Gotta Love A Parade

We left our hotel and walked towards the hospital. Only when we walked out, there was a parade. A great big Christmas parade. It took us a lot longer to get to the hotel than we planned but it was worth it to see all the shenanigans. 

Doug and I went into visit John first and he was out cold, and out of it. We ended up getting booted while they did some medical stuff for him, and we waited in the family waiting room. 

Doug opted to go for a walk, Linda and I were hungry, and Bill was going to the apartment to look for some stuff that John wanted him to grab. 

Linda and I went down to visit and he was awake, alert, aware. We had a good chat, and watched some football together. Bill came back from the apartment, and we had some more time together before John nodded off and we opted to head out. 

Bill went to his hotel and we went to ours. Doug was napping so Lin and I hit the bar in the lobby. It was hopping, a big huge office holiday party, lots of people everywhere. Very dressed up, very fancy, looking good.

A couple sat with us, they were passing by on their way home to Maryland. Next thing you know we're just laughing and telling stories. Linda can talk to a coat rack and make it laugh and have a good time. 

Eventually I needed some protein so I ordered us burgers from the bar rather than us schlep out and explore and find food. 

I needed to do steps, and Linda found more people to talk to (we entertained them by doing accents). and I came up to check in. Doug wasn't hungry, so I did steps up and down the hall instead of going to the gym. 

Initially the plan was for John to go to the nursing facility tomorrow, but that has been moved back to Monday. None of us will be with him for the move so I hope everything goes smoothly. 

We are meeting in the morning to go to breakfast and then back to John for a final visit before heading home. Bill's flight is about 10pm tomorrow, so he'll be here for the full day. Wishing him the best. 

Bedtime. Digits below. I took a bunch of pictures but am too tired to go through them. Here's the Grinch shooting fire into the air. You know, like the Grinch would.

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours.  a few measurable walks but I won't write them out. 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

9am: 115
n/apm: n/a
10pm: 129

food & meds:
11am: phentermine+jardiance
2pm: bowl of cream of broccoli soup and chicken bacon sammitch from Panera
4:30pm: met+glip
5:30pm: wine. wine wine wine 
7:30pm: cookies from Panera
8pm: met+glip. cheeseburger w/tomato, lettuce, a few fries, no roll

Well isn't that just something

We left our house just before noon and made great time to Richmond. We checked into the hotel and connected with my cousin Bill. He told us where to get to the hospital, what floor, etc and said to text him when we were at the Panera. 

We got together, had a chat in the hallway. It seems that Sunday is when he'll be transferred to a facility to hospice him. Bill flies home Sunday night. We can leave whenever to head back north. We'll play everything by ear. If he is still around next weekend.... I'll come down again

Bill took us up to John's room, they were more strict than previous nights and told us that only two of us could visit in the room at a time. Bill had been there all day so he was happy to go hang in the family room, with Doug. Linda and I went in to be with John. 

He was mostly asleep when we got there, but we held his hands and sat quietly until he started to stir. He was happy we were there, squeezed our hands in silence. We just sat there. Harry Potter was on TV. The one with the time traveling and the hour glass. It felt appropriate and funny. 

He started chatting and said "How the fuck .... did I perforate my bowel?" 

Absolutely the best question. 

With everything going on with his body, this? Of all things. This? This is the thing. Jesus. I recalled that he had texted me the weekend before Thanksgiving to say he was throwing up a lot, and I thought that was just a natural byproduct of everything he was going through but yeah. There it is. He's not got a stomach bug, or anything else, this is his body shutting down. He had called a friend to take him to the emergency room after a few days. I can't say I could have said "oh, I should run down there" or something, because honestly, throwing up is sometimes just part of things and life. But that's how they got him figured out. And got him to where he is today.

We chatted about a bunch of things, a lot of music like Phish and his favorite songs. I mentioned "If I could I would," and he said that's his favorite. He asked me if I had the Joy Box he gave me, and if I looked at the posters. I told him I did, but truthfully I hadn't - because I didn't want to take them out of their packaging but I may want to frame them and go for it. We talked about how Linda does not have any love for Jam Bands but is willing to try some Phish. I have an easy "starter kit" list of songs to introduce people to Phish that I love. 

He and Linda got to sharing some pictures and talking about when we were kids. John had some pictures on his phone that I would love to have, so tomorrow I'm going to text them to myself. 

After about an hour he politely kicked us out. He was wiped out, wanted some sleep, and we were happy to give him that. 

Billy and Doug were in the family waiting area, so we connected and walked from the hospital to the Capital Ale House for dinner. We swapped stories, Billy told us a couple doozies and Linda had a great one about our mom. 

Honestly had a napkin over my face at one point because I was laughing so hard. 

It was pretty great. 

After dinner we headed back to our hotel, Doug went up to the room. Linz and I hit the bar because we did not have any wine (note to self...) and the bartender was super sweet. We talked with him a lot and then a guy came and sat down. He is from Ireland, works for NATO, and we just talked and talked about our country, and how if we can prove we have grandparents from Ireland, Ireland wants to give us Irish passports very very much. 

Well, okay. Let's look into that. 

I crawled up to my room around 10, wiped out, ready for a deep sleep. 

No pictures today but we'll get some tomorrow. After a good night's sleep. 

Digits below. 

 

digits

exercise: 10/12 hours. missed 12 and 2 being in the car.  3 measurable walks . Hotel to hospital, 17 min/.82 mi. Hospital to Capital Ale, 19 min/.89 mi. Capital Ale to hotel, 12 min/.5 mi. 11k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:
9am: 180
xpm: no afternoon reading
10pm: 171

food & meds:
9am: jardiance+phentermine
noon: atkins snack bar
2pm: some peanut m&ms, met+glip
6:30pm: some potatoes & sausage appetizer w/ cheese sauce; big huge steak salad w/bleu cheese; 2 beers
Hotel lobby, no exact times: 3 glasses of wine.
9pm:met+glip

61 day streak

Today we got our dishwasher hooked up. She ran on her maiden voyage and cleaned like a champ. She is beautiful. I may just cry a little. The handyman was awesome. He was here for almost two hours and we talked about screening in the porch in the spring. Oh my goodness, yes please. 

Funny thing about him, he told me he has 8 dogs. Two of them are brand new great dane puppies. I couldn't imagine. So no, Toffee was not annoying to him. He loved her. We had a great time. 

At one point when things were not going just right (the dishwasher flooded again, he thought the pump was broken but no - it was the positioning of the hose) he said to me "you're really easy going." It kind of made me laugh. I told him a long time ago I learned that nothing is worth freaking out over. There is always a solution, and we will get there. And we got there. I was satisfied.

"I've had people I worked for who would lose their minds over this," he said, "but I like how you're helpful and assisting me. You are right. We're giving it more than the old college try, and we'll get there."

I liked him. He'll be hired back for more things, I'm sure. 

Linda flew into Baltimore and we picked her up. Doug and I got a later start out the door than we intended but to be honest it was alright since she had to wait forever for her luggage. I was so happy he drove because I didn't sleep well last night, I don't see well in the dark, and some of the roads were difficult for me to see on the passenger's seat view. Happy to get to her, hug her, throw her in the car.

After the retrieval, we wanted to go downtown Ellicott City to Manor Hill Brewing because the beer is amazing and the food even more so, but we could not find a parking place anywhere. Nowhere. So we gave up and started to drive out of town. "Your loss, Ellicott City!" Doug yelled as we drove out of town.

We were willing to drive west for as far as we could until we saw the just right thing. For some reason, Doug started singing My Sharona when he saw a sign for a Schwarma restaurant.... "My my my my Sch-a-warma." That got stuck in all our heads. 

After a couple minutes driving west, we found the EC Diner, glowing like a chrome beacon on the side of the national pike. Hell yeah. Bang that U-ey Doug my may, and let's eat. 

It was Greek Night, and so I had the Lemon-Egg soup (so good) an open face gyro sandwich (too much rice, pitas were toasted too hard, but otherwise the meat and wee potatoes were delightful. And I got a dessert, which usually I'd eschew but. It was like baklava with a custard filling. Outstanding. I wish I remembered what it was called. It isn't on the menu on the website but I really enjoyed it.

Home, football, wine, toured the house with Linda so she could see it. I really wanted her to be my first house guest but it didn't work out. But she is here and I'm happy. 

We had time with Geoff which is fun. He was tired, and Doug started on the college courses thing with him. And I could tell Geoff didn't want to talk about it. I get it buddy. Let's talk in the morning. He needs to make a decision NOW so he doesn't miss another year of enrollment by missing the February deadline for his program. But we didn't need to talk about it tonight. 

At some point, I realized I only needed 1500 steps to 10k at about 11:15pm so I said do not break your streak, lady. Go do it. GO DO IT. It was cold out, very cold, but no wind. I can walk a ton in this weather. But you put a 5 mph breeze in my face and I'm out of here.

15 minutes later, done. Perfection. Playlist was the key. I even did the jogging thing (to "City Kids" by Karina Rykman, perfection).  I could have kept going but I wanted to hang out with the family. 

I feel like tomorrow and Sunday I'll have treadmill time at the hotel and I'm already looking forward to it.

Speaking of hotel... Tomorrow we head to Richmond. I spoke with my cousin Bill for a little while tonight after we got home. He's looking forward to spending time with us and he thought we were already in Richmond. Ope. Nope we are not.

He said John was asleep when he got to the hospital this afternoon, and that when he woke up he perked right up seeing his brother. He'll hopefully feel joy when he sees Linda, and well, maybe me too. And Doug, for sure. He likes Doug. They gave Billy a list of nursing homes to take a look at. One of John's friends is his medical proxy, so he's the decision maker and the two of them will hopefully be able to come up with a good decision for John's last place. Because that's truthfully what we're looking at.

Long day at work. But a lot of victories between getting that dishwasher all set and a successful run to the airport to retrieve Linz. 

More adventures tomorrow. No picture. Digits below.

digits

exercise: 10/12 hours. Missed 6 and 7 pm in the car.  10 min indoor walk between meetings. .53 mi. End of night quick walk, 15 min/.91 mi; 10k+ steps by bedtime (61 day streak. boom)

blood glucose:

7:45am: 148
4pm: 93
11:45pm: 171

food & meds:
7:45am: jardiance+phentermine
10am: 2 blueberry muffins (to get them out of the way before they went bad)
2pm: atkins protein shake; met+glip and 2nd glip on accident because it got stuck to my finger, it is tiny. oops)
7pm: greek dinner, a bunch of stuff too much rice and too much dessert. one glass of wine
10pm: Metformin (no glip since I took it on accident at 2pm) 
white wine

Hey Baby I'm Your Handyman

It was a very busy day. We're on deadline to finish a number of help documents, and I'm way behind. I worked late tonight to get 3 done. 

I can think of ways that AI could just do this. I started working on these documents at 4pm. Stopped without being fully finished at 10. 

I have to rewrite a number of articles because terminology has changed, screenshots are 4 years old, it is a lot. Also, some of the articles are too wordy, or not explainey enough. It's hard for me to not create fake content about my dog or Guster. They both slip in sometimes. 

This song is stuck in my head now. Doug let me know we should contact a handyman to finish off the diswasher. 

He said "I tried three times..." And I had to correct him. No. You tried five. He said no, three. 

I counted off. The first one you did while I was out walking the dog. I came back and you tried again. Then a third time. Then you changed the hose to the old hose just to see if it would work and it didn't, and then a fifth time, where you had the dishwasher laying down on her face. Five.

So trying a sixth time would be the definition of insanity. He checked to make sure we had the right part and we do. So. Let's call a ringer in. 

Also, I pointed to the giant pile of freshly washed towels I was folding. This is the result of five attempts at running the water into the washer. Five.

With his agreement and "blessing," as it were, I called a guy my realtor recommended. She gave me a handyman (this guy) and a fully licensed building contractor for when we're ready to do the bathroom. 

He's coming over between 8-8:30am tomorrow. He seems just as charming as the wildlife guy who came out a few weeks ago. 

Seems to be the style in these parts. 

Hopefully he can get us ironed out tomorrow, before we go to Richmond. I don't really mind doing the dishes. It is somewhat relaxing. But I did four sinks worth today (and I didn't finish tonight's dinner dishes, I worked instead) so I'll do those in the morning, or hey - I'll load up that dishwasher for her maiden voyage! 

Wish us luck.

Okay. Tired. Digits below what my kitchen looked like last night (the counters are cleaned as is the stove). She is pretty and she is going to be fun.

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. solo walk, 22 min/1.26 mi; 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:15am: 170
4:45pm: 135
10:45pm: 84

food & meds:
8:15am: jardiance+phentermine
11am: bowl of mac&cheese and hamburger
2pm: Met+glip. turkey on 647 bread w/mayo and dollop of cranberry sauce
6pm: steak and egg fried rice by Geoff (really good!) 
9pm: met+glip; pita chips & hummus
red wine

The Snow and The Dishwasher

Sometime after 4am the snow started. We got a trace amount, but schools were closed and the region is paralyzed. 

I woke up at 2:30 and went down to the guest bedroom. Put on the podcast as usual, eventually fell back asleep. I had a bad dream and woke up thinking the chair in the hallway was a person standing there looking at me, so that was kind of a jolt. I was up fully as a result at 7. 

Because we were planning on the delivery guys coming at some point with the dishwasher, I wanted to get the laundry washed and I put it on. Started the coffee. Stood and admired the snow. Waited for miss Toffee to come downstairs to get her big outside surprise. 

And she was surprised. It was adorable.

The snow changed to rain around 8. And she hates the rain so there was no going off the porch for her. Happy to stand and look. Eventually she did go out and did her thing. 

One can hold it only for so long. I mixed up some blueberry muffins because I was up so early. Just because. Sorry, today's blood sugar.

Work was busy, some good meetings and discussions. I didn't get some of the help documentation things I wanted to get done, but I did close some old tickets that I didn't know why they were still open. Followed up on a few of them to find out the people still needed some help. Glad I asked on some of those old cases to see where things were.

Our dishwasher was delivered, and somehow it is stainless steel. Doug had ordered white, because he didn't want to have a stainless steel dishwasher, white stove, and white fridge. The fridge & stove work wonderfully so there is no need to replace them. 

He asked me if I was mad. I said no - I actually preferred the stainless and we had a whole big discussion about ordering that the other day. 

I asked him if he was mad and he said yes because he thinks we got the wrong parts to go with the dishwasher. Or. We got the right parts to go with the one we thought we bought, but it is the wrong dishwasher. 

I asked if he was sure he ordered a white one and he checked the order. Yup. He did. 

Okay then. I'm not mad and he's not mad enough to call and get it picked up and taken away. So 1/3 of the kitchen appliances will be stainless and we wait to see how long we go with the others. And tomorrow he'll figure out the parts.

To be honest here, friends, I'd love the fridge to go to the basement for keeping food for storage. Disconnect the icemaker, use the freezer, she runs exceptionally cold - we can keep food in there for a good long time that we don't need upstairs immediately. I'd be down with that. 

He said we're not in the market for a fridge at the moment, so I'll wait. Happily. I'll wait. 

I made homemade meatballs and pasta & sauce for dinner. Oh and my blueberry muffins were great. 

Digits below.

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. 25 min walk with Toffee 1.4 miles; 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

7:30am: 120
4:30pm: 141
11pm: 159

food & meds:
7:30am: jardiance+phentermine
11:30am: english muffin w/pb & low sugar j
1:15pm: met+glip; zero sugar yogurt+granola bar
4:30pm: blueberry muffin
7:30pm: meatballs, pasta & sauce; another blueberry muffin
8:30pm: met+glip
9pm: blueberry muffin
white wine

Trip to Richmond

My cousin John is not doing well. 

Y'all know I spent time with him in the summer for his radiation and all that. Good news is the radiation shrank his tumor on his hip. Bad news is the shrinking tumor broke his hip. He messaged me repeatedly over the weeks saying how much pain he was in and how the doctors/hospital were not helping him manage his pain. They were not taking him seriously. I felt bad but there was nothing I could do for him but encourage him to keep at them. 

They didn't realize until late September when he had his follow up scans that his hip was broken. Uh, oops?

Well yeah. Good job, assholes. Someone give this guy some pain killers for fuck's sake. 

When he and I spoke last, it was a couple weeks after we'd moved in here. I'd been incredibly busy and exhausted. He'd text me and I'd either not reply or send back "i'm sorry to hear that," or something else simple. 

One day I took a break and called him. He let me know about the broken hip, and how he had been yelling at them about how much pain he was in, and they said "that's normal." So he felt wildly vindictively JUSTIFIED in his brutal anger at them when he let them have it. This is and was not normal. The fuck did you think, people?

Anyway... he was going to see an orthopaedic oncologist. Doug said they'd probably do a hip replacement. And I said well fuck? Why didn't they do a hip replacement in the first fucking place when he got a fucking tumor on his fucking hip?

I don't understand medical shit sometimes. I don't understand.

He said he had to go, his friend was there with dinner. He'd call me back. Anyway. I didn't hear back from him. 

Last week, his brother messaged the cousin group to say John had a perforated bowel, was going in for emergency surgery, and if he survived the surgery was not going to continue cancer treatments. He'll enter into palliative care instead. But to be honest, he should maybe be transitioning to hospice. Maybe that is exactly what it is. But for right now he's in the ICU.

So. 

That said.

Huh. 

When we last saw each other in July, it didn't end well. If you want you can go back and read about our final afternoon together. 

If you don't want to go back and read, the short version is I ended up leaving in a state of fury about shit he said. I still don't want to talk about it. A few people know what went down. But he and I never cleared the air on it. I wanted an acknowledgement and apology from him. Everyone who knows him that I've shared this with said he never will acknowledge or apologize. 

I have a couple choices - just forget that he said incredibly horrible racist (and other things) and move on with my life. I could bring it up and press it to see if he'd realize that he said horrible things that were super horrible. 

Or I could just ignore it and let it go. What good does it do?

I talked about this extensively with my best girl at work, someone I value as a best best friend. My work wife. My soul mate. Who happens to be black. 

She asked in July "If he called you and needed you, would you go to help?"

In July, I told her I didn't know if I would or not. 

So it is almost December, nothing is really different aside from the fact he is most likely going to die very soon. His brother went to visit him a couple weeks ago and said he didn't think he'd make it to Christmas and well, that's probably the best prediction of the truth there could be. None of us banked on a perforated bowel being the thing that would probably hasten the situation. But. Here we are. 

Linda is flying in on Thursday. She, Doug, and I will head to Richmond Friday morning. His brother will already be there, I think he's going down on  Thursday.  We'll get back up here Sunday and get Linda to the airport to go home Monday. A little bit of a whirlwind tour. Not what I imagined for her first visit to the new house.

To be honest, Doug thinks we're going to be too late. And sometimes Doug's medical intuition is spot on. But we'll see. We'll see. And if nothing else, we can maybe just help pack up his stuff in his apartment? 

I have boxes. So many boxes. I save boxes when the vast majority of folks will pitch them or recycle them. But I've got 'em. I was going to start collapsing them into each other for storage. Still can.

So that's the muppet update there with that whole scene. More later on things. Not a great picture but this was the last time the 8 of us were together. At gammy's funeral. Back in the day. I'm top left, John is next to me. He's half that size now. He'd be quick to mention that. "Cancer is a hell of a weight loss program."

Digits below.

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. 10 min indoor walk between meetings/.46 mi. 20 minute outdoor freezing my ass off walk, 1.25 miles. 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:15am: 140
5pm: 100
11pm: 110

food & meds:
8:15am: jardiance+phentermine
10:45am: english muffin w/pb & low sugar j
2pm: met+glip
2:45pm: 2 pieces of left over quiche (sausage, red pepper, goat cheese)
6pm: some sort of chicken and rice concoction with sauteed mushrooms (a la Geoff). Red wine.
9pm: Met+glip (almost forgot to take).

Back to the Planet with You!

Last day of a holiday break for us. I wish I had a couple more days. But it was a very good break, and I did zero work after I shut my laptop on Wednesday. That's new for me.

We woke up to a light coating of snow, mostly on the cars but nothing really on the roads or sidewalks. I laughed thinking that this would close schools for tomorrow in our former county. Literally. 

We may get 3 inches of snow Tuesday. We're paying close attention to the prognostications. They are pretty much always wrong. Always. They get so excited in these parts for snow, that they do a big BOOM forecast that is an absolute BUST in the end. 

But now we live 2 hours out of DC, in the mountains, and the likelihood of there actually being actual snow is actually a reality actually. 

We'll see. 

Doug set to putting the second bookcase together and I stayed out of his way, waiting for him to call me in to help put the shelves in place. Instead he came out at 1 to watch football, and fell asleep. 

huh. Okay. 

It was too cold feeling out there with a wind and all to take Toffee for a walk, so in order to continue my 10k+ streak (I'm at like day 56 or something) I opted to go to the gym.

I hadn't been to the gym since June, maybe once I think... If you recall, I had broken my toes falling down the stairs at C's cabin, and my right foot couldn't really deal with real substantial walks. By August things were better, but then we were in packing mode. 

I transferred my membership to the gym here in town before we even moved, and just hadn't gone yet. We have such good opportunities for walking around here that I just have not thought on the gym.

Today was the "you really have no excuse, do you? Just go" moment. 

It is a much smaller gym than my last one, super nice staff, there wasn't any football on TV so that was slightly disappointing but they had Law & Order SVU with captions on, and the original Willy Wonka right next to it. Seems like a good spot, away from all the news stations. 

Put on a Phish and Friends playlist, most of the songs were on the faster side which was good. Nice Blues Traveler and My Morning Jacket tunes thrown in and a really good fast and kind of angry one from Rusted Root that I didn't recognize. 

I put in a solid half hour, jogged a bunch of it, and got to over a mile and a half. 

On the way home, I stopped at a little store in downtown that opened in October that I'd been meaning to go to. Jess and I tried to go there on Friday but it was 2 pm and they didn't open until 4 (uh. Black Friday? Foot Traffic? Maybe?)  It's kind of a hippie gift store and I had been wanting to check the vibe. It was super cute, I'll be back. Oh and it has a bar attached to it. Shut up and take my money! 

I got home and the book shelf wasn't finished, Geoff was making dinner. Toffee greeted me, and I noticed it had stopped being windy at least, and the thermometer in the car said it was 46, which felt like a lie. It felt much colder than that. 

She needed a walk so I put the harness on and we did the block. I usually do that walk in 10 min but we moved fast, so it was 8 min. Boom. Happy dog. 

Now to face this week. I have to give a presentation with a colleague tomorrow and have not finished my slides. Oops. I'll aim for up early and finishing. Best I can do. Not doing it at 11pm right now. That's stupid. 

Digits below my big head. Had to take a selfie for proof of life. 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. 30 min treadmill/1.62mi. 8 min quick paced Toffee walk/.4 mi. 11k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:30am: 117
4:3opm: 107
10:30pm: 179*
(pasta for dinner and a slice of pie will do that to ya).

food & meds:
8:30am: jardiance+phentermine
9am: 2 entenmann's devils food chocolate covered donuts (wanted to get the box out of the way, naturally)
1pm: turkey sandwich w/mayo on 647 white bread; met+glip
5:30pm: large bowl of chicken and pasta fra diavlo (a la Geoff). White wine
7pm: slab of pumpkin pie
8:45pm: met+glip

Single Digit Hours for Departure

This morning I made brekkie sammitches for the fam, with Jess assisting on toaster and sausage microwave action. We had music playing, the only thing missing was mimosas. But Jess needed to go home today anyway so mimosas wouldn't work for them before going. 

It is a running gag with us that we always try to leave during the single digit hours, meaning 9am is the latest to go unless.... you want to get to 1pm. It was after 10 when Jess started loading up the car, and we said that's close enough. Good job.

We did a side quest to the dog park so Dijon could get some energy out before eleven thousand hours en route in car, and Toffee could have a little more time with her best buddy. 

I believe Jess hit the road around 12:30, which is before the next single digit hours start. So this is good.

Toffee was very very sad when we got back to the house and she was alone. 

Jess texted me around 9:30pm saying they were on the Mass Pike, sick of the trip, Dijon was "over it," and I can just imagine how unhappy she was. 

As much as I miss them already, I'm glad they went today. Starting around 3am we're expecting sleet and freezing rain, and up into Pennsylvania ... snow. So yeah. Mom does not like the babies on the road if that's the case. Tomorrow could be extra shitty for holiday travelers.

Trying to figure out when we'll see each other again. 

Doug took a nap and I took a walk. There was no wind, and it was cold but... tolerable. I went on a big loop and almost took another block but was getting bored. I ran for some of it, and my usual mile in 20 minutes was 1.25 in 21 min. 

I impressed myself. 

I hope tomorrow isn't too bad weather wise, but maybe I'll actually go to the gym instead. For a change. Maybe?

After I got home, I took a well needed shower, and chatted with Linda. While we were talking, I realized we didn't take a single picture while Jess was here and I was a little sad. But I also remembered that there were times in life for years and years where zero pictures were ever taken. We'll live and get some pictures another time. 

I did get this picture of Toffee while I was chatting with Linz, where she cuddled up next to me like a croissant, and moaning and sighing because Dijon was gone. Sad Toffee was sad. 

I feel you bean. I feel you. Digits below.

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. 21 minute walk/jog, 1.23 mi. 11k+steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8am: 148
4:45pm: 72
10:45pm: 125

food & meds:
8am: jardiance+phentermine
10:30am: brekkie sammitch. english muffin w/ egg and 2 sausage patties, 2 slices of American cheese
1pm: met+glip
5pm: slice of pumpkin pie. ramekin of mixed nuts
6pm: bowl of mac&cheese w/bacon
7pm: dinner roll with turkey, mayo, cranberry sauce
8:30pm: met+glip

When Black Friday Comes

Earworm of the day is the Steely Dan Classic "Black Friday," because, it is of course, the day after Thanksgiving. Hat tip to this journal entry from someone I found with a google search on this very topic, how this is what we think of, not shopping. 

I do not understand the concept of waiting on line for stores to open, either at midnight or 6am. Black Friday sales are nothing but a marketing scam. The latest thing is all the "We're starting Black Friday Early this year" advertising that started last week. Son, if you're starting Black Friday Early, then it isn't Black Friday. It is something else. And if you can afford to do that, Black Friday isn't special for any reason anymore. You've ruined it. 

So just go jam out to Steely Dan instead. 

I woke up this morning at 9, which is late. And the house was very quiet. And even Doug was still in bed. Toffee has been sleeping with Jess and Dijon in the guest room so ... okay dog. Way to abandon me but also... thank you. Having my whole side of the bed to myself is kind of nice sometimes. 

The dogs had woken up before 8am when the trash truck came down the road (oh - I just remembered the barrels are still out, and I think one is in the actual street. Oops. Well. I'll have Geoff rescue them in the morning...) So they were up and wrasslin in the bed. Jess got up to pee, fed them, let them out, and everyone went back to bed. 

Geoff came up at like 8:30 and got himself a cup of coffee and went back downstairs. 

We all just had a good quiet morning. So when I went down they tried to trick me into second breakfast like they're a couple of Hobbits or some shit. Ha. We have a sign that says "Dog has been fed" and Jess had flipped it over to indicate thus. 

Can't fool me, girls. 

I started my day by setting up our online mortgage company payment thingie, since today is the day the mortgage was due (glad I looked at the statement and didn't just write the check and put it in the mail). I was delayed in doing this because we made one mortgage payment and then our mortgage company sold us to another company. So stupid, so fast. Hey, at least it was not a certain evil bank, they sold us to someone I don't even know... never heard of. And the online portal was super easy to set up. Done and dusted. 

Then I set up the new payment portal for my mom's lot rent. I've been paying her lot rent online for 3 or 4 years at this point, and the mobile home park changed service providers. Last night I had to ask her for her banking info and she gave me wildly wrong digits. Thankfully my sister had a copy of a bank statement or record that had the routing and account numbers and I got her hooked up. 

It was a fruitful morning of online banking!

We loafed about. I washed more dishes while my family (mostly my son, to be honest) created more dirty dishes for me to wash. I got down to the giant stock pots and the roasting pan by the afternoon. Light at the end of the tunnel. 

To be honest, I do not hate washing dishes. It is relaxing, and I like putting sparkling clean glasses up into the cabinet and plates without food stuck to them on the shelves. I'll be hopeful that the new dishwasher does as good a job as I am doing. 

Doug wanted to watch football and not go out and do stuff, but Jess and I decided to go out on the town. First stop: the brand new Savers market in the plaza near our house. We had fun browsing, I found a dish for the kitchen sponge so it can sit somewhere cute on the back of the sink. Jess got a most gianormous water bottle and a lil'milk frother. We drove past the first house that Doug and I looked at and I think someone bought it. I really like that neighborhood, and kind of am a little sad we didn't get her, but, I'm also very happy here in this house. 

We drove around downtown, tried to go to a brand new store that opened in late October but all the lights were on, and none of the doors were unlocked. Closed? I then noticed on their facebook page they have a picture saying "we haven't had a customer in days, and if it stays this way, we'll be closed by the end of the year."

Um. Okay. You're closed on Black Friday and I'm literally out doing the one thing I never do on Black Friday, and I'm shopping. But you're closed. 

We ended up at the downtown brewery, sat and chatted for 2 hours. Jess told me all about their friend who is getting married in May and her family/friends drama. Got all caught up on that scene. We drove around the area where my house is, sat in the parking lot at the park because Jess had more hot goss for me about other things, and I knew if we went back to the house we couldn't talk this freely because Doug would ask questions, or chime in with opinions. 

And that wasn't the purpose of the conversation. It was for Jess to be able to speak freely about some things. And for me to listen. 

Home, and no one had started dinner. But. We had left overs to bridge that gap. 

I whipped up all the carbs. And then I had cake. Do not regret that ... it was spectacular. 

Jess is aiming to leave before 10am tomorrow. I will be very sad to see them go, and my dog will be sad to lose Dijon. 

Get you a best friend that will stand on hind legs and bark at the squirrels with you. Digits below.

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Quick indoor 11 min/.5 mile walk. 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

9am: 133
5pm: 128
10pm: 194

food & meds:
9am: jardiance+phentermine
noon: everything bagel w/cream cheese
1:30pm: met+glip
3pm: 2 beers at the brewery with jess
6pm: turkey in gravy over kings hawaiian slider rolls w/stuffing and mashed potatoes; 2 beers
7pm: slice of chocolate peanut butter cake (worth it, even if the blood sugar is mad)
9pm: met+glip

Thanksgiving 2025 is in the books

As per our usual slacker holiday style, I got up and baked two pies that in theory I could have baked last night. Geoff peeled potatoes and I had them set aside. Doug got the turkey out of the cooler, and she was thawed fully but not at any sort of dangerous temperature. He did the math, and said it would be ready at 2:30pm. 

There was a four hour window of us not needing to do anything. Jess went and napped with Dijon, Doug was playing on his phone. I figured if I wanted to keep my 10k+ step streak going (we're on day... 55?) I should go out and take myself for a walk. 

It was so fucking cold out. I feel like I have become a coldness wimp, but, dudes. With the wind, it was barely tolerable. I walked over by the senior center in our neighborhood, and back.Mostly flat terrain, no real hills, and I can jog a little. The playlist was helpful, and when I got close to the house I was enjoying a song by the band Muse that I like, so I continued walking up and down my little street for a couple more minutes to just listen. Doug was standing on the porch when I came back by, so I went in with him to talk next phase. 

Potatoes, stuffing, lima beans, serve the food, eat the food, rejoice.

The turkey was very done at 2:30pm. We should have taken her out at 1:30, to be honest. She wasn't burned or anything, but, honestly... a tiny bit dry.

But that's what gravy is for, amirite? No complaints from me.

My pie was a big hit, as was the chocolate cake that Doug picked up at the dutch market in Hagerstown. I skipped dessert, figured my blood sugar would be mad enough at me by the time I took it (and yes, it was, see the digits below). Maybe I'll have a little slice of something tomorrow, you know... as a treat. 

The bummer thing is that the dishwasher is broken so "we" meaning me, your friend Chris, is handwashing all the dishes. Doug put the turkey on the stove for stock, and I did four full sinks full of dishes before I said "everything else can wait until tomorrow."

Normally I hate going to bed if there are dishes in the sink but,  meh. So it'll be alright.

The dogs had a great day today. There was a lot of playing, a lot of wrasslin', kitchen treats, all that jazz. They both slept with Jess last night, which is hilarious. 

I told Doug we need a second dog... for her. He said no. But. Yeah. We should maybe think about that. 

Alright. Here is a picture of my "mom-mosa," which is champagne with a spoonful of cranberry sauce in it. Not ... the greatest thing I've ever thought of but it wasn't the worst thing I've ever thought of. 

Digits below! 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. solo incredibly cold walk, 24 min/1.36mi. 11k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8am: 117
5pm: 269*
9:45pm: 139

food & meds:
8am: jardiance+phentermine
2pm: everything bagel w/cream cheese; met+glip
3pm: turkey dinner, with potatoes, stuffing, gravy, lima beans, cranberry sauce, red wine
8:30pm: met+glip
mimosas while doing dishes

A Good Day

Last night went pretty well. We went to bed around midnight and Jess closed the bedroom door to keep the dog in. Around 5am my neighbors' hounds came out and there was barking. Dijon heard them and barked. Toffee heard her and went downstairs. 

Jess then became [unwillingly] tasked with letting them out around 6am, because they both insisted. Thankfully the neighbor dogs were inside. No more barking.

They all got back in bed, Toffee too, and peace was restored to the kingdom. I woke up at 7:30 or so. Geoff was puttering around the kitchen because he had a job interview in person today. He was up and getting ready. I made the coffee and the dogs heard me - so they wanted breakfast. 

They ate right next to each other - no fighting, no trying to see what the other dog had in their bowl. We went outside. Work got started. I ended up coming into the dining room because the living room was full of humans and dogs wrasslin (well, no humans were wrasslin, just dogs). 

We decided that we need a new dishwasher, after I ran a load last night and nothing came out clean. Nothing. I filled the sink with sudsy water and Doug ordered a machine from Lowes. It will arrive Tuesday. Handwashing for the next several days. I can do that. Considering I handwash a lot anyway for Thanksgiving or Christmas because we use our nice china those meals. 

Doug says he's installing the dishwasher and now I'm nervous. I don't want this to turn into a thing. Like, a big thing. A yelling thing. Because I think he should have a contractor do it. But he's confident he can. I want to believe in him but I know better.

Pray for me.

I also bought our tickets for Guster's On The Ocean 2026, which happens August 7-9. So I'll be planning a trip then (hi C!). 

Doug and Jess went out on the town. Lunch and a nice pub in town, and a bookstore. They spent two hours at the bookstore and Jess put a pic of Doug on instagram that said "I didn't stand a chance with this dad..." 

True. True true. 

They went to Target for my giant shopping list, thankfully, so I have all the things I'm going to need tomorrow. Like a dish strainer. Amen and Amen. 

Jess also brought us steak tips from Market Basket up north. I think I've mentioned here that they do not know what "steak tips" are here in Maryland, so, whenever possible we have them shuttled down to us. They're not cheap, but they are literally my favorite. While the team was out, I made a marinade and set them out to soak. And Jess made us a salad, and we had a nice dinner at the table together.

The weather was perfect tonight for grilling, about 50 degrees but a little breezy. I was happy to sit out on the patio while they cooked. Tomorrow should be 30 degrees colder, and not good for outdoor activities. I think we'll be lucky to get the dogs walked. 

We've got all we need for tomorrow. Food wise. We may be running low on wine but we'll survive. Nothing is open tomorrow booze wise, but we have vodka? and I can get cranberry juice at Weis when Jess and I go to get brussels sprouts for a recipe they want to make. I've got 4 pie crusts, 2 for pumpkin and one for a dutch apple. I'll get those rolling in the morning. Early. And. I want to make sure that turkey is fully thawed... so it is going into some water for a final couple hours early. 

Wish me luck. 

Anyway, digits below this dog who loves me and is having the time of her life here at our place. 

digits

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

blood glucose:

7:30am: 122
5pm: 139
10pm: 109

food & meds:
7:30am: jardiance+phentermine
12:30pm: pb on 647 bread
1:30pm: met+glip
6:30pm: steak tips over salad; oatmeal whoopie pie
8:30pm: met+glip
vodka+diet cranberry

Will it thaw or will we die?

On Sunday, I bought the thanksgiving fixin's. I bought a frozen turkey. Doug and I had a disagreement about this. He asked if they had fresh turkeys. 

The discussion went something like this:

Me: Yes, but they were 99 cents a pound. Frozen is 29 cents a pound. 

D: So, to save money, you bought a frozen turkey. 

Me: Yes. Do you think it will thaw in time for Thursday? 

D: Why didn't you just buy a fresh turkey?

Me: Because I thought you'd be mad that I spent so much more for a fresh turkey per pound. 

D: But we'd be eating on Thursday without question or issue, it's a dollar a pound. Twenty bucks. 

Me: I don't understand you. You're the guy who buys something on the internet and to save 32 bucks you buy it from some shady ass outfit that still hasn't shipped the thing to you when you bought it six weeks ago, when if you'd just paid the 32 bucks more on Amazon, you'd have it and we'd have the project done that you wanted to do, but no. You have to save 32 bucks. You get mad at Geoff if he buys the not-store brand version of a thing, or buys organic salad instead of not organic salad because it is a whole dollar more. I was trying to buy the turkey based on what Doug would do. Also. I told you I wanted YOU to go do the Thanksgiving shopping because I always do something wrong and always buy something you don't like. So why didn't you just go buy things, and buy a fresh turkey yourself.

More argument and debate ensued, and I told him I'd go return it and buy a fresh one. But he said no, and he went and got the cooler from the shed. 

The thawing began. 

The rule of thumb, from what I recall, is the turkey needs 24 hours per 5 pounds. It's an 18 pound turkey. By mathematics it will be ready for Thursday. 

Or. Close to it. 

The cooler is in the kitchen, the frozen turkey made the cooler refrigerator-level temperature cool through this morning. We have a thermometer in there, and when I got up this morning it was measuring a little warmer than refrigerator-level cool. So ... in went to frozen bricks from the freezer. I keep these freezer blocks that things have come to my house with, shipped from Goldbelly or elsewhere, so we don't have to use up all our ice cubes. (Thanks, past me). This cooled the cooler back down to a normal temperature. 

She's thawed on the surface. You can poke her, and she gives way. I'm planning on taking her out tomorrow, and if there is anything in the cavity, like the giblets or whatever, I'll take those out to reduce the frozen-ness of the middle. 

We've got this. Right? We've got this. I've thawed a turkey before. 

But of course my brain. 

My brain is all "it's never going to thaw. She will be thawed on Saturday. I should just make reservations at the mexican restaurant thanksgiving buffet right now. 22 bucks a person." 

Doug was right. What's a dollar a pound vs. 29 cents a pound. Why didn't I just buy fresh. Why don't I just go out now and buy another one, and we'll eat this next week. 

Stress. 

Another quiet work day, I had an hour call with a client that turned into 2 hours because I had the time, no other conflicts, and we were getting a lot done. I stripped the guest bed, sheets into the laundry. I finished cleaning off the dining table. Cleaned that too, 

Lately my dishwasher has not been doing a good job. On top of the fact it does not heat dry, everything is just coming out dirty. So I took the bottom apart, removed the strainer and the filter, scrubbed it all cursing and swearing the entire time. Fucking disgusting. And I did this when we moved in, too. 

Recently I reached out to two different appliance repair shops and neither got back to me. Asswipes. I have to get this looked at and see if it can be repaired or if we need a new one. I kind of can't go back to washing dishes all the time. My life isn't cut out for that anymore. 

Doug and I decided we need a new washing machine, so he's ordering one and I think he's planning on installing it himself. Which terrifies me. I want him to order it and get it installed. Please Lord, make him listen to me. 

Jess arrived with their dog and we had a ton of dog play fun with miss Toffee and miss Dijon. Late came fast, and before we knew it bedtime hit us in the face. 

Hoping for some good dog pictures tomorrow. Doug has tomorrow off but I do not, so he and Jess will maybe go do some things together while I work. We'll see. 

In the meantime, digits below. 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. quick indoor walk, 10 min/.47 mi. Another inside walk while Doug went for pizza, 15 min/.67 mi. 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

7:45am: 97
4:45pm: 94
11:30pm: 107

food & meds:
7:45am: jardiance+phentermine
8am: entenmann's devils' food chocolate donut
1pm: pb & low sugar j on 647 white bread; met+glip
7pm: slice of pizza & 1/2 a meatball sub; red wine+diet ginger ale
8:30pm: met+glip

The review of the loaf

This morning, Doug got out The Loaf from last night's baking. He had a slice off the end and then went back for a second... the middle was not cooked through, weirdly. Considering your girl of course inserted a thing to test and it came back clean. 

No matter - he said it was delicious. So I had to test and try a slice myself. And yes. It is delicious. Would make a damn good muffin. 

My struggle last night was with not knowing where the muffin tins were. I have 2 big muffin ones and 2 tiny muffin ones. I thought these would kick ass as tiny muffins. 

But where the hell were they? I gave up looking, and defaulted to a plan b approach of loaf. 

At about 2am, I woke up and said "oh yeah, they're in that cabinet on the right side of the sink. The tall skinny cabinet designed for sheet pans and other things... you slid them in there with such joy. You finally have a wonderful place to store them. Huzzah, right? Only you forgot that cabinet even existed." 

The morning revealed them there, along with the second glass pie plate, and the christmas cookie plate. What once was lost now is found. Hallelujah Amen.

And in my search last night for the muffin tins, I also found the cookie/ice cream scoops that I misplaced. Hell yeah. They weren't in with all the baking things ... for some reason they are in with the grilling things. Of Course. Who did that!

I have so many cabinets in this kitchen that my organizational dreams can come true if only I remember to put things where they actually go. 

Growing. Evolving. Learning. We got this. 

I took myself at 12:30 to get the bloodwork done, and went to the bank. Sure enough the issue yesterday was I was using my debit card that they said was good until February of next year. I activated the new one, it's nice to have a tappy card since so many things anymore are tappy. 

While Doug was napping I took myself for a walk. And I should have pushed a little further because I was way short by 6pm, and had to do a second walk. This time with the dog to get some pokemon things out in the world. 

Geoff made dinner. I have to figure out tomorrow's dinner because he made tomorrow's dinner tonight. I'll run out to the store during the day. Normally I do not run errands during the work day, but this is a very quiet time. I feel less guilty. 

And I do believe Jess will be here this time tomorrow. I have some tidying up to do for the guest room but things are relatively under control around here. 

It was a good day.

Digits below the image. 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Quick walk.16 min/.92 mi. Second walk with the dog, 10 min/.55 mi. 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:30am: 144
4:40pm: 104
10:45pm: 118

food & meds:
8:30am: jardiance+phentermine
10am: slice of apple breadloafmuffin thing w/butter
2:30pm: peanut butter on 647 wheat; met+glip
5:30pm: nachos. Ground beef, tostito chips toasted w/cheese, guac, sour cream, queso dip; red wine
9:45pm: Met+glip (almost forgot!) 

Lump and Loaf

This morning we decided we'd go to the city one town over to go to the bank and deposit our checks. Doug's mom gave him a very generous gift. And my mom gave me a birthday check.

When we got to the bank we discovered the "deposit" button on the screen was blanked out. Not sure why except that I haven't yet activated my NEW card for this NEW bank, after being told this card will work perfectly until I activate the new card. 

I haven't yet, because I need to make sure I account for anything out there that is pulling from the "old" debit card, and I have not yet. So. That's on the list of things to do first thing tomorrow. 

I do need to get bloodwork done tomorrow and that destination city is where I go - so IF I get my shit together and check any auto withdrawals on the old bank card, then I can go make the deposit. 

Anyway.

In addition to this failed errand we were planning to take a walk.  Doug figured we should go to Catoctin Furnace to check it all out. We took a leisurely walk, stopping to read all the informative signs about the place. The park is bisected by Rte 15 - straight up the middle. So there was a cool bridge to go over to get to the other side. Toffee was fascinated by the vehicles zooming under us. It was rather amusing. 

Just under a 2 mile loop. It was good to be out, and not cold... yet. 

We drove up through Cunningham Falls State Park, and initially he wanted for us to walk the quarter mile to the falls from the parking lot but it was going to be dark by the time we got back to the car, and that would be no fun. 

A stop for some new apples for baking things, home for football. I went to the market to get stuff for Thanksgiving, and make a quiche. It came out quite good. 

I had a recipe for apple muffins but again - missing things like the fucking muffin tins. So I opted to make an apple bread from the batter. Only I had too much batter... and put some in a square pan in a big plop. 

So we have a lump and a loaf. It wasn't bad, muffins would have come out much better. With a dollp of vanilla ice cream it was mighty fine in the end. 

Short week ahead, and I'm glad for it. Got things to do to get ready for Jess' visit! Can't wait to see them. 

Digits below some pictures from today. 

digits

exercise: 10/12 hours. Missed 9am because I slept in so hard; missed 12pm because we were in the car, and I didn't do steps before leaving the house. 43 minutes/1.9 miles walk at Catoctin Furnace park. 12k+ steps by bedtime.

blood glucose:

10am: 144
xpm: n/a no afternoon reading
8:30pm: 84

food & meds:
10am: jardiance+phentermine
3pm: apple from a farm stand
3:30pm: met+glip; peach salsa & chips (snack before market)
7pm: 2 big pieces of quiche; red wine+diet ginger ale
8pm: piece of apple "cakebreadthing" with some ice cream
9pm: met+glip

Some assembly required

Last night I asked Doug if he'd help me assemble at least one of the bookcases because, you know, I would not get around to doing it and then be mad at myself. 

He did, and thank God he did. This was a lot more of a project than I imagined. The box says "some assembly required" and ... the some is like, all the assembly required. 

I bought these specific bookcases because of the height and the price. C had bought me a nice bookcase a couple years ago that is literally "unfold, slap the shelves on, done." but they are only 4 levels high. I'm using that in the bathroom these days and it is absolutely perfect. 

I wanted 6 ft tall shelves. And I bought the two individual shelves because the wider shelves looked even more complicated to assemble than these, and, if we didn't want the wideness we could put one shelf somewhere and the other somewhere else. 

I like these shelves. They're just right. Now we just need its friend next to it. Fitting perfectly, side by side. Full of books.

I looked at a lot of ads on the internet because you know when you start looking for something 200 advertisers are going to start bothering you. 

There were some really nice wooden bookshelves that I keep getting advertised to me. A little wider, same height, over 1000 bucks. 

Um. no? 

I'm kind of cheap but willing to spend maybe 300 on a bookshelf like that. A thousand clams is out of my reach. 

These? 99 bucks each. And I'd fill a whole room with them. 

After he set the shelves up, he took a nap (well deserved nap!) and I brought books up from the basement, joyfully. Happily. Now I have a lot more books that need a destination. Maybe it will happen tomorrow? We shall see!

We had talked about going to our bank, nearest branch in the next city over about 20 minutes away, but we didn't get to it. After I put books on shelves, I took myself for a short walk.  It was a good walk, a good pace, could have gone longer but the wind was blowing and I was ready to go home and ... move more books around. 

Digits below. 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. 14 min walk outside, .86 mi. 10k+ steps by bedtime.

blood glucose:

8am: 136
4:15pm: 101
10pm: 128

food & meds:
8am: jardiance+phentermine
11am: bowl of mac & cheese w/left over cheesesteak filling
1:30pm: met+glip
3pm: atkins protein shake
7pm: 2 bowls of cheesy taco macaroni (geoff style)
8:30pm: met+glip; 2 cookies from Aldi
white wine + diet ginger ale

Pleasant Surprises

I received a gift in the mail today from a Boston Friend, and didn't expect it or see it coming. 

They left all social media before the summer, and only use texting now. I get random text updates from them, and sometimes late at night and I don't reply. 

Sometimes it is hard to stay in touch. Having a wall of news updates in Facebook or wherever, pictures to gawk at in Instagram... these are ways I keep tabs on people. But they are not participating anymore and that is good for them but weird for our relationship. I should mail her a card for real person mail. 

The package is very sweet, and recently they've been creating tea packets and other crafty things, going to craft fairs around Boston to augment their income. And it is a good hobby... instead of doom scrolling on social media. Gotta say I admire that. 

Better yet, they didn't know my birthday was this week. So this was a bonus to receive such a nice package out of the blue. It was kind of funny because right after we moved, they asked for our address. Not our "new" address, just our address. And today told me they'd screwed up their spreadsheet of addresses for all their personal contacts. Oops. So in rebuilding their sheet, it was simply a timing coincidence that I thought they were looking for the new address after all. Serendipity. Sweet and kind. 

Today was a one meeting day, and a lot of tickets, and some snark with my work son. Geoff made dinner, and it wasn't the best recipe? He over cooked the chicken, and somehow the bacon/onion "sauce" for the chicken was more of a candied bacon, and a solid mass. The taste was good, but the execution wasn't perfect. Lesson learned, and we'll try it again. 

I guess while I was away he made a steak and egg fried rice and Doug said it was excellent. So let's revisit that one next! 

Tomorrow. Bookshelf building and a bank run. Doug got a gift from his mom, and I got a birthday check from mine, so we need to go... and our bank is a bit far. We've been talking about a new bank and now's as good a time as any to take care of this. 

Alrighty then - digits below!  

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Indoor walk while Geoff was cooking. 20 min/.91 miles. 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

6:45am: 90
5pm: 105
10:45pm: 109

food & meds:
6:45am: jardiance+phentermine
10:15am: slab of banana bread w/butter
2pm: roast beef & cheddar and mayo on 647 white bread; met+glip
6:30pm: 1/2 chicken breast, some white rice, broccoli, and an interesting bacon/onion "glaze." 
8:30pm: met+glip
9pm: 2 cookies from Aldi. white wine.

Phone Cleaning

Last December I got a new phone, and I promised myself I'd move all my images into my Google Drive. I've got phone after phone after phone's worth of pictures that were transferred into this phone, and well.... back your shit up, friends. 

I started doing this last year and never finished. Today my phone told me it was almost full. Doh. Okay. Alright. Okay. 

So after dinner I set to revisiting that task. A good mindless task, but one you have to pay some attention to because you run the risk of accidentally deleting a whole month of images if you're not careful. 

I feel almost better, not fully. I was up early-ish so I did a walk in the house while Doug slept, and then a short walk in the house while he walked Toffee. I've said it before but I need to get back to the gym. I can't just ... keep walking in the house. Or can I? 

Thursday nights has become our football and pizza night. Geoff gets home just before 8 so I order and Doug picks up. He bought me wine and I didn't feel like having any. My head still feels like it is packed in cotton, and the belly hurts, but I did have buffalo bites over a salad, and enjoyed greatly. 

Cleaning off the phone is fun. I realized I never posted pictures here of the Guster Tiny Desk... or on Facebook for that matter. Maybe I'll do that this weekend? 

Bookshelves still not built. Ha. 

Oh - I did manage to take a shower today and thanked myself profusely. 

Digits, below. 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. indoor walk early in the day, 15 min/.71 mi. when Doug walked Toffee, 7 min/.44 mi (jogging in the house... ) 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

7:45am: 119
4:15pm: 105
10:45pm: 145

food & meds:
7:45am: jardiance+phentermine
1:30pm: BLT Salad
2pm: met+glip
8pm: buffalo bites over a salad
8:30pm: met+glip

This is 59

Ugh. 

I started to not feel well at all on Tuesday night. All day I'd had a headache, and then my stomach started to hurt. Really hurt. Right after dinner, it got incredibly bad. I was sitting on the couch, miserable. I don't even remember what we were watching, some BBC British detective whatever show. Shetland, I think. Maybe. I just wanted to get to decent bed time.

I thought "this is just gas or something, I'll take some alka seltzer and plop plop fizz fizz all set." But, no.

This is not the first time I've gone through something like this, and sometimes it is associated with nuts. I do eat a lot of nuts, and normally they do not bother me at all but. Last night? Hellacious. 

I decided to sleep in the guest room to be closer to the bathroom, just in case, and went to bed after 11. I fell asleep rather easily but woke up 2 hours later in excruciating pain. 

The dog was with me and was very concerned. She's not used to me waking up and turning on lights. Lights! What the heck! I sat up on the bed, pressed on my stomach, burped a lot, heard a lot of gurgling, experienced waves and waves of pain. Stabbing and horrible. It was 3am and I was honestly thinking of going and getting Doug to take me to the emergency room. It was that bad. I laid back down. Nope. Not good, not comfortable. 

I thought, fuck me - do I have diverticulitis? So of course I googled that shit. No. This isn't diverticulitis. 

It's just mother fucking gas, you guys. I took more Alka Seltzer, and eventually went back to sleep. 

Doug told me it sounds to him (Mr. Medical Records Super Knowledge) like a possible hiatal hernia. I'm not sure about that.

I just think it's the season for feeling like shit. 

Today, I felt better-ish. Maybe would have really felt better with a hot shower, but I couldn't rally. I got a lot of work done, had a good weekly check in with my manager, opened up a can of worms with some questions about our CRM and how account records are set up. Which then turned into a 5 way chat in Slack that exhausted me. 

Geoff made dinner for us and I did not want to eat so I just made a pbj sandwich and thought that was sufficient. 

Then, I was sad because there wasn't cake. I was okay with not going out to dinner or anything because I wanted to go to the pub that has the best buffalo wings and well. With how the belly feels I did not want to deal with that. 

But I did want cake. So while I was cleaning up the kitchen after the dinner I didn't eat, Doug went to the market and got cake and ice cream. And he remembered milk for coffee for tomorrow. 

Hoping to rally and feel much better for the weekend. Your girl has a lot of shit to do and being a slug is not one of them. Those bookcases are not going to build themselves. 

digits for 2 days below. 

Wednesday digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. 2 indoor walks. First -  15 min/.71 mi. second to make up for lack of steps, 10 min/.5 miles; 10k+ steps by bedtime.

blood glucose:

9am: 137
4:45pm: 106
10pm: 226 (thanks, cake)

food & meds:
9am: jardiance+phentermine
11am: bowl of mac & cheese w/bacon
1pm: met+glip
6pm: pb & low sugar j on 647 multigrain bread
7:30pm: slice of cake w/vanilla ice cream
8pm: met+glip

Tuesday digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Indoor walk for 10 min/.53 mi. 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:30am: 106
5pm: 118
11pm: 169

food & meds:
8:30am: jardiance+phentermine
11am: apple w/pb
1pm: met+glip
5pm: large ramekin of mixed nuts and trail mix
6:30pm: spinach ravioli in alfredo sauce with sautéed chicken breast thrown in
8:30pm: Met+glip

Monstera and Shelves

Last night, Doug and Geoff got home and we unloaded the uhaul. There is more that he brought home than I expected, and we'll have to find homes for the things. 

D: Here's a giant basket. Guess who didn't want it?
Me: Your mom, and your sister.
D: Yup. 

D: this is the dining room table from our house before my parents redid the dining room and kitchen the first time. Guess who didn't want it.

D: This is uncle Pete's table. Guess who.....

It'll all go okay. The one gnarly thing is his bureau from his childhood bedroom - it weighs a ton and a half so it isn't going to the basement, and it isn't going up the stairs to our room. It may live in the guest room. It may have to live in the mud room. Time will tell. 

This morning, I started putting together one of the two bookshelves I bought, a lot of parts, little baggies. I know it said "some assembly required but this is a lot more than I thought it would be and I got ... frustrated and gave up. 

Will try again tomorrow. 

In other news, my friend H gave me a Monstera. 

It is one plant I did not have. She cut some off of hers and had it in a jar for a year or so, and we were finally in a place that wasn't a concert, so she could give it to me. It will probably be gigantic. 

It's pretty huge right now. I need to put more dirt in the pot, and maybe find a rock or something to prop up that one leaf that is growing sideways. She's not sick or broken - she's just literally growing in that direction. And I don't want to hurt her, and don't want her breaking off because she's big. 

My coworker has one that is, and I'm not even joking, 8 feet tall. He sent me pictures, with one of his friends standing UNDER it. Dang. Something to look forward to growing, and know just the place I want it to live. 

Nothing else really happening today, Doug took Toffee for a walk, and it was windy and cold so I walked in the house. Our house is big enough that yeah, I can actually jog a bit. So a few songs on the playlist later and we're at 25 minutes. 

I really need to get to the gym and do the treadmill. 

Alrighty then - it's super duper bedtime. I'm incredibly tired. Digits! Below! 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Indoor walk (too cold/windy). 25 min/1.41 mi. 10k+ by bedtime

blood glucose:

7:30am: 155
4:30pm: 144
10:30pm: 109

food & meds:
7:30am: jardiance+phentermine
9:15am: asiago bagel w/cream cheese
1pm: tuna melt on oatnut bread; met+glip
6pm: chili w/cheese, sour cream, fritos
8pm: met+glip; ramekin mixed nuts & trail mix

Girls' Day and Night

A few days ago, I reached out to some of my "GusFam" who live in the area to see if they wanted to come hang out while my family was in Pennsylvania. All three ladies were in. Each are about an hour or so away from me now where I'm living, but we planned on an early arrival and brunchies and they came through! 

I got up early, made a quiche, did the vacuuming, cleaned Geoff's bathroom in case we needed to have two seats at once. I put all the refrigerator magnets on the fridge. I put the oatmeal cookies on a very nice plate.

Home isn't home without fridge magnets, my friends. So happy I found them in a box. Now if I can find two other things that are still playing hide and seek with me, I'll be thrilled.

I drank coffee with a splash of South Mountain Creamery chocolate milk. Toffee and I were super ready for our company to arrive.

R and H got here at 10:30, and S got here around 11:30. Because I didn't want to leave Toffee solo and run to the store, I didn't go out and get mimosa makings. R was down to run the errand and get us supplied. Thank you R!!!

Turns out, three bottles of champagne was not enough. We ended up with a second run for four more bottles. Turns out four is one too many, but now I have a bottle in the fridge chilling for future use and other Mimosa lovin' visitors. Hint. Hint. Hint.

It was also super cute because we each had different juices in our mimosas. 

We had lots of Toffee cuddle time, which R and H were totally here for. Forget about spending time with me... it's the dog that everyone wants. 

S is more of a cat person and isn't exactly sure what to do with a dog, especially one like Toffee who is always up in everyone's shit. But eventually Toffee chose her to cuddle up with and it was lovely. 

And it wasn't only because S had some chips and cheese.

I happily gave two tours (R&H first, S when she got here) and everyone agrees. This is the greatest house ever. 

R said "this house is so you. I feel it. The porches are so you. The upstairs is so you. This kitchen is so you." 

We did the thing where we all told stories, and interrupted each others' thoughts, agreed on so many things went on circuitous routes and journeys, and there was a lot of "no! Wait Wait! Finish the thing you were telling us about Alex! Oh my gosh, how is your mom! What's going on with..." Typical friend catch-up time.

We talked about love and relationships, religion, recent shows we've been to. R went to see Ryan Miller with his new side project Bwahaha (which, is the best name for a band ever and I laugh when I see it). We bemoaned that the next scheduled Guster show is August for On The Ocean. There is usually a Thanksgiving show in NYC that a lot of people go to, but nothing on the schedule, or announced, or anything right now. So I doubt that is happening. 

It was a whole hell of a lot of fun. S had to go around 6 and stop and grab subs on the way home for the fam. "You have not one, but two Jersey Mike's within two miles of you house!" 

R & H stayed until around 8 and then drove back to Baltimore. 

We started plotting out the Cookie Decorating night that I've always done with S's family, and I've invited R & H to come too. 

Doug is in for it, I guess. Home Invasion sometime right before Christmas. There will be a lot more laughing and noise. It'll be great. S even said at one point "oh my gosh is Doug home? Are we being so noisy and making him crazy?!" 

Not unless he can hear you in Pittsburgh, hon. 

The only thing missing yesterday was Linda. Would have loved a little slice of some Linda mixed in here. 

After R & H left, I did dishes and cleaned up, let Toffee out, and realized super late that I had not eaten dinner. I also realized I needed to take my evening/dinner time met+glip and forgot because we were having too much fun. 

R & H brought bagels from Baltimore, so I had an asiago cheese one with garlic & herb cream cheese and roast beef at super late o'clock. And then I crashed. Good night's sleep and up to get ready for Doug & Geoff to come home today. 

 Digits below. 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. 20 min indoor walk (it's cold, so windy, very gross. so I did this instead.) 1.16 miles. 11k+ by bedtime

blood glucose:

7:30am: 138
5:30pm: 107
9pm: 192* (note time I took met+glip and the dinner choice, will test again later)

food & meds:
7:30am: jardiance+phentermine
10am: 2 slices of homemade banana bread w/pecans
noon: met+glip
2pm: zero sugar yogurt+granola bar
6:30pm: cheesy pasta w/chicken, mushrooms, broccoli. 
8pm: 3 oatmeal cookies
8:30pm: met+glip

Aren't you ever bored alone?

On Friday morning, I woke up 5 minutes before Doug's alarm went off. Sometimes that's my super power. I headed downstairs and started the coffee, fed the dog and let her out, used the bathroom. Doug was surprised to see me up, but I wanted to be helpful for the guys getting ready to go. 

Doug showered, Geoff came up and showered (good thing I was up before both of them so I could pee!) Doug packed his things, Geoff was already packed. And next thing I knew it was 7:30am and they were gone. 

I have a list of many things I wanted to accomplish while they're gone for a little more than 48 hours. Getting through my work day was first, and that was successful.

The refrigerator magnets were discovered when I was on the shoe search, so they all needed to be washed. I ruined a couple of them - water seeped in and they're not the same. That's okay. At least they're clean. 

Jess called to chat me up around noon. One of my meetings didn't happen because the person I was meeting with was out of office but didn't tell me and didn't cancel the meeting. 

I cleaned the bathroom, I got the vacuum out but didn't do it. I swept the kitchen. I did three loads of blanket laundry, very important as it is starting to get chilly. Then a big load of regular laundry. 

My 3pm meeting was over fast, so I took Toffee for a walk. A short walk because she's horrible on the leash sometimes and I rather hate it, and Doug does a better job with her. There was a cat following us, and she was incredibly obsessed with it. And squirrels were everywhere. So I cut things a little short and we came back. 

I baked cookies (oatmeal w/pecans) sorted through some boxes, looked at some books to put up. Thought about the vacuum again. 

Mostly what I really enjoyed was absolute silence. I didn't play music, I didn't watch TV, I talked to the dog a little bit. But it was pretty much absolutely quiet from 5pm to 11pm. 

Tomorrow's entry will be a lot more fun. I had S, R, and H over, and we had a blast. More later. Digits below what I looked like Friday. 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. 10 min indoor walk, it was pouring out... , .46mi. 11k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

7:45am: 110
5pm: 76 (checked 2x to be sure)
10:45pm: 192* (see time I ate a bagel below...)

food & meds:
7:45am: jardiance+phentermine
didn't track times, but, throughout the day: Quiche (2 pieces), oatmeal cookies, several mimosas. Met+glip around 11am.
10pm: met+glip, asiago cheese bagel w/herb cream cheese and roast beef