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Is this trash?

It was kind of an odd day at work today. I had to run to Oakland first thing to take care of some summer school stuff. While I was there, I found my tadpoles were more frog than tadpole. I’m pretty sure they ended up being leopard frogs. They’re going to have to be released in a day or two.

When I finished there, I met Amanda, Dale, and Allen at the middle school to hang a TV and clean out computers. I basically ended up dusting out an entire computer lab before lunch. I met Allen at KFC, then went back with him and Amanda to finish hanging the TV and rearrange another room. That move was so involved, it lasted until the end of the day even with all three of us. It was nice to have a group project where everyone actually kept busy.

After work, Summer and I went to pick up the betta from the library at the junior high, but Jessica had already taken it home because I took too long. From there, we went to Gardner to check out some discard stuff. We ended up taking every bit of it – two full-sized filing cabinets, two bookshelves, a kid’s table, and a couple raised monitor stands. It took us three trips to the junior high to drop off most of that, and then we took the table to Summer’s house for Eaddie. On the way, we stopped to pick up some Taco John’s because we worked up our appetites, then took it back home to eat over an episode of The Office.

There’s an ugly monster in my head that someone put there a long time ago.

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The Kayak Hunt

We got up this morning and decided to go to Conway to hunt for a kayak. I texted Mom to see if they wanted to go to Sam’s, and Summer and I went to get some pork chop biscuits from Hardee’s for breakfast. She headed to the gym while I got ready, and then we went to pick my parents up when Dad got home from church. We went to Old Chicago for lunch, and the poor girl flipped my slice of pizza face-down on the table while trying to serve us. I don’t think I’ve ever had them serve the first slice, so it was a bit odd in the first place. I think I’d rather just figure that out on my own.

After lunch, we headed to Sam’s Club and wandered around. We ran into Steven there, and Summer and I started video chatting Ronda on Marco Polo while she sat in the car waiting for him. We didn’t buy a whole lot, but I did pick up a Bug-A-Salt gun, and I’m super excited to ruin some pest lives during our next cookout. I may even season some food with it. The salt. Not the bugs.

From there, we went to Dick’s to check out the kayaks. We ultimately decided to wait for a proper deal, so I’ll just have to keep watching online for a great price. We walked to Old Navy to spend some bonus money I had, then went to Marble Slab for some ice cream before heading home. We stopped for just a minute at Walmart to look at their kayaks before taking my parents home. It’s back to group projects tomorrow, and I’m less than thrilled. Vacation is coming.

Shop ’til you drop.

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Got it Covered

We woke up late this morning and went to my parents’ house to help Dad clean the pool cover. We had tentative plans to grill with Jesica, but she didn’t get back in touch with me until late in the afternoon, so we swam and had soup for dinner with my parents. Summer worked up a wicked headache on top of her already injured neck, but rehydrating seemed to help that quite a bit.

When we got back home, we watched a few episodes of The Office before bedtime. I wanted to get to Maria’s sweet sixteen, but it just didn’t work out. It would have been nice to see that whole gang again.

Sick burn, dude.

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Like Day and Night

I rode the bike to work today since Summer was still having her alternator replaced. It was a pretty good day for it, particularly in the morning. It wasn’t too hot on the ride in to work in the morning, and the afternoon was cool and overcast with just a few sprinkles on the way home.

Work started out a bit awkward without any real plan of action. We didn’t have enough cable on hand to do the line pulls I needed, so we started blowing out computers and projectors instead. I helped out at Dwight with Jason and Allen while everyone else found something better to do.

The three of us managed to stretch that out until close to lunch, then went to La Plaza Restaurant. Jason forgot his wallet at the shop, so I’ll have to remember to collect next week. After lunch, we swapped Allen for Amanda and went to her buildings to check the status of some rooms. The painting wasn’t done, and the electricity hadn’t been run, so the entire afternoon was basically a huge bust. Then we left half an hour early.

I made it home and started on some laundry. Summer eventually made it back and we went to get her car. While we were out, I wanted to stop by Harbor Freight to check out their sidewalk sale. In the few hours we were there, I picked up a pair of gloves to throw in the car for an emergency. Then it was back home for more productivity.

My sheets ended up getting bleached in several places by some skin cream. I was super angry about it, but in reality nobody looks at them anyway, and they still feel the same. We’re a little over halfway through The Office. It didn’t seem like it ran for this many episodes when I was watching them as they came out. I guess time really does fly.

Learn the lesson and move along.

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Bet they don’t reprimand their froggers!

I thought we might get a break from pulling cable today, and I was at least partly right. Amanda called in after what we had to go through yesterday, and evidently Jason and Allen didn’t get anywhere near finished with Sequoyah, so they wanted me to come help them finish it. I had some things to do for summer school though, so I went to Oakland first to take care of that. I checked on the tadpoles while I was there, and was greeted with a wave.

When I finally got to Sequoyah, I saved the day by fixing where the cable boxes were to reduce friction, and also punched a bunch of cables through a wall that Jason couldn’t seem to get through. We finished up there, and I don’t even know how much excess cable they pulled, but it was a frustrating amount. It’s almost as if they had never done it before. I fished the ends through where they needed to be, then let them finish up after lunch.

We had lunch at Dairy Queen, and Summer met us there just to stare at me. I’m now remembering that I had forgotten to get my 99 cent cheese sticks from Sonic in the afternoon. After lunch, I was instructed to go get serial numbers from 108 iPads so we could deploy a paid app to them for summer school. Gary volunteered to help, and we managed to knock out 85 in about two and a half hours. So many frustrating things could have been completely avoided with some better management, preparedness, and maybe a dash of testing things before committing to them and demanding resolutions at the last minute.

After work, I went by Superfast to get Summer because they were looking at her air conditioner again. We made it home and I started some laundry before having to go to her house to pick up something for her neck pain. Back home, I managed to get one round of PUBG in before server maintenance, and then it was off to bed.

That was scary-fast.

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Double Date with Folks

Work was supremely frustrating today. Amanda and I were sent to pull Ryan’s cables at Jason’s buildings, and even if it was unintentional, we had the distinct feeling that Jason was selectively assigning difficult jobs to others so he wouldn’t have to do them. I’m covered from head to toe in fiberglass insulation, and now my skin hurts everywhere.

I went to New China for lunch with Allen and Kristen, and we met Summer there. It was an interesting time, and Kristen wants to hang out with us as couples now. Life is strange.

The afternoon was finishing up the bullshittiest cable run I’ve ever had to do, and then Ben cut us loose at 4. I refused to let Jason beat me out the door, so Heather, Gary, and I all left a few minutes earlier.

I went home and started charging Summer’s Amazfit Bip before she got there to go swim at my parents’ house. Dad came out to join us in the pool for a bit until Mom got home from work, and then we all went to Ruby Tuesday for dinner.

CONGRATULATIONS.
UNITED NATIONS

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A long, long way to run.

Amanda and I spent most of the day pulling phone lines at the junior high. It was annoyingly long, but still one of the easier runs. Lunch was finishing up some leftovers from the team cookout.

After work, I came home and set up my new router. I’m hopeful that it resolves my frequent loss of internets, but if it doesn’t, I’ll have to have my modem exchanged again.

I got really frustrated with my 55-gallon tadpole tank after several larger tadpoles died out of nowhere. The water quality seemed pretty questionable, so I spent quite a while doing a water change and finally burying the plants I picked up when I went floating recently. I had some trouble getting the canister filter running again, but it’s back to normal now.

You don’t get to have a quinceanera and a sweet sixteen. That’s just blatant double-dipping.

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Summer with a K

I was exhausted from all the driving this weekend. It didn’t even really feel like we got a weekend. I’m excited to do it again over the course of a couple weeks, but even then the first day will be a solid block of driving to get there in time. I don’t understand why I can’t just scroll down to zoom out and then just zoom back in where I want to be.

We didn’t have any group projects, so I spent all day at Oakland working on a few things I had open there. I met Allen and Summer at KFC for lunch and ate too much, then went back to Oakland. Ben let us off a few minutes early, so I went home and started cleaning up around the house.

Summer came over after a while and we watched Jumper after I had expressed my desire to bend space-time on our drive home from St. Louis. I fear more group stuff tomorrow since Jason’s out for a single day of vacation again. Funny how the hard work always coincides.

Wham, bam shang-a-lang.

Adventure Time!

Road Warrior

We didn’t have a whole lot of extra time for adventure today because we had to get back home for work tomorrow. We slept in after an exhausting day and checked out of the hotel at noon. I happened to think to check Craigslist for an Aeron chair since we were in the city, and I found a few listed at a pretty good price. The first call I made ended up not working out because someone else had just bought them, but I arranged to meet another gentleman that had some for sale.

Before that, we headed downtown to find some food. I got us into the neighborhood where we had eaten at a Vietnamese restaurant about eight years ago, and Summer picked out a Moroccan place called Baida. It seemed to be a family affair, and we were one of two occupied tables there. The food was great, and the guy that served us was super nice, though a little slow on the water refills. I had him pick us out an appetizer and my meal, and we chatted for a bit about food. It seemed like a cool place to become a regular.

After lunch, we went across town to meet up with the guy with the Aeron chairs. It was a super nice, older neighborhood, and the people inside were a super nice, older couple. He worked in furniture, and was able to get the chairs pretty cheap. I didn’t love the fit of the B size, and he agreed that a C would probably be a better fit for me, so I ended up not getting a chair. Not thinking about having a full car on our return trip, I asked him to keep me in mind if he comes across a C model in the near future.

From there, it was time to head back home. We made the rest of the trip with only minimal stops for gas, and then for TCBY in Harrison. I made quick work of Highway 7, then hit up the car wash before unpacking for the night.

He doesn’t want lovin’. He wants chicken.

Adventure Time!

STL

Today was the day for our trip to St. Louis. I picked the girls up and we headed up Highway 7 around 9. It was a pretty good day for a drive with just a little rain near the end of our trip. We stopped at the Cliff House Inn for some sausage biscuits for breakfast, then made it to Springfield to eat at Lambert’s for lunch.

The food there was awesome. Everything was cooked perfectly aside from the dry chicken strips, but the girls loved them anyway. It was a ton of food, and they kept coming by with more to serve at the table. Everyone got to catch some throwed rolls, and Summer even got a hubcap cinnamon roll as a reward for cutting loose with the fried chicken instead of a salad.

After that, we made the rest of the trip to St. Louis to meet Summer’s sister Beth. We got there a little late because Waze didn’t have the right destination, but Google Maps got us back on track. As soon as we got there, Beth locked herself out of her car, so we ended up sitting in my car waiting for a locksmith. It got me thinking that I should get the tools to take care of that kind of thing myself, but I don’t know if there are any rules regarding that.

Once we got her into her car and the girls loaded up, Summer and I made our way across the city to get to the Crowne Plaza by the airport for the evening. We got a pretty decent rate of but I was disappointed to find out there was an extra $10 overnight parking fee. The in-room refrigerator was also super tiny, and there wasn’t a good rack for the towels, so they put them on the shelf under the sink touching some pretty gnarly looking plumbing.

I started feeling a bit sick, but I think it was just being so full from everything I ate and drank all day. Hopefully I’ll be over it in the morning so we can enjoy a little bit of the city before heading back home.

What do you mean the continental breakfast is twelve dollars?