Relaxation, but not enough

Wordle 980 5/6

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Last weekend was a holiday and the kid had an extra day or two off school ("or two": she had the Friday before and Tuesday after the holiday off, but on Friday she just had a lazy morning and T. took her and a friend to a museum while I almost had a typical day, so it's not relevant to the following), so we made our roughly annual pilgrimage to Rehoboth Beach. Left Saturday morning, came back Tuesday afternoon. 

It was fun. The beach itself was incidental at best. Instead we spent a little time on a nature walk at a nearby national park, a lot of time shopping, and a lot of time in the hotel pool. Despite so much family time, it was relaxing. (I feel a bit guilty writing that.) Sleeping in the same room as the kid helped enforce bedtimes for T. and I. She's getting into reading, so we could spend a fair amount of time reading our respective books without bothering each other. I wasn't cooking, and the kid can behave fine in a restaurant by now. 

Wednesday I kind of had to jump back into work with both feet. Some minor-but-annoying stuff came up while I was gone. Thursday and Friday were worse. There's this urgent thing going on, people aren't following our process and we don't have the standing to complain about it, and we don't even understand why it's being done that way. My management is reasonable, I have a good handle on what is expected of me and my team, and it's a different problem than last week, but still, it's definitely not good.

Fitness and frustration

Wordle 972 5/6

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My parents visited briefly last weekend, so that was nice. We took them to Granville Moore's, which I've been trying to go to for a while.

So far, the only thing I've learned by tracking my weight is that I weigh more after going to restaurants. I've stopped tracking day-to-day outings, and never tracked my food intake to begin with, but it's obvious the morning after. Duh. As for exercise, Tuesday I got out the rowing machine and used it. Good for me. The bad news is, I'm still sore from it now. Working out like that once a week is probably neither useful nor sustainable.

The other part of the title comes from... basically everything else. Fixing that hole in the ceiling proved harder than expected; there's definitely water damage. We're trying to get a contractor in here but they aren't being responsive. The mortgage company also isn't being responsive about that one form. I'm at the point of calling a lawyer but T. and the architect seem to want to keep talking.

Work is frustrating. I'm frustrated in myself for not working harder, with basically everyone else in my office (not my teammates, but everyone we need inputs from) for not getting back to us faster, with management for pulling me into pointless meetings for unclear projects... the job isn't the worst it's ever been, but it's not great at the moment.

Warcraft is frustrating. In theory I could not play my main character at all, or spend 2 hours per week maximizing my chances of getting the legendary on them and spend the rest of my free time doing fun stuff on alts or outside the game entirely. But it's actually taking more like eight hours to almost maximize my chances of the legendary. I could maybe be a little more efficient about it, but still, it's neither a fun nor a smart approach to the game.

Even driving is frustrating! Wednesday there were four car accidents in the general neighborhood of the school during rush hour. I really need to get the kid back to biking, not that it would have helped Wednesday, due to swimming. I'm glad we finally had a discussion about why it's so hard for her, at least, she has trouble getting started and is nervous about doing it in traffic, so a practice session is on our agenda. But that doesn't make being stuck in traffic any more fun.

I almost think I shouldn't be posting this because dwelling on it reifies it! Thinking about my mood when I'm not in the middle of that stuff, it hasn't been all that bad, but I don't know why!

Crazy week

 Wordle 966 5/6

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It was crazy.

Monday I tried but failed to mail a package to the mortgage company to hopefully (not definitely!) deal with the biggest (one of the biggest?) remaining stumbling blocks to permits for our renovation. I failed -the post office didn't have suitable packages for sale, and by the time I made it to the UPS store, it was too late to go back to the post office.

Tuesday I actually mailed it. Yay. I also finally dropped T.'s bike off for repairs.

Wednesday after a routine trip to the bathroom I was surprised to see a hole in the ceiling of the guest bedroom. Apparently the plaster (sheetrock? Drywall? Whatever) can just "delaminate." I'm not sure there's water or insect damage, but I'm not sure there isn't.

Work Thursday and Friday was unusually busy. Lots of SharePoint issues, which isn't my specialty. I might have handled them poorly. I also tried to be productive about other things, which I feel good about in hindsight but wasn't fun at the time.

Thursday during the day I got T.'s bike. I also got 2.5 gallons of distilled water for her new CPAP machine. I meant to get one gallon. That was fun to carry.

I've got an adequate number of steps in by running errands, especially with so many being more complicated than expected. I haven't got any aerobic exercise, though. Not sure how I feel about that.

We had a nice date Friday night. After a rough end to a rough week, it was nice to have a semi-fancy dinner with T. and no kid.

Self-control is a muscle

Wordle 959 4/6

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The big crisis last weekend was the kid's piercings. She tried to change earrings and couldn't get it back in, despite our help and a lot of screaming and crying. After a little research, it seems that Claire's misinformed us or we misunderstood them: we thought earrings could be changed after 3 weeks, but it's more like 6 or even longer. So we're probably going to have to get that ear repierced. This also resulted in some marital friction as T. and I disagreed about how to handle it.

Sunday I finished Anansi Boys. It was OK. Like American Gods, but based on different mythology. One more book to get off the metaphorical list and hopefully out of the physical house before we move. Next on the list: My Heart is a Chainsaw, a Christmas present I had forgotten about until T. reminded me. It was from her. It's only January. Yup, I'm an asshole.

I've been thinking more about fitness lately. Actual exercise is hit or miss, but I've cut back a bit on drinking and skipped dessert most days. We put batteries in our bathroom scale for an unrelated reason and I've started weighing myself daily and added the column to my fitness spreadsheet for it. It's too early to notice any benefit, but still, good for me. 

The kid has been really grouchy over the past week or two. I'm not sure if it's due to the earring, lack of sleep (we've been lenient about bedtime), trouble with her friends, or something else, but I'd hate to think it's the new normal. 

I didn't observe any Warcraft blackout days over the past week, but somehow I managed to play in moderation anyway. I was productive at work - maybe not perfectly, but more than usual - and got the essentials done around the house. Good for me. My latest goal is to kill the final boss on Heroic again, partly to prove that I can do it, and partly because of a bug where I didn't get all the rewards I expected the first time. (EDIT next week: or so I thought. I got it, I was just confused. So now I really am just playing for fun and very incremental rewards.)

Thursday was disrupted when power went out. It was maintenance. They said we got calls in advance. We didn't. So I went to the library, fuming all the while, and was surprisingly productive there.

Friday, in addition to the biweekly report and working on some old tasks, I wrote a letter to the mortgage company, went for a walk for exercise, troubleshot the flat tire on T.'s e-bike (it's been there since December; I can't fix it because I'd need a stand to turn the thing upside down), and went for a walk for exercise. I treated myself to lunch at Ben's Chili Bowl, but still, good for fucking me.