family

August 3, 2009

Journal Entry: August 3, 2009

Friday
Last Friday I got to work to find an email from the Deputy Secretary of Transportation encouraging all FAA managers and supervisors to support a (highly symbolic) DOT Telework Day. Any employees who wanted to were encouraged to try out telework (that is to say, working from home), in the hopes of more permanent adoption.

We got that email on Friday, when 2/3 of the office was out on RDO (including, I should point out, all the managers and supervisors). DOT Telework Day is today. That was the least useful Department-wide memo ever sent.

Anyway, contractors are not allowed to telework, so it never would’ve mattered to me. Still, bummer.

I got home from work a little early on Friday, which gave me time to work out before heading out to our July Poker Night. (Yep — just barely slipped that one in). My sister let us use her place again, and D– and K– both made it. D– brought with him ingredients for a vodka cocktail called the “O. G. Diddy,” and after his clumsy attempts to make it I took over bartending and we all found the drink remarkably good. So remarkable, in fact, that it directed the fortunes of all our evenings (and most of our mornings on Saturday, too).

We defied nomenclature and played Rock Band for a couple hours, until someone’s wild thrashing brought the XBox crashing off its shelf and engraved the Rock Band disc with a shiny silver line that rendered it worthless. Instead of being concerned, we probably laughed hysterically. It was that kind of night.

Then we played poker for two hours and watched Mean Girls. After that, a little bit past midnight, my little sister drove us all home. I stayed up for a bit playing Fallout and hydrating, and cursing myself for making the same fool mistake two weeks in a row.

Saturday
Saturday morning saw me awake a bit before nine, and I killed a couple hours working on the computer and playing with AB. Then, half past noon, we headed to Edmond for my niece’s birthday party.

That was at McDonalds, and we had family from Dallas up to visit, as well as my dad and brother-in-law (with all his little ones) from Little Rock. The party was two hours in an enclosed play area with, what, ten kids under ten-years-old. It was a lot of noise, with echoes. I gather from more reliable sources that it was a lovely party for a four-year-old. So I’ll leave it at that.

Afterward T– took AB to go swimming with the rest of the party guests, but I went back home for a nap. Ended up playing Fallout instead, but it was just as recuperative. T– brought AB home for a late nap, and when she woke up we headed back to Edmond for dinner at my sister’s house. There was pizza for all, and movies for the little ones. Dad got started watching The Incredibles, which he’d never seen before, and found he actually liked it.

Halfway through the movie, I had to leave to head over to K– and N–‘s place so they could go watch Harry Potter. Dad came with me, tearing himself away from the movie, but he was gratified to learn when we arrived that K– had a copy of it, too. They put the baby down to sleep, then headed to the movie, and all I had to do for the night was be there in case of emergency (and, of course, there was none).

While we waited, Dad got out his laptop and I borrowed N–‘s, and we watched The Incredibles and talked about getting published. Dad talked me into querying a new literary agent who’s specializing in science fiction and fantasy, and I talked him into starting a blog. We spent much of the next three hours doing the tedious work necessary to follow through on those ideas.

Then one o’clock rolled around and K– and N– rolled home, and we got their quick opinion on the movie and then headed home to get some sleep.

Sunday
Sunday morning we woke up late enough to skip Bible class but early en0ugh to grab donuts on the way to service. Or, as I like to call it, “the magic hour.”

I delivered unto Courtney her marked-up manuscript, then hastily took our seats before service started. We ended up filling the row with family, when my sister brought all hers and the brother-in-law with his, and N– had to sit in the row behind us.

Afterward, the whole family went to P. F. Chang’s for lunch, which was a mess. I’m just saying, that’s a lot of little kids. It was awesome as always, though. Then we said goodbyes in the parking lot, and the Little Rock folks headed home, and we took AB home for a nap, and then…I guess I spent the afternoon playing Fallout.

That game has to come to an end at some point, but I don’t see it happening anytime soon. That’s okay, I didn’t really want to get a book finished this month anyway.

We’d decided on the way home from lunch that we wanted to have dinner at the newly-opened Freddy’s on north Penn., so as six o’clock rolled around, we called D– and K– and N– to see if anyone of them wanted to join us, and they all said yes. When we got to the restaurant, I heard a woman call out my name just inside the door, and we turned to find our stylist, Karen, there with her friends. She got to meet AB for the first time, and T– and I both got to fight down the urge to introduce her to D–. Then she went back to her booth, and we went to ours, and we had phenomenal cheesesteaks for supper.

And frozen custard for dessert.

And then when we got home we had just time to watch an episode of Leverage, and then put AB to bed, and then it was bedtime for us, too. We read for a while, and gradually drifted off to sleep.

Other than that, it’s just things and stuff.

July 31, 2009

Journal Entry: July 31, 2009

Last night I came home from work and talked with T– a bit, then watched AB while T– went to pick up some groceries and dinner. While she was out, I heard from D– who offered to bring by some Buffalo Wild Wings for dinner, and I told him sure! By all means!

So T– brought home Kung Pao Chicken and Sweet and Sour Chicken from some random Chinese place next to Homeland (read: not P. F. Chang’s), which surprised me by being pretty good. And D– brought me some Hot Barbecue boneless wings. And I ate way too much food. It was excellent.

While I ate, I finished up Triad, which is an expertly crafted novel. I recommend it strongly.

Then I spent most of the rest of the evening playing with AB while we watched Conan and Jimmy Fallon. AB was apparently the life of the party, though, because after she went to bed D– went home, and not long after that T– and I were both asleep.

Still, it was a fun night.

Other than that, it’s just things and stuff.

July 30, 2009

Journal Entry: July 30, 2009

Tuesday night I came home from work, did forty minutes on the elliptical, and then had dinner with T– and AB. It was a pot roast in gravy, with mashed potatoes, and it was incredible. Thanks babe!

After AB went to bed, T– and I retired to the room to read, and I found myself fast approaching the climax of Triad, so when I finished chapter twenty-two and should have gone to sleep, I didn’t (and the same again at the end of twenty-three). So it was late when I finally put the book down and fell asleep.

There were storms that night, and around 2:00 AB woke up screaming. T– went to comfort her, but AB cried and cried for me, so I went in there too and AB explained that she was afraid of the frog. I asked why, and she looked blank, and then she curled up on her pillow. As soon as we got back in bed, though, she was crying again.

We tried a couple times to comfort her, but the storm kept waking her again and again, so finally I went in there and curled up on the edge of her bed and she finally fell asleep. I tried twice to leave (and once to actually get some sleep on the thin mattress in there) and finally escaped around 3:45. It was a long night.

So Wednesday morning got off to a late start. Skipping work, I ended up spending the afternoon taking care of paperwork for my teaching stint at OC this fall. I signed up with payroll, turned in my signed contract, and got a big box of evaluation copies of textbooks to choose from. And I got to talk to half the English faculty while I was there, which was fun.

Then I spent a lot of the afternoon reading Triad, because I could.

D– and my sister’s family came over to our place for supper, and we all had pizza. Then I went to church with T– for the first time in ever (on a Wednesday night, that is), and got to see K– and N– and even squeezed in a few minutes to talk with Courtney about her book. I also got a copy of No Plot, No Problem from her, so I can make sure The Storytelling Process isn’t just retreading old ground.

Then after church we put AB to bed (which went much more smoothly than on Tuesday night, in spite of the rain), and I read another chapter before calling it a night.

Other than that, it’s just things and stuff.

July 28, 2009

Journal Entry: July 28, 2009

Okay, fine, no more fun with footnotes….

Yesterday after work I spent forty minutes on the elliptical and another twenty minutes after that in the Capitol Wasteland. Then D– came over for dinner, for which T– made up some cheese dip with taco meat that was phenomenal.

Afterward D– agreed to watch AB so T– and I could go fill out our baby registry for an upcoming shower. We went to Babies R Us (but, y’know, with the backward R), scanned in a bunch of stuff we’d like to have for free but wouldn’t necessarily pay for, and then came home.

Then AB went to bed, D– went home, and I went to the office to play another twenty minutes, maybe thirty minutes of Fallout, and three hours later I finally went to bed.

Other than that, it’s just things and stuff.

July 27, 2009

Journal Entry: July 27, 2009

Hah! You just thought I was the perfect husband.* On Saturday N– orchestrated a surprise party for T–, and I got her just what she wanted (SFW). In your face, Mister Darcy!

Ahem.

Friday
Friday was a long day at work trying to figure out how we’re going to handle the crippling documentation we got from Raytheon. Not fun.

Shortly after I got home, we went out to dinner for T–‘s birthday. We decided to try somewhere new, and picked a little pizzeria we’d driven past a dozen times up on May. K– and N– and D– joined us, and we each ended up getting our own personal pizza, trying all the house specialties (I think) and a plain ol’ boring half-beef half-pepperoni for AB and me. It was delicious.

Afterward D– came over to introduce me to a hilarious show called Three Sheets while T– went to see a movie with my little sister. Three Sheets is a travel show about a guy who goes to exotic locations (we watched Brussels, Champagne, Jamaica, and Costa Rica), tries all of the famous regional liquors while participating in the local night life, and then the next morning tests out the indigenous hangover remedies. That last part is made necessary by the sheer, absurd indulgence of the first part. It’s fun.

Anyway, T– got home late, D– went home, and I think I made it to bed while it was still Friday.

Saturday
Saturday morning I woke up around 9:30, worked out on the elliptical, and then ran up to Taco Bell to grab us some lunch. Then I invested myself in Courtney’s novel, and read through to chapter sixteen before AB woke up from her nap and we had to leave.

We had plans to be at K– and N–‘s place by 3:30, so that T– could go shopping with N– to help her find a frame for a painting T– had made her a year or so ago. D– joined us (because he and I were going to go hang with K– and probably play some XBox), we drove up there, and then N– took T– to get a massage. As a special surprise, several of her friends were there, too.

While she was doing that, K– got the kitchen decorated and set up for a surprise party, D– watched AB, and I ran up to Walgreens to get some wrapping paper and wrapped T–‘s present. When T– came back to the house, with Becca and E– and my little sister in tow, she was surprised again to find an actual party waiting for her. She loved it all.

When the party finally wound down, T– went with my sister to do some shopping at Hobby Lobby, and B– gave D– and me a ride back to our house. I read another two chapters of Triad so I could give some specific feedback, and then contacted D– to see if he wanted to go out. We ended up heading to Henry Hudson’s around nine, and we were there until they turned on the lights and kicked us out. In betwixt, too much alcohol and much talk of relationships and religion.

I got home around 2:30, and made the wise decision to stay up and do some hydrating, and while I was at it I watched Joe vs. the Volcano. Excellent flick. Finally went to bed a little after four.

Sunday
Sunday morning I woke up in time for church, took a Benadryl and two ibuprofen, and then crawled back into bed. T– called me at 11:45 to ask (doubtfully) if I wanted to join them for lunch, and I said sure. We had Schlotzky’s, which really hit the spot.

Then I spent the afternoon playing Fallout, which is an incredibly massive game. I got lost in it, and in no time at all it was after five. T– called me out for dinner, and afterward I decided I should actually do something useful with my Sunday so I mowed. Then I got a little too ambitious and pulled out the chainsaw to trim some of the trees along our front fence. The end result looks nice, though, and it should make mowing next time a more pleasant experience, though.

After that I came in and helped T– get her Cricut up and running, and she showed off just how cool it is (which is to say, very), and then we put AB down for a nap, and then we sat side-by-side on the loveseat with our various laptops and read through Digg for an hour (which was a little surreal), and then we went to bed.

Other than that, it’s just things and stuff.

* no you didn’t

July 24, 2009

Journal Entry: July 24, 2009

Oh man, I have got to be just about the perfect husband.*

As you already know, I got T– a brand new* car for her birthday,* but for practical reasons we had to pick it up two weeks early. So, y’know, I wanted her to have something to open on her actual birthday, so my special lady got to wake up this morning to find a package of peanut M&Ms on her nightstand.

Happy birthday, baby! Only the best for you.

Yesterday I spent all day feeling tired — by which I mean shaky, weak, and semi-transparent. I had hoped I was just hungry and lunch would solve the problem, but it didn’t (and I had a pretty hearty lunch). So I came home from work and took a nap. An hour and a half later, I felt a little better.

T– made me a very special dinner, by request, and then we tried to watch a Better Off Ted and play with AB at the same time. It was fun.

After AB went to bed, T– and I retired to our room for some reading. She’s on Pride and Prejudice and I’m on Triad, as I mentioned yesterday. We spent almost two hours on that, and then went to sleep.

Other than that, it’s just things and stuff.

* not really

July 21, 2009

Journal Entry: July 21, 2009

Yesterday I spent all day in a meeting at work, which was brutal.

After work, I did forty minutes on the elliptical machine while getting killed by fire ants on the XBox. It was…fun? Anyway, I did my workout, so that’s good. Then I helped T– hang some stuff in AB’s room — a mirror and shelf over the changing table, and some pegs for coats and backpacks near the door.

After that AB grabbed T–‘s laptop and showed me her new favorite games on the Sesame Street website. Her favorite is an Elmo game that lets her push keys on the keyboard, and Elmo names an item beginning with the letter she pushed. Up until now it had just been typing letters in a Word document, but she’d always end up getting distracted with the auto-repeat functionality and stop searching for new letters. So I think this is an improvement.

Then she went to bed, and T– and I watched Leverage while I typed up some pages I’d written during the day. That put me over 10,000 words (close to 11,000), and halfway through with chapter 4. I feel like the story is finally starting to flow, but it could easily prove me wrong in the next week or so.

Other than that, it’s just things and stuff.

July 20, 2009

Journal Entry: July 20, 2009

Friday
As I mentioned on Friday, my parents came in Thursday night for a brief visit — primarily to celebrate T–‘s birthday, since they couldn’t make it here next weekend. I had to work Friday, but they drove down my way to meet me for lunch at On the Border. Then shortly after I got home we headed up to Carino’s for T–‘s birthday dinner.

My little sister’s family came to that, too, which made for quite a crowd. It was hectic, and afterward we went back to our house for ice cream cake and Madagascar. My parents had never seen it, and of course the little girls appreciated it.

They didn’t make it all the way through the movie, but even so it was well after nine before my sister packed up her kids and took them home. Mom and Dad watched the rest of it, with many a hearty chuckle, and then they slipped away, too. T– went to bed and I spend a while considering all the things I could get accomplished with a few hours of peace and quiet, but the pillow called to me. I was asleep by 10:30.

Saturday
Saturday morning T– and Mom headed up to Edmond to meet my sister and N– for pedicures, so Dad came over to watch AB with me. He played with her in the back yard while I took care of some stuff around the house, and then she came in to play with puzzles while Dad and I talked writing.

Of course, she wanted some attention, so she brought the puzzle over and sat down right between us while we talked, but that gave me an opportunity to show off how well she knows her letters (she only really gets confused between M and W, and Y and V), and even her right and left. Dad was suitably impressed.

We spent most of our time this weekend talking about his book. He’s been about to finish it for the last three months or so. I read it right up to chapter sixteen, when everyone in town has hardened their hearts against our fair hero, and then he left me hanging. So I’ve been more a demanding fan than a mentoring coach ever since, trying to bully him into getting it done. It worked. While AB and I were doing puzzles, Dad pulled out his laptop and started writing.

T– and Mom got home around 11:45, and I had to run out immediately because I had a haircut scheduled for noon. Under normal circumstances I’d have rescheduled, with my parents in town, but I had plans later in the afternoon for a writer’s group — which I found intimidating for reasons my regular reader will instantly understand — and I always feel a little more confident right after a haircut. I mentioned that to Dad (who’s quite familiar with my social anxiety), and he encouraged me to keep the appointment.

It wasn’t that bad a plan anyway, because the rest of them were just going to spend that hour eating lunch, and under the circumstances there was no way I could have eaten. So I ran up to Memorial and Penn, got a chop, and then headed back home.

That left me most of an hour to chat with Mom while Dad busily hacked away at his keyboard. Then as two rolled closer, Mom started telling him to wrap it up and he lamented that he was so close to the end, but yeah, they had to get on the road. So he packed up his laptop, we all said goodbye, and then I headed out to writer’s group at the same time they headed back to Little Rock.

I’ll give a full accounting of writer’s group in its own blog post. For now, suffice to say that even with the social anxiety going full strong, it was awesome. A great experience, and I’m looking forward to more.

At three T– had her monthly crop up at the church, and N– attended that, so while I was in writer’s group I got a text message from K– asking if he could bring Jason and hang out at my place. D– was there watching AB, and at the time it seemed like we were about to break up, so I replied and said, “Sure,” without any sort of explanation.

As it turned out, we were not about to break up. So K– hung out at the house with D– for a while, put Jason down for a nap in our room, then Jason woke up and K– took him back up to the church, and all told it was 6:30 before I left Courtney’s place. As I was walking out the door D– messaged me to say AB was getting hungry, so I called K– to convince him to come back to the house again, and then stopped and picked up food for all of us at McDonalds.

AB had missed most of her nap, but she was still a pretty good girl all evening. K– and I tried to put some new remote control software on my HTPC while she watched Dora, but it was to no avail. I could fix the situation with an upgrade to Vista and a new $30 remote, but there’s not a lot we can do with pure software solutions. We finally gave up on that when K– had to leave to pick up N–.

Shortly after that AB went to bed, and D– headed home, and I had the whole quiet house to myself. Once again I pondered all the useful things I could accomplish, and of them all I chose a stupid little computer game and spent the rest of the night doing that.

Oh! There was one interruption to it. Dad called me to let me know he’d finished his book on the drive home. Go Dad! I have it waiting in my email even now. I should have a strong review for him by the end of the day.

I ended up going to bed around eleven. T– headed to a late Harry Potter after her long night at the crop, so I have no idea when she got home. She was still awake before me on Sunday morning, though.

Sunday
Sunday morning we all got up in time to make it to Bible class, but we didn’t make it to Bible class. That just sort of happened. We ended up getting to the church halfway through, so we dropped AB in her class (two-year-olds don’t judge), and then T– and I slipped into the church library to pick a couple new books for AB and wait for classes to break. While we were there I told her all about our writer’s group.

Then the bells rang and we headed to the auditorium. Courtney came over to say hi, and then I spent the service getting started on chapter four of Restraint. I like where it’s going. I fear (like too much of this book so far) the chapter is going to be about half as long as it’s supposed to be, but maybe this one will surprise me.

After that we had lunch at Jason’s Deli with D– and K– and N–, then we all went our separate ways. AB took a nap, T– and I watched Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, and then T– woke AB up to take her to small groups in Guthrie. I decided to skip that to spend some time with D–.

After four weeks of him suggesting we go see Transformers II and me saying I didn’t want to, I suggested we go see Transformers II. It was not good. I don’t regret seeing it, but it was not good. There was so much third grade humor in there that did nothing to improve the movie. You know me. I am not easily offended. But every bit of comedy in there felt childish, forced, and overdone — and there was lots of it. The only line I laughed out loud at was, “We’ve got Jordanians!” which — I assure you — was not meant to be funny at all. That was actually supposed to be high drama.

Anyway, after that we grabbed dinner at Moe’s, and then came back to the house to watch an episode of Dexter. That show is creepy. I cannot recommend it, but I’m having a hard time not watching the next episode. Creepy.

T– got home with AB well after nine, we put her in bed, and D– headed home. T– and I watched a random episode of Newsradio, and then we went to bed.

Other than that, it’s just things and stuff.

July 17, 2009

Journal Entry: July 17, 2009

I spent all of yesterday in a really good mood. I’m not sure exactly why, but it persisted. Yay for that!

We’d been expecting some rain all week, but I think we were all caught unprepared by the ferocity of the swift-passing tempest we got yesterday. I had the pleasure of leaving work in time to drive from blue skies into the heart of the storm, and it was beautiful. Unfortunately the other drivers experiencing the majesty of the weather phenomenon did so poorly, erratically, and with frequent mashing of pedals. Still, I made it home safe.

Then I watched AB for a bit while T– ran out to grab some groceries before Mom and Dad got in. When they arrived, AB had to show them her new room (they haven’t been here since the office/nursery swap) and her new bed (which is still only a few weeks old), and explain to them with patient thoroughness that the crib isn’t her bed anymore it’s Alexander’s.

While they were getting the guided tour, T– started making dinner. D– joined us, to my parents’ delight, and T– made some amazing chicken and steaks even with the grill temporarily unavailable for typhoonish reasons.

We talked a lot, and then after we put AB to bed we spent some time checking out movie trailers on the HTPC — a feature which my mom wished she could have at home — and they told us about plans to remodel their house — which sound very cool — and then around ten they left to find a hotel someplace. T– and I finished the last episode (of season two, anyway) of Flight of the Conchords, and then went to bed.

Other than that, it’s just things and stuff.