Thursday, June 23 2022

Dear Journal,

Good morning, everyone. Happy Thursday. How's the work week going so far?

Things are busy. I jumped back into work on ticket duty, and on top of everything I still get lost in my new house. Of course I can find the basement, the bathroom, and the cleaning closet if I have to, but it just takes a little more mental energy since the autopilot hasn't kicked in yet.

We have work to do, and we're going to get it done. Swagger favors the bold, and I know that's true because I read that on my bottle of body wash in the shower this morning. Also, we don't have to do this alone. We've got a secret weapon that rhymes with shmoffee.

Sip. It's good to be here. There's a lot going on this week. I can gripe about sitting on the computer all day answering slack messages as long as it's not within earshot of Marissa. She spent all day yesterday hauling buckets of rocks across our backyard. Now that our fence is put in, there's a strip of grass between our fence and a neighbors fence. Marissa covered the area in tarp and plans to cover it in rocks. What's the easiest way to move rocks across your yard? That's kind of the point - there is no easy way to do that. Just grit, sweat, and a well-deserved beer when you're done.

She needed more supplies for the job, so we accompanied her to Home Depot. Rodney climbed through the driver seat while Marissa unbuckled Miles. The long stretch of blacktop in front of the store felt like I was walking across a solar cooker.

"I think Home Depot has a terrible layout," said Marissa, wiping a drop of sweat from her face. "I used to think it was just the one in Madison, but now I think they all do this. Home come no matter where you park or what you have to get, you end up walking across the entire store?"

I felt relieved to hear the complaint from her. Only a few days earlier while buying sandbags for her outdoor art show, I got completely lost in that same home depot. "And when I finally found the exit, I realized I grabbed the wrong cart and I had to go back and get four more sandbags," I laughed.

Marissa loaded up the car while Rodney and I screwed around. I hoisted him up to the high metal bar where you drop off the carts. I quickly stepped out of frame so we could get the perfect "action shot" of Rodney hanging there by himself.

I forgot how challenging kids can be in the summer. When school finishes, it's like their social circle disappears. From the moment Miles and Rodney wake up, they want to hang out with mom and dad - now the only supporting cast members in the hit summer show How do we keep our kids entertained today?.

Yesterday, we were lucky to get some help. Our neighbors Anthony and Julia rang our doorbell while I was heating up lunch. "Uh, we were invited to play basketball," said Anthony politely. Anthony, Julia, and Rodney played hockey in the driveway until it was time to eat lunch. Even though Anthony and Julia are older than Rodney, Rodney is still fired up about making some new friends in the neighborhood.

Does your family ever go through phases? Right now we're in a heavy Dairy Queen phase. It's cheap, fast, and around Chicagoland it seems like there's always one close by.

What's the correct way to eat an icecream cone? The correct answer is licking the cone in an upward spiral to prevent drips, and once the shape is contained to the cone, you can be more cavalier with taking occasional bites.

What's the wrong way to eat an icecream cone? Just watch a two year old try to tackle the problem. Watching Miles eat an icecream cone is an adrenaline rush. He takes long breaks to contemplate the flavor, ignoring the drips running down his wrist. He waves his cone around and holds it upside down. Sometimes he steals a bite from the bottom of the cone. It actually makes me feel kind of anxious. In fact, Miles is so bad at eating icecream that Marissa has to steal a chunk off the top just so he doesn't drop it in his lap.

I guess he'll figure it out one day. That's what I got today - thanks for stopping by, and I hope you have a swell Thursday.