Tag: Kids

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.

Searching for a Positive

Daily writing prompt
What positive events have taken place in your life over the past year?
View all responses

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.

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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.

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They haven’t destroyed the xmas tree yet. So far so good

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?