After the madness that was a deadline-driven phone system cutover in mid-December followed nearly immediately by losing power for the best part of a week due to an ice- and wind-storm, things are nearly settled down at Marathon Manor. Since we had worked through MLKJr day (a paid holiday at Employer), my work teammate and I each booked ourself a 4 day weekend in February.

Today is day 4 of mine, and I'll be on-site most of tomorrow.

It was a lovely weekend. Friday, I did a bunch of data entry for my two volunteer gigs. (I joined a Grange since my last post, asked a question at the wrong moment, and nearly immediately was elected Treasurer. What even.) In the afternoon, I changed plans from "yardwork and moving woodchips" to "sit on the couch and be warm". Then after cedarfoxy got home from work, we did a little shopping at She Bop, and then had acu-naps at Working Class Acupuncture (highly recommend!)

Saturday I spent most of the morning at various grocery stores, then played MarioKart with Roommate and Son2. Cedarfoxy picked the racetracks until they fell asleep. Son3 was cat-sitting for Son1, so he didn't race with us. I'm better than I used to be, but not consistently placing in the top 3. Son2 almost always comes in first, with Son3 and Roommate duking it out for second.

Sunday morning, cedarfoxy and I loaded our day-packs, refined our clothing choices based on the weather (i.e., 20 degrees cooler than we'd hiked in on the WCT), and headed east to Powell Butte Nature Park. Just getting out of the car changed my mind about which layers were going to be "hike in this" and which were going to be "save for post-hike". The top of the butte is very windy and the wind was very cold. We followed the trail clockwise, and paused to see a couple coyotes in the meadow near a swale within the first mile. Once we got into the trees, the wind was cut considerably, and around mile 3 I was even able to take off my gloves. It was a lovely hike and a great way to get back into it after the two months of 60-hour workweeks.

After the hike, we made a spur-of-the-moment decision to visit IKEA. I was pretty tired by the end, but we got away for less than $200, which is impressive. Once we got home, we had a little time in the hot tub and a few episodes of CSI, and then I made stuffed red potatoes with goat cheese. I'm still dialing in that recipe.

Today, I decided the morning would be projects and the afternoon would be just fucking off. So in the morning I got my steps in on the treadmill, and then assembled the three things from IKEA, and enlisted Son2 to help me move bookshelves up and down stairs. I also replaced a light fixture and moved a mirror, and generally puttered around getting shit done and rearranging the office. Then I chilled on the couch, had another visit to the hot tub, and generally faffed about.

cedarfoxy has been meaning to make pierogis, but they're also very busy with a school project, so I made a trial run of chicken tenders breaded with crushed FiberOne Flakes. Not bad -- sweeter than we all were expecting, so I need more cayenne and paprika, maybe some pepper, to balance it out.

It's been a good weekend. I'll be sleeping soon so I start the week well.