Tag: food

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Brain Rot Kids

I had a rough start this morning, and it just never got any better. I was late leaving for work, which was compounded by slow traffic the entire way. I nearly got absolutely creamed by a semi when traffic came to a stop due to a wreck that closed the left lane. It was just barely around a curve, and traffic slowed so fast that a semi way behind me couldn’t slow down fast enough even after I turned on my blinkers as an early warning. I watched as he got bigger in my rearview, but thankfully he veered off the road to the left just as I started to the right. Traffic kind of split across both shoulders, but I don’t think any extra damage was done to anyone.

After that, I guess the slowdown that normally happens at the top of the hill when the sun peaks had worked its way back toward Conway. It was slow the entire way in to work, but nobody seemed bothered. I was actually pretty busy with stuff today, and I guess people were bothering Randy as well.

I met Kyle and Maggie at Cactus Jack’s for lunch at his request, and the food was pretty decent, typical Mexican. Jay called for help after I had sent him to central office to work some of Randy’s work orders, so I had to meet him there after lunch. What I thought was going to be a ten minute fix ended up taking the rest of the afternoon trying to fix a high-energy zoomer, and we still didn’t really complete it all.

I left straight from there and headed straight home, again through some stupid traffic, but thankfully at a much faster pace. The dogs were super anxious when I checked on them in the morning after being tied up all night, but Dad took them on a long walk during the day, so they weren’t too bad when I got home. They did knock over and chew up their water dispenser, which infuriated me to the point of dumping it and beating them with it. They cowered under the porch, but I can’t afford to buy them a new water bowl every week.

They came back out and we went for a pretty good walk. They’re definitely not as responsive to me without their prong collars, and the shock collars are too slow to give good feedback when we’re running. I did shock them both a couple of times when they eyed some cats, but otherwise they were fairly well behaved. We stopped to see Dad and then made it home for dinner. After they ate, I let them sit off-leash for a while before they made it out to the fenceline to dig some more. They still had their shock collars, so I zapped them both and tied them up.

The kids came home before Eaddie’s concert while I was assembling Vine stuff. Then I had to meet them and Summer at Witherspoon for a super long concert. I hated that we were there for the first band, and both played way too long, but I also just wasn’t in the mood. I was exhausted and sleep deprived after a night full of light sleep and weird dreams with caricatures. Summer was slow to leave, so I ended up leaving her behind and made it home to wrap up.

TikTok Cancer

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Electrotherapy

The dogs were asleep on the porch when I got up, but as soon as I got to work, Summer texted that they were gone. I texted Dad, and they both went out looking. Dad was able to recover them and Summer used a sledgehammer to bury some wooden stakes along the fenceline, but it was too late. Dad texted that his neighbor found a dead cat, and later said she reported them to animal control. I was pretty uptight about it at work all day, but there was nothing I could do from there. I worked on what I could, and dreaded what work had to be done when I got home.

Charles called our Dell vendor to complain about having to deal with customer service when repairing laptops, and got us free lunch out of the deal. Whole Hog tasted like free lunch, too. I had the brisket sandwich, potato salad, and beans, and it was a pretty miserable looking plate. The sandwich was about 60% bun, 20% brisket, and 20% slaw. It didn’t taste bad, but it wasn’t good, and it was cold to boot. The serving size was a small ice cream scoop of potatoes, and the most shallow single-layer of baked beans on a divided plate that you could imagine.

The afternoon went by fairly quickly, and Randy and Jim would be out for the rest of the week to go to the Howard conference in Alabama. I headed toward home, Supercharged, and walked in to Summer ruining what leftovers we had from Noah’s dinner. She ruined a huge pot of rice trying to fry it with the squash and zucchini. What resulted was basically a gummy rice dough with completely indiscernible vegetables, and thankfully no steak. I would have walked out if she ruined those T-bones on top of everything else.

We had an argument, and I feel pretty confident she learned nothing again. I went out to make sure the dogs would be secure after her shoddy patchwork and found a different place where they had started to dig. We ate, and then had to run to the high school for a pretty crappy band concert that ran about an hour behind.

The mentally deficient couple behind us in the second row talked loudly during the concert band’s portion, and I turned around to glare at them. They were mostly quiet for Eaddie’s symphonic band, until the point where the guy tapped a link on his phone, or otherwise somehow unmuted whatever video he was watching. After the day I’d had, it took every fiber of my shaking body not to turn around and knock him out in front of the whole auditorium.

We made it home and it was another mad dash to get to bed. The dogs may get chained up in the morning if they dig any more overnight. The only other real progress I made was when I learned how to properly attach their shock collars around the front or side of their necks instead of the back. I tested them out and got Stilgar pretty good when he started barking at one point. It’ll be good to take them on a run sometime how that the shock can actually be felt. I also made a double-ended slip collar to leave with Dad so we won’t keep having to run back and forth for tools.

More like Won’t Listen-Al-Gaib and Not Stillthere.

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Low Steaks

I actually woke up pretty early this morning in spite of wanting to sleep in a little bit. Eaddie left super early for a robotics tournament, and Summer and I had to get the house cleaned up and go grocery shopping so we could feed Noah and his friend Michael. I got started early, but I think my iron made me queasy again. I waited a couple hours before I ate something, and that helped marginally. Summer went to the gym when she finally got up, and we eventually made it out of the house together.

We went to Kroger first, and it seemed like everything was higher and less good than the Neighborhood Market. I definitely didn’t care for any of the steaks I saw there, but we picked up some fruit and frozen shrimp. I think even the shrimp was cheaper at the Neighborhood Market, but the steaks were for sure, and they looked like better cuts of meat, too.

As soon as we got back home, I got to work cleaning the grill so it wouldn’t catch on fire like it has the past few times I’ve tried to cook on it. It wasn’t that difficult, but I hate getting that black grease all over the place. Summer prepped zucchini, squash, asparagus, and made mashed potatoes. I smoked two T-bones and six strip steaks to temperature before pulling them off to rest before searing. My grill died at one point, and I thought it was the outlet, but it still did it even after I plugged it into the outlet inside. It may have been an issue with the temperature sensor, because I reseated that and it eventually got things reset.

I grilled the veggies and shrimp, then threw the steaks back on to sear both sides, and the four of us sat down to eat. I got pretty upset when Summer made a comment about hoping the boys weren’t slowing down, because it prompted both of them to each eat another whole steak to the point of complaining about having to blow up our bathroom. At that point, I was done having company, or housemates.

I gave the dogs a bunch of scraps and fed them dinner, but we didn’t get to take a walk. I’ll have to make it up to them tomorrow, and it’ll probably be a really long one for all three of us. Summer and the boys sat down in the living room and watched brain-rot YouTube compilations while she tried to paint her nails and I cleaned up the kitchen. Then Eaddie got home just minutes after the boys left, and told us about her day. After that, I didn’t waste any time wrapping up for bed.

Collector Gadget

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Cold Day, Hot Pot

I slept in just a little bit today because we didn’t have to be at work until 10. Summer left in a bit of a hurry, so I fed the dogs before I got out the door. I thought I was running behind, but I was actually ahead by about 20 minutes, so I decided to stop at Whataburger in Conway to see what their breakfast was like, and then sat to eat it at the Supercharger. The honey butter chicken biscuit was pretty good, but the jalapeño cheddar biscuit was pretty dry. The coffee wasn’t even lukewarm, but the hash brown sticks were pretty good.

I charged up until the moment I had to leave to get to work on time, and I was surprised to walk into an office full of people. Even Jimmy was still there, playing solitaire on his computer. Nobody was really up to anything, and though Randy put me in charge while he was out sick, I wasn’t really up to much either. I worked on a couple things for Jim before he left, and before I knew it, Maggie was asking about lunch.

After some back and forth, she, Jay, and I went to KPOT. We got there before they opened, so we had to wait in the car. Then we all three just had the hot pot without the grill. Maggie had never been, but she seemed to enjoy it. Jay was upset he didn’t get much shrimp, and I wished I had gotten the same soup I had last time, but it was alright. Our waitress was super helpful, if not a little bit chatty, and the food was pretty good.

After lunch, I finally figured out how to get Jim into SCCM, by updating his Configuration Manager Console version. I never would have thought it would outright deny the connection for that, and assumed it would just update it in line. With that, I had fixed twice as many things as I thought I might.

Everyone slowly filtered out, and I was the last one to leave. I had to stop in Conway to charge again because it was so cold, and then I made it home to run the dogs. We had a good run, so they got the rest of their Ridgewood pulled pork before dinner. Summer was exhausted when she got home, so I built her a pretty awesome looking burger before unboxing a handful of Vine stuff. I got the sofa table I ordered, and was super impressed by the quality, for being such a small, cheap table.

Eaddie got home late and went to bed pretty early, and Summer practically crawled to bed after working in pain all day from her fall on the ice yesterday. I was up too late, but suddenly it’s the weekend again. We’ll have to get up and shop for groceries early tomorrow, because Noah and his buddy Michael passed whatever test they took so they could build scaffolding for power plant outages. Maybe this will be good for them, but for now, Summer wanted to celebrate them with a steak dinner.

Okay, now even I’m surprised by all these deliveries.

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Vogon Culture

I got up early so I could try round two of getting my car registered and my driver’s license renewed. Summer was back to work and Eaddie was in bed, so I had an easy start with a bit of an upset stomach. I don’t know if it’s the iron having the opposite effect than expected, or if it’s been due to all the recent dairy or greasy “barbecue” leftovers. I eventually got out of the house though, and made it to the local health unit to get a copy of my birth certificate.

The office was about as governmental as it could appear inside, but at least the process for getting my certificate was easy, and there was only one other person ahead of me. I actually finished my paperwork before her, so I was in and out in a jiffy. I guess my parents lost my original, because I don’t think I’ve ever seen it. All Dad could find was the hospital certificate, which wouldn’t work for the DMV.

I called Dad as I left because I forgot to get a signed check from Summer for my sales tax on the car. He had to let the restoration guys into the old house to clean the carpet anyway, so I stopped by Splash for a quick vacuum before meeting him to get a blank check. When I got back to the DMV, they were absolutely slammed with nowhere to park, so I went online and scheduled the earliest appointment, then went to Walmart to kill some time.

I wandered around but didn’t find too much of interest. I made it all the way across the store and decided to get the dogs some more treats, and then made my way back to the DMV. I had only just sat down and checked in when I was called up, so I’ll have to remember to schedule an appointment every time now. I got the car registered with my old vanity plate, then had my picture taken. Overall it was pretty painless.

Eaddie had gone out shopping by the time I got home, so I changed clothes and went out on a super long run with the dogs. We made it around to the basin trail when I decided to divert us to the Ridgewood Brothers to see how they were doing on such an icy day. I forgot to start my Onewheel app, so I missed out on the first couple miles, but afterward I counted right at five miles. The restaurant was slow, so I tied them up outside and went in to buy some pulled pork for them. The guy on the butcher block gave me a ton of extra fat and skin for free, so it was way more than I could give the boys in one sitting. They had some to eat, and then we rolled around to the back of the building to talk to Kyler. Grant and Robert came out a little later to take a break and saw us, and then we headed to Dad’s. I couldn’t feel my toes by then, so we didn’t stay long.

Eaddie and Eli were at the house when I got there, and then Summer got home shortly after that. I cleaned up and eventually had a leftover hamburger. I got my license plate installed, then spent a couple hours organizing and cleaning up before heading to bed.

Not actually evil, but bad-tempered, bureaucratic, officious, and callous.

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Temp Down for What

I stayed up super late, so I set an alarm to keep myself from sleeping too late, but I actually woke up just a few minutes before it went off. Summer was up on the couch, but Eaddie was still asleep. I caught up on my Vine queue, and actually got a couple packages delivered in the morning. The roads didn’t seem bad right outside, but I didn’t even think to get out and try to register my car.

After letting my meds settle, I had a barbecue sandwich for lunch and then cleaned the kitchen and washed dishes. I let the water heater rebuild a bit before taking a shower, but just before I needed to rinse myself off, the water went ice cold. Eaddie had started to take a shower, and evidently the cold weather was enough to sap the entire tank of hot water.

I got out and eventually made it over to the old house to clean off my old desk. Along the way, I had a really long anxiety attack where it felt like the road stretched out in front of me, the way the lens pulls back to give the vertigo effect in Jaws. Once I got to there and cleaned everything off of the desk, Dad came over to help me move it out of the room so the restoration guys could come clean the carpet. There’s still lots to move, but the house is looking pretty empty now. There’s still no vanities or cabinets in the bathrooms, so I don’t know who’s coming to do that.

Once we finished there, I ran home to run the dogs before it got dark. It was freezing cold out, and my glove batteries died, but I stayed warm enough just having gloves at all. The dogs did pretty well, and we took a bit of an odd route home. I fired up the propane grill when we got back, and warmed up their hot dogs before grilling burgers for the girls.

We just had frozen Great Value burger patties, and I completely forgot to season them with anything, but they turned out really good. Summer prepped all the veggies and helped me make some cheese dip, which I think only she and I ate. We’ll have some leftovers for tomorrow since schools are closed again.

I was pretty exhausted after that, so I wrapped things up early and went to bed.

Dolly zoom!

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The Captain is a N***

I felt sick to my stomach this morning, and my best guess was that it was from taking my iron pill later than usual, at a point where my stomach was emptier and more hungry than usual. Summer went to the gym and Eaddie had a robotics meeting that ended up lasting until the afternoon. When Summer got home, we got cleaned up and went to Taco John’s for a quick lunch before heading to Little Rock for our movie.

It rained heavily the whole way, and autopilot didn’t want to cooperate. We were about an hour early for the movie and didn’t have any other plans, so I decided to stop in Conway to charge early so I wouldn’t have to on the way home. That was a slow process, so I ended up going in to Five Guys to use the restroom and came out with a bag of fries and some peanuts.

We eventually made it to the IMAX and waited nearly another hour for the movie. They played previews for about half an hour, which I’m sure was way longer than usual. I was surprised at how far back they referenced in the Marvel timeline for this movie. Harrison Ford as Thaddeus Ross was already a bit strange, but he was also a much softer, weepy character. The whole start of the movie was pretty slow in spite of starting with an action scene. The story was slow and simple, and lacked the spy thriller moments that we enjoyed about the other Captain America movies. The last third of the movie was better, but still not great.

Summer didn’t want to do anything after the movie, so we headed straight home until I decided to pull over in Conway for some Whataburger. Summer wasn’t hungry, but I didn’t want to have only eaten a single burrito all day, and I was actually really pleased with my burger.

We eventually made it home to an empty house. Summer went to bed and Eaddie got back home shortly after. I spent a while wrapping things up, and tomorrow will be a busy day.

What’d he say???

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Destruction Derby

The dogs were barking in the back yard when I left for work this morning, but Dad texted shortly after I got to work and said they were at his house and killed his cat. Summer was already nearly to Conway, so nobody was around to take care of them. They kept getting out of his fence too, so he ended up getting their leash from our house and dying them up. Stilgar chewed through that and got out again, and even destroyed the oil drain pan they were using for water.

Meanwhile, I broke PXE booting at work and could never get it working again. It was a miserable day trying to undo whatever change I made that broke it, and I had zero success. The only win for the day was Waldo’s Chicken and Beer for lunch. I had their Fowl Mouth spicy chicken sandwich, and it was probably the best chicken sandwich I’ve ever had. It was awesome. The cheddar biscuits were too small, but tasted good, and the service was great too.

I had to charge at a nearly full Supercharger station on the way home, then quickly patched the hole in the fence while Summer worked on a cake to go with the chili she made for dinner. I rode to my parents’ house to get the dogs, and dragged them home pretty aggressively. I think they knew they were bad, because they pouted on the porch all night.

I had to run to the Neighborhood Market for some cheese, and then Summer and I ate. Then I took care of my Vine haul while Summer watched Mary Poppins and then went to bed. Eaddie got home really late and went to bed. I was underslept, exhausted, and frustrated all day, so I was anxious to get there myself.

Straight to doggy jail.

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Just Wandering

I got to witness someone going off the road into the grass this morning because they were outdriving their brakes. I think someone hit a deer at the 430 split, and it had traffic backed up for a couple miles. I still beat the important people to work, and it was another day in the doldrums after that. I brought some containers to take the leftover barbecue and coleslaw home, and I helped plug in a TV.

Dustin took us out for a vendor lunch at Brood & Barley. I refused to pay $4 for parking, so I reparked a block away for free. The components of our meals were good, but I thought the Philly sandwich special had about a third of the filling that it should have for the price. It honestly tasted mostly of corn and avocado. Maggie had a meatloaf sandwich that would probably have been better as a burger.

The afternoon was quiet and dull, and I was still hungry. Not much success anywhere. I was eager to get out, charge, and make it home to run the dogs. Summer was making dinner, and just as I was walking out the back door, Zany called to say they had gotten into her yard and that she was about to walk them back, but they had gotten out and run off. I rode toward the basin, then came back up and found them at the top of Ridgewood. We took an odd course to my parents’ house, then came home backwards.

Summer’s salmon, asparagus, and potato dinner was actually really good, but then she wanted to talk to Noah about his asking to borrow money. Eaddie had Eli over for a bit, but Summer and I were stuck talking to the misguided one. I stayed up way too late after that, and I was exhausted.

What union?!?

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Chicken Wings are Fried Chicken

It was nasty and rainy again today, and conditions were a bit worse for the drive in, so I took over driving for a bit when the car wouldn’t let me reactivate FSD. Somehow we still managed to get to work before everyone else. It was another pretty quiet day, and I picked at some PaperCut stuff for Jim. The water dispenser hasn’t been working, so I’ve been having to melt ice to drink, but that went okay today.

Lunch time came around and nobody was quick to jump at anything in particular. We ended up going to Wingstop, and Jay initially turned us down for “fried chicken” but spun right around when he heard the word “wings.” I just don’t get that kid. I thought the food was decent, and the ranch did seem nice and thick compared to most others.

The afternoon was even more quiet, and I spent a bit of it by myself. Then I had to charge on the way home again because of the wet and cold. The streets were still a bit wet when I got home, but I took the dogs out. Muad’Dib didn’t eat his breakfast again, but he had dinner and a hot dog after our run. They did pretty well until Stilgar took the wrong side of a telephone pole and clotheslined us again. I managed to stop in time, but the leash snapped tight and gave me a little bit of a rope burn in the cold.

The girls were both home and ate some leftovers on their own accord, so I finished up some others once I got settled in. Then I had several Vine packages to break down. One of them in particular was a portable charger and battery pack that turned out to be way better than I initially thought, so that was a win. Then it was off to bed super early.

Bureaucracy? More like bu-YUCK-racy!