Tag: family

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This is Normal

Summer got up this morning and started prepping for lunch with my parents. The girls took turns being moody for a bit, but did fine for lunch. Summer made grilled chicken, mashed potatoes, some fresh broccoli salad stuff, and some guacamole that we barely got to for the appetizer. Then she had a pound cake made for strawberry shortcake for dessert.

My parents hung out for just a little while, but then went home to make bánh bao. The girls decided they wanted to spend a couple nights with their father rather than go help, so when they left, I headed home to start cleaning house.

I got a bunch of old laundry done, but still have loads [pun intended] more left to do. Summer eventually came over and watched TV while I worked. Suzanne called at some point and said she thought they heard gunshots from protests happening downtown, but I couldn’t ever find any evidence of it, nor could I hear any noise from outside over my laundry. It seemed like the most action we got were some guys open-carrying rifles around town.

Tomorrow everyone is back to work at the office, but we’re sort of left to our own devices to help with social distancing. It’s been nice spending so much time at home, and I’m in no way looking forward to going back.

Surely homesteading isn’t that hard.

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Cover

We slept in a bit this morning before getting out of the house. Summer decided she wanted to plan a dinner with my parents, so she went home to clean and prep while I took the girls to my parents’ house to clean the pool cover.

Eaddie was with me, but we had to retrieve Autumn from her grandparents’ house. We got things started, but then the girls started fussing about being hungry, so I went to Tropical Smoothie and Wendy’s, because I guess I’m enabling that behavior now. I also went by their house to get Autumn’s swimsuit and give Summer a smoothie.

When I got back to my parents’ house, we let the girls take a break and eat, but then I had to take my parents to my house to check out some vinyl siding samples. The contractor that came to see us didn’t actually have any samples, but he did have a ring of chips to hold up, and I still preferred the dark brown to match with the non-primary color of my brick. He said he agreed, but you can never trust a salesperson.

When we finally got back to my parents’ house, the girls were out back swimming. They said it wasn’t too terribly cold, but we had to get the pool cover finished. They took turns scrubbing and hosing the thing down, and then Dad and I flipped and dried it before folding it back up for storage.

Summer forgot that we still had to eat dinner tonight as well before having my parents over tomorrow, so the kids and I agreed on Wendy’s. I customized all of the burgers, which seemed to completely confuse everyone there. I guess the way those customizations show up is pretty easily misinterpreted. We made do with what we got though, then Summer, Eaddie, and I watched an out-of-season episode of Glee before Summer went to bed. Then Eaddie and I finished the last few episodes of the Daredevil series that left me a little confused and disappointed, but overall satisfied with the show.

Do I really want to research the manufacturing differences in vinyl?

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Slow Start; Quick Finish

I slept so well last night that I really didn’t want to get out of bed this morning. It took me a while to get going, and Eaddie basically slept until the last minute. I eventually got around to making an “everything” Italian loaf egg sandwich to take to Summer for what was supposed to be brunch but ended up being a late lunch. It felt super hot outside in the sun, and traffic was awful again. I miss the early days of the pandemic.

After lunch, we went by Julie’s to help take her TV off the wall so Suddenlink could check out why her internet keeps dropping out throughout the day. While we were there, we heat-pressed half of the flags I made, to cure the ink. The other half I wanted to experiment with water to get the paint to flow to both sides of the flag. Hopefully that will keep me from having to come up with a way to screen print the reverse side as well.

With that done, Eaddie and I headed back home and watched some more Daredevil until Summer got off work and came to get her. They went home to clean up while I did the same, and then they picked up Slim Chickens for dinner on the way back here.

The chicken was pretty decent, but I think for my money, Zaxby’s has better sauces. I put on the 2003 Daredevil movie for us to watch, and Eaddie just kept groaning through the entire thing, which really made it all worthwhile. She did find a lot of parallels though, and insisted we watch the first episode of the Netflix series when the movie was over.

After that, Summer went to bed and we watched a few more episodes, ending with a really horrible one with a pointless flashback to an already established-well-enough character. Being this close to the end, it really aggravated me that they wasted a whole episode to that.

Gravy. Gravy would make it all better.

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Dared to Stay Up Late

I slept pretty well last night, got up this morning, and made myself a leftover hamburger for brunch. The girls were in their rooms until the afternoon, when I finally coaxed them out for some chores. Autumn wanted to go to her grandparents’ house, so I got her to clean house while Eaddie finished mowing the lawn that they skipped the other day.

When the time came, I dropped Autumn off and went home for a little bit. I only had a few minutes to kill before Summer would be home, so I hopped into a few rounds of Overwatch, then went by Sonic for 50 cent corn dogs. I went back up to their house, we had dinner, and then packed up some stuff to come back home for the evening.

We watched a couple episodes of Glee for the first time in a little while, and then Summer went to bed and Eaddie and I stayed up super late, hooked on the last season of Daredevil. Watching the show has made me want to go back and watch the movie from 2003, but nothing screams the year 2000 like that soundtrack.

BRING ME TO LIIIIIIIIIIIFE (wake me up!)

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Zoom Breakup

I had to get up this morning for a conference call with a vendor. We were supposed to be demoing their classroom management software, but the guys at Impero came back after knocking the price down by about 70%, and their software is the best I’ve seen so far. I tried to just send an email, but then the time for the meeting arrived and I felt bad not showing up at all, so I joined and let them down “face to face.”

A bit more work came to me throughout the morning, and then Summer came home for lunch. I stir fried up some veggies and heated up the leftover barbecue from the Ridgewood Brothers. Not long after that, I had to take Autumn to physical therapy. I went home for a little bit to clean up after the cat, but then had to pick Autumn back up before I could go back home to take a shower.

She wanted to make dinner, so we stopped by Walmart and got two and a quarter pounds of hamburger meet for fifteen Trump Bucks before heading back up to the house. Summer beat us home, and Autumn made some “Hamburger Helper” while we worked on a budget.

Everyone was pretty tired after dinner, so we all just called it an early night.

Marry someone who looks sexy while disappointed.
-Phil Dunphy

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The Slumber Party

I got out of bed this morning to check on the bunny. It was really struggling, and I just knew it wasn’t going to make it. I tried forcing some more milk, but it never perked up and continued to struggle to breath. Eventually it did stop breathing, so Noah buried it along with another baby bird the cats dragged in, out in the yard.

Summer got up and made swirly Grinch waffles for breakfast as the kids all got up, and then we all just sat around enjoying an extra day off. Noah and Eaddie went out to set up the badminton net between sprinkle spells.

Eventually the girls’ father showed up with pizza, cake, and cookies for Autumn’s birthday. She got a cake that looked like The Order of the Phoenix book, and Harry Potter themed cookies. Everyone ate and played some more games, and eventually he took Autumn out for some one-on-one time.

When the girls’ friends finally went home, Summer and I took Noah home. Then we went by my house to feed the cat and chat for a bit. It was nice to have a few minutes to ourselves just to catch up without having to worry about anything else.

It started storming a bit, but it settled down for the drive back up to her house. Summer went to bed after catching up with Autumn, and then Eaddie and I watched an episode of Daredevil before going to bed ourselves.

Level Set

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Predatory Loan Officer, Tom Nook

I got up kind of early this morning and went to check on the bunny. It seemed slightly better, but still wasn’t at 100%. I just let it burrow into my arm while I played Animal Crossing. I bought a ton of turnips and found someone on Reddit that had time traveled so I could turn right around and sell them. Traveling to their island didn’t go as smoothly as my previous visits to other islands, but I managed to sell enough to pay off my final loan in the game.

Summer got up and made some pasta with rib meat that everyone really loved. Then everyone had to jump to cleaning house before the girls had friends over for the night. Eaddie and Noah mowed, and Eaddie plowed right over the flower I planted next to the stairs in the front yard.

I went home for a while to clean up and decompress. Overwatch was holding their anniversary event, so I spent most of my time trying to earn as many loot boxes as I could before heading back up to Summer’s for the evening.

Summer picked Noah up from work and got back shortly after I got there. The girls and their friends were all inside playing. Noah and I warmed up some chicken Alfredo that Summer made for dinner. Then I spent some time with the bunny because it looked like it was on the edge of death. It seemed super dehydrated and skinny, so I kept trying to force it some water and milk. Eventually it did pep back up a bit, but I don’t know why it seemed so much worse seemingly within just a few hours.

Eventually everyone found their way to bed for a pretty late evening.

Multibellionaire.

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Sun Dried and Rain Soaked

Today was our “last” day to collect laptops from high school students. We had over 200 returned, but we have even more than that still out in circulation. They’ll just have to collect them in the office though, because I’m not hunting them all down.

At least it was overcast and breezy in the morning, so it didn’t feel bad. We were busier than we had been all week, but still pretty slow. Lunchtime arrived quicker than any of us expected, and it wasn’t long before some rain arrived as well. I didn’t even really get a chance to eat until we had to pack everything up and move into the entryway at the Center for the Arts. I just stayed inside from that point on, and continued to inspect and scan laptops as they were brought in.

Ben came by near the end of the day to relieve Gary and Zach, and then helped me pack up at the end of the day. I made sure to remove the laptop pickup slide from the sign, and snuck in a quick The Office reference for Memorial Day. I went home for a little while before Autumn called for a ride from physical therapy.

Once I got Autumn, we went up to their house and munched on some leftovers until Summer got home with Noah. Then the kids wanted me to take them to the store for snacks, so we loaded up and went to Walmart. It was pretty busy there, and we ended up shutting the place down.

When we got back to the house, I laid around with the bunny for a bit while Summer watched TV, and one by one, everyone else crashed as well. Poor Eaddie was left as the last one up as always.

All the troops. Both sides.

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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?