Tag: food

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Heavyweight Champion

This morning started out pretty rough after I weighed myself at my heaviest ever. Apparently everything is sticking to my bones now. I thought momentarily that the weight I lost with COVID would stay off, but I gained it all back and then some in record time.

We had a pretty quiet meeting at work, since Thomas was still hoarse and Zach was still out with COVID. Greg was out for his birthday, so Gary sent the others to do a trash pickup at their offices while he and I decommissioned the old domain controller. We ended up having to walk over to the server room to restart the thing, because a drive failure kept it from spinning back up on its own. Fortunately that was the most trouble we had out of it, and everything else went smoothly after we bypassed the warning message.

I had to leave a little before lunch to meet my parents for a call with an accountant. He did share some additional insight, but I wasn’t sure the whole conversation was really what we were looking for. Hopefully it at least motivates them to look into some insurance to protect their assets.

I ran through McDonald’s and Taco Bell for a cheap lunch, that actually totalled $1. Then I went back to the shop to eat and get back to work. I ran to Oakland for a little while before school let out, and eventually headed home to change for Dale’s father’s visitation.

I’ve never experienced anything like this, which was a tiny room with two doors. It was practically a drive-through. Gary eventually showed up so the two of us felt slightly less awkward not knowing anyone else. We watched the slideshow for a while, and eventually filtered out since Dale was constantly gabbing with friends and family coming in.

The girls go to the house a little while after I had changed back into some casual clothes, and we went to my parents’ house for mango soup. Mom also made some sweet potato and shrimp fried fritter things, and some fried rice. The girls really loved the fritters. We chatted for a little while after we ate, and then headed back home to watch a movie.

Eaddie didn’t want to join us, so I made popcorn for Summer and we watched Idiocracy. It wasn’t quite as profound, and was quite a bit more stupid than I was hoping. At least I can finally check it off of my watch list, since it’s been bouncing around for years. Then we watched an episode of Modern Family before Summer went to bed. I tinkered on YouTube a bit longer, and then headed to bed myself.

That’s a long tour. Somebody must’ve run out of money!

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Killing Me, Smalls

I came in to work this morning and had everything of my own wrapped up pretty quickly, so Gary gave me three of his work orders. I went nextdoor to the transportation office first, and picked up a couple old computers to swap out and clean up. Then I went upstairs to get a couple broken laptops. One of them was a broken screen, and the other was a super gross looking one from a remote student.

Thomas came in and appeared to be in good spirits, but he still sounded awful. It seemed a little like he was afraid to show too much weakness from it. The morning went by quickly, and Brody came to the office and took Gary and me to Linhs for lunch. As we were finishing up, Kelsea came in with her family. Evidently she took a half day, so we didn’t see her again.

After lunch was pretty quiet as I finished up the work Gary had given me. I picked Eaddie up from Oakland on the way home, and we watched an episode of Hawkeye until Summer got there. She really wanted to go out for Chinese, and I talked myself into feeling hungry enough to go.

The hostess sat us in the tiniest booth in the place, so it was super awkward for me. Eaddie and I werre both basically sandwiched on either side, between the table and our chair. I overate and felt awful, so I came home and put about a mile and a half on the treadmill. It felt awful for about a mile, but then got better just in time for my shins to start cramping. The only real solution is to stop eating food. Maybe I can just take a Soylent with me so I can still socialize during lunch.

Being value-driven is really going to end me.

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Mario Cam Live

Autumn had a PT event with JROTC this morning, so she was gone all day. Summer got up and made eggs for breakfast, and then we got out the Ring Fit Adventure game to try it out. I think Summer was a little surprised at the workout she got from it. Then Eaddie got out the Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit games to try setting up a track. It was actually really cool, though the cars were a little bit bigger than I expected, which meant they didn’t have quite enough room to make a really good track in their house.

Eventually Summer went to work out, and I took Eaddie to get her phone that she forgot at the junior high, and then to drop her off at her grandmother’s house so she could work on Eaddie’s dress. On the way, we stopped to pick up my “free” taco from Taco Bell, along with a burrito for good measure. Eaddie ate the burrito, and I dumped my taco in the floorboard. There was just enough of it left in the wrapper that I could eat, and then I cleaned up what I could to throw away.

After I dropped Eaddie off, I went home to clean up. Eventually I made my way back up to Summer’s to take her shopping. We went by Lowe’s, then Walmart to pick up dinner. I wasn’t really successful in finding any interesting deals. We picked Eaddie up, then headed home to make tacos.

Summer made all the fresh veggies while I cooked the taco meat and cheese dip. Dinner was great, but I ate way too much. Afterward, we got Mario Kart Live out again and Eaddie played some more. Then Summer went to bed and I laid on the couch with Eaddie to watch Romeo + Juliet. I started dozing off pretty early, and Eaddie decided to save the rest of the movie for tomorrow, so we went to bed.

“Hoes.” That’s what we call a group of women now. Feminism won.

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Frederick’s

I was cold and tired again this morning, so climbing out of bed wasn’t easy. The girls made it out of the house early, and it was warm enough outside that I didn’t have to waste any time defrosting to make it to Oakland on time. I made a couple quick stops there, then made my way to the shop.

It was mostly uneventful there. Zach was back, but out doing things most of the day. I saw Greg a couple times, but not for long. Kyle was in and out while Josh stuck around the shop and worked on the Mac stuff some more. I think we’re all a bit annoyed that the person with the most Apple computers hasn’t really done any of the work here.

We went to Sumo’s for lunch, and the tempura chicken lunch box turned out to be more food than I was expecting. I’m pretty sure I wasn’t supposed to get the fried vegetables and the chicken, but it was awesome that I did.

I went back to Oakland for a quick stop after lunch, and then went to the high school at the end of the day to help Brody with something in Jazz’s room. We couldn’t figure anything out there though, so I left for the day and picked Eaddie up from Oakland, then went home.

Summer was worried about a banging sound she heard on the drive home from Conway, so I met her at the shop to investigate. She thinks it’s a part of the rear wheel well, so we don’t think it’s catastrophic yet. It’s still approaching the time to really consider buying a new car though.

When we finished at the shop, Summer went to the house and I went through Freddy’s drive-through for some frozen custard. The line just barely creeped along, but by the time I thought to time the wait for each car to get their stuff, they had sped up to just a couple minutes per car. I wasn’t very impressed with the volume of custard or toppings though, and the chili cheese fries left a lot to be desired.

It was a pretty short evening after we ate. Eaddie has been staying in her room, Summer watched TV in the living room, and I washed a bunch of dishes before getting ready for bed.

Were you ever in tune with the song life was humming?

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Taco Subscription

I made myself stay up when I first woke up this morning, because I knew if I went back to sleep I wouldn’t wake up for several more hours. We struggled to get out of bed though, and finally got up when Summer went to work on her laptop. I eventually took a shower, and then we left to meet back up at her house after I picked up some Taco Bell for lunch.

I decided to try the $10 30-day taco subscription, since the Doritos Locos Taco Supreme was on the list of options. I figure I can eat $10 worth of those in a month without any trouble. I didn’t get a taco with the purchase of the pass though, so I’ll have to go through again another time to redeem my first one.

We ate, and then Summer went to the gym after she got her laundry started. I thought I’d play a game or something, but ended up piddling on my phone while intermittently letting the cat in and out of the house repeatedly. She just didn’t want to stay in one place, and I kept obliging her every whim.

When Summer finally got back, we met at Harbor Freight to shop for some deals. I finally got a longer level and a multi-tipped mallet, and she picked up a bunch of stuff for work. I warmed up some leftovers for dinner, and then we laid on the couch for the rest of the evening until bedtime.

Minimum effort!

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Fire and Ice and Smoke and Mirrors

We got up this morning and tried not to dawdle too long, because we wanted to smoke some ribs for as long as possible. It was snowing, but we didn’t expect it to snow for as long as it did. I don’t think it ever really stopped all day.

Our first stop was Walmart to pick up what we needed. I got a huge bag of mixed fruit wood pellets, which will last years if I only ever use them in the little A-Maze-N tube smoker I got. Then we had to go to Summer’s to get the ribs and some other things, and finally we headed back to my house to set up the grill with a new tank of propane.

The smoker pellets took better than I expected, even after I dumped them off of the grill while wrestling the propane tank onto its holder. We used some of Summer’s Larry the Cable Guy wild game rub she had stockpiled years ago, which proved to be a mistake. I used way too much, but we wouldn’t know that until we ate them.

The ribs smoked for about three or four hours before I covered them with some old leftover barbecue sauce and wrapped them in foil. Then I let them cook another hour or two while I baked potatoes and made some bacon. Summer made broccoli salad, and then we called it a day instead of making twice-baked potatoes.

It was still snowing big, fat flakes, but the roads were clear enough to get to my parents’ house. We ate and visited for just a little bit, and then headed back home to clean up. We only ate one rack of the ribs, and they were extremely salty. The rub was overpowering, so I couldn’t even really tell that it had a smokey flavor. It may help to eat the next rack with some plain rice to cut the seasoning.

As we settled in for the night, I got Summer to stay up late and watch The Prestige. I’d been wanting to watch it again for quite a while, so I was glad to check it off the list. Summer didn’t feel great for most of the evening, so we wound down pretty quickly and went to bed.

Are you watching closely?

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You’ve Got to Build Bypasses!

We got up early this morning and headed to Cabot, stopping just outside of Conway at a Sonic for breakfast on the road. Summer met up with the managers of that new location to deploy tools and set up anything they could. I left them pretty early to go to Walmart across the street.

I wandered around the store just checking things out at first. Then I circled back through to pick up a few things. I found some Fruity Pebble flavored Mrs. Butterworth’s syrup, a Zelda Game & Watch, and some slap bracelets. When I left there, I stopped by the Goodwill in the adjacent shopping center, but they had absolutely nothing even remotely interesting to me.

Back at the shop, it appeared to be an extremely slow day, and not at all a full day of work worthy of the drive out there. It was lunch time, so we tried to go to Chef Candace, but the doors were locked. We ended up going across the street to Deer Creek Fire & Stone. Our server said it was her first day, but appeared old enough that I didn’t really believe she had never waited a table before. Service was slow, but the food was alright. I was most disappointed that she said the pot pies, which were on the lunch specials menu, “weren’t ready yet.”

After we ate, we went back to the shop and put together a few more things. I helped hang a couple charging banks in the back room, and then helped assemble the desk for the office. When we finished, we headed toward Bryant to pick up my order from Target, but went through the car wash in Benton first.

We walked all around Target, picking up some Christmas clearance before going back to the front to pick up my order. They actually had two of the Tron: Legacy vinyls, and I got both. Then we headed to Little Rock for dinner. Traffic was heavy, but not unmanageable. We were welcomed home at the Star of India, and had an incredible meal. The food came out quickly, but otherwise the service was very slow. A couple of boys circled around the place like buzzards and made sure my water was never more than an inch below the brim. We really could have just split what I ordered, but instead we just left with a bunch of leftovers.

It was straight to bed once we made it home. The girls were still in Clarksville, and Summer was sore from her day. Evidently she’s got to work in Maumelle tomorrow.

You no touch plate!

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How the Grinch Stole Chromebooks

I made it through McDonald’s and Casey’s for my freebies again this morning. Then I rolled into work a few minutes early, where we sat around the shop chatting for about an hour. Thomas started to split us into groups to see who could go home at nine, but I wanted to finish swapping Chromebooks at Oakland, so I left.

I was alone in the building most of the time, but as I made my way back to the front of the building, I saw Librado and Brittany coming through with their vacuums. I finished up pretty close to noon, stopped back by the shop to drop off the old Chromebooks, and then went to see Summer at Superfast for a couple minutes.

When I got home, I spent some time picking up and filing old paperwork. Eventually Autumn dropped Eaddie off so we could go practice riding or driving, but all she wanted to do by then was ride her bicycle. I let her take off, and then I spent the rest of the daylight putting together one of the storage cabinets I got the other day.

Eaddie got back as the sun was setting and wanted me to take her to her grandparents’ house for the night. On the way, I mentioned wanting to try The Crackhouse food truck on 4th Street. We stopped in long enough to learn they couldn’t take credit at the time, then ran home for some cash. When we got back, I ordered a variety platter, burger, and shrimp plate.

By then, it was too late for Eaddie to be of much use at her grandparents’ place, so we went home to eat with Summer. The food was really good, but super overpriced. The crab was small and difficult to extract, but the shrimp was great. Eaddie really wanted to stay the night at my house, but we ended up staying put for the night. She and Autumn spent some time together in Autumn’s room while Summer went straight to bed. I was pretty exhausted myself, so I went to bed early too.

Give me a break, give me a break!

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Alright, Bud

I woke up feeling pretty sick this morning after last night. I made it through my shower and to work, but it didn’t get better for quite a while, and I never quite made it back to 100%. Thomas was at work, but Zach and Gary were out. The others got together and split up into groups to close old work orders, and I went to Oakland to swap out old Chromebooks.

Brody called and said they were going to Fat Daddy’s downtown for lunch, so I went back to the shop and picked a group of them up. After we ordered, our server told us they were slammed with a short staff, and it showed when it took an hour to get our food. That would have made more sense if the food was actually hotter or fresher. They never cease to disappoint me, this time with a tough, dry tortilla, lukewarm filling, and dry, tough brisket. All of that was $17, and of course the server stands over you while you pay on their handheld device that everyone else has touched, making tipping accurately very awkward. I was out the door for just under 22 bucks, which absolutely disgusted me.

I spent the afternoon with more of the same, not quite finishing what I had started. I should be able to finish tomorrow for our half day though. As I finished, I started a support chat with Google because my Pixel Buds have been giving me trouble with battery life. My right bud constantly dies very early, after only two hours of playback. The battery percentage always reports with some disparity, but the right one has consistently been giving me less than half of the life it should have.

After work, I went home to change and then went to my eye appointment. I nearly fell asleep in the exam room waiting for the new doctor. She was kind, but I don’t think I got great news. It’s odd, because my vision doesn’t seem worse, but she seemed to indicate sub-optimal results. I guess we’ll see in 2023, because I dropped vision insurance for next year.

I went back home and waited for my UPS package, and then went up to Summer’s for the evening. Eaddie and I watched an episode of House while Summer and Autumn watched TV in the living room. Then everyone went to bed pretty early.

Just turn down your muchness.

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People That Clap at Movies

I kept waking up last night as though I was completely full of water. I couldn’t even really sleep in very late because of it. The girls were already awake, so I got up and picked at some old leftovers. Then when Summer and Autumn went to the gym, I left to clean up.

On the way home, I stopped by Ridgewood Brothers to see if they might be free to see The Matrix Resurrections with Mitch and me next week. It didn’t sound very likely, but I had to try. Gary never responded either, until I called him out on it late in the evening.

When I finished getting ready at home, I went to pick up the girls and we made our way to Conway. They really wanted to eat on our trip, so we went to Red Robin first and had some pretty good burgers. I still don’t really think they’re worth the prices they charge, but at least it’s something a little different.

After lunch, we went to Sam’s Club for a bit, then Target. That place was absolutely packed and it was pretty difficult to get around the place. The checkout line stretched back to the cosmetics, but fortunately we pushed a cart around for absolutely no reason and bought nothing. By then, we didn’t have time to dawdle on the way through traffic to the theater.

The Cinemark was packed as well, with several theaters showing the new Spider-Man: No Way Home. We got snacks, sat down, and then I got up for more popcorn just in time to make it back before the previews. The movie was pretty good, but didn’t really have many surprises after all the rumors and spoilers that have been going around. I enjoyed it, and so did the rest of the room as evidenced by the constant clapping any time a character returned. I was pretty disappointed in the 3D, mostly because of the darkness of the projector. I guess I’ll have to just prioritize the large format screens from now on.

When we got back home, Summer and Autumn went to bed pretty quickly. Eaddie and I stayed up and watched several episodes of House, so we’ve only got three more episodes to go.

Planning with adults is stupid. Families are much easier, because they can’t leave.