Fifteen Minutes of Delusion

I used to be really big on to do lists. Still am, actually. But yesterday was the first time I had made one in quite a while. I simply haven't felt up to it. Towards the end of our vacation, I started feeling a little off. I figured it was just the result of working hard and playing hard being away from home. But when I got back to Texas, things didn't get better. In fact, they got worse - much worse. I couldn't get enough sleep at night - I found it hard to wake up, even after ten hours of sleep. When I was awake, I didn't feel very good. Not necessarily tired, or dizzy, or depressed. Just off. Like someone had reached through time and space, taken a hold of my soul, and pulled it just out of sync with my body. It was not a good feeling. I worked hard at my job, and did the things that needed doing around the house, but I felt like I was just trying to fill in the hours before I could go back to bed. I wasn't taking any new medications, so that wasn't it. In fa...

It's Sunday night again. That means we go to bed in a bit, and soon a new week starts all over again. Yes, I realize that if I were to actually pay attention to the calendar, the week started today. But it my mind, the week starts when the alarm goes off Monday morning. And I'm pretty sure I'm not alone. Anyway, the weekend was a pretty good one. Here are a few of the things I did: Pushed, prodded, and harangued the girls into cleaning up the living and dining room. Convinced (I hope) the family to have the house "Guest Ready" by Thanksgiving, even though there are currently no plans for guests. Broke and replaced an office chair. Baked two batches of scones. Baked two loaves of whole wheat bread. Explained to Anna why we will be eating whole wheat bread. Failed to make protein bars, and instead filled a jar with protein bar-flavored trail mix. (They turned out all crumbly) Quit taking my antibiotic (twice) due to a rather nasty side effect. Went to the park. Made...

The car is gone; delivered to the buyer. Finally. Hooray. This happened early this morning in the parking lot of the store where we were doing more back to school shopping - this time for clothes. I'm really glad Kara is around to take Anna on her trips to the underwear section. We also got ourselves moved out of one of the remaining two storage units. One more to go. Hopefully a big yard sale sometime in the cooler months will allow us to get completely out of there. I started working on some difficult paperwork for a big task. It's been rather unpleasant, but it needs to be done. Hopefully I can get it wrapped up soon I like when I can share a bit of humor in this blog, but the only really funny thing that happened today was my impersonation of Anna and her morning routine, and that doesn't translate very well to a blog post. So here's a funny but completely unrelated cartoon.

Today Kara and I defrosted the freezer, and we had a great time. Well, ok - that may be a bit of an exaggeration, but it really was kind of fun. Kara melted the frost with the steamer, and I sucked it up with the shop vac. We were finished in record time. I dumped over five gallons out of the vacuum when we were done - evidence that the task was long overdue. As an added bonus, I found some bags of guava puree buried under all that ice. Tomorrow I'm going to start a batch of Guavalicious apple butter. Maybe I'll even have a contest and give some away - provided there's enough interest (hint, hint).

Today was a good day. Together we got a lot of things done. Here are a few of the highlights. We planted our garden. Since we only have a one acre lot, and most of that is dedicated to a Limestone and Prairie Grass Preserve, we opted for a container garden in large metal baskets. Anna and I made little pictures to label the many metal storage bins we have picked up at Ikea over the last few years. The photos really help. Now when it's time to get a pair of sterile rubber gloves, we don't need to search through the Barbies and wooden train sets to get find them. I mowed the front lawn. There is no photographic evidence. Kara organized her large metal storage bin. This one came from the Home Depot. Please resist the temptation to fill it with empty banana peels. I took care of my bi-weekly grooming. No more combs, brushes, gels, or mousse - just a No. 2 clipper guard and a steady hand. Before After Kara was busy in the kitchen: cooking, deboning, and pureeing three game hens. I...

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...

Kara has come home for a trial overnighter. So far, so good - she is now thinking of staying the whole weekend which is great! Since I got such great feedback on my last list of tasks, I thought I would post a few more. These were done this week in addition to doing my "day job" and the general cleaning tasks that needed to be done in preparation for Kara's triumphant return. Hang curtains - the bright primary colors give warmth and whimsy to our otherwise "industrial" decor. Six in the living room, plus one in the piano room. Mount the microwave. The outside vent still needs attaching, but that's maybe another 30 minutes. Assemble bar stools. It makes no sense to have a 16 foot bar and only one stool. I have still quite a bit to do - three more curtains in Kara's room, two more mirrors in the bathroom, assemble and use our new lawnmower, and hang the miracle door . Plus, the wild Texas weather we had last night knocked down seven sections of our back fe...

Cleanupalooza ended a few hours later than hoped on Saturday, but by and large it was a great success. This type of event usually draws protests on par with those directed at the WTO and G8 summit, but Cleanupalooza was relatively complaint free. Unfortunately, Guest Bedroom Gutting went into overtime, so Child Bedroom Floor Finding and the Halloween Decoration Roundup were canceled. We'll get 'em next time! The girls and I drove to Dallas Saturday afternoon, and spent the evening and Sunday morning getting Kara situated and settled before my big trip. We also helped her try out a tanning salon, on the advice of her nutritionist. UV = Vitamin D. She was 2 whole minutes in a stand-up booth. We'll see how this works. The girls and I raced to church Sunday, where I got them set up with the babysitter, and then I was off to the airport for a few days in Atlanta. Our plane was delayed because the flight crew hadn't arrived. I offered to help fly the plane so we could leave o...

It's time once again for the Great Cleanupalooza Festival, that always exciting event aimed at preventing potentially fatal Embarrassmentitis. The fun began last night with the Three Basket Laundry event, and continued this morning with Shave-And-A-Haircut. On tap for the rest of the day are: Three Basket Laundry - Bonus Refill Washing Of Alyssa's Thicker-than-should-be-legal Hair Child Bedroom Floor Finding Expedition Family Room Frenzy Halloween Decoration Roundup Guest Bedroom Gutting ChiCaInWriMi (Child Care Instruction Writing Minute) Business Trip Packing Sprint The festivities are to run through early afternoon, followed by a mini-vacation trip to Dallas. This fun and exciting event will undoubtedly be filled with the cheer and glee from all eager participants. It's the not-so-eager participants I'm worried about.

A month or two ago, I set up a schedule for myself. It starts at 5:30 am, when I get up to get the girls ready for school, and goes until 9:30 pm. From 9:30 to 10:30, I complain about how I'm supposed to be in bed already, but I don't need a schedule to tell me to do that.. My part of the day is scheduled for the hours between 7:30 am and 6:00 pm. At a minimum, eight of those hours are set aside for work, leaving me at most 150 minutes of discretionary time to do things like shower, eat, blog, run errands, keep the washer and dryer fed, pay attention to the yard, and clean the house. Now, naturally some of these tasks spill out into the after dinner time, but for the most part if I really want to get anything done, I need to do it during that so called discretionary time. Today, my discretionary is being eaten by the steamer. You see, I printed out the pictures of our house for Kara, because she wanted to show some people at the clinic who are in a situation similar to ours . A...

Grocery shopping - check Put checks in the mail - check Change the air filter in the furnace - check Replace the laundry room light with an exhaust fan - check Make a packing list - not yet Spray Vodka on the couch - check Put nail stops in the window frames - no Update the playlist on Kara's iPod - tomorrow Write blog - check Write follow-up blog - check

Yesterday we had some weather. They kept talking about it all day - first it would get here at 9:00 am, then at 3:00 pm, and then and 8:00 pm. It hit about 5:30. I had just dropped Anna off at a friend's house for a sleepover, and taken Alyssa to Kara's Visiting Teacher's house to play (they have a baby - what more would Alyssa need?) and I got home just a little before the rain hit. Kara got home a little after. The weatherman said there could be winds up to 70 mph and golf-ball sized hail. All we had were a few episodes of near-horizontal rain. It was enough to provide some entertaining weather watching without the annoying and costly cleanup that can sometimes follow. There are places nearby that got tornadoes and hail, but not us. As a side note, the fan that is at the heart of The Stinky Sucky Office Project did not let in any rain, even though it was rolling down the window in sheets. This was really nice. Today is another full Saturday, and yet I sit here typing. Bu...

Here's the run-down: I resolved what is hopefully the final issue with an old driver for a product release that has been over a year in the making. Working on this project has been a lot like smacking roaches - for every issue I fixed, it seemed there were two more to take its place. The biggest problem was a nebulous product spec that seemed to keep changing (although the customer insists it never did). Mr. Reyes offered to pay cash for my truck. I don't know Mr. Reyes, but apparently he wants to take my truck to Mexico. He must just drive around looking for trucks. It was like email spam that came to my door. He was very persistent, too. I didn't ask how much, because the truck is the "safest" vehicle we have, so Kara uses it to go back and forth to Dallas. He finally left. I got to drive the truck for an hour tonight. I got gas and returned a video. I also tried to go to the storage unit to get some stuff to fill the garage back up, but the storage unit keys di...

While cleaning the living room today, Kara found a piece of paper with a to do list written by one of our children dated 11-26-06. I am not making this up. Get boredgam from teacher/play at Familey Home eveing Have Familey Home evening. check e-mail worok on England broshur Ask Mom/Dad if the Crismas Fairy is coming tonight Dect for Cris. Preper lesson Throw a fit because of Cristmastree Decor

At the end of a week-long trip, it's important to hit the ground running. This weekend I just about ran my little feet off. But now it's Monday night, and I'm still standing. (OK, actually I'm sitting, but I deserve it.) The Jumbo/LARGE to do list is still pretty big, but I finally got all of the laundry done. I also drug the girls out into the rain to do grocery shopping. While we were gone, our "Mother of All Residential Water Systems" sprung a leak and soaked all of the 72 hour kits. Fortunately, my wise sister recommended that we put everything from the kits into plastic bags, so the damage was minimal. But the fact that we even have to put up with this kind of problem in a system that cost as much as a good certified used car..... In the mail on Saturday was a letter to Anna reminding her that she was giving a talk in Primary. I got up early on Sunday morning and wrote her a quick outline. Because I am a computer geek, I couldn't actually write it by ...

The girls and I found our way home to Willow Park last night. It was an uneventful ending to a good week. My friend Karl Beckstrand works at the airport, and he met us after we went through the security gauntlet. The bookstore had a copy of his new children's book, "Crumbs on the Stairs," so we bought a copy and he signed it for the girls. I miss a lot of things about Utah, but the chronic winter "urban haze" is certainly not one of them. It was especially bad yesterday as we took off from Salt Lake City International. Alyssa slept most of the way home, and Anna did her homework. By the time we got home from the airport, unloaded the car, and got everyone ready for bed, there were no more fifteen minutes left in the day. Today, I am faced with the jumbo/LARGE To Do list. First task is to wash all of the clothes that we took. It's amazing how many scents we picked up just being out and about, without even trying. It's also amazing how I don't notice t...