Uncategorised

Who’s in Charge Here?

Kim texted super early this morning that she would be out sick. That would have given me a chance to really dig in and catch up, but I’m pretty sure people were just waiting for me to return to come and harass me. Things were reasonably quiet apart from just running all day, until Josh came into my office to ask if I was in charge of keeping up with Kim’s time. That prompted me to ask a stunned-looking assistant superintendent, and ultimately send a lengthy email to the super.

I signed up for vision insurance in the afternoon, and when quitting time arrived, I headed to the old house to feed the fish. I called Rockline back just to follow up after our last chat before the conference, and then went home to pick up Eaddie so we could go to Cici’s for dinner.

We had a pretty good chat over dinner, and then headed home to wait for Summer. I did a load of laundry and cleaned up a couple of the older loudspeakers I had rescued from the dumpster years ago. I ended up stacking them in the little office nook, which is humorous due to their size in such a tiny room. The girls wound down pretty early, so I paid some bills and eventually made it to bed.

Soooo…. No org chart…?

Uncategorised

Productive Sunday

We all got up early this morning and Summer made chicken and waffles. Then once everyone was out of the shower, we took two trips with two cars to my old house to pick up some speakers. That will give us more room to clean off the dining room table and get it over to the new house as well. There’s only a handful of stuff I really want to get to the new house before Thanksgiving.

By then, furniture stores were open again, so we went to Funky Town Mall, Sofa City, and Hank’s. As we left there, we passed a car that had pulled over into a parking lot and caught on fire. We went to Good Deal Charlie’s while that billowed black smoke in the distance. Nothing really caught our attention at any of the places we went, so we took a quick restroom break and got a car wash, then went to Lowe’s where I remembered my previous idea of using a tool chest as a coffee bar. We saw a few we liked, but I remembered some even taller ones at Harbor Freight that might have a large, closable hutch on top.

We left Lowe’s and got some food at Sam’s. They were completely dead, but the food was still great. Then we stopped by Harbor Freight just to get our hands on some of their tool chests, and then I figured I could build something online. We got some gas for Eaddie and finally made it home, where I tried to maintain a little bit of the day’s momentum.

Summer got some laundry done, and then I did a load myself while Eaddie had Eli over to do some bead crafts and watch TV. I was up later than I intended, but it was a solid day for this crew.

But is it repeatable?

Uncategorised

The More Geese, the Better

I woke up hungry and had a pretty bad headache this morning. Summer had made burritos while I was gone, so I made one for breakfast before taking a shower to get out for the day. By the time we got out of the house, the girls wanted to eat. Eaddie was being pretty rude, which made me mad on top of other general aggravations, so when we got to Stoby’s where they wanted to eat, I just left them and went to my house to get my computer chair.

By the time I got it loaded up, poked around the house a bit, and got about halfway to the new house, they said they were done eating. I went to pick them up and we went to the house to drop off my computer chair. Then my parents came over to go furniture shopping with us. I had made a floor plan for the living room on an app I found for my phone, so we could visualize the space a bit better this time.

We went to Strouds first, and the guy there was the opposite of a pressuring salesman. Then we went to Cleo’s where we looked at the same sectionals we had liked from before. We should have shopped again earlier, because the ones we wanted weren’t in stock. We ended up ordering one online that was much more expensive, and we had no way to test it out beyond one picture on their website. Hopefully we like it.

From there, we went to the junk store to see what they had. My parents left from there while Eaddie waited in the car for Summer and me to finish looking around. We didn’t find anything of any interest, so we went back home for a while. I had another burrito, and then they girls decided they wanted to go back out to do some more shopping.

We went to Walmart for a few things we needed, and then stopped by my old house to get some things from the pantry. Finally we made it home for the night, and Summer went to bed. Eaddie went out with some friends, and I sorted the spice cabinet.

I guess it’s not nothing.

Uncategorised

Less Than Marvelous

Ben texted that he was too late to meet for breakfast, and I noticed a couple of cars parked outside the Old Mill Bread Bakery & Cafe, so I swung in there to eat instead. The guy was just opening up, and had to leave to take his son to school, so he just left me with another customer in the store. Then Ben called after he realized the sessions didn’t start until 8:30, and met up with me just in time for the guy to make it back. I had a breakfast burrito and a scone with some coffee, but in hindsight I probably should have gotten something on BREAD instead of a premade spinach wrap. The food was good either way, and then we headed to the conference.

I went to a session about budgeting and finance, which I thought would be helpful to start the conversation with my business office and admin team. Hopefully I can come up with a decent proposal, and then use Technology money for a better salary. After that session, I went to Ben’s talk about Burp Suite, which was interesting. I was in a room with a very small number of very smart folk, but I wasn’t sure I had an immediate use for it.

The final session was the closing ceremony. Charlie was in Ben’s session, and he let me have his room key to get into the garage and charge. Then Ben and I sat through the closing remarks and went to the lobby for our bagged lunches. They didn’t have very many left, so we were lucky to get anything to eat at all. I figured he might stick around for a little bit to chat, but he actually ended up sticking around the entire time I was waiting for my movie. We chatted about all kinds of stuff, and then he helped me fix my eSchool student photos, which was awesome.

That left me just enough time to get across town to the IMAX to watch The Marvels. I had a reward for a free hot dog, purchased an ICEE, and sat down in my usual seat. There were only a few people there for the IMAX 3D showing on opening weekend, which I thought would be a good thing just for myself, but for some reason the bunch of old folks just kept talking through the entire movie. It would have been way more distracting if I had been more invested in the movie. I just couldn’t take it seriously at all. It was fine, but it was far from great. The dialog and plot just made it feel like another forced girl team-up movie.

After the show, I finally headed home. I stopped at the old house to check on things and air up my tires. Then I washed my car and headed to the house. Everyone was awake, but nobody heard me come in. Eaddie had left the Murano unlocked, so I made her go out and lock it up. Then I realized she left the back door unlocked, as well as the front door after she went out to lock the car. I don’t know how to correct these habits other than to make her life really annoying by making her go back outside repeatedly in the cold. Summer only got out of bed to use the bathroom while I unpacked and got things put away. I got my acrylic chair mat in, so I cleaned it and set it up under my desk. For one day, it seems like it will hold up alright, but only time will tell.

No appointing here.

Uncategorised

Boxed Whine

I made it to my usual breakfast place at my usual time for my usual seat at the bar. It’s almost been disappointing to have a different server every time, but I guess that’s staffing? Today I had the shrimp and grits with a Vietnamese coffee, and both were great as expected.

When I got to the Embassy, the parking lot was full and I couldn’t find a place to charge, so I just parked in the very back. Ben was walking to the building just as I was getting my things collected, so I followed him around for a while. Classes weren’t bad, but having a live barista helped. I even got a little heart in my latte. I was a little lost because there were so many sessions that I just wanted to attend, so hopefully the recordings will come in good quality. I really don’t know how they expect the microphones to work on those little tablets in the back of the room.

Lunch was better than yesterday, with fried chicken and some kind of fried steak patty. I ate at a huge round table with Ben and a bunch of strangers. Thomas brought Zach and Ryan just for the day, but I didn’t see them a whole lot. I did talk with Zach more than I really have since I’ve been gone from Russellville.

The afternoon dragged a little bit, but I liked the presentation with Amanda’s brother, Josh. As the conference wound down for the day, it had started to rain pretty hard. I circled through the exhibition hall, but didn’t get a single piece of swag apart from the Fortinet backpack I collected from trivia the night before. I couldn’t find anyone to hang around either, so I headed back to the hotel to clean up a little bit.

Summer texted, so I called and talked to her for a little while before heading back out. Howard had their dinner party at The Butcher Shop, so I met Ben there after charging briefly at the Embassy. Brody didn’t make it, so it was just Ben and me talking through dinner until we left. From there, it was back to the hotel until I heard from Brody at the CDW party at Hibernia Irish Tavern. We were just there long enough to win the raffle where I got a box of ready-to-drink margarita. Brody left first, and then I ended up chatting a bit longer with Charlie and Kristina before heading back to the hotel to crash for the night.

Guess lower!

Uncategorised

EAT Conference

I went to Big Bad Breakfast again this morning because the Old Mill Bread Bakery & Cafe was closed, in spite of their Google Maps listing to the contrary. This time I had the shrimp po’boy, which was both an interesting breakfast choice, and also delicious. It was served with fries, which were piping hot and seasoned well. It didn’t even take long for them to prepare, which was incredible based on how busy they were in comparison to yesterday.

I made it to the conference in time to park up front and charge, which was good because I didn’t have a key card to get into the garage. Overall the sessions were a bust. The first couple hours was the state CISO basically just telling us the schools needed stronger passwords. Strangely enough, that’s what we’ve been telling them for years. The time after the morning break would have been a little better because some districts who had been compromised got up to talk about their experiences, but I was stuck in the hallway for that part.

Lunch wasn’t great, and afterward Ryan told us about seeing one of the employees leave the bathroom after doing some business, skip washing his hands, and then immediately grab some cake from the dessert table. The bathroom itself just got worse and worse, and looked like it hadn’t been cleaned since last Thursday. It has gotten progressively worse every single time I’ve been in there.

The afternoon wasn’t much better. I went to one session with a really sharp guy, but he was all excitement and no real education. He just talked about smart things for a bit, scared everyone, and then it was over. Then I heard from a legislative auditor, which was expectedly boring. Finally I went to a class with one of the DIS guys that I would’ve liked to chat to, but I didn’t get much out of that either.

The highlight of the day was scoring ninth in a post-session trivia game with over 60 other people. Cory was right behind me to win the last prize for the day. I let him pick first, so I was left with an IOU for a swag bag from Fortinet. I didn’t really want the $75 worth of gift cards anyway.

I hung out by myself in the lobby for a bit, unable to decide where to eat for the sake of eating on someone else’s dime. Then I went back to my hotel for a quick breather before going to Tokyo House. Eating a buffet by myself was a bit surreal, and I don’t think I’ll do that again. When I finished, I headed back to the Embassy to hang out for Casino Night.

A girl named Kristina walked up and introduced herself to me out of the blue, and we talked for a bit. She was actually the tech for Deer and Mt. Judea after Andrew left, so it was funny to make that connection. Brody eventually came along and joined the conversation, followed by Cory. Then she left and Steven walked by, and I took the opportunity to introduce myself to him. The group of us chatted for a while before eventually splitting off to our rooms for the night.

We’ve got a breacher!

Uncategorised

Surrounded by Giants

I got out of the hotel this morning and went to a place called Big Bad Breakfast to eat. They had pretty good reviews, but I didn’t really expect it to be quite so “upscale.” I sat at the bar, turned down a mimosa, and had a Creole omelet with some fresh-squeezed, ruby red grapefruit instead. The juice was a bit more bitter than I expected, but the omelet was delicious. The andouille sausage and shrimp were unusual for breakfast, but great.

After breakfast, I headed to the Embassy and got checked into the conference by Darrel himself. Just after I got through, I caught Gary and Ryan coming in. Then Derrick snuck up behind me and said my name, and I chatted with him for just a moment. He was only there by happenstance, and wasn’t even aware of the conference.

I eventually made my way back to the classroom where we got things started. Brody showed up late, but he didn’t seem terribly interested in most of what they had to say anyway. I really don’t have a clue what he does in Clarksville, but I wish I had his job at that salary. The unbelievable luck of that kid is astounding to me.

Lunch at the hotel was pretty good, but awkwardly placed. They had different stuff for tacos, but it was arranged in a poor order for assembling, so I ended up with a huge plate of mush that I just sort of mixed together and ate with cold, crumbly tortillas.

I thought our session was great, and got a ton of useful information out of it even though we ended a bit early. I even joked that we had paid for the full session, and asked for a refund for the unused time. I caught up with Gary out in the lobby while he was waiting for Ryan, and ended up spending the rest of the evening with them.

We went up to Gary’s room for a little bit and chatted some more there while Brody went to the gym. Then we met him at Genghis Grill for dinner, but he was late to that too. The food was pretty good, but I had forgotten just how expensive that place was. When we got back to the hotel, I used Gary’s key card to get into the garage to charge. Then we hung out in the atrium where they had a band cranked up way too loud for being in the middle of an open area in a hotel with rooms facing inward. We could barely hear ourselves think, much less hear each other without absolutely screaming at each other. We could have easily cut the volume in half and been better off.

I was the last one out, and played on my phone in the car for a little while until I finished charging. Then it was back to the hotel to wind down and sleep before a day of cybersecurity.

No fair.

Uncategorised

Country Roads

I was mostly packed up, but getting last-minute things together meant I ran a little late for work. Summer felt like she was getting sick, so she stayed home. Kim was back at work, and there wasn’t a whole lot going on there. I got fairly frustrated that she spent so much time talking and didn’t actually seem to close any new work orders, but we’ll see how she does while I’m gone this week.

I brought some leftovers to eat since the “pizza crunchers” didn’t sound too good. Then at quitting time, I headed through Plainview to get to Little Rock. I don’t think I’d ever been back that direction before, and it was a beautiful drive for as long as the sun was up. I got into the city well after dark, and my car routed me to the wrong hotel, so I had to turn around.

Check-in was fast for me after the guy ahead of me finally finished his business. I got settled in, and then drove across the street to charge at the Wingate while I walked down to eat at a place called Cheba Hut. I let the guy surprise me, and I ended up with a fancy BLT that I thought needed about six times more bacon. The sauces on the sandwich were amazing though. The flavor was there, but after an eight-inch sub, I was still super hungry.

I hung out and tinkered on my phone for a while just so I could get some more charge, and then headed back to the Hilton Garden Inn, where they lacked both EV charging and convenient parking. I’ll never make the mistake of registering late for a conference again. Once I got back to the room, I wound down and did my best to ignore the dog barking next door, and went to bed.

They’re a little too proud of those two free water bottles in the room.

Uncategorised

I Woke up on a Farm

I slept fairly well last night. The little space heater kept us plenty warm in the tiny guest house. I woke up a few times from a fairly light sleep overall, but I was comfortable. Summer said she didn’t sleep well for some reason. We slept longer than I originally thought, because it was the end of Daylight Saving Time. I got Summer around, and we packed up and headed back to the house to see the others. The kids were getting ready to go off to church with their grandparents, and Josh looked a little more ready to face the day than Alice. Summer decided we should skip breakfast with them and head on home in time for Eaddie’s concert with the Tech band.

The drive home wasn’t bad since I took the back roads to Plumerville. Eaddie’s phone was dead so we couldn’t reach her on the drive, but she was up when we got there. We unloaded and then went to the new Old South for breakfast. They were closed, so Summer decided she wanted IHOP. The parking lot was packed from the church crowd, and I expected poor service anyway, but we were actually seated in a really short amount of time. The food was probably the best I’d ever had from an IHOP, and the service wasn’t bad either. It made the $50 bill a lot more bearable.

After we ate, we went back to the house to wait for Eaddie’s concert. She left early for that while Summer and I cleaned up at home. When it was time for the concert, my parents met us at Witherspoon. It was a pretty quick concert again, and then we tried going to Peter’s to look at some furniture for their 80th anniversary, but they were closed.

My parents went on home to prepare some spring rolls for dinner while Summer and I went to my house to get a few things. Then we picked up Eaddie at the house and went to my parents’. Dinner was good, but we didn’t stick around long since I had to do some laundry for my week-long conference.

Summer went to bed at a fairly usual time while I did my laundry. Eaddie went to bed pretty early, and I somehow managed to get to bed before midnight.

That’s quite enough “Halcyon Hearts” for me.

Uncategorised

This Guy Fawkes

Summer had a race in Conway this morning, and Eaddie had to get to the high school to take a bus to Conway for her orchestra concert. I got up pretty early myself and took a bath before Summer got back home. Then we packed up for a night at Alice’s.

We left Eaddie with the Model Y and took the Murano to Conway, which was awful after living on Autopilot for the past year. My arms were constantly tired, and all of my muscle memories were wrong. Our first stop was the liquor store in Morrilton, and then the China Town buffet in Conway for lunch. We finished up there just in time to make it across town to the Conway High School for Eaddie’s concert.

Both bands were pretty good, but I think my absolute favorite song was Eaddie’s last one. The concert was pretty short with only three songs from each of two bands, and then we headed straight to Alice’s place, only making a brief stop at a Dollar General for some energy drinks.

It was a small party this year. Alice and Josh were there, and Josh had one other friend come by. I took Summer, Alice, and the kids to the guest house to check things out, and then to see her in-laws next door briefly before going back to the house. They had some snacks there, but the girls mostly just chatted in the kitchen while the guys went down to start the fire. By the time we made it down the hill, it had mostly died down.

It was a great night of chatting by the fire though, and then we got to retire to a guest house instead of making the drive home after midnight. The guest house was a really cool, two-level house with everything we could have needed. Summer crashed pretty quickly while watching an episode of Fear Factor, which appeared to be on repeat. I wrapped up pretty quickly myself so I wouldn’t sleep too late.

That’s enough 90s television.