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