Tiny Boxes

I was surprised to be the first one awake today after staying up so late. Eaddie got up and left for church, and Summer and I eventually got up and made some coffee. We played with the dogs for a bit, and then she wanted to go to the gym. I got up and around for a shower and started cleaning up all the Vine stuff that’s been littering the dining room. Once Summer got home, we went out to New China for lunch.

When we got back to the house, I left her to clean and mop while I went to the old house to pack up some more stuff. I expected there to be more empty boxes than I found, so I only assembled one box from the front bedroom. Then I boxed up a bunch of tiny stuff from my computer desk before heading back home in time to walk the dogs.

They were a little more rambunctious today, but overall did fine. We walked through my parents’ yard and got some water while they were out, and then went around the basin. They got super excited and started chasing some kids on bicycles, so I had to pull them back pretty hard. It would have been way worse if they weren’t running straight forward at them.

I fed them once we got home, and then Summer and I wound down while we finished cleaning up inside. We only saw Eaddie briefly after lunch before she left for practice, so maybe we’ll see her tomorrow. I fortunately got sleepy really early, so I looked forward to nearly seven hours of sleep.

Windown

Bathroom Blitz

I ran behind, but got out of the house early enough that I didn’t have to speed quite so much on the way to work. It was pretty chilly out, but that wouldn’t affect me in the office. Maggie was hungry, so she talked me into trying Panera Bread for breakfast. They had a four sandwich deal that worked out for the two of us and Charles.

It was a fairly leisurely day, but I still feel like I’m not really prioritizing correctly. I spent a lot of time rearranging PRTG again until Kyle came to the office to go out to lunch. He, Maggie, and I went to Eat My Catfish, which tasted good but had pitiful portions. The single catfish fillet I had was basically a quarter of a small fish.

The afternoon got a little bit exciting when the inbound DID numbers quit working, at least a part of the time. Maggie got on the phone with Windstream and IK Electric to see if anyone could see what went wrong. Kyle hung around the office for the rest of the afternoon too, but nobody in our department carried any stress over any of it.

Dad said the restoration people would be coming over the next day to start working on the bathrooms, so I ran home as quickly as I could and took the dogs for a quick run. They were super good, and then Summer got home just as we finished, so we went to the old house to bring the last remaining fish tank to the new house. We got it set up, moved the water and everything. Then I went back again to clean out the rest of both bathrooms. It took me a while, and I was up about two hours later than I wanted to be, but I guess I can nap on the way to work.

Are you ready Steve? Andy? Mick? Alright fellas, let’s go!

Productive Household

Summer had to go to Greenbrier this morning, and I woke up with a pretty bad stomach ache before she left. I just stayed up, hoping I would be able to get to bed early in the evening, but procrastination finds a way. I spent the morning paying a bunch of bills and then trying to clean up around the house. Summer wasn’t gone terribly long, and then we hung the towel rack in Eaddie’s bathroom.

I made burritos for Eaddie and myself since Summer had already eaten and was cleaning her side of the house. Noah came over after work and generally made himself at home. I took the dogs out for a run around the block a couple times, and eventually got wound down for bed after everyone else beat me to it.

Sure, help yourself.

Girls Day; Boys Day

I went to bed pretty late, but got up early this morning to keep my sleep schedule from rolling too far forward. The girls had a day in Conway planned, so I made some coffee and ate some leftovers for breakfast. Then I spent the day fixing up some things around the house. I thought I’d eventually get over to the old house to bring some more stuff over, but that didn’t happen.

My biggest accomplishment that I’d been putting off since we bought the house was to clean out Eaddie’s bathroom sink drain. It had a bunch of hair and an earring in it, and now the drain works great. After that, I started to take my old vacuum cleaner apart again. I found some broken pieces, and Summer melted some hair in the roller the last time she tried to use it, so I ended up shopping for some replacement parts and found a whole new floor nozzle on eBay. They wanted $60 plus $20 shipping, but accepted my offer for $35 plus the shipping, which seemed like a fair deal to get an old vacuum cleaner going again.

The girls got home just as I was finishing the disassembly. Summer wound down quickly and I took the dogs for a long run as the sun went down. We stopped by my parents’ house to visit for a little bit, and then ran through the basin and the long way back home. The weather was awesome, so they had a great time and were pretty well behaved.

Eaddie brought Eli over for some leftovers from their day out, and I laid on the couch with Summer for a bit until she went to bed. I finally got my Amazon Vine account unsuspended, so the race is on to get gold tier by December.

“Free!”

Working Girl

I got up early with Summer this morning so I might be able to go to bed early tonight. Even Eaddie got up pretty early because she had to record a session at Tech. I cleaned up some leftovers by making steak and eggs for Summer and myself, and then she went to work to help replace a starter in Trent’s car. I cleaned up the kitchen, washed dishes, and started some laundry before she got home.

I kept busy as the day flew by. Eaddie got home and then left to go to an Imagine Dragons concert with her father. Summer got home, but didn’t have long before she had to go to Greenbrier to train the staff there on how to properly clean the wash. Mom started making shrimp noodle soup early so Summer could come eat before she left town.

I took my Onewheel with us so Summer could leave straight for work, and then after I ate, I rode home to take the dogs out on a run. They were pulling pretty hard, and Stilgar is heavy and strong enough that it’s a real problem on the Onewheel. I got a prong collar in from Amazon Vine today, but I’ll need some walking time with him alone to properly train him.

We rode nearly four and a half miles, stopping briefly at my parents’ house for a drink. I should have brought their water bottle too, because Stilgar was super thirsty when we finally made it home. Overall they did fairly well even when we encountered other people with dogs, but they’re just too strong for me to pull away from a distraction when I’m on the Onewheel.

Once we got home, I fed them and took a late shower. Then I packed up a few last-minute things for the new commute starting tomorrow. Who knows what new adventures await. At least they pay better.

But that drive, though.

Mystery Pasta

Johnny woke me up again this morning for more help with his server project. He was having trouble getting storage drivers working so he could install Windows Server, but he eventually got it going by manually trying several different ones by trial and error. I got around to some leftover Pasta Grill and finished my spaghetti, but left my lasagna for later in the day.

Randy has been great about my multiple interviews and other potential opportunities, so I wanted to reach back out to Moodle before the school board meeting. I assumed they had a lot of candidates to process, and I figured there was no way they would just ghost me at this stage, but I was feeling a little discouraged that I hadn’t heard anything at all since my skills test. I got a response pretty quickly, but I’ll have to wait for a call tomorrow morning to see if I’m actually moving forward. I just don’t want to leave Randy hanging since he’s ready for me to work if I don’t get a better offer.

I put on some tunes, had a nice shower, and then got to cleaning up around the house. I cleaned up all the dog stuff we’ve been accumulating and put it into a rolling rack that’s just been sitting in the corner. The dining room table had gotten a little wild, so I put a bunch of random stuff away, and did some more organizing. I’ve got to get the hard floors clear of clutter and mopped up in preparation for the new Roborock.

Summer came home early, but not as early as she thought she would. I thought we might do something together in the afternoon, but she had a headache and just took a bath and laid on the couch, so I took the dogs out for a run. They weren’t as good as yesterday, but we still had a good time. We got to visit my parents, did a couple extra laps around the new subdivision, took a break in the basin, and finally headed back home.

I worked up a little bit of an appetite, so I warmed up a burger for dinner, then put Summer to bed early. Eaddie came home late again and asked if we could leave the house on Friday so she could “lock in” her flute recording. I wrapped up a bit early myself, and made it to bed before midnight.

No sense worrying about making the wrong choice before it’s even presented.

Grungeday

I slept fairly late today because I slept pretty well. Eaddie left for church, and we didn’t see her until bedtime. I got up and made some coffee, and then watched some robot mop reviews with Summer. She liked the idea of something to keep the floors from tracking dust, so I did a little last-minute research and ended up buying the new Roborock S8 MaxV Ultra while it was on sale. It’ll be overkill, but I think it will bring some much-needed sanity back since we’re tracking so much dust through the back door from the dogs.

Summer went to the gym and then came home to mow the lawn. I tried to blow some of the dirt back into the holes the dogs have been digging under the fence, but she ran me off to do some trimming in the front yard instead. Just as I was nearing the end, it started to rain pretty heavily. Luckily Summer finished mowing, and we hung out on the back porch with the dogs for a bit.

Summer had to go to work for a little while in the afternoon, so I worked on some other things around the house until she got back. Then we took the dogs out for a walk to my parents’ house. It must have been the rain this time, because they were super bad about pulling on the leash again today. We eventually made it home and fed them again.

I snacked quite a bit because I never really felt like making another burger. I showered late in the evening after collecting a fairly long day of grime. Eaddie got home late, and then she and Summer went to bed. I shopped for some more review materials on Amazon Vine for a while, and eventually settled in as well.

Big money

DeepNot

Johnny called and woke me up this morning to chat about finding a decommissioned server that he wanted to use for SCCM. He interrupted a strange dream in which I was about to take a ski-lift from California to Washington D.C. I wondered if I would dream that in real time.

We chatted for a while and then I went outside to find the dog bowls. Then I started cleaning up around the coffee bar so I could place the new silicone drying mat that would be delivered later in the day. I tried to stay fairly busy, but then I got a rejection email from DeepNet that got me kind of sad. After hearing how excited the girl was about the company, I got excited myself, but I didn’t even make it to the second round of interviews. Maybe I was a little too honest about my worst boss story.

I finished up a bunch more leftovers and got the coffee bar put back together just before Eaddie got home, but she and Eli changed for a football game and then immediately left again. I waited around for Summer to get home, and she really wanted spaghetti, so I told her we could go out.

We ended up at Pasta Grill, and she didn’t even get spaghetti. We had to wait about half an hour to be seated, and then service was incredibly slow. The food was good though, and we left with a ton of leftovers. I thought we’d walk the dogs together when we got home, but dinner didn’t sit well with her and I ended up taking them on a quick walk around the block by myself.

We ended the night with the old movie Twister, which had me completely bored out of my mind. I thought it would be better after hearing so much about it years ago, but I just didn’t find myself caring about any of the characters at all. It all seemed really far-fetched and unrelatable. Dull.

Eaddie made it home late after a losing game against Morrilton, and then they were off to bed. I spent a couple more hours researching mopping robots before I got there.

Twister Cafe

Guy in a Chair

I woke up to a dark, empty house with a bit of a headache this morning. The dogs weren’t on the porch, so I never bothered to go outside and look for them, and instead tried to focus on organizing and cleaning up the house a bit more. It was pretty early that I got a text from James about how to get “windows 10 installations to do it manually.” I was worried that he was having trouble imaging over SCCM, but evidently he was just trying to test an all-in-one that was out at Plainview. I directed him to the OEM media creation tool, the Volume Licensing Service Center, and the new Microsoft M365 Admin Center. Maybe he’ll figure it out.

Johnny called me later on and wanted to vent for a while about some things at Lamar. I wish I could have set him up at Two Rivers, because it would have been a great place for him to learn and actually have some control over some things, but that’s just not how it worked out.

Later still, some dude knocked on the door and tried to “sell” me RightFiber, but was kind of shady in how he went about it. I didn’t care for his appearance or his tactic of presuming I would be changing my service provider, so I ran him off.

Summer was late coming home from work, so I ate some leftovers without her so I could get the dogs out on a walk before it got dark. When we got to my parents’ house, Julie and Kevin were there eating dinner. We chatted briefly about their new business, and they invited me to come out to the airport tomorrow to visit some more while he works.

I got back home after dark, and the dogs did pretty well. I need to get some more higher quality food for my treat pouch, and hopefully we can continue improving their behavior. Summer was waiting up for me, but then went to bed. Eaddie got home shortly after that and came to talk to us for a while, and then everyone was off to sleep.

HumbleAir than you.

Cleaning up a Storm

I was surprised at how early I woke up this morning after not getting to sleep until around three, but then I lightly snoozed pretty late to make up for it. Summer went to the gym and then came home to mow the lawn, so I got up and cleaned the kitchen. It had gotten pretty wild, but I managed to get almost every single dish into the dishwasher. I still struggle with not blocking the detergent dispenser though, because it requires such a direct spray to clean it out. A liquid detergent would probably work a lot better, but I hate paying for water.

Eaddie went to church with Eli in the morning, so we didn’t see her until later. Summer eventually finished up and we walked the dogs to my parents’ house for a swim and some leftover pork chops and noodles. They had gone to see the new Deadpool, but got home a little while before a storm rolled in.

Eaddie came over while we were eating, and then we loaded the dogs into the car and got home just as the weather started to get bad. At least one big branch came down nextdoor, and a car alarm went off on the street behind us, but it blew through pretty quickly.

One more week at work, broken up by three interviews. Hoping for something fun.

LFG