As of yesterday, I completed work on my last audit of the year, so now I’m “free.” I say “free”, because I’m going to obviously help out whoever I can, but I’m basically unassigned for now. Time to do research, help out anyone who needs it, and studying. Studying? Heck ya. As I roll into the rest of the year, it’s a great opportunity to study and catch up on my continuing education credits (CPEs), back to studying for my CISSP, and learning new things. It’s also a good time to unwind and start using up the rest of my vacation time.
First order of business, I celebrated. I bought steaks on Sunday, in preparation for a celebratory dinner. Monday night, I marinated them, and had them ready for some grilling. Tuesday night, I asked a friend for more tips on grilling, as I didn’t want to screw up my steaks. Too late. I’m not sure what happened, but it all went awry.
The good news was that the mashed potatoes and the mixed veggies made inside the house before grilling the steaks came out great. However, once I broke out the grill, it went downhill. The left burner wasn’t working properly, so I had the middle and right only to use. I had them up on high to get the grill to 400 degrees. I put the burgers and steaks on, and came back in 8 mins to flip the steaks and burgers in 8 mins, but they had mostly charcoaled to a crisp on one side. Out of four steaks and three burgers, one steak was pretty bad, but the other 3 steaks were salvageable. The burgers were charcoaled to cinders.
Part of the problem was probably that I was trying to grill by a dim outdoor light and a flashlight. Once the steaks were medium-well, I brought them in, and my wife and I spent some time slicing off the charcoaled portions. Still edible, but not the greatest. I had to throw out the fourth steak (the most charcoaled), and all of the burgers. It was a learning experience, as I’ve never grilled steaks in the dark before. I was a bit depressed, but my wife cheered me up, and we later ate ice cream and watched TV on the couch after the kids went to bed. This week, I gotta check out what’s wrong with the left grill burner. Next time, I’m going to grill when there’s still light outside. Grilling by flashlight wasn’t fun.
Second order of business, I took today (Wednesday) off. It was a wonderful day of unstructured time. I dropped the kids off late (9am), ate breakfast while watching TV, and chilled out. However, in just a short while, I remembered that I’m not a “do nothing and enjoy it” type of person. I get bored, listless, and generally…. feeling guilty.
I did some handyman (handy husband?) stuff in the kitchen to fix and organize the drawers/cabinets that had loose knobs — no easy feat as you have to empty and take apart the drawers to tighten the knobs. Since I was doing that anyway, my wife had recommended last night that I clean them up while I’m at it. I did that too. Organized the junk in the drawers that have accumulated like detritus since we moved here in 2005. I had fun using my cordless drill/driver.
I also vacuumed, reloaded the dishwasher, cleaned up the stove, removed all the infant stuff we don’t need anymore, laundry, took out the trash and recycling, and some other stuff I think. I also made dinner before I picked the kids up in the evening! It was a busy afternoon, and that’s how I like it. I really do enjoy my free time when I’m accomplishing something!
