Simple Party

Muad’Dib had to wear his ugly sweater again all morning today since we had our Christmas lunch and Dirty Santa. He ended up sleeping for a lot of the day just because of how uneventful it was until the food got there. We had Colton’s, which could have been better just for being kind of cold by the time we got it, but it wasn’t bad. Afterward we just went around the table playing Dirty Santa. David was sat next to me, and Teisha had him start. Then it went all the way around and I was last. Shane actually got the toilet golf set that I brought, and he seemed tickled, which was the best possible outcome, I think. When it got around to me, I stole a returning “boss voodoo doll” from Scott, which had been re-gifted a couple times in previous years, along with a small handful of lottery tickets. It happened to be David who regifted that one.

The afternoon dragged on pretty awfully after not leaving for lunch. I sort of dreaded coming back home, but I guess it was water under the bridge by then. Summer and Eaddie were watching TV. I took Muad’Dib for a good run, and then I warmed up leftover pizza for everyone when we got back. The girls decorated the tree and I watched a little bit of YouTube as they finished up and went to bed. I started dozing on the couch, so I had to get up from there to go to bed myself.

…to shreds you say?

Gumball

We finally had our staff meeting this morning, and I did my best to represent well. Afterward, we had a pretty boring call with more of the same from Aptean. It always feels like a sales call, promising more from their future plans. I bounced around a lot after that.

We took a really late lunch and I had my McRib. Then the afternoon was a bit slow and quiet. Summer had her company Christmas party, so we got back into town and I picked up some Taco John’s to eat before going.

I dressed Muad’Dib up in his ugly sweater and antler headpiece, and we went to attend at the lube. Summer was like a nervouos teen, hoping all of her friends would show up, and I just felt bad. Muad’Dib got a decent amount of attention, and then Summer made me play Dirty Santa with them, so I stole a gag gift to give out at my own Christmas party.

I was feeling pretty melancholy afterward, so I decided to take Muad’Dib to PetSmart again. They would be closing within minutes, so instead we stopped in the parking lot so he could go to the bathroom. Then we kind of cruised aimlessly toward home. I set the car to “chill” and let it go, without a destination. As we approached our side of town, a cop pulled behind me and lit me up. We pulled into the hospital parking lot where he informed me that my tags had expired. That didn’t make a lot of sense to me, but sure enough, they were. He let me go with a verbal warning, and I headed toward the house.

I didn’t notice, but after I walked in, Summer stopped to warn me that Autumn was there with Eaddie. It wasn’t until afterward that I noticed her text asking what I was doing and why I was avoiding coming home. It was completely loaded, because she could have sent a warning first. I immediately put my shoes back on and walked out with Muad’Dib, but she stopped me in the garage to express her own frustration at me as I trembled.

I let Muad’Dib take me for a walk through almost our entire route in reverse. We stopped at the basin and sat on a bench for a while to knock on the sky and listen to the sound. A stiff breeze came in as we eventually made our way back to the house and found our way to bed.

Unexpected, in the middle of a walking path.

Miss Wednesday

All night and all this morning, I kept thinking we had a staff meeting today. We grabbed a biscuit and hashbrowns to share on the drive in, and I got everything ready to go back downstairs only to have Teisha tell me it was only Wednesday, and the meeting wasn’t until Thursday.

After that, I actually had a fairly busy day. I was feeling Subway for lunch, but Sonic had $1.50 mozzarella sticks, so we had to go there first. For some reason my phone completely dropped cellular service until I restarted it. We got our cheese sticks and then got stuck in Subway’s drive-through waiting for someone else’s sandwich to be made before we could get back to the office. We ate downstairs with Janice and Elizabeth, went back upstairs for a little while, and then came back down for cake for Charles’s birthday.

The afternoon went by fairly quickly after that. David gifted me one of the hams that was sent to the office, so I grabbed that on the way out. I was surprised to see a drizzle when we got outside, so we weren’t going to be able to run. We went to the house so I could change and grab some PetSmart coupons, and then we went to the lube to see Summer before going to the store.

Muad’Dib did fairly well in the store, and I ended up getting him one of the most expensive bags of dry dog food they had. Never in my life had I ever imagined that I might be the kind of person to pay $100 for a bag of kibble, but I spend nearly twenty four hours out of nearly every single day next to this kid. He is rarely ever out of my line of sight, except for when we have to go somewhere that he’s not allowed in, or when Summer calls him to bed, or when someone else has food, the little rat.

On the way home, I had the thought to patronize my favorite neighborhood barbecue brothers on a cold and drizzly day. I got Summer a burger, some brisket to add to my leftover Subway sandwich, and some pulled pork for Muad’Dib. I got to visit with Grant in the smoke house, and then we got back to the house just before Summer. We ate, and then she went to bed. I cleaned up a little bit, laid with her for a moment watching YouTube on my phone while she stared at two screens, and then I wrapped things up before going to sleep.

Royal indeed.

Peppers, Partners, and Puppers

Summer texted me a picture of a rat we caught while I was on my way to work this morning, and fortunately she didn’t fuss about having to take it out to the park for release. We got to work and I was tossed into a few different things throughout the day, so of course I felt just as scattered as ever. Hopefully I can represent well at the staff meeting tomorrow.

On her way back from Little Rock, I met Summer at Ortega’s for an all-you-can-eat lunch, which was the extent of our recognizing eight years together. I think it’s the longest either of us have been in a relationship, and maybe it shows.

The afternoon went by pretty quickly, and then we made it home for a run as the sun set. Summer got back to the house just before us, and then we laid down on the couch together for the first time in months since the ceiling collapsed, and watched a MKBHD video, followed by a Babish video. Then she went to bed while I cleaned up and finished some Vine reviews.

You’re welcome.

Quiet Mundane

We were mostly upstairs by ourselves today. Scott and Charles were periodically there, but otherwise it was just Muad’Dib and me with our thoughts, and he was probably doing the majority of the thinking. I did try to stay focused on NetBox again, but then I got a call to import products into HubSpot. That has never been fun, but I got it done.

Without any better ideas, I tried to get a McRib for lunch. While we were on the way, I got an alert that my order was cancelled for some unknown reason. I fought with it for a little while, and nearly gave up to go somewhere else to eat, but got a BigMac instead. They accidentally gave me large fries and a drink instead of mediums, so I guess that was my karma.

The afternoon went by relatively quickly as I tried to learn a little more about processes. Then it was a frustrating drive home through some slow traffic. Muad’Dib and I went on a quick run to see my parents, and then the girls were there when we got back to the house.

Summer was in a mood, and Eaddie had a concert to attend. I ate some leftovers standing in the kitchen, and then got to marvel at my limited edition Windows XP Crocs. I hate the shoes, but man do I love an inconsistent variety of nerdy pop culture. Clippy has never looked better. I still can’t believe they didn’t bring him back as their new AI assistant. I would have paid a subscription for that.

It was a short night, packed with some finishing reviews. I should make my deadline to continue this madness.

What can I say except, “you’re welcome.”

Undust

Eaddie went to Little Rock with Eli’s family today, so Summer and I spent the day cleaning and resetting the living room. I finally had a path to get to my plants again, so I took care of all of those, then cleaned and dusted things as they came back into the living room. I couldn’t believe the TV didn’t take any real damage. It looked like the frame might have been slightly bent where it came down and hit the center channel speaker below it, chipping the wood slightly in the process. Otherwise, the corner that took the full weight of the ceiling drywall appeared fine.

After Summer finished at the gym, we set up a couple outdoor Christmas tree lights. Then I took Muad’Dib out for an early run. I was super hungry when we got back, and Summer agreed that Chinese sounded great, so we went to New China. Muad’Dib was mad at me for making him sit in the car and pouted a bit when we got back.

I couldn’t find my lalst few speaker wires all day, but finally found them behind some of Summer’s stuff in the bedroom, so I was able to get the home theater set back up before bed. Everything seemed to be working great as far as I could tell.

Finally, if not a win, at least a reset.

Deal With It

Eaddie left early this morning, dressed up for something. Summer and I had coffee and then started to reset the living room. We had an appointment to take Muad’Dib for pictures with Santa, but then Summer told me she wanted to have Autumn come over to decorate cookies and we ended up unpacking a lot of other stuff instead.

I cancelled the appointment and took a shower late, but then Eaddie and Eli came to the house and we met them at PetSmart where we could just walk up to what was one of the worst Santas I’ve ever seen. They were informal to say the least, but they gave him a little treat and snapped a couple poor pictures with my phone. Then we wandered the store for a little bit to see if Muad’Dib wanted a treat. He sniffed the bones a little bit, but all he really wanted was a guinea pig, and Summer wouldn’t let him have one. I suggested that if we got two, he could have unlimited treats for free, but that didn’t work either.

We took him outside to take a break from all the excitement for a little bit, and then we ended up going to Point Remove with the kids. We got a large charcuterie board, some drinks, and eventually a pizza. I saw Amber and Brian there for a Christmas party they were having for their runners club, and one of the ladies came down and convinced Summer to sign up for a membership or something.

Muad’Dib was perfect under the table and off the leash the whole time. I took him outside, and he was perfectly behaved the entire time. People loved his ugly sweater and Max antler. We were there for a little while because they were quite busy with a couple parties going, and seemingly very understaffed.

When we finally got back to the house, I cleaned up some more stuff to set up the living room. Summer went to bed. I wasn’t very motivated, and I couldn’t find my two longest speaker wires anyway, but I got a little bit done. Afterward I did some more reviews and had an anxiety attack before bed..

whether it’s scientific truth, or historical truth, or personal truth

Chillin’ Out Max

I had the hardest time staying focused today. I was completely worthless.

Everyone from upstairs was out doing something else for most of the afternoon, so it was super quiet. I picked up Arby’s and ate it in my office, which probably made the afternoon drag even worse.

The drive home was awful and slow, too. Someone was cruising along below 50, which caused a massive stretch of cars to slow down as people had to slowly get around them. That lasted for about a third of the entire distance of the drive.

My parents weren’t home, so Muad’Dib and I just did a quick run around the block before Summer got home. Then we loaded up and went downtown to see what the festivities were about.

The depot area was completely packed with people, and Muad’Dib got a ton of attention with his little Max reindeer antler on, but he also quickly got overstimulated by how many people were around. He did fantastically off-leash, but I eventually hooked him up when we tried to go further into the crowd. Eaddie came by with some friends and sang us one carol before that, and then we ended up leaving just to get out of the crowd.

While we were there, I ran into Brandon, Kara, and Sheri, and talked to each of them for a little while. Then we went to Zaxby’s for some dinner and went back to the house.

We ate, heard some fireworks in the distance, and then went to bed. I found Spider-Man: Homecoming on the Roku Channel and watched that while Muad’Dib and Summer both fell asleep, snoring in my arms. I must have been burned out, because I just felt dead.

No brakes.

Croc-a-doodle Doo

We had a decent day today. I bounced between a couple things, but didn’t get really deep into anything until the afternoon. Muad’Dib has been consistently using his bed, which made me happy. We went to Arby’s to try their steak nuggets, and they were absolute garbage. I got one nugget that was on the small side of acceptable, and then two that were too small, plus some crumbs to make up the last two. They tasted like cheap, air-fried beef, and I expected more from them.

I had gotten in to some Traverse mail settings before lunch, and continued that into the afternoon. I had an anxiety attack sometime, I think after lunch, as well. Then we rode home and went on a quick run. Summer had some baked chicken, mashed potatoes, and broccoli for dinner that turned out really good, and then the girls wrapped some presents before splitting up for bed.

I was a bit scattered, but notably I accidentally hopped into a Discord voice channel with Clint and Josh for a moment and talked to them without a microphone. Then I discovered that the limited edition Microsoft Windows XP Crocs were available to the public, so I ordered a couple of those. Ebay had some that sold recently for a pretty good profit, but I won’t mind having a pair to wear and a pair to keep if the price tanks.

What a throwback between Windows XP and Command and Conquer.

Easy Now

There wasn’t really anything going on today. I had a Soylent and some black coffee in the morning, then a banana before lunch time, so we ended up going out to eat even later. I couldn’t decide what I wanted, so we just went to the car. Muad’Dib wouldn’t listen when he got into the car, and I accidentally popped him harder than I meant to, so I felt really bad after that.

We went to Walmart to see if they had any decent looking salads or sandwiches, but they really don’t have a good deli area. I even looked around at frozen or instant meals, but gave up. I walked the store looking for a pretty sparse clearance aisle, and then I got a bag of chips and we ended up going to Subway to pick up a sandwich.

I ate in my office and shared some chips with Muad’Dib. Afterward he started to fall asleep on my foot, so I got his bed out for him. He had never really spent any time in it before, but I gave him his nylon bone and he actually stayed there for a while. At one point he actually fell asleep on it, which made me happy.

After work, we went for a quick run in the dark, and then just cleaned up and did some reviews before bed.

Closing in.