Mindy's Birthday

Happy Birthday to You
Happy Birthday to You
Happy Birthday Dear Mindy
Happy Birthday to you!

Happy 39th - I Love You!!

I slept late after gambling that I could sneak in just another two or three minutes of precious sleep after waking to see that it was 5:27am. Turns out, I didn’t wake again until 5:40am. Not a big deal, but still worthy of mention. This was the last day I planned to skip push-ups and curls as outlined a week or so ago after sustaining the shoulder injury. As I began my sit-ups, I noted that my shoulder was responding well to the rest.

I was surprised to see a coating of snow outdoors. It looked like a solid inch. It was only Wednesday yet we’d already had three disparate weather systems this week. Monday was sunny and warm, 70 to be exact. Tuesday brought two plus inches of rain, and now Wednesday brings a wintry return. I checked the temperature after sit-ups. It was 26 degrees.

Ykraps and I headed out for our morning walk. I wore my snow boots. I typically keep them handy until about the first of May. The top half-inch or so of snow was fluffy, but the underlying base was like frozen corduroy. Yet because the icy base was rough, it wasn’t too slick.

Upon our return I quickly moved to coffee mode. It was still before 6am. Later, when I delivered Mindy’s coffee and informed her that it had snowed, the first words out of her mouth were, “I wonder if school’s canceled?” It wasn’t. I wished her a happy birthday, this being her 39th. She got up shortly after and I returned downstairs. Meanwhile, the kids were already up & stirring, too. That put a crimp in my meditation due to the excessive noise. Instead, I decided to employ an old technique – meditation while running. I used to do it all the time when I first started meditating about three years ago. I enjoyed it so much that I would meditate in the morning, evening, and even during my lunchtime run. I could get completely lost in my run. I kept my expectations realistic, however, since I hadn’t done it in so long.

The run was pleasant as the virgin snow was soft on the foot. It was a beautiful early morning with quite a bit of sunshine. I was back home before I knew it. Mindy and the kids were scrambling through their routine. I had Mindy’s b-day gifts in my Trooper but didn’t plan to present them to her until later, at the end of the work day. She soon left for work. Jacob and I prepped as usual and left for the bus stop near 7:55am. There, I told Pat that it was Mindy’s birthday and that we’d be visiting Barley’s Friday night. I encouraged him & Lisa to join us.

Before driving off to work I stopped back home to wrap & pose Mindy’s gifts so that they’d be there looking pretty when she got home later in the afternoon. While doing so, I realized that I left one of her birthday cards (the one from me) in my desk. I’ve had it since Valentine’s Day. So, I simply placed the card from the kids with her gifts.

I left for work but didn’t head to our Hilliard office. Instead, I planned to work from our downtown disaster recovery center. I had never worked from there before so I was looking forward to the change of scenery if nothing else. It took a little longer to make the commute than I expected. Traffic was at a crawl the instant I got on the freeway at Wilson Rd all the way into downtown. But because I made the dry run yesterday with a peer familiar with the site, I knew exactly where I was going, so getting to a nearby parking garage was a snap. I parked on the 7th floor of the garage just across the street from the Borden Building.

One of my engineers was supposed to meet me there, but traffic in from the eastside was moving extra slow. He didn’t arrive until just after 9am. I went ahead and went on in and got the facility opened up. Later, I went to the security desk to fetch Rich. We tested all functionality and then proceeded to work as normal only remotely. The morning flew by. Rich and I left for lunch at the Subway located directly across the street around 12:30pm. I was very much looking forward to having a subway sub. I’d never eaten one before. More specifically, I was looking forward to their new toasted variety. There wasn’t a line at all was we entered but that changed quickly, being downtown and all. And because I wasn’t familiar, ordering for me went slow. As I turned around, I noticed a few snobby downtowners sighing at my slowness. But I didn’t allow their apparent disapproval to shatter my fun. Nope, I just enjoyed the process of getting my food. I took a couple pictures, too.

We found a table right by the window where I took a few more snapshots of downtown. We ate rather fast. Mine wasn’t as good as I imagined it would be. It was lacking something. After our meal we dashed back across Broad St to the Borden building, and then back to our suite where we worked through the afternoon or until about 4:15pm. We intentionally left a tad early to get a jump on the traffic out of downtown. Additionally, I wanted to be home early to meet Mindy since it was her birthday.

I arrived home around 4:45pm. I t was nice to be home before 5pm for once. I’ve worked quite a few late evenings recently. Mindy seemed happy that I was home early. She asked if she could open her gifts now. Of course, I said. She opened them up before I took off with Ykraps. She got some Dove chocolates, a bottle of wine, and a new laptop bag. I also planned to take her out to dinner this weekend, most likely at Mitchell’s. She seemed pleased. Ykraps and I departed.

By the time we returned, Jimaken had arrived to fetch the kids for his routine Wednesday date. He hung out for a few minutes, but they were gone by 5:10pm. In kind, Mindy & I soon left for Barley’s, her choice. Barley’s wasn’t too crowded. Both Diedra and Katy were working. They’re both young and cute. Diedra is always chatty and pleasant. Of course, Mindy made sure everyone knew it was her birthday. I had a Hop Juice and Mindy, I think, had a Stout. She quickly ordered some food. Last minute I decided that I wasn’t hungry after eating Subway just a few hours earlier. However, I did ask Katy to make her order of sauerkraut balls a full order so that I could have a few. We enjoyed a relaxing hour and one-half at Barley’s. There weren’t too many familiar faces in tonight, although Calvin, the shrink, stopped in about half way through our abbreviated visit. I ordered a Droughtfire IPA after my Hop Juice.

We left around 6:40pm since Mindy still wanted to make choir practice. She hopped in her van almost as soon as we got home and left. I had about 45 minutes to tinker before expecting the kids home. I used the time to update my blog and then begin setting up Mindy’s new laptop. It arrived Monday but we hadn’t as much as opened the box. It was fairly easy getting it up and running. As I toiled, I made it a priority to get it connected to my wireless LAN. Sadly, I hadn’t logged onto my router for so long that I forgot my login info. It took a few minutes to find my password info.

When the kids got home around 7:20pm we played for 20 minutes before I chased them upstairs to ready for bed. They were very cooperative, especially Bella. As long as they know that they can stay up until their momma gets home they’re pretty good. Even though she doesn’t get home until 8:30pm or after, it’s not worth the pain.

Mindy returned home around 8:40pm. She was happy to see that I had prepped her laptop. I told her that I still had some configuring to do, though. She quickly took care of tucking in the kids. Even after my wishing them a good night as the headed up, they still wanted me to formally tuck them in. I did.

We didn’t stay up too much later. We went up to bed around 10pm.