Tag: family

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Merry Chrysler

Summer and I got up and woke the girls up for breakfast this morning. She made blueberry pancakes, and then the girls wanted to be artsy in their rooms while Summer played Torchlight II and I played Zelda. Eventually I had to head home to get ready for dinner at my parents’ house.

Once I was ready, I picked everyone up at Summer’s parents’ house since the girls would be staying the night there. We were the first to arrive at my parents’ house, followed by Bác Vân and Doug, then Julie. Dinner was really good, though I forgot to bring the leftover potato salad. We had plenty of everything else though, so we didn’t really miss it. Julie got on another rant about why America is fat after Bác Vân tried to tell me not to drink so much so fast.

After dinner, we played a little bit of Overcooked II with Julie before switching to Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes. As stressful as that was at moments, everyone seemed to find something they were good enough at that we could successfully defuse bombs with screen looking. Next up will have to be true handheld mode so nobody else can see the bomb.

We dropped the girls off, then Summer and I made it back to my house and watched a few episodes of The Office. She’s determined to finish the series over break, and then we’ll have to decide on what to watch next. I’ve got such a backlog that it very nearly stresses me out, but there are also other shows I’d like to rewatch with her. Decisions, decisions.

And a happy emu tear!

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Recreational Frustration

Summer took the kids home this morning and I eventually got around to doing some last minute deal hunting. First up was Shoe Carnival where they had advertised a free $10 gift card with the purchase of a $50 gift card. I couldn’t find any terms anywhere online, so I had to go to the store and read a sign that the bonus gift card would only be valid for a couple weeks, which made this one a bust for me.

Next I went to Walmart to hunt down an old, discontinued SKU for a Google Home Mini and Chromecast bundle. They had several of the newer SKU boxes in stock, but I couldn’t find any of the old cheap ones. The place was a zoo, but I managed to make it around to the groceries for a few things I needed before I left.

The last stop was Taco Bell to spend my last $5 bonus gift card before it turned into a pumpkin overnight. I just sat and decompressed over a taco salad before making my way up to Summer’s.

When I got there, she was baking cookies for the kids to decorate. Eaddie didn’t make as much of a mess as I expected her to, and we all had a good time. I made a Patrick starfish and a Thanos.

After the cookies, they all played Super Mario Party while I fought with trying to set parental management on Eaddie’s iPhone. It was super frustrating that we weren’t there to set it up properly from the beginning, and none of them really paid close enough attention to anything to really use it to its full potential. I eventually just gave up and played some Overcooked 2 with the others. That game stressed us all out, but I think Summer got it the worst. Eaddie was tired and useless. Autumn was the same, though less annoying about it.

Eventually the girls settled in and we called it a night. I played Breath of the Wild for way too long before I gave in to sleep.

You’re gonna sit down and have fun whether you like it or not!

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Harry Peter

Jesica came over today with shrimp bread and twice baked potato casserole. I almost didn’t wake up early enough, but I managed to squeeze a shower in just in time. When she got here, the three of us went to Walmart to find something for us to cook. We landed on brats that I cooked on the George Foreman Grill, and we started the day on year three with the Prisoner of Azkaban. We made it all the way through to The Half-Blood Prince before Nick returned the girls. Eaddie got Autumn’s old phone, so she was on it for a while. Then Noah wanted to come over too, so I picked him up and we finished the movie.

Once it was over, Jesica gave up on the last two movies and headed out. I ended the night playing a couple episodes of Con Man until Summer was ready for bed. I had a bunch of coffee earlier, and kept eating the same stuff over and over again, so I felt a little weird and sleep deprived by the time everyone else went to bed. Tomorrow should be quite a bit different.

Binge all the things!

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Sup, Cuz?

My cousin Michelle and her family hosted a big multi-family Christmas gathering today in Bismarck. The girls came along with us, so I brought the Switch dock and we played Super Mario Party the whole way down.

It was a pretty good time, but there were so many people there that everyone pretty much just sat at their own table and ate. Most of the socialization seemed to happen among people that already saw each other pretty regularly. It wasn’t much of a surprise though since we hardly see any of those 3.7 million cousins on that side of the family. I think they’re all pretty close for the most part, but I know I have trouble keeping up with any of them.

Dad did a little magic show, and then Uncle Rick played some piano. We finished the night with Dirty Santa. Dad brought a couple gifts, so we put Autumn and Eaddie into the ring of 37 people. Eaddie didn’t really want the sign she stole from Autumn, so they decided to give it to someone else that commented about it.

The trip home was a little more Mario Party, and then Eaddie played Mario Odyssey the rest of the way. Summer got a little case of the Christmas blues, but I think we turned it around pretty well with some house cleaning and getting ready for Jesica to come over tomorrow. The girls went to spend the night with their father for Christmas, but they’ll be back tomorrow night. I hear there’ll be cookies.

HEY! It’s another Christmas song!

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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.