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Large Scale Shopping Trips

We got up this morning and headed to Hot Springs to pick up the aquarium stand I bought from PetSmart. There wasn’t an option to do a store transfer, so we just decided to make a day of it. We stopped in Ola for a potty break, and then made it as far as Nimrod Dam before she ran off to the bathroom again.

When we got through most of the mountains, we stopped at The Shack for lunch. I let myself get a little rushed when placing my order, so we both just got small burgers, and then we had some sweet potato fries and onion rings. It was all pretty good, but unremarkable. The homemade lemonade was amazing though, likely because of how much sugar it had.

Once into Hot Springs, we went straight to PetSmart and wandered around for a while before driving across the parking lot to go to Bed Bath & Beyond. I don’t even know how many hours we spent in there. I passed up some clearanced clear ice molds in favor of splurging a bit more on some larger round ones. We did pick up a FitBit smart scale though, which turned out to be a bit cheaper than I expected. It didn’t take much thought to decide to return to the store to pick up the last three on the shelf. As I was checking out, the cashier mentioned hearing us talk about them and said she thought about getting one for herself. I left her one to stick under the counter, and we were on our way.

It was time to eat again, and it took us a while to settle on something. We ended up at Osaka Japanese Steakhouse & Sushi Bar, where I had trouble finding anything that looked good on the menu. I didn’t realize it when I declined the option to sit at the grill, but evidently they had different menus depending on where you sat. It turned out okay though, because Summer really liked her teriyaki combination, and I had the katsu don, which was really tasty and cost about half that of what I would have ordered from the hibachi.

After we ate, we stopped by the sexiest store in town to see what all the fuss was about. It was really just another one of those places where retail pricing is still ridiculous, and I was super surprised at the variety and quantity of people that passed through while we were there. I guess it’s just marketing and convenience, and hopefully not a generous return policy.

We stopped by the spring water fountain and filled our box full of bottles on the way out of town. I took a perceived shortcut on the way out just to see what it was like, but the lack of lighting made it a worse choice overall. We did just barely make out a yard full of toilets though. As we made it out to Hot Springs Village, we stopped at Walmart for another bathroom break and perused a bit for some cookies, beer, picture frames, and any clearance stuff we found interesting. Then it was over the mountain and through the fog to get back home.

Alexa? Lights! Camera? Action!

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Persistent, innit?

We started this morning at the shop without too much news. I had testing, so I was out all day for that. Evidently the alternative was to do all the work running cables and hanging touch panels for Brice. I don’t know why anyone fights it, because he’s going to be our boss eventually anyway. I got another email from Travis about esports and continued to try and put together some kind of response for him. Even after I calmed myself down, it shocked me to hear from him again so soon. I guess nothing really would have prepared me better.

Dale and Allen called Pizza Hut for lunch, but after waiting for about five minutes for anyone to show up, I decided to meet Zach, Ben, and Amanda at La Plaza. What a mistake. It took them 40 minutes to get our food to us, and every single one of us got something wrong with our food. Then it took them several more minutes to check us out with barely an apology.

I finished up testing, then spent some time at the shop before heading home. I fed Grey some more wet food and sat in the floor with her for a while. Then Travis emailed me again at home. It was easier to respond in a personal way rather than through his Courier address, and we exchanged a few emails basically trying to ignore the history. He added me to Steam, we traded phone numbers, and then I headed to Summer’s.

I stopped by Oakland on the way because I forgot to get the squash and okra that Tammy brought me out of the lounge freezer. Summer warmed up some leftover pork chops and baked beans with potato salad. We ate, and I laid with her on the couch for quite a while before we came back to my house for the evening.

And so as you hear these words telling you now of my state

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Of My Own Making

Four days in, I was pretty tired of sitting in the office at Oakland. It only made it worse to get an email about stale tickets from the junior high. I had such a bad attitude about it that I brought my Switch to kill some time. Sheri grumbled at me a bit, but then left me to it. I ended up putting it down to help someone cut out some laminated note cards. I really peaked then.

Travis emailed me from the paper. I kind of figured it would happen, and had been trying to think of a way to bring it up first. I guess it’s just as well that it’s done now. My stomach was in too many knots to respond today since my anxiety went through the roof. I nearly shut down completely for a while, but forced myself out to lunch with Allen and Brice.

I continued sitting around after lunch until I could leave and go to the junior high. I tried to catch up on work orders there before heading home for the evening. I did a small water change in the aquariums because for some reason the heater was warming everything up to around 90 degrees. Then the best I could do was crack a couple beers and start exploring in Breath of the Wild with Grey by my side. I did manage to kill a giant. I still felt guilty though, because he was just sleeping in the shade. He only came after me because I woke him up when I got too close.

Bury it under the chicken.

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Time to Waste

Somehow I managed to stay pretty busy today while Oakland was testing. Bryan emailed me earlier this morning before I even had my shower, and then called me while I was sitting in the office. He was having trouble signing into his school email on his Samsung email app, and I guess he didn’t feel like asking Amanda. When I failed to resolve it over the phone, he called Gary who came up with another working solution. Then I spent a good portion of the morning messing around with a stack of atomic wall clocks that I was told didn’t work. As far as I could tell, they all kept time. It’s possible they just weren’t syncing with the WWVB time signal but would keep time if manually set. In any case, I made a wall of them by the window and got jokes or comments about it from every soul that made it through the office today.

I met Dale, Allen, and Brice for lunch at Subway. I had a BOGO code that I used to order online, which saved me the headache I saw everyone else go through while in line. Having two 6-inch subs also meant I got to choose two different types, so I ate the tuna there and took the BMT home for later. It ought to warm up nicely in the oven.

After lunch, I spent a little bit of time at the shop before heading back to Oakland. I brought entertainment, but I didn’t even get to break it out, much to my own surprise. When they finally finished testing, I headed to the junior high to take care of some older work orders.

When I got home from work, I cleaned up a bit at home and got Grey to eat a little bit of a new can of food. I guess she just doesn’t like leftovers. Then I ran by Walmart to pick up some lettuce for dinner. Summer grilled burgers and baked some sweet potato fries that all turned out really well. Then I pushed her to make her own photo book before we all headed to bed.

I’ve got toooo much time on my hands!

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Freesports

I was locked up at Oakland again today with a menial data entry task to keep me busy. The day actually went by pretty quickly, but it definitely wore on me. I enjoyed the break at Taco John’s with Dale and Allen. I talked myself into trying their quesadilla tacos for $too.much, and though they were good, they still felt like they should have been nearly half that price.

I finished up testing in the early afternoon, then got to pull the fire alarm on my way out. I stopped by the shop for just a few minutes, and then headed to the junior high to meet up for esports. I had nearly as many there as I did last Saturday, which was both good and bad considering there is still only one of me running the show, and I’m not having to put any effort into drawing people in. It will be nice to get some true answers on funding and AAA regulations, so hopefully Johnny gets back to me on having a meeting. At least Matt came by to see us this time.

I had to pick up the slack on a few work orders before I left since I haven’t really done any work at the junior high since the middle of last week. I’ve also gotten some criticism for my office lately, so I need to make time to clean that up as well. I simply don’t have enough hours in the day.

Summer went to Autumn’s band concert, but as late as I got home and as hungry as I was, I just stayed in and tried to take care of as much as I could there. Grey still didn’t seem to want to eat, and I assume she’s not eating dry food while I’m away. She’s not acting like she’s on her last legs, but she’s not acting well either. She won’t even perk up for gravy at this point.

The last of the evening was spent parsing through every photo I’ve taken since Summer and I went to the football game. There was no way I could pare it down to just 20 photos, but the end result of twice that many pages really seemed priceless anyway. I’ll always have the digital copies, but now my coffee table will have them too.

If Fi only had a heart!

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Testees

I really hardly did anything today, but it still seemed to go by pretty fast. Oakland started a week long session of all-day ELPA testing, and I’m being made to sit through the whole thing. I had just a couple of things come up there that I could work on, but the rest of the time I was burning through my phone battery. I was down under 40% battery well before school even let out.

I met Dale and Allen at Arby’s for lunch, but that was pretty uneventful. It was kind of nice to chat with Dale for a minute after Allen left though. On the way back, I stopped by the house to pick up my new Rocket League stickers from Sticker Mule.

I spent a little bit of time at the shop chatting with Ben before heading home to clean up. I had to stop by Walmart for some bacon on the way up to Summer’s for dinner, where she grilled pork chops and fried some potatoes and Brussels sprouts. After dinner, we watched an episode of Parks and Rec with the girls before they went to bed. Then I spent the rest of the evening contemplating esports and the Arkansas Activities Association. I never anticipated so much bureaucracy.

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Great Excavations

We slept in a bit this morning, and then Summer left just shortly after we got up. I started digging through old stuff in the bedroom and put a couple bags of stuff out to recycle. There’s still a lot to go through, but it’s easier to get rid of some kinds of things now than it has been before. I still like to hang on to the boxes from my old cell phones, but I was okay to part with the boxes from other things that I’ve put to good use.

The girls would be with their father all day, so I decided to take Summer out to a nice dinner. We were going to go to Pasta Grill, but they turned out to be closed on Sundays. Venezia’s was our next pick, and it turned out to be a good one. The food was great, but the seating was weird. We sat at a booth with a table that was too high, and a chair that was pulled so far away from a bolted-down table that I could stand straight up from it and walk out. I ate two too many baskets of bread, but that didn’t affect me until later in the evening.

Finally we headed back to her house to get the girls, watched some Parks and Recreation, and headed to bed.

Now for a testing marathon.

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Coach Math Tutor

The girls took off this morning for the quiz bowl tournament. I got to follow about an hour behind, and walked into a lab already full of kids. I really didn’t expect that many of them to wake up early enough to actually be there by 9, but they did. We had nearly a full lab by the time it was all said and done, so I was pleased with the turnout. More than a couple more would have been too much, so it really was just about perfect.

They got a little loud a couple times, but nothing too crazy. Johnny came in and scolded them for being loud at one point because they got excited when I suggested they try a local 5v5. Once they got into the gaming it really quieted down though, and everyone seemed to have a pretty good time. A few of them got some food, and then I ended up grabbing some Little Caesar’s for some others that had money but no way to get it. I picked up a couple pizzas on top of what they had to help feed some other hungry but broke ones. The real highlight was a parent coming in looking for a kid that was supposed to be getting some math tutoring. We had to sit down and have a talk about that one. I guess I’ll have to figure out academic requirements before the end of the year.

When we wrapped it all up, I brought the leftovers from quiz bowl’s lunch home while Summer went to the gym. It took me a while to clean everything up, and then I started messing with my computer for just a little bit before she got back. We had just a little bit to eat and watched The Ballad of Buster Scruggs, which was nothing like I expected. We both thought it was pretty amazing.

I, too, have been known to violate the statutes of man… and not a few of the laws of the Almighty!

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Failure to Launch

I had a little bit of a slow start this morning, and even got to embarrass myself in front of the whole crew when Ben wanted to go over some relatively convoluted phone stuff as soon as I walked in at 8am. I made it though, and I even managed to get out of any project work in the morning. At one point, Ben and I ran to the aquatic center to help someone before a swim meet, but by the time we got there he had already figured it out.

Everyone but Ben went to Western Sizzlin for lunch, which was an amazing feat in itself. It was a pretty quiet meal too, I think it was partially because everyone was hungry, and partially because nobody could talk shit about anyone else because everyone was there. I cut myself a little short on food, but then ran long on dessert. I couldn’t resist the brick of Rice Krispie Treats. Or the pecan pie. Or the no-bake cookies. Or the blueberry cake. Or the banana pudding. Or the ice cream. But mostly that first one.

After lunch, Dale, Allen, and I hung two touch panels. I had one at Oakland, and then Allen had one at Crawford. We had gotten a slightly newer model than the ones we were purchasing, and the software on them is pretty significantly different. I didn’t get a whole lot of time to play with them, but it definitely seemed less intuitive. I wasn’t a huge fan, but Dale loved the fact that they had handles on both sides. They were mounted a little low on the panels though, so the thing was top heavy and would tilt over when we picked it up.

When I got home, I cleaned house until the girls got there, and then we went to my parents’ house for some leftovers. I was really proud of Autumn for letting herself be forced to eat more than just egg rolls for dinner, and she even liked the bite of weird beef she originally didn’t want to eat. We didn’t stay very long though, because we had to get home to rest before the big day tomorrow.

The girls put on Coco for a little while, and then they all went to sleep while I tried to catch up on some esports craziness. We didn’t get a tournament team going before the midnight cutoff, but it’s looking like we’ll have a pretty good turnout tomorrow for a LAN party while Summer is hosting a quiz bowl tournament. I’m a little worried about noise levels just because I don’t know how many people are going to show up, but I won’t be afraid to shut it down if they don’t behave.

-Email Signatures

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Fly

Gary had to help get League of Legends to work again this morning. I guess they moved some DNS entries around on their update server, which broke SSL encryption for us again. I’m mostly just parroting words, though. He made the blinky thing workie again. Then he took me to the other basement.

I met Allen at KFC for too much food. I still wish they’d reinstall a tray rail along the buffet. They’re just asking for trouble without it. Then I spent the afternoon at the junior high contemplating organized sports. Being under the AAA umbrella means that players can only play for four years, which means 8th graders can’t actually compete. Fortunately that doesn’t seem to mess me up too badly, because I don’t think anybody has actually stepped up to play in the tournament yet. Matt wants to just throw a couple kids in, but all I see is throwing money into a hole.

After work, I wasn’t hungry enough for phở, so I skipped going to my parents’ house and went to Walmart in the rain to get Grey some wet food. On the way out I drove past a guy with no legs scooting himself across the parking lot between cars on a skateboard, so I’d say things are going pretty spectacularly for me.

Back home I got Grey to eat a little bit before trying to play a custom game of League of Legends with Kang against some bots. For some reason it ran horrendously on my computer, and I just left frustrated. I don’t understand why it drops so many frames, yet Overwatch, Rocket League, and even PUBG will run fine. Generally upset about my computer, I got up and did the dishes and then came back to play some Overwatch with Jack and Johnny, and then Clint after Johnny left. Still fewer wins than expected. Must be tired.

“I don’t listen to a whole lot of classic metal, but if I decided to explore it more, I would definitely listen to more Metallica.”