Grilled Chicken

Last night, I grilled 3 chicken breasts, 2 peppers, 2 onions for dinner. Doug looked at the pile of chicken and said "that's .... a lot of chicken." 

It was. But I had plans. 

Today's chicken salad is brought to you by the left over grilled spicy chicken, peppers, and onions. Left to sit together in the fridge in the container, they mixed their flavors with the mayo and cream cheese and blew my mind. Blew Doug's mind too. Very delicious. Absolutely wonderful. Doug had a giant bowl, and I had 2 smaller bowls, just so good we had to finish it up. 

I love when my plans come together. 

We're headed to Doug's mom for the weekend. Geoff is staying home with the dog. I asked him to make a food plan for everything past dinner tonight. He will have to go to the market. I hope he remembers to go pick up the dog's prescription. 

I feel bad about him having to stay behind, but it is what it is. Doug's sister is disappointed but I asked her what else we were expected to do, really. The dog isn't welcome, he's kind of a liability, and I can't deal with the stress. 

Tomorrow I think our plan is to leave before noon but we are in no gargantuan hurry. If tomorrow is anything like today, both of us were awake before 7, so in theory, we could be up, dressed, ready, out the door by 9. But more likely, I'll sleep until 9, we'll drink coffee, one of us will volunteer to shower and start thinking about getting ready. 

I made more bracelets this afternoon. My order for numbers came in, and, I got the epoxy I ordered to affix the tied off knots so they won't come apart. That's my next step. 

I have no picture today,  so digits below. 

digits:

exercise: 12/12 hours of 250 steps.   dedicated 10+2

blood glucose:

7:15am: 171
4:30pm: 155
10pm: 157

food:

coffee, water
11:30: 2 bowls of chicken salad; left over grilled fajita chicken, peppers, onions, mayo, cream cheese
noon: Metformin
5pm: small bowl of linguine+meat sauce
6:30pm: Metformin+jardiance
wine

Big Tuna and Smellery

I like tuna salad, but I find one can isn't sufficient for lunch, and 2 cans is downright silly for one human to eat. 

Today I ate two cans. 

I whipped up 2 cans with celery, mayo, dill from my porch pot, damn tasty. Usually I prefer onion in my tuna salad, but Doug would rather have celery. To foster togetherness for lunch, I whipped up this concoction with him in mind, and made myself a burrito wrap with melted cheese as kind of a tuna melt, ish. 

He came upstairs and heated up chili. 

I pointed out the tuna and said "how come you don't want what I made you for lunch?" He said "oh, I didn't know that was for me."

Maybe I should have announced it, or, maybe he could have asked upon noticing "hey, is this tuna for me?" 

I felt like it would be stupid to just save that amount of tuna which should have been set up with cheese and toasted on a nice bread and enjoyed, so I just ate it since it was summarily rejected. Now I regret it. I could have had it tomorrow or something, or later today. But I ate it literally an hour after I ate my lunch. 

That was a lot of tuna for one human. 

I will say, I like the smell of cut celery. I don't necessarily like the way it tastes, which most of the time is like nothing. It just exists for crunch impact. But when you dice it, slice it, cut it, well it just smells good. My kitchen smells like celery, dill, fresh herbs. Smells really nice. fresh and clean. 

And then I started thinking and came up with a very Bob's Burgers kind of word for it. Smellery. I cracked myself up. 

In non food news, we were planning a family trip up to see Doug's mom. It has now turned into just Doug and Me. Geoff is going to stay home with Phineas. She's concerned with him being at the house. He had just gotten his kennel when we first went up there with him, and it did not go well. 

So we're recognizing and honoring that she's not down with it to have him come and be with, Geoff will stay here. I offered to stay here, but Geoff got to go on the last road trip (He pointed this out) and I kind of want to get away. 

I also kind of wanted to just go anywhere. Anywhere at all. I also kind of wanted it to be like December when I just baked 9000 cookies, and decorated them, drank wine, and ate Chinese food all by myself. I can just listen to music, sit here on my keister, and crank out beaded bracelets until I barf. 

If I bring my beading crap. I bet she'll have a cow. But sitting around the dining table just chatting, I'd like to busy my hands. And maybe my niece & nephew will help me make bracelets. Child Labor. heh. Making progress and have made a couple "inside joke" ones for friends. here's for Kacey and Sara. There are stories behind each. And it makes me laugh. 

Digits below, as usual

digits:

exercise: 12/12 hours of 250 steps.   No dedicated 10, busy busy!

blood glucose:

8am: 169
4:30pm: 144
10pm: 171

food:

coffee, water
11:45am: tuna melt burrito wrap in low net carb wheat wrap. Metformin
12:45pm: finished the tuna because no one loved it near as much as I did
6:30pm: 3 small fajitas (wraps were small) chicken, peppers & onions
7pm: metformin+jardiance
a couple handfuls of blueberries
wine

Sit with it even when it stinks

I had a check-in today with my manager, and I semi-unleashed my feelings about a lot of really not very good things happening at work. And I didn't come right out and scream "what the fuck" but I was a shade away. And I do not feel better for it because I feel like it got me nowhere. 

Lately, I find myself incredibly unhappy about almost everything happening at work, and I've kept things under control but some recent things have popped the lid off this simmering pot, and I've lost patience, understanding, and trust. 

To be honest, I have not felt this bad, mad, or angry about this job/company/situations since 2017 when they closed my office in Boston, and to keep my job, I accepted a transfer to DC. I uprooted my family for this, and I did so with a lot of rancor and bitterness but also with an open heart. 

Good things have happened here in Maryland, I like it here, I don't regret my decision to move. But as of late, I feel no agency or control in anything happening, and I have no one I can talk to about it and be transparent and honest. 

Some of that I shared with him, and he thanked me for being honest. He shared some people beyond him that I should talk to. But to be frank, I do not trust any of them. I have lost faith in the humans that provide the processes because I think they're the ones mostly fucking up. And how do you tell someone that. 

Anyway, part of what he said is "you've been through worse, and sometimes you have to sit with it even if it stinks and see how it comes out the other side." Yeah, but when I feel you have a hand in why it stinks, how can you just advise me of that? 

I'm still angry. But without absolutely blowing up, I don't know what else to do with how I feel. So. I will sit with it even when it stinks. I'll keep doing what I do best, and continue to get a sick feeling in my stomach at every turn.

In other news, I got a small order of bead things in. I needed numbers, and I ordered these sweet little star beads that I can't wait to use.

I ate white rice today with lunch and regret it, but I don't regret it... if you know what I mean. Hell yes, white rice you are so tasty. 

Digits, below the cute beads. 

digits:

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

blood glucose:

8:30am: 175
4pm: 145
10:15pm: 177

food:

coffee, water
11:45: metformin; the rest of the chicken in peanut sauce (with a scoop of the evil white rice & peas)
4:15pm: triscuits+colby jack cheese
6:30pm: bowl of mac&cheese with ground beef and salsa
7:30pm: metformin+jardiance
8:30pm: pork rinds
white wine

Mind your Js and Qs!

Making beaded bracelets, I knew I was going to run out of letter O and N, and probably S, maybe E, or A,  at some point. 

I'm getting to that point. 

But I have a massive surplus of the letters J and Q. So much so that I am pulling them all out of the container, putting them aside, and waiting for maybe an opportunity for a Guster related word that contains either. Which I can't think of, at all. Qareful? Jappier? (oh no. No.) 

Statistically, I kind of wish the bead containers were front loaded with more "popular" letters. 

I like Q and J. They're nice letters. But I am seriously out of O in the circle shape, in both color and black. E is running low. S. Wow I am hurting for S. 

I may have to order more. Online they have entire bags of some letters, which is nice, but the bags are like 2 bucks each and the shipping is 7 dollars. And that's just straight up stupid.

I have a feeling all the Swifties on earth came through all the craft stores in America, and bought all the letters. All of them. The rack at my local craft store was bereft of single letter bags, sadly. I'll have to keep an eye out. I'm on a mission.

I've taken a bracelet break for a few days, due to my anger and lack of focus. Today the plan is to reorganize my letters, putting everyone into more spread out options so I'm not picking through the LMN section for another N. I've managed to get a goodly amount of letters out of the box so there is some elbow room. I have a lot of the square ones in colored letters, so I think I'll be using those a bunch. Spread the joy and the shapes. 

A friend of mine is also making bracelets, and she got some really cool bad-ass beads for spacers. She's also doing something where she doesn't use all the beads to go around, but makes a knot at the beginning and end of where the couple beads and letters are, and she's using some really pretty cord. She also got a round circle spacer to put in between two words, and is knotting off the string so it looks amazing. 

The little box has 24 sections. I could put all the same letters in their own square and XYZ in their own section at this point, maybe. I would move the little hearts into the pony bead box. I kind of want to keep the squares and circles apart though, that way I can make bracelets of mixed color letters and the same shape. Mixing colors is one thing, squares and circles is a whole other thing. 

Hmmm. 

Decisions.

Someone told me I'm really crafty and talented and I'm like nah, I'm a freaking hack.

This is just a small sample of the Qs and Js I'm pulling out of the collection and putting aside. Digits below.

digits:

exercise: 12/12 hours of 250 steps.  No dedicated 10. it is raining again. oh, surprise! 

blood glucose:

8:30am: 174
4:30pm: 144
10:15pm: 230 (boooooo)

food:

coffee, water
11:30am: 647 English muffin w/butter, peanut butter, low sugar jelly
12:30pm: metformin
4:30pm: ramekin of mixed nuts
6pm: chicken in peanut sauce w/an excessive amount of white rice (reconstituted from the freezer) and sweet peas
wine
9:30pm: protein shake

Rancid

Boy, am I in a mood. 

So much so that I don't feel like I should be doing my job today. I'm that grumpy/feeling impolite. This isn't like me, long time readers and friends know I'm not usually so rankled and gross. But here we are. 

Today I went out and trained up the first of the morning glories that we didn't think were going to show up but they've emerged and are finally long enough to start reaching the fence. It is so hot out today, summer finally decided to show up. 

Our email system is somehow dead and I was super happy at the end of the day to find out it wasn't just me. Things were so quiet, and I wasn't hearing from anyone in the world and couldn't figure it all out. So maybe it was that kind of energy in the universe protecting me from everyone, and everyone from me. 

Best part of today was being able to talk to my workwife's little boy who turns 6 a week from today so we had a wonderful talk about how he thinks it has been "one thousand weeks" since we saw each other. I absolutely love hyperbole. 

No picture today, just the digits. And me being grumpy.

Here's to a better mood tomorrow maybe.

digits:

exercise: 12/12 hours of 250 steps.  

blood glucose:

8:30am: 195
5pm: 162
10:30pm: 144

food:

coffee, water
11:30am: Carrots+Hummus; metformin
2pm: ham & mayo on 647 wheat bread 
6pm: chili (ground beef, 3 kinds of beans, fritos, shredded cheese, sour cream) Metformin+jariance

Busy day

 This morning I woke up to the smell of baking. I wondered what was up, and found Doug had us baked blueberry oat muffins.

I may have eaten 5 of them. 

They were really good, and what a treat to have someone bake for me, instead of me baking for everyone else. 

We slacked off in the morning and Doug eventually decided around 11 to get the weed whacker out. 

Could it be? Is this the day? Yes! He weed whacked the patio and I'm forever overjoyed. He did a bunch of other trim work along the front fence, and noted our morning glories are back and getting bigger. I'll have to keep an eye on them and train them on the fence when they are tall enough. 

We both showered, and he fell asleep on the couch. I was too tired to futz with bracelets so I went to the bedroom to play with my phone and also fell asleep. We both woke up at about the same time and decided we needed to "leave the house" and go do something. Earlier in the day I'd suggested we go to a brewery we like attached to a garden center, but they close at 5pm. We opted for another local brewery that we hadn't been to for a while. They had a band, and BBQ truck, and we got there to find it hugely packed and crowded. 

Not dissuaded, we went in, grabbed some beers, and sat to listen to the band Half Pint Harry. They were fantastic. They need some Guster in their repertoire (which is extensive). Doug got us some BBQ ribs and smoked mac & cheese. I didn't care for the mac & cheese so I gave him mine. The ribs were fantastic. 

Highlight of the day was a wee toddler boy who approached the band during a song, stood there, and watched everything. His mom and dad were behind us, and they just let him free range the patio for chalk drawings and getting waters, and watching the band. I missed the shot of the singer bending over to him and jamming his uke towards him while strumming, and the little one shot his hands up in the air in a V, to whit the crowd cheered. 

It reminded me of another time, maybe 24 years ago. I flagged his mom down to send her this picture via email. It really brought me joy.

We had a lot of fun, got home and sat on the back patio where the weeds were whacked and the table was there waiting for us to chill at. 

I'm not ready for work tomorrow. I want another day like today. I don't want to deal with work at all tomorrow. Sigh.

Digits, as usual, below.

digits:

exercise: 11/12 hours of 250 steps.  3pm missed because of napping.

blood glucose:

8:30am: 156
4:30pm: 144
10pm: 174

food:

coffee, water
8:30am: muffins. Many muffins.
noon: giant salad w/ left over chicken thighs, metformin
5:30pm: baby back ribs, 3 beers, scoop of macaroni salad (meh) 
6:30pm: metformin+jardiance; 2 beers at home
2 more muffins just to finish them off
7:30: ramekin of cashews
8:45pm: pb sammitch on 647 bread

driftwood and little boats

I've been working on my Guster On the Ocean Fest accessories... lobster necklaces and bracelets, as you know. There's a whole prom night thing on Friday night and a lot of people are dressing up for it. Not just your normal prom attire though. People are going all out. 

The two dresses that I recently ordered online arrived this week, and I was so busy I just chucked them in the bedroom. Today I got them out to evaluate them.

One makes me look like a swimming pool. Don't tell me to shut up, you didn't see me in it.

The other works much better, and needs some alterations but I think it will work best unless I come across something different out there in the world. 

Doug took the picture of me in the dress, and I didn't have him take a picture of me in the swimming pool dress, so I just took the shot of the dress on my bed to get the visual. 

The blue dress is pretty great and I don't look completely wrong. Some good undergarments will probably help, as well as some alterations as mentioned. I've lost enough weight that I do not hate how this looks. That's something, right?!  

There's also this sash to go across the middle, I can't figure out how they have it set up from the picture online, so I'll futz with it and come up with a look. And I probably can sew driftwood and shells onto the sash without damaging the sash. 

Not sure I'll ever need to wear this dress again but it was pricey enough for me that I do not want to utterly destroy it by doing things to it. Doug suggested I could sew things to dangle off the sleeves and I thought about it but, nah. I could sew a whole bunch of things to the swimming pool dress, that would actually work. But I think I'm gleaning towards the blue dress there.

Picking a color was hard. There was nothing truly that spoke to me of "ocean." In fact this color is "hydrangea" and then there was emerald green, and navy blue. Nothing like a sea foam, or aqua. Hydrangea was the closest to what I thought would be right. It works.

As I've mentioned repeatedly, I have been thinking of the song Hercules and came up with images from the video. I got these little fishing nets but they are WAY too small for what I have in mind. 

I have dozens of pieces of driftwood, thank you Etsy, and for the ones that are big enough I was going to write out lyrics from the song. I put one line on 2 pieces here, and as you can see, that's the extent of the fishing net. Pretty small. So if I were to put the whole refrain on driftwood, I'd need more. Heck, I'd need more anyway because this is just a small square and not at all what I thought of. 

I have three, so I may sew the three of them together to get the shawl/wrap idea I have in my head or it's back to Michaels to get the giant spool of fishing net they have! 

I'm sure my husband is wondering at this point how much money I've spent. To this, I say, ssssshhhhhhh.

I got up fairly early this morning, Doug was playing on his phone, we talked about the stuff happening in Russia right now. He suddenly remembered it was Saturday and he should go to the farmers' market. I had started playing with beads and wanted him to get and go fast in case he could get a strawberry. 

Strawberries are done for the year, but now it is blueberries, sweet or sour cherries, apricots. And he got a loaf of really nice chive and cheddar bread. He told me he needs me to go with him to question what things cost because for a loaf of bread, even a very very nice loaf of bread, he never should have paid what he paid. 

Still, it is very tasty. I had a piece with a little butter and it was exquisite. 

I made a lot of bracelets while listening to some non-Guster stuff. Doug put on the Raconteurs and then the playlist started mixing in Broken Bells, Dan Auerbach, White Stripes (naturally), Jack White solo stuff, TV on the Radio, Cold War Kids, The Shins, My Morning Jacket, Spoon. Bands I usually never hear. It was nice to hear the one song I know by Broken Bells that I haven't heard in forever.  

Doug worked on cleaning his stuff up in the bedroom, I've been a little blocked in getting things done until he gets more organized. I watered plants. He took a nap. I thought maybe we would have gone out somewhere, but he said it was hot and humid and the farmers' market was enough for him. So I continued with bracelets, started a facebook group for Guster fans going to the prom dealie and took pictures of things. I made more bracelets. I missed 2 hours of steps because of bracelets. 

He woke up from his nap, we realized we didn't have anything really for dinner so he ordered pizza and I'm making myself a salad.  Because I'd rather not eat shitty pizza when the best pizza in the area for delivery is Dominoes or Papa John's. Boo. I had 2 pieces and a GIANT salad. 

digits below pictures

digits:

exercise: 10/12 hours of 250 steps.  Distracted by makin' bracelets and missed the 1 and 2pm hours

blood glucose:

9:30am: 160
5pm: 144
10:15pm: 168

food:

coffee, water
11:00am: Piece of cheddar chive bread that Doug got from the farmers' market
noon: metformin
12:30: chicken salad (left over from the other day)
6pm: 2 slices of buffalo chicken pizza, giant salad w/ diced chicken, mixed greens, tomato, feta.
7pm: Metformin+jardiance
White wine

Friday Thank You

 I'm so happy this week is over.  Good God am I glad. 

A Monday holiday makes things feel like we crammed 5 days into 4, like 10 pounds of shit in a 5 pound bag. 

I was working on something for a client that they can't do for themselves, and just squeezing it in between other tasks. This afternoon I just turned my brain off, went on autopilot, and pounded through the task to get it done. Ate dinner, went right back to it and finished at 8pm. 

I am so over this week. It also rained for the third consecutive day. We need it but, I wanted to walk to the Pokemon gym but wow the deluge.

There's a whole bunch of stuff I'd want to blog about related to some huge feelings I have at work. I kind of feel like I need a whole new secret blog where I can just barf out my thoughts and frustrations but ... in the end it does not matter. I've talked about things with people and am utterly dissatisfied with how some things are playing out.

I talked about it with my work bestie, and she and I are equally stymied about these things. And both of us are just exhausted from being mad and frustrated. I'm not even sure what to do with my feelings, where to place them, or how to express them. How to be polite. How to look people in the eye that I'm angry with. 

I've never felt this mad about something at this workplace. I've always been able to logically move through things. Well, never is a lie - something happened in 2018 that I'm still mad about, but this is a different thing all together. 

Meh! Totally  Meh.MEHHHHHHH.

But it's Friday and while I am not Robert Smith singing Friday I'm In Love, I'm at least relieved it is the weekend and I can turn my brain off from these things. 

Today, Doug and I decided we'd both take off July 3, which is coming up faster than you think, and maybe go see his mom. If she'll have us. If she says no, well, we'll find something fun to do with ourselves. And maybe Geoff can come.

He has had two job interviews but that is as far as he has gotten. No bites yet. He's waiting for his official sealed transcript to go to a licensing board so he can take a licensing exam for phlebotomy, which will make him an excellent candidate for jobs. 

He is thinking of taking a Chemistry class this fall just to take a class, and enrolling in the Associates program for his degree to start NEXT fall because he thinks he missed the deadline. 

And I continue to make bracelets and lobster necklaces. I didn't make any today, but should have. It may have made me feel less mad about work things. 

Maybe. 

Instead, I'll go to bed and regret that I didn't buy any OTC sleeping aids or anything to help turn my brain off when I try to fall asleep. 

Also, maybe tomorrow we can get to the farmers' market in time and get some strawberries. Cross your fingers we can be successful. If not, more zukes and squash because they are perfect grilly friends. 

Thank You, Friday for getting here. I'm so glad to have you. 

Digits below, no picture. Lazy.

digits:

exercise: 12/12 hours of 250 steps.  No dedicated 10. pouring AGAIN all day.

blood glucose:

8:30am: 147
4:45pm: 135
10pm: 129

food:

coffee, water
12pm: 3 leftover kielbasa, leftover squash/zukes/onions
1pm: Metformin
4:45pm: pretzels+port wine cheese spread
5:30pm: cheeseburger, no bun, 2 big pickle planks
6:30: metformin+jardiance
7:45: ritz crackers+peanutbutter
3 truly seltzers

What Dreams May Come

Dreams are weird, man. I know I've said that before. Last night, somewhere between 5 and 7am, I had a dream Doug and I were buying a trailer, to live in, and drive around the country or something. We had to go to Connecticut to pick it up. We didn't have a pickup truck to tow it with a 5th wheel or anything, so I was mad at Doug that he didn't plan for us to do this right. 

Turns out, that was not important because it wasn't a "mobile" home trailer, or a trailer with wheels or anything, it was on a fixed platform. It was nice and all, but, not what Doug had in mind. We were paying for it in cash, so the woman selling it told us to just buy it, and the rent for the slip was 10 bucks a month. Just buy it and have it as a place to go. 

I'm like fuck you in the middle of Connecticut east of Hartford nowhere near the water or anything, no. So Doug and I ended up not sleeping in our new trailer/camper/whatever that we'd planned on driving away with, and we were in a field in what looked like an old fort, concrete with ivy growing up around in it. Neither of us were mad at this time, and we heard a commotion coming from the other side of the fort, so we got up to investigate. 

A ton of people were there to see the band Tragedy, and we watched from the top of the wall as they rocked out. Then my friend T from work called me and recommended nearby breweries for us, since he lived the next town over. 

I told Doug all this and he told me that sounds "interesting." 

A college friend of mine told me I came to her in a dream last weekend. She wrote: 

You rescued me from anxiety dream that involved losing my purse, thinking I was going to be camping in a tent but then sleeping on a lawn chair in an unknown field and other such unpleasantries. I walked into a bodega to find my bearings, and you were there handing out gingerbread cookies and beautiful Christmas bags.

I told her it sounded very on brand to me.

Like I said, Dreams are weird. 

Today at work I got super frustrated with a situation with a client that we just can't seem to get through. I had a long talk with my workwife and she helped me see things clearly. I love that I can bring my madness to her and she asks good, leading questions about where my anger or frustration is coming from. I'd be lost without her. 

The afternoon went better after we talked, I made more necklaces and bracelets. I made a good dinner that I was pleased with, even though potato salad was involved. I messed up my meds and missed lunchtime (doh) but before dinner was a good time to take lunch time and I made myself stay up later than usual so I could get a little distance between dinner and bedtime for the medication. We'll see how the numbers look in the morning. And there are no oreos in house tonight. 

No picture today, but I made a lot of lobster necklaces and had fun with them. 

Alright, tomorrow's a new day and hopefully this client thing will work out. I'm at a loss for how to fix it and finish it. 

Digits below. 

digits:

exercise: 11/12 hours of 250 steps.  Missed 5pm somehow because I was focusing on a task for work.

blood glucose:

8am: 168
6pm: 202
11pm: 168

food:

coffee, water
11:30am: small ramekin of mac&cheese while I was making our chicken salad lunch
12:noon bowl of chicken salad w/ mayo, mcintosh apple, chopped walnuts, cream cheese
6pm: the lunchtime metformin I forgot to take
6:30pm: grilled chicken w/ lemon, onion, scallion, rosemary. Potato salad (small portion) homemade w/ egg and bacon like you do. 
3 beers
11pm: metformi+jardiance

He's got the gout

For the past couple of weeks Geoff has been having a hard time walking. Sometimes with his his right foot being the problem, sometimes his left foot, can't put pressure down on the foot, hopping around, miserable. He finally went to the doctor. Finally. 

Dude, I'm paying for you to have health insurance, just go to the doctor. 

After X-rays and blood work, turns out all signs point to gout. 

My 26 yr old son has the blood disease of royalty in the middle ages. 

The doctor gave him some pain pills, some guidelines for diet, encouraged him to drink a LOT more water (I felt like he drinks plenty already, he sure drinks more than I do...) 

One of the big things he told him to drop was beer.

Oh man. 

So my craft beer lovin' child isn't supposed to drink beer. I'd encouraged him to drink less this year. Certainly. During his time off of school Geoff will drink a goodly amount of beers while watching TV at night, after doing yard work. But it isn't like drink to get drunk beer drinking. It's an expensive habit, I must say. Craft beer isn't cheap. And we mostly pay for it. There would be days we'd buy beer, and I'm drinking a LOT less of it, and I'd go to have one, just one, and it'd all be gone. 

Lifestyle changes are hard, so he's scaled back on beer and increased his water. He's had a couple of really good days recently, so he's feeling well enough to go to the gym today. And is drinking a lot more water. And his doctor prescribed him a pain pill that he can take when his foot really hurts. 

It's hard, I think about all the food I just want to stick in my face, all the beer I don't drink, knowing the work-arounds for things (bread w/high fiber = lower net carbs, lots of protein if I'm going to have something sweet-ish) And the only thing we can do is encourage each other. So I know he's trying hard to not be doing things that can end up with him triggered in pain at 3am with little sharp horrible crystals in his foot stabbing the fuck out of him. 

He's went to the gym today for the first time in weeks because he felt confident he coult walk the treadmill (not run) and do an arm day (no pressure on the foot). He mowed the lawn on Sunday and ended up in a lot of pain later. Doug said it was because he let himself get dehydrated. Geoff said he drank enough water. Prehydrate, hydrate, rehydrate. They actually had a fight about water.  When he got home, he drank 2 pint glasses of water and took another downstairs.

I'm hoping he can get this under control without medication and just diet changes. Doug said his doctor is not going to prescribe anything until he sees he's making good lifestyle choices and the situation doesn't improve... But to be honest, it's all stuff I've been asking him to do anyway so the universe is just helping out my cause. Thanks universe. 

This all said, here I am trying to eat well and hell if there aren't Oreos in the house. Damn you, oreos!

Digits below. No picture, sorry!

digits:

exercise: 12/12 hours of 250 steps.  No dedicated 10. it's been pouring all day.

blood glucose:

9am: 163
4pm: 138
10pm: 178

food:

coffee, water
11:15am: 2 egg omelet w/ wilted greens, shredded cheddar, 3 sausage links
noon: metformin
4pm: mcintosh apple w/peanut butter
6:30pm: metformin+Jardiance
7:15pm: 1 piece of French bread pizza w/meatballs & mushrooms
several meatballs while putting dinner away
8:45pm: 5 oreo cookies. wine

doh

I was so busy today I forgot to write an entry. Meetings! Watering the garden! Lobster necklaces and beady bracelets! Grilling! Putting the recycling out! So Busy! 

So here's a picture of the marigolds and green stuff (and the small pots, they're under there too!) that I took the other day to show the progress from the picture a few days back and shared in this post. You'll be impressed if you remember what it looked like!

Tomorrow I'm sitting on a panel for students at the county colleges to talk about my experience since college, and how I do what I do, blah blah blah. I have to wear a blouse and look nice. If it isn't windy like it was today, I'll sit outside. Maybe. 

More tomorrow. Promise. 

digits:

exercise: 12/12 hours of 250 steps.  Dedicated 10+4

blood glucose:

9:15am: 158
5pm: 163
10pm: 183

food:

coffee, water
10am: 2 good yogurt
10:45: small bowl of mac&cheese w/meat
noon: metformin, Ham wrapped in low carb whole wheat fajita wrap, 2 slices of american cheese, lots of greens, sliced tomato
3pm: rest of the sliced tomato
6:30pm: 3 grilled kielbasa sausages, grilled zukes and summer squash and Vidallia onions
metformin
white wine
3 oreo cookies

Lobster Necklaces

I had today off of work. 

The initial plan was that Sara (also having today off of work) and I were going to go dress shopping. We've rescheduled a couple times because after work was tired time (me) or deadlines were eating the day (Sara), or weekend was family time (me and Sara). But as today we both had off, it was perfect. No excuses. No blockers. 

But.

Her dishwasher failed last night (while running, of course) whilst everyone was in bed. She woke up to this disaster, and the cleaning up. This is the same way I do it, start it and go to bed. Now I am having second thoughts about night-time dishwashing. She's got a bad back so working on cleaning it all up has aggravated her situation. So she begged off.

It's okay. We pivot and plan for another day. 

But I do need to get her in a prom dress. Less so me. I have purchased 2 possibilities. One makes me look like a giant swimming pool but, it'll do. The other hasn't arrived yet, but I'm concerned it'll be too warm for an August indoor show. 

So. We'll get our chance to go get something, and maybe get something third for me. Maybe. 

In the meantime, I had today off of work and no plans. I didn't want to burn the day, and I had gotten up early to shower and be ready to go shopping. I had wanted to tidy up the dining table so we could do crafts and drink wine together. So finding out we're postponed saved me from doing actual work and getting showered. Ha. 

What did I do with my day?

Early enough, I went out and watered the flowers and herbs in our garden, but not the veggies. That's up for discussion. Farmer Doug said you don't water in the evening, because then things get moldy, and you don't water in the heat of the day, because then the plants bake, essentially. Or steam actually. So you have to do it before 10am or after 4pm, but not at night and not at lunch! 

Doug watered yesterday afternoon, so we'll keep an eye on things. 

I watered the marigolds which popped hugely since my last picture, and the greenery in that pot is just spilling over the steps and looking beautiful. The impatiens needs to replace the one bloom that it had, but I think I see something coming. The that purple brushy thing keeps rocking.  

I got my watering can out, and watered the herbs, put more dirt in the pots where the critter/s have been throwing the dirt around. The good news is they aren't eating the plants - they're just digging in the pots. My petunias on the table are absolutely wonderful. And the pots on the edge of the patio are doing well. Except the impatiens .... they need to have their next round of blooms too. 

I should have asked Doug to show me how to use the weed whacker because I want to finish getting the weeds out of the cracks in the patio and if I have to do it by myself, I'll do it by myself. I just don't know how to use that tool. And doing it by hand is stupid. 

There was indeed time to play phone games. And get steps in hourly. No excuses, no meetings, no roadblocks to success.

And then it did rain, right around the time I was going out to grill. Didn't pour, but enough to dampen things. 

For dinner I made a dry rub/marinade for the chicken thighs. I'm kind of sick of just "mexican" style seasonings on the chicken thighs that we grill. I mean, it's alright. But I'm a little over it. I'd like to do something more Indian style. Should do some research on that. 

Bracelets. I worked on bracelets, and I started trying to figure out how to dangle the lobsters off of the mardi gras necklaces, and filled with regret that I really should have just bought the metallic necklaces WITH the lobsters on them, but, I cheaped out and now I'm paying in sweat equity. 

When Jess was here, they tried out wire to attach the lobsters, but it didn't sing. No fault on them. But I decided to try the stretchy bracelet string and some beads. 

Well, the first pass looks like the lobster is pooping a little, doesn't it? I got the dangle "feel" but. securing the lobster so it doesn't fall off, I guess I could go with epoxy or glue gun and not leave something sticking down. 

I sat with it for a while, asked Doug what he thought and he said to turn the lobster the other way, but then I felt like it'd look like it was puking if I flipped it over.

Thinking about it, I said that it doesn't need beads hanging down. Just... one bead to secure it, and I could come up through the belly to the head. Now it looks like it has a belly button piercing. I can live with that.

Success. I guess?

It kind of needs something where the pearly bead is - maybe I can do a few little red beads coming down instead of the pearly dealie. But. I kid of dig it. 

I made three of them, and I am ready for bed. Digits below. Back to work tomorrow!

digits:

exercise: 12/12 hours of 250 steps.  Dedicated 10 plus 2, came in fast because of rain.

blood glucose:

9:15am: 171
4:30pm: 144
10:15pm: 141

food:

coffee, water
9:30am: 647 english muffin w/pbj (low sugar)
11:45am: big bowl of salad greens w/ tuna and mayo. Metformin
6pm: 2 chicken burritos (even though I said I was sick of cooking the thighs mexican style) w/avocado, sour cream, shredded cheese
6:30pm: metformin+jardiance

All Bracelets All The Time

When I get on a roll with things, I get on a roll. Don't I? It took me a little while to get in the right headspace to do this, but I started making bracelets, and it is strangely addictive. 

I made some discoveries. 

• The Round letters and the tiny beads (see the blue in between The and Ocean, and the ones on Careful) have very small holes. So small I can't thread a needle through them, so I just push the cord tip in and through. The tiny beads may just all become spacers. And that's just fine. The letters I'll use for sure.
• The tiny beads are a bitch and a half to tie if I make a whole bracelet of them.  The bracelet starts to wrap around itself when I go to tie so I need that extra set of hands to hold them whilst I pull together the knot. Doug was very helpful on the 2 I made last night before I realized it was a stupid pain in the butt. Another reason for the wee ones to be spacers.
• Sara will be here tomorrow, we both have the day off, so .... farts and craps, I mean, arts and crafts. We're on it.
• The big ones are called Pony Beads, and hell if I shouldn'ta just bought them and not the wee ones. Duh. That's ok. We're learning.
• "Big Friend" is too big. I miscounted the beads on it, and now I think I need to untie it, and remove 6 beads. Maybe. I also could hold on to it for a couple of the big humans who have bigger wrists than I have. Mine is a little bigger than most, so I hope all of these safely fit other humans.
• I have a lot of beads. I mean, a lot. But I'm going to run out of certain letters. 
• None of my 2 letter boxes came with number beads so I had to order those online, OTO 2023 and On The Ocean 2023 won't need the 4-9 numbers, I'll save those for something else someday. Oh. I could make Guster 1991. There's an idea. 
• We bought some really nice sea colors funky shaped beads so I may just make some pretty no-letter bracelets. That seems to be a thing and people may like that. Maybe. 
• I'm going to run out of string stuff. 

The Lobster Necklaces are on hold because now I'm obsessed with these. 

It's Father's Day, Doug didn't want to do anything "official" but he took a long walk, and then cut his hair, showered, and went in to take a nap. I kind of wanted to go up to the brewery we like in Frederick and chill and look at plants in the farm stand but. They close at 5, and he knew that, so we didn't go because nap.

That's okay. I worked on making more bracelets! Here's a picture from last night's 6 bracelets. I made a spreadsheet and if I make 2 of each thing on the list (not counting a couple special requests) I'll have like 300 bracelets. They have a lot of songs that work as bead titles. 

After dinner, I took a pokemon walk, a little longer than usual. Since Doug took his walk earlier in the day he wasn't interested in joining me. It was hot earlier today so I didn't want to go with him, but at about 8pm it was perfect and beautiful.  

I went a longer way than my usual "Dedicated 10". About a mile round trip I think, maybe a little shorter because I cut a corner. There were fireflies and bunnies, and I had a really nice time. I usually 

Digits below.

digits:

exercise: 12/12 hours of 250 steps. Dedicated 10+20or so

blood glucose:

9am: 141
4:45pm: 153
10pm: 162

food:

coffee, water
11am: 2 left over chicken thighs w/ hummus and tomatoes (pretend that's a mezze Mediterranean plate)
11:45: metformin
2pm: macintosh apple+peanut butter
5pm: spaghetti (not a lot) and meat sauce (a ton)
6pm: metformin+jardiance
10:30pm: some pretzels and portwine cheese

No Strawberries for Us

We were up early this morning, and after coffee we headed to the farmers' market, as is our Saturday Wont in the summery times. 

The strawberry options were nil, sadly. I asked if there were any in the truck (sometimes they just haven't had time to restock) and the guy said no - we missed out. They went fast. That's the kind of thing that happens this time of year. 

Geoff told me he bought strawberries at the market, so there's something. Doug was sad about that. Because supermarket strawbs are never any good. but we'll eat them, I'm sure. 

We got some huge, ripe tomatoes that probably all need to be eaten in 1 day, and some squash, even though we have like 5 squash plants in the yard and by the time they're done producing, I'll be sick to death of squash at the end of the summer.

Because the farmers' market was a bust, we went to Target. We were on our last roll of toilet paper and I knew if we did not go, we'd regret it later. Totally. The place is always mobbed on Saturday mornings so this was a challenge. 

Got all the stuff we needed and then more. I got a giant watering can so I don't have to schlep the hose all the way around the house just to water the flowers and herbs. 

We got a car wash kit, since the line at the car wash was around the block. We took care of the Mini and the Dodge, and then I watered all the things. The dog was surprised and upset to see a car IN our yard. It was actually incredibly funny. 

Doug trimmed some bushes with the electric hedge trimmers, a couple of them needed a good hacking and shaping. While he did that, I grilled the chicken for dinner, whipped up a marinade I'd not made before with lemon, garlic, and mustard. We had a salad dressing to go with it that was just right. 

I ended up working on bracelets while drinking wine tonight after dinner, getting the hang of this and tying off the strings is less frustrating now. Drank more wine. Watched "Elvira, Mistress of the Dark" episodes while making bracelets with Doug laughing his head off. 

I got through 6 of these, and find that the tiny beads are impossible to tie off unless someone is holding on for me. I need three hands. But this one worked.

Digits, below.

digits:

exercise: 11/12 hours of 250 steps. Had the fitbit on the charger in the 9am hour, and let it charge.

blood glucose:

8:am: 151
5:30pm: 148
10:15pm: 141

food:

coffee, water
12:30: hummus+carrots
1pm: Metformin
2pm: mcintosh apple w/peanut butter
6pm: grilled chicken (thighs and breasts went on the grill) on top of a giant salad
8:30pm: shelled peanuts
white wine

Zero or Nero Day

When people hike the Appalachian Trail (or any long distance hike), they take time off for various reasons. And these are called "Zero Days," where you log no hiking miles. 

I'm feeling a Zero Day today. Well, maybe a Nero. Nero (should be spelled Nearo, if you ask me) because I am working and didn't call out so that's a Near Zero for me for getting stuff done. 

I didn't sleep well, fell asleep after midnight and woke up at 3 something. Took the dog out, went back to bed and fell kind of back asleep at almost 6. Then the dog woke up and wanted breakfast so I obliged. Thinking I was up for the day I made coffee. I sat on the couch while the dog was outside. I went back to bed when he came back in. 

I flopped around a lot, trying to fall back asleep and did, right before my alarm went off. I slacked my boss and told him I needed a little time this morning, and went back to sleep for like 45 minutes. Geoff was stomping around up here (he has the gout, and when he wakes up in the morning he's hurty, so, he is stompy, walking on his heel). I heard him call his doctor's office (finally, doing some self care and follow through!) asking about a refill on his pain meds and what kind of medication they could give him to help. 

Time to get up. 

I missed my steps for the 9am hour, because I was trying to sleep in a bit. Also skipped a couple other hours, like 1, 2, 3, 4... Just not feeling the energy to get a walk in. Not the best effort. 

I tried to take a nap at about 3 but it didn't work. Continued to do my job slowly and meticulously, until 6. 

After dinner I started to make bracelets, I didn't realize my beads were unbelievably tiny, so I may not use these. I also realized I had no idea how to tie off the bracelet, and was a little frustrated. So I went online and watched a video to see how to do it. Aaaah. Okay. I see now. I have to restring the first bracelet I made, that's okay I guess. 

I ordered a new needle, I hope it is the right kind. And then I realized I ordered from a company that wasn't the company I watched the video from. Oops. 

I could work on the lobsters tonight, or write on the driftwood. But I'm just feeling exhausted and may just not do anything. Take it easy for tonight. 

Anyway, here's the first bracelet, waiting for me to figure out how to tie it off! 

Good night. lame digits below. 

 

digits:

exercise: 5/12 hours of 250 steps.  Meh

blood glucose:

9am: 191
4:15pm: 154
10pm: 201

food:

coffee, water
10:30am: low carb tortilla wrap w/pb and low sugar j.
12:30pm: metformin
2:15: Mcintosh apple w/pb
4:15: couple handfuls of mixed nuts
6pm: one large chicken parm piece
6:30pm: metformin+jardiance
9pm: red wine+2 oreo cookies

Coming Together

Okay the next thing to focus on, or re-focus on, is here. 

As mentioned,  Guster is hosting a magical wonderful "undersea prom" night for the Friday show. For, you know, 50 somethings who wanna dress up in nautical nonsense. 

I started plotting (as I've mentioned previously) the (ridiculous) get up I'll be wearing a couple weeks ago. I hate dresses and dressing up so the fact that I'm willing to do this is weird for me. But it's for the spectacle, and the pictures. And a nod for the band that we see them and hope they'll be equally weird and decked out.

I got one simple not really a prom dress from Modcloth or Modilly or some company like that in the mail the other day. It was stupid inexpensive, like 12 bucks. It's kind of cool - like tie dye ocean/water colors. 

I ordered something more fancy and substantial and expensive from Holy Clothing, waiting for that to show up. 

Sara and I are going to go look at dresses tomorrow or Saturday, and if I find something in person that's better than what I ordered, I'll cancel the Holy Clothing order and go with what we get. 

I have been getting little doo dads and things to make a shawl to wear that nod to the song Hercules. I have a fishing net, and little boats and starfishes, mermaid's purses, and driftwood. I thought I'd write the lyrics out to the song on the driftwood, or at least the refrain, to put into the mix and not just have the plain driftwood. We'll see how writing on the wood goes. 

And a glue gun. I'm ready to start going bananas with making this shit. 

I got some nautical looking rope, and am going to make a halo kind of headband and put some things on that. There's a line in the song that says "streaks of red and blue" and I'm trying to figure out how to incorporate that, so it may have something to do with the rope. 

I have enough material to make things for Linda, Ginger, Sara, and probably Henry, Sean, Hallie.... 

Jess and I played with concepts for the mardi gras beads and the little lobsters. To be honest, I should have just bought the ones that came with the lobsters on them and paid more. This is more work than I thought. 

And I have to sit and make bracelets. I started a list of what I want to have on them. 

I just have to put my phone down and stop playing games and focus on getting things made. That's my big obstacle. Me. My own brain. My kind of get things planned and stall brain. 

I do not want to post pictures in the FB group, I want all the dumb things I'm doing to be a surprise so only a select few friends will have insight to what I'm doing. Oh, and all of you who read this blog (all 4 of you). 

More to come obviously but here is a picture of 2 of the boats. The two styles I got, not 2 of six that I thought I was getting. Digits below!

digits:

exercise: 11/12 hours of 250 steps.  Missed 7pm because Sara called and we had a huge discussion and I lost track of time

blood glucose:

8:45am: 141
5pm: 156
10pm: 151

food:

coffee, water, iced coffee
11:30: left over shrimp curry w/ 3 left over pork chops diced up and chucked in. Onions, peppers, carrots in the curry. 
noon: Metformin
4pm: 3 big cheese squares
6:30pm: Metformin+Jardiance; 2 cluck pucks, some loaded cauliflower bites.
8:30pm: cashews
9pm: klondike bar
vodka tonics

Miss you already

Jess just left to head to the next stop on the vacation tour. We had a really nice visit, a lot of fun, and if we had another day or two it wouldn't be enough. I miss them already.

I always wanted the kind of relationship with my kids that they'd want to come visit when we live apart and a little bit lately, I've felt distance from Jess but some of that was pandemic related.  

So when Jess wants to see us or be with us it always makes me happy. I hope when Geoff moves out he'll want to have dinner. That we won't be too far away. He'll have us over and cook for us. Or come over and spend the weekend and sleep in the guest room. 

We talked about August when I go up north, and Jess asked "can I come and hang out? like, not go to the concert but just hang out?" 

Would love to have them at the concert but, if all they want to do is hang out and maybe go to the pool while we're at the show, I'm okay with that. Sure, why not. I have to see what our hotel room situation is, if we have enough beds in it. But Linda and Ginger will love to have them with us.

Anyway, it was a long day at work today. Several people experienced their last day as employees, they've known about their layoffs since March but here we are now in mid-June and it comes to an end. Some were extended to today, others to September. I had a wonderful last day chat with a colleague at 4pm and felt like we should be drinking beers together and not sitting on a zoom call. I miss her already. Knowing she won't be available for me to just shout out a question to in Slack is rough. 

There's a lot of missing you already feels tonight. 

Here's a picture of Jess and me from the walk at the Falls that I forgot to put in the post about that stroll.

Digits below. 

digits:

exercise: 11/12 hours of 250 steps.  Missed 6pm because we were at dinner having such a nice chat.

blood glucose:

9am: 161
6pm: 190
10pm: 191

food:

coffee, water, iced coffee
9:30am: 647 english muffin w/ peanut butter
1pm: fritos+hummus; metformin
6:30pm: spinach salad with almonds, goat cheese, strawberries; spinach and sausage pizza; 2 beers; metformin+jardiance
9pm: 3 oreo cookies & truly seltzer (sorry everyone)

Maaaaaaaaaaan

We went to Annapolis today, and had a great walk about. I'm a little surprised the fitbit didn't register 10k with what we did because boy, we did. We did it. Maybe I didn't have it on the right hole for the clasp and it was loose? Maybe carrying the water bottle and the phone didn't get my arm motion going enough for it to feel the steps? Whatever. I know. I walked a butt ton. A measurable butt ton.

Wherever we went, if we encountered stupid signs and things like "sidewalk closed" or "no dogs allowed" we said "Maaaaaaaaaaan, that sucks, man." And the whole Maaaaaaaaaan thing kind of stuck with the three of us for the day. Hilarious. 

Gotta show ID to enter the state house, screw that, maaaaaaaaaaan. I don't need that kind of hassle, maaaaaaaaaaaan. I'll go over here and sit on the steps of the building, what, I'm not allowed. Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan. I'll go find a bench in the shade, maaaaaaaaaaaaan.

Wash, rinse, repeat. 

For late lunch/early dinner, linner as it were, we went to the Ram's Head Tavern, which is attached to Ram's Head concert hall. I'll be back in Annapolis in September with Sara to see a show, so knowing where stuff is and how to get there, and also enjoying an amazing meal, I know I'll take her back there. West Street has a ton of places to eat and drink, but, we'll do this. And across the street there is an escape room. Sara loves escape rooms. I'm not good at them, but we're gonna do it, and have a blast. 

It's been fun having Jess here. The plan is tomorrow they'll stay here and hang out and then in the late afternoon/evening they're going to visit a friend in West Virginia, about an hour and a half from here, not too far from Harpers Ferry. 

Doug has to go to the office and I have work. I wish I knew they wanted to go so late in the day, I would have taken tomorrow off too. But Jess is resilient and probably ready for some alone time. They may go into DC, or over to the NIH museum not too far from here. And we started working on some of the fun things I'm bringing to Maine with me in August, so if it is raining and stupid, they said they'll work on lobster necklaces. 

I didn't take a lot of pictures, but we got this one. Maryland, My Maryland. Say hi to 3/4 of my family. 

Digits below.

digits:

exercise: 11/12 hours of 250 steps.  Managed to fail the 8pm step count by just a couple steps after getting distracted by a phone call during that hour. Well. It's ok. Dedicated 10 and then some.

blood glucose:

9:00am: 183
6pm: 213
10:30pm: 148

food:

coffee, water, iced coffee
11:00am: 2 egg omelet w/ Vidalia onion, wilted greens, cheddar, 3 brown n serve sausages
11:30: 2 left over sausages no one finished
12 noon: metformin
4pm: firecracker shrimps, crab deviled eggs, 2 crispy duck tacos (rice was mixed with the peppers & onions so I did eat some), 3 beers
6pm: protein shake, metformin+jardiance
8:30pm: pretzels+pub cheese, 2 hard seltzers, several slices of pepperoni

Great Falls

The weather looked really bad today, but we managed to get ourselves out the door to do something with Jess. Most of Jess' visits, they don't want to do much. Just want to hang out, be with us, and that's okay. 

But today we went to the Great Falls on the Maryland side of the Potomac. It was threatening rain, no one was there. We saw three other people on our way in, 3 people on the way out. And a couple people just walking the parking lot area with their dogs. 

We've been there when the river has been raging, today not so much. 

It was a good walk, and fun to be with Jess. I'm sleepy and off to bed. Tomorrow we may go to Annapolis. Not sure yet. But here's a couple pictures. Digits below. 

digits:

exercise: 12/12 hours of 250 steps.  And dedicated 10+ a whole lot more

blood glucose:

8:30am: 180
6pm: 153
10pm: 203

food:

coffee, water, iced coffee
10:30am: 647 English muffin w/butter & pb
11:30am: metformin
1:30pm: 647 rye w/ 2 slices of american cheese and ham
6:30pm: metformin+jardiance
7:15pm: chinese food: fried rice, crab rangoon, general gao's chicken, shrimp curry, peking ravioli. 3 truly seltzers

Housecleaning

I really hate housecleaning because it is time consuming and annoying. But I supposed if I did it more often, it wouldn't be as time consuming and annoying. 

Today, I:

• folded 3 baskets of laundry
• cleaned the bathroom, fully (not skipping the tub as is my wont)
• washed the bath mats
• washed the bed sheets for the guest room 
• redressed the bed
• vacuumed everything except our bedroom area rug
• cleaned the living room
• cleaned the kitchen
• scrubbed the top of the stove, and the front, and the dishwasher front
• cleaned the bottom inside of the refrigerator, Geoff had a beer fall out and explode so there was beer all inside the bottom of the fridge even though he cleaned up (his goal was to make sure there was no glass for me to step on)

Doug did yard work, but still has not weed whacked the patio, unfortunately. He did trim the wildly out of control Mulberry bushes that obscure the front of the sidewalk, and the holly that also has started to encroach on the sidewalk. He also trimmed back some ivy (but not all of it), and watered the garden out front and the front porch. He noticed that the morning glories are starting to train and flower, only they're going through the grass, so I need to go out there and Farmer Chris them, and encourage them on their fence. I never did pull off all of last year's dead stuff, so, I'm inclined to just leave it and let the morning glories use it to climb.

He didn't water the back flowers and herbs, so I'm going to do that now. 

I wish he'd have done more stuff in the house than outside but, honestly that needed done as much as stuff in the house needed done, so. I almost got everything done that I wanted to. But I really should do more things more often. 

Jess should be here within the hour, and we'll decide what to do for dinner. 

I also realized I was very bad with food today, I was so busy I did not eat. Very unlike me. Consequentially, as of 4pm when I'm writing this, I could eat everything in the world. 

Alright no picture, just digits.

digits:

exercise: 11/12 hours of 250 steps. Slept until 10am today so I missed the 9am steps.

blood glucose:

10am: 152
4:15pm: 170
9:30pm: 190

food:

coffee, water, iced coffee
noon: metformin (and forgot to eat)
2:30pm: 1/2 an apple w/peanut butter (the apple was mealy so Phineas benefitted)
4pm: several chunks of cabot seriously sharp cheddar
6:30pm: onion rings, crab dip, hot chicken sandwich (no bun) a couple french fries, cole slaw, pickles
9pm: small slice of key lime pie for Jess' birthday

Happy Early Birthday

I used to work with a girl who knew when everyone in the office's birthday was. Unless someone was actually celebrating a birthday she'd come in every morning and tell everyone "happy early birthday."

Any day that is not your birthday is your early birthday. 

The day before and the day after are your early birthday. 

She never told anyone "happy belated birthday" because she'd rather wish them a happy early birthday for next year, the day after the person's birthday.

Kind of weird and quirky, and my goodness she was a lot of fun. I will never forget this fact and I think about her every day (she didn't die - she lives in Philadelphia now. Make your own joke, I guess?) 

So if you are reading this, hello, and happy early birthday (unless, you know...) 

Today is Jess' early birthday for their actual birthday tomorrow. They are coming to visit and should be here around dinner time tomorrow. Not sure a plan yet. Going out, grilling, ordering delivery, we'll call an audible for what to do. But I kind of want to go get a little cake or something, to make it for reals. A for reals birthday. 

I truly miss spending time with them. I can't wait until they arrive. And after they leave I will be sad.

There's a lot I need to do before they arrive, like change the bed sheets and vacuum, the usual cleaning stuff. The bathroom needs a quick wipe down, I cleaned it last weekend so it is in good shape except for the sink and toilet. 

I also want to either go out there and finish the manual weeding of the patio or finally convince Doug to do it. He's gone for a nap. And after the nap, a walk. 

We got up early this morning and instead of burning the day we got out early to the Farmers' Market the next town over. We picked out a ton of strawberries which are delicious and fantastic, but didn't come home with anything else. We took a walk around the town to play Pokémon because it's a great little town to do so in, and noticed a little restaurant we'd never been too (way too pricey) is gone and a taco restaurant is opening soon. Looking forward to the little taco restaurant! 

This little town is known for a lot of little somewhat high-end antique stores and what some may consider "junk" antique shops. There was a lovely 3 tier plant stand that I could see in our yard but not for $70. A little too dear for something to put outside in the weather.

We went to two bookstores, one is an English bookstore with an entire floor of French and History books, and people rent the upstairs for meetings, tea parties, D&D. It's very cute, and they have wonderful cards, posters, and gifts. The other one is a Russian/Ukrainian bookstore with english translations of some of the more famous works. They used to be located in the basement of what looked like a medical office building, and we never visited because we weren't sure what the deal was with it. But now they are in town, and while not on the very main drag, they sure are easier to locate. 

We had fun chatting with the owner, and looking at the books which were mysterious to me. Even books with familiar covers (Richard Scarry Busytown books, Eric Carle, and Harry Potter). I was thinking about how I don't know what any noises are that the letters make. I have no idea. I look at them and I don't know is this a Shssxx sound or Rrr? 

Foreign languages that have "our" letters, well, I can figure them out and try to pronounce the words but I have no context for so many languages on this planet. It almost makes me sad. I'm looking at code, secret code, and I don't have the key. 

Almost inspires me to learn but I feel like I've lost enough time in life not learning languages, starting now is weird. 

I went to the craft store and bought more beads (I have yet to make a bracelet, y'all) and talked to a girl working at the store about some ideas for my necklaces

Here are two pictures I took today at the bookstore. I thought the guy on the cover of the book next to Obama was Beck. I don't think he is. But. And I want to know what is going on with the octopi, why is the jellyfish sad, and what dire warning does the crab bring?  

Digits below.

digits:

exercise: 12/12 hours of 250 steps. dedicated 10+ on our pokemon walk,

blood glucose:

8:45am: 157
4pm: 150
11pm: 143

food:

coffee, water, iced coffee
11:45am: 2 left over kielbasa, metformin
4pm: carrots+hummus
6:30pm: chicken breast marinade in orange juice, rum, and a bunch of other things, grilled. over a large bed of field greens, diced sharp cheddar, salad sprinkles/nuts/craisins/etc. blue cheese dressing
7:30pm: bowl of strawberries in milk, sprinkled with real sugar (I thought doug was using splenda but. he used the real stuff). 
9pm: klondike heath bar ice cream, the no sugar added version (still 23 g carbs)
vodka tonic

Cheese Sandwich

I was talking with a friend (hi, Friend) about "kids" who work for you when you run a business. Or, interns would also be applicable in this case. 

Sometimes you get a young'un in your workspace for the summer, and they are eager and hungry to learn the thing. Go getters! Just ready to work and learn. 

Sometimes they don't really care about the thing but they are there because a parent made the arrangement for a summer job or internship and they have to take it. They may half ass it but they take correction well, and in the end we all make friends along the way. 

Other times, the person is, well, not awesome. 

I've had some not awesome interns in my life. And I've had some unbelievably awesome interns in my life. Heck, I like to think I was an awesome nepo baby or intern myself back in the day.

My friend and I likened the humans to sandwiches. One kind is a big huge Primanti Bros sammitch piled high with all the fillings. And the other is a cheese sandwich. Just. Cheese. 

White bread, one slice of American, no mayo, no tomato. 

Both are sandwiches. Right? Which would you maybe prefer?

And I started to think about it, that my son is kind of a cheese sandwich? But with the right work environment, someone is going to put some tomato slices in there. Maybe some hummus and a couple slices of turkey. Maybe grill the sandwich a little bit so the cheese gets melty and the bread is crunchy toasty. 

But until the right place comes along, he's not the best sandwich. He has ingredients, they need to be arranged. 

I believe he'll be a good cheese sandwich with some hummus and tomato, and maybe a nice pickle on the side sometime. You know I love pickles. 

Anyway. He's been struggling with his application to take the phlebotomy licensing exam. He needs to prove he graduated from high school, so he got his high school to send him a pdf of his diploma. They didn't accept that. So he asked what they wanted. They want a transcript (note: they didn't ask for a transcript, they asked for "proof of High School Graduation," so, he gave that to them). Now he has to reach back out to the high school, get a certified transcript. 

Also, I question why you need to ask someone for proof of high school graduation when they have a college certificate of completion of a program. What, do you need his Kindergarten Graduation too? 

I kind of feel sometimes that people are cheese sandwiches, and organizations are cheese sandwiches too. This particular org may be a super important org, but to be honest, they are coming off as a moldy cheese sandwich with rancid mayo. 

It's a two way street, innit? 

No picture today. Just thoughts of cheese sandwiches.

digits:

exercise: 12/12 hours of 250 steps. 

blood glucose:

9:15am: 195
6pm: 143
10:30pm: 181

food:

coffee, water, iced coffee
noon: metformin, turkey & 3 slices of muenster on 647 rye, schmear of hummus
6:30pm: 2 pieces of chicken thighs, grilled. large plate of mixed greens, some salad topping of pepitas, nuts, cranberries, chipotle ranch dressing
wine
7pm: metformin+jardiance
8pm: fritos/handfuls of the salad topping

Alaska Calling

We have clients in far away places like Alaska, Hawaii, and Guam. Sometimes, they need help. Last night someone from Alaska called our office and left a voicemail. When I got the message, it was 8:30am, and was about 4:30am where they were. I couldn't call them back. He didn't leave an email address, and I couldn't find him in the system, so it was a little annoying to not be able to get a message back to him with the answer to his question. 

I made a meeting appointment for myself to not be distracted, and to call him at 2pm ET. 

We chatted for a while and I couldn't talk him through what he needed, I had a suspicion I knew exactly what he needed but I needed to see his screen and tell him where to check/look/click. 

He was busy until 1pm his time, which was 5 pm my time. So I made a meeting for us, I figured it was a great way to just end the day, help him for maybe what I think would be 10 minutes and be done for the day.

It turned into a 45 minute call, a little frustrating for me, but he was exceptionally thankful for my time. 

It was nice to help someone but I felt like I lost an hour of possibility tonight. Doug went for a walk, and I realized that I should whip together dinner, so we were prepared since I went to the market last night. Geoff still hasn't heard on the X-ray on his foot, which is annoying. Our doctor/insurance have always been so fast in results that this is a just off putting. But I planned ahead yesterday so we've got stuff for tomorrow too, and maybe even Saturday if we do a quick trip for some cheese. I didn't buy shredded cheese on accident. Doh. 

Tomorrow is the last day one of my colleagues on my team is with us before he goes on family leave. I'm going to miss him, it is going to be a long ass time until he comes back and I'm bummed. He's become my best co-worker. His knowledge is fantastic and he is a joy to work with. Such a drag. I mean, don't get me wrong, super happy for him to have family leave but. Boooooooooooooooooooo. 

No late meetings tomorrow. I'm hopefully going dress shopping with Sara for our "prom" dresses for August, even though I ordered 2 dresses online already. Ha. I'm going to have spent 30000000 dollars on dresses, only one of which I'll actually wear, by the time this is all done.

Oh, and Jess is coming to visit Sunday. It is their 31st birthday and I kind of can't believe that but am so happy. Hoping the air quality problems lessen by the time they visit. But to be honest, I am not finding it horrible, I feel badly for people who do, but, this isn't bothering me. I was out this morning for an hour in the garden and the yard. It was delightful watering the garden and hanging out. 

Alright, nothing else to report. 

digits:

exercise: 12/12 hours of 250 steps. 

blood glucose:

8:15am: 163
5:30pm: 143
9:45pm: 171

food:

coffee, water, iced coffee
10:30am: again with the omelet. 2 eggs, red onion (last of it), feta (last of it), wilted greens
12noon: metformin
6:30pm: 4 bratwurst, buffalo cauliflower, caramelized onions
wine
7pm: metformi+jardiance
10pm: 2 oreo cookies, trail mix/mixed nuts
 

Orange Haze all in my Brain

Everyone is talking about the sun.

As you know, due to the Canadian Wildfires smoke has been coming to the East. From New England down to the south of us, it has been all the news anyone can talk about. 

Here in the DC area, there are some impressive pictures of the Orange Haze on the National Mall and around the Tidal Basin. My view has not been as dramatic. I put the trash out on Tuesday morning, and the big beautiful orange marble in the not quite as orange sky was beautiful to behold. 

I find it interesting how many people are freaking out about it. I have an acquaintance who is a pack a day smoker freaking out about the air quality causing breathing issues for him... 

Let that sit for a second. 

Not that it is bothering his eyes or everything smells like burning plastic, but. Breathing. Issues. I kept my mouth shut but I'm over here shaking my damn head and muttering "really, dude?"

I went to the grocery store this afternoon after work. I hate going to the grocery store. But Geoff has a hurt foot, and I can't send him to the market walking around like Frankenstein's monster. Doug had a 7am meeting today and a 5am meeting, so he was all up in work. And I had to take one for the team. 

He has been hopping around on one foot, and I gave him an ace bandage and some biofreeze (just kind of a placebo), and he wrapped his foot so tight that he made it swell worse than it has been swollen and it looks like someone took a sausage and squeezed it in all sorts of places. 

Geoff went to the doctor yesterday (finally, after we nagged him for 3 days to go use the insurance I'm paying out of pocket for) and got X-rays to rule out a fracture. The doctor said if it isn't a fracture, he may have gout. Which sound a lot like "I'm not too sure about that, sir." He hasn't heard back on the X-rays, and has to go in for fasting blood work next week. 

And they gave him some pain killers, which he said do nothing. 

So off I went to the market after work. And I looked at the sun some more. And was very impressed.

Alright, off to bed. Trying not to jealously doom scroll through all of the Guster fan page facebook posts seething with envy. The show looks amazing. I really shoulda gone. 

Oh, I took this picture not of the sun, but of the marigold on my porch, which went through one cycle of lil'flowers already, and is ready to pop with the next. Look at all those future beauties!

Digits below. 

digits:

exercise: 11/12 hours of 250 steps.  Some how missed a couple steps in the 9am hour, which is weird.

blood glucose:

8:15am: 161
3pm: 150 *taken before eating a sandwich at 3pm, and I forgot my lunch metformin
9:45pm: 163

food:

coffee, water, iced coffee
9:45am: omelet just like yesterday. Wilted greens, red onion, feta, 2 eggs
(forgot lunchtime metformin because I didn't eat a lunch will take it before bed)
3pm: turkey+tomato w/mayo on 647 bread
5pm: Metformin+jardiance
6:45pm: chili. ground beef, tomato base, corn niblets, 3 kinds of beans, spices. On top of some fritos, shredded cheese, topped with sour cream. 
wine
9:45pm: Metformin (should have been lunch time but took before bed)

New Bed v 2.0

The new bed was mixed success last night. The good is that we got it all set up, I got the sheets on it, I didn't anticipate we'd have two twin XL fitted sheets but that makes sense because you can't have a giant king fitted sheet on a bed where someone is sitting up and the other person is flat or has their feet up. The twin top sheets threw me for a little loop. 

So we don't touch each other when we're under the sheets. We are both in completely separate beds. They could go in different rooms. It's not something I'm used to. Part of me says we need Mattress 3.0 and get a new king mattress but I'm done fucking around with beds. I just want to go to bed at night. I'm inclined to get a big assed king top sheet. Because it also just looks better on the bed. So that's my plan.

But I like my feet tucked in, and Doug does not. He also does really rude things like if we're both out from under the covers and he decides he wants to be under the covers, he will find a corner of the sheet, usually my corner of the sheet, and pull it over on him. He sleeps on top of the top sheet sometimes, so this messes EVERYTHING up for me. I'm like "Dude do you even know how to use a damn bed!" I wake up freezing, looking for my corner of the top sheet to pull over on me, and he has made himself a folded over sheet burrito, and I'm uncovered. So I go to the guest room. With the dog.

The dog is the part of the equation that is kind of an issue. 

Doug set the bed up very low - 5 inch legs. We could have up to 11 inch legs but wanted Phin to be able to jump up. Which he did! Perfectly and wonderfully. 

But then he stepped in the gap. 

And both his front legs slid right down up to his shoulders/chest, and he freaked out trying to get out. Doug and I had to rescue him, and he fell in again. Very distressed. 

We got a big towel and rolled it up and tucked it in the gap. Should get us through the night, right? 

Well it did until about 1am. When Phin woke up and wanted to walk onto my side of the bed and he just decided to completely bypass the towel, and stepped right into the gap again. Doug slept through it but of course a flailing dog is the kind of thing that will wake me up. Magic bed has a nightlight under it, so I turned it on to guide Phineas to the floor. 

After Phineas came back from outside, he noped his way right out of the bedroom, and straight to the guest room. 

So now he's scared of this bed.

They sell things and products and stuff that we're probably going to invest in. "Bridges" and gap fillers. I'm going to set up a foot to head towel roll tonight and lay a sheet across it so there's no way stupid fluffy dumbass can fall into the abyss. 

Anyway. here is a picture of the bed, and you can wish us well tonight. 

Digits, below.

digits:

exercise: 12/12 hours of 250 steps.  

blood glucose:

9:15am: 141
4:30pm: 163* (took my reading at 3pm before having a snack and it was 116. This is 1 hour after snack)
10:30pm: 136

food:

coffee, water, iced coffee
11:45: 2 egg omelet, with wilted greens, red onion, feta crumbles
12:15: metformin
3:30pm: 3 celery sticks and hummus
6:45pm: Wingstop wing delivery. I think I had 14 wings. 
8pm: shelled peanuts