8:30

Last night Golden and I went to the mall. The trip ended up being in vain because we didn't get anything that we had intended to get, but for once I wasn't bothered by it. I was quite content that we had piled into the car, dealt with all the rain that fell last night, and burned an hour out of the evening. This was because all of this occurred before 8:30PM.

Any more, the time after I get home from work on weekdays is divided into two parts. The first part is when NJ is awake. We keep him entertained and make sure he stays out of trouble. The second part is when he is asleep, which is a valuable commodity given the number of television shows that we try to keep up with. We don't really watch any of our shows when NJ is awake, so this limits our viewing to about an hour each night. This also means that I don't necessarily accomplish much after 8:30. It feels like I am wasting time if I do work after 8:30.

It seems my home life is spent in one of two modes. I am either waiting for NJ's bedtime at 8:30 or I am trying to get my TV watching and Internet surfing done after 8:30. While I love my time with NJ, I still try to do what I can to make the time before 8:30 go faster. Going on small errands is one of those things. When we go somewhere I still have time with him, but he is usually more easily distracted and better behaved.

It is nice to be with NJ. That doesn't take away from how nice it is when NJ is asleep.