My feet hurt

Wordle 346 3/6

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Yesterday morning around 5 AM I noticed the kid was in bed with us, so I went down to the couch again to sleep for a couple more hours. After she got up and I had finished the morning computer stuff I went jogging. Different zig-zagging, slightly less distance than the day before, still more than normal. 

Breakfast was home fries and fried eggs. Then, a little laundry. All the kid's friends were unavailable today, so we went to the American History Museum. Took the bus from right by our house to 12th St. and then walked almost 10 blocks down 12th St. to the museum. Then, of course, we walked around the museum. The kid was in more of a hurry than us, not giving us time to read most of the signs, but it's not like we were going to run out of stuff to see, so I wasn't too worried. We were in the right place for the holiday parade, so that was cool too, although T. was a bit disgruntled to see some MAGA types in the museum. 

We left there around 4. But instead of going home, the kid wanted to show us the Arts & Industries Museum, a sort of museum of futurism. She had been there before with her grandparents one time but we hadn't. It was kind of cool.

We got ice cream near a bus stop just off the Mall when we finally decided to head home, but the bus wasn't coming, due to a detour. The parade route hadn't completely closed down yet. So instead we wound up retracing our earlier route and just walking up to a stop from the bus route from the original bus route. 

Dinner was beef tips (I think the kid was too tired to object) and asparagus. 

My fitness tracker says that between the jog and the walking, I did more than 7 miles yesterday. Wow. My feet still hurt. 

The good news is, though, I slept through the night last night. Woo hoo.

The usual weekend stuff

Wordle 345 4/6

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Yesterday I woke up on the couch. I played WoW a bit and then went jogging. I zigzagged a bit more in the neighborhood and got up to an even 3 miles. The problem with this is, my "usual route" is basically a loop around a hill, so adding any distance inside that loop is going up the hill, which is hard. Adding distance outside that loop has me crossing major roads, which is scary. I had planned to make breakfast right after that but was so gross I had to shower first. I finally got breakfast, pancakes and bacon, on the table a little after 10.

After that we cleaned a bit and started laundry. I was impressed by how the kid entertained herself. Good for her. Then we went to Costco. It's weird to make impulse purchases of things like quinoa, but I haven't quite given up on the kid's vegetarianism yet.

After we finally got everything home from there, I took the kid to the park for a couple hours. None of her friends were available, but she had enough fun playing with strangers or just in the water. Dinner was cannelloni (vegetarian!) from Costco and roasted broccoli. The kid didn't like the cheese in the cannelloni. Oh well.

A 3-day weekend in one day

Wordle 344 6/6

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Whew. That was tough.

Friday night we spent the night in a hotel our friend C. had booked. The kid stayed up late, just doing flips on the hotel bed while the grownups talked, but eventually the ladies continued their chat in the hotel lobby and I put the kid to bed. We slept better than I expected. That's partly because the kid slept in the same bed as C. Apparently they slept OK. I was fine except T. kept stealing all the blankets.

The kid woke up a little before 7, and the hotel had a pool, so of course I had to take her swimming. The pool was small but we had fun. We spent almost an hour down there. We brought coffee up, showered, and got dressed, and then the four of us had breakfast in the hotel's nook.

In the morning we drove to a nature preserve, saw some birds and wild reptiles (a fancy way to say "turtles and a skink"), and took a short walk on a path in the woods, although we weren't really prepared for it. Sandals, no bug spray... Then we went to the Harriet Tubman museum nearby. T., the kid and I have been there twice before, but it was C.'s first time. We got a late lunch, probably starting around 2, at a nearby cafe. It was a serendipitous find. After that we went to St. Michaels, in theory our destination for this whole trip. I hung out with the kid at the local playground for a while. The main jungle gym was shaped like a pirate ship, but it was made of wood and old enough to be dangerous. No kids or clothes got hurt but I scraped my arm.

When I got bored of playing sea monster and chasing her around, we went to find the ladies. They had done a little shopping. We all got gelato together and then headed towards home. We got dinner at a seafood place on the bay. We got home around 9.

Slept badly last night. In addition to the kid having a nightmare and joining us, T.'s snoring was even worse than usual. I went down to the couch around 3 AM.

Title goes here

Wordle 343 3/6

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I biked the kid to school yesterday. It was fine.

Rough Friday in terms of the biweekly report. The last one came in after 12:30. Two others had problems with the submission too. 

To exercise yesterday I did an online class provided by T.'s office, a full-body workout. (It was at noon. Yes, I was alt-tabbing back and forth between that and work every 5 minutes just to make sure the last report hadn't come in yet.) Maybe harder than the usual jog, definitely hard in different ways. I'm still sore.

Yesterday afternoon we picked the kid up, a little early at her request, and took her to gymnastics and got takeout for dinner, like usual for Friday. Then, for the holiday, we drove 2 hours east to meet a friend in a touristy area. We spent the night in a hotel. Just got back from a day out now. Details to follow.

A slow day isn't bad

Wordle 342 4/6

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Biked the kid to school yesterday. Crossing the street two blocks from home, we passed a woman with a kid on her bike. She passed us like 4 blocks later, and then our routes diverged. But they converged again at school; she was taking her kid to the same school as me. We chatted a bit and apparently they live just four blocks east of us. Not too important considering that our children didn't know each other, they aren't in the same grade, but still, cool.

Work was uneventful. One meeting, two if you count an all hands. Dealt with several random things, minor progress on a couple medium-age tasks, nothing too exciting or demanding. I went jogging in the afternoon. I made it a tiny bit longer but doubling up on one block near the end. Good for me for experimenting, I guess.

Dinner was pork chops and a salad. The kid seemed to actually like the pork chops. I have mixed feelings about that. The kid's friend joined us. I think this was a first. I think it started as a mixup about a playdate and how long dinner would take to get ready. 

After dinner the kids played upstairs quietly while we listened in on a school board meeting. Then I got the kid ready for bed while T. attended a PTA meeting planning an upcoming end-of-year celebration. Lots of meetings.

A good day shouldn't be so frustrating

Wordle 341 3/6

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I feel like it was meaningfully hard to think of a word that used those letters, not in those positions, and without the letters already eliminated.

Yesterday I biked the kid to school. We left right around 8, with the assumption that cleaners we had scheduled would arrive any minute now and T. would be at home to let them in. Then she would leave immediately to go to the office, only a little bit late. She had to go both Tuesday and Wednesday this week due to various in-person events. So I stopped by Trader Joe's on the way home. While there I texted T. and found that the cleaners hadn't arrived yet, so she was still stuck there, so I rushed back. In the end they didn't arrive until 9. I guess there was a mixup about when they were scheduled.

I had a meetings at 10 and 1. They went better than I expected, considering someone was vacuuming the house and doing other assorted cleaning. In between I had some follow-ups on the meetings, and assorted old tasks and random emails. One of those old tasks (over 2 months, to be exact; far from the oldest but long enough that it feels like a big deal) got approved and completed yesterday, so that was nice.

The second meeting ended at around 1:40. The cleaners left at like 1:45. I had to call their office to work out payment. I had a meeting for school stuff at 2, so I ate lunch during that meeting - I wasn't completely unable to get into the kitchen while the cleaners were there, but it wasn't ideal. That school meeting ended after 3. I'd have to leave to get the kid at 4:30. I debated other workout options, including an Alexa app, but got frustrated trying to figure it out, so I just went jogging. I had wanted to give my legs a rest but didn't feel up for figuring out technical issues on short notice. So I just jogged. 

The kid's music lesson was fine, although her teacher reports it was hard to find something she was interested in. A common problem. 

Musing

For dinner I roasted broccoli and made a new recipe with pasta, balsamic vinegar, and bell peppers. The kid didn't like it. In hindsight I probably should have known it would be too spicy, but still, I've had enough of these vegetarian experiments for a while. After weeks if not months of the kid saying she's vegetarian, we've identified four vegetarian entree recipes we all will eat, not counting pasta. (Some pasta recipes go over well and some don't, but most of them don't have much protein, most of them are similar to each other so I wouldn't want them back to back...) It's not enough. Tonight's entree will be meat-based and we'll strongly encourage the kid to eat it.

It's starting to become unremarkable

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Yesterday morning it was raining. T. had to go to the office yesterday (and today), so I drove them both in. I did that grocery shopping on the way home. 

I had two meetings in the morning and edited a document that the SME told me was urgent months ago. 

In the afternoon, we got to swim class almost 15 minutes early - I felt a bit bad about not leaving earlier to meet the ladies, but obviously it wasn't a problem. With the extra time, I decided to jog longer. I went for 5 miles according to the phone tracker, 48 minutes, a personal record by quite a bit. Woo hoo! Today I'm going to try find some non-leg kind of exercise because my legs are still sore. 

Dinner was mostly prepared in the slow cooker before I left. A chicken and tomato recipe. Not too bad.

Musing

I used to pay for World of Warcraft on a six-month recurring plan, because it was reliably entertaining enough. When I restarted last month, I only paid for one month. That was 29 days ago. Am I going to continue? The short answer is yes, for now, but I'm probably not going back to six-month plans.

The endgame of WoW is dungeons, raids, and PvP. The game has seasonal achievements as new content comes out. For years I've got Ahead of the Curve and Keystone Master, the two second-highest achievements in raids and dungeons respectively, and the seasonal PvP mount. In the past month I finished the main storyline of the new content and unlocked two additional Covenant armor sets (a cosmetic feature tied to the current expansion, there are 16 total, I had 11 before I unsubscribed), and some new mounts. As for those competitive goals:

• Before I resubscribed in April I knew I wasn't going to bother with the seasonal PvP mount. I didn't enjoy PvP all that much, and I'd like it less on my current main character than on my previous one, and having less time in the current season would be an additional problem.
• I got Keystone Master a few days ago. Dungeons are fun. Dungeons are for groups of five people, fighting 3-5 bosses and assorted minions of theirs. In modern WoW, dungeons have timers and scaling difficulty with rewards to match. It's easy to find pickup groups (PUGs) for them. When a dungeon group goes well, it's an intense 25-45 minutes (depending on which one and how well) with rewards including the chance of better gear and improved score. When it goes badly, it's just a little wasted time. I almost wonder if it would make sense to start shooting for Keystone Hero, the very highest achievement.
• Raids? Raids vary in size but the current one has 11 bosses, and they're made for at least 10 people and up to 30 in modern WoW. Doing the whole thing in one sitting would take at least 2 hours, probably more, but no one does that; people can leave and join between one boss and the next. Raids, honestly, suck, at least the way I've been doing them. I used to raid with a guild but I haven't done so regularly in years; I don't want to deal with the schedule or other constraints it comes with. PUGs are the problem. It's not too hard to find them but it's hard to find good ones, hard to tell if a group is good or not until we're in combat, and very hard to deal with people leaving and groups reforming after getting wiped out once.

There's room for improvement on my end and I'm working on that, but the "group finder boss" is the real challenge. I'm going to resubscribe for another couple months. When that game time runs out, at this point I would estimate there's a 10 percent chance I'll resubscribe again to work on other goals or general fun, a 40 percent chance I'll unsubscribe happy with my success at Ahead of the Curve and ready to come back when there's new content, and a 50 percent chance I'll let it lapse in disgust at myself and the PUG system.

ADHD relapse?

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Yesterday I biked the kid to school and I went jogging around noon. At work I sent two or three emails (depending on what counts) and had a brief but busy meeting at which I managed to make a meaningful contribution.

That's it, though. Otherwise I was useless yesterday. I had planned to go shopping to get ingredients for dinner, but didn't, so I had to just heat up lo mein from the freezer instead. At work I have a couple long-term or lingering tasks I could have at least tried to get moving, but didn't. I described it as being tired when talking to T. about my day, but "low executive function" might be more technically accurate - I remember that phrase from when I was on ADHD medication. Maybe I should go back to that doctor.

Between dinner and bed we all just relaxed and played our various games. The kid was actually more motivated than us. She was going through Khan Academy options, found some yoga videos, and did a little yoga, and I joined in. Good for her.

Last night I had several weird dreams. 

• I was playing some kind of Nethack-like game, revealing the map of a cave step by step, but there was something really tense and scary about it, like it wasn't a game, it was a probe I was guiding through an actual monster-infested cave.
• We were grocery shopping as a family in a big, strange store. For some reason I left before we were done and got potatoes at a different store and tried to rejoin them. I put a lot of thought into making sure that I had my receipt and bringing potatoes from one store into another wasn't a problem.
• Another grocery shopping trip. We were nearly done but I realized we needed to get a lot of meat. It was near the end of the day and the main registers were already closed, so there was a truly insane line, maybe a hundred yards, for the customer service registers. Presumably no one gets turned away from those. Some helpful person let me cut in halfway through but I hadn't got the meat yet so I wondered if it would be worth leaving and losing this.
  

I think there was another one or two as well, something in between the shopping trips, but it's already faded. Remembering one dream would be weird, I rarely remember any, but this many? Coupled with what yesterday was like I almost wonder about some chemical imbalance. (Of course, I'm almost never all THAT productive, and the kid had a nightmare and came into our bed last night, and sleep interruptions contribute to remembering dreams. So who knows.)

A day off

Wordle 338 3/6

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Woo hoo.

Yesterday was unstructured. It went better than most unstructured days.

In the morning I went jogging. It wasn't sunny but it was still fairly warm. Breakfast was simpler than usual: eggs, bacon, and toast. We had to get the kid by 10:30 because the friends she stayed with overnight had plans. 

She spent most of the day at the park. There are fountains there for kids to play in. Normally the city would start turning them on Memorial Day weekend, but they did it early due to the heat. So we lathered her up with sunscreen, got the water gun out of the basement, and walked her over there. First, T. supervised her while I folded laundry and planned dinner. Then they took a break and came home for lunch and stuff and we switched off. 

Eventually she got tired of playing in the water, or tired of sharing toys with kids she doesn't like as much, and we came home. A friend came over to play while I prepped dinner. We FaceTimed with my parents briefly. Dinner was a salad and spaghetti with an esoteric sauce: garlic, olive oil, parsley, and chickpeas.

A busy day off

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Yesterday I got up at 7 and went jogging. The kid woke up before I left. Fortunately she was fine watching TV for a while without me. It was already 80 or close to it when I left, so I was absolutely dripping by the time I made it back. We had simple breakfasts. Right after that, I went to the basement and dragged the window unit air conditioners upstairs - it's that time of year. After that, finally, I got cleaned up. Whew. 

We met our friend C. for brunch at a place nearby called Destino. It was nice. T. had been to it before but I hadn't. After that, grocery shopping. Right after that, we dropped the kid off at a new friend's for a playdate around 1. (They're classmates, so I assume they've been friends the whole school year, but this was the first time they did something together away from school.) While she was there, we did the laundry and cleaned and organized stuff around the house. I went to get her around 4. Then we managed her through a few chores. 

We went to a friend's for dinner. Good stuff. The kid stayed overnight, by invitation. It was a bit weird but I gather they had fun. We basically spent the evening there so it wasn't really babysitting, but still, nice.

Every other Friday is good

Wordle 336 4/6

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And then there's this, where I got it in four, and could have got in three if I hadn't used a letter I had already eliminated. Good for me but there's room for improvement.

Yesterday was fine. In the morning, in addition to biking the kid to school, T. biked with us (for the first time!), and she and I manned a ballot box table for the PTA elections. If it seems like I'm doing a lot of PTA stuff, that's not my inclination, but it was nearly defunct for a year and a half or whatever due to COVID, and getting new officers are a part of getting restarted.

We got breakfast sandwiches after that near the school. Then home. Then a little work, then jogging. I got back right in time for a brief meeting. Work wasn't too busy. I got Keystone Master in World of Warcraft. More of this no later than the 26th, because that will be exactly one month after I resubscribed.

In the evening, the kid had gymnastics, and for once we didn't have errands to run, so we just read, played with our phones, and watched her while she had class. Dinner was pizza at a nearby by-the-slice place.

To-do list progress

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WTF. I need to reevaluate my strategy for this game. Or just stop playing. It's stupid. 

Yesterday wasn't too busy. I biked the kid to school at 8, did a little grocery shopping on the way home (biking, plus shopping, is faster than driving), and had a meeting to take notes on at 9. After the meeting I did a little work around the house. "Work" means "taping things". Duct tape on the shower mount, which has been slippery and making annoying noises in recent weeks, and foil tape on the dryer vent duct, which I noticed had a leak a few days ago. I'd hate to get a professional for something as trivial as the shower mount but tape isn't holding well. And I'd hate to get a professional for the dryer vent duct because we already did once. 

I went jogging around noon. I wish I had gone earlier, it was hot by then, but as I said, I was busy. While doing so I stopped by the pharmacy to get some pills for T. It was a slight increase in distance, but of course there was a break while I was waiting in line, so probably not more exercise than usual but good for me for being helpful. Work wasn't too busy in the afternoon. We got the kid at the usual time. I made stuffed peppers for dinner and T. took the kid to the park for a bit while I was cooking. While I put the kid to bed, T. had a meeting with a few PTA and school board members. I joined near the end but I was tired.

Computers hate me despite spending so much time on them

Wordle 334 6/6

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That one was surprisingly tough. I don't know if I did anything wrong except for an actual typo in the 5th guess, it was just hard to find the right letters for those spaces.

Yesterday was fine. Biked the kid to school. 

A meeting in the morning went well, despite being scheduled for half an hour and actually taking more than an hour. It was partly because the other team's leader came late, for no apparent reason, after missing the previous meeting scheduled for this also on short notice. It's painful making progress on anything with this team, but in fairness, we do seem to be making progress. A meeting in the afternoon with just our own team didn't go well, because apparently they couldn't hear me. I wouldn't be surprised by a problem with the work network, but I was on my cell phone! I think I'm cursed.

I went jogging later, at like 3:30, basically the last minute so I barely had time to cool down and clean up before we went to get the kid. Her music lesson went fine. Dinner was ravioli (the kid didn't like it) and broccoli. After dinner T. went out to an event. I took the kid to the park for a bit and we both worked on the monkey bars (she could do more chin-ups than me! I need practice!) and stuff. Then a little more TV, then bedtime for her.

Fitness day

Wordle 333 2/6

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Cool.

Yesterday I biked the kid to school. I had the house to myself because T. went to the office. I biked a tiny bit more than usual because I wanted to see if I could pass T. in both directions. (I couldn't.)

Around 10 in the morning I went jogging. I didn't need to, I'd be able to work out at the gym later too, but that has been uncomfortably hot lately and the weather was so nice (70s, sunny, breezy, and not too humid) that going outside seemed like a good idea.

Work was fine. Three meetings scheduled, but the first was cancelled at the last minute, the second didn't require any input or actions by me, and the third couldn't get to the main discussion because the main person let us know she couldn't make it at the last minute. So it was a bit of a waste, but it wasn't my fault or my problem. 

I left to go to the school a little after 4:30. Traffic was OK until we were actually on the block of the school. T. and I had a mixup about where/how to meet. But still, we got to swim class on time or close enough. I jogged for less time than usual, but tried to go faster than usual. I thought about using the weight machines a bit afterwards but didn't know where to start. I guess I could just figure out a calisthenics routine at home or at the park on my jogging route and start adding that into my routine.

Dinner was Japanese-style fried rice from a bag. Afterwards T. had a school board committee meeting while I cleaned up.

Waaaaaaah

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Yesterday morning I biked the kid to school. I might have liked to go jogging in the mid-morning and take advantage of the cooler air - like I said, summery - but it started raining around 10 or so, so I thought I had missed my chance. 

Work itself was fine. Not too busy. When I went upstairs I had constant technical difficulties, so eventually I came downstairs and just worked (or played) with my volume muted.

Around noon or so T. read something about this weird Japanese game show about toddlers running errands. She followed up with this SNL skit about boyfriends running errands. I have to admit it bugged me. I'm not some MRA asshole to think that sexism against men is remotely comparable to sexism against women, but still, shallots? I do most of the cooking in this household! And grocery shopping! I have in the past bought tampons without memorable problems! I realize that T. does most of the planning and scheduling in this house, but I thought it was just a bit unfair to me that she enjoyed that skit so much!

It stopped raining around noon and was dry by 2, so I went jogging then. It was basically the last minute, but I wanted to get some kind of exercise in.

After school we had an appointment for the kid to get a passport, because we have a trip to Europe planned for this summer. (T. planned the trip, so the least I could do is make sure the kid's passport is up to date, right?) We had thought the post office could take the picture while processing the paperwork, but yesterday morning they called to say their camera was down. We could still process the paperwork today, we'd just have to bring our own pictures. Fine. So right before we left I made a few phone calls and found a pharmacy where we could get them taken. We had with us the relevant documentation and some extra just in case it mattered. While actually waiting at the post office, I checked the requirements on my phone one more time, and apparently they would accept payment by cash or check, but not credit card. Fuuuuuck! Fortunately there was someone ahead of us in line, it wasn't too far from home, and traffic wasn't too bad yet, so I was able to race home, get the checkbook, and get back before it caused any problems. But still, I had to admit that skit was more fair than I liked to think.

Dinner was air fryer chicken, brussels sprouts, salad, and hummus for the vegetarian kid. I normally would feel a bit bad about something so lazy for her, and alternately wouldn't normally bother with a four-course meal, but the salad and hummus were leftovers so it didn't really matter.

After dinner, T. planned to put the kid to bed while I attended a PTA committee meeting. Right when it was time to start the bedtime, T. completely freaked out. A casual email made her realize that she had completely lost something saved on her Google drive. Apparently she deleted it by accident. She meant to delete an email draft it was in, and instead deleted the whole thing, or something like that. So I did most of the bedtime prep and we switched off when it was time for actual reading and T. had cooled down and exhausted the document recovery options she could do herself.

So what I'm saying is, it was a long day.

Summer is here

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My fourth guess should have been my second one there. Oh well...

Yesterday I made the usual Sunday brunch, eggs and home fries. Around 11 we went to the 1st birthday party for the daughter of a friend and former co-worker of T.'s. It was fun enough. It was at a picnic area in Rock Creek Park. Some trees and rocks for the kid to try to climb, some open areas for her to make bubbles in or kick a ball around with other kids close to her age, etc. 

Unfortunately we had an event overlap. The baby's cake-cutting started right around 1 PM. That's when the scouts Blue & Gold Banquet started. And while at the birthday party I remembered we had to bring some boats to it, for race finalists, and we had to stop back at home for them. Whoops. We wound up getting to that a little after 1:30. We also made a wrong turn on the way, so that was stressful. But in the end it worked out. Fun event, little work for me other than delivering the boats, the kid got to see friends.

We got home from that a little after 4. After that, the kid was able to get together with three friends, both in the park and at our house for a while, for almost 3 hours. I spent most of that time supervising or visiting with the other kids' parents. T. did some weeding in the neighbor's garden before joining us.

From around noon on, it was in the 80s and sunny. The weather forecast had had a high chance of rain, but apparently the humidity never tipped over the edge into actual precipitation. I wore shorts all day and put sunscreen on before that final playdate for the kids and I'm glad. 

Dinner was unplanned. In addition forgetting to bring the boats to the banquet, I also forgot that it was more of a lunch thing than a dinner thing. Ugh. I suck. We had enough food, between several leftovers and some dumplings from a Costco bag, but it wasn't enough food that was appealing to the kid, and T. was hungrier than me due to the gardening, so we were all kind of grumpy until the kid was in bed and T. and I could have dessert.

Grown-ups' priorities and kids' priorities

 Wordle 330 6/6

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Yesterday we had the usual Saturday breakfast, pancakes and bacon. Then we walked to the library to pick up some books T. had reserved. Well, T. walked to the library. The kid got distracted by a small playground a few blocks before it, so she and I stayed there basically until T. was done. 

Once we got home from that, we changed clothes, got out T.'s bike from the basement, packed snacks, and went to the Bans off Our Bodies protest. We left right around when the march started - in fact, we kind of dodged in front of it to avoid getting stuck behind or inside it - because we had something else on the agenda, namely, the birthday party of a friend of the kid. 

Dinner was spaghetti and a salad. In addition to all that, we got most of the laundry done. Good for us.

Friday the 13th, of course

Wordle 329 3/6

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"Impressive", it said.

Yesterday it was a bit too wet to bike the kid to school, so we drove. Work wasn't great. It was the week for that formerly-weekly, now-biweekly report, and several of the submissions came in late. There was even confusion about who would be submitting one of them. But in the end we got them all before 1 PM. Can't complain too much, I guess.

I went jogging in the afternoon, on the normal loop. Relaxing enough afternoon. The kid had gymnastics class for the first time in a month or so, and for once we got there early enough to go to the library first. While she practiced stunts - she's almost got a cartwheel down, apparently - T. and I ran several errands. We had dinner at Shouk later, maybe not our first time there but a bit unusual, because it is/was vegan week.

The benefits of working from home

Wordle 328 4/6

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Woo hoo.

Yesterday I biked the kid to school. It was fine, other than already being a bit too warm and humid to do it wearing a hoodie.

Work was productive enough. In the morning, mostly prepped for or tried to plan around problems with this big upcoming task. Outcome: task probably put off and restructured. Victory. Around noon I went jogging. It was shorter and faster than usual, both because I was in a hurry (not that an extra 5-10 minutes would have mattered by itself, but anyways) and because I wanted to test something out. Instead of doing a loop around the local college plus a few extra blocks, or a few more, I just did the loop around the college and that's it. Google Maps says it's 1.9 miles, my phone app says 1.82. So that's annoying. Not a huge difference, but more than a rounding error, and enough that it might become a problem if I ever get really serious about pushing myself. Oh well...

In the afternoon I wrapped up several things earlier than usual, then logged off a bit early to go to the movies with T. We saw Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. That was fun. It was visually stunning. It's definitely the most trippy, visually creative part of the MCU. The first Dr. Strange movie had hands coming out of his hands; this one... well, no spoilers. It's also definitely a horror movie. Also, these elements seem more superficial, but there's a ton of Christian symbolism. The next time I watch it I'm going to keep my eyes open to see if certain other things match or not.

After that we had to run, or rather drive fast, to pick up the kid from after-care. (We had considered biking there to pick her up but ultimately decided on driving. Biking would have been faster. Driving allowed us both to go.) We were a little late but we had warned the nanny about the possibility and it didn't turn out to be a problem. Traffic was truly crazy. 

Dinner was enchiladas, T.'s specialty.

Guilty pleasures

Wordle 327 5/6

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That was tough. Unlike most that feel tough, I don't think I did anything wrong, it was just hard thinking of words that fit the information I had.

Yesterday I biked the kid to school. Good weather for it again. On the way home I did a little grocery shopping. We're basically back to the routine from the Before Time where I would go shopping several times a week, get only what I can carry, and only plan a few days' meals at a time. Good.

I had the house to myself. It was T.'s weekly day at the office. She doesn't like it. In fact, she left before the kid and I, but we caught up to her and were able to wave hi. So after I got back from dropping her off and shopping I stayed downstairs, took the good office chair, and played music freely. 

Around noon I went jogging. I finally tried doubling the usual loop. Good for me for trying something new, but it probably won't be the new normal just yet. It's a big jump in distance and time (if I'm gone long enough for my connection to the work network to time out, it's annoying), and also involved doing a hill twice. Also, I'm annoyed to find that Google Maps disagrees with my phone app a bit about the distance. I might try a simplified, very exact route soon just to test things.

The afternoon plans got a bit complicated. We got news about an active shooter near the kid's school. (I can't find anything on the news about it, and later chatter makes it look like it was farther, but still, police sirens where the kid is playing are scary.) Normally she and her friend and the nanny would have stayed there and we would have walked her over to her music lesson around the corner, but under the circumstances they went to the other kid's house. So I had to do a little more driving to get her to the music lesson. No harm done, just annoying. T. was annoyed as well when she met us there on foot, due to the day's news. 

As soon as we got home, the kid was surprised to see a friend of hers from school walking into the park near our house. We hadn't known it but apparently her parents have shared custody and one of them lives in the neighborhood. So T. took her to the park so they could play. Meanwhile, I made dinner: grilled steak, baked potatoes, and sauteed green beans. Fancy stuff. Maybe the first grill use of the year.

So it was a good day for me, but I feel a bit guilty, because it wasn't for anyone else. (Except hopefully for the dinner, and the spontaneous playdate. So maybe it wasn't that bad...)

Not much to say

Wordle 326 5/6

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Ugh. I feel like I should have got it in 3. My 3rd guess probably and my 4th guess definitely couldn't have been the right answer. 

Yesterday was fine. Biked the kid to school in the morning. Three meetings at work, but none were too long or demanding. I was relaxed most of the day (except for those meetings) but had a flurry of activity near the end of the day. Last-minute stuff, I guess, and not all initiated by me. I went jogging while the kid had swim class. I didn't have time to work on my duration, so instead I worked on my pace and set a record there. Yay. (3.37 miles at 8'40"/mile. But the treadmill and my phone disagreed a tiny bit. I wonder which is more accurate?) Dinner was two frozen dishes: a risotto and a sauteed vegetable mix.

A relatively easy Monday

Wordle 325 3/6

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It was really, really hard for me to think of a valid second guess that fit the information I already had - that final letter and none of the previous four - but then I got it in 3. Perseverance pays off.

The kid was really grumpy yesterday morning. Fortunately she shaped up by the time we went to school. We biked. Had a good example of one thing I like about it. When we were on West Virginia Ave. waiting to cross Florida Ave., a gray van going west on Florida ran the red light. That's not the thing I like, but it's why I remember the van, and it generally serves as an indicator that they were driving recklessly, right? Well, I wasn't biking recklessly, but I kept up with them for the 9 blocks our route overlapped. Even an asshole like that can't go faster than a bike in rush hour traffic in this part of town. So I might as well get some fresh air and exercise out of it!

Not too busy at work. Followed up on some email discussions and continued chipping away at that SOP. I'll probably call it "done" today, with the understanding that it needs a lot more work but that would require SME input/availability that there's no timeline for. In theory there are lots of other things we're working on, but we need input from other people on all of them. 

I went jogging at lunch time. The weather was beautiful for it. I almost thought about making a big leap and doubling the loop that's most of my route, but decided against it. (For one thing, I was still a bit sore from Friday.) 

Dinner was spaghetti and a salad. Good and easy. 

Last night, T. read to the kid at bedtime. The two nights before it, I had done so. We read a Tintin book we got from the library Saturday. I intentionally avoided the ones with notable racism. Unfortunately I picked a pirate story, so the kid seized on terms like "poop deck" and "booty". Anyways, she liked it. The slapstick pratfalls more than the plot, but still, can't complain about a shared interest. Now we need to get the next one, because I just happened to pick one of the two or three stories that's a two-parter.

Happy Mother's Day

Wordle 324 4/6

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I also got no exercise yesterday. Ugh.

I got brunch reservations at 11 at a nearby restaurant, so we had a lazy morning before that. Brunch was good. Then a little grocery shopping. Yes, we had just gone to Costco the day before, but there are lots of things we don't want to get 5 pounds of at a time. Afterwards I took the kid to the park for a little while and we threw a ball around and she climbed on the jungle gym. After that we managed to force her to help with dinner, practice her music, and study for some Scout stuff. 

The kid was grouchy yesterday. I'm not sure if she was behind on sleep, or gets that way when she can't see her friends, or both or what. She managed to be cheerful when it was time to celebrate Mother's Day, but when we were in the park she was hypersensitive to the least annoyance, and getting her to do her chores was a struggle.

Dinner was stuffed peppers. A new recipe, which the kid helped pick out and make, and maybe our favorite of this vegetarianism experiment the kid is going through. In fact, it wasn't just vegetarian but vegan, so we've got that in our arsenal for the next time we have to entertain company with that dietary restriction, although I'll probably add cheese just for flavor and extra protein the next time we make this for ourselves.

Could have been worse

 Wordle 323 5/6

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Yesterday was a rainy day, and the kid couldn't play with her best friend because there's a coronavirus case in her family. So we went to Costco and just spent the day around the house. Laundry, cleaning, etc.

A rainy day

Wordle 322 3/6

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Yesterday we drove the kid to school due to bad weather. Actual rain. I couldn't jog, so instead I joined in one of T.'s online exercise classes. Definitely a different kind of workout than usual. Less aerobic, more of specific muscle groups. I'm still a bit sore. 

Work was very slow. Can't complain about that. We both had dumplings for lunch because we need to go shopping.

The kids came over to our house to play after school due to the rain. Then it was time for gymnastics. We got there at the last minute, as usual. I was driving, so T. and the kid went in while I parked. I also got a Mother's Day card for T. after parking. Dinner was burritos.

Joining the borg

 Wordle 321 4/6

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Yesterday we drove the kid to school because of another teacher appreciation event. It's a week-long thing but yesterday was the end of our involvement. We were on time for this one. The event was distributing little flower pots to each classroom. It went well and was actually a good excuse to spend even more time in the school, but it was still a bit stressful to almost be late and try to figure out what we were supposed to be doing. 

Work was slow. Can't complain. In the afternoon I had an appointment with the TSA office at the airport to get in the TSA precheck program. T. is in it and I haven't been, so every time we've flown, we've had to split up at that line. I think it's a stupid system - the lines should be that short for everyone; the only reason they aren't is security theater - but at this point I'm only hurting myself (and T., making her carry the carryon and manage the kid solo in a stressful situation) by not joining, so I finally did. It was a smoother process than I expected. No wait; in and out in 10 minutes. I got donuts for T. and I on the way home. 

Dinner was steak with a sauce/marinade from Trader Joe's, baked beans, and leftover cauliflower from the night before. Easy.

Woo hoo

Wordle 320 6/6

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That was close.

Yesterday we drove the kid to school. In hindsight the weather was fine but it looked like it might rain, so we drove. I think we might have accidentally discovered a new, better route. Driving her to school during rush hour is never going to be great, and Google Maps would never suggest this route because it requires crossing a busy street on foot, but it was much faster than usual even though traffic wasn't.

In the morning, work was pretty normal. Continued editing that big, messy SOP. Based on guidance I got Tuesday, I could call the task "done" and forget about it now, but I'm pretty sure it'll come back eventually which is more than I can say for a lot of things, so I might as well do now what I know I'll need to do about it eventually.

In addition to that, I also applied for a job. I'm not sure I'd want it (both because I don't know much about it, and because I'm ambivalent about what I do know). But it has some things going for it, and simply going through the process of creating the account and polishing the resume and cover letter took some effort. It's the first time in years I've done that. 

I only worked a half-day yesterday because of afternoon plans. First the kid had a dentist's appointment. It was a new dentist because the old one stopped taking our insurance. The new one is less convenient, but not too hard to get to, and seems very good, or at least very polished-looking and user-friendly. After that we cleaned up after a teacher appreciation event. We had two hours to kill between that and the kid's music lesson, so T. and I went for a walk to a bookstore. A long walk; driving or taking the bus would have been reasonable if killing time wasn't partially the goal.

Then, the music lesson. It went well. Afterwards the kid hung out with her friend across the street a bit while I made dinner. It was tortellini and cauliflower. 

I didn't do the usual jogging or biking, but between the long walk and the job interview, I feel like I mostly made up for the physical activity and self-discipline.

I played the music loudly

 Wordle 319 4/6

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Yesterday I had the house to myself. Normally Wednesday would be T.'s work from home day, but we have some errands this afternoon and her boss wants her for a full day, so she went to the office yesterday. So I locked all the doors and turned off all the lights before biking the kid to school.

Work was fine. Two meetings, neither more than half an hour, one definitely productive, one arguably. While I had the house to myself I cleaned the kitchen and finished folding the laundry that had been hanging up (at the last minute), and generally took up more space and played music more freely. 

When it was time to get the kid, T. and I met at the school. We got to the pool for swim class a little early, so I was able to jog for longer than usual. My phone thinks I set a record, but I didn't actually make it longer or farther than this. Oh well, it was close. Dinner was fried rice from the freezer.

I don't normally hate Mondays

 Wordle 318 5/6

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That second guess had letters I knew were wrong. And this guess pattern seems too common. Oh well, 5 guesses is on par for me.

Yesterday we drove the kid to school. The weather would have been good for biking, but in addition to dropping her off, T. and I were supposed to help out with a teacher appreciation event. We were so late that by the time we got there, there was basically nothing for us to do. Whoops. 

Work was sluggish yesterday. I did the biweekly report prep right away, I attended two meetings and paid adequate attention, I was promptly responsive to new stuff and chat as applicable... but that still doesn't represent a lot actually getting done. I'll blame it on the rough weekend, I guess.

Despite that, I went jogging yesterday afternoon on this route, which is about a quarter of a mile longer than the previous default route. Yay for pushing myself, I guess. 

We went grocery shopping on the way to get the kid. She did a little music practice and then had a friend come over for a few minutes while I made dinner. It was roasted chicken thighs, a small batch of green beans (half a package was used in this recipe, so we used the other half up last night), and salad from a bag. The grownups liked it, the kid didn't. Cooking for her is going from bad to worse.

Last night I slept better than the previous two or even three, but it still wasn't completely uninterrupted.

Details

 Wordle 317 4/6

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This was our third or fourth camping trip as a family. We were definitely better prepared than last time. But then, "prepared" is relative. 

• Our plan for food was simply to grab all the finger food in the house, buy granola bars and cold coffee drinks Friday afternoon for breakfast Saturday and Sunday, and eat out for all actual meals. We don't own a gas or electric camping stove and didn't dare try open flame, and after all, this location isn't the middle of nowhere. We never walked more than 1 mile from our car and never parked more than 10 miles from some kind of restaurant. But the friends we were camping with had cooking equipment and food to spare, so we had hot dogs and sausages at the camp for dinner Friday and elaborate brunches (eggs, bacon, breakfast sausages, toast, and more) both mornings. 
• We forgot to bring a tent mat (no impact on how things went, although I guess the ground might have been a bit softer with it) and broom (had to borrow one from our friends). Also my boots (we didn't need them for anything hiking-related, but my sandals alone were pretty cold). 
• Our new tent and air mattress were both much better than our old ones. Our old air mattress had a slow leak. Our old tent was a backpacking tent, i.e. the bare minimum size and weight, whereas it was possible to actually stand up and move around in the new one. This wouldn't have been noticeable to a hypothetical spectator but as tired as I was, it definitely would have been worse with the old equipment.

On the way home yesterday we made two stops. First, at the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad park. It was our second visit, but the kid has always been interested in Tubman, and this time she's old enough to get a little more out of it. Second, at RAR Brewing for lunch and some beer to bring home. We actually got back around 5 PM. We did laundry, had a simple dinner, and tried to relax. Alas, 'twas not to be. The kid came into bed with us again shortly after bedtime and T.'s snoring woke me up a few times too.

Home from the beach

 Wordle 316 4/6

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That was fun but tiring. Friday night I slept terribly. Hard to get comfortable on an air mattress 3 inches thick and the surf was constant background noise. I made the best of it by seeing the sun rise over the sea, but still, tiring. 

Saturday we just relaxed with our friends, flew a kite, and explored the beach. The kid and I both took a nap in the early afternoon. We had a late lunch at a diner/general store. I saw dolphins in the wild for the first time, so that was cool. We went out to dinner at an Italian restaurant. 

Saturday night I slept a little better than the night before, but still woke up once or twice.