Taking care of a sick kid

Wordle 499 3/6

🟩⬜⬜⬜⬜
🟩⬜⬜⬜🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

It took three tries to find a doctor that could take same-day appointments on a Sunday, take our insurance, and treat kids. In hindsight I don't want to complain about that, same-day Sunday appointments are hard enough without the other two factors, but it was annoying at 9 AM yesterday. 

The appointment was at noon. The doctor we found was great. In and out in an hour despite being new to us. Responses from the front desk a minute after filling out the forms. The doctor was nice, too - kind of brusque, but the issue was simple enough. 

Getting the prescription for antibiotics filled required several phone calls to figure out pharmacies' hours and whether they actually had our medicine in stock. I found it at the fourth CVS. Maybe I should have tried a different chain somewhere along the line, but then again, Sunday. 

I got home with the pills at around 3:30, exactly the same time as my parents. In addition to a leisurely morning/early afternoon, they had done some shopping. My dad, T., and the kid went to the park and to check out Halloween decorations nearby while I chatted with my mother and we roasted the pumpkin seeds from the day before. The kid seemed fine at the time, but crashed later.

Dinner was spaghetti and broccoli. The kid slept through it. We put her to bed properly around 8 and she wanted her dinner then. She was restless and came into our bed around 3:30, but I think oversleeping during the day was a bigger problem than actual pain. Still, can't complain about her recuperating.

Tiiiiiired

Wordle 498 6/6

🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜🟨⬜⬜🟨
⬜🟩🟩⬜⬜
⬜🟩🟩⬜⬜
🟩⬜⬜⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Blueberry pancakes and bacon for breakfast yesterday. At noon, the kid had a shift selling popcorn for the Scouts. I took her to it while T. cleaned and did the laundry. Keeping her on track selling stuff was difficult but in the end we managed. Afterwards she and I ran a quick errand. When we got home, some friends of hers came over for a playdate and pumpkin carving. It was also nice to catch up with their mother. My parents came over too. Dinner was air fryer chicken, quinoa, and a salad. (For the family, not school friends.)

We went to bed lateish, around 11:30. Just as T. and I were settling in the kid started screaming with an earache. She was up in agony until after 2. We went to the emergency room but left again when we heard there was an average 10-hour wait time.

We survived

Wordle 497 6/6

⬜⬜🟨🟩⬜
⬜🟩⬜🟩⬜
⬜🟩⬜🟩⬜
⬜🟩⬜🟩⬜
🟩🟩⬜🟩⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Biked the kid to school yesterday. I found out later that she was considered late. Whoops. Have to get moving earlier.

Work was better than average for the day of that biweekly report. They were all in by 11. My teammate J. had a very bad day, though, both work and personally. After finishing the essentials I walked to the post office to mail those postcards and got milk on the way back. In the afternoon we did a little cleaning because we're expecting company.

We went to get the kid almost an hour earlier than usual. Shortly after we came home, my parents arrived. We had separate fun evenings planned. They would take the kid to gymnastics class and a Halloween event nearby (so, more fun for her, but they'd probably enjoy it somewhat), while we went to a concert. They had been going through a rough time but insisted they'd be up for it.

I wasn't.

We got to the concert early because it lined up well with the kid's and my parent's schedule, and we were hungry and would eat dinner near the concert. But it meant a lot of time standing around waiting. Especially since the band started an hour and a half late. We left a little early and T. resented missing some of the concert, but she suspected that I resented going at all. (Mmmmaybe.) But the kid and her grandparents had fun, so that's nice...

Let's hope it was jet lag

Wordle 496 6/6

🟨⬜⬜🟨⬜
🟩⬜🟨⬜🟨
🟩⬜🟩🟩⬜
🟩⬜🟩🟩⬜
🟩⬜🟩🟩⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Good enough.

I logged on yesterday to find that a weird discussion had come up the day before. Management, i.e. government, had asked a technical team how much of their documentation was in compliance and they had to ask us the answer to that, and what "in compliance" would even mean. My teammates and manager addressed it, but got one detail wrong, which I clarified. (With sources. Yay, I made a contribution.) We learned some things ourselves in ensuing discussions, or had them clarified. It was uncomfortable thinking about just how "out of compliance" our library is. I suggested a pragmatic way to deal with it, which a team member had strenuous ethical objections to. Well, don't I feel like an asshole. I also forgot or got confused about some parts of the discussion in an embarrassing way, but that's a relatively minor problem.

World of Warcraft is also frustrating. The only thing I care about in the game at the moment is those last three Fated Heroic raid bosses, and they depend on other people having skill, which is apparently in short supply. There's lots of other things I could do, but they don't matter. I could make minor improvements to my gear for the last Mage Tower, but I can't make any attempts at the challenge itself; it was shut down in the recent patch for rebalancing. The recent patch made lots of backend changes and changes to the interface but very minor changes to the gameplay so far. I could work on the very last Balance of Power, I guess, but that's really scraping the bottom of the barrel.

We went grocery shopping on the way to get the kid. Our favorite grocery store isn't on the usual route and traffic on this route was terrible. After getting her from school, we went to a "Pumpkinpalooza" event nearby. There was some Halloween-related fun stuff, but it was mostly just a chance to get pumpkins. Traffic on the way home from that was terrible too. 

Dinner was tortellini and a green salad. Easy. I put the kid to bed but didn't stay up long after that. I was exhausted.

As good as can be expected

Wordle 495 6/6

🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜🟩⬜⬜🟨
⬜🟩🟨⬜🟩
🟩🟩⬜⬜🟩
⬜⬜🟩⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Played it safe there.

Yesterday the flight was uneventful. I almost finished Resident Alien, but not quite. Ugh. The kid was antsy by the time we got home but wasn't horribly behaved in the airport or cab. We had time for her to change clothes and even go to the playground briefly before her usual guitar lesson. That was fine. Dinner was Hawaiian pizza. Nothing to cook and didn't feel like it anyway.

I finished The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. It ended stronger than the beginning and middle.

Last night I didn't sleep well. The snoring wasn't too loud, but it was just irregular enough to keep me disturbed. It's weird to sleep better in an unfamiliar bed...

The last day

Wordle 494 4/6

⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨

⬜⬜🟩🟩🟩

⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Worked yesterday morning. The usual mid-morning meeting was earlier due to thr time zone difference, so I was worried about waking T. up, but fortunately it was also short. I fixed that formatting problem and made it an even half-day. T.'s father took the kid to see Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile at the movies. Interesting. Meanwhile T. and I packed, cleaned, and redecorated some of the deceased stuff, and T.'s mother used her sewing skills to work on the kid's Halloween costume. 

We left their house around 4:30. We had dinner at a seafood place near the airport, checked into a hotel for the night, and said our goodbyes. 

In the airport now finishing breakfast. Our flight is at 8 AM PST, about 40 minutes from now.

Learning experiences

Wordle 493 X/6

⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜

⬜⬜🟨⬜🟩

⬜🟩⬜⬜🟩

⬜🟩⬜⬜🟩

⬜🟩⬜⬜⬜

⬜🟩⬜⬜🟩

That was my mistake/incompetence/haste.

Yesterday I worked in the morning. Productive but not too busy - I got a draft back to the SME with questions, so that was nice. There were formatting problems with it, which are probably my fault, but I'm pretty sure I'll be able to fix them myself, it'll just be annoying. There was an all hands meeting I listened in on. Simple enough. 

Shortly before I logged off work, T., her mother, and the kid went out to get pedicures and run a few errands. I helped T.'s father set up a video doorbell, and had an uncomfortable discussion about why I don't help T. out more with her problems with her electric bike. Not sure how seriously I should take this... I also did research into some flight options winter break. After I felt like I had enough of that, I went for a walk. Nothing intense, just 1.5 miles or so, but I felt overdue for something. 

The ladies got back just a few minutes before I did. A little after that, T., the kid and I helped pick up walnuts from the orchard. The actual harvesters had come through over the past few days. We filled a bucket and a half with walnuts they had missed. Good for us.

Dinner was spaghetti. I mixed drinks and it went better than last time. But myself, I had dark beers, which a friend bought as a present for me last time I was here and no one has had since then, so I feel obligated to use them up.  

Random things I've learned in recent days, which aren't a big deal but have been annoying:

• Getting on PST is much easier when it's late October and the days are shorter than the summer. This is a mixed blessing. I had planned to start work at 6 AM local time and be done by 10. Instead it has been a struggle to be online by 7. 
• Dry air doesn't retain heat as well. Not exactly "learning" this but it made the trip more inconvenient or uncomfortable than it otherwise would have been. I packed one pair of fairly formal slacks for the celebration of life, one pair of jeans, and it was forecast to be in the 90s when we arrived, so one pair of shorts. I didn't want to pack more than that for a short, mostly casual trip. Yesterday's high was in the 70s and it was a lot lower than that at 8 AM. And it was laundry day so the jeans and slacks got washed and I was shivering in the shorts and debating bringing the computer into the sun while working.
• I'm a fast reader when I'm interested. I haven't been all that interested in The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet. I'll still finish it out of completionism, but it's not doing it for me, and it's hard to articulate why. The setting is a space-opera pastiche and the plot is mostly slice-of-life stuff. I'm not sure if it's not action-oriented enough for me, not grounded enough (there's anti-gravity, casual interstellar travel, multiple sapient alien races coexisting, but it's set only about a thousand years in the future or so), or not funny enough (characters tell jokes but the narrative never does, if the distinction makes any sense), but I probably won't be buying the next book in the series. Oh well. They can't all be winners.
• Entertaining the kid is challenging. Again, not exactly news. Letting her watch TV or play games on an iPad all day is bad parenting; if nothing else, she has to burn off energy. Finding books she likes can be challenging, but then again, we could try harder. Playing any remotely competitive game with her is a matter of seeing how bad a sore loser she's going to be at the moment. Playing with dolls or other pretend-type games with her is like playing Calvinball where only one person can make up the rules. Maybe we need to do more arts and crafts?

Relaxing

Wordle 492 3/6

🟨⬜⬜⬜🟨

⬜🟩🟩⬜🟩

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Yesterday we had an extravagant breakfast, as usual. I'm not worrying about not working out during this pseudo-vacation, but if we were here for several weeks like we did in the summers of 2020 and 2021, I'd really have to. In downtime, I played with the kid. It's mostly pretend, with old dolls of T.'s. No offense to the 7-year-old but it gets pretty mind-numbing. She really enjoys having her doll beat up physically and emotionally on my doll... 

Later in the morning or early afternoon we finished cleaning up the Lion's Club after the events last night. Then we went to a winery, the main leisure activity around here it seems. 

The last of the visiting friends left after dinner, so it was just the five of us again, so the kid was back to sleeping in the house instead of the apartment with us. Woo hoo.

Memorial celebration of life funeral

Wordle 491 X/6

⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨

⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜

⬜🟩⬜⬜🟩

⬜🟩⬜⬜🟩

⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩

⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩

This fucking game. The word was "mummy".

Yesterday was the celebration of life for T.'s aunt. The reason we're out here. So it was busy. In the morning and afternoon, there was random preparation, setting things up at the Lions Club and looking for pictures or other memorabilia of her that had been put away in the wrong place. 

The event itself went fine. The kid was well-behaved, either looking after the toy poodle that used to belong to the deceased or being a social butterfly. Dinner was a simple buffet of finger food. I drank simply: two Modelos.

Afterwards we decompressed at T.'s parent's house with a smaller gathering. I joined in but also played with a stray kitten that has appeared. 

Work-Life Balance, Redux

Wordle 490 2/6

⬜⬜🟩🟩⬜

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Tell you what, I'll attribute both yesterday's failure and today's success to luck.

Yesterday I started work a little later than planned because it was hard to find the wifi password. Last summer it changed - with my help, in fact - and I had my personal computer with me then, but my corporate computer now.

Eventually I got to work and it was fine. Not too busy which is just as well. At 11, local time, we had a chat with our architect about plans for the house work. Things are progressing. 

In the afternoon we went to the Lions Club to prep for the "celebration of life" of T.'s aunt, then to the library to get a bunch of books for the kid, then to a winery.

Before dinner I was asked to make cocktails. It didn't go well, so that was stressful. Dinner was enchiladas, made by a guest. By the end of it I was absolutely exhausted. Vaccine side effects blended smoothly into jet lag. I think T., the kid and I all went to sleep around 9 PM and I'm surprised I lasted that long. 

Two years ago, working from our parents' places seemed like both genius and life-saving. There was no childcare, there was nothing to do in our homes or neighborhoods, I was miserly with time off because there was a pandemic going around, and I was getting used to a lot of changes at work. 

Now, though?

We're in California for the memorial service of a beloved relative of T.'s. T. is taking the whole time off. I'm working half-days. Over Christmas 2020 and 2021 I took a few days off during travel, but also worked a few days. Probably other occasions too. Is this good work-life balance? I have taken one or two true vacations, pure vacations, since starting the pandemic, definitely when in Spain and probably coming out here in April but I'm not going to check now, but far more often I've done stuff like this. Is this actually a benefit of perpetual work from home or a curse?

Powering through

Wordle 489 X/6

⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜

⬜⬜🟩🟨🟩

⬜🟩🟩⬜🟩

⬜🟩🟩⬜🟩

⬜🟩🟩⬜🟩

⬜🟩🟩⬜🟩

Ugh. I suck. Or I need a better strategy for words like that. 

Let me preface this by saying that, just like every previous covid booster, I had minor flu-like symptoms - fever, chills, muscle aches, etc. - through yesterday. Rarely have I regretted putting things off to the last minute more than when I took a shower in the mid-morning while dealing with those symptoms, but I had no choice...

Drove the kid to school, like I said. Work was less busy than I expected due to other peoples' scheduling problems. That is, I had three meetings scheduled, but two were cancelled, and the third turned out to be a training or something for something I don't use and didn't care about. 

In between that, I did some last-minute packing for myself and the kid. I also prepped our neighbor for taking care of the cat, and ran to the post office to mail a birthday present to my nephew, and finally get the right kind of stamps for the postcards. (It was a new post office for me, despite being the closest one to my home. How have we gone this long without using it before?) 

We got the kid from school at 2:30. (We've never seen traffic better!) Got home, dropped her backpack off, did a couple literally-last-minute things, and got in a Lyft.

At the airport, we had an early dinner around 4 at a Qdoba. Burritos/burrito bowls. I tried to order less than usual but should probably have ordered even less than that. We carried most of a burrito, dismembered, through most of the flight. 

The flight was uneventful. Screaming children in front of and behind us, and kind of turbulent, but we boarded, took off, and landed roughly on schedule. T. and I both watched Resident Alien for most of the flight. It's up our alley but we haven't wanted to pay for the Syfy (or however it's spelled) streaming app, so this was our chance to binge on it. 

We got to the in-laws' house around 11 PM local time. So, a loooong day.

Weird

Wordle 488 3/6

⬜🟨🟨🟨⬜
🟩🟨🟨⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Yesterday I biked the kid to school. On the way home I stopped by the grocery store for stamps for that postcard project and a few groceries. Unfortunately I got "normal" stamps, forever stamps, not postcard stamps, so spent more than intended and probably will return them and still need to get the right kind. The deadline is approaching, and we'll be busy part of that time...

Work wasn't too busy. Minor work on two documents. 

A little before noon I went to the pharmacy to get two shots, the annual flu shot and my second covid booster. I wish I had done so a week or two ago, because we're traveling and seeing elderly family soon, but better late than never. 

In my free time, I played WoW. No progress on those last three bosses. Anything else is just time-killing.

Later in the afternoon I did some packing. I made the salad for dinner before getting the kid to save time later. Guitar lesson was uneventful. The kid showered as soon as we got home and I made dinner quickly, because T. and I went to a Weird Al concert at the Kennedy Center while the kid stayed home with a babysitter. 

It was fun. Where most concerts have a band for an opening act, this one had a stand-up comic. I recognized most but not all of the songs, and some were notably changed from the album version. I don't mean just audio issues, I could hear things much better than usual, I mean a running gag greatly expanded on in the middle. The concert ended in an orgy of noise that wasn't really my thing, a medley like his polka pieces but not polka, just blasting sounds and lights, but still, overall it was more up my alley than most concerts we've been to. 

I have had side effects of every covid shot I've had so far, and this seems like no exception. I'm functioning OK at the moment but definitely more sore and tired than I'd be otherwise. I slept all night in the same bed, which is progress. I'm not biking the kid to school today because I don't feel up for it...

A good Tuesday

 Wordle 487 4/6

⬜⬜🟩⬜🟨
🟨⬜🟩⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩⬜🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Yesterday T. got up early to get the car inspected. We figured earlier was better than later, and I'm the morning person among us, but we didn't know how long it would take and I can get the kid to school without the car more easily than she can. As it turned out, she got back before we left. Apparently the inspectors are efficient. 

I biked the kid to school, and T. went to the office after dropping the car off at home, so I had the house to myself.

Work was fine. Two meetings. Minor work on existing tasks, plus one new one came in but it probably isn't urgent. The second one required no work from me, so while listening to it, I did the last of the postcards. There were eight pages of 25 each, T. did 3, and I wound up doing 5. I'm not mad at her for not getting to her share faster - she organized the effort and lots of other stuff and didn't ask me to do the extra one - but I'm proud of myself. :)

After that, I worked out on the exercise bike. And, probably more importantly, did the physical therapy. 

Picking the ladies up at school was uneventful. For dinner I made chicken and a sauteed peas dish.

As for World of Warcraft, an update from last week: I got that last guest for Be Our Guest and the last quest for Abominable Lives, and therefore Veilstrider. I've also got a couple more class sets. No big deal but it's cool. I'm roughly as ready as I can get for the 12th Mage Tower challenge and it's now just a matter of skill. 

Still working on those last three raid bosses, though. I may have to take drastic steps like leadership, or just giving up in disgust. 

Weekly updates on this seem weird at first glance, but lots of stuff in the game reset weekly, and I play so much that limiting updates to weekly may make more sense than actually posting about it whenever anything happens.

Normal Monday

Wordle 486 3/6

⬜⬜🟩🟨⬜
🟨⬜🟩🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

I biked the kid to school yesterday. I took route #3, as safe as route #2 but bumpier. Maybe route #2 will have to be the new normal route but it's the longest one and we were going at the last minute. I did a little shopping on the way home.

In the late morning I was interviewed by a reporter. A few weeks ago I made a comment on the local Reddit sub about crime issues, and he wanted to talk to me about that. I don't think what I had to say was as interesting as he thought it would be and I'll bet he doesn't use what I had to say, but considering that he's a reporter for the right-wing rag (I recorded the call just in case), I'm OK with that.

I would normally have worked out on the exercise bike, but my schedule wasn't lining up with T.'s well, so I went jogging right around noon. It was the first time since this. It went better than I expected, but makes me think that I've got to start doing my physical therapy more. I don't want to keep on having to gauge how much pain is too much...

Work was fine. Cleaned up after the biweekly report, dealt with some scheduling issues, worked on a Job Aid the SME sent me their draft of last week. I should have got to it earlier than I did, but it's genuinely messier than I expected, so if I get it done today I won't feel bad about it.

Getting the kid was uneventful, although we left in a hurry because T. was in a meeting until the last minute. Dinner was tortellini and broccoli - easy and popular.

The kid is in charge

Wordle 485 3/6

⬜⬜🟨🟨⬜
🟩⬜🟨🟨🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Yesterday's brunch was pancakes (half a batch; I felt like the usual amount was much bigger than we needed) and scrambled eggs. The morning was leisurely enough. But the afternoon...

From noon to 2 we did a shift fundraising for the Scouts BSA, which the kid is a member of. It went well. She was very helpful and responsible. We also happened to see "Miss Kiki", the owner of the daycare she went to, so that was a nice reunion. (And we sold her popcorn.)

After that we had a very quick lunch at a Mexican place nearby. Then we went to a class playdate. (As in, the whole second grade at her school was invited, although it wasn't sponsored by or located at the school.) It didn't turn out to be that big a gathering, probably less than a dozen kids, but ours had some friends there and that's what counts. That was almost two hours.

Shortly after getting home, another friend of the kid's came over. They spent almost an hour together, playing upstairs and decorating cookies from a kit T. had bought. Unusually, the friend's mother hung out the whole time. Not that we mind the company, but they recently moved across town. So dropping her daughter off and going home would have been harder than usual for her, and it was nice to catch up. 

Dinner was Mexican pizza. Good but messy and takes much longer than the recipe says.

If it seems like our entire life revolves around the kid, that's not entirely wrong. I feel like there are several reasons for this.

1. She's the most irresponsible and dependent member of the household in totally age-appropriate ways. She's 7.
   
2. If she had to entertain herself, she'd watch TV as much as we let her. When we put a limit on that, she might entertain herself in some peaceful, harmless way for a while but would eventually start bothering us. So instead we let her (encourage her to) socialize or do more constructive hobbies. Good parenting seems to require something like this. When I was her age or only a little older, I could be expected to entertain myself for hours outside, but I grew up in the country and she isn't.
   
3. We're still recovering from covid - not medically, but socially and personally. For about six months there were no activities at all for the kid. For about 18 months after that there were no activities unless they were outdoors, masked, or both. Things were kind of back to normal in the early summer but then we spent a lot of the summer doing our own weird stuff, like my whirlwind family reunion and the Spain trip. And so on. This fall is busy to make up for two-plus years when we couldn't be.
4. Even things that don't involve her directly have to involve her indirectly because she's a kid. See point 1. If T. and I have a simple date, we have to either bring her or have childcare plans.
   

Weekends are busier than weekdays

Wordle 484 3/6

🟨🟨⬜🟨⬜
🟨⬜🟩🟨🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

 Cool.

Yesterday brunch was earlier and simpler than usual: bacon, fried eggs, and toast. This was because we had an appointment to get out car serviced. Before that, T. had time to go to the farmer's market for a few things and I took the kid to the park. 

While the car was in the shop, we did a little shopping. It was mostly for Halloween-related stuff. The work finished, if anything, earlier than we expected. The car was fine. No extra work needed at all. After that, home quickly, to meet a contractor so he could work on our rear gates. (He had come earlier, but we had planned to leave some primer outside for him and forgot, so he had to come back. Whoops!) Meanwhile we had lunch and started the laundry.

Around 4 a friend of the kid was dropped off, so we could take both of them to a Girl Scout event. They were rowdy. I almost wished they got lost in the woods. I don't even mean the troop, I just mean the two we brought...

Dinner was spaghetti and green beans. Easy. We had thought the kid would have a playdate with a friend after dinner because her parents had late plans, but they were too fired and stayed in, and so did her friend.

While the kid was in bed, we both did some more postcards. We were both tired, but we didn't want to deal with them at the last minute, so we were responsible.

A good Friday

Wordle 483 4/6

🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜🟨🟨⬜⬜
🟩🟩⬜⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Yesterday I biked the kid to school. I tried a new route, with no bike lane but on a street I hoped would be less busy. I was right but it also had more speed bumps. Trade-offs...

Work was the biweekly report day. It went OK all things considered. Better than two weeks ago in terms of when the last report came in, and in terms of the difficulty, but maybe not in terms of when the median report came in. But the last report is probably more important than the median report, so, yay. I found the time to work out on the exercise bike early in the afternoon. 

T. wasn't feeling well, so she lay down and I kept things low-key (not that I wouldn't normally) until it was time to get the kid. We picked her up from school and got her to gymnastics with 1 minute to spare. Then T. and I went to the library and did a little grocery shopping. 

Dinner was at this new taqueria place near our house. It's been there for months now but we hadn't got around to it yet. It was nice, but more food than we expected. Lots of leftovers. Afterwards, we found two neighboring couples chatting on their front porch, so T. joined them while I put the kid to bed. (Even though it was T.'s turn. Hmmm...)

Last night I got to bed around 10:30. Snoring woke me up around 4:30. I figured my chances of getting back to sleep were bad, so I went downstairs and lay down on the couch. I was out until 8 this morning. A better night's sleep than I've had in weeks, if not years, even though it wasn't all in one bed.

Relaxation

Wordle 482 4/6

⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜🟩🟨⬜
⬜🟨🟩⬜🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Yesterday we drove the kid in due to rain. 

My only meeting was cancelled, so that was a minor relief. I finally got to that follow-up from Tuesday's meeting. I also fielded some access/organization issues with the wiki. It's nice to have a specialty, and it's nice when it's not very demanding!

T. and I drove to pick the kid up, as usual, but unusually, instead of going home I drove them to an Art After Dark event at the National Gallery of Art. We had two tickets but I was left out. We found out late that someone could give me a spare, but I decided to take it easy for so many reasons. I went home, got takeout for dinner from somewhere new, and got ready for bed a bit early.

Brain problems

Wordle 481 4/6

🟨⬜⬜🟨🟨
⬜🟨🟩⬜🟨
🟩⬜🟩🟨⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Got it in four. Can't complain, but that was weird.

Yesterday I got almost nothing done. Not literally nothing. I biked the kid to school. The new route is safe, but still has a frustrating amount of obstructions in the bike lane. I might try another one. I responded to an email in a timely manner. It was far from urgent, but it's nice to know that I was on top of something. And I did my share of the house work as we managed breakfast, lunch, getting ready for the afternoon, etc.

But that's it. I couldn't focus on work. I got nothing important done there. Or important stuff outside work either, not that there's all that much of that. I've mentioned "low executive functioning days" before and this was among the lowest. I'm tempted to blame lack of sleep or some other medical issue. 

Getting the kid to and through her guitar lesson was uneventful. 

Dinner was a Japanese-style fried rice, from a freezer bag. Lazy, but we have to do something easy on guitar lesson nights. I went to bed a bit earlier than usual. I was genuinely tired and hope that extra sleep would help.

Last night around 1 AM I got up to go to the bathroom. While doing that I fell down. It was really weird and a bit scary and I have no idea why. I had only two beers the night before and a lot of water, I've never had an incident like this before. As soon as I finished peeing, I just got dizzy and basically fainted. (Lucky it happened in that order, at least!) I had vasovagal syncope symptoms - a little nausea, chills - but didn't get too close to throwing up, which is weird either way. I was kind of wobbly getting back to my bed. After I recovered, it was hard to get back to sleep partly due to T.'s snoring, so I went downstairs (carefully!) and spent the rest of the night on the couch. So... I was in a bed for over eight hours, as planned, but I wouldn't call it restful.

Time to myself

Wordle 480 6/6

⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
⬜🟨🟩🟨⬜
⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Ugh. One of those words. Better late than never, I guess.

Yesterday I biked the kid to school and did some grocery shopping on the way home. Then I had the house to myself; T. made yesterday her day at the office.

Work wasn't too bad. One meeting in the morning, productive. I didn't finish a follow-up to it I should have, but it's not a huge deal.

In addition to work I did some cleaning, mostly just finishing unpacking after the busy weekend, and writing. I also worked out on the exercise bike. And played World of Warcraft, of course. Revisiting this list, in the past week I did the following:

1. No progress. Skill aside, I haven't had the chance due to the rotation.
   
2. Invited three guests and really did unlock that last one, so checking that box off should only take 10 minutes next week.
3. Got five of the quests I needed, so now I'm just waiting and hoping for the last one to spawn. I could finish that in 10 minutes next week as well or it could remain unfinished when the new expansion comes, seven weeks from now.
   
4. Got the 10th Mage Tower challenge, and by the way, Saturday morning I got the 11th too. Holy shit, vengeance was so much easier than havoc...
5. Minor progress, and again, this is a low priority.

So while I'm not completely done with this expansion, I'm feeling less frustrated and more bored. Gear doesn't matter now, I'm not sure what my main will be when the new expansion comes... I might unsubscribe if it wasn't on a longer plan than that. 

As usual for days like this, T. walked to the school and I drove to get them both. Uneventful. Afterwards, a friend of the kid came over to play. Dinner was carne asada and a salad.

Rehoboth Beach, day two

Wordle 479 4/6

🟨🟨🟨⬜⬜
⬜🟩🟨🟩⬜
🟩🟩⬜🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Yesterday morning the kid got up around 6:30, earlier than usual. I took her to get breakfast right then rather than having her watching shows on her iPad while we were trying to sleep. We finally got T. up at around 8. We had time to kill; we wanted to do some shopping and got there right when shops opened at 10. We got new socks, shoes, winter boots, and a blouse for the kid; new jeans and a new sunglasses case for me; and some other clothes for T., I have to admit I didn't even notice around wrangling the kid.

After that, we went to the beach, for a trip to the kid's favorite rock store. She collects pretty stones. Lunch was at a taco shop. Then the beach itself for a little more time making sandcastles. 

We eventually started driving home around 2 or 3 PM. T. did the driving Sunday so I did it yesterday. Despite getting enough sleep the night before "by the numbers", so to speak, I was drowsy for some reason, so we stopped early for gas and coffee. Other than that the trip home was uneventful. 

Dinner was pork chops and a sort of grain salad. It wasn't anyone's favorite, but the kid ate the amount we required of her, and I had wanted to try something new when I bought the kit in the freezer aisle a few weeks ago, and it was easy.

Rehoboth Beach

Wordle 478 4/6

⬜⬜⬜🟨⬜

⬜⬜🟨⬜🟨

🟩⬜⬜🟩⬜

🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Yesterday after the usual Sunday brunch, T. ran a quick errand and we packed to go to Rehoboth Beach. Got to the hotel a little before 3 PM. The first priority was swimming in the hotel pool, of course. We had it to ourselves for an hour. Then to the beach area itself. The kid and I made a sandcastle. Then a little shopping at the local bookstore, then dinner at a fancy place nearby. This seems like the time of year to come here, after it's crowded and before half the restaurants and shops close for the season. 

I slept great last night. Maybe not completely uninterrupted, but better than usual. Probably says something bad about our bedroom or house...

Renaissance Festival

Wordle 477 4/6

⬜🟨⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜🟨🟩⬜
⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Yesterday we had the usual weekend brunch. Later in the morning we went to the Maryland Renaissance Festival. (We left the house thinking we'd get there at around 11:45, but had a few navigation problems and got there right after noon...) In addition to the festival itself, it was a chance to catch up with Paul, who I hadn't seen since the kid's birthday. His youngest kid was sick so his wife couldn't make it, but his sister was visiting, so it was nice to catch up with her.

The festival and friends and kids were fun. Watched a few shows, waited in a long line for food, ate more than planned, dealt with a tantrum or near-tantrum over souvenirs, but on the whole they behaved okay... our fun aside, I hope Paul had some, because it sounds like he's really stressed.

We left around 5, almost an hour after Paul's family. Dinner at home was spaghetti and brussels sprouts. We got two or three loads of laundry done in between and after dinner.

Recovery in every sense but physical

Wordle 476 3/6

⬜⬜🟨⬜⬜
⬜🟩🟨🟩⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Yesterday morning I finally got the 10th Mage Tower challenge, so that was nice. During breakfast we heard a crashing noise in the kitchen. We couldn't figure out what it was, but later in the morning we found that a shelf in the cupboard had collapsed. Overloaded, I guess.

For work I had one meeting in the morning, which I was actually in charge of. It went OK. Core objective achieved, but in hindsight I could have been better prepared and focused more on a second objective. So... OK. Other than that, work was slow, like most Fridays without the biweekly report.

Unusually, I had the house to myself. The kid had the day off school, so T. took the day off work and took her to a local farm/petting zoo/fall festival with two friends from school and their parents. In addition to a normal but relaxing workday, I also walked to the hardware store to get more pins to hold up the shelf. After that I worked out on the exercise bike and did the actual physical therapy. 

As it turned out, T. and the kid left the farm at the last minute for gymnastics class, so I met them there. I just barely missed a bus, so I walked. (Exercise, physical therapy, and a long walk - wow. At some point I should think about upper body workout but at this point I think I just need to concentrate on beating the fasciitis. It's still around now and then.)

Gymnastics was fine. Dinner afterwards was burritos, as takeout because the kid needed to get cleaned up. When she got to the gym, she had hay in her shoes, and she thought it would be logical to shake it out into my bag. Kids...

Last night we tried out a white noise setting on the alarm clock. I slept better but still not great.

That fucking day

Wordle 475 X/6

🟨🟨⬜⬜⬜
⬜⬜🟨⬜🟨
🟩🟩⬜⬜🟩
🟩🟩⬜⬜🟩
⬜🟨🟨⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩⬜🟩

Ugh. That fits yesterday.

I tried a new route biking the kid to school yesterday, based on advice from a classmate's parent, and it went well. On the way home, a tiny bit of grocery shopping. After that the day got away from me, in so many ways...

Soon after getting home I took notes at a meeting. It was a bit busier than usual. In the morning I also sent out a couple reminders about new tasks we needed more information to get started, or old tasks that had become stalled. I tried to spend some time on the exercise bike in the morning, but it got interrupted by one thing after another so I didn't start until afternoon. Honestly, most of the interruptions were T., not games or work. Planning events weeks away, vacuuming our work space, a phone call... that was my choice to not interrupt it, it was unplanned, but I wasn't sure how work-related it was. In the afternoon I drove to Costco to get gas and exchange one allergy medication for another because I had bought the wrong one last time. After that I tried to clean up the notes from the meeting.

But I couldn't. Because I had apparently not hit Save. Luckily I hadn't put off reaching out to people about questions, at least, so I could reconstruct those from the Teams chat. But even so, I lost over a page of notes, including at least two actual action items. Fuck. I sent what I had before logging off with an apology.

T. went to get the kid after school without me, partly because she was trying out Girl Scouts and T. would be primarily overseeing that rather than me, and partly because we had evening plans so I needed extra time for dinner. As it turned out, it took them longer than expected due to terrible traffic. Dinner was a beef and broccoli stir-fry (using up leftover steak from several days ago). I thought it came out awesome, if I may say so myself. The kid's only feedback was complaining about excessively chewy bits of beef, but when pressed, admitted it was OK.

After that, evening plans. T. went out for drinks with other mothers of friends/classmates of the kid. I supervised a movie night with our kid and two of those friends/classmates. It was easier than we thought it would be. I just parked them in front of the TV and made sure the Halloween-themed movie wasn't too scary for them. 

But still, the idea of supervising three girls, on top of the day I had, was daunting. I was torn between "I need to stay sober to survive this" and "I need a drink now", so I compromised and had a weaker drink than usual.

Last night I slept better than the night before, but still not great. Snoring remains a problem.

Exhausted

Wordle 474 4/6

⬜⬜⬜⬜⬜
🟩🟨🟩⬜⬜
🟩🟨🟩⬜🟨
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Drove the kid to school again yesterday. It was still just a bit too wet to bike.

Work was uneventful. A few emails, assigning a new task to someone else. Zero meetings.

In the afternoon I walked to the hardware store, and drugstore for some basic groceries, and took a roundabout route back to get some more steps in and enjoy the sun, which had finally come out.

In World of Warcraft, I got tantalizingly close to beating that Mage Tower challenge. I made one mistake 30 seconds from the end of a 15-minute fight and didn't have time for another attempt after that. Ugh.

After school we took the kid to her guitar lesson. It went so well, she is apparently enthusiastic about their upcoming concert and actually wants to be in it. Progress.

After that, instead of going home, we dropped her at this friend's house for dinner and a movie. (Twice in a week, wow.) Then T. and I went out to dinner ourselves, at a ramen place near U St., and after that, to a concert. Barns Courtney. I preferred the opening act, a funny country/blues singer with a high, warbling voice. The main attraction was loud, and so wild it was silly. I recognized two songs, "Glitter and Gold" and "Fire", but I just barely recognized them because it was hard to make anything out. I'd say "I'm getting old", but I'm not sure I would have ever said otherwise. 

We got home around 11 and slept poorly. T. kept snoring. I hadn't slept great the night before last either.

Frustration

Wordle 473 4/6

🟨⬜⬜⬜⬜
🟨⬜🟨🟩⬜
⬜🟩🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Drove the kid to school again, and then dropped T. off at work. She made yesterday her day at the office this week so I had the house to myself. Work was fine. Two meetings. One, small and productive; the second, longer, but no activity required from me.

I thought about getting exercise, but kept putting it off. I eventually talked myself down to a brisk walk to the hardware store, for a support that would hopefully keep the dryer vent from breaking under its own weight again. I wanted to get a picture of something similar, but I couldn't find the keys. For a while I was worried I had locked them in the basement, which would suck. Eventually I found them in the pocket of my windbreaker, in the car. That took long enough and was stressful enough that I didn't go for that walk. Maybe today... 

I drove to pick up the girls. The kid didn't want to leave school, she was having too much fun playing with her friends, but we insisted around when it started to rain. She practiced her guitar briefly, just to get in a second practice for the week. Dinner was enchiladas. 

Warcraft

These days I'm working on the following goals in World of Warcraft, besides general fun and stuff.

1. The Hero of Fate title. It requires killing each raid boss of the expansion, on "Fated" mode and "Heroic" difficulty. This takes skill, or at least the luck to get invited to a group with high enough skill. There are 31 of those and I've done 28. I tried them several times at the last three over the past few days but just couldn't get them. It becomes unavailable forever when the new expansion launches on Nov. 28.
   
2. Be Our Guest, party planning (seriously). It's a once-a-week activity. The goal is to invite 16 different characters to parties, up to four a week. This just takes planning. Three days ago I still needed seven and one of them needs to be unlocked. I thought I'd be able to unlock that one yesterday but apparently I was wrong. Required for the Veilstrider title, which becomes unavailable on Nov. 28, although it has other rewards of its own which don't.
3. Abominable Lives, a bunch of different quests. It's random which ones will be available each week, so it takes luck. Last week I needed six. This week I got none of the ones I needed. Likewise required for Veilstrider.
4. The 10th Mage Tower challenge. A solo challenge so in theory it takes pure skill. As far as I can tell I'm doing everything right, I just need to make fewer mistakes. Probably never becomes unavailable, but the new expansion will add complexity. (Maybe it'll make it easier, who knows, but I'd like to get it over with before then for reasons besides simple difficulty.)
5. Various class armor sets. Easy on lower difficulties but there's a random element. Becomes harder for a long time after the new expansion.
   

Notice a pattern? Time limits and luck. I want to remind myself that I already completed the goals I "really" care about and this stuff is just minor bonuses for completionism (it's easier in the case of the last ones). I fear to calculate the odds of getting number three. The math is complicated. And the past few days were frustrating.

It sounds boring

Wordle 472 4/6

⬜⬜⬜⬜🟨
⬜⬜🟨🟨⬜
⬜🟩🟩⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

Yesterday we drove the kid to school. In hindsight we could have biked, it wasn't raining, but it was cold, and it had rained recently enough I was worried about blocked gutters and stuff.

Other than that, a typical Monday. Cleanup after the biweekly report. One standing meeting, no activity required. Made some progress on a technical document. No one is breathing down my neck on it but it's been on my to-do list for more than long enough. 

After we got the kid home, she practiced her guitar. Then she got to have a brief playdate at a friend's house. We took advantage of the quiet to call my parents; we had missed them over the weekend.

Dinner was merguez sausages, quinoa, and salad. I liked it and thought it came out well and I think T. agreed, but the kid didn't. Can't please everyone.

Rainy museum day

Wordle 471 6/6

⬜⬜🟩⬜⬜
🟩⬜🟩⬜⬜
🟩⬜🟩⬜⬜
🟩⬜🟩⬜🟨
🟩🟩🟩⬜⬜
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

I can't complain about getting it, but I feel like I should have got it earlier. Maybe I should have not guessed specific words when I had so few letters? Thought harder about common letter patterns?

Yesterday was the usual Sunday breakfast of eggs and home fries. At 11 we went to the Museum of American History. We had planned to meet a former coworker of T.'s there, but parking was so bad, they gave up on finding a place. I let T. and the kid out and drove in circles for almost half an hour myself. I guess everyone else had the same idea as us about what to do on a rainy fall day. But once we got inside it was fun. The kid spent more time with various exhibits than usual. I think she's old enough to think about history and stuff. We spent almost 3 hours there, including lunch.

After that, home. The kid and T. baked cookies. 

At 6 we went to a friend's house for dinner, so that was nice. Channa Masala and raita, homemade.

Around the house

Wordle 470 4/6

⬜⬜🟩🟨⬜
⬜⬜🟩🟨🟩
🟩🟩🟩⬜🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

The usual breakfast yesterday, pancakes and bacon, but a little later than usual because of how late we were up the night before. 

We had several plans for yesterday - a playdate, a scout event - but they fell through due to the weather. It was probably better than expected, not raining all the time, but was still wet enough that outdoors activities would be miserable. So instead we worked around the house. T. and the kid cleaned the kid's room. I put the air conditioners in the basement for the winter. While doing that, I found a leak in the dryer vent, so I patched that. We all worked on laundry. In the afternoon we went to an event at a local park. (But not that local. It seemed like half the event were for politicians we weren't the constituents of.) The kid was much better behaved through all this than I expected. Not just not getting in the way, but actually helping.

After that, to Costco. The list had been only four items long, but somehow we spent $200 there anyway... 

After that, we had thought about going to Lowes for one or two things, but I was tired and my feet were killing me, so we put it off. 

Dinner was steak, with a butter sauce T. found a recipe for and made, and corn. I'm finding too many worms in corn from the farmer's market. Bring on the pesticides.

Movie night

Wordle 469 6/6

🟨⬜⬜🟨⬜
⬜⬜🟩⬜🟩
⬜🟨🟩⬜🟩
⬜⬜🟩🟨🟩
🟩⬜🟩🟩🟩
🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩

I'd say it was tough, but it's a very common word, I guess I just had a mental block.

Yesterday morning after getting ready for school, the kid discovered that Hocus Pocus 2 had released. It was tough to persuade her to not watch as much as she could right then, because she wouldn't have time to finish before school and because her mother and I would like to see it with her. I biked the kid to school like usual. 

It was the biweekly report day at work. It went better than two weeks ago, but still not great. All the submitters but one were on time or close enough, but that one was very late. Also, some were timely but messy. But other than that, work was fine. One meeting at 3:30. If a late Friday meeting sounds unpleasant, apparently the organizers would agree. Attendance and participation were so disappointing that they rescheduled only about halfway through the agenda in hopes that something earlier in the week would go better.

We got the kid a bit earlier than usual. Before gymnastics class we went to 7/11 for snacks. (And cash; I was out. My credit union offices are no longer as as close as they were when I opened the account, but luckily 7/11 ATMs are in network.) During gymnastics class we went grocery shopping, and to the bookstore to get The Golden Enclaves; it just came out this week and it's the sequel to The Last Graduate. 

Dinner was pizza. I felt bad about so much eating out, but we really can't do anything else on gymnastics night. To get a little more variety, I got a kind I very rarely have: buffalo chicken. The ladies dependably have Hawaiian.

After that, we watched Hocus Pocus 2. It was fine. The kid went to bed about an hour later than usual, but this seems like a good reason. T. and I watched Jon Oliver after that and played our games and didn't get to bed until midnight. We don't do that often.