Tag: family

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Done in the Sun

Today was day two, or three if you count the seniors a couple weeks ago, of sitting out in the sun collecting student laptops. Yesterday was slow, but today was slower most of the day. We did get a couple rushes that made up for it, but there are still a ton of devices left to be returned.

I started the morning with Gary, then got Zach, and Ben for a little bit in the afternoon. We had Stoby’s again for lunch since evidently it was convenient and easy. I had the same Cajun pasta with broccoli, but this time I remembered to ask for cheese dip.

We stayed pretty busy at the end, so it took me another half hour to get packed up and get out of there. I went home for just a little bit to take a cool shower, and then Autumn called asking if I could take her shopping for stuff to make dinner. It wasn’t until I actually got up to their house that she said their father was coming to dinner.

Walmart was pretty busy, but we got what we needed and got out. She made burgers while I made fresh-cut fries. She wanted to make fried pickles and onion rings, but I was afraid to fry the pickles before anything else because I wasn’t sure if the flavor would linger.

Summer got home and came in with another tiny baby bunny, but this time it was younger with closed eyes and some flesh wounds. She didn’t want to take care of it or end it, so she took it to a coworker that might have better lunch.

Dinner turned out really great in spite of how exhausted I was. Then Autumn fed the bunny we kept, and it actually took to the bottle really well. I laid with it for a little while as I finished up my chores in Animal Crossing, and then we all went to bed.

At least they breed like rabbits.

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Student Driver

We got up this morning and picked at some leftovers for breakfast. Autumn continued watching The Sound of Music, and we watched through the intermission. Then she wanted to go out for a drive, so I let her take me to Walmart where we walked around the whole store to pick up whatever we could remember needing.

It rained pretty hard while we were in the store, but it quit by the time we left. I let her drive to the gas station to fill up the car, then we went by my house to feed the cat before going to her friend’s house to pick up some clothes she wanted to buy.

Shortly after we got back to the house, my parents invited us to Linh, so Summer, Eaddie, and I met up with them for an early dinner. Then it was back to the house to finish the movie. Summer eventually went for a run, and then we all sat down for an episode of Game of Thrones before bed.

Eaddie came out of her room to talk to me for a while as I worked on the blog. Then she sat next to me learning Spanish on Duolingo until I went to bed.

What’s “hospital” in Spanish?

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Ridgewood Gang

I woke up a bit before Summer this morning and played some Animal Crossing. When she got up, she had to run to the shop to help with their bay door that wouldn’t open again. Then when she returned, we went to the Ridgewood Brothers’ BBQ and waited in line for roughly an hour.

Social distancing had the line wrapped way around the back of the parking lot, but either way there were quite a few people there. Brandie was there just in front of the last person in line, so we chatted for a little bit. It was overcast but still warm to be out in line like that, so I’m thinking it’s preorders from here on out. We picked up a Hog Trough with some friends-benefits, as well as three giant beef ribs, which were my favorite of the day. Still didn’t get any burnt ends though.

When we finally got through the line, we stopped by to pick up the girls from their friends’ house. Then we went up the hill to eat. Summer developed a headache and napped for a while, and I just laid in bed with her watching YouTube for a frustratingly long time. I didn’t have any other plans, but it would have been nice not to burn an entire day just sitting around doing nothing.

Eventually she felt good enough to leave again, so we went back to my house so she could get her car. I immediately discovered the cat had chewed up the top of my avocado sprout, which sent me into even more of a rage. Summer went back home while I cooled off at home for a while. It wasn’t productive, but I did eventually get a shower that helped.

When I got back to their house, the girls were all finishing up Frozen II. Then we watched an episode of Game of Thrones before bed.

Three words: Bone Wind Chime

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Just Get It Done

I picked up another breakfast pizza this morning, and headed to the office. My working from home days are coming to an end with the impending stress of a new 1:1 device lease. Ben had a meeting at central office this morning and at the very least confirmed that we are going to get more Windows devices instead of Chromebooks next year. He also confirmed that, though we’ve not backfilled a higher paying lead technician position, they’re not ready to offer raises or a second tier for those of us that put in the extra effort.

Being the only one at the office, I worked right through lunch, and ended the day at the high school for a work order. Then I went home and ate some leftovers before picking up Autumn for her physical therapy. She decided to stay the night with her grandparents, so I went by the shop to see Summer for a bit before going back home to clean up.

It was nice and cool out, so I took Summer’s string trimmer out and cut down most of the back yard. I ran out of juice very near the end, but that was mostly around some sticks and branches anyway. The yard looked loads better, and when it dries I should be able to burn the rest of the rubbish.

My next project was to sift potting soil for future aquariums. I cleaned out a couple buckets, put on some rubber gloves, and sat in the driveway with a piece of metal mesh until Summer and Eaddie got there for the evening. Then we watched an episode of Glee before putting Summer to bed. Eaddie and I finished with a couple episodes of Iron Fist.

I don’t want my dirt to get dirty. I just finished sorting it!

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Happy Mother’steak

I beat everyone else up this morning and ordered some breakfast pizzas for Summer to pick up while I took my shower. The kids finished watching Back to the Future Part III, and then I took them to Walmart so they could get something for Summer while I picked up what I needed for our family dinner.

They all went outside to play cards in the weather while I baked potatoes. Then Eaddie and Noah wanted to ride bikes to my parents’ house, so Summer took them while I drove with Autumn.

The kids wanted to swim in spite of our warnings that the water was ice cold, so they ran around outside while Julie and I got things cooking inside. Summer helped me scoop potatoes out so I could twice-bake them, and Dad got the charcoal going so Julie could grill the steaks she picked up at the butcher in Centerville.

Dinner was pretty great, though I had the same frustrations I always have with steak dinners. The steaks always end up cold by the time we get salads and everything else ready to eat. That’s why I prefer to eat the salad while I’m cooking everything else, and then have my steak right off of the grill.

Eaddie and Noah really wanted to ride around on the bikes some more after dinner, so Summer finally relented and let them ride to Sequoyah until we were ready to leave. Then she rode out to them while Autumn and I drove everything else back home.

Summer dropped Noah off and took Eaddie home, then Autumn and I followed after some cleanup at my house. Then we watched an episode of Iron Fist before bed.

I’m glad we could all make time to meat like this.

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Game of Throws

Summer got up and made sausage, bacon, and eggs for breakfast. The kids got up and just hung out until Summer was ready to herd them out to the park. I got a little woozy and had to skip out on the fun, so I went home and spent my day cleaning up around the house.

Everyone else showed up for a late dinner time, so I ran to Taco Bell with Autumn for a couple party packs. After we ate, I started making some more ice cream just to use up the milk and cream. We all wrapped up in the living room and watched the second and third episodes of Game of Thrones, and I think everyone’s starting to really get hooked.

I’m going to have to do something about my media server soon.

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Show Me a Sign

I woke up pretty early this morning and had some time to ease into the day. The girls got up and headed out so Summer and Eaddie could take Noah out on a hike while I went to work.

The high school was grilling burgers and hot dogs for teacher appreciation week, and I had to go there to work on the sign anyway, so I drove out there and set up on one of the picnic tables. It wasn’t quite the drive-through they advertised, but it was nice to see some people out at the pavilion. When everyone left, I headed to the shop to catch up with Ben while I tinkered with the Watchfire sign software.

I ended up accidentally overwriting the sign with a playlist of every single premade animation that was included with the software and had to drive back to the high school to fix it, because there was no password required to upload new content. I got there just in time to see a giant cross on a hill, with the words “ACCEPT CHRIST” across the front of it. Being a public school, I felt a bit of panic as I corrected the display.

Once I got something more appropriate uploaded, I ran by Julie’s to try and help configure her new modem/router/MTA box from Suddenlink. She was told, and the documentation showed, that she could change the SSID and password, but the web interface appeared to be disabled. We ended up calling Suddenlink to threaten cancellation to lower her bill, but the retention department was closed for the day. I stuck around to play with her new GoPro for a little bit and show her how the mounting works.

As dinner time approached, I ran home to take care of a few things and then headed up to Summer’s for the evening. When I got there, I found a couple moles right by the house that one of the stray cats appeared to have messed with. I scooped them up into a little bucket and brought them in for mole jokes and so the girls could see them up close. I ended up releasing them by a tree in the back yard, but I wasn’t sure one of them was going to make it. All it would do is lay there breathing heavily, so I assumed it took some internal damage from one of the cats.

The steaks Summer grilled turned out really good, and we had a nice dinner together. Afterward we played a Harry Potter: Potions Challenge Game that ended up being pretty dreadful. It upset Autumn a bit because she really wanted everyone to love it, but I could tell right away that it wasn’t worth the wooden box it came in.

As we wound down, I convinced everyone to finish the first episode of Game of Thrones, and then everyone went to bed.

They say winter is coming.

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Sign of the Times

I unintentionally slept in super late today. Summer took the rest of the week off, so she was up doing things long before I got around. When I did finally get up, I rushed to check on the Stalk Market in Animal Crossing, then sat down to try and get some work done.

The high school got their new sign installed, and now they want to use it to showcase their virtual graduation somehow. I watched a recording of the training Ben got on the software, and though 500 slides seems like a lot, they weren’t really taking into consideration the fact that animations take up around 100 frames of that. It certainly felt to me like we were oversold and under-delivered.

It took me all day to get the beefy software downloaded and installed, I’m guessing mostly due to the large file size of all the animations. I didn’t pay too much attention to the noise the girls were making, but I know Autumn did spend a good portion of the afternoon preparing dinner.

She made an orange chicken dish that called for freshly battered and air-fried chicken breast chunks. The air frying was a no-go for me, but the overall dish was pretty good. If I’m going to “fry” something, I’m going to fry it. Toaster ovens need to stay in their lane.

After dinner, Summer tried to get the girls to complete some chores and I headed home to clean up for their impending arrival. My Gorilla Ladder arrived via UPS in what amounted to a tattered plastic trash bag, so it got roughed up a bit more than I would have liked. It really won’t make any difference when I use it though.

When the girls got here, I made some popcorn for Autumn, then pulled out my old Cuisinart ice cream maker. I picked up a couple clearanced strawberry ice cream mixes at Walmart a while back, and finally had the milk and cream to put it all together. I think I should have split the batch, but as I pulled some out for us to eat, the stuff that was left in the bowl iced up quite nicely for storage.

Autumn and I were going to start Game of Thrones, but she got sleepy about three minutes into the first episode, and gave up. I put Summer to bed, and Eaddie and I watched another episode of Iron Fist. It was much better than the first episode of the season, and actually got me wondering about the future episodes. Time will tell.

In five years, I see myself with the same job title, about the same salary, and significantly more responsibilities.

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Shop Talk

I got up this morning after very little sleep and got to work again. Autumn came out shortly after I did and scrambled some eggs with tortillas that turned out really good.

Around lunch time, I made another “everything” sandwich, and Autumn joined me for lunch with Summer at the shop. Then we went by my house for a bit to clean up, and I was excited to see that one of my shrimp had eggs again. It was a lower quality shrimp, but I was just glad to see them breeding. When we left, I had to run by our office to sign some paperwork, then stop by the high school to set up a webcam in the athletics office.

Once all of our business was taken care of, the two of us went to do a little shopping, going first to Five Below, then to Dollar Tree. Summer had a team meeting after work and had me order some pizzas for the crew. While we waited, Autumn and I ran through Walmart for some high color sidewalk chalk but couldn’t find any. I did score a pretty good deal on a bike pump though.

When the pizza was done, we picked them up at Papa John’s and dropped them off at Superfast. Then we headed back to the house after a really good day together. Everyone just sort of picked at leftovers for dinner, and then Autumn wanted to play Monopoly.

I clearly dominated that game, and then Eaddie joined us for some Sorry where Autumn broke out in first place. We were all pretty tired by that point, so everyone settled in for the night. Eaddie and I watched an episode of Iron Fist until I started dozing off and called it a night.

The end-of-school stress is coming. I can feel it.

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Uncaged

I couldn’t sleep very well this morning, so I didn’t have any choice but to get up and start the day. Work was mostly housekeeping with stuff from last week between Animal Crossing sessions that were mostly me trying to document my progress in the game somewhere other than the game itself.

I was unsuccessful in getting Eaddie up even close to a reasonable hour, so we just munched on whatever leftovers we could find in the house. Autumn called her, after spending the last couple nights with her grandparents, to decide on a dinner for their father and Zach to bring them. The whiny semi-verbal gymnastics that Autumn muttered when Eaddie suggested Subway as something even remotely healthy were both hilarious and predictable. In the end, I think he brought them food from different places because that’s the kind of catered world they live in.

When Summer got home from her long day at work, she picked at some leftovers as well. I still had to go home to take care of things there, so I took Eaddie with me so we could leave the other two with some time to settle in again. On our way out, Autumn fussed about not wanting to be back, and it got me wondering if we could get her to verbalize why she would rather be with her grandparents than with us. Everyone seems to just accept it without making her identify why it could be a problem.

Back at my house, Eaddie and I finished up the last season of Luke Cage. We were both pretty disappointed in how it ended, and I thought it was odd how the whole season just kind of seemed like it didn’t know what kind of show it wanted to be. No matter, though. It’s on to the next Marvel series.

Gwan den.