Tag: family

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Stick-on Shade

Summer went to the gym this morning and then came home to shower before going to work. I had gotten around a little bit, and once Summer left, I tried to get someone from the EEOC on the phone. The wait time ended up being longer than I could stay on the phone though, because I had to get home and cleaned up before taking Summer’s car to River Valley Tinting and Glass to get the windows tinted.

I waited in the near-silent lobby for over an hour while they did the job. I had high expectations after trying two other places in town with the Murano and then the Model 3. I was told this place had a plotter to cut the vinyl, which would make the corners perfect. When it was all done, the left window looked to be stuck on a little lower than the right side, but they both looked good. There were a couple bubbles on the driver side as well, but not as much on the passenger side.

Once I got back home, I put together a slightly more concise timeline to try and explain to another firm, but my first pick was a girl that claimed to be a “switchboard” that could only take my information, but couldn’t tell me whether I would get a call back or not. The second place I tried also said they never worked with employees, and would only work in defense of the employer in my type of case. For better or worse, the first place I called was still ready to get started if I would only pay them nearly two months’ salary.

Just as I was becoming the most frustrated, Dad rang my doorbell and I went outside to see him. Apparently Mom, Lelan, and Julie were all coming over to try and sort their outfits for Randall’s wedding. It seemed to be quite an ordeal for the girls to find something suitable to wear. It was all a bit too stressful for me to consider.

Summer picked me up when she got back to town so we could go to the high school for a PSAT meeting for Eaddie. Michael was outside the Crimson Room when we got there, and told us it would mostly be the same information we already had. We decided to leave, assuming Eaddie was already at home. Summer dropped me back off at home so I could continue to visit with family.

As soon as she got home, Summer called to say that Eaddie wasn’t there, and that she had left her phone in her room. Evidently she was still at the high school in her study group, which I thought was being led by the same people hosting the meeting we didn’t attend. By the time I made it back to the high school, Eaddie had already started walking toward my house, and was spitting mad that we left without her.

I took her back to my house to cool down while I visited some more. After a little while, I took her on home and shared some of my leftover pasta with her. Autumn was excited to share some “tea” with me, that turned out being a critical accident that happened at the school. Evidently Gary had taken a hard fall at the arts center and broke several bones. I was upset that she considered this “tea” that she selfishly wanted to share with me herself, instead of letting me know that my friend was badly injured.

Everyone made it to bed, and Michael ended up calling me late so I could catch him up on all of my drama. He was surprised, and shared the same sentiment I had gotten pretty much everywhere else. All that’s left is to start a GoFundMe for lawyer’s fees.

Seriously, why is it so hard to find someone to provide some counsel with vigor?

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Taxing Company

I picked at some more leftovers for breakfast this morning until Summer left for the gym. Autumn came out of her cave to gripe about having to do her taxes, and blamed us for not doing them sooner, but couldn’t find any record of her taxes from last year. In the end, she did them all herself anyway, and didn’t bother to have me check over them, so I don’t know why she even bothered bitching about it.

I eventually headed home to do my own taxes. I got up a couple times in the middle of it, and cleaned up the laundry room a bit to see if I had forgotten any paperwork in there. In the end, I just assumed my checking bank didn’t send a 1099-INT because they paid me less than $10 in interest last year. All in all, I was pretty happy with owing about $300 in federal taxes and getting back around $80 from the state. I don’t know how I could cut it any closer without overcorrecting by a larger margin.

Autumn had gone to the coffee shop and the mall to do “homework” for a while, and Eaddie went to rehearse her National History Day project at a classmate’s house. She finished up just as I did, so I picked her up and then picked up Summer to go to my parents’ house for some lemongrass pork chops.

Dad was finishing up on the grill just as we got there, and Mom said she invited Bác Vân and Julie over as well, so the three of us made our bowls and ate quickly to try and make room. It didn’t take long at all for the dining room to fill up, but the girls finished their food quickly and went to the living room. I joined them as soon as I finished, but even with her new boyfriend in tow, Julie’s loud conversation quickly triggered some anxiety in Summer and we decided to leave.

The girls wanted Dairy Queen, so we stopped there on the way home. Summer had some trouble with her app, but clearing the cache fixed that and we got our order in just after the drive-through filled up. We still got in and out relatively quickly though, and made it home with our extra-melty ice cream. Our Dairy Queen is the worst about selling ice cream soup.

Autumn made some ramen when we got home, and then all three of the girls went to bed pretty soon after that. I had a couple bites of ice cream that walked me right up to the edge of lactose intolerance, but made it to bed without any trouble.

How incredibly annoying.

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Elec Man

I took Eaddie to school this morning and made it home to have a bowl of cereal before the electrician showed up. John and two of his henchmen showed up and got right to work, running some conduit up the side of the house and into the attic. I was a little worried about how it might all turn out, but overall I was quite pleased. I did have to climb into the attic once to pass along some tape, but outside of that, we didn’t spot any termite damage, and the Wall Connector powered right up. Dad showed up near the end to check things out, and once the guys were done, he wanted to take me to the airport to see the plane that he and Julie just bought.

I let him drive the Model 3, and we made it about halfway there before he realized he had forgotten the trash bag he needed to clean out the plane. We finally made it to the airport though, and drove past a really fancy jet to get to the hanger.

We stopped in to talk to the guy in the hanger next door, and he came around to chat with us some more while we cleaned just a little bit of trash out of the plane. I got Julie to come out, but she wasn’t in any condition to socialize. As she ran us off, she introduced us to her new boyfriend, Kevin, who would be joining us for Mom’s birthday dinner.

I got back home and put the garage back together, possibly better than it was before. By then I was pretty hungry, so I ran to Taco John’s for a snack and went by Superfast to visit with Summer. She was busy though, and put me to work filling her washer fluid drums. After that I went home and showered so we could go to Pasta Grill for dinner.

Summer had to work right up to dinner time, so I met her at Superfast and she drove us to the restaurant. Julie and Kevin were already there, and of course Mom and Dad were several minutes late. It was a fair time visiting, and most of the food was okay. I ordered the Grill Pasta, which was incredibly heavy. I was disappointed in the portion size, and then it was so saucy that it felt like eating forks of butter. I ended up taking well over half of it home.

When the girls got home from hanging out with their friends, Autumn came into the bedroom to tell us all of Eaddie’s drama, which had me rolling my eyes. Summer called Eaddie into the room so she could tell us herself, and we talked for a little bit. Then after Eaddie cooled off in her room for a while and I watched some TV with Summer, Eaddie came out to the kitchen table and chatted with me for quite a while longer. She felt good about how she responded to her classmates, and laughed at how accurately I described her friendships.

Now if only I could be as successful.

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Cheapest Wash in Town

I got up and munched on some of the Mexican sweet bread this morning for breakfast. I didn’t much care for it, but I woke up hungry. I put on a Kelsey Cook comedy special on YouTube, which ended up being a little raunchier than I expected. Then Summer wanted to go to the gym, so I left to get cleaned up myself.

Before going home, I stopped by the carwash to get the bug guts off of my car. It was nice and cool outside, and quiet for being relatively early in the day. Then I went home and had some cereal around lunch time. I eventually took a nice, hot shower and made it back up to Summer’s in her Model Y so we could go wash it and stop by to visit with my parents.

While we washed her car, she spotted a couple chips in the paint. I still don’t know that it’s worth getting white and just wrapping the whole car, but it sure is annoying that the paint is so thin. It really seems like there’s just no clear coat at all. When we got to my parents’ house, Dad came out to check out her car since he hadn’t seen it yet. They weren’t doing anything for Easter, so we left there and went to Walmart to get stuff for sloppy joes.

Autumn was home by the time we got back, so she helped out a little bit with dinner. Eaddie started mowing the lawn, and then came in to eat when the food was done. She was excited by a robin that kept following her mowed path to pick up bugs. She finished the lawn after dinner, and it was a pretty quiet night after that. Summer and I watched Master Chef for a while, and then it was off to bed.

Don’t fall for the false confidence.

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6º

I got up when everyone left this morning, and made myself some fried rice out of some leftover egg yolks from a cake that Summer baked. Then I went home and got showered before my Tesla service appointment. Jacob came over a little before 11, and we kind of laughed at the fact that they sent him out for basically nothing since they denied any fault in my autopilot complaints. After that, we stood around talking about motorcycles for a while. He made a comment about the Grom, and it turned out he knew Chase from the group of guys that gets together to stunt ride.

Dad came over just as we were finishing up, and we went next door to work on Bác Vân’s patio door. We kept fighting getting it out from the inside when we should have just started from the outside. The fixed glass door was actually way easier to remove, so even though we had to lift more things, it was way less trouble than going out the wrong direction. The rollers didn’t seem to be in awful shape, but they were a part of a bracket that ran the width of the door.

We went to Lowe’s first to try and find some replacement rollers, but they didn’t have any. We saw Manuel on the way out, and he tried to help even in plain clothes, but he didn’t think they had the whole bracket, so we headed to Leonard’s. They had just the wheels, but they bolted on and we weren’t sure that would work with the bracket we had. In the end, we knew we were missing a screw to lower the rollers on one side, so Dad picked up a replacement and we headed back. I spotted Allen on his old Kawasaki on the way back, and it looked like he was enjoying the ride.

The replacement screw ended up not fitting, but after going through a couple drawers and several cookie tins of random screws, we actually found the original! I just had a feeling about it, and luck was on our side. We got the door back together and it was marginally better, but then the locking mechanism kept falling down. We went back to Leonard’s and picked up a new one, but then we had to Dremel the opening a bit in order for the latch to fit.

The project snowballed on us quite a bit, and we could still fix it better, but that was enough for one day. We put everything back together, Bác Vân forced some money on me, and some shrimp and rice on Dad. Then he went home and I waited for Summer to come get the paperwork to request a new title for the Pathfinder.

Autumn dropped Eaddie off to go ride her bike, and then Summer got her paperwork for the DMV. I waited around, exhausted, for Eaddie to finish, and then I took her home. It wasn’t long after that she wanted to go to the mall to do homework with some friends. I dropped her off, and then remembered I left my valve stem caps off for my appointment. I ran home to get them, and then headed back up to Summer’s.

Julie called me about another Entergy job I asked her about, and we ended up talking for quite a while, even as I had to pick Eaddie back up. It seems that no matter what happens next, it won’t happen fast. I’m fortunate to have savings, but we had plans for all that money I was making. Hopefully my hearing next week will keep that flowing at least for a little longer.

There’s gotta be a better way. I just haven’t started looking for it yet.

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Better Than Rock

Summer took Autumn to the gym this morning while I cleaned up some corned beef with Eaddie. Once they made it back, I headed home to clean up so Summer and I could go to the movies. Eaddie wanted to ride her bike, so Summer brought her over to do that while we were out. Bác Vân also had some kind of nut bread and a couple bánh bao for me.

When we got to the movies, we learned that Shazam! Fury of the Gods was showing in one of the tiny auditoriums for that showing, so we had to kill an hour before coming back at four. We ended up going back to get the Tesla, and then washed it before going for a drive around town. We made it up north, and then around to the marina before finally ending back up at UEC.

We were the only two people in Auditorium 5, which was awesome, but also kind of depressing for how much we really enjoyed the movie. I have no idea why it got such a bad rap, because we thought it was really solid story, and a great family flick.

Eaddie just barely beat us home after riding all around town, and we took her to BFD for dinner and ice cream. They were super busy, and the service and food were both actually really good this time. It always seems like lunch is really hit-or-miss, but dinner was great. We all got our fill.

Once we got back to the house, the girls headed home. Autumn had gone to Adam’s for dinner, but then got herself into trouble again for generally being awful and changing up her story to fit whatever she wanted to do. When I tried to head up to their house, the Pathfinder wouldn’t start. I tried poking around under the hood, but couldn’t tell much. It just acted like it was completely out of gas, but it appeared to have half a tank and drove fine earlier in the day.

I poked around a bit at my house for a while, and eventually just took the Model 3 up to the girls, who all appeared to have been in bed for a while before I got there. I was a bit restless again, but tried to go to bed before midnight.

What an absolute lack of previews.

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Witchy Woman

I slept way better last night, no thanks to the constant snoring that Autumn did all night long. It aggravated all of us to the point that even Eaddie woke up and yelled at her to flip over, which helped for a bit. I wanted to sleep in a bit since we didn’t plan for breakfast, but that didn’t happen. I got up and showered while the girls packed everything up, and then they loaded into the car like we were leaving, but I went to check on Mom to see if they had plans.

We ended up going to the clubhouse to play some more games until Dad finished at the convention. Then we went downtown to try and find a seat at the Local Flavor Cafe. There was very clearly a group of people outside waiting, so we went to La Familia for some Tex-Mex instead.

The food was great as always, but the already-bitchy Autumn just got worse when I called her out for ordering three bean burritos for $20 when most of the rest of us shared fajita platters for a buck less. We made it back for the matinée show, and then we headed straight home after that.

Summer hadn’t been feeling the best over the past day or two, and it just got worse as we drove home without a word, listening to a new playlist maker I tested out on YouTube Music. Once we got there, the girls unloaded and Autumn started some laundry while Eaddie played the flute for literally hours. Summer put on the first Iron Man, and then went to bed. I laid with her for a little while, but still had to finish my evening routine before going to sleep myself.

Who’s got time for that?

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State of Dinner

I had a horrible time trying to sleep again last night, but surprisingly it didn’t hurt me too bad during the day. We had breakfast and got out of the hotel, then made it down the road to The Butterfly Palace. It was a relatively short wait, but the greenhouse was a bit smaller than I expected for the size of the building. There also weren’t quite as many butterflies as I had envisioned, but it was still a good time. They had little vials of “a scoop” of orange Gatorade mixed with two quarts of water with a little fake flower on top, and we carried those around just hoping for butterflies to land on us. I had the bright idea to stick mine behind my ear, and I think I was the first one to actually attract a butterfly.

It was a really neat experience, and we watched a little short 3D film about monarchs before we made it downstairs for a tiny reptile room and a really cool mirror maze. I started really feeling the effects of my lack of sleep while the girls were looking around the gift shop, so I waited in the car until they came out. Then we started heading toward Eureka Springs, stopping in West Branson for gas, and then Reeds Spring for some lunch at Parmesan’s Pizzeria. Their tiny dining room was packed, so we waited for a table, and the pizza was worth the wait.

We finally made it to Eureka in the rain, and got checked into the hotel after a bit of a wait. They gave us a room right next to my parents, which was convenient. I bounced back and forth between our room and theirs to talk to Mom, and then Summer and I went down to the convention center to find Dad. We weren’t hungry during the dinner break, so the girls and I found a recreation area by the pool that had ping pong, mini golf, air hockey, a couple of pool tables, and some other stuff that was mostly out of order. It was actually a lot of fun, and was probably the best thing we could do to keep out of the rain.

Eventually we had to make our way back for the evening show, and Eaddie got picked as a volunteer again. The girls seemed to enjoy it enough that we thought they might actually be willing to stay another night, but then Autumn started to get cranky again as the evening progressed.

After the show, we all went downtown for a really late dinner at The Spring on Main. We actually parked right by the entrance, but I didn’t realize it was upstairs, and we walked up a couple blocks before I realized we were in the wrong place. We made our way back down, and then up the stairs into a small, mostly empty restaurant and bar. The menu gave me a little bit of sticker shock after glancing at the prices online, but I think it was worth it. Everyone was really happy with their upscale food. It all tasted really fresh and delicious, and the service would have been excellent even if we hadn’t showed up 30 minutes before closing.

Once we ate, we headed back to the room and we had to practically wrestle Autumn into the shower after over 48 hours. Summer put on Indiana Jones, and I wrapped up as quickly as I could, hoping to sleep through Autumn’s relentless snoring.

Suffer silently.

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The South Will Rise Again

I had trouble getting to, and staying asleep last night. We tried to sleep in a little bit, but really didn’t. The girls got out of bed, and we had some breakfast before hitting the town. Our first stop was Ripley’s Believe It or Not! I found myself feeling like I had been out all night long, so I didn’t really enjoy myself much, but the girls thought it was neat. Then Eaddie and I drove next door to meet Summer and Autumn at Lost Treasure Minigolf. I just kept score while they played, but it was a little annoying to me that they weren’t being more competitive about it. It seemed like they were just going through the motions, but they insisted they had fun.

After golf, we drove around town a bit before stopping at Taco Bell for a small bite before our tour at the Titanic museum. The girls really enjoyed that, but again I was still just not in the mood to wander a museum reading, or even listening to a guided tour. It was neat, but I just wished I wasn’t so tired.

From there, we went back to the hotel to relax for a bit before going down the strip to the Dolly Parton Stampede. Autumn started pitching fits over the fact that I had called her out earlier in the day about eating nothing but potatoes. The show was alright, but I liked the Medieval Times show way more. Everyone got their fill, and we headed back to the inn.

While we were at Ripley’s earlier in the day, Summer had gotten a text to schedule her Model Y delivery. As soon as we got back to the inn, she got a call saying the Saturday delivery was a mistake, and they asked us to schedule next week. I got to work trying to plan around that, and then took Autumn to Walmart to pick up some things. As soon as we got back, she went outside for half an hour with a bag of potato chips, which was all the more maddening after she acted a fool all afternoon.

The girls settled into bed to some TV, and I did my best to get to sleep as quickly as possible.

This show seems seriously problematic.

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Clear for Landing

We didn’t get up too early this morning, but tried to leave at a reasonable time. I went home to clean up, then brought my stuff back just as the girls were ready. We still had to get gas though, and while we were across town I stopped at my house again to try and find a phone mount.

With all that out of the way, we made our way north, stopping at the Rotary Ann and then at a Walgreens in Harrison. We made it into Branson just in time to check into the hotel, but we didn’t stay long. With today being the only day of really nice weather, we decided to go to Branson Landing where we could walk around outside.

We were pretty hungry by the time we passed through a couple stores, so we stopped at Guy Fieri’s Branson Kitchen to eat. We sat outside, right next to the ziplines, which were way noisier than they had any right to be. Summer and Autumn got some burgers that looked pretty good. Eaddie ended up getting the steak sandwich that I kind of wanted, and I got a whole rack of ribs so I could share a bit. I thought the ribs were probably the worst thing on the table, and they tasted fine, but were pretty dry and tough.

We continued around the shopping center and stopped for some ice cream at Kilwins before going back to the water show at the center of it all. It was a short show with a little water and fire, and then we made our way back to the hotel for an evening of The Avengers and Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.

Mac and cheese on top of toast? Where’s the cheese?