Tag: family

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Horse Humpin, Wing Stoppin, Dog Shoppin Day

I made myself a fancy capuccino today before realizing the milk was curdled, so I threw that out and then had a cup of black instead. The girls got up and watched TV, and I cleaned up around the house. I cooked my turkey beans some more and added a block of frozen broth from before. That helped quite a bit, and though we didn’t actually plan to have a meal of it yet, Summer and I shared a small cup because it was tasty. Sometime in the afternoon, a deep squat exercise machine I scored on Vine showed up, and I put it together for Summer. She actually seemed pleased with it, so I put it together for her.

Later in the evening, she wanted to go to Walmart. Eaddie had left, so we took Muad’Dib along for the ride. We went by the wash first so she could print something. Then we went to the newly opened Wingstop to check things out. They were barely more than a food truck in a sliver of a storefront next to McAlister’s. Completely cashless, and basically just pumping out mobile orders. We ate there, and it was pretty good, but very salty. I still think Zaxby’s is the best in town.

Muad’Dib had been in the car for a little while by then, so we took him to PetSmart to walk around and pick up some treats. Then we went to Walmart so Summer could get some cross stitch thread. Finally we got back to the house and I took Muad’Dib out for a run.

My parents had gone to Fort Smith, but were on the way back. I thought we’d circle around a bit and meet up with them, but my board died just as we made a loop, so I limped it home and boxed it up to ship back to Futuremotion for like the fourth time. I sat on the couch with Summer and flipped through some YouTube until she got up for bed. Eaddie came home late, and they chatted for a little bit as I got ready for bed myself.

Not half bad.

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²

It was damp out today, and slightly drizzly, but not too gross. There was a truck off the side of the road going the other direciton just as we got to Morrilton, and we could see traffic backed up from there. Things were quiet for me, and I tried to replicate my focus from yesterday. I did fairly well, but everything I was doing led me back to square one. I just need to decide whether to spin up a new DC and go hybrid, or pay for more cloud services.

When lunch came around, we went to McDonald’s for a McRib. After waiting a while, they came out and said they weren’t selling it any more, and offered to make me something else. I forgot how pitiful the McCrispy was, and got that. It tasted fine, but was just a small, sad sandwich. I ended up redeeming points for some McNuggets before I left.

A little while later, I had an anxiety attack at work. I wish I had a better way to track this along with some vitals from my peripherals, and I’m surprised there isn’t an app for that. The rest of the afternoon went by kind of slowly, and I was alone upstairs for much of it.

The ride home was quiet and fast. My parents were making egg rolls again, so I ran over with Muad’Dib. Summer was already in the shower when we got to the house, so she met us over there when she was done. Julie and Kevin showed up, and I got a little spun up as we were starting to put food together. I felt like my heart was racing and I felt a little dazed, but I think Julie’s aggressive loudness just had my blood pressure up, so I just had to relax and let it pass.

We all actually sat together and ate together for once, which was nice. Muad’Dib did a wonderful job sitting in the laundry room, and we had a good run back to the house afterward. My heartrate was about the same as it was during my episode and I felt fine, so I’m sticking with blood pressure with a side of dehydration since I was a little bit shy on my water quota.

Eaddie and Eli were at the house watching Breaking Bad when we got there, so Summer went to bed while I wrapped up fairly early myself. I think the sleep helps, though the afternoon anxiety attack and evening daze had me a bit puzzled.

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🥓

I anticipated feeling a little less than great today, but I actually wasn’t bad. We stopped for breakfast and had some pretty stale hash rounds, but Muad’Dib didn’t complain. The biscuit was great though. I had a lot of trouble pinning down one particular project all day, so I’ll be picking up the slack until our staff meeting next week.

We went to Wendy’s for a change, looking for some top-tier fast food. Their deals haven’t been nearly as good, but the food was easily twice as good as a deal anywhere else. Muad’Dib was a good boy in the car, and my burger was great. I finally managed to make a little bit of progress in the afternoon, but it was nothing of much use.

We had a decent ride home and immediately went for a run. Dad said they would have egg rolls, but Eaddie wanted to go have dinner with her father. Summer got home just before us, but didn’t feel well and wanted to soak in a bath instead.

The egg rolls were rubbery until they were air fried, and then we just had them with some rice since the noodles weren’t ready. I ate too much, and then we made it back to the house in the dark. Eaddie came home briefly and then left to practice, and Summer went to bed. I finished a couple hours early and took the opportunity to catch up on some sleep with the hopes of focus in the morning.

8R

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Pro Duck

Sleep was really touch-and-go last night, and of course as morning drew near, sleep felt heavier with more frequent dreams. Muad’Dib beat me out of the gate and we had a fairly gentle ride in to work where I actually stayed pretty productive all day, though in the end I still felt like I gained more projects than I finished.

We had a cheap lunch, splitting between some cheese sticks at Sonic and a sandwich from Arby’s. We ate the cheese sticks in the car while we waited for the Arby’s, and then ate the sandwich back at the office before calling Gary back to troubleshoot a display issue he was having.

The afternoon ended up speeding by, especially the closer we got to quitting time, and we walked out a little bit late. I had a couple of dueling super duty super douches on the Interstate, so we exited early and went to PetSmart to avoid any more road rage. Muad’Dib did great, and I ended up getting him a floppy rubber frisbee like Cutie always has.

Summer surprised me with shrimp and veggies over rice for dinner, and it was just the two of us, so we ate in front of the TV and watched Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 before retiring for the night. Eaddie had plans to take Muad’Dib hiking th enext day, so I set up his Fi Mini tracking collar and got everything ready for her. I was a little nervous about it, but the tracker helped.

Wild that it’s more expensive than Fitbit Premium, but I guess there’s a cellular aspect.

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Out of Nerves

I fell asleep late, but surprisingly woke up fairly early. Summer got up for coffee, and I made us a couple more sandwiches. I thought it would be a good, productive day, but Summer almost immediately started irritating me by being loudly obtuse. I just had to walk away before my inside thoughts got too mean, but of course that upset her too. I thought she left for the gym, but she actually just quietly started cleaning the laundry room, and rearranging everything in there. I walked out of my office and the house was cold because she had the door wide open while she was doing that.

Things just got worse all day long, as I struggled to make sense of how she had compacted everything. I didn’t really get anything accomplished except for the cooking of some old food that needed to be consumed. I started the turkey carcass in the Instant Pot, and boiled the liver and leftover broccoli stems for Muad’Dib.

Dad called and needed to borrow a carpet cleaner, and somewhere along the way, the handheld one got a damaged charge port. I blamed Summer because she had just moved it in her cleaning, but that upset her too. Dad had to bring it back and swap for the upright carpet cleaner. I took Muad’Dib for an early run while the sun was up, and then spent the rest of the evening finishing up the turkey broth and beans. It wasn’t anything like the soup I wanted to make, and it was more beans than soup, but it was edible, and it got junk out of the fridge and turned it into something that everyone will have to eat.

no improvement

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At Your Disposal

Summer went to the store for cheese and eggs this morning, but I had to send her back to exchange it when she showed up with a five pound block. I dug out my crank grater to shred what she came back with, but it mostly got stuck in a clump. The breakfast croissants turned out okay anyway, since I melted the cheese in the pan.

After that, I cleaned up the laundry room and kitchen so we could tackle the garbage disposal. Summer wanted to try and remove the old one, so I just helped when she needed me, and she got it out without too much fuss. Then we took Muad’Dib and picked up Dad to go to Leonard’s for a new one. I asked if it was okay to bring the dog inside, and he did fairly well off leash. We met a couple super excited people, and I didn’t notice any glaring. We picked up an equal power disposal and headed back to the house.

Summer started doing her nails, so Dad helped me install the new one. We had a little bit of trouble getting it locked into place, and then we had to try a couple times to stop a leak in the pipes, but overall it wasn’t terribly difficult to finish.

I took Dad back home and then watched the end of Guardians of the Galaxy which Summer had started earlier. I ate some of Eaddie’s leftovers I found in the fridge, and then ended up taking a long bath with my Steam Deck in the dark. It did a pretty good job of running Don’t Starve Together, so I just need to clean off some space to set it up docked in my office, or at least clean up the sunroom so I can play out there.

Starved

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No Resolutions

I had a tough time getting up for work this morning and got out of the house late, but still made it in without any trouble. The old server must have died from a power issue or something, because Heaven caught me right off the bat with an internet issue. I just need to get them off of the old domain controller.

The rest of the day was fairly focused on cleaning up the user directory for the menial task of unified email signatures. Organization on the front end would have made this a two click fix, but that is not the way of things. I had an anxiety attack somewhere along the way and contemplated tracking dates and times for those.

I had sort of been planning to go to Arby’s sometime this week, and today seemed as good a day as any. They were packed, but I found a table to eat. Joel came by in the afternoon to tell me they were cutting everyone loose at 2:30.

Eaddie was making Oreo balls with Eli when we got back to the house. Summer came home and took a bath while I took Muad’Dib on a run. I wanted to take him to PetSmart, but by the time Summer got ready and we made it to the store, they were closing up for the night. We went to Point Remove instead, and played cards over some pizza.

The kids were gone to a party when we got back to the house. I gave Muad’Dib a good bath before we went to see my parents. Mom was asleep the whole time, but we had some sparkling wine with Dad. We visited for a short while before going back to the house where the kids finished the series finale of Stranger Things. Summer went to bed and I finished the essentials.

Perpetuity

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Thighs and Breasts

I slept in a little bit later than I intended while Summer went to work for a few hours. I had a bit of a stomach ache when I woke up, but I had to get ready for our trip to Little Rock. Summer came home and we left for Waldo’s Chicken and Beer where we had the absolute best chicken sandwiches. End of line.

Lunch with some incredible cheddar biscuits and chicken bits gave us plenty of time to make the five minute drive to CARTI for Summer’s appointment. I didn’t remember the lobby, but we had been there before, possibly in the same exam room, to talk to her surgeon. Her mammogram and ultrasound both returned a benign cyst, so there was nothing to cause alarm. They did categorize her as high risk after the initial incident though, so she’ll be going back regularly to screen. She was relieved though, to hear that her new lump was nothing to worry about.

From there, we went to McCain Mall to browse for a while before my appointment at the body shop. The mall was back to the usual sadness after the Christmas rush that Eaddie got to witness. It was mostly fast fashion outlets with unrecognizable store names, and immigrant cart vendors. Even Old Navy left something to be desired.

Finally, we made our way to the Gwatney Collision Center to get a quote to repair some flaking paint on my car. Hopefully the time delay won’t cause any issues, since we had taken it to Tesla in Tulsa in the middle of the year. The quote was about three thousand more than I expected, but maybe that means they’ll do a solid job.

We popped into Sam’s Club nextdoor and grabbed an impromptu cartload of stuff we didn’t need, and then had to stop by the Splash warehouse in Conway for some supplies on the way home. We didn’t waste any time dropping those off once we got into town, because Eaddie had Eli and Ceci over to help make our lasagna dinner. It was ready right as we got home, so the five of us sat down and had a really great meal together. Then the kids took Muad’Dib for a run while Summer and I unwound and got ready for bed.

PI

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Turbo Husk

The wind was still howling this morning, and it was freezing cold, but dry. The office was surprisingly quiet again, which made it difficult to get motivated. Further reading of Microsoft documentation didn’t help. I tried to pep myself up with a cup of coffee from my new portable press, but it was awful. I’ll just have to brew larger cups of those old grounds at home, and use them up.

I had an anxiety attack at some point, but I don’t recall whether it was before or after lunch. We went to McDonald’s and Sonic so Muad’Dib could have a little snack with me. I thought he’d want to run more after lunch, but he was ready to go inside. The afternoon dragged on forever until quitting time.

Eaddie was supposed to make lasagna for the second day in a row, but texted earlier to say she wasn’t going to do that. Summer had called earlier as well, to say the Murano’s power steering was going out. I was frustrated at the lack of proactive maintenance and the fact that Eaddie still hadn’t found the Pathfinder keys that she lost.

We got to the house and took a quick run, but the cold wasn’t quite as sharp. Muad’Dib took off like a rocket, and I was too hesitant on the board to try and keep up with him, but he was doing well over 20 miles an hour. We visited Dad briefly before making it back to the house. The girls got into a frustrating argument in which Eaddie got onto Summer for “having an attitude with her all day.” She and I had a talk later about how I didn’t like the connotations of that word, and I think it helped. I eventually had some leftover turkey before laying down with Muad’Dib for a little while. Summer joined us after her bath, and we quickly flipped through some Netflix as Muad’Dib started snoring heavily.

I dawdled for quite a while before joining them.

Notes on Notes on Numbers

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Conspire to Give

I woke up to a stomach ache this morning, presumably from the eggnog, but I think the Lactaid helped. I made breakfast bagels for Summer and myself, and had an anxiety attack somewhere in the process. Then we started packing up the Christmas tree. We stowed all of that in the attic and took down the light trees in the front yard, but we still managed to forget a couple things in the house.

Julie and I conspired to show up at my parents’ house so we could distribute the gifts we didn’t take to the airport the other day, so after my shower, I took Muad’Dib on a run over there. The girls followed in the car with the gifts, and Julie and Kevin eventually showed up. Mom had fallen asleep, and Kevin woke her up and scared the heck out of her. I didn’t realize how shy we were on Kevin’s gifts, but Dad and Julie liked theirs.

Afterward, I finished my run with Muad’Dib through cold and heavy winds while the girls went to Zaxby’s to pick up dinner. We got home and ate, and then I started some laundry and watched some Stranger Things recaps. When Eaddie came out to the living room, I moved off of YouTube and into the official Netflix recaps, and then we skimmed through a few episodes before bed.

Then the north wind blew south.