Duck Pond

We are allegedly in for a nor'easter that will send its rainy windy tendrils to our far from the coast reaches. We may have the day clear and free tomorrow, but starting in the evening, we're supposed to be bracing for the big storm of the year. Last night into this morning we had our first frost advisory. I thought about bringing the plants in from the patio, but left them out and they were no worse for the wear this morning. 

The tomatoes are still going, we have some lovely new rose buds, and the zinnias are epic. 

It kind of sucks, this weather forecast for the weekend. I feel like we're at a point in the Unboxing Era that we can mix in some Let's Have Fun Era. And it being fall in Mountain Maryland, perhaps some apples? Some ice cream? Some leaf peeping?

Although hardly any leaves have turned here where we are, to our west and into West Virginia, it is supposed to be close to peak. 

It's been in the upper 70s, so still, shorts, Tevas, no flannel but ... some leaves. 

We'll see if the weather ruins everything or if nothing comes of it.

Doug and I took a good walk with Toffee to a different park today, not the park with the dogpark but a park that is a little more upscale. So upscale it has two fountains AND a duck pond. Doug was there with her a week or so ago and he said the duck pond was absolutely gross. The pond water was low, full of algae and scum, and trash. He was grossed out and felt bad for the ducks.

Today though, tons more water (probably too much?) But we haven't had rain so ... maybe they pumped some in? And it was very clean and pretty. The ducks seemed happy. And even though there are signs there to say "Break the Bread Habit" to encourage people to not feed the ducks bread, people were still... feeding the ducks bread. 

We sat on a bench and I thought of how my dad used to always bring us to the park and feed bread to the ducks. The world is different now, in a lot of ways. 

It is a little further than the dogpark park, and parts of the journey are without a sidewalk which is a little dangerous with the dog. We met a lady that absolutely LOVED Toffee (she's a big hit around town, don't you know) and told us her Yorkie Grandson had just left, and that it was probably a good thing because he's all YIPYIPYIP and she made frantic body motions like that's how the dog acts. 

It was a good laugh. 

We walked down the road to head back to our neighborhood and saw four deer, blending into the field behind them. It being magic hour, the light was epic. The buck had a small set of antlers, so he's a young guy. He watched us carefully as two does and a very young someone grazed in the grass. Toffee finally saw them and got whiny, wanted to go over to them. 

We told her they'd be gone before she even got halfway across the open field. 

Pretty good day. No pictures, but hopefully some good things this weekend. 

Digits, below. 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours.  Dog walk, 38 minutes/1.72 round trip (with a short break about halfway thrrough). 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

9am: 180 (eep)
4:45pm: 139
10:15pm: 80

food & meds:
9am: jaridance + phentermine
1:30pm: english muffin w/pb; met+glip
6pm: 2 sausages in sauce w/cheese, peppers, onions
8pm: met+glip
white wine

Saint Junior

We went to the dog park today. 

Toffee had a ton of fun with a husky and I had a great time talking with her human. It actually wasn't her human. The dog lives next door, and the owners of the dog keep her outside 24/7. I didn't get the girl's name, but, she said she gets home from work and gets the dog, and brings her to the dog park. Then she feeds her. Sometimes she takes her to Tractor Supply because they have a dog washing facility there, and she'll get a good bath, brush, and blow out. 

It's not her dog. But. She has called Animal Control to ask what can be done, and they said "nothing. She's up to date on her shots, she's healthy, her owners aren't doing anything wrong." 

The girl and I looked at each other like.... "Yeah, but." 

She can't just take the dog into her house. She has two cats who are 12, she adopted them at the same time and they are her everything. And they hate dogs. So while they are alive, the Husky lives her life. 

"But someday. someday I think maybe. You know. I'll ask." 

I imagined this beautiful husky getting her first night's sleep in a bed. And it will be delightful. I know it will. 

There was another dog who was very scared of Toffee and the Husky, but, tolerant. The dog dad is trying to get her comfortable with other dogs and so I hope Toffee wasn't too too "Toffee" for her. She seemed fine by the time we left. Doug said he and the guy had a really good talk about the dog, and how they just moved into downtown, and they have to walk up 4 flights of stairs to their apartment... every time the dog needs to go out, down and up 4 flights. 

I heard him say "it's good for her, and it's good for me. I've already lost some weight." 

We were there about 45 minutes and then, there was a budding altercation between some other dog folks.

A woman had brought her VERY LARGE male pittie mix into the "small dog" area, which is clearly labeled for dogs 25 lbs and smaller. 

I mentioned that to the Husky companion, and she said "Yeah, she goes in there because her dog is mean and aggressive." 

Ohhhh. 

That dog was easily 65-80 pounds. He was the only dog in that area, and ran up and down the fence with Toffee and the Husky, bark bark bark snarl bark bark. I could see why she was on that side. It wouldn't be good play if there was no fence between them but they all three seemed to be having a great time. 

Run yourselves to exhaustion, sillies! That's how I felt.

But a pair of women showed up, one with a big dog an one with a little. 

The one with the big dog I've seen before. She's one of these Dog Park Police kinds of people so she started to have words with the woman with the big dog in the little dog area, letting her know that she needed to leave the little dog area because a little dog wanted to come in.

The big dog owner lady argued back "I come in this side all the time and no one is here so there's no problem with it."

Dog Park Police Lady (DPPL): Well there's a little dog now, and he wants to come into his area. So you need to bring your dog in here (the big dog area) or go elsewhere. 

Big Scary Dog Owner Lady (BSDOL): Well you can't make me do anything.

DPPL: Oh yes I can. 

She whipped her cel phone out and you know she has park administration/security on speed dial. I signaled to Doug that I thought it was time to go. Because if that big dog was going to come into the big dog side, it could be rough. I didn't want to experience this. 

DPPL has a dog, a cute scruffy scruff scruffer named Tilly. She (DPPL) told me last time we were there that "Toffee is okay but she needs to learn how to behave with the other dogs. She's getting better. But you need to work on her training." 

Oh okay thanks. 

So yeah, I didn't want to be there if BSDOL and her dog were going to come in, and I didn't feel like being there with DPPL, so we rounded the Toff up, and we headed out. Friendly like. 

And the Husky was sad. 

I wish I got some good pictures of them.They had a hell of a good time playing with each other, and it made me miss Meg. I miss her so much. 

Anyway. More stories.

On the way into the park, we saw a guy with his car broken down kind of in the entrance of the park. He was pacing around on the phone, I guess trying to get someone to come help him. I didn't think much of it. 

On the way out of the park, we saw him starting to drive away and he was mouthing off at some guy who obviously had just helped him with his car. The car helper guy was using his air compressor to put some air in his own back tire and mouthed back "It's okay man, just let it go, let it go, there's plenty of fish out there, plenty of fish," and I could not figure out what the hell that was all about. 

As we got closer, he was mumbling "you try to help someone, you just try to help, and they shit all over you and they ...." and he looks at us. "I just helped that guy with his car, and he got all shitty with me, and he was hitting his woman, pushing her around, and I told him to stop it. You don't put your hands on a woman. You don't do that." 

"Yeah but some guys do, I guess," I said.

"Yeah but you don't," he stressed.

"Yeah, you don't but some guys ... they still do," I said. He nodded and shook his head at the same time. 

"I just got out of work at XXXXX garage, and all I want to do is go get some meatloaf." he named the restaurant but I can't remember what it is. "And I stop to help and ...." 

And then he saw Miss Toffee, and brightened right up. And he stopped fussing. He wanted to know if she was red nose or blue nose, which we didn't know what that meant. I told him we didn't know, she's just all cute nose. He thought that was funny. 

He wanted to pat her but he said his hands were too dirty from working at the garage and then helping that asshole guy. I told him to pet her, if it will make him happy. And he did, and it did. He got his face in her face and she licked him all up, which we usually discourage but he was thrilled to get some doggie love. 

He told us his name is Saint. 

What?

"Your parents named you that? That's your Government Name? Your Christian Name? Saint?" I asked.

"Your parents set high goals for you," said Doug. The guy laughed and showed us his tattoos with his name. 

"I love my name. I named my son after me," he said. "Saint Junior." 

I tried not to laugh. The thought of Saint and Saint Junior kind of hit me funny right than, and then I sort of really loved it all. I loved all of it. 

The guy knelt down to get the compressor off his tire, and I said "Well, you keep on being a saint, Saint." 

He looked at me, and I got some really big "cousin Jimmy" energy off of him right at that second. My sister is going to know what that means and hopefully is laughing her ass off right now as she reads this. 

Looking me right in the eye, he said "I'm gonna cry now, ma'am." 

Everyone calling me ma'am here in my new hometown lately. Damn.

"I needed to hear that. It's gonna make me cry." 

"Go get your meatloaf, sir," I said. Doug was already 20 feet ahead of me and I needed to get out of the road because there was a car coming at me so fast, and I thought for sure this dipshit was going to run me over while me and Saint were waxing kindness at each other. 

Doug turned to me and said, "there are a lot of characters in this town." 

Yes ma'am, there are. 

Digits below the one shot of Toffee and Husky dog. 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. two measured walks to and from the dog park. To: 15 min/.61 mil. From: 14 min/.61 mile. 10k+ by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:30am: 135
4pm: 102
10:30pm: 125

food & meds:
8:30am: jaridance 
10:30am: bowl of mac & cheese w/hamburger
noon: met+glip
4pm: almond and peanutbutter granola bar
7pm: 2 pieces of stromboli (cheese, pepperoni, sausage, green pepper filling); wine+diet ginger ale
7:30pm: met+glip
8pm: candied nuts (gotta finish this container!)

Goat Cheese

I usually try to take my blood sugar between 4 and 5pm, far enough away from lunch, and before dinner. If I get hungry, I do get myself into testing around 4. 

Today, at 4pm, I tested at 90, so I declared it time for snack. We had this log of goat cheese with cranberries in the fridge that has been staring at me for weeks and weeks. I bought it at Aldi before we moved. And that's what I wanted. But oh. Crackers. Okay, six crackers and some goat cheese and I'll be done. 

y'all. 

It was hard for me to stop. It was so good. 

SO GOOD. 

I stopped when I ran out of crackers, though. Why is goat cheese so delicious? Why is goat cheese and cranberries so extra delicious? 

I want to learn how to make my own cheese logs like this. 

Some candied pecans and goat cheese. 

Slivered almonds and goat cheese. 

Cranberries, some sorta nuts, goat cheese.

I sound like the bubba gump of goat cheese or something. But lord help me, I do love it.

Today was a good day.  Our combined team had a "retro" to talk about a project that could have gone better. Part of our department sometimes operates as their own department, and they were kind of in charge of some of this, and there was some anger because folks on my side of the team felt there was communication missing and it wasn't clear who was supposed to be doing a thing. 

In the end, it was a good meeting but I do feel that some folks had their feelings hurt. Sometimes you can't help but have that happen. 

And we learn and move on. 

Took a long walk this afternoon with Toffee but circled back around with her and dropped her off, because it was hard to Pokemon with her. 

I didn't have my yoga pants with pockets, and it was annoying to deal with her, pick up poop, heel her, pull on her, and try to catch Woobats. 

She got a good walk, but I needed some more personally and after giving her a cookie,  I got a longer walk. 

Doug and I went to a local bank to withdraw some cash since this weekend, our bank is merging with another bank and our debit cards are going offline, and we haven't gotten our new cards, since our address change came right around the time they started sending out the new cards so they didn't send ours. 

I can't request new cards until next week after the holiday, so 300 bucks cash today, 300 bucks cash tomorrow, and then ..... request new cards. 

We had a little fight about it, because Doug claims he has no idea this was happening even though Geoff and I have been talking about it in front of him for weeks. I had asked him if he wanted to open up an account with a local bank, since the nearest branch to us for the old bank is in Germantown, and the new bank is somewhere in Leesburg, VA or Front Royal, VA. 

 He said "meh" and then he got mad at me tonight when I told him where the nearest branch of our old and new bank locations are, because he has something to deposit. So. Fuck. We gotta drive an hour to Germantown, or whatever how long it takes to get to Leesburg or Front Royal. 

We should move banks. But he's been deaf and blind about this. I'll allow it. Moving and stuff got in the way. So I'll revisit it. We could set up a local bank where we deposit physical checks that we get, and then transfer to our main bank.  

We do most everything on our capital one card anyway, and tomorrow I'll make a payment online to the capital one account once my paycheck hits, and then we'll hover in weird bank transition until next Tuesday I guess. 

While we were fussing at each other and we knew we needed to go to the bank and get cash Doug said let's go to DQ and get some ice cream. Twist my arm. Soft Serve is my kryptonite.

Digits below this picture of a cute inflatable at a house where the sidewalk ends. There's a lot of cute halloween stuff in my neighborhood!

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. 31 min walk 15 min with toffee, 16 min solo/1.37 mil. then it measured me working around the house for 15 min/.4 miles; 10k+steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:45am: 122
4pm: 90
11pm: 172 (thanks, ice cream)

food & meds:
8:45am: jaridance 
11:30am: english muffin w/pb
1pm: met+glip
4pm: goat cheese w/ cranberries, crackers, some macaroni salad
6:30pm: a not very good beef stroganoff (geoff messed up the roux) with noodles. 
7pm: met+glip
7:30pm: DQ soft serve choc/van swirl ice cream
red wine

Are you gentlemen perhaps a little high?

Doug wasn't feeling well tonight so I took Toffee for a solo walk. We could have gone a lot longer, but I had to pee. After we got home, I did my thing, and I took myself out to do that longer walk, since usually a good full half hour is best for me to make sure I get the steps. 40 minutes is optimal. And I was at least 10 minutes shy of what I wanted for the 10k goal of steps.

It was threatening rain, so I knew I wouldn't be out long. I was walking down a street and two young black men were walking towards me. One crossed the street to the other side, and I heard his friend say "why are you crossing the street, like you think she's scared of you?" 

I said "Maybe he's scared of me?" The guy on my side of the street laughed a little. "You are just guys out for a walk, like I'm out for a walk, hi." And I opened my arms and hugged the guy. 

He laughed. He had cake in his right hand, like a whole ass slice of cake that he was just eating while walking. The way he laughed combined with the slice of cake kind of indicated to me that my dudes were high. 

The other guy came back across the street and I said "Hugs from a distance, if you're more comfortable with that," but he came in for a hug. He also had a slice of cake. And he also was laughing.

I asked "Are you gentlement perhaps a little high?"

He laughed and said "Yes ma'am." 

I asked about the cake, and the first guy said "oh we got this from his grandma's house but she didn't have any plates for us to take so we just took our slices." 

Fair enough. Road cake, I like it. 

"Well, you guys can see there's bad weather coming. I checked the radar and there are thunderstorms expected here. within a half hour so get somewhere safe, okay?" 

"We're going to our buddy's house. He's up on Vail. But first we wanted to walk by the baseball field because they're still playing and we know a guy on the team." 

"Okay, well. Just be safe. Don't get caught out in the storm. Enjoy that cake."

They were already walking away, I should say they were swaying and wobbly a little bit because the gentlemen, yes, they were high. 

"Thank you ma'am. You have a nice night." 

You too, guys. You too. 

I turned right after two blocks and walked up a road I hadn't been on. Hit some pokemon stops, and the rain started to pick up. So instead of walking up to the main road and turning right, and turning right again, I took the cut through road that runs along the "line" between incorporated and unincorporated town. I got home right before the sky opened up. 

I hope they made it to their friend's house. 

No picture, I tried to get a good one of the ballfield from the hill, but it was blurry. Digits below. 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. 2 walks. One with Toffee because she needed it, 18 min/.86 mi. One solo before the rain, 13 min/.61 mi. 10k+ by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:45am: 103
5;15pm: 105
10:30pm: 139

food & meds:

8:45am: jardiance (no phentermine until it arrives)
11am: large piece of chicken left over from last night
1pm: met+glip
3pm: large apple w/pb
7pm: bowl of spinach & artichoke ravioli w/Alfredo sauce
8:30pm: met+glip
bowl of candied nuts
3 beers 

This Is Perfect

The weather right now is exactly, precisely perfection. 

Your girl hates the heat. Absolutely positively hates when it is hot out. I just cannot deal with it. If it is too cold, it's hard to go out for a walk, and being out in the cold is no fun. 

This morning it was 60 degrees. At lunch, 85. And then it started to drop around 4:30 and get cooler. 

I have a wonderful patio now. So sitting out and working is my very favorite thing. I wonder how long this will last? 

But for right now. God thank you so much. This is perfect. 

Doug and I went for a walk before dinner, while Geoff was cooking. I have been noticing a lot about my neighborhood. It is incredibly diverse. Very busy at times. Lots of kids. SO MANY KIDS! They all love Toffee and they've learned her name so when we're walking past they yell hello to her. 

We're chopped liver. 

The neighborhood changes as you turn corners. Today Doug took me across into a planned development neighborhood, the sign says it was established in 1985. Lots of ranch houses, long long long homes, it's kind of weird. It reminds me of Doug's childhood home, only twice as long. Lots of big beautiful established trees. Turn the corner, there's the elementary school and duplexes kind of like the end of our street. A lot of kid toys, on the lawn, in the driveway. 

And there are so many dogs here. Every single house has a dog. Some of them are very loud and let you know they know you are walking by. Toffee doesn't bark back. 

Toffee doesn't bark at anyone, which is something I absolutely love about her. She is not noisy. She does not fuss. There may be whimpering, if she is somewhat concerned or wants to see that dog there behind the fence. But she doesn't bark. 

Our walk today took us by the backside of a golf course where there are signs everywhere that "NO PETS ARE ALLOWED" but there were 10-15 geese shitting all over the green. Ha. Good for you, geese. 

We talked to Doug's mom for an hour or so after dinner. Doug had been calling her for a while but she's been at her old house going through things. Doug has repeatedly offered to come help her work/clean/do but she rejects his offers. 

She's been having Doug's sister fit things into her SUV to drive them up the new house (five years new at this point) and some stuff just doesn't fit, and she doesn't know what to do.

"Rent a U-Haul van." says Doug. 

And to Doug's mom, that either sounds impossible or an extravagance or something. 

He asked her if she still had her redwood patio furniture and she does - she has a 6ft table and benches. I've always been fond of that set. It is probably 50 years old at this point and she thinks it is just junk. But he asked her for it. 

So we may rent that U-Haul van ourselves just to get the patio furniture oh and while we're at it, the other things that are all too big for Doug's sister's car. 

Problem? Solved. 

We offered to come next weekend, we both have Monday off. But she said that's too soon for her to be ready for us to come. She has a lot of things she needs to do on her own first before that can happen. 

Okay. 

We can wait. 

And that's it for today. No pictures but just know, things were good today. And no walnuts were futzed with. Digits below.

digits

exercise: 11/12 hours. Missed 10am because of a meeting. Two walks, one with Doug and Toffee before dinner, 31 min/1.39 mi. During football, 16 min/.76 mi. 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:30am: 155
4:45pm: 125
10:15pm: 108

food & meds:

8:30am: jardiance (no phentermine until it arrives)
12:30pm: tuna, bacon, 2 slices of colby jack cheese on a fajita wrap that I thought was low carb. Oops. lol. 
1:30pm: met+glip
6:15pm: chicken breast w/ a "pecan dijon bourbon cream sauce" which wasn't half bad but way way thick. small salad, peas; beer
8pm: met+glip
2 more beers with football.

The Walnut Game

Over the past couple days, Doug has been cleaning up black walnuts in our yard. Allegedly, these are good to have, and, if you do it right you can yield a lot of walnuts if you carefully harvest them. 

The last people here did not harvest the black walnuts. Doug thinks that there are nuts on the ground that are at least a couple years old. 

To be honest, they did not take good care of the yard overall. With six kids, heck, who can blame them. We are finding toys, broken pieces of toys, all kinds of things in the yard. It's kind of crazy. So black walnuts were probably low on the priority list.

Anyway, the black walnuts have been his project even though, to be honest, I'd rather he help me unpack things but. He's out of my way and not a nuisance if he's out there. Playing the Walnut Game. 

"Come outside and play the walnut game with me!" he says. 

What does that mean?

"Pick up walnuts and throw them in the boxes!" 

Um. No. I'll.... work in here on moving shit around. 

He got Geoff to play the walnut game with him yesterday while I was at Henry's show, they got a lot of walnuts off the ground, the tree is still dropping them, and there are still plenty of walnuts on the ground...

And he so far has filled 8 boxes with walnuts. I shit you not. At least he's doing something with the boxes I was getting ready to flatten for recycling. Photo evidence below. 

This morning I went down to the guest room around 4am, smelled coffee and got up at 8. I was ready to slack my team and say "Good morning" but needed to charge my phone because it had been playing a podcast for hours.... Doug was sitting on the couch with the dog. 

"Did you have your 7am meeting?"

He looked at me and asked "What?"

"You were supposed to have a 7am meeting today," I said.

"It's.... Sunday." He said.

Oh. 

Okay. Glad I didn't slack my team, not sure how I thought only having Saturday was enough weekend for me but hey. I guess it felt like a lot. 

Coffee and then cleaning and stuff while Doug played the Walnut Game by himself. I was holding a canvas bag at one point and he said "Oh Hooray! Come celebrate the harvest with me!"

No, son. Not gonna happen. 

The dining room is almost done. I moved some bookcases around and started thinking about books. First floor or basement. Oh basement - what am I doing with my office. I haven't gone downstairs literally since we moved in so today was the first time. Geoff helped me move some things into permanent storage, and we talked about shelves and stuff that I want for upstairs and downstairs. 

Around 5:30, Doug woke up from a nap and took Toffee for a walk. I skipped on going because I'd literally been walking all day here in the house. I did go out for a short walk to the park and back to do pokemon, and got back while Geoff was making dinner. 

We watched football, I moved more things around. I found yet another box of glassware. Why do we have so many glasses? 

Anyway. Wiped out and I have an alarm set so we can get up, I can get out of bed and he can go to his meeting. His office is right in eye-shot of the bed so I don't want to be in here snoring. Chances are I'll be downstairs anyway since I invariably wake up and go down there. 

Digits below the walnuts. 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Pokemon walk, solo, 12 min/.56 mi. 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8am: 118
4:30pm: 135
9:30pm: 138

food & meds:

8am: jardiance+phentermine
10am: english muffin w/pb
11:30am: met+glip
2:30pm: key lime pie zero sugar yogurt w/granola
6:30pm: small bowl of spaghetti w/meatballs, 2 small pieces of garlic bread
7:30pm: met+glip
8pm: candied (not very) nuts
wine & diet ginger ale

Another Auntie at the Rock Show

Today, I went back to the old neighborhood area to see my friend Henry play in his school of rock show. He's been playing for a few years, and compared to my work wife son, he's in a band with much older kids who .... are extremely good. 

Henry knew his stuff and killed it. The theme was Michael Jackson vs. Prince, so all the songs were by those two artists. There were a couple guitarists that were beyond exceptional like the one on Beat It who played the Eddie Van Halen parts flawlessly. 

After the show, I joined the family at Henry's favorite foodrinkery. I was going to come straight home, but. 

Henry's grandparents were there, and they didn't want to go out to eat. Henry said "is everyone coming to the pub?" and his grandmother said "noooo,,,, I don't think so."

I heard Henry's heart break. Right there. I had already told S I was going to head home (since I now live a billion miles away) and when I noticed how sad he was, I said "oh yeah I'm gonna come." 

He was thrilled that I was coming, because his grandparents never come to things. They'll come to the show, do the bare minimum, and leave. They won't spend the whole day. They always have something to do. Something ... better to do.  Better than spend the day celebrating with their grandson. 

I know in life people are busy but. Block your day. This is family, this is your grandson. 

I drove to the pub with Sara and she unloaded on me how frustrating this is for her, and Henry is starting to notice their absence in his life. I told her I could see it, because when he gets upset his eyes flutter as he's blinking back tears. I know when something is hitting him hard, and because I knew this hurt him, I had to step up and be Auntie. 

This isn't the first time I've seen them do this. Grandpa gets a bunch of pictures, posts them to Facebook with "oh I'm so proud of the young man he's becoming" but. It's more than that. You gotta show up.

We had a fantastic time at the pub. I'm glad I went. 

I got home and Doug and Geoff had spent the afternoon cleaning up the black walnuts from the yard. It's become a landmine out there of ankle twisting opportunities and Doug's thinking hey - I can maybe ... shell these puppies and do something with them. He's been reading up on them (don't handle them without gloves on, they'll stain your skin!) He was napping, Geoff made dinner  and he and I ate. And I took a walk to try and make up for the lack of steps in the day.

When Doug woke up he said he wanted to go to Dairy Queen. He earned it. There are eight entire boxes of black walnuts out there. Jesus. 

So I had ice cream. Haven't had ice cream in forever. 

It was a busy day. Details below. Enjoy the pic of me and Hen sporting our Boston themed shirts. He had to wear purple for the Prince band, and this is his only purple shirt. Naturally. 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. 23 min. walk around the neighborhood. 1.09 miles. fell short of 10k though, 7900+ steps by bedtime and too tired to go out for the last good measure.

blood glucose:

9am: 92
5pm: 156
10:30pm: 158

food & meds:

9am: jardiance+phentermine (last phentermine until the prescription refill shows up)
12:30pm: cheese, salami, cucumber, tomatoes (snack at Henry's gig) 
3:30pm: met+glip. 5 buffalo chicken strips, a few french fries
6:30pm: chicken, melted cheese, sour cream (fajita without a wrap
8pm: chocolate/vanilla swirl soft serve ice cream
8:30pm: met+glip
wine

Happy Friday

Today was planning for the tech team so I sat in on a couple meetings that were very informative and helpful. Having a roadmap for the next couple months is nice. 

I had a few 1:1 meetings with colleagues, and one of them told me her husband just got laid off. Feeling super bad for them. And I had to do a peer review on one of my teammates so I basically asked her to tell me what to say for the "what can this person do to be better at their job, and stuff." 

I asked her what she wanted to do to get better at her job and it was very helpful. 

Managed to write all my other peer reviews, my review of my manager, and my own self-evaluation by end of day. Didn't get to do my helpdesk documentation reviews done but maybe I'll hit those over the weekend.

I also unpacked a lot of boxes between meetings. I put fancy glasses in the corner hutch, got some things ready for recycling, unpacked two boxes of books and put them on the shelves in the guest room.

Today was gorgeous. I sat out on the patio for most of the day, and Toffee soaked in the sun.

After work, Doug took Toffee for a walk and I thought about going with, but opted not to. Instead I did more futzing around the house and then took myself out for some Pokemon stuff. Almost a mile walk around the neighborhood.

Geoff made dinner for us, a soup recipe he found that he should have put more stock in because it wasn't super soupy. It was really tasty, just not enough. Thankful he got a nice crusty loaf of bread to go with. Doug made a little bit of a snack for us after dinner of apple, crackers, and a fancy cheese he bought at the farm stand last week. 

Tomorrow I'm going to see Henry and his school of rock band. Last week was my work wife's son, and this week is Henry. Gotta get the two of them together. They could be a band. 

Digits below this rando picture I took of a drawing on my neighbor's driveway. 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Pokemon walk solo (doug took Toffee on a very long one) 22 min/.98 mi. 11k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:15am: 124
5pm: 162
10:30pm: 125

food & meds:

8:15am: jardiance+phentermine
12:45pm: bowl of mac & cheese w/bacon
2pm: Met+glip
6pm: bowl of sausage and black bean soup w/nice slice of rosemary bread
7pm: apple, cheddar, and crackers snack
7:30pm: met+glip
white wine

Guest Bed

Last night I woke up around 1am, unable to fall back asleep. Doug has a timer set on podcasts so when the podcast is over, it's over. I don't usually like to start one up again, lest I disturb him, and make it so he can't fall back to sleep. 

I don't mind when he starts a podcast up again, it never bothers me. But I've woken him up by starting one, and he goes to the guest room. 

I opted to go downstairs to the guest room. 

Here's the thing though, the guest bed wasn't made up yet. There were piles of things on top of the bed to sift and sort through. Blankets, sheets of an indeterminate size, are they queen? are they full? Hmmm. More blankets. Mystery pillow that should be tossed. The folded up dog kennel. Freaking Dog KENNEL on the bed.

Jeesh, I realized earlier this week it would need to be done and should have tackled this because I knew the day would come when one of us woke up and wanted to go in the other room. I stood in the doorway with the light on, and just looked at it. 

Well, better get workin' kid. 

I got everything off of the bed and found the sheets I wanted. The flannel sheets I use for cold nights on this bed were folded up and put away. Mystery sheets were just dumped on the floor. Dog kennel, leaning against the wall. 

It all came together quickly and I will note that with the bed not pushed up against the wall the way it has been in the last two houses, the fitted sheet is so much easier to put on. 

Fuzzy blanket thrown on for good measure, even though I sleep hot. And there we are. A bed. 

I laid down and noticed my neighbors' second floor bedroom window. They had a tv on (it is 2am at this point) and lights and changes were flashing above me. I was too lazy to get up and pull the shade down so I just rolled over.

I wondered about how many people up and down this street in the incorporated and unincorporated parts of town were awake at that moment. A car drove down the street, perhaps someone needing to go to work at a bakery. 

Maybe even the Krispy Kreme. Or someone who works in DC who wants to avoid the traffic! 

I played games on my phone but not the one I save for the morning, temping as that was. I settled on the new episode of Lore, and eventually found sleep. 

The dog found me somewhere after 4am. And curled up behind my butt in her little (large) croissant shape. The trash guys hadn't come yet so it was easy to fall back asleep. In fact, the trash guys didn't come until 10:30am today.

Geoff found the kitchen at 7:30, and I heard noise and dishwasher unloading as he got the coffee going. He was surprised to see me come out of the bedroom rather than come downstairs. Having the upstairs bedroom is good because it is away from the kitchen so this cacophony of noises won't wake me up like it did, for 7 years. 8 years? Lord. 

I needed to get up, early meeting at 9 and I needed a shower. Dog fed, outside, shower taken, work. 

Today ended up being very busy, even though that 9am meeting was my only meeting for the day. Every three weeks my team has to QA code updates for the product team, an my colleague T usually carries the lion's share of the testing. But he was tied up most of the day with other things. We have 3 workdays to do this and today was the last day. 

So I started QA at about 11. Finished around 4. It was a lot. T ended up doing one of the more gnarly test cases while I did the other 7. A couple of them were easy peasy in and out yup this works but two of them were rough. Luckily our QA manager is a doll and she jumped on zoom with me to walk me through where the instructions did not meet reality. 

Then, tomorrow is the deadline for our reviews. Self evaluation, review your manager, and peer reviews. This year I had two peer reviews to write and finished those. I spent a good hour trying to think of what to say on my self evaluation. Struggled through it and got it done. 

We took the dog to the dog park, which was a lot of fun. There were a lot of dogs there, and Toffee was really good! I felt very proud of her. 

Home, football, pizza, wine, bed. So thankful tomorrow is Friday, 

No pictures. Tried at the dog park but they were all blurry from fast running doggos! Digits below! 

 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. Walk to dog park, 12 min/.58 mi; walk home from dog park, 14 min/.63 mi; walk after dinner to finish steps, 16 min/.8 mi. 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8am: 111
5:30pm: 117
10:30pm: 124

food & meds:

8am: jardiance+phentermine
10:30am: double sausage egg mcmuffin (about 1/3 of the muffin given to toffee because the whole thing slid apart weirdly)
1:30pm: met+glip
3pm: very large apple w/pb
7:30pm: 2 slices of buffalo chicken pizza, met+glip, glass of white wine+diet ginger ale

Where the Sidewalk Ends

Today was a busy day and I was lucky to hit each of the hour marks on the fitbit. Almost missed two but hustled to get in under the wire. 

I was going to go out for a walk by myself after dinner but Doug decided to join me with the dog. I'm glad he did because we walked longer and further than I usually do. I pretty much was going to walk to the baseball field, hit the pokegym, maybe walk up to the end of the block and back? Meh? 

He likes to go on excursions when he goes.

We crossed a main road into another neighborhood and the county senior center is there. They have outdoor exercise equipment and a cute walking course with footie prints. There's a golf course in the neighborhood and you can look across it to the major big road (4 lanes, split down the middle) which has the Dairy Queen and the Krispy Kreme on it. I could see the "HOT" sign was on at the Krispy Kreme. Good thing there's a golf course in the way. 

That and neither of us had our wallets. 

We walked by the baseball field, which was hopping. Big game happening and Doug said "this isn't baseball noise. Why's that one kid screaming like that? Make baseball noises!" I have no idea why the kid was screaming "like that" but. Kids are gonna kid. 

Once we got back, we watched some TV and I played my phone games that I didn't play all day. It was a busy day. 

I realized I was about 2,000 steps shy of 10k, and it was 9:30. Hell. I can do this, I just can't do 2k steps walking around the house. 

Strapping on the sandals, I headed out. 

I walked up to the end of our road, turned around, came back. Fun thing about our road, about 4 houses up the street, the "city" ends and the unincorporated part of town begins. 

The sidewalk ends. 

The road that comes off our street is "Division Road," where the demarkation is for ... "us and them." 

Once you get on the other side, where there is no sidewalk, the houses all change. Mostly duplexes, and a LOT of cars for some reason. Each side of each duplex seems to have 4 cars. 

And there are no street lights. Down my end of the street, we have street lights. Everything is bright and visible. In Unincorporated Town, not everyone has on their porch or outside lights. When I walk up the street it triggers the light sensors, and lights come on, but they turn off quickly. 

It's a little spooky. 

Behind us, on the other block, the city is putting in new and improved sidewalks. I've never lived in a place where the sidewalks were all so shitty. On our walk tonight with the dog, there were places where walking in the street was better. 

All the sidewalks around the senior center are nice. They keep those nice so the shufflin' feet don't trip up on the cracked ass cracky sidewalks. 

I also wanted to go out because tomorrow is trash day, and I think there are rules about which direction you're supposed to "face" your barrels. Handle out or handle in? I wanted to see how my neighbors had it. 

Mixed results. Some were handle out, some in, some were 3 or 4 feet apart, some flush up against each other. The city actually has the big ass trucks with the power arms that lift the barrels up, so that's why I wanted to make sure we do it right. I think if you don't, the lid doesn't open right and your trash all sticks in the barrel or falls out onto the street. 

Last week they came at 4:30am. Which was bollocks. The week before we didn't hear them, because the AC was on. So I will probably be disturbed again by the big scary noisy truck with the monster arm and the sound of barrels crashing and thrashing. 

We don't have to pay for trash removal, that's part of our taxes, but up beyond where the sidewalk ends, they do. They have different barrels, with phone numbers and company names on them. I guess you pay the company and they come get your trash. Something like that. But the fact there are different company names on the barrels makes me wonder how the hell that works. One truck? Four different trucks? I have no idea. 

Anyway. 

I'm off to bed. No picture today but I did try to take one of Toffee sunbathing and enjoying the yard. But she caught me and got up and came over to see me. 

Digits, below. 

digits

exercise: 12/12 hours. 2 walks. One with Doug and Dog 32 min/1.45mi, one solo just to make the steps, 15 min/.8 miles; 10k+ steps by bedtime

blood glucose:

8:15am: 108
4:30pm: 104
10:30pm: 142

food & meds:

8:15am: jardiance+phentermine
12noon: BLT Salad
2pm: met+glip
6pm: pork tenderloin, 8 pierogi 
8pm: last chunk of the pork tenderloin
9pm: met+glip
no wine/beer anything