Tag: Kids

Flight Update

Bellana’s flight is in the air. According to Flight Aware, she is currently West of Ireland which means she’s over the ocean. Is she technically outside of Europe yet? I’m not sure where the actual continental border is.

She had a delay before taking off, but not too bad. Only an hour or so. We are expecting her to be on the ground by 7:00ish. Jen and I will be there waiting for her.

I’m so excited!

Faux 5K

Yesterday I said I was thinking of upping my faux indoor walk game and shooting for a 5k simulated distance instead of just a 30 minute time. Welp, today that’s what I did. It took about 44 minutes to go 3.2 miles. Just about what I was expecting. My legs are beat. Not quite numb, but really tired. I’ll still try to do 15 minutes on the bike later if I can. I won’t stress if I can’t though.

Bellana made it to Germany while we were sleeping last night. Her flight home from there is still showing as on time. It should leave in about an hour. Every finger I have is crossed with every other finger I have in the hopes that she takes off and lands on time. Jen and I are going to the airport to pick her up. I don’t want to have to wait any longer. I want her home!

So television shows. I have started watching season four of Westworld on HBO Max. I’m a few weeks behind, but I’ll catch up. The funny thing here is, I’ve been trying to watch an episode a night while sitting up in bed. I’ve tried twice, and both times I have managed to fall asleep just before the episode ends. Nice, Robert. What are you, some kind of rookie? I started over this morning to make sure I didn’t actually miss anything. With this show, you sort of have to pay a lot of attention. The tiniest detail in episode two can turn out to be the thing the whole series hinges on, you know?

Okay. Going to make myself some scrambled eggs and then punch in to work. Bellana comes home today!

She’s Coming Home!

Bellana is coming home today!

WOOHOO!!!

Her first flight is scheduled to take off about an hour from now. I just searched for it on a flight tracker app and it’s showing as on time. She’ll be on that plane for about an hour, then she has a few hours worth of a layover followed by her second flight which takes her across the pond and home.

Fingers crossed for no delays or issues or weirdness so that we can see Bellana today!

Both kids will be here tonight! I can’t wait!

Irish Gig

We are on a call with Bellana right now. Literally as I type this.

She shared a ton of details on her birthday trip to Ireland. One evening they were hanging at a pub near the house they were staying in and the pub was asking people to come up to the stage and sing. Well, seeing as Bellana is literally a world class vocalist she graced the crowd with a song.

She gave a performance… in Ireland… SHE DID A GIG IN IRELAND!!!!

I just fainted from sheer glee. How awesome is that?

Fun with Time Zones

Here in Massachusetts in the good old (sliding uncontrollably toward becoming a fascist nuclear nightmare) USA, it is not Bellana’s birthday.

However, in Dublin, Ireland, where she is at this very moment, it is her birthday.

Happy birthday/day before your birthday, Bellana!!!

Birthday in Galway

My step daughter, Bellana, is in Ireland and I am super jealous. Jelly AF. Not really, but yeah, really.

Tomorrow is her 21st birthday and she has chosen to spend the day in the land of my forefathers. We had a FaceTime (actually, I think it was snapchat) call with her this morning while she was on a bus leaving the airport. We had to pause our conversation briefly while the bus’ safety announcement was read in a marvelous Irish accent. As soon as it completed I yelled out, “now in Gaelic!” They didn’t read it in Gaelic though. Oh well.

I am so excited for her birthday. I have been excited for all of her European excursions over the last few months, but Ireland… that’s just the best. I told her if she ends up in Cork she should look up my relatives. That’s where my father’s mother’s family comes from. My mother’s parents’ families are in Newfoundland, but before that they were in Mayo, so if she ends up there she can look for them as well.

She’s going to Galway today. She’s also an Elvis fan. Those are the only two things she has in common with the protagonist in this particular song, but it’s completely stuck in my head right now.

Sleepy

I stayed up really late last night. I didn’t want to, but I was so busy all day that I never had a chance to do some of the things I wanted to do (laundry) and I ended up doing it all after Jen fell asleep. I finally fell asleep around 1:00am and given that I can say without any hesitation that I am ridiculously tired right now.

While I was up last night Harry sent me a text saying that he listened to a Rush album and really liked it. It was Moving Pictures, of course. It was one of the happiest moments of my life. Harry could be a Rush fan, oh glorious day!

He sent me a text a few minutes ago asking me which Rush records to listen to next.

My response was a 100,000,000 word essay.

As I said earlier, oh glorious day!

Here’s a summary of what I told him:

  • You’ve listened to Moving Pictures, now go to Permanent Waves. They both had a similar focus on trying to shorten their songs without sacrificing any musical craziness.
  • Most people who don’t think Moving Pictures is the best album think that 2112 is. It’s heavy and Geddy screams a lot, but it’s pretty much perfect.
  • For 80’s synth Rush go with Power Windows. I wish I could say Hold Your Fire, but the last two songs don’t really cut it.
  • For the 90’s they got heavy again. Go with Counterparts.
  • Clockwork Angels might be my favorite of all Rush albums.
  • Fly By Night is mostly a straight ahead rock record.
  • Hemispheres is amazing end to end, but it’s worth it just for La Villa Strangiato.