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What’s Cookin’

Summer got up and made breakfast this morning. I got super stiff last night in bed, which I felt the numerous times I got up in the middle of the night. It really made it hard to move around for a while, but I never got up to much of anything anyway. We did finally play UNO Flip, which was a great twist on the classic game. Then we watched The Princess Bride while Eaddie did something else.

Eventually dinner time came around and Summer wanted to cook up some stir fry with the leftovers we had. She dug out some frozen veggies and cut some extras up, and then I threw in the leftover steak and sausage, filling up the wok nearly to the top, once the rice and everything else was in it.

Eaddie really approved of dinner, and then Summer made some pumpkin bread for dessert. We made Eaddie play a game of UNO Flip with us, and then everyone filtered off to bed.

I just want you to feel you’re doing well. I hate for people to die embarrassed.

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Two by Four

Summer and Eaddie ran a 5k this morning while Autumn and I slept. I didn’t really sleep in much, but I laid awake with a cat laying across my neck until the other two got back home. Then I sat around for a little while before going home to do some work.

It was really nice outside when I got there, so I decided to hang the rest of the bicycles in the garage. I got one done pretty quickly, but the next two had me sweating as the outside temperature continued to rise. Bác Vân stopped in to chat for a little bit as I finished up. Then I went inside to shower.

Eventually I met Summer and Autumn at Walmart to pick up some dinner. We picked up a bunch of stuff from clearance, then got steaks for dinner. I went back in to get a bunch more Kool-Aid because it was only 15 cents, and then I met the girls back at their house.

Summer prepped stuff for salads and mashed potatoes inside while I grilled some New York strips and hot dogs. The steaks actually cooked to a nice doneness, but they were still tough for some reason. Autumn’s cheeks were still swollen pretty badly from having her wisdom teeth out, so she just ate hot dogs and mashed peas on a plate without any buns.

After we ate, Autumn went to bed and the rest of us watched an episode of House. Then Summer went to bed and Eaddie and I watched one more episode before bed.

I’m forgetting something.

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Productivity Counter

I was supposed to do some training this morning to show Jacob, the one newest tech, how to image a computer. I kind of assumed he had already done so before, but evidently he hadn’t. Instead of keeping it super simple, I treated it like I was giving real SCCM training, and gave a quick overview of a task sequence, which I think was good practice.

The rest of the day was the total opposite of productivity. I managed to always be doing something, while somehow never accomplishing anything. I should get some kind of award for being able to do that.

I thought most of us were going to lunch together, but then Thomas disappeared with Zach and Greg. The usual four rest of us decided to go to Ridgewood Brothers, and wouldn’t you know we ended up in line behind the others. I keep letting those things bother me, and I guess I shouldn’t, but it’s just a huge shift from how things used to be. It’s causing pointless aggravation with more than just me.

While we were in line, Robert came out to tell me that Karen had their baby last night, and that he delivered him himself. Evidently their midwife was several minutes out when the moment arrived, so he just did it himself after having “caught” them in the past.

Everyone took their food back to the shop to eat, since it took us about 40 minutes to get through the unusually busy line. I tried their new pickles, but didn’t really love them. It’s the first thing they’ve had that I really didn’t care for, which was a surprise.

The afternoon was slow and quiet. I never made it out of the building, in spite of my plans to do so. My second day of Microsoft Azure training came and went, and I didn’t listen to a bit of it. Eventually I just left work and went home.

Summer took the day off to take Autumn in to have her wisdom teeth removed, so the girls were all home after school. I sat around the house for most of the evening until later, when I went to join them. Autumn was already asleep on the couch. Summer was already sleep in bed. Eaddie was awake as usual, so I went and sat with her for a while. She went from doing Duolingo to talking on the phone while I played the Switch, and then my phone.

Eventually even Eaddie wanted to go to sleep, since Summer signed the both of them up for a 5k in the morning. I played easy, yet satisfying phone games for a while longer, and eventually made it to bed.

‘Cause I’m a dic… I’m addicted to you!

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BOUO

I had trouble getting to sleep last night, and at some point tangled myself up in my CPAP hose, then pulled my CPAP off the nightstand and into the floor. Fortunately nothing broke and I made it through the rest of the night, but it made for a slow start to my morning.

I just hung out in my office all morning, as it was pretty quiet downstairs. Around 11, I started a Microsoft Azure virtual training course, but left it running while we went to lunch. Summer met Gary, Zach, Greg, and me at Wendy’s for a no-frills, quick lunch. Then it was back to the shop for what ended up being the rest of the day.

At one point I thought I would go by the high school to work on some software for Ethan, but I never made it. Instead, I had to wait for some software to finish downloading, and then I got sidetracked troubleshooting a wireless keyboard that evidently was paired to a different receiver, and I just didn’t notice for several minutes.

After work, I went straight home and finished up the strip of carpet I had been scrubbing. The last stretch pulled out a bunch of really dark water, but it looked better and I was tired of it by then. I really needed to start the drying process so I could move the furniture back and out of the way.

I ended the night trying to peel a sticker off of a fuzzy, oversized, tennis ball, because television props are cooler without unnecessary branding.

That ball saves lives!

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Soggy Carpet

It rained a bit today, so I drove to work. I had a CPPC meeting pretty early, and that lasted nearly until lunch time. Six of us went to Sam’s, which is usually pretty doable, but they were short today and it took us nearly an hour just to get our food to the table. I got to take a few extra pieces home, which was nice.

The afternoon was pretty quiet, and I ended the day at Oakland to run a touch cable through the ceiling. It was a bit easier than I expected, and I made it out pretty close to quitting time.

I went straight home since I already felt pretty gross from being up in the ceiling, and started cleaning carpets as soon as I got in. I put on an old George Carlin special, and then Minority Report in the background while I cleaned, since Amazon wanted to give me a $5 credit for streaming something out of their Prime Video catalog. It didn’t really distract me at all, but it still took me all night long just because I kept pulling dirt out of the carpet.

This is going to take all month.

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Carpet Diem

I finally finished up what should have been a pretty short and easy project today. I probably could have just worked around the issues much quicker, but I feel like the experience gained was worth more. Hopefully.

We had an issue with Apple computers stealing existing hostnames from our directory, and nobody could figure out why, nor did anyone want to put the effort into retooling our management system. Zach was finally tasked with figuring the crap out, so now I know we’re in trouble.

Several of us went to La Chiquita for lunch, where I had a light, and what I felt was overpriced tamale plate. I used to really not like tamales, but they’re a sometimes-food for me now. After lunch I went by Oakland for a bit, and brought back a list of serial numbers for iPads that were misbehaving.

After work, I went straight to my parents’ house for some eggplant soup. Then I headed home to clean some carpet. My new carpet cleaner is great for quick jobs, but not so great for big ones. The waste tank is just too tiny, and I feel like I empty it two to three times for every clean water tank. I also kept pulling up dirty water, even after two hours on a 3′ x 4′ area. I ended the night with the decision to soak that area and a little farther down with some off-brand oxi-cleaner to see if I fare any better tomorrow.

Just comment-out some lines and call it your own!

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Mini Reunion

It was an odd and quiet day at work today. I heard a lot from Brody as usual, but not so much from anyone else. He’s been putting some work into learning his way around some of the Apple stuff, and was shocked to learn that doing so makes him the leading expert now.

I ended up taking a late lunch break and picking up a couple sandwiches from Subway, then surprised Summer at work. We ate quickly, and then it was back to work. It wasn’t until the end of the day that Gary came around to my office and chatted for a bit about this weekend’s class reunion. He seemed to think I should have just come out, but also understood why I didn’t. Fortunately he and a few of the people I actually did care about were getting together at Taco Villa for dinner, so he invited me out for that.

Most everyone was there by the time I pulled up. Robert and Grant were talking to Mike, and Gary and Jon showed up right after I did. The building was packed as usual, but we squeezed in and got our orders placed. Then Gary and I just carried food outside for everyone so we weren’t using up all the oxygen in the place.

I mostly sat and listened, but I was glad the others had a chance to catch up. It was a proper boys night out, and I got to hear stories about Jon being a shithead. That was most of the stories. Grant did show us their building design, and hopefully the bank will sign off so they can break ground soon.

We didn’t stay terribly late, and I went home for the night. I had to scrounge up enough packaging to ship off an old TV remote I sold on eBay. I honestly never thought it would sell, but here we are. It wasn’t worth much, but it’ll pay for lunch… or half of lunch.

Keep it short. It’ll be less awkward.

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Buddy Thing

I didn’t let myself sleep in today, and got up to finish the leftover chicken tacos from weeks ago. Summer got the girls up and around, and eventually we left for a day in Conway. We went to Kohl’s first so Summer could look for some clothes. As we finished up, I wanted to run through the guy’s clearance, and that’s where I ran into Kyle and Terri. It was great getting to catch up with him for a bit, because it’s been ages since I’ve seen them since they moved to Conway.

As they had to run, the girls rushed me out so we could find some food. We landed on Golden Corral since we had over an hour to kill before the movie. I stuffed myself pretty silly and paid the price in various cramps during the show. Venom wasn’t even playing in 3D at all back home, so we settled for a smaller screen in Conway again.

The movie was relatively forgettable, much like the first. It was mostly a buddy film, with not much of a story, especially for an iconic villain. I was glad to see them fold the cinematic universes together at the end, though It was a bit jarring how they did it. The whole thing felt super forced, so hopefully the final result isn’t awful. I think we’re going to be going off the rails from here on out though.

When we made it back home, the girls got ready for bed. Eaddie and I stayed up for a couple episodes of House, where we got to a less procedural episode. I like it when they try different things like that in long-running shows.

Disappointment is anger for wimps.

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Let Your Hearts Grow a Little Fonderer

I woke up in an anxiety attack this morning, which was a new experience for me. Summer was there, so I just clutched onto her and rode it out. I vaguely remember an unpleasant dream, but I don’t really thing that set it off. We got up after a little while and she took the girls home while I worked on the house. I sort of had a direction I wanted to go, but I didn’t really execute it very well. Hopefully it’s at least staged for next time so I can jump right in.

I think I want to run some new speaker wire soon, and I might as well unbox the other two tower speakers I have left, if only to get the oversized shipping boxes out of the way. I keep getting caught up in the fantasy of moving into a larger house, but I need to remember our goal of just saving money. We could be making even faster progress if we’d focus on those efforts when it comes to shopping and food, but we’re just too comfortable.

Summer and Eaddie came back after a while to ride their bikes to the tennis courts. I kept doing what I was doing on into the late evening, though I slowed down kind of early. My 20-year high school reunion was this weekend, and I’ve been saying I didn’t want to go ever since the five-year. I don’t think I was feeling regret, but maybe a little sadness because I didn’t feel regret?

School wasn’t a particularly fun experience for me. I cycled through a couple close friends from first grade through 12th, but overall didn’t have a whole lot of love for anyone I grew up around. I’m sure there were some people there that I wouldn’t have minded seeing, but overall I felt indifference toward most everyone I saw in the pictures. I don’t know if that makes me a worse human, or just a cranky old man filled with bitter grudges. I’m not sure I care about that either. As far as I’m concerned, the simulation isn’t rendered much beyond my character viewpoint anyway. I hope everyone is doing well for the most part, but I don’t think anybody that I really would have wanted to see was making an appearance.

When I wrapped up at home, I headed up to Summer’s for the evening. Autumn was still at a band event, so the three of us that remained watched The Voice until Summer went to bed. Then Eaddie and I watched two episodes of House before she went to bed. Autumn made it home and reported that her band and color guard both placed first. Then it was off to bed.

I’m happy to stay in touch if anyone wants. I just don’t think anyone wants.

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Alumna Foil

I rolled into work a little late again today. I guess it’s that time of year that I need to set my alarm about five minutes earlier. We had a brief meeting to go over some things for the newbies, and then Thomas showed us his requirements for the three new tech levels, assuming they will be written into policy this year.

The morning went by relatively quickly as I struggled to make things work the way I wanted. When lunch time came around, multiple people reached out to me about lunch, but then it seemed like we were splitting into two groups because the Service Plus guys were going to have a little reunion. For whatever reason, everyone kept waiting for the holy trinity to leave, which ended up making Gary yell at us for standing around. It’s been nothing but mixed signals, and I’m over it.

We ended up driving in four groups to Brangus, but Greg and Josh didn’t make it in time to eat with their old coworkers. We didn’t even sit in the same room because I was the one that requested the table and nobody would tell me how many people we actually had coming. We ended up removing a table, and then bringing it back when Josh and his wife and baby showed up. By the time it was all said and done, there were nine of us there to eat.

Lunch ran long because we left about half an hour late. When we got back, Zach kind of got on to me about not skipping out on the group lunch to go help Jacob hang a touch panel at the junior high. It wouldn’t have mattered, except that Central Office called to tell us to go home at three. I ended up just loading up a truck and bringing it to Jacob by myself in spite of the fact that it wasn’t a huge rush to begin with.

I made it back to the shop just before three, and tried to finish up some weekly paperwork before going home. That’s about the time the lights went out and Thomas, for the first time that I’ve ever seen since he started in July, came through the shop and shut everything down. Normally office lights, shop lights, TVs, and everything are all left on as everyone goes home and I’m the one that goes through the effort to save a buck.

With him hollering at me to leave since there was nobody left to turn paperwork into, I went home and waited for the girls to show up. I picked up a few things to make some room, and then Summer and Eaddie eventually showed up after the homecoming parade. Summer wasn’t there long though, and got called in to work to look at something. Eaddie was hungry and wanted me to take her out for some pasta, but I made her wait for Summer to get back.

When Summer finally got back, we tried going to Venezia’s and had to bypass a stopped train. Failing that, we went across town to Pasta Grill. They had a mob of people waiting outside, so we took the overpass back to Venezia’s to see if they were any better. The parking lot was full and Summer decided she needed to get to the football game, so Eaddie hopped in my car. We thought we’d try waiting for Summer to be done at Autumn’s game, but got stuck at the train again going back to my house for about 35 minutes.

Summer made it to the game to watch Autumn present the flag for JROTC, and after committing to wait for the train to leave, Eaddie and I made it back to the house. When Summer got back, we tried going to Pasta Grill again. I found a parking space that was labeled as a tow zone for non banking customers, but the bank was closed and I thought I’d take a chance. As we walked across the street though, we saw there was still a mob of people waiting to get in. I didn’t want to deal with any of that homecoming nonsense, and the girls were too hungry to wait any longer anyway, so we left.

At the end of the day, CiCi’s had it. It was my speed of people, with no dresses or six-inch spike heels, or really anybody I didn’t want to see. The food was good, and we even got a whole custom spinach alfredo with mushrooms pizza delivered to the table after nobody else in the restaurant would claim it. The biggest problem we had was carrying out everything we had eaten.

They closed up a couple hours earlier than their posted hours, which I thought was super weird for a Friday night. We headed back home and split right up. Eaddie went to her room to watch a movie. Summer went to bed. I stayed up, but for no real reason since Eaddie didn’t want to watch TV with me until her movie was over. Autumn eventually made it home from the game, and everyone went to sleep.

From everything to nothing.