Weird Morning

 

We toured KXAN today with Mal's school and it was a neat time!

Before that, though... I had a really strange morning.

First, when I woke up, it was from a dream in which I saw a homeschool friend I'd had in Sherman. In the context of my dream, I'd had a baby soon after Mal and had given it to her, as she really wanted another kid but since she was a bit older than I was, wasn't able to get pregnant again. We hadn't seen each other in years, and I wanted to ask about the kid, but couldn't remember what my friend had named her.

"How's Little Girl?" I asked.

"That doesn't really describe her anymore!" my friend answered.

Then I remembered that we'd just given her the baby without any formalities. I thought that it was probably time to discuss her formally adopting the child (who, at this point, would be 9ish?).

Weird dream.

Then I woke up a little too early to go on a walk, but since we had a pretty early leave time (for our family), I decided to get out while it was still dark (and 49 degrees! yay!). As I was walking down a nearby street, I greeted a man who was walking up the road the opposite direction from me. He passed, but I could tell that he was talking to me. I was listening to a podcast but had the earphones on transparent mode. I still couldn't understand him. I finally took out one earbud and asked him to repeat himself.

"Are you the mail lady?"

"No."

He nodded. "Oh, yeah! Red!"

I said, "Not anymore."

He walked over to me, stuck out his arm like he was an escort, and said gregariously, "Let's walk!"

It kind of alarming, but I didn't feel scared, so I just took his arm and walked with him.

He asked what I was doing, and I told him I was getting some exercise before my kid woke up. I asked him where he was heading, and he said he was just walking around. 

During this exchange, he looked at me again. 

"Sharon?" he asked.

"No."

He dropped my arm and said, "Oh! I'm sorry! I can't see details." 

I told him it was fine and he continued to walk the direction I was walking, but he gradually walked to the other side of the road. When I got to my turn (which happened to go by the police department, but I'd already planned my route before I saw him), I wished him a good day and he went on his way.

Weird.

Finally, when I got home from my walk, I checked the mailbox and found a piece of kids' handwriting paper folded over with red marker writing on it reading "jet lost cat". Not sure what to do with that.  

So... how's your day been?

Austin Christmas Staycation

This Christmas, we didn't put up our tree because puppy. Instead, I wrapped our fake bamboo plant in lights and put the star on top (fortunately, I'd neglected to pack it up last year, so it was easily accessible). Actually, I put the star on top of a telescoping pole intended to help unscrew lightbulbs that are up high. The "bamboo" isn't strong enough to hold up the star that we have.

Anyway.

Christmas morning, I just covered the kids' presents with blankets, and it was just as much fun to discover what was under there, AND there was plenty to clean up because stuff comes in packaging, so we didn't miss out on anything by not having wrapping.

After we'd done that, I got a message that the electronic key to the room we'd reserved downtown was ready! We played a little more, then packed up and drove into Austin.

On the way, we stopped by Pease Park for James to see it for the first time. It was pretty busy, but not any busier than the other weekday Mal and I went. 

Mal wasn't super interested in playing a long time like we did last time, though, because he knew our hotel room was ready, and that's his jam.

We stayed at the Embassy Suites on South Congress. It is a great location, and the price was perfect. I'd wanted us to stay closer to where we used to live, but even the places that seemed pretty well-priced were inordinately expensive once they added on a pet deposit and mandatory valet. I looked into Spot Hero, but many of the lots downtown don't offer in/out privileges, and I didn't think we'd never need to leave, but wasn't sure. Then my sister reminded me that they'd stayed at Embassy Suites several times when they'd visited Austin from Dallas, and it ended up being perfect.

We had a king bed suite, planning for Mal and James to sleep in the bedroom, and me to sleep in the "living room" with the dog. When we first got to the hotel, we just chilled out for a while. And when I say "chilled out," I waited for the dog to calm down. He was sniffing around a lot, because it's a new place. Even though he's never peed inside anywhere we've ever been, I was still pretty nervous until he peed outside. And we were on the 8th floor, so between James and myself making a couple of trips out each until he finally relieved himself, it was a lot of ground covered!

This was our view. Not too shabby!

For dinner, I ordered Teji's for James and me, and McDonald's for Mal. Grown-up food was being delivered, but Mal and I walked down to pick his food up. And McDonald's isn't open on Christmas, Which is cool, I'm glad their employees have the day off; but it'd be nice if the app had gotten the memo. Still, it was a nice hour-long walk for Mal and me.

Mal ended up eating some mac and cheese from the hotel store, and was more than happy with that and an apple and some Airheads as dinner.

That night, I was a little stressed when it was bedtime. The hotel is really pretty, and part of that is that it has an atrium. That also meant that pretty much every noise in the hotel is "hearable" in the rooms. Luke kept jumping up and running to the door and whining when a dog would bark two floors down, or when a kid on the bottom floor was crying. THEN someone had a screaming, out of control kid running up and down our "hall" for a good 45 minutes after 11:00 PM. The man was yelling at the kid, and the kid would holler louder. Then people were calling down to people on the bottom floor. Just before I called the front desk to ask if this was typical, I guess it quieted down. 

Luke slept with me in a full-size sofa pull-out, and everything went pretty well after it finally quieted down.

Sunday morning, Luke woke up at around 6, so I threw my shoes on and we went for our walk, even though it was dark. Unlike our neighborhood at home, Austin proper has PLENTY of lights to illuminate even the darkest hour. (Too many, frankly.)

We got back to the hotel and rested a bit, but Luke was keyed up. A bit before 9, I woke James up because Mal had gotten up and I needed to get the dog back outside. James took Mal down to eat while I walked the dog to a fenced dog park. There is an off-leash area in Auditorium Shores, but it's not fenced, and it's close both to the hike and bike trail and some pretty busy roads.

The walk was nice, and the park was basic but had some pups for Luke to play with.

By the time we got back, we'd already gotten in 10,000 steps, and it wasn't even 11 o'clock!

James had brought me breakfast, which I ate while the dog slept. He actually got into his travel crate and took a nap of his own accord, after our having put him in there a couple of times to manage him when he was acting out.

Mal loved playing in the hotel. He would go out and "buy groceries" and do all sorts of missions, walking around the floor, circling the atrium, and coming back to just outside the room.

In the early afternoon, we got out to visit Toy Joy.

Then it was back to the room for some rest and relaxation.

James ended up walking over to McDonald's to get Mal's promised meal from the day before.

In the late afternoon, we decided to walk down to see the Capitol Christmas tree.

I was so proud of Mal! He'd been flagging on the walk home from Toy Joy, which was only .6 miles from our hotel. The Capitol is 1.2 miles, and we went all the way around so Mal could see the "pit."

When we got back to the room, I drove over to Sandy's to get burgers for James and me, and a shake for Mal.

Everyone was pretty wiped. I had walked more than I normally walk in a day, but James walked A LOT MORE than he usually does, and his knee was hurting (he also realized this morning that he hadn't taken his allopurinol so that might have contributed). Mal played on his iPad and I played Captain Toad's Treasure Tracker. Luke pretty much slept from the time we got back until James took him for his nightly elimination a bit after 9.

Last night was MUCH quieter than Christmas night. Once we were in bed, the hotel was reasonably quiet. But then I realized that since the fountain on the bottom floor makes the noise it makes, the hotel lobby music was pretty loud. Not loud enough that I could make out lyrics, but enough that I could hear it. I am really not fun to be around when it's time to go to sleep. I'm extremely picky and sleep lightly.

Anyway, this morning, we took it easy (including Luke's and my walk, which happily occurred at 6:45 instead of 6:00 today!) and packed up after breakfast. The dog had gone to sleep, and when we'd finally gotten totally ready to go, decided to wake him up.

We drove straight home, and have been super busy after our big 48-hour getaway. James and I put everything away, he washed some dishes D had left out because they didn't know we'd be home so early, emptied the litter boxes, and got some work done in the back yard (he's building a smallish test project before we try to start on the house), then came in a bit to finish up Mal's last overly-supervised bath, and is now at the store. I did two loads of laundry, cleaned the kitchen and bathrooms, did a dishwasher load, put together about 1/3 of Mal's Boba Fett's starship LEGO set, started Mal's bath, and then took D to the post office.

We're going to hang out and maybe watch a movie tonight. Hope everyone had a great Christmas, and that you can get some rest, too!

Pre-Dawn Walking

I've always enjoyed walking, but in January, started tracking my walks through an app because I'd seen this 500k program where you could get Sesame Street swag... and that ended up being a REALLY expensive program, but I thought it would be cool to see how far I might walk in a whole year.

What happened, though, as the month wore on, was that I found myself slipping into disordered behavior, where if I didn't feel like a walk (say, with an older friend, at a slower pace, and not as far as my regular constitutional) met certain criteria, I'd want to walk more later, just to get it tracked. Or if I gave myself a day off, I felt like that space was a glaring missing tooth in the week.

It wasn't healthy, so I decided to stop tracking and just enjoy walking. Which I do when I'm no being weird about things.

I'd heard about a lady who said that, in order to run in the morning before the onslaught of the day happened, she would wear her running clothes to bed so she could just get up and go. I've never wanted to motivate myself to run, but figured that early morning might be a good time to enjoy the neighborhood without having to excuse myself from the family for an hour or more on a regular basis, and also if I could build the habit up before summer, the future me would thank my present self.

Furthermore, we're getting a dog in August, and sleep is going to be spotty for several weeks or more, so waking myself up when it's still dark is some preparation for that, as well.

After I'd walked one morning and really liked it, I set an alarm on my phone to make sure I'd wake up early enough. That felt too official, though, so I turned it off. I would walk if I woke up early enough, and if I didn't... that would be fine. 

So far, this is working.

I'm tending to wake up naturally at 5:35-6:15 every morning. I guess I've probably always awakened at about that time, but just rolled over and gone back to sleep (which, actually, I've done several times, when it's been raining or I decided to give myself the day off, or knew I was going to walk with someone later in the day).

One thing I notice when I'm out and it's still dark out, is which houses already have lights on inside. It feels so early, that I am sorry for those people who have to get up to get their kids ready for the bus (one of them picks up before sunrise), or to head in to work. Today it hit me: I'm up. Dur. But the difference is that we are fortunate enough to have a lifestyle where we almost never need artificial lighting to start our days. 

James no longer has to commute, so the sun is well up by the time he checks in at "the office." Neither of my kids has ever been in school, much less ridden a school bus. And I can get around in the near-dark pretty well. So we all have the luxury of being awakened gently as light slowly breaks us into the day.

As an aside, we bought these to help see when we're out in the dark. They work very well, and they don't mess with your pupils' dilation, so if you're trying to stargaze (or you just don't want to shine a bright light into a neighbor's window), they're super! Highly recommend.

Here are a few pictures from my morning treks.

Hopeless Case

We've lived in our house for four years now, and although our immediate surroundings are gorgeous, last week I decided that it's time to cross the scary, busy highway that divides my part of town in half, and go explore the other side of the neighborhood.

Mal went with me the first couple of times. We took streets I've only rarely even driven down, and saw a lot of neat houses, including one I've seen for sale on Redfin that has a play castle in the side yard. Mal even found this stash of "diorite" in the road (he's been playing a lot of Minecraft).

Also, yes, my son is six and he's still walking around in public wearing only underpants. I'd blame the pandemic, but that would be disingenuous. He just doesn't like to wear clothes. Anyway, on this walk, Mal walked a good 65-70% of it, which was super helpful on the inclines. Inclines are plentiful and much more pronounced on that side of the highway, as Hill Country does its thing as you get further from the lake.

After a couple of days of this, I found a pretty neat 3.4ish-mile trek that I knew I wanted to try without Malcolm the first time, since a small part of the path doesn't show up as passable on most maps. Here is the route. As you can see, it basically goes around the outside of the other side of town, at the top of a hill. I figured there would be pretty views!

(I didn't start/stop where it shows; I mapped it like this because of the blip there that isn't traversable according to maps.)

Well, I was right. It was gorgeous. Here are some of the views I had during the walk.

About an hour in, I looked at where I was on my phone's map. I hadn't plotted out my route because my phone is losing battery life, plus the route was fairly straightforward. I had thought that the whole circuit might take about an hour and 15 minutes, but could tell that I had a good hour left. I blamed it on the strong wind gusts that were blowing straight into my face as I hiked up, up, up, up. 

Also, I'd not checked the elevation and had believed that once I got to the top of the hill, I'd be up high until I started coming back down toward town. But there were plenty of dips like this one.

Down, down, down, then back up, up, up.

I passed all kinds of discouraging signs like this.

But I know that people who live around the Hollywood sign put up the same warning signs, even though the roads and trails absolutely are for public use.

So. Finally, I hit the place I was guessing was where the map indicated I couldn't get through. There were a bunch of logs piled up to keep cars from ploughing through.

The logs are at the bottom of the picture, and the road just goes away. Also, it's a steep decline down 70 feet. There was no way I was turning around, though. Here's what it looks like from the bottom.

I kept on, even though there were possible portents. 

Soon, I learned that it's impossible to distinguish an unpaved road from a wash when you're looking at Google Maps.

Finally, after two hours and some change, I got back home.

Unexpected hiking conditions notwithstanding, I was a bit humiliated that the walk took me that long.

Until I looked at the map again.

Up there is what I meant to do. This is what I actually did.

It was just under six miles. You can see the bright white road that would cut the route in half. I guess I just missed the turn. I'm going to try that shorter walk soon!

Anyway, when I was looking at the route to see the elevation changes, it varies, but overall there's a 400-foot+ gain from my house to the top of the hill. And I realized that the website I was using to look at elevations, Map My Walk, has a place to track walks. 

Earlier this year, I'd seen a neat Sesame Street virtual run for which you can sign up, and you get swag each time you reach a certain goal. Plus you get a t-shirt. But then I saw that it was $125, and decided it wasn't worth it.

But I had the idea that I could still track my progress just to see how many miles I might walk this year.

Fourth day, and I've realized that I can't. I get too obsessed with it. I'd already decided not to talk today, to give my blisters a chance to heal up a little bit. However, I decided that since the weather was nice and we are headed into some uncertain wintery times in February, I might as well enjoy it while it lasted. I just did a quick half hour.

Later, it was still so nice, I begged Mal to get out with me in his wagon. He declined. But what I recognized is that I didn't want to get out so much because I love it and I love taking Mal around, but because I wanted to log more distance. I don't want to get to that place again. So I'm just going to blithely walk and not pay attention to the miles. Because I DO love my neighborhood, and I do even love weird adventures where I end up in the middle of a nature preserve and don't see any sign of life for more than an hour. 

I can't ruin that with legalism. I'm just not doing that anymore.

Oooh, a new opinion!

Today, I've been feeling like death all day. Allergies have been the bane of my existence for the past three or four days, and today it all came to a literal head (mine). I was sitting in Mal's floor wishing that James worked at home so I could sleep (or for sweet, sweet death) when I realized that if I didn't get up and walk, I was going to pass out.

I asked Mal, "Do you want to go down to the mailbox with me?"

He immediately headed toward the door. I put on the harness, and we went outside. I let him walk out in case he wanted to try the stairs, but after kind of hanging around the next-door-neighbor's door for a few moments (probably to see if he could get the dog to bark), he held out his hands to me and I strapped him in.

We got downstairs and about twelve paces past the van when he started kicking and whining. Huh?

He'd never done that before, but I had an idea what he wanted. I turned back and went to the van. As soon as I'd turned, he stopped fussing. By the time I'd gotten to the van's back doors, he was giggling.

That boy wanted to ride in his stroller rather than my wearing him on the walk. And he "told" me, very succinctly, even without words.

All the way down to the mailbox and back, he was craning around, looking at everything. He tries to do that in the carrier but it makes me exhausted and he doesn't really have much range of motion. I guess we know what he prefers. Today, at least.

Love it when we can understand each other!

And Now For Something Completely Different

As I've mentioned, I quit my job and have significantly dialed back my commitments, because I want to be ready to go without having to flake out on any responsibilities. However, the weekend before last, this made me exceedingly bored and grumpy, giving me too much time to think about how hot it is and how much effort it takes to get up off of the couch, and how many times I have to do this in any given hour because the restroom is way over there.

I decided that this week would be different. This week, we'd make plans. We'd have fun. We'd stay busy.

Following is a video I made about the first half of this week. A quick caveat: I'm still figuring things out with video production on this laptop. The cameras I use have HD capability, but I wasn't able to publish to HD with Adobe Premiere Pro, and I wasn't able to do it with Windows Live Movie Maker, either. I am beginning to think that this has to do with my crappy laptop processor, but if you have any ideas, let me know. I might just have to go back to the Mac when it comes to video editing and rendering. I was trying to diversify but so far have been unimpressed with other editing software and with this operating system.

Fortunately, I'm okay with "good enough," and I hope you enjoy the first half of a pretty busy week. I *do* think I'm finished bike riding for a while, though. Also, all of the lifting and lowering into and out of the river that I did yesterday has my upper body feeling like hamburger meat today, so although I have a packed schedule, none of it includes any weight-bearing... and for that, I am grateful!

So far, it's been a great week with some of my favorite people: family! Today is all about healthcare and friends. Stay tuned!

*twiddling thumbs*

Sooooo... What's going on?

It's pretty hot here. Yesterday was milder, and Sarah and I got out at 6:00 AM to ride the Town Lake Boardwalk trail I'd ridden Sunday morning by myself. Because of the weather and the early hour, it was actually mildly chilly when we first left. It felt good. But it was DARK until we got to the Town Lake Dam, about half way through the 9.7 mile route.

In the space of 1 week, overlapping Wednesdays, I rode my bike about 35 miles and some change. Not too shabby for an 8-month pregnant lady, right?

What else?

Ehh. Nothing, actually.

Last weekend, I bought a bunch of bulk stuff to chop and marginally prepare and freeze so that making dinners will be easier later. That took a lot of time.

But other than that, I feel like we're kind of coasting.

Yesterday, I washed all of our sheets and blankets; I took everything out of the kitchen and bathroom and really swept and mopped; I swept the whole house thoroughly... in addition to a midwife visit and bike riding. The day before that, I deep cleaned the bathroom, hand-washed all of the dishes (our dishwasher sucks right now), did several loads of laundry, and prepared lunch and breakfast for yesterday so I could ride bikes and still have everything done. I also broke into the quilling supplies that Patsy sent Daphne and made a name plate thing for her door (which the cats managed to partially destroy, of course). Monday, I cut and froze a bunch of vegetables and some meat and that took several hours; I also took all of the stuff off of the shelves in the bathroom so I could clean them and wipe down the shelving unit. Then I made our dinner as usual. Sunday, I'd made our other two meals for the day because I knew I wanted to get bulk stuff ready on Monday. For some reason, the waffle recipe for Monday morning made a TON of almond butter waffles, so we have about three dozen waffles in the freezer.

So I suppose I'm not coating coasting. I'm staying busy enough. But I do feel a lot like I'm killing time. I don't want to overfill my schedule, committing to things I'll have to drop. I don't want to start any big projects or take on any responsibilities I can't fulfill.

Today, I was trying to get in a quick nap before a couple of ladies came over, but I have a problem napping during the day because I start to snore, which wakes me up. If I snore at night, apparently I'm dead zonked enough that it doesn't rouse me. I asked James if I snore, and he said, unbelievably, "Nope! Not at all." When I called him on it, he amended his answer to say that it was adorable, which is an outright lie. But he's a nice guy.

As I was resting, though, I got a nervous feeling in my stomach as I considered the fact that I haven't really thought about bringing this baby home. Maybe it's because I learned my lesson with Daphne: You can't imagine it, anyway. It will never look how you expect it to look. But I haven't considered what this kid will be like, or how the sleeping stuff will work, or feeding, or any of it. I had read so many books before I had Daphne that I had fooled myself into thinking that I knew what I was doing. Of course, that was a load of hoo-ha, and perhaps it's better that this time, I'm prepared to fly by the seat of my proverbial pants.

I suppose I should enjoy this calm before the storm, instead of feeling mildly guilty for not "doing more." It's good to put some energy and sleep deposits into my storage because I know that soon, I'll be making some massive withdrawals.

But that's why there's really not much to report. We're just sort of in a holding pattern until stuff starts happening. You guys will be the first to know. Or second. Or like 12th, at the very least.

Gearing up to gear down

The past couple of days have been a (comparative) flurry of activity as we get ready to go on our first family vacation as a family (we did spend a week at the Texas coast back in November 2012, but we were all still new and getting used to each other then).

Yesterday, Daphne and I walked down to The Cutting Room to get her head made over. Here are a few pictures of that.

From April 2014

From April 2014

She has fine hair like I do.

From April 2014

From April 2014

From April 2014

We love it so much! It'll be great for summer and Daphne really liked the hairdresser. Since they're just a block away, we'll be sure to seek her out from now on.

Today has been errands and shopping, getting ready for our morning head-out tomorrow. As soon as I woke up, I rode my bike to the bigger CVS that's further away from our house than our "usual." I got some snacks and a couple of spray/rub-in volumizers for her hair. Then I came home to unload all of that, and then rode down to Austin Urban Vet Center to get cat food. We have plenty, but my mom will be here next week and I didn't want her to have to go, in case the cats decided to go on a snack binge as soon as we left.

Back home, I did our last load of laundry and packed everything that we aren't going to use tonight and in the morning.

James wanted lunch at Cabo Bob's, so all three of us walked up there. I wouldn't have thought of eating there but I'm glad he picked it. I got the salad with crispy fish, and that fish is delicious. Now I kind of want to go back for dinner.

Except that I'm not exercising any more today. When we got home from Cabo Bob's, I rode my bike to our closer CVS because I hadn't realized we were out of trash bags, and also Daphne needed a stabilizer for her thumb. She jammed it when she was a trampoline place for TJ's birthday last week, and I hadn't noticed how swollen it was. Yeesh.

So now, it's nap time then I'll shower and get as ready for tomorrow as possible. I'm going to be up and ready to drive, and I'm probably going to have to wake tired people and make them walk out to the van. I know, it's vacation, but we have a lot of ground to cover tomorrow and since I'm driving, I will be ready to go. They can both sleep as much as they want to!

Where are we going? You'll just have to stay tuned to find out!