Sheep Guarding Llama

Dominica and the girls will be home tomorrow.  Today is my last day all alone.

Alarm went off at six this morning.  I got up and showered.  Kyler and I both left the house around a quarter to seven.  A little later than I like for non-farm playroll days but plenty of time to get to the office at that time of the morning.  Good unemployment numbers this morning, that should bolster the economic outlook at little.

Dan and I did lunch at the Local Diner today.

For deployment day, today was not too bad.

Watson and I decided to meet up at La Cima tonight for happy hour.  It’s been forever since we did that.  According to FourSquare, thirteen months since I was last there and even longer for him.

I left work at five thirty and headed over to La Cima.  I figured out how to get there today and it is not a bad drive from the new office at all.  Nearly as fast as from the old one that is half the distance because I get to take the highway now.  So I popped over there and Watson met me a few minutes later.  He worked later but his new job is effectively across the street from La Cima now.

It was likea reunion although we only know so many people that are still there, there were a few and they were very surprised to see us tonight.  We ended up getting dinner there.  Happy hour was very nice and I forget how cheap it is to go up there.  I really need to go up there more often since I have the membership for the discounts after five.

I came home from La Cima at eight.  My sciatica was really bothering me again so I took a really hot bath and an ibuprofen which resulted in a short nap during which work was trying to call me.  When I woke up I saw the missed messages so logged in and worked for another hour or so.  Decided not to do anything tonight and went to bed early.  Trying to be good about getting sleep and hopefully my sciatica won’t cause me to not be able to sleep tonight.

The family gets home tomorrow afternoon.  Can’t wait to see my girls.

This summer is just flying by.  I cannot believe that it is already August.  Dominica and I talked yesterday and we have decided that since the family is not going to go to Walt Disney World in 2014 as was originally planned and because we don’t know what we are doing next year and because Liesl was promised a trip to WDW soon that we are taking my furlough time in the autumn and instead of going to Europe as we had hoped we are going to save some money and spend the time in WDW instead.  So we are planning on heading there on November 1st.  It will be a good, long Disney vacation for just us.  Luciana has never been there and I think will be old enough to really enjoy it, even if she won’t remember it, and Liesl will certainly love it and remember it.  Liesl has not been there since her first birthday so it really is time to take her back.

I woke up early but managed to stay in bed till seven.

Long day at the office.  Went to Rockfish with Dan and Doue today after covering the FOMC call that happens during the normal lunch hour.  Rockfish has several new Texas-themed fish dishes that all look awesome.   From a BBQ salmon appetizer to Rebecca Creek Bourbon glazed Salmon, seafood Frito pie and all kinds of stuff.  Even chicken-fried tuna.  So we all tried stuff off of the new menu.  It was very good.  I’m going to be going back there again really soon.  Don’t want to miss out on the new menu items.

I managed to leave work a little on the early side, beating much of the bad traffic, because tomorrow morning is my really early day.  Our D&D game was cancelled tonight after much discussion.  Dominica is out of town and Rachel needs to travel as well.  So Kyler and I planned to just do some work on the game instead.

I came home, showered and Kyler came over around six thirty.  We worked on D&D for a little bit and then decided that we both wanted ice cream, so we walked, in the intense humidity, to Braum’s in Josey Ranch which is, roughly, 2.2 miles in each direction.  So a decent little walk to get ice cream.  The walk was easy but the heat was pretty extreme.  It was 103 today and the humidity was quite high.  So we were sweating heavily even though it was an easy walk.  I was drenched by the time that we got to Braum’s.  The ice cream sure was good, though, after all of that walking.  But it melted really quickly too on the walk back.  You had to eat fast as it was just dripping instantly in the heat.

I introduced Kyler to Are You Being Served? and Thumbwars and went to bed around twelve thirty.  Tomorrow is non-farm payroll so I have to be up at six.

Woke up at seven thirty.  That was more than seven hours of sleep and my body just didn’t know what to do with itself at that point and woke me up.  I tried falling back asleep but was fully awake.  Apparently that’s roughly my sleep limit these days.

Doue and I went to Best Thai for lunch in Irving.  Watson wanted me to meet him and Donnie for lunch at Rockfish but I had the FOMC Rates call for the Fed today so could not go to lunch until pretty late.  We grabbed some frozen yoghurt afterwards.  The yoghurt place was packed so we ended up sitting outside.  It’s hot but not impossibly hot today.

I stayed at work pretty late, nearly six o’clock.  Then went home.  Originally Chris and I had been planning on going on to Redneck tonight but he forgot and couldn’t make it because of work.  I wasn’t hugely disappointed, I’m feeling a bit like just staying in these days.  I did some work for a little bit, then played about an hour of Knights of the Old Republic.  I definitely do not like it nearly as much as Mass Effect which was its spiritual successor but it is clear to see the ideas used in Mass Effect taking shape there and the heritage is obvious.  It plays just like what an old version of Mass Effect would be expected to be like.  I think that the Mass Effect world is a lot better for gameplay than the weird and flat Star Wars universe.

I watched some Coupling and then went to bed before ten thirty.  Very early for me.  But I am attempting to see what happens when I get enough sleep.  A novel idea.  Cutting out the caffeine and getting sleep.  Fingers crossed that this works well.

I have an eight o’clock meeting tomorrow so can’t sleep in, but I don’t see that being a problem at all.

Francesca emailed me a video of Liesl swimming (with floaties) in the lake today!  She is doing really well.  Dominica said that she doesn’t go outside a lot as she, Madeline and Dominica tend to stay inside a lot while Luciana is just loving being outside all of the time and thinks that the boat is the greatest thing ever.  Ciana has been asking about me a lot.  She misses her daddy.

Even with my long nap yesterday I was still pretty tired when I woke up at a quarter till eight this morning.  I’ve been trying to reduce my caffeine intake recently but it spiked during my long drive to and from Kansas City when I had to drink it continuously to have any chance at staying awake.  So I have had almost none since then and absolutely none yesterday so that is probably contributing as well.

I had a call at eight o’clock this morning, that was only about half an hour.  I did a little work then and then headed into the office.  It’s not so hot today, only expected to hit ninety-nine at the peak of the day.

Work was pretty slow today.  I did some catch up on things too.  Did a late lunch at Subway, there is pretty much no food left in the house and I don’t plan on grocery shopping.

Only four more days without the family.

Came home just after five.  Played some more Knights of the Old Republic.  At least with everyone away I do get a chance to catch up on my video games a little bit.  I’m making good progress on this game.

Having a week home alone to myself makes me feel pretty lonely.  I’m not big on being home alone for extended periods of time.

Later in the evening I watched a couple episodes of Coupling and went to bed on the early side.  Nothing scheduled for the morning so hopefully I can get a full night’s sleep in tonight.

I set an alarm and got up to make sure that Kyler and Jason were up and on the road and I heard them but by the time that I actually went to check on them they were already gone.  I tried going back to sleep and got a little sleep but was paged out just after seven.  So my night was rather unfulfilling with only about five hours of sleep total and that broken up a bit.  I’m still running quite short of sleep from last week.

So I worked from home all morning and went into the office at ten.  The office is practically empty.  I have no idea why there are so few people.  We get really mixed messages.  They desperately need everyone in the office yet no one is there so it is completely pointless.  We are there to answer the phone but we go weeks without getting a call.  We are incredibly short people and they claim that they are trying to hire people yet we are going through rolling furloughs to drive home that they have too many people staffed as it is.  Everything is very contradictory.

I skipped lunch and did some catching up on things.  SGL, for one, is caught up.  And emails are not too far behind.

After worked I grabbed Subway and ate near the office then hit Braums for ice cream on the way home.  Got home and laid down for a second to relax.  Normally I come home and do this as Luciana’s behest so that she and Liesl can jump on the bed.  I was there but a second before I passed out.  I woke up after six thirty and was so disoriented that I ran into the middle of the house trying to figure out the time believing that I had just slept all night and that it was now Tuesday!    I take naps so seldom that it really messed me up. Once I figured out that I had just gotten home from work and had only just taken a nap I laid back down and slept till almost eight.  I must really have been tired.

We were supposed to be watching a Star Wars marathon tonight but no one showed up, or even responded.  So no idea what happened there.  Not a big deal, I did a little work and played some Knights of the Old Republic.

Half past midnight and off to bed.  I have a conference call at eight tomorrow morning.  I sure am busy these days.