Sunday, April 4 2021

2019-04-19 Friday

Good Morning, Journal!

Last night was good fun. The quesadillas were messy, but they were a hit. We had a late dinner, finally getting Rod down around 8:30 and then Justin and Megan rolled in around 10. We got to know each other over drinks and leftovers, and the good beer kept flowing! Paying for it a bit this morning, but it was a good time. I think any remnants of a hangover I still have by this afternoon will be utterly zapped by the stamppot we're making for dinner.

So what else. Today is shaping up to be a busy work day. I have a code screen today - it's the first of seven that are happening over next week - could be a bit of a marathon. I wonder if my cheery morning "dear journal" tone will shift to something more negative. Also I'm on ticket duty next week.

Just got an email from Brad. Looks like we had a solid first day of Kids Code. Brad set up a minecraft server and put Cord in charge of maintaining it - apparently he was elated.

Geez, I'm not used to all of these people being up with me in the morning. Marissa didn't sleep well, so she's walking around downstairs trying to get plex to work. Megan and Justin are hanging around in the bedroom. The family slack is already buzzing. Something about this morning that's just waking everyone up.

I think I'm going to leave things short today. It will probably take longer to get ready this morning, as I'll be tip-toeing around our guests.

What a wonderful morning!

2019-04-21 Sunday

Good Morning! And happy Easter. It's difficult to stick to your routines when you have company staying over, but grateful to get everyone ready in church with just a little time to spare so I can write a quick update. This weekend has been filled with good food, good liquor, and great company. Megan and Justin got in late Thursday night and they are staying with us through Easter weekend. We took them to the zoo, went out to Umami, and worked up a good sunburn walking about on the first truly warm day of spring. It was all worth it though, it felt so good to be outside again.

The older I get, the less I like winter. It's a very beautiful, contemplative time of year (which is fine, no one is a bigger fan of quiet contemplation than this guy right here), but consider how impractical Winter is. How many things can you really do while avoiding the out doors? While keeping all those extra layers lying around? While making time every night to shovel the snow? Shoveling snow is a mental exercise in futility, all on it's own.

Long story short, I'm becoming more active as I grow older, and finally noticing how difficult it is to be active during the winter. That's where I will plant my flag for now.

After church, we're going to go to Hy-Vee to pick up the things we need to make a traditional easter roasted ham, which incidentally just buying a ham covers most of that. I was expecting a very meticulous and finicky roasting procedure (like a Thanksgiving turkey), but it turns out these big glorious juicy hams you see in Norman Rockwell paintings are already cooked and all you need to do in the kitchen is just heat the damn thing up. Maybe stick some pineapple slices to it. Chef John hits the whole thing in a blow torch to really get the brown sugar bubbling - I promised Marissa she could do the same.

Lol - almost lost this entire journal article. The undo key in emacs doesn't work the same in console emacs apparently, which I'm using this morning because I didn't think I had time to boot my desktop.

I think that's as good a time as any to stop writing, don't want to push my luck and accidentally delete everything again. Here's to a beautiful easter morning!

2019-04-24 Wednesday

Good Morning, Journal!

Had a very lovely, relaxing day yesterday. Work is still kind of crazy this week, but I got to skate to and from the office, and the weather was beautiful - especially in the afternoon. When I got home, Rodney and Marissa were playing with sidewalk chalk on the driveway. I love it when my family is waiting outside for me to come home from work. I took Rod to Hy-Vee to pick up a few things, then we grilled burgers and ate outside.

Rod had kind of a meltdown before bed. He was having so much fun playing baseball outside that he didn't want to put his toys away and go to bed. It kind of turned into an ordeal, but we figured it out. He's a nice boy. He occasionally loses his temper, but it's always followed by remorse. I was pretty proud of him last night, he walked downstairs and game Momma a really nice apology, then he was back to normal.

I wonder if he'll remember this time in his life. I certainly don't remember anything, but people are different, and maybe he'll be able to recall some things that are happening now.

I don't have a lot to say this morning. I think I'm still trying to get my brain moving this morning. I even keep taking breaks from writing and just poking around my desktop. My todo list is kind of piling up, and I guess that's making me generally distracted. Working from home today should be nice, I'm looking forward to the time to just focus on work.

I'm leading Kids Code tomorrow, and I have no idea what I'm going to do. It's in a different building this week (we couldn't get the library for part of the spring semester), and we don't have any computers at the moment. Which sucks, because we're a computer club. Let's see if I can figure something out in twenty-four hours.

Sorry that I'm a little negative today. I'm feeling pretty good today, I swear. I'll try to turn it around this morning.

Let's have a great day today!