Hat a pilgrim would die for

Effectively sleeping since 7pm the evening before, I was up extra early and feeling wholly rested and raring to go. It was 445am when I made my way downstairs to begin exercising. I hit the go button on the coffee maker that otherwise wouldn’t have kicked on for another 45 minutes. After sit-ups I checked the weather and played around on the PC. I took a break around 515am to walk Ykraps, who seemed anxious to get outside. It was another mild morning under partly cloudy skies - the temperature almost 50 degrees. We were back home at about my normal wake time of 530am. I used the extra time to casually play on the internet. I sent the day’s Daily OM to Mindy via email after finding it spot-on relative to my need/desire for a place to decompress and transition from work role to husband/father role. Time went fast. Before I knew it, it was time to deliver Mindy’s coffee and start my meditation and stretching regimen. Both went well. I added yet another brief but effective stretch to my routine – one where I lean back while on my knees vigorously stretching my thighs. They were tighter than I realized. I dressed and left for my run at 635am. I wore two wicking shirts, hand and ear covers. I was quite comfy. Today was one of those runs when the mileage seemed to go by in the blink of an eye. I was lost in my thoughts. It seemed as though I was rounding third and heading for home in a snap. Mindy prepared fried eggs once again. That’s what I wanted. Among other things, I shared that my new PC was expected to be delivered later today. She said there was a good chance that she’d be home a little early and might be able to intercept it. That’d be cool. She left at her usual time and I headed off to the shower. I dressed in black head to toe – a fitting look for the work day ahead. Chrissy & I saw the kids onto the bus at 8:02am. The kids seemed as eager as us for the coming long weekend. I was quick in my final preparations for work. I left the house at 8:12am. I called one of my peers on the drive in. We had quite a bit we needed to talk about. The morning moved fast. To fulfill my duties as a leader, I had to deliver some bad news to a handful of team members. By mid-day, my thoughts turned toward the five day weekend now nearly upon us. I was anxious to get home. I spoke with Mindy late in the day. She shared that he made arrangements for GD Kaileigh to spend the night and go to the movies with us on Wednesday. That made me happy. I left for home around 530pm. However, before going home I wanted to stop at Kroger and possibly even Target. I stopped at Kroger first to get the ingredients for sauerkraut balls and cheesecake. I was gonna pick-up another six-pack of Great Lakes Xmas ale, too, but they were out of it. It goes fast in these parts. Kroger was crowded, but then again I expected that being just two days before TG. It took longer than I planned. I knew Mindy most likely had dinner ready & waiting. I decided to blow off Target, where I simply wanted to pick-up more Xmas light roof clips. I headed home. I phoned Mindy to let her know I was on my way. Mindy made baked pork chops – something we haven’t had for quite a while. Kaileigh was already there, and she and Bella were playing happily. As Mindy explained, Jacob was teetering on the verge of a beating for harassing the two of them. Dinner was really good. I ate two chops. Mindy baked chocolate chip cookies after dinner. After clean-up, Mindy started decorating the house for Xmas. At the same time, Bella and I got busy making her TG leaf hat. If you remember back about two weeks ago, Bella had me collecting leaves for this project she had in mind. Since then, I had been contemplating what this ‘thing’ might look like and how we might construct it. I had a plan. We used a shirt gift box as the base cutting it into our desired shape. Then, we selected about a dozen leaves from our collection and glued them to the base. That was more daunting than I expected it to be. The leaves were much more fragile than they were two weeks ago, but we managed. Before constructing the head strap and coloring in the bill, we had to let the glue set overnight. The kids helped Mindy decorate the family room while I spent a little time on the PC. I guess I could’ve started making sauerkraut balls but decided to wait until Wednesday. After waking so early on Tuesday morning, I was kind of tired. While everyone was downstairs, I went up and filled the air mattress for the girls. They asked me to do so earlier. Mindy allowed the kids to stay up much latter than usual. And why not? They didn’t have school on Wednesday. For entertainment, Jacob suggested we watch the American Music Awards that we DVR’d Sunday. Good idea! Funny thing was, I was just reading a review of Adam Lambert’s performance. I guessed that all the kids at school were talking about it thus inspiring Jacob to want to see it. Perfectly normal behavior for a nine year old, I surmised. Because it was DVR’d, we were able to fast forward through the commercials and mindless banter, watching only the performances of choice. Most appealing to Mindy was Chris Daughtry, the 2008 American Idol runner-up. For me it was Alicia Keys and Jay-Z doing a tune about New York City. I shared with Mindy just how lovely and talented I thought she is. I’ve got one of her first CD’s. Next best might’ve been Lady Gaga. She’s talented, theatrical, and edgy. Like a lot of people, I was eager to see Whitney Houston, whose decade worth of struggle has been well documented (drugs & violence). She was on top of the world 10-15 years ago. She looked a bit rough and her voice marginal, but still, it was nice to see her perform. In her music, she seemed to reference Jesus as the light along her path to recovery. Adam Lambert, the 2009 American Idol runner-up, was the final performer. Not to gloat, but I picked him to win the whole thing way back in auditions. His performance was good, but at the same time, not as good as it could’ve been. Guess I could see what’s stirring all the controversy, but I didn’t think it warranted such a scandalous review. The kids went to bed around 10pm. Mindy and I stayed up for just a while longer. I was hungry and snacked on some Triscuits before bed.