Van-aerobics

Carrie asked Paige to help her carry in the groceries, came back to find this. She also spends most of her time while watching tv doing similar feats and frankly it's starting to make me feel bad about my lack of physical activity.

Pick em up and put em down

20 degrees. Move it or lose it.

Scritch Scratch

Father's Day was great. Breakfast on the front patio, new bird feeder and D&D t-shirt, did a bit of geocaching, went swimming, guest'd on Spike and Taulb's podcast, and went to dinner at Las Trancas.

On the gaming front, WeDnD with Larry and Tiff has been great, although we've been on a break for a few weeks. Hopefully we'll remedy that soon. On Saturday we're still doing the always fun AW: GoT. We had a break from that this Saturday so Charles ran AW: Fallen Empires, skinned for Dark Sun. It was a great example of my favorite gaming - cool concept, good system, and everyone being enthusiastic.

Dad has been in town since last Wednesday. We've been to the brewery about every other day. It's not as intense as what we can expect if we were hanging out at Jon's, but it'll do. He's also been undertaking various jobs around the house to stay busy. I approve.

My food choices, health-wise, have been hit or miss lately, and I've been getting absolutely no (yard work and light swimming notwithstanding) exercise. That needs to change, but any drive in that direction tends to evaporate by the time I make the drive home in the evening. And thus far Carrie's been much more successful than me in getting up and working out in the morning.

Went to take the kids for an ice cream/brewery trip yesterday and we got out of the car while it was raining. In an effort to hurry up the kids I caused Owen to collide with Paige who subsequently fell down in the parking lot, suffering multiple scratches. Luckily Sweet Cici's had a well-stocked first aid kit and Paige is a trooper.

A Very Swimming Mother's Day

Mother's day yesterday. Typically that sees Carrie in Carlsbad, since Jalie's birthday is right around that time. This was, perhaps, the first Mother's day since we've had kids that we were at our own house. Pressure!

I got up a bit early, got the kids dressed and in the van, and headed out to Le Rendez-vous café to pick up pastries. Hopefully that gave Carrie a little time to sleep in and relax in a quiet house for a bit. When we got back home she was in the shower. I told her to hop back in bed. The kids love bringing folks breakfast in bed, and usually that's me. So she got to experience being piled on by kids who are helping you eat breakfast. After, we piled the kids into the yard-dump-wagon thing I bought mom and walked over to her place. Helped mom plant an ocotillo then chilled out for a while. The middle of the day was general yard/house work and whatnot. The capper was a kid's birthday party at the aquatic center. Had a blast and woke up very stiff this morning. I need to be swimming more.

Which is good, since we got the pool opened up last week. The kids talked me into letting them swim Saturday. The pool was kind of warm, but the wind was freezing any part of you that stuck up out of it. By the time we were done the kids goose-bumped and chattering. I had an earache from the cold.

Pupdate

Piper's been doing pretty good lately. After she lost three or 4 pounds around the end of winter, which is something like 10% of body weight, I think we've got her eating back under control. I'll take her back in the next week or two to get her weighed again and, hopefully, if she hasn't gained any weight, she's at least stabilized. Also, which is good for me too, I've been trying to get her out for walks again two or three times a week. This involves me getting up at 5:30 or so getting out on the levee before I go to work, which, given the heat lately, has been nice and cool. The other thing I've been doing on these walks is using bloggers speech to text function on my phone to get some blogs laid out. Thank you, pocket robot.

Almost Lost It

Lots of in-laws in town over the weekend. As always this meant lots of eating out. Couple that with my lack of exercise lately and I mad feeling less than healthy. Time change has afforded us more time in the evenings, to you know, get some exercise in and whatnot. But there still doesn't feel like enough of it to go around. Add to that my work schedule has started to include me working late every Tuesday and Thursday and the excuses start to pile up. Oh, also it's yard work and allergy season, so...

Jon's Cruces-bound this weekend to 1/2 Death March with mom. Beers on the roof seem in order.

Finished Ready Player One. I liked it, but I don't think I loved it. The nostalgia angle is always comforting but the conflict felt less than threatening once the story found its feet. The ending, while entertaining, didn't feel at all surprising. Now I'm on to Best Served Cold.

And thank Glob for Blogger's auto-save. This post almost went gallivanting about in the ether. It most likely would have been replaced by bitching about exclusively using and iPad for internets.

Stay on Target

Current home/life schedule goes something like this:

• Wake up and try to get out of the house between 6:30 and 7:30; dirty diapers and/or breakfast making falling mostly to Carrie.
• 20 minute drive, then work for 9 hours from the time I get there.
• Home between 4:30 and 5:30, play with the kids a little before we eat dinner.
• I clean up from dinner while Carrie bathes the kids.
• More play-time, generally coupled with Sesame Street on the tv till 7:30 or 8.
• Read to the kids then put them to bed.
• Watch tv/read/internet till 10:00 or 11:00, then lights out.
• (Every other Friday off)

The minutiae, I know.  But when Owen and Paige were born we quickly found out how necessary it was to have a schedule.  So much so that sometimes we forget that it's ok to break it.  Looking back on those early days, that bygone era of 16 months ago, it's hard to remember sometimes what that schedule looked like.  So this serves as a reminder as well.  Keeping to it can be a pain occasionally but given stories I hear from parents of single kids, when a schedule is needed less, makes me glad for it overall.  It'll change soon enough, anyway.  Currently Carrie and I both are trying to re-incorporate time for exercise.  She's joining a city soccer league, and I'm trying to get the dog and myself back out into the desert more.  As the time changes I think we're both looking forward to more daylight, so things like after-dinner walks with the kids become more feasible.

Meemaw

Exercise, done. Only 2 miles but every little bit helps. I'm back in the exercise challenge. Or more appropriately I'm not knowingly failing the exercise challenge this year. Plus it gets some exercise for Piper who I feel guilty about not giving enough attention to more often than not.

I found an old chat with Ben from '09 today in which we talk about Burrito Quest and gaming. And then I sign off by saying 'grandmas!'. Must have been when Mo Waldon was here....maybe.

Whuff

Let's see:
Party at Ben and Amy's house.  I did not Rockband, but I got some quality time in with the grumpy old folks in the back room; my people.  Spent the evening talking movies, comics, books, and whatnot with Tony, Amy, Charles, others, and for a brief time Hon. Bill.  Was nice.

Carrie went out of town to visit Alicia up in Denver, and Dad came into town to help out with the kids.  The two and a half days Carrie was gone went pretty smooth.  Had a good visit with Dad too.  Whenever he comes in to town he gets me off my ass and moving, at least a little more than I was.  After Carrie got back we got out twice, once with the kids on the desert trail in the middle of a neighborhood over in Sonoma Ranch, and once taking Piper up to the levee.  We also watched probably the funniest episode of It's Always Sunny ever ("Chardee MacDennis: The Game of Games").  Dad cooked a lot and I even cracked open one of my homebrews before he left.  It was early, but it still tasted pretty good, if a little yeasty.  I wanted to open one while he was in town, what with him buying me the Mr. Beer kit and all.  I'm letting them sit for longer than the kit tells you to, but more in line with what some of the fan communities makes better beer.  We'll have homebrew for Xmas at the very least.

Things with the kids are good.  We are having some small issues with them not wanting to eat, but it could be they don't like the high chairs anymore.  At daycare they sit them in chairs at a table.  Anyway, we got them a chair and table set for Xmas, so we'll see.  We set up the Xmas tree and decorated while they were napping last Saturday.  When they got up they were mesmerized and adorable.  For safety, we extended the fence we have in front of the entertainment center and made a space in the corner for the tree.  Seems to be working pretty well so far.  Oh, and so far this week they have slept through the night, without waking up once, every night.  Nice.

More holidays coming.  Carrie and I are taking the kids to Carl-Bad for Xmas, coming back Xmas day.  Aside from that I'm only taking a few days off around New Years, since Jon's likely not coming down this way.