March Madness (not basketball)

(till death us do part)

Happy 38th Birthday Mindy!!

Could it be coincidence that Mindy, her older sister, as well as her older brother were all born the first week of March. I think not. Let’s dig into this a bit deeper – shall we?

Rolling the calendar back 38 weeks from the first week of March takes one to the second week of June. Perhaps their parents celebrated the spawning of summer with some spawning of their own. But on closer observation we discover that Gloria’s birthday is June 11th. Bingo! It seems the ol’ birthday sex beared fruit three different times.

Monday morning always comes round too quickly. And in what just might be a first, I was woken by Mindy’s alarm clock at 5:45am. I find it personally offensive to rely on some lame disco jockey’s morning shtick to wake me. I won’t allow that to happen again.

I rolled over and gave Mindy a hug & wished her happy birthday just before leaping out of bed with a fuzzy head. I had a fuzzy head after a rather restless night’s sleep.

Downstairs I quickly went about choking down a vitamin and prepping for my morning exercises. I didn’t leave the house with Ykraps until 6:10am. Out the door, I took notice of the ever brightening early morning sky. Although, this same sky won’t be revealed until about 7:00am next Monday (enter daylight savings time). Our walk proceeded without incident. We were back by 6:20am.

I made Mindy her coffee and delivered it to her still in bed. She was apparently still as tired as I and warmly tucked amongst the bedcovers. For a brief minute I jumped back in bed and gave her a kiss. I couldn’t stay long though as I needed to press on with my morning routine.

I read the Daily OM and quickly reviewed email. It was already 6:30am, so I had to get crackin’ on making lunches and our hot breakfast. I almost forgot that Mindy made the two of us Monday lunch salads while preparing our Sunday dinner salads. That shaved several minutes off of food prep. Before I knew it I was making our scrambled eggs.

After enjoying the eggs and fruit Mindy loaded the minivan. It was 7:15am. Rather than wait until she was out the door, I said my goodbye’s right then and headed up to the shower. This, I figured, would be a good way to ensure a more timely arrival at work. This was a good plan. I was downstairs and all ready to go by 7:35am. After fooling around the house for a spell, I left at 7:50am which netted an 8:05am arrival time. Not bad!

Work was moderately paced with lots of the usual trappings & happenings of a Monday. I kept my nose to the grind stone until 1pm when I left for my run. The temperature was hovering just below 40 degrees and the sun was shining. The strong wind out of the west was the only small drawback. But with the help of music in my ears the affects of the wind were minimal. And once again, I couldn’t help but notice the obvious warmth the sun provided as it shined down upon me – a sure sign that springs a comin’.

After completing my run and shower I returned to my office for some afternoon fun. I was careful to leave right at five given that today’s Mindy’s birthday. I stopped at Kroger to pick up a dozen red roses along the way. I left a card from me and another from the kids on the island before leaving for work. I called her as I pulled out of Kroger to get a feel for our evening. The kids had already left with Jimaken and Mindy was about to walk Ykraps. She foretold of a handful of wedding gifts and cards that arrived at our home today.

When I arrived home Mindy was just finishing off her walk with Ykraps. I gave her the roses just as we entered the house. She had already opened her b-day card from me but left the one from the kids for later. Together we opened a card from Barley’s via Tom Shepherd that contained a $50 Barley’s gift certificate. Thanks Tom! Also, arriving today was another card form Tom S containing a check for his share of the Govy Camp ski weekend condo. Again, thanks Tom. We also received a card from Mindy’s old friend in NY, Laura, and a gift from Mindy’s mother. Thanks All! Of course from Mindy’s perspective, I am the greatest gift of all. Yeah, just ask me!

After Mindy prepped and vased her roses we left for dinner. And yes, we went to Barley’s – her call. It’s hard to beat their menu and we only had a little over an hour before the kids would be home. Besides, I’m taking her to Mitchell’s this Saturday evening. We arrived to a more than full Barley’s – this being wing night. We said a few hellos and found our way to a barside table. We both ordered a beer. Mindy ordered a Stout and me an IPA. And in honor of wing night, Mindy ordered a dozen honey chipotle and I ordered a dozen Gates of Hell! And if that wasn’t enough, we ordered a full order of sauerkraut balls, too.

We said hello to a few more friends before our food arrived ten minutes later. It was delicious. We were rather quiet while we sucked down our smoked delights. We finished and left by 7:05pm. Mindy had already called jimaken asking that he bring the kids home a little later due to our late start. He kindly agreed.

Once back home we got settled in rather quickly. It wasn’t too long before the children returned. Mindy and I shared a piece of the chocolate pie, too. It was much better today. It was completely chilled, firm, and much less gritty. Lesson learned!
Because of the hour, Mindy readied the kids for bed the minute Jimaken left. I helped with the tuck in process. After that was complete I returned to the PC where I updated my blog and even added the actual script of our wedding ceremony to last Fridays entry. While I blogged Mindy played with her new MP3 player. After that we switched places. She read my blog while I read a little of my book. It was almost 9:30pm. We decided an early bedtime was in order. We could both use the sleep.