This must be diabetes week in my family.

My sister Debbie was just diagnosed as ‘pre-diabetic’ – her A1c was 6.4 – right on the cusp of a diabetes diagnosis.  (Higher than mine!)  If she had been diagnosed a little lower (like 6.0 or 5.8) I wouldn’t be too worried about her, but this is just too close for comfort.  She recently had a heart attack, she has COPD really bad, and hasn’t quit smoking yet.  She needs to make a drastic lifestyle change.  I gave her a bunch of information I had lying around regarding counting carbs, what foods go into which groups (can be a little different for diabetics because some ‘vegetables’ are more starch than others, so they go in the starches group – like corn and peas.)  I’m not going to bug her about any of this, but I will be here ready with answers to any of her questions.

My brother Rod was just diagnosed as diabetic.  He’s 10 years younger than me.  I don’t have all the details yet as to what his test results were.  He’s going to call me when he gets home from work tonight and tell me what is on the paperwork he got from his doctor.  But he said his blood sugar was 140 – which is high *IF* he was fasting.  He said he checked it this morning and it was 128.  I gave him a meter a year or two ago because he had some symptoms that pointed to diabetes to me, but we had just finished eating about a half hour before and his glucose was 158.  I gave him one of my meters and told him to monitor it.

I gave Deb one of my meters when she was here and told her to test at least in the morning before she ate breakfast, but it would be good to also test 2 hours after every meal to see how different foods affect her blood sugar.

I hope both of them quit smoking before they do anything else.  Both of their significant others smoke, so it’s going to be difficult for them.

I’m going to be doing the Walk for Diabetes again this year.  I did it last year and was able to raise ~$800.  I set my goal for this year to $500 but I am really hoping to raise $1000.  I will be walking at the Detroit Zoo in September.  I’ll post details as it gets closer.  

Here are pictures from the tulip festival.  Roger took these.  They were not actually taken at the festival – they were taken at a tulip farm outside of the Holland (MI) city limits.  The windmill is a replica of the last windmill sent to the U.S. from Holland.  The real one is on Windmill Island in Holland, MI.  Roger took all of these pictures.

We’re about to embark on our first camping trip using our new travel trailer.  We’re going to go to Holland, MI and take in the Tulip festival.  I’ll be roughing it this weekend.

Oh, my idea of roughing it is having to use my tablet instead of my laptop.  No World of Warcraft.

We took first place in our division (small chorus < 30 members) and this year we took 4th place overall for our region – beating out a mid-sized (30-60 members) chorus (unheard of!!)  Last year we were fifth.

There are 35 regions internationally.  Once all the regions are finished, they take the top five scorers in each division to the international competition.   Right now we are 2nd place in our division internationally, but there are still three more regions to hold their contests.  If we remain in the top 5, we’ll get to compete internationally

(I’m hoping for new costumes for next year!)

Three days until our regional singing competition and I twisted my ankle last night.

1775 – The American Revolution began as fighting broke out at Lexington, MA.

1897 – The first annual Boston Marathon was held. It was the first of its type in the U.S.

1956 – Actress Grace Kelly became Princess Grace of Monaco when she married Prince Rainier III of Monaco.

1977 – Alex Haley received a special Pulitzer Prize for his book “Roots.”

1982 – NASA named Sally Ride to be first woman astronaut.

1993 – The Branch-Davidian’s compound in Waco, TX, burned to the ground.

1995 – The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, OK, was destroyed by a bomb.

And born on this day in history…

Eliot Ness 1903

Frank Fontaine 1920 (I wonder how many people remember that name?  Maybe “Crazy Guggenheim” rings a bell)

Jayne Mansfield (Vera Jane Palmer) 1932

Dudley Moore 1935

Paloma Picasso 1949 (Tiffany’s jewelry designer and daughter of Pablo Picasso)

Paul Day 1956 (from Iron Maiden)

Me! 1956

So Roger is going to keep my Beretta for himself.  Today I went out and bought a Glock 19.  I used one during my range training and hit the target with much more accuracy.  I will probably join a sportsman’s club so I can have access to a range.  I think I want to go at least once a week.  Once I build my confidence, I might get into competitive shooting – they have them for all levels.  I’m definitely at the beginner level!  My goal is to become so confident and competent that it will be very easy to defend myself if it ever becomes necessary to use lethal force.  (And to think three months ago I was a total pacifist and couldn’t even touch a gun without my stomach clenching.)

We went to the range to practice.  I have never shot a pistol before.  When we first walked back, I had headphones on but the shots I was hearing made me nearly jump out of my skin!  I have to get used to how a gun sounds when it goes off and not react so strongly.  Still, I did pretty well.  I shot about 30 rounds.  Target was an 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper with a target in the middle.  I hit the target and close to the bulls  eye at 9 and 12 feet, but at 21 feet I only hit the paper 5 out of 7 times.  I actually did better than Roger did with his Ruger LC9 in the close range targets.  He did much better than me though when it was 21 feet away.

We have our actual range training tomorrow night. I hope I can pass my CPL Range test tomorrow night!

Let’s hope I can do it justice.  My range is the same as hers.

… camping?

A few weeks ago we went to the Flint Camper and RV show.  Last year we went to the big one in Novi.  At that time, however, we weren’t ready to buy.  This time we were.  We are limited by what our Durango can tow so we had to look for something around 5000 pounds.  We looked at quite a few and liked them, but when I walked through this one, I fell in love!  We’re picking it up Saturday.  I’ve never been much of a camper, but I am looking forward to a lot of long weekends in this!