My step daughter is here!
My step son is here!
Bellana and Harry are both here!
Literally everything is better now!
Tag: Kids
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.
He’s Home!
My step son is home!
He came into the house and immediately hunted down the cats, kidnapped Robin and smothered her with affection, attention, and love.
As it should be.
I am very glad he’s here. He’s sitting on the couch doing homework, but he’s home and it is good.
No Word Yet
No word from the guitar shop today. The guitar looked finished in the pics he put on the bookfayce yesterday but I couldn’t really tell. There was likely some finishing work that needed to happen (file down, polish, adjust the new frets maybe?) that I don’t know anything about. Hopefully I will hear something tomorrow. I can’t pick it up on Wednesday as I’ll be in the office. I don’t even know if he opens his doors on any other days. His website books appointments on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Let’s see what happens, okay?
Two things that I need to do today. One, call a plumber to look at a leak in the old bathroom. Two, I have a doctors appointment after work. I also have 3.5 hours left in my work day. I am just wrapping up lunch now.
Harry is coming home this weekend. How awesome is that? Looking forward to having him around. Also really looking forward to Thanksgiving. The actual holiday we will travel to my sisters’. The following Saturday we will have Thanksgiving Part II (electric turkey boogaloo) with the kids and Jen’s folks. I am really excited about both. Not that I can eat like I used to, but I’ll still love every minute of both days.
When are we going to go Christmas tree shopping? We usually try to do that while the kids are home for Thanksgiving, but I don’t know how the schedules will work out this year. We’ll have to figure that out too.
Have I mentioned that I am absolutely freezing today? Stupid cold. Stupid winter (even though we’re still over a month away from the first day of winter, it’s basically winter already).
Okay. Lunch break is over. Get back to work, Robert. You have some custom code to deliver. Get to it.
Perfect Timing
I’ve talked a lot over the last few months about my epically absurd Doctor Who binge watch. I started watching the current 13 season series back in June or July, and shortly after also started watching the massive 26 season original series as well. I finished the new show pretty quickly, but the old show is so vast that I am still going.
The reason I started on this ridiculousness was my step kids. They had both become fans of the new show over the last year or so and they inspired me to dig into it. Knowing that the show is currently on hiatus until the 60th anniversary in November made me want to see if I could get through all 436142757 episodes (approximately) before the first of the three anniversary episodes aired.
I think I am going to make it. I’m down to the last four episode serial of season 21. Just minutes ago I watched the fifth doctor regenerate into the sixth doctor. I only have numbers six and seven to go before I am through with the original show, and then there is number eight in a one off made of TV movie. After that I will be finished. I am kinda thinking about giving the David Tennant episodes of the new show a second watch, seeing as he is coming back for the anniversary. That could be interesting to see it all in a new light, you know?
As it turns out, earlier today the BBC announced the dates that the three 60th anniversary episodes will air. The first is November 25th. That is a nice coincidence as both of my step kids will be home that night. We have our planned family Thanksgiving (celebrated) that day. The kids will be at their dad’s on the actual Thanksgiving day so we’re doing an alternate date in our house. Looks like we’ll get to see David Tennant’s triumphant return that night as well. Talk about fortuitous timing, eh? You might even say it’s sort of a big ball of wibbly wobbly, timey wimey stuff, right?
Crazy Thursday
What a nutty kinda day it’s been. Sheesh.
My step son Harry is home from Vermont right now because his car is in the shop and he needed to go to a mechanic near us because he couldn’t get one near his home without having to wait for a month or two. He needs to head back to Vermont tonight, but his car isn’t going to be ready until next week.
He went through his insurance claim (long story that you will not get details on) to get a rental for the next week. At lunch today I drove him to the rental car place to pick up his temp-ride. They told him they needed to call the insurance company to verify our plan will cover the rental because he is under age. The rental agent called them and found their entire system was down. They couldn’t look up our (or anyone’s) policy.
Harry offered to stay at the rental place until it was worked out so that I could go home and get back to work. Fortunately by around 2:40 or so the insurance system issues were cleared up and he was able to drive off in his rental car. All worked out for the best eventually, but talk about annoying!
On an unrelated, less serious, but still annoying note, at around 9:30-10:00 or so this morning both cats snuck their way into the cellar. Both of them! After an hour or so I was able to coax Lily back upstairs but Robin wanted nothing to do with it. A short while later I was trying to bribe Robin upstairs with some treats and Lily ran past me and went back down stairs again! FFFFUUUU!!!! That was just before we had to go to the rental agency!
When I got home I expected them both to be sitting on the stairs waiting for the door to open. Nope. Neither of them were. I got Robin upstairs soon enough, and by 2:00 I had them both upstairs. They both tried to eat a plant, one of them knocked over a box full of guitar gear, they got into just about everything down here. There are so many places for a cat to hide, I was unable to find them on my own. I also had to trip a few mouse traps, just in case they stumbled across them. What a couple of feline jerks, right? Bad kitties!
They are upstairs now though so they are good kitties once again. Still… sheesh!
Okay. Back to work. I have a meeting in nine minutes. Here’s hoping the zaniness is done for the day. I need a nap!
2023 50/90 Challenge Days 23 & 24/90
Not much to report on the song writing challenge front over the last two days. Day 23 was Wednesday and I didn’t do anything. Day 24 was yesterday, Thursday, and I didn’t get shut out but I also didn’t do much. I wanted to do a car music and track some vocals and maybe get a mix or two in and maybe write some lyrics but instead all I did was add two new song ideas. Just a couple of bass lines and a drum groove. All midi. I’m a little disappointed in myself for two days with very little progress, but the weekend is almost here and I am hoping to get a ton of music in (as well as more photography goofiness). Jen has plans to work on a project this weekend, so I will dedicate myself to a project or two as well. Harry will be paying a visit too so I will dedicate however much time he is here to him. I also want to visit my father on Saturday. It’s his anniversary, and the first since my mother passed. It’s going to be very sad and I don’t know if I am up for it. Mother’s day was rough but I fear this is going to be rougher.
So now we’re up to date on (more than) the current music project.
Inside the Red Head's Head 