Sands of Time

I managed myself out of bed just a little after 8am. I probably could’ve used more sleep but the responsibility associated with being on-call weighed heavily on my mind. I prepped coffee, exercised and walked Ykraps before logging in to work. It was really cold this morning. The temperature was only 3 degrees. As one might guess, I was happy to get back inside. I spent a good measure of time checking in on work as well as fooling around on the PC all while sipping coffee. It was really quite nice. Mindy continued sleeping. The kids were up and playing in various rooms. I finally readied for a run around 10am. By then Mindy and the kids were downstairs enjoying a fresh batch of cinnamon rolls. Despite the cold, my run went well, but once again I was happy to be back inside afterwards. It was 10:45am when I got back. I quickly reengaged myself in work before changing into my painting uniform. There will be no work done out of uniform in my home! I wore some cut-off pajamas and a black t-shirt with a few holes and paint stains already on it. Like last week, I retrieved my paint tools from the basement. Once again, I did the arduous cut-in first. The north vaulted wall is in two sections – upper and lower separated by a jut out. I did part of the cut in with a brand new brush and that worked well but was very slow going. I really didn’t want to us the rolling pad as it too easily gets paint on the unmasked edge it is being rolled against, and in this case the opposite was is another color. Eventually, I switched to a small pad with a handle. That was easy to control and certainly was faster. I’d guess the cut in took upwards of 2 hours. By then, Mindy left to drop the kids at a bowling birthday party and to go grocery shopping. She asked what I wanted for dinner before leaving. We both thought that a beef roast sounded awfully good. Soon after Mindy & the kids left I got to rolling. That went fast. The Sands of Time (tan) went on much easier than the Blackberry (purple). I would need no more than two coats. I moved so swiftly that it seemed to make sense to finish the south wall, too, which would complete the family. Mindy helped move some of the clutter to facilitate that work. I had it fully trimmed and rolled before she and the kids returned from their time away. As it dried I could see lots of thin spots in need of the already anticipated second coat. That would have to wait until tomorrow, however. The grand kids were coming over this evening and I wanted to get a shower before they arrived. We’d be keeping Lil’ Rocky overnight, and watching Olivia and Landon through about 9pm so that Ashley & Kelly could take Lindsey out. The kids arrived while I showered. And after my shower I took Ykraps on his much deserved walk. The kids were a handful at the outset. Landon cried, Olivia hollered, and Rocky played. Couple that with the usual Jacob & Bella antics and you’ve got yourself a good old fashioned insane asylum. Mindy knew what to do, though. Landon was crying because he was tired. He rubbed his eyes continuously. She put him in the crib in our spare room along with the baby monitor. After 15 minutes of repeated crying he fell asleep pretty much for the duration of his visit. Olivia eventually calmed too. Mindy served dinner – roast beef. Rocky ate three plates full. He must’ve been starving! Olivia ate big people food too. She’s so darling! After dinner and dessert Mindy got all the kids a bath. Rocky doesn’t like to have his hair washed and repeatedly reminded Mindy that his mommy already washed it earlier. But as I understand it, he let Mindy wash it again. :) Mindy put the kids to bed around 8-8:30pm. Landon remained asleep and Olivia hung with us. She was most pleasant and a lot of fun. We saw no signs of the horrible behavior that Ashley often speaks of. Through the evening I stayed in contact with work in preparation for some big system maintenance taking place. I even thought that I might go in to help kick it off. But it got delayed about three hours making it unproductive for me to go in. Things started fine without me there. Lindsey & Ashley picked the kids up before 10pm. We gave Lindsey her birthday flowers & card before she left. We gave her cash last week, which served as her present. We didn’t stay up too much longer. We were in bed by 11pm. Mindy thanked me again for painting all day.