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Mind Flay

It was a little bit cooler today, so I took the Shadow to work. I spent the morning in my office bouncing all over the place. I felt like I was on a rack, being stretched in every direction all morning long. I’m juggling so many things right now, and it actually feels pretty good. I struggle focusing on any one big project, but the constantly changing scenery keeps things from getting boring.

I picked up Summer and we went to Morelos for lunch, but she left me early and ran across the street after staring at an angry customer through the window. I managed to get the leftovers home on the bike, then went back to the shop to get some things to take to Oakland.

Michael and I got to talking about crypto for a bit after work. He gave me a frozen turkey that was sitting on his counter, which I had to swing by and get after going home to get my car. Eaddie had walked to the house after school, and Summer picked her up for karate. I went to my parents’ house after picking up the turkey, and Mom made some super dressed-up ramen.

Things were quiet when I made it back home. I got into the mood for some low-hitting bass after reading an incendiary thread on a speaker deal, so I put on some music. I don’t know what it is about speakers that brings out the forum trolls, but it’s so eye-rollingly stupid. I still want some big subs for behind/under my eventual theater seating though.

If they won’t cater to my whimsy, I’ll cater to it myself.

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Back to the Beginning

I went in to the shop first thing this morning so I could take care of a few things before going to Oakland. It was really quiet with most of the team out in buildings, but things got exciting at Oakland when I finally made it over there. I wandered back and forth down the halls trying to find where everyone had moved, and closed what work orders I could. Evidently there was a screaming runner, so there were a couple suits there briefly just to oversee what was going on.

I stuck around until lunch, then just went home to eat some leftovers before going back to the shop for the afternoon. I was able to get a bit more done there, and though my work is kind of piling up, things just felt more relaxed there than having to be in the building. It’ll be nice to get most of the work orders cleared out of the building so I can get into another project to finish.

Eaddie walked to my house after school, so I came home to her finishing up my pizza. Autumn came along shortly after and took her home, and I spent the rest of the evening in a quiet house to myself. I hardly moved off of the couch and just watched YouTube all evening. Hopefully I sleep better tonight.

Back to the mask.

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The Bore Before the Storm

I got up and picked at leftovers for brunch, then mostly sat around all morning and afternoon. Autumn was at work all day while Eaddie stayed in her room with her head cold. Even Summer didn’t get out to do anything until she decided to cook dinner. I eventually went home to clean up a bit, but didn’t get up to much before heading back up for the night.

I got back just as Autumn was home and cleaning out her car. Summer had some ribs and corn on the grill, and was inside making mashed potatoes and some kind of pan-fried vegetable medley. We all ate, then let Eaddie go back to her room while the rest of us played a game of UNO.

The girls went to bed early for the first day back to school. Summer and I watched a couple episodes of Modern Family, and then we were off to the same.

Chickie-chickie, Slim Eggie

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They’re Just Resting…So Sleepy

I woke up early this morning and my heart was racing for some reason. I went back to sleep while Summer took the girls to the Cyclone Extravaganza, and though I woke up in better form, I felt pretty bad for most of the day.

I met Summer and Eaddie at the theater to see Free Guy in the early afternoon. Autumn didn’t want to go for some reason, but the three of us loved the movie. On the way back home, we were stopped in the street by a funeral and I decided to pop in to see Robert as they were cleaning up. I didn’t stick around more than a couple minutes though, and continued on home.

While I was home, I added some carbonated water to my shrimp tank and inadvertently suffocated all of my shrimp. I had knocked them out before, but this time I think I nuked them all and I felt horrible. I even tried pulling a bunch of the water out and changing some fresh water in, but the damage was done. Even my snail that I thought I had lost months ago appeared to struggle, but it survived. I also took care of some of my little plants that didn’t look so hot.

Eventually I made it up to Summer’s for the evening. I made a burrito to chip away at their leftovers, but there’s still so much to clean up in there. Autumn came home late from the evening portion of the Extravaganza, but by then everyone else was already in bed. I stayed up later than I wanted just trying to complete some Windows Updates. Overall I was just ready for it to end.

Don’t have a good day. Have a great day!

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I Don’t Have the Time or the Crayons

Today was the last Friday before school starts, and a Friday the 13th at that. I jumped right back into my report scripting in Cognos, at least between calls and nags to help other people. Thomas came in to prod me into finishing the job, but at the end of the day I wasn’t even sure what else he had for me to do. I think Bryan got aggravated that I couldn’t stop everything and fix his issue, but it wasn’t just a simple fix at all, and I was busy trying to get rostering done for a math curriculum program used across nearly the entire district.

Evidently Shane from Howard came down and took the Big Three to lunch but they didn’t invite anyone else. Kyle happened to be in the shop with me, so the two of us went to The Gunslingin’ Burger again for their anniversary deal. I had a Cajun burger that had fried shrimp and rice on it, and I don’t think I loved it. The lady also brought out a plate with like four onion rings on it, but when I commented on how paltry that was, she ran to the back and had them fry up some more without any hesitation. At least the service is good, especially for a place that is more or less fast-food.

I still didn’t make it to Oakland in the afternoon, but things did at least kind of calm down for me while some people were coming through the front of the office for badges and accounts. I did my part quietly in the background and never had to interact with anyone, which was kind of perfect for today.

I worked a bit late again but made it home just before Eaddie made it back from a bike ride. While she was there, I cleaned some more hair algae out of my shrimp tank and found one of my missing snails in the sump area. I moved it back to the front, so hopefully it can keep that area a bit cleaner. Now I just need to find the little baby one, if it’s still alive.

Summer came home not long after that, and we went to Nonna Bella’s for dinner since the girls were going to their friends’ house for the evening. That place was way bigger inside than I imagined, and they actually had a really nice atmosphere. The staff reminded me of a cleaner version of the folks that run the burger joint. They were very proud to be a family-run business, and the service and food were both pretty good. Summer’s pasta seemed a bit too reasonably priced until it came out with imitation crab instead of real crab meat. The pizza I ordered was pretty awesome, but it was on the higher end of the cost spectrum. Overall I think it will be a decent date night establishment.

Summer went straight to bed when we got home, on account of her 5k in the morning. I got into some daydreaming about business cards and letterpress printing again, but had to shut myself down on account of how absolutely unnecessary that is for my present life.

Priorities are a struggle.

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All Your Base

I woke up feeling quite refreshed after a long night of sleep, which helped keep me sharp throughout the day. Gary showed me the insides of our Cognos reporting, and we spent all day trying to import some data into other applications the staff want to use. I’m not sure how useful reporting in Cognos will be outside of the district, but I do think it’s something that I’ll enjoy tinkering with.

Being stuck on my newfound “engineering” tasks kept me out of any other buildings, which is bad for this time of the year. School starts next week, and I still haven’t made it out to hook up some staff devices. Priorities are priorities though, and evidently we’ve taken on a lot more responsibilities this year in spite of losing most of the eSchool stuff.

Gary, Greg, Brody, and I went to Linh’s for lunch, and I had to eat my phở with a fork because our server never got back around to us while we were eating. I picked up a tin of cookies on the way out, and then spent the rest of the afternoon playing around in Cognos by myself. I was successful with most of my first assignment, but I’ve still got some work to figure out tomorrow since we don’t name our courses the way they want them for Agile Mind.

I finished up a bit late, then went home to change. I was pretty mentally exhausted, so I didn’t get up to much. I eventually made some tuna for dinner, and then vegged on YouTube until bedtime.

Elementary, my dear Watson.

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A Real Jokester

I struggled to get out of bed an hour early today for the back-to-school breakfast. I’m pretty sure I was the first from our department there, but Greg walked in right behind me. We both expected them to be enforcing masks after the board meeting last night, but hardly a soul was masked. We got our food, which was probably the best I’ve had for the occasion, and found a seat right in front with Summer and Justin. The casserole was so good I had to go back for more, but it was okay because they didn’t have any other events or big raffles like previous years.

After breakfast, we headed over to the arts center for some quick training. Without Ben’s cyber security training, we just heard from a couple suits and then listened to Judy talk about FMLA before our OSHA training. I liked that guy the best just because he seemed like a cool, old guy.

We got back to the shop a bit before lunch, and they sent out the first draft of the proposed classified salary schedule. That, of course, sent everyone through the roof when they learned that our pay was lowered both at the base, and then significantly at the cap. I divulged that I had gotten a big raise, likely unintentionally, and was making more than Zach for the school year.

I was still full from breakfast, so I only ordered some chips and a shake when a group of us went to Slim Chickens for lunch. That left me pretty salty and dehydrated for an afternoon of crunching numbers, and then trying to find out why we were short so many new laptops for junior high students. It was just one clusterfuck after another, all day long.

After work, I went straight home and immediately had to start fighting sleep. My gut never quite recovered from the food from the day, but at least I was able to go to bed early.

Let the output reflect the input.

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Ain’t No Party Like an Expo Party

I’ve been spending most of my days helping others, which has felt good until I look back at my own work orders that have yet to be completed. Summer tried to hand out coupons at the certified back-to-school event, but they didn’t have a breakfast like we are tomorrow, presumably because there was a concern about them spreading COVID. No such worries about classified, though. She came by to see my new office when she finished, and then we met for lunch at The Gunslingin’ Burger.

After lunch, I spent the afternoon with Brody at the high school, primarily trying to get Jazz’s printer and desktop working. It took a painfully long time to find the network line for the printer because the tone generator was just too sensitive and would start playing music as soon as you’d walk up to the racks. Eventually I prevailed, both with the printer and imaging the desktop.

After work, I went home to change and then met Summer at the Boys & Girls club for the preview party. We thought I would need a ticket to get in, but nobody was checking for them. At one point my parents came in with tickets they were given at the door, so it really was just a sort of soft-open. We wandered around and got a bit of schwag and some food. My old coworker Stacey was there with Legends and gave us both a big gift bag full of junk.

When my parents showed up, I took the opportunity to leave since I wasn’t all that excited to be there anyway. I thought it would be less standing in a booth and more of an actual preview party for those involved. We went to La Huerta for dinner, and then I made it home just after Summer did.

I ran back out to Slim Chickens to get some dinner for the girls, and then we came back for an early night to bed. I’ve got a super-spreader breakfast to attend in the morning before work, so I’ll need my beauty rest.

‘Cause an expo party don’t start!

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Pololoko

Teachers were back on contract today, but they were all stuck in meetings and couldn’t harass us too much yet. This summer felt super short, and I wasn’t ready to go back to full days and polo shirts. I’ve taken more vacations this year than ever before, and I just can’t wait to leave again.

I spent most of the morning at Oakland taking care of a very few things, but mostly babysitting in case they needed help with their iPad project. Nobody ever came to get me, so I guess it went alright. I’m sure it helped that I made them test it first.

Greg and I met Brody at Old South for lunch, where I had a pretty dissatisfying “prime rib” sandwich. It tasted more like overcooked roast beef, and left me hungry all afternoon. The worst part is that I think I’ve tried it before and was equally unhappy with it, but I had forgotten.

I spent the rest of the day at the office just slowly chipping away at duties as they seemed to be rolling in. It was quiet with everyone else out in the buildings, but I can feel the tidal wave coming.

I went home after work until it was time to go to Summer’s for dinner. I took the giant zucchini and chopped it up into large chunks to grill, and Summer made mashed potatoes. Noah came over, and we grilled cheddar jalapeño sausages. Autumn had band practice pretty late, but Noah waited for her to get home before taking off. Then everyone was off to bed pretty quickly.

Bugs…EVERYWHERE!

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Less Taxing

Summer took Autumn to work this morning while Eaddie and I slept in pretty hard. I felt really refreshed when I woke up, and then got to ease into the day. She came back to get Eaddie and went to pick up groceries for dinner with Noah, which ended up getting cancelled.

After Autumn got off, they came to pick me up and we went back-to-school shopping for tax-free weekend. We went to Staples first, where we ran into Jazz, who had a couple quick questions for me. Then we went across the street to the Valley Park Center. TJ Maxx was fun. Ross was about as disappointing as usual. Shoe Carnival was selling things at full price. Rue 21 was where we saw the most excitement. I had gone to move the car while the girls walked across the shopping center. When I got there, I ran into Candace and Ana. Then a few minutes later we spotted Zane Dave from across the room, but Eaddie was being weird and just hid from him.

On the way home we stopped at Walmart for a couple things to go with dinner. Summer prepped some tilapia for fish tacos, so dinner was ready super fast. We ate, and then Summer watched TV while I proofread Autumn’s apology letters to the officers she called last weekend. She ended up going to her grandparents’ house so she could take a stab at proofreading it, and stayed the night.

Trying to prep for school, Eaddie showered early and went to bed too. With both girls off to bed, I wrapped up my evening therapy and went to sleep.

I love pens, but I hate writing.