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!)

Do nothing, eat food, watch football

We didn't do much today. 

I wanted to do things like, oh, clean and tidy. But nothing came of the day. I ended up sleeping until just before 10am, and missed the 9am steps by just a couple. But I made up for it. We each took our turn on the treadmill, and it was football time before we knew it. Playoff football weekend excitement! 

I will aim for getting things done tomorrow with my day off. There are some boxes in my bedroom that need unpacked, there are downstairs things, and maybe we'll leave the house and do/go somewhere. Maybe? Doug's birthday is Friday so maybe we'll do something nice and special? 

Somehow I managed to make myself stay on the treadmill for 45 min and that was a touch over 2.5 miles. I keep entertaining the idea that maybe I can do a 5k, which would be 3.1 miles. 

Maybe I can force myself to a full hour and that'll be a 5k? Can my brain let me do that? Stay with this and not scream with boredom? 

An actual 5k would be something that I'd have to finish just to get home, or get to the celebratory beer at the end at the brewery. So there's your motivation to finish, right? As of right now, I'm already home. I can just decide one mile or 2 miles or 5k, if I can bring myself to do that because I'm here.... 

Wish me luck as I attempt to make this happen as a goal. 

I remember when I started doing the 'dedicated 10' because the nutritionist told me to pick something that I hated the least, and do it for 10 min a day. I should send her my fitbit stats. 

Geoff went to the market and I made spinach artichoke dip that actually would be a REALLY good stuffing for chicken breasts. Note to self. Use more cream cheese next time for creamier dip.

So a lot of doing nothing. And that's okay. Right? Right. 

Digits below pictures. 

digits

exercise: 11/12 hours. Missed 9am by a few steps. Treadmill, 45 min/2.53 miles, 11k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

10am: 130 
4:30pm: 121
10pm: 164

food & meds:
10am: jardiance+phentermine
3pm: met+glip; atkins protein bar
5pm: an epic ton and a half of homemade spinach and artichoke dip, pita chips+ round butter pretzels
Kaluha sombrero (to get the milk out of the fridge) 
6:30pm: big piece of pork loin in a geoff sauce w/4 pierogi and buttered peas
white wine

The Cheese and the Airplanes

When I was staying at my mom's she came tearing down to the bedroom where I was working (and by "tearing" I mean actually using her cane, and shuffling her feet faster than usual. That's "tearing) and she yelled from the kitchen "DID YOU HEAR ABOUT THE AIRPLANES!?" 

I ... sat there for a second thinking holy shit was there some sort of terrorist attack? Did planes suddenly fall from the sky? Millions of people dead everywhere? 

I quickly opened our work slack to see if there was anything in Breaking News while I uttered "uhhhhhhh, no? What about the airplanes?" 

"The water on the airplanes is bad! Don't order coffee! Don't order tea! DON'T WASH YOUR HANDS IN THE SINK!" 

Feeling a touch confused, I think I just stared at her. "People are getting sick! They did a big test. Only Delta scored highest." 

Still confused, still staring "You're flying this weekend. BE CAREFUL!" Oh okay. She's concerned about me. I get it. Very good. I don't drink coffee or tea on airplanes, and I don't usually order anything that needs ice. I carry a small Purell hand sanitizer in my backpack instead of using the bathroom sink because of a lot of reasons. I don't know how good the soap is but now okay, I don't know how good the soap and water are. 

"Thank you for letting me know," I said. 

The woman was in an absolute tizzy and she told everyone at her restaurant about this news report. And I sat there, dumbfounded.

The other night Doug's mom called us and was very concerned, "Did you hear about the cheese?" 

Oh my. Same thing. What. What about the cheese?

"There is a big cheese recall. Didn't you hear?" 

No. We didn't hear. 

"Well, I just bought cheese at Aldi. I think I have to throw it out." I spent time looking things up on the internet from the FDA about the cheese. She didn't have the cheese that's being recalled. We assured her that if she wanted to bring it to Aldi and ask - she could but we thought she was safe enough to eat it and be okay. 

"There's only one way to find out," she joked. 

Saturday of a three day weekend, Geoff woke up before us and made coffee, Doug and Toffee were in the guest room and somehow, miraculously, I slept until 7am and went down to the bathroom, and then back up to bed. I slept until 9:30 and that was bliss. 

Doug went to the farm stand and got a bunch of apples. We all used the treadmill. We ate a good dinner and watched a lot of football. Super exciting.

Digits! Below! 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. One treadmill trip. 40 min/2.25 mi. 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

10am: 122 
5pm: 132
10pm: 113

food & meds:
10am: jardiance (phentermine on order)
2pm: met+glip; english muffin w/pb+ spot of peach jam
5pm: plate with apple, cheese, cashews, and some left over steak tip pieces; white wine
6:15pm: cheesy shells and broccoli w/ mushrooms and mixed in bacon (usually I add chicken breast chunks but we didn't have any) 
8:30pm: met+glip

3 Day Weekend

I wrote a whole big entry and am too tired to finish it, so. Just the digits today. Watched an interesting mini-series on Netflix about President Garfield's assassination called Death By Lightning. Michael Shannon - amazing. What a performance. And Nick Offerman, serious and funny all at once. 

A couple days ago we listened to a podcast episode about Garfield's assassin, and how Garfield actually died (sepsis, not from the actual bullet). 

Digits below. zzzzzzz!

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours.  Treadmill, 36 min/2.02 miles; Treadmill, 18 min/.83 mi. 11k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

7:30am: 120 
4:45pm: 100
11pm: 146

food & meds:
7:30am: jardiance (phentermine on order)
10am: english muffin w/pb
12:45pm: tuna salad on 647 sub roll; met+glip
5pm: bowl of cashews
6pm: big piece of chicken parm
9:15pm: met+glip
no wine

Windy Windy Day

No warmer out today, and extra windy. Thankful for the treadmill for my steps. I had a lot of meetings so I got a quick walk in during lunch time, and then late I needed 2500 steps to get to 10k. 

Poor Toffee. No walk for her two days in a row and she didn't even want to go outside today!  

We had a couple minor oopsies today. Geoff put some boxes near our water heater, which has started leaking, and needs to be replaced (we knew that going into the house but figured we would wait until absolutely necessary, and now it is absolutely necessary). Doug lost his mind when he went downstairs and saw the boxes he had moved AWAY from the water heater put back. He doesn't understand how Geoff's mind works sometimes. Like. WHY did you move these back. At all. Who asked for that. No one. 

One of the boxes was my wedding dress - and the box is soaked. I don't want to open it. Well, I should. I think it is in plastic and in the box. Maybe it is okay. But I honestly don't know why I still have it. 

Once, I tried to find an organization that took wedding dresses and converted them to burial dresses for infants. I believe they are called Angel Gowns. The last time I looked into this none of the companies were taking dresses, they had plenty. So yeah, maybe I'll open the box and make sure it is okay and attempt again to donate it. 

All the other boxes were fine. 

Second oopsie was I went to take a shower after the treadmill this afternoon and the shower door came right off the track. I was standing there, holding it by the tiny little nub of a handle and trying very hard to keep it from falling anywhere. I called for help, Doug came down and was able to assist me. It made me think of that time we were in Arizona at the World's Worst Hotel Ever, the Willcox Inn, and the window fell out of the track and I was standing there in my underpants in the middle of the night trying to get it back in place. If you've never read that entry, go ahead. Probably one of my favorites.

Luckily, this was not as dramatic but I still had a good laugh. 

My work son and I had a great client meeting/training. Then we had our regular digital platform office hour and that was great. 

I did a bunch of work after the office hours. Geoff made an amazingly good dinner, and I cleaned up after it. He's messy. I need to have a talk with him about not being as messy as he goes, and cleaning up when he is done. We share a lot of the duty. But. I feel like he can do a better job cleaning up after himself. 

Digits below! 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Treadmill 27 min/1.51 mi. 2nd Treadmill, 18 min/1mi. 11k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:45am: 165 
4:30pm: 91
10:30pm: 162* note late met+glip

food & meds:
8:45am: jardiance (phentermine on order)
noon: last of Geoff's chicken marsala (3 tiny pieces and a lot of sauce) 
1pm: met+glip (ha. on time today!) 
4:30pm: atkins snack bar; handful of unsalted (eww) cashews
6:30pm: bowl with some tater tots, covered with homemade pulled pork from Geoff
no wine
9:30pm: met+glip ( a little late, meant to take by 8:45 but was on the treadmill)

Rainy Rainy Day

I had a couple humorous oopsies today. The big one was in our training class, my work son asked me to show the attendees how to do a thing.  I could not remember how to do the thing. 

I fuddled my way through it, and said "so right here, B, what would you suggest that I add now" and "Say we wanted a two column lay out... how do I just add a new column once I've selected a one column layout." 

He played along wonderfully but I think he totally knew I was talking out of my butt. And we sounded convincing. 

Today it rained all day, Toffee was not interested in outside and I was not interested in taking her for a walk, because I also did not want to be wet and outside. 

I hit the treadmill, and entertained myself. I got to a mile, then I said well, how about just get to 30 min. And then okay I am at 1.75. Why not stick with it until we get to 2 miles? 

And the music was pumping, and it was working out really well. I made it to 2 miles and then realized we had training in 20 minutes so I had to shower and make ready. 

I also realized at 4pm that I forgot to take my met+glip around 1pm, I had eaten my english muffin at 11:30 and thought that was too early to take it, so I said I'd take it before training. Ha. Remembered after it was all over.

My work son's sister had a baby yesterday. Number two for her. So we wrapped up training so he could go run to see his brand new nephew. 

So she's by proxy my work daughter and that's my work grandson? 

Ha. 

He sent me so many pictures. We're all in love. 

I spent a lot of time tonight fixing a problem with some user pages in the content management system, and there has to be a better faster way to do it, especially because the next person has four people pages with tons of stories assigned to them, and .... well. manually editing all of these will suck. 

Right then. Bedtime. Digits below.

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Treadmill, 35 min/2.03 mi. 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

9am: 140 
n/apm: x
10:45pm: 132

food & meds:
9am: phentermine+jardiance
11:30: english muffin w/pb and lil'bitty dollop of homemade peach jam
4:15pm: met+glip (completely forgot to take after treadmill time)
5:45pm: cheese tortellini w/spicy sausage and cheezy tomato sauce (a la geoff)
white wine
10pm: met+glip

Training Day and Bloodwork

I woke up early this morning to spend time training a colleague who needed to learn how to use one of our products. He's contracting, and is a firefighter most of the time, so he has been working 6am-9am. Today we met at 8. 

I love teaching people how our products work, and, because he'll be doing testing on the next product I showed him all the fun broken things in our current product. 

It was a great hour long training. 

I dove into work then, got a bunch of things ironed out and had a client meeting which went okay but they've messed up their website in such an epic fashion I don't even know where to start with it. I have to set up a meeting with a colleague and the product owner to ask how they did this thing and undo it. meh? 

We then had client training and it went very well. There is always one person in the training who has 100,000 questions. About 10 minutes before the training ended I had to leave to go get bloodwork done, I was about a week overdue for my PT/INR test. Thankfully traffic was really moving, and I made it there in plenty of time. 

On the way home, not so much. 

I didn't get to do a walk during the work day, and it was too dark by the time I got back to take Toffee out for one so I hit the treadmill for a while. And then again to get another couple hundred steps done after dinner. I need to time things better and make the best use of hours. Tomorrow morning I think I'll have time. 

But I do want to walk Miss Toffee. 

Anyway, good day, overall. Digits below! 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Treadmill 21 min/1.3 mi; treadmill 10 min/.55; 10k+ by bedtime

blood glucose:

7am: 100 
n/apm: x
10pm: 170

food & meds:
7am: phentermine+jardiance
10:30am: zero sugar yogurt w/granola bar crushed up
12:30: met+glip
3pm: mixed nuts
6pm: Geoff's mexican mess. White rice, spicy beef, peppers, cheese jalapeños. 
8pm: met+glip
white wine
10pm: protein shake

Treadmill!

While I was away, the treadmill that Doug ordered for us arrived. 

The original plan was to put it in the basement, but it was too heavy for Doug and Geoff to work with and get down the stairs. It made it into the mud room, and now the mud room is the official treadmill home. 

I was afraid it would shake the house being in the mudroom, because the floor in there doesn't feel like ... I don't know, a real floor. Feels like it is somehow raised up in a way. But it isn't doing anything bad and my fears are for naught. 

This freaking house is kind of solid. 

It has a lot of buttons, and Doug said he still has to run this one wire/cord down the inside of one of the legs but didn't want to do it unless he knew it worked in the first place. I feel like the 3 mile setting on this thing is faster than the ones at The Planet. I haven't played with the seriousness of the incline. 

It has a mount for an iPad or tablet. Doug and I both feel like that's not necessary - neither of us are interested in watching a show while on the treadmill. It has speakers but Doug said they kind of ... suck. So he uses our JBL speaker when he's on the treadmill. 

Anyway, I'm happy it is here for rainy days and I won't have to drive over to the PF gym in the south end of town unless I want to do weights now. Which I might now that I have wireless earbuds! 

When I signed up for the town 100 mile challenge, I signed up Toffee too. She had not yet been with me  for a mile walk but the weather was agreeable today so we went out together. I wish she would just walk next to me and not zig zag all over the place. But we even got a good trot going at points. 

I finally figured out the goal tracker website. It is supposed to automatically interface with my fitbit. It's not 100% accurate, so I just spent some time adding in Fri/Sat which were not picked up by the app, and fixing today because it didn't count my last minute steps today.

The treadmill is nice, but just like at the gym I know that my fitbit is more accurate. The speed of the treadmill is different than the speed of me ON the treadmill. I can run a 13 min. mile but the setting on the treadmill is for 3 miles an hour, 20 min. mile. I set the fitbit up based on my stride in a measured mile years ago when I got it, so I feel.... this is truth. One thing I'd like to do is go to a measured mile track again, and verify this is still accurate. 

Anyway. Enough boring shit. 

Steelers lost tonight and that sucks but hey. Go Patriots. Right?! Yay. 

I took a super blurry picture of Toffee on our walk, it was dark so my camera doesn't do a good job in dim lighting. Proof that I took my dog on my challenge walk today. 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Two walks. One with Miss Toffee, 26 min/1.38 mi. Treadmill, 18 min/1.09 mi. 11k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8am: 141 
4:30pm: 121
11pm: 120

food & meds:
8am: phentermine+jardiance
9:30am: atkins protein shake
1pm: turkey and sharp cheddar on Oatmeal bread; met+glip
6pm: chicken marsala a la geoff
white wine; mixed nuts
8:45pm: met+glip

Home! Home! Home!

Made it home! 

C and I spent a lazy morning at her place and didn't go out to brekkie or do anything else. She set out a cheese and crackers breakfast and that was delightful. Brie! Cheddar! Boursin! yay. 

We stopped at Jess' so I could see them, pat the dog, and drop off some food I didn't finish. Then, off to the airport. Manchester is a super easy in and out delivery or pickup of humans. I gathered my stuff, checked my bag, and started walking the terminal. I wasn't sure what time I'd get home and didn't want to run a risk of no walk and mess up day 3 of our city's 100 mile challenge. 

I went through security, found my gate, headed to the Sam Adams tap room. I wasn't going to eat but my flight got delayed so. Okay. Their fish tacos are fantastic. So it was a great way to spend time, watching the Bills game and it finished up right when we needed to go to the gate. 

Doug picked me up and told me Geoff was making dinner for us. I was disappointed it was mac & cheese but not gonna complain - it ws good, and filled with ham. And I should have recorded Toffee's joyful freak out running bonanza but was too entertained to take the camera out. 

So happy to be home. Laundry done within minutes of walking in because all my stuff stinks from Shirley's. Geoff opened his birthday card and said it smelled like smoke and he laughed. "I see what you mean." 

Anyway. More tomorrow. Off to bed happy with a Patriots win tonight! 

Digits below. Picture of Long Island, Fire Island over to Robert Moses Park, and the dark bit of land there is Heckscher state park. The sunset was gorgeous tonight! 

digits

exercise: 11/12 hours. 2 measurable walks, first in the MHT airport terminal 26 min/1.3 mi; after deplaning in Baltimore walking to baggage claim, 17 min/.52 mi. 11k+ steps by bedtime
blood glucose:

8am: 100 
n/apm: x
11:15pm: 181

food & meds:
8am: phentermine+jardiance
10am: cheese and crackers breakfast feast
3pm: met+glip; 2 beers, fish tacos
8:30pm: 2 big bowls of mac & cheese w/ham; white wine
9pm: met+glip

Fare You Well, Fare You Well

Saturday's entry - forgot to hit publish, I guess.

Had a great day today. I was supposed to have lunch with Jess and Catie, but Jess wasn't feeling well and Catie got locked out of her car. So I took a nice walk instead, and came back and had an english muffin sandwich. 

C had a funeral to attend in middle of nowhere almost Vermont, so the dogs and I chilled and had a nice time of fellowship and some farting. Them, not me. 

I thought about a nap. C was on her way back so I stayed up. We went out to early dinner, a "linner" as it were. We talked about movies and what are favorites. Food was great and I'm glad we went early, the wait was forever by the time we left. 

My cousin texted me that Bob Weir of The Grateful Dead and other bands had died. I was stunned. C went to bed and I watched football, wallowed in sadness and crawled social media sharing memories with friends about Bob and his legacy. I thought of all the great times I'd seen him over the years. He was always my favorite Grateful Dead member. This one hurts a little extra.

In 2020, I had the honor of watching Bob's Tiny Desk. Watching him perform a Dylan masterpiece and a song he collaborated on with Josh Ritter. And "Ripple." When I watched him do "Only a River" I imagined Josh Ritter's amazement that there he was, doing it at the desk, of all the songs he could do.

Enjoy the video. 

Home tomorrow, looking forward to being with my boys but also have enjoyed the time with C. Digits below!

digits

exercise: 11/12 hours. Missed 7pm because we were sitting chatting. 2 walks. One for 30 min/1.69 mi. second short walk with C 14 min/.6 mi. 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:30am: 126 
4pm: 131
9:45pm: 95

food & meds:
8:30am: phentermine+jardiance
noon: english muffin w/turkey and gouda
1pm: met+glip 
4:30pm: spinach salad with salmon. 2 beers, 6 buffalo wings
7pm: white wine w/ diet ginger ale
8pm: met+glip

Gargoyle in my bed

Just a quick entry. C picked me up / rescued me from mom's today. Right now I'm in bed in her guest room with her dog Ginny, who is a little frenchie but also a little gargoyle but in the most perfect way. She's making all kinds of noise and is mad at me that we are NOT SLEEPING YET. 

Okay Ginny. I'll shut the computer off and we'll go to bed. 

Had a great day. That's all I have to say. Met a cat when we were out walking. Had not met a cat yet out around grandma's neighborhood. Hi Cat. 

Ginny wants me to go to bed so I'm going to do that. 

Digits below cat.

digits

exercise: 11/12 hours.  Missed 1 hour while riding in the car. Nice walk w/C around old folks land. 30 min/1.47 mi. 11k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

7:15am: 94 
n/apm: x
9:45pm: 171

food & meds:
7:30am: phentermine+jardiance
12pm: met+glip
1pm: fajita sammitch
3pm: mcdonalds fries in the car
5:30pm: 2 pieces of beef egg roll, one crab bao; glass of wine
7pm: wine, snacks, mixed nuts, chocolate covered pretzels (OMG)

Be Careful

I don't want to bitch and bitch and bitch but.
I am relieved I get to leave here tomorrow.
My mom has been driving me nuts. 

Every time I do something she says "Be careful."

Going for a walk around the circle?
"Be careful."
Why.
"It's icy out there."
Ma, it is 48 degrees. There's no ice.
"Well still be careful."

I take her car to get it inspected, "Be careful." 

I go to the Walmart to pick up something, "Be careful." 

I went out to dinner with my cousin last night and she went on and on and on. "Be careful. People drive like crazy around here. They don't signal, they drive too fast..."

Ma.

You know I lived up here for 30 years? You know I live in Maryland now and people there drive like absolute dumb fucks? Telling ME to be careful, like I'm not ever? I'm not cautious? I don't look both ways three times? I am a maniac dumb shit and  I drive over curbs and through people's living rooms?

I told her I was taking her trash out and she told me to be careful.
Seriously, shut the fuck up at this point. The more you tell me to be careful the less I want to be careful. 

So she says it, and I say "No."

At first she laughed. 

And then she got mad. I asked her why she was mad, and she said that I'm not taking her seriously. 

"It isn't that I'm not taking you seriously, but I'm going to be 60 years old. I'm not 12. You can stop telling me to be careful. Instead of saying that, why don't you thank me for doing the things I did? Thank you for getting the car inspected. Thank you for taking the trash down." 

"Well that's how I broke my hip," she says. 

Yes this is true. But. Sigh.

You weigh less than that giant trash barrel, AND you could have just let go of it when it started to roll away. But no - you had to hold onto it like somehow you were going to prevent it from rolling, and it took you out. Technically, you broke your hip. Not the trash barrel. So. You be careful. 

I weigh twice as much as the trash barrel. It cannot kill, hurt, or scare me. 

"It's dark outside." 

I took out my LL Bean headlamp. Put it on, FULL POWER, shined the light in her face and said "It's not dark out anymore." 

Her neighbor has all these wicked cool lights on the side of his trailer that are motion activated. And they are brighter than the sun. 

It is super not dark out anymore. 

I know she cares. But it is borderline insulting, and exceptionally emotionally exhausting to hear this come out of her mouth every couple of minutes. 

And I said I don't want to bitch. I recognize we have our mom, she's mostly in her right mind (except for turning the internet off at night because someone could access her wifi or whatever). I told my cousin last night I didn't mean to gripe considering his mom (my mom's sister) is in a home for memory care patients, and I can have conversations with my mom and they make sense and life is fine. I don't mean to diminish his situation at all, but he totally understood. And .... he laughed. Because of course he did. 

Anyway. 

I'm finishing my mom's laundry. Waiting for the last load to dry and then off to bed. Digits below! 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours.  two walks, one up and down the street between meetings, 10 min/.61 mi. Bigger walk after work, 25 min/1.31 mi. 11k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

7:45am: 116 
4:30pm: 166
10pm: 108

food & meds:
7:45am: phentermine+jardiance
2pm: met+glip
3pm: scallops, onion rings, coleslaw (all gross. meh)
6:30pm: white wine
8:30pm: turkey and gouda on low carb white; met+glip

Geoff is 29

It is my son's 29th birthday. It feels super weird that fact. It doesn't so much bother me that Jess is going to be 34, I feel like okay - that's to be expected. Jess has always felt like my adult human. I love them, and love spending time with them.

But Geoff. 29? how is that possible. Geoff is still a middle school kid, working towards his Eagle. But no. Dude is on the cusp of 30. Unreal.

I am not home to celebrate with him. I did call him first thing this morning and I let him know how much I love him. He's been interviewing for jobs (and not getting anywhere). Last night he applied to an associates degree program at a different Virginia location for community college. He had started down the path of trying to see if he could transfer into a CC in Maryland, and Doug was absolutely adamant that he not do that because from what he read, Maryland would want him to start over, from scratch, where he already has a ton of credits and a certificate. 

Do not transfer to a Maryland CC. Over and over this was messaged to him. 

Turns out, the CC he wanted to transfer to lost their accreditation for this program for this year and they're working to get it back, but they will not have it in place by Fall 2026. And 2027 doesn't look good.

Well then.

The universe made up its mind and prepared the path for him. 

He told me this morning that he applied to the Virginia program for transfer, requested his transcripts, and he's going to be assigned an academic advisor next. 

Here we go. Getting back on track for the degree. Finally. I'm relieved about this because last year he missed the application deadline. And I think he was okay with that because he had a job, a good job, he was happy even though it was part time and he could have been doing more. He was content. 

So many people are not content. 

But then we bought a house, he had to quit his job, he hasn't been able to find a new job, it's been a struggle. And I swear he is the most stubborn person (well, I think he gets it from my mom!) so to have the universe close that door and have him put right into the track we were hoping he'd go on... thankful.

Please, if you are reading this, send him good vibes. Let him get a job now, and be able to work right up to when school starts. 

He needs this win. 

For his birthday. 

Anyway. Had a good day today. It was stupid and raining so I took mom's car to get an inspection and then went to Walmart because I realized yesterday I'd forgotten to pack deodorant. And I was starting to get a little smelly. 

I walked inside the Walmart instead of going over to the gym. Glad I did and I would have walked more but had to get back to shower and get ready for a meeting. After my last meeting I went and did a real good walk around the neighborhood. Couldn't bring myself to drive all the way over to the gym, and the rain had let up totally. Got them steps in. Even though I paid for Black Card at Planet Fitness, the neighborhood is giving me the routes and the pathways to get shit done.

Mom thinks I'm crazy. But .... I'm not sitting on my ass eating nutter butter wafers and smoking packs of cigarettes and playing computer games all day. Get up and get it! That's my philosophy. 

Tonight I had dinner with my cousin Bill. I invited mom but she didn't want to go. She doesn't like this restaurant (hilarious) and so we had a cousin's suppah. We talked about his brother, our moms, nursing homes, getting old, weight loss, exercise, his son who literally just joined the army a couple months ago. We talked about this administration, the things happening, he is retired military himself so he has thoughts and opinions. It was a good chat. Good time. 

And I'm glad mom didn't come, so we could have this time together. 

Tomorrow, mom will go to lunch without me. I have a noon to 1, a 1 to 2, a 2 to 3.... busy afternoon of meetings. Maybe I'll have her bring me back something. 

This picture of Geoff and me is from two years ago. Digits below! 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. two walks; one in Walmart (I measured and timed it and walked intentionally) 16 min/.77 mi. More serious outdoor walk, 25 min/1.36 mi; 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8am: 112 
4:45pm: 111
10pm: 90

food & meds:
8am: phentermine+jardiance
10:30am: protein shake
1:30pm: turkey and gouda on low carb bread; met+glip
6:30pm: scallops, rice, sweet potatoes; 2 glasses of wine
8pm: met+glip; the rest of the honey roasted nut mix; another glass or three of wine

Temporary Rock Star Status

Last night I kind of slept okay, I had the windows open and the new air purifier running. It pumps out cool air, which is nice. But mom's house is so hot - and the furnace is pumping. I just looked down the hall to her in bed, in fleecey jammies covered in blankies and completely wrapped up, and I am in a t-shirt and shorts sweating balls. Absolutely Sweating Balls. 

sigh. 

Today was a pretty good day overall. I got to call the company that handles her life insurance and talk to them about how the auto-pay my sister set up didn't work, and asked for them to refund the late fees because ... not our mistake, not our fault. The girl made it sound like we were pulling food out of a starving baby's mouth. Oh what a hardship it is to give us back thirty dollars when your CEO makes 17.4 MILLION DOLLARS a year. Oh thank you for your kindness! Oh thank you so much. 

Fuck all y'all. 

Anyway. I got that taken care of. Mom's neighbor came to visit because she knew I was here and we had a nice catch up. Always fun to see her. She's a hot ticket. 

We went to mom's favorite foodrinkery for lunch. She's been miffed since the establishment was sold, and now they are using hamburger buns that are TOO HARD! and so she's been eating tuna boats. One of her friends suggested the kids burger on toasted white bread. 

Well. 

Game changer. Toasted white bread for the win. Felt like a victory. 

A man I didn't know (and she wasn't sure who he was) bought our drinks (soda, during the workday for me, thank you) and he came over and gave her a hug and a peck. 

Another guy named Charlie came in, and I've never met him. But he gushed on my mom and gave her big hugs, and then turned his affections to me. Like. It made me a little uncomfortable. Dude, we do NOT know each other do not kiss me on the top of my head? But mom and her lady friend Sue both knew him well and he was tickled to see her today, and meet me. 

Sometimes it is just weird, how ... loving? kind? etc? everyone is to mom. She gets to be kind of a rock star that she never was many years ago. People like Shirley. Go figure. 

And by extension, they like me?

The waitresses and bartenders at the foodrinkery all came over to hug on her, and when they saw me there, they were thrilled to see me too. Joanie, Casey, and "Shorty..." Got more than my fair share of greetings and hey how are ya? So good to see ya! etc. 

"It is so nice of you to come in! Didn't know you were coming to visit! Mom didn't say anything!" says Shorty. Kiss Kiss Hug Hug. 

She commented that I looked like I've lost a lot of weight. Well, since I was last here, no? but over the last five years, yes. A lot. 

My mother said "Yeah but she still has this," and poked me in the belly.

Tell me how I didn't just fucking punch her in the face right then. But. Yeah. I still have a fat belly. 

Shorty said "that's always the last to leave us ladies." She's so kind. "but Wow I can totally see it in your face!" Mom's friend Sue chimed in that she noticed over the last year that I indeed had lost weight and was looking good. 

I told them about the Fitbit, the daily 10k, how I'm doing it the best I can. Sue goes to the Y every day at 5am to walk with her best friend, and her friend goes swimming after they do several laps around the track, and she keeps going. Shorty runs 5 miles every morning before her kid even is up to go to school. We all talked about where we are doing our best, and how we are ... going to keep going. 

Sue is on day 200 something of 5 miles of walking (far more than my 10k steps) and said she's staying on track for 365 days.  I told her I love that for her. 

Everyone made me feel better about things, and I did not punch my mother in the face for poking my fat belly. 

Only moms can make you feel shitty like that when you are doing your absolute fucking most best, right? 

When I'm here at her house, I don't walk around as much inside like I do at home. after lunch I realized I was way behind on steps for the day. I took myself for a quick neighborhood walk. I was disappointed to not see any dogs out and about. There are usually a lot of little doggies around. It is a 1.3-ish mile loop, and you can add on little alcoves and little dead ends if you want, to lengthen the walk. Mom lives on a circle, and you can always go extra around and arounds for that thing. 

At 7:50 I took myself for another walk, should have gone around the circle a second full time to push up over the mile. But in the end, got everything I needed. 

My new wireless bluetooth earbuds are working out nicely. I'm kind of excited about them. But they don't fit in my ears right. I find the left one fits better in my right ear, and vice versey, kind of bizarre. 

Still. 

Tomorrow, my morning is incredibly free, so I may just flex some time and take mom's car for the inspection sticker. My cousin Bill and I may meet for dinner. Mom doesn't think she wants to come but I might just make her. 

And I'll try to do a solid 30 min of walking somewhere along the line in the day to not have to do multiple trips round the park here. Although, what I used to think was a hill is a nothing burger now. Your girl, she's killing it. 

Digits below. 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Two Walks, 25 min walk outside, 1.31 miles. After Dark with the head lamp! 18 min/.95 mi. 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

7:45am: 85 (checked 3x. seemed very low compared to previous checks)
4:45pm: 131
10:45pm: 90 

food & meds:
7:45am: phentermine+jardiance
8:30am: premier protein shake (trying to drink these for mom and get them out of her fridge)
through the morning - several lil'handfuls of honey roasted cashew mix while walking through the kitchen...
1:30pm: buffalo tenders over small side salad w/bleu cheese dressing
3pm: met+glip (forgot to take right after lunch...) 
7pm: turkey and gouda on low-carb bread w/mayo. 
more honey roasted cashew mix through the evening.
white wine+ no sugar cranberry juice
8:30pm: met+glip

Happy I Am Here

Today was a pretty good day. Meeting light but meeting meaningful. I got to the gym but only spent 15 minutes there because I had afternoon meetings, and I didn't time my departure right. 

I made up for the shortfall and did a walk in the evening while talking to Linda on the phone about mom stuff. 

I'm happy I am here because she got two pieces of mail today that upset her apple cart. One was an easy peasy call to confirm, the other a bit more thorny. But if she had to do either of these on her own she'd bust a blood vessel. 

I went over to the shopping center to take care of something for her, and got wine, some snacks, some food from Target (salad fix'ns, turkey and cheese, that kind of thing). 

Linda and I pledged to one another that whosoever is here last will make sure they leave wine for the next person's visit. Amen and so be it.

Another thing I've been wanting to get in my life is bluetooth headphones, so I can walk or do the treadmill and not run the risk of hitting my earbud cord and sending my earbuds or phone flying. 

Target had a good selection and I bought some cuties that work great with my android phone, as evidenced in a test I did with Linda. I haven't tried them out on the mac yet for work, but.... I'm anticipating they'll be great there too. I may still use the earbuds for work because I'm not sure how the mute part of things work with these, and on the mac, I can mute on the keyboard. I don't need to think I muted and have someone hear me groaning about the contents of a meeting or telling my mother that I'll so a thing for her later.

My mom turns the internet off before she goes to bed. Which is hilarious to me. 

Tomorrow, I have to see what she does but I think the router/modem/whatever and her computer are on the same power strip. So she turns the entire power strip off, instead of just shutting down her computer and leaving everything else on. 

And I think by doing this, she may be epically fucking up her computer? Windows needs to be shut down properly and not just the entire computer powered off. 

Last night, she wanted to turn the internet off at like 8pm. I asked her to not. So I could .... do shit on my computer like read about our work OKRs and goals and objectives for a meeting today. Thankfully she turns it on first thing in the morning when she wakes up at sparrow fart, so if I'm up early, I can ... access the internet! 

And also thankfully, my data plan is absolutely unlimited. So I can use my phone if I need to do anything internetty. 

It's not quite 9pm right now, but I know she wants to go to bed, so, I will see if I can access blogger on my phone before bed to record the last blood sugar reading. If not, I'll edit this post in the morning. 

To be very honest, I dread being old. I dread not knowing what to do with things, or technology or people trying to always trick me. I asked Jess on our trip north to please make sure I do not turn into my mother.

 Jess has assured me that is impossible. I'm too smart for that. What a kind thing to say to me. But honestly, if you knew my mom in her 50s you would not believe how good she was at all this computer and tech stuff. I may still yet become that person and need someone to be the me that I am for her. Jess says they will take very good care of me, and guide me. And I promised I'll never answer the phone, or open mail that seems like a scam. 

God help us all. This is a sad and crazy world on so many levels, and oldsters get fucked over all the time. I do not want to be a fucked over oldster. 

Digits! below. 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours.  Treadmill, 15 min/.78 mi (Had to get back for a meeting). Evening walk with Linda on the phone, 16 min/.77 mi. 10k+ by bedtime.

blood glucose:

8am: 122
5pm: 101
10:30pm: 113 (update on phone a success!)

food & meds:
8:30am: phentermine+jardiance
10:45am: protein shake
1:30pm: pb and low sugar j on low carb bread; met+glip
5pm: chopped salad w/cherry tomatoes, buffalo chicken bites, bleu cheese dressing; white wine
7:30: honey roasted cashew snack mix - a couple handfuls 
8:45pm: met+glip