Friday, March 06, 2009

It's What's For Dinner

It was 5:30am on Friday morning. As expected, I was up and feeling fine. I started my calisthenics then checked the temperature. It was already a whopping 54 degrees. I completed a full work out before heading outdoors with Ykraps. It was mostly cloudy, but still quite nice. There were lots of birds singing amongst the many surrounding trees creating a scene far different from where we were just a handful of days ago. Quite nice! Even though I was feeling pretty good, my right eye was still red & irritated even after using lubricating eye drops a few times on Thursday. I planned to use more drops before running. After some personal time, I delivered Mindy’s coffee. She woke in a good mood. I readied and left for a run at 7:35am. And due to the mild temps, I was able to shed my winter running garb. Instead, I wore my spring/fall jacket and a ball cap (no hand or ear covers). The run went really well, almost effortless. Mindy and the kids were preparing to depart upon my return. Landon was congested and showing signs of another cold. We were worried that his symptoms would only worsen over the weekend at Kelly’s due to the pet dander. Rocky was very much looking forward to a weekend with his mommy. But quite honestly, no one was looking forward to it more than Mindy & I. This was slated to be our first official non-vacation kidless weekend in 3.5 months. I made sure to wish the kids well as they departed. I wouldn’t see them again until Sunday afternoon/evening. After my shower, I spent some time organizing my lunch. I opted for my leftover Chipotle, which was more than half of a burrito. Jacob and I left for the bus stop at 7:57am. We took the football. For whatever the reason, Jake & Jacob are far more aggressive with one another than ever before. After each pass and catch, they would fight/box one another. Not sure where all that is coming from. They stopped at my prompting. The bus arrived on time – 8:04am. After a few minutes organizing my gear I left for work. Every so often the sun would bust out of the thin cloud cover, making for a very lovely morning. I stayed largely to myself for the first hour or so of work, but eventually sought out my peers. They commented about my irritated right eye citing the dreaded “Pinkeye”. However, aside from being a little tired, I felt pretty good. Come 11:30am or so, I decided it a good idea to have my eye looked at. I made plans to that end. The best I could do was 1:30pm. I left the office at 12:45pm. I learned that there are all sorts of causes and variations of what we call ‘pinkeye’. It can be viral or bacterial, or the result of an allergic reaction of some sort. I was told to use pinkeye drops two to three times a day until fully better (2 to3 days). I decided not to return to work and was home at 2:30pm. I placed some drops in my eyes and then took a brief nap in the recliner. I slept for less than fifteen minutes, yet I still woke feeling completely refreshed afterwards. With time on my hands and some good spring weather, I decided it the perfect time to take down the Xmas lights. Short of the Saturday after Xmas, we haven’t had weather conducive to crawling out on the roof all winter long. It’s hard to believe that those lights have been up for more than three months. Yikes! The first thing I did was take down the wreath. Then, I started on the icicle lights. They came down easily but it took a while to reposition the ladder. After getting them removed from the garage roof, I moved the ladder around back to the deck where I could more readily access the roof. From there, I crawled onto the roof and removed the rest. I still had to remove the lights from the pine tree and shrubs. I fetched my extender pole and once again accessed the roof. I thought that might make their removal easier, at least from the top half of the tree. But even that proved to be a struggle. Bottom line, I ended up tearing two of the four sets from pulling too hard. That hurt because those sets were rather pricey. That tree’s getting too tall to be fooling with. I probably won’t be putting lights on it again anytime soon. By the time I removed the remaining lights from the shrubs and gathered all the extension cords, it was nearly 4pm. I placed all lights in a large trash bag and then carried them to the basement. Done! Jacob arrived home from school just a minute or two before his mother and Bella. Mindy reported dropping Rocky & Landon off to Lindsey just before coming home. She said it went well. It wasn’t long before Jimaken showed up to pick-up Jacob & Bella. Shortly after 5pm we had a quiet house. Wahoo! I spent some time blogging and playing on the Internet. Mindy walked Ykraps with me – something she hasn’t been able to do for several months. She headed for a shower when we got back. I asked her to stomp when she was done so that I might get one for myself. The stomp came about 20 minutes later. I was ready to go by 6:20pm. Mindy asked that I fetch her a half glass of wine while she finished prepping. Meanwhile, I told everyone to be at Barley’s between 7:30-8:00pm. We headed out early in part so that we could eat something beforehand. We were practically at Barley’s when Mindy remembered that we forgot the gifts we had for Rene and Steve. Still before 7pm, we decided to jump on the freeway and head back home to fetch them. 20 minutes later we were back only this time with the gifts. The lot was completely full. We had to park in an ancillary lot out back. While a large crowd all totaled, the bar area wasn’t too bad. There was one open barstool. Mindy took that one. Steve Won was already there, as was Scott & Linda. Mindy ordered a St Joan’s Revenge. I ordered a Centennial IPA. I planned to drink only two beers, maybe three all night so that Mindy could have some fun with friends. Mindy & I decided to share a Barely burger as our meal. We skipped the usual sauerkraut balls since we’d be more sociable than normal later on entertaining guests. Early on, I ran into two familiar faces from Time Warner – Lori and Lori. I hadn’t seen them in over ten years. We chatted for a while, and I introduced them both to Mindy. Meanwhile, familiar faces started adding up quickly. Soon the bar was packed with our peeps. Mindy did a few shots (buttery nipples) sprinkled in amongst a handful of St Joan’s. After a couple hours she was feelin’ no pain. Everyone was surprised to see Tom Clark show up. I guess he quit the gig in Tampa for reasons he promised to share in more detail later. It was good to see him. Considering all the various factions of friends, Mindy’s Monterey teacher pals made the poorest showing. But then again, it’s not about who doesn’t show up. Instead, it’s about who does. Besides, we were having a great time. As the evening roared onward, Mindy began to get a little tipsy, and by 10:30pm she was doing the wobble. I knew she was in trouble when she started showing off her belly ring and tattoo. Her long time pal, Tara showed up kind of late. She gifted her some chocolates. I had to laugh watching Mindy rip open the box to get at the chocolates. Tara & Doug offered to drive both of us home. I wasn’t bad at all but also wise enough not to turn down a guaranteed safe trip home. Somewhere between 10:30- 11:00pm Mindy decided to show more than her tattoo and belly ring. She showed everyone what she’d eaten over the last several hours. That’s right, she got sick outside on the patio right by the bar’s main entrance. It was time to go. Several friends came out to wish her well and many helped make sure that we had all of her things. I gave our keys to Tara so that she could drive us home in our own vehicle all the while Doug followed behind in his pick-up. Mindy wasn’t long for the world once home. She went directly to bed still fully dressed and wearing her jewelry. I checked in on her several times to make sure she was OK. I stayed up for a few hours watching TV, eating popcorn and pretzels.

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