Smokin’ Breasts

I woke up a little bit before my alarm today and got up to start prepping the turkey breasts for smoking. Summer was up on the couch doing some work, and then left to open one of her stores because multiple people called in, or didn’t show up. Eaddie got home from her father’s and hung out in the kitchen with me so she could lend a hand while I tried to season the turkey. This was only the second time I’d tried to use my baster, and I completely forgot to blend my dry spices so they wouldn’t clog the syringe. That ended up being a big mess, so I finally just put the breasts on the smoker and used my butter concoction to baste it instead.

Summer got home and started making deviled eggs, and I tried to pick up some of the rest of the house. I think Michelle and Phil were the first ones to show up, just before my parents. I kept shoving things into the laundry room, and the house filled up pretty quickly. Alie and Chance made it, and even Julie and Kevin showed up. Uncle Rick and Ginny were the last to show.

I had a fire going, and the smoking was pretty much done before anyone showed up, so I just had to carve the turkey while everyone else arranged food on the dining room table. Then everyone visited and ate in the living room. Julie and Kevin left pretty early, and I threw out my back at some point during the afternoon, which slowed me way down for the rest of the night.

Sometime during daylight hours, I took the dogs out for a quick run before wrapping up with everyone at home. It wasn’t our most entertaining event to host, but hopefully everyone enjoyed it. The whole thing just kept shrinking more and more until we could fit everyone our house instead of an aircraft hangar.

Eaddie wanted to go out to see Wicked again with some friends. Summer went to bed super early while I cleaned up and eventually made it to bed. Maybe my sleep schedule won’t be too far out of cycle by tomorrow.

No deals!

Chicken Potato Bowls

Today was a long day of picking up the house. Summer went to work. Eaddie came out eventually and took a shower while I was running all around the house. I thought Summer would be home around lunch time, but that wasn’t so. At some point, Eaddie asked if she could go to her father’s house for the night since I guess one of her half sisters had a kid with a birthday. These people propagate like mint.

I warmed up some leftover mashed potatoes and frozen chicken strips for lunch, then continued picking up and organizing randomly until Summer finally got home. She started on some deviled eggs and then took a bath, and I took the dogs out for an early run. We did nearly five miles after stopping to see Dad. He was worried about the new fiber internet provider after they cut their existing cable line trying to run fiber to the house. I just told him to find a place to leave a negative review, and someone would probably reach out rather than have him fight with incompetent customer service trying to direct him to an insurance company.

The dogs did really well, and Stilgar didn’t seem to care about how cold it was. He still wanted to be an alligator in the creek. I ran them all around the neighborhood and then brought them home for hot dogs. I had several more packages at the door, which brought the total to four separate deliveries for the day. I brought them inside and Summer started opening them. I wasn’t double checking what she was doing, and evidently she threw out a bag that still had a watch band in it. That wouldn’t have been bad, except I had just taken the recycling out to the curb just seconds before the truck picked up the dumpster.

I was furious at her negligence. I picked up a bit more before leaving to get some McNuggets for dinner. I didn’t want to go home, and considered that I might want something more to eat, so I ended up stopping in the Wendy’s parking lot. I ate the nuggets, and then remembered a deal for half price Famous Bowls from KFC, so I drove across the street and ate one of those in the lobby. I dawdled there for a while and then got back in the car and had Full Self Driving take me across town. It didn’t get adventurous, so I pointed it up the mountain before having it drive me back home.

Summer went to bed and I stayed up late picking up the ceiling-high stack of boxes she had shoved into the corner. There was a lot of junk there that she had just shoveled out of the way instead of letting me handle it. I sulked some more before eventually taking a shower and going to bed.

Let me remember the ways.

House People with Lap Dogs

I actually woke up pretty early today, and beat Summer out of bed by a couple hours. I warmed up some coffee and made a couple burritos for brunch, and Eaddie left for church. Summer and I finished Agatha All Along before she eventually got up and went to the gym for a while. I cleaned up sporadically around the whole house, and tried to organize and uncover some horizontal surfaces.

Eaddie got home and then left for rehearsal with her quartet, and then Summer and I went out back with the dogs for a while once she got back home. Stilgar kept wanting to lay in her lap, and both of them were super sweet and just wanted to snuggle up for a while. We eventually came back in and showered, but I should have taken the dogs out for a run before that, because it rained a bit and I couldn’t take the Onewheel out after that.

Summer did some stuff for work while I kept organizing. Eli came over with some pupusas for Eaddie, and I found a deal for a free Pixel Watch 3 after bill credits, so I got a couple for Summer and myself. I got a load of laundry done, then wrapped up for bed.

Ewie gewie!

ReServed

I didn’t sleep very late today because I wanted to get to the other house to move some stuff. Eaddie left for church while Summer was out with the dogs, and then Summer left for the gym. I started feeling sick to the stomach, possibly due to one too many bites of ice cream last night, and then when I finally took a shower, I had a pretty rough anxiety attack that hit me out of nowhere. It left my head spinning for much of the afternoon.

I eventually had an energy drink and then took the dogs out for an early run. We visited Mom, and then went around past the basin trail. The dogs chased after some kids, then after some squirrels, then took a dunk in the creek before we finally made our way back home.

Summer had started to do a bit of work from home, but then we got up and went to the old house to pick up some big, heavy stuff. We loaded all of my big rack-mount servers and some switches into the back of the Model Y, and I aired up the tires on the Fiero. While we were there, my old neighbor Stanley stopped to say hello and asked about the Fiero. He had a friend that he said would probably be interested, so I gave him my number.

We were just barely on the way home when I got a call from the friend, Tommy. He said he was a 69 year old, retired engineer from GM, and that he used to have a 1985 pace car that he bought his wife, which had been stolen. He said his wife would be tickled, and I liked that it could go to someone who could work on it as a labor of love.

Summer and I unloaded the car when we got home, and then we went to McDonald’s for $1 McNuggets. I ran back inside for a deal on fries, and then we stopped by Wendy’s to pick up some fries for her. That ended up taking forever, which was in stark contrast to how things were back in the early 2000s. Wendy’s used to be the king of drive-through speed, and McDonald’s simply operated. Now, McDonald’s had everything automated and staff interactions minimized, so they churned people through in no time.

We ate at home, then went out with the dogs for a while. Eaddie had been gone all day doing homework and whatever else. When she got home, she chatted with Summer for a while, then came to check in with me before bed. I was pleased to be in bed by ten.

Now I almost have to get another car.

Afternoon, Evening, Night

I woke up with a stomach ache around six this morning and thought I might stay awake. Then I laid back down and slept until just after noon. Summer was up on the couch doing some work or something, but got up after a while to go to the gym. Eaddie must have been gone for church, and I milled around and tried to pick up a bit more.

I kept finding more and more to do, and realized a few hours later that I still hadn’t taken a shower, but it was time to take the dogs out for a walk before it got dark. Mom said she had eggplant soup, but didn’t give me a time, so the dogs and I ran by their house first to see when food would be done. Dad was watering plants, so we finished the run and then I drove back over to eat.

Summer apparently didn’t care for the eggplant, so she stayed home and Eaddie was gone all day. I hurried home to finish cleaning so we could carve pumpkins the following day. I invited Diana, but wasn’t sure if she would make it. Most of the kitchen was cleaned up, and I got dishes done. Then it was time to wind down again.

These short days are killing me.

Down the Road

I slept really late today, so I showered as soon as I got up and went to get Summer from the wash for lunch. We just went across the street to Zaxby’s and then I dropped her back off so I could go home to clean. I considered going by the old house, but I really needed to clean up the new house first because we’d run out of room again.

I got most of the kitchen cleaned up and started to organize some of the paperwork that kept ending up on my desk. I thought Summer was going to come home a little early, which had me stalled out a bit. I took the dogs out for a good run, aside from when Muad’Dib refused to drop a mummified, flattened squirrel puck. We got back home and I fed them before getting back to cleaning.

When Summer got home really late, I gave her a bit to wind down before she wanted to start Agatha All Along. We watched two episodes and then she went to bed. I tried to stay up to see Eaddie after her football game, but I was already getting pretty tired before I had an anxiety attack that knocked me down another peg.

Te Veo

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!”