Category: Uncategorised

Uncategorised

Fill the Box

I woke up shortly after Summer left for work this morning. I felt hungry, so I thawed out a bagel, then started poking around the house to see what I could store in my new garage cabinet. Autumn eventually came to take Eaddie home, to get her mandated locker at school, and then out for an evening with her friends.

About mid afternoon, I went to my parents’ house to chat for a while. We scheduled a day to talk to their financial advisor about his retirement, and hopefully that will be the last of that, but I’m not so sure. As Summer finished up at work and went to the gym, I made my way up to her house for the evening.

The kids showed up after Eaddie’s night out with friends, but then left for their father’s once Eaddie packed some things. Then it was an early night to bed.

Rolls on rolls on rolls.

Uncategorised

Vacation in Spirit

I went to bed super early last night, and then woke up early this morning after many hours of sleep. I found a charge on my Discover card from Disney, but didn’t go with the rest of my family a couple weeks ago. After some digging, we discovered that Dad had somehow been signed into my account and charged a couple things to my card. I was just glad I didn’t have to cancel my card and get a new number.

Summer had to do some shopping for work, so she came to get me and we went to Walmart, Harbor Freight, AutoZone, and then Sumo for lunch. Afterward, she dropped me off at my house so I could do some things there.

It was nice outside, so I took the opportunity to clean out a corner of the garage and put together the last part of my new metal cabinet. It was a bit of a struggle to get everything to align properly, and I’m still not super happy with the door, but it works. Now I just have to figure out what to store in it.

After a quick shower, Summer finished at work and took me back to her house. Eaddie had been deep cleaning her room all day, which she had needed to start for a while. I stayed there and played some Don’t Starve while Summer went to the gym.

For dinner, I took Eaddie to pick up Summer at the gym, and went to my parents’ house for egg roll salads. Mom seemed to function pretty well as long as I could get her to whatever corner of the kitchen had what she needed. We ate, told Dad jokes, and then I took Summer back to her car and met her at my house.

Eaddie and I had been wanting to watch Hawkeye for a while, so we finally started it. I felt like it started super slow, and didn’t have a very interesting plot or memorable soundtrack. I was also pretty disappointed with the surround sound in general, and I had some strange artifacting in the picture. I couldn’t tell if it was from Disney+ or possibly something with my Chromecast.

Once we finished the first two episodes, Summer went to bed and I started the first episode of What If…?. Eaddie didn’t stick around for much of it, but I was at least appeased with the level of action and the pacing of the episode. By then, I was pretty tired, so I finished up my chores and went to bed.

Have some Upper 10. It’s more than 7 Up!

Uncategorised

Phone It In

Summer had some trouble getting up early this morning. I slept in for a while, and then played some more Don’t Starve until I got around to a shower. Eaddie didn’t want to get out of bed, so I left and took Summer to Morelos for lunch.

Earlier in the day, Bryan had asked if I knew anyone with an older Pixel or Samsung phone that might qualify for a trade-in. Johnny bit the bullet and was going to have Bryan drive all the way to Fort Smith from Conway to swap for his Galaxy S20 FE. Aaron joined the conversation late, but had an S10 that also qualified and was older, so I drove up to his house to get it, then met Bryan at AT&T.

Kevin had already gotten everything done, and they were waiting on me for the trade-in process. Then Bryan wanted to try and transfer all of his old content to his new iPhone. Rather than take up time in the store, we went back to my house to tinker with it. We chatted for a while, and eventually he headed home.

Aaron eventually came over and picked up the Pixel 6 so he could swap with Johnny later. Then I finally got rid of an old, broken chair and drove up to Summer’s for the evening. I warmed up some leftovers and ate a bit. Eaddie really wanted to watch Hawkeye, but I didn’t want to watch it there, so everyone went to bed.

No Returns

Uncategorised

Highking Trails

Summer picked up fast food breakfast this morning, and then everyone got up to go to Magazine Mountain. We stopped at a couple overlooks and then the visitor’s center, then made a couple loops around the top of the mountain before parking at the lodge to hike up to the top. Eaddie would never admit it, but she was sweet and walked with me while Summer and Autumn walked way ahead.

After the hike, we stopped at my house and cleaned up the back yard after last night’s fire. Then Eaddie rode her bike to my parents’ house while we drove Autumn home to get her car. We all met back at my parents’ house for some leftovers. I rolled around in Mom’s wheelchair for a bit. Eventually Autumn left for her father’s for the week, and the girls and I went home so Eaddie could clean her room and do some laundry.

Summer had to return to work for the week and went to bed, so I stayed up and played some Don’t Starve while Eaddie completed her chores.

Finally made it to winter…

Uncategorised

Need a Little Christmas

Summer jumped out of bed early this morning and ruined the secret of Santa Claus for me. I couldn’t sleep in much and was a little hungry after having a complicated relationship with food last night, so I got up. Summer made us some scrambled eggs, and we eventually got both kids up enough to dump out their stockings. Eaddie was in an immediate mood, throwing an absolute tantrum at everything. I was very near slapping it out of her, and both girls just kept picking at one another.

We got Eaddie up and around to some chores, and eventually got everyone through the shower so we could make our way to my parents’ house. Summer made all of our contribution to lunch, and we were off.

Bác Vân and Doug beat us there. I think Julie made most of the food and was about two hours late. Eaddie took a nap in my bedroom until the food was ready, and came out in much better form. We ate, did our quickest round of presents ever, and then left so I could clean up house a bit for some friends.

I had messaged Diana happy birthday earlier in the day, and she said they were in town along with Josue and wanted to get together. They agreed on a fire at my place and we all met up for a nice quiet evening outside. It was really nice seeing them all again, and the kids enjoyed some roasted marshmallows.

Josue stuck around for a little while and chatted with me after the others left. The girls all went to sleep, and eventually we packed everything up and he headed out. By then, I was ready for bed too.

Hasn’t snowed a single flurry, but Santa dear we’re in a hurry!

Uncategorised

Hot Coffee Mod

I slept in pretty late today, and felt great for it. I remember waking up in an anxiety attack briefly, but it didn’t last long or keep me from falling right back to sleep. I ate a leftover smoked sausage for lunch, and eventually got cleaned up to go to Summer’s for the evening.

Amanda asked me to stop by and bring a package in for her, so I did that, then grabbed a free 2-liter from Casey’s, and finally made it up to Summer’s where she and all three kids were playing Mario Party. It was pretty loud while everyone was screaming at one another, and it made me a little woozy.

Presents didn’t take long to open, because it was a pretty lowkey Christmas. Summer went overboard and got me an Ember mug, which I looked at on a whim after seeing them on sale at Costco. I made some loose leaf tea in the Manatea infuser she also got me, and the cup really made all the differnce. After hours, even the very last little sip was as hot as the first.

We tried having the kids put together the gingerbread houses, but I don’t think they cared much about it. Eaddie had some fun with it, but Autumn didn’t participate at all, and Noah mostly just made a mess. After they got the walls up, they finished their game. Noah left, and the girls went to their rooms. Summer went to bed pretty early, which left me up late, sippin’ hot tea.

Tropical Christmas

Uncategorised

WIN█

I got up early this morning after having some trouble sleeping, then ran home to shower. On the way out of town, I stopped by Casey’s for a cookie, and McDonald’s for breakfast. It was a long drive to Bentonville to get Mitch, so I put on The Matrix to listen to the original before we watched Resurrections at noon.

I made it up there with enough time to get a little food, so headed back to Fayetteville and went into the Buffalo Wild Wings right outside the Malco theater. It was exactly how I remembered it in Russellville. So much so, that we had trouble getting out in time to make it to the movie. I didn’t even have time to get through concessions for popcorn.

The theater was really nice. I had been to a movie there once before, but it was a really long time ago. The Dolby theater with reclining seats reminded me a lot of the one we visited in Dallas, but through all of the trailers and bumpers, I couldn’t tell that the height channels were used at all. Even the feature film didn’t have any obvious Atmos sound, which was super disappointing. The movie itself was pretty good though. They could have cut the runtime in half if they hadn’t included all of the clips from the original, but I guess it served to point out every one of the callbacks.

After the movie, we went to Arcadia Retrocade for a little bit. Mitch had never been, and I thought we’d spend some time there and reminisce. He had been struggling with some anxiety all day though, so we ended up playing a few games for just a short bit, and then heading on back to his place.

On the way back, we stopped by Big Whiskey’s for a while. I finally got my soda, and eventually we got some dinner as we chatted away. It was really great getting to catch up some more, and I’m excited he’ll be closer in Conway soon. We stopped by Mac’s liquor store on the way back to his place, and I picked up a stout that he recommended after they didn’t have the Bentonville Brewery flavor I had a sip of at the bar. The lady at the counter was super sweet, which seemed very different from every liquor store I’ve been to before.

After I dropped him back off at his apartment, I looked for the largest Walmart I could find. I ended up at the one across from the main office, but had trouble finding the actual entrance. It was weirdly obfuscated from the road, but I made it. The store was very large, but outside of an empty clearance area that was half the size of ours, and two entire aisles worth of bicycle helmets, there wasn’t a whole lot very special about it. I had to wait in line a while to check out, and then I was on my way home.

The trip back was rough, because for some reason people wanted to park in the leftmost lane the entire way back. After I finally got on I-40, I ended up behind a truck and another slow car trying to pass one another at like 65 miles per hour. Another guy behind me got mad and passed me on the right shoulder, all to cut off the guy in front of me. By the time I got home and cleaned up a bit, I was too tired to lug anything over to Summer’s, so I just went to bed.

Always the plan.

Uncategorised

Everybody Dies

Summer went to work in Cabot today. I slept in as long as I could, but Autumn was banging around the house rearranging her room. Eaddie stayed in bed all day, so I just milled around and ate leftovers as I got hungry.

Eventually I gave up on going home, and played some Don’t Starve on the TV. The girls went to eat with their father, so when Summer got home, I made us some salads for dinner. Then when the girls got back, Eaddie and I watched the last episode of House. It seemed much shorter than I remembered, but it was still the perfect ending to the series.

With Summer in bed early after a long day, and Eaddie not wanting to watch anything else, I got ready for bed myself. As I finished up, Sweetums brought a baby mouse into the house, which Autumn had to chase around and throw back outside. The Matrix awaits me tomorrow, and I’m excited in spite of the bad reviews.

Follow the white rabbit…

Uncategorised

How the Grinch Stole Chromebooks

I made it through McDonald’s and Casey’s for my freebies again this morning. Then I rolled into work a few minutes early, where we sat around the shop chatting for about an hour. Thomas started to split us into groups to see who could go home at nine, but I wanted to finish swapping Chromebooks at Oakland, so I left.

I was alone in the building most of the time, but as I made my way back to the front of the building, I saw Librado and Brittany coming through with their vacuums. I finished up pretty close to noon, stopped back by the shop to drop off the old Chromebooks, and then went to see Summer at Superfast for a couple minutes.

When I got home, I spent some time picking up and filing old paperwork. Eventually Autumn dropped Eaddie off so we could go practice riding or driving, but all she wanted to do by then was ride her bicycle. I let her take off, and then I spent the rest of the daylight putting together one of the storage cabinets I got the other day.

Eaddie got back as the sun was setting and wanted me to take her to her grandparents’ house for the night. On the way, I mentioned wanting to try The Crackhouse food truck on 4th Street. We stopped in long enough to learn they couldn’t take credit at the time, then ran home for some cash. When we got back, I ordered a variety platter, burger, and shrimp plate.

By then, it was too late for Eaddie to be of much use at her grandparents’ place, so we went home to eat with Summer. The food was really good, but super overpriced. The crab was small and difficult to extract, but the shrimp was great. Eaddie really wanted to stay the night at my house, but we ended up staying put for the night. She and Autumn spent some time together in Autumn’s room while Summer went straight to bed. I was pretty exhausted myself, so I went to bed early too.

Give me a break, give me a break!

Uncategorised

Alright, Bud

I woke up feeling pretty sick this morning after last night. I made it through my shower and to work, but it didn’t get better for quite a while, and I never quite made it back to 100%. Thomas was at work, but Zach and Gary were out. The others got together and split up into groups to close old work orders, and I went to Oakland to swap out old Chromebooks.

Brody called and said they were going to Fat Daddy’s downtown for lunch, so I went back to the shop and picked a group of them up. After we ordered, our server told us they were slammed with a short staff, and it showed when it took an hour to get our food. That would have made more sense if the food was actually hotter or fresher. They never cease to disappoint me, this time with a tough, dry tortilla, lukewarm filling, and dry, tough brisket. All of that was $17, and of course the server stands over you while you pay on their handheld device that everyone else has touched, making tipping accurately very awkward. I was out the door for just under 22 bucks, which absolutely disgusted me.

I spent the afternoon with more of the same, not quite finishing what I had started. I should be able to finish tomorrow for our half day though. As I finished, I started a support chat with Google because my Pixel Buds have been giving me trouble with battery life. My right bud constantly dies very early, after only two hours of playback. The battery percentage always reports with some disparity, but the right one has consistently been giving me less than half of the life it should have.

After work, I went home to change and then went to my eye appointment. I nearly fell asleep in the exam room waiting for the new doctor. She was kind, but I don’t think I got great news. It’s odd, because my vision doesn’t seem worse, but she seemed to indicate sub-optimal results. I guess we’ll see in 2023, because I dropped vision insurance for next year.

I went back home and waited for my UPS package, and then went up to Summer’s for the evening. Eaddie and I watched an episode of House while Summer and Autumn watched TV in the living room. Then everyone went to bed pretty early.

Just turn down your muchness.