Olympic coverage

For some reason this year, Doug is absolutely into the olympics. He watches skiing every night. Curling. Hockey. 

I'm sitting here working on a number of things for work and he's got a running commentary about everything. I think he finally caught on that I'm not paying any attention. 

Kind of hilarious how he's just invested this year. He heard one of the commentators say something like "and we all know what happened to her..." 

He yelled NO WE DO NOT! And I just happened to have read an article on NPR about the skier in question  so I told him what happened to her. 

So I am paying attention, I guess. In my own weird way. 

Busy day today. A couple meetings and I still have to have my face in a spreadsheet but I wrote up help documentation for something instead for something completely different that is a lot more timely. I have a friend who was in serious crisis all day, checking in with me, and me checking in with her. In the end things are close to being worked out but she was beside herself all day. 

The treadmill was helpful today. The wind is too wicked, so I wasn't about to go out there with Toffee and walk anywhere. So happy this is here. 

Digits below! 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Treadmill. 32 min/2 miles. 11k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:15am: 154
4:45pm: 103
10:45pm: 182 (thanks apple pie. lol)

food & meds:
8:15am: jardiance+phentermine
10am: protein shake
1pm: met+glip; bowl of mac & cheese w/ ground beef
6pm: geoff's fried rice, with bacon (no other protein available)
8:30pm: met+glip; slice of Apple pie w/whipped cream
no alcohol

Outside Walking

The electrician came, fixed a breaker in the panel that had a short wire. So far, so good. We then spent about a half hour talking about metal music, Guster, WWE/Wrestling, and cartoon network shows we love. 

I wanted to just give him Geoff's phone number and say, "He hasn't found his people here. He could use a friend, and you're the closest thing so far that we've found."

So far, our electrical situation is smooth. We still need to figure out our icemaker, and there is one more troubleshooting thing Doug wants to do for it before we give up and disconnect the water and just ... make ice forever. 

Until the fridge dies and we replace it. Who knows when that may be! 

Work was so busy today. I got swept up in a late in the day ask from a colleague that turned into a whole "you've got to be kidding me, why didn't you ask us to test this a month ago?" moment. 

After futzing for a half hour, I said to him (and the entire thread, including my boss) "Okay. I've got to take my dog for a walk or she will die. I'll test this when I get back." 

I closed the laptop, leashed her up, and off we went. I had wanted to be done at about 4 but there I was after 5 still working... I don't mind it, I just thought I'd get a good walk in and come back and finish up another hour. As is, it was getting dark, I wanted an outside walk for Toffee, and it just had to be put to a stop. I had to think of us and our needs. 

I also wanted a walk outside for me, not just her, to be honest. 

Finally it was over 10 degrees and not windy. This was the day if ever there was a day, to get some miles under the feet. It was a good walk.  Where the sidewalks were clear it was fantastic but there are so many houses where the people just did not shovel, so we had to loop out onto the road. And people drive like absolute idiots. So it was a bit frustrating.

There's a stretch of the walk that I like to do where there isn't a sidewalk, so you're walking on the shoulder of the road. But that's not plowed or shoveled. So we cut it short about a half mile sooner than I planned. Still, more than a mile, Done and dusted. 

My dog also acted like she completely forgot how to walk on a leash. Take that discipline away for a week or so and she goes feral.

I got back, I built a web presentation for what I think things should look like. Sent it to the team. Said... well, we won't know until tomorrow morning if what I built works because we have to see if it magically updates when the content is updated. Cross your fingers.  It is supposed to show up on multiple other websites that have subscribed to that content. 

But it may not work. It may be all for naught. And I'm so mad no one talked to my team before building the thing they built. 

How many years have we been doing these things? sigh. 

Geoff made a great dinner but not enough protein in it. I need to nag him about doubling the chicken or beef in recipes. 

A good day all told. And we do it again tomorrow. 

Digits.... below. 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours.  Walk with Toffee (finally "warm" enough outside). 25 min/1.36 mi. 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8am: 92
4:15pm: 102
10pm: 154

food & meds:
8am: jardiance+phentermine
10am: breakfast tart
1pm: met+glip; roast beef + swiss on 647 white
6pm: chicken and rotini in vodka sauce a la Geoff
8:15pm: met+glip
vodka & diet tonic

Electrician

We need an electrician now. 

I feel like it is one thing after another per usual, when you buy a house. You already know we replaced the dishwasher. We replaced the hot water heater last week. Our washing machine is making a squeeking noise when it is running so maybe she's on her way out. Who knows. We're waiting for our new microwave to arrive. The ice maker on the freezer stopped working, we cannot figure out how to get it started again. But I can make ice with ice trays. 

It's always something. 

But the electrician. Here's why. 

A couple weeks ago, a breaker tripped. The one that runs the fridge, dishwasher, and under cabinet lights. Geoff flipped the breaker back for us. It happened again. And again. I came down the other night and I thought that the under cabinet lights had burned out (which, I hope they never do because I don't know how we'd replace these things). I told Doug and he said "oh, the breaker tripped. Ask Geoff to take care of it. 

Well, it was 5:45am. I wasn't going to go downstairs and bother him. Or text him. I decided to wait. The fridge had not been opened, so everything was safe until he could take care of it (oh - the electric panel is in his bedroom). 

So he did. And it tripped again. 

And. Again.

Yesterday was four times. 

It doesn't matter if the dishwasher is running or whatever. It just goes. 

So I checked the list of contractors and stuff that our realtor gave us and the electrician on that list did not return my calls. 

Google is my friend. So I found an outfit not too far from the house and called. The person who answered the phone was super nice, got us set up with a visit tomorrow between 10am and 1pm. I told her I have a hard stop at 2 pm so if he'll be later than 1 we can reschedule. 

I gave her my Capital One card and it got rejected. Which has been happening a LOT lately any time we try to use it online or do something over the phone like this. I know Capital One is trying to protect us from fraud and shit but come the fuck ON. 

She and I joked around about how fraud-ish I was being right then to line up an electrician. I said "well, I appreciate them protecting me from fraud but it SUCKS when I'm trying to buy concert tickets on Ticketmaster and I get a two factor authentication screen, and I am waiting for a code and it doesn't arrive until AFTER TICKETMASTER CANCELS MY ORDER and I lose my place in line." And she did the whole OH I KNOW!  and told me how she lost second row seats to a show in Baltimore recently that she really wanted and ended up getting kicked back in line and it sold out before she could get back in. 

We both shook our fists together and it was funny.

I gave her my bank card, and it went right through. We're trying not to put things on that card. And I told her yeah... we're looking for a new bank because the bank we have, well, the nearest office is in Frederick and like, I have to go in person to deposit a check that their ATM rejected last weekend for some reason and I hate having to drive all the way to Frederick to do banking, so we're looking for something local to switch to. 

She said "Oh! Well. If you don't mind me suggesting. You don't know me and it isn't my business but since you mentioned it. My wife works at XYZ Bank and is a new customer account representative, her name is [redacted] and you should reach out to her and get hooked up." 

Reader.

This gave me pause. 

And I immediately loved her.

She doesn't know me. She doesn't know if I'd be all uppity about her having A WIFE!!!??? How many people might just flip out at her? 

A Wife!? For fuck's sake! 

But no. Not me. 

Honestly. I felt like that was something that could be dangerous to say to some people. There is so much hate in this world about who people love, or how they spend their lives and time. And she didn't bat an eye or hold back or anything. She told me about her wife. 

I told her I'd take that under advisement, because Doug had already decided on a bank locally but we hadn't gotten our shit together yet to go open the account. She said she totally gets it. And this bank is a little bigger than a "local" bank. "Local banks are super great but they sometimes get bought." 

"Yes, that's exactly what happened to the bank that we used when we lived in Silver Spring. They got bought by another bank, and if we were still down there it wouldn't be a pain but now? We're far. And thankfully there's Frederick but we'd like a nearby banking experience. 

She texted me later to give me her wife's name and the location of her branch. It is literally less than a mile from here. 

Maybe that'll be our bank. Gotta check with Doug about what he was thinking. 

And reader, I had a really good feeling today. I felt like honesty and openness reigned today. It brought me great joy to have this conversation. 

And I hope their electrician kicks ass and knows why the hell we're tripping balls up in here with our breaker. 

Digits, below.

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Treadmill, 30 min/2.01 miles. Was trying to break a 15 min per mile pace, but fell just short. Good effort though! 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:30am: 132
4:30pm: 150
10pm: 84

food & meds:
8:30am: jardiance+phentermine
12:45pm: bowl of ham and bean soup, 2 small pieces of crusty italian bread
1:30pm: last of the soup; met+glip
6:30pm: 2 boneless pork chops in a mushroom cream sauce (a la Geoff)
8:30pm: met+glip
9pm: ramekin of mixed nuts; vodka & diet tonic

The day of the superb owl. Long may he fly

Doug's cousin and his wife came through today on their way home from the DC area. Their son plays water polo so he had a big scrimmage or game or meet or whatever they call it. I can't believe how much he's grown. He's literally a giant human grown up man. I remember him being a tiny baby. 

I started the day early with a run on the treadmill, and then dishes and folding laundry. I thought about baking cookies to send home with the cousin but my mom called and she derailed those plans. 

The cousin fam arrived around 12:30. We had a great visit and initially the plan was we would all go out to lunch and they'd head out from there, but they confessed they were not hungry. The hotel had a big giant awesome breakfast that they all chowed down on. And that was perfectly fine. We pivoted.

After they left, Doug, Geoff, and I headed out for lunch, since we had shoes on and everything. We hit up the Broad Axe in downtown Hagerstown. I didn't want a full meal or anything because I was saving my appetite for snacks. 

It is Super Bowl Sunday, after all. Geoff went to the market for our game snacks and dinner fixn's for a couple days. Doug crashed with a big nap. And when Geoff got home I whipped up buffalo chicken dip and pigs in blankets. 

And the Patriots whipped up a big bowl of ugh for us. That was not a great game. I didn't think they would win but I didn't think it would be this bad a loss. Seattle is legit. Tough defense all that jazz. 

Long week ahead with a lot of work and I have to focus and buckle down with my friends The Spreadsheets. Several client meetings during the week, one of which I feel like I'm going to say "okay, so what is it you want me to do because none of this is going to work" as I crush someone's dreams. It's like that somtimes. 

No picture today, but the digits are down below.

 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Treadmill, 33 min/2.11 mi (I was working towards the end of a song so that's why the numbers are whack). 11k+ steps by bedtime.

blood glucose:

8:30am: 122
5pm: 101
10pm: 181

food & meds:
8:30am: jardiance+phentermine
9:45am: pop tart from Ted's Bulletin
1pm: met+glip
2pm: buffalo wings, 2 crab balls, 2 beers (at Broad Axe in Hagerstown) 
4pm: 1/2 of one of the big pb/chocolate whoopie pie cookie I bought yesterday for the boys
2 beers
during the football game: pigs in blankets, buffalo chicken dip w/celery; vodka and zero sugar cran (1) 

A DC Saturday Adventure

Saturday's entry on a Sunday morning

Yesterday I planned the treadmill in the morning first thing but didn't. Before I realized it, time had come to thinking about starting to get ready so I got a shower, got all figured out how I was going to get to DC. Doug and I talked about if I should metro or drive. I was leaning towards driving since it was a Saturday morning, and probably would be easy parking once I got down to 14th street maybe. He said that from what he'd been reading, the DC streets and sidewalks were covered in ice concrete, or "Icecrete" as people have been calling it. It is unmovable, solid, and everything is hard to deal with in town. Metro it is! So I  headed out at 10am thinking I would get there well before the 12:30 start time. 

I got there at 1. It was not as bad as Planes, Trains, and Automobiles, but it was DC Winter frustration. 

As I drove down the highway, someone recently lost control of their car in Montgomery County and the rescue teams were there, blocking the right lane off. It was around the bend so no one in the right lane could SEE the situation and get over so that was a challenge. We got past the accident as the ambulance was leaving and a couple of tow trucks were trying to figure out how to get the car out of the trees. 

Truth be told, I hope they did because it was a sight, and someone driving fast would have come along and seen it, and it would have been a big distraction. There was a crew dropping salt melt and things on the lane. I guess it melted just enough and froze solid again in that area. 

Wicked dangerous! 

After getting past there, I got to Shady Grove metro which is the closest metro station to me. It usually takes about an hour to get there if traffic is moving nicely but we were way over that. I parked, ran to the entrance, charged up my metro card, and waited 10 minutes. 

Everything got better for a while, the train was moving, things were good. But when we got to until we arrived at the Van Ness metro stop we were informed the trains were single tracking due to work being done, so we waited another 10 minutes. I'm sitting there, envisioning arriving after Henry is completely done with his songs. Well, I'll be on time for lunch!

Finally. Moving again! We got to Gallery Place where I was hopping on the green line, and they were only going to McPherson Square, 2 stops away from where I wanted to be. Something about electrical problems ahead.

Now, mind you... NONE of the single tracking or power issues were mentioned on the Metro website or the App. Which I used in order to make my decisions on how I was going to go from point A to B. 

I'm standing in the metro station, looking at my watch, already 15 minutes late. The fuck. 

Okay, pivot. Let's walk. Google maps told me it was a straight shot north, and should take 23 minutes. I bet I can do it in 20. But oh no, oh God, OH GOD it is so cold and windy. WINDY!!! The wind was taking layers of skin off my face. And um, yeah. Um. The sidewalks. The sidewalks are covered in large boulders of ice. There's nowhere to walk. I watched a guy trying to walk his dog past the convention center. 

Nope. Uber. Let's Uber. 

I fire up Uber, which. I cannot remember the last time I used it. Oh... of course. Let's install an update from Google Play. Oh yes, let's reverify our identity with texted codes. And yeah. What's your password? Don't remember your password? Here's an email to reset your password. Okay! Password reset. Finally. 

The uber was requested, it said he was 5 minutes away so I ducked into the Subway sub shop (to clarify so no one reading this who speaks different mass transit language thinks I ducked into the Subway aka the Metro) to keep warm. 

The guy literally showed right up. He got me up to my destination. 

I only missed two of Henry's songs. Not bad. Not bad at all. 

They played until almost 2pm. There were several kids missing so others filled in for them. Henry plays with the teen group even though he's just 11. And the teens are super impressive. The singers could use a little how to rock and roll and have some stage presence lessons but other than that it was wild watching these kids perform. 

Henry did great, sounded great. Flubbed a little bit at the end of a Talking Heads song and kept playing when the song was over, which was kind of cute because it was like he was in the zone and rocking it all out and unaware of the rest of the band. 

After, Sara had made reservations at a restaurant so we could celebrate Hen's birthday with Sean's family. Usually Sean's family comes to things and they don't go out to eat with us after but this time they were in. We had a blast, I really like Sean's brother in law. He's great to talk to. And their toddler is really cute. Her language skills are amazing. She's 2 and speaks in full sentences and just talks to people like a grown up. She's super into the solar system right now and told me the sun is too hot to step onto so we can't go there. 

I started to think about what I was going to do in order to get back to my car. S&S live close to where we used to live at the other end of the red line and I thought about driving over that way to park just to get the ride home with them but opted to do the west end of the red line instead. 

I could uber to a red line station. My original plan was to walk back to the green line stop that I was headed to in the first place but no - there's probably no way I'll get from that stop to a red line stop to get home. 

Sara said, without me asking, that they were going to drive me back to my car. I told them that was crazy, out of their way, but she said her office is right near there and getting home from there is no problem. Sean agreed. So we went, and for some reason the GPS sent us through Georgetown instead of some smarter way, and straight to a bridge that is closed and under construction. Kind of a shit-show, and an unwanted detour around Georgetown, which was so poorly plowed, with people trying to parallel park giant SUVs the size of aircraft carriers, and all kinds of shenanigans. 

They got me up to my car a little after 5pm and the ride home from there was a piece of cake. 

One must have an exceptionally strong constitution in the first place to deal with getting around DC. And yesterday was a perfect example of that. Thankful for Sean and his skills in the adventure. 

When I got home, Doug had done a goodly amount of tidying up. The boys had not made dinner or anything so it was decided there would be pizza. 

I brought home pastries from our restaurant where we had lunch and I overbought. But everything looked so amazing that I could not resist. 

Digits below. No pictures of Hen playing because we were too far away for good shots. But he was great. So great. I love seeing him improve and evolve as a musician. 

digits

exercise: 11/12 hours.  Missed 5pm driving in the car. Treadmill: 22 min/1.38 mi. 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:30am: 132
xpm: n/a
xpm: 114

food & meds:
8:30am: jardiance+phentermine
9:45am: Protein shake
2pm: met+glip
3pm: French Onion Cheeseburger: double burger patties on brioche bread, topped with gruyere cheese, and a small bowl of french onion soup onions (w/a little soup in the bowl). side salad. I wasn't going to eat the roll, but I used it to dip in the soup and have no regrets. Several of Henry's french fries
7pm: buffalo chicken bites
9:30pm: met+glip
no beer/wine

Out on a School Night Tired on the Next Day

I had mentioned recent posts that our microwave died on Monday. Doug ordered a new one online, did his price comparisons, shopped for the best deal, and ordered one up for us to be delivered today. 

Wednesday night he got an email from the company that they canceled our order. No reason. Just. Canceled. C and I had a whole email discussion on just buying shit you need on demand from Amazon. Doug shopped on Amazon and found better prices outside of Amazon and decided to go that route instead. Even driving across town to Walmart, this was cheaper even with the shipping.

As of late, Doug and I both have been making a concerted effort to shop locally, and not just order a bottle of HP sauce from Amazon to have it shipped when you can drive over and get it at the British Market the next town over.

For the most part, this has paid off well for us. Getting to know the local area, supporting local businesses instead of the Bezos Empire. 

Unfortunately. This is the second or third time that this has happened where he's ordered something from somewhere (not Amazon) only to have the order delayed horrifically or canceled. He had ordered an industrial nutcracker for the walnuts from some farming/hunting company, and it was delayed for months - and he finally canceled it out of frustration. I wondered on that one if imports and tariffs were the reason for the delay. Not the company's fault but also, shit. I had wanted fresh cracked walnuts to candy and send out to friends for Christmas. So. No. He still hasn't picked a new nutcracker for our needs

And then this one, canceled with no reason given.

Amazon was looking better and better. So I asked him if he wouldn't just buy one from Amazon. He said no - and told me that after work he wanted to just go over to Walmart and pick one up. Okay. Great. Let's go. 

On Thursday he was looped into a big meeting, and had to do a slide deck and part of the presentation. The meeting was at 5:30pm. Then he looked at the agenda and the meeting was running until 7pm, and his team was ... at the end. Of course. 

I did a quick walk on the treadmill after I was done working around 6:30, nothing fast. I had on my jeans so it wasn't a workout. He came down at 7:05, ate some dinner, and we left. 

It was weird to be going out this late to go microwave shopping, but we had a list of stuff to get as well, and we had a nice time. Big date night out, right? 

They did not have the microwave he wanted in stock, so he was disappointed. We got what we wanted to get otherwise. 

Shopping builds up a big thirst, and in the plaza next to Walmart there is a local brewery. We've gone a couple times but hadn't been in months because this is a little out of the way, not like the brewery that is in downtown that we could literally walk to if we wanted. 

We pulled up and they looked closed. All the screens were turned off, there was one guy at the bar, and a girl behind the bar. The lights were dimmed down, and it looked to me like they were wrapping for the night. The website said they were open until 10, and it was only 8:30. We tried the door and it was open. 

The girl said they were open for sure, but usually if there are no customers they wrap things by 9pm. We asked if it would ruin her night if we had a beer and she laughed and said no - come on in.

We ended up staying there until after 10. The guy at the bar and the girl beertender are best friends. We all got to talking, she works days at the local gym running the front desk and the office, I forget what he does for a job currently, but he used to work in a local coal mine until he got pinned by one of the train cars and broke his spine. He showed off his scars from the surgeries he had. For such a young person, what a horrible experience. They couldn't have been older than Jess. 

She told me about her dog - a Great Pyr mix, 6 months old, 70 pounds. She shared video of her playing and it was such a good time. I think when the snow is gone we may try to meet up for a play date. She said she needs to socialize her (her name is Poppy) and I can think of no better way to do it than with Toffee in our yard. 

At some point we talked about this donut shop, Krumpe's, that is the stuff of legends in these parts. They're only open to the public at night, 7-11pm. I said to Doug "we should totally go there, it is on the way home." And the two of them were "HELL YES you should go there!" Getting that vote of approval was enough for me.

So we did. I didn't realize how close it was to the gym where I was going before we got the treadmill. It is tucked down an alley way, in a residential neighborhood. Good thing they're only open at night or I would have been stopping on the regular!

The donuts were great, very homemade, you could see the how ancient all the equipment was. The kids working there were super sweet. I mentioned we were new to town, this was our first visit and the kid handed us each a small glazed. Just to tease us into the dozen we were going to buy anyway! 

A customer came in and an older man, maybe the owner, came over to talk to him and shake hands and catch up. 

Worth it. Totally worth it. When we were leaving there were aboug 7 more cars pulling up. The kid at the brewery said that at 7pm, the line is around the block to get in, so we went at the perfect time.

My blood sugar kicked my ass so I fell into bed and fell right asleep. Dreaming of donuts. 

Today, Friday, was a quiet day. Doug flex timed the morning and loafed around until maybe 11am. I had a pretty wide open morning and I did a lot of tickets and work on spreadsheets for this afternoon. I didn't get as much done as I liked which is actually good because we ended up changing what I'm doing with the spreadsheets. Lucky me. 

tomorrow I get to go to DC to see Henry rock out. Very exciting. It should be a treat. I'm hoping I get up early, hit the treadmill first, and then shower and go. Not sure what time I'll be getting home and if I'll be up for doing the walk. 

Digits below Donut.

Thursday digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. easy slow walk 1 mile/21 min. Additional 3/4 of a mile walk inside Walmart over a 30 min period. 11k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

7:30am: 135
3:45pm: 101
11:45pm: 210

food & meds:
7:30am: jardiance+phentermine
12:30pm: apple + pb
1pm: met+glip
5:30pm: spaghetti and meatballs
9pm: beers at the brewery
10pm: a couple donuts from the dount side quest
10:45pm: met+glip

Friday digits

exercise: 11/12 hours. Somehow missed the 2pm hour by a few steps. Miscounted! Treadmill, 2 miles/35 min. 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:30am: 180
4:30pm: 112
10pm: 165

food & meds:
8:30am: jardiance+phentermine
9am: donut from krumpe's
9:30: protein shake 
11:30am: bowl of mac & cheese w/bacon
1pm: met+glip
6pm: some sort of "tater tot taco" casserole Geoff made in the slow cooker. Surprisingly good. Hungry enough for 2 bowls after the treadmill.
9pm: met+glip
no beer/wine

The Early Option

I woke up to go to the bathroom at about 6am. Then went to the guest room. Doug came downstairs about a half hour later to do the same, and he fed the dog. 

At 6:30am.

Like, 2 hours too early. 

So I came out of the bedroom and asked why he did that. "She asked for breakfast, so I fed her," he said. 

I went back to the guest room, he went back upstairs. 6am is my "too early to actually really be awake" hour. And Toffee came back to bed with me. 

I drank a pint of water, and woke up naturally at 7:30, thanks glass of water! An on purpose alarm clock. I knew my day was meetings up the wazoo, so I brewed the coffee, I got on the treadmill, I got that out of the way. 

And then was on my ass except for the hourly steps for the rest of the day. It's nice to pre-load the day with close to 4-5k steps! But at 10pm I was still under 10k (how'd that happen!) so I made up for it and walked around the house. 

Toffee had a serious case of the zoomies tonight. A giant dog like her with the zoomies is a lot of fun but also can be slightly dangerous! She pushed our mattress off the bed by running and jumping on it. She ran down the stairs and crashed at the bottom. She ran back up the stairs and it was like a herd of elephants. 

She's been so cooped up. I keep saying, maybe tomorrow will be a good day for a walk...

Speaking of tomorrow, I'm going to take some time in the afternoon to drive to the clinic for some blood work. I may take the whole afternoon off. 

sigh. 

Here's a picture of the amaryllis we got at Aldi the day before the blizzard. It smells so amazing. Digits, below!

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Treadmill, 30 min/1.64 mi. 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8am: 154
4:30pm: 98
10:45pm: 127

food & meds:
8am: jardiance+phentermine
9:15am: protein shake
1:30pm: giant bowl of BLT salad w/Tuna salad mixed in
1:45pm: met+glip
3pm: part of one of the big chocolate chip cookies
5:30pm: some sort of dirty rice/chicken thing that Geoff whipped up (it was a little dry, so I'll see what his recipe was and make notes/suggestions) 
8:30pm: met+glip; ramekin of spicy cajun trail mix
no beer/wine

Pan Banging Cookies

I woke up early this morning, around 7:30. I had one cup of coffee and decided to do treadmill before work. Got a good walk/jog in, showered, and was still on time for getting things done. 

The day was pretty busy and before I knew it, 5pm was here. I felt like baking cookies or something. My work son told me this past weekend he made these bomb ass chocolate chip cookies, and he sent me the recipe. Here's the link. They're called Pan Banging Cookies. I've never heard of this method of baking cookies. My life is changed. 

I mean, these cookies. Unbelievable. 

You only get about 8-10 of them depending on how big you make them. The recipe says to make about 4 3 inch balls or 3/4 cup scoops of the dough, freeze it, and then bake. The recipe says "trust me," and so I did. I've never heard of baking cookies part way and then "banging" the tray so they collapse and spread. 

I used chocolate chips because I didn't have the kind of chopped chocolate she recommends. And I should have done the little sprinkle of extra Kosher salt on the cookie top while it was baking. But. It was all good.

My buddy Brendo said to take the tray out of the oven and drop it on the counter top or stove top for even "banging," and that was my plan anyway before I started making them. The instructions say to reach into the oven and lift one end of the tray up about 4 inches and drop it. 

Nope. 

I took the whole tray out and dropped it 3 times on the stove top, put it back in 3 minutes, take it out, do it again. 

10 minutes for the first round of baking, and 3 removals and drops. Perfect! Success! 

Pictures, and digits below! 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Treadmill before work, 40 min/2.5 mi. 11k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

7:45am: 125
4:15pm: 83
10:30pm: 147

food & meds:
7:45am: jardiance+phentermine
9:45am: english muffin w/pb & blackberry preserves
1pm: met+glip
2:30pm: ramekin of mixed nuts
4:30pm: some spicy cajun trail mix
5:45pm: piece of a chocolate chip cookie (split w/Geoff)
6:30pm: bowl of fettuccini w/ mushrooms, tomatoes, red pepper, olive oil, roasted chicken breasts; 2 big assed cookies
8:30pm: met+glip 
no beer/wine

Hardest thing you have to do all year

This morning we had our hot water heater replaced. It didn't go as smoothly as I'm sure the kid thought it would. 

First, his boss showed up to help him. His boss is the guy I thought was super funny last time. I guess he can be kind of a pain in the ass. 

After the boss left, the kid told me that when it came time to drain the hot water heater, instead of doing the pump and hose over to our toilet in Geoff's area of the basement, the boss had a cunning plan. 

We have a small dehumidifier in the basement, and there's a hose that goes into a tiny hole drilled into the cement floor. 

Where does the hole lead? Where does the water go? This I do not know. Every house I've lived in has had a drain in the floor that's like ... a real drain for where water can flow out of the basement if need be. You probably have had that too. 

Well, not this house. Just a tiny hole, just a thin garden hose, just a little dehumidifier. 

So the boss wants to drain the water into this hole. Kid says "I don't think that is a big enough hole, and, we don't know where the water drains to."

Boss says yeah, yeah, yeah it'll be fine. Only it wasn't. 

The amount of water flowing into said tiny hole overwhelmed it, and, the water started to back up into the basement. 

As they say in the midwest.... "Ope." The boss left. And a little bit later I went down because I'd made a cup of coffee for the kid. He was sweeping water. towards the hole, and I was visibly surprised. Boss went to get a Wet-Vac, and I said I would get some towels after checking to make sure none of the boxes on the floor were wet/damaged. 

None were. He explained the situation, and I said that's fine as long as, ya know, none of the water was getting anywhere other than right where we saw it. 

Wet-Vac arrived and they set to cleaning up, and the pump and hose were deployed to get the water out of the tank. 

No harm, no foul overall. And it's funny because the kid obviously was annoyed because if they had just done things the way it was supposed to happen there would be no water on my floor. 

But there they were, cleaning up and draining the tank. 

After a while the boss left with the Wet-Vac, and I could hear the hose pump working. Mission back on track. The kid came up to let me know that he was sorry for all of this. "This is taking longer than I thought it would." 

"As long as I won't be charged for that extra time, I've got no problem." He nodded, yes ma'am. 

And he came up a little while later to let me know he couldn't get all the water out of the tank. 

"There is calcification in the bottom of the tank, about 10 inches, so the water won't drain all the way out," he reported. 

Oh dear. That sucks? "Well, what do we do? You're pretty strong, can you work with your boss and get her out?"

"I think it weighs about 500 pounds right now, to be honest. I have an alternate plan to get more water out. You may hear a lot of noise." 

"As long as whatever water that's left isn't going to end up on the floor too," I said. "You do you. You're the expert. You know what needs to happen." 

He kind of laughed. "Yeah, I'm not feeling very expert right now." I really felt for him. It was okay, nothing was damaged, but I could feel his frustration. 

Boss came back and the two of them got more water out of the tank, enough that it was able to plop onto a dolly. They brought it upstairs, and the boss showed us a couple points on the tank that were corroded because of the calcification. 

"It is a very good thing you had this done now," he said, "I won't say she was about to blow but this isn't good, and hot water spraying everywhere would be really dangerous. 

Well thanks. Thank both of you for the work you put in. 

The new tank, she's lovely. And the hot water came on almost immediately. 

Another home improvement project done and dusted. 

Now to replace the microwave that literally caught fire this morning at 6:30am, get a new toilet seat, caulk the tub. You know. The usual. Joys of homeownership! 

Digits below!

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Treadmill, 25 min/1.66 mi. 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

6:45am: 109
5pm: 70* recheck 6pm: 111
10:45pm: 125  

food & meds:
6:45am: jardiance+phentermine
9:45am: english muffin w/pb
1pm: met+glip
2:30pm: can of tunafish, w/mayo, tomatoes, diced onion
5pm: 2 cookies (see blood sugar above); ramekin of cajun peanuts and spicy cracker thingies
7:15pm: bowl of left over ham and bean soup w/ some cheez-it crackers on top
9:20pm: met+glip
no beer/wine

Rock Concert

I got an earlier than usual treadmill time in because Geoff was lollygagging, and I knew I had to leave around 1pm to get to A's rock concert. I made it there just in time, over an hour trip to the venue but thanks to an accident on 70 westbound, we had rubber neckers trying to see what was happening. 

I missed most of the first song but totally loved the rest of it. Compared to his last show, he's doing so much better. He absolutely killed the bass part on "Sunshine of Your Love." We had a nice visit all together after, and they went to Baltimore to get ice cream. I stayed later to listen to the House Band. They absolutely killed it - I think it was an all girl ensemble (the bassist may have been male or trans, not 100% sure but who cares, they were amazing). 

They even did a song by local legends Turnstile called Blackout. And Turnstile won a Grammy tonight so good for them! 

I'm not allowed to post pictures of my little buddy on the internet per mom's request but I got some really good ones. 

Got home and Geoff was making dinner. Dishwasher was running, it was nice to not have to lift a finger. 

Digits below! 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Treadmill: math, a 10 min. run which I'm measuring at .5 miles (based on the treadmill reading); 25 min/1.5 miles on the walk setting. 2 miles total. 10k+ by bedtime

blood glucose:

7:30am: 119
5:30pm: 115
9:30pm: 116  

food & meds:
7:30am: jardiance+phentermine
10:30am: zero carb soft taco wrap w/pb & j
1pm: met+glip
3pm: 2 beers, buffalo fingers, some french fries
6:30pm: bowl of chicken cacciatore (chicken thighs, mushrooms, tomatoes, peppers, carrots in a tomato sauce) over some egg noodles
8:30pm: met+glip

What are you looking for now

We did absolutely nothing today. Our plans of going to the bank were just fantasy talk. I was going to clean the bathroom. Ha. 

I did do the treadmill, and I was surprised that Doug did too. 

After he finished the treadmill he got it in mind to make an apple pie. He had found an apple cookbook at a little free library (with a recipe from a woman from the orchard near where he grew up). 

Basic apple pie recipe. 

He's going through every drawer in the kitchen, opening every cabined. It crosses my mind - he's never really made anything since we've been here. 

I hear him bumping around.
"What are you looking for?" I ask.
Sugar.
I point right to it.

More bumping around.
"What are you looking for now?"
Apple peeler. 
I open the drawer. He doesn't like the apple peeler. 
Where is the other one?
The one that doesn't work? Here. 
He ends up using the one I handed him.

He's going through the pantry.
"And now what are you looking for?"
Cinnamon.
Over next to the stove, with all of the spices and stuff. Those are the things for basically every day normal use. What's in the pantry is the stuff we very rarely need. 

Doug gets acquainted with the kitchen. Finally.  

Apple pie goes into the oven. It smells great. I'm already dreading what it is going to do to my blood sugar but I will indeed have a slice since he worked so hard at finding things. 

The apple pie came out nice, tasty, but something was missing. It was almost watery, soupy. I asked if he forgot flour or an egg. He said the recipe didn't call for those. But upon re-reading the recipe, indeed. flour. 

It wasn't a waste, for sure that was a nice gift for me to not have to be the one who bakes or makes .

Tomorrow we have to leave the house. It's my work wife's son's big rock show. Second one. He's getting better and better at it. Next weekend is Henry's. 

And my work wife told me she isn't sure if any of her family is coming. So I feel like I gotta pull up hard and be the best auntie ever. 

Plus, it's at a brewery. Bonus. 

Digits below. 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Treadmill, 40 min/2.02 miles; 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

9:30 am: 133
5pm: 113
10pm: 142  

food & meds:
9:30am: jardiance+phentermine
11:30am: bowl of mac & cheese w/bacon
1pm: met+glip
6pm: chili (beans and meat, cheese, sour cream) 
7pm: big slice of apple pie w/cold foam cream
9pm: met+glip

Hot Water Heater

The plumber came today. Turns out, he owns the company and they're literally across the street-ish from us, a block away on the main drag. He called first thing this morning and apologized because he was supposed to call me back on Monday to follow up and just forgot.

It is okay - I let him know that if it had turned into an emergency, I would have called another plumber. 

Dude just about died laughing. 

Kind of like with the wildlife guys, I got this guy's vibe and knew he'd have a laugh. I told him in all seriousness, Monday was kind of apocalyptic and he had things to do and take care of and I totally understood. 

He brought a really really young guy with him. Like, I felt like this was a high school kid but he isn't. He's a little younger than Geoff but looks 15. 

The super young dude is coming back on Monday morning to do the install. I guess he isn't at apprentice level, he's a made man in plumbing. So he flies solo. 

It'll be nice to have this done. One less thing to think about. And we can move onto the next thing to think about. 

Work was incredibly busy. I had a good client meeting, and then I had a great meeting with a co-worker in the analytics department. I love her. I canceled a meeting with the work son because I just had so much to do, and scheduled two meetings for Monday with clients and kicked myself for it. 

I hate meetings on Mondays. 

But best to get these ones out of the way and gone. 

Treadmill happened, Geoff made a really good dinner but didn't include enough protein and that was a little bit of a bummer. Please, kid. Protein. 

Tomorrow Doug and I have to go to the bank before the nearest branch closes so we'll get up and at it early. And who knows what the rest of the day is going to be. Adventure!

Digits below!

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Treadmill, 36 min/2 mi. 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

7:30am: 113
4pm: 121
10:30pm: 142

food & meds:
7:30am: jardiance+phentermine
1pm: pb & j sandwich on 647 bread; met+glip
6pm: bowl of rotini w/chicken breast and homemade creamy alfredo sauce
7pm: ramekin of mixed nuts (only ate 1/2)
8:30pm: met+glip
no wine/beer

Pre Load the Day

I woke up early this morning and figured going back to sleep would be dumb. Early for me is 7am. If I wake up earlier than that well then, yeah, it makes sense to try to get more sleep but to be honest, getting up is always a good idea. Just get up. Do it. 

Also, I was super hungry. Last night's dinner was minimal and I didn't have any sort of snack around 8pm or anything. So 7am was hungry time. 

If you look at the log of meds/food/etc that I've been keeping you'll notice I don't usually eat until after 10am, sometimes not until after noon. One of the medications I'm on is an appetite suppressant and it is effective. I take it in the morning and I am absolutely not hungry at all. Which is good. But after being on it a year you'd think I'd have lost 100 pounds by now. 

So I made an early english muffin, sat with Toffee, played phone games until it was time to start working. I did some banking, noticed that the student loan payment I sent in for Doug still has not cleared and I mailed it 10 days ago. Everything else I've paid has cleared. My town doesn't have an online service for payment for electric or water/sewer so those go by check. And the student loan people will not allow Doug to pay online, which is ridiculous and stupid. I hate them. 

Work was super good. Busy, a couple good meetings, 1:1 check in with my boss. Fun times with the work son. And we do a bi-weekly office hour with the clients and that is always my favorite meeting. I got dinner started, shoved it in the oven and hit the treadmill. 

I was interested in hitting the mile, but not interested in trying to break 15 min. pace so I just semi-jogged and sometimes walked. It helped that the playlist knew my vibe. Great songs but all around a 19 min. walking pace until Mr. Brightside came on, and I did run to that one. Such a great song. 

Doug and Geoff took an errand today to the registry, and while they were gone I vacuumed, dusted, did the general cleaning for the living room and that made me happy. I thought Doug's cousin and his family were going to be coming through this weekend but it turns out that's next weekend. I have a lot to do between now and then, like clean the bathroom, hang up some art. Vacuum upstairs and the guest room. Little things. 

Managed to hit 10k+ steps after the treadmill time at 6:30pm which is super early. I always feel like I am on a good steps trajectory if I break 2k steps before noon. I broke that by 10am (thanks, getting up early!) so having that time to pre-load the day was very helpful. I sometimes find I'm only at 8k by 8pm, and need 2k more steps to hit the goal so I go back on the treadmill for 15 min or so. In nicer weather, that's a Toffee time walk. 

So happy tomorrow is Friday. I have some meetings and some dive in face first spreadsheet stuff that needs done before Monday, so I'll do as much as I can tomorrow and poke at it a bit over the weekend. There is no football this weekend, so no excuses for lollygagging. Maybe I can get Doug to help me do some things that I need done around the place. 

Maybe we'll go out adventuring. 

Who knows. 

Digits below! I took this screenshot from Facebook. Not sure why Lidl market is selling panties in their super random section.... I'm used to kids winter coats, kitchen ware, painting supplies... but panties? dude.

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours.  Treadmill, 31 min/1.72 mi (had to let a song finish so that's why 31 and not 30). 11k+ by bedtime

blood glucose:

7am: 84
5pm: 90
10pm: 152 (* see dinner, should come down in an hour or so) 

food & meds:
7:30am: jardiance+phentermine
8am: english muffin w/pb and raspberry jam
12:45pm: roast beef and mild cheddar on 647 bread w/mayo. met+glip
6:45pm: 1/2 of a baked stuffed chicken breast w/cornbread stuffing and mixed veggies, gravy
8:30pm: met+glip
no wine/beer

Not bored but boring

I feel like we're snowed in, we can leave at any time we like but still, it is stupid out there on the roads in the neighborhoods. I've never been more surprised at how poorly they handle snow here in the "south." 

Anyway. 

I was going to bake cookies today during our all staff but I listened to it and worked. There was a client who needed a lot of help with something and I spent a good deal of time exporting content to send her in spread sheet form to make her life better. 

I got on the treadmill and didn't take it as fast as I have been. I wanted to get to 2 miles, that was my goal, and managed that but not at about a half hour. Still. A good go. And the playlist was slower than usual so nothing got me running. 

Toffee has been doing a really good job with the snow. Right now I wish she had a playmate though to run around with incredible exuberance. She hasn't had a walk in days so she seems sad. I wish it was 10 degrees warmer. 

Right then. Still no plumber! I need to call them tomorrow and find out what's the haps! 

Digits below! 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours.  Treadmill, 37 min/2.07 miles; 10k+ by bedtime

blood glucose:

8am: 112
5pm: 94
10pm: 82 

food & meds:
8am: jardiance+phentermine
1:45pm: met+glip; roast beef & muenster on an english muffin
2:45pm: ramekin mixed nuts
6:30pm: half a bowl of beef and mushroom stew (Geoff really should double the recipe. it was delicious but by the time I made it to the kitchen ... not much was left!) 
8:30pm: met+glip
no wine/beer

A no muffin day

A very busy day, no muffin baking. But we have a big huge 2 hour long all staff tomorrow afternoon. My work son bestie buddy gave me a really good looking recipe for some next level chocolate chip cookies and I think I'll whip those up while the all staff is happening. Now that I have wireless headphone ear bud dealies, I can move around and the laptop can stay on the counter. 

Toffee has finally, if you'll excuse the pun, warmed up to the snow. She went outside several times today. She even went out front off leash with Doug while he moved snow around. She just stood there "looking mad and resentful" which made me laugh a bit. 

Alright, no picture today but probably tomorrow. Digits below! 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours.  Treadmill, 31 min/2.02 miles. 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:15am: 140
4:30pm: 95
10pm: 129 

food & meds:
8:15am: jardiance+phentermine
8:30am: blueberry muffin 
1pm: met+glip; english muffin w/pb and a little full sugar raspberry preserves (out of low sugar smuckers)
4:45pm: ramekin of mixed nuts
6pm: bowl of rice w/ chicken. not very fulfilling.... guacamole & chips
8:30pm: met+glip
no beer/wine

Muffin Morning

Our plumber was supposed to come this morning but called at 7:30, two of his guys called out, he was also snow plowing and had an emergency pipe burst situation. "I can come after 1?" he suggested. I told him to not worry, but touch base tomorrow morning. 

And. I was up. 

I actually was up anyway. Didn't really sleep well. Miss Toffee needed to go out at 3:30am and let it be known. I'm glad she told me. And then we went into the guest room together where she slept and I didn't really. So when my phone rang at 7:30, it was just right and normal to be up and start the day. 

Doug and I were both goofing off on our phones, and he went up to start working. I picked up my laptop. 

No internet. 

Whelp did not see that coming. Since we didn't lose power or anything, I didn't even imagine the internet would be out. 

I messaged my boss and my team, and we waited. 

Trying to get ahold of our internet company was a bit annoying. The virtual attendant by phone was shit. And the website's "status" page said there were no outages, but, I poked around and found that our neighborhood was experiencing an outage and there was no estimated time for restoration. 

To the kitchen! 

I decided to use the time and make muffins. Doug had commented that we still had a pretty full bag of blueberries in the freezer, so I wanted to have at it. 

The recipe is super easy but I think I forgot the milk. They came out a little hard, but nothing horrible. They were a big hit with the guys! 

The internet came back on around 1pm. I went on the treadmill for a bit and then got ready for a 2pm meeting and got to work for the rest of the day. 

If the internet had stayed off, I was getting ready to make carrot cake. but. Work had to happen. 

Hoping the plumber can come tomorrow... we shall see! 

Digits below

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Treadmill 24 min/1.43 mi (had to cut short for a meeting); second little walk to make to 10k, 11 min/.49 mi. 11k+ by bedtime

blood glucose:

8am: 109
5pm: 164
10pm: 149 

food & meds:
8am: jardiance+phentermine
9:30am: 2 blueberry muffins w/butter
11:30am: bowl of mac & cheese w/ground beef
1pm: met+glip
6pm: one small meatball sub w/cheese, and then a few meatballs from another sub (no roll) 
8:30pm: met+glip; hummus+pretzels snack
no beer/wine

Trying Something New

We survived the snow. 

It has stopped here in our part of Maryland. I have to say, the media and "social media influencers/hobby meteorologists" pumped this storm up. Pumped the hell out of it. We were forecasted for over a foot. Doug said he thinks there maybe are 7 inches out there. The sleet we got helped push things down, but the hype surrounding this storm was sick. 

The kind of thing that would make anyone stop listening to the weather prognosticators in the future. 

Still, 7 inches is more snow than this area has seen in a long time. My neighbors two doors down have 2 boys and they were out shoveling the hell out of peoples' parking spaces and driveways. I admired them from a distance. They didn't even knock on doors for money. I did see one lady come out and give them hot cocoa. 

It was endearing and made me smile. They didn't make it to our house, but if they did, I would have paid them, but also would have said "hey, I have two boys who do this for me, thanks!" 

I woke up around 2am and couldn't fall back asleep so I went downstairs. At that hour, you could still see the grass popping up through the snow. By the time I woke up - it was in full rock and roll mode out there. 

After it snowed all day, we ended up getting sleet on top of the snow, and that pushed the measurements down. Doug and Geoff went out to shovel after the Patriots game (yay Patriots!) and Doug estimates about 7 inches of actual snow out there. 

Toffee hates it. I kind of miss the years of opening the back door and Jack, Gonzo, and Brodie just tearing ass out into the yard, making trails in 2 foot deep snow. I stood looking wistfully out the back door thinking of how they would have loved the hell out of this, thinking of those days when the snow was taller than all three of them. When Jack and Brodie walked out of our yard by just jumping up on the high snow and walking over the top of the fence. 

But after breakfast, our girl Toffee put her paw out the back door and just noped right back in. Noped right the hell out of there and back to the living room with a look of terror on her face. We had adopted her in a December when she was already over a year old, and I often will wonder what her life was like as a stray on the streets. Which explains probably why she hates the rain, hates the cold, hates this snow.  

Eventually she went out, around 3pm. But truthfully this little princess pittie is no snow dog. And I don't blame her.

I had promised Geoff I'd make breakfast sandwiches today for our big snow day. He took out all the ingredients and left them on the counter as a big fat hint. 

I also had threatened him with hash browns for a couple weeks. We had 6 small potatoes left over from another meal, so before they went bad, I figured today was the day. 

A quick google search resulted in a recipe to try. It was pretty straight forward, the only thing that I didn't know about was to rinse and then drain and press the shredded potatoes to remove all the liquid from them. Glad I read recipes to make sure I know how to do something. Otherwise these would not have turned out great. 

I used our giantest cookie scoop to make the patties and squished them flatter once I got them in the oil. 

They were crisp and tasty, and a little extra salt and pepper next time I do this. For sure. The hardest part was shredding the potatoes. I hate using the box grater, so next time - food processor! Or make Geoff do the shredding.

After we got everything cleaned up, Doug started making a new mess. We still had left over ham and he'd been threatening to make a ham and bean soup. When we were at Aldi the other day he found the16 bean mix that he likes, so we got the ham out of the freezer to defrost and be ready for today. 

That also came out great, the only thing I wish I'd had was some nice rolls or a big fat crusty bread to dip in. 

There are tons of left overs, so maybe I can get a big ole loaf this week. There's a woman up the street who runs a little bakery out of her house, maybe I can see if she's got some sourdough baked up. I've been meaning to reach out to her anyway. 

While Doug was cheffing up his soup I hit the treadmill. My goal was 2 miles in 30 min. I fell just short. I got a slow-ish start, but the last song on the playlist was a banger so I did my best to keep up with the beat. Failed at that but almost hit the 30 min mark. almost. 

Challenge on the table for future efforts. Watch this space.

Tomorrow between 8 and 10 am we are supposed to have a guy here to come see about replacing our hot water heater. I'm not sure he will make it, I'm wondering if his company is gonna have a lot of emergency plumbing and heating things to deal with tomorrow. If he cancels I'm okay with that. But the boys got everything shoveled out nicely and the walkway is ready for him. 

I took a couple pictures of the snow. Snow that Toffee hates. No picture of Toffee because she didn't want to be out there any longer than to pee.

Digits below! 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Treadmill, 31 min/2 miles. Wanted to do it in 30 min, but was just short. Slow-ish start, but the last song on the playlist was a fast banger and I went as hard as I could. ha. 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8am: 139
4:15pm: 124
10pm: 90 

food & meds:
8am: jardiance+phentermine
11am: egg mcmuffin 2 sausage patties; one hash brown 
1:30pm: met+glip
5:30pm: 2 good bowls of ham & bean soup
white wine
8:30pm: met+glip

Awaiting the Storm

I hope if you are reading this and you're in the path of the storm, you are prepped and ready. Be Careful!

I believe we are all set. Doug told me he was going to head out to get propane and I wanted to come. I wanted a day out doing stuff before it will be many days in and unable to do stuff. We got 2 tanks of propane, success! Then we went over to Aldi where it was not at all crowded and hey - they had all the bread, milk, eggs, everything. They had bottled water but Doug pooh poohed buying bottled water. 

We don't have an electric well pump, we are on city water, everything should work and be fine. 

I wanted to get some candles, so we got 3 nice big fat ones with 3 wicks in each. I told Doug we should buy the small flat of 9 of them and he told me that's overreacting. I kind of wanted 9 candles even without a storm coming but okay. 

After that, we headed over to the liquor store because we had no vodka, no wine, and only some very high ABV beer. Can't day drink and watch football with 9% alcohol beer. 

We went to the wrong liquor store. And it is funny - I'll tell ya. This town. There are more liquor stores here than anywhere I've ever lived. Every single plaza has anchor stores on either end, and in the middle there is a nail salon, pizza joint, chinese restaurant, and a liquor store. Every last one. 

But we turned too soon onto the highway where everything is, and ended up at not the one we wanted to go to. Oh well. They had boxed wine though, and a lot of places don't (that's why we wanted to go to the one we wanted because they have box wine). And because your girl is low rent, ain't fancy, and I mix my wine with ginger ale, well... boxed wine is alright by me. 

We got more beer, some vodka, had fun looking at all the different bottles of things. The give aways, the bourbon company cutting board thing with cute cheese spready knives... They had quite the assortment. 

Then, to the Farm store where Doug was hoping to score ice melt. I was kind of convinced we would find none, but, they had a bunch. A manager came over and said "hey, I have two damaged bags of this particular pet-friendly ice melt that I can't sell for full price but I'll give them both to you for 10 bucks. 

Hell yeah. 

After that we drove around for a while because Doug wanted to see where a road went. I told him I knew where it came out, and lo and behold, it did!  I suggested hitting the brewery but Doug didn't want to leave our haul in the car in the parking lot because of the super cold temperature.

Back home, he got shovels out, got the propane tank hooked up, put the salt in the bin with the half bag of salt that we had bought a couple years back. 

Done. 

Well. 

The gas stove won't stay lit. The pilot keeps going out and that's annoying. He futzed with it for a good long time, and decided for tonight it is fine. He will fight with it in the morning. 

For tonight, the house is warm and comfy. As long as we don't lose power we're fine. 

The rest of our day was alright. Doug took a nap with Toffee and I resisted the same temptation and hit the treadmill while Geoff cooked dinner. Did pretty well and got over the 2 mile mark. That was my goal. 

And again, as long as we don't lose power I can get my mile in and 10k+ steps and it will be fine.

Right then. Off to bed. Tomorrow will be an interesting day. Digits below. 

digits

exercise: 11/12 hours. Somehow missed 7pm because the stove clock is 2 min. slow and that's what I was looking at when I did those steps. Doh. Still. Treadmill walk/jog, 40 min/2.31 mi. 11k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:15am: 130
5pm: 109
10pm: 82 

food & meds:
8:15am: jardiance+phentermine
1:30pm: met+glip
2pm: handful of candied cashews
5:30pm: bowl of shells w/meat sauce
8pm: last tiny bit of cranberry goat cheese w/a few pretzel rounds
8:45pm: met+glip
no wine/beer

The disappointing buffet

It's Doug's birthday and he chose the Asian Buffet for dinner. This sounded like a good plan to me. Aside from the fact that I'm usually not a big fan of buffets, especially those that are going to send my blood sugar through the roof. 

I always feel like I have to make it worth our wallet's while to ... eat. At a buffet. The boys took Toffee over to the dog park because she was needy, and I finished working. Then we all (except Toffee) headed over. 

The place was doing a fairly good business. So I thought it was hopefully going to be a good experience. 

What should have tipped me off immediately was that it was incredibly inexpensive. Like, super cheap. And the food was not so good. You get what you pay for. 

Doug was excited and I can tell when he knows something is not so good, he plays it up like Yay! Alright! This murder hotel is great! That kind of thing. 

The hot and sour soup was okay. The broccoli mixed in with the weird chicken was good. I ate a lot of broccoli. 

Just kind of overall disappointed in the quality of the food. At least the one chicken finger I ate was hot and crispy and had chicken in it. Not just a husk/shell of crusty crumbly batter. 

Oh and the other thing is they didn't have a liquor license, so no mai tai. No scorpion bowl. No suffering bastard. 

Hardly a birthday festivus like we're accustomed to. 

After the less than awesome meal, Doug wanted to head over to the used bookstore in the plaza. I hadn't been there yet but Geoff had gone independently, and Doug took Jess there when they were visiting. 

Doug loves a used bookstore. 

It was fun looking around, there was some interesting Civil War stuff, and tons of kids books. 

Doug found me and said "I need to go, like, now." 

"Okay Bob Belcher," I replied (Bob's Burgers reference. Bob can't poop anywhere other than at home. Whereas his wife can poop anywhere and knows all the good bathrooms in town). "You should go back to the chinese buffet restaurant, return the rental food." 

"No, I just feel like I won't make it. We need to go." 

We grabbed Geoff and headed back to the car. Got home in time for Doug to rush into the bathroom.

Um. Happy Birthday, honey. I guess?

I felt bad because after the bookstore I wanted to hit the shoe store next door and look for warm socks, maybe boots that are one size bigger than the ones I have had for a lot of years. I wanted to stop into Aldi and get some cake product to celebrate at home for him. 

But we were home. Not headed back out. 

We can make up for it tomorrow. I'm going to try and go to H's piano recital. He performs at 1:30pm, so I'll be able to get some shit done in the morning, head out, get wine, go see piano man, and get home before they declare a state of emergency before a single flake falls. And get Doug a little cakey cake or something fun. 

Doug and Geoff have some work to do around outside to get ready for the storm. Doug didn't go get propane for the gas fireplace, so I hope we're not too late and he can get some from someplace. I wanted him to do it yesterday or today so we could make sure the line is working well, test it, and then it will be ready when we need it - if we need it. We have shovels, we have ice melt, I think the plan is to put one car in the car port (the mini) and back the volvo into the driveway pretty far back. It will make shoveling easier. 

In the morning I'll make some fun brekkie sandwiches for us and hit the road by noon. 

Some pictures below from our excursion, and then digits. 

I thought for sure being welcomed by this interior that this place would freaking rock.
But sadly, it did not.

Little Bluey figurines (ahem, the blue one is Dad and that's Bandit
and the brown one is Chili and that's mom. Know your kid characters!)
Why they're hanging out on a shelf in the bookstore, I do not know.

If you know, you know.
If you are a certain age, you recognize these...

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. treadmill, 30 min/1.97 mi. If I just went 5 min more... 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

7:15am: 103
4:30pm: 113
10:30pm: 120 

food & meds:
7:15am: jardiance+phentermine
12:30pm: roast beef and medium cheddar on english muffin
1:30pm: met+glip
5pm: a bunch of tiny wee chocolate donuts
6:30pm: chines food buffet
8:30pm: met+glip
no wine/beer

Through The Night

I don't usually sleep all the way through the night much anymore. At one point in life I laughed at my mom for such things and here I am doing them. Up at wee hours, unable to see to drive in the dark. I deeply apologize for being young and stupid. 

I'm usually up anywhere between 2-4 am. I will go down to the guest room (if no guesties are in it) and I will play on my phone a bit, turn on a podcast, go back to sleep. 

Most of the time, I do my best sleeping between 6-9am. 

There have been several nights lately though, where I find myself waking up between 6-7am. Making it all the way that far is miraculous. But then I have to pee so much. So. Very. Much. Part of it is I do well with not drinking alcohol at night - when I do, that adds a lot of liquid to my body and yes, I gotta pee so I wake up. 

Last night was one of those nights. At 6:50am, I hightailed it downstairs (please note, someday there will be an upstairs bathroom so help me God) and by the time I was done I was just ... all the way awake. If it was closer to say 6am than 7, I may have gone back to sleep. But no. I was up. 

Back upstairs, find the yoga pants, take the blood sugar, take the morning meds, creep back downstairs. I set up the coffee, did some steps around the first floor while waiting, just to sneak a couple hundred in early. It is funny because it is still so dark here at 7am.

The trash guys came and I realized there is a giant piece of plastic in my yard between us and the neighbor. It must have blown free last weekend when I put it out to the recycling (it is from the treadmill packaging). I was putting on my boots when they arrived so I figured eh, I'll get it later. 

I pondered an outdoor walk because it is 41 degrees, but the wind is howling. I pondered the treadmill but was afraid I'd wake Geoff up. I don't know what it sounds like downstairs for him. 

One thing I forgot to do yesterday was take pictures of the hot water heater. When we bought the house, our home inspector said the beast was on its last legs. She leaks, and while she does heat water very nicely she's 20+ years old and he recommended we get a new one. We negotiated that with the seller, and it is time. 

On Monday, I have a plumber coming over to evaluate the situation. 8am (dear God). He asked me for pictures of the hot water heater, model number, pictures of the hookup to the water source. So I went down and took those and texted them to him. 

My realtor gave me three numbers to call, she recommended all three. One didn't return my calls at all so I moved onto the next and they are not taking on any new customers at this time. So that left the third. They had a wonky voicemail messaging system that asked you for details, one thing at a time. Please state your name after the beep. Please state your phone number after the beep. Please state your address after the beep. What appliance are you calling about? please state.... 

I guess it cuts down on people (like me) rambling for months in a message and cuts to the chase. 

And then I didn't hear back from them either. I was ready to go to Nextdoor or Facebook to ask for recommendations, and their office manager called me at 7:50am the other day (so early) absolutely apologetic that my message and several others were incredibly delayed in getting to her. So yay. A connection. A human. And an appointment. 

I'm wondering if the big storm this weekend will delay our appointment. We'll see. I'd hope not but this is Maryland. 

Mornings include coffee and Toffee and couch cuddles. And phone games until I'm mentally ready to start working. So we got a lot of that in today. 

Work was good. Not sure how I managed a whole day without a single meeting but that was a thing! I did the treadmill at 1:30ish, and before I knew it, 4pm was knocking at the door. I made some candied cashews out of a container Geoff bought that were unsalted. I really don't care for unsalted nuts. So I doctored them up and they came out perfectly. I made dinner, which is usually Geoff's job but I wanted to make the meal and give him a break. We'll be asking a lot of him this weekend, I think. 

Dinner was very good, I must say. I used a different recipe and it kind of makes its own gravy which is nice, because your girl had none. 

After dinner, Doug hit the treadmill and Toffee was desperate for a walk. So I went outside to see the howling wind from earlier was no longer an issue. It was 45 today, and at 8pm down to 35, with no wind, you know it's a good to go kind of thing. 

I put on the winter weight fleece yoga pants and we headed out. With no other dogs out walking and hardly any other people, Toffee is a joy to walk. I thought about extending the trip and going off to the left instead of turning home but we did over a mile, and I think she enjoyed it very much. 

So we'll see how I sleep tonight! I made sure not to drink too much water and no wine/beer. Maybe we'll get two nights of me sleeping alright! 

Digits below. 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours.  Two walks. First, Treadmill, fastest average pace to date! 30 min/1.84 mi. Wanted to make it to 2 miles but meh. Second, Toffee walk! 20 min/1.17 mi. 12k+ steps by bedtime (woo hoo!)

blood glucose:

7am: 135
4:15pm: 97
10:45pm: 148 

food & meds:
7am: jardiance+phentermine
noon: english muffin w/pb
1pm: met+glip
4-6pm: some candied cashews as I was cooking them
6pm: shepherd's pie (left over mashed potatoes from the meatloaf night, corn, peas, ground beef)
8:30pm: met+glip

Impending Snowmageddon

People get ready, there's a storm a comin'
Don't need no ticket, just stay in your house .... 

In the DC area the weather prognosticators lose their everloving shit if some snow is on the way. Boom or Bust predictions always equal Bust. We could get 5 to 9 inches, or maybe a coating to 1 inch! 

It's always a coating to 1 inch. 

Right now, on Wednesday night, the weather guys and gals are up in the social media platforms yelling "It is too early to say but!!!" and my map shows 17 inches of snow. 

17 mother humping inches. 

First of all, finally. I'm living somewhere that it is supposed to snow. And it hasn't in forever. We get powdered donut amounts of snow where the grass is still visible through the coating. 

But. This one may pan out? Who knows? It is too early to tell! I'll check in Friday night or Saturday morning for an update. 

Second, we need the precipitation. We've been in a steady hard drought over much of this region. So bring it. Snow? Rain? Ice? whatever! If it is wet, let it fall. 

Today was a good day. I got a walk on the treadmill in between meetings and then at like 5pm, Toffee really needed a walk. Really. She's so full of pent up energy and she's been getting a solid walk a lot of days of the week. So I checked the temperature (35 degrees) checked to see if it was windy, and suited up. We had a good time. My friend S called because she had stories to tell me and we haven't talked in a while, so that helped pass the time almost as good as a playlist. 

Digits below the weather map! Please note, my town is .... not covered by the purple blob. So we're gettin' nothin. 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours.  Two walks. First on the treadmill, 25 min/1.42 miles; Second with Toffee, 23 min/1.2 miles. 11k+ steps by midnight

blood glucose:

8:45am: 105
4:45pm: 115
10:30pm: 190 (not sure why so high? One slice of pizza for dinner, and 10 buffalo chicken bites. No alcohol. Weird?) 

food & meds:
8:45am: jardiance+phentermine
12:15: LGBT salad (Lettuce, Goat Cheese, Bacon, Tomato). Hell yeah. 
1:45pm: met+glip
7pm: one slice of pepperoni & onion pizza; 10 buffalo chicken bites
8:30pm: met+glip
no wine/beer

Where was he going without ever knowing the way

I woke up feeling super gross. I think too many potatoes last night. I did it to myself. Sadness. I do love me some mashed potatoes. Sigh. Maybe next time, a lot less mashed potatoes.

My morning was very quiet work-wise. I didn't have a meeting until noon. My mom's neighbor S Jr.'s husband had knee surgery when I was up there, so I was wondering how he was doing. I don't have his number, so I texted S Jr. 

She said he was doing fine, healing well, PT starts Thursday. But my mom's neighbor E was missing. 

Missing? What? 

She filled me in. Yesterday he was going to visit his wife in the hospital and left around 9:30am. But he never made it to the hospital. 

Not really sure how this news made it back to people at Old Folks Land, but it did.  S Jr. and others sprang into action. They called the police. They called every hospital in Southeast MA.

No sign of him. Anywhere. 

I was going to call my mom, but S Jr. said she was out running her errands to the market and stuff, so I thought I'd wait. She told me that his friend was driving up and down the highways looking to see if there was some obvious sign that his car went off the road and into the woods or something. 

Could you imagine how he felt? Looking everywhere for some sort of obvious marks from tires, broken trees... worrying about your friend. 

After another hour or so I got word that E was okay, he was found. Safe.

In Connecticut. 

He must have driven past the exit he wanted, and kept going through Rhode Island. Confused, something. I don't know more details but I was absolutely surprised this happened. He's a sharp cookie and not one I'd expect to become lost. 

I was exceptionally relieved that he was okay. I guess that his friend who went looking for him was bringing him home. Not sure how the car is coming home. I never did call my mom so I'll do that tomorrow morning. 

After lunch, I felt sick. Tired, bloated, my eyes were burning but I don't have a fever or anything. 

Sometimes you just feel blah. Yeah? 

I managed to take a nap, which I normally don't nap. I haven't been able to nap for some time now. But I did. 

Around 4, I woke up from the snooze, and realized I should do steps to get my mile for the city challenge. I set out to do just the mile but was walking most of it, not jogging, no fast or fancy walking, and I just kept going. 

50 minutes? Can I make it to ... 60? 

Meh. No I cannot.

That was enough. And dinner was ready. And I was hungry. 

No picture today. Just digits. 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Treadmill, 50 min/2.57 mi. 11k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

9am: 138
4:45pm: 81
10:30pm: 117

food & meds:
9am: jardiance+phentermine
11am: english muffin w/pb
1:45pm: met+glip
5pm: kitchen sink cookie from aldi
5:30pm: spicy chicken and rice burrito a la geoff
8:45pm: met+glip

Out and About

We had two checks we needed to deposit, so we drove to the next city over to use the ATM. One of the checks just would NOT cooperate, frustratingly so. And the mobile app for depositing checks isn't behaving either. I'm going to have to drive down there again to take care of this in person. 

After the bank fail, Doug had a "drive around and look at stuff" vibe going on so we went way out into the western part of our neighboring county without our GPS on, without Google Maps. We saw signs for Ostertag Vistas, "Historic Ostertag Vistas!" and thought well heck now. Let's go look at that! 

Turns out it is a private and fancy wedding venue location, we were not permitted to drive up into the property without an appointment. I'm not interested in marrying anyone else, I've got my ride or die (35 years, bitches) and we felt ripped off for driving all the way the fuck out there thinking we would see something cool and noteworthy. 

Meh. Thanks for nothing, Ostertag whatevers.

But it was a beautiful day for a drive all through the woods, up and down roads, all over. And eventually we got to a road we knew that would take us home. 

We passed our house. 

We went further down into Hagerstown to the Hub City brewery, which is normally closed Mondays but I saw on Facebook they were open today. Happy to stop in after almost two hours of toodlin' aboot Mountain Maryland for a potty and a brew. 

Hardly anyone was there, so we had the barkeep to ourselves and it was a nice way to unwind before heading home. 

Tonight I made dinner - I've been wanting a meatloaf, so I asked Geoff to cut the potatoes and set them aside. 

Ha.

I should have said "cut 3 potatoes per person" but I didn't and he cut this entire giant ass BAG of potatoes. Huh. Okay. So we'll have left over potatoes. I can make a cottage pie or something this week. Meatloaf always takes about an hour, it was already 6pm by the time we came home, so dinner was on the later side than if Geoff was in charge. He's mister Make Dinner At 5pm. I'm not. 

After dinner, because I was shorted an hour of steps and behind anyway, I hopped on the treadmill for an additional 15 min. I intended to take Toffee out but it was so cold and windy. Neither she nor I wanted any of that nonsense. 

Good day all around!

Digits below! 

digits

exercise: 11/12 hours. Missed 4pm in the car; treadmill in the morning for 30 min/1.78 mi. Again to make up missing steps, 15 min/.83 mi, 11k+steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

9am: 132 
n/a pm: n/a
11pm: 129

food & meds:
9am: jardiance+phentermine
2pm: met:glip; atkins protein drink mixed into my coffee
3:30pm: atkins snack bar 
5pm: 2 beers at the brewery
6:15pm: 1 beer at home; "kitchen sink" cookie from Aldi
7:15pm: 2 hefty slabs of meatloaf, carrots, a lot of mashed potatoes (more than I shoulda!)