The Ready Getting

One of my coworkers took a task from me two weeks ago and didn't quite get it done and buttoned up, so we had a chat this afternoon around 4pm, and I took it back. 

She asked me if I'm mad at her and no, I'm not. I just wish we'd met on it earlier in the week but no big deal. No one is dead, no one is dying, there's no nuclear fallout. It's okay. Happy to plow through the thing. I'll have it done tonight, and tomorrow morning (even though I'm on vacay) I'll pen the email to send to the stakeholders, and be done with it. 

I'm not feeling bad about it because to be honest, I don't do well in the mornings, I tend to get trucking around 2pm, and then I'll honestly keep going long past 6pm. So this is perfectly fine for me. Doug will finish work at 4:30, and want to go for a walk and I'm like no, sorry, still working. So he thinks maybe I work too much but the reality of it is I just do my best work after dinner. I finished what I needed to do by 10:30pm and then decided the email can wait until the morning for sure. 

Doug and I both need bloodwork done, the lab opens at 8am so we'll go over first thing. 

I didn't get to go buy new walking shoes, I had planned on gently disappearing this afternoon but there was a huge thing at 5pm that required all hands on deck. So no sneaking away for me. Maybe tomorrow. After the bloodwork? 

I did spend time today rifling through the closet for sandals and flip flops. I found the Tevas that I like that are for walking and the Tevas that are for fancy. Doug checked us into our flight successfully. We are checking one bag and bringing one carry-on. I need to download some podcasts. We both want new earbuds so on the way back from bloodwork maybe mall and best buy. 

Mine are okay but Doug doesn't have any and he wants. So. We'll hook him up. There's also the overpriced electronics store at the airport in a pinch.

Oh! I just realized we'll get refrigerator magnets at the Vegas airport. Hell. Yeah. 

Today was much cooler than yesterday, and sunny and beautiful. I took all my meetings on the patio. It was truly lovely. Even the meeting about things not getting done. 

Toffee sat on the patio next to me while I worked, so sweet and nice. We also played ball. And she'd run around the house and be surprised to see me sitting out there. It was funny. 

No plants were pulled out of the pots today. 

Alright. Time for bed. No picture, I gave them all to you yesterday. Ha. 

digits 

exercise: 12/12 hours. No dedicated 10. 5500+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:15am: 153
4:45pm: 143
10pm: 135

food:
coffee/water
noon: metformin; english muffin w/peanut butter and a little bonnie maman's cherry preserves
6:30pm: bowl of cheesesteak stuff, meat, onions, mushrooms
7:30pm: metformin+jardiance
9pm: white wine

Travails of the Outdoors

At about 10:30 I cam out for a meeting, and it was hot but not too hot. Well, hot enough that my laptop overheated. Ope. I guess the glass was hot enough that it just heated the heck out of the machine. Back inside, cool it down, go to next meeting. Survive. 

I went outside during the lunch hour, poked around plants and flowers. Came back in for more meetings. Ate my lunch quickly in between meetings (missed the 1pm steps by 15 steps because I stayed present for a meeting and didn't turn camera off and walk around. Another Ope). 

It got cloudy, drastically cloudy - the temperature dropped about 15 degrees. No storms, so I went outside. I checked the front flowers, and while I was watering them, Toffee came up and just grabbed one out of the pot and ran. Like a whole ass flower, by the head. I got her to give it back but I was so pissed. And I lifted up the pot to rotate it, and a billion ants came out from under the pot. 

You little shits. No. 

I went inside to get the ant spray, Doug came to find out what I was yelling at so I told him. He communicated to her that the plants are "No." 

She got it. She has this amazing sad look when she does something wrong, and she wouldn't come up the steps to the front door when we told her to come in. Eventually she did. And she sat miles away from me in the living room, until I encouraged her to come up and sit with me.

"I forgive you, just please don't eat my plants like that ever again. I worked hard. They are not for doggies to eat. Thanks." We had a good snuggle. 

Back outside after working for a while, I took the laptop and the dog and a cup of coffee, even though it was super late in the day. Cloudy, cool, no breeze, just nice. 

And it started to rain again. I got inside before it started to pour, but man... how annoying. In and out and in and out I'm like a freaking cat. 

I stashed some cushions against the house, under the overhang, since the rain was coming basically straight down and I figured it's going to stop eventually, and I'm going to want to go out again.  Like a cat. 

Fajitas for dinner, got them marinating in beer, lemon, spices, etc. Got the veggies in some olive oil in a bowl and ready for the copper sheet. 

As promised, here are some photos of the gardening efforts. Flowers aplenty. Digits below. 

digits 

exercise: 11/12 hours. Missed 1pm due to meetings. no dedicated 10. 5700+ steps by bedtime.

blood glucose:

8:30am: 158
5pm: 153
11pm: 177

food:
coffee/water
10:30am: small bowl of Mac & Cheese w/bacon
11am: metformin
1:30pm: giant bowl of salad, cucumber, red onion, goat cheese, bacon, mayo
beer left over from the marinade (about ... 2/3 of a can)
6pm: 2 giant burritos. chicken, cheese, refried beans, sour cream, onions, pepper
2 more beers
10pm: protein shake (took blood sugar at 10 and it was 208, so. lowered it a skootch) 

Check That Box

I got to work outside today, several meetings and lots of "oh! Where are you today?" quips, because people are used to seeing my living room. Home. Just ... outside for a change. A delightful change. 

The next three days may also be just as perfect to work outside. Tomorrow we may have thunderstorms. But the daytime looks super. 

Our office has us do this cybersecurity and threats training, the deadline to get it done is Friday of this week. We've had months to do it. So I buckled down and watched the videos and took the quizzes. Done. Check that box. A relief to have it out of the way. 

After my 3pm meeting it started to spritz and quickly got more serious so I bailed and went inside. If I had the umbrella set up, I probably could have stayed out. There was no wind, and it stopped pretty quickly but everything was wet enough that sitting out again would not be good. Things were dry enough by 5:30 so I could sit out while grilling. Doug was going to take the dog for a walk but went to the guest room and a read-nap happened. I didn't do any steps, could have while grilling but felt I'd get distracted if I did. 

Anyway. I forced myself to stay up for hockey and now I can't stay up any longer. Falling asleep with the warm dog on my thigh. Off to bed. No picture, I still owe you the flowers from this weekend but want to put them up together. Tomorrow!

digits 

exercise: 12/12 hours. No dedicated 10. Not even a lot of steps tbh. 4500 by bedtime.

blood glucose:

8:30am: 163
5pm: 128
10:30pm: 177

food:
coffee/water
11:30am: english muffin w/pb only; metformin
5pm: about 8 garden veggie crackers from Aldi w/pb
6:30pm: chicken casserole. Instead of tuna casserole, I grilled 2 pieces of chicken, diced it, mixed with the usual concoction for tuna casserole. 
no alcohol, no hockey snacks.

Dancin' to the Dead (and Company)

It has been threatening. 

All morning, all day, it has looked like the sky was just going to open up. The breeze was breezing. The leaves were busy. The clouds were boiling. But nothing was happening. 

Doug and I went out to the patio this morning with our coffee. Kind of a perfect day, a little humid but the breeze was just sublime and beautiful. He futzed on his computer, I fixed a broken pot, and put impatiens into a couple of small pots to stretch them out. Finally all the little flowers have homes.

After fixing up the pot, I looked at the radar and the storms are to the north and south, and east. The Delmarva is getting pounded, it seems. Funny, I thought about us going there for the weekend but remembered it was Memorial day weekend and 9 million people would be out there, with one bridge to get us back over from the shore. No thanks. Worse than Cape Cod. 

Doug took Toffee for a walk and I thought about going too, but opted to get potato salad going. It's a bit of a production, you gotta do the hard boiled eggs and cook the bacon, so there's a half hour. I use the egg water to boil the potatoes (so thrifty, much love of earth), and so while things were cooking I did steps inside. 

Steps went longer than usual due to grooving around the house thanks to Dead and Company. 4 Guster songs is 20 min, 2 Dead songs are like a half hour at least. So if you get a good jam going, it's a good walk. 

I'm getting prepared to see them live next (this!) weekend, I haven't been following much along since Jerry died (like, 30 years ago?) My co-worker T is completely into them, with John Mayer on lead guitar and vocals. A lot of people have been so very against that fact. Like "no. John Mayer can't do Jerry's things," but, he's actually pretty good. He's pretty damn good. I'll take it.

The band is doing a residency at the Sphere, through July ... every weekend. How convenient and how kind of them to be performing for our anniversary. 

I told Doug that I need to go to the mall and get the most comfortable walking shoes on earth AND I need some frickin' tie dye. I surprisingly have no tie dye (although I was planning on wearing a special Guster t-shirt that I don't take out often for this show).

He told me about the Shakedown Street merch residency at the Tuscany Suites Casino for the vendors that's happening too, and I can get all the tie dye I want if so inclined. I didn't know the street vendor scene at dead shows is called Shakedown. 

Him: They open at 11am. 

Me: What time is the show?

Him: 7pm. There's also a craft brewery there. We can get lunch.

Me: We gonna hang out for 7 hours before the show having craft beer and buying tie dye shirts and shit?

Him: Hell no, we'll get stuff and go back and nap. Duh.

Hilarious. Okay then. Here's me getting a bunch of dancing bear shit for the show. 

Around 7pm, it finally let loose. The sky finally did open up. Thunder, lightning, absolute downpour. Power flickered on and off repeatedly for about a half hour. Doug and I were trying to watch a movie and that was thwarted repeatedly. 

I've had a little too much wine so off to bed with myself. Only one picture today, friends. I took a ton, but will post them tomorrow. 

Goodnight. Digits below. Oh. This little box was my mother in law's. She had it by the front patio last year and was going to pitch it this year, so Doug rescued it, and now it is home to my happy little plants. 

digits 

exercise: 12/12 hours. Indoors 36 minute walk. Could have kept going but had to cut potatoes and get them boiling; 7k steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

9am: 163
5:15pm: 146
10:30pm: 153

food:
coffee/water
10:45am: bowl of mac&cheese w/hamburger
11:30am: metformin
Wine starting at about 3pm 
6pm: sausage and potato salad
9pm: trail mix and mixed nuts, and heartburn

Patio Day

Today we got the patio in order and it was a very busy day. Doug and his weed whacker were the heroes. 

I moved furniture around and moved me around while little bits of stuff were flying all over the place. I didn't get a picture but Toffee wanted to be right where the weed whacker was at all times, so Doug and I had to constantly police her whereabouts, so she didn't get her nose whacked. 

I put more flowers in pots. I am one pot short. Earlier I had too many pots and not enough flowers. And now I've got some more flowers that need a home. I found a pot in the house I think I'll use, and then I found a busted pot and all 3 pieces so I'll glue them tomorrow. I just didn't have the energy for it by the end of the day. 

I hose scrubbed the back steps up to the door. Found where millions of ants were hanging out and hosed the hell out of them and then sprayed with the ant spray. Jerks. I raked all around the grill area and raked up everything Doug hit with the whacker. 

A critter got up and stole one of my not-yet planted flowers off the patio table, I found it in the grass with the little flowers chewed off. Doug wondered if it was the bunny, but the flowers were on the table, so I doubt the bunny is getting up there to steal flowers. I forgot to make a cayenne pepper spray to put on the flowers to keep this from happening, so I hope everything survives the night at this rate. 

It was a challenge enough to put the table back on the patio in the final steps of cleaning up. Today was exhausting. Tomorrow I'll go get the rest of the cushions from the basement, clean the glass on the table. We're 90% there. 

We worked pretty much 3 hours straight, and I had to stop only because it was time for D&D. We had a good two solid hours of shenanigans and laughs. I'm so happy I'm nerding out with this crew.  

Jess and Molly went to my mom's today to help with the patio windows, take her to lunch, do some cleaning. I'm so in love with the idea of them going to help grandma when they have time. Jess is house sitting in Wellfleet, so they're down there, and took the day to go over and help. After leaving my mom's they called to tell me Molly had left to go back north, and they were on their way back to the cat and Wellfleet. We talked for the whole ride (about an hour) and even longer once they got back to the house and fed the cat. 

I miss Jess when they are not around physically, so a full hour plus chat was a real treat. 

Anyway. Off to bed. Here are a couple other pictures. Doug being a champion (and Toffee not in the picture, she was running around). 

And our fire pit fell apart while he was moving it. Sadness. He found that in someone's trash back in 2018, we used it all the time. We'll find another, I'm sure. Doug will be looking at peoples' trash. But I think we should just go buy one. It'll be faster. 

RIP, fire pit! You were awesome and will be replaced. Digits below.

digits 

exercise: 11/12 hours. Slept through 9am on accident; no dedicated 10 but lots and lots of yardwork movement. 7600+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

10:30am: 136
4pm: 189
9:45pm: 140

food:
coffee/water
11:30am: english muffin w/peanut butter+dollop of bonnie maman's cherry preserves; metformin
6pm: spaghetti+meatballs
7:30pm: metformin+jardiance
white wine

As I Predicted

My phone rang at 11am. It was mom. I was putting bacon in the oven, but managed to answer. 

Mom: You'll never guess what I just saw on TV.
Me: Guster on CBS Sunday Morning.
Mom: Oh. You knew. 
Me: Of course I did. I didn't watch because I'm busy doing house things, so I figure I'll watch the segments later on Youtube or something. I'm sure the fan group is going bananas. I'm making bacon.
Mom: Oh okay. They're so nice. What a nice interview. And I really like that song they did off the new album, it's called "Ooh La La."
Me: Which song was it? Did he say Ooh La La in the lyrics and say Keep Going a bunch, or was it a bop bop ba baaaa baaaa thing called Witness Tree?
Mom: Oh I don't know. I can't get the porch windows open. I don't have the strength. 

It's funny how she kind of thinks sometimes she knows a detail I may not know about something, such as the Album Title for my favorite band releasing an album 5 years after their last one. So I smiled and let her tell me all about what she thought about my boys. And when she's done talking about a thing, she just changes the subject.

Funny thing is on Facebook yesterday people were posting reminders to all the fan group kids to watch. Set your DVRs. I posted that I wouldn't be watching it but I'd be getting a phone call at some point during the show informing me ... by my 81 year old mom. 

Yeah. 

As I predicted. 

So what else did we do today. 

Doug was up early because he heard Geoff bumping around in the kitchen. Geoff is working this weekend, so he does his routine rather early. Toffee got up with Doug, ate brekkie, came back to bed with me. I slept until 9. I thought about getting up but. Meh. Sleep.

We drank coffee and played our phone games. Doug started futzing about, looking for the batteries for the weed whacker, which somehow got put away really good last winter. He finally found them (thank you, God) and charged one up and went out to whack. 

I was about to go out and futz around and evaluate what I still need/want for plants, and talk about the yard with him. That's when my mom called. So I put another battery on the charger for him, monitored the bacon in the oven, did a 17 minute walk around inside. Would have kept going but he came in, and I made lunch. 

Doug bought a spot steam cleaner recently. He had spilled coffee all over the arm of the couch, and so he thought it would be a good thing to get. The couch looks better but not all the way better. He said he'll give it a second go over later on this week. But the amount of dirt this little cleaner took out of the upholstery was gross, even if it doesn't look like it got a lot out. Eep. Toffee is supervising the process. 

I loaded the dishwasher, got the laundry on, cleaned the bathroom, and Doug went to nap (deservedly so, based on the amount of work he did). I folded the laundry that had been washed a couple weeks ago, thinking about what you wear when you go to Vegas. I realized I have no tie dye to go see Dead & Company, Maybe a Guster shirt is appropriate. I may have to really look at things and decide if I need to take myself shopping.

Laundry folded and put away, with the knowledge two more loads would be coming upstairs later (it never ends, does it?) I got ready to fix a pot. But Doug woke up and I asked if he wanted to go with me to buy more plants. He was still feeling groggy, said that I should go ahead without him. 

Without him, I don't have as many hands to hold the things I want to buy, but, I got some things and didn't over buy or go crazy. 

Now, let's fix pots! 

We had a big huge decorative pot break over the winter. I lost (or threw away) a piece of it, but figured it was still good if we put a plastic pot of something inside of it to grow up and out. 

I got out the gorilla glue. 

Now, I don't understand products like this because you open them, use them once or twice, set them aside, and then the product dries all the way solid inside the container so you can't use it again. Bloody wasteful. Any advice anyone has for me to make this not happen in the future, your girl is open to hearing. 

Anyway - the other day at Target I grabbed more thinking to myself this exact thing.  "What if the stuff we have is solid. I'll need this. I'll be sorry if I don't buy it." So last week's me gets a hi-5 from today me. That's exactly what happened. 

I found a second pot that needed fixed, and had all the parts of that one. So I set to work. 

I found one of the old hanging basket pots, crammed it into the broken part and fixed the other missing piece onto the rest of it. Then I fixed the other pot, it's more of a small crock, and I do not have a plastic container that will fit in it, I don't think. 

Overnight, they'll wait, and I'll see if it all holds together tomorrow. It was a busy day. I'm glad we got a lot done! I hope the rain holds off tomorrow and we can hit that patio and get the weeds all out of the cracks, and arrange the table right. I'm ready for more outside time. 

Here are some other pictures that I took of flowers as things are starting to come together. Digits below. 

digits 

exercise: 12/12 hours; 17 minute indoor walk while talking to mom and bacon was cooking; 8100+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

9am: 161
5pm: 121 (checked 3 times)
10pm: 130 (checked .... 3 times)

food:
coffee/water
12:15pm: tuna melt w/bacon, 2 slices of american cheese, 647 white bread
12:30pm: Metformin
6:15pm: 2 frozen cheeseburgers grilled w/american cheese, 2 kosher dill pickles, a pile of potato chips (and a second bowl of potato chips)
7:30pm: metformin+jardiance
white wine
9pm: trail mix of dried chickpeas, golden raisins, almonds, peppitas, etc

Holiday Weekend Begins

Work today for me felt almost normal while reading the chaos for the other teams in Slack. I got quite a few things done, was able to go into a client slack where there was huge fussing going on about the brokenness of something, and I tried to be diplomatic. Still got a bit roasted (took it on behalf of the team), apologized and just said "look, this is a mountain we're moving, and we're sorry this doesn't meet your expectations, we'll get there. I'm sorry for the amount of time this is taking..." 

I couldn't make everyone happy. 

The "I'm not directing this at you, but..." response is always my favorite. 

Actually, pal, you are. But that's okay. I'm not taking it personally, but your rant does nothing to make things go faster. You just have to hang in there. The only thing I can do is assure you there's a lot happening and you are one of the many people who need help and attention. 

And then I went and did things I have control over.

My direct team colleagues are a lot of fun, we joke around a lot and we're honest with each other. It's so refreshing to just have nice normal fun people who I can be happy with. Very happy. 

I decided to make potato salad today. In between the tasks I can control. I hard boiled 4 eggs, I only really needed 3 but I knew Geoff or Doug would want one. I cooked a sheet of bacon. I cut up little wee potatoes into quarters, and boiled them. Everything cooled and got mixed with mayo, mustard, salt, pepper, scallions, and a dash of red wine vinegar. 

Quite pleased with myself, I should add. 

Doug booked our flights, our hotel, got us tickets to see the Dead on Saturday Night. This time next week I think I'll be landing in Vegas and I am stoked for it. I have said it before, I'll say it again - work is bananas.

Our office used to let us go around 3pm on the Fridays before holidays but our department head does not do that any longer, "since we don't have to fight traffic to get home, we're already home."

Kind of not the point of letting people off early, but okay. 

So I continued to work. It wasn't like work slowed down the way it sometimes does on a Friday of a holiday weekend. Answers back to questions slowed down a little. People somewhat disappeared a little, both in house and at clients. But I was happy to continue to be working and getting things done. Sometimes I have some rather mindless things that need done, and when there isn't a lot of action, it is easy to sit and do and just .... flow. Watch hockey, delete records that the client can't delete that have to be deleted one at a time.... drink seltzer. Watch hockey. 

Anyway. That's my exciting day. Dishwasher loaded, kitchen tidied, so. ready. for. bed. Digits below. 

digits 

exercise: 12/12 hours;  no dedicated 10 today (giving myself a break!), under 5k by bedtime because i just didn't wanna.

blood glucose:

8:30am: 161
4:30pm: 151
10:30pm: 163

food:
coffee/water
9:30am: everything bagel w/scallion chive cream cheese
11:30pm: protein shake; metformin
6:30pm: homemade potato salad, kielbasa, truly seltzers
7:30pm: Metformin+jardiance 

Assume Noble Intent

I went to bed last night at around midnight. I scrolled on my phone for another 90 min, chatted with my boss who was committed to staying online until a certain update came through. He gave up shortly after I set my phone down. That update wasn't happening yet. He figured he'd check in later.

At about 4:30 I got up to go to the bathroom and sometime between 1:30 and then, the thing happened and worked, and then lots of things broke. Absolutely broke. I took my phone and laptop to the guest room, read all the updates and knew there wasn't anything I could do to impact change but I at least knew what was happening. 

My colleague T was coming online at 6am. He would step in to see what the update was, and I knew he's carry it. 

My plan was to go back to sleep and see if I could sleep until 9:45, get up, do my steps, do my check-in with my boss at 10, and then dive into the day. 

I couldn't sleep past 8:30, got up, checked the messages, said "ooooof" and got up and ready for the day. 

I was pretty exhausted today. My check-in was canceled, and I was making an english muffin when I was supposed to be jumping into a team meeting. Oops. 

Lots of movement, action, monitoring the slack channels, giving support to colleagues, jumping in meetings to help write emails to notify the clients of the broken things. 

A couple of the devs were absolutely on top of it all, and watching the speed with which they were answering user questions, and fixing things. I was impressed. 

It made me think of a colleague who left our workplace after his contract ended and he didn't want to stay when they offered him a different role. 

He was always so good at giving compliments when we were all off the chain doing our jobs fast and furiously. When the dust would clear, he often would say things like "You were so clutch in there today."

Clutch. 

I think of him often, and I'm thinking of him today. I'm thinking of how he would have been right on top of this, as a scrum master and project leader. He was always so good at careful thought and execution. He was an excellent planner. 

Part of me wonders if the things we went through (or I watched other people going through) in the last 24 or so hours would have gone quite like this if he was still with us on the job. That's neither here nor there. But I'm sure we would have heard "You are so clutch," a couple times. 

Tonight I went into the group slack channel to just say that. I hear Alex's voice in my head tonight, and y'all are clutch. 

Alex once told me that I have the most uncanny ability to read a room. When so many people are tone deaf, and just talk to fill the time with words, even remotely, on zoom, I can read other people. 

And tonight, I think everyone is exhausted, and I can read that room. I'm thankful for the people I work with. I'm sure there has been stress and swearing, not everyone has been as loving as they can. Our training team lead, she's super clutch. She's the clutchiest clutch. She put on the slack channel "Have patience and assume noble intent."

Assume noble intent. 

Everything that is being done right now is not designed to ruin your life. It is not designed to be bad - it is in the long run going to be super awesome. Today, right now, it might not feel that way. But. Just stop for a minute and ... assume noble intent. And I love that. 

Going to bed tonight, thinking of the people who have worked so hard for months/years to bring us to this point, and the people who are living through this big change on day one. 

Digits, below.

digits 

exercise: 12/12 hours; 23 minute indoor walk. 6500+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

9am: 160
5pm: 151
10pm: 131

food:
coffee/water
10:30am: english muffin w/pb and a little bonnie maman's cherry preserves
12:30pm: metformin
6:30pm: baked stuff chicken w/broccoli and cheese (from Aldi. Really tasty) broccoli mixed veg. White wine
7:30pm: metformin+jardiance
2 small ramekins of fritos

The Big Day at Work

Right now, all kinds of movement, switches, migrations, and testing are going on at work. I'm a tertiary player to all this, watching from a distance. I'm monitoring the helpdesk tickets. My boss has the on call emergency page assignment.  Things are very quiet, for us at least. Technically, I'm on duty until Midnight, which isn't too far from now, but I normally go to bed now. So I have to hang tight and watch the goings on. 

I am answering helpdesk tickets that are coming in that have nothing to do with tonight's big project. I hope people on the other end don't think I'm normally working this late. I just know the answers, and would rather knock these ones out of the park. One of the tickets that came in was so incredibly rude. I'm sometimes surprised that people write with the tone of "hey, you jerks, why don't you do XYZ, huh?!" 

Dude, chill. Thanks for your message and stuff, I'll like, add it to the requests for features and enhancements. You don't have to be like that.

Anyway, back to the work things. I'm forever impressed watching other people work, and do hard things, and make discoveries of mistakes and jumping into the fire. While I sit back and cuddle my dog. She's so cuddly tonight. Oh and hockey is on. I guess, Let's Go Rangers? 

No more horses in this hockey race for me. I guess I'll cheer for the team playing against the team that eliminated the Bruins. 

Doug is planning our anniversary trip for two weekends from now. He said it is a surprise but I figured it out when I got a password reset for his Caesar's Casino Hotel account, he's planning a trip for us to go to Vegas for 3 days. 

I've only ever been to Vegas once in 2001 to be exact, and we had kids in tow. Doug went to the casino, and I stayed in the hotel room at Circus Circus with the small (back then!) people. 

I'd really honestly rather go somewhere closer. Or not New Orleans because of the "It's Hot As Actual Hell Here" factor. New Orleans and I are February Friends. 

Vegas in June, it's hot too. But summer desert heat with no humidity, I can do that. So this'll be fine and nice, and I appreciate it. I took off Friday next week and Monday the week following. If we fly out Friday morning and are back at a decent time on Monday this is good. (for some reason, my email is associated with his account, so we're staying at Harrah's. I just got the confirmation email. ha.)

I have to admit though, I'll miss this dog. It'll be weird to go away without her. And Geoff will be at work Friday and Monday. She'll have to be in her kennel for the day. I don't think we can leave her free range for 6 hours. 

Anyway. No picture today, digits below. 

digits 

exercise: 12/12 hours; 26 minute indoor walk, 7100+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:30am: 180
5pm: 160
11pm: 124 (had to test 3 times to make sure that was not a lie. got 124, 125, and 130. taking the low digit! not sure how this is possible with all the rice I had for dinner but, I'll take it!) 

food:
coffee/water
11am: small bit of mac & cheese w/bacon
noon-ish: metformin
5:30pm: Salmon, reheated white rice, veggies
6:30pm: metformin+jardiance (finished the last piece of salmon too)
vodka tonic w/zero sugar vodka

Mall Walker

Tomorrow is a big day at work, and my team gets to watch from the sidelines as The Big Project is launched for our new corporate website. We deal with the clients - but our website feeds their website. I'll be working late tomorrow, monitoring tickets and the emergency paging system. 

Wish us luck, send us love and grace, manifest things, blah blah yes. Thank you.

Tonight I wanted shake & bake so I went to Target instead of Giant. Prices are best at Aldi but you can't get half of what you want and still spend 200 bucks without getting all the things you need. So Target is good for the dry goods and sundries, Giant is good for meat. Aldi is good for some produce, some bread, canned stuff. I hate going to three stores when I want something. 

But for tonight, it was just shake & bake. And coffee. And Zquill. And before you know it I've spent 200 bucks. 

I did take a good walk in the mall though. I've become a mall walker, I guess. But I was there, it was there, things happened. I used to work in a mall, and when I'd open the bakery, of course one has to be there at 6am to bake. There were always old ladies and men, usually in groups, like a gang. Sassy fast walkers. And then they'd be right there when I'd push up the gate to get coffee and a croissant. Friendly old biddies they were. I had a little laugh just thinking about being as young as I was, in charge of money and food, and supervising people. Those were the days.

Alright. Not much more to say. Wiped out. Here's my dog. And digits for Monday and Tuesday are below.

Monday digits 

exercise: 12/12 hours; 15 min. inside walk while cooking dinner. 6k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:30am: 154
4:30pm: 161
11pm: 164

food:
coffee/water
10:15am: pbj, low sugar jelly on 647 multigrain bread
11:30am: Metformin
4:30pm: 3 chocolate chip cookies
6:15pm: large piece of chicken parm
1 glass of white wine (ran out!) 

Tuesday digits 

exercise: 12/12 hours;  16 min. walk in the mall after parking and before Target; 7k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

9am: 166
5:30pm: 154
10:30pm: 151

food:
coffee/water
11:30am: ramekin of tuna salad
noon: Metformin
6:15pm: 2 pork chops w/shake & bake, 4 pierogis; a very large slice of chocolate cake; Metformin+jardiance
vodka tonic w/zero sugar tonic

She didn't think she could, but she did

Since I blew it yesterday with Henry's recital, I said to Doug today that I really thought we needed to do something, anything, just. Something. He agreed and pitched his ideas to me. 

I always go along with Doug's ideas. He thoughtfully plans out things for us today. Today, he wanted to go to this Kielbasa store in Rockville, MD and buy ... well, Kielbasa. And then we could go for a nature hike. 

We have not been for a nature hike in a long time. We've gone and walked different parts of the C&O Canal, but we haven't actually gone for a hike hike. 

And Toffee needed to get out. He needed to get out. And I, reluctantly but honestly, also needed to get out. 

So off we went. I stayed in the car with Toffee while he went kielbasa shopping and for the two giant bags he came out with I was pleasantly surprised at how affordable all the food was that he bought. 

We headed over to Blockhouse Point Conservation Area, not too far from home or the kielbasa store. We set out to the parking area, and there is more than one. Doug picked one that looked more like an under-utilized parking area and he was right. The main parking area was packed, so we went further north to catch the spot of choice. 

We hiked in the Blockhouse Trail to the Paw Paw Trail. I added it all up. In and out, less than a mile each way but honestly. Hills. Rocks. Mud. Felt like 2 miles in, 2 out. 

It was kind of glorious. 

I haven't had a good messy hike in quite some time. My sneakers survived and I am reminded I really need to get some new hiking boots or shoes. I'm long overdue. 

There were times I was just full of nope. We got to a rock overcrop and sat and rested, and Doug decided to go further to look at the bend in the river. I sat and caught Pokemon while resting. Incredibly happy no one was there. So many places we've gone to walk or hike have been so crowded, but we had this area all to ourselves. 

He called to me after a while and said "this is the place to see the view!" Uh. Okay. Shit. Okay.

I got up and went to go to him. There was what looked to be an insurmountable step down on the rock outcropping. I thought, I really could use a shoulder (hey Doug, come back here) or a hiking pole to stick shoved into that crevice over there to balance me while I lower my hefty huge body down, and be nice to my knees. But I didn't have anything. 

I bent over, sat, rotated, moved myself around. I felt the rock digging into my hands as I just held myself in place. Boom. I did it. Everything after that was easy. I got to where Doug was and yeah, the view was worth it. 

Toffee did great.  She was a trooper. I doubt she's ever done more than just our neighborhood and the woods behind the school, which is a super short hike and Doug takes her over there sometimes. So today there was a lot to see and smell. She is a city dog, but today she was all about the greenery, the mud, the everything. Very proud of her. 

I knew coming out would be tougher, obviously. We walked downhill to get to where we were but it was going to be uphill for quite a while, until we got back to the Blockhouse Trail. I didn't want to slow Doug down, so I told him to go ahead of me and not worry. Mind the dog, I'll catch up. 

He. Well he, of course, waited for me when I got far behind. He's kind like that. Also it's hard to explain to the police when your wife disappears and you're the jerk who went to the car with the dog. 

Miraculously, it was only 2 minutes longer out than in. I was happy to get to the car, drink water, and be thankful that I did this today. I did it. I thought I could not. 

The weather was perfect, so that was a big help. Not hot, certainly only a little bit humid because the woods are naturally humid. It has done nothing but rain lately so the trails were muddy but not overwhelmingly so. It worked out okay. What I ended up doing was counting steps. Okay, I'll go 20 steps up. And stop and breathe/rest. Then, 25. Okay. Did that. Okay 30? Can we do 30? 

This was pushing myself. I'm sure people reading this may be laughing like, oh come on you can't just walk without resting? But it was uphill. And I was actually pushing myself. 

And I did it. 

Here are some photos. And the digits, of course are below. 

I was fascinated by the different types of leaves and vines, all so different. I loved these ones that looked cut off somehow. And everything was lush. Green. Vibrant. Amazing. 

digits 

exercise: 12/12 hours; two actual measurable hikes. On the way in 30 minutes, on the way out, 32 minutes. Ouch. 11k+ steps by bedtime. Ouch.

blood glucose:

10am: 179
6pm: 163
11pm: 176

food:
coffee/water
11am: metformin
12pm: ramekin of mac & cheese
6:30pm: large piece of kielbasa, 5 pierogis, 2 blintzes, piece of rye bread
White wine 
9pm: Metformin+Jardiance (forgot to take at dinner) the last blintz since no one ate it.

Missed Recital

Sara called me at 1:30 to tell me she'd save me a seat at the recital. 

"Ohhhh, it's today?" I asked, "I thought it was Sunday at 1:45." She said she'd texted me to let me know she gave me the wrong date. I ... have not been getting all of my texts lately and it is a problem. I'm super pissed about it. 

It poured today and there would have been nothing better to do than go sit indoors at a kids' music recital to pass the time. 

I had not yet showered. I had started drinking wine (ha) around 1pm (day drinking isn't day drinking if you don't start during the day, amirite?) 

There was no way I could make it. She was on speaker phone in the car and Hen said "can you try and make it?" and Sara and I both laughed. Both of us know when you're in a slug phase, you aren't able to make the effort. 

Shit though, I mean, boo. 

I asked her to let me know where he was in the lineup. He was fifth. I would not have been able to jump into gear and make it. No way. 

There are days I can't get out of my own way. Most of today was that way. Same for Doug. 

I thought we'd go to the farmers' market, maybe buy more flowers for the pots and stuff but ... pouring. We had talked about going to visit his Aunt today. We talk about that almost every weekend, to be honest. We. Just ... don't. At about 2 I said to him are we going to do anything today? Should I like, shower or something?

He was headed to the bedroom to "read," which translates to read a couple of pages and take a nap. So I figured oh whelp. Not going to bother. 

He went in, I made cookies (productive!!!) and I did 20 minutes or so of steps in the livingroom/kitchen/bedroom. I thought about going to the gym but I figured on a rainy afternoon, it was going to be mobbed and passed on the concept. Then I was mad at myself while I did my steps. 

But I did make cookies. So I'm not an entire/complete failure. Oh and I folded laundry because I needed underpants.

Sara posted Hen's video to Facebook and he killed it. He was nervous about making a mistake, and I wasn't there to pep talk him. Before his first recital last year, I emailed Brian from Guster and asked him if he'd give a pep talk. He emailed me a video that Hen watched before going on. Brian's advice was to not worry about making a mistake. Enjoy making the music and no one is going to notice your mistake. As long as you are enjoying making music, that's all that matters. It really is the sweetest little video. We're so lucky to be fans of this band, that he's going to have this keepsake forever to look back on. 

Anyway. That's about it. I did take a picture today. I did this instead of jumping off the couch and throwing dry shampoo on my hair and finding a blouse and brushing my teeth to go be with Hen. 

I'll get him next time. And bring him roses again. 

Digits below.

digits 

exercise: 12/12 hours; 21 minute indoor walk; 6700+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

9:45am: 180
4pm: 184
10:15pm: 206 (the sin of chocolate chip cookies, mate).

food:
coffee/water
noon: metformin
1:30pm: grilled gouda & turkey on 657 multigrain bread
5pm: 3 chocolate chip cookies
6pm: nachos w/ground beef, cheddar cheese & salsa (more meat than chips)
white wine & zero sugar ginger ale
8pm: 2 more cookies. 2 baby bell cheeses

Friday couldn't come soon enough

More fun at work, lots of things flying at me at once. Thankful for my team where I can say "can someone jump in that spreadsheet and do xyz thing" and immediately I see two of them in the spreadsheet working. 

I took lunch, I usually make something and eat at my computer while working but today I made an egg mcmuffin and then went outside to do things with dirt. I have enough dirt now that I need plants to fill the pots that now have dirt. I also got the hose out, and wished that I had my camera with me because Toffee was hilarious trying to figure this thing out. 

At about 4pm, I was waiting on some answers for things. Doug had gone into the office this morning, well, not to his actual office but to a park for a cookout. He came home not feeling so great and went and took a nap. So yeah. We needed stuff for dinner and I went shopping. 

Geoff was home when I got back, so he made dinner while I went back to work to see if finally there were some answers to my questions. 

I was relieved to see a response, but it wasn't a full response, but it was something.  We agreed to table things until Monday morning. I had other things to do. Someone is doing a major rebrand which will be "revealed" to their site visitors Monday and things need to be all lined up for this reveal. I helped with one of the products I support and it was nice to have an email saying "thanks for your help, we're all set with this one!"

Geoff made linguine and meat sauce. I bought what I thought was a small loaf of italian bread, but it was a take and bake loaf - it needs 15 minutes to finish baking at home. And that was fine. We didn't make garlic bread, it was just regular bread. And it was very nice. Hot, fresh, good. No effort on my part. 

After I closed the laptop for the night, completely relieved that the work week is over. I had gotten wine, and I weakness bought chocolate cake at Aldi (it's really tasty) but I didn't eat any of it. I did drink the wine. Then, we watched the Bruins. Sadly they lost. I'm kind of bummed out about it because they were so good. Looking for the Rangers to exact revenge for me. 

That's about it. I was going to take a walk with the dog but it started.... can you guess? POURING. And it is supposed to rain all day tomorrow too. And Sunday. I really want to get more plants but now? not sure we'll be able to. 

No photo - digits below. 

digits 

exercise: 12/12 hours; no walk today because I went to the grocery store instead. 6300+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:30am: 187
4:45pm: 146
10pm: 148 (how? so low?)

food:
coffee/water
11:30am: egg mcmuffin with double sausage patties
12:45: Metformin
6pm: giant glass of wine
6:30pm: bowl of pasta w/ meaty meat sauce and 2 slices of fresh baked bread; more wine
7:30pm: metformin+jardiance

Windows Open

Yesterday was rainy, but not too humid and not too cold. I opened a lot of windows and enjoyed the cool air. Doug usually closes things up before bed, but last night he kept the window in the bedroom open. Weird.

He always complains that it is noisy outside. A truck may go down the street and hit the speed bump. Some dog somewhere may bark. It's not that noisy. We've lived in noisier places. And the birds get started around 4am, so that wakes him up and he is grumpy. 

Last night we must have had the world's quietest night because we both slept through. Doug got up between 6:30 and 7, I continued to snooze. My alarm went off and I said "meh. I'll get up when I hear the school bus go over the speed bump, and I did when it did. 

Today at work, a couple major things happened and I ended up embroiled in a multi-department situation, it all worked out, but it was stressful there for a while. Lots of people way above my pay grade were having "who should be in charge of fixing this" discussions. My colleague T and I chatted about how we could literally just fix this. Right now. Like, this situation but not the overal problem - that needs some more serious attention but this one thing we could... you know... fix it.

At about 2:30pm, I hadn't taken a real break so I informed the team "I'm outside. Touching Dirt." And I did. 

I put the petunias in the planter on the patio table and moved a few things into pots. 

I ran out of dirt, I also need more plants.

When you are at the store and you pick up one bag of dirt, and you think to yourself "you maybe should get two bags of dirt" listen to yourself. Get a second bag of dirt. 

I have a couple pots that broke over the winter, one I am very fond of, so I'm hoping to glue it back together. 

Doug has to go to the office tomorrow, so I'll be solo. Maybe I'll run off and .... buy more plants and dirt. hahahahha. 

No picture. Digits below! 

digits 

exercise: 12/12 hours; 22 min inside walk. 7k steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

9am: 168
5pm: 164
10:15pm: 197

food:
coffee/water
11am: English muffin w/peanut butter
noon: Metformin
6:30pm: Metformin+jardiance
7pm: Calzone w/ ricotta, salami, spicy sausage, basil
Vodka tonic w/zero sugar tonic and lots of lemon
some spicy popcorn (not a lot, too spicy for me)

Dentist

I was supposed to have a dentist appointment today but Doug realized he has not been to the dentist for over a year and commented that he should make an appointment. So I gave him my appointment. I'm cool like that. 

My plan was to garden. It rained all day and stopped right before Doug left, so I did my inside walk and then got dinner in the oven and went out to do gardening, and.... it started pouring. Luckily Geoff made it home in time, and it let up for Doug to walk home, but no gardening was done. 

Dinner was okay. I had a check-in through a program at work with a colleague in Beijing China! 9am her time (tomorrow) to 9pm my time Wednesday here. I met her cat. 

Anyway, that's my day. Here's Toffee pining for Doug after he left for the dentist.

digits 

exercise: 12/12 hours;  29 min indoor walk; 7400+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:30am: 179
4:15pm: 154
10:15pm: 168

food:

coffee/water
11am: grilled cheese w/ turkey and bacon; small bowl of mac&cheese w/bacon (left over from geoff's lunch) metformin
6:30pm: 2 frozen burritos in a cheese/salsa/sour cream sauce; several crackers; metformin+jardiance
white wine

Rain Delay

At about 10:30 this morning, in between meetings, I went out to the patio table to start messing with flowers. 

Of course. It started raining about 20 minutes later, but I got a few things done before it got too wet to stay outside. Tomorrow's forecast is for more of the same, but Thursday looks to be free and clear. Sorry, plants. I tried today. Honestly. 

No other real updates. Today was busy with work, obviously. But a good day overall. Here's my view while watching hockey. 

Digits below. 

digits 

exercise: 12/12 hours;  30 min inside walk; 7k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:45am: 197
6pm: 189
10:15pm: 164

food:

coffee/water
10am: english muffin w/ pb and low sugar jelly
11am: metformin
1pm: garlic bagel w/ onion & chive cream cheese
6pm: 2 chicken patties w/sauce and muenster cheese; metformin+jardiance
7:30pm: mixed nuts & trail mix
white wine and diet gingerale (3)

What the hell is "SOP" anyway?

I messaged my boss that I wanted to take today off, but I had an 11am meeting to attend and a 2pm meeting. He told me he didn't want me to work hours in between day off time, that is not the way our "SOP" is defined. 

I pretended to know what he meant. I had to google what SOP is. Standard Operating Procedure. I actually didn't really know that we had one defined but I guess we do and I wasn't paying attention. SOP it is. 

We're supposed to take a whole day or a half say. I said I've always just taken personal hours. Rarely whole days or half days or whatever. But okay. I'll take a couple hours off. In a row. 

He offered to take my 2pm, so I could take the whole afternoon. I said no - you are already in a meeting (thank you for giving me access to your calendar, chief). So I did my 11am meeting, did other things work-related, ate some lunch, did the 2pm meeting and am glad I did it for a lot of reasons, and then messaged the team that at 3 I was taking some me time. 

And then I played games on my phone for two solid hours. Well, I stopped just before 5. 

See, today I wanted to do a bunch of things that I couldn't get done over the weekend. I wanted to get garden soil for the plants we bought. I wanted to get blood work done. I wanted to swing by the mechanic to ask why we have a check engine light on in the Mini, when we just had $7,000 work done to it. Last month. What the heck, guys. 

But I played games on my phone. And did my steps. Fed the dog and went to target.

So I did leave the house, I did do a thing, I didn't get the blood work done because there was no way I was going to make it over there before the lab closed. Maybe I'll step away tomorrow and do it. 

I didn't take the whole day, but a few hours, of just me time. 

Recently, I saw a South Park episode where Butters gets a job at an ice cream store. Little kids can get jobs, with their parent's permission, because no one wants to work and businesses are suffering. Thanks to Joe Biden and the Pandemic, etc, etc, etc. 

So there's Butters, working at the ice cream store busting his ass. Cartman wants in on this and gets his mom's permission to get a job. Reluctantly, Butters vouches for him, the very serious business owner is a little wary but, Butters is a good kid and so his friend must be good too. 

But he is not. You know it.

Cartman gets the job, comes  to work and he basically does zero work. Takes constant breaks, plays with his phone, observes Bare Minimum Mondays and Take It Easy Tuesdays. He accuses Butters of making a toxic work environment, and then tells them young people have invented these work allowences for their mental health and no one can fire anyone because that's against the law. 

Cartman learns his lesson, of course, when he and Kenny decide to start their own business. They get Butters to invest his paycheck (and of course that goes over well with Butters' parents). 

This episode is hilarious. My work wife said to me "you are always Butters in these situations and everyone else is Cartman." 

So I decided to be a little bit Cartman. It's part of our SOP maybe. Everyone on my team takes time off during the day, but they usually don't ask our boss first. Which maybe was my mistake. 

Anyway. I got nothing done. As I mentioned. But. I did have a Mental Health Monday or Bare Minimum Monday. Whatever we want to call it. 

I have NO meetings tomorrow, so maybe it'll be Take it Easy Tuesday too. But I don't have to go anywhere (well, there is the blood work thingie?) Hmm. We'll see what tomorrow ends up looking like. 

Digits, below.

digits 

exercise: 12/12 hours; no dedicated 10, 6400+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:15am: 174
5pm: 192
10pm: 173

food:

coffee/water
10:30am: left over chinese food, mongolian beef and some lo mein noodles
12noon: metformin
1:30pm: pbj on keto friendly bread
7pm: pork loin, 4 pierogis, mixed veggies mostly broccoli; glass of wine w/ginger ale; metformin+jardiance
8pm: anxiety eating trail mix

Mom's Day

Today being Mother's Day, I'm not sure I've ever actually written about this but Doug does not celebrate mother's day - for me. He has told me, "you're not my mom." 

Uh, okay? But. I'm your wife and mom of the children that you knocked me up with so lavish me with adoration and love. Or else? 

But I get it. It is the kids' responsibility to celebrate me. When they were little though, he did not take them out to buy me things. He didn't encourage this with them. 

I think of my dad, because, of course, we are in our year of firsts yet. My dad always bought my mom things for mother's day, on our behalf. 

Even long after we were grown and gone. 

My dad "got it," as it were, whereas Doug sees it differently. Neither of them are wrong. But I kind of wish Doug had a stripe of my dad. 

I got calls and texts from other friends, other moms, wishing me a happy mother's day. I texted friends and beat them to it. Geoff forgot a little bit that it was mother's day, but he made up for it. He got all our laundry from the bedroom and he swept the kitchen because it sorely needed it. 

Jess' best friend called me (before Jess did, noted!) to wish me a happy mother's day AND tell me she got engaged. Which was all very incredibly sweet. Jess did call me and we talked for an hour about all sorts of stuff.  

My own kids and the kid friends of my kids are dear to me. And I love them all. 

Doug and I went to deposit some paper checks we had, and we went to pick up plants for the patio and porch. We found ourselves by beer as well, so we had a couple pints and made it home in time for hockey. 

I may not be his mom, but he did take me out for some nice stuff.

Digits below this picture of a fun thing sticking out of a plant at the nursery.

digits 

exercise: 11/12 hours;  missed 4pm because we were stuck in traffic. 5200+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

9:30am: 164
6:30pm: 194
10:30pm: 291 (damn you, pretzels)

food:
coffee/water
noon: metformin; whole grain english muffin w/ pb& low sugar jelly
2:30pm: about 1 cup of chicken salad
6pm: 2 beers at babycat
7pm: 2 cheeseburgers, no buns, tater tots, mayo+ketchup.
9pm: nervous eating pretzels and spready chees, 3 more beers.

Hello Mister Sun

Nothing much to report. The rain held off all day so Geoff got the lawn mowed, Doug went to target. We had a heck of a downpour and a giant double rainbow around 7. It was cool. Better update tomorrow. And of course, cel phone cameras don't capture the real colors. but. 

Digits below.

digits 

exercise: 12/12 hours; 31 min. walk. 7600+ steps by bed

blood glucose:

10am: 189
5pm: 144
10pm: 185

food:
coffee/water
noon: metformin
1:30pm: chicken salad
6pm: bowl of chili w/ fritos, sour cream, shredded cheddar
8:30pm: ramekin of pretzels w/ port wine spready cheese. 4 beers (hockey)

Too many carbs

Today was a day when I didn't really do a good job with carbs. That's okay because most of the time I do. Geoff made mac & cheese for blunch, and then I had an apple and peanut butter when I usually would not have had food before dinner. Numbers were high, and some days are like that. 

It poured down rain today. Absolutely poured, and so many people are out seeing the Northern Lights due to the giant solar flare that is happening. Friends as far south as the NC/SC border are enjoying. 

We are socked in with clouds, no northern lights here. I'm sad for that. Very jealous of friends but also very happy for them. 

It's like that sometimes. 

Digits below. Better day tomorrow, I promise. 

digits 

exercise: 12/12 hours;  no dedicated 10; 7k steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

9:15am: 184
4:45pm: 228
10:30pm: 215

food:
coffee/water/hot tea
10:45am: ramekin of mac & cheese w/bacon; metformin
2:30pm: apple w/peanut butter
6:30pm: metformin+jardiance; bowl of pasta shells w/meat sauce and .... 4 nice slices of garlic bread
white wine

Foxglove

 (This was Thursday's post, published Friday morning)

It was a comfortable temperature today. I put headphones in because a neighbor up the street is having a new roof put on, and the constant nail gun noises were rough on my brain. 

I went outside. Cleaned off the patio table, again. Got set up and turned around and saw a new plant. One I've never seen before. I took pictures of it and shared to the work Plants channel and was informed it is Foxglove. Wonderfully dangerous to humans and dogs. But look how pretty it is. I kind of feel bad. like. Y'all are trying to kill me out here, nature. 

My plants friends at work said "don't touch it. Keep your dog away from it." Toffee doesn't eat plants - she's more of an eat all the twigs and shit out there. So I'm not really worried about her contacting it.

I'll figure out a way to protect us all, a little fence or something. Doug said it was there last year but honestly, I do not remember seeing it. Maybe it comes and goes so quickly. 

Didn't get a walk today because Doug sat down in the livingroom and called his Aunt, and then I ordered Chinese food. He didn't take the dog for a walk, so I couldn't walk inside and... it started raining. Gotta feed the Foxglove.

digits 

exercise: 12/12 hours; no dedicated 10; 4400+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:45am: 186
4:15pm: 155
9pm: 245

food:
coffee/water/hot tea
11:30am: metformin. 2 slices of keto friendly bread w/pb and low sugar jelly
7pm: chinese food. mongolian beef, general gao's chicken, spring roll, combo fried rice, beef on stick, peking ravioli, metformin+jardiance 

The Old Man's Birthday

Today is dad's birthday. It will always be his birthday. I cringe a little when people say "happy heavenly birthday" or "today my dad would be 104 years old." No, no he probably wouldn't have been 104 years old, to be honest. People die and they are the age they were when they died. That's their age. And I for one am not 100% sure about Heaven most of the time.  Sometimes I am and other times I'm not sure.

Suffice to say, May 8th, that's dad's birthday and will always be. 

This picture cracks me up. We walked out of their favorite foodrinkery one day and this motorcycle was outside, with the helmet on it. And he laughed his ass off. 

My dad was not a big reader but those were all words he could read, and boy did it knock is socks off. So I told him to go pose by the helmet. And he did. So forever and ever this will be a photo we look back to with big laughs. We put it in his funeral video, much to the family's joy. So many laughs on this one. 

Dad was game to do whatever I asked him to do and (usually hilarious) pictures resulted. 

One that I don't have any pictures or video of is the time he and Doug built an obstacle course for squirrels on the back step of the trailer. Dad would always put peanuts out for them, and fill the bird feeders dutifully, and he enjoyed watching these furry knuckleheads go about their harvesting of dinner. So an obstacle course made the little bastards work for it. And boy did they ever work for it. 

Seeing him sit in his chair on the porch and just chuckle, well not just chuckle but actually laugh wholeheartedly was so much fun.

For those who know my husband, he has a big laugh. He's big loud when laughing. And my dad wasn't that noisy or boisterous, but I could honestly say he was laughing at his level equal to Doug's level. 

My mother came out and made them take the obstacle course down. She was furious. For as happy as dad was she was furious in equal measure. She said it was mean and unfair. 

Hell no, it wasn't.

Doug dismantled the apparatus. But the smiles lingered. Anyway. There's a lot I could say about my dad, and thinking about him makes me smile. I'll take that to bed with me. 

Goodnight, Dad.
Digits below.

digits 

exercise: 12/12 hours; 22 min indoor walk; 8k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

9am: 180
4:45pm: 178
10pm: 185

food:
coffee/water
11:15am: leftover little bit of tuna casserole, cold - almost like pasta salad. greatly enjoyed! Metformin
1:30pm: tuna salad on 2 slices of toasted 647 italian bread
6:30pm: 3 chicken thighs, scoop of leftover Doug's cheesy concoction
7pm: metformin+jardiance
red wine

Continuing the Year Of Firsts

Today is mom's 81st birthday. Tomorrow would be dad's, he would have been 84. 

We are still in our Year Of Firsts, and their birthdays being right on top of each other has always been an easy way to not forget one of them. And this is a year not to forget. 

Over the weekend I was going to order flowers but just forgot/was exhausted. Then last night completely forgot because Hockey. So after I got off the phone with her, I went online and ordered a nice "whimsical" bouquet. 

I didn't check to see that it comes in a vase so I'm going to call in the morning first thing. I don't think she can cut flowers and arrange in the vase she has.

I would usually call on Mom's birthday and then get him on the phone to wish him a happy early birthday. If a birthday fell on Mother's Day, I'd wait until Mother's Day and get 3 calls in one. I called at 7:30pm to make sure I got a call in before she went to bed.

She said she had a good day - she went to the bar for lunch, like she does on Tuesdays (like ya do). There are three women from Brockton who come on Tuesdays too, so they bought her lunch. And she had a piece of white cake with buttercream frosting and strawberries. The bartender put a no blow out candle on the slice, so she blew it out and it lit up again. 

"Wiseasses," she says. Ha. Classic.

This morning we had a client site launch and the pre-launch set up was not complete or set up correctly at the CMS end of things. I kind of was in a panic, and very anxious. My ride-or-die at work and I were stressing a little, and we rescheduled the launch for 10:30am, and waited for the devs to get things straightened up.

I was so anxious that I did steps. I couldn't focus on doing other work things so I just up and started walking around, swinging back to the laptop to see if there was any other news, any slack updates. And when there were none, I walked again.   

Everything worked out alright, the client was in good spirits, we got everything done, even with the delay, 5 minutes before the end of the call. 

Doug didn't take Toffee for a walk, so I'm glad I got my exercise done since he would have been sitting here in the middle of my walking route. I really need to get back to the gym though. Make time for me. Go. 

We started talking about our anniversary and doing something. Geoff came in to tell us he's working Sat/Sun memorial day weekend, which we didn't expect since he already worked his once-a-month weekend, so I wonder if it is a seniority thing where he's the New Kid and gets saddled. I asked if he's working on Monday and he said he wasn't sure.

Doug is starting to think about maybe we'll do something. Maybe. We'll probably have to take the dog with us? Maybe? Not sure yet. But we'll see if we go somewhere. 

Anyway, here's Shirley from 2017 when she broke her hip and was in the rehab hospital. Happy Birthday, lady. Digits below. 

digits 

exercise: 12/12 hours; 16 min. indoor walk (stress walking instead of stress snacking); 6200+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:45am: 164
5pm: 183
10:15pm: 189

food:
coffee/water/hot tea
11:30am: english muffin w/pb and bonnie maman's preserves; metformin
2:15pm: 647 italian bread, mayo, 3 thick slices of deli turkey
6pm: 2 chicken cutlet cluck pucks w/american cheese on them, coleslaw; metformin+jardiance
7pm: 3 entenmann's chocolate covered donuts 
8pm: the rest of the coleslaw, about a cup or so
red wine

Hawkey Tawk

Tonight, Doug got us hooked up with the Sling TV package that has ESPN on it, so we could watch hockey. Tonight, a friend of ours back in Massachusetts messaged me on FB and just said "Hawkey Tawk." 

We used to go to their house for playoff hockey when we lived up north. Our kids went to high school together, and they were and are just delightful human beings. Pizza Beer Hockey. The husband and I would do this fake call-in talk show called Hockey Talk and have her in stitches.

My guess is Doug hated us talking so much, but, it was fun to watch games with friends. And we didn't talk through the whole game. They were serious Hockey People.

I miss them, even though we've got our hockey now (thank you Doug for caving) - it is extra fun to watch games with likeminded humans. 

Still feeling crummy but tonight I feel much better than I did all day, so maybe I'm turning the corner.

Maybe it's the hockey energy. 

Doug took Toffee for a walk today and I did about 20+ min inside while listening to Guster and then I went back to work. Geoff made us dinner, he had today off after working this weekend. Doug said he spent half his walk time standing behind the house with the neighbor talking to him. She is the "fussy" one from this entry from 2021. She noticed that one of our lights was off (the nightlight in the guest room) so she asked him if we were away. 

One could say she's nosy, or, she is just very attentive. And that's a good thing. She has a kind heart, even if she's a little nebby. She had a treat for Toffee, and gave it to him. 

I gave it to her tonight, much to her doggy joy. 

Digits below. 

digits 

exercise: 12/12 hours,  24 min. indoor walk while doug did an hour out there in the heat/rain with the dog. 7700+ by bedtime

blood glucose:

9:30am: 171
n/apm: forgot to take my 4-5pm reading
11pm: 192

food:
coffee/water/hot tea
noon: some of doug's pasta creation mixed w/left over chicken from last weekend. Metformin
1:30pm: some more of the chicken (the last of it, tbh)
6pm: bowl of spaghetti w/ground sausage, mushroom, sauce
7pm: metformin+jardiance; entire bag of kettle corn
9pm: anxiety eating crackers+peanutbutter
red wine