Beermageddon

I don't mind you being away all the time because of theatre stuff.

I don't mind you pouring yourself a pint when you get in and then flopping down to watch TV.

I don't mind you putting your pint glass in the sink.

But could you make sure the beer tap is off?

Also, beer takes floor wax off vinyl tile.

Obligatory Blog Post

Hey, I called it obligatory, because it's a weekly task I'm trying to maintain a regular schedule.

Let's talk about boozing!

So I like my drinking... and maaaaybe too much?

So I'm cutting down... it's not hard, like I'm not CRAVING a beer, at all...

But it is.... there's just nothing else to dirnk.

I want sugar-free, big taste, and non-caffeinated...

Juice is too sweet, coffee is a bad idea...

Virgin cocktails are also often too sweet

I mean, there's water... but eeegh

Dealcoholized beer is okay, but it's expensive...

Xmas

Yah, yah, my usual Xmas Is Terrible Post.

But this year not so bad.  I did have one moment, where I had to power through a family gathering, but I was able to... and by powering through it it turned out not be so bad....

Slowly getting ahead

Where are we at this week?

1) Usual Christmas stress is starting to break my willpower down a little bit!

2) The Project Manager has admitted, out loud, that she is over-committed. I have literally never heard her say that.

3) I am losing weight, I think, at least losing inches, and my drinking is down to just over 2 a night, on average!

4) The house moves on, slowly, as always, but with steady improvement.

5) I think my laptop has died.  That made me super sad. Like sad beyond all logical amounts.  How strange of me...

Some weak week structure

	AM	PM	EVE	REST
Sun	Church	Home	Family	Maybe
Mon	Work	Work	Family	No
Tue	Work	Work	Date	Yes
Wed	Work	Work	Game	No
Thurs	Work	Work	Chores	No
Fri	Work	Work	Free	Yes
Sat	Kids	Chores	Entertain	No

Seems doable, and it's actually based on actual reality

Why introverts don't run parties

So the Project Manager runs awesome parties.

And I don't.

But by gum, I have to learn. So this weekend I ran a star wars tea party for the Peanuts, and my goodness, I did a good job.

A few highlights:
 The PM let me do it my way, and gave me exactly the right amount of support.
 The kids had a good time
 I didn't commit any major mistakes, like I didn't forget to do anything or anything super absent-minded.

But

Afterwards

Man was I tired. I was _EXHAUSTED_

And that's why introverts don't run parties.

Rolling on....

So we go pretty much 7 days a week.

And I wonder if this is how people used to live...

Is it sustainable?

I don't even know.

In _theory_ on paper, we have 3 spare evenings a week.  But where do they go?

Busiest-week-ever Guilt

I have literally failed to prepare for this week so epicly that:

I"m supposed to be on-call, someone is covering for me and I don't know who
I'm IN THE SAME CITY as my Dad, and didn't know, and
I scheduled a major complex meeting for a day when I was out of town.

This is not so good.

Life is good when...

You're at work, which you love, with your kids, who you love, and you love that you can bring your kids to work on a Saturday and get caught up AND that you are only REALLY here at work working because the hockey game starts in an hour and you have seasons tickets and they're raising the banner for last year's championship and then your friends who have finally achieved a major life goal are in town to celebrate and see everyone...

Life is VERY good.

Wish my nuts-swelling would go down.  Stupid vasectomy

Gettin' old problems

Man, had my Vasectomy this week, and it has taken a toll on me!

I'm exhausted like asleep by 9 exhausted.

But it seems to make my wife happy.


Also, I'm good at my job.

Getting paid the big bucks

Does, on occasion, mean that I can't whine about how other people deliberately misinform or spread lies to inhibit my work.

Don't mean I have to like it though...

Beautiful last month

It's been a good month!

I've been getting some stuff done, not enough, but some...

It's kinda nice.

Ohh, also my kids have been great over the last month, which is great. They're in the same preschool now, which is cool. A little complicated by the fact that Peanut #1 can read already, which is the school's problem, but also really ours because she may get boooooooooooooooored.

More focused today

A little more focused today than yesterday, despite being somewhat hung over.

Work is thundering along quite nicely, very productive and getting things done.  I have good staff and things seem ok!

It's a fun job, and we're working hard to make things better every day, and it's a good, and tough test at the end of the day, to say "hey, did we make it better today?"

And most days we do.

What is happening today?

Uh,

Not a lot of buzz in the ol' grey matter today.

Just working and toiling and really trying not to be too hungry.

Like I am really hungry.

DOH

Nothing is flowing today....

more attention and more patience

One of my new favourite things is trying to be more patient, particular (okay, entirely) with my kids.

My mantra is: None of their misbehaviour is serious, so I shouldn't over react.

It doesn't matter if they get out of bed.

It doesn't matter if they don't eat supper.

It doesn't matter if they wear weird clothes.

It doesn't matter if they make a mess.

This are the usual things that make me crazy in my head.... :$

What's bothering me this week.

Uh... let's see... The rise of white nationalism and the corresponding, THOUGH SMALLER, rise in left-wing violence, coupled with the fact that no one knows what fascism is any more.  Sigh.

Trying to keep ahead on laundry is also an isss-soo, but that can be alleviated by throwing my phone out the window and ignoring it.

Mostly I am stressing about how to quit some things.  I have over-extended in volunteering right now, and getting _nothing_ done properly.  Like NOTHING.  It's... it's not awesome.

The energy continues!

I cannot remember a time in my life when I have felt this productive for this long.

I'm even SICK, and still kicking ass.

I am so grateful to whatever Power has pulled this off for me.

Sustained energy?

Holy hannah, I'm actually up to running full speed with sustained energy all the time this week!

It's more or less a matter, I think, of staying ahead of the wave.  And I know, I KNOW, that's not smart, because it means that if I get sick or get busy, then POWZAMA that wave crashes over me.

But if I can use the energy to get things done, then the impact of the wave inevitably crashing over me is reduced.

Burst of energy

With nothing left to do all summer but be domestic as fuck, I am suddenly filled with new energy!

TO THE HOUSE-WORK O TRON!

And to the FUN KIDS ACTIVITY O TRON!

Not to be passive-aggressive here,

BUT YOU GAVE OUR DAUGHTER HER NIGHT-TIME GLASS OF WATER IN A WINE GLASS.

...

I'm good now.

and she didn't cut herself

Just saving this for later

http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/parenting/a27033/when-four-year-olds-have-tantrums-normal-or-cause-for-worry/


Sigh.

"There's a welcome period of calm before the hormonal teenager years from around eight years old"

So, like, for three years

Milestone

I have attended a preschool graduation.  It's the cutest thing ever.

I smiled like an idiot the whole time.  That's my job

Routine posting!

Phew!  We are about 1/3 of the way through the busiest summer so far, and so far we are surviving!

I just wish there was more time...

Oh yah, I need to check my vacation balance... ... DONE!

Ok, where was I?  Oh right, lamenting my lack of time.

I guess there's new time to be harvested from the evening and morning hours.  Dammit.

Mr. Grumpypants

I get SO grumpy sometimes, for no good damn reason.

I feel, at the time when it happens, completely overwhelmed. And it's labour, like physical labour, to get a deep breath and to push on through it.

The Project Manager is good at commenting on it when it happens, but it's hard to get through.

There's no a lot of warning when it happens, but I guess I could keep my 'eyes' peeled for the warning signs.

It's really important that I get this managed properly. It's not going to get better on its own, quite the opposite

Tough moments

I had a good moment of existential dread this week, where I realized that I may be the best at everything I do right now, and that from now on I may just get worse and worse at everything I know how to do.

Then it passed and I went to work.

Thus is middle age.

Desire to be introspective....

Sigh.... I wish I was one of those people who could lay their feelings and motivations out, who could really sort themselves out like some kind magic eye puzzle: "If I step back and tilt my head just so, and then boogle my eyes just so, I suddenly understand everything".

But I"m not that guy,

I'm basically a goofball. I thunder my way through life with a myriad of half-completed ideas, completely aware that I never finish anything, but generally having a wonderful time.

I see people who get things done, and I marvel at their abilities, and then I go back to having a hoot.

I am GOOD at having a hoot.

I worry that it makes me groundless, or wayless, that I never commit to anything, really, but just bash on things randomly.  It's basically how I play Streetfighter, too, for the record.

Also My attiention span is about this long.

Had a deep thought, but forgot what it is...

Dang it was good, too...

What is going on these days?  Not much!

I'm restarted taking Circus Classes, which is fun, and embarrassingly difficult.  I"m still pretty strong, but I am NOT bendy.  The instructor is really good, and the other students are awesome, and it's turning into a really supportive group of people with good senses of humour

We're trying to get our social circle back up and running after the busy-ness of the last few months, and that's really intense and tiring because we're still so busy....

:$

I also have a couple of friends I've stopped seeing entirely, which is too bad.

Actually, I feel like I have a bunch of friends who are still doing all the old fun stuff I used to do, that I don't have time to do anymore.  And to be honest, I do occasionally miss the related misbehaviour.

Just a general update

Nothing particularly exciting this week,

Girls are good an being cute, and we've just started removing the outside of the house to reinsulate and reside it, which will be super exciting!

I"m hoping it solves my weird kitchen floor draft problem.

And this is last big house renewal piece

I love my house.

But it has all my money.

Vimy

"VIMY FORGED THE NATION OF CANADA!!!"

Uh, no...

1) Canada is not forged. It's not a metal rigid thingy, it's a big messy nation of issues and problems and dreams and solutions and snow and cold and darkness and light

2) Vimy was the unnecessary deaths of thousands of young men, recruited into some bullshit propagandaic post-colonial conflict because the ruling houses of Europe couldn't get their shit in order, and our nation deserves better than that

3) Vimy was characterized by brutal hand to hand, machine gun to bayonet, and club to weapon. If the ability to do that is what characterizes a nation-building event, then I have no interest in being part of a nation.

Of course, saying that would be totally inappropriate at this time

First day of Spring!!!

So what's going on around here these days?

The Project Manager is at the theatre basically every day for the next two weeks, so I have to single parent my way through that (not a big deal, really)

Work is quietly busy, at exactly the right level of busy-ness

Everyone in our house has a cold, that's not so fun, frankly.

This week, in theory, the work will start on The Estate to re-side the house and replace the back
decks.

This will be a fun project, and probabky an ENORMOUS mess.

I confess that this winter has not been productive one for me, in the house, although some small progress has been made on basement stairs, and basement stowage in general.

Quitting Drinking

So we've quit drinking for Lent, again, as usual.

And man, can we ever sleep!  It turns out that we've been staying up late, because it's when we do our drinking.

So that's neat...

It also means that I've had a case of beer in my house that has lasted over a week!

Because we can drink on Sundays, which we do.

Although not a lot, because we're so damn busy there's not enough time to do so, frankly

Exploration of solo parenting

So the Project Manager is away for four days, and the same thing always happens:

1) My patience goes way up.  Which is weird.
2) I get super-organized
3) I get super-productive

And I have a few possible explanations:

1) I am kinda competitive and I like showing off to my wife.

2) I know she's not there, so I lose some kind of hidden "meh, PM will do it" and I jump into getting everything done myself

3) I don't get distracted hanging out with my wife, which is one of my favourite things to do

4) There's enough room on the bed for me and the cats, so I get more rest.

5) The Peanuts don't have fights with their mom (which can be a major drain) and so everyone has more energy

6) I don't have to match my schedule to my wife's so there's less need to communicate and stress,

Life is good...

I'm on top of the wave, and it's going along ok.

Now... how to STAY on top of the wave is the question.

I wonder if there's something I can do, or keep doing, to stay up on here.

I wonder.

Not take on crazy crap?  Keep fully staffed at work?  Keep getting lots of sleep?

OH YES AND, I have realized that the Project Manager and I need to watch a show together, or our marriage suffers, so we're doing that again now too, we're watching Homeland. It's pretty good!

What's going on these days?

Golly, you know, my personal life is pretty darned stable, just doin' the same things as ever.

But hoooo boy, the world is falling to shit mostly.  Watching the rise of fascism in the States, and Canada and Germany left as the only bulwarks of liberal democracy.

It hasn't affected us directly at work yet, but there are likely to be some students here in the fall that were intending to go to school in the States who are now banned from the country, and the conference that were planned for there, may relocate to us here.

We shall see.

Life im general

Phew! Dinner plans for Peanut #1 have definitely resulted in an improvement in eating. And in a 1 million % reduction in shouting which is great.

In fact Peanut #1 hit an eating milestone yesterday so she got her reward, which was to go to the Pub and have popcorn. So we did that, just her and I, and we had the joint to ourselves, which was nice, and there may even have been a little daddy-daughter dance party, much to the amusement of the bartender.

In fact, yesterday was pretty much a perfect day.

New approach to dinner... god help us...

"This is your dinner. We will sit with you while we all eat. You don't have to eat. If you do, you get a reward. NO pressure"

Man do I hope this works.

Parenting Blogs

So Peanut #1 is very tantrummy these days, and it's super stressful and unhappy making.

So we check the blogs, and they all say it's normal, and that we're handling it properly, etc etc.

But mostly what I want them to do is tell us how to make it stop.

Stupid long term changes.

Anyway, we're gonna start a sticker chart style thing to see if we can get her to eat her dinner at least.