Today is the last day of 11 straight days of not working, and it was glorious. I could use another week, honestly, but generally, I feel pretty refreshed. I did most of what I hoped to do, without any real structure to the agenda (didn't do a Simon photo shoot).
I had an unexpected project: We re-did our living room with some Ikea BESTÅ stuff around the TV. The unit we bought four plus years ago had doors on the front of it to keep Simon out, but had the unintended consequence of baking the electronics inside. We toasted one cable box (not my problem, technically), and sometimes the Xbox would sound like a jet engine with its fans and freeze up. I also never liked that it put the TV just a bit higher than it should be. The ideal viewing height should put the middle of the screen at eye level. (Aside: I'm not sure how people can tolerate putting their TV above a fireplace... it's so high! We had that in one of our places and I hated it.) The new thing is lower, the Xbox can breathe, and we decided to also get a couple of wall-mounted units as well to put... something. It just frames up the wall and adds texture. I like it.
Simon was, at times, challenging, because he would get a little stir crazy when we weren't engaging in some kind of activity, but I really had a good time hanging out with him. We went out to eat, went shopping (he was really helpful at Ikea), we played tennis, saw Star Wars, did a nice morning at Epcot, played video games... we had some really nice family times. I think we may have even made some progress with him learning to listen to what we ask him to do.
Orlando has been unseasonably warm the last few weeks, which is a bummer, because you really have to try a little harder to make it "feel" like Christmas when you grew up in the Midwest. Fortunately, folks in the neighborhood go all out decorating, and there are countless wonderful traditions at the theme parks. Will be sad that the Osborne Family light show ends this year, as they make room for Star Wars and Toy Story.
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