Tag: cleanup on aisle 5

Uncategorised

In Charge

Summer and I got up this morning and went on a mission to replace the battery in the Murano. I didn’t even bother trying to start the car, and instead just pulled the battery out. We stopped at Wendy’s to pick up some breakfast just for the two of us, then ate it in the AutoZone parking lot before going inside. When we went inside, the store manager wasn’t there and we got a pretty young kid to just take the battery back and exchange it no questions asked. He didn’t even press me to let him test it. He just wandered straight back and got me a new one.

When we got back to the house, we got the battery in and then Summer took all the kids home to start their chores. I stayed pretty busy for the rest of the day. I opened up the car and pulled out the spare tire to find a big puddle of the spilled spring water from yesterday. Then I walked around outside with Bác Vân for a while. We moved one of the water hoses to the other side of the house, and chatted for a bit about the landscaping she’s done.

I spent the afternoon going in and out of the house, randomly cleaning and reorganizing things. I can actually walk up to one end of my workbench now, which was an accomplishment in itself. The only time I sat down for any length of time was after I installed another Belkin WEMO light switch and couldn’t get it to connect to my wireless.

Summer eventually made it back over for the evening after dropping Noah off at work and taking the girls to their father’s house. She settled in while I continued tinkering with my WEMO. Hopefully leaving it on overnight will help, and I won’t have to spend any more hours tomorrow getting the stupid thing to work.

I can’t even imagine not having to spend six hours connecting a smart device any more.

Uncategorised

Are You Shedding Me?

The three of us got up and went to Denny’s for breakfast as a treat. We had what was probably the best service we’d ever had there, but then ran into an awkwardly slow checkout experience. None of the other customers seemed very happy about it, but I don’t know why they were all so surly.

On the way home we rescued a box turtle. Summer didn’t feel well for most of the day, and spent most of it on the couch. I hung the hammocks in case Eaddie wanted to do some school work outside. Then I cleaned out the shed where some animals evidently got in and shredded a bunch of cardboard boxes I had in there. Once it was cleaned out enough, Summer helped me move the kayaks out of the garage, so I’m just a little bit closer to being able to park in there again.

We came back inside to cool down in front of the TV, and when dinner time rolled around, we all agreed on pizza. I had some Papa John’s reward money expiring soon, so I picked that up for dinner and we watched some Glee. Then Eaddie and I ran to Julie’s house because she made some beef stew for us to try. Mom and Dad were there, but we didn’t stay long since Summer was still home on the couch. We watched a bit more TV, and then for some reason everyone went to bed really early.

How do I love thee?

Uncategorised

And Then You Marry One

It was so nice out this morning that I took the Grom in all day. Something was happening in front of Hickey Park though, and traffic was backed up about halfway to my street. It looked like they were moving stuff from one Tyson truck to another, but the trucks were already in the parking lot and for some reason they had a portable canopy set up between them. There were some cops there as well, but I couldn’t make out what was actually happening.

I closed out several old work orders, and even dealt with a sassy teacher. I guess it wasn’t really a surprise to find out she’s married to another thorn in my side out there. The morning went by so quickly that I ended up taking a late lunch. I had a couple expiring deals, so I made a coupon run through McDonald’s and then Chick-fil-A. I stopped by the house to eat quickly, then went back to work and caught up with the Google hardware announcement.

After work, I came home and got busy cleaning. My shower had been leaking water from the door trough, so I decided to take the doors out and powerwash them. I didn’t notice until I was nearly done, but there was actually a cavity in the bottom of the doors that was just full of lint and soap scum. Undoubtedly, that was what kept pushing water out of the shower when the trough got full.

I hit a wall pretty quickly after that. I tried to keep the momentum going, but I stopped for a light dinner and then just couldn’t get moving again. I felt so sleepy that I rushed my evening routine and went straight to bed.

I didn’t want the ashes, and I surely didn’t want a vial of his fur, but thanks for the thought, I guess?

Uncategorised

Uppers

Today went by pretty quickly, as all days seem to do lately. It wasn’t long before I found myself taking a late lunch. Slim Chickens had BoGo tenders and mac, so I had lunch with Summer on the bench outside the shop before she went to take the girls home.

On the way to the shop, I picked up a free coffee from Casey’s. After work, I picked up another one from the other Casey’s, which kept me up through the evening.

Autumn wanted to spend the night with her grandparents, so I went home after work and had dinner by myself before putting all that energy to work picking up around the house. Summer and Eaddie came over after karate, showers, and dinner. Then we watched an episode of Glee until Summer went to bed. Eaddie and I wrapped up with an episode of Jessica Jones.

He who controls the Pumpkin Spice, controls the basic white girls!

Uncategorised

Lawn Furniture

Tomorrow is the start of bulk item pickup week, so we had to get my old furniture out to the curb today. We couldn’t start on an empty stomach though, so I made us some wraps out of leftover barbecue chicken. Then I milled around the house and got things shuffled around so we could get the chairs out the front door while Summer went to the gym.

The living room feels so empty without large furniture, but I can’t let that massive change make me feel like I’ve made any real progress. It’s all the little things that will kill me. I got the coat closet cleaned out and organized too, so that was a big help. We may eventually get this place presentable after all.

After we moved the furniture outside, we met Julie at my parents’ house to cover up the pool. I really thought we were going to finally get a mesh cover this year, but it just didn’t happen. I think I’ll have to make it happen myself if I really want it. It would make the entire process significantly easier both in the spring and fall.

Summer and I came back home and cleaned up the fire pit, even prepping it with some kindling for the next time. I need to come up with a way to store some wood for a proper burn, because last night was great. I just wish the fire wasn’t so smokey, and I’d bet some better wood would help.

Summer eventually headed back home to get some housework done and receive the kids. Then I went to my parents’ house for some eggplant soup for dinner. I ended the evening with some more rummaging through closets. This time it was the linen closet in the hallway. I’ve never used that closet for linens, but I’ll pretty much have to with such high occupancy. It’s going to be tight, but it’ll be better after I find all of these empty boxes I’ve stored everywhere over the years.

There’s no time to take out trash, living in a hoarder’s paradise.

Uncategorised

Smashing Good Time

We got up this morning and almost immediately got up to start cleaning up around the house. I still had trouble finding a good focus, but managed to mostly stay busy. Summer went to the gym for a while, then came back and tried to clean up the patio a bit so we could have a fire in the evening.

A little while later she got a work call and ultimately had to go in to resolve an issue with a customer. Not long after she got back, I took a call from Mark and had a short remote session to work through some questions with Google Calendar.

By the time that was all done, it was about time to meet Suzanne and Trent at Linhs for dinner. It was relatively slow and quiet in there, yet somehow a group was sat right behind us. I haven’t been impressed at all with any of the new servers in there. Our spring rolls lagged behind our meal, and we basically never saw the girl again after she took our orders. At least the company was good, and it was nice to catch up again.

After dinner, we came back to the house and started a little fire. There were enough small branches to actually start a proper flame, but the logs burned really smokey. It was a good time though, and a beautiful night. Suzanne accidentally shattered one of my fancy glasses, so I’ll have to re-complete that set the next time they go on sale. Otherwise it was a really good day, and I can’t wait to get the old, ratty furniture out tomorrow for bulk item pickup day.

This is why we use plastic.

Uncategorised

Sunday Runday

I got up and made eggs for breakfast again this morning. The slow cooker barbecue chicken burned a bit and seemed dry, but I didn’t really think forward enough to actually turn it off. I tried to start cleaning the garage while Summer went to the gym with Noah.

It was pretty overwhelming to find a place where I could dig in enough make enough room to rearrange things. I paced around quite a bit at first. Summer eventually came back with Noah and we made a late lunch out of the barbecue chicken. It tasted alright, but you could really tell it was overcooked.

After lunch, Noah went to take a nap while Summer and I tried to tackle the garage together. By that time it started to get pretty warm out there, and I got crankier the hotter I got, and the more she pushed to motivate me. Then I got a text from Mark and realized I had to get cleaned up before I could go meet him.

After my shower, Summer took Noah to work and I left for Mark’s office. He had some new questions for me, and I felt good about what we accomplished in just over an hour. Before I left, he urged me to vote to keep the penny sales tax.

From there, I picked Summer up and we went to my parents’ house for bún bò Huế. Nova was there too, and I guess Dad had taken her out practice driving before ending up there. We stayed a little while, but eventually left as I seemed to be allergic to something there. My head stopped up and started to throb until we got back home.

Summer and I settled in pretty quickly, spending a little time to talk about our feelings some more before bed. Communication is easy if you just suck it up and do it.

When someone asks if you want a parachute, the answer is always, “yes!”

Uncategorised

ALL THE ROLES

I spent all morning running around the campus trying to fix the PaperCut issue. I finally got on a call with support, who offered some tips that ultimately only helped a fraction of our issues. I guess nobody’s ever heard of print jobs getting stuck like this.

I was going to go home for lunch to check on the cat, but that never happened. I just worked through lunch, then made it back to the shop in the afternoon so I could learn to print some staff badges. It’s really annoying that people in quarantine are testing negative but not coming back to work. I really don’t even understand why they’re testing in that case.

After work, I headed home and started cleaning. I got a load of laundry done, then went to Walmart to try some other cat food before coming back to clean more carpet. It feels like the water will never run clear, and my waste tank is so incredibly tiny that I think I walked a mile just emptying it repeatedly.

At least I got a snow cone.

Uncategorised

Corrugation Station

We got up this morning without any plans for lunch and a sizeable hunger, so Eaddie and I ran to Burger King for a super cheap bag of food. I really don’t even know how they can sustain those multi-packs of food, because nobody else can feed a family of four for a lucky thirteen bucks.

After we ate, Summer took the girls home to do their chores while I tried to clean up a bit more at home. I got a bunch more empty boxes out of the house, including a big one from my first flat panel TV. The Vizio is still in the garage from when I brought it home from Summer’s, but it stands freely without too much trouble. My newer LG OLED, on the other hand, would require much more care in shipping, so I really didn’t want to get rid of that enormous box, filled with high density styrofoam.

Eventually I made it out to Walmart to pick up a few things to take up to Summer’s for dinner. She tried slow cooking a pork loin for pork tacos, but it just didn’t shred at all after such a short cooking time, so I chopped it up for tacos. Overall it was a super fresh dinner that I could have felt good about if I hadn’t eaten over twice the three tacos I should have eaten.

After dinner, Summer, Eaddie, and I watched a couple episodes of Glee before I headed back home for the evening. I broke down a few more boxes, still failed to get the cat to eat anything, and eventually made it to bed before the loneliest, most stressful work week ever.

Just call me SuperTech.

Uncategorised

Finding Room

I got up pretty early this morning for how late I made it to bed. I really ought to look into blackout curtains or blinds. I didn’t really have any trouble getting out of bed though, so I got showered and started cleaning up a bit around the house. I finally decided to get rid of some big, empty boxes that were taking up a lot of space. There are still more to go, but today was already a noticeable improvement.

In the early afternoon, I went to Mark’s office to help with some trouble he was having with G Suite. I ended up sticking around for quite a while before making it up to Summer’s for a chicken dinner with some kick.

I didn’t want to leave Split for too long, and I still wanted to try and clean up some more, so I didn’t stick around too long. The girls ended up beating me home though, because I spent too much time in Walmart picking up some fresh, refrigerated cat food to try, and then perusing the clearance items. I did come out with a couple gems though.

Julie wanted to chat on the phone for a bit on the way home from there, and then the girls and I watched an episode of Glee before they each started wandering off to bed. It was nice to have enough room again to pull the futon out to make a more proper bed for the girls.

A wonderful place that becomes slowly less comfortable over time.