Seeing my cousin

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Yesterday morning we had breakfast at the hotel, then went to a nearby park with a butterfly preserve. 

Around 1 we met my cousin R. at a brewery she recommended. It was nice to catch up with her. Haven't seen her in person in years. After lunch we browsed shops in the area and chatted more.

We got back to T.'s parent's place around 5:30 and spent the evening working. T. and I, on our holiday cards, which arrived here while we were traveling; T.'s mother and I, on the Internet connection, which is down. Physically down. T.'s dad noticed that the line is on the ground. The power went out while we were gone, and apparently the power people didn't reconnect the Internet line. 

Reading

The day before yesterday, I finished The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck. It was fine. I think I already know a lot of the advice in it. It's like the Kondo book in that I wish T. would read it, but I'm not sure that's worth recommending.

Aquarium

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Went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium yesterday. It was fun. Lots of standing but not actually too much walking. It poured as we left and we ran to the truck and got soaked anyway. Dinner at a fancy Italian place recommended by a friend of the in-laws. 

Redwoods and the coast

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Breakfast at the hotel's restaurant yesterday. 

Lots of walking, around two different coastal parks - couldn't get too close, due to flooding, but the views were nice - and a redwood forest. Lunch was at a Mexican place a local recommended, and it was big and late enough that it was basically dinner. T., the kid, and I swam in the pool and hot tub in the evening. 

Travel and shopping

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Yesterday morning I called my sister (left a message) and emailed one of the aunts and one of the uncles I missed the Zoom call with. Atonement, or the start of it. 

I also went for a short walk in the orchards. I find the fog here fascinating. I could see less than a hundred yards there.

Of course, the camera lies. It can't be too peaceful or eerie when I could hear constant noise from the state highway just out of sight. But it looks peaceful and eerie.

A little before noon, we packed up the truck and started driving to Aptos. On the way we stopped by a mall. T. got boots, her dad got shoes, and the kid got a jean jacket and - da dan DUN! - her ears pierced. After that, lunch. It was tough getting everyone their order in the food court. I ate too much, and this time I can't blame anyone but myself. 

T.'s dad drove. It was stressful. Once we got to the hotel, that was the basically the day. Dinner was at the hotel's restaurant. Light, but had leftovers anyway. 

Another lazy day

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Another lazy day yesterday. Wait, I shouldn't say "lazy", I should say "relaxed" and "unstructured". It's a vacation, right? Well, we actually were lazy in one respect. My uncle scheduled a Zoom call for the whole family and we just forgot. Whoops. I called my parents as soon as I realized, and I plan to email or call several others by way of apology.

T. and I went for a walk in the late morning to get our steps in, like the one I did the day before but with detours through suburban cul-de-sacs. In the afternoon we drove on a couple quick errands with T.'s dad. After that, I played Warcraft until dinner: a chicken chili

Christmas Day

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T. and I got up before the kid, which was kid of surprising. Christmas was relatively low-key, but still fun. Token presents for the adults, basically everything the kid asked for. 

The day was spent around the house. Reading, watching TV (the kid encouraged her grandparents to see the past 3 Doctor Who specials and we all watched the 4th one, which just came out today, together), playing Warcraft, playing other games, etc. I went for a walk for exercise but no one was too busy or active. Dinner was a nice, fancy lamb roast.

Warcraft

Took an hour or so in the mid-afternoon yesterday and played the game. Heroic raiding has been frustrating as DPS. Yesterday was the first time in a while I tried tanking on Heroic. Got one boss that was new to me, and two that were new to my warrior main (I got them on my warlock earlier), and made some good attempts on the next one. Good stuff. I don't like tanking PUG raids so much because of the responsibility, but if I'm willing to put the time into it, it can pay off. Something to remember.

I'm not sure if I should feel bad about playing it yesterday, though.

Reading

Yesterday I finished The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up (started here) and started The Subtle Art of Not Giving a Fuck, a random book I saw on the in-law's shelf that seemed interesting.

• Kondo's book, as I said early on, promises too much. It also would be unrealistic for us, and I think it doesn't say enough about how to handle shared space or shared property. All that being said, I think it was valuable. I want to declutter to make our upcoming moves (twice in the next 3 years, assuming we renovate) easier, and to make the home I spend roughly 80 percent of my waking hours in more pleasant. There's still a lot of stuff around I don't use and could probably persuade T. to part with. (There's a lot more it would be hard to persuade her to part with, but let's not dwell.)
• Too early to say much about the second book. It's an enjoyable read, separate from whether it has any good advice. It's unusual that I'm reading so much nonfiction or self-help. Two in a row isn't a lot in raw numbers, but it's still probably a personal record.

Fitness 

I got in the bare minimum of steps. Good for me. That's about all the good stuff I can say. Between holiday cookies, the MIL's cooking, and finishing everyone else's food, I'm eating like a pig. I don't want to dwell on it too much, it's the holiday season, but still, I really, really, really want to turn things around at some point.

Christmas Eve

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More normal day yesterday. We went shopping in midday for a few random errands. I went for a walk in the morning with the kid, and another one in the afternoon by myself, just to get my steps in. 

For dinner T.'s mother made salmon and broccoli.

Relaxation

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Ugh. Should have been smarter.

Relaxed yesterday. After a typical breakfast around the usual time, and a slight walk meandering around the house with the kid looking for the cutest of T.'s parents' cats, I took a 3-hour nap. We socialized and had general family time after that, and at some point a friend of the kid came over and they played. 

We went to a Thai place for dinner, and after that, to a smores event at a winery. All around relaxing.

Long day in every sense

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Yesterday the kid didn't have school, but T. and I didn't need/want to take the day off work, so we just worked with her around. She got to watch a lot of TV. We managed, me probably better than T. Good thing the biweekly report was done the day before. We also did all the last-minute packing and prep, of course. We left less in the fridge to spoil than I expected. In the afternoon, the kid and I biked to a library to return some DVDs. 

Leaving the house, we forgot a canvas bag full of snacks and water bottles, and given that it was destined for my backpack, I'll take most of the blame for that. In line for the security check, I realized that my boarding pass didn't have a telltale precheck check mark on it, so I had to run back to get a new one. I'm not sure if the mistake was when I checked in the day before yesterday or months ago when the ticket was bought, and I guess it could be T.'s fault, but I should have noticed it the day before yesterday. Fortunately I caught up to them in only about 10 minutes. Dinner was Cava bowls waiting to board. But in line to get on the plane, I asked T. to get something out of the backpack on my back, and somehow in the process the kid's leftovers spilled.

Oh well. At least we got there OK.

Snacks at In 'N Out near the airport, as usual. Arrived at T.'s parents around 11 PM. Ouch.

It felt like the end of the week but it wasn't

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Yesterday I drove T. and the kid to school. T. had a cough and sore throat but didn't want to take a day off right before a vacation. 

Work was busy yesterday. The biweekly report was moved up a day to deal with people leaving early on vacation. My regular Thursday morning meeting wasn't moved, though, so I tried to work on both at once. After the intense stuff I worked on a writing project. I played a little Warcraft, but not much. I also did some prep for the trip. 3 loads of laundry and most of my packing.

In the afternoon I went for a walk to get my steps in and a high-energy snack. T. got off work a little early, so she walked home and I drove to get the kid alone.

Dinner was macaroni and cheese and Brussels sprouts. It took a long time to make, I should have done something faster or done a lot of the work before getting the kid, but it tasted good and allowed us to use up some things that would expire, so can't complain.

We're traveling today, so we did most of the Christmas stuff at home last night.

Wednesday

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Biked the kid to school yesterday on separate bikes. Doing so for the first time in weeks, in cold weather, was hard to get ready for, but still, good to be back in the saddle again.

Work was fine. One meeting, productive, and a lot of little tasks. In the afternoon I walked around the neighborhood dropping a bag of books off at Little Free Libraries. Decluttering progress. I also had my last therapy session. I'm cured! More seriously, maybe I didn't need it to begin with, or maybe I had a rough fall but my problems have been solved by now. 

Getting the kid and T. from school to the swimming lesson was rushed - as always, we all got there at the last minute - but otherwise uneventful. 

Dinner was leftovers. Struggling to up stuff in the fridge before we go.

Didn't sleep well last night. Woke up around 4 or 5 with a headache. Took a pill and went to the downstairs couch. At first I thought it might be a hangover - two drinks, which wouldn't normally be too many, but maybe they were too strong or close to bedtime or something? - but T. said she had a headache too, so I doubt it. Just one of those mysteries.

A week? That's it?

I already feel like I should follow up on those resolutions.

1. Success, so far, close enough. I've played for maybe 20 minutes in the morning to check on something time-limited, or in the evening as we're relaxing for bed, but not in ways that achieve too much or even get in the way of anything else. 
2. I haven't been observing this, and I think it was a bad idea, or at least, premature. If the morning is a good time for exercise, it's also a good time for certain work or chores, and I don't feel bad about prioritizing those. Also, sometimes exercise leaves me sore. Duh. Maybe after the plantar fasciitis is totally gone I'll be able to alternate jogging with other types of exercise so I have days to recover and it'll all fit in a half-hour or less, but I'm not there yet.
   
3. I guess so. Too early to say.
   

A good day in spite of myself

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Drove the ladies to school and work. On the way home I passed people protesting a planned bike lane. I'm inclined to support bike lanes, but they seemed to think there was an ADA or similar issue and I just didn't know the argument about this particular one, so if I had time between parking and my first meeting I might have walked back and talked to them. 

I didn't have time, though, because it took 5 minutes to park AFTER getting to my own block. First the alley by our house was blocked by a truck. Then I tried going up the alley on the other side of the park, but the alley between the park and the school was blocked by a truck. I had to turn around in the school's delivery access area and go out the other way. And then the street in front of the school was blocked by people doing pickup or dropoff or something. So once again, anything that promotes biking is good by me. 

Anyways, work wasn't too busy. One meeting. Some minor work after it, but not too much.

I played Warcraft. My warlock, specifically. It seemed to start strong but fizzle out. Dungeons this season are easier but the raid seems harder, at least judging by how fast I seem to be making progress on Heroic, and being a warlock isn't a sure-fire guarantee of getting invited to a group that's (a) on the bosses I need and (b) good. 

I logged off the game and work at the last minute for my one "important" errand, going to the pharmacy to pick up some medication for T. I also didn't do as much dinner prep as I planned. I got to school around 4:35, early for guitar but 5 minutes late for an event for the extended day program. It was kind of interesting but I didn't see too much of it because the kid fled, in tears, because she thought she was in trouble and friends had hung her out to dry, or something like that? I'm not sure because she confided in a teacher, not me. She definitely wasn't in trouble. I wanted to validate her feelings, but sometimes it's hard...

We rushed out of there to guitar. I went for a brief walk but mostly relaxed. T. found us afterwards and let me know that a friend nearby had invited us to dinner. We'd have delivery at their place. Sure, why not. No need to cook for anyone.

Working with the kid

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Yesterday the kid felt sick, so we kept her home. She had been sniffly all day Sunday, and the last time I brought her to school when she wasn't feeling well I regretted it, so we called her in (emailed, whatever) sick from school. It was T.'s work from home day too, so there were several segments when we were all sitting around the dining room table.

Work was OK. I had a couple meetings, but everyone managed to be quiet during them. The kid is old enough by now and well-behaved enough that she doesn't need constant supervision. The only thing taking care of the kid impacted was my Warcraft time - good for me for putting the game last. Damning with faint praise, of course. Around noon I walked to the post office to try to mail a couple packages, but I had a meeting at 1 and the line was so long and slow that I had to leave with the packages. The kid came with me by bike; that was her exercise and fresh air for the day.

In the afternoon I walked back to the post office, successfully this time. Dinner was Chinese food, brought by our friend C. She and T. went to a Madonna concert that evening, leaving me with the kid. We finished watching Iron Man 2 together and had a basically normal evening. Although last night was the first time in a long time she asked me to read a book other than Harry Potter, which is nice for a change.

Girl Scouts and more errands

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The usual Sunday breakfast yesterday, followed by a trip to the farmer's market. The kid biked with me. 

Later in the morning she had a Girl Scout event. The host was just up the block, so while we had to make several trips to get equipment we were loaning over there, the car wasn't used at all. 

While T. and the kid did that, I had time to myself. I was responsible, in that I sorted some books to bring to a Little Free Library and went to the grocery store before playing Warcraft. Good for me.

Plans for the afternoon fell through (we had thought there would be a Cub Scout event, but got the schedule wrong; nothing for them this month). We looked forward to free time, but while cleaning up after the Girl Scout event, T.'s phone stopped working. We all went to the Verizon store and waited while she got it fixed, and did a little more grocery shopping on the way for things I had forgotten (or didn't think we needed, but T. and the kid disagreed). 

Dinner was chicken in the vermouth/caper sauce and glazed carrots.

Errands and a friend for dinner

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Apple pancakes for breakfast yesterday, but basically typical Saturday morning.

Went to the farmer's market after that. It'll be the last of the year. I walked, the kid biked. 

After some housework and lunch and the kid's guitar practice, she got to join a friend on a playdate that turned out to be across town, and T. and I ran some errands. A homeless shelter, to drop off some donations; Target, for a picture frame for a present and a few other things; the organic grocery nearby, for some esoteric recycling and some prep for an event today.

Our friend C. came over for dinner, but it wasn't too hard to make: pork chops, simply doubling the recipe, and roast broccoli, and the rest of the coleslaw.

Assorted annoyances

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Yesterday I drove the kid to school and T. to work. After dropping the kid off we checked Google Maps for a good route, but the way it sent us had a road closed. Whoops. The road I diverted onto also had construction. There's just no winning.

That seems like a theme for the day. I worked on one document, with many emails and edits and pulling teeth to get questions answered, only to be told that it was obsolete. Why was it sent to us to begin with? No idea. I worked on a couple others that weren't that bad but still weren't good. Around 11:30 I ran to the Costco area for some errands, hoping it might be around an hour, but it wound up being over 2. I got in the gas line before anything else, had technical difficulties at the pump, figured I'd try again after shopping, and the line was longer then. I went to deposit $59 in checks, because it's so hard to get to our bank on a weekday, and felt fine about that at the time, but when I got home T. reminded me of a $500 check I didn't bring. 

At least taking old kids' toys to Goodwill was uneventful. I didn't even make time for exercise like I planned. I was still sore from the day before, and was genuinely working rather than purely goofing off, but still, not a good start with the "resolution".

I'm not sure if there's any lesson to learn from it all. Be smarter or pushier about lines? Plan a whole half-day for this sort of thing and be thorough about it rather than trying to sandwich it in between emails? Maybe there's nothing to learn about it and sometimes things just go wrong. On the other hand, I feel like that's the more pessimistic outlook. It's optimistic to think there's something I can do to prevent days like this.

Anyways, the afternoon was fine. Traffic wasn't terrible getting to the school, for once, nor getting from the school to gymnastics. For a little variety we had dinner at a Chinese place nearby. While the kid was in the gymnastics class, T. and I went to the nearby bookstore.

Busy morning

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Drove the kid to school yesterday, without T. 

Yesterday morning was extremely busy. Two hours of meetings, both of which required participation during and follow-ups after, plus several unrelated tasks. My resolution to exercise before noon failed on day two, at least by the letter of it, because I didn't find the time for it until 12:50 PM. I got out this sort of rowing machine and used it, plus some calisthenics. Good for me.

The afternoon was more relaxing. Played WoW, of course. Worked on a few things but no new tasks came in. In addition to the actual job I vacuumed and brought some donations to the local school. I meant to go to Costco but had trouble.

Getting the kid took literally an hour. Traffic was terrible on almost every block. I can admit that biking in the winter is unpleasant, and we never were in the habit of biking home from school to begin with, but this is ridiculous. 

Dinner was a coleslaw - took longer than planned, but I had stuff to use up - and tilapia with a wine and onion sauce. The fish was a hit. The kid had leftover cauliflower instead of the coleslaw.

Field trip, work, orthodontics, swim, and resolutions

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Drove T. and the kid to school yesterday. My annoyance at this is disproportionate to the time it takes in any given day, because we do it more often than we should.

After that I went home and worked for about 45 more minutes. Then I went to the Library of Congress to meet the kid's class for a field trip. They couldn't put me on the bus as a chaperone but said I'd be I was feeling a bit bad about this and tried to minimize the time because I had a busy day or two ahead of me, but T. and the kid thought it would be important, so I went. I got there 3 minutes before they were supposed to arrive. They got there more than half an hour late. At least I was able to spend that time hanging out with our friend M., who works there, but still, that was frustrating. I got a few pictures of the kid with her friends in the fanciest library in the city, and then raced home for a meeting. 

Work was fine. In addition to that meeting I had another one too, and got one document complete and a draft of another document sent out. Productive.

In the afternoon I dealt with the stress of an international call and straightened out some questions about our plans for April vacation, which is one of the only two presents T. has asked for. I paid for the hotel (although I fear we might want to change some details, not sure). Big step, but the flights will probably be even bigger. 

I left early to get the kid for orthodontics. I was fuming in the car about other drivers and Christmas presents. My approach to this holiday is probably not healthy. I was basically on time to get the kid, but it takes her 10 minutes to get downstairs and traffic was horrible again, so we were late for the orthodontics appointment.

Fortunately, they saw us anyway and it was relatively painless. After that, a little grocery shopping, and then we drove straight to swim class, which was later than usual due to the orthodontics appointment. It went well. 

Dinner was a microwaved fried rice dish.

Resolutions

I started thinking of these while going for that walk Tuesday evening. Consider it early, informal New Year's resolutions.

1. No Warcraft Wednesday and Friday. "Blackout days" would be good, and those two seem as good as any. Even if I'm not any more productive at all, at least there will be variety to it.
   
2. Some kind of exercise daily before noon. If shared space or family time is an issue, then a brisk walk will do, but ideally it'll be aerobic. I've thought about a specific time, but got hung up on meetings at different times, but that's stupid. I can always find some time before noon.
3. Take the plantar fasciitis seriously. I've been better about it over the past week or so than I was for the previous six months, but still not as good as I should have been. I don't even care about jogging per se, I just want to get some kind of exercise, but that's getting in the way of what was the easiest kind.
   

Constant vigilance

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Couldn't bike the kid to school yesterday morning because the ebike had a flat. Probably should have been more careful about biking around glass. Driving home took forever due to construction, but in defense of the city, I should have taken a different route. 

Not too productive at work. I attended three meetings, two of which requiring actual activity, but that's about it. I feel bad about sustaining productivity no longer than I did. Work aside, I got no exercise, and there were projects around the house I got to at the last minute or not at all.

I got the kid to guitar lessons fine and went for a walk during it to get my step quota in. 

Dinner was steak and cauliflower.

I didn't sleep well last night. Stress is an obvious reason. I think T. didn't either, though, and I'm not sure why. I had weird dreams. Not scary, just weird: being lost in a rural area, finding a new cat at home who looked just like our old one...

Monday

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Biked the kid to school as a passenger on the e-bike and did a little shopping on the way home.

Work was fine. Two meetings, one of which had a discussion about that document I finished Friday. The biggest annoyance of the day was a discussion with my teammate J. He had encountered documents on our to-do list with an uncertain status. This is definitely a problem, and almost definitely at least partially my fault, but as far as I knew yesterday their status hadn't changed for months so I wasn't too worried about it. From my perspective there was nothing urgent about them but apparently someone was asking him for an update on one of them. It felt like he was making a mountain out of a molehill, but in fairness to him, I didn't know exactly what he was being asked.

In Warcraft, I did a dungeon to improve my score a bit and was surprised to get Keystone Master for the season. This is earlier than ever - not surprising, the conventional wisdom is that this season is easier than usual, but still nice to cross off the to-do list. Still want Ahead of the Curve, and after that there's a lot of fun stuff I can work on...

We got a few things done around the house. Around 4 I drove T. to an event for a political group she belongs to. Getting the kid was fine. Dinner was lamb chops, a cabbage dish, and the leftover mashed potatoes. It was a hit. While I made that, I badgered the kid into doing some of her homework, and afterwards she had to practice her guitar. 

In between she read a little Calvin and Hobbes, but still, it all kept her busy basically until bedtime. I feel a bit bad about the lack of unstructured time. The upcoming week looks busy too. When does she get time to have fun? Of course, she had fun all weekend, but still, a vacation would be good for all of us...

Trying to relax

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Simple breakfast yesterday: French bread and pastries.

In the mid-morning we took the kid and her friend M. to a birthday party of another friend. They had fun but there was a lot of emotional labor involved: my kid cried when she thought she was the only one too short for an advanced obstacle course (she wasn't), her friend M. got left behind at one point and I had to get her to the gang, etc. We rushed through the pizza and cake because we had plans immediately afterwards: dropping out kid off at the movies, because another friend of hers had invited her. We made it in time, before her host in fact, and after dropping M. off at home we could relax.

T. and I called out parents and spent about an hour on the phone. (Catching up can be more thorough without a kid interrupting.) Then we watched a little TV. After that I remembered I had to go to the store to make what I was planning for dinner: tilapia, mashed potatoes, and asparagus.

Bah Humbug

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Typical pancakes and bacon yesterday. Later in the morning I walked and the kid biked to the farmer's market, so that was nice.

Our agenda for the day was Costco and an exercise-oriented shoe store, followed by a neighbor's 2-year-old's birthday party. Costco was stressful due to the crowd - it's that time of year - but otherwise fine. After that, snacks at Starbucks. The kid is always hungry these days.

While there, the mother of a friend of the kid texted and invited her over. Cool, a win for all of us. Then T. and I went to the store. It was in Virginia. I didn't plan to get shoes when I set out, it was mostly for T., but once I was there I noticed that the treads on my current sneakers were very worn and they found a comfortable pair for me, so I said I'd get them. T. said they'd be a Christmas gift. We kind of had a fight about it in the car on the way home. T. said we shouldn't get each other presents going forward, because I clearly don't enjoy it. I kind of wish I agreed, but I didn't say so at the time because she had just got me something and I would have felt worse being "behind". Ugh.

After that, a quick, easy dinner at home, followed a brief stop at the neighbor's party. T. said she was tired around 8, before the kid or I did, which is odd. She then stayed up until 11 mostly working on holiday stuff like pictures and cards. I stayed up with her, partly to help, partly to work on holiday stuff of my own like planning a trip, and partly because I felt like going to bed first would be admitting defeat.

Friday

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Biked the kid to school on the e-bike yesterday. Not great fun, but better than dealing with traffic. 

It was the biweekly report day. It was average. I had all but one of the reports by 10 AM. My own team lead's report was late, which was weird. In addition to that, I also got one other document draft done. (That was going to my own lead, and she seemed off the game about that too. Rough day? Week?) Any Friday in which I get something done other than the report is a good one, I guess.

In the afternoon I ran a quick errand at the hardware store. Like normal, I drove to the school. Unlike normal, T. and I didn't have dinner with the kid before gymnastics. She ate, but the gym was hosting a parent's night out event, so we had a couple extra hours. We wound up having a pretty low-key dinner - we didn't have reservations anywhere, and I started some anti-inflammatory medication for the plantar fasciitis, so I limited my drinking - but it was still nice.

Stye

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Yesterday I woke up with eye irritation, but couldn't find anything in it. I drove the kid and T. to work and school, a few minutes late due to both traffic and leaving at the last minute, and suffered through my 9 AM meeting with improvised eye compresses. I did some research and Dr. Google says the eye problem is a stye. After finishing the meeting and the notes and doing some other stuff around the house, I walked to the drugstore. I was going there anyway for plantar-fasciitis-related drugs and looked for eye-related stuff. Hot compresses seemed to help.

In the afternoon I played some Warcraft and finished my draft of a deliverable I'm basically in charge of. Productivity may not be as high as the previous few days, due in part to the eye pain, but I still feel it's better than average for a month or a year ago. 

I drove to the school around 5. In addition to T. and the kid, I also picked up a friend of the kid. We weren't going home; we went to Zoo Lights, the zoo's Christmas event. T. took over driving at the school because I was seeing double a little bit. We were meeting several friends there and getting the whole gang together turned out to be complicated. It was OK. It was nice catching up with our friends, and the kid enjoyed hanging out with her friends at the zoo. But the kids and the grownups were interested in different things, people wanted to go at different paces, it wasn't the coldest Zoo Light ever but it was still after dark in December, and it was late. We got home around 9:30, past the kid's bedtime.

It's starting to seem remarkable

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Drove T. and the kid to school because of a parent's group meeting at the school. Traffic was terrible, but I'm not sure what there is to say about it that I haven't said a million times before.

Had a meeting as soon as I got back about that new, very complicated task. After a helpful discussion, it's clearly not a task for us now and won't be in its current form. Woo hoo. After that I had a personal trainer session scheduled. If the meeting hadn't gone well, I would have cancelled with a clear conscience, but it did, so I went. It was a workout. Considering starting the related group class.

I was generally productive again at work, focused mainly on that near-miss of a task plus a semiannual report, but also working on a few other things too. Good for me. This stretch of productivity (Wednesday, not Tuesday but I'm not sure how to count it because was busy with personal stuff instead of work, Monday, and Friday) is a pleasant surprise. It helps that so much of what I'm working on is discrete, time-sensitive stuff. That might be seasonal and might be dumb luck but maybe there's some way I can get more tasks like that, or even think about existing tasks in those ways more? I dunno.

In the afternoon I got a few things done around the house. T. wasn't feeling well, so I took the kid to swim class alone. I also started reading Marie Kondo's tidying book. I'm very skeptical of self-help guru books like this, and 20 pages in I can tell it's very overwrought, but it's a subject I'm interested in so I might as well give it a shot.

Dinner was orange chicken from Trader Joe's kit. After I put the kid to bed, I ran two dungeons in Warcraft, the first of the week. How responsible of me.

Worse in hindsight

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Yesterday I biked the kid to school on the e-bike, ostensibly because she was cold. When I got there I found she had unzipped her coat halfway through the ride. She says she just needs warmer gloves and in fairness it's plausible, but I'm annoyed about how progress has been nonlinear.

Our weekly team meeting was productive enough. In the process, we found out that a new task was so complicated that we need a meeting with the team it's coming from, so getting ready for that took an unexpected amount of time. 

Right after the meeting, plumbers arrived to work on the toilet. It seemed to go well enough at the time, but they definitely broke some nearby furniture, and even now I'm not totally sure how well they did the job.

I had a podiatrist's appointment at 2:30. I left around 1:30 and originally planned to take the bus, but wasn't sure I'd be there on time, so I drove. I arrived at 2:15. The doctor saw me after 3. They seemed nice enough, but the hospital, or the online service I booked the appointment with or both, clearly sucks. And "seemed nice enough" - I was in a rush by that point, for obvious reasons, but if I had had more time I might have had several follow-ups, like "why are two pages of this pamphlet blank?" But one thing that was clear was that I should be doing physical therapy, not weekly like I was doing it for most of the past year or daily like I tried for a couple months, but 3 to 5 times a day. Shit. That wasn't on my radar. Well, time to either get serious or live with this. 

With those distractions, it's hard to compare my workday yesterday to the previous two, but it was better than the previous Tuesday, at least. After getting back from the doctor's office I logged in at work and sent a couple really quick messages before driving to the kid's school and getting her to her guitar lesson.

Dinner was spaghetti, with a simple butter/Parmesan sauce instead of something tomato-based, and asparagus. Easy and more popular than usual. After putting the kid to bed T. and I worked on redoing the holiday calendars. 

To summarize, a bad day in a lot of senses, but I don't feel bad about my role in it. In bed T. said she didn't realize the plumber was on the same day as my doctor's appointment, with the implication that I was overscheduling things. My response was, "I'm trying to get things done."

Again? Wow

Wordle 899 3/6

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Drove the kid to school yesterday. I think it was warm enough, but the kid was scared off by last week. Next time we bike, we'll prepare better, and I sure hope that will be before spring...

Like Friday, I was productive at work yesterday. I was mainly focused on organizing the part of our backlog that we aren't getting help with, and in the process got several small-to-medium tasks from the backlog or in a nearby gray area done. I also worked on some things that aren't in either category. Good for me. I don't want to make too much of two productive days in a row, but it's still a bit surprising. Was there some trick to this? 

In the afternoon I went for a walk for exercise and to the hardware store for batteries. This let me cross one or even two things off my to-do list (but generated one more. Oh well, still progress). Getting the kid was uneventful. Dinner was steak and Brussels sprouts. Afterwards we all watched part 2 of the Doctor Who 60th anniversary special. It's nice to develop common interests with the kid.

Photos and holiday party

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Yesterday morning we had the usual breakfast, eggs and home fries, but we got dressed better and more promptly than usual because we had an appointment for family photos. So while the ladies were in the shower and doing their hair, I went to the farmer's market, and then I had my turn upstairs.

The pictures went well. The kid was well-behaved, and as far as I could tell they'll come out well.

After that, a little shopping, partly for something to bring to the party (see below) and partly to validate parking.

In the mid-afternoon, we went to a school fundraiser event at a cemetery, of all things. I guess the volunteer group that maintains it hosted a miniature holiday market as a fundraiser? 

We went home with an extra kid there. We had about an hour of downtime, and then we went to our friend's holiday party out in Bethesda, for a buffet with a little dinner (pulled pork, pasta salad, and green bean for me) and a ton of desserts, with two kids in tow. It was fun. Maybe it would have been more fun if we had insisted that the girls bring a game, though, because I spent too much time trying to keep them out of trouble.

Not as relaxing as it sounds

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As usual, pancakes and bacon yesterday morning.

Shortly after that, walked to the farmer's market for some essentials. Then T., the kid and I walked to Union Market to meet a friend for lunch and general chatting. After we said our goodbyes, we went to get a wreath, as Scout fundraiser and general decoration.

The main events of the afternoon were the kid's guitar practice, laundry, and Avengers: Infinity War. (The kid is seeing the MCU totally out of order. She saw The Marvels, then wanted to see WandaVision, then wanted to see Age of Ultron, and now this.) In between T. and I had time for a minor breakdown. I'd say holiday stress but a lot of it isn't seasonal. I'd say parenting stress but a lot of it isn't the kid's fault...

Dinner was a bit early, salmon and cauliflower, because we went to a concert. The main act was the kid's guitar teacher. It was a good show, but the kid was more interested in games on our phones than the act.

Productivity? On a Friday?

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Drove the kid to school because it was cold.

At work I focused on organizing our backlog. It was impressive. There are over 40 documents awaiting our attention, and organizing them became urgent because we're getting help with a certain type of them. In addition to those, I found myself working on getting all of them organized. Good for me. I took a brief break to walk to the drugstore and get a couple things we (T. specifically) needed, and late in the afternoon I tried a dungeon in Warcraft, but on the whole, productive.

After school, we went to the parent hangout event at the nearby cafe and had dinner there (pizza for T. and I, a burger for the kid). It was tough dragging her away from her friends for gymnastics class. 

We all seem to be getting on each other's nerves lately. The kid is often grumpy, and T. and I were sniping at each other about Christmas present plans a bit. But after how I spent yesterday, I don't think I have anything to feel bad about.

Stressful even without the lice

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Just before taking the kid to school yesterday, T. noticed lice in her hair. We combed her extra thoroughly rather than have everyone be late for something. I drove both of them to school/work due partly to the cold and partly because just the extra combing took time, but of course, getting T. ready to leave on time also was a hassle. 

My regular weekly Thursday morning meeting went better than usual. After that, a little downtime, which I filled not with the game but with a writing project. There's some value in variety, I guess, but I can't honestly call it productivity. After that I got a lot of little things done (or started, or organized, or whatever) at work, stripped the kid's bed and sorted her stuffed animals into "safe" and "unsafe" piles. (Guidance about lice is confusing, by the way!) Around 4 I went for a walk. Maybe it should have been a chance to clear my head, and I did organize my thoughts in that I added some things to my to-do list, but it didn't have any de-stressing effect.

I drove to get the ladies. Traffic was bad. It was relaxing watching the kid play with friends, I guess. When we got home, she was furious that she couldn't sleep with all her stuffed animals. There were actual tears and clinging to the biggest of them. 

While I made dinner, the kid had a lice treatment. We also had a freak-out because some calendars we ordered as a Christmas present were missing pictures for the month of December. Dinner was tortellini and cucumber salad, the kid's favorite, which she'd probably say doesn't come close to making up for all the indignity but I think it probably helped. We got her to bed later than usual because even making her bed was a hassle.

Stressful but good

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Biked the kid to school yesterday and it was almost freezing. We need more cold-weather preparation. Stopped for groceries on the way home partly to warm up.

Had a therapy appointment and it went well. Better than I expected. I'm not sure this will continue indefinitely but it has been useful, I think.

During or after it I glanced at my calendar and was surprised to find a dentist's appointment for the kid on it. T. wasn't expecting it either, but I called the dentist and they confirmed it was scheduled and we could technically make it, so we kept it and just were annoyed that we hadn't got a reminder from them before now.

So I worked harder in the late morning and early afternoon than usual, since my day would be cut short. Good for me. I also prepped a stir-fry for dinner. We'd want an easy dinner last night and I hoped a stir-fry could be easy if all the prep work is done in advance. 

I left at the last minute to get the kid. I needn't have rushed, though, because T. was late meeting us. Luckily we were still within the 15-minute for the appointment. After that we got a snack at District Taco because the kid didn't eat her lunch at school. After that, home for like 10 minutes to clean, grab swim things, and then head out to the swimming lesson. It went well. The pool is more user-friendly than it was a few months ago. While the ladies swam, I went for a short walk to get my steps in.

Dinner, like I said, was a stir-fry.

Disappointed

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Took me a long time to get that.

Got the kid to school fine yesterday, went straight home, and proceeded to waste time for eight hours. Putting it that way is a little dramatic, I got a FEW things done at work and personally, but not a lot. It being Tuesday meant unusual temptation to play Warcraft. On the other hand, today I've got a therapist appointment and I'll be embarrassed about my lack of progress on certain things.

Got the kid fine. Went for a walk between driving to near her school and actually picking her up. Guitar went fine. Dinner was a pork roast and broccoli.

OK Monday

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Getting the kid to school yesterday was fine, despite my fears. I did some grocery shopping on the way home.

The day yesterday was OK overall. I guess I could have got more done at work, but I had three meetings, worked a bit on a couple other things, and generally was productive enough for a Monday. As for personal stuff, I worked on several self-improvement-type things. I'm tempted to feel bad about doing it at the last minute, i.e. just two days before my next therapy appointment, but (a) who cares as long as it really does get done (of course, in most cases that isn't sure yet), and (b) was it ever really reasonable to plan/hope to get stuff like that done last week, with everything going on?

In the late afternoon I went for a walk to get my steps in.

Dinner was steak and Brussels sprouts.

Worse in hindsight

I didn't even finish yesterday's Wordle? I suck. I've Googled, it was "solid", I just couldn't think of it right away, got distracted between my 4th and 5th guess, and didn't come back to it.

Wordle 891 5/6

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Yesterday was the usual brunch of eggs and home fries. Fine. 

Tried to go to the farmer's market but it wasn't there, presumably because of the holiday. The big project yesterday was decorating for Christmas. Got the bins out of the basement and put up the lights and plastic tree. Was a little more creative than the lights than usual. Good for me.

After that there was several hours of downtime before our evening plans. We filled it with TV. We exposed the kid to the Doctor Who Christmas special, which she seemed to enjoy. Yay, another shared interest. We thought about going biking or otherwise getting physical activity, but it was raining. So after Doctor Who, we simply let her finish Avengers 2: Age of Ultron. After that, a little quiet time, for all of our benefit. The kid was good, as far as I could tell; at least, she didn't keep me from napping for about 40 minutes.

After that, we drove to a friendsgiving. T. and the kid stepped on dog shit getting into the car, which we didn't notice until we smelled it halfway there. Dinner ran later than I expected/hoped. The kid nearly had a temper tantrum when a drawing she did didn't go well, and she dominated the discussion with summaries of TV shows she has watched. We left after 10, partly because we wanted to hear the end of a school board meeting. It was disappointing. 

Going home we found dog shit smeared all over the car seat. Ugh. 

Got in bed after 11. Reeeeeally not looking forward to getting the kid up for school in a few minutes.

Driving and biking

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Headed home a little after 10 yesterday. Traffic was worse than on Thursday. We got back after 2. After some basic unpacking and essentials around the house, I took the kid for a bike ride while T. cleaned. (I feel a bit bad about that, but it was that or park her in front of the TV or just fight with her nonstop.) The bike ride started out exploring the neighborhood, but soon wound up at a park, where we ran into a kid we sort of knew. I chatted with her mom and walked briskly while the kids played in the cold.

Dinner was tilapia, green beans, and rice.

Physically active Friday

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Pickleball in the morning, followed by a bike trip to a playground for the kid. Lunch was leftovers, of course. I lay down for a bit after that and I'm not sure how everyone else spent the time. 

Around 2 we drove to a hiking site downtown on/around the river. It wound up being longer than expected when T.'s cousin got us lost. 

Tacos for dinner. 

A game of Exploding Kittens in the evening ended prematurely when the kid drew a bad card and cried. Bedtime. 

Thanksgiving

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Simple breakfast yesterday. Left surprisingly early, by 9:40. Traffic to Richmond was great. The main pre- and -post-dinner was pickleball, in T.'s cousins cul-de-sac. Ate lots, of course. The kid had too much energy for everyone but otherwise it was fine.

A day off for everyone but me

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The correct answer today was my sixth guess here. I feel like that means something.

Yesterday the kid had no school. T. took the day off. I, however, had to work. It would have been relaxing if not for the biweekly report. (Better yesterday than tomorrow.) While I worked, they went for a bike ride (T.'s first ride with the kid and not me, T.'s first ride using the motor on her bike!). They got started on some holiday-related baking, but I helped out a fair amount too.

In the afternoon I went for a walk. Because of how the baking timer went, T. took the kid to a swimming lesson, the first in months, without me. 

Dinner was pork chops and glazed carrots.

Partial sick day

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The kid wasn't feeling well yesterday, side effects from the shot, so we let her sleep in. I had a morning meeting, noticed that she seemed normal around 10, and took her to school then. 

Work was fine. One meeting before I took the kid to school, went well enough; one draft of a document sent; plus some emails. I spent less of my free time than usual on Warcraft and more on a writing project. Not exactly productive, but change is good in general.

Late in the afternoon I did some calisthenics while watching TV. Good for me. I regret putting it off until the last minute, though. I raced through a shower and getting dressed and into the car, and had agonizing cramps in my foot the whole way to school, probably because I didn't cool down properly. 

Right after I got there, T. called me to say that the kid wasn't feeling well. She had spent a lot of time in the nurse's office and "quiet corner" yesterday. Whoops. Shouldn't have sent her to school. Bad dad. I was confident she wasn't contagious, but should have been more confident she was actually up for it... so we skipped guitar, and just sat there until T. joined us, so she didn't have to walk home in the rain.

Dinner was spaghetti and broccoli.

Fashionable Monday

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Biked the kid to school yesterday. I wish I had worn a coat. It's cold.

Typical workday yesterday. A couple easy meetings, got a few things done but not as much as I should, etc. 

In the afternoon, we got the kid early for an appointment to get her shots. It went surprisingly well. Then we went our separate ways: T. and the kid to the library while I went to the eye doctor's, to get my new glasses, and then got a haircut. (These two events seem to have a theme of fashion or appearance renewal, hence the title, but neither haircut nor glasses are too big a departure from how I used to look.) We met at the grocery store.

Dinner was tilapia and green beans.

The evening was frustrating. For several years now, T. has got a calendar for our parents as a Christmas present, focused mainly on the kid. Since last year, Costco discontinued their program, so she - we - were trying to figure out a new system for this. New stuff is always hard and this seems objectively more complex than the previous. The grandparents appreciate it but it always seems like one of the more unnecessary sources of stress around the holiday season, and just got worse.

Weekends are tiring

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Ouch. Should have been smarter about that.

Eggs and homefries yesterday, of course. We collected the kid from the sleepover uneventfully. Shortly after, T. and I walked to the farmer's market and the kid biked. While T. took the groceries home, I supervised her biking around the park, and then around random streets and alleys in the neighborhood for almost two hours, while T. picked up trash around the neighborhood and worked around the house. 

We all got cleaned up in the early afternoon and did some more household chores. After that the kid had a Cub Scout meeting, focused on whittling. She enjoyed it, if the fact that she wanted to do it as soon as we got home was a sign. She might be done with her month-long project already, not sure. 

Dinner was steak and grilled squash. I put the kid to bed. She resisted and I got snippy, but we both were tired, even if she didn't want to admit it.

Scouts and a sleepover

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Ugh. Thus endeth a good streak. Tough word objectively...

Waffles and bacon for breakfast yesterday. In the morning we went to the farmer's market. We had the usual chores, and around noon, went to a Girl Scouts event at an art studio. While the kid and her troop mates worked on their projects, T. and I went to a used bookstore and had "snacks" at a brewery nearby. After that, lunch for the kid at another brewery. (Great parents, right? Although the book we bought at the bookstore was for her, so that helps.)

Shortly after we got home, we took the kid to a friend's birthday party. It was a sleepover party. We had thought about going out on a date while we had a child-free night, or at least making something fancy for dinner she wouldn't like, but after everything that went on earlier, we just had leftovers. We still had fun at home, though.

Headaches and self-indulgence

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Getting the kid to school was fine yesterday, but other than that...

I called the mortgage company earlyish for a renovation form. Calling them has been on my to-do list for a few days. It wasn't productive; same as last time they told me to email their research office. But I got an email sent and our architect followed up forcefully, so hopefully this will be moving soon.

While working on that I went looking for some documentation in our safe but I couldn't get into our safe. It had a "low battery" warning and simply plugging it in was complicated, but even after doing so for what seems like it should be long enough, it won't open. Uh oh. 

While working on the safe I dealt with a horrible stink in the pantry. I took out the trash and recycling early and that seemed to help, but for a while I thought there was some dead animal in the walls. Ugh.

At work I got a SharePoint access request that seemed like it should have been simple, but really wasn't. My teammate resolved it but it's so confusing I feel obliged to follow up.

The day turned around late in the afternoon, when I cleared the latest raid on Normal in a pickup group on my warlock. This sounds disturbingly parasocial or antisocial to say that that's the good part of the day, but it's much earlier than usual. Either I got really lucky, or the new raid is much easier than usual, or I should have made my warlock my main a long time ago. (Or both. But then again, it's not all that surprising that the raid would go well on a warlock; let's see about dungeons before officially abandoning my previous main.)

After that and finishing work for the day I helped a friend move some furniture around for the baby's new room. Then I went to a school family gathering. It was fun. We normally can't stay at those too often. We had pizza for dinner there. On the way to gymnastics I dropped T. off at home because she wasn't feeling well. I got the kid to gymnastics, walked around a bit, and got a milkshake. If she knew, she'd be mad I hadn't got her one. Bad parenting? Maybe, but I considered going to a bar, I figured that would be even worse.

Exercise in frustration (in? and? is?)

Wordle 881 3/6

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Biked the kid to school fine yesterday. 

Work was OK "by the numbers", so to speak (one meeting attended; three more had been scheduled but could be cancelled thanks to judicious use of Teams chat, how efficient of us; one document published), but I still feel like there's a gulf between what I'm getting done and what I can, should, and need to get done. Same for my personal to-do list.

I did get exercise yesterday, at least; calisthenics. (I didn't reach the step count goal again, but I figure calisthenics is more important.) I also was more rigorous about it in that I made an effort to record what I was doing. Good for me. But just that was a struggle. I didn't start until the last minute. And in the past I've watched TV while working out but it's impossible to see the screen when doing pushups. Yesterday I just put on some music and made myself keep cycling through the routine until the timer went off

Drove to get the kid as usual. She had a tough day; some drama with friends.

Dinner was spaghetti and green beans. There were problems despite the simplicity but it all came out edible.

Therapy, work, and Warcraft

Wordle 880 4/6

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Biked the kid to school yesterday and got there on time. Woo hoo. Progress.

Right after that, I had a therapy session. It was thought-provoking, which I guess is the point. After that I did some quick stuff for work, and then I raced to Costco for a contribution to a teacher appreciation event, and then to the school. I had a meeting at noon and got back at 11:57. 

After that the day was more typical. Work and Warcraft. It was the first full day of a new patch, which is always fun. Wound up playing my warlock more than I expected, especially in the evening.

I feel bad about not getting exercise. When I put together the spreadsheet I was pleasantly surprised by the average and how often I passed the 6,000 steps recommended by the app, but I didn't pass it yesterday.

I had a long personal to-do list I didn't get to, I don't exactly feel bad about that, and I'm not sure if I should. Work was productive (a task complete) and confusing (some confusion about who approved that task when, some confusion about whether another email meant one new task or two), and Warcraft was unusually fun. I guess I don't mind one day like that but feel bad about the pattern. 

I drove to get the kid and T. at school. Dinner was fried rice, the easiest option, partly because we listened in on a school board meeting during it.

Tuesday

Wordle 879 6/6

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Biked the kid to school on 2 bikes. We were careful. It went well, except for her being late. Still figuring this out...

In the morning I finished backfilling the fitness spreadsheet as far back as the paper journal goes. I went a month further back with the exercise stats from the phone app and could go much farther than that, but as I said, I'm not sure if it's worthwhile. 

Wasn't too motivated at work and I can't blame Warcraft for that due to maintenance. Work was OK anyway. Wound up having 2 meetings, fewer than expected due to other peoples' schedules, and I only had to listen in on the two meetings that wound up happening. Got a document to the reviewer, which is always nice, and sent a few emails.

The kid had her regular guitar lesson, which went fine. T. got herself home. I made chicken and asparagus for dinner. Not my finest work but it was OK, and we were both late getting home anyway.

Monday

Wordle 878 6/6

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Yesterday we biked the kid to school on 3 bikes. I'm glad. Maybe we weren't quite ready for a two-person trip just yet. 

Typical day overall. Two meetings, one just listening in and one I was leading but it was fairly simple, but unfortunately it wasn't too productive because one of the people we needed wasn't there; worked on a couple minor documents; played Warcraft in my downtime.

The kid had a music lesson yesterday. (Not normally Mondays, but we skipped it two weeks ago due to Halloween.) I got there early for once and went for a walk while I waited. T. made enchiladas for dinner.

In the evening I set up a fitness tracker spreadsheet. It took me a while to do so. That's partly because it seems like it should be possible to get the data automatically from my phone's app, but I couldn't figure out how. I've started backfilling it. I've already got through August, which is when the paper journal started, for step counts, and still plan to get alcohol numbers and other workout numbers in there. 

Once I've made the paper journal obsolete, I'll have to see how much more detailed I can or want to be. I'm not sure what the point of this is, except that I still am not happy with my fitness or lack thereof (although using the regular bike again is a good sign), and quantifying the problem(s?) seems like it might help.

Walking

 Wordle 877 4/6

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Yesterday we had French breakfast: a loaf of bread, some soft cheese, butter, and pastries. A nice way to get variety.

My foot and knee were sore. Maybe I overdid it the day before. So I put my knee brace on as I got dressed. 

A friend joined us for breakfast and then drove us to a nature preserve in Virginia. (This wasn't the original plan, but honestly, I'm glad.) The hardest part was getting the kid's bike in her car. There were "no biking" signs at the nature preserve, but she put up with walking with good grace. We saw some cool birds. We went to a cheap Chinese food place for lunch. Comfort food like I haven't had in a long time. Then T. and the friend wanted to go to the mall for a certain sale, so we found a nearby park where I could supervise the kid biking. It took some exploring but we finally found a loop where she could go around in circles indefinitely and stay within sight. We still got some scrapes (including me, when the bike hit me, but I'll take the blame because she was doing as I said...), but there were no scares.

After that, home. Dinner was mostly leftover Chinese food. I was a bit worried about that, but no one threw up, so I guess it was OK.

However, I was up for over two hours, just lying in bed. I got back to sleep eventually and T. was up for a while too so I don't mind, but it is concerning or at least annoying that insomnia just seems like a fact of life these days.

Biking

Wordle 876 4/6

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Eggs and home fries for brunch yesterday, and then we spent the day biking.

The original plan was for us to bike to the kid's school to practice. But we found out about the birthday party of the sister of a friend of the kid and got invited, so we detoured by there. Then a stop by Eastern Market for some window shopping, and then finally to the kid's school. On the way home we stopped by the park and happened to bump into two of the kid's friends and they visited for a while. It totaled 6.4 miles and 4 hours. 

Dinner was pork chops and Brussels sprouts.

A day off

Wordle 875 4/6

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Yesterday I made waffles and bacon for brunch. It was popular. The girl entertained themselves well enough while T. and I did the laundry and relaxed.

In the afternoon we went to see The Marvels. It was fun. I'm glad the theater had a sort of "previously on" thing. It seems uniquely important for this movie. 

After that, home briefly. The kid did some biking and then wanted to watch Wandavision, inspired by the movie. We had eaten well at the movie, so for dinner we just had leftovers. Then we went to gymnastics. While the kid was doing her thing, the kid and I went to the grocery store.

Trying to appreciate the little things

Wordle 874 4/6

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Yesterday I biked the kid to school, hopeful that it would be the last time she'd be a passenger. That depends in part on how this weekend goes, but it's nice to hope for things. On the way home I appreciated the scenery. DC doesn't get fall foliage like Vermont, of course, but it's still pretty to see the colors, especially when the morning sun cuts shadows through the trees. I actually tried to get a picture but couldn't get a good angle without standing in the middle of the street. 

It's the week of the biweekly report, and it's due a day early this week due to the holiday. At 8 AM only 3 reports were missing and I was feeling optimistic about the report. I also have a meeting every Thursday at 9 to take notes at so I tried to work on both at once and mostly succeeded. By 11 AM we were still missing two reports; my optimism was dampened. Even so, it could have been worse.

In Warcraft, the binge the day before made it advantageous for me to not to play much yesterday. Instead of going nuts by doing the same thing on yet another character or chasing infinitesimal upgrades, I did a few quick, easy things and otherwise dealt with work and real life. I'm not sure how long that healthy approach will last (and maybe it's simply burnout), but yesterday was a good time for it.

In the afternoon I walked to Eastern Market to get a haircut. But on the way I decided I needed some more lice treatment first. Hopefully I can get my hair cut next week. I still ran some errands.

After getting the kid from school, we met a friend of hers and her mother at Indigo and caught up. It's been a while. After dinner the kid's friend came home with us for a sleepover.

Patch day is skip day

Wordle 873 6/6

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Didn't get much done yesterday, which is related to the fact that a new patch came out for Warcraft. Lots of new stuff to see, collect, beat up, etc. I don't feel great about it, but between the past few days and how the next few are likely to go, I don't feel too bad either. I have to be careful not to reuse that excuse, though, because this week's new content is just the story and open world stuff. The competitive stuff comes out next week. 

The kid's parent/teacher conference was yesterday afternoon. She's doing fine. The concerning outliers on her report card were, as we hoped, the result of one specific bad test. 

After that I took her to the park for a bike lesson on her bigger bike. It went well. So well, in fact, that she biked loops around trails there, left me behind, and got scared. Maybe I should have planned better, but then again, maybe she should have listened to me! Maybe I should be mad at her about this! (I'm not. She was technically lost, but it was 6 PM in a public place.) 

Dinner was air fryer chicken, broccoli, and naan bread. Easy.

Halloween teardown

Tough Wordle today. Might be the end of the streak.

EDIT:

Wordle 872 6/6

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Hah!

Yesterday was fine. Biked the kid to school. Had three meetings, all easy, productive, or both. I also got a draft of a document to the reviewer. The big personal project of the day was tearing down Halloween stuff. It's not in the basement, but it's ready to go there if T. agrees with me about throwing away some broken stuff. (And if she doesn't, she can repack it!)

I got exercise by doing calisthenics in front of the TV. As is all too often the case, I left the house at the last minute due to an email I felt I had to answer, and we were late for the music lesson. Need to work on this. During the lesson I went for a walk even though I didn't need to. Good for me.

Dinner was orange chicken. (I tried to make it fun by using up some purple vegetables in it and calling it "purple chicken", but no one was fooled.)

The kid was grumpy and difficult in the evening. When pressed, she admitted that she got hurt a bit by people roughhousing in the extended day program, or getting into trouble in a minor way. On the one hand I wish she wouldn't take it out on us. On the other hand, at least she could describe it when pressed.

Woke up at 4:30 and couldn't get back to sleep. T. was snoring but I'm not sure that was the only problem. One bit of advice I got from watching the Guide to Sleep was to get up and do something when you can't sleep, or at least go lie down somewhere else so you aren't stressing out about sleep. Thus this, plus some Reddit. Now to try to lie down again...

A good day in every respect but mentally

Wordle 871 4/6

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Yesterday I started the day by shampooing the kid. Hopefully that's the end of the lice. Then I biked her to school. We're getting closer and closer to separate vehicles, but not quite there yet.

I was productive yesterday. Several phone calls and emails about personal stuff, mostly doctor's appointments. The psychiatrist's was particularly problematic. A few days ago their assistant recommended some tests for me. They sent me a PDF with few details. Yesterday I responded to ask about scheduling, after discussing T.'s availability, because I thought it would conflict with getting the kid to school. But I was getting ahead of myself because the test had to go through Labcorp. This was the first I heard of it. I spent 10 minutes on their Web site but couldn't figure out how to schedule something. Fortunately this is the lowest priority thing on my agenda.

I walked to the store around noon for some essentials and some physical activity. Work wasn't that great, but I still listened in one meeting and got started on one document. I'm reasonably optimistic about getting a draft of it out today. 

All this took a toll on my attitude. It's like I can only be productive by stressing myself out. (But then, in hindsight every one of those appointments was more trouble than it should have been. In addition to the Labcorp appointment, the podiatrist is new to me after failing to reach two others, I failed to make the kid's shots appointment online and it took two phone calls due to my mistake, and I had to call to confirm the dentist's appointment because they let me know informally and at the last minute. Of course I'd be frustrated!) T. noticed that I seemed short-tempered.

I biked to that dentist's appointment; it was uneventful other than the phone calls earlier. Another very physical day. Good for me. 

As soon as I got back, I started on dinner. I wished I hadn't made ribs. It takes time and there isn't any one particular rib recipe I'm good at/familiar with/confident of. I'm glad my dad was there. Around 6, the recipe I was following said there was still an hour to go, but my dad got out the meat thermometer and checked and it said they were fine. The oven was too hot, I guess.

More biking, parents, and lice

Wordle 870 3/6

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Yesterday was the "clocks fall back day". Good. The extra hour was needed. Brunch was 3 courses: apple pancake, eggs, and home fries. 

After that, a trip to the park so the kid would bike more. It got complicated by all five of us going to the farmer's market at various times while supervising the kid, shopping, and chatting with people we ran into. The kid had an impromptu playdate with friends she ran into and one of their mothers came over to chat with us for a while.

In the afternoon, the four adults walked to REI while the kid biked. (She leaned too far while standing waiting for us and fell, which wouldn't have hurt if she hadn't landed on a wire fence. She's got a ridiculous number of bandages at the moment.) The main goal was visibility vests, for her and for that matter me to bike more safely, but we got a few other things as well. After that, I took her to the Swampoodle park while T. and my parents went to Politics and Prose.

Dinner was at Tiki Garden, a new Thai place on H Street. It was nice. The only problem in all this was the fact that we're still finding lice in the kid...

Sun is good. Who knew?

Wordle 869 4/6

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Yesterday we had pancakes and bacon, but the pancakes were made from scratch rather than Krusteaz. It was OK. I appreciate the variety but probably won't stick with this as long as we stuck with the mix.

Shortly after that, the kid asked to go biking. Now that she's finally got the fundamentals, it's fun. I was happy to encourage this. We basically spent the whole day biking. First in the parking lot by the rec center, and I eventually coaxed her to bike to the farmer's market with me and T., and then back to the parking lot. We took a break for lunch, and after that, more biking, this time in the park. I was exhausted by the end of it, walking and jogging along with her while she biked, but it was fun, good for her, and good for me too. 

I finally called it quits around 5 so I could start on dinner. My parents arrived a little after 5:30. Dinner was a hit: pork chops, cucumber salad, and cauliflower. 

The only problem was after dinner, when T. noticed lice in the kid's hair. So I made a quick trip to the drugstore and we (almost entirely T., but I got a few) spent about an hour de-lousing the kid's head.

A wasted day

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Yesterday the kid's school had inservice for parent-teacher conferences, so instead I took the kid to an outdoor adventure program in Rock Creek Park. It required driving basically across town during rush hour. Not fun.

Once again, I got moderate exercise in the early afternoon (calisthenics in front of the TV), and sent out a draft of the document I started work on the day before. Otherwise, the day was a waste. It's getting harder to act like this is because I'm on top of everything or the game is so enthrallingly fun I can't resist.

In fairness, I shouldn't undersell the stuff I did get done, I guess. Regular exercise is good and the current rate of drafts getting sent out is good, even if there's a sense in which it should be better. 

A friend of the kid was at the same program, so her mother drove them both home. The kid and I vegetated at home for a bit, and then we went to District Taco for dinner, and then she had gymnastics. Meanwhile I went for a walk to get just a bit more exercise. Good for me. I also started a "master to-do list". I've used lots of to-do lists for specific days or events, and they generally help but could be better, and I'm hoping that a rolling, living document will be even more useful. Can't hurt to try.

Last night I finished For the Wolf. It was OK.

The events of the day from best to worst

Wordle 867 2/6

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Woo hoo.

The best: after Girl Scouts I took the kid for a biking session. It was later than I'd normally like to do it, but I figured it would be OK. Starting without help is what she's having trouble with, so I talked her through it and had her get started. It was frustrating at first, but when she got cold and I went to the car to get her gloves, I turned around to find her biking under her own power. Awesome. That was the last of the fundamentals she needed to learn. Good session, even though there was some yelling in frustration (and screaming in pain, when she fell and hit her knee). 

My own exercise belongs in the "good" section. It was by biking to my eye doctor's appointment in the afternoon. I was riding my own bike, so it was fun and sort of a refreshing change. I also spent a fair amount of time jogging around the park keeping up with the kid on her bike.

Also, dinner was the kid's favorite, tortellini, along with Brussels sprouts, which I enjoy well enough.

The average: work. Similar to yesterday but in more frustrating ways. I started work on a task that has been in my/our backlog for a while, should have been started before now, and should have been in better shape before we got it. Ugh. Just sloppy on everyone's part.

The bad: Warcraft. I spent hours today fucking around with casual collectible stuff on yet another character. In the late afternoon, I said I should finally do some competitive dungeons because time is running out before the next season. I started a Neltharus+17 and it went well at first, but wiped once at the first boss and someone left. The most frustrated I've been with the game in a while. I've already thought of some things that would be worth doing in the game despite that, but I'm definitely done with competitive content for the season.

I suck

Wordle 866 3/6

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Got the kid to school uneventfully yesterday. Work was OK. I sent out a draft of an SOP I've been nominally working on for a while now, so that's nice. I got my exercise too, by walking to the store. 

Unfortunately by the time I was done with the SOP, it was too late to take the kid biking. And this wasn't because the SOP was very hard and time-consuming, it was because I was playing Warcraft. For what it's worth, I was raiding to take the last chance to get the evoker legendary before the patch. (I realize it's not worth much, I'm just saying I wasn't playing completely aimlessly.)

No one but me really minded, the kid seems to enjoy biking itself but hates the idea of biking to school, and T. agrees with me that it's good for her to be ready for that but doesn't care too much, but this is a concrete thing my procrastination got in the way of. Probably can't do it today and definitely can't do it tomorrow, either, due to other plans.

Dinner was carne asada and green beans. Came out well enough.

Tired now because T. got up at 5 AM to catch a flight. Her new job has her traveling again.

Halloween

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I really need to stop talking about procrastination and start getting things done, but other than that, work was fine. I got some exercise around noon as planned: pushups, situps, and jumping jacks in front of the TV. Good for me.

I picked up T. and the kid early for trick-or-treating. While there we witnessed parents fighting over their kid, as in physically fighting. Ugh. 

We got pizza for dinner on the way home and grazed while getting ready for trick-or-treating. The kid was a Hogwarts student and so were several friends. It was one school friend and several neighborhood friends.

A healthy habit?

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Getting the kid to school involved some yelling because T. wanted her to give hand-me-downs to friends for their younger siblings, and she objected to the weight in her backpack and the hassle. But other than that it was fine.

Work was fine too. Two meetings, kind of stressful but they turned out fine in the end. I wish I had made more progress on certain documents, it's been a while, but I've been good about lots of side tasks.

An appointment with the psychiatrist's nurse practitioner was a waste, though, because I hadn't sent her the forms. Maybe I'll reschedule, maybe not. After three months of therapy I'm not sure I have any problems that can't be solved with a good night's sleep, efficient use of to-do lists, and a good jog. Two follow-ups about that.

• One thing still on my to-do list is to make a podiatrist's appointment; T.'s never called me back. 
• A few days ago I thought that on weekdays I'd make a habit of getting some kind of physical activity around midday. It's easy to find time around then, and this time of year, that's the best time to be outside. (In midsummer, it might be early in the morning, and T. and the kid could just deal with me being sweaty. I still have no plans for the hot part of the school year.) Yesterday it was as simple as walking to the store, and that might be the norm for Mondays. I got off on the wrong foot (so to speak) by doing it after 1 yesterday due to a meeting, but I'd consider it in the spirit of the rule. Today it'll probably be calisthenics in front of the TV, like many days until I get the plantar fasciitis sorted out.

T. took advantage of her work-from-home day to make brownies. I'm opposed to this, we have enough sugar in the house, but she doesn't care. I'd like to not eat them and let them get stale or let the kid gorge herself on them to show T. it was a bad idea. Unfortunately I doubt I'll have the willpower for the first and the kid will go for Halloween candy before the second. Oh well, maybe next time...

I put a task off at work until the last minute, so we got the kid near the last minute. Fortunately she didn't mind too much. Dinner was chicken and leftover cauliflower. 

We watched some of Beetlejuice in the evening before putting the kid to bed. All the Halloween classics.

Despite (or because of) how active it was and how much I have to say now, I was tired all day. Not sure why exactly, but being up late the night before reading probably didn't help. I'm enjoying For the Wolf.

High-calorie day

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For breakfast yesterday I walked to the bakery at the farmer's market and got pastries and French bread and we had a continental breakfast. Cool.

That arguably wasn't needed, though, because we went to brunch at a friend of the kid's soon after. Lots of food there. T. and I visited and caught up with other parents while the kids ran amok for 3 hours or so. I had a full plate of my own plus leftovers from or stuff "shared" by the other two.  

After that, home for a few minutes. In the afternoon the kid and I had a Scout event. We biked there on the ebike (not really exercise, but closer than driving, so good for us) despite the fact that we brought the tent for a tent-pitching exercise. It went well. 

After that, home. A friend of the kid's came over and I made a quick dinner. I made spaghetti and cauliflower because it was easy to make with what I had on hand and we were confident the kids would like them, but I regret it. Mostly because it was the same thing as two days ago and I usually like more variety, but partly because I had already had a ridiculous amount of carbs today. 

After that we took the kids to a Halloween event at the gymnastics school. They turned out to be on the older side but they had fun while T. and I went to a nearby bar and had cocktails. Then we took them to get ice cream because T. had promised it for some reason. I heroically avoided eating more than a few bites somehow. 

Food

Obviously, I'm not happy with my calorie intake yesterday. I try not to worry about it from Halloween to New Year's, but we aren't even at Halloween yet, and I'm still not getting any exercise worth mentioning...

Relaxing and working

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Yesterday we had pancakes, as usual, although details were off. (Less fruit than we'd like, and thicker batter to finish off the bag of Krusteaz.) We got started on laundry early because today would be busy. We went to the farmer's market after that, and forced the kid to help out around the house a bit. 

In the early afternoon, T. and the kid went to a Girl Scout event. I thought about it but didn't. Instead I went to the store, played Warcraft (of course), took a nap, did more laundry, and cleaned up around the house. The nap was unusual but welcome. My sleep has been just a bit inadequate lately. 

Dinner was steak and asparagus. T. and I watched Totally Killer after the kid was in bed. We were up later than usual, partly due to my nap but also because our neighbors were having a loud party.

Nominally sick kid

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Yesterday the kid was home sick. Nothing serious, just a runny nose and sore throat, but we didn't want to send her to school like that. So she stayed home while I worked. It went well enough. I got the bare minimum done at work (the biweekly report) and on personal projects (looked for information from my old ADHD diagnosis for the new therapist, but then I couldn't find the address to send it to!) and I don't feel bad about that, considering she was there. 

Around 3:30 I logged off work and took her to the park for biking practice. It went well. 

While I made dinner, T. took the kid to a neighborhood Halloween event. It went well too. Dinner was spaghetti and cauliflower.

Textbook ADHD

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Yesterday I spent over 2 hours working on Warcraft mounts. I don't mean trying to get them, or anything else in the game. I mean writing up a guide to them, counting how many can be called "easy" to get, how many are pure RNG, etc. It's a downright crazy use of my time. Pointless for me and probably for literally everyone else. I don't want to be too hard on myself or complain too much of a basically average day (got through the essentials at work, etc.), but it's striking how much I can focus on pointless shit by accident. 

In the evening, I got the kid a little earlier than usual and met T. and some friends at a Halloween event at a nearby park. Dinner was hot dogs from there. We got home at a reasonable hour, watched a little TV together, and got to bed earlyish.

Parenting is hard

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Got the kid to school fine yesterday, and work was adequate. Average. As always, I got the essentials done but wish I had done more. 

I picked the kid up at school a bit earlier than usual. I had brought her yellow bike, the bigger one, as requested last week. That had gone well, so I was optimistic about this biking session and I think she was as well. It was misplaced. She found the bigger bike harder to handle and had age-inappropriate tantrums about it, kicking the bike and blaming it for turning right against her will. Tempers frayed. So I took her home and got her on the purple bike a bit, mostly in the alley. It was better than the yellow bike but not as good as the last week. 

Dinner was a pork roast and broccoli. It was fine. The kid was also manic in the evening when we tried to make some phone calls. I forgot to finish cleaning the kitchen before going to bed.

I tried

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I did a little grocery shopping on the way home from dropping the kid off yesterday. It turned out to not be needed, but there's no harm in getting ahead of things. 

As for personal stuff, I folded laundry, paid a renovation engineer's bill, reached out to the architect with some questions, and reached out to a podiatrist, dentist, and eye doctor about appointments. Two of those were after going to get the kid, but better late than never.

Work was OK too. Two meetings, both productive, some emails sent. There's an urgent task on my to-do list I should have worked on and didn't, which I feel bad about, but that's partly because I tried to close out another task first and it turned out to be much harder than I expected. That also kept me from getting proper exercise, but I got the minimum recommended steps in anyway by the end of the day.

I got the kid to guitar lesson, maybe not earlier than usual, but with more done before it than usual. T. made fried rice for dinner. The evening was relaxing.

I picked the name for the post early, as a sort of apology for not getting more done or an expression of annoyance at the difficulties I had with various things above, but honestly, I don't think I have anything to apologize for. The day seems like it should have been good enough.

Depeche Mode and navel-gazing

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Typical workday yesterday. I had the house to myself, which isn't typical for Monday, but anyways. Minor work on several different tasks, emails, listened in on meetings but no activity required of me in them, a few chores around the house, etc. 

I got the kid a bit earlier than usual and T. got started on dinner (the frozen lasagna, and green beans, and that turned out to not be enough food so we had some miniature microwave pizzas as well) while I was getting her, because we went to a Depeche Mode concert last night. The kid read and played games on T.'s phone through it. I didn't, but kind of wish I had. Not a weeknight activity, but I don't know how to say that to T. because I almost never enjoy concerts anyway. We got home around 11 and went straight to bed.

Journals?

I'm wondering what the point of this is. Not to sound all maudlin when short on sleep, but "this" being journals specifically. I've kept a paper journal ever since August 1st, but lately the entries have been very brief. I kept a spreadsheet tracking my day in half-hour increments, but stopped that when we went to Vermont. And of course there's this. After updating it sporadically for years, I posted 39 times in 2020 about everything going on, and in January 2022 I resolved to update it daily. In hindsight I'm not sure it has been worth it, though. Proximity to a keyboard has not resulted in anything more substantive than daily events. I'm not stopping today, but I might not make it two full years. 

On the other hand, I think some fitness-related stuff has been useful. The spreadsheet was how I identified insomnia (for months if not years I blamed sleeping badly on T.'s snoring, but it wasn't until this that I noticed I wasn't sleeping through the night even when she wasn't around), and I think a journal has been helpful, or at least could be helpful, in tracking my fitness efforts. So maybe I should find some medium better for fitness tracking?

Popcorn, errands, and a fancy dinner

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The usual Sunday brunch yesterday. Despite cooking earlier than usual and T. getting up earlier than usual, we had to rush to get to popcorn selling on time. Mornings are hard... so I dropped them off at the site, drove home, and went to the farmer's market nearby. It has grown on me. Then I walked to the popcorn sales. It went well. 

Shortly after we got home, we finished some housework (laundry, kitchen cleaning, etc.), and then went to Lowe's and Costco. We only got two or three things that weren't on our list. Good for us. 

In the afternoon we relaxed and watched TV. We needed it. We were invited to a friend's for dinner. It was a traditional Indian thing and the kid was the guest of honor. It was fun.

Long day

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Pancakes and sausages for breakfast yesterday.

We spent most of the day cleaning and doing laundry. In addition to general weekend and seasonal stuff, T. says that reducing dust and dust mites might help with the snoring. I wouldn't complain about that. So it was laundry, vacuuming (not unheard of but done by a professional more often than us), cleaning under the bed, and more. It was a lot of work. In the afternoon, just as I was looking forward to getting off my feet, the kid's friend K. came over and it was time to make dinner (chicken, rice, and cucumber salad). 

After that we took them to Boo at the Zoo. Getting there went better than we planned: T. dropped me and the kids off at the top of the zoo, T. parked, we met in the middle. They had fun. K. was more goal-oriented about getting candy than the rest of us, but I still dragged them through a few zoo exhibits. Two chance encounters: on the way in we met a guy we knew from a Thanksgiving party a few days ago. Couldn't chat because managing kids and I forgot my phone in the car - whoops. And then near the end of the event I ran into a co-worker, there with her kid. It was nice to catch up. I knew her from the Before Time but I don't think I've seen her in person since then.

Farm fun

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Yesterday I did about an hour of work first thing in the morning on a couple different tasks, but mostly took the day off because the kid had school inservice. We took the kid to Cox Farms with some friends. it was fun but tiring. Kids outnumbered grownups. There was at least one moment we thought we had lost four of them. 

When we got home I tried to make lasagna for dinner. It was a package T. had bought and didn't come with instructions. I called the place that made them and they said to cook it at 350 degrees for 20 minutes. I cooked it for 40 minutes and it was still frozen. T. blamed the company, but I confess I blame T. a tiny bit.

Fortunately the kid's gymnastics class was an hour later than last week, so we had time to go out to eat. We went to a Thai place for variety. Mine was spicy. After that, gymnastics for the kid while T. and I went grocery shopping.