I’ve been up since about 3:15AM but I’m not particularly tired. Once you hit 3AM, as long as you went to sleep early, there’s no pressing reason to go back to bed. Right?

Yesterday was fine. I drove into work and managed to harness enough energy to draft the new benchmark system and describe most of the new framework draft classes. Only four or five of the forty or so offices on the floor were occupied so I cranked my music (Tortoise, Vic Chesnutt) and got everything ready (e.g. the sign on my door) for my absence. Yes, yesterday was my last day of work until August eleventh. I thought about taking off two weeks but I decided one week was enough. I can use the time when M and the boys are in western NY to get ready for the semester and knock out some work I’d rather not leave for after classes start. But what I am going to do next week? I have no idea. Perhaps I’ll make lists every day and try to stick to them so I don’t waste too much time on the couch watching Sportscenter seventeen times in a row. Although maybe a week on the couch would be good for me. We’ll see. When I arrived home after work no one was here so I had an hour or two to practice with the house to myself. God, I miss M and the boys when they’re in NY but driving nine hours one way to hang out at a dull, deadening place with my mother in law just isn’t worth the effort. I’ll endure.

Last night was S’s last baseball game. He played well. I sat on the sidelines with my mp3 player. First I listened to NPR but turned off the radio when the financial news started (nothing interesting) and tried to read from “River of Gods” but I wasn’t in the mood. I scanned my new downloads and caught up on some albums (e.g. Air France) to which I hadn’t listened much. After we drove home we checked the Brewers score (relax, it’s only July) and hid upstairs in the air conditioning with the book. I fell asleep by nine. Oh, I also worked out, thirty minutes on the elliptical in the morning and twenty at night. The doctor said I shouldn’t work out until Friday but I can’t handle bouncing off the walls and my testicles were just a little sore, thank you, so I took the risk.

Today is M’s first at her new gig. She attends introductory meetings today and starts in earnest in late August. M’s excited. The boys and I hang out until late morning, when a babysitter arrives to play Wii (I assume) with N most of the afternoon while T, S and I hit the Brewers game. More later.