Sheep Guarding Llama

My first full day with my family back home with me.  It is nice to wake up to the kids bouncing all over the place.  I miss that.  My new sleep schedule means that I am awake before they jump on me, though, so that is good.

Today is mostly a day to relax (and to clean up all of the stuff from the vacationing.)  We did very little this morning, just spent time together as a family.  It wasn’t a lot of time as I have to work at half past twelve every Sunday now anyway.  That is not very much fun.  They reduce our pay because we aren’t supposed to have scheduled weekend work anymore, just emergency escalation, then they ask me to “temporarily” take on a weekend rotation when someone quit a year or two ago, now on top of a weekend rotation I take on a schedule three solid hours of work in the middle of every Sunday afternoon because it is too important for the people they took my pay away for to handle.  I’m not very happy.

So I signed in and worked from twelve thirty to three thirty.  Eric McAlvin, who is the first person that I hired at my current job and whose wedding Dominica and I attending on Long Island years ago and who is now back at work for his third go-round, was on the call too so at least we got to hang out.  There are about thirty of us that do this call now every Sunday afternoon.

Dominica went out and did some grocery shopping today as the cupboards are really bare.  There is practically nothing left in the house.  Between her taking food with her to the lake house and me working on eating stuff that was left behind, the food in the house has really run low.  So we needed a lot of the food for the girls or they were going to mutiny.

At four thirty I went to the Rosemeade Recreation Center with Chris and lifted for about an hour.  Did dead lifts and flat bench press.  Got a decent work out in.

We watched some Rules of Engagement this afternoon while we ate our dinner.  Then Ciana went to bed – we’ve moved her mattress from her and Liesl’s old crib to the floor underneath Liesl’s bunk bed so that the two girls can really share the room now.  Now we hope we can get the crib packed up and probably up to the attic so that we can turn Luciana’s old room into a dedicated play and guest room.  The girls like living together, it works out well.

After Ciana went to bed, Liesl and I settled in and played forty-five minutes on Ankh 3.  Made it through another chapter.  We are on Chapter Six now.  She is still loving our gaming time together.  I’m still happy with our investment in our Steam games.

Liesl went to bed at ten thirty.  Dominica and I were off to bed immediately thereafter.  Tomorrow is Monday and she has to be back to work early in the morning.

I got up this morning and did some cleaning but mostly played Knights of the Old Republic as this was my last stretch of time at home alone so wanted to get in what I could.  I wanted to do more around the house but my sciatica is quite bad again this morning and any movement really hurts.

Much to my dismay, I discovered that the master bathroom toilet was running continuously today (explaining a sound I’d been hearing for a few days) so I did some research and tried to take it apart.  It turns out that the Korky valve in it is broken and I need to at least replace the cap.  That will be a trip to Lowe’s.  Hopefully nothing more serious than that.  I really do not want to replace all of the guts of the toilet too.

Dominica and the girls arrived home around two in the afternoon having left pretty early in the morning from Lake Livingston.  Their trip went pretty well. Not a big traveling day so the roads were pretty clear. They did make a rest stop that took forever, though.  Doing a rest stop with just one adult and two little girls is not a fast affair even at the best of times.

They got home and we unloaded the car and the rest of the day was spent catching up.  Boy have I missed my girls.  We were all very excited to see each other.  The little ones just couldn’t get to all of the things that they wanted to tell me about.  So much to fill me in on.

Dominica wanted Rockfish for dinner and was going to send me out to get it and I decided to see if Liesl wanted to come with me but once Ciana heard she started putting on shoes so Dominica decided that we would all go together since both girls were so keen to go.  So a family trip down to Rockfish in Irving for an early dinner.  It was an empty restaurant as we got there around four on a Saturday afternoon.  Dominica was very excited about their new Texas-themed menu items.  We tried their cold smoked salmon appetizer which was amazing and then we split two of their entrees, the chicken fried tuna and the seafood Frito pie.  The chicken fried tuna was especially good.  We also tried their fried Smore’s tacos or whatever they were.

We came home and just relaxed for the rest of the evening.  Off to bed early, everyone needs their sleep.  The girls were especially really tired.

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.