Getting Things Done

Autumn had a Quiz Bowl tournament today. Summer and I got up and had some leftovers, and we mostly left Eaddie alone. After I ate, I went home and started up the grill to season the griddle top. I forgot to open the vents, so it didn’t start as quickly as it could have, but once it got rolling, the seasoning process went really well. I poked around the garage a bit while that cooked off, but I really need to start making big progress. I think tomorrow I’ll need to clean up the back yard so I can move some things out to the shed.

After a shower, I picked Summer up and we headed up to Justin’s baby shower. I didn’t really know anyone, but eventually some other guys from Superfast showed up so I wasn’t quite as outnumbered by the girls. They had a pretty great spread of finger foods, and it was actually enough that we didn’t eat for the rest of the day.

We left the shower and went straight to my parents’ house to help cover the pool for the year. Then we stopped by my office to get the leftover gravy for breakfast tomorrow. When we got back to the house, Eaddie was about ready to go to the fair. I watched Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog with Summer, and when she was ready, I dropped Eaddie off at the fairgrounds.

The rest of the evening was pretty quiet. Autumn was home when I got back, but she had plans to go to the fair and would bring Eaddie back at the end of it all. They came back a couple hours earlier than they planned, but I guess they didn’t have quite as many friends turn up as they expected.

Stop dawdling.

Scramble

I had to fight the urge to sleep in today. Summer slept hard, so I just laid in bed for an hour or so until she woke up. I finished up some leftover pasta from days ago, and then made her a big bowl of rice and egg. When Eaddie got up, we went into her room and hung out with her in there for a while and shared some music. She’s discovered alternative, punk, and emo from our generation, which is kind of a trip.

Summer eventually wanted to go to the gym, and since we were still without a second car until Autumn came home, I had her drop me off at my house so I could clean up a bit. I started some laundry and then sweat out trying to re-run a network cable so I could share my wireless with Bác Vân. I had an iPad ready for her, but wasn’t able to get signal much beyond my outside walls.

I planned to clean up and meet back up with the girls, but Autumn was headed to me, blind without a phone. It took her about twice as long to get here as I expected, so I held off on doing what I needed to do. As soon as she walked into the house, she looked around in shock and made a comment about how she hadn’t seen the place since I gave them my refrigerator. She started looking all around the house, and it made me super uncomfortable. Then since I never had a chance to clean up, Summer had to pick her up and leave the Montego with me. I ended up not feeling great and decided not to meet them for dinner so I wouldn’t have to deal with Autumn’s groans and glares for having to wait for me. Then I pretty quickly decided to stay home for the night because I think the bigger truth was that I needed a break from the hate, and I just wanted to be left alone for a while.

I took a long bath and ended up killing my phone in Into the Breach. Then I finally took the iPad next door and showed Bác Vân how to make FaceTime calls. The address book didn’t seem super intuitive, but hopefully she gives it a try and enjoys it. We talked to Lelan for a couple minutes, and then my parents. Nobody else would answer, but nobody else was expecting a call either. She gave up after that, and I went back to my den of recluse.

Like me, they are solitary creatures and deeply misunderstood.

No, It’s Not Fixed

Today was another really quiet day, and I was continually surprised how fast the week flew by. I spent all day in the quiet of my office again, and finally got some correspondence from Jamf. We bounced emails back and forth a couple times, and though he asked for my availability for the day, he never actually reached out. It was frustrating that after a full day, I sent two additional log files and was back in the same spot where we started.

Gary took Josh and me to Bocadillos for lunch, and the salsa tasted sour. We were the only table there, and only two other tables showed up the entire time we were there. The food tasted okay, but the al pastor was dry. I got a mangonada on the way out, which was awesome though.

The afternoon was quiet as well, and everyone filtered off on their own. I went home for just a bit, and then took Eaddie to tennis practice for an hour. When we got back to their house, Summer brought some Little Caesar’s home for dinner.

I tried to be helpful around the house by replacing light bulbs while everyone else either watched TV or continued to paint. I have a feeling I won’t sleep very well, but at least tomorrow is Friday.

Shut up, Walgreens.

It’s a Tarp!

Autumn was up early this morning and scrambled herself an egg, so I fried a couple up for myself to eat with a leftover Popeye’s biscuit. I ate it with some old smoked cheese as well, which was dry and dissatisfying. Summer was in a cleaning mood and went through the whole house. When the cleaned off the windowsill in the kitchen, I took the opportunity to repot the kalanchoe that hasn’t been doing so well there. Hopefully the cuttings take off and I can get them to branch out again.

Dad texted and said they were about to start cleaning the pool cover, so we rushed the girls to get up and out to help. I took Eaddie first, and then Summer and Autumn followed after a couple minutes. The girls did a great job of scrubbing the pool cover, and then I stayed behind to help put it away. Summer dropped Eaddie off at my house to ride her bike, and then took Autumn to the gym.

By the time I got home, Eaddie was still hanging out in her room. She went out for just a couple minutes and then came back, but then went out again just before I got into the shower. Summer planned to have a nice dinner for us when we got home, so Eaddie and I headed on up as soon as she got back.

Summer made a Mexican chicken casserole that everyone really liked, and then Autumn cleaned up the dishes afterward. Summer finished up some laundry while Eaddie painted by numbers and letters in front of the TV. I lounged around until everyone was finally ready for bed.

Propagation Station

No Gold Stars Here

Summer had to work today, and though I was snug in my bed, I tried not to sleep in too long. I got up and around, and was hungry enough to get out for breakfast. I decided to treat myself with some Hardee’s, since I hadn’t had their breakfast in a while. I got a couple biscuits and gravy, and a chicken biscuit. When I got home, I was super disappointed to learn the gravy didn’t have any sausage in it at all. The biscuits and chicken both tasted different than I remembered as well. All I could do is hope these were all flukes and not recipe changes, but it certainly felt like a different world.

Afterward, I ended up outside chatting with Doug for a bit before coming back in to pick around the house. I spent some time cleaning the shower and tinkering with different things around the house. I wished I could have found a particular project or corner to really focus on, but I just found myself overwhelmed.

Eventually Summer made it home, and we went to my parents’ house for chow mein. I had been hungry for a while, and I was still left feeling hungry, but good after all the veggies. We made it back home before long, and headed to bed early.

Starting to feel a little… weird.

That’s How We Roll

We got up this morning and went out back to continue burning brush. The coals were still hot under all the ash, but everything was still too wet to really catch, so I had to get the leaf blower out to really get things cooking. We made a really good dent in the pile of branches, but there’s still a lot of green to cut through, and it’s just too wet to really do easily.

Mom was making beef spring rolls for lunch, so after a quick shower, we headed over there. Dad called Julie over as well, so she joined us to eat for the first time in months after wanting to be left alone. It didn’t take terribly long before Summer had to excuse herself, and went to the gym to decompress. Then she came back to pick me up later.

When we left, we went straight up to her house so she could start some laundry. I hung out for a little while, but then decided to head home when she said her laundry was going to take a while after the kids left a load in the machine before leaving on vacation.

I ended up stopping by Walmart to just briefly run through the clearance section. There, I casually chatted with another lady that I vaguely recognized as a teacher from somewhere. Her husband came around, and reminded me of myself with the goofy, yet analytical things he would say to her about the deals she was finding. It would have reminded me more of Summer and myself if she would ever be the one to shop like that.

I made it home, but had another anxiety attack as I stared down into a bag of chips. It was the second one of the day, after having one coming out of the shower. I couldn’t figure out any triggers, but the way I got really flush and dizzy made me think it was something oxygen-related. Summer ended up coming over for the night, just as I was trying to chat with Google support about my Nest Hub that wouldn’t boot. Once that was out of the way, it was off to bed.

Circle the drain.

Slow Burn

Summer got up for the Superhero 5k this morning while I laid around with the cat. Eventually I got up and fried some eggs to go with the last of the leftover Indian rice. Just as I started to walk out, Summer arrived home, so I came back in to let her pack up, and then we went to my house.

We didn’t waste any time diving right into the back yard. I wanted to cut down the overgrowth and start burning the large piles of brush in the back corner where I’m wanting to build a workshop. It looked dry on top, but everything underneath was completely wet, so it took forever to get anything really started. Then it was a slow process of pulling more and more brush out to burn down slowly.

The heat and smoke didn’t take long to sap me, but I held out as long as I could before coming back inside to clean up. Summer and I both took showers, and then she had been craving Chinese, so we went to New China for a super early dinner.

After we ate, we went by my parents’ house to visit for just a little bit. They were out back cleaning up around the pool. Then we came back home to rest since Summer still had a headache. I put on The Adam Project, which I thought was great. Then we watched Ricky Gervais: SuperNature before Summer was ready to crash.

60% Water

If It Fits, It Ships

I got to kind of take the lead again today with the lease return, and we ended up getting the whole thing out the door much earlier than anyone else expected. I like to think I had a big part in driving that, especially near the end. It took us three trips to The UPS Store today, but I even managed to assemble a packing slip with a 1:1 match for serial number replacements.

Ryan was in town to visit, and Thomas, Gary, Greg, and I went to Brangus for lunch with him. I filled up on peanuts and then only ate half of my potato, so I took the rest home for dinner. The afternoon was pretty quiet, though my office got pretty popular for a little while.

I also got my contract for next year, but it was wrong again. They had me on the Tech 1 pay scale, so I sent it back for review. I wrapped up for the day and headed home for the evening. I didn’t feel super, and was pretty tired after the day at work. I poked around the house and cleaned up a little bit, and then it was off to bed on time.

Trip down Memory Road

Cold Shock

It was quite a bit cooler out today, and probably would have been a good day to work outside. Nothing at all went according to any kind of plan or toward any real goals. Summer took Eaddie home to get ready for her day at Urban Air. I thought she would come back after Eaddie left, but that wasn’t the case. She didn’t feel up to doing anything, so I just kind of milled around the house all day long.

As the evening approached, I decided to stay in for the night. Later on, Eaddie called and wanted me to pick her up when she got back into town so she could stay the night with me. Then Summer texted and said she was having trouble with Autumn when she was dropped back off at home from her grandparents’. When I picked Eaddie up, we had to take Zane home first, and then she threw a fit when I told her we needed to go stay the night with her mother.

Summer went back and forth along with Autumn’s mood swings, wanting me there, or saying it was fine to stay home. Plans changed a couple more times as I went back out to get some Burger King for Eaddie, but we finally landed on me staying home with Eaddie.

I stayed up a little late trying to get my home theater PC working again, as it had been powered on but unresponsive for several days. I thought the hard drive was completely toast, but it finally booted up successfully just as I was getting ready to give up for the night.

I guess I’ll have to call that a win.

Stormin’ Mad

I was up every hour like clockwork last night, and struggled to force myself awake early this morning so I wouldn’t ruin my night of sleep before work. It wasn’t until I got out of bed and basically chugged an energy drink that I felt human enough to walk upright. Summer went to the gym while I did some laundry, and we planned to meet at my parents’ house to uncover the pool. Then a big thunderstorm whipped through town, and it rained most of the afternoon, so I stayed home and continued doing laundry instead.

My parents popped in for just a second after the rain had settled a bit, since they were there to pick some mint. Summer asked me to drop Eaddie off at the movie theater so she could watch Dr. Strange with her friends, and that was my first look at how bad the storm was. Several branches had broken all down Main Street, and there was debris everywhere. We saw one stoplight that was tilted about 45º, and another that was just blinking red. Eaddie has been making an effort to vocalize her appreciation, and it’s made every single interaction with her a thousand times better. She just comes off as much more polite.

When I got back to their house, Summer had made some stir-fry out of a leftover steak, with some fresh vegetables and a fresh pot of rice. Summer had to make Autumn eat a little bit of it, which was a huge shock to everyone because she’s always sooooooo focused on clean eating and home cooking. Otherwise, she spent the majority of the evening with a tiny baby bunny that the cats dragged in a couple days ago. Summer and I did play a short game of Mario Party with her, and things have been relatively nice at home. It’s still anybody’s guess what’s really going on inside of her head, but she’s a perfectly pleasant human in a vacuum.

Eventually I had to pick Eaddie and Zane up from the movie, dropped him off at his house, and then headed back to spend the evening with the girls. Summer made strawberry shortcakes, and we watched an episode of Middleditch and Schwartz that had everyone rolling. Summer pulled a corned beef out of the freezer for dinner the next day, but I had to clean the slow cooker again because it was filthy. Then I hid my own sponge in the house so nobody would use it to clean food off of the dishes and then leave it rotting in the sink. They’re absolutely filthy animals, every one.

What happens if the contract… is… DIGITAL?