EUREKA!

Yesterday we did a little shopping before lunch, and then headed to the two pet cemeteries.  It was an interesting and somewhat frustrating experience. Brandy and Casey are buried at Meadowridge Memorial Park in Eldridge, which is mostly for people but has a lovely pet section.  They are easy to find and well maintained.

The older two pets, Sirikit and Ace, are buried across the street at Rosa Bonheur.  That was the very first pet cemetery in the USA in the early days, around the 1930s.  Not long after Ace was buried, the owner absconded with funds.  It fell into a legal hole from which it never recovered.  Now it is mowed by volunteers, but there is no one living in the house anymore or taking in new pets.  2013 was the last time we were there.  This time we found Ace right away, but we dug up other people's pets for nearly two hours and never found Sirikit.  We gave up, and I felt terrible.

Once we got home, I found some photos from 2013, so we went back today thinking we could triangulate the location based on those photos. That was not so easy to do!  It took about 90 minutes and another dozen holes dug before we were about to give up.  I decided to stick the spade down just one final time, and EUREKA.  I hit something, and it turned out to be Sirikit!  What a miracle!

Thursday we are going back with some kind of pole or flag or flower to put next to them to make it easier to find the next time.  We also asked the people at Meadowridge to give me an estimate on how much it would cost to move Ace and Sirikit over to join Brandy and Casey.  I am eagerly awaiting an email from them.

Quite a day!

Meanwhile, my fasting blood sugar this morning was 120.  I can almost predict it now.  Yesterday, I ate 1303 calories, 153 carbs.  This morning the pound and a half I reported gone yesterday have returned, but in the long scheme of things, that's to be expected.  Tomorrow is the official weigh-in, so we'll see what happens.  Today I will be eating a little more than yesterday, 1350 calories, 158 carbs.

Here are some pictures from our cemetery adventures.

We both shed a few tears over crazy Casey.

The word Ace showed through the grass, so he was easy to find and clean up.

One of many fruitless digging attempts on Monday.

We were so close several times on Monday, but we just couldn't do it.

Then today, after 90 minutes, we found her.

Mark got some tissues from the car and cleaned the dirt away as best he could.

Hopefully this shot of me pointing to Sirikit with Ace behind my left shoulder will help in the future if  the thatch grows over it so much again.

It's all good news.

Hurricane Irma was a crazy old girl whose course changed every day, sometimes every hour.  Now that she's in the north of Florida, our neighbors are out inspecting their homes and assessing damage. We have seen several Facebook posts about trees down, maybe a few roof tiles blown away, but mostly our neighborhood came through very well.  They didn't even lose power, and that was my biggest concern.

Our awesome next-door neighbors, Ken and Luanne, actually checked on our lanai for us.  It is still standing, and so is theirs!  No trees even went down in our yards, although one went down out by the street in the neighbor's yard on the other side of them.  I heard there is a tree down blocking the street up by the Palms, about a mile from our house.  All in all, we will all probably be getting our roofs inspected just in case, but in general we can count our blessings!

In other good news, I have lost another 1.6 pounds since yesterday!  This morning the scale reported my weight at 271.4.  WOW!  After so many weeks of nothing happening, suddenly my body seems to be making up for lost time.  Nice.  I have no complaints.

My fasting blood sugar was 114, still above normal for a non-diabetic, definitely in the pre-diabetic range.  This has been consistent since I first started testing. I'm glad I have that doctor appointment to discuss this later in September.  I'm doing all I can do, watching my carbs and calories and losing weight.

Yesterday we had a wonderful time going to see the movie with my student/friends Jon and Jen.  We will see them again on Wednesday for dinner here at the house.  Then we had dinner at Seasons 52, which might now be my favorite restaurant.  I ate only exactly what I had planned.  It also helped that this restaurant did NOT put any bread and butter on the table. In the past, that might have made me sad, but now it made me glad!  LOL!

Today we will have a low-key day.  We want to do some shopping and go to the pet cemetery to visit our four pets.  Two of them are in a great people/pet cemetery that is regularly kept up.  Two of them are in a pets-only cemetery across the street from the other one that fell on hard times, and no one keeps it up.  We haven't visited in three years, and the last time we had a hard time finding the graves because the thatchy grass had grown over the plaques on the ground. Once we found them, we cleared them off by hand, but this time we are taking clippers, a spade, and a trowel to make the job easier.  We just hope we can find them.

Irma is in the Keys.

Carol and Abdul were great yesterday and put up the shutters and completely cleared the lanai.  That's now a worry that is off the table.

Meanwhile, the track has gone a bit further west.  Orlando is not taking a direct hit, although Tampa is.  Our area will probably have winds only up to 64 mph over night tonight, which does not worry me at all with all the preparations Carol and Abdul have done.  The power could go out, but we shall see about that tomorrow.

This morning I had a fasting blood sugar of 122, not at all good.  I had all my meals at home, but I did eat more challah than I should have at lunch.  My total calories yesterday were only 1210 and the total carbs were 121.  That's an excellent day in anybody's book.  I didn't eat anything after 8:30 last night because we had dinner late, at 8 p.m.  At this point, the only way these sugar numbers are going down is probably after a significant weight loss, which takes time.  This morning I was down another half pound to an even 273.  That's an important number to me because it was the weight I was in August of 2015 when we went to Hawaii.  I gained very little weight on that trip, only about a pound and a half, so that was great for me.  So my first mini-goal for this round of weight loss was to hit that number again.  Now my second mini-goal is to get to 255.  That's what I weighed at Lowell's wedding on July 12, 2014.  18 pounds to go to make that goal, and I'm going to try very hard to make it.

Most weight loss studies show that a 10% loss in weight makes a huge difference in health.  For me that would depend on when you count it from.  On March 14, after the fifth cruise in three months, I hit my peak for this year, 295.  In fact that's the peak for the last EIGHT years because that was the weight I had in the doctor's office in April of 2009 when I was recently down from my all-time high of 322.  If I count the 10% from the 295 in March, then I needed to lose 29.5 pounds, and I have actually now lost 22 pounds from that, an average of nearly a pound a week.  That's not fast, but I guess it's still acceptable.  So in seven and a half more pounds, at 265.5, I will make that 10%.  I will not be satisfied with that, but it's an excellent start.

Unfortunately, if I continue to lose at about a pound a week, it will take about 8 weeks to do that.  In the next 8 weeks I have a Magical Dining night, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Succoth, and a 12 night cruise out of Quebec City.  NONE of these things in the past have been conducive to weight loss for me.  These are HUGE challenges.  Perhaps worrying about the blood sugars will keep me honest.

Today we are meeting former students of mine, Jon Neale and his sister Jen.  I taught both of them at Woodlawn High School back in the early 1990s.  We bonded over our mutual love of Star Trek back then, and we have remained friends ever since!  Today we are going to see Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan on the big screen at Arundel Mills Mall.  We have both seen it many times, but Jon said he had never seen it on a big screen. That did it for me!  His birthday is Thursday, so I am taking him and Jen to the movies and buying all their snacks as a birthday present.  It will be like old times watching a Star Trek movie with the two of them.

After the movie, we are meeting Lowell, Emily, and her parents, Phil and Pat, at Seasons 52 in Columbia.  I have already checked out the menu, which posted calorie counts.  I will have the grilled trout with mashed potatoes and veggies for 490 calories and 28 carbs.  That's great.  Mark is having the same.  Then we plan to split the cannoli dessert, giving us each another 15 carbs.  If there is nothing else, then my dinner is only 43 carbs and 565 calories. That's perfect.  My day today will be 1335 calories and 149 carbs, another great day.  I expect to have a blood sugar in the 110-120 range again, but I really believe there is nothing I can do about it until more weight is lost or the doctor decides to put me on some meds.  I see the doctor on September 27.  Between now and then, I will continue to try to lose weight and count every calorie and carb so that I have lots of ammunition to show her that I'm doing my best.

OKAY Irma!  Bring it on.  We are all waiting to see what you are going to do tonight.

Hurricane Irma is getting closer.

This is a SCARY storm.  I am safe and snug in Cindy's house in the Baltimore area, but I am very worried about our relatives, friends, synagogue members, and all of our neighbors in the Kissimmee/Poinciana/Orlando area.

Yesterday the track shifted slightly westward bringing a direct hit over our house.  Then it was reported that it was going to be a Cat 5 hitting Miami and probably a FOUR on our house.  We started to really worry then because we didn't have the hurricane shutters up or the lanai cleared.  I contacted my cleaning team, Carol and Abdul, and offered them a little more money than I had already offered my handyman, who could not do it since he had five other houses to do.  Lo and Behold!  They happened to be off work today and were more than happy to go do it.  God Bless Carol and Abdul!!

Now this morning the track is moving even more to the west putting Tampa under the direct hit at a Cat 3.  We are now on the east side winds, which are going to be high plus a high chance of tornadoes, too.  Geez.  Well, I don't know if that's better or worse for our neighborhood, but at least we will have done all we can do to prepare.

The roads in Florida are clogged and barely moving as people try to evacuate.  There are many mandatory evacuations from all the Keys and south Florida like Miami and other places there.  There is no gas, no water, barely any other supplies.  Airlines have sent out their last flight last night.  As many people as could be flew out.  Airlines sent bigger planes in to max the numbers, and yet many people could not get a flight at all and are now hunkering down in shelters.  Shelters quickly filled to capacity, so new ones had to be opened. Tourists and residents alike are just doing their best to stay safe in the path of this monstrous storm.

Many of our favorite Caribbean ports have been completely destroyed especially Grand Turk, St. Martin, and St. Bart.  Also the US and British Virgin Islands are in a shambles.  I wonder how long it will be before the cruise ships will be able to go back to those places.  The airport on St. Martin is destroyed!  This is just such a tragedy.  Last I heard there have been 21 deaths, but everyone anticipates that number will be higher eventually.  Everyone is praying for Florida.

All the major theme parks are closing later today and staying closed through Monday.  This is unprecedented for them, having never closed more than a day for any storm before.  That just shows how horrible they anticipate this one is going to be.

Still, Evey and Eric have changed their flight to go through Detroit instead of Atlanta, which is expected to be under the remnants of Irma on Tuesday as a Tropical Storm, and will land in Orlando on Tuesday morning around 11 a.m.  Who knows if there will be power or water?  Maybe their flight may yet be canceled.  Who really knows?  When they changed their Magical Express bus with Disney, the lady was confident that they would have no problems and have a great vacation. I hope she is right.  Sadly, we will not be seeing them and enjoying the parks with them as we had originally planned.  I just hope that if they are determined to do this, it goes well for them.  WDW has its own power plant, so they can possibly keep power going when the rest of greater Orlando has no power.

We are scheduled to return next Sunday, the 17th, and we are fervently hoping that the power and water are working by then and that we have an intact house to go home to.

Finally, there's good news and bad news for me here in Maryland.

The good news is that I've lost almost two pounds since Wednesday!  I'm only 273.5 this morning, which surprised me because I had a lot of sodium yesterday.  I played Mah Jongg at the New Deal Cafe in Greenbelt with my Mishkan Torah synagogue friends, so we all ate lunch while we played.  I got the portobello mushroom sandwich with cheese, pesto, lettuce, tomato, and onion, and it came with a big pile of sweet potato fries.  I ate every last bite, and it was delicious.  I tried to estimate the calories and carbs, but that is always so hard.  My best guess was 775 calories and 85 carbs.  Ha! 85-100 carbs is Mark's daily allotment of carbs, and I ate it at lunch.  My total carbs yesterday were 167.

That is probably why the bad news is bad.  My fasting blood sugar was 117 today.  I have not had a normal reading, that is 100 or less, since I first thought about the thirst and urination back on August 29.  That was the day I tested for the first time and got 120 fasting.  This is the twelfth morning that I have been above 100, and once it was as high as 129.  Clearly, if I'm not a full blown diabetic, I am at least in the pre diabetes stages.  The only fix for that is weight loss, so I will continue to work on that.  I also have an appointment with my new family doctor on September 27.  I will continue to test several times a day and log it all in as well as keep my calories and carbs low, despite what I just did yesterday, and see if I can lose a few more pounds by then.  I want to be able to say to her that I am doing my best so far.  Even though my carbs were high yesterday, I did keep my calories right on the target amount of 1516 for the day.  So that's something.

This morning we are heading out soon to Mishkan Torah for services with Rabbi Saul again.  We visited them in their new home, the house provided by the synagogue for the rabbi, and then we went to lunch at Max's where Rudy also joined us.  I ordered the chicken vegetable soup and the hamburger patty with lettuce, tomato, and broccoli, no bun.  That was an excellent choice.  I am concentrating on trying to make better restaurant choices, and I admit to being disappointed that I failed at that yesterday.  So, pick myself up and move on.  Right?  I have spent a lifetime beating myself up about poor choices and binge-eating, and that just leads to feelings of guilt, depression, and more eating.  I'm trying to turn that around, although I admit it's very, very hard.

Let me close with prayers for the state of Florida and all of our friends and relatives.  Dear Lord, if it be Your will, please hold our friends and relatives and everyone in the path of Hurricane Irma in Your arms and bring them through this storm safely.

"Of course you can change your ticket without charge. We know it's coming."

That was what Amtrak told me this morning when I called to inquire about changing our auto train ticket from this Friday to Sunday the 17th.  He even said that if we change our mind again and don't want to go back on the 17th, no problem.  Call, change, no charge!  I love Amtrak!

The decision to stay put in Maryland instead of heading home and into Hurricane Irma created a whole host of other changes.  We are spending the day calling doctors to change appointments, pharmacies to get prescriptions sent up to the local CVS, emailing to change all of our social obligations like Mah Jongg games, dinners out, and WDW plans.  Evey and Eric are supposed to fly in on Tuesday the 12th for four nights and lots of plans.  We were going to join them for most of the plans.  At this point, we are now out of their plans, but she has not cancelled.  She plans to wait until Friday to see and make a decision.  Friday was too late for us to change Amtrak since that was the day we were scheduled on the train.  I feel that we have let a lot of people down, including Evey and Eric, but we just felt that we needed to err on the side of safety.  Now we can only pray that all of our friends and neighbors in Irma's path have their hurricane supplies laid in and come through it safely.  Who knows what the hurricane will really bring.  It's very frightening.

 Meanwhile, it is also weigh-in Wednesday. Finally, it was good.  I am officially down 1 and 1/2 pounds for the week, and I'm thrilled.  It's been so hard to lose any weight lately, so this was very nice.  I was 275.2 this morning, down from 277 yesterday morning and 276.7 last Wednesday.  I hope it continues!

Also this morning I got a fasting blood sugar of 129, which could mean that I am officially a diabetic IF I get a reading that high again.  Two in a row gives the official diagnosis, and 126 was the cut-off number.  I passed that today.  I have had slightly high sugars every time that I have tested, both fasting and after meals.  Nothing good. I'm very unhappy about this.  Type II diabetics who are overweight can usually undo all of the problems just by losing weight, so clearly that is the first line of defense.  I can only say that I am trying to do that.

My excessive thirst and consequently frequent urination has continued, and the blood sugar numbers do not seem to be high enough to justify how bad the thirst and excessive urination has become.  So I googled other possibilities for that.  There are dozens!  Two seem likely if it's not just Type II diabetes, but I'm not getting alarmed about either one yet.  I am planning on calling my doctor today to schedule an appointment to discuss this when I get back after the hurricane.  There really isn't anything else I can do at this point.

It's Labor Day! It's Evey and Eric's sixth anniversary!

I have not posted since Friday.  That usually means I've been busy and having a great time.  This is no exception.

Saturday we went to Mishkan Torah because Rabbi Saul is there now!  It was exciting, wonderful, and even comforting to hear Saul's voice davening the morning service.  We really enjoyed the entire service and the chance to visit with old friends.  After service, Rabbi Saul led a Torah discussion.  Mark stayed the whole time, but I could only stay twenty minutes because I was scheduled to play Mah Jongg at Annie H.'s house at 1 p.m.

I went to Annie's house, where there were seven of us playing.  I was the ONLY one who did not win a single game.  Ouch!  I predicted that, though, because I had won six games on Monday.  Robin, who had been having a long dry spell, broke that spell by winning FIVE games in a ROW!  She won a few after that, too, I think.  Anyway, the point was to have fun and be with friends, and I certainly did do that.

I also over ate like crazy!  Arlene had made a special cinnamon challah loaf that I had specifically requested. I literally, and I mean that LITERALLY, ate three-quarters of the entire loaf by myself.  Unbelievably delicious.  I ate a scoop of whitefish salad, a little bean dip, and a little hummus, along with one slice of regular challah, and a cookie.  If I had not eaten so much cinnamon challah, the lunch would not have been too bad!  LOL!

We left Annie's at 4 and headed back to Cindy's for a brief respite before heading to Lowell's in-laws, Phil and Pat.  Surprise!  They had brought their two dogs, Trillian and Ozma.  They were adorable, and we had never seen them running like crazy through a big open yard, so that was a lot of fun.  Phil grilled salmon and there were baked potatoes, salad, bread, and my asparagus.  Emily and Lowell had brought a giant fruit tart for dessert that was spectacular.  This was our first time at their house, and it was warm, cozy, inviting, and loving.  We had a blast.

Of course, Sunday was the main event, the reason we are here, the wedding of Ilan Oresky and Kat Haynos.  They were married in the Willard Hotel, just two blocks from the White House on Pennsylvania Avenue.  It was really beautiful, and since Saul and Phyllis were only allowed to invite 30 people, we felt especially honored to be included in that group.

Today I weighed 277, which I think is okay after the weekend.  I also have not tested my blood for two days, but my last test was normal and I have not been experiencing the intense thirst.  I have now  bought my own blood sugar monitor, and today I plan to set it up so that I can test whenever I want without bothering Mark.  Also later today Cindy will join us to go to a movie at the local theater.  We plan to see The Hitman's Bodyguard.

And before I forget, Happy Anniversary to Mr. and Mrs. Eric Gaertner.  Today is their SIXTH anniversary.  Time really does fly.  Also, they have actually been together as a couple for 12 years.  Amazing.  Wishing them many more decades of happiness.

Here are a few pictures from dinner Saturday night, the wedding, and Evey and Eric.

Lowell and his dog Ozma.

Cindy took this one at her house before we left for the wedding.

Kat and Ilan

Xenia and Joel Oresky

Louis Rosen and girlfriend Brook.

Jeremiah Oresky, cousin of the groom, with Mark.

Good friends, Jeff and Mark.

The first dance as a married couple.

Rabbi Saul did kiddish and ha-motzi and gave a lovely speech to the bride and groom.

Father and daughter dance.

Mother and son dance

And Happy Anniversary to Evey and Eric.

Pictures from a trip to WDW back in 2013.

At Cindy's

The auto train was great, as usual.  I slept very well in the coach seat, and I logged in my dinner in the app like I said I would and ate only the fish, rice, and veggies.

Thursday we got off the train and in our car by 9:30 a.m.  There was no traffic in the D.C. area, so we went straight to the Silver Spring, MD kosher store to pick up some meat and challah. Then we went to the kosher restaurant nearby for lunch.  I still have to eat soft food, so I got chicken vegetable soup and a bowl of chili.  It's hard to estimate the calories in something like that.  The chicken soup was excellent, but the chili was not.  It was a thick bowl of ground beef and kidney beans that tasted only of salt.  There was not a hint of another spice in there, so it was very disappointing.  I ate it all, so I'm sure I got a week's worth of sodium yesterday.  Then we went to pick up a frozen eggplant parmigiana that we all like at a convenient grocery store only to find that they didn't carry that product.  We were getting tired and wanted to get to Cindy's house, so we bought a frozen macaroni and cheese instead.  We wanted a quick and easy, no-cooking-involved dinner since we were tired and Mark didn't want to have to cook.  The mac 'n cheese was delicious, and even though I scanned the box and logged in the one cup that I should have eaten, I went out of control and ate two cups, at least.  I didn't measure it at all.  The sodium level yesterday, guessing at the chili, was nearly 7,000mg and about 1800 calories.

UGH.  So many mistakes.  So this morning my weight is up FOUR pounds in two days and my fasting blood sugar was 117.  This is the first time in over forty years that Mark's blood sugar was lower than mine.  He was only 96 this morning.  I wanted to cry. I'm hoping the four pounds are strictly water retention from too much sodium, but it's another day when no weight was lost, for sure.

So today will be challenging in that Lowell and Emily are coming over at 6 p.m. for Shabbat dinner.  We have two rotisserie chickens from the kosher store, challah, fresh string beans, and a store bought potato kugel with no nutrition info on the package.  I have guessed on the kugel and logged in everything else.  If I don't get out of control and take more than I've programmed, my calories today will be about 1100, and the sodium should be under 2,000.  This has the potential to be an excellent day.

I really DO NOT want to be a diabetic.  So far, I'm only in the high end of pre-diabetes, so there is time to correct it, but not if I don't take it seriously, lose weight, and control the carbs. This is scary, and I'm hoping my fear will keep me on track.  It didn't last night when I piled mac 'n cheese on my plate, but today is a new day.  Time to start over, again.