It’s late. We got back from our date night at Rover’s. I had two glasses of wine so I’m not sure how far I’m going to get into this writing. Dinosaur is asleep in the bouncer. He slept a large chunk in the bouncer last night as well, according to Doolies. I should know as well since I don’t remember sleeping much. Even with my great fatigue and pathological yawning, I didn’t manage to fall asleep until very late. And I kept waking. It partly had to do with the cholent cooking in the oven all night, and partly being overtired and headachy.

According to my mother Dinosaur’s been asleep for the last few hours. She seemed gleeful when she told us that. She was actually more than gleeful. She did a small dance as she handed off responsibility of Dinosaur to us. She said something like, he’s been asleep for the past two hours, you’ll have fun night tonight. And then I think she did a little two-step with a high kick as she walked to her room. I’m not sure how to take that dance.

Dinner was tasty. We ordered an augmented five-course vegetarian prix-fix meal with a fish course replacing the main vegetarian course. Did I also mention that I had two glasses of wine? I ordered a chianti, and the Sommelier (because places like this always have a wine guy) promised me that the wine he choose was better than a chianti since they didn’t carry that swill (I was editorializing the last part). To be honest, I’m not sure what a chianti was supposed to taste like but the wine he choose was tasty. Then again, any wine would have been yummy.

It was wonderful to go out with Doolies without the monsters. We were trying to figure out when we had last eaten out alone. Neither of us could remember if we didn’t count the eat-in movie theater trip during Doolies’s last pregnancy. We need more of these nights out.

Work was busy again but satisfying. It’s difficult to look across the day and pinpoint what makes a work day good as opposed to merely tolerable. The easy distinction is how busy I am. A day where I’m sitting around with too many breaks in the action always has a lower threshold of happiness. The ideal Flow situation explains why. (This is reference to that Flow book I’ve mentioned a few times but never did get around to doing my promised write-up/summary. Not sure I’ll ever return to that topic outside of laments like this parenthetical.)

Speaking of cholents, it did not come out good. The salami on top burnt as too much water evaporated. The recipe called for a very tight fitting lid, and I don’t think my soup pot qualified. The smell of the cholent permeated everything in the kitchen and around the house. I was driving home tonight and wondered why my jacket had a smell. Then I remembered: cholent. I’m not giving up on my quest to replicate tasty cholent. I will be using a different recipe next time that does not require overnight cooking. As Doolies rightfully pointed out, none of my overnight dishes ever came out. The last time I tried I ruined another slab of beef with a poorly rendered Sous Vide dish. I do learn but it takes me a long time.

My head is still spinning and my back is starting to hurt as I watch the last few minutes tick away on the clock. My mother—babysitter extraordinaire—leaves for NY tomorrow. It was nice and more relaxing to have her here to help with Dinosaur. He’s a handful, my little dinosaur.

Doolies is finishing up her shower, which means it’s almost time for me to get washed up and climb into bed. There is still enough wine in my system that I don’t expect sleep will be too much of a problem I am interested in what my Fitbit thinks about my sleep yesterday. I wonder if it thought it was as bad as I though. I guess I’ll find out tomorrow when I have time to sync it.

For now I’ll spend the last few minutes thinking about saying something before I escape.

I’m holding out for the last few minutes. I know that if I start cutting my sessions short because of supreme fatigue I’ll end up not writing. Not that this is really writing. (Okay, Mr. Consternation. Time for you to move on.)

The cold spell seems ready to break soon. Hopefully it’ll take the stagnant air pollution with it. I do remember this time last year commuting on my bicycle while reading about the terrible air quality when the weather turns cold. I even invested in a mask that I wore once and then gave up on.

Three more minutes. My shoulders hurt from this strange angle of typing. I’m using Doolies’s Surface and it has the Touchpad keyboard that hurts my fingers when I type too many words, and the table is arranged more for reading and watching than typing. Typing these words is making me anxious.