November 2025
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November 30
Today was Billy’s birthday. I had bigger plans for the celebration, but exhaustion took over and I spent most of the day trying to stay awake. Robin did make a giant chocolate chip cookie, which is sort of like a cake, but it had no candles and no song to go with it. I did…
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November 29
We made it home from Orlando despite some traffic. I believe I have bought the very last Christmas present for the year. I wish I didn’t enjoy shopping so much. Otherwise all I did today was make octopuses. I have completed 99 of them. Chances are very good I will hit 100 before Tuesday. I’ve…
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November 28
We were all so looking forward to Universal and it was really a letdown. We were there more than 12 hours and only went on four rides. The lines were SO LONG. And there were so few of them. Almost the entire park is filled with shops. Like I really want to spend $100+ (per…
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November 27
We had a pretty good Thanksgiving. It started off on the right foot… I finally completed a 5k without walking for the first time since 2018! I am so proud of myself and literally cried when I crossed the finish line, I was so happy. It wasn’t my best finishing time, but still so proud.…
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November 26
I spent six hours making an apple pie salted caramel cheesecake for dinner tomorrow. Each of the components tastes good on its own, so hopefully when it all comes together tomorrow it’ll be awesome. I had fun making it, but now I’m tired. I have to get up at 5:30 tomorrow morning for my 5k…
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November 25
I am not sure where today went. There was a run, then the gym, then picked up my race materials for Thursday, stopped by the school for a car tag, came home and showered, had breakfast, made a couple octopuses, went to pick up the kids from school (and two of Christina’s friends), updated my…
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November 24
I spent the whole day making octopuses. My goal is 100 by Tuesday. I’m up to 91. Gotta tell ya, though… I am so tired of making octopuses. They’re not even that cute. We also went food shopping for the week and got $150+ in savings on buy one get ones, which by necessity means…
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November 23
Finished this morning’s run at Canopy Road Cafe and met Billy for a breakfast date. Nice way to finish a run! We made an amazing dinner tonight, which took us most of the day to make. Robin and I made tiramisu and Billy and Christina made pasta carbonara from scratch. So yummy! When dinner was…
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November 22
The day just seemed to fly by. Went out for a run, then to the gym, then to Panera for coffee, took a shower, and all of a sudden it was 1pm. Made a bunch of octopuses and took Christina to dance. We had hot dogs for dinner and watched Penn State pull out a…
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November 21
The drama today has been the discontinuation of access to Character.AI for kids under 18. Robin has been devastated. In looking for alternatives, I’ve learned just how bad AI chat bots are for kids. Billy and I reluctantly allowed her to try another one – until this one blocks kids too – as long as…
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November 20
Robin cheered at her first basketball game today. I haven’t seen her this happy in a long time. I’m so glad she found something she loves. The games themselves weren’t that awesome. The girls lost by a score of something like 38-2, and the boys lost by something like 52-13. It’s bad enough that they…
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November 19
Today was a day for assertiveness. I was feeling good about it in the moment, but now it’s quiet and I’m alone and I’m second-guessing myself. Also today: I made a Christmas music playlist because Christina only wants to listen to Christmas music and every Christmas music playlist on Spotify is horrible. I 95% finalized…
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November 18
Today was nothing really out of the ordinary, but little things marked it. There was a fairly sad rewards and recognition presentation at work that followed an ominous and incomplete announcement of org changes coming soon, but we’re excited about it, yay! Robin was in a fury when I picked her up from cheer practice…
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November 17
I had a pretty good day today. Nice run this morning, some good meetings at work, fun conversation at the dinner table, made an octopus, did a crossword puzzle, listened to some podcasts. Now I am ready for bed.
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November 16
Did my run on the Baldwin rail trail this morning. I had hoped to do somewhere between 2-3 miles, but after a mile I was toast. You know why? I was running way too fast. I have no idea how to get myself to run at an easy pace. But at the end of 2.7…
Year in Photos 