Goofy Hair Day

Like I said Lisa had given me enough materials for Johnnie's fun week this week. Every day they were supposed to do something artsy/craftsy. Yesterday it was making a ginger bread man puppet with a brown paper bag. Pretty cool though if I do say so myself. Without anything much to celebrate at work, I sensed that I was actually focused on Johnnie's holiday week. And why not? Usually around this time, I would at least be going to QueensCare's holiday dinner at the swanky private club downtown. Eating my roast filet sandwich and turkey. And hob-nobbing with our Board of Directors. Not this year. And so I look to Johnnie's activities LOL.  Johnnie had been ESPECIALLY looking forward to crazy hair day. And that's today. Probably because he and mom had already been practicing it this past weekend. Of COURSE Lisa would be practicing it. She of the -it's got to be perfect- ilk. I on the other hand who lives on the planet -do your best and pretty good is good enough- knows it's all about doing it together, all about making Johnnie feel included and special, all about letting him participate in the experience. And THAT is what we did this morning. I posted pics of me doing his hair and the end result afterwards. Was it as good as the pics of mom and son practice this weekend? NOT EVEN CLOSE. But I think you can judge the result for yourself. Look at the pic of him. He LOVED it! He was all smiles. And the best part? His class happened to be the one the school principal Ms Choe participated in this morning! And guess what?? She singled him out SPECIFICALLY!  How cool is that? And so I ask you? Was it perfect? NOPE> But was it good enough? Did he have a really good experience with it. The answer to that one would be a resounding, unequivocal MOST DEFINITELY! And to me that wasn't even the coolest thing he did today. In my humble opinion, that would be the snowflake he fashioned in Art Class with watercolors. I posted that here too. Because I happen to think it was very VERY cool as well. I mean look at it. It's something I could put up on MY wall and actually look nice. We're going to have to do more of that for the future. All of this sort of dumbs down the fact that today is Tech Council Meeting day. And even though I had my material good and ready to go, seriously I was more focused on Johnnie's activities than my own. Fortunately, he did get done before lunchtime and I had a little bit of time to focus and get my head together. I had plenty of material anyway so I wasn't worried. Even had new material about the huge cybersecurity hack that just occurred a couple of days ago.  So how did it go? It was sort of a non-event actually. That's because halfway through the whole thing, Eloisa suddenly pulled Barbara and Chad out of the meeting. No doubt something weird was going on with the Health Centers that needed their attention. And that they needed some decision on. I didn't care other than it left me with an audience of 5 that really wasn't all that interested in the rest of the presentation. And so I was left with 20 minutes to kill. And by the time I got done, I had a full 8 minutes left. Oh well. At least I GOT to do the presentation.  And then it was off to the next meeting with OCHIN right after that. All in all, I was just glad I got through a very busy day. And then Johnnie and I were off to Panda Express like usual for Wednesday night teriyaki chicken. By the time we got done, I was just sort of lazily couching it for the rest of the evening. And I was very glad to merely share the rest of the time watching whatever Johnnie wanted to watch. Actually I will admit to steering him away from anything Jurassic. And so I successfully steered him towards Guardians of the Galaxy. First the Lego version, and then he even agreed to watch the real movie. And then before I knew it, it was already 8:30 PM and time to go to bed. I wanted him to get to bed early today. Mainly because I had to wake him up especially early this morning to give us time to do his hair. And I still ran out of time really. But also mainly because I felt tired myself. I still managed to get my 11,000 steps in and then some. I still managed to do 3 sets of Nitric Oxide Dump exercises. And this after focusing on 2 meetings this afternoon too.  AND dealing with all this other stuff with Data Analytics reports. And so I think I just closed my eyes and it was probably pretty early when I knocked off. Fitbit said I fell asleep at 9:30. And I had a good 7 hours of sleep. Sounds just about right. It had been a pretty good day.

Work Work Work

So today I was fully aware that I needed to hunker down and get a lot of work done. As in get my Tech Council presentation. In the meantime, Johnnie's class is in full holiday celebration mode even while being remote. Today for example is WARM SOCKS DAY and to her credit, Lisa handed Johnnie off yesterday fully equipped for the week's festivities. Look at the pic of him with mommy's socks on. Can't get any more warm and comfy than that. And he and his classmates laughed it up sharing their get-ups with one another in their class. That's all you can ask for during this time of remote interactions, is just to have some semblance of social interaction. Particularly important for Johnnie I think. As for me, I wanted the opposite. I needed time to work and think and it was enough to simply have a little attention to whatever Johnnie was doing in the living room while I worked in the bedroom. How could you miss listening to Cosmic Pizza Party being read out loud to him? Anyway they seemed to have a fun time. In this last week of class before the winter break mode, there is no homework, no SeeSaw for Johnnie, but at least I found some things online to keep him busy. Some more math stuff, some more reading, just to keep him edge-sharp since he won't have school for the next 3 weeks. THAT would even be more of a challenge I think, but since it IS the holidays, I'm not all that worried about it. And oddly enough, despite not being close to finishing my presentation by mid-afternoon, I wasn't all that worried about that either. That's because I had content locked in my mind already and it was just a matter of organizing pages in Powerpoint. I thought I had barely an hour's worth of material to cover. It wasn't like I was pulling stuff out of my ass like many previous Tech Council Meetings, but it wasn't like I had anything meaningful to cover anyway. Except of course the big cybersecurity news that a few US federal agencies just got hacked. Or at least they found out they had been hacked and they had been spied on for many months. Someone is going to get egg on their face. I don't know how in the real world, some IT exec would have been skewered over that but in Trump's administration, it's like they don't even care. They're too busy still peddling that BS about how Trump won the election big. It's actually sad to watch now. Some goofy old man trying to keep to an alternate reality so badly out of whack with what actually did happen. It's a lesson in how you can alter the fact with a false narrative if enough people believe it. My question is how so many people have chosen to believe... 

Anyway by late afternoon, I had actually gotten caught up with material for tomorrow's presentation and so I didn't feel all that much pressure at all. Look at the picture I posted of Johnnie goofing around with me and horseplaying like he usually does. Does it LOOK like i'm stressed or anxious in any way? Probably more so that Johnnie could actually hurt me now. He did last week already almost busting my front tooth. Today being Tuesday, it made for a side trip to Panda Express for his dinner. And I actually had a lot more leftovers from last night. My unstuffed cabbage just needed some rice to go over and I had myself a pretty nice, decently healthy meal. I got Johnnie to keep on watching different videos... this time it was back to the Octonauts, while I sat down and finished my presentation. I remember when I would procrastinate so much I would be working on it until the wee hours of the morning many a time. Not tonight. I fully expected to get back to work on it once Johnnie fell asleep. But he fell asleep so fast I didn't need to lay there waiting for him to knock off. I just kept on working on it. And I was done with everything by 11 PM, including the agenda. Mission accomplished. Of course I never doubted it for a sec. And in the time that I took to wind down while laying there in bed I actually drifted to a state that was perhaps close to Alpha. And I was actually able to sort of meditate deeply while I knew I was still awake. I did my image cycling exercise and then it was like I took an elevator ride from that state right on to sleep. I felt like I worked my butt off today. And that's ok. I still felt like I spent enough quality time with Johnnie. 

A Busy Monday to Start A Busy Next couple of Days

So I must have felt guilty or motivated, one or the other. Because I woke up and immediately went on the computer and started to knock off all my 400+ unread emails. Yikes! And then I popped off a quick Nitric Oxide Dump exercise. And got my shower in. By the time I got around to breakfast, it was already past 9 AM. I could sense that I had a lot of energy today and that I was going to get a lot of stuff done. And even before my 10:30 AM Business Continuity Meeting I had already knocked off almost a mile walk just around my block. It was a nice, crispy day outside, the kind of breezy winter day that's usually cold but today I didn't even have to wear a vest. The sun kept it warm enough. Still pretty breezy though. Today I realized the reason I felt "busy-ness" was because it was Tech Council Meeting week, which means I better have worked on my Meeting Minutes by today and have at least a concrete idea of what to present by today too, at least start getting my material together. I have my KPIs I usually do so those I am almost automatic on. It IS December and usually it's the time I could even think about cancelling one of these. But I already did that last month, with the excuse that I was too busy since I was trying to pick up where Lam left off. That was the message I tried to convey to my team this morning, knowing full well that a few people were alarmed that he had left. Hey, if they could have shown him he was more valued, he probably would have stayed, but now we'll never know. I have to pick up regardless and I'm ok with that. Keeps me unusually busy though and I am a little disappointed in the people that have applied so far. In my mind I'm thinking that I found Lam the first time and I should be able to find another one too. But I also remember it took me 2 iterations to actually find him. And my first crack was that couple of guys that did turn out to be a couple. A mistake there. I mull these things as I continue my walk after lunch. But I focus more on how nice a day it was outside. And that all will turn out ok. 

In the meantime, Lisa was supposed to drop Johnnie off early today. She has to get a doctor appointment, medication appointment, AND a COVID test to do. And so in my mind, if I needed to be at 13,000 steps before I got to bed tonight, I better be at the halfway point of that by the time I got Johnnie. And so I got focused on getting lots of steps in, 2 miles worth before 3 PM.  And that included a couple of sets of Nitric Oxide stuff too. And later on 40 pushups in a minute or less, making the benchmark. I guess Mondays have morphed into my physical exercise day. Works for me. Of course with Johnnie in the house, that gives me even less time to think about work, which is why it was so important to get done what I needed to get done, although I fully realized that I was going to not be able to do much of anything. Still I was happy to see my Little Bug and he bounded all the way to my apartment when Lisa dropped him off, all packed with his books and his drawings for me, and his stuff for Winter Wonderland week at school. It's going to be a chill week at school with lots of activities and he is already very much looking forward to funny hair day on Wednesday. In the meantime, I got him busy with  Cat-In-the-Hat while I attempted to get some work done on my presentation for Wednesday. And of course when Johnnie is in play mode like he was this evening, he would be likely to interrupt whatever I was doing and play with me. Look at him in the pics I posted. Immediately he built his dinosaur fort on the floor and immediately he asked for McNuggets for dinner. Great... that would take away that option for lunch tomorrow. But then again it isn't a normal week anyway. And with the abbreviated schedule all week for Johnnie's classes, I'm going to have to find something for him to do when he finishes early, if I'm going to get all my stuff done. It's a busy week for me after all, and especially since next week is Christmas week and a really short one yet again. And of course the pandemic rages on as one by one departments at work are reporting staff shortages either because people are testing positive for Covid, or staying at home to take care of someone who has.  Fortunately for me,  all i have to worry about is Johnnie's attention and I remembered how I got him interested in all those EPIC read-to-me books that had adventure themes. The Bright Family. Cat Ninja. And tonight I actually had him read some of those books given to him to read. I'm also proud that I got my internal work done as well despite being so busy. That is the kind of thing that just snaps into place after doing it consistently for some time. How a long a time? It depends I guess. I do feel that despite all the interest I've had for a really long time on metaphysical things, I just haven't focused on them with enough clarity and consistency. And I think I can do that now. It doesn't guarantee results I grant you, but it does make me feel much more centered and calm. And so tonight I let Johnnie drift to sleep before getting to work on my stuff. I only worked through 11 PM. I had no intention of working late. Funny I only do those to watch TV shows I guess. Still I had a pretty productive day.

Another Golf Day in Altadena

So today Greg and I managed to book tee times at 8:30ish at Altadena. And Scott was supposed to join as well. So I'm up real early and I even drove past the fairly long line at Starbucks and got myself breakfast at McDonald's instead simply because there was no one in line. I got to the golf course a little after 8 PM and Scott was already walking up! Glad he got the message. And when we checked in there were at least 2 other groups in front of us. Last week, there was this newbie that was in front of us that Greg and I played through. And then the 2 guys that were chillin' and relaxin' and blasting music and drinking. All this quarantine stuff is sure bringing out the unusuals. Hey golf is the only thing you're allowed to do outdoors it seems like. And so here we were enjoying it, wait be damned. It's a pretty nice day out after all. The guys in front of us even let us go first since they claimed they saw us play before and we hit long. HAH! I wish. You'd have to hit it straight though. Unlike those guys that were in front of us this week. No golf etiquette. Hit the ball as hard as they could off the tee. To the other fairway. i think those guys must have been confused with the object of the game. Was to make it in the hole of YOUR OWN lane. Not that i had a lot to say different actually. I was glad to be out there and wasn't really focused on my own accuracy. And it showed. My tee shots were ok actually. But my fairway shots were short or inaccurate. And my putting was as bad as last week. Still, if just for today, being out here in the sun and getting exercise was much better than not. AND I got to hang out with Greg and Scott as well. Scott looked so bundled up it was funny. But he actually played well today. Better than I did in fact. Although I do recall hitting a couple of 5-irons straight down the fairway and all the way to the green 140 yards away. At least lets me know I'm capable of that from that distance. Now if I could only get consistent. Anyway, despite having to wait a little bit, we got done by 10:45. And I was home by 11:15. Enough time to go straight to Crimson to order and pick up lunch. Just like last week, I ordered my usual salmon kabobs and lentil soup. Yes, I know it's a creature of habit thing but really just driving home and driving past that corner between National and Barrington where the sandwich place Champagne used to be was enough reason for me to keep coming back to Crimson. You never know how long a favorite of yours will continue to be open. Specially in this time of coronavirus. You never know if the picture I posted in that shopping mall is something I'll look at a couple of years from now and remember fondly, just like how I feel when I see pictures of myself, Lisa, Chris and Mandy and even Johnnie eating outside at that same Crimson restaurant. It's been at least a couple of years now but I do keep the fond memories. Today, there is no eating there of course. I took home my lunch and then ate heartily and took a nice nap afterwards. So nice I got more than an hour out of it. I could have stayed on the couch too since I was already well past the benchmark of 7700 steps for the week as soon as I got home from golf. Instead I watched the series Lorna Doone, starring Amelia Warner which I watched in 2000 and just found on Amazon. I actually did chill on the couch until dinner time and I prodded myself to go to Ralphs to pick up food for the week. I am all hammed out of course, but I did purchase some pre-made chicken breast parmessan to go with the fettuccini I still had. And I had myself a pretty good dinner too. Only then did I feel productive enough to actually do more stuff. Like cleaning the kitchen, including the floor that I didn't clean yesterday. Boy was it dirty. And finishing my laundry. It turned out to be another full weekend.  Full enough for me.

The Holiday Lunch

So I'm up early and groggily head on over to Lisa's to pick up Johnnie at 7 AM. Only problem was that he was still asleep, surprise surprise. AND before I could go Lisa had to give me her instructions for the day. This time she made some gingerbread cookies for dessert. She went on about having to use real molasses and everything. I didn't have the heart to tell her that I had to go quickly because I had a ham in the oven, and the rest of the meal to prepare still. But alright, at least she is contributing to the lunch. AND she promised her mom Johnnie would be decorating the cookies with icing. Apparently that would be his task in my house too. I was confused. Does that mean we have to stay at Lisa's to decorate? How am I going to fix my meal? Is it okay if we come back? I know Lisa doesn't process a lot of data readily so I let her work it out. And finally, she decided she'd just decorate it herself right then and there. And I took the other cookies home for Johnnie to work on. Having just gotten up, we went to McDonald's to pick up Johnnie's breakfast. And actually today felt like a school day for him. That means he watched his Blippi videos. More than ever, I needed him out of the way. I thought preparing the ham would be easier than the turkey meal. Turned out it was just the same. That's because I made cornbread stuffing. With real cornbread. And it turned out really REALLY good too. I made green beans and onion. And then cut up sweet potatoes and drenched them with melted butter and brown sugar. Ok maybe this is even a little more difficult than just popping mashed potatoes in the instant pot. Still I got everything done by 11 AM. The ham was already half cooked so that didn't take too long to bake. My glaze didn't exactly turn out exactly right though. Oh well, at least the ham was cooked right? And so I packed everything up, got some McDonald's nuggets for Johnnie's lunch, and I got to Lisa's office by 11:30 right on time with all the food. Was there any doubt? Her staff was grateful they got to have a home-cooked meal. I often ask myself why do I do this? What's in it for me? It's not like I need or want Lisa's approval. Or any of her staff.  For me I think it's just an act of connection. It's because I can. And I think I'm good at it. And I got to connect with her staff if just for this Saturday. We know of course that Lisa wouldn't acknowledge me. We know she might even find fault with one or more of the dishes. I didn't care. I KNOW I put out a good meal. And that's that.

One thing though, I put out a lot more energy into creating this meal than I thought. I had over 100+ active minutes and more than an hour of cardio and I was just in the kitchen pretty much the entire morning. And I was tired afterwards too. So much so that when we got home, the first order of business was to find about an hour's worth of video for Johnnie to watch so I could take a nap. He settled on Isla Nublar Jurassic World of course. And that bought me almost an hour or so. Of course I was in a lazy mood the rest of the afternoon. And Johnnie got bored. So much so he wanted to go to his mom's house. That's because he had another project to work on. This time a gingerbread man house he got for a present from Angie. Since I hadn't heard from Lisa yet by 5 PM, we went to get him food at Panda Express so he could at least have his dinner. Who knows what Lisa was planning on making him after a hard day's work. When I dropped him off Lisa was cutting up the extra ham. There was a LOT, which was to be expected considering I cooked 9 lbs of it. I didn't really want any of it but there really was a lot. You know how I am with my own leftovers. But I took some just to take it off Lisa's hands. And so finally I had the rest of the weekend to myself. I wanted to clean the kitchen, and really the rest of the house too. I did do the dishes but I did make a mess on the floor. But somehow I felt a lot lazier than I wanted. Hey it really did take a lot of energy out of me. I just plopped on the couch. And watched the USC-UCLA football game. It used to be I'd be worked up about this game. Rivalry game you know. And for once, UCLA is playing better than expected. They roared out to a 21-10 halftime lead! Wow! USC came in undefeated. I had horrible memories of actually watching UCLA get routed at the Coliseum during the Pete Carroll years. And I have a memory of UCLA winning while we had dinner one year and while we were in Vancouver another year. Tonight, it was a ho-hum game. Maybe because I have already had my share of winning all year. I would rather root for the Rams to go all the way to the Super Bowl. UCLA had already clinched their best record in 3 years. But the good feelings got wiped out by a USC comeback from an 18-pt 2nd half deficit to pull it out with less than a minute to go. Sigh. Oh well. At least it was a good game. And at least it was a good day today.

A Slow Moving Friday

This being Friday and a day removed from Johnnie going back to Lisa's, of course I tried to sleep in. This despite my Outlook calendar beeping as early as 7 AM to remind me of Day 2 of the CCALAC HIT conference I was supposed to attend. That I had no intention of attending LOL. HEy I attended yesterday didn't I? Still I dutifully put the meeting on and then left it on. Hey at least I can have some excuse that I was doing something work-related right? As it was I got a really late start and I didn't even put my Earl Grey tea on until it was past 9 AM already. And to tell you the truth, I even got as far as doing my Nitrous Oxide Dump exercises while still in my pajamas. Then and only then did I take a shower, after I'd had breakfast and it was already 10 AM. Hey it's Friday right? ANd then this being a Friday, of course I had to watch the latest episode of the Mandalorian didn't I? It got so exciting last week with the appearance of Boba-fet, and the week before that with the appearance of Jedi Ahsoka Tano. This week's episode was spent trying to find the coordinates of Mof Gideon's ship which had abducted Grogu, Baby Yoda. And had a lot of rock-'em sock 'em kind of action. I mean that would be 2 weeks in a row, the Mandalor warriors took out a battalion and in this episode an entire army of pirates. And you thought they were the bad guys... Anyway you could sense it is building up to such an exciting season conclusion! By the time I was done watching it, the rest of the day seemed anti-climactic. And it wasn't even lunch time yet LOL. Actually I knew I had stuff to plan for. After all I put myself on the hook for doing the holiday lunch for Lisa's staff tomorrow. I mean I don't do a bad meal, not since the first time I tried this and it was such a disaster. They're going to get a nice holiday lunch tomorrow.  

$36,477 In the meantime, today was payday and I had a double paycheck period in fact because I cashed out 80 hours of vacation that I wasn't going to use. It got my checking account to over $36K! Boy am I feeling tremendous gratitude for THAT! In this time when the majority of Americans are not doing so well because of the economics of the pandemic, I am immune from that and believe me I am grateful. Even more so is that my account balance ensures that I can pretty much not worry about money for an entire year should something happen to my job. THAT is financial security.  

Finally I spent Friday night actually catching up on steps because I wasn't even at 1000 steps yet by 2 PM. That and shopping for the stuff I'm going to prepare for the holiday meal tomorrow. I could pretty much get everything from Trader Joe's, except for the ham itself which was on sale for cheap at Ralphs. I mean the thing was a buck a pound. And so I did not complain at all that the smallest ham was 9 lbs. I mean I'm not going to quibble over $9. I also bought myself a nice top sirloin steak for $5. That was on sale too. And had myself a pretty fine dinner as it turned out. As far as after dinner, it was a night of chopping carrots, and onions, and celery, and peeling sweet potato, and apples, and reading up on how to prepare a good ham. It does feel like the Thanksgiving lunch I prepared not even a month ago, but there's less pressure. That's because we didn't really have anything in the way of holiday traditions at Lisa's except of course for her annual holiday party, which I won't be a part of anymore. And that's ok. I still have memories of the very last one I attended in DTLA and how miserable I was waiting for Lisa to call it a night. Maybe I should have just stopped going with her to all these social things she lives for but I used to hate going to. Boy I have to forgive and forget and clear these things don't I? Perhaps, doing the lunch will help do that. I tried to go to bed early knowing full well I was supposed to pick up Johnnie at Lisa's tomorrow at 7 AM. But I didn't. I ended up watching Picard episodes. I'm in a sci-fi kind of mood you know. It's ok. I'll catch up on sleep tomorrow...

Close Call For Lisa

Today I attended the CCALAC HIT Summit which started at 8 AM and ran through lunch. They talked up HIE and particularly LANES I felt which I oppose joining because I didn't like that they stored our data instead of passing it through like normal HIE vendors. Although there is a use case for storing regional data that way, I don't think they've achieved enough critical mass that I'm willing to forego the risk. Anyway for a Thursday it ensured that I was in work mode for at least half the day, if not more. I still did my IT Team Meeting too after all, and I had a lot to talk about in that one, but I concluded it in less than 30 minutes. In the meantime, Johnnie did his usual Thursday class lineup and then we took off right after so I could do some grocery shopping for Asian food at Marukai Market. I was fortunate to be 2nd in line, but boy when we left the market after checking out the line had grown to at least a dozen people. The new normal again for now. We've also started to talk about the covid vaccine at work. Boy that's going to be some logistical challenge won't it?! Glad to know we are days away from possibly approving it though. In the meantime it is still sort of business as usual for Johnnie and I even though I still had the conference going on in my computer. Udon for him, Vietnamese beef pho for me. Mmmm. And a good meal was had by Johnnie and dad. The day seemed to be humming along as normal, even through the afternoon Huddle meeting. There weren't that many people that joined so THAT meeting was done in barely a half hour. The mood wasn't all that upbeat because we are starting to show strains of the pandemic getting worse. We had 200 people call today about getting tested or getting seen after testing positive. And there are still these damn stupid fools thinking this is a hoax or it is no better than the flu. OK OK I may wear a mask outside and I may adhere to social distancing. But I do feel that you keep doing those and wash your hands often and you should be fine.

Still, you can't speak for others. And this afternoon, Lisa called letting me know one person on her staff has tested positive for coronavirus and is exhibiting mild symptoms. Uh-oh. I told her to get tested IMMEDIATELY. I didn't understand why she said she was waiting until Monday to get tested. That would mean she would have to quarantine all weekend at least until she got her test results. And so we talked about me possibly having Johnnie for the entire weekend. I'm not sure Lisa would put up with that on ANY normal circumstance, which is why I was confused she just didn't up and go and get tested right then and there. I told him I'd be ok keeping Johnnie through Monday if necessary. And I immediately did a load of Johnnie's clothes so he would have some. Lisa would call back inside of an hour. She DID get a rapid test done and she tested negative. WHEEW. That's a good thing. And so we reverted back to normal routine plan, which was she coming to pick up Johnnie later on around 7:30ish. In the meantime I had him doing Master Kelly's taekwondo class this afternoon and the lesson was about balance. I made my decision... we're going to officially sign up for this one. And so we did the rest of the Thursday night routine from there. And of course Johnnie had to do one thing that would make me lose my temper. This time, it is while doing horseplay that he gave me a full-on head butt backwards and smacked into my face so hard I thought my front tooth got loosened. I was furious. I sent him off in the closet not primarily to give him timeout, but so he could be out of the way while I cooled off. And then I calmly sat him down and made him aware of what he did. He cried for a little bit but then we were good again. And he was back to his playful self before we even went to get his dinner. But he was ready to go back to his mom's house. He knows the schedule. Lisa came later than usual. But she did come and I WAS glad we didn't have to deal with her being covid positive or her quarantining. We already sort of dealt with it in March when she was sick, but not from COVID. She also let me know that the plan of making her staff lunch for Saturday was back on. OK then. It meant I had to get out tonight and do reconaissance on what I have to buy... kind of set my menu. We're doing ham this time. It should be easier. It's a buck a pound. What a deal...

Goofing Off on a Thursday Nite

The MidWeek Routine

I liked it better last month when I had an abundance of stuff to keep Johnnie busy under the category of school or learning activities. He had computer programming and swimming on ONE day and I was probably even more tired than he was shuttling from one activity to the other. I thought it would make great practice for when he's a little older actually and that isn't too far away when he is actually on teams and leagues and playing in tournaments in whatever sport. In my mind, it just comes with the territory of being a dad and I embrace that role wholeheartedly. Fortunately today, he actually has that art class in kindergarten that I like and today, his project was to make a holiday card he has to give to somebody. And he made one for me and his mom. He wrote inside that we are THE BEST mom and dad ever. How can that not make your day?! And that wasn't all too. He of course still has to do his favorite SeeSaw homework and read 20 minutes of EPIC books before we can even BEGIN to think about lunch. For me, I was actually looking forward to that lunch. It gave me at least 20 minutes of time that I can do whatever. And today I chose to do my steps in the walkway right outside my apartment. 100 steps to the end of the hallway, 200 steps roundtrip. I could easily get to 2000 steps in those 20 minutes and that's already close to a mile. I wasn't sweating it really because I was still sore from last Monday's push-ups routine, which is something I want to incorporate more. I liked that my upper body and my arms looked pretty tight after that. Anyway I did a whole bunch of steps and by the time Johnnie got done with his class, he even wanted to continue reading EPIC books. He's really into Cat Ninja and the Bright Family stories. It's all good. Gives me time to do some work.  

In the afternoon, I gave him a break by having him do the 2nd part of the karate class he did yesterday. Look at the video I took of him doing frog jumps. I'm doing this to help him build strength of course but already I can sense he's turning into a pretty athletic kid and he's going to end up pretty strong. I can already feel it when he plays with me and punches me in the stomach. Another year or so and he's not going to be able to do that anymore. I know he only does it with me too because I am pretty sure he does not do that kind of horseplay with Lisa. She would never allow it. Of course she wouldn't allow him to watch videos either and now she is actually beginning to soften up on that some. So anyway, the karate class was just okay and I think I'll bring him back to the one he was doing online originally. That one seemed much funner and much more suited to little kids. After all, to Johnnie all of this is still just a game isn't it? Look at the blue tape I put on the floor just so he could practice his stance properly. My hope was actually to tire him out some LOL. Hard to do because he is a walking ball of energy. AND he eats and apparently sleeps much better here with me than at his mom's house. He told me so himself. Not going to get into that one. I can only control what I can control and that is when he is with me. And for me, if I have to feed him Panda Express teriyaki chicken just to ensure he is eating, then so be it. And if I have to supplement him with Pediasure every night, so be it too. And if he has to watch more than an hour of videos every night so he can have something to occupy himself, I'm glad to do it. Although lately he's been wanting to watch full length videos more. As in Jurassic World, Jurassic Park. Whatever happened to Frozen and Frozen II from a year ago? Today he actually started to watch Tumble Leaf all over again. Like I said, I think it was a moment of nostalgia. Hey until we get out of pandemic/quarantine mode, it's going to have to do. I thought about what we would be doing if we could actually go somewhere. Perhaps, Lisa and Johnnie would already be off somewhere for an extended time like they did last year. It would have been my turn to take him to Maui with me this past summer. But one a night-to-night basis, I remember a year ago we started to do the Italian sausage-make cookies on a Tuesday night routine. Whatever happened to that? This past summer was different because in very short order, I had him learning how to scooter, bike, and swim in that order. In a different world, I'm sure he would be learning something at Cornerstone Conservatory.  And so that is why I turn to martial arts. Gotta think of something else though... Soon.

A Johnnie Anniversary

So on this day 6 years ago, Lisa brought home this sweet but fragile looking baby boy and our lives were changed forever. No there is no understating that and I do not apologize for making it sound that dramatic and emotional. I remember that Friday meeting at the adoption office like it was yesterday. "Let's talk about you taking him home" they said at the time. I didn't actually think they meant that very weekend. I didn't know what I thought actually. Maybe because a part of me still didn't really believe it would happen that quickly. But it did. That following Monday, the 8th I went to work. But I had an announcement to make. And in the middle of the afternoon, the entire FRB was congratulating me. And a couple of hours later, I went home to my family. To my new son. And prepared myself not to get a good night's sleep again for a while. I smile now when I think about that. These days, it is when Johnnie is with me that I get the best sleep. Because I am forced to go to bed and to sleep by 10 PM when he stays over. Last night for example I got almost 7 hours of sleep, and quite a bit of deep sleep and REM sleep to boot. This morning, my muscles were sore, only because I had pushed myself pretty hard exercising yesterday. And actually today felt very much compressed. There were lots of things I was working on what with Data Analytics short-handed and I had to attend the OPS Leadership Team Meeting where I actually sounded like I knew what I was talking about. Of course I was rushing to get out of that one because we had to go to Johnnie's school this morning to pick up supplies for next week's last week of school for winter break festivities. See the pic of him picking up his bag? It was nice to also see Ms Gee, his teacher last year at TK. By the time we got home, the old memories of Johnnie as a baby were very clearly replaced by the Johnnie-of-today particularly with his current school pictures that were just delivered. He's a big little boy now my son. A long way off from that fragile little baby. And smart as a whip.

I think the entire school is in wind-down mode, particularly with the announcement that everyone has to work from home until the end of the semester in January. I mean I'm already doing that so no change for me, but I imagine it must be sending a lot of people wiggy yet again although we went through this before in March already. As far as Johnnie's schedule, I had him do a different karate class starting this week just to see if there was any difference or contrast and then I'll decide on purchasing an actual program. This particular one went right into punches and blocking and although he did learn some things, I'm not sure his foundation is solid just yet. This was more traditional Japanese too and like the other class, he got to learn how to count out in Japanese. Great. The only Asian language i can't expose him to is his own cultural roots, which is Chinese LOL. Anyway we did get through the class ok and I may have him do another one since there are 26 video modules and we're just at Module 8. Also helps that this thing is free although that isn't really something I'm worried about. And so after the class, we went on with the Tuesday night routine, which was to pick up chicken teriyaki at Panda Express and then on to some learning activity hopefully. Or maybe i'll just let him watch some more Jurassic World/Jurassic park videos. He actually chose to just watch Cat-In-The-Hat episodes tonight. Maybe he's feeling a little nostalgic himself, sensing that his old man is doing lots of reflection. While he watched videos, I did too. But the videos I watched and the pictures I perused through tonight were all from 2014. That first day was obviously very eventful and very much a learning experience which would continue for a while. And it was just the start of something that goes on up until today and for the foreseeable future, even in the time of a pandemic. For Johnnie and I tonight, that's just getting to bed at 9 like we normally do and for me, a very good night's sleep. There may be lots going on at work because of the pandemic... but it's just work and I just keep on doing my job. And as Johnnie snored softly next to me when he fell asleep, I am very much aware that him here, now, sleeping next to me safe and sound... is the biggest reason of all to be very VERY grateful.