The Big Pause - Day 46 - April 26 - Assembling a Box

It's Sunday and Callie finished up her second Baby Yoda crochet project. I remain amazed at how quickly she can learn a new skill with just the internet. She taught herself crochet without any guidance from a real person. Baby Yoda is my favorite crochet project of hers so far. She made one for herself and a second one for her friend Caroline. The final touches included a tiny face mask and a wet wipe attached to his hand. I really want to make this my profile picture on Facebook but I don't want to take credit for her work.

I finished up the construction on the box. Cutting the plywood was easy. I just had to pick the dimensions and make sure that they were the same for all associated pieces. After that I created a three tab system of joinery. This way each piece has good support. Initially I thought I was going to have to add internal supports but as it came together I realized it was going to be strong enough with just plywood and screws. A simple hand hold and some glue and it's ready for a paint job. I found some grit to add to the paint to make it non skid. Hopefully it works out as I've never done this before.

The Big Pause - Day 45 - April 25 - Building a Box

It's the weekend again. Time for another physically distant shopping trip. Some friends of ours asked me to build one of those boxes that you jump up onto for exercise. After some research I've also discovered there are a number of psychometric exercises you can do with it. I needed some Baltic Birch plywood and luckily Windsor Plywood is still open. I'm still not clear on what places are closed. I wasn't sure what to expect and it seems they have interpreted physical distancing as doing your shopping for you. All the aisles are closed and you just ask them to get what you want.

I managed to get what I needed and headed home to build what is effectively just a box but of course I had to make it more complicated. More on that tomorrow when I finish assembly. I spent most of the afternoon on construction and in between steps I helped Carter with another baking project. He found a cake he wanted to try in the "Baking with Anna" cookbook. It's a sponge cake with cream cheese icing and Strawberry's mixed with strawberry jam. She really knows her recipes. There always seems to be an extra step or some extra ingredients but once it comes together you see why. The lemon juice and cream cheese in the icing was delicious and the strawberry jam really adds to the strawberry layer. The only thing we've noticed with her cookbook is that she seems to underestimate the cook time. We think she may have a more advanced oven or perhaps our oven is just a little on the cool side. We will definitely be making this again.

The Big Pause - Day 44 - April 24 - Cactus Club and a New Chair

Callie and Kerry were up early for another bird watching hike with Pete. I think they saw a deer this time which is better than their previous outings. For dinner today we tried to order from Olive Garden but it seems they don't want to deliver to us and we weren't really interested in going to pick it up.We're only 15 minutes away but I guess they are getting enough business from nearby. Instead we got Cactus club which was good except they seemed to be giving out smaller portions. My new office chair arrived today. Amazon had indicated it would not arrive until May so I was pleasantly surprised when it came early. The book looked a little rough as if someone had returned it previously but it seems good enough for us and all the parts were there. Our old one still works but it won't stay up and is quite torn so it made sense to get one considering I need it all week.  I wasn't sure what I was getting with an online order . It was an 'Amazon Basics' so I figured it would probably be okay. Looks good so far.

The Big Pause - Day 43 - April 23 - Ballet in the Family Room

Callie has been working some solo dance routines for the past several weeks. I'm actually not sure what they are for but she needed to perform them for the camera. She did all the choreography herself and we moved all of the furniture out of the family room to give her room to perform. She wore one of the costumes from the recital last year. No recital scheduled for this year.

I also took a trip to Rona. I haven't been in a couple weeks but Callie needed a new light bulb and although not an emergency it seemed like a reason to get out. Rona has done okay with the plexiglass shielding for their cashiers but they aren't doing great at the social distancing. I saw several staff interacting directly with customers with no masks and there was a line up space at the front door but no one counting or preventing people from just walking in so in my opinion there were too many people in the store. I find it interesting how people go out of their way to move to the other side of the aisle as you walk by. I suppose that's a good thing but still seems odd.

The Big Pause - Day 42 - April 22 - Spring Rain, Tires and Garbage Day

It was raining today and it was the most rain we've had in several weeks. I was glad to finally have a good spring rain and I think the plants were too. Some of the plants like the Peonies, Bleeding Heart and and Lily of the Valley grew several inches. The combination of light, warmth and water must have been a strong sign. I haven't had a chance to fertilize the grass so it's a bit patchy, especially with the areas where I've reseeded. They are quite green while other areas aren't quite as full. Still looking good considering there was a pool sized patch missing just a few weeks ago.

The other excitement of the day started early. I had attempted to drop the car off for a change a few weeks ago but they were only taking appointments and nothing was available so we had our summer tires sitting at our front door waiting. We've got the summer tires on but no where to go.

It was also garbage day. The front yard garden pile is almost done. One more week and I can finally clean the front driveway.

The Big Pause - Day 41 - April 21 - I Hung Something Up

I don't think anything happened today. Maybe something happened but I'm writing this a few days later and I can't remember anything. Everyday seems like the last. I do seem to remember trying to get a few random projects done. The mantle needed the stocking hooks reinstalled and I had a bird feeder thing to install in the green house. Now that I think about it, I don't think I've ever put any bird feed in this thing. We have a pair of chickadees in one of the bird houses in the garden and they are quite small so maybe if I put some food in it they will try it out. They are light enough that they wouldn't cause any issues. The weather continues to be dry but there is rain scheduled for Wednesday. This is good because I hate having to try to water the plants when they are just coming up.

The Big Pause - Day 40 - April 20 - A Tidy Garage

Another week another lottery ticket. My lottery ticket routine has changed a lot in the past couple years. We used to have a small store in my office building that sold lottery tickets but he was edged out by the cafeteria and had to retire. I would go down every Monday and buy my lottery tickets for the week. After he left I started going to the local Mac's store. Now I've automated things. An auto payment from my bank and an auto purchase on PlayNow.com. Easier but not quite as exciting.

The only other excitement today was that with the fire place mantle out of my shop I could finally tidy up a bit and get ready for some new projects. I still have a few half started projects and Kerry added a new chair repair from her school. For my next projects I'm going to focus on ones that I have materials for and that are taking up a lot of room in my shop. The more room I can make the easier it will be to do a really good clean. Lots of free time now.

The Big Pause - Day 39 - April 19 - Krispy Kreme

My big project for the day was getting our mantle re-installed. We had to remove it when we had the fireplace installed and I needed to raise it up by three inches because the new fire place was a bit bigger. I also had to make a new hearth. The old one was tile and we will eventually go with no hearth at all when we replace our floor but in the meantime a simple wooden hearth painted the same colour will do. I'm glad to finally have this thing out of my garage. It was sitting on my work bench and preventing me from doing anything else. Now I can work on the new shelves on either side.

While I was working on the mangle, the ret of the family took a trip to Krispy Kreme. I'm not sure exactly what prompted this. I think someone Kerry knows went recently. There is only one in Western Canada and they do have some different donuts so it gave us something to do to break up the monotony. For dinner Callie made her Gnocchi soup and I attempted pork ribs again. I didn't get them started soon enough so they weren't done as well as I would prefer. We only cooked half so I have another half to try again.

The Big Pause - Day 38 - April 18 - Covid the Squirrel

It was the weekend again and we had a trip planned. Kerry's friend Pete has taken up bird watching and has insider information on the best places to go to see local wildlife. Kerry and Callie had already been to Colony Farm but Carter and I hadn't so we got up early Saturday morning for some wildlife searching. I would like to stress the word searching here. Kerry does not have a lot of luck when it comes to finding wild life and this day turned out to be the same. We did see some easy ones like ducks and small birds but there were no beavers, otters or eagles.
Carter and I will have to try again on our own.

Carter had deemed today 'Family Fun Day'. He had a few things planned for us including the morning hike, family basketball and a lunch time picnic. He put all the food together including peanut butter and jelly sandwiches but the highlight of the event was our new friend Covid. We've named the backyard squirrel and Callie decided she would try to feed him. We definitely weren't the first to try because he was not scared at all. His favourites so far are tortilla chips and peanuts. I will have to build that backyard squirrel picnic table I've been thinking about.

We finished off he evening with dinner by Callie. She researched all of our favourite Boston Pizza foods including Cactus Cut potatoes, pizza bread and pepperoni pizza. She even attempted the sauce that comes with the Cactus Cut potatoes. Everything was surprisingly close to the real thing. Carter didn't want to try the pizza but Callie said that if he did she would plan 5 minutes of basketball with him which was a fair trade for him since he had been attempting to get a family basketball game going. He tried, she made sad attempts at getting the ball in the hoop. Everyone was happy.

The.Big Pause - Day 37 - April 17 - A Trip to Costco

Today was an exciting day. We were starting to run low on enough items that it made sense to attempt a trip to Costco. It had been 5 weeks since we last went and I had seen plenty of news pieces on the line-ups so I knew what I was getting into. I started work early and went at 3:00p. I figured that time would be at least a bit slower than times like the weekend or first thing in the morning. The line-up outside was quite intimidating. It was like a ride at Disneyland where it wrapped around the corner and back and forth. They had turned several parking spots into the line by using palettes and rope and I think the outside line-up took about 40 minutes.

I'm now thinking that the right time to go to Costco is on a rainy day. If it's raining and people have to sit outside I think they will stay away. The nice thing about the trip was that the reason for the line-up was that they had less people in the store. The parking lot wasn't full so I was expecting this. It was easy to find what you wanted and the checkout had zero wait. I even managed to find things like flour though the toilet paper remained elusive.

For dinner we ordered from Edith and Arthur for Kerry, Callie and I and Carter had McDonalds. We are trying to support local where we can.

The Big Pause - Day 36 - April 16 - Ready to Cut Baby Grass

I've started a new approach to work. I was getting up and going downstairs for breakfast and a bit of news before 'going to work'. That was fine when I was leaving the house. Now I just wake up, roll out of bed and into my chair and start work right away. It allows me to get a few hours of work in before family meeting and work meetings. I feel much more productive this way. After work Carter and I had a discussion about the height of the basketball hoop. I went over to the school and confirmed 10 feet. We set it a bit lower to make up for the driveway slope. I also started taking down the temporary fencing. Tomorrow is baby grass cutting day!

The Big Pause - Day 35 - April 15 - Facebook Marketplace

Wednesday was pretty uneventful. Carter continued to play basketball, I continued with my daily bike ride, Callie continued with her dance and Kerry went into school. It was garbage day which was exciting. I've had a dump truck load of garden waste for a month that disappears one bin at a time so the big excitement of the day is when the truck comes and empties the bin so I can reload it. I haven't managed to time it so that he empties it while it's on one side of the street and then I refill it for the other side of the street. Two more weeks and it should all be done. The other excitement was that I sold the tree rings. These were two rings that I had surrounding the lilacs that were now too small for them. They were still in good condition so I put them on Facebook. I had about 20 hits within hours. Facebook marketplace really is a great place to get rid of stuff. The seller and I did a low contact transaction with the exception of the money which I took into the kitchen and washed. Not sure what to do with it though. We can't really use cash anywhere anymore.

The Big Pause - Day 34 - April 14 - Final Install of the Hoop

It was the first day back to work after the long weekend and Kerry's turn to go into the school. I had yet another work from home day which is in some ways good and some ways not so good. I get about the same amount of work done but it seems to take longer. Luckily there is no commute so I end up with the same amount of time after work. There is also one other benefit. At work I would typically get up periodically and go into the kitchen or the copy room so that I'm not sitting all day. Now I can get up and go do something useful around the house like watering. Sometimes even during conference calls as long as I'm on mute.

We had poured the concrete last Friday but had to wait for it to cure before we installed the post and hoop. We had everything pre-assembled and just had to put in a few more bolts. Getting the pole up was a one person job but they recommend four capable adults for installing the backboard. Two to lift it and two to install the bolts. We did not have access to four adults so we had to improvise. Luckily I had some scaffolding that I could use. We set up one level and made it tall enough to rest the backboard on. Once we lifted it up in a few steps it was simple to just align the arms and install the bolts. Carter has spent hours on it so far. The only drawback was that it faces West so it is a bit tough to play in the evening without sunglasses.

The Big Pause - Day 33 - April 13 - The Goose Egg

It's Easter Monday on a four day weekend and we didn't have much planned today. Not surprisingly, Kerry managed to find something to keep her busy. Our corner cabinet in the kitchen had gotten out of hand and I came into the kitchen to find she had pulled everything out. When we had the kitchen renovated we were suckered into the luxury lazy Susan or something like that but in hindsight it was a waste of money. As soon as something falls off it doesn't turn and we didn't really store anything that we needed frequent access to. It made sense to take the opportunity to remove the lazy Susan and just use it as a cupboard for deep storage. Now that it's out we have a lot more room. We also put the less frequent items on the lower shelf to minimize how often we need to get things from there. Kerry also took apart the napkin and disposable kitchen supply shelf. We had a lot of plastic cutlery that came with different dinner orders. She'll take it all to school once things start up again.

We executed the next step of the basketball hoop. Concrete is still setting but it was safe to install the pole as long as we didn't shake it. The pole went up easy but the hard part is going to be installing the backboard. It recommends 4 capable adults which we are short on but luckily I have some scaffolding to help us out. It's tall enough that we'll be able to rest the backboard on it while we attach the arms. Tomorrow we will finish things off by installing the backboard, hoop, net and peripherals. Carter is very excited.

Speaking of Carter, he had a bit of a mishap. He's been playing basketball indoors and at one point was playing with the ball and the dog and somehow hit his head on the exercise bike. He's almost as tall as Kerry and we need to get this basketball hoop set up so he has room to do this sort of thing outdoors. I think it looks worse that it is. He hit a very sharp point so it was more of a focused goose egg then anything that might cause a concussion. Good thing, because it's not a fun time to try to go to the hospital.

The Big Pause - Day 32 - April 12 - Easter Sunday

It's Easter Sunday and for the first time in  many years we were not in Oliver for Easter. Somehow the Easter Bunny knew we weren't there and managed to hide eggs for the kids. She put the order in to Purdy's chocolate just in time for Easter. Surprisingly, Purdy's is not providing any sort of break on shipping. Most companies are shipping for free above a certain amount but I guess they are already well established on the delivery side of things.

Even though we weren't having family over for dinner we till planned on having a big family dinner. Kerry made the Turkey, stuffing. potatoes, carrots and gravy and Callie made buns and a cheesecake for desert. We had dinner early around 4:30 because our plan was to deliver COVID Easter packages to all the people who are in quarantine alone. Kerry was careful in packaging the food and we delivered it all in paper bags and dropped it off on peoples doorsteps via no contact delivery with the 'Schuber Eats' delivery service. The package included food, chocolate and of course a roll of toilet paper. Although this wasn't exactly following the strict 'stay at home' rule we felt it was important to make sure everyone got a turkey dinner and to be honest, it's unlikely we're going to solve COVID completely anytime soon. We're going to have to sort out ways of interacting with people in a low risk, low contact way. We might be doing this for the next 12 to 18 months.

In the evening I finished up putting the mantle back together and getting it painted. It's always been white and I just had to add a 2 inch riser on it so it was a pretty easy job. I went with spray paint for painting which allowed me to touch up some old nicks and scratches and paint the riser. My shop is not exactly a good place to do spray painting but if I blow all the dust to one side of the shop and cover things in the immediate area and then have the air filter running I'm able to get an okay finish. It's much easier to spray something like this rather than paint all the nooks and crannies.

The Big Pause - Day 31 - April 11 - Assembling the Hoop

It's day two of the four day weekend. We have to wait at least 72 hours before we can finish installing the basketball hoop however there were several steps we could do to get prepared. The first started with a step that I'm sure had the neighbors wondering what the hell I was up to. The post for the hoop comes in two sections but rather than just bolting two sections together the bottom section is crimped at the top and the top section slides over it very tightly. The instructions called the next step 'slamming' and it involved putting the two sections together and then lifting up both sections and slamming them on the ground. The top section had to move about 3 inches and only dropped down about 1/8 of an inch each time. There was a very large metal slamming sound with each step. After the 'slamming' we assembled the arms that hold the backboard and set it aside. We will probably install the pole on Monday and then attach the backboard on Tuesday.

In the afternoon I worked on getting ready to finish up our new fire place install. Delays in the gas hookup and fire place install meant my part got pushed back past the point of me being interested in it so it's a bit delayed now. The existing mantle is still in excellent shape but we had to remove it for the install and I have to raise it 3 inches so that the combustible parts are far enough away from the heat. We also had to remove the hearth which was ugly pink tile. When we replace our floor we'll avoid having a hearth at all but for now I built a white hearth that covers the existing hole.

The Big Pause - Day 30 - April 10 - Donating Blood

It's the first day of  a four day weekend today. Every day is starting to feel like Groundhog Day now. I hadn't been down tot he farm to do any gardening yet this year so I headed down first thing in the morning. I don't think I'll spend much time with the other volunteers this year since they are all over 70. I was happy to see some people had been out already and most of the beds were in pretty good shape. There was still a few areas for me to work on and the weather was perfect for gardening. 15 degrees and sunny.

On my way home I stopped at Rona to pick up concrete. It was a contact free shopping experience as I went to the back and picked up the concrete myself with no one near me and then paid without getting out of the car. I needed 14 bags of concrete for the hole. I was glad I had purchased a small mixer last year. Made the whole job a lot easier. I got a bit better with my finishing. I managed to keep the mix less wet and had enough time in the day to let it dry a bit before tooling it. I was quite happy with the finished product.

Before the final finish on the concrete I went and donated blood. I was met at the door by a nurse in full PPE who asked me COVID19 questions and had me sanitize my hands. There was tape everywhere keeping people six feet apart, bottled water instead of cups and everywhere you touched a nurse would follow behind and sanitize. They were busy which was good to see.

I completely wasted my evening by renting Cats. I knew it was bad and I though I wanted to watch it because it was bad but unfortunately it was so bad it went past the bad that you would want to ever watch. Don't watch it. 

The Big Pause - Day 29 - April 9 - Digging a Big Hole

Carter finished digging his hole. I admittedly helped him a bit. I used the shovel to trim the edges and loosen up the soil and then he had to get the dirt out which really is the hard part. He's lucky I like digging holes. We're now ready to pour concrete tomorrow.

I went for a bike ride after work and I biked by the Kilden residence to see if there was anyone in the back yard. I was lucky to see Uncle Corey and Uncle Ryan starting to get the yard ready for summer. I chatted with both of them for a bit over the fence. Uncle Ryan seemed quite excited to see me. I imagine he's getting quite bored without any school or visits. Apparently his teaching assistant is still providing some one on one service remotely though I imagine it's tough to do anything too significant.

The Big Pause - Day 28 - April 8 - Baby Grass

Kerry was working from home today and we had several items planned for Carter. He was baking a cake in the afternoon with Kerry and he started work on digging the hole for his new basketball hoop. It's much easier to motivate kids when they get something out of it in the end. The hole is a two foot by two foot square on the top and then a 16 inch hole that goes down three feet. I marked out the hole and got his tool set of shovels ready and then sent him free. He needs to work on his technique because he only got down about 10 inches  on this first day. His cake turned out amazing. A red velvet cake with cream cheese icing. Perfection.

My grass has started to come in. I had to reseed a large area due to the raccoon damage and I started the grass as soon as the last apparent frost had taken place. I wasn't sure if I had done it too early but grass is funny. It spends the first couple weeks growing down and then suddenly starts shooting up. Very satisfying to see it coming in everywhere.

I went for a bike ride after work and went through Bear Creek park. There were quite a few pairs of people working out. It think they might have been trainers and trainees. Not good physical distancing.

The Big Pause - Day 27 - April 7 - Neighbourhood Trail Complete

Carter and I went back to finish the trail today. Yesterday we had done the top half which was mostly hidden from view so we didn't have to worry about anyone seeing us but today we were doing the lower half which has an open area that is quite visible to people walking by. We moved quickly and managed to get the main trail cut through. I may go back to do a bit of trimming on the edges but for now it's a fully functional trail connecting two streets that didn't exist before.

After work Carter and I went to Canadian Tire to pick up his new basketball hoop. We ordered it online and selected curbside pickup since having it delivered was another $75. For the curbside pickup you don't even have to get out of the car though we did have to go to Receiving since the box was quite big. I still stayed 2 meters away from anyone we saw. Unfortunately the parking lot was quite busy so people aren't doing very good at avoiding public spaces.

Callie attempted to make cookies out the "Bake with Anna" cookbook. Unfortunately there was a typo in the number of minutes to bake and we almost set off the smoke alarm. We checked on line and it was definitely a typo.

The Big Pause - Day 26 - April 6 - Starting a Trail

Kerry has sorted out her regular schedule and will now be spending Monday's and Tuesday's at work. Monday will be with her principal and secretary and Tuesday will be just her and the secretary. She's very excited that her secretary has a Starbucks near her that has a drive through. The one near us doesn't and has been closed for the past few weeks. I'm not entirely sure what the logic is in having administration on site other than perhaps to be there in case any teachers need access to resources. They keep their distance from each other and have to tell their janitor where they were each day for deep cleaning.

Callie is still waiting on direction from her school. It's taking longer for high school because each teacher has to interact with a lot more students. They promised something would be set up by the end of the week.

Carter and I spent lunch time working on our new trail. It's coming along nicely and we should be wrapped up by tomorrow. We have to be a bit sneaky because I'm sure some neighbor will ask what we're doing. As I've mentioned we've kept the path to where the new road will go so all of this will eventually be cleared. The odd part was when I checked under a log that was essentially in the middle of the bush and found some weird clown made out of a dolls head and seashells. I leaned it up against a tree and Carter said I had to hide it. I can just imagine some poor kid getting that as a gift and feeling the need to run into the bushes to bury it. I brought it home and disposed of it. Hopefully I'm not cursed.

The Big Pause - Day 25 - April 5 - Exploring the Neighbourhood

Another normal Sunday for us. Carter won't let a Sunday go without pancakes and bacon. Even if we have to miss it for some reason he finds way of working it in later in the week so its best to just do it right on Sunday. I was then tasked with going for groceries. We've given up on going to Superstore as it was getting too crazy. Our local market is much more manageable. There is of course no toilet paper unless you go first thing in the morning but most other things are in stock. I've noticed their meat section is empty now. I don't know if that's because they are concerned about COVID or if people just aren't going often enough to buy fresh.

Carter and I attempted to go to the park to play some basketball. We didn't plan on playing with anyone when we got there and the park is usually pretty empty so we felt we were meeting our physical distancing requirements. Unfortunately it seems the City of Surrey isn't trusting anyone and not only was the playground taped off, the basketball hoops all had a piece of plywood installed. Carter now has me looking into buying a basketball hoop for our front yard. I've never felt it was necessary since the school is 200 meters away but I guess it makes sense to get one now. More research on that tomorrow.

On our way back, we decided to check out some recently built houses that are for sale. They are on a new road that ends in a dead end. I was hoping there would be a trail that we could take to the next road over. Unfortunately there wasn't one so I was excited to explore the idea of doing some trail blazing with Carter. I got to do that as a kid in PG but it's not an easily executed past time in the big city. In this case, there is a sign that explicitly says that the road will eventually be extended. My feeling is we're just helping them get started. It's about 100m and today we managed to get the basic pathway defined. Over the next week we'll get rid of the smaller plants and make sure all bigger branches are cut out of the way. It will actually be quite useful as a short cut for people looking to travel between the two sheets. It's a public service really.

Dinner was bbq chicken wings and Callie made twisted bread. It was delicious with strawberry Jam.

The Big Pause - Day 24 - April 4 - Night At the Movies

The weekend started like any other Saturday. Even though we are all home most of the time now we still plan on treating the weekends like weekends. One of the items on my to do list is to try to deal with my new front yard friend. I usually have some crazy backyard project going on with the neighbors wondering what I'm doing and this year looks similar except there is no major project. All I did was clean up the garden beds and rake up underneath the cedar trees in our back yard and I ended up with a dump truck load of debris.

My task for today was to try to get the large pieces cut down so they would fit in our green bin. I could probably take it all to the dump but there is a charge and I'm not even sure if they are accepting residential right now. Ordinarily you can put out extra cans but right now they are only picking up the ones the truck will automatically load. This means I'm able to get one bin out a week. Should take about a month though I'm trying to hurry things along by putting stuff in the neighbor bins early in the morning. After they've moved it to the curb of course.

Kerry and Callie went to the dance studio near our house and picked up a floor matte which would make some of Callie's home dance practices a bit easier. I spent the afternoon getting preparing parts for finishing up the mantle around our fire place. We got a new fire place and the new one is a bit bigger so I have to raise the mantle by three inches.

The best part of the day was family movie night. We all watched "The Rise of Skywalker" and we ordered Cineplex popcorn for the experience. It was okay but I suspect they are not getting a lot of orders so the popcorn was a bit stale. It probably works better when movies are playing and they can send fresh popcorn.

The Big Pause - Day 23 - April 3 - McDelivery

Today started with a much better family meeting. Everyone showed up on time and I think people are liking the routine. Callie had some things she needed to bring up and we planned our day. Carter had walk, weights, reading and TV and we discussed the idea of assigning 'house helpers' to particular chores each week. We'll sort that out on Monday. Callie had reading, dancing, walking and she focused our planning on the evening since it was Friday.  My big item for the day was that the hot tub repair man was showing up in the afternoon. The bearings went on the motor and it needed to be replaced. I had been without my nightly soak for two weeks.

Dinner plans included McDelivery for Carter and I. It went quite well. Faster than if we had gone ourselves and it was hot when it arrived. Kerry and Callie walked to pick up Sushi. We now also have a family routine in the evening during the week that involves Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy. The hot tub was fixed and I managed to get it filled and heated by night time. Next up is our first real weekend which I suspect is going to feel a lot like the week with less time in front of the computer.

The Big Pause - Day 22 - April 2 - Setting Up an office

Family meeting day didn't go as well as it did on yesterday. I don't think Callie likes the idea that we will are committing to do this every day with no specific end day in site. There was minimal contribution from her but I think she was still glad she knew what everyone else was going to do. Carter had a walk to Fresh Street with Kerry planned as well as reading and TV. I also committed to doing a weights class after lunch. We found a 10 minute you tube video on arms and managed to do most of it. We should have picked lighter weights. We finished off Carter's day with a lesson on the camera. The batteries were low so we didn't get too far.

Kerry was starting to settle into her new office space. We have the old computer that Carter uses to watch Netflix and a space for Kerry and her laptop. I think this might be the new permanent home for this table. It's nice having an office area in the house. Callie did her dance but because she never told Carter he was in the wrong place at the wrong time. He managed to survive the encounter. I had to switch to a kitchen table chair because the office chair I was using keeps going down on it's own. We ordered a new one from Amazon but it's not expected to arrive until May. Could be longer since I haven't been charged yet.