Tag: family

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Brain Dump

This morning started out pretty slow, but I eventually got to be pretty productive. I worked in the shop all morning, then went to Linh’s with Greg for lunch. Apparently we’re on the fence about an interviewee, so the tenured had a lunch date with him to see if we’d all mesh. Spoiler alert: We won’t. At least not at first. It is tried and true that everyone always hates on the new guy at first, no matter how seasoned.

I spent the afternoon at the junior high, fighting off a bit of anxiety and killing time until school let out by working on some laptops. When Eaddie got out, I took her to her flute lesson – twice because she forgot her flute in my office the first time. Then I picked up Autumn and took her to the shop for a few minutes until quitting time.

We retrieved Eaddie, then went to pick up my contacts from the eye clinic. They wanted to charge me $188 for two boxes after insurance. The first and only contacts I’ve ever purchased in my life were purchased from Contacts1st.com without any insurance for $148 for FOUR boxes, and that included $10 for shipping. Now I get to call “the girl that does the insurance” tomorrow for an explanation and/or correction.

I dropped the girls off with Summer at her shop since none of them cared to go to karate. Then I stopped by the house just momentarily before remembering I could get a free scarf from T-Mobile. I picked that up, then stopped by Zaxby’s for a quick bite before going home to binge on A+ practice exams. I felt pretty good about my test results, but then I read about something called “performance based questions” that got me scared.

At least it’s scheduled, and not a moment too soon.

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Or Nothing

We had a brief meeting this morning, and then Mike and I helped Josh hang a couple touch panels at the middle school. It went alright, for having a newbie on the crew. We dawdled enough all morning that it was about lunch time by the time we got back, so almost all of us went to Slim Chickens to eat. I had the chicken and waffle, which was good, but I felt like I was paying an awful lot for the waffle to only come with three chicken strips. At least the strawberry lemonade was great.

After lunch, I stuck around the shop and did some more remote work on SCCM. Ben, Gary, and Zach had an interview with a guy that Melinda said was just like me without the fun parts. I told her we shouldn’t hire a complete asshole. Then for some reason I had to rate her on a scale of 1-10 on how much she’s like the devil.

Librado stopped by at some point and got a badge made for his new position as a relief custodian. It was otherwise a quiet day at the shop until Melinda started shooting everyone with her tiny off-brand foam dart pistol. She got me near the eyes a couple times, so I figured I should break out the big guns when I got home.

After work, the girls came over and I baked the pizza that Autumn brought home from school. It took me way back when I had to cut the thing inside of an actual pizza box, and it really made me miss working in pizza. I can see it now: Cow Pies.

We wrapped up the night with the first two available episodes of WandaVision. Summer wasn’t impressed with the highly stylized format, but it was clear things were going to change pretty quickly. I just hope it’s good, and can tie in appropriately with the future of the movies.

It’s NERF!

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The “S” is for “‘Spensive”

It was another quiet day at work, which meant I got to tinker with some older projects and things. I was ultimately successful with my Microsoft Office uninstall/upgrade task, and I think I have Web Help Desk configured in a way that will help me keep a better eye on both the junior and high schools.

Summer took the afternoon off and met me for lunch at Brangus. The food was good, but the service was lackluster, or at least mostly absent. I spent the afternoon at the junior high fighting a copy machine. It could have gone worse, but I was pretty sure it was the fault of the printer.

After school, I took Eaddie with me to the shop, then to the high school to pick up Autumn. Then I took them home where Summer had made a delicious pork chop dinner. We watched an episode of Glee, and then I had to head home to do some laundry.

The Samsung Galaxy S21 and its premium variants were announced recently, and Google Fi had a 50% discount promotion, so I finally started the process of porting my old Sprint number over. I’ll save money in the long run, but for now this is just another expensive toy. I figure I’ll eventually switch over to it as a primary device when the 90-day requirement runs out for the promotion.

Don’t worry, there’s no charge.

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Don’t Get Attached

I was back at the high school with Mike again today, but nothing exciting happened. I got to focus on some work in SCCM, which was nice. I only really have to run to classrooms at the junior high right now.

Melinda wanted to go to lunch again today, and I told her she was getting too attached, because this was twice in one week. She, Ben, and I went to Mulan’s, and I did my best not to overdo it. I think it was a success. Melinda decided that she wanted to have a cat at the shop, but I don’t think she realized how bad that might be for a cat to be alone for that many hours of every week.

I worked a little late, then changed at home and picked the girls up at their friends’ house. I helped Eaddie with some math homework until Summer got home, and eventually we got around to watching an episode of Glee before bed.

Just have an outdoor cat. That lives on the other side of town.

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Panic at the Get-Go

I’m still dreaming a lot lately, which kind of knocked my morning off balance. I had a short panic episode out of nowhere, and just generally had a rough start to the day. Once I made it in to work, everything was fine. Ben, Zach, and Greg were all back from quarantine, so I stopped by the shop before heading to the junior high.

I wasn’t as productive as I probably could have been, but I still got a lot done and never really felt not busy. I ended up working through lunch just to get things done. I was going to take Eaddie to her flute lesson after school, but apparently Summer had already arranged for her mother to take her there and then to the shop when she finished. Instead, I ended the day at the high school to get Autumn. We picked Eaddie up and made it to karate plenty early, so we sat in the car for a few minutes and talked.

When I got back home, I checked in on Bác Vân next door, who seemed to be in good spirits, though annoyed that her in-home physical therapists seemed to be completely pointless. I explained to her that they were probably used to the typical, lethargic patient that wasn’t already doing their own physical therapy on their own time.

Summer came over after work, and we picked up some Arby’s for dinner before she had to get the girls. She said she hit a possum on the way there, so I drove out to make sure it didn’t leave any babies. It took a couple rounds, but I found it on the side of the street, still breathing, but dying and covered in blood. I didn’t have a good way to finish the job, and my stomach wasn’t much up to stomping it to death, so I just left it to die by the curb, feeling pretty sick about it.

I’m all talk.

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Watched Pot

Today was almost entirely a bust. I got up and ate some leftover pizza and milled around the house until the girls left for lunch with their father and Summer went to the gym. I should have left, but instead I burned time all day long waiting for everyone to get back so we could continue to do nothing.

I did at least cook the turkey carcass to make stock for soup later. We finished our game of Phase 10 from days ago. I had to stay up late to boil the soup down a bunch for easier storage. I also sold what little bit of bitcoin I had for $4.21, which was a profit of 3.21 times my investment. I can only dream of an alternate life where I made it rich off the stuff, but I’m happy with my three bucks.

If only buying bitcoin had been easier to do back in the day…

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Pixar 2020: What if Black People Had Feelings?

I got some really good sleep last night, then woke up to pay some bills. Then I started researching some Samsung phones to decide whether to take advantage of a deal on Google Fi. While I was in the middle of that, Dad and Uncle Giao came over and dumped a bunch of old tech junk. Then Uncle Giao asked for me to find him a laptop and set it up with a Vietnamese keyboard. Everyone surrounded me, insisting that I could just “download it or something.”

Once they all left, I got a shower and headed to Summer’s for the evening. She ordered Domino’s after having to work all day, so I picked it up on the way. After we finished eating, Autumn put on Soul, which was at least better than Incredibles 2 in my opinion. Maybe I was just tired when we saw that in the theater, but I hadn’t dozed off at the movies in a looong time.

All this house does is sleep.

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Six of One, a Dozen of the Other

Things were pretty quiet today. Mike came in and talked at me for a while in the morning until he had to leave for an early lunch. I took a late lunch and then just ate it at the junior high since they had some work that needed to be done.

Evidently Zach, Greg, and Ben all had to quarantine again, so it’s just the relative newbies and me until Gary gets back next week. Fortunately it’s a pretty good time of year to be short, so I don’t think it will get too stressful. I finished most of what needed to be done at the junior high, but then I had to go to the high school to get the girls because Eaddie didn’t get my message to stay at the junior high.

We dropped Eaddie off at her flute lesson, and then Autumn and I finished the day at the junior high. When Eaddie was done, we got their karate gear from Summer at her shop, and I dropped them off. Then I went to my parents’ house for dinner and to crunch some numbers.

We wrapped up just in time for me to get the girls. Michael was there, I guess donating a bunch of weight lifting stuff, so I helped him unload. Then I took the girls to pick up some flowers to take home to Summer. It was an even quieter night, with everyone off doing their own thing. We watched a very little bit of YouTube with Eaddie, and then it was bedtime for everyone.

The indian shoots his arrow at the smaller, weaker number.

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Don’t Look Up

It was really frosty out this morning, but I made it back for a true full day at work. I was catching up with Karen in the library when Julie called to say Bác Tran was blowing up her phone to check on Bác Vân. I got a hold of Doug without too much trouble and confirmed that Dad and Lelan were already on the way. When I got into my office, I found the bucket I had placed above the drop ceiling had crashed through the tile and shattered when it hit the cubbies, dumping rainwater all over everything. I wouldn’t have expected to get that much water there, but it did rain for a really long time.

I took a late lunch to run by the post office, then just grabbed some Tropical Smoothie on the way back to the shop. I spent most of the afternoon there catching up with Ben and boxing up the three laptops we had ready to ship off to the depot repair center. I did eventually make it back to the high school to wrap up the day and pick up the girls.

We got home and Eaddie took off on her bike just before another guy came by to check out the renovations we want to make to the bathrooms. This guy was a recommendation from Julie, and he seemed much less sales-y than the previous group. He wasn’t pushy at all and basically said he was just there to complete exactly what we wanted and nothing more, which I appreciated. I think the quote will probably come back quite a bit cheaper because of that. He also name-dropped my superintendent, who is on an entirely different reality of a pay grade, and I wasn’t quite certain how I felt about it.

Once they left, I took the girls home and started prepping stuff for salads. Summer arrived shortly thereafter and we ate, then watched an episode of Glee. Eaddie and I heard something that sounded like it was running across the roof, and we came out to discover two cats that appeared to have difficulty finding a way down. I’m not sure how they got up in the first place, but it just sort of made me mad that they’ve been hanging around, tearing things up.

At least it’s a rental?

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A Wonder We’ve Made It This Far

I picked up some semi-disappointing biscuits from Hardee’s for breakfast this morning before our trip to Conway. They just seemed like they weren’t quite as “loaded” as they should have been. The biscuits themselves, however, were perfect as always.

The girls loaded up in the cold, misty rain, and we made it to Conway just in time to grab snacks and take our seats before the previews started. The girls didn’t really remember the first Wonder Woman movie, and we probably should have watched it last night instead of The Dark Knight Rises for a refresher. I thought this one was entertaining, but the story seemed weak. I would have liked to see more building up of the villain and where he came from. In contrast, I didn’t find the flashback to baby Diana to be very important at all.

After the movie and with some protest, we went to Kohl’s to look around. I got a mooing chip clip that was on clearance for what should have been regular price, so that was worth the trip by itself. The girls all wanted to eat by then, and of course couldn’t agree on a place to go, so I picked Mike’s Place as a treat. I figured Autumn could get the steak she wanted, and Eaddie could get something aquatic.

Our server was fantastic, but I didn’t love my fish. Autumn’s $30 New York strip looked to be cooked to perfection, but she turned her nose up at it after about three bites. Then she tried to convince us that her palate was sophisticated enough to identify and appreciate different cuts and qualities of beef, and that she didn’t want it because it wasn’t good. Astoundingly, I managed to bury whatever beast those comments normally would have unleashed, and we boxed up her leftovers for my breakfast.

Both of the girls’ behavior really started to slide from that point on, as we went to walk Target, and then Best Buy. They cried about staying one more night at my house, and I got to try my hand at Good Cop again. Their attitudes really seem to be habits learned from always getting their way, and again I can feel my strict hand at parenting tightening its grip.

Such is the cost of making a better people.