Fifteen Minutes of Delusion

Just a few quick updates, because I'm sure you want to know. We are house-guest-less as of yesterday. Everything went well, as expected. Alyssa misses her new friend. The biggest of the five boxes that came via various shippers today was 70 lbs of grass-fed meat. I called it our "mail order cow," but there was lamb and buffalo in there, too. No yak or kangaroo - that comes from a different place. Kara went to the store today and did her grocery shopping by herself. I had worked my schedule to do this trip, so having her take it came as a very pleasant surprise. I celebrated by mowing the lawn. The possum has not been seen since Saturday. Still, knowing that a possum has been around makes one a little jumpy when unloading 70 lbs of grass-fed meat into the freezer in the garage and the water softener starts to recharge.

Me 1: So, it's Kara's first full weekend home. Me 2: Yup, that's right. The first Saturday I didn't have to go to Dallas in I don't know how long. Me 1: Wow, that's great. I bet it was good to stay at home and tackle some of those big projects on your list. Me 2: What? I didn't stay home and do projects. No, although I didn't have to go to Dallas, I went to or through just about every other city in the Metroplex. Me 1: You didn't stay home? Me 2: No, I went to Fort Worth, and Hurst, and Bedford... Me 1: But I thought you had things that needed to be done. Me 2: ...Euless, Grapevine, Coppell... Me 1: What about your project list? Me 2: ... Plano, The Colony, Frisco... Me 1: Okay, already! I think we get the point! Me 2: Sorry. Me 1: So, what exactly were you doing in all of these places? Me 2: Shopping. Me 1: Shopping? For what? Me 2: Bottles, breadboxes, beds, binder clips, that kind of thing. It was a retail therapy day at Ikea. There was a Costco t...

We have a guest staying at our house. No, it's not Sinbad. And I think the situation will work out a little better than what happened in the movie. What happened in the movie, anyway? I can't remember if I saw this one, or just the previews. Anyway, one of Kara's friends from Dallas was in need of a place to stay, and Kara has offered the use of our spare bedroom. The one that was being used as storage. Now, this is the lady that Kara stayed with several days a week for six months, so we all know her pretty well, and I expect things will work out OK. I've known for a few days that she might be coming, but yesterday Kara let me know she was going to be staying for sure, and would be following her home. That gave me about 4 hours to get the house guest-ready. Hahahahahahahahahahaha. But I managed to get the basics, like clean the toilet and find the floor in her room and get the sheets washed. As it happens, she's the fastidious one, so as long as she can put up with ...

So we successfully got Kara home over the weekend. Packing and moving spilled over into Sunday, but by Sunday afternoon we were unloading the pickup here at home. It's been good having her here. She spends most of her time cooking, eating, and doing the dishes. I'm amazed at the sheer volume of food that she is eating, although it is mostly meat and vegetables at the moment. She has a few carbs that she can eat, and is looking to add more. Having Kara home is an adjustment for everyone, and I have seized on this opportunity to try and add a little more structure and routine to the girl's schedule - taking special care to include time for doing chores, while emphasizing the opportunity to do fun things. Last night we went to the park as a family, and it was a lot of fun. Kara is still gaining weight. I thought I was losing, but that's not going nearly as fast as I had hoped. But I've stuck to my diet for a week now, which means something is going right.

I was tagged twice - on 15 Minutes of Delusion by Josi , and on 90,000 Words of Delusion by Kim . I toyed with the idea of playing twice, but I was doing good to finish this once. 1. As a child, I was a bit of a clown. On my eighth birthday, my mom brought a cake for my class. Walking back to my desk with my piece in hand, I saw some paper on the floor. I successfully managed to step on the paper and have it slide out from under my foot. I then proceeded to intentionally and strategically fall forward, avoiding pain and injury but planting my nose squarely in the middle of my cake. The class roared with laughter. Priceless. 2. One of my favorite practical jokes as a child was to take fun snaps (those little noise makers) and gently set them under the pads of the toilet seat. Yeah, that would make you pee your pants if they weren't already down. 3. My English 315 Professor was impressed enough with my term paper that he suggested I submit it for publication. I sent it in to the on...

I mowed the back yard today. Hooray! Now, this is not the first time the back yard has been mowed. Nor is it the first time I have taken a mower out back. But this is the first time that I was actually able to finish by myself. My new Toro was able to work through the half-acre of prairie grass in about 100 minutes. My poor cordless electric would have probably taken three days, given that the battery needed to be recharged after an hour, which would only get me a third of the way through due to the smaller deck and weaker propulsion system (aka Me). This is wonderful, because this year I will be able to keep up with this very basic homeownership requirement on my own. No longer will our back yard be a Youth Service Project. Well, maybe I'll let them help with the seven missing fence panels, but pau after that.

I went to the doctor with Kara today over in Dallas. It was a good visit. The doctor is quite pleased with Kara's progress, as are the rest of us. She has gained 40(!) pounds in the last month or so, (up from a way-too-scary 74) and is able to eat significantly more foods than in a long, long time. Kara will be coming home for keeps on Saturday. We are all very excited. There are still projects that need to be done, but she did so well on her trial visit last week that we've decided she can move home with the house as-is. Having her home should hopefully make finding time to finish the projects much easier. This would have been the most noteworthy part of the day, if it weren't for the tornado warning and severe thunderstorm that tracked through our little town. I was driving home when the warning was announced on the radio. The forecasters predicted the tornado would pass through our town a good fifteen minutes before Carly's estimate of our arrival. The girls were ac...