Delightful Phone Calls

Today I was spending time copying and pasting and coloring in on a spreadsheet after replying to messages and saying 'yes customer has received file' etc. Lots of progress in one day. This little project needed a day of just my face, and fingers, paying attention to it. 

My husband and I made plans to go to NYC to go see Swept Away for my birthday. (See my entry on the first viewing). He bought the tickets (2pm Matinee, with dinner to follow) for me, Ronnie, Linda. I mentioned it to friends in PA that we haven't seen in forever and they are also incredibly interested in seeing this so they may be joining us. That would be sweet as heck. 

We're going up on Friday of that weekend, and then coming home Monday, and then for good measure, I took the day off on my actual birthday because that's how you do it. 

I'm not sure what Doug was thinking he wanted to do for my birthday, but I'm sure it wasn't this. But that's the thing about your birthday - you get to pick. I am sure whatever he felt like doing would have been nice and just fine, but, I want to do this. And he's obliged. Three weeks baby.

While I was working on the project my phone rang and it was my bestie, at the airport, headed to Pennsylvania for her nephew's wedding. Near Doug's family's ancestral home. And I hope she and her sister truthfully have an amazing and fun time, AND get to drive through the magnificent Fort Pitt tunnel and they don't think I'm some sort of weirdo for loving the things I love. 

I'm a simple bean. I love the Fort Pitt Tunnel, I love the Mount Washington in Pittsburgh, and I just love it there. 

Anyway, I had a ton of fun chatting with her while she was waiting at the airport for her flight, and I was jealous of her travel. 

She had to board her flight and I continued to work, spreadsheet, helpdesk ticket, email, wash, rinse, repeat. I didn't get through all the things but yeah, put a big fat dent in them. 

Dinner was good except I had too many mashed potatoes, and then I didn't have zero carb snack options, so I made toast with PB on super multi grain seeded bread. 

No picture today, just vibes. 

More tomorrow.

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours.  21 min. walk/.89 miles in the house; 6500+ steps today 

blood glucose:

8:30am: 192
5pm: 168
10pm: 191 

food:
coffee/water
noon: metformin; bowl of mac & cheese w/hamburger
2:30pm: protein shake
6pm: piece of flounder w/coconut crust (Aldi frozen fish); multi colored carrots; big pile of mashed potato. 6:30pm: metformin+jardiance
8pm: pb toast on multi grain seeded bread
red wine

End of Garden

I spent some time today emptying some outdoor pots of their holdings.  The plants were long gone, time to let the summer growth go. One or two plants seem to be continuing their joy but for the most part, things are gone. Long leggy stems with dead flowers at the end. 

I spent my lunch time puttering around out there, and I noticed the trees. They are not in full throes of splendor yet. Kind of just getting started around here, to be honest. I walked around the street and took a couple of shots. Looking up the road first thing in the morning it is usually such a display so I'll try and catch that. It's hard because we've had no rain, and a very dry summer overall, so things are not as zing zang zowie as we'd like to see. 

Friends of mine are headed to Boston this weekend, their kids are looking at colleges so I hope the city puts on a display for them.

Good day overall for me. We went and picked the car up from the dealership after getting a bunch of work done. Traffic was a nightmare coming home, but the trees made it worth my while to leave the house and go look at them. 

So happy tomorrow is Friday. 

Digits below some pictures.

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours.  25 min, 1.09 mile walk in the house. 7600+steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:30am: 179
4:15pm: 146
10pm: 179 

food:
coffee/water
10am: English Muffin w/pb and dollop of high quality preserves
11:30am: Metformin
1:30pm: last piece of salmon (about 3 oz?) over a little left over salad, refreshed w/cherry tomatoes & bleu cheese dressing
6pm and onward, a lot of spicy crunchy trail mix from Aldi; metformin+jardiance
7pm: 2 cheeseburgers w/spinach & cherry tomato salad w/bleu cheese (more trail mix)
Vodka & diet tonic w/ lots of lemon

Snake Plant House Moving

I had a mini-panic attack today after a team meeting. I've been focused on my own project and there is something that usually I would have my fat hands in, testing and poking, and oh - it hasn't received a lot of attention. I won't go into much more than that but just say that come Monday we'll have a testing plan in place, and I hope the testing goes flawlessly. 

After the meeting, I thought Doug and I were going to pick our car up at the Mini dealership, where it has been for two whole weeks getting some needed repairs, but no. That didn't happen. 

So I decided it was plant watering day, and oh, while we're at it, let's repot these two snake plants. In May of 2023, I split up a snake plant, and did a big repotting. Today I did it with two. They needed bigger houses. Getting one of them out of the pot was a real challenge! 

I have five of these now. In the picture in that post linked above, that's 3. The one in the middle got put into a bigger pot, and it is huge. Like four feet tall huge. I didn't take a picture of it today but I should. 

I felt much better after doing this Farmer Chris stuff. The pot I used had been on the porch all summer, and that plant was finished, so I cleaned the pot up, and got the new house ready. The other one I repotted doesn't have a picture, but it moved into the freshly vacated pot, and now looks so happy. 

Because I have five, I think at least one will move to the guest room, but that means I have to clear off the bookcase or bureau and make a home. 

A task for another day.

I had a good chat with another teammate about my feelings and fears, and she is right there. She's been more in the middle of this process and I told her some stories about the past where she and I both decided we have to pull everyone up and have a meeting, and do some testing, because. I don't want our team caught holding the bag, again, we have knowledge and history. Let's make sure shit doesn't go down in a bad way, an unexpected way, if we can possibly prevent that from happening. 

Doug took Toffee for a walk while I was talking to my co-worker. I would have gone with him if I wasn't in the meeting. I wasn't going to make dinner tonight, I would leave that to the boy. I started my walk around in the house after the chat, and Geoff got home and made a good meal. I'm super thankful for him. 

Anyway. Here are some pictures of the roots of the snake plants. They're so healthy and strong! and really will thrive in a new bigger home, both of them. Super excited!

Digits below.

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. 20 min. indoor walk (would have kept going but Doug and Toffee got home). 7k by bedtime

blood glucose:

8am: 155
5pm: 163
10:30pm: 146 

food:
coffee/water
9:45am: english muffin w/ slice of american cheese and 4 strips of bacon
11am: metformin
12:45pm: apple+pb
6pm: chorizo quesadilla w/ guac and sour cream; metformin+jardiance
red wine

Early

This morning, Doug had a 7am meeting. 

When you work in a hospital with a 24 hour staff, sometimes you have to have meetings when everyone can be available. Technically before you're supposed to start working, or an hour or so after you stop working. It's easier to do the early end of things, it's easier to get people up to start early-ish than to expect people to kick it and hang around after their shift. 

He woke up around 6 and went to the guest room. At 6:30, I heard his alarm go off, and he snoozed it a couple times. 

But I was up.  Well, I was awake. Not up but. Awake. 

We slept with the window open last night, and it was chilly and comfy in the bedroom this morning. Toffee got up and so he fed her, made coffee, did all the things. 7am meeting. 

I woke up at 7:30 and the dog wasn't back in bed with me, so I went looking for her. She was outside, and I brought her in, and yeah. We got back in bed. 

Normal people would just get up, right?  Doug at 6 when he woke up organically, me at 7:30 when I discovered no dog. But going back to bed is also nice. Toffee and I had extended cuddle time. And it was worth it. 

Started the workday off quiet and slowly, no meetings until the afternoon. I felt hungry all day, which isn't like me, and I did eat 2 donuts so I guess I was not normal hungry but ... weird hungry. I got a lot done, had a couple really fun meetings, caught up with a co-worker on another team who just went to see Joni Mitchell at the Hollywood Bowl and she said it was mindblowing. We had a lot of fun chatting and catching up. Making time for stuff like that during the day is important. 

Made dinner and did not take a walk, Doug took a nap (waking up early will do that to ya). And that's the exciting day. 

No picture, digits below.

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. No walk, 4700+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:45am: 174
3:15pm: 182
10:30pm: 234 (thanks, dinner!) 

food:
coffee/water
10:45am: 2 egg omelet w/ wilted spinach & mexican cheddar cheese
11:30am: metformin
1pm: apple w/pb
3:30pm: 2 entenmann's chocolate donuts
6pm: metformin+jardiance
6:30pm: 2 giant bowls of tuna casserole

Lab Work

Good news, everyone! 

I found out the other day that our doctors' office/clinic/lab has returned to pre-pandemic hours, 7am-11pm. This means I can actually go get bloodwork done when I need to get it done, and not make the anti-coagulation nurses mad at me because I never get over there in time, nor do I want to drive to the 24/7 lab in Gaithersburg. Huzzah! 

I had planned to go over during the day today but things were busy, and there were meetings, and a client has been having a hard time with an email situation. This turned into a fully cross departmental discussion about how we should handle these situations. 

At 4:30, I had a meeting scheduled with a client who didn't show, thank goodness, so I emailed him to say let's pick a different time! And I finished a few other things, and got dinner started. 

Meatloaf takes like a full solid hour, so Doug took Toffee for a walk, I got everything ready for The Loaf and put it in the oven. Geoff came home and I asked him to peel the potatoes (contribute to the team, pal).  

After dinner, there I was. Knowing they're open until 11, I had no excuse. So I went. I was home in 20 minutes. Boom, done. Perfect. 

I thought about getting a hair cut but it was 8pm. The little salon is open until 9, but I didn't want to be that person, walking in that close to close. I put that on the back burner and came home in time for football. 

Here's a picture of me and Toffee, "working."

digits below.

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. 16 min/.6 miles indoor walk while dinner was cooking, 6700+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:30am: 187
4:30pm: 137 
10pm: 163 

food:
coffee/water
9:45am: english muffin w/butter & pb, no jelly
11am: Metformin
1:15pm: big bowl of BLT salad
6:30pm: 2 big slices of meatloaf, some mashed potatoes, steamed carrots
7pm: metformin+jardiance

Lazy Sunday

For the things we got done yesterday, today was a big do almost nothing day. We both slept in, Toffee didn't fuss that she needed to go our or want fed. 

I actually got up before Doug, which is wild. That never happens. I got coffee going, and Geoff came up and said he was going to mow the lawn but I asked him to wait until after Doug was up. 

I thought about asking Jess if they wanted to come up and spend the day, but I figure even if close, they don't want to have mom up in their face. They did text me that they went to the market and the upstairs neighbor eyeballed the canvas Market Basket bag and asked if they were from up north. Turns out, they're from Bolton and told Jess "I miss Market Basket!"

Dude, don't all of us from the north know this truth... 

I sort of napped, but not really. Toffee came into the bedroom with me and we just kind of lazed around. Pictures of her below. Because, of course.

Oh the big exciting thing is last night my cookie scoop tool broke, sadly, so today I ordered a set of three, small, medium, large. I think I had a medium sized one. I am not sure how big/how many ounces an extra large one would be but I'd love to make supersized cookies sometime. We'll see how these do. Maybe an ice cream scoop? that may be the tool for me. 

Geoff mowed the lawn and went to the market, and started dinner at about 5:30. It's so nice that he loves to cook and try new recipes. Tonight, he made pork medallions with apple slices in an apple cider reduction. He didn't reduce the apple cider enough, and he should have bought thicker pork medallions. These were wafer thin. But he did an amazing job. I put the reduction sauce into a container and tomorrow I think I'll poach a couple apples in the reduction left overs and some more cider. He's going to buy some sugar free ice cream tomorrow. It'll be a nice treat after dinner.

All told, Football, an inside walk while Doug walked Toffee outside (I wanted to stay near the bathroom, for ... reasons), dinner by Geoff, Steelers game, etc.... Life is good. 

Digits below, some Toffee views while we were lazy on the guest bed. Sugar is a little high from dinner and cookies. Understandable.

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. 25 min/1.11 mile walk inside (my fitbit has a feature I didn't know about that tells me the distance too.) 6700+ steps by bedtime.

blood glucose:

10am: 193
4:30pm: 167 
11pm: 194 

food:
coffee/water
12:30pm: metformin; grilled cheese w/bacon and tomato on sourdough bread
red wine
6:30pm: 3 small pork medallions w/apples in a cider reduction sauce; 5 pierogis
8pm: the last 4 oatmeal cookies
9pm: some crackers & cheese while watching football

Got some things done

Today we got out the upholstery shampooer/cleaner to clean up the loveseat where Toffee puked the other night. Ugh it was a smelly spot, and I was happy to hit at it with the machine. Doug took Toffee for a walk while I cleaned up. I also got a 20 minute walk in, which was good! 

Now we ust have to wait for the fabric to fully dry. The machine does a really great job, it has powerful suction, or, as the box says, Puissance D'aspiration for you Canadians. 

After he got back, we went out to the hardware store to get a new fire pit. I'd been trying to connect with a local woman on FB to get hers, that she didn't want, but Doug found one online at the local ACE so we thought we'd just go grab it. 

Oh well, it was on back order and they could get one for us for Wednesday. We thought that was fine, and did more shopping. Geoff's bathroom needs a new chain on the toilet dealie, and I broke our toilet seat the other day when I was cleaning. Doug got new hardware for the hinges, and we got a nice little "wok" for the grill for veggies. 

We had a lot of fun poking around the hardware store, and went to Aldi to pick something up for dinner. Geoff is going to do a big grocery shop tomorrow, so we just needed something tonight for dinner. 

Going to pickup up the new fire pit on Wednesday gives me a reason to leave the house then. Ha. Looking forward to it already. 

After dinner, I finally got around to baking cookies, Geoff was slightly disappointed that it was oatmeal, but, we are out of peanut butter (oh no) and only had a half bag of chocolate chips, so .... I went with what I had. And they are spectacular. My reading for the glucose was lower than I expected after eating ..... 4 of them. We'll see what tomorrow morning brings?

Digits, below.

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. 20 min. indoor walk. 8k steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

10am: 178
5pm: 205 
10:30pm: 146 

food:
coffee/water
noon: metformin
2pm: turkey & colby jack cheese grilled cheese sandwich on 647 italian bread
6:30pm: big piece of salmon on caesar salad; metformin+jardiance
red wine
oatmeal cookies (homemade by me!)

Therapy at Work

Today I went into the office to give a tour, we had a great time. My colleague from Utah was delightful. Her parents live north of me by a few towns, and so she brought them, her partner, and her 17 yr old son. 

I was worried he hated it. He seemed straight faced and kind of meh, but I did good Boy Scout Mom jokes and he laughed. And her father thought I was a riot. 

We sat in the lobby for an extra 20 minutes after I was done touring them and chatted. The son was engaged in the talk, and told me he really loved the visit. 

I went back to my desk, realized it was just about time for lunch and I could have put it off, but I had a 1pm meeting, so, it was important to go get lunch. Lunch was amazing. I had made the chair massage appointment for after the meeting with some buffer time for doing a little work and we got a message from HR that Wellness Week continues with... therapy dogs! In the lobby! 2pm. 

OMG yes. Yes please. 

This did not suck. I hung out with dogs until massage time, and went and had a great chair massage. It never feels like enough, in the chair, but the therapist did a great job. All told, no complaints for a nice free massage. 

Back to my desk, on my floor, where absolutely NO ONE was there. I got a lot done from 2:30 - 5 and then decided to head home. 

To my own therapy dog. Who herself maybe uses me as a therapy human. 

Doug picked me up at the metro and we went to Aldis to get something for dinner for us. I could have walked home but knowing that picking me up would be his impetus for getting something for dinner, I didn't want to squash that. 

And I was happy to return home to the dog who I think I'm her emotional support therapy human. Digits below.

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Three walks; 22 min, 13 min, 12 min. Crushed the 10k goal with 12,500 steps by bedtime.  

blood glucose:

7am: 183
6pm: 130 
10:45pm: 179 

food:
coffee/water
9am: 2 sausage patties, 2 strips of bacon
12:15pm: Metformin; bowl of chicken curry w/root veggies & brussels sprouts, pinch of jasmine rice
6:30pm: metformin+jardiance; 2 chicken patties w/ sauce & cheese
vodka tonic w/splash of cran (not low sugar) 
8:30pm: pbj on 647 bread

Barf

Toffee has been puking a lot this week, we're calling the vet tomorrow. 

She hasn't had a change in diet except we've scaled her back a half cup per meal per vet's orders. But that shouldn't make someone puke. She is on a new medication for what may be skin allergies, but she took those for a week without incident. 

Wondering if she got into something in the yard. But it's gross. It is really gross when a nearly 70 pound dog horks. 

I'm going into the office again tomorrow because a client asked for me specifically to give them a tour. 

And it is Wellness Week so we get to get massages! Huzzah. Can't wait for mine! 

Doug and Geoff both just yelled at an Old Navy Christmas commercial because it isn't even halloween yet. The fact they both unleashed the boo birds at the same time was hilarious. 

That's my entry. Not much else to say. Wish Toffee luck at feeling better. She's very quiet when she throws up. There's no heaving and gagging. She makes some licking noises with her mouth and goes to the front door. Only she puked in her sleep just now on the couch so. Honestly. Wish her luck (and me, too!)

My poor bean.

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. No walks today. 5k+ steps by bedtime.

blood glucose:

8am: 153
3:30pm: 143 
10:15pm: 188 

food:
coffee/water
11am: pb&j on 647 bread; metformin
3:30pm: apple w/pb
6:45pm: metformin+jardiance; mac & cheese topped with chili (leftovers night!) 
white wine

Wine Smoothie Prescription

While Jess is in town, I figured I'd invite them to the office to see a band they like that does the concert series. Today was one of those bands. I've heard of them, but never really listened to them. My manager is friends with the lead singer. Real life friends. So he came in too.

 I made it to the office by 9:30 and settled in. After a little while it turned out there was a surprise party for one of the office support staff, an "EA" which stands for Executive Assistant. Her name is Lori, and she's been here for 20+ years. Retirement. Retirement! Congratulations Lori!

The last time I was here, she told me she was retiring and I was happy for her. She had the date circled on her calendar. She didn't want a party or anything but the EA staff and the C suite people she supports insisted on surprising her with one. 

I'm so happy I went in today because I would have missed it. A couple other EAs who don't work here any longer were there, and it was a joyous time. 

The concert was outstanding. Just simply wonderful. 

Jess and I left my office at about 2:45 because I had a dentist appointment up by home. I'd rescheduled having some fillings replaced that were on the verge of failing. "I think these were put in," my dentist said, "in the ... 70s?" 

Probably. Most of them. Yes. 

He replaced 2 of 3 on the bottom left. I have to go back for the third. I was starting to feel what he was doing, even though he had given me some major league novocaine to numb the hell out of my mouth. Pretty good decision on his part to stop and wait to do the third there. I have some on the upper left that are silver and probably my first fillings, and on the upper right that were done in High School. He'll replace all of them this year. 

When he was finishing up, he said "you are more numbed up than I think you'll realize, so don't eat dinner until much later tonight, You will bite the hell out of your lower lip and not realize it," (it was 5pm at the time). "You can have .... a smoothie. You can have a glass of wine. Hey, you can have a wine smoothie. I'll write you a prescription for it."

"Don't worry about that, I know a guy who can make it."

We laughed. Of course we did. Oh, and he was right. I did eat dinner at about 7:30pm, and I did bite the hell out of my lower lip. 

As of 10pm, my face is still numb. I can feel where I bit my lip though. Ouch. 

I didn't get a wine smoothie, but did get wine. 

The other big news thing is walking today basically doubled what I do most days. I walked to the train from the house, to the office from the train. I walked around the office a bunch. I walked from the office to the train, from the train to the dentist. Then from the dentist to my house. In the pre-pandemic days, this would have probably killed me. There are no benches or rest rooms along the way. But I did a great job. Over 5 miles today kids. Doesn't sound like a lot for people who regularly walk a ton and a half, but for me, hell yeah. I actually wish I knew what the most steps I'd done in a day is, since starting with a fitbit back in like 2014. 

Today was a good day. 

Here's a shot of The Magnetic Fields. Digits below.

digits

exercise: 11/12 hours. Missed 4pm due to dentist chair. A multi-walk kind of day. Tons of walking. 13,700+ steps by bedtime. 

blood glucose:

7:30am: 160
5:15pm: 143 
10:30pm: 130 

food:
coffee/water
11:45am: metformin; ginger glazed pork w/salad and brussels sprouts
7:30pm: bowl of chili w/fritos, cheese, sour cream; metformin+jardiance; ice cream sandwich
white wine not-smoothie