I guess I am on a roll today. Technically, this will be three posts in a matter of hours. Does it count if one was written 3 months ago and one was started a few weeks ago? I thought so …

I last had an A1c in August and was clambering for another one because I just love to watch myself bleed really want to be sure I am doing the right things with my diet and exercise. But let’s not talk about exercise. I will likely have to start over on the torture machine elliptical at 5 minutes again as it has been so long since I have been there.

WalMart has a home A1c test for less than 10 bucks. It comes with a prepaid envelope, loads of instructions that are mostly easy to understand, a couple of sharp implements, an alcohol swab and other various items needed to procure blood from a turnip finger. The object is to leak out enough blood onto two dime-sized dots. One thing they stress: keep the slip of paper with the secret code to log in securely and get your results if you ask they email them to you. Hint: do not lie when filling out the card you mail in and be sure your handwriting is legible. It will likely come in handy when the slip of paper doesn’t materialize because you know you will put it someplace secure and will promptly lose it or forget where that spot is hidden.

All of this to say: my A1c was … :::::drumroll please::::: 5.6! It went down .3 points since August. If you go by the Mayo Clinic, they say that 5.6 is a normal level. Other websites state that it needs to be under 5.6. Either way … I am almost there. I will have another test by the local labs in December but this is just so damn exciting. I have worked hard to achieve this goal … along with a weight loss of just over 50 lbs. The scale is moving again in the right direction.

My dad and stepmom came to town for Thanksgiving dinner. It was so nice to have them here. I wasn’t sure what time they were going to arrive. I am so glad I called them when I did … they were 30 minutes out!! Michael suggested to me that I might want to put on pants as I was still in my jammies. I retorted, “I need to shower first!” and quickly jumped into the shower. Michael then observed, “Everyone was just walking around, ‘Oh, I am going to be lazy’ until they heard how soon grandpa and grandma were going to be here!'”  He was quite right.

Dinner was nice. We had lots of food … no one went hungry. My dad has quite the aversion to garlic so the house had been a garlic-free zone for a few days. I even put the heads of garlic in the garage just for him (speaking of which: they can come out of isolation now). Dad noticed the “potatoes” I was making were not quite right by asking, “Why are you making cauliflower!?” He declined to try my cheesy mashed “potatoes”. More for me, I say!

Here is a picture of everyone except myself and my husband.

Such a good lookin’ bunch!

After dinner, the football game was paused while we ate (though they were not kind enough to just sit down on the sidelines so we could eat: we took advantage of technology for that) and Dad suggested cleaning up before resuming the game. The men were going to clean up. Instead, they spent an hour or so trying to unclog the drain that some unwitting soul put the peeling of over 5 lbs of potatoes down through the garbage disposal. I promise to never do that again.

So … the dishes sat. A run to the store to get some Liquid Plumber and an hour or so later, still not working. I called the home warranty people and was given a name and number by a very nice lady robot who I never once told to go jump. I don’t usually do well with computers that talk to me like I am some idiot. I have teenagers for that, thankyouverymuch. I waited, not so patiently, for a call from the plumber. I called at 7:50 a.m. today and got a voicemail for a man, not a company. I hung up. Googled the phone number to be sure it was corrected and called back a short time later. Left a voicemail this time.

The owner of the company called me back and told me he would be happy to come out: Tuesday morning! I asked him what sort of company was it that my home warranty referred him to me when he couldn’t handle emergencies? He told me he WAS able to handle them but he was currently booked through that time … oh wait, I might be able to squeeze you in Monday afternoon.

I contacted my Realtor to see if she had any contacts whereby I could talk to a human. She got on it. I talked to her later in the day and decided to try calling the warranty folks a second time and discovered there really was a way to get a human on the line: and in this case, it is NOT pressing 0 repeatedly. That just caused the crazy bitch robot to hang up on me. This human gave me a different name and number. For those local: I would not recommend SOUL-UTIONS Plumbing & Drain Cleaning but would certainly give a two thumbs up for Swoosh Plumbing Services. I called Joe about 2:15 or so and he was here just after 4. It took him about 2 hours to unclog the drain and he had to use the big guns. He apologized for the mess he made and for using towels that Alex had already sacrificed to the plumbing g-ds.

Alex and the kids finished up the dishes (RJ and Michael had already done the silverware in the bathroom sink as it was all dirty and we thought we might need some). It is nice to have my kitchen clean again.

So, Thanksgiving 2012 is winding down and I declare it a success. I hope that yours was, too, and this is just the beginning of a joyous holiday season, whatever holiday you will be celebrating!