Tag: food

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Float On

Eaddie left for all-region early this morning. I woke up pretty hungry, so I fried some rice with the veggies from Christmas, and then threw some egg in it. Then I reorganized and moved some stuff around the house and Summer went to the gym. I had a shower and then went out on the Onewheel to get a little bit of time in before the big freeze. I went to my parents’ house first, and then felt comfortable enough with my figure-eights that I decided to go up and around Inglewood on the sidewalk. I saw Joe out canvassing the neighborhood for school board.

All total, I got a little over seven and a half miles in. There were a few places where water was constantly moving across the road, so I kept trying to find new paths to stay dry. I also rode through the new subdivision, and the roads and sidewalks there were all super cheap, sunken in, and generally crappy. Then just as I was getting back home, I was carving pretty deep to try and dry the tire off when I got a really fast wobble that threw me. Luckily I was just in front of the neighbor’s house, so it was a short walk down the driveway. I didn’t injure myself, but I got progressively more sore throughout the rest of the afternoon and evening.

Summer wanted to cook some seafood pasta for dinner for Eaddie and Eli when they got back, so we went to the Neighborhood Market where we ran into my parents again. We picked up what we needed and headed home to see the kids. I had stepped out back to check the murder basement for water, and it had flooded about eight inches up the wall, so Dad came over with some rubber boots to plug in the sump. It worked great, but there wasn’t a port hole for the hose, so I had to keep going back outside to check until it was done.

Everyone ate, and I spent a little more time on the washing machine. I still couldn’t get the pulsator out, so I think I’m just going to have to give up and bolt the thing back down. Not that it matters; that thing’s not going anywhere. I crawled into a heated bed early just to rest from the pain. A lot of it is just soreness in my legs from such a long ride, but it was a lot of fun finally getting a feel for the control of the board. We’ll see how the bruising looks tomorrow.

Alright, already!

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Griddle Me This, Batman

We awoke to a crash in the middle of the night when the squeegee fell off the shower wall again. It happens infrequently enough that I forget to check it to make sure the suction cup is still holding. Luckily we got back to sleep reasonably quickly, but then I was the first to get up, to revert back to my working sleep schedule. I thought I’d get up even earlier to buy eggs and make breakfast, but by the time everyone else was up, we just sent Eaddie for the eggs and I made tuna pitas.

Eaddie wanted to have a friend over, so they spent most of the morning and early afternoon cleaning up the house. We got most everything unpacked and did some rearranging, and then Eaddie left to pick up a friend. Summer and I took the Christmas trees down, I took a shower, and then we went to Lowe’s hoping to find a storage bag for the display model tree we purchased, since we didn’t get a box with it. They appeared to have been sold out for a while and inventory had already been rearranged, so we left for Walmart. I got to try out Smart Summon on the loaner, and it worked pretty well. I definitely wouldn’t feel comfortable using it in a busy parking lot though.

We looked for storage at Walmart as well, but didn’t have any luck there either. We ran into Eaddie and a group of friends while we were shopping for dinner, and that’s when I learned that we were having all three of them for dinner rather than the one I was expecting. We got stuff to grill a bunch of burgers and met them back at the house.

I quickly made and measured out the burgers, but then had trouble starting the grill again. The charcoal was just super cold, and wouldn’t ignite. It took me several tries, and once I had a glowing ember, I used the leaf blower to keep it spreading. I used the flat top to cook the burgers, and deep fried some seasoned fries as well. Overall I was pretty happy with the meal, and Summer and I got things cleaned up faster than the time it took to get the grill hot. I’m going to make Eaddie eat a bun without a burger for dinner later, since she didn’t consider how carefully I divided the meat to account for the number of buns we bought.

Eaddie left to take at least one of her friends home while Summer and I wound down for the night, and I was satisfied enough just getting to bed before midnight.

Hamburguesas de Sabor Razonable

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Knives Out, and Beaks Bloody

Evidently Eaddie finally pulled an all-nighter to get her sleep schedule back in order. I didn’t realize that when she came out of her room in the morning, it was before she actually got any sleep. I had a coffee and started running more cleaning cycles on the washing machine since I still couldn’t get the pulsator out. Summer got Eaddie back up so she could go to another escape room with some friends, and we decided to try the new Old South for dinner when she got back.

More than anything, I missed the old Dixie Cafe. Old South is fine. The food is fine. The new location seems way better, and they’ve been busy, but the food was average at best. We had a minimal amount of service from our waitress, and all of my food was cold. I’ve got to remember never to get their prime rib, and to stick with chicken fried something with gravy. At least the girls liked their food alright.

Afterward, we went by the old house and I loaded up three boxes full of DVDs to bring home. We didn’t end up watching any of them, and instead we streamed Knives Out. I really enjoyed it, and the sequel is out on Netflix, so maybe I can convince the girls to watch it tomorrow.

Think of a community theatre production of a tax return.

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Holiday Beef with the Grill

I was the first one out of bed this morning, and started early on cleaning the potatoes to be baked. Eaddie came in from a night outside with the cat, and I made her and myself a couple breakfast croissants. Then I got the potatoes baking in the oven so I could shower and get ready for everyone else to show up.

Kevin and Julie were the first to arrive. Dad brought over the bacon for the potatoes, but had to go back to get Mom. Noah showed up out of nowhere, which was a little bit of a surprise in spite of the fact that we were expecting him.

I had a lot of trouble with the potatoes because they weren’t completely baked through, and I had to put them back into the oven after they had cooled off a bit. When I finally did get around to starting the grill, I couldn’t figure out why the coals wouldn’t light. We all just kind of assumed it was the humidity from the rain, but over an hour later, multiple attempts at lighting more oily rags, and even a guest appearance from the leaf blower, I realized the blower fan was blocked by the bag of charcoal I had under the grill. Once I removed that, the temperature shot up from 140 up to 500 degrees pretty quickly.

Everyone had already given up and started eating salads, but I got the steaks and eventually the vegetables onto the grill once it was hot enough, and everything turned out pretty good. I got lucky with the grates being close enough that I didn’t even have to use a special pan with the squash and zucchini. I lost a couple asparagus, but retrieved some of them later. The steaks cooked a lot faster than I expected, so they went beyond the medium rare I was targeting. I guess the thermometer lied, because I definitely found a cooler spot in the one I measured.

Everyone enjoyed the food, we had a nice fire in the fireplace, and everyone but Mom participated in the cookie decorating tradition. It was a lot of fun, but I only get through a couple of cookies before I’m done, especially after a long day of cooking.

After the cookies, people started filing out. Eaddie talked about pulling an all-nighter to try and catch Santa Claus, but Summer went straight to bed. Eaddie spent a little time with the cat, but it was loud and rainy, and we found the leak in the roof over the bathroom, so she ended up coming inside. I had been tired for hours, with smoke-filled eyes, so it wasn’t long before I made it to bed too.

Kidnap Mr. Sandy Claws!

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The Coolest Fuckin’ Guy

I got around today and cleaned up a little bit while the girls were gone to work and school. I got screaming-mad at the dishwasher again, because Summer insists on partially loading it, and I basically have to unload everything once we have enough dishes, to rearrange them in the most compact way possible. She refuses to just leave it alone.

Afterward, I called to schedule a tow to the Tulsa Tesla Service Center, and then took a shower. At around 11, a guy named Moses come by from Diamond Ridge to check out the ceiling work we want done in the house, as well as the outhouse. He seemed to really recommend taking the existing ceiling down and hanging a new one, which made me a little nervous. I don’t really know where to start in the shed out back either, because we’re right in the middle of the expensive time of the year and it’s not like we’re just rolling in extra money.

There was a little bit of time to kill, but not too long before Doug from Storey Wrecker showed up. I drove my car onto the back of his truck, and then rode with him to Tulsa. I had asked the Tesla Roadside dispatcher if that would be alright, and I thought he had asked to confirm, but it sounded like it was a surprise to Doug. He didn’t seem to mind at all though, and spent the ENTIRE three hour drive telling me progressively less believable stories all about the cruise ships he had been on with the “Bruce Lee” silk dragon robe that his girlfriend bought him, how his son was a semi-professional wrestler and drill sergeant, and eventually some stories about sewing his wild oats and seeing Pink Floyd in Germany while he was in the military.

I would have liked to power through the trip, but he stopped once at the little oasis on the turnpike for a restroom break, and again just a few miles from our final destination to fill up with diesel. When we got to the service center, the actual service department was closed and for some reason I couldn’t get my car out of park. Being unable to drive it off of the truck, I ended up having to enable tow mode, which let it free-roll down and into a space.

Once I got inside, it seemed that the instructions for my loaner vehicle weren’t clear. It took the guy a little while, but eventually he set me up with a pretty new, white Model Y Performance with Full Self Driving. I started to drive away, but then stopped by the exit to adjust some settings, and the guy came out and caught me to get pictures of my license and insurance. It seemed like there should be a better process for that.

I wasn’t starving, but I wanted to eat before I left town, so I drove a couple miles away to a Cheddar’s and had some spinach dip and a chicken pot pie. I had forgotten that they seem to be famous for their honey butter croissants. All of the food was delicious.

From there, I headed on home in some relative cold. I had a little bit of range anxiety since I left the service center at 80%, but made it to Van Buren without any trouble. Full Self Driving was leagues better than my Enhanced Autopilot on the interstate. I think there were only like two incidents of something behaving a little goofy, and only one false lane change mistake. Mine changes lanes improperly all the time, and it’s infuriating that it’s not the same experience.

I got a large coffee to get me to my next stop in Ozark just to top off on Tesla’s dime. I picked up a sparkling water, and then powered on home as quickly as I could. I let FSD take me from the offramp all the way to the house, and it worked near-flawlessly. I didn’t take over driving at all, and it was great.

The girls were in bed, but awake for a little while. I laid with Summer for a bit before wrapping things up and going to sleep myself.

I’m not very patriotic, but after seeing it in the garage, I have to admit it would be kind of cool to complete the red, white, and blue set.

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Three Weeks

I stopped at Casey’s for a free slice of breakfast pizza on the way to work, and it was delicious. I hate how expensive extra toppings are, but I guess if they weren’t, I’d be ordering a whole pizza per week to take to work. It was the last day of school before break, and you could tell there weren’t as many kids there. Several were exempt from tests, and even more checked out in the middle of the day. Kim disappeared for a while in the afternoon, I guess to peruse other peoples’ potlucks. I stayed fairly busy trying to clean up old work orders.

After work, I stopped by Casey’s again for a free Snicker’s before going to the old house to feed the fish. Then I headed home and had just a little bit of time to get changed and earn some tire-rash on the Onewheel before Summer got home. She brought some thin chicken breasts and asparagus for dinner, and then wanted me to come up with dinner. I threw it all in a pan with a bunch of Italianesque seasonings, and it turned out pretty decent for a relatively unfussy meal.

Summer wanted to work on her nails and watch TV in the sunroom, but said the TV wouldn’t load Netflix. I opened up Vudu instead, and we ended up watching the last half of The Martian, followed by the old musical Camelot. I don’t recall ever watching it in its entirety, though I do remember having a VHS tape in my youth. We watched about a third of it before finishing the rest from bed. Then I wrapped up and it was off to sleep.

So we’re just gonna lie about how much we’re working? What could go wrong?!

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Cruise Control

Eaddie slowed me down getting out of the house this morning, and then I had to drop her off at the high school on the way to work. Since I was already late and traffic wasn’t helping, I stopped in at Casey’s for a free coffee before making my way into the county. It was quiet all day, and I tried my best to focus on cleaning up my Windows 11 image.

After work, I fed the fish and then beat everyone home. Summer made slow cooker chili in the morning before going to Little Rock, so I stirred it up and waited for her to get home from work. She wasn’t terribly late, but Eaddie was. The two of us ate, and then I put my Govee ambient light strips on the back of the living room TV. The effect was pretty impressive.

Once Eaddie got home, the girls both went to bed pretty early. I watched some TV for a while and just appreciated the ambiance, but then I made it to bed a little bit early as well.

I think this fridge is toast.

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Almost Crafting

I was pretty mentally drained from work today. I’ve spent most of every day just reading, but I finally started digging into Windows Deployment Services today. As usual, the morning flew by, and the afternoon dragged. Out of nowhere, I answered a call from a lady in Atkins whose husband collects trash. She said he brings home laptops and other goodies that he finds, and she recovered one of our lost Chromebooks. I thanked her for taking the time to call, and Summer should be able to stop by on her way through town tomorrow.

After work, I went home to feed the fish, then ran to Harbor Freight for a drain auger. Summer was off work and not feeling great, but I met her at the Neighborhood Market to pick up groceries. When we got home, she took a bath and I had to figure out dinner. I really wanted some higher quality pizza, so I bit the bullet and spent the money on Papa John’s. While I was waiting, I saw one of my old esports kids and his father, so I chatted with them until my order was done.

Summer and I ate, and then she watched TV while I unpacked the new TV stand we bought. Then she went to bed and I watched some artistic folk on YouTube while I assembled our furniture-in-a-box. Eaddie got home late after spending the evening with Eli, and I lost track of time as I finished up. Without the glass surfaces, the stand is super light. Unfortunately one of the screw holes stripped out completely, so I’ll have to decide whether that’s worth a call to the manufacturer.

Just unlock, dammit.

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It’s Electric

The workday went by in a flash. We had a few people in and out of the office, but I mostly kept my head down and read a bunch of Microsoft documentation. Eventually I’ll have to turn that learning into practice, but for now I’m enjoying the peace.

I went straight home after work and unboxed my Onewheel to get it charging before we went to Conway for Eaddie’s concert at UCA. It was a really small crowd in a fairly small auditorium. They didn’t turn the house lights down at all, so everyone just sat there in the bright light the entire time. The music was great though, and the clinician seemed really cool. It was over and done with in no time.

Eaddie rode the bus home since they had already eaten, so Summer and I drove across town to try LongHorn Steakhouse. Their online reservation system said it may be a 45-55 minute wait, but we were queued for about an hour before they called us in. We just sat in the car until then. They were crowded inside, and the hostess that sat us was really awkward. The service was fine, and the food was decent, though a little bland. It would have been a fine meal for no wait, but I couldn’t imagine why anyone would wait more than ten minutes for a table.

We made it back home and I rode the Onewheel around the house for just a couple minutes before everyone went to bed. I was up a while longer just because I kept getting distracted. Hopefully we can get the sink fixed tomorrow.

ThreeEV

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Holiday Crash

Eaddie nearly stayed up all night, but was probably the most spry of any of us all day. I did my best not to sleep too late, and made Summer a coffee when she got up. They went for a quick shopping trip while I had a shower, and then we all went to my parents’ house to eat some leftovers. Julie and Kevin showed up to do the same, and then we took Eaddie home to rake leaves while Summer and I went to the old house to get my wheelbarrow.

It had a bad tire, so we went to Lowe’s to shop around, and then Harbor Freight to pick up a replacement wheel. It was dark by the time we got back to the house, and we all sat around waiting for my parents to call for dinner. Summer and I watched the first episode of Secret Invasion, and I didn’t much love it, but I think the universe is just getting too big for me to wrap my head around it.

Once my parents had some sweet potato and shrimp ready, we went to eat pretty quickly before coming home to get ready for bed. Eaddie left her purse there, so Dad walked it over to us, and then it was off to sleep before going back to work.

Not completely opposed to the Whataplane.