We went to an escape room today and we missed it by about THREE MINUTES. We had even figured out the clue but just kept typing in the answer wrong. We are so bummed! We did a lot better than the last time, and honestly that made it more fun. It also helped that we didn’t have to share the game with people we didn’t know. I so want to go and do another one and manage to escape. We were just so close! It was a good time and nice to go out and do something together. We’ll have to go again.
Category: May 2026
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May 29
We played the National Parks board game, which I thoroughly enjoyed even though I lost. Even Robin played without pouting. It was nice to do something together as a family that we don’t normally do. We haven’t done anything like that in a long time. Too many other things going on. Christina beat us all very handily. Guess she will be our tour guide at Yellowstone.
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May 28
Today was the kids’ last day of school. Christina walked home wearing her bacon costume and got honked at a lot. We went out to eat to celebrate and then Robin asked to go to Barnes & Noble afterwards. We bought a few books. And by a few I mean too many. Luckily we have some long flights ahead of us, so maybe we can make a dent in the stack. I ended up skipping this evening’s race – a blue jean mile to benefit NAMI. I couldn’t bring myself to do it. It was 83 degrees, 91% humidity, and 50% chance of rain. It had actually just stopped raining when I would have had to leave. I feel like a wimp for backing out, but my regret is minimal. I donated a good amount of money, so it was not a total loss. I wonder how many people did show up. I’ll never know.
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May 27
The big victory I had at work on Friday ended up being a big flop when the technology failed to cooperate. I’m back to where I was before, which is a “meh” option. Much less flashy and impressive, but technically gets the job done. Maybe I can find a way to dress it up somehow. Otherwise it’s day 2 of training. I successfully overwhelmed the entire class by trying to teach them six things at once this morning, but heard their feedback and pivoted in the second half to get us more or less back on track. I’m both teaching and learning as I go, which is an interesting combination. Tonight was class 4 of my NAMI class. I accidentally ended the class half an hour early without realizing it until 20 minutes after we rushed through the last bit and had already wrapped up. No one said anything, so either everyone else also forgot what time the class is supposed to end, or everyone was glad to finish early so purposely decided not to say anything. Either way, it was an oh well kind of moment. Now watching the Yankees game, but I think I’ll be heading to bed soon. I didn’t sleep well last night and I’m tired now. Nothing puts me to sleep faster than Dave Simms, so I should be in good shape.
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May 26
Billy accidentally bought me such a thoughtful gift. He had suggested that I bring my DSLR with me to Savannah and I told him that I wasn’t going to bring it because it’s bulky and also because I can’t really see the image or the light meter through the viewfinder since I am mostly blind in my right eye. So he found a manual camera with a view screen on it – it’s not an SLR per se, but it does all the things an SLR can do and then some. The purists may scoff, but in my opinion all cameras have their value, and frankly it’s nice that I can take full control of my shots AND see what I’m shooting at the same time. The camera has a Bluetooth setting that connects to a remote on my phone, so I can frame and shoot self portraits without mystery. There is so much to play with and get used to before our trip to Yellowstone. I can’t even express how nice it is to select an aperture and shutter speed without guessing because I can actually see the light meter. It’s like a whole new universe has opened to me. Thank you, Billy.
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May 25
I wanted to wimp out of this morning’s race because it was so hot, but Monica pushed me to go anyway and I’m glad I did. It was already 77 degrees by the time we started at 8am, with 92% humidity. Very soupy run. But I ran it without walking for the second time since coming back to running a year and a half ago and finished in 39:52. Not my best time, but when you factor in the weather, it’s pretty close. Did a lot of other stuff today too. Went to REI to pick up a new tent for our trip to Yellowstone, hemmed Christina’s pants for dance, went food shopping, did the dishes. I’m ready for bed!
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May 24
I thought I finished digging out the patio this morning, but YouTube says I need to dig another six inches around the whole perimeter. Looks like one more week before I get to play with the compactor. Robin went to the mall with her friend Alejandro and Christina and I painted pottery while they wandered around getting lost in Belk. I thought this was a buffalo, Siggi thought it was a yak, Christina says it’s a cow. It’s a yakowalo.
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May 23
We went to see Michael today at Christina’s request. It was actually pretty good. The girls kept poking me and saying, “I know this song!” I always kind of hate when you go to a movie only to find out at the end that the movie is two parts, but this time I was kind of grateful because I think it actually deserves the extra time. It was nice to get out of the house and do something fun.
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May 22
We went to Carmine’s Pie House to celebrate Robin’s 8th grade graduation. We got off to a little bit of a rocky start, but it ended up being a pretty good night. I had a win (or at least the start of a win) at work today, too. I configured a GPT to help build a searchable database of questions and answers for our training site. This is something the team has been asking for for years and we haven’t been able to figure out a good way to do it. I set up a more or less automated system in a couple of hours. I feel like a million dollars. It needs some refinement, but I’m proud of it. I can’t wait to share it with the team. Not a bad day.
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May 21
I had a pretty good day. I accomplished a lot of things at work that have been going on for a while, and that felt good. The day slowly slumped into crap, though. Robin came home from her 8th grade field trip in a good mood, but that got erased when she had to set the table (TWO DAYS IN A ROW). It became even worse when she had to clean up Pinot’s excrement in the dining room. And then Billy was in a bad mood because the poop wasn’t cleaned up, and Christina was in a bad mood because… who even knows. And I tried really hard to stay positive in all this, but even I got sucked into the vortex and ended up royally pissed off and finally decided to call it a night. I went to the bedroom at 9:00 to listen to the Yankees game by myself, which I think also pissed Billy off, but whatever. That’s the trend tonight.
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May 20
Today was a busy Wednesday. Rushed from work to therapy to NAMI, dinner at 8:30. This is how it will be until this NAMI class is over in a few weeks. It was a pretty good class today. We shared stories and even finished a little early, which was unexpected. It’s a good group.
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May 19
I missed my first day in this project since starting it in 2023. I’m so upset! Nothing to do about it now except keep going. Robin graduated 8th grade today. The ceremony was really nice. I cried during the reverse rose ceremony. I stopped myself from being audible, but it was hard. I’m proud of her for taking part and not being to anxious. I know that wasn’t easy for her. She looked beautiful and I’m so proud of her. I love watching her grow up!
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May 17
We had another nice day today. We spent almost the entire day shopping. We did have ice cream for lunch, which I do recommend. My ice cream cone, which was technically only two scoops, weighed approximately four pounds. So much delicious ice cream! We went to a very fancy restaurant for dinner, which was as fabulous as we expected – probably more, even. It was a great finish to a great weekend. And now it is 10:20pm and I have to get up at 6:30am and I have just accidentally taken my morning medication instead of my evening medication, which royally sucks because my morning medication includes a strong stimulant and now I’ll be lucky to sleep at all tonight. At least I’ll be home early and I can sleep all afternoon. What a great trip with great company. We need more times like these.
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May 16
Siggi and I had a great day touristing around Savannah. We took the trolley tour around town and visited Forsyth Park, St. John the Baptist church, ate at Clary’s, and took a house tour of the Owens-Thomas house. We had a rooftop dinner overlooking the river at sunset. I loved the house tour, and I’m so glad we did it. The weather is absolutely perfect – mid-80s, no humidity, perfectly sunny. I decided that Billy and I need to come here for a date weekend without the kids for my birthday. It’s way more fun without kids. No offense, kids. Trips with you are fun too, but every once in a while, it’s nice to get to just be an adult.
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May 15
Today was a busy day! I went for a 30-minute run and then Christina and I went paddleboarding. There was just enough breeze to blow us around and cause enough current to be annoying. I drifted into the grass once, but it was ok. After that, the four of us went to Salento for lunch, and that was delicious. It was Robin’s suggestion. I ate my entire enormous plate of food and really could have eaten more. Where is it going? Then I drove up to Savannah to meet Siggi for a girls weekend! We had a rooftop dinner and walked a little along the river. It’s nice here without kids.
Year in Photos 