Month: March 2022

So today was a bit of a slow start. I tied one on last night since Missus got home. Note to self: Belgian Trippel is way too strong. I stayed up till one and woke up completely rekt. Took Elder to school, Younger was home sick again, and came home and went back to bed for a couple more hours. Had a couple meetings, wrote some notes, that’s it. Played some Tarkov this afternoon, watched the first episode of Moon Knight. Kids are in bed.

Younger has lost her Kindle, and it’s bugging the crap out of me. It had a bright blue case that was easy to see, but she took it out of there and now it’s just gone. I can’t find it.

Oh, and did I mention that Elder woke me up this morning to tell me that Younger was eating ice cream for breakfast? Yea, that set me off, whoo boy.

Anyways, March is done, and April Fools day is tomorrow. Paycheck came in, but still no raise. But the good news is that my 2021 and 2022 IRAs are maxed out. So I guess I can start buying crypto again. Seems like a good time to do so. CryptoTwitter’s been bullish for the last ten days, and today there was a selloff and everyone is losing their minds. Time to stack some more sats I suppose.

Haven’t run in several days. Just couldn’t fit it in yesterday with the kids by myself, and today my recovery score was so low I didn’t even think about it. Tomorrow should be good though.

Gonna turn in early and read a book in bed. Might play a round of Tarkov first.

Younger is home sick today. She had the start of a cold yesterday but I sent her to school. This morning she was congested enough that I felt like I needed to keep her home. So I gave her some cold medicine and chicken noodle soup, and let her watch TV while I attempted to get things done. When I checked on her she was watching Is It Cake?, a baking competition show.

I decided to tear her away from that. She was feeling a bit better, but I didn’t want to abandon her to the tube all day. So I made lunch, and we drew up a plan. We went to the library, then on to the grocery store where we picked up some staples and some ice cream. Then we had a bit of a Mo Willems marathon. All of his books have been animated and narrated into videos that are on HBOMax. I finally managed to tear myself away, and have less than an hour before I need to go get Elder.

Missus comes home tonight, but it might be too late for the girls to stay up. I’ll be ready to have a break.

So far this week I’ve managed to keep it together, although last night almost relapsed after a call from a friend that kept me up past my bedtime. Younger stayed in her bed though.

Hopefully I can fit a run in this afternoon and keep things going.

So I’ve survived another day without Missus around. Things got a little testy last night, but we didn’t have any major issues with the kids. I think the worst thing was I was helping Elder do her chores and she told me she had “too many” socks in her drawer, which was half full. When I asked her why then I had just bought her socks at the store on Sunday, she said it was because I had been “too lazy” to turn the car around and go back to the house after she had told me her socks had holes in them.

Boy, did I get up in her face, man. Thankfully she had the sense not to say another word to me. She was upset because I made her do her laundry, a basket full of clothes, not to mention the sheets and mattress protector for both her regular and trundle mattresses. Whoo boy.

Everything else has been going ok. The kids don’t have another adult to play off of, so they’re actually doing a better job following directions than they do when Missus is around. They know they’ve got no one to appeal to. Younger has been doing a great job getting to sleep, although she did come to the bed last night and kick me awake at five in the morning. Bad dreams, she said.

Today Momo is sick, which means I had to drop Elder off at school and have to pick her up this afternoon, which causes some scheduling conflicts, but I should be able to handle it.

We made a bit of a breakthrough at work, we had been pointed to a snapshot program for the Tribeca locker way back in Feb, but for one reason or another we had dismissed it. For whatever reason, I took a look at it again yesterday and realized what it was, basically the program that we needed. Thankfully we didn’t spend any sprint time working on an alternative implementation. I think this will save us a couple weeks.

Crypto markets seem to be breaking out. I’m still in the process of moving funds into my IRA, so I haven’t had the opportunity to enjoy the dip the last few months. I’ve maxed out my 2021 and have almost maxed out my 2022 IRA, almost twelve grand altogether. I managed to scoop up some BTC, ETH, and SOL yesterday, but I’ve got to wait on ACH transfers, which take forever.

It’s funny, having money in the bank. I told the kids how lucky they are, we just confirmed our travel arrangements for our Hawaii trip, and we have Disney World right after that. If I was still working at my old job, Disney would have been a dud because I would be too broke to enjoy it. Now I have no compunction about spending three grand while we’re there. We can pretty much do whatever we want.

I really haven’t gone crazy with my money, I’m sure my spending is up a bit for groceries and clothes, but besides a grow tent and a new monitor, I haven’t really splurged on anything. Taxes first, I suppose. I spent twenty three hundred on house repairs — more to come — but so far I’ve been fairly subdued. I guess Steam games are one of my guilty pleasures. I’ve been buying up whatever I want, and have been gifting a lot to friends. Spreading the wealth, I suppose.

I think things are looking good from here.

So day one without Missus was actually pretty nice. I didn’t go crazy last night, and caught up on some sleep. The girls went to church, I played Tarkov all morning and then we went off on our adventure: BIKING.

Tarkov has turned me into a bit of a bag fetishist. The local department store had these backpacks that were very reminiscent of bags in Tarkov, and after several trips there I finally decided to pull the trigger on this thirty dollar bag. I love it already. We stopped by the store, Younger needed a pullover, and Elder needed socks, so I loaded up the bikes, took them to the store, and then we drove a half hour away to go biking. It was fun.

The kids were troopers, especially Younger, who was defying-death on the hiking trails before we got kicked off by the park ranger. By that time we were done “mountain biking” and spent the rest of the time biking over winding, slightly hilly gravel roads to a lookout point over the creek. I packed plenty of water and snacks.

After we left there, I dropped the girls off at Momo’s so that I could have a break — more Tarkov — then I gorged myself on a BK Bacon King. It was a bit much, but I don’t eat there often.

So now both the girls are in bed and my final challenge tonight is to get my own butt to bed at a decent hour so that I can get the girls to school on time. A new work sprint starts tomorrow and I need to be on point.

Today was a pretty good day.

Friday was the end of the sprint at Star Atlas, and we had some pretty good engineering demos from the rest of the team. We spent the evening having pizza and movie night, then I stayed up — way too late — gaming with my boy Ed and his coworker. We played The Ascent, but Ed wimped out. Apparently it wasn’t his type of game. I actually bought copies for both of them, hoping that the three of us could game together.

I was up at eight to take Missus to the train station so that she could go on her training. We stopped at Crispy Creme to get donuts for the girls, then we went home and I promptly passed out until eleven, when I had a SAIAdao meeting. That went well, we’re making progress.

The rest of the day has been a drag-ass kinda day. I cooked lunch for the kids and neighbors, and Younger started fighting with them so I watched Bluey and half of Beauty and the Beast while I napped. I spent the rest of the day playing Tarkov, running night raids with some pretty good success. I’m almost level 15, and then I get the flea market.

I cooked dinner, then watched Hawkeye with the kids. Younger is in bed now, and I’m letting Elder stay up to watch one more show.

The kids have church tomorrow morning, so hopefully I’ll get a round or two in with my brother. I’m hoping to take the kids for a bike ride at a park on the other side of town. My only worry is what the weather is going to be like, and whether Elder’s bike will make it without the chain coming off. She’s due for a new bike.

Staratlas.Exchange went offline today after I failed to pay the AWS bill for two months. It’s just a pain in the butt the way my business accounts are setup, so I just went ahead and dropped a grand on my personal card. The site still isn’t back up and running, but it should be tomorrow.

Today is not quite starting off the way I had planned. Yesterday was awesome, I got at least four hours of deep work — Solana programming — and had a full day, checking off all the boxes: meditation, weight training, a long run. Hell, I even had two successful Tarkov night raids in a row, which I can’t say has happened in a long while. There was a SAIAdao meeting that went well, and I turned in shortly after to read Watts, and then had lights out at 10:20 or so.

Then I couldn’t sleep.

My brain was running. I actually had a couple flashes of insight regarding the POLISdao that I had to get up and write down. But according to my Whoop, I didn’t fall asleep until after midnight.

Then Younger came in the bed, which is never a good thing for sleep. Then my Whoop woke me up an hour early because I change the alarm to wake me up if it senses that I’m recovered. This threw me off and I woke up Missus thinking that she had forgot to set the alarm. Once I realized what time it was I went back to bed.

Then, when it was time to actually get up, Missus wouldn’t a Younger wanted to fight me. I was grumpy so I wanted to fight back. The girl has this chronic chapped upper lip, and I told her all she needs to do (besides stop licking them) is to drink water and put on the medicine. She just wouldn’t do it. Anyways I dropped the kids off and promptly went back to sleep.

I just finished a short two-mile run, and am showered and ready for work today. Thursdays I’ve got team meetings, but hopefully I’ll get some deep work this morning.

I tried my best to get to bed at a decent hour last night, but couldn’t fall asleep. Then when I did, I got woke up twice, once by Younger trying to sneak into the bed, and a second time by Elder, who had an accident in bed and wanted help doing her laundry. I told her to get her but back to bed. So when the time came to rise and shine, I got Younger to school without any problems, but came back to find Missus and Elder arguing. Elder was having a breakdown. I offered to let her stay home, but she wanted to go.

Yesterday was our daddy-daughter day, our quarterly board meeting, if you will. It was a bit abbreviated because Missus didn’t get back with the car until after four, but we managed to make the best of it. She spent fifty dollars of her allowance at the clothing store, then we spent an hour at the local trampoline park, then finished up with a late dinner at Golden Corral where we both ate ourselves sick.

The trampoline park is a bit of a mixed bag. I’m not sure how long the place has been open, but they use these 6″ foam cubes for the pits that you fall into that are disintegrating, so you wind up with these small pieces all over you when using the rock wall and landing pits. I can only imagine how much sweat and grime they hold. The place was crowded as hell, which tons of people enjoying pizza — it’s not a gym, obviously, but it was understaffed as well, with one only one person patrolling the actual trampoline area. Elder tried to use the bathroom and came back and said that every toilet was unusable. Me personally I like the place since it’s the only place I know of with obstacle courses and rock climbing gear. I need to find a training place. (What I really need is better hand and upper body strength… that place is tough.)

(Goes off to find rock climbing gyms in the area)

I was so tired when Missus left this morning that I went back to bed and slept for another hour and a half. Now I’m slowly caffinating and planning my day out. This weekend was not very productive. I did absolute zero on the tax stuff that I need to do, it’s making me despair.

Younger has been a cookie thief, I found another empty box of Girls Scout cookies in her bedroom Saturday, and then Sunday after she came back from church she tried to sneak another box over to the neighbors house. So that’s it, all cookies are gone. As punishment I made her do chores all afternoon. We did both bathrooms, her laundry and her bed, which took most of the afternoon. Then I made her wait for Missus to get back, by which time her friend wasn’t home. I came home to find a half-eaten bowl of ramen on the table, and she was eating crackers. So I guess grocery shopping is first thing on my list today.

Yesterday was a pretty good day. I wound up going on a run because the weather was so nice, and bit of a bit more than I should have. I ran 5.5 miles. Then I stayed up till 2:30 in the morning drinking and gaming. Today has been a recovery day. I don’t think I’ve done anything productive at all. I finished watching Boba Fett — ridiculous — and have been watching episodes of The Falcon and The Winter Soldier — not bad.

Missus is staying at a hotel with her friend for her friend’s birthday. They’re doing dinner tonight and are going to a spa in the morning. I wound up watching the neighbors kids all day and ordered pizza for dinner. The pizza was not great, the hot wings were horrible, and I was short with the kids because they were bickering and wrecking stuff. Oh, and did I mention that there’s a hole in the dining room wall now, and it looks like someone drew all around the wall with a brown marker. I’m totally pissed about it.

Tomorrow the girls are going to church and I’ll have the house to myself all morning. Missus isn’t coming back until well in the afternoon, then I owe Elder a day out for an overdue quarterly meeting — daddy-daughter day. I told her I’d take her shopping for clothes and take her out to her favorite restaurant, Golden Corral, but she has other plans, apparently.

I’m not sure what else I’m doing tonight, probably watch some TV, put the girls to bed and go to sleep early.

I should really rename this blog Oops, I did it again after the way this week is going. Missus voiced concern today that I’m engaging in self-destructive behavior, mostly staying up too late and shooting my mornings to shit. It would appear that I’ve used this threat of jury duty as an excuse to shirk my responsibilities, so I need to get back on track and do some work.

Things around the house are mostly fine. I’m still waiting on the second round of repairs to start before things deteriorate more than they already have. The garage door almost buckled in half the other day, and there’s a birds nest under the soffit on the corner of the house.

Financially, taxes are going to be a damn burden. There’s just so much paperwork I need to go through and get to the CPA. It almost feels like it’s going to be more work to have them do it, but I’m catastrophizing.

Healthwise, I’ve been staying active and running my ass off — four miles on Monday, two each on Tuesday and Wednesday — but I’m erasing any benefits with the damage to my liver and lack of quality sleep. I need to get back on track.

Missus’s mom had a vertigo attack at the grocery store, which caused all kinds of problems for us yesterday. Missus hasn’t been sleeping well either, Younger has only had one good night in the past two or three weeks, and that’s because I locked the bedroom door Tuesday night. She’s going through some sort of emotional stock-taking with her job and union work that’s probably being drawn out by sleep deprivation. She’s basically let some problems go on too long and one of them blew up this week. I found her up at 4AM Wednesday morning, working at her desk after one of the cats woke her up. (I locked the door, which kept Younger in bed, but the cat woke her up instead, so she didn’t even reap the benefit…)

Solana seems to have finally clicked in my brain, and I understand Anchor now. Not that I’m an expert, but I know what I’m doing now. I’ve got another week to crank out this three-token escrow program, then it’s back to working on the dao.

I realized yesterday after I pushed publish that I had forgotten to include what was by far the most exciting part of Sunday, the Girl Scout Cookie Booth.

The kids have been in scouts for two years now. It’s a casual affair compared to the Boy Scouts, which was a bit more keen on uniform wearing and oath taking. The girls’ troop is laid back by comparison. They have a meeting every two weeks during the school year, have a couple camping trips or outings, and sell some cookies.

The troop only asked me for money when I signed up and provided the girls with uniforms; I’ve never been asked for a membership fee. This is in spite of us doing the absolute minimum on the cookie sales years past. I said ‘two years’ earlier, but it was actually three. COVID was kind of a lost year there.

Regardless, my point is that we’ve been slacking off and I wanted the girls to actually put some effort into it, which naturally means I have to lead. So I’ve been pushing them the last couple weeks to make their commitments and get the sales form out to the neighbors and in-laws so that we wouldn’t be last on the sale results.

We were last on the sales results.

Part of doing our job meant running a cookie booth, a two hour shift in front of a local Walmart. I was mostly prepared to go on my own, but I felt that I’d been carrying most of the load on the scouting endeavor, and I really wanted Missus to participate. She relented, for which I was grateful, and Elder’s troopmaster had volunteered to go. Her daughter apparently took a liking to the activity, and I offered to bring her, but scouting rules required that a registered member be present at the event.

So we all went, the four of us, plus the troopmaster and her daughter. We set up our table at 2PM Sunday, taking over the spot from another troop. Everything was great, foot traffic was substantial and we wound up selling more than a hundred and eighty boxes of cookies. I think we walked out of there with over eight hundred in cash. But there was one moment that got very tense and almost got out of control.

I was in the flow, having found my sales patter and running credit cards and cash. At one point I was ringing a woman up and noticed that something going on in front of our table was not quite right. Missus sounded the alarm, telling me to “get the kids”. Two men were arguing with each other. One of them seemed like a middle class guy, and the other was a homeless dude who was severely agitated and screaming threats and profanities at the first guy.

Fight or flight started to kick in, and me, the troopmaster, and the lady I had been selling to all switched gears to round up the kids. We tried to move them away from our table, and I tried to put myself between them and this perceived threat, who was yelling “I’ll fuck you up man, I’m in the motherfucking mafia”, at the other guy.

Enter Missus. She’s a clinically trained social worker, and constantly deals with mentally ill patients. Within a minute she had pulled the homeless guy aside and had walked him several feet away from the table. Within two she was back, saying “sometimes, people just need to be heard.” I was grateful she was there, otherwise I don’t know what would have happened.

Needless to say, she was drained after we got back. As was I, having made several trips back and forth to prepare and cleanup for the booth. We were both a bit drained from the experience and joked about it afterward.

The strangest part of the whole situation is that I don’t even think the kids noticed that anything was going on. Like it didn’t even register.