Tag: family

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Into the Unknown

I spent all morning learning Wikitext to actually start entering articles for work. The translation took a while because even with a visual editor, the markup text made things look way cleaner. I still didn’t even finish publishing my first article, but at least what I have so far looks nice.

Ben got a Fat Daddy’s gift card for doing some work for someone, so he bought us lunch today. I brought prawn chips to fry since I still had the deep fryer there too. It was a really light lunch for me to choose ribs, but it was pretty good. I think I would’ve been happier with one of my usual orders though.

Ben wanted me to go try to break a touch panel before I left, so I went to the high school to a classroom with known issues. On the way, I had to deliver six iPads to the PAC. They had everyone using the main entrance with a sign-in sheet, but I just snuck in with my Technology superpowers before continuing on to the classroom. I could never get the touch to quit working, but I got so frustrated with how bad the SMART Ink was. I could draw in Paint and it would be flawless, but the SMART software lagged so hard. I hated it.

Autumn called when I forgot about her therapy appointment, so I ran home to drop off some things and then got her to therapy about 20 minutes late. Then I stopped by my parents’ house to wish Mom a happy birthday and chatted with them a little bit. She was outside power washing, and Dad was up on the roof cleaning gutters. I didn’t stick around too long though, and let them get back to work.

When I got home, I cleaned up and played a little bit of Overwatch until Summer and Eaddie came over. Then we rode bikes around the neighborhood, stopping by Allen’s, then going over to the high school. Eaddie wanted to take me to the trail that she and Noah found, so we did that. I tried riding over to Julie’s house too, but the field was so long and rugged with too many back yards that I didn’t want to disturb. We headed back around the new practice facility, then made it back to my house.

The girls headed home and I followed a little later. Autumn had some leftover fish sticks out, so I got the deep fryer going again for some of those, some more prawn chips, and some sweet potato fries for Summer. Then Autumn wanted to watch a movie with Summer, so Eaddie and I went to the bedroom to finish The Defenders. The end escalated pretty quickly, but we were happy with it.

Next up: Jessica Jones

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WikiWhat

I spent all day today getting the wiki going at work. What I thought were relatively straight forward steps ended up not working in the end, and Ben had to help modify their code to make it work. Lunch was leftovers from yesterday, and not much else happened beyond that. It was a slow, somewhat frustrating, yet ultimately successful day.

It was beautiful outside after work, but I just felt drained and wanted to stay in. I ended up jumping into some Overwatch to get a couple daily loot boxes. Then I headed up to Summer’s for the evening. I got her oscillating fan fixed with some WD-40 while she girls were all watching The Voice. Then when Summer went to bed, Eaddie and I watched a couple more episodes of The Defenders.

Only eight episodes makes for a depressingly short team-up season.

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Good Documentation Takes Time

I picked up another breakfast pizza this morning, this time with gravy instead of the cheese sauce base. I really couldn’t taste much in the gravy, but the lack of cheese sauce was noticeable. I can’t say whether I like one over the other though.

Most of my day was spent documenting a process for purging Help Desk accounts so I’m not the only one doing it. It’s really only two steps, can be stretched out into three numbered steps, and then was further fluffed up into a six page knowledge base document.

In the middle of all that, Ben got a call that the secondary learning center needed a laptop charger for someone that took home a laptop. In the past couple weeks, they’ve been stripping chargers out of laptop carts we built after we ran out of loose charging bricks in the warehouse. It’s going to be a bit of a nightmare recovering from all of this, and it’s a new lease year for me on top of that.

Zach took us to Chick-fil-A for lunch, and I had a super sad looking salad from there. I was already upset that they had gotten smaller, but this one was pathetic today. I just want some more cheap greens in my eight dollar salad, and that doesn’t seem like too much to ask.

After work, I picked up the girls and took them to my house so they could ride bikes. Summer came over after work and went on a run while Eaddie rode alongside her. Autumn didn’t want to get outside at all, but at least she spent most of the time reading up for her driving exam. I’m being super strict with my expectations, because I refuse to be one of those people I used to laugh at with kids that failed the test multiple times.

While Summer and Eaddie were out, I finally unboxed my electric pressure washer and got it assembled. I didn’t get it done in time to actually use it before they got home though, and then Summer took Autumn home. Eaddie and I followed shortly thereafter, and I snacked on some leftovers for dinner.

It wasn’t long before Summer went to bed, and Eaddie and I started watching The Defenders. The first episode was super slow to get started, but I get they’re trying to bring a lot of characters together. The second episode wasn’t much better, and left me wishing I could recall some of the details from prior shows. I think it’ll get good though.

Entertaining documentation takes an irresponsible amount of time.

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Back to the Office

Today marked my first day back to the office in three weeks. I went by Casey’s to pick up a breakfast pizza, and they had made both of the pizzas I ordered for Monday and Tuesday. I wasn’t quick enough on my toes to think to just buy the second one off of them, so I just left with the one and went in to find Melinda, Zach, and Ben all in their usual spots.

It felt a little silly to be there at all since we basically were only manning the phones. Administration could have very easily just let any one of us be on-call while working from home, and have office calls forwarded to any of our phones. As usual, Zach seemed the most upset, and I couldn’t really blame him after only being out of the office for a couple of days.

I spent the first little while just kind of catching up on what all has happened in the last three weeks. Then I set up my mobile battle station in the conference room and chugged away at deleting duplicate Help Desk accounts. It was boring but kind of nice to be out somewhere else for a change.

We were only working half a day but still got a lunch break, so Zach took me through the Wendy’s drive-through, and we dropped some food off for Summer. We had only just gotten back to the shop to eat when Gary popped in for a bit. He shaved most of his beard off, and it was a pretty big shock for me. It kind of reinforced my own not wanting to do anything with any of my hair.

The afternoon went by pretty quickly as well, as we tuned in to the governor’s press conference. They officially closed brick and mortar schools for the remainder of the year. There’s no telling what kind of work we’ll have ahead of us now, but I’m sure it won’t be good. Only time could tell.

Autumn texted that she had a therapy appointment today, so I ran to get and deliver her. On the way, we saw that someone had hit the lifting gate at the railroad crossing. I ran home to clean up after the cat, then made it back in time to get Autumn back home.

Summer got there shortly after we did, and almost immediately got called back in to work to fix a broken bay door. She wanted me to drive, so I tagged along and actually proved myself useful by prying the motor pulley away from the housing that kept the motor bound and unable to move the door. Just as we got back, Summer received some more bad news that someone else is being quarantined, which brings the virus that much closer to home.

We grilled some pork chops for dinner along with some quick mashed potatoes and green beans that all turned out really great. Then Summer tried to relax in front of the TV for a bit before bed.

Eaddie and I finished the first season of Iron Fist, which went by much faster than Luke Cage did for me. I couldn’t really say I liked one over the other though, because they both felt hokey to me in their own ways.

Is that a ruttin’ rooster crowing at midnight?!?

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Quick Night In

Friday kind of loses meaning when you’ve been home for three weeks. I got up and did a little work, mostly cleaning up more duplicated accounts again. Autumn had been up a while and started chores, and woke Eaddie up shortly after I came out. I took a break after a while and watched an episode of Iron Fist with Eaddie, then went back to work.

The tomato bits I had planted started to sprout on the porch, and within just a couple hours of checking on them throughout the morning I could tell that they were noticeably bigger. I wish I had thought of it sooner, but I started a hyper-lapse video of them on my Pixel 2 XL to see if I could get any movement. A little over an hour later my phone started to go dead and I had about 30 seconds of video. The movement didn’t really start to happen until the last few seconds, but I did get to watch them grow a tiny bit.

Summer brought a bucket of chicken strips home after Autumn called asking for a chicken sandwich. We all ate pretty quickly, and then Eaddie and I went back to watching Iron Fist. Summer went to bed and watched an episode of Cake Wars, but when that was over Eaddie and I joined her to finish the third season of Glee.

With everyone else wound down for bed, Eaddie and I watched a couple more episodes of Iron Fist, then went to bed ourselves.

More routine than usual.

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I Don’t Care About the Cats

Today was just one more day of work from home. I didn’t really get anything good accomplished, but maybe I helped someone else get something done. Most of my morning was babysitting, getting the kids up and active with their own obligations.

Summer queued me up to take Autumn to a physical therapy appointment, so I dropped her off and went home to shower. When I picked her back up, we went by Walmart for a couple things for dinner. Then I stopped by Lowe’s to pick up an online order. That ended up being a little bit of an ordeal, and they were visibly frustrated with how busy they were.

When we got back to Summer’s, I started the ham bone soup for dinner and waited for her to get home from work. She came home saying she was being peer pressured into watching Tiger King on Netflix, so she made me sit down with her to watch the first episode.

I could not have been any less interested. Either the rest of the world just wasn’t already aware that big-cat people are weird, or the quarantine business has gotten them so down and bored that they’ll watch anything. I ended up playing Alto’s Adventure on my phone until even Summer couldn’t take it any more. It just wasn’t interesting, and was completely and predictably stupid. Maybe I was just aware of that particular subculture because Dad was into magic, and I remembered that Siegfried & Roy had a stage show.

Autumn started making chocolate chip cookies, and the rest of us watched an episode of Glee until Summer went to bed. Then Eaddie and I started on a surprisingly addictive first season of Iron Fist. I didn’t think I would like it based on the first episode, but each episode after that kept me hooked on that auto-play feature of Netflix.

The cookies were perfect, but we’ve gotta get off of snacks.

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Tacos de Otoño

I got up this morning to another dip in the stock market that triggered a limit buy I had been waiting on. I lost a couple bucks right off the bat because it just kept dropping, but it was still relatively small change and the market will either correct itself, or we’ll be propelled into another great depression.

Autumn was up and around while Eaddie was still in bed as usual. I had some leftover eggs for breakfast while I got to work, and then eventually got the girls up to start chores and homework. I had to do a bit of hand-holding for someone else working from home, but after a couple hours I think we got her going.

The afternoon went by pretty quickly, and I eventually ran home to clean up there. On the way back, I stopped in to Walmart for a few things so Autumn could make dinner. She wanted to grill some strip steaks for street tacos, so I got some limes and veggies. I didn’t see any masks on at the store, but it was still pretty quiet with just a few people scattered around. It felt a little like a smaller population coming out of hiding after an apocalyptic event, and it was quiet and peaceful. Why move to a smaller town when the virus could bring the smaller town to you?

The tacos turned out great, and it was a decent learning experience for Autumn as long as she’ll keep it up and not just change interests again when this one gets more difficult. She only almost set the house on fire once, and nobody lost any fingers. My refried beans were a big hit after blending them with the immersion blender and adding some more water.

After dinner, Summer and Autumn cuddled up in bed to watch a movie, so Eaddie and I finished up the first season of Luke Cage over some ice cream. Next up is Iron Fist, and I’m feeling like this is going to go downhill a bit more before it gets better.

You’d think Alto would be better than he is. It’s his game, after all.

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Quarantine Away from Home

Eaddie really didn’t want to go to Little Rock with us for Autumn’s appointment, but today she actually behaved really well in spite of her frustration. Summer got up and made eggs and corned beef hash for breakfast, and then we all got ready to leave. My trolling motor came in for the boat, so I stopped by the house to bring it inside, and then we hit the road.

I wasn’t sure what traffic to expect on a Tuesday at lunch time, but it wasn’t awful. There were still lots of cars on the highway, and Waze had my route all kinds of jacked up, but we made it with time to spare. Rather than drag everyone in, I dropped Summer and Autumn off at the entrance, then parked and sat in the car with Eaddie. She spent the whole time on her phone, and I ended up video calling Suzanne to check in. She took me along on her walk around the neighborhood until Autumn was finished.

We didn’t even bother trying to do anything else in Little Rock, and headed back to Conway instead. Eaddie stayed in the car again while the three of us went in to Sam’s for some supplies. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised at the types of people that were there, or the change in behavior. There still wasn’t any toilet paper to be had, but at least it was quiet.

When we left, I ordered a couple pizzas from Old Chicago, and we took them home to eat. I wasn’t really impressed with the pizzas, and the restaurant was eerily quiet. It’s always been a treat to dine in there, but for 30 bucks after a BOGO deal, I would have preferred Pizza Hut.

After we ate, Summer had a little workout while I looked up a manual for her Bowflex. I figured out how to get some more features out of it, so she was happier with her improved workout away from the gym. Then we went to my house and rode bikes to the high school so I could water my plant. The doors were physically locked, so rather than continue looking for another way in after the announcement that one of the staff there tested positive for COVID-19, we headed back home where I continued to clean out the garage while Summer went for a run.

When we got back to her house, she made some pico de gallo and I started some refried beans in the Instant Pot. She went to bed before I even got the pot sealed, but when it was done and I got them mashed up, I got Eaddie out of her room to try them. Then I made us a couple little baby bean burritos before we sat down to a couple episodes of Luke Cage.

So long as nobody got the coronavirus, I’d call today a success.

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No Lessons Learned

I let myself sleep in a little today since I was working from home again. The kids got a pizza delivered from their father, and I had some leftovers while I worked. I made the mistake of replying-all to an email chain of teachers that were confused about how to use a VPN, and got bombarded with direct emails asking for help.

The kids had a bit of trouble getting motivated today since they’ve been used to being out of school for two weeks now. Noah was especially sluggish, and didn’t want to put his phone and headphones down. I wasn’t impressed at all with any of the work that was sent home anyway. Eaddie had one assignment to draw a vertical, horizontal, diagonal, and curvy line in a big box. She is not five. Then she had another assignment to label North American countries, and she couldn’t even tell me what two countries border our own. She may actually be five.

I ended up going home for a while, but didn’t get too much accomplished there. The rain really started coming down, and I eventually made it back up to Summer’s for the evening. Summer had already been in bed for a couple hours, so I picked at leftovers again, played on my phone a bit, and eventually found my way to bed.

What the hell do these kids do all day at school, anyway?

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Divide and Progress

I tried not to sleep in too late today since spring break is officially over. Summer got the kids up, and we picked at leftovers for breakfast. It was a nice day out, so Summer wanted to take the kids out on a hike while I went home to clean up. They went to Long Pool for what looked like a really great time, and I took a long overdue shower.

They got to my house just as I was getting dressed, and then I sent Noah and Eaddie out on bikes while Summer went out for another 5k around the neighborhood. Autumn wanted to lay around watching TV, but I made her go outside with me to eat our sandwiches I made. Summer got back from her run about the time we finished eating, and then I started picking at stuff in the garage. Autumn even helped break down some cardboard for recycling because I wouldn’t let her go back inside to lay down.

It really was a perfect day for cleaning up outside, and the kids enjoyed getting out of the house again. I made two clear paths through the garage, so hopefully soon I’ll have room for parking again. Summer took everyone back to her house, and I trailed along a little later once I was satisfied with my stopping point.

I took Eaddie a Google Home Mini for her room since she worked so hard on cleaning and rearranging it. Summer finally got her Magic Bullet blender, and I warmed up some leftovers for dinner before she, Eaddie, and I snuggled up for some Glee until bedtime.

It’s amazing what you can accomplish when you’re awake.