Tag: food

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Are You In, or Are You Out?

I took the Model Y to work today so Summer could keep the Model 3 in town without burning the battery before our evening trip to Fayetteville. It was frustrating how junky her car is on the inside, but I’ve just had to turn a blind eye to it. It was quiet at the office, so I spent all day fighting the firewall and setting up more restrictive policies for devices in the plant.

I forgot my cheese sandwich, so I had my banana alone for breakfast. My iron left my stomach a bit unsettled all day, but we persevered. I skipped a proper lunch, but picked up a couple order of mozzarella sticks from Sonic and then came back to the office.

I basically completed what I had set out to do, which was get the new maintenance computer ready for deployment. We left close to 3:30 and raced home to get ready for the Coheed and Cambria concert. I swapped cars with Summer at Superfast, then headed home to change. That was when I learned that Eaddie had taken my earplugs some time ago, and left them in her old flute case that was on loan to Jenny. She said I gave them to her for marching season, but that had to be a lie because I had already given her a completely different set of her own. I tried to get her to retrieve them, but she got an attitude to the point that I nearly left her at home.

We dropped Muad’Dib off with Dad for the hour until Summer got off work, and then I chauffeured Eaddie and Eli to Fayetteville. Eaddie started fussing as we came up to Ozark and wanted food. I told her I wouldn’t stop, but then I did anyway. We ate some food at the picnic table outside, then continued to the Ozark Music Hall. I was pretty frustrated that all of the EV spots were taken by gas vehicles, and would have keyed them if my Tesla key wasn’t a plastic card.

The line stretched down the sidewalk, but we made it inside without any trouble. We had plenty of time before the music started, but of course the mob was already at the center of the floor and on up to the stage. We found a winding merch line and I picked up a shirt. The guy was too busy trying to serve the next person, so he didn’t hear me ask for a bag of coffee beans they had, but they were overpriced anyway.

The concert started with an Arkansas band called Little Towns, which were very good, but didn’t really speak to me in that special kind of way. I would have considered their merch if it didn’t have a big razorback on it. They played quite a few songs, and then the set change took a while, but Coheed eventually came out and rocked. It was a good show, but I would have liked to get there as early as I had planned before Eaddie dragged behind.

As they played their last song, Welcome Home, Claudio came out with a double-necked guitar that was tuned incorrectly. They had to stop, adjust, and then restart, but did so with a laugh. It was a good time. Afterward we headed home, having to stop in Ozark to charge again since we couldn’t during the concert. We picked up a ton of food again because the lady said it was all half-off. We shared a couple sandwiches and a bunch of other fried snacks before making it the rest of the way home for bed.

Bye bye, beautiful. Don’t bother to write.

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No Buds

I didn’t sleep great again, but I managed to get up and out to check on my parents before going to work. Dad was out of his chair before Mom was, and sounded much better. We ended up getting to work just a little later than usual. I chatted up front for a little bit, then headed upstairs to find a project.

Summer told me last night that she was taken out of the regional meetings, so she wouldn’t be going to Little Rock any more. That meant she wasn’t meeting me for lunch, so I went to McDonald’s for a $2 order of McNuggets, and then Arby’s for a gyro. We took it back to work to eat, and I started on the nuggets in the parking lot while Muad’Dib wandered about. The wind had been going, but about halfway through it wanted to carry my food off, so we went inside to finish.

The afternoon carried on a bit as I caught up on the Google I/O summit. Quitting time eventually showed up and we headed home, driving with my meats because it was raining too much for autopilot to do it quickly. Summer was playing Torchlight, but I asked if she wanted to check on my parents with me. She got up and we made it over there to talk briefly. Mom got up to warm up some dinner for them, so we left. Terry walked up just as we were leaving, so I pointed him to go on in.

Just as we got to the house, I realized I forgot my eyeglasses at my parents’ house, so I dropped Summer and Muad’Dib off and went back. Terry was just leaving and commented on my car, so I talked him into a joyride. Then I had to find dinner because Summer didn’t want to eat like we had planned. I tried Gary and Grant, but neither answered. I circled around a bit, but still ended up at our planned Cici’s for a $5.99 salad. The salad was great, and I felt like I didn’t stuff myself.

I made it back to the house and took Muad’Dib on an acoustic walk before coming in for the night. I thought to look for my earbuds for our concert the next day, and couldn’t find them anywhere. I’m pretty disciplined about putting things like that in their home, so it was frustrating that they seemed to have disappeared. Even Summer eventually got out of bed to help look, but we couldn’t find them anywhere. I just went to bed, disappointed again.

How did I get here?

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Browntown and Down

I managed to wake up feeling better this morning, though I didn’t sleep very late. I have no idea what caused my sudden confusion last night. I suppose I had been low on sleep, and I was stuck looking at confusing file paths trying to recover my lost tabs sessions, but I’ve never been so immediately disoriented like that before.

Summer went to the gym while I got around. I took my iron pill again, which may have upset my stomach a bit. Once Summer made it back and we got all showered up, we went to Brown’s to use a couple coupons for lunch. Muad’Dib had to wait in the car since Eaddie left for rehearsal. The restaurant lobby was absolutely packed, but evidently it was just one large party, because they were able to seat us in a fair amount of time once all the others were taken to the back room. We also saw Steven while we were waiting. I guess he just walked over from his food truck to use the restroom. We should really go visit him again.

After we ate, I dropped Summer off at work for a closing shift. Then Muad’Dib and I found Eaddie at home, ready to do some pressure washing. She brought out all the chairs from the back porch while I set up the pressure washer in the driveway. I was full and it was super hot, so I burned out quickly just moving around. She did a great job of cleaning the chairs though, and I even got to wash my car and try some new soap and a new foam cannon. Once everything was cleaned up, I covered them on the back porch so they’ll be clean the next time we want to go out for an impromptu porch sitting.

Summer finished up around six, so Muad’Dib and I went to pick her up. Then I spent way too long trying to clean up the battery in the Murano so we could get it charged. It has always kind of eaten batteries, and both terminals were completely caked in corrosion. I had to clean off the toolbox to get to my sockets, but I couldn’t get the positive terminal off at all because the bolt was stripped or something. I vaguely remembered having trouble in the past, so it could probably just use a new terminal, or at least a new nut and bolt to tighten it.

I came in to take a cool shower for the night, and the girls settled in quickly. I was up later than I really wanted, and didn’t feel great, but it could have been much worse.

Sleep more!

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Unseasonably Stressed

I tried to relax coming in to work, but we had a staff meeting first thing in the morning. That went okay, and then I brought my stuff downstairs to work with Tammy for a bit. I didn’t feel bad up to that point, but then I had an anxiety attack while I was kneeling next to her at her desk. I was able to quickly log it in my spreadsheet, but I asked later and she said she didn’t notice anything strange about my breathing or anything.

I was a little foggy for a bit after that. I wasn’t super hungry at lunch time, so I grabbed the Soylent I didn’t drink in the morning and carried it outside for a walk to see if I could stir up an appetite. We did a short lap before I decided to grab some Subway, and brought it back to the office to eat.

I managed to get the price sheet updated in HubSpot, though it took me a couple tries because it didn’t properly check all of my import rows. Things got quiet in the afternoon and we wrapped up helping downstairs for a bit before heading home.

As we got close to town, I decided to stop by AT&T to give Kevin a gift I had for him. I chatted with him, which jogged my memory about having anxiety issues due to anemia. I decided to start taking iron again before my next checkup at the clinic, to see if that would help. After he left, I talked to Candice for a little bit before heading home. We just barely beat Summer to the house, and I told her that talking about red meat had me craving a steak, but she wasn’t very hungry.

We ended up going to Ridgeewood Brothers so Muad’Dib could sit outside with us. It was a nice evening for it, and I wish I had felt better, but I didn’t feel awful. We ate, and of course Muad’Dib got some “scraps.” Then I took him for a short run when we got back home.

It was a rush to get in bed after that. With any luck, it’s the lack of sleep and iron getting me down, but something’s got to change. I don’t feel right.

Outside, in the distance, a wildcat did growl.

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Family Assembled

We slept in a while today after a long day yesterday. Summer got up, and I followed to make breakfast croissants. Then Eaddie got up and they spent the day together cleaning up the porch and assembling planters I had gotten from Amazon Vine. We originally had plans to have Mother’s Day with Eli’s family, but several of them couldn’t come down, so they wanted to try for another time.

The day went by pretty quickly, but it felt good to get so much done. There’s more to clean up, but we have at least a little more space now than before. We wanted to do something with my mom, but they didn’t want to go out to dinner with everyone else in town, so Summer and I went to Popeye’s to pick up some chicken.

Eaddie went to visit her grandparents while we waited in the longest line I’d ever seen at that restaurant. The drive-through was wrapped around the building and there was another line inside, but they did a fantastic job of working through all the orders.

We made it to my parents’ house, and then Julie responded that they had been napping all day, but they’d end up coming to visit. Eaddie showed up late as well, so we didn’t wait for her to eat. It was a good time, and then Eaddie took Summer home. I followed a little later and let Muad’Dib run off some energy before driving him the last couple blocks.

We ended the evening watching some of the Kevin Hart roast on Netflix, but we didn’t start early enough to finish it. I was proud of Summer for staying up as late as she did, but we had to get sleep before work.

Motherhood takes many forms.

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Sad Grad

Summer got up early for Run Like Yell in Dardanelle. I originally said I would go, but she insisted that I didn’t have to, and I didn’t sleep great. Of course I couldn’t really sleep after she left, so I got up and made myself a croissant sandwich. I burned the bread and set off the alarms, and then Eaddie got up and left to play at graduation. After that, I repotted a plant and watered the rest. Summer showered, then I followed suit before we left to meet the girls at Buffalo Wild Wings.

Muad’Dib did reasonably well there, and we stuffed ourselves with junk food again. Autumn fussed about not being able to eat much, and then about her relationship, so the conversation started going in circles a bit. I tried not to be too involved, but it really served as a reminder of the past drama we always had to endure. Eaddie showed up late after rehearsal, ate a bit, and then I think she left with Autumn while Summer and I took Muad’Dib to stay with my parents.

It didn’t take Muad’Dib long to break out of the back yard, and then Summer kept calling at him to go back, which of course drew him to jump on my car. I yelled about it, so she got quite for a while. We made it to graduation nearly an hour early and found seats in the second row. It wasn’t terribly long after everything finally started that I got an alert that Muad’Dib had left his safe zone.

I panicked and got up to call Dad, who didn’t answer. Mom answered, but didn’t have a clue where he was. I couldn’t tell if Dad had taken him out for a walk or if he had left to look for him. I also couldn’t send a screenshot of the GPS location because my phone got hot and started acting jittery. I got most of the way back to the car when the location finally updated to show Muad’Dib back near my parents’ house, but Dad still wasn’t answering. I waited a while and eventually felt good enough to go back inside.

We watched Autumn walk, and Summer kept yelling at other people she recognized. I kept feeling like she needed to go back to education if she wanted to feel happy about that kind of stuff again, but we’ve also gotten used to bigger paychecks.

They finally wrapped things up and we met the girls outside in the sun. I got pretty warm and was annoyed that we kept having to wander around looking for kids that were doing their own family things, and hadn’t asked to meet anywhere in particular. We got some pictures, but Summer wanted specific group shots. I ended up sitting in the car for some of that. When the girls all finally caught up with one another, she called me to drive over to them. Then Autumn started fussing about Adam some more. I said my peace and then wandered off to chase my car, which was driving around on “Smart” Summon in an annoying pattern without crossing parking lines.

I finally got Summer into the car, and the kids allegedly left to go meet up with Noah. I dropped Summer off at home so she could rest before going to a team meeting at work, and then took the Onewheel to retrieve Muad’Dib. We sat inside for a little while, then Mom came out to look at her plants. We helped a very little bit before riding back home. Summer called just as we got there because Autumn wanted to tell me I helped motivate her to break up with Adam. I just told her to keep pushing herself to be better and do the right thing.

Summer eventually made it home and we watched a YouTube video about digging for supercritical geothermal. Then she went to bed and I followed for just a little bit before going off to do my own thing. I was up later than I wanted to be, and had an anxiety attack at one point while playing on my phone. Eaddie eventually made it home near midnight, and then I went to bed as well.

Late night drops!

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Let Off Some Steam

Autopilot was a frustration to and from work today, so I spent both drives disengaging repeatedly so I could record feedback. I figure it looks bad for them to have interrupted or shorter drives, even if I’m one person in the 10 billion self-driving miles driven.

I was surprisingly pretty busy today just helping others, so it felt good to be out of the office a bit. It was a nice day out too, so Muad’Dib and I went to Taco Bell. I ended up not eating all of my food, so I took my burrito for later and finished up the afternoon. Janice left a little early, so it was quiet upstairs.

Eaddie arrived at home just as I did, but then left. Johnny called and I talked to him for a little while. Then Summer showed up and we ate some leftovers. I took Muad’Dib for a late run, and then I got to play with my new Steam Controller for a bit as she went to bed.

A storm blew through pretty quickly with some loud thunder, but it didn’t last. Eaddie came home late and gave me the news that Whattaburger closed for good tonight with little notice. I felt like it went downhill when all the knick knacks disappeared and were replaced with generic pictures of food. It would have been nice to see that kind of stuff make a comeback.

Simpler times had lower standards.

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Apps on Apps

The latest version of Autopilot hasn’t been maintaining speed, which has made my rides a little more annoying. We got in today with an acceptance that modern Outlook simply could not support collaborative contacts. It was difficult to get much traction anywhere else, which made the day drag on a bit. It was cool outside around lunch time, so I decided to let Muad’Dib sit in the car while I got some Wendy’s.

Eaddie and I had been trying to come up with a plan for Mother’s Day, and since she was done with school, I wanted to at least take them to dinner somewhere with Muad’Dib. Summer would actually be home early, so we had a plan.

I left work and actually passed Eaddie on the way home. We arrived together and found Summer just out of the shower, and then we all loaded up to go to Buffalo Wild Wings. They had endless appetizers which, to my surprise, you could mix and match for one price. We went through a few rounds of those and stuffed ourselves on chicken. It was probably the best experience we’ve ever had at Buffalo Wild Wings, ever. Muad’Dib did great, and got some snacks from a table of Eaddie’s friends next to us.

I took Muad’Dib for a chilly run when we got back to the house. We briefly saw my parents, and then Eaddie was gone when we made it back to the house. Summer was in bed, so I wound down quickly for some good sleep to round out the week.

Old school; new school; no school!

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Scanned if You Do; Scanned if You Don’t

I felt mildly rumbly in the tumbly for much of the day, but it wasn’t bad. I brought along another griddle cake sandwich for lunch, which got cold sitting on the table while I chatted with the ladies downstairs for a bit. I ended up down there a lot to resolve some scanning woes, but also to discuss redundancies in processes and other meaningless paperwork nonsense.

What wasn’t spent fighting scanners was spent fighting an utter lack of support from Microsoft for collaborative address booking. Somewhere in the middle of all of that, we found some time between a bit of rain to go to Sonic for a small, quick lunch. I picked up some fries from McDonald’s on the way back because it was a bit too small for me, but Muad’Dib got a handful of those too.

The afternoon was relatively short, and then we made it home after fighting autopilot and its newly developed habit of dropping speed. Summer was making a stuffed spaghetti squash and chicken dinner for us, which was relatively delicious. She had been in her feelings all day, and it never got much better. I ended up having to leave for a run with Muad’Dib after she started fussing about work some more.

Muad’Dib ran exceptionally well because it got quite chilly out. We made it to my parents’ house pretty quickly, but he slowed down a bit just before that. We didn’t visit long before making it home where we found Summer winding down for bed. I got cleaned up and did the same.

S’more o’ that!

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May the Fifth Be With You

I had an anxiety attack just as I was getting my backpack out of the car this morning, which makes two days in a row. I haven’t been tracking them for very long, but hopefully it helps the next time I go to the doctor. We got upstairs and things were pretty quiet. I spent all day fighting Microsoft documentation and trying to figure out a good way to create a collaborative address book for certain staff members. Outside of that, Charles had trouble with the network in the maintenance shop, so I had to cycle power to those switches in order so they would come back up without trying to mesh with one another.

We met Summer at Ortega’s, and the board didn’t list their usual all-you-can-eat. Instead, they had a double order of fajitas with a free T-shirt for not much more than we would have spent anyway. We shared that and had leftovers to go. Service was pretty good today too, but I also wasn’t depending on refills either.

The afternoon was more frustration with Microsoft until quitting time. Evidently Microsoft just doesn’t have a good method to collaborate on contacts without a bunch of extra effort, depending on which of the six versions of Outlook you’re using. Summer took Muad’Dib home with her at lunch, so it was quiet and lonely for the last part of the day since Janice left early.

Summer was working and watching TV when I got home. I cleaned up and eventually took Muad’Dib for a run. He did really great for part of it, but got slow about halfway through. I ended up eating spring rolls when we got to my parents’ house, and then tried to wind down quickly back at the house.

~mocha chocolata ya ya~