Uncategorised

Closet Racism

Jason was supposed to spend half the day with me “in the field,” but he ended up having me cover his campus for testing instead while he went to work on some of Allen’s stuff. Just as we were discussing that, our usual Dell service tech showed up to replace a power cable in one of my teacher’s computers. I took him over to Oakland and walked him all the way to the back of the building, panting and wheezing. Luckily she was super nice about the random, unexpected interruption, and I took her computer to a nearby closet for service.

As we situated ourselves, the tech learn-ed me about the “Vietnamese Squat” he had to perform to sit in the unusually small elementary school chair. I commented back that yes, my Vietnamese mother had spent many a night squatted over a giant bowl of egg roll ingredients. From then on, it was mostly comments about how the white man had wronged people like the Indians. It was still less awkward than the OSHA presenter that joked about submitting a new hazard pictogram of a guy with a turban to warn of explosive chemicals.

I spent the rest of the morning trying to wipe Summer’s mother’s iPad that she had activation locked, since I had to sit around to babysit testing anyway. A big group of us went to Mulan’s for lunch, and then I eventually made it to the junior high to close a few work orders.

After work, I ran home to get a few things before heading to Summer’s for dinner. She made chicken salads, but we didn’t quite get to eat before her mother showed up to retrieve her iPad and finish the unlock process. I was really impressed with the proximity setup process, and even the camera authentication that would normally show a QR code was made to look more stylized and futuristic. You know, I disagree with Apple on many counts… But you cannot deny they’ve got style.

When everyone finished eating and acting up, we managed to quiet everyone down for the first half of Monty Python and the Holy Grail. Evidently Noah watched it recently, and he was upset that Summer decided to stop us right before The Tale of Sir Lancelot.

Why can’t you guys settle down and obsess over your repressed depression like normal teenagers?

Uncategorised

PEBKAC

I had to run by the junior high first thing this morning to help with a student’s laptop for use with online classes. It’s a new thing for us there, and nobody seems to really know what they’re doing. It was still a little disappointing to work on it for an hour before having the student come down and find out she was just looking for her test in the wrong place though.

A bunch of us met at Ruby Tuesday for $5 salads. Brice joined us but didn’t like their salad bar, so he had to be different and order food. I was just upset that they got rid of the hummus and the raspberry poppyseed dressing. I loved that stuff. I had so many crackers but nothing to dip them in.

The afternoon went by pretty quickly as I stayed busy gathering up loose ends. Tomorrow morning, Jason wants to work with me at Oakland to figure out their cafeteria sound system. That ought to be entertaining.

After work, I took Eaddie to Summer’s parents’ house where she was having issues with her car battery. They had to take her mother’s car to Autumn’s appointment in Little Rock, but everything turned out alright. She took the girls to karate and then brought her car over to hook up to my battery charger.

I had a coupon for a free pizza from Papa John’s, so we picked that up and watched a couple episodes of Parks and Rec before she had to head home. The girls went out to eat with their father, but would be home before too long.


I guess they think it’s cold in here.

Uncategorised

Only Half of Us Is Sick

Summer called in to work today, so I took a half day as well since I wasn’t sure how taking the kids to school would work. I slept in about half an hour later than I normally would and dropped the girls off, and drove by work about 15 minutes early. I could have made it work, but I had enough to do at home that I didn’t really get any time off anyway.

I spent most of my time cleaning up after the cats, but I checked on the fish and got a shower myself as well. I finished all of that just in time to run by Linh to get some egg drop soup for Summer. She was up and cleaning house, though still feeling pretty pitiful. I didn’t stay long, because I had to get to work.

There wasn’t really much going on, but I closed a few work orders. Most of what I have left are more complicated projects that will take some time and focus. Autumn had quiz bowl after school, but basically wasted time not participating. It didn’t put me out too much since I had to work until 4:30 anyway. By the time it was all over, we were all pretty hungry. We collectively agreed on pizza, and we picked up some Little Caesar’s on the way back to their house.

We watched an episode of Criminal Minds, then some Parks and Rec, and then everyone was off to bed.

I like saying, “no.” It lowers their enthusiasm.

Uncategorised

Bumday’s a Drag

Summer was super sick all day, so I just sat around with the kids all day. Autumn came out and watched Criminal Minds while Eaddie played Mario Odyssey all day. Summer ended up going back to bed and slept most of the day while we just sat around bored. Eventually I shut everything down and tried to get the kids to do something else constructive, and they went to clean up their rooms a bit. Eventually I went home to clean up and figure out dinner.

I cleaned up after the cats and did some partial water changes on the tanks. One of the lights on my 55 gallon tank had gone out, and I figured out it was the bulb and the starter. Luckily I had a spare from Julie’s tank, so I got it running again. After a shower, I went to Walmart to pick up what I needed to make red beans and rice in the Instant Pot.

Back at Summer’s, I got dinner going while they watched TV. It took me a bit longer than I expected, so I cut up some summer sausage and cheese to eat on crackers as a snack while we waited. Once I could relax and let the food cook, I propped up against Summer and watched the first episode of the first true season of Battlestar Galactica. That ran both of the girls off to their rooms, so we just finished the one episode before dinner was ready.

Autumn snapped at Eaddie when she tried to fetch her for dinner, so Summer didn’t let her have any. The other three of us sat in the kitchen to see how I had done. The beans seemed slightly undercooked again, which was a little frustrating. It wasn’t too bad, but it definitely could have used some more time. I don’t know why dry beans are requiring so much more time than the recipes are calling for, but I’m afraid if I start off that much longer, they’ll end up mushy. It was still plenty edible though, and Eaddie seemed to like it pretty well. There were quite a few vegetables in it, so it seemed at least a little healthy.

After dinner, the girls pretty much went straight to bed. Summer and I went to the bedroom and watched an episode of Parks and Rec before she really started feeling the Nyquil. I emailed work to take a half sick day to help out getting the kids to school and stuff. Hopefully my sinuses don’t flare up more overnight.

Baby snails doo doo doo doo doo doo.

Uncategorised

Short Notice

Summer and Autumn left early this morning for a quiz bowl tournament. I slept in for a little while, but tried not to sleep all morning and got up to watch some Caprica in my boredom. There were still some leftover biscuits with gravy, so breakfast by myself was easy enough. A couple episodes in, Clint sent a message saying he was in town and wanted to know if anyone wanted to meet him for lunch.

I woke Eaddie up and we both jumped into some clean clothes and ran across town to Linh to meet Clint. He was in town to get Landon after an archery tournament. It was nice to catch up a bit, though Eaddie took a while to really wake up. Clint didn’t have time to socialize after we ate, so Eaddie and I came back to their house to shower and clean up for the day.

Eventually Summer and Autumn made it back in to town, and Summer had a really bad head cold. I ran to La Villa to pick up a chicken parmesan for them to split. Eaddie made her bowl of ramen she got from the Oriental food store, and I scraped the bottom of Summer’s plate when she finished. We tried watching an episode of Battlestar, but I had some trouble getting it to play the correct episode. Instead, we watched an episode of Parks and Rec, then I put Summer to bed. Eaddie stayed up watching Home Movies, and then Legends of Tomorrow once I was ready for bed.

Cold, rainy days are sleepy enough without also being travel-lagged and sick.

Uncategorised

Overpromised and Underdelivered

I got an email after work yesterday asking for us to replace a touch panel first thing this morning after I waited all day yesterday with no response. We still somehow managed to get it done without running into any kids, but it was still annoying. Otherwise, I was impressed with how quickly Jason, Brice, and I were able to get the job done. I honestly don’t think I could have been any more proud of them in that moment. Jason did seem to be in a promising mood though, in that he kept offering his guarantee that she would love the new touch panel, and that Sara would offer all kinds of extended training on how to use the new equipment. It got to the point very quickly that I had to start shutting him down on his referrals.

We didn’t have any other group projects, so I spent the rest of the morning taking care of a docking station setup before we went to lunch. Nothing sounded particularly good to me, and Jason really wanted CiCi’s, so he, Allen, and I went there. We cut it really close for our clock time, but we managed. I’m really not excited about having to do it, but it seems like at least Ben is going to have our back on some of the stuff anyway, so in the end it won’t really matter.

After lunch, I took care of a few things at the junior high. When school let out, the place quickly became a zoo of kids coming in for all-region band tryouts. Autumn was a bit upset that she only made second alternate, but she’s not willing to commit to the work needed to improve herself either, so she’s just going to have to figure it out.

I went home for a while after work to do a small water change on the aquariums, and eventually made my way up to Summer’s for the evening. I picked up a dollar burrito and free drink at Taco Bell on the way up, and after eating and finishing up Bridge to Terabithia with the kids, Summer and I watched a couple episodes of Parks and Recreation. Then it was off to bed for quiz bowl tomorrow.

He shows zero initiative. He’s not a team player. He’s never one to go that extra mile. Tom is exactly what I’m looking for in a government employee.

Uncategorised

Batting 100% of 1000

I’ve been nailing lunch suggestions this week. Monday it was Wendy’s. Tuesday, we had Mexican. Wednesday was Asian. Today, a huge group of us went to Firehouse. It was super cold for being bike-riding weather at the beginning of the week, so I think everyone just liked the idea of a hot lunch. I shouldn’t have eaten my whole sandwich, but I was so hungry and it was so delicious. It was totally worth ordering and customizing ahead via the app.

Since I spent all morning mostly wasting in the shop, I had to get some time in at the junior high, but not before having a decently productive gripe-fest with Gary while everyone else was out. Then I just closed as many work orders as I could before quitting time. I ended up two minutes shy of my eight hours today since Jason and Allen made me two minutes late getting back from lunch.

I headed home while Summer went to the gym. We were going to go to Ruby Tuesday while the girls went to dinner with their father, but he broke down and we ended up going to La Plaza together instead. They had all-you-can-eat enchiladas for $6, so Summer and I gorged ourselves. Then our waitress offered dessert, and brought us the biggest slice of trec leches cake she could find. I really didn’t expect to feel this miserable after it was all said and done, but here I am. To top it all off, I feel a pretty big head cold coming. I just hope I can kick it quickly without too much after-muck.

Unfortunately all of the CO₂ leaked out of my first paintball tank, so I tried filling up the other one. It may leak a bit as well, but at least not nearly as fast as the other. If it loses much more overnight, I’ll just trash them for a new one.

I’m so proud that you’re disappointed in yourself.

Uncategorised

Getting Tanked at Home

I noticed what looked like some baby snails in my bathroom aquarium this morning. I didn’t have a whole lot of time to check them out, but I saw what I thought were at least two different ones. I wonder if they’re offspring from one of my other snails, or possibly a tiny hitchhiker from the plant I bought last. They seemed too small to have been around since then, so I’m guessing they’re new.

I stayed pretty busy at work with a few new work orders and more phone swaps. Then I met Dale, Allen, and Gary at Kob Jai for lunch. I had the chicken pad thai, which was probably the best food I’ve ever had there, but that really isn’t saying much. The waitress asked how spicy I wanted it from 1-4. I asked for 4, and she kind of super panicked and kept trying to talk me out of it, so I finally relented after my comments about being Asian seemed to fly over her head. Turns out the level 3 spice was pretty tame.

Near the end of work, I tripped over some stuff in my office and took a pretty good spill over a pile of bad monitors. I just had to sit there for a moment to gather myself. I got both ankles and hands, so I’m sure I’ll be pretty bruised by tomorrow.

After work, I ran by Airgas and picked up a 20 pound CO₂ tank for $143. I was a bit nervous on the way home with it rolling around in the trunk, but I made it and got it unloaded into the garage. I was a little surprised how dirty the tank was for being sold as beverage-grade CO₂, but it was the only tank they had anyway. I had several packages come in all at once ranging from laundry supplies to aquarium test kits to a movie poster from Into the Spider-Verse. After unpacking everything, I hooked up the paintball refill station that had come in, and I was in business.

Unfortunately the paintball tank I filled seemed to have a pretty bad leak at the base of the pin valve, so I expect it will probably be empty by tomorrow. While I had it, I filled every single pressure-holding bottle I could find, and then ran to Walmart to try and pick up the remaining clearanced SodaStream bottles. I only grabbed two pairs the other day, and they only had one left, so I was glad I didn’t wait any longer. That brought my total bottle count to 9, plus some other glass bottles I refilled from the SodaStream bottles. I thought about just dropping the tank into one of my aquariums so the plants could use it while it leaks out, but instead decided to leave it in the freezer with the hopes that I’ll have some left tomorrow.

This all seems horribly dangerous.

Uncategorised

Endless Roeing

I’ve been forcing myself up earlier, so I had plenty of time to fish another frog out of my aquarium this morning. There’s only one left, and it’s almost completely lost its tail. I went by Oakland first, did a couple things there, then went to the shop for a little while. I took a stack of phones to the junior high with me and stayed busy until lunch.

Zach, Sara, Allen, and I went to Morello’s where I got the lunch special with three enchiladas. It was pretty good, but I kept staring longingly at Zach’s and Sara’s fajita burritos. We made it back in time for another perfect lunch hour for my time clock, but really we wanted to go to Zona K-Tracha but were afraid of the amount of time that would take.

I spent a little more time at the shop before going to Oakland to replace a ridiculously complicated Chromebook keyboard. Rather than have a keyboard as a component, they built it into the chassis and I had to gut the entire Chromebook and move it to a new chassis, all for two missing keys. Then I spent the rest of the afternoon wrapping up work orders at the junior high. Summer had to stay late for quiz bowl, so I took Eaddie to karate before heading home.

I had started to feel a little sour in the stomach in the afternoon, so I stayed in and read up on aquarium lighting for plants. The betta seems to be doing much better after I basically overdosed her with meds. The spot with the “stuffing” coming out seems to be completely gone, and she was quite active in her tank. She was even swimming around eating in front of me, so I gave her some of her old pellets after being on mostly nothing with a few freeze dried bloodworms. This was the first time I’d seen her eat in over a month, so I was super relieved. It looked like she released a few more eggs that floated up in the water as well, and she gobbled those up as well. I’ll give her a little more time in the meds before I do a water change, and then hopefully soon I can get her back into a regular tank.

To wrap the evening up, I finally pulled my old, dinged-up glass screen protector off of my phone and installed the spare I had stored away. The screen was still pristine, but this protector didn’t go on nearly as well, with quite a bit of haze between the glass and the screen. I really envy Summer’s screen since it doesn’t curve quite as much and can keep a screen protector without too much of a halo. I guess there’s always the Pixel 4.

Won’t be long for CO₂ now!

Uncategorised

Diminishing Returns

I woke up to a nice spring morning that allowed for a bike ride in to work without a jacket. In January.

We were to start clocking in and out today, so I made it in to work a bit early to make sure the system would allow it. I think I was one of only a couple people that actually successfully clocked in. The system seemed pretty limited and didn’t show much of any information, and I’m pretty sure I had access to things I shouldn’t have, but we’re still only testing at this point.

I spent all morning at the shop since I was able to do most things I needed to do remotely. Then Zach, Gary, and I went to Wendy’s for lunch. We sat with one of the maintenance guys that was there by himself, and he talked for most of the time we were there. We headed back in pretty early, so I actually managed to clock in and out right on the dot for the morning, before, and after lunch. Then I got out a bit late after setting up a couple new phones. We got a huge box of them in right before lunch, so it was nice to close out one of those work orders. Tomorrow I’ll get to close more.

After work, I went home for a while and ended up spending most of my time just checking emails. Summer got home after the gym and I headed over for some leftovers for dinner. She and the kids already ate, and they were all pretty well settled in. I still didn’t feel super great after sleeping with heartburn most of the night, so I just ate a little quietly and then joined them on the couch. The girls went to bed, and Summer and I watched the miniseries of Battlestar Galactica for the rest of the evening.

So say we all!