Uncategorised

Errand Boy

I tried not to sleep too late this morning. I got Summer up, and Autumn was already in the living room when we came out. I rolled Eaddie out of bed, and could tell pretty quickly she was going to be in a pretty good mood. Summer wanted to take them to Shoe Carnival because Eaddie was in dire need of new shoes. I left to meet them after they ran home to change, but Shoe Carnival wouldn’t be open for another hour or two.

We ended up at Walmart instead, since I needed to look for a new TV to replace Doug’s. Since the girls all seemed to be pretty easy going, we perused the clearance aisle for a while, and then walked around slowly through the rest of the store. Then out of nowhere, we were discussing how many new laundry baskets we needed to buy, and Eaddie made an offhand comment that absolutely triggered Autumn. She went 0 to 100 faster than I’ve ever seen, and even got in Eaddie’s face. I almost had to choke her out just to calm her down.

We let her walk it off, and the rest of us just stared at each other wide-eyed trying to figure out what the hell happened. We continued around the store for a while, then circled back around so I could talk to Autumn alone before checking out. We went to Hardee’s because I thought we were going to eat a late breakfast, but everyone else wanted lunch food. Fortunately I had loads of coupons ready to go.

After lunch, the girls went to Shoe Carnival while I went to Lowe’s to look for some gas line tape. Then I headed to my parents’ house to help Dad replace their water heater. It was super cold outside, but the garage was bearable. It took us a bit to trim the metal exhaust tube, and we ended up running back to Lowe’s for some replacement tubing to go from the wall to the heater, but we got it going again.

I stuck around to eat a bowl of soup, and then took an old TV from there to Bác Vân’s. My parents never used it, and it made more sense to give that one to them, since Walmart didn’t have any TVs at all that had a center stand. I’ll have to go back tomorrow once they have a board wide enough to support the new TV and its corner-mounted stands sitting on top of the old console TV.

I prepped a little bit to get things ready to go back to work, then headed up to Summer’s for the evening. The girls were all in good moods again. Autumn was cleaning her room while Summer did Eaddie’s nails as Eaddie had laundry going. I tinkered a bit, warmed up a bit of food, and eventually everyone made it to bed.

Talk about cramming it all in on the last day!

Uncategorised

Amazing!

I woke up pretty early today after an early new year’s eve. Summer got up and went home to meet up with the girls, who were home a day early from their father’s. Eaddie really wanted to come watch the Andrew Garfield The Amazing Spider-Man movies, so I picked up around the house until they came over with a bucket of chicken for dinner.

Just as we sat down to eat, Doug called from next door with a TV issue that I thought was going to be a de-synced remote again, but this time it seemed the volume on the TV was being constantly turned down. I couldn’t resolve it with a stuck button, so I told them it would just have to be replaced. I’ll have to go pick a new one up for them tomorrow.

I ate, and then we started the first movie. I had forgotten how good the 3D was in those movies, because it was actually properly shot in 3D by someone that actually took advantage of the technology and knew how to use it. We took a dessert break between movies, and then I made some popcorn for the second one. They were both pretty emotional movies that I just adored. I think even with the new MCU version of Spider-Man, Garfield was my favorite of all.

Eaddie and I stayed up a little later watching some YouTube, until she was ready for bed. I had to negotiate some space in the bed for her from Autumn, but they settled in pretty quickly. Summer had long been asleep, so I wrapped things up quietly before bed.

Gotta get back into the swing of things…

Uncategorised

Last Tighten

Julie called me as I was trying to get to bed last night. We’ve been more or less on the same page about Dad’s retirement, but she keeps wanting to talk in circles about her frustrations, and it stresses me out. Maybe this year we finally made some headway with our parents though.

Summer and I got up early this morning and headed straight to the new lube in Maumelle. She had a coffee, but that was it. I wasn’t really hurting for breakfast after yesterday. We put together one of the toolboxes together, and then raced on the next two. It was pretty close considering we were sharing tools, and I felt like I held my own. Matt came through to check on things I guess, but didn’t stay long or really do anything to help.

We made it through all but the last large toolbox, and decided to get some lunch. I was already exhausted and needed a break, so we ended up driving into Little Rock to find a Chinese buffet. I was hoping we might see something different, and maybe if I had gotten some raw food to be grilled, it would have been better. It wasn’t bad, but the food was inconsistently fresh or old, dry, and cold. In any case, I still ate way too much.

After lunch, we went back to Maumelle to finish the last toolbox. The trick was to leave the nuts loose enough that the metal could wiggle and flex enough to get the rest of the bolts through the holes. When we finished, we cleaned up our trash and then headed right back home.

Summer insisted I stop for new windshield wipers, so we went to Superfast for those, then went to my house to bring in a package. We decided to stay there for the night, though she had to run home for some things. While she was gone, I unburied the treadmill so she could run a while when she got back.

I was sore and stiff all night, so I just laid on the couch with Summer after she got out of the shower. I got up a couple times to make her something to drink, but it was still an early night to bed.

Lots of rain makes for a nice, quiet new year’s eve.

Uncategorised

You’ve Got to Build Bypasses!

We got up early this morning and headed to Cabot, stopping just outside of Conway at a Sonic for breakfast on the road. Summer met up with the managers of that new location to deploy tools and set up anything they could. I left them pretty early to go to Walmart across the street.

I wandered around the store just checking things out at first. Then I circled back through to pick up a few things. I found some Fruity Pebble flavored Mrs. Butterworth’s syrup, a Zelda Game & Watch, and some slap bracelets. When I left there, I stopped by the Goodwill in the adjacent shopping center, but they had absolutely nothing even remotely interesting to me.

Back at the shop, it appeared to be an extremely slow day, and not at all a full day of work worthy of the drive out there. It was lunch time, so we tried to go to Chef Candace, but the doors were locked. We ended up going across the street to Deer Creek Fire & Stone. Our server said it was her first day, but appeared old enough that I didn’t really believe she had never waited a table before. Service was slow, but the food was alright. I was most disappointed that she said the pot pies, which were on the lunch specials menu, “weren’t ready yet.”

After we ate, we went back to the shop and put together a few more things. I helped hang a couple charging banks in the back room, and then helped assemble the desk for the office. When we finished, we headed toward Bryant to pick up my order from Target, but went through the car wash in Benton first.

We walked all around Target, picking up some Christmas clearance before going back to the front to pick up my order. They actually had two of the Tron: Legacy vinyls, and I got both. Then we headed to Little Rock for dinner. Traffic was heavy, but not unmanageable. We were welcomed home at the Star of India, and had an incredible meal. The food came out quickly, but otherwise the service was very slow. A couple of boys circled around the place like buzzards and made sure my water was never more than an inch below the brim. We really could have just split what I ordered, but instead we just left with a bunch of leftovers.

It was straight to bed once we made it home. The girls were still in Clarksville, and Summer was sore from her day. Evidently she’s got to work in Maumelle tomorrow.

You no touch plate!

Uncategorised

Fill the Box

I woke up shortly after Summer left for work this morning. I felt hungry, so I thawed out a bagel, then started poking around the house to see what I could store in my new garage cabinet. Autumn eventually came to take Eaddie home, to get her mandated locker at school, and then out for an evening with her friends.

About mid afternoon, I went to my parents’ house to chat for a while. We scheduled a day to talk to their financial advisor about his retirement, and hopefully that will be the last of that, but I’m not so sure. As Summer finished up at work and went to the gym, I made my way up to her house for the evening.

The kids showed up after Eaddie’s night out with friends, but then left for their father’s once Eaddie packed some things. Then it was an early night to bed.

Rolls on rolls on rolls.

Uncategorised

Vacation in Spirit

I went to bed super early last night, and then woke up early this morning after many hours of sleep. I found a charge on my Discover card from Disney, but didn’t go with the rest of my family a couple weeks ago. After some digging, we discovered that Dad had somehow been signed into my account and charged a couple things to my card. I was just glad I didn’t have to cancel my card and get a new number.

Summer had to do some shopping for work, so she came to get me and we went to Walmart, Harbor Freight, AutoZone, and then Sumo for lunch. Afterward, she dropped me off at my house so I could do some things there.

It was nice outside, so I took the opportunity to clean out a corner of the garage and put together the last part of my new metal cabinet. It was a bit of a struggle to get everything to align properly, and I’m still not super happy with the door, but it works. Now I just have to figure out what to store in it.

After a quick shower, Summer finished at work and took me back to her house. Eaddie had been deep cleaning her room all day, which she had needed to start for a while. I stayed there and played some Don’t Starve while Summer went to the gym.

For dinner, I took Eaddie to pick up Summer at the gym, and went to my parents’ house for egg roll salads. Mom seemed to function pretty well as long as I could get her to whatever corner of the kitchen had what she needed. We ate, told Dad jokes, and then I took Summer back to her car and met her at my house.

Eaddie and I had been wanting to watch Hawkeye for a while, so we finally started it. I felt like it started super slow, and didn’t have a very interesting plot or memorable soundtrack. I was also pretty disappointed with the surround sound in general, and I had some strange artifacting in the picture. I couldn’t tell if it was from Disney+ or possibly something with my Chromecast.

Once we finished the first two episodes, Summer went to bed and I started the first episode of What If…?. Eaddie didn’t stick around for much of it, but I was at least appeased with the level of action and the pacing of the episode. By then, I was pretty tired, so I finished up my chores and went to bed.

Have some Upper 10. It’s more than 7 Up!

Uncategorised

Phone It In

Summer had some trouble getting up early this morning. I slept in for a while, and then played some more Don’t Starve until I got around to a shower. Eaddie didn’t want to get out of bed, so I left and took Summer to Morelos for lunch.

Earlier in the day, Bryan had asked if I knew anyone with an older Pixel or Samsung phone that might qualify for a trade-in. Johnny bit the bullet and was going to have Bryan drive all the way to Fort Smith from Conway to swap for his Galaxy S20 FE. Aaron joined the conversation late, but had an S10 that also qualified and was older, so I drove up to his house to get it, then met Bryan at AT&T.

Kevin had already gotten everything done, and they were waiting on me for the trade-in process. Then Bryan wanted to try and transfer all of his old content to his new iPhone. Rather than take up time in the store, we went back to my house to tinker with it. We chatted for a while, and eventually he headed home.

Aaron eventually came over and picked up the Pixel 6 so he could swap with Johnny later. Then I finally got rid of an old, broken chair and drove up to Summer’s for the evening. I warmed up some leftovers and ate a bit. Eaddie really wanted to watch Hawkeye, but I didn’t want to watch it there, so everyone went to bed.

No Returns

Uncategorised

Highking Trails

Summer picked up fast food breakfast this morning, and then everyone got up to go to Magazine Mountain. We stopped at a couple overlooks and then the visitor’s center, then made a couple loops around the top of the mountain before parking at the lodge to hike up to the top. Eaddie would never admit it, but she was sweet and walked with me while Summer and Autumn walked way ahead.

After the hike, we stopped at my house and cleaned up the back yard after last night’s fire. Then Eaddie rode her bike to my parents’ house while we drove Autumn home to get her car. We all met back at my parents’ house for some leftovers. I rolled around in Mom’s wheelchair for a bit. Eventually Autumn left for her father’s for the week, and the girls and I went home so Eaddie could clean her room and do some laundry.

Summer had to return to work for the week and went to bed, so I stayed up and played some Don’t Starve while Eaddie completed her chores.

Finally made it to winter…

Uncategorised

Need a Little Christmas

Summer jumped out of bed early this morning and ruined the secret of Santa Claus for me. I couldn’t sleep in much and was a little hungry after having a complicated relationship with food last night, so I got up. Summer made us some scrambled eggs, and we eventually got both kids up enough to dump out their stockings. Eaddie was in an immediate mood, throwing an absolute tantrum at everything. I was very near slapping it out of her, and both girls just kept picking at one another.

We got Eaddie up and around to some chores, and eventually got everyone through the shower so we could make our way to my parents’ house. Summer made all of our contribution to lunch, and we were off.

Bác Vân and Doug beat us there. I think Julie made most of the food and was about two hours late. Eaddie took a nap in my bedroom until the food was ready, and came out in much better form. We ate, did our quickest round of presents ever, and then left so I could clean up house a bit for some friends.

I had messaged Diana happy birthday earlier in the day, and she said they were in town along with Josue and wanted to get together. They agreed on a fire at my place and we all met up for a nice quiet evening outside. It was really nice seeing them all again, and the kids enjoyed some roasted marshmallows.

Josue stuck around for a little while and chatted with me after the others left. The girls all went to sleep, and eventually we packed everything up and he headed out. By then, I was ready for bed too.

Hasn’t snowed a single flurry, but Santa dear we’re in a hurry!

Uncategorised

Hot Coffee Mod

I slept in pretty late today, and felt great for it. I remember waking up in an anxiety attack briefly, but it didn’t last long or keep me from falling right back to sleep. I ate a leftover smoked sausage for lunch, and eventually got cleaned up to go to Summer’s for the evening.

Amanda asked me to stop by and bring a package in for her, so I did that, then grabbed a free 2-liter from Casey’s, and finally made it up to Summer’s where she and all three kids were playing Mario Party. It was pretty loud while everyone was screaming at one another, and it made me a little woozy.

Presents didn’t take long to open, because it was a pretty lowkey Christmas. Summer went overboard and got me an Ember mug, which I looked at on a whim after seeing them on sale at Costco. I made some loose leaf tea in the Manatea infuser she also got me, and the cup really made all the differnce. After hours, even the very last little sip was as hot as the first.

We tried having the kids put together the gingerbread houses, but I don’t think they cared much about it. Eaddie had some fun with it, but Autumn didn’t participate at all, and Noah mostly just made a mess. After they got the walls up, they finished their game. Noah left, and the girls went to their rooms. Summer went to bed pretty early, which left me up late, sippin’ hot tea.

Tropical Christmas