Seriously Gratuitous Domestic Posting (TM)

Well, well. Sometimes things work out just fine.

Last week I was pounding very hard to meet a couple of intersecting work deadlines. Specifically, I had to prep for the fourteen witness interviews I did over the past couple days and (unexpectedly), I had to get together a couple of litigation plans for review by the suits much earlier than I'd expected.

While, as I say, I worked awfully hard on all of this, I rolled into the weekend neurotically fretting that I still needed to do a whole lot more.

Friday was a day off, although I was planning to work at home anyway. The only other thing I had on the agenda was a board meeting at the Llama-ettes' school early in the morning. These typically last maybe forty-five minutes, so I figured the rest of the day would be free and clear. But it didn't work out that way. After the meeting was done, I found myself touring around the gels' various classrooms. My three year old insisted on showing me one of her phonics recognition exercises, which she performed at a very lackadaisical pace with many interruptions and ad-libs. My five year old's class sang Halloween songs for me. Lots of Halloween songs. And then we got into a game of naming what I could be for Halloween and seeing my reaction to it. (Example: "You could be a volcano!" I would throw my arms in the air and make eruption noises. They thought this was hilarious.) And my seven year old took me on the grand rounds of her room. Since this is a shrine to Saint Maria of the Blessed Educational Method, there was a lot of stuff to see. Suddenly, it was noon. And because we almost never get the chance, the Missus and I took the opportunity to go out to lunch together. But there was always the afternoon, right? Wrong. I got home and - full of gyros - promptly fell asleep. And I've always found that once you doze off in the afternoon, it's almost impossible to fully wake up again - goodby productive Friday evening.

Saturday came around with an 8:00 AM soccer game. Okay, I thought, take the seven year old to soccer, then out to breakfast, then home again, home again jiggity-jig. Except it didn't work out that way. Yes, we did the game and breakfast, except that by the time we were done, I couldn't help noticing that we were only around the corner from the five year old's soccer game, which was then in progress, so I suggested we ought to go meet up with the rest of the family to cheer her on. What about Saturday afternoon, you ask? Well, the lawn hadn't been mown in two weeks and I couldn't let it go again.... Saturday evening? Nope - Alexandria Blog-Meet.

Sunday, it was off to church where, because of all the post-service Sunday school stuff, we don't get out until past 11:00 AM. Okay, that still leaves Sunday afternoon, right? Nope - my seven year old recently announced that she was tired of barracks life and wanted to move into her own room. We'd been thinking it was getting time for this as well. So Sunday afternoon saw me heavily involved in shuttling her things down the hall to what had previously been the nursery, as well as spreading things out a bit for the other two in their bedroom.

So there it was - three days I had expected to devote to working my tail off were instead taken up with spending time with my family. And you know what? I don't regret it in the least. Not only did I actually get to enjoy the people I do all this for, but my interviews went off without a hitch and I just got word this morning that the suits are very pleased with my litigation plans.

Happy? Bet your ass I'm happy.