Last Work Day Before Christmas

Today is the last day of the work week, last day before we all head off for the Christmas weekend. I'd like to be able to say I'd be tanking today but I actually wanted to make sure I had all my To-Do's done from Monday. Lo and behold I got 7 out of 8 done! Hey, maybe I CAN tank today. But not before I had a meeting with my IS Team first. That's because I got the good news that I was ok to keep Kennedy on as a part-time employee until such time that I could replace him with an FTE. And so I announced that to the team and then I had a de-brief with Kennedy afterwards. I am of the firm belief that people don't quit companies, they quit bosses. And I wanted to make sure I was not the primary reason he was leaving, or at least something that I did. I came to find out that he actually found it rough going in the beginning and was already looking to get out one month in. But he settled in 6 months later and actually started to like his job. Unfortunately he also felt pressure from his siblings who were making quite a bit more than he did. And so it did come down to the money and the opportunity to make more. Hey he's a young guy and so I don't blame him. Best to maximize your earning potential early. I felt consolation in that I did actually make him quite a bit more valuable in the 2+ years that he was with us. So I'll take that as a pat on my back. Hopefully I find another gem in this next go round. In the meantime, I was shocked to find after being on the phone for a good hour and a half that the mess that Johnnie had saved from last night and this morning was actually completely cleaned up! As in he cleared everything in that picture! I wanted to give him a reward but I couldn't give him much because it was raining outside. And raining pretty hard. 

The best that I could do was follow through with my promise yesterday that I would teach him how to play catch today. And that would have to be indoors wouldn't it? First I had to get him lunch, once again at Jack-in-the-Box Pico Blvd but this time going through the drive through. And there was no one in line. MUCH better experience than Tuesday obviously. And then after lunch we did play catch. Indoors. I was worried because he didn't really look like he got the hang of using the mitt the first time we tried yesterday. And so I had him learn how to catch bare hand at first. And THEN he caught on. As in he caught everything. Well, most everything as evidenced by the gif I posted. Who knew he would catch left and throw right since he was a natural left hander. Anyway at least that took up a chunk of the afternoon. And by then I pronounced myself done for the work day anyway. Which meant I had officially started my long weekend LOL. Now all we had left to do was the pick-up tonight by Lisa. Should I wait for her to call? Or should I take Johnnie to Lisa's house give him a shower and put him to bed? When Lisa called it was already well past 8 PM. But she didn't sound overwhelmed. And so I let her pick him up. By this time it had started to rain really REALLY hard. Fortunately, I had the downstairs garage to point her to so no one got wet. I still hadn't finished my steps at this point and the new Fitbit meant it actually counted active minutes when my heart rate went above 110 bpm. And so I have to work harder it feels. And that's ok. I also hadn't really had dinner yet. I mean I gave Johnnie his chicken noodle penne. BUt I hadn't made anything for myself. Which meant I had to venture out in the rain to get some food. I needed to anyway. Who knows what's going to happen this Christmas weekend. I better have some food in the house just in case. So I went to the store, and got properly drenched. I found it odd that I have no less than THREE waterproof shoes and I still chose to go out with my torn up Tom's. OF COURSe they would get soaked. As did my paints as it started to rain so hard, it was going sideways. Even a short trip to Ralphs got me really really wet. I still went to Taco Bell to pick up food. For some reason I felt like eating junk tonight. That's ok. I should eat healthy the rest of the week right? LEt Christmas weekend begin...