Up on Cripple Creek

So much to write about. So freaking tired. My east coast body thinks it is almost 1am. Writing this entry just to record the digits. I'll write more but just wanted to say Pikes Peak is pretty. Good night.

digits

exercise: 10/12 hours.   Missed an hour in the car and an hour napping (well needed). 19 min. walk/.33 miles (I think this was in the airport terminal in Denver? maybe?) 11k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:
3:45am * maryland time: 98
3pm * colorado time: 178
10:30pm * colorado time: 203

food & meds:
3:30am: phentermine, jardiance
4am: slice of italian bread toasted w/butter
airplane snacks
11:30am: met+glip
11:15: two beers at Westfax brewing
noon: Casa Bonita burrito; chips & salsa, another beer, 4 amazing sopaipilla (so good)
7pm: met+glip
9pm: big salad, 2 strongbow ciders

Treat Yo Self

I slept in today until 9:45. Didn't get good sleep between 2-5am, so once I did fall asleep my body ran with it. I do my best sleeping from 6am-9am really. Good, wonderful, awesome sleep. 

In order to not miss my steps, I always set an alarm for 9:45am on days I don't need to get up. Roll out of bed, do those 9am steps, grab a coffee, do the 10am steps. It works out perfectly. This morning, I woke up before the alarm and contemplated just not getting up but continuing to sleep.  

But. I had to pee.  

I was in the bathroom and Doug came upstairs and yelled OH GOOD! YOU'RE UP!

Which, could have indicated anything. What he wanted to alert me to is the fact we needed to check in to our 6:ish am flight tomorrow on Southwest and it was way way past 6:30am. 

Shit. Completely forgot.

On my phone, the app needed an update. Did that. Then, to log in, what the hell is my password? Shit. I grabbed my laptop because SW's website has an eyeball on the password field to show you your password. Yesssss. Oh! but I also can check in on the desktop. Brilliant.

Afraid that we'd be put in the last two check in spots, I was prepared to upgrade us to the A group but we are mid-B and I'm always mid-B. I let Doug know that and he was relieved. 

"At least we didn't get Boarding Group M." 

True. 

I drank coffee, played my games, had a chat with my work bestie about life and the universe. I got a shower, and went out to do errands. 

I wanted to go to the gym and be unencumbered about how much time I had. I still left after 20 min because I really didn't want to spend more time not running errands. But I gave myself my time. 

I went to Kohls, got underpants and some pants and a top. Happily, I find that size 16 is quite alright. Women's large works. I can now shop in the regular women's clothing department and not just have to go to the plus size area. Hilarously, sizes 16 and 18 were not to be found too much in the regular women's department, and size 0 and 1x also were missing from the plus area. 

All of which I could do. 

Still, I did find some pants. Success. And soon, size 14 in my future. Mark my words. 

After the gym, I called ahead for a pedicure and they got me right in. Yay! I picked a cute silvery purple that is a lot lighter on my toes than it was in the bottle, but it still looks nice and wow did I need a pedicure. Crazy long time. 

When I was at Kohls, Doug asked me to pick up some T-shirts for him. Plain, solid color, dark. He has a specific type and style. 

Well fuck me. I walked all over that damn store. Nothing. He has been wearing these shirts from Champion sportswear forever that just have the tiny logo on the left breast. 

Seems Kohls is partnered mostly with Nike, and the shirts are "Tek Dry" material, not at all what he likes. And with Under Armor. Those would have been nice, except. 

Except. 

Under Armor logo was an okay size, but the backs of the shirt were all FREEDOM! AMERICA! FLAGS! HOOOOOOORAH USA! 

Um. 

Okay. No thank you. We don't need to advertise. That's okay. Calm Down, T-shirt. Just. Calm Down. 

Eventually, I found some of their store brand Sonoma shirts, and everything was in super light colors. Pinks and lavender, light blue. None of Doug's colors. But they did have brown I bought him a brown. They also had a ton of graphic T shirts. 

Snoopy and America are very popular right now.

I passed on getting him anything else. After the pedicure, I walked over to Target, and they had plain t-shirts but they all have pockets on the left breast. Why. Who uses these pockets! I think of the 70s and 80s and dudes with cigarette packs but nowadays? No one is using those pockets. 

Doug wasn't bothered by the pockets. And even though he usually prefers a 2x, I thought he wore 1x. They fit, he will be fine. It's good. Life is good. 

I called to see if I could walk in and get a haircut at the local Hair cuttery, and they said "if you come in right now..." so I did. Not a lot to do, just tidy it up, make it look nice. 

I remembered Geoff wanted me to get dinner going for him. he'd set up a marinade the other night, and the meat needed to cook on low heat for an hour at least. Getting home at 5pm, I discovered Doug was out walking Toffee, and so I just set to work, got it going, and whew. Relaxed. 

The dinner was okay. A little disappointing, not enough food for the three of us. But it tasted okay. Not his best recipe choice but the marinade was good and it'll be nice for grilling another kind of meat. 

Doug and I started packing right before the hockey game. He had laundry that he needed washed so I threw in my yoga pants and a couple other things. Overall, as of nearly 11pm, feeling prepared. Just need the laundry to come out of the dryer. 

And I need a couple hours of sleep. Wish us luck. We've never done a 6ish am early flight. But hey. Treat Yo Self. Evidence of Self Treating. Digits below.

Oh, depending on whether or not hotels Doug has booked us into have internet (some... may not) there may be day skipping here. Just wanted you to know that in advance, all three of you who care.

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours.  Two walks. One on the treadmill, 20 min/1.07 miles. One in the mall, 35 min/.72 miles; 12k+ by bedtime

blood glucose:
9:45am: 120
5pm: 108
10:45pm: 89

food & meds:
9:45am: phentermine, jardiance
12:30pm: met+glip; pb + low sugar j on 647 bread sandwich
5pm: ramekin of cashews
6:30pm: sauerbraten (Geoff tried a new recipe) with sliced beets. 
9pm: met+glip
white wine+ginger ale

Not My Circus, Not My Monkeys

Recently, my doctor recommended I switch my jardiance to morning rather than take it at night before bed. So I'm trying that today.  She thought my before bed readings were too incredibly low, so instead, she wants the Jardiance in the morning and a snack before bed. 

Lady. One does not eat before getting into bed. 

I'll give it a go. We'll see how things measure up.

My morning meetings were all canceled. Geoff asked for a ride to work due to the weather, I needed new headphones (one of the earbuds on mine died) so I made a trifecta of Geoff/earbuds, gym. I wanted a solid half hour on the treadmill but needed to get back for a meeting. So I ended at 25 min and rushed home. The plan was 10 min. for a shower before the meeting but the meeting ended up happening on slack and not on Zoom. So I didn't bother. ha. 

The afternoon was fairly busy. A pop-up meeting with my DNS/Infra manager who I adore and the product owner for my product so they can handle something while I'm out of office. 

I was going to go get a pedicure, but Doug's aunt called. 

She sold her house.

We told her not to sell her house. Do not do this. You should not sell your house, you have nowhere to go if you sell your house. You are under no obligation to sell your house to these people. They're going to rip you off. Do not do it.

They were pressuring her to come in and sign paperwork, and Doug told her do not do it. 

"I know you told me not to do it, not to go meet with them. But I did." The look on his face.

I guess they called her and said "look, just come in and talk with us about this." And she did. And she signed. And she has 17 days to move out. 

She is telling Doug all this and he's pressing her, and she changes the subject to how her eyes are bothering her and she has cataracts and needs to see an eye doctor, can he recommend an eye doctor through his hospital (she lives near where he works). He basically said, "No. I don't know anyone. I can't help you there." And she wouldn't talk more about the house. 

17 days. There is no way. No fucking way.

He asked her to put his cousin on the phone, and Doug tried to get some updates from him but he didn't have anything to add. Where are you going to move? Doug asked him. "I don't know." What's the plan, "I don't know." 

"Well, we're going on vacation Friday so we aren't around to help but call me if you ... I don't know. Have updates." Doug said make sure one of you is in the house at all times. Do not leave the house vacant. If you are at work, she should not leave. If she goes to the doctor, do not go to ... anywhere. Do not leave. One of you needs to be on the premises at all times. If you're both out, and they're watching, they'll swoop in, change the locks, take possession. And then you're screwed. 

I said to him this was actually one of my biggest fears, but we'd be in Colorado and she'd call SCREAMING about them kicking her out. 

Dude, you ... sold your house. Of course they are. 

She also said appraisers came and were bitching her out about a hole in the kitchen ceiling. 

Doug said "Who cares. You sold your house. It is not your problem. It's theirs. And if that's all they are complaining about, have they looked around?" 

Our evening was semi-ruined. I didn't go get a pedicure. We had to sit here and talk about what a nightmare she is. I asked how do we put her into conservatorship and he said he doesn't know. But I felt he should have started that ball rolling a couple months ago. 

I don't know. Just. Wow. 

Anyway. 

I have tomorrow off, planning on doing a few work things on the sly. I'm meeting with my work wife at 11 for our standing weekly chat, didn't want to cancel that. But then afterwards... Pedicure! Bloodwork! Haircut! Maybe a trip to the mall to see about .... pants! I have no pants that fit! Laundry is all done, just needs to be folded. Packing! So much packing. My neighbor is coming over on Friday to let Toffee out while Geoff is at work. His boss asked him to work 9am-5:30pm, which is not his usual shift and he agreed. Without thinking of ugh. The dog. I should find a local Doggie Day Care that he can drop her off at when he goes to work but it's too late for that tonight. 

And Doug is going to see about what he can see about for his aunt, can he get her out of this. Probably not. Still can't believe she did not listen to him and did not follow his instructions. So help me. If she calls while we are on vacation, chances are we'll be in the mountains far from a cel signal. And they better not show up here or something.

God my imagination is just rolling tonight. 

Here's a picture of Toffee. I forced her to go outside tonight. She didn't all day, and I do not know how she holds it for 18 hours but she does. When she came in, we cuddled, had snacks, got wrapped in the sheet, and had snore time. She survived the trauma. Digits below.

 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Gym treadmill, 25 min/1.37 mi. (would have gone a half hour but needed to get home for a meeting). 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:
8:45am: 132
4:30pm: 105
10:30pm: 105

food & meds:
8:45am: phentermine, jardiance
9:15: bowl of whole milk greek yogurt w/3 sliced strawberries and sprinkle of splenda
11am: ramekin of mac&cheese w/bacon
3pm: 2 baby bel cheeses
6pm: chicken parm (small piece) 
8pm: met+glip; mixed nuts
red wine + diet ginger ale 

Sleepless

Last night, I had no luck falling asleep. We went to bed at 11, Doug put on his podcast, I listened to the whole episode and started another one. He and Toffee were fast asleep and I was just there listening to the episode about Nazi/German soldiers who were in POW camps in the United States. Really interesting stuff. 

It ended, and I was still awake. I gave up being in bed and went to the guest room so I could put on another podcast. I had restless legs, twitchy shoulder, and was awake awake awake. I played The Constant podcast and again, interesting stuff about Flat Earth believers and the Eddystone Lighthouses off the coast of Plymouth, England. 

Eventually the birds started singing. Toffee came in and found me. She doesn't like when someone goes into the guest room and she wants to be with them. I did fall asleep around 6, but woke up and noticed the sky was brightening. The fitbit claims I slept 6 hours but that's probably just how still I was, listening. Not sleeping. Just. There. Geoff left at 8:30 to go to the gym, I heard the door close. And I figured heck. I'd better get up and go to work.

I thought about just calling out. And if I wasn't taking two days off this week, I would have. Then I remembered... my boss and two other managers on our team were out. Which left me and H alone to support the team. So I got up. Worked. Amazingly productive. I did two meetings with clients, one to try and figure out what is up with their podcast and the other was a training session with the person who has no attention span past an hour. She asked to record the session, which is fine, and we went an hour and a half, which she said is a miracle for her brain. I commended her for sticking with it. The stuff I'm showing her is hard! 

Doug took Toffee for a walk and I got dinner started. While the water was boiling for noodles, I walked in the house. After they got back, I stuck dinner in the oven and went out for my own walk. I would have kept going, but it started raining when I was a couple blocks away from the house and I thought better of looping up the hill and back around. Glad I came home. 

I had to do a lot of steps in the house to make up for what I missed out on the walk, but it wasn't too bad. 

While I was walking mom called (it's the 27th. I pay her lot rent on the trailer on the 27th. Usually I call her but I hadn't because of how busy I was today). I let it go to voicemail, and called her after dinner and before hockey. 

She also said she couldn't sleep last night, and once she fell asleep she slept in. 

"What, did you sleep until 6:30?" I asked.
"No! I slept until almost 10!" 

Well then! Amazing. That is super late indeed for her. I wish I slept until almost 10. 

The only other thing is we started filling out the pre-qualification forms online but then got really busy with work stuff. Will pick up where we left off tomorrow. I always forget just how much information I have to produce! ugh. 

I hope I sleep tonight. I felt gross all day. Meh. On that note.

Here are pictures from the garden. I wanted to wait until the marigolds opened up, but that could be in the next couple days. Imagine them, and oh - the lady bug is still hanging out there where I put it. Digits below. 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Indoor 8 min, outdoor 24 min/1.46 mi. total. Would have gone longer but it started to rain! 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:
9am: 134
4:15pm: 135
11pm: 176 (a little high. Should have had cheese snack or nuts)

food & meds:
9am: phentermine, met+glip
10:30am: english muffin w/pb & low sugar j
12:30pm: tuna over a lettuce and tomato salad
5pm: met+glip
6:30pm: tuna casserole (so much tuna in 1 day!) 
9:40pm: jardiance

The Last Day of the First Weekend of Summer

I thought maybe we'd go oot and aboot today but we stuck around home and I'm super okay with that.

At about 3:30pm Doug decided to take the dog for a walk and invited me. Instead, I opted to stay here and vacuum. But my vacuum cleaner wouldn't work, which, lol no pun intended "sucks." I took it all apart, I cleaned the filters, I futzed with it. Ended up getting the hand held dirt devil out and sitting on the rug and vacuuming it, which is dumb. Not sure how long we've had this vacuum but it has to be 10 years at this point. It's always been a pain in the ass to use, clogs easily, it is a jerk. 

While I was fighting with the machine, my neighbor texted me at 4:15 to see if we wanted a puppy play date, but they would have to leave at 5. I thought that was not quite enough time for serious fun so we decided to check in after we get back from our trip. But lo and behold, Doug came back from his walk and the dad was out with him talking at the gate, with their dog. So we did end up having a playdate for a half hour. 

Worth it. Dog insanity. Just absolute bliss and joy. Too fast and blurry to get a good picture. Toffee needed this because I know she misses that level of play since Dahlia left. And miss Meg is just the best. I love how they're just about the same size now, and like two giant bulldozers running all over the yard together.  

Doug ran to the market to get rolls for the burgers as I made them and grilled them. I watered the plants and had a glass of wine while that was going on. Just a perfect day. 

After dinner I had to take a walk, I planned on 20 min but took an extra loop around another block and that pushed me to 32. On the way back I met a couple of men with a gorgeous chow chow. His name is Max, I forget their names. But that's typical of me. I know all the dogs by name but not the people. I hadn't seen them before, they said they recently adopted Max and he seems aloof to people. He didn't look at me or expect pets. They did say he stopped to nose kiss and tail wag with Toffee a couple of times, and they said she's so sweet. I felt proud. We just chatted, us humans. Nice way to end the stroll. 

I have two days of work this week, and I'm regretting not taking the whole week off to do no work. Zero work. But I'm glad I didn't - my colleague Josh is moving, so he announced he's taking this week off to pack and get out of his place. Lease on his new place signed for June 1. I'm happy for him. He's off to Pittsburgh! 

I took a bunch of flower pictures, but I'm too lazy to post them. Instead, here's the glass of wine on the clean table where I sat and relaxed while the grillin' was grillin'. Digits below! 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. walk, 32 min/1.47 mi. 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:
9:45am: 126
5pm: 148
11:15pm: 91

food & meds:
9:45am: phentermine
10:30am: met+glip
12:30pm: bowl of mac&cheese w/chorizo 
3pm: a lot of mixed nuts. A Lot.
5pm: met+glip
6pm: cheeseburger w/tabouleh, a couple french fries
8pm: some more mixed nuts 
9:45pm: jardiance

The Return of Farmer Chris

Only, not farming Farmer Chris. We're not putting in veggies this year. Doug didn't want to buy raised beds and that's okay. He agreed that he doesn't want to put in a veggie garden. He'll regret it in August. Maybe we can get big pots for tomatoes. He does love garden tomatoes. 

After we got the patio all set yesterday, today was the day to go buy flowers. 

We got all our pots out of the shed, and we have these four humongous planters that a friend from work gave me. He doesn't like two of them because they look like trash cans. Fair. But two of them he does like, and we agreed we'd get a mandevillia for each of them and put them on the edges of the patio. 

Two hundred fifty dollars later, we came home with more plants than we have pots for (oops) and no mandevillia because they wanted 50 bucks for them. We'll wait a couple weeks and try Home Depot. I'm all for supporting our local flower shop but. No. That's too much. 

Our neighbor has been fussing hard at me about piles of tree/wood trimmings Doug has been keeping behind our shed. So I asked him if we could bonfire that stuff while working on the plants. We made short work of the trimmings, thankfully it wasn't too windy (it has been so windy lately!) and now she won't fuss. She'll still fuss. But at least not about the wood. All the plants found good homes, I used a pot or two that I wasn't planning on (plastic/black) but they'll do just fine.

We have our front porch plants in full sun, and back yard plants in sun to shade. Pictures of the finished products tomorrow. I'm not sure what we'll get into tomorrow but. We'll have some fun. 

Digits below photos! 

First, we evaluated how many pots and containers we had.

Then, we bought too many plants. Like ya do.

I had a wee visitor land on me while I was working. I put it in my marigolds.

Take that, neighbor lady! No pile of wood behind the shed anymore!!! (this was just the start)

A neighbor on our street gave us this patio raised dog "bed" recently. Her dog passed away, and she couldn't bear to look at it anymore. I was going to offer it to people at work, because Toffee didn't really take to it. But today, I set it out while we were working and she hopped on, and enjoyed it.

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. 18 minute walk while Doug & Toffee napped. .86 miles. 10k+ by bedtime

blood glucose:
6am: 123
4:30pm: 105
10:30pm: 94

food & meds:
6am: phentermine
10am: met+glip
11:30am: english muffin w/pb and low sugar j
5:30pm: met+glip; mixed nuts
6:30pm: 2 bratwurst, some potato salad
vodka+sugar free lemonade
9pm: jardiance

On the Road to Shambala

Lazy Saturday or Sunday mornings here are such a blessing to me. This morning we slept in. Geoff is working this weekend and he managed to not make a ton of noise and get us woken up, or Toffee woken up. Miracle of Miracles. 

We three woke up at about 9:30, and got the day going. Dog fed, coffee was already made but the pot had turned off, so we polished that off and got a new one going. 

Doug made breakfast (I wasn't hungry) and he put on the speaker to get rid of an earworm he had (I think it was Sister Golden Hair by America) and let the playlist/mix from Spotify keep playing. 

Lots of Steely Dan, some Styx, Van Morrison, Clapton, Doobie Brothers, more America, not quite a yacht rock kind of morning but definitely a vibe. 

Shambala by Three Dog Night came on and he skipped it. I asked him to go back - I like that song. He groaned. 

"Hey, I didn't groan when you listened to a stupid song by Rod Stewart so put it back for me. I really like that song." Begrudgingly the DJ restored justice and played the song. 

It's kind of funny, Nothing super special about that song but it always makes me think of a friend from our old town. The scoutmaster's wife when Geoff was in BSA back in the day. We were on a camping trip and she and I were gathering firewood. Someone had music playing, not sure if it was our troop or a camper nearby and that song was on. We were crushing two part harmony, dancing, just really enjoying ourselves. Quite spontaneously filled with joy. 

I told Doug that it makes me think of Maria, and the fun we would always have on campouts with the troop. She went to every campout, after all, her husband was the scoutmaster so why not. 

I emailed her to let her know I was thinking of her, shared the memory. She wrote back immediately laughing saying she heard the song this week and was brought "right back to our own wooded Shambala" which made me smile. 

I love when I hear something that takes me to a person, place, or thing. 

After lunch, we got to working in the yard. Doug cleared the patio of weeds and trees, I got the cushions out and cleaned the table. He did the weeds along the fence line (thank you God) and then got the hedge trimmer out to cut back some of the wilder growth. We kind of like it wild, but it's .... too wild right now. 

We moved the table back onto the patio after I swept. It could be better, we could scrape it or get it power washed but it is organic looking and nice. 

Doug took a shower and I went to the store to get things we needed. Like. Dishwasher tabs. We ran out the other day and the dishwasher has been patiently waiting while the sink got all full up again. 

Target was a shit show - so many people, late on a Saturday. I got home and we had dinner and relaxed. 

I took myself out for a 20 minute walk before hockey because if I didn't I wouldn't make it to 10k steps. Perfect night for a walk and I beat the goal, Excellent work, me. 

More yard stuff tomorrow. Digits below this picture of the patio pre-weed whacking. I can say one thing for Maryland, things grow fast and wild 'round here. 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. 20 min. walk/1.07 miles. 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

9:45am: 123
4:15pm: 122
11pm: 88

food & meds:
9:45am: phentermine
10:30am: met+glip
12:45pm: turkey and bacon w/romaine & mayo on fajita wrap
6pm: mixed nuts, met+glip
7pm: pasta shells w/meat sauce
9:30pm: jardiance
9:45pm: more mixed nuts
red wine & diet ginger ale

The Weight

Please ignore my rather unattractive feet and my aforementioned need for a pedicure. But this is kind of big news and I didn't want to not post it.

Weighing myself this morning, I was shocked at seeing this number. Shocked in a good way. The last time I consistently weighed less that 200 lbs was after I had Covid. I was around 195. I thought to myself, I'll do my best to keep it off! 

Pandemic life was such that we didn't go out much, I wasn't going to work, I wasn't walking, and my weigh went back up to about 220 or so. I managed over time to get to 208 but got stuck. Just spent pretty much a year at 208. 

In January, at my last doctor's appointment, I was 202. She prescribed phentermine, and over the past few months I've gotten here. 

Just want to kind of brag on that a bit. I won't hurt myself patting me on the back or anything but this has been a long slog. I won't use "journey" because I hate the term "weight loss journey." 

I look back at pictures of myself over the past several years. I cropped photos of myself to keep my belly out of view. My face is big and round. 

This is actually one of my favorite pictures of me from when I used to take Dave out for beers every Friday for Shenanigans with Dave (also, very sad that I do not keep that blog up to date. 2024 was a long time ago!) 

Look how big my face is. At the time, I'm unsure to be honest because I did not want to know my actual weight, I think I was at 250, at least. 

Fast forward to now. Conquering the 199 goal that I set for myself when we moved here in 2017, finally, it's a good feeling. 

Reset the goal to 180 once I crossed the rubicon of 199. Hopefully to 180 by the end of the summer. 

As always, we shall see. 

New Orleans selfies, June 2022 on top, February 2017 below. You can see that there is some more rounding from 2017 to 2022... So weight was for sure gained after I moved down here. 

And next time I go to New Orleans I will get a picture at the Avenue Pub bathroom again for comparison. 

Work was incredibly slow today. I had scheduled a call with a client in Alaska and completely forgot this was the Friday of a holiday weekend. Doh. I didn't ask her to reschedule but in my heart of hearts I hoped she'd forget the meeting. Well, she made it. And it was a good meeting, and we got a lot done. It was nice.

 

I made a marinade for the chicken thighs we had in the fridge, and let it set. Doug and I took the dog for a long walk. It was nice to do that together, and I'll be honest, we could have gone longer but he wanted to get home and watch the news. 

We discussed reaching out to a buyers' agent that we met when we were out in Front Royal a couple weeks ago and there are a couple of houses he really wants to go look at in person. So I'll email her, and start the conversation tomorrow. Too late tonight to email someone. 

Real estate people are like tech support people (like me) and check their messages at all hours. I'd like to think she wouldn't really want a message from me tonight. 

Digits below, and an overall good day!

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. 41 min walk/1.85 miles. 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

9am: 111
4:30pm: 113
10pm: 135

food & meds:
9am: phentermine
10am: met+glip
10:45am: english muffin w/pb & low sugar jelly
6:30pm: chicken thigh (marinade: garlic, ginger, soy sauce, lemon, cilantro), macaroni salad
7pm:met+glip (forgot to take before dinner)
8:30pm: pretzel chips w/pb
9:30pm: jardiance
 

To Do List

I'm building my to-do list in my head for our trip next week, and right about now is when I commit things to writing. Our flight is at 6:30am so there's no dilly dally time before leaving the house. We gotta leave by 5am, I think. Half hour to the airport, parking... well maybe earlier. Maybe we should stay at a hotel next to the airport. Doug will say no - thrifty guy that he is. We're close enough. We can do this.

I am somewhat annoyed by him booking a 6:30am flight, but, in his enthusiasm for us to get the most out of the trip he wanted to get to Denver super early. That and the fact he agreed to have us fly home on Friday instead of Sunday the week following, I'll acquiesce and let him have this one. 

But an 8am flight would have been perfectly cromulent.   

We get to Denver at 8:45ish local time, so early. We have the day there pretty much and I think he made reservations for lunch at a very special restaurant (more on that later). 

In the mean time. There's stuff to do. 

This weekend - yard work? We have a lot to do. Weed whacking. Get patio ready. Plants! Flowers! let's go! Laundry. Folding mostly. Go to Kohls? I need new pants/capris. Go to the mall? new hiking shoes/sandals? I wanted to get hiking poles and a rain jacket, so. Too late to order online I think so an in-person visit to the stores may be needed. 

This week - pack. Organize. Get ready. Pedicure? Haircut? Work stuff - tie up problems/issues. Set my out of office (ha! Already done). Brief the team on anything they need to know. Geoff: Groceries/meal plan. 

Refill the one prescription I need (not eligible to refill until tomorrow). Get the insurance card for proof of insurance for our car rental (learned that lesson in Oregon/Washington a few years back!) 

I also have been wanting to get my ears re-pierced. The holes are closed up. I stopped wearing earrings when Geoff was little, because he would rip them from my head and it was brutal. Now, 28 years later? Ready to wear earrings again. So maybe I'll find a place. Redo these puppies. 

And I've been having some right hip/knee pain, wondering if a massage will help or if this is skeletal instead of muscular? I should call my doctor maybe? Last year at this time I couldn't put pressure on my heel on my right foot and I didn't have plantar fasciitis, but there was something going on, and the massage therapist took 45 minutes with my feet and fixed it all. I haven't had a problem since then. Now, yeah, maybe it's the same sort of situation. I've been walking a ton more, and even jogging? so maybe muscles are tight. 

Maybe I'll treat myself and make that appointment. Or maybe I'll save that for when we get home. 

Today after work, I did take myself to the gym again. It was pouring so no outdoor walk for me. Doug managed to get Toffee out for a quick walk between waves of rain. I did 40 min. on the Treadmill and if I stuck it out another 5 it would have been 2+ miles, but my fitbit doesn't display how many steps or how many miles I've done - just the time. Until I sync with the app on my phone when the exercise is done. Duly noted. 45 should be 2. Stay the course, keep going. find the right song on the playlist. Push it. Hey. that may be the song to play! 

On the way home I called C to catch up and chat. Talk about houses, interest rates, jerks that don't pay their bills. The usual! 

Hi C. 

I also enjoyed looking at the pictures my sister posted from her trip to New Orleans for her nephew's graduation. We want to go together, when it isn't brutally hot. Reminded me of the trip Doug and I took a couple years ago (2022) and how hot and miserable it was. Still. So much fun. 

And that's the update for today. Digits! below our weather forecast for the holiday weekend. Not too shabby! 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours.  Treadmill, 40 min/1.93 miles. 10k+ by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:45am: 136
4:30pm: 99
11:15pm: 84

food & meds:
8:45am: phentermine
10:30am: met+glip
11:30: Spinach, tomato, bacon salad. Not a BLT since spinach isn't an L! 
6:30pm: met+glip
7:15pm: nachos: chips w/melted cheese, ground beef, guac, sour cream
red wine
3 Oreo cookies
9:30pm: jardiance 

Thank you, past me

I got up early, like I had hoped to. 

Last night I couldn't sleep and woke up at 3am. I went into the guest room and opened the window. It was about 20 degrees cooler out there than in my house. The joy of the cold air, and the snuggly dog, helped me fall back asleep nicely. I woke up at 6, and thought I'd just be up for the day but ... no. Got back in bed. 

Geoff was in the kitchen at 7:15, making a pot of coffee and feeding the dog. Knowing I wanted to get work done early, I determined it was time to be up. Oh wow, was it pouring out. One of the nice things about this house is the roof overhang. If there's no wind, the rain does not come in the open windows. 

I shuffled around, did my blood sugar, took the morning meds, shuffled into the kitchen and realized I had to load the dishwasher. I usually load it before bed, but last night (and tonight) too tired to do it. Rather do it in the morning. Early as it was. 

Toffee came in after going out - I was surprised she even went because of the rain, and she hates going out when things are wet. I guess she really had to go! I dried her off, settled down on the couch with my extra large mug, and snuggled her. The sound of the dishwasher and nothing else but her snoring was very relaxing. 

Held off on picking up my laptop. As the saying goes "But first, coffee." In this case ... But first, Toffee. Around 7:30am I got to working, checking my emails, I'm logging into the help desk so I can go edit that help document that needs attention. My colleague slacked me. 

"I think we have a problem. I don't even know what to do with this one."

Lord. This is why we can't have nice things, friend. 

I read the helpdesk ticket, he and I chatted back and forth. I took it to the dev channel, wrote up the problem, showed examples, and asked if someone could troubleshoot/triage/oh god please fix this. 

It was figured out relatively quickly, and another team was responsible for the situation. They jumped in, figured out what they did, and fixed it. 

All before noon. 

I was impressed. Usually with some of our products, things break, folks dig in, and then if there can't be a "hot fix" to the problem, it can be days. 

Thank Goodness. 

Then all my meetings started. Noon, 1:30, 2, 3pm. I had my weekly check in with my manager and he mentioned a meeting next Thursday about a thing. I said I was super psyched for it to happen. He said "well, you're off that day."

I... am?

I looked at my Outlook calendar and sure enough, I took off Thursday and Friday next week. Not just Friday for when we travel. 

Thanks, past me, for thinking to take that day off! I figure we have to be at the airport by 6am, I think, so I wanted to be 100000% all set Thursday and didn't want to have to think about packing during the workday. 

I never did edit the help document. I'll ... do it tomorrow? I have to do it before someone reads it and submits a ticket saying "this is all wrong." 

After my check in, I told my manager I was going to go to the market and the gym, and be back online to finish things up. There is a sweet spot timing-wise to get to the gym and that is no later than 4:30pm. Did it, no one was there, had a good time doing the treadmill and didn't get bored until about 25 min. in, and made myself go to 30. 

Got everything I needed for dinner tonight and tomorrow and headed home. Geoff cooked dinner so I could do the last check-ins with email and tickets. 

Then hockey. 

What am I going to do when hockey is over? 

Well, off to bed. Maybe up early tomorrow. Maybe not. Maybe back to the gym again tomorrow. Get back on my bullshit, as the kids say. 

No picture. Digits below! 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours.  Treadmill walk/jog 30min/1.6 miles; 10k+steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

7:30am: 133
5:30pm: 135
10:30pm: 118

food:
7:30am: phentermine
9:30am: met+glip
11am: english muffin w/pb and low sugar preserves
5:30pm: met+glip
6:30pm: bowl of penne pasta w/meat sauce
10:30pm: jardiance
no alcohol

Honeysuckle

The other day my friend Hope posted some photos from a road trip she's on, and there was a giant row of honeysuckle bushes that she stopped to visit with. She wrote a beautiful memory of being a little kid, and pulling the stamen out to behold the tiny droplet of nectar at the end. Hoping it doesn't drip off, she described touching it to her tongue, enjoying the sweetness, flower after flower.  

Before last week, I honestly had not seen any honeysuckle in this area but we now have an abundance of it in the yard. Weirdly so. I also had not seen a lot of lilac here in Maryland until about a month ago. Maybe some bushes of different plants just have not done well, and this year is a bumper crop for these two. 

I tried to get some honeysuckle nectar today, but every flower I plucked came out dry so I gave up. It was a little unexpected and very not like my childhood memories. But it is an intoxicating aroma. Just walking around my neighborhood, so enjoyable to have the scent waft over as I walk past. 

After dinner I took a long-ish walk. Pretty good pace, the playlist was doing a really good job. I almost wanted to pass my house because YYZ came on, but ... I was right in front of my house. I'll save that for another walk. 

Work was busy and I was supposed to update a helpdesk support document but I didn't get to it. I have time in the morning if I don't dilly dally. My first meeting is 11am and I want to have the document updated before our weekly client newsletter goes out because the newsletter references this document. And I hate it. It could be so much better. 

But hockey is on tonight and I'm not interested in writing and copy editing. 

Wish me luck in the morning. 

Here are the honeysuckles in my yard. They'll be gone so soon. Digits below

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours.  Two walks. One inside while cooking, 11 min/.49 mile; 32 min/1.61 miles; 10k+ by bedtime

blood glucose:

8am: 126
5pm: 123
10:30pm: 115

food:
coffee/water
8am: phentermine
10:30am: met+glip
12:30pm: English muffin w/turkey, one piece of colby jack cheese, bacon, mayo
5pm: met+glip
6:30pm: one chicken thigh fajita w/peppers and onions, refried beans, shredded cheddar, sour cream
9pm: jardiance; ramekin mixed nuts
no alcohol

No Hockey Night

Ugh. The Stanley Cup playoffs are down to the final four, and there was no hockey tonight. The games resume tomorrow. 

For someone who doesn't have a single team she cares about in the race, I guess I am interested in what happens. Mostly, I'm cheering for Brad Marchand (and that whatever team he's on... the Florida somethings) because I'm mad at the Bruins for trading him. I want him to win, and the loser jerk face Bruins management can suck a bag of crap because HA. Trade your captain and see how he does. 

Not that I'm into it or anything. 

Doug took Toffee for a walk and I started dinner. While it was cooking I walked in the house thinking that was going to be my walk for the day. It was only 20 min., so I figured eh... I'll still have to do a "real" walk to get to 10k. So after we ate, I took myself out to play Pokemon and walk. Went further than I thought I would, almost to the train station which is pretty far for a one-way walk, and then I came back. Just shy of a mile and a half round trip. Noted what route is easiest, without getting a hill in the way.  My playlist was speaking to me, and it just felt good and right to be out there. 

It is comfortable and cool tonight. I thought about doing a fire, but it is a little too breezy and that feels unsafe. So I passed on that. Plus, I didn't want to drink tonight and sitting by the fire usually is when a beer or a glass of wine comes in handy.

Since there is no hockey, we watched a documentary series on Netflix called Ancient Apocalypse. It was all really thought provoking. But it wasn't hockey. 

I did some work while that was on, I have a bunch of documentation to update now that we've made some big changes on how a few things work. 

I sent myself pictures of our team retreat from my phone, not all of them but some of them. And I just laughed while going through them. What a fun day that was. Here's my team with the Yayoi Kusama Pumpkin outside the Hirshhorn and at the really excellent Osgemeos entrance. We're cute. 

Digits below.  

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Two walks. One inside while dinner was cooking, 20 min/.9 miles. One outside after dinner, 30 min/1.45 miles; 11k+ steps by bedtime. Not too shabby!

blood glucose:

8am: 116
4:30pm: 133
10pm: 116

food:
coffee/water
8am: phentermine
9:45: met+glip
11am: bowl of mac & cheese w/hamburger
2:45pm: 3 celery stalks w/pb
4:30: entenmann's chocolate donut 
5:30pm: met+glip
6:45pm: bowl of chili w/fritos, shredded cheddar, sour cream
10pm: jardiance

West Again

We took Geoff and Toffee with us today out to Front Royal, Strasburg, and new to us, Winchester. We wanted to show him the downtowns, and drive by a couple houses. There was an open house at one place we drove by, so Geoff and I went in and Doug walked the dog. Not the house for us, I'll be honest. 

Winchester is a super fun town, with a downtown pedestrian only area full of restaurants and shops. We parked easily on a side street and strolled over to the Broken Window Brewing Company. Initially Doug had suggested we stop in Strasburg at the Box Office Brewery but I told him if we did that, we'd never make it to Winchester. 

Glad we did. No one was at the brewery, the dog was welcome inside and that was nice. We got to know the beertender Kyle, and had a pretty splendid time. We ordered delivery from a pizza shop, and it was fantastic. I had one piece and 2 giant chicken tenders. Surprised by my really decent blood sugar at bedtime tonight. 

Still a lot to look at and think about. Doug has added Martinsburg WV to his towns to look at list. Some really nice listings there and the prices are super low compared to Winchester. 

A good day all except the sitting and not getting steps, but I knew that would be the case. I didn't push it after we got home to do 4000 steps at 8pm and did not feel like going to the gym. That's okay. We'll make things up tomorrow. 

Small emergency at work at about 10pm so I helped out with that since my buddy tagged me in the messaging. Normally I'm not on ER/emergency kind of level of help anymore (which is nice but also I hate watching from the sidelines sometimes). We got everything buttoned up that we needed to and tomorrow morning will dive in earnestly to getting things fixed. 

Digits below. But look at my good dog inside at the brewery (waiting for pizza crust!)

digits

exercise: 8/12 hours.  Lost out on 11am, 2pm (not sure how on that one), and 5 and 6pm. Mostly because in the car. One measurable walk for a solid 11 min./.36 miles; 7500+ steps by bedtime (didn't feel like going for a walk after we got home) 

blood glucose:

8:30am: 112
n/a
11pm: 109

food:
coffee/water
8:30am: phentermine; met+glip
10:30am: turkey sandwich on 647 bread
4pm: slice of pizza and 2 giant chicken fingers, 2 beers; met+glip
8pm: ramekin of mixed nuts tossed w/kettle corn (think cracker jack, but better!)
9:30pm: jardiance

Recital and Walking

My friend H had a piano recital today. We were thinking of going west to show Geoff the area out there but I'd promised him I'd go. If it was a 10am recital, that'd be great. But no. 1:45pm. 

That's okay, I think the plan is that we'll go west tomorrow. We don't want to go next weekend, it's Memorial Day, Geoff is working, and we just do not want to deal with traffic. But maybe it'd be a good idea to go and see how crowded town gets in Front Royal, Winchester, Strasburg? 

We really want Geoff to get the vibe out there. Soon enough. 

The recital was good. H has come a long way. He did his own arrangement of two songs that he thought sounded good together, made a kind of bridge between them and an outro that echoed the first song. The kid is amazing. The other kids were great too. There is a family with three kids, and the oldest one is just simply amazing. He plays violin and piano and they always save him for last because he's rather inspirational. His younger two siblings are not too shabby either. 

One boy played the drums and sang. His teacher played along on guitar. The song choice was "Roxanne" by the Police. It's kind of funny to listen to a rather young human sing the lyrics to that song with his not yet voice changed high notes on the Roxanne. Another kid played "Accidentally in Love" by Counting Crows and he did such a good job playing guitar and singing at the same time. Once the kids get to a certain level, they're allowed to start picking rock songs if they want. I was sitting there thinking of H performing "Philosophy" or "Narcolepsy" by Ben Folds. Not sure if he can sing and play at the same time. I should ask S. 

Doug mowed the lawn, showered and napped while I was gone. I tried to nap while he was out walking Toffee but Geoff yelled to me to let me know dinner was ready. Thanks. I ... could have eaten when I woke up but okay. 

After I ate I took a walk, burn off that pasta sugar! I was about to turn one way when I felt it starting to rain, so I diverted and came back. I would have gotten that last 1500 step count in if it didn't start raining on me. So I got it in at the end of the third period of the Stars/Jets hockey game, and got back just in time for overtime. 

Up to the little free library and back down, just past my house to the next corner, cross the street, turn around, come back. Pretty much 1500 steps. Perfect to cap the day off. I was surprised to see so many people out walking at 10:30pm. It had cooled off from being in the upper 80s during the day, so perhaps that was the attraction. Night time strollers all of us.

Quiet day overall. I need to go through my pictures from Monday that I took on our little group outing in DC for work. Too tired to do it tonight. Digits! Below!

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours.  One long walk, 20 min/1.06 miles and an end of night walk to get the last 1500 steps, 11 min./.5 miles. 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

9:15am: 114
5pm: 130
10pm: 111

food:
coffee/water
9:15am: phentermine. met+glip
11am: English muffin w/pb and bonnie maman's cherry preserves
5:30pm: bowl of a creamy/cheesy pasta dish Geoff discovered w/broccoli and mushrooms. Met+glip
8pm: ramekin of mixed nuts
10pm: jardiance

Almost A Houseguest

All of my teammates who left yesterday have made it home. We had a meeting, and we're back on Slack chatting, just like old times. 

Except one. 

My buddy B decided to spend an extra night here so he could enjoy some DC yesterday. He went to the airport this morning and then sat on his airplane for ... 4 hours. 

They offboarded them at 4pm. He messaged me and I told him he could stay here, we'd keep him until tomorrow if no flights were available. But he managed to work with the travel department for our job, and they rebooked onto a 6pm flight.  

He messaged me at 8pm. Everyone was freaking out all around him, because somehow - their flight left without any passengers. 

Gone.

No one knew what was going on. Now, my buddy is 30. He's very sweet and gentle. He is a sweet summer child from St. Louis, and I am a momma bear. So I adore him and hate to see him come to any stress or harm. I don't know how many times in the last 3 years he's been on a zoom call with me crying through something bad (personal or work related). but I'm there for him at all times. 

I've changed the bed sheets in the guest room. I've tidied up the bathroom and kitchen. Dishwasher is running. 

Ooops. Flight didn't leave without them. Gate changed and no one working at the airport knew what the hell was happening. 

They were suddenly all swept into a line very quickly and put on a plane. He repeatedly asked the flight attendants "Are you sure this flight is going to St. Louis, because I think people may be a little confused around here." 

They assured him ... yes. St. Louis. 

He texted me at 11pm to tell me he made it, it was a horrible violent flight. But he was home. 

Sad to not have him as a house guest tonight but very happy he made it home. I also realized we didn't get any nice pictures together. Hopefully next visit. 

My sister and her husband also were flying today, down to Ronnie's nephew's graduation in New Orleans. They were delayed repeatedly, and Lin texted me to let me know they landed. AND the bonus extra hour for being in central time was her reward. 

I didn't take any pictures today. We had horrible weather aat 5pm, so I rescued Geoff from work and when we got home the sun was out. So weird. 

But the picture I'm sharing today is from linda, from her hotel. 223 comes back again. Digits below. Because of all the B drama, I didn't go to the gym like I thought I would, but I did get a short walk. 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours.  15 min dog walk, .73 miles; 7k+ steps by bed.

blood glucose:

8am: 113
4:30pm: 151
10:30pm: 111

food:
coffee/water
8am: phentermine
9am: met+glip
9:45am: english muffin w/ pb & low sugar j
1pm: 3 "kitchen sink" cookies from the grocery store
5pm: met+glip
6pm: one cheeseburger w/no roll; bacon/tomato/mayo kind of a salad
9:30pm: jardiance
no beer/wine/alcohol

Gold Star Balloon Day

This was the last day of our in-office responsibilities. They weren't mandatory attendance things, but, living so close to the office I felt like I had no excuse to beg off and not go. Almost everyone came in. We have new team mates that we've never met in person. So I felt compelled. Drawn. Wanting to be there. 

My work bestie RC lives in Baltimore and she was going to come down for some of these meetings. There was a giant fire in the city that shut down the train lines on Tuesday. And then Wednesday she had a day of other obligations. Today, she made it! 

So happy to have time with my bestie to chat, catch up, walk around the neighborhood, go to Starbucks, laugh at stuff. Catching her up on some drama at work and stuff, chats I had with some folks, and the whole thing... it was good to connect. 

We were walking down the street and a balloon came around the corner and attacked us. I asked her to take my picture. Then I let it go again. I cropped this picture down to make it square, but I do want to say when I left the house my hair was wonderfully curled and amazing. Less than 3 hours in DC humidity and boom. Nothing. Ha. 

Folks began leaving, flying home after days of activities. I scheduled two station meetings for 3pm and 4pm, and it kept me busy. I got to keep working while they got to move along.  

RC left around 2 to head home to Baltimore. And I miss everyone already. 

It's kind of funny, I was talking to one of my colleagues who stayed at a hotel one block from the office, and he said it was a real joy to come in at 8:30 every day, leave, go walk around the city, go out to dinner with other colleagues, grab a beer at the very favorite brewery around the corner, and be back in the hotel in bed by 9:30! No commute! 

I had my commute, and it was a challenge each day in different ways. Today the train rides were both super easy, so that was a gift. And I was going to walk to the metro AND walk back, but Doug offered to drive me down so I accepted that. I did walk back though. And it was DC hot and humid, reminding me of how miserable it will be soon. 

To think, we used to do this every damn day. I'm so relieved I do not have to do this on a regular basis. RC and I talked about how we should make a date once or twice a month to come into the city and be together. She is a big germ phobic and was incredibly anxious about being in a place that was "too peopley" like the train, so she wore a mask, and she hated people talking loud on the phone. She wished she had her emotional support stuffed animal to curl up into and scream... but she made it. 

At the office, we landed in a cube together and someone asked why we were crammed in there together. It just seemed natural, we were talking and looking over things together and ... why do that with a divider between us? Someone else said "I really miss the way you two talk to each other, you are cracking me up." 

It's true. We are fun and funny. 

Tomorrow I go back to normal, we all go back to normal. Remote work, bare feet, a dog snuggled up to my thigh, walking around outside instead of doing my 250 steps on the fifth floor. 

Here's me and the bestie. Digits below!

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours.  A couple measurable walks but the big one was the walk home from the metro. 20 min/.93 miles; 13k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

7am: 82
n/a
10:30pm: 118

food:
coffee/water
7am: phentermine
8:15am: met+glip
10am: some hash browns with onions and peppers; a couple bites of some sort of a frittata which ... was not good (sadly! our cafe usually has wonderful food but this was tasteless and bland).
1:45pm: bowl of ground turkey "bahn mi" bowl, tiny amount of rice, a lot of turkey, veggies, pretty good
5:30pm: met+glip
7:30pm: left over potato salad from the other day w/left over kielbasa diced up
9:30pm: jardiance
no alcohol/beer/wine

Blistery Toe

And the final busy day of the conference comes to an end. Big meetings, big discussions, and some big fun too. 

I had a double whammy today of the busiest day of the conference topped with a night out at a fundraising gala with S. It is always a super fun fundraiser, I've gone three times now. They have a feature where they have kids working with DC chefs and they make these wonderful things that we all get to judge. 

My favorite one was the goat cheese with basil on a crostini, with pickled strawberries and a balsamic vinaigrette glaze. It sounds wild, but it was absolutely amazing. 

Got home super late, tired, dead Fitbit so I know I got 10k overall but the reading is 8k. Oh well. Gotta remember to charge the damn thing! 

Here's a picture of me with S and Nikki who runs the community garden at an elementary school in DC. We volunteered to help get the garden set up a couple years ago with my sister, Spicy V, and another couple of guster fans who joined in with us. She remembered us, and the hug that I got from her. Amazing. I want to take a day and go down and work with her again before it gets too Summer in these parts. But that's right when the garden gets rocking! 

Off to bed. Once more to the office tomorrow and then I don't have to do this again... for a super long time! 

digits

exercise: 9/12 hours.   Hours lost during meetings/sessions: 10am, 1pm, and 4pm. Fitbit battery died around 8pm so my measured steps today only show about 8k. Got home and charged up. A better steps day tomorrow.

blood glucose:

7am: 101
n/a
11:30pm: 69

food:
coffee/water
7am: phentermine
7:45am: met+glip
9am: 3 pieces of bacon/2 sausage patties (thank you work cafeteria!) 
12:30pm: chicken piccata, broccoli, a spot of orzo
6pm: met+glip
gala food - lots of shrimp and pineapple on skewers, a little bit of pasta, shrimps, broccoli, alfredo sauce, wine
9:45pm: jardiance

And Did It Rain

My goodness. Did it rain today.

I got up early, and it was absolutely pouring. I got to the metro by 8:30 thanks to a lovely ride from Doug. And waited 20 minutes for the train, with about a million other people. Signal failure at a station 2 south of us. I pondered just going up top and calling an Uber but I saw what the traffic was. I'd risk it. A 20 minute trip will obviously take a lot longer. That's okay. 

Thankfully I do not need to do this regularly, again I say thankfully. I listened to people calling into their offices that they were going to be late, etc etc. I slacked my team, and took a picture of all the humans on the platform and the countdown to arrival ticker saying 10 more minutes...

I arrived at work just in time for the 9:30 meeting our team was having, it hadn't started cooking just yet. So I didn't feel bad. And I wasn't the only one late, also thanks to the Metro. 

We had a good meeting, and then clients started rolling in. We had lunch, a big keynote, "break out" rooms, and dinner. I didn't have any of the wine or beer because the food options for dinner weren't very filling or good for carbs. So I avoided what probably would have been a drunkening if I dove in like I wanted to. 

It was a good day, filled with lots of talks, and face to face time with clients and my colleagues. My right hand man and his boss sat at a table with me, and we went through tickets talking about them and who was taking what, and just going over the historical details of the ask. 

My colleague's boss said "wow, this is really nice, sitting together and doing this at a table. So productive." I said "you live in Chicago so we're not going to make you move back here, but we should maybe make a point to once every couple weeks set up a zoom and rip into some of these issues together. Either that or we all start coming back to the office. Ha. Never."

At about 8pm I was done. I was in a the middle of a good discussion about Spanish Translation of articles with one of my favorite people from our Miami client and another work bestie who likes to get into good trouble with me. I noticed the time and said "ugh. I still have to go home." 

We kiss kissed bye bye and I headed out in the POURING rain to the metro. I texted Doug and Geoff and Geoff met me at the station. 

He made chorizo quesadillas for dinner and that just was not appetizing to me. Appreciate the effort but that's spicy and greasy and no. To be honest, tired means nothing is appetizing to me. But I knew I needed to eat. So I made a pbj sammitch and opened a bottle of wine. Seemed like the thing to do. 

Feet up, hockey on, cuddling with my dog who missed the hell out of me all day and I have to say, I too missed her. 

Tomorrow is another exceptionally long day because I agreed to go to S's fundraiser for her non-profit that she's on the board for. It's for kids and you know I'm a sucker for kids and trying to make their lives brighter. So look at me. I'll be fancy. But it will be so late when I get home. I thought about driving in, but if I do, I have to make it back across town to get the car to go home. Although... I could maybe just leave it at the work garage overnight?

Nah. I'll metro. Just gotta get up early, get dressed, be ready to be pretty for the evening thing. 

No picture today but digits below.

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours.  Several walks of distance, but I only actually tracked one on the fitbit, 8 min/.4 miles. 12k+steps by bedtime.

blood glucose:

7am: 123
n/a
11pm: 117

food:
coffee/water
7am: phentermine
8am: met+glip
12:30pm: 1/2 Turkey BLT (ate some of the roll)
2pm: 1/2 chicken salad wrap
5pm: met+glip
6:30pm: some sushi, vegetarian gyoza, spinach artichoke dip (not a substantial dinner)
8:30pm: pb&low sugar j on 647 bread
10pm: jardiance
white wine

Four Times Into The Breach

(Entry from yesterday I forgot to publish)

Big meeting week at work means I head into the city like it is The Before Times. Four whole times this week. Pray for me. How did I used to do this.

Today we had a small team gathering. 

Tomorrow a mandatory full team 9am meeting. Clients and folks start arriving, keynote at lunch, meetings. Meetings. Meetings. Some fun squozed in there somewhere I am sure. 

Wednesday is the full biggest day of meetings and my volunteer ass will be wayfinding, microphone running, being friendly. Possibly one in person meeting with a very unhappy client (my manager is meeting with her and asked me to come with, maybe). 

Thursday the clients have a day to themselves but we're still required to come in for another full team meeting, a "decompress," a "what went well what didn't" kind of discussion with brunch. 

And I may leave right after and head home if I don't feel like being in the office. I may have my absolute fill of going to DC for four days at that point. 

I also find I don't get a lot of work done when I'm in the office. I get so much more work done here. And by Thursday I'll be way behind things. 

The team outing was such a good time. My colleague J put together a really fun excursion for us. We had lunch, then we went down tot he Hirshhorn Museum where we enjoyed the exhibits a lot, and then over to the Botanical Garden. We are all incredibly different, but also really like each other and care about each other. J is selling his condo in DC and it hasn't been moving. The market sucks. He went on vacation and decided to take it off the market and rent it and the day he decided to do that found a new co-worker looking for a long term (1-3 years) lease. 

We talked about letting go of dreams and just finding a path to something possibly unexpected and having the dream come true. 

Now he needs to find a new place in his new city of choice. 

H is building a house and she and her husband are having a wonderful time picking and planning. 

E lives in Colorado and by day is a support manager, by night a rock star. An actual rock star. We talked about that side of her career and how it is going. 

And our boss' dad had emergency heart surgery that morning in Boston. So far, so good, doing well. He said that his brother is there, monitoring the situation, taking care of mom and he'll be going up for the weekend and working from there. 

I walked 7 miles. My feet are killing me. 

I have tons of pictures. None of the botanical garden, though. 

We got back to the office and H and I got together with B from St. Louis, who flew in that afternoon. We had a lovely catch up at the brewery by our office, and it was really packed. The line was out the door. A combination of Trivia night and a policeman's conference of some sort happening where our favorite little watering hole became the place to be in the NOMA area. I was going to order dinner but passed and decided to eat at home. 

I walked back from the metro, too. So many steps today!

Here's a shot of me in the Laurie Anderson: Four Talks exhibit. I could have spent hours here, reading every word. Digits below.

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours.   Four distinct and measurable walks, 2 walking to/from the metro. 2 in DC from the office to the restaurant and the Hirshhorn to the Botanical Gardens. 17k steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

9am: 128
n/a afternoon reading
11pm: 92

food:
coffee/water
9am: phentermine
10:15am: met + glip
10:45am: pb& low sugar j on 647 bread
1pm: 3 lovely steak tacos on flour tortillas
6pm: 2 beers at the brewery; met+glip. Was going to order something for dinner but the line was so long!
8pm: bowl of pasta w/ chicken, tomatoes, mushrooms
10:30pm: jardiance

quick note

 All weekend long I didn't feel like picking up the laptop and writing. So here's a quick wrap up of the weekend. 

Saturday we did nothing much. Doug mowed the lawn. I did some house work. I got a short indoor walk in for 15 min but didn't take a real walk. It was a zero day. Felt good. I even took a nap. 

Sunday we went to see my friend Tim perform at a brewery.  He has a ton of original material, but also does a lot of covers. This was a covers show, and he took requests from the 10 of us in the audience yelling out what we wanted to hear. We know Tim through the Guster fan circles and he's what I would call official "Gus Fam" for me. Doug even went with me, which was nice.  

If you have a friend who is a musician or artist, go support them in their craft. These are hard times where creators are being crushed by technology, AI, and buried in the algorithms. Be their audience and the thing that gives them energy and makes them feel alive. 

A lot of hockey, including seeing the most amazing finish to a game in history where the Vegas Golden Nights showed up to play in the last minute of the game and scored 2 goals in the last 49 seconds to force overtime, and then they won. It was sick. I couldn't believe I was seeing it. Kind of the hockey version of "28-3" from the Patriots in the Super Bowl. 

anyway.

Real entry coming later tonight. I kept my digits but I'm not going to log them here. Just wanted to let anyone who wondered where I was for two whole days know I'm alright! Just lazy! 

As for the photos, I wish I caught Tim without the mic stand in front of his face. And the group shot, Henry wanted us to all make crazy faces for a shot (don't all 10 year olds want that?) so I did, but no one else did, so. A rather decent group photo ruined by me and Hen! 

$12.00 worth of our favorite person

Had a bit of fun tonight with S and going out to the 9:30 club in DC. Always such a joy to go see live music, and enjoy someone we mutually adore together. Like Guster or Ben Folds, and here with Amythyst Kiah.  She opened for a band neither of us know, Larkin Poe. 

It's funny because some people don't come for the opener and they just show up for the main act. To be honest, I always feel bad for them, especially in this case. To see Amythyst perform, hear the power in her voice. She's just so incredibly good - I cannot recommend her enough. Anyone getting there late and missing her is poorer for it.

Then there is the other side of the coin, when people come for the opener and leave. A few years back S and I went to see AK open for Josh Ritter. I only knew a couple Josh Ritter songs, but he'd opened for Guster the August beforehand and I loved him so was happy to go see him with his full band. And with AK opening, two of the finest songwriters around. Such a joy. 

There were women sitting next to us who got up after AK was done and they left. They.... left! They said "enjoy the next guy," and I was surprised they were leaving. "Oh we only came for Amythyst. We're not interested in Josh Ritter."

Well. 

Pay tickets for full price to leave after 1/3 of the show is over. Okay? At least stay for a couple songs? At least stay until he plays "Kathleen," maybe? 

Their loss - he and his band were phenomenal. 

S and I took the metro into DC and went to a brewery where the food is pretty good. Only tonight it was not. Sorely disappointed by the food and service. S spent dinner (no fault of hers!) trying to get her 2 tickets she purchased on StubHub transferred to her Ticketbastard account and it was not working. So she got to their support and got nowhere. Doors at 6pm. it is 6:15. I'm thinking no problem, doors at 6pm mean AK goes on at 7?  So I went to StubHub, and bought us 2 tickets for $12 each compared to the $108 she spent on 2 tickets. She ended up telling them she wanted a refund and they said she'd get one. 

Good. 

We headed over, got in line, got inside, 6:15 and AK was into her third song. The fuck? Doors at 6 and AK starts at 6? I asked at the door and they said "with early shows it's this way. I said there was no indication that this was the case, if it said Doors at 5, and AK starts at 6. 

Lady, DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND WE ARE ONLY HERE FOR THE OPENER? And we are missing her. 

We didn't miss her all the way, we got our good dose of Amythyst and afterward she went to the Merch table and we were able to say hello.

"Have I met you before?" she asks. 

Yes. like. Four other times yes. Hi. She laughed. So fun. She is so genuine and sweet and kind. I look forward to seeing her again in a headlining situation, and on time. 

S and I decided we were not interested in seeing Larkin Poe after all. We were mad because we had to fight with technology, and we got our $12 worth of AK. 

So we became those people who leave after the opener. And I was super okay with that. 

Around the corner we went to a nice looking bar. No food, no wait staff, you had to order at the bar and they slapped a 22% gratuity on the tab. The fuck? We did all the work. Busing our own table, bringing our own drinks over. Jesus that's crap. Glad S caught it because she added another 20% onto her tab (they leave the blank tip line on the receipt for those of us dumb enough to miss the fact we've already paid 22%.) 

She filled out the other receipt that says customer copy and on the tip line she put "you charged me already!" 

We headed to the Metro, she was feeling hungry and we thought about stopping in Silver Spring but went up to the end of our line to the metro stop right by her house. Her husband and her son H came out to join us, hilariously. We had a wonderful finishing up of the night. 

Let's say it wasn't perfect with how we had to fight with technology and I hope to hell she gets her money back from StubHub, but I'm glad we got to see AK and have time to sit and talk and catch up because that was the best part of it all. 

Home tired, ready for bed. Good night!  Digits below!

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours.   No measured exercise but we did walk around the streets of DC. 10k+ by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:30am: 123
4pm: 118
11:45pm: 145

food:
coffee/water
8:30am: Phentermine
10am: met+glip
10:45am: roast beef and colby jack on 647 bread; couple spoonfuls of potato salad
4:45pm: pb&low sugar J on 647 bread (while waiting for my friend... hungry!) Met+Glip
5:30pm: fried chicken sandwich on brioche, small side salad, cheese curds, beer
7pm-8:30pm: a couple glasses of wine 
after 9:30pm: some spicy egg roll things, a few slices of square pizza; 2 High Noon seltzers
11:45pm: jardiance