Tag: Kids

Good Morning

Good morning everyone. How was your weekend. Did you do anything fun?

I didn’t do any of my exercising yesterday until after 10:00pm. I then did this morning’s exercising at a little after 8:00am. I suspect that is going to result in some issues throughout the day today. I also failed to do any weight training over the weekend. Let’s say that today is the day it starts for real.

Jen and I finished Stranger Things last night. The last episode is about 2.5 hours long. For a TV show, that is looooong. We’re up to date now though. Harry still has to run that particular episode marathon, but once that’s done we’ll all be up to date. The show is now clear to start working on season five (I think they’ve already started without my approval).

I have decided that, after season five is over, I want to see a spin off series that is just Nancy and Robin in the X-Files. I think I smell a hit. Steve can show up and be their muscle from time to time, and the rest of the cast can make cameos (except Mike, he’s kind of a douche). Oh! Now that I think of it, Will and Dustin and Lucas can be the guys from The Lone Gunmen! This show is going to rule!

I tried out the new toaster oven/air fryer last night by trying to air fry some potatoes. The results were less than stellar, but I don’t know if it was my fault or the oven’s fault. I think it was a combination of the two. The potatoes were one part bland (my fault) and one part… squishy? I guess? That’s probably the oven’s fault. I want another crack at it tonight (with maybe some broccoli too?) but we ran out of olive oil so we need to hit the store for a resupply. Challenge accepted.

I brought up the idea of maybe Jen and me taking a day off on a day when Harry doesn’t have to work so that we can all have an extra shot at doing something fun together before he goes back to school. There isn’t a whole lot of time left with him this summer and I feel like we need to do something to take advantage of what time we have. We also need to get up to Vermont to visit Bellana and steal some additional time with her as well.

Okay, Robert. Back to work with you.

Back to Vermont

Bellana left for Vermont today. She was on the road by 7:00am. I got up early enough to help her load some of the heavy stuff into her car. She’s moving back into her apartment after about eight months. She also has to be at work at 10:00am, hence the very early start.

We miss her already, and we’re already scheming for an excuse to drive up for a visit. Insert maniacal laughter here.

I did my exercise and my full morning routine today and still had time to go to the post office and drop off my padded envelope full of rolls of film. The package is on its way. Here’s hoping it gets to it’s destination in one piece. I’m actually a little nervous about that. We’ll see how it goes.

I have one more roll to finish. The Nikon is on shot #23 out of 36. I think I will probably go back to CVS for that one, just so I don’t have to deal with shipping and whatnot. Maybe I’ll see if Rite Aide or Walgreens handle film and try one of those. CVS was pretty crummy on the customer service end. Of course, I need to finish the roll first. That could take a while. After that we’re going full digital again until one of two things happen. One, I get a new lens for the Nikon (because the lens I have is kinda falling apart) or two, the Disneyworld trip in January where I plan to shoot one roll per day and go digital the rest of the time (though I am beginning to feel some concern about going through airport security with film). Film is expensive. I need to cool it a bit. I don’t want to stop entirely, but I also don’t want to blow money like this on a hobby. Digital it is.

The Methuen Post Office is downtown, so here are the obligatory red light pics:

August 1st.

In this one you can see the Spicket Falls dam, but the river is so dry right now that there is barely any water falling over the edge. Sorry.

Let’s Start the Day

It’s Sunday, the last day of July. Let’s make this a good one, shall we?

Today is our last day with Bellana for the summer. She’s moving back to Vermont early in the morning tomorrow. She’s at her Dad’s right now but will be coming here around lunch time.

I just setup my food/drink spreadsheet for today. Now I am having a protein shake, half of one at least, and then I am heading off to visit Mom. On the way home I will swap out the empty propane tank from our gas grill for a full one and then when Bellana get here we’ll have a cookout. After that it will be Stranger Things season four episode seven, as discussed yesterday, and then we’ll just hang out with Bellana one more time. Harry has to work this evening so we’ll lose him at some point, which makes me sad, but he’ll be here for some of the night. That’s good. Harry doesn’t move back to Vermont until the end of August, so we still have time to spend with him.

Today is going to be a good day. I can tell.

Okay, heading off to visit Mom for a while. Wish me luck.

Urban Road Trip

Harry hasn’t done many fun things this summer. He’s been working his ass off at the restaurant and hasn’t had time for much else.

Today, in the interest of mental health, we are going into Boston to just hang out. We have to be back somewhat early so he can go to work and I can visit Mom and Jen and I can watch an episode of Stranger Things. We are going to go to the North End, hit Harry’s favorite donut shop, and then wander around.

Of course a side effect of this mental health break is I will be taking both film cameras. The Nikon only has 8-9 shots left on its roll, but the Pentax has a full 36. When the Nikon runs out I’ll swap cameras. I just hope I’m not so obnoxious that I annoy Harry and Jen. Fingers crossed.

I seriously love Boston. My city.

Things to Do in the Coming Days

Tonight after work I need to go to the store and buy a new belt. My jeans are kinda falling off and the belt I am wearing can’t go any tighter. It’s sort of an emergency at this point. A belt has been purchased online, I just need to go and get it.

After that, Bellana is super hyped about watching the first episode of season four of Stranger Things. We’re going to try and watch it tonight. Harry wants in too but he’s working and has an after-work task. Bellana’s at her aunt’s house. They are both going to be here tonight but they are going to be on the late side. We should still be okay but if not the make up date is Thursday.

Why Thursday? Because tomorrow night after work we are going to see the new Thor. Tomorrow is the make up date for the movie we were supposed to see over the weekend.

I also think I might be going somewhere and buying a lottery ticket tonight. The Massachusetts Mega Millions jackpot is pretty huge right now. Do I risk it? Where did I put my KN95 mask? Oh yeah, I have 100 of them and they are everywhere. Let’s do it!

Tonight’s Agenda

The plan for tonight is simple. First, make some mashed potatoes and fry up some ground beef for a sort of faux Sheppard’s Pie kinda thing.

After that… Stranger Things season three. The plan is to watch the first episode of season four with Bellana on Wednesday. Harry is going to watch season four with friends after he goes back to school. Bellana has already seen it but wants in on episode one… which implies that episode one must be world rocking.

Six minutes until the work day ends. Are you ready kids? Aye aye, captain!

ADDENDUM: I sure have been using the word “faux” a lot lately, haven’t I?

Come Home Already

I made it home from the office pretty easily. There was a little traffic jam in Waltham, but nothing too bad. It took me about an hour to get home.

I had dinner. 4.6 oz of roast beef. After 2.6 ounces I stopped. I’m not sure why. I was still hungry, I wasn’t feeling any nausea, it tasted good. I just needed to stop. I had a little sugar free pudding to try and fill my tiny new stomach, but I’m still a little hungry. I am not sure what happened. We’ll keep an eye out for any future occurances.

Bellana went to her dad’s house for a bit this evening. We are waiting for her to come home so we can watch the 1st season finale of Stranger Things. Bellana has seen all of season four so far. I was going to start watching it over the weekend, but Jen had never seen any of it and Bellana talked her into giving it a try. So Jen and I are watching it together. We burned through the first seven episodes in two sittings. I think my beautiful bride might be enjoying the show.

Okay, Bellana is almost home. Time to watch some tube.

Nothing Going On Today

I have nothing on my mind today. It’s weird.

I did my 30 minute walking in place. I ate breakfast. In 33 minutes I’ll be able to drink water again. The work day has started. Everything is proceeding nominally. Weird.

I haven’t done any work on the summer song writing thing. I did some over the weekend, but I haven’t played any real instruments and I am only up to six songs in progress. I’ve wanted to work on it, but I’ve wanted to hang out with Jen and the kids doing nuttin’ in the living room more.

I haven’t done any film photography fun for a while. I have two rolls ready to develop. I was hoping to have at least three before I decided where to ship things off to. Not sure when any of that will happen.

I haven’t seen my parents in quite a while. I need to fix that. We had a little Covid-exposure scare at the end of last week so we locked ourselves down. I didn’t go anywhere until yesterday, after we declared ourselves in the clear. We had some dead car battery excitement yesterday. Bellana’s car hadn’t been driven since January. Jen had started it a few times, but yesterday it was as dead as dead can be. We had to have it towed. Hopefully it’s okay today. I’ll find out.

Bellana’s coming back here tomorrow. Harry’s coming back here on Friday. I can’t wait to see them both again and I can’t wait to have them both in the house. It makes it feel even more like home. I really love my family.

Rough Night Tonight – Half Day Tomorrow

It was a pretty quiet day around here. Harry stayed at his dad’s house last night. Bellana stayed here but left for dad’s at around noon. We missed them both but made the best of it. Jen was busy so I mostly just goofed off with the new film blog and Instagram. The Instagram already has more engagement in two days than my main account has had in however many years it’s been up. It’s nuts. I put a couple of film related tags on each post and people are coming from all around. I’m getting more notice than I usually get from Flickr, and I do all right (by my own personal, meager, non- viral, non-influencer standards) on Flickr.

The rough patch came at dinner. I took one bite that was way too big. I knew it was bad as I was chewing it, but I crossed my fingers and hoped for the best. Nope. I got nice and sick. I felt queasy for a while and thought it was going to pass. Nope. My food tracking spread sheet has a column for nausea. On a scale of 1-10, that particular instance was a 10. The worst experience yet, by a long way.

I wanted to play guitar today but did not. I probably won’t tomorrow either. I took a half day in the morning because I thought I was bringing Bellana to the Registry of Motor Vehicles (or whatever New Hampshire calls it). Nope. Dad is bringing her. I am now on car inspection detail instead. I want to be out early enough to warm up the car and get to the garage before they open. If I can get in and out quick I might work on some song ideas before I punch in. Or maybe I’ll put that weight bench together. We’ll see.

Until then, g’night.