Sheep Guarding Llama

Danielle was heading into Dominica’s office this morning to meet with some people so we drove out at the same time, leaving early, so that we could stop at Caffe Bene and get coffee and test out their Belgian waffles before continuing on to Dominica’s office.  Dominica and Art are hanging back this morning for a while instead of going in bright and early.  They are going to be on a weird schedule all week.

The Belgian waffle at Caffe Bene was amazing.  It was a real Belgian waffle, not that thing that Americans call a Belgian waffle.  It wasn’t as good as what we had in Belgium but it was really good.  I got one with goat cheese and peach compote.  So delicious.

We went into the office and I tracked down a network issue that has been plaguing them for some time.  Danielle made a few introductions and let people know that she was around but everyone was busy so she left when I did and she returned to the house and I went off to the office as usual.

Dominica and Art went into the office in the afternoon and worked a full day, running very, very late.  So much of their work is only really able to be done after people have gone home for the day that this makes quite a bit of sense.

On my way home from work, the gang had me swing into Rockfish in Las Colinas and pick up dinner for everyone.  Then I delivered Art and Dominica’s food to their office where they were only halfway through working for the day.  I ate there with them and then brought Danielle’s food back to the house and helped to watch the kids all evening.

Dominica and Art worked really late putting in a very long day.  They are taking tomorrow off, I think, or at least are scaling back in preparation for the very long upcoming weekend.  This is going to be one exhausting week.

Liesl woke up very unhappy in the middle of the night because I had to turn off her night light  because Luciana cannot sleep with it on.  This is going to be tough.  One child can’t sleep with a light, one cannot sleep without.  Ugh.  So I ran in and grabbed Liesl before Luciana woke up and brought her into bed with us.  She was asleep in seconds and slept soundly all night through after that.

Really busy day around here.  Dominica and Art were out the door at a quarter till seven to head into the office.  This is their first time ever going to the office together.  It is very rare that I ever get to see the company operating in such a tangible capacity.  It is a lot more fun than just hearing about things happening.

I got up around seven and was out the door early enough, even after talking to Danielle for a while and getting an overview of the day, that I was able to swing into Cafe Bene off of Trinity Mills (which only opened up a few months ago and we’ve been really interested in trying out) and pick up coffee to deliver to Dominica and Art at work.

Cafe Bene turned out to be really cool.  I had no idea that it was going to be such a true European styled cafe and then to be done with a totally Korean flair.  Very Euro-Asian fusion in a cafe.  Neat.  And much larger than I had anticipated.  I was very excited to find that they do not make brewed American style coffee but do true Cafe Americano made with hot water and espresso the way that it is supposed to be made.  This might be one of our new hang outs.

I stopped in and helped out with Dominica and Art’s work for a bit and they were pretty happy to have good coffee.  Her office has awful coffee – so bad that you would not drink it (I made that mistake once.)  So I figured that showing up with coffee would be much appreciated.  I was there for an hour or more.  A neat change of pace getting to see Dominica working at the office and even moreso just to see the company operating first hand.

I ran home at lunch to assist Danielle with watching the girls but I really wasn’t needed as Chris was there and they were all over him.  Liesl has really missed him.  He’s been busy for several weeks with all of his flying.  I was home, but stuck working frantically, for over an hour.  Chris was still there when I left.  Danielle hadn’t needed me at all.  Chris had the girls out in the back yard having a great time.  The weather is plenty nice to be outside quite a bit.  Winter is long over here.

Art and Dominica had a long day at the office but were home before me.  We all took the evening to relax tonight.  This is going to be a very busy week for everyone.

We had a lazy morning today but got out to Brookhaven for the Sunday brunch at about eleven which wasn’t too bad considering how tired everyone has been.  Brunch was great.  Brookhaven brunches seem to be a reliable hit with everyone.  We have been doing them more and more often.  They make a lot of sense because they are very low cost and add to our use of the country club.  If we don’t do brunch it is nearly impossible for us to use our membership on Sundays but brunch makes it really easy.  The trick, which I have not mastered, is learning not to eat the breads.

Mostly a lazy day today.  Took some time to just do stuff around the house.  We did some technical training today, nothing major.

Liesl is loving her new laptop.  She “inherited” Danielle’s Acer-made Google Chromebook that Danielle has only had for a few months because Danielle ended up needing something more powerful that would run Windows.  So Danielle got an HP Envy Pro that arrived on Tuesday and she has been using since Wednesday or so.  So Liesl is now using the Chromebook which is absolutely perfect for her.  It is the right size and works perfectly for everything that she needs it to do.  I must say that using it is really nice.  The screen is great, the functionality is solid and everything is easy to use.  I am really impressed with how good it is.  And for $199 it’s really unbelievable.  Certainly not for everyone but for Liesl and a lot of people that I know, it is the perfect tool.  She is using it primarily for ABCMouse, one of her learning programs.

We stayed up too late last night talking with Art and Danielle.  We haven’t seen them since October when they were down for SpiceWorld.  We actually see them two or three times a year, more than anyone else from back home including more than Andy and Miranda who live just three hours away.

We all slept in a tad bit this morning.  Art and Danielle not only have to deal with a general lack of sleep from the overnight drive but also have to deal with having stayed up late and the change in time zone.  It all ads up.

Once they were up and functional, which was later probably around nine thirty, they started to get ready and then drove out to Greenville and that general area for most of the day to look for villages and towns in which they are interested in potentially buying a home.  That is their real motive for making the sudden drive down to Texas, a chance to find a home and move away from cold, tax-burdened, no-work New York.

When they left I went around the corner to Subway and picked up breakfast for us.

This afternoon Dominica and I and the girls went down to Arlington for Casen’s first birthday party.  So awesome that we get to have this party today.  So much of this year was spent fearing that this wouldn’t get to happen.  Casen was doing great today.

This evening, after the Ralstons were back we all went to Brookhaven for dinner.  It’s just way easier than most anything else when people are visiting.

I did not have to go into the office super early this morning even though it is the first Friday of the month because non-farm payroll announcement (what most people call the unemployment numbers) are being held off until next Friday instead.  So just a normal Friday for me.  I was up early, did some work from the house for a few hours, and then went into the office.

On my way home tonight I swung into Panda Express and picked up dinner for the family.  Cheaper than what Dominica normally makes me do, sending me off to Rockfish on Friday nights.

Dominica cleaned like crazy all day to get the house ready.  I got home and the house looked amazing.  So much cleaning.  I had barely seen her online all day and I could see why.

Art and Danielle arrived around eight.  They made really good time doing the entire drive in under twenty four hours.  Having no kids and leaving at night helps a lot.  They were even able to stop for dinner in the drive window.

We all hung out until around midnight and then went to bed.  The Ralstons were pretty wired from their long drive.

Tonight Liesl and Luciana are making an attempt at being roommates for the first time, ever, I believe.  It is funny observing this as normally Luciana is the “easy to go to bed” one and Liesl has been the “hard to get to fall asleep” child but recently Liesl has been more and more volunteering to go to bed early and putting the two of them together appears to result in Liesl trying to sleep and Luciana wanting to talk to her all night.