Tag: family

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The Existential Review: Year 3

I had my yearly review scheduled for this afternoon, so I spent the morning doing what I could around my buildings. I took a break for lunch and met Dale, Brice, and Summer at Taco John’s for Taco Tuesday. We ended up getting way too much food because of a coupon, but somehow I managed. Getting over being sick again has me regularly hungry, but I was hoping it would help me cut back.

My review went well after lunch. I sat down with Ben ahead of schedule just to get things started, and we chatted for quite a while. It’s looking hopeful for an esports stipend, and everyone seems to be on board with what I’ve presented. I’m just hoping I can keep it from feeling as life-sucking as last week when the kids were super rowdy for no reason. I think that will get better as the teams get more serious though. Dale’s retirement is set, so it’s looking like I’ll be moved to the high school now, which leaves me to clean up and move offices. I’ll lose a window, gain a ton of room and storage, and be left with the best-documented procedures on campus. Hopefully I’ll be able to retain enough free time to keep learning things I want to learn, and also have time out for esports in the afternoons. Time will tell. I’ll miss my friends the most.

Nearing the end of the school day, I dropped by Oakland to move their copy machines for kindergarten registration, then made my way to the junior high for esports. We had several new faces today, which meant spreading to the second lab for the first time. We were really only short by one computer, but several of my quieter players chose to move over immediately when I offered the space, which made it a bit easier to manage everyone else. Unfortunately that lab hadn’t been updated automatically, so we wasted several minutes doing that before anyone could play. It was nice to get to talk to a few of them in that time though, since normally I’m just having to sit back and watch over the entire lab of everyone at once.

After work, I ran home and messed with the aquariums a bit, and experimented with some alternative CO2 dosing by filling some glass bottles with carbonated water and floating them upside down in the tanks. I’ll probably have to try again some morning rather than so late at night, but again I’m hopeful that it will provide noticeable growth improvement. That put me a little behind getting the girls from karate, but they seemed to have other things going on anyway. From there we went to their house for leftover chicken in the form of nachos. They were pretty good, but felt like they missed a binding agent like cheese dip. They just kind of fell apart too much, and missed the flavor of the dip.

My head cold cocktail seems to have worked fairly well the past couple days, so I went for a third night to combat the snottiness.

Welcome to your life. There’s no turning back.

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Custom Cocktail Cures

After doubling up on Benadryl last night, my head seemed a bit more clear when I woke up. I’m hoping I’ve found a combination of medicine that I can take to quickly rid myself of the congestion that normally plagues me for months at a time.

When I got to work, Zach gave me an ice chest full of frozen food he wanted to clear out of his freezer. There was something about a church food bank that always has leftover frozen goods that nobody ever wants to take because it requires more effort to keep. There was a surprising mix of better frozen meals, junk food, and microwavable breakfast sandwiches. I managed to fit it all into my freezer, and it’ll be nice to have something easy to warm up on weekends when the kids are over.

I didn’t get a whole lot done today because I still wasn’t feeling great. I spent a few hours fighting with the intercom system at Oakland, picked up some soup for lunch by myself in my office, and then spent the rest of the afternoon there just picking at things to clean up. The day went by pretty quickly though, and it didn’t seem like too long before it was quitting time.

Summer talked to Matt, and made it official that she’ll be taking the job at the shop. I guess I knew she was leaning that way, but she never really talked to me any more about it. I was hugely disappointed that she didn’t at least try to negotiate a better starting rate. Every time I bring it up, it’s like a deer in headlights and I don’t know what else I can do to help without just pushing her away. This stuff is really important to me, and I feel like it should be important to her too. I completely understand being shy or lacking confidence to have that conversation, but at the end of the day, money not earned is money lost, and that directly impacts the family. At some point, something’s gotta snap into gear where you just get shit done. The weirdest thing is that she’s very much that way in many other aspects of her life, so I don’t understand why this should have been any different. This should have been an easy win.

I volunteered to wait for Autumn and then take the girls to pick up Noah before heading home. The kids all sat around playing their various electronics while I started a load of laundry and confirmed that my kitchen aquarium water was toxic. From that point, I knew I had to jump right into a water change tonight.

We loaded up and headed to Summer’s where the house was filled with the aroma of simmered, shredded chicken breasts. I’d always read about shredded chicken out of a crock pot, but I’ve never actually tried it. The chicken came out way mushier than I expected, but I didn’t know all the variables to correct it for next time. It tasted good though, and made plenty for leftover nachos tomorrow after the barbecue sandwiches today. She scored a key lime pie for dessert, and then I had to head back home to tend to my own chores.

The bettas and snails all seemed to look a little better after a massive water change, but I’ll have to keep doing more relatively soon to make sure the chemistry balances out. I also need to go get some potting soil and sandblasting media to properly plant and cycle another tank or two in order to move things around to where I want them. It’s a shame we’re only given so much time for all the different things we enjoy.

Guaifenesin Diphenhydramine Phenylephrine

 

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I Have Reservations About This

It was more bike weather today. I started off at the shop and got to spend some time in a room with Gary, and I felt smarter for it. I hope I’ll have some time to hang out with him over summer projects, because there’s still so much I want to learn. The trick is to be around for his projects and not the busy work that I normally get assigned to because I’m actually willing to work.

When I finally left the shop, I spent some time at Oakland taking care of a few things before heading back to go to Chick-fil-A for lunch. It tasted better than average, but it was still expensive. I’ll take a deal at Wendy’s over full price at Chick-fil-A every day of the week.

I spent the afternoon at the junior high trying to clean up a bit, but I didn’t get a whole lot accomplished. I did get to flex my math skills a bit by using known component measurements to find the unknown angle of a TV that Jessica wanted to mount outside the library. After that, I got to use Google Assistant with Duplex to make a dinner reservation at Pasta Grill for Mom’s birthday. The assistant asked everything from how many people were coming, to what name and contact number she should give the restaurant. Ronda said it seemed like it would have been faster just to call myself, but she missed the whole point of not having to talk to people myself. A robot did all the work for me. The only thing it lacked was a transcript or recording of the call. I would have loved to hear the transaction. About 15 minutes later, I got the notification and an email that my reservation was confirmed!

I finished up at the shop, enrolling the Chromebits Jessica got for her TVs. Then I ran home to clean up for dinner. Summer and the kids beat me there since I stopped for gas, and then we headed to Pasta Grill.

Julie beat us there and confirmed that the reservation was made. I couldn’t find anyone that knew anything about the call, so I guess I’ll have to try again when Erica is working. I’m glad it worked, but I want to experience the other end of it so badly. I’m such a nerd.

After dinner, I came home and started some laundry while I messed with the fish a bit. I don’t want to move Blue since she’s built a bubble nest and is actually floating her eggs, but I did get some snails moved to the kitchen. I want to clean up the 55-gallon, but I’ve got too many other things I need to do this weekend. I’ve felt exhausted for a few weeks now though, and summer is only going to make it worse with the heat. I just have anxiety about feeling behind all the time now.

Too many things!

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Updating….

It’s felt unseasonably warm this week, which gave me some extra time on the bike. Unfortunately it’s all been spent at work. I started out at the junior high making sure esports were updated and set up appropriately after doing some re-imaging. Then I discovered that my Chromebook from Oakland would update automatically from the junior high’s network. That lead me back to Oakland to test some devices, which ultimately lead to Gary finding we were breaking updates with SSL inspection. Evidently we weren’t inspecting traffic at the junior high for some reason. At least it was a relatively easy fix, and we discovered it only halfway through manually updating all of my carts.

Gary and Zach went to lunch at Taco John’s with me, and then I spent the rest of the afternoon taking care of a few more things at Oakland before going to the junior high for esports. Matt emailed me again about the hours I’m putting and expect to put into them, so I stopped by his office to chat about it. I’m really just trying to get as large of a stipend as I can, since I know it’ll be hell trying to get it increased after the fact.

The kids were super rowdy this afternoon, and I couldn’t ever really figure out why. I had everything from kids screaming, to one kid singing uncontrollably about communism. It really had me reconsidering things for a moment. At least they all left pretty quickly after practice was over, and I could be on my way.

I tried cleaning up the cat box when I got home, but something was wrong with the control unit and it refused to do anything at all. I fought it for a bit, but couldn’t find any help at all online. I’ll probably have to just crack it open to try and find anything wrong with the controller, because the bottom half seems mechanically sound.

As soon as the girls got out of karate, I went to pick them up and headed to their house for dinner. Summer went straight home to get things ready, and we made some really delicious ham sammies. I took the “everything” French bread I picked up over the weekend and sliced it in half the long way before covering it with mayo and broiling it until just browned. Then I covered that with shredded cheese and broiled it again. Summer fried up some fancy ham and had veggies sliced up and ready to go. The avocado was annoying, and I probably should have skipped it for my own lack of appreciation. Mine was too messy to photograph, and a picture really wouldn’t have done it justice anyway. We’ve enjoyed making dinner this way.

I headed straight home after dinner to finish cleaning and reassembling the cat box. I also started a load of laundry and paid a couple bills. Still playing catch-up though. I’ve got to make this time up somewhere.

If I had a little money…

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Number Crunching

We weren’t expecting rain today, but I wasn’t going out on the bike after those early morning storms. I managed to get quite a bit done before lunch, so I was feeling good. I met Zach and Allen at Arby’s and saw Erika there. My King’s Hawaiian Sweet & Spicy Luau Chicken sandwich was way messier than I expected, and I felt like the flavor of the ham really overpowered the chicken, which otherwise would have been really tasty by itself.

After lunch, Gary helped me wipe a few carts worth of Chromebooks at Oakland. I didn’t originally think of it, but many of them are going to be returned on a lease this year, so it may not have been completely necessary. I still felt better having them updated though. Our little $1500 box for mass enrollment seemed less good than I imagined it, but I suppose for a one-man show, it would help.

Once school let out, I spent some time trying to estimate how many hours I’ll need to put into esports to really make the program what I want it to be. Matt said he was trying to get me paid, so I had to really dig in. The end goal is to come up with a position overseeing it, but not coaching every day. Only time will tell what really happens though.

I didn’t have much time to clean up at home before I had to run to Summer’s for dinner. We made some pork fried rice out of some leftover pork chops she grilled. I mostly just chopped up vegetables. It was really good, and afterward the girls wanted to watch some TV, but I had to run to take care of my own chores.

Back home, I started some laundry and got my taxes put together. I ended up with a net payment of $37, which was pretty damn close. I call that a win.

Occupation: Spy

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Bumday

Our greatest accomplishment today was breakfast. Summer got up and made eggs, sausage, and bacon, and I broiled a loaf of French bread with mayo on it, which I divided into equal sized sandwich portions. The bread turned out great and had a perfect squish to it. Almost surprisingly, there were no complaints as everyone had something they liked.

The girls started out pretty moody in the morning but mellowed out over the course of the day. Summer left a couple times to do some grocery shopping and then to get her nails done. I spent a large portion of the day cleaning up my Google Calendar and Gmail. I did at least take a shower, and I think I successfully removed a couple flow-limiters in Summer’s shower, though it didn’t seem to make a huge difference.

We kind of picked at leftovers for dinner, and ended the night with a little Switch time and then an episode of Parks and Rec.

Oh, I didn’t realize there were things you’d rather be doing!

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Shazam!

Summer got up early this morning to pick Autumn up at 8 from her lock-in, and took her to the gym while they were out. I felt a little sorry for her at first, but later found out she went to sleep after midnight, so she gets less sympathy now. That’s just a normal amount of sleep for any regular human.

When they got home, I left to clean up and pick up Noah while Summer made lunch here. Summer had Autumn take a shower before she passed out, and we let her sleep until just a bit before we had to leave for the movie. It rained a bit on the way to Conway, but it was never really too bad. I tried to set a leisurely pace.

We got to town a bit early, so we stopped by Harbor Freight for a minute to see if they had something on sale. Evidently I had mistaken the date on the flyer I had at home, so we left with nothing and made our way to the theater to see Shazam!

The movie was pretty great, and in fact was probably the best recent DC movie I’ve seen. Noah didn’t like that reviewers said it was a “fun” movie because he didn’t understand what that meant, but I thought it was a perfect way to describe it. It was lighthearted in all the right places, but still told a story with some feeling.

On the way home, Autumn’s cup lid split and she got soda in her lap. Then when we got home and dropped Noah off, I did the same in the 10Box parking lot. We ran to my house to clean up before going to Walmart to pick up some extras for dinner. They didn’t have the asparagus Summer wanted, so we ended up having chicken alfredo instead, with dinosaur-shaped pasta. I spotted some french bread on clearance that turned out great too. Summer had a really successful week of meal planning and cooking at home.

After dinner, Autumn wanted to watch Coco again, and this time Summer and I stuck around to finish it. I still would have preferred to see it in 3D at home, but I guess I’m glad to have at least seen it by now. Autumn fell asleep in the middle of it and went to bed, and then the rest of us went to bed after it was over.

You’re going to burn in a very special level of hell. A level they reserve for child molesters and people who talk at the theater.

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Getting High and Talking About Our Feelings

We had a meeting this morning, and Zach kind of took over with a CPPC vote. The board approved a new position for an Assistant Technical Director for the Center for the Arts, and they’re trying to approve a pay scale that’s significantly higher than ours. In fact, it would be a raise for most everyone in our department. As usual, I felt the need to be contrary and convince everyone to vote against approving the pay scale. There was another issue regarding creating a new pay scale for another existing employee, which I also lead the charge to decline. Later we found that every other department except the nurses voted against, presumably because they don’t feel the “classified squeeze.”

Jason came in about an hour late and met me at Oakland to try and trace back some speaker wires. I’ve had a work order open for just over a year to work on these speakers, and I was happy to finally get some help to wrap it up. I love using the lift, and I didn’t mind terribly much to be the one up and down the ladder the whole time. He did seem to question my plan and process quite a bit, but I questioned them myself anyway, so even that wasn’t too bad. We got about halfway through the project before breaking for lunch.

He didn’t want CJ’s, but Dale, Zach, and Gary came out just as we got to the shop, so we left to go eat. There was a bit of a line when we got there, but that was only the start. We got our orders placed relatively quickly, but being last, my order got held up waiting for fries. It was about that time that a bus full of high school girls pulled up and unloaded on us. Brice showed up just after they all finished lining up, so he ultimately had to get his order to go. I got my food so late that I had to scarf it down pretty quickly, which didn’t settle too well and left me gurgling the rest of the day.

After lunch, Gary helped me finish up the sound system, but we were still only using the wall speakers and had removed the ceiling speakers. I knew I’d want to come back to reconnect everything, but they literally started having an awards assembly while we were on the stage, so we slid out the side exit and headed back to the shop. I stuck around for a while there before going to the junior high to take care of a couple things. I didn’t get a whole lot done though, because it seemed like most of the teachers even beat the kids out of the building.

I went back to Oakland to finish cleaning up from our morning there, and finally got everything hooked up to my satisfaction. I hate that it’s not a true stereo sound setup, with only a mono amp, but it still sounds way better than before. Luckily I also remembered to get the serial number off of the projector before I left.

I got home from work late, and Summer dropped Eaddie off with me while she went to the gym. Autumn had a band event, followed by a church lock-in, so it was just the three of us for the night. Eaddie watched Supergirl while I worked on the aquariums. Then we went to their house where Summer beat us to grilling the pork chops and making fresh mashed potatoes. She didn’t feel super swell though, and went straight to bed with a headache after dinner. Eaddie went to her room to practice her flute and then likewise went to bed early, leaving me alone with the internet. I took the time to chat with Google Fi for a while about Summer’s Travel on Fi promotion, and got her case escalated so she can get her promo gift card.

Executive Director and Game Master of Esports, Emperor Supreme of All History, and Assistant Technical Director for the Center for the Arts

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Reverse Midas Touch

It lightly rained most of the day today, but I spent it all inside at the junior high. I was going to wrap up a bunch of work orders, but I ended up spending a while in the front office because everything I touched just broke even worse. I started with a printer connectivity issue and ended up replacing the whole computer.

I met Allen and Zach at Firehouse for lunch. They wanted to go to CJ’s first, but said there was a line out the door. I’ll never really understand why that place gets so busy when it rains. Or even when it’s dry. It’s just a mediocre hamburger.

At the end of the day, I took Eaddie to karate before getting Autumn a subway sandwich before going to her band event. I didn’t want her to eat in the car, and she didn’t want to eat in the park because of all the homeless and drug dealers, so we went back to the shop and I had her eat in the break room. Once she was done, we picked Katie up and I dropped them off at the Performing Arts Center. I ran home for just a minute before picking Eaddie up at karate and going to my parents’ house.

Mom made mango soup, which had Eaddie squiggly with excitement. Summer met us there after her workout. After we ate, she went to get Autumn, and I went home for the evening.

Some men like to hear – to hear the cannonball roarin’!

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Evasive Tax Form

The weather was supposed to be nice again today, but it was still super cold on the bike in the morning. I went back and forth between Oakland and the shop a few times trying to fix some issues before testing season arrives. It was still a mostly mellow morning though. I did run into Michael, who asked about borrowing my home theater speakers for a Dancing Through the Decades dance in a couple weeks. I just didn’t feel comfortable loading them up and bringing them out for use in public though.

I met Zach and Allen at Morellos for lunch, where I vowed to eat too many chips. I had been hungry all morning, and I absolutely loaded myself with fajitas and chips. Allen left us super early as usual, and Zach and I both still got to the shop separately, and well before our lunch hour was over. I really don’t know what his anxiety is about.

I tried to get some tablets reset at the junior high before school let out, but I didn’t get them all done before Jason wanted Brice and me to help Amanda mount a touch panel. At first I thought we were all four going to be there, but evidently he helped Amanda deliver the touch panel, and we were to swap it with a previously mounted television and then bring that back to the shop. I got pretty annoyed at Brice, because Jason emailed us early in the morning with a scheduled time of 3:00, so I left my tablets unfinished to meet at the shop. Brice took an extra 30 minutes to get there, and then we still had to drive to the middle school. On top of that, Gary seemed to be bored at the shop, and Ben was going to be at the middle school to continue his walkthrough. It just felt like everyone was either already there or available to help, and I was annoyed that I couldn’t get my work done. It didn’t help that I was mad at myself for forgetting to complete a work order yesterday, but I really didn’t get any heads-up for that one anyway.

After work, I came home to gather some things before going to Lowe’s to hunt down some light bulbs. I didn’t even see a compatible LED like I’ve been getting from Walmart, but they had one single-pack incandescent for a little more than the LEDs cost. Hopefully it won’t burn out after just a couple days though. I wish I knew what the problem was. I went ahead and picked up a new fluorescent bulb for the 35 gallon bow-front tank as well since it’s been out for years. There were only a couple cashiers, and after waiting in line for quite a while, my guy couldn’t scan a gift card correctly and I ended up getting out of line to check the balance. Once I confirmed what I knew, I got back into the next shortest line and checked out without incident.

I finally made it up to Summer’s for just a spot of dinner and to visit. They had already eaten since I was still a bit full from lunch anyway. Summer and I went to the other room to talk about her offer from the shop, and I tried to help her calculate the value of her time. It really could go either way, depending on her negotiation. The best part is just that she has multiple options for now and in the future, so I tend not to fret too much over her choice. I spent a bit of time trying to buy tickets for Shazam, but had to give up after I met a hidden order limit that required a call to guest services to explain.

Eventually I headed back home for the evening and tried to take care of the aquariums a bit. Once that was done, I spent the rest of the night cleaning with the purpose of finding my W-2. I just couldn’t find it anywhere, and I started to get really aggravated. I felt good about getting so much stuff cleaned up and thrown out, but I was going crazy not remembering where I had put it. Eventually I found it in the living room, but didn’t have enough time to actually file my taxes. I guess there’s still tomorrow.

At least I got my watch shipped off.