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Clocking Out of Break

Like most of the break, we slept in a bit later than we wanted. Summer got up and made biscuits and gravy for breakfast, and we spent most of the day playing games either together or separately. It felt like kind of a waste of such a nice day outside, but Eaddie was the only one that even mentioned doing anything. I kept letting myself get caught up in my game of Zelda, and Autumn mostly stuck to her phone when Summer wouldn’t let her watch Criminal Minds.

The three of them did at least manage to finish building the game table in Autumn’s room. Then the other three of us played quite a bit of Mario Kart before Summer heated up a lasagna for dinner. The day went by pretty quickly, and everyone worked up a pretty good musk by the time the kids had to get ready for bed. We finished up with a lime pie that Summer and Eaddie made, and then the kids were off to bed for the school night.

I headed home and started a load of laundry I didn’t get to, and while that was going I noticed Clint, Keno, and Jack were all on playing Overwatch, so I joined them for a few rounds as well before bed. We finished up right before my laundry was done. I’ll have to get up a bit earlier tomorrow so I can be sure to have plenty of extra time for the new time clock procedure we’re implementing at work. It really must be great to have a contracted number of work days just like us and not have to worry about a time clock the way that certified employees don’t.

We’ve got to quit wasting breaks.

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End of Break Blues

Summer got up this morning and left for the gym and to do a bit of shopping before the girls got back from their father’s. I got cleaned up and had to stop by Walmart to pick up the asparagus and Brussels sprouts that Summer forgot.

The girls were eating food they brought home when I got there, so it was just the two of us eating the ribs, mashed potatoes, and veggies she whipped together. It was super good, so I wasn’t too upset about it. After we ate, we played a relatively quick game of Monopoly before moving to the Switch for Mario Kart.

We’ve all had trouble getting to sleep early, but I’m hoping to turn my clock back by about four hours tonight. Sadly, returning to work is starting to look like reality.

Where else can I find a job that lets me work this little but pays better?

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Pick Up Sticks

I slept super well last night after such a long day. I could have slept longer, but I knew I had to make myself wake up before noon. I jumped right into anything I came across, bouncing from one project to another. I got the cat box and betta tank cleaned, did a load of laundry, messed with a new file server a bit, and then sunk a bunch of time into deciding on a CO₂ setup for making soda water at home. I expected the equipment to be relatively standardized, and I guess it probably is, but finding components to build a “fill station” seemed needlessly more complicated than just paying $35 for a dual valve fill station on Amazon.

Eventually I got to a stopping point and Summer came over so we could get some food. Nothing sounded particularly good, but I knew I wanted lots of vegetables, so we ended up going to New China. The food seemed better than average for them, and I felt good after eating slightly differently than my usual pattern there. Afterward we went to Walmart and killed a few hours wandering around. I tried looking for any random deals around the store, but the real prize was the tiny Tabasco bottles out of the Freeosk machine. Though we did end up going back in for some more clearanced pumpkin pie apple cider after we tasted it in the car.

When we got back home, Summer pretty well crashed while I did some more laundry and messed with the file server. I’m not having any luck though, so I think this will have to sit until tomorrow.

Out, damned spot!

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PixElated

I didn’t manage to get to sleep until about 5, and I woke up around 8 to check the status of Summer’s phone. We really didn’t have any more time to waste because Google Fi was threatening to cancel her “service” and bill her for the phone if she didn’t activate it, even though it was completely on FedEx for losing her first phone shipment nearly a month ago. When she finally woke up around 10, I had her get dressed to wait for FedEx and I went back to sleep for a little while. It was right around lunch time that they finally made the delivery. I still woke up from the knock on the door though, so I went ahead and got up to help her set things up.

We got her screen protector and case on, but she forgot her Slickwraps skin at home, so we’ll have to try that out later. The port from Verizon to Google Fi was painless though, and after some initial, vaguely unintuitive setup, she was up and running on her new phone. I think after seeing hers, I’m less upset about not having a new one this year. I can definitely hold out for a better price point than the one I got when I switched last year.

After we got her going, I dominated Noah and Eaddie at some Mario Kart that I picked up on sale last night before bed. Summer and Autumn made a run to Burger King and Popeye’s for a late lunch since it’s impossible to please everyone, and we’re raising a bunch of “librul snowflakes” as they say at work. Summer even made the executive decision to order bone-in chicken over Eaddie’s preferred strips, but then ended up bringing strips back anyway because the wait was significantly shorter.

We ate, Summer took Noah home, and then the four of us played a ridiculously long game of Catan because none of us are comfortable enough to play with any real strategy yet. When that was finally over, I was completely beat from being awake for so long after such little sleep. Summer took the girls home and I tried doing my rounds on some of the pets before falling over.

It looked like the betta dropped a few more eggs, but they floated this time. She also has some pretty significant fuzz that looks like stuffing coming out of a hole in a stuffed animal. It’s been there for a while and she can’t seem to shake it, but at least she seems more active. I think she’s been eating some of the freeze dried bloodworms I’ve added to her water, but I can’t tell for sure. She’s definitely still not anywhere near back to normal.

After that, I got side tracked a bit and ended up breaking the tape measure I’ve had on my desk for years. It had been slightly messed up for ages, and I broke it the rest of the way trying to correct it. I guess for a dollar store purchase, it served well. Harbor Freight will fill the void nicely in the near future.

Too many rabbits.

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Full Price Is for the Birds

I woke up super stiff this morning with a tremendous ache in my shoulders. Somehow I’ve been sleeping poorly on my side with my arm up under my head, but I can’t ever seem to stay put sleeping on my back. When Summer got up, she stirred the kids and got ready for the gym. I headed home and messed with my one sleepy snail and finally got it to come out and eat some food after being sealed up for several days. That was a pretty good relief.

After my shower, I picked up Bác Vân and met Summer and the kids at CiCi’s for a BOGO lunch. They said something about national buffet day, but they had me at “free.” When Bác Vân finished, she decided she had to take Eaddie next door to Shoe Carnival, and ended up bringing her back with a new purse. When we all finished, we walked to Bath & Body Works for some significantly overpriced soaps. I had a coupon though, which knocked us down about 20%. Then Summer walked the kids to PetSmart while I gave Bác Vân a ride home.

I met them back at PetSmart to browse for a bit, but they were done by the time I got there. I picked up some baby crickets for the frogs at Oakland, took the others to their car, then took the crickets to Oakland to feed the frogs. Mollie had taken them home, so I had to just leave the crickets on her desk to pick up tomorrow. From there, I had forgotten to fill up on gas and had to drive back to the Shell. Evidently I had a pretty significant discount available, so while I trickled gas into the tank, I called Summer and had her meet me there to grab the last few gallons up to 20 that I couldn’t fit in my own car.

Finally, we all landed back at my house and played a game of Settlers of Catan. I thought I had the Seafarers expansion that would allow for all five of us to play, but it turns out it was only an expansion to the original game for 3-4 players, and I’ll have to buy two more expansions in order to make that work for 5-6 players. It was really tough getting everyone to listen to the rules, but once we got started they all seemed to really enjoy it. Even Eaddie got really into it, and ended up winning the game with an assist. We made one slight mistake with the spacing of settlements, so by the time we finished we were fed up continuing to play by our broken rules, but we’ll know better next time.

With the game finally done, the five of us settled in and watched Bird Box on Netflix. It was really good, really suspenseful, and perhaps a little too terrifying for the littlest. About two thirds of the way through, she gave up and went to the other room to play on her phone. The rest of us really enjoyed it though, and it’ll be interesting to hear in the morning if anyone has nightmares over it tonight. I think they likely pushed all of that out of their heads with their Mario Party as Summer and I went to bed.

Yes. It is exactly like tic-tac-toe.

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Nice Jowls

Julie made a traditional American new year’s meal for lunch today. Summer took Eaddie to pick up the other two kids and get ready while I showered. When they got back, we took some apple pie moonshine and Exploding Kittens to Julie’s house.

My parents were running a little late, so Julie decided we should go ahead and eat to get a rotation going. My parents ended up coming over with some TV tray tables, and got just a slightly later start. The beans and cornbread were my favorite. The collard greens were okay with some hot sauce, but I wouldn’t recommend them over many other vegetables. They basically had to be made unhealthy to be palatable. Julie had some other friends filter in around the time we were finishing up, so the few of us played two games of Exploding Kittens before we left.

Summer took the kids to go to her parents’ house for a bit while Dad helped me load my old Vizio TV into the car. Allen called and offered to give me a bunch of homemade wine, so I took him some apple pie too. He had way more wine than I was expecting though, and we loaded it up in all of the floorboards of the car.

On the way to Summer’s, I stopped by Harbor Freight to use a couple coupons. I picked up some clip-on watchmaker’s magnifying glasses and a free LED light. I always thought the free item coupons attached to the “buy one” item, but I was actually able to use a 25% off coupon on the magnifier  to stack with the free item coupon on the flashlight.

Once at Summer’s, the kids helped us unload the car, and Summer and I set the TV up in the living room. Autumn watched while the four of us played a team game of Mario Party, and then we started a game of Uno. I warmed up some leftovers for myself while we played, but we didn’t even get the game finished before everyone got bored and went back to Mario Party. The wine got us a little goofy, but it was a good time for everyone.

All that glitters is gooooold!

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Snap into the New Year

We didn’t know it at first, but power had gone out for about half the town this morning. Summer discovered it when she tried to get us some Burger King for lunch and had to drive to the north side of town to get it. She said traffic was horrible – probably because the traffic lights were out. She made it back eventually though, and we ate while the girls watched Criminal Minds. Once that was over, they left to get cleaned up while I did the same here.

Autumn took her first chance to get out of dinner with my family and had Summer take her to her grandparents’ for the night, and Summer and Eaddie came over so we could try and do a little shopping before dinner. We went to Bath & Body Works first, but it looked like they never bothered coming in to work after the power was out this morning. Then it was to Harbor Freight, who looked to be open from the cars parked out front, but were actually closed early for New Year’s Eve. With those out of the way, we headed on to my parents’ house for dinner.

Summer finally gave Dad the camera she bought him last year, which he seemed to really like, and (surprise!) even had a related camera on display. Mom made caramelized pork, which the girls loved. Mom didn’t like it without the pork skin, but I liked the lack of extra fat in it. When we were done eating, Dad found a couple bulging cans in the outside pantry that we shot up with a couple pellet guns. I managed to break one of the pumps, but after repeated shots with a regular BB gun I was able to puncture the last can.

Back home, Eaddie never could come up with anything besides playing Super Mario Odyssey. Summer and I looked all over the house for my Exploding Kittens cards but couldn’t find them. We finally gave up, and watched The Fundamentals of Caring on Netflix. Then on a bathroom break, I got a mental image of where I placed the cards and went straight to them to retrieve them. Summer, jaw agape with amazement, was speechless. We finished the movie with a little over 10 minutes to spare, so I lined up the end of Infinity War so we could bring the new year in with a snap. I ended up being about 10 seconds too slow, but I didn’t have that kind of finite control to scrub through Netflix anyway. At least Eaddie thought it was perfect timing.

After that, I managed to squeeze an episode of Parks and Recreation into Summer. When we finished that, Eaddie asked to watch one more. Then it was off to bed.

Perfectly balanced.

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Mostly Wasteful

We got up and out of bed just in time for lunch today. I had a pretty bad headache again, but it worked itself out without too much trouble. Summer made a quick skillet pasta meal while Autumn baked a frozen pizza. Then she spent all afternoon cleaning up the house and making big piles of stuff to donate or discard. Most of the time I wish that came easier for me, but on the other hand I’m always happy to need something that I happened to save from long ago. It’s those small victories that really get me through life.

I made it home to do some more laundry and dishes, and play with the aquariums some more. My 55 gallon tank was overheated because the heater wouldn’t turn off, so I unplugged it for the rest of the day. The girls came over when they finished so we could go to my parents’ house for more leftovers. I was under the impression that they had more left to eat than they really did, but I kept digging out older and older food to eat. I finished up some burrito stuff, Eaddie had an eggroll salad, Autumn grudgingly ate more rice and ham, but liked the egg rolls. Summer wasn’t feeling great and just ate what was left when the other two couldn’t finish their bowls. I brought an aquarium worm along for Dad to look at under a microscope, but it didn’t look like much. Unfortunately we couldn’t find the other flat one that I was more interested in seeing.

The girls went to sit in the living room together and started watching YouTube with shared earbuds, which made it all the more confusing when they started bickering in the middle of a game of Super Mario Party when we got back to my house. We decided they were cranky and tired, so everyone went straight to sleep. I made it to bed by 2.

I’m just upset I forgot to change my hat.

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Wormageddon

I got up pretty early considering how late I went to sleep. I finished up the apple pie moonshine and bottled it up, and Summer left to pick up the girls to go home. Then I spent the whole day doing laundry, dishes, and cleaning up the aquariums. I did a pretty big water change in the 55 gallon tank, and afterward I had microscopic worms floating around everywhere. I kicked them up out of the gravel and then they either floated around or started crawling straight up the side of the glass. It was pretty gross, but I don’t know whether they’d hurt any fish I put in there, otherwise I’d try to do that just to have some predators to thin them out.

Eventually I got showered in time for dinner and picked the girls up to go to my parents’ house. They ended up chatting with Dad for a while about band stuff, but then we had to head back home. I borrowed a magnifying glass to try and identify the two types of worms I’ve seen, and even a couple film canisters and pipettes to try and collect some specimens.

When we got back to Summer’s, the girls all went to cleaning house and I met up with Clint to play a little Overwatch since he had a rare moment to spend online. Overall the matches were pretty disappointing, but I felt like we did pretty well, and it was lots of fun to play again. I think I’ll have to come up with a better solution than Bluetooth earbuds for the laptop though.

Night Owl status.

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That’s What She Said

I took the morning off but decided to work in the afternoon. I ran by Burger King to get Summer some lunch on my way in. Nobody else was there, so I headed on to Oakland to pull some old cable out of the ceiling in a couple rooms. Zach let me know that central office was closing a couple hours early, so I really only had to work an hour and a half before getting off.

Brice eventually showed up back at the shop and we ended up chatting for a couple hours about how terrible and corrupt and stupid the place is. Then he said the school board overturned the limit and hired him on at step nine when everyone before has always limited to step five, and we both just kind of sighed again at the whole “you can only get ahead if you know somebody” after he had gone on about how he goes to church with the district CFO.

I eventually made it back home and waited for Summer to get off work so we could go to my parents’ for dinner. The girls were staying another night with their friends, so it was just the two of us joining my parents for egg roll salads. Then we ran to Walmart to hunt for a big stock pot that I could use to cook up some apple pie moonshine. They had a cheap looking one that was super dented up, but they were only willing to come off the price by a couple dollars, so I decided to go back and just get a different brand of pot that looked to be of slightly better quality.

Back home, I got everything mixed up and cooking while we watched the last two episodes of The Office. I don’t remember where I stopped watching before back when the show was actually running, but I definitely know that I didn’t finish, so it was nice to wrap the whole thing up. They did a really good job of recapping the show too, to show how everyone had grown and changed. Now it’s time to find something new to watch.

I wish there was a way to know you’re in the good old days before you’ve actually left them.