Johnnie Day

So this isn't a Lisa work Saturday, But just like yesterday she is in a CE class downtown all day. which means I get Johnnie all day too and I couldn't have planned it better if i tried. I'm at her house at 7:30 ready to pick up the kid and actually ready to shower too since I hadn't showered since Monday I'm embarassed to admit. But when I got there Johnnie was already ready to go showered and everything. Which is what happens when he's excited to do something. I had no choice but to go back to the house, drop off Claire, and take a shower first myself. I wasn't going to spend one more day stinking myself up.  And so not only did I shower first, I also took that opportunity to clean up the shower too, which I hadn't done in more than a month. I had to clean up the grime build-up including the soap stuff on the shower door Lisa style. The good thing was that it looked much better afterwards, and I FELT much better too now that I am clean! or CLEAN-ER. Thus getting showered, Johnnie and I headed out to breakfast. To my surprise he was ok with going to iHOP today, since we hadn't gone in many many months. He was happy to have his pancakes and bacon and eggs. And I got myself a nice, healthy mushroom and spinach omelette. The cool-thing-of-the-day was that the Latino couple next booth adjacent to us commented to me that he was a cute little boy, which was not out of the norm. But when he started conversing with Johnnie and he started conversing back in Spanish, that was what amazed them, and amazed me. He actually was able to hold a nice, simple conversation with them. Those Spanish class are paying off at that. And they commented to me that he was not only cute but smart too. That is MY boy. And so after breakfast we went on out and did grocery shopping. We went to whole Foods first and then we went to Target because he wanted to go ahead and buy the present for James next week since he's invited to his birthday movie. And I managed to get some of my grocery shopping too. So check and check on the shopping must-do's for today. We also checked to see the turkey inventory since I'm making lunch for Lisa's crew on Tuesday and she's making turkey for her family on Thanksgiving Day. Which made `me think... what am I doing for Thanksgiving? Eh, I'll figure something out later. It did feel like a Lisa work Saturday which meant that I had Johnnie through at least lunch and today he actually had something different in mind too. He actually SHOPPED for his lunch, opting to go with macaroni and cheese. And then I supplemented it with bacon so he would get even more protein. Worked out just fine. I baked the salmon I had in the freezer for a bit and with a salad that was MY lunch. No going oout or anything.

And so it was I had to figure out some kine of activity for Johnnie for the afternoon. That's when it dawned on me that he had to start practicing basketball given that I had entered him into the Mar Vista league in January. And so we headed out to Mar Vista Park armed with the basketball from my trunk. I posted a video of him shooting underhanded because that was all the shoulder strength he had for now, at least to shoot at the regulation 10-ft rim. I think he will be fine shooting at the much shorter 9 ft room hoop in the gym. But for now it was good to see he can at least make an outside shot! And he made 8 of them in a row even. Just like dad huh? Shades of the Tuesday afternoon gym sessions I used to have at the AT&T Building. Or the Friday afternoon shooting games I used to have at the FRB back in the day. It was only a couple of months ago in June in the summer he couldn't even reach the hoop. Look at him now! I think he will be just fine. He will be challenged physically but I think I'm ok with that. He has to learn to deal with adversity physically even though there is absolutely nothing wrong with him. He will simply need to learn to play with taller, bigger kids. And that is perfectly fine with me. Anyway I ran him through his shooting and dribbling and passing and by 4 PM, there was absolutely no doubt he had gotten his exercise in for the day. I rewarded him with Panda Express for dinner, and concludes a full 3-meal day I have had with him. Lisa called by 6 PM letting me know she was already home but also catching up on her ME time so she could play the piano. I was happy to let her do that, which was a win-win-win for all and keep Johnnie until 7:30. And when I dropped him off and came back I also realized it was the big UCLA-USC football game at the Rose Bowl today. They were leading at halftime UCLA was. But it would not last. It turned into a shootout that USC won 48-45 and only by getting an INT on UCLA's last possession. UCLA would have probably at least kicked a field goal to tie.  But tonight it was not to be. They fought and fought but lost an extremely competitive game in the end. Oh well. At least we go to a bowl game this year. And hopefully win next week to exceded last year's win total. Still all good. They teased us all year but now they are descending back to earth. It's still good.