Tag: Kids

Gross

Is carving up a pumpkin and making a jack-o-lantern the single grossest thing that we as a society do? No? Is it in the top 10? Yeah, probably.

Why do we do it? Specifically, why do I do it when our kids are old enough to have moved out of the house and we don’t have them here at all during the Halloween season?

I don’t know, but I still do it. Specifically, I just did it. Meet our 2024 jack-o-lantern. I am still thinking of a name for him. Smiley? Jackass? Putz? They all seem appropriate.

My beloved wife and I watched It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown last night. I completely forgot about the scene where Lucy and the girls used Charlie Brown’s big bald head as a template for a jack-o-lantern. Freakin’ hysterical.

Toy Cameras

I really want to try medium format film, but I don’t have a medium format camera and I really don’t want to spend any noteworthy amount of money on one.

Should I get a Holga (a cheap plastic toy camera that just happens to shoot medium format film) just to dip my toes into the water, so to speak? Will that turn me off of the whole thing, or will it send me spiraling down a rabbit hole that my bank account and I will never recover from?

Why can’t I just make a decision?

On an unrelated note, our drive to Vermont to see the kids tomorrow has been postponed for one day. That should not make me sad (we’ll see them Sunday instead of Saturday) but it really makes me sad. I think I might be overtired. Everything is getting to me right now. Go take a nap, Robert.

World Series Blues

It’s bad enough that the Bruins have lost three games in a row and can’t play defense and can’t play offense, but we’re a few minutes away from the start of the World Series and no matter how it turns out a team that I royally hate is going to win. The question is, will it be a team that a hate with a burning passion, or will it be the team that I hate more than all other teams I hate combined?

Some times I just think that pro sports can just bite me, you know?

On the upside, we’re going to Vermont tomorrow and we’re going to see the kids. That’s some first class, grade A good news right there. It’s the weekend and it is a kids weekend. Just like the old days, right?

Happy Friday, oh my brothers and sisters and only friends.

Stress

Why is it that missing a day of work makes things 100 times more stressful when you return the next day? I was out Friday and it seems like nothing really happened in my absence, but here we are today and I am stressing out over every tiny detail?

I thought this week would be a normal two-days-in-the-office week but now it’s three. I have three pieces of paperwork that I need to have done by (probably) Thursday. It should be super simple. In fact, there were four pieces of paperwork and I’ve already cranked out one of them. I’m freaking out over the remaining three though. Why? I have time off booked for Monday and Tuesday next week. I thought they were going to be music days, but now will the be spent with dad in the hospital? I don’t know. Maybe. Part of the time at least.

Seriously. Stop freaking out over nothing, Robert. You’ve got this shit covered. You can handle it. Stop stressing. Work is okay. Dad is going to be okay. Calm down and just get it done like you always do.

I think I might just be reacting to being sad that Bellana left for Vermont this morning. No clue when we’re going to see either kid again. I’m guessing that’s the real root of my struggles with this particular Monday.

Over all it’s not a bad day or anything, I am just stressin’ like ya do. May your Mondays be easier on the ol’ stomach, as it were.

Musical Friday Morning

It is Friday, at last. Every single day this week has tried to trick me into thinking it was Friday (there must be something wrong with my brain’s calendar function) but this time it’s real. This time it actually is Friday.

Insert the sound of an emphatic sigh of relief here.

The weekend is one 8.5 hour work day away. The best part? My step daughter is coming over tonight! She’s going to a work conference tomorrow and is stopping here on the way to it. We haven’t seen her in ages. I’m really looking forward to her visit.

Musically speaking? I played some guitar before work this morning. 50/90 progress. I put rhythm guitars on two songs and leads on one. I took a bunch of pictures with my Nikon. I had the 28mm lens on it for all but one. I swapped to the 40mm and took one more pic just to make sure it was working. It was. That lens is so much better than the 28mm. I’ll keep the 40 on there for a while. I really love that little sucker.

Here’s the one 40mm pic. It’s the choice for the photo a day thing for today.

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Note the guitar case in the blurry background. That’s my other Les Paul. The one Jen got me for my 50th birthday. I’ll be swapping them out the next time I record guitars. The birthday Les Paul is the only one of my electric guitars that hasn’t made it onto a 50/90 track yet. That will change, probably tomorrow morning.

Now for a bunch of faux artsy pics with the 28mm lens.

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Nutubes… are they a gimmick? Probably.
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Yeah, I ran a Klon into a King of Tone. Unobtanium, bitches.

True Crime Docs

My wife and I watched a true crime documentary on the Netflix today. I don’t remember what it was called.

I listen to a couple of true crime-ish podcasts regularly. It’s not my favorite genre but it will do in a pinch.

This one tonight has freaked me out. I mean, I know there are people out there who can be best described as evil, but the things this piece of shit did.

Hug your kids, folks. I mean it. Wow.

In happier news, I cooked chicken on the grill tonight and I didn’t ruin it! How cool is that? Jen said it was delicious. She’s so nice to me like that. I loves her lots. Hug your spouse or your significant other too because sometimes they will say nice things about your chicken.

Empty Nesters… Again

Bellana is back in Vermont. She left last night and stayed over one of her friends’ house in order to cut down on her morning commute today. At our house she was three hours away from work, and today is a work day for her. I get it. It makes me sad to see her go, but I am also really happy we had her for a few days. Even more so as we had Harry for a few days before that, and their visits overlapped so we had them both for a day. That made me really happy. That was an extra good night.

Jen is working from the office today. I am working from home. That means I am here by my lonesome, just me and the cats. I have a podcast playing on my MacBook and it’s streaming to Home Pods scattered all over the house. I don’t have to pause the podcast if I need to get up and leave the room. Heh heh. Technology is cool. When Jen comes home I’ll shut off any streams that are anywhere other than Harry’s room/my office space.

The Great Heatwave of 2024 is going to become official today. The forecast calls for the temperature in my little city to hit 99 degrees. That will be three days over 90. Heatwave: Confirmed. It is 9:10am right now and it’s already 83 degrees. It’s going to be fun.

The forecast for the rest of the week? Rain and clouds and awful. Back to normal, I guess.

After complaining about crappy sleep for the last week or so, I finally topped six hours last night. In fact, I topped 7.5 hours. It was broken though. I fell asleep at 9:30pm. Not by choice. I just couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore and zonked out. Normally I try to eat something before I go to sleep out of fear that my stomach will get so empty over night that it will hurt. A snack at bedtime avoids that problem, but I didn’t have one last night. My last bite to eat last night was at 7:49pm. I woke up with a bit of a stomach ache at 2:30am. I had a little snack and felt better, but I couldn’t fall back to sleep until well after 3:00. Oh well. I felt really tired when I woke up today (almost an hour later than I had planned) but I feel okay now. Here’s hoping I won’t be totally exhausted today.

Okay, red head. Back to work.

Monday Blues

It is Monday again. Blah.

We had both kids here last night for the first time in ages. It was wonderful. Talk about a full heart, right? It’s over now though. My step son, Harry left for Vermont this morning. He’s on his way home. I was on a conference call when he left, but I got to say goodbye. I’m happy about that at least. My step daughter, Bellana will be here for a couple more days. She’s going out to do some stuff during the day today but she’ll be back this evening. I’m happy she’s here. I was happy that Harry too. I just really love them both and I love having them around the house.

Work has been busy so far today. It will continue for a few days at least. I am planning on working from home tomorrow but I have to go into the office on Wednesday. I’m not sure what my second office day will be this week. I hate the idea of going in on a Friday, but I think this week it will probably happen. I just don’t want to commute two days in a row this week. Especially after doing it four days in a row last week.

I haven’t taken a picture yet today. The photo a day challenge is still open. Where are the cats?

Vacation-itis

We are less than 24 hours away from The Great 2024 Florida Road Trip. Actually, less than 22 hours, if all goes off according to the schedule. I have two hours left in today’s work day, and then four hours of work tomorrow…

…and mentally it is really difficult not to just check out now.

All of our clothes are packed. I still need to hit the grocery store to get some bottled water for the drive, and I need to pack up my weight loss surgery friendly food options, and all of our electronics and chargers and various stuff. Then I just have to load it all into the car and go go go, babie.

The only downside of this epic trip is that these two super heroes won’t be coming with us:

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If there had been a way for them to come along, we would have made it happen. They both have tons of things going on this weekend up in Vermont. We will miss them. We’ll probably bomb them with text messages the whole time so that they don’t feel like they are missing out on anything (hehe, kidding… or am I?).

I’ll just have to fill in the gaps with lots of faux artsy photographs. You know, like ya do.

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So Far, So Good

The birds seem okay with the new bird feeders. So far, at least.

Unrelated note, my step daughter is coming over for dinner. She was in Connecticut with her step mother yesterday so she’s stopping in at our house for a Mothers Day visit with her mother and me. She’s on her way. It has only been a week since we’ve seen her but I don’t care. Every visit is a happy experience and I can’t wait.

Additional unrelated note, the sky looked cool over Home Depot in Salem, NH today so I took a pointless picture just to pointlessly share with all of you. Bless your hearts for putting up with my pointless drivel.