Tag: Step Kids

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?

Less Than Nine Hours to Go

It’s just after 8:30am on the Friday before Labor Day weekend and I haven’t punched in to work yet. I had a few things to do first. I went with Harry to the garage to drop off his rental car and pick up his car. It’s all set and it looks as good as new. He just left to go back to Burlington. He’s going to miss his first class this morning, but that’s about the only downside to this visit. All is well again.

I’m less than nine hours away from a three day weekend. I just finished season 11 of the new Doctor Who. I have 20 episodes over two seasons left to go and then I’ll be all caught up. I’m on episode 17 of season seven of the original show. Eight episodes left in this season and something like 2346123472572 episodes left in the full series. I don’t expect to finish either series this weekend, but I can pretty much guarantee I’ll be done with the new show in a week or so which means I will be 100% caught up before the next episode airs in November.

What about the music project? I have 27 songs finished and 39 total in progress. I have four more songs ready to mix and I hope to crank them all out tonight. I have 30 days left, including today, and a ton of work still to go, but I think I am more or less on pace to finish on time. I’ll have a few days at Disney World where it will be tough to make progress, but I think I will be okay. I should note that even though I took over two weeks off in August, I still managed to finish an RPM Challenge Rules album in a month as I started and finished 12 songs within the calendar month. I started and finished 10 in July too. In order to hit 50 songs over all I will need to start and finish 11 songs in September. Three album in a months in a row isn’t a bad place to be. I think once this project is finished I will try to get back into the last re-recording project which has been left hanging for a little more than a year now.

I mentioned in the last post that my stomach has been a little less than 100% this morning. I had some trouble with water early on and had to deal with a minor bout of The Foamies after taking my vitamins. I only got eight ounces of water in during my exercise, but afterwards I was okay for breakfast and I am feeling much better now. I’ve managed another eight ounces since I came home from Harry’s auto shop. I think we’re back on track today. I might have a hamburger on the grill for lunch today. We’ll see how it goes.

Okay, it’s 8:50am now and I have to be punched into work by 9:00. I think I’ll hit publish on this masterpiece of an update and get my work day started. Lots to do today, lots to do. Eight hours and 40 minutes to go until the long weekend.

You can do it, Robbie! You can do it!

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!

Random Thursday Thoughts

Just jotting down some smallish, random thoughts on a Thursday afternoon.

My stomach is being a jerk today. Gas. Bad gas. Lots of bad gas. My stomach is a bit upset. A little bit of pain. Nothing bad, just gassy. Super gassy. Pardon the T.M.I. of it all. I just felt the need to share.

In the interest of daily creative behavior like the photo a day challenge and my current 1400+ day posting streak on this little bloggie, I was wondering if I should post a daily haiku. What do you think?

One haiku each day
You know, to keep the brain loose
Could be worth a shot

I have watched a lot of Doctor Who today. Like, an alarming amount of Doctor Who. A frightening amount of Doctor Who. Both the original series and the new series. So much Doctor Who. I may have a Who problem.

We brought Harry’s car to the shop today. Here’s hoping they get the work finished before he has to go back to work next week. I may have to drive him back to Burlington after I finish work one night, and then turn around and drive home right away. That could be a long night. I will do it with a smile on my face, but… yeah, that would be a long night.

The cats have been super affectionate today. I am not sure why. It doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things, but it is definitely a welcome development.

Services

I am working in the office today. I’ve had a few meetings and I just wrapped up my lunch. I have another meeting booked for 45 minutes from now but I will be leaving for the day shortly after it starts. Today is my Uncle Jim’s wake. It’s actually a lot closer to my office building than it is to home so working from here actually makes getting there a ton easier. Otherwise I probably would have taken the whole day off. I took tomorrow off as I will be going to the funeral in the morning.

It’s so sad the way my mother’s family has fallen apart over the last year. Three of the four siblings passed away within nine months of each other. Only the baby in the family is left and she has some health concerns of her own. It’s been a tough year for the extended family. I am one of 22 first cousins and most of us are on a facebook messenger chat together. Anytime I get a notification of an update to that chat I get scared. It shouldn’t be like that, but it is. Hopefully we can all find a way to generate some happy news in the next year. I don’t know how, but maybe we can figure it out.

Speaking of happier news, Harry is coming home tonight. He needs to have some work done on his car and he is taking it to a shop near us because he couldn’t find a shop near Burlington, VT that could schedule him any time soon. We’re not sure how long he’ll be home. It will be at least as long as the car fix takes. Hopefully he’ll watch a Doctor Who or two with me. I bet I can talk him into it.

Okay, lunch break is over. Time to go back to work for the shortened afternoon.

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.

Work Anniversary

I almost forgot about this one. Fortunately I am a nerd and added it as a recurring date on my Google calendar many years ago. Today is a noteworthy day, but this date next year will be a much more important occasion.

On this date, July 12, in the year 2004 I started a new job. 19 years later, I’m still here. 19 years, one promotion, countless reorganizations, one wedding, one house purchase, two high school graduations, one college graduation (and counting), one ridiculously invasive stomach surgery, and one continuing global pandemic later, and I am still here.

My 19th workaversary is a big deal, but my 20th next year… that will be a big deal. We’ll see what happens in the meantime. For now at least, go have a piece of cake or something to celebrate for me. You know, have the kind of sugary thing that I can’t eat anymore in honor of me not getting sacked at all over the last 19 years.

Sad

We saw both kids this weekend. That was awesome. I love it when they come home. We were supposed to go to a party at their aunt’s house today. A dual graduation party for my step daughter and her cousin who both graduated from college this year. Jen and I had to miss it because we both have a bit of a stomach bug right now and… well… at the risk of TMI, neither of us wanted to be away from a bathroom for the length of time that would be required to drive to the party location. Sorry. I am actually sad about it. It’s been decades since last we went to an event that was thrown by someone on the kids’ dad’s side of the blended family and it might have been a little weird after all of these ages, but I was still looking forward to going.

That’s not what I am feeling especially sad about. What I am sad about is that Bellana is staying at her dad’s tonight and Harry just left for Vermont. Our kid time is over for this weekend. Harry will be back in a couple of weeks, but for now… we’re kid free.

That’s why I am sad.

On a slightly related note, television-wise, I finished watching the two seasons of Spaced and now I need something new to add to my huge list of binge shows. Spaced has me in the mood for British television. Both kids have watched the new version of Doctor Who, all 300 seasons or whatever it is. We’ve watched a handful of episodes together over the last year or so and… well… I just started from reboot season one, episode one. I’ll finish this show in about 20 years. Then I’ll have to find the 300 seasons of the original version of the show. Yeah, this should keep me busy for a while.

Things I am Happy About Today

Here’s a short list of things I am happy about today…

  • Bellana’s coming home tonight!
  • In less than an hour I’ll get to go home and see Jen. Well… in less than an hour I’ll get to leave the office, then drive for an hour+ and then see Jen. Also, I’ll get to see Bellana.
  • The Florida Panthers lost the Stanley Cup Final! Thanks, Vegas Golden Knights! (predictions wrap up post will likely be tomorrow or maybe later tonight)
  • In less than one hour I will get to leave this frozen tundra disguised as a conference room and go outside where it is currently 75 degrees out… though it was 80 degrees about an hour ago. Uh oh.
  • Going to see my father on Father’s Day this coming Sunday.
  • Kitties
  • Electric guitars. Specifically Gibson guitars. Specifically, specifically Gibson Les Pauls.
  • There’s a new season of Star Trek Strange New Worlds premiering tomorrow. There’s a new Walking Dead spinoff, Dead City, premiering this weekend. There’s a new Marvel show, Secret Invasion, premiering next week.
  • Jen. Bellana. Harry.