elfs | Eight Days a Week

Today was my eighth day on the job. We're coming down to the wire now, the product is more or less solid and done but upgrading old customers to our new codebase is the final bugaboo... and I broke it yesterday. I tried a patch for it today, but unfortunately the turnaround time for this operation is five hours on our hottest hardware, so I fixed it, checked in my fixes, sent off mail to the buildmaster saying "Please start it up," and headed home.

It's been a long weekend.

Friday, after I got home, Omaha and I put up a half-dozen more stone for the new retaining wall, finishing the third row and part of the fourth. We had home-made pizza for dinner, onto which I sliced some nifty dinner sausage, peeling the skin off as I did.

fallenpegasus came over late that evening, while Omaha dithered and waffled, and he and I mananged to convince her that she should leave, giving me Kouryou-chan and Yamaarashi-chan all by myself to bathe, dress, enlighten, and put to bed. They were pretty good and I used a new kid's shampoo, MOP Pear Shampoo on their hair that was much better than the Johnson & Johnson bodywash we were using.

They were pretty good about getting dressed and all. It was half-an-hour later than anticipated so Kouryou-chan was pretty tired by then, but I managed to read four books to them and then get them to bed. I went to bed myself at the same time. I was dead tired.

Saturday, I awoke at eight to find everyone else still asleep. I sneaked downstairs for a bit to geek and read up, and by ten the rest of the house was conscious. I made waffles. And I got them quite right this time-- crispy on the outside, warm and fluffy on the inside. For some of them, I sliced big blackberries and pressed them into the batter while it was on the iron. Delicious.

We fumped around for a while, then I took Yamaarashi-chan to her first appointment of the week at a friend's house. The house was small and intense, the couple who lived there seemingly decent. They were kind enough to take Yamaarashi-chan for the duration while I went to my seventh straight day at work. I was there for four hours and change, then returned to pick up Yamaarashi-chan and head home.

I discovered that Pegasus had actually spent the entire day at home, running interference with Kouryou-chan while Omaha tried to fix her computer. After a while, we watched Spirited Away, the newest Miyazaki film. It was amazing. We watched in awe. Kouryou-chan squealed with fright a couple of times but the grownups were there to comfort her and she made it all the way through. Yamaarashi-chan was just entranced.

I decided that I wanted a real dinner, something I hadn't had in a while. So I made prime rib, a baked potato, and broccoli with an elegant chedder sauce with touches of powdered mustard and saffron. As Pegasus put it when he heard my plans, "Hey, Yo, and What A Fabulous Window Treatment." And a damn-near ice cold Guiness. Heaven. My intestines will hate me later. I guess that qualifies as "Adjusting the Package." (If you don't get it, you haven't seen In & Out, with Kevin Kline.)

After the movie, Pegasus went home to water his cat (ask him what that means), and I fed the kids-- hot dogs this time, as it was late and I was lazy. Afterwards, Omaha put them to bed without problem.

Sunday, I rose with the kids and we made oatmeal. Yummy, good stuff, with full-sized rolled oats. Delicious. Yamaarashi-chan decided that she wanted raisin bran instead. Omaha come in and says, "There's a car down the street, in the blackberry patches. It's in the ditch, and the engine is still running. It's been stripped." We go down there and sure enough, it's a lovely brand new Acura. Even the hood is gone. The thieves cracked the windshield trying to get it off. The stereo, the custom stick, the side mirrors, everything is gone. The engine's lovely, still was just purring along despite having been on for probably hours. She called the cops and they showed up, disabled it, and called a tow truck. Someone is having a very bad day right now.

We made the bed, vacuumed the bedroom (damn dust mites are a bit vicious), I took a shower-- then took Yamaarashi-chan to her second appointment, another birthday party, and then I went to work for the eighth straight day.

I broke something. The works great freshly installed, but it doesn't upgrade properly. Curses. I put in some fixes, check them, check them in... and then head back to pick up Yamaarashi-chan.

I drop Yamaarashi-chan at her mother's house and then head home to discover that

miraclemax and his wife have appealed to Omaha's humanity; their daughter needs a watcher for the evening. So we have her here, storming around with Kouryou-chan. Great. Just what I needed. We bundle the kids into the car, go and get the weekly groceries, then head back, where Omaha makes her absolutely delicious shrimp curry with apples and raisins. And now it's time to put the kids to bed.