The Basement

Oh today I thought a lot about doing things, but I didn't even get a shower. Doug went and took a nap around 3 and I just basically sucked it up and went downstairs and started moving things around. It was time.

I unpacked some boxes, I repacked things, I threw a bunch of cardboard out. I made a dent. A heck of a dent. Two solid non stop hours, getting there. Getting there. 

We watched the superb owl. I almost went to bed because the game was so boring. But then, overtime? What? Great ending. My friend Sara asked me what the most fun superb owl experience we'd ever had was and I was awash in memories of going up to Maine to see Marcia and Wayne and the kids, and all the food, and all the fun. I think the year U2 did the halftime show, and the Pats won, that was probably my very favorite festivus. 

And on that note, I didn't take before, during, after pictures of downstairs but I personally feel like I am winning the Lombardi Trophy myself. And I enjoyed the halftime show with Mr. Usher... fun stuff.

Happy for Taylor's boyfriend, I guess. They're living their best lives. Good for them. 

Digits below. 

digits 

exercise: 12/12 hours of 250 steps. Lots and lots of steps but not really a dedicated 10. 7200+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

9am: 208
5pm: 202
11pm: 162

food:

coffee, water
11am: metformin
1pm: bowl of mac&cheese with bacon
6pm: sausage, peppers, onions, sauce, cheese & a little bit of pasta
beers
shrimp
fritos & queso

The day was taken (The Friday and Saturday post)

Per the last post: The day was taken. And I took a break from touching a computer, so no blog post... 

After 2pm, me and this laptop were not on speaking terms. I almost kept working yesterday afternoon, even though I put in 4 hours vacation time on my time card. It's not that big a problem. I got done what I needed to get done, sent out a bunch of emails that had to go before I disappeared and then, I went. It's all good. I know I make up for slacking off when I give myself permission.

List of things I set out to do, not necessarily in this order: 

• Bloodwork
• Home Depot for rubbermaid containers
• Gym
• Target
• Grocery Store
• Liquor store
• haircut 
• Start thinking about getting ready for basement reshuffle (see bullet 2)

Blood draw was particularly uneventful. There were only 10 people before me, so, it moved quickly. Quite a merciful thing.

I didn't make it to target, but that's okay. I got a few bags of coffee at Lidl after the gym and that was the primary reason (that and paper towels) I would have gone to Target. And we can go any time this weekend. Geoff went and bought beer and we didn't need anything else really, we've got everything but wine. That can be obtained any time this weekend. Haircut is still something that needs done. Someday. 

I had fun at Home Depot. I love walking up and down the aisles. I got medium sized storage containers, and Geoff brought them all downstairs for me. 

All I need to do is motivate myself to go do it, go do the thing. There are some things that can be placed in the storage room immediately,without getting repacked. I think I'll start with those. Get them out of the way so I can look over the other stuff, the ripped boxes, the boxes that were partially unpacked and not put back together. 

Pour myself a cocktail or mimosa and get to work. Do it.

Today Doug got some things done. He changed the filter in our furnace after me nagging him to do so. I bought filters, so he had no excuse. Ha. 

He put air in the front passengers side tire of the mini. I only had to nag him a little on that one. He made an appointment for the mini to get an alignment, very needed. I'm probably taking that to Massachusetts in April, so, it needs to be in tip top happy order. We'll get an oil change before I go and that'll be the only thing it needs. 

He has been incredibly unmotivated to do anything lately, so seeing him get things done warmed my cold dead heart. And I'm getting things done. 

He took a nap this afternoon and I pondered going to the gym but the laundry needed folded, so, I did that. And here's a picture of Toffee, not really helping me. But trying. 

Digits for both Friday and Saturday below. 

Friday digits 

exercise: 12/12 hours of 250 steps. 1 mile on treadmill, 25 min. 30min circuit, only half the machines since people were camping out on them (jerks). 9200+steps by bedtime (shoulda pushed to 10k but. meh).

blood glucose:

8am: 163
afternoon reading n/a due to being out
11pm: 160

food:

coffee, water
9:30am: 2 eggs w/ sausage links and Monterey Jack cheese
10am: Handful of red grapes
11am: metformin
6pm: french bread pizza with mushrooms and pepperoni; metformin+jardiance
3 beers

Saturday digits 

exercise: 12/12 hours of 250 steps. Dedicated 10+5. Walk in the house while dinner was marinating before putting on the grill. 7k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

10am: 160
5pm: 158
10pm: 189

food:

coffee, water
11am: metformin
1pm: english muffin w/pb and low sugar strawberry preserves
6pm: salmon, green beans, pierogies. And I ate seconds of the salmon and the greenbeans. 
7pm: metformin+jardiance
11pm: some pita chips and hummus (and heartburn)

Take a Day

 Tomorrow, I'm going to take the afternoon off and do things. I have decided. I noticed I had absolutely no meetings after the 11am one for our weekly team check in, and just .... don't want to. I don't feel like working. So I'm not going to. I feel like I have done a total lot lately and I have me things I want to do.

I'm taking a day, well, half a day. I'll check out at 1. My list of things to do includes that bloodwork thing, the gym, some groceries, maybe a haircut. 

No real entry tonight, Doug and I have been watching old episodes of Kids in the Hall and I just basically want to be Canadian at this point. Maybe. 

I thought about no entry tonight and save anything for tomorrow, but. I already tracked all the things so. Here's today. Digits below. 

digits 

exercise: 12/12 hours of 250 steps. No gym, no dedicated 10. 5400+steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:30am: 150
5pm: 180 (in one finger, 151 in another finger. I'm finding I distrust these readings and their accuracy most of the time)
10pm: 160

food:

coffee, water
9:30am: english muffin w/pb
12 noon: metformin
12:30pm: bowl of Doug's leftover chicken stew
6pm: metformin+jardiance; roasted chicken thighs, stuffing, green beans
no wine/anything

When The Big Dog Sicks

ooof. I keep forgetting that Big Dogs come with Big Impact. 

Toffee got super sick in our bed last night. She tried to wake Doug up for help, super smart girl that she is. But he rolled over thinking she was just looking for a cuddle. She was up between our shoulders, not where she usually is. She tends to sleep by our feet, behind our legs, getting closer and closer until it's like she's gonna crawl into my underpants. She likes closeness.

I heard her making kind of a licking swallowing sound, you know before you throw up you may have a lot of saliva starting to build up in your mouth and you start to try to keep it down? That's what she was doing. 

Then we heard the first wave. 

I snapped upright and hit the light and called her out of the room but it was too late. She hit the bed by Doug's pillow (didn't hit the pillow), the twin comforter he is using, so I got her out of the room to the front door where she puked again before going out. He got the bed cleaned up, I got the floor cleaned up. She came back in and Doug headed to the guest room. 

All I have to say is I'm so happy we put the mattress protectors on this bed. Well, these beds. It is a split king mattress and I'm not happy with the over all split king-ness of it, but. That's another story. 

I couldn't quite fall back asleep but eventually did. Since it was around 6am by the time we got settled back in, I actually entertained the idea of going to the gym. I made a deal with myself. If you're asleep by 7, good. And I somehow did fall asleep before 7. Next thing I knew my alarm was going off at 8. I reset it for 8:45, 

Wild dreams involving relocating Jess to a new living place but she was MUCH younger than she is now. Like middle school Jess. It was very interesting and I woke up kind of sad. 

Work went well today. I had a good check in with a co-worker and we had a team meeting to try to solve a problem by creating more chaos. Nothing can be simple sometimes. 

I need bloodwork done, so I checked out of work around 3:45pm. I got to the lab and there were like 50 people there and I decided to screw it. 

I was dressed for the gym so. Why not. I've been threatening to go for weeks, yeah? Let's go.

The gym was not crowded, which was nice. I got a treadmill and did a mile in 26.26 minutes. The guy two machines away from me had a speaker and was playing music very loudly while running at an 8mph setting and I could hear all his music over my headphones. Rude. 

The 30 minute circuit room had 1 person in it. One guy working on the same machine over and over. I started next to him and skipped over where he was. I don't understand people who do weird things like that. There is the same machine out on the floor and no one is on it. What are you doing? 

I haven't made use of the 30 minute circuit yet, or ever, but I guess you should do it fast? You can't wipe down your machine, move to the next one, and then get things positioned right in 30 seconds to do the 60 second machine dealie. So I just paced myself and it took a lot longer. I got to every machine except the one that the dude had taken up residence on. I'll hit that one another time. 

My shoulders hurt. 

I hit Lidl again for supplies, just because it was next door. I found just what I needed for ingredients for a baked stuffed chicken breast, but it took me forever to get home. There was some sort of horrible accident, and a 3 mile ride took over 40 minutes. So it was nearly 6:30 when I got back, and what I was planning would take about an hour. Ugh. 

Doug saved the day by making a wonderful chicken stew with the two chicken breasts, a can of stewed tomatoes, some cheese, sour cream, chicken stock, green chiles, and a thing of reconstituted chinese white rice. Kinda glad I shove these unwanted lil'guys in the freezer when we get them. It was delicious but now I need chicken breasts again. And sour cream. 

I will need to head out to try the blood work again tomorrow. And maybe, the gym too? ha. That'll be nice.

No picture. Gotta finish the laundry and dress the bed for Doug and load the dishwasher. Busy day, kids. Digits below.

digits 

exercise: 12/12 hours of 250 steps.  1mile/26 min. on the treadmill; 10k+steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:45am: 171
n/apm: missed the 4-5pm reading due to being out
10pm: 151

food:

coffee, water
10am: pbj on 647 bread, low sugar jelly
11am: metformin
12:30pm: tuna salad on 647 bread; 2 kosher dill pickles
7pm: metformin+jardiance; 2 bowls of Doug's chicken stew
red wine

Spreadsheets

Had a little time between meetings today so I started a spreadsheet to track the things that need to get done. I made a hotel reservation by Linda for 3/28. I need a Brooklyn reservation for 3/29. We have Boston on 3/30. 

We're planning an easter egg hunt for 3/31 for the kids. Then, is Linda going home that night or are we going to spend a couple days down at mom's. Will she fly home Monday or Tuesday. 

I talked to Doug and we decided I'll stay up there. We have a lawyer appointment on April 4th that she needs someone to bring her to, so that'll be me. 

And rather than come home, and turn around and come back for David Sedaris in Boston on the 12th, I'll just stay. 

Then I have my car, I'll have freedom of mobility. And I can leave on Saturday or on Sunday, or on Monday or... 

whew. 

I like spreadsheets. It helps me think and plot and plan. I can track what needs done and what is in place. 

I'm going to miss my dog for two whole weeks though. 

Here's a picture of a dog. You know her. You love her. She's guarding. Works great.

digits 

exercise: 12/12 hours of 250 steps. no dedicated 10, 6k+ by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:30am: 153
5pm: 236
11pm: 141

food:

coffee, water
11:30am: bowl of mac & cheese with bacon; metformin
2pm: low carb wrap w/roast beef and 3 slices of muenster
6pm: pulled pork bbq w/ some french fries
7:30pm: metformin+jardiance
vodka tonic

Boredom Munching Desire

Oh was it ever a busy day. I had several chats with people about backroom discussions, I had a client want to set something up but he didn't have permission from the sharing partners so that turned into a thing. That turned into a whole thing. I'm glad I ask the right questions sometimes.

I planned breakfast but we have our team meeting at 11 on Mondays, and by the time I showered and realized how late it was there was no chance to make what I wanted. And then I wanted the tuna

I made a wonderful chicken parm for dinner, and even though it was filling and good I had serious munchies and nothing to eat. I drank wine. I wanted snacks! But we had no snacks. Well, nothing I could eat. I could have a bag of popcorn but that's not a good choice. Geoff ate the last two apples so I couldn't have apples and PB. 

Too late for a pbj sandwich really. Sadness. 

I didn't go for a walk because I was still working when Doug and Toffee left. And I wanted to make dinner. I need to not think about my family and only think about me. After I got the chicken parm in the oven I really could have gone for a walk but I'd already had two big glasses of wine so no. Not a good plan to drive to the gym. Who wants to work out after two big glasses of wine, eh? not me. 

So I continued to work on something very mindless and repetitive, something that needs to be automated but has not yet been set up to run that way. It kept my mind off of wanting to eat something. 

I figure if I can be distracted time will go by and I won't be tempted to eat something carby. 

We don't have any crackers or anything in the house, and I didn't want mixed nuts, I'm sick of them. Baby bel cheeses are okay but I was feeling meh about it. 

Next thing to do is I have to remember to reach back out to the Air bnb guy now that dad's 2nd funeral is back on track. I have to plan my travel for Guster in NY and Boston. I have to figure out what I'm doing between Guster 3/30 and David Sedaris on 4/12 in Boston. I feel like I can almost plan things, maybe clear enough head and willing enough heart. Sigh. Getting a clear head. 

But first, more steps, more wine! Naaah. Bedtime.

Anyway. Not a very exciting entry but one. Just to track the digits. 

Digits! Below! 

digits 

exercise: 12/12 hours of 250 steps. no dedicated 10; 5k+ by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:30am: 173
5pm: 153
9:45pm: 128

food:

coffee, water
11am: metformin
12:15pm: left over white rice, peanut sauce, peas & chicken thighs
5pm: Handful of mixed nuts
6pm: chicken parm; metformin+jardiance
red wine

Plant Swap Day at the Brewery

First Sunday of each month is plant swap day at one of our favorite breweries. The front of house manager/beer keeper has gotten to know us and cheered when we came in. It's been a few months since we've gone, probably in the fall so longer than I think. Actually it was probably right before we lost Phineas. She and I are instagram pals so she's kept up with the dog news and the new dog and wanted to know why we didn't bring her. 

We left her home so we didn't have to think about managing her and beer. Managing Phin and beer was sometimes a challenge and he was only 35 pounds. She's about 60. And big and enthusiastic. So we'll wait until it is nicer and warmer and we can hang out on the patio, where the dogs hang out, and make dog friends. 

Plant swap was hopping, tons and tons of people, and plants, and I went there empty handed with nothing to swap but I like the free table because there are sweet finds and sometimes some pottery. I met a guy named Chris who was willing to part with some of his pottery because he didn't want to schlep it home. 

We had a nice visit with my beertender pal and it was a fun nice time. We headed home with a stop over at a fried chicken joint that I'd heard was good. They have fried chicken, it is true, but it was not good. Sadly, Popeyes is better. I felt let down by the recommendation from a coworker on this one. 

Doug got a Cubano panini and it was much better, very tasty. We got one for Geoff to bring home to him. And it appears that they have possibly actual good pizza. So being a fried chicken place with crummy fried chicken, well that was disappointing. I came home hungry. I doubt we'll go back there. 

Home and happy to be welcomed by Toffee with enthusiasm and joy. I chatted with Linda for quite a while and enjoyed her puppy (even though she thinks he is a little monster). And all told, not a good carbs day and a no exercise day, but, a good day. And that's a nice way to end the working week. 

Back to the working week tomorrow. sigh. 

Here's a picture of beer. Digits below.

digits 

exercise: 12/12 hours of 250 steps. No dedicated 10. Lots of basic steps but nothing sustained or exercisey. 5k+steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:30am: 183
n/apm: ate dinner early right after beers and messed up timing 
10:30pm: 192

food:

coffee, water
11am: bowl of mac & cheese w/hamburger; metformin
beers at Atlas, bag of potato chips at about 3pm
4:30pm: 1/4 fried chicken (meh) cole slaw, 2 small rolls
5:30pm: metformin+jardiance
7:30pm: pbj on 647 bread
2 beers

Saturday Morning Vibes

I like not working. 

Don't get me wrong, I really do love my job. This week was a little "extra" as it were, and I promised myself I won't think about that spreadsheet. But after a good night's sleep and good coffee, I feel a little more like myself. Not like a zombie who just wants to sit and play games on the phone all day instead of being alive. 

I like not working, and I like feeling like I can get stuff done. 

We started our day with just big chillin' quietly together in the living room. Toffee has no concept of personal space, so she is forever and always right up against/leaning on whoever she picks. This morning it was me. 

You can see Doug's leg/dorm pants beside me to the left. My friend Amy told me she feels like Doug only wears dorm pants or PJs and she's not wrong. Not by a long shot. Dude owns pants, but, when you work from home, no one needs to see you from the chest down. And it would be like anyone being shocked that I wear yoga pants most of the time. 

Missing from this picture is the snoring. So you're missing the full impact of the vibes. 

And directly beyond my feet on the opposite wall is the Toffee Toy Box. It's an Ikea basket for shelving units but it's happily freestanding and just the right size. Phineas came to us with two of them. One is in the hall closet still filled with some of the things he arrived with. I'll contend with that someday. But we took this one and that's where all the baby's toys go every night before we go to bed, and every day she basically pulls everything out to play with. It is like having a giant, fast, toothy toddler in my life. 

After our Saturday morning chill session, Doug ended up taking Toffee for a huge walk. I opted not to go with them. He had to go to a UPS drop off box and it is about a mile and a quarter walk one way. I told him if he drove he could also go to the market and get things since no one has yet gone to the market but he said it was a beautiful day (it is but it is cold). 

I opted to fold laundry. Then I looked at our bed sheets and said "feh, time to wash and change." And I had already stripped the guest bed since Geoff had been living in that room for 3 weeks, the washed sheets were piled up on the chair (3 sets of sheets, mind you, because I washed a couple sets and never folded them, so now, 3 sets of clean sheets just piled up there). 

So I dressed the guest bed, stripped our bed, got the laundry going, tidied up the living room. Doug and Toffee got back and now they are napping on the freshly dressed guest bed, even though Doug doesn't usually like being in there in the afternoon because of the western exposure and the sun. 

Geoff went to the market, and he had a special request for dinner. We have a lot of white rice from Chinese food in the fridge, and he wanted to know if I'd make peanut sauce to go on it. I said sure thing, but let's grill some chicken thighs too, and why don't you get this this and this, and we can add that, and some those things and.... 

I got everything set and ready. Warmed up rice, peanut sauce going, grill preheating. Boom. 

On the way into the house with my plate of chicken I lost my grip, the chicken went flying, I almost wiped out. It could have been worse, Toffee could have eaten the chicken off the porch step. I got everything picked up and thought of my mom and her Swearable Moments. This, my friends, was a swearable moment. Worst thing that happened was a couple pine needles and a leaf had to be picked off but it was salvageable. We survived, and ate it, and everything worked out fine. 

Not bad for a Saturday.

Here's a another pic of our Saturday Morning Vibes Cuddlebeast. Digits below.

digits 

exercise: 12/12 hours of 250 steps. 2k before noon; no real dedicated 10 but I did a lot of walking in/around etc. 7000+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

9:30am: 183
5pm: 163 
10pm: 169

food:

coffee, water 
12:30: grilled turkey and havarti on 647 bread
1pm: metformin
6:30pm: grilled chicken thighs, peanut sauce, peas, heated white rice
8:30pm: metformin+jardiance

The Week Ends

This week was super busy. At work this morning one of my colleagues asked me "do you have a list of XYZ" and I said "oh no, I knew this day would come."

Part of my job is I set up content shares between our clients, and I have not done a very good job of tracking what I've set up. So today, someone needed that. I spent 2 hours pulling together as much as I could, and gave it to her by noon saying "there is honestly so much more."

150 lines of spreadsheet later (though 20 of those are separating sections and notes) I still have so much to do. I may have to plod through it over the weekend at some point. 

And it is honestly too bad football season is "over" except for the Super Bowl because one of my mad skills is sitting here doing work things while watching/ish a game that I'm not really invested in. Oh well. 

This weekend I was/am supposed to go decorate cookies with Sara and Henry for his birthday. I didn't bake cookies and Sara had a very rough work week. I'm not sure if we are getting together tomorrow or not? I may bake sugar cookies tomorrow morning, and they keep for WEEKS so even if we reschedule, well, they are done. And we can do them next week. 

Sunday is Plant Swap day at one of the breweries in DC and we have not gone for a super long time, so maybe? Maybe. Perhaps maybe. 

Today there was no good walk like yesterday. 

All I know is I'm so thankful to not have to set my alarm for tomorrow. I can just ... wake up when I do. And here's to that. 

No picture. Digits below. 

digits 

exercise: 12/12 hours of 250 steps. no Dedicated 10. no 2k before noon. 5200+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

9:30am: 173
5pm: 163 
10pm: 221

food:

coffee, water 
noon: metformin; English muffin w/pb & bonnie
2:45pm: last of the chicken fajitas made into chicken salad
6pm: metformin+jardiance
6:45pm: chinese food. lots of fried rice. spring roll, curry egg roll, pork+garlic, general gao's chicken, peking ravioli. 

Oops

So this is a first for me. I had written a post on 1/30 called [new-carpet-yay.html] New Carpet, Yay! 

https://amusingsbnl.blogspot.com/2024/01/new-carpet-yay.html the post even has the "slug" in the URL. But somehow, not sure how, I ended up editing it and writing over that story when I created the the Dr. Seuss Bike Guy entry in that post. 

So I absolutely lost that post carpet, fully and completely. There's no way to get it back. Blogger has no revisioning capabilities. 

How on earth did I manage that. I have no idea. None. 

Anyway, I wrote about how there was a nice new carpet downstairs. The guys came, put it in, gone in less than 3 hours. I mentioned I wanted to take a picture but it was honestly just ... brown. Brown floor. Nothing exciting.

So you didn't miss much. Oh and me bemoaning not going to the gym. Like I do. 

I ended up working rather late yesterday evening, unexpectedly. But it was good that I did. My plan was that today I'd be checking out around 4, going to the gym, grabbing something at the market. 

But. There I was. Still working at 4:45 feeling like yet another day was going to go by without movement. My last good walk was Sunday and here we are on Thursday. 

Doug came upstairs and I said "are we taking the dog for a walk," which I meant as the Royal We. He interpreted that as me being part of the we, Hmmmmm. I have a hard time keeping up with him. He walks faster and has a bigger stride than I do. But I did well today. We covered almost 2 miles in about an hour. Felt good. No gym as a result tonight but also, no market trip. We got home and Doug was thinking of going to the market himself but we realized we would not be eating dinner until like 8 at that rate. 

We but we ended up with frozen burritos that Doug bought months ago, and he made a really nice sauce for them. Not super exciting, but it hit the spot and we got to eat before 8pm. I'll see how things work for tomorrow. No pictures today. Thought about a good shot while I was walking behind Toffee and Doug but kept the phone down. Better just to do a good solid walk.

Digits below.

digits 

exercise: 12/12 hours of 250 steps. Solid hour+ walk with Doug & Dog approx 1 mile. 11k+steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:30am: 170
6pm: 220 
11pm: 163

food:

coffee, water 
10:45am: english muffin w/pb and small schmear of Bonnie Maman's
12:30: metformin; chicken salad (no roll/bread)
6pm: metformin+jardiance
7pm: 2 frozen beef burritos w/a cheese/sour cream/diced tomato/chile secret sauce a la Doug
8:30: mixed nuts
vodka tonic