Tag: family

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Honorable Mention

I developed a nasty sinus issue last night that kept me up until I remembered how soothing it could be to have hot water in my CPAP. For hours, I had struggled with a scratchy throat, unable to sleep for more than an hour or so, and finally I found rest.

I chugged some orange juice before I went to work, then sipped on piping hot green tea all day. Evidently the meeting that occurred right outside my door was a surprise to our department. Jeff and Terry were there with the guys trying to sell us Avigilon again, and based on what I heard, I didn’t hear a lot of kickback from my guys. I couldn’t tell if that’s because they had already said what they wanted to say and were at the point that they felt defeated, or if nobody wanted to rock the boat. I told them afterward that we should have developed hand signals so I could bust out of my office and make a super disparaging remark.

It was Brody’s birthday, and surprisingly he picked Linhs for lunch. Just as we got there, Zach got a call that several pallets of Chromebooks had just arrived at the shop. He took my car back with Greg, and the rest of us sat down to eat, ordering their food for their return.

After lunch, Tammy had made a Butterfinger cake, so of course Thomas was super excited to eat that. I had some more tea, went to Oakland to take care of a few things before school let out, and then spent a pretty relaxing end of the day in the front of the office.

Summer came over after she got back to town from Cabot, and we got changed to go to Eaddie’s National Honor Society induction ceremony. After a scan of the crowd, I discovered that we were basically sat directly across from my greatest nightmare, so I was on edge the entire time. Then, as it often is, alphabetical-order spoiled what fun I was having.

I thought I was keeping it together for the most part, but then they dismissed in the most chaotic way. Everyone started walking down to the floor of the arena, and just feet away from where we were heading, I froze. I couldn’t breathe, and I just had to exit as quickly as possible. I felt absolutely horrible for it, because I wanted to be there for Eaddie in her moment of accomplishment. All the love and support in the world didn’t mean a thing if I couldn’t even bear to exist in that moment. I was a wreck for hours after that.

Autumn took Eaddie out to get food and then went home while Summer and I went back to my house for a bit. I had a tentative plan to go to Lowe’s with Brody, but ended up postponing it for his birthday’s sake. I ended up taking Summer to Brangus for dinner, and robotically ate way too much.

When we got back to her place, Eaddie was melting more Perler beads. Autumn was getting ready for bed, and Summer didn’t waste any time crawling under her own covers. I finished up what I always do, and it was time to pass out.

And the waves crashing around me, the sand slips out to sea.

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RSD Cribs

I dressed up a bit for work today just in case the new superintendent came back to meet everyone. I worked sporadically on a few different things, but nothing that made me feel too accomplished. Just before lunch time, the tech sent by Dell to replace a motherboard for me arrived. That didn’t take long at all, though I cut out a couple minutes before he finished since it was lunch time.

Zach took Gary, Thomas, and me to Las Palmas, and evidently the name “Used Chips” is old enough that Thomas remembered it. The food was good, but I always feel a little iffy when I pay there. They’re big fans of cash.

The afternoon was relatively quiet. I did get to shake the hand of our new boss, making her the first one I’ve ever officially met. She said she liked my office, and Thomas was there to witness it, so I guess that’s a win. I really should have left my hackertyper window open just to see if I could get a reaction from Thomas, but I chickened out.

After work, I ran through Casey’s for a free birthday cookie, and then I thought I’d try to fix Bác Vân’s sewing machine. Evidently she had been out shopping for a remedy to an allergic reaction she had to something, so I never caught them. Eventually I loaded up with some food and headed up to Summer’s.

Autumn was at work, and Eaddie did a bit of homework while Summer made alfredo pasta to go with the last of the chicken we rescued from the Great Melt of 2022. It felt good to clean up those leftovers, but it was all pretty dissatisfying to eat. I’m just glad it’s over.

We had some leftovers that needed to be refrigerated, so I decided to take it home with me. I’ve still got to make time to figure out the refrigerator situation, and I’m not sure tomorrow will be any better. I sure would like to save a couple hundred bucks though.

We’re utilizing machine learning algorithms via remote desktop protocol on the neural network to compile scripts on the mainframe to prevent cyber attacks from threats to our students and faculty.

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Who’s Afraid of the Big, Black Bat?

I woke up this morning forgetting that I had lost an hour overnight. I thought I’d be up early enough to make breakfast after how early I woke up yesterday, but instead I just heated some cold brew coffee for Summer and took a shower before my parents came to pick us up.

We headed to Conway and, after some deliberation, settled on Sharks Fish and Chicken for lunch. I was worried Mom wouldn’t like how dingy it was inside, but everyone was pretty happy with the food. We’ll have to take them to Sam’s in town sometime, because I bet they’d like it a lot.

After we ate, we were going to shop for refrigerators, but evidently they had already picked out what they wanted in town. Instead, we went to Kohl’s and wandered around for a bit. We left there empty-handed to go to the theater, and fortunately we left early enough to get through some traffic that was caused by a flipped vehicle right off the interstate.

The movie was as long and slow as Eaddie described it, and I was surprised at how much they completely focused on it being a detective story. I guess it made sense, but it was less entertaining than I had hoped. There were certainly scenes that I enjoyed, and styles that I appreciated, but overall I didn’t at all feel glued to my seat. What I perceived as their big plot twist didn’t really carry any weight with me, and overall I thought it was relatively forgettable. The realistic wingsuit didn’t help, but I guess they really focused on realism on this one. There wasn’t an overabundance of having to suspend my disbelief as there has been in previous iterations.

After the movie, we headed straight home. As Summer started to head home, she showed me a piece of her car’s roof trim that had come loose, so I pulled it off to move the retention clips and then hammered the thing back into place with a mallet. Then it occurred to me that I had just fixed her car with a hammer, and that we should probably follow through with a plan before we’re forced to rely on a backup plan.

Once Summer left, I went to my parents’ house for some fish soup with them. We chatted for quite a while before I headed back home to try and get to sleep as quickly as possible. The new superintendent is coming to see the shop tomorrow, and I don’t know whether I’ll meet her or if I’ll be asked to disappear for the afternoon. I suppose I’ll at least brush my hair in case.

Something in the way, mmḿ?

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Of Milk

I woke up really early today for a Saturday. Eaddie got up to go help at a robotics tournament at Tech, and Autumn got up to go to her father’s for the weekend. When Summer left for the gym, I went home for a while to clean up. I finished up some leftover breakfast pizza, did the dishes, and got showered so I could run some of my smoked cheese over to Robert and Grant in the afternoon.

They looked to have been closed for a little while, and were busy cleaning up. We chatted just briefly, and then I went on home to wait for Summer. She had to get Eaddie back home to change, then drop her off at her friend’s house for her birthday party later in the evening.

We went to Walmart just because I hadn’t been in quite a while. I was really hoping to find something interesting, but all I got was some deodorant and bread that were being cleared out. Summer wanted to meet up with Justin and Ashlen to take a picture in front of the “coming soon” sign on their new carwash lot. Then we ran home before going to the bowling alley.

Strikers was super busy, and we had to wait for a lane to open up since they wouldn’t take a reservation. Summer thought we would need two, but between me not bowling and several others not making it, they fit in one. She got everyone pizza, and then we got some fried pickles and cheese curds. I ran into Robin and her family while we were there, and caught up with her just briefly.

Summer wanted to leave after one game, so she paid for the team to have one more after we left, and then we had to take Eaddie some stuff since she decided to stay the night with Maristella. Afterward, Summer really wanted some ice cream, so we went to Dairy Queen to redeem my birthday BOGO Blizzards.

The ice cream was super melty, so I didn’t eat much of mine. She nearly finished hers, and then I froze the rest so we could go to bed. She started watching her baking shows until she started to fall asleep. Then I finished my chores before crashing.

I simply will not tolerate this.

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As the Driven Snow

Everyone did a deep clean of the shop this morning in preparation for the new superintendent to take a tour of the place. By the time we were all done, it looked pretty stark and eerily unused. I know it was too messy before, but now it just feels less useful. I ended up with a bunch of stuff in my office, plus a huge box of shirts that ought to fit me. I ought to be able to get it all clean in one load though.

It was super quiet the rest of the day, as we waited in anticipation to see if they would close school early for the incoming cold weather. Gary discovered that TestNav was incompatible with every version of Windows we have deployed in the entire district, and quickly got to work building an update to deploy.

Brody convinced everyone to go to The Gunslingin’ Burger for lunch, and the service was predictably slow. I enjoy that they rotate new creations frequently enough that I can never eat the same thing twice. The Celtic Traveler was way sweeter than I expected with its apple chutney, but overall I would eat it again. The star of my meal was probably the chili cheese fries though. I really enjoyed them today.

They shut school down after lunch, but staff had to stick around “until all the kids were home safe.” Thomas ended up letting most of us go a little earlier than admin, which was great by me. The snow stuck to the car and I had to clean it off before I could drive home, but the roads were otherwise perfectly fine.

While I waited for Summer to get home from Cabot, I tinkered with the Artemis RGB software for my computer. I finally figured out the layers and functions well enough to mostly replicate what I had set up in Aurora. I eventually made my way across town and waited for Autumn to get home from work. Eaddie had me iron some Perler beads together for her, but otherwise it was a quiet, uneventful evening.

I feel like a gift card scammer.

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How Do They Work?

I went straight to Oakland this morning to complete my battery inventory. There are more closets over there than I can ever remember. I was there for a solid couple hours working on that and some other stuff. Eventually I made it to my office and basically waited around until lunch time. Zach and Gary agreed on Stoby’s, and Thomas got back to the shop just as we were ready to leave.

After lunch, I picked up some MagSafe stuff I ordered and then spent a little more time at Oakland. When I got back to the shop, most everyone had gone. Greg had basically checked out for the day and was just killing time until we could leave. It took a lot of motivation to keep busy at all.

I decided to return my official MagSafe charger since it seemed to be defective and would only charge at a really slow rate. After work, I also had to ship off an Amazon return before going to my parents’ for dinner. Mom was up and around in her boot, and warmed up some fish soup.

Mom actually ate with us and we chatted for a bit. I ordered tickets for The Batman, and eventually headed toward home. I stopped at Sonic for some ice cream and then video called Summer for a bit. For some reason I worked up a pretty bad headache, so we wrapped things up and I tried to get to bed as early as I could.

Magnets. They’re basically magic.

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On Charting

Summer made a quick breakfast for us this morning, and then the girls spent the day working on school work and laundry. I wanted to go to a matinee to see Uncharted, but Summer was the only one that was really interested, which was perfect. She went to the gym, and then after showers we went across town for the movie.

I expected the theater to be pretty busy, and there were a lot of cars there, but our theater was mostly empty. Of course we had some people directly behind us with some loud candy wrappers, but they weren’t too obnoxious. The movie was entertaining enough, but wasn’t quite as charming as I had hoped. I’d never played any of the games before, but I assumed it would have Indiana Jones vibes.

After the movie, we ran by my house briefly to drop off sodas and pick up Summer’s replacement phone. Then it was back up to her place for the evening. When we got hungry, I pulled one of her gift steaks out and threw it on the grill. It turned out way more tender and juicy than I expected, which was a treat. It was a super quick meal with some instant mashed potatoes.

Everyone wound down pretty quickly, so I did a bit of shopping online. Then it was off to bed to prepare for a full week back at work after all the snow days.

This is my mag charger for my mag phone.

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I’m a Lumberjack

Autumn got up for a job interview at Denny’s this morning, and by the time I got up and around, she had made it back and gotten a call offering her the job. Summer had to go in for a meeting at work, and then the girls were supposed to meet her at her parents’ house to help trim some fallen tree branches. Autumn insisted that she had to go in immediately to fill out new hire paperwork, so then I was left getting Eaddie across town to help.

We ran by my house first for some gloves and a change of shoes. Then we met up with Summer and got to work cutting up some branches. The damage was a little worse than I expected, but we made quick work of it once we had charged batteries for the comically small chainsaw. I actually had fun slinging it around, but by the end of it all, Eaddie said I had become too comfortable with it. She envisioned me posing, cutting branches behind my back and doing tricks. She was probably right.

When we finished, Eaddie wanted to go to Stoby’s for lunch. She had trouble remembering the name of what she wanted, and kept confusing it for onomatopoeia. Our server was super chipper, but seemed to really have something against pitas and recommended the croissant for my cranberry chicken salad instead. Eaddie was undeterred and got her tuna pita. My croissant was good, and fully loaded with the chicken salad, but could have been made incredible if the bread had simply been toasted and served warm. I couldn’t get pitas out of my head for the rest of the afternoon though, since I now had this incredible idea for a restaurant called Onomatopita. I spent the rest of the afternoon coming up with menu items with unique, themed names based on the sound the animal made in the particular culture whose flavors inspired the dish. I imagined Eaddie ordering a BLUB Pita with a side of POP Kettle Corn and Cherry Vanilla FIZZ.

After lunch, I went home and started some laundry before taking a shower to wash the sawdust out of my hair. Then I fought sleep a while with an energy drink before heading up to Summer’s for a super boring evening until bed.

I’m okay.

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Cheesin Crackas

We got to start an hour late today because of the little ice that remained. I took my cheese, crackers, and salami in to work, but Brody and Zach were the only two that really ate any. Greg tried one, and the girls came and had a couple later, but it wasn’t until the end of the day that they really got popular.

Brody and I went along with Zach and Greg to hang a TV in Dwight’s saferoom. I discovered a photo opportunity with a little trampoline, since we had to hang the TV so high. Greg and Brody just kept playing basketball, but we got the job done.

It was nearly lunch time by the time we got back. We sat around a bit, and then Greg and I decided to chase after Brody to Umami, since it was just the three of us going to lunch for the day. I was surprised at how many people they could pack in there now, but the service was super slow. We didn’t even get our order in for the first half hour. When the food finally arrived, I wasn’t at all impressed with any of the flavors of either the food or the sauces they gave me. I saw Josh walk in and snapped a candid photo to send to the group chat, which turned out to be the highlight of my lunch hour.

When we got back to the shop, Zach had everyone go outside to move some stuff in the graveyard again. We cleaned out the kitchen area and put a bunch of stuff on shelves. As we finished, Brody and Jacob mentioned that they had never seen the murder-basement, so I took them across campus to see that. It was even grosser with all the ice and water.

From then, we didn’t have a whole lot longer until our hour-early quitting time. Ben texted that he was at the arts center helping set up for a church gig, so I went over there and made a cable for them. I thought we’d get more time to visit, but he spent most of his time actually working to get things set up. I spent more time talking to Dustin than anyone else. They did seem to really enjoy the cheese and crackers there, and ate nearly half of what was left.

I went by the shop to see Summer on the way home from there. She was just finishing up and wanted to go to the gym, so I was charged with taking the girls home. They were packed and waiting for her when I arrived, so I didn’t even have a moment to breathe before they started fussing for me to take them home. I got some gas on the way, and then warmed up some old leftover shrimp and salmon to clean out their fridge until Summer got home.

The girls kept busy all night, so Summer and I watched some Modern Family until she was ready for bed. I tried not to stay up too late past that, but still ended up losing a fair amount of time hunting for the perfect phone case/mount/charger combination.

It’ll take just a Moment to find a case with Peak Design for this new phone.

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Odd Man In

I showered late last night so I could sleep in a bit and still get my car de-iced this morning. I let it run for about half an hour before I could chip all of the ice off, and then made it in to work. The roads weren’t bad, and I expected at least a few people to show up, but not one other soul was there. I just sat in the dark by myself for a while with some hot Earl Grey and milk.

After a while, I got up to check the weather outside. Justin and the rest of the maintenance crew were there working, so I thought I’d try and catch them huddled together for warmth in their warehouse. The joke was on me though, because they were actually at Sequoyah working on something. I penguin-waddled around a while until I got a text back from Justin that they were headed to the performing arts center to unload a truck that showed up in spite of the ice weather.

It had started to thunder-sleet again, so they decided they were going home when they got back. I followed suit and finished up downstairs, then went to see Summer at Superfast. She had just left though, so I tracked her down at Walmart where we picked up some things for dinner.

I found a couple pork butt roasts on sale, so I started up the smoker and got them going as quickly as I could. The girls eventually came over for the evening, as I struggled to get the grill up to temperature to fully cook the pork. It also seemed like my Meater thermometer was reading low on the ambient temperature, but in any case, the meat spent far too many hours on the grill as I continued to shovel charcoal in. I ended up finishing the roasts in the oven, and completed the meal with baked potatoes and grilled asparagus.

The girls sat around and watched TV until they could eat. The meat was predictably dry and tough, but had a pretty good taste. Everything was pretty salty though, so I’ll have to watch that in the future. I’m sure it won’t be so hard to do when it’s not literally freezing outside. At least I got a nice smoke ring and flavor out of it.

We get an hour late start in the morning, and I’ll take advantage of it with how sore I am from running around all afternoon. It’s also time to bring some smoked cheese and crackers in. I haven’t had any with crackers, and I’m excited about the sausage slices I found.

I’ve got to clean… everything.