Tag: family

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Detlef Shrimp

I got up this morning and warmed up the last of the leftover quesadillas for breakfast. Eaddie continued watching Legends of Tomorrow until they left for home to get the house cleaned up. I’d like to say I cleaned up as well, but truthfully I spent most of my time staring at the shrimp. I ended up moving all four of them to the little bowl after deciding that the darker “ghost shrimp” may be a lighter male cherry red. Then I threw the clear ghost shrimp in as well just because I felt bad leaving it in the larger tank with the tetras. One of the reds molted at some point, and I was upset to have missed it.

I eventually got a shower and headed to Summer’s for dinner. She warmed up some leftover barbecue and made some really good cheesy potato pancake things out of the really gross nacho cheese potatoes. We watched an episode of Parks and Recreation while we ate, and then Summer continued helping Autumn with her papier-mâché rockets for history day. I played Breath of the Wild for the rest of the night, trying and failing repeatedly to defeat the island challenge. I’m going to have to step up my creativity.

It takes shrimp to make shrimp!

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Jack of All Your Labors

Summer had a quiz bowl tournament today, so I slept in a little before warming up some leftovers for brunch and heading home. Back home I played a little Overwatch to get my weekly loot boxes, then spent quite a while sifting through rocks so I could make a shrimp bowl with only black gravel. I found some plants that were still alive in my 35 gallon tank, so I pulled them out and threw them in along with the two cherry red shrimp and my last little baby molly.

By the time I finished with all of that and had a shower, Summer was done and brought Eaddie over to go have dinner with Mom. She picked up a bunch of giò in Houston and made noodles for it today. Then we spent an hour trying to dissect a jackfruit without getting all of its sticky sap everywhere. I tried following a guide I found on YouTube, but it seemed like ours wasn’t ripe enough to pull apart like that.

When I finished with that, Uncle Mai called and gave me several minutes of advice and let me know that the value of his gift to me didn’t matter as long as I would use it at least once and that I liked it. Everyone was pretty tired by then, so we headed back to my house where Summer crashed, Eaddie loaded up Legends of Tomorrow, and I dug around to see if I had a lamp I could use to light the new shrimp bowl. Spoiler alert: I need to go to Walmart.

Now my fingers smell like sweet, fruity butt.

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Model Citizens

Jason was out again, so we didn’t have any projects today. I spent most of the morning at the junior high helping Ronda update student pictures for the library. Then I met the guys at the shop to head to Western Sizzlin for lunch. While we were there, somehow we got onto the subject of district policy, and Brice made a comment about how it shouldn’t apply to some people and not others. I was quick to call him out on his step 9 salary.

After lunch, I got to do Jason’s inventory job when we got some projector lamps in. While I was there, I modified some of the descriptions and models so they would be easier to find later. Then I went to Oakland for a bit before ending the day at the junior high. It slowed down pretty quickly for a Friday, and I headed home to watch the aquarium for survivors. Mom was visiting with Bác Vân when I got there, so I chatted with them first. Then after nearly an hour of watching the fish tank, I finally found both shrimp had survived, but it looked like all three fish had been eaten. I’ll have to find another home for the final remaining one.

When Summer got home with Autumn, I headed up for the night. Autumn was made to work on her history day project over the Challenger disaster. I tried helping just a little, but tried to take special care that I didn’t put more effort into it than she did. For someone that wanted so badly to model something out of clay, she didn’t seem to have much interest in shaping her rocket. I don’t even remember what my history day project was about, but I know I hated it. Finally, Summer and I ended the night on a couple episodes of Parks and Rec.

That’s enough belly aching for one night.

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MRIs are C❄❄l

Summer got up this morning and took the bookend kids to school while Autumn and I got ready. As soon as she made it back, we took off for Little Rock for Autumn’s MRI. The drive was pretty straightforward until we got into Little Rock and encountered two separate highway wrecks. Once we got to Arkansas Children’s Hospital and fought for a parking spot, the check-in process was really quick, and we didn’t spend more than about five minutes waiting to be called back.

Even the wait in the prep room was short, as Autumn got changed into a hospital gown and picked out a movie to watch. They gave us the option to go in with her, which I jumped on right away. I’d never been in a room with that much money per square foot before. It was pretty impressive, and neat to see how even huge medical equipment gets updated with the times as far as aesthetics and user interfaces go. They pumped audio to her through plastic tubes since having metal in there would have likely killed everyone. Summer nearly froze to death even covered up in half a dozen warm blankets.

After that was done, we went to Tokyo House to eat. Autumn objected to Chinese, which was nice. I didn’t want her to think of the trip in any positive, school-skipping kind of way. If she doesn’t follow basic health guidelines, then we can’t afford to pay to rule out the most expensive things first. I didn’t really feel like I got my money’s worth with those two, but the food was really good. I probably filled up too much on sushi, but I had pretty much everything else too. Some of the fruits were surprisingly and especially good.

The trip home was through pretty heavy traffic for being so early in the day. We stopped by PetCo first and I picked up a couple puny red cherry shrimp and a couple ghost shrimp. I pointed out a tank with only some baby mollies to Autumn, and the girl helping us offered to throw them in for free. I was probably a little too excited and anxious to get them, being fooled by a seemingly extra-healthy tank. The last stop was at Target to pick up a SlickDeal on some Starbucks bottled Frappuccinos I ordered the other day.

When we got home, I dropped the girls off at their house and headed home with my new aquatic buddies. I was super tired, but I had to get them acclimated. I took a break for a little while and installed a new watch face on my TicWatch E. When Summer finished dropping the girls off everywhere they needed to be, she came over and helped me run the gamut of water quality tests. I built out a spreadsheet to keep track of the stats over time, and was shocked at how high my nitrates were. Everything else seemed to be about where I expected it, but I was still worried about throwing shrimp and tiny baby mollies in with my tetras. After a huge water change, I finally dropped the two cheapo ghost shrimp and eventually three out of the four baby fish into the tank. We’ll see how they survive the night.

☃

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Pretzel Thief

Somehow I managed to get out of the house just a few minutes early today, so I stopped by Burger King for some breakfast for Summer and myself. The junior high had more testing, so I spent all morning smartly working on things there. Kevin came over for a little while and got on a rant about Chicago gang bangers and how Obama had empowered them. Then I met Allen at Wind Taste for lunch.

I stopped by Oakland for a little bit after lunch, but then spent the rest of the afternoon at the junior high cleaning up a few things. During last period, Jaiden the library aide tried to look me up on the school website. He scrolled down and, completely out of the blue said, “who’s Jason Williams? He looks like a butthole.” I lost it.

When I finally left, I stopped by the house for a few things before getting Autumn to pick up a couple pizzas. She, Summer, and I split up and ordered three of them from Little Caesar’s so we could all get promo 2-liters. When I told the guy my name, he gave me one for Mitchell and made a comment about not being able to spell. I told him it was an online order so my name shouldn’t have been misspelled, and he suggested that maybe I had misspelled it. It took me until I got to the car to check and see that I had failed to press the button to complete my order, so I ran back inside to explain myself and then completed the order on my phone so they could get paid for what I took. The guy seemed really cool about it, but then afterward I just kind of lost him staring into space.

Everyone loved the pretzel pizzas except Autumn, because it was different and she didn’t want to try it. I lost count of how many slices I ate, which was a very bad thing. When the kids went to bed, I played a little Breath of the Wild, then put on a couple episodes of Parks and Recreation before bed.

Well he’s not wrong.

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Six Months

I had ELPA testing all day at the junior high, so I spent all morning over there just in case something happened. Nothing did. I got a few other things cleaned up while I was there, then met Allen at Ruby Tuesday for $5 salads. I spent the rest of the afternoon at the shop and then visited Oakland for a bit on my way home.

I took off a couple hours early to take Grey to the vet since she’s been a little shyer than usual. It was a quick visit. One look to find three mammary tumors. She said cats don’t survive them 90% of the time, so surgery wouldn’t be a realistic option, and all we can do is watch her quality of life. She guessed it might give her six more months.

With that news, I took her back home and gave them both some wet food. Then we sat on the couch together for a couple hours until I had to pick Eaddie up from karate. She wanted to stay and hang out with her friend, but I had to get her home to shower.

Summer and Autumn showed up shortly thereafter, and Summer warmed up some leftover pasta for us before the girls shuffled off to bed. I played Breath of the Wild the rest of the evening while Summer nursed some gnarly shoulder pain.

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Pet the Kitty

I stayed pretty busy today, and just kept things going. It was a good mix of cleaning up loose ends and taking care of newer things that came in late last week. Zach and I went to Morelos for lunch, and for the first time in a long time I took about half of mine with me in a box. If he hadn’t been feeling sick and not eating much, I’m sure I would have finished my fajitas. They won’t be nearly as good later, but it was a nice change of pace.

The afternoon went by pretty quickly, just as the morning did. I went home for a while before going to my parents’ to pick up the cat carrier, and then to Summer’s for dinner. She improved upon the flavors of the barbecue and potatoes we had left over, and I left with a new catch tray for my oven.

I ended the night watching the weird TV streaming app built into my LG TV while brushing Grey’s hair out. I keep hoping it will prevent her from shedding so much at her appointment tomorrow, but in reality there’s probably no stopping it.

I wish I had more friends, but people are such jerks.
If you can just get most people to leave you alone, you’re doing good.
If you can find even one person you really like, you’re lucky.
And if that person can also stand you, you’re really lucky.

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Sunday Pickins

We slept in a little today after a good, long night of sleep. I started to clean up around the bedroom just a little bit, but it ended up being more like picking through a time capsule than a true cleaning day. Eventually Summer took off to go to the gym and shop for dinner stuffs. I ended up playing a little bit of Overwatch with Clint to pick up the last of my bonus loot boxes for the week. Then I got a shower and headed to Summer’s for dinner.

The girls had other food sorted and went to bed pretty soon after that. Summer made a really great pasta out of some of the leftover pulled pork, and I transferred her big tray of leftover baked beans to smaller containers for freezing. Then Summer and I watched an episode of Parks and Rec before I headed home to do one last load of laundry for the weekend. Clint and I ended the night with a few more rounds of Overwatch while my towels dried.

Baked beans, the plentiful legume.
The more you get, the more you entomb.
The more you entomb, the cheaper you eat,
So freeze beans from every quiz bowl meet!

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I Know Best Because Mother Knew Best

We split up for projects today, but somehow I was left out. I ran upstairs to see if Ben’s group wanted help with running some lines, but they turned me away with three or four of them already going. I ended up just working on little side projects for my own education all day, starting with phones and eventually making it to G Suite.

Nobody really knew what they wanted for lunch all morning, but several of us agreed at the last second that Long John Silver’s sounded good. It took two vehicles to get there, which was a surprising number of people. Afterward I was sent by an achy, breaky backed Jason to go with Dale to help Brice hang a touch panel, or so we thought.

When we got there, I could tell from several feet away that the SMART board’s camera sensors were filthy. I showed him how to run his finger around the reflective border, and as if by magic it immediately began working perfectly. He made a comment about how his electric air duster must not have been enough to clean it, but by the amount of dust I removed, I suspected it would have helped if he had plugged it in at all. Dale and I just sort of rolled our eyes and pushed him not to just swap the board out anyway while we were there. That seemed like it shouldn’t have taken as much convincing as it did, but evidently he had really sold the teacher on getting a new touch panel.

With that overpaid failure to launch out of the way, I spent the rest of the afternoon at the shop fighting sleep and contemplating the use of a guinea pig in a computer lab class such as EAST. I think the more puzzling part was the fact that they had received a grant to get this guinea pig, but needed someone else to care for it over the summer. The mind reels.

After work, I had just made it home and called to make a vet appointment for Grey when Summer said her car wouldn’t start. I ran over to rescue her and Eaddie just as Autumn, who had malingered her way out of class early, was returned by her grandparents. After some more convincing that shouldn’t have been necessary, I took them to O’Reilly to pick up a new battery. Then she tried to have Alex come swap it out for her after he left the shop, but my impatience and annoyance at her lack of faith drove me to borrow tools from Wesley’s office to complete the swap myself before he got there.

We ran to my house so I could lock the battery down properly, and Autumn begged to ride with me back to their house for a little more time away from Eaddie. I packed up a bunch of leftovers, and we headed to her house to eat before everyone settled in to bed. The night wouldn’t have been complete if I hadn’t had to force Autumn to eat more than her own tablespoon of plain steamed rice. I force fed her baby carrots the way I’ve had to force feed pills to my cats, and I don’t plan on having cats ever again.

Hey! Listen!

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Something Fishy

I should have dug out the battery charger last night so we could charge Summer’s car. I spent most of the morning stressing over whether I would be getting a group gas discount with my parents at Kroger, and after I finally gave up after waiting all day, I found out that Julie used all of the fuel points by herself. I ran on fumes all day long just to end up getting a couple gallons to last me until Wednesday for 10 cents off per gallon.

We started the day by taking Autumn to her friend’s birthday party. Then we stopped by my house for the battery charger and so I could check on the house. To my surprise, the betta was super dead, and looked to have most of the color drained out of her overnight. She was alive when I left last night, so I don’t know what happened so suddenly. I knew she looked a little pale and I wanted to change the water last night, but I figured I’d have time today. It looked like she laid a bunch more eggs again, and then just died. I was super disappointed after nursing her back to health over the course of a month. She seemed really healthy again, so this caught me by complete surprise.

From there, I dropped Summer off at the gym and went back to her house to charge her car battery, shower, and try to plan the rest of my day. Eaddie failed to shower early or quickly enough, so by the time I actually took mine the water was ice cold. As soon as I finished, I went straight to the water heater and raised both thermostats quite a bit. Then I went to pick up Summer at the gym and Autumn at Hourglass Escape Rooms. They just barely finished the room in time, so I was proud of their accomplishment. Finally I took them back home and got things ready to go back to my house and start dinner.

I had a roast thawed out for Saturday, so I had to get it cooked. I tried using an Instant Pot recipe using some of the homemade wine that Allen gave me, and it turned out pretty good. It would have been even better with the dry rub, but I just barely had enough time to get it done for the kids to go back home and to bed. They came over and watched Criminal Minds while it cooked for 35 minutes, then Emogenius while they ate. Then I got dishes started before crashing myself.

So much for planning.