Uncategorised

Sunday Pickins

We slept in a little today after a good, long night of sleep. I started to clean up around the bedroom just a little bit, but it ended up being more like picking through a time capsule than a true cleaning day. Eventually Summer took off to go to the gym and shop for dinner stuffs. I ended up playing a little bit of Overwatch with Clint to pick up the last of my bonus loot boxes for the week. Then I got a shower and headed to Summer’s for dinner.

The girls had other food sorted and went to bed pretty soon after that. Summer made a really great pasta out of some of the leftover pulled pork, and I transferred her big tray of leftover baked beans to smaller containers for freezing. Then Summer and I watched an episode of Parks and Rec before I headed home to do one last load of laundry for the weekend. Clint and I ended the night with a few more rounds of Overwatch while my towels dried.

Baked beans, the plentiful legume.
The more you get, the more you entomb.
The more you entomb, the cheaper you eat,
So freeze beans from every quiz bowl meet!

Uncategorised

Robot Trivia

I got myself out of bed this morning and finished up some leftovers before heading home to get ready to visit the junior high. Zach called me just as I got home and wanted to know if he could borrow Cards Against Humanity. I suggested that the whole massive desk that I own might be too much unfunny stuff for his crowd, so when he got here, we spent a little while sorting all of the expansions out so he could take just the base game with even the pick-2 cards removed.

I kicked him out as soon as we finished so I could shower and go visit Summer and the robotics tournament. I ended up standing around robotics for much longer than I anticipated after I rescued Ethan and his need of a printer. It was really neat to see, though. The tournament seemed to go really well, and I’m hoping that it will be similar for us when I work the first elementary tournament. Some overtime pay will be a really nice boost as well.

By the time I got out of that tournament, Summer was wrapping things up for quiz bowl. I followed them back to her room to help pack up, and then headed to her house while she ran the girls around. Autumn would be spending the night with her grandparents while Eaddie went with her father. I managed to pack all of the leftover food into Summer’s fridge, and Summer picked up the house a bit.

Once the girls left, we ran by Harbor Freight to pick up a few things with some 30% off coupons. I finally have a shoehorn, and now my most difficult shoes slide on easier than any other shoe I own. I warmed up some leftovers and we settled in to watch Bandersnatch, which was amazing. I kept trying for alternate endings while Summer passed out, but it really was a piece of art. I think I managed to find everything.

╔╩╗

Uncategorised

I Know Best Because Mother Knew Best

We split up for projects today, but somehow I was left out. I ran upstairs to see if Ben’s group wanted help with running some lines, but they turned me away with three or four of them already going. I ended up just working on little side projects for my own education all day, starting with phones and eventually making it to G Suite.

Nobody really knew what they wanted for lunch all morning, but several of us agreed at the last second that Long John Silver’s sounded good. It took two vehicles to get there, which was a surprising number of people. Afterward I was sent by an achy, breaky backed Jason to go with Dale to help Brice hang a touch panel, or so we thought.

When we got there, I could tell from several feet away that the SMART board’s camera sensors were filthy. I showed him how to run his finger around the reflective border, and as if by magic it immediately began working perfectly. He made a comment about how his electric air duster must not have been enough to clean it, but by the amount of dust I removed, I suspected it would have helped if he had plugged it in at all. Dale and I just sort of rolled our eyes and pushed him not to just swap the board out anyway while we were there. That seemed like it shouldn’t have taken as much convincing as it did, but evidently he had really sold the teacher on getting a new touch panel.

With that overpaid failure to launch out of the way, I spent the rest of the afternoon at the shop fighting sleep and contemplating the use of a guinea pig in a computer lab class such as EAST. I think the more puzzling part was the fact that they had received a grant to get this guinea pig, but needed someone else to care for it over the summer. The mind reels.

After work, I had just made it home and called to make a vet appointment for Grey when Summer said her car wouldn’t start. I ran over to rescue her and Eaddie just as Autumn, who had malingered her way out of class early, was returned by her grandparents. After some more convincing that shouldn’t have been necessary, I took them to O’Reilly to pick up a new battery. Then she tried to have Alex come swap it out for her after he left the shop, but my impatience and annoyance at her lack of faith drove me to borrow tools from Wesley’s office to complete the swap myself before he got there.

We ran to my house so I could lock the battery down properly, and Autumn begged to ride with me back to their house for a little more time away from Eaddie. I packed up a bunch of leftovers, and we headed to her house to eat before everyone settled in to bed. The night wouldn’t have been complete if I hadn’t had to force Autumn to eat more than her own tablespoon of plain steamed rice. I force fed her baby carrots the way I’ve had to force feed pills to my cats, and I don’t plan on having cats ever again.

Hey! Listen!

Uncategorised

Foreboding New Year

It’s starting to look like this may be kind of a rough year. I started out with another dead fish – this time the black tetra that had bloated up. It was actually still breathing when I went to take a shower, but taking it out of the tank and setting up the quarantine finished it off by the time I was out of the shower.

I got stuck parking a little weird when I got to work, so I managed to clock in just a few seconds late, which was more annoying than anything else. Then I just babysat testing all morning. At least I got a couple arms full of scrap to take out of my office and to the graveyard. It already makes a difference in moving around in there. As lunch neared, Jason asked for suggestions. I mentioned that KFC had been remodeled and he responded with, “what sounds good?” I guess he, Dale, and Brice went to McAlister’s. I just went home for more leftover barbecue.

The afternoon was pretty mellow. I got done with what little bit had come up and then left the same time Summer finished. Autumn had stayed home for some reason and Eaddie didn’t want to go to karate or come with me to eat, so Summer took her home and went to the gym while I went home to start laundry. Summer stopped by for just a minute in the middle of that and mentioned that Grey seemed really thin and not well, so I’ll have to take her to the vet next week sometime.

Once Summer headed home, I got the litter box cleaned and fought some ants in that bathroom. Then I folded laundry and played a few losing games of Overwatch to really seal my exhaustion for a long night’s sleep.

I really hoped after the twelve years since my last one, this would be my year to shine.

Uncategorised

Ye Olde Frands

The junior high was testing this morning, so I spent most of the day trying to stay busy there. I actually got a few things taken care of, and there wasn’t a single testing issue, so it was a pretty stress-free day. Ben and Gary came over around 9 to meet with some kid from Tech about the robotics tournaments and what they needed from us to make their equipment work. Unsurprisingly, Gary was the smartest person in the room by a longshot. It was almost impressive how quickly everyone else’s eyes glazed over, and I was proud to have mostly kept up.

Dale called for lunch, so I met him and Bryce at Wendy’s. One of the maintenance guys walked in and spun some more tall tales for us as well. It felt like a really short lunch, but it was good as usual. Then it was back to the junior high until school let out. Then I ran by Oakland on the way home to replace a projector lamp.

I had to get gas when I finally left work, since I’d been skirting empty for the better part of a week. On the way back home, I stopped by AT&T to chat with the guys there. They were super dead and overstaffed, but still joked about me coming back. It’s definitely tempting, but I really would like to start out at a higher hourly rate. I left just as an area manager pulled up so as not to disturb anyone. Then it was home to start some laundry.

Summer brought all the kids over after a little while to help with the leftover barbecue from last weekend. They watched an episode of Emogenius before heading home for the night. I cleaned up and got on the computer where I saw Jack sitting online. It wasn’t much longer until Johnny showed up as well. I was a little annoyed that there wasn’t ever any chat about playing tonight, but it is what it is. We played some Overwatch until one by one they left.

Get up off my feet and stop making tired excuses.

Uncategorised

Chattin Among Folk

I slept really well last night, but I still woke up pretty tired. At least I managed to work my way out of it without too much trouble. The day started with a surprise 10 Chromebooks for Oakland. Once I got those going, I ended up chatting with Ben for a quite a while before delivering them. Then it was a quick lunch with several of the guys at Taco John’s.

After lunch I talked to Ben some more to confirm my Oakland printers weren’t printing pages in reverse order. Then I headed to the junior high to finish the day. I met up with Gary over there while he was making some changes to our switch configurations. I got a few work orders done and increased my skill in locksmithing by +5. Right at the end of the shift, Gary helped me run through the computer labs to check for missing mice. We counted a total of 10 missing, so I fired off a pretty lengthy email to Matt just as I left.

After work, I headed to Summer’s to finish up some leftovers with her since she wasn’t feeling well. Before I even got there, Matt had responded that he knew where the mice were, but evidently it didn’t occur to him to let his lab manager know, which was more than a little annoying. Several episodes of Parks and Rec helped to calm me down though.

Once the girls got home from karate and dinner with their father, I headed home for bed. Testing is back again tomorrow, so I’ll really get to sink some time into anything.

I wish Google would get their messaging shit together.

Uncategorised

Something Fishy

I should have dug out the battery charger last night so we could charge Summer’s car. I spent most of the morning stressing over whether I would be getting a group gas discount with my parents at Kroger, and after I finally gave up after waiting all day, I found out that Julie used all of the fuel points by herself. I ran on fumes all day long just to end up getting a couple gallons to last me until Wednesday for 10 cents off per gallon.

We started the day by taking Autumn to her friend’s birthday party. Then we stopped by my house for the battery charger and so I could check on the house. To my surprise, the betta was super dead, and looked to have most of the color drained out of her overnight. She was alive when I left last night, so I don’t know what happened so suddenly. I knew she looked a little pale and I wanted to change the water last night, but I figured I’d have time today. It looked like she laid a bunch more eggs again, and then just died. I was super disappointed after nursing her back to health over the course of a month. She seemed really healthy again, so this caught me by complete surprise.

From there, I dropped Summer off at the gym and went back to her house to charge her car battery, shower, and try to plan the rest of my day. Eaddie failed to shower early or quickly enough, so by the time I actually took mine the water was ice cold. As soon as I finished, I went straight to the water heater and raised both thermostats quite a bit. Then I went to pick up Summer at the gym and Autumn at Hourglass Escape Rooms. They just barely finished the room in time, so I was proud of their accomplishment. Finally I took them back home and got things ready to go back to my house and start dinner.

I had a roast thawed out for Saturday, so I had to get it cooked. I tried using an Instant Pot recipe using some of the homemade wine that Allen gave me, and it turned out pretty good. It would have been even better with the dry rub, but I just barely had enough time to get it done for the kids to go back home and to bed. They came over and watched Criminal Minds while it cooked for 35 minutes, then Emogenius while they ate. Then I got dishes started before crashing myself.

So much for planning.

Uncategorised

Glasstric Bypass

I had quite a bit of trouble falling asleep last night, and then it felt like I slept really lightly all night long. Then we had to get up early to make it to Conway for the movie. Summer took the kids home to shower and clean up, and I did the same before heading out to pick them up.

We made it with plenty of time to get seated. It was actually really nice, with only a few other people in the theater. The tickets were quite a bit cheaper as well. We watched Glass after having seen Unbreakable and Split earlier last year. I thought it was pretty amazing, but I think the plot twist did more to aggravate the others. It makes me wonder if they’ll actually continue with more movies, or perhaps a series.

After the movie, we took the kids to Game Point to look around. We let them pick up a couple games, and I even grabbed a couple myself. Then we went to Walmart to see if I could find any of the clearance-priced Chromecast and Google Home Mini bundles. They were all sealed up behind glass, and BrickSeek indicated it was “limited stock” anyway, which likely meant they had none at the $17 price. By the time we left there, we were all pretty hungry, so we started the quest to find someplace to eat.

We drove through greater Conway to find something, and ultimately landed at Golden Corral. It worked out well for everyone to find something they liked, and we all pretty well stuffed ourselves beyond any reason. I actually didn’t overdo it as much as I often do, but I was already pretty full from popcorn anyway.

From there, we went to Sam’s to walk off some of the food. I very nearly picked up a box of Dr. Pepper syrup to use with the SodaStream, but I ultimately passed with a 2-1 vote against from the kids. I’m still not really sure how that happened. Then we went by PetCo to look for some shrimp, followed by BestBuy to cruise for deals. With nothing of interest there, we made a final stop at Target, where we picked up just a few things before heading home.

I dropped them off at Summer’s house and headed home to prepare for their arrival, but Summer said her car wouldn’t start. I dug out the Xbox so they could play their new game and headed to their house for the night. Autumn crawled into bed pretty early while Eaddie watched Noah play Left 4 Dead 2. Summer and I ended the night with a couple episodes of Parks and Recreation.

I have a dream that my four little coworkers will one day work in a department where they will not be judged by the length of their employment, but by the quality of their work.

Uncategorised

Blowoverwatch

The girls all went to the high school for a quiz bowl tournament today. I got up early and worked on the file server some more, but couldn’t kick a massive headache and went back to sleep until a bit after noon. Apparently it started to snow, which panicked someone at the tournament, so they shut it down early. Summer brought a bunch of leftover barbecue over, so I had that for lunch when they got here.

The girls, in a truly presidential moment, refused to get along with anyone all day long. Criminal Minds managed to shut them up for a little while, but they started up again just as Summer left to pick up Noah. I didn’t have the creativity I needed to deal with it properly, so I just separated them the best I could and went to my room to continue working on the file server. Then I saw Clint online, so we played a bunch of Overwatch until everyone else in the house passed out. If they don’t figure it out by tomorrow, I swear I’m leaving them on the side of the road.

Let’s try not to make this become cruel and usual punishment.

Uncategorised

Hangin with the Big Earners

We had a bunch of projects for today. I was sent off to Sequoyah with Brice and Allen. Allen was in a mood and didn’t want to go with us though, so he tried to break off and go with Zach and Jason. Then he was basically a jerk all day when that didn’t work. When we got there to hang a touch panel, it looked like they already had a newer projector and I wondered if it was actually still under warranty. Without much of a plan or direction, we ended up cutting and removing some cables to pull a new HDMI cable, but it ended up not working. We needed nearly 70 feet of cable for the room though, so Brice will just have to go back later to swap it out again. We left with a shorter cable across the floor for temporary use. We also had to run an extra audio cable to replace a group of four-plus extensions that were feeding some nicer speakers. It all seemed a little silly, and I wasn’t too excited to be the only one up on the ladder all morning.

I had called out Old Post BBQ for lunch when we were still in our meeting, and though everyone seemed happy with that, nobody else met us there. We did run a bit late, but nobody else even said anything about going anywhere else. Allen refused to sit in a booth with Brice and me, and he weirdly sat at a group of tables with a couple other ladies. I saw Nicole working there, and she helped me identify and order something I saw in a picture frame called The Dagwood. She said if I finished it in under 30 minutes I could get my picture on the wall. It only took me 20, but I declined the photo and we went along our way.

After lunch, I resolved an issue with my HSA for payroll, so hopefully I’m not out anything there. Then I helped Allen run an HDMI cable to resolve a video issue at Center Valley. That likely could have been fixed with software and drivers as well, but he and Jason couldn’t figure it out, so we ran the cable. Then I was on my own, so I finished up a rash of work orders I had gotten from Oakland.

When I finally got home, I was so exhausted but had to clean up the living room a bit. I managed to finish before the girls got here, and even set up Catan because Autumn wanted to play. Eaddie was rowdy and completely uncontrollable all night, and I ended up sending her to bed before we finished the game. I think I got my new network storage box reset, but I’m still having trouble completing the setup, and I’m too exhausted to continue messing with it.

Kids these days don’t even know who Dagwood was.