Tag: family

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Just Take a Lunch Break

Eaddie got up this morning to go hiking with some friends. Summer and I got around a little slower than that, and made our way to her bank to figure out if there was any damage done by the scammer. We ended up leaving her account in a limited state, and we’ll just have to watch it for a week or so. Afterwards she started complaining of hunger, but she also didn’t split the leftover pizza with me like I offered back at home, so I took her to Walmart instead.

I returned the garbage disposal cover we bought because it was too large, and then I kind of dawdled across the entire store with her to see if I could work up an appetite. We left with just a couple things and went to the old house to load up anything we could fit into her car.

Just after I fed the fish and started to get things moving, Dad called with a weak voice and wanted me to come help after he had apparently passed out from doing some yard work. I told him to call 911, and we raced across town as quickly as we could through traffic. We beat the ambulance by a mile, and by then he was laying in the living room floor with his feet propped up on the couch.

Summer went out back to put out the fire Dad had been tending, and the paramedics leisurely arrived without any observable urgency. There were three of them, and Summer recognized one of them as a former student. Dad stubbornly crawled toward the stretcher they had in the doorway, and they carted him off as Terry walked over from next door.

We had enough time to run home for a garage door opener and still got to the hospital before they had him in the system. Julie showed up shortly after we did, and then Mom arrived shortly after that. Once they had him in the system, Mom and Julie went back to see him. Then Julie came out and traded spots with me for a moment. Tesla called while I was back there, and didn’t seem to understand my inability to formally request leave to return my car, but tentatively set up an appointment to return Tres on the Tuesday after break. Then Summer and I left to get Eaddie and go out for dinner.

We went up to La Huerta, and Summer and I split some fajitas after some confusion. I don’t know if they just stopped doing the Especial La Huerta for two, but we seem to have that problem every time we order that now. I guess we should review the menu. Otherwise the food was okay, and then I took the girls home before taking the Onewheel over to my parents’ house to check on things.

While I was there, Julie called and asked me to pick up some clothes for Dad to wear out of the hospital. Dad was alert enough to let me in remotely, and I rode home to get my car to go to the hospital. Julie left to get some sleep before work, and then Mom left after a little while, and then I took Dad home.

The girls were in bed by the time I made it home, and somehow I lost a couple hours somewhere along the line. I really thought I’d make it to bed before midnight, but it just didn’t happen.

Flush

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Little Brisby

I got up this morning and started a couple corned beef briskets in the slow cooker. Summer had to go to work for a bit, so I cleaned the kitchen and got showered so I could ride to the Neighborhood Market for some potatoes, carrots, cabbage, and onion. I threw everything but the cabbage in with the corned beef, and waited for dinner to be ready.

Eaddie ended up going shopping and to Bona Dea, and Summer came home to mow the lawn. I went out back to check on the basement, and to my surprise, we had caught our rat. I brought it around to the front of the house so I could clean up the poop it had left on the workbench, and then Summer finished up outside and we got cleaned up for dinner.

Dad walked over from their house to join us for dinner. I got the meat and potatoes out so I could stuff the whole cabbage into the slow cooker. Eaddie eventually made it home and we ate. The meat was pretty tough, but still tasty. I wasn’t sure if it was due to the age or how long I cooked it, but dinner was still good. After we ate, I rode the Onewheel alongside Dad as he walked home in the dark.

The girls made it to bed early, and I was slow to get there myself. I brought the rat into the garage for the night and gave it some cereal, but as cute as it is, I think it’ll be best to take it out to the trail tomorrow for release.

Unstable Unicorn

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All Outta Buckets

I went to bed super late but still woke up before everyone else. I got around and showered, and we were just walking out the door when Mom called and required that we stop by their house to see Uncle Giao and Aunt Teresa on our way out of town. We breezed through and then made good time to Conway where we stopped to eat. Frustratingly, Red Robin had closed permanently and was replaced by some new barbecue place. We backtracked and had lunch at Golden Corral, which actually really impressed everyone with the quality of food for a lunch rush.

We didn’t have any extra time to shop, and made it to Little Rock just in time to get settled in for the movie. I had a whole bunch of free snacks for my birthday, but the popcorn didn’t taste spectacular. I wasn’t terribly surprised to see they were out of the Dune popcorn buckets, but I was disappointed to have missed out. I thought the second installment was good, but long. I don’t know what could have been cut or sped up, but it just didn’t feel like it covered that much ground. At the very least, it could have explained some things better in that amount of time. It was a spectacle though, and overall I think we all enjoyed it. At least the girls didn’t fall asleep.

We headed back to Conway after the movie and stopped at Home Depot, Old Navy, and Kohl’s to shop a bit. I didn’t find the deal I was seeking at Home Depot, but we did run into Jacob looking for something of his own. He indicated that three of them were expecting to move up into the Tech III tier for next year, which is great for them and frustrating for me. I can’t believe I’m doing what I’m doing for the same rate of pay, and I can’t believe even more that Kim won’t shut her mouth about wanting a raise for whatever the hell she does on her phone all day.

It was a struggle to get Eaddie to try anything on at either of the clothing stores, and we ultimately left empty-handed. We got home and I took a quick wheel around the block before we all settled in for the night.

Ya hya chouhada!

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Missing Innaction

Kim decided pretty early in the day that she just wasn’t into it, and went to the elementary for nearly the entire day. I saw her briefly for lunch, and then just before she left for the day. The cafeteria made a ton of peach “pie” that I would have called a crumble, so I took a big container home. Everyone seemed pretty ready for spring break.

I fed the fish and brought a couple more small things home, and Summer had dinner going again. Eaddie was out and talkative, and we had a nice pork chop dinner. It looked like storms were incoming, so I went out on the Onewheel for a pretty aggressive carve session around the block. By the time I made it back home, my left foot was aching pretty badly. I took some trash out and then ran by my parents’ house to see them just briefly.

On the way back home, I had my arms up as I leaned in and out of some curves in the road, and a guy came down the driveway at the end of the house, mimicking me with his arms. I stopped to chat and let him give it a whirl. He said he used to skateboard, so he picked it up really quickly. Then his little girl tried it out, and she did pretty well too, while he held on to her.

I made it back home and felt sticky from the humidity. Eaddie and I sat on the porch to chat for a little bit as the rain slowly came in. Then the girls went to bed while I dawdled for a while, enjoying the thought of a week away from work.

Let’s get goofy!

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City Swamp

I didn’t catch our rat last night, but it made another appearance on camera. We ended up having to take Eaddie to Little Rock today for less than an hour of rehearsal, but she was at Tech for the state robotics tournament all morning. Summer and I picked her up around lunch time and headed out of town. We were hungry enough to stop at McDonald’s in Morrilton, and then we made our way to the Wilbur D. Mills University Studies High School.

We left Eaddie, and then I took Summer down the road to the Lorance Creek Natural Area where we walked down a trail through a swamp. It was pretty neat, but there were clouds of gnats everywhere. We almost made it back to the car when Eaddie texted that she was done. We picked her up, and she wanted to head straight back home to catch the end of the tournament, so we didn’t get to do any other shopping or adventuring.

Charge was low, so we had to plan a stop somewhere. Fortunately they built a new Supercharger in Conway, so we stopped there for just a few minutes before completing the journey home. We left Eaddie at the coliseum and then the two of us went to Ridgewood for an early dinner. Grant looked to be doing better, and things were kind of slow and steady at the restaurant.

I took the Onewheel around the neighborhood when we got back home. It wasn’t any surprise that Summer didn’t want to get out of the house again, so we settled in to watch some TV for the evening. Eaddie got home late, without a trip to Worlds, and then everyone was off to bed to do it all over again in the morning.

That’s just a lot.

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Slippery Dippery

We had some makeup testing today, so I didn’t feel super comfortable changing any more network configurations. I wasn’t super motivated to do anything at all, really. Kim wasn’t particularly useful, and Denice had guests in her closed office all day. I just passed the time. Slowly. With ham rollups for lunch.

I went straight home after work because Summer had dinner going. Eaddie and Eli were watching the new Cinderella movie while Summer barbecued chicken quarters. It was a nice dinner, but the chicken and green beans were both undercooked, and the potato salad was bland. I really don’t think she tries any of the food as she’s cooking, and then just sits down with everyone else at the table to find out for the first time how it tastes.

I put the larger pieces of chicken back on the grill and ate what I could, but I think I was hungrier after I ate than before I started. The kids left, and I went out on the Onewheel for a little while. My parents weren’t home, so I continued around to Ridgewood to see Grant for a minute.

Afterward, I floated through the neighborhood for a new path back home and thought I’d try the Waco Detention Basin Trail, which may not have been a path back at all. It also wasn’t dry. It was dark and completely unlit, and there was a layer of silt that I couldn’t see over the concrete trail. I narrowly escaped going down to the ground, but got a streak of mud up my jeans. I backtracked up to the road and made it home, but then rode over to my parents’ house to borrow a rat trap.

What I thought was a mouse yesterday looked a bit bigger on camera today, so I brought two larger traps home. I set them with some peanut butter, along with the little jar trap, and hoped I could catch something overnight. Summer was working late, but then I upset her with my own airing of grievances as she went to bed. I stayed up and did my load of laundry, periodically stepping out to listen to the rain.

bberry

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Please, Don’t Touch Anything

We had a little mouse visitor in the basement last night. It looked huge as it sniffed the camera, but I was pretty sure it wasn’t a rat. I made it to work in the rain, and then sat quietly without touching anything while they tested. It’s been a long week, so I wasn’t keen on doing a whole lot anyway. The “orange chicken” for lunch was pretty good since they ran out of boxed ones and we got “fresh” food.

After work, I fed the fish and grabbed a couple handfuls of CDs and papers to bring home. Then I cleaned up some leftovers before the girls got home. Eaddie was out really late, but Summer got home just before I finished eating. I did the dishes, and then sat quietly trying not to aggravate my cough any more for the night. I really wanted to see Dune this weekend, but Eaddie just has too much crap going on, and I don’t want to spend the entire weekend in Little Rock.

We’ll get to it next life.

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Forty Lost

I had to stop by the agri building first this morning because the teacher out there was fussing about still not having internet. I didn’t even make it back to my office in time for my call with Robert, but that didn’t seem to matter. Once I had him remote in to take a look at our setup, he didn’t seem to do much other than skim over pages of the Unifi system rather aimlessly.

While I was in the agri building, I fixed an issue with a switch that was in the simulator room because someone created a loop that shut down the upstream switch port. I didn’t know how to hook the simulator up correctly, so I left it until I could research how it was supposed to be hooked up. Evidently that caused a problem for the teacher, which led to a phone call, me having to go and talk to Blake, who set the thing up originally, and then ultimately to a long email chain between the teacher, him, and myself. I thought I held my ground well though.

I spent the afternoon slowly updating switches, so as not to disturb a huge group of people at once. That went more or less pretty smoothly, and then I went back by agri to take pictures of the correct simulator setup on the way home. It was easy enough for a superintendent to fix, so I don’t know why it should be so difficult for a teacher.

I fed the fish and then went home and hopped on the Onewheel. Eaddie had a robotics banquet in the evening, so I went by my parents’ house and then had to find out myself that Summer wanted to meet me there instead of coming home first. It was nice out, so I decided to ride the rest of the way there. I was worried I might be a hair late, but I was still early and ended up catching Summer just as she got out of the car.

New China donated the food, which had a disappointing amount of rice, but the noodles were good. It seemed like there were a lot fewer parents than last year, but I couldn’t be certain. We ate, didn’t really talk much, and then headed home for the night. I doped up on some cough medicine, and tried not to stay up too late.

Just stop it.

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Keeping the Road Warm

I ran really late and really fast this morning after barely remembering to pay the mortgage before jumping into the shower. It was a pretty quiet day though, and I was excited to have two more kids pay fines for damaged Chromebooks. I tinkered with SCCM and some other things, and then Kim left for the afternoon. I hesitated to dig too deep into anything new, but hopefully we’ll be ready to deploy some computers next week.

After work, I took a leisurely drive home behind a bunch of idiots driving WAY under the speed limit. I fed the fish and stuffed some things into the trunk. I thought I’d go out on the Onewheel, but had a bit of a stomach ache and had to sit it out for the night. Summer eventually texted to say she wanted to go to Walmart, so I went to the wash to pick her up while Eaddie stayed home to go to the art walk downtown.

We followed each other so we wouldn’t have to backtrack and pick up the other car. Summer was fussy about buying some new clothes, and we didn’t end up buying much of anything. She didn’t even want to look at groceries. Instead, we left and went to Dairy Queen for dinner. It was a stark difference from the service Eaddie and I received the other day. It was just children working, and none of them seemed to be communicating well enough to run a restaurant. We got food, and it was hot, but it took way too long for that kid to assemble two chicken strip baskets.

After that, we made it home and Summer settled in while I took the Onewheel to my parents’ house. Dad wanted to try out an antenna, so I rode to the end of the street with another radio to test. It was pretty cold outside, so I didn’t stay very long before heading home. There, I sat in the dark and played on my phone for hours until bed.

Pity Potty

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Testing my Patience

Late but early again. They surprised me with more testing, and I had a call with tech support for our crappy FlySense vape detectors. Without knowing more about what wasn’t working, I just accepted the guy’s response that for some reason, several people weren’t subscribed to specific devices. The management website seemed bad.

The noise came roaring in around lunch when testing was over. I just had to stop and put my head down for a minute while it was unbearably loud. At least the meatloaf wasn’t bad, though we didn’t get much of it. They threw a couple steak fingers in to make up for it, so I didn’t even get a salad today like I usually do.

I spun my wheels a lot in the afternoon, unable to make up my mind on a naming convention for new computers. I’d like it to be different enough to be glanceable, but everything I’ve tested just kind of looks bad. I guess that’s what I get for using serial numbers, but somehow it didn’t seem so bad in the past. I guess at this scale, it doesn’t really matter what we name them. They’ll just be glad to have something that actually works.

It rained on the way home, but was only sprinkling when I got into town. I met Dad at Bác Vân’s to get my old Atari from her house. Doug had apparently moved out completely. I loaded enough other stuff from my old house to fill the trunk, and then headed home to where Summer was finishing up dinner. Eaddie got home and I started some laundry, and we sat down for a nice chicken spaghetti that was baked a bit for some crispy cheesy goodness.

I thought we might go back out so I could show off my leap year t-shirt in public, but it continued to get colder and rainier all night. I just wrapped things up, and then wrapped up in bed.

Why is there so much email?