Cats, Skating & Emmys - Did you spot the lie?

I'm a terrible liar.  But last week for Meme Monday, I gave it a shot.  I told you two truths and one lie.  As promised, I will reveal the answer today.  But first, let's look at what you all thought, on both my knitting blog and diabetes blog.

Only two people thought that I didn't go to the Celebration of a Life tribute to Sergei Grinkov.  Three people said I didn't attend the last Broadway performance of Cats.  And a whopping ten of you said I wasn't in the audience when Susan Lucci won the Daytime Emmy.

Well, maybe I'm not such a bad liar after all.  I was absolutely in the audience at Madison Square Garden the night Susan Lucci won her Emmy.  A co-worker had tickets and invited a group of us along.  It was a lot of fun to get all dressed up in gowns and go to the awards, especially since I'd been watching All My Children and General Hospital since high school.  And when Susan Lucci won, the place went nuts!

I was also at the Hartford Civic Center the night that the biggest stars in skating gathered to pay tribute to Sergei.  My mom and I are huge figure skating fans and were heart-broken when Sergei died.  The tribute was one of the saddest shows I have ever witnessed and I think we cried the whole time.

But alas, I have never, ever seen the play Cats, much less the final performance!

I hope you had as much fun with this meme as I did!  And now, do you have two truths and a lie you'd like to post?  I'd love to guess your lie!

iPod shuffle

Cara recently posted a challenge aimed at helping us know the "small, silly, trivial" things about one another.  She asked that we put our iPods on shuffle and list what songs are played.  It was fun to read her list, and I was happy to see many other bloggers sharing their lists too.  For some Friday Fun, I thought I'd post my own iPod shuffle list!  Here goes:

1. Sway - Michael Buble
2. White Rabbit - Jefferson Airplane
3. Deja Voodoo - Kenny Wayne Shephard
4. Southern Cross - Crosby, Stills & Nash
5. Same Old Lang Syne - Dan Fogelberg
6. Sign Your Name - Terence Trent D'Arby
7. I Believe in You - Don Williams
8. I'd Really Love to See You Tonight - England Dan & John Ford Coley
9. Nessun Dorma - Luciano Pavarotti
10. Gold Dust Woman - Fleetwood Mac
11. Take Five - Dave Brubeck
12. Dream On - Aerosmith
13. Can't Find My Way Home - Blind Faith
14. Come On Eileen - Dexy's Midnight Runners
15. Caruso - Luciano Pavarotti
16. Knitting Song - Rainbow Chasers
17. Valotte - Julian Lennon
18. Ikea - Jonathan Coulton

Yikes!!  Classic rock, 80s hits, some 70s stuff, an instrumental jazz tune, some opera and even one lone country song!  (I'm not much of a country music fan, but my parents are.  I've always liked that song and chose it to dance with my father to at my wedding.)  There is also a pretty song about knitting and a funny song about that Swedish furniture chain.  (The video isn't that good - except for the part with the rabbits, but the song lyrics make me laugh!)  So is that list the oddest mix you've seen or what??

How to scare off your friends?

Why, just wave your freak flag high and proud!!

The other day, Kerri posted about logging.  General consensus among the comments and on Twitter was that we hate logging.  It may be extremely helpful, but the very act of writing down each blood sugar, insulin dose and carb count borders on torture.  So most of us just don't.

Enter me, the OCD freak.  Yes, I do log.  Practically every day (although some days I do slip a bit).  I buy (yes, buy!!) the logbooks from Minimed and write down everything.

That's right, EVERYTHING (although it looks like I forgot to fill in a couple of things toward the end of that day).  Reading from the top down, you can see the time of my blood sugar checks and the numbers.  The carbs counts.  The food bolus and correction bolus amounts.  My basal rates are written in every day, even though they haven't changed in months.  I put a check in the box when I exercise.  Instead of noting ketones (which I rarely have & can note on the bottom page if I need to), I write down what my CGM read at the time of my finger-stick.  Under that, I write down how much that reading varied from the finger-stick.  Oh, and I also note if I calibrated or not.

On the bottom page, I fill in exactly what I ate for each meal and snack, along with the carb count for each food.  And I note what exercise I did, and what my blood sugars where before and after.

Nothing like being thorough, huh?  Yeah, my logbook is my Freak Flag, and I might as well wave it high!

Meme Monday - Two Truths and A Lie

This week, I thought I'd resurrect an old meme that was going around a few years ago.  It's called "Two Truths and A Lie", and as you can probably guess, the object is for me to post two truths and one lie.  Then, you guys comment and see if you can spot the lie.  So here we go:

1. The musical Cats used to claim it would run "now and forever at the Winter Garden Theatre", but it actually had it's final Broadway performance in September of 2000.  I was there.
2. Figure skater Sergei Grinkov died of a heart attack in November of 1995.  That spring, his friends gathered for a tribute show called "Celebration of a Life".  It was the first time since his death that his widow, Ekaterina Gordeeva, performed.  I was there.
3. Susan Lucci was nominated for 19 Daytime Emmys, but year after year she would lose to other actresses.  In May of 1999, she finally won.  I was there.
   

Okay, so tell me, which one is the lie? I'll post the answer next week.

A nice day for a walk . . .

Did you know that today is the American Heart Association's National Start! Walking Day?

The idea is for people to take 30 minutes today to walk, starting them on the path to better heart health - and better health over all.  As a person with diabetes, I'm at greater risk for heart disease so this program really caught my attention.

Last week, I blogged about my lack of exercise and my plan to do something about it.  I'm starting slow, with just 20 minutes a day.  It may not sound like much, but my feeling is that at least it's something.  I've walked every day except Sunday (when I got really lazy).  So that's about 2 hours and 40 minutes and 6 miles more than I had been doing.

I realize that part of why my exercise regimes fail is that I push myself too hard too fast.  Instead of celebrating the fact that I'm exercising at all, I berate myself for not exercising longer or pushing harder.  It's not surprising that I burn out fast.  This time, I'm learning to take it slow and steady.  Just 20 minutes a day until the end of April.  By then, it should be part of my routine and I can start increasing my time and adding some weights.

But today, for National Start! Walking Day, I'll push through and do 30 minutes.  Will you join me?

Meme Monday - More About Me

 Once again, it's time for Meme Monday.

Once again you get to read a bunch of boring stuff about me . . . but after all, I guess that's why it's called a "meme".

I grabbed this one from Kerry Knits.

1. Can you cook?

Yes, I can. And I really enjoy it - most of the time.

2. What was your dream growing up?

Hmm, nothing really comes to mind. But I know I wanted to be married (check) with two kids (not yet . . .).

3. What talent do you wish you had?

There are lots of talents I wish I had. I would love to be able to sing . . . on key. I'd love to be able to figure skate. I'd like to be really good at ballroom dancing.

4. Favorite place?

Anywhere my Sweetpea is.

5. Favorite vegetable?

Asparagus.

6. What was the last book you read?

I'm reading three books right now - the new Yarn Harlot book, a Stephen King book, and a book on cat care by the Humane Society. But the last one I finished? I'm not sure I remember. I don't read as much now that I knit.

7. What zodiac sign are you?

I'm a Gemini.

8. Any Tattoos and/or Piercings?

Just one piercing in each ear. I've always wanted a tattoo, but I'll probably never actually get one.

9. Worst Habit?

Procrastination.

10. What is your favorite sport?

Figure skating. And YES, it is a sport!

11. Is a glass of water half full or half empty?

It's usually half empty and I want to know who the hell drank my water!!

12. What would you do if you were stuck in an elevator with me (after we called for help, of course)?

Freak out because I'm claustrophobic!!

13. Would you share an embarrassing moment with me?

Oh gosh, there are so many, how do I pick?  How about this one.  My friends and I were chatting at the Christmas party we threw this year, and we were discussing cooking lobsters.  My friend said he steams them instead of boiling then.  I wondered, out loud, if when you boil lobsters it's the heat that kills them or if they drown in the water.  Yeah, everyone had a good laugh at me!

14. Tell me one weird fact about you.

Oh again, how do I pick?  Is it weird that I find vacuuming up dust balls and polishing until the house shines to be a comforting and centering activity?  They say "Knitting is the new yoga", but I think "Housework is the new yoga".

15. Do you have any pets?

A wonderful cat named K.C.

16. Can you read a book upside down?

Yes, but why would I want to?

17. What time is it where you are now?

8:55 am.

18. Who was the scariest fairy-tale/children movie hero ever for you?

Scariest hero?  I guess little tiny Thumbelina and her adventures were kind of scary.

19. If you could change one thing about how you look, what would it be?

I'd have the body of a swimsuit model.

20. Would you be my crime partner or my conscience?

Unfortunately, I'd probably be your conscience.

21. What color eyes do you have?

Boring brown.

22. Ever been arrested?

Nope.

23. A cop or a robber?

Neither, I think.

24. If you won $10,000 today, what would you do with it?

Take a fabulous vacation and re-do the kitchen.

25. What kind of bubble gum do you prefer to chew?

I don't really chew BUBBLE gum. Just mint gum of the non-bubble variety.

26. Favorite fast-food restaurant?

McDonalds.

27. Do you believe in ghosts?

Absolutely, I do.

28. Favorite thing to do in your spare time?

KNIT. (duh)

29. Do you swear a lot?

That's none of your #*&^(!$* business.

30. Biggest pet peeve?

When people pop their gum. That drives me absolutely bonkers.

31. In one word, how would you describe yourself?

Average.

Okay, if you've read all the way through my boring list of freaky facts, I think you should post this meme on your own blog.  Let me know, so I can come read your answers.

Low Alarms . . .

So, I'm having lunch with a friend and former co-worker who is a Type 2, and my CGM's low alarm goes off.  My friend panics a bit and asks if I have something with me to treat a low.  As I reach into my purse for my meter, I show him that the inside of my pocketbook looks like an Eater basket practically bursting with candy.  Unfortunately, most of it is chocolate, which won't help much in this situation.

Luckily, the low treatment isn't needed.  My fingerstick shows me at a perfect 100.  Soon after, I'm having coffee with my former boss, and my low alarm goes off again.  My meter shows 110, so I'm really getting annoyed.  Actually, my CGM screen shows 110 as well.  Since my alarm is set for 70 or below, I can't figure out why it went off.  As I ponder this, it goes off yet again . . .

I open my eyes and realize the low alarm had woven itself into the thread of my dream.   Although my "dream finger-sticks" showed me at 100 and 110, my real life Friday morning fingerstick showed me at 50.  I had done the right thing in my dream and tested each time the alarm went off.  In real life, however, I had slept through 20 minutes of alarms.

Does diabetes weave itself into your dreams too, or is it just me?