Happy Howl-o-ween

When we adopted Phineas, his mom said they didn't know his birthday because he was part of a group of puppies who were rescued together. So they estimated his birthdate as the end of October. B and her partner decided they'd just say it was halloween. 

So today's his birthday, observed. Happy birthday Phinster! 

He doesn't seem to care or notice. We're not the kind of family that sticks hats on pets (or halloween costumes, tried that once or twice but it just was not successful or fun). He's snoring his ass off next to me while I'm typing this. 

I didn't dress up for halloween for work, but I did wear a shirt I get to wear once a year, Carrie sent me this a while back and when people ask what I'm dressed up as I say "I'm a nice person for halloween." And, you know, I'm a nice person as often as I can be. 

We didn't have a lot of halloweeners this year - maybe 20. More than we had in Massachusetts regularly. But nowhere near as many as we'd anticipated (or bought candy for!) It was pouring at one point, and then it would let out and people would show up wonderfully. So we did get some good Halloweeners come visit.

A couple boys showed up together, one dressed as an astronaut and one a dinosaur. I asked them "how would an astronaut and a dinosaur be together on the same timeline? Tell me the story of how this happened?" 

The dinosaur said "Well, once upon a time..." and he launched into a tale of how the astronaut was sent to space and back in time. He found dinosaurs, and they talked, and he made friends with them. 

I said "and this was before the meteor came and hit the earth, and killed all the dinosaurs. 

They both said yes, that was true. So the astronaut saved the dinosaur, and they got in the spaceship to come back to our time. And the astronaut was given 20 million dollars for all the good work that he did to bring dinosaurs to our time. 

I told them to take all the candy they wanted for telling me such a wonderful story. 

Digits, below.

digits

exercise: Dedicated 10+1. Fit in an inside the house stroll while trick or treaters came.

blood glucose:
9am: 166
5pm: 172
9:30pm: 218 (all my own fault)

food:
coffee, water
9:30am: low carb wrap w/ low sugar pb & jelly
noon: metformin
noon thirty: 2 eggs, scrambled with shredded cheese and 2 sausage patties, salsa
3pm: ding dong; 1 m&ms "fun size" halloween candy
4:30pm 1/2 a beer (the rest went in the chili) 
6pm: chili and beer
through the evening - a lot of halloween candy, 2 more beers. 
10pm: ramekin of mixed nuts (no dried fruits)

leashed walking

It is yet another beautiful day out, not too cold and not too hot. Tevas, short sleeves, yoga pants. Like this is my weather. Today is one of 10 days that brings me such amazing weather joy. I have lived for this. 

Phin woke up at 7 on the nose, and we did our usual go out, get fed, get back in bed. Geoff came up at quarter to 9 and made coffee, unloaded the dishwasher (remember, that's noisy!) Everything in our house is too close together. I couldn't imagine living in a condo. I miss having a second floor away from any sort of hubbub and activity. A long hallway sounds nice even. 

It also occurs to me that when we Fall Back on the clock, Phin will be waking up at 6 because of his magical little body clock. Hmmm.

I played with my phone but then I had to pee, so I got up at about 10:30. 

The coffee pot was drained by Doug and Geoff by the time I got to it. I set to making the next pot. I then started gathering all the plants to water. I took the spider plants all together, set them in one half of the sink. Then the bigger pots of snake plants. And all the wee babies, the plant that has no name, the little spiders, the ZZ plant, the jade and the swiss cheese plant. And I noticed that the little mother of thousands seeds are starting to poke their lil'heads up. Everyone seems to have some new growth, or at least looks like it is not dying a horrible death at my hands.

This is reassuringly comforting.

Because it is Sunday, it is football day, and usually Doug prefers to stay home and look at the footballs than go anywhere, which is okay, especially if we did something fun on Saturday, which we did. 

When we moved here, we canceled DirectTV and NFL Sunday Ticket. So we are stuck with broadcast. Gross. 

The local team is playing at 4, so we were hoping they'd show us the Steelers/Eagles at 1pm but no. They're showing Dallas. That guy? Fuck that guy. Booooo. I asked Doug if he wanted to go somewhere like a pub to watch the Steelers game and he said no. 

He took a walk instead. 

He called me about 10 minutes later and said that a house up the street has some people moving out and they put a nice IKEA desk (and a bedroom set, and a little side table) so he thought Geoff might like the desk. Geoff has been using a little table for just his laptop, and he has nowhere to set a book or take notes, so he uses the work area in the basement that Doug set up for me (and I never use, which makes him sad. But. I feel like it's weird sitting with him down there when I do so many calls).

Geoff and I walked up to evaluate the desk, and yeah - perfect. So Hercules Boy picks it up and carries it home. No getting the Jeep for that guy! It is sitting in our yard right now, claimed as ours. I'm worried about the IKEA bed though. I mean, it looks like it is in great condition. I put something on Nextdoor.com hoping that it'll be claimed. Also, it's a super nice house, I kind of wish we were moving into it. That back deck, that yard, wow. 

Phin hates when people go for walks without him so I figured I'd take him on one. He wouldn't let me put his harness on so I grabbed a regular collar and some poop bags, and we headed out. 

What a menace he is on the leash. I forgot how annoying this is. Stopping ever 2 feet to sniff all the things, and then peeing on it. Okay, I get it, boy dog. Gotta cover up any neighbor dog smells. 

But honestly I want to walk here. I want to take a walk. My goal was a 20-30 minute walk, up to the pokegym, down to Georgia Ave, back across the neighborhood, down to the pokegym at the bottom of the street, then up to the elementary school, through the woods on the trail, turn right, go home. 

We made it to the Pokegym, and I just couldn't tolerate it any longer, so I turned around and we went home. 

I walked in the house for another 20 minutes, and he followed me the whole time. If he only walked this nicely on the leash. If the world was only less stinky with dogcentric smells. 

Maybe it is all our fault - he was wonderfully walking on the leash for years when he lived in DC, but here we are - fully fenced in yard, and we just let him do his thing. We broke him. 

I forgot to share this picture I took the other day from the doctor's office parking lot. 

There is a lot of "art" around the area. And I'm sure it is this way everywhere. A lot of the art is stupid sculpture work on roadsides and in medians, and some of it is god awful. But murals are very popular. I'm always impressed when I get to watch something like this come together. Last time I drove by, it was just the lines. It's truly coming to light and life right now. I gave myself some time to just stand on the rooftop of the garage and watch the lift go up and down as the artist did their magic. Really cool. Digits below.

digits: 

exercise: dedicated 10+22. Took Phineas for a walk, 11 minutes.
Walked 21 minutes in the house to make up for lost steps out there. 

blood glucose:
10:30am: 161
5:30pm: 171
10:15pm: 155

food:
coffee, water
12:45pm: metformin; apple and peanut butter 
3:30pm: 7 wheat crackers with peanut butter; ramekin of mixed nuts (no fruit)
6:30pm: metformin+jardiance
7pm: 11 grilled chicken wings with buffalo sauce; 1 beer

Bleachy Clean and Beery Goodness

Doug does not like somethings and I have learned to deal with his weirdnesses. 

He hates the vacuum, the noise and the smell. The dishwasher is too loud. When unloading the dishwasher, that's too noisy when you clang the pots, pans, and dishes. If I clean the kitchen before bed and my hands smell like cleaning stuff, which sometimes they do, he hates that.

"You didn't wash your hands?" he asks.

"Well yes. Yes, I did, but I used spray cleaner to wipe down the counters, got ready for bed, and washed my hands with scent free soaps, because you don't like smelly things, and my hands still smell like 409." 

I also do not like it when my hands are smelly when I go to bed but I get over it because ya know what, my kitchen is clean. Happy for that. 

Then he tosses and turns and makes noises expressing disgust.

Today I was sitting in the living room and Doug went into the bathroom. The toilet needed a scrubbing, I knew that, but I hadn't gotten to it. I was going to ask Geoff to bring up his bottle of toilet bowl cleaner so I could use it. He starts banging around and looking in cabinets and finds the jug of bleach. And he pours some into the john, scrubs it, and starts getting on about how much of a genius he is. "We buy toilet bowl cleaner with bleach in it when we can just use bleach! Why am I wasting my money on specific cleaner when I have bleach in the house!" 

He called himself a genius, yall. He wants to scream it far and wide. Stop buying that toilet bowl cleaner stuff and just use bleach! Hints from Heloise be damned! This is hint from Doug! 

I told him that I'm proud of him for figuring that out for us. Good job. But now my house smells like the YMCA because bleach and chlorine smell the same. It's okay really - I actually like the smell. To me, in my little birdbrain, the smell of bleach indicates something is clean. Really clean. Not just wiped down with a damp towel or some weak ass cleaner. I've always equated it with cleanliness. 

So my house smells like it is "clean." I like that. 

We went to a brewery today, at about 4pm Doug came out from studying and said we should go do something before it got dark. Geoff wanted to come with, so we had to go somewhere Phineas would be welcome too. 

So we drove up to Poolesville, leaf peeping and just enjoying the light and the leaves. So beautiful and pretty. It was delightful. We had been to this brewery once before, and loved it. They have a food truck and nice beers and always a good playlist with great music. And we had a bonfire. It was really nice. But it is way way out there in the woods, far from our house, so it is kind of the place you should go earlier in the day, or before it is pitch dark and super remote. 

Still. A great visit and a nice time out. Digits below.

digits 

exercise

blood glucose:
10am: 191
4pm: 126
10:15pm: 171

food:
coffee, water
12 noon: turkey & cheddar sandwich on 647 bread (2 slices of cheddar, a ton of turkey, mayo, salt & pepper); metformin
4pm: several handfuls of nuts, 2 good yogurt (cherry)
6 pm to 8pm: 3 beers
6:30pm: sausage over wilted greens with feta and diced red onions
7pm: metformin+jardiance
9pm: cheese, crackers, salami, grape tomatoes

The Doc

(Updated yesterday's entry because I forgot to log my exercise there, which, I actually did!)

Today I had that there doctor's appointment. 

She's a new to me doctor, but Doug has been seeing her since we moved onto this insurance plan 3 years ago. My doctor relocated to Pennsylvania, and I'll miss her for sure. 

In email, new doctor is a little brusque, but in person she's delightful. We went over everything, did a retinal diabetes check, and foot check. We talked about the triglycerides numbers and she thinks I need a longer period of time between my a day that I have a beer or other alcohol, and the blood draw. This was less than 48 hours. She said we should wait until after the holidays, maybe February, "so we don't ruin any family celebrations by making it so you can't enjoy a glass of wine or so." 

I think I like how she thinks. 

We talked about the high numbers for those two weeks, the pizza and beers at Chincoteague, and then the cold medicine. She said absolutely, even if the cold medicine is marked "no added sugar" the active ingredients in the medicine will raise blood sugar. So she was happy to know I was back down to what is "normalish" for me, even though it is still a little too high. The important number is the A1c. I asked if the 2 weeks of high numbers impacted the results and the reading could have been under 7, and she said yes, for sure. Darn. 

So we're looking to February for the next results.

The last weight I had recorded was the day I got my xiaflex injection back in September, and that was 210.6 with all my clothes on. 

Today, the weight (all clothing on) was 208.9. I didn't take a picture for the blog because the nurse was ushering me along to the appointment room for vitals and vaccinations, but am recording it here so I know.

We talked about how since I've lived here I have dropped like 30 pounds or so. I showed her a picture of me from 2011 from the beer blog. I'll include it here for reference. 

Even though I weigh a lot more here in this picture, I love this picture. My friend Dave took it, and we loved the "Slow" sign. He is "slow" because he had developed a seizure disorder. And I like taking it slowly in life, soaking in the atmosphere around me, taking the cute moments easy, and trying not to stress the small stuff (and remembering, everything is small stuff). 

We talked about slow assuredness and goal setting. I don't have an unreasonable goal (my goal is to break 200 and get to 199, for now) and that we're on the right track. It may not happen by the end of this year, but it will. 

She was super nice, I liked her. And while I am going to miss my original doctor, heck. I feel like I moved into good hands. 

I did mention I got the Covid bivalent shot and the flu shot. I'm hoping it doesn't knock me on my ass. Doug is studying for his test and will probably be super focused on it this weekend, so if I am knocked on ass, it won't be like the worst weekend for it to happen. 

Digits below. Obvs. 

digits

exercise: Dedicated 10+3; quick walk in the house while 

blood glucose:
8am: 191
5pm: 171
10:30pm: 220

food:
coffee, water
11:45: 2 carb balance wraps with avocado, turkey, cheddar cheese; grape tomatoes on the side
12:30: metformin
4pm: 3 celery stalks in low sugar pb
6:45pm: roast chicken, mashed potatoes, stuffing, carrots (yes i did), and homemade gravy. 
9:15: metformin+jardiance (forgot to take it right around dinner because I made dinner, ate, and cleaned the kitchen up)

Seven Point Oh

The results for all the rest of my blood stuff came in overnight, around 2am. 

The A1c is 7. 

I just noticed that the A1c when I got all my blood tested while in the hospital for Covid back in December 2020 was 6.8, And then it shot up hugely after. The whole recovery time I was all about sliced sourdough bread, cherry preserves, and tons and tons of saltines. Tons. So. changing all of that was necessary. We're making progress.

The one thing that didn't go down was the Triglycerides. That actually went up. Everything I had tested was in range, even my LDL and HDL, but that dang ole Triglycerides. The doctor's note said she's concerned that I've got Fatty Liver. "Control your diabetes and lose weight" is the Johns Hopkins website advice. 

Oh, okay. What have I been doing, yo? 

I mean, it doesn't help that I just had 5 peanut butter cup minis right before a meeting, instead of a nice 2 good yogurt. I was in a rush and they were there, next to the ice. Lookin' good. 

For scaling back on alcohol, I've really done that quite a bit. I had a couple beers Monday, nothing since. I've cut back really far on the booze (compared to 2020, 2021, wine/beer/vodka tonic just about daily) and I've been twice a week instead of 2 or 3 a day. I'm also very honest. I have been tracking everything for months. 

Hmmm. Really thought the Triglycerides would show great improvement. Maybe I need more time?

Nice downward trend there. Yay! I'm looking forward to my doctor's visit tomorrow and will set another meeting up with the nutritionist. Digits below the progress chart!

digits: 

exercise: Dedicated 10+11; 21 minutes in house

blood glucose: 
8am: 181
5pm: 200
9:30pm: 177

food:
coffee, water
noon: 2 apples with peanut butter; some mac and cheese with bacon (probably 5 forkfulls); metformin
3pm: 5 reese's mini pb cups
6pm: chicken parm. 1 chicken breast, a little sauce, cheese. Vodka tonic (reward for all the dumbness of the day and this blood stuff).
8pm: ramekin of mixed nuts (no dried fruit!)

Mice, redux

Last night, Doug came to bed and said there was a mouse, a very little mouse, in the living room. It was hiding under a table, looked like a rock, but with a tail. It had noticed Doug moving, and froze. Doug caught him out the corner of his eye. Busted, little dude.

In the spring, we had a bunch of mice. We took care of the mice. Well, Doug did. I was just sad every time I heard the trap snap. It was summer then and no more mice came in to hang out. But here we are with the fall, and some new mouse action. He's resetting the traps. There was a period where we trapped a mouse or two a day. I'm wondering how many we'll get this fall.

It makes me sad though, even if we don't want mice in our house. Similar, certain bugs. I cleaned the shower this morning and there was a giant spider by the drain. Oh honey. No. You stayed so hidden for as long as it took you to get big and you ate lots of bugs, I'm sure. But no. I smooshed it, and felt bad. 

They're doing the only thing they know to do - survive. I say it all the time, it's a hard world for small things.  I just don't want them in my house, in my space, ya know?  

Doug had a job interview today so he took the whole day off. The job was not a good fit, primarily the shitty pay and the fact it is part time (but they listed it as a full time job). 20 hours or less. So no. Even  though he really wants to quit his job this would be a giant mistake. Back to the drawing board. 

Since he has the whole day off, he's taking the car in for its emissions inspection. He's at the dentist right now. Some days you just take the whole day off and do all the things. 

I just ran over to do bloodwork ahead of my Friday doctor's appointment. I was going to take the whole afternoon off, but changed my mind. 

Hoping that 7.2  A1c has crept downward. A little worried after those 2 weeks of super high readings (wild, cold medicine induced, I think). Someone told me daily readings do not impact A1c, so, I'm hoping that is true. As of now, I'm going to post and go to bed, but the results haven't been sent yet. An update for tomorrow I betcha.

I took a couple pictures today while out at the doctor, but this one struck me as just So This Month. My super dead morning glories are still pumping out the pretty flowers. The vines grew all up the weird bush/tree thing that keeps growing back, and all the way up and over our holly bush that is like 10 feet tall. They cascade down and dangle over the sidewalk. It is all very dramatic and just what I wanted out of them. And the neighbors have beautiful trees. Digits below. 

digits

exercise: Dedicated 10+10

blood glucose:
8am: 173
5pm: 193
9:30pm: 218 (kind of close to dinner, and I did have corn chips and all that...) 

food:
coffee, water
11:30: chicken salad left over from yesterday
12:15: metformin
3:15: 2 good blueberry yogurt
3:45pm: some forbidden reese's mini pb cups that geoff bought me and put in the freezer.
5pm: Nachos. chips, beef, cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, avocado, sour cream, salsa
7pm: metformin+jardiance

Stew

Had such an incredibly busy day that  I have nothing for a post. Thankful for Doug who made dinner tonight (to rave reviews from Geoff, and from himself). 

I was happy not to have to make dinner tonight as I pounded through work things. He does a stew thing where if we have a couple chicken breasts,  and a bunch of other crap, he makes a good stew. 

But sometimes he is obnoxious about it, how skilled he is. 

And tonight Geoff came up  and told him  how AMAZING the stew was, and there is  enough left over for him to have lunch tomorrow  (not the rest of us) so he  isn't helping  by making Doug feel amazing  about his fooding. 

Insufferable. 

But, I didn't have to cook. And that was nice.  

no image today. 

digits

exercise: Dedicated 10+15

blood glucose:
9am: 144
5pm: 165
9:30pm: 207 (very close to having just had trail mix)

food:
coffee, water
12:30: chicken salad (chicken, mayo, cream cheese, grapes, pecans) on 2 low carb wraps
1:30: metformin
6:30: Doug's chicken stew (2 bowls); chicken, bacon, canned diced tomatoes, corn, mushrooms. 
7:30: metformin+jardiance
8pm: trail mix (craisins included)

To the Office, Again!

Today I went to the office, but I went in at 3pm.  Because I am a clown. 

I should have been there for an in-person meeting with the entire team on our project but I literally realized people were meeting in person when the coordinator of said meeting mentioned lunch will be provided in a meeting update. 

Oh.

Lunch. Means people are going to be eating there, not that people will get a delivery from Wendy's in time for the meeting. Okay. I get it.

My boss is in town, he lives in Vermont has decided he'll travel down for things. He stays with a friend in DC, and I guess got here yesterday and had fun hanging around. He posted pictures from the office window, and I bet he's happy to be bumping around HQ. 

My intention was to head down later in the day after the meeting. Then do my 4pm mtg with a station in Boise and then go out with my boss and whoever else wants to come. He picked a place that does not have food, so I may have to stop at Harris Teeter by the office and get some cheese or something. 

Hmm. Anyway. 

It's kind of gloomy and rainy out, so I hope it doesn't rain on us. He wanted outdoor seating, and they have some covered, and a lot uncovered.  Hoping any rain holds off. 

It is very quiet up here, and if you sit still too much, the lights turn off. I kind of like it. And I wish they had not packed up my white christmas lights, because that would add some ambiance.

At one point, several co-workers came by this area and we had quite a gather. There were 7 of us, just chatting and catching up.

Wow. I didn't realize how much I missed some of these jerks. 

We had a nice night out. One of my coworkers got molested by a fern at the beer garden. Here she is: 

digits: 

exercise: dedicated 10+22. broken up, of course, metro to office, around the office, through the neighborhood, from the metro to the car.....

blood glucose:
9am: 183
xpm-missed due to having fun?
9:30pm: 168

food:
coffee, water
10:30am: mcintosh apple with peanut butter
12:15: 3 low carb wraps, with bacon, turkey, lettuce, avocado and mayo (the wraps are small)
2pm: metformin (thought i took it at 1 but it was sitting on the counter with the night time pills, doh)
5pm: beer
6pm: one buffalo chicken breast, a little coleslaw, some pickles; 2 more beers
9:45pm: 2 good cherry yogurt; ramekin of mixed nuts

Some Fantastic I Know It's True

(should have published 10/23. fell asleep) 

Doug is studying for his certification thing again. 

I just made a pot of coffee and discovered we have 3 filters left. Which I'm having a super hard time believing. I mean, there are hundreds of them in the package. There is no way we have run out of filters. To be sure, I cleaned the pantry out an reorganized it, just to see if I could find a package that would have another little batch, and then I won't have to go to Target or anything. 

But, poop. 

I remembered the last time we bought filters, I unwrapped the whole batch of them and put them in this nice bowl in the cabinet above the coffeemaker. I put ALL of them in the nice bowl. I recalled that both Doug and Geoff gave me shit for it, "why don't you just put some of them in there and the rest in the pantry? There's a leaning tower of Pisa of filters in there now..."

"This way we'll see when we're running out and we will know to get more," was my reply. So. My own doing and planning. To get us to this point where we now need a new bag of filters. 300 of them. Or whatever. 

A trip out may unfortunately be in the cards today as a result. But I do not want to go. I need to shower. And I don't feel like it. But I'm gross. I was a slug all day yesterday, burning the day.  

My beer blog updating over the day yesterday paid off, though. I got a hit from one of the breweries, and they shared my post on their facebook. I have never had 30 visitors on that blog in a day. In  fact, I don't even know why I keep it, but it's nice to look at the pictures. 

Super nice to get some love from a great brewery that we went to this summer!

While Doug is in the shower, I did the pantry cleaning and I unloaded the dishwasher, I dumped out all the laundry that needs to be folded and now it's all sitting on my bed taunting me. 

I'm listening to Barenaked Ladies on Spotify while he's in the other room. I like streaming stuff I like on his account to mess up his algorithm so when he listens to the daily lists it'll have things I like in it, which to be honest, he doesn't hate but. Screamin Jay Hawkins into Milk Carton Kids is kind of funny. 

I know a lot of people talk about how they want BNL to reunite. I'm okay with it. It's okay. They made certain decisions, broke up, and life goes on, as far as I'm concerned. Steven Page is making some amazing music with his Trio (seriously, if you are reading this and you ever get to go see them, please do). I have only listened to the new album once, but will dive in and swim in it soon. I have to say though, that the live album Rock Spectacle is the album that got me into them, and it is just a complete masterpiece. I listen to the studio versions of the songs and they are great but when you get Steven singing "What A Good Boy" with all his heart and soul, and the keyboard work that Kevin brings to it. 

It's like lightning in a bottle. And I am so happy that it exists. 

Doug is out of the guest room, done studying for the day and ready for football. He's listening to one of the songs on the stream now from the album "Gordon," and I don't think he's ever heard it ("Crazy" is the title) and he's over here going "Is this Barenaked Ladies! What is this noise! What is this weird mess! What are they doing!" 

It's not on Rock Spectacle. So he wouldn't know it. It is not their best song. True. 

digits

exercise: dedicated 10+26!

blood glucose: 
10am: 153
5pm:173
xpm: n/a  - fell asleep

food:
coffee, water, herbal tea
11am: carb balance wrap  w/low sugar PB&J
12:15pm: metformin
3pm: 2 good cherry yogurt
5:30pm: Reese's peanut butter cup
6pm: Tyson buffalo chicken strips, 10 tater tots, bleu cheese, celery, tomatoes
7:15: metformin+jardiance
8pm: ramekin of  trail mix (walnuts, pecans, almonds, craisins) 

Touch some grass

It is a very very beautiful day out. We should be outside doing yard work or something, or hanging out at a brewery maybe. 

Doug has been looking for a new job, and for the past couple of years he's been saying he needs to get some certification for blah blah blah I don't know what. Years. 

Well.

None of the jobs he's applying for are getting back to him, and one interview he did have wasn't a good fit. He believes if he has this certification it will make him more attractive to prospective employers. He has no idea why he's not getting any bites. It's been 6 weeks since he started actively looking - and I reminded him that it was an incredibly long time (more than 4 months) before he got an interview for the job he has now. back in 2018, when we were sweating it. We'd used all our money for the move the year before, had to buy 2 new used cars in the span of no time, and we were just kind of coasting along, beating back debt but also having a lot of fun spending money on entertaining ourselves and travel. We weren't planning on needing a stockpile of cash to get through some time.  

So when he got surprisingly laid off, well, we pretty much ran through our savings and ran up our debt again. 

I'm less concerned with that this time, because we have bigger savings, and I make more money  than I ever have in life. So. I think we're good if he should quit or lose the job. He said he's not going to just quit without having something. And this time, it's not like getting laid off as a contractor. Last time he got laid off, they were nice about it and gave him 2 weeks pay, which they didn't have to do for a non-benefitted worker. Now he can walk away with all his paid time off, which is about three months pay in and of itself. 

So in theory, he could just walk away and take his PTO and dedicate  all his time to looking. If it's going to take that amount of time like last time. I'd rather he not, he'd rather he not, but he is for sure not wanting to work at his job anymore. 

 He has an interview Wednesday. 

It is a travel job like one he did between his most recent two jobs for a contract back in 2018. I just looked at his LinkedIn and he doesn't mention it - he really should. It was a good gig but it was a 10 week temporary job. I think that's why he left it off, but. Hmmm.

He really liked doing that job, going to the clinics and doing medical records audits, working with this other guy and flying all over the country. I'm glad he liked it and think he would like doing this job too. This job is with a different company, and is a local gig going to clinics within a 50 mile radius. He said they also have travel contracts. He'll let them know he's interested in that.  

He doesn't need the certification he's going for in order to get that job. But he should have done this a couple years ago, and he's applying his brain to do so now. He's in the guest room with the door closed. He came out to get his wallet so he could pay for the test prep materials, like a class. He took some practice tests without studying and crushed them, so he feels like he could just take the test and not have to pay for these materials, but you can only take it once a year, if you fail you have to wait. So he'd have to wait until January to retake it. 

Better be fully prepared, right? 

It's a beautiful day out. I'm inside with a farting, sleeping, snoring dog. Listening to the dishwasher sing its song. I kind of thought we'd go to the farmers' market and see about some apples. We need a trip to target. I scrubbed the stovetop, put the burner grates into the dishwasher  with a bunch of bowls from last night's dinner prep that didn't fit in on the run before bed. 

I could work on the beer blog again. I updated my About Me page here  on the blog the other day. I tested a new feature on our content management system for work and found all kinds of good things that broke, that I know stations are going to hate.  So that was fun to write up. 

One of the funny things people say on the internet to other people when they feel they should step away from the computer is "why don't you go out and touch some grass." Like, you need a break. Touch something other than your keyboard. So I was thinking maybe I'll go out and touch some grass, or, take a nap. Since all the sounds around me from snoring dog to running dishwasher are so soothing. 

Well, as of this writing at 10:30pm, I didn't get out to touch grass. I took a nap. Geoff and I made dinner. I cleaned the kitchen. I worked on the beer blog and caught up on a lot of posts. Still more to catch up on. But I'm kind of tired. 

Here's a picture that I don't think I posted here just to fill the space. It is full of pretty colors.  

digits

exercise: none except house cleaning...

blood glucose:
10am: 180
5pm: 142
10:30pm: 110 WOOOOOOOOOT

food:
coffee, water
11:30am: bacon and cheese omelet  (3 eggs, 4 pieces of bacon)
12:30: metformin
3:15: 2 good yogurt
5:15pm: wine on ice
6:30pm: cheesesteak filling (steak, cheese, onions, mushroom)
7:15pm: metformin+jardiance
8pm plus: havarti cheese and more wine

Galileo King of Night Vision, King of Insight

 Galileo. I play it every year for Clayton's birthday. But before today I'd never seen this official Indigo Girls video. It kind of hit me in all the feels on a couple levels. 

First, they are so young and so beautiful. My cishet soul did have a certain yearning for their cuteness, I'll admit the hell out of that. But I had me some Doug, also cute. Also adorable. God we were all so young. 

Second, all of the screen text. Watch the video, and read along. At first I was a little confused but I let it run, and read everything... and it all was so moving. 

What was I in a previous life? I don't necessarily believe in going and coming and if I was anything before I am who I am today. Not sure I buy that. 

I always think about whether or not he'd like Guster. I bet he would. He loved to play that damn guitar. We had to rescue it to give it back to his mom and sister, all his stuff was left behind and someone had it all. Or maybe his car was dead in our driveway and he was supposed to come get it, and stuff was in it. I just remember desperately needing to get the guitar back to his sister and his mom. I kind of wanted to keep it. 

One regret is that I never learned how to play. I would sing, he's play a guitar part, and he'd record it on a tape cassette. Then he'd play it back, with me singing the harmony and him playing a different guitar part. What we could have done with digital and Pro Tools. 

Anyway. It's been a long time since 2002. I miss ya, Brown Guy, "Clayton rhymes with Satan," you big dingus. 

How long 'til our souls get it right, Clayton? Let me know if you get a chance. 

digits, as usual, below. 

digits

exercise: none today - talked to my sister instead

blood glucose: 
9am: 203
5pm: 162
10:15pm: 180

food:
coffee, water
10:30am: slices of ham (just. like a savage)
12:30pm: metformin; plate of chicken salad
6pm:  Kielbasa and onions; cauliflower (buffalo style with this recipe, flour and honey SPARINGLY); pierogies (4 of them, 40 grams of  carbs total) 

What Day Is This?

Today, I thought I had to go get blood work 24 hours before a doctors appointment. My appointment is next Friday. Not tomorrow. Jebus, my brain. I swear.

I discovered this when my dentist called me to make a cleaning appointment for November, and I opened my calendar to look at tomorrow - and didn't see the doctor's appointment? Um. I always put those things on the calendar so I can refuse meeting invites when they come through for the same time. 

This happens to me a lot. Doug too. He thought he had to be somewhere today, and realized it is next week. And he forgot he's got a doctor's appointment tomorrow to get his shingles vaccine. Luckily, he remembered when a co-worker was talking about it.

When we were driving to Chincoteague, we went by a WWII air show in Easton, MD. I looked up the event online and it said October 8th... but in my mind it was October 15th. So I thought they were silly for not updating their website with the new date, and was it rescheduled from the week before? Because of weather? Who doesn't update their website? What were they thinking? But oh. Christine.

Literally it was indeed and actually October 8th and my brain is never right. 

So I write everything down and put it all in Outlook and Google Calendar so I know what is going on. 

I've been trying to figure out why my blood sugar is so high over this past week or so. I'm wondering if it is the cough medicine morning noon and night that I've been taking? The internet says maybe so! 

But it was kind of high before I caught the cold, back when we were in Chincoteague. Almost like my medication just stopped working altogether one day. 

I think that tonight's cough medicine is the last dose I'll need, so we'll see if things go down starting tomorrow? This weekend? Maybe? 

That and I also got a good walk in today. If I keep that up, hopefully next week we'll have better digits for the blood work before the doctor's appointment. 

Next Monday, my boss is coming down to DC so I'm headed into the office to go meet up with him and others for drinks after work. 

Speaking of Drinks, I'm updating the beer blog after neglecting to do so for weeks and weeks and months. Such great beers and moments. All the way back to New Orleans in June!  Dang. Just wrote up Zony Mash and Courtyard, working on our summer visit to New Hampshire and Sawbelly Brewing (some of the best food we've had at a brewery in forever), True Respite here in our neighborhood, and up to Mad Science.  Evolution, Black Narrows, and Burley Oak when we were down on the Eastern Shore. So many neglected blog entries! 

While I'm not drinking a lot of beer, I'm tasting a bit and enjoying taking pictures still. For sure. And here's a picture. Digits below.

digits

exercise: Dedicated 10+23 - inside the house walk. 

blood glucose:
9am: 209
5pm: 233
9:45pm: 203

food:
coffee, water
9:30am: omelet (cheese and ham, 2 eggs)
12:30pm: metformin
2:30pm: Ham+American Cheese sandwich on 647 bread w/mayo
6pm: beef stroganoff and buttered noodles.
7pm: Metformin+jardiance

Fancy Charity Thing

I went to the fancy charity thing tonight. My stuffy nose about as good as it gets, and I found my dress shoes too, which don't fit anymore (they are too small). 

It was really nice. A big celebration and silent auction (I didn't win anything but my friend did! Woo hoo! Fancy dinner that her husband won't like and I'm her date!)  

It was super inspiring to listen to all these people who do all sorts of awesome things with DC public school kids. I mean. Amazing stuff. Really powerful testimony and witness to the power of love and empathy. I got to meet a State Senator, and my friend and her friend (she brought 2 of us) looked super cute. 

I think about all the time I spent and invested in kids over the years, with Scouts and the Shakespeare Camp, and the running joke of "It's only an hour a week" came back to mind. All the effort, the hopes and dreams, the fund raising, the budgets, the grants, the tears. I mean. It is so much. 

I got to meet a Senator too. He was nice. I won't post that picture because I don't want anyone to think I am on one side or another or anything, what with where I work. 

Digits below. Here's me, Sara, and her friend Erin. Erin put some filter on the picture or some shit. I look extra nice and not at all red skinned and weird. Especially wearing a red blouse. And I curled my hair all super good and it was amazing when I left the house and then floppy and not at all stylie by the time we took this picture. 

digits

exercise:   

blood glucose:
9am: 216
4:30pm: 205
10:30pm: 211

food:
coffee, water
noon: metformin
noon thirty: 2 left over pork chops, a bunch of green beans, and broccoli. Leftover Festival! 
5pm: 2.5 oz bag of planters mixed nuts
7:30pm: metformin+jardiance; 1 glass of red wine over ice; hors d'oeuvres at charity dinner: vegan crabcake, small tastes of food competition - butternut squash themed things. Soup, goat cheese & squash fritters, butternut squash salad. Lots of cauliflower. Lots of cheese, 2 mango shrimp skewers, basil hummus
10:30pm: 2 good cherry yogurt

Doctors Appointment

On Friday I get to go meet my new doctor. 

The doctor I've been seeing is out on leave, I'm not sure if she's having a baby or sick, I worry about her. She is actually the sweetest  thing.  I really have enjoyed having her as my doctor for the past few years. Wishing her well in my heart. 

Doug suggested I switch to his doctor. We were assigned random doctors when we signed up with this practice, so this  is a chance for us to get on the same page with the same doctor. For about 30 something  years our entire family had the same doctor, I think Jess still goes to him and his practice. Not sure if they've changed or he's retired. Anyway. I miss him a lot sometimes. He literally was the campus doctor at our college, so he had been my doctor since I was 19.

Wild. 

Trying to get all of this blood sugar and triglycerides stuff  in order and working with the nutritionist and all, my blood sugar has been super high for about a week. I'm nervous about going to get the A1c checked and have it be back up over 7.2. Cross your fingers, send good vibes, aim for 7. In our heart of hearts, I'm hoping we're making that progress. 

I know the big factor in a lot of this is exercise and I can and should do better. I really should. I made myself go out for a walk today, and dang it if I shouldn't have worn a coat. How very DARE  it be cold here? 

So ... Planning on blood work on Thursday afternoon. Cross your digits that the A1c is ...better. Even if my daily digits are dumb.

Meant to take a picture today but  it got dark fast. Two days of digits below. Monday I was too wiped out to do an entry, so. Saved it all for today!!!

digits

Monday

exercise: none

blood glucose:
9am: 245
7pm: 215
10pm:  192

food:
coffee, water, hot tea
9:30am: apple
11:30am: brie & turkey wrap (low carb wrap)
noon: metformin
2pm: pbj, on 647 bread
7pm: 3 boneless pork chops w/shake & bake; broccoli
7pm: metformin+jardiance

Tuesday

exercise: dedicated 10+3. outside, it was cold out so i hurried back

blood glucose:
9am: 195
5:45pm 216
9:30pm 201

food:
coffee, water
11am: 2 good yogurt
1pm metformin; grilled american cheese+turkey and hummus on 647 bread
3:15pm: apple+peanut butter
5:45pm: metformin+jardiance
6:30: chicken breast w/cheese and bacon

Farmer Chris News Report

First: a note. My dad was in the hospital. He had a TIA on Friday morning, and then while at their watering hole in the afternoon, he had a hard time communicating, started to stumble, and said he couldn't feel his face. One of the waitresses sat him down in a chair, and another told my mom she should get him to the hospital as soon as possible. 

And of course, he didn't want to go. But she took him.

My sister called my mom to say hi, and mom told her he'd been in the hospital since Friday afternoon. My sister blew up at her for not telling us he'd been in the hospital for 24 hours. Then my mom yelled at her (using both her christian names) for swearing at her. My sister said she'd cuss her out all she wanted for not telling either of us about this, AGAIN. Mom changed the subject and asked about Linda's dog, which made her even angrier. I was going to call last night, but by the time I got near free enough to do it, it was 8:30pm and I didn't want to bother her. 

Mom told Linz they did an MRI and cat scan Friday, but didn't have any answers for her. She just called, and he's home, and his doctor told him not to be an idiot in the future, when it first happens, like, at 9:30 in the morning don't leave it until 2pm when you're at the bar cashing in your KENO tickets and you start to fall over and can't talk to the waitress running your bets.

Regretting when we were there last that we did not do a couple paperwork things, like getting put on a "you can talk to my kids" permission slip for their doctors and hospital, so we can learn 100% when something is a thing. 

---

Yesterday I felt horrible. 

I stayed in bed until 10am, then took a giant nap around 1pm, and went to bed around midnight but couldn't fall asleep. Then this morning, slept until 10. And I need a nap. No energy to even do an entry yesterday but I kept my digits. They'll be below.

I was supposed to go to a fundraiser benefit with my friend last night, and all day I laid around going "ugh. I... don't think I can go." She said it was semi-formal, and honestly, does ya girl own a thing? no. I have a blouse that I use at Christmas time (it's red) with black slacks. I lost one of my dress shoes. I'm always hot when I wear this shirt (not hot sexy but hot roasting my ass off).

She messaged me at noonish to ask something, we had some fun chatting about the zit she got, of course, like ya do right before a big event.

I told her I had a bad cold and felt like hot garbage. 

"I'm trying to decide which jerk I am. The jerk that backs out of a thing because they're sick, or the jerk that goes to the thing and spreads their horrible cold."

She told me that she would not be mad if I didn't go. 

I was so relieved. I couldn't imagine going anywhere last night. There's another event on Wednesday night, so, cross your fingers that I feel better. I want to go and be supportive, and also go and have a good time and all that. 

I like fun.

I feel better today but feel like I just did too much during the day. Doug told me that there was a yard sale around the corner from us, and I told him I knew because the lady posted on Next Door about it and how no one came yesterday. I had thought of going to see her, because she mentioned flower pots. But see "I'm sick" above and know I was actually too sick to even want to be vertical. 

He said he saw the flower pots, and thought of me. He told her that he liked the plates she had, and she said "OH I WILL HOLD THEM FOR YOU!" and he said "ugh. shit. Okay. I'll be back tomorrow." 

So he went back this morning for plates that we do not need, but there was a sugar and creamer set with them, and a good sized serving platter, so those things will be used even if I put the 5 (nice uneven amount) plates away. 

He also got 2 wire shelves, one skinny, one wide, a bunch of the aforementioned flower pots, some with holes and some without, a bird feeder on a big stick, a lamp, and some votive candle holders that are kinda cheesy. 

Also, in the digits, if you compare what I ate yesterday to today, I think I'm feeling much better. 

digits down the page but first, some pictures of plants.

Here's the wider shorter wire rack with the first plants on it. The aloe in the lava rock thingie that we've had forever and ever, and the plant I don't know what it is that's been in a beer bottle while I waited for a nice home for it. 

Props before getting put into new homes.

The super cute little 3 pots and their own "platter," left to right is a ZZ plant (from the prop pictured above,I hope it takes!), some spider babies left over from the plant swap a few weeks ago, and the "empty" pot has some "mother of thousands" seeds that someone gave me at the plant swap. 

On the right, a close up of the mother of thousands I have in a pot, and 2 of the wee seeds it has. These fall off very easily, and if you plant this outside it will take over your garden fast! 

digits

Saturday
no exercise, only sneeze and sniff.

blood glucose
10am: 241
5pm:166
10:30pm: 199

food:
Water, hot tea
noon: metformin
7pm: metformin+jardiance
7:30pm: 2 bowls of stew that doug made from stuff in the pantry. Chicken breast, bacon, tomato paste, diced tomato, pinto beans, celery, onions

Sunday:
exercise: Dedicated 10+13, would have gone longer but am helping Geoff with dinner.

blood glucose:
10am: 211
7pm: 191
10pm: 221

food:
water, coffee
10am: apple
1pm: tuna quesadilla (like a tuna melt but, toasted low carb fajita wrap w/melted cheese, tuna, mayo, celery) 
2pm: Metformin (forgot to take it at lunch so ... this was late)
7pm: metformin+jardiance
7:pmish - pork loin medallions in a maple pecan glaze (by geoff!) green beans
4 beers over the course of 4 hours
9pm  - Brie & Triscuits, heavy on the Brie

That Guy?

Oh finally the grey is over. It is brilliant blue with a tinge of milky whiteness mixed in. And I do love it.

Today is gorgeous. All the windows are open, the neighbor doesn't seem to be around running power tools incessantly (yesterday, in the pouring rain, he was running something that cuts metal, for hours. I'm all for people fixing up on their houses but Lord, honey, dude, give it a rest), and the leaves are starting to change on the road across the street. 

It feels like fall is thinking about starting to get ready. And that's nice.

I still have a sore throat but nothing is progressing to worse? I didn't sleep well last night, I was awake until well after 1 and then up at 8 after Doug let the dog out, went to the bathroom, and then the dog started yelling at the neighborhood. So I got up, let him in, snuggled back to bed with Phin but never fell back asleep. 

Sadly. 

But it was comfortable. I slacked the team to say I would not be at the 9:30 standup. I'd be in the shower (I didn't tell them that). I thought I had a 10am meeting with my department head but that was at 10:30, so I had time to ease into that once I was caffeinated, alert, alive.

I didn't go for an outside walk today, I wanted to. And to be honest if this was a couple months ago, 7pm would be light out still but it is dark and I would go right now. But hell it is super dark out there. I did get 22 minutes inside. Happily. I could have kept going but Geoff was making dinner and broke a plate and I slowed down, then I went to the bedroom to rest. 

And I'm a little sad about the plate. It isn't my FAVORITE plate but it is one that I like a lot. So I'm slightly bummed out. 

The neighbor, who wasn't running power equipment all day, started in. With a jackhammer. 

I started thinking about my friend Rob, who does this really funny voice, and he says "That guy? Fuck that guy." So I started to laugh a little bit thinking about Rob, and I texted him to let him know I was having a "That guy?" moment. Then I was watching the news where someone was complaining about the cost of something, and I said "That guy? Fuck that guy." with Rob's kind of funny voice. Hilarious. 

I crack myself up. Well, Rob cracks me up, and sometimes you carry things for dozens of years that are just funny as all get out.

I've been cracking myself up lately. Sometimes that is all that matters. 

Oh, here's a Phineas picture for you. Because I've not been posting pictures lately due to abject laziness. You deserve one. We all do. This was taken right after he was outside yelling at white panel vans and delivery trucks. Protecting us all from the baddies.

digits:

exercise:

blood glucose:
9am: 198
5pm: 188
10pm: 208

food:
coffee, water, tea
9:30am: 2 good berry yogurt
1pm: apple+peanut butter; turkey+hummus on low carb wrap; metformin
3pm: can of tuna w/mayo
6pm: cheeseburger, mayo+catsup; pickles. Vodka tonic w/splash of no sugar cran
7pm: Metformin+jardiance
coooookiiiiiieeees (geoff baked some toll house cookies. mmmm)

It's not covid, probably

I cracked myself up this morning by thinking our vacation in terms of body parts: Chin to Ass. Chincoteague. Assateague. hahahahhahhhahh

ahhahahhahhahhhhahahahhahhahahaaaaaa! 

ha. 

I should probably take a test. I have a sore throat, headache, no fever, no cough, post-nasal drip but no sneezing/runny nose. It could be covid, I mean, anything is possible right? 

But overall, this feels like the start of a very classic cold. 

Hunkered down in the house, it is pouring sheets of rain today. Gloomy, dark, heavy atmosphere. Always has a direct impact on how I feel. It makes the fall leaves pop to life though, having all the gloom around, but it has the opposite impact on me. 

I slept until 9:15, and got up for a 9:30am meeting. 

But I also thought it was Saturday. It was very dark when I woke up so I thought it was around 7 or so. And then I thought that the house was strangely quiet, maybe Doug went to the farmers' market without me. Hmm.

But. It's Thursday. Managed to snap out of my confusion and get to work, thankfully working from home means no camera on the zoom and a lunchtime shower are acceptable.

I spent the day in kind of a fog, attended many meetings, sat quietly, listened, slightly overwhelmed by a lot of stuff going on all around today. Managed to be coherent in pleading a "I think this is a bug, do you think this is a bug" discussion with my favorite developer (she agreed it was a bug). I solved one mystery for a station and then had a 6 emails back-and-forth exchange with another station just trying to get him to tell me the thing he is doing that isn't working. 

Doug left for his walk, and I had started dinner at 4:30. Geoff wanted ziti, and was supposed to make it for himself while we were out of town but he didn't. So I made meatballs in sauce, and a pan of ziti that was intended for not me (I had 10 noodles. I counted). My meatballs are so good I can eat like 100 of them, honestly. 

They bring me joy. Joyful meatballs. Balls of Meat. 

Lord.

digits: 

exercise: Dedicated 10+11. Walked while dinner was cooking

blood glucose: 
9:15am: 203
5pm:160
10pm: 217

food:
coffee, water
9:15am: 1 slice of 647 toast with peanut butter
12:15: metformin, pepperoni slices and sharp cheddar cheese chunks
2pm: apple
6:15pm: 6 meatballs, 10 noodles from the ziti bake, one piece of garlic bread
7:30pm: metformin+jardiance; another piece of garlic bread while cleaning up dinner (ie: wiping sauce out of the pan) 

Caught a lite sneeze

 "Caught a lite sneeze, dreamed a little dream, made my own pretty hate machine."

-Tori Amos

(meant to publish for 10/12 but fell asleep) I woke up early this morning with a sore throat and stuffy nose. Sneezing. Light cough. Might have picked up a cold while away for the weekend. Maybe caught a lite sneeze. I dunno. 

I just wanted to stay tucked into bed this morning, for some reason I have a throbbing pain in my ring fingertip on my hand that got the xiaflex shot (probably totally not related to anything) and my sore throat and post-nasal were annoying me, preventing me from truly enjoying and embracing the lay-in...I got up, took a benadryl and some tylenol, and hit the ground running. Albeit slowly. 

Trying to think if I have even had as much as a cold since having covid? Everyone did such an amazing job keeping everything clean, sanitized, for such a long time. And then places started to slack off. My friend's 5 yr old went to preschool through the pandemic. This summer,  he came home with cold after cold, pink eye!, another cold. She called them to complain because for 2 full years he went to this same school and didn't catch a single cold. 

"Well children sometimes share a lot of germs..." they said. Like she's some sort of idiot. Yes. She knows. Kids are walking petri dishes.  He was sick every other week before covid. But then people started "covid protocols" for cleaning. And nary a cold was caught. Hmmmm. 

After our company all staff, I took a 2 hour nap. Thankfully I had a wide open afternoon, a team that is kind, and I could step away. 

The nap was nice but I still feel gross. 

I need to not be sick for Saturday when I agreed to go to a thing for my friend Sara's office. I'm already exhausted thinking about it. 

digits

exercise: Dedicated 10+3 happy i squeezed a little walk in

blood glucose:
9am: 188
5pm:190
xpm  -- fell asleep

food:
coffee, water, hot tea
9:15am: apple
10:15am: small container of chicken salad left from yesterday
11:30: small bit of mac & cheese with bacon
12 noon: 2 good yogurt
3:30pm: turkey sandwich on 647 bread with mayo
6pm: 1/2 sub roll with cheesesteak stuffing (beef, onion, mushroom, american cheese)
7pm: metformin+jardiance

Here I sit surrounded by no ponies

Back to work and reality. I really have to say, I love my job, I really do, but I'd rather not do anything at all. I would like to sit and write blog entries and look at my pictures taken with the Fancy Camera, and not answer helpdesk tickets. So I'm using my lunchtime for me right now. 

I enjoyed our time away this weekend. I have to admit that it was the first trip in a while where I felt physically capable of the walks we took, so yeah, that Dedicated 10 has paid off a bit. 

The one really long hike we took, which was a little over a mile and a half, was a 100% flat trail. I could have kept going for a lot longer on that. Put a hill in front of me and I am miserable. Keep it flat and interesting, well, I'm there.

I'd like a few more days of that. Like, we didn't get a good long walk in yesterday due to the need to be in the car for three+ hours, but I feel like we should be waking up somewhere and right now, on a hike/walk/doing things, and thinking about early dinner in a town somewhere in America. 

Before we started to drive home, I suggested that we say "fuck it" and stay somewhere an extra night, and get up stupid early and drive the rest of the way home. Like say, Annapolis or Kent Island. He said no. For someone so mad about his job and not wanting to do it, I thought I might be able to tempt him to call out today so we could just have this nice time continue. 

But, he has work (that he hates) and is looking for a new job. And I'm back at work. I had a tremendously busy day, and I can't believe how fast it flew. 

Would love another day away. With or without ponies.

digits

exercise: 

blood glucose:
9am: 166 (last night was 254, after dinner/before bed, so. I didn't record it in the blog, I went to bed instead)
4pm: 182
10pm: 190

food
coffee, water
nibbled on grapes all through the day because I put a bowl out for my family, and no one ate them.
11:30pm: Chicken Salad w/almonds and red grapes, 2 pieces of romaine lettuce, 1 low carb wrap
12noon:, maybe a lil'more chicken salad, just because
1:30pm: 2 good yogurt
3:30pm: i found an Entenmann's chocolate cupcake in the cabinet. So i ate it.
4pm: 6 triscuits+hummus
6pm:  chicken breast marinated in yogurt, lemon, garlic, ginger; mixed veggies
7:45pm: metformin+jardiance

More Ponies, Please

 This morning we got up and hit the road early. 

We drove around a bunch of roads on Chincoteague where people actually live, or, where you can rent vacation spots for the experience of living there.  The "downtown" wasn't all that exciting, the homes are blocked from ocean view by a lot of the nice hotels (we didn't stay down there) but we felt like all the cool stuff we'd be interested in, and the park, were closer to where we stayed.  

We stopped at the Oldest House in Chincoteague, the Captain Timothy Hill house. It was super cute and historic as all get out. But it was time to beat feet, without taking a big walk.

We drove north to Berlin to have lunch with a friend of mine from highschool. It was nice to catch up in person, Facebook is good and all, but this was nice. Berlin is a really cute town, kind of what I thought Chincoteague might be like but wasn't. Lots of cute stores, and a wide assortment of restaurants and bakeries and things. After we ate at Deb's favorite watering hole (Blacksmith) we went over to the Burley Oak brewery around the corner and enjoyed a couple beers and more chats. 

We should probably spend a night in Berlin, and do the town entirely, I just wish it wasn't such a journey to get there!

Doug wanted to swing over to the Maryland side of pony things, Assateague Island, to see if the scene was more better or more exciting. We thought it would be a much longer ride over to Assateague, but we were there in 15 minutes. We drove along Bayberry drive to the ranger station but they were charging to enter, and we figured we were literally 2 hours from sunset, so, meh. Let's just turn around and drive where it's free. 

And there were the freaking ponies. 

Just like, standing there on the side of the road. Not hundreds of feet away behind an electric fence. Truly wild all up in your face PONIES!

We pulled over to gawk, along with a lot of other people. I grabbed a few cel phone shots, but didn't whip out my good camera because we decided we should move along. We were causing traffic.

The ponies were cool. 

We'll probably go back in the future, with a lot more time, and maybe even camp. There's a lot of camping at the two parks at Assateague, whereas you can't do that at Chincoteague. 

But I'd also go back to Chincoteague, too. Sure why not. 

The ride home was pretty uneventful. Waze sent us around a weird backroads tour due to an accident on 50. Thankfully it was light out because the last time we were out this way and it got dark, the ride was slightly terrifying due to the lack of street lights and farm land. We got to see a terrific sunset, and got home at a good time. 

I figure instead of going back and editing the posts previously where I wasn't able to insert pictures, I'll just post them all here so, get ready for a bunch of pictures in your face.  

Digits below all the pictures. 

bunch of ponies in a sick awesome sunset

Moonrise on the Wildlife Trail, no ponies over here

Assateague Lighthouse, which is on Chincoteague Island, Which is not confusing at all. 

The little deer that we spent an inordinate amount of time hanging out gawking at. This is only slightly zoomed in on it, which will tell you how close it was to us.

Below: a bunch of ponies.

Deb is good at selfies.
here we are at Burley Oak. I should have taken off my glasses

And while we are not sisters, any gal pal from Huntington High is a sister for life.

digits:

exercise: Nothing measurable, a couple little wee strolls around Assateague, Berlin, etc. 

blood glucose:
9am: 198
7:45pm: 174
xpm: gonna skip the pm reading because of late weird dinner. 

food:
coffee, water
10am: packet of cashews
1pm: curry chicken salad on top of a salad
8pm: 3 pieces of KFC, several scoops of coleslaw

The Wildest of Animals

Indigenous People's Day (nee Columbus Day, but he's a turd and I'm happy for us as a culture to shed his name, in case you're wondering) traditionally is the last hurrah for a lot of things up in the north.

Campgrounds close down so you can't go camping later into the year (we have enjoyed our share of good camping but also freezing cold camping this weekend up in New England). We always love going to NYC this weekend because everyone leaves town, and the financial district hotels are easy gets for cheap. 

Here in "the south" I guess we can call it that, things go a little while longer. But this is still the last hurrah for a lot of places. Unless a pool is indoors, it's closed. One hotel I walked past has an outdoor hot tub which was running, but no one was enjoying it. Silly people. 

When I went for a walk last night (thank you, brain, for mustering the reasons and energy to go on) it was a ghost town out there. Ice cream stores, bars, and restaurants were open, but it didn't look like a booming nightlife happening through the windows. Just a few folks enjoying a late last thing to do. There's a restaurant across the street, and at 9:30 it looked like plenty of activity was happening and that was the liveliest. 

I could have walked across the street and had a cocktail or something but opted to walk walk. The streets were quiet and I opted to walk that way instead. 

I walked as far as there were streetlights, and turned around and came back, and then through a couple parking lots. I cut through the back part of the hotel overflow lot, and encountered four black kittens and a grey one hanging out next to a rental cottage. They were very curious about me but obviously feral and skittish. I had no food to give them, but they communicated that they would have appreciated it. 

I sat on the steps of the cottage and did the psspssspssspssss to them to get them to come over but they kept their distance from me but were very engaged in my being there. And they were certainly beautiful. 

The girl at the front desk said that there was a woman who would do TNR, trap, neuter, release, but she recently passed away, and no one has stepped up to take her place. The guy who takes care of the pools at the hotels on a weekly basis would feed them, but since the pools are all closed now he hasn't been around. So the kittens have not been fed regularly for weeks. She feels bad, but doesn't want to feed them. 

My heart breaks and I went to bed thinking about them. It's a hard world for small things. 

This morning we got up and Doug immediately went for coffee. The ice cream shop up the block has coffee and baked goods in the morning. He brought me a muffin, and I ate it but probably should not have. It was amazing. But. 

He wanted to watch the football game in London but the TV in the room doesn't have NFL network, so we got in the car and headed over to the park to walk up to the Assateague Lighthouse. I did the thing I usually do when I see people trying to take selfies of large groups and also get something like a lighthouse in the background, I offered to take photos. 

I took pictures of a family of 10, some folks from England (party of 6), and a mom and dad and their little girl. There was a bridal party having their Girls' Weekend (how unique and wonderful to come here instead of get fucked up in New Orleans!) and when I saw all the matching shirts, I offered to take a picture for them, but two of their party were way off looking into the woods with some other people. They probably saw ponies through the trees. Where we were standing, we saw one pony way off in the distance. 

Doug wanted to keep walking so, we did. We went to the visitors' center, played some pokemon, and then drove to the Woodland Trail. It is a long, all flat, deep woods walk. No ponies visible at the pony overlook, but, about 2/3 of the way around the trail we met a Sika Deer. It ran in front of us, and stood in the rushes and eyeballed us. 

So. We eyeballed it back. 

To be honest, I probably took about 200 pictures of it, and it was lovely. Just nibbling grass and looking at us. We were about 10 feet from it, and I was just having a nice conversation with it. 

A couple of girls came by with german shepherds (sidenote: Dogs are not allowed in the park, but, when there is no park rangers at the gate, and only one or two small signs indicating dogs (even in cars) are not allowed, well, can't blame them if they didn't know or chose not to pay attention).  

I warned the wee deer that they were coming, and I asked it to stay put, and not run, everything would be okay. I actually had visions in my head of the poor wee deer running across the path, the dogs losing their minds and chasing it. I was expecting chaos. Luckily, the dogs were oblivious, their human wouldn't even let them come say hi to us, so they were at a good distance. Whew. Dodged a bullet.

Turning back to the deer, I told it that I was very proud of it for being so brave. Then we left, thanking it for its time. This was special. 

We didn't see any more ponies today. 

Back to the hotel, we walked over to Steamers for late lunch/early dinner. I haven't been doing a good job eating my well timed meals over the past couple days and today was really whack. Doug wanted to watch football and they had NFL Sunday Ticket and the Steelers had their asses handed to them while we enjoyed some seafood. I had probably the best scallops I've had in years, and passed the hush puppies to Doug. 

We took big naps after linner, and woke up at 7:30. My blood sugar was still high, and at about 8:30 I mentioned to Doug we should go out and get snacks. I'm not used to the badness of my previous way of eating one meal a day and then nothing at all. We went across the street and the restaurant was still open, so I got crab chowder, and a side of broccoli. 

Doug got a fried cod sandwich and basically said it was the worst thing he's eaten in years. He didn't touch the french fries after eating one, and he feels sick right now. Maybe we should have just gone to the Sunoco and gotten cheese and pepperoni or something. 

My chowder was pretty great though, so I'm sorry his food was garbage. And you can't fuck up broccoli, unless you really really try. 

I believe the plan for tomorrow is we're going to drive up to Berlin MD. I have a high school friend who lives there, she recently got divorced, and this was their summer/vacation place. So he bought her out of their house not too far from where we live, and she's living there permanently now. We haven't seen each other since 1984. Thanks to Facebook, we've been back in close contact, and I can't drive by her house in good conscience, especially because she messaged me to invite us. That would be rude. I hate when people are in DC, so close to me, and they know I'm there but can't make time to say hi. I'm looking forward to it. Doug isn't so sure. 

And then, probably over to the other Pony Island at Assateague in Maryland. Doug wants to see the pony scene there, to see if you can get closer to them. He kind of feels like this whole pony thing over here is crap. The ponies are too far away, there are not as many as he'd been previously led to believe, so harumph. Show this man some more damn ponies!

The slow internet here isn't allowing me to upload an image to this entry so just imagine a cute deer. I'll put it in when we're home tomorrow. Come back and visit.

digits

exercise: Thanks to that great trail, a solid 53 minutes. And we did walk up to the lighthouse but the fitbit didn't register that as timed walking. I'll say today was a solid hour. 11,333 steps as of this writing. First time I've broken 10k in a really long time (August 18th to be exact). Yay!

blood glucose:
9:30am: 193

5pm: 294 (uhh. okay, again, thanks banana muffin)

11pm: 217

food:

Coffee, water
9:15am: banana chocolate walnut muffin (sorry, blood sugar) from Mister Whippy
4:30pm: Metformin; fried scallops, green beans, cole slaw, 2 beers
9pm: crab chowder, broccoli and butter; metformin+jardiance

Ponytown

 We left around 11am and got to Salisbury at 1ish - pretty good time with all the traffic we encountered. Our  first destination was lunch and beer at Evolution Brewing Company, which I plan a nice write up in the beer blog for. We enjoyed a fantastic meal and beers, and Doug was poking around inside and the guy who does their brewery tours caught him. So he offered to show him around. 

Now, Doug and I have been on many brewery tours before, and Doug wasn't necessarily feeling it but the guy was super nice and friendly, so he went. 

I sat at the table on the patio, playing pokemon and hanging out by myself and started to really wonder where he was so, I paid the tab, went on a Doug hunt. Found him eventually, and then the guy offered to take me around when Doug told him I like to write about beer. So we got more tour. 

We had a great time with him, he was super nice and really smart. The operations for the brewery (canning, bottling, boxing, brewing) are really interesting. And we got to meet the owner, Tom, so cool. Very friendly. 

After spending a lot more time than we intended, we went to the parking lot, got in the car, and some jackass in a very large pickup truck backed up into us while Doug laid on the horn. 

Not a lot of damage but a noticeable crack in the bumper now, which made Doug super grumpy. 

"Oh hey man, I didn't see you."

Brah... of course you didn't you're driving an aircraft carrier. 

Anyway. We headed down to Chincoteague, checked into our hotel, and headed to the beach. It was a beautiful ride, what a cool place, super bright sunny wonderfulness and blue skies, gorgeous water, no traffic because hey, everyone who wanted to be on the island today was already there and we were arriving at like 5! 

We got checked in, decided to take a ride to the beach. Shortly after we crossed into the National Park (it was free admission day today so super extra bonus for us!) we saw a ton of cars pulled over. 

Folks were gawking at ponies. 

So we pulled over to gawk at ponies.

We drove down to the beach, which was packed. People were wearing parkas and winter clothes, and other people were swimming. I took a lot of pictures of some cute sweet little piping plovers. They were delightful to watch. We left before the crowds all got in their cars to drive out, and we drove around the wildlife loop, where we saw 2 wild bunnies. Wildlife. On the way out, got to see the ponies again, with the gorgeous sunset.

More tomorrow. And ... I should try to squeeze in a 10 minute walk but. Bed is tempting me even at this early hour. Maybe sleep early means up early and we'll get some walking in. Doug wants to go to some lighthouse tomorrow and it is a half mile in and then back out. All flat, which is nice I can do flat for days.

Edit: I did take a walk. And talked to the girl at the front desk for like a half hour about this mystery cottage out back and 4 feral kittens that I met. And real estate on the island. And kids. And her name is Jess. 

Here's a picture. (edit - trying to upload and it won't let me so. I'll try later?)

digits

exercise: Dedicated 10+7
17 minute walk at 9:30ish at night, after taking my 9pm reading and not liking it. Would have gone longer but I needed to use the bathroom

blood glucose: apologies to my blood today
7am: 203
xpm no afternoon reading due to being on the road and on the go
9pm: 260  (will re-read after a couple hours)

food:
coffee, water
8am: 2 good yogurt
10am: metformin (so i would not forget it)
1:30pm: crab dip with garlic bread; chicken and waffles, hash brown potatoes; 3 beers
7pm: 2 beers 
8pm: 3 slices of everything pizza