Tag: adventure

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Robot Trivia

I got myself out of bed this morning and finished up some leftovers before heading home to get ready to visit the junior high. Zach called me just as I got home and wanted to know if he could borrow Cards Against Humanity. I suggested that the whole massive desk that I own might be too much unfunny stuff for his crowd, so when he got here, we spent a little while sorting all of the expansions out so he could take just the base game with even the pick-2 cards removed.

I kicked him out as soon as we finished so I could shower and go visit Summer and the robotics tournament. I ended up standing around robotics for much longer than I anticipated after I rescued Ethan and his need of a printer. It was really neat to see, though. The tournament seemed to go really well, and I’m hoping that it will be similar for us when I work the first elementary tournament. Some overtime pay will be a really nice boost as well.

By the time I got out of that tournament, Summer was wrapping things up for quiz bowl. I followed them back to her room to help pack up, and then headed to her house while she ran the girls around. Autumn would be spending the night with her grandparents while Eaddie went with her father. I managed to pack all of the leftover food into Summer’s fridge, and Summer picked up the house a bit.

Once the girls left, we ran by Harbor Freight to pick up a few things with some 30% off coupons. I finally have a shoehorn, and now my most difficult shoes slide on easier than any other shoe I own. I warmed up some leftovers and we settled in to watch Bandersnatch, which was amazing. I kept trying for alternate endings while Summer passed out, but it really was a piece of art. I think I managed to find everything.

╔╩╗

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ACOT 2018

Everything was pretty well organized for me to leave this morning, so I headed home to shower and feed the fish, then packed and left for work. I had a bit more testing in the morning, and then I took care of as many work orders as I could at the junior high in the afternoon before we headed out.

I picked Jason up at his house in Atkins and we made our way to the Wyndham Riverfront in Little Rock. He was super anxious to get to a liquor store, so we drove to a pretty big one about half a mile away, then came back to the hotel for dinner. We all agreed to go downstairs to the steakhouse in the lobby, which actually turned out surprisingly nice. They had an “early bird special” for a buy one, get one free entree, and I decided to get two entrees for myself since the district was buying. So it was two 8oz medium rare filets with carrots, a giant baked potato, and a bowl of butter, sour cream, and cheese of equal mass for me. They increased the district reimbursement to $40, so I paid a grand total of $1.57 plus tip for my meal, plus nearly a whole pecan crusted salmon filet between Heather and Jason’s leftovers.

After dinner, we mostly split up, but Gary came back to my room to have a couple drinks with me. We ended up going out into the courtyard and met up with Dale, and the three of us chatted around a propane fire table for a few hours. An older couple came out and sat with us for a while, and ended up talking a lot of history and politics with Dale, which proved to be super entertaining for all. It was a really great night, and the weather was just perfect out there.

We eventually had to part ways so we could get some sleep before the classes in the morning, but I think it’s going to be a really great conference.

Supreme Leader Kim Jong Un would NEVER go for that!

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Swag Bag

I woke up a couple times last night, and at one time in particular had a bit of trouble getting back to sleep. Eventually Summer got up and took the girls to school, and I headed home to get ready for our bike ride. After trying unsuccessfully to nap a bit, I took a shower and then Summer came over to help load up. We headed to Fayetteville via Highways 21 and 16, stopping first in Lamar for a quick breakfast snack, then a drink in St. Paul, and finally a McDonald’s in Elkins before coming into greater Fayetteville.

When we landed at Baum Stadium, Summer was in awe of all the bikes there, but being the middle of a Friday it actually wasn’t that busy yet. We wandered through the vendors and picked up a bunch of shirts and other swag. Surprisingly no pens, but I did get a pair of AARP sunglasses for providing my name, home address, phone number, and email on the pretense that I would learn something about identity theft. I hope this isn’t one of those hard lessons, but I guess neon yellow sunglasses are worth it.
 
Summer got her hair braided at Flo’s Chop Shop, and then we made our way to Dickson street. It was every bit as thunderous and ridiculous as I remembered as we coasted downhill surrounded by people revving their idle engines. We walked down to a big food court and had an awesome seafood giro and eventually a couple big plates of barbecue. We never did make it to the fanciest of funnel cakes before we were both stuffed and the sun began to set. We got quite a bit of “higher quality” stuff this year, but I was surprised not to find a large Geico gift tent.

Maybe I’ll go again with Allen tomorrow.

Adventure Time!

Gauntlet Wars

We had to get up super early this morning to make it to Little Rock for Summer’s run at Conquer the Gauntlet. Somehow we managed to get out the door and all the way there without incident, and we dropped her off in the middle of a huge grassy field where everyone was parking.

I took the girls to Sonic since we were all super hungry. I thought that would have gotten them into better moods, but but it was mostly downhill from there. I had some trouble with the Sonic app ordering again, which I think makes four out of five times that I’ve had an issue with it. This time, I was unable to place my order and was double charged for a $40 refill on my gift card. Fortunately, it looks like customer service will be able to refund me if I give them a call. When we got done eating, we went to the McCain Mall to shop around. The girls started off okay, but things quickly devolved into more or less constant bickering. We had a moment of brief quiet as I picked up a Rocket League blind box pull-back racer car. We even went back to try and recover my decade-old preorder credit without any luck.

We made a quick stop at Dick’s to try and refill my CO2 canisters before heading out to pick Summer up again. It was my first denial for the age of the tanks and how long it’s been since they’d been hydrostatically tested. Summer texted as we were walking out, so we made our way back to the event to pick her up. I called when we got there to find out where to find her, and as soon as I hung up I got a call from a girl I was messaging on the Fbook about a CPAP. She wanted to meet at the McCain Mall at 3, so we got Summer, went to eat a celebratory meal at Red Lobster, and then picked up my new CPAP.

From there we stopped at Sam’s for a few things, and I nearly picked up a box of Coca-Cola syrup before deciding against it until I had more CO2. We stopped by the Dick’s in Conway so I could be denied for that one last time, and then headed home so the girls could go with their father to the county fair. Once they were gone, we headed back to my house to set up my new CPAP and start some laundry.

As soon as Summer flopped down on the bed, she spotted a brown recluse, and then a second just a few seconds later. After a mad dash to strip the bed sheets, I killed a total of half a dozen of them of various sizes. At least the new sheets seem soft. And spider-free.

I can’t even imagine how many of them I’ve swallowed in the night.

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Fortin’ Around

Summer got up and went to the gym this morning while I got showered and ready to go. We got to my parents’ house right before noon, and we all headed to Fort Smith. We dropped Dad off at the library for the magic club meeting, then the three of us went to a coffee shop and had a white people version of Vietnamese French roast coffee without all the drip gear. Mom and Summer ate cinnamon rolls, and then we went across town so they could get their nails done. I had just dropped them off when they called me back because there weren’t any openings, so we went to Sam’s instead.

When Dad’s meeting was over, we went to pick him up, then went to Red Lobster for dinner. Endless shrimp was a little slow, but we all managed to get our fill. Mom was presented with her live lobster before it was cooked for her, and I was left sort of wishing that more restaurants would do that.

After dinner, we hit up a couple of the oriental food stores before driving home. We considered stopping in Clarksville to cram the girls into the car, but the timing didn’t work out. We got back to town, ran by my house to clean up some things, and eventually found our way to bed.

Bye, Pinchy!

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Feeling Flushed

We got up this morning, had breakfast, and packed everyone up to go to the Alma Aquatic Park. They had half a dozen tubeless water slides and a decent sized pool with a climbing wall and diving board. There was even a toilet bowl slide that dumped you into a tiny, deep pool as not to crack your skull. It was pretty impressive, and we lucked out by accidentally visiting on a BOGO for $5 day. We expected to pay $50, but got everyone in for $15.

The lines weren’t bad on the slides, so the kids wore them out pretty well. It was tax-free weekend for back to school shopping, so I think that helped thin down the crowd. We stuck around for a few hours, then headed in to Fort Smith for an early dinner at Furr’s Fresh Buffet.

Once everyone finished eating, we decided to stick around town to get some shopping done at the mall since we wouldn’t have everyone with us on Sunday. Eaddie and Noah didn’t much want to participate, but after dragging them around for a while and then pumping them full of some sugary lemonade, they pepped up a bit. Summer and I were still super tired, but we all survived and made it out of Penny’s with some pretty great deals.

We headed back home after dark and opted not to go to my house for the kids to continue watching Lord of the Rings, even though Eaddie and Noah seemed to find their second wind with some more Arrow.

Wake up everybody, no more sleepin’ in bed.

Adventure Time!

Homeward Bound

I successfully canceled our hotel in Branson for tonight, and we got everything packed back up for the trip home. After a whole lot of sweating, I managed to get everything to fit into the trunk so I could strap my new Aeron chair to the hitch cargo rack. It felt solid enough that I called the guy back and met his wife to pick up his other chair as well. Why buy one when you can have two for twice the price? Even better, I got it for half what I paid for the first one due to a couple lines in the fabric of the seat.

From there we started our six and a half hour drive back home. We finally stopped at a Jack in the Box just outside of town after talking about it for a few days. It was about what I expected, but I just had to try it after all these years of seeing commercials.

We got back home around 9:00 and went to my house first to drop some things off and check on my plants and animals. It could have been worse, but I’ll have plenty to clean up this weekend. The worst was another ant infestation in the cat food. One of my succulents also seems to have melted away somehow. I think that was probably the most upsetting thing, because it was supposed to be hardy and able to not completely wither away in just two weeks.

From there, I took the girls home and got unpacked. Summer warmed up the last of my leftover egg rolls, then we watched a few episodes of The Office before bed.

How is it possible that so much house cleaning is necessary after two weeks of being gone?

Adventure Time!

What Are Traditions: Independence Day 2018

Even I slept in too late today. Everyone has been more and more tired every day, so we decided to try and cut the trip a day short. It’s our last day here, so we decided to spend it all at Fair St. Louis by the Gateway Arch.

We got there around 1:30 in the afternoon and made the walk to the arch. I made a big enough deal out of nobody touching the bean in Chicago that we all went up and leaned on the arch for a while. It was really hot out, but even with a relatively good amount of shade from the sun, we decided it best to spend most of the afternoon in the underground museum and visitor center. We ended up taking the tram to the top of the arch and spent a bit of time looking down over the city. They cart people up and down regularly, and you can just leave whenever you want, which I thought was interesting. It was super crowded, and the windows were way smaller than I expected.

After some pretty decent burgers in the underground restaurant and killing a couple extra hours in the museum, we went back up to the lawn to pick a place to watch the air show and fireworks. Summer and Eaddie went back to the car to pick up some snacks we brought, but ultimately had to give them away to someone outside the gates because they didn’t allow outside food to be brought in.

The air show was pretty good, and I was surprised to hear that one of the powered paragliders I follow on YouTube was actually a part of the act. After that, the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra got Summer all riled up, and then the fireworks filled all the viewing space under the arch, which was pretty neat to experience. But I think the most impressive part of the evening was how quickly we got back out of the city after the show. There were so many people, and we just hopped on the freeway and made it back to the hotel without too much trouble.

Seriously, why the hell wasn’t it a McDonald’s under the arch?

Adventure Time!

It’ll put Aeron your chest!

September 2, 2010

Everyone slept in today after such a long day yesterday. I didn’t get to bed until around 3AM, but I was still the first up. I went downstairs to make some breakfast to bring back up since this hotel’s breakfast only runs through 9AM.

When everyone finally got up and around, we decided to go to LemonGrass, a Vietnamese restaurant I visited with my family almost eight years ago when we passed through to pick up my R1. I remembered the hotpot being so good that I just had to go again, even in our sudden downpour of rain. We all got something different, so everyone got a chance to try everything else. My vermicelli with lamb and an eggroll was pretty great. Afterward, the rain let up so we could walk a couple blocks down the road to Gelateria Del Leone for an icy dessert.

July 3, 2018

We left there and headed back toward the hotel, stopping at a Sam’s Club right up the road. We had picked up just a few things when I got a call back from the guy in town with the Herman Miller Aeron chairs. We ran back to the hotel to drop everything off and load up the cargo carrier, and headed back through the city to get a chair.

It’s going to be tough packing everything up. I’m definitely in charge of choosing what goes and what stays for any future adventures. It’s been more frustrating than necessary simply due to how much crap we’ve been lugging from hotel to hotel. It’s all a lesson in planning and minimalism.

Eat the leftovers!

Adventure Time!

Bean There, Done That

We slept in a bit longer than I had hoped after being out late for the movie. We eventually made the trip into the city for another couple shows at the Adler Planetarium and to check out the rest of the exhibits. This time I ignored the full parking signs and went straight to the planetarium parking, and a guy let me in for the same $25 rate I paid a couple days ago in a parking structure over half a mile away.

When we finished there, we went outside and ate some leftovers on the beach. Lake Michigan was a pretty spectacular sight, and there were sailboats everywhere. I even spotted the Tall Ship Windy on a tour. I’d love to go out on it sometime in the future. The weather was nice for sitting around, and I’m sure it would have been even better out on the water.

After that spot of lunch, we decided to walk the two miles to Millennium Park to see the Cloud Gate bean sculpture. It was pretty impressive, and completely surrounded by people. None of the girls wanted to get close enough to touch it, so I didn’t bother myself either, though I immediately regretted walking that far and not taking the extra few steps to see how it felt.

Two miles back to the car and we were off toward St. Louis. We stopped at an A&W/Long John Silver’s on the way because I wanted some home brewed root beer. We finally got into the hotel around midnight, and my first impression was that this hotel was completely built out of parts and pieces that were stolen from other area hotels. It’s like the owner kept booking rooms and would walk out with a hand full of room number plaques and elevator buttons, and then come back to use them in his hotel. We’ll have to see how things look in the morning when we’re not all dead tired from a four mile walk and a five hour drive.

Seriously bruh? Follow the speed limit!