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On Waiting and Support

I got up an extra hour early this morning to pick up the girls and head to Little Rock for Autumn’s surgery. There was hardly any traffic until it came up from behind us halfway past Conway, but we made it with plenty of time to spare. None of us ate anything to keep from being unfair to Autumn, but Eaddie and I wished we had left for lunch at some point during our six hour waiting room session. I didn’t even get to go back for the anesthetic because they considered Eaddie an “adult” and only two could go back. Summer’s parents eventually showed up and waited with us, but they could just as well have showed up right at the end to take her home.

Eaddie and I played on our phones for most of the morning. I took a break to get Jerry a Diet Coke and walk around the gift shop for a while where I picked up a little yeti pen for Autumn. Otherwise it was a completely uneventful day in the waiting room. We even had to wait forever for them to bring Autumn down once they were ready to discharge her. Eaddie started to get cranky from being so tired and hungry, but we eventually started hunting burgers. Autumn went home with her grandparents, so Summer, Eaddie, and I went by Cotham’s to see if they were open.

Evidently they’re popular enough that they can pay rent just being open for lunch, so then it was across town to Big Orange Burger. I had never been to the midtown location, but it seemed really cool. The service was definitely nowhere near as good, but the food was fine. Eaddie was convinced she had never had a better burger in her life, but part of that may have been how hungry she had gotten.

We stopped by the liquor store on the way home to stock up before new year’s eve. Then it was straight to get Autumn back to my house. I started some laundry and we watched Home Alone. About halfway through, Autumn got to feeling pretty hungry so I made a Baconator run. We finished the movie, Summer passed out, and the girls settled in for the night. Autumn wasn’t complaining about pain or discomfort, so that was a win in my book.

I don’t understand why nobody else cared about getting the old tendon back. How often do you get a chance to make a ham bone soup with a piece of yourself?

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No Need for a Manger in Hammock Weather

Summer woke up to a surprise visit from Santa Classic, Mexican Sañta, and Satan the lysdexic Santa today, so I got pushed out of bed as well. She made some biscuits and woke Eaddie up, who probably would have walked around the tree all day without noticing the new gifts. Summer went to get Autumn from her parents’ house as soon as we finished eating, and I played some Mario Kart with Eaddie until they got back so we could open presents.

When that was all done, I headed home to clean up before heading to my parents’ house for Christmas dinner. When the girls got here, Eaddie wanted to ride bikes, so she and Summer rode across town while Autumn and I chauffeured the crock pot of mashed potatoes. When we got there and found that everyone had already eaten, we learned that we had misinterpreted a text from earlier without an expected time to gather. We picked at food, played on my childhood slot-car/jet race track, and generally lazed around until Uncle Giao, Aunt Teresa, Bác Vân, and Doug all left. Julie was in Disney World, so it was just us kids visiting.

The girls had dinner plans with their father, so we headed back to my house to wait for him. The girls watched TV while I mostly just sat feeling tired. I cleaned the cat box and played a couple rounds of Overwatch after everyone left, then called it an early night for Autumn’s knee surgery at 8:30 the next morning.

Holidays just make me a cranky old codger anyway.

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Fellowship of the Inconsiderate

Summer left us for work this morning. I eventually got up and snuck over to the girls who were laying in the floor watching YouTube videos until Noah woke up. Once they started making a little noise, he got up and we finished The Fellowship of the Ring. The extended version was so incredibly long, and the fan club credits ran about 15 minutes long themselves. I even made some popcorn for us all.

After the movie, we gathered everyone up and headed back to their house so they could clean up. The girls were reluctant to do anything, so Noah took charge and prodded them along to getting anything done at all. Summer eventually got home after shutting down early for Christmas, and really got things moving. I noticed that one of the girls had stuck an earring into the cork handle on my electric kettle, which set me off. Summer got mad at me for flipping my shit, but I can’t stand that kind of destructive disrespect. I’m about one more incident from taking my toys back home.

They all finally used up the gingerbread house I’d had on top of my refrigerator for the past 16 or so years, and then decorated cookies. I needed a shower and some time away from their shrieking, so I had a drink and a time-out while they finished. Summer’s parents eventually came over with a crate full of gifts for everyone, and then left with Noah and Autumn for the evening. I guess we’ll figure out tomorrow when it gets here.

Summer went to bed with a headache, so Eaddie and I played some Mario Kart before settling in for about an episode and a half of Luke Cage. She started to fall asleep, so we called it a night.

Disappointed Narwhal disapproves.

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Getting Baked for Family

I got to sleep in a little today while Summer went off to work. The kids were all up playing Mario Kart when I finally got around. Noah and I finished up some salad stuff, and then Eaddie and I shared what was left of Veronica’s tamales. Summer had me bake the cookies so they’d be cool for decorating in the evening. Eaddie wanted to help at first, but didn’t really commit. Once they were done, I headed home to start cleaning up the house for everyone to stay the night.

Everything cleaned up relatively easily, but I’ve still got a ton of clutter that needs to be managed. I definitely had to skimp in the evening as Summer finished up work and I had to pick up some groceries for Christmas dinner. Walmart had been extremely busy the past few times I’d been, but had surprisingly calmed down a bunch for the evening. Erica yelled out at me as I was running out the door and said she still wasn’t having any of the crowd.

The kids ambushed Summer when she got home, so she called in an order for some pizza. I was pretty early to get them, but it was fun watching the make line and I chatted a bit with who I presume was the shift leader about my nostalgia from my first job working in pizza. With pizzas in hand, I made my way up to Summer’s where the kids were mostly practicing being in the way. We ultimately decided to put off decorating cookies until tomorrow so we could get started watching The Fellowship of the Ring with Noah. The kids decorated the tree and then we were off.

Summer went straight to bed. Autumn watched, I’m estimating the first 30 seconds of the film before she passed out. Eaddie made it a bit farther. Noah was aggravated after spending two day swatching Harry Potter when Autumn wouldn’t provide him the same courtesy. We eventually called it quits just as we made it to Rivendell.

Bah Humbug, now that’s too strong!

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Last Minute Holiday Chaos

Summer got Noah this morning before starting on some breakfast. Eaddie left for Silver Dollar City with Maleea and her family while Summer was in the middle of cooking biscuits and gravy with eggs, so I helped with the gravy as she shooed her out the door. When we finished eating, I headed home to clean up, then came back to pick up Summer, Autumn, and Noah for our trip to Conway.

We stopped at PetSmart in town first, and got lucky with a cashier that let us exchange a burned-out light bulb without a receipt. Then we headed out of town for a really short drive compared to yesterday. We stopped at Target, Shoe Carnival, and TJ Maxx before everyone got tired and hungry. Being Sunday also meant that most of the stores were closing a bit earlier than usual, so we made our way across town to the China Town buffet. Autumn protested Asian food, but then remembered how many things she liked from this buffet.

With everyone stuffed to the gills, we headed back home. Noah fell asleep in the car, but the remaining three of us stopped in at Walmart for some cookie dough for the kids to decorate this week. I made us make a quick run through the store for deals, but came up short. With everyone tuckered out, we headed on home to bed. Eaddie strolled in eventually, and watched movies with Noah well past my bedtime.

Some people juggle promotions!

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Christmas with the Distants

We got up this morning to make the trip down to Bismark for Dad’s family Christmas bash. I ran home to take care of the cat and clean up, then headed back to Summer’s to make the broccoli casserole. I was running a bit behind, which was exacerbated by a rice cooker that wouldn’t stay on. In a weird chain of choices, I ended up using another rice cooker’s power cord to weigh down the switch so the rice would finish cooking.

Once that was done, the girls loaded up and we headed to pick up Dad and make our way down to the church. We took the highway through Little Rock on the way down since I hadn’t realized it was just down past Hot Springs and that we would need something for Eaddie’s car sickness. It ended up taking about the same amount of time, but traffic was super bad and the drive was terribly boring, plus it added about another 40 miles to the trip.

It was a super small showing this year, though since it was potluck style, we still ended up with plenty to eat. I’m still not exactly sure why I went back for seconds, but I definitely should have cut back instead. Dad did a little magic, and then almost everyone else there played Dirty Santa until it was time to clean up and head home.

I wanted to take Highway 7 back home, so I let Google Maps guide me around the outskirts of Hot Springs where we stopped at one of about 300 Dollar Generals to get some Dramamine for all three of the girls. We made good time coming back, and the drive was miles shorter and better. The girls took turns falling asleep until we dropped Dad off, and as soon as we got home, everyone shuffled off to bed.

Ah, Kohl’s Cash, you tricky bastard!

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It Kryptmus Time!

We were down another man at the shop today because Brice accepted a job at Two Rivers, and I guess he took today off so he could work over the break? I don’t really know what’s happening anymore. I was going to pair up with Ben to help make some tech tubs and then hang a new WAP for JROTC, but then Allen came along for the tech tubs as well, and then Ben left the two of us to figure out my WAP. While we were there, I found Seth and unloaded a ton of cardboard boxes for him and Danielle to move over break.

It took us a little while to get the line through the weird wall for JROTC, but eventually we got the access point powered up and running. We made it back to the shop just in time for lunch, and convinced Jason to drive us to New China. He always says he hates that place and refuses to go, but he seemed to like it alright today. Then I spent most of the afternoon at the shop just killing time. Right at the end of the day, I got a text about the sign at the high school, so I left to take a look.

On the way there, I had to stop by Oakland to see the girls before break. Apparently I was late to the party, because they already knew Brice was leaving and wanted to know if I was coming back. Sheri even told me she’d give me her own office if I’d come back! As the kids finally dispersed, I had to continue on to the high school to look at my sign. I spent a couple hours running back and forth, cycling power in different orders. The original problem was the GFCI outlet, but even with that reset I could never get the computer to talk to the sign, and I eventually just gave up so I could start my Christmas break.

I went home for a little while and waited for Summer to get home from the gym. The girls went out to eat with their father, so Summer and I had some leftover pasta that she brought home from work. Then we ran to Walmart for the stuff we needed to make for tomorrow’s big family shindig.

Running has never been appealing to me, but damn.

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Holiday Ghost Town

The parking lot was mostly empty this morning, since most of the kids are done with their semester tests. Ben broke the phones, so I ran around the building fixing that for a while, then tinkered around until lunch. I met Allen and Gary at the shop, and we went to Wendy’s. I got everyone birthday cake Frosties for dessert, and halfway through mine I remembered that a vendor brought us cookies, so I took what was left in my cup back with us to eat with a snickerdoodle.

It was a really quiet afternoon, so I went back to the high school and tried building a new task sequence to deploy the Windows 2019 LTSC image, and it seemed to work. I guess I’m an expert now. I saw an email from Danielle that they’re moving over break, so after work I gathered up a bunch of cardboard boxes from home that would have otherwise gone out for recycling. Then I headed up to Summer’s to fix some leftovers for dinner.

Eaddie was the only one with school tomorrow, so Autumn stayed with her grandparents. Summer picked at some leftover smoked turkey, and then we watched an episode of Firefly. After one episode, I put on a Donald Glover stand-up special until Summer went to sleep.

One last day!

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Trimming the Fat

I got out my puffy coat today, and boy did it keep me toasty on the way to work. My morning was pretty relaxed as everything has wound down with semester tests. Traffic was a mess at lunch time again because most of the kids checked out. I was craving KFC after reading an article about the Christmas tradition in Japan, so I rounded up Allen, Gary, and Brice to go along with me.

I spent the afternoon closing out a couple more work orders, so my Web Help Desk doesn’t even have a scroll bar any more. I also learned officially that Amanda is leaving us, so she and I chatted back and forth for a while. I stayed a bit late to call SuddenLink about my bill increase and got my 400mb service dropped to $57.49. The guy in their “save” department kept trying to convince me that customers signing up for the $39.99 price-for-life promotion would end up paying more than me, but I can’t imagine a 44% increase due to taxes and other fees. That’s cable company math for you though.

The evening seemed to go by pretty quickly at home, though I didn’t get a whole lot accomplished. I’m just ready for the break.

The call center has a lot of work from home positions too, which may be up your alley from what I hear…

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Just a Quiet Christmas Dinner with the Crew

I had to run back to the shop this morning because I forgot to grab a document camera on my way out yesterday. I stuck around for a little while just because it was so quiet there, but eventually I did make it up to the high school and successfully deployed Adobe Acrobat DC as a package instead of an application, because Adobe is stupid. We had a good size crew for lunch, which we wanted to keep light for the sake of having a Christmas dinner later in the evening, so we went for Taco Tuesday.

After lunch, I spent a bit more time at the shop before finishing up at the high school. I left work later than I should have because I was tinkering with some stuff, so I was just a little bit late getting changed for the party. I ran to pick up Summer, and we made our way to Old Bank for dinner. About half of the crew was already there, but with relationships and crew members shifted from where we were a few years ago, the whole night ended up being pretty quiet. To call it dull would be harsh, but we were upstairs by ourselves and the whole place just seemed really quiet.

When we finally split up, Summer and I went to get the girls and headed home. She and I watched a bit of YouTube while Eaddie did her homework, and then we were all off to bed.

This Tuesday feels an awful lot like Friday. Are we sure it’s not Friday? How would we really know for sure?