Lunch with Mindy

I was up and downstairs before 540a. I placed my running clothes on an island stool and then went for my exercise shoes. I put them on while glancing out the back door. Cloudy again. I had to prep coffee since I failed to address it the night before. I headed to the livingroom to do my sit-ups. The sit-ups seemed to knock a kink or two out of my neck. After sit-ups, I jumped online. It was 38 degrees and cloudy, but the forecast called for clearing skies and warming temps. Expected it to reach the low 60s later. I got an email from Delta confirming receipt of my email. Said we should receive our new replacement faucet in 10-14 days. That’s fine. Left me a tracking number too. I went to the family room where I completed 55 push-ups and then poured a cup of coffee. I drank about half my coffee before taking Frankie out for a walk. We took a fairly long walk, yet despite my efforts she only pooped. That was fine with me. I knew she’d need to go out again later, however. She wanted to stay out longer but I needed to move on. Inside, I gave Frankie a treat then settled down for a brief meditation. That went OK. Next up, a stretch. Felt terrific. My shoulders and neck were much better afterwards. Since I didn’t need to wake Mindy, I went ahead and dressed and left for a run. It was later than ideal. It was 638a heading out the door. I dressed in full winter running attire minus the toboggan. I ran the full 4.1 miles. The first half seemed to take forever, but then the time started flying by. I was back at home by 720a. Mindy & the kids had already started breakfast, Mindy still in her PJs and robe. Bella looked tired and shared as much. Didn’t sleep well. Told us she was awake until 337a. Cute. She doesn’t always read her clock correctly, though. Over breakfast, we talked briefly about our evening plans. Jacob had soccer practice at 630p. Mindy planned to leave the house around 6p figuring Bella would stay home with me unless I planned to meet them there. I agreed to head home after work and hang with Bella. Mindy & I also made loose arrangements to meet up for lunch. Asked her to call around 11a to firm plans. My reason being my day could get out of hand fast and I might have to call it off. I headed up to shower at 730a. I was dressed and back downstairs by 745a. Mindy said she slept much better through the night. Felt better than she has all week. Even though we had lunch plans, I still packed cheese, fruit medley, and a banana. The kids and I headed out for the bus at 757a. Chrissy and her girls joined us a couple minutes later. The bus arrived around 804a. After the kids were off to school, I walked Frankie again out front. I made quick work of my final preparations and said goodbye to Mindy, and once again confirmed our plans to try and meet up for lunch. I left the house near 810a. Arrived at work just ahead of 830a. Right away, the day was crazy busy. I had a lot of stuff stacking up in a hurry. I talked with Mindy around 11am. I was swamped. I told her that it wasn’t looking good for lunch, but that I would still try. In fact, I told her to still plan on meeting at 1230p and that I’d call by 1215p if I couldn’t. I don’t think we'd been to lunch together since last spring break. It wasn't getting any easier at work, but me being in the office wasn’t going to change things much. I decided to simply put work down for a while and go meet Mindy at 1215p. Work would be waiting for me when I got back. I called Mindy as I exited the building. She was nearby, I think at Tuttle mall. I arrived at PF Changs not 5 minutes later. I parked next to the Honda, though a parking island in between us. I headed inside expecting to find Mindy sitting in the lobby. Nope. I didn’t peak inside the Honda. I wondered if it was hers after all. I waited in the lobby for 5-10 minutes until finally deciding to venture out to make double sure it was our Honda. Remember, I just removed the Thule last weekend. That always made it easy to spot from any distance. Lots of silver Pilots out there. Out in the lot I peaked in the window. Yep, our Honda. Back inside, I peeked around the restaurant. No Mindy within eyeshot. A young greeter then asked if I was Jim or Rob. Yes, why? Is my wife here and looking for either of us, I quipped. She lead me to at table at the far end of the restaurant. I told Mindy I was waiting for 10 minutes. She thought she was helping. No biggie. I think our servers name was Joel, a young guy. Mindy already had her drink, water. I ordered a Coke. We ordered some lettuce wraps too. They showed up in a hurry and were delicious. We ordered our food then too. I ordered a pepper steak lunch bowl. It comes with soup. I went with egg drop. Mindy ordered some spicy chicken dish. Our food was yummy. PF Changs is always good. It was nice to get away for lunch. Mindy agreed to stop for lottery tickets sometime that afternoon. The Powerball jackpot was up to $200 million again. We headed separate ways near 115p. I headed back to work. Not sure where Mindy went. The afternoon went fast. I did some of my best work with an unusually full stomach. Word from Mindy was that that soccer practice fields were shut down due to the heavy rains over the past couple days. The coach emailed asking parents to wait until approximately 430p then to check back. The sun came out around 330p and temperature shot up about 10 degrees. Mindy sent a note indicating that soccer practice was a go, but that Bella wanted to stay home with me. In the same note, she shared that she bought 3 lottery tickets, including two with our lucky numbers from PF Changs. I did my best to get out of work on time, still didn’t manage my way out until 545p. I called Mindy right away to make her aware. No worries. Jacob didn’t have to be at soccer practice until 630p. We had plenty of time. I arrived home at 605p. After a brief greeting, Mindy & Jacob departed for soccer practice. Mindy reminded Bella that she needed to do 15 minutes of reading. After Mindy left, Bella asked if she could split up her reading thus affording her more play time with Emily. We made a deal, got out and play now, and do all of your reading when you come in, but she had to come in 15 minutes earlier than usual (730p). She agreed and happily headed off to play. While Bella was off playing I did little more than spend time on the PC. How sad is that? It was 730p before I knew it and time for Bella to come in. At 735p still no Bella. I went to the back door calling for her. She was in the tree house with Emily. Came in right away. I got her settled and reading in short order. She was about halfway through her 15 minutes when Mindy and Jacob got home. And as soon as she finished we all settled in on the sofa to watch Idol. With only nine contestants, the show went only 90 minutes. All the performances were pretty good. I liked Haley best. Hoping Paul will be the one going home Thursday. Do I sound bitter? Kids headed to bed at 930p. Mindy and I weren’t far behind. After about 45 minutes tossing and turning in bed, I gave up on sleep and headed back downstairs to play on the internet hoping that might help induce sleep. The cause of my angst was work related. After about 30 minutes I was sleepy again.