I Hate to Lose

I didn’t think I’d be hung over but I was extremely restless during the last couple hours of sleep. Perhaps I would be. For certain, I had cotton mouth and my temporary crown was hurting. I heard the kids up and around, I’m guessing near 830am. Mindy got up to deal with them and left me sleep longer. I appreciated that. I got up less than 20 minutes after Mindy. I took my time brushing my teeth in an attempt to get the incredibly yucky taste out of my mouth. After greeting the wee ones and Mindy, I leashed up Ykraps and headed out for our morning stroll. And boy, was it ever cold? It was only 20 degrees at 9am. I wore my thick leather gloves. I was comfy. Mindy started making pancakes around 930-10am. The kids, meanwhile, were having a ball playing in the basement. I spent a little time down there with them before giving way to the urge to run. I didn’t head out for my run until 1030am. Because it was Sunday, I planned to run only 3 miles. I lopped the western edge off the subdivision run and headed out onto Trabue and then south on Hague. It was an incredibly lovely run, which is often the case when it’s cold & sunny. The cold had no negative impact. The kids, for the most part, had finished eating their pancakes by the time I made it back to the house. I expected that. Mindy lovingly kept some batter aside to make her and I plain pancakes after I expressed that desire the last time she made chocolate chip pancakes for the kids. I ate just two. Through late morning and early afternoon the kids played and played. We had nothing significant planned until a wedding reception at 4pm. Mindy put the two wee ones (Landon and Olivia) down for a nap after lunch. And speaking of naps, I napped most of the afternoon away, too. It felt great to simply veg out on the sofa. It felt good but I also felt a slight bit guilty, this being the Xmas season and having so much still to do. Come 315pm I pulled myself off the sofa and headed up for a shower. At approximately the same time, Mindy go the kids changed into their nice clothes. Mindy had to wake Landon and Olivia. They were out cold, and had been for two hours. Olivia is always slow to become her cheerful self after waking. Landon, on the other hand, was bubbly almost immediately. We loaded into the Honda and headed down the road, first to drop Olivia then to drop Landon, and then onto Crossroads Church. As expected, the drop-offs went without incident. We arrived at Crossroads UM church near 430pm to help celebrate the recent wedding of a long-time friend of Mindy's family, Amy G. and her new husband Dustin. As I understood it, the actual wedding was back in September. There was an ample supply of hors devours before the actual dinner. I was really hungry too. Good thing most of the hors devours were healthy (lots of veggies, cheese, etc). Lasagna was the main course, a tray with meat and another vegetarian. We stayed through dinner or until almost 620pm. I was eager to get home and plop down on the sofa. I was excruciatingly tired, but also excited about the Viking game due to kick-off at 8:20pm. I walked Ykraps as soon as we arrived home. I played around on my PC until 20 minutes before kick-off. Mindy & I tucked the kids into bed just as the game was getting underway. I felt anxious and nervous. I also had the feeling that they would play poorly and lose, something they've done only one other time this entire season. The game began on a high note. The Vikings took advantage of an early fumble and quickly scored the game's first touchdown. But the wheels fell off after that. It's almost as if Brett Favre was jinxed by the announcers heaping all this praise his way. Not only did Favre have perhaps his worst game as a Viking but many of their star players were sustaining injuries. I became very concerned about the rest of the season after seeing that. Then, in the 4th quarter, our star middle linebacker broke his leg - his femur bone. I knew it right away after seeing the replay. That's a big blow. Luckily the two big lineman that were injured in the first half were able to come back in. That being said, the Vikings could never get in sync, and were outplayed by the Arizona Cardinals. The Vikings lost 30-17. I went to bed bummed afterwards - about 1130pm. As you might expect, I had a hard time falling asleep.