Tag: family

Uncategorised

Last Minute Grind

I successfully climbed out of bed earlier this morning in preparation for my return to work tomorrow. Summer made sausage and eggs for breakfast before going to the gym, and eventually I went home to get their bikes ready to ride.

The girls got there, picked up their bikes, and rode to her parents’ house first, and then went to my parents’ house to help scrub the pool cover. I was going to stay home and clean in the heat, but I wasn’t inside for very long before Ronda texted with contact information for a Pelican Matrix 100x kayak for sale. I called the guy and then went straight up to meet him.

I didn’t realize how that subdivision had sprouted up in that area, but they seemed like some nicer houses. The guy had a slingshot in the garage that he said he just purchased from someone on a swap page as well. We took the kayak out of his garage, and then went straight to putting it up on my car. In hindsight, I think he probably expected me to haggle him down a bit on the price, but I figured the $125 was a “friend of a friend” price already. If I had given it any more thought, looked over its condition some more, and considered that it didn’t come with a paddle, I think I would have tried for $100. He helped me get it on top of the car, and then I climbed up and strapped it in under the raging sun.

I considered going home first, but then decided to go straight to my parents’ house to see the girls’ reactions. Nobody really said much, but Summer and Eaddie came over to look at it. I was already sweaty from mounting the kayak and felt gross from my lack of a shower in the morning, but I stayed outside and helped spray down the cover while the girls scrubbed it. They got it all done in record time, and Summer caved and let the girls go for an early swim. The water was cold, fresh out of the hose while Dad was refilling the pool.

Mom made fried rice while Dad fried some egg rolls, and we all sat down to eat. I ate some 7-layer dip before we had dinner, but I didn’t expect that to make me feel so full. The girls had to ride home afterward, and I followed along in the car shortly thereafter. They got to the house right as I was ready for help getting the kayak off of the roof of the car, and we made room for it in the garage on top of mine.

From there, the girls ran to Walmart for groceries while I took a shower at home. It was too hot to do much else, but I managed to pack my backpack for work, and loaded up some things to bring to Summer’s for the evening. I made some strawberry shortcakes, and we watched an episode of Parks and Recreation before bed.

Shave his belly with a rusty razor!

Uncategorised

Go Go Gojira!

I wanted to get up early to help get my sleep schedule back in order and so we could spend more time in Conway, but I slept pretty poorly, and then woke up really early to the sound of a cat barfing, so I ended up sleeping in a while. It didn’t help though, because I still felt so drained all day long. Maybe it was the weird dream I had about going to a conference, seeing Egon Spengler, and then losing Summer in some kind of psychotic, murderous, space-bending maze while trying to find our room in the casino.

When we finally got ready to leave the house, I noticed the house was really warm and discovered my air conditioner had blown the fuse outside again. I wasn’t going to let that hold us back though, so I called Dad and then we skipped town while my house heated up.

Our first stop was Hog Pen BBQ for lunch, and boy was it a treat. I told our waitress that it was our first time, and she brought us each a sample rib and some pork skins. It was some of the best barbecue I had ever had in my life. I got the sampler with ribs, chicken, and sausage, and it was some of the smokiest, most tender meat I’ve ever had. It was a good cut of rib meat without too much bone. The sauce didn’t seem like anything special, but it was really only there to wet the meat a little bit anyway. It definitely wasn’t lacking in flavor. The sausage wasn’t my favorite and had some gristle to it, and the sides left something to be desired mainly in portion size, but you could tell the focus was on the meats, and there was no shortage of that.

Neither of us could finish our plates, so I packed up another meal worth of meats and we headed out to the strip mall. We had never been to a Kohl’s before, so we stopped there first. They had a fair amount of clearance stuff to skim through, and Summer picked out a shirt for me. I’ll have to slim down a bit to fit it properly, but at least I have until winter. Then we went to Shoe Carnival so I could spend my $10 reward coupon. Finally we stopped by Target for a Frappuccino and to kill the last bit of time before the movie. We ran into Courtney and Eston there and chatted for just a second before we went on our way.

We made our way to the Cinemark early for Godzilla: King of the Monsters. I thought the story lacking quite a bit, and I found the characters unrelatable at best. I never felt any kind of emotional investment in any of them, and I didn’t get the feeling that it was because I didn’t see the first movie. The action was larger than life though, and it was a relatively fun, mindless action flick. I still can’t get over Godzilla’s tiny head on his massively fat body though.

On the way home, we stopped in Morrilton for some drinks and I picked up a couple bottles of cocoa cayenne Bird Dog that ended up being super delicious. Amanda invited us over to hang out with some of her furry friends, and we got to hear some interesting stories while Summer tried her first Jell-O shots. Nick took the girls to the house, so we didn’t stay out too late. We did have to stop at Taco Bell for a midnight snack, and we finally crashed at her house for the night.

History shows again and again, how nature points out the folly of man.

Uncategorised

Gordita My Dreams

I woke up early several times as the morning light poured in through the windows, and eventually hopped out of bed and ran home to get ready for lunch with Brandie. She had to push it back an hour due to some stuff at work, but that just gave me a little more time to relax at the house. We met at Stoby’s, where I tried the Philly cheesesteak. Nothing else really jumped out at me, and the sandwich seemed messier than it should have been, but it did the job. We chatted for a while, mostly about her work and how things have changed over the years.

After lunch, I went back up to Summer’s and killed some time while she and Autumn went to the doctor. I ended up watching the Netflix special about a guy that memorized the prizes from The Price is Right while Eaddie hid in her room. Once that was over, we went to my parents’ house and met up with the others to uncover the pool. It went pretty smoothly aside from having to teach adolescents how to use brooms. It’s reached a point where I feel like the sucker because I do the work when they pretend to be terrible at everything.

Their father decided to take them for the night, so I volunteered to drive them all the way to Clarksville so Summer and I could visit the taco truck. Nick pointed us toward a different place called Rico’s Tacos that he claimed was better. Though it was delicious, I’m not convinced it was superior. Blue taco truck still has my heart. They did have gorditas though, which are probably my favorite dish, possibly because of how hard it is to find a place that makes them.

On the way home, we stopped at Walmart to scout for deals. I picked up a few super cheap things, most of which I had no real use for, but the savings were just too legit to quit.

Back home, I wanted to get some housework done but failed again. Being in the sun and the heat today really made me sleepy.

If only running out of time counted toward my daily step count.

Uncategorised

Gravy Boat

I didn’t get much of anything accomplished today, though I had hoped for something. The girls left around lunch time to do their things, and I took a shower and prepared to leave the house late. When Summer and Eaddie got back, we went to Walmart to shop for a few things including dinner. We settled on a lazy evening of instant mashed potatoes and chicken strips with white gravy, and a bit of salad to make things a little more healthy.

After dinner, we watched a few episodes of Parks and Rec and called it a relatively early night.

A boat sure would be useful right about now.

Uncategorised

Nearly Under the Sea

I slept in quite a bit today, snugly tucked under my weighted blanket. It was still a bit warm, but it may have been better with the new cover. All I know is that it’s going to be amazing in the winter.

I got up and around, and went to pick the girls up to go to Conway. We were running more behind than I wanted, but Summer had chores she wanted to accomplish first. We made it there for a late lunch, but the barbecue place I spotted was closed for the day. On the way across town we noticed a Korean barbecue place called Bulgogi that had a 4.9 star review, so it was an easy choice to stop in. They had an assortment of rice, noodle, and ramen bowls, and even some cheesesteak sandwiches. I’ll give you one guess who didn’t like their food, but everyone that got something traditional really enjoyed theirs. The cheesesteak was even pretty good, but needed some sauce to spice it up a bit.

After we ate, we went to Sam’s to kill some time. Summer picked up a few things, and I thought really hard about getting some beach chairs. Ultimately I decided against them, because geographically it just doesn’t make any sense for me to own any at all. I really liked the whale though, and there are times when I wish I had some kind of folding camp chair. They had a rocking one that was pretty nice too.

We made it to the movie pretty early, and the previews seemed to run forever. The movie was good, but it seems that 2019 is the year of the women’s power movement. As someone who grew up in a household where the matriarch clearly wore the pants, I simply can’t empathize, and frankly I feel preached-at for no reason. When I hear a character say something sexist, I don’t need a woman to sing a song about it to get that the dude is being a dick. I already understand that he is a villain. It’s just a little too SJW for me, and it really takes away from the movies. I guess “it’s not for me” though, so I should just be quiet.

It started storming pretty hard right as the movie started, and evidently we had some flooding back home. It wasn’t too bad in Conway, but it never really stopped raining the rest of the day. When we got out, I took us back across town to do some shopping. Summer picked out some shoes at Shoe Carnival, while I wandered back and forth trying on every shoe in the store only to bring back nothing. Then we went to Dick’s for a missing valve stem cap, and the girl at the register remembered us and asked about the bikes. That brought us to a very late dinner time. Most everything had closed, so we ended up going to JJ’s Grill, which turned out to be more of a bar than a restaurant. The food was good, though priced like bar food. I had a fried bologna sandwich with an egg on it, which would have made a great, if greasy breakfast.

On the way home, I stopped at Andy’s and got frozen custard with Eaddie. The others wanted to stay in the car, so it felt kind of special to get out and have a treat for ourselves in the rain. When we got back into town, the usual half of us were ready to crash. Eaddie will probably stay up longer than me too.

The genie from Uncanny Lamp

Uncategorised

Live Music Everywhere

We got up a bit earlier than usual so we could get breakfast in the lobby before heading down to the French Quarter. As soon as Aimee dropped us off, we went up some stairs to an overlook for a group photo. I was immediately caught by a street shoe shiner, much to the entertainment of Summer and Hannah. I narrowly escaped with my fabric shoes and my life, trading my pocket banana from breakfast for safe passage.

From there, we split up and wandered around downtown. We walked around with Hannah and Dylan for a while, making our way through the half set-up open market. People were still setting up their wares for the day, and it all seemed like very typical street market stuff, probably all made in the same place in China.

We did stop at a tiny Jazz “museum” state park, and almost returned for jazz yoga, but I guess we forgot. Instead, we wandered further down the square and into a toy shop where I picked up a little moo can. I had seen them before and always kind of wanted one, but I finally decided to bite the bullet. Then we made our way down to the cathedral where a weird looking guy with an unexpectedly higher-pitched voice offered a “special” on palm readings. I told him we were trying to avoid the dark arts, to which he seemed to quietly and incredulously respond that it wasn’t “dark arts.” That was about the time we got called back to some students trying to get into a different jazz museum.

Summer and I left Hannah and Dylan at the cathedral to let the kids into the jazz museum. She and I looked through the mint museum on the bottom floor first, which was pretty cool. The old building was neat by itself, but seeing the old coin minting equipment was even cooler.

When we finished there, we had the kids all meet us just outside the flea market at Market Cafe for lunch. The guy there was so nice it was almost creepy, but he really grew on me. I had an appetizer sampler as well as a New Orleans sampler, both of which were excellent. I didn’t love the fried gator so much from the appetizer sampler, but I had some better stuff at dinner.

Once we got back to the convention center, the kids all went to shower and change for their first game. The first game was against Russellville, AL, which was funny to us, but nobody seemed to really outwardly care while we were there. We were behind most of the game, caught up to lead, and then lost on the very last question by 15 points. Then we dominated the second game before calling it a day.

Hannah got Autumn a piñata for her birthday, so we went out to the little courtyard field to hang it. Luckily one of the kids had a baseball bat, and Autumn made quick work of it. Then we waited outside for just a bit loner before heading up the street for dinner at Mulate’s.

I had a fried seafood platter that was good, but overall relatively unremarkable. I found myself wishing I had gotten something like jambalaya, or an étouffée, but it was alright. A couple of the kids ordered gator there and didn’t care for it, but I liked it quite a bit.

Back at the hotel, Summer, Hannah, Dylan, and I got some drinks and went back to our room to play some Mario Kart. Dylan proved to be a consistent threat, and even Summer finished in first for the first time ever. I’m really glad we get to sleep in tomorrow.

If you’re advertising a discount higher than 10%, then it’s not really discounted at all.

Uncategorised

The City that Drowned

We finally made it to Quiz Bowl nationals trip day. Summer and Autumn went to pick up Burger King for breakfast while I got ready, and we made it to the high school to load everyone onto the bus. I ran into Ben outside the high school and told him my sick day was to meet a witch doctor from the south. We barely had room for everything and everyone, but I think they may have overpacked some supplies on the way out.

The first stop was Quiznos to pick up lunch to take with us. I guess it was easier than stopping somewhere along the way, and certainly expedited that process. I’m not really sure how we ended up with a full bag of extra sandwiches, but hopefully they keep until the ride home. I certainly would rather experience unique cuisine while I’m here.

Around three hours into the trip, we stopped at Lake Village behind a gas station, got snacks and took a bathroom break, and then walked over to a park to eat. Luckily it wasn’t too terribly hot out, but I did sweat a bit. It definitely took the bus a bit to cool back down after that.

Summer and I watched the first episode of Firefly after I did some finagling on my devices. I was upset to learn the iPad Plex app wouldn’t stream without a Plex Pass. I’ve never had that issue with my Android app for some reason. Not too long later we made it to a Walmart in Crystal Springs. I didn’t really need any snacks, so I wandered to electronics and picked up a couple clearanced smart light switches and a physical copy of Diablo III. It was all just so cheap.

The last leg of the trip was short, but took us through a bunch of traffic on what felt like the world’s longest bridge. It was interesting to see the water rushing out of the Mississippi River and just spreading out across what was once land. The water was high, and flooding has been expected all over, but here it just seemed a part of life.

We got to the Hampton in an old part of town, but really I think all of this area is old town. It’s been remodeled with new world commodities, but the outside shells of buildings seem to be left alone. We didn’t have any time to look around or do anything but eat, but I really didn’t want to eat the Domino’s pizza after overhearing the three telephone conversations it took to place the order. Instead, I opted to use Uber Eats to order some food from a nearby place called Magasin Kitchen. I got some grilled shrimp spring rolls and something called a bibimbap rice bowl that I didn’t dislike, but didn’t super care for either. It was decent food, but just not quite what I was looking for.

Summer passed out early for me, but it was really probably kind of late for her. I’m really glad I’m taking next week off after having to wake up early all weekend for this.

Love that chicken from Popeye’s!

Uncategorised

Basskitball

Crawford and Oakland had their staff basketball game this morning. I thought it was after school, but they reminded me that nobody would show up if it was after hours. They all bussed all of their kids to the high school arena, and had a rowdy game with an eagle mascot, and cheerleaders, and everything. Ben was playing for Oakland, so I tried to get the others to join me, but nobody cared enough. I noticed pretty quickly that nobody was around taking pictures up close, so I jumped right into the photographer role again. All I had was my phone, which was pretty terrible at catching the fast motion of the game, but I did what I could. I should have tried turning off HDR to see if it improved, but it’s too late now. The game went into double overtime and ultimately they agreed to end it in a tie where nobody went home a loser. It felt like the perfect analogy for public school.

After the game, I went to the junior high for a while and took care of some things. Summer and Autumn were going to leave for lunch, but I got stuck working on a phone issue and then got frustrated with some whining, so I just skipped lunch and went by Oakland, and then to the high school to work on keyboard bezels with Dale. He got some news that Ryan accepted a job with Thomas in Bentonville and sent a video of me working on laptops. Ryan replied with something about a timer and I had been curious for a little while, so I checked myself in at about six and a half minutes.

I left there a bit early and went to the shop to drop off a Chromebook. When Jason left, Ben, Gary, and I went upstairs to check out the refurbished auditorium. It looked better, but not great. The reverb on stage was too much to handle, and made basically everything incomprehensible. From there, I went to my parents’ house and had some leftovers before coming home to get ready and pack for New Orleans. Travel anxiety is always worse with other people involved, but having a checklist premade from previous trips made it easier.

Traveling on a bus for this long is going to be a challenge.

Uncategorised

Stress Ball

I started this morning at the high school, repeating three different data entry tasks in a meticulously crafted beast machine of over-documentation. Dale seems to have accepted that things will probably change pretty quickly after he’s gone, but more importantly it seems like I’m going to have to be demanding some additional buy-in from certain people. At least I feel efficient with the way that I perform his processes.

I could have worked through lunch, but he clocked out and ate some leftovers. I didn’t really feel like doing anything, so I went home and warmed up a frozen chicken slider that was pretty gross. Afterward, I came back a bit early to perform some intake and output of replacement parts and serviced laptops. I’ll have to do some more of that I think, before I really grasp the full process. The most aggravating part about any of that is the physical paperwork. Needless to say, 2019 is going paperless.

When we finished with that stuff, I left for the junior high to deal with needy esports kids. I gave two more PCs to the library for distribution, but I wish I had some face time with the parents at least to explain what it is that I’m doing. Summer had most of her room packed up, and then left with the kids so Nick could take them all to dinner. She ended up wanting CiCi’s too, so I met her there and stuffed myself to make up for the particularly terrible lunch. I ran into David and his tiny baby family there, and it was really great to see them. It pleased me that they seemed to be doing so well as such a young couple.

After dinner, I went to my parents’ house to pick up some mosquito larvae for my fish and banana trees for Tammy. I dropped them off at Oakland on the way home so I could check my blood pressure. It was surprisingly only “normally” high, but I did give myself a really long period of time to rest first. Then it was home to fight with a ridiculous cat box. I can’t be done with that nonsense soon enough.

It’s aight.

Uncategorised

Bezels Bezels Bezels Bezels Bezels Bezels Bezels Bezels Bezels Bezels Bezels Bezels

Heather met me at the junior high this morning, and we ran around working on a few of the individual work orders I had collected last week. It wasn’t much, but she did at least get to open up a computer to pull out a power supply. We, or I, should probably be going over some of them with more urgency, but summer is nearly here, and I’ve lost a lot of steam. Jesica was in town for a meeting and wanted to get lunch, so I met her at Stoby’s and we caught up a bit.

After lunch, I went to the high school and helped Dale out by doing a stack of keyboard bezels. Then we brought two more carts full of laptops to the office and stowed them away under the bins. It was tiring, boring, and thankless work, but evidently I have to do it now. I did pull a quarter out of one of the card readers, but I’m sure if anyone from central office had seen me earn that bonus, they would have relieved me of it. At one point we did get a little bit of excitement when Paul burst into the office asking what our IP was. After some digging and looking at the snipping tool clip of a screenshot he printed on paper, I discovered he had gotten a popup regarding a reset password. I was relatively certain he was crazy, but I gave him a couple pointers and sent him on his way. He came back just minutes later and asked us to come take a look at it, and left in an audible huff when Dale told him we were too busy at the moment. I honestly think there may have been tears. It must have been remorse for not paying attention, or not having a damn clue.

We left at the end of the day, feeling vaguely accomplished. I went home and tried to clean up a bit through a headache I had been incubating. I spent a bit of time on the aquariums, less in the kitchen, and a bit more on the computer. I’ve got to get things ready for the trip, but my travel anxiety is already well on its way. I ate my leftover beef spud from last week when I got home, but after wandering around the house for a couple more hours, I worked up enough of an appetite to run to my parents’ house for some more leftovers. They were watching Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves on TV, and they both had forgotten we had watched it before. It was one of my favorite movies as a child, and I thought we had the VHS, but it’s possible we had borrowed it from someone. I never remembered much of it myself for some reason, but I sure remembered those fire arrows!

Back home, I wound it down pretty quickly and headed to bed for a long sleep.

A snake, a snake! Snake! Snake! Oooh, it’s a snake!