Tag: food

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SoundCloud

I didn’t sleep long. Muad’Dib was on my arm most of the night, so I awoke in some discomfort, but it was imperative that my boy be comfortable. We eventually got around and I cooked bacon, sausage, eggs, and RO*TEL for the girls. Summer had to get more RO*TEL from the store, but we had a good, late breakfast.

Summer took Eaddie to the bank and then went to the gym. I wrote a bunch more reviews. Before we knew it, it was time to get ready for Brass in the Clouds on Nebo. Eaddie brought Jenny over and I went with Muad’Dib to pick up Dad. The three of us met the girls at Bocadillos where we were met by another one of Eaddie’s friends.

We had some ice cream, and then Dad and I stopped to pick up some Taco Bell for the girls and met them on the mountain. There were cars everywhere up there, but Muad’Dib and I had a chance to ride the Onewheel down the road a bit before we settled in with everyone else.

The band seemed not well rehearsed for all their mistakes, but it was a beautiful evening out. Muad’Dib made lots of friends as he paced around my chair. Then when it was all over, I dropped Dad off at his house and then took Summer to Stoby’s for dinner.

I wasn’t thrilled with the choice. The food was fine, but I rarely crave Stoby’s. Their prices are just too high for what you get. Eaddie left with Eli when we got back to the house, and Summer went to bed. I followed shortly after.

I don’t.

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Bark Back

We had enough time for Burger King again, but got to work and had a surprise staff meeting. I had plenty of time, but I wasn’t sure why it wasn’t on my calendar. It may not have been on anyone’s, and they just didn’t tell me. It was a reasonably short one though, and helped the morning along. I stayed pretty busy all day. One of the guys came up from the plant, and Muad’Dib didn’t like something he heard, because he let out a singular, loud bark in Tyler’s office.

I let him outside to run around after he whined at me, and he took off like a bolt. I don’t know what gets into him when he’s like that, but he just had wild eyes. I took him over to the grassy area on the side of the building, and then we went back in until lunch.

Sonic had a deal on chili cheese coneys, so we went there for lunch. He got his own, but I only let him eat about half in case it could make him sick. McDonald’s had 50 cent double cheeseburgers, so we got one of those on the way back to the office for the afternoon. I ended up having another flash of feeling like I was going to feint, and my blood pressure was super high. I didn’t take any meds though, and instead opted to monitor my blood pressure for a while. It went down very slightly, but at least didn’t keep trending upward.

At the end of the day, I was getting things ready to leave when Muad’Dib started wimpering again. Fortunately everyone was gone, because he barked loudly at me again when I teased him. He’s never been vocal like that, so I don’t know what got into him. There was a chance of some rain, so we got home and I immediately took him out for a run.

As we made it through the neighborhood, we passed Grant’s parents’ house. Lucy was in the pen with the other dogs, but jumped over the top of the fence and met us on the other side of the wooded area. Muad’Dib did a great job of running to her to get her attention, and then she would usually follow him back to me. It took some running around the block, but we finally got her back into their back yard. We stopped to see Dad, but had to leave quickly as the sprinkles slowly increased.

Summer had been home a while, but was busy working on her laptop in the bedroom. I finished up the leftover salad and unboxed some stuff before winding down for bed. Summer needed soda water, so I got all of those filled up and then had another quick anxiety attack before going to sleep.

Assert your dominance.

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Usul, We Have Wormsign!

We grabbed Burger King and shared the hash browns on the way in this morning. I thought I was further behind than I was, but we actually got there a little bit early. Marivic came by my office and asked if she could give Muad’Dib a treat, and then she set down a huge bag of Pup-Peroni just for him. I told her to keep it downstairs and we would come visit her every day, but she said to keep it because she just loved animals. It was a reasonably productive day after that. I did have to go downstairs to help Peyton and Heaven with some goofy OneDrive shares at one point, and I had a phone call with one of the IT guys at Garland before lunch.

I wasn’t super hungry, so we grabbed a small box from Taco Bell. It was a bit warmer out, but still reasonably nice. Muad’Dib had to poop when we got back to the office and there was a big proglottid squirming around in it, so I had Summer go by the vet for some dewormer. The afternoon was really quiet after that, but we eventually got back home where Summer was making her Polish sausage and sweet potato bake.

Eaddie had left with the Model Y because they still hadn’t fixed the Murano tire, and she had run the Pathfinder too low on fuel to trust it for a trip to Tech. I took Muad’Dib on an early run, visited Dad, and then came back to the girls sitting down for dinner. They talked about the drama surrounding Chance and how the school board was going to have a hearing to determine his fate. I didn’t have a clue who Charlie Kirk was when the news broke, but it took less than a minute to decide he was an incredible asshat completely undeserving of any controversy. Chance has always been one of the best teachers I’ve ever known, and the district would be foolish to lose him.

It’s shocking to find how many people do not believe they can learn, and how many more believe learning to be difficult.

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In Like Venn

I finally felt like I was “getting” some stuff today, and maybe even found some strengths in what I’m doing at work. It’s been a bit of a rollercoaster between feeling underqualified, overqualified, and downright confused by the strange overlap between my predecessor and myself. Today was a decent day though.

We took a late lunch and sat on a rock outside Arby’s. I was disappointed in how unloaded the Loaded Italian was, but it tasted good. Afterward, we went to Sonic for some mozzarella sticks, and the girl that delivered our food offered a pup cup. She was so excited when I let her feed him herself, too, and he got lots of pets.

I guess the salt got to me, because my blood pressure spiked when we got back to the office. I didn’t feel bad, but I felt off just enough to tell, and ended up taking a clonidine to try and chill out. I never saw a drop, but I felt a little better for it.

Summer was working late again, so we stopped to see her when we got into town. She spent the entire time on the phone, and we almost just left, but she eventually hung up long enough to say hello. We went for a run shortly after that because it looked like a storm was coming. We heard lots of thunder, but only got a couple sprinkles.

My parents were trying to figure out dinner, so I stayed for some rice and egg with RO*TEL and a bit of dried turkey. It was pretty dark by the time we left, and we had caught another rat when we got to the house, so we had to take it to Washburn Park. Eaddie was out until I was ready for bed, and all I could do was leave a light on for Summer. Of course the evening wouldn’t have been complete without an anxiety attack.

Jailbreak!

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Frog Went a-Jumpin’ and He Did Ride Onewheel

We skipped breakfast this morning but had some coffee at the office. I felt busier, but it was still quiet, and that may just be the nature of the place for me. That would be swell. I did have an anxiety attack pretty early in the day that rattled me pretty hard, but as usual it was gone within seconds. I had to go downstairs a couple of times, and I was helpful both times, which was great.

I forgot Muad’Dib’s lunch, but we went to Taco Bell and I shared some of my burrito. While we were there, an older couple came up with three small, well-groomed dogs to eat at the other table. I chatted with the lady while the gentleman went in for food. I was super proud of Muad’Dib for his behavior – especially when I asked if I could leave him outside while I went in for a refill and to throw away our trash. I had him sit and stay, and he didn’t move a muscle the entire time I was inside. I almost couldn’t believe it.

Summer was going to be working until one in the morning, so we were on our own all evening. Diana wanted to chat, so I called her on our way home. Then we stopped to see Summer at the wash. I took the opportunity to vacuum my car, and then took it to the quarter wash for a 75-cent job. We got to the house and I got a call from Kyle from Hydro Carpet Solutions. He quoted $150 to clean the carpets and the sofa, which was significantly less than I expected. His first availability wasn’t until Friday evening, and I was surprised to hear that he worked that late, but he got us on the schedule.

Eaddie was gone, so I took Muad’Dib to pick up some Popeye’s to take to Summer. It took over half an hour to get our food from the time I played the order, but after a surprisingly bad experience with everyone I spoke to, the guy that bagged my order actually hooked us up with a little bit of extra food. We made it to the wash and saw the crew that was there to help with the deep clean. They were all excited to see Muad’Dib, and upon learning his name, one of the guys said he had that tattoo. He pulled out his phone and showed me a picture of his black and white, realistic style mouse.

We ate, Summer gave away what was left before I finished eating, and then Muad’Dib and I went back to the house for a quick run in the dark. When we got to the basin, a frog jumped at my path on the Onewheel. I swerved to try and miss it, but wasn’t sure of its fate until I felt it jump off of my foot a moment later. I was glad it survived. We stopped to see my parents just briefly, then got to the house to find Eaddie locked away in her room. Finally, bed.

Does this make me Shai-Hulud?

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The Hills; They Live

I got up early and just barely managed to get my shower done before Summer started to fuss about getting to her race. We made it in plenty of time to the Dollar General in Dardanelle, where Kenny immediately spotted me. She went to prepare for the run, and I played with Muad’Dib and chatted with Kenny until he was ready to light the starting cannon. Once the runners were off, we headed to McDonald’s for a couple bagels and then drove up the mountain super slowly.

We parked just at the top, and then I rode my Onewheel with Muad’Dib to the visitor’s center where we sat to eat overlooking the lake. It was a really nice, crisp morning to be out. As we were leaving, we encountered a couple rangers that asked me to put Muad’Dib on a rope leash just so others could see he was restrained. That slowed us down for the trip back to the festival area, but we did alright.

People were still setting up for the chicken fry, so Muad’Dib and I sat around as runners trickled in. My old call center boss, Bryan, noticed me and came over to chat. I let him try the Onewheel, and then we wandered over to where his family had a booth for chicken bingo. Summer eventually crossed the line and hung out with us as she waited for results, and finally for one of the old guys to cross before we could leave.

We weren’t there long enough to actually get any fried chicken, since the run was so much earlier than the rest of the festivities. We made it back to the house where Eaddie left with Eli for some school stuff. I had to go get another prescription from Walgreens, but they didn’t have it ready when I got there, so I stopped in to Sonic for a snack first.

After finishing all of that, the kids eventually made it home and my parents drove over to follow us to Conway. Our first stop was Bulgogi for a late lunch or really early dinner. I had forgotten how small the portions were, especially for the price. There weren’t really any other complaints though. We finished there and went to Sam’s for a while to shop around and kill some time. We still had an hour left by the time we were done, so we stopped in to Kohl’s and found a couple things before the movie.

Our last stop for the evening was the Cinemark for the 60th anniversary showing of The Sound of Music. Eli had never seen it before, and it was neat to watch it on the big screen. The late show was barely attended after a mostly full early show. We got home super late by the time all of that was over, so everyone was straight off to bed.

Oh, how clumsy of me – I meant to accuse you.

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“Chinese”

I tried to go to bed early last night, but woke up after a couple hours with wide eyes and couldn’t fall asleep again for a couple hours. Fortunately that didn’t ruin my morning, and I stuck with a Soylent for breakfast because Summer said she could meet me for lunch on her way back from Little Rock. I took Muad’Dib inside on a leash to keep him from jumping on people, and he didn’t like that a bit. I got in to some stuff in the morning, but still no real resolutions.

When Summer got there, we went to Chopsticks, which I vaguely remembered trying several years ago when I was in town for AT&T. We left Muad’Dib in her car and went in for what wasn’t necessarily the worst Chinese I’ve ever had. The fried fish was pretty good, which I remembered from before. We didn’t take long, and the lunch price felt pretty fair. Summer took Muad’Dib home with her, so I went back to the office alone.

My heart started racing a bit when I got back, so I tried to take it easy. I didn’t feel as bad as yesterday, and I failed to take my blood pressure, but it still didn’t feel great. The afternoon dragged on forever, too. When I finally got out of there, I went straight to the house and took Muad’Dib out for a run.

It wasn’t too hot out, and we had an okay walk. When we got to my parents’ house, Dad and I tried to rehang the gate that fell over, but his drill didn’t have the juice we needed to get the holes drilled. When we got back to the house, we had caught another rat. It was our third one of the year, and may have been one of a couple noisy, squeaky ones. Muad’Dib and I took it out to Washburn Park, where I had released the other two. Then I spent the rest of the night trying to clean up a bit before bed.

Sounds like sailing away to me.

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Stay.

I went to bed super early with my feet up, and woke up just before my alarm. That got me out the door without a rush, and we made it to Morrilton before I decided to stop in at Wendy’s for some breakfast for a change. They weren’t in much of a hurry, so I got to work around the same time as usual. I got in and tinkered with PRTG and the PLCs some more, but didn’t really make any meaningful progress.

I actually ate my breakfast slowly throughout the morning since I had such a tall cup of coffee, so we went to lunch really late. It was nice out again, so we went to Taco Bell and shared a box. I was really proud of Muad’Dib for listening when I told him to stay at the table outside. He actually laid down and waited while I went in a couple of times.

When we got back to the office, Shane was there and asked for a laptop and an account, but didn’t have any details. I went upstairs and Teisha at least got me information on the account, and I spent the afternoon trying to wipe a couple of laptops. The whole process was way slower than traditional offline imaging, so I may end up using a flash drive with bootable media in the future if this becomes a habit.

As I sat there, I started to spin a bit as I felt my heart race and my blood pressure rise. I ended up taking a clonidine pretty quickly and rode things out, but I couldn’t really tell why I spiked. Caffeine and sugar? Salty foods? Stress from work? I alerted Teisha just in case, but I leveled off after a while.

Mom was making bún bò Huế for dinner, so we got back to town and waited for Summer to get home, and then I ran over with Muad’Dib while Summer drove. Along with cooler days are earlier sunsets, so Muad’Dib and I had to hurry and get the rest of his run in. He did not hurry. He made me proud with his obedience, and then immediately frustrated me with his whimsy. At some point I stepped in some poop, presumably of his, and may have tracked some into the house, so I cleaned the floors just in case.

Eaddie called just as we were finishing our run, and put me on the phone with Shaana. They wanted to add Eaddie to their family plan since Eli got a new iPad and they were giving Eaddie his old one. Eaddie’s Apple account has always been a frustration because their father had it set up at an AT&T store, and we never actually had any control over the girls’ accounts. I wanted Eaddie to figure out her own account and manage it herself since she was old enough, but she’ll just continue to ride along whoever will take care of her, and that’s a disappointment.

I had an anxiety attack while head-down in some Vine stuff, and then tried to wind down quickly to get as much sleep as the night before.

I don’t know what’s next either, but I have a pocket full of stones and a reckless kind of hope.

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f⁻¹(g)

I ended up elevating my legs last night because the swelling in my feet hadn’t been getting any better. It had done wonders by the time I got up. Summer went to the gym and Eaddie went to church. I did Vine reviews all day.

I warmed up some spaghetti for lunch just before Summer got home, and then we went out back to try and find the pendant for the living room fan. I went back in and kept doing reviews while she cleaned up.

Mom was supposed to make bún bò Huế for dinner, but when I checked in the evening, they weren’t ready. Summer and I ended up going to Buffalo Wild Wings instead, and sat outside with Muad’Dib. I think the noise got to him, because he was rowdy for a while when we first got there.

Service was inexperienced, and the food wasn’t great. The chicken seemed to be cut in half or thirds from what they used to serve. Overall it just wasn’t worth the visit.

I took Muad’Dib for a run in the cool air when we got home, and he ran well. We visited with Dad, and then made it back to the house for the night.

y

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Assemblance

I worked from home today since the guys were supposed to finish work on the ceiling. They did a bit of painting, I pointed out some issues, and they touched up. The total cost increased by about $500 due to some extra construction elements they had to do to raise and level the whole ceiling. They got ceiling fans re-hung, and I immediately noticed a missing pull chain. I looked all over for it under the deck, but didn’t have any luck.

Dad came over to look at some of it with me since he would be over to hand off the second half of the money the next day. Summer got home and started making spaghetti. I took Muad’Dib for a run to the bank to get the money, and we went inside to talk to Aaron for a bit.

When we got back to the house, Dad wanted to go to the other house to uninstall the microwave so they could have the cabinets replaced. I picked him up and we got that taken care of. Eaddie finally got home so we could eat, and then I took Muad’Dib out for another run. While we were out, Summer noticed a hole in the wall, some broken trim near the floor, and I found a broken USB cable from one of my security cameras, so I had to send another email before wining down for bed.

Spaghetti and Squealy Olive Balls