The Mind Boggles.. which isn't saying much for me

So yesterday Jen and her parents took the boys down to Indy for a doctors appointment for Andrew and to visit relatives. So no kids or wife when I get home until at least 9:00pm, so I can do whatever I want. WHATEVER I WANT. The mind boggles. Usually when I get home from work there is kids to play with while Jen gets dinner ready while we talk about the day's events. If I want to try and get anything done, without "help", I have to wait until after bedtime which puts starting projects around 9:00 or 9:30 (or wait for the weekends) since the bedtime routine is taking longer and longer. YES I caved with putting William down to bed. I now will sit in the room until he goes to sleep, which luckily isn't very long. I stopped sitting in the room a while back, but it was at least an hour battle of him getting out of bed numerous times and sitting in the hallway with me going up and down the stairs constantly. So I figured me sitting there for 10 minutes beats the hell out of an hour of yelling at him, him crying and waking up the other one, threatening him and going up and down stairs. ANYWAY..... what to do? I figured one thing would be to grab something to eat, but where? I could go anywhere... Fast food? nah not that special of a thing. Sit down restaurant? nah I would feel kinda strange eating by myself. Go nostalgic and hit the Atz's for dinner at the counter? nah the kids might actually enjoy that. Run down to Coney Island? nah to far. I decide to decide later. The first thing that I did when I got home to the empty house was get some stuff done. I got the grass cut and put antifreeze in the jeep. Next I installed a light in the basement. For some reason the previous owner installed one light in the basement, but put a box in the ceiling for a second light on the other side of the room that was wired and ready for a light. The weird part is that they had the second light that matched the first one sitting on a shelf in the garage when we moved in, so I am not sure why they would take the time to install the electrical and box (including a cover) but not install the light, but I have stopped asking why a long time ago. Anyway the install went pretty fast and it actually works. While getting some light bulbs I found a replacement part for the freezer that Jen had bought months ago that I totally forgot about so that was also a project that I knocked out. After finishing that I decide that it's time to get something to eat. I decide to run to a few stores looking for a new light jacket and hopefully get inspired by the many restaurants in the area. My current light jacket has seem better days and bears the logo of the company I worked at 2 years ago. I hit Meijer, Walmart, and Target and no jacket and no food inspiration. All of the stores have little to no jacket selection at all or at least nothing that I would be caught dead in. So it's getting to be around 7:30 and figure it's time to eat. I am in the Target parking lot and think that I will just "bag the bell" and head for home, but then inspiration hits.... taco bell... Mexican.... food..... BANDITOS!!!!! I like their food and I can get it to go, so I run over there and order my usual... to go. I get home and stuff myself on chips, salsa and a Pollo Bandito and watch the usual crap on TV. I was close to putting in a movie, but I figure the family would be home soon. Around 9:30 the garage door opens and I go out to haul in two sleeping boys only to find two wide awake boys in the back of bumpa's car. I can tell it has been a long day for the grandparents. So we put the kids to bed, had a quick discussion of the days events, and fell asleep in front of the TV. It's kind of strange how I feel when no one is there when I get home or when the kids were at grandmas for the night. It just doesn't feel normal, and that's probably why I had such a hard time figuring out what to do. There is a freedom that I feel, but at the same time an emptiness for me. Whoa, did it just get deep in here?