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

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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.