Old K9's

I was awake around 630am but drifted back to sleep until 715am. Fully satisfied, I rose from bed and headed down stairs to get the day moving. I started some coffee then completed 55 sit-ups. I played around online before doing my push-ups, but only briefly. The coffee maker beeped signaling its brewing process completed somewhere mid-push-ups. I did 53. Soon Ykraps and I were doing our morning walk. It was sunny and mild, a great start to a long, five day weekend. I had plenty of quiet time before there was any sign of life beyond Ykraps and me. But once there was it was plentiful. Kaileigh and Bella will never win an award for staying quiet. They were thumping around giggling from jump. I asked them to keep it down a time or two before they woke Mindy. And speaking of Mindy, she got up sometime around 9am, and just prior to me changing into my running attire. I suggested Mindy bake the double-chocolate muffins along with the bacon she was already preparing to make. Everyone agreed. I did my pre-run stretch routine like any other morning, only this time with an audience. I left for a run at 9:20am. I decided to run just three miles and outside the subdivision east on Trabue and south on Hague. In hindsight that probably wasn’t the wisest choice given that it was still a day of commerce. Traffic was heavier than I expected, especially on Trabue. Hague wasn’t much different than a Saturday or Sunday though. I felt a sense of relief as I reentered the subdivision at Western Run. I was back home after my run sometime close to 10am. We still had to wait on the chocolate muffins. They needed another 10 minutes or so. During our breakfast, Mindy checked the picture show start times and ticket prices at the Arena Grand theatre. We were planning to see Old Dogs, starring Robin Williams and John Travolta. The start time that best suited our plans was 220pm in part because Mindy made loose plans with George, Rene’s younger brother, to come over around noon to interview Bella as part of a Linguistics class assignment. Soon after we cleaned up from breakfast, I started making sauerkraut balls. I browned the sausage, onions, and habanera, then mixed it with the sauerkraut, cheese, and bread crumbs. I then placed it in the fridge to set up for a few hours while we movied ourselves. While I was busy cooking, Mindy continued the slow process of decorating the house for Xmas. George showed up while I was off showering. I could hear him down there having a somewhat forced dialogue with Bella. It was cute. Bella was shy at first, but like she always does, she warmed fairly quickly. On yeah, before heading up to the shower, I called and invited Rocky to join us at the movies. I’m trying to include him in as many of these types of activities as I can. He was very excited to be joining us. I confirmed plans to pick him up some time around 1pm with daughter Lindsey. It was 1250pm when George left for home and we loaded into the Honda. We asked George to give Rene our best holiday wishes. We haven’t seen her in quite a while. We picked up Rocky just before 1:30pm. After giving Landon a quick hug, we were off to the movies. Sadly for Rocky, I could already smell that over whelming odor of cat piss. It’s not his fault. We made great time getting downtown and parked in the Arena Grand parking garage. What a deal. It’s only $1 after having your parking pass validated by the movie theatre. Not only that, it’s a short walk from the garage to the theater’s entrance. Cost of admission, $39 for two adults and four children. That’s not too bad either. Mindy popped for the concessions – another $23 for three drinks and three popcorns to be shared by all of us. We headed to theatre, #3 at 2:00pm. We still had 20 minutes before showtime. We woofed down our popcorn quickly. Mindy offered to fetch more before the previews started. Yes, please! She returned minutes later with a jumbo bag we’d use to refill the smaller bags. It was finally show time, although we still had to sit through 10 minutes of previews before the actual movie began. Old Dogs was moderately funny but honestly, I expected more. But the kids enjoyed it, and at times they were laughing hysterically. That made the whole experience worth it. Bella got lonely during the movie and asked to sit on her momma’s lap. It was a relatively short movie – only an hour & twenty-some minutes. We were heading out of the theatre around 4pm. It was noticeably cooler and the skies completely grayed over. Traffic had picked up considerably, too. It was Thanksgiving Eve and everyone was trying to get out of town. Lucky for us, exiting the parking garage left us with direct access to 315 south and eventually I-70W, just the way we needed to go to take Rocky home. Mindy called Shelly, who made arrangements to meet us at Kelly’s to pick-up Kaileigh. That would certainly make it easy on us. She’d just gotten off work and had to go right by Kelly’s place, so it was easier on her too. We got out and played with Landon for a few minutes while waiting on Shelly. I restaked the Xmas lamp that had fallen over in Kelly’s flower bed. Jacob wanted/needed the fresh air too. He was getting a little car sick. We waited out front for Shelly. It was 430pm when she pulled up. We wished her a pleasant holiday and headed towards home. Heading north on Hague avenue is always a treat during the holidays. It’s that magical time of the year when the plastic santas make their inevitable appearance. I spotted about three. At home, there was little time to waste. Jimaken was coming around 5pm to pick-up the kids. They’d be spending the night at his place and returning around noon TG day. While Mindy gathered the kids’ overnight gear, I pulled the cheese cake ingredients from the pantry and fridge and started that whole process. Jimaken showed up while Mindy was still organizing the kids’ gear. Jimaken and Jacoby played paper football as I toiled with the cheesecake, but it wasn’t long before they were heading out the door. The cheesecake preparation went smoothly. Once it was in the oven, I asked Mindy if we could run to Targhetto so I could pick-up some plastic Xmas light roof clips. We had an hour before I needed to pull the cheesecake from the oven. Nephew Joe phoned just as we were heading into Target. Asked if the kids would or wouldn’t be at TG dinner. Apparently read my blog where I mistakenly stated that it was a Jimaken TG year in my reference to our potential Oregon TG trip that we eventually opted not to do. The nice thing about Target is that while the store set-ups may vary slightly they’re all uniformly clean, neat and well-organized. We headed towards their Xmas decorations. I had to remind Mindy that we couldn’t leisurely shop. Instead, we had to get what we came for and hurry back home. We perused the Xmas aisles separately looking for the clips. Finally, after looking in every single aisle maybe twice I found a store associate and asked for help. He checked with “Mr. Xmas’ on his walkie-talkie. I heard him answer, “not stocking them this year.” Crap! I shared the news with Mindy. We headed for the exit. I’d try elsewhere perhaps on Black Friday. We arrived home with ten minutes to spare, and actually more. The cheesecake wasn’t quite done when the timer went off, so I let it bake another ten minutes. Like often happens, the top cracked, but since I’d be topping it with chocolate, I didn’t let it bother me. I left the cheesecake cool in the oven for about 20 minutes before placing it in the fridge. We left for Barley’s around 730pm. Wahoo! I expected a big crowd, but that wasn’t the case at all. In fact, the lot wasn’t even half full. Inside, the bar was only sparsely populated but with a couple of familiar peeps – Dan and Calvin. We bellied up next to those two and ordered drinks – me one of their newest offerings, an Avery DuganA IPA. Mindy surprised us all and ordered wine. After a drink, Mindy ordered food – a variety of min-barbeque sandwiches: pork, beef, and chicken. After an hour or so our friend Tom Clark showed up. Said he might, although he was out shooting pool with buddies when Mindy talked with him earlier. He ordered a Pale ale then a Barley burger. I followed my DuganA with a Bitter Dan, then another DuganA. It’s really good – HopSlam-like. As the evening wound down I caved and ordered food, a Cuban – maybe my favorite sandwich in the entire world. And it was delicious! I picked up the check - $46 before tip. Still not done partying, once we got home Mindy phoned Chrissy and invited us down to their place. I pocketed a couple beers and we walked down. As late as it was, Chrissy was vacuuming after what looked like another marathon Xmas decorating session. Kapil came over not long after we arrived. Pabino was going to come over as well, but apparently Isha was having a meltdown. Mindy gave me a ‘ten-minute’ warning after about an hour’s worth of fun. I don’t really care for that. After ten minutes, she quickly bolted for home. I followed about a minute behind. With a big day ahead of us, we headed for bed.