Finishing the year strong-ish

It needed done, I just wish I did it sooner, like before today's trash day. 

We usually have a lot of leftovers. I try to eat them, Geoff tries to, but Doug so rarely touches them. Things end up pushed to the back of the fridge. It is sad... I end up tossing them. 

This morning I got milk for my coffee, opened the fridge and thought what the hell could be so stinky in there... 

Sigh. Time to find out. 

Doug was going to the market, so we would need space for the pork roast and trimmings so I needed to make the effort any how. 

He left at 1:30, and I did a half hour walk in the house with some Ben Folds Five for the soundtrack. The mix was all upbeat fast songs, except one so I skipped it. It was a lot of fun to have the place to myself and sing loud. 

Then, refrigerator time. Took all of 5 minutes to find the one smelly thing (pasta and broccoli). I got all the undesirables out of there, combined containers of sour cream, cheeses, took more butter out for some more cookies. Then, took a shower. Relaxed and happy. 

Doug got home, I stowed the groceries away. We chilled and he suggested we take a walk. The weather is going to take a wicked bad turn starting tonight and he said we should seize the opportunity. 

I told him that I'd be happy to if he didn't walk a block ahead of me. I hate going for a walk with him sometimes, I do not walk at his pace and it just feels like I'm alone. He didn't realize I had a problem with it, so he said he would. And he did. And we had a nice walk. I took the leash for him while he cleaned up a deposit Toffee made and I walked her for a while, she makes the pace, and can make it faster, so we finished the walk just before it started to rain. 

Doug made dinner, he's been thinking of different dishes and he picked pasta puttanesca, which turned out really good. I liked it. Thankful for him doing that for us tonight. 

For anyone wondering what we were doing tonight for "fun," it is a lot of this picture, only with wine. Whatever you are doing, or did by the time you read this, I hope that you had a nice night. And I hope if 2024 sucked, that this year upcoming is better. And if you had a good 2024, may 2025 be even better. 

Digits below.

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. 30 min/1.25 mile walk inside. 30 min/1.35 mile walk outside. 11k+ steps by bedtime. 

blood glucose:

11am: 165
5pm: 171
10:30pm: 178 

food:

coffee/water
11am: bowl of mac & cheese w/extra spicy queso. Metformin
6pm: pasta puttanseca, 2 bowls, 2 slices of italian bread
7pm: metformin+jardiance
8pm: some pretzels w/french onion dip
white wine w/cranberry juice

Monday feels like Sunday

I slept in this morning, waking up just in time to do steps for 10am. Right under the wire. I feel like 10:30-10:45 is my natural uninterrupted wake time. Although I was up at 7. And could have been up for the day at 7. But. No. 

Vacation Chris is activated. 

I sat with Doug & Dog in the living room, goofed off on the phone playing a game. Stupid game kept giving me more free lives. Have to play if they give you free life! Can't let that go to waste. He told me he was getting a shower and heading to the hardware store for things we need. Like super industrial drano, and a new toilet seat, some other things. And bird seed. We hadn't set up our bird feeder yet, we usually do by Thanksgiving. 

So he took care of those things and I vacuumed. I moved the couches and the dining table too, did a for real serious vacuum.  

Additionally, I looked at work slack messages but not the helpdesk. I greatly enjoy a Monday Sunday. So happy to have a team where I can trust if I'm not there, all's well. And I'm happy I checked in. One of my fave colleagues had a baby on the 27th. I've been thinking about her every day. "My due date is in December," she tells me. And it is now Dec. 30th and there was no word. Happy to know the little bean made it. Can't wait to catch up with her.

S and H came by and picked up their share of the decorated cookies. I had dinner in the oven, Doug's request of a quiche. It's been a while since we had one. And it was the bomb. 

After dinner, we binge watched a National Geographic documentary on the 2004 earthquake and tsunami in Asia. And it made me sad.

I ended up taking two walks today and an unintentional third. My fitbit measured the 1000+ steps I wanted to squeeze in before midnight as a walk (12 min). Ha. go me. I guess.

And the utility sink is still clogged, so I'm going to put in a service request for after new years, and I hope I've got enough underwear in the drawers (drawers in the drawers! ha!) to make it. 

Anyway. No picture today but probably will have one tomorrow. Digits below! 

digits

exercise: 11/12 hours. Missed 9am for sleeps. 3 walks, all inside. a 15 min/.7 mile; 21 min/.97 mile, 12 min/.28 mile. Wanted to squeeze the 10k in by midnight even though we stayed up until well after midnight watching TV.

blood glucose:

11am: 180
4:30pm: 178
10pm: 160 

food:

coffee/water
2pm: pbj sandwich on 647 bread; 2 good yogurt; metformin
6pm: metformin+jardiance
7pm: quiche (ham, shrooms, yellow pepper, cheddar), spinach salad (tomato, spinach, yellow pepper, red onion)
Through the evening: christmas cookies, mostly small stars and wee trees.
white wine w/diet cranberry

Utility sink woes

Jess left after 1pm, they wanted to leave in a "single digit time" meaning before 10am but. But. We continued our nice visit. So in reality, they did leave in single digit time. Just. in the wrong single digit area.  

If they didn't have to work tomorrow, staying here would be a nice thing. They have Tuesday and Wednesday off. Couldn't use tomorrow for travel. Also, they want to go home and pack for moving. 

Doug and Jess had some quiet time together and I could hear them talking in the living room, and smell the coffee. The dog was asleep behind my legs and it was tremendously cozy. But a I really wanted to continue to visit with them, I miss them when they are gone.

We had late breakfastylunch, and I was sad to see them go. They texted that at 10pm they were in Sturbridge, so, making decent time. On paper a 7 hour trip. In reality, never less than 9. 

Yesterday morning I had gone down to do laundry and when I went to put the sheets in the dryer the utility sink was full to the top with water but had not overflowed. Eeep. I attempted to plunge and drano the drain, it took forever but eventually the water went down. 

I forgot to tell Geoff. 

He started a load of laundry, I heard the machine filling up and said "oh no."  I went down to turn the washer off, and try to clear the drain some more. I moved a bunch of things that had been relocated to that part of the basement when we had the flood in the spring. And I bemoaned the fact that I still have not forced myself to sit and repack and reorganize shit. 

Doug came down and stood there through the wash cycle, plunging the drain to keep the water from overflowing. 

"Do you want me to put in a service request?" I asked him. 
"No, we'll get some more industrial strength drano and conquer it."

Note: I will end up putting in a service request but, let's allow Doug for this home duty task and to be the conquering hero on it.

I guess this gives us something to do tomorrow? Also, we can do very small laundry loads. Not big full super loads like all the sheets and Geoff's full week's worth of clothing which fill the utility sink to the top. 

Which is good because ... I need underpants washed.

S was supposed to come by today to pick up the cookies her family wanted from last night, which were all still too damp. Best always to let them sit. She texted me around 6pm to say they were not coming by, which actually was pretty good because we were eating dinner and then fighting with the sink. And I hadn't bathed, was still in my clothes from yesterday. Hot mess express.

Not much else to report. Still have some cookies to decorate and will do that tomorrow, mixed in with whatever else we may be doing.

Digits below.

digits

exercise: 10/12 hours. slept through 9am. somehow missed noon, I was making egg mcmuffins for all, and thought I was stepping enough. must have just missed. 25 min/1.06 mile walk indoors. 7k steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

10:15am: 180
xpm: n/a was trying to nap and then forgot to take a reading
10:15pm: 170 

food:

coffee/water
noon: metformin; egg mcmuffin w/sausage
through the day - wee small cookie stars
6:30pm: 3 slices of take & bake pizza; metformin+jardiance
white wine w/diet cranberry and zero sugar ginger ale

The Penultimate Cookie Day, 2024

My friends came over at about 6pm. Jess got here from dog sitting at 8:30pm. 

We decorated a butt-ton of cookies, and there are still naked cookies to decorate. I say this was a tremendous fun night. I still have more to do and decorate, and some ideas for the flamingos.... more to come on that. 

All told. I'm.... beat and happy. digits below. I have more pictures but. This'll do.

digits

exercise: 10/12 hours.  Missed 9 and 10 am, slept in! no real dedicated exercise but constant motion from 2-8pm. 8100+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

11:30am: 179
5pm: 164
11pm: 174 

food:

coffee/water
11am: metformin
3pm: chicken salad
6pm: small bowl of mac & cheese and hamburger
6:30pm: metformin+jardiance
wine
espresso martinis
some cookies, through the day

Cords and Lunch and Gym

Doubling up again because yesterday was a lot. 

Thursday
Doug is sick, he has some sort of sinus thing and it is making him grouchy. He asked me how long I could go without my charger, and I said 'well, if I don't use the computer at all, maybe two days.' He sighed and started to get ready for us to go pick it up from his Aunt's house. 

She called at some point in the late morning, confused about why we were coming over. Doug explained. Again. She said 'are you really sure I have her cord?' Doug told her yes. You do. And we'll be there in about 45 minutes. 

He decided we'd bring the dog since Geoff was at work, so she got to go for a ride. Good day to be Toffee. 

We got to her house, and Doug's cousin held up the cord to me. 

'This is it, right, with the rectangle plug." 

Yes. Yes it is. I thanked him. I handed him the Apple wireless earbuds and her power cord that she had left at our house. To be honest, I was tempted to keep the earbuds for my work Mac. But also, I'm grossed out just thinking that they were in her ears. She has two sets. Has no idea how they work or what to do with them. She wouldn't miss these, but, gross. Someone else's ears. 

Doug's aunt had toys for Toffee, gifts for her. She always has gifts for people, but I have no idea where she got these. They weren't new, they were dirty-ish. Maybe a yard sale? One was a small stuffed duck with a squeaker, the other was a plastic ball that bounced erratically. 

For as infuriatingly annoying as she is, she is exceptionally thoughtful. I'll give her that.

She thrilled at how much Toffee enjoyed the duck (please note, it was DEMOLISHED within 10 minutes of being in the back of the car with her). It brought her such joy, and she laughed and laughed. We got in the car after a less than 5 minute stay, using the dog as an excuse. There isn't enough space to be in the house all together. The living room that we cleaned and cleaned and emptied out repeatedly and over and over is full of stuff again. It made me exceptionally sad. 

When we left, she stood at the door watching us, I waved goodbye but she was focused on the dog. Laughing. I'm not sure she saw me waving goodbye.

Once in the car, Doug said that it would be a shame to have driven all this way over here and not found a nice brewery with an open patio to go sit at. I love how he thinks. 

We put the directions in for Old Ox Brewery, and it was much further than he thought it should be. It took us forever to get there, and, when we arrived we found they didn't open until 4. It was 3:30. 

Applying an oft used philosophy of "you can't tell if you don't ask,"  Doug went to see if the door was unlocked, and it was. He asked if maybe we could order a couple of  beers, sit on the patio, a little early. The guy was not having it. 

He came back to the car rather unhappy. I suggested we take the dog for a walk, but he was exceedinly grumpy, and tired, and said his head was killing him from the sinus thing. (Note to self: put a small travel container of acetaminophen in your purse like you used to carry). 

Soe left. The guy stood inside and watched us drive away. 

Part of me thinks dude... you coulda had us have 2 beers each, and tip you handsomely, once the 4pm "open" sign got turned on officially. Another part of me thinks, nah - they weren't open and he followed the rules. Disappointing, but. 

It took forever to get home. Traffic was exceptionally stupid. 

But I have my power cord. Life is good. 

Friday
I got a notification on my google calendar that I had a lunch date at 1pm. Oh! I'd forgotten I'd set up that lunch date with my colleague H who lives up the road. Yay! 

I texted her to make sure we were still on, she said yes, so I jumped in the shower to get ready. Because of Doug's grumpiness and sinus thing, he didn't want to do anything and this wasn't a monkey wrench to any plans he may have had. 

H and I had a lovely time catching up. We used to work together just about every day, and she was moved off of our project to focus on training for another project. 

Her 50th birthday is Sunday so I insisted on picking up lunch as a treat. I gave her a bunch of the previously made Christmas cookies, knowing my house is about to be filled with even more. I still have some for Meg doggie's parents, and more to send home with Jess, too. 

After lunch I went to the liquor store, we were out of vodka and I like a specific gin, which we were also out of but we have other gin, so I could have just dealt with that if I wanted a cocktail. I got some beers, some more wine, they had my favorite Monkey Bay, which they don't usually... so I grabbed a bottle of it. It used to have a monkey on the label, and now it does not. Which saddens me. 

Next to Target, I needed flour and butter, and got some cluck-pucks for dinner, and a few other things. More Claritin D for Doug and his sickness. And ZzzzQuill for me. I haven't had any for a couple weeks and I can tell. 

I talked to my mom (I pay her lot rent ever 27th of the month and she needs me to tell her that I did she doesn't just trust me to do it). She told me all the same stories that she did on Christmas day when we chatted. 

Doug took Toffee for a walk, I did a mini-walk in the house and loaded the dishwasher. And then at 7pm I went to the gym too. A day of two walks, my friends. Not a lot. The gym was mobbed for a Friday night, so I did 18 min on the treadmill before my attention span started messing with me, and how I forgot to get paper towels at Target so I should go to Lidl and get some but oh they don't have Bounty they have some cut rate nonsense paper towels but we'll need them tomorrow and oh! chocolate chips. I will need chocolate chips. 

When I got home I was going to bake the sugar cookies but. I'll do it tomorrow. They cook fast, cool fast, and I will just happily deal with it then.

I felt like it was a fun day out, still some more things to do before Cookie Fest tomorrow. But overall, in a great mood and sorry that Doug is not. 

digits below.

Friday digits

exercise: 11/12 hours.  missed 2pm during lunch. 15 min/.5 mile indoor walk, treadmill 18 min/.77 mile walk; 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

10am: 205
4:30pm: 190
10pm: 180

food:

coffee/water
11am: metformin
a couple handfuls of m&ms while walking 'round the house
1:30pm: small caesar salad w/grilled chicken, unknown carb content salad dressing, 2 beers
6pm: 2 cluck pucks w/melted cheese & mayo on 2 potato rolls (shoulda double deckered and gone with 1); some french fries; metformin+jardiance
white wine

Thursday digits

exercise: 11/12 hours.   Missed 3pm in the car. No real walk. 5k steps by bedtime.  

blood glucose:

10am: 157
5pm: 246
10pm: 225 

food:

coffee/water
10:30am: english muffin w/pb
11am: metformin
6pm: 3 hawaiian rolls sliders, toasted with ham & havarti, a little jello spread on. 
7pm: metformin+jardance; more jello
9pm (late food): fritos & hummus 

Do They Know It's Christmas Time At All?

(Christmas' Entry, published on the 26th but dated the 25th) 

I woke up at 8 with the knowledge I'd need to be tidying up and doing things to get ready for dinner guests. The dining table was a mess from Cookie Time, and I still had some cookies to decorate for Jess to bring back to her house sitting gig location. 

Queen of procrastination, thy name is Christine. 

There's a saying "But first, coffee," and we did that. We sure did that. 

Doug put the ham in the oven, and I started to .... ADHD my way around the things that needed done. I got the cookies decorated, set them aside to dry. I put the decorating stuff in the guest room because yeah that's all coming back out. I put the peanut butter cookies in a bag and set them aside. Geoff ran to the market for milk (because Doug forgot and didn't get my voice mail telling him to not forget). Geoff peeled potatoes and I made scalloped potatoes. Doug had made his jello concoction last night which actually was very nice and not ... jello grossness. So we put that in a nice bowl. Display!

I got in the shower at 12:30, Jess was on the way over with the two dogs they are house sitting. And the phone rang at about 1pm while I was dressing. 

It was Doug's aunt, so he said "oh she's telling us they're running late I bet..." and we bank on that all the time. It buys us an extra half hour to an hour of time. Someday, they'll be on time. And we'll be stepping out of the shower.

She told us that her son didn't tell her it was Christmas day. So they were coming, but would be late. 

Uhhhhhhhhh. You're going to blame your adult son for not telling you it is Christmas? It's the same day every year. Not like Thanksgiving that moves around and stuff. I know it's hard to remember what day it is sometimes in life, but ... own up to it and say, yeah we're running late, and not throw someone else under a bus for your forgetfulness.

Okay? I told Doug to tell her they didn't have to come, no stress, we'd see them another time. But she insisted. Insisted.

This was actually good because I wanted the dogs to meet and play before Doug's family got here. And the scalloped potatoes were going to take some extra time. This is good. This is good.

Jess arrived, and sadly the dogs did not get along. One of the dogs that came over did not like Toffee, and Toffee was ready to fight back. Doug said the guest dog wanted to start it but ... Toffee would probably finish it. I was afraid she'd hurt the dogsat dog. The other dog was great. Absolutely great. 

So there was fighting, barking, snarling, and yes, blood drawn. Off of Toffee mostly. But the guest dog got an ear nip and somehow had some blood between her toes but Jess thinks that is just something that dog has and gets. 

Jess opted to take the dogs back to the house, and come back. Doug said he'd put Toffee in the kennel and encouraged them to stay but. I agreed with Jess making a decision, and sticking with it. 

I was sad because I wanted some fun extra dog time. And Toffee was confused when they left. I think we need some Meg time soon for another visit so Toffee can run and play the way she's meant to run and play. 

Doug's aunt and cousin got here, and the first thing I noticed was she took her shoes off (I'm okay with that) and then she only had one sock on. I asked if her sock got stuck in her sketchers, and she laughed and said no, it's a long story. "I forgot to put another sock on." 

Really. 

Okay. I can give you some fuzzy socks to keep your feet warm as you walk around the house. She declined and said she has plenty of socks (yes, yes you do. I've been to your house. I've seen the hundreds of socks you have all over the house). 

And then she complained the whole time about how cold it is in our house. Muttering under her breath about how cold she is. It's cold in here. It's not - the heat is set at 68 and you are wearing your jacket. All the heat must be flowing out your body through your one bare nasty foot.

We waited until 3 to eat. Jess arrived shortly thereafter. We had a good meal, good fellowship. Doug put on the movie Klaus, none of us had seen it.  He slept through most of it, I'm sure she did too. 

My super power is when I don't want to deal with people, I go in the kitchen. I clean. I do the dishes. I load the dishwasher and hand wash the Noritake. I mixed up 2 more batches of sugar cookie dough because I need to bake for Saturday. I missed most of the movie but what I saw I liked. It was rather good, wonderfully crafted. Fun story. And Norm Macdonald is in it, probably one of his last roles before passing away too early from this life.  I talked to my mom and sister for a while, too. I just .... did things that needed done while people were napping.

I served dessert (skipping it for myself because the frosting on the cake was SO sweet I could taste it through my nose). Jess left around 6-ish to go feed the dogs and take the cookies back to the house that I'd made. Doug put on "Elf," which his cousin had not seen. It was actually so fun to sit here and watch his cousin smile and laugh through the movie. I was really enjoying this part now. Doug's cousin is a bit of a weird bird but he has a great sense of humor and I was so happy he was loving this stupid movie. And I was remembering how funny and sweet this movie is.

Suddenly, Doug's aunt got up and put on her coat and said they were going. Like, before the end of the movie. I was thinking okay,,,, RUDE. Let your son watch the end of the movie (I think they had just finished the scene where Miles Finch kicks Buddy The Elf's entire ass in the conference room. I wanted to say "let's watch the end of the movie but she was by the front door, and so Doug's cousin got up and went. 

I cleaned up from dessert, poured another giant glass of wine, and sat down to charge my phone. 

My power cord for my laptop and phone are in the same brick. The Mac laptop has a specific, very long, textured cord with a flat, metallic rectangle adapter that snaps into the mac, and a USB-C style plug into the brick.  My phone cord is a short smooth white adapter with USB-C style plugs on both ends. 

I felt for the phone adapter where it is usually on the floor, but it wasn't there. The brick was unplugged from the power strip. What the fuck?

I noticed the brick on the side table, the phone cord was plugged into it, but the mac cord was gone. 

Okay. Uhhhhhhhh.

"She took my mac power cord, Doug."

"What?"

I held up the brick, with the one cord in it, and noticed on the coffee table, she'd left her phone cord, which has the same texture but 2 USB-C ends the way mine does in it. 

"Doug. She took. My. Computer. Power Cord." He stared at me for a while. I waved my hands in the air all over the place. 

"Call whatever phone number you have in your phone for her, now." 

We both started calling. She has three phone numbers for some goddamn reason, so I'm dialing 2, he's dialing the one marked with his cousin's name in his phone, over and over and over. Two phones are not set up for voice mail, one is, so he left a message, I left a message, and then I gave up after a few minutes. 

She called back an hour later and wanted to know what was up. 

Lady, what's up is you took my computer cord and left your phone cord here. 

"Well they have the same texture I guess."

Yes, and the computer cord is very long. You literally didn't notice the giant rectangle magnet adapter at one end? You literally did. not. notice. 

"Well you can buy cords anywhere...."

Ha. Well. Right now I'm being very kind and nice but I am about to not be. I'm not going to buy a new power cord for my work laptop. 

"Well, I need it back, and I'm not going to buy a new one. I don't think my office would approve."

She's making some hemming and hawing noises, like she doesn't know what to do. 

"Can we come over tomorrow and pick it up?"

Relieved, because I think she thought I wanted them to come back here (and truth be told, you better believe I did) she said that would be nice. 

"Great we'll see you tomorrow."

"Do you know what time?" She asked. 

"No. I have no idea what time. We'll just see you tomorrow." 

You're asking a lot, lady, asking me what time I'm coming over to reclaim my property you just walked out of my house with. Just whatever you do, don't set that cord down somewhere in your house and lose it, like you lose your hearing aids, your phones, your chargers, your ear pods, your car keys, your keys to storage units, anything. Leave it in your purse. Do not lose my cord. 

I said Thank You when I hung up. And then I thought to myself, what the fuck am I saying thank you for. I asked Doug what was wrong with me that I'm thanking her. I've stunned even myself. Absolutely stunned. 

"You are just a very nice person," he said. 

I didn't take any pictures all day yesterday. I started this blog entry and said fuck it, I'm going to bed. 

Digits, below. 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours.   No measured exercise but constant movement and work for hours today. 7k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8am: 176
5pm: 190
10:15pm: 156 

food:

coffee/water
a bunch of m&ms while tidying up
12:30pm: metformin
3pm: ham, scalloped potatoes, beets, corn, 2 hawaiian rolls
lots and lots of wine
a couple cookies
a couple hershey's kisses

Die Hard is a Christmas Movie

A little amusing observation to start. The other day I was driving around and passed one of our local churches. The sign out front said " Christmas Eve Family Friendly Service: 5:30pm. Traditional Service: 7:30pm."

I mentioned this to Doug and he had the exact same thought. "What kind of naughty elves are coming to the 7:30 service!" We started laughing, what on earth is happening at this church that ... well? Naked elves!? North Pole Dancers!?

We got a bit of freezing rain this morning, which cramped Geoff's daytime routine style. He usually leaves for the gym at 8:15 and is back by 10:30, showers, gets ready for work, etc. Doug didn't want him driving, and he made snarly faces about it.

A few minutes later we were looking out the front door, talking about the mathematical equation of:  Freezing Rain + DMV = Yikes when the trash truck came down the side street. 

And the driver was coming down the side street, he slid right through the intersection, pounding on his horn to warn anyone coming down our street. 

"And that's why we stay inside in the freezing rain," I said. He accepted. 

My Monday workday didn't end as strong as I'd hoped. The last appointment in 2024 for the project didn't work with the client, and we ended up deciding to punt to next year. I could tell the guy was not amused. I tried to be upbeat and friendly about it, but this was the second attempt, and it just fell over sideways. 

I sat here staring into space for over an hour. 

Geoff made us dinner, and he has been trying new things. Sometimes it is more pasta than I want, but, I have to say what he made was delightful. We had a small argument about me wanting more protein so I wanted to roast a couple chicken breasts. He sometimes thinks only of his own taste buds, and, "there's protein in the cheese and broccoli, so you're fine." 

After dinner, I took myself to the gym. I had no excuse. I wasn't working late, wasn't futzing with cookies. I had a solid walk on the treadmill, and was proud of myself. I'm always afraid of going too late, and then not being able to fall asleep. But I'm not usually able to fall asleep anyway so, what's the difference. 

Tuesday work was dead quiet. I baked more cookies, peanut butter and a bunch of sugar cookies to decorate myself so Jess can take them back to the house where they are sitting for the dogparents when they get back from their trip. We then had an emergency at about 4:45pm and I was online still so I helped out, and I had a good chat with a new director on our team to bring him up to speed on how things work in an emergency like this. 

C sent us a box of amazing pizzas through goldbelly so while those were getting ready,Doug went to the market for beer and some ingredients for things for dinner. He forgot milk, so we have to run out in the morning. Could be worse. But we have everything else we need.

Jess will be here, and we invited his aunt and cousin. All I have to do is clear the table after all the cookie decorating. 

We put Die Hard on, and Geoff has never seen it, so we watched that together and chilled. We love the old school "high tech" security and bullshit all through the movie. Hacking with typing, no mouse. You know the guy is a hacker because he's got glasses on! Tons of bad jokes and big jerky german dudes. Lots of smoking and swearing. 79 cents for a gallon of gas. Hilarious. Great stuff, Bruce Willis was and is a champ. And I miss Alan Rickman. And it absolutely is a Christmas movie. 

Digits below the sugar.

Tuesday digits

exercise: x/12 hours.  13 min. /.58 miles indoor walk. 8500+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:30am: 196
5pm: 180
10:45pm: 190 

food:

coffee/water
noon: metformin; pbj (low sugar) on 647 bread; a little bit of sugar cookie frosting on my fingers.
3pm: some broken pb cookie action.
6pm: take and bake pizza gift from C! Metformin+jardiance
Several peanut butter cookies
High Noons

Monday digits

exercise: 12/12 hours.  Gym: 23 min walk, 1.05 miles. 9400+ steps by bedtime (couldn't force those last 500ish steps at 11:45pm...)

blood glucose:

9am: 179
5pm: 154
11pm: 205 

food:

coffee/water/tea
9:30am: chocolate peanut butter cookie
noon: last bit of the chicken soup leftovers; some left over tuna salad, another cookie; metformin
6pm: cheesy pasta shells w/broccoli, chicken breast chunks; metformin+jardiance
9pm: 2 baby bells
several cookies
white wine

Cookie Day Part One - the Jess Edition

Doug wanted to go to the bank and deposit our christmas gift money from his mom. We had a brief discussion about how I think it is rude to do that before the 25th, but he wanted it deposited so he could do some wheeling and dealing with his E-trade thingie ASAP. Okay. Alright. Let's go.

We went to the bank and it was a gorgeous day for driving around. We need dog food soon, so he suggested we go to Target. 

The road to Target was completely clogged, the parking lot was a joke, we drove around the loop road and just laughed. "She has enough food for dinner tonight and breakfast tomorrow..." We got the hell out of there.

Geoff is going in the morning. 

I mean hell, they are open now, I could go, but. Meh. I don't feel like leaving the house again after our excursion and I also went out and picked up the chinese food because I thought Doug was going but he was on the phone with his mom. 

And the boy is willing. Use that energy.

Jess came over shortly after we got back from our attempt to shop. Doug took a nap while watching football. We decorated cookies and chatted for a couple hours. They left to head back and feed the dogs (responsible dog sitter that they are). We had a shitload of fun. Saturday is when S, S, and H will come over and we'll do it all over again. I have to prep more dough, and bake more. 

But now I'm in the mood and this will be fun.

I only have two meetings tomorrow, one at 2 and one at 4. I will probably pound out some cookies by noon. I feel like I need 3x the amount of cookies Jess and I decorated for this. Gonna be so fun. 

Digits below. I should take a nice picture of the pile of cookies we did, but. they're in the other room and I'm in here...

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. no walk, too busy, 5k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

10am: 163
5pm: 174
9:45pm: 211 

food:

coffee/water
11:30am: turkey, cheddar, and bacon quesadilla on 2 low-carb wraps (they were small)
12: Metformin
6:30pm: chinese food: 3 pan fried dumplings, 1 spring roll, general tso's chicken, sesame beef, a bit of lo mein
7pm: metformin+jardiance
8pm: 2 of the tiny cut out star cookies (blue w/sprinkles
vodka tonic (zero sugar tonic) with splash of low sugar cranberry juice

Decent Day

Jess was up at 7, so I heard the making of Toffee's breakfast and adorable chit chat, so I came out and made coffee. 

We chatted for a while and they had to go to the house sitting gig. I missed them after they walked out the door. I sent a picture of Toffee, and they sent pictures of the dogs they're sitting for. 

So I decided to make cookies while no one else was up yet. Not the cut out cookies I need to make, but Doug had gotten some peanut butter chips recently, and I decided to make him the recipe on the bag. Only I winged it. I added cocoa powder and chocolate chips too, and a scoop of peanut butter to really round it out. 

They came out round, so I pressed them down with the spatula, hence the lil circles on them. I didn't eat any but Doug said they are wonderful. 

We watched some football, and Doug snoozed a bit. So I went to the gym. I chatted with Linda (it's her birthday today) and then I chatted with C after I got some groceries. 

The Steelers game looked like it was going to be awesome, but then they blew it. After dinner (Geoff cooked for us) I started making those cut out cookies, finally. Jess is going to come over tomorrow and we're going to do a mini-decorating session. I had a double batch of dough, and didn't get a whole big ton of cookies out of the deal so I have to make more dough tomorrow I guess. But we have a good start. A nice start. 

I would have made more dough but the things for the mixer and my favorite bowl were in the dishwasher. So I cleaned up after the first wave was done. 

Digits below.

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. 30 min/1.25 mile walk on the treadmill at the gym. 8800+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

7:30am: 205
5pm: 170
10:30pm: 156 

food:

coffee/water
11:30am: english muffin w/pb & jelly; metformin
2:30pm: 3 baby bell cheeses
6pm: piece of chicken parm; metformin+jardiance
white wine

Get the things done

It was a surprisingly busy work day but also dull. Without client meetings, I have work I can indeed do but I kind of languish about doing it. I have a QA project that will keep me busy on Monday and Tuesday, and maybe two client meetings to just chat, and one that will be project related. 

I reported out to the entire digital staff an update of how many are done. November 26th we were at 14 clients and today, 36. I've come a long way, but I'm super happy my sysadmin is on the calls in case he catches something big. And today I was the one that caught something big "she doesn't want to paste it in with her URL at the end, because the dashboard is going to put it in for her." 

Yes. Chris is right! 

I changed the bed sheets in the guest room, washed the big blanket, the area rugs, the shower curtain, cleaned the toilet, cleaned the sink. Basics. Didn't vacuum. Ha. 

Doug went to the market for me at 5:30pm because I'd asked Geoff to get all the makings for a baked ziti the other day and he failed at it (oh, ricotta?) yes ricotta. So I wanted to have dinner here for when Jess arrived. They got here at 7:45pm, which was so much earlier than the last time they traveled down. Traffic was easy going for them. 

We had a nice sit and we watched a canadian comedy called Less Than Kind. The first episode didn't do anything for me but it got better, and funny, but sometimes feels like an After School Special from the 70s when one character's family dynamic turns sad. Everyone is trying to help each other out. It's nice. 

I thought about baking muffins at 10, and then thought better of it. Just go to bed without eating some sugar, Chris.

Toffee went to bed with Jess because of course she did. 

In the morning, Jess is heading over to house sit in Virginia, but we'll see them again. Hopefully they will bring the dogs over too! 

digits below. 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. 25 min. indoor walk, 8k steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

9:30am: 174
4:30pm: 134
11:30pm: 144 

food:

coffee/water
12:30pm: Metformin, roast beef on 647 white bread w/mayo
6pm: red wine
7:45pm: metformin+jardiance, baked ziti w/garlic parmesan bread
more red wine with Jess 

Red Wine and Oatmeal Cookies

Today my boss had us all scheduled for a 4pm team meeting. He thought better of it and canceled at 3, thank God. I shut my computer. I needed a not-work thing to do.

I loaded the dishwasher, tidied up the bathroom, pondered the laundry. Instead, I took the dog for a walk. She was bananas energetic, she gets this way in the afternoon, and usually Doug will come up and get her for a walk around 4pm while I'm still working. But he is doing some end of year stuff and worked until 6. 

So it was up to me, and 48 degrees, so. Very tolerable and good for just a sweatshirt.

Usually I don't like walking her alone. She's big and strong and she walks like she has no idea how to keep in a lane. Swerving back and forth in front of me. I sometimes can get her to heel, after maybe 10 minutes and she starts to mellow out. And I can't walk her and play Pokemon at the same time. 

It was a short walk, we ran into our mailman Dave and she was absolutely overjoyed to see him. He carries a lot of dog treats so he stood there feeding them to her and laughing. 

Trying to control her hurt my shoulder so I called the walk short. I was going to do another block up and around but. Feh. 

Ouch. Now I'm sore. 

That's about it. I had two really nice meetings with very fun clients today, not related to the project. Tomorrow, I have 2 project meetings. I really hope my sysadmin is coming. 

I feel confident about things but not 100% confident. ya know? 

Digits down there.  This time tomorrow, God willing, Jess will be here. I have something not work related to look forward to! 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours.  15min/.75 mile dog walk. 7200+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

9am: 170
5pm: 168
11pm: 246 

food:

coffee/water/tea
11am: english muffin w/pb & bonnie maman's cherry preserves
noon: metformin
2pm: the last of the left over beef stroganoff (no noodles, a bout a cup worth)
6pm: kielbasa, pierogies, peas
7:30pm: metformin+jardiance
8:30pm: the last 3 oatmeal cookies, red wine+zero sugar ginger ale

A Temporary Cookie Festivus Hiatus

On Sunday we were supposed to have our big cookie decorating party, this the Year 3 of our new tradition together. You know cut out cookies is something I love doing every year, if you read this blog. But, Sara and her family have to make an emergency trip to Ohio for a family member, so we are going to reschedule. 

Entry from 2023
Entry from 2022
Entry from 2021 (before Sara and Fam came onto the scene, and my write up of Dave F. Yonkman and how I didn't get him cookies in time)

I feel like this is good, it is a relief. For a number of reasons. One is my level of energy and motivation are in the crapper.  I don't feel like doing the baking just yet. I know I could kick it into high gear on Saturday if I had to. Jess is coming this weekend and maybe we'll do a mini-decorate before they have to go house sit on Saturday. Or maybe they'll come back here on Sunday. I need to find out if they're coming over here from Virginia for Christmas dinner. I hope they do.

It's also kind of good too because I need eyeballs, you know, for reindeer and gingerbread men, and if the grocery store doesn't have them when I send Geoff there tomorrow, I can order them online to arrive .... after Sunday. 

Sara came by for a quick visit tonight to give me some of her cat shaped cookie cutters and chat about her trip. I'll need to go feed the cats and collect any boxes delivered to the porch so porch pirates don't steal Christmas while they are away. 

She lives next to the gym so. hmmm. Maybe I'll stop saying I will go and actually go. 

Today I did a client call for the project by myself and I'm thrilled that it went perfectly and wonderfully. What a relief. Even though he was off today I slack messaged my sysadmin to squeeeeeeee that I did it.

I woke up at 3am and didn't fall back asleep until 6, but I messaged my team that I was going to be late, and I really was only a half hour late.

Tomorrow will be similar to today. I have no client project calls, I have emails to send, I do have a call with a client that isn't related to the big project so that will be a refreshing break. Talk about something different. 

And that's about it for today. digits below. Hopefully a more energetic tomorrow. Yay.

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. no walk, pouring rain. 5k steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

9:30am: 193 (thanks, last night's oatmeal cookies)
5pm: 200
10pm: 239 ( will test again before bed. this seems high for what I had for dinner?) 

food:

coffee/water/tea
11:15am: english muffin w/pb and bonnie maman's cherry preserves
12:30: Metformin
2pm: 3 oatmeal cookies 
5pm: protein shake
6:30pm: chicken soup by doug, with heavy cream (very good) orzo, carrots, red onions, a toasted bagel w/parmesan cheese
7:30pm: Metformin+jardiance

That's a 2025 Problem

Sorry no post yesterday, I started to write at 10:30pm and just felt it was way smarter to go to bed. The last thing I wanted to do was have my laptop in my lap and be typing, after doing it for so many hours. 

I'll be pumping the brakes on the big project here for a little bit. Two days this week my sysadmin is out, and I'm not doing calls without him. nope. And then I'm taking some time off. I've got 3 calls today, 2 on Friday, and one on Monday of next week. Then, 2025. 

Looking at my calendar and seeing so much open space for two whole days this week made me giggle with joy. 

I love getting through each of these meetings, I love moving people from In Progress to Completed. I love when it works and when it is successful. I love seeing those numbers fall from one side of the spreadsheet to the other side. It's a great feeling of accomplishment. The task itself has been a monumental beast, though. And even my sysadmin has been flummoxed by a couple of these situations.  If he's flummoxed... you know it is bad. 

He's also slowly revealing a fantastic sense of humor. He's very soft spoken, and I haven't heard him crack a lot of jokes or say anything weird. One of our clients had a particularly long set of requisites for the thing we're doing. It's called a Zone file. I said "wow, this is a lot." And he said "yeah, it's not a zone file, it's an OZONE file," and I didn't get it. So he had to explain it to me that it stretches up into space it's so long. 

That kind of killed me. I treasure him.

Anyway. It's tiring and I'm tired, and it makes my brain hurt. Every day I say "you really need to go to the gym, walk the dog, do something different. Bake the damn cookies you made dough for. Do it. And then I turn into a slug. Just like Randy in "A Christmas Story" .... Randy laid there like a slug. It was his only defense. 

This morning I was tempted to just sleep in. My boss is traveling, and so I knew no one would miss me. But Tuesday is trash day and the trucks were all around my neighborhood starting at 8am. Toffee was snuggled up behind my butt, if it was quiet, it would have been the perfect recipe for extended snoozin'... I got up and our big boss messaged me, she had some questions in his absence and wanted to run one by me. Thankfully I was up, and she doesn't like cameras on when we slack or zoom so she didn't see my mess of a self that I am. 

I wrapped up all my calls by 3:30pm, and I had made oatmeal cookie dough during lunch. I wanted to make peanut butter, but we're out of butter. I need a run to the store, I guess. Also, out of flour okay. So. Oatmeal it is. 

Doing the cookies was relaxing and took my mind off things, even if I shouldn't be eating cookies. 

I have been listening to Doug on end-of-year conference calls with teams where he works. it sounds like so much. When I feel like I don't know what I am doing, I then listen to him and I'm like yeah, wow. No.

We had a nice night of me not working. Eating cookies I made, which are better than any oatmeal peacan cookies ever should be ever. 

Jess sent Toffee a gift of 3 kerchiefs from Wilderdog, so I put one on her. What a sweet and loving gift. She's gorgeous in them. Jess picked lovely patterns, and I love all 3. Here's one. 

Digits below. 

Tuesday digits

exercise: 11/12 hours. Missed 7pm because I was loading the dishwasher. 10min solid walk in the house while dinner was cooking.  6k steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

9am: 178
4pm: 180
10pm: 183 

food:

coffee/water
12:30: metformin; turkey & bacon on low carb wrap
6pm: chili w/fritos, cheese sour cream...  Metformin+jardiance
7pm: 3 oatmeal cookies
white wine

Monday digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. no walk, 5k steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8am: 163
5pm: 196
11pm: 181 

food:

coffee/water/tea
noon-ish: tuna melt, tuna w/celery, pepper jack cheese, sour dough bread. metformin
5:30pm: bowl of mac & cheese w/bacon
6:30pm: metformin+jardiance

Out of Sequence

Today I felt like the day was out of sequence and odd. I slept in a bit. I did a few clean/tidy things and got the cookie cutters out of the basement. I mixed up the dough for the sugar cookies, and will probably do another batch or two. I didn't start baking more cookies because we are almost out of flour. I almost went to the store but got distracted because I was looking for something for Geoff and then it was too late. I can have him stop tomorrow. This is the time of year when I say "please buy 4 boxes of butter" I am not joking. 

Doug took Toffee for a walk but it was way to cold again so I didn't go with. I thought about the gym but needed to do some more tidying, so I did laps again while cleaning. Didn't get as much cleaning done as I had hoped but the laps around were good. I can do over a mile in 25 minutes boom like that. I found some bracelet supplies I'd bought this summer with Linda, and I somehow forgot where I stashed them. I found some Christmas cards I bought last year at Target. Geoff needed a stamp, so I found stamps. 

Thinking about what to have for dinner, I realized we still had the pork loin that Geoff bought and cooked a week ago. If it wasn't going to go to waste I needed to do something about it. So I got the food processor out, and shredded the pork loins. They kind of came out perfect - some big pieces and some super shreddy pieces. Mixed together it was just right. Plopped a bottle of Sweet Baby Ray's on it, put it on low on the stove and went to play D&D.

Tonight's game was hilarious, and we had a lot of laughs. I always say it is the best 2 hours on a Sunday afternoon on a not-regular basis I get to spend. One of our players is getting married very soon so we had to fudge her character a bit and sent her on a "side quest" that we all declared she did well at, and I went to "get" her before we left where we were. 

Anyway, I didn't take a 4:30ish pm glucose because I was playing D&D and forgot. Then I realized after dinner that I forgot to take my lunch time-ish pill. So everything is slightly out of order with me and my meds. 

I have a very early meeting tomorrow with clients in Alaska. My buddy on the product team set it up at their request, 4am their time. Ugh! At least it won't be 4am my time that we're meeting. There's something to be thankful for. The alarm is set and I can't just snooze it and ignore it. Big busy day tomorrow and Tuesday, but Wednesday and Thursday should ease up a touch. My sysadmin is off those two days, so it is best I do my meetings with the clients with him by my side. 

Alright - that's that. I'm going to bed even though there is still football on. Tired. Digits below. 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours.  25 min/1.13 mile indoor walk; 7500+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

9:45am: 174
xpm: n/a forgot to take reading
9:30pm: 257* (note time of food, and medication. Will test again in a few hours)   

food:

coffee/water/tea
11am: english muffin w/pb&cherry preserves
6:25pm: 2 BBQ pork sliders w/pickle slices on kings hawaiian rolls, a couple french fries
7pm: big slice of some Italian christmas cake thing that my office sent me (nuts, sugar, kind of like a raisin bread with no raisins. Tasty but ... I only ate it because it is a gift. Doug and Geoff can finish it)
7:30pm: realized I'd forgotten my daytime metformin, took the usual dinner metformin+jardiance
9:45pm: took the 2nd metformin because the blood sugar is so high (and I'll forget to take it if I go to sleep ...) 
white wine and zero sugar ginger ale

Oh nothing

I didn't feel like doing an entry last night and I don't feel like doing one today. I'm kind of burned out overall.  Today we thought about doing things out in the world, but. Meh. It is super cold out. For around here. As of this writing it is 30 degrees. No wind, thankfully. But brrrrrr. 

Last night was my office holiday party, and I was talking to my work bestie and she asked if I was going. I told her I didn't feel like it. 

"Oh that's not very you of you," she replied.

She's right. I'm not very me. I'm just tired. 

I really thought about it, though. My co-worker Josh got sick yesterday afternoon and he had RSVPed, so he told me I should just go in his place. Then, I realized that I'd actually have to go on the metro and walk around town to get to the office. So I ... didn't. 

Sort of regret it, it's always a really really good party. And there were a ton of co-workers from out of town there. And I like them. And miss them. 

Doug did some yardwork today that needed done. He cleaned up some broken pottery that the dogs knocked over when they were playing back in November. I was going to glue them together as a project in the spring but he pitched them. While he worked, I watered the plants and added extra steps. Loop loop loop. 

We watched a very interesting Wes Anderson collection of short stories by Roald Dahl on Netflix. I enjoyed it very much. 

That's about it. Here's the moon looking like she could be one of the lights on our string. She's clever like that. Ignore the reflection, and the white looking lights are actually yellow. 

Saturday digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. 30 min/.80 mile. indoor walk while watering plants and putting things away. 6200+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

9am: 140
5pm: 164
10:30pm: 185   

food:

coffee/water/tea
9:30am: English muffin w/ pb&j
1:30pm: metformin
6pm: 2 frozen burritos w/ salsa, cheese, sour cream
white wine & ginger ale

Friday digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. 12 minute/.5 mile walk with the dog (super cold out); 7k steps by bedtime  

blood glucose:

8am: 159
5pm: 168
10pm: 190   

food:

coffee/water/tea
12:30pm: metformin; turkey soup
6:30pm: kielbasa and pierogies; metformin+jardiance
8pm: slab of banana bread
white wine+ginger ale

Crisis of Capability and Imposter Syndrome

I had a mini-meltdown today. 

I went into the day with a bunch of client calls, and my sysadmin was not on the first call. And I should not have gone forward without him but. I felt confident. I ... can do this! Yay!

Everything broke. The client contact was super nice, we rolled shit back but the internet can take a half hour or more to back pedal, and the website disappeared entirely. And I felt completely shitty. 

We regrouped an hour later with my sysadmin and went through the process again and this time it worked flawlessly. We didn't do anything different but the Dashboard did not throw errors at all. Things flowed just fine, all because my colleague was there. Right? This was one of those take the noisy car to the mechanic and it doesn't make the noise .... because the .... mechanic is there. 

I struggled today. I really did. I had this meltdown in a Slack channel at work and I poured my heart out and asked for people to send me good vibes and little emojis to make me feel better. 

And my people showed up for me. I got emoji responses, and direct messages. One of my very favorite people told me not to let any of this shit stress me out, she once took down one of our products for two days. Two. Days. So she told me that if she can survive that, and not get fired, I can survive this and not get fired. She also told me very personal things about how she used to be a junkie, before she worked here, talked her way into this job, and I have to say she's one of the smartest and most talented people I know.

I felt small and stupid compared to what she's been through. For sure, this one thing sucked but it was a half hour of suck and it wasn't really me but the fucking DNS Dashboard that shit the bed. 

When I reached back out to the guy to try again he was all "hell yeah." and we did it. He emailed me later saying he couldn't have done that without me. 

This project has been a lot. My boss has my back. My work bestie keeps telling me how hard I am killing it. But still. I feel like I shouldn't have the keys to this car some days. I should just go sit down and let someone smarter and more talented do this. 

But it's mine. My project. And we'll survive it. We will. 

As you can see below, my people came to love me. And I felt it. Tomorrow is a new day. I only scheduled one call, and that client is one I trust to be able to do all the things and it will be good. 

Maybe I'll go to the gym .... maybe. Digits below.

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours.   no walk. 5k by bedtime

blood glucose:

9am: 168
5pm: 198
11pm: 149   

food:

coffee/water/tea
12 noon: metformin; english muffin w/pb and cherry preserves
2pm: low carb wrap w/ 5 pieces of bacon, turkey, mayo
7pm: metformin+jardiance; roast chicken, mashed potatoes, stove top stuffing, carrots
vodka and seltzer (zero carbs!)

Hidden Carbs

Yesterday I made a banana bread and ate a big ass slab of it late in the evening because it was hot out of the oven, and perfect. It was so good. I was stunned when I took my blood sugar, considering I was pretty darn low carb for the day. Did the banana bread really rock my world that hard? 

Yiiiiiikes. 

Today, I worked and worked and lots of meetings, and a good hour long chat with my work bestie. And I decided more vodka tonics at 7pm. 

We usually use diet tonic which has zero carbs but Geoff bought regular tonic and I said, yeahhhhhhhh. I'll use the regular tonic. Last night I had 3. 

Tonight I went to make a cocktail and I looked at the back of the bottle, where it says 35 grams of carbs/sugar. 

Jeeeeeesus. Okay, so last night right before bed, I had about 90 grams of carbs. And a slice of banana bread. No wonder my glucose was so high. 

And tonight, yeah. I did use the tonic again but no banana bread and only 2 drinks. Sending Geoff to the market to get freaking diet tonic tomorrow. 

If doug hadn't had all the zero sugar ginger ale I would have finished the wine instead. 

Anyway. 

The unintended consequence of the regular tonic. 

This morning was hard to get started for me. Actually no, it started but early. Doug's office does all staff meetings at 7am so doctors and nurses going off duty and those coming on can all attend. His alarm went off, and I got up to pee. The dog got up too. But did not want to go out and pee because it was raining and super cold. I wondered how long she'd last. 

I fed her, Doug went to work, and it was 6:45am, man. 

I was awake but. The weather. No. Back to bed. Cozy. Cuddles with the dog. Fell asleep and had my alarm set for 8:50. Another two hours of zzzzz and it was worth it. I got up and Toffee was absolutely not wanting to get up. And it was tempting to bypass the rest of the morning but I went. It was a busy day and I made a lot of progress. I wrote a request for my colleague V to get a "spot bonus" for the work he is helping me do. We'll see if he gets it. 

Right then. Bed. With this girl. 

Tuesday digits

exercise: 12/12 hours.  no walk, 5k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

9am: 166
5pm: 145
11pm: 236 *   

food:

coffee/water/tea
10:30am: English muffin w/pb
11:30am: Metformin
2:30pm: tuna melt on 647 bread
6pm: Chicken Parm w/sauce
7pm: Metformin+jardiance
8pm: slab of banana bread
Vodka tonic

Wednesday digits

exercise: 12/12 hours.  no walk; 5500+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

9am: 198
5pm: 199
10:45pm: 175  

food:

coffee/water/tea
9am: slab of banana bread
11am: turkey+roast beef w/2 slices of cheddar on 647 bread
6:30pm: small bowl of beef stroganoff w/a little bit of noodles; metformin+jardiance
Vodka tonic

Cracked

Doug's mom has given us a lot of glassware over the years, including a really funky cool pitcher that we use all the time for powdered drink mixes and sun tea. 

I usually hand wash it but it looked blah and gross so I put it through the dishwasher. 

Geoff set it on the dining table after unloading the dishwasher this morning, and I saw this giant crack in the glass when the sun hit it just right. 

I'm sad.

I really liked this pitcher! What a bummer. I showed Doug and apologized because I didn't realize it wasn't a dishwasher safe buddy. He said it was okay. His mom probably has more of these, not exactly like this one, but, he's right.

Anyway, today was an incredibly busy day with 4 big project meetings with the clients. 2 were very successful, one was just a chat, and the other was a failure. That's okay though. The client knows what he needs to do and we'll regroup. 

Digits are down below. I don't have a good horizontal pic to separate the digits and the words here.

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. no walk, prepping dinner took that time. 5100+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

9:00am: 188
5pm: 160
10:30pm: 157  

food:

coffee/water/tea
11am: metformin; bowl of Mac & Cheese w/bacon
2pm: turkey sandwich w/mayo on 647 italian
6:15pm: metformin+jardiance; slab of chicken parm w/pasta sauce
vodka tonic w/lemon

Are you ready to rock?

There are things I wish my kids had accessible to them when they were ten. 

My friend Henry is about to turn 10 and he has been taking piano lessons for years, and has recently started up with a rock music program in our city. Today was the big showcase. Some kids played New Wave and 90s grunge (Rio by Duran Duran, Cannonball by the Breeders). Henry's group played 6 songs and he and another little boy traded off on keyboards. 

Henry's songs were Paranoid by Black Sabbath, Come Together by the Beatles, and TNT by AC/DC. He was great. You could really hear him playing, and in these cases the "real" students are the guitar, bass, and drums but. Hen stole the show. If we are fb friends, the video is up there of the end of Paranoid when everyone is just whipping on their instruments, and it is worth the view.

His teacher let him get on the mic at the start, because he wanted to yell "ARE YOU READY TO ROCK?" to the audience. So he got to do that, and then went to do it again for the second song, which was hilarious. 

Hen, everyone continues to be ready and prepared for ongoing rock. you don't need to ask us. Sara was semi-mortified, his teacher was very caring and loving and pointed him back to his keyboard station. 

It all reminded me a little bit of the Shakespeare camp days when the kids were young. I'm feeling wistful and nostalgic while having TNT bounce around in my head. 

I really wish there had been something like this, especially for Geoff. He would have been great. There are things available to kids now that he didn't have, and things available to kids now that I'm absolutely relieved he didn't have access to. Suffice to say, a rock and roll music school would have been fun.

Doug went with me and I am thankful for that, because it gets dark early, and getting home was complicated. Lots of accidents and the GPS put us on mysterious back roads in areas of DC I've never seen. 

He seemed to have a genuinely good time.  

I had a lot of beer and pizza today, and that's carbtastic, my 9pm blood sugar is astounding. Before I go to bed, I'm trying to counteract that a little with some protein, and I should take myself for another walk. The boys are watching football in the living room, so I can't just do the walk around the house thing. It's too late to drive up to the gym (and I've had some beers) and too dark to go out walking in the neighborhood. Hopefully in an hour or so my blood sugar will come down some. 

I'm happy I didn't book any meetings for the morning. I'll ease into the day. Glad we went out to support our young musician buddy. 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. 15 min indoor walk, 7100+steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

9:30am: 187
xpm: n/a no reading 
10:30pm: 238  

food:

coffee/water
11am: english muffin w/pb Metformin
2pm: 2 beers, chips & salsa
4pm: 2 beers, pizza w/ sausage (spicy!)
5:30pm: metformin+jardiance
6:30pm: apple & pb
8:30pm: several slices of turkey, protein shake 

Leaving the house adventure weekend

This afternoon Doug and I went to DC to a brewery we've been meaning to visit. Note to self, it is easier to get there on the red line and walk the half mile from the stop... Driving in DC is an absolute nightmare, and it is no wonder I don't go into town often. 

We took the dog, it is a very Dog Friendly brewery. We thought we'd chill in a corner and have a few beers. Soak up the vibe. But. There were 2 kids birthday parties, and a yankee swap for an office. And a million people thinking like us. The place was jam packed. 

We could have found a seat if we didn't have the dog with us, it was just too tight and busy and she was very over stimulated by kids and noise and people. She did pretty well though while we were indoors but we went out on the patio. Disappointingly, all the patio seats and tables were cabled up and locked, so ... we stood out there and had two beers while our dog investigated the area. Thankfully, it was in the low 50s/upper 40s, no wind, and it was not an uncomfortable hang. I wore my winter coat because I thought maybe we were going to go for a walk... but we spent less than an hour there.

I wanted to go ask if they could unlock some patio seats so we could chill, but, because I have mercy and can read a room, I knew the staff was up to their noses in slinging beer. Instead I walked around and bused tables for them. I ended up with a free beer and lots of love from the three people tending the taps. If there was seating there, we would have stayed longer.

We headed home as it was getting dark. Leaving the brewery and looking to the west, the sky was amazing. Cameras don't do this justice, unless you put it through filters, and filters are lies. 

We got home and Doug made dinner. We used the last of the orzo (apologies to my chef friend, but. It was still good), the last of the cranberries, and he put three chicken breasts in a mess of seasoning in the oven. Geoff got home (this is one of his two weekends to work this month) and we relaxed. 

Tomorrow is a big day. My friend Hen is playing in a rock band (age 9!!!) at a BAR in Arlington VA. There are several other bands playing, I think his band plays three songs. But we're going to brave the traffic and head over the river to see him. He's very excited that we are coming. 

I feel like Monday is going to come too soon though. 

Oh, and in chatting with Jess, they're coming down here 12/20 and staying overnight with us. Then over to house sit for one of my colleagues until the 28th. I'm super excited. It is not as long as the last time but I absolutely love having them nearby! 

Jess complained I had not taken any pictures of Toffee recently, so I took some. Here are pics for today. Digits below.

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. No dedicated 10. 6200+steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:30am: 146
5:45pm: 156
10pm: 196  

food:

coffee/water
11:30am: 2 breakfast burritos w/bacon, scrambled egg, shredded cheese, salsa, on low carb wraps; metformin
3pm: 2 beers
6:30pm: Butternut Orzo mix, chicken breast w/cheddar and parmesan covered in spices, cranberry sauce
7pm: metformin+jardiance ; 2 more beers

Leftovers

A friend of mine who is a professional TV chef posted on his socials today "If you have any thanksgiving leftovers in your fridge, today is the day you throw them out."

Leftovers. 

I was suddenly very sad about leftovers. We have some mashed potatoes and cranberry sauce, I'm thinking those are still good? We have the orzo and butternut squash. A little too high in carbs for me to be honest but I was thinking they'd be really good in a baked stuffed chicken breast or something. 

But thinking about what Tom said, now I'm thinking everything goes out. 

The one thing we have that I guess is not a week and a day old is the turkey soup. So for lunch, I had a nice big bowl of that with a grilled cheese on 647 bread. 

And it was lovely. 

Not much else to say except your girl may be doing a fridge clean tomorrow, maybe. Digits below this blurry picture of lunch.

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. no indoor walk. too busy. 5k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:30am: 178
5pm: 154
11pm: 126  (tested 3x to make sure it was true)

food:

coffee/water
10:15am: english muffin w/pb
11am: metformin
1pm
6pm: cheesesteak meat w/mushrooms onions peppers in a bowl (no roll)
7:30pm: metformin+jardiance
white wine

Reduction Sauce

I LOVE when Geoff cooks dinner for us. He picked a recipe with a pan seared pork loin and a maple rum reduction sauce with pecans. 

He bought 2 packs of pork loin, and inside each pack, there were 2 pork loins. For a total of 4. Instead of putting 2 back in the fridge for another meal, he cooked all 4 of them. 

Like pork loin for DAYS, man. I kind of couldn't believe he did that but. It's cooked and we can do things with it for dinner tomorrow I guess.

He reduced the reduction sauce to a caramel, candy consistency - thick, and threaddy like if you were making a fancy maple rum dessert. Doug scraped it all onto parchment and we're thinking it is going to solidify fully overnight. Not quite peanut brittle consistency but I told doug he should have added the rest of the pecans to the mess, because then .... it'd be more awesome.

It was delicious but.  I mean. that was a lot.

Also, here's a note: do not serve a cheese based broccoli side dish with a sweet maple rum reduction sauce. not a good mix. 

Still. He did a great job, everything tasted great. He knows what to do for next time. 

I'm never sad that he makes dinner. Even if it is gross. There is no better way for anyone to learn how to do something than to make mistakes, and he has not killed us yet. There's that. 

Today there were so many meetings. I found out one of the clients sent my big boss an email about how excited he is to move onto our platform, after 2 solid days of training by me and my buddy B this week. It felt good because he's been a little difficult (the client) to sway in some ways so we had a great days of training and an open office hours "Ask Me Anything" session today. All good and fun. Great 1:1 with my boss, we did my annual review last week and a few things were still sitting with me. I brought them up, he heard me, I don't think things will change but I know I'm heard. Sometimes that is relief in and of itself.

Had a good long chat with Jess about housing, they're looking for a change. We've been trying to figure out a trip north and I think it won't be by Christmas but maybe ... after Geoff's birthday and before Doug's? Not sure yet. 

But we'll get it figured out. 

Put more holiday lights up. Feeling cozy and sweet around here right now. I'll get some pictures tomorrow of the more things. Noticed my tree picture had the little angels at the bottom cropped out of it, my bad. They deserve some love.

 This dog decided that I'm the coziest thing in the house. It's freezing cold, and she's not having any part of outside. She'll hopefully go out in the morning. Again, I wonder about the time she was a stray. Where she was in the winter, as she was rescued in October but had lived through a winter before that. What was her life like?  I know what it is like now. And she is a blessed beast. digits below.

digits

exercise: 11/12 hours. no walk. Missed 2pm because of a really excellent meeting and I couldn't bring myself to stop participating. 4600+ steps by bedtime. An off day, I'd say.

blood glucose:

8:15am: 188
4:30pm: 186
10:30pm: 150 (another finger gave me 138 and I didn't believe that. Too huge a difference. Going with 150)

food:
coffee/water
11am: Bacon Turkey low carb fajita wrap w/mayo; Metformin
1pm: some more bacon I left for Doug that he didn't eat
6pm: porkloin w/ a very over carmelized reduction sauce w/rum and maple syrup and pecans. Broccoli and cheese 
7pm: metformin+jardiance
8pm:ramekin of pretzels and more pretzels, even more pretzels
white wine

Getting in the mood

This morning the leaf vacuum cleaner machine is going around our neighborhood. It is a very Dr. Seuss-ian contraption. We didn't get our leaves raked to the side of the road. Geoff started but our rake broke and somehow we didn't get over to buy a new one. 

All our neighbors have completely leaf-free yards right now. Ours is covered. Doug will go out and mow over them at some point, it's better for the soil and the pollinators to not completely remove your leaves and make it a spotless carpet of grass. At least, that's what we tell ourselves. We're very New England about this, and in Maryland, everyone 'scapes. 

I turned on the christmas lights I haven't taken down for the past couple years and added more. I went to the basement and found the little table top tree. I put the wee angels around the base, and started to organize the other lights to bring up and stick around. 

Geoff has tomorrow off so he went to the market to get stuff to make for dinner tomorrow. I'll also use his tallness on things I want to put up higher. 

A couple pictures from today so far. Digits below.

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. 15 min indoor walk, 6k steps by bedtime (seems low, even with the walk but. Hmm)

blood glucose:

8:15am: 186
5:30pm: 155
10:30pm: 220

food:
coffee/water
10:30am: mac & cheese w/ground beef and extra queso
11am: metformin
12:30pm: english muffin w/pb and low sugar jelly
6:30pm: 4 pork chops (small, thin) with about 8 pierogi
7:30pm: metformin+jardiance 
white wine

One Year of the Toffinator

Today Facebook reminded me that I got a dog. And my blog post from last year reminded me that we got a dog. 

This year feels like it has flown by so fast. And every day has been Toffee. I didn't anticipate I would have a dog like this. Big. Super Big. My little goofy tank. My happiest bean. 

And I'm all the better for having her around. Digits below.

digits

exercise: 11/12 hours. Missed 2pm because I thought I got it, but didn't. Oops. 2 walks inside 9 min/.41 miles and 16 min/.53 miles. 7200+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

7:45am: 200
5pm: 158
10pm: 154

food:
coffee/water
10am: large bowl of plain yogurt w/ blueberries & splenda
11am: metformin
12noon: english muffin w/ bacon and mayo (was going to make cheese/egg for a whole mcmuffin but but felt lazy
6pm: Nachos w/ ground beef, avocado, salsa, sour cream; vodka tonic; metforin+jardiance
7-8pm candied nuts

Planning

My sister was at mom's for a while for Thanksgiving and left this morning. I had expressed to Doug that I thought I ought to go up and visit her before the end of the year. Should I fly solo, should I take the train, take one of our cars? And he felt like he should come too. 

We started planning. 

We could take the dog, but, she can't stay at the hotel because she's too big. But also, Doug thinks we should stay at my mom's but I'm all against that nonsense because smoking and it is 90 degrees in the trailer AND the bed is a full sized bed. So two of us and/or three of us with the dog would be ridiculous.

He's not hearing me out that if we go together, the bed is small and close. Let that just stand. 

And dude is now such a big fan of Amtrak so the train together to Providence, rent a car, and spend like 3, 4 days. It could be a thing.

And probably the weekend before Christmas. If everything isn't sold out all the way. 

I'm happy he wants to go with me and figure out the best options. I just want to be not stressed, and comfortable and .... happy. I don't want to pay to travel, and be stressed for 3 or 4 days while there. 

I love my mom, I truly do, but for sure I just want to go visit her and have a nice visit and not be stressed out. 

More to come on that. He went to bed grumbling that the train would be 300 bucks each for us, and then renting a car, maybe we should drive, maybe this maybe that. I just need to know if it is too late to ask my boss for time off. Because I bet 4 other people on my team are taking the time off. And in theory, I could work while I'm up there, depending on the days we're up there. 

Sigh. 

Tomorrow, Doug gets to go into DC with his office team and go to the White House, and lookie lou at the Christmas Decorations... and then Wednesday he goes to a big holiday luncheon with his office people. Twice in one week, people. Work people. 

I don't envy him but I kind of would love a field trip. 

Hopefully he'll take a couple pictures for me of the trees and shit. 

On that note. Bed. 

Digits below.

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. 20 min indoor walk / .75 miles; 7500+ by bedtime

blood glucose:

8am: 166
4:15pm: 168
10:30pm: 166

food:
coffee/water
10:30am: english muffin w/pb & cherry preserves
11am: Metformin
12:30pm: bowl of left over pot roast
4pm: candied nuts
6pm: 2 cluck pucks on one bun, some waffle fries
6:30pm: metformin+jardiance
white wine+ginger ale