Giving Michael his wake-up call this morning with some
enthusiastic help from Ehlana and Naomi was my favorite part of the morning;
and getting a second evening in a row with some Michael and me alone time was a
great way to end the day before he went home for the night a little while ago
and I hopped into my Jacuzzi for a long soak while doing my nightly computer
checks and a little random surfing.
We slept in until seven-thirty, and then Michael and I did a
Tai Chi lesson for Naomi and Aiden.
Ethan and Ehlana followed along with their best friends; but left the
teaching to us as we helped Aiden and Naomi work their way through each posture
of the easiest short form. That’s easier
for Naomi than it is for Aiden right now because she’s the oldest, but he has
fun with it; and I’m sure he’ll know enough to keep up with the other three
kids by later this spring or early summer – when they’ll be able to get
together to practice more often than they can now.
Dad and Michael cooked up a big breakfast for us, and then
we did the Valentine’s Day evening recap while having our morning meal. Michael went home after that while Mom and I
started our work morning with the post-breakfast clean-up. Naomi was picked up by her father at around
ten, and then Dad took Ethan and Aiden with him for a supply run that included
dropping Aiden off at the bakery. That
gave Mom, Ehlana, and I an empty house, and allowed us to use a little Magi
power to help speed up the cleaning.
After a later-than-usual breakfast, we just went with soup
for lunch; and then the twins and I were set free to play while Mom and Dad
moved into the office for the afternoon with cups of hot coffee and plans to
work for a few uninterrupted hours. The
temperature climbed above freezing today, and the forecast is for much warmer
weather next week; so we decided that some snow play time while we had some to
play in was a good idea. We had time to
build a pair of twin snow people and have a little snowball fight before it was
time for Michael’s afternoon break; and then we met up with him and headed for
one of the toboggan hills on the south side of the ridge.
There were a lot of kids and teens out on the hill with the
same idea of getting some sledding in before the melt next week. Winter may still have lots of life in it
still this year, but you never know for sure; and I’d be okay with the idea of
having a March Break that actually felt like spring this year with some warm
weather play opportunities. I have no
idea why I’m already thinking about the next holiday a day after Valentine’s
Day, but that week off will be another first for Rowen and me with boyfriends; so
I think we’ll manage to have fun regardless of the weather!
When Michael needed to get back to the Inn, Ethan, Ehlana,
and I stopped in with him for a hot chocolate and snack break; and then we went
on to the computer store for a visit with Rowen and her parents. The data center opens in two weeks; and the
construction work is done now except for a few finishing details that have to
wait on work that Owen is doing with his new computer system
installations. Rowen spent most of the
day helping him with that; but she was happy to take a break and give us a
tour.
I’ve mentioned that the data center won’t be anything on the
level of the big data storage places, and the systems probably won’t seem that
impressive to readers in the future; but it is pretty cool seeing it come
together now; and the technology is state-of-the-art right now. It would certainly be science fiction cool to
anyone thirty-five or forty years ago when a megabyte seemed like a lot of
data!
Ethan was talking to Ehlana and me about that after we got
home, and while I don’t really think about our photographic memories in data
storage terms; he tossed around some fairly impressive numbers about just how
much computer storage we’d need to record everything in our own memories. Think high-definition video for every waking
moment of every day along with total recall of dreams and every piece of data we’ve
ever read or learned; and you’re getting the idea. What’s even cooler is that Ethan doesn’t
sense any upper limits to our memory talent – only in how fast we can process
data. Mom and I are ahead of my brother
and sister because we’ve been around longer, but they’re both able to learn
faster than either of us; and Ethan is able to read somewhere around four times
faster than the rest of us; so he’ll catch up and pass us in a matter of years
instead of decades.
That’s one of the reasons he’s uniquely qualified for his
future jobs and responsibilities; but let’s not get into that today.
I say that mostly because I’m in need of some extra sleep
tonight; and don’t want to get wound up with too many thoughts about our future
plans that could keep me awake for hours if I let that happen. I also need to get out of the Jacuzzi soon
and finish getting ready for bed; so let’s just wind this down and call it a
night.
Mom and I cooked a chicken, veggies, and rice stir fry
dinner with some supervision and taste-testing from Ethan and Ehlana. Dad stopped working long enough to have
dinner with us, and then Mom and I did the clean-up while he got back to work
again. He’s got a busy week ahead in the
city; and has a lot to get done to be ready for it. Mom and I had some play time with the twins
after that; did bath time with them; and were ready for the bedtime snack and
story by the time Michael came over after being set free from the Inn.
We did that in the office with Dad; Michael and I tucked the
twins in for the night with some guy and girl chat time; and then he and I came
up to the lounge for that alone time fun.
We half-watched a movie while we played, and while I wouldn’t say that
things were as hot tonight as last night; that was mostly because we chose slow
and tender as we cuddled and explored.
I’m sure that we won’t get to have many weekends like this one with
everything else we have on the go all of the time; but I’d also be very okay
with it if we could!
Those thoughts aren’t exactly making me sleepy, so I’d
better not go there either. Michael went
home after the movie; Mom and Dad were getting ready to head for bed by then
too; and I’ve already mentioned that some Jacuzzi time was my top priority
after coming up to my room for the night.
Since Dad will need to work most of the afternoon, I don’t really have
any major plans for tomorrow other than a study session with Michael, Tim, and
Rowen to do the assignments we didn’t want to do on Valentine’s Day. I’ll help to keep Ethan and Ehlana entertained
too; but it should be a fairly quiet day – and I’m not going to help out with
the buffets at the Inn this week. Friday night was enough fun for one weekend
for me; though I will miss spending that time with Michael.
It really is time for me to get out of the tub now, though,
and there isn’t anything else to cover tonight; so until next time...
...Live long and prosper, fellow Magi of the Light!
