Happy New Year Everyone!

No Entry for yesterday so this one wraps up December 30 and 31. Happy New Year, everyone!

Doug and I went up to see M&M at their new place Friday night. They moved to the area in November, and live about 30 miles north of us. We'd been intending to get up there for a visit for a hot minute. Doug's work drama and my beginning of December nuttiness, followed by Doug and Geoff going on vacation and the fact that should I want to go visit, I'd have to bring Phineas and he'd be a total dick to their dog and that's not nice or fair. I so wish he was good with other dogs. 

They picked a really nice place. It is a 3 level townhouse, tons of space. So much so that they don't have enough furniture for it. They each have an office, there is a master bedroom and bath on the third floor and a guest room. We could/should plan on staying there next time we go up. Especially if we plan on brewery visiting up in their county. It is an area we have not explored. Duly noted.

It only took us 40 minutes to get home (at like 12:45am) but over an hour and 15 to get there. I was afraid that Friday night of a holiday weekend would be a shit show, but it wasn't as horrible as I thought it would be. We got a later than intended start, and arrived a half hour later than expected. It worked out ok because dinner was simmering, bread was in the oven, and the beer was cold. We were ready to visit.

We had a lovely time. Mike is a huge Iron Maiden fan, so doug found some Hellcat Beer from Iron Maiden and BrewDog. Even though Mike dislikes IPAs (he feels there are too many of them on the market, it is too easy to make, you can cover up brewing mistakes with flavors, etc, he was exceptionally appreciative. The can will go in his collection of Iron Maiden things, once he drinks it. Mike made an amazing dinner, and baked fresh sourdough bread for us to take home. 

He has reverse engineered some of Iron Maiden's beers and brews them on the reg. He had a fresh keg of it ready to go for us. I should have taken photos. Great job. I felt like it was very low alcohol, not sure if that's the intention, but I drank a few of them and didn't feel any effects of what Geoff used to call "drunkening fluids." Better for me in the long run I guess.  We sat around the firepit in the yard, spent time talking about all the things, and moved inside to continue chatting. Mike told us that we should really come with them to see Iron Maiden. 

Think about high school english, SATs: 

Guster : Christine :: Iron Maiden : Mike

He has traveled to see them all over, and was going to see them in Germany this upcoming year but with taking a new job, and moving, and his daughter getting married, just couldn't swing it. Bummer. He is in the fan club and can get good presale tickets, so yeah. Awesome. When they tour the US in 2024, let's do it. Let's go. Truth be told, I know only a couple of their songs really well, but the genre, the huge metal sound, the lead singer being a freaking legend, and a drummer named McBrain... come on. 

There are tons of bands that I have never gone to see because of ticket prices. So this is a band that I would have loved to have seen somewhere along the line except I was dirt poor, and cheap. I'll never see Springsteen, those tickets are untouchable. And to be honest, I don't need to see 80 year old rock stars when I can go see some of my favorite 50 year olds do their thing. But for Iron Maiden, I'll swallow whatever this costs, and go with Mike. Because it'll be an experience.

I think of when I've taken friends to see Guster for the first time and how they've come out with a life changing experience, and become big huge fans, I know seeing a band with one of their biggest fans on earth is the way to go. This is not buy a ticket, go sit in the bleachers, and watch the experience from afar kinds of shows. This is immersion, learn the discography, go in there prepared kind of concert going. 

I took my friend Sara to see Punch Brothers, and she didn't know any of their songs, she didn't know Chris Thile or Nickel Creek. But she did the immersion lessons. She dove in, went down the rabbit hole, through the warren to all the little rooms, she got into it. She ended up knowing more about their live show than I ever would - she knew when to yell back at the band with the call backs. She rocked as a new fan. I was super impressed. 

That will be me, rekindling my knowledge of the band beyond the "Run to the Hills," "Trooper," "2 Seconds to Midnight" (how appropo for New Year's Eve, eh?) or "Number of the Beast." 

Doug and I got home at 1:30ish in the morning. I couldn't turn my brain off, I was wildly wide awake and played Candy Crush until almost 3. Slept until 10:30 this morning. Woke up knowing there was a loaf of gorgeous Sourdough bread waiting for me, and did a dig in on it. 

Dang yo. That was some good bread. One slice, only one. Didn't want to go bananas (well, yeah I did). Such a treat. A blessing. 

Today the weather was crummy, I'd hoped to go out and toodleaboot somewhere but folded laundry and did kitchen stuff. I got some chicken wings ready for the grill and peeled a big huge bag of shrimp. Doug went to the market to get food for New Year's tomorrow. 

You gotta have a pork roast on New Year's Day, it's the big western Pennsylvania folklore/superstition thing. I'll try to save you the trouble: don't eat chicken on new year's. That's bad luck. Chickens scratch backward. Pigs push forward with their snouts and they do not have the ability to look over their shoulders. So they can't look at the past. No lookin' back. Pigs provide the preferred new year's meat to eat. 

We usually have a pork roast but they seemed to be out of that, Doug came home with what looks to be pork ribs, so maybe we'll grill them? And the other item that is mandatory is sauerkraut. I am so not a big fan, but he is. And. Tradition. 

We have leftover Christmas dinner mashed potatoes to put out tomorrow, and putting the sauerkraut on top of that is tolerable. He also got bags of 15 beans to make into soup with the ham hock, so no split peas but this should be good. And we have pot roast, as long as someone remembers to put it in the slow cooker before 10am one day this week. 

Trying to stay up until midnight tonight, but convinced I'm not going to. Doug took a nap and I did dinner and everything, and as of this writing (9pm) I'll be happy to make it another hour. 

I have a mountain of laundry on the bed,  I could go fold it, but then, my bed will be ready for me to fall into? And I could just .... ya know. Go to sleep?

Pictured below is Boo Bird, Mike and Michelle's lil'dude. They've had him for about five years. He's delightful and sweet. We got to spend some fun time together. My camera didn't focus on where I wanted it to, shooting with my right hand and my thumb without being able to select the focal point, these are not the best, but, he's still pretty.

Digits for Friday and Saturday below.

digits Friday

exercise: none steady but got 10 of 11 hours of movement steps in (min. 250 steps per hour)

blood glucose:
9:30am: 217
4:30pm: 191
1:45am (Saturday after getting home) 241

food:
coffee, water
11:30: 1/2 the last piece of quiche which didn't sit well with me.
12:30pm: metformin
12:45: small piece of chocolate cherry bar from Leah's in new orleans  (before my family eats every last bit of it, I wanted one taste)
1:15pm: large bowl of chicken salad
7pm: Gumbo, small scoop of rice, 2 or 3 pieces cornbread, 4 glasses of Mike's homebrew beer; metformin+jardiance
1:45am: protein shake

digits Saturday

exercise: dedicated 10+15. Should have pushed to the full half hour but I had things to do!

blood glucose:
11am: 212
5pm: 160
10pm: 176

food:
coffee, water
11:30am: protein shake
1pm: slice of homemade sourdough bread that mike made last night while we were having dinner (a friend of many talents); metformin
2pm: about a cup and a half of chicken salad leftover from yesterday
7pm: buffalo wings on the grill with celery & bleu cheese; grilled shrimp; Rhubarb gin+diet gingerale
8pm: metformin+jardiance
8:30pm: reese's peanut butter cup; crackers & cheese