Tag: food

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Rawdoggin’

We had a mid-morning meeting that would last through lunch, so Randy wanted to swing through McDonald’s for some pre-breakfast. I rode with him and grabbed an iced coffee, and not long after we got back to the office, we headed upstairs to meet with a couple of Acer Premier Support representatives. Maggie brought Chick-fil-A breakfast for everyone, and then we sat through a bunch of training that could have probably been an email with the YouTube tutorial link. It wasn’t really required knowledge for me, so I was fairly disconnected and possibly a bit jittery from all the coffee.

I skipped lunch again, and the afternoon was for unearthing broken things. I couldn’t tell if we had actual replication issues with our domain controllers, or if there was something else preventing communication, but we definitely had issues communicating with the domain controllers. Randy ended up taking over, but that wasn’t what I intended. That sort of left me hanging for the day.

I had a pretty big anxiety attack on the drive home, but I made it. Eaddie and I chatted briefly while Summer was in the shower. They had spent the day together after Eaddie’s signing day and made Oreo balls while I ate some leftover shepherd’s pie. I was still a little bit hungry and got to craving some Taco Villa, so I ran across town to get an assortment to share with the girls. Eaddie had to leave for her appreciation concert as soon as I got back though, so Summer and I ate and then I quickly ran Muad’Dib before we met my dad at the Center.

We got there between songs by the concert band, and then moved to sit next to Dad for Eaddie’s symphonic band. I thought they did pretty great even if Eaddie thought they were awful. Eaddie and Eli both had surprise speaking parts, so of course Summer was stunned. She recorded their speaking parts, but quit when it came to the music. Moss composed one of their songs, called Grawlix, which was awesome. Then Summer had me record The Stars and Stripes Forever since Eaddie would be first in the piccolo line.

The kids went out to celebrate afterward, so Summer and I headed home and shut down pretty quickly.

Weep not for roads untraveled.

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Two for Two; How ‘Bout You?

I went straight to the high school this morning, unannounced. That meant I arrived early enough that I didn’t see another soul for several minutes. I texted Jim to see where he was, and he eventually showed up after I had rummaged through Kyle’s office looking for some network ports. Jim and I went up to look at a couple of his tickets, and then we settled in the library again. I was there all day, quickly tweaking my task sequence to try and resolve the domain trust issue, as well as the driver issue after the OS deployment.

Kyle asked about lunch, and I found a place near us called Mr. Cajun’s Kitchen that everyone agreed to. We had one of the biggest lunch crews we’ve had, including Randy, Maggie, Jay, Kyle, Jim, and myself. Most of us got the blackened chicken and shrimp pasta at the recommendation of the girl at the counter, and it was super good. The lunch portion was a little bit small, but Maggie gave me her leftovers. Everyone really liked it, so that was a second win for my lunch suggestions.

The afternoon went by pretty quickly after that. Kyle came by to check out a possible DNS issue I found, but then didn’t really know what any of the forward lookup zones meant. I guess it’s an opportunity for me to learn more about the networking side since he doesn’t seem to have any interest. Jim left before I did, so I got a little bit lost trying to find my way out, but I eventually did.

The drive home was pretty raw and I got a bit jittery without anything to focus on. I took Muad’Dib out for a run to decompress as soon as I got home, but I cut us a block short to avoid some traffic. We visited Dad for a little while before making it home to Summer. She wanted to sit on the porch for a bit, so I sat with her there until she started asking about my day. That sparked a difficult conversation that we took inside, and eventually just had to step away for a bit until we both made it to bed.

Not me, feeling all these feelings!

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Alaska Dreamin’

An hour drive inside my head every day hasn’t been great. Between that and exhaustion, I don’t even remember most of the drive in to work today. I zoned out hard. Randy was back from his bereavacation and had a comically and expectedly foul reaction to being back at work. He confirmed my suspicions on the couple things I saved for him to look at, and then disappeared with Maggie for some meeting somewhere.

I had some coffee and tinkered for a while, but Jim needed some help with imaging at the high school. It was about lunch time, so Randy and I drove separately across the river to Gus’s World Famous Fried Chicken to meet Kyle. The spice in that chicken was exactly what my soul needed to find peace for about twenty minutes. Then we split up and I headed to the high school to find Jim.

He had laptops spread across a table in the library where he was trying to image, and they would join the domain but then immediately lose their trust, so he couldn’t log in without dropping and rejoining the domain. I didn’t have much time to troubleshoot, but I had a couple of ideas before I had to leave to meet Summer.

I got through town as quickly as I could and met Summer at the Conway Regional Imaging Center for her breast MRI. The appointment was actually quite a bit faster than either of us expected, but of course we have to wait a few days for answers. She was super hungry after that due to fasting in the morning, so we went to Los 3 Potrillos for an early dinner. I parked at a hotel charger while we ate and got enough juice to get home. The food was good and reasonably fast, and I got out for less than half of what I normally pay in Little Rock.

After we ate, Summer went to pick up tickets to Eaddie’s graduation. I went straight home and took Muad’Dib to my parents’ house to see Dad, then over to Walgreens to pick up my prescription. On the way back, he got overheated and parked under a closed drive-through awning to catch his breath. I took the opportunity to return a call from Michael, who wanted to borrow some speakers for Oakland’s Dancing Through the Decades party. We chatted briefly, and then Muad’Dib and I made it back to our neighborhood where we stopped to chat with Mason for a minute.

Once we got home, I started hammering out reviews for Vine to get my ratio up. I’m almost at the point where I have to start unboxing things that I had stocked up on, like light bulbs, in order to give a proper review. That should be easy, but time consuming, so I’ve got to lock in. Unfortunately my lock-in juice appears to be causing some swelling, and I have blood tests incoming, so I’d probably do well to sober up.

That guy sailed away, man. He’s gone. Probably crashed into an iceberg.

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Day Drunk Productivity Suite

We got up for breakfast this morning, but Eaddie left for church and it was just the two of us. I thought Summer was making pancakes, but she had actually planned to make biscuits. We ended up scratching the bread altogether and cleaned up some hash browns with eggs and sausage links instead. Then we had a couple Jumex Hard Nectars to get the party started. I was determined to drown out the heartbreak with productivity, so I cranked some tunes, started some laundry, and cleaned up a whole bunch of random stuff that had been sitting around for ages. Summer went to the gym, then came home and wanted to mow the yard while it was nice out.

I replaced Eaddie’s shower head with a dual rain head and handheld sprayer. Summer went to the store to get some salmon, Brussels sprouts, and sweet potatoes for dinner. I had a minor meltdown over a spice cabinet in complete disarray while I was trying to prep the salmon, so I had to reorganize everything before I could get the fish on the grill. My silver lining was that I was able to clean up at least three different seasoning mixes that we’ve had for ages. Summer whipped up some awesome sides, Eaddie had Eli over, and the four of us had a really great sit-down meal. Everything turned out super good in the end.

Muad’Dib and I went out for a run after dinner, but he was really only up for a casual jog. The first leg of our ride was eerily quiet, but we eventually saw some people and a couple of cars in the road. For a moment it felt a little too Twilight Zone. We got through the basin for a quick dip, then stopped to see my parents. Dad has had some leftover meat that Muad’Dib has been loving, so he didn’t get any extra treats when we got home. We sat on the porch with Summer, who was sitting back in quiet contemplation.

So much has been up in the air over the past year, and the past couple of months really brought out a lot of pain points that we’d just been kicking down the road. On top of all of that, she finally has her MRI tomorrow and she’s been super nervous. We’ll just have to attack each day as it presents itself.

You and I stargazing

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I Wanna Go Home, I Wanna Go Home

I woke up early today so I could accompany Summer to her 5k in Dover. The weather was really nice, so it would be a good day to take Muad’Dib and the Onewheel, which would help me pass the time. She met up with Kell, one of her employees from Splash, for his first race. I took Muad’Dib around the building on a leash before testing him without, and I think getting some energy burned off helped because he stuck by my side the rest of the day without any trouble. I ran into Amber while we were there, which was crazy after talking about her just weeks ago. I guess she’s the president of the River Valley Runners group since James has seemingly made it his sole purpose in life to run. We caught up for a little bit, and then Muad’Dib and I started to ride the course to find Summer.

Being able to ride around with Muad’Dib made the experience awesome, but I wasn’t sure how the runners or organizers might have felt about me riding around even if I kept some distance. It seemed like a positive experience for him though, so hopefully we can keep doing that in the future. He got to meet a bunch of people who were really excited to pet him.

Kell finished in first place for his age division and Summer made second in hers, but they only awarded first place. They took some pictures and then Summer and I headed home to drop Muad’Dib off before going to Stoby’s for breakfast. We shared a short stack of pancakes as an appetizer, and then she got her eggs benedict while I forced down a disappointing “Blast” that seemed poorly seasoned and dry.

After breakfast, we made an Amazon return at The UPS Store and then went to wash and vacuum out my car before our trip to Twin Groves for Alarie’s wedding. We still had time to kill, so we headed back home where Summer assembled the guitar stand I got from Vine. I started a load of laundry, but didn’t quite get it out of the dryer before we had to leave.

The wedding was at Hillbrook Farms, which was a simple slab with a big building on top of it, right by a small overlook. It was a fantastic day for an outdoor wedding, which seemed particularly lucky since we got rain later in the evening. Summer was excited to catch up with some old coworkers while I mostly stood by and counted knots in the wooden structure. I was happy to go, and Alarie has always been friendly and greeted me by name whenever we’ve seen each other, but I just didn’t know anyone else there. The ceremony itself was short and sweet, and Moe’s catered the reception, so there was a ton of good food.

On the way home, Summer asked me about my favorite part of the event, and she didn’t like any of my answers. Then she said she didn’t understand how I could be so in-touch with my emotions and respond the way that I did. I didn’t mean anything negative in what I said, but I told her I was just an extra in that scene. I didn’t know anyone. I was there to support her and her friends. That escalated talk took us most of the way home, but triggered my anxiety and was a perfect illustration of why our communication is always so exhausting. I think we at least found ourselves in the same book by the time we got home, but by then I just needed a break with Muad’Dib.

It was starting to get dark, so the air was nice and cool and Muad’Dib wore his little headlamp. It was a good, slightly shortened run so we could visit Dad before dark. Then we made it back home for a much better evening. The good days shouldn’t be so hard, but maybe this time we’ll find someone that can help us translate. If not, at least now she has considered trying to make friends through her races.

Everything. Everywhere. All at once.

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Unbreakable

I woke up just before my alarm this morning and made it to work pretty early. I really thought I had to get Jim’s imaging issue fixed, but he called me away to babysit a Google Meet interview in the boardroom. You would think with so many educated people in a room, they could figure out how to click the button to join a meeting. I wasn’t even that surprised to find it was the interviewee who couldn’t figure out how to show our video, but I could at least have the chief of staff pull the Meet up on his phone and prove that our video was broadcasting correctly.

After that, I decided to give Captain D’s a try since I was already on that side of town. The girl at the counter could not have been more disinterested, but somehow the food was really great. I stopped at Walmart for some drinks on the way back to the office, and finished out the day in relative quiet. I had also picked up some dog food on clearance, but was overcharged, so I stopped by Walmart again on my way out of town to correct that.

I got home and Summer and the kids were on the couch watching gymnastics. I went out to play with Muad’Dib for a bit. Eaddie left to go stay the night with her father, and Summer came outside to sit with me for a little bit. Things have been super volatile, which made it a terrible time to try and discuss any of our issues, so she yelled at me and stormed off. I gave her a minute before following her to the living room, and she yelled at me a bunch more. That was when I saw she had gotten a new tattoo that said “Unbreakable” on her left forearm, and it crushed me.

Once we had cooled off, she sent me to take Muad’Dib for a run. He did great, didn’t chase any geese, and got to play in the creek for a little while since I just needed to be in the air for a little while. We made it over to my parents’ house to visit with them, and he got some more leftover pork before we headed home. Mom had leftover bún thang, so I asked Summer to come have dinner with them. We used to go visit much more often, and it’s been a big issue for me that it seems like she never wants to make the time with my family. I explained this again, and was super happy that she agreed this time. It was a great visit and great food.

We talked a bunch more when we got home, and things shifted from good to bad and back again several times. I got some laundry done, and she got some sleep before her 5k in Dover tomorrow. I was ready to pass out at any moment, but had things to do.

You gotta give them to the land

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Waning Crescent

I woke up shaking with anxiety this morning that followed me most of the way to work. It eventually leveled out, which was good because Gary tried to help a lady in the office with a printer issue, and it quickly became my problem. Luckily Kyle walked in and it then became his problem when we discovered the switch port was tagged incorrectly, and the printer had been set up differently than whatever standard they eventually chose.

I fought slow deployment tests all day, but took a break to take Maggie to lunch with Jim. Somehow when I pay for her, we end up spending enough to feed three or four people, but it was her birthday. They both asked about Summer after I took the day off, so I shared a little bit of what we’ve been working through, and Jim joked that it sounded like we were married.

The afternoon went by pretty quickly and my single image test failed what I was trying to accomplish. On the way out, I got to see the giant lizard Maggie told me was living under the sidewalk. I headed home through some fairly slow traffic, stopping in Atkins to swing through Casey’s to redeem a freebie. Summer and I had discussed dinner earlier in the morning, so she had a shepherd’s pie in the oven when I got home. She was sitting at the dinner table doing some work on her laptop with a look on her face, so we talked a bunch more.

We mostly talked in circles over the same things. She said she was taking some time away from work just to stay away from the public for a bit, and I was glad she got to see some support from her team and leadership. I don’t think any of the talking was actually helping at that point since we’ve always had trouble communicating. We stopped for dinner with Eaddie, and the shepherd’s pie turned out awesome. Afterward she had to go to Tech to prepare for a concert. I tried to take Muad’Dib out for a run, but it started raining and we ended up sitting on the porch together instead. Summer came out and we got burned out from talking again, so we loaded up to go watch Eaddie’s Tech concert.

The concert was long, but the band was great. We were both pretty exhausted from the stress and the lack of sleep. I know my head dropped at least once while I had my eyes closed, listening to the music. We got home, shared some drinks, and wound down quickly for bed.

I got my change behind the bed, in a coffee can I throw my nickels in. ☄️

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Whiskey Business

I was absolutely riddled with anxiety all day long. MacLeod got me to work safely and I did my best to settle in. I’ve been really surprised at how quiet things have been, and I wondered when the techs actually got any work done since Jimmy and Gary have been spending nearly all day, every day at the office. I got into the script server to run a manual sync for a new sub, which prompted a call from Randy while he was out on bereavement. I had it handled, so all was well.

Time seemed completely irrelevant, and I continued to wring my hands and tap my feet because I think I knew what was coming. I skipped lunch and tried to focus on Mosyle until I had to stop and help Jim with an OS deployment on one of the new Acers he got for the high school.

The drive home was the worst, as tics slowly took over all motor control. Then, as if I had been building up to this moment all day long, Shawna texted and then called to set expectations. Selfishly involving her in our own troubles had caused more harm than the help I was meant to provide for her. It would have been different with any other person in the universe, but there was no way she had thought of me the way I had thought of her for all this time. I couldn’t help but to freefall.

By the time I got inside, I was shaking pretty violently. Summer was warming up leftover spaghetti for dinner, but found me shivering in the corner of the closet. I don’t know how long we talked from that point, but after an anxiety attack, I wasn’t in a position to interfere with anyone or anything else. I quickly found the Fireball to keep myself from making any surprise trips out of town, and sat down to eat with Summer.

After our expectedly awkward dinner, I took Muad’Dib out for a run. He was amazing even when we encountered other dogs, including a loose poodle around the basin. He took a quick dip in the creek, and then we went back up and through the roundabout before making our way to my parents’ house. Dad came out with some leftover pork loin for him, and then we made it home where Summer and I sat out on the porch together for a bit.

The evening wound down pretty quickly after that since I wasn’t fit to put much brain power into anything else. Eaddie got home late and came to visit me briefly, and I eventually found my way to bed.

But what if it had actually worked???

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Swing, Swing, Swing

I went to bed super late and woke up when Summer made her coffee so I wouldn’t waste the day. We spent some time with the dog, and then she went to the gym while I tried to clean things up a bit. Suzanne and her godmother came over to return the old turtle tank I gave her, but I ended up telling her to just sell it and keep the money rather than let me put it into storage since I still have two large tanks that are unused.

Eaddie went out with Eli for an Easter service, and Summer and I eventually made it to the Neighborhood Market to get stuff to make salads and spaghetti for dinner. When we got home, I continued cleaning while she cooked. Then I took Muad’Dib out for a good run and returned Dad’s sledgehammer. I felt like that extra weight made my feet hurt on the Onewheel even more than usual.

The kids got home and we all sat down to eat a really great spaghetti dinner, and everything turned out really great. Summer cleaned up afterward, as I dealt with some minor aggravations. Later on, Eaddie went to chat with Summer in bed for a while, then came to talk to me as well. We ended up going to sit in the living room and had a great talk for a couple of hours until I started trying to fall asleep.

I should have known from the start.

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Nine-Tenths

I was severely sleep deprived, but I managed to get going and made it to work almost right at seven this morning. Gary was the only one that beat me there, but he was still smoking in his truck as I walked in. Johnny had called me just as I was taking my exit, so I continued to talk to him for a while after I got to my desk. Randy was out, but there wouldn’t have been much going on even if he was there.

Ben texted about lunch, so I met him at Flyway Brewing near the arena, and we shared some fried deviled eggs, and both got their smoked chicken wrap special. Everything was kind of “elevated” in some way, and tasted super good. We chatted for a while, and then I had to wait in the parking lot while a truck pumped something out of a hole in the ground.

The afternoon was super slow, and everyone snuck out a little early. I stopped in Morrilton for some beer, and then Summer and I spent some time together once I got home, before I took Muad’Dib out for his run. The weather was really nice for our ride, and he did pretty great. Once we got home, I sat on the porch and had some beer with Summer while we chatted. As it got dark, I set up my table tornado fire pit and we chatted until Eaddie got home.

By then it had gotten fairly late, so I put Summer to bed. Just as I sat down to wrap up, Shawna messaged to check on us, so I called and we talked for quite a while until bed.

Crash Time