Sheep Guarding Llama

Luciana got us up at one thirty this morning and after Dominica and I did our usual team effort of Dominica comforting her and sometimes changing her and me running to the kitchen to get her a new, warm bottle of soy milk I was not able to fall back asleep so at about a quarter till two in the morning I decided to just get up and get some work done rather than laying in bed thinking about how I am just laying in bed not getting work done.  So I had a very long and very productive morning.  Nothing like putting in a full eight hour day before it was even time to get up and go into the office.

Dominica went into the office at normal time.  I worked from home until after my morning conference call was over then I got the girls packed up, drove them up to Corinth where they were spending the day at daycare and went into they office.  The girls will get a full day there as Dominica is working a full day today, rather than a half day.  Today is the beginning of her putting in more hours.  They requested that she be bumped from 1.5 days per week on site to 2.5 days were week onsite earlier this week.  We have figured out how to do two full days but are unsure how we are going to handle the extra half day but we are good for the next few weeks as there will be so many people visiting us that it is pretty easy to handle.  In fact, Dominica is working overtime next week, I think.  It is going to be a very long week.

I dropped the girls off around nine thirty at Ms. Melissa’s house for daycare.  Liesl was pretty excited that she was getting a full day there.  She just loves doing just about anything special.  Dominica will pick them up this afternoon once she gets out of work which will likely be between four and five.

This was our last evening at home before the Ralstons come down for more than a week.  We had a lot of work to do in general so we did work most of the evening and tried to get to bed pretty early.  I was really tired, as you can imagine.  Dominica will be home tomorrow and very busy cleaning all day.

Art and Danielle managed to leave home at eight.  They are hoping to do the drive in about twenty four hours.  Such a long drive.  They are doing the Oklahoma route.  There is a ton of snow along their entire trek.  Being in Dallas, we forget how much snow is up there.  We are expecting it to be in the sixties here this weekend.

Luciana got me up at four thirty this morning and, wanting to be productive, I decided to stay up and see how much I could get done this morning.  So I worked in my office till nearly eight, then got ready and went into the office.

Again, just a normal office day.  I came home and watched the girls during lunch today so that Dominica could make a trek to the salon but that was about it.  I ended up working from home for the afternoon as I was busy and there really was to reason to head back into the office.

The Ralstons are pushing up their trip and rather than coming next week they are pretty sure that they are going to be driving down to Texas tomorrow instead so we might see them as early as Friday evening.  They are hoping to get down here so that they have time on Saturday to go out and look at some towns where they might be interested in buying a house.  So we need to move up our house cleaning schedule significantly.

We are getting better and better about getting the girls to bed at a good time and also about not staying up late ourselves.  Instead of Liesl not getting to bed until almost eleven, she is starting to ask for her chocolate milk around seven thirty pretty consistently, uses the potty on her own and often heads to bed around eight thirty!  This allows us to be in bed by ten which is really helping.

I am totally loving my new Kindle Paperwhite.  I am using it to read in bed for a bit every night.  It is perfect for the way that I like to read.

Back in the office today.  Didn’t even remember that yesterday was my birthday until I started writing today’s post.  I’m feeling a little tired today, probably all of the junk food from yesterday and the weekend.

Just a normal office day today.  We have a busy week coming up next week.  Our plans keep changing.  Originally March was set to be decently low key.  Now the Ralstons are coming next week, the Grices are coming up the week following and I am looking at maybe flying out to Silicon Valley at the end of the month!  From nothing to busy in no time flat.

Right now the Ralstons are expected to arrive probably on Monday night.  So we are trying to get the house into order a little bit to be ready for them.  Not too much, though, as that is still a week away.

Dominica didn’t feel like going out tonight so rather than going to Brookhaven I just picked up some Panda Express on the way home from work.

I am thirty seven today.   Thirty seven is one of those milestones that actually makes you feel old.  I am now in my late thirties.  How did that happen?  I can’t believe that forty years old is right around the corner.  I still feel so young.  Sometimes I forget that I am not a kid anymore.

Dominica went into the office early as usual on Mondays.  I got up not long after she went to work.  I am home with the girls today.  Best way to spend a birthday.  I got about an hour or more of work done in the morning before anyone else woke up too.

This morning FedEx stopped by with my birthday surprise.  Dominica got me the new Kindle Paperwhite that I have been wanting.  It is smaller than my current Kindle and, far more importantly, it has a higher resolution and a built in light so that I can read it in the dark which is very important as that is normally where I am trying to read.  She also got me an awesome orange (actually persimmon) case that is perfect for the Kindle.  Fits great, looks great and when you close it it automatically puts the Kindle to sleep making it way easier to use.  This is a touch screen Kindle rather than having a keyboard like my old one.  She also got me The Music Man on BluRay which I have been wanting for a long time.  I think that Liesl is finally old enough to watch some of that stuff.

I got my new Kindle charged up and loaded with books.  I am really looking forward to reading my collection of electronic technology books that I have amassed now.  With my old paper book library mostly going away, having a really nice Kindle for reading my growing collection of eBooks is important.

The girls were angels today.  They spent tons of time playing together.  It was so cute.  They really did a good job playing together today.  Luciana took a four hour nap for me too.  That is very unusual.  I am sure that she is completely exhausted from her weekend in Houston.  She is not used to that level of activity.

After work Dominica hit Walmart to do some shopping then went to Eat St. to get Indian take away for dinner and we ate at home while watching some of Arrested Development which we have only ever watched once and I get that that was in around 2006 or 2007 (I am too lazy to look it up.)  That was a great show and we are really excited to find out that Netflix bought the rights to it and is bring it out for its fourth season, ten years after the original aired, exclusively on Netflix and with the entire original cast.  Very cool.  It is incredibly rare for something like this to happen and it is amazing to finally see the Internet television providers, Netflix and Hulu primarily, commissioning full scale new television programs to be made.  Now if we can only convince Netflix to buy the rights to continue Firefly!  So anyway, we are watching our way through Arrested Development again to get ready for the fourth season which should be releasing in May.

I woke up at seven this morning feeling great.  Apparently sleeping outside really works well for me.  I knew that it would.  I slept wonderfully all night.  I am going to do this more often.  Maybe I should try sleeping in the atrium at home.  That would be pretty cool and I don’t have to worry about being completely outside there.  It is even more enclosed than it is in Joe’s backyard although his backyard is practically completely enclosed.

I was the first one up this morning by thirty minutes followed by Luciana.  From about eight onwards people woke up a little at time until nearly everyone was awake around ten thirty.

I ran out to Donuts, Kolaches and Tacos and picked up a huge breakfast for everyone.  Then I hung out in the theater with a group of the girls as they watched Sinister again and then we watched Blink from Doctor Who.  That wrapped up as the last of the party goers was getting picked up and heading for home.

We didn’t hang out for too much longer, but a bit too long considering the traffic problems in Houston, and then hit the road to drive back to Dallas.  The drive took way too long as we were in stop and go traffic for a while in Houston.

Got home and I spent the evening doing some work that needed to be done that I was unable to get to over the weekend.  But was off to bed before too late.  I got the work done.  Tomorrow is my birthday.