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Pumped

I came in and out of sleep pretty early this morning, but kept making myself go back to sleep until Summer got out of bed. As everyone else roused, she made a small batch of pancakes for breakfast. I played Into the Breach for quite a while between poking around on the computer. I got my first call from an actual human being at Tesla to confirm my delivery appointment.

My parents called for some help with Bác Vân’s iPad, but I couldn’t do much remotely. Summer ended up taking a nap, so I went home to clean up. My parents were still next door, so I walked over to see what I could do. The iPad wouldn’t support an iOS version compatible with the YouTube app, so that was a bust.

Once my parents got home from running around town, I ordered some pizzas from Little Caesar’s and went to get the girls. We loaded up the pumpkins, stopped to get the food, and then made it to my parents’ house to eat and carve. I was surprised by how little food was left, so I was glad I actually ordered enough.

After we ate, Autumn said she was too tired to carve a pumpkin. Dad preferred to wait until closer to Halloween, but Eaddie didn’t want to come back to do it after school. She and Summer just carved theirs together, and we left the other three for later. They turned out really good, so once my carving kit comes in on Monday, I’ll have to really think of something good to carve.

We loaded everyone up to go home, and brought the two pumpkins worth of seeds along for roasting. Summer cleaned them up and simmered them in some water for a few minutes before we had to dry them out. We ended up drying them in the oven on its lowest temperature setting, since leaving them on the counter would have taken days. She seasoned them with some olive oil, salt, and cayenne pepper, and they turned out great.

Everyone settled into their rooms after that, but Noah was supposed to come over after work. I didn’t stay up for that, since we had a full day of driving in the morning.

36 hours!

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Stuffed Crabby

I woke up feeling quite a bit better this morning, after struggling with a full belly all night. There was just too much good food all day long. I got everything packed up and ready to go, but struggled to get out before 8:30, so I ended up skipping the first session. I figured they should have been recorded anyway, so I should get access to those copies.

I came down for the second session, and Gary and Greg were both just sitting in the atrium. The session I wanted to attend was actually held out there, since the guy had too much trouble keeping warm in the designated room yesterday. I didn’t think it was bad, but I think he may have been stuck under an air vent at the front of the room.

After that session, we decided to skip out on the keynote and lunch. I forgot that they usually have drawings for prizes, otherwise I might have protested a bit. We stopped in Conway so Gary could get an oil change and a carwash. While we waited for a quick detail, I took us back across town to Chipotle. I don’t think Greg was too impressed after the sticker shock, but Gary and I enjoyed it. When we got back to Splash, Summer convinced me to wait 15 minutes for her to get off work and ride back with her.

Nearly an hour later, we finally left and ran into some really heavy traffic due to a wreck right on the interstate. We made it home though, and Summer went to the gym while I went down into the shop to see how the week went. One of our new guys started that morning, and I just briefly met him on our way out for the day.

I went home to unpack, and then struggled with Summer to communicate that we should move some money around for Monday. I ended up meeting her at Centennial to try and withdraw cash, but they said they didn’t have that much to hand out. Frustrated with my explanations of what we needed, she snapped that she would just get a cashier’s check for seven bucks. I took that to Arvest, and was back out the door in mere seconds.

From there, I went home and shuffled things around in the garage for a bit. Autumn had senior night, and Summer wanted me to come record them walking onto the field. Somehow, Autumn convinced those in charge to let her have three people with her on the field. I was glad that Summer got to be a part of it, but it seemed like Autumn was only paying attention to her grandparents while they were out there.

As we left, I ducked out in a hurry and went home to continue cleaning out the garage. There’s still a lot of work to do, but at least I’ll be able to fit a car in there again. The girls went to IHOP after the game, so Summer was already in bed and not at all talkative when I got there. I waited up for the girls, and then went to bed once they got home.

You’re Not Getting It.

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I Ate ACOT

I woke up at a usual time this morning since I didn’t have to do a lot to get ready, and headed to the shop to meet Gary and Greg. Gary drove us to Little Rock for ACOT, and I just sat in the back and played Into the Breach the whole way. I did learn, though, that apparently his cruise control will keep his lane and slow down to a complete stop for him without intervention. I really didn’t think any other vehicles did that for an extended period of time.

Once we got to the Embassy, we stole some breakfast before finding sessions to join. Greg and I stuck together for a couple, but otherwise we all bounced between different things that seemed interesting at the time. I was overall relatively happy with the ones I picked, though there was one pretty rough one lead by a guy who reminded me a bit of Allen.

They had snack foods all throughout the day, so by the time lunch rolled around, I really wasn’t that hungry. I still ate too much though, and continued to eat too much in the afternoon. Shane hosted a huge dinner for like three or more districts at The Butcher Shop, so the three of us walked down the hill for that.

While we waited to be seated, some old, belligerent guy started yelling at one of the bartenders. Gary offered to kick his ass, to which JOSH(!!!) responded with affirmation. Afterward we all had a laugh about it, and learned that the guy was just an asshole regular that was like that twice a week. When we finally got seated, we very nearly took up the whole center of the restaurant, though we were split into three or so large groups of tables. Gary didn’t even sit with Greg and me, but we enjoyed chatting with the gang from Farmington. I went for a high score of roughly $80, and heard that the food alone was a bit over $2,000 for everyone.

I kept ribbing Greg every time I made the Farmington crew laugh, and he kept poking back that he was going to play the theme from Rocky as I made the climb back up the hill. When we actually left, the Farmington guys drove by slowly in their van, blasting the song. By the time we made it up to the hotel, I was completely tuckered out – not just from the relatively short uphill walk, but from the day in general. I hadn’t had a stellar night of sleep the night before, so I just stayed in, took a quick shower, and went to bed.

The ACOT 10 is no joke.

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Call off the APB!

For some reason I thought today might be kind of quiet, but I was pretty instantly commandeered to help Gary write up some documentation for one of our recurring tasks to renew security certificates. It was neat to be able to apply one of the very few things I learned yesterday, and I felt good about expressing what I had learned. Greg was actually at work, and had to go fix my intercom at Oakland after Thomas came back to the shop, hurriedly looking for answers.

We left for lunch just a little bit early and went to Brangus, where we were quickly surrounded by Mark and a handful of other highly political figures. Our host actually joked about it as we left, and I suggested that he seated them around us on purpose.

I went to Oakland in the afternoon for a bit, after Sheri contacted me with worry about her work orders yesterday, and then Thomas came back to the shop first thing this morning. I closed out what I could, but will have more when I return. That is the way of life.

After work, I ran home to start packing for the conference. Then I went to my parents’ house for bún bò Huế. They were in the driveway about to leave for more tomatoes, but immediately came back inside to eat when I mentioned that I was in a little bit of a rush. We ate, talked about our game plan for the weekend, and then I went back home to start a load of laundry.

I don’t really know where the time went, but It was nearly midnight before I got to Summer’s for the evening. At least all of my chores were done, and hopefully everything I needed was packed.

High anxiety.

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Network-

I only woke up about 15 minutes earlier than usual, since I did all my prep work the night before. I didn’t love it, but it got the job done, and got me to Little Rock a little after 7:30, which gave me just enough time to settle in before finding the classroom. Greg called to tell me he was coming in late, but that he would be there since they couldn’t get a refund for his ticket. He said he felt better, so hopefully I don’t catch whatever he had.

Mike Meyers was a bit of a celebrity in the field, and I think he probably acted more that way than anybody else let on. I was only just aware of his existence in the space, but Ben wanted to come have his book autographed. When I saw that he was giving us copies of his new book, I jumped at the chance to have it signed for myself, and got a selfie with him as well.

The class itself was rather a disappointment. I had hoped it would be an intense workshop to try and cover as much material as possible, but instead it ended up almost being more of a roundtable. It would have been a nice way to decompress and chat further about things you learned in a formal class, but in and of itself, I don’t think Greg or I learned anything at all. It was almost more of a pep talk to psyche us up for the test itself.

Greg and I had lunch at the hotel, which was quite a bit smaller than I expected, but still better than the “barely a step above cafeteria food” I had documented from previous years. Half of the bar was a salad, and the other half had mostly run out of food by the time we got there. They had some chicken, and Greg found some pork when we went back for seconds. The staff were fussing that it seemed like there were more people than they were told, and we missed out on dessert as well. Ben picked up Tacos 4 Life, but I declined his offer to pick up some for us, remembering a less than stellar experience from before.

The afternoon went by relatively quickly, but with not much more productivity. By then, the hotel had managed to bring out cookies, and did a fair job of keeping the drink fridges stocked. We got through the day, but Greg mostly scoffed and rolled his eyes at the fossil that couldn’t remember his ports or acronyms. I was a bit more forgiving and could see the struggle with fitting so much historical knowledge into an eight hour course. I tried to reel the conversations back in to the test material periodically, but I don’t know how much that helped.

I made the trip back home without incident, but confirmed how much I hate traffic between Conway and Little Rock. I just don’t know how people do it. My entire life would be so much more stressful if I had to do that every day. I miss the old days of getting a hotel room the night before a day like that. I got gas, went home to unload, and then went to my parents’ house to visit for a bit.

Julie was there to talk to Dad about their trip to Disney. They warmed up some fish sticks for sandwiches, and Mom shattered one of her prized bowls full of boiled carrots and butter, slicing her hand open a bit. I didn’t really get to talk about my delivery day plans, but suffice to say that I wasn’t thrilled with the way support responded. I went ahead and made the appointment, but apparently even that can change, so if we stay the night, I’ll have to get a room that allows for refunds in the event of a reschedule.

When I left my parents’ house, I went to the high school and got some of that fancy pellet ice from the breakroom, and then went out to the stadium to watch the marching assessment with Summer. We stuck around longer and colder than I expected, and then ran out to the cars to beat the crowd out. The girls eventually made it home after the event, and everyone was off to bed in a hurry.

0/10, especially with that weird, bland rice.

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Never Gonna Finish

It was pretty cold out this morning, plus I had an armful of stuff I wanted to take with me, so I drove to work. I was really hoping I could spend the day studying Net+, but Greg and Josh were both out with the flu, so I spent the entire day doing things for either Greg, or Kyle later in the afternoon.

Thomas drove Zach, Gary, and me to Freddy’s for lunch, which was kind of a surprising choice. I always kind of thought he just tolerated that place. Evidently Jason’s daughter was the one that took our orders, but I didn’t recognize her on account of not really knowing her. Gary just said something about Jason’s car not being totaled when he saw it in the parking lot as we were leaving.

Zach and I went to Support Services to rearrange some stuff in the afternoon, and then ran around town picking up touch panels and tools to hang for Kyle at Dwight. My rooms at Oakland were finished over a month ago, so I was surprised to learn that his weren’t. That took us the rest of the day, so we just barely had time to clean up when we got back to the shop. I had made my Hawaiian coffee in the morning, and was upset that Tammy threw it out at the end of the day in spite of me specifically asking her not to. I only had one cup in the morning, so I guess if I want more, we’ll have to go back.

I went home after work and immediately started getting things ready to go to Little Rock alone the next morning. I think I just psyched myself out over traveling so early in the morning, but I hate that Greg can’t go with me. At least Ben will swing by for lunch, but I would have really liked someone I could talk to about the material afterward.

I finished up much later than I wanted, then got gas and headed up to Summer’s for the night. Hopefully I’m prepared enough, but it won’t be for a lack of trying.

Mike Meyers before Halloween? Seems a little on-the-nose.

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Starting Earlier

I wanted to shift my sleep schedule back starting today, so I didn’t let myself go back to sleep after I woke up around six. I laid in bed and played Into the Breach until Summer stirred a bit. Then I got up and heated some leftover breakfast pizza. Eventually the girls got around, so I went to Walgreens across town to pick up a deal on tooth paste. Then I went to work to drop off some scrap and pick up a TV stand before going home and starting some laundry.

Eaddie was having Gavin over for the afternoon, and they decided they wanted to go ride bicycles, so Summer brought them over while I was working in the garage. They took off, and then Summer and I went to Walmart to walk around and get stuff for dinner. From there, I went back home to finish laundry and wait for the kids while Summer went home to start on dinner.

When we got back, Summer had made some delicious looking meatballs for spaghetti. I put the TV stand together and got it stood up on the old TV stand I tried to give away before it started raining yesterday. To my surprise, the red line was back. It’s not unbearable for the increase in size, but it’s not a smart TV either, so it’s annoying not having a remote for it.

Dinner was awesome, though Autumn didn’t join us since she went out with Nick. She came home ranting about him, though it seemed like they were both really just manipulating each other. The four of us that did eat really enjoyed the home cooked meal. Once we finished, the five of us played a game of UNO FLIP! It was a surprisingly short game, and then the kids all went to their rooms.

Summer and I watched the first episode of Our Flag Means Death and then I flipped through YouTube until Gavin’s parents picked him up. We stayed up a bit longer, Summer finished up a few chores, and I made it to bed early.

Feels like finals week.

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It’s a Garage!

The girls both had things at school early this morning, so they were out of the house before we woke up. Once we got out of bed, I got started pretty quickly on the back yard, mowing and trimming a path to the shed so I could offload some stuff from the garage. It was a little warm outside, but I pushed through all day long.

Autumn came by when she finished with her activity, and went with Summer to get gas and prepare for the Sadie Hawkins dance in the evening. I continued sorting through things in the garage, trying not to let Doug distract me to much as he popped in a couple of times. Later in the afternoon, I got the pressure washer out so I could clean my old Cat Genie litter box.

I was pretty beat from working all day, so I came in as the sun went down to take a shower. Eaddie didn’t get back from her robotics trip until late, so I picked her up after my shower, and took her home. I forgot the pizza at home though, and drove back through a really heavy thunderstorm to get it. When I got back, Summer and I tried to set up their new TV, but the stands I brought for it were the wrong type.

Summer wanted to hike the next day, but I was fairly certain I wouldn’t be up for it, with my aches from working all day. I did my best to get to bed early though, so at least I’d have the option.

One tubby tubby!

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In Transit

Our meeting was fairly short this morning, as they’ve only come up with about three agenda items per week. That will grow as we bring in the two new-hires though, and we’ll continue the tradition of learning the flow of data every year and a half when we lose people. I was left mostly to myself, so I picked at a few things in my office before going to Oakland. I didn’t notice when I’ll actually start moving to Dwight, but I’m not really stoked about it.

I came back to the shop for lunch, and a few of us went to Zaxby’s. After we ate, we noticed a semi with a trailer full of identical grey Teslas going down Main Street. I had to get gas in the Shadow anyway, so I followed it until the guy parked in the turning lane at Chick-fil-A and ran across the street. I figured he was just stopping for lunch, because he was on the road again by the time I finished getting gas.

On the way back to the shop, I saw a girl tip-toeing her sport bike down the road by Summer’s new car wash, so I turned around and helped her push it over to 2nd Street. She fussed a bit about having just purchased the bike, and how they had trouble with the shift lever. They had it rigged together with some wire, and the whole linkage just fell apart. I made sure she was okay, and continued back to work when she insisted that she was fine and someone was on the way.

The afternoon was really quiet, and I spent some time cleaning out my old cubby in the office. I threw out an armful of stuff that I was saving, because my perception of value has changed quite a bit since I first started and was using that cubby. Now that I have an office, I should make room for the new techs.

When I left work, I decided to ride by Allen’s house to see if he was home. His car was there, and the front door was open, so I popped in to surprise him the day before his birthday. He was happy to see me, and we chatted for quite a while. I caught him up on all the goings-on at work, and he talked about going hunting tomorrow.

Apparently Eaddie wanted to play hooky and stayed home from school all day. Summer let her, since her lowest grade was a 94%. Autumn had to perform at an away game after school, so she was gone all evening. When I finished at Allen’s, I asked Eaddie if she wanted to go get her bike, and she quickly responded that she did. I went to pick her up, and she took off as soon as we got to my parents’ house. I stuck around for just a little bit, but they were busy either eating or watering the garden.

I went home to clean up before Summer got home. Bác Vân was outside for a little bit, and asked me to mow some of the tall grass in my front yard. I knocked that out really quickly, but then she wanted to buy my mower because she was aggravated with her own gas mower. I just kept telling her I could mow when the season comes around again.

Summer originally wanted to have a fire, but I was glad I didn’t waste the effort. She didn’t leave work until super late. Eaddie never made it home, and instead stopped at Maristella’s house. She asked me to pick her up, forgetting our conversation just minutes earlier that we had to wait for Summer to get back with the Murano. I brought her home, and then we went back for the bike once Summer arrived. They both wanted Casey’s pizza for dinner, so I ordered that before we left, and then we stopped at Kroger for some juice before getting the pizza. I ordered their beer cheese breakfast pizza and a barbecue brisket pizza, and the brisket was surprisingly good.

After we ate, we settled on watching the first two episodes of She-Hulk. I was glad I did, because I had forgotten who a couple of the characters were from the very beginning. I didn’t even realize how neglected some of those characters were as the story kept moving along. Eaddie quickly went to bed afterward, since she has a robotics event tomorrow. Autumn came over as soon as she got back to town, and Summer was quick to bed.

It must have fit, because it shipped!

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Draining

I finally remembered to bring a bánh giò for breakfast this morning, but I forgot my soy sauce. Luckily Summer was working in town and brought me some after she finished her morning workout. I spent the first couple hours of the day resetting passwords that Brody had accessed during his time with us, which was coincidentally the first time we’d ever done that before. We just never bothered in the past, but with such a new crew, it seemed like a good time.

The guys went to lunch several minutes early, but I went an hour late to go with Summer. I picked her up on the Shadow and we rode across the street to Morelos. The lunch fajitas are so good there. She had told me earlier in the day that she wanted to have family time this weekend, but I absolutely could not waste any more time getting my things in order. Then I upset her further with my response when she pushed me about John and Melissa. I’m simply juggling too many things, and I’m prioritizing them the best that I can. I’m not going to let something that’s going to drag me into the past distract me from the future I’m trying to build.

I dropped her off and planned to meet her at home right after work, where Dad was going to meet me to help with my leaky sink. I spent most of the afternoon watching more Network+ videos until I had to go upstairs for a couple work orders. Then I left on time, because Dad beat me to the house and had already started looking at the sink.

We took everything apart once I got there, and struggled breaking the garbage disposal apart until I brought out a real hammer. He had some ancient plumber’s putty from McCoys, which he was able to knead and microwave in order to make it pliable enough to apply to the sink drain. Summer came over after work and picked at weeds in the back yard, and Dad and I had to go to Lowe’s for a replacement rubber gasket.

We got most everything put back together correctly this time, but Dad had to go to a church meeting. Summer stuck around for a little while, but eventually went home. I continued compressing the putty, and scrubbed the corroded parts until they were a bit cleaner and more usable. Then when Dad came back after the meeting, we got everything sealed back up water tight again. There’s still a leak in the faucet, but that can wait for another day.

I ended the evening with the finale of She-Hulk, which was both weird and satisfying. I, for one, enjoyed it for its quirks.

Whatever, K.E.V.I.N.