What's my next Eevolution?

I got to contribute a piece to an NPR story along with several of my coworkers about Pokémon on Pokémon day yesterday. If you would like to read, click here, go find me. I'm kind of proud to be included in this group of super smart, fun, talented, excellent people. I look at that list and beam with pride that I know them. 

The long and short of it is I wrote that Eevee is my favorite. 

Pretty much all (not all but pretty much) Pokémon evolve into more advanced versions, but Eevee has 8 versions. It starts out as "normal" and can go Water, Fire, Electric, Psychic, Dark, Grass, Fairy, and Ice.

Look how cute those lil babies are. I love them. 

The point of what I had to say in my write up is ... you get to change. You can change. Change sometimes happens, and you can decide what you're going to change into. Eevee evolves into different versions based on lots of different circumstances and different objects. Umbreon can only be evolved at night, that kind of thing. 

If you really want to fall down a rabbit hole, go read any online Pokémon wiki, and learn a lot. 

Different circumstances and events can turn you from your normal Eevee-ness to a different one. But imagine if you can go from one version, ie: Fire, to Fairy. Or you could go backwards and factory reset to normal, then find other circumstances to help you evolve into another version. 

I feel like I've been several different Eevee evolutions in my life already. I once read an article about how everyone has X amount of jobs in their lifetime. X I'm not sure how many would be, but I think it was like 7. Sort of like the Shakespeare's seven stages of man. Beyond things like baby, youth, young man, dotage & death. We all have a pretty definitive number of jobs that happen to us over the course of a lifetime. 

I could run down my list, look over my resumé, and count them. More than 7, I'm sure. Most of them are based in one specific kind of field - service. All of my jobs from working as a shift supervisor at a bakery to doing what I do today. Running the office and front of house at the cooking school, to the helpdesk at the college. It's all been service. 

In talking with a colleague today about the goings on, he asked what I would do if I lost my job next month and to be honest, I don't know. I can't think that far in advance? Where my mind is, I'm not losing my job but I'll lose essential humans on my team. And that's going to have an adverse impact on me, both work-wise and spirit-wise. I don't know if I even can keep doing what I'm doing. 

I was thinking, well, what else would I do? I remembered taking Geoff to his kindergarten one year, I was unemployed, not sure what was going on with my life. The kids at the school sat down with me as I sat down to help Geoff tie his shoes. I'll always remember, when you get down at that level, small children see you as a compatriot, an equal. I was surrounded. I blogged about that, it's a long entry (It was when I blogged a lot about random things over the course of a week, so Jess' MCAS test, ticks on the dog, etc.... all are covered in the entry). But being told I'd be a good teacher because I sat on the floor was a highlight. 

One kid told me I could be a "teacher mommy," and another told me I should be a fire fighter, and another said I could work "on a barn." Not, in a barn, or on a farm. On a barn. 

Water, Fire, Fairy, Teacher Mommy, Fire Fighter, Worker on a Barn. A lot to consider. All based in service.

I put the picture above, instead of down here, so buffering some space to the digits. 

 

digits

exercise: dedicated 10+2 (used a chunk of 11am time to pace/walk).
12/12 of 250 steps.

blood glucose:
9am: 181
4:30pm: 146
10:30pm: 211 (thanks, pasta!

food:
coffee, water
9:30am: baby bell cheese
11am: mcintosh apple+peanut butter
12:45: large bowl of left over salad from last night, mixed with a can of tuna, mayo, and 4 pieces of bacon; metformin
6:30pm: plate of pasta; meat sauce; garlic toast. metformin+jardiance
10:30pm: 2 baby bell cheeses

Why is February taking so long?

 I feel like it has been February a long time, like an extra week. Does anyone else feel like that? It's just been a grind lately. A very long and not really fun month. Looking forward to March. Doug said to me, when I mentioned this to him, he uttered "Can't believe it is already March this week! Someone said something about meeting March 2nd and I was like "oh that's next week." But no it is not."

It's funny how we both are perceiving time differently.

I had kind of an off day. I was a little black raincloud, and just didn't feel like working but I did. Thankfully not a lot of meetings, a couple quick touches of bases. I got the same helpdesk ticket question over and over, so much so that I don't have a macro to auto reply but I swear I could use one. Very cranky. 

But there was good news. One of the contractors on our team who had his run end with us December 31 started his new job today on another team involved with our project. Today was his first day. And he was such an asset to our team, I know that in his new role he'll continue to be so. And I'm so happy to have him with us.

He'd applied for this job before they announced layoffs and hiring frezes/stoppage. He was relieved about that but gave up 11 years with his previous job and now he's slightly terrified he'll lose this one. 

I told him to bank as much money as possible, do good work, and whatever happens happens. I kind of feel like we're going to be merged into a new team. I think that is how things smell and sound when people are talking about reorganization and redistribution. I have a dream team of coworkers from across many departments and if we all were shifted, together, well then. It'd be kind of cool. 

Still, knowing that folks are going to lose their jobs and some of them are potentially on our team, it stings. Sigh. 

I didn't hit my 5000 steps, I was lucky to hit all 12 hours. I was feeling funky and tired with a stomach ache after dinner, so I laid down and fell asleep. Doug came to check on me, and it woke me up. So I got up with 5 minutes until the top of the hour to finish the 11th hour, and start the 12th. 

Not quite a dedicated 10. But movement. I'd do it now but Doug is in bed and so is Geoff, and I don't want my steps to disturb them. It's raining and really dark out right now. I feel like we're missing a street light or something on our corner!

Off to bed now. Still have an upset stomach. I think it was from the side salad with zesty Italian! Why'd you do me like that, Zesty! 

No picture. Digits below. 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours of 250 steps. Didn't break 5000. But that's alright. 

blood glucose:
8:30am: 180
4:45pm: 156
9:30pm: 183

food:
coffee, water
10am: 2 slices of 647 wheat toasted w/ peanut butter
11:15: mcintosh apple; metformin
4:45pm: 2 good cherry yogurt, ramekin of nuts
6pm: salad w/zesty italian dressing, 2 cluck pucks w/american cheese, no bun. metformin+jardiance

A Plant Watering, Jam Band, and Cookies Kind of Day

Doug seems to be feeling pretty good today, except he said he's not sleeping well. He's tossing, turning, waking up, not getting any rest. I said two naps a day may do that to a body, so maybe try one nap today. 

He was up and out of bed at 8:30am. He is cranky and vocal, much more than the past few days so that's... improvement? 

I am now pretty sure I know where he picked it up - Jury Duty. Counting back to the jury duty bit, knowing that he sat in the courtroom for 2 full solid days with these folks, it figures out just right. So if he was exposed, took 12 days for it to surface on him, I'm now counting the same amount of time for me to pick up on it. This time next week probably. If it comes, it comes.

Geoff tested this evening before going to the store. So conscientious of him to go through a drive-through to pick up dinner and not want to expose people. We watch and wait for him as well. 

Doug put a spotify playlist on and it has been all Grateful Dead, Greensky Bluegrass, Yonder Mountain String Band, String Cheese Incident, Umphrey's McGee and others. I asked him if he was familiar with the band Moe.. (there are 2 periods there on purpose. The band's name is Moe. with the period after, so. Moe..). He put them on and we've been listening to them for hours. 

It's nice to listen to music I like, but I've never heard before. Doug seemed to enjoy it too, after all, he kept it on for a long long time.

Geoff and I baked cookies, and made food stuffs, and had fun in the kitchen while Doug lounged on the couch. 

I watered plants again and I am looking at some babies that even need bigger pots. My Peace Lily is drooping and looking horrible, so I trimmed off the yellow leaves and watered it, and I'm thinking it needs a new pot. I noted that the roots are starting to come out of the holes in the bottom. 

I need a yard sale! Or a trip to the nursery. I really should have picked up more pots when we were up there with the brewery being open. 

While I was watering things, taking them 2 and 3 at a time to the sink, Doug came over to the table. Usually there's a puzzle on the table, and I think he was longing for that, but we don't have one out there right now. And. Well, There are ... Plants are all over it. 

"The hell happened here! Where did all these plants come from! What the fuck!" he yelled. He is, of course, joking. Because he was with me for getting most of them, from the plant swap and a trip out to Gambrills to get some from my co-worker. 

"I know! What the hell!" I replied, standing there with a spider plant in one hand, snake plant in the other. "How on earth did this happen!" 

I'm sure I will find a shelf solution so he can get his puzzle table back. I should have done that already so he can work a puzzle while on the covid. 

Not really exciting. I feel like I should shower, but we're not going anywhere or doing anything, so meh? I was going to do the bed sheets but with Doug being sick, he can stay in that room until he's better and then I'll strip the bed. I could do the sheets in the guest room, put on the non-flannels on that bed and get ahead of it. 

Here are some cookies. In process and finished. I shouldn't bake cookies, but I did it for Doug, but he literally cannot taste them. It's not stopping him from eating and enjoying them. 

digits: 

exercise: 11/12 of 250 steps. New goal is at least 5000 steps a day if I'm not going anywhere or taking a good walk. just break that threshold daily.

blood glucose:
10:30am: 163
5pm: 205
11:30pm: 191

food:
coffee, water
1:30pm: metformin
2pm: 1 chocolate chip; 1 oatmeal cookie
3:30pm: realizing I had not eaten a meal today, 1 low carb small flour tortilla, grilled w/cheddar & turkey and hot bean salsa
6:30: metformin+jardiance. 4 pieces of popeyes chicken (1 thigh, 1 leg, 2 wings); scoop of red beans & rice; scoop of coleslaw, scoop of mac&cheese, 2 biscuits
7pm: wine 🍷🍷🍷
9pm: 2 baby bell cheeses

The Go Places Do Things Catch Covid Kids

Well. I went to get bloodwork done Friday afternoon. I stopped to pick up some quick home covid tests. Handed one to Doug when I got home and said "please take this, I'd like to know." 

He made a face at me, he didn't want to take it. His attitude is "it doesn't matter if I know or don't know if I have covid. It changes nothing. If it's the flu, I ride it out. If it's covid, I ride it out."

Yeah, but it has an impact on Geoff. Geoff has to go to school in person and if he has to take time off for being sick, It could monkey wrench the path and the plan. We don't want the train to derail, like East Palestine, Ohio. Know what I mean. I want him to know, so he can talk to his instructors. If this should happen.

He can't miss lab, it is twice a week in person. Maybe he can listen to a recording of the lecture of the one class he has to go in person to (it's his favorite, Medical Ethics. He really is enjoying this class). 

I just don't want for him to have anything happen that is out of his control. What happened in October 2021 was in his control to some extent. But covid this close to the finish line. Jesus, no.

Eventually he took it. He's got the covid. 

"Well that explains everything." 

Super. Thank you for taking it. I'm so .... happy. 

Last night after dinner, I was in the kitchen loading the dishwasher and asked him if he could smell and taste. He said he's had no appetite but this morning he could taste his everything bagel "sort of alright." I asked him to open the trash and smell it (once again, full of some nasty things, I cleaned out the freezer and made it smelly). He couldn't smell a thing. 

"Please quickly close the lid and open the back door." 

Then I had him taste the super hot, spicy black bean salsa I'd put on top of my Geoff's Mexican Chicken. Nope. Nothing. 

He spent the evening on the couch, bundled up tight with a hoodie on and 2 blankets. I'm in a t-shirt and shorts. Technically, this is day 3 of him having it. He isn't sure when he caught it because he only goes into the office on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. 

I'm contact tracing in my head. 

• Did he get exposed on Tuesday at work, and come down with it Wednesday?
• Was it the week before at work?
• Was it over the weekend, like on Saturday when we went to Target and went to Quench for a couple beers and snackies while being the Go Places Do Things Kids? 
• Am I going to come down with it, because he's been breathing on me and touching all the things I touch?
• Is Geoff going to come down with it?

To be honest, if I were to catch it, right now is the right time. Let's get it over with, right?  Before my trip to Florida on March 22nd. I can be sick, here at the house. I can work an hour, sleep for four. I can manage. My team can manage. 

Before I went to bed, I cleaned the kitchen with bleach spray. I wiped down everything he could have possibly touched: the handle to the fridge, the bathroom sink, every single doorknob in the house, the Roku and TV remotes. I wish I had Lysol spray because I'd spray the couch. 

This morning he said he felt a little better. Cold sweats and chills didn't visit him last night, and I'd kept the dog out of the bedroom so as not to bother him so he slept the whole way through the night. I brought him coffee and breakfast. 

"I kind of like this you bringing me everything and keeping me out of the kitchen thing. Maybe I'll be sick for a while..."

His sense of humor isn't failing, like the senses of taste and smell, I see. 

Congratulations, Doug! Ya pregna--- oh, no. No you are not.

digits

exercise: 11/12 of 250 steps. No dedicated 10

blood glucose:
10am: 160
4:30pm: 173
9:30pm: 143

food:
coffee, water
10:30am: 3 oatmeal craisin cookies
12: small bowl of mac&cheese w/hot and spicy bean dip. Metformin
5:30pm: 9 leftover buffalo wings w/bleu cheese
9:30pm: 3 oatmeal craisin cookies

The Night Sky

 Last night I went for my pokemon walk, I glanced to the west through the clearing between two houses and saw bright objects in the night sky. I took my crummy picture (note to self: clean the camera lens there, dummy) and then opened Google Sky Map to see who was hanging out with the moon. (p.s. I highly recommend the app for your phone - download it and have fun with it!)

Looks to be Jupiter and Venus there, Neptune is not visible with the naked eye with the light pollution. Someone on twitter took a photo with their iPhone through their telescope, and a lot of things, including Neptune, showed up. 

It was kind of cool. 

My husband has been home sick since Wednesday. No fever, but a cold sweat, headache, chills, body aches, and sneezing/coughing/runny nose. I swear unto our Lord God Himself that if he gets me sick, I will be greatly displeased. With everything else happening, I do not wish to be sick. I'm banishing him to the guest room, or, banishing myself. But I want to wash those bed sheets. He napped in there today. 

I think it is Covid, personally. He disagrees. "It's just a bad cold, it's the flu," he says. 

Oh. Okay. 

Well, with him being sick, and the whole job thing, I ponder my space in space. The stars, the moon, and the planets are unchanged, unfazed, and continue to be. For millions and millions of years. 

We'll get through all this. 

In the meantime. I stress baked oatmeal cookies and I have to say, they're the BEST I have ever made. Ever. Stress baking, and stress snacking. And so it goes.

Digits below.

digits

exercise:

blood glucose:
9am: 145
5pm: 127
10:45pm: 182 (thanks cookies).

food:
coffee, water
11am: metformin. Left over chicken salad (before someone else could eat it all)
5pm: 3 Oatmeal craisin cookies (to ruin that nice lower than it has been blood sugar, ha). 
5:30: metformin+jardiance
6pm: white wine... 🍷🍷🍷
6:30pm: Mexican chicken a la Geoff. Topped with sour cream and black bean salsa. 

Exist in your feelings

After yesterday's bombshell announcement, I've been watching some of my colleagues handle things very differently. 

One has questioned why a non-profit/not for profit has 26 VP level positions, and how is this even possible. Eliminating a couple of them will not fix the budget deficit to be honest. But that does seem a lot. 

Another said he's watching people handle it with grace, and went straight back to work, some stopped working for the day, and others are just numb and not sure what to do. 

Feelings. Feelings are tough. They are reactionary, sometimes raw and unforgiving. We don't know for a month who is going to be impacted. We can't not work for a whole month, or be paralyzed or numb over this. We all collectively have shit to do. We need to do it. 

Part of me says if you can't you should just go ahead and volunteer right now to be let go, and go find another job. My heart breaks but we can't screw each other over and not work. I lived through that in 2017 when they closed our office. Several people unplugged several days over several months, and my team got stuck holding the shitty end of a stick over and over. "Sorry, we can't fix the thing, all our devs are missing." "Oh, there's a DNS thing? Sorry, the director of technology is at Blue Dragon."

Also, side note, wow, I can't believe Blue Dragon is closed. Not very deep into the pandemic, either. Boom, gone. Great spot. Sadness.

During Black History Month, one of our designers has been sharing these "28 days of radical self care" thoughts on Slack. I think most of them are pointed to the Black community at our work, but there have been some that are very universal. 

Today, he posted one that is indeed universal. 

I've never worked anywhere that folks are encouraged to be in their feelings and treat themselves with love and grace. It's expected that we'll be mad, hurt, confused. 

The key is to not take it out on each other, and to definitely do the work, do our jobs. Do the things this org is supposed to do. 

I really love my co-workers. I have to say. This next month is going to be weird. I just know it. 

Digits below stolen inspirational graphic.

digits 

exercise: 12/12 of 250 steps. Dedicated 10+10 on a pokemon stroll

blood glucose:
9am: 142
4:30pm: 166 (tested 3 times. 107, 177, 166. went with the middle. the glucose monitor is a mystery)
9:45pm: 147

food:
coffee, water
11am: ramekin of mac & cheese w/left over taco meat in it. So good. Really excellent. Could have eaten a whole giant bowl but controlled myself.
12:15: metformin
12:30: large bowl of chicken salad w/walnuts & diced fuji apples
4pm: the rest of the fuji apple left over from lunch.
4:55pm: 🍷🍷🍷I wish they had an icon for white wine.  and no I didn't have 3 glasses. but... probably will by the end of the night.
6pm: 3 italian sausages w/sauce & cheese
7:30pm: Metformin+jardiance
8:30pm: ramekin mixed nuts

Stupid Things In My Day

 I logged into Blogger today to set up my post and saw this message inside the Admin. 

First. Whut? 

Second. Which post? There is no link to a post or indication of a post. The "Community Guidelines are basically unhelpful. So I have no idea what content I've published is inappropriate for the community. 

If I have offended thee, I am fully apologetic.  

Waste

My refrigerator was smelly. 

Yesterday, Geoff was making lunch and I could just smell something had gone round the bend. Dang. I hate that. I hate the idea of food wasting when it is as expensive as it is right now. 

What could the culprit be? We had some lamb chops last week and there were two too many in the container. I thought I'd throw them on the grill for lunch one day last week just to use them, but I didn't. I bet they're the problem. 

I mustered up the courage, went in to investigate. There were the lamb chops and yes, they were bad. I also noticed a bag of chicken thighs, I'd cooked half of them for dinner the other night (Last Thursday to be exact because I blog my food), and was saving these for dinner probably for tonight. Those also were bad. Which I had a hard time believing. We literally just bought them. and they're gone. 

Last night for dinner, we had boneless pork chops. I usually do the same thing, cook 2-3 for each of us, save the rest for another night. Last night though, I cooked them all. Fuck it. I'm not going to plan a meal for Saturday and have these go bad. Doug asked me what I was thinking - I'm thinking, dude. I'm not throwing away meat that costs 9.99 a pound. Again. 

Leftover chops it is. At some point. Today I'm focused on the leftover tuna casserole. Geoff doesn't like tuna casserole, and Doug hasn't touched it. So I want it out of my fridge before it gets moldy. I'll take one for the team as far as the carbs go. 

Back to the meat. I was really disappointed to throw away the meat. I should have cooked the lamb. made something like gyro meat, put it aside, put it in a wrap with yogurt and veg. The chicken thighs, damn. a full meal for three of us. Was going to do a marinade (I did one with orange and rosemary, so I was going to do one with soy sauce and ginger and lime). 

I dunno. I should be more diligent on planning. So this doesn't happen. 

I had a busy day, and I was going to send Geoff to the store for something, but he had a seminar to attend about graduation. The requirements, the paperwork, how many people he can invite (6!), and all those details you gotta know. He came upstairs at 5, his online class starts at 5:30 on Tuesday. We discussed what's for dinner and I decided well, I don't feel like going to the market and his class was getting ready to start. So I ordered pizza and wings from a place we've never used. It was okay. Not the best, probably better in person than delivery. I had two slices of pizza and a lot of wings. 

And we still need a trip to the market tomorrow. 

No picture. Again, boring.  Sorry!

 

digits

exercise: 12/12  hours of 250 steps. Dedicated 10+15 while waiting for dinner. additional 15 min pokemon walk after dinner.

blood glucose:
8am: 165
5pm: 145 (195 in one finger, that is a 50 point diff. I'll take the lower number!) 
9:30pm: 165

food:
coffee, water
11:30: 2 bowls of leftover tuna casserole (added extra tuna to stretch it out); metformin
6:30pm: 10 buffalo wings, 2 slices of pizza. Metformin+jardiance. Gin & Tonic 🍸🍸🍸

Oases

On Mondays, my department has team meeting. Every third Monday, we are encouraged/required to do Linked In Learning. I sometimes ... don't. Not because I don't want to. I do love webinars and classes and things. But most of the time, I've got some other thing happening. 

Today, for instance, we usually have a code push every 3 weeks on Mondays but it was pushed back to tomorrow because the devs at our partner company have a holiday today. 

This gave us an extra day.

And it is a good thing too. My co-worker and I do the QA for our team, and he and I didn't finish our tests. On Friday, he said he'd work over the weekend and I told him that he didn't have to because we got the Gift of Monday Holiday that we don't get off! (we get a floating holiday. I suppose if you really needed the Presidents' Day Holiday off for yourself ... have at it). 

We both started work early, dove into our testing. 

And then it was 10:30. We're ... required to do this LIL thing. Drop Everything, spend an hour (plus?) watching a thing. And I'm muttering under my breath that I just want to finish QA. Someone is asking me for a help document for the help center, someone wants me to proofread the release notes. "Sorry friends, I gotta... learn stuff."

Today I picked a 90 minute session on Quality Time Management for People Working From Home.   I figured, eh, what the heck. None of the other topics were interesting to me. I've gone through all the effective listening, active participation in discussions, I am not interested in learning Python, and advanced Salesforce queries. No thanks.

It was kind of stupid. The guy was likable enough, and went over habits that over the last three years I have dismissed as not my style. But he talked about the importance of breaks. When people work at home, they don't take breaks. 

You're damn right, son. I have work to do. And I took a lot of breaks at the office, which is why I like being here. I can focus and get things done! 

He called these breaks Oases. Give yourself an Oasis in the morning, take your lunch (never work through lunch), and another Oasis in the afternoon. He also says that he starts work at 8:30, is done at 5, uses the first half hour of his day as a "commuting" time to get into the swing of things, and at 4:30 he begins his transition from work brain to home brain. 

How many hours a day do you get work done, dear sir? 

So I do my walks during each hour to get the 250 steps. I have an hourly oasis. Sometimes I start meetings 5 minutes past the top of the hour, and end them 5 minutes before the next hour, they call this "good meeting hygiene." I call it steps and "bio" breaks. 

Doug went to bed tonight at 8pm. He was wiped out. We were watching TV and I heard him just start snoring. Once he hit the hay, I decided to go down to the pokemon gym, it's a fast walk if you want it to be, or a gentle stroll if you're catching pokemon as you go. It took me about 10 minutes round trip. I thought about going up the street, past our house, to the other pokegym, but wanted to come in and get myself ready for bed too. 

Thought about baking, but, meh. Started the dishwasher, may read for a little while. I don't want to go into the bedroom and disturb Doug so I'll take Phineas to the guest room in a bit here. 

No picture today, lads. Back to my usual work week uninterestingness. 

digits

exercise: dedicated 10+5 while dinner was cooking; additional 10 min walk (very slow) to play pokemon. 12/12 of 250 steps

blood glucose:
8:30am: 174
4:15pm: 165
9pm: 219 (close to dinner - if I waited it'd be lower but. goodnight!)

food:
coffee, water
9:45am: very small apple w/ peanut butter
12:30pm: metformin. BLT salad with special guest appearance by cucumber!
5:15: 2 handfuls of Pepitas
6:15: 3 boneless pork chops, peas, 4 pierogis
7pm: Metformin+jardiance
8pm: another pork chop while putting dinner away

Causing Plant Trauma

When Doug and I went out to do errands yesterday I told him I wanted some neem oil and some potting soil. We've had a bunch of wee buggies, I think I picked them up at the plant swap at the brewery a few weeks ago. I'm not mad or anything. Wee plant gnats happen. 

There are things you can do. You can get sticky thingies that you poke into the soil, and wee gnats fly over and get stuck. You can also get diatomaceous earth, squirt the powder onto the soil. This is a two fold approach, the diatomaceous earth kills the gnats when they hatch out of the soil, and the sticky dealies catch the gnats that are flying about. 

The sticky dealies are rather effective. I guess the diatomaceous earth helps. We reduced the amount of gnats that are flying about drastically, but we still have them. A colleague at work recommended neem oil. And fresh potting soil. My soil is contaminated and I should think about doing a complete repotting of all the babies. Well. Let's try the neem oil first. And if I have to repot everyone, I'll do that outside this summer. It's messy. 

I also have been watching a couple spider plants that were outgrowing their pots, and new plants that were in temporary pots and could move into new perfect homes. 

Today I declared it the day to do some transplanting and plant maintenance. Doug went for a walk at 12:30 and I figured I'd get the dedicated 10. That went quickly, so I kept going, just walking around the house, getting stuff ready to help the plants out. Organized what I'd need for some repotting, and walked back and forth with the plants to the kitchen sink. I got them watered, got some soil into the babies I adopted last week from a co-worker, they were very loose and falling sideways out of their pots. 

She had also given me a rather large terra cotta pot, so I eyeballed what could move into that one. Oh. One of the spider plants in need for a bigger house. 

It was hard to get it out of the pot, and when I did I said schnikeys! It was all roots. 

Damn. I felt badly for this dude! I tried to tease it apart into two but it just wouldn't separate. I was afraid I would cause it distress, so I just put it in the giant pot. Grow baby, grow. Succeed. This is its third pot. And it is the one that gave me 33 babies to take to the first plant swap I went to, and now it has more for me to share with others.

Then to the second spider. I pulled the pot up and noticed the overgrowth situation was the same with this one, only the pot it was in was the same size as the pot I just liberated the other one from. 

I had no choice, I was going to have to split it up. I just had to be confident, and strong willed. If I kill it, I guess, that'll be its fate? I should have taken pictures of that one cut in half, and you could imagine me being worried.

It took a long time to split it up. I had to use a knife, and then I rinsed the soil out to make sure there were plenty of roots there to replant with. It had a few babies, so I left the babies on it, and put the soil into the two pots to get the freshly liberated two sections out in. They look pretty good (see below). I think it's going to be okay. I hope it's going to be okay.

Then, I sprayed the leaves and soil of all of the plants with the neem oil. It smells interesting, it's a very clean-ish and unique scent. A little soapy, like everyone just got a fresh shower. 

Everyone is looking spiffy and spectacular right now. I've been eyeballing one of the snake plants I have, thinking that may be ready to be split up. It's growing like mad, new shoots coming up all the time. I had taken it apart into two parts last year, and one of the big leaves broke off, so I planted it in a pot by itself. It took months but it now is growing pups. It's going to need a bigger pot before too long. 

I have a little string of hearts that needs a transplant pot, but I don't have one for it. Next journey out. Maybe in March when we go back to the brewery that is attached to the nursery. I thought about buying some pots when we were up there last weekend, but restrained myself. Now I have regrets!

Everyone is in very similar sized pots, so I feel like I could use some bricks to give a few of the pots some elevation. Next project. Find some bricks. 

Here are the two spiders, and a bunch of my other babies behind. The swiss cheese plant has one leaf that turned yellow. When I removed it from its current pot to place it into a bigger pot, the roots were everywhere so I think this was high time to move it into a new home! I hope it does well. It has some new growth, so I don't think it is dying... let's see how it does!

The white pot in the back has no holes in the bottom so I'd want to put something in there that already has holes, and make sure it can drain well. I don't know the names of some of the babies, but they're mine. And they're doing alright! 

Oh and on the window sill is a little enclosed ecosystem. Someone was giving it away at the most recent plant swap, The girl told me to just add water once a month maybe, until the bottom where the moss layer is gets wet. Then, put the lid on and leave it. Two months later, it's still doing good. I asked her if it would outgrow that container and she said no. It'll just exist. 

Everyone needs a hobby, right?

digits

exercise:
Dedicated 10+30. Nonstop movement for 40-45 minutes. About 10 solid before the plant work, and then another 30ish during the plant work. Standing at the table, and dancing in place. Christine: Party of One. 
12/12 hours of the 250 steps. 

blood glucose:
8:30am: 165
4:30pm: 161
9:30pm: 149

food:
coffee, water
10am: 2 eggs scrambled w/ 1/2 the left over stuffed pepper (chorizo, onion, pepper), cheddar cheese
11:30am: metformin
6pm: cheesesteak filling (onion, peppers, mushrooms, meat, cheese) metformin+jardiance; vodka tonic (3)
8pm: mixed nuts; some left over tuna casserole (to make the leftovers fit into a smaller container)
9pm: pbj sandwich on 647 bread

The Go Places Do Things Kids

I had a dream this morning about a band. A foursome, young kids, like early 20s. They were being interviewed live before a performance, and the name of the band was The Go Places Do Things Kids.They were fun and happy, and the interview was full of laughter. 

I don't remember any of the questions. They didn't play me any music. I woke up and said "In a world where there are too many bands and all the good names have been taken, that's not a bad name." 

My brain may be telling me something. 

I need to Go Places and Do Things. I'm just not feeling interesting, or feeling like I have anything interesting to talk about or blog about. I suppose that's what happens when you make a pact with yourself to write every single blasted day, eh?

My past couple of days worth of entries are really boring because all the work week is exceptionally boring and horribly busy. I try to think of something to write about or say, and I'm pretty dried out. 

Anyway, I am going to be a Go Places Do Things Kid in a couple of weeks. Well, almost exactly one month. Linda and I are going to Florida March 22nd, we'll see Guster in Orlando and Ft. Lauderdale. We're hoteling in Orlando, but my friends M & J are hosting us after the Ft. Lauderdale show. They'll keep us for the weekend. The following weekend, I believe that's Philadelphia for more Guster. Doug may join us but Linz is looking to get a site visit to one of her company's clients, and then her boss will pay for the hotel. Hey Now. That can be super duper nice & fancy. Oh and then the week after that, Guster in Huntington NY with days before and after to visit friends and family in the hometown... should be fun. 

Funington Fun. 

Second week of April is looking boring already.

I thought about flying us to New Orleans, me and Doug, so I could uhhhhh, see Guster on March 18th and he could walk around his very favorite city, but I passed on it. Not saying there's not still time. The show is on a Saturday. I mean, we could do it. It would be hilarious. Just showing up without any of my fan club pals knowing that I'm coming. 

There are other shows I could have wrenched in, like Norfolk, VA, Jacksonville, and Key West. We almost did that last one, but hotels in Key West are entirely unaffordable. Our friend J contacted a friend of his who has a houseboat for rent, but the third person in our travel plan has MS and wouldn't be able to use the gangplank, and you have to walk to the marina to use the bathroom. Not a problem for me and Linz, but... she's got mobility issues and doesn't want to get caught halfway to the bathroom with an urgent go. So I totally understand that. And I didn't want to go to a show, and drive back north to Miami. Or even one of the other keys. Not happening. At night. That's dumb. 

So, no Key West for us. Sadly. 

But today, Doug and I were Go Places and Do Things kids. We ran errands, went to Target, and found ourselves at Quench for beers and dinner. We were perfectly happy hanging out there, but last call was 8:45, so we paid our tab, bought mead and cider to bring home from the bottle store next door. We had snacks, and more beer at home. I'd probably be sitting there still if we hadn't come home. Thanks, early last call. 

Anyway, we'll see if Sunday has us being go places do things kids too. I'm proud of us for leaving the house today. 

Picture below is an example of brewer's lace - a good sign of a great beer.  as the kids say IYKYK 

digits

exercise: 11/12 of 250 steps (missed 7pm because we were sitting at the restaurant...)

blood glucose
9am: 174
5pm: 148
11pm: 240 

food:
coffee, water
10am: 2 eggs, 2 slices of american cheese, 3 strips of bacon, salsa, burrito wrapped in a carb balance large tortilla
noon: metformin
7pm: buffalo wings, spinach salad w/chicken, 3 beers,
9pm: metformin+jardiance; 2 baby bells
10pm: reeses peanut butter cup minis; beer
10:30pm: can of tuna fish

The Happiest Time On Fridays

My favorite time on a Friday is when the alarm goes off, and I get to unset it. I turn it off so it won't go off on Saturday morning. It's the best. 

It's been a challenging week but there was also fun.  Some of it. I didn't hate this week.

Doug came home yesterday and said jury duty was over. They were done, and the trial over. He was relieved. He couldn't talk about any of it, but he was happy it was done.  

Anyway, not sure what we have planned for the weekend, but for right now. It's bedtime!

digits

exercise: 12/12 of 250 steps; dedicated almost 10. fell short a minute, but had another 7 min. later in the day.

blood glucose: 
8:30am: 170
4:30pm: 154
9:30pm: 180

food:
coffee, water
12:30: quesadilla with american cheese, turkey. bacon
4:45pm: trail mix (with some chocolate and raisins) 
6pm: chicken parm (1/2); metformin+jardiance

Starting Off With A Bang

Jeeeez is it pouring out. As I write this, about noon, the sky just opened up and it is out of hand out there. Unreal. It's pitch dark in the living room. I turned on the white lights to bring some cheer into the place.

Doug got up at 6 to get ready to leave here by 7:15 at the latest. I heard him still in the shower at 6:55 when the dog woke up to go out. I hope he made it there on time. 

We also were kind of like "WTF. Can justice wait for us to get there at 8:30am? That's so much more reasonable!" But I guess ... Justice gets out of bed early. Or something. 

Phin went out at 6:55 and he and I went back to bed. I heard Doug and Geoff talking (Geoff is always up early. Always). I heard him leave, and so did Phineas so he got out of bed again, and wanted to go out again, so we were up for the day. Got some coffee, played a new stupid game on my phone that I'm obsessed with, picked up the laptop at 8. 

I have a little routine every day:  I check the email. I look at Slack, I check the helpdesk tickets to see if any replies came in from previous discussions. I wait to look at the new ones. I look at Facebook and Twitter. I read my personal email, which usually is zero non-marketing emails (unless my girl C emails me). 

We did a code deploy last night on one of the products I support, and from 8:30am to 10:30am, it was a scramble to troubleshoot one of the updates. It didn't work. At least, for everyone except the devs. Everything looked fine at their end but at my end, and all of our colleagues' end, well, not so much. 

A lot of work and I ended up missing steps for the 9am and 10am hours! I hate that! I've gotten so disciplined with getting off my ass. So I lost those 2 hours. doh. 

It's okay ... when I think about 1 year ago I maybe got 2k steps for the day and now consistently 5k, and if I work harder more, I made up for the missing 500 steps by doing other things during the day. 

I've been having some big work feelings in the past few weeks, I can't really get into it. I don't know who reads this. I just feel under appreciated and unrecognized for who I am and what I bring. It's annoying and to be honest ... insulting. I know I shouldn't let stupid things bother me but sometimes stupid things add up to bigger things. I'll just say that this was a day where I honestly felt like I was doing great work, and then one person says one thing and I am slapped right back into my own self doubt and imposter syndrome. 

So I made a great marinade for the chicken thighs, took a beat, and went back to do my best work. It's all I can do. I guess. 

photo taken at noon - it was so dark and gloomy here, I turned on the lights to bless the living room. Digits, below. 

digits

exercise: 10/12 of the hourly 250 steps
Dedicated 10+3.  
11:57 started my hour steps, continued into 12, kept going until 10 past... While eating my sandwich, picking things up, moving things to the kitchen that were left here in the living room last night. Picking up 1 thing at a time made for about 6 round trips. 

blood glucose: 
8:30am: 164
4pm:167
11pm: 159

food:
coffee, water
10:30am: geoff's leftover pizza cheese
12 noon: metformin; pbj on 647 bread
3pm: pepitas, trail mix w/chocolate chunks+raisins
6pm: 2 chicken thighs in marinade w/ a scoop of left over white chinese rice mixed with beef broth, peas; wine 🍷; metformin+jardiance
7:30pm: Mixed nuts

"I work here now"

Doug was called for jury duty today. He has always said he'd love to serve. But. He once worked in law enforcement, and, he has a Master's degree. The law enforcement has automatically gotten him kicked out the door in the past. And the Master's degree...well.  His cousin is a lawyer and told him he'll never be picked for a jury because lawyer's see that and say "this person is too smart. We can't have them on the jury." 

I also pointed out that if you have any degree and you are being asked to sit on a "jury of your peers" for a 20yr old black man who did crime, you're not exactly their peer. That's not a jury of your peers. I think the concept of the jury of your peers part of things came around incredibly long ago when everyone wore white wigs, were farmers, and no women were allowed to think for themselves. 

He left around 7:30am, parking can be a challenge over there, and I told him that both times (so far) I've been called, the intake processing time takes a while. They are understaffed (who isn't), incredibly nice, but sometimes people come up to the counter to fight with the staff, cause they don't want to be there and don't know why they had to come blah blah blah. And they will let everyone know it. 

As the kids say, "Sir, this is an Arby's..." 

Move along and let the next person get checked in, and take your fight to someone who can help you she's just asking for ID. 

He called me around lunchtime. 

They seated him. 

He was shocked, and I was shocked. I'd half been expecting him to walk in the door at any moment, but. No. He said that the trial will go through "at least Friday." 

"I work here now," he said to me. 

He has to return at 7:45am tomorrow. Exciting. 

Whipped up the fastest dinner I could, to try and feed him, but he inhaled a bunch of snacks, drank a couple beers, and he is out cold on the couch. Doing Justice is exhausting. 

digits

exercise: 12/12 of the hours for 250 steps. lots of walking about internally. 

blood glucose:
8am: 209
6pm: 164
10pm: 184

food:
coffee, water
8:30am: protein shake
1pm: giant BLT salad. I made enough for both me and Doug. And ate it all because he isn't home. metformin.
6pm: 1 baked stuffed pepper w/chorizo, pepper & onion, shredded cheddar. Metformin+jardiance.
6:45pm: 4 oreo cookies

A Different Dinner

(I thought I hit publish before closing the laptop last night! oops) 

Geoff gets home from class at 9pm on Mondays, and we get the trash out, I coordinate the cardboard and plastic/bottle/aluminum, and he does the dragging of the barrels to the road,  

Sometimes I just do it all for him, on nights when it isn't freezing out. I just do it. He seems relieved that he doesn't have to think about it. 

Tuesdays he usually has lab/class in person but that didn't happen today, so he's been here. I've gotten used to it being just me and Phin on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. He had a huge exam this evening, online, and was exceptionally anxious about it. He ended up getting an 86 and was pleased with that.

I mentioned in the morning that we could use a trip to the market if he was up for it, if he needed a break. I said "if you don't want to, it's all good, I can head out after 4. He came up at 12:30 and said he could use a break, and headed out. Doug had bought some lamb chops recently, manager's special. Anytime anything is under 7 bucks a pound that is "a deal" in Doug's world. So these were marked for fast sale, and that's what we had for dinner. 

I chopped up a whole slew of potatoes that have been in the cabinet since about New Year's. Both Doug and Geoff bought bags when out shopping around that time.  And we only used one bag. Some of these tubers were no good, others still great. It was fun cutting the eyes off of them. 

I diced them and they went into the oven for roasting. Geoff didn't feel like peeling them, so, roasted it was. 

I have a couple shallots, some garlic, he got fresh rosemary, so the chops sat in some flavor for a couple hours. I waited until Doug got home and pan seared them - they were outstanding. Must say so. 

It's nice to make something for dinner that I don't usually make. I've gotten to the point where I'm bored with food and preparing food, and deciding what to make with food. I just want someone else to do it. I want to just order out and not think about it, but that is a treat thing, not an every day thing. And I can't control what's in the ingredients with take out, so there is probably a deadly amount of carbs in things that I think are low carb. 

Aside from a spot of flour for the pan gravy on these, it's a virtually no-carb dish. Well. Save for the potatoes. 

digits! Below!

digits

exercise:

blood glucose:
8:30am: 173
5pm: 172
10pm: 196

food:
coffee, water
9:45am: 2 oreo cookies
10:45am: fritos scoops w/ black bean salsa dip
11:30am: metformin; turkey sandwich w/mayo on 647 bread, some more fritos for crunch.
7pm: metformin+jardiance; 2 lamb chops, some roasted potatoes, gravy, and wine.

Super Bowl Monday

Went to bed super late last night even though I didn't really care about the football game. Longtime readers know I've been a voracious football fan in the past. The past couple of years though, my interest has faded due to a lot of reasons. 

Mostly I should say since none of my teams have been big winners. More like big wieners.  

Last night, when the game was over, it was fun to watch the on field celebrations and hear from the team, and watch the sad post game interviews from the locker room. 

It must have been 12:30 when I went to bed. 

I was thinking about how for years we'd go up to Maine to party with our friends Wayne and Marcia, how they would just host a big throw down. We all had a bunch of kids, sometimes it was the only time Jess would see their friend Sara (aka Wren these days) and all the Hyde kids. I loved those days. How fun was that. Doug and I were in the market and there were frozen wings and meatballs and I stood there thinking about Wayne cheffing up wings that would bake for hours in the oven and he'd make a glaze with grape jelly and coke. Literally. The most delicious shit ever. I googled recipes for it, and none of the ones I found match the magic he'd concoct. I should email Marcia, ask if she knows the recipe. 

We had a small spread, but it was carb heavy and my blood sugar was huge at bedtime. I thought a protein shake would help, but it was barely helpful. Today I did myself a disservice and had slices of sourdough, should have not. But. I did. 

Geoff was at class tonight, so Doug and I basically decided on leftovers. No real good dinner plans. I'm going to bed hungry and lazy, and thinking about Wayne's wings.

no picture, nothing fun going on.

digits 

exercise: 11/12 hours of 250 steps today. Missed the 4pm hour by a step or two! meetings!

blood glucose:
8:30am: 183
5pm: 200
10pm:173

food:
coffee, water
10am: protein shake
10:30: 2 slices of Mike's sourdough bread w/butter (can't resist!)
11:45am: metformin; slices of turkey, strips of Edam cheese
3pm: apple+peanut butter
7pm: metformin+jardiance; left over french onion soup 
10pm: potato roll w/ peanut butter & jelly

Superb Owl Sunday

(Forgot to publish before going to bed)

I don't have a horse in the race for the Big Game today. I just love that two brothers are facing off, the Kelce brothers. Jason and Travis. I'm very happy for their mom. She has a wonderful shirt she wears that is a blend of both of their uniforms. You go, Donna. You rock this moment. 

Today we met up with M&M at a brewery. I didn't come home with a lot of plants or pots, like I thought I might. Showed restraint. It was a lot of fun getting together, they just went to a conference in Florida and had a good time. I was afraid they may not want to come out since they literally just got back. Sometimes when I get back from being away a week, the last thing I want to do is hang out with people, but we had a great time.

We brought home a growler of beer, I've got snacks for days, pigs in blankets, chips, dips, queso, smartfood.   I ate take away pizza, had more beer, and pigs in blankets. My blood sugar is gonna be whack. But, I did get to hang out with an INCREDIBLY affectionate and friendly brewery dog, and have a lovely day. 

digits

exercise: 10/12 of the 250 steps. Somehow missed 7pm, distracted by football, I guess. Slept through 9am steps.

blood glucose:
9am: 153
6pm:170
11pm:280

food:
coffee, water
11:15am: protein shake 
2pm: 1/2 cheesesteak split with doug. Beers
6pm: small personal pan pizza take & bake from pizzaria uno
8pm: metformin+jardiance
8:30: pigs in blankets w/ queso sauce
10pm: honey bbq chicken bites
11pm: protein shake (after seeing the high reading before bed)

Columbiana

This morning, Doug was here in the livingroom looking at video of the train derailment in Ohio. He had not been following the news, Very close to where his mom and sister live (10 miles east in Pennsylvania) and on the way to where his grandmother used to live (10 miles west/north west in Columbiana, OH).  

East Palestine is a town we've visited often, very cute place. I feel horrible for everything that is happening there. It is heartbreaking.  I think Doug was on a stiff nostalgia bender looking at videos from the town, perspectives of streets he's driven down for years. I've been thinking a lot about the area too. 

We used to go to visit his grandmother with his dad back in the day, and invariably we'd take her out to Das Dutch Haus for dinner. It was always such a treat for her. Diabetes, be damned! So much good and delicious carbs. And desserts. Amazing desserts. 

Most of the staff are Mennonite, I don't think anyone's faking it, it may be a prerequisite for hire to be part of the tribe, as it were. Blue dresses and bonnets on the ladies, black pants, blue shirts on the men. "Homecooked" everything (although the reviews insist everything comes out of a can, Doug's dad always said that was a damn lie). The reviews on Tripadvisor are a little harsh, and everyone keeps calling them Amish, but the Amish wouldn't work at a restaurant, if they were for real Amish. Doug says they're Mennonites. So duh, you stupids.

When his grandmother died, we stayed at the Inn on the "campus" where the restaurant and shops are. The hotel was very nice, a little expensive. But nice. Really the only option in town. Eastern Ohio isn't a hotel booker's paradise. Heck, Western Pennsylvania never was either, until they started putting in this giant fracking/cracker plant right by where Doug grew up, and the hotel boom for long term rentals (Home2Suites, MyPlace etc) happened to accommodate all the construction workers and dudes who get assigned to the plant for long stretches of time, and then they go home. 

When his dad died, after the funeral we went over to Columbiana to her grave, to say hi, and visit. Doug's dad was always very into taking us around Eastern Ohio to gravesites of his family. In fact, he did some research and found a cemetery with his family name, and went there every couple months and cleaned, trimmed bushes, tidied up trash and discarded plant containers that people just left around. Then he found out same last name, not his family. He'd been kindly maintaining plots there for years. 

I didn't write down where the "real" family plots are. Doug wasn't really interested in this "morbid fascination" with going to the cemetery that his dad was into. He doesn't get it, which to me is a little weird. Like, know where your people are. And this was very important to his dad. 

After we left the cemetery in Columbiana, he was very sad. This was a place he'd been coming to his whole life. All the time. To come see grandma. As we drove away, he said he'd probably never be back to this little town, this was it. And we haven't been back since. Anyway. It hasn't been that long since Gary passed, and we made our last visit to Columbiana, maybe we'll go back some other time when we are up to see Doug's mom. It is really not that far.

While thinking on family and things, he decided this morning to go visit his aunt and help her out. She'd called a couple weeks ago and asked for some help.  She said she has a shelf in the bathroom that collapsed. She never did get her dishwasher replaced, the county is getting aggressive (dude, it's been over a year I'm so surprised they haven't sent in a Hazmat team yet!) 

Doug told her he'd come over when he had time. This morning he decided he had time. He asked me if I wanted to come with (not reallyyyyyyy), and I reminded him that we were getting together with B and the Beau (name of my new indie band). He said I'm off the hook if I wanted to still connect with them. After all, we did make plans. That'd be shabby to text her as she's on the way here to say "ugh, no."

Text sent, new location registered. Doug went at about 12:30, and I told him hey - there's a buffalo wing restaurant right near her house, so feel free to bring back 100, okay? 

I vacuumed - something I've been thinking of doing for weeks, as you know. Cleaned the living room, scrubbed the top of the stove (long overdue). The dishwasher ran, twice. When you don't have dishwasher tabs to run a cycle, things build up. And I put the grates from the stove in for an hour wash. Easier than scrubbing. Things look much nicer. 

B and the Beau came over around 1:30, we had a lovely visit for about two hours. Absolutely lovely. He's a resident at the hospital where she works, and they are super cute together. We had a great chat, and while it wasn't the brewery it was still very nice. They were going to DC to celebrate her brother's pandemic 40th birthday (he's 42 now) with an actual celebration, dinner, and a group attending Drunk Shakespeare. I told her about how we saw The Tempest, and I asked how the actors in this could get actually drunk in what looks to be a 90 minute run time. She said she'll keep me posted.

Doug got home from his aunt's and said that it went as well as it could have. He couldn't hang the shelf because she doesn't have hardware. So how did it fall down? She then changed the subject to no one at Home Depot could help her, they don't sell the hardware for that shelf and it is useless. blah blah blah. 

He helped clean up in the little back yard because she has a tree that has to be removed, and the tree removal company said they can't work in the yard unless all the detritus is moved out of the way, so, he got that all cleaned up. To the best of his ability. He said it is still a disaster over there, and he's amazed that after 18 months the city where she lives has not just actually shown up, thrown her out, cleaned the place out. Done. 

I'll try to go next time, and get a bead on the scene. 

In other news, tried to repot some plants today but my potting soil, which was in the shed, is all moldy and gross. I'll grab another bag when we're out tomorrow. I noticed today the tile/silicone in the bathroom that caused the leak and damage is cracked again, so ... I have to reach out to the property manager. I took pictures while cleaning the shower. I don't know what the material is, but, it is just cracked and peeling away from the wall. Ugh. 

Tomorrow we are going to a Valentine's Weekend event at a brewery we've been to a couple times. M&M are going to join us. They close for the winter when the farm stand shuts down for the season, but this is a special weekend event and should be fun. I'm looking forward to it!

No picture today - too busy to grab one. 

digits

exercise: 11/12 of the 250 steps. Missed the 9am hour. For sure got dedicated 10 somewhere in there with the cleaning and vacuuming. Lots of action today!

blood glucose
10am: 153
5:30pm: 143
10pm: 181

food:
coffee, water
2:30pm: metformin; 1/2 piece of chicken parm, a little bit of pasta, sauce. 🍷
6:45: 2 bowls of tuna casserole (tuna, noodles, peas, cream of mushroom soup)
7:30pm: metformin+jardiance

Have a Joyfun Day

(oops! Thought I hit publish before bed!)

I was typing to someone on slack on my phone and said something was "joyfun" instead of joyful. It made me laugh, and so I left it unedited, to see if she'd find it amusing too, and she did. We've decided to make joyfun happen. 

I hope you are having a joyfun day.

This weekend is the super bowl on Sunday. I'm not that into it because the whole not really having a team in the fray, and I'm not into the halftime show. No offense on Rhianna but. I'm not that into her stuff. 

Tomorrow, Phin's ole mama B and her new boyfriend are coming through the area. I love how 2 years ago we met and now I value her greatly, I think the feeling is mutual. I mean, she wants to introduce us, and Phin, to the new beau. She just bought her first house, and asked me advice. I said make sure your mortgage is never owned by a certain bank. If you know what I mean. 

Hard to imagine but Phin came to us at the end of February 2021, right after we'd moved (that'll be 2 years ago this week). We're hoping to connect with them for some beers and hanging out tomorrow, and we have some errands to run, so I'm hoping we get out for the whole day for a lot of Joyfun.

You too.

Picture below is a screenshot of an ad that keeps showing up on my sites. Somehow I mentioned the Grateful Dead, and Peanuts, and lo and behold, someone makes this t-shirt. Digits to follow.

digits

exercise 11/12 250 steps somehow got distracted and missed 15 steps in the 2pm hour. doh.

blood glucose:
8:45am: 157
5pm: 156
10:45pm: 156

food:
coffee, water
12:15: metformin
12:30: turkey, 2 slices of colby jack, hummus, grilled on 647 wheat bread
1pm: still hungry, pb&j on 647 wheat bread
6pm: metformin+jardiance
7pm: chicken parm, meat sauce, some pasta shells
🍷🍷🍷🍷 during and after dinner

Application for Graduation

 Hanging on our fridge, using a bunch of our magnets, are two pieces of documentation. 

GWG will often print things and stick them on the fridge rather than just tell us, like his quarterly schedule, or paperwork from the insurance company, now that he has his own insurance policy. 

Today I walked in and saw his Application for Graduation pinned up. 

Wow. This is looking real. 

It's mid February just about. He's doing his academics, and then will have to do his clinical placement. And. Well I just fucking hope everything goes well. I'm hopeful. Right? We can be hopeful. I'm hopeful that in May, there's a graduation ceremony. And he said he wants to attend it, and we have some people over. 

It'll be a victory. 

He's looking at jobs already. I kind of want him to slow his roll - like, pass the classes first, and then let's get you figured out for work. 

He is ready to get his future started, which is why the last academic fiasco hurt so much. He has to do it and succeed. Please keep him in your prayers. 

I'm not in a hurry to lose him. Having him here at the house is a blessing. He went to the market today as I was in meetings, he picked what was for dinner (beef stroganoff) and pre-prepped things for me. When he's not here, it's PB&J sammitches. 

Digits below. But there it is. For realsies.

digits

exercise: 8/12 250 steps (distracted by meetings and actual hard work!) 

blood glucose
9am: 157
5pm: 126
9pm: 170

food:
coffee, water
11:45: pb&j on 647 whole wheat bread
noon: metformin
2-3: some handfuls of mixed nuts
6pm: beef stroganoff w/some egg noodles 🍷
6:45: metformin+jardiance

New Baby Photos

6:40am. Emergency Page. I am on call until 8am. I worked until 6:30. I'm beat.

Good morning to me at 6:40am. Gah.

Emergency handled, sort of. There are problems ongoing but. Nothing I can do. I helped to the best of my ability.

I came in to look at my plants. 

I'm going to have to figure out some more places to stick plants on, but right now they're on the tables beside and behind me. Doug had found some shelving at a yard sale but it is wire and doesn't hold the plants nicely. So I may have to move some things off of the big wooden shelf, or the bar, or hell - buy another set of shelves. C sent me a 4 shelf unit a few years ago and it is full of tchotchkes, I feel like I'm moving things closer and closer together, and don't really want to put plants on that shelf. 

Oh, the decisions! Oh life, with decisions! 

I'll come up with a plan. 

Anyway. The light was nice this morning, and I stood there looking at the babies realizing I do not know what they are all called. Only one of them has a name on a stick, another has a label on the pot but I'm not sure it is true. And the person I picked them up from has a small child who told me that one of them is a "money plant, but it doesn't grow money yet." I had to not laugh at that and say I'd email her mom

I'll email Jess and ask them what the names are. 

I'm also looking at the overall collection and pondering repotting and relocating a couple things that have grown in nicely. I figured out what some are. Some are still a mystery. And I'm ok with that. 

Digits below. Obviously. 

digits

exercise: 12/12 250 steps. kind of dedicated 10 but not all in a row.

blood glucose:
8am: 189 (I already had coffee, not sure what the impact is on the number... )
4:15pm: 172
9:30pm: 160

food:
coffee, water
9am: piece of peach pie, to get it out of the way in the kitchen. giant box, tiny slice. goodbye.
11am: metformin
12:45pm: 2 eggs, shredded mexican cheese, 2 sausage patties, hot salsa
6pm: metformin+jardiance
6:30: 1 cheeseburger, no bun, mushrooms, onions, pepper, american cheese.

I just wanted a salad

Lately, I have been distracted at lunchtime, and either have not eaten until late, or, just chug a protein shake at 11am (never a good idea because it upsets my stomach if all I've had is .... coffee). Then not eat until dinner. If you follow the digits, you see my sins.

Today I was here alone. Boy at school, Doug off to work. Me and dog. 

Tuna salad, me style today!  Alriiiiiiiight! 

Doug doesn't like onion in his tuna, he prefers celery. That's okay, but I love me some zesty onion. I whipped up 2 cans (1 can isn't enough, 2 cans is too much, so I figured I'd have more for later). 

Lately, instead of making a salad to plop the tuna on top of, and then have like dry lettuce and stuff, which I would want salad dressing on, but salad dressing would conflict with the tuna salad (oh, the struggle) I've been thin dicing romaine lettuce, cutting some cherry tomatoes in half, and mixing that into the tuna with the mayo and making a completely mixed salad. I've been loving that lately. Doug thinks it is gross.

But today it was all about me being home by myself, making the lunch that I want to see in the world. 

So I've got my salad all ready and I go to get the mayo. I whip open the fridge.

I can't find the mayo. Where the hell is the mayo?

There has to be mayo in this fridge. I do not want to open another jar of mayo and then find an already open jar of mayo. This happens all the time. We often have: 2 open containers of cream cheese, 2 mayos, 2 catsup bottles, multiple relishes of the same variety.... no. I'm not going to do it. 

Digging into the fridge, I notice that there are a lot of 4 packs of beer. Doug and I brought some home from the brewery on Sunday, Geoff also picked some up. Nice to have a goodly assortment of bevvies, yes. But they take up real estate. 

They're all held together by these nice plastic holders that have replaced the classic plastic rings anymore. And we've got 3 or 4 of them, shoved into the bottom of the fridge. 

I live with monsters. 

How's come no one can take 2 of these things apart, or 2 out of each lil collection, and put them in the can dispenser inside the fridge. So I'm like okay - there is probably mayo behind the beer. 

I start ripping the cans out of the plastic dealies. 

3, 4, 5, 6.... and one just EXPLODES all over me.  All over the kitchen. All over the dog. 

Somehow the plastic cover thing was perfectly positioned right by the pull tab, and my aggressive de-packaging of the cans resulted in one just going off. 

And it went off. Boy did it go off.

I stood there with beer on my face, my glasses, all over my shirt, oh and the ceiling... wondering when the last time was that I was so royally done up on like this. 

A toddler, back seat of a car, Long Island. Green Lollipop. Yeah. That was a memorable one. 

Anyway, I just wanted a salad, don't forget that. All I wanted was a salad. 

I set the beer in the sink (coffee chocolate porter, btw) and commenced to cleaning. Thankfully I do not have a meeting until 2. I can... clean all this up. it'll be alright. 

Inside the fridge, then outside the fridge, the wall, the doorframe, the floor. The Dog. I can't clean the ceiling. Screw that. 

There was no mayo behind the beer. 

I open a new mayo. I mix my salad. I shove my beer covered glasses up onto my beer covered hair. I eat and enjoy my salad. And I drink the 4 or so ounces of beer in the can because I'm not pouring delicious craft beer down the drain.

I take a shower. 

That was ... my day.  

I was going to write about the plant babies that I got, but for now. Here's one picture. It has some magic.

digits

exercise: 12/12 of 250 steps. Pacing the house during dinner not really a dedicated 10 but movement. Hosed the area rug off. spent a lot of time lugging that and turning it, hosing it off, dragging it to the porch. That was kind of a workout!

blood glucose:
8am: 177
4:30pm: 144
10pm: 198 (??)

food:
coffee, water, about 5 oz of beer (see above)
8am: slices of turkey, slice of cheese
noon: metformin
1pm: tuna salad (see above)
2pm: the rest of the tuna (see above about 2 cans... oy)
5:30: about 4 oz of beer (the rest went in the fajitas)
6:15pm: 2 fajitas (chicken, onion, peppers, sour cream, cheese) on 2 low carb wraps
7pm: metformin+jardiance
8:30: last of the chicken (not enough to wrap up for leftovers tomorrow so. I ate it)

 

Oh there is nothing like a sick dog, is there?

 The weekend was a lot of fun. I felt like nothing was wasted. I was disappointed with Sunday's dinner, Doug wanted french bread pizza and the store only had these hard-assed baguettes, he got a nasty sauce, and we only had mushrooms to put on top. I didn't eat my bread, just the cheese, nasty sauce, and mushrooms. Dissatisfying to say the least. But. Doug and Geoff were happy for what they had and that balanced out my disappointment. So that was the only downside.

Until about 11:30pm.

Doug, Phineas and I were in bed, and Phin got up. I thought to myself "dude, you JUST went out what the F---" and he puked. All over the floor. Hit the dirty laundry, the little rug next to my side of the bed, and then he started to go again. I jumped out of bed, opened the door, dragged him out. He doesn't wear a collar so I grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and hauled his ass. 

He puked in the living room, he puked on the threshold, the porch, the walkway. Doug was sitting up in bed looking confused. I grabbed the rug, no need trying to clean it, gotta go out there. maybe get hosed off. And then I started to wipe up everywhere else. 

I realized I only had bleach cleaner, which isn't the best to like, smell like when you get back in bed. But I cleaned up, and opened the door to bring him back in. 

He was out there, eating his puke. You know, like ya do, when you're a dog. Doug had his pj pants on and put on his slippers to go out there and get him. Bring him back in. We all settled into bed again, Doug and Phin fast asleep.

Me laying there, staring at the dog. 

12:30 - up again. Jump off the bed. I pushed him out the front door before he could lose it. He came back in, I helped him navigate the puke on the porch. 

I decided I'd take him in the guest room - there's a rug in there and it turns out jumping into bed is a lot easier if you have a small rug for traction. He couldn't get back in our bed earlier, without help, so I figured the rug, the ottoman, and the lower bed would be good. 

He snuggled up to my legs, 800 degrees as usual. But I wanted him touching me so I could feel if he got off the bed again. 

He did, around 2am. And puked on the rug before I could get him out the door. So I got him outside, spot cleaned the antique area rug from Doug's uncle Pete, which is over 100 years old. I may have to get it professionally cleaned. It was something I was pondering - luckily he didn't puke as much as the first go-round. We're running out of puke. 

He got back in bed. At 3am I'm there, with him horking, dry heaving, and me thinking, "Is he actually dying? Is my dog going to die in my bed tonight? Was all that Sarah McLachlan joking around some super bad karma?!" 

Eventually, I fell back asleep. He got up at 6:30, normally I'd feed him, but I sent him outside, watched him pee and come back, and I brought him back in. No breakfast for you, yet. I needed more sleep, and didn't want him to eat and chuck in less than an hour. 

Doug got up at 8, I heard him bumbling around so I called out to him when Phin got off the bed to let him know there was no brekkie, I wanted him to be monitored by a human. 

I got another half hour of rest and decided it was time to get up, because I had to pee. Gotta take care of me. Right?

He has slept most of the day, except when I ate lunch and he wanted to have some. So desperately wanted. He loves my bread crust or pieces of apple. He likes the yogurt container. He was very hopeful but there is no way I'm giving him anything right now. 

I have no idea what he got into himself to get this sick. 

I took this picture on Friday. He sleeps with his eyes open, but he rarely bleps, so I had to get this shot. Digits below, per usual. Hope we get good sleep tonight!

digits

exercise:

blood glucose:
8:30am: 198
3:45pm: 178
9:30pm: 191

food:
coffee, water
8:45am: protein shake
11:45: low carb wrap w/hummus, 1 pc of pepper jack cheese, sliced turkey. metformin (early lunch due to meetings at noon and 1pm)
3:45: apple w/peanut butter
6pm: leftover stew w/pork, tomatoes, peas, and white rice (high reading tonight as a result)
8pm: mixed nuts

Plants! and a Brewery

Yesterday, I went to a brewery in Virginia. Today, a brewery in Maryland. I have a colleague at work who decided to get rid of a lot of her potted plants because they got a cat and she's afraid the cat will eat them and die. 

I was happy to help her out. 

So my little plant family has grown! I have to rearrange some things, and make adjustments but now I have plants. And more plants.

This person lives around the corner from a brewery in the Bowie area, We'd been there once before, and I didn't have to twist Doug's arm to go. We had a blast, there was good music playing, and the beer was grand. I once again feel like too many carbs were had, but, overall I had a bunch of protein, and ... well, I will live. Back on track with the few carbs+no alcohol thing tomorrow. 

At the brewery yesterday, this was in the mirror behind my head, so I took my phone out for a selfie. Thanks for the reminder, brewery. Makes me feel good. Yay! 

Digits below, and pictures of plants tomorrow!

digits

exercise: 11/12 of the 250 steps (missed 1 hour from being in the car)

blood glucose:
8am: 210
5pm: 236
9:45pm: 198

food:
coffee, water
8:30am: 2 slices of 647 wheat with peanut butter
2pm: beers (3) crab dip. quesadilla, buffalo wings
6pm: french bread pizza (one piece) and then some good burned pizza cheese from Geoff's 2nd round bake.
9:45pm: sliced turkey

The Gathering

Today I went to Virginia for a gathering. A former co-worker who left our office in 2019 to go work for a Big Huge Famous Important company convened friends and colleagues to come celebrate 10 years since he came to America from Beirut, Lebanon. 

He became a citizen while we were working together and said the funniest thing to me. 

After his swearing in, he came to the office, in his suit and tie, looking fresh and shiny. Big smile on his face, showed us all his certificate and his photo taken in front of the giant American flag and seal of the US. I asked him why he didn't take the day off, celebrate with his family. 

"I came to work because that's what American Citizens do! We make money and get things done! Now stop goofing around everyone, and get back to your desks!" 

So happy to know this guy and when he left, he sucked a lot of fun out of the building. 

Geoff came with me. They had connected personally on WWE/AEW wrestling stuff. We had a fantastic visit, chatted with some folks who left our office before and during the pandemic. Some regret it, some are doing great. My friend Adam and another guy Patrick are still there, so we got to listen to their thoughts on what it is like to work somewhere else. One has been laid off twice since leaving. 

It was a fun, boisterous, joyful event. Geoff got to explain what he was doing for school, he hasn't seen max since 2019, so this was a good time for them to catch up, and maybe make plans to see a wrestling event in person in DC. 

After we got home, I took my blood sugar, it was high, I didn't have any protein or cheese to wolf down, but I did take a nap. A good nap. Doug made stew for dinner and thought it was watery so he put white rice in it, I wish I had gotten a bowl before he did. So I had a lot of carbs and stuff that I didn't really want to have. Meh. Gotta get a good walk in tomorrow, if it isn't too cold!

Digits below picture. 

digits

exercise: 8/12 of 250 steps. no dedicated 10. 

blood glucose:
9am:177
4:30pm: 230
10:30pm: 229

food
coffee, water
noon: metformin; apple & peanut butter
2-4pm: 3 beers, 6 buffalo wings; shared hot pretzel w/ mustard
7pm: metformin+jardiance; stew w/ pork, peas & carrots; white rice; onion (a doug creation)
10:30pm: couple slices of turkey

It's Friday, I'm in Love

 I'm always in love. But every Friday morning I wake up singing The Cure. A nearly 31 year old song, and it's the first thing that pops into my head. I wonder if people in 1729 did this with some song that came out in 1697. 

Today I'm in an exceptionally good mood. Is it because it's Friday and I'm in love, or because I can close my laptop at 5 and turn my brain off? 

I thought after we got through the last phase of the project that I would be a little more easy going and free but the past week or so has been straight up busy. I'm also disappointed that the email that I worked up and sent yesterday got zero response from our teams, and I was hoping for response today. Hoping for some traction Monday. 

Fridays are supposed to be about going through our queue and closing old/outstanding tickets but I feel like Fridays are like the only day I can get anything going and accomplished. So thankful for my colleague who was so helpful this week in solving a mystery that I couldn't stick my face in or make sense of. 

I asked Geoff to go stop by the beer and wine store, get wine and beer, and he got beer. I don't really want beer. I also don't really want a gin & tonic. But also - I don't feel like putting on a stink face and going out to the store myself so. 

I have had a stomach ache all day, heartburn. meh. I had pasta for dinner and I'm now extra sick to my stomach. I think I'll head to bed early.

If you don't know the words, sing along with this handy dandy graphic! Jess used to have this t-shirt. I wonder if they still do. Reason to email kid and ask.

digits

exercise: 12/12 250. no dedicated 10.

blood glucose:
8:30am: 147
3:45pm: 163
8:30pm: 147 but i find that hard to believe

food:
coffee, water
12 noon: 1/2 tomato that geoff left behind
1pm: protein shake; metformin
3:45pm: slice of rye bread toast w/butter
6pm: linguini with pasta sauce and 4 meatballs; metformin+jardiance