Tag: adventure

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A Dog and a Magic Show

Summer’s phone started ringing pretty early this morning, so we didn’t sleep in very late. My legs felt swollen all night even after I woke up and put a pillow under them to lift them up slightly. It was a really slow start to the day, but we eventually got ready and everything packed to go to Eureka Springs. Eli came over because Eaddie was staying behind for their anniversary. I had to run to my parents’ house for a shirt that Dad forgot, and the dog food he still had since we were out of the good stuff that Muad’Dib liked.

I liked the back seat protector I got for my car, so we set it up and loaded Muad’Dib up, and we headed up to Arby’s for some lunch before we left. We tied him to a light post outside where we could see him, then made the trip to Ozark to charge and get snacks, and give him another break.

That stop went well, and he handled the ride perfectly up to that point, but we were about to hit the curves and I was a little bit nervous after he threw up in Eaddie’s car the other day. He took it like a champ though, and calmed down enough to play with his little stuffed raccoon that we brought for him. We stopped just before we got to Eureka for another quick potty break, and he jumped right back into the car without any trouble.

My parents were getting a group together for dinner, so we arrived at La Familia Tex-Mex just before everyone started ordering. I tied Muad’Dib up on the deck outside and gave him a little bowl of food so he wouldn’t look so abandoned. I checked on him a couple times, and then Summer and Dad went out after they ate. She ended up spending more time with him while I finished up, and then we finally made it to the hotel.

We got checked in, and then I took Muad’Dib around the parking lot for a run to burn off some of that pent-up energy he had from the drive. He did pretty well, but was expectedly excited to be in a new place. I did learn that he really needs a rigid leash instead of an elastic one, because he responds perfectly to the feedback I can give him on a rigid line. The elastic completely ruins that feedback loop for us, but makes it more awkward than just going outright off-leash. We eventually made it down to the convention center for the evening magic show, and it took him a while to calm down, but he did eventually lay down in the floor at my feet.

The show was really good, and I was surprised at the amount of people in the crowd. When we got back to our building, I ran him around the covered walkway since it had rained slightly while we were at the show. He still had a bunch of energy and pounced on Summer in the bed for a while, but eventually laid down in the floor by me while I worked on my computer. I was up a lot later than I intended, but there’s nothing new about that. We’re only here for one day, so we’ll have to figure out charging tomorrow sometime, while also having somebody that isn’t allowed everywhere we might want to go. He’s still been great, but that’s why I chose this familiar trip to learn how to travel with a dog.

No accidents yet!

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Hair Combs the Groom

I went to bed late and got up early so I could take Summer to her mammogram this morning. That went way faster than I expected, so we decided to get some breakfast before she went to work. I had to wait a little bit longer after taking my iron pill before we left, so we went home first and then drove separately across town to the new Hardee’s. It was a cute building with not enough parking and a tiny lobby for dining in. I was glad to see familiar faces behind the counter, since those old ladies did a pretty good job of running the old place. We saw a couple people from the school district while we were there, but didn’t really chat much with either.

After we ate, we had to squeeze out of the parking lot and Summer went to work while I went home to change so I could take the dog out for a run. We ran straight over to Ridgewood Brothers and I gave Robert the convex mirror I got from Vine. I didn’t really get much out of it in the garage since I remembered how I used to park without scraping the bottom of my car. It was a beautiful morning, so I decided we’d make the trek across town to see Summer at Superfast. She was super excited to see us, and then we headed back toward home, stopping to see my parents first. Mom gave Muad’Dib a couple Ritz crackers, which was a big turning point for her.

I didn’t have a ton of time to kill after that because Eaddie and I were going to take Muad’Dib to meet Summer at PetSmart for his grooming appointment. They disappeared him into the back, so we didn’t get to watch anything. We went to Walmart to do a little bit of shopping, then went back by to see if they had an ETA. Eaddie left at that point to meet some friends at Old Post, and they hadn’t even started on Muad’Dib yet, so Summer and I went to La Huerta to share some nachos as a bit of a snack.

As we finished up, I got a call from our groomer saying Muad’Dib started freaking out, so she had to stop after shampooing him. She didn’t even get to rinse him off at all, so I was worried about what we’d be bringing back home. We left the restaurant and went home to get a tarp, then traded cars with Eaddie at Old Post before we made it to PetSmart. They didn’t charge me at all, and Muad’Dib was pretty dry by then, but just looked extra fluffy. He didn’t feel gross or soapy, so the tarp wasn’t really necessary.

We took him home to take a break for a little while and let everyone calm down. Julie called and talked to me for a little while, and then we took Muad’Dib to the Liberty dog wash to finish the job ourselves. He didn’t like the wash, but he did reasonably well with both of us there. He did try to nip at me a little bit, but never to harm me, and he was always pretty gentle. Considering it only cost like $15 to do it ourselves, we may not even go back to have him groomed. It just took some extra time brushing him once we got home, and he looked and felt much better.

We let him inside for much longer after that. Eaddie eventually made it back home and we played with him in the living room for a bit. He spent some time exploring the house and sniffed everything. Then he got confused when I played back some video of him on the TV. I still didn’t want him staying inside unsupervised, so I put him out when everyone went to bed. I finally booked a room for the Cavalcade, but it looks like it’ll be mostly rainy. I don’t know if we’ll take Muad’Dib since Eaddie doesn’t want to go, but hopefully we’ll have enough time in the morning to figure everything out.

Booked!

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Smart Pet

Today was an even slower day at work, and everyone was ready for break. Randy was spun up in the morning working on a donated Mac for the athletic department, and still updating our domain controllers while I tried updating SCCM. Then he and Kyle left and things got super quiet until lunch when I met them and Jim at Skinny J’s.

After lunch was slow, quiet, and dull until we filtered out early. I got to Conway to charge and then washed my car, and then I got home so we could take Muad’Dib to PetSmart.

I booked an appointment to get him groomed, and they suggested bringing him beforehand to get used to the place. He jumped into the Pathfinder with ease and rode with Eli in the back while Eaddie sat up front with me. He loved looking out the window, but threw up as we got halfway across town. He ate it again though, so it was pretty clean by the time we parked.

Muad’Dib hopped back out of the car and was super excited by the new place, so I grabbed his leash and we took him into the store. There were so many new things to smell, and he ran all over the store excitedly. He got to meet one other dog in there, and they were super chill. I let him wander around for a while, and then we headed back home so I could take him for a proper walk.

I guess the trip to the store got him into a mood, because he wanted to mark everything and wasn’t great about listening during our run. He kept running behind as I hurried him along. We stopped to see my parents, and then he didn’t listen when I tried to guide him on the way home. I followed him on his chosen route, and we got home without incident.

I cleaned up some leftovers and then took care of some old Vine stuff, and tried to get to bed quickly while Summer did her nails in front of the TV. Eaddie went to Eli’s for dinner, but we had to call her back to finish the laundry she left in the washing machine, but then it was off to sleep.

Hurry!

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Spring Paws

I had a bunch of dreams last night, but none of them were notable enough to remember halfway through the day. I had trouble getting to work because the first two onramps I tried were closed, so I ended up driving all the way across town to the last onramp. Fortunately there was hardly any traffic due to spring break, so it was smooth sailing after that. I was late, but still walked in just as Randy was pulling into the parking lot. He wouldn’t have cared either way, because the old men were playing games or watching videos all day and he just quietly pointed it out to me and laughed.

Several of us went to Black Bear Diner for lunch and I tried the fish and chips, and I’m no longer thrilled about their all-you-can-eat fish on Fridays. It wasn’t bad, but it was just frozen, fried cod. The afternoon was even quieter, and Randy let us go about half an hour early.

I stopped to charge up to 80% to take advantage of my last few days of free Supercharging, and then made it home to run the dog. I was thrilled that Eaddie wanted to go ride her bike with us, so the three of us rode down past Kroger and over to Casey’s where I redeemed a free drink for us. Then we crossed back over to Oakland Heights before turning toward home. We stopped to see my parents and had just gotten back home when Eaddie realized she left her phone at their house. Muad’Dib and I rode back to get it, and after running for the entirety of our first outing, he walked nearly the entire time for our second. All total, we did 8.4 miles in almost exactly one hour with a top speed of about 17 miles per hour. He did great crossing traffic, and I only held the leash when we crossed to Casey’s without a light.

Summer was home by then, so we went to Peg Leg’s for some burgers. We were the only three souls in the restaurant, but we were pleased to see another table of four come in after us, and at least one person come through the drive-through. The food was good, but the cheese dip wasn’t warmed through. The flavors have always been great, but for the price, there wasn’t really any excuse for anything to be underprepared, especially if it’s basically just microwaved.

I unboxed just a couple new things when we got home, and then everyone was off to bed early.

Happy little locomotive.

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Free Running

I got out of the house a little earlier today and had a sleepy drive in to work. I didn’t get into anything at all really, and just did a deep clean of my inbox that had gotten out of control. I checked in on Muad’Dib, and he was just sleeping on the porch, so I messaged Dad to see if he might want to take him out for a walk sometime, and he ended up taking him home while he worked in the yard.

I met Randy and Kyle at Fazoli’s for lunch. I had never been, but it was pretty decent, and seemed pretty cheap for Little Rock. We took a vendor call in the afternoon that wasn’t of much value to us, and then kind of rode it out until quitting time.

Summer traveled all day, so I stopped to charge most of the way up so I wouldn’t have to stay up late to swap chargers at home. Once I got home, I rode over to Dad’s to get Muad’Dib and we went on a long run to Ridgewood Brothers. I saw Kyler’s car there, but the doors were shut and they were working, so we sat on the bench for a little bit and then headed on back. We encountered a couple other big dogs that were pretty fussy, but then got to meet the same small dog we sniffed yesterday. I talked to the lady for a little bit and let them play, and then we headed back to my parents’ house to see them before we made it home.

Eaddie had a fundraiser at Freddy’s, so Summer got herself some food there. I ate some leftover goulash and then took my car to the wash because it was super gross. I couldn’t even see out of the rear camera very well. After that, I finally replaced an outside bulb I had been meaning to get to for weeks, and then unboxed most of my daily Vine stuff before bed.

Potato; tomato

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Handoff the White

We should have gotten a much earlier start today, but we were all tired from the long week of excitement. Summer went down to meet Eaddie for coffee while I got things ready, and then we loaded up both of the kids to go home. We made it back to Terre Haute for a charge and ate at the adjacent Culver’s. They had just opened with a stunning crew of at least eight or nine people. Somehow they didn’t seem to have things right, but the food tasted fine.

I plotted a trip through Springfield, Missouri so we could eat at Lambert’s Cafe, but the kids started asking if we could meet Eli’s parents along the way to hand him off to them. They were pretty far ahead, so I pulled over in Effingham until they figured things out, and we managed to reroute to our same stop from the trip up in Salem to charge. By then, going through Springfield would add an hour to our trip, so we decided to go home the same way we came up instead, and skip the food.

When we got near Sikeston for our next charge, I saw a sign for Lambert’s, and realized their second location was actually just right up the road from the Supercharger, so we had our restroom break, charged, then went to eat. It was mid-afternoon, but they were still packed with a short wait to be seated. It was cold outside, having seen slightly freezing rain back at Culver’s from the wind, but we basked in the sun until they called our number.

The food was mostly pretty good, but I had possibly the worst steak I’d ever eaten. It tasted like boiled meat. Eaddie described it as tasting “wet.” I mentioned it to our server when he came by, and he brought me a cup of the seasoning they were supposed to use on it, and that helped. I mostly filled up on the pass-around sides though. Eaddie and I chowed down on their fried okra, which was perfect.

From there, we made it all the way down to Jonesoro, but it felt like we took more back roads than on the way up. It took us forever to get to the Kum & Go where we had charged before, and when we left, we ended up having to charge again in Conway, possibly due to weather or elevation. It was a super dull ride the rest of the way home in the pitch black, and it was too late to get Muad’Dib, so we left him with Dad for one more night, and we’ll get him tomorrow when we’ll actually be able to spend some time with him.

The universe has assured us throwed rolls.

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Cosplaying as NPCs

Summer and I got up a little earlier this morning and headed straight down to Comic Con. We got to see most of Andy Serkis’s panel, then went to watch a bit of The Threepios Star Wars parody band for a bit. We ended up leaving that and I learned that William Shatner had a panel as well, so we stopped by to see that. He seemed old and senile with his story telling, so we actually left after just a few minutes of that. We failed to find anyone at the Ghostbusters cosplay meetup, but I did finally convince Summer to start taking some pictures with the cosplayers that she really liked. We stopped by to see our vendor friends and eventually made it back to the big ballroom to see Katee Sackhoff’s panel.

By then we were pretty hungry, so we headed over to the mall for some lunch. It was just as sad with everything open as it was when we arrived at closing time. At least half of the stores were abandoned, but there was a food court in full swing. We had a couple cheesesteaks before making it back to the con.

We found a part of the vendor floor that we hadn’t visited before, and got to see a pretty incredible NeverEnding Story photo opportunity that included pulling Artax out of the Swamp of Sadness, a backdrop of Morla, G’mork in a dark hole of rubble, a Pyornkrachzark statue, and of course a rideable Falkor. They looked like big, strong hands to me.

We saw several celebrities from a distance. Summer wanted a sneaky picture of Tony Danza and Lou Diamond Phillips, but I told her we might as well just find better pictures online. We sat in on Sean Gunn’s panel, where he talked a surprising amount about his time on Gilmore Girls, to which I had no idea he had any connection at all. Fan questions were mostly either about that, or his brother James’s plans for DC.

After Sean, we moved super close to the stage and got to see Rainn Wilson. He tried calling Oscar, who declined the call because he was watching a movie. Then he called Creed, who actually answered. It was a great, funny panel. Following that, we should have stayed for the cosplay contest, because as soon as we left, we saw the line for re-entry wrapped all the way down and around the hallway.

We ended up going back to the vendor hall where several of them had already left, or were in the process of packing. Our friends were still there, so we said our goodbyes and walked out the other far side that we still hadn’t visited. We got to see a replica of the old Batmobile from Adam West’s days. We managed to squeeze in for a few minutes of the cosplay contest, then grabbed a couple soft pretzels on the way out. On our way back to the hotel I heard one more panel going. It was a magician by the name of Paul Draper, so we stopped to watch the rest of his show before making it back to the room for the night.

That’s a wrap!

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Conventions

I thought we would go to Comic Con this morning, but Summer wanted to spend the day watching the bands play at the Indiana Historical Society. I got wrapped up in my phone trying to figure out how to record the livestream, so I missed out on walking through the museum, but then we sat through several different bands. Some of them were super good, but others you could tell were getting tired, including ours who played near the end of the day. We took a break for lunch in the cafe downstairs, watched the kids play, then split up again to walk back to the hotel.

By that time it had gotten pretty late. We didn’t realize the vendor floor at Comic Con was closing so soon, but we found Elaine and then walked around for a little bit. I paid $20 for Summer to sit for a photo in a flying, time traveling DeLorean. Then she tried to sneak pictures of Ernie Hudson. We also saw a couple of the Reno 911 guys, Katee Sackhoff, and William Shatner from afar. Katee had the biggest line by far, and I think tonight would have been our best chance to actually visit with any of them, because it was pretty quiet at that time. They’re expecting a real flood of people to show up tomorrow.

As they closed things down, we stopped to see if Elaine wanted to go to dinner with us around the block at Dick’s Last Resort. She had been socializing with DC, Mario, and Erik from the Carrillo Art Studios caricature booth next to her, so we invited them as well. It took them a moment to get packed up, but the three of us walked down and met the three of them at the restaurant.

We got seated reasonably quickly, but service was incredibly slow. It took almost two hours to get our food, but luckily it tasted pretty good, and our server was definitely on the nice side of “rude” to us. It was still a fun experience, at least for me. The other three were anxious to get back to their lodging, and then I offered to run back to get my car so we could drive Elaine up the road to her bed and breakfast.

It was a straight shot to the garage, then an easy drive to the bed and breakfast. As soon as we got back to the hotel, Summer crashed and I wrapped up as quickly as my ADD-riddled brain could handle.

They feed on the attention!

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We’ve Been Conned

We slept in pretty late today as a reward for the long day of travel before. Summer finally made me get up so we could find our way to the opening ceremony. Eaddie got lost trying to find her way back to get us, but luckily we ran into Phoebe in the elevator, who got us to the right place. The ceremony wasn’t really “for” us, but Summer wanted to experience it. It was a huge mob of people, so it was neat to at least see all of them in one place.

After the ceremony, we tried to find our way back to the room, but immediately discovered how easy it was to get lost. I changed so I wouldn’t be overdressed, and we eventually took the car across town for a charge and some late lunch. The place turned out to be a co-working space, and there was a huge room with a bunch of food vendors, and even a barber. We ate at a burger place called The Bull Grill, which was super good. I particularly appreciated that in spite of being very tall burgers, they stayed together perfectly to the very last bite.

We headed back to the room again after that, until we got a text from Eaddie that they were going to the mall down the road. We thought that was our indication to meet them since they had discussed going together, but after a super long walk through a maze of escalators and skywalks, we arrived at the mall just in time to hear the closing announcement.

The kids wound up walking further up the road to eat at a nitrogen ice cream shop, but Summer and I weren’t really interested. We crossed the road and used my old gift card at Steak ‘n Shake instead. I still had money left after they closed our location at home, so Summer got a cherry Diet Coke and I redeemed a free birthday shake.

We decided to take the sidewalk back to the hotel since the weather was so nice, and as we walked past the giant convention center, we encountered a poor girl struggling to roll three giant suitcases down the broken and cracked sidewalk ahead of us. She even had a cane on top of one of them, so we decided to cautiously approach and offer assistance. We eventually learned that her name was Elaine, and she was there to set up a vendor booth for Growing Geeks Clothing at the Comic Con happening this weekend. A security guard refused to let her in and told her she had to go to the opposite side of the building to the registration desk. Fortunately we encountered another guy rolling stuff in a side door he had gotten through, so we helped Elaine get everything inside.

She was so thankful that she wanted to give us her extra exhibitor pass, but I wasn’t sure we would have time. Summer eventually caught up and jumped at the chance to go to the convention, so we ended up getting her to the registration desk, helped her locate and arrange her booth, and even hung a bunch of clothes on hangers for her. It was fun to make a friend, and by the end of it as we were walking out, we decided to go ahead and buy an extra exhibitor pass that she was allowed at the discounted rate of $50. When we got to the registration desk, the girl just handed me a pass for free after having her own long day, so Summer and I would both get to go together.

Not really believing our luck, we made our way back to the room for the night. I called my parents to share the excitement, and then Summer found Spider-Man: No Way Home on the TV, so I got sucked into the rest of that as she fell asleep. I was up too late in a mixture of ADD fog and ruminating about the dogs, but I eventually got there.

Buncha nerds.

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Indian Police

I woke up in a bit of a daze this morning, low on sleep after nightmares about Muad’Dib getting out of the back yard. I jumped right into getting cleaned up for our trip, the girls and I all went out to say goodbye to one super excited puppy, and we made our way to the Courtyard just over the interstate to meet everyone that was driving up in the convoy.

Eli rode with us, and the trip went really smoothly. We stopped to charge and snack in the Jonesboro Kum & Go. When we got to Miner, MO, the others stopped at McDonald’s for lunch. The charger was too far away for us to walk though, so we left the kids and Summer and I took our food to eat in the car while it charged. We got the kids back and made it to Salem, MO where a super excited Cybertruck owner walked out of the adjacent Subway and made a beeline straight for me. He shook my hand and we chatted for a while before he left to head the opposite direction. We went into the restaurant for a quick break and some cookies, then got to Terre Haute to leave Eli with his family.

The girls and I charged just up the road, then made it to Indianapolis where we went straight to Fogo de Chão for a nice dinner just blocks away from the hotel and convention center. The girls were hesitant until we got there, and then their eyes lit up as spears of fire-roasted meats danced by our table. The food was super good and it was a fun experience, but we filled up super fast and it wasn’t a great value in spite of the variety. I probably wouldn’t go again, only because of the price.

We walked back to the car and finally found our hotel, parked in the underground garage, and checked into our room. Eaddie’s roommates got back from dinner and I walked her upstairs to meet up with them, then headed back for bed after a long day of travel.

Brazilian Beasts