Tag: family

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If the Boat’s a’ Rockin, Don’t Come a’ Dokkin

We only slept in a little this morning before trying to get the kids up and at it. Summer took Autumn to the gym while I went home to clean up. I loaded up some camp chairs and empty bottles for our trip to Magic Springs, then stopped by Lowe’s to pick up an order before making my way back up to the girls.

They were still cleaning up and getting ready to go, and I was too hungry to wait and eat after the drive, so I cooked a whole package of Petit Jean pepper bacon and we all made big bacon salads before we left. We finally hit the road pretty late in the afternoon, but I was determined to get us there.

We made it nearly to Centerville when I realized I didn’t grab our season passes. We probably could have gone through guest services to get in, but I didn’t want to drive all that way and chance it, so we made our way back home to get them, and then drove back down into Hot Springs. We wanted to eat at a phở place we saw last time just outside of Magic Springs, but when we got there it was closed and we didn’t even bother to get out to read the sign.

Summer did a quick search for restaurants and came across a hibachi place we had gone to before without the kids, so we made our way to the Osaka Japanese Steakhouse. I didn’t remember loving it the first time, and I felt like it was pretty overpriced this time, but everyone seemed satisfied enough. The service was a bit slow for me since I was already on edge about leaving late, then having to drive back for our passes.

We finished up pretty quickly and headed to Magic Springs to try and catch the main attraction. The park had closed down all the rides, and the openers had already finished their portion of the concert by the time we got down to the amphitheater. Fortunately the pandemic had most of the crowd gone, so we had our pick of where to sit.

I didn’t recognize a single song of theirs, but fortunately Summer did. At least she enjoyed it if no one else did. It wasn’t too hot and miserable out, so I enjoyed just going to a concert at all, but I still would have liked to have some more time in town.

There was hardly any traffic on the way out since attendance was so low. We made our way to the spring water fountain to fill up my bottles, and then hit the road. Summer started having nerve pains again, but she would have gone straight to bed regardless of that. Everyone but Eaddie was pretty tired since she was the only one to really sleep in late.

Wait… the lyric is “lucky!”

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Training Costs Extra

Autumn was able to finish imaging the teacher devices this morning, and then got most of my power adapters counted and boxed up for shipment. I arranged for pickup of all the depot claims I had ready to go out, and even helped a couple fussy people with their technology woes.

We took a late lunch at Cici’s, and it seemed like right as we sat down, Autumn started acting like she wasn’t feeling great. She ate a little bit, but wanted to go home for the afternoon, so I dropped her off at her house before going back to work.

Ben came over, and we had another conference call with Impero, which went only slightly better than yesterday. It turns out we’ve got a lot of work to do to get Clever to play nicely with their software, and exactly zero of us has any free time to dedicate to it.

I spent the rest of the afternoon straightening up a bit more before heading home to change, and then off to get Mark and his team switched over to G Suite. It turns out he had already initiated a trial but needed to confirm ownership of the domain, so the affiliate link was out, but the discount code still seemed to work. He kept wanting to do things for himself, which was both endearing and frustrating because I love getting to teach people new things, but it takes significantly longer to get things done because I’ve spent most of my life learning how to do what he’s hired me to do. There’s some combination of feeling like I’m burning time on the clock, and worry that the value of my time is being vastly underestimated. Most of my time was spent waiting for his old Outlook data to export, and we ended up having to put off importing it until the next day.

I headed up to Summer’s to meet them for dinner, where Autumn seemed to be feeling a little worse but still wanted to go back to my house for the evening “because her quilt was there.” I didn’t need an excuse to go back home, so after we ate, the girls started to get cleaned up and I went back home to wait for them.

Just as I got there, Summer called and said Autumn was having leg cramps and feeling extremely sick, so I went back up the hill instead. It seemed to me like another case of bad babysitting because she just simply didn’t take care of her body. It’s one of the most aggravating things to me because I want her to be healthy, but I can’t be bothered to micromanage every ounce of anything going into her body. If she hasn’t learned proper hydration and nutrition by the age of 15, then I don’t have the patience to rein her in now, nor the sympathy to put up with her declining health. I’m certainly not going to give her any attention in the hospital.

Once we got her a regimen of fluids for the evening, Summer and I sat down for an episode of Master of None before stopping to talk about our feelings for a bit. Then it was off to bed.

Yes. Turned out great. This is fine. Everything is fine.

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A Hot Day for Company

We got up this morning and the girls finished cleaning up for company. I found enough stuff in the refrigerator to make some chicken tacos for brunch, then ran home to clean up before Summer’s friend came over with her family.

I got back and helped patty hamburgers, but had to run to Walmart for some lettuce just as they arrived. When I got back, I took over grilling so everyone else could go catch up. The corn on the cob was taking a bit longer to cook, but then the whole grill caught on fire with all of the grease in the bottom. That would have to be a chore for another day, but the corn came out great.

The girls played a bit of Switch, then Autumn put on The Lorax. I think everyone had gotten pretty tired, and there wasn’t a whole lot of conversation. Autumn spent most of her time with the toddler.

Once they left and everything was cleaned up, I headed home to finally start my taxes. Summer dropped Eaddie off with her parents for a few days, then brought Autumn over for the evening. They watched TV while I scrambled around the house looking for my tax documents, and then I caught the end of Cool Runnings with them before bed.

Image party tomorrow!

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Rather Be Napping

Summer and I got up this morning and put together a big “everything” Italian loaf egg sandwich for breakfast. Autumn protested the eggs, but I convinced her to eat everything else by reminding her how many times she had gotten her way with food all week long.

As soon as we finished, I made Eaddie go outside to mow the lawn before it got any hotter. She didn’t do a great job of listening, and had to split the sweaty job with both Autumn and Summer, but I was glad to see Autumn volunteer. I got some bills paid and was going to go home to start on taxes, but just cleaned up a bit instead since I thought the girls would be staying the night.

I brought Summer’s string trimmer back with me and trimmed a little bit of the fence line before they all got back from shopping. They ended up making a pretty big supply run for her guests tomorrow. We all picked at some leftovers for dinner, and then Summer prepped some things for that while I put on Firefly.

Autumn went bowling with a girlfriend and her family, and I had to go pick her up when they finished. By the time we got back and settled in, it was too late to really go down to my house. Eaddie had already been asleep in bed for a while, but I bribed her out with an ice cream run.

We went to Sonic first, but were turned away because their ice cream machine was down. Then we went to Dairy Queen and spent even more on a couple Blizzards. Everyone was off to bed when we got back, and I spent a little time snoozing while Summer watched TV before we finally went to bed.

Nervous poops?

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Aye Captain

I dropped Autumn off with Summer this morning so she could do something besides sit around the house while I got ready for work. Summer ended up needing the help anyway, so it worked out at the expense of running late myself.

We had our work cut out for us today, to a much greater extent than I expected. I started out having Autumn file warranty claims while I bounced between servicing other devices and troubleshooting my task sequence for faculty devices.

Just before lunch, Zach called and said they were getting kicked out of the kitchen area and the other half of the cafeteria at Gardner, so they had to bring me the rest of my teacher devices. I didn’t really have room for them either, but we did our best to carve out a hole. I still have a bunch of new monitors sitting in the hallway for Ethan’s eight additional lab computers.

Obama’s been gone so long that
America’s all out of change.

As soon as we finished there, we went to Popeye’s to pick up some chicken for lunch. We got to Summer just before a huge storm hit, and we ate with her. Ronda showed up for an oil change on our way out, so we stopped to talk with her a bit, then made it back to the high school. We ran into a shotgun pattern of warranty expiration dates when filing claims, which had me super stressed. In the end, they’re all just extra devices anyway, so I guess it doesn’t matter. It’s all garbage, and I don’t really care if it fails because I know it’s not any fault of ours.

We worked pretty late, and I still never got a functioning faculty image made, but I think I may have figured out why. I won’t know until I get to try my new media tomorrow morning. It’s Friday though, and everyone has chosen to work at 8am. I took off last Friday, so tomorrow is my first full scheduled eight hour day since before the pandemic started. I’ve actually worked plenty longer than that by choice, but somehow actually being scheduled for it feels worse.

Summer got off early and went to the gym, so Autumn and I ran by the graveyard to quickly check for any treasure. Then we went home so I could quickly change before going to Walmart for dinner supplies. They had a ton of Petit Jean pepper bacon marked down pretty significantly, so of course I bought all of it.

When we got back to their house, Summer and Eaddie were up in arms about all the things Eaddie hadn’t done at home all day. It took us a while to get our rotisserie chicken wraps going because I had to get in Eaddie’s face about it. I couldn’t fathom rebutting not completing any chores because I had nothing to do all day. That was just stupid, and she knew it.

Dinner was great, and at least felt healthy. Autumn went to her room and passed right out, and Eaddie turned her attitude around to get some things done in her room. She even seemed to be in a good mood about it.

I guess sometimes you’ve just gotta take a hollering.

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Accounted

Autumn came to work with me again today, and we finally got most of the old lease boxed up and ready to ship. I spent most of my time trying to account for every serial number that Lenovo expects to receive back. We did a pretty good job of sorting everything out, but it wasn’t until I got some feedback from the library staff that we really had everything accounted for.

We went to Cici’s for lunch since I had another BOGO. Then we stopped by the shop to catch up a bit. With all the older, purchased devices I’ll be shipping back, I’ll actually be keeping quite a few of the old leased devices as a sly upgrade.

We finished up at the high school and then came back to my house for just a little bit. It was then that I realized the new leaf blower I bought did not use the same battery from my lawn mower like I expected. Failing that, we headed out to pick up Eaddie, then went to my parents’ house for some leftovers.

I got the girls food, then let Autumn swim while I finished up some super-veggie spring rolls. They were basically the plant version of sausage in a casing. Fiber for days.

On the way back home, we stopped to get Summer some food from Tropical Smoothie since she had a long day, and I watched a couple episodes of The Punisher with Eaddie before bed.

Well that blows.

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Lowering the Standards

I stopped by Casey’s this morning to grab my free slice of pizza before it expired. Then it was a solo day at the high school, all day long. I put on some tunes and crunched through over 100 laptops with higher levels of damage, and pulled out the small handful that would need to be repaired, and boxed up the rest that just had heavier cosmetic damage so they could be shipped back to Lenovo.

Nobody reached out about lunch, so I worked straight through with half a Soylent. That’s something I’ve been wanting to get back into, but haven’t had the opportunity either because of social eating, or because Autumn was with me.

At the end of the day, I stopped by central office to sign my contract, then visited the shop to see what everyone else had been up to all day. There was a huge pile of iPads in the floor, so I guess that was my answer.

On the way out, I stopped by Casey’s again for a free cookie, then by Summer’s shop to see her. She would be leaving soon for the gym, so I headed home to change before meeting her back at my parents’ house for dinner.

Mom made phở out of some leftover beef from spring rolls and frozen broth. Then I took a bunch of plants to Bác Vân’s house before heading to Summer’s for the evening.

The girls were finally back home, and Summer said she was hoodwinked about Autumn going skydiving. I guess I wasn’t really surprised to hear of the 18-year age requirement, but I hadn’t considered it before. The girls must have all been pretty tired, because they all disappeared to their rooms pretty quickly. I took the opportunity to get to bed a bit early myself.

103 down; ??? to go!

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Cleankering

We slept in pretty late today, which was a great recharge. I made tuna croissant sandwiches for lunch, and then Summer went to the gym and home to clean up. I played a little Overwatch, then cleaned and tinkered randomly around the house until Summer got back.

We went to my parents’ house for spring rolls for dinner. Julie was late even though she was the one that decided on the time. It wouldn’t have mattered, but Mom was super worried that she had fallen asleep and wasn’t going to come over.

When we got back home, I started some laundry while Summer watched a cake show. Then I got the cat box cleaned up before bed.

Three-day weekends should be standard.

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From Womb to Tomb

Summer took the girls to meet up with their father today while I cleaned and tinkered at the house. Eventually she came back over and we went to my parents’ house for some dinner.

Evidently Autumn went skydiving, and we didn’t learn about it until after the fact. I don’t think either of us really minded except that we didn’t learn that it was even a possibility until after the fact. It’s possible I was more upset about it than Summer.

After dinner, we came back home and watched Cloud Atlas. It was pretty tough to keep up at first, and it was more impressive how many characters each actor portrayed than anything than anything else. After three hours, we decided we liked it, but I’m not sure I’d watch it again. Just another one checked off my list.

I ended the evening tinkering with my TeamSpeak Sinus bot some more, and managed to get YouTube search and streaming to work. I just don’t understand how something so well designed and refined can have such completely absent documentation.

Our lives are not our own. we are bound to others, past and present. And by each crime and every kindness, we birth our future.

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Opinions Are Like Family

Summer had to work this morning, so I let the girls sleep in a little while before showering and taking them to my parents’ house for the day. Julie was already there swimming with some friends, so we went in to meet with Chellie and Phil. Dad invited them over to learn a bit about film and print photography.

Julie had picked up some Popeye’s for us for lunch, so we had a little to eat before I sent the girls out to swim. They were a bit shy to get out there because of how much noise Julie and her two friends were making, and Eaddie wasn’t super excited to swim in the first place. I just laid on the couch inside and dozed off a little between apneas.

Eventually I got a grill going and pattied some hamburgers. I managed to fit all of the corn, four types of tubed meat, and some burgers on one grill. The more impressive part was that I finished cooking everything and toasting buns just as the last of the charcoal turned to warm ash.

The food was good, but somehow Julie got onto some tirade about racism. Lelan showed up at one point for just a few minutes, and Summer eventually showed up late after work. It was all a bit more excitement than I could really stand.

On the way home, I stopped by to see if Grant was cooking so I could talk to him about a possible catering job. It was just Felix hanging outside talking to a friend, so I headed on home. Autumn put on Coco much to Eaddie’s umbrage. Summer went straight to bed, so I played a couple rounds of Overwatch with Clint. Then I finished the night with an episode of The Punisher with Eaddie.

A Dothraki wedding family reunion without at least three deaths is considered a dull affair.