20 Questions Tuesday: 298 - Homecoming

Today marks 12 days sans dual parenting.  The Mom-in-law has been amazing and some family friends also stepped up to make the process easier as well.  In the 12 days that she has been the gones, I was also able to get a mapping commission done… Oh, I do some freelance mapping by the way under the moniker of 9th Point Studio… the website will be changing soon… It is time.  There are just some ways that I need to update a whole bunch of things on there, especially my info… anyway, the client is happy and that makes me happy.

This week’s topic is “homecoming” because of the time of year in the US high school/college sports system, but also because the Lovely Wife is coming home tonight.  

Thanks this week go to Mike, pfm Designer, and some other guy… on to the questions:

1.  Were you left with a list of things to "possibly get to if you had the time"? And if so, what did you just not find the time to get to?
I was tasked with keeping both of the kids alive and relatively unscathed.  They are both alive, thank you very much.

2.  What will TLW be looking forward to most when she gets home? Food ? Relaxation? Something else?
I think being around the kiddos.  She really loves the we beasties.

3.  If you had to come up with a Big Surprise to welcome her home, what would it be? (A friend of mine traded their SUV for a BMW while his wife was away. Surprise? Yes. Happy surprise? Not so much.)
It would be a clean house… just to be clear, that did not happen.

4.  After how many days did your kids stop asking "when is mom coming home..."?
They have never stopped… however, Little Man pronounces that question like “Do you think the Plants Vs Zombies: Garden Warfare DLC will come out on the 30th?”

5.  Will you be awarded "Dad time" once she is home, or will it just be business as usual? (Some couples keep score, you know...)
No score being kept…  I will not really be awarded “Dad time”so to speak, but this weekend, I will get the opportunity to focus on the school research project very heavily.

6.  How many hours before the wife’s ETA do you actually start cleaning house?
I have attempted to keep the house somewhat clean this whole time… Saturday was a cleaning day in earnest though...

7.  What’s the going rate for bribing two children into giving favorable reports about you?
My children are more than welcome to tell the wife anything and everything that goes on while she is gone… they will not do that because that know what is good for them…. 

8.  To celebrate her return: fancy home-cooked meal or fancy restaurant?
Her choice… which means I will most likely be cooking something.

9.  Who misses who(m?) the most?
The youngest misses her mama the most.

10.  Did you order her corsage well in advance, or will you just hit the Speedway on the way home?
Corsages are for closers.

11.  What have you learned in these past 12 days?
That I have to turn screens all the way off to get some attention from the kids at the same time.  I can get individual attention from each of the little ones for limited amount of time… usually to talk badly about the other… building alliances and dividing and conquering.

12.  What is different in the house from when she left?
hmmm… it is a bit chillier in the mornings.  

13.  Did you “celebrate” homecoming when you were in high school?
Nope.. I was not super popular in the high school.  I don’t think I was disliked as much as I was simply unknown (at least I hope I was not disliked).  I didn’t really date much and was pretty backwards socially on emotional levels.  The one time I was actually “dating’ someone whilst in high school, I did not understand that she would actually want to go to homecoming.  I thought she didn’t care about things such as that… mainly because I didn’t care about it and I was significantly more self-involved in 10th grade.  Turns out she was a red-blooded American female who had reasonable expectations for how a couple should interact. In my defense I could not drive and that limited the options for significant dating at the time, but really I just was not a good datable person at the time…. Soon after that homecoming faux pas I was done dating until the college years.  

14.  What exactly is this “homecoming’ tradition in the US? Asking for a non-American friend…
Homecoming was all about the traveling American football teams for colleges and high schools finally coming home after 3 or so away games.  It is a celebration of the returning victors (hopefully).  In the modern era, since teams don’t typically do blocks of traveling, it is a time for alumni to come back and “enjoy” the game…. I really don’t miss high school… I think I outline that out pretty well in a previous question.  Often the homecoming game is played against the weakest opponent a team could find.  When I went to Kent State, we were the team that people scheduled for their homecomings.  

15.  Homecoming courts are purely popularity contests, right?
Yup, there is no merit based reasons for the candidates...

16.  So , how was the homecoming?
It was very low key… I think all involved were exhausted.  The wife’s flight was supposed to get in at 8:50pm… but it turns out that it got here at 8:43… and I was trying to get the kids to the airport on time… that is like herding cats… annoyingly talkative cats… and then the kiddos just started to alternatively ramp themselves up and crash… the kid thing was… it was… what’s the opposite of awesome… that’s what it was

17.   Who needs 17?
Nobody, that’s who.  17 blows

18.  So after 12 days on the road and working pretty much straight through, what is the wife’s schedule like tomorrow?
Some would think the wife would not schedule work the day after a 12 day marathon work session that crossed the continent and spanned 2 countries… wrong, she will be up and out of the house by 6 AM Wednesday…  She is terrible at the scheduling of the work stuffs.

19.  When is her next bout of traveling?
I don’t know, maybe November or something.  But there is nothing scheduled with 12 days of travel... she usually only travels for 4 days at a time.

20.  Do you think anyone is really reading to this point?
Nope, I imagine most people skip this to the recap by now…

To recap:
The family is back together
It is nice
All three of my loved ones are all sleeping together in a big ball of love
I am getting some homework done and finishing up this post
I have an invoice to get out now
Commission went well
Better than I had hoped
I will post some stuff from it eventually
Oh, I am also trying out ello.co
Check me out, I am @mmmmmpig on the ello’s
And I am @mmmmmmpig on the twitters as well
My iPhone screen is still shattered
I am trying to hold out for a bit more
The packing tape I am using to hold it together is starting to come up though
That is the only thing keeping my screen from slicing my fingers and bruising the actually screen
Man, I need a new phone
At least the 6’s are out now and many of the bugs have been worked out
The bugs have been worked out, right?
heh... 
Have a great week everyone