Double Birthdays

Got the real sleep into me this time. Solid doze from head hitting the pillow until half six. Really nice change from the debacle on Friday night. I did lounge a bit in bed before scrambling downstairs to the kitchen. The image I had of my breakfast was to make an omelette with monterey jack cheese and spinach. The non-non-stick condition of my key frying pan prevented that from happening so it turned into a chorizo, spinach, scrambled egg and monterey jack wrap. The name rolls right off the tongue. Despite overcooking the eggs it was still very, very good. A nice start to the day that didn’t weigh me down. And it would appear that since I needed to buy that spinach for the family feast over a week ago, I’m eating more greens. Trending in the right direction.

After eating and cleaning up I jaunted upstairs to take care of the rest of my MSC daily challenges. I’ve mentioned them many times because they are a bit of a daily thing for me, even though I often will accumulate a few days to work through. I figured I’d give a bit better of an idea of what I’m talking about. Here is what a perfect month looks like. I’ve had perfect months since October 2019. I completely cleared all of 2020 and I’m off to a good start in 2021 now too. So what is it? Well you are given a challenge each day for five different games. It is always the same games but the skill level varies between Easy, Medium, Hard and Expert. I sort of dread Expert most of the time, even though it’s becoming less of an issue. Within each skill level there are also different types of puzzles. Those can be to reach a certain score or clear a number of stacks or a specific card. The variety of the puzzles definitely keep it interesting. Generally it takes me between fifteen and twenty minutes to clear the five unless I get stuck on a Hard or Expert challenge, which does happen. It’s a fun little exercise for my brain to work through and the completionist in me keeps me coming back to complete the month.

When I was done my MSC challenges and had updated some Musings I moved on to the next task of doing a load of laundry. I got some new shirts last week with our team’s new logo on it. I’ve heard some harsh reviews on it from internal folks so I’ll be selective in wearing the shirts now, more-so than I would have been otherwise. I don’t love the way they put the logo on, it’s just pressed on, doesn’t feel right on a very expensive shirt. I’m still waiting for the hat, hopefully they look good because I got some input on those. The other task I wanted to wait until after eleven to tackle was the birthday call home to the Big T. He’s got quite a little birthday party setup, Mother is making him turkey dinner with cake. Just the two of them this year because of the pandemic but he was in good spirits when he answered the phone. He was working on a presentation to give to some University kids, I hope he does well at it. The other birthday on this day is STL sister’s husband. I don’t know the protocol as well for him so I sent a text with some specific instructions. Reports are that he got some time to do some things he enjoys during the day coupled with a meal out of their apartment so it sounded like a decently exciting day down there as well. Pretty cool that they have a joint birthday, of all the days of the year. With the calls made and the laundry changed over it was time to tackle something that was a week in the making.

As it turned out my dread and delay in doing this task was well founded. Hanging a whiteboard sounds like a simple task. I have all the tools to do it properly and the time. But I did find ways to mess it up. I marked the walls extensively and centered it on the section of wall that suited it best. I marked the spots for holes very carefully. Tape measures and levels were used extensively. Not even close to level initially. So I made a second hole and destroyed a plastic anchor in the process but got the top mounts in and it was level. Then it was on to the bottom mounts. I’m not sure what abyss I hit when drilling the pilot hole for the anchor but when I put it in it just shot right into the wall. So the same bit that was perfect for the other four holes I made somehow opened a chasm into another dimension that eats plastic anchors. I was confused at why there were six for four holes, now I know. Next, I realized that to drill the holes to secure it underneath would mean going through the shelf and the frame. This was not addressed in the instructions, which favour the horizontal layout. So after some improvisation I got it to go. In the process of securing the bottom I somehow loosened the top, it’s still secure and level but not as solid as I was hoping. The moral of the story is that it took way longer than it should have and I’m glad I got the kinks out hanging the garage one before I tackle the one in the kitchen. Speaking of the kitchen, I went there next and had some fries with cheese and too much hot sauce. I got my clothes folded and stowed and then decided I could have a nap. I listened to my audiobook and I think caught a quick twenty minutes of partial nap. No drool so it wasn’t a great one but decent rest. I woke up and cleaned the main floor toilet and sink up out of the blue. Eventually I found my way back to the kitchen to make some dinner. I had a package of ground pork that was starting to look grey and pull the plastic covering down to the meat. That needed to be cooked. So I fried it up with a lot of taco seasoning. I went back to the monterey jack cheese and spinach base layer of a wrap and put a few spoonfuls of the meat in there. I also added a dollop of sriracha ranch dipping sauce across the spinach. It was a tasty treat and left me with most of the ground meat in reserve for my next adventure. I took down a can of Sprite with the meal as well.

With nothing pressing to tackle I went downstairs after eating and fired up NHL20. I’m not sure why but I felt I needed to make some changes to my team and finish the off-season. The next thing I knew I’d made a some signings and trades and had picked up a sixth first round pick and promoted a minor league guy up to the big club. I’m still waiting on my draft players to finish junior and join my AHL team, maybe I’m missing a step in forcing that to happen but I’ve got three or four players that need to be in that lineup. I also signed some late 20’s veterans to fill out the roster. I think both teams would win their respective titles again with ease. I’m supposed to move on to NHL21 but I’m not sure what I’m going to do now. Maybe I’ll simulate the whole year? I’m not sure I’m capable of that without jumping in to make sure my guys get big numbers. I had the thought that I’d play until my guy retires, I made him my actual age like an idiot so he’s well into his thirties. Who knows? After that I went back upstairs and finished my second pass of Warbreaker, did some background reading about the characters and then watched a bit of YouTube before going to sleep. A nice relaxing Sunday, mostly.