Late night Friday, lazy Saturday

On Friday, January 3, I left early for my usual appointment to take Rudy and Hannah out to the park and to McDonalds.  I picked up my alimony check in Provo, deposited it at the UCCU branch on Freedom Boulevard, then proceeded to see if the Artesian Well Park in Salt Lake was still available.  I quickly determined it had been closed for renovation.  Rudy greeted me with a joyful little dance and the repetition of 'Go Slide' which meant he had really enjoyed his first experience of sledding the previous Friday.  I had checked out the neighborhood park and saw some potential for enjoyment so I joined Hannah and Rudy in sledding the rather random paths until Rudy headed for the playground equipment and a brief try at the 'spinners' before heading for the car and the hoped for trip to McDonalds.  After dropping them at their home I went to the home of my daughter, Nancy, who had invited me to go to a movie as her birthday present.  She offered me a choice between a Friday night showing or a Saturday morning showing.  I chose the night showing of 'The Rise of Skywalker' which is currently in theaters.  Maryjane and her children Sela, Heta, and Tevita joined us at the Sugarhouse Cinemark for the 7 PM showing.  They have reclining seats which was my first experience of this popular innovation.  Nancy reserved seats toward the back left side of the theater so there would be easy exiting for the younger children.  I enjoyed the movie and we stayed up until after 11 at Nancy's house afterward discussing the plot and the acting.  Nancy had seen it before but enjoyed the second viewing.  I liked it.  It was not the equivalent of the first experience of 'Star Wars' when it came out in 1977 when most of my children were very young, but it surpassed the 'prequels' which were released thirty years later.  Ironically, the human members of the original cast all appear in the final movie although none of them were in the prequels except Palpatine who is treated sort of like Voldemort.  At any rate, I got to bed late and slept badly from a combination of factors, namely a new mattress Nancy got for the TV room day bed.  It is quite hard and I am used to my lovely combination of 4 inches of memory foam over a firm standard mattress.  I left Nancy and Miranda still in bed when I started home for Provo after 9 AM.  I stopped at Smith's and Day's to shop for meat and bought cheap steaks at both locations.  When I got home I cooked a couple of steaks but ended up offering Richard at least a third of what I'd cooked.  I planned to fast for the end of drought and fires in Australia and ended my meal at around 12:30 PM.  Tomorrow Church begins at 9 AM for the rest of the year.  After eating and minor supervision of my helpers I decided it was time to do a final fix on the hot water supply to the sink which Richard had temporarily fixed on the day before Christmas.  I found the part we needed at the Ace hardware store on Cougar Blvd. and State.  It is somewhat closer than either Lowe's or Home Depot but likely more expensive.  In the process of fixing the water supply, Richard also dislocated then fixed and cleared the drain under the sink.  I had planned to start on my encaustic painting of Layla, but instead I decided to take a nap.  I didn't wake until after the sun had set and went out to secure the chickens.  This makes the fourth day I have kept a strict carnivore routine, with the exception of an occasional sugar free stick of gum.  At Nancy's I had two eggs before we left for the theater, and while not strictly Lion Diet, they are carnivore.