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Spatched

Summer went to work this morning, and I eventually got out of bed and made some rice for the leftover corned beef. Autumn slept on the couch because she got everything out of her storage unit, but didn’t have her room cleaned up with a place for everything. She sat around watching Criminal Minds all morning, and then ate some plain white rice without any of the actual leftovers. I tried to get Eaddie out of bed, but she didn’t want to get up. Neither of them wanted to clean house like I asked.

I eventually left to meet Summer at Superfast so we could get her patched tire back on. I was there with her for a little while after the guys helped swap the tires, since she was ready to leave work a bit early and I thought she might do something with me. She ended up going to the gym, so I went to my parents’ house to prep the turkey.

I’d never actually handled a raw turkey before, but this was actually much cleaner than I expected. I’ve always felt that chickens were super gross and slimy, but the turkey wasn’t slimy at all. It trimmed up nicely, and the random clearanced shears I picked up at Walmart a while back did a great job cutting the spine out. I decided to spatchcock the turkey for my first attempt at smoking one, since it promised a more even cook with the added benefit of speeding up the whole process. I couldn’t have been more pleased with how the prep went.

Mom warmed up some shrimp soup while I was there, so we ate a bit before I headed home. I was supposed to drop the spine and other assorted entrails off at Julie’s house so she could make gravy out of it, but she took forever to respond to my text messages, and said she had left the house to go shopping. I killed a bunch of time cleaning up at home, re-covering the fire pit out back, showering, and getting things generally organized to smoke the turkey. Finally she just had me leave the bag of turkey bits in my mailbox so she could pick it up on the way home.

I had to stop by Lowe’s for an injector, and I decided to throw out my leftover marinade, so I’ll be making my own from scratch in the morning. Just as I left Lowe’s, Summer reminded me to bring my bread maker, so I had to circle back home to get it. When I got to her house, Autumn was still at her boyfriend’s house. Eaddie was working on homework, and Summer was making fruit salad, key lime pie, and deviled eggs. She finished up with a loaf of bread that we thought was a bit overdone. Autumn got back home a little early, and after a little wind-down time, everyone was off to bed.

There’s simply no respect.

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Phone Games

I had plenty of time to get up and around this morning before prying Eaddie out of bed so I could take her home. She said she had a bunch of school work to do, but wasn’t really in a rush to do any of it after verbally stressing about it last night. When I did finally get her home, she spent all day in her room while I just sat around the house.

Autumn arrived shortly after we did, and said she passed whatever screening they did for her to join the military. After that, I guess she went to her room and fell asleep. Eventually Summer called to say she was on her way home, so I took Tres home to charge before meeting her at Walmart.

Mom and Dad pulled up next door as I was leaving, so I handed off some stuff to him before leaving. Then I braved the last-minute Thanksgiving crowd at Walmart to find Summer. The traffic along the way, and the bustling crowd of people just reminded me how much I hate holidays, because they give us an excuse not to have family gatherings more often throughout the year. I’d much rather split this stuff up randomly than save it all for one time of year, with concentrated stupidness all around.

Autumn helped us unload when we got home, and Summer made brownies while the girls ate some leftover pizza. I continued to pick at a bit of stuff, but was still mostly useless. All I had done all day was complete upkeep tasks in Puzzle Tales, ExoMiner, and Phase 10. I only recently started playing games on my phone again, and it’s already eating away at my life. I’ll have to re-prioritize quality over quantity entertainment.

Idle me this, idle me that.

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Cold House, Cold Drinks

Summer took the flat tire to Hindsman’s this morning, and then dropped the Mercury off for me before heading to work. Autumn got up and left for MEPS, but came back after a trip to McDonald’s, saying she wasn’t informed the dress code disallowed sweatpants. Fortunately she wasn’t left behind, and could come home to change before going back. Noah left as well, but said he would be back the next day. Eaddie didn’t want to get out of bed all day, so after some leftover chicken tacos, I headed home.

I planned to take the air tanks and accessories back to my parents’ house, but we ended up deciding to have a fire at my house in the evening. Summer left work really early for her, and I cleaned up a bit and got a fire started before taking a shower and going back up to their house for leftovers. Evidently a couple fairly large branches fell, and at least one of them ripped a big hole in the cover I had over the chairs. I wouldn’t mind having the tree about 10 feet further away from the house.

I stopped by Walmart to get some chips and cheese, and we made nachos out of the leftover chicken. We headed back to my house as soon as we finished eating, and I had to get some more wood started over the hot coals. Everything was so dry outside that it all burned relatively quickly. Eaddie wanted to have a friend over, but couldn’t find a single soul that could make it. I was glad that she came out to spend time with us though, instead of hiding in her room all night. We had a good talk, and it was a good time for all of us. I think the chocolate-stuffed marshmallows helped.

Inventory time.

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Flat Out

It was nice to sleep in today after a late night. We all got up and finished the chili for brunch, and Summer went to the gym while I showered. When she got back, we went to my parents’ house to borrow some air tanks and an emergency tire inflator for the Montego. Unfortunately it wouldn’t hold any air, so Summer dug out the spare and we took it to my house to fill it up and get some tools.

The floor jack was too thick to fit under the frame, so we had to use the emergency jack. It had pretty smooth action though, so it wasn’t too painful. The impact sped things up a whole lot, and we got the spare on and took everything back to their house.

Noah came over later in the evening, so Summer ordered Domino’s and had Autumn pick it up. We all played a long game of Mario Party, and then Noah and Eaddie stayed up late watching Smile until bedtime.

A murder, most foul!

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Da Boiz

I woke up a bit early today after staying up to late last night. Eaddie was up before I was, and made herself breakfast and started cleaning house. Both of the girls were having their boyfriends over, so they had to get everything cleaned up before then. I tried to clean up some leftovers for breakfast, and then went home to shower before meeting Summer at Walmart.

Summer went to the gym, and then had most of the stuff picked up for chili by the time I found her. Then we made a quick run through the rest of the store before heading up to the house. Gavin showed up in the early afternoon with a flower in a vase. Eaddie had fallen asleep again because her head cold was draining her, but she got up and I eventually took them to the Valley Park Center to wander around.

Adam didn’t show up until after I left to pick up Eaddie and Gavin again. Then they played some Mario Kart and watched TV until it was time for me to take then to Pasta Grill. When I got back, Summer had chili ready for the four of us. Adam was well mannered enough, though he didn’t eat much. Autumn warned us that he was a picky eater, but he let slip that his father took him to CiCi’s before he came over.

After we ate, the four of us played a game of Monopoly. Adam seemed to enjoy it, but was mostly quiet and didn’t seem to fully understand all of the mechanics. We taught him about making monopolies, and coached him through buying houses. I tried to get the game going pretty quickly, so it was a good time until I had to go pick up Eaddie and Gavin again from the train depot.

When we got back to the house, the two couples split up to watch two different TVs. I laid down in bed until Summer came in to find me, and then made me periodically wander through the house to mind the children. Gavin had to be home by 10:30, so Eaddie and I took him home in time for that. We saw lots of deer and a raccoon, but fortunately nothing jumped out in front of us. I had to make Eaddie ride up front with me on the way back, but then she was super talkative for the whole drive home.

We stopped by my house to get the Montego and my neti pot since her head cold had just gotten worse all evening. Right as we turned onto Main Street, we could hear and feel that the car had a flat tire. I pulled over in front of GameStop, and the rear left tire was completely flat. Summer had to come pick us up for the evening, and we’ll have to go back tomorrow to try and air it back up.

Adam was gone again by the time we got home. Autumn was in her room. Eaddie showered and went to bed. I chatted with Summer for a bit, and then it was off to bed for us as well.

Just be a well-rounded, good-intentioned human.

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Idledeedee

Gary and Greg were both out today, and we only had a really brief meeting in the morning. Zach sent everyone but me to replace docking stations at the junior high. I slowly dug into my own things until he called and asked me to run across the street to help Chris with an “internet slowness” issue. That, of course, didn’t really turn into much of anything on account of “everything” that was going wrong at the time. On the way over, I inspected the parking lot and found the offending ketchup packet sitting right next to my tire. Unfortunately there wasn’t any way to get proof of who did it, but at least now I know it was some stupid kid that squirted ketchup all over my car.

After that, I burned most of my day trying to get the new Google Drive deployment to behave properly. It either didn’t want to uninstall the old version properly, or wouldn’t install and detect the new version. When lunch time came around, Zach and Kyle were the only two around to go. Zach suggested Brangus, which didn’t really excite me, but nothing else did either. I took the two of them, and we had an awkwardly quiet lunch.

The afternoon dragged on a bit. I went upstairs to restart a laptop for a kid, and then Thomas sent everyone home a few minutes earlier than the half hour that Ginni gave us. I had actually gotten into some things, so I didn’t actually leave until a few minutes late. Summer didn’t get back to town until late, Autumn went to an away game in Greenwood, and Eaddie had her grandparents take her home right after school, so I hung out at home for a while before coming over.

On the way out, I stopped by to troubleshoot Bác Vân’s dead iPad. It needed to be charged in a bad way. Then I cleaned up some leftovers at the house. The girls watched a bit of TV when Summer got home, but didn’t get up to anything else. I stayed up late playing on my phone until Autumn showed up. Then it was off to bed. Mom came down with the flu or something like it, so it’s just as well that we’ll be hosting Thanksgiving this year.

I guess I should start shopping for tires early…

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Quarter Panel with Ketchup

I almost made it to my charge limit this morning, and left the house at 75%. I think being able to take a day trip during the weekend and then recoup that energy throughout the week is acceptable. I kept relatively busy today, and went to Dwight in the morning to troubleshoot a display issue. I ended up having to contact Newline support for some firmware, so I went back to the shop and had lunch before going back.

Aramark served us Thanksgiving lunch in the Gardner cafeteria, and most of our crew went, along with a few from maintenance, several from administration, and some others from the surrounding buildings that I didn’t know so well. Gary joked that the superintendent didn’t punch me when she walked in, so I must be in the clear for now. Thomas was going to go back to the shop, but we ended up staying. I sat with our substitute custodian, Anthony, and a couple Chrises from maintenance, since the tech table was a little crowded.

After lunch, I finished up at Dwight and Ian found me in the office again. I guess no one else ever sticks around so long when he starts talking, because he’s always got something to say. I ended up going back to the shop just before school let out, and rode out the rest of the day there. Thomas told us not to wait until 4:30 to leave, but I only got out a few minutes early.

I saw Summer at Superfast, so I stopped in to see her and we went to Walmart to get stuff for her to make chili for work. I found a kitchen faucet on clearance as well, so I picked it up to replace my leaky one. She dropped me back off at my car and I took it home, but on my way back out to go to her house, I noticed a big blob of ketchup on my rear passenger quarter panel. It was all over the place, and obviously intentional, so I had to take it to the carwash.

I spent a couple minutes in the carwash, trying to scrub through what little sentry mode footage I had. I never saw anything suspicious, but the recording hadn’t been working for several days anyway. I was really upset that someone would do something like that to my car for no apparent reason other than the fact that it’s a Tesla. The ketchup was very dry, but I never noticed it throughout the day as I walked to the car. It took me a little while to clean it off, but I had been wanting to wash the car again anyway. Fortunately it didn’t seem to mess anything else up, but it was also dark outside. While I was in the middle of the wash, I had to ride out an anxiety attack. I remember a couple of loud trucks being around, which probably put me a little more on edge on account of why I was at a carwash in the middle of a cold night.

I made it back home to swap cars and headed up to Summer’s for the evening. Eaddie had me bring my Yeti microphone over so she could record some flute assignments, but she kept yelling with frustration for most of the evening. Summer baked a cake, but I just laid in bed playing the Stranger Things game on my phone, desperately trying to make it through Chapter 5. When I finally got back up to finish my blog, I had another anxiety attack that I tried to collect some data on. I stopped breathing to see if my oxygen level was just low, but it didn’t seem to be. I’d love to know why I get these now.

This is the kind of stuff that gets people shot.

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Copy No Copy

It was frosty again this morning, but comfortably cold during the day. I tried to keep busy, but kind of got distracted quite a bit. I spent some time on hold with my insurance company because I couldn’t log in to check my HSA information. That whole process was a bit of a rabbit hole. When lunch time rolled around, it was just Zach and me again, so I suggested sharing a BOGO at Subway.

The afternoon was super quiet, just as it has been. I finished up my file copying and messed with file shares, visited Dwight to check on something that fixed itself, and generally tried to stay out of trouble. After work, I went straight home to swap cars before going to Walmart to pick up the last couple things I needed to make dinner.

Summer was at the gym and Autumn was at karate, but Eaddie was home while I threw some frozen chicken into the Instant Pot for tacos. I ended up running the program twice because I wasn’t completely sold on the temperature of the chicken after the first cook. I think too much of it was above the water line, and all of the chicken was frozen into a solid block anyway. I thought it smelled pretty gross, but Summer said it just smelled like dark meat. It tasted alright though.

The girls all went to bed really early. I played my Stranger Things Puzzle Tales game a bit since I had to make it to a certain level to retrieve the progression pack I earned from playing before it was moved to the Netflix games category. I tried not to stay up too late though.

Sentry mode… re-activated?

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Smokey Bros

The holiday doldrums were in full swing today, and I think everyone is just ready for a break. I went to Leonard’s at the start of the day to get some nylon washers to put between my vanity license plate and the screws. After that, I didn’t really deep into anything today, and spent most of my time watching a progress bar as I moved files off of our old SCCM server. Even after running all day, I’ll still have more to do tomorrow.

Dad stopped by in the morning to deliver a pumpkin cake, and Tammy didn’t realize who she had let into the building, which caused a bit of a stir up front when he completely bypassed the front of the office. A couple of the guys up front took off after him until Gary recognized who it was.

The junior high invited us for Thanksgiving lunch, but Thomas was having none of that. We were going to Taco Tuesday. Gary and Josh rode with me, but as soon as we got into my car, we realized my screen had frozen. The music would play, but I couldn’t touch any controls, change the volume or climate controls, or even see a speedometer. I didn’t want to force a reboot and have to wait to drive to Taco John’s, so I got us there and then started the reboot once everyone was back out of the car. Allen was there to eat with us again, and then when we left, my car was back to normal.

I went to Dwight for a bit in the afternoon, and then stopped by the Ridgewood smokehouse on the way back. Grant was there, and actually needed a ride to get his car from the tire shop anyway, so I let him drive. It was kind of gritty on the roads after the rain, so we didn’t get to have very much fun, but he got a taste. After that, it was a dull day back in my office until quitting time.

After work, I went back to the smokehouse and hung out with Kyler and another guy while the bros were in the kitchen doing an interview. They were tending the first fire in one of their new smokers, and seasoning the grill before they could check it for hot and cold spots with some biscuits. It was cool to chat about that stuff for a bit, and then I got a better look at the rest of the building once they finished up with their interview.

Eventually I headed home to charge, and then picked up some Popeye’s on the way to Summer’s. The girls all came out to eat, and then it was early to bed again. I think getting dark early just helps. Everyone was tired and ready to crash.

Smoked, dried, floor biscuits.

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Engineering

It was a frosty morning, and it never got much warmer during the day. I forgot my keys at home, so I had to borrow Greg’s to get into my office. Gary had some engineering tasks for me that kept me busy for most of the day. Otherwise it was pretty quiet in the back of the shop. Kyle came through a couple times and stood awkwardly close to me, but that was about it. Greg was out doing something else most of the day.

When lunch time came around, Zach was the only one going. I took us to Morelos, where we sat in a booth next to Cameron, who had walked across the street from Superfast. We had a pretty quick lunch, and then ran by my house to get my keys before going back to work.

I ran to Dwight to take care of a couple things so Melissa could mop my office. On the way back, I finally remembered to return my jack pads to The UPS Store since they were too small to stay in the jack points of the Model 3. Then I spent the rest of the afternoon reading Microsoft’s documentation to figure out what I had to do to decommission our old SCCM server.

Autumn called to ask if I would get Eaddie after band, so I picked her up in what turned into some slightly hard rain. It wasn’t quite sleet or snow, but it definitely had an occasional slush to it. We swapped cars and then headed home where Summer was making a surprise dinner for us. She cooked up some sausage and vegetables which she used to stuff some yellow squash boats, and then covered them in mozzarella and baked them for a little bit. It turned out really great, but was a little heavier than she thought it was going to be.

Eaddie practiced her flute to some music she played on the TV for Summer, and then it was an early night to bed for everyone.

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