My step son’s plane landed a little over an hour ago. My wife went to the airport to pick him up and they are on their way home now.
Another happy landing! The plane is on the ground, safe and sound. Welcome back to Earth, Harry!
Tag: college kids
She Misses the Kids
Is Lily trying to tell us that she misses my step kids?
And yes, there are two copies of the same picture (from 2007), one on either side of her.
Happy Friday
Happy Friday, everyone. Hopefully Friday has meaning for most if not all of us. It has extra meaning for me this week. Starting this month my company has changed it’s hybrid work requirements. Where it used to be that we had to be in the office for 20% of each pay period (basically one day each week), as of March 1st we have to be in the office for 40% of each pay period (basically twice per week). Today is my first, second day of a week. None of us our happy with this, but it’s a whole ton better than being back 80%, which is what we had prior to the pandemic shut down. Oh well. I’ll deal with it. I am still coming in every Wednesday. My group has Wednesdays as a mandate and the second day each week is at everyone’s personal discretion. I am sort of planning on making Mondays my regular second day, just to get it over with, but that didn’t work this week due to the contractors working in the kitchen. Friday was the only day that worked for me. Fortunately there was zero traffic today. I made the 40 mile drive to the office in 45 minutes. If only it were like that every morning.
In other news, the kids are on the ground. Bellana’s flight landed in Georgia (the US state, not the European country) before I went to sleep last night. Harry’s first flight landed in London well after I nodded off for the night, and his connecting flight landed in Scotland before I woke up this morning. All is well on both of those fronts. Here’s hoping they both have a great time on their trips.
I am taking advantage of the fact that I am 40 miles from home right now to make my way to IKEA after work. IKEA is about 60 miles from home, but only 20 miles from work. I will head down there as soon as I am free and go to the returns department and bring back a great big pile of stuff that IKEA included in our kitchen redesign blue print that we didn’t end up needing. There is a lot of stuff to return. A lot of stuff. If I get it all done tonight then we don’t have to worry about it, and with the money we get back maybe I’ll be able to afford a hair cut this weekend because damn, do I need a hair cut!
Anyway, here’s today’s photo-a-day picture. I took it before I did my workout this morning at about 5:40am. It’s only 9:14am now but it’s already felt like a long day.
Tomorrow
So the plan for tomorrow, a sort of random vacation day in the middle of the week.
We have a ton of stuff that we bought for the kitchen remodel that we didn’t end up needing. Some from Home Depot, some from Lowe’s, and some from Wal-Mart. I plan on spending a nice chunk of the morning returning as much of that crap as I can. I thought about going to IKEA to return some of the mountain of leftover stuff we need to bring back but the receipts are all confused. We have to work it all out before we bring stuff back.
When I get home it will be about time to head to the airport. Both kids should be here by the time we need to leave. One, Harry, is here already. The other, Bellana, will be cutting it close but there should be enough time. It’s going to work out so that I can drive them both into the city at the same time. Originally I thought I would be playing Robbie the Airport Shuttle Guy twice, but now it looks like we can consolidate the two down to one. Nice.
After that I will go home again and make dinner for the love of my life and then hang out, missing the kids, until bed time.
Busy day on tap, yes it is. It should be fun.
Day Off Tomorrow
I took a vacation day tomorrow. Nice!
Both kids are going on Spring Break trips, and they are both leaving tomorrow, and they are both flying out of Boston Logan Airport. I am going to drive them both. Just call me Robbie the airport shuttle.
My step son is coming here tonight. My step daughter won’t be here until tomorrow. We won’t have a lot of time to hang with them before they jet off to more exciting places, but I’ll take what we get. I do love it when my step kids are here. Even when it’s only for a few minutes.
The Kids are Here!
My step daughter is here!
My step son is here!
Bellana and Harry are both here!
Literally everything is better now!
Searching for a Positive
Daily writing prompt
What positive events have taken place in your life over the past year?
Just over a year ago my mother’s older sister, my Aunt Joan, passed away after a long battle with dementia. In February my mother passed away after a long battle with dementia. A few months later my mother’s older brother, my Uncle Jim, passed away after a long battle with kidney and heart problems. Suffice to say the last year has not exactly been teeming with positivity.
We also caught Covid-19 after successfully avoiding it for three years and it ruined a Florida vacation. The negatives just keep piling up, right? Fortunately, there was one particular event that was very positive. An event that for most of us is a once in a lifetime kind of thing.
My step daughter, Bellana, graduated from the University of Vermont with her Bachelors Degree. She will have other graduation ceremonies, assuming she stays on her current academic path, but there probably won’t be another Bachelors. I can’t put into words how proud I am. She’s amazing and everyone who meets her can see it. That kid is going places.
As positive events go, her graduation is the big one from the past year.
Kids
I got to spend some time with my step son over the weekend when we went to a hockey game together. Today, my wife got to spend some time with my step daughter. It’s almost like we both got an early xmas present. I wish I could have seen my step daughter today, and I wish my wife could have come with me to see my step son this weekend, but when you add it all up we both got a nice bit of bonus kid time. I’m looking forward to the holiday break as both kids will be home for a little while at least. That makes me happy. I just thought I should let you all know.
UML at UVM
Tomorrow afternoon my step son and I are going to a hockey game. It’s my first hockey game in person since… 2016? 2018? I can’t remember. It’s my first NCAA hockey game since 2004.
I graduated from UMass Lowell. My step son currently attends the University of Vermont. Both teams are in the Hockey East conference and… well… both teams kinda suck. UVM is in 8th place (out of 11 teams) with a 3-3-1 record in conference and a 4-5-1 record overall. UML is in 10th place with a 2-6-1 record in conference and a 5-9-1 record overall.
I expect the game is going to be evenly-ish matched but also kinda crappy. I don’t care. I’m looking forward to spending an afternoon with Harry, probably trash talking each other into oblivion. I tried to get myself a UML hockey t-shirt to wear but I failed. Oh well. The Vermont fans in the building will know that they have a foreigner in their rink by me being obnoxious. I used to be a pretty obnoxious fan back in my minor league season ticket days.
It’s going to be fun.
Morning Cats
Harry went back to Burlington yesterday afternoon. Bellana went back first thing this morning. She has a three hour commute to work today. I hate it when they leave. I miss them both. We’ll see Harry this coming weekend. Jen and I are taking him to a UVM vs UMass Lowell hockey game in Burlington. Bellana won’t be joining us as she’s going to a conference in Boston. We may not see her until Christmas. Blah. Boo.
Anyway, I took pictures of the cats this morning because I could. The cats eventually let both kids pick them up and hold them. Good for you, cats.
Inside the Red Head's Head 