Harry Potter and the Prequel about a Book

The girls beat us out of bed this morning. Summer started on breakfast, and I grew my colony on Oxygen Not Included. After we ate and Summer got some chores done, she and Autumn went to the gym while I went home to shower.

I played a little Rocket League while I was waiting for them to get done, and then I went back to their house to help bring dinner back to my place before we all went to pick at Kmart’s Big-Karcass. We spent about three hours wandering aisle to aisle, picking up a few things. We didn’t get to cover the whole store, but I got hungry and gave up for the night.

We came back to my house and started heating up the chicken, broccoli, and rice casserole that Summer made, then ate while we watched Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. Autumn barely touched it, citing a lack of hunger. Compounded with prior bickering about wanting to change the plans we’ve had for the past two days, she was left out of dessert, and likely won’t be going to the movies with the rest of us tomorrow.

Well, my philosophy is that worrying means you suffer twice.

In the Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Room

We slept in today, then left for Conway around lunch time. We were both pretty hungry once we got there, so we went straight to Logan’s and had their prime rib. Everything tasted pretty awesome, but Logan’s usually does. Then we went to Target for several hours.

First we picked up some clothes that were on clearance, and got a $10 promo gift card with our purchase as well. I was feeling super tired and thirsty after everything we ate, so we sat in the Starbucks/snack area for a while with an Icee. I saw Coylene walking up and beat on the glass to get her attention so we could wave at her. She stopped by for just a second, and then I put our clothes in the car before going back in to spend our new gift card.

We spent way longer than I expected in there, and just kept picking up more and more clearanced stuff. Then I saw Jonathan round the corner with his daughter, so I waved him down to chat for a bit. I hadn’t seen him or Dylan in years, so it was nice to catch up, if only briefly.

Once we finished up there, we went straight to Lowe’s to pick up the rest of my TIKI torches. Some of the ones there were in pretty rough shape, so after some haggling I got the girl there to knock the price down on some of them. Overall I was happy with how the transaction was finalized, and we loaded up to head home.

Back in town, Summer went to pick up the girls and head home, and I played a few rounds of Rocket League just to get one more golden pumpkin crate before the event ends tomorrow. Then it was a quick email to NVIDIA to try and return my two RTX 2080 Ti Founders Edition cards before bed.

The boys in the back are called macaws.
Because of their claws?
No, because they’re macaws!

Time Off

Summer left super early this morning for a quiz bowl trip, so I slept in until about 11. When I got up, Clint and I played some Overwatch until he left to get some food. I took the time to remote in to work to try and turn the bell system time back an hour for daylight saving time. It took me a couple hours to figure out something stupid, but it’s done and it’s documented now.

I spotted some TIKI torches on sale at Lowe’s online, so I bought out all of the Russellville and Conway stores and arranged for local pickup. Conway eventually got back to me when my order was ready for pickup, but Russellville never did. Everything was still showing available online, so I placed the order again thinking that maybe it was just a mistake.

Once Summer got back home, we went to the local store to see what was up. The girl that helped me said they normally contact the customer if something goes wrong, but obviously that wasn’t the case for me. We spent some time wandering through the outdoor area to find the torches, and eventually found them boxed up and ready to go into off-season storage. Some other lady had bought out all of the fuel I ordered, but at least I got my eight torches. Unfortunately, it turned my two gift cards into four gift cards once it was all said and done. We ran into Dale and Neletta while we were there and chatted for a little bit before loading up.

Mom made bún bò Huế for dinner, and I brought the TIKI torches in for them to use. We got lucky because they matched the exact same model that Dad picked up last year, so now we can set the whole back yard on fire in style.

After dinner, we came back home and I played some Rocket League with some of the guys I don’t play with very often until bedtime.

If I could turn back time… If I could find a way…