Tag: family

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Ride Along

Summer had to stop by the shop this morning, so she picked up some Wendy’s breakfast for us on the way home. Then she took Autumn to pick up the car her parents were planning to give her so she could practice at the high school. The brakes were so bad that they ended up leaving it, and she ended up practicing in Summer’s car anyway.

Eaddie rode her bicycle out to meet them, and I followed along on the Grom so Summer could get some time on it. I rode around the lot for a while, practicing some little wheelies while Eaddie rode down the trail she had found before. I eventually stopped to warm up in the sun on the arbor bench for a little while until Summer was ready for some time on the bike.

Autumn did a pretty good job of driving me around, and I tried to have her focus on parking and spatial awareness. She was pretty bored by the time I got to her, so we weren’t there much longer before we headed back to my house.

We were pretty hungry by that time, so Summer and I rode across town to try and pick up some BBQ from the Ridgewood Brothers. Grant said they had just sold out though, so we sulked back toward home. We stopped by the Neighborhood Market briefly to pick up some groceries first, and then Summer took the girls home to clean up.

When they got back, Nick wanted to come by and eat with the girls, so we all sat out in the backyard together where we could maintain a decent space. He brought us all an assortment of food and stayed to chat for a little while since he hadn’t really seen the girls since the quarantine started.

After he left, the girls came inside and wanted to play Jackbox games. I had just picked up the fifth collection in the series, so we played a round of each of the games in the pack before settling in for bed. Eaddie and I outlasted everyone else as usual, finishing up the second season of Jessica Jones before bed.

Even the littlest bikes can buck the unsuspecting rider.

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Speaker Phone

I made it through another week at the office. Like the rest of the week, I stayed pretty busy all day and felt pretty good with what I had accomplished. I even successfully helped a couple people over the phone while Ben was on a conference call, including the superintendent. He has no idea who I am.

Josh drove me to Morelos to pick up lunch for the three of us. When I called to place the order, the couple guys I talked to seemed really confused. Our orders seemed a bit off, and we didn’t even get half of an acceptable amount of chips for how much food we ordered. Regardless of any of that, my nachos filled a void inside of me that I didn’t even know I had.

The afternoon went by quickly as usual, and we even stayed a little late trying to sort a voicemail issue for the music department. By the end of it all, I at least made it functional. It was past quitting time anyway.

I spent a little while at home relaxing to some Overwatch before digging into my desk. The center channel speaker I ordered had arrived, and I wanted to hook it up on top of my desk between the bookshelf speakers.

The girls eventually came over, and Autumn went with me to get some Burger King for dinner. After we ate, I realized they forgot the jalapeño cheddar bites, and I had to go back to get them. At least they threw a small order of fries in the bag too, to make up for it.

The girls finished Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, which to me seemed like a story about a single father of two’s slow descent into madness. I made some speaker wire and got my computer sound upgraded a bit. Summer went to bed, and Eaddie sat reading her book until I finished what I was doing, and then we ended the evening with a couple episodes of Jessica Jones.

Some people breed big cats. Me? I think I’ll try mosquitos.

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Fish and Dogs

Apparently I sat on my key fob last night and I woke up with my car windows halfway down in the rain. I guess I was just lucky that it didn’t rain any harder than it did.

Ben took the day off, so Greg and I were left with Melinda to man the phones. We both had work orders to take care of, so we kept at least a little bit busy all day. Nobody was having lunch there today, so I ended up just hanging out at the shop with a Soylent. The afternoon went by pretty quickly too.

After work, I spent a little time at home getting some bills together and called to see if I really did owe anything from my colonoscopy in November. I didn’t get in touch with anyone, but I left a message and went on about my day. I got a little Overwatch in, and then headed up to Travis’s to pick up an aquarium.

He had evidently neglected it pretty badly and just wanted to get rid of the whole thing, so he handed a bucket of fish and the tank to me through the window. The bristlenose catfish had its barbs stuck in the net, so it took me a little bit to get it out, but we got everyone loaded up and ready to go. I got the catfish and three tetra GloFish, and headed to Summer’s.

Autumn decided she wanted the tank, so I had her do some furniture swapping to get a 20 gallon tank-worthy stand into her room. I cleaned the new tank out the best I could with the water pressure I had, and we got it moved into her room. In the middle of that, Summer came home and I ran to Sonic with Autumn to get 50 cent corn dogs for dinner.

When we finally finished cleaning up the filter and setting up the tank, I dropped the fish in a little prematurely since we didn’t really have anywhere else for them to go. Summer crashed, and Eaddie and I watched an episode of Jessica Jones before bed. I checked in on the fish and one of them didn’t look so great, so we may already be down one by tomorrow. I’m almost sure of it.

Genetically modified meat on a stick.

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9,000 Miles

It was back to the office today, this time with Ben and Greg. I kind of feel bad that Ben hasn’t really taken any time at home, but maybe he likes to get out of the house away from the kids to get things done. It was a quiet day except for a conference call with the Impero chaps. They all really do have the best accents, because they’re 100% understandable, but they just sound like a more formal version of ourselves. The software demo went well, and they can fill the gaps we’ve had for the past three years, but it’s going to cost us.

Greg and I ran to Wendy’s for a quick lunch, and then the afternoon was pretty relaxed. I actually ended up leaving before the other two just because I didn’t really have anything going on.

I ran by Staples to pick up a little table I ordered, and then went to get Autumn for physical therapy. I had enough time to put the table together before dropping her off, then I ran home to clean up a bit and check on the new aquarium organisms. The guppies seemed to be doing great, but were hungry enough to swarm the food I dropped in. The red root floaters seem to be struggling a bit, but it’s too early to tell really.

When Autumn was done, I loaded up the trolling motor and went to get her, and then we stopped by my parents’ to see them for a minute. Dad and I unboxed the motor to test fitment on the boat, and then we headed back to Summer’s to wait for her to get off.

Once she got home from work, I got to making salads out of leftovers. When everyone went on to do their own things, I pulled Autumn’s failed pizza dough out of the fridge, and tried to make cinnamon bread. It wasn’t awful, but it rose quite a bit more than I expected. While it baked, I cut up the pineapple we bought a while back.

And just like that, I found a stopping point.

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The Villa My Dreams

I really didn’t want to get out of bed today, and when I finally did, I got up with some pretty bad neck pain. It worked itself out pretty quickly though as I got to work. The girls got up and ate, and I set them up with the pressure washer again.

Autumn had physical therapy, so I took her in and then went home to shower. When I picked her up, we decided we would be staying at my house for real tonight, and we’d get Taco Villa for dinner. We went to get Eaddie and packed up a few things to take to my house, and met Summer there when she got off of work.

It took me a little while to get my call into Taco Villa, but when I finally did, the girl said it would only be about five or ten minutes, so I headed out. They had the lobby wide open with a posted limit of six customers at a time. I almost didn’t recognize Chelsea in the back corner waiting for her food. I think I’d seen her maybe twice since graduation. After just a little wait, I boxed up my food and headed home.

The girls kept arguing about what to watch, so I put on an episode of New Girl while we ate. They had never had Taco Villa before, and it seemed to really fill them up. Reviews were about like I expected them to be. It’s not amazing. It’s pretty good. Sometimes you just get a craving.

After we ate, I tried putting on Brightburn, but couldn’t get it to play well. I bounced between a few things and settled on Batman v Superman just in time for everyone to feel sleepy. I put Summer to bed, and Eaddie and I watched an episode of Jessica Jones before I started feeling pretty sleepy and called it a night.

Wrinkles in time, indeed.

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Go Pro or Go Home

Today was undoubtedly the most productive day of the week. I woke up to a little Animal Crossing before taking Autumn on a ride-along to get $1 roast beef sandwiches from Arby’s. We stopped by to feed Summer at work, then went back to their house to eat with Eaddie.

When we finished eating, I set the girls up with the pressure washer out back and had them clean the side of the house and the deck. They didn’t stay outside very long the first time, and Autumn came in complaining about not feeling well. She immediately laid down on the couch and started watching Harry Potter while Eaddie complained that she didn’t want to be outside alone. I gave them a few minutes inside, then made them go back out for over an hour before I’d let them back in. They got a lot more done that time, and the house looked so much better.

I eventually had to run home to clean up, then stopped by Walmart to fill some gaps for dinner. Autumn wanted to try making a copycat Chick-fil-A nuggets recipe along with some homemade macaroni and cheese. Summer got back from work shortly after I got there, and Autumn got to work on dinner. I helped a very minimal amount while Summer and Eaddie went on a run. We ended up deep frying the chicken instead of frying it in a pan, and they came out really great. Everyone was really impressed with dinner, and baking the mac and cheese with some extra cheddar broiled on top was the right decision for everyone’s lives.

Afterward, I finished WALL-E with Autumn, then started an episode of Jessica Jones with Eaddie. We quit after just one episode because we were both really tired, but then she started chatting away, so I sat and talked with her for quite a while.

Earlier in the evening, Julie started asking for my opinion on a waterproof case for her phone. I suggested a purpose-built camera instead, arguing for hours that spending more on camera was a better value than spending less to protect a phone that also has a camera on it. In reality, the resulting photos or videos will probably be seen half a dozen times before they’re forgotten in the great digital cloud vault. Such is the nature of our instantly reminiscent age. She even ended up calling me after she got tired of texting, but in the end I won because I am so smart.

So, so smart.

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Frosty’s Kind of a Jerk

I got up this morning to discover our tomatoes had wilted in some frost last night. I didn’t realize it was going to get that cold, otherwise I would have brought them inside. It looks like a few will survive, but I’m guessing most of them are dead now.

The girls hid in their rooms all day while I answered emails and helped a handful of people start working from home for seemingly the very first time since this whole quarantine thing started. It was pretty dull, and felt pretty pointless, and I just wished I could be out on an island somewhere instead. Homesteading in the tropics would be easy, because there’s no frost.

Summer came home to get Autumn for her driving test, then took her to physical therapy. I picked her up afterward and took her with me to feed the cat. We wanted to come back for the evening, but Summer came home with a headache again. We stopped by Davis for some butane, but they were out of feeder fish. Then we headed back up the hill to start dinner.

Autumn found a recipe for something like Hamburger Helper and whipped it together all on her own, and it was pretty good. I put Summer to bed, and then Eaddie and I binged the last half of the first season of The Punisher. It was more of a military show than I would normally care to watch, but the Marvel banner made it a must-watch that I’m glad I didn’t miss. I just wish there could have been more crossover.

It’s all about the Nook Miles, baby!

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They Say It’s Only Tuesday

I got up a little earlier today, but focus was still a huge struggle. I just didn’t want to do anything. It’s been a little cooler with the rain the past couple days, and it just made me want to lay around and do nothing.

The only thing I really managed to accomplish today was pull a bunch of moss out out of the bathroom aquarium because it had gotten way out of hand, and choked out all my other plants. Hopefully the others take off again, but I had no idea how bad it had gotten.

Summer came home with a headache and was in bed by the time I got back. Autumn threw together some hamburgers super fast, and I got them grilled and fried up some fries. While I was finishing up the cooking, Kevin called just to catch up. I don’t think he’s ever reached out first, so it was a bit of a surprise. I may see if he wants to give us the tour of the Old Post bike trail when Eaddie’s ready to go up there.

After dinner, Autumn went straight to bed while the rest of us laid in bed watching TV for a bit. Then when Summer fell asleep, Eaddie and I continued with The Punisher. We’re only about halfway through the season, but the past couple episodes made it feel like we were nearing a conclusion. I wanted to watch more, but we were both tired and decided to turn in early.

Penny and dime.

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Reluctant Day

With a surprising exception of Autumn, nobody wanted to get around to doing much of anything today. She started a few chores early in the morning and then wanted to sit in her room the rest of the day. I rolled around first thing and tried my hand at day trading, but ultimately only saved myself from losing about 50 cents. Then I spent the rest of the day working between breaks in Animal Crossing. A part of me really hates the grind in that game, but another part of me feels satisfied enough with the progression that I keep going back for more.

The girls went outside for a while in the afternoon and tried cleaning up their weird nightmaremobile that’s been parked under the back porch for as long as I’ve known them. Eventually Summer came home from work and demanded dinner in the way that a working spouse would.

I baked some chicken thighs and legs in some Buffalo sauce and tried my hand at frying some sliced potatoes and onions. Summer warmed up a can of peas to round out the meal, and the girls all seemed pretty happy with it all. After dinner, Autumn wanted to watch WALL-E with us and Eaddie absolutely refused on account of hating wonderful things.

In the end, Autumn couldn’t even finish the 103-minute movie, so she and Summer went to bed. Eaddie and I stayed up for too many episodes of The Punisher. It’s been moving quite a bit faster than some of the others in the franchise, so it’s kept us hooked.

One batch, two batch…

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Rabbit Seeds

BUTT STUFF

Summer and Autumn made biscuits and gravy with eggs for brunch this morning. Then we all colored some eggs for Easter. It didn’t take long because we only had around 20 eggs between the four of us. I guess we could have made more. I think Dad used to make a few dozen for us when we were growing up, so we always had gallon ice cream buckets of eggs for weeks after Easter.

I joked that the girls would have to play Russian roulette to find a single raw egg I had hidden in the batch. Just seconds later, Autumn accidentally cracked one that completely fell apart with a raw yolk, and we discovered that the eggs hadn’t cooked all the way through for some reason. We had a couple different sizes of eggs all mixed together, but didn’t figure that made all the difference. A week or two ago we had frozen eggs because the refrigerator was too cold, so maybe that was the problem. In any case, I ended up boiling them again to make sure they were all done, and the colors all faded to a uniform pink.

We thought briefly about going to my house for the night, but in the end we left the kids home and Summer went with me for a workout while I took care of the cat and cleaned up at home. She was surprised by how much of a workout she got from doing the P90X yoga video.

When we got back to their house, I made a big “everything” French loaf sandwich that everyone devoured, and then played some Animal Crossing until bed.

The wind is always better on the hilltop.