Are you gentlemen perhaps a little high?

Doug wasn't feeling well tonight so I took Toffee for a solo walk. We could have gone a lot longer, but I had to pee. After we got home, I did my thing, and I took myself out to do that longer walk, since usually a good full half hour is best for me to make sure I get the steps. 40 minutes is optimal. And I was at least 10 minutes shy of what I wanted for the 10k goal of steps.

It was threatening rain, so I knew I wouldn't be out long. I was walking down a street and two young black men were walking towards me. One crossed the street to the other side, and I heard his friend say "why are you crossing the street, like you think she's scared of you?" 

I said "Maybe he's scared of me?" The guy on my side of the street laughed a little. "You are just guys out for a walk, like I'm out for a walk, hi." And I opened my arms and hugged the guy. 

He laughed. He had cake in his right hand, like a whole ass slice of cake that he was just eating while walking. The way he laughed combined with the slice of cake kind of indicated to me that my dudes were high. 

The other guy came back across the street and I said "Hugs from a distance, if you're more comfortable with that," but he came in for a hug. He also had a slice of cake. And he also was laughing.

I asked "Are you gentlement perhaps a little high?"

He laughed and said "Yes ma'am." 

I asked about the cake, and the first guy said "oh we got this from his grandma's house but she didn't have any plates for us to take so we just took our slices." 

Fair enough. Road cake, I like it. 

"Well, you guys can see there's bad weather coming. I checked the radar and there are thunderstorms expected here. within a half hour so get somewhere safe, okay?" 

"We're going to our buddy's house. He's up on Vail. But first we wanted to walk by the baseball field because they're still playing and we know a guy on the team." 

"Okay, well. Just be safe. Don't get caught out in the storm. Enjoy that cake."

They were already walking away, I should say they were swaying and wobbly a little bit because the gentlemen, yes, they were high. 

"Thank you ma'am. You have a nice night." 

You too, guys. You too. 

I turned right after two blocks and walked up a road I hadn't been on. Hit some pokemon stops, and the rain started to pick up. So instead of walking up to the main road and turning right, and turning right again, I took the cut through road that runs along the "line" between incorporated and unincorporated town. I got home right before the sky opened up. 

I hope they made it to their friend's house. 

No picture, I tried to get a good one of the ballfield from the hill, but it was blurry. Digits below. 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. 2 walks. One with Toffee because she needed it, 18 min/.86 mi. One solo before the rain, 13 min/.61 mi. 10k+ by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:45am: 103
5;15pm: 105
10:30pm: 139

food & meds:

8:45am: jardiance (no phentermine until it arrives)
11am: large piece of chicken left over from last night
1pm: met+glip
3pm: large apple w/pb
7pm: bowl of spinach & artichoke ravioli w/Alfredo sauce
8:30pm: met+glip
bowl of candied nuts
3 beers 

This Is Perfect

The weather right now is exactly, precisely perfection. 

Your girl hates the heat. Absolutely positively hates when it is hot out. I just cannot deal with it. If it is too cold, it's hard to go out for a walk, and being out in the cold is no fun. 

This morning it was 60 degrees. At lunch, 85. And then it started to drop around 4:30 and get cooler. 

I have a wonderful patio now. So sitting out and working is my very favorite thing. I wonder how long this will last? 

But for right now. God thank you so much. This is perfect. 

Doug and I went for a walk before dinner, while Geoff was cooking. I have been noticing a lot about my neighborhood. It is incredibly diverse. Very busy at times. Lots of kids. SO MANY KIDS! They all love Toffee and they've learned her name so when we're walking past they yell hello to her. 

We're chopped liver. 

The neighborhood changes as you turn corners. Today Doug took me across into a planned development neighborhood, the sign says it was established in 1985. Lots of ranch houses, long long long homes, it's kind of weird. It reminds me of Doug's childhood home, only twice as long. Lots of big beautiful established trees. Turn the corner, there's the elementary school and duplexes kind of like the end of our street. A lot of kid toys, on the lawn, in the driveway. 

And there are so many dogs here. Every single house has a dog. Some of them are very loud and let you know they know you are walking by. Toffee doesn't bark back. 

Toffee doesn't bark at anyone, which is something I absolutely love about her. She is not noisy. She does not fuss. There may be whimpering, if she is somewhat concerned or wants to see that dog there behind the fence. But she doesn't bark. 

Our walk today took us by the backside of a golf course where there are signs everywhere that "NO PETS ARE ALLOWED" but there were 10-15 geese shitting all over the green. Ha. Good for you, geese. 

We talked to Doug's mom for an hour or so after dinner. Doug had been calling her for a while but she's been at her old house going through things. Doug has repeatedly offered to come help her work/clean/do but she rejects his offers. 

She's been having Doug's sister fit things into her SUV to drive them up the new house (five years new at this point) and some stuff just doesn't fit, and she doesn't know what to do.

"Rent a U-Haul van." says Doug. 

And to Doug's mom, that either sounds impossible or an extravagance or something. 

He asked her if she still had her redwood patio furniture and she does - she has a 6ft table and benches. I've always been fond of that set. It is probably 50 years old at this point and she thinks it is just junk. But he asked her for it. 

So we may rent that U-Haul van ourselves just to get the patio furniture oh and while we're at it, the other things that are all too big for Doug's sister's car. 

Problem? Solved. 

We offered to come next weekend, we both have Monday off. But she said that's too soon for her to be ready for us to come. She has a lot of things she needs to do on her own first before that can happen. 

Okay. 

We can wait. 

And that's it for today. No pictures but just know, things were good today. And no walnuts were futzed with. Digits below.

digits

exercise: 11/12 hours. Missed 10am because of a meeting. Two walks, one with Doug and Toffee before dinner, 31 min/1.39 mi. During football, 16 min/.76 mi. 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:30am: 155
4:45pm: 125
10:15pm: 108

food & meds:

8:30am: jardiance (no phentermine until it arrives)
12:30pm: tuna, bacon, 2 slices of colby jack cheese on a fajita wrap that I thought was low carb. Oops. lol. 
1:30pm: met+glip
6:15pm: chicken breast w/ a "pecan dijon bourbon cream sauce" which wasn't half bad but way way thick. small salad, peas; beer
8pm: met+glip
2 more beers with football.

The Walnut Game

Over the past couple days, Doug has been cleaning up black walnuts in our yard. Allegedly, these are good to have, and, if you do it right you can yield a lot of walnuts if you carefully harvest them. 

The last people here did not harvest the black walnuts. Doug thinks that there are nuts on the ground that are at least a couple years old. 

To be honest, they did not take good care of the yard overall. With six kids, heck, who can blame them. We are finding toys, broken pieces of toys, all kinds of things in the yard. It's kind of crazy. So black walnuts were probably low on the priority list.

Anyway, the black walnuts have been his project even though, to be honest, I'd rather he help me unpack things but. He's out of my way and not a nuisance if he's out there. Playing the Walnut Game. 

"Come outside and play the walnut game with me!" he says. 

What does that mean?

"Pick up walnuts and throw them in the boxes!" 

Um. No. I'll.... work in here on moving shit around. 

He got Geoff to play the walnut game with him yesterday while I was at Henry's show, they got a lot of walnuts off the ground, the tree is still dropping them, and there are still plenty of walnuts on the ground...

And he so far has filled 8 boxes with walnuts. I shit you not. At least he's doing something with the boxes I was getting ready to flatten for recycling. Photo evidence below. 

This morning I went down to the guest room around 4am, smelled coffee and got up at 8. I was ready to slack my team and say "Good morning" but needed to charge my phone because it had been playing a podcast for hours.... Doug was sitting on the couch with the dog. 

"Did you have your 7am meeting?"

He looked at me and asked "What?"

"You were supposed to have a 7am meeting today," I said.

"It's.... Sunday." He said.

Oh. 

Okay. Glad I didn't slack my team, not sure how I thought only having Saturday was enough weekend for me but hey. I guess it felt like a lot. 

Coffee and then cleaning and stuff while Doug played the Walnut Game by himself. I was holding a canvas bag at one point and he said "Oh Hooray! Come celebrate the harvest with me!"

No, son. Not gonna happen. 

The dining room is almost done. I moved some bookcases around and started thinking about books. First floor or basement. Oh basement - what am I doing with my office. I haven't gone downstairs literally since we moved in so today was the first time. Geoff helped me move some things into permanent storage, and we talked about shelves and stuff that I want for upstairs and downstairs. 

Around 5:30, Doug woke up from a nap and took Toffee for a walk. I skipped on going because I'd literally been walking all day here in the house. I did go out for a short walk to the park and back to do pokemon, and got back while Geoff was making dinner. 

We watched football, I moved more things around. I found yet another box of glassware. Why do we have so many glasses? 

Anyway. Wiped out and I have an alarm set so we can get up, I can get out of bed and he can go to his meeting. His office is right in eye-shot of the bed so I don't want to be in here snoring. Chances are I'll be downstairs anyway since I invariably wake up and go down there. 

Digits below the walnuts. 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Pokemon walk, solo, 12 min/.56 mi. 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8am: 118
4:30pm: 135
9:30pm: 138

food & meds:

8am: jardiance+phentermine
10am: english muffin w/pb
11:30am: met+glip
2:30pm: key lime pie zero sugar yogurt w/granola
6:30pm: small bowl of spaghetti w/meatballs, 2 small pieces of garlic bread
7:30pm: met+glip
8pm: candied (not very) nuts
wine & diet ginger ale

Another Auntie at the Rock Show

Today, I went back to the old neighborhood area to see my friend Henry play in his school of rock show. He's been playing for a few years, and compared to my work wife son, he's in a band with much older kids who .... are extremely good. 

Henry knew his stuff and killed it. The theme was Michael Jackson vs. Prince, so all the songs were by those two artists. There were a couple guitarists that were beyond exceptional like the one on Beat It who played the Eddie Van Halen parts flawlessly. 

After the show, I joined the family at Henry's favorite foodrinkery. I was going to come straight home, but. 

Henry's grandparents were there, and they didn't want to go out to eat. Henry said "is everyone coming to the pub?" and his grandmother said "noooo,,,, I don't think so."

I heard Henry's heart break. Right there. I had already told S I was going to head home (since I now live a billion miles away) and when I noticed how sad he was, I said "oh yeah I'm gonna come." 

He was thrilled that I was coming, because his grandparents never come to things. They'll come to the show, do the bare minimum, and leave. They won't spend the whole day. They always have something to do. Something ... better to do.  Better than spend the day celebrating with their grandson. 

I know in life people are busy but. Block your day. This is family, this is your grandson. 

I drove to the pub with Sara and she unloaded on me how frustrating this is for her, and Henry is starting to notice their absence in his life. I told her I could see it, because when he gets upset his eyes flutter as he's blinking back tears. I know when something is hitting him hard, and because I knew this hurt him, I had to step up and be Auntie. 

This isn't the first time I've seen them do this. Grandpa gets a bunch of pictures, posts them to Facebook with "oh I'm so proud of the young man he's becoming" but. It's more than that. You gotta show up.

We had a fantastic time at the pub. I'm glad I went. 

I got home and Doug and Geoff had spent the afternoon cleaning up the black walnuts from the yard. It's become a landmine out there of ankle twisting opportunities and Doug's thinking hey - I can maybe ... shell these puppies and do something with them. He's been reading up on them (don't handle them without gloves on, they'll stain your skin!) He was napping, Geoff made dinner  and he and I ate. And I took a walk to try and make up for the lack of steps in the day.

When Doug woke up he said he wanted to go to Dairy Queen. He earned it. There are eight entire boxes of black walnuts out there. Jesus. 

So I had ice cream. Haven't had ice cream in forever. 

It was a busy day. Details below. Enjoy the pic of me and Hen sporting our Boston themed shirts. He had to wear purple for the Prince band, and this is his only purple shirt. Naturally. 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. 23 min. walk around the neighborhood. 1.09 miles. fell short of 10k though, 7900+ steps by bedtime and too tired to go out for the last good measure.

blood glucose:

9am: 92
5pm: 156
10:30pm: 158

food & meds:

9am: jardiance+phentermine (last phentermine until the prescription refill shows up)
12:30pm: cheese, salami, cucumber, tomatoes (snack at Henry's gig) 
3:30pm: met+glip. 5 buffalo chicken strips, a few french fries
6:30pm: chicken, melted cheese, sour cream (fajita without a wrap
8pm: chocolate/vanilla swirl soft serve ice cream
8:30pm: met+glip
wine

Happy Friday

Today was planning for the tech team so I sat in on a couple meetings that were very informative and helpful. Having a roadmap for the next couple months is nice. 

I had a few 1:1 meetings with colleagues, and one of them told me her husband just got laid off. Feeling super bad for them. And I had to do a peer review on one of my teammates so I basically asked her to tell me what to say for the "what can this person do to be better at their job, and stuff." 

I asked her what she wanted to do to get better at her job and it was very helpful. 

Managed to write all my other peer reviews, my review of my manager, and my own self-evaluation by end of day. Didn't get to do my helpdesk documentation reviews done but maybe I'll hit those over the weekend.

I also unpacked a lot of boxes between meetings. I put fancy glasses in the corner hutch, got some things ready for recycling, unpacked two boxes of books and put them on the shelves in the guest room.

Today was gorgeous. I sat out on the patio for most of the day, and Toffee soaked in the sun.

After work, Doug took Toffee for a walk and I thought about going with, but opted not to. Instead I did more futzing around the house and then took myself out for some Pokemon stuff. Almost a mile walk around the neighborhood.

Geoff made dinner for us, a soup recipe he found that he should have put more stock in because it wasn't super soupy. It was really tasty, just not enough. Thankful he got a nice crusty loaf of bread to go with. Doug made a little bit of a snack for us after dinner of apple, crackers, and a fancy cheese he bought at the farm stand last week. 

Tomorrow I'm going to see Henry and his school of rock band. Last week was my work wife's son, and this week is Henry. Gotta get the two of them together. They could be a band. 

Digits below this rando picture I took of a drawing on my neighbor's driveway. 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Pokemon walk solo (doug took Toffee on a very long one) 22 min/.98 mi. 11k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:15am: 124
5pm: 162
10:30pm: 125

food & meds:

8:15am: jardiance+phentermine
12:45pm: bowl of mac & cheese w/bacon
2pm: Met+glip
6pm: bowl of sausage and black bean soup w/nice slice of rosemary bread
7pm: apple, cheddar, and crackers snack
7:30pm: met+glip
white wine

Guest Bed

Last night I woke up around 1am, unable to fall back asleep. Doug has a timer set on podcasts so when the podcast is over, it's over. I don't usually like to start one up again, lest I disturb him, and make it so he can't fall back to sleep. 

I don't mind when he starts a podcast up again, it never bothers me. But I've woken him up by starting one, and he goes to the guest room. 

I opted to go downstairs to the guest room. 

Here's the thing though, the guest bed wasn't made up yet. There were piles of things on top of the bed to sift and sort through. Blankets, sheets of an indeterminate size, are they queen? are they full? Hmmm. More blankets. Mystery pillow that should be tossed. The folded up dog kennel. Freaking Dog KENNEL on the bed.

Jeesh, I realized earlier this week it would need to be done and should have tackled this because I knew the day would come when one of us woke up and wanted to go in the other room. I stood in the doorway with the light on, and just looked at it. 

Well, better get workin' kid. 

I got everything off of the bed and found the sheets I wanted. The flannel sheets I use for cold nights on this bed were folded up and put away. Mystery sheets were just dumped on the floor. Dog kennel, leaning against the wall. 

It all came together quickly and I will note that with the bed not pushed up against the wall the way it has been in the last two houses, the fitted sheet is so much easier to put on. 

Fuzzy blanket thrown on for good measure, even though I sleep hot. And there we are. A bed. 

I laid down and noticed my neighbors' second floor bedroom window. They had a tv on (it is 2am at this point) and lights and changes were flashing above me. I was too lazy to get up and pull the shade down so I just rolled over.

I wondered about how many people up and down this street in the incorporated and unincorporated parts of town were awake at that moment. A car drove down the street, perhaps someone needing to go to work at a bakery. 

Maybe even the Krispy Kreme. Or someone who works in DC who wants to avoid the traffic! 

I played games on my phone but not the one I save for the morning, temping as that was. I settled on the new episode of Lore, and eventually found sleep. 

The dog found me somewhere after 4am. And curled up behind my butt in her little (large) croissant shape. The trash guys hadn't come yet so it was easy to fall back asleep. In fact, the trash guys didn't come until 10:30am today.

Geoff found the kitchen at 7:30, and I heard noise and dishwasher unloading as he got the coffee going. He was surprised to see me come out of the bedroom rather than come downstairs. Having the upstairs bedroom is good because it is away from the kitchen so this cacophony of noises won't wake me up like it did, for 7 years. 8 years? Lord. 

I needed to get up, early meeting at 9 and I needed a shower. Dog fed, outside, shower taken, work. 

Today ended up being very busy, even though that 9am meeting was my only meeting for the day. Every three weeks my team has to QA code updates for the product team, an my colleague T usually carries the lion's share of the testing. But he was tied up most of the day with other things. We have 3 workdays to do this and today was the last day. 

So I started QA at about 11. Finished around 4. It was a lot. T ended up doing one of the more gnarly test cases while I did the other 7. A couple of them were easy peasy in and out yup this works but two of them were rough. Luckily our QA manager is a doll and she jumped on zoom with me to walk me through where the instructions did not meet reality. 

Then, tomorrow is the deadline for our reviews. Self evaluation, review your manager, and peer reviews. This year I had two peer reviews to write and finished those. I spent a good hour trying to think of what to say on my self evaluation. Struggled through it and got it done. 

We took the dog to the dog park, which was a lot of fun. There were a lot of dogs there, and Toffee was really good! I felt very proud of her. 

Home, football, pizza, wine, bed. So thankful tomorrow is Friday, 

No pictures. Tried at the dog park but they were all blurry from fast running doggos! Digits below! 

 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Walk to dog park, 12 min/.58 mi; walk home from dog park, 14 min/.63 mi; walk after dinner to finish steps, 16 min/.8 mi. 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8am: 111
5:30pm: 117
10:30pm: 124

food & meds:

8am: jardiance+phentermine
10:30am: double sausage egg mcmuffin (about 1/3 of the muffin given to toffee because the whole thing slid apart weirdly)
1:30pm: met+glip
3pm: very large apple w/pb
7:30pm: 2 slices of buffalo chicken pizza, met+glip, glass of white wine+diet ginger ale

Where the Sidewalk Ends

Today was a busy day and I was lucky to hit each of the hour marks on the fitbit. Almost missed two but hustled to get in under the wire. 

I was going to go out for a walk by myself after dinner but Doug decided to join me with the dog. I'm glad he did because we walked longer and further than I usually do. I pretty much was going to walk to the baseball field, hit the pokegym, maybe walk up to the end of the block and back? Meh? 

He likes to go on excursions when he goes.

We crossed a main road into another neighborhood and the county senior center is there. They have outdoor exercise equipment and a cute walking course with footie prints. There's a golf course in the neighborhood and you can look across it to the major big road (4 lanes, split down the middle) which has the Dairy Queen and the Krispy Kreme on it. I could see the "HOT" sign was on at the Krispy Kreme. Good thing there's a golf course in the way. 

That and neither of us had our wallets. 

We walked by the baseball field, which was hopping. Big game happening and Doug said "this isn't baseball noise. Why's that one kid screaming like that? Make baseball noises!" I have no idea why the kid was screaming "like that" but. Kids are gonna kid. 

Once we got back, we watched some TV and I played my phone games that I didn't play all day. It was a busy day. 

I realized I was about 2,000 steps shy of 10k, and it was 9:30. Hell. I can do this, I just can't do 2k steps walking around the house. 

Strapping on the sandals, I headed out. 

I walked up to the end of our road, turned around, came back. Fun thing about our road, about 4 houses up the street, the "city" ends and the unincorporated part of town begins. 

The sidewalk ends. 

The road that comes off our street is "Division Road," where the demarkation is for ... "us and them." 

Once you get on the other side, where there is no sidewalk, the houses all change. Mostly duplexes, and a LOT of cars for some reason. Each side of each duplex seems to have 4 cars. 

And there are no street lights. Down my end of the street, we have street lights. Everything is bright and visible. In Unincorporated Town, not everyone has on their porch or outside lights. When I walk up the street it triggers the light sensors, and lights come on, but they turn off quickly. 

It's a little spooky. 

Behind us, on the other block, the city is putting in new and improved sidewalks. I've never lived in a place where the sidewalks were all so shitty. On our walk tonight with the dog, there were places where walking in the street was better. 

All the sidewalks around the senior center are nice. They keep those nice so the shufflin' feet don't trip up on the cracked ass cracky sidewalks. 

I also wanted to go out because tomorrow is trash day, and I think there are rules about which direction you're supposed to "face" your barrels. Handle out or handle in? I wanted to see how my neighbors had it. 

Mixed results. Some were handle out, some in, some were 3 or 4 feet apart, some flush up against each other. The city actually has the big ass trucks with the power arms that lift the barrels up, so that's why I wanted to make sure we do it right. I think if you don't, the lid doesn't open right and your trash all sticks in the barrel or falls out onto the street. 

Last week they came at 4:30am. Which was bollocks. The week before we didn't hear them, because the AC was on. So I will probably be disturbed again by the big scary noisy truck with the monster arm and the sound of barrels crashing and thrashing. 

We don't have to pay for trash removal, that's part of our taxes, but up beyond where the sidewalk ends, they do. They have different barrels, with phone numbers and company names on them. I guess you pay the company and they come get your trash. Something like that. But the fact there are different company names on the barrels makes me wonder how the hell that works. One truck? Four different trucks? I have no idea. 

Anyway. 

I'm off to bed. No picture today but I did try to take one of Toffee sunbathing and enjoying the yard. But she caught me and got up and came over to see me. 

Digits, below. 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. 2 walks. One with Doug and Dog 32 min/1.45mi, one solo just to make the steps, 15 min/.8 miles; 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:15am: 108
4:30pm: 104
10:30pm: 142

food & meds:

8:15am: jardiance+phentermine
12noon: BLT Salad
2pm: met+glip
6pm: pork tenderloin, 8 pierogi 
8pm: last chunk of the pork tenderloin
9pm: met+glip
no wine/beer anything

Bluegrass and Beers

Geoff had his super long day with class tonight, so we took Toffee with us to a local brewery for Bluegrass night. 

Every Tuesday a mess of talented musicians get together and jam. Lots of banjos, guitars, an upright double bass, a couple mandolins. They ripped through some classics and it was delightful. 

I'm always reluctant to take Toffee places just in case there's another dog and she wants to do dog things. But she was the only one tonight, got lots of love and pats and ate a lot of popcorn. 

I was feeling really wiped out today, it was a busy workday and I almost told Doug that no ... I'd rather just stay home. Unpack more boxes. 

There are so many boxes to unpack still. 

Glad we went out. It was very nice. Marking it in my mind that Tuesday is Bluegrass night at the brewery. 

Digits, below. 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. 10 min indoor walk this afternoon. about .46 mil. 7800+ steps by bedtime. Fell short because I didn't go on the walk with Doug & Toff. 

blood glucose:

7:30am: 125
4:45pm: 104
10:30pm: 146

food & meds:

7:30am: jardiance+phentermine
11am: english muffin w/pb 
1:45pm: met+glip
6:30pm: 2 pieces of aldi chicken schnitzel and a little bit of german potatoes (with onion and egg); some mixed nuts
2 beers at the brewery
9pm: met+glip

My Unboxing Era

I took the day off today. I haven't taken a sick day in like a year or so... I feel sick, so I called out sick. How do I feel sick? Well. I am sick of everything. Sick of boxes and trying to put things places. I got mad at Doug because I feel like he isn't doing enough and I'm doing everything, again, as usual. And he got mad at me. 

Whatever. 

This is exhausting to feel like I do boxes and unpacking in between meetings, and instead of watching TV, and getting up stupid early. And I don't feel like he's doing the same. Things can't wait to Saturday or Sunday.

We couldn't find Doug's little tool kit. Geoff had unloaded it from the car, and .... forgot that he put it in the cabinet above the dryer. Like, 8 feet up in the air. Okay. We never would have found it up there. 

The vacuum cleaner was also missing. Geoff had unloaded the car into the carport, and we thought the tool kit and vacuum were out there and were stolen. Once we found the tool kit, we figured that the vacuum had to be somewhere in the house. But we couldn't find it. Doug actually kicked into high gear to find it because it was bothering the hell out of him. 

I figured heck, if someone stole it, I'm getting a new one. 

Hell yeah. Doug looked all over, everywhere. It was bothering the hell out of him. If someone stole something, they pinched the one stupidest thing on earth and okay. It's yours. 

Someone (Doug thinks maybe it was him) put it into our front closet. I was somewhat bummed. I wanted a new vacuum cleaner. 

Also, somewhat relieved that no one in my neighborhood came and pinched a piece of shit vacuum to resell for a couple bucks, especially when there were a lot of things out in the carport that were worth actual money. 

And very relieved about the tools.

Anyway.

I used my sick day to the fullest. I started pulling boxes in the mud room, sending stuff downstairs for storage. Geoff was a big help. I found a lot of things that had been horribly missing like the oven mitts, the silverware drawer insert dealie, and the pottery we put our spatulas and related tools into.

I set up the spices on the little graduated 3 step shelf dealie we got at Target the other day. I was going to put it inside the pantry, but, felt that area is so big, and who wants to walk all the way over there to get dried thyme. Instead, I set it up next to the stove, but now I may rotate it to be under the window.

Mentally, I'm happy they're just put up. I only put out the "popular" and sort of popular items, The less than popular items are in the cabinet. We don't use that much Gram Masala or Cardamom pods. 

I posted the fact that I've got boxes for free on Nextdoor to give away to people who are moving. I have a lot of boxes. I have been saving some, because there are items for storage that I'll need boxes for, but I kind of want to reserve the plastic bins for those so I can see through the boxes and say "oh that's Christmas lights." 

Anyway. I have pictures but don't feel like taking them off the phone right now. It's bed time. Good night. Digits below. 

digits

exercise: 11/12 hours.  Missed noon by a few steps because I was loading the dishwasher. Pokemon walk, 18 min/.83 mile. 11k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

7:30am: 127
5:45pm: 122
10:45pm: 140

food & meds:

7:30am: jardiance+phentermine
11am: bowl of mac & cheese w/mixed in leftover cheesesteak filling
2:45pm: met+glip
6:30pm: piece of chicken parm
8pm: last small piece of carrot cake
9:30: met+glip
shiraz+diet ginger ale

Rockstar and Dogpark

Today I went to a school of rock performance by my work wife's son. He started playing bass guitar this year. And of course I've been the most supportive auntie. 

I should say she's my work wife yes, but he's also my friend. We're friends. I'm for sure friends with an 8 year old. At his birthday party in 2024, a bunch of kids canceled, and he was very sad. He told her "it'll be a great party though, as long as Auntie Christine comes."

So I wouldn't miss this debut performance for the world. 

When he first started playing, he said his fingers hurt too much, and he wanted to quit. I reached out to rock star bass player Karina Rykman to ask her for some advice for a brand new baby bassist. She was thrilled to share thoughts, recommended a certain brand of strings for new fingers. 

I shared that with her, and she talked to his teacher. He said for sure to switch, but, he wanted to sit with A and work on how he holds the bass - see if they could solve the problem with finger work. 

A couple weeks ago, we found out he'd have his first concert. The school of rock does this twice a year, and this would be his first time. 

He said he wasn't going to go and perform because "I suck," and "our band isn't that good, compared to the other bands." I gave him a pep talk, that the other bands were first-season bands once upon a time too. I told him about my other friend Henry who plays keyboard, and how his first show wasn't that great. But I've gone to see Henry and his band play a bunch of times now over the last 2 years or so, and they are so much better than they were! 

He was afraid people would boo them.

Like in the game Guitar Hero, when you suck at playing Guitar Hero the crowd in the game will boooooooooooo your suckingness right before the failure message comes on the screen. 

My work wife said no... everyone there is there to support the kids. No one in the audience will be strangers off the street expecting a professional show. If anything, people will be more supportive of the bands that aren't good, to encourage them to get better. 

I gave him a similar pep talk. Then, I figured I'd ask a professional. I reached out to Karina again, and asked her if she'd just do a little video pep talk for him. 

And she delivered. 

Boy did she ever. 

At like 1am in a cab or an uber, she held her phone up and spoke into the video, straight to him. She was so happy to know he stuck with it over the school year and summer. It's hard to learn something new! And it is scary to get up in front of a crowd of people and perform. But "you got this little bro!" She let him know that it was going to be alright, and even if he sucked, probably no one would know. Once you get through it, you did it, and you're done. And hopefully you learned a few things to apply for the next show. 

I did the same thing a few years ago for Henry when he was super scared for his first recital. I didn't reach out to a famous piano player, I reached out to Brian Rosenworcel from Guster, because Henry admires him so much. Brian made a little video for Henry too about how piano is so hard, and Henry still watches it when he's feeling like he needs it. 

The little rock show was good. A nailed his bass parts and there were 3-5 young girls singing, loudly, to songs like "Island in the Sun" and "I Hate Myself For Loving You," and "Wonderwall." 

Afterwards, A said he was so scared going into it but that it all worked out great. I told him I could hear him loud and clear and he nailed his parts. So good. 

Worth the trip. 

 My work wife has a no pictures of the boy on the internet policy, so I abide by that. Got some good shots, and did send them to Karina with her permission. And Karina loved it, of course.

I drove home, and Doug said he was going to take the dog for a walk. I said I'd like to come so he suggested we go to the dog park. It is about a 10 min. walk from our house, and is pretty nice. There's a big dog side and a little dog side. When we got there one guy was there with his two dogs, Red Bone Coon Hounds. They got along really well with Toffee. A lady came in with two dogs, an English Cream retriever, and a golden. Those two dogs were disinterested in playing, but the English Cream did eventually play with her. 

A guy came in and said he was trying to resocialize his dog after many months of him (the guy not the dog) being in a PTSD hospital stay. 

Toffee and the dog got bitey with each other, and I felt horrible. The guy left and I wished we had more time to talk maybe and work things out. 

But.

Another guy came in with his "Potcake," which is a kind of mutt mix dog from "the islands," as he said. His name is Natty Boh, like the beer. And he and Toffee got bitey with each other and the guy was super cool about it. "This is how they learn. They learn by doing and doing it wrong. And we let them know they did it wrong and help them do it right." Eventually there was a lot of playing, Natty got a little snarly and kind of scary with one of the Red Bones, and that dog didn't enjoy it but he came and sat next to me on the bench, and I put my arm around him and let him know he was okay. 

All told, a good hour spent. Except for the guy with PTSD and his dog, and I hope maybe someday I see him again. 

It's not just about socializing his dog, but, socializing him too, I think. 

We got home, made dinner, watched football, the end. I folded two suitcases of laundry, I still need to put it all away. And I made candied mixed nuts which didn't come out right because Doug wanted me to add honey, and the honey kind of burned a bit. They're not ruined, but they aren't the best mixed nuts I've ever made. 

Digits below some pics. First pic is Natty Boh. Waiting for a cookie. Next is the dog dad of the Red Bone Hounds, his right arm sleeve is all ocean tattoos, so I wanted a pic of the octopus for Jess. His left arm is outer space themed. Pretty cool art! And finally, on the way home there is a house that has a couple holes cut in the fence for their dog to look out and bark at things. And he barked at us. He made me think of Phineas.

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours.  3 walks. to and from the dog park: 10 min/.47 mi and 15 min/.64 mile. to hit the 10k mark: 8 min/.41 mile. 10k+ by bedtime

blood glucose:

7am: 106
4pm: 107
10pm: 139

food & meds:

7am: jardiance+phentermine
8:30am: 2 little walnut sticky buns w/coffee 
11:30am: met+glip
6:30pm: bowl of rotini & meat sauce; shiraz+diet ginger ale
through the evening: candied nuts
9pm: met+glip

Moooooo

This morning Doug and I sat out together on the patio. 

I think it is the first time he has chilled out there with me. I'll start my workday out there, take my laptop, drink coffee. But he has his setup upstairs so when he goes to work he goes to work there. Not me. Patio please. 

Toffee stalked squirrels, and had a lovely time. 

And I always say coffee starts the day, and this mug speaks volumes.

At about 11am I figured it was time to do stuff. One of the things I wanted to accomplish today was clean the trash barrel. It was gross. I didn't want to move a gross trash can into a nice house.

 So, I sprayed it with the hose, sprayed it with cleaner, scrubbed the inner liner and the outer can. It's no perfect but it is better than it was. Victory! Then I wanted to unpack all the stuff for the bathroom. In the old house, we had a hallway closet that the first couple top shelves were all towels, and then all the health and beauty stuff you need. In this house, we don't have quite that. There are drawers in the vanity, and kind of a cabinet, but nothing fits in there right. I put a 4 shelf bookshef in the bathroom and the towels on it. Looks decent. I wish everything was the same color though. 

Two big bins emptied and everything put up. Organized. Nice. I'm thinking of a plant for on top of the cabinet over the toilet. That's all coming together. 

Doug's task today was to move stuff out of the carport and into the shed or basement, so he was busy with all that. The dog was confused by all our action. 

At about 2pm Doug wanted to go to the Dutch Market, which was a collection of vendors selling all kinds of foods and wares. We left with a ton of baked goods, carrot cake, mini-whoopie pies, walnut coffee cake thingies for breakfast tomorrow. 

Doug wanted to go to a farm nearby for apples, so we went 6 miles to the other side of town and had a nice visit with the cows. 

The cows were coming in because it was time for the evening milking. And some of them looked like they were ready to burst! The farmer was driving behind the cows in a golf cart, and I wished that they had a good dog to do this job instead.

We went into the shop to get our apples and had a nice visit with the lady running the farm stand. 

When we drove away, Doug said "huh.... with all those cows, they don't sell milk there. Strange." And indeed, they do not sell their own milk there. 

The cows were pretty and moos rose through the air around. 

I needed a trip to Target because we were out of dishwasher detergent, and the sink was full and there were no plates to eat off of. We ended up spending a lot more money on things like toilet brushes, and little pantry organizer shelves. They have a really huge market at this one, very different from the one down by where we used to live. So we got some food stuffs, and dry goods that were needed. 

Beer and wine stop on the way home and time for grilling. Doug made burgers, and the grill was a little too close to the lattice on the back side of the car port and melted it a bit.

At least no landlord or property manager can yell at us right now. We own the place. We'll have to deal with that fix up. Eventually. Maybe. 

Anyway. Here are some cows. Digits below.

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours.  20 min walk, .5 mi. I think that was in Target! 12k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:30am: 118
5pm: 123
11:15pm: 174

food & meds:

8:30am: jardiance+phentermine
1pm: pb sandwich on 647 bread
2pm: met+glip
6pm: 2 cheeseburgers, no buns. coleslaw, chickpea salad; slice of carrot cake
shiraz+diet ginger ale
9:30pm: met+glip

DJ Scrittchy Scrattchy

Last night's concert was a lot of fun. It was so cool to see two men playing classical music and classic r&b hits like "Just the Two of Us" with the violins and the whole back-up setup of keys, drums and a DJ. Not my usual cup of tea, but absolutely entertaining. 

Here's a nice sample from 2013, "Brandenburg," done a little differently last night. 

and A flat 

I mean. They were and are very impressive. I used to tell people that had I known there was bluegrass when I was in 5th grade, I may have stayed with the violin. Had I known how cool the upright double bass was, yeah boy. 

But no. I didn't find any of that stuff out until much later. 

These guys are bringing such joy to this, and there are other artists like Sista Strings doing similar amazing musical work. 

One of the things though that has always confused me about hip hop is the DJ. The scratching, records, how do they get things to start/stop/happen at just the right time. 

I'm super interested in this and would love to sit with someone and have them show me how it is done. I'm pretty old school (ha) and came up when a lot of rap and "urban" music was not yet really high tech, so I'd see DJs flipping records onto turntables, and queuing up songs at the right points to do things. You don't see that now so I feel like a lot of it may be digital. Still. My buddy Henry was fascinated with the DJ set in the middle of the show, and I think he'd probably love to learn more about that. 

It makes me feel old to not know how something works. Like, yeah, I know that guitarists will pre-record guitar parts and loop them over each other, and step on little buttons on the floor to play the loops over each other to make a whole band sound. This I totally get and understand. But DJ stuff is beyond me. 

Anyway. 

I left S's house this morning at about 7:45. I was going to go into the office this morning but there was a change of plans with some other folks and then I didn't feel like making the effort to go in. 

Traffic was great on the way north. I expected it to be horrible but it worked out fine. I got up here, hit the Sheetz for some whole milk and some brekkie sammitches. Doug had to go to his office today and he hadn't left yet by the time I got here. 

Got a lot of work done all day, had someone skip a meeting on me but that was alright. I went and got the outside plants that were in the carport and put them on the back porch, and watered everything. 

In the picture above, that's just what I moved over to the back porch but that's not the final sitting place for the pots. Maybe some will end up on the front porch, maybe. But they're watered and happy.

Toffee had a good time outside, and it was a good weather day. My work bestie and I got some time to catch up after weeks of not seeing each other or having a chance to talk. 

My sister and I had a chance to chat too, which was nice. 

Aside from the plants, only a couple boxes got unpacked. So much to do this weekend. So much. Here is miss Toffee enjoying her porch while I worked. Digits below.

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours.  No measured exercise. 6k+ steps by bedtime. Gotta get back on the walking wagon.

blood glucose:

7:30am: 130
4:45pm: 123
9:45pm: 113

food & meds:

7:30am: jardiance+phentermine
7:45am: entenmann's chocolate donut
9:45am: egg & sausage "smiskit" from sheetz
11:45am: bowl of mac & cheese
2pm: met+glip
6:30pm: cheesesteak stuff (meat, mushrooms, onions) and some steak fries; 2 beers
8:45pm met+glip

Black Violin, Amythyst Kiah, and some Vines

I'm starting this entry early in the day on Thursday, so something will be semi-ready to publish tonight.

I'm going to a concert tonight (not Guster but Guster adjacent) with S, her son Henry and R. I need to rally and get the energy up to do this, to want to do this. For weeks and weeks I was so excited to do this and this week has sapped all my energy and focus. 

I will be driving down to S's house, and we'll go over to the venue together. R will meet us. She is coming down from Baltimore and heading home after the show. I'm staying with S since I am more than halfway to my office, and want to go in for an event tomorrow. And I can't see really well at night to drive so there's that. 

Another fun thing I noticed is my neighbors' entire back yard is sunflowers. It must have looked spectacular in say late August... but right now everything is looking dead and should be taken down. But on the fence there is a vine growing and flowering, and it looks like squash or zucchini or something. 

The flowers are all on my side of the fence so if they come to anything and produce veggies before the frost (which could happen, it doesn't get that cold here for another month or so) I can be a jerk and claim them as mine! mwah hahahahhahahahah. 

Kidding. I'd bring forth their produce and give it to them. Maybe ask for one of the results. 

I took Toffee out at lunchtime and the neighbor lady was out there ripping out the sunflowers, almost like she heard me thinking that it was time for them to go. She told me that everything got away from her because it has been so hot and humid, and she has emphysema so it is exceptionally hard to do things in the heat and humidity. I told her I have the same problem, well, without the emphysema part of things. 

Today was very busy, the morning was pretty open but a lot of things happening. I left at a decent hour and got to S's house in time for us to get over to the venue. We bought the fast pass for dinner, which turns out wasn't necessary (note to self, don't do that again) and we enjoyed a good meal and fellowship. 

Amythyst Kiah was the opener and the reason for us to go to the show, and she killed it but her set was so short. 20 minutes! That's it! Sadness. 

Black Violin came up next and our friend R was really the catalyst for us to see them. They were great. Fantastic. Probably the most interesting and intriguing show I've seen in years. Combine classical music like Bach's Brandenburg Concierto with hip hop and you get yourself some Black Violin. They have been a band for 20 years so this tour is "Full Circle," where they played songs off the new album of the same name and looked back at their Showtime at the Apollo winning victory. 

Our seats were way high up in the balcony but that was fine, Henry called them VIP seats and I said that' "Very Impressive Perspective," which he thought was hilarious. R got a new Pixel 10 phone and caught some gems of pictures even from as far away as we were, and mine were meh. So I didn't take many. They're listed below. 

Alright. Off to bed. super tired. Technically this is Friday but I'll post date this to stay on Thursday. 

digits

exercise: 11/12 hours. Missed 8pm because I was sitting at the concert. 9100+ steps by bedtime. Shoulda paid attention and gotten the 10k. 

blood glucose:

8:15am: 128
5:45pm: 114
11:45pm: 82

food & meds:

8:15am: jardiance+phentermine
1pm: zero sugar yogurt & granola bar
2:15pm: met+glip
2:45pm: apple w/pb
6pm: 2 pieces of pot roast, 2 pieces of chicken teriyaki, brussel sprouts, smashed sweet potatoes, salad, piece of oreo cheesecake (square). glass of wine
8pm: met+glip
10:30pm: vodka & diet ginger ale or as henry calls it "Vodkale."

Secret Hideaway

I was too tired last night to do an entry. Thought about it, but ... meh. So didn't want to pick up the laptop. Just felt limp. Yesterday's activities and goings on are pretty much a blur. But yesterday I did get to talk to C and my sister, and sat out and enjoyed coffee until it got too hot to sit out. 

After a big long full day of work yesterday, I went up to bed at 10:30, and didn't fall asleep for a while. This morning, Doug was up very early and started working at 7am. His computer/office is up in the room adjacent to our bedroom so... it woke me up to have his computer shining like a beacon in a lighthouse across a foggy Atlantic harbor into my face. Feh. 

I told him to stop it, go downstairs and unpack boxes if he's up so early. He said he wanted to get a jump start on things so he could be done with work early. Not helpful. So I got up. And I went downstairs and... unpacked boxes. 

We haven't found certain things yet, like the lid to our favorite pot. Or the hickey that goes in the drawer to hold all your utensils, so everything is in a box. This causes grumpiness, towhit I say "Unpack some boxes and find the thing you are looking for. The thing is in a box. Find it."

Today I wanted to get the microwave set up, which also meant cleaning the microwave. I clean it all the time and lose my shit because a certain member of my household is messy with microwave things... and he never cleans up after himself. So there I am, again, scrubbing that bitch. Well, I did it once again and will lecture someone, once again, that after he nukes something, clean it the fuck up. 

How the ceiling of the inside of the microwave had baked on cheese, this I do not know. What the hell exploded in there?

Anyway. I got it set up. And I put the toaster next to it. So they are across the room where the previous folks had their coffee station. Funny thing about that, I cleaned the counter, and it is butcher block wood, which was basically covered in coffee. 

They were mess makers too. 

After the microwave I got to work. I had meeting after meeting today, a 2 hour client training that I did with my work son, and a check in with my manager. 

Most of the day I sat outside at the patio table. Toffee was having an amazing time chasing squirrels. Watching her chase them was a ton of fun. 

We launched a client site today and it went off without a hitch, which is always so nice. And they have a developer on their team who made their website so pretty, so different than all the other sites in our world, that I love her. And want to hire her. Please come work for us and make things pretty. 

Once the launch was over, some helpdesk tickets and then I was done. Baked and beat again, I did want to do one other thing and that was bring the houseplants in. Some have been sitting outside since Sept 12th. We've watered them, but these are my babies, and I wanted them in the house even if I do not have a place to put them quite just yet maybe. 

I'll fix that in the morning. Most everyone got a good drink, I lost 2, possibly 3 plants due to the fact they dried out. A couple others actually thrive on neglect and they did great. I'm happy to have their green leafy goodness back in the house. I'll position bookcases where I want them in the morning. Probably wake up early. Maybe. 

The property keeps revealing secrets and fun finds to us. When we moved in, Doug went into the evergreen hedge (you can see it in the coffee picture above) because Toffee was fussing over something in there. He discovered a hammock, a light, a book. All left behind, probably by the oldest of the six kids who lived here. A cute little hidey hole, I wonder if the parents and siblings knew about it or if they kept it completely quiet and to themselves. A story to ponder that maybe happened there. With five other siblings, some peace and quiet was probably a wonderful refuge to have for a young soul. I hope they have little spots of privacy in life in their next home, and homes to come.

Digits below.

Tuesday digits

exercise: 11/12 hours. Somehow missed 7pm by a few steps. 7500+steps by bedtime 

blood glucose:

7am: 130
5pm: 121
9:30pm: 112

food & meds:

7am: jardiance+phentermine
10am: last slice of danish
12pm: turkey, colby jack, coleslaw on 647 italian bread
1pm: met+glip
6pm: big salad w/buffalo tenders, piece of calzone that I didn't enjoy/finish. meh
9pm:met+glip

Wednesday digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. no measurable walk. 8k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

7am: 145
5pm: 104
10pm: 167* (note time that I took the PM medication, too close of a reading but. I'm going to bed)

food & meds:

7am: jardiance+phentermine
12:30pm: zero sugar yogurt + crushed granola bar
2pm: met+glip
7pm: 2 pork chops, some mac & cheese, a pickle
9:30pm: met+glip 

Oh No

I have a stomach ache. 

Like astonishingly bad. Came on suddenly after dinner tonight while I was on the phone with mom. I wonder if I have what Geoff had on Friday? 

I really do not want to puke. He puked his guts out several times Friday and Saturday. I've got sharp stabbing pains and the chills. 

Well, Better to have this happen now than Thursday. I'm supposed to go to a show with S and R, and I do not want to be sick. Maybe I'm just super tired. Maybe it is nothing. Please be nothing.

Nothing really new to report on the homefront, unpacking boxes. Unpacking boxes. Unpacking .... boxes... 

Digits below. 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. No walk. Rest day. 6300 ish steps for the day

blood glucose:

7am: 91
5pm: 110
10:45pm: 155

food & meds:

7am: jardiance+phentermine
10am: piece of cherry danish 
2:45pm: met+glip
3pm: mixed nuts
6pm: small bowl of spaghetti with meat sauce
10:30: met+glip

Done Montgomery, Begin Washington

Adventures were had today. 

Initially I told Doug he was off the hook for coming to the house with me, but he decided to come. I'm incredibly glad he did. I wouldn't have been able to do all of the things that needed done to the depth that they needed done. He took on the basement, I finished the refrigerator. R and I had taken it apart, and she cleaned the entire inside. I left all the shelves sit on the counter saying I'd take care of them today. Which I did. And it took much longer than I thought it would. Then, the stove, the counters, the sweeping of the entire main floor. I didn't mop. I should have but I did not. 

The freezer got cleaned out but, I didn't clean it with cleaner - it still being in freezer mode, stuff didn't want to come off when I tried to clean. So I left a note. Best if cleaned when defrosted and stuff. 

I had posted our queen-sized bed frame on nextdoor and someone came by to look at it yesterday. It wasn't going to fit in his car, so he was going to measure another vehicle. I didn't hear back from him. 

But. Another guy had posted on my posting for the free bedframe that he does yard cleanup and trash hauling, and he would be happy to take it to goodwill or another county outfit that accepts furniture. Since I'd heard from the other guy first, I gave him right of first refusal, and when he didn't get back to me, I reached out to WA. 

He agreed to come by this afternoon, and he asked me for pictures of what I needed taken away. We had about 20 bags of trash and 3 trash barrels, two of which did not stand up on their own. One did. So take away all the trash, the 2 dead barrels, and hey, can you take away the tree trimmings and yard stuff? Oh. And we have a giant flat screen TV and a giant console TV. If you could take those to the transfer station, we'll pay that fee. 

He came over as promised, looked over what we needed, and quoted me $350 for everything (about 50 of that was fees for the recycling of the TVs). Hell yes. Thank you. 

Before I knew it, everything except the tree related stuff was in his truck. Even the console TV which probably weighed over 80lbs. 

"Did you take the TV to the truck by yourself?" I asked

"No," he answered and then did the flexy arm muscle thing with his right arm. "This guy," and then the left "and this guy. They did all the hard work." 

"Aaaaaaah! Your good friends Pancho and Lefty saved the day!" 

He laughed and said "From now on, I'll call them that!" We had a great laugh. 

He's coming back tomorrow to get all the yard stuff, and I threw him an extra twenty bucks to take the cardboard recycling. The county does not like it when you overload the cardboard recycling containers or leave the cardboard next to the container. So I didn't want that to be a problem. I sent him a picture and he said he'd happily take it all and send me a picture when done. 

I thanked him for reaching out on the bed frame post. Initially I didn't think we needed hauling help but yeah, we did. And I'd recommend him 15/10 to anyone in the area. 

I don't have a good machine for vacuuming the stairs, so I recently bought a doohickey from Uproot Clean to rake the wall to wall carpeting on the stairs in hopes it would help. Then it sat in a box in my bedroom because I sometimes forget I impulse buy stuff I see on Instagram. Happily, I pulled it aside to save for this task.  

Man alive is that thing outrageously good. I may get the big rake for all the carpeting in the new house! Not normally impressed with shit, but hey. I'm impressed

The stairs were brushed and groomed, and the giant pile of dog hair and ...whatever else came up was in the trash, I then got to vacuum the downstairs. 

It is all wall to wall carpeting, and, because Doug's office was down there, the vacuum only ever went down there once in four years. I'm absolutely ashamed to say that. But. It got vacuumed. I vacuumed the absolute living hell out of it. 

Geoff's room, the storage room, the entire basement - done. perfect. Amazing. 

As we put the remaining things that were still in the house into the car (plants, some kitchen shit, blah blah blah stuff from the basement and somehow MORE OF GEOFF'S SHIT! How he didn't get all of it the other day, or, how we didn't make sure the movers packed his stuff and didn't overlook pieces is beyond me. But. It all fit in the car. 

Somehow. By miracles. 

We stopped at Dairy Queen to grab something for dinner. Part of me just wanted to go home but there is nothing really to eat here. So. Chicken strip basket and coke zero. No ice cream or shake, as much as that sounded perfect. 

Toffee was out of dog food, and Geoff was worried about driving the mini to the store because it's been throwing the check engine light. He fed her doggie treats for dinner. We stopped into a grocery store that was open for 5 more minutes. I ran in, grabbed a small bag, and made it out fast. 

And I should have grabbed toilet paper. Well. I'll send Geoff first thing in the morning.

Home. For real, home. No more Montgomery county. I don't have to drive up and down, or down and up, I should say, I-270 again until I really want to. 

No picture. Just know I'm showered, tired, and going to bed and wondering how I'm going to consistently hit 10, 11, 12, 13, 14.. thousand steps every day like I have since Saturday last week. Damn. Moving will do it to your step counter, I'll tell you that! 

Digits below. 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours.  Measured 15 min exercise (vacuuming!) for .4 miles. 13k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

9am: 110
xpm: x
11pm: 125

food & meds:
9am: jardiance+phentermine
11:30am: zero sugar yogurt+granola bars
beers while cleaning
3pm: met+glip
8pm: Dairy Queen chicken strips w/buffalo dip, a few fries, and weirdly... garlic toast slice (no ice cream!)
9:30pm: met+glip

The Third Coffee Cup

I woke up at 6, and Doug woke up at 6:30 and put a podcast on that we were listening to last night before we fell asleep. It was about the siege of Leningrad during WWII, and it was very interesting to learn more about the strategy of the German Army, and what their goals were in not "taking" the city like you'd do in a war, but just holding it cut off until every human died or escaped. Over a million and a half people died during the siege but they never gave up, they never surrendered. 

The Nazis didn't want the city to surrender because then they'd be responsible for feeding the survivors. So they rather wanted them to die. Or leave. So it was hell. Absolute hell. They wanted the territory, the land, and the plan was utter destruction of the entire city once everyone was out or dead. But they didn't outlast the citizens of Leningrad. 

So here I am at 11:30 last night not falling asleep because I didn't know this fact, and I kept just thinking about how horrible it must have been. How absolutely horrible. 

This morning, unpacking boxes was not horrible in comparison. Sometimes my brain thinks like that. "Oh hell, this isn't so bad! At least you're not a single mother of three children in the winter in Russia trying to survive and find food! You can do this! You don't have to eat your baby!" I am a sicko. But whatever motivates me to get things done, is good.

I went downstairs instead of listening to the podcast again, brewed the coffee, and unpacked a few boxes. I had a goal. I had been searching for a third coffee cup for Geoff to use. I had found two for Doug and me, but with Geoff here, yes, let's get him some coffee. 

I'm not yet at the box with our "normal" coffee mugs but found a few older ones from Doug's grandmother/mother that have been in storage for years. 

Geoff came upstairs around 8, still feeling and looking very unwell. He slept on the couch down there because I didn't put bed sheets on his bed and his laundry was all folded very nicely on top of the bed. He didn't have the energy to move it all. Can't say as I blame him. He didn't want any coffee yet anyway so I still have time to find him a decent/better one. He did enjoy a bagel though. I was happy to toast that up for him. Glad to see him eat something since he didn't eat much at all last night.

My property manager emailed me at 7:30am, after me not hearing from him for over a week. He asked that I not end service on the utilities until the 30th, which, I wish he'd told me yesterday or the day before when I fucking ASKED him. I already have things set to end service on Monday. He wants me to undo that. Well. The websites don't let you undo that, and, customer service reps do not work Saturdays. So. 

I'll see what I can do Monday Morning? Maybe? But honestly, if you don't reply to my emails don't expect me to know what the hell it is you want. I did my best.

He was supposed to come over today to get the keys from us but instead has put a lockbox on the porch for me to put the key into when we are done. 

Um. Okay. Roger that, sir. Got it. 

We ended up not even finishing today, even though my friend Robin came to help. Lord is she a cleaning machine. Her attention to detail is extraordinary. She tackled the bathroom, I tackled the kitchen, Doug loaded the truck. Geoff was next to useless because he was still sick. Several times Doug went down to get him and he was asleep on the floor. I told him if he is still sick like this tomorrow, we're going to urgent care. I didn't get a chance to buy him a covid/flu test, nor did I get a chance to buy Toffee some dog food. But so help me we'll take him to a doctor if he's still unwell. 

Doug and Geoff left, I forget at what time, 3:30? maybe? They left me the dog, which was nice. I love her. And she is very good to have around. And Robin loves her. She spent a whole week with Toffee a while back, and always wants to see her so it was a joyful blessing to have them together. 

I messaged J to ask her if Meg could come over to play, and she said yes, and came right over. 

The dogs had an outrageous romp, lots of big dog biting and high-speed racing. They found a good stick to fight over, the tugging and pulling and running side by side with that one big stick in both of their mouths was amazing.

Robin and I stopped working at about 5. We had disassembled the refrigerator, and all the pieces are on the counter waiting to be scrubbed. I still need to vacuum downstairs. And I contacted a guy named Wilbur to come pick up all our trash, because I do not think the county is going to take all of it on Tuesday. I'm happy to pay for that haul away. 

Doug had loaded up the truck, and put a number of things in the Volvo, but there was still a lot of room. I added some more and put the dog in. Robin and I were hungry so we went to Brew Belly. I realized Toffee had not eaten since breakfast so the poor thing was surviving on tiny milk bone cookies for the afternoon. 

I asked the guy at the counter if they had a sad roll, that had maybe fallen on the floor and was gonna get trashed anyway, if he had something like that and could lovingly stick a piece of cheese in it to hold the dog over until I got her home... 

He did one better. He got some cubed chicken cheffed it up, put a roll and cheese in a box with the chicken and she had the best dinner ever. 25% tip and me going back in to buy a lot of beer to take home to the family. 

I don't see well to drive at night, and it was getting dark so Robin and I went our separate ways. Toffee in the car, me behind the wheel, plants and fridge things and all kinds of shenanigans loaded up we headed home. We were far enough north that the GPS didn't send us back south to the beltway. Instead, she sent us ... through the woods. 

In the dark. 

And that sucked. 

I also realized while deep in the woods we were super low on gas. 45 miles to empty and I had a 50 mile ride ahead of me.  Of course when you are in the woods you are nowhere near a gas station. We made it to the highway and I got off at the first exit that I knew there was gas. Toffee wanted out but I needed her to stay in. It was 8pm, and we still had about 40 minutes to go on our trip. 

I needed to pee but didn't stop at the South Mountain rest area because I didn't want to leave Toffee in the car alone. Not fair to her. 

I made it home at 8:30, where Geoff was already in bed, Doug was looking like someone beat the shit out of him, and he went to bed right after I walked in. 

That's okay - he loaded and unloaded the u-haul. No complaint here. 

I let Toffee out, grabbed a beer and started putting things away. I have no idea why we have five jars of jalapeno rings. Someone better start eating them. 

I also realized my yoga pants could probably walk by themselves. I've worn them every day for a week. They is nasty. Damn nasty. So I grabbed some other dirty laundry, like the guest bed sheets, and some towels. and loaded up the washing machine. I'm waiting for it to finish so I can put things in the dryer and happily go to sleep. 

Tomorrow I'm headed back down, finish the fridge (get everything out of the freezer) and do the stairs and basement carpet. Sweep. Mop. Get all the plants in the car. Declare Victory. Go live in the new house.

Note to self: remember the things in the basement like the laundry detergent and dog shampoo, and remember the modem/router to return it to Verizon. Do not forget.

No picture today, but not for lack of trying to get one of Robin and Toffee cuddling on the sofa outside Brew Belly. 

Digits below.

 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. somehow 15 min/.26 mile measured by fitbit. I mean, I walked all day. Plus the up and down and twisting and yoga poses of cleaning inside cabinets and and and.... at least it detected some part of the movement.  15k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

6:30am: 130
xpm: x
10:30pm: 122

food & meds:
6:30am: jardiance+phentermine
3pm: met+glip
5pm: protein bar
6pm: cheesesteak and a couple fries, a beer
9:30pm: met+glip
beer while loading the refrigerator

Lox of Love and Boxes of Box

This morning I woke up at 7 and tried to fall back asleep but the brain was in high gear so I got up after about 45 minutes and went downstairs. 

Coffee, made. Milk, dangerously low but enough for two cups. Toffee, in cuddle mode after her breakfast. 

Doug came down after 8 something and we just sat quietly and did phone games. I got up to do 9am steps and unpacked a few boxes. We had bagels, and I enjoyed lox on mine. Delicious. We got ourselves out the door down to the old place. Doug's goal was to mow the lawn and I was continuing to work inside. 

While Doug did the lawn, I decided it was a good time to do the utilities. I went to cancel Verizon, and basically it took me a half hour of annoyance. And they kept trying to talk me out of it. But they do not service our new town. And they won't stop bothering me. 

Gas, Electric, Water, I was able to end service on all of those in less than 10 minutes. Total. Verizon could learn a thing or two from their forms and ease of use. Jerks. 

We were waiting for Geoff to get home, and he was in an epic shitty mood. He said his hip and knee were killing him, and his head was splitting. It was 90 degrees out, and he was sweating like a stuck pig. Then he threw up. 

We gave him a little time to rest while Doug loaded the car, and our neighbor was walking past with Meg Dog so they came in the yard and had a good romp. We think he was hung over but he said he had a couple beers and that was it. Doug said no - he had a couple beers and then whiskey because Doug found the bottle. 

He got up and got ready for us to go and was very apologetic for being a jerk. Forgiveness is easy, kid. Let's just move on. We had thought that we'd do a lot more work but cut things short to come home for him. 

I drove, and made him listen to Barenaked Ladies. 

Pizza for dinner, and we have officially broken out of Pizza Jail. Geoff seemed to feel better but didn't eat a lot. He went down to bed at 9:30, and will probably be up early. 

We all have to be up early. Tomorrow is the day to get everything done. We pick the U-haul up at 9:30, and the party gets started. I think my friend Robin is coming over to help. Send Geoff some mojo that he feels better because we are going to need his best super manly man strength to load the truck with Doug. I can't do it. 

Off to bed myself. Digits below. Toffee.

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours 10 min indoor walk for half a mile; 11k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8am: 118
5pm: 143
10:30pm: 183

food & meds:
8am: jardiance+phentermine
11am: everything bagel w/plain cream cheese & lox
1pm: met+glip
6pm: one beer
8pm: 3 slices of buffalo chicken pizza
9:30: met+glip

Two More Sleeps

Last night when we got home there was a box on the porch. 

I knew it was from C. 

She had sent us cheesesteaks for dinner the other night and here we were fussing with life in the new place, and she sent bagels and cream cheese & lox. 

It didn't get here during the day when we were here yesterday, but arriving home last night and seeing it there was delightful. Doug and I could dive in this morning, and yes. It was outstanding. 

I know you are reading this, C. Thank you from the bottom of my heart. My bagel loving heart. 

This morning we spent time fussing around with the living room layout and doing things around the place. We agreed on a number of things, and the living room is morphing into a really good living space. 

I encouraged Doug to rent a U-haul for Saturday. He moaned a little and I said you should do it now, because things could be all rented out for the weekend, thankfully, he did listen and did it. We got a 10ft truck which is probably too big, we won't need that much space, but. Better to have it and not need it than to need it and not have it. 

Before more time got too ahead of us, because we could literally spend all our time here making everything just right, we packed up and headed south. Time will do that.

We got to the house at about 1:30pm. Goals there for today, work in the kitchen, finish cleaning out our bedroom, and Doug was tackling the shed and yard. Everything we need to put in the U-haul from the outside is on the patio. Boom. Done. I accomplished a whole lot inside, didn't finish 100% of everything but really made giant strides and big dents. 

Tomorrow, we'll go back again. Geoff's last day is tomorrow and he'll be home around 5:30pm and we'll probably be done, grab dinner, and head up here to live as a family together for the first night. 

Then, finish everything Saturday with that rental truck.

I have some work tomorrow to do downstairs for Geoff's room, seeing as we dumped all of his clothing on his bed to reclaim some of the plastic bins, so I'll do that first thing. Ha.

And I didn't take a picture, but, my heart had a little moment this afternoon. I went downstairs to look at everything that still needs done downstairs. Geoff's got a sleeping bag set up on the floor in his old room, in the middle of a lot of chaos and mess that we'll have to contend with there.... but ...

On the pillow, in the sleeping bag, there is a beanie baby. A little white and black dog beanie baby. Right there by where you'd put your cheek when sleeping. 

My heart swelled a little that my 28 year old son has a beanie baby that he's probably had for 20 plus years, right next to his face where he sleeps.

Jesus. I got soft and emotional. I mentioned it to Doug, and he said "Yeah, I saw that too."

I fucking love my son, you guys.

We loaded up the car, got a quart of oil for the poor bedraggled Mini Cooper that we're just driving 54 miles to and fro every fucking day, and I prayed for it to keep doing amazing work for us. Two more round trips, Mini. You can do it. I can do it. We can do it.

When we got home here, we had a lovely package waiting for us. It was from the realtor that we first started working with in Virginia when we were looking out at Front Royal and surrounds. She's not licensed in Maryland, so she referred us to the buyers broker that we ended up working with to buy this place. 

I'm overwhelmed by how kind it is for her to have sent us a gift box, for people she invested time with and lost out on a sale with.... I really liked her as a person and she facebook friended me so I sent money to her daughter's fundraiser for cheer squad. Her partner is a handyman, and we're far from them geographically but his knowledge and insight for what we want to do upstairs for shoving in a bathroom will be helpful. 

Also, he's funny as hell. 

My heart felt full with the beanie baby and the kindness of C and our "other" buyers broker. We never would get through this all without others. 

Today, we didn't see our neighbor J and the doggo Meg. I'll reach out to her tomorrow or on Saturday when we have the truck. Shit, I'm going to miss them. 

Anyway. Here is my bagel from this morning looking beautiful. Digits, below.

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. 4pm, a measurable walk in the house for 20 min/.45 miles. 13k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:30am: 148
5pm: 109
10:15pm: 133

food & meds:
8:30am: jardiance+phentermine
10:30am: everything bagel w/plain cream cheese (omg)
2pm: met+glip
3:30pm: apple w/pb
8:30pm: protein bar; white wine
10pm: met+glip

Chrissie Two Houses

Last night, I was too tired to try and update on my phone, so yesterday's post is incomplete. Welcome to today, where I now have stuff in two zip codes.

The move itself finished up well, I should have been more on task with telling the movers where "storage" was, because everything I sent to the basement ended up in the big main room. But I have literally zero complaints because they were so sweet and kind, they kicked ass, and I love them. We tipped them each 100 bucks, and the move was a little more expensive than I thought it might be but who the hell cares. They ruled. And now. We have work to do.

We sat out on our patio last night after our stromboli and salad festival and relaxed, and enjoyed the evening. We met the neighbors and their two beagles. Rex and Toffee ran back and forth along the fence for a super long time, until she just got bushed. 

Doug and I did some box moving around here and waited for the internet guy to come. He did, and got us all set up, and everything is wonderful with that. 

After the dude left, I thought we'd head to the house but Doug was napping and I just let him nap. Nap nap nap. 

We left here at 3, and traffic was horrible but we finally got back to the house. My friend J came over, and she offered to take Toffee to her house for play. This was good because Doug and I were working our asses off. J brought her back after about 90min, she was wiped out but her dog wanted to keep playing and Toffee was just too tired. After J left, Toffee crashed out hard and just slept and slept. 

We got a lot packed, still have a lot to do. Geoff got home from work and I cheffed up dinner for us. We sat together in the living room and talked, ate. We put a bunch of stuff in the car, and the dog of course, and headed "home." it is weird to say which place is home. 

This is home. But the utensils and toaster are still at the other ... home. 

Tomorrow I hope we get an earlier start and get out the door sooner. I felt like my back was going to seize up after a couple hours cleaning and packing. So wiped. 

I'm getting too old for this shit! 

The amazing news is we got home and C sent yet another amazing box filled with Bagels and Cream Cheese! The toaster is at the other house though. But we did bring the coffee maker up with us, so we don't have to go to Sheetz for more coffee. We'll take some down with us to the other house, and enjoy. For sure.

Two days worth of digits below this picture of my favorites.

Tuesday digits

exercise: 12/12 hours.  No measured exercise, but, over 18k steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

6am: 108
5pm: 105
9pm: 168

food & meds:
6am: jardiance+phentermine
1pm: protein bar
2pm: met+glip
7pm: big greek salad+2 pieces of stromboli
9pm: met+glip

Wednesday digits

exercise: 12/12 hours.  3 measured walks, unpacking & moving boxes around, 19 min/.69 mi; more moving shit around, 39 min/.83 mi. at the old house, 39 min/.78 mi. whew. 14k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

7:30am: 146
5pm: 101
10:30pm: 143

food & meds:
7:30am: jardiance+phentermine
9am: 2 breakfast sandwiches from Sheetz
1pm: more of the greek salad but no stromboli
2pm: met+glip
6pm: bowl of rotini w/ sausage sauce
8:30pm: met+glip
white wine
9pm: pita chips & hummus