Peppery Eggs

Tingdagdag - Cebuano

I slept about as late as I could without jeopardizing my morning routine. I got up and out of bed at 615am. A benefit of sleeping so late was feeling completely rested. Downstairs, I quickly glanced out back at the weather without actually opening the deck door. It was cloudy. I flipped on the spot lights briefly looking for any sign of the coyotes all the neighbors have reported seeing. Nothing.

To the living room where I whipped out 50 sit-ups, then 20 windmills each arm, and lastly 40 curls with 20lb dumbbells. By then it was 630am, well past the time I usually take Mindy coffee. I made hers and mine using the new creamer I bought at Kroger the day before – Salted Caramel Mocha. I took Mindy coffee. She woke after hearing me walk into the room. For whatever the reason, our bedroom floor creaks to high heaven just inside the bedroom door and seems to be more pronounced come late fall through winter each year. We chatted ever so briefly before I headed back downstairs.

I grabbed my coffee then headed to my desk where I had both machines up and running. I planned on working from home through the morning hours before heading across town for most of the afternoon, but then finishing my work day once again at home so I could meet the Orkin guy, who was supposed to arrive sometime between 4-6pm. And based on past practice, he’s often there and waiting even before 4pm. With that plan in mind, I wasn’t in a big hurry to get out the door for my run. Instead, I figured to hold off on my run until after seeing Bella onto the school bus. Speaking of Bella, despite having a horrible hacking cough, I didn’t hear but one brief coughing spell during the overnight. The cough syrup worked.

Like most days, I heard Mindy call out for Bella to get up shortly after 7am. She was compliant and downstairs a few minutes later. Said she slept really good. Probably as a result of the cough meds Mindy gave her just before bed. Mindy said she wasn’t looking forward to the long school day ahead, one that wouldn’t conclude until about 7pm due to another round of parent teacher conferences. And just as we did last Thursday, I planned on taking Bella to gymnastics and Mindy picking her up on her way home from school. Mindy left for school around 730am. She gave Bella her regular medicine as well as another dose of cough syrup. Bella was stoked about moving to a more advanced math team. I reiterated that she shouldn’t speak to her friends about it for fear of sounding boastful. She agreed.

The three of us, me, Bella and Eiknarf, headed out at 757am. It was a chilly 34 degrees and still under cloudy skies. Our wait wasn’t long at all. The bus arrived near 8am. As soon as the bus pulled away, the pug and I continued on across the street for her regular morning walk. Back inside by 810am, I poured more coffee then started breakfast. The pepper grinder we keep at the stove was empty. Then, after finding the peppercorn supply empty, I had to resort to using the regular ground black pepper that we keep in the spice drawer. Well, while giving the large container a good shake, the plastic lid that filters the pepper fell off and caused several tablespoons worth of black pepper to cover our eggs, so much so that they were completely buried. I did my best to scrape it off and in so doing, wasted a lot of good black pepper. One of the three eggs was unrecoverable. I had no choice but to pitch it and fry another. But even after scraping away the coating of pepper, they were the pepperiest eggs I’ve ever eaten.  And just in case you’re wondering, I fried the pug a new egg without any pepper.

I had an 1130am call I needed to join for another customer, which was the main reason I opted to work from home during the AM. I don’t like to be on calls with other customers from a customer location, especially in an open work environment. Ahead of that call I took care of several work to-do’s and then headed up for a shower around 1030am.

Joined the 1130am call. It went much faster than I expected, in part because many of the customer contacts were off this week. I left the house for New Albany near 12noon. By then it was nice and sunny, but still fairly cool – only 39 degrees. Tuned my XM radio to XMAS music – channel 004. I made excellent time driving across town. Arrived near 1220pm. Got a premium parking spot up front.

With 40 minutes or so before our recurring 1pm meeting, I went in search of a familiar cubical to get set-up in. On my way, I cut through their in-house Starbucks where I saw a former peer, who now works for another company but has the same customer. First time I’ve seen her since she left. Said hello and moved on. I got set-up in the same cubical I used the last time I was in. Not the coziest digs but functional. I had just enough time to take care of a couple emails but that’s about it. Off to our 1pm meeting.

The meeting was engaging and worthwhile. Glad I took the time to drive across town. Never underestimate the power of face to face encounters. The meeting went the full hour. Soon others were hovering just outside apparently awaiting the same meeting room. I headed back to my cubical where I spent another hour catching up on several other hot issues. Shortly after 3pm, I left for home. Once I was safely onto the freeway I called Jacob to, one, see if he was home from school yet, and two, to let him know that the Orkin guy might show up before I got there. He was at home (his orders are to remain home each school day until Bella gets off the bus).

Arrived home near 330pm. I was fortunate in that I beat rush hour traffic. Right away, I unpacked my laptop and logged back into work. I opened a jar of peanuts and took them to my desk. No sooner had I dug into work when Bella came in the front door. At the same time I could hear an adult voice out front. I stood and glanced out the window. It was the Orkin guy, Keith. I opened the door to let him know that I was home. He apologized for being early, and said the same thing he did last time – that he was planning to do the outside first. No worries. He ended up coming inside to knock it out first, which actually worked best for me since I needed to join our weekly team call at 415pm. By the way, Jacob bolted off to play basketball once he knew that I was home.

As usual, Keith asked if we’ve seen any bugs since last visit. Nothing more than the stink bugs that everyone in the midwest is dealing with. I asked about his next visit, which wouldn’t be until January. I then reminded him that the only pests we were dealing with repeatedly were those pesky piss ants and that they don’t typically come around again until late spring. If you ask me, winter treatments are worthless.
Keith was done and gone by 4pm. I had 15 minutes ahead of my team call.

Our team call lasted about 20-25 minutes. Spent the rest of my work day taking care of a few administrative things. Knocked off around 510pm. Asked Bella what she wanted for dinner ahead of gymnastics. I offered a plethora of leftover options. She chose Minelli’s pizza. I warmed two small slices for her. She and I left for gymnastics at 540pm. I sent Jacob a text letting him know where I'd be just before heading out the door. In hindsight, I probably should’ve insisted he be back from playing by 530pm so he could ride along. No harm though.

It didn’t’ take long to get around 270 to the Georgesville Rd exit. Dropped Bella at the gym near 550pm. Despite that nagging cough, Bella was in good spirits and still stoked about moving up in math. Was home again by 605pm. By then it was already completely dark. Jacob still wasn’t back. I took a few minutes to pull some leftovers from the fridge, placing several wings and a barbq sandwich on the pizza stone and warmed them in a 300 degree oven for 20 minutes. Oh, I warmed a leftover chimichanga, too.

While waiting on the leftovers to warm, I played on my computer, including doing some writing for my blog. Shortly after I pulled the leftovers from the oven, Jacob came in. He and I shared what I’d already warmed. I wasn’t really that hungry anyway. I ate three wings and then half of the smallish chimichanga.
While I headed back to my computer, Jacob headed up to his room, presumably to take care of his homework.
Mindy called around 715pm to let me know that she was on her way home, or actually to pick-up Bella. Said she was exhausted after such a long school day. I continued playing on my computer until she & Bella got home around 745pm.

Right away, Bella shared how hungry she was. She asked for cheese nachos at first, but ended up settling for some of Mindy’s leftover Minelli’s spaghetti from Saturday night. Meanwhile, Jacob made a brief appearance downstairs but disappeared again just as quickly. A few minutes later Mindy quipped that the only reason he likely came down was to see if she brought home fast food. I pointed out that he devoured that entire bag of chocolate donuts as well as a half gallon of chocolate milk in just one day.

Mindy warmed what was left of the spaghetti for herself. Watching everybody else eat made me hungry again, especially since I hadn’t eaten much other than those three wings earlier. I ended up having 1.5 bowls of Cap’n Crunch, probably not the best of choices. While hanging in the kitchen, I went ahead and cleared out all the older leftovers from the fridge and ground them up in the garbage disposal. Amongst them were more wings, the pesto bowtie pasta, and then the roast beef, carrots and potatoes from 9 days prior. All that remains now are the taco leftovers from Monday.

After dinner and clean-up, I headed to the living room to do a little reading. In two sittings, I read about 20 pages. At the same time, Bella was dispatched to the shower. At 930pm we collectively declared it bedtime and shut down the downstairs. Somewhat surprising, Bella was quickly in her bed and under the covers. I guess the cough meds Mindy gave her started working fast!