never come out and say it. They just say to go talk to your hand specialist. So, I went and talked to my hand specialist.  Basically it is a condition where cords or nodules form in your hands and cause the fingers to pull or bend inward towards the palm. 

My dad has it really bad, so bad he cannot unfold his fingers at all. Only his pointer and thumb work. He can feed himself, button a shirt, drive the car (although that makes me nervous, to be honest) but he can't open jars, or doors, or tie shoes or do a whole lot of other things. Here's a picture of my hand, ignore the bandaid. I got a hangnail that was super bad and wouldn't get unhanged! 

A year ago I noticed my right palm was getting "puckered" and I was having a hard time laying my hand flat against things, like pushing a door closed, or opening jars.  It makes some things extremely difficult and very painful. 

I had the breast surgery thing, and then summer, and then it got to be late fall, and my typing was starting to be impacted by my ring fingers on both hands bumping into the neighboring pinkie fingers. 

I finally called my PCP to have a video chat, and then asked for an appointment with the hand specialist, she had me come in for X-rays, and decided for sure, it's time to see him.

Today was my appointment, he took one look at my hands, one look at me, and said "you wouldn't happen to be of northern European descent, would you?" 

Yah, doc. Sure am. I told him about my dad. And I said that I do not want to end up that way. Ever.

Looking at my left hand he said I'm not there yet for any treatment needs, but we decided we'll keep an eye on it. The right hand though, for sure, it needs help. 

He said I'm at a 30 degree contracture on the ring finger, the pinkie and middle finger are coming along for the ride. It's very visible, noticeable, and we're going to make an appointment to treat it with Xiaflex, and get those cords broken up and get my fingers back to normal. 

Also, looking at the Xiaflex website I have just now today learned about a disease that impacts penises and makes them bend like this. My mind is blown. You don't see John Elway doing commercials for THAT!

Looking at the summer and all the things happening I'm trying to figure out when this will fit in. Between Guster concerts and Guster concerts and other things that are not Guster concerts, having the procedure and then having a couple weeks in a splint, and going back to "release" the cords (which sounds very unfun) combined with summer things at work, this will be interesting. Wish me luck in figuring out when this will happen! 

The good news is I am down to 213lbs, so that was worth the trip to find out.

Here's the data for today. 

Blood Glucose:

• 9am: 140
• 7pm: 165 (immediately after dinner, so I may check again before bed)

Food: 

• Coffee
• small bowl of chicken salad
• 8 medium length stalks of celery with peanut butter
• meatloaf (no bread crumbs, just grated parmesan cheese instead) 
• Salad
• mixed nuts

I did have a cookie

Geoff bought a full gallon of whole milk the other day because the store was out of half gallons. We usually don't go through a whole full gallon before it goes bad, so he put into motion a plan. He baked cookies.

I heard him futzing around in the kitchen and sighed because I knew what he was doing. Cookies. Some of my very favorite things on the planet. They came out beautifully. They smelled amazing. 

To be honest, it is very sweet. 

Even at almost 26, nothing like a tumbler of milk and a couple of cookies is a treat. It's something I love about him. I mentioned to him that I couldn't have any, and he looked at me like I said "you're making poop on a tray." He had forgotten my near zero carb lifestyle. So 30 for him. 

I had one cookie while I was putting them all away. I'll be honest. 

After I posted the blog entry yesterday with the glucose readings, I tested again at about 11pm, 2 hours post cookie, and it was 195. 

Shit. 

I was doing rather well during the day there with the food choices and all. 

Today I'm back on the not having cookies grind. I slept until 10. My friend said she was going to come over before church to give me a present but they slept in too and didn't go. So I think I'm going to swing over to her house and get whatever she got for me.

And bring her some cookies.

Blood Glucose

10am: 165
10pm: 175

Food:

Coffee
Seltzer
omelet with ham and swiss (this one came out perfect! as seen above) w/avocado & salsa on the side
handfuls of mixed nuts
Salmon (2 large beautiful slices) marinated in soy sauce, sesame oil, ginger, scallions, parsley
Salad (mixed greens, tomatoes, red onion, cucumbers)

Oh and here's a picture of Phineas looking like a lil'baby in his recovery vest/onesie, which he is very tolerant of. Just for you. Because.

Trainwreck Omelet

Most mornings I don't really have a breakfast. With working from home, my morning routine is basically: wake up; commute to bathroom and then kitchen; get coffee; commute to couch; email, team check-in on slack; peep the helpdesk ticketing queue; take a shower; more coffee. 

I eat an actual meal around 11-12. A snack/ish around 2-3. Depending on meetings. I hate to eat on camera, and hate to have a snack sitting next to me looking at me, taunting me for an hour. 

Weekends are easy and lazy. Today the dog woke up at 6 to go out, I took care of him, fed and watered him, started the dishwasher that I forgot to start before I went to bed. Went back to bed. I re-woke up at 9. Doug was already up and coffee was made. I joined him, goofed off on the phone while he goofed off on his phone on the other couch. It got to be 11. I decided to make actual Breakfast.

I don't really care for eggs much. Sometimes they give me the runs, or a stomach ache. I think as a child I was allergic to them in some ways, either that or my aunt Esther force fed me and I grew to utterly despise them and developed a psychological allergy to them. My cousin Deb says her mother never force fed me food. I ... well. Let's just say she wasn't there. 

Eggs. Well, they're hugely important in a low carb diet. They are full of all the important stuff, like protein. And junk. And they aren't bagels or English muffins. God what I wouldn't give for a huge beautiful brekkie sammitch on an English muffin about now. 

I'm usually really good at omelets. Even though I don't necessarily like eating them, I enjoy making them for others. But this morning, for me, I wanted to make the best omelet ever. 

I'm a huge fan of spinach. Grabbing a handful out of the container, I rough chopped a bunch and threw it in the skillet with some butter, salt and pepper. Noticing there was a 1/4 yellow onion in a ziploc bag, I diced that up, threw it in too. Bacon had just finished cooking and was cooling on a plate (Pro tip learned when I worked for Cateringman: fill a large sheet pan with aboutdozen slices, cook at 350 for about 20 minutes). 

I chopped up my bacon, and threw it in the skillet. Then, I sprinkled in crumbled goat cheese. 

Right then and there I am super happy. I could even have just put that on a plate and eaten it as is, but the goal was an omelet for the protein and whatnot. 

I whipped two eggs in a little bowl, mixed in salt & pepper, and dumped them onto the rest of the ingredients. 

Now, I mentioned that I love making omelets, and I am usually good at it. but I stood there realizing I had over filled the skillet with all the yummy things I had put in there. 

Hmm. 

I went to flip over one side of the concoction, and it kind of fell apart. Oops. I think what I have here now is a messy scramble. A beautiful mess. A trainwreck. I made sure the eggs were cooked through, flipping things over a couple times, and while it wasn't pretty, it tasted amazing. The goat cheese with the bacon grease melted together. The spinach, wilted perfectly and a touch of salt on each bite. The onions, still slightly crunchy but buttery enough that they started to release their sweet side.

Doug will often just make himself a couple eggs with cheddar and hot sauce, so he came in the kitchen and saw my veggie filled goat cheese party and was impressed. I said you could do this too, if you wanted. He said "no, that takes work, and I just want to eat so. I'll pass on the chopping, sauteing and all that other stuff." 

For me, lazy cooking leads to me getting absolutely bored with things which is why diets and me don't mix. Doug is usually a great cook - when he plans for it. He can make dry rubs, marinades, butterfly lamb, roasts! Grilling! But day to day cooking for him is eggs in a skillet, yogurt in a dish, berries,  some chicken breasts just thrown on a tray in the oven with bacon wrapped around them and maybe some spices and stuff, but, like, no. The bacon doesn't cook, and it is nasty. I'm thankful when he cooks cause I don't have to but over all, whatever. 

I like to plan what I'm making, have ingredients around that encourage me to shake it up a little. This keeps me from falling into repetitive ruts. 

The picture here is of my trainwreck omelet, and my dog who would like my trainwreck omelet but he cannot have any. It has onion in it. That's not good for dogs. 

Also, notice the "wrestling singlet" recovery shirt Doug got for him. He was doing great with the donut but Doug thought he's sleep more comfortably with the shirt on. Once he got used to it, and stopped freaking out and trying to rub it off his body, it's working out nicely. 

We have to undo the back and tuck everything in when he goes out to relieve himself, and he's gotten used to us "undressing" his back end and redressing it. 

It also has a "calming" disc which is scented with verbena and lavender. I couldn't believe that Doug actually put the disc into the pocket on the vest because of his rabid dislike of lavender, but, he did. My house now smells like aromatherapy. 

He just came in from out, and is asleep on the couch. We didn't button him all the way back up, we're just letting him be open and free, but keeping an eye on him if he should try and access his belly.

Right then, the update for the lifestyle changes part of my blog is below. 
oh - and I meant to include my weight from the doctor when I was there last. 
216

Blood Glucose:

9am: 168 

6pm: 159

Food:

Coffee
handful of mixed nuts
Trainwreck Omelet
4 very thin pork chops grilled and coleslaw with homemade slaw dressing
seltzer
more nuts

 

     

The Good News Update

 Phineas does not have cancer. Got the call today from the vet, and it is a hematoma, and nothing worse.  Best news to get going into the weekend. Best ever. 

Here's donut boy. Smiling for us all.