August Upon Us

Hard to believe this is the end of July. What a month. I let this weekend burn, and I'm okay with that because I feel like I did All The Things last weekend and part of last week. Sometimes you need a bye week. 

By next weekend though, if I don't have a haircut and pedicure, I'll regret my life. I can't wait to go see Guster with all my friends up in Maine. Living for it! 

The only things left to do are the pedicure and haircut, figure out how I am getting home on our last days there (Amtrak from New London? Flight from Providence?), buy snacks for the car trip up, and pack.  

I volunteered to see if we can hang out anywhere on Thursday night as people start to arrive in Portland, and/or, Friday before the show in town at the State Theater. Got some phone calls and inquiries to make. I have a list of possible locations. We have such a varied/mixed crowd of people that it could be a challenge. Oh, this person doesn't drink beer (cough cough my sister) and I pick a brewery that doesn't have a full license? Okay. oh, you're vegan? And ... well. The menu is all BBQ. hmmm. sorry. 

I know I am going to pick the wrong place. For someone. But I did have such great success with the DC meetup and the Red Rocks meetup that I'm hoping the right place comes into view. So I'm hoping the folks who don't feel it is the right place at least come and hang for a bit. It's nice to meet the fellow fans.

I'm sure NO one is reading this from Portland Maine, but, if you have suggestions hit ya girl up. 

I was going to buy these cool beaded lobster mardi gras style necklaces, but the place I was buying them from has had them on back order forever. It's hard to buy 300 necklaces that do not exist. Feh. At least one of the other attendees made buttons. Hopefully people will be happy with a little somethin' somethin' from the fan group. I really wanted to be the fun fan friend who brings some swag but, no dice. 

As mentioned, this weekend has been mostly a do-nothing weekend. Little things got done, but nothing spectacular. 

I slept until 10am today, and Doug taking a nap right now. The most exciting thing we did was unclog the shower drain, woo hoo! You wish you were us! 

Then I pulled both of our buckets out of the shed because I needed one to hold bleach and water. But Doug told me one had a leak in it, and he couldn't remember which one. 

Helpful. So I figured out which one, and labeled it like you should. It's the white bucket, and now has a great big green sharpie message on it. That can be kept in the shed for things like weeding. The other one can be kept in the house for things like mopping, or, doin' what it is doin' right now - soaking the shower mat in the aforementioned bleach and water. 

Unlogged drain, means clean tub, which includes sparkly clean shower mat. Mandatory. Maybe I'll even put the bath rug in the laundry with Geoff's and soak them. I'm out of control! 

I watered all the house plants except the one spider plant in the basement. I should go take care of that. It's my overlooked baby. It's a monster - producing hundreds of wee babies that I want to give to someone.

Speaking of plants, I noticed while briefly outside out on our neglected patio we have some rogue morning glory vines that climbed one of the chairs! It has been creeping into the potted flowers I have and choking them. So I have to constantly go out there (well, not CONSTANTLY! ....) and cut or pull it back. It isn't producing any flowers, and I'm not sure where it is coming from. It is a little garden mystery, I guess.

A bunch of our tomato plants got fried in the heat while we were away even though Geoff watered them. He said he could see it happening, and didn't quite know how to stop it. Cherry tomatoes are still growing and ripening on them, so it's not a lost cause. Just not as pretty as last year. 

Farmer Chris weeps for her babies.

It's pouring right now, which may be foiling my dinner plans unless I want to grill in a raincoat. Or if it stops soon. Because Doug is napping, I was hoping the dog would stay in there with him and maybe, just maybe, I'd actually go outside and take a walk like a normal person instead of walking laps in my house like a weirdo recluse shut-in. Thanks, rain. Thanks, Weather dot com who said it wouldn't start raining here until later tonight.

Well. Guess I should get things going with my where are we hanging out mission before I get distracted. 

Wish ya girl luck! 

No picture today - i ended up getting a migraine at about 8 and took meds and wiped out. Feh!

digits

exercise: Migraine hit right around the time I was going to go downstairs and walk.

blood glucose:
10am 153
5pm: 114
11pm: 151

food:
coffee
water
iced coffee
several sticks of celery with peanut butter
sausages, onions, zukes on the grill
bowl of mixed nuts & dried cranberries

Hang On, Hang On

My best friend from high school called this morning. It's been a while since we had time to talk. He called me when I was up in Massachusetts but I think we were in an area with no cel coverage, so I did not see he called, and didn't see a voicemail until I got the next voicemail weeks later.  

He's going through some stupid hard times right now, and unloaded all his anger and sadness. We talked for two hours. He needed it. I needed to hear it.

We only live two hours apart and I expressed that I couldn't believe we have not gotten together yet, Covid notwithstanding. There have been opportunities, for sure. I was on my way down to his area and texted him to let him know, asked if he wanted to get lunch. He told me he was visiting his mom out to the west. I was out by his mom, asked him if he was local, he said he was at a conference. When I was down at John's in Richmond we maybe could have connected, but it didn't work out. 

He told me that getting together socially is really difficult to him, and he wanted to pull me up on the enthusiastic "Let's get together next time I'm there!" sentiments, saying that it's hard enough getting out of bed in the morning and going to work, that going out and having dinner is unthinkable to him. 

I told him I get it. Totally. Absolutely. 

But hey - when you're ready. I'm ready. But phone calls are super good in the meantime. Let's not let six months go by and not check in. He sounded down enough that it worried me. I honestly felt incredibly worried for part of the call. 

I made a point to share two songs with him after the call, whether or not he listens is up to him. "Hang On" by Guster (of course) has gotten me through some super sad times, and a couple panic attacks recently. There IS a twilight, a night time, and a dawn. 

The other song I think of all the time when I just need to push through is "This Year" by the Mountain Goats. I love this version with Stephen Colbert a lot, the energy they both bring to the performance is amazing. John Darnielle has been through so much, and made it through many years (thank God), that I love seeing him up on stage just crushing it. 

Watch if you like: 

There will be feasting! And dancing! in Jerusalem next year! And I am going to make it through this year if it kills me. 

Sometimes I'm having a rough day and I'll sing the refrain with "I am going to make it through this next meeting if it kills me" or "I am going to make it through the helpdesk ticket if it kills me." 

The funny thing about that song is NOTHING in the song contents speaks to me or of my life in any way, shape, or form. I'm not playing video games, swigging booze from the bottle, driving a car fast, and hanging out with a girl named Cathy who wants a little of my time. 

But I think everyone can pull into the refrain and scream it no matter what their situation is. I AM GOING TO!!!! MAKE IT!!!! THROUGH THIS YEAR!!!!!! IF! IT! KILLS! ME! 

"This year" becomes especially poignant to me based on his work situation so I had to share it. 

He explained that he just has to survive this year. Survive. Just get through. "Tree hunnid fiddy days" as he put it. 

On July 1 next year, he can retire with a full pension his state. Very early in his career he worked a few years in the state as an educator and school counselor, so he got into the retirement system. He left the state and went to a lot of other places, but those years are on the books for the retirement system. For the last 2 years, he's been in the state again,  and picked up vesting right where he left off. The state fully vests you after 5 (and he's beyond that) but takes your top 3 years of earnings and bases your retirement on that money. So staying 1 more year rounds out the top 3 years, instead of 2 years there and the other highest paying year when he was a young lad starting in the business. Financially it makes sense to stick it out. Emotionally, psychologically, spiritually, we'll see. 

He just has to make it through this year without it killing him.

By the end of the call he was feeling a lot more upbeat. He suggested some fun things that he loves to do, and wants to maybe do with us, and I think I'm going to see to it that we think about maybe kind of sort of planning something, when he's ready to be social. 

Here's my dog, preventing me from folding laundry while I was talking on the phone. Thanks, Dog. Digits below. 

digits

exercise: Dedicated 10. no more. no less. 

blood glucose:
9am: 161
6pm: 116
10pm: 160

Food:
Coffee
Water
seltzer
3 chicken thighs left over from last night with a garden tomato, mayo, salt
chicken breast with hot sauce, bacon, cheese a la Geoff (a perennial fave of his to cook)

The Late July

 I have a bunch of pictures that I didn't upload from our trip. I took this one on a little footbridge over the C&O canal in Hancock after we ate dinner. 

Doug wanted to take a little walk, and while it was lovely it was indeed a little walk. If we had more time it would have been nice to just take a stroll west down the C&O to the boat ramp and day use area and see the Potomac from there. A different view of a familiar river. 

Doug's mom kept saying that "summer is over" this time of year, and both of us were thinking oh hell no. Not until the end of September. And now that we live in Maryland summer lasts a lot longer than up north of Pittsburgh. The warm weather lingers, but in both places, the light leaves faster. 

Catching this light made me realize how precious late July is. It isn't end of summer yet for sure, but you start to feel it right about now. 

For as heavy hot and humid the air is this time of year, having a night where it was crisp and warm but cooling off was a delight. Today here at my house it is brutally humid, not hot, but the air is just heavy as a wet wool blanket. It wears you down. We're supposed to have a huge line of storms come through over the course of today into tonight and tomorrow should be relatively wonderful. 

Farmers' Market day!  Maybe.

Oh I meant to share these snaps that I took at the car repair shop. I've never been in a nicer waiting room. Little birds chirping, an mp3 jukebox, car grill in the counter, clean, friendly, amazing. Loved the space. Thought others would like it too. 

Digits after pictures.

Digits

exercise: Dedicated 10 + 12, inside. Was going to keep going but my sister called!

Blood glucose 
9am: 171
5:30pm: 134
10pm: 191 (was eating nuts as late as 9 so, I expected to see this high)

Food
Coffee
Water
2 pieces of 647 bread toasted with peanut butter
grilled chicken thighs & southwest salad and tomatoes
trail mix & nuts

The Trip Home and the Day After

Our last day with mom was pretty fruitful. The car got fixed (yay!). We went out to a super nice lunch (yay!) and we came back to the house and I helped her order some shoes online (yay!). and get them shipped (yay!). We left a lot later than we intended, Doug wanted to swing by the old house and look at things. Initially I thought he was going to go get the secret key and go look at things inside but he passed on that. He knows almost all the furniture is out of there, and there is a lot of stuff still in there, and he said it would make him sad. 

I didn't push. I won't.

As much as I want for us to help and get her fully cleaned up and moved over, I feel like he hasn't been letting on how much this impacts him really. I'm pumping the brakes hard on encouraging or bringing anything up. 

We walked around the yard, looked at the garden plot that his dad always maintained so beautifully. The grass is all cut nice but there are bushes and wild things and unruly. After our brief stroll around we got back into the car and started for home.

The trip was uneventful. We thought we were going to have so much rain, the forecast looked dire, but we stayed ahead of everything and had nothing but some sprinkles. We were getting hungry and decided to stop in Hancock for a meal. 

Doug had some some pre-trip research and picked a place called Buddylou's that I mentioned it in the entry yesterday. The restaurant is Dog Themed, and they even have dog menu (food for dogs, not dogs ON the menu). It is hilarious. They also have an antique shop, and of course, soft serve ice cream which was delightful. 

We had been to Hancock before, that's where the car was towed when it broke down as Doug and Geoff were on their way to his dad after his aneurysm. They waited for me to come rescue them, my boss Janeen took my dog, and we were all able to be by dad's side before he passed. They waited at a bar for me to come get them, and we thought about going there again but he figured there was more to life in Hancock than the Triangle Bar. 

We survived that, right? And we'll survive all this. 

So Hancock is a town familiar to us. They call it "Maryland's Waist," where the big part of the East gets skinny and the panhandle exists. It is in that part of Maryland where you can park in West Virginia, walk across Maryland and get to Pennsylvania and brag that you hiked across three states! 

Dinner was lovely and we took a short walk on the C&O canal, which we often visit down by where we live. Haven't been for a while, not since early in the pandemic. It was a nice walk, with our ice cream, and we got a good leg stretch even if it was less than the dedicated 10. 

Coming back to work this morning, I thought to myself that I just should have taken the whole week off. We had a system outage, I had a lot of stress and honestly felt like just telling my boss I needed a mental health day. I started to think about what it would be like to just quit my job. 2 weeks notice, done. Go. Or, to start applying for other jobs and then quit. 

I had a call with someone late in the day and the guy was so kind and appreciative, so thankful for all my team does and it made softened my "I wanna quit" feels and calm down. Not sure how he knew today was the day I needed to be reminded about what I do being important, but, it was the right day. 

Thankful tomorrow is Friday and I can forget about work again for a couple days. And then in a couple weeks, off to Maine, and Guster, and my sister, and my friends. I've been living for that experience and am so looking forward to having it. 

Here are some pictures I meant to post with yesterday's entry that I just didn't have the energy to deal with. Digits below. 

digits

exercise: meh

blood glucose
9am 205 (why so high after good night's sleep!)
5pm: 161
10pm: 164

food
Coffee
Water
iced coffee
turkey sandwich with sliced tomato on 647 bread with a lot of mayo
1 slice of 647 bread with peanut butter
ramekin of nuts
Cheeseburger (no bun) Large pile of Caesar Salad

Phineas is a bad watchdog

Hallelujah, we are home. We made ALL the noise. Doug stood at the top of the stairs screaming Phineas' name thinking he was down the basement with the Boy. Geoff said "he's in here with me" from the guest room. 

The entire time we were bringing in bags and being noisy - this dog did not respond. Well. Good job, Dog. I won't leave you in charge of all my treasures! 

Happy to be home. We had a great final day with mom and looking back since Sunday, we got a lot accomplished. Sometimes this was frustrating and annoying, but, she allowed us to help. And that means a lot to Doug and to me. 

Before I fall asleep, just wanted to mention that we stopped for dinner in Hancock, MD, at a place called Buddylou's. Worth the stop, and, we'll have to go back for their full menu. They have a very limited menu at night and the focus is on ice cream at night in the summer. The real menu looks nice! Too bad we didn't have all those choices (if you visit their website). We didn't leave hungry, and we had a great time looking at the shop. Will post a more detailed write up tomorrow for sure. I should take a walk but wow. tired. And I feel like I am still moving.

Digits after the pic of my reward after five days of all the things. 

digits

exercise: No dedicated 10 but the fitbit says I got close to 4000 steps with all that car stuff in the middle so. that's something?

blood glucose:
9am 178
6pm 161
11pm: 211 

food
Coffee
Water
handful of mixed nuts in the car (approx 5pm)
buffalo chicken pieces over a garden salad with bleu cheese dressing
some sort of pork sub (delicious) with pickled carrots and onions on ciabatta bread, part of 2 pupusas that doug ordered
medium soft serve ice cream
2 hard seltzers 

Homeward Bound Ahoy

We had our car towed at 8:30am, we had a horrible time finding a place to send it to, but one garage finally fit us in. As of 5pm, alternator was being installed and one of the guys was staying late to get it buttoned up so they can do a radiator hose in the morning ("I noticed this was really worn, and decided to replace it before I asked you," says the guy. Guy, you are appreciated. Thank you. Yes please radiator hose). 

Yesterday we had purchased a shelving unit, only one of them, so Bonnie could see if she liked it. I assembled it this morning while Doug spread black mulch (thanks Mulchy Joe for getting a delivery for us! You saved the day!) 

We unpacked the box and one of the posts was bent, and, there were supposed to be 4 bottom pieces and 4 top pieces, but. There were 3 bottoms and 5 tops. 

Doug packed everything up to take back and he and his mom went back to Home Depot. They got the shelving exchanged and came back with a colocasia plant for the front door. Doug spread the mulch, I built the shelf. Bonnie supervised and gave opinions. It was a busy busy day! 

Once we had all the mulching and shelving and all that jazz set we went out to dinner after getting cleaned up. Refreshed. We had a great meal at a little place where I had cauliflower crust pizza for the first time. I need to learn how to make this. Game changer. This was delicious! I loved it. So happy to have it. 

Then, back to home depot because she wanted some more plants. Two more colocasias for the front of the house. 

Many victories, not everything done but close. And our car should be ready for us to pick up in the morning. We should be all set. I'm very relieved.

I have some pictures but I'm too tired to post them. I'll add them to tomorrow's post. Voof. 

digits

exercise: Dedicated 10+14 short walk but I extended it by walking around inside while people ate cake and I avoided it

blood glucose:
8am: 167
5pm: 142
11pm: 182

food:
Coffee
Water
scrambled eggs with a little cheddar cheese, 3 big cubes of watermelon
small buffalo chicken pizza on cauliflower crust
small salad
2 seltzers

Bedroom, Shelves, Alternator

11am
 My mother in law bought twin beds for the guestroom in case she has 2 guests at once who are not related, or, the grandchildren are here. Kind of what she should maybe have done 20 years ago, but. We'll just note that there's finally a setup for guests in a home she owns.  

She slept in one of these beds for quite a while because the full sized bed she had ordered for master bedroom took an incredibly long time to come and she didn't really want to bring her old bedroom set here to the new place. 

She ordered it during the pandemic from an Amish furniture maker in Ohio (a lot of her stuff is from there) and it took about 9 months to arrive. Now all the bedrooms are set up, and she has been still sleeping in here. Until this week, with our arrival. I hope she is enjoying her new bed and will continue to enjoy it. I really like it. It suits her well.

Twin beds, man. They're small. I wake up to roll over and am surprised and sometimes in danger of falling out of the bed. But I do like having my own Toss And Turn spot. I move around a lot at night. Doug is relatively stable. And the mattress is comfy. It is an okay place to be as long as I do not fall out of bed. 

It's hot in this bedroom though. Hawwwwt. There is a ceiling fan (oh thank you sweet baby Jesus) which helps but I'm still too hot. I'm one of these hotel guests who lowers the AC to 64 degrees and snuggles to sleepies under the covers. Rather than be in a room that is maybe in the 70s (?) and sleep on top of the covers. 

The pulls on the ceiling fan are weird. They hang perfectly still, and then one of them will start to circle, and then they bang together. The pulls are little ceramic discs, and they click together, sounding like dominoes. Silence for 20 minutes, then movement, clicking for a few minutes, then click! click! click! 

The first night we were here it drove me batty. Last night I told Doug to put on his podcast and instead of setting it to stop playing after the episode was over - let it ride, continue playing and playing. Drown out the clicks. 

It didn't work.

He got out of bed and managed to stick his belt up by the belt buckle on the longer one pull,  just to hold it still. 

Chaos before sleeping. 

I feel like princess chrissie again, I'm normally not fussy, but this is important. It's exhausting for me being here. There have been a lot of discussions and back and forth and I am spending time with 2 people who always are right. So when they disagree, the other one is so wrong, and it's on and on and on. 

Doug made a nice breakfast this morning. There were 9 eggs in the fridge, so he made fluffy scrambled eggs for the 3 of us. She said that she usually only has toast so this was a nice treat. She mentioned how nice it was repeatedly. I think Doug liked that a lot.

She has a gourmet kitchen and only makes herself toast. She fussed at him about using the stove but he didn't listen to her. He made scrambled eggs and ignored the fussing. There was a whole discussion about eating bread. She said we need to eat carbs to "protect our protein" and we had NEVER heard of such a thing. She said that with diabetes, we had to eat carbs. We said no, that is basically like saying "hey, here, you're allergic to gluten and it will kill you so eat all this gluten!"  

They had a huge discussion about food, and the whole fussing about the stove and skillet and even making breakfast AT ALL stressed me out. He just ignores her. He has that kind of agency to ignore his mom fussing. The benefits of being someone's child. I just want to not be fussed at, and hide if I am being fussed at. Being not someone's child, this is my lot in life and the relationship. 

Climate Change: Doug does not think it is "real" but he's not exactly a climate denier. She's all into it. We should be doing things to fix the problem. Doug says China and India are the number one problems, when actually, it is the US. Arguments ensue. 

Fox News: My MIL has always been conservative but she does not allow that channel to be on in this house. She doesn't watch any of the national news "entertainment" shows - they are not news. They're propaganda machines. Doug watches Fox News (which, I hate...) So he especially likes Fox News Sunday, which is the only program I'll tolerate from their offerings. I miss Chris Wallace. 

So they went at it on Sunday morning at 9am about this. She went into the kitchen and played NPR. Loudly because she is hard of hearing. 

Battlin' News Ensues.

If it was not already 92 degrees out, and if I had a chair to sit on the patio in, well. I'd be outside. 

So I've been hiding here in the guest room. Door is open, people can see me, I'm just removed from the noise. 

1pm
  Right now, the awning on the patio won't open. I so a lot of Troubleshooting is happening, and I am hiding. We noticed this morning, Doug and I, that there is a paper wasp nest growing inside the awning. We decided we'd try to open the awning so we could sit out on the  patio furniture we carried out. It  waiting. It is ready. But awning will not open, wasps have to be dealt with before I go out that way ever again. Bastards. More chaos. 

We ended up calling technical support for help and found out that we (well, I. I admit it was me) changed the "channel" on the remote control, and it was all my fault. Had no idea what those 4 buttons were for that lit up along the bottom of the remote. Who knew you could have four awnings on one house and run them all off one remote. I mean, really. Who. Knew. 

Lesson learned. 

10 pm
  This afternoon we went to home depot for some shelving. It turned into a 2 hour thing. Debating on what size shelves, wire chrome? wire black? 4 shelves or 5? are they adjustable? What about these plastic shelves. Who needs to store up to 10,000 pounds on one shelving unit. (Oh, people do.) 

THEN... maybe I don't want shelves maybe I want like a cabinet. Searching for someone to help, they send us over there. No cabinets. Another person sends us back to shelving to the bathroom shelving area. I finally find a girl to ask if she has any idea, and she says they don't carry them anymore but they are available online. 

MIL asks 100 questions. Why don't they carry them anymore? etc... etc.... it's not the girl's fault they aren't carried please leave her alone. Let's go back to the shelves. welll..... No. Maybe I want something like this modular thing like California Closets. No. You need someone to come in and install that. Can we just get the wire shelves. 

We got one shelving unit. 

We'll set it up and test out how it looks. I think she needs 3 or 4. Doug said 6 all along the one wall. She thinks 3 is even too much. It's going to take up so much space. Oh my God no, you'll put stuff up on the shelves. And have more space in front of the shelves. Why are we doing this! 

We also got wasp spray, a small plastic table for the patio to put between the bench and chair. Doug had gone to get black mulch for out front yesterday because Bonnie's HOA only allows BLACK mulch. no other mulch! NO OTHER MULCH! And the staff landscaper here will put it down, but it'll cost her $250. Doug said no way. it is 6 bucks a bag! Fuck that! 

So yesterday he went looking for the black mulch and there wasn't any. Another guy came over and said that he needed black mulch too. They had a discussion about how every single other color was out there, brown, grey, red... but no black. 

Doug: I wonder why that is that only one kind of mulch would be completely out of stock.
Other Guy: Well, you know. Elections have consequences, and we're looking at it now. 

Oh, so this is Joe Biden's fault that the store is out of black mulch? C'mon man. 

The reason why there is no black mulch is because the landscapers for the all HOAs in the area all came and bought it all up. All of it. There are SEVERAL housing developments where black mulch is mandatory, your humble narrator noticed while riding around. If a homeowner was allowed to buy whatever the hell color mulch they wanted, they could switch to brown or red or stones and live happily ever after. 

But no. Black Mulch Shortage means Joe Biden fucked things up. And yes, he is fucking a lot of things up but not black mulch supply. 

Right, dude. 

Anyway. 

We successfully got the black mulch, happily restocked and plenty of it! Loaded up the shelves, the wasp spray, the little table, and headed home. We wanted to unload the stuff and then go out to dinner. 

On the way home our battery light came on. The car started dinging. We came into the driveway and unloaded things, and headed to the car to go out to dinner. It wouldn't start.  Doug tried to start it again, the radio turned on and turned off. The interior lights are working, but the car won't turn over. 

Last time we had this happen, Doug replaced the battery and the alternator killed the battery in a few days and both then needed to be replaced.

So we think that it's probably the alternator. Doug's sister recommended a local garage. And I'm glad that the car died in the driveway here instead of on us when we are driving down 79 south of Pittsburgh. In the dark. At Night. 

Cross your fingers this can be fixed. Diane said there is a huge shortage of mechanics in the area. If we can't get it fixed... oy. I can work from here on Thursday when I'm supposed to be back to work, but I just want to go home. This isn't "vacation." I love my family but I'm not on vacation. But we could maybe get more done for her if we have to stay an extra day or two. We'll see. 

It could be worse. more adventures tomorrow, I am sure. 

No picture today because the only one I took was of the paper wasps and they freak me out completely. So I won't post it here and have to look at it. 

digits

exercise: Dedicated 10+13 
Took myself for a walk while cake was being eaten. It was a beautiful night.

blood glucose:
9am: 171
4:30pm: 140
11pm: 183

food
Coffee
Water
3 scrambled eggs, a goat cheese medallion melted in the middle, 3 big pieces of watermelon.
ramekin of mixed nuts
"Piña Loca" half a pineapple carved out, full of grilled shrimp, chicken, onions, and grilled pineapple, side of refried beans & rice, 3 small tortilla wraps. several chips with salsa
2 beers

Doug and Chris have fun being helpful

Just so you know, literally me today... repeatedly. Bob says "Oh my God" a lot. And I'm feeling this so hard right now.

The task of the day for us today was figuring out why the patio furniture was not out on the patio. It was last year and in the fall. Where'd they go? The last two nights have been absolutely perfect - why are we sitting inside when we could be outside and enjoy the summer nights when the temperature drops (which it does! Delightful compared to DC)?

She had the bench and chair put in the garage to overwinter so the Pennsylvania snow and cold wouldn't wreck it. She felt that the items were getting damaged in the rain all last summer. She has a really nice awning that self-control retracts if it is too windy so then it isn't covering up your patio, keeping stuff protected. Smart and Dumb at the same time. So the furniture ends up soaked.

Her worries are justified though, truthfully. Doug assembled this furniture when Jess was about 4 years old, and so it's now over 25 years old and in excellent condition. My Outlaw J was enlisted last fall to put the items in the garage. 

Now, it is the end of July and they were still in the garage. Doug asked why. She said "well we just never got around to putting them out."

Doug went and got them and put them out. 

She said no!!! She was worried about them getting more damaged by being in the rain. Put them back! 

Doug went to home depot and got spray-on weather proofing stuff to spray on wooden lawn furniture. He said it probably would have to be done every year forever, but, it should extend the life of the pieces. He came back and showed her what he got, she capitulated and let him spray the items. 

There was fuss. So much fuss. 

We were going to do it on the grass out front but she said no. How about the driveway? No. In the garage on paper? Oh okay. It has to set for 24 hours, so, it's good that they are in the garage, protected from the slight chance of rain expected this evening. 

Doug and I both took 90 minute naps. She thinks it is weird that we nap. She gets up between 9 and 10 am daily and stays up until at least 1am watching PBS, and she doesn't need a nap! well. I do. I'm exhausted. You exhaust me. It's hot. I'm exhausted. Gawrsh.

Doug spent time setting up her Xfinity to record all her british murder mystery, period pieces, and saucy vicar shows. She rushes home to see her shows, and we tried to explain to her that she doesn't have to do that. She lives in the future. So now she can watch on demand stuff. He's going to teach her how to get to all these things and watch tv at 2 in the afternoon. When she claims she is too busy to watch TV. so she'll watch at 8, 9, 10, 11, midnight...

We also tried to hook up a small iHome wireless bluetooth speaker that she'd gotten as a gift. It is super small, extra cute,and it took us two remote controls and a lot of poking and testing and talking to the remote control to try and figure it out. We finally got it paired, and meh... the volume kind of stinks. Not loud at all. The internet says the volume is controlled by the device it is paired to, and we had her tv cranked to 100. Also, it turns off the speaker coming out of the TV and I think the goal here was to have the tv speaker still on, but lower, and then this little speaker on the table behind her chair so it would be playing close to her head and she could hear it better, instead of this SCREAMINGLY LOUD TV! 

Plan failed! 

We unpaired it, and I took the speaker and phone in the other room to see if I could get it happening. BOOM! Crazy loud volume! I kinda love it. Not sure why it is useless with the TV. 

I wonder if she'll let me have it. Maybe. I already have a wireless speaker but this could be fun for my trip to maine. We'll see. 

Anyway, here are some snaps.

Helpful Doug and some orchids.

digits

exercise: Dedicated 10+11.

so hot. Tried to walk around inside the house, was asked why I am walking around so much. Took a short walk outside around 8:30 where it was raining up one street, so we turned around to where it was not raining, walked up to the circle found it was not raining, walked around 2x, came back. Approx 11 min. Felt restless still and my MIL is watching all these aforementioned PBS shows (the dishy vicar is on now). I decided that since she was preoccupied with TV I'd walk laps from my bedroom through the kitchen to the laundry room. Added another 11 min. Success!

blood glucose:
9am: 150
6pm: forgot to take my reading before meds & eating as a fasting blood sugar  
10pm 186

food:
Coffee
Water
Two Good yogurt, 1 snack square of asiago cheese, pepperoni, mixed nuts
Salad, turkey sandwich on a bun, with lots of mayo, gherkin pickle, 2 spoonfuls of black bean salad
Big slice of watermelon.
another square of asiago cheese and a ramekin of trail mix. too much dried fruit but delicious

(mom's idea of dinner in the summertime is not really eating. they had a fight about whether we'd eat out tonight and this is what we ended up with)

The Outlaws

Last night, I slept like actual shit. It is hot in here in this house. It is hot in the bedroom. There is a ceiling fan, but it literally does not push air as far down as the beds are. It is supposed to have three speeds. It has one. Lies. I woke up repeatedly, and then eventually fell asleep. 

Doug had woken up around 5:30, and went out into the living room. He decided he was awake, made coffee in the 4 cup coffeemaker, drank 3 little pots of coffee, read. At 9 his mom came out and started talking to him. She noticed I was sleeping on top of the covers and Doug said "Yeah, it is hot in there. I was hot, and I know she is hot." His mom seemed amazed at this news. They then talked, and because she's a (quite a bit) hard of hearing, there was a lot of 

Doug: Saying a thing
Her: What?
Doug: Saying the thing louder
Her: Replying
Doug: Saying a thing
Her: What? 

So I just got out of bed. 

Initially we were going to make deviled eggs for the party. Mom fussed at me. She didn't have any eggs (even though we told her this was the plan, she didn't pick any up). Doug said he'd go to the market. There was more fussing. We needed to leave at 12:30 to go to the reunion, and eventually it was just decided (not by agreement, but by giving up) we'd bring watermelon. 

I went to take a shower, and Doug came into the bathroom to tell me he was going to buy the watermelon. 

No one ate the watermelon at the family reunion. I think this thing weighs 30 pounds. We have a whole huge giant motherfucking watermelon now. 

We could have had an empty tray of deviled eggs but no. 

Anyway. We went over to the reunion, it is held in a community center in a nearby township. Very nice facility with a park and huge kitchen. I like the space.  Attendance drops off every year. Doug asked me to check in with each of his cousins to see if they were coming (I have the facebook account, and the cel numbers so. I get to check in). None of them were coming.  His favorite cousin was off to Lake Erie for the weekend with his wife and kids. The other cousins all 3 of them were not available. One of them eloped last weekend and he and his wife were on their trip but came home because her mom died on Thursday. Funeral was today. 

 There is sometimes a large contingency of folks who hang out outside in the pavilion where they drink beer, and they don't come inside except to grab some food to eat. Doug calls this the Alternate Reunion. And it is Frowned Upon if we go out there. FROWNED UPON! So of course the last 2 years Geoff found the Alternate Reunion and made some friends. I go out to see Doug's mom's cousin Kathy who hangs out out there and watches all the little kids on the playground.

This year it is literally a huge deadly heat wave, and it was hot and humid, so they stayed inside, and went out for a beer and came back. And Kathy has Covid. And there were NO little kids at all at the reunion. 

As I said, smaller every year. 

We mostly sat with my brother and sister in law and nephew. I think it is honestly the most I've ever talked to my BIL. We had a couple really good laughs. It was really fun. At least, I thought it was. J and I refer to ourselves as "The Outlaws" instead of the In Laws. We try to assist, make suggestions, help, and we are ALWAYS overruled or shot down. Because J lives here, he doesn't even try any more. He told me he would have liked deviled eggs. But he understood why we brought watermelon. It's because. It's always just because. J and I have similar jobs, so we got to talk shop about design, strategy, "customers," which I don't technically have but you can look at the people I work with and help as customers. 

We played Bingo, which Doug has been calling every year since we lost his dad. He did a great job, and he likes to make jokes "B 9! that's really good news. That's a good one!" 

There are always two shifts of food, a 1pm serving and a 6pm serving. People showed up around 4 in time for the Bingo, and that was actually a lot of fun. Second serving was well attended. All the cousins at Doug's Mom's level were at a table towards the end, all talking and chatting and going through pictures. 

There was a photo of the 1990 reunion - about 150 people in the photo.  I should have taken a picture of the pictures. But I didn't. Doug was not in that photo, I'm not sure where he was the summer of 1990, That's the year we graduated (grad 90, married 91, Jess 92) so we were both probably working our jobs up in Massachusetts, and he missed that one. 

All of the photos are fascinating. There is one from Thanksgiving in probably 1984 of Doug getting food at the buffet line, and his sister standing to his left laughing. 

They aren't very close, and in fact any connection maintained is kind of by my doing. But Doug tells his mom something, and mom immediately tells Diane, and Diane texts me to say "what is going on? Mom said blah blah blah..."

So we know there are some things we don't need to tell Doug's mom. 

Cleanup always goes fast. There are super able bodied people at Doug's mom's level. Then there's like us, the 4 of us, and then our kids at the next cousin level down. Some of them are in their mid to late 20s. And my nephew is 16. 

There is one dog who is always there, Sammy, he's Jack's. I'm not sure who Jack is in the hierarchy of family things. But this is his dog. Everyone loves him. Geoff loves him. I have a wonderful picture of them from a couple years ago that I simply adore. Last year we brought Phineas but he isn't nice with other dogs so. It's hard to have him with. Sammy is the greatest though. He and I had some good cuddle time during the clean up. We sat on the stage together, to keep him from being underfoot. 

I stuck to my no-carb mostly. Before we left to come over Doug bought me a bunch of zero/low carb things when he got the watermelon. I ate before we went, and Doug's mom was confused "There is food there, you know that." Yes. Horrible Delicious Food. 30 kinds of potato and macaroni salad, hot dogs and buns. Fried chicken with crispy coating. Cake. Pie. More pie. 

Which is why I wanted deviled eggs. No. Carbs.

Anyway, I did well with sticking to the no carbs for the most part. We got back here to the house and dropped Doug's mom off, ran to the beer store, got beer and seltzer, and now we're hanging out. They're in the living room and she just watched Broadchurch, which Doug HATED when we tried to watch it a couple years ago. It's one of her favorites. So he got in trouble for talking and interrupting. 

Smart ass that he is.

Pictures below, and digits to follow. 

digits

exercise: Dedicated 10 plus 1. Took myself for a walk after Bingo,  

blood glucose
10am: 176
xpm xxx no pre-dinner reading, I did not have my monitor
10pm: 175 

food
Coffee
Water
avocado diced with lemon & sea salt
goat cheese medallion with sliced pepperoni
"Two Good" yogurt, 5.3 oz cup with peach. New product to me, doug found it at the market when I asked him to bring me back something that wouldn't kill me. yummy! 
1 goat cheese medallion
pepperoni slices
2 hot dogs, no buns
3 pieces of the fried chicken
1 cabbage roll (Doug said it is usually very full of rice + spicy meat, but whoever made these was super light on the rice so. Win)
2 spiked seltzers 
1 ramekin of mixed nuts

In the Valley

We made very good time getting up here, and just finished a nice dinner in. It's my mother in law's birthday, I think she might be 79? and she wasn't sure about going out, reservations, all that other stuff. She and Doug debated and debated while I was seeing Ben Folds. So she called an audible. She didn't make a reservation at her favorite foodrinkery. Instead, she went to the market, to the prepared foods section, got salmon, stuffed shells, green beans, cake, wine.  Doug's sister and her husband J and son Craig came here at 5:30 for the birthday feast. We have had a lovely visit so far. But I am so tired.

Doug, his mom, and his sister are in the dining room talking about stuff and I'm super wiped out. I didn't get a lot of sleep, and right now at 10pm I could crawl into the other room and disappear. I'm in the living room, in eyeline and earshot, listening to them debate whether or not a plate she served cake on is something that Doug has seen, or not. He says yes, she says no. She hasn't taken it out in years. How could he have ever seen it! 

There's a lot of back and forth about it, and it is just not worth sitting in on the Plate Debate. 

I needed to do my dedicated 10. After sitting in the car for almost 5 hours, it had to happen.

After cake (I ate some) I excused myself. I put my sandals on, and my nephew, who is 16, was sitting here in the living room by himself. 

"You wanna go for a walk with me, I gotta get some exercise after the long car ride." He agreed and I was surprised. I told him that I wanted to go to the end of the street, which turned out to be farther than I thought. A full half mile, and I thought it was a lot less. And it was uphill on the way back. 

Ten minutes to the end, and a solid 11 on the way back. Slightly slower on the way back, especially at the end. We talked about school, scouts, summertime, drivers licenses, car shows he's been to this year (he loves car shows), motorcycles and how he'd like one but his mother would probably never let him. Does he know different brands, like Yamaha or Harley Davidson or Indian. He sure does. It was a great chat. 

And the night is the perfect temperature right now. Absolutely perfect. Mom does not have patio furniture out here, which is so stupid. I could be sitting outside listening to crickets and seeing fireflies. We will see if we can rectify that tomorrow.

No picture. I wanted to take a shot of the Pitt campus from the highway but it was pouring out, and there was no view over to the cathedral. 

digits!

exercise: Dedicated 10+12 nice walk with Craig! More than I thought I'd do because if I was alone, I would have turned around and come back much sooner if it wasn't for being with him. Thanks buddy.

Blood Glucose
7am: 168
6pm: 130
11pm: 189 (thanks, cake)

Food:
coffee
water
2 burger king chicken planks, no buns, no nothin. I asked for the chicken sandwiches without bread, thought i'd at least get cheese, lettuce, mayo. but no. 
thin piece of salmon, about 15 green beans, one baked stuffed shell with ricotta cheese, one slice of cake. 3 glasses of wine (riesling and moscato. not what i usually drink). 

Travelin'

 We are on our way to Doug's mom's for a couple days. Family reunion, and a few days beyond that. We're staying at her condo. It's nice that she has the space for us to stay but to be honest? 

Where's mah pool?

Where's mah floppy hat?

Where's mah cocktail?!!

I will get all of that in Maine in a couple weeks but I just kind of feel like I need a not stay with my mother in law kind of trip. But. Here we are. 

I'm scheduling this post to publish in the morning on 7/22. It's her birthday. We're supposed to go out to dinner. There's already been arguing about that. I won't get into it. 

I'm really only online to set my out of office, turn off Slack notifications, look up a place geoff can maybe get same day alterations on his scrubs (I tried to hem them and man did I almost fuck them right the hell up!) 

I'm headed to bed so we can get up super early and hit the road. Doug went down to put the clothes in the dryer, so thankfully it'll all be pull out and fold fresh! He almost waved me off when I asked him to go do it, like he'll just do it in the morning, but. .. that'll be like an hour long, and if we wake up later than expected? well shit. That'll suck. 

My food is going to be all out of balance, so I am going to go see about protein shakes so i can substitute whatever foodstuffs are being ordered. I want to keep my blood glucose down. 

And walks outside will happen. I can't do laps in the house with her. Too bad the dog isn't coming. But. It will probably be too hot to walk him anywhere to be honest. 

Alrighty then. 

Good morning! 

Ben Folds - Declassified

(double entry for the digits. Didn't get to post this on Wednesday night) 

My friend Sara asked if we wanted to go see Ben Folds with her. Doug wasn't interested on a school night, and her husband wasn't really interested in going either... but we figured what the heck. Girls' Night Out, bitches! 

Ben does a series called Declassified with the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center. Usually it is Ben, as the Creative Director, curating artists to perform with the orchestra, like we recently saw William Shatner perform his songs about going out into space, for real, instead of just on a TV Show. 

I was disappointed at that show because I'd hoped Ben would perform more with Bill. Ben did a wonderful speech about how when he was a young boy he found The Transformed Man album at a yard sale, and it transformed him. Later in life, he had the opportunity to do an album with The Shat Man, and they've developed a wonderful friendship through the process. They put out an album together, Has Been. I would have loved to seen them perform that together. 

They did one song together, it's rather adorable. "I Want To Be A Tree." This is partway through a clip show of Shatner's songs that someone shot from the audience, they didn't include Bill teasing Ben and talking about their friendship. You can watch the whole thing if you just jump back to the beginning but I picked the start point from their one song together here. 

Experiencing that was nice, I mean, that's William Fucking Shatner, yo. Captain James T. Kirk. Legend. Absolute unit. It was worth the trip even if it lacked a certain amount of Ben. 

However, I left pretty convinced I didn't need to go back for a Declassified if it was not going to have a lot more Ben (unless he curated Guster to perform, ya know). I like the lineups he has had but felt that it wasn't really something that I wanted to go down into the city for. Although I would have loved to see Kishi Bashi. 

Watch and enjoy what he makes with a key, a line from the program, and an upbeat tempo. It's like an improv comedy show, but an orchestra and a piano genius.

Here's a link to the NSO's website with some previous performances. Go watch some and enjoy. 

When Sara asked if I wanted to go and we read up on what the show would be, it was obvious I'd get my "can I please have some more Ben" wish. He was going to be performing songs from a soon to be released album, like a whole First Listen experience. 

We went out to dinner first, and took the shuttle to the Kennedy Center from the metro. Thank God for that. The Kennedy Center is in a weird and unwieldy location. There is plenty of parking nearby but driving into the city is hard enough, and then this thing is all the way Over There with nothing good around it for a meal. Walking there in what is expected to be some mad crazy heat will be no fun. So we were down with the shuttle. 

Ben performed a cover of a Psychedelic Furs song "The Ghost In You" which is a tremendously beautiful song when slowed down and coupled with an orchestra. 

He performed two songs that he wrote with Patreon fans, and I am kind of sad that one of them was called "Christine." It is about a girl he knew in 7th grade who is kind of a Q-Anon nutter and sends memes and all caps emails and is certifiably certifiable. 

Why. Why Ben??? Why did you have to name her Christine. I've been waiting for someone to redeem my name. Stephen King named a car Christine and it killed a mess of people. KISS has a song about basically underaged sex with a girl named Christine. Why can't someone write a great song with my name in it. Please. I want some pop culture redemption. 

Sara told me that her son thinks that I'm mentioned in a Guster song. "Doin' it By Myself" has a line of "Pure, pristine, unbroken" but he hears "Pure, Christine, unbroken."

I guess I'll take it as the most sweet thing anyone has ever thought about me. 

Ben's curation for this show included Leyla McCalla, who I knew from her time with the Carolina Chocolate Drops. She played cello and banjo, and her music was focused on Haitian Creole story telling. Tremendous with the orchestra. She confessed that as someone who spent her whole life running away from orchestras, it was an honor to be performing with one. I ended up spending most of the morning on Thursday watching videos of her performing with fiddle players and accordionists, just absolutely tremendous musicianship. 

The other guest was Cody Fry, polished, slick, expert and precise, he's like a young Ben Folds - without the anger and violence on the piano at that age with a mix of Michael Bublé and look of Ryan Reynolds. He got voted off of American Idol, but, that hasn't stopped him. He was nominated for a Grammy for an arrangement of Eleanor Rigby, and they performed it with the audience singing "Aah! look at all the lonely people." Before he came on stage, the orchestra performed a piece that his dad wrote. This level of talent runs in the family. 

All told, aside from me being sad about a song named after me, it was a great night. Sara and I had so much fun just chatting at dinner, we ran into 2 guster friends, and just had a great time. Here are a couple pictures. 

Top row: Leyla and her drummers. Bottom: Ben Folds wore sweatpants to the show to indicate how laid back and not fancy this series is (people were dressed fancy). Bottom pictures: Sara and me; Sara, Tim, Rachel and me. Fun meeting up with Guster fan friends who also love Ben! 

No pictures of Cody, I was too busy watching him.

Digits, Wednesday July 20

Exercise: dedicated 10 plus 9. 10 in the house, 9 in DC.

Blood Glucose:
8:45am: 189
5pm: 184
11:30 pm: 210

Food:
Coffee
Water
Iced coffee
greek yogurt + peach
small ramekin of "Everything" seasoned cashews (slightly honey roasted .... should have read the nutrition label first)
1/2 chicken parm piece left over from dinner the other night
2 cocktails
tuna poké nachos and bruschetta (OMG so good)
steak salad

Thursday, July 21

Exercise: "Dedicated 10" + 15. Doug ran errands and I stopped work long enough to walk my laps before 6pm

Blood Glucose: 
8:30am 197
4:30pm 168
11pm 160

Food:
Coffee
Water
yogurt + peach
sliced turkey rolls with avocado and swiss cheese
handfuls of everything cashews
Chicken breast, grilled in greek marinade (yogurt, mayo, olive oil, lemon, parsley, garlic) 
cucumbers & tomatoes in marinade sauce 

Brew Belly and M & M

 Our friends M&M are back in town this week. It was weird knowing they are staying 5 miles away at a hotel, near his office. I'd asked M if she wanted to come here and hang out during the day and she said she likes being by herself. She's disappointed the hotel has no pool. And to be honest, so am I. I'd so be over there instead of her coming here. So she found the county pool and took an Uber there and had a great day to herself. She deserves it. 

We went out to dinner with them tonight. Doug had suggested we go to one of our fave breweries and eat on the patio. M said he would rather eat inside, it is just too hot to be outside. I said ohhhh yes. I'm only now kind of getting used to being able to sit out in the evening and not be dead from the heat. I suggested he'll get used to it and he said no way. He said that after years of being in the Navy, in a 120 degree engine room, the heat is psychologically taxing to him. 

I get it. I understand. And I can honor his request to sit inside. They asked about a place called Brew Belly, I told her we've been there several times and love it. They have all sorts of local beers on tap, cans for take-out, and some of the best cheesesteaks south of philly.  We met up there and discovered it was Trivia Night, so of course we played. How fortuitous that we ended up there instead of getting take out and going to the other brewery. We can save that for the fall.

We didn't win but had a blast. Bonus questions saved our lives and kept us in the top third of the teams. Great dinner, great company, lots of fun. 

One of the rounds was to identify school seals from military academies and ivy league schools. We sucked at this. Crushed a couple other rounds but. Wow. Who the hell knows or cares. Harvard? Brown? Cornell? the hell? We had a good laugh. So glad they are here and will be here coming in the future. 

Digits below the picture.

exercise: because of going out to dinner, didn't get the dedicated 10. Will make up for it tomorrow.

blood glucose:
8:30am 192 (no snacking and wine in the evening on a regular basis, Chris!) 
6pm 143
10pm 200 (thanks beer and pretzel!)

Food:
coffee
water
iced coffee
BLAT Salad
buffalo cauliflower bites
parts of a Giant Pretzel
Large greek salad with beef
3 beers

Hazy Hot and Henry

When we lived in Boston there was a great radio station called WFNX. We listened religiously for years. Especially to the morning program "The Sandbox." I once told one of the former hosts that Jess and I would die laughing when they'd sing the olympic theme song with their own silly lyrics. He said he didn't ever remember doing that. I asked Jess and immediately the song came out of their mouth. 

It happened. Maybe as a fan I remember a lot more than the people who actually did the thing. I think that is sometimes the case. I know I've heard people say they wrote or recorded specific songs, but don't remember them at all. 

Their news guy was Henry Santoro. He was a joy to listen to. He now works at WGBH, which I do not listen to but I'm incredibly glad to know he's still out there doing his magic news thing. 

One of the things they would always say when reporting the weather was saying it was going to be "Hazy Hot and Henry." I always found that amusing. So whenever it is like today, 90 plus degrees, 90% humidity, heavy air, I think about Henry. 

It is not brutally hot out, it's regular hot. Which is too hot for me. And I think to myself this is Hazy, Hot, and Henry. 

It'll be in the 90s all week this week, so I'm trying not to complain. We're getting a giant thunderstorm right now, torrential rain, and it's not cooling things off. It's almost like it is bringing in more hot with it. Crazy.

I had a short break between meetings earlier this afternoon, and went out to the garden. A lot of of our red and yellow cherry tomatoes were ready for picking, and one larger tomato. Some of the tomatoes need me to revisit and tie them up on the stakes higher. They're growing a lot but nothing is turning red. We had this problem last year, where things just stayed green and we felt utterly ripped off. I'd like to know if we're doing something wrong. At least the chipmunks and squirrels are not pulling them off, eating 1/3 of the fruit and then leaving the abused fruit behind. While looking us in the eye through the kitchen windows.

Several of our peppers are ready, or I think they're ready. We have a purple one! And several of what I think are jalapeno or red peppers or something. They're all really pretty. I'll have to look at their little plastic dealies to see what's happening with them, what they're supposed to look like. 

After I picked tomatoes, I came inside to rinse them, and my hands smelled so nice. I love picking them, or cutting parsley, dill, and chives, and when I'm finished my hands smell like summer and earth. 

It pays to accept the heat sometimes.

Digits down there.

digits

Exercise: I passed on everything including the Dedicated 10. God today was just a big No.

Blood Glucose: 
8:00am 186
5pm 168
10pm 168

Food:
Coffee
water
iced coffee
tuna sandwich on 2 pieces of 647 bread; big bowl of homemade chicken soup
piece of chicken parm (too big, put half of it away for tomorrow)
red wine
a klondike low-sugar bar
ramekin of zen party mix

Doing Dishes for Three Solid Hours

Note: I laid down on the bed at 9:30 thinking I'd just play with my phone and then come update with the final reading and publish. But I fell asleep and woke up at 2. 

It never ends. It never will end.

On today's agenda was a visit to Doug's aunt's house for the one day for the rest of this month we have time to help her. 

She said she got fined because the electrical panel doesn't have a clear path to it. She said they never told her it had to. 

There was a lot of other lists of horrible things that the county is going to do. We listened to it all. The chief of the fire department is horrible, they keep showing up unannounced. And on top of everything, her dishwasher doesn't seem to be working. 

"I run the dishwasher and run the dishwasher and nothing comes clean! I've had that load of dishes in there for weeks and it just won't wash." 

I opened the dishwasher and it was filled to the gills, and there was about 5 inches of water in the bottom, not drained. Nothing was clean, and the stench was horrible. Well, it doesn't matter how many times you wash the load of dishes, if it doesn't drain, it doesn't drain. 

The sink was full to overflowing, so I got things organized to just start washing everything by hand that was there, so I could unload the dishwasher and maybe see if I could find out why it would not drain. 

I won't go into detail about the struggle it was to get things to the point where I could wash the dishes. The ones in the sink, the ones on the stove, the things in the stove, and the dishwasher. 

I started washing dishes at about 1pm. 

I finished washing dishes at like 4 something. I took a short break after taking some bags of trash out to the barrels, and I sat to drink some water outside. I was soaking wet from water from the sink, and had yet to hit the dishwasher. 

It was gross. So gross. I got all the dishes out, into the sink, hot soapy water, and started to absorb as much liquid as I could with paper towels. I used two whole rolls and thought to myself "Jeeeesh why didn't I bail it all out with a plastic scoop?" 

Dumb. 

Anyway - got to the bottom of the dishwasher, got it all wiped down and cleaned out. There was broken glass in the filter assembly. Glad I didn't poke myself with any of it. My guess was it's seriously clogged, but I figured I'd take out the filter assembly and see if I could find out what was in it. But. It's one of those dishwashers that you can't just pop shit out of. The spinny arms pop off but beyond that, screws, and clips, and all kinds of nonsense. I did that once back in Massachusetts and could not get it back together again and needed Doug to help. 

We told her she needs a plumber. We could do just so much. This was beyond our skills. Doug had just worked about 3 hours in the bathroom, cleaning stuff out of there. I had started it a few months ago, but didn't get too far. He knew the electrical panel had to be unblocked, so he aimed there and kept going. 

I left her a full sink of dishes that I had nowhere to put to dry. She sent us home with a cute little serving pot with a silver stand, and Doug asked for a couple of flower pots that were in the backyard. 

The fun part is, we got home, grabbed steaks and fajita wraps, came home and Doug whipped me up a G&T without me asking. 

"You earned all your good helper points for a month today."

Thank you for acknowledging. It was a lot of work. We made a lot of progress for her. 

Part of me thinks if I went back there Thursday the sink of dishes I left for her would still be sitting there. But I'm not going to think about it. At all. No.

Digits below the picture. 

Left to right: some sort of dressmaker's dummy for doll sized clothing, circa early 1900s; the living room view from the front door, all stuff that needs to go to storage; the view from the deck into the kitchen/dining room. I should have taken a picture of the dishes.

digits

exercise: No "dedicated 10" today but I managed to bust my ass working and my fitbit shows how much work I did. 

blood glucose:
9am: 202 (yikes? but I did eat a LOT of carb filled trail mix before bed last night so. Not surprised). 
6pm: 153
9:30pm: 202 

food:
Coffee
Water
Carb balance fajita wrap with peanut butter
2 fajitas of beef, sour cream, avocado (not carb friendly wraps but I was hungry)
several little chocolate crisp cookies
2 Gin & Tonics 

Not a wasted Saturday

 "You've wasted every moment of your Saturdays and your Sundays.

You're wasted from the boredom. It was never supposed to be like that..."

-Guster "Happier"

I woke up at 8:30 which is unusual for me. Rather early. 

I heard Doug and Geoff talking in the living room. I knew Geoff had class this morning from 9:30am to 12:30pm, so he was probably getting his breakfast ready and more coffee. 

Doug had started a second pot of coffee, Geoff went through one on his own when he woke up (he's an early bird so my guess was he was up at about 6). The coffee maker was struggling to get the job done. Sputtering, steam coming out from multiple locations. Hmmm. I waited for it to finish and tried to figure out if the water spout was clogged but it was all too hot. We figured out later that the water tube was not sucking up the water, and we tried to fix it but no dice. 

Life without coffee in this house is a non-starter so we knew we'd be going shopping. 

We needed a new regulator for the gas grill, and a few other things, and the farmers' market is on Saturday, so, I got dressed and ready and Doug and Chris went out together to run errands. 

Farmers' market was the first stop. More lil'squashes and zukes, beautiful gold cherries, apricots, peaches. Petting dogs and talking to strangers, like I do.  

Then over to the liquor store. We were literally out of everything. Wine. Vodka. Gin. I suggested tequila and Doug said "they're going to think we have a drinking problem at the cash register. I'll go to a different store later for that."

We then went to the hardware store. I'm sometimes surprised when I go to this lil place that they have so much stuff. I needed some low-rider beach chairs for the trip to Maine because the venue only allows these low style beach or camping chairs. We bought 3. Jesus they're expensive though?  I thought they'd be 25 bucks or something, but no way. So. 3 procured. Sara has to pick up 3 for herself/family but I took pictures to send her so she could see the 2 styles. And the kid size for Henry. 

Doug was exceptionally helpful picking out the chairs and going through the collection. Sometimes he's weird. He often thinks things are too too too expensive and I was shocked that he didn't balk at these being like 50 bucks each. He had me try out both styles of chairs, one was too low. I said something while trying to get out of the chair like "this could be embarrassing at the show" and he said "yeah, at the show..." meaning it was kind of embarrassing right now. So I busted out laughing. 

We looked at all the kitchen gadgets. Kitchen things are near and dear to both of our hearts, I'll be honest. It was rather fun. I'm a huge fan of lodge cast iron things, and he loves pans and sheet trays. We found these cute little silicon things you bake bread in, and if we bake bread this would have been a nice purchase. But we passed.

We found the regulator, a new puzzle (the one we've been working on since the spring is stalled but I'm going to rekindle the effort), tongs (we don't need any but Doug wanted them, so grillmaster 5000 got some new tongs), some replacement plants for my planters that .... well, the petunias didn't make it in. Boo. So I wanted to put something in there and salvage.  And I got a soft-sided food carrier for Maine. We will need more, but the venue has size restrictions so I think each of us will be packing some food to the festival. We just had a ton of fun shopping around for the things. It was really nice. 

Next, Target. Our local Target was recently remodeled and reorganized, and everything is super confusing. We got a handheld dirt devil so I can vacuum the stairs to the basement. They're gross and our vacuum is too big. In the pharmacy area, we hunted and hunted for the little brushes for Doug's electric toothbrush, but they don't have them there anymore that we can tell. 

Literally Doug: "They're not carrying toothbrush head replacements anymore but hey, an ENTIRE aisle of lube and personal pleasure massage devices!"

It was time consuming to find all the stuff we need, but we got just about everything we needed. Including a new coffee maker. 

We got home and chillaxed. Doug went to put the propane tank on the grill and found the new regulator didn't work either ... and realized it was the tank, not the regulator. 

He returned the tank, and hooked it up with our old regulator and it was perfect. He went back to the hardware store to return the regulator we just bought. 

Literally laughing his ass off because that was the only thing we really needed to buy today. Ha. Everything else was just extra. 

I then played Farmer Chris for a while before the rain came. I cut back all the giant leaves from the morning glories and revealed the mailbox so my poor mail carrier can find it. I pulled out the dying petunias from the pots and put them in wee pots that I can monitor, and put in the impatients that we bought to replace them. I weeded a little, and then when the rain decided it was going to be more serious than spritzing, I went inside to shower. 

Doug started a nice pork loin on the grill while I was doing garden junk, and we had that on fajita wraps with salsa, cheese, sour cream. Delicious. And so happy to have the grill doing its magic again. 

anyway. It was a good good day. here's some pictures! Digits after the snaps.

Before and after to reveal the mailbox so our letter carrier can find it.

Hi, i do not know my name.

Digits

exercise: "Dedicated 10" +5 15 min total registered on the Fitbit.
Walked a  TON in target because they rearranged and everything is confusing. Gardening. Weeds. Cut back all the morning glory leaves at the gate around the mailbox. Replanted some planter items.

Farmer Chris did a good job today. 

Blood Glucose: 

8:30am: 171
8pm: 155
10:30pm 167

Food:
Coffee
Water
small container of kielbasa, zuke, onion leftovers
pork loin on carb friendly wraps with shredded cheese, sour cream
2 bowls of Zen Party trail mix
2 hard seltzers
3 vodka tonics with lime

To The Office

 Today. Today is the day. The day I went back to my office. For the first time since March 13, 2020, I entered the building. I'd been to the building, to the back door to get a loaner laptop while mine was in the shop in the summer of 2020. I'd been near the office, at the end of the block at a beer garden.

But not inside.

I was going to go 2 weeks ago to get my computer fixed after a not so perfect OS upgrade, and still had not. Last week I couldn't share my screen in a presentation, because ... I didn't go into the office. This whole week, I didn't go into the office to get it fixed. Next week, I have to share my screen. And what will happen.... sigh.

Well then. Shit.

I felt like Cameron in Ferris Bueller sitting in the car, doing this: 

I'll go. I'll go. I'll go...... 

Only I don't have a 1960s Ferrari of my dad's to swipe and then have an epic adventure. heh. 

I took the new car. Very nice. Nice ride. Back window is very small and so are the mirrors so I had to think of maneuvers before committing to them. Front end is longer than I'm used to so when I pulled into a parking space it was an almost "oops" for me. But I caught it and corrected

We had a goodbye party on zoom for one of my colleagues at 11. My coworker Emily set up the conference room so she and I could sit in there. It was weird being at a party to say goodbye to someone I've never met in person.

I'm going to miss her and am so sad she's leaving, but she's going to be amazing where she's going. It is a great nextstep for her, and I felt like she was ready to go, and she's achieved all that our project can give her. I then connected with a coworker that I adore for a quick chat. My little lunch from the cafe was nice, there was always a robust salad bar there, but now they have pre-made take-aways. I didn't want the hot lunch they were offering, too many carbs. 

My computer issues took about a half hour to iron out, but the IT guy did a great job, confirmed that I can successfully screen share, the anti-virus messages won't pop up anymore that I need to buy the product. No more pop ups all the time. Thankfully. Ugh.

I had scheduled a meeting and pulled in a few colleagues for extra help and eyes. The screensharing worked flawlessly. Gosh yes.  We had a great chat, and I think we saved this person from having much more stress, and him stressing one of our colleagues out even more than he already has. Whew. But he just emailed me at 9pm and said it isn't working, and I am ignoring him. If he calls in an ER page I am on call and I may just kill him.

I texted pictures to my friend R of our desks, and some of the treasures I found as I was sorting through the boxes. We had a good laugh, there are some amazing memories of that space in two boxes. A little bittersweet.

Around 3pm, I started feeling it was time to go home. I was kind of wanting to reach out to team members in the building and say "hey, wanna go for a beer?" but they probably wanted to work for another two hours. I had to drive home so I wanted to not sit in traffic on a Friday night. 

Earlier this year my company came through and packed up all of our stuff at our desks, so everything I owned was boxed up, waiting for me. Waiting for us all. Hence, the car. I could have taken the metro. I could have come down any time on the Metro, but I knew I'd want to bring my shit home. 

So I brought my shit home. And I got halfway home when I realized I didn't take a picture at the Tiny Desk the way I wanted. Damn. I really wanted to swing by there and look around, and dream, of a certain band and how they have yet to get in there...

Here are a couple pictures of stuff from my desk. I kind of miss it, but, I really do love working at home. Maybe I'll go in some other time, by the metro, and stay later and have a beer with some of the folks I adore who are coming in regularly. 

Digits below. And my blood sugar will be no good later tonight because of the food choices and the take-out. 

digits:

exercise: "dedicated 10" plus 3. walking some laps in the office before a meeting (I missed walking laps in the office). It would have been more but I had to get back to my desk to start a meeting.

additional 20 at home with laps after dinner. 33 total min. of walking. Doug is on his walk, I loaded the dishwasher, put away dinner and noticed how much I was walking between rooms. Kept walking. Why not. Boom. 

blood glucose:

8am: 171
5pm: 226 (whaaat?)
9:30pm: 206

Food:
coffee
water
take away salad at the cafe, chicken carrots kale spinach apples balsamic vinaigrette 

a couple cherries
Chinese take out. General Tso's chicken with broccoli, boneless spare ribs, some combo fried rice, beef and snow peas, curry beef egg roll
2 beers