Dead Birds and Dry Turds

Oh my gosh, you guys, it was gorgeous out there today. 

Up early again today and Doug slept until almost 10. I heard the news about the Iran situation and opted not to turn on the TV. 

I poked around the kitchen, ate two donuts, played phone games, cuddled the dog. When Doug came down, he put on the TV and I walked away. I went upstairs and cleaned a bit, stripped the bed and got some more stuff organized. 

Then, I went outside because watching the news and listening to "that guy" talk about stuff was not going to make me happy. And it was beautiful. I got the dog shit rake and shovel out, got a bucket and lined it with a trash bag and I started picking up. Toffee came outside with me, and she was romping and playing and having a good old time. 

90% of the dog crap was picked up and I gathered up a bunch of sticks. I thought about the phrase "Stick Season," and how this isn't the same as what it means in Vermont (or, Noah Kahan's album title) this is a different kind of stick season. I like this stick season, getting ready for a little camp fire action in the yard. And boy, is our season plentiful! 

There were more toys in the yard, hair clips and matchbox cars. Honestly every time I go out there, I find more and more toys. One would think I would have found them all by now. 

I looked over at Toffee and she had something in her mouth and was throwing it up in the air, letting it drop, grabbing it and running. Having the time of her life.

I realized it was a bird. A very dead bird. Good Lord, gross. No. 

And people wonder why I don't let the dog lick me in the face, any dog. Nope. 

I tried to get her to drop it but she did not want to give it up. Doug had come outside to see what I was up to (I guess he also tired of the repetitiveness of the news and wanted to check out the weather). 

"Your dog has a dead bird in her mouth and she won't drop it," I let him know. He tricked her into coming into the house for a bully stick, without the bird, so I was able to clean it up. Into the bucket with the poop. 

We sat on the patio for quite a while, Doug looked like he wanted to take a nap and I told him it was okay if we didn't go do something. He asked if I knew tomorrow's weather (what do I look like, Harvey Leonard?) I said I heard it was going to be cooler, much cooler, like high of 40. Today was a high of 73. He said we should seize the day. 

Geoff went to the market, and we went to the C&O canal in Williamsport. We only walked about 2.5 miles total, coulda gone longer, but both of us were feeling like we wanted to get home. Geoff made dinner, I worked on some work stuff, Doug took that nap. 

Even if it is cooler tomorrow, I think it is not supposed to be windy. Maybe we will get a second good day of walking in. 

He's going to start our taxes tomorrow, which is always fun because he has to reset the password, and gets yelly at the software. 

Maybe I'll take the dog somewhere solo. 

Digits below some pictures. I did take a pic of the dead bird but will not post it here, lest you be super duper grossed out! 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. C&O canal walk with Doug and Toffee, 56 min/2.53 miles at a nice pace. 12k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

7:30am: 102
4:30pm: 147
10:30pm: 174

food & meds:
7:30am: jardiance+phentermine; 2 Krumpe's Donuts
1pm: small bowl of tuna fish w/ the last of the salad greens and some cherry tomatoes; met+glip
5pm: small bowl of cashews
6pm: spicy "dirty" rice with ground beef, shredded cheddar, sour cream.
9:15pm: met+glip
no wine/beer 

Early Bird gets the Late Nite Donuts

I was awake at 4. Went to pee, drank some water, put on some Biofreeze on my hip and right knee. Back to bed. The dog came to join me because I am, of course, the best and most wonderful dog parent to snuggle with and she loves me. 

I woke up a little before 7. Tried to go back to sleep but it wasn't happening. 

So I got up and fed miss thing and let her out. I did my blood sugar, I made the coffee. When the dog came back in, I felt like ... well. I could sit on the couch, drink coffee, play my phone games or damn it...

I could get on the treadmill at 7:30am. Are we doing this? Are we doing this! 

We did this. I did a solid mile but not at a fast clip. Just to get it done, get the mile out of the way. It was going to be a busy busy day. 

As you can see, ya gurl has crushed the 100 miles, we're halfway done with the challenge, and who knows, maybe I'll hit 500 miles by the time this is buttoned up in April. New goal set, I guess. 

But this morning I was sluggy and tired and I forced myself to finish the mile. 

Note to self: drink coffee first for best results.

After the treadmill, I got a shower. I've been putting off showering most days until the afternoon so this was nice. Felt like a human being who goes to a job. And working before 9am. 

There were a lot of meetings today and a lot of helpdesk tickets, but I had a nice wide open time slot in the middle. 

I was going to take toffee for a walk but Geoff beat me to it. Probably a good plan because I had a lot of work to do still before leaving for dinner. 

A friend of mine from college and her husband were passing through, driving down to South Carolina and then to Florida. They thought this was a good stopping point before making it to SC and arrived last night. They went for a long walk on the C&O canal. 

We tried to remember when we saw one another last and it has to be maybe 1994. But it was like we saw each other the other day. Lots of catching up, talking about the kids, houses, work. Doug and the husband hit it off really well and it was fun to sit there chatting and listening to the two of them talk as well. 

We mentioned the donut place and told them about how it is only open to the public from 7pm-11pm. "Let's go," she said. She has Celiac's so she can't eat the donuts "but he's entitled to indulge!" 

There was a big line but it was moving quickly. They were horribly entertained by the concept of this late night donut thing, and he got a dozen so he could eat one or two and bring the rest to his sister in SC. 

When I got home, I took my evening medicine (90 min. late) and my blood sugar (a little too high) so I passed on the donut treat. We'll see how things are tomorrow. 

I also got on the treadmill when we got home, because I was 2k steps or so short for the goal. I stayed seated at the restaurant while we were all chatting away, so there was that to make up for and more. 

So I crushed that and got ready for bed.  

Tomorrow, the weather is supposed to be amazing so I hope we can get some yard work done (maybe) or a nice walk somewhere (more likely). 

Digits below this shot of the nighttime donut gang.

digits

exercise: 10/12 hours.  Missed 7 and 8pm for sitting at dinner. Early Treadmill, 18 min/1.06 miles, Late Treadmill, 20 min/1.29 mi.  11k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

7am: 119
4pm: 91
10:30pm: 191

food & meds:
7am: jardiance+phentermine
8:30am: protein shake
1pm: met+glip
1:45pm: ramekin of tunafish 
4pm: handful of trail mix that had a bunch of sugar coated thingies (oops)
6pm: beef brisket w/some BBQ sauce, a little coleslaw (gross) 
9:30pm: met+glip

skipped the donut, no wine/beer

TV Time

Tonight, I watched TV. Doug put on the Rowan Atkinson version of Maigret, which I really enjoyed. Have to say, Rowan Atkinson plays a lovely serious old man French detective. Then we started watching the 1960s version, which was also very good. 

Nothing really good or interesting today. Tomorrow we're going to dinner with an old dorm mate of mine from college, she is a Pokemon friend and she and her husband are toodlin' aboot our area, so she remembered I sent her Pokemon gifts from our town and she hit me up to invite us out. 

I haven't told Doug yet but ... I will! 

And that's about it. Digits below, noting I think my blood sugar has been kinda high the past week or so, so I'mma tryina to better with it and not bake and eat cookies and stuff. Reel myself in. 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Treadmill twice. First was 16 min/1.03 mi running; 22 min/1.04 walking slowly just to get to 10k. 11k+ by bedtime

blood glucose:

7am: 122
4:45pm: 128
10:30pm: 151

food & meds:
7am: jardiance+phentermine
10:45am: 647 everything bagel w/cream cheese
2:15pm: met+glip (almost forgot!); ramekin of mixed nuts 
5:45pm: 2 boneless pork chops shake & bake, peas,  6 pierogis
9pm: met+glip
no wine/beer

In the 14 minute range

Funny note. I went to the guest room last night after 2am when I had to pee. Immediately fell back asleep which was nice. 

Around 6am, I heard what I thought was a thunderstorm. It was part of my dream, it seems. I opened my eyes, expecting to see some flashes of lightning but only heard this rolling thunder.

It was Toffee, snoring in my butt. Tucked into behind my legs super tight, and just snoring her brains out. I shifted so she could breathe, and I laughed. Brian Rosenworcel is the Thundergod, but I'm sleeping with the Thunderdog. 

Since I've been using the treadmill almost daily, and  simply walking a mile takes too long. I started jogging. Then actually running. I was super proud of myself if I did a mile in 16 minutes. Running.  Actually running. Doug said that he could do that walking. 

I said good for you, you walk fast. But my fat little joggy body is doing great breaking a 16 minute mile. 

He also said "why would you do that to yourself?" Which made me laugh.

Doug is not a fan of runners and running, races resulting in road closures and detours so that people can take over miles of a town. 

He thinks it is a stupid waste of time, resources, space. I get it but it is like, no harm no foul to me.

It is similar to the way I feel about golf courses. I hate golf courses, and the maintenance of them. So wasteful. So much water. Road races don't piss me off so much. 

It took me a long time to break 16 minutes and get into a 15 minute mile pace. And over the past couple of days I've been solidly in the 14 minute mile pace. The trick for me is to do a good warm up amount of steps and then turn on the Fitbit tracker and start running, this way my first couple minutes are not at 19 min/mile warming up but I can just get right into the fast. 

I've cracked into the 12 min and 13 min areas, and it evens out when I have to slow down but I try not to let it get over 14+ min and back into the 15 min range. 

Today was a good run. I've had an attention span problem the last couple days where I get to 15 minutes and I'm so very done. I know I've hit the mile, so I stop and go back to work or whatever. The problem then turns into not having enough steps to hit 10k by bedtime. I get my mile in, sure, but then end up having to do a lot more steps or get back on the treadmill for another 10- 15 minutes just to do 10k steps. 

When we go to bed, Toffee is exceptionally playful lately so we bring some formerly stuffed toys upstairs, and she runs around. We play keep away. I can sometimes get an extra thousand steps in before tucking in. 

We went outside this afternoon and she ran around like crazy while I surveyed the yard. Wow. So much dog crap. Gotta get the rake and bucket out to handle this and start cleaning it up. Never thought I'd hope for another 2 inches of snow to just cover it all up again and hide it. 

I may get that wish from what it sounds like, Monday into Tuesday from what I read. 

Today is a crush 11k steps day. I was thinking we'd get a good second walk outside with the dog and Doug but he took a nap and I cooked dinner. Geoff cooks so much for us that I gave him a break on things for a change. 

Busy work day and another busy one tomorrow. Digits below!

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Treadmill, image above. 30 min/2.13 mi; 11k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:15am: 138
5pm: 135
10:45pm: 122

food & meds:
8:15am: jardiance+phentermine
9am: Entenmann's chocolate donut
11:45pm: bowl of mac & cheese w/bacon
1:45pm: met+glip
6:30pm: chicken fajita - one wrap (low carb) but a pile of filling on the side. A little spanish rice, some sour cream, shredded cheddar
8:30pm: met+glip
red wine

It Was Almost Operation Rescue Shirley Up In Here

Work was chaos today, we had a small outage due to something happening outside our control with one of our vendors. Once it was assessed and fixed, everything went back to normal. Except one other thing. My work son and I had a meeting to troubleshoot the hell out of this other thing, and we think we figured it out for one client but not the other. 

While I'm dealing with the outage, Doug comes downstairs and asks if I'd heard when mom is going to get her power back on. I told him the email we got from her trailer community said "several days, most likely" and that I didn't have any idea what the current status was. 

Her neighbors came and got her on Sunday so she didn't have to be in the trailer in the cold alone if the power went off, and it did go off.  They have a generator, and made it clear she was to stay with them. Linda and I were very comfortable with this. So she'd been there since then. Her neighbors are sweet and kind, and I so appreciate they got her... 

Doug felt it was asking too much for them to host her for much longer. 

"We should go extricate your mom from the situation. Operation Rescue Shirley." Doug likes to call things "Operation" whatever, so this was his name for the plan. 

Um.

Well? I kind of agree but hell if we drive up there, literally the entire city of Providence is closed to traffic. All the bridges are closed. The airport is closed. We won't be able to fly up, rent a car, get her, and turn around and head this way. Plus, with our luck, we get up there, get her, head back this way, and while we are on our way here the power is restored. Or. She's here for one day and the power gets restored. 

Maybe I drive up, get her, and take her far enough away from where she lives where there is no power, get a hotel, like maybe Connecticut or upstate NJ... and what, two days? see how that goes? Go up to New Hampshire? stay up there near Jess and C? For my sanity please? 

Maybe I go get her and take her to Linda? But Linda has a board meeting to run today, and her guest room is not ready, and it would be asking a lot. 

So. Maybe we wait and see if the power comes on? One more day? Wait one more day. 

The power was restored this afternoon, and her neighbor came up to her house to make sure the furnace was running, the pipes had not burst, cranked the heat a little bit, and then brought her up the circle back home. 

So tonight I'm reflecting on the fact that my husband feels it is very important for not other people to be taking care of our family members and he was willing to right then step up and start driving. I agree with him. Other people should not have to take care of her. In fact, I thought about canceling my trip to John and heading to her instead... but that would maybe have made me a villain to him. Maybe. 

I'm using the word maybe a lot. 

But my husband is a good egg with a big heart. He's a big damn hero sometimes. And while I'm trying to write a customer wide outage email announcement, he's grilling me about maybe taking off to head that way (it was 10am). 

I'm incredibly relieved that he is the person he is, and that we didn't have to enact the Operation Rescue Shirley adventure. But also wanted to talk to Linda first before buying plane tickets to try and go up there, or like, how do we do this at all. Fly up? rent a car? Drive back? Drive up and back? He was suggesting somehow that I fly back here with her and I'm thinking Jesus No. She is going to say no fucking way - she won't even go on a road trip somewhere close to home much less fly on a plane. That would be a challenge and a half.

So once I heard the power was on, that she was secure and back home, I hit the treadmill (sent the email missive) and crushed a mile with a 14.37 min pace. Anxiety will do that for ya. 

I fell short of the amount of steps I usually have by 7pm, so I got on the treadmill again (too cold for a dog walk) and just slow strolled while reading the news. I realized today was the SOTU and I wanted nothing to do with it, so I unpacked some more boxes up in my room and avoided it all. Mentally, I feel better for it. 

Here's a pic of mom that neighbor friend sent us. Thanks neighbor friends! 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Two walks, first an early-ish run 17 min/1.17 mi. Make up steps, 15 min/.69 mi. 10k+ steps by bedtime (tried for 11k, ran out of time). 

blood glucose:

8:30am: 138
4:30pm: 150
10pm: 160

food & meds:
8:30am: jardiance (waiting on phentermine)
a handful of mini-reeses pb cups
11am: very large apple w/pb
1pm: met+glip
4:30pm: ramekin of cashews
6pm: black bean and kielbasa soup (a la Geoff) 2 Kings Hawaiian rolls
white wine
9pm: met+glip

A Gold Medal Sunday

Sunday morning, I was awake at 5:30 but never fell back asleep. So I got up at 6. I got myself dressed and ready, went down to the hotel coffee bar for 2 cups (thank you Holiday Inn Express for providing DECENT sized coffee cups!) Organized my shit. Woke up Doug. 

We had to go get John for the 8am Gold Medal Hockey game. 

John was very excited for it. He played hockey, he loves hockey, and he was going to watch it anyway, but probably in the big common room or on his iPad so as not to bother his roommate (He got moved into a new room, and the gentleman is very old and sleeps a lot but tells John it is okay if he lives his life). 

I suggested when we were out at dinner on Saturday night that we could watch it together. I immediately regretted it. Why do I open my mouth. But. 

I thought a lot about him wanting to go to a museum and me being all "fuck that shit" about it. Some of his friends took him to a Monet exhibit, and they got a nice picture after and printed it for him on a Monet print. He texted me pictures of it, and you could tell. 

That meant the world to him. You could see it in the picture.

I'm happy he got that. Happy he got that with his friends. Happy they were there for him and gave him this print so he could look at it. Then, I realized I wasn't thinking about this part of his reality really, that he isn't going to get many opportunities to do and see things so. Do and see things. And my fuck that shit attitude is natural based on regular life but this is different. 

We had told him we'd pick him up at 7. I had made reservations at a sports bar that does brunch, because Reddit suggested we try there for the Olympic Gold Medal Hockey Game. 

Now. 

I normally would never ever do this. Go to a bar first thing in the morning with a bunch of strangers to watch a sportsball game. Putting on Hard Pants, going out where it is full noise and people. I could watch from home. 

But there we were. Picking him up, getting there, waiting on line in the rain. He wore one of his hockey jerseys from when he played in Japan. 

He realized he probably should not wear his Montreal Canadiens Jersey, so he settled for this. I told him that no one would probably care and I think I was right but he's very opinionated about things like this and was sure someone would kick his ass or give him shit.

Dude, you're in a wheelchair. If anyone gave you shit I'd have to beat them to a pulp, on principal.

He was very talkative and excited on line and this was kind of sweet, to see him so enthusiastic. It is weird because it made me think of mom and what she's like in public. She'll totally talk to strangers, talk about herself. Here he is doing his auntie proud. So much like her sometimes it boggles my mind. Hopefully when Linda is reading this she's laughing. 

Since I made reservations for us (thank you Reddit for suggesting the spot, and thank you to the girl I talked to the night before when I called to ask about wheelchair accommodations) I knew we had a guaranteed spot once inside. 

The manager saw us on line and said "hey Christine! Glad you made it." I wondered how he knew me and then I was like ohhhh yeah. I mentioned the wheelchair access. 

He treated us like gold. 

The restaurant has this cute little alcove for kind of bigger parties, so a table for 12 was set up with one guy sitting at it, a 2 seater, and our table. The manager went to move one of the chairs out of the way and stopped.  "Oh! Would you prefer to sit in the chair instead of stay in your wheelchair?" John said no - he wanted to sit in the window seat, so we parked the wheelchair on that side of the table, moved the chair away, and settled in. 

Quick attention from the waitress, mimosa for me, and brunchie foods ordered, beer for John, and Doug stuck with coffee for quite a while. We watched people flowing in, and the game was underway. 

And as mentioned, I normally would never do this 8am for any sport viewing thing but I have to admit, this was fun. Everyone was fun. There were Canada fans, and plenty of USA Fans (I would say an 80/20 split USA to Canada ratio). Lots of team jerseys and that made me sad I wasn't sporting a Bruins shirt. John said that people would give me shit, but I told him the vibe was not like that. No one is giving anyone shit for their fandoms. 

No one was a dick. There was no fighting. It was fun. Very lighthearted. Very good time. He said disparaging things like "This is Richmond Virginia, no one knows anything about any hockey teams." Okay yeah sure. I'm sure no one in Richmond likes the Nationals or the Carolina Hurricanes. Sure. Whatever. 

A USA! USA! USA! Chant started and when it died down a guy yelled CA-NA-DA! CA-NA-DA! and a few others joined in. Lots of laughter. 

The table for 12 next to us was a bunch of grownups, friends/relatives, and their little kids. 

I mean, little. 

I don't think any of them were over 6.

 There were three siblings, a boy and two girls. The boy was the oldest, and had long curly hair. John, of course, made a comment about his hair. All three of them were super curly whirleys and very cute. The middle girl had a Toronto Maple Leafs Auston Matthews Jersey on, her Dad had a Canada jersey. 

The littlest one wore a Frozen Elsa dress and she was a hot ticket. The parents had their hands full, juggling all three of them.  You could tell that number 3 was a little feral, and you know me. I love feral children. 

Partway through the first period, the boy threw up. I thought he was looking kind of droopy. He had his head down on the table, and he'd brought a ton of hockey player cards which were in a box and stacked up on the table. But he faded fast. I thought to myself with my mom intuition kicking in, yeah. That isn't a good look for a kid who came in really excited about the game. 

So when he stood up and barfed, thankfully it went STRAIGHT down between his feet. Mom jumped into action, dad swung the little one off her lap, and I went to get the manager guy to ask for towels and a mop.

"Sir," I said, "We have a small boy barf situation in the alcove." 

He rushed over with a bunch of bar towels and said he'd be right back with a mop. The boy threw up again but mom was brilliant and stuck a plastic drinking cup (all the kids' drinks came in these fun cups) right in front of his face, and the kid horked into it. Second cup. Same thing. The poor little guy. 

Manager was back with a mop in no time as dad and I are wiping the floor with paper towels, since the bar towels were completely used. 

Of course I'm that person. 

The manager said "okay parents, I got this," and he started mopping. One of the kitchen staff came out with a bag and got the bar towels and handed a bag to the mom and she was putting some soiled toys and the boy's sweatshirt into the bag. And both the employees were gloved up and that was a good sign for me. Not cleaning up barehanded. Well done, gents. 

The little boy was sad and stunned. Mom was getting him organized to take him home. Dad said he'd keep the other two. His priorities satisfied, she's got the sickie and he's got the hockey game and his buddies, and well, everyone had all the kids.

He turned to me and said "thank you so much." 

"I actually saw it coming. He didn't look too lively, rather wilted, to be honest."

"Yeah, he was so fired up for this game and when I looked over at him resting his head I figured something was up but ... didn't see this coming."

"Been there," I said. "My son once threw up all over the aisle at a Texas Roadhouse in Plaistow, NH after eating a giant meal so, it happens. I get it." 

May I have another Mimosa, please. 

Also, serving a mimosa in a pint glass, this is my kind of place. I could have done with a little less ice, but. I wasn't complaining.

The game was great. I was initially heartbroken that Jeremy Swayman of the Bruins was not going to be the goalie but hell yes Connor Hellebuyck totally kicked ass out there. I felt like it was an absolute defensive battle at times where the goalies for both teams were saving the day. But then, Canada tied it up. Oh no.

Overtime. Alright. 

Part of me wanted to be on the road by 11am but. Overtime. Here we go. John was full of opinions on how we were absolutely going to lose because 3 on 3, Canada is better than us, faster than us, gonna lose gonna lose, gonna lose. 

I wanted to just put him in the car and go because okay champ, we gonna lose why stay here, let's go. Why stay. 

Ordered another mimosa. 

Doug got a beer. 

Less than two minutes into overtime, the USA Won. Hallelujah. So glad they did it. What a joy. 

The bar exploded. It was absolutely joyous. I loved every second of it. 

As the bar was clearing out, Canada Dad leaned over and said "seriously, thank you so much for your help today." We shook hands, and I said "I'm very sorry for your loss, but wow, what a game. Privilege to be here with you for it." This made him smile as he hoisted Elsa up on his hip and left. 

We took Miss Daisy back to his gulag and he fell into bed exhausted. "I didn't do much, but wow is that tiring being up and active for so long." 

Tell me about it, bro. 

We headed north. The goal was to get home before the snow kicked in. The forecast was for it to get serious around 4pm at our house, and Geoff said it was already snowing, but nothing was sticking. 

We decided to not take the interstate beyond Fredricksburg, because it is more fun to drive up Rte 17 even if it ends up taking us out of our way over to Winchester and Rte 81. 

But Doug told me that he was interested in making a side quest to Charles Town, West Virginia and that would bring us up into Maryland just south of where we live. About a 50 minute ride on two lane roads for most of it. 

And the snow wasn't bad. 

Abolitionist Ale Works was the destination he had in mind, and we pulled up as the snow was coming on hard. A bunch of people were inside, and the beertender welcomed us warmly. We watched the closing ceremony for the Olympics, and everyone was very entertained by what we were seeing.

Two beers and some take-aways later and we were on the way home. 

There are only a couple ways over the Potomac, two of them are right in this stretch. One is through Harper's Ferry to the East, and the other is the one Doug picked through Shepherdstown and into Sharpsburg. Both towns we are very interested in seeing more of. 

In fact, we jokingly thought of going to look at a Church that was for sale in Sharpsburg when we were starting out looking. I thought it would be fun to live downstairs, have a nice music hall in the sanctuary and the organ loft could be the guest area for musicians coming through. The place was mostly finished down the basement for an actual 2 bed 2 bath home, but yeah. I really would love to do that if I had the money.

If I had a million dollars, I'd buy your church...

Geoff had no dinner planned, which is weird for him. We were home by 4:30pm and Doug wanted a nap. I offered to go to the market because there was no milk for coffee for the morning. 

And. I finally got a haircut. There is a market that we'd never been to (which is associated with Stop & Shop and Giant) and a Hair Cuttery next door. I called to make sure they were open, and they gladly had me come in. I'd been putting this off since my birthday. Finally. 

The market was fun, hardly anyone there. I helped a guy find canned tuna fish (seriously, the young man kept seeing "Chicken of the Sea" on the label, and I said "oh honey, no. That's the name brand like Starkist." And I handed him a can to show him. I told him he should always buy tuna in water, not in vegetable oil because that's greasy and nasty and no - don't do that to yourself. He was on the phone with someone and he said "Oh this nice lady just helped me find the tuna. I'm so stupid..." and he told them about how he thought Chicken of the Sea was ... chicken. And he was laughing, so cute. 

I headed out to the parking lot and there was a person trying to clean their car off but they had no scraper or snow brush, they were using the sleeve of their sweatshirt. They got into the car and started it, and I was afraid they were just going to hit the windshield wiper and start driving off. 

There was a snow brush in my hatchback, so I pulled it out and trotted over and started brushing. 

They rolled down the window and said profusely thanked me. "I didn't think it was going to start snowing until later, and I've been at work at CVS all day! I had nothing to wipe this off with!" So I told her no sweat, no worries, I got you. Put your defroster on the front and the back, and I'll have you cleaned off in no time. They offered to put my groceries in the trunk but I said to not worry about it. It's not a problem. 

And I finished brushing the car off and they were so happy. 

Driving home, I realized I was goofing off so much at the market just looking at stuff that I forgot ... milk. 

I also forgot ground beef, and I got shake & bake for pork chops but ... no pork chops. Okay. 

I drove over to our regular market and got the things I had forgotten. And they also didn't have cole slaw mix at the first market, and I wanted that so I got some (and dressing). 

For dinner last night, I got grocery store fried chicken, fresh out of the fryer and it smelled so good. I over bought, we could have eaten one box but I got two because I should not be allowed to go to the grocery store when I'm hungry. 

And as of this writing on Monday, it was another good busy working day. My northern co-workers clocked in with 18 to 20 inches of snow so we spent a good deal of time in our team meeting talking about the weather. 

Digits below, here's a picture of John and Doug at the bar for the hockey game. I see so much of his mom in his face, and his dad. It is a very interesting picture to me. He said he thought he was smiling. I promised next visit, we'll bet smiley pictures if he is up to to smiling. That made him smile.

Monday digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Treadmill between meetings (call it lunch time!) 16 min/1.07 miles. 2nd/extra treadmill time since I was short on steps for the day (and I tested the Run setting on my fitbit with the GPS turned off and it worked!) 15 min/1.05 mi. 11k+ steps by bedtime.

blood glucose:

8:45am: 140
4:45pm: 89
10pm: 160

food & meds:
8:45am: jardiance (waiting on phentermine)
8:45am: atkins protein shake
11am: Entenmann's donut
12:30pm: english muffin w/pb & low sugar blueberry j
12:45pm: met+glip
6:30pm: bowl of pasta shells w/meat sauce, 2 small pieces of garlic bread
8:15pm: met+glip

Sunday digits

exercise: 10/12 hours. Missed 2 hours from being in the car. Treadmill after dinner, 20 min/1.27 mi. No energy to run just had to get the mile done. 10k+ steps by bedtime. 

blood glucose:

6am: 150
xpm: x
10:30pm: 188

food & meds:
6am: jardiance (waiting on phentermine)
exact times, not accounted for.
3 mimosas, really good breakfast quesadilla
11:45am: met+glip
on the highway (maybe 1pm?) 2 dunkin donuts
4pm: 2 beers at Abolition Ale Works
7pm: grocery store fried chicken, home made coleslaw, scoop of mac & cheese
7:45pm: met+glip

USA! USA! USA!

 Okay. I'm so tired, and I'm not going to write a full Sunday Update entry until tomorrow but hello. We survived. We are home. Relieved.

I am sorry for everyone on the East Coast getting feet of snow. We got an inch. Initially they said 5 to 8 but. I think we've gotten what we're getting. 

Thinking of you all. 

All 2 of you who actually read this blog. 

More tomorrow. BE CAREFUL everyone.

Cousin Update

Oh hotel beers. I love you. 

It was a stressful day. We had a GREAT travel time coming down here. I don't have the energy to blow by blow talk about the overall stress that we experienced coming down here but as of writing at 9:30pm I'm not stressed and life is fine. 

We're fine.

Things are fine. 

We had dinner with John and his friend Keith, who is interesting. 

I also had a 90 minute call with Jess that brought me laughter and joy. God how I love them. 

So tomorrow morning, we are picking my cousin up at 7am 

yes

7am. 

To go to a bar in Richmond to watch the USA vs. Canada hockey game. I made a reservation at a bar in town for this. 

I have deep thoughts. but for right now. There's this. Digits below.

digits

exercise: 11/12 hours. Missed 1pm by being in the car. Did treadmill in the AM before we left, 15 min/1.04 mi. End of day treadmill, 5 min/.4 mi. 11k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8am: 121
4pm: 115
10:15pm: 192

food & meds:
8am: jardiance (waiting on phentermine)
10:30am: english muffin w/pb and regular j
1pm: met+glip
4:30pm: peel and eat shrimp; pad thai; beers; Tom kha soup w/shrimp; pad thai w/peanut sauce and shrimp
More beers at hotel, trail mix, and smart food
8:45pm: met+glip

Fractured Cancer Hip is the name of my nu metal emo band

Come see us on tour. 

My sister and I were having a moment and she made the above remark about our cousin's hip, and I added the part about it being the name of my band and we're probably going to hell. 

Anyway. 

There was a moment at work today where we discovered some deep dark magicks written before the modren-era memories and from before I worked for my company because there were all these references in the database to things none of us ever heard of. And my boss remembered because he used to work for one of our clients, and recalled a thing. A suite of things. And they all had names. And one rang a bell for him and he went to the Way Back Machine and found it on his super old version of his website. 

We were all in awe. 

Sometimes there is a wizard, and we suddenly have the knowledge and power we need. 

It was a shining moment. A real breakthrough. And we can safely delete all the shit this thing references and never speak of it again. 

Done, and dusted. 

Part of the joy of my job, you can say. I often want to delete or flush or get rid of things that I feel are remnants of the Olden Works and others say "no no no we should just migrate it over." 

But the database is 50million lines long. no. Flush some shit. 

My experience with the hoarding aunt and my own recent move point to a Marie Kondo this database philosophy. Do not bring it if it does not spark joy, my friends. 

The entire afternoon was wide open for me so I hit the treadmill at 12:15, grabbed a shower. My standing 1pm meeting... sigh. We keep canceling it. My colleague forgets or their mom calls, or they are working on a slide deck, or. Or. Or. 

So with that canceled I reached out to my 2pm to see if she wanted to move up and I'm glad we did. There was a lot to cover, and we found some things I have to bring to the product team. I was incredibly thankful for her eyes and her "yeah, no. You are not losing your mind. That's messed up." 

My 3pm was with a client, who was having a hard time with the Google suite of things. One product is used pretty much exclusively by all of our clients and it is a beast. It is hard to manage, and we technically don't support it because we didn't build it. But that leaves folks frustrated and sad. So I try hard to step in where I think I can fix a thing. 

We got close. We had a good laugh. And on Monday there is more to refine with it. But we did get close. 

Doug and I took Toffee to the dog park, I didn't feel well, was hot and sweaty, and it was weird. Low blood sugar? maybe. But before we left I had a snack and by the time we got back I felt much better. We met a black lab mix and her name is Magic. She reminded me a lot of Dahlia, and the two dogs played together so nicely. It was wonderful. Magic was very good at prancing. Another dog came, her name is Luna and she is an 11 year old German Shepherd. She didn't play much but did engage in some running. And barked at Toffee and Magic when they were wrasslin. 

I wanted so desperately to get a haircut but after dinner, it was dark, and I do not like driving around in the dark. Maybe I'll get up early? Maybe? Who knows. 

Off to Richmond tomorrow. Geoff is on Toffee Duty. Thankful that he is here to mind her. Thankful for my housemates! ha. 

Digits below. 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Two walks. Treadmill for 17 min/1.09 mi. Toffee walk, round trip to dog park; .52 mile in, and the long way home of .78. 11k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

7am: 93
4:30pm: 101
10:30pm: 163 

food & meds:
7am: jardiance (waiting on phentermine)
10:30am: breakfast burrito: One regular carb fajita wrap w/ 2 eggs scrambled, 4 slices of crumbled bacon, some goat cheese, sauteed onions & wilted greens, and a bit of shredded cheddar
1pm: met+glip
5pm: hummus + crackers snack
6:30pm: cheese tortellini w/hot italian sausages, and red sauce
vodka+diet tonic

Housemates

One of the things I truly dislike, and I did it to myself last night, is waking up to dishes in the sink. I'm the default dishwasher loader of the family, and last night I just did not want to deal with it. Just... meh. No. So I set some things up to soak after dinner and said fuckkity bye to it all. "I'll deal with it in the morning." 

And then. There I was. 8:30am, sucking it up and doing the dishes. Before coffee. Be proud of me. And of course, in less than 90 minutes of everything being clean The Boy comes up and makes food. More dishes. More mess. While I'm sighing heavily and trying not to scream at him to not make a mess.

I've gotten after him so much in the last couple weeks about fucking cleaning up after himself. Thing is, he always thinks he did clean up after himself! But then I stand there and point to this thing, and ask why there are onion skins on the counter, and why didn't you wipe this. That. The other thing. 

"But why is there tomato sauce on the counter? Why is there an empty bag of shredded cheese on the counter? Why is there coffee spilled on the counter? And yes, now there are 90 dishes in the sink again. Thanks. Thanks so much." 

There are days, dear hearts, and I don't say this lightly. Days when I wish I lived alone. And yes! Yes I know. I have friends who live alone. They are single (not partnered), divorced, separated, widowed.

They hate it, they pine for companionship. I have one friend that if any of her friends say something negative about their partner situation you get AT LEAST YOU'VE GOT SOMEONE! as a reply. 

Honey, I know. I know. 

We gripe about our "housemates" when others do not have such "housemates." It is only natural. 

Doug and I went to the doctors for some blood work today, 40 minute ride each way. I've cut it close by leaving here at 4pm previously, so today we left at 12:30 and were back by 2pm. 

While we were gone, Geoff brought a whole bunch of books upstairs that he must have know I wanted brought upstairs. He didn't put them in exactly the right spot, but, I don't have to bring these upstairs now. 

So there's that. 

Some days, I'd like to be alone and the only one responsible for cleaning up the kitchen when I am the one who made the mess. And then other days I'm very happy Doug changes the wiper blades on the car, and cleans up the dog shit in the yard that 2 feet of snow left behind for us. And Geoff makes dinner most nights. I don't have to even think about it. 

There are pros and cons to this life. 

In other news, my cousin's birthday is tomorrow. Will make a point to be up early and text. We're driving down on Saturday to visit. And he has some huge agenda of stuff we're going to do for his Big Day Out when all Doug and I thought was we're taking him out to dinner. 

He started blowing up my phone with calls and texts at 10am when I was in scrum. So once his texts revealed this was not an emergency I just let it slide until we left to go to the doctor. 

"What's up?" I texted him. 

He wanted to get a haircut Saturday and DESPERATELY needed me to tell him what time we'd get there. 

"Dude." I replied. "It depends on how fucked up Virginia is between my house and you. 2 hour trip took almost 5 hours last time. We're planning to leave before noon. Don't make a 9am appointment. Aim for 3 or 4. We'll try to leave earlier than 11. That should math." 

Then he texts 900 times about how he really needs us to be there in time to take him and is 3pm okay? Can I make an appointment for 3? (I let him stew there for 15 minutes before writing back). I told him yeah sure go, 3pm make the appointment. 

He made that appointment and then another appointment for 3:45 just in case. 

Doug said to me, "The facility he is in has people who come in and cut hair. I know they do. I worked at nursing homes. Why does he want a haircut out in the world. The facility provides." 

So I asked him that and of course got:

1. It is expensive
2. They only come once a month
3. They do a shitty job
4. I don't want to use any of the services at this "facility" 

Okay. As I predicted when I told Doug that he was going to come back with reasons why not, he sure did. 

THEN he says "I thought we could go to the museum when you get here, if it is before 11 (not happening dude) and then get the haircut."

"??????" says I. "What museum? I didn't have a museum visit on my dance card." 

He assumed we'd come down Friday night and stay at a hotel (no. 95 on a Friday. No fuck right off no fucking way) and then we'd be available Saturday morning to go to a museum. 

"The museum is free," he says. 

That's nice. So nice that the museum is free. Not going to a museum. We will be there to take you for your haircut but no promises we'll be there earlier.

I got the impression he thinks this is Ferris Buehler's Day Off with a full day of us motoring him all over Richmond to do fun stuff. 

Bro. For real, Bro, this is taking the piss out of me just to get in the car and drive down to take you to dinner. I'm exhausted already. I've been crazy busy with work. Please do not expect us to take you all over hell and half of Virginia to do things. 

I know he is cooped up, he's bored. And its his birthday. Which we didn't think he'd make it to. And he most likely won't make it to next February 20th.

But please, just ... the haircut and the dinner. That's our joy and celebration with you. It's what I can muster. And then we are northbound and down on Sunday morning. 

He probably wants us to take him to brunch Sunday. To be honest, I'd do brekkie with him. But I want to be clear from Richmond by 2pm at the absolute latest. 

After work today, I hit the treadmill. Then, I did more unpacking of stuff. Organized the books that Geoff so lovingly brought upstairs. I went into the basement into the area I want to make my office and I moved around boxes, and I honestly can't believe there is still more stuff to go through. Why, Lord? Why do I have such stuffs?

I unpacked two other boxes of books and put things on the Gary bookshelf that Geoff stole to the basement. I moved all the pieces of his drum set into the water cooler room and I'm thinking of reaching out to the local FB page to see if there is someone who wants to come help him set the drum set back up. Where our furnace is, there is TONS of storage, so I moved a shit ton of boxes in there. 

I swept the staircase that goes to the basement because I noticed how messy it had gotten. And I also noticed the staircase going up to our room is also kind of in need of a swiffer or wiping. Tomorrow. Not tonight.

For some reason I felt incredibly restless this evening so it is good to feel that way and channel that shit into action. Usually it is baking, but I'm trying not to bake lest I eat all the cookies.

And happily, the dishwasher is loaded and running before bed. Nice clean kitchen to welcome us in the morning. 

Digits below this snugglebeast who insisted on wrapping up into fleecies and usurping my sweatshirt. 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Treadmill, 20 min/1.3 mi; raining so no walk for the dog. 11k+ steps by bedtime (thanks to all my futzing).

blood glucose:

8:30am: 137
5pm: 145
10:45pm: 112  

food & meds:
8:30am: jardiance (waiting on phentermine)
9:30am: apple w/pb; some mixed nuts
12:15pm: met+glip (on my way to the doctors for blood work, took earlier than usual) 
2pm: turkey and muenster on 647 white w/lite mayo
6pm: pierogis, mixed veggies, kielbasa. White wine.
8:45pm: met+glip

Not much to report

Yinz, i'm wiped out today. Just basically wanted to record the digits. I did two walks, so yay me. It was colder out today than yesterday and I underprepared for it, so Toffee and I cut it short and did a little more than a half mile 3 block loop. 

Tomorrow I am supposed to get blood work done, and so I may leave in the middle of the day - no meetings scheduled, so I blocked off the me time. Doug is overdue for some lab work so I'll see if he wants to come. 

My big big project for the day was getting the recycling boxes out to the curb and I did about 80% of what I wanted. Big fat difference down there. Still, more boxes to come...

Toffee is fast asleep and I am right behind her. 

More tomorrow! Digits below. 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours.  Two walks, one on the treadmill 24 min/1.5 mi. and one with miss Toffee because she needed it, 15 min/.62 mi. 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8am: 127
4:30pm: 126
9:30pm: 123  

food & meds:
8am: jardiance (waiting on phentermine)
1pm: 2 porkchops left over in sauce, topped with more sauce from a pot roast, and the veggies from that 
1:30pm: met+glip
3:30pm: some pita chips and pub cheese 
6pm: some sort of "chicken paprika" that Geoff got a recipe for. Not the best meal. But I didn't have to cook. 2 chicken thighs, some tomato based sauce, onions, garlic; scoop of white rice 
7:30pm: ramekin of mixed nuts
8:30pm: met+glip

Fog Pivot Kismet

Today, I got up super early. I got out the door before 7am. I thought hey. The fog they forecasted isn't so bad. Well. It was. In my neighborhood it seemed okay but the main drag through town to get to the highway, it was a challenge. If you could see the tail lights in front of you, you were lucky.

Once I got near the highway, Waze redirected and told me to go straight, don't get on the highway, take the side road. But with as bad as the fog was, I didn't want to risk it and drive on roads that I'm not 100% familiar with. 

The side road winds up through the mountains, and people drive like crazy. Two exits from where I live, and it said I'd save 5 minutes over all? Sure, but I could risk my whole ass life. 

No. I'll go sit in traffic. Thank you very much.

Thing is. Waze didn't tell me this. I was between my exit and the next one, when we ground to a total halt. It is a 3 mile stretch between exits. Traffic was 100% stopped. 

Just sitting. Sitting. We are all just sitting.

I decided after two hours of this sitting, I would give up and go home once, I got to the exit. 

Truly disappointing - my buddy Jeff was meeting me for the Tiny Desk,  so I messaged him. The GPS said I was not going to get to the metro until close to 10 am, then it is another hour thereabouts to my office once I got on t he train. I asked him if he minded bailing and he was cool with it. 

Once I got near the exit, I was surprised to see emergency vehicles blocking the entire highway, and a fireman directing traffic down to the ramp. 

I sat on the ramp for another 20 minutes because everyone ahead of me was trying to cross the state road and go back up onto the highway. But the traffic over there to get back on the highway was still not moving. Someone should have been directing folks to not try to get back on the highway.

I had to pee. Desperately. 

I thought about driving south down this road to the Sheetz, just to pee, maybe get a brekkie sandwich. Maybe sit and work for the day or at least until all this nonsense cleared up. 

I managed to get to the end of the ramp and turned north to get back on the highway going west, praying that it would stay clear for me. And it was. I got home at 9 something. Messaged my boss who just happened to be at the office to surprise me because he was very excited to go to the Tiny Desk too, and we booed very hard. 

Sometimes shit happens for a good reason though. 

My cousin posted to Facebook that she and her husband were at a hotel, socked in with the fog and waiting for it to clear, about 2 hours down the highway from me over by the Shenandoah Mountains. They basically would be driving right by our house by about 4 miles. 

I suggested they drive-by hug. 

She said she wasn't sure because they had to make tracks (I expected that response) but in the end, they decided to come on by. 

Overall, I think they were here about 20 minutes, and we had a super sweet little visit. 

And if I'd been at the office, this would not have happened. Kismet, right? 

Digits below.

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours.  Took Toffee for a walk. 20 min/1.13 miles. 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

6:45am: 132
4pm: 147
10pm: 107  

food & meds:
6:45am: jardiance (waiting on phentermine)
7:30am: protein shake
10am: several homemade popovers w/goat cheese and raspberry jam
1:30pm: met+glip; can of tuna mixed with field greens, bacon, a little mayo
4pm: mixed nuts
6pm: bowl of meatballs & sauce (no roll)
some white wine
8:30pm: met+glip

Still in my unboxing era

Yesterday I did a lot, today I did some more but not as much. I'm trying desperately to get the random stuff that is everywhere consolidated, repacked (if necessary) and stowed away. Part of me says that in theory, I could Marie Kondo some of this, because none of it brings me joy. It's just disorganization that drives me bananas. 

Doug had brought back a blue bookcase from his mom's and I noticed it was not in the mud room. So yesterday I asked Geoff if he'd taken it to his room and he said yes. 

I sighed. 

Did you think to ASK if you could have it because honestly, I could have used that somewhere else. And it belongs to your dad so you overstepped. 

Doug said 'meh, it's okay.' and it is, because I'm not going to make him unshelf whatever he shelved. 

I made a big dent in the mudroom, and I think once we get the recycling out of the house, it'll feel more free. Doug also brought home his bureau from his old bedroom, which we are giving to Geoff, but I'm going to suggest we keep it up in the mudroom, which is right by the laundry room, and he fold his stuff and keep t-shirts/underpants/socks in there. 

I can't see us schlepping this thing downstairs. 

Today I did a ton of user testing on our product, and I have problems and questions. I have notes. I wanted to say "perfect, no notes!" like one would do in theater. But I have notes. 

We have a standing meeting at 10am daily, and lately it has been going a whole hour instead of the 15 minutes we budget for it. 

I am sore today. Not sure why. And my stomach hurts. Jeeeze I hope I'm not coming down with something. 

Tomorrow I'm going to the office so there will be no unboxing from me. I have a 6am alarm set, shower and go. The bag is packed, the ID is stowed, the only thing I have to do is pack this laptop and the power cord. 

I'm off to bed. A little earlier than usual, but I truly am feeling kind of assy from the something. Not sure what. Hoping to sleep it off. Whatever it is. 

Digits, below!

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Treadmill 20 min, 1.27 mi. no attention span for this today but ... did the mile. 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:15am: 132
4:15pm: 91
9:30pm: 202 (*very close to when I took my meds, I usually test closer to 10:30. we'll see how the morning goes)

food & meds:
8:15am: jardiance (waiting on phentermine)
9:15am: last of the pan banging chocolate chip cookies (no guilt! lol) 
noon: bowl of blt salad w/goat cheese & pepitas
1pm: met+glip
4:45pm: bowl of spicy cajun trail mix & mixed nuts)
5:30pm: creamy broccoli and cheese soup (w/bacon!) a la Geoff
8pm: met+glip
no alcohol

Galentines and Get Stuff Done Days

I was so tired last night so apologies to C for not posting an entry. I know she looks for things to have something to read. But you get a double post today. 

Our girlies weekend kicked off with just a day visit yesterday. I left the house at 9am, stopped at our bank to deposit some checks and traffic made it that I didn't get to S's house until 10:30 when I'd promised to be there by 10. It was funny because I completely forgot there was a branch of our bank right by S's house and I could have gotten her and then stopped. Moving away, you forget things. 

I was very sad to drive past a favorite restaurant and see it closed. Doug said we moved out of town and they went out of business! 

Traffic was merciful to us on the way to H's north of Baltimore. If you know where I live, you know how far I drove from here, to Silver Spring, to north of Baltimore... 

But it is worth it for the girlies! 

My task was to stop and get champagne for the mimosas, so S & I stopped in at a little place near H's house (since the restaurant I mentioned was closed down, so was the beer and wine store that was attached. Such a loss... so sad!) 

We picked up a couple bottles and saw they had these super cute boozy presents, with Cutwater cocktails, candy, little stuffed animals. What a smart thing to have for sale on Valentine's Day at a liquor store as we're on our way to brunch. We grabbed H and R each a bag, and I put the cookies I'd made into each bag. 

It looked very much like we planned it ahead even though we bought them 5 minutes before arriving. 

I am not good at planning ahead for gifts sometimes, so I am your retail point of sale target for cute shit. Keep that in mind, retailers! R had little stuffed animals and candies for me and S. So gifts all around for the girlies!

We played with H's cats, chatted, caught up, and ate. H made a lovely spread for us. Because I was driving, I didn't have a lot of mimosa action, but what I had made me happy. 

You can see H's cat David Wallace up in the window there. Her cats are so sweet. It was nice to get some kitty love. 

After we ate we played Cards Against Humanity. I've never played it so they gave me the run down on the rules. It is kind of like Apples to Apples, which we played a lot with the kids when they were little. But grosser. S said they have "clean" family friendly versions, but they're actually quite boring. A lot of the answer cards in the family version mention pooping or farting, which some families STILL find disgusting and not appropriate. 

I remembered one of my college professors telling a class that he and his wife were at dinner with their three daughters and some of their daughters' friends, and somehow they started joking around about farts. And the girls were screaming laughing. 

Even evangelicals can find fart jokes funny, y'all. Farts are funny. Don't you ever forget that. So I smiled thinking about that memory and played a card where the answer was Donald J. Trump and it was disgusting and I won.

Have to say I did very well, didn't win (R did) but when the goal is to be gross and ridiculous, not just funny, and you make your friends scream because they literally didn't expect you to put down certain cards, I call that victory.

S had made plans for us to do an escape room. Escape rooms are her thing, kind of not mine. But her husband and son were coming up to meet us, and R's husband was coming from their place nearby, and seven of us took it on and beat it with 10 minutes to spare. 

I would kind of enjoyed just playing more Cards Against Humanity, but this was fun too. S and her family are very very very into the escape rooms and solving puzzles. It can be intimidating for me. I'm easily confused and I fail if the challenge is too hard. 

But winning with a team is always fun. We each had bits that we solved. Hen and I found the UV light money, and figured out the password to the computer. 

After the escape room, R and her husband were headed home to get ready to go to the Baltimore Symphony for a date. H, SS&H went to dinner, and I headed home. I got home before dark, which is lovely. It's still light at about 6pm so that worked out perfectly. 

S is planning to host our next shenanigans, whenever that will be, and I'm already looking forward to it. 

When I got home, Geoff had made dinner. Doug did a few things around the house and yard. He replaced our windshield wipers on the mini, cleared more snow out of our driveway so now it is 100% accessible. It was over 50 degrees yesterday so a lot of the snow and snowcrete on the ground is gone. Ready for this all to be finished at this rate. 

I needed to get my mile in for the town challenge so I hit the treadmill after dinner. Kind of a mistake because my belly was full of food and blah. No running, just walking, and getting it done. I crawled to bed at 10 and passed out. 

On Sunday we somehow woke up very early. It was raining, and Doug had a case of the Olympics, and then he went and took a nap at noon. 

I had hoped we'd do something fun, but that didn't happen. So I hit the treadmill, and started futz about with putting some things away. I cleaned up some boxes for recycling, took all of our luggage and duffel bags down to the basement and put them away. Doug had suggested we put all our shoes into this little cubby closet in the bedroom so I put all mine in there (I do not own a lot of shoes) and located all of his from the mud room, and put them in a laundry basket for him to sort through. Some are keepers and some are maybe just lawn mowing shoes at this point. 

Then, I looked at some of the basement situation and emptied out a couple book boxes. I stacked up some plastic boxes that were just hither and dither all over the place to compact things. Geoff has several half emptied boxes that are mostly trash now (in my opinion) and I want him to sort those so tomorrow I'll see if he wants to have at it and get some of the empty boxes up out of the basement. 

Once I have the lingering boxes put away I think I actually have no further excuses, I should set my office up downstairs. A project for another day! All told, a decent weekend.

Digits below the pic of us girlies. 

Saturday digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Treadmill, 30 min/1.63; 10k+ steps by bedtime (almost 11k, but I just could not. lol)

blood glucose:

8am: 83
xpm: n/a
10pm: 143

food & meds:
8am: jardiance+phentermine
8am: large pan bang chocolate chip cookie
noon: scrambled eggs w/cheddar cheese, 3 pieces of turkey bacon, some fruit salad, 1 piece of toast; 1 mimosa
1pm: met+glip
6pm: piece of chicken parm
8:45pm: met+glip

Sunday digits

exercise: x/12 hours. Treadmill, 31 min/2.01 miles; 11k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

7am: 103
xpm: n/a (forgot to test)
10:30pm: 142

food & meds:
7am: jardiance+phentermine; small piece of pb pan bang cookie
11:30am: bowl of mac & cheese w/hamburger
12pm: met+glip
6pm: 3 slices of buffalo chicken pizza
8:45pm: met+glip
white wine (3 glasses)

Project Managing

In the midst of this big project we're doing, I'm not the project manager but a person on the team. A few people, my boss and another director on the team, are doing an exceptional job herding the cats. 

It is kind of funny, not my boss but the other co-worker J is very good at sending (somewhat constant) reminders of where I am on certain spreadsheets. Today was "Good news, there are only 40 of these things that still need verified!" 

Considering I was supposed to be done with this earlier in the week, I feel that is an exceptionally kind way of telling me "hey. Finish this, dummy!" 

I'm thankful for his gentle coaxing.

He's also VERY good at filtering the google sheets so what I need to see at the top of the sheet is those 40 rows (hey....!!! Four of them have been accounted for! I rule!) The data are a freaking mess, so a sheet with 2000 rows so many of them "TBD" and that's what I'm supposed to be doing, he has filtered out the "cancel" and "archive" and "active" statuses for me. 

My brain cannot sift through and find the TBDs with all the other things. And several of us are in this sheet, so if I sort things so TBD is at the top, basically, someone comes in and unfilters my filter while I am looking at it. Which sends me spiraling, and usually to the kitchen for a snack, or I pick up my phone and doom scroll. 

I'm not a good project manager, except for the checking in, looking at things, and reminding colleagues "hey. Finish this, dummy!" 

Today was supposed to be a revisit of our fun girlie's day in November, this time with a sleepover and an escape room. Then one thing happened, another thing happened, some bad medical news for one girlie, and we cut out the sleepover. We're still doing the escape room tomorrow, since one of our girlies prepaid it. I'm going to pick S up at 10am tomorrow, we'll go to H's house, R is meeting us there, and we'll do brunchies (H is insisting on cooking for us, even though I offered to chef some shit up) and I'm going to allow it. And I should be home before dark. 

They all know I have a difficult time seeing to drive at night, but I did say this won't be a problem if I'm on the road before 5 because of the snow, it helps define where road is. Instead of everything being grey and dark brown and there not being any street lights and no paint on the road, I feel relatively safe.

I had planned this afternoon off since I thought I was going to get S today. Then I thought, I'll take my time off request back. Then I thought screw that, take the damn time off!... and finally I had enough to do today to keep me crazy and busy, so I worked. In the end, the time off request was taken back. 

That helped me to actually focus on the spreadsheets and the work. The QA user testing, the note taking. It wasn't wasted time. I worked until 4, and then started with some wine.

Geoff made a nice dinner, and I ended up baking more of the pan banging cookies. Chocolate chip and then Peanut Butter. Both are outstanding. I used our potato masher to make patterns on the peanut butter cookies because that's mandatory! 

Alright. Bed. So tired. Up early tomorrow for shenanigans. Digits below this cute picture from A's school of rock show.

digits

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

blood glucose:

8am: 113
5pm: 145
10:30pm: 91

food & meds:
8am: jardiance+phentermine
noon: a bunch of the buffalo chicken dip left over w/pita crackers (a lot of pita crackers)
1:45pm: met+glip
6pm: 2 italian sausages w/onion and pepper, red sauce and mozz. cheese. I skipped the roll. 
9pm: met+glip
red wine+diet ginger ale

Thinking of Big Things

This morning, the neighbor dogs woke me up around 6am with barking. Toffee woke up too but continued to snooze. I had to pee, but didn't want to get up and go downstairs so I cuddled with her, drifted in and out for another hour. 

Finally, it was futile to stay in bed so up we got. Last night I was working on something for work until 10pm (at least) and I thought our dishwasher was full, that Geoff hadn't unloaded it so I left the dishes for today. I hate leaving the dishes in the sink, but I wasn't about to unload and reload after working so late. 

This morning the dishes welcomed me. 

I fed the dog, I went to the bathroom, I started the coffee, I let her out. Sigh. 

Still thinking that the dishwasher was full, I wasn't about to wait for him to come upstairs so I opened it up reluctantly. 

Well then. 

He had emptied it, not sure when, but good on him. Thank you. I got the dishwasher loaded and running all before my first cup of coffee. 

The dog came back in, and it was clear that it was Cuddle Time and not Chrissie gets on the Treadmill Time. That's okay. I really wanted coffee and the afternoon free of meetings was perfect to get the walk in on the treadmill. Treadmill came after work. 

In other news, The Cousin has been haunting my texts. His birthday is a week from tomorrow and he doesn't want to be alone in the "hell hole" that he is in. Hell hole is his terminology, as well as gulag, concentration camp, among others. 

Doug and I are going to go visit on Saturday. We can't make it on Friday the actual birthday. 

Everything with him is very dramatic and over the top. The nurses are all gestapo, Dr. Mengele tortures him, the hospital is a concentration camp or a Siberian prison. It's a little exhausting to me because while I get it, it is true, his life isn't awesome, it isn't what he thought it would be. It's hard. 

But he isn't one of the 10 million people who died as a result of Hitler's Holocaust of Stalin's Great Terror. 

He is such a student of history, and historical facts are very important to him.  If you say something wrong about the Civil War (ie: Calling it the Civil War is not the right thing, it is the War of Northern Aggression. My response: NO IT ISN'T IT IS THE CIVIL WAR AND I'LL FIGHT YOU ON IT). 

I find this hyperbolic references to these events, well, offensive to be honest. It detracts from the reality of what happened. It lessens and waters down the evil that was borne upon the world just because he is inconvenienced. And it steals from survivors, the few who still walk this earth, and the memories of those lost. 

I told C in an email that I feel like flipping the script on him. Turn the tables and say: "Yeah, you're really in hell! Just like the Union soldiers who were held by the Confederacy at Libby Prison on Belle Isle! Only a handful of Union Officers were supposed to be held there, but then they crammed hundreds and hundreds of captured Union soldiers, prisoners of war, starved them, tortured them, and set dogs upon them to rip them to shreds! Yeah i totally see that." 

I too am a student of history.  

Anyway. Digits below. Oh - my friend Amy posted this picture of us from a visit 15 years ago. She may be coming to visit in March. But I'm noticing how much less face I have now, compared to then. Still, we're cute. 

digits

exercise: 11/12 hours. Missed 8pm because of a TV show. Treadmill: 30 min/2.02 mi. Broke the 15 min/mile pace for the first time! 14.47 min! yay! 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

7am: 139
4:15pm: 103
11:30pm: 153

food & meds:
7am: jardiance+phentermine
9:30am: slice of cheese and cherry danish
noon: chicken salad on 647 bread
12:45pm: met+glip
1:15pm: more chicken salad, just on a plate
6:30pm: giant bowl of Buffalo Chicken Soup a la Geoff
8:45pm: met+glip
no alcohol

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