I don't hate being diabetic, I just hate my blood meter right now

Right about this point is when I yelled (to no one in particular) that it shouldn't take three test strips, two meters, two batteries and four fingers to find out my blood sugar is low. I knew it was low because I felt like crap.

I'm furious with my blood glucose meter(s) at the moment. All of a sudden, about a month ago both of my meters started acting flaky. I replaced both batteries and they still randomly give me battery warnings. I have to insert and reinsert the test strip to get it to start up. In this most recent case, it took my blood, counted down from 5 and then gave me the generic "E-3" error which means I get to try again. Twice.

Each test strip costs $0.75 so I just spent $2.25 this evening to confirm that I felt crappy for a reason. Since my fingers are full of callouses, I had to use four fingers to try to get blood to start and then hope I could get enough out of it for my three attempts at a test. They don't mention this stuff on those day time TV commercials about living with diabetes.

I'm not annoyed about the possibility of blindness, kidney failure or any other dramatic complications from a lifetime of diabetes. I just would like to have a simple piece of electronics work so I can take care of myself.

The meter I'm using is the only one that talks to my insulin pump via RF so that I don't have to manually enter blood sugar readings. There are "known issues" with it being flaky like this but no known solutions. I can't buy another meter from a local store because it's specialized. I asked for one in December as another backup from Liberty medical, but they lost my request (damn you Wilford Brimley!). They are replacing this model with a new meter made by another company but it's not released yet and there's no known release date other than "spring". So I'm just stuck (literally) poking my fingers over and over and re-seating the battery and spitting over my left shoulder to try to get an accurate reading.

This is getting old.

it's not you Internet, it's me

Dear Interwebz, I've missed you. And it's tough, because I see you hanging out with all my friends and having such a good time and I think that maybe you and I could have a good time together too. But things have just been really ... unbalanced hectic for me lately.

I've been keeping busy while we've been apart. I've flirted with World of Warcraft a little and my hunter is almost to level 55 when she can use those better arrows. But it just doesn't have the same satisfaction as writing a blog post or posting pictures to Flickr.

We're not breaking up, and I really want this relationship to work long term. But I need you to be understanding while I work through some things. I don't want to just keep using you to vent and not listen to your LOLcats or be there when you're rickrolled. Hang in there and we'll be back together soon and vlogging about the dogs' latest antics.

Your friend, Genie

I think this means we're even now

I just offered my husband a million dollars if he would pick up Chinese food for our dinner tonight. Not only that, but I doubled that offer and said I would give him two million dollars if he would both talk to the unintelligible Chinese women who work at China Hut as well as retrieve our dinner. I know that's a lot to ask, particularly after we both had such a long week, but it is two million dollars.

His only response was that he would pay me two million dollars if I would get the phone number for China Hut off the fridge and bring it to him. I'm even going to bring him a beer to go with that phone number at no additional charge.

We have to eat out because the handle came off our fridge yesterday and neither of us have the energy to repair it yet.