Now That’s How You Wedding

Summer made an assortment of foods for breakfast this morning. My leftover Popeye’s biscuit with sausage, egg, and cheese didn’t need any of the hollandaise sauce she made, but was equally delicious. I left shortly after that to take a shower and make it to Mark’s to work on some printer configurations. I was a bit surprised when I received a negative test page that was covered in toner and white text.

I had to cut that short after some gossip in order to get back home and ready for a wedding. Summer’s employee Justin was getting married, and I still had to tie an eldredge knot. I made it up the hill to pick up Summer and Autumn, and we ran to Lamar for the wedding.

We arrived at the Bacchus Family Adventure Farm, and were pretty charmed by what they had laid out. The weather was just perfect. There was a covered, open air pavilion for the ceremony, and then a petting zoo just up a little hill. The ceremony wasn’t quite the shortest I had ever seen, but it also wasn’t held in a cold, windy gazebo at the park in the dark of night. It really was perfect. The petting zoo had a surprising assortment of critters willing to eat some Fruit Loops. Then the reception area was really nicely done as well.

The surprise of the trip was the number of people I knew. Kelli was a bridesmaid. Carl, who I hadn’t seen in years, works with the bride. Being awkward as ever, I waved him and his friend(?) over to sit with us. It was a really great time catching up. I hope every wedding I ever have to attend for the rest of my life is more like this.

When we got back to town, I dropped the girls off to pack, then headed home. When they got there, we watched the first episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier. I thought it was fantastic how such different types of stories all fit so perfectly in the same universe. Summer thought it was stressful. She went on to bed afterward, and Eaddie and I watched some YouTube, then an episode of House before she passed out in my lap.

Yes, the carnivorous arctic fox you see here in Arkansas just loves carrots.

Driven Mad

I must not have slept well last night, because I could barely crawl out of bed this morning. I begrudgingly made it to work and settled in though, and after a while it was fine. I picked at a few things here and there, successfully keeping busy, though possibly not looking so. I did at least feel helpful and accomplished.

Zach and I went to Wendy’s for lunch since the lobby was finally open again. It really shouldn’t have been, because that place was a joke. It took us forever to place our orders, the kid behind the counter seemed super flustered and kept having to run around doing things twice because he wasn’t doing things efficiently, like passing out cups, lids, and straws all separately. The food, though it appeared to be made fresh, was relatively cold when we sat down to eat it. It just wasn’t at all what we’ve come to expect from our favorite burger chain.

After lunch, I rode to the high school to try and help Mike with some stuff. He was super scattered as usual, but we eventually made some progress. I did have to run back to the shop for some parts we discussed before lunch, but at least we got started. I ended up working a bit late after only making enough cable to hook up four computers.

Dad came over after work to meet another guy to quote us on the bathroom remodels. I liked these guys the most out of the four we’ve had come out. They were young and respectful, and were clearly the guys that would be doing the actual work. They took note of what we wanted, and offered useful comments without any extra fluff or ambiguity.

Summer dropped Eaddie off with me so the two of us could go to CiCi’s after everyone left. Autumn went to the gym as a sort of punishment for last night, and Eaddie and I had a nice little date night. We ate and talked for quite a while before riding back home to finish up her last episode of WandaVision. We couldn’t resist watching one more, but now we just have the finale for this weekend.

When we got up to Summer’s, Autumn was working on a school project but wanted to talk about her feelings after realizing she needed some money and permission to go on a band trip. It was a super easy decision for me, but Summer was more empathetic. Maybe I’ve just had too many insincere apologies, but I’m not going to let her jerk us around like that. Everyone shuffled off to bed pretty quickly after that, and I followed suit.

Wolf!

Spring is Coming

I slept super hard and super long last night, barely waking up before noon. By then it was a beautiful day outside, so we pretty quickly decided to take everyone to my house so they could ride bikes. Noah took Autumn, and Summer, Eaddie, and I went to Little Caesar’s for some pizzas. We quickly ate, and then the kids took off on the bikes for the day. Summer and I went outside to help Bác Vân in the yard, and then I started picking through things in the garage.

Dad came by for a little while and chatted, and eventually Summer left for the gym. When the kids got back, Noah took off right away and I took a shower. Then we headed back up to Summer’s for the evening. She brought home some chicken, and I cooked it with some Rotel in the Instant Pot so we could have tacos.

We wrapped up the day with a couple games of Uno, in which I destroyed all the competition. The girls all went to bed early, while I struggled to do the same after sleeping all day.

You’ve gotta be poopin’ me.

Pipe Nightmare

I got up this morning and had a leftover pancake. The girls had their own things to do, so I went home to do some laundry and shower. It took me a little bit to notice, but eventually I discovered my bathroom floor had flooded from what I could only assume was a frozen pipe. Then I checked outside and found water all over the garage floor and coming down the driveway. The weird thing was that I had been through part of the garage recently, but never noticed any water.

Dad came over and helped clear a path and pull the cabinet away from the wall. We never saw any dripping from the pipe, but there was a lot of water there. It just didn’t make sense for there to be that much water. It took us a while to find the shutoff valve because the box by the street was flooded and filled with mud and roots. David came over from next door and helped me find it, and we finally got it shut off so we could pull the old faucet.

Once we had everything out, we went to Lowe’s to pick up a new valve. The guy that helped us was friendly enough, but definitely misguided when trying to find the part. Ultimately we got something different that would work, and headed home to finish the repair. It took us the better part of the day, but we got it fixed and I cleaned up the bathroom floor the best I could. At least that’s something I’d been meaning to accomplish lately anyway.

I got my laundry done and took a shower, then headed up to Summer’s for the evening. She made some excellent fish tacos and a cake, then we played Uno with the kids. Noah was over for the night, so he and Eaddie watched TV and I went to bed early.

It’s all just a bunch of wood sitting on top of some concrete.

The Great Kitchen Cleanout

Summer went back to work today, so it was up to me to get the girls on chores. Autumn was up early and obviously wanted to go to their friends’ house, so she kept busy. Eaddie, on the other hand, woke up late and mostly lazed around as she showered and got ready for the day. I stripped most everything out of the kitchen cabinets and did some reorganizing. Not everything had a home in the end, so there was a lot left out on the counters by the time Summer got home.

I had pulled out the turkey stock I made from our Thanksgiving turkey carcass, and whipped up a noodle and vegetable soup out of them. Summer took the girls to their friends, then went to the gym before coming back home to eat. Then we watched Stardust and gawked at the list of stars cast.

It won’t be much longer before all the snow has melted.

Chow, Man

Autumn got up and made unleavened pancakes and eggs for breakfast this morning. Then we finished Cobra Kai. It’s been an incredible show, so we’re anxious to see the next season when it comes out. As the day carried on, Summer eventually got dressed for the gym. I took the time to go home and clean up before coming back before dinner.

Noah came over for the evening, and we went to my parents’ house for dinner. Mom made chow mein with broccoli and cauliflower, which was great. Surprisingly, every one of the kids chowed down on it. Dad smoked the pork I brought over yesterday, but we weren’t sure if it was really done. He finished it up in the oven as we headed home for the evening.

Everyone went to bed pretty quickly, because Noah had to work early the next day. Eaddie came and sat on her computer with me for a little while, and we raced each other in QWOP for a little bit. Then I burned some time on Cookie Clicker and Universal Paperclips.

Actively idle.

Eat It, Fix It, File It, Find It, Wipe It, Roll It, Fail, Upgrade It

I met Josh and Aaron at Waffle House for breakfast this morning. We had a really good time catching up over coffee, and we collectively realized that we’ll have to just schedule something every month, like the old folks that congregate for breakfast at Hardee’s every Sunday.

When we left there, I stopped by Mark’s for about an hour and finished up some work for him. I was successful with everything I had to touch today, which was a relief. Hopefully the Outlook sync finished up fine after I left. There was still plenty of the day left to waste unintentionally, so I went home to try and clean up while the girls were gone.

I filed some old paperwork, but couldn’t find my old Fiero title. I assumed it never left my parents’ house. Summer came back by for a little bit to help, but I had already lost my way for the most part. While I was running around the house, I had trouble getting music to play on the speakers I wanted. I ended up pulling out an old router and wasting the rest of the afternoon trying to set it up as a range extender to see if better WiFi coverage would help.

The girls eventually came back over and we went to my parents’ house for spring rolls. Dad picked up Nova for dinner as well, and then we all sat down to watch Rustlers’ Rhapsody. I didn’t realize how old it was until I looked it up later, but I should have known.

When we got back home, I completed my wireless repeater setup and put Summer to bed. Finally, Eaddie and I ended the night with the last episode of the first season of House.

What’s so great about you is you always think you’re right. And what’s so frustrating about you is you are right so much of the time.

Stick to your Ribs

I had to get up a little early this morning to run across town and do some work for Mark. Summer took Autumn home while Eaddie stayed here and had a video conference for band. Eventually they all went home to clean up before Summer took them to stay the night with their father.

When I finished up with Mark, I ran across the street and chatted with Robert for a little bit. I picked up a rack of ribs and a giant beef rib that I let get mostly cold while I sat and waited between customers to get some time to catch up.

We got back to the house around the same time and ate some ribs. Then we spent the rest of the night finishing up the second season of Cobra Kai. I’m anxious to see where they go from here.

Strike hard.

The “S” is for “‘Spensive”

It was another quiet day at work, which meant I got to tinker with some older projects and things. I was ultimately successful with my Microsoft Office uninstall/upgrade task, and I think I have Web Help Desk configured in a way that will help me keep a better eye on both the junior and high schools.

Summer took the afternoon off and met me for lunch at Brangus. The food was good, but the service was lackluster, or at least mostly absent. I spent the afternoon at the junior high fighting a copy machine. It could have gone worse, but I was pretty sure it was the fault of the printer.

After school, I took Eaddie with me to the shop, then to the high school to pick up Autumn. Then I took them home where Summer had made a delicious pork chop dinner. We watched an episode of Glee, and then I had to head home to do some laundry.

The Samsung Galaxy S21 and its premium variants were announced recently, and Google Fi had a 50% discount promotion, so I finally started the process of porting my old Sprint number over. I’ll save money in the long run, but for now this is just another expensive toy. I figure I’ll eventually switch over to it as a primary device when the 90-day requirement runs out for the promotion.

Don’t worry, there’s no charge.

It’s Complicated Salad

We slept in a little bit today before the girls left. I had big plans that ended up being big dawdling around the house. Eventually I made it up to Summer’s for dinner, where she planned chicken tacos with lettuce leaves instead of tortillas. The execution was more annoying than anything else for me, since I could have just made a salad with the same taco-inspired toppings and eaten it with a fork instead of having to get up and completely wash my hands in the middle of the meal. I hate messy food, but I eat tacos because they’re delicious.

It’s back to normal tomorrow, and I just hope it’s not awful.