Day 4

Another full stomach, but this time it’s my doing. Inversion IPA number 2 for the night at my right, a typical sight, good ol’ craft brewing. (I was just reading Shel Silverstein to Liam.) Seriously full stomach. Sit back. Breathe…let the waist out a bit on the kilt. HA!

My day started a bit early today, not quite by choice, but I was roused from bed a bit after 6:00 and the rest of the house was up nearly simultaneously. It’s mostly okay by me; I was awake anyway. I just hadn’t gotten out of bed. Tossing and turning and dreaming through the night. I hate dreaming. Honestly. Although a good, thorough, deep sleep would sure be appreciated. It gets tiring to hear of my poor sleep, no? Well, try not ever sleeping well—it’s even more tiring.

Ah, but there are things to do. I greeted Liam for the morning and got him drinking milk and running about the house. I went out and made my garden rounds, really soaking the soil because I just haven’t been doing a good job of that lately. Or my corn would probably tell you I haven’t. (It’s a bit upset ‘cause I planted it so late in the season. I understand. I do my best. I’m still learning.)

Back into the house for a pint of orange juice; a shower; the brushing of the teeth. I threw a banana and an apple into my murse (that’s the man-purse, for the uninformed [yes, I have a kilt AND a murse: I’m a MAN, bitches, with all capital letters]). Forgive me: it was a long day of work.

I got to the office about 7:30 today. It’s never good when the internet and email are down at your office, but being the telecommuter I am, I have a lot of work on thumb drives, so I was able to be productive while the majority of my office doddled. (MS Word doesn’t think “doddled” is a word. Maybe it’s right.) I made my office mocha, as usual, and had two packets of my instant oatmeal and flax. I had a meeting I expected to last 30 minutes—it ate 90 minutes of my morning. I had documents to deliver. Some went out. Others…well, I’ll just say they’re festering. No—marinating. I have an acquaintance that has used those words interchangeably, and it still makes me laugh: “let your meat fester in that for a bit….” Anyway, I didn’t do any pushups or stretches at the office today. There just wasn’t time…or I didn’t think about it…or the others in the meeting would have really thought I was weird...not that it stops me every time. I tried to force a walk to the meeting, but the person accompanying me had a tough race over the weekend and wasn’t much up for the stroll. I can respect that.

I know the details of my job are boring. I finished off my bag of salted roasted almonds, ate my banana and my pink lady, and was stressing about all the things I had to do. I managed to get out of there a bit late (12:20-ish) and go pick up my son from daycare, who was asleep in my arms before I got him in my car. It’s typical for him to start a nap around that time, which works well for my telecommuting. I get a lot done while he naps for 3 hours. Part of that included making myself a grilled cheese sandwich (real butter, my double fiber bread, yellow cheddar) and snarfing down some of my pretzels while I got email after email and proofed documents. Neat, huh?

So ultimately my son woke up, as he’s wont to do, around 3:30, and I got him eating while I kept working. Of course I’d love to just play with him non-stop, but I DO have a job to do, and like I’ve said, my work load has doubled or tripled in the last few weeks with no sign of a drop-off. I’m not complaining. (Plot spoiler, a day late: Ashley chose J.P. Who’da thunk it?) Around 5:00 I made myself stop working and got to the dishes I didn’t do last night and straightened up the kitchen (Calories burnt). I played with my boy (Calories burnt). My wife got home just before 6 and I promptly hopped on my bike for a ride (Calories burnt).

I got a 40-minute ride in today, and that was all. Just 40 minutes of exercise. (For those that care, I road about 14.5 miles; it’s a known loop for me—I keep neglecting to charge my Forerunner, largely because Liam has a hard time leaving it alone when he can reach it.) I’d planned on a bit shorter ride, but it was a beautiful evening and riding along the American River Parkway is something I greatly appreciate about where I live, so I dove into the loop instead of the 10-mile out-and-back I’d planned.

The highlight of my ride? At the beginning, on a busy street, cruising along in the bike lane, approaching a young guy with a dog on a leash that just didn’t look right for him. It was a small dog, long haired, and meticulously groomed. That in itself made me smile. Even better: when the dog started toward me a bit and he yelled “Toto! Toto!” Yes, the dog was named Toto. I laughed out loud. This is an example of a reason I can enjoy my exercise so much.

It was my night to cook, and tacos were on the menu. We make ground beef (16% fat, they say) tacos. I tend to make my own mix. Rarely does anything I cook taste the same twice since I fail to measure any ingredients, and I tend to experiment. Into the ground beef tonight went Roma and Early Girl tomatoes, green onions, and a gypsy pepper (I don’t trust ‘em) from the garden, plus a bit of red onion from the farmers market, and a mix of paprika, garlic granules, cumin, chili powder, a touch of cayenne powder, a bit of corn starch…and some water. Oh, I also grated some zucchini from the garden and tossed that in because…wellllllll…why not? I had three tacos on hard shells and one in a soft shell. More onions and lettuce from the farmer’s market, a hefty dose of the yellow cheddar on ‘em. Then I went back for one more and mashed it all up into a salad. I’m still so full I haven’t had another drink of my beer. It hurts. I should have more control, maybe. Ah, screw that.

Here I am, it’s 9:30 again, and I’m not one bit tired. I should be. I’d like to be. I wish I…be. But I’m not. So I’m probably going to read while Angie finishes the Bachelorette. (C’mon, you really aren’t choosing Ben?!?)  So goodnight, Ashley and J.P. May you live happily ever after which, given the history of this show, isn’t all too likely.    

In the interest of my blog's integrity, it's now 11:44pm and I'm adding this edit. I hope to be alseep soon. I've had a couple glasses of wine while writing about physical baselines. I'll probably post that soon, but I need to re-read it at some point. I notice I'm not editing my posts well. Errors I don't normally allow myself, but I don't really have the time to devote to continual re-reads, and I'll assume you offer some forgiveness.

So now I say goodnight mouse; I'll tap your buttons again tomorrow.