Tag: family

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Solstice with the Mostice

The kids got up and started watching Criminal Minds this morning. They got hungry, so I threw on some ramen while Summer went to take care of some school stuff and work out. After she got back, she took them home and I eventually got cleaned up enough to leave the house.

I stopped by Davis’ Pet Store on the way to Summer’s house because I wanted to pick up a few more baby snails while she had them. She gave me another tiny little ram’s horn style baby as well, but we weren’t sure what kind it really was.

When I got to Summer’s, she was in the middle of doing laundry and cooking food for my family’s potluck tomorrow. I warmed up some leftovers for us, and once she was done with everything we watched a couple episodes of The Office. When Nick brought the kids back, Noah started tearing the house apart looking for the ring he lost the other day. Autumn holed herself up in her room with her new phone, and Eaddie generally bummed around complaining about how she also lost her tablet several days ago but nobody would help her find it.

Summer wanted to play some Diablo, but I couldn’t get the family plan email invite to show up on her account, so she ended up falling asleep. I played Super Mario Party with Noah and Eaddie until they went to bed as well.

Today literally went by so fast!

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Save it for the Blu-ray

I delivered one more frog at Oakland this morning, then stopped by the shop for just a little bit to see if anything was happening. It was pretty quiet, so I went to Crawford to take a look at something Allen was having trouble fixing. It didn’t take me long to realize we were on the completely wrong path, and I left there to go to the junior high and work on it.

The junior high had their Christmas lunch potluck today, and I stuffed myself. There was just so much food. I couldn’t really even eat dinner after all of that. Everyone was pretty much just wandering around aimlessly because most of the kids were gone from having finished their tests. I chatted with Dustin and Haley for a little while, but then school let out an hour early and quickly became a ghost town.

I stopped by the shop again, but everyone was just sitting there waiting to be told to go home. We never really got anything official from central office, but Ben let us go just a few minutes early. Gary was there helping Zach look at something though, so I ended up hanging out until the usual quitting time anyway.

Summer and the kids were getting ready to go to Conway, so I met them at my house right after I left. The kids were hungry when we got there, so we took them to Red Robin for some burgers. Summer and I still weren’t hungry, so we just shared a tower of onion rings. Afterward we went by Sam’s to walk it off, and then made a quick run through Academy to look for paintball canisters, and then to PetCo to see if they had anything cool.

Finally at the theater, I collected my five comped tickets at the box office, loaded up on popcorn, and made our way to the XD auditorium for Aquaman. I wish they would re-cushion that front row of seats, because they’re starting to get pretty rough, and they lean back too easily. Then the theater filled up and we had a clapper/knee-slapper on the left and some guy that thought he was at a sporting event behind us. Neither would shut the hell up. Honestly I would have listened to the whole Pitbull song if these guys would have shut up. It was so annoying. Theaters need ushers again. I’m just glad I didn’t care so much about the movie, because otherwise I would have raged at the distractions.

Seriously dude, you’re going to the special hell.

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The Great Wind Down of 2018

I had yet another frog to take to Oakland this morning. I think they’re up to six now, and they’re out of food. Hopefully PetSmart gets some more tiny ones tomorrow. The girls were hungry too after dealing with a bunch of dumb parents, so I ran to Sonic to get them some breakfast before heading to the junior high.

I tried to keep busy with a few different things, but you could tell everyone was really winding down. It was a real zoo trying to leave for lunch because of all the kids leaving early after testing. I met Dale, Zach, and Brice at Wendy’s, then just went back to the junior high to finish the day.

After a quick check on all the animals at home, I headed to Summer’s for dinner. Grilled pork chops, mashed potatoes, peas, and a corn casserole that made a colorful plate worthy of a photo that I forgot to take. When we finished, the kids wanted to play Super Mario Party until I headed home for the night.

Why do we still let Pitbull do anything at all?

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World War Won

I got a fair bit done at work today to close out some new work orders. I need to wrap up some that I’ve had open all year though, so I’m debating working some over break to clean them out.

Allen, Dale, Zach, Brice, and I went to Arby’s for lunch, and then I left work about 40 minutes early so Dad and I could go to Little Rock for dinner and a movie.

Dad picked me up and we went to Copeland’s for dinner. It was slow and the service was pretty lacking, especially considering how few people were in there when we first arrived. It filled up pretty quickly after we got there, but we still just barely got out with enough time to get to the theater. We went to the Cinemark to see They Shall Not Grow Old, a WWI documentary from Peter Jackson made by using 100-year-old footage that has been super-restored to tell the story of a British soldier in the trenches. It was pretty breathtaking to see it go from the raw original footage to the fully remastered version. It’s amazing how much quality you can still pull from old film that you could never pull from newer digitally-shot movies. I wish there was more about the aviation during the war, but that wasn’t the point of the story and it made sense to focus on the trenches to complete the story. It really was an amazing way to modernize and bring the war back to life and learn about what happened a century ago.

Wait, did we just time travel?

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This time I want to be sure.

We slept in pretty late today. Summer was exhausted from being on the road all day yesterday, and I was just lazy. When we finally did get up, she didn’t waste any time getting out to the gym and to get the girls.

I went to check on the fish and was baffled to find eggs! I don’t even have a male betta, so they were unfertilized. It wasn’t until after I changed her water to get rid of them that I realized it’s Christmas, and that I may have inadvertently discarded the Fishiah, born of the virgin betta to offer salivation to all those who look up to the great fish fry in the sky. She’s still a little bloated and lethargic, but I feel better that something has happened. Next up will be peas and epsom salt.

Loads of research and a shower later, I made it up to Summer’s for dinner. She made tacos with pico and guacamole all from scratch. She even steamed some rice, which I ate with what fell from my tacos. After dinner, Autumn played some Super Mario Party while I played Zelda. Eventually the girls went to bed and I had to run to Walmart for fish supplies.

I made a pretty quick run through Walmart, stopping to check a few clearance shelves I found, but nothing really piqued my interest. I got some canned peas and epsom salt for the fish, and a carton of orange juice for myself. As I was coming up to the self-checkout, I ran into Tasha and talked to her and her boyfriend for a little bit. Evidently they made a baby. It seemed defective because it was emitting some kind of squeaky noise.

Back home, I noticed on my calendar that today was Summer’s anniversary. That meant it was my anniversary, and I hadn’t realized it until nearly bedtime. I felt like a bit of a bum for that because I know Summer expects something more, but overall I’ve been pretty vocal about not celebrating or acknowledging events for the past several years. At the very least, it’s been less stressful being a non-participant. She didn’t much care for my jokes that she had reset our anniversary to May, or that I would deduct five calendar days from our year together. Overall though, it’s been a pretty decent one. Seriously, who saw that coming?

Won’t you tell me if I’m coming on too strong?

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Greasy Peasy

Today I mostly caught up on things I’ve been needing to do at work. I started at Oakland mostly to check on the frogs, but got an ocular migraine that knocked me out of service for a few minutes. From there it was off to the shop to discuss smart things with Gary and Zach.

Allen, Brice, and I wanted to go to KFC for lunch, but they were doing renovations in their lobby, so we went to Long John Silver’s instead. The food was good, but seemed lacking somehow. I just didn’t feel stuffed the way I normally do there.

After lunch, I went to the junior high and took care of several things. I got a call this morning from the shipping company that was supposed to deliver Summer’s phone for FedEx, and the guy told me they lost it and to call FedEx to file a claim, so I started that process in the afternoon. That became really dumb really fast, so I got Summer to log in for me and I chatted with Google Fi customer service for some help, and got the old “I’ll escalate this for you” answer. Still no new information.

I wrapped up the day with a few things at Oakland before heading home to get some things, and I left for Summer’s. While she was at the gym, I took the kids to Walmart because Autumn wanted to shop for some Christmas presents. I couldn’t really see that she got much of anything, but I got a couple thing I needed, and Noah carried the 35 pound bag of cat food for me, so overall I called it a success.

Summer ordered some Domino’s and met us at the house just shortly after we got there. Then we played some Mario Party until everyone was ready for bed.

You’re killing my, killing my, killing my time.

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Baron Grinnit

I spent most of the morning at Oakland taking care of a few things before heading to the shop. Once there, I helped Ben move an enormous desk from the hallway into one of the offices for Brice to use as an office. It does feel a little odd that Amanda never got an office when she had all the elementaries, but I’m also guessing she probably never asked. He seems to really want an office space, and we have the extra rooms. I am a little surprised that such nice furniture just appeared for him, but I think I have a chance to grab something too if I hurry.

Dale, Allen, Ben, and I went to Taco John’s for lunch, and then I went to the junior high for the afternoon. There wasn’t a whole lot going on there, but I spent some good time messing with a testing software deployment that evidently needs updating. More on that tomorrow.

After work, I ran to PetSmart to grab some of the smallest crickets I could find and took them to Oakland for the frogs. They seem small enough, but several of the crickets were already dead. I dropped a few live ones in with the frogs, and we’ll see if any are left in the morning.

From there, I ran home for a bit and started a campaign on Breath of the Wild before heading to the high school for Autumn’s band concert. The PAC was packed, and I’m surprised they didn’t pass around a collection plate. Somehow I managed to survive and we went to Taco Bell for dinner afterward.

Back at home, I continued my campaign for just a little bit longer before bed.

So let me get this straight. Link gets a cell phone, then asks Ganon for help getting down the mountain?

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It’s Magic!

We all got up and ready to go to Fort Smith for the magic club’s annual holiday potluck and show. We got to my parents’ house pretty close to when we planned, but Summer didn’t feel well by the time we left and we had to swing by Walgreens on the way out of town for some meds. The rest of the trip went pretty well though. If I had realized Mom’s car had both HDMI and an AC power outlet, I would have brought a Switch dock so we could all play. Instead, we all split up and took turns, which still turned out really well. It definitely made the trip feel shorter.

The party was at a new place, with plenty of room for eating and a large raised platform for a stage. There didn’t seem to be quite the variety of food we usually see, but at least we had plenty to eat. The girls seemed to really enjoy the show, but I really think Summer was the most excited of the three of them. Most of the performances seemed shorter than usual as well, but it was a good time.

We stopped by a couple Oriental food stores on the way home, and the girls actually really enjoyed looking at all the snacks and different things they aren’t used to seeing. Dad bought them each some snacks, and we headed home. Edna and I played some more INVERSUS to unlock some more maps. She got pretty good after a few games, so it was really fun to play a little competitively until it degraded to us trolling each other.

Once we got home, the girls went back to their house and I started cleaning up a bit. I had to fish three frogs out of the tadpole tank, which meant I had to find and clean another tank for them. The betta seems to be getting worse, and I don’t know what else I can do to help her. In cases like this, it seems way easier to care for them when you have a whole school of them rather than just one solo sick species. I gave her some more meds, but I think I need to find my aquarium salt as well. I really thought I used to have some somewhere.

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Lost Saturday

Summer got up and went to the gym while I did a couple loads of laundry. I played Into the Breach a bit while I waited. Eventually Autumn texted to let her know they were coming back to Russellville, so Summer went back to their house to receive them. I went to my parents’ house to pick up an egg carrier, then went up to meet them.

Autumn didn’t bother to mention that they weren’t actually coming home yet, so Summer got mad that she burned that much of the afternoon just waiting on them. Summer was gone to the grocery store when I got there. I made her a turkey wrap when she got back, and then she deviled some eggs for the magic club potluck tomorrow.

We got the girls to pack up some things to stay at my house tonight since I didn’t want to leave my car out in the weather before we take a long trip tomorrow. When we got to my place, I showed them the history of YouTube Rewind videos until Autumn fell asleep, and that was it for the day.

I remember when I used to do things.

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Charade of a Parade

Today felt like Friday all day long. I had quite a bit of time to socialize throughout the day while having to move around through the building for work orders. Allen wanted to go to lunch but wanted someone else to decide where, so I suggested Wind Taste. My offer struck a chord with his newfound love for the place, so we both had the General Tso lunch special that was just killer.

The Christmas parade was happening, so we were released at 3, but I ended up sticking around a while anyway. Summer really wanted me to go to the parade with her, but every fiber of my being just wasn’t okay with being there. I got frustrated and angry on the way home as I encountered traffic and blocked intersections everywhere I went. I hate this time of year for it, and I feel like nobody really understands how much it really negatively affects my demeanor.

I headed home instead of finding a place to park, and found some warmer clothes to wear. It ended up not being as cold as I expected, or perhaps I was just dressed appropriately. I left to arrive just before the roads were closed and parked at Stoby’s facing the street for a quick getaway. There was a train parked right on the tracks downtown, but it backed out of the intersections after almost no time. I don’t know if they just had to reschedule it for traffic, or if it was unloading something, but they didn’t go anywhere. I made my way to the presbyterian church downtown and met up with Summer, who was surprised to see me. I was a little upset that she kept hounding me to go, then told me not to worry about it (probably out of frustration at me), told me she didn’t feel like going herself, and then planned to go without me anyway.

In the end, we were in a terrible spot to see anything. We were right by the road, but the floats were separated with way too much empty space between, and none of the bands we saw actually played anything in front of us. Autumn walked by as her father ran into the street to take a picture of her as though somehow being in a live mid-performance was better. She clutched her flag and marched ahead speechless, because that’s my luck. Overall the parking experience was less bad than I anticipated, but the parade was significantly worse than I expected. I hate them. I hate them all.

Summer was hungry, so we ate at Stoby’s before we headed home. A rollercoaster of anxiety and anger, followed by a downward spiral into madness for the evening. But I picked up Into the Breach for the Switch and played a tutorial round, and it looks freaking awesome. So there’s that to look forward to. I also picked up tickets for They Shall Not Grow Old for Dad and myself, which I’m excited to watch.

Pageantry is child abuse!