Tag: family

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Love is a Space Battlefield

Today felt really cold for all the wind. We had a little bit of a meeting this morning, but no projects. I eventually made it to the high school to work on a few things, but made it back to the shop for lunch. Seven of us agreed on Brick Oven, where I ordered the prettiest, but most disappointing salad I’ve had in a while. I think the $10 price tag was what made it most disappointing, because there was absolutely nothing complicated about its ingredients. It was just a bunch of iceberg lettuce, disguised under a ton of ranch and sriracha. All the flavor really just came from the heat, and it didn’t feel nutritious at all. I might as well have just sucked on a bottle of sriracha.

After lunch, I went back to the high school and tinkered with things. I’m pretty sure the sound system in the crimson room had incorrect parts to route the computer sound to the overhead speakers, but I don’t know who originally set it up or what they had in mind. I did the best I could, but at the end of the day it still just won’t work because it doesn’t have the right parts.

I went home for a little while after work before heading across town. I had to stop stop by Amanda’s to take a package inside for her, then made my way to my parents’ house. I got to see the new lighting along 12th street, and man was it an utter shitshow. The lights were way too bright and glaring, and cast way too much light outward right at eye level. They’d be cool with flame bulbs I guess, but at their current brightness they might as well just bulldoze the school and build the casino right there in the middle of all that light.

I didn’t stay for any length of time since Summer had picked up a bucket of chicken strips for dinner. The kids ate, and then Summer and I picked at what they were made to leave us. Noah sat everyone down to watch Star Wars: A New Hope. I think the girls started to fall asleep about halfway through the movie, but after it was over I played some stuff on YouTube until we all shuffled off to bed.

It’s good to be curious about many things!

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Genius Stew

It was pretty cold out today, but at least it had stopped raining. I started off in the fieldhouse, then went on in to tackle whatever I could find. Allen called for Taco Villa, so I picked him up and we managed to squeak in right before the rush hit. We stopped for a free beef jerky stick at Casey’s on the way back to the shop, and then I eventually made my way back to the high school.

I spent a little time stirring the pot in the library, fussing over inconsistencies in hiring practices. At least I also closed out several work orders, so I felt accomplished, and everywhere I went, it seemed people were exceedingly pleased with me. I was upset to get a laptop back from the service center without any repairs done at all. I guess I can’t decline the paid battery replacement without also declining the rest of the repair. I really was expecting to see the rest of it repaired so I could get it back out into circulation.

After work, I ran by Starbucks to get a BOGO drink for Summer. Then I ran home to change before meeting her at Chili’s. The girls went out with their father after karate, so we got to have our early date night. The place was packed, given that there was one section completely closed down. Surprisingly our service was actually really good, and the food seemed to come in surprising portions.

When we got back home, we watched an episode of Glee until the girls got home, and then I played a round of Overwatch until bed.

What would you do if you were going to die, and how did you convince yourself that you weren’t?

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Lunch With Newbies

I got up a little early this morning to pick up a breakfast pizza for work. The two new guys started today, so they were off with some of the others doing new hire stuff all day. My morning was blink-and-you’ll-miss-it. I barely made it back to the shop by lunch time, though that ended up not mattering much because Zach was at London with Josh and didn’t make it back until about half an hour later.

Greg, Ben, and I met them at Brangus where Ben ended up buying all of our food since we were the only ones that showed up for the traditional new-guy lunch. Hearing them in conversation helped me feel a little better, but I’m still bitter about their starting salaries. I guess there’s just no getting around it now, so I’ll just have to move up by moving out when I have the opportunity.

My afternoon went by pretty quickly too, as the high school had their parent-teacher conferences. I got a few things done, and then Melinda sent word that central office was sending us home an hour early. I went home for a little while until Summer got back home with Eaddie. She stir-fried some leftovers, and then we watched a couple episodes of Glee before bed.

To work, or not to work…

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No Phasing Them

We got up this morning and picked at some leftover breakfast from last week. I eventually made it home to clean up after the cat and hang out for a while. I played a bit of Overwatch and took a shower with my nice new bath towels. They’re almost too plush, but I assume that will wash down a bit. One of the hand towels frayed on one side, but I couldn’t find any way to contact the manufacturer. I guess I could contact J. C. Penney and pursue a refund that way, but that sounds horrible. I might as well just keep the stupid thing.

Summer made fajitas for dinner and had Nick’s son Zach over to hang out with the girls. I stopped by Casey’s on the way over to convert some old box tops into virtual credits, and the lady had to do it three times before she figured out what was going wrong. Eventually she seemed satisfied with her process and sent me on my way. Dinner was great, and we played some Phase 10 and Mario Kart until Zach went home and everyone went to bed.

Hey Google, play some music, here, in this house, where we are currently located.

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RoboBowl

Summer and Autumn left for a quiz bowl tournament at the junior high his morning, and I couldn’t get back to sleep. I tossed around for a while before giving up and heading home to clean up. I had to wash my new towels before putting them away, so I split that up into two loads before taking a shower. Just as I was getting ready to leave the house, Doug came over from next door and asked me to come hook up his old DVD/VCR combo. He had the cable coming out of an input port, so it was an easy fix.

Summer had just finished at her nail appointment as I headed to the junior high, and we pulled into the parking lot at the same time. I went in with her to see the quiz bowl awards before we walked back to the gym area where Oakland was hosting a robotics tournament. Everyone had already packed up and left, and nobody ended up going to Fat Daddy’s afterward, so we ended up just going back home for the day.

Autumn and I went to Dollar General to pick up some pasta, but got sidetracked by a bunch of tables with miscellaneous clearance stuff. She accidentally threw hot pink powdered chalk all over my light button-up shirt, but luckily it mostly shook out. We picked up a few things and headed back so Summer could make dinner. Eaddie had finished, or at least found a bunch of her missing homework that was keeping her grades low, so we let her join us in watching a bunch of Glee before bed.

When we open the lab each morning, we tell the robot to kill.
It’s our little joke.
But secretly, we’re just afraid to tell it to love.

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Let’s Talk About That

I didn’t get shipped off with anyone this morning, but I didn’t want to just go off to the high school for more of that. Oakland had a few new tickets, so I spent all morning taking care of those. I even got a little breakfast when the girls handed me a slice of pizza as I walked past the kitchen. A handful of the work orders I dealt with today were due to a print issue within Chrome, but I didn’t realize it until Gary mentioned other schools in the area talking about the same thing.

Zach, Gary, Heather, Ben, and I went to Ruby Tuesday for $5 salads and got one of the slower servers. We didn’t make it back in time, but nobody ever really cares anyway. When we got back, Ben let me run to Leonard’s to pick up a KeySmart because I was tired of wearing my keys and badge around my neck. I think after almost four years, I’m ready to graduate and get that jingly chain off of my chest. Then I went to the high school to finish up the day.

I didn’t get a whole lot done, but I did close out all the work orders I had done throughout the day. I stopped into the library for a little while, and Karen told me a story about how our superintendent had discovered a destroyed student laptop while he was out on a run. Evidently he thought enough to send a picture of the library barcode in to one of the principals, but didn’t mention that he didn’t actually pick it up. He left it there because he was in the middle of his run, and then it was gone by the time anyone drove out to pick it up. Classy.

I had forgotten to return the district card, so I ended up having to run back to the shop to return it. Ben was back in the shop working on a sign computer, so I brought up the fact that we are still bringing new hires in at step nine. I told him that really made me not want to work at the high school, and that I really only owed him a level of competence equal to our worst performing tech if he’s not going to re-evaluate us before moving on with these new hiring rules.

Just as I was leaving, I saw my order at J. C. Penney was ready for pickup, so I ran across town to get that. Kevin was at work at AT&T, so I stopped in to chat for a bit while I was in the area. Then I stopped by the shop, but Summer had already left to get the kids, so I went home for a little while before heading up to their house.

They were watching TV, so I ate some leftover pizza before we started watching Glee. Then Eaddie came out talking about having some horrible grades due to missing homework. Evidently teachers just let you turn in assignments whenever you want these days, and there are no repercussions. That’s not how I roll though, and Summer tasked her with finishing up all of her assignments over the next day.

Unable to continue in the living room, we retired to the bedroom to chat for a while. Then I forced one more episode of Glee before having Summer set up her new Nest Mini, and then we crashed.

You can’t expect them to pay you for what you’re worth, so you have to give them what they paid for.

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Nein!

It rained all day today. Work seemed pretty slow and quiet, but I took care of what I could. I have a constant feeling of being behind, but there’s also nothing of any urgency. I called Zach, then joined him and Gary at Smackin’ Wings and Things for lunch. It took them a full 50 minutes to get our food out to us. It was a pretty good green chili burrito, but no way worth the $12.52 including tip that I paid for it. In that amount of time, I’m pretty sure I could have prepared one from scratch at my own home.

The afternoon went by pretty quickly, and just as quietly as the morning. I went home for a while after work and waited for the girls to finish at karate. Then I took them home and ate some leftovers at their house as we waited for Summer to get home from her work meeting.

When she got home, she made me take a “short” enneagram test to compare me to what she had been “learning” in Little Rock. I proved her wrong by being as brutally honest as I could for fourteen pages of vague, Facebook quiz-style questions as I could. Ain’t nobody gonna sum up my personality in an online test.

INFP-T

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Plant Proteins

Today was warm enough to take the bike in to work, but it was supposed to rain in the afternoon. I never heard from anyone all day, so I just stuck to myself and worked on things in my office. My morning was fueled by Soylent, but I wasn’t going to miss out on a free Beyond Burger from Hardee’s, so I left for a super late lunch at the end of the school day.

I hate to be at all disparaging toward the employees at our only remaining Hardee’s, because they’ve never been anything but kind. I just can’t shake the feeling that they all arrived for their shifts on the same bus from their community care center. They do manage to get the food out, and my burger was actually put together quite nicely today. The fries were cold though, and every interaction I observed felt really…unpolished? I’m absolutely for the employment of people with special needs; work just wouldn’t be the same without Allen. I’m just suggesting that maybe one of the staff on duty at any given time should be a better trained and better compensated employee. I really think that would raise the bar and maybe help fill some seats. I’d hate to lose the restaurant due to poor ownership.

The afternoon went by super quickly after having such a late lunch. I tried stopping at Walgreens for my blood pressure medication on the way back, but the line was both long and immotile and I had to get back to work. When I left work, I went by my parents’ house to visit while I waited for the girls to be ready to go home. They ate with their grandparents while Summer was away for a work meeting in Little Rock, so I picked at some of what my parents had out. Once the girls were ready, I fetched them, made another stop at Walgreens, then went by my house to change before taking them home.

The evening flew by as the girls begrudgingly took care of their chores. Summer eventually made it home, and it was off to bed with everyone.

If you close your eyes, it’s like you’re eating a real, overcooked hamburger.

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Meet the Cosmonaut

Summer made pancakes, eggs, and bacon for breakfast for us this morning. Eaddie wanted to go visit her father, so she started doing her chores after breakfast while Summer and I watched some Glee. A little while after she left, Autumn was returned home by her grandparents and made to do chores as well. Eventually we had to make something of the day, so Summer got up to start cleaning. I milled around a bit until she was ready to take Autumn back to her grandparents’ for the Superbowl. Then I headed home to clean up a bit myself.

I bought some marimo balls at Petco, so my first order of business was to get them out of the package and into some water. I decided not to throw them directly into any of my tanks for fear of them being eaten up, so I finally set up a little jar I had bought years and years ago for this very purpose. I filled it with shrimp water to try and help it cycle a bit, and noticed a tiny little baby shrimplet near the top of the tank. He went straight into the jar as well, and I figure I’ll finally take it to work with me. While I was doing all of this, I noticed one of my plants pearling with oxygen for the very first time, so I guess conditions are still pretty great in that tank. I just wish the algae would get under control, and the worms have become a real nuisance.

I ended the evening with a shower and a load of laundry.

Why is my house playing country music???

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Running Around Conway

Summer had a Freezin’ for a Reason 10k in Conway this morning, so I got up about 45 minutes earlier than I do during the work week and picked her and Eaddie up. It was super foggy for a good portion of the drive, but it cleared up as the sun came out. We made it with plenty of time to spare for registration, and then the race started late as well. Eaddie and I sat in the car for most of it, and I accidentally burned through a bunch of data on my phone. We caught Summer at the finish line and watched the first part of the awards before taking off to find some lunch.

Don Pepe’s across the street wasn’t open yet, so we ran by the nearby Neighborhood market to kill some time while Summer got changed. By the time they were ready to go eat, they decided they wanted sushi instead, so we went to China Town. I like a lot of the things they have that aren’t available at any of the restaurants in town, but a part of me is starting to get a little bored of it. When we finished eating, we headed across town to do some shopping.

We spent the most time in Kohl’s, where I had to pick up an online order from the beginning of the week. I picked up some super cheap clothes as well. Then it was Target, Sam’s, Bed Bath & Beyond, and finally Petco. Target and Sam’s were both ridiculously busy for some reason. BBB wasn’t bad, but also didn’t have any remarkable deals at all. The overall winner of the day was Petco, where I had a $10 off $30 coupon, and I picked up some fish food that rang up for a penny.

Eaddie had gotten sick of shopping after about three minutes, and she passed out in the back seat long before we started for home. When we did finally get home, we spent the rest of the evening watching a bunch of Glee.

Do you know what goes down in Lima Heights Adjacent? Bad things!