Tag: food

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I’m the damn paterfamilias!

Summer and Eaddie went to judge an event at the high school this morning. I slept in a while, then got up and fixed some leftovers from last week for Autumn and myself. She mostly sat around watching TV or on her laptop, and I milled around fighting boredom. When Summer and Eaddie got back, they got a few things done before going to pick up their new eyeglasses. I loaded up Oxygen Not Included and played for a little bit before taking a shower.

When they got back, Summer left the girls with me and went to the gym for a while. I continued my game until she returned and eventually started on dinner. After we ate, we turned the lights out and put on O Brother, Where Art Thou? until one by one the girls fell asleep.

We ain’t one-at-a-timin’ here. We’re MASS communicating!

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Moocho Mango

I bummed a lot of favors today. Julie gave me a ride to work this morning since it was so cold out. Once there, I took the work truck to the junior high to babysit the testing. Nobody reached out to me even once, so I just sat in my office for almost all of it. I did manage to squeeze a little bit of work in though.

Summer didn’t finish with her testing stuff until the kids were already a bit into their lunch break, so she was upset about not getting to eat anything. I gave her a Soylent and then ran home to eat some leftovers for lunch, and dropped off some pallets while I was there.

After lunch, I stopped by Oakland for a little bit before going to the shop. The Murano was ready at the shop, so I had Zach give me a ride out there, and then I drove back to the junior high. The bill was quite a bit lower than I expected, which was awesome. I even got some replacement valve stem caps since mine went missing a few years ago.

When I finally left work, I headed home to change before heading to Summer’s to load everyone up to go have dinner with my parents. Mom made some mango soup, warmed up some leftover fried rice, and Dad made some garlic bread. It was all a bit of an odd combination, but everyone but Autumn found something they really liked. I guess she had filled up on hot dogs when she got home from school.

We all retired back at Summer’s for the evening, where I played around on YouTube a bit before bed.

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Workin’ Truck

I took the Murano in to Orr before work this morning for an oil change and brake fluid recall. I missed my time to catch a ride to work with Summer, so I got Zach to come pick me up. Then I took the work truck to the junior high and worked until lunch. Summer and I grabbed a quick Thanksgiving lunch in the cafeteria, and then I met everyone at the shop so our Belkin rep could take us out for Fat Daddy’s.

After lunch, I helped Gary and Zach clean a bunch of stuff out of the server room before heading back to the junior high. I got several things done to be ready for testing tomorrow, so I don’t anticipate much trouble. I am however still aggravated with another reported 25 missing headsets in my computer labs. It’s insane and unnecessary.

Orr called a couple times throughout the day. First was to ask if they could service my in-cabin air filter. I noticed some foam blowing out of my air vents over the summer, so I had them go ahead and do that. Then I got another call to say they had to order a part, and wanted to know if they could keep my car overnight. Since I agreed to that one, and Ben couldn’t let me take the other work truck home for one night, I had to get a ride home from work. Daddy to the rescue. He picked Eaddie and me up at Gardner, dropped her off for karate, then took me to the high school so I could snag Summer’s car while she was at a quiz bowl scrimmage.

I ran home to change before picking her and Autumn up, then dropped them off at Karate and the gym before heading home to do dishes so they could eat here tonight. I guess I spilled some rinsing agent in the dishwasher the last time I filled it up, so I started to get some suds leaking out of the front and had to get the carpet cleaner out to suck it all up. Once it settled down, I went to karate to see if Eaddie wanted to go shopping with me. She didn’t, so I went to the Neighborhood market for some rolls, picked Summer up from the gym, then picked the girls up from karate and headed home.

We watched the ending of Scooby-Doo while we ate the leftovers, and then the girls headed home for bed. I decided I’d rather ride the bike to work in the cold than lose an hour of sleep. Then Julie called to talk about black Friday deals, and we ended up talking for over an hour before bed. She said she was working nights for the outage and offered to take me in to work in the morning after she gets off, which worked out perfectly for me because I don’t fit into any of my leather any more.

Look, I’m a man of substance. Dorky chicks like you turn me on, too.

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Get Lost

This morning was kind of slow because Dell sent a tech out to replace a power supply for me. I didn’t want to leave the shop if he was about to give me back my machine, so I stuck around. It didn’t fix the issue though, and in the end he thought there was a problem with the CPU or motherboard, so I didn’t even get to return the computer. I read up a bit on Lanschool – just enough to remind myself that I hate things, and then went to Quiznos with Zach and Sara.

I spent the afternoon at the junior high, mostly tracking down missing peripherals in one of the labs. It’s super annoying that teachers just let the kids do whatever they want, and I’m really only support for the equipment they do have, not the equipment they don’t have. They should never have missing equipment. It’s ridiculous.

Nearing the end of the day, I finally ran an HDMI cable for Matt and hooked his docking station to his TV. I couldn’t test it without his laptop, so hopefully it works right. Then the girls and I waited for Summer to get home from her trip so we could go eat at my parents’ house. We had to run by my house for some batteries first, and then we made it for bún bò Huế. Autumn had some leftover chicken alfredo, and Mom ate some seaweed.

I had forgotten again about my Murano service tomorrow morning. I never did hear from anyone after I scheduled it online, so I’m going to be upset if they don’t get me in. I didn’t want to leave my car in the freezing rain overnight because it would slow me down even more in the morning, so I dropped the girls off at home and then came home myself to clean up and go to sleep.

Can we just donate our tiny bonus to the PAC instead?

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Minigiving

Summer hit the gym first thing this morning while I got up and ready. I picked up some La Huerta to go for lunch and we ate that before making mashed potatoes for my Thanksgiving with friends in the evening. Summer did most of the work but didn’t even get to come enjoy it with us.

The day went by super fast until I had dropped everyone off. First it was Summer at the high school where she and Hannah would head to Rogers for their PD. Then I dropped the squabbling girls off with their grandparents. John and Melissa lived just a few blocks away from there, so I joined them super early. John and I made a quick run to Kroger for some extra things, and then Veronica and her crew showed up. Travis didn’t show up, mostly expectedly. We had high hopes though.

It was really nice to catch up with everyone. After the fact, I wished I had made more of an effort to offer my phone up for pictures, but we all look younger in blurry photographs anyway. It’s crazy how time flies.

I stuck around to chat for a little while after Veronica’s family left, and was ultimately sent home with a ton of leftovers for the rest of the week. It was a really good time.

*Decade-running gags*

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Doing Things All Day Long

I spent most of the day at the shop today. It took me half of the morning to set up a Verizon hot spot for the junior high, and then Zach, Gary, and I went to Wendy’s for lunch.

When we got back, Zach warned me about a lockdown drill at the junior high, so I killed some more time in the shop chatting with Gary and learning a few things before heading over there. Then I closed out a few more work orders before heading out.

As we were getting ready to leave, Summer asked if we could pick up a TV stand from her mother’s church. Even with only a closeup picture with no context clues, I could tell there was no way we were going to get this thing into my car, so I called Allen and asked to borrow his truck. I met everyone at the church, and from there it was surprisingly easy to get the thing loaded in spite of how large and heavy it was.

We unloaded the TV stand at Summer’s house and brought it in through the back door because it was a bit easier. Her TV won’t fit in it, and it’s a bit tall to put the TV on top, but I’ve seen more ridiculous setups. It is a pretty nice stand, anyway. From there, I went to get Allen some gas before dropping off his truck with a bowl of chili that Summer made.

From there, I had to stop by Bác Vân’s house because she called saying her cable was out. She let herself get super frustrated without television and never bothered to call the cable company or me. I couldn’t figure out what went wrong, but power cycling the cable box fixed the issue. Then I ran to my house to change and headed to Summer’s for the evening.

The kids ate almost all of the chili and I was concerned at first that there wouldn’t be enough left for Summer and me, but it actually ended up being really filling. Summer, Noah, and I watched Bo Burnham’s What, and then sent everyone to bed.

I can’t believe you’d even write that!

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In the Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Tiki Room

We slept in today, then left for Conway around lunch time. We were both pretty hungry once we got there, so we went straight to Logan’s and had their prime rib. Everything tasted pretty awesome, but Logan’s usually does. Then we went to Target for several hours.

First we picked up some clothes that were on clearance, and got a $10 promo gift card with our purchase as well. I was feeling super tired and thirsty after everything we ate, so we sat in the Starbucks/snack area for a while with an Icee. I saw Coylene walking up and beat on the glass to get her attention so we could wave at her. She stopped by for just a second, and then I put our clothes in the car before going back in to spend our new gift card.

We spent way longer than I expected in there, and just kept picking up more and more clearanced stuff. Then I saw Jonathan round the corner with his daughter, so I waved him down to chat for a bit. I hadn’t seen him or Dylan in years, so it was nice to catch up, if only briefly.

Once we finished up there, we went straight to Lowe’s to pick up the rest of my TIKI torches. Some of the ones there were in pretty rough shape, so after some haggling I got the girl there to knock the price down on some of them. Overall I was happy with how the transaction was finalized, and we loaded up to head home.

Back in town, Summer went to pick up the girls and head home, and I played a few rounds of Rocket League just to get one more golden pumpkin crate before the event ends tomorrow. Then it was a quick email to NVIDIA to try and return my two RTX 2080 Ti Founders Edition cards before bed.

The boys in the back are called macaws.
Because of their claws?
No, because they’re macaws!

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Time Off

Summer left super early this morning for a quiz bowl trip, so I slept in until about 11. When I got up, Clint and I played some Overwatch until he left to get some food. I took the time to remote in to work to try and turn the bell system time back an hour for daylight saving time. It took me a couple hours to figure out something stupid, but it’s done and it’s documented now.

I spotted some TIKI torches on sale at Lowe’s online, so I bought out all of the Russellville and Conway stores and arranged for local pickup. Conway eventually got back to me when my order was ready for pickup, but Russellville never did. Everything was still showing available online, so I placed the order again thinking that maybe it was just a mistake.

Once Summer got back home, we went to the local store to see what was up. The girl that helped me said they normally contact the customer if something goes wrong, but obviously that wasn’t the case for me. We spent some time wandering through the outdoor area to find the torches, and eventually found them boxed up and ready to go into off-season storage. Some other lady had bought out all of the fuel I ordered, but at least I got my eight torches. Unfortunately, it turned my two gift cards into four gift cards once it was all said and done. We ran into Dale and Neletta while we were there and chatted for a little bit before loading up.

Mom made bún bò Huế for dinner, and I brought the TIKI torches in for them to use. We got lucky because they matched the exact same model that Dad picked up last year, so now we can set the whole back yard on fire in style.

After dinner, we came back home and I played some Rocket League with some of the guys I don’t play with very often until bedtime.

If I could turn back time… If I could find a way…

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I challenge you to a Dual!

I rode the bike in this morning because it was supposed to be really nice in the afternoon, and I forgot I was supposed to take the girls home after school. My first stop was Oakland to drop off a stack of iPads that I was conveniently able to fit in my bag. I ended up having to work on them for a while more before I could leave, but eventually I found a fix. Then I went to the junior high to start setting up my last three dual monitor setups.

Lunch time rolled around right as I finished up my first one, so I took a break and rode to Subway across town. It took me 30 minutes just to get through the line, and then I took it home to eat since I had to trade out for the car. I ran back by Oakland again to work on a couple of things, and ended up getting some help from Gary in the self-contained classroom. A couple of the kids were all over us, and one stole a water bottle out of Gary’s bag and drank it. He must have been in a good mood, because he didn’t seem too bothered by the kid, or the fact that I missed a stupid version check on my Chromebooks.

After that, I only had time to get one more dual monitor stand set up before I had to take the girls home. We went by my house first so I could change, and my Google Home Hub was delivered while we were there, so I set it up. I also dug out my gel ant farm in case I still have ants in the bathroom, but all the gel dried up. I tried boiling some water to dissolve the gel and left it to dissolve overnight.

When we got back to Summer’s house, I pulled out all of the leftovers I could find and made the kids eat that. Some stuff got thrown out, and I ate the oldest stuff I could find that didn’t seem like it had completely turned. Then I played a few rounds of Overwatch before bed.

Here Lies Michael: Hater of Waste

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The Curious Case of Bingeman Button

We didn’t sleep in super late today in spite of how late we got to bed. We didn’t get much of anything accomplished either. I made a little breakfast out of what was left in the fridge, and then we basically binge-watched The Office all day. Summer left after a while to take care of some things at home and get dinner started.

I took a shower and discovered an entire colony of ants in my orchid pot. I decided not to spray them, and instead hoped that they would just move themselves in a much cleaner way. If they’re still around tomorrow, I may stick a bunch of them in an old ant farm I never used from years ago.

Eventually I made my way up to Summer’s where I made some rice to go with her garlic herb chicken and mashed broccoli, cauliflower, and cheese. The girls left to go to a trunk or treat event with their father while Summer and I continued our binge until bed.

Uyimbube, uyimbube, uyimbube, uyimbube.