Tag: food

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I Found the Problem

I took the Onewheel to work again today so I could ride down the hallway to scan Chromebooks into inventory and lock up carts. We only had one room that was still missing a device, so I emailed Josh as the principal and Blake as my own direct report to find out whether he actually received an end-of-year checklist from the teacher. His response was a shocking and curt “it doesn’t matter,” which I think was his way of saying that it wasn’t any of my business. I shot back my own reply as professionally as I could, and we went back and forth for a bit before I ultimately walked into Blake’s office, who hadn’t actually read any of it by then. Possibly even more shocking was his reaction that it was just “his personality” and that I should see some of the emails he gets from him. In the end, there probably won’t really be a resolution, but at least I have my paperwork in order. It becomes more clear every day that their problems are absolutely systemic.

Becky invited me to the FACS kitchen for lunch where they had some slow cooker chili and some boiled hot dogs. It was an awesome lunch in its own right, but doubly so when compared to the old ramen I had stowed in my desk drawer.

I worked until my laptop died, and then decided not to work too late since I should probably be on-site the next day anyway. I don’t know if anyone else will be there for very long, but I figure I’ll be able to slip out pretty early. I chatted with Gary for a bit just before then, and we decided we’d meet up at Ridgewood Brothers for dinner.

I ran home to feed the fish first, and then I was going to see Summer at work, but in that moment she texted to say that she was already home. I spotted a plate-sized turtle walking along the road, seemingly unable to hop the curb, so I turned around to give him a lift into the grass before finally making it to the house where Eli and the girls were sitting in the living room watching gymnastics.

I changed clothes and met Gary at the restaurant where he was already chatting with Robert. He had a whole lot to say, and it was clear those guys just needed a break. I wish they’d just accept the free conversation with Summer about how to grow some positivity in their staff. She struggles too, but I think she could bring them some wisdom and experience. We eventually got in to eat, and then Grant showed up to close shop as Robert was leaving. He seemed to be doing a bit better, but they’re both just so tired.

We chatted for quite a while and then I headed back home to find them in the same spots watching the same gymnastics. I went outside to clean up a server I brought over from the old house, and then came in to hang out for a while. I forgot that I had to do some laundry, so I didn’t get it started until late, but I eventually made it to bed.

He’s right there.

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Lab Delivery System

Becky said they were going to cook breakfast, but I got to work a few minutes early and the place was a ghost town. Steven and Keith were there wandering around the high school, but I really didn’t see anyone else. Luckily I brought my leftovers from BFD and could eat that for brunch. I brought the Onewheel in case I needed to get across the campus multiple times, and it made delivering the last couple of desktops a breeze.

Steven was talking to Possum, and later Keith, outside their little office cove, and seeing the Onewheel got them pretty excited. Then Kelly showed up with a couple of the other lunch ladies, and she actually tried it out. After that, I talked Steven into giving it a shot, and he kept wanting to ride down the hall on his own. It wasn’t until he tried turning around in the width of the hallway that he fell off.

Those guys left after a half day, and then I called Nicky to see if she was in her office. I think she and I are the only two people there that feel obligated to work our contract hours. Everyone else is content to lie on timesheets all year long.

I did end up leaving fairly early because Tim called again to say we could get the Pathfinder. Summer got home early too because she was still feeling really sick, but I made her get out and take me to Orr. Tim had previously said the battery was dead, but it started up fine today, so I drove it home after a couple trips through the carwash. Now we just have to figure out the paperwork.

When we got back in, I ate a brat and then laid down on the couch with Summer to watch Three Amigos. I was super tired though, and kept dozing off. I guess I had never really seen it before, but I’ve always been aware of it. I guess I slept through the explanation about why there was an invisible person and a singing bush in this otherwise reasonably realistic fiction.

After a while, Summer craved a pretzel crust from Little Caesar’s. I eventually left the house to try and get some food, and called the restaurant to see if they could make one with the “old world pepperoni” instead of the normal ones. I just like the fact that you get more than two pepperonis on your slice. I was immediately told that it would be a 45-minute wait for a custom order. Then my question caused a little bit of confusion, which was met with “we can’t do that because there’s not a button.” I just gave up, not wanting to deal with those inbreeds, and went to the old house to feed the fish and come up with another plan.

I ended up ordering from Domino’s, and the food was ready before I could make it there. Then I saw Neal feeding the cats out back and stopped to talk to him a bit. I guess he had never seen either of the Teslas, so he was super impressed. I started to hold up traffic, but my phone key had been giving me trouble and I couldn’t get out of “park.”

I did eventually make it home, and the girls really enjoyed my custom barbecue chicken and bacon pizza. Summer and I watched a little more YouTube after Eaddie went back to her room. Then she crashed pretty hard from feeling sick, and I eventually followed.

Definitely couldn’t do that back in RSDland.

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Lab for One

There was no way I was getting to work on time in the rain this morning. I forgot my routine for summer hours, only barely remembering that we would work four ten-hour days. I resigned myself to picking up some Burger King so I wouldn’t starve for lunch, and made it in about five or ten minutes late. I was by myself all day. It looked like Denice had been in her office at some point, but otherwise I never actually saw her.

I spent the entire day imaging lab computers and updating network equipment. I got nearly all of Jaime’s lab finished, and got rid of most of the boxes that were stacked in front of my desk. Tim called to say they fixed the Pathfinder, so we can go pick it up tomorrow. Becky came in a couple times to get trash and then invited me to have breakfast with them in the mornings in the life sciences classroom.

It was a ghost town by the time I left, which made me wonder when everyone else left. Being completely solo, and working more hours than Kim, I really don’t have a clue when I’m allowed to duck out a little bit early.

When I got to the old house, Dad was there with a guy down the street cutting branches off of the fallen tree. He wanted to get quotes for insurance, and the tree removal alone would have been slightly more than his deductible, so it didn’t seem to make sense to start removal if nothing was seriously broken. He did uncover the air conditioner though, and without any damage, it started up just fine.

The mini fridge fit in Dad’s trunk perfectly, so we took it to the new house after stopping by his house to get the rice dispenser he had already picked up from Bác Vân’s house for me. We should have left the fridge outside to defrost, but we brought it in and left it in the entryway.

Once Eaddie got home, we went to Dardanelle for dinner and ice cream at Bocadillos. The food wasn’t bad, but the service was. The girl just didn’t seem to want to be there at all. We chatted and stuffed ourselves before heading back to town. I thought we’d swing by the store to find Summer, but she was having a very bad day. She wouldn’t be home until late, so we headed home to find water all over the entryway.

I crawled around and cleaned up the water, and set the fridge up in the dining area. I think it’d probably be better in the living room, but I’d want to put something under it to keep it from leaking onto the carpet. Summer eventually made it home and I put her to bed quickly before heading to sleep myself. We were both completely burned out from the day, and needed much rest.

Government wouldn’t do something like that…

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Get Your Mind off of the Gutters

I did manage to get out of bed at a reasonable hour this morning so we could go to Stoby’s for a pancake fundraiser. Eaddie left early to go help out, and I finally got up on the roof to clean out the gutters. It could have been worse trying to reach the edge of the roof, but if I just get up there a little more often, I won’t have to shovel out all of the pond sludge. Two sides of the house had to be scooped out, but the rest was dry and only partially full, so I got to use the leaf blower on that.

With the gutters cleaned out, I came in for a cold shower before breakfast. I wasn’t sure if they would have peanut butter, so we stopped at the Neighborhood Market on the way. The kids were mostly just hanging out at the restaurant because of the number of adults that were already there helping. Autumn was present and came over to talk forever. Then all three kids had planned to meet up after they left.

Summer and I went home so I could clean house while she went to the gym. It didn’t take long for the humidity to sap me again, and I kept a headache for most of the day. I did get a bunch of cardboard broken down and into the recycling, but I didn’t get as much other stuff put away as I really wanted.

Later in the afternoon, Eaddie brought Eli and Noah over, and Summer played Mario Party with them in the sunroom. I kept cleaning a bit and then sat down to eat some leftover rice and steak. Summer and I ended the night with some YouTube while the kids left, and then it was off to bed.

It’s like chewing air.

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Runner’s Day

I was up way too late, and ended up sleeping in a little later than I really wanted. Summer and I went to the old house to pick up some things, and then Walmart to get groceries for our big steak dinner for everyone. We made a quick detour to Lowe’s for a couple free Mother’s Day plants, and then it was back home to start prepping.

I had a little trouble with the fire again because I’m always stubborn and don’t go straight to a nice, clean, oil-soaked paper towel. I even spilled a bit of oil on the deck, so that spot may just be water resistant forever. Summer helped prep everything for the twice-baked potatoes, which I decided to cook in the smoker this time. This ended up being a learning experience as well.

We picked up a rosemary plant at Walmart so I could try and make a garlic herb butter for the steak. It was a neat addition, but I don’t think anyone felt particularly strongly one way or the other. The smoker was a super dry heat on the potatoes. I had a water pan with them, but I ended up cooking them way too long for such a high temperature, and the outsides got overly charred. The one plus to this was the fact that the flesh was super easy to scoop out of the hard shells. Once I got the potatoes re-stuffed, I stuck them back on the grill and took a quick shower.

My parents, Julie, and Kevin all showed up pretty close to the same time, just as I was putting steaks on the grill. I got them seared and they cooked quickly, so we all went inside to eat. I really wanted to try the sous vide cooker again, but that would have been too many new variables for one meal. Ultimately dinner was pretty good, and everyone was reasonably chill apart from just forgetting how to sit down and eat.

Summer had to go in to work for a while, which I thought was for a meeting, but she actually did work stuff for a while and got home late. I cleaned up as much as I could, and got to bed late. Hopefully I’ll sleep well, but now I need to get someone out to troubleshoot our air conditioner.

Why is the air so thick in here?

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The Stumble Guy

Summer decided she needed to go terminate some folks in Greenbrier today, so we thought we’d make a day of it. I got cleaned up and left Eaddie home since she had some work to do. I got us to the wash, and we only barely escaped being sideswiped once. Summer would be a while, so I had to kill some time. My first stop was McDonald’s, but I couldn’t get anything there because they said they were struck by lightning and had a couple fires in the kitchen. I offered to help if the problem taking orders was with their computer system, but the “owner wouldn’t let them use the fire extinguisher,” so they wouldn’t let me help either.

I drove around the parking lot and found Dollar Tree, and I managed to spend enough time there that Summer was ready to go just as I checked out. I picked her up and we headed to Conway where we tried to eat at Los 3 Potrillos. They had a 20 minute wait to be seated, so we left there and headed downtown where by complete luck we stumbled into Toad Suck Daze. We ate at a place called Salsa’s that was super good.

After we ate, we walked around downtown to see what was there. It seemed like it was mostly vendors, but then we found a bunch of carnival rides. Just as we decided we were finished, we ran into Ernie while he was taking a smoke break from hanging out at the renaissance festival tent.

We eventually made it out of downtown and headed to Kohl’s for some shopping. Summer wanted to look for some shoes, but was misguided by the purposefully difficult pricing there, so we stopped into Shoe Carnival and got her a couple pairs. By then it was time to make it across town for our movie. As we pulled into the parking lot, I thought we’d have a moment to stop at Bargain Hunt again, but we ran out of time quickly and the checkout line was long, so we ran out of there and made it to the movie.

Without a doubt, we thought The Fall Guy was an awesome flick. It was paced well, and we had a good time the entire time. Afterward, we headed straight home and settled in pretty quickly.

What is a Toad Suck, anyway?

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Donut Be Discouraged

I was a little early out the door, so I decided to stop at the new donut place on the way to work. I ate a bacon, egg, and cheese croissant on the drive, and made some coffee when I got to work. Shortly after I sat down with it, I took a sip that went down the wrong pipe, and coughed into my cup. Coffee went everywhere all over my clothes and keyboard, so I spent a while cleaning that up.

I wasn’t at all interested in cheesy pull-aparts, so I just had a couple donuts for punch. There was an office full of people behind me all day, and Kim spent most of the day on the phone trying to find someone to come out and fix her washing machine. I tinkered with a laptop and eventually pieced one together for the stage that ought to really scream compared to the old piece of crap they’ve had out there.

After work, I tried to wind down quickly. I fed the fish and then came home to Summer making a really good shrimp pesto pasta. Eaddie didn’t have anything going on, so it was just the three of us for dinner. Then I sat on the couch and watched the first episode of Heroes with Summer until she went to bed.

Find something fulfilling!

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Nomentum

I had a terrible time getting to bed last night, and contemplated pulling an all-nighter. I didn’t fall asleep until after 3:30, woke up a couple of times, and almost stayed up at 7:30. Somehow I managed not to sleep the entire day, and got up to some coffee with Summer before she went to the gym. She was back and forth on whether she would have to go to work, but did end up going in for a little while between rainclouds. Eaddie went to a band concert in the afternoon, so I just bummed around the house all afternoon.

Mom made bún bò Huế for dinner, so the girls and I headed over as soon as Eaddie got back. We visited for a little bit, but then the girls had to come back home to do some laundry for the week. I had to go drain the sump room, and Eaddie was up a little late making chocolate covered strawberries since she had a late-start Monday. I’ll have to go to work extra early for testing on Tuesday, and I really need to request a meeting with Harry before contracts are due. The end of the school year just has me lazy.

I need a break.

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Ci’s

There was a threat of rain again today, but I don’t think I ever saw a sprinkle on my drive in. It took me the entire trip to finish my bagel, but I guess I was glad to have something occupy the drive. I made it in a few minutes early, but wasn’t any more productive for it. Kim was back, and she’s always particularly chatty after having a day off. I didn’t break anything, but I didn’t fix anything either.

After work, it was a relative breeze home to feed the fish and grab a box to take to the new house. I stopped by the high school to try and catch Eaddie so she could return the robotics toolboxes that have been rattling around in the trunk for the past few weeks, but she was just leaving as I was pulling in.

I got home and took a beat to relax before trying to take a bicycle over to Dad on my Onewheel. I got to the end of the street and had to bail due to uneven ground, and the rear tire of the bike just fell off! I struggled to get it back on, but eventually had it in place on the wrong side of the chain. That was enough that I could at least pick it up and carry it while riding the Onewheel.

After I dropped off the bike, I continued a long ride around the neighborhood before Eaddie and I went out to try and find some food. We weren’t super hungry, and couldn’t decide what to eat. We thought we’d just swing by the wash to see Summer, and then find something to eat on the way back. Eaddie decided on New China, so we drove all the way across town to find they were closed. I drove us back to town to get gas at Casey’s, which took forever because the pump was super slow.

We ultimately ended up going to Cici’s, which was a miserable experience. It was a little bit late, but not alarmingly so. There were no store hours posted on the door, but there were people inside. It wasn’t until after I had a salad that I went back up to the bar to find they had combined everything under one heat lamp. There was no variety, so I ended up with a plate full of pepperoni pizza. They’ll get a review for that move, because a relatively large family came in as we were leaving, and they weren’t opening the bar back up. There was no telling what that family ate.

We got home just as Summer did, and we settled in quickly. The week is flying by, but the work hours are crawling. I could really use a win.

Stupid bubbles.

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OneDrive Me Nuts

I took the Murano to work this morning because of the rain, and it looks like that will be a trend all week. I had a bagel on the way, which really helped pass the drive. As soon as I got there, we had to wheel my portable touch panel down to the nurse so she could use it for teaching a “Stop the Bleed” class all week. Though I think it wise to teach the subject matter, I find it upsetting that it’s only normalized with the rest of the active shooter drills we do in schools now.

Otherwise it was a pretty quiet day. It dragged on a bit for me, but I finally fixed my problem with OneDrive by installing it before I try to block it. It’s perfectly Microsoft in its logic.

Brody called and offered a bunch of crappy soundbars that his predecessor purchased without need or purpose. Luckily Summer was home early, so he just dropped them off at the house for her. After work, I went straight home for dinner because Summer fried some rice with some ground chicken. It was questionable, but tasty enough. Eaddie and Eli came to eat, and then Eli had to run for a concert, which Eaddie attended later.

I went for a short ride on the Onewheel to my parents’ house and then around the neighborhood. Then when I got home, I tested out a soundbar in the bedroom. It was even worse than I expected, but still better than some of the worst TV speakers we have in the house. After that, I was pretty sleepy but still struggled to wind down for the night.

Next up, we’ll take it back to a little pink house with Jack and Diane.