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Ne’er Do Anythingers

Everyone but Brice met at the shop for the meeting this morning. We didn’t really have anything to discuss or work on, and instead everyone pretty well broke up and just socialized all day. I almost couldn’t believe we made it all the way to lunch doing that. I did get to school Allen and Jason on SCCM a bit, which felt both nice and aggravating, since they’ve both been doing this for years. I’m glad to have learned it myself though.

We unanimously agreed to Zona K Tracha for lunch since everyone else wanted to try it after Gary, Heather, and I went last week. The service was quite a bit slower, but the food was still excellent. My fajitas had more veggies, but the meat seemed to be seasoned a little differently. It was still excellent though. I hope they can get the consistency and speed down soon so they last a while.

After lunch was more of the same until it was time to go home. I stopped by my house for just a little while before going to Summer’s to wait for FedEx to bring her phone. She found a door tag that didn’t seem to be registered online, but the original tracking number showed the delivery attempt was made Thursday, so I assumed they would try again. After an hour or so of waiting while she was at the gym, the tracking status changed to “pending” and as far as I could tell, no additional delivery attempt was made. I called to complain or trace the package, and we’ll just have to see what happens. I always have this problem with FedEx though. I absolutely hate them.

When she finally got back from the gym, we made some leftovers before heading to my house for the evening. I hooked the Switch up to the TV and, after resolving some super frustrating controller issues, we played Diablo III until bedtime.

Finally, level 10 again!

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Charade of a Parade

Today felt like Friday all day long. I had quite a bit of time to socialize throughout the day while having to move around through the building for work orders. Allen wanted to go to lunch but wanted someone else to decide where, so I suggested Wind Taste. My offer struck a chord with his newfound love for the place, so we both had the General Tso lunch special that was just killer.

The Christmas parade was happening, so we were released at 3, but I ended up sticking around a while anyway. Summer really wanted me to go to the parade with her, but every fiber of my being just wasn’t okay with being there. I got frustrated and angry on the way home as I encountered traffic and blocked intersections everywhere I went. I hate this time of year for it, and I feel like nobody really understands how much it really negatively affects my demeanor.

I headed home instead of finding a place to park, and found some warmer clothes to wear. It ended up not being as cold as I expected, or perhaps I was just dressed appropriately. I left to arrive just before the roads were closed and parked at Stoby’s facing the street for a quick getaway. There was a train parked right on the tracks downtown, but it backed out of the intersections after almost no time. I don’t know if they just had to reschedule it for traffic, or if it was unloading something, but they didn’t go anywhere. I made my way to the presbyterian church downtown and met up with Summer, who was surprised to see me. I was a little upset that she kept hounding me to go, then told me not to worry about it (probably out of frustration at me), told me she didn’t feel like going herself, and then planned to go without me anyway.

In the end, we were in a terrible spot to see anything. We were right by the road, but the floats were separated with way too much empty space between, and none of the bands we saw actually played anything in front of us. Autumn walked by as her father ran into the street to take a picture of her as though somehow being in a live mid-performance was better. She clutched her flag and marched ahead speechless, because that’s my luck. Overall the parking experience was less bad than I anticipated, but the parade was significantly worse than I expected. I hate them. I hate them all.

Summer was hungry, so we ate at Stoby’s before we headed home. A rollercoaster of anxiety and anger, followed by a downward spiral into madness for the evening. But I picked up Into the Breach for the Switch and played a tutorial round, and it looks freaking awesome. So there’s that to look forward to. I also picked up tickets for They Shall Not Grow Old for Dad and myself, which I’m excited to watch.

Pageantry is child abuse!

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Shattered Dreams of Corn Dogs

It was another day hiding away at the junior high. I got a few things done, but the highlight was 50 cent corn dogs at Sonic. Ronda and I went to pick it up. We had like 11 corn dogs, and I got the notion that I needed to get all three of my favorite snacks as well, so I got large orders of onion rings, cheese sticks, and cheddar peppers as well. I did really well until Ronda and Summer both backed out of their third corn dogs, so I skipped mine as well in favor of the sides.

After school, I ran by Walmart to pick up some avocados and an insulated backpack I ordered using Walmart Pickup last week. I “checked in” before I got to the store, as it instructed me to do, and then did my avo shopping before stopping at the pickup area. Then I waited. For twenty Earth minutes. I would have rather walked to the back of the store and gotten it myself, but instead I was stood next to a locked locker that had my UPS-delivered package in it, waiting for a rep to show up. I still don’t even know what took so long, but this whole service is a hard pass for me now.

From there, I ran home to take care of a few things before heading to Summer’s. She had just left the gym, so I offered to pick up corn dogs for the kids. A few minutes after placing my app order and checking in, a girl came out and informed me that they were all out of corn dogs, but offered to give me my drink order and her last singular corn dog for free. It wasn’t quite the 15(!) the kids wanted, but I took what they had. What she said next surprised me more than anything else I’d seen all day. She said she couldn’t refund my order there, and instructed me to open a help ticket through the app and explain there that I was unable to get my order because they had sold out. At least I got my free drink, because otherwise that would have been a horrible review as well.

Failing at Sonic, I called and suggested some Hot-N-Readies. Somehow surprised at the selling out of corn dogs on 50 cent corn dog day, they agreed and I placed another app order and made my way across town. What happened next was my biggest score all day. I pulled into the drive-through with only one car ahead, and was greeted by a friendly employee that literally pulled my pizzas out of the oven and cut them while I waited. Perfect timing. Even better, since they weren’t all stressed from being completely slammed, the pizzas were expertly made and precisely sliced. Best looking and tasting pizzas from Little Caesars ever. And a free 2-liter because coupons. Score.

Finally at Summer’s, I loaded the kids up with food, then had Summer spank them all at Super Mario Party. I’m certain that real family bonds were destroyed. It was a good game night.

The skill games are just there to throw you off the scent that this game is really a STEAMING PILE OF HORSESH–!

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Cold and Slow

I hid out at the junior high all day today. I didn’t have a whole lot going on, and I wasn’t motivated to do too much old stuff either, so I just kept up with what new stuff came in. Dale called for Taco Tuesday, so I met him there along with Gary, Zach, and Brice. I ordered three tacos, but only got and was charged for two, so I made it work. It made me hungry all afternoon though, so I ended up snacking on whatever I could find.

I stopped at Oakland on the way home to do a couple quick things, and then came home to see how the betta was doing. She was just sitting at the bottom of the tank, so I decided to move her out into something of her own just in case it was the other fish bothering her. I got a heater and bubbler going in a hospital tank, but I’m going to leave her in a tiny bowl overnight just to see how she does.

When Summer finally got home, we played some Diablo III on our Switches until bedtime. We made some decent progress and gained access to quite a few more things, so I think we’re gonna have a good time.

1000 corn dogs!

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S’More Scool

I spent some time in the graveyard this morning helping Ben sort through the things we removed from the field house. When I left there, Oakland was having a s’mores cookout, so I managed to mingle around there for the rest of the morning. Surprisingly it didn’t seem to be very popular, and I guess some people were too busy with other things, but I just can’t imagine not taking the time to toast a marshmallow.

My Soylent kept me going through lunch, so I just went straight to the junior high to work through the afternoon. I still didn’t get a whole lot done because what I did do was relatively time consuming. I stayed just a little bit late before heading home to set up the other Switch and clean up after the cats. Wendy’s still had any size fries for a buck, and I still had a coupon code for a $1.99 Dave’s Single, so it was too hard to resist my first solid meal of the day.

When I got home, my betta was still hiding, so I did a bunch of water quality tests between both tanks and ended up doing a water change with the hopes that it would help enough that I won’t have to move her in such a rush. I still have some tadpoles that don’t seem to have any intention of becoming frogs. There is one frog in there now, but he has a retarded leg. I don’t really know what to do with him other than maybe feed him to Autumn’s turtle. There’s no way he’d last very long with that deformity, and to put him in the cold would be near-instant death.

Once the house was in order, I headed to Summer’s house, and we all played a little bit of Super Mario Party. The party mode was going to take too long, so we backed out of that and played some mini games before the girls headed to bed. Then Summer and I played Diablo III until bedtime. I’m not really sure how we both managed to play together since I only redeemed one copy of the game code, but I guess it doesn’t really matter for now.

That almost seemed like genuine excitement!

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Wild Deal Chasing

Summer got up and hit the gym. I finished a bunch of mashed potatoes and stuffing from several weeks ago. Both were accomplishments in their own way.

Once I was ready, I picked Summer up at her house and we went to Gamestop to do some Christmas shopping for the quiz bowl team’s adopted Whirlwind. They didn’t have any Nintendo 64 stuff, so we went to Game X Change and picked up a console, a couple games, and an extra controller. From there, we headed to PetSmart to look around. Summer got some turtle food, and I drooled over more aquarium stuff. I spent a good amount of time trying to accumulate enough in purchases to use my $10 off $50 coupon, but in the end I found myself frustrated with the higher prices negating the savings of the coupon, and I put everything back.

We were both pretty hungry at that point, so I ordered some snacks from Sonic that we picked up on the way back to her house. The girls arrived shortly after we did, and Autumn packed a bag for her grandparents’ place since she has a blood sugar test in the morning. Mom made curry for dinner, so Eaddie and I headed that way while Summer dropped Autumn off.

Eaddie said she had just eaten and wasn’t too hungry, but she still enjoyed some curry. Summer went a little light, but I went back a couple extra times. Then it was back to my house for the evening. Eaddie took a shower before we all sat down and watched a couple episodes of The Office before bed.

Hang on a sec. Your mom and I are trying to have a fight!

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The Gift Card Investment Plan

Summer and Autumn slept in this morning, but luckily Summer jumped out of bed in time to get her up and out to the school for their quiz bowl trip. I tried not to sleep too late, but Eaddie still beat me to the living room. She wanted cereal for breakfast, but we didn’t have any milk, so I took the opportunity to try and pick up some Nintendo eShop gift cards that were on sale at the Dollar General right up the road. I must have looked like some kind of fool getting $200 worth of Nintendo gift cards, but I only paid $170, so the joke was on them. I did make a mistake though, and tried to scratch the first card with a metal file, and it chewed right through the ink on the paper. Luckily I called Nintendo, and after speaking with a couple guys, they were able to confirm the validity of the card and applied it to my account for me.

After Eaddie and I had some cereal, I messed around on the Switch some more while she watched Legends of Tomorrow. Eventually I had to find a way to convince her that she probably didn’t take a shower last night, and that she definitely needed to take one today. It took some effort, but I eventually got her ready to leave the house, and we headed back to my house so I could clean up. On the way, we stopped at another Dollar general and I picked up another $180 worth of gift cards. We should be set for some games now.

Summer was already heading back from Greenwood by the time we got to my house, so I warmed up some food for Eaddie and then jumped into the shower. Once I was ready, we took the bike to Walmart to look for a Super Mario Party and Joy-Con bundle. We ran into Ana with her grandparents there, but Ana acted all shy, and I’m pretty sure her grandparents didn’t really recognize me. We continued on to the electronics, and luckily there were still three copies of the game, so I limited myself to just the one and we headed on to Summer’s house so the girls could pack bags for their stay with their father.

Hannah and Dylan wanted to meet us at Chili’s for dinner, so Summer took a shower and we both drove to meet up with them. My food was pretty good, but cold. Summer said she liked hers, but the other two both wanted to send their sirloins back to the grill. We had a good time though, and I got Dylan’s Steam info so we can hopefully join up for some Rocket League or other games at some point in the future.

When we finished dessert, Summer and I headed back to my house for the evening. We thought momentarily about visiting the remaining three Dollar Generals in town to clean the rest of them out on gift cards, but she was sleepy and I figured $380 should last until next holiday season when hopefully they’ll have another sale.

Motorcycle weather in December, but you look at our air and our water and it’s right now at a record clean.

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Switch Things Up

I got in to work a couple minutes late this morning after traffic was backed up a quarter mile up Fairway. I have no idea what was going on, but we actually cleared through the intersection relatively quickly. As I suspected, there didn’t seem to be a whole lot of conversation about work going on. When we finally did split up, I volunteered to help Zach and Amanda hang a TV for the resource officers at the high school.

I ended up hurting my leg just barely above my right ankle when I tripped over a rolling chair. Zach caught me and kept me from face planting, and luckily the damage didn’t seem to be on my ankle itself, but it definitely sat me down for a little bit. We finally got the TV hung though, and then went to the field house to help Ben, Allen, and Brice remove a bunch of old equipment before they renovate the place.

Gary, Heather, and I went to a new Latino restaurant called Zona K-Tracha that was super good. Gary had most of a 14-inch burrito that looked amazing. My fajitas were great, and it was probably the first time I’ve eaten at a place that had a noticeably different flavor of seasoning in their meat. I was a little disappointed by the quantity of vegetables in my fajitas, but the flip side was that I had a lot of meat instead. The restaurant had more of a polish than most of the others in town, which made it that much stranger to see so many mistakes or inconsistencies in the nicely made menus. It just made me want to fix it all for them.

After lunch, I went to the junior high to take care of a few things. Summer was out at a meeting all day and didn’t get back until around the time I finished working. When she did finally show up, she took Autumn and I took Eaddie home with me for a couple hours. My Blue Yeti shock mount and my Switch screen protectors came in, so I spent my time setting those up while Eaddie watched her last episode of Arrow.

Eventually we loaded everything up and headed to Summer’s for dinner. She made some chicken breasts encrusted with French onions, along with a mixture of some vegetables and some mashed potatoes. I think Eaddie ate more than all of us, but she just couldn’t behave at the table and kept aggravating everyone. After we ate, Summer frustrated herself even further trying to peel some hard boiled eggs, and I had to make her take a break for a bit.

I tried downloading some games to the Switch, and got a few things going that we could do, but Autumn was so tired that she went to bed early, and Eaddie eventually got dishes done, then played computer games until bedtime. Summer and I finally got the eggs peeled and deviled, and it was off to bed with her. The storm riled her up for a little while, but for the most part it was over pretty quickly.

Of course it’s 70 degrees outside with a thunderstorm and tornado warning. Why wouldn’t it be, on the first day of December?

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Would you mind holding for two to three hours while my system updates?

I spent my entire morning trying to create Chromebook recovery drives for five out-of-date devices at Oakland. I didn’t crack it until right before lunch, so I got one device done and two more started.

Allen and I went to KFC for lunch, where we ran into an old coworker of his that we invited to eat with us. Right at the end of lunch I remembered the esports presentation that I wanted to attend with some EAST kids, so I dropped Allen off and headed straight to the junior high to meet up with Summer.

I was lead to believe that at least one of them would be an excellent public speaker, but they were all so nervous they sounded like they wanted to throw up. I remembered being exactly that way in school though, since I didn’t really learn how to communicate with organic humans until my mid-20s. It was probably more disappointing that they didn’t seem to take any of Summer’s advice at all about their presentation. She and I kind of took over for a little bit of it, and I think it really helped to build the picture for Matt. Hopefully this goes well when he brings it up with the athletics director.

After that, I ran around and finished a few things I had at the junior high, and then stayed late to finish up the last two Chromebooks at Oakland before heading home. I didn’t really have anything else going on for the evening since the girls had a late night.

At least I didn’t spend any more money.

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Afternoon Social

I stopped by the shop this morning for some help with LanSchool. Ben pointed me at a couple things that I missed, but in the end it didn’t matter because my setup was already working and I just didn’t know it.

My FedEx package came in just before lunch, so I headed home then to get it. I grabbed some Burger King nuggets on the way so I could have them with leftover mashed potatoes for lunch. While I was home, I saw an article that Project Fi is rebranding to Google Fi, and opening the doors to other previously incompatible phones. They also changed their (ultimately) half-off Pixel 3 promotion for a full-price Pixel 3 with an equal-value travel gift card, plus a $100 referral credit. I had to stop and think about that one for a while.

I didn’t really do anything after lunch, except sit and socialize with Gary. It was mostly work-related chat though, and I got some more insight into the inner machinations of the technology hive mind. I spent a little more time chatting with Ben, then bounced around until the work day was over.

From there, I headed straight home to bring the Nintendo Switches inside, that had been delivered a couple hours earlier. At least the UPS guy delivered them to the front door. FedEx only rang my doorbell after he saw my note requesting it. I still have screen protectors on the way, so unfortunately they’ll have to stay in the boxes until those arrive.

When Summer finished at the gym, I headed over to pick everyone up, and we went to CiCi’s for dinner. Noah and Eaddie wanted to go to PetSmart with me, but Autumn had homework, and Summer had exactly what you would expect to have after an evening at CiCi’s, so we compromised and went straight home for the evening.

To wrap up the evening, Summer agreed that signing up for Google Fi would be her best option right now, so I sent the referral, checked the credit, paid sales tax on a phone, and now we’re playing the waiting game. I’m so jelly.

What’s the deal, yo?