Sheep Guarding Llama

We did not get up all that early this morning.  When we did, Paul and I went for a drive to pick up authentic New York bagels from Daily Bagel and then to the Kurdish Deli to get breakfast sandwiches and back to the house to feed everyone.  It was a bagel party morning.

It was early afternoon when I drove everyone to the train station in Peekskill to get them off to Manhattan.  I stayed with them on the platform until they got onto the train to make sure that they knew what to do.  I know how stressful and confusing that that can be.

I came home and worked for a little bit but they were back in what seemed like no time so I had to go pick them up at the station.

Once we got to the house we set up Kelly to watch the girls while the adults went downtown to check out a new pub that Dominica had discovered downtown.

The pub turned out to be really awesome.  They have an outside patio that we sat on and had dinner. The venue was great and so was the food.  The beer selection was excellent too.  We all got Spiderbite Stout which we universally really liked.

It was not a super late night for us.  Everyone was decently tired.  Really just dinner, two beers and back to the house.

The girls had a great time hanging out with Kelly while we were gone.  They have very much missed have babysitter time.

I had to be up on the early side this morning as I had to work and because I am going into the city in the middle of the day I have to be sure to have as much done as possible this morning.  So I started work around seven this morning and went as late as I could, a little after noon.  I had worked until midnight last night getting as much prep work done as I could to make sure that this morning was as smooth as possible.

I worked all morning and Dominica worked on cleaning the house.  I was able to help a little bit only a little as I was actually on my laptop working all morning and had to prepare to go into the city.

Originally we had been hoping that Dominica would be able to go into the city with us today but our guests were running late and without them being able to make it to the house, pick her up, drop off Kelly to babysit and zip into the city Dominica would not be able to go.  By late morning we knew that shew as going to be stuck at home so at least she had a lot more leisure time to clean and get the house ready.

I worked as long as I could then jumped into the shower and zipped off to the train station.  I needed to speed up the trip into Manhattan so tried going to the Croton-Harmon station instead of Peekskill hoping to catch an earlier train.  No such luck.  There was a festival on today and parking at Croton was a nightmare.  It took so long that I missed the train and ended up taking the same train that I would have taken from Peekskill anyway.  So that was a waste of effort.

It was nice taking the train into the city.  I can’t believe that it has been almost five years since the last time that I did this.  It brings back memories of living in Peekskill long ago and commuting through Grand Central Terminal.

I was running late for the event so had to hustle from Grand Central to the subway to get to the place.  I was a bit late but it couldn’t be helped.  It was a small turnout, many fewer than even I had guessed but at least we had nearly a dozen.  Technology events are always incredibly hard to get people, even people who have committed and RSVP’d, to actually come out for.

The meeting was decent.  Pertino gave a presentation and both Pertino and xByte did some great prize giveaways.  Unfortunately, as seems to always happen, when it came time for me to speak there were technical issues and both the live stream and the recording system failed and my talk did not get preserved.    So that did not work out so well.

Paul and company were attempting to get to the event but ended up being very late after getting stuck in traffic at the Holland Tunnel and then driving all over Manhattan before getting to the MangoLassi Meetup. So they were there for my talk and the wrap up stuff but it was very late.

After the event, Paul, Karen, Kelly and I went to the Chelsea Market for some food and then they drove me back up to Peekskill which is a bit of a drive so I was able to give a little bit of a tour of Westchester County.

We had been thinking of going out this evening but it was already fairly late by the time that we all got to the house so the decision was to stay in and just hang out there trying out some amazing Scotch that Paul and brought with him from Missouri.

Everyone was pretty tired since they had been driving all day so it was an early night for everyone.  They want to see Manhattan tomorrow so need to be able to get up in the morning.

It’s Friday.  Not a lot interesting today.  I was in the office, of course, for a normal day.

Everyone who arrived upstate yesterday went to Niagara Falls today.  They went to the Canadian side as well and made a day of it.  They are going to be tired tomorrow, they have to leave for New York City around three in the morning!

It was a quiet evening.  I got home rather late and we just hung out and got to bed at a good time.  Paul, Karen and Kelly arrived tomorrow at some point so we have a lot of cleaning to do in the morning.

I was into the office pretty early this morning. It is nice getting in so early, I get to park right by the elevators in the parking garage and the place is completely quiet for an hour or two before it fills up with people.

I had to stay a little late tonight, lot’s to be done. But it wasn’t very late. On the drive home I finished reading “Fearless Fourteen” which is the last Stephanie Plum novel that I currently own. There are seven more now, I am only 66% through the current state of the series. I’m only one book behind Francesca now, though.

The girls were ready to head up to the playground when I got home at nearly eight. We hiked up the hill and played for a while. It’s not bad exercise but would be better if it were a little further. But the girls are pretty worn out just getting up there so it is probably as far as we could handle.

The girls played for a while and by the end Liesl had worked herself back up to doing the fireman’s pole again. Her two weeks off from the playground had left her unsure of herself and too nervous to do it. We stayed until the bugs got too bad and walked back to the house. Luciana made me carry her home, she was too tired to walk. We didn’t see any fat, tree climbing raccoons like we did last night.

We got back to the house and Luciana requested that she get her evening chocolate milk and that we all watch Dr. Who. Liesl concurred that she wanted to watch Dr. Who too by running around the house yelling “EX-TERM-IN-ATE!!!” So we watched two episodes of Dr. Who and got the girls off to bed.

Before we fell asleep both girls sneaked into our room and tried to climb into our bed. We left them stay for fifteen minutes but sent them back to their room to sleep.

I have to be in the office early tomorrow and will be working until nearly midnight. Going to be an exhausting day leading into a busy weekend. Paul and Karen are Karen’s daughter are leaving Missouri tomorrow afternoon and driving to our place due to arrive midday on Saturday. From there we are running down to Manhattan where I am speaking at the first MangoLassi Meetup which should be fun. Paul and Karen are staying with us in Peekskill for most of the week.

Katie arrived in Buffalo before we went to bed and Joe was on the ground, but hadn’t checked in with anyone yet, in Buffalo as well when we fell asleep. Art and Danielle were already at the airport hanging out with Katie as they waited for Joe. They will all be going to see Niagara Falls tomorrow afternoon before heading down to New York City early on Saturday morning.

I’m covering the early “shift” in the office so I was up at five and into the office before eight. Not super early, but the place is mostly empty when you arrive before nine. On the drive in my average MPG moved up to 35.6MPG. Pretty awesome.

It’s nice because it is quiet, traffic isn’t so bad and there is a great fruit selection to start the day – lots of blueberries, raspberries, pineapple and stuff. A nice kick off to the morning.

Today was very busy but not bad. I kept busy all day long. But good busy so I was not feeling burned out by the end of the day.

I tried to leave the office a few minutes before six, having gotten in early I was actually staying late at that point, and did well getting out the door but as soon as I was in the car I hit horrible traffic and lost half an hour sitting on the highway barely moving. So even though I left at a really good time it was twenty until eight when I actually got to the house. Really crappy.

The girls were ready when I arrived and we immediately walked up the hill to go to the playground which we have not done together in two weeks. That was nice, we needed the walk and the girls needed time on the playground. Unfortunately both of them accidentally left their shoes in their Aunt Francesca’s truck and so they are stuck with flipflops which are not good for climbing on a playground.

On the walk back down the hill, Liesl turned around violently to look at a car coming from behind us, tripped (I assume on the front of her flip flop) and went down. I was holding her hand and kept her up but she went down over the curb and caught it with her left knee and scraped it pretty badly. She was bleeding from four square inches of knee and I had to carry her back to the house.

Liesl took a hot shower to make cleaning the scrape easier. The Luciana wanted to take a bath. Always wanting to do what her sister is doing. Then both of them were right off to bed. It was probably nine thirty when they both went to bed and they were great, right to bed and asleep within probably half an hour without asking us for anything at all. Normally it is a few hours of calling us for water, cheese, kill a bug, plug in an iPad, etc.

As soon as the girls went to bed, Dominica ran out to go grocery shopping as there is nothing in the house to eat. She was gone for a while. I did some work in the bedroom office while she was gone and when she got home we went to bed.