Tag: family

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Not Friday

I wanted to sleep in so much this morning, but one of the cats came up and bit me on the forehead. The cool weather all night with the windows open had me at an absolutely perfect level of cozy, but I had to get up and face the day. Autumn got up and made bacon and pancakes for breakfast, but we didn’t have any syrup, so they sent me to Dollar General for that, Nutella, and ice cream for later. I used the app to check out, but the tablet at the front was turned off for some reason. Luckily I found the power button and got it booted up, and was able to check out without any trouble.

Breakfast was great, and then I got into some work for a while. I took some game breaks either with Animal Crossing or Grid on Stadia. Since Google was giving away two month trials of Stadia, I figured I could hop back on and try it again now that there are more games available, and I was pretty pleased with Grid. I wasn’t any good at it, but it looked and played well.

Eventually I had to get the girls out of their rooms to do something, so Autumn started on some laundry and cleaning the house while Eaddie went outside to mow the front lawn. They get along way better when they’re separated and productive, but Eaddie definitely takes the lion’s share of the work without too much fuss. We’ll have to watch for that though, and still need to reign in their screen time.

When Summer got home, we had some leftovers while the girls went outside and had dinner with their father. Then we packed up and headed to my house for the evening since I didn’t get to go during the day. I played a game of Yahtzee with Autumn, then she went to sleep watching Alice in Wonderland. Eaddie and I ended the evening with a pretty good mid-season episode of Luke Cage.

Calloo-callay, no work today. We’re cabbages and kings!

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Hunter, Gatherer

I woke up a bit earlier this morning and did a bit of work while the girls were in bed. Eventually I made them get up and start hunting for the TV remote. It started out okay, but they slowly got snippy with each other and it all kind of fell apart.

Autumn had therapy, so I dropped her off before going to Walgreens for a drug refill. I was a little surprised they hadn’t gone completely touchless there, and made me type my phone number into the card reader. At least it was a quick in-and-out. I stopped by to see Summer on my way out, then got gas, and headed home for a quick shower before going back to pick up Autumn.

I made a quick stop at Casey’s for a freebie, got Autumn, and we headed back to their house for the evening. I told the girls they couldn’t eat until they found the remote, and for a moment they actually got their heads together and retraced their day. Autumn found the remote stuck way down in the recliner, and peace was restored.

We all picked at leftovers, then played a couple games of Yahtzee where we learned that Summer had all of the statistics preloaded in her brain. Then Eaddie and I snuggled up for a surprisingly long Luke Cage marathon.

Wha yuh deh pon?

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Quarantine and Conquer

My lip was still pretty swollen when I got up this morning, and it took most of the day for it to go back to normal. The refried beans I made the night before were really soupy, so I left the Instant Pot on all night to steam off. I kept having to get up and blend them some more, but eventually they thickened up. I did what I could for work while the girls lounged around for the first part of the afternoon. When they did get up, I had Autumn clean up inside while Eaddie mowed the back yard.

Summer had chili going in the slow cooker, so we had that for dinner when she got home from work a little early. Then I had Autumn drive me home so I could take care of a few things and give her some time away from everyone else. She watched the second part of The Deathly Hallows while I showered, and then we headed back up to her house in a torrential downpour.

Summer was already in bed when we got here, and Eaddie wanted to watch Luke Cage, but I was too aggravated by the loss of their TV remote, and subsequently the mess I found in and around the furniture while trying to find it. They’ll just have to spend some time really cleaning tomorrow.

With everyone else in bed, Eaddie stayed up with me and started chatting the way we sometimes do, about everything from the mess I made of the living room, to those Magic Eye pictures they used to sell at the mall.

Call me punctilious, but I refuse to live with someone that can permanently lose a television remote.

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Stiff Upper Lip

I got up this morning after a pretty decent night’s sleep and began another week of working from home. There wasn’t a whole lot going on, but we’re used to that by now. I took a break when Travis invited me to his Animal Crossing island, and he taught me how to bury fruit in holes to grow new trees.

Arby’s had another $1 special on roast beef sandwiches, so I left for lunch, took a shower, and took Summer some lunch. Then I made my way back to the girls so they could eat before I took Autumn to her physical therapy. While she was there, I went back home to clean up a bit more, then loaded up some of Dad’s tools from our bathroom demolition.

Autumn didn’t want to get out of the car, so I went up to return the tools and visit with my parents for just a little bit. Then we went back home to start dinner. I wanted to make refried beans and carnitas, but I had already run out of time as it was. The carnitas recipe was pretty simple, but I had Autumn help with some of the prep work.

At the end of the day, the food was really good, especially when lifted with some specialty Great Value salsa we found yesterday. Somewhere along the course of the day I got into something that had the middle of my upper lip swollen. It got worse as the evening progressed, and after a near-panic attack for seemingly no reason, I laid down in bed until everyone went to sleep.

I had started the beans after the carnitas were done, so I had to get out of bed to try and finish those. I blended them too early though, and ended up with more of a bean soup than anything else. I don’t know what was so different from last time, but I don’t recall having any liquid left after cooking. Hopefully leaving the thing on overnight won’t end horribly.

Relax. It’s fine, probably.

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Ride Along

Summer had to stop by the shop this morning, so she picked up some Wendy’s breakfast for us on the way home. Then she took Autumn to pick up the car her parents were planning to give her so she could practice at the high school. The brakes were so bad that they ended up leaving it, and she ended up practicing in Summer’s car anyway.

Eaddie rode her bicycle out to meet them, and I followed along on the Grom so Summer could get some time on it. I rode around the lot for a while, practicing some little wheelies while Eaddie rode down the trail she had found before. I eventually stopped to warm up in the sun on the arbor bench for a little while until Summer was ready for some time on the bike.

Autumn did a pretty good job of driving me around, and I tried to have her focus on parking and spatial awareness. She was pretty bored by the time I got to her, so we weren’t there much longer before we headed back to my house.

We were pretty hungry by that time, so Summer and I rode across town to try and pick up some BBQ from the Ridgewood Brothers. Grant said they had just sold out though, so we sulked back toward home. We stopped by the Neighborhood Market briefly to pick up some groceries first, and then Summer took the girls home to clean up.

When they got back, Nick wanted to come by and eat with the girls, so we all sat out in the backyard together where we could maintain a decent space. He brought us all an assortment of food and stayed to chat for a little while since he hadn’t really seen the girls since the quarantine started.

After he left, the girls came inside and wanted to play Jackbox games. I had just picked up the fifth collection in the series, so we played a round of each of the games in the pack before settling in for bed. Eaddie and I outlasted everyone else as usual, finishing up the second season of Jessica Jones before bed.

Even the littlest bikes can buck the unsuspecting rider.

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Speaker Phone

I made it through another week at the office. Like the rest of the week, I stayed pretty busy all day and felt pretty good with what I had accomplished. I even successfully helped a couple people over the phone while Ben was on a conference call, including the superintendent. He has no idea who I am.

Josh drove me to Morelos to pick up lunch for the three of us. When I called to place the order, the couple guys I talked to seemed really confused. Our orders seemed a bit off, and we didn’t even get half of an acceptable amount of chips for how much food we ordered. Regardless of any of that, my nachos filled a void inside of me that I didn’t even know I had.

The afternoon went by quickly as usual, and we even stayed a little late trying to sort a voicemail issue for the music department. By the end of it all, I at least made it functional. It was past quitting time anyway.

I spent a little while at home relaxing to some Overwatch before digging into my desk. The center channel speaker I ordered had arrived, and I wanted to hook it up on top of my desk between the bookshelf speakers.

The girls eventually came over, and Autumn went with me to get some Burger King for dinner. After we ate, I realized they forgot the jalapeño cheddar bites, and I had to go back to get them. At least they threw a small order of fries in the bag too, to make up for it.

The girls finished Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, which to me seemed like a story about a single father of two’s slow descent into madness. I made some speaker wire and got my computer sound upgraded a bit. Summer went to bed, and Eaddie sat reading her book until I finished what I was doing, and then we ended the evening with a couple episodes of Jessica Jones.

Some people breed big cats. Me? I think I’ll try mosquitos.

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Fish and Dogs

Apparently I sat on my key fob last night and I woke up with my car windows halfway down in the rain. I guess I was just lucky that it didn’t rain any harder than it did.

Ben took the day off, so Greg and I were left with Melinda to man the phones. We both had work orders to take care of, so we kept at least a little bit busy all day. Nobody was having lunch there today, so I ended up just hanging out at the shop with a Soylent. The afternoon went by pretty quickly too.

After work, I spent a little time at home getting some bills together and called to see if I really did owe anything from my colonoscopy in November. I didn’t get in touch with anyone, but I left a message and went on about my day. I got a little Overwatch in, and then headed up to Travis’s to pick up an aquarium.

He had evidently neglected it pretty badly and just wanted to get rid of the whole thing, so he handed a bucket of fish and the tank to me through the window. The bristlenose catfish had its barbs stuck in the net, so it took me a little bit to get it out, but we got everyone loaded up and ready to go. I got the catfish and three tetra GloFish, and headed to Summer’s.

Autumn decided she wanted the tank, so I had her do some furniture swapping to get a 20 gallon tank-worthy stand into her room. I cleaned the new tank out the best I could with the water pressure I had, and we got it moved into her room. In the middle of that, Summer came home and I ran to Sonic with Autumn to get 50 cent corn dogs for dinner.

When we finally finished cleaning up the filter and setting up the tank, I dropped the fish in a little prematurely since we didn’t really have anywhere else for them to go. Summer crashed, and Eaddie and I watched an episode of Jessica Jones before bed. I checked in on the fish and one of them didn’t look so great, so we may already be down one by tomorrow. I’m almost sure of it.

Genetically modified meat on a stick.

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9,000 Miles

It was back to the office today, this time with Ben and Greg. I kind of feel bad that Ben hasn’t really taken any time at home, but maybe he likes to get out of the house away from the kids to get things done. It was a quiet day except for a conference call with the Impero chaps. They all really do have the best accents, because they’re 100% understandable, but they just sound like a more formal version of ourselves. The software demo went well, and they can fill the gaps we’ve had for the past three years, but it’s going to cost us.

Greg and I ran to Wendy’s for a quick lunch, and then the afternoon was pretty relaxed. I actually ended up leaving before the other two just because I didn’t really have anything going on.

I ran by Staples to pick up a little table I ordered, and then went to get Autumn for physical therapy. I had enough time to put the table together before dropping her off, then I ran home to clean up a bit and check on the new aquarium organisms. The guppies seemed to be doing great, but were hungry enough to swarm the food I dropped in. The red root floaters seem to be struggling a bit, but it’s too early to tell really.

When Autumn was done, I loaded up the trolling motor and went to get her, and then we stopped by my parents’ to see them for a minute. Dad and I unboxed the motor to test fitment on the boat, and then we headed back to Summer’s to wait for her to get off.

Once she got home from work, I got to making salads out of leftovers. When everyone went on to do their own things, I pulled Autumn’s failed pizza dough out of the fridge, and tried to make cinnamon bread. It wasn’t awful, but it rose quite a bit more than I expected. While it baked, I cut up the pineapple we bought a while back.

And just like that, I found a stopping point.

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The Villa My Dreams

I really didn’t want to get out of bed today, and when I finally did, I got up with some pretty bad neck pain. It worked itself out pretty quickly though as I got to work. The girls got up and ate, and I set them up with the pressure washer again.

Autumn had physical therapy, so I took her in and then went home to shower. When I picked her up, we decided we would be staying at my house for real tonight, and we’d get Taco Villa for dinner. We went to get Eaddie and packed up a few things to take to my house, and met Summer there when she got off of work.

It took me a little while to get my call into Taco Villa, but when I finally did, the girl said it would only be about five or ten minutes, so I headed out. They had the lobby wide open with a posted limit of six customers at a time. I almost didn’t recognize Chelsea in the back corner waiting for her food. I think I’d seen her maybe twice since graduation. After just a little wait, I boxed up my food and headed home.

The girls kept arguing about what to watch, so I put on an episode of New Girl while we ate. They had never had Taco Villa before, and it seemed to really fill them up. Reviews were about like I expected them to be. It’s not amazing. It’s pretty good. Sometimes you just get a craving.

After we ate, I tried putting on Brightburn, but couldn’t get it to play well. I bounced between a few things and settled on Batman v Superman just in time for everyone to feel sleepy. I put Summer to bed, and Eaddie and I watched an episode of Jessica Jones before I started feeling pretty sleepy and called it a night.

Wrinkles in time, indeed.

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Go Pro or Go Home

Today was undoubtedly the most productive day of the week. I woke up to a little Animal Crossing before taking Autumn on a ride-along to get $1 roast beef sandwiches from Arby’s. We stopped by to feed Summer at work, then went back to their house to eat with Eaddie.

When we finished eating, I set the girls up with the pressure washer out back and had them clean the side of the house and the deck. They didn’t stay outside very long the first time, and Autumn came in complaining about not feeling well. She immediately laid down on the couch and started watching Harry Potter while Eaddie complained that she didn’t want to be outside alone. I gave them a few minutes inside, then made them go back out for over an hour before I’d let them back in. They got a lot more done that time, and the house looked so much better.

I eventually had to run home to clean up, then stopped by Walmart to fill some gaps for dinner. Autumn wanted to try making a copycat Chick-fil-A nuggets recipe along with some homemade macaroni and cheese. Summer got back from work shortly after I got there, and Autumn got to work on dinner. I helped a very minimal amount while Summer and Eaddie went on a run. We ended up deep frying the chicken instead of frying it in a pan, and they came out really great. Everyone was really impressed with dinner, and baking the mac and cheese with some extra cheddar broiled on top was the right decision for everyone’s lives.

Afterward, I finished WALL-E with Autumn, then started an episode of Jessica Jones with Eaddie. We quit after just one episode because we were both really tired, but then she started chatting away, so I sat and talked with her for quite a while.

Earlier in the evening, Julie started asking for my opinion on a waterproof case for her phone. I suggested a purpose-built camera instead, arguing for hours that spending more on camera was a better value than spending less to protect a phone that also has a camera on it. In reality, the resulting photos or videos will probably be seen half a dozen times before they’re forgotten in the great digital cloud vault. Such is the nature of our instantly reminiscent age. She even ended up calling me after she got tired of texting, but in the end I won because I am so smart.

So, so smart.