No Orionid

I jumped out of bed somewhere close to 8am, this my last day of autumn vacation. Directly out of bed I was already feeling the blues.

I should mention that I woke earlier,very near 4am, and headed downstairs and out on the deck to observe the Orionid meteor shower. If visible, I planned to wake Bella so she could see them too. She went to bed the night before very interested in seeing it.

It was cold, so I wrapped up in the blanket hanging on the back of the sofa. I stared starward, still a little buzzed, for about 5 minutes. The sky was clear but could only see stars directly overhead. Watching, watching, watching. Sadly, I didn’t see any meteors this time, though I’ve seen the Orionid before. I headed back upstairs to bed.
I read a few headlines while waiting for the coffee to finish brewing. Amongst them was a recap of the Buckeye game and the health of Braxton Miller, our quarterback. I was surprised to read that he was released from the hospital with no symptoms. Hmm?
I enjoyed coffee for about 30-45 minutes before preparing some for Mindy. She asked that I deliver some when I first rolled out of bed. Turned out, she was already on her way down the stairs when I finished pouring it for her. Mindy joined me in the livingroom where we chatted for a while. We talked a little about Olivia’s birthday party and then about our day. She reminded me that Lindsey was coming over to do laundry near noon. Mindy planned a trip to the grocery.

I’m not certain of the exact time I left for a run, but know that it wasn’t any earlier than 930am. It was sunny but still pretty cool. In fact, it was chilly enough that I wanted to wear hand covers. It was 40 degrees just before I headed out. I ran the usual 3 miles. About a ½ mile into my run I happened up neighbor Teresa was running about 100 yards out front of me. As usual, I didn’t try and catch up.
I happened upon Bella walking Eiknarf as I approached home. We walked back to the house together. Mindy was noncommittal on whether or not she was going to go grocery shopping. She’s never cared much for the grocery shopping experience unless, of course, she’s going with me. 

She laid out steaks for grilling later. We had several in the basement freezer. Mindy planned to spend a lot of time that afternoon working in Bella’s room with her help. The goal being to clear clutter, and purge clothes that no longer fit. Bella wasn’t at all pleased to learn that she had to help. She wanted to go out and play.
While those two got started on that, I headed to the basement to install 2”X10” braces between the last floor joist and the band joist to have something to nail the top plate to. I measured in four places and a good thing I did. The distance varied from 13 1/8” to 14 ½”. I went to the garage to make the cuts then headed back to the basement for the install. I was nervous then pissed. The new 2”X10”’ braces were a tad too tight to fit in the space – a waste of $7. Really a waste of $15 because I bought 5 2”X10” joist hangers, too.

I ended up using a 2”X4” which accomplished the same thing. Not sure why I didn’t think of that initially. And I just so happened to have 5 2”X4” joist hangers left over from my garage shelf project some 4 or 5 years ago. I knew they’d come in handy someday. I still have the gas pipe and kitchen drain pipe interference issue to deal with before framing. Not entirely sure what I’m going to do. I’m inclined to pay to have them moved and make both problems a nonissue. All totaled, I was in the basement for no more than an hour.

After putting all my stuff away and cleaning up my sawdust mess, I asked Mindy if I could use her Kohl’s card. By then Lindsey and the boys were over. The house was a bit of a wreck and the kids constantly in and out. I was going bonkers. I thought I’d run to Kohl’s, look at and possibly buy one of those memory foam mattress toppers. We’ve talked about getting one for more than a year now after sleeping soundly on them both in Oregon and then most recently in Cleveland. It’s just what the doctor ordered for me.

Being the frugal guy that I am, I thought we should buy and try the less expensive version, a 1 ½” thick model that was on sale for $55.00 (regular price of $129). They run as much as $300 on sale for those that are as thick as 4” and come with a cover. Mindy seemed to agree with my thinking. I didn’t bother taking a shower and was still in my running clothes when I left.

I don’t think I’ve been to Kohl’s since last new Year’s eve. I’ve never been a big fan of their clothes, though certain things it just makes sense to buy there, like jeans and running socks – same brands and always on sale. I was happy to see that they had one of the 1 ½” memory foam toppers in a king size remaining. I snatched it up, but then looked at the more expensive models, too. My comparison shopping furthered my inclination to go with the one I had. I addition to being on sale for $55, I had a 20% off coupon too (Mindy’s on their frequent buyer mailing list). I opted to pick-up a package of ¾ running socks that were on sale, too.

With my coupon, I got both for about $50, including tax. What a deal! Not only that, they slipped me $10 of Kohl’s cash too. Is it Christmas, or what?  Now about 2pm, I tuned my XM radio to NFL radio where I caught lots of updates, including a live feed of the Vikings Cardinal game from Minny. I got to listen in to the Vikings go ahead touchdown, a lead, as it turns out, that they would never relinquish.

Mindy and Bella were still working on Bella’s room when I got back home. After unrolling our new memory foam mattress topper to let it air out (something they recommend), I headed back downstairs where I did some reading from the recliner avoiding the noisy and busy family room where Lindsey was working on her laundry. I read and napped until 330-4pm. Mindy finally came downstairs and said she was heading back up to take a much needed shower. Not used to her looking like she just crawled out of bed so late in the afternoon.

While Mindy was in the shower, Joe-Joe stopped over. At the time I was watching SNL’s presidential debate snippets on Hulu. Funny stuff! Jacob and I chatted with Joe until Mindy came downstairs. While we sat chatting, Mindy texted Joe asking him to stop by. We laughed. Once Mindy was done upstairs, I headed up for a shower of my own. I was hoping it would help melt away the end of vacation blues. For some reason, I was really fretting my return to work.

A shower felt grand, and it did help some with the attitude. After my shower, I took the time to install our memory foam topper under our existing mattress pad. I laid on the finished product with the bed still made just to get a feel for the change. Subtle, but enough to make a difference. I was much looking forward to a full night’s rest in it later.

Joe was gone by the time I was out of the shower and back downstairs, and Lindsey was just finishing up her laundry. I assumed that she and the boys were staying for dinner, but not long after she finished her last load she corralled the boys for home. I didn’t bother asking them to stay. I really needed some peace and quiet.
I’m guessing that it was near 5pm when I checked the Vikings final. They won 21-14. That made me happy. Mindy was pleased too. However, looking at the stats, one would think that they lost. Very dismal quarterback stats. On a positive note, Adrian Peterson had a banner day. They were beat soundly in almost every statistical category save for sacks and the final score. Some will say stats are for losers.
While Mindy was busy in the kitchen putting together the sides for dinner, I took a brief nap in the family room. Near 550pm I headed to the deck to grill the steaks. Grilling was a challenge since I had four steaks of varying thicknesses. I did my best to cook all four to perfection. Both kids came for dinner shortly after my ‘dad’ whistle out the back door. Well, come to think of it, I’m pretty sure Mindy had to call Chrissy to get Bella home.

Bella was pouty and complained about her steak citing it being too fatty. In reality, it was very lean. I had the thickest, a T-bone we’ve had since my mother’s weekend visit back in July. It was a prime T-bone from the Market District. I wasn’t too impressed. It was tough to cut and chew. We ended up with about 1.5 steaks leftover for another day. Along with steak, Mindy made fresh garden salads, green beans, and some prepackaged noodle concoction. All in all, a super Sunday family dinner.
During clean-up, Mindy opted to run to the nearby Circle K and pick-up a jug of white and chocolate milk to tie us over until she groceried after school on Monday. I suggested she cash in my $10 winning lottery ticket that Shelly gifted me on my birthday. Iasked her to buy one Powerball ticket and use the rest for the milk. Before heading out, she sat out a frozen keylime pie for dessert. We each had a slice when she got back home.

After dinner, clean-up, and dessert, it was close to 8pm. Ahead of SNF I snuggled up in the family room chair and did some more reading – Subliminal, Mlodinow. Good stuff! Come 835pm I sat the book aside and took in the football game between the Bengals and Steelers. Even before halftime we all headed for bed, though Mindy agreed to watching more of the game from our bedroom. I was eager to give the memory foam topper a whirl. Ahh, very soft. We watched rest of the first half then turned the TV off and went to sleep.