Tag: food

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Clever Boy

I thought it was going to be another quiet, uneventful day at the office, but shortly after I dug into some work, Gary called and asked for help with a couple guys from Raptor that were there to test and troubleshoot our alerting system. Evidently among all of the brightest minds there, not one of them thought to “think different” and bring along an Android device.

I headed to the high school and had to sit while they discussed some things before we actually got started. Then we wandered to a couple places, both inside and out, in order to test different scenarios, logging in and out of the app repeatedly until we had enough data points. I don’t think we unearthed anything groundbreaking, but hopefully they were able to take back some good feedback.

We worked into lunch, but then the guys offered to buy lunch. Terry gave them the option of CJ’s or Old South, and we went for the southern comfort food. I should have gotten the chicken fried steak breakfast platter that Albert ordered, because it looked awesome. My fried catfish wasn’t bad, but I was definitely jealous.

When we got back to the high school, Gary sent me off to meet up with Greg in Chrissy’s office. He was having trouble with the Macs over there, but unfortunately I wasn’t much help. We also checked on Daniel’s, which he ended up taking back to the shop. I spent the rest of the afternoon, quietly in my office. I did managed to get a couple things done, and then headed up to get Eaddie for tennis practice after work.

While I waited for Eaddie to finish, I set up an Echo Show, which didn’t really impress me much. I haven’t really liked the Blink Mini camera that came with it either. I don’t think I’ll return them, but I just don’t care for the quality.

Autumn and Summer made dinner back home, which made everyone quite happy. Then I suggested a game of Phase 10 before everyone was ready for bed. I did my best not to stay up too early on account of how behind I’ve been on sleep. Weekends happen too fast and too far apart. I don’t know why I can’t just live on a boat forever.

Or in a robot car…

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The Legend of the Space Viking

I slept in pretty late today after staying up way too late last night. Summer got up and went to the gym with Autumn and returned home around the time I was getting ready for a shower. We didn’t waste any time getting out of the house and headed to Conway for lunch. Eaddie had mentioned Big Orange, so we went for Red Robin instead so we could eat earlier in the day. The restaurant was pretty quiet, but service was incredibly slow. Our server brought out our “endless” fries in tiny baskets that had barely enough fries for one person, and then one cup of the campfire sauce for all four of us to share. Then when the food finally showed up, Summer’s salad was the best looking meal on the table.

Disappointed, we made our way to Little Rock and went straight to Goodwill. The girls really wanted to shop for some clothes, which was a little surprising to me. I figured by now they would be used to buying enough stuff new that they wouldn’t have any interest in thrifting. The store was a bit warm, and all the employees seemed to hate their lives. They were super busy, and the checkout line stretched halfway across the store. I found a cow butter dish, and we got a couple arms full of clothes for the girls by the time we left.

From there, we went on to the Promenade and got Eaddie some ice cream from MaggieMoo’s. It was Summer’s idea, but by the time we got there, she wasn’t feeling up to eating any, so Eaddie was the only one that got anything. I helped her with her cone, and then we crossed the street to get to the theater.

We all just wanted to cool off more than anything. The sun was incredibly hot outside, and the air conditioning in the IMAX couldn’t keep up. John and Melissa showed up just before the show, and then we all sat down for Thor: Love and Thunder. I thought it was a great movie, and it was nice that none of the previews really gave anything away. It really did kind of jump all over the place.

After the movie, we all went to Chuy’s for dinner. The service there wasn’t a whole lot better. They also seemed understaffed, and our waitress struggled to keep chips and salsa on the table. Summer and Eaddie weren’t super hungry, so I just shared a double order of fajitas with them.

We visited for a while and then hit the road for an uneventful ride home. Eaddie went through all of her clothes from Goodwill to show us, and then everyone was off to bed.

What a classic Thor adventure!

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Last of the Longs

The guys that were working on the air handlers in the shop yesterday had left my thermostat set on 65, so the air wasn’t blowing cold at all, and likely froze up outside. I didn’t want to mess anyone up by turning it off though, just in case they were testing something else. I just had Gary put in a maintenance ticket for it, but if it’s still on tomorrow, I’ll probably turn it off and let it rest over the weekend.

Gary wanted me to run to Central Office to investigate a work order, and then Greg mentioned another one about adjusting a monitor stand, so I took care of all of that before making my way to the junior high to work on imaging with Kyle.

That’s all I did the rest of the day, aside from lunch at Tarascos. The salsa there was good, but the fajitas were a huge disappointment. They looked fresh, having been all plated together with the rice, beans, and vegetables, but the beef was so tough that I couldn’t bite through it, I only got two tortillas, and none of it had any seasoning. The rice and beans had more flavor than the meat and vegetables.

The afternoon dragged on as we wasted time on our phones and finished up most of the laptops. Then I went home for a while before heading up to Summer’s. I picked up a peach milkshake from Chick-fil-A, and then filled up with gas on the way.

Summer was worn out from working sick. Autumn didn’t say much of anything to anyone as she laid on the couch watching YouTube all night. Eaddie never left her room as far as I could tell. It was pretty much straight to bed for everyone. At least this is the last long day of summer hours. I’m finally happy to see a half-day Friday.

Goddamn ants.

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A Splitting Image

Zach and Gary sent Kyle and Greg to image laptops at the junior high this morning while I worked on an Adobe licensing issue. I just happened to resolve it with trial and error, but I failed to understand how their licensing model was actually supposed to work. When I finished, I met the other two for imaging until lunch time.

Greg and I came back to the shop, and the four of us went to Quiznos for lunch. I love their lemonade, but man are those sandwiches overpriced. The bread was good today, but the sandwich didn’t seem quite as filled as it should have.

After lunch, I ran to the high school to dig up some better flash drives, and then took Greg with me back to the junior high to catch up with Kyle. We spent the rest of the afternoon staring at a clock that was stuck at 4:48 until we could finally leave at five.

I ran home to change, and then went to Walmart to pick up a few things for the dinner that the girls were making. Summer stayed home with nerve pain, so I thought the kids were cooking. I ran into Zach a few times while I was shopping, and then made my way up to the house to find Summer doing all of the work.

The al pastor tacos she made were pretty great, and I ate too many of them. Evidently she had bought a couple different seasoning packages that were identical in every way except for the preparation instructions on the back. Even the UPC was the same, but one method used a skillet, and the other boiled the meat in a pot, and I had sent her a picture of the slower instructions. It worked out in the end though, and everyone was happy.

The girls had been getting along well and playing their band instruments, and after we ate, Autumn wanted to finish our game of Phase 10. We finally finished and got everything put away, and then Autumn started bargaining to stay home instead of going to work with Summer in the morning. She got angry at the very first sign that she wasn’t going to get her way, and then escalated her argument all the way to bed. Nothing has changed.

I’m on to you, sucka.

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Ozark Lunch Jaunt

Summer and I got up and out of the house today for a ride on the Shadow. I was back and forth on a couple of places to ride for lunch, but landed on the Ozark Cafe in Jasper. I had never been, and the reviews looked to be pretty good. We gassed up and hit Highway 7 out of town just in time to make it there by lunch time.

We stopped at the Rotary Ann for a break from the bad vibrations. The restrooms were nice and cool, and we got some toilet paper to stuff in our ears that made a huge difference in our ride quality. My whole head was ringing when we stopped, but the rest of the ride went great.

We pulled into town and walked right into the restaurant without having to wait for a seat. They had a lunch buffet that we opted for after a quick glance at their newspaper-style menu. I started with a big salad, and then moved on to a couple plates of what I would call southern comfort foods. I was anxious to try everything, so of course I was absolutely overstuffed by the time we left. Summer wanted to walk around a bit, so we went a couple doors down and visited an antique shop for a bit before heading back home.

I kind of wanted to stop at a couple more overlooks that I had never visited before, but I wasn’t sure how well the food would sit. We went up the road to a Dollar General to find some real earplugs, and then made it all the way back to the Rotary Ann for a quick break before making it the rest of the way home. I was a bit nervous about needing to stop for fuel, but I didn’t hit my reserve until we were about halfway home from Dover.

We got some gas once we were back into Russellville, and then we stopped by Summer’s for her swimsuit and to take a bit of a breather. My whole body was numb from the vibrations, and I was achy from the ride posture of that bike as well as the sunburn. After some rest, we got the cats inside away from the night’s fireworks, and made our way back to my house to trade up for the car.

I went next door to get some bánh bao that Bác Vân got from Linh, and then we went to my parents’ house for a swim. Mom was asleep inside while Dad was working out back, but he took a break to swim with us for a while. The water was nice in the shade, and I never got the shivers. When we were done, I loaded up on ice water for the night, and we came back to my house.

Summer sat on the couch on her iPad while I put on the last half of my Stranger Things episode. Once I finished with that, we watched the latest episode of Middleditch and Schwartz. That had me rolling as it usually does, and then I continued with a bit of a Ricky Gervais special I had started some time ago. Summer was ready for bed before it finished though, so we did a quick scan for brown recluses and went to bed.

Not enough Shadow to prevent star damage!

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Fauxther’s Day

I woke up early in the bright bedroom this morning, and didn’t allow myself to go back to sleep. Instead, I sat on the couch with the cat for a while, until I figured it would be a good time to wake Summer up. She got ready for her hike, and I made a hamburger. I was really wishy washy on whether I wanted to go to Petit Jean as well. Noah showed up, and I decided I didn’t really want to go if I wasn’t going to add anything to their day.

They went to get the girls from Hannah’s house while I went home, but then I decided I would ride the Shadow up the mountain with them, rather than sulk in the house all alone all day. I met them all at Casey’s to fill up, and we made our way to the mountain. Our first stop was the bear caves, and they climbed around on the rock formations while I puttered around on the ground.

Next up was the Cedar Falls overlook for some pictures. Autumn said she wanted to hike all the way down to the falls, but I knew I wouldn’t be able to, and Summer decided she didn’t want to either. Our last stop was the overlook and grave site. They sat on the bluff while I stayed out of the sun. Then the kids wandered around one of the old buildings there before we headed home.

I went straight to my house to get beach towels, and then met them at my parents’ house to swim. Dad had just started the grill when we got there, and threw on some ribs while we swam. Then I started the chicken wings, along with a kielbasa, and some hot dogs for Autumn. We fought the flies to eat outside, but Mom and Julie ate inside.

After a long day, the girls took Noah back to the house and I headed home. Tomorrow starts our three weeks of a modified work schedule that nobody seems to be able to justify. I guess some idiot in a tower just thought it would be a good idea.

…to me?

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Burger Time

We got up this morning, and Summer had trouble getting Autumn outside to start mowing. She mouthed off for a while before going out and getting started, but after that she settled down and got the back yard done without a fuss. I ended up taking a bunch of blankets and pillows away from her again, and I guess it worked, because she was on her best behavior the rest of the day.

Summer went to the gym while I babysat. Afterward, she and Eaddie dropped me off at home to clean up while Eaddie practiced driving. Then we went to Walmart for burger parts for dinner. The girls’ brother Zack wanted to take them out, but came over for dinner instead.

I made fresh-cut fries and all-beef burgers without any filler for a change. I don’t know that I prefer that over having some shredded wheat in them, but they tasted great. The grill caught on fire for a while, so we had to let it burn off a bunch of old oil before we could grill on it. The mango habanero pickles I got on clearance were a delicious addition with an unexpected sweetness and punch.

After we ate, the girls wanted to play Phase 10, but they had to painstakingly teach Zack the rules. He left after the fifth phase, and we played a little longer, but never finished the game. Autumn and Summer went to bed really early, and then Eaddie planned to sleep on the couch. I was pretty tired after grilling in the heat, so I didn’t waste any time getting to bed either.

Why are weekends so busy when it’s miserably hot outside?

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How to Tell if You’re in a Cult

A bunch of water had collected in the trunk of my car this morning, and sloshed around on my way to work. Fortunately it didn’t damage my headliner, or seemingly get on it at all. I couldn’t tell where it was actually coming in though, so I guess I’ll have to pour water on it with a hose.

Jacob and I continued with inventory today, which made the day go by quickly, if nothing else. He didn’t want to reset iPads, and I didn’t want to do inventory, so we just split up this time, and I slowly went room to room with earbuds in. We made it back to the shop just a bit before lunch, and Tammy started talking about everyone having to clean out their work spaces to create more separation between our work life and home life. I was absolutely triggered at the thought of having to take all of my shit home, so I was riled up the rest of the day.

Nobody had any idea what to eat, so I suggested Chick O’Fish, since it was something new. When we got there, the menu TVs weren’t quite working right. I hate that places are starting to use more animated menus that flip to a different screen while I’m reading them. The next thing I noticed was that they appeared to have the same menu as Sam’s Southern Eatery, down to Sam’s Special. That’s when one of the girls behind the counter piped up and said that they were identical, with the same owners and everything. What made even less sense was that they were also trying to have table service in that tiny building, rather than let people order from the counter. That would have made it much easier.

After lunch, Jacob and I finished at Oakland. We got done about an hour before quitting time and made it back to the shop, but then Thomas cut us loose. I went home and tried to investigate my leaky car, but got nowhere. I fought sleep for a while, and cleaned up a couple aquarium hoods before Summer told me we no longer had a buyer for the 55 gallon tank.

Eventually I headed up to their house for the evening. I stopped at McDonald’s to spend some expiring rewards points on some fries, got gas, and then made it up in time for everyone to already be in their bedrooms. I was concerned about the water in the succulent pots, so I repotted everything and then wound down for bed.

Somebody drank all of the Kool-Aid…

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Incident ID-10T

We had a brief meeting this morning, in which Thomas told us that the entire district was going to be implementing weird new management strategies, and that our department was going to start by putting Greg in charge for the day. I immediately asked who was fired first, and what we had to do to go home early. Unfortunately neither of those things happened.

The task I was given was actually completed yesterday, so I went with Jacob to look at the junior high scoreboard instead. The main problem was a breaker that was shut off, but then we needed the lift to get up to one of the scoreboards, so we had to come back in the afternoon. They had stripped most of the floors, so we wandered around the building to find our way into the office, where I helped Janie with some stuff before we headed back to the shop.

Thomas also asked us to clean up some Chromebooks to donate to the Russ Bus, so we did that until lunch time. Then we made Brody make good on his promise to buy us CiCi’s for lunch after winning at Cornhole. Only Greg, Thomas, and I were in for that, and it cost more than he expected, but it was still a good time. When we got back to the shop, I went with Jacob back to the junior high to get up on the lift. We were able to restore power to the other scoreboard, but then both controllers quit working.

We spent the last part of the day working on inventory at Oakland. I got super frustrated with Incident IQ and its insistence on clicking absolutely everywhere. It is not shortcut friendly at all, and is basically made for dummies to touch things, and I absolutely hate it. I’ve not been this frustrated with software in a very long time.

Gary called me near the end of the day and asked me to be his DD to Domino’s so we could get some pizzas for Kelsea. I wasn’t made aware until late, but apparently her father-in-law passed away earlier in the week, and he wanted to make sure the family was eating. I picked him up after work, we went to see Neal at Domino’s, and then made it out to Pottsville to deliver the food.

Nobody was home at first, so we waited out in the yard for her to show up. Then we chatted for a while before making it back to town. I dropped Gary off and went home to change before noticing that Mom had texted about dinner. They were frying sweet potato and shrimp fritters, so the girls met me over there for dinner.

The back yard was deafeningly loud with tree frogs, and I even spotted several of them huddled together near the roof on the side of the house. I helped fry the last of the stuff before finishing up and heading home for the evening. There’s been a toad stuck in the garage somewhere, and I put some water and a light out for him, but I fear he’ll perish soon because Summer didn’t shoo him out when she saw him a couple days ago. Hopefully I’ll find him tomorrow.

You are the true Lord of the Dance, no matter what those idiots at work say.

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Bring Your Career to Work Day

The junior high started laptop pickup today, and Jacob was a bit worried about that process, so I joined him for a couple English periods worth of students. We started lining laptops around the computer lab, in spite of them still having students in there. It went well enough, with the English teachers having the students wipe down their devices and having the laptops powered on for checking their condition.

It was nearly lunch time when I got back to the shop, so I finished loading up a few things for the afternoon, and then Gary, Greg, Thomas, and I went to Brangus. It had been a while since we had this waitress, but she remembered my beef spud. It was a good lunch.

Shortly after we got back from lunch, I headed to Oakland for their career day. I had a little table set up nest to a hair stylist, where I set up a running computer with the cover opened, as well as a couple disassembled Chromebooks. Fourth and third grade was first, and they just came in and mingled, and asked questions. Then they brought all of kindergarten, first, and second grade in to rotate stations as a whole class. That was absolute chaos. Our stations were bunched too closely together, and the kids kept leaning on the table and pushing us back into the wall. Overall it was a good time though.

By the time I got back to the shop, I was too tired to get into anything really serious. I worked on a new Chromebook that wouldn’t install updates, but never made any progress. When I left work, I picked Eaddie up as she and Zane walked back from Casey’s. We went to my house to change, and then had to shop for a couple things for dinner.

We went to Walmart, assuming they would have everything we needed. They didn’t have any cabbage though, so we had to go across town to 10Box. They had a ton of cabbage there, and then it was straight to Summer’s to prep. She had started a corned beef in the slow cooker, but I had to prep and cook the cabbage, carrots, rice, and potatoes.

A couple of the potatoes had rotted out completely, and the bag was full of maggots. Eaddie helped clean up the kitchen while I prepped the cabbage, and once the sinks were clear, I soaked the potatoes, brushed off the maggots and eggs, and then peeled and cut them for boiling. I pulled the corned beef out, and poured that juice over the potatoes and carrots, along with just enough water to cover it all. Boiling that took the longest.

Summer and Autumn showed up just after that had started to cook, and once the potatoes and carrots were tender enough, I threw the cabbage on top to steam. Dinner turned out awesome, which was good because Eaddie wouldn’t quit talking about how excited she was for corned beef. Autumn of course didn’t eat any, and laid on the couch with the cat and bunny all evening. Eaddie was tired, but stayed up to finish some laundry. School is almost out, and I think we’re all excited.

Yes, that’s exactly what I just finished explaining for the third time. This must be what teaching is like!