Non stop

5:58, the alarm went off this morning. I snoozed for a few minutes to listen to the weather forecast - cold, wet and stormy. Hmmm. Downstairs to walk the dog, who cared not one jot what the weather outside was like, feed the cats who were yowling like they'd not not been fed for a week, and put the kettle on for a cup of tea for Mrs Dogwood. I levered Ms Dogwood out of bed and switched Master Dogwood's light on, and went to prepare their respective breakfasts (coffee and yoghurt for Ms, Weetabix for Master).

With a little strategic nagging, Ms was out of the door for a quarter to eight, and after dropping her off at the bus stop I headed north for Leeds for a day in our office there. It was windy on the M1, and on some stretches lorries were starting to sway in some of the gusts. Not as bad as driving back during the 87 hurricaine when I passed half a dozen lorries on their sides, but a little hairy none the less.

Work was busy - a mix of meetings (with a report spec genuinely written on the back of an envelope), catch up on admin work (tidy email inbox and pending files), trying new things (reading data from sql 2000 into olap cubes for excel pivot tables), and answering stupid queries ('how do I print this report?' 'Press 'P', click on file, print or the little printer icon would do it' not adding 'like every other windows program ever ...').

I treated myself to a walk into Leeds at lunchtime - takeaway sushi from Little Tokyo (tasty) and a box of D&D miniatures from Travelling Man (excellent!) - and then back for some more work before sneaking out at four o'clock to get home in time for Ms's parents' evening (or should that be parent's (singular) evening?)

Mrs Dogwood had been held up in a meeting, so Master Dogwood came with us with his GBA to keep him amused and we made it with a couple of minutes to spare before the first appointment with the maths teacher. Apparently Ms is in the top third of the the top maths set, and the rest of the teachers were similarly complimentary, with just one or two complaints about organization and asking for help when she gets stuck, but it just confirms the good things in the report.

Back home, and two things to do for work. Post a journal that was in the wrong format and send a backup of the accounts reference file to the support people for our accounts system to see if they can unpick a problem that we've been having. Working on the dial up was s - l - o - w but I got it done for eight o'clock and came down to an excellent curry cooked by Mrs Dogwood and a nice cold beer.

Makes it all worth while. I love you, Mrs Dogwood!