Sheep Guarding Llama

Like yesterday, I was working at an offsite location again today.  My week is looking like it is going to be extremely busy.  My time is in high demand these days at the office.

Work was good and I made a point of not staying late today.  I attempted to leave early, because Dominica and the girls had gotten home in the middle of the afternoon, but I did not manage that.  But I did manage to leave on time rather than staying late and, thankfully, coming from the offsite location saves me five or possibly ten minutes on the way home so that was nice.

Before I left the office, Liesl asked Dominica to tell me that she wanted Subway sandwiches for dinner.  We have not gotten Subway since we have moved up from Texas.  It was something that Liesl had really started to like a lot before we moved up to New York.  I had actually thought about it over the weekend while everyone was gone that Liesl had been asking for it regularly while we were in Texas and even as late as our drive from Walt Disney World up to Connecticut in November and I was wondering why she had not asked for it in months.

So I had to seek out a Subway, but managed to find one that was actually very convenient for me to get to on the way home from work going the “old” way across the northern Westchester County.  That was actually quite easy and something that we can do again when Liesl decides that that is what she wants for dinner.

I got home and the girls were so excited to see me (and I them.)  We ate right away and on Liesl’s very first bite she was suddenly in a panic and it took a bit for us to figure out what was wrong.  When we did, we realized that her next front tooth, the one directly against the other that she had lost, had come out in her last bite.  She was bleeding just a little bit.  Really, it was all fine, but the whole thing had scared her a little bit.  I had to dig through the sandwich to find the tooth.  A little more traumatic than losing a second tooth needed to be.  Liesl gave up eating and wouldn’t touch the sandwich again until nearly bedtime when she was hungry and suddenly ate a full half of a foot long Subway sub.  (Liesl always gets American cheese, lettuce, tomato and mayo.  Like her daddy, mayo is her favourite part of the sandwich.)

We spent the whole evening just hanging out in the living room and catching up on everything that had happened over the last four days.  The girls had a lot to tell me about the circus.  They had collectible booklets and stuff to show me pictures.

I am very glad to have my family back home again.

Today is fourteen years of continuous production for Waste Watcher.  Hard to believe how long ago that way.  Today is also my last full day without the family, they will be home tomorrow night.  I hate being home without them for any length of time.  The basement looks great, though, the girls are going to be really surprised (Dominica already saw pictures of the hours of work that I did.)

Went to my office first thing this morning for a meeting and then immediately went over to the other office that I work at fairly frequently.  I was over there the rest of the day.  Actually worked until eight.  On the way home, since there was no one at home, I stopped to grab a slice of pizza and some pasta to go and came home.

Very little to report.  I literally worked all day, got home and it was straight off to bed.  The girls will all be home tomorrow.  It was a good night to work late since there was no one at home waiting for me.

Today is my one complete day at home, just me all alone.  The girls left yesterday to go to Albany and then up to Frankfort.  I have to work tomorrow, but today is just me, all day with time to myself.

I did not go anywhere today and I didn’t not turn on the television or radio or anything again today.  Totally a quiet day to myself.

I set to work, again, down in the basement and really did an amazing amount of work.  By late in the day I had crawled around the floor enough on my hands and knees that I managed to get all of the larger pieces of things picked up and was able to run the Kirby down there to vacuum for the first time in I don’t know how long.  What a difference that made.  The room looks completely different.  That was exhausting but I feel better now.

I managed to write a new article tonight on “The Cult of ZFS.”  And I got a little caught up on SGL too.

It was a very quiet, lonely day but I did not feel too lonely.  It has been a while since I had a day completely to myself and it let me get a lot done.

This morning it was time for the girls to get packed up and to get on the road so that they could head up to Albany to go to the Ringling Brothers, Barnum and Bailey Circus there with Dominica’s parents.  They did not have to leave really early since Albany is so much closer than our usual weekend trips.  While they were getting ready I ran out with the Spark and fueled it up and stopped by Dunkin Donuts to pick up food for the family.

Soon after I got back home the girls got on the road.  They made good time up to Albany although Dominica got lost trying to find her way around Albany but, funnily enough, she found herself following her parents down a back street so just followed them.

Liesl and Luciana had a great time at the circus.  They really enjoyed it.  They liked everything, all of the animals, the trapeze artists, etc.  Very different from me.  I am not a circus person at all.  I have never enjoyed circus entertainment.

I hit the basement and started cleaning things up today.  The house is a disaster.  It is really crazy just how bad the basement has gotten.  It is a very large space and you can’t walk through it without stepping on toys and all kinds of stuff.  There is no open space anywhere on the floor.  A real mess. I spent most of the day working on that.  Big progress but still a lot to go.  Nowhere near able to vacuum yet.  This is a major project.  Not only is there “stuff” everywhere but there is also tiny bits of Legos, paper cuttings, marbles and all kinds of minutia everywhere.  So no vacuuming until that has been addressed.

I got some writing done today as well and some miscellaneous stuff.  It is nice to have some alone time once in a while.  I don’t like it very often and I hate having the kids be away but I do appreciate having downtime for me to take in the quiet and get my head centered again.  On normal weekends there is so much “noise” and activity that I really can’t do anything because I am unable to focus.  So I need this from time to time.  I didn’t even turn on the television or radio or anything all day.  Just a quiet house.

After the circus Dominica and the girls went out to Frankfort and are going to stay there for four days.  They will not be home until Tuesday night.

Ah, Friday.  This week just flew by, I cannot believe how quickly it was Friday.  I barely noticed the time passing.  Unfortunately I assume that that means that the weekend will fly by in the same way and I will not notice that either.

Work was pretty good today.  Nothing really to note.  Not horribly busy.  I am on call this weekend so after happy hour rolled around and I got things wrapped up I headed for home around five thirty.  Did not actually make it out of the building until six, but it was still on the early side.  I wanted to get home and see the family a little as they are leaving for the weekend.

Got home and the plan changed to Dominica and the girls leaving for four days.  They will be back on Tuesday night.  It makes sense, they will get a lot more time with her parents and I will only barely see any less of them.  It will give me some additional time to get things done around the house.  I need the quiet from time to time to remain productive and during a normal week I might actually get zero alone time all day long.  I’m a social person but I require time alone to recenter and focus and if I don’t get it my head starts to swim and I just can’t accomplish anything.

Did some work tonight, a few hours of troubleshooting some issues online.  It was actually a very busy night but good work.  We had Frasier on while I worked and I just stood at my laptop behind the couch as I have been doing most of the time the last several weeks.

Read another chapter in “The Horse and His Boy” tonight.  Getting really near to the end now.  Hopefully we will wrap it up on Tuesday or Wednesday of next week.