Smelling the flowers

All I can say, is thank goodness today is Tuesday and not Monday, because it's hard being back at work. I am sleep deprived (thanks to NYE) and I'd dearly love to be at home today. Because we wanted the kids for NYE (we had them Sunday afternoon until this morning) we'll only have tonight without them before going into a five day stretch of having them. Wish me luck! I already feel saturated.

B hosted a kids NYE party and invited her ex-husband and his wife and two children, ages 8 and 9. I really like her ex and his wife. This was the first time we've met them and her ex-husband is a really likeable guy and not at all the narcissist her husband is. She says they married too young. They were high school sweethearts and married a couple years out of high school. Too bad, because he's so much better than WP.

We bought dry ice for the kids for the party and that was a lot of fun. Our kids have done it so much that it wasn't as entertaining for them, but the other kids loved it.

The noise level of the party was so high. In the basement the kids were playing video games and skateboarding over a ramp and riding scooters and swinging on the swing which makes quite a bit of noise due to how it's hung - lots of chain making squeaking noises. And then the adults were trying to talk over the music upstairs. Loud!

I decided that I didn't want to spend the night, so once we had the kids settled after midnight I drove home and climbed into my own bed. Max was happy to have me come home. I woke up around 7:30, showered, fed the cat, and returned for breakfast. We didn't get back home until 2pm.

My grandson jumped on the VR when we got home and played from then until when I had to take him to meet up with his dad at 6:30. They found a cooperative game that everyone could play together. It was so much fun. I sat on the love seat and played a game on my phone, but listened to all of them, including Bond, play and it felt good.

My weight popped back up a pound or two towards the end of the last week, but now it's back down that amount. I really feel that my cortisol levels go up when I have to deal with work and the daily 9 to 5 grind. Having more time off lessens the stress and my body responds. Also, and this may be a big deal, I don't have boredom eating when I am home. Sometimes at work I'll get a package of mixed nuts which is 9 gram of carbs just because I need to take a break. I need to stop turning to food to alleviate stress and boredom.
 
I'm at work listening to the sound of a coworker hacking and coughing through a cold. I wish he was at home. Only positive note is that he is in his office, so maybe his four walls will contain some of his germs. Damn. Go home, sickie!
 
I survived the germ monster and didn't catch the crud my coworker was passing around. However, S3 wasn't feeling well Friday so he didn't go to school and then Bond got sick over the weekend. It's been a weird virus. Mostly it's abdominal/intestinal pain and a fever for a day. The pain has been quite intense. Today I spoke to my son, Josh, in Kentucky and he thought he had a kidney infection, because he's having so much pain. After talking to him, I think he has the same thing as Bond.

Another thing that Josh told me. He asked me to send money, because his gf was shorted hours on her check. Turns out she is working for the same temp agency that he was when he wasn't getting paid! I think they need to take legal action. His gf went in to complain, along with others who had the same thing happen to them, and the lady told them that there wasn't much she could do, because it's in the past now (um, it's this paycheck!) and that she'll contact headquarters (which is out of state.) That is the same spiel they told Josh. I told him that they cannot let this happen to them again and that they need to find out who to report this to and seek action. He said that his gf said she was going to keep working there until she found another job. SMH. I told him that she better find something else asap, because it doesn't make sense to work for free.

B's big TV in her living room is dying. Yesterday she found out that her car insurance was going up $40 due to the accident she was at fault for. And she's had a plumbing issue. I sure feel for her. When it rains it pours.

Speaking of pouring...we have a winter mix happening right now. I think I'll leave work in 30 minutes to get home ahead of the temperature dropping and coating everything in a thin sheet of ice. I have no desire to be out on the roads when that happens. I'm more worried about the other drivers than I am of actually driving on the roads.

Tomorrow S3 has ski club and Bond is a chaperone. That means that I have an evening to myself. I sent a text to Franki to see if she is free, but she may not be. It all depends upon whether or not her daughter is coming to spend the night Friday night, or coming Saturday morning. She and her husband are doing a trial separation. It's so incredibly sad. They have a set of three year old twins and a two year old. They did IVF to get pregnant the first time and the two year old was a bonus baby - surprise! But, her husband is verbally abusive and not very supportive and things are crumbling.

I'm hoping Bond and I will do a getaway this weekend. It's kind of a slim chance, but I'm still hopeful. We had wanted to take B to Door County for the weekend, but she doesn't want to leave her kids. I'd still like to do something. Bond and I rarely go do anything that is out of town, and especially without the kids. We both have Monday off for MLK, so we'd have three days to relax. Keep your fingers crossed for me. :)
 
Bond is not a chaperone tonight. I didn't realize he only signed up for the Fridays we have the kids. Plans with Franki didn't work out anyhow, because her daughter will be there tonight and Franki wants to be available for her if she is having a rough night.

I've told Bond several times that I am hoping we'll get away for the weekend, but he has marked that he is interested in a couple of events that are happening here in Madison, so I don't think he's interested. Makes me sad and disappointed. We never go and do and I really want to go and do.
 
I can't believe it's been a week since I posted already. Tonight Bond is chaperoning S3's ski club night. He's had a lot of problem with his big toe on his right foot for over a week and I'm wondering how he's going to fair tonight. It's been super painful. I suspect it's gout, but he says the last time this happened (10 years ago) that the doctor told him it wasn't gout. I'm skeptical. My mother was told by her GP that she didn't have gout, but her cardiac specialist had a blood panel run and she had it.

My niece had a baby girl Monday. She lives on the East coast, so I have only seen the new baby in pictures. I love her name, Auden Freyja. She's named after my mother, Audrey.

My son, Josh, is having a tough go with his girlfriend. I hope things improve. She is not doing a good job parenting, or being a good roommate/partner. She doesn't want to put forth the energy to engage with the baby, and tries to solve everything by putting a pacifier in the baby's mouth - repeatedly. He says it's super ridiculous, because the baby is happy if you set her on your lap - that's how simple it is to make her happy. He's also at the end of his rope with how messy she is. He said she'll get a snack out of the cabinet, set the box on the counter, leave the cupboard door open, eat the snack, and drop the wrapper wherever. He also said that he found dirty diapers under her bed where she had stashed them all day rather than putting them in the trash.

Here are some snippets of our conversation - Josh's side.
I don't know what I can do, I need to be back in Wisconsin. I can't not have Avery.

I'm set on school this spring and as I see it if I do that without Mary and Avery it'll be atleast two years until I have Avery.

The only two things I can think of is bring them both to Wisconsin, graduate, work and save up then tell her it's over and send her home. Or do it before and fight for custody.
Or third is Mary gets her shit together.

We've been so downhill since Christmas that it's like we are roommates.

When she tries it's alright but that's only a week or two.

It also makes me feel abusive with arguing with her about what she's doing wrong.

Shes gotten better since working.

I'm getting depressed now, I take any chance I can to get out of the house.

Been thinking about my childhood or lack of memory of it. It makes me worry that Avery might grow up with some of the same experiences.

Avery's biggest thing is just sitting on your lap.
Doesn't need active engagement, just sitting there.

I don't have much memories before 8. Most of what I do remember isn't good.
Mostly fights.

I know, things are just tough. As always. Mary can be great when she just puts a little effort in. My problem is that it usually takes a lot for her to do so. Me being full time dad has made the house A LOT healthier by I still need help with parenting. I can't be dad and mom, wish Mary would see that. Last night Mary put Avery and her chest and Avery went right to sleep so I praised her on it. Told her Avery won't even could up like that with me. I try to praise her when possible to get her to do more.​

On a lighter note: we might adopt a one-year-old female Maine Coon, named Sybil. Her family has a son who has developed cat allergies, so they need to rehome her. It's rather heartbreaking for them. We thought Sybil was going to be at an adoption fair last weekend, but she wasn't there, because she lives two hours away. So, that is a bit unfortunate. Once we learned that she was so far away Bond made a comment that he was more of a mindset that if the Universe provided, then he'd go with it, but he doesn't want to put much effort into it. I countered that finding a MC up for adoption that is young and close to Max's age and sounds very much like him is a rare thing and that the Universe checked nearly all the boxes and that we had traveled twice as far to get Max and had to wait 9 months and pay $1500, so this is pretty damn good. I think he's more inclined to go with it now. Plus, Max has been Mr. Crazy Pants and we're starting to feel he'd love to have a companion. Wednesday he broke a big square glass vase that held river rocks when the cleaners were at the house. They said he was quite the crazy cat that day and had been into everything from the time they got to the house. We think it was because the kids hadn't been to the house for five days. The boys said he was really excited and playful when they got home from school that day.

Fingers crossed Sybil comes to live with us. Sybil's mom wants to talk to me. Her concern is that she'll have the kids say their goodbyes and then if we decide to not adopt her that it'll be even harder on them. The lady who runs the rescue said that both she and Sybil's mom agree that our home sounds perfect for Sybil. (They had me send pictures of the cat highway and Max.)

I sent this video of Max's first time on the newest segment.
Cat highway video
We still have to connect it to the other side. The fireplace column is behind/to the right of Bond. We are going to hang a cardboard concrete form tube (wrapped in burlap cloth and sisal rope bands at intervals - each end and two spaced evenly along its length) between the shelf run and shelves that will be staggered down the side of the column.

Here is a video taken in November. My grandson and Max playing.

We have plans to join the two highways by placing a tube in the wall above the TV (accessed via the attic). We'll need to insulate around the tube and make sure it's sealed well. Bond would like to put a peephole midway along the path. The hole on the left end will be right behind the vertical post that Max climbs in the beginning of video above. The other opening will be at the end of the other highway shown in the first video.

Sybil has her claws, so that's great. We really want the cats to be able to climb and play.
 
Just got off the phone with Sybil's mom. It's a go! She's bringing her to us tomorrow. She'll be at our house between noon and 1 o'clock. She's bringing Sybil's favorite toys, her kibble so we can slowly transition her to raw, her litter box and litter, and her cat tree! I think the Universe definitely provided and then some! The boys are going to be really excited. They know nothing about this. We'll let them know tonight.

Sybil
 
So, we got the cat and then lost the cat. :eek: She did a Houdini and escaped the sunroom some time in the night Saturday night. Bond had told the two older boys to say goodnight to her before they went to bed, so it could have happened then, or it could have happened when he checked on her around 4:30 am. He heard her yowling and went to comfort her, but he didn't see her in the room, although he didn't turn on the light. I am guessing she snuck out the sliding door into the house when he did that. Anyway, we woke to an empty sunroom. :( We had been warned she's a "screen door ninja" and sure enough she snuck past someone. We searched for her on and off all day long to no avail. Around 9:00 pm S1 sent his dad a text saying she was down by him in the basement and we were able to find her hiding under the couch and return her to captivity in the sunroom. My heart breaks for her going through so much distress. I hope she transitions into a better state soon. This morning before we left the house she was inside the box on her cat tree watching us. Max is totally focused on, and intrigued by her, and wants to be in with her so badly. He'll have to bide his time. Right now he totally scares her with his boldness. I swapped each of their blankets with the other cat and placed them where they can explore them and get familiar with the other cat's smell. Send good vibes to our new kitty, please.

From her pictures I had thought she was part Maine Coon, but now that I have seen her in person, she's probably a Domestic Long Hair. She's beautiful and quite chubby. I suspect that she'll drop weight once she's eating a raw diet. I hope she learns to play on the cat highway and that we can get her moving once she's comfortable with our home.

The lady that runs the rescue, Janell, asked if we'd consider fostering for her. She loves the cat highways and the things we have planned and thinks it is such a great thing for the cats physically and psychologically. Plus she mentioned that we have so much space. I told her that I would need to discuss it with James, but that I wouldn't rule it out. First though, we need to get Sybil comfortable with our home and with Max. Janell fell in love with Max. He met her at the door and was quite charming. He is the first purebred Maine Coon that she's seen in person and he bowled her over. She mentioned that she does a calendar as a fundraiser and she would love to include Max and Sybil. I told her that I have a friend (B) that is a photographer and that I was sure we could make that happen.

Sybil's family that had to give her up were really, really nice. The son cried and that was hard. I'm sure he's really feeling bad, because it's his allergies that are the reason. Poor kid.
 
The new kitty, Sybil.
She's starting to be friendly with Bond and me, but she's still terribly nervous about Max and will growl if she sees him through the patio doors.

Silly Max.
He followed Bond into the kids' bathroom last night and plopped himself in the sink, because he was too big to sit on the edge. Bond said it was very comical how he went about it. He slipped his back feet into the sink and plopped his butt down and then hung his paws over the front edge.

I got my hair done last night. I didn't have a design shaved in this time and I went with the same near black with the peek-a-boo blue section in front. Just not feeling inventive.

Tonight is date night with B. I think we're cooking at our house. She really wants to see Sybil.

I haven't seen Franki in so long. We're both babies about winter.
 
I opened this blog and before I could get started Bond's sister who lives in Italy sent a group message to Bond and me about running into her oldest son's English teacher from high school. His sister was at the school to teach an English lesson and the other teacher said she is still looking for host families here in Madison. She said that Bond would remember when her son came to Madison with his class, and that this year is the same; her kids from the scientific high school (about 3rd year) will go for 2 weeks in July.

It sounds like a neat thing to be part of.

She said that "they have classes in the morning at a language school rest [sic] the capitol, then not sure what the rest of the plans are."

My concern was that we'd have to take vacation time and that would be hard.

Definitely not expected... I asked her for the program details. In general, the host family is expected to be around for breakfast and in the evening for dinner etc.​

That makes it much easier. I believe we could handle that much commitment.

"Years ago [son] came and stayed with [Bond]... it would be something similar, but I’ll have to get the specific details from her. I ran into her on the way to class, and thought I would write to you guys before I forget. I think it’s the last 2 weeks of July, in case you know anyone who might be interested. I’ll find out more."

"It’s funny that we’ve known her since we got here and then she was [sons]’s English teacher. Her husband is a professor of Russian and once did a year of teaching in Madison- that’s why she takes her students there."​

She's going to send up more details when she can, so we can see if it would be interesting for us or anyone we know. I can't imagine that we'd say no, but maybe Bond has a different viewpoint than I do. We have the space; two guest rooms with a set of twin beds in one room and a king-sized bed in the other, and a bathroom on that level that could be used solely by our guests.

It's kind of funny, the timing of getting this message from her, because yesterday I filled out a passport application in anticipation of taking some trips this coming year, including a trip to Italy to see her.

So, maybe we'll be a host family this summer. :)
 
Much to my surprise, Bond is not all gung-ho on being a host family. For him it's not comfortable having strangers in his home. I'm disappointed, but whatever. I don't want him to be uncomfortable. He's so generous in so many ways that this isn't important.

He found out yesterday afternoon that he is being sent by his work to the Game Developers Convention in San Francisco in March. Woot! I'm going to join him towards the end of the week and we'll return on Sunday.

I've spent way too much time today thinking about our Valentine's party instead of focusing on work. I totally went down the rabbit hole when my brain sparked on an idea of using ice as a serving platter for shrimp. I'm not even sure we should serve shrimp! But regardless I got lost on Pinterest trying to find examples of what I was envisioning. Because I don't think we need to add shrimp to the menu, I have since transitioned to ice buckets to chill the vodka and wine. I'm going to experiment with it tonight.

Cat update: So Max has been incredibly respectful of Sybil and when he moves too close for her comfort, she'll growl or hiss, and he immediately drops back and gets himself small. Last night Bond and I were lying in bed and starting to drift off to sleep when there was a bit of a row between the cats, right beside our bed. We have a short, round, three-legged cat scratcher that we got when Max was a baby and it ended up being placed by Bond's side of the bed to help Max climb onto our bed. I don't know if you recall, but our bed is ridiculously high, like 35.5" high. It's basically like climbing onto your kitchen counter. For a baby kitty this was a bit of a challenge. Max can not leap great distances without an assist, but the cat scratcher has remained next to the bed, because he often uses it as a launch pad when he comes racing into the bedroom and wants to go airborne onto our bed. Anyhow, we're lying in bed, nearly asleep when the growling starts. However, it's not Sybil growling, it's Max! And he's pissed because she is using his cat scratcher! Bond tried to lower a pillow between the two of them to break the sightline, but that scared Sybil and she ran from the room with Max hot on her tail. I find this hilarious.
 
Today is my Friday and I'm more excited than I ought to be that I don't have to be at work tomorrow. Actually, my mindset about work has been improving recently, so maybe the day will come when I don't feel such dread in regards to work anymore.

I'm taking off so I can throw myself into preparations for our Valentine's party on Saturday. I've been making all kinds of ice art and I'm ridiculously excited about how it's turning out. I have frozen water with roses around a big bottle of vodka and a smaller bottle of pear flavored vodka, made an actual ice bucket that I will probably fill with ice cubes, a single large rose entombed in ice for a centerpiece, and hopefully by Saturday evening I'll have five Scandinavian ice candles. Right now I have two made. I let the other three buckets of water freeze too solid, so I had to thaw them and start over. I was going to set these by our front door, but it's so bright there with all the outdoor lights, so instead I'll put them along our patio. They'll be visible from the kitchen and sunroom.

Wil is making vegetarian sushi rolls. B is making chocolate covered strawberries, three kinds of deviled eggs (Bacon jalapeno, avocado, and curry), and coleslaw to go on the shredded pork and chicken sliders (two versions). We'll have our large cheese board with five kinds of cheese, charcuterie, fruits, jams, mustards, crackers, baguettes, dark chocolate bar broken into pieces, etc. Desserts will be keto friendly. We're having mocha fluff, No Hershey Bar cake, Kentucky Butter Cake, B's chocolate covered strawberries, pound cake, and lemon poppy seed pound cake.

My middle kid has an abscess and is pretty miserable. He has sent me pictures of the extreme swelling in his face. He went into urgent care a couple of days ago and they gave him two shots of antibiotics. Today he says it feels like it's about to start draining and that although it sounds gross and is probably TMI, he hopes it happens. Can't say that I blame him.

Work calls, gotta end this.
 
Bond and I are taking part in a Longitudinal Polyamory Study by LoveLab. This is month two of a 12 month study. The survey questions are numerous and it takes quite a bit of time to get through them. They require that you do the survey within a 48 hour window of getting the email with the link. I was a bit surprised that this month's questions were pretty much a mirror of last month's questions. I wonder if they were unable to save my responses the first month.

Tonight is date night and we're going out to dinner rather than staying in. After cooking our asses off last week/weekend for the party the last thing B or I feel like doing is cooking. It's Fat Tuesday. I'm fairly certain that most traditional meals will not fit the keto guidelines. Maybe we'll find a burger somewhere and then go find some music and celebration.

B has been attempting to start a job with Instacart. What a fiasco. Her first two shifts she didn't get sent a single job. She just messaged that she finally got one, and it was for a nearby city. She acknowledged the order and hopped in the car. They told her that she didn't acknowledge the order and that she'll get a write up and they sent her home for the day. All in the matter of 3 minutes. She was actually driving to the store. She's livid. She contacted them and hopefully things will be resolved. But I've heard bad things about that company.
 
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Two Wil related things:
  1. He mentioned that his family would be very welcoming if we ever wanted to visit them in Pennsylvania. That they haven't gotten to see S3 (his biological son) since he was 3
  2. I have a feeling that the situation he made this remark about wasn't the best representation, but he wanted to say that an interaction between Bond and me that really seemed like no big deal to me, would not have gone so smoothly back in the day between Bond and his wife. He says it's a very nice change.

Re PA: we might put a trip down in the books for this year to visit with the two younger boys. That would be fun (I think) as I've never seen Pennsylvania and have always wanted to.
 
Yesterday I spent a bunch of time laying out a plan for paying off my debt. I think it's doable if I can limit how much money I give my kids. Megan could totally derail me, and I'm worried that Josh may become expensive again when he moves to Wisconsin and goes to school. Hopefully Taylor is past his costly age. He's nearly done with college, so his rent, phone, medical will soon be his responsibility. If things go according to plan, I'll be totally debt-free by early fall of 2019. Credit card debt, car, and student loans will all be paid off without having to sell the house I own with Twitch. It'll take some hefty payments, but Bond covers almost all of my living expenses, so it makes it possible. I am so lucky.

It's kind of heady to dream about what all will be possible once I am debt-free. In 3 months I could save enough for an abdominoplasty. In another two months, or less, I could afford new drapes - stylish drapes! :) I could buy furniture that is more to my style for the front room, etc. I could beef up my retirement account. I could save money for a future business. I could contribute to our lives. So many possibilities.

I feel like I can breath.

All the peoples are going to be at my house this weekend.

I'm picking up my grandson this evening, after his stepmother's birthday dinner at some restaurant on the eastside, TBD. Wil is coming down for the weekend, so he can see the boys. He should be arriving shortly after lunch. And B is bringing her kids over to hang out with the boys. Wil is bringing his drywall saw and we're going to work on putting the tunnel in the soffit to join the two sides of the kitty highway. Franki may come hang out, too. I really hope she does. We haven't seen each other in ages! Plus, whenever we work on the cat highway my thoughts go to her, because she helped with the first project we did on it. On Sunday Bond's wife is coming over to visit with Wil. It should make for an interesting weekend. I may be people exhausted by Monday morning.
 
The tunnel in the wall didn't happen. :( The guys did climb up into the attic and pictures were taken. Now Bond needs to order the 90* connector pieces and pick up 4 12" x 4' concrete form tubes from the store and we can move ahead. It was really cold on Saturday for climbing around in the attic, so I can't really get too annoyed that they didn't actually do more. I'm slating this to be completed sometime in April or May before the attic space is too hot to work in. We need to hit the sweet spot of the attic being temperate.

I'm about peopled out, just like I expected. My grandson wanted to spend another night, because he doesn't have school today and neither do Bond's kids (Presidents Day) and now we're getting a day of rain that will likely become freezing rain. We may not be able to wait until evening to meet up with his dad. We'll be keeping an eye on the weather and ready to make the exchange earlier if needed. Bond has today off and I'm at work. Bond will be dropping his kids off in the late afternoon (unless the weather dictates an earlier drop time) and we'll then get my GS to his dad after that. At least that's the way I think it'll play out. I'm hopeful that I'll be able to call into work tomorrow due to icy roads. I'm so bad. LOL. Any excuse! The worry, though, is that tomorrow we need to make it to the polls and that may be dicey. I cannot skip that!

Franki hung out with us Saturday afternoon. B was over later with the kids and there was some overlap which was nice. Franki left around 5 pm, because it was starting to snow and also because she hates driving in the dark. I love hanging out with Franki. She's so peaceful. B is a force to be reckoned with, loud and forceful, and Franki is the opposite, calm and peaceful and restful.

Saturday I got a notice in the mail that the parking ticket my son got in December at the airport wasn't paid and was now $50, up from $35. I paid that ticket as soon as I found it in my car when I went back to work after Xmas. I couldn't find an email confirmation, but when I got to work today I found the actual ticket in my filing cabinet. I was really annoyed with myself that I hadn't written the confirmation # on it. I did have a note saying it was paid on the 27th, though. I checked my bank statements and then a credit card statement and found the payment. I called the clerk and she explained that they were missing the citation number on the payment, so it hadn't been cleared. I am a bit surprised that was missing as it's part of the form, but whatever. She took care of it on her end and I won't have it outstanding anymore.
 
I think B and Bond are meeting for "lunch" which should actually be called a nooner. I'm not 100% okay with that and I feel guilty that I have these feelings. They did this last week, too, and I felt a bit unsteady for several days about it. Last night was date night and we had dinner at B's and hung out in her room chatting, but nothing intimate because she had her kids. They are talking about getting together today and I'm feeling the yucky feels. Mostly I am diverting my thoughts away from the negative, insecure emotions and not focusing on it to the best of my ability. Still shocks me how this can still be a thing for me. Sometimes I suck.
 
B and Bond did not meet for "lunch" yesterday, which I should have been able to figure out, because we had cleaning people at our house. Duh. Me being me, I told Bond how about my feels and we had a bit of a talk online and then a bit more when I got home from work. I think more sex would fix the problem. We have sex so rarely and I need to remind myself that it's because I'm a sex at night kind of gal and he's a sex in the morning kind of guy. The lack of sex is due to difference in schedules and not a sign of disinterest. My mind immediately goes there when I think of the two of them and sex - that Bond is more interested in sex with B than he is with me. Maybe that's what I need to communicate to him. Voicing all this to him lead to sex this morning, which was nice, but does leave me feeling that it only happened because he is trying to appease me.

Ugh, I just had a conversation with a coworker about gun control. He thinks it'll do no good and I'm at the opposite end of the spectrum. I cannot stand talking about anything political with him as he's a die-hard Republican.

LOL, I lost my passkey somehow in the office. I'm actually quite surprised how many people helped me search for it. I finally found it in the recycling bin. I had carried in a case of sparkling water, put it in the refrigerator, ripped off the perforated end, and then tossed the pieces in the recycling - along with my passkey. Oiy. :D SMH
 
This weekend is our last kid-free weekend; for the next three weeks we'll have them 5 days each week from Wednesday after school until Monday morning. Then we'll be out of town for the Game Developers Convention (GDC) in San Francisco. The next week we'll have them Monday and Tuesday and then their mom is taking them someplace for Spring Break. I think we'll have them Easter Sunday. Both Bond and I are like, um, we don't need them for that, but I think their mother is hoping we'll take them to give her a break. I'm dreading March.
 
Our kid-free weekend was bliss. I thought we would just chill and be lazy, unproductive blobs, but life has a way of demanding you keep on adulting. We adulted like we were after a badge, but we did it in such a relaxed manner I don't think we realized we were checking boxes off the list.

We needed groceries, a cat climber/scratcher for easier access onto the ledges on the end of the fireplace, and some type of material to cover those ledges with to add more traction for the cats. Said shopping was accomplished in several outings which started around 11am and didn't conclude until 6:30pm.

Sunday I was set on being a sloth, but Bond decided to tackle a project that has probably been nagging at him for months, so I got myself off the couch and cleaned the fish tanks. Bond finished his refastening of the drapery rods in the front room and like the fucking rock star he is, he helped me finish cleaning the tanks.

Our snail population had grown to an unacceptable level after we missed a clutch a number of months back. Snails poop a lot. <sigh> I decided that I was getting rid of the majority of them by whatever means necessary. I filled a Rubbermaid container to capacity and informed Bond that they had to go. He plucked Shelly out of the rehoming collection and returned him to the tank, but he left the others to their fate.

Bond had an order to pick up from Best Buy (VR charge and display stand), so we swung by PetSmart first. The near-child clerk in the fish department told me it was against store policy to take in fish or snails which was disappointing and meant we would have to drive further to see if Pet World would take them (I offloaded about 120 on them last time.) I was ready to make a beeline for the car, but Bond wanted to check cat food prices (we cannot get Sybil to eat raw). While we were wandering around a lady and a young girl approached and inquired if we were getting rid of snails. Long story short, she was willing to take the entire lot. Yes!!! I felt lighter the instant they left my hands. It might be fun to have fish tanks again!

Sunday evening we visited B for an hour or so because we were missing her. Tuesday night B and I are joining a friend for a "free" Mary Kay thingie, so our date night will be postponed until Wednesday. Um, I just realized we have kids that night. Oh, well. Gotta see our gf!

Saturday night I'm going to Franki's to hang out. Tonight I have a hair appointment. It's going to be one of those weeks that wear me the fuck out.

But, I have fewer snails! :D
 
I'm looking forward towards the future a lot lately. Spikes of intensely bright hope radiating my consciousness. It's because of my debt paydown plan. I can see daylight at the end of 17 months and it's overwhelmingly exciting. I am feeling creative and looking for an outlet, or maybe outlets. Freedom of choice is swiftly approaching; I need to keep my eye on the goal.

The goal is so strong in me right now. I resisted buying any product at the Mary Kay show. I told them to check back with me in 16 months. I really liked the skin moisturizer and I'm sure Bond would like it, too. It'll just have to wait until I've accomplished eliminating my debt. First things first.

Creativity; I'm tumbling ideas around in my head for a novel, thinking about woodworking, and I'm wondering if I want to start sewing again. Lots of ways to expend creative energy.

Someday when I'm no longer limited by my employment I would like to join the social justice cause. There are so many ways to get involved and I feel a need to contribute.
 
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