Tag: food

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Snap into the New Year

We didn’t know it at first, but power had gone out for about half the town this morning. Summer discovered it when she tried to get us some Burger King for lunch and had to drive to the north side of town to get it. She said traffic was horrible – probably because the traffic lights were out. She made it back eventually though, and we ate while the girls watched Criminal Minds. Once that was over, they left to get cleaned up while I did the same here.

Autumn took her first chance to get out of dinner with my family and had Summer take her to her grandparents’ for the night, and Summer and Eaddie came over so we could try and do a little shopping before dinner. We went to Bath & Body Works first, but it looked like they never bothered coming in to work after the power was out this morning. Then it was to Harbor Freight, who looked to be open from the cars parked out front, but were actually closed early for New Year’s Eve. With those out of the way, we headed on to my parents’ house for dinner.

Summer finally gave Dad the camera she bought him last year, which he seemed to really like, and (surprise!) even had a related camera on display. Mom made caramelized pork, which the girls loved. Mom didn’t like it without the pork skin, but I liked the lack of extra fat in it. When we were done eating, Dad found a couple bulging cans in the outside pantry that we shot up with a couple pellet guns. I managed to break one of the pumps, but after repeated shots with a regular BB gun I was able to puncture the last can.

Back home, Eaddie never could come up with anything besides playing Super Mario Odyssey. Summer and I looked all over the house for my Exploding Kittens cards but couldn’t find them. We finally gave up, and watched The Fundamentals of Caring on Netflix. Then on a bathroom break, I got a mental image of where I placed the cards and went straight to them to retrieve them. Summer, jaw agape with amazement, was speechless. We finished the movie with a little over 10 minutes to spare, so I lined up the end of Infinity War so we could bring the new year in with a snap. I ended up being about 10 seconds too slow, but I didn’t have that kind of finite control to scrub through Netflix anyway. At least Eaddie thought it was perfect timing.

After that, I managed to squeeze an episode of Parks and Recreation into Summer. When we finished that, Eaddie asked to watch one more. Then it was off to bed.

Perfectly balanced.

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Mostly Wasteful

We got up and out of bed just in time for lunch today. I had a pretty bad headache again, but it worked itself out without too much trouble. Summer made a quick skillet pasta meal while Autumn baked a frozen pizza. Then she spent all afternoon cleaning up the house and making big piles of stuff to donate or discard. Most of the time I wish that came easier for me, but on the other hand I’m always happy to need something that I happened to save from long ago. It’s those small victories that really get me through life.

I made it home to do some more laundry and dishes, and play with the aquariums some more. My 55 gallon tank was overheated because the heater wouldn’t turn off, so I unplugged it for the rest of the day. The girls came over when they finished so we could go to my parents’ house for more leftovers. I was under the impression that they had more left to eat than they really did, but I kept digging out older and older food to eat. I finished up some burrito stuff, Eaddie had an eggroll salad, Autumn grudgingly ate more rice and ham, but liked the egg rolls. Summer wasn’t feeling great and just ate what was left when the other two couldn’t finish their bowls. I brought an aquarium worm along for Dad to look at under a microscope, but it didn’t look like much. Unfortunately we couldn’t find the other flat one that I was more interested in seeing.

The girls went to sit in the living room together and started watching YouTube with shared earbuds, which made it all the more confusing when they started bickering in the middle of a game of Super Mario Party when we got back to my house. We decided they were cranky and tired, so everyone went straight to sleep. I made it to bed by 2.

I’m just upset I forgot to change my hat.

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That’s What She Said

I took the morning off but decided to work in the afternoon. I ran by Burger King to get Summer some lunch on my way in. Nobody else was there, so I headed on to Oakland to pull some old cable out of the ceiling in a couple rooms. Zach let me know that central office was closing a couple hours early, so I really only had to work an hour and a half before getting off.

Brice eventually showed up back at the shop and we ended up chatting for a couple hours about how terrible and corrupt and stupid the place is. Then he said the school board overturned the limit and hired him on at step nine when everyone before has always limited to step five, and we both just kind of sighed again at the whole “you can only get ahead if you know somebody” after he had gone on about how he goes to church with the district CFO.

I eventually made it back home and waited for Summer to get off work so we could go to my parents’ for dinner. The girls were staying another night with their friends, so it was just the two of us joining my parents for egg roll salads. Then we ran to Walmart to hunt for a big stock pot that I could use to cook up some apple pie moonshine. They had a cheap looking one that was super dented up, but they were only willing to come off the price by a couple dollars, so I decided to go back and just get a different brand of pot that looked to be of slightly better quality.

Back home, I got everything mixed up and cooking while we watched the last two episodes of The Office. I don’t remember where I stopped watching before back when the show was actually running, but I definitely know that I didn’t finish, so it was nice to wrap the whole thing up. They did a really good job of recapping the show too, to show how everyone had grown and changed. Now it’s time to find something new to watch.

I wish there was a way to know you’re in the good old days before you’ve actually left them.

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Kids Are Just Bums You Can’t Berate

Somehow I managed to beat the kids out of bed today. Summer was working at the shop, so I was in charge of keeping them alive again. I figured letting them sleep was probably my best chance. When they finally did wake up, I warmed up some leftover brats for them. It was surprisingly fuss-less all day, but they were completely enthralled by Criminal Minds.

Summer called after a little while and had me take her some eggrolls I had just warmed. Neither of the girls cared enough to leave the house, so I just dropped off the food and returned right back home. I didn’t try very hard to get them to do anything, so I just kind of milled around cleaning up my own things while they binged their show. I tried making some stock from an old leftover chicken carcass, but added too much water and was left with the LaCroix equivalent of chicken soup. Eventually I got a shower so I could take them home to do the same, but was told they wanted to spend the night with a friend, so Summer came to get them instead.

After only a little attitude, we agreed to go to my parents’ house for dinner as we had previously arranged, and then Summer took the girls home to clean up. I followed behind to take them to their friend after they finished cleaning up, and then Summer met me back at my house after her workout. I got a little Into the Breach in before we watched a couple episodes of The Office. I cooked down my soup too, but I think this time I boiled off too much of the water and was left with a muddy looking broth. It tasted alright, but still seemed not worth the effort. I’ll have to try that again, only better somehow.

It’s a great play about crushed dreams.

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Merry Chrysler

Summer and I got up and woke the girls up for breakfast this morning. She made blueberry pancakes, and then the girls wanted to be artsy in their rooms while Summer played Torchlight II and I played Zelda. Eventually I had to head home to get ready for dinner at my parents’ house.

Once I was ready, I picked everyone up at Summer’s parents’ house since the girls would be staying the night there. We were the first to arrive at my parents’ house, followed by Bác Vân and Doug, then Julie. Dinner was really good, though I forgot to bring the leftover potato salad. We had plenty of everything else though, so we didn’t really miss it. Julie got on another rant about why America is fat after Bác Vân tried to tell me not to drink so much so fast.

After dinner, we played a little bit of Overcooked II with Julie before switching to Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes. As stressful as that was at moments, everyone seemed to find something they were good enough at that we could successfully defuse bombs with screen looking. Next up will have to be true handheld mode so nobody else can see the bomb.

We dropped the girls off, then Summer and I made it back to my house and watched a few episodes of The Office. She’s determined to finish the series over break, and then we’ll have to decide on what to watch next. I’ve got such a backlog that it very nearly stresses me out, but there are also other shows I’d like to rewatch with her. Decisions, decisions.

And a happy emu tear!

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Harry Peter

Jesica came over today with shrimp bread and twice baked potato casserole. I almost didn’t wake up early enough, but I managed to squeeze a shower in just in time. When she got here, the three of us went to Walmart to find something for us to cook. We landed on brats that I cooked on the George Foreman Grill, and we started the day on year three with the Prisoner of Azkaban. We made it all the way through to The Half-Blood Prince before Nick returned the girls. Eaddie got Autumn’s old phone, so she was on it for a while. Then Noah wanted to come over too, so I picked him up and we finished the movie.

Once it was over, Jesica gave up on the last two movies and headed out. I ended the night playing a couple episodes of Con Man until Summer was ready for bed. I had a bunch of coffee earlier, and kept eating the same stuff over and over again, so I felt a little weird and sleep deprived by the time everyone else went to bed. Tomorrow should be quite a bit different.

Binge all the things!

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Sup, Cuz?

My cousin Michelle and her family hosted a big multi-family Christmas gathering today in Bismarck. The girls came along with us, so I brought the Switch dock and we played Super Mario Party the whole way down.

It was a pretty good time, but there were so many people there that everyone pretty much just sat at their own table and ate. Most of the socialization seemed to happen among people that already saw each other pretty regularly. It wasn’t much of a surprise though since we hardly see any of those 3.7 million cousins on that side of the family. I think they’re all pretty close for the most part, but I know I have trouble keeping up with any of them.

Dad did a little magic show, and then Uncle Rick played some piano. We finished the night with Dirty Santa. Dad brought a couple gifts, so we put Autumn and Eaddie into the ring of 37 people. Eaddie didn’t really want the sign she stole from Autumn, so they decided to give it to someone else that commented about it.

The trip home was a little more Mario Party, and then Eaddie played Mario Odyssey the rest of the way. Summer got a little case of the Christmas blues, but I think we turned it around pretty well with some house cleaning and getting ready for Jesica to come over tomorrow. The girls went to spend the night with their father for Christmas, but they’ll be back tomorrow night. I hear there’ll be cookies.

HEY! It’s another Christmas song!

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Save it for the Blu-ray

I delivered one more frog at Oakland this morning, then stopped by the shop for just a little bit to see if anything was happening. It was pretty quiet, so I went to Crawford to take a look at something Allen was having trouble fixing. It didn’t take me long to realize we were on the completely wrong path, and I left there to go to the junior high and work on it.

The junior high had their Christmas lunch potluck today, and I stuffed myself. There was just so much food. I couldn’t really even eat dinner after all of that. Everyone was pretty much just wandering around aimlessly because most of the kids were gone from having finished their tests. I chatted with Dustin and Haley for a little while, but then school let out an hour early and quickly became a ghost town.

I stopped by the shop again, but everyone was just sitting there waiting to be told to go home. We never really got anything official from central office, but Ben let us go just a few minutes early. Gary was there helping Zach look at something though, so I ended up hanging out until the usual quitting time anyway.

Summer and the kids were getting ready to go to Conway, so I met them at my house right after I left. The kids were hungry when we got there, so we took them to Red Robin for some burgers. Summer and I still weren’t hungry, so we just shared a tower of onion rings. Afterward we went by Sam’s to walk it off, and then made a quick run through Academy to look for paintball canisters, and then to PetCo to see if they had anything cool.

Finally at the theater, I collected my five comped tickets at the box office, loaded up on popcorn, and made our way to the XD auditorium for Aquaman. I wish they would re-cushion that front row of seats, because they’re starting to get pretty rough, and they lean back too easily. Then the theater filled up and we had a clapper/knee-slapper on the left and some guy that thought he was at a sporting event behind us. Neither would shut the hell up. Honestly I would have listened to the whole Pitbull song if these guys would have shut up. It was so annoying. Theaters need ushers again. I’m just glad I didn’t care so much about the movie, because otherwise I would have raged at the distractions.

Seriously dude, you’re going to the special hell.

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The Great Wind Down of 2018

I had yet another frog to take to Oakland this morning. I think they’re up to six now, and they’re out of food. Hopefully PetSmart gets some more tiny ones tomorrow. The girls were hungry too after dealing with a bunch of dumb parents, so I ran to Sonic to get them some breakfast before heading to the junior high.

I tried to keep busy with a few different things, but you could tell everyone was really winding down. It was a real zoo trying to leave for lunch because of all the kids leaving early after testing. I met Dale, Zach, and Brice at Wendy’s, then just went back to the junior high to finish the day.

After a quick check on all the animals at home, I headed to Summer’s for dinner. Grilled pork chops, mashed potatoes, peas, and a corn casserole that made a colorful plate worthy of a photo that I forgot to take. When we finished, the kids wanted to play Super Mario Party until I headed home for the night.

Why do we still let Pitbull do anything at all?

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World War Won

I got a fair bit done at work today to close out some new work orders. I need to wrap up some that I’ve had open all year though, so I’m debating working some over break to clean them out.

Allen, Dale, Zach, Brice, and I went to Arby’s for lunch, and then I left work about 40 minutes early so Dad and I could go to Little Rock for dinner and a movie.

Dad picked me up and we went to Copeland’s for dinner. It was slow and the service was pretty lacking, especially considering how few people were in there when we first arrived. It filled up pretty quickly after we got there, but we still just barely got out with enough time to get to the theater. We went to the Cinemark to see They Shall Not Grow Old, a WWI documentary from Peter Jackson made by using 100-year-old footage that has been super-restored to tell the story of a British soldier in the trenches. It was pretty breathtaking to see it go from the raw original footage to the fully remastered version. It’s amazing how much quality you can still pull from old film that you could never pull from newer digitally-shot movies. I wish there was more about the aviation during the war, but that wasn’t the point of the story and it made sense to focus on the trenches to complete the story. It really was an amazing way to modernize and bring the war back to life and learn about what happened a century ago.

Wait, did we just time travel?