Tag: food

Uncategorised

Quarantine Away from Home

Eaddie really didn’t want to go to Little Rock with us for Autumn’s appointment, but today she actually behaved really well in spite of her frustration. Summer got up and made eggs and corned beef hash for breakfast, and then we all got ready to leave. My trolling motor came in for the boat, so I stopped by the house to bring it inside, and then we hit the road.

I wasn’t sure what traffic to expect on a Tuesday at lunch time, but it wasn’t awful. There were still lots of cars on the highway, and Waze had my route all kinds of jacked up, but we made it with time to spare. Rather than drag everyone in, I dropped Summer and Autumn off at the entrance, then parked and sat in the car with Eaddie. She spent the whole time on her phone, and I ended up video calling Suzanne to check in. She took me along on her walk around the neighborhood until Autumn was finished.

We didn’t even bother trying to do anything else in Little Rock, and headed back to Conway instead. Eaddie stayed in the car again while the three of us went in to Sam’s for some supplies. I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised at the types of people that were there, or the change in behavior. There still wasn’t any toilet paper to be had, but at least it was quiet.

When we left, I ordered a couple pizzas from Old Chicago, and we took them home to eat. I wasn’t really impressed with the pizzas, and the restaurant was eerily quiet. It’s always been a treat to dine in there, but for 30 bucks after a BOGO deal, I would have preferred Pizza Hut.

After we ate, Summer had a little workout while I looked up a manual for her Bowflex. I figured out how to get some more features out of it, so she was happier with her improved workout away from the gym. Then we went to my house and rode bikes to the high school so I could water my plant. The doors were physically locked, so rather than continue looking for another way in after the announcement that one of the staff there tested positive for COVID-19, we headed back home where I continued to clean out the garage while Summer went for a run.

When we got back to her house, she made some pico de gallo and I started some refried beans in the Instant Pot. She went to bed before I even got the pot sealed, but when it was done and I got them mashed up, I got Eaddie out of her room to try them. Then I made us a couple little baby bean burritos before we sat down to a couple episodes of Luke Cage.

So long as nobody got the coronavirus, I’d call today a success.

Uncategorised

Mandatory Fun

Summer got up this morning and made pancakes for breakfast. Then we snuggled up for some Master of None for a little while before Autumn came in and pitched an absolute fit about wanting to go visit her grandparents. I simply couldn’t empathize with her, because I’ve never been that way with anyone. Especially not at her age, and doubly so for being in the middle of a public health emergency. I get being cooped up for two weeks has been different, but it’s been far from difficult. We’ve had everything we could possibly need, and she’s always the one to sit around and do nothing anyway. Even when we did try to get out and actually do something outside of the house, she resisted when everyone else showed nothing but excitement. Realistically, the only thing she’s really missed out on is a bunch of Wendy’s and a “proper” public school education. After a bit of screaming and crying, Summer went and talked to her one-on-one, and then had me join them to talk about her frustrations with me. Who knows if any of it will stick, but at least I’ve made my own motives clear.

After that, she turned around and wanted to make a board game, so she and Summer found the old box from Summer’s digital smart scale and started to paint it. I played and tinkered for most of the day, and got the kids to play a tiny bit of the Switch with me. Most of the day felt kind of like a wasted blur of a day. Summer and Autumn did get together to make a spaghetti and meatball dinner, and then we played a long and complete game of Phase 10 in which I decimated even the Dominant One.

Summer ended the evening in bed with a little TV before going to sleep. Overall it was a good evening, but I wish I had gotten to spend a few hours at home.

And with that, Spring Break 2020 was over.

Uncategorised

If the Wild Bird Could Speak

Sleeping in this morning was pretty typical for how it’s been the past couple weeks. I woke up for a while in the morning and couldn’t sleep, then eventually fell back asleep until close to noon. I got up to make breakfast for the kids that were still asleep and chopped up some bacon for eggs, Rotel, and rice. About the time I finished cracking thirteen eggs into the pan, Autumn came around the corner with a comically large pizza that you only see in cartoons. Their father was supposed to bring that for dinner so Summer and I could have our steak dinner together, but evidently plans changed.

I ate my share of the rice and eggs by myself and played some Overwatch until Noah was ready to go by Western Sizzlin’ to pick up his paycheck. We stopped to see Summer on the way out, then went by my house so I could take care of the usual things. Then it was back up to Summer’s to sit in on the kids until she got home.

Eaddie spent all day cleaning her room while Autumn and Noah sat in front of the TV. Eaddie got out a tiny bow and arrows, and I lost one over the fence. I wandered around through the foliage and down the road to look for it, but couldn’t find it for all the brush. I headed back empty-handed and eventually got to prepping potatoes for baking. Summer and I were going to have our steaks.

When she got home, I started the steaks and asparagus on the grill, and we had a quiet dinner. Eaddie came and sat with us and had some as well, and Autumn and Noah picked at leftovers. Summer went to bed pretty soon after dinner, so I hung out with Eaddie for the rest of the evening. She had pretty much finished cleaning and rearranging her bedroom, but I helped get power to where she needed it. She had a CD player that wouldn’t work, so I took it apart twice to find both places it was assembled incorrectly, and got it to work.

And she knows all the ways of the wind.

Uncategorised

A Healthy Alternative to Netflix and Chips

Summer left for work this morning, and I slept in with the kids. It was nice being at home for a change, though things were frustratingly cluttered. Summer wanted me to take her to the doctor for her leg pain, so I ran by Sonic to get the kids some 99-cent cheese sticks before taking her to Millard Henry. I didn’t want to go inside on account of the pandemic, so instead I sat in the car playing Plague Inc. While I sat there, I saw a couple girls pull up in another car, and the one driving reached down to hide some trash under her car before they got out. I should have honked or something, but instead I spent the next few minutes fantasizing about fetching the trash and sticking it under her windshield wipers. In the end, inaction won and the environment lost.

After a bit over an hour, Summer came out and we ran by Rose Drug before I took her back to work. Next up was figuring out a late lunch or early dinner for the kids. I went to Walmart and loaded my arms up with some hamburger meat and steaks, some lunch meat and cheese, a couple loaves of French bread, and a bin of spring mix for balance. I went home and made an epic sandwich that left everyone relatively healthily fed. Even Summer wanted some, so I took her one before coming back home and getting the bikes out.

Noah and Eaddie were both super excited to get out of the house. Autumn took a little extra convincing as usual, but she ended up having fun. We all rode to the high school and raced through the park and around the campus. Eaddie kept losing her hat in the wind because she refused to wear it backwards. Autumn was predictably sluggish, but the others just kept taking off with all their pent-up energy.

It was pretty hot out, so we all made it back to the house a bit sweaty. I had trouble getting the garage door open, and the girls ended up in the shady back yard for a bit. Eventually we did get in, and the kids went back to The Simpsons. Summer came over after running 5k at the park, then took the girls home. Noah wanted to ride to his friend’s house, so I took the time to clean house a bit before getting a shower and then taking him back up to Summer’s for the evening.

Summer was ready to pass out on the couch, but we watched Ronny Chieng’s Netflix special while I had a salad and a little pasta for dinner. By the time I got to Autumn’s chocolate cake for dessert, she had passed smooth out, so I put her to bed and then watched one of Tom Segura’s specials with Noah until bedtime.

Self quarantining has me biking, planting tomatoes, and eating at home. What a concept.

Uncategorised

Waterlogged

I had trouble sleeping this morning for a while, but eventually went back down until the noon alarms went off. I got out of bed and made a ham, egg, and cheese sandwich for myself. Then Summer came home super early and wanted one as well. Eaddie was forced out of her room, and Noah got out to mow the lawn. Eaddie eventually went out to help with the front yard as well while Autumn put Moana on.

When the movie was done, I went home to clean up for everyone to come over. The weather was super nice and I wanted to try and have a fire for the kids since they’d been cooped up for nearly two weeks. Unfortunately even the coals inside the fire pit were soaking wet, even though there was a tarp over the whole thing. I haven’t quite figured that one out. All the wood in my pile was soaking too, so after spending way too much time trying to get it to light, I gave up and started the grill. Of course hot dogs didn’t take any time at all, so I felt wasteful with the charcoal, but at least everyone got fed.

Summer got really nostalgic for Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and made us all sit down to watch it. We only made it about halfway through before she was ready for bed though. I took a shower, and then we stayed up a while longer talking about how awesome my facial hair is. Then when she fell asleep I chatted with Eaddie for a little bit before going to bed myself.

Maybe the heat wave tomorrow will dry it out.

Uncategorised

A Little Stir-Crazy

I couldn’t get back to sleep this morning after Summer got up for work. I tried laying there for a while, but I just couldn’t make it happen. When I got up to take my morning medication, I was up for good. I wasn’t ready to face the world quite yet, even the limited view of it that we’ve had all week, so I tinkered on my phone for quite a while. I ended up in the Robinhood app, as I often do, and found myself longing for some green bars. I realized we may not have seen the bottom of the crash yet, but I’d had a few bucks sitting unused in the account anyway, since I had to make a deposit to receive my free stock. I threw a few more bucks into the account and made some buy orders.

By then two thirds of the children were awake, so I got up to see what the day had in store. Summer was coming to get Autumn so they could take food to a friend recovering from an accident. They brought back some Taco Bell for the rest of us too, so Summer and I ate together until she had to get back to work. Then Autumn started trying to muster everyone else to help clean house. Eaddie woke up in a mood that she couldn’t quite get over all day, so that was exciting. I played some Overwatch and Noah played some Flash game for a while, and I tried downloading Warcraft III for him.

Eventually Autumn decided she wanted to make hamburgers to go with the tater tots we bought on our last supply run. She also wanted to set up the badminton net again. Everything was a chore for the little one. Summer got home and Autumn started putting dinner together. I played outside for just a little bit before realizing I had to run home for the deep fryer power cord. While I was there, Bác Vân was chipping bark all the way around my pine tree to make a flower bed in the middle of the yard. It seemed to me that she was just making an ugly tree with no pants-bark.

Back on the hill, Autumn got the burgers on the grill and I got the taters in the fryer. The sun had gone down, so the kids got the badminton set disassembled again. Dinner was pretty good, but mine left me unsatisfied due to the mess alone. Summer ended up sending Eaddie to bed, then going to bed herself. I joined her for a bit of conversation until she was ready to fall asleep, then chatted with Eaddie before finishing up my own evening routine and heading to bed.

Uncategorised

Sheltered Ham

Day eight of quarantine kept us in all day long. Summer got up and made bacon and eggs for breakfast. She and I made bagel sandwiches out of it, which turned out really great. Then she spent much of the day trying to coax the kids into cleaning house. In the afternoon, we watched Yes Man while Summer had a workout on her Bowflex. Eventually it came time for me to start warming up a ham for dinner.

Walmart was mostly out of meats when we went for supplies, but they had lots of spiral cut hams. We always have weeks worth of leftovers after Christmas, so I figured a ham would be perfect for dinner, sandwiches, and eventually a nice ham bone soup. It was my first time cooking a ham, and there was even less to it than I imagined. Everyone really liked it too, which was an awesome surprise. It’s not often we get everyone to agree on dinner. Summer made mashed potatoes and broccoli with cheese, one of Eaddie’s absolute favorites.

Autumn wanted to end the night with some Monopoly, so she, Summer, and I played a game that tipped between the three of us until I eventually came out on top. Summer had to go to bed for work in the morning, so Noah, Eaddie, and I ended the night watching Cabin in the Woods. I had wanted to see it for a while, but I was glad I didn’t make Summer watch it with us. I thought it was alright, but in the end it was more of a check off of a list.

Hide ya kids and hide ya wife, cause they infectin’ err’body up in here.

Uncategorised

Exploring the Wastelands

We slept in quite a while today, and then I left for home to clean up and take care of the cat. I moved a couple bettas around because Murderface was looking pretty lame. It never could recover from the face tumors or whatever was going on there. Hopefully being in some circulating water would make a difference, but I had to sacrifice the betta I had there and put her in a stagnant cup, at least temporarily.

Once everything was sorted there, I went back up the hill to pick up Summer so we could venture out into the wild for supplies. What I thought was going to be a relatively small supply run ended up being a really long and expensive shopping trip with little regard for how much stuff I was touching with my bare hands. Of course any time they tell you not to touch your face, it itches like crazy. We filled our cart to the brim, possibly because we were shopping on mostly empty stomachs. Then for the first time in forever, we went to a cashier instead of self checkout. Summer even went to get a second cart to lessen the burden of re-packing the cart with bagged goods. Our cashier was in good spirits, and in true fashion, I was right on the money in guessing how much our total would be.

When we got back to the house, the kids helped unload the car and Autumn started making some pizza dough. Then they set up a badminton net and started playing outside, and it was great to see them outside of the house without any screens in front of their eyes. I had a blast hand-tossing the dough into individual pizzas for everyone to make, and after not too much longer we all got to chow down.

Summer and I went out to join the kids, and I even got in on some badminton myself. I was always pretty good with a shuttlecock. I’m no Olympic bronze medalist, but I held my own against the girlfriend of pure gristle. I was even undefeated against multiple children at once, even when Eaddie tried using a baseball bat.

As the daylight dwindled, the kids came in cranky from having to tear everything back down, and Summer and I snuggled up to Her with the Joker and Black Widow.

Ben and Mike’s Pizza Emporium

Uncategorised

Hunker Down

I slept in just a very little bit today, but got up for a full day of work from home. It was mostly pretty dull with the usual amount of just different kinds of distractions. I have to watch out for eating when I’m just bored, but otherwise I actually feel like I eat healthier just because I’m not restricted to some artificial construct of time. The kids did their work, or at least pretended well enough for someone only barely paying attention. Noah left with some friends again. Summer left work early, and I went home to take care of a few things before coming back for dinner.

I got frustrated that we let my Colton’s birthday coupon expire after talking about going out for two weeks. Autumn made a pretty good chicken Alfredo dinner though, and I loaded up with a pretty good looking salad. The kids ate and then ran off to whatever electronics were distracting them in the moment. Summer went down with a headache, so I laid with her for a while, eventually watching a couple episodes of Master of None to wrap up the first season. Somehow we outlasted the kids, who were all off to bed before the show was over.

Two more weeks of home schooling, and we’ve just had our first tornado drill. This is fine. Everything is fine.

Uncategorised

Playing Work

I got up earlier this morning and trudged out a bunch of laptops to do some work. It was a little difficult to focus on some things, but honestly it probably wasn’t much worse than usual. I definitely noticed network latency in just about everything I did, but I attributed that to being at Summer’s with her ISP-issued equipment. At the end of the day, I got some important things done, and made myself useful and productive.

Noah and Eaddie sat quietly by themselves most of the day. I had to prod Eaddie to start on her homework, but Noah at least got his laptop out on his own. I don’t have a clue whether he actually did any work, but I still struggle with how to motivate any of them.

Summer got home later than she wanted, and I started cooking tilapia for fish tacos. She made some avocado sauce, and I pan fried the fish on the fly for the freshest tacos ever. Autumn was dropped off after having eaten, so the kids all went back to the television, and Summer and I watched an episode of Master of None before bed.

Get comfortable. We’ll be here a while.