Tag: deals

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Cold Day, Hot Pot

I slept in just a little bit today because we didn’t have to be at work until 10. Summer left in a bit of a hurry, so I fed the dogs before I got out the door. I thought I was running behind, but I was actually ahead by about 20 minutes, so I decided to stop at Whataburger in Conway to see what their breakfast was like, and then sat to eat it at the Supercharger. The honey butter chicken biscuit was pretty good, but the jalapeño cheddar biscuit was pretty dry. The coffee wasn’t even lukewarm, but the hash brown sticks were pretty good.

I charged up until the moment I had to leave to get to work on time, and I was surprised to walk into an office full of people. Even Jimmy was still there, playing solitaire on his computer. Nobody was really up to anything, and though Randy put me in charge while he was out sick, I wasn’t really up to much either. I worked on a couple things for Jim before he left, and before I knew it, Maggie was asking about lunch.

After some back and forth, she, Jay, and I went to KPOT. We got there before they opened, so we had to wait in the car. Then we all three just had the hot pot without the grill. Maggie had never been, but she seemed to enjoy it. Jay was upset he didn’t get much shrimp, and I wished I had gotten the same soup I had last time, but it was alright. Our waitress was super helpful, if not a little bit chatty, and the food was pretty good.

After lunch, I finally figured out how to get Jim into SCCM, by updating his Configuration Manager Console version. I never would have thought it would outright deny the connection for that, and assumed it would just update it in line. With that, I had fixed twice as many things as I thought I might.

Everyone slowly filtered out, and I was the last one to leave. I had to stop in Conway to charge again because it was so cold, and then I made it home to run the dogs. We had a good run, so they got the rest of their Ridgewood pulled pork before dinner. Summer was exhausted when she got home, so I built her a pretty awesome looking burger before unboxing a handful of Vine stuff. I got the sofa table I ordered, and was super impressed by the quality, for being such a small, cheap table.

Eaddie got home late and went to bed pretty early, and Summer practically crawled to bed after working in pain all day from her fall on the ice yesterday. I was up too late, but suddenly it’s the weekend again. We’ll have to get up and shop for groceries early tomorrow, because Noah and his buddy Michael passed whatever test they took so they could build scaffolding for power plant outages. Maybe this will be good for them, but for now, Summer wanted to celebrate them with a steak dinner.

Okay, now even I’m surprised by all these deliveries.

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Back to Packed

I was a bit out of sorts this morning, but I managed to swing by the new Starbucks for a free coffee and still made it to work just a couple minutes late. Randy said last week was super rough without me, which I guess made me feel good about myself, but I feel like a placebo. Surely I’m not contributing that much most of the time. I kept fairly busy trying to image a couple of laptops all day. Jim was having trouble with it, and I’m still having trouble setting a naming standard for everyone across the district because of our weird mix of devices.

We went to Skinny J’s for lunch because they had a $9 sandwich deal, and then $3 pickles on top of that. Dad called while we were there and said the dogs were at his house. Luckily Summer was home and could go pick them up, and she reattached the pallet they tore off of the fence. It started sprinkling a little bit after lunch, but it didn’t really rain hard until the evening. I supercharged for a while on the way home, and just as I was changing clothes to take the dogs out, it started to pour.

It let up a little bit and I took a bunch of Amazon returns to UPS. Summer was home from the gym when I got back, but she didn’t want dinner. Eaddie showed up and said she would be down for a $4.99 Cici’s buffet, so the two of us went out. They were packed and kept a good rotation of pies up, so it was pretty good.

When we got back, Summer had to get on a Zoom call for the band trip. I played with the dogs for a bit since they didn’t get to go out on a run with me, and Muad’Dib wouldn’t eat any dinner. I hoped that he had just found some other food somewhere else, and wasn’t just sick and not eating. Stilgar hadn’t lost his appetite.

As I was getting ready for bed, my head felt completely clogged, and I hoped I hadn’t caught whatever Eaddie brought home. I just finished two rounds of antibiotics that didn’t really seem to help my cough at all, so we may just be going into month three with this crud.

Don’t blink!

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Fish Fry

Almost exactly 11 years ago on January 30, 2014, I messaged a guy on Reddit about some fish he needed to re-home. My parents and I stopped by the Air Force base to meet him, and I brought home two corydoras and five tetras. A couple of the tetras died fairly quickly, if I remember correctly, but some of the others lasted a while. None of them lasted the 11 years of mostly neglect that the cory catfish survived. There have been a couple other tankmates, including a female betta that would eat out of my hand and let me pet it. Several snails have passed through the tank. They seemed to thrive through the neglect as I spent less and less time at home, and then made the move with us to the new house.

Then tonight, as I dropped some food into the tank and added some water to satisfy the gurgling filter, I noticed a baby. The tank was too dark and covered in algae to really see, but my eyes didn’t deceive me. At least one little cory fry was swimming around, along with both of the adults. I never had any inkling that they might be a breeding pair, but at some point, conditions must have been right. I’m afraid to even try and clean up the tank, for fear of damaging the ecosystem. It may just continue forever as it is in the guest room.

The rest of my day was incredibly boring by comparison. I was a little bit late leaving the house, just after Summer. I tried to catch up to her, but caught some slow traffic coming into Morrilton. There was no way I’d make up the time before she got off the interstate in Conway. I made it to work and was surprised to see Randy there before me.

People were mostly out of the office, and I worked on SCCM as my Vine ticker scrolled. Lunch time came and nobody else was interested. Everyone else left the office, so I took a late lunch and went to Cici’s by myself since they had a $4.99 deal. They were absolutely packed, almost entirely with old geriatrics – slow ones, at that. It mostly looked like poverty, and a couple people had crocheted hats that reminded me of the pigeon lady from Home Alone. One particularly ignorant old woman kept yelling loudly at one of the hispanics working, and asked multiple times where she came from before she lived here. In the end, I had a good salad and tried not to overdo it. I felt pretty good afterward, and it was actually rewarding to have paid less than I would have anywhere else.

The afternoon was pretty lonely since Maggie and Randy didn’t make it back until near quitting time. I made it to the end and got home to run the dogs. It wasn’t frigid out, so we had a good time. At one point, I stopped momentarily at the basin and Muad’Dib immediately peed on my Onewheel. I couldn’t believe it, because he’s normally pretty good about that stuff. I don’t know what prompted him to do such a thing.

From there, we made it to my parents’ house where Dad met us in the road again. I rinsed the Onewheel off under the faucet outside, and then we made it home. The girls ate some leftover pasta, I cleaned up what Summer didn’t finish, and then I took out a bunch of recycling before all of the excitement happened with the fish tank. I messaged the guy on Reddit just to let him know, so it’ll be interesting if I hear back.

Fishy

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Long Day for What

I remember waking up frequently after a whole lot of dreams, but I couldn’t remember anything about them. I finally got out of bed around eight, long before anyone else. I tinkered with the Vine Helper notifications a bit, and then had a bit of anxiety as the item drops started flowing. I got meds sorted for the week and the girls got up and around. Summer went to the gym for a while, and Eaddie hid in her room all day.

I took a shower and then took the dogs out for a really early run, which was good because it started to rain after that. Summer said she wanted a steak and baked potato for dinner, but then didn’t press it when it started to rain. I ended up going out to pick up some Panda Express instead, since I had a BOGO coupon, and then we watched The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent with some popcorn. I actually thought it was a pretty fun movie, and it was great to see Nick Cage back – not that he went anywhere.

Nothing.

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Missed Steaks

Eaddie was at all-region for practice all morning, and Summer misunderstood what time Eaddie would have her concert. I made us some egg and cheese biscuits out of the two leftover biscuits from KFC, and then I got a bunch of Vine stuff delivered.

I should have taken the dogs out for a run earlier in the day, because we were out too late. Eaddie came home for a break before the concert, and said she couldn’t find her wallet. She and Summer looked for a while, but then Eaddie had to go back before her concert. Luckily Summer found it right after she had left.

We went to pick up Dad and caught the last two performing bands. I didn’t care for the percussion ensemble, but Eaddie’s band was good. They played through relatively quickly, since region clinicians don’t spend forever sucking up to the district administration after every band.

We took Dad home, and then Summer and I went to Check-H for dinner. I had a huge, leafy salad with some steak, and then another plate full of steak. I was determined to get my iron back up. We stuffed ourselves and then went to Walmart to do a lap before heading home for the night. Summer’s food didn’t settle too well, so she went to bed. Eaddie was already home and milling about. I kept dawdling for too long, and then remembered I had bills to pay before bed. The neighbor’s dogs were also up barking all night long for some reason. I went out to investigate at one point, but didn’t see anything.

Track ALL THE THINGS!!!

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Jumbo Gumbo

I was sleeping pretty hard when my alarm went off this morning, but I managed to get to work before anyone else. It was another slow day for me, just kind of riding out my new meds. I wouldn’t have expected such a difference for such a small dose of basically the same combination I’d started with before. I took my amlodipine and lisinopril a couple hours apart today to see if I could minimize my afternoon reaction, and it seemed to help a little bit, though I still felt a bit dizzy for a little while.

I was on my own for lunch, so I decided to pick up some gumbo from the Louisiana Fried Chicken place just down the road. The fact that they even have a website is wild to me, because the place looks so rough, is in such a rough area, and is basically empty every time I drive by. The guy was super nice though, and I really liked the gumbo.

Jim, Charles, Randy, and Maggie were there in the afternoon gossiping about some local drama. Evidently my superintendent nemesis in town is negotiating an exit from her contract by the end of this year as well. I’m really just standing by to see if I die from whatever ails me, so it’s hard to get me excited about much right now.

I ran the dogs hard when I got home from work, and they had a great time. Dad met us at the end of their driveway, and we hit over 20 miles an hour. He was making taco soup, so we went home and I fed the dogs, then unboxed a ton of Vine stuff before going back over there to eat. Summer got home late from work and wasn’t hungry, and Eaddie was out with a friend.

After dinner, I had to take out the trash and recycling. They hadn’t picked up recycling in a couple weeks, so with all the Vine stuff I’ve been getting, I could have nearly filled up two whole dumpsters. I accidentally spilled an entire box of miscellaneous recycling, and was picking it all up by flashlight when the UPS driver stopped to hand me one more package for the day. I lost count of how many were delivered today, but it’s clear I’ve got a problem.

The girls were up for a while talking about everything Eaddie has going on. I cleaned up the best I could and made a mad dash for bed.

Retail therapy gets me a 1099-NEC this year.

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No Charge

I slept a lot better last night, but time is still an issue. I got out the door and made it to work fairly early, and it was a mostly dull day. I brought my new heated leather desk mat, so my hands were warm while the temperature outside stayed super low. Lunch time came and went, and I finally went to pick up food by myself. I got fries from McDonald’s, which is consistently the worst McDonald’s I’ve ever visited. Then I picked up a sandwich from Arby’s, which has traditionally been pretty good, but was cold and lackluster today.

The afternoon dragged on a bit, especially considering how late I took my lunch. I left a few minutes early since I spent most of my lunch at my desk. Then I supercharged in Conway before making it home to take the dogs out. Eaddie had some friends over to practice their instruments for All Region, but they were mostly done by the time we got back. It was so cold out, that Stilgar had to play on the ice in the pond.

I got a couple more travel car chargers in from Amazon Vine, but one of them wasn’t long enough to go from the nearest outlet to my charge port, and the other was a replacement for one that I couldn’t get to work. The new one wouldn’t work either, but did at least seem to try harder. I’ll have to reach out to the manufacturer to see if I can figure out what’s wrong, or else just return both of them.

I ate some leftovers, and then Summer got home and wound down for bed pretty quickly. Eaddie seemed to be taking some time to relax and worked on some Lego for a while in her room. I got a load of laundry done and made it to bed before 10, which I thought was a pretty good accomplishment, and that made me sad.

Being an adult is awful.

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FOMO Anxiety

I burned up all of my Vine orders pretty quickly yesterday on accident, so when a very specific Model 3 accessory just happened to become available after I had been pining after one, I was unable to order it. I don’t know how much of my anxiety that caused last night, but I couldn’t sleep at all. I ended up waking up right around two when the counter reset, and of course it was gone.

My alarm eventually went off and I got going for work. It was cold out, but the car had been preconditioning for a little while and was nice and toasty. I assume it was the crosswinds that caused it to howl down the interstate, because I don’t remember that happening at all the day we got it. It was a very eerie sound, especially to my groggy, sleep-deprived ears. I got to work in plenty of time, passing Randy just before we got to the exit. There was less fanfare than I expected when I got there. It almost seemed to mirror my own experience, but that was fine.

The morning went by pretty quickly, but not much how I expected it to. Things were quieter, possibly because kids weren’t back yet, though we’re several miles from the nearest campus with actual students. I got a text from Cici’s that they were doing their early week deal, and we actually had several takers. Maggie and I met Randy, Kyle, and Jim there. Jim said it wasn’t really pizza, but I countered that for $5, it didn’t have to be as long as it was the right shape.

I actually kept kind of busy in the afternoon, and of the three of us in the office, I was the first one out at the end of the day. I stopped to supercharge more than I needed to make the trip, since the electricity was free. There was a guy there that appeared to be working on the equipment, which I assumed was why it was quite a bit slower than it should have been.

Summer was making some kind of stuffed peppers for dinner when I got home. I took the dogs for a quick run before it got dark, and then Eaddie and Eli came to eat. I messed with some more accessories for both cars, got Summer’s tires aired up again, and then tried to start settling down quickly. I’d felt high-anxiety all day, and was ready for some sleep.

Find Calm

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Too Early; Too Late

I didn’t sleep in very late today, but I meant to get moving a little bit earlier in preparation for going back to work. Summer was up with some coffee. I had some turkey soup and got sucked into Vine shopping. Eaddie eventually got up around noon and went to church, then brought Eli back home with her.

I took a shower, and after a while, Summer said she was feeling so bad that she was concerned and wanted to go to the doctor. I got her loaded up and we went to the Conway Regional clinic to see the evening nurse. Mondalisa was there to give us a hard time, but we got in and out reasonably quickly. Summer had an inner ear infection, so we ran to Walgreens to fill her prescription before heading home.

I took the dogs out for a run in the cold before it got too dark. Stilgar didn’t seem to mind, and still wanted to sit in the pond water. We did a couple loops and made it to my parents’ house to see if they still had roast beef going for dinner. I made it home, then Summer and I went over to eat relatively quickly so we could get back home and wind down for bed.

Summer had been doing laundry all day, so I finally got to start a load myself as I finished up the rest of my evening chores. I wanted to go to bed about an hour earlier, but I didn’t make bad time. Hopefully I sleep well and have an easy start in the morning.

Bummer, lost pick.

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Hot Drinks and Pie

Summer was hurting pretty bad today, but she got up and spent the day on the couch. I had more energy, but my back was hurting pretty bad all day. Eaddie left around noon to go practice with her quintet in Fort Smith. I made Summer some Theraflu and hot tea throughout the day, and spent some more time cleaning things up out of the fridge. I got a Lectron level 1 charger in, and was able to get my car charging within minutes, unlike the “Very Van” brand one I tried yesterday.

The day went by quickly, and it was cloudy and cold all day, so I had to make it a point to take the dogs out. We had a pretty good run, visited my parents, and I played with them a little more than I’ve been able to all week. When we got back to the house, some door-knocking kid from Brightspeed came by and talked to me. He had a lot to share about his skateboard injury, but he wanted to try the Onewheel. He couldn’t sell me on a new ISP, but the price does seem to be getting more competitive. I wouldn’t mind having a proper public IP, but I really haven’t needed one for anything I’ve had time to do lately.

Once I got back inside, I ordered a pizza from Little Caesar’s, then went to get it. The new Model 3 still feels a little surreal because of the timing and how I went about ordering it. I bought it on much more of a whim than the last one, but I guess I need to settle in on it. It hasn’t helped that I just haven’t felt good enough to take it out on a drive anywhere. This next week of commuting to work again will get me back into that routine.

Eaddie got home just as we finished eating, and had some pizza herself. Then everyone started to settle in to bed. I was up late with a bit of a belly ache, but hopefully I’ll feel a little more motivated when I get back into work and get my routine going again.

Too much pie.