Tag: family

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Aw, Shucks!

Gary called us all to the shop this morning in Ben’s absence, and arranged for the whole crew to unbox student laptops at the high school. For some reason Zach kept wanting to just hand-load the laptops onto the trucks instead of getting maintenance to use the forklift, but thankfully in the end we had it done right. Chris drove the forklift over and kept talking about how much of a real man he was for being able to load the pallets for us.

We ended up sitting right inside the back doors to shuck boxes, since we had to take the trash back out anyway. Then we wheeled carts full of laptops into my office and under the cubbies.

Most of us went to La Chiquita for a super fast lunch. We were all pretty tired and drenched in sweat already from the humidity, but lunch was a good break. Afterward was finishing up more of the same, and then Gary and Josh stayed to help finish up a couple mini pallets that were already rolled up to my office.

When we left, Autumn and I stopped by Casey’s for the freebie of the day, and then I dropped her off at her house before going home to change. Ronda called and said that they were driving through Searcy and saw Michael on the side of the road. They hydroplaned and totaled their car, and the cops were already on the scene to help. I finally got a hold of him to confirm everyone was okay and that someone was on the way to pick them up.

After chilling out a bit at home, I went to my parents’ house for a dip in the pool. Then I finished up the last of the eggplant soup before heading up to Summer’s for the evening. We caught an episode of Master of None before bed since the girls were both off in their rooms.

Sweat dreams are made of these…

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Everything of Something, and a Little of Everything

I got up this morning and went home to clean up before coming back to pick up Summer and Autumn. We made it down to the Children’s Hospital with plenty of time to spare, so I tried to redeem a free meal from Taco Bell while I waited. Evidently so were millions of other people, so both the website and the app were down.

Fortunately it wasn’t long before the girls were done, so I got them and we drove across town to our first Target on University. They had a few Philips light switches and motion sensors left on clearance, so I bought them out. Then we stopped by Big Orange Burger for some lunch. Autumn was trying to avoid a burger with an egg on it, and somehow she managed to order the only hamburger that came with an egg on it. I still can’t even.

After lunch, we went by the Splash main office so Summer could pick up a check. Jeff gave me a handful of Splash gift cards, and sent us on our way.

We had to drive way across Little Rock to get to the Target on Chenal, where I picked up way more Philips stuff. They didn’t have theirs marked down or moved to a clearance rack, but I lucked out and they all rang up at the clearance price.

With my Operation: Spend All My Money complete, we headed toward home and stopped at Sam’s in Conway to spend more money. This time it was mostly essentials, and I took the opportunity to stock up on some meats in case COVID gets really bad as things keep opening up. Then it was back home.

We stopped to get Summer’s car, and we both went to get some gas. Then I ran home to do some chores while they went back to their house. I had forgotten that I had to do some laundry, so I got my load of socks going, changed my furnace air filter, and tinkered with a motion sensor.

When I finally got to Summer’s, Autumn helped me split up the bulk meat we bought, then I had some of the chicken dinner she made for everyone. Summer was already in bed not feeling well, so I stayed up and tinkered with a Sinus server for Johnny and the rest of the gang to use on my TeamSpeak server. It looks like a pretty robust piece of software, and I’m surprised there wasn’t better documentation for the initial setup. I managed to get most of it figured out though. I’ll have to tinker more with it later.

They couldn’t think of any better names?

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Wood You Look at That

I took a couple personal days this week so they wouldn’t turn into pumpkins sick days at the end of the month, but I forgot to turn my alarm off for this morning. Overall I think I was satisfied with the amount of sleep I got, and I still beat the kids awake anyway.

I got up and had some leftover breakfast pizza, then played some Overwatch. Eventually Noah woke up and we finished District 9. I woke Eaddie up, and before long Autumn came home with Subway for lunch for all three of them.

The afternoon slipped by pretty quickly, and after minimal fussing at the kids to clean up the house, I just had to get home to try and be a little productive myself. I spent the majority of my time there cleaning off my computer desk, and I finally managed to get down to bare wood in at least one place.

As the night quickly approached, I made my way back up to Summer’s, had some leftover rice and chicken for dinner, and played some more Overwatch until Summer got off the phone with Aunt Beth. We caught up a little bit until it was time for her to go to bed. Then I was going to stay up and watch an episode of The Punisher, but the kids lost the remote and none of them wanted to hunt it down. Instead, I subdued my rage with a few rounds of Overwatch, then went to bed.

Therapy is not a substitute for effective communication at home.

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Taco ’bout a Party

We got up this morning and pretty immediately started prepping for Eaddie’s birthday lunch. I prepped vegetables, then got the chicken started in the Instant Pot, and it finished cooking shortly after everyone arrived.

The chicken tacos turned out amazing, and Summer had all of her dressings for them out and ready to go. Nick brought his new girlfriend Robin along, and it was a pretty quick lunch shindig before the opening of a few presents.

When everyone left, I headed out to spend some time at home. I tinkered with my Kobalt cabinet again, and got the doors to close a bit better after some leveling. I got a little cleaned up inside, played a bit of Overwatch, and spent a bit more time trying to configure Plex. I think I’m about ready to start up a rack server for some of that stuff, but that will take some excavation.

As the evening came, some guy rang my doorbell looking for signatures on a petition to remove the county from the list of counties eligible for a casino. I forget how many signatures he said they needed, but I hope it helps.

Eventually I made it back up to Summer’s for the evening. Noah was there, and we watched an episode of Black Mirror before putting Summer to bed. Then the three of us watched the first half of District 9 before Noah and I were ready for some sleep. Eaddie quietly turned 13 and wandered off to her room as well.

Fookin prawns.

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Bring Your Daughter to Work Day

Autumn wanted to go to work with me today, so I let her come help with the laptop processing. She ended up being a huge help, and even spent less time griping about the work than Heather. Having her there filled the little gaps where Heather and I were previously tripping over each other. The downside to that improved efficiency was that there was basically no downtime at all. We were basically moving the entire day, so we pretty much finished sorting all the laptops out.

Ben texted that they were heading to Bocadillos for lunch, so I took Autumn there instead of Chick-fil-A where she had been asking to go all morning. We’ll probably end up there tomorrow to make up for it. I wasn’t even hungry, but ate anyway and ended up regretting it. I really kind of preferred just working straight through lunch.

At the end of the day, Ben stopped by to see our progress and chat for a bit. The logistics of getting 875 laptops to the junior high are still a bit daunting, and there are a lot of options on how to handle which laptops will be returned for the lease. At least I can take comfort in knowing I still have some time left to file the warranty claims.

Autumn and I headed to my house to change, then went to Walmart to pick up some stuff for dinner. She made both teriyaki and Buffalo sauces for some chicken and rice. I helped a bit, and made some broccoli to green things up a bit.

When Summer got home from the gym, we ate and then packed up to head to my house for the evening. We had to stop by her parents’ house first to meet her sister and niece. Eaddie decided to bail on us and stayed the night there, so Autumn came back with us and we watched an episode of Game of Thrones before bed.

What do we say to one more episode?
“Not today.”

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Squatsville

Today was day two of the great laptop imaging race of 2020. We found our stride a bit quicker this time, and got up to around 600 laptops done. I also discovered that the warranty is good until the middle of August for most of our laptops, which was a tremendous relief.

After work, I went home to decompress for just a little bit before meeting the girls at my parents’ house for dinner. Autumn and I went out for a short swim before dinner while Mom finished the eggplant soup. Eaddie and I ate soup, and Summer and Autumn had some leftovers instead.

Eventually we made it up to Summer’s for the evening. I got a massive cramp in the front of my right thigh, which seemed like a really weird place to cramp. I figured it was from the two days worth of squats moving laptops around. I still prefer that to the hundred depot laptop claims I’ll have to file.

Ten, twenty, thirty, forty, fifty, or more!

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Impromptu Father’s Day

Julie was on vacation, so Summer and I decided planned a quick and easy Father’s Day lunch with my parents. She baked a bunch of bacon while I baked potatoes to make a twice-baked potato casserole. Then we took that along with the smoked turkey over to my parents’ house.

It was a pretty quick, late lunch, but everything was really good. The cold turkey was awesome on the potato bread buns. After lunch, I dropped Summer back off at home so she could do some chores, then I went home to do a little of the same.

Eventually Summer came over for the evening with some Sonic Blasts, and we watched some Forged in Fire until bedtime.

That sounds too much like a Disney villain.

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Post up and Roll Out

We all slept pretty well last night after such a long day. As soon as Dad was free, I met him at my house to replace the wooden support posts by the front door. It was so hot and humid, but we made relatively short work of it, and I think it looked pretty good.

I cooled off a while inside while Summer and the girls went to get supplies together, then I met them at my parents’ house to swim for a bit before dinner.

Julie came over, and Mom spent all morning getting things together for beef spring rolls. Even Autumn did well with an alternative meal of beef and noodles with some vegetables since she didn’t care for the rice paper. Then Mom made strawberry shakes for dessert.

We poked around the house for a little bit after dinner, and I tried out my old Ninja Turtles suspenders that I never actually wore during my childhood because I hated suspenders. Then we all headed back up to Summer’s for the evening.

In hindsight, maybe we should have measured the distance between pillars.

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COVID Springs and Corona Falls

I got up as early as I could will myself out of bed this morning and got ready for a day out of town. The girls were ready and waiting for me, so I picked them up and we stopped at Arby’s for lunch before hitting the road. We ate at the park across the street, then I had to send off some pirate mail, and finally we were off to Magic Springs.

The drive always seems faster than Little Rock just because it’s more fun going through the mountains. Summer informed me an hour into the drive that she didn’t bring her swim suit, so we stopped by Walmart in the Village so she could buy another one. They didn’t have a great selection, but we pieced one together that worked well.

The parking lot seemed absolutely packed when we got to Magic Springs, but I got pretty lucky with a spot close to the gate. We made our way through the season pass processing for Autumn, got all of our souvenir bottles, and started down the hill toward the roller coasters. We got down to the bottom and realized that they had signs up on a lot of the rides that masks were required, and they didn’t hand any out at the front, so we had to walk all the way back up to the car.

By that time, we were all so hot that we just wanted to go to the water park, so we rented a locker and got changed, then made our way around to the lazy river. That thing was packed to capacity, and they were limiting people to one loop at a time since there was a line of people waiting for tubes. I never could really figure out why they offered tube rentals, since they have tubes available at all the slides. They weren’t allowed in the wave pool, so I don’t even know where else they were relevant.

Eaddie got a nose bleed on a trip to the restrooms, so I hung out with her for a while, then Autumn and I went to go get some drinks. They loaded two $5 coupons on each of our passes as a means of compensation since they refused to refund anyone due to the pandemic. I assumed it was $10 that spent like cash, but it was a use or lose it in one transaction. The girl at the counter was so nice that she ended up just giving us four drinks for free so I didn’t have to go back for money or burn my coupons.

We spent a little time in the wave pool, then did another water slide before changing and going back to the roller coasters. It was much cooler by that time in the afternoon, and we had a pretty good time. Pretty much nobody was social distancing though, so I’m pretty certain we all have COVID now. We could hear the concert in the background, but none of us had any interest in staying late for some fellow named Zach Williams.

By the end of the day we had all worked up some pretty good appetites, so I found a restaurant called Colorado Grill. We made our way across town and had some of the best chips and salsa I’ve ever had. The fajitas were amazing, and the girls had a couple huge burritos that looked really great too. Our fajitas came with some barbecue ribs on top that seemed kind of pointless. I would have preferred more fajita stuff, especially after I rolled a saucy rib down my shirt and onto my pants.

On the way out of town, we stopped by the fountain to fill up some water bottles. Shelby spotted me and stopped to say hi, and then we headed straight home and off to bed.

I knew we should have stopped for a funnel cake.

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First Swim (2020 Edition)

Somehow I managed to sleep in until almost noon today. Summer had already left the house and returned with Burger King for lunch. The girls really wanted to go swim, so we got up and rolled out to my house for some quick chores and to pick up swim suits. Then we went to my parents’ house for a swim.

We timed it just about right for lots of shade, and the water was a nice temperature. I think the girls got a little cold in it though, which prompted them to get out sooner than they would otherwise. Mom spent the whole time power washing things, with Dad running around behind her.

Eventually we loaded back up to go home for dinner. We stopped by Hannah and Dylan’s to drop off the baby cow chair I got for their new little one, and ended up chatting for a bit longer than I expected. Then it was back to my house to drop off towels, and up to Summer’s for the evening.

Summer got to work putting together stuff for berry chicken salads, and we ate pretty quickly while the girls showered. Then I fought slow internet to get something done for work. It didn’t take long at all for everyone to run off to their rooms for bed.

Thank God for killing that half million people. I really needed a break.