Bella Fever

I knew the night before that I'd be working from home on Wednesday, so that I figured afforded me the opportunity to sleep at least 10 minutes longer than usual while still allowing enough time for exercise, coffee, meditation and a run before Mindy headed out. To that end, I rolled out of bed at 540a. It took just a few minutes to get organized with my running clothes and then into my exercise shoes. I completed my sit-ups then checked the weather. Burr! It was quite cold, 5 degrees to be exact. I spent comparably little time on the PC then completed my push-ups. Afterwards, I bundled up and took Frankie out. She took care of business in a reasonable amount of time. She kept lifting her from paws from the icy cold snow as if they stung from the cold. But heck, I would too if I were out there in bare feet. Inside, I warmed quickly with a hot cup of coffee then treated Frankie with a Milkbone. I took my dear old time with coffee and didn’t get around to meditation and stretching until 630a. I needed to be out the door for my run no later than 650a so I could be back before Mindy needed to leave for school. Speaking of 650a, that’s exactly the time when I headed out the door for my run. It was cold, but I was bundled warmly enough and didn’t fret over not using an extra layer. Less than a mile into the run I was sweating. I ran the full 4.1 miles on this the day that marks the completion of running every single day for 14 years. By the time I got back home not only was the Honda already warming, but Mindy was already walking out the front door to leave, too. She shared that Bella was still sleeping and that she left directions for me to take her temp and medicate her if she was still sporting a fever. Jacob, she said, was all but ready for school. Cool. Inside, I stripped off my outer most layers then topped off my coffee. It was 730a, so I used the next 30 minutes to proof read some writing for my blog. At 755a I called Jacob down in preparation for the bus. I reminded him to dress warmly. It was still only 5 degrees. Kenny was out with girls. I was freezing, now inadequately dressed for the biting cold. As you might guess, we didn’t hang out long at all after the bus left. I did, however, give Frankie the opportunity to go potty again and she went. Yippie! I headed back inside where Bella remained asleep. I didn’t bother her. Figured I’d let her wake naturally. I topped off my coffee then got busy with work. For some reason, the idea of working from home sat a little better with me than it did on Monday. More mentally prepared for it perhaps. We had a staff call around 11a, but that lasted only about 15 minutes. I am much more comfortable/effective working in the office where in a moment's notice I can have face to face interaction with my team. Just feels more natural. Bella must’ve gotten up around 10-1030a. She seemed in good spirits and said she was feeling much better. I took her temperature just as Mindy asked. It was 98.1. We nixed the whole Tylenol thing. No need. I served her breakfast, orange juice and fruit. Later, she asked for a warmed croissant roll while watching TV from the sofa while I worked at my laptop. Around lunchtime she headed up to get dressed and brush her teeth. Yep, she was feeling better. Mindy called mid-day to check on Bella’s status. She asked that I take her temperature a second tme. I did. This time it read even lower. Mindy said you have to add one degree, which made sense. That put it right at 98.6. Finally, during my lunch break, I headed up for a shower. Until then, I was in my once damp running clothes. That took all of 15 minutes. But bent on taking a full hour, I decided to start on our 2010 income tax return. And because I was using the same software as the previous two years, the data entry piece went really fast. most of it transferred seamlessly. Heck, I was nearly finished with the entire thing in just under 30 minutes. Would’ve been even faster if we didn't have so many charitable items to value. The day typically goes fast from the office, but not nearly as fast as it does when working from home. Seemed like Jacob was home in the blink of an eye, and then Mindy not too far behind him. However, there school day might've been over, but I still had more than an hour to go. I tried to stay focused, but with everything going on at home, it was hard. Mindy was happy to see Bella up and around, back to her old self. Mindy declared that we'd be having leftovers of one kind or another for dinner, either tortellini or pork tacos. I opted for the tortellini. Jacob and Mindy both had pork. She made an entire cookie sheet of pork nachos. Didn't look appealing to my eyes. I lead dinner clean-up, but Mindy helped as well. I ran the dishwasher earlier that day, so that needed unloaded first. Can't recall how we spent our after dinner time, but come 8pm we tuned into American Idol, the last night of auditions from San Francisco. It was just OK. We tucked the kids into bed at 9p. Afterwards, Mindy & I watched Modern Family & Mr Sunshine. Both good for a few laughs. We headed for bed at 10p.