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Stop Buying Things You Don’t Need

I went straight to Oakland this morning for the first time this year, and got in just a little late. It felt warmer and more humid all day, which had me looking for an escape from my mask more often. I feel like the buildings need to be showing some solidarity with so many people stuck in them all day long without a break.

After running around a while and fixing what I could, I ended up back at the shop until lunch. I didn’t have a whole lot of really pressing stuff to work on, so it was finally a bit more relaxed. Our new guy, Jacob, has started reaching out with questions, but it’s a little odd since I haven’t really worked with him at all yet. He’s always just at the junior high by himself.

I went home for lunch and had some more leftovers, then took some to Summer since she wouldn’t get out for a break. Then it was back to Oakland for a bit longer. As I pulled up, Darla was unloading a big printer from her car, so I helped her bring it into the library. I don’t think she should be allowed to buy those things with any kind of district funds, since she’s one brick wall away from a giant copier, and across the hall from a multifunction color printer. There’s just nobody filtering that kind of stuff from happening, so we’re left stuck trying to decide how much we’ll support it. Imagine that, a lack of accountability.

I ended the day back at the shop, and it was just as quiet as it had been all day. I went home and just stayed in for the night. I was going to go vacuum the pool for my parents, but I thought it was going to rain. It certainly looked that way on the ride home. I guess that’ll be a job for tomorrow then.

But I waaaant it.

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WOOWOO

You just haven’t lived until you’ve been wooped by a big black guy riding a bicycle as you zip past on your Grom. He may have been making fun, but I chose to interpret it as encouraging excitement for how much fun I was having. The weather was much more mellow today, so aside from some time in a mask in the afternoon, it felt pretty good out.

I worked on some stuff at the shop until a group of us went to La Chiquita for lunch. The carnitas were smaller than I remembered, but I was still stuffed. It was nowhere near as much as Gary’s giant prime rib burrito.

After lunch, I went straight to Oakland for a while to close out, or at least investigate as much as I could for closing on the next trip. A large part of that time was spent in the library shuffling through damaged or failing Chromebooks. As the end of the school day approached, I was run off again, and I returned to the shop for the remainder of the day.

When I left work, I stopped by Casey’s for a free drink, then went by the shop to try and see Summer again. She had been in the pit all day, so all I could see at lunch was the top of her head when I stopped by. They were still busy, so I went on home to change.

I took the Grom back out to go see Mom for a bit. She was insistent that I pick up some potato salad that we left when we cooked out for Labor Day. Julie called while I was there, and we chatted for a little bit. Then I eventually made it back home for the evening.

Uno Uno Uno!

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The Grill of My Dreams

I got up this morning and had some more leftovers for breakfast. I thought we might get out to teach Eaddie to ride the Grom after learning that Arkansas raised the engine size limit for 14-15 year old riders, but she didn’t want to get out of bed. Summer and I ended up going to town to do a little deal and grocery shopping for dinner.

I’d been seeing seasonal deals on grills and outdoor stuff, so I really wanted to look around for a new grill. Summer’s propane grill has seen better days, and Mom and Dad have one like my old one that’s missing the right table side of it. We ended up finding a dual-fuel propane/charcoal one with a griddle insert for $150. Then Summer ran into a couple guys she knew from Autozone that marked one down to $100 for us since it was missing the charcoal door handle. I figured I couldn’t beat that, so we took a price tag, picked up our groceries, and checked out. All that was left was to find someone with a truck to haul it home for me.

I dropped Summer off at her house and then went home to clean up. Brody said he could help me with the grill, so I waited around for him to get back with me. I didn’t realize he was out of town, but eventually he came through. When I got back to Walmart, they had closed the garden center door, so I had to find an employee to help me walk the grill through the store and out the front door. Brody got there just after we got outside, so timing was just about perfect. When we got to my house, he took the turn into my street just a bit too fast and tipped the grill over on its front side, but it didn’t look like there was any damage. We got it down and into the garage, and then I was off to Summer’s for dinner.

Summer made chicken and dumplings, and it turned out really great. I ate way too much though, and the heartburn ate away at me the rest of the night. We watched a couple episodes of Modern Family, and then she went to bed and Eaddie and I watched an episode of House to finish up the fifth season. She still can’t believe the show is still so good this many seasons in, and I keep telling her it gets better. It’s one of the few shows I think they did an excellent job of ending without fizzling out.

After that, I headed back home for the evening to rearrange in the garage a bit. I made just enough room to squeeze past the grill until I can find a cover for it to put it under the porch. I guess now I’ll have to find a way to get my old one to my parents’ house, but that shouldn’t be too bad. The new one is huge though. I can’t wait to try it.

Went looking for a hot deal on a grill, and found a grate one. Job well-done.

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Baby Let’s Cruise

I didn’t sleep too late today, and got up to have some leftovers out of the fridge. Autumn was already off to work, so I just hung out until Summer was ready to go to the gym. I went home and finally opened up a bunch of boxes of paper towels and toilet paper that were still in the garage, and then organized a bit inside the house. I’ve been holding on to a lot of cardboard boxes, but I think I’ll actually get rid of some of the oversized ones because they won’t be as useful as I suspect they will be.

The girls all wanted to go to the movies with friends, but of course the two wanted to go to different ones. Autumn’s friends ended up bailing after Summer convinced Noah to go with them, so we sent all the kids to see Free Guy again since Noah hadn’t seen it. At least Eaddie’s boyfriend made it. Since they were all together with Noah, Summer and I split off to watch Jungle Cruise.

The first part of the movie really bored me, I think just because it was very much a kid’s movie with silly physical comedy that I just wasn’t at all into. Eventually the story picked up, but I just couldn’t get into any of the characters. I did like that they made a bunch of corny jokes like the skippers do on the ride at Disney.

After the movie, we all went back to Summer’s for the evening to play some Uno with Noah. Then he and Autumn played a couple infinite rounds of Super Smash Bros. Ultimate before he left. I even squeezed in for a quick round, but it all felt pretty meaningless without any score or time limit.

Once the other two were off to bed, Eaddie and I watched some more House until she got sleepy again. Then it was off to bed.

Reward Juggler

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Deadlines

The crew had a little training meeting this morning, but I just stayed in my office and continued working on my Autodesk deployment. It took me all morning, but I finally got the idea to build it on a non-domain computer so AppLocker wouldn’t keep interfering.

Kyle was the first one to ask me about lunch today, and suggested Ridgewood Brothers before we walked out and learned that the rest of the crew was going out to London. The joke was on them though, because the weather was cool enough, and the line was short enough that we were actually in and out faster than they were. Even Josh joined us at a picnic table there.

After lunch, I had to run across the street to help Judy for a bit. Then a little while later, Zach, Greg, and I went to Oakland to install a touch panel. When we got back to the shop, I finished up my deployment and just hoped that it would work over the weekend as intended.

I ran by Superfast to see Summer for a bit, then went home for a few hours before making it up to her house. She was already watching TV in bed, so I laid down with her for a few minutes before going back out to watch House with Eaddie for a while until she couldn’t stay awake any longer.

Well that’s one way to get rid of a character…

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Manualdesk

My entire day was eaten alive by a surprisingly uncooperative Autodesk Inventor deployment. There’s no reason that software these kids are using should be over 10 gigs. It took forever to download, extract, build a deployment package, and then finally incorporate that into Configuration Manager. I even stayed a couple hours late, but for whatever reason it just wouldn’t install. My only break was a lunch trip to Bocadillo for a beef chimichanga with Zach and Gary.

It would have been one thing to fight and test different things all day, but this took all day to build, and then didn’t actually start failing until the end of the day. I just wanted to shoot myself. Unfortunately I couldn’t even get it to install manually on a single device, so Monday’s deadline for such a massive deployment is no good.

At least apple pie is almost in season again.

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Wild Bus Chase

Today was a little bit weird. I spent all morning chasing my tail trying to fix something that appeared to not be an issue. I tried to go light for the day, so I had half a Soylent for breakfast and then the half grilled chicken salad at Brangus for lunch. My only saving grace was the pile of peanuts I ate, but then I spent all afternoon smelling like an elephant.

I made it back to Oakland for a bit before school let out and closed up what I could. Then they chased me out as they got ready for dismissal. The shop cleared out really fast, and I left to get some gas into the Shadow. I was never certain, but I was pretty sure the main tank died on me as I pulled into Brangus, and I didn’t want to risk running out.

When I got home, I dug out all of the old pairs of jeans I could find since the ones I’ve been wearing had all worn out and started to critically fail. None of the stiff ones I just received fit even a little bit, so they’ll probably all go back.

Eventually I made it up to Summer’s for the evening. They got home just after I got there, and then I sat and ate a bowl of roast by myself because they were all preoccupied. Afterward, Summer and Autumn went to bed and Eaddie and I watched several episodes of House. Rewatching the whole series, it’s uncanny how I let it shape my late 20s.

Saving lives is just collateral damage.

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You Get a Raise! You Get a Raise! Everybody Gets a Raise!

I had my meeting with Judy this morning, along with Zach and Thomas. Pending board approval, we’ll both be promoted to the Network Tech title. Zach was uncharacteristically quiet through the whole event, and I would have thought he’d do a better job of showing some appreciation or excitement, especially with the news that his would be retroactive to the start of July. Oh well.

Lunch was light with just a couple spring rolls from Linh’s. Then I went to Oakland for the afternoon to try and knock out as much as I could. I still didn’t get the bulk out like I wanted, but I made a little progress before taking off at the end of the school day.

I was the last one out at work, and went home to change before going to Walmart to pick up the last couple of things we needed for dinner. Then I ran up to Summer’s to get the Instant Pot going for chicken tacos. Summer wanted me to get Eaddie to karate, so I was rushing through the whole prep only to have her leave work to take Eaddie herself.

Dinner was finished right as they got home, so at least that much was perfect. The tacos were pretty good, but I had to limit myself to four. All I wanted to do was continue eating them, but even four was too much. Hopefully I’ll feel a little lighter tomorrow for it.

Well, actually, that’s all. Just the two. Nobody else gets a raise.

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Excessage

I don’t think I slept great this weekend, because I kept getting up out of bed last night as well. I didn’t want to let myself sleep in too late, but I just felt so tired. I cleaned up the last of the taco meat that Summer had, and then took Eaddie home with me as soon as she was ready.

She was supposed to go ride her bike to her friend’s house to work on some homework together, but she didn’t leave for a couple hours. I picked up a little bit in the other bedroom, then took a shower once she did leave. By the time I got out, Summer and Autumn had gotten what they needed from the grocery store and I met them at my parents’ house.

What was supposed to be some super simple grilled sausages for dinner ended up being pretty frustrating. First, about half of the zucchini I brought over fell right through the grill because Mom cut too much meat out of the middle of them and they slipped right through the grates. Then the new jalapeño cheddar sausages I wanted to try from Sam’s were super greasy and caught the whole grill on fire. Everything else was pretty burned after that. All the while, I had to hear Autumn in the background continue to be generally obtuse and uncooperative.

Summer got in the pool for a little bit on her own, but I was busy sweating over the fire. I didn’t get to swim until after we all ate outside. I think I’m learning that I simply don’t care for eating around round tables. With several exceptions, I tend to also become frustrated by having too much other stuff on the table when we’re eating. The sausages had way too much cheddar inside of them, and the cheese overpowered the rest of the flavor. By the time it was all over, I just wanted to make a lap in the pool to cool off. I just felt increasingly tired and aggravated all day long.

The girls went home to get ready for school. I stuck around for just a little bit before going home myself. I was sleepy enough to just go to bed, so I didn’t even risk staying up any later. I only got out for a couple minutes when Bác Vân called me over to get some egg rolls.

-Cap’n Crankypants

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Big Fun in Little China

I slept in a while today after sleeping pretty heavily last night. Autumn had gone to work and Eaddie was still in bed while Summer watched TV. I eventually got up and choked down some questionably old fish tacos before going home to clean up. Once Autumn got home from work, I headed back to pick the three of them up to go see Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings in Conway.

We stopped in at Game Point first to browse around and kill some time before the movie. Eaddie really didn’t want to go in, so we let her sit in the car. Before too long it was time to head across town for the show. The Cinemark was completely out of butter somehow, which I didn’t even think was possible. What followed was the driest movie popcorn I’ve ever had, but somehow still not the worst.

It felt like there was about an hour of mostly commercials and previews before the show, but eventually we got our movie. I thought it was incredible, and I found myself getting a bit weepy during the old style fight scenes with the traditional movie style martial arts. I just thought the whole thing was really beautiful.

After the movie, everyone was in the mood for Chinese, so we went a few doors down to China Town. Autumn ate frustratingly little and then continued a downward spiral of attitude the rest of the night. We hand-picked our playlist for the drive home, I stopped by my house briefly to take my contacts out, and then we took the girls home.

Summer had to yell at Autumn a bit before they both went to bed. Eaddie and I stayed up to watch a couple more episodes of House until she fell asleep in my lap again. Then I finally made it to bed.

Did America make you soft?