Deer Me

Today was the first full day of spring and the weather fabulous.

I woke around 5:45am and just like any other day, I brushed my teeth, peed, checked the coffee, choked down a One-A-Day, and began my exercises.

Ykraps and I were out the door just after 6am.We walked by Duke’s house instead of to the west like normal. I usually let Ykraps dictate which way we go. Duke’s rarely out this early anyhow. The weather was nice & warm - just as expected. There were stars visible, too. And just as one might expect, the birds were going crazy yet still in darkness.

Back at home I threw Ykraps his morning treat before making our coffee. Mindy didn’t want to get up but did as I placed her coffee on the night stand. I headed back downstairs to begin making our lunch and breakfast. Mindy requested no nuts and no pineapple in her fruit. I pretty much packed her the same type of salad I always pack for myself (celery, cucumber, broccoli, cauliflower, tomato). Time was moving by fast. I made fried eggs for breakfast, in part to save time.

As the sun rose it looked more and more like it was going to be another beautiful day. The day before (Tuesday) ended up about ten degrees warmer than planned. I hoped the same for today. I gave some thought to driving the BM’er but the slight threat of rain detoured such thinking.

The Trooper ran great on the way to work. I was hopeful that the new full tank of gas cleared whatever was choking the engine and causing the 'check engine' light to come on two days earlier. I arrived at the office by 8:15am. We were very busy. I didn’t hear from my car guy all morning. I told myself that I’d call after my run if he didn’t call me first.

I got very bust around run time, but managed to leave around 1pm. It was very nice, but still only about 60 degrees and partly cloudy. Half way into my run the skies cleared completely driving the temperature up even more. Suddenly, I wasburning up running in a long sleeve shirt, jacket, and with ear covers. It was 71 degrees by the time I got back to my office.

I had a voice mail from Dave my auto repair guy on both my cell and desk phone. The message was simple. Jim, please give Dave a call about the ’93 Honda. Uh-oh! I called him back right away. Turns out it wasn’t the timing belt. Instead, he said the cam shaft was broke at the pulley and missing this key thing, and the trouble was that it had worn a square hole round making it wobble. He said it could get even worse if one or more of the cylinders are bent, which often happens when the timing belt slips. He said he might be able to do it for around a $1000 dollars, but also wanted to know who had worked on this car recently replacing the water pump. He had it confused with Lindsey’s other ‘93 Honda that looked almost identical. Crap! Here we go!

I went about the rest of my afternoon like any other day. Mindy was picking Lindsey up at Grandma Sharon’s since her car’s in the shop and taking her to the bank to create her checking account. We both agreed not to share the news of the car’s prognosis until later. After all, we still wanted her to get this monumental task done.

I left work shortly after 5pm for home. Mindy and I talked as she was dropping Lindsey off at Kelly’s. Kaileigh was there, too, with her daddy so I asked Mindy to see if we can have her over next weekend to color Easter eggs. Mindy said she’d call me back once everyone was dropped off. I arrived home before Mindy. We made plans to visit El Vaquero for dinner, but only after walking Ykraps. It was a beautiful spring evening with the temperature now around 73 degrees. We left for the Vaq at 5:55pm.

We asked to be seated in the enclosed patio. I ordered something different – some pork dish. Mindy had a margarita and her usual seafood thing. We both enjoyed our meal and the atmosphere. It was a quick dinner. We left for home around 6:40pm.

We arrived home just before 6:50pm and the kids pulled up with their daddy just as we were walking in. By 7:05pm Jim was gone and the kids were enjoying a treat. It wasn’t long before Mindy urged the kids upstairs for bed. While they readied for bed I worked on my blog some more. I stopped and joined in for the tuck around 7:30pm. For the next hour I did more blog related stuff. I correlated all posted pix from my blog onto Picasso, a web based photo album, and updated my blog profile, which until today still reflected my singleness and was 1-1/2 years outdated. Mindy headed to bed between 8-8:30pm. She was even too tired to stay up and watch Idol.

I played online a while before watching Idol. I read a story on the Star Tribune's webpage about a Wisconsin guy that was placed on probation for having "sexual contact" with a dead deer. And reading on, I learned that this wasn't his first offense. His first was two years ago when he shot and killed a horse with the intention of havng sex with it. You have to wonder what this fella was thinking. Could he really have a penchant for these four legged beasts? Do you suppose he's thinking, "hey, looky there. I think she likes me. She's looking at me, too. I kinda like the way she holds her mouth. Daggone, I just can't get over her. I guess I'll shoot her first,though, so she doesn't put up a fight."
http://www.startribune.com/462/story/1070525.html

Idol results are in: Stephanie, I think, was the young lady who was eliminated tonight. After Idol I sat on the sofa and watched the follow-up comedy show, 'Til Death. It was surprisingly funny. I got sleepy come 10pm but had a hard time mustering the energy to go to bed. At about 10:40pm I did it!