Today was the first full day of work I’ve had since last week. I was super tired in the morning, and we had a pretty good day’s worth of work moving and unpacking laptops, so I was really tired by the time I got home.

Josh came over right after work and waited as I completed prepping my laptops. We went to Best Buy where I discovered the promotion had ended nearly a week early! I got about half what I expected to receive, which was a huge disappointment.

After that, we went to Old Chicago for some pizza. We weren’t too long into our meal when a choir group on the other side of the restaurant broke out into a rousing rendition of Drunken Sailor. I absolutely loved the performance, but Josh loathed the experience. They continued on for several more songs throughout our time there – more than I would have expected or really appreciated. I think I was mostly excited about hearing a sea shanty.

Once we finished dinner, it was back home for bed.

Earl-aye in the morning!

We met at the high school this morning to help with unboxing the new 1-1 laptops. It’s moments like those that I feel like my true calling is on a factory line, but I would get so bored after just a short while. After we got about halfway through, someone called for a half-day. Apparently they had gotten a late start on waxing our floors, so they let us out after lunch.

A few of us went to Chick-fil-A for lunch, but we didn’t even stay for the full lunch hour before Jason got a call that we had to go move a pallet of computers into the building. Zach asked me to swing by Staples to look for a video cable adapter, and by the time I got back to the shop, they had just started to get the pallet jack. We made short work of the pallet and a half, then left for home.

I took the opportunity to get some laptops ready in case Josh wanted to go to Conway, but he wasn’t feeling up to it. I ended up feeding the duck and cleaning up the house a bit until Amanda emailed saying her phone died, and she wanted to know if I had one I could loan her. She came by to pick up the Moto X 2nd Gen, and then I went to my parents’ for dinner.

Later in the evening, I was playing a couple quick rounds of Battlegrounds with Johnny and Jack when my power suddenly flickered and everything smart in my house started complaining. It happened once more, and I ended up staying up too late fighting with one particular WeMo switch that refused to reconnect to my WiFi. I don’t know what’s up with my router the past few days, but it’s been very aggravating.

Just keep swimming…

I was supposed to do so much more today. I was going to go buy the supplies to build a pen around Bác Vân’s garden for the duck, but that didn’t happen. I was supposed to meet up with Josh to go to Conway to visit Best Buy and watch Spider-Man, but that didn’t happen.

I did manage to pick up a few more laptops to trade in, but it’s taking me forever to wipe them and reinstall Windows. I also did a bunch of laundry, so it wasn’t like I was just sitting around all day. I even cleaned out the duck’s bin and replaced its water bowl with a smaller dish to keep it from splashing everywhere. I’ve been busy, just with different things than I expected.

I went to my parents’ house for phở, then came back home to continue working on the laptops. Not feeling sleepy at all, I stayed up and played a couple rounds of Battlegrounds with some of the guys.

Hopefully I won’t have any trouble with the trade-in when we go later this week.

At least my clothes will be fresh this week.

It’s 6:03 PM the day after, and I just realized I forgot to write a blog for yesterday. It was a relatively big day, too!

I picked up Bác Vân and met my parents to go to Fort Smith. Dad had a magic club auction to attend, and I took the opportunity with all the bodies to go to Best Buy to partake in their laptop trade-in promotion. Luckily, the girl there let me trade them all in by myself, so I didn’t even have to worry about having anyone else with me. (Un)fortunately, neither the laptop nor drink refrigerator I was thinking about buying were on sale any more since Sunday was the start of new sales, so I’m just banking the gift card for a later date.

After that, I stopped in to the Apex store to visit, but Destiny wasn’t there. Mom and Bác Vân went to Michael’s to browse, but Dad called after just a few minutes to let us know he was done with the meeting. We went to pick him up, then went to Furr’s Fresh Buffet for an early dinner. I didn’t think it was quite as good as the breakfast, but I figured it was because we came at a non-peak time. Dessert was awesome, though.

We made a quick stop at one of the Oriental food stores, and then I drove us home. Once there, I played some Battlegrounds with Johnny, Jack, Scott, and Josh until the wee morning hours. Josh wanted Waffle House, so I met him there for a late night snack. We waited for a while with no cook, and then my old workmate Keener came in. He said he had been working there and another diner for the past couple years. It was nice to catch up with both him and Josh while we were there.

Sweet story, bro!

I was so exhausted this morning after being up so late from the movie last night that I decided to take a half day off to sleep in. When I finally got up, I went in to work to have lunch with Allen and Jason. They wanted to go to the taco truck on 4th Street. There were two trucks there – Smackin’ Wings and Things, and Guerrero’s Mexican Food truck. I ordered a few tacos first, then a wing plate from the other truck just to try them both out. I definitely had a better experience with the tacos. I think El Noa Noa is better, but these were good. The wings were disappointingly small, and I got what basically amounted to two “cube-sized” “sticks” of celery. The fries were great, and the wing sauces were good (even the PB&J), but they were some of the smallest wings I’ve ever had from a restaurant.

After lunch, I was informed that we were having our floors waxed in our office, so we moved everything off of the floors and then went home at 2, and were also told not to show up Monday, so we get a surprise extended weekend. I’ll actually be taking advantage of it this time, so I’m pretty excited about this weekend, with only a hint of dread due to the heat and expected thunderstorms.

When I got home, I checked on the duck who had been sitting in relative darkness without the heat lamp. As soon as I walked in, it looked at me, and then made one big leap up to the edge of the bucket, and hopped away. Luckily it wasn’t too hard to catch it again, and so far it’s stayed in the bucket since I returned it.

I went to my parents’ house for beef spring rolls in the evening, and took Bác Vân along to visit since she’s been cooped up in her house for the past few days. When we finished, Mom asked me to take her 49″ TV back home for Bác Vân to replace the TV she currently has hanging up on her wall.

Finally, I played some Battlegrounds with Keno, Jack, and Clint until bedtime.

It’s still just so hard waking up early on the weekends…

I think I finally figured out a couple of my deployments at work today. Time will tell. The real fun started later.

I went to my parents’ house after work to help with their sound system. Mom keeps pressing buttons on accident, and once the receiver is set incorrectly, she’s completely lost. After that, I went home and prepped some greens for the duck.

After a little while, Johnny came over and we went to Conway for Spider-Man. We ate at Chipotle where I got a burrito the size of my head, then walked around Dick’s for a moment before they closed. The movie was incredible. They took some liberties, but all of the movies have. I really enjoyed it, and it definitely amped me up for the next installment of any Marvel movie.

I’m really just glad I didn’t have to watch Uncle Ben die again.

The deployment I’ve been working on didn’t work as it was supposed to. I’d expect these things to be made more deployment friendly for companies that do this regularly, but apparently nobody cares. I spent a lot of the day gathering Chromebooks for teachers to check out for the next month or so.

Dale suggested Old South for lunch, and Allen excitedly agreed. I had the server surprise me with a bacon, jalapeño, pepper jack burger and fries. It was super good, and I took half home for dinner. They cut us loose at 3, so I came home and prepped some greens for the duck, and let it spend a bit of time in the bath tub.

When Johnny and Josh finally got on, we played some Battlegrounds until I realized I had stayed up too late again and went to bed.

It’s quiet… Too quiet…

I woke up with tremendous back pain this morning, so I went back to bed until around noon. When I finally got up, I played a quick round of Battlegrounds with Clint until my parents came by to drop off some insurance paperwork. They invited me to my cousin Lelan’s farm for a 4th of July shindig they were throwing.

It was a bit hot and humid at first, but after the sun went down it was quite nice outside. There was a ton of food, and plenty of room for everyone to hang out on the deck or in the yard, and several of the kids went out into the fields to ride fourwheelers. They had a nice fireworks display to end the evening. I’m really just glad my parents got out of the house. I wish they would do something – anything just to live a little. Sometimes it makes me feel guilty for some reason, but I really shouldn’t let it. It’s up to them to enjoy the life they have.

It’s nice to follow tradition occasionally.

There were only four of us at work today. I split off and worked at my building while the others kept busy at the shop. I pinched something in my back while I was bent over a computer desk, and have been hurting all day from it.

We went to Spices “Grandma Recipe” food truck for lunch, and I had the girl surprise me with something. Based on the receipt, she got me a spicy stirfried noodle dish with shrimp, steak, and chicken, but I didn’t really see any steak or chicken that I recall. It was delicious, though, and I had no expectations going in. I’d definitely go again.

Ben let us out at 2:00, so I came home and fed the duck some fresh greens, then sat down at the computer for some Battlegrounds for the remainder of the evening.

When did I become old enough for back problems?