Doing Things All Day Long

I spent most of the day at the shop today. It took me half of the morning to set up a Verizon hot spot for the junior high, and then Zach, Gary, and I went to Wendy’s for lunch.

When we got back, Zach warned me about a lockdown drill at the junior high, so I killed some more time in the shop chatting with Gary and learning a few things before heading over there. Then I closed out a few more work orders before heading out.

As we were getting ready to leave, Summer asked if we could pick up a TV stand from her mother’s church. Even with only a closeup picture with no context clues, I could tell there was no way we were going to get this thing into my car, so I called Allen and asked to borrow his truck. I met everyone at the church, and from there it was surprisingly easy to get the thing loaded in spite of how large and heavy it was.

We unloaded the TV stand at Summer’s house and brought it in through the back door because it was a bit easier. Her TV won’t fit in it, and it’s a bit tall to put the TV on top, but I’ve seen more ridiculous setups. It is a pretty nice stand, anyway. From there, I went to get Allen some gas before dropping off his truck with a bowl of chili that Summer made.

From there, I had to stop by Bác Vân’s house because she called saying her cable was out. She let herself get super frustrated without television and never bothered to call the cable company or me. I couldn’t figure out what went wrong, but power cycling the cable box fixed the issue. Then I ran to my house to change and headed to Summer’s for the evening.

The kids ate almost all of the chili and I was concerned at first that there wouldn’t be enough left for Summer and me, but it actually ended up being really filling. Summer, Noah, and I watched Bo Burnham’s What, and then sent everyone to bed.

I can’t believe you’d even write that!

Time Off

Summer left super early this morning for a quiz bowl trip, so I slept in until about 11. When I got up, Clint and I played some Overwatch until he left to get some food. I took the time to remote in to work to try and turn the bell system time back an hour for daylight saving time. It took me a couple hours to figure out something stupid, but it’s done and it’s documented now.

I spotted some TIKI torches on sale at Lowe’s online, so I bought out all of the Russellville and Conway stores and arranged for local pickup. Conway eventually got back to me when my order was ready for pickup, but Russellville never did. Everything was still showing available online, so I placed the order again thinking that maybe it was just a mistake.

Once Summer got back home, we went to the local store to see what was up. The girl that helped me said they normally contact the customer if something goes wrong, but obviously that wasn’t the case for me. We spent some time wandering through the outdoor area to find the torches, and eventually found them boxed up and ready to go into off-season storage. Some other lady had bought out all of the fuel I ordered, but at least I got my eight torches. Unfortunately, it turned my two gift cards into four gift cards once it was all said and done. We ran into Dale and Neletta while we were there and chatted for a little bit before loading up.

Mom made bún bò Huế for dinner, and I brought the TIKI torches in for them to use. We got lucky because they matched the exact same model that Dad picked up last year, so now we can set the whole back yard on fire in style.

After dinner, we came back home and I played some Rocket League with some of the guys I don’t play with very often until bedtime.

If I could turn back time… If I could find a way…

I challenge you to a Dual!

I rode the bike in this morning because it was supposed to be really nice in the afternoon, and I forgot I was supposed to take the girls home after school. My first stop was Oakland to drop off a stack of iPads that I was conveniently able to fit in my bag. I ended up having to work on them for a while more before I could leave, but eventually I found a fix. Then I went to the junior high to start setting up my last three dual monitor setups.

Lunch time rolled around right as I finished up my first one, so I took a break and rode to Subway across town. It took me 30 minutes just to get through the line, and then I took it home to eat since I had to trade out for the car. I ran back by Oakland again to work on a couple of things, and ended up getting some help from Gary in the self-contained classroom. A couple of the kids were all over us, and one stole a water bottle out of Gary’s bag and drank it. He must have been in a good mood, because he didn’t seem too bothered by the kid, or the fact that I missed a stupid version check on my Chromebooks.

After that, I only had time to get one more dual monitor stand set up before I had to take the girls home. We went by my house first so I could change, and my Google Home Hub was delivered while we were there, so I set it up. I also dug out my gel ant farm in case I still have ants in the bathroom, but all the gel dried up. I tried boiling some water to dissolve the gel and left it to dissolve overnight.

When we got back to Summer’s house, I pulled out all of the leftovers I could find and made the kids eat that. Some stuff got thrown out, and I ate the oldest stuff I could find that didn’t seem like it had completely turned. Then I played a few rounds of Overwatch before bed.

Here Lies Michael: Hater of Waste

The Curious Case of Bingeman Button

We didn’t sleep in super late today in spite of how late we got to bed. We didn’t get much of anything accomplished either. I made a little breakfast out of what was left in the fridge, and then we basically binge-watched The Office all day. Summer left after a while to take care of some things at home and get dinner started.

I took a shower and discovered an entire colony of ants in my orchid pot. I decided not to spray them, and instead hoped that they would just move themselves in a much cleaner way. If they’re still around tomorrow, I may stick a bunch of them in an old ant farm I never used from years ago.

Eventually I made my way up to Summer’s where I made some rice to go with her garlic herb chicken and mashed broccoli, cauliflower, and cheese. The girls left to go to a trunk or treat event with their father while Summer and I continued our binge until bed.

Uyimbube, uyimbube, uyimbube, uyimbube.

Well I don’t want to see you waiting.

Zach griped at me this morning for wasting my time playing with a Firefox deployment I made yesterday. I just need experience fighting with some of this stuff so I can get better at it. There’s always time for work orders later.

Jason texted and asked if I wanted to go to Las Palmas for lunch, so when he and Ben got back to the shop, we met Dale there. My taco salad was hot and fresh, but there’s no denying that the key lime candy at the register was my favorite part.

After lunch, I went to the junior high for a little bit, but ended up leaving to take care of some work back at Oakland before ultimately ending the day at the junior high. Autumn got rained out of color guard at the game, but Eaddie was upset that she wouldn’t get to watch TV at my house, so I took the girls home with me while Summer went to the gym. Josh met me there just long enough to hand over the laptop I picked up for Summer, and the girls settled in for an episode of Criminal Minds.

When Summer got to the house, we went to Burger King for the best family deal coupon in town. I had more burgers than heads for under 20 bucks. We just happened to be on the Halloween episode of The Office, so we watched that before the girls went home for the night. Then I finished laundry and headed to bed myself.

I’m wasting my time agaaaaaaiiiiiiiiiinnnnnn!

Netflix and Bill

I got up before the girls this morning and made a little breakfast for them. A heart-shaped egg, hash browns, and bun toast. I forgot I had ham in the freezer that I could have included too. Then we sat around watching Arrow and eating popcorn all day.

Summer had to pick Autumn up eventually, so she took Eaddie and went home while I cleaned up a tiny bit and finished earning my rank in solo Rocket League. Around the time I started getting bored, Summer said she had dinner almost ready, so I headed up to her place for the evening.

Her sriracha chicken turned out really good, and then we let the girls watch an episode of Criminal Minds before they went to bed. Summer and I were watching The Office when Julie called complaining about getting kicked off of Netflix. Dad had been watching too, and the plan we were on had been reduced to only two screens, so she got Dad’s approval and I upgraded the plan to the next step up for four screens with UHD content.

Better start watching more…

Dish It

Summer went home to do some house work and prepare to receive the girls while I hung out at home for a while. I played some Overwatch with Clint, then a couple of rounds of solo ranked Rocket League before getting the kitchen cleaned up a bit.

Eventually I got showered and went to my parents’ house to pick up some bánh gìo that Mom made, then went to Summer’s for dinner. She made some slow cooker beef and broccoli, then we shared a cupcake before I headed back home for the evening.

Super digging the synthwave tonight.

Instant Frustration

I got up this morning and watched as the whole day burned away. I did motivate myself enough briefly to clean up after the cats and do a partial water change in the aquarium, but otherwise we just laid around all day long. Summer picked up some Wendy’s for lunch on her way back from the gym. Then I started the old family classic Blazing Saddles half jokingly while she was in the shower, but we actually managed to finish it.

After the girls left with their father for the night, I tried making some chicken as my first meal in the Instant Pot Ultra. I didn’t realize the rice would cook so quickly and keep the water from boiling and building up pressure, so what I thought was going to be a 10-minute meal ended up being a multiple-hour shit show that ended with me transferring the entire thing to a couple of glass dishes to bake in the oven. Luckly the food wasn’t completely ruined and we could eat it for a super late dinner, but by that point I was so tired, hungry, cranky, and frustrated that I was just exhausted from dealing with it in the first place. Even cooking that meal the traditional way only takes about 45 minutes.

Can’t you see that that man is a nih?

Phoning in the Productivity

We didn’t have a meeting today, so I spent a large part of the day doing the telephone shuffle. I got two done at Oakland before lunch and got to snack on a goodie table the teachers made for the classified staff. Then Jason and Allen wanted to go to Arby’s for lunch, so I picked them up to go there. Afterward I spent the afternoon at the junior high replacing a couple other phones and cleaning up a few other stray work orders that had come in throughout the day.

After work, I headed home to wait for Josh to come over with a laptop he wanted me to diagnose. It was actually a pretty nice one that his aunt or cousin had, but didn’t want to pay to repair, so they gave it to him. It seemed to only to need a hard drive, but it required an M.2 format that neither of us had to test, so I booted it to a flash drive and then performed on board diagnostics, then ordered the best deal on an SSD that I could find.

From there we headed to CiCi’s for dinner. The girls beat us there and were just leaving as we were walking in. Summer went to work out while Josh and I ate, and then I picked the girls up on the way back home. Summer met us there, and we watched The Martian until bed.

I’m going to have to science the shit out of this.

We Are Venom

We slept in for quite awhile today because I kept waking up with a headache all night. I think it was my neck, but I still couldn’t be sure. Eventually I got an ice pack and stuck it in my pillowcase and finished the night on it.

Summer and Eaddie went home to clean up, then came back to get me to go to Conway to see Venom. We ate at the China Town buffet right in the strip mall, and then barely made it to the show on time, but I had gotten perfect seats when I pre-ordered our tickets. It was an entertaining movie. Eaddie loved it. Definitely not as good as any of the MCU movies, but still better than Venom’s last appearance with Spider-Man. I hope they follow through with another movie with Carnage.

When we got back into town, I dropped Summer off at home so she could get Autumn, and Eaddie and I went back to my house so I could get what I needed for work the next day. Then Summer and I watched a couple episodes of The Office before bed. She had a bad enough headache that she took some special migraine medication, and hopefully we’ll both be back to 100% in the morning.

Going down the street, like a turd in the wind.