Tag: family

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A Boiled Pot Never Watches

I slept in quite a bit later than I wanted to this morning. When I did finally roll out of bed, the girls were already up and picked at leftovers for lunch. I scavenged some chicken tacos myself as Summer got them onto chores for the day.

I felt pretty helpless all day, and wanted to go home to accomplish anything. Summer and Autumn went grocery shopping and brought back stuff to make patty melts for dinner, so I waited for that.

Instead of cooking any of it on the griddle, Autumn burned some onions in a pan and then made hamburger patties on the grill. She kept disappearing while she was supposed to be cooking, and didn’t realize when the fire had blown out from the wind outside. She had me cook fries because she didn’t want to deal with the deep fryer, but I ended up making a mess of things when the whole pot boiled over. Fortunately there was no serious damage, but it sure made a mess.

When we finished eating, I stuck around for half a game of Monopoly, and ended up settling in as the sprinkling outside turned into a full-fledged rain. Finally, we finished WandaVision, and did our best to go to bed at a reasonable time after losing an hour last night.

Get your hoe ready!

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On the Color of Sheep

Julie messaged me just as I was about to go to bed last night, so I went over to her place to try and chat with her and Dad. I was there for a little over an hour before she finally kicked me out, which is to say that it didn’t go well. Then this morning she started in on me again, but followed up later in a group text with a deal that I appreciated, so I’m hoping that’s an indication that it’s not a total loss. I’d really like my sister back.

We had a busy day today. Summer wanted to meet for lunch, so I got ready and met her at Mulan’s. Then we ran to Walmart for a card before picking up the girls to go to Maleea’s birthday party at the skating rink. The girls had a bit of fun, but it seemed like Maleea was starting to grow out of that kind of party. I remember having skating parties all the time in grade school, but not nearly as much into the double digit age.

There was just a little bit of time to kill before we had to get across town for another birthday party, so we went to my house for a bit. Then we took Eaddie to Washburn Park. Amber dropped her kid off and I waved her down so Summer could meet her. We waited for a little while for Jaylinn and Maristella, but gave up and headed on to the bowling alley to wait there.

Even then we had to wait, so eventually we went inside to play a game. The girls took turns bowling for Jaylinn until she got there, then we played one more game. It was a pretty good time, but that place was absolutely packed and hardly anyone had a mask on. The sign out front basically gave everyone a pass on having a health concern that they wouldn’t ask about, so even the staff weren’t wearing masks.

The kids finished their game and spent some time in the arcade while Summer and I waited outside. Then we headed on home for the evening. Summer and I watched a couple episodes of WandaVision to catch her up, and then it was off to bed and to lose an hour for daylight saving time.

It’s been Agatha all along!

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Driven Mad

I must not have slept well last night, because I could barely crawl out of bed this morning. I begrudgingly made it to work and settled in though, and after a while it was fine. I picked at a few things here and there, successfully keeping busy, though possibly not looking so. I did at least feel helpful and accomplished.

Zach and I went to Wendy’s for lunch since the lobby was finally open again. It really shouldn’t have been, because that place was a joke. It took us forever to place our orders, the kid behind the counter seemed super flustered and kept having to run around doing things twice because he wasn’t doing things efficiently, like passing out cups, lids, and straws all separately. The food, though it appeared to be made fresh, was relatively cold when we sat down to eat it. It just wasn’t at all what we’ve come to expect from our favorite burger chain.

After lunch, I rode to the high school to try and help Mike with some stuff. He was super scattered as usual, but we eventually made some progress. I did have to run back to the shop for some parts we discussed before lunch, but at least we got started. I ended up working a bit late after only making enough cable to hook up four computers.

Dad came over after work to meet another guy to quote us on the bathroom remodels. I liked these guys the most out of the four we’ve had come out. They were young and respectful, and were clearly the guys that would be doing the actual work. They took note of what we wanted, and offered useful comments without any extra fluff or ambiguity.

Summer dropped Eaddie off with me so the two of us could go to CiCi’s after everyone left. Autumn went to the gym as a sort of punishment for last night, and Eaddie and I had a nice little date night. We ate and talked for quite a while before riding back home to finish up her last episode of WandaVision. We couldn’t resist watching one more, but now we just have the finale for this weekend.

When we got up to Summer’s, Autumn was working on a school project but wanted to talk about her feelings after realizing she needed some money and permission to go on a band trip. It was a super easy decision for me, but Summer was more empathetic. Maybe I’ve just had too many insincere apologies, but I’m not going to let her jerk us around like that. Everyone shuffled off to bed pretty quickly after that, and I followed suit.

Wolf!

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Beat It

I stopped at Casey’s for a free birthday donut on the way to work, then blared sad music all morning in the dark. Melinda finally said something about the cricket in the office, so we’ll just have to see if she figures it out before she leaves us.

Summer wanted me to go to the doctor with her, so I took the afternoon off. I met her at Fast Glass to drop the Murano off to get the windshield replaced and the front door windows tinted, then we went to BFD for lunch. The asada was super dry and overcooked today, but we had the same server I had the other day and the service was great. Then she dropped me off at home so I could get some laundry done while she went home to clean up.

I must have lost track of time, because she came back to get me and I had to stop in the middle of my laundry to go to the clinic with her. When we got there, they reminded us that no visitors were allowed due to COVID. I should have known better. She went on in, and I waited in the car. At least I remembered my Pixel Buds.

Once she was done, we got gas, drugs, then picked up the girls so she could get them to their karate test. They dropped me off to get the Murano before the shop closed, and it took them a while to get me processed and out the door. I got to their meet in plenty of time to sit with Summer, Mom, and Dad to watch the class get worn down doing basic gym exercises.

Most of the test seemed random and designed solely to exhaust everyone, but they eventually got to some more exciting, non-vocabulary stuff. The best was saved for last though, when they ganged up for three-on-one fights, and then Eaddie’s five-on-one fight to earn her step up on her brown belt.

We all headed home, and I finished my laundry. Autumn evidently had a tantrum and will have to be dealt with later. After tonight, I think we’ve all learned that it is not only perfectly acceptable, but likely necessary to beat our children.

Because I’m bigger, stronger, and most importantly more stubborn than you.

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Spring is Coming

I slept super hard and super long last night, barely waking up before noon. By then it was a beautiful day outside, so we pretty quickly decided to take everyone to my house so they could ride bikes. Noah took Autumn, and Summer, Eaddie, and I went to Little Caesar’s for some pizzas. We quickly ate, and then the kids took off on the bikes for the day. Summer and I went outside to help Bác Vân in the yard, and then I started picking through things in the garage.

Dad came by for a little while and chatted, and eventually Summer left for the gym. When the kids got back, Noah took off right away and I took a shower. Then we headed back up to Summer’s for the evening. She brought home some chicken, and I cooked it with some Rotel in the Instant Pot so we could have tacos.

We wrapped up the day with a couple games of Uno, in which I destroyed all the competition. The girls all went to bed early, while I struggled to do the same after sleeping all day.

You’ve gotta be poopin’ me.

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Pipe Nightmare

I got up this morning and had a leftover pancake. The girls had their own things to do, so I went home to do some laundry and shower. It took me a little bit to notice, but eventually I discovered my bathroom floor had flooded from what I could only assume was a frozen pipe. Then I checked outside and found water all over the garage floor and coming down the driveway. The weird thing was that I had been through part of the garage recently, but never noticed any water.

Dad came over and helped clear a path and pull the cabinet away from the wall. We never saw any dripping from the pipe, but there was a lot of water there. It just didn’t make sense for there to be that much water. It took us a while to find the shutoff valve because the box by the street was flooded and filled with mud and roots. David came over from next door and helped me find it, and we finally got it shut off so we could pull the old faucet.

Once we had everything out, we went to Lowe’s to pick up a new valve. The guy that helped us was friendly enough, but definitely misguided when trying to find the part. Ultimately we got something different that would work, and headed home to finish the repair. It took us the better part of the day, but we got it fixed and I cleaned up the bathroom floor the best I could. At least that’s something I’d been meaning to accomplish lately anyway.

I got my laundry done and took a shower, then headed up to Summer’s for the evening. She made some excellent fish tacos and a cake, then we played Uno with the kids. Noah was over for the night, so he and Eaddie watched TV and I went to bed early.

It’s all just a bunch of wood sitting on top of some concrete.

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38’s Special

I woke up early this morning so I could make it to Starbucks for my free birthday drink. They ran out of venti cups, so they gave me a grande and tall instead. I got to work just barely early, so we jumped right into our meeting. Then Zach and I went to the high school to check out a projector lamp. It had blown and we didn’t have any replacements, so we went back to the shop until lunch.

The guys decided on Mexican and we went to La Chiquita for the first time in a while. Brody called us late to find out where we were, and then went to the wrong restaurant, so he arrived a little late. Otherwise it was uneventful.

Kyle and I had to help Josh with a TV install in the afternoon, which ended up being a bit of a circus act. I don’t know what it is about Josh, but it seems like he just doesn’t take his time with anything, and we ended up spending more time fixing things in the long run. We got the TV up, but it could have gone quite a bit faster.

I spent the last bit of the day helping Mike set up some computers for Ethan. Then I got the girls and we headed to Summer’s shop to see her for a minute. From there we went to my house so I could take care of a couple things before heading up to their house. As soon as Summer got home, we met the rest of my family at Colton’s for dinner.

I was really glad Julie came along, and everyone had a really good time. Even when we were talking. It really was a birthday success.

Eaddie and I watched some House when we got home, because the other two went to bed early. I was pretty exhausted too, but I managed two episodes before heading to bed.

38 is the sum of the squares of the first three primes.

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Libraries Are Loud

It was frosty this morning, but turned out to be a beautiful day. I spent the morning at the high school again, and cleaned up some more random work. Just before lunch, I was in the library jabbering with the girls when our conversation caught the attention of some of the kids in the room. It really got me considering the podcast idea again, but it would be so much work to come up with weekly content. I’d nearly have to mic myself and just go back every day to recover useful content.

I just went home for lunch and ate the leftover Subway sandwich. Then I went to the junior high to get my computer chair. Brody had a couple questions, so I had a look and ended up spending the rest of the afternoon there.

The girls walked from the high school to Oakland, so I picked them up on the way across town. I had to get some gas at a much higher price than I had gotten used to paying. Then we went to Summer’s shop to get their karate gear. Both of them were having fits about different things, but we made Autumn go to karate anyway, and then I took Eaddie with me across town so we could have a chance to talk about her feelings.

Things got better pretty quickly after we all sat down to talk together, but they’ll both need to work on addressing things more immediately. Summer bringing home Zaxby’s probably helped their moods too.

I developed a pretty good sinus headache, so I wasn’t worth much after that. At least I had plenty of time to get to bed early.

When the Teachers Are the Bullies

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New Digs

I went to the high school first thing this morning, but quickly realized that Mike wasn’t coming in again. Evidently he’s decided to get tested, so the next day or so will be an exercise in the “filling in” portion of my job. I felt mildly accomplished after spending too much time remembering how to configure switches, and then I took a break to pick up some Subway.

Summer was at the house after prepping a slow cooker roast, so I brought lunch and we ate there. Then I went back to work at the shop for the rest of the afternoon. I tinkered a bit in my new office while some slower processes churned away. I’ll enjoy being there more, but the soundproofing at the high school was unparallelled. I’ll miss the big tunes.

After work, I made it home just before the girls got there, and then Summer took Eaddie out for a bike ride. I had Autumn drive me to Walgreens in her new car, and then dropped her off for her night class. When I got back home, I finished digging out an old side table I’ve had in the garage forever, and used some furniture polish to bring it back to life.

We ate when the girls got back from their ride, and then I picked Autumn back up. We eventually got around to watching an episode of WandaVision, but Summer shut us down on watching any more for the night. Everyone’s getting up extra early tomorrow, so it’s off to bed early.

Needs more portraits.

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You Have to See It for Yourself

Summer and I got up this morning and went to breakfast at IHOP since I had a free birthday stack of pancakes. Our server was a former student of hers, but that only made us a little nervous. The restaurant was absolutely packed though, mostly from an after-church rush. She barely came by the table at all, but the food was good.

Summer was going to go home afterward, but we ended up hanging out at the house until the girls got home. Then we watched a couple episodes of WandaVision before heading to my parents’ house for fish soup. We chatted for a little while since we hadn’t been around much since Disney. Then we stopped by Summer’s parents’ house to pick up the Toyota Matrix they were giving to Autumn.

The battery was dead, so we had to jump start it in the rain. The dome light was also burned out, which made finding buttons in the car a little difficult too, but we got it going enough for Summer to bring it back to my house. The girls went on home from there, and I spent some time tinkering with my Galaxy Watch3. I’m afraid it’s not doing much to grow on me, but at least the used market for them looks decent.

AGTSMTH