Tag: anger management

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Cafeteria Dumplings

I actually made it to work about a minute early today, which meant I was the first one in the building. I continued rearranging devices in PRTG, and helped Randy with anything that he had going on. After a little while, he took me to the annex to hunt down some old cameras to try and repurpose them for a classroom. I grabbed a few things from scrap there, and then we headed back to the office.

I was super excited that we had ice and water back again, so I stayed hydrated today. I ate an old, giant cheesecake that had been in the fridge a while, and then we had to get on a conference call with Acer to hear about their Chromebooks. Afterward, Maggie and I went to Cracker Barrel for lunch, where the food was good, but the service was awful. I don’t know if she was overwhelmed, or just bad at her job, but we had actually finished our food before we even got our appetizer.

The afternoon was super relaxed as well. Randy left a little early, and then Maggie left, and even I left a few minutes early so I could be home in time for the dinner that Summer was making. It was some kind of shredded chicken, spinach, and mushroom cooked in canned soup or something, which we ate over rice. It tasted a little bit like the dumplings I had, but mostly reminded me of cafeteria food.

After we ate, I took the dogs out for a longer run to my parents’ house, and then through the basin. They were really good again, so once we got back to the house, I broke up a hot dog for them, which they absolutely loved. Summer also made cake, so we ate some of that before getting cleaned up for the night. Eli was there for dinner and helped Eaddie finish her musical instrument project. Once everyone else was wound down, I made my way to bed earlier than usual.

Biscuits and cornbread!

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Smoked Meats and Drinks

Eaddie went out this morning to volunteer at a cat adoption event downtown. I got up just in time to take a shower and take Summer to pick up some Ridgewood Brothers to take to Diana’s house for lunch. Grant hooked us up with some heavy handed servings and sausages, which was awesome. I forgot to ask for some plates, and I wasn’t even sure they had any even for takeout, so we ran back to the house to get some and made our way across town.

It was a nice visit, and we chatted for quite a while. Lunch was great, and fortunately we seemed to avoid any trouble with her gluten allergy. I talked to her about my thoughts for the house, and she seemed really excited about it, so I think we may actually talk to the bank to see what kind of offer we can get there.

Summer left for the gym once we got back home, so I took the dogs out for a run to my parents’ house. Dad was getting ready to cover the pool, so I took the dogs back home and waited for Summer to get back. Eaddie was home when we got there, so I showed her the leftover barbecue, which was a mistake because she took it upon herself to feed her friends. She also wanted to go ride bikes with them, so I drove her to my parents’ house to get her other bike back, since not all of her friends had bikes. I’m not sure how I got suckered into that either.

Once Summer got home, we walked the dogs back to my parents’ house and covered the pool. By the time we got back home, I was sweaty and wanted to take a quick shower. Summer didn’t pay attention and left her leash outside where the dogs got into it, so I went back out later and found the rubber grip had been shredded all over the yard, and the poop bag holder was destroyed with plastic bags strewn all over the place. This caused a bit of a fight, because I’ve been beyond sick to death of her running around completely aloof, not paying attention to anything. I’ve got to get her back to the doctor to find some way to calm her mind.

Eaddie and Eli made it back to the house and hung out for a while, and then I got out my cocktail smoker and we tried smoking some Fireball whiskey for Summer and myself. The smoker worked great, and we didn’t even set off the fire alarm.

I ended the night submitting some reviews for my Amazon Vine products. I guess I’ve got to wait two weeks to be allowed to search for items again, because my review count dipped below 60% of the items I’ve ordered. The website only ever said I needed to review 90% by December, so I had no idea I was going to get suspended.

Come on!

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Review Bomb

I’ve gotten progressively less sleep throughout the week, but work has still been good. There was a lot more traffic and some rain today, but the drive was still straightforward and easy. I still wouldn’t want to do it without Autopilot though. I was a little bit more active today, and had a meeting with a vendor about our badge photo sync. Then for some reason, Randy wanted me to ride along with him to the admin office, where I didn’t really do anything for him. I met a few more people and looked at a timeclock that he couldn’t actually fix, but at least now I know it’s there.

From there, we went to a place by the office called BJ’s Market Cafe for lunch and met up with Maggie, Jim, and Jay. It was an odd place in what looked to be a very shady alleyway that was littered with potholes and standing water. Inside, it reminded me of Old South. It was packed with old people eating old white people food. They were all bragging about the beef tips with rice. I found it to be fairly bland, but the cornbread was good.

Sometime after lunch, Julie asked about my resume, and then I got a call from a local guy that may or may not be looking to actually hire somebody to do something that was never really made very clear to me. He just kept saying he liked to work with cool people, but all I really learned was that my sister doesn’t have a clue what I do. It’s not her fault, because I hardly know how to explain it.

Near the end of the day, Johnny called to check in and also said he enlisted the help of DIS for his SCCM project. We talked for a little while, and then it was time to go home.

Summer invited my parents over for dinner, but she didn’t give me any clues as to what she was cooking. I made it through unusually heavy traffic, then started a load of laundry as soon as I got in the door. From there, I started encountering aggravation after aggravation that made for a quiet night. I continued with laundry and took the dogs out for a short walk in the sprinkling rain.

Evidently I was temporarily suspended from Amazon Vine because I didn’t have enough reviews up, so I submitted several of those. Then I finished my last load of laundry for the night and went to bed.

Stop doing things.

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Roll With the Lunches

This morning was my roughest start, but I’d still had worse. Somehow I got out of the house with my undershirt on backwards, but I fixed that before I got into the car. I got to work a little bit late since I wasn’t sure anyone would be there to let me in, and traffic was heavier, but not really any worse or slower than when I’ve started earlier. I still got there in the same amount of time, or possibly even faster because all of the traffic was speeding.

I brought some speakers from home and got them set up for music, and then I got into the SCCM server. I have been constantly surprised by the lack of best practices, and I messaged Gary to tell him how good of a job he had done back in Russellville. I made a couple imaging drives for the techs, and it kind of astounded me how little any of them knew. At least they’re good-natured.

I was alone for most of the morning because Maggie came in way later than she told me she would be. Eventually people showed up, and then several of us met at Jacob’s Wings for lunch. The “boneless wings” were really just chopped up chicken strips with sauce, but they were tasty, and I actually liked that they had less breading. Jay showed up to lunch late with a new Kia that looked pretty slick. Then everyone headed back out and I wrapped up the afternoon in relative peace. It was basically a fraction of what I had been doing at Two Rivers, except most everything was still functional, and I had a team of people doing what Kim should have been doing so I could stay focused.

The drive home was fine with more of the Waveform podcast. Dad had offered spring rolls earlier, but Summer had to cook the food she bought for dinner on Monday for Eaddie, because she would be out late for school stuff the rest of the week. I got home and immediately headed out to return an Amazon purchase to The UPS Store, and then picked up some laundry detergent from Walgreens. Then I took the dogs for a quick walk through the neighborhood while my parents ran to the grocery store.

I dropped the dogs off back at home and then rode back to my parents’ house to eat. It got dark early, so I didn’t get to stay long. The girls were in bed when I got home, so I had to clean up the grill and put everything back in place on the deck. I spent a little more time with the dogs, and then came in to wrap up before bed.

Keys like butter.

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Clean in an Hour or Less

I thought Summer might rush me out of bed a little earlier, but she let me sleep in a bit. I made some coffee once I got up, and then got ready for another work trip to Conway. She was stressing about performing a site inspection, so I washed her car for nearly an hour in the manual wash while I waited. After that, I went to the junk store again, but she texted just after I got a couple aisles into the store. I bought a few snacks and went back to get her, and then we drove through town looking for some food.

We ended up at Hideaway Pizza, as recommended by my pal Kevin. The fried mushrooms were spectacular, but I let Summer pick the pizza. She wanted their “Maui Magic” with Canadian bacon, pineapple, and mandarin oranges. Our server recommended barbecue sauce instead of red sauce, so we decided to get it on half of the pizza and get red sauce on the other half. Then Summer piped up that she wanted to add olives to the barbecue half as well. I was fine with most of this until the pizza came to the table and she claimed the “interesting” half of the pizza for herself. She knows I find pizza with only a couple toppings to be quite dull, and that I didn’t want a Hawaiian pizza to begin with.

We ate, and then I took us shopping through Best Buy and PetSmart before going back to Bargain Hunt. We got just a few more things and then headed home so we could go to my parents’ house for barbecue chicken wings and corn.

I fed the dogs, and then we walked them over to my parents’ house to have a swim while Dad cooked. Julie and Kevin eventually showed up, and then Eaddie walked over once she finished with school stuff. Stilgar was loving putting his snout into the pool and blowing bubbles before drinking the water. When Summer and I got out of the pool, I went in to help Julie register their domain before we ate.

The walk home was dark, but nice. It was actually cool enough today that I wasn’t dripping sweat at the end of it all. The dogs also did much better. I fed them once more, and then everyone was off to bed.

I crave MEAT!

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Grand.

I got out of the house super early today just in case traffic was awful. There were tons of trees down along the way to work, and the house across from the school had like three trees blown right over. Of course I actually beat everyone to work, but Kim was right behind me to let me into the office. The day went by super fast, but ham and cheese wraps didn’t sound at all appetizing. I ended up taking James to the Junction Cafe for lunch, to needlessly build a little more rapport. I’m just too nice.

The afternoon went by quickly as well, and Kim and James both left at 3:30, which still shocks me. I don’t think he’s worked eight hours yet. I stuck around to get my hours, because I ain’t no cheater. I headed straight home, and Summer had veggies, potatoes, and sausage in the oven. Eaddie had Eli over, and it didn’t take long for me to get generally irritated.

Stilgar chewed the water hose apart, so I spanked him with it. It didn’t stick, because he was right back on it after I went inside. I wasn’t in the mood for company, and there was food rotting in the fridge, so I didn’t eat any of the new food. Summer wound down early, and I took the dogs for a walk to my parents’ house as the sun set. We got home with the last little bit of twilight, and then Dad wanted to come over to update his new DJI FPV drone. Their cable has been out for a few days, and I don’t know if there’s an ETA for repair.

We eventually got the drone updated, and the Roomba suddenly wasn’t fussy about being on my account, so I left it alone. Dad went home, and I wound down as quickly as I could.

It’s complex.

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No, but Maybe

I forgot to grab a banana for work this morning, so I started off hungry. It was pretty quiet, but I still had plenty of time to vent about the surrounding idiocy. I was a bit more helpful today, and it seemed like James was getting into a little bit of a groove. I still don’t know if he’ll stick around, but I guess he is making more than I was. I could see him leaving for Russellville, since he evidently lives just a few blocks away from us.

I did get a call from Grace Manufacturing, which was a bit of a surprise. They turned me down for the job I interviewed for, but liked me well enough to call back because one of their IT guys is retiring in a few months. I laughed a bit that they were actually able to get ahead of that and train someone before he leaves, unlike schools where they just play catch-up forever. I’ll get to have a real interview next week, so I feel like I have a pretty good chance of getting an offer from them. Tomorrow, I’ll have my call with Moodle too, so I really need to study up for that one in the morning.

I was the last one out of the office again, this time messing around with SCCM. I should just leave it, but I also don’t want to make it seem like I didn’t actually have it working. I need to be able to image at least one computer to prove it works before I go.

After work, I took care of the fish and made it home to eat some of the leftover tacos Dad brought over. Then I was pretty quick to take the dogs out for a run. We got to the end of my parents’ street when my Onewheel just died. Luckily I was coming up to a stop, so I just tipped forward and stumbled off of it, but all the lights went out and I could never get it to wake up again. I ended up carrying it, a water bottle, and two bags of poop, all while trying to keep the dogs from pulling me over all the way to their house.

Dad got the DJI FPV drone in, and unboxed it before he had to go water the plants. I had Summer bring my swimsuit over so I could cool off, and we played with the dogs by the pool. Stilgar really wanted in, so I splashed him a bunch to cool him off. Then Summer took everything else home so I could walk the dogs back. It was a struggle, but we made it through the humidity of the evening.

Eaddie got home a little after I did, and spent some time talking to Summer while I wound down for the night. Muad’Dib really doesn’t seem to like the Ol’ Roy that we’ve gotten for them, so I guess I’ll have to keep buying something better.

Pay the bills!

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Hold the Phone

I spotted a Cybertruck at the new donut shop on the way to work, and I wondered if the owners were just crazy Tesla people like us. I don’t mind the way they look, but I do think it’s stupid how polarized people are over them. I’ve been listening to podcasts on my commute, and though I guess I’m a little late to start doing that, I’ve been enjoying it. Today was The Weekly Show with Jon Stewart, since he’s basically the only person who can present politics in a way that I can enjoy them.

I wasn’t going to do much at work, but then James and Kim managed to break the counselor’s phone. I finally went down to the elementary with him after lunch and fixed her phone there, but then I had to fix the one at the high school too.

My interview had to be rescheduled again for an “ongoing family emergency,” so hopefully everything is alright for my interviewee. I headed home with a couple things from the old house and ate a couple leftover burritos since I skipped out on cafeteria spaghetti for lunch. Eaddie and Eli were watching Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, but left for the park when that was over. I cleaned up the kitchen before Summer got home, and then Dad came by with some leftover tacos from church.

It was hot and humid out, but I took the dogs for a run. They did really well again, but Stilgar struggled with the heat. They drank all of their water and we took a slower pace on the last leg of the walk. I’d be alright with some cooler weather.

“How do you spell literacy?”
“I-R-O-N-Y”

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Experience Depreciation

I got up extra early today so I could try and beat the new guy to work, but that failed for multiple reasons. I stopped at Taco John’s for breakfast, which ate up all of that extra time, but he also showed up a full hour early. Todd had already given him the tour, and as I would learn later, Samuel had actually given him a tour the week before last, while I was still there. In fact, Samuel was the one that called him the week that Blake told me they weren’t going to keep me, and told him they were looking for a new Tech Coordinator. The entire thing has been super shady, and it just made my day worse and worse until the end.

I walked around with him again and we visited all of the switch closets in the high school and elementary. We didn’t bother going anywhere else, and I probably won’t, except maybe Plainview to see if there’s anything out there that I want for myself. Maybe I could get lucky and find some rails.

We had several waves of kids come in for password resets, but otherwise it was relatively quiet. I had to keep telling him that I wished him the best of luck in spite of how crappy they’ve been to me, but secretly I just hope he gets the same and leaves them in a short amount of time. It’s just not fair that I invested all of that time and effort to fix so many major problems, and he gets to come in and ride the calm seas at a higher rate of pay with two fewer years of school experience.

I was the last one out of the office, and I had already relinquished my keys, but luckily Keith was there and I could borrow his to lock the office. I headed toward home and fed the fish, and got gas at Casey’s. Summer was making a baked spaghetti with pink sauce when I got home, and I just held her for a bit before I got changed and went out to sit with the dogs.

Summer called Eaddie home for dinner, and the three of us ate. Julie called because she saw a Cybertruck in town and thought it might actually be me. Then I went out for a run with the dogs. They did super well, ran hard, had some mostly solid poops, and for the most part weren’t too bad about getting distracted until the very end. It got dark fast, so we only stopped at my parents’ house long enough to say, “hello.”

I wound down pretty quickly, and everyone was off to bed. It was an awful, emotional, maddening day of being the better person, and the frustration of living by an unmatched code of integrity just made me incredibly sad.

And either I’m right and justice is never served, or I’m wrong and I go to Hell anyway.

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Collared Greens

Summer was up early doing some work, and I ended up sleeping in later than I wanted. I eventually got up and made some more eggs for breakfast, and even cleaned up some leftover stir fried beef. It was rainy all morning, but it eventually dried up enough to go out with the dogs.

Eaddie wanted to take my car to drive around with her friends because it was nicer than her Pathfinder, and we ended up having a big family discussion after she didn’t like my answer. That threw all of us off for the rest of the day.

I took a really late shower and then took the dogs out for a walk. We took a new path up and around Inglewood this time, and on the way home I couldn’t break their focus off of a nearby squirrel. I’ve got to do something to fix that behavior, because Stilgar is just able to throw around too much weight.

They were about out of food when I got back with them, so I got Summer up and we went to Walmart to look around a bit. We got more food, and a couple cowhide sticks for them to chew on, with the hopes that they’d stop chewing on important things. Eaddie spotted us while we were there, but we didn’t actually see her. She was out super late, and we ended up going to bed before we ever saw her again.

Interesting days ahead…