Tag: family

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Bumday’s a Drag

Summer was super sick all day, so I just sat around with the kids all day. Autumn came out and watched Criminal Minds while Eaddie played Mario Odyssey all day. Summer ended up going back to bed and slept most of the day while we just sat around bored. Eventually I shut everything down and tried to get the kids to do something else constructive, and they went to clean up their rooms a bit. Eventually I went home to clean up and figure out dinner.

I cleaned up after the cats and did some partial water changes on the tanks. One of the lights on my 55 gallon tank had gone out, and I figured out it was the bulb and the starter. Luckily I had a spare from Julie’s tank, so I got it running again. After a shower, I went to Walmart to pick up what I needed to make red beans and rice in the Instant Pot.

Back at Summer’s, I got dinner going while they watched TV. It took me a bit longer than I expected, so I cut up some summer sausage and cheese to eat on crackers as a snack while we waited. Once I could relax and let the food cook, I propped up against Summer and watched the first episode of the first true season of Battlestar Galactica. That ran both of the girls off to their rooms, so we just finished the one episode before dinner was ready.

Autumn snapped at Eaddie when she tried to fetch her for dinner, so Summer didn’t let her have any. The other three of us sat in the kitchen to see how I had done. The beans seemed slightly undercooked again, which was a little frustrating. It wasn’t too bad, but it definitely could have used some more time. I don’t know why dry beans are requiring so much more time than the recipes are calling for, but I’m afraid if I start off that much longer, they’ll end up mushy. It was still plenty edible though, and Eaddie seemed to like it pretty well. There were quite a few vegetables in it, so it seemed at least a little healthy.

After dinner, the girls pretty much went straight to bed. Summer and I went to the bedroom and watched an episode of Parks and Rec before she really started feeling the Nyquil. I emailed work to take a half sick day to help out getting the kids to school and stuff. Hopefully my sinuses don’t flare up more overnight.

Baby snails doo doo doo doo doo doo.

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Short Notice

Summer and Autumn left early this morning for a quiz bowl tournament. I slept in for a little while, but tried not to sleep all morning and got up to watch some Caprica in my boredom. There were still some leftover biscuits with gravy, so breakfast by myself was easy enough. A couple episodes in, Clint sent a message saying he was in town and wanted to know if anyone wanted to meet him for lunch.

I woke Eaddie up and we both jumped into some clean clothes and ran across town to Linh to meet Clint. He was in town to get Landon after an archery tournament. It was nice to catch up a bit, though Eaddie took a while to really wake up. Clint didn’t have time to socialize after we ate, so Eaddie and I came back to their house to shower and clean up for the day.

Eventually Summer and Autumn made it back in to town, and Summer had a really bad head cold. I ran to La Villa to pick up a chicken parmesan for them to split. Eaddie made her bowl of ramen she got from the Oriental food store, and I scraped the bottom of Summer’s plate when she finished. We tried watching an episode of Battlestar, but I had some trouble getting it to play the correct episode. Instead, we watched an episode of Parks and Rec, then I put Summer to bed. Eaddie stayed up watching Home Movies, and then Legends of Tomorrow once I was ready for bed.

Cold, rainy days are sleepy enough without also being travel-lagged and sick.

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Overpromised and Underdelivered

I got an email after work yesterday asking for us to replace a touch panel first thing this morning after I waited all day yesterday with no response. We still somehow managed to get it done without running into any kids, but it was still annoying. Otherwise, I was impressed with how quickly Jason, Brice, and I were able to get the job done. I honestly don’t think I could have been any more proud of them in that moment. Jason did seem to be in a promising mood though, in that he kept offering his guarantee that she would love the new touch panel, and that Sara would offer all kinds of extended training on how to use the new equipment. It got to the point very quickly that I had to start shutting him down on his referrals.

We didn’t have any other group projects, so I spent the rest of the morning taking care of a docking station setup before we went to lunch. Nothing sounded particularly good to me, and Jason really wanted CiCi’s, so he, Allen, and I went there. We cut it really close for our clock time, but we managed. I’m really not excited about having to do it, but it seems like at least Ben is going to have our back on some of the stuff anyway, so in the end it won’t really matter.

After lunch, I took care of a few things at the junior high. When school let out, the place quickly became a zoo of kids coming in for all-region band tryouts. Autumn was a bit upset that she only made second alternate, but she’s not willing to commit to the work needed to improve herself either, so she’s just going to have to figure it out.

I went home for a while after work to do a small water change on the aquariums, and eventually made my way up to Summer’s for the evening. I picked up a dollar burrito and free drink at Taco Bell on the way up, and after eating and finishing up Bridge to Terabithia with the kids, Summer and I watched a couple episodes of Parks and Recreation. Then it was off to bed for quiz bowl tomorrow.

He shows zero initiative. He’s not a team player. He’s never one to go that extra mile. Tom is exactly what I’m looking for in a government employee.

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Batting 100% of 1000

I’ve been nailing lunch suggestions this week. Monday it was Wendy’s. Tuesday, we had Mexican. Wednesday was Asian. Today, a huge group of us went to Firehouse. It was super cold for being bike-riding weather at the beginning of the week, so I think everyone just liked the idea of a hot lunch. I shouldn’t have eaten my whole sandwich, but I was so hungry and it was so delicious. It was totally worth ordering and customizing ahead via the app.

Since I spent all morning mostly wasting in the shop, I had to get some time in at the junior high, but not before having a decently productive gripe-fest with Gary while everyone else was out. Then I just closed as many work orders as I could before quitting time. I ended up two minutes shy of my eight hours today since Jason and Allen made me two minutes late getting back from lunch.

I headed home while Summer went to the gym. We were going to go to Ruby Tuesday while the girls went to dinner with their father, but he broke down and we ended up going to La Plaza together instead. They had all-you-can-eat enchiladas for $6, so Summer and I gorged ourselves. Then our waitress offered dessert, and brought us the biggest slice of trec leches cake she could find. I really didn’t expect to feel this miserable after it was all said and done, but here I am. To top it all off, I feel a pretty big head cold coming. I just hope I can kick it quickly without too much after-muck.

Unfortunately all of the CO₂ leaked out of my first paintball tank, so I tried filling up the other one. It may leak a bit as well, but at least not nearly as fast as the other. If it loses much more overnight, I’ll just trash them for a new one.

I’m so proud that you’re disappointed in yourself.

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Diminishing Returns

I woke up to a nice spring morning that allowed for a bike ride in to work without a jacket. In January.

We were to start clocking in and out today, so I made it in to work a bit early to make sure the system would allow it. I think I was one of only a couple people that actually successfully clocked in. The system seemed pretty limited and didn’t show much of any information, and I’m pretty sure I had access to things I shouldn’t have, but we’re still only testing at this point.

I spent all morning at the shop since I was able to do most things I needed to do remotely. Then Zach, Gary, and I went to Wendy’s for lunch. We sat with one of the maintenance guys that was there by himself, and he talked for most of the time we were there. We headed back in pretty early, so I actually managed to clock in and out right on the dot for the morning, before, and after lunch. Then I got out a bit late after setting up a couple new phones. We got a huge box of them in right before lunch, so it was nice to close out one of those work orders. Tomorrow I’ll get to close more.

After work, I went home for a while and ended up spending most of my time just checking emails. Summer got home after the gym and I headed over for some leftovers for dinner. She and the kids already ate, and they were all pretty well settled in. I still didn’t feel super great after sleeping with heartburn most of the night, so I just ate a little quietly and then joined them on the couch. The girls went to bed, and Summer and I watched the miniseries of Battlestar Galactica for the rest of the evening.

So say we all!

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Clocking Out of Break

Like most of the break, we slept in a bit later than we wanted. Summer got up and made biscuits and gravy for breakfast, and we spent most of the day playing games either together or separately. It felt like kind of a waste of such a nice day outside, but Eaddie was the only one that even mentioned doing anything. I kept letting myself get caught up in my game of Zelda, and Autumn mostly stuck to her phone when Summer wouldn’t let her watch Criminal Minds.

The three of them did at least manage to finish building the game table in Autumn’s room. Then the other three of us played quite a bit of Mario Kart before Summer heated up a lasagna for dinner. The day went by pretty quickly, and everyone worked up a pretty good musk by the time the kids had to get ready for bed. We finished up with a lime pie that Summer and Eaddie made, and then the kids were off to bed for the school night.

I headed home and started a load of laundry I didn’t get to, and while that was going I noticed Clint, Keno, and Jack were all on playing Overwatch, so I joined them for a few rounds as well before bed. We finished up right before my laundry was done. I’ll have to get up a bit earlier tomorrow so I can be sure to have plenty of extra time for the new time clock procedure we’re implementing at work. It really must be great to have a contracted number of work days just like us and not have to worry about a time clock the way that certified employees don’t.

We’ve got to quit wasting breaks.

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End of Break Blues

Summer got up this morning and left for the gym and to do a bit of shopping before the girls got back from their father’s. I got cleaned up and had to stop by Walmart to pick up the asparagus and Brussels sprouts that Summer forgot.

The girls were eating food they brought home when I got there, so it was just the two of us eating the ribs, mashed potatoes, and veggies she whipped together. It was super good, so I wasn’t too upset about it. After we ate, we played a relatively quick game of Monopoly before moving to the Switch for Mario Kart.

We’ve all had trouble getting to sleep early, but I’m hoping to turn my clock back by about four hours tonight. Sadly, returning to work is starting to look like reality.

Where else can I find a job that lets me work this little but pays better?

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PixElated

I didn’t manage to get to sleep until about 5, and I woke up around 8 to check the status of Summer’s phone. We really didn’t have any more time to waste because Google Fi was threatening to cancel her “service” and bill her for the phone if she didn’t activate it, even though it was completely on FedEx for losing her first phone shipment nearly a month ago. When she finally woke up around 10, I had her get dressed to wait for FedEx and I went back to sleep for a little while. It was right around lunch time that they finally made the delivery. I still woke up from the knock on the door though, so I went ahead and got up to help her set things up.

We got her screen protector and case on, but she forgot her Slickwraps skin at home, so we’ll have to try that out later. The port from Verizon to Google Fi was painless though, and after some initial, vaguely unintuitive setup, she was up and running on her new phone. I think after seeing hers, I’m less upset about not having a new one this year. I can definitely hold out for a better price point than the one I got when I switched last year.

After we got her going, I dominated Noah and Eaddie at some Mario Kart that I picked up on sale last night before bed. Summer and Autumn made a run to Burger King and Popeye’s for a late lunch since it’s impossible to please everyone, and we’re raising a bunch of “librul snowflakes” as they say at work. Summer even made the executive decision to order bone-in chicken over Eaddie’s preferred strips, but then ended up bringing strips back anyway because the wait was significantly shorter.

We ate, Summer took Noah home, and then the four of us played a ridiculously long game of Catan because none of us are comfortable enough to play with any real strategy yet. When that was finally over, I was completely beat from being awake for so long after such little sleep. Summer took the girls home and I tried doing my rounds on some of the pets before falling over.

It looked like the betta dropped a few more eggs, but they floated this time. She also has some pretty significant fuzz that looks like stuffing coming out of a hole in a stuffed animal. It’s been there for a while and she can’t seem to shake it, but at least she seems more active. I think she’s been eating some of the freeze dried bloodworms I’ve added to her water, but I can’t tell for sure. She’s definitely still not anywhere near back to normal.

After that, I got side tracked a bit and ended up breaking the tape measure I’ve had on my desk for years. It had been slightly messed up for ages, and I broke it the rest of the way trying to correct it. I guess for a dollar store purchase, it served well. Harbor Freight will fill the void nicely in the near future.

Too many rabbits.

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Full Price Is for the Birds

I woke up super stiff this morning with a tremendous ache in my shoulders. Somehow I’ve been sleeping poorly on my side with my arm up under my head, but I can’t ever seem to stay put sleeping on my back. When Summer got up, she stirred the kids and got ready for the gym. I headed home and messed with my one sleepy snail and finally got it to come out and eat some food after being sealed up for several days. That was a pretty good relief.

After my shower, I picked up Bác Vân and met Summer and the kids at CiCi’s for a BOGO lunch. They said something about national buffet day, but they had me at “free.” When Bác Vân finished, she decided she had to take Eaddie next door to Shoe Carnival, and ended up bringing her back with a new purse. When we all finished, we walked to Bath & Body Works for some significantly overpriced soaps. I had a coupon though, which knocked us down about 20%. Then Summer walked the kids to PetSmart while I gave Bác Vân a ride home.

I met them back at PetSmart to browse for a bit, but they were done by the time I got there. I picked up some baby crickets for the frogs at Oakland, took the others to their car, then took the crickets to Oakland to feed the frogs. Mollie had taken them home, so I had to just leave the crickets on her desk to pick up tomorrow. From there, I had forgotten to fill up on gas and had to drive back to the Shell. Evidently I had a pretty significant discount available, so while I trickled gas into the tank, I called Summer and had her meet me there to grab the last few gallons up to 20 that I couldn’t fit in my own car.

Finally, we all landed back at my house and played a game of Settlers of Catan. I thought I had the Seafarers expansion that would allow for all five of us to play, but it turns out it was only an expansion to the original game for 3-4 players, and I’ll have to buy two more expansions in order to make that work for 5-6 players. It was really tough getting everyone to listen to the rules, but once we got started they all seemed to really enjoy it. Even Eaddie got really into it, and ended up winning the game with an assist. We made one slight mistake with the spacing of settlements, so by the time we finished we were fed up continuing to play by our broken rules, but we’ll know better next time.

With the game finally done, the five of us settled in and watched Bird Box on Netflix. It was really good, really suspenseful, and perhaps a little too terrifying for the littlest. About two thirds of the way through, she gave up and went to the other room to play on her phone. The rest of us really enjoyed it though, and it’ll be interesting to hear in the morning if anyone has nightmares over it tonight. I think they likely pushed all of that out of their heads with their Mario Party as Summer and I went to bed.

Yes. It is exactly like tic-tac-toe.

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Nice Jowls

Julie made a traditional American new year’s meal for lunch today. Summer took Eaddie to pick up the other two kids and get ready while I showered. When they got back, we took some apple pie moonshine and Exploding Kittens to Julie’s house.

My parents were running a little late, so Julie decided we should go ahead and eat to get a rotation going. My parents ended up coming over with some TV tray tables, and got just a slightly later start. The beans and cornbread were my favorite. The collard greens were okay with some hot sauce, but I wouldn’t recommend them over many other vegetables. They basically had to be made unhealthy to be palatable. Julie had some other friends filter in around the time we were finishing up, so the few of us played two games of Exploding Kittens before we left.

Summer took the kids to go to her parents’ house for a bit while Dad helped me load my old Vizio TV into the car. Allen called and offered to give me a bunch of homemade wine, so I took him some apple pie too. He had way more wine than I was expecting though, and we loaded it up in all of the floorboards of the car.

On the way to Summer’s, I stopped by Harbor Freight to use a couple coupons. I picked up some clip-on watchmaker’s magnifying glasses and a free LED light. I always thought the free item coupons attached to the “buy one” item, but I was actually able to use a 25% off coupon on the magnifier  to stack with the free item coupon on the flashlight.

Once at Summer’s, the kids helped us unload the car, and Summer and I set the TV up in the living room. Autumn watched while the four of us played a team game of Mario Party, and then we started a game of Uno. I warmed up some leftovers for myself while we played, but we didn’t even get the game finished before everyone got bored and went back to Mario Party. The wine got us a little goofy, but it was a good time for everyone.

All that glitters is gooooold!