Tag: food

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Fro, Yo.

Tammy came into my office first thing this morning and said she had something for me. She had mentioned some Vietnamese artwork before, and finally brought it for me. She thought it could be worth several hundred dollars, but I was pretty certain that it wasn’t based on other artwork I’ve seen throughout my life and visiting Oriental markets.

The boss was still out sick, so it was quiet downstairs again. I had some leftovers for breakfast, but otherwise kept relatively busy somehow. I wasn’t really hungry by the time lunch came around, but I went to Quiznos with Gary and Zach just to get out of the office for a bit. I went light with a cup of soup, but then nearly doubled the price with a bread bowl and drink. I can’t resist their lemonade though.

I spent a good part of the afternoon upstairs with the virtual academy folks, because they had a stack of several computers up there that they wanted serviced. Most of them didn’t exhibit any troubles for me, but I logged in and charged them up just to be sure. A couple were damaged enough to be discarded, but one of those was pretty well demolished. I even had a teacher device with a cracked screen, so nobody was safe.

In one of my trips back upstairs, I ran across Danielle, who wanted to look at my car. I thought she was going to stick around while I dropped off some junk, but she went up to her office instead and said she would come by tomorrow. By the time I finished running around, it was time to leave.

Autumn ran around after school and went to karate, so I had to get Eaddie from band. She wanted to go by her grandparents’ house, but evidently they forgot and weren’t home either. Instead, we went to get a pumpkin cake from my dad, then swapped cars and headed home where Summer was busy cooking dinner after going home early from not feeling well.

We arrived to a super smoky house, but most of that was just from a dirty oven. Summer had made chicken cordon bleu with mashed potatoes and Brussels sprouts, and it was awesome. The three of us scarfed that down pretty quickly, and then I broke out the new Yonanas machine we bought on clearance. I didn’t realize the bananas needed to be on the ripe side, but it still came out super good with some mixed fruit. I’d always heard that frozen bananas tasted a lot like soft serve, but in reality the similarity was uncanny.

Autumn came home, and all three girls were off to bed pretty early. I stayed up doing my usual things and found a deal on an LG refrigerator with the craft ice from Costco, so I messaged Julie to see if she could order it for me. That turned into a bit of an ordeal because you can’t pick it up from Costco, but they also won’t deliver it farther than 50 miles from a store, nor would they deliver it to the Splash in Conway. I ended up getting Ben to be my fridge mule, and we’ll just have to pick it up from his house after Thanksgiving. All of that, of course, was on a whim since I’ve been without a refrigerator for several months now.

A sad chicken, named James.

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First Bath

Summer and I got up this morning and went to Hardee’s for breakfast. She planned to go home afterward, so we drove separately but then took mine back home when we realized I forgot our coupons. Their biscuits were awesome again, and I was glad the recipe hadn’t changed like I thought from a prior visit. They must have just had an off day.

When we finished, I went home to get some quarters and then went to the car wash to get some of the dust and grime off of the 3. I’ve driven it so much in the rain that it’s actually stayed relatively clean, but there was a bit of grime on the back end that I wanted to clean off, not to mention fingerprints showing up on the door handles.

I decided to drive around town a bit to dry off, and went toward my parents’ house. I called Brody to see if he was home, but they were only just leaving church. I chatted with him for a moment before going in to talk to Mom until Dad got home from church. She was being critical of the car again, so I did some quick math to calculate how much I’ve had to spend on fuel. I actually figured it would be more, but it costs me about 0.8 cents per mile for electricity when charging at home, versus a lifetime average of 13.8 cents per mile for gas for the Murano. I know mine is beyond overkill, but having a small, electric commuter just seems like a complete no-brainer.

I finally headed back home to shower before picking up Summer to go to Walmart. We picked up a Yonanas machine on clearance, just out of curiosity, and then went across the store for dinner. Eaddie wanted stir fry, so we got a ton of vegetables and headed home to cook.

Summer and I prepped veggies as quickly as we could, and then I stir fried everything together. It barely fit in the wok, and I overcooked things a bit again, but it still turned out really good. We had things split into “long” and “short” cook bowls, but I really need to split it up better in the future to keep things from getting mushy.

The early evening dragged on a bit just because I wasn’t used to the time change yet. When Summer was ready for bed, I found Weird: The Al Yankovic Story on the Roku channel and we watched the first half of it. I couldn’t quite tell if she was serious when she made comments about it being a true story, but I enjoyed the show. It was longer than I expected, so I look forward to finishing it soon.

Oh Tres, you’ve got chips all over your face. :(

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Red is Black

I struggled to find a whole lot of motivation today, and spent a bit too much time aggravated that the little felt letterboard I had in the shop was likely thrown into the garbage for “cluttering the place up.” I don’t understand why we couldn’t have anything decorative in the room. It just feels so sterile back there now, and I kind of hate it.

I left to go to Dwight and install a AA battery, but the one in the microphone just wasn’t installed properly. What made it worse was that you could easily see where the battery needed additional contact to charge. While I was there, I had to ask Karen to decipher the calendar again, because evidently the copy she gave me for the agenda had the names inverted from what Linda was expecting. This was even more confusing, considering that Linda was the source of both copies.

We thought Jeff was going to eat lunch with us, but it ended up being Gary, Zach, Thomas, and me. Gary drove this time, and I sensed that Thomas appreciated the extra leg room. Kevin texted that he saw me, but I didn’t spot him until we left. He and Keith were having lunch together, and it was good to see both of them.

Dad went by my house to meet a guy from Terminix to inspect the termite damage. I had nightmares all night about my walls falling apart from termite damage, but the end result of the inspection was really just to sell what appeared to be a highly overpriced poison treatment plan that will do nothing for the repair of any damage. He didn’t even look in the attic, which seemed particularly important to me since he couldn’t look behind the drywall. The only relief will be how much easier rerunning electrical will be if we have to tear the drywall out.

I had to go back to Dwight again after lunch because their projector in the cafeteria had some sort of problem. I finally got Karen to figure out what was happening, and luckily the end of the VGA cable would be bent and twisted in a way that the colors looked normal again. It’s super tempting to make Kyle re-run that cable on account of how high the ceiling is.

After work, I ran straight to Arvest to withdraw a sack of money. Aaron chatted with me for a bit, and all the girls got super chatty about the car. I think I would enjoy being rich. With a Popeye’s paper bag full of large bills, I picked up Summer from the gym and we went to her bank to deposit it all back into her savings account. Their lobby was closed, so we had to wait forever in the drive-through, but we finally finished, and Summer was super relieved to have her account squared away.

I dropped Summer off and ran to pick up Eaddie late from robotics. Ethan was giving Lindsey a tour of their Ioniq, but I still felt bad for being so late. We continued to my house so I could change, and then went to Walmart for some salad fixings. Eaddie argued for boring lettuce, so I made her get the unprepared romaine hearts instead of the pre-bagged stuff.

Summer and Autumn were sitting out on the porch when we got there, and I fixed dinner by myself. I got pretty frustrated by how late it was, and the fact that I couldn’t use either side of the sink to clean vegetables. I ate, the kids ate, and then Summer finally ate after a shower. Then Summer and I chatted for a bit before she went off to bed.

Be kind; Unwind!

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Submatoes

I made it to work a few minutes early today, and briefly got to meet our newest team member, Jeff. He and Jacob hung out there for a bit in the morning as Jacob did a little bit of introductory training. It was neat to see someone trying to provide a little bit of structure to the team. I ended up going to Dwight for a little bit before lunch, and everyone seemed very excited to see me.

Thomas took the usual four of us to Taco Tuesday, where they were still out of lettuce due to “supply chain issues.” Shredding is hard, I suppose. I guess the lettuce also brings the temperature of the tacos way down too, because for the first time ever, I got scalding hot tacos. After lunch, Gary helped me run a single network line at Support Services. That took a solid couple of hours, and we ran into some trouble with his end of the termination. It was nice to get that out of my queue though.

The rest of the afternoon was relatively quiet after working up that sweat. Summer called after school let out to tell me that Eaddie had lost her phone. We saw it leave the high school, but then it was powered off just at the intersection of 19th Street. I went to the high school when I left work, to get her from robotics. I talked to Ethan for a bit while I was there, and he talked me into volunteering for a tournament next weekend. Then we went outside to chat about my car. He said they had been going through new cars every few months just because they were selling them for more than they were paying to order new ones.

From there, we went to my house so I could change, and then I took Eaddie home to practice her flute. I had a little bit of chicken and dumplings, but there wasn’t really enough to go around. Summer came home after her workout, and she, Eaddie, and I went to La Huerta. I thought I’d eat super light, but left super stuffed somehow. I even traded Eaddie for a much smaller taco.

Eaddie kept playing her flute when we got home. Autumn went to karate, but was home by the time we got back. Everyone was pretty tired, so it was quickly off to bed.

This is the opposite of good customer service.

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Not Playing

I got up this morning and dug out all the leftovers I could find to make breakfast. I started by caramelizing some onions and serrano peppers, and defrosting some ham. Once I got all of that diced up and into the pan, I added all the eggs we had, along with some tomatoes and cheese. Once that was scrambled up together, I loaded up some whole wheat pita bread that we had in the freezer. I thought it turned out really well, and the girls seemed to like it.

The girls wanted to go to the high school play again in the afternoon, so I went home to clean up. I ended up springing a leak and couldn’t stop the bleeding for several hours, so I just stayed home and did a couple loads of laundry. Once I had things under control, I headed back up to Summer’s for dinner.

She made chicken and dumplings for me, but forgot the green onions, so I turned around and ran through Walmart first. They were actually out of green onions, so I picked up some chives and cilantro instead. Those, along with some more fresh onion and serrano peppers made for a really good dinner, though I’m not sure anyone else enjoyed it as much as I did.

I laid on the couch with Summer for a bit while she wound down. Autumn took Eaddie to her friend’s house for the night, and then came back wanting to play Monopoly. Summer just wanted to relax though, so it ended up being a really quiet, early night.

Frustered

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Starting Earlier

I wanted to shift my sleep schedule back starting today, so I didn’t let myself go back to sleep after I woke up around six. I laid in bed and played Into the Breach until Summer stirred a bit. Then I got up and heated some leftover breakfast pizza. Eventually the girls got around, so I went to Walgreens across town to pick up a deal on tooth paste. Then I went to work to drop off some scrap and pick up a TV stand before going home and starting some laundry.

Eaddie was having Gavin over for the afternoon, and they decided they wanted to go ride bicycles, so Summer brought them over while I was working in the garage. They took off, and then Summer and I went to Walmart to walk around and get stuff for dinner. From there, I went back home to finish laundry and wait for the kids while Summer went home to start on dinner.

When we got back, Summer had made some delicious looking meatballs for spaghetti. I put the TV stand together and got it stood up on the old TV stand I tried to give away before it started raining yesterday. To my surprise, the red line was back. It’s not unbearable for the increase in size, but it’s not a smart TV either, so it’s annoying not having a remote for it.

Dinner was awesome, though Autumn didn’t join us since she went out with Nick. She came home ranting about him, though it seemed like they were both really just manipulating each other. The four of us that did eat really enjoyed the home cooked meal. Once we finished, the five of us played a game of UNO FLIP! It was a surprisingly short game, and then the kids all went to their rooms.

Summer and I watched the first episode of Our Flag Means Death and then I flipped through YouTube until Gavin’s parents picked him up. We stayed up a bit longer, Summer finished up a few chores, and I made it to bed early.

Feels like finals week.

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What a Breach

I woke up fairly early this morning and laid in bed until Summer got up to make biscuits for breakfast. I finally finished up the gravy I had saved from a couple weeks ago, which was only a little bit questionable. Afterward, Eaddie came out for help with some math homework. I didn’t remember doing matrices as a kid, but it seemed to make sense to me now. I finally got the achievement in Into the Breach that I’d been working on for a couple weeks, and eventually Summer got ready to take me home and go to the gym.

I spent a little time outside cleaning up inside the Montego, and then poked around in the garage to get Eaddie’s bike out. I don’t know why the tires seem like they don’t hold air for very long, but I got them aired up as well. I eventually wound up in a bath, and Summer brought Eaddie over to bike. I felt much better afterward, and then we loaded up the bike rack and headed to my parents’ house for chow mein.

Eaddie met us there on her bike and ate, and then wanted to ride across the neighborhood to try and find a friend’s house. When she got back, we loaded the bike up and came back to my house to unload. Then they went home while I did a couple loads of laundry.

Summer called a little later and said that Autumn hadn’t invited her to senior night, and in fact wanted to have her grandparents walk her onto the field. It didn’t mean anything to me, because the majority of the students don’t have a senior night in the first place, and because Autumn hasn’t really done anything in particular for us to be proud of her anyway. She’s done everything she can to make our family life hell. I understand why it upset Summer, especially since Autumn wouldn’t even have a senior night herself if Summer hadn’t refused to let her drop out of band. The whole thing is a power-play, and honestly I’d rather avoid homecoming week anyway.

Move along.

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Taco Bout It

I’ve ridden a bike to work all week because the weather has been so nice. It may be jacket weather in the mornings next week though. This morning’s meeting was our first that required an agenda from Zach and Gary. Zach took the lead, which he took awkwardly. It was pretty easy to tell that he was given direction without purpose. After the meeting, everyone else went through the shop and cleaned all the flat surfaces.

I didn’t have a whole lot going on, but I decided to go through and clean out my stale tickets after that was mentioned during the meeting. Then I wrapped up a couple other things I had been working on, and I was basically done with projects for the day.

When lunch time came around, Zach wanted CJ’s. I rode my bike behind them, but got lost in traffic. By the time I got to CJ’s, they had already left for Cracker Barrel because there wasn’t an empty seat in the house. I left the line and went after them, but got another message that Cracker Barrel had a 30 minute wait, so they had gone ahead to Brangus. I opted out at that point and went back to the shop to eat my leftover Slim Chickens. Evidently Brangus didn’t work out for them either though, because the line was out the door. They ended up at La Chiquita, which wasn’t busy because as I’ve said before, it’s not particularly good.

The afternoon was super quiet, and I had trouble killing the rest of the day. Autumn had been at Dwight all day for her educators class, but called to say she could take Eaddie home. I asked her to drop her off at her hair appointment so I could go scrap the metal I had been hanging onto for so long. I ran home at quitting time and made it to Cunningham just in time. I was disappointed that I only got $15 for the lot of it, so I probably won’t be saving cans any longer. It’s just not worth the storage space.

Lelan finished Eaddie’s hair before I even got halfway across town to pick her up. I was surprised that it was still so long, but Eaddie said she really liked it. She sent us home with some tea tree shampoo because she still picked out some nits after all this time. I figure Eaddie has just accepted a symbiotic relationship at this point, because she doesn’t complain about itching, and nobody has really purged the house.

We went home for a bit, but Eaddie immediately started talking about ice cream. Autumn was in her room, but eventually came out to mow. As she finished, Eaddie and I decided to go to Bocadillos for tacos and ice cream. On the way, Eaddie saw Noah at work, so we stopped by PDQ to see him for a bit on the way back. While we were there, I saw the guy I passed the other day on an R1 that looked just like mine.

Summer finally made it home, so we headed on home ourselves. We tried stopping at Tropical Smoothie to get her some food, but they had shut everything down. We ended up at Wendy’s instead, for a reliably good burger. Summer was up surprisingly late watching TV, but we only saw Autumn out of her room once, and Eaddie disappeared as soon as we got home. I was pretty tired myself, so I went to bed relatively early.

ERROR

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Egads!

We got up a little early this morning so I could start smoking some ribs. They thawed out completely overnight, so we just had to get them to my house, prepped, and on the smoker. We stopped at Walmart first, so I could get some charcoal. I decided to try some Jealous Devil lump charcoal instead of the Kingsford briquettes that I’ve used my whole life. The smoker specifically called for lumps, and that was what a quick Google search for the “best lump charcoal” spat back at me.

It hardly took any time at all to get the grill going and up to temperature. Summer helped me get the dry rub on the ribs, and we got them onto the smoker at 225ยบ for three hours. She left for the gym while I stayed behind to watch the smoker and eventually get a shower. She came back when the first step was done, and we wrapped the ribs up in some foil with some barbecue sauce and apple cider vinegar. I had watched so many tutorials while I was waiting, that I forgot I didn’t need the sauce until the third cook phase, but it didn’t really matter much.

I was really hungry at that point, so we went to Taco Bell to share a meal before going to Walmart to pick up what Summer needed for potato salad and broccoli salad. She kept getting interrupted by calls and texts from work, which frustrated me since she was originally the one hurrying me through the store. We finally got everything and headed up to her house to start cooking.

Autumn had gone to her grandparents’ house for some reason, though she didn’t actually help with any housework like she was supposed to. Eaddie wanted to go to her friend’s house to work on a school project, so I dropped her off before going back to Summer’s to make some hummingbird food. When the two-hour cook phase was over, I headed back to my house to unwrap the ribs and throw them directly on the racks again.

They were still super soft, and the bones wanted to rip right out of the meat. I was worried that they were too tender, but after an hour they firmed up a little bit. I did make a bit of a mess, and some grease got down into a crack that I can’t really clean. I’ll have to see if I can take that one part off to clean it out. When the ribs were done, I wrapped them back up in some foil and loaded them into a big styrofoam cooler, and went back up the mountain to get the girls.

Autumn arrived at my parents’ house just as we did, and we sliced up the first rack of ribs. They turned out pretty good, but I know I can do better. I think they were still just a little bit too tender, and I’d really like to try a coarse pepper base. I could really use a better place to trim them up as well. Dad made peach cobbler for dessert, and everyone got plenty to eat. Then we watched The Music Man, which I had never seen before. Eaddie had been wanting to watch it for a while, but evidently it was a regular for them growing up. Autumn had to be forced to stay and finish the movie, but slept through most of it.

Autumn went back to spend the night with her grandparents, and it was quick to bed for the rest of us when we got back to the house. I’ve got a good amount of cleaning to do tomorrow, so I won’t be able to stick around for long.

Camelot Cousin’s BBQ, Est. 2022

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On a Roll

I woke up early and hacked up a bunch of crud, then went back to sleep pretty hard. I heard Summer get around, so I eventually got out of bed and had some leftover biscuits and gravy. Then I went home to work on the garage. It got really hot really early because of the humidity, so I ended up taking really frequent breaks inside, but I felt good about the progress I made. There’s still a lot to do, and a lot of stuff that needs a new home, but today proved just how poorly and inefficiently things were packed into the place.

Summer came over after her workout and helped poke around a bit, but then went home while I finished up. I took one last break and watched an episode of She Hulk, and finally took a shower. Autumn dropped Summer and Eaddie off at the park to play tennis while she went to see her grandparents for a bit. Once I was done, I picked then up to go to my parents’ house for spring rolls for dinner.

Julie was already there to help prep everything, and was sharing stories about her most recent adventure. They set up another table for us in the living room, expecting more than could fit around the dinner table. Autumn didn’t show up until the very end, but the rest of us took turns going to the dining room to make rolls that we carried to the living room to eat.

Autumn showed up to say, “hello,” and then took the others home with her. I helped clean up a little bit and then headed to the house behind them. Summer had been struggling with a headache and half of her face tingling intermittently throughout the weekend, so I finally convinced her to call the doctor in the morning. I doped up myself since my cough was getting a bit worse again, and was going to go to bed early until Eaddie came out and sat down next to me to do some last-minute science homework. I helped her with a few questions, and then it was off to sleep.

You’re welcome.