Ready Player Three

Several members of our team were out today, so we didn’t have a meeting in the morning. Instead, we just worked in our buildings all day. Those of us that were there met up for lunch at Chick-fil-A. When we walked in, there wasn’t an empty seat in the house, so we left and went to Zaxby’s. Surprisingly, everyone seemed happy with the alternative. I saw John and Melissa, along with Jennifer and the rest of the family there too.

The other kids were spending the night with friends, so Summer dropped Eaddie off with me while she went to the gym after work. We went to my parents’ house to pick up some frog eggs my dad scooped out of the pool cover, then spent most of the rest of our time trying to find a small fish tank to put them in. I couldn’t find the one I had in mind, but had a fish bowl that suited them fine.

When Summer got here, we went to Conway for dinner and a movie. I still had a $10 birthday reward for Marketplace Grill, and then we watched the late showing of Ready Player One. The movie was pretty great, but I have a strong need to go back and watch it again frame-by-frame so I can find all of the characters and references. I’m sure someone will have a list by the end of the week.

Here’s the deal, Wade. You’re something called a ‘human being.’ That’s a really smart kind of animal. Like every other animal on this planet, we’re descended from a single-celled organism that lived millions of years ago. This happened by a process called evolution, and you’ll learn more about it later. But trust me, that’s really how we all got here. There’s proof of it everywhere, buried in the rocks. That story you heard? About how we were all created by a super-powerful dude named God who lives up in the sky? Total bullshit. The whole God thing is actually an ancient fairy tale that people have been telling one another for thousands of years. We made it all up. Like Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny.
Oh, and by the way… there’s no Santa Claus or Easter Bunny. Also bullshit. Sorry, kid. Deal with it.

Sloe Test

I spent the whole, uneventful morning at Oakland for testing. Lunch was at Arby’s with some of the boys, then the afternoon was spent with the junior high.

When I got home, I baked some potatoes to take to Summer’s for dinner. She made chili again. Then it was back home for a round of second-place PUBG with the team before bed.

Bloody hell…

Rectify. Rectify. Games. Rectify.

Today was for getting shit done. The work order system notifications broke again, so I had some catching up to do. Then, like a man after my own heart, Allen suggested KFC for lunch. He must have sensed my cravings last night. Then after lunch, I got a little frisky with Avaya and a switch. They were like PuTTY in my hands.

After work, I came home and played some PUBG with Josh until the servers went down. From there, I filled up on gas and went to my parents’ house for some corned beef. I was still full, but much like Jello, there’s always room for corned beef.

I finished the evening with some more PUBG with Clint and Aaron.

But they are weak. Weak! Weak things are food!

Damper

Evidently my plush mattress topper wasn’t as dry as my dryer thought it was. After I went through the trouble of setting it back up on my bed and re-sheeting everything, I realized how damp it was all over. Too tired to go on, I just turned up the radiator and the ceiling fan to dry it out overnight the best I could while I slept on top of it. I moved around a lot at first, but by the time I woke up, it seemed mostly dry. I left the fan on when I left for work so it could finish the job.

I spent most of the morning setting up a Chromebook cart at Oakland. I left for lunch a bit early so I could take my car in for an oil change, and Brandie picked me up from there so we could get lunch together before she leaves for the Philippines. We went to La Huerta, and she grilled me about the surprise family. It had started pouring down rain right as we left, and I went to pick up my car and head back to work. They said I had an open recall – something about draining all of the fluid in my brakes, but it would take another couple of hours. I opted to reschedule.

The afternoon was enrolling a stack of new Chromebooks for the junior high library. I ended up taking them to the library after work just so I wouldn’t have to tomorrow. It continued to rain, and I continued to get soaked with the loading and unloading of everything. At the very least, I finally resolved a separate printing issue I’d been working on since before break.

After work, I came home and munched on what little food I could find and tried to stay awake until bedtime proper.

I feel led to give a gift as an EASTER SOUL-WINNING SEED!

Out, damned spot!

Today was moderately busy for being the first day back. First thing in the morning, I had a switch blow up in my face. The PoE circuit blew, throwing sparks out the front of the switch as smoke billowed out. Fortunately, Gary had a spare that he was able to put into place before lunch.

Most brought lunch, so I ended up at Arby’s for some buffalo chicken tenders. They weren’t bad. I still don’t know how I feel about their switch to Coca-Cola products.

I got a good amount of stuff done in the afternoon as well. Then after work, I went to my parents’ house thinking I had to clean up leftovers. I ended up sitting outside for about an hour and a half waiting for anyone to get home. I tried getting the stray three-legged cat to come over to me, but the best I could do was to get it to eat the food while I stared at it.

After dinner, I went to Summer’s to try and wash my plush mattress topper in her oversized HE washing machine. I don’t know if it was my fault for loading it incorrectly, or a fault of the design, but the top of the laundry load would not have gotten wet at all if the water had not been filled from the top. I had to push the whole thing under water to submerge it in the first place, and then it spent an hour and a half swirling the thing around in circles while the water soaked the bottom half. When it finally finished the load, it spent over five minutes in a spin cycle to drain the water that didn’t even touch half of the load. It was absolutely infuriating.

I didn’t want to stay too late, and I hadn’t decided whether to try and take the stupid thing to the coin laundry in the morning, so I headed home and ultimately threw it in the dryer just to finish something. I didn’t realize how much of a difference the topper made until I didn’t have it any more. I guess if I can’t get satisfied with the wash job, I’ll just buy a new one, because fuck savings when I can sleep better tonight instead.

It’s like giving it to your cat and letting it lick it clean.

Wash Day

We slept in until lunch time today, then went to Arby’s with a powerful hunger. Summer went home afterward, and I started to clean house. I spent over eight hours fighting a stain, and I’m thinking I should just learn to let things go.

Sorry, Leesa.

ERRBODY IN DA CLUB GETTIN long term hearing loss

We got up this morning and took everyone back to Summer’s house. I stayed for just a little bit after she left for the gym, but then went home to take care of some housework myself. It was really nice outside, so I took advantage and vacuumed out every inch of the car. Mom stopped by on her way home from work to visit with Bác Vân and to get a Coco Rico.

Summer’s friend Jenna asked her out to Front Street Grill for dinner and drinks in the evening, so I agreed to tag along. We had a bit of time to kill, so as soon as Summer got here we left to wash the car on the way. Once we got settled in, Summer got some pretty good pasta and I got a pretty bad fillet. The band had quite a bit of trouble integrating with the bar’s sound system and ended up wheeling in their own. We were sat front and center, so once they got to playing we had to move outside to avoid permanent damage to our hearing.

It was really nice out, but the girls got cold and we had to move back inside. We sat at a table in the back, but it was still way too loud for me. It only got worse when the band took a break and the DJ cranked his cancer mixtape to 11, so we left shortly thereafter.

I’m really not much for fun.

Dinner and a Show

Summer went to work at Superfast for a few hours today, so I took her some Arby’s for lunch. They made a sudden switch to Coca-Cola products, which was kind of neat, though I miss the Tropicana fruit punch. We took a few minutes and ate on a bench outside the shop, then I headed home and struggled to stay awake the rest of the day.

We planned to meet up at my parents’ house for dinner, so I made some coffee to wake myself up and headed over there in the evening. She had all three kids with her this time, so my parents got the full experience. We had chow mein and some egg rolls, then afterward my dad performed his magic show that he’s been practicing for the Eureka convention this weekend.

After everyone loaded up and left there, I went to fill up on gas before tomorrow, then played a few blitz rounds of Fortnite with Clint and Jack. It didn’t go well, but I learned some additional mechanics that would have been super nice to learn from a tutorial mission.

Why plan ahead when improvising is so much more exciting?

Taxing

I spent most of the morning feeling like I was stressed out over nothing. I don’t know if it’s because I’ve been putting some things off, but I decided to do my taxes since it couldn’t hurt. I was thinking I had done something wrong last year, but now I’m not sure it was the same wrong I had been thinking it was.

Mom texted about dinner and Summer dropped the girls off at her mother’s, so we went over there and had leftover smoked turkey and pork. I had them look at my taxes too, and I ultimately decided that if we’re going to keep income taxes as a thing, then we should just audit everyone every year so nobody has to actually file anything. If everything’s done for you the correct way, then nobody has to worry about it. Jobs created. Boom. Economy fixed.

After dinner, Summer and I came back to my house and watched The Hitman’s Bodyguard, which I thought was excellent in spite of its 40% on Rotten Tomatoes. Then it was a couple episodes of The Office before bed.

#unblessed

The Fountain of Savings

The girls spent today with their father, so Summer and I went to Colton’s for a late lunch. Afterward, we went to Staples so I could spend a promo $10 that I had received from there. I found a Cross fountain pen marked down from $57 to $16.50. I’d been wanting a fountain pen to play with, but never bit the bullet, so this was as good a chance as any.

From there, we came back home and talked to Bác Vân while she was outside digging holes. She made me cut a branch, then Summer and I went back to her place to receive the girls. We played a game of Monopoly where I went from a little dicey to complete and total annihilation of everyone else. The girls went to bed saddened and heartbroken as they should have, and I helped Summer set up a Steam account. She played a game of Worms to get started, and I’ll have to find her something else she might like.

I did not realize how much work owning a pen could be.