Tag: dog

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Politique

I slept a little later than usual today since the cybersecurity conference at the Statehouse Convention Center didn’t actually kick off until about 8:30. I got to the garage and parked a few spaces away from the non-working charger, then walked a couple blocks to the convention. I don’t know if the walk and then sudden stop got my blood pressure twisted, but I had a small anxiety attack as I stopped in the restroom. Then I found the proper registration booth and waited for Randy and Kyle. I texted Ben to see if he was coming, and he was actually the first to show up. We found the piles of Chick-fil-A biscuits for breakfast, and eventually seated ourselves in the back for the worst “who is this really for” conference I’ve ever attended.

Brody showed up a little later and found us as we sat through multiple boring presenters, telling us the importance of sharing the importance of cybersecurity. Then they served lunch a couple doors down the hall. They had salads and cheesecake out on open tables, and we only occupied about half the seats at our table, so I had two salads and a cheesecake before the main course of chicken and potatoes came out. Then I finished with another slice of cheesecake and some coffee.

We decided to check out the Forge Institute session upstairs for the afternoon, and it wasn’t a whole lot better. It was all about “AI” and security theories for that. They actually had some vendors up there as well, so I got a couple things from the Fortinet booth before we went back downstairs. We took in one last panel, and Randy and I both grabbed a bunch more leftover biscuits, and we eventually left a little early.

The drive home was pretty easy at that time and from that side of town. There was more in-town driving, anyway, and less psycho interchange traffic. I stopped at the wash to see Summer, then went by the old house for a few things before heading home. I stopped to chat with Clay, who was out in the street. Then I called Mitch and chatted with him for the rest of the drive to the house.

Summer was a little behind, so I took the dogs out for a quick run. They were great, and we were really cooking on the Onewheel. I hit a max speed of over 18 miles per hour multiple times, and they did a pretty great job of sticking together with only a few short stops. We beat Summer home because I thought we would be going out to get dinner, but she took a bath and I warmed up some pizza for her instead.

Eaddie was out helping at a concert, then came home to practice flute for a bit. I didn’t waste much time getting to bed, because last night was a pretty poor night of sleep for me. There’s more conference tomorrow, and if they’re not going to teach me anything, at least they’re filling my fridge with free sodas.

Review ’til you drop.

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Mudpuppies

Eaddie went out with her father today, so Summer and I had the day to ourselves. She went to the gym while I messed with some things around the house and eventually took a shower. Then we decided to take the dogs out for an early run. I got some shock collars in from Amazon Vine that I wanted to try out, so I got them set up first while Summer prepped a bicycle. Then she rode it while I took the Onewheel with the dogs.

We rode to visit Mom first, and she offered leftover soup for dinner later if we would pick up some cilantro and green onion. Summer and I continued our ride down to the basin, which she wasn’t even aware existed. We rode all around and let the dogs get into the little pond again. It seemed even muddier than last time for some reason, and Muad’Dib was stoked to be able to sink into it. I didn’t want them to go too far, and I also didn’t want to unleash them. The shock collars were theoretically water resistant, but I didn’t trust them to be submerged, so I took those off.

After a bit of rolling around, we continued our run and made it home. I got cleaned up, then Julie called so she could order some discounted Domino’s gift cards for me. She had trouble with Costco online, but eventually got it going. Then I had to run to the Neighborhood Market for some cilantro. I got the dogs some more biscuits as well, and then Summer was waiting for me outside when I got back to the house. That meant I forgot to get the green onions out of our refrigerator, so once we got to my parents’ house, she drove back to get them while I helped Mom prep bowls of soup.

Dad got home from his magic convention while Summer and I were eating. Eaddie came home while we were out, and then texted because someone knocked on the door and freaked her out, so we headed home as soon as we finished eating. We didn’t see any extra packages or flyers, so there was no telling who was at the door. I need to finish tracing the doorbell wire so I can get my Nest doorbell installed.

Summer wound down pretty quickly, and I tried my best not to get too distracted. It’s always tough restricting myself to a 24-hour day during the week. I think I’d be a lot happier on a 30-hour planetary rotation.

Bzzzt!

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Good Buy Pizza Pie

I didn’t sleep terribly late today, and hand-ground some coffee for breakfast. The girls were both up pretty early, so Summer went to the gym and Eaddie did some cleaning before her evening plans for the Sadie’s dance. Julie texted asking to borrow a phone for Kevin after he ran his over with a lawnmower, so I spent much of the afternoon cleaning up my Galaxy S21 Ultra for them.

Once the phone was wiped, I took the dogs out for a run through the neighborhood. We stopped to see Mom, and then went up the hill and through Pinewood before making it back home. Then Julie and Kevin came over to get the phone, and I gave Julie an iPad Mini to use when she’s flying.

Summer and I hadn’t eaten all day, so I ordered some Domino’s and we went to pick it up together. They were super busy, so we ended up waiting in the parking lot for a while before I went in to get it. Then we took it to Mom to surprise her with dinner. We ate and then headed home for the evening.

Get to it.

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Dirt Doggers

I took it a little easier in to work today since I got out of the house on time. I was the first one in, and then Gary came through cursing Maggie because of some other miscommunication outside of our office. She actually walked in right after that, and they went to resolve that nonsense for the time being. After that, it was just the two of us in the office for most of the day, and I think that’s just how it’s going to be.

She really wanted to go to Texas Roadhouse for lunch since they had a special lunch menu, and they’re only open for lunch on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I would have preferred to go to Skinny J’s again for their $10 melt, but she wasn’t excited by that idea. I was disappointed in my chicken fried steak, which had white gravy that tasted super sweet for some reason. I was surprised at the size of the steak, but it was mostly breading. The chili was okay, but could have been warmer. Overall, I think I just don’t like their food as a company.

It was really tough to hang on the rest of the afternoon with Randy gone. I finished building a new virtual machine for our HVAC, but had to stop in the middle of the SQL server installation since I didn’t know what they’d actually need. Quitting time eventually rolled around, and I didn’t waste any time getting out of there.

I thought I’d stop by the old house first, but then I saw Kevin’s car at AT&T, and an otherwise empty parking lot, so I decided to stop in and chat. Nicole stopped me first for a hug, and I talked to Brandon for a bit as well. Kevin was consumed by a solitaire game on his iPad because business was so slow. This may be the beginning of the end for wireless retail.

We chatted for a while, and then Brandon offered some possum pie from Stoby’s. I had a slice of that, then walked with Kevin while he took out the trash before leaving. When I finally made it home, the Model Y was down to 5%, which I think was the lowest either of us had ever drained it.

I changed right away and then took the dogs out for a really good run. We stopped to visit with Mom, and then went around the basin. There was another lady walking ahead of us, so we diverted and went to the back side by the remaining pond. I let the dogs trudge through the mud there, and Muad’Dib was surprisingly excited by it. Stilgar sunk down like an alligator, and when I pulled them out, Muad’Dib got the zoomies. Not just the zoomies, but the jumpies and rollies too. He would take off running and then dive into the ground and roll. He was like that for basically the rest of the run. As we got up to the last straight stretch home, they both took off in a sprint, and we made it up the hill.

Once I had things cleaned up, I gave them a hot dog and fed them some food. I was pretty exhausted just from the week of little sleep, so I jumped straight on the computer to hammer out a blog entry, and then it was off to bed.

Christmas in the Amazon

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Handy Dandy NotebookLM

I read an article this morning about NotebookLM that made me take another look. The AI voices were incredible, and I’d heard tale of “breathing” in other applications. I drove to work and forgot about it for a while, as I mostly looked for work to be done. Randy and I went to Skinny J’s to meet Ben for lunch, and they had their shrimp pasta on special for less than half price. I also got their “Reuben eggrolls” appetizer, which somehow got to us after our main course again, just to sample both sides of my heritage at once. They were delicious, as was the pasta, and I think I can make them at home without too much trouble.

We visited for a while, and then headed back to the office. I was left to my own devices again, so I circled back to NotebookLM and plugged in my blog to see what I would get. It was pretty amazing to hear two podcast-format hosts talk about me. It didn’t get everything right, and it clearly made some things up entirely, but overall it was super impressive.

After work, it was a slow drive home due to slow traffic nearly the entire way. I immediately took the dogs out for a long walk on an extended route. Then I unboxed some more Amazon Vine stuff before winding down for bed.

AIpitaph

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Cafeteria Dumplings

I actually made it to work about a minute early today, which meant I was the first one in the building. I continued rearranging devices in PRTG, and helped Randy with anything that he had going on. After a little while, he took me to the annex to hunt down some old cameras to try and repurpose them for a classroom. I grabbed a few things from scrap there, and then we headed back to the office.

I was super excited that we had ice and water back again, so I stayed hydrated today. I ate an old, giant cheesecake that had been in the fridge a while, and then we had to get on a conference call with Acer to hear about their Chromebooks. Afterward, Maggie and I went to Cracker Barrel for lunch, where the food was good, but the service was awful. I don’t know if she was overwhelmed, or just bad at her job, but we had actually finished our food before we even got our appetizer.

The afternoon was super relaxed as well. Randy left a little early, and then Maggie left, and even I left a few minutes early so I could be home in time for the dinner that Summer was making. It was some kind of shredded chicken, spinach, and mushroom cooked in canned soup or something, which we ate over rice. It tasted a little bit like the dumplings I had, but mostly reminded me of cafeteria food.

After we ate, I took the dogs out for a longer run to my parents’ house, and then through the basin. They were really good again, so once we got back to the house, I broke up a hot dog for them, which they absolutely loved. Summer also made cake, so we ate some of that before getting cleaned up for the night. Eli was there for dinner and helped Eaddie finish her musical instrument project. Once everyone else was wound down, I made my way to bed earlier than usual.

Biscuits and cornbread!

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Switch it Up

Summer wanted to take the Tesla to Little Rock today, so I had to take the Murano. It got me there much more stressed than usual, and I did not arrive feeling bright-eyed and bushy-tailed as usual. I think if it hadn’t been so quiet and relaxed in the office all day, I would have been far more tired. I snacked a bit in the morning, so I wasn’t super hungry by lunch. Nobody came around to eat anyway, so I ended up going down the road to Louisiana Famous Fried Chicken to get something to eat by myself.

This place was an old Hardee’s with some new colors. For being such a targeted restaurant name, they had a strange mix of stuff. They had fried chicken on the bone, gumbo, jambalaya, fried rice. It was kind of wild. There was a nice black lady at the counter that had no problem scolding the sketchy, jittery fellow that didn’t quite get all of his trash into the can on his way out. In the back were a couple of brown guys, but I couldn’t tell what kind. They didn’t quite look Indian, but maybe Bangladeshis. I’m working with limited international experience.

I got jambalaya with some fried okra, and both tasted good, but the jambalaya didn’t look anything like the picture. It seemed to be missing some sausage, among other things. The shrimp in it was tasty though. I left a little bit hungry through, having gone à la carte, so I grabbed some fries from McDonald’s across the street on the way back to the office.

Maggie brought her daughter to the office after a dentist appointment, so the lights were out for nearly the entire day. I added all of the switches to PRTG manually, since the automatic scans just produced a bunch of other trash. I ended up leaving late because I got a call from Progressive about our auto claim. Evidently I should have just called GEICO directly instead of dealing with our insurance, since I wasn’t at fault. Later on the stressful drive home, I got a call from GEICO to get the claim started on their end.

I had felt a bit gurgly all day, so I took a break when I got home, and then took the dogs for a run to my parents’ house to eat. Summer watched a couple movies on the couch while I was gone, and then I sat outside with the dogs for a while when we got back. I got them some new food that was on sale on Amazon, and then cleaned up the kitchen a bit before bed.

This is incane.

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Do Not Be Alarmed

I was a little late to work today, but I passed Randy along the way, and he was groggy anyway. Strangely enough, I’ve got the hour drive to wake up, so I arrive all bushy-tailed. Nobody jumped into anything right away, but I poked at PRTG some more. Then I got an email reminder from Ben that he was leading an APSRC call, so I hopped on that to listen in. It was all the same stuff that everyone has been screaming at us for years, but evidently a lot of people don’t even know their districts are members of the APSRC, so they wanted to highlight themselves as a resource.

Time flew by pretty quickly, and we went to Cotham’s for lunch. I almost can’t resist the hubcap burger there. I could normally take or leave a burger at a restaurant, just because I can make one at home for a fraction of the price, but there’s something special about the hubcap.

As we left, a girl came up to me to say that she had hit the Tesla. I hate that the alarm notification on my phone sounds exactly like every other notification, so I didn’t even realize something was wrong. I got out to look, and sure enough, she left a big, black streak across the front driver-side corner. We exchanged insurance information and phone numbers, and then Jim guided me back to the office “the slow way.” It was interesting to see some of those quieter roads that I’d never really traveled before, and to see how they connect to the places that I had.

The afternoon went by quickly as well. I took a bunch of pictures and filed an insurance claim. Otherwise it was almost more social than work until quitting time. I headed straight to the old house to get some things, then stopped by Superfast to show Summer the damage to her car. It wasn’t awful, but there may be some broken clips where the bottom of the bumper is out of place slightly.

On the way home, Mom called and offered bún thang, so we dropped the Tesla off to charge and then I drove Summer over there to eat. The soup was still frozen, so Dad took me outside to fly the DJI FPV. He said he had flown it up high over our house and up the mountain to John’s, so I took it up towards our house and lost the signal. It came back though, and we recovered it without any trouble. I got it up to just over 60mph and buzzed overhead before circling around and landing a couple times.

Summer was inside finishing up some work on her laptop. I helped assemble bowls and we ate quickly so I could get home to run the dogs. Eli was still there helping Eaddie with a project. Summer got ready for bed, and I took the dogs out for a run in the dark. Stilgar was significantly more rambunxious, but we made it back home alive. The kids finished up, and I did my best to make it to bed for as close to seven hours of sleep as I could.

I just… I have to have my few minutes in the bed watching my show.

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Not My Band

I was the first one up this morning, but Summer was right behind me. I made some coffee for us, and then we cleaned up a bit more while Eaddie left for church with Eli. She wanted us to go to a Tech Symphonic Wind Ensemble concert in the afternoon, and we had some other errands to run as well, so Summer and I got ready to go by the time she got back.

Our first stop was Diana’s for the open house. We met her realtor, who knew us by name, and we got to show Eaddie the house. There wasn’t anyone else around, and we weren’t sure it was going to be very popular based on the location. Diana saw us on camera and made a comment about my Eagles shirt, and then we were off to Tech for the concert.

It was a long, but good show. I enjoyed the songs more than I typically do, but at this point I hate going to high school band concerts. It’s always way better going to the competitive ones that Eaddie is a part of. She had to stay for practice in the youth ensemble afterward, so Summer and I left her to go get dinner at Mulan’s. Then we went to Walmart for a few more things, Zaxby’s to get some food for Eaddie, and finally Casey’s for free coffee day before making it back home.

The sun was going down quickly, so I left the girls to go get gas while I ran the dogs. We went a bit backwards from our usual route, ending up at my parents’ house to visit with Dad briefly before coming back home. We settled in quickly, and it’s back to working sleep deprivation for me.

Imagine complaining about communism at a Chinese buffet.

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Pizza and Dogs

I woke up around one or two in the morning to the dogs going absolutely berzerk right outside the bedroom, so I yelled at them through the side door. They would run into my line of sight, and then immediately run away again, so I had to grab a flashlight and follow them to see what all the commotion was about. In the distance, I could see two glowing eyes of a medium-sized possum, terrified and motionless as they barked at it. I shooed the dogs away and hoped it would scurry off, but it just sat there motionless. I ended up grabbing a shovel and scooping it up against the fence. It started to waddle a little bit, and climbed up the rabbit wire we placed to keep the dogs in, but it wouldn’t go any farther than that. I had to scoop it up and carry it out the front gate, where it slowly trundled off into the night.

Summer let me sleep in a while, and then I got up and started to pick up in the kitchen. I warmed up the leftover fried chicken for her so she could go out and mow the lawn, and then I took a shower so we could go to the store. I was craving Cici’s, so we went there to eat first. I thought the food was pretty good today. Afterward, we went to Walmart for a relatively big shopping trip, since we hadn’t been in a long time.

When we finally got back home, I took the dogs out for another good run. They were a bit more excitable than the past couple days, but they did alright. We stopped by my parents’ house, and then went up the hill again to get back home. They got some food, and then I came in to rewatch WandaVision with Summer until she was off to bed.

Roll back!