Tag: family

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Phone Games

I had plenty of time to get up and around this morning before prying Eaddie out of bed so I could take her home. She said she had a bunch of school work to do, but wasn’t really in a rush to do any of it after verbally stressing about it last night. When I did finally get her home, she spent all day in her room while I just sat around the house.

Autumn arrived shortly after we did, and said she passed whatever screening they did for her to join the military. After that, I guess she went to her room and fell asleep. Eventually Summer called to say she was on her way home, so I took Tres home to charge before meeting her at Walmart.

Mom and Dad pulled up next door as I was leaving, so I handed off some stuff to him before leaving. Then I braved the last-minute Thanksgiving crowd at Walmart to find Summer. The traffic along the way, and the bustling crowd of people just reminded me how much I hate holidays, because they give us an excuse not to have family gatherings more often throughout the year. I’d much rather split this stuff up randomly than save it all for one time of year, with concentrated stupidness all around.

Autumn helped us unload when we got home, and Summer made brownies while the girls ate some leftover pizza. I continued to pick at a bit of stuff, but was still mostly useless. All I had done all day was complete upkeep tasks in Puzzle Tales, ExoMiner, and Phase 10. I only recently started playing games on my phone again, and it’s already eating away at my life. I’ll have to re-prioritize quality over quantity entertainment.

Idle me this, idle me that.

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Cold House, Cold Drinks

Summer took the flat tire to Hindsman’s this morning, and then dropped the Mercury off for me before heading to work. Autumn got up and left for MEPS, but came back after a trip to McDonald’s, saying she wasn’t informed the dress code disallowed sweatpants. Fortunately she wasn’t left behind, and could come home to change before going back. Noah left as well, but said he would be back the next day. Eaddie didn’t want to get out of bed all day, so after some leftover chicken tacos, I headed home.

I planned to take the air tanks and accessories back to my parents’ house, but we ended up deciding to have a fire at my house in the evening. Summer left work really early for her, and I cleaned up a bit and got a fire started before taking a shower and going back up to their house for leftovers. Evidently a couple fairly large branches fell, and at least one of them ripped a big hole in the cover I had over the chairs. I wouldn’t mind having the tree about 10 feet further away from the house.

I stopped by Walmart to get some chips and cheese, and we made nachos out of the leftover chicken. We headed back to my house as soon as we finished eating, and I had to get some more wood started over the hot coals. Everything was so dry outside that it all burned relatively quickly. Eaddie wanted to have a friend over, but couldn’t find a single soul that could make it. I was glad that she came out to spend time with us though, instead of hiding in her room all night. We had a good talk, and it was a good time for all of us. I think the chocolate-stuffed marshmallows helped.

Inventory time.

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Flat Out

It was nice to sleep in today after a late night. We all got up and finished the chili for brunch, and Summer went to the gym while I showered. When she got back, we went to my parents’ house to borrow some air tanks and an emergency tire inflator for the Montego. Unfortunately it wouldn’t hold any air, so Summer dug out the spare and we took it to my house to fill it up and get some tools.

The floor jack was too thick to fit under the frame, so we had to use the emergency jack. It had pretty smooth action though, so it wasn’t too painful. The impact sped things up a whole lot, and we got the spare on and took everything back to their house.

Noah came over later in the evening, so Summer ordered Domino’s and had Autumn pick it up. We all played a long game of Mario Party, and then Noah and Eaddie stayed up late watching Smile until bedtime.

A murder, most foul!

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Da Boiz

I woke up a bit early today after staying up to late last night. Eaddie was up before I was, and made herself breakfast and started cleaning house. Both of the girls were having their boyfriends over, so they had to get everything cleaned up before then. I tried to clean up some leftovers for breakfast, and then went home to shower before meeting Summer at Walmart.

Summer went to the gym, and then had most of the stuff picked up for chili by the time I found her. Then we made a quick run through the rest of the store before heading up to the house. Gavin showed up in the early afternoon with a flower in a vase. Eaddie had fallen asleep again because her head cold was draining her, but she got up and I eventually took them to the Valley Park Center to wander around.

Adam didn’t show up until after I left to pick up Eaddie and Gavin again. Then they played some Mario Kart and watched TV until it was time for me to take then to Pasta Grill. When I got back, Summer had chili ready for the four of us. Adam was well mannered enough, though he didn’t eat much. Autumn warned us that he was a picky eater, but he let slip that his father took him to CiCi’s before he came over.

After we ate, the four of us played a game of Monopoly. Adam seemed to enjoy it, but was mostly quiet and didn’t seem to fully understand all of the mechanics. We taught him about making monopolies, and coached him through buying houses. I tried to get the game going pretty quickly, so it was a good time until I had to go pick up Eaddie and Gavin again from the train depot.

When we got back to the house, the two couples split up to watch two different TVs. I laid down in bed until Summer came in to find me, and then made me periodically wander through the house to mind the children. Gavin had to be home by 10:30, so Eaddie and I took him home in time for that. We saw lots of deer and a raccoon, but fortunately nothing jumped out in front of us. I had to make Eaddie ride up front with me on the way back, but then she was super talkative for the whole drive home.

We stopped by my house to get the Montego and my neti pot since her head cold had just gotten worse all evening. Right as we turned onto Main Street, we could hear and feel that the car had a flat tire. I pulled over in front of GameStop, and the rear left tire was completely flat. Summer had to come pick us up for the evening, and we’ll have to go back tomorrow to try and air it back up.

Adam was gone again by the time we got home. Autumn was in her room. Eaddie showered and went to bed. I chatted with Summer for a bit, and then it was off to bed for us as well.

Just be a well-rounded, good-intentioned human.

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Engineering

It was a frosty morning, and it never got much warmer during the day. I forgot my keys at home, so I had to borrow Greg’s to get into my office. Gary had some engineering tasks for me that kept me busy for most of the day. Otherwise it was pretty quiet in the back of the shop. Kyle came through a couple times and stood awkwardly close to me, but that was about it. Greg was out doing something else most of the day.

When lunch time came around, Zach was the only one going. I took us to Morelos, where we sat in a booth next to Cameron, who had walked across the street from Superfast. We had a pretty quick lunch, and then ran by my house to get my keys before going back to work.

I ran to Dwight to take care of a couple things so Melissa could mop my office. On the way back, I finally remembered to return my jack pads to The UPS Store since they were too small to stay in the jack points of the Model 3. Then I spent the rest of the afternoon reading Microsoft’s documentation to figure out what I had to do to decommission our old SCCM server.

Autumn called to ask if I would get Eaddie after band, so I picked her up in what turned into some slightly hard rain. It wasn’t quite sleet or snow, but it definitely had an occasional slush to it. We swapped cars and then headed home where Summer was making a surprise dinner for us. She cooked up some sausage and vegetables which she used to stuff some yellow squash boats, and then covered them in mozzarella and baked them for a little bit. It turned out really great, but was a little heavier than she thought it was going to be.

Eaddie practiced her flute to some music she played on the TV for Summer, and then it was an early night to bed for everyone.

2022.40.4.1

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Range Anxiety

I got up and pan fried some leftover rice and stir fry for breakfast this morning. I figured it was early enough to eat a bit and still be hungry for lunch in Little Rock. I charged up to 90%, which should have given us well over 250 miles of range, and went home to shower before coming back to pick up the girls.

Eaddie didn’t want to go, citing too much homework and studying to do. I offered to push it back, or to take her with Gavin at a later date since I’d have all Thanksgiving break off with her. I picked up Summer and Autumn, and we headed toward Conway to stop for a car wash. The touchless was unexpectedly down though, so Summer went to chat for a bit and then we continued to Little Rock.

As we approached our exits, Tres was showing an arrival with just barely over 50% battery remaining. I had expected to arrive home with quite a bit left, so seeing that we had used nearly half of our energy made me nervous. I decided to take us to Cotham’s, where Autumn wanted to eat, so we could stop at Frankin’s Charging Hub on the way to the movies. The restaurant was closed though, so we ended up just stopping to charge for a few minutes instead. The facilities were really nice, and it looked like a swell place to stop and enjoy a coffee, if you could buy one somewhere. Unfortunately there wasn’t really anything around, so we just waited. Summer texted a handwritten number in the window so she could get an unlock code to use the restroom, and she said it was nice and clean inside. Charging with a level 2 Tesla wall connector was a bit slow, but I couldn’t complain about free charging. The faster ones would have cost, but there were already a couple vehicles there charging.

We ultimately decided to eat at the McDonald’s near the theater so we would still be hungry enough for popcorn and then dinner later. We made it to our movie plenty early, and enjoyed back-to-back trailers for a movie about Whitney Houston. As the movie started, a group of kids behind us continued to talk loudly enough that I had to stand up and ask them to stop. They should have known better, but fortunately they at least knew better than to talk back, and they piped down immediately. Unfortunately, the act of standing up popped the lid off of my soda, and I spilled a bit, but it all soaked in well enough that I didn’t feel all sticky.

The movie was amazing, and really showcased how absolutely terrible DC movies are in comparison. They introduced an entirely new race of people in an entirely new world hidden right in our own, all while making it believable enough within the context of the story. The CG was intentional, and obeyed expected inertial characteristics, and the dialog was fluid and sincere. I just wish DC could get their act together.

After the movie, we decided to drive straight home so we could get Eaddie her promised Popeye’s chicken sandwich. I was a bit worried about range, but keeping with the speed limit made my range estimates more accurate. We actually arrived home with about 4% more battery than I expected. It’ll take days to recharge back to 80% from 19%, but I think it was absolutely worth it.

Summer drove us home in the Montego, and we stopped to get the three of them some Popeye’s. Eaddie felt much better after having some time to herself to study, and I made her a bowl of Yonanas that she gobbled up. After that, it was a quick evening to bed for everyone else. For some reason, I started getting upset about the felt letterboard at work again, so that had me dwelling angrily for a bit before I made it to sleep.

Contain the rage.

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Veterinarians Day

I slept longer than usual last night, but still struggled to make it to work on time. We didn’t have much to cover in our meeting, as everyone else was run off relatively quickly, but I stuck around to chat with the newbies for a bit. After that, I just tried to stay productive until lunch time. Roy’s was there to work on our air conditioner up front, so Tammy came back to my office for a bit and I started to tell her the story of Sam the clam. Unfortunately I didn’t get to finish, because Kelsea walked up right as I was wrapping up and I didn’t want to spoil the ending.

Gary, Greg, Josh, and I were the only ones to go out today, and somebody decided on Fat Daddy’s. I actually had a really good burger there, but I still couldn’t imagine what takes them so long to make it. It’s a half hour burger for sure.

The afternoon was really quiet, and got pretty cold with the door hanging wide open all day. I went to Dwight for a bit, and then tinkered all afternoon. I never did get a chance to finish my story, so I guess I’ll have to start over later. I walked out a few minutes early so I could catch Summer at the Veterans Day parade.

I had to park on the side of the street on the south side and then walk across to find Summer. Then she ran across the street at the start of the parade so she could record Autumn with the American flag. I think she would have actually had a better view from where I was sitting, and I got aggravated thinking she was going to spend the rest of the parade over there, but fortunately she came back.

We left in a hurry since I had to run across the street before the traffic started up. I sped home, quite pleased with the zippy, instant torque of my new car. It really made navigating stupid traffic feel much better. I took a moment to relax a bit, and eventually made my way up to the girls for the evening.

Summer kept talking about going out to get food, which further aggravated me on account of how much food was in the refrigerator. Of course they all picked at the tasty stuff, and nobody touched the mixing bowl full of salad that was slowly wilting. In fact, a couple of them didn’t even finish the plates they had made themselves, so I finished those up and then had a salad myself. Autumn never once made an appearance, and Eaddie didn’t stick around for very long. Summer and I looked at some houses for a bit, and then she went to bed really early.

I spent the rest of the evening mostly bored out of my mind. I tinkered on YouTube a bit, and finally got ready for bed so we could go to the robotics tournament in the morning.

How do you say “I don’t understand” in Spanish? “No Nintendo?” I simply do not.

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AKS69Z

I wanted to take a bike to work today because the weather was supposed to be really mild all day, but I didn’t really have room to get one out without moving the car first. Gary came back pretty early and asked me to finish up the EAST domain controller migration, so that’s on my plate again. I talked to him about Azure AD and using Autopilot to prep new computers, so he was stuck on that for most of the day.

Kelsea and I went upstairs when the girl from JTS showed up, and I opted out of any extra insurance again for this year. I figured 2024 or 2025 might be a good year for another vision exam, and without any major dental issues, I would have lost money on that plan. Kyle asked me to return Shavon’s laptop to her once I finished re-imaging it for him, since he was supposed to help out at the middle school today. I didn’t object, since it meant I would get to drive around a bit.

That got me to lunch time, but Gary wasn’t joining us. It ended up just being Thomas and me, and we sort of left awkwardly while Tammy upset herself thinking about the evils of marijuana. I don’t know what triggered her, but she was adamant that it was bad for us and that society was crumbling around her. Thomas agreed to Whatta-Burger for something different, and it was such an incredible disappointment. The wait was bad enough, but then the fries were absolute garbage and the meat patties were about an inch and a half smaller in diameter than the buns. They tasted okay, but I wouldn’t have minded to pay a little more for something that at least resembled what they used to sell.

The afternoon was pretty quiet, but I wasn’t super motivated. I tinkered a bit and then took another trip to the DMV to register my car. Evidently right before school lets out on a Wednesday is the perfect time to go, because I walked in and right up to the counter, and two other people showed up the entire time I was there. All the ladies behind the counter were friendly and chatty, so I can officially say the DMV was a better, friendlier experience than shopping at Target last weekend. Once I paid my sales tax and got my license, I went to Dwight to install an additional charger in a Chromebook cart. Then it was back to the office for the remainder of the day.

I got a little caught up in traffic and took the long way back to the shop. I figured tomorrow would be a fine time to start a big project, so I didn’t dig into anything too tough before quitting time. When I left work, I went to my parents’ house to return the critter traps I had set in the basement, since we never caught anything. Dad had fixed a couple rice cookers for me, and then Mom got home from work and offered bún bò Huế. I decided to stick around for dinner and chatted with them for a while before going home.

As soon as I got home, I installed my new license plate and then headed up to Summer’s for the evening. She and Eaddie were up talking, but then Eaddie scolded me for showing up and making Summer start talking about boring work stuff. Everyone went off to bed, and I tried not to get sucked down any rabbit holes online.

Poor kid had no idea.

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Fro, Yo.

Tammy came into my office first thing this morning and said she had something for me. She had mentioned some Vietnamese artwork before, and finally brought it for me. She thought it could be worth several hundred dollars, but I was pretty certain that it wasn’t based on other artwork I’ve seen throughout my life and visiting Oriental markets.

The boss was still out sick, so it was quiet downstairs again. I had some leftovers for breakfast, but otherwise kept relatively busy somehow. I wasn’t really hungry by the time lunch came around, but I went to Quiznos with Gary and Zach just to get out of the office for a bit. I went light with a cup of soup, but then nearly doubled the price with a bread bowl and drink. I can’t resist their lemonade though.

I spent a good part of the afternoon upstairs with the virtual academy folks, because they had a stack of several computers up there that they wanted serviced. Most of them didn’t exhibit any troubles for me, but I logged in and charged them up just to be sure. A couple were damaged enough to be discarded, but one of those was pretty well demolished. I even had a teacher device with a cracked screen, so nobody was safe.

In one of my trips back upstairs, I ran across Danielle, who wanted to look at my car. I thought she was going to stick around while I dropped off some junk, but she went up to her office instead and said she would come by tomorrow. By the time I finished running around, it was time to leave.

Autumn ran around after school and went to karate, so I had to get Eaddie from band. She wanted to go by her grandparents’ house, but evidently they forgot and weren’t home either. Instead, we went to get a pumpkin cake from my dad, then swapped cars and headed home where Summer was busy cooking dinner after going home early from not feeling well.

We arrived to a super smoky house, but most of that was just from a dirty oven. Summer had made chicken cordon bleu with mashed potatoes and Brussels sprouts, and it was awesome. The three of us scarfed that down pretty quickly, and then I broke out the new Yonanas machine we bought on clearance. I didn’t realize the bananas needed to be on the ripe side, but it still came out super good with some mixed fruit. I’d always heard that frozen bananas tasted a lot like soft serve, but in reality the similarity was uncanny.

Autumn came home, and all three girls were off to bed pretty early. I stayed up doing my usual things and found a deal on an LG refrigerator with the craft ice from Costco, so I messaged Julie to see if she could order it for me. That turned into a bit of an ordeal because you can’t pick it up from Costco, but they also won’t deliver it farther than 50 miles from a store, nor would they deliver it to the Splash in Conway. I ended up getting Ben to be my fridge mule, and we’ll just have to pick it up from his house after Thanksgiving. All of that, of course, was on a whim since I’ve been without a refrigerator for several months now.

A sad chicken, named James.

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First Bath

Summer and I got up this morning and went to Hardee’s for breakfast. She planned to go home afterward, so we drove separately but then took mine back home when we realized I forgot our coupons. Their biscuits were awesome again, and I was glad the recipe hadn’t changed like I thought from a prior visit. They must have just had an off day.

When we finished, I went home to get some quarters and then went to the car wash to get some of the dust and grime off of the 3. I’ve driven it so much in the rain that it’s actually stayed relatively clean, but there was a bit of grime on the back end that I wanted to clean off, not to mention fingerprints showing up on the door handles.

I decided to drive around town a bit to dry off, and went toward my parents’ house. I called Brody to see if he was home, but they were only just leaving church. I chatted with him for a moment before going in to talk to Mom until Dad got home from church. She was being critical of the car again, so I did some quick math to calculate how much I’ve had to spend on fuel. I actually figured it would be more, but it costs me about 0.8 cents per mile for electricity when charging at home, versus a lifetime average of 13.8 cents per mile for gas for the Murano. I know mine is beyond overkill, but having a small, electric commuter just seems like a complete no-brainer.

I finally headed back home to shower before picking up Summer to go to Walmart. We picked up a Yonanas machine on clearance, just out of curiosity, and then went across the store for dinner. Eaddie wanted stir fry, so we got a ton of vegetables and headed home to cook.

Summer and I prepped veggies as quickly as we could, and then I stir fried everything together. It barely fit in the wok, and I overcooked things a bit again, but it still turned out really good. We had things split into “long” and “short” cook bowls, but I really need to split it up better in the future to keep things from getting mushy.

The early evening dragged on a bit just because I wasn’t used to the time change yet. When Summer was ready for bed, I found Weird: The Al Yankovic Story on the Roku channel and we watched the first half of it. I couldn’t quite tell if she was serious when she made comments about it being a true story, but I enjoyed the show. It was longer than I expected, so I look forward to finishing it soon.

Oh Tres, you’ve got chips all over your face. :(