Tag: food

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On Frugality

I tried not to sleep in too late today, and got up to clean the kitchen before Summer got up to cook breakfast. She made little ham, egg, and cheese pucks that tasted really good, but I think made better sense for a weekly meal prep. It’s super convenient to grab and go during the work week, but on a lazy weekend, for not much more work and an easier dish to clean, I’d rather have custom individually fried or scrambled eggs in a pan.

The girls wanted to watch the last bit of Split from the point Eaddie fell asleep, so we did that through breakfast/lunch until they wanted to go pick Noah up for his 16th birthday. I had fleeting moments of frustration with how wasteful the girls can be, or how they’re unnecessarily messy, or how they can’t seem to correctly put a single fucking lid back on any goddamn thing. It was nice to start and end with a clean kitchen though, so I guess I have their messiness to thank for that. This lid thing is seriously going to awaken the beast pretty soon, though.

After I got my shower, Noah’s pick for a birthday dinner was CiCi’s, so they all came back to pick me up. To contrast how money/waste conscious I am, I had us split into two groups to pay so we could double up on coupons. Everyone got their fill, and then I ran the circuit of dropping everyone off at home for the evening.

This is going to require everyone’s buy-in.

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Meet the Girls

Summer got up and out this morning to pick up Autumn. Eaddie slept all morning until they got back to the house. Jesica texted and said she would be in town, so we decided to meet up for a quick lunch and then some shopping for dinner.

Summer, Eaddie, and I went next door when Bác Vân called with some mashed melon. It was strange and tasteless, but the sugar made it better. Jesica got there and met Autumn before we made it back inside, which I have to assume was awkward and hilarious. From there we went to Burger King for a quick lunch, and then to Walmart for groceries.

We ran into Brandie on our way to pick up kabob skewers, but Summer and Jesica just kept on walking like a pair of awkward children when adults start having a conversation. Eventually they made their way back around so I could introduce them. I think they were mostly shocked that Brandie already knew who they were from my talking about them.

We rounded the girls up and made our way out to start prepping the shish kabobs. We decided to grill at Summer’s house so the girls could get a couple good nights of sleep at home before school starts on Monday. Summer and Jesica had some wine and chatted while I prepped the food. It was a good way for them to get to know each other, and it gave us plenty of time to get hungry again after such a late lunch.

The kabobs turned out pretty great, and the girls all ate over Dinner for Schmucks. Autumn couldn’t finish the movie before passing out as usual. Eaddie had to be told when to go to bed. Jesica was ready to pass out by the time the movie was over, so we let her sleep on the couch. I guess it’s leftovers the rest of the week.

You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not.

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Every Tech for Himself

It’s the last week before school starts, and we’re still occupied with summer projects. I spent most of the morning delivering Chromebook carts with Dale and Amanda. It was a bit aggravating to fully indispose three people for such a task, but such is life in the district. I’d had enough when it came time to deliver a single tech tub with five Chromebooks to my elementary campus while towing a trailer and two extra bodies, so I had them drop me off at my car.

I was just in time to help unload a short pallet of laptops for Jason. I would have thought we would finish imaging mine before he started unboxing his, but the moment I touched my boxes, he had Allen help him unbox all of his and stack them up under one another in all of the imaging stations in the shop. I managed to squeak four extra lines in and ran power so I could continue imaging my own, but it was super frustrating that he had come along and disconnected mine when I was already two thirds done.

Everyone expected to have to go to a presentation with Ben in the afternoon to learn how we would work with non-touch displays in the classroom, but I opted out since all of my teachers were good with the change. Dale, Allen, and I went to Subway for lunch early though, so the two of them could go. When I got back, I continued imaging all of the laptops, both mine and Jason’s, so he could take Amanda to do something else.

Zach insists it’s like this every year, but I maintain my belief that this is worse than last year. He says everyone always stresses out and hates each other, and that I was just working with the rose-colored glasses of being newly hired. Maybe that’s true in that last year I was more willing to just follow orders, but this year I’m really feeling the burn of my coworkers’ knack for slack.

After work, I stopped by the house briefly before heading to my parents’ to grill hamburgers. Dad already had everything ready to go, so I just had to patty the meat and throw it on the grill. Summer got there just as I finished grilling everything. I was pretty happy with how they turned out, though the buns could have been bigger, or else the patties smaller.

When we finished eating, we ran by JCPenney to spend some rewards cash that was due to expire soon, then headed home for bed.

P for Pie is somehow disappointing.

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Easy Overtime

I spent all day working at the high school handout today. It was probably the best day I’ve had at work in a long time. Even when it was busy, things went smoothly and correctly. They’ve done a really good job of making the whole process pretty efficient.

Summer brought Noah in to get his laptop in the afternoon, and we were all done by 3:30. Central Office dismissed us at three, but I still had work to do at the junior high, so I stayed until nearly five.

After that, I went home to get some things and then went to Summer’s for the evening. She made sloppy joes with mashed potatoes and some asparagus that all turned out pretty awesome. Eaddie made cupcakes for dessert, and we played a game of Uno before the kids started watching The Fellowship of the Ring. I played a bit of Limbo before settling down for bed.

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Work Hard, Not Smart

I feel like the new school year is coming faster than I’m prepared for. I still have two labs worth of laptops to take care of on top of the usual setting everyone’s computer back up so they can get back to work. I was excited that I’d get the morning to take care of my own things. That’s about the time Allen asked for help mounting panduit on the walls at his campus. He loaded the entire toolbox into the truck to do this. I had to run to the junior high pretty immediately to take care of a surprise-fried computer, but I called him as soon as I was done. He was sitting in the truck waiting for me to help him unload the toolbox, even though all he really needed was a hacksaw. When I got there, he was parked on the wrong side of the building at the far end of the parking lot. Him saying it wouldn’t hurt me to walk just about set the tone for the rest of the day. No rest for my possibly-fractured foot today.

We spent most of the morning taking care of two panduit runs and then one internal wall run where he cut the pull line I was planning to leave in place for the future. It just kept getting dumber from there, and it was immensely frustrating, but I had to just laugh it off. To care too much there is to drive oneself mad. I spent what little time I had left before lunch at Oakland and tried to take care of a couple work orders. I got tied up with the librarian there, so I didn’t even get to leave lunch until 10 minutes late, so I ended up just going home for a couple slices of leftover pizza.

When I got back to work, we went upstairs to build a few laptop carts, not quite certain how many we needed to build and with what quantity of laptops in each. It mostly didn’t matter, though, because the cables were tied directly to a circuit board, and we maxed out the connections. When we finished, we loaded up two trucks worth of TVs, again for the middle school, and headed to start mounting them. Jason made a comment about mounting them tomorrow, and I scolded him into admitting that we could “probably get one” done before quitting time.

We had to wait at the front door with our load until Dale, Ryan, and Amanda finished unloading theirs and brought us the dolly. While we waited, I started to unload the truck, and Jason made a comment about not wanting to have to lift all the boxes twice in order to get them inside, even though I really didn’t add any extra steps. He was content to lean against the truck and watch me work, so I told him to run inside and find Allen, who was still trying to get two dual monitors working since I left him before lunch. I was finally afforded the silence to unload the entire truck by myself. Once we got everything inside, we managed to mount four TVs before heading back to the shop. On the way to the dumpster, I lost a box in the road, which just frustrated me more after I was made fun of for packing trash the way I do.

After work, I came home and waited for a long-winded Summer to get there so we could go to my parents’ house for dinner. We had a nice talk, then went to eat some bún thịt nướng. She did really great with the chopsticks. We killed a bit of time while a small storm rolled through, then went to the shop to pick up some scrap that I wanted to play with before it was sent to recycling. I feel like a crazy person, and most at work would probably agree, but this type of equipment still has a lot of novelty to me.

Break out the red ink.

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Sous Apprécié

We slept in a bit this morning, but not too much considering when I went to bed. Summer made a few pancakes for breakfast before we headed to Walmart to pick up the things for my first attempt at some sous-vide ribeyes. Autumn wanted to go to her grandparents’ house, so Summer dropped her off while I got the potatoes baking.

Once I had that started, we packed everything up and headed to my parents’ house to re-learn how to cook a steak. Mom started fussing over cooking things differently, so I left a couple steaks out for her to grill traditionally. The rest were salt and peppered, then vacuum sealed with some shallots, garlic, rosemary, and thyme. I had never used my vacuum sealer before either, so that was a little bit of a learning process. Overall everything went pretty well, though. As soon as I finished sealing everything and dropping it into the water, it was time to go home and get the baked potatoes.

I brought the potatoes back to my parents’ house and gutted them for twice-baked potatoes. They turned out really great, but the steaks were the real belle of the ball. After two hours at 138ºF, I pulled the steaks out and finished two of them on a hot cast-iron griddle in the kitchen. The high heat and butter smoked up the whole house almost instantly, so I moved that step outside to the charcoal grill instead. It didn’t finish them quite as perfectly, but it worked and I didn’t have to worry about airing out the house or burning my lungs with all the smoke. Next time I think I’ll cook the steaks at a slightly lower temperature, but these turned out pretty great. I definitely need to season them earlier, and probably with more seasoning next time, but overall I think it was an excellent first try. I can’t wait to try it again to see how I can improve.

After dinner, I took the girls home to pack some things, then met them back to my place for the evening.

Now if I could just figure out where the rest of my weekend went, I’d be in good shape.

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Do you even lift, bro?

We split into uneven groups at work today. I, as usual, was on the heavy-lifting crew with Dale and Ryan. We spent all morning removing SMART boards and projectors from the middle school. We ended up taking down one we weren’t supposed to, but that’s just another day in the hood. While we were there, I ran into – or rather was trailed by – an old classmate, Mark. He stopped me to say hello and let me know he had just moved to the district. It was quite the blast from the past.

My foot had been bothering me quite a bit, so when we took a break for lunch and everyone went out, I decided to stay in and have some leftover pizza from yesterday. After lunch, the three of us went to the junior high to do more of the same. The difference there was that I knew my building and stopped us from doing the three extra rooms that weren’t supposed to be done. We even had some extra time to hang one TV because we didn’t have to wait for painters. Once we got back to the shop, I got to hear Jason complain about how heavy the one sever battery was that they lifted. I was quick to let him know that we lifted every single one of them when we unloaded them from the truck, moved the pallets to the correct building, and then unloaded everything into the server room by hand.

I left work and went to Summer’s as she got some things packed for the evening. I picked Eaddie up at karate and was recognized by an old acquaintance, Kyle, that was an instructor there. He was missing all the hair I knew him by, though. From there, we went to my parents’ house to swim for a while. Summer met us there and swam until it was time to eat. Mom made bún bò Huế, which I guess isn’t really atypical for their anniversary. It is summertime, after all, and there’s mint to be eaten. I wrecked Eaddie’s face in some foosball before we headed back home for bed.

It’s a tough job, but the chairs aren’t just going to sit in themselves.

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Nobody toucha my spaghet!

I got to spend all day at work on my own, and it was nice to only have to motivate one person to work for once. I spent most of the day at Oakland, but made some time for the junior high as well. The start of school casts an ominous shadow over what summer work has yet to be completed.

Gary, Zach, Sara, and I went to Morelo’s for lunch. Summer was at work right across the street, so I took her some on our way back to the shop.

After work, Summer came over and we went to my parents’ house for dinner. We stopped at Atwood’s first to see if they had any deals on kayaks, and then went to Kroger for a loaf of French bread. I’ve missed the garlic bread my parents made when I was a kid because they started buying premade frozen garlic bread slices. Mom watered her garden while I made the garlic bread, and then we ate when Dad got home. My bread didn’t come out as well as I remember it from the past, but I’m not really sure why. I think maybe the oven wasn’t hot enough at first.

Dad and Summer got on a Ray Stevens kick as we finished dinner. Then I snapped a picture of the moon on the way out.

At this rate, there won’t be any left!

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Ghastly Gasping

We got hit with a pretty bad storm last night that knocked out power for half the town for the better part of the day. I was fortunately only without power for a couple hours compared to some others, but it still wrecked my sleeping for the night. I tried sleeping everywhere from the bed, to my computer chair, to the recliner. I had the most luck in the latter, but even that was very sparing as I found myself waking up gasping for air just as soon as I’d get a little deeper into sleep. When the power finally came back on around 4:30, I went back to sleep in the bed and dreamed that I met Elon Musk and proposed an idea that he liked well enough to offer to send me to Mars. Summer wasn’t too happy about it, but I didn’t get to go anyway because I had to pee too badly. His loss.

When we finally got up, Summer and Eaddie left and I ate some leftovers for breakfast. I didn’t do a whole lot else on my own because I was still pretty run down from the mixed night of sleeping. Josh wanted to go out tonight since we missed last night, so once Summer got back from working out, we met him at the Dardanelle Club for dinner and drinks. Our waitress seemed like maybe she was having an off day, but we made the most out of what we had.

After dinner, Summer and I came back home and watched some TV while I did a load of laundry. Here’s hoping to no more surprises tonight.

Like the crack of the whip, I snap attack!

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Heated Rampage

This week really flew by. Half of the crew was out today, so the remaining five of us kept busy with the few things we could do. First thing in the morning, we prestaged 10 of the non-touch TVs at the high school for mounting once the wall mounts come in. I was ready for two more truck loads, but nobody else wanted to do it, so we killed the rest of the morning waiting for a FedEx freight shipment. It finally got there right before lunch, so we unloaded it before heading to Subway for a quick lunch.

I spent most of the afternoon taking care of a few things at Oakland, and then it was home to change into something cooler to deal with the 114º weather. My Yakima FullTilt bike rack came in, so I unboxed it and mounted it to the Murano to check the fitment. It was super heavy, but seemed really sturdy and came pre-assembled. I’m pretty happy with it. The Murano looks ready for so many adventures.

The girls came over as soon as they could, and we took Bác Vân to meet the rest of my family at Western Sizzlin for a birthday dinner for her and my sister. It was a bit chaotic with so many people, but overall I think it went pretty well. Once we parted, we dropped Autumn off at her grandparents’ house for the evening, and the rest of us went back home to watch Rampage. It was pretty silly, yet entertaining. The 3D was excellent again, and I really felt like they’ve started getting that right recently.

I can’t stay awake.