Catastrophic Failure

We slept many hours. Summer, as usual, had many more than me. I woke up first, but we got out of bed around the same time. Power flickered overnight, so I had to start my computer up again. Shortly after I got it back up, power flickered again and I ended up losing all of my Tabs Outliner history. That extension has been critical for any projects I’ve had to research, so I spent literally the entire day trying to recover from that.

Summer made brunch for us out of some sausage and eggs we had in the refrigerator. Eaddie left. A new shower head was delivered, so I got that installed. I spent more time trying to recovery my Tabs Outliner, but eventually gave up and rolled back to my last good backup over a month ago. By that time, I needed to take Muad’Dib out for a run. I also wanted to have a good dinner, so I took the Pint X to my parents’ house and warmed up the leftover fish soup while my parents were out watering the plants.

Afterward we rode straight back home. I never could get the Pint over 10mph, which seemed strange. I guess I never really felt pushback, but it just felt like it wasn’t accelerating any further, and I didn’t want to nosedive. It didn’t help that it wouldn’t even make it straight up the driveway without nosediving.

When we got back in, I happened to notice that Summer put some parts of the coffee maker into the dishwasher that weren’t dishwasher safe. I didn’t feel like I blew up at her, but I still had to dig things out of the running dishwasher and clean up the mess. Two components were plainly labeled as not dishwasher-safe. She also left a pretty obvious sticker in place, so that came off in the wash. All of that ultimately lead to a small fight, and I simply couldn’t understand how she could possibly feel like she had any kind of argument.

It’s always simple, stupid stuff, but I don’t know how much more I can stand. I feel like my life was on a steady upward climb before I met her. I was moving upward with my career, and I was cleaning up my home. I let my own home suffer when I started spending most of my time with her at her house. I saw things in her life that I felt like we could improve as a team. Then I allowed the whirlwind of storm damage to my home, my desire to expand my property, and Bác Vân’s unexpected death to push me to move into a new home with her. It’s been an absolute freefall from that point forward. I can’t get any traction on any project, I’m constantly frustrated or angry, I don’t feel like I’m respected, and the only thing I can do to provide any happiness for myself is actively making everyone else unhappy.

Maybe I’ll figure it out tomorrow.

Why am I here?

Long and Boring

It poured rain all night, and was still coming down when we left in the morning. Traffic was expectedly dumb, but mostly uneventful apart from someone who had wiped out right after my onramp to get out of town. Troopers were already there blocking the left lane, and the vehicle was on a wrecker, so we carried on and made it to work. It seemed to dry up fairly quickly, and was otherwise a pretty dull day.

I booked a hotel for Summer’s Conquer the Gauntlet trip, and then bounced between a couple different thoughts and projects. Microsoft licensing is a forgettable nightmare, but hopefully I can get us built out correctly for not much more than we’re paying now.

We took a late, disappointing lunch at Arby’s. My Buffalo chicken sandwich was small and sad, and it seemed like they shrank the fries and drink. I even considered stopping somewhere else for more food, but ultimately decided against it. We got back to work and finished out the afternoon quietly.

Johnny called and chatted with me for a bit on the drive, then lost me as he got out of signal. He called again later because he had to go back in to work, but I couldn’t stop to help since we had to pack. I got things started before anyone else got home. Then Summer showed up and I took Muad’Dib on a run to the Neighborhood Market to pick up my prescriptions. Afterward, we ran straight to my parents’ house for fish soup before making it back home to load up.

Eaddie and Eli showed up late after their school stuff, and we got loaded up as quickly as we could. We stopped in Van Buren to charge, then made the long, boring drive all the way to Tulsa for the night. I managed to make it up five flights of stairs, and everyone crashed while I waited for my laptop to finish some update nonsense before bed.

These roads are bad for coffee.

Feeling Azure

I was in a deep dream state when Summer had to wake me up this morning. My alarm was going off, but I was knocked smooth out. I got going pretty quickly and made it out the door just a couple minutes early, so the drive in was fairly relaxed. There wasn’t anything pressing, so I looked at consolidating licensing again now that I understand our needs a bit better. Later on, that lead to some Azure stuff, and trying to automate account cleanups there.

We took a late lunch and went to Sonic to try their new meal deal. I think I preferred the chicken over the sundae, but at least I was able to add peanut butter for free. There were a bunch of carhops I hadn’t seen before, which I guessed was because of school. Everyone loved seeing Muad’Dib, and he got some pets and a pup cup. He tried to eat the whole thing, cup and all, so i got a bit messy trying to slow him down. Fortunately they had a water spigot right by the picnic tables.

The afternoon went by fairly quickly, but only thanks to the late lunch. Just as I was about to pack up, Johnny called to talk about his latest adventures. I tried to pack up while he talked, but we still left a bit late. We got slowed down a bit on the drive home, but not terribly so. Summer was having a bath when we got in, so I heated up the pretzel bites we bought, along with the brie with some nuts and hot honey. I didn’t care for it, but it needed to be eaten amidst the everpresent ants.

It sounded like a storm was coming in, so I took Maud’Dib out a little early for a good run. It felt quite a bit cooler out, so he did great. We visited my parents quickly and made it home just as it got dark. I microwaved some Lit’l Smokies and corn to eat with the remaining pretzel bites, and then got ready for bed.

Winter is coming.

Tablet for Now

I had another charley horse last night and had to get up and walk it off after it slowly built up. I landed on the couch once it settled down, but eventually got back to bed for a little longer. I woke up a little later from the gentle warmth of the BedJet, and got ready for work at a leisurely pace. Once at work, I was able to finish my managed tablet project and hand it off to Marivic to test out in the lab.

I got called downstairs a couple times, and had our engineering call with Aptean. That took way less time and effort than I expected, and then it seemed like they had it fixed in just a few minutes after the call. I took a really late lunch to go to Wendy’s for another Pretzel Pub burger, and then the afternoon was for tying up other loose ends.

I ended up getting distracted and worked fairly late. Then it was a pretty relaxing ride home since the heavier traffic had passed. Summer was already in pajamas when we walked in, so I did my own thing and cleaned up a bit. We ate some leftovers together, and then I took Muad’Dib for a late run. He lead the way for most of it, and skipped a few blocks, but at least he ran well. We visited my parents for a bit, then made it home well after dark. I took out the trash, then hurriedly made it to bed.

One down!

The Other Marvel

Today was a quiet end to a quiet week. I still had no real luck with my tablet project, and frustrations with Microsoft mounted. We had our usual call scheduled for the afternoon, so we left slightly early to get some Chinese for lunch, then came back for a meeting that was just long enough to confirm we no longer needed meetings. Then Joel came by in the afternoon and said everyone was cutting out an hour early.

I ended up staying a little past my usual time because I brought a little display shelf up to assemble for my office. I eventually wanted to rearrange, but at least this got it out of the house for now. As I was finishing up, Summer texted to say she really wanted pretzel crust pizza and beer for dinner, so she ordered that and we met her at Little Caesar’s to wait and let Muad’Dib out to run around a bit.

When we finally made it home, we ate the prettiest Little Caesar’s pizza I’d ever seen (though somehow the slicing was comically bad), and then settled down pretty quickly to watch a movie. Eaddie left for the art walk, and we skimmed through Netflix for a while before I picked Kraven the Hunter. By all counts, the reviews were correct. It was terrible. The writing was bad. The animation was bad. Everything was bad. It made a fine popcorn movie to watch while Summer wouldn’t quit talking.

After the movie, Summer went to bed and I finished up. Eaddie actually got in before midnight, and everyone was off to bed.

They have to be legitimately trying to do it this poorly, right?

Game Daze

I had an anxiety attack in the middle of the night, which was the first one I’ve been aware of in a couple weeks. I went back to sleep until it was time to get up, and had a fair start after that. We actually got to work a hair early, but then chatted with Teisha until people came in. I stayed fairly focused on my tablet project, and eventually found by complete chance that it was failing because it wanted a GUID instead of a tenant name. It all just feels terribly documented.

We took a late lunch to grab some quick Taco Bell, and then I think the salt made me dizzy immediately afterward. Evidently two burritos are more than your daily suggested intake, and I drowned them in fire sauce to boot. That feels like it shouldn’t be legal.

The afternoon went by fairly quickly and without much success after that. We left pretty close to quitting time since we had to get home for Eaddie’s first game. Summer was already home and ready to go, and left early to find herself a spot. She planned to stay through halftime, and I didn’t want to pay for a ticket, so Muad’Dib and I drove later.

We ended up getting stuck by a fire truck, and then a train, so we didn’t get there until most of the way through the pregame performance on the lawn. We didn’t even catch up with Summer, because she didn’t see my text and just went on in. Instead, we headed back home and I took Muad’Dib for an early run to my parents’ house to find some dinner.

My parents were outside watering plants, so I warmed up the curry and eventually had a bowl by myself. It was dark by the time I finished, and that was all before they finished, so I left just as they came inside. Summer stayed a bit later than either of us expected, but eventually made it home and straight to bed. I wasn’t long behind.

Buddahcup!

Document It

I had been hopeful after recovering from the weekend, but I had a fairly predictably bad start this morning. I got out late, but made up the time. Luckily I had a banh bao I could take for breakfast. I picked at a couple things, but got pulled away before I could focus too much on my tablet project. Having grown quickly in volume but not staff, we’ve lacked the enterprise level documentation that I’m used to even at a public school district. Joel asked me a question that turned into another project, so I tried to let ChatGPT handle the legwork on that one.

Late lunch was a pretzel pub burger from Wendy’s. I tried to go a bit light in volume though. Our UPS driver was sat staring at the wall in the corner, so I went to sit by him and then realized he was on the phone the whole time after trying to talk to him. After that, I sat quietly staring out the window, at Muad’Dib, who was staring right back through my car window at me.

I got back into my tablet after lunch, but had middling success. Part of the problem was that my phone number was tied up in my account at my last job, but luckily Randy was able to clean that up for me. That seems like an oversight by Microsoft, but so many things are.

We left a little late, expecting dinner with Summer. She had been making a really big deal for a couple days about wanting to cook dinner since she would be home a few hours early. As soon as I walked in, I thanked her for cooking the broccoli that was starting to go bad. Then I realized I had accidentally sat on a Wendy’s chili hot sauce packet in my back pocket. That got all over my pants, and at least a bit into my car seat, so I had to clean all of that up before we could eat.

After all the fuss, dinner was a precooked fried rice from the frozen food section, along with some kind of Mongolian beef and shrimp that had been stewing in sweet juices. The rice was cold and mushy, and I didn’t understand getting frozen instead of just making fresh. Of course my questions just lead to a fight that I had predicted days earlier, and was a large part of why I didn’t want her to cook in the first place.

Summer went to the TV, and I took care of my packages before taking out the trash and recycling. By then it was getting dark, so I took Muad’Dib for a quick run to my parents’ house, and then a short bit around the Promenade. We didn’t have time for much else, because I needed sleep.

The hard way ’round.

Full

I grabbed my leftover burrito from the fridge and we hit the road this morning. As soon as we got out of the car, Muad’Dib bolted out of the parking lot and out of the gate after something. I never saw it, but luckily he turned around and came back in before the gate shut him out. Everyone was there today, but I was still left to myself all day. I got distracted by a couple other tasks, but my main one was still Android management.

Summer had to leave early for her meeting, so we had a really early lunch. Our usual server is the only person I’ve ever met that gets even close to as excited as Muad’Dib gets when he sees me. He had our drinks at the table just seconds after we sat down, and then asked me, wide-eyed, if I wanted him to make my plate. Truth be told, I knew what I wanted, but I couldn’t turn him down. Moments later, he brought me a chicken taco salad, chili relleno, and a tamale and chili con queso, all with extra beef and cheese poured all over it. It was a lot.

We were in and out pretty quickly, but then it was a long afternoon with indigestion. I had some success with my tablet, but got caught up with some more Microsoft account nonsense. I ended up leaving pretty late, and then got caught behind some dummies on the way home.

Summer cleaned up, but then had some typical stomach reactions. I started to take Muad’Dib to my parents’ house, but had a flat about a third of the way there. We walked back so I could put some air in my tire, and then made it over to find them watering plants outside. It was getting late, so I microwaved some curry that still wasn’t hot from the stove, ate, and then headed home.

Summer was in and out of bed for a bit while I got my things ready for work in the morning, and then I finally made it to bed.

Reset

Back to Trash

I wasn’t sure how today would go, but it started a little slow. I still didn’t want to start back on iron since I didn’t trust my stomach, but things started out okay. We ended up going by Shipley’s for a deal, and then Taco John’s for a different deal. I had a burrito on the drive in, then snacked on a donut later in the morning. It was super quiet upstairs because Janice was out, but I saw the other three a couple times. It was mostly Muad’Dib and me alone for most of the day though.

We took a late break to burn some points at McDonald’s before they expired, and then finished up the afternoon alone. It was slow getting back into tablet policies, but I really think working with the computer policies helped me get a grasp on Intune as a whole, and now I’ll be in a better position to implement this.

Summer worked late, so we stopped to see her on the way home. Then Dad called while I unboxed some things at home. He had the number of someone looking for a Fiero, and also wanted to try and get the Murano fixed up.

I cleaned up some more until Summer came home, and then we ate the healthiest thing I’d had all day for dinner – some fresh broccoli and ranch. I didn’t feel great the rest of the evening, but it was the normal kind of not great.

Summer cleaned up and I took Muad’Dib for a run to my parents’ house. Dad was out watering plants while Mom was inside, but then she came out and they were still split between the front and back, so I helped Mom in the back yard until he came back to help. Then Muad’Dib and I headed back home for a quick evening to bed.

Bleh!

Busy Morning

I waited to check on the squirrel until I was ready to walk out for work, and he was stiff. I laid him out in the grass since I didn’t have time to do much else with him, and we got to work. My next order of business was figuring out whether Summer wanted to order new phones. The Pixel 11 series had $600+ discounts on Fi, and after some back and forth, I got her the Pro XL, and the regular Pro for myself. I had also contacted Fi about them charging me for an extra protection plan for 21 months, and they refused to refund more than four months of it, so I contacted the attorney general to see if they could help.

Shortly after getting that done, I had a call with Aptean about our WMS. I wanted them to re-sell me on it, so I could better understand what we were sold in the first place, and figure out where we left off, and why it stopped in the first place. That call went well, and I even got an offer for a couple of those guys to come down to visit in person for no charge.

After that, Summer said she was leaving early and wanted to drive down for lunch, but I think more importantly, for beer. We ended up going to Yesterday’s for their patio, and had some decent lunch nachos. They tasted good, but it was just pork and cheese on chips. Some lettuce, tomato, onion, jalapeños, and sour cream would have really made them pop, especially for the price.

I stayed pretty busy after lunch too, working on a couple different things that had come to mee. Late in the afternoon got quiet, and then it was time to leave. We made it home just after Summer got back from the gym, and I buried the squirrel, then took care of several packages that Summer brought in. Luckily they were pretty much all put to use immediately, so there was nothing left to do after that.

I made some rice to finish up the potatoes and drippings from the roast, and then we sat on the couch for a bit as it rained. Muad’Dib really wanted to go out, so once the light rain quit, we went for a run to my parents’ house. I got minimally wet, and then we took an alternate route home, since it was uphill with less standing water. Summer was in bed, and I wrapped up quickly to try and get some more sleep than usual.

Sleep