- We just had my daughter’s fifth birthday party (her actual birthday is this coming weekend, but we held the party when we could maximize attendance). I’m still coming to grips with the fact that I have two five year olds. There are two human beings, of whom I am fully responsible. And they’re both five years old. This is difficult.
- This past weekend, we had Geekend 2015, wherein a group of people gathered at my house, binge-watched the television show Firefly, ate copious amounts of Chinese food, and drank copious amounts of booze. We kicked things off Friday night, with a meal at the local Hibachi Grill, which offers All-You-Can-Eat sushi. My waiter could not fathom how much sushi I’m able to eat (to be honest, I could have eaten a little bit more before we left, but everybody at the table was done eating & I was eager to head back to the house so that my son & my friend’s son could play video games together), saying “you’re becoming a legend among the staff – a skinny guy isn’t supposed to be able to put this much sushi away,” and I was taken aback by the term skinny. It’s not a word that, until very recently, could ever be used to describe me.
- I’m going back for more All-You-Can-Eat sushi this coming Sunday.
- My daughter has taken to voicing her displeasure over life disappointments in song — last night, my nephew was over, and he chose to play swords with CJ, rather than make an art project with her. So Leila sang “he never wants to play with me, he always wants to play swords. Why won’t you do art with me, Charlie?” in a singsong voice. This makes me deliriously happy for two reasons: first, it’s ultra-creative. More importantly, she’s finding a creative outlet to avoid a tantrum.
- I have a lot of good stuff in my life right now. A lot. I’m very fortunate.
- It’s a few months before my next running event, and I’m finding it difficult to find the motivation to run.
- Aiding in the lack of motivation are terrible nighttime leg cramps — I’m not sure what’s bringing them about, but part of me feels that I should be resting my legs more, or something. Anyway, it sucks to have to get out of bed (which, typically, means that I need to detangle my legs from both the blanket and Benji) in order to use my bodyweight to force my calf muscles to relax. While I feel that “rest” should equal “fewer cramps,” that doesn’t appear to actually be the result . . . so I may start trying to run more to see if, just maybe, keeping my muscles near a state of exhaustion might help alleviate the cramping.
- My wife is officially off for the summer. Meaning that I don’t have to dress the kids every weekday morning. This kind of makes me happy (more “me” time) — and, at the same time, makes me sad. Because, when the school year starts back up again, there’s a good chance that both kids will be dressing themselves. Refer to the first bullet point as to why this is bullshit.
- That I can dress my children, pick them up, and buckle them into their car seats without waking them really, really scares me for their teenage days.
- I find myself wondering if I should focus on restricting my coffee intake. While I drink a good amount on the way into work, most days, that’s the only coffee I drink in a day (some days, I get an afternoon pick-me-up . . . today, well, today may include a few afternoon pick-me-ups, see bullet point about leg cramps for why). But, while “less coffee” seems like a good idea on the surface, the most recent research on low-fat diets (essentially, fats are far from being your enemy in living a healthy lifestyle) makes me question just how bad caffeine might be fore me.
- The amount of rain we’ve had recently has me really, really excited for my garden over the next few weeks.
- As I knew I would, I completely lost steam in the “organize everything in my life” stretch, with which I started the year. But, I went through my T-shirt drawer yesterday, separating the “I like it and it fits” from the “I like it, but it’s too big for me” tshirts while getting rid of a bunch of “maybe I’ll wear it to work out” t-shirts. That little bit felt good.
- I’ve recently teaching a bass student, which had me looking through my old music from when I was a student, myself. One piece, in my handwriting: “less motion, moron.” If you’ve ever seen me play, you know that I move around, quite a bit to the music — I can only imagine what I was doing to make me think that, as a solo player, my physical moving, as a I played, would be seen as a distraction.
- There is a possibility that my schedule might be a little less crazy, each & every day, for a little while . . . I may actually get myself a decent guitar & start trying to play it. For real, this time.
- I’m just wrapping up the Audiobooks of the Lord of The Ring — I know the next book I’ll be working on, but then I need to figure out what’s after that . . . I have a bunch in my Audible library that I haven’t yet listened to, but I’m always eager to hear suggestions.
- Every weekend day, for the foreseeable future, contains something epic: an amusement park visit, my daughter’s actual birthday dinner, a private party gig with my rock/jazz/funk/fusion band, Father’s Day, Camping (x2), July 4th, the matinee/final show at the local community theatre, a weekend with great friends at their pool (x2), the trip to the beach at the start of a vacation, the first full day on the beach . . . as I said earlier, I’m quite fortunate.
- I have been on a SERIOUS avocado kick lately (it started with an attempt to ensure I was getting enough potassium in my diet . . . see bullet point about muscle cramping). If I find myself at home, with a ripe avocado? I split it in half, dig out the pit, fill each pit divot with an egg, and then bake at 425 for 12-15 minutes . . . dippy avocado eggs! For lunches? I’ve been mixing a pouch of tuna with an avocado instead of mayonnaise for a tuna salad. I’ll be sad when these green pieces of heaven return to regular prices at the grocery store.
I was going to say avocados for the cramping, but you’re there already. Mark drinks a 12oz coconut water daily, which helps with his leg cramps. Big kids are cool, don’t sweat the growing up.
Mmm… sushi.
Yeah, I try to limit my carbohydrates, and, obviously, by definition, sushi is high there . . . but, I typically try to pick rolls that don’t have sauces on them, therefore I’m restricting sugar, and I’m still getting PLENTY of protein, and I way overdo my daily dose of yum.
I’ve been eating a bit of unsweetened, dried coconut — I wonder if that’s the same as the coconut water. Will have to research.
Try some magnesium for the cramping. And wow, sushi, Chinese food, and Firefly? I’m in. Do I have to stick to a particular kind of booze, or does no one care?
Booze is, as booze does.