Sofa, so Good

I didn’t sleep in much today. Summer got up and went to the gym, and I went home to start cleaning things up. After her workout, she picked up an order from Little Caesar’s and came over to help. We finally got everything off of the couch in the bedroom and carried it out into the living room. I had forgotten how bad of shape it was in, but we’re still six months away from the next bulk item pickup day.

With that out of the way, I could continue moving things around inside while she pressure washed the patio furniture and the concrete pad out back. I felt pretty drained just going back and forth inside, picking apart things that had been sitting around for years. Eventually Summer finished up and headed back home. I ended up following after her once I got to a stopping point.

Summer made some quick stir fried noodles that the three of us ate while Autumn was trying out for the wrestling team. Then we showered, and Eaddie and I finished the night with a couple episodes of House until bed.

Now I just need more places to store things.

We’re Duned

I went home to shower this morning, then picked up Zane for our trip to Little Rock. As we pulled in to get the girls, I had him duck down in the back seat to surprise her. I was a little disappointed that she didn’t scream, but her reaction was very typical Eaddie.

We had to stop in Conway first, so I could pick up an order from Kohl’s. Then we continued to Little Rock and went to Tokyo House for lunch. The kids didn’t eat a whole lot, which left me holding everyone else up while I ate. I wasn’t just going to not eat all of the things though.

Next we went to The Promenade at Chenal to kill some time until the movie. We only went into a couple of the stores, as everyone balked at the prices of everything. The new Bath & Body Works was probably the most reasonably priced store on the premises, and we didn’t even walk in. I kind of thought we’d eat there and then just lounge around, but instead we just meandered around and then went into the theater really early.

The movie was very long and slow, so I knew the others wouldn’t really be that into it. I didn’t know what to expect, but really thought we’d get farther along than we did. I felt like the movie covered about as much as I had read of the book as a child. I never did make it very far, and it ended just as it got to the exciting bits.

As we waited for Amber to get there to pick up Zane, we walked to Maggie Moo’s and had some ice cream. It gave us about the perfect amount of time to wind things down for the day. Once she got there, I got to share some of the pictures I had taken throughout the day, and then we headed home.

Eaddie and I stayed up late and watched a couple episodes of House. I stayed up to make sure Autumn made it home from her Sadie Hawkins dance, and then made it to bed.

Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.

Mouse Toss

It was a little warmer today, but still cool out. It made for a really great day to be moving stuff around outside, which we did. We ordered several hundreds of computer mice and headphones, and split them up for delivery to every campus. Even Thomas came out to help us toss mice into the trucks, which ended up being super fun. I had some sort of back pain going on all day, but it started before we did any of that, and I never felt much worse throughout the day.

They ended up going to lunch about half an hour early, but I made the mistake of meeting them at Fat Daddy’s in London. I’ve just never ever been impressed with their food there, but for some reason the others like it. The problem today was that they tried to meet Brody at Dwight, but Brody showed up at Crawford on accident. I just waited outside the gas station/restaurant until they showed up, and then ordered a sloppy, overpriced, uninspired plate of nachos.

It was a relatively quiet afternoon, and I didn’t get too deep into much of anything. We put a couple metal shelves together for our storage room. Then near the end of the day, Gary brought me a basket of hotspots he found and asked me to test them. All but one appeared to work normally.

When I left work, I stopped by the shop to find that Summer had already left. From there, I had to wait for a train, then made my way home to set up the storage stuff I had ordered from Kohl’s. Summer and Eaddie came by to Eaddie could try on an old Papa John’s uniform as a Halloween costume. Then they left so Eaddie could go to her boyfriend’s birthday party for the evening.

Eventually the kids made it back to town, and I picked Eaddie up at Zane’s house. Summer was still awake when we got there, but we closed her up in the bedroom while we watched an episode of House before bed.

Beanelephant

to the

I woke up absolutely dreading getting out of bed this morning. I was absolutely beat, and needed another several hours of sleep, but I willed myself up and into the shower. It was pretty quiet at work, but I still spent most of my time working on other peoples’ issues. I finally got the CPPC minutes sent out to the applicable email groups, and immediately afterward, Thomas asked me to remove the “Assistant to the Director of Information Systems” line in my email signature. I wasn’t particularly surprised, but it still kind of made me feel uneasy about my life there. It all started when Ben moved me into the office to the right of his, literally making me his right-hand man. We joked about how people in the district just made up their titles with seemingly nothing to back them up, and went with the Dwight Schrute “to the” moniker.

I worked through lunch since nobody said anything to me about it other than Brody, who actually took lunch about half an hour late. By that time, I was two minutes away from the Pixel 6 launch announcement, so I just stayed and watched that in my office. Then after lunch, I eventually made my way to Oakland and finished out my day.

When I left work, I went straight to the high school to pick Eaddie up for karate. We went to my house for just a bit before deciding to meet Summer at a taco truck for dinner. Eaddie really wants to quit karate, so we didn’t make her go, and I think Summer will finally let both girls drop out. Eaddie, particularly, will still have ways to be active. Autumn needs more encouragement, so I’m not sure whether we’ll let her drop out, but for now at least, she has plenty of afterschool activities that keep her occupied.

Summer couldn’t stay until we got our food, so Eaddie and I ate on a bench there and had what were probably very funny and awkwardly inappropriate conversations in front of other patrons as they came through. Then we took Summer’s food back home and waited for her to get off of work.

I finally got my missing grill parts in from China, so I put that together while we waited. Then a little while later, Summer called to say she didn’t realize we were going to my house to wait for her, and that she had gone to her house instead. Autumn came over instead, and picked Eaddie up to go home. I stayed behind and watched a Pixel Superfans stream, which didn’t really provide me any more insight into the device. The price for the smaller device was lower than I expected, but the Pro is about where I thought it would be for the storage size I wanted. I’ll have to wait and see if Google Fi has any deals around Thanksgiving time.

Black Friday will finally look right in photos on the Pixel 6!

Tread on Me

I slept in pretty hard today, and actually woke up a little later than I wanted. Aaron was already up and ready to get the computers I had for him, but Summer wanted to know if we could get the treadmill he was supposed to deliver to me several years ago. Things actually worked out in our favor, so we went straight up to his house to load up the treadmill. Then after we delivered it to my garage, we went to the shop so he could bring an old, metal, rolling cart back to the house for me too.

Summer had gone to work out, so I did some rearranging in the garage for a bit. Then I met her at Arby’s for a late breakfast/lunch/early dinner. From there, I went back home to clean up because we had to get to Old Post Park for Angela’s end of treatment celebration.

I picked Summer up on the Shadow and we rode down to the park, stopping at Dollar General for some cookies along the way. When we got there, Allen was the first person I saw. I was a bit surprised to see him and Charlotte there, but I was glad they were. I was really disappointed in the number of people that showed up, especially from Oakland. I really thought it would be a big deal. It was still nice to visit with everyone though, and Summer was really entertained by Michael’s personality, never having spent any time around him before.

While we were there, Michael let me ride a Trek mountain bike that he had converted to an e-bike. It was really neat, because I didn’t really feel the motor doing anything and I still felt like my legs were getting a workout, but it kept my speed up enough that I could feel the breeze on such a nice day.

After winding the party down, I took Summer back to my house to trade for the Murano, and then we went to her place for the evening. Aunt Beth got back eventually, after spending the day cleaning up at their parents’ house. Summer settled in for bed pretty quickly, but the others stayed up surprisingly late. I got stuck shopping at Kohl’s for longer than I should have, but eventually made it to bed.

I feel like there’s progress, anyway.

What’s Cookin’

Summer got up and made breakfast this morning. I got super stiff last night in bed, which I felt the numerous times I got up in the middle of the night. It really made it hard to move around for a while, but I never got up to much of anything anyway. We did finally play UNO Flip, which was a great twist on the classic game. Then we watched The Princess Bride while Eaddie did something else.

Eventually dinner time came around and Summer wanted to cook up some stir fry with the leftovers we had. She dug out some frozen veggies and cut some extras up, and then I threw in the leftover steak and sausage, filling up the wok nearly to the top, once the rice and everything else was in it.

Eaddie really approved of dinner, and then Summer made some pumpkin bread for dessert. We made Eaddie play a game of UNO Flip with us, and then everyone filtered off to bed.

I just want you to feel you’re doing well. I hate for people to die embarrassed.

Buddy Thing

I didn’t let myself sleep in today, and got up to finish the leftover chicken tacos from weeks ago. Summer got the girls up and around, and eventually we left for a day in Conway. We went to Kohl’s first so Summer could look for some clothes. As we finished up, I wanted to run through the guy’s clearance, and that’s where I ran into Kyle and Terri. It was great getting to catch up with him for a bit, because it’s been ages since I’ve seen them since they moved to Conway.

As they had to run, the girls rushed me out so we could find some food. We landed on Golden Corral since we had over an hour to kill before the movie. I stuffed myself pretty silly and paid the price in various cramps during the show. Venom wasn’t even playing in 3D at all back home, so we settled for a smaller screen in Conway again.

The movie was relatively forgettable, much like the first. It was mostly a buddy film, with not much of a story, especially for an iconic villain. I was glad to see them fold the cinematic universes together at the end, though It was a bit jarring how they did it. The whole thing felt super forced, so hopefully the final result isn’t awful. I think we’re going to be going off the rails from here on out though.

When we made it back home, the girls got ready for bed. Eaddie and I stayed up for a couple episodes of House, where we got to a less procedural episode. I like it when they try different things like that in long-running shows.

Disappointment is anger for wimps.

Pessimist in Denial

I mistakenly told Summer not to let me sleep in too late today, so she got me out of bed way earlier than I was ready. I ached from the lack of sleep all day long. I had some leftovers for breakfast and eventually made it home to clean up. The grill cover I had to buy from a scalper off of eBay showed up, so I got the new grill moved outside. Eventually I got a shower and Summer showed up so we could go help Dad cover the pool.

When we got there, he said Uncle Rick tested positive for COVID, so he was trying to be careful while we were there. We covered the pool and then took off for Lowe’s.

We only needed to pick up the air filters I ordered for her, but Summer and I walked around the store for a while first. They had some nice bathroom vanity displays up, so we spent a while back there before making it through some more of the store. Then we picked up the filters on the way out.

We were both a little hungry by then, and she wanted seafood, so I took her down the road to Sam’s. We ordered the big fish, shrimp, and crab cakes platter I usually get, along with a smaller one with some chicken and shrimp to share. I wish I had just gotten the gumbo instead, because it made me feel like crap the rest of the night.

As we left, Summer expressed how she often visualizes worst-case scenarios in her mind. It finally dawned on me that she has really just been a pessimist all along and didn’t realize it. Every example I could come up with lead to her thinking of the most negative outcome. With that insight, I figure I’m an optimist in denial.

I wanted to clean up the house when we got back, but I barely picked at anything. It got hot outside with the sun shining directly into the garage, and I was already feeling sleepy. Summer went home and I tried to pick at a couple more things before following after her.

Autumn came home as we were watching Modern Family, and it was quickly off to bed for her. We didn’t stay up very late either. Hopefully I can make some use of tomorrow.

Spit Fire

Half Day

I slept pretty hard last night, and Summer let me sleep until about 11. We got up and had some leftovers for lunch. Then she got busy cleaning up around the house while I sat around like a spoiled brat. Autumn had gone to work, but she got Eaddie up around noon to help clean up a bit. When she eventually left for the gym, Eaddie and I watched some House.

Autumn got home from work first, and then Summer came home from the gym. We sat around a bit longer until Mom called us over for some phở. Autumn wanted to stay behind and finish up her chores, so the three of us went across town to eat.

Julie showed up after the rest of us had sat down to eat, so we finished up and moved out of the way one by one. We didn’t stick around for very long since Eaddie still had a bit of project work to do as well.

Summer and Autumn both went to bed pretty quickly. Eaddie took a shower late, and then watched an episode of House with me before we both went to bed, less than 12 hours after waking up.

Welcome to the wide world of grate lifters.

Around the House

Summer kept begging for some Ridgewood Brothers BBQ this morning, so I took a shower and we went downtown to pick up a bunch to bring back home to Eaddie. Autumn was at a Quiz Bowl event, so the three of us ate and then I went home to start some laundry while Summer went to the gym.

After a while, Summer dropped Eaddie off at the fair to hang out with some of her friends, and came to my house. She wasn’t there very long before Autumn called and wanted her to take them out to eat at Chili’s. There was some guise of wanting to talk, but I never heard anything more and assumed it was a con.

When they finished eating, I met Summer at Walmart for a walkabout. I didn’t find anything interesting, but Summer picked up a few things and we headed out. She went to get Eaddie while I took everything up to her house and waited for them to get back.

Autumn went to bed as soon as I got there. I made some leftover tacos, and then graded the newly written apology letters that Autumn left for me. She still had some errors, so I marked them up and left them on the table. When Summer got home with Eaddie, she brought out the ice cream cake we bought and sliced it up for us. No sooner had she put the rest of the cake back in the freezer than she screamed at me for taking her slice. Only I didn’t. She left it on the counter and blamed me for absolutely no reason at all. Now she owes an apology letter too.

We finished the night with a couple episodes of House, which put Summer in a funk about therapy, and made Eaddie sleepy enough to go on to bed. I was bored and restless, but couldn’t do much else. Eventually I made it to bed.

I need help. I want to get better.