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The Time Honored Tradition of Explaining Things to Your Denny’s Server

I thought we might go see The Batman today, but things quickly started changing. Autumn had to go shop for uniform clothes for her new job at Denny’s. Summer just wanted to go to the gym, but was otherwise flexible. I spent most of the morning shopping for refrigerators online. We started to warm up some food for everyone, and then Autumn got a call from her father asking to meet up, so they abandoned the pizza we made.

Eaddie wanted to watch a movie, but later ended up going to see The Batman with her boyfriend instead. I made it home and continued shopping for a fridge, but was suddenly hit with a bit of nausea for some reason. I laid down in bed for a bit until that passed, then took a shower.

After her movie, Summer went to get Eaddie and I met them at Denny’s for dinner. Autumn was there shadowing our server, and it quickly became apparent that it won’t take long for her to become the best employee there. As long as she can keep from picking up any bad habits, she should be able to get some experience and take those newfound skills somewhere better. I’m a little afraid she’ll just let herself become comfortable there, though.

After we ate, I went home and did some laundry. At some point I heard a mystery song on YouTube that had been rattling around in my brain since I worked at the call center. Nearly a decade later, I was able to use Google audio search and Shazam to find enough other relevant YouTube videos that lead me to a Reddit thread where someone else was also searching for the song’s origin. All this time, it was just royalty-free music. With that finally out of my brain, I eventually made it to bed.

Eureka! Fifth Avenue Stroll!

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Mid-to-Late

I woke up at a pretty normal time this morning, having slept on my left hand in some way that my middle finger was completely numb. It took a few hours for it to feel normal again, which was worrisome. I assumed I was just falling apart. I got a few well wishes from friends throughout the day, but my favorite was catching up with my old friend Tasha. We always wish each other happy birthdays, but this year we actually carried on a full conversation, and it was really nice to be able to just catch up after so long, even if that was mostly just fussing about parenting problems.

Bác Vân called to tell me happy birthday, and to offer some eggrolls she was warming up. I went next door, and she had me look at her sewing machine to see if I could find a replacement gear for the one that had crumbled with age. Then as soon as I got back home, Eaddie called and wanted to know if I was picking her and Maristella up from their all-region band event. I rushed through a shower and brushed off a couple more fussy phone calls rushing me along to get there. Then I took them through Wendy’s for some lunch before taking them to Summer’s to eat and change clothes.

I sat in the quiet dark until they were ready for me to take them back. As we made our way back to the Center, Eaddie asked me to record the entire concert. It would have been really nice to know ahead of time so I could find a tripod or something. I dropped them off and went home to change and try in vein to find another solution. Then I met up with Summer for the concert after she left her quiz bowl tournament.

The concert was okay until they went to play Africa by Toto, and the conductor basically stood up there with her hands by her sides just sort of wiggling around like she was dancing. I hoped that Eaddie would get a flute solo for the part I had encouraged her to play years ago, but instead the song was slow and relatively awful. She could have done the entire song better by herself.

Summer took the girls back to their respective homes and then came over so we could go to Lowe’s. I didn’t recognize who he was at first, but Kelsea’s husband, Manuel was there and tried to help us find a fridge. I was already cranky after a pretty annoying day, and then I felt like I basically lost Summer to a sales guy, so I got hyper annoyed and kept wandering off to look at things I had already researched online. At the end of it all I felt really shitty and apologized, and we just left so I could continue shopping online.

We went by Superfast so Summer could retrieve the gift she had gotten me, and then went back to my house for a little bit. I had a moment, or several, and then she went on home to the girls. I wrapped up and eventually followed after her for the night.

Eaddie was up watching TV with her when I got there, and just kept wanting to eat my food. I was still having a rough go and just went to the bedroom to listen to music and play on my phone. Then Eaddie wanted to watch Stranger Things with me, but I was just too tired. Summer came to bed and put on a documentary about mushrooms. Mom and Dad called to wish me happy birthday, and eventually we all went to sleep.

Does 39 feel cranky?

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We-Haul

I had to get up extra early this morning so we could get to U-Haul to pick up a couple box trucks. I rode with Thomas, and Brody rode with Zach for the trip up to Bentonville. The trucks were both super shaky, but I think Thomas and I still had the better truck. Brody said theirs was constantly downshifting, and they were worried the transmission was going out.

We made it to Bentonville without incident, and were immediately met by a large crew of people that seemed all too happy to see Thomas again after such a short time. They made quick work of loading just under 60 laptop carts into the two box trucks. Ryan was there to meet us as well, with an epic red beard.

Thomas rode with some of the others, but Zach, Brody, and I rode with Ryan across town. We were going to try and eat at some chili burger place, but they evidently only had one booth available and we weren’t sure our huge crew would fit. Instead, we ended up at Gusano’s. The service was super slow, but there were a whole lot of us. Zach and I split a wrap and a pizza together so we could try both.

After a super long lunch, we headed back to the trucks and hit the road home. The ride felt smoother to me, but Thomas wasn’t sure. It’s possible I was just anxious to get home. Our crew was waiting outside for us, and unloaded both trucks pretty quickly. Dustin came through to pick up a scrap laptop for a play, and then I went downstairs to see Tammy as everyone else left. She brought me some banana bread for my birthday, but I think the rest of the crew ate the other half.

I headed home and waited for Summer to get off work. Then we went downtown to see Suzanne’s booth at the art walk. There didn’t seem to be a whole lot going on, which was probably less good for her than for me. It was quiet enough that I wasn’t too bothered. We also ran into a handful of other ladies from the schools as we made it around the block.

Once we got back to the house, Summer went home with some leftovers, and I pretty well crashed. I hadn’t felt super since the late afternoon, and it just sort of got worse as the evening carried on.

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Not Cool

Summer discovered her refrigerator had quit working this morning, and evidently it had been warming for quite some time because everything in the freezer had already completely thawed out. I picked Gary up for work, did a little research for an appliance repair person, then headed up to her place to move any good food to my house.

The whole process took about an hour and a half, and I managed to fit everything we saved into my refrigerator. Then I headed back in to work. As I was walking in, Gary was walking out to go to Central Office to look at Judy’s new office. Evidently the new superintendent wanted to take Judy’s current office because it was bigger and wasn’t visible directly from the front door. We did that, replaced a printer for Cindy, and then went back to the office until lunch time.

I guess Gary was really craving pizza, because he chose CiCi’s after finding out that Pizza Hut no longer had a buffet or salad bar. Thomas even joined us, because he thought it was hilarious that Brody wasn’t there to join us. As soon as we got seated, I took a picture and sent it to the group chat. It probably wasn’t five minutes later, and up walked Brody. He was looking at trucks, but bailed as soon as he saw us there.

After lunch, I tried to focus on the CPPC minutes. It was pretty quiet downstairs, so I managed to get it sent by the end of the day. I dropped Gary off at home, then went home to change before going up to Summer’s for dinner. She cooked the big bag of chicken that we decided to keep, and made a big chicken and rice casserole out of it. The girls had karate, but ate when they got home.

I spent most of my time trying to troubleshoot the refrigerator. I cleaned out a nest of mice, but couldn’t really get to the two dead ones I found. The fans all seemed to be working, but the compressor was just cycling on for about five seconds every minute and a half. It was definitely not cooling, so it’ll be up to the pros tomorrow.

Just relax.

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Swell

My left foot and leg felt a little swollen yesterday evening and even last night whenever I’d stir from sleep. It never really got any better all day, so I was moderately concerned. I assume it’s from toying with my blood pressure medication, so I’ll need to schedule an appointment and decide whether I want a new primary care physician soon.

I made it out of the house early so I could pick Gary up for work. Then Justin came down to let me bounce some ideas off of him before our CPPC meeting. That was entertaining, as I did a bunch more talking again. Even Karen had more on her agenda than anyone realized. I had to compromise on the changes I wanted to make, but was ultimately satisfied enough with where we left it. For the life of me, though, I could not understand why so many people wanted to defend the notion that they should just do whatever their supervisor says, when they clearly had the option to maintain some level of control over their situations. People are dumb.

Brody and I were the only two to go to lunch, so I thought we might try CiCi’s, but he was really craving Venezia’s. The service was a little slow and the bread was super flat for some reason, but everything else was good. I didn’t even get into an argument with anyone about why my flavor preferences were incorrect.

I spent the remainder of the afternoon bouncing between different projects and trying to organize my thoughts for the meeting minutes. I had to drop Gary off back at home, and I thought I was going to have to get Eaddie since Autumn had her first evening working at Denny’s. Summer was home with a bum eye though, and decided to pick her up for me. They ended up stopping by though, since I brought them a couple leftover cupcakes.

The remainder of the evening was laundry, laundry, laundry, a mile on the treadmill, and not enough time tinkering to actually make any sense of my new RGB software. Maybe someday.

Draw Focus

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Not Rushin’

It was another pretty relaxed day at the shop all day. The Trifecta were holed up in the office for most of the morning. I worked on some CPPC stuff and tinkered a bit. At one point, Kevin brought someone down for a badge and made it back to see my office. Greg and I went across the street to try and move some computers, but ended up not getting to talk to anyone for instructions.

Five of us went to Taco John’s, and I had the fish tacos. They were pretty good, but the crispy tacos were stale, and I left hungry. Shane brought some cupcakes by, courtesy of Howard, so that helped at the end of the day.

I went home for a little bit after work, until Summer picked me up for Eaddie’s concert. They had three bands, so the concert started half an hour earlier. She thought it started a whole hour earlier though, so we ended up waiting in the lobby for a while before the doors opened.

I had some trouble peeling the camera protector off of the back of my phone, so I didn’t get the pictures or video that I wanted at the concert. I finally got it all off once I got home, but then I spent way too much time tinkering on the computer, and didn’t get ready for bed until late. At least I had my RGB working better than before.

Gotta travel casually while all of this is going on.

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Bee Team

I had forgotten about my ice scraper being broken, and had to try and use the bristles of the brush side to sweep away the heavy frost this morning. It went about as well as you would expect. Fortunately I didn’t really lose too much time waiting for it to defrost.

I had forgotten about testing at Oakland this morning, so as soon as I got settled, I packed up to babysit them for about an hour. Of course nothing happened that was even remotely related to us, but everyone felt better for my being there, and it helped me split up my day.

There wasn’t much going on at the shop when I got back. I killed some time until lunch, when Zach, Gary, Thomas, and I went to Morelos. Evidently Greg is the sole reason we haven’t gone there, which is unfortunate, because they’re far superior to La Chiquita.

The afternoon was really slow. I ran home to get a package, thinking it was Summer’s new phone. To my surprise, it was a Mariah Carey beanie from a McDonald’s promotion before Christmas. I had forgotten all about it, and was pretty disappointed. If I had just waited until the end of the day, I would have been much happier about finally receiving it.

Zach, Gary, and eventually Thomas all came back to the shop at the end of the day and just chilled until quitting time. I went home and started some laundry until Summer and Eaddie came to pick me up for Autumn’s band concert. The auditorium was mostly empty, and super cold. It really felt like they were just barely keeping the lights on. It reminded me a lot of the theater experience at the movies right after they re-opened from COVID.

I finished laundry when I got back home. Then I tinkered a bit more on the computer before going to sleep.

Stalled

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On Charting

Summer made a quick breakfast for us this morning, and then the girls spent the day working on school work and laundry. I wanted to go to a matinee to see Uncharted, but Summer was the only one that was really interested, which was perfect. She went to the gym, and then after showers we went across town for the movie.

I expected the theater to be pretty busy, and there were a lot of cars there, but our theater was mostly empty. Of course we had some people directly behind us with some loud candy wrappers, but they weren’t too obnoxious. The movie was entertaining enough, but wasn’t quite as charming as I had hoped. I’d never played any of the games before, but I assumed it would have Indiana Jones vibes.

After the movie, we ran by my house briefly to drop off sodas and pick up Summer’s replacement phone. Then it was back up to her place for the evening. When we got hungry, I pulled one of her gift steaks out and threw it on the grill. It turned out way more tender and juicy than I expected, which was a treat. It was a super quick meal with some instant mashed potatoes.

Everyone wound down pretty quickly, so I did a bit of shopping online. Then it was off to bed to prepare for a full week back at work after all the snow days.

This is my mag charger for my mag phone.

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I’m a Lumberjack

Autumn got up for a job interview at Denny’s this morning, and by the time I got up and around, she had made it back and gotten a call offering her the job. Summer had to go in for a meeting at work, and then the girls were supposed to meet her at her parents’ house to help trim some fallen tree branches. Autumn insisted that she had to go in immediately to fill out new hire paperwork, so then I was left getting Eaddie across town to help.

We ran by my house first for some gloves and a change of shoes. Then we met up with Summer and got to work cutting up some branches. The damage was a little worse than I expected, but we made quick work of it once we had charged batteries for the comically small chainsaw. I actually had fun slinging it around, but by the end of it all, Eaddie said I had become too comfortable with it. She envisioned me posing, cutting branches behind my back and doing tricks. She was probably right.

When we finished, Eaddie wanted to go to Stoby’s for lunch. She had trouble remembering the name of what she wanted, and kept confusing it for onomatopoeia. Our server was super chipper, but seemed to really have something against pitas and recommended the croissant for my cranberry chicken salad instead. Eaddie was undeterred and got her tuna pita. My croissant was good, and fully loaded with the chicken salad, but could have been made incredible if the bread had simply been toasted and served warm. I couldn’t get pitas out of my head for the rest of the afternoon though, since I now had this incredible idea for a restaurant called Onomatopita. I spent the rest of the afternoon coming up with menu items with unique, themed names based on the sound the animal made in the particular culture whose flavors inspired the dish. I imagined Eaddie ordering a BLUB Pita with a side of POP Kettle Corn and Cherry Vanilla FIZZ.

After lunch, I went home and started some laundry before taking a shower to wash the sawdust out of my hair. Then I fought sleep a while with an energy drink before heading up to Summer’s for a super boring evening until bed.

I’m okay.

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Cheesin Crackas

We got to start an hour late today because of the little ice that remained. I took my cheese, crackers, and salami in to work, but Brody and Zach were the only two that really ate any. Greg tried one, and the girls came and had a couple later, but it wasn’t until the end of the day that they really got popular.

Brody and I went along with Zach and Greg to hang a TV in Dwight’s saferoom. I discovered a photo opportunity with a little trampoline, since we had to hang the TV so high. Greg and Brody just kept playing basketball, but we got the job done.

It was nearly lunch time by the time we got back. We sat around a bit, and then Greg and I decided to chase after Brody to Umami, since it was just the three of us going to lunch for the day. I was surprised at how many people they could pack in there now, but the service was super slow. We didn’t even get our order in for the first half hour. When the food finally arrived, I wasn’t at all impressed with any of the flavors of either the food or the sauces they gave me. I saw Josh walk in and snapped a candid photo to send to the group chat, which turned out to be the highlight of my lunch hour.

When we got back to the shop, Zach had everyone go outside to move some stuff in the graveyard again. We cleaned out the kitchen area and put a bunch of stuff on shelves. As we finished, Brody and Jacob mentioned that they had never seen the murder-basement, so I took them across campus to see that. It was even grosser with all the ice and water.

From then, we didn’t have a whole lot longer until our hour-early quitting time. Ben texted that he was at the arts center helping set up for a church gig, so I went over there and made a cable for them. I thought we’d get more time to visit, but he spent most of his time actually working to get things set up. I spent more time talking to Dustin than anyone else. They did seem to really enjoy the cheese and crackers there, and ate nearly half of what was left.

I went by the shop to see Summer on the way home from there. She was just finishing up and wanted to go to the gym, so I was charged with taking the girls home. They were packed and waiting for her when I arrived, so I didn’t even have a moment to breathe before they started fussing for me to take them home. I got some gas on the way, and then warmed up some old leftover shrimp and salmon to clean out their fridge until Summer got home.

The girls kept busy all night, so Summer and I watched some Modern Family until she was ready for bed. I tried not to stay up too late past that, but still ended up losing a fair amount of time hunting for the perfect phone case/mount/charger combination.

It’ll take just a Moment to find a case with Peak Design for this new phone.