September 29, 2011: Surprise Thunderstorm

Medifast Status: Day 150, Down ~60.5lbs

I got up early this morning and got into the office at a good time so that I could get caught up and be productive.  Dominica was up feeding Luciana when I left.  Luciana was awake enough to see me as I was getting ready to leave and wanted me to come see her.  At least I got to see her for a minute before going four days without seeing my family.

At ten this morning Dominica and the girls met up with her cousin Nicole at the Fort Worth Zoo.  What a hot day to see the zoo.  Originally it was supposed to be 95 today, then they raised that to 97 and now it is projected that it will be 99 degrees!  I’m glad that I am not going to the zoo today.

After the zoo, Dominica is heading down to Houston for a long, four day weekend with the Grices.  It really is the best possible weekend for her to do that since I just have tons and tons of homework that absolutely demands my attention this weekend and I will be able to get a start on it tonight and do little else all weekend.

I also have a birthday party to attend tomorrow night at Pete’s Dueling Piano Bar in Addison. Jen from the Young Executives Board is celebrating her birthday there tomorrow and a bunch of us from the club are going together.  So that worked out really well from a timing perspective.  Normally I would not be able to go.

For lunch today I just went home so that I could pick up our latest Diet Direct shipment that was supposed to arrive today and to take care of Oreo who is home alone all day.  Fortunately Dominica didn’t leave until mid-morning and I was home by one and then it is only a few hours until I get home after work.  So Oreo won’t be alone very much.  Since he spends his days sleeping on our bed now he probably doesn’t notice when we are or are not home anyway.  He doesn’t get out of bed on his own until afternoon these days.

I got home and Oreo just kept on sleeping.  I took some time and started with the cleaning.  There is a lot to be done.  I only really get a chance to clean when everyone is away.  I took care of house plants, vacuumed, picked up toys, cleanup up Liesl’s room, did some work in Luciana’s room, cleaned in the kitchen, watered the lawn, took Oreo out, did a few ticket-like tasks, did a little reading, ate a quick lunch and got the front entrance cleaned up.  Not bad for a lunch hour.

I plan on having this house in great shape by the time that Dominica gets back.

Work was slow this afternoon.  Dominica called me around four to let me know that she was at Buckee’s, about an hour north of Houston.  So they will all be at Francesca’s house pretty soon.  Tomorrow Dominica is planning on heading into the city to go to the Italian consulate.  Fortunately we know someone now who deals with the consulate from time to time and knows the people there and was able to tell us that we would get far better results by actually stopping in and dealing with them in person.  So fingers crossed.

I went home and spent the evening with Oreo.  He is really enjoying having the house be quiet and empty all day and having his daddy to himself in the evening.  He was so happy tonight that he jumped on me and got me to play “tug” with him for a while which he has not done in a year or more.  He played longer than I remember him playing too and then, when we were done, he took his gingerbread man binky and sucked on it like he did long ago.  It has been a very long time since I last saw this side of Oreo.  It makes me happy to see him feeling so well.  I’m sure that he is very happy that I have been cleaning and that the obstacles that normally are all over the house just waiting to trip him up are not there so he can move around the house far more safely now too.

I had a short call, maybe an hour, when I first got home and then had the evening to myself.  I felt the need to unwind so I quickly ran out to Chili’s and grabbed dinner and hit Target to pick up Keurig coffee cups and bones for Oreo as he is out and he will be very sad if he has to eat his dinner without getting “dessert.”

I got home with my take out and I finished watching From Russia with Love which is temporarily available on Netflix and that I had started watching the other day.  I haven’t seen most of the old James Bond movies since I was a kid and dad and I used to watch them together.  So I know the movies but they exist mostly as vague memories and I don’t know the plots very well.  In fact, I often have a hard time knowing which movie is which anyway.

Oreo laid down at my feet and was very contented so I was loathe to get up and do anything else so I decided that I would start Goldfinger and go to bed early and be as productive as possible tomorrow.  Oreo thought that that was a great idea.  I love these old movies, they really take me back.  What is amazing to me is that while this movie seemed old as a child, it was probably only twenty years old.  But it has been way more than twenty years since I last watched it.  It was, more or less, newish when I first saw it!  And this is one of the oldest Bond films.   Goldfinger is shot mostly in Switzerland too which is nice to see shot in 1964.  Very interesting.

Out of nowhere this evening, even though we were forecast to have clear skies, there was a violent thunderstorm that lasted a few hours.  Even while it was going on The Weather Channel, Accuweather and MSN were all continuing to report that the skies were clear and that there was no rain.  I seem to be finding this over and over again living here in North Texas – even once it is obvious that there is rain the weather services keep sticking to their horrible predictions.  And you can tell just by stepping outside eight hours earlier that rain is coming – it isn’t much of a surprise.  So how they are so bad at it I just can’t figure out.  But thank goodness for rain.  We just can’t get enough of it here.  It is going to take a lot of storms before our aquifers begin to fill up again.  I am really glad that I watered the lawn a little bit earlier today – this will help the ground soak this up a little bit.

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