Checked out
I'm officially on break now! No work until January 3rd! (Except I logged into my computer yesterday to do trainings which I still have a few that need to be complete before the end of the month.) My work has a shutdown from Thursday to Jan 3rd, plus I had extra vacation days so I just took this week off. I originally was considering if I wanted to work another day or two so that I could carry over the maximum of five days to next year, but realized that I was so checked out. So I figure it was worth it to just have the break start earlier.
This weekend, we did some Christmas shopping and finished most of it (I think we're done as of this morning). Some people still refuse to provide lists for some reason. "It's so hard to think of something I want" "If it's hard for you, think how hard it is for others!"
We also (mostly) finished our stair project. Over the years, we converted all carpet in our house to flooring, except our stairs. At some point, Angie looked into how to convert them, but I'd say I was somewhat afraid of what was underneath and if it'd become a huge project. But a few weekends ago, Angie was brave enough to rip out some carpet and see what's underneath. And to our surprise and delight, the stairs underneath were in good shape with nice wooden toppers. So we (more Angie than me since she worked during the week when she wasn't too busy with work) ripped out all the carpet, stripped the paint, filled holes, sanded, sealed the wood, stained, overcoated, and finally painted around the stairs. We decided to a dark stain with white paint around and on the vertical sections. I think it looks really good!
Old stairs with carpet
New stairs (we add the anti-slip rugs for Alfie who already had an accident falling down)
With my extra time today (not having to be slaving at work), I was able to clean the fish tank (moved the bamboo to stick out of the tank; I'll have to see how it looks), do extra shopping, make a cherry pie, and do house chores (which Angie does most of now since she works from home, which I feel bad about).
The World Cup was overall very good. I hate that Argentina and Messi won, but I did enjoy it and watched way too much. During the group stage, I felt like I'd watch ~2 matches (recorded) per day after coming home from work which is a ton since it was daily. Once the knockout started, it did ease the pace, but many matches would go extra time or to PKs which meant long matches. But it was very good and I think I enjoyed it even more this time since I know much more about players due to following the Premier League. And I'm excited that the EPL will start up again.
I also want to do some car maintenance for Angie's car, but it's supposed to be really cold ("feels like 20s" today and actually in the 20s around Christmas). Maybe I'll brave it out in the next few days if I get bored. I would like to do a thorough house cleaning, but am pretty unmotivated for that since we have construction so its just a mess anyway. And maybe I'll pick up Horizon: Zero Dawn again since I pretty much stopped playing it because of the World Cup.
And finally, the best thing about super cold days, the kids huddle for warmth:
They're such good friends when there's warmth to share!