The patio is almost completely finished. I finished putting down the last pavers this morning. All I have left is edging and sealing, which I should be able to do in a day. I am so unbelievably exhausted, though. Tamping the extra gravel was hard on my body. I managed to get Robin to an escape room with her friend from school. We managed to escape! We needed 13 hints, which feels like a lot, but our helper said it really wasn’t much. He had to give us the answer for one of the puzzles. We just couldn’t figure it out. We had a lot of fun. Then out to dinner and back to bed! The exhaustion is palpable. I can’t seem to get on top of it.
Tag: robin
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August 31
Took Christina to the dentist to replace the fillings on her two front teeth that she knocked out yesterday practicing dance moves in her bedroom. Had fun reliving my color guard days with Robin. She’s better than I am at this point, and she just started learning a week ago. To be fair, I haven’t held a flag in 30 years. I cracked my elbow a few times and I think maybe I’ll leave it to her for a while.
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August 19
Today has not been noteworthy, except that we had dentist appointments this morning. There were a few cavities, but we now have mouthwash and better brushing instructions, so hopefully next time will be better. My morning run was a little cooler than yesterday. The temperature itself was only three degrees cooler, but the feels like temperature was 13 degrees cooler. It was a welcome change. Otherwise it was just work, dinner, and baseball. And Robin’s monster chocolate chip cookies. She makes a whole batch of dough and it only produces 12 cookies. They’re pretty good, too.
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July 18
I moved all the patio gravel to the backyard by myself in three hours. It was so much easier this time than last time. I didn’t understand why until I realized it was because I moved 7 tons less than last time. But still, it’s done, it didn’t hurt nearly as much as I thought it would, and now I’m ready for the last lift before laying pavers. I cannot wait. I used the rest of the day to plan a tapestry for Billy to display all his National Parks patches and pins. I came up with a killer idea that involves old t-shirts, quilting, and wood etching. Because it would be TOO EASY to just hang up a plain piece of fabric. Who does stuff like that??
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July 17
We went to Robin’s horse camp awards show and got to see her ride. The photographer had photos of her on a horse smiling with teeth. I haven’t seen a teeth smile from Robin in so long that I forgot what it looked like. Riding makes her so happy, and that makes me happy. You can’t of course tell that from MY photo, but she was very focused on pretending not to know us in front of her friends.
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July 15
I finished sorting through photos and putting together the Flickr album from our Yellowstone trip. Next is putting together the scrapbook, which is a bigger project. Also today… my class at work is going so much better this time around. I am so relieved because the pressure was on to turn it around. I’m quite proud of what I’ve accomplished this year and how well it is working out. Very satisfying.
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July 12
Robin got her nose pierced today. The guy who did it was awesome. Made me want to get another piercing. She did really well and I think it looks beautiful. She looks so happy with it. That makes me happy too.
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July 9
We made it to Orlando. Robin is having a great time with her friends. They are twins, but I’ve been able to tell them apart. Kinda proud of myself for that, but they do look a little different, so they made it a little easier on me. The drive was really easy, which is always nice. So far so good.
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July 2
I spent the day working on my site design at work. Every time I do something, I think of a better way to do it and then I have to do it all over again. I think now I’ve got a good system, though, so I just need to build it. Luckily I’ve also developed the content already, so all I really have to do is transfer it to a different format. More work now, but much easier to update later. I’m really proud of the work I’ve been doing. I can’t wait to see it all come together. We had some good conversation at dinner, talking about Greek mythology and its Roman counterparts and why the compass always points north even when we don’t. And then I worked on more photo editing. I am now up to Wednesday. I’m getting a little tired of photo editing, but I can’t stop now, midway through. I must persist!
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June 22
Back to work today… luckily it was a slow, easy day. I will take it. Took Christina to dance for the first time in what feels like forever. I finished paring down the photos from Yellowstone. I started with 783 images and narrowed it down to 94. That may be as low as it gets. Next, editing, and then printing and putting them into an album. Billy didn’t even know we had an album from Shenandoah, so we took that out tonight and looked through it. Yellowstone will be bigger. Both trips were pretty epic. Those and New Orleans are my top three family vacations. It’ll be tough to follow this up, although Robin said she wants to go to Monaco to see the F1 racing museum. That could be fun too.
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June 18
We fit almost the entire Tetons into our day today. We started with sunrise at Oxbow Bend, then Schwabacher Landing, Mormon Row, Craig Thomas Visitor Center, an ill-advised stop at Jenny Lake, a drive up Signal Mountain, horseback riding at the hotel, and a sunset drive in search of wildlife. Teton is a gorgeous place.
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June 4
Robin had her tumbling class and was invited to join the advanced class, which apparently is empty except for her. I think she likes the sense of recognition she’s getting from the coaches. It’s so nice to be at a gym that reinforces her instead of tearing her down. She also made white chicken chili for dinner, which was delicious. Not a bad day for Robin.
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May 30
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.
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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 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!
