This is where I bitch.

The 4th of July weekend went pretty well. I went up Thursday morning, caught up with the family in Tomahawk as my sister and bro-in-law finished a 10k race. Cora is so big and happy, it was great spending time with her. And Jack is a bit clammer overall now that he is 3.

After meeting up we went to the main street and watched a parade, then headed back to the cabin at the lake. Paul came up that evening and we generally just talked and caught up. Friday Paul and I got in a kayak trip and then I helped Mom watch the kids while Laura and Rob got some shopping done. They really cleaned up their new cabin, looks nice. Paul and I, along with the dogs, stayed in their RV.

Friday night Paul went back to Madison so he could work, so Saturday was just me with the family at the park picnic. I mostly hung out with grandma and talked and also walked around and played with Cora. The family went swimming afterwards, but I volunteered to stay in the cabin with grandma while we played with Cora and watched my cousin's youngest sleep. Saturday night one of the teachers that Laura and Rob know from Saudi came to visit with her 3 teen age kids.

Sunday it rained all morning, so everyone was a bit stir crazy trapped in the cabin. Carol and grandma came back in to the park, so I got to see them for lunch, then I drove back to Madison that afternoon.

Mom was down visiting this last weekend. Mostly the two of us just cleaned and packed up the house. We got a lot done, which is good. Still bitter sweet feelings about accomplishing things.

Nothing much else to report. We did get to skype with my sister for a bit, her birthday is today. That was nice.

I'm probably getting a third job. Best Buy needs seasonal workers, and the extra cash will help. Have another interview on Friday (before B's party). I already interviewed once there, but my night and weekends only schedule didn't work for that position.

I got up north this week to see/meet my new niece. Picture:

New niece is awesome twitter.com/jasonkivela/st…

— Jason Kivela (@jasonkivela) July 24, 2012

She's pretty awesome, though all she did was sleep and eat, as 1 week old babies are prone to do. So tiny though. Lots of black hair. It was nice just sitting on the couch with her resting in my arms on my chest. Peaceful.

Jack is in full on jealous mode. He likes his sister, but he's just in an acting out stage. Laura and Rob were told he's too smart for his age, and acting out is a common result. But I spent time with him playing when he wasn't being naughty. I got to take him to his last day of swimming lessons with grandma too.

Laura looks pretty tired, since Cora needs to eat so often. Hopefully she can start to get some rest soon.

Life in Madison is kinda sad and scary now. Money issues. One of those time we have to just bare through it as best we can and hope for some relief to come soon.

I have just been whipped lately, work is killing me. Last two weeks have been 9-12 hour days every day. It just this one project. However there is an end in sight. I'm thinking we can wrap it up next week. Which will be three weeks late. And this last week my boss talked about having a conversation with the client to tell them we are cutting them off. We are just hemorrhaging money on this one, and enough is enough. I don't think we've ever done that before. But with the end in sight we probably won't have that call. But it's nice to know it's an option. I am so looking forward to going in at 8 like a normal person again soon.

After this project ends I've told work that I'll need like 2 days off to relax finally. Looking forward to that.

No word baby wise from my sister. Her due date was last week, but my nephew was late too, so no one is worried. I'll also be taking a day or two off when my niece comes.

Tonight is the softball drag show. Paul and Jess are performing, which should be fun. Lots of work and stress getting ready for it the last few weeks. I'll have a recap later.

Tomorrow will be my last over booked Sunday. We have our final day of competitive softball in the morning. We play at 11:30 for seed play, and then it's a single elimination tournament. I'm sure we'll be knocked out in the first round. Then in the evening I've got volleyball. Not until 4:30, so hopefully the sand won't be nearly so burny on my feet.

A little late on this, but this weekend I hope to find a CSA to join. If I do I can get a $200 healthy living bonus at the end of the year, and that would almost pay for joining. It'd be nice to get fresh veggies all summer, but I really should have looked into this last month. Now I have to find one that drops off near us, that also has openings still.


I would have really liked to go north this weekend to see the family for Easter. But with gas so expensive and all of the trips up there I have planned for after Laura and Jack (and new baby) arrive all summer, I decided I should stick home and save up for those future trips.


I'm doing a new running routine suggested to me by my co-worker John. It's one he's been doing and got from Runner's World. It's working well, I never feel exhausted after, but the next day I can sure tell I've been working out. It's all about running/walking for a half and hour, and slowly building up your stamina. I'm not splitting it up by weeks though, since sometimes I only run once a week. I'm planning to do each group 4-5 times. I'm running on a bike path near home, which is fairly flat and means I don't have to worry about crossing a lot of roads or running by cars.

Run-Walk This Way Start and finish each workout with five minutes of walking. Then, alternate the following run/walk ratios for 30 minutes.

WEEK
1: Two minutes running/four minutes walking
2: Three minutes running/three minutes walking
3: Four minutes running/two minutes walking
4: Five minutes running/three minutes walking
5: Seven minutes running/three minutes walking
6: Eight minutes running/two minutes walking
7: Nine minutes running/one minute walking
8: Thirteen minutes running/two minutes walking
9: Fourteen minutes running/one minute walking
10: Run the whole time!

Wow, this week has been hell. Not in a really bad way, just really, really busy. And mostly because of clients being slow or not cluing me in early enough. It's good to be busy, I prefer that over slow. But today I had to ask my coworker to help get things done. He was slow, so it's cool. And I'd totally help in if things were switched. But I'm not really used to needing help.

I'm still rocking the sales calls when account managers ask me to sit in to field techy questions. It's nice to be appreciated. Today they needed some advice on doing some complex InDesign text books, which we normally don't do. It took me a bit, but I was able to reorganize my brain to answer those questions. I could almost feel the paths in my head moving. Kinda cool.

I got this from my sister today:

"Jack LOVES the book you made! He keeps asking for the "Jack adventure with Uncle Jason on an airplane" book. He thought it was so cool that it was about him. I think he was a little confused since some of the things really happened, like fishing and driving the tractor, but some didn't, like riding a flying dinosaur :) I hope he stores those as memories and swears that he rode a dinosaur with you when he is older."

It's really, really nice to know that Jack likes the eBook I made him. This might become a tradition...

Might have D&D this weekend. It's been like... months. Many months. Hope everyone remembers how to play.

Christmas with my family went well. I drove up Friday night with my cousin, who dropped me off at my parent's house. We had good food and saw family and friends. Highlights:

- I've been working on a brochure for the Heritage Center in my home town, the board liked my work and I have a few edits to make.
- I got out skiing with my mom, dad and uncle a few times. Saturday was OK, not quiet enough snow though. And on Sunday the snow had melted a bit, making one's skis slip all over the place, it was not fun. We also saw a huge coyote while out in the woods.
- Dad liked the kevlar chaps me and my sister got him. He needs them to protect his legs when cutting Christmas trees with a chainsaw.
- Got to skype with Laura, Jack and Rob. They are flying to Shuri Lanka this week. Jack showed us his summer-saulting skills. He also did a great job trimming the tree, putting all of the same color decorations together, matching the colors like he's been learning.
- I got X-Men 1st Class and some work shirts, which was nice.
- And I got to take a sauna, it's been too long.

This week I think will be busy through Wednesday, then dead. And I've been trying to get things done all morning, but all of my clients are slow getting me answers and/or data and thus I'm spending a lot of time waiting.

The last few days have been filled with email server and spam filter headaches. They seem to be mostly figured out, but I am not a fan of those things right now.

Been busy at work again though, which is good. Mostly last minute, "OMG we have to get the site live NOW!" and "Oh, we didn't tell you about that aspect, yeah sorry, get on that now?" and "I know it's 4:55 there, but I'm on the West Coast, so if you can get that done today?" I don't really mind. I like feeling needed and helpful. And the occasional long day means a long lunch or leaving a bit early on a different day.

I got my Christmas gift off to Jack already. Laura won't give it to him until they are on the plane. They are spending Christmas in Sri Lanka (I think). I made him a comic style eBook. It's formatted to display well on their iPad. It's about how Uncle Jason misses Jack, so he flies to see him. Then the two of them take some magical flying toys to visit the rest of their families. Hoping he likes having a book with him in it.

My family Christmas will be a week from this weekend. My cousin Nate is going up that weekend, so that makes 2 grandkids in Brantwood at the same time, which is the largest gathering of family we'll have. Paul can't get out of work, which sucks. But it will be nice to see grandma and everyone again.

Birthday is going well, so far. My company gives a gift certificate to a local, nice restaurant. I've not been there, but we will check it out. That was a nice surprise. I've been getting Facebook wall posts all day. My sister gave me some Amazon money, so I'll order a few books and movies this weekend, I want to keep some so when I do have an eReader or tablet I can get eBooks also. I'm gonna hold off on getting a tablet for a bit, I want to see more about the Kobo Vox and whatever Nook is next and see how they compare to the Fire.

Tonight Paul's mom and sister are coming into town and visiting for the weekend. We have reservations to Fresco, a building top heavily windowed restaurant on top of the Overture center. Great view, good food and desserts.

Not sure what we will do this weekend. Sounds like Paul's mom needs a weekend to relax, so that might be the plan. Have to stay away from downtown though, this weekend is Freak Fest (the Halloween party where hundreds of thousands of people come into our city for--it's crazy).

(I'm not really "bouncy" but that mood icon is from Simon's birthday.)

It's been a great weekend so far. Mom, Jack and Laura arrived Friday night and have been here all weekend. They will go back to mom's house after lunch tomorrow. We went to the farmer's market and the Madison Children's Museum Saturday on Saturday morning. The museum was cool, but had way too many kids and all of the activities were to tightly packed. To much stimulation. Fun though. We hit up a park with a play ground after the mid day nap, and then went to Ella's Deli for supper. That restaurant is neat, but has a lot of trains and planes and cartoon characters flying around the ceiling. The outside carousel was a hit though.

Today we went to the Madison zoo (which is free) and had fun with my cousin Nate and his GF Courtney. Lots of animals and things to play in. Another park was found after today's nap. Then I grilled veggie, chicken and bison kabobs on the grill for supper.

Tomorrow we will either go to the botanical gardens or the geology museum, then lunch with Nate and Courtney again, then they take off.

It's tons of fun, but chasing a 2 year old is exhausting. I almost fell asleep at 8 when he went to bed tonight.

Tuesday is the softball team grill out at our house, and the we rest for a month (not really, but it's not a bad idea).