Tag: food

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2:1

Today was really quiet because Ben was upstairs again for more of whatever they were doing. It wasn’t quite as noisy this time, but we could tell they were doing something. I spent most of the day learning about Microsoft’s licensing structure, and trying to figure out how to wipe the 1,300ish laptops I have for resale.

Zach said the district is trying to go 1:1 everywhere, and I think the buyback price on the old high school lease is perfect for a trickle-down of older technology. The laptops are still working great, and were generally underutilized anyway. Lower grades would have lower requirements, so keeping the old Windows devices would save just over $100,000 over the cost of new, less capable Chromebooks. Nobody seems to really care what I think though.

Greg wanted Mexican for lunch, and I suggested we try the new food truck by the railroad tracks. It was rainy, but light enough that we didn’t mind running out to place our orders, and the guy even brought it all out to us pretty quickly. It took less time than even ordering at a brick and mortar restaurant. My torta Cubana was both huge and delicious, but messy. I should have used a fork and knife. The burritos looked pretty good too.

After work, I went home and tried cleaning out the washing machine with some vinegar, and then later some baking soda. I just let it chug along while I played some Overwatch. Eventually I made it up to Summer’s for the evening, just in time for bed.

Never tell me the ratio.

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This is Normal

Summer got up this morning and started prepping for lunch with my parents. The girls took turns being moody for a bit, but did fine for lunch. Summer made grilled chicken, mashed potatoes, some fresh broccoli salad stuff, and some guacamole that we barely got to for the appetizer. Then she had a pound cake made for strawberry shortcake for dessert.

My parents hung out for just a little while, but then went home to make bánh bao. The girls decided they wanted to spend a couple nights with their father rather than go help, so when they left, I headed home to start cleaning house.

I got a bunch of old laundry done, but still have loads [pun intended] more left to do. Summer eventually came over and watched TV while I worked. Suzanne called at some point and said she thought they heard gunshots from protests happening downtown, but I couldn’t ever find any evidence of it, nor could I hear any noise from outside over my laundry. It seemed like the most action we got were some guys open-carrying rifles around town.

Tomorrow everyone is back to work at the office, but we’re sort of left to our own devices to help with social distancing. It’s been nice spending so much time at home, and I’m in no way looking forward to going back.

Surely homesteading isn’t that hard.

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Cover

We slept in a bit this morning before getting out of the house. Summer decided she wanted to plan a dinner with my parents, so she went home to clean and prep while I took the girls to my parents’ house to clean the pool cover.

Eaddie was with me, but we had to retrieve Autumn from her grandparents’ house. We got things started, but then the girls started fussing about being hungry, so I went to Tropical Smoothie and Wendy’s, because I guess I’m enabling that behavior now. I also went by their house to get Autumn’s swimsuit and give Summer a smoothie.

When I got back to my parents’ house, we let the girls take a break and eat, but then I had to take my parents to my house to check out some vinyl siding samples. The contractor that came to see us didn’t actually have any samples, but he did have a ring of chips to hold up, and I still preferred the dark brown to match with the non-primary color of my brick. He said he agreed, but you can never trust a salesperson.

When we finally got back to my parents’ house, the girls were out back swimming. They said it wasn’t too terribly cold, but we had to get the pool cover finished. They took turns scrubbing and hosing the thing down, and then Dad and I flipped and dried it before folding it back up for storage.

Summer forgot that we still had to eat dinner tonight as well before having my parents over tomorrow, so the kids and I agreed on Wendy’s. I customized all of the burgers, which seemed to completely confuse everyone there. I guess the way those customizations show up is pretty easily misinterpreted. We made do with what we got though, then Summer, Eaddie, and I watched an out-of-season episode of Glee before Summer went to bed. Then Eaddie and I finished the last few episodes of the Daredevil series that left me a little confused and disappointed, but overall satisfied with the show.

Do I really want to research the manufacturing differences in vinyl?

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Slow Start; Quick Finish

I slept so well last night that I really didn’t want to get out of bed this morning. It took me a while to get going, and Eaddie basically slept until the last minute. I eventually got around to making an “everything” Italian loaf egg sandwich to take to Summer for what was supposed to be brunch but ended up being a late lunch. It felt super hot outside in the sun, and traffic was awful again. I miss the early days of the pandemic.

After lunch, we went by Julie’s to help take her TV off the wall so Suddenlink could check out why her internet keeps dropping out throughout the day. While we were there, we heat-pressed half of the flags I made, to cure the ink. The other half I wanted to experiment with water to get the paint to flow to both sides of the flag. Hopefully that will keep me from having to come up with a way to screen print the reverse side as well.

With that done, Eaddie and I headed back home and watched some more Daredevil until Summer got off work and came to get her. They went home to clean up while I did the same, and then they picked up Slim Chickens for dinner on the way back here.

The chicken was pretty decent, but I think for my money, Zaxby’s has better sauces. I put on the 2003 Daredevil movie for us to watch, and Eaddie just kept groaning through the entire thing, which really made it all worthwhile. She did find a lot of parallels though, and insisted we watch the first episode of the Netflix series when the movie was over.

After that, Summer went to bed and we watched a few more episodes, ending with a really horrible one with a pointless flashback to an already established-well-enough character. Being this close to the end, it really aggravated me that they wasted a whole episode to that.

Gravy. Gravy would make it all better.

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Done in the Sun

Today was day two, or three if you count the seniors a couple weeks ago, of sitting out in the sun collecting student laptops. Yesterday was slow, but today was slower most of the day. We did get a couple rushes that made up for it, but there are still a ton of devices left to be returned.

I started the morning with Gary, then got Zach, and Ben for a little bit in the afternoon. We had Stoby’s again for lunch since evidently it was convenient and easy. I had the same Cajun pasta with broccoli, but this time I remembered to ask for cheese dip.

We stayed pretty busy at the end, so it took me another half hour to get packed up and get out of there. I went home for just a little bit to take a cool shower, and then Autumn called asking if I could take her shopping for stuff to make dinner. It wasn’t until I actually got up to their house that she said their father was coming to dinner.

Walmart was pretty busy, but we got what we needed and got out. She made burgers while I made fresh-cut fries. She wanted to make fried pickles and onion rings, but I was afraid to fry the pickles before anything else because I wasn’t sure if the flavor would linger.

Summer got home and came in with another tiny baby bunny, but this time it was younger with closed eyes and some flesh wounds. She didn’t want to take care of it or end it, so she took it to a coworker that might have better lunch.

Dinner turned out really great in spite of how exhausted I was. Then Autumn fed the bunny we kept, and it actually took to the bottle really well. I laid with it for a little while as I finished up my chores in Animal Crossing, and then we all went to bed.

At least they breed like rabbits.

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Ridgewood Gang

I woke up a bit before Summer this morning and played some Animal Crossing. When she got up, she had to run to the shop to help with their bay door that wouldn’t open again. Then when she returned, we went to the Ridgewood Brothers’ BBQ and waited in line for roughly an hour.

Social distancing had the line wrapped way around the back of the parking lot, but either way there were quite a few people there. Brandie was there just in front of the last person in line, so we chatted for a little bit. It was overcast but still warm to be out in line like that, so I’m thinking it’s preorders from here on out. We picked up a Hog Trough with some friends-benefits, as well as three giant beef ribs, which were my favorite of the day. Still didn’t get any burnt ends though.

When we finally got through the line, we stopped by to pick up the girls from their friends’ house. Then we went up the hill to eat. Summer developed a headache and napped for a while, and I just laid in bed with her watching YouTube for a frustratingly long time. I didn’t have any other plans, but it would have been nice not to burn an entire day just sitting around doing nothing.

Eventually she felt good enough to leave again, so we went back to my house so she could get her car. I immediately discovered the cat had chewed up the top of my avocado sprout, which sent me into even more of a rage. Summer went back home while I cooled off at home for a while. It wasn’t productive, but I did eventually get a shower that helped.

When I got back to their house, the girls were all finishing up Frozen II. Then we watched an episode of Game of Thrones before bed.

Three words: Bone Wind Chime

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Happy Mother’steak

I beat everyone else up this morning and ordered some breakfast pizzas for Summer to pick up while I took my shower. The kids finished watching Back to the Future Part III, and then I took them to Walmart so they could get something for Summer while I picked up what I needed for our family dinner.

They all went outside to play cards in the weather while I baked potatoes. Then Eaddie and Noah wanted to ride bikes to my parents’ house, so Summer took them while I drove with Autumn.

The kids wanted to swim in spite of our warnings that the water was ice cold, so they ran around outside while Julie and I got things cooking inside. Summer helped me scoop potatoes out so I could twice-bake them, and Dad got the charcoal going so Julie could grill the steaks she picked up at the butcher in Centerville.

Dinner was pretty great, though I had the same frustrations I always have with steak dinners. The steaks always end up cold by the time we get salads and everything else ready to eat. That’s why I prefer to eat the salad while I’m cooking everything else, and then have my steak right off of the grill.

Eaddie and Noah really wanted to ride around on the bikes some more after dinner, so Summer finally relented and let them ride to Sequoyah until we were ready to leave. Then she rode out to them while Autumn and I drove everything else back home.

Summer dropped Noah off and took Eaddie home, then Autumn and I followed after some cleanup at my house. Then we watched an episode of Iron Fist before bed.

I’m glad we could all make time to meat like this.

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Sign of the Times

I unintentionally slept in super late today. Summer took the rest of the week off, so she was up doing things long before I got around. When I did finally get up, I rushed to check on the Stalk Market in Animal Crossing, then sat down to try and get some work done.

The high school got their new sign installed, and now they want to use it to showcase their virtual graduation somehow. I watched a recording of the training Ben got on the software, and though 500 slides seems like a lot, they weren’t really taking into consideration the fact that animations take up around 100 frames of that. It certainly felt to me like we were oversold and under-delivered.

It took me all day to get the beefy software downloaded and installed, I’m guessing mostly due to the large file size of all the animations. I didn’t pay too much attention to the noise the girls were making, but I know Autumn did spend a good portion of the afternoon preparing dinner.

She made an orange chicken dish that called for freshly battered and air-fried chicken breast chunks. The air frying was a no-go for me, but the overall dish was pretty good. If I’m going to “fry” something, I’m going to fry it. Toaster ovens need to stay in their lane.

After dinner, Summer tried to get the girls to complete some chores and I headed home to clean up for their impending arrival. My Gorilla Ladder arrived via UPS in what amounted to a tattered plastic trash bag, so it got roughed up a bit more than I would have liked. It really won’t make any difference when I use it though.

When the girls got here, I made some popcorn for Autumn, then pulled out my old Cuisinart ice cream maker. I picked up a couple clearanced strawberry ice cream mixes at Walmart a while back, and finally had the milk and cream to put it all together. I think I should have split the batch, but as I pulled some out for us to eat, the stuff that was left in the bowl iced up quite nicely for storage.

Autumn and I were going to start Game of Thrones, but she got sleepy about three minutes into the first episode, and gave up. I put Summer to bed, and Eaddie and I watched another episode of Iron Fist. It was much better than the first episode of the season, and actually got me wondering about the future episodes. Time will tell.

In five years, I see myself with the same job title, about the same salary, and significantly more responsibilities.

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Ache Rolls

My body felt completely battered this morning. We took our time getting out of bed, then Summer woke Eaddie up and we had some leftovers for lunch. Julie wanted to uncover the pool, so the girls sat around watching The Voice and I did laundry while we waited for her to be ready. Eventually we did get out of the house and across town, and we uncovered the pool pretty quickly and easily by shifting the whole cover, then fan folding it from the middle.

My parents had egg rolls ready to fry when we finished with the pool, so I stood out and fried them before we went inside to eat. They stayed busy cleaning up outside, and the girls and I ate inside once the rice was done. Summer eventually had to get home to do her own chores around the house, so I went home to clean up. Jack showed up online and I spent some time catching up with him before Johnny got on. Then I joined them in a really terrible game of PUBG where the game seemed to run pretty smoothly, but my mouse lagged nearly a full second behind for some reason. One game was enough, and then I was off to Summer’s.

Eaddie was still up and bored, and I was super hungry, so I snacked a little bit. Eaddie shared some of her apples and Tajín with me, and we watched an episode of Luke Cage until I was ready to pass out.

Overripe Banana: 3/5
With Tajín: 2/5
With Cheddar: 4/5

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I Made Sliders

My medication alarm kept nagging me awake this morning, and I got up to make an “everything” sandwich for lunch. I got the girls up and had to go out to air up my front bike tire again since it was completely flat. Then we rode to the shop for lunch with Summer. There was quite a bit more traffic in the middle of a Friday, but we managed without too much trouble.

They were pretty busy, so Summer had us go upstairs to eat inside away from the paying customers. I guess the bagged sandwich was too loose and the meat and cheese slid down through to the other sandwiches, leaving Autumn’s first end piece without. It wasn’t terrible to correct though, and we had a feel-good lunch. Afterward we rode back home, the long way again, through the city park. The heat was hot and the ground was dry, but the air was full of sound.

When we got home, we drove back to the shop so Autumn could stay and work for some money to “buy” the Matrix from her grandparents. Eaddie had to get her bag with a change of clothes too, since she forgot to bring the bag inside last night.

With just the two of us left, Eaddie and I decided to try and clean up the house a little bit. We were going to start in the garage, but as it got warmer that felt less appealing to her, and she landed in the kitchen instead. She poked around a little bit while I got some dishes shuffled. We didn’t get a whole lot done, but at least it seemed like a noticeable difference.

Summer and Autumn eventually came home and we had to figure out dinner. We were craving Chinese but decided against Sumo because of the price. Then Summer got set on Brown’s but I discovered they had shut down for a few days to remodel for social distancing. At a buffet. Still seems like a bad idea, especially with how many old people eat there.

We ended up getting Wendy’s, then came back home and ate while we watched Autumn’s pick of The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. Summer seemed a bit broken after a decidedly non-happy ending, but we made it better with some Yahtzee and Moana. Julie invited us to kayak tomorrow, so we called it an early night to give us plenty of time to get everything together for Summer’s first time on the creek.

Listen. For a thousand years, I’ve only been thinking about keepin’ this hair silky, getting my hook, and being awesome, again.