Tag: family

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Breakfeast

I got up this morning and wanted to make a big breakfast for the girls, so I ran to the Neighborhood Market for a bunch of stuff. One of the things I really wanted to try and reproduce was the jungle juice from Boma, the restaurant from our Animal Kingdom Lodge stay. I also really wanted to make some waffles, and we already had everything for that, but we needed some bacon and sausage too.

Everything turned out pretty good. Eaddie took her friend home after that, and Summer went to the gym before coming back to mow the lawn. I tried to help with some other yard work, and I figured out the edging wheels on the string trimmer for her.

The day went by pretty quickly. Once we were cleaned up from working outside, Summer and I started watching Logan. I had to stop near the end to run the dogs, and then pick up some more food for them. Eaddie was out late with Eli, and went to bed pretty quickly once she got home. I took some NyQuil and we finished our movie, and then it was off to bed so I could go to work for the last few days there.

Right or wrong, it’s a brand. A brand sticks.

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Grills Night

Everyone got up and cleaned house this morning so Eaddie could have a friend over for the night. Summer did the lion’s share, and baked a strawberry cheesecake on top of it all while I milled back and forth doing the odds and ends, and cleaned up outside around the dogs. We talked about possibly grilling some food, but my parents also wanted to go out to dinner for their anniversary.

Eaddie eventually went to get Jenny, and then we all went to my parents’ house so the girls could swim, and Summer and I took my parents to meet Julie and Kevin at Pasta Grill. The food was pretty good, but I think I had the same thought last time in that I had enough other stuff to support about three times as much pasta. Everyone ended up taking some leftovers home.

When we got back to my parents’ house, Mom came out with a stick and started knocking over the hundreds of mushrooms that were sprouting all over the front yard. I thought they looked really cool, and several of them Googled as edible, but nobody was brave enough to try them. I hated that Mom wanted to eradicate them.

The girls wanted to swim for a bit longer, so Summer and I headed home. I took the dogs out for a run around the block, and the girls were home making their dinner when I got back. Summer and I settled in to watch X-Men: Apocalypse, and finally it was off to bed.

Each generation has cried out for a new world, but has built the same the old one: Corrupt and weak.

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Classless

I had a pretty rough start this morning in spite of sleeping reasonably well. Luckily, Gary let me stop by to pick up some tech tubs they were going to throw away, so I had an excuse to roll in late. Surprisingly, Greg was the first one I saw as he was headed to the support services building. I got a big hug from him, and then Gary showed up to let me into the graveyard. Zach didn’t respond to my text right away, so he showed up as we were carrying things to the car. Then Thomas and Tammy showed up to work, and Ryan made a brief appearance but didn’t say much.

After I got everything loaded up, I actually ran into Greg again on his way back to the office and we talked for a little while. He said pretty much everyone has been on pins and needles, but figured the regime should start to change as the school board rotates out later this year. I gave him a ride around the block back to the office, and then headed on to work.

Once I got everything unloaded, I treated myself to a leftover biscuit and some coffee, and then got to learning more about subnets. It’s the strangest thing I’ve ever not understood while also completely understanding it. That was my whole day, just getting sidetracked from RADIUS setup, to VLANs versus subnets, to understanding IP addressing.

I headed home a little early with a rumble in my belly, and fed the fish before getting home. Summer and Noah were home, but Eaddie was at a hair appointment. I cleaned up the kitchen a bit, and was aggravated further by Noah’s helping himself to Summer’s beer. I finally got them both to sit down in the kitchen to express my desire to be helpful but not abused. I asked him not to help himself to the beer, and within five minutes he helped himself to a soda. Message not received. I was further upset when Summer walked out and started playing with the dogs mid-sentence. They were causing a racket, but that wasn’t for her to resolve with play.

I took the dogs for a walk to my parents’ house, and was drenched with sweat. It was pretty miserable, and the dogs didn’t behave well for most of the walk, but I kept them on shorter leashes on the way home and they did a little better. It seems training needs to happen all around.

I spent some time feeding them when we got home, and Noah came out with what was presumably a peace-keeping request for help building a budget. In reality, his finances are so simple that he could have produced one in the time it took me to feed the dogs, but somehow it’s now my responsibility to write the numbers down for him. I settled in with a glass of Crown and got ready for bed.

Behave accordingly.

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Mr. Pool

I had a headache last night that was bad enough that I woke up feeling sick in the middle of the night. I took some Tylenol, and then had to take some more when I woke up this morning. Summer got up and made eggs and corned beef hash for breakfast, and the hash just smelled like dog food to me. I made a sandwich with the egg she scrambled for me, and then applied for a bunch more jobs online.

We spent a good amount of time out with the dogs on the porch since it rained in the morning and Summer couldn’t do any yard work. I took a shower, but it didn’t really help my head at all. Summer and I eventually went to the Neighborhood Market to find some dinner, and we picked up some stuff for salads with a couple rotisserie chickens. On the way out, we ran into Zach and his family, but we didn’t chat long.

Back at the house, I pulled the bones out of the chicken while Summer took a bath. Eventually everyone sat down to eat, and then Summer and I continued our X-Men movies with the first Deadpool. Noah came over late and ate before bed. My Männkitchen Pepper Cannon was delivered, along with my very first Amazon Vine product. It was a pretty slick looking storage bin that attached under the Model Y screen. It went together much better than I expected, so I’ll be excited to see if it rattles or anything on the drive to work tomorrow.

Time to volunteer some more time, I suppose.

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Quiet One

I was the first one out of bed, but there was a distinct lack of fanfare. Summer got up and had coffee, and then I made one for myself before going out to feed the dogs. I kept feeding them both by hand, one at a time, until Muad’Dib didn’t want any more. Then I laid the rest of the bowl down for Stilgar. Eaddie wanted help with her bicycle so she could go ride with a friend, and I pushed her to figure some of it out on her own, since I’ve shown her multiple times before, and I’m tired of babying her on things like that.

She left and I had a shower so Summer and I could go see A Quiet Place: Day One in town. Dad stopped by on his bike to air up his tires, and then we left. It was a quiet showing in a recliner room, which was fine if not overpriced for a matinée. I liked the movie okay, but didn’t find it to be as good as the first two.

I had specifically told Summer that by watching the movie in town, we’d still have plenty of the afternoon left to be productive when we got home, so of course she sat down to work on her laptop for the rest of the evening. I left in frustration and took the dogs for a run on the Onewheel. We visited with Dad and then rode back home.

I was pretty sweaty by the time we made it back, so I settled in pretty early. Eaddie was out late, and Summer did whatever she does when she’s finished working.

Uncertainty stinging clear

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Take a Stand

I actually woke up pretty early today, but made myself go back to sleep to catch up on some hours. Eaddie eventually got up, so I made us French bread bacon and egg sandwiches, which turned out super delicious. Then we played with the dogs for a bit before I took a shower and went to the old house to pack up some more stuff.

Dad was over there working in the yards, and helped me load up the last TV stand I had over there. Then I loaded a couple other bigger things into the car before coming back in to pack a box while I called Optimum to cancel service. That phone call was a whole ordeal, as it usually is, and I ended up keeping it for now, with two months of free service, a lower bill for a year, and a subscription to HBO Max.

I finally headed back home just as Summer was coming home from work. Eaddie was gone when I got there, but I got everything unloaded, and Summer showed up just in time to help with the TV stand. She got started on the dinner she started to make yesterday, and Eaddie brought Eli over for dinner. I fed the dogs while I was outside, and Muad’Dib kept wanting to be fed kibble-by-kibble, which I was happy to do. Dinner was great, and then we watched X-Men: Days of Future Past before bed.

The hunt is back on.

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Dirty Volunteer Work

Burger King has been knocking it out of the park with their biscuits lately. The sausage has been pretty good, and even the hashbrowns haven’t been awful. I’ve always kind of liked their coffee. I got to work just as the boys club started walking in, and then I spent several hours trying to figure out an issue with our food service application that really should have been resolved with a proper rollup.

At some point I finally made some progress with setting up a RADIUS server, but then I discovered that the board meeting was tonight. In anticipation for a reasonable salary, I decided to stay for that, and it was an incredible waste of time. Nobody said a word to me until I asked Jill if I needed to work next week. She just shrugged and said I didn’t have a contract, so she couldn’t pay me. Next week, Harry will be at a retreat with the board, so there’s just me, being angry and unpaid until who-knows-when.

Being Julie’s birthday, the family decided to take her to Brick Oven. The girls went with them, and I showed up late and ate some of their leftovers before we left. Eaddie wanted to go to the store to get dog food, so Summer took the Model Y home while I went to Walmart with her. We stopped by the old house to feed the fish, and then shopped for a bit before heading home.

It was super dark when we got home, so I took the dogs out for a walk on foot. I let them roam at the end of the leash, and they were pulling pretty hard the whole time. I’m upset that I don’t have any one-on-one time to do any real training, but I just feel like I don’t have time for anything. Summer was asleep by the time we got back in, so I fumed for a bit and went to bed late.

What a pissant.

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Zoomin

I got a couple biscuits this morning to last the day full of online training webinars. Johnny called and interrupted the first one to say that he was called and offered the Hector job even though he never applied. He was all wound up over the drama and strange nature of the position, but I told him it sounded like it could be a really good opportunity depending on whether he could make the pay work and how self-motivated he was.

I really didn’t get into anything else at all. The Veeam call lasted forever, so there just wasn’t time apart from the couple interruptions I had throughout the day. Summer had dinner going at home, so I went home for that after stopping at the old house to feed the fish.

Noah and Eli were both there as well, but I didn’t see a whole lot of them. We all ate a pretty good, but overly lemon-peppery chicken, cold pasta salad that you’d take to a potluck, and some really good asparagus.

Noah went to his room pretty early, Eli left, and then I took the dogs out for a fast run around the cul-de-sac. It was still super humid and hot, so they wore out quickly. Overall, I did a fair job of wrapping the day quickly.

Wrapped

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Twisting the Night Away

After being ill for so long, and exhausted from overexerting myself all day, I still could not sleep last night. I tossed and turned in a damp sweat, with cold burning in my nose from sinus trouble. My mind reeled in restlessness, and even when I would occasionally doze off, I would wake up in some delirious state, half dreaming, half in some anxious panic.

I got up with my alarm, pushed back and got up a little later and still got to the door on time. Both of the Murano keys were gone. I screamed. Summer yelled back to take her car, so I threw the things she had in the seat into the floor of the garage and left. I picked up a burrito from Sonic and made it to work a little bit early.

The admins saw me. First day off-contract. Will I get a paycheck? They’re normally deposited around this time of the month. I haven’t gotten anything yet. Labor laws dictate that I must be paid for the time that I’m there, and nobody has run me off yet. It feels like I’m playing a rich or stupid man’s game of Chicken.

I made it through the day with a bowl of ramen and a cough drop. I finished up the last few minutes at the elementary and then headed home a little early. Who can stop me now?

I fed the fish and slowly made it home. Eaddie and her friend Autumn were at the house for the night. I changed clothes and settled in for a little bit. Mom was making Phở, which wasn’t the eggplant soup I anticipated, but welcome nonetheless. The girls would be making dinner, so I’d go by myself since Summer was working a little late. Then Noah called to “warn me” that a “strange hairy dude” was going to come by and drop several boxes of his things off at our front door, and that he would be along afterward on his bicycle.

I roped up the dogs and we hit the road on the Onewheel. We made good time to my parents’ house with the runs. Both kinds. I tied them up in the back yard so we could eat, but then I had to get them home in the hot humidity. They made it with plenty of energy after they had some time to rest, so I hoped they’d be too tired to mess with anything overnight.

All three kids were in the kitchen making “food” and “noise.” I dried up the sweat and sought refuge. Eventually sleep.

I’m with stupid.

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Bye Week

I could feel something in the back of my throat Wednesday evening, and by Thursday I had a 103º fever that Tylenol would only coax down to about 101º. I ran the full gamut of chills, heat flashes, body aches, and eventually sinus and chest crud. Dad brought me a COVID at-home test that was advertised as having a propensity for false-negatives, so it wasn’t COVID. Maybe.

I remember getting out on Friday with Summer to take Kevin his birthday present to the airport, but we didn’t stick around for pulled pork. I stopped by the old house to check on the fish, and in hindsight I should have left the automatic feeder on. We made it back home, and the next thing I remember doing is getting out late to pick up some burgers from Sonic. The pickle fries were awful.

The fever never let up, but between waves of medication I felt well enough to watch The Secret of NIMH on Saturday, and then out of nowhere, the fever was gone on Sunday morning. Recovery was nearly as rough, with more crud in my chest than anything else. I felt gross and sweaty all day, but I had a shower and brushed my teeth.

Summer had mowed in the morning, so she left it to Eaddie when it came time to walk the dogs. She didn’t mind, but said she couldn’t walk both alone, so I went with her. It was immediately obvious that they hadn’t been properly walked in my two week absence, as the line was taught nearly the entire time. We made it about halfway to my parents’ house, which was already a longer route than Eaddie wanted to take, when she had to stop to scoop some poop, so she insisted that it was my job to walk the dogs alone the rest of the way. She might have reconsidered if I had pressed, but I had more fight in me for the dogs than for her.

We gave them a drink at my parents’ house, and then headed back home. It was a hot struggle, and I was completely drenched in sweat, so I took a cold shower and finished up my laundry. The dogs were fussy outside, and tore into the bags of potting mix on the porch. I went back out to discipline and clean that up, and left the hole they had dug under the north fence for another day.

If you do nothing, bite your tongue when I do.