I’m sitting near the open window wondering if the entire neighborhood can hear when I yell at the kids, for example, to stop heaving things down the stairs at each other. Oh well. They probably can.

I’m feeling stronger. This afternoon I lifted weights but decided against cardio. I’ll pick that up in the morning, just a half hour, before going full-on (hopefully) Tuesday.

Last night, I should mention, S and I hit Borders after Quinn’s party. We drove south to Borders and while he checked out comics I dug through the sale tables and found a couple books for his brothers (a Calvin and Hobbes collection we didn’t have for T and a small book on identifying snakes for N). He thought the whole experience was pretty cool…both his brothers were home asleep. After we arrived home I read Ellroy and crashed by ten or so.

This morning N woke me but he forgot about our weekly donut run and let me sleep a little longer. After I woke properly we hustled over to the donut shop, returned, and since the sun wasn’t quite above the horizon yet I drove to the Lion’s Den and took some sunrise pics. The wind contoured the water and I sat and watched the patterns for a few minutes before returning home. After a shower and breakfast I began to clean in earnest. I also made the boys clean the two upstairs rooms. Well, they screwed around for the first hour, which was fine, I guess, as they knew they couldn’t play with neighbors until the rooms were clean. They finished in time for lunch, after which S and I watched football while I graded papers, and M, N, and T went to the Y for a birthday party. S eventually grew bored and went outside to play so I managed to knock out a slew of grading. I should be well-positioned for the morning. I felt pretty good lifting, only a little dizzy, but dizzy enough to know better than to push the cardio. Later I cleaned more, had pasta for dinner, took a quick shower, watched Dollhouse with M, and here I am. Thunder’s rumbling to the northwest.

Oh, I also finally cut the front grass. My neighbors will be happy.

Back to work tomorrow. Could be a long day, two committee meetings scheduled. Welcome back. Have a good start of the week.

This, according to blogger, is the blog's 500th post. Here are a few pics from a quick visit to the Lion's Den this morning after the traditional Sunday donut run with N. Have a lovely Sunday:)

Happy Saturday morning, ladies and gentlemen. I’m watching the news on the couch. The dogs are outside. The boys are playing video games. M is off at Zoomba. Well, no, T just entered the room and asked to watch television. I’m ok with that.

So I’ve been sick most of the week and missed work Thursday and Friday. I’m the most guilty sick day person ever. However, after emailing back and forth with my friend Preston, who said his wife had the same symptoms as me and ended up with bronchitis, I scheduled a doctor’s visit. And yet, I had both bronchitis and a sinus infection. You know how I know I’m sick? I don’t want to work out at all. Well, today, because I’m on drugs and have hardly moved for three days, I kind of fel like working out. But I’m taking off until at least tomorrow.

Thursday I cancelled all my classes, meetings, etc. and crashed on the couch. I tried to watch Observe and Report (thank you, Red Box) but the movie sucked. I read some Ellroy and channel-surfed before watching the first episode of Eastwick. You know how sick days go.

What did I do the rest of yesterday? I watched all the Thursday night shows (Parks and Recreation has improved, but The Office is off to a slow start) and went out for coffee just to leave the house. I answered a few emails and slept through the early afternoon before rising to clean the first floor. M and the boys left for the homecoming parade/celebration with about half the neighborhood right after school. I was surprised as I thought T would want to stay home. So suddenly I had the house to myself again, and the house was kind of clean. I sat on the couch and listened to Vic Chesnutt, Sparklehorse, and the Lost in Translation s/t. You know, this whole being sick thing has been important on a couple levels. First off, you realize how expendable you are. The world moves along with you. This is a good thing. I don't mean to sound narcissistic, of course the world moves along without me, but still, you don't quite realize how true this is until you don't leave the house for a couple days. Second, this reminds me to work hard not to define myself by my job. What if I got sick and couldn't work for an extended period of time? They'd replace me. They'd replace anyone. And I have to work hard personally to make sure I'm not so identified with my profession that I wouldn't know what to do with myself otherwise. Know what I mean? There's a balance between loving what I do/dedicating my time to something I consider very meaningful and making sure I have a life separate and independent from elements I can't control. Third, if this is the case, what can I control, and how can I create meaning in my life independent of work?

Anyway, I also watched Jeopardy for the first time in forever. I did pretty well. We didn't go to the homecoming game because the rain arrived just before so T and I watched the Travel Channel (Extreme Conventions). He asked me to watch the whole thing with him because he said I always ditch him halfway through. This is true. So I watched the whole thing. Do you know they have a convention in Vegas for celebrity impersonators? Some of them do not look like who they say they are. And some of the impersonators are pretty worthless. How marketable is a woman dressed like Trinity from the Matrix?

Later M and I watched the first Flashforward episode. Well, I did give up halfway on that one. And the kids eventually fell asleep (they were wired) and I read Ellroy on the couch until crashing on the couch listening to the rain through the window near my pillow.

This morning was calm and quiet. 4:00AM has its advantages, you know. After M gets home I’ll hit Costco. T plays football this afternoon. I must cut the grass tomorrow.

We’re due for harsh wind and sub-60 temps early next week. Can’t wait. I love autumn. Have a great weekend.

So today’s my 40th birthday. I guess I never thought I’d live this long, seriously, but I’m glad I have. Thanks to everyone for helping me live this long.

So what did I do today? I woke at four and knew immediately I couldn’t work out. My physical failure is my own dumbass fault. I was sick this weekend then picked up the gym again Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday. By this morning I was useless. I should have taken another day off and I would probably have been fine. So anyway, since I was up this morning early I hit the office by 5:30 or so. I love the drive to the office early in the morning, and I love the way the office feels early in the morning as well. I cranked a new ambient mix in the dark all the way down 43. Then I played Stars of the Lid and left the lights low while I graded assessment plans and answered email. I didn’t teach my 9AM class very well, just ok, but I wrapped up everything else by late morning. On the way home I figured well, what the hell, I’m getting pizza. So I stopped, got pizza, and went home. The dogs played out back most of the day while I read and half-slept on the couch. Oh, and I ate too much pizza. No sweat. Although I hate eating a ton on days I don’t work out. I just feel blah. But I’ll get past that. I’m still a little out of it, but I’ll be fine.

M and the kids gave me tons of little presents after they got home…very cool. Then I made cake. It’s cooling on the stove now.

I don’t mind turning 40. I’m ok. I figure I’ve got, oh, thirty, forty more years left. I’m proud of who I’ve become. I’ve got a lot on which to work. And maybe these milestone birthdays remind us of how little time we have on this planet. I’ll try to keep that in mind when interacting with others and, well, myself. The wind’s blowing through the window of my house in small town Wisconsin. My dogs are out back. My kids are around here somewhere. Twenty years ago I would have never dreamed of today. Life is good. I want to live another forty.

Are we near noon already? How did that happen? I should have known we were near noon, as the street traffic, usually very slow, is now nonexistent. Most everyone is stationed in front of a television, I assume, for the Packers game. I should go shopping. You pretty much have the stores to yourself during Pack games.

So yesterday I pretty much slept all day. I felt like a shit for missing T’s football game, but I tried to make up for the transgression by making Trader Joe’s brownies once I woke in late afternoon. However, I needed an eight by eight pan, but I used a larger one, causing the brownies to run too thin. N declared my brownies “horrible” and said M’s were better. She danced around the kitchen in triumph. I can’t blame her. I would have done the same. Stupid wrong-sized pan. Anyway, the other team kicked T’s team’s ass, but he seemed to still have fun, so no worries. He and M settled in to watch 17 Again while S and N played and/or watched Animal Channel. I cleaned a bit but felt weak enough to skip working out. Later I drove to the office and worked from 7-9 or so, listening to loud techno and knocking out paperwork at a furious rate. Brett emailed me to let me know he was in his office, too, but I declined his offer to go drinking and returned home by 10 after a quick Borders scouting trip. I read some Russo and crashed by eleven.

This morning N and I hit the donut shop just after dawn. We went with Halloween-themed donuts. Halloween is the best donut holiday, in my eyes, anyway. Then while everyone else took Mack and Pete to the dog park I knocked out thirty minutes on the elliptical to a Weeds episode and lifted weights to ESPN news. T and I loosely talked about doing something (Miniature golf? Rocket shopping?) today but I think he wants to see Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs instead. We’ll see. I want to get out of the house, though. Beautiful day. More later. Have a lovely Sunday.

Why, happy Saturday morning, dear people. I’m at the dining room table eating grapes and drinking iced tea. N is cutting open Gogurts, T is watching some new show called “The Troop”, S is playing Madden 10 on Wii, and M is off at Zoomba. Oh, the puppies are outside. The temps are still too high, if you ask me, although the collective southern Wisconsin population probably could live with a couple more weeks in the seventies.

So I’m sick, first time in a while. I sucked it up and taught the long Thursday but by the time I arrived home later that evening I knew I wasn’t going to lift. I fell hard on the couch and watched the new Office and most of the Community premier before falling asleep in pretty much the same position. I woke at four and knew I wasn’t hitting the gym at five so I closed my eyes again until six. I canceled my student meeting and department meeting and skipped out on faculty senate. What did I do all day? The morning and afternoon passed quickly with solid television (Vampire Diaries, three Weeds episodes) along with some minor cleaning (including Mack’s vomit behind a cabinet…tasty). Later on I took a bath and read the new Richard Russo. By six I was crashed on the front porch futon. I woke at six this morning when N found me on the front porch.

So maybe I have swine flu. I have no idea. Does it matter? I don’t know. I’m slightly hungry now, so that’s an improvement. I’m tempted to work out today, and still might lift (have to keep the “three days a week” pattern alive) but might skip cardio. I don’t know. Depends on how I feel later. I want to get the boys off of electronics soon, though. Maybe I’ll take them over to the Lion’s Den.

I like the feeling of emerging from sickness. I hope the feeling continues. More tomorrow.

I’m on the couch, 6:45PM, slightly cooler tonight. N is slowly completing his homework. S and T are…off somewhere else, reading their new library books, I think. N’s doing a great job with his spelling but freaks out if he gets one wrong. My little perfectionist, I guess.

This week has been ok. I’m still trying to find the work/life balance, and I still feel guilty when I’m not working. But I’ve worked at home most afternoons to good effect.

Bullet points!

• I’m reading the new Richard Russo. This one is way better than the major-league disappointing Bridge of Sighs. I’m also reading some political material on the side.
• The hot weather has finally, thank God, broken. I’m ready for fall.
• This week’s Gossip Girls was way better than I expected.
• I’m on a pretty tight workout schedule but I’m sick of one or two jackasses bugging me to play basketball when I don’t want to play. So today I worked out at home (watching GG) early in the morning and then again in the afternoon. I’ve lifted later at night, for whatever reason, but I’m ok with that.
• My Thursdays are LONG. I’m wearing jeans tomorrow. Sometimes wearing jeans on rough days makes me feel better.
• When was the last time rain fell? Three weeks ago?
• The puppies are doing well but Mack insists on peeing inside every now and then. What’s up with that? They’re wrestling next to me right now.
• A crazyass bat was outside yesterday flopping around the yard. Try to pull two dogs away from a flapping bat sometime. It’s not pretty.

Have a great night…

77 on a late Sunday afternoon, mid-September, in Wisconsin? And a high of 83 tomorrow? I don’t like it, no sir, I don’t like it one bit. And we haven’t seen rain in weeks. Oh well. Both rain and temps in the sixties are due by the end of the week. Have I mentioned I’m ready for autumn? Oh, yes. Yesterday. Well, I mean it. I’m ready for autumn.

This has been a good, somewhat open, weekend. For some reason I’m slightly bouncing off the walls, too, although I’ve worked out already. Maybe the carbs in the fried rice I had for lunch are kicking into gear. Maybe all the sleep over the last couple nights (over eight hours two stretches in a row) has left me energized. I don’t know.

So last night M and I went out. We snagged decent Mexican food in West Bend then cut over to Cabela’s for binoculars. The night was cool and clear and the drive home East o 60 was a pleasure. I told M one of the greatest gifts of Wisconsin summers is driving home a little after dusk. I remember, even, when I was a kid, my Dad liked to drive around late at night, too. We share that, at least. Anyway, after we arrived home I read for a while, snagged a half tablet of melatonin, and crashed hard. This morning I was up first, near six. The dogs were in full spaz mode so I loaded them into the car and drove to the dog park. Only a few other dogs were present, just after dawn, and the puppies did a great job of sticking near me (except for a three or four minute stretch when I lost Mack, but he came back, no worries). At one point Pete seemed to hurt his shoulder when he bounced off of, uh, a rather large woman and landed on the gravel, but he was ok within a minute or two. I arrived home, all muddy, and worked out to Fox and Friends/ESPN news. After breakfast and a shower I revised a syllabus and answered email at the dining room table. Once football started S and I focused on the games except for my lifting and (badly) ironing a couple of shirts. Later on I burned a couple CDs and moved Assisi pics to a jump drive for a presentation I’m doing for the freshmen in a couple weeks.

I need a shower.

Have a great start of the week…

Why hello, dear readers. I’m on the couch, a little before noon, watching “Extreme Megastructures” with T. At the moment they’re focusing on the tunnels under Montreal. Fun.

So where have I been this week? Busy. I guess not in a bad way, and if there were any “bad” elements, I brought them on myself (e.g. staying up too late on GR and no sleeping). But today I feel pretty good. Should I go to bullet points? No, not yet.

Let’s address yesterday and today, first. Yesterday morning I hit the YMCA at the usual time and knocked an hour out the elliptical. The workout was very much needed because I slept a little later on Thursday before working for twelve hours, missing the gym in the process. I can’t remember the last time I didn’t work out on a weekday. Anyway, Friday was better. After the gym I hit work, taught, and cut out early to work at home. The dogs and I hung out, I cleaned the first floor, and I caught up on email/paperwork. After the boys arrived home…what did I do? I can’t even remember. Oh, that’s right, I hit Costco and the gas station. After dinner I watched some of the Jordan coverage while drinking Rolling Rock. Then I took a bath with Coulter (heh) and fell asleep pretty early.

This morning was cool. I woke near 4 but fell asleep until closer to five. The dogs and I hung out while I drank coffee and watched the first half-hour of Vampire Diaries. Then I hit the gym for a more varied workout, elliptical/stairmaster/treadmill. After arriving home M left for Zoomba so I took a quick shower and ragged at the boys to clean their rooms. S and I left for McDonalds (hash browns, S’s addiction), the coffee shop (Italian soda and disappointing peach iced tea), and the Port farmers market, where we picked green and habanero peppers, along with some weird soap that’s supposed to be good for sore muscles. The Port farmers market has improved. It’s still nowhere near as varied as the West Bend market but at least they have food now instead of bracelets and trinkets and whatever. M watched Vampire Diaries while I read the paper. And here I am.

The sun is out and the wind blowing through the screens. I suppose I’ll miss summer in a couple months but I’m ready for the warm weather to go away. I hear rain and cooler temps reign out east. I wish. Next weekend, from what I understand, should bring the sixties. Can’t wait.

Ok, I’m going to water the plants and read a little before T’s first football game of the season. Have a great day.

N loses a tooth...or, I should say, pulls it out himself on a Sunday afternoon...

I’m on the front porch, a fine late summer day, watching the dogs play over on the futon and sleeping bag. Don’t pee on my sleeping bag again, please, gentlemen.

This Labor Day “boys only” weekend has gone very well. What did we do yesterday? The boys just wanted to hang out, I guess, so we played video games, watched tv, and otherwise let the day pass without much productivity. No, I shouldn’t say that, I cleaned the entire first floor over the course of the morning. I wouldn’t relax with the house a mess. Then I read for a while on the front porch and would have fallen asleep but I knew one of S’s friends was visiting at 12:30 so I stayed awake. His dad and I talked about the comparative merits of fast and slow pitch softball for a while. After he left I read some more and talked with a neighbor across the street about his yard sale’s success. They made 800 bucks, but I don’t care, I’m not having a yard sale. After dinner I felt wired as hell so I knocked out thirty minutes on the elliptical with ESPN News’ college football coverage. The boys played outside with the dogs as the sun set. A quick shower and a Magic School Bus book later N was asleep. My sinuses were out of whack so I rotated the Lost in Translation s/t, Vic Chesnutt’s “Left to His Own Devices”, and Maria Callas while I half-crashed on the couch. I didn’t sleep well at all. Later, up in our room, N wanted to come downstairs early, near six, but I wasn’t ready. He played Wii for a bit until his brothers woke. They were great…they let the dogs out, etc. while I snagged another hour or so of sleep. Slightly older kids have advantages. Still, I felt guilty, and I didn’t want them hanging around the house two days in a row, so we jumped in the car and drove over to Cabela’s. The boys had fun, I think, checking out the animal mountain or whatever it’s called and the aquarium. N kicked ass in the shooting gallery, too, destroying his brothers in round one. Awesome. After we returned home I cleaned the kitchen, made lunch, and here I am. I’ll probably lift weights soon. More later. M returns tomorrow.

I’m tired, up a little later last night and didn’t sleep well (puppies on my head), but otherwise a good couple of days. Yesterday was busy, as I imagine my Thursdays will be, and the office was hysterical with rumors of furloughs and oppressive tuition remission policies. I wasn’t too worried. My morning class went well, although I feel as if I stumbled over some of the “pre/post/during” basics, and I snuck out for lunch (Jimmy John’s) and Borders (book). Later I taught benchmark one and met Brett at Bayshore. We had a couple beers, traded U gossip, and ate tater tots. Excellent time. I drove home along the water, fog rolling in from the east, the full moon rising over the lake. I was kind of wired so I concurrently cruised GR/Facebook and wrote the first big football pool email of the year. Mack and Pete were sleeping on the couch and the hour neared midnight. I unwisely let them stay out with me, rather than in the crate, and they essentially tried to sleep on my head again on the front porch. I’m paying for the decision with my present exhaustion.

This morning I slept a little later, six or so, and watched tv with N until M and the other boys rose and I slipped upstairs to lift weights. After everyone left for school I worked out to Bourdain, showered, and hit the new Grafton Pick and Save and Costco. Since I’m solo parenting this weekend I wanted to make sure I didn’t have to leave the house for anything I could anticipate beforehand. Later I took in a couple meetings at work.

Right now the boys are watching the somewhat terrifying Disney movie about earth. They saw a wolf kill a caribou and kind of freaked out. Now they’re worried that every animal they see on the screen is going to die. Here’s to no nightmares. Good night.

9/2/09 Wednesday 6:26PM

I’m on the front porch, the weather warm, the sun still shining, although I’m already slightly tired and I’m tempted to down some melatonin and collapse upstairs. Today was a decent day, the first calm day in forever. I woke a little after four, didn’t think I could rise, but after some coffee felt fine and hit the gym for cardio/weights. Slight traffic kept me from the office until closer to eight than preferable. I answered email before teaching for an hour. Now, since I don’t get any clear “work at home” days, I’m trying to cut out at 10 on Wednesdays so I can least focus in the late morning and afternoon. I cut down Good Hope on the way home and stopped at Half-Price books. Later I ate lunch and set up my fall clinical pairings while the puppies played outside. They seem happy lolling in the yard all day. Once I felt finished with the paperwork I watched some news and took Mack and Pete to the dog park in Grafton. They’re getting better at staying with me. Once the boys were home T and I hung out and watched television until I drove him to football practice and visited Costco. Now I’ll probably read a while, Murakami, most likely, before bed.

Wednesdays could be worse. I feel as if I’ve caught my breath. Good night.