Sunday, August 11 2019

Dear Journal,

This weekend has been deeply relaxing - so relaxing that I totally spaced and forgot to make a journal entry. All weekend, I've been working on a new file server, and in the process learning all about FreeNAS - which has been very entertaining. But I've noticed that sometimes when I get to working on new IT projects, it's hard to do anything else. I get so focused that I lose track of time and even start to rush things a bit - moving forward with a project before I fully understand what I'm doing. Luckily, copying around large swaths for data a few terabytes at a time, you have no choice but to periodically walk away and do something else.

Let's just unwind the weekend and catch up. Friday night was filled with pizza and development milestones. We finally converted Rodney's crib into a bed. For the first time in his life, he slept in an unconfined space. Even though he immediately fell asleep (and didn't move the whole night), it was a weird feeling knowing that he could walk out of his room at pretty much any time. Marissa and I must have peeked into his room at least once an hour. He didn't move at all. He even slept on the edge of the bed, as if a crib wall was there to support him. Old habits die hard, I guess.

On Saturday, we hung around the house in the morning and ate a late breakfast. It was Ziggy's birthday today, so I cut her a slice of Dutch Baby (with no sugar of course) and topped it with some sliced bananas. She wolfed it down quickly, hardly leaving any time to savor the milestone of being two years old. That's only 14 in dog years, so understandably she still has a patience problem. After breakfast, we took a family trip to Target to pick up a present for our neighbor Lyra. She too was celebrating a birthday. After a family nap, Rodney and I went to the grocery store to pick up some dinner. We made garlic pasta, and as a side, I served some pancetta with ricotta on crackers with a few of our very own garden tomatoes. After dinner, we taught Rodney how to play Jenga. He caught on fast, but I'm going to level with you - my son might be the worst Jenga player ever.

We put Rodney to bed, and Marissa and I played cribbage. I tried to learn cribbage a few years ago and quit in a rage. Perhaps I've learned to be a bit more patience since then, but it started sticking last night. I still find it to be a tedious, ham-fisted mash-up of several other more successful games, but I'm getting better at it, and there's hope that one day I'll be able to play it without scratch paper. Maybe even while carrying a pleasant, uncomplicated conversation.

This morning, I slept through my alarm and missed church, so we attended the church of YouTube from our couch with coffee and scrambled eggs. We watched a sermon by Dr. Joe Stowell about expectations. Afterwards, we went for a long walk and got a beer at a neighborhood brewery. In a few minutes, I'll wake Rod up from his nap and we'll head to the grocery store while more data finishes copying to my file server. Well technically, the file server is copying the same data to itself. I screwed up the initial configuration and I'm still juggling my way out.

Hope you have a restful weekend, and I'll see you all on Monday. Let's have a Sunday night!