Kevin saw me walking up to the junior high this morning and managed to sneak into my office before I got there so he could jump out and scare me. I don’t think he realizes what he’s started. Obviously I can’t go sneaking around myself, because you never jump-scare the guy with a taser, but I’m more of a long-con kind of guy anyway.

I had lunch with the girls in the library, and later in the afternoon, Jennifer did an all-call for me over the intercom. It wasn’t even work-related, so it was hilariously annoying to have been paged at all when an email would have been more than sufficient. She didn’t even try my desk phone at all, which I would normally be happy about, but I would have actually been on-site to answer it.

After work, I headed home to meet Dad because Tori trucked Bác Vân’s freighted Christmas present to her house for us. I guess I just don’t get the display case trend this year. I keep trying to lighten my load, not acquire more things to show my other things.

After I made it back inside, I installed the dbrand skin on my Pixel. I was surprised to see that there was no cutout for the glass skin, and instead I was to place the glass skin on top of the back skin. It looks pretty good, and I could nitpick it, but I think overall I’m happy with it. I just needed something to keep it from getting scratched. I went with the marble back and woodgrain glass. I ordered a multicolor G logo, but ended up not using it at all because the cutout for the stock G is perfectly aligned for the shiny metal to show through.

I ended the night with a round of PUBG and an all-night queue for Newegg customer service chat.

SHUNNNNNN!

Today was a sharp contrast from yesterday’s public outing. Back to normal. How else was I supposed to catch up on my Overwatch winter loot boxes? I got to where I really enjoyed playing the yeti mode.

Later in the day, I spent quite a bit of time brushing my ridiculous winter-shedding cat, and vacuuming up after them. I should make sweaters out of all this fur. This is stupid.

I rounded out the evening with some Rocket League and Playerunknown’s Battlegrounds with the boys.

How’s your life, what’s it like there?

Everyone’s gearing down for semester tests and Christmas break. Except shit kids. The school is so afraid of backlash from parents that no real discipline is allowed. Overall, most of the kids are okay, but the ones that are bad are really bad. They disrespect simply because they know they can. Parents are decidedly MIA.

On the flip side, someone brought hot cider to the junior high, plus it was popcorn Friday. It’s hard to argue with any of that. Everyone seemed to be in pretty good spirits all day too. Heather even gave me permission to say anything I wanted today after my “good behavior” in front of the kids at Ben’s Christmas shindig last night, so I took the opportunity to rip through the George Carlin Seven.

Now for something completely different.

Today wasn’t too bad of a start. My greatest accomplishment for the day was soldering a stripped cable onto a circuit board to replace a broken RCA jack. It went okay, even if the results were a little LOL.

I took a late lunch and went à la carte with McDonald’s fries and a Wendy’s burger, because I’m an adult that does what he wants. BOGO coupons made that a choice dinner as well, because I’m also a glutton for punishment.

I made Technology Tech of the month, which was nice. I didn’t even see the email until after the congratulations started pouring in.

I was so cold when I got home that I just bundled up instead of going shopping to pick up potluck goods. I’ll make time tomorrow.

Evidently I had to leave the Android 8.1 beta in order to receive the OTA update on my new Pixel 2 XL. I’m glad to finally have it going. Time to ship the old one back for a refund.

I owe it all to my fans.

I feel like I’ve been running around a lot lately at work. I definitely travelled the halls a lot more today than what I would consider typical. I keep getting more and more grunt work and less that I can actually learn about, so that’s frustrating.

After working late, I went by my parents’ house to see if Dad had a suitable RCA connector that I could use to fix the preamplifier in the junior high cafeteria, but I didn’t have any luck there. I tried to help clean up some leftovers there, then came home and couldn’t find a suitable connector in any of my old electronics here either. It’s crazy/not-crazy to me that our home theater contacts don’t do any repairs, but I guess it’s not worth the effort for them to keep parts like that on hand. I remember the days of going with my dad to the TV repair shop or Radio Shack for parts. Now you just buy a whole new thing.

I muddled around the house for the rest of the evening and eventually made some hot tea before refunding my Star Wars tickets. I’ll give my new Pixel another day or so to get the update before I box up the old one to ship back for a refund as well.

You can count on it, I’m where you left me

I’ve decided to take a refund on my seven tickets to the opening night of Star Wars. Ben’s having a Christmas shindig at his place that night that I’d rather go to, and I could only find a couple takers for tickets anyway.

I worked late messing with the A/V rack at the junior high, and left when I got to a point where I needed a part.

Whiskey sour ’til bed.

I’d be a better man, better man, better man

I got my second Pixel 2 XL today. Only because they offered it with a $100 credit this time, and they let me return the old one without question. In fact, one of the options for the return was that I found a better price somewhere else.

Fortunately, the tempered glass screen protector I ordered came in as well, so I was able to install it with very little fuss. The new Pixel is mostly set back up like the old one, but I’m a little behind on my Android version. I can’t wait for my dbrand skins to come in now, but I’m nervous about installing my first one.

I didn’t do much else all day. I got a load of laundry done. Kept a couple chairs from floating away. Made some green tea.

That all changed when I met Lucy.