Tag: family

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Teenager Berries

I took some guaifenesin last night to dry up the crud in my chest, and it seemed to work pretty well. I woke up early and then dozed off a bit after Summer got out of bed. She went to the gym and Eaddie went to a band thing at Tech, so I got around to some coffee and eventually a shower.

Summer wanted to clean house a bit and then cook fajitas for dinner, so we went to the Neighborhood market to get groceries. I cleaned and cut up strawberries for shortcakes when we got back, and some of the berries had seeds with leaves on them. One of them in particular reminded me of a patchy high schooler’s beard, or a transition gone awry. I left it out to sprout and see if we could get any strawberry plants out of it.

Once Summer got the shortcake into the oven, we went outside so she could try riding around on the Onewheel. She got her first few falls and scrapes out of the way, but overall did a great job of moving slowly down the road and making turns. I just kept emphasizing that it was better to bail early than try and ride it out when you’re just getting started, because skill at bailing, running it out, or even falling is just as important as skill at riding.

Eaddie eventually made it home after also going to my parents’ house to rake some more leaves, but then she wanted to go out on her bicycle. Evidently Eli came over as well, and I rode around the block to find him walking alongside her on the bicycle toward my parents’ house. I popped in to say hello, and then headed back home to cook.

We considered putting the leftover chicken and some fresh veggies on the flat top to grill outside, but I ended up just heating it up on the skillet over the stove instead. I didn’t have very much room, but it worked alright and didn’t take as long to get heated up as it would have taken outside for such a small amount of food. I also cooked some black beans in the Instant Pot that turned out pretty good, though next time I’ll let the “bean/chili” setting finish instead of following some arbitrary recipe I found online.

The four of us started to play a game after dinner, and I excitedly brought out Hail Hydra, but I think it wanted at least five players. Eaddie kept fussing that she didn’t remember anything about Hydra anyway, and wanted to watch the movie instead. We all settled in and watched Captain America: The First Avenger, though Summer went to bed partway through. I enjoyed revisiting the movie, but seeing all of the hokey 3D stuff without 3D glasses felt a little silly. It was a silly movie anyway.

Eli left and Eaddie crashed as soon as the movie was over. Summer stayed up in bed to watch baking shows until I finished my own chores. I guess we plan to make more food tomorrow.

And why not? We like to eat.

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All-State 2024

Neither Summer or I slept very well last night because the heater was making an awful rattling noise. When morning finally came, all I could hear was the whirring of the elevator. The shower just lightly dribbled water, as though I was bathing by watering can. We finally made it downstairs for breakfast, and even that was a little bit disappointing in quality.

We went back up to the room and waited for Eaddie to respond so we could coordinate the afternoon. We eventually got checked out and drove over to get her stuff. Then we walked to the Copper Penny Pub for a really good lunch. We all shared an appetizer, Summer and I got some hot drinks, and Eaddie had a sandwich as she became hungry.

After that, we made our way back to the convention center so we could start watching performances. I spotted Reece and Christina and chatted with them for a little bit before we got seated. All the bands we watched were pretty good, but I ended up liking the music better from some of the earlier bands. Eaddie’s wind symphonic band played exclusively ethnic themed songs, which just got a little tiresome after a while. They did great though, and we ended up taking Eli with us.

After the event, we went across town to Fisherman’s Wharf for a nice dinner. Evidently Eaddie had already taken a Dramamine and was feeling the effects at dinner. We went to the mall after we ate, and wandered around the dilapidated establishment depressingly for a bit. Then we stopped for some spring water on the way out of town.

I made good time, but just as we were approaching the stop sign in Ola, Summer got urgently sick. It didn’t make any sense that she made it the entire way and had to throw up in that moment, but all I could do was stop in the middle of the road. Then we dropped the kids off at the high school to get their cars before heading home to unpack and go to bed.

What a match.

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Quick Cuts

I took Summer’s car to work so she could have mine in town for service. The guy never actually talked to either of us, and just did the work on the car while she was working. One of her employees said the alarm was going off, but I never got a notification, so I don’t know whether that was really true, but hopefully my bolts are there to stay for as long as I have the car.

Otherwise I felt super productive at work today. DIS finally got Cognos going again, and I fixed a bunch of our scheduled tasks and PowerShell scripts. My SCCM client appeared to install correctly, but I wasn’t sure about another part of the setup, and I’ll have to continue that tomorrow.

After work, I decided to head home and grill some steaks for Valentine’s Day with my parents and the girls. I ran home to feed the fish, and then stopped by Kroger and Neighborhood Market for several different cuts of steak and some zucchini, squash, and salad. I probably could have gotten more squash, but we still had a little bit left over. Dad baked some sweet potatoes to go along with it all, and met us at the house a little after Summer got home from work.

It was a quick dinner to throw together on the grill, and Dad got to share about their trip to California while Mom fell asleep on the couch. Eaddie dipped a few leftover strawberries in chocolate, but they didn’t last very long. Once my parents left, Eaddie packed up for her weekend at All-State, and Summer went to bed. I would have gotten there sooner if I hadn’t been distracted by Prune.

Porterhouse, Loin, Strip, Ribeye

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Level Up

I made myself get out of bed early today, but Summer was the one that wanted to make breakfast. She eventually got up, but then had a long phone call with Noah before she started cooking. We ended up having eggs and corned beef hash for lunch. Afterward she went to the gym while Eaddie played flute. I got distracted by phone puzzles.

When Summer got home, she wanted to rearrange a bunch of the stuff that I had moved in, but we didn’t really accomplish putting anything away where it needed to go. I wasn’t really thrilled by any of the “cleaning” that happened, but I didn’t do any of it myself either.

Later in the evening, Summer decided she wanted to try the Onewheel, so we went outside after it had stopped raining and I walked back and forth down the street with her. She did pretty well, but relied on leaning on me too much. Once she started to stand up on her own, she was able to turn around a couple times. It got chilly pretty quick though after all the rain, and we came back inside.

The girls wanted me to handle dinner, but didn’t want to give any feedback on what to make. I ate some food in the afternoon because I got hungry, so I wasn’t famished by dinner time. I ended up going to Zaxby’s and Burger King to redeem a couple of deals, and we all shared that before bed.

Lost a another weekend.

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Documents for Their Documents

I had a slow start this morning, grabbed a free cappuccino, and strolled into work a couple minutes late after fighting some dumb traffic. Denise was actually in her office all day because they’re actually doing testing, and I think that makes four whole days this calendar year. Kim was pretty chatty all day, and I struggled to deal with all the noise.

Lunch time came and went, and we kept having people in and out of the office, which further frustrated me. I spent most of the day trying to spin up SCCM, but it seemed far less than straightforward. There are so many pieces to set up manually, and for some reason I thought it would be a click-through install.

When quitting time finally arrived, I headed toward home, stopping at McDonald’s for a cheap Big Mac before going by the old house to feed the fish, and finally making it home to where Summer had been cooking dinner for a while. I changed clothes and rode to my parents’ house on the Onewheel to pick up some things, but ended up leaving more than I took because the things kept adding up to more than what I wanted to haul in my backpack.

I headed back home before dark, and Summer had baked ribs and potatoes, and pan-fried some Brussels sprouts. Eaddie made it home late for dinner, and then everyone wound down pretty quickly. I was tired and uneasy, but eventually made it to bed.

Settled down.

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Raya and the Blackest Dragon

Everyone slept super late today. I got up first, and started making breakfast croissants. We had some leftover ham we had frozen a while back, and I fried up slices of that with some eggs and cheese. They were really awesome with the “everything” croissants. It was pretty yucky out all day, but Summer went to the gym and I cleaned up the kitchen before running outside to run the sump and then taking a shower.

We really didn’t do anything after that until dinner time. Eaddie had a bunch of dreams about food last night, so I took that inspiration and made some pizza on toast with leftover pizza dipping sauce, slices of mozzarella, and some hard salami that Summer was letting go bad slowly in the refrigerator. Eaddie and I tried melting some old chocolate to dip strawberries, but that didn’t work well. At least we ate the chocolate and got it out of the cabinet. I was still hungry, so I had some leftover turkey soup.

Summer and I watched Raya an the Last Dragon, and I found Awkwafina’s voice to be completely out of place and offputting for the story. It made the whole movie feel less authentic, and took a lot of weight out of the theme for me. It just felt cheap.

Eaddie didn’t even bother watching with us, and went to her room. Summer quickly went to bed after it was over, and I ended the night by paying some bills.

What is culture, anyway?

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McDate Night

Eaddie had her all-state audition today, and I was going to get up to make her breakfast, but I was sleeping pretty hard and Summer got up to get her going instead. I eventually got up and had some spaghetti for lunch while Summer went to work and the gym. I took care of my plants, took a shower, and started picking at things I had moved from the old house.

The afternoon went by fairly quickly, and Eaddie went out with Eli after band, so Summer and I decided to go out to McDonald’s to get their new Double Big Mac, which is four all-beef patties, special sauce, lettuce, cheese, pickles, onions, on a new brioche sesame seed bun. While we were eating, a school bus from Texarkana pulled in with a load full of band kids.

After we ate, we went to T.J. Maxx to shop around for a bit. It was just really nice to be out of the house with Summer for a bit, because she comes home burned out from work every day, and we never get to do anything. We picked up a Blizzard for her from Dairy Queen on the way home, and then watched some Modern Family until Eaddie got home.

Eaddie was relieved to make first band, sixth chair for the second time in a row. I thought she’d make a higher chair with how hard she’s worked on it, but it sounded like her nerves get to her at auditions. I told her to do some drugs first next time, and get first chair.

The girls went to bed after that. I stayed up for a bit longer than I expected, but all of today went by pretty quickly.

Rain, rain, go away, long enough to dry my ba…sement.

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Nearly Drained

I woke up early and had a bowl of cereal this morning. The girls both slept really late. I ran the sump periodically throughout the day, and it ran for shorter and shorter amounts of time. I doubt the yard will dry out with only a week without rain, so maybe this week I can run a trench through the yard for drainage. I wouldn’t mind making a rain garden with some deep-rooted plants, but that will take a lot more time that I don’t really have.

Summer got up and went to Morrilton to deliver some tax paperwork for her employees there while Eaddie did some homework. I cooked a chicken pot pie in the toaster oven while I took a shower, but it really didn’t satisfy my hunger at all. I ended up eating some leftover turkey and mashed potatoes as well.

When Summer got back home, we went to wash my car and then to the old house to feed the fish and pick up a few things. Then we went to Walmart to shop around a bit and get some dinner. She decided on spaghetti, and we headed home so she could cook.

There was still a little daylight left, so I went out on the Onewheel. I stopped by my parents’ house for a couple minutes, and then went up and down the hill around the neighborhood. It was way better now that the roads were mostly dry.

I made it back a little before dinner was ready, and started unpacking the things I brought home. We ate and talked a bit, and then everyone eventually made it to bed.

But I see the birds in the sky, they’re high flying.

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Snowplace Like Home

We got about three or four inches of snow yesterday, and the house was COLD. I sealed off a bunch of rooms just to localize some of the heat, but our gas bill was over $200 for last month. This month will be worse. The girls got up and we had some of my bean soup before going outside for a walk around the block. The neighborhood roads were packed with snow and ice, but we never got out into civilization.

When we got back to the house, I went out back to check on the basement. It was good timing, because the water level was back up to nearly the same height as before. I ran the sump and looked around for ideas on how to dispose of the water. It may be easy enough just to get it into the sewage line without having to pump it outside. Unfortunately it looks like the basement won’t be a good home for any electronic equipment.

Summer eventually made some tomato soup for Eaddie, but we all ate dinner separately. Later in the evening we played a round of Phase 10, and then the girls watched some Young Sheldon. I wasn’t into that at all, so I got on the computer for a while. With the roads in this condition, we’ve got another snow day away from school tomorrow. After the stress of working an entire week after a three week vacation, it really was a relief.

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Pain in the Drain

I made myself get up earlier this morning and made some coffee before finally crawling back under the bathroom sink. I’ve been back and forth on whether I wanted to replace or swap faucets, or buy a whole new matching set. I figured the first thing I’d have to do is take the existing one out, which was easy enough even with the silicone we used last time. I was concerned about one of the connection points in the S-trap though, so I ended up taking Dad to Leonard’s to see if we needed a rubber gasket of some kind.

I wasn’t really satisfied with the parts we found there, so we went back to the house to look at what we had, and decided against the extra gasket. We took the top of the drain assembly back to Leonard’s to replace only that part, but that would have been a third the cost of a whole new faucet and drain kit, so I decided against that as well. The spare faucet I’d purchased long ago would have to do for the moment. We ran by the old house to get a cat carrier for Dad, and then I dropped him off at his house.

We considered going to a movie with my parents in the evening, so I ran by UEC to see what time slot had Wonka in the better theater. Then I took a break to eat some leftovers, and Dad texted when he remembered that he had a couple spare pop-up drain assemblies that he wasn’t going to use. He brought one over, and the installation was a piece of cake. I was pretty sure I still had a very tiny leak due to a poorly cut angle in the sink, but I figured I could tighten that up later.

Summer got home with a little time to spare before the movie, but Mom decided she didn’t want to go. Eaddie had been coloring in front of the TV for most of the afternoon, but then spent the early evening rearranging her room. She and I never got to our plans to move things, so she wanted to get out of the house for a little bit. I needed a couple things from Harbor Freight anyway, so we took her car to PDQ to air up the tires a bit and then headed across town.

We picked up a magnetic paper towel holder and power strip for the coffee bar, and then sat in the parking lot for a little bit while we decided what to do next. We thought we witnessed a robbery when a couple cars pulled up and a group of guys in hoodies ran in and out of the store super fast, but other people seemed to be coming out of the store unsuspiciously. Eaddie was a little bit hungry, but we couldn’t decide what to get. As we started driving toward home, I suggested the Krispy Krunchy Chicken inside of Walmart, and got excited. She even mentioned walking around a bit, but as we walked up to the counter to order some food, the employee said they were closing down and would sell us everything they had left in the case at a discount. We ended up getting a mix of tenders, thighs, and some mac and cheese for half price, which was awesome.

We headed straight home and ate, and then Summer wanted to watch an episode of Loki. The second episode of the new season had me super confused by the end, so after the girls left I had to scrub back through the first episode and then parts of the second one again. The more I thought about it, the less sense the whole plot made. If killing He Who Remains was all it took to cause the timeline to branch, then were the TVA agents actually doing anything at all? Why, after hundreds of years of pruning individual timelines, were the TVA agents suddenly so distraught when a group of rogue agents pruned a bunch of branching timelines? Didn’t that negate the overloaded Temporal Loom?

Questions unanswered, Summer went to bed and Eaddie continued rearranging her room. I rearranged the coffee bar again and then helped Eaddie for a bit, and then we were off to sleep.

Krunchy Khicken?