Author: gallopingcow

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And This Little Piggie

Summer left for work and I caught up on some sleep with Muad’Dib, though I don’t think he was as deprived as me. We eventually got up and I took a shower around the same time that Eaddie got up. Then I ran Muad’Dib down to Ridgewood Brothers to check out their whole hog event. Along the way, we encountered a house with a water leak around their water meter, so I rang the doorbell. I didn’t get an answer, so I called the emergency number at City Corp to report the trouble.

I kind of thought they were going to have more going on at the restaurant, but it just seemed like business as usual. They were busy, but I don’t know if it was any more busy than usual. Summer met us there, but ended up taking Muad’Dib to the store for bread and ice while I stood in line. She had to take the ice to the shop while I worked my way forward to get three pounds of meat, a baked potato, and some of their Carolina slaw.

I stepped outside to chat with Grant, Kyler, and their guest smoker, Rich Pettitt until Summer got back to pick me up. It was cool to hear about their overnight smoke, and then we went back to the house to eat.

I spent the afternoon working on Vine reviews while Summer went to the gym, but I didn’t get as many done as I really needed. It was just so hot in the house that it was difficult to get motivated. The afternoon and evening went by quickly.

Summer made it to bed, but Muad’Dib really needed a run, so I took him out until it got dark. He got a vacuum when we got home, and then I wrapped up while the girls chatted in the bedroom for a while.

Went, “wee, wee, wee!” to the moon and back.

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Candid Cameras

The more I dig, the more crap I find. I thought the cameras were on a different physical network, but I can see at least some of them on our main network. We have few enough devices that it could all be flat, but somebody started building out something that remains unfinished.

I took Muad’Dib to Wendy’s, but he had to sit in the car while I ate. It was nice and cool in there, but when we got back to the office, there was a small puddle of white, foamy liquid on the seat cover. I cleaned that up, and watched him carefully as he laid at my feet. Normally he would be all over the office, or at least laying down in the hallway, but not today. Otherwise he seemed fine, especially when offered treats.

We left a little late after poking around some more at the camera system downstairs, and stopped at the carwash to get a quick vacuum and see Summer. She left just after we did, and we got to the house just in time to see Eaddie leave.

I took Muad’Dib for a run to my parents’ house once it cooled down, and I ate some leftover caramelized pork. We finished our run and the Onewheel never died, but I’ve really lost faith in it. It requires more testing.

Time for me is different than it is for you.

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Southern Tails

I’m having trouble finishing up some tasks at work because of the randomness of it all, and from simply not knowing what I’m doing every time I receive a new one. Rhonda came up first thing and said her internet wasn’t working. I checked the switch and everything seemed fine there, so Muad’Dib and I went down to have a look. Peyton was having trouble as well, and while Muad’Dib and Bear were playing, Bear peed on the ground. Peyton cleaned that up, and as soon as he walked out, Muad’Dib peed on the trash can, so I had to clean that up. Fortunately it didn’t take terribly long for me to find that their DNS settings were manually set to the old domain controller, which I had inadvertently turned off, but shouldn’t have been used for DNS any longer anyway.

I took Muad’Dib outside for some impressive and unexpected zoomies around the parking lot. He had wild eyes, and his tongue flew back in the wind as he sprinted in a figure-eight. We eventually made it back upstairs and started poking at the old server and the old virtual domain controller. The server had been running out of space, and it looked to be from backups of its own database, so that’s something for me to clean up.

We eventually took a break and went to Taco Bell for lunch since they had a couple tables outside. I wasn’t expecting it to be so hot in the sun, but it was blazing with only a few clouds in the sky. He did well while I ate, but then snuck through the door the second time I went back inside to throw my trash away. One of the employees shooed him out behind my back, so I took him out and put him in the car.

I spent some time in the afternoon looking at our security cameras, trying to figure out why the IPs appeared to match our existing scheme, but also may have been duplicating IPs. Confusingly, I think it’s on a completely different physical network and they just happened to use some of the same range.

At the end of the day, I changed into some shorts and we headed to Southern Tail in Little Rock to meet Mitch, Blake, and their friend Aaron. We got a table outside and pretty quickly got into some food. We expected at least one other person who never showed. I was super disappointed in the portions with my chicken sandwich, and I didn’t love the fried green tomatoes. It seemed like the fish and chips have been the only really impressive thing I’ve had there, and that was mostly because it was salmon. Muad’Dib did great though, and we had a good time chatting, though it was a bit more scattered in conversation than the last couple times we visited. It was an enjoyable evening though, and then we eventually made it back home and straight to bed.

What’s eating you‽

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Look! It’s Raph!

Last night was filled with nonstop dreams. Muad’Dib snuggled tightly between us, and I only woke up a couple of times, but each time I was in the middle of another wild, random dream. I couldn’t get up when my alarm went off, so I snoozed for ten more minutes and still had more dreams.

I felt mostly lost in subnets and VLANs today. We finally took a break and went to McDonald’s for lunch, but Muad’Dib just had to wait in the car. I had another anxiety attack at some point, but I haven’t been thorough in tracking when they happen. Summer was trying to nap when we got back to the house, because she opened and then had to go back to work to do some maintenance after hours. She woke up and I tried chatting with her for a little while before she had to go back to work.

Muad’Dib and I rode straight over to my parents’ house because I was afraid to go too far after carrying my board half a mile yesterday. Mom had the last of the fish soup left on the stove, so I finished that before we left. We headed straight back to the house and I gave Muad’Dib a double bath because I pulled four ticks off of him throughout the day. He sat in flea treatment, and then had a nice, herbal shampoo in preparation for our evening out tomorrow with the boys.

Yeah! A little too Raph!

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Board to Tears

I grabbed Hardee’s and ate my biscuit and gravy on the drive in to work this morning. Muad’Dib was super pumped when we got there, and kept bouncing all over the office to see everyone. We settled in pretty quickly though, because Charles asked me about some IP addresses for a project we’ve got, and it occurred to me that I still didn’t know how any of that was set up through our firewall.

I studied most of the day in a bit of a panic, again feeling underqualified. I eventually sent an email to the MSP that helped with the HA setup, to see if they could help walk me through some of the configurations. We took a late lunch to Arby’s for a ham and cheese. There wasn’t a table or bench outside, so we just sat on the curb and shared the sandwich in the sun. Muad’Dib was super well behaved, though he did drool on my pants out of excitement while waiting for a bite.

The afternoon went by comparitively quickly after such a long morning. We made it back to town and I had an anxiety attack in the car just as I pulled into the garage. Once Summer got home for her break, we went to my parents’ house for spaghetti, and then she had to go back to work to close shop.

I took Muad’Dib out for a run, and he sprinted the better part of a mile. He did great, we stopped to see Dad, and then I had board trouble on the way back to the house. It happened once yesterday, but tonight it started flashing red, sounding its haptic buzz, and reported that the battery needed to be charged. The only problem was that the battery was reporting over 70% remaining.

I carried the board back for a little over half a mile, took a quick shower to cool down, then submitted another serivce ticket before bed.

Could use a little moon shine.

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Weird Recovery

I slept in for just a little while since I was working from home today. Summer left for work and I brought my laptop to bed. There still hasn’t been much asked of me, so I did a couple tasks and then tried to sit through some more Microsoft training. It felt a lot more like a sales pitch than training for how to do something specific, so that was a bore. Muad’Dib dozed on my arm, snoring all the while.

Eventually I got cleaned up and took Eaddie to meet Summer at Cicis for lunch. They’re running their early week deal for the remainder of the year, and it’s by far the best salad bar you can get at that price, even if you don’t eat the pizza.

After we ate, I took Eaddie home and went back to work for a while. Later in the afternoon, I took Muad’Dib to Clear View to see if they could fix the chip in my windshield. When I walked in, they were all in the office folding paper airplanes, and asked if I was any good at it. I asked if she just saw my Asian eyes when I walked in and assumed I was good at origami.

Mike pulled the car into the bay and got to work on the glass, and I let Muad’Dib out to wander around. We chatted, along with another kid that was there, until the job was done. When he finished, I offered to pull the car out and then give him my insurance information to he could get paid, and he ran me off and said not to worry about it. I left feeling really conflicted, because he’s always super nice when I talk to him, but there’s always something wrong with the work I have done. Last time it was tiny bubbles in the tint. This time, he didn’t level the surface of the chip, and it left a bright spot that catches the light, plain as day.

I stopped at Casey’s for a freebie Celsius and then pulled into the Tri-Mountain driveway next to Airgas to try and exchange my CO2 tank. The gate was closed, and I learned that they had actually closed at four, so I went back to the house without any gas. Summer got home from work just shortly after that, and tried to wind down pretty quickly.

Dad texted that they had eggrolls, so I eventually ran Muad’Dib over there while Summer drove. Julie and Kevin beat us. It was a quick dinner with some fried rice, and then we finished our run while Summer went home to crash. I gave Muad’Dib a good bath and tried to clean him up enough to last a couple days, then picked up around the kitchen before bed.

He needs his own CPUP.

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Everything You Know Is Wrong

We had to wait for Eaddie to get home from church before we could leave for Rogers this afternoon. Summer got a bit of yard work done, and I finished laundry. We finally hit the road about an hour later than I intended, stopped in Ozark to charge, and finally made it to KPOT for dinner. I was fairly hangry by then, and it didn’t help that our estimated 30-minute wait was closer to the hour mark.

Fortunately our server, Daniel, was very respectful of our time when I told him we were trying to get to a concert. The food experience was a bit better than last time, but then we were shocked to hear that Daniel had never heard of Weird Al before.

We made it to our usual parking spot, which was surprisingly still available. This was doubly convenient because the end of the line was right there, and we were able to walk leisurely to the amphitheater. We got in, the merch line was short, and Summer and I both got shirts. We found a seat with plenty of time before Puddles Pity Party took the stage. Autumn was on the other side of the lawn with Adam’s family, and came over to talk to the girls for a bit. Puddles had a fairly short set, which ultimately I appreciated, because I don’t know how long I could have sat through that energy.

When Weird Al finally came on, it was pretty much non-stop high energy from everyone. They put on an incredible show, and I was excited that Eaddie got to experience it with us. I think we surprised her with how excited we, and particularly Summer, got for some of his songs.

The drive home was fairly quick, and I had a good chat with Eaddie while Summer tried to sleep in the back seat.

And everything you thought was just so important doesn’t matter.

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Play Sassafras Chicken in D, and Make It Extra Lumpy!

I didn’t really sleep in, but had a slow start this morning. Summer went outside for a bit, and I cleaned up some leftovers to make breakfast. We had one small baked potato that I sliced and fried with some leftover onion, and then i scrambled some eggs in with some dried up flour tortilla crumbs. It actually turned out pretty good.

Jon said Alex would be here at noon, but he was over half an hour late to come look at our ceiling. He seemed to think they could just replace a couple panels of drywall and then scrape the rest of the ceiling. Hopefully we get a quote back soon, and it’d be even better if it came in under five grand.

Summer and I had a couple of “arguments” throughout the morning that just left us both feeling defeated. She went to the gym and I tried to start some laundry, but had to clean up a mess that they had left first. Eaddie left to hang out with friends, and Summer and I decided to go to the movies for a late matinée to see The Naked Gun.

I didn’t really enjoy the movie at all. It just seemed really dumb with a couple cheap giggles, but absolutely no rolling, laugh-outloud moments for me. I was hungry when we got home, so we took Muad’Dib to Chipotle for a late dinner. They had a little outdoor seating area, and it felt great outside.

After dinner, we went for a quick run in the dark to see my parents before winding down for bed.

Weird Al is waiting for us!

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One Step Two Step Red Step Blue Step

Kevin checked in to see if I contacted Diamond Ridge, and ended up calling Jon to get things moving for me. I wanted to be respectful of his time and work/life balance, but Kevin gave me Jon’s personal cell to work things out.

Rhonda got a little fussy about the automation I created for shipment documentation, but without invoking more human involvement, there wasn’t much I could do to improve the automation. It seemed simple enough to sort files by date, but after our conversation about phone storage the other day, I don’t guess I was surprised to hear she felt it was impossible to find what she needed.

Muad’Dib and I went to Sonic for lunch again since it was still nice out. We shared a toaster, but he couldn’t have any onion rings. I did risk giving him some of the breading though. Later in the afternoon, I was invited downstairs for some leftover ice cream with the team.

Jon called on my way back home, and said he would have someone visit us tomorrow. I stopped at AT&T to see Kevin, and brought Muad’Dib inside. He was busy with a customer, but Hope came out and found me. We chatted for a while, and Kevin would come over periodically while his customer was, presumably, transferring stuff between devices.

I left there and stopped to see Summer at the wash, and tried to vacuum Muad’Dib’s seat protector. That went fairly poorly, so I’ll just need to remove it and shake it out. It wouldn’t hurt to hose it off either. As soon as I got to the house, Muad’Dib and I rode over to my parents’ house for fish soup.

After that, the girls were home and I sat down to talk with Summer for a while. Then we tried to find something to watch on the bedroom TV, but she fell asleep almost immediately.

A Leash Called “Obedience”

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Chili Dog Daze

I spent the morning continuing to clean up data for import. It was done by lunch, and nobody reported anything being broken, so maybe I did it right. It certainly could have been less tedious.

It rained a bit as thunder and lightning struck all around in the distance. That dropped the temperature enough that it felt pretty nice out, so Muad’Dib and I went to Sonic and sat outside for lunch. It was actually a great time. We both just hung out, he was chill, and we shared a footlong coney.

I spent the afternoon just poking around at some different things, then stopped to see Summer at the wash on the way to the house. She had a late team meeting to run, so I stopped by Zaxby’s for dinner. I tried to clean up the kitchen a bit after I ate, and then Summer got home and wound down while I ran Muad’Dib.

The cooler air got him running more than he has been, so it was good to get moving. We stopped to see my parents, and then cleaned up for bed.

You got your hair slicked back and those Wayfarers on, baby.