Tech Council Meeting Day

It is Wednesday Tech Council Meeting day and already the best thing is that it isn't raining like it was yesterday. It was pretty cold though so definitely it's feeling like winter. We did get a bit of a late start to school Johnnie and I though really we are NEVER late so all that meant was that we were exactly on time and not early like we usually are. A good thing too since my first meeting today started at 8:30 AM and I was the host too. This was the Communications Meeting and my part was first and so I was done before the time I usually have breakfast. I did have my hot tea with me as I navigated through the meeting and by 9:30 we were all done. A Data Team meeting right after that one and I was clear... until the Tech Council Meeting after lunch. I actually had stuff to work on still. I thought my presentation was completely ready... until Dennis my boss sent me a text first thing letting me know Eloisa wanted to talk about Active Directory at Tech Council today. *** I immediately felt an emotional reaction to that. Like I had to jump to get it done. And I had a big sense of urgency all of a sudden. Just because it was Eloisa. *** Only way later on would I realize that was simply the Universe throwing me another one of its tests. Do I want to give in to old programs of fear and not-enoughness?  Do I still underestimate the value I put out?  Still, I have to chuckle at my own continuing reactions... Do they even know what Active Directory is?? Oh well, I did note that my presentation was unusually light anyway when I looked at it this morning. And I WAS actually asking for more content to put on didn't I? Well not just a test but an answer as well isn't it? And so I did get to pad up the content a bit.  Cutting to the chase, the meeting went all over the place. I knew it was going to do that since I didn't really have a theme for this one. We had to talk about the return to work at the FRB of course. And then we needed to talk about Sharepoint and TEAMs and how the files stored worked. I was supposed to provide a guideline for how to use the directories in Sharepoint in TEAMs. Alas, all that went over people's heads I'm afraid. And then when I talked about Office 365 Groups, ELoisa just stopped me and said we were nowhere near ready to learn about that. Funny, I only added that material because I think they didn't really want to hear about Active Directory. Why would they? No one but I.S. has access to it. I was trying to anticipate that they actually meant email lists and how to maintain those. That's why I brought up Office Groups. Clearly, that was not a good idea. But I still slogged through my material and I ended up actually taking up the entire hour. I wouldn't say this meeting was productive as the previous one, but hey I at least got my material in right?

Of course right after the Tech Council Meeting it was time to just breathe out and chill. I will say that I'm already almost all meeting'd out, and I still have at least 6 more to go the rest of the week, including 4 tomorrow going back-to-back-to-back. Man how are people expected to get work done? Fortunately on days like today I did look forward to picking up Johnnie from school and just chilling the rest of the evening. This morning he had his holiday book exchange and he managed to leave the book that we bought and painstakingly wrapped last night, right in the backseat of my car. And so I had to get back and since he was already in the school and I couldn't go in, I had to leave it at the office. When I asked him if he did get the book, I was met with a nonchalant "oh yeah"! Oh yah alright.  He did have some kind of present in his bag and it said TO MY PARENTS. Awww. It was a calendar that he had made himself, probably worked on it for the last few weeks. And it was exquisitely wrapped too. Look at the string around the package. That was pro. And the poinsettia paper was a nice touch as well. Anyway it was touching to me. Johnnie would tell me later that Ms Huang helped him with it.  It was still awesome. With that I forgot all about how irritated I was this morning that he had forgotten the book. And I had forgotten how perplexed I was that he didn't eat ANYTHING that I packed him for lunch. Tonight we went to Ralphs and actually got a frozen pizza. That was our dinner. A frozen pepperoni pizza. We could have and should have gone to Domino's again. Yet there was something satisfying about letting him choose what he was going to eat right then and there at the store. We even ran into Carmen from Lisa's office checking out. I didn't bother to ask her if Lisa was still in the office. Johnnie and I just went on home and made the pizza, with me putting some fresh pineapple on one side. That was a perfectly fine dinner as it turned out. And then Johnnie opened up a present he got from good old Uncle Karl. It was a harmonica with a how-to book. I am NOT going to tell him he has had a harmonica since he was 3 LOL LOL. And anyway, Johnnie just loves that he got a present. I am pretty sure he didn't care what it was.  And so with Wednesday night all done, we head towards the end of the week. And the end of school for this calendar year for Johnnie.  It's going to be a fun next 3 weeks with him...

Rain Rain Rain

In retrospect I should have expected this week to be busy. After all it is the last full week before Christmas week, which makes next week a short week already, if not a very distracted one. But then again I've been dealing with lots of distractions too haven't I. Today SoCal woke up with a dose of rain. A heavy dose. And for the first time in a while, rain gear came out. Fortunately I had Johnnie's brand new Columbia rain jacket ready and waiting. And Lisa did drop off those See Kai Run shoes though too small for Johnnie by now. At least it will keep his feet dry until i can get a chance to get him a new pair today. By the time I dropped Johnnie off at school it was raining REALLY hard. So much so my jeans got wet. I sent Johnnie off with the mini umbrella in my car just for extra protection. And off they went to the auditorium to keep dry until the bell rang. And then off I went home to get to my first meeting at 9 AM, with my IT crew. And then right after that the Operations Meeting. And then hopefully, finally, time to work on my content for tomorrow's batch of meetings. Meetings, meetings, meetings all week long. In the meantime, the true goal for today is merely to stay in and keep dry LOL. This is the kind of day that you'd just get your blanket out and get a hot cup of cocoa and watch TV all day long. Already I got a note first thing that Johnnie's basketball class today at STAR is cancelled because it's so wet out. He will be disappointed at that to be sure but then again we have an activity for tonight actually. More on that later. In the meantime, I flip-flopped between working on my presentation and getting steps in all day long. In may be raining outside. But I can still do my steps indoors. I didn't even need an accompanying YouTube run/walk video anymore. I just did steps WHILE watching YouTube videos. Other YouTube videos. After all, that WAS a big Rams win last night and I did a half hour of steps just watching the reactions in the sports pundit world this morning. By mid-afternoon, the rain actually stopped. And in fact, the sun even came out. And when I took a peek, I saw that the tree in front of my building had fallen down... cracked right above the root <see pic>. Man. I would park right at that spot where it fell too. Can you imagine if my car had been out there? Still, we needed this rain, if only to help abate drought conditions. And although it isn't really winter just yet, it IS time for winter weather.  By 5 PM, I had pretty much gotten all my material done and so I thought I had a lot of time tonight when I picked up Johnnie. After all, we had an activity. We're supposed to buy a book for his Holiday Book Exchange activity. I thought I'd buy it online, but when I saw it was available at Barnes and Noble Marina del Rey, I thought it would be fun for Johnnie and I to go over there, look for it and actually buy it. And so that's what we did. He chose the Grumpy Monkey, Oh NO Christmas. And he even read the book already right there at Barnes and Noble to make sure he actually did want to buy it to give to someone. That was perfect. And then wouldn't you know Panda Express would be right in the same strip mall. And that is where we had our dinner. The lady at the register remembered Johnnie too, from all our days coming here on Tuesdays when I would pick him up frrom Carmen's Daycare. Man how long ago was that? 4 years ago? Johnnie was 3. And here we were again. On a Tuesday night yet. Johnnie was excited to go home only because he still had to wrap the book <with Dad's help of course>. From the moment I picked up Johnnie at school to hanging out tonight at the apartment... that would be the best time today. Which makes it the most important time of all. Yeah, it did rain cats and dogs today and that was most definitely notable. Yeah, I prep for yet another Tech Council Meeting tomorrow and that is definitely so routine it simply isn't that notable anymore. But the Johnnie activity? That makes today a very good day. I understand now why Lisa makes her effort to take Johnnie to museums. It IS the best time. 

A whirlwind of a day courtesy of Lisa

I must have been more tired than I thought. I might have gotten up early just to create Johnnie's daily pass for the day and forward it to Lisa, but I went right back to bed and it was nearly 8 AM when I got up again. And I wasn't particularly motivated to jump up and get to work right away. I did do some meditation and affirmations first thing. I remind myself that it's consistency with doing these things on a daily basis that forms the basis for effort when it comes to manifesting the outcomes that I want. So I could feel good about doing the abundance manifestations. And then I noted that I needed to scan the upcoming week and actually articulate those outcomes. This being Tech Council week and all, I guess getting my presentation done by Wednesday is always going to dominate the first part of this week. Particularly if I have BOTH Operations Meeting AND Communications Meeting happening the following 2 mornings as well. And then I got going on some aerobics exercise for the morning. I noted that I've been doing 15,000+ step Mondays for the majority of the year. And today will not be the day I break that streak. The target is always to get to 5000 steps for the morning and today I decided I'd try to do that before breakfast at 9 AM. Maybe I didn't get up so late after all. I actually got a bunch of steps done while Lisa called right after dropping Johnnie off at school. No mention of whatever negative emotion she was trapped in on Saturday. She didn't even say a word to me then. She is in much better mood this morning and I guess this phone call was her idea of making peace. Honestly I didn't even care. It was simply Lisa being Lisa. Then and this morning. She mentioned something about possibly needing me to pick up Johnnie from school later on and that was perfectly fine. I didn't even care why. It's pick-up night tonight anyway. And so it was that I spent the morning doing my steps, then doing some work and I worked in my pajamas all morning. How can we even THINK about going back to the office LOL LOL? Finally I decided to make lunch and cook up the Italian sausage I bought this weekend. Except...

I had barely put on the sausages in my barbecue when I get a call from Lisa. It would seem like Johnnie had an accident at school. No he wasn't hurt or anything like that. He pee'd on himself in the bathroom apparently because he was laughing too hard at something. Sigh. Now he needs a change of clothes and of course I am closer than wherever Lisa was this morning, hence the phone call. The funny thing was that I barely "broke stride". I left the sausages on the barbecue and kept the heat down somewhat. Then I took a pair of shorts and underwear and took all of 5 minutes to get to Mar Vista School. Another 5 minutes to wait for Johnnie to change and get his soiled clothes and I was back barbecuing my Italian sausage without even thinking about it. That is what I do. No drama, no overthinking it, not muss no fuss. Just get things done that need to get done. And then of course later on, Lisa would go ahead and confirm that she needed me to pick up Johnnie because she had yet another doctor's appointment. And then we had to work out some logistics. She had the dog at her office. I also needed to get Johnnie's rain shoes for tomorrow since the forecast was for a rainstorm. So I picked up Johnnie, then went to Lisa's office to pick up the dog. Then went to her house to pick up the shoes and Fuzzy. Except... they weren't there. Lisa had taken them with her to drop off to me which was her original plan. Sigh. Of course I ddin't know that and didn't know they were in her car. Oh well, I guess she gets to drop them off to me later. I went to El Pollo Loco to pick up my dinner. Then went on to the apartment to fix Johnnie his penne pasta dinner. Whew. How did this day become a whirlwind of a day from lunch on?? How I managed to get 15,000+ steps in anyway I'm not really sure. But I did it. And we got back to somewhat of the Monday routine, except the Lisa made a pit stop on her way home to finally drop off Fuzzy and Johnnie's rain shoes. I never did get to do much of my presentation for the next couple of days which is what I targeted to get done today. Oh well. I will present what I have and I will finish tomorrow.

Golf At Hatbor

I have to start today with an apology. I have to apologize for being in 'react' mode for a great part of last week. I did not do well on the test. And I was in 'react' mode last night. I'm sure whatever Lisa was doing was something she needed to do. And I judged her on it. Thoughts of her being an unfit mom crossed my mind I'm not going to lie. And I have to remind myself that it's not as if I am the perfect dad either. We're both just doing our best. All she probably needed from me was a reassuring hug and I simply couldn't do that. With all the stuff I focused on on Friday to be thankful for, I still managed to forget that EVERYTHING IS ME PUSHED OUT, including whatever it is that I was experiencing with Lisa. That was MY energy manifesting itself wasn't it? I also noted that I got a call from Steonee our Director of Operations last Friday that she was leaving the company. That too is no coincidence, I just haven't processed it yet with regards to me. But then again this morning is all about golf.  My tee time with Scott was not until 10 AM and so I had time to get up and reflect and do a little bit of meditation first thing. And that's when it hit me that I was not in the best state last night either. Lisa was merely reflecting that wasn't she? I still have to work on my own consistency don't I. Kind of like my golf game isn't it? We're at Harbor this morning and I still am pleasantly surprised I get there in less than 20 minutes, easily a quicker jaunt than getting to Roosevelt.  Today what I wanted to do was to continue my streak of getting a par on the first hole which I had done the last 4 weeks.  I smacked my first shot off the tee just fine. The second shot however went way wide, which would tell the tale of the rest of today's golf game. Still from 30 yards away and dealing with an incline and a roll. My par putt from distance got to the hole and clinked it before falling out. Damn!! That would have made it 5 weeks in a row. Everyone in my group was already yelling at how great the putt was. But it didn't go in and that was that. And THAT would be the closest thing that I would get to a par all day. I was a half inch short from a par on Hole 6, missed wide by that much on Hole 4 too. But nope, never did make a par. At least I only had one blowup hole on the long Hole 3. And on the last hole I was actually almost on after 2 shots. But my third shot went way long and the par putt was not close. Still I thought I played decent today. And it turned out to be a pretty nice day out. Not cold at all. And we were partnered with 3 older golfers, and the lady reminded you of Mandy how she hit it on the button and straight every single time. She hit from the yellow tees but still. She was very consistent. Something I have to say that I envy. Yet I can only remember a couple of whiffs on the fairway so I have to be thankful for the progress. My driver off the tee wasn't working as well as the last few weeks this morning. But I did sink 3 long putts and missed close on a couple of more. Sigh. As I said I could have easily had 3 pars too so I can't really complain too much. After the golf game I made a stop at IN-N-Out El Segundo. And I will say that I had been doing a lot of reading and watching YouTube videos about insulin resistance as something I need to be pay attention to considering I ingest a lot of sugar. I have to cut down on that to be sure. And so I was almost going to go the whole lunch without a Coke. Until I was ready to leave and then I filled my lemonade cup with Coke finally. Later on when I was doing groceries I avoided soda completely so there's that. The real play-of-day though came on my ride home. I was going to make a stop at Pavilions at the Via Marina shopping center since it was on the way. And I figured I saw a Supercuts tucked way in the back and I decided to see how the wait was. I did need a haircut after all. Turned out they took me right then and there! And I ended up with a very nice and engaging Indonesian-American stylist who did a really good job on my hair. And ended up talking me into spending for a shampoo to boot. Hey I don't mind spending the money if I'm engaged in banter. It is a social spend after all. And so it was that I did get my Christmas haircut today which turned out to be a treat. It was almost 3 PM by the time I got home, far later than a usual Sunday. But it was definitely worth it. The rest of the afternoon and evening I did some grocery shopping, cleaned up around the apartment, did a thin crust do-it-yourself pizza for dinner. It turned out to be a very eventful week. There was the Holiday Party, my presentation, the turkey lunch at Lisa's office. And I made it through all that very nicely. I'm grateful for that most of all.

The Turkey Lunch 2021 version

And so it was that I got up at 6 AM to prep the turkey and also to get to Lisa's office by 7:30 AM because I have a cleaning scheduled today as well. That meant Lisa had to bring Johnnie to her office and I would take him from there. That was what I was trying to tell her on Thursday night. But I guess she was too pre-occupied with the dog. This morning it was something else. She called really early...6:30AM early and right away I knew I was going to get some drama. Turned out her front office girl Claudia got into a car accident this morning and now she is in a bit of a panic because no one is there to work the front. She was calling to ask me if I would. Again. Of course I told her I was about to put the turkey in the oven and she told me she didn't care about the turkey lunch. She cared about the front desk coverage. Right after I told her that I should never be her #1 option for that, I still agreed to do it. I will admit I was thinking that the last time i did this, I didn't really think they needed me to do it. Yes Saturdays are busy but it's not like the phones were ringing off the hook. I think I took one message all day. Anyway, I showered and prepped to man the front desk again. I picked up breakfast at McDonald's for Johnnie and I and headed to the office. I was just about to park when I get another call from Lisa. NOW she's telling me she doesn't need me to work the front after all. FUCKING HELL!! I had already taken the turkey out of the oven! DAMN this crazy lady! She probably called Angie and got a better feel that everything was going to be ok. But now she has yet again sucked me into her drama of her own making. I mean if this was a weekday would they really need someone to cover Claudia? Sigh. Hey I'm going to just play it by ear now. There may still be time to do the turkey lunch. Not a whole lot of time, but I think I could still pull it off. And so Sandy gave me my cleaning and then Johnnie and I headed off to the apartment. At the very least that's one thing I could be grateful for today: I got my cleaning done. Not such a little deal since I had missed my last routine appointment when I didn't have a hygienist that time. So back to my attempt to salvage the lunch. I thought Lisa was wrong in saying they didn't care. Truth is that they did care. Angie told me herself as I asked her if they were going to be ok. And so this is where experience wins the day. I've done this a few times before. I know how to roast a turkey. AND it was already all prepped for the oven anyway. I just stuck it in and then followed my sequence of stuff to prepare. First the green beans and onions, then the mashed potatoes, and then the stuffing. And so it was that I got everything all done in 2 1/2 hours. From 9 - 11:30 AM. The turkey was literally 5 minutes out of the oven when I put it in the car. And I delivered lunch by 11:35. I got it done on time! And I think I didn't disappoint. The turkey was ok. But the green beans and stuffing? Mmmm!! Everyone told me how much they appreciated me doing this. Even Yelba. Yup, Yelba. Gaudencio had an appointment right after lunch and Yelba brought him. And so of course she had to say to Johnnie. And of course she had to ask to take Johnnie shopping downtown. This time, I was the one that said NO. It was my turn to be with him today. No one takes my time. She can come when it's Lisa's turn.  And so Johnnie and i went back to the apartment. I was so rushed I didn't clean anything. I had to spend the next half hour washing dishes and cleaning the kitchen. Man this is a lot of work. But I will say I felt good doing it. And when the kitchen was done, then and only then did I breathe a sigh of relief. My work for the week is done at last. I finally got my afternoon nap in while Johnnie watched his episodes of the Wild Kratts. And then we watched Space Jam 2 AND Raya and the Last Dragon. Again. I forgot how much I liked the latter. Anyway Johnnie and I basically just hung out the rest of the Saturday on the couch watching TV, horseplaying, wrestling, and essentially just goofing off.  Look at all the pics I posted. That pretty much told the Saturday story. By 6:30 PM I started to expect to hear from Lisa. By then we had finished a good dinner and I was running out of things to do. But no ping from Lisa. Not by 7:30. Not by 8 PM either. Finally at 8:30 I called her. She was in full overwhelm yet again. I should have seen it as she was already off from Thursday night. Completely off balance this morning and I'm sure she was in the middle of her own drama-making yet again. I say that only because I have never seen what just demolishes her mentally and emotionally other than the need to be perfect and the need TO create drama just to follow a narrative. Some story that was planted in her head. She mentioned she still needed to do some stuff and she was going to pick Johnnie up shortly. By 9 PM I had had enough. I drove Johnnie to Lisa's house to at least get him tucked in and asleep. No sense him going off routine just because Lisa is decides she'd rather be a weird mom. And then again maybe that's all she's following is her own mom's template. Sigh. Johnnie was asleep inside of 10 minutes in his own bed. And finally at 9:40 I saw the lights in the garage go on. Lisa is finally home. She didn't even say one word to me. And all I said was that "You're here so I'm out". Not going to be involved in her drama for one more second than I have to. I went on home. At least I did what I wanted to do today. Got the lunch done, got time spent with Johnnie. The Lisa part? No need to spend any more time thinking about it. I am not letting her fuck up my day.

Some Kind of Day

Looking back on this day, it feels like today had all kinds of everything in it. On the surface it was supposed to be my presentation day for the CCALAC HIT Summit and it was. I even spent last night rearranging my bedroom so I could have a nice backdrop made up of my blanket LOL LOL. That's because I didn't have any time to buy a real backdrop LOL LOL. But my turn wasn't going to come until after lunch and so there were other things that were going on. First things first $$$ I do have to feel grateful for my paycheck this morning. Because it was actually 2+ paychecks. I cashed in on 40 hours of vacation that I never got to last year and took the money. And so my checking account balance shot up by $7K today, pushing it past $34K. That is over $80K in cash I have in my bank accounts. WELL ENOUGH to sustain me for at least a year! How can I not be grateful for that! And then of course, there were the lessons from the Universe. Continuing lessons about patience. Continuing lessons about learning NOT to react. I got an email from Marina about how she said she couldn't trust the Managers dashboard because the numbers changed from the same day. My first thought was duh... of course it changes. Everyone uses this dashboard. Filters get changed. Days get changed. That she copied my boss Dennis and mentioned something to the effect that it couldn't be trusted just made me blow my top. I didn't even think. I sent a snarky response back within seconds saying "why don't you check your filters' and "why the fuck are you copying my boss?" Those were not the exact words of course. And within seconds of sending the email, I was already feeling my own apology. She responded, I apologized and wrote a more detailed response and I just whisked that event away. Sigh. People in the C-suites... so lacking in patience and empathy. I guess it will be me who try to make them aware... hopefully in a very professional manner. Anyway I had to whisk it away... I had a talk I need to get my head in. In fact I was already in the middle of the keynote so I can at least refer to it in parts of my talk... 

As it was my talk came, it went and I thought I did ok. I know I almost ran out of time. It was supposed to go 45 minutes and I could have gone longer. I practiced and practiced and still it didn't really come out like I practiced. But i thought it was good enough. I gave out a lot of material but still I didn't think there was the kind of interaction that the other speakers had on chat. It was either I was giving out way too much information and a lot was going over people's heads, or they weren't really all that interested in the subject. or maybe not in the way I was presenting. But then again I also realize that's my ego talking. hey I was just pinch-hitting wasn't I? Anything I contributed would be fine. And then again this would be my 3rd public speaking stint this year. Something tells me it isn't going to be the last. Anyway when the last Q&A question was done I could finally breathe. All over. It wasn't even 3 PM yet. I'm officially done for the weekend. But I'm not done. Not by a long shot. For me it's just on to the next activity. And THAT would be the Thanksgiving lunch I'm supposed to prepare for Lisa's office tomorrow. Since this isn't my first go-round, I already know what to do. But the thing that I needed to finish was to actually buy the turkey tonight. And so I headed out and did full grocery shopping for the dinner. Not just the turkey but you know my stuffing is legendary with that group of folks. And of course I had to do veggies too right? And gravy. And cranberries. And let's not forget all the containers this food has to go in. By the time all was said and done I had spent almost $80. Not too bad to feed about 11 people. But I do remember the last time I did this 2 years ago it didn't even come to $65. That's inflation for ya. THen again we never got to do it last year and let's face it I actually do enjoy doing this every once in a while. If only to prove to myself that I can do it. Like the cybersecurity presentation. I proved I can do it. Yet again. And I am truly grateful that I not only got the opportunity but that I also came through. I made myself the last of the shaved beef and broccoli over rice for tonight's dinner. And then I spent time prepping for the lunch tomorrow. Cutting up carrots. Celery. Onions. Doing the potatoes in the Instant Pot. And then I reminded myself I had to be up before 7 AM to actually prep the turkey and put it in the oven. Work is most definitely not done just yet...

Watching My Energy

It wasn't lost on me that I have a talk coming up tomorrow at the CCALAC HIT Summit, yet I have hardly given it much thought all week. I haven't even checked on any of the logistics yet. I figured all that stuff had already been emailed to me yet I haven't checked. And I wasn't really all that worried aobut it really. Instead my attention this morning was squarely on the thought of moving back to the FRB, first with my team and figuring out what our next steps are, and then with my boss Dennis, asking him what in the heck is going on. He seemed blindsided about it and although we are getting lots of push from Barbara, it was notable that we were not getting any push from anyone else on the Leadership Team. And certainly from talking to Dennis, I'm pretty sure she's the only one with a hankering to go back to the office on January 3. And we don't even know what that means anyway, going back. Is it back for good, back part time? what? It was notable that in the middle of talking about it with my team and with Dennis and watching some negative energy well enough, I got a personal delivery of a holiday basket from one of my vendors. Or should I say a vendor we used to work with that I don't even work with anymore. I mean I got wine and cheese from San Antonio winery. Pretty snazzy. And something I need to be grateful for to be sure. Anyway the consensus between Dennis and I was that we take small steps forward towards moving back but nothing is in rock just yet. I mean I can at least document what needs to happen for IT to be ready again. I can do that. Even if I don't have to do it with a sense of urgency LOL LOL. So this being Thursday and this being the new busy day, the morning was spent doing team meetings and then after that, after a lunch from Taco Bell <yep that is as random as it sounds>, I tanked the rest of the day. 

The rest of the afternoon was spent watching the latest episode of Hawkeye. It was just ok for me... I don't even know why Kate Bishop is important in the series. Maybe it's just that the individual stories of the Avengers and other members of the MCU isn't as interesting. The Falcon and the Winter Soldier did stick with me. This one and Loki, not so much. Not nearly like the Mandalorian which we're all still waiting for. Anyway the rest of the afternoon was spent tanked on the couch until it was time to get Johnnie from school. And after I picked him up we went on to Mitsuwa to get some udon and tempura shrimp for Johnnie, and some pork katsu over rice for me. See the picture with his green band allowing him to eat inside. Kind of a hoot really. The day started a little drizzly and with some chance of rain, but the chance is now at zero for tonight. And of course this being Thursday we wait for Lisa to call about Johnnie and what mood she was going to be in. It was set up as an uneventful pick up, and I should have known better. There's always something. And tonight, it was the knots on Claire's fur. As in why was there any I guess? The answer was because I didn't brush her enough and I didn't care to. No I didn't give a shit. And so Lisa had an energy of irritation as she took off for home. I tried to reiterate plans for Saturday as I have a cleaning while also trying to cook for their turkey lunch. All that went over Lisa's head of course as if she didn't care. OK then. I couldn't let whatever energy she had affect me. I still had to rehearse for tomorrow's presentation. And rehearse I did. I did the whole deal in about 45 minutes. Just about the right time with a 10-minute Q&A. I think I'm good. No need to go again. I remember rehearsing at least 3 times when I did the Vegas talk. Not tonight. There's no need. Better to get some sleep It's all good.