I woke up this morning to the doorbell ringing. Dave (I just met him today) was at the house to inspect the roof and siding to see about stopping the leaking that we have had going on. I was the only person that heard the door bell so I started the day by leaping out of bed and running to get to the door. Not how I like to get up and going in the morning.
We should have an estimate on the repairs by the end of the day. In theory, at least. (Turns out to be $1,000, but that includes the materials that are still needed.)
This morning was normal work in the office. Nothing special. Not a super busy morning, thanks to working late last night. So a nice day. I’ve been enjoying this week.
This afternoon we found out that Liza, the Grices’ golden retriever, had to be put to sleep. There was really no warning. She was fine all last week when we had seen her. She was just fine when Dominica and the girls left Houston. She was fine yesterday, playing with Holly. But then at night she suddenly got sick and by morning she was unresponsive. The vet said that it was an aggressive cancer and it took her really quickly. So by this afternoon they had to put her down. Our kids have never known the Grices without Liza. This will be incredibly sad for them. She has always been around. At least the girls got to see Liza on her last day, yesterday morning, and they got to see her healthy at that time.
Paul and I went up to Plano this afternoon to do some work with a client up there. I had figured that it would be a two or a three hour trip, but it ended up being a very quick one. Fixed their issue and was on our way back home in no time. Very easy, that’s how we like it. And a very happy client.
We had about two and a half hours after getting back before we needed to leave to go to the Carrollton Library for the Yule Ball, or whatever it is called. I charged up my phone, caught up with work, which was pretty easy given that it was late on a Friday on a holiday week, and started making myself some dinner as I had not had anything but a small bowl of cereal so far all day. I went for pan frying some veggie burgers for my dinner.
Dominica watched The Golden Girls most of the day. So I saw bits and pieces of it throughout the day as I would pass through the living room. Dominica is addicted to that show, and even got the Golden Girls trivia board game for Christmas.
At six twenty, we left for the Carrollton Library at Josey Ranch. Dominica and I just wore Harry Potter tee shirts. The girls were dressed up in robes and “house” gear, and both brought their new, very fancy wands that they got for Christmas. Josey Ranch is very close, only takes a few minutes.
We arrived and there was a really long waiting line to get into the Josey Ranch Rec Center, maybe a hundred people or more in line, and that was just the line to get in when the doors first opened! We got there at the perfect time, no waiting, the doors opened as we got out of the car and the people filed in almost immediately. No standing around outside for us. Not that it was that cold, it was in the low fifties. I didn’t even bother to bring a jacket. Nor did the kids, but they had their Harry Potter robes on.
The event was huge, we couldn’t believe how many people showed up! They really know how to draw the crowds at the Carrollton Library. And there were kids of all ages, from very young to teens. Even very old teens. And all free, which is awesome. Just a great community outreach from the library.
First thing that we did was hit the photo op spot and take some pictures. Both girls chose to get their picture taken in the Forbidden Forest. Dominica and I tried to convince them to take Azkaban prisoner photos, but neither would do it. But their forest pictures turned out great.
Next up we hit the main ball room to see what was up. You had to visit your house table (Gryffondor for Liesl, Luciana, and me; and Ravenclaw for Dominica) to get your ticket coupons for the raffle, and to get a light up wristband in your house colours (red for us, blue for her.) What a cool idea that was, it really made the themeing more special.
Then we got in the snack line. Andy’s Custard provided ice cream treats for everyone. That’s Dominica’s favourite. And Treats by Tiffany provided cookies, too. And loads of bottled water. But no butter beer, that would have been messy, but really cool.
The ceiling was decorated in floating candles and stars, very well done.
Next up was the costume contest. We should have skipped that, it took way too long and our girls while properly dressed up were not in competitive form style costumes. It was too much time and made Luciana antsy. She is too young to spend so much time on something like that. Next year we will skip that.
After that it was over to the library side of the complex to do OWL trivia. We didn’t win but the girls made a friend on our trivia team and went on to do the scavenger hunt with her. They had loads of fun doing the scavenger hunt.
Last thing, and we were the last ones allowed in to do it before things started to close, was the potions class. We went into the “kids reading room” and they had a table set up with equipment and guides to making six different potions. Liesl chose to make the “Draught of Peace” and Luciana decided to make “Felix Felicus”. Dominica took Luciana and I took Liesl and we went around with our ingredients list and the girls had to track down what was needed and make a “potion” in a small phial. It was loads of fun and both girls really enjoyed it.
And that was it. It was the end of the night and time for everyone to go home. A big success, we will be returning to this event for sure. Both girls were very happy. There were some professional photographers there, too, and our girls posed for them for a lot of pictures. So hopefully the city website will have some of them at some point. But we have no idea when they get posted online.
On the way home we stopped and picked up Taco Bell for Dominica, Liesl, and me. Luciana didn’t want anything, just a pizza at home. Paul was already ready for bed back home, so didn’t want any food.
We got home, ate dinner, Dominica put on Brooklyn Nine Nine for her and I to watch. And I made a personal pizza for Luciana. I did some SGL writing while watching the show and am caught up to nearly the end of May, now. One more day of catch up writing and I will certainly have it finished.
Dominica was sleepy early, so went to bed after two episodes. I stayed up to get the girls to bed. Liesl came out to the living room and climbed onto my lap on the black couch and we watched an episode of The Orville together. I am caught up on Hulu so I am watching them as they release there. This was episode two of season two.
That took us to half past midnight and I was pretty sleepy myself. So I got the girls off to bed and turned in.