Tag: food

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Just Shrimpy

I got home this morning and discovered one of my cherry shrimp had died. I’m assuming it was just a bad molt, because they all seemed fine yesterday. Can you imagine being trapped and suffocating inside of your own skin?

Work carried on with more random workie stuff. I do find myself annoyed with basically always having a backlog of work to do. It’s not that I don’t care to work the whole time I’m there, but rather that it’s so much more work than what I was doing before.

Lunch time ran a little late, and I found myself at Hardee’s to try their Monster Roast Beef. From the moment I walked in, I felt a little like I was in some kind of slummy neighborhood. What was confusing to me was that I saw examples of great customer service happening around me, but then I felt like I just got the “thank you, now move along” treatment. It was really kind of a weird experience. I felt like that place used to be a lot better. The sandwich was super tasty but surprisingly wet. I guess the roast beef was kept in juice to keep it moist, almost like a pre-soaked French dip.

I didn’t accomplish a whole lot more in the afternoon, and ended the day with some clerical nonsense that drove me a bit mad. I went by the warehouse to pick up some speakers, then home to change and hang out for a while. I made a frozen shrimp pasta dish of some kind that I got from Zach several months ago, and mixed it with some “grilled potatoes” he gave me as well. The whole meal was old enough to be walking and talking, but it tasted alright for what it was.

To wrap up the evening, I headed up to Summer’s and started setting up the speakers, and then we went to bed with the last episode of the second season of Battlestar.

Battlestar Shrimptactica

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IMPOSSIBRU!!!

The high school had a tornado drill this morning, so I started at the shop just to avoid it. When I finally did get to the high school, most of my day was taken up with interruptions and being dragged out of my office to look at something. I spent way too long messing with a touch panel and dock situation, and not enough time doing other older work orders.

Nobody had said anything by the time lunch rolled around, so I just kind of left campus and tried to wing it. I stopped by the taco truck I’ve seen up the road, but they were closed on Mondays. Then I started toward Taco Bell before switching gears to try the Impossible Whopper at Burger King. The app experience was absolutely horrible, and it didn’t matter whether I wanted to place the order online or use a coupon in the restaurant. It took me about 15 minutes just  to get the order in.

Once I finally got my order, I headed to see if I could commandeer Summer for a few minutes. We split a shitty taco, some nuggets, onion rings, and the two burgers. I’m not sure what I expected with the taco, but it was an absolute abomination, and whoever thought it was a good idea should be fired, re-hired, and then fired again. The nuggets and rings were bomb. The burgers were more or less indistinguishable, but I think the takeaway is not so much that we can make fake beef taste good. The lesson here is that Whoppers are terrible. Sure, they managed to make a vegetable patty that tasted like a Whopper, but why would anyone want that?

After lunch was literally more of the same, getting pulled back to the same room for hours, fighting with the same touch panel and display issues. I really just hope the next time she comes around, I’m legitimately in the middle of something so she doesn’t think she can just come and fetch me any time she wants. I ended the day playing with the IVR a bit more, and finally switched the career center over to their automated menu.

When I got home, I pretty much immediately got to checking water quality in the aquariums. Much to my surprise, everything was great! The 10 gallon shrimp tank was within acceptable ranges of everything, but the Imagitarium had perfect numbers. No ammonia, nitrites, or nitrates at all. The carbonate hardness was up a bit, and it had even turned a bit alkaline, which is great for the shrimp. The Tums really worked some magic in both of the tanks.

Eventually I headed up to Summer’s for the evening, and made us salads for dinner before settling down with an episode of Battlestar for bed.

Frakking toaster thinks it’s human!

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Eggs Mark the Spot

When I got out of bed this morning, I knew I had to do something for breakfast. I’d been craving a Casey’s breakfast pizza for a while, and we had a whole leftover cheese pizza in the fridge. I figured I only had a few eggs to lose if it didn’t turn out well, so I cracked them onto the bacon pizza first and threw them into the oven. That turned out pretty well, but I forgot to add extra cheese to the top. With the bacon gone, I was truly down to just the cheese pizza left, so I cut up some summer sausage to throw on top, followed by egg and cheese, and then some chopped up green onions. That time I broiled them and the egg whites didn’t quite cook all the way, so I had to finish them without the broiler. Another success.

Summer decided to tackle the lawn while Noah played video games and I kept digging through my old photos to eliminate duplicates that were taking up space. I finally got down below the 19GB limit I’ll have next month, but I still don’t have a lot of headroom. Hopefully I can score some more promo space somehow in the near future.

I ended up taking a long bath with some Stardew Valley for a while, and I’m not sure I can get into it on mobile. I really just wanted a bigger screen and controller. The girls came home around that time, and it wasn’t long before we had to head out for dinner with my parents. Summer took Autumn to Walmart for some things first, while Eaddie and I went back to my house to take care of the shrimp.

Mom made chow mein, which is one of our favorites. Autumn made some mini burritos out of some leftovers. After dinner, the girls went home to get ready for bed while I cleaned up after the cat. I got done early enough that I could go back to Summer’s for an episode of Battlestar Galactica before bed.

This bath sheet is heavy and ridiculous, and I love it.

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Cellulations

I approached today quite a bit more casually, but still managed to get quite a bit done. It’s likely that I’m not prioritizing properly, but at least I got things closed. I need to hunker down and churn through some 1:1 laptops soon though, because they’re going to stack up on me pretty quickly.

Summer invited us all to the shop for hot dogs during Paint the Town Green & Gold, but nobody else showed up. I mostly stood out in the sun with Ben and just watched cars go by. I was hoping Summer would have a chance to step away and just eat with me, but no such luck. I headed back a bit early since it was so hot, and I had some things to take care of at our office before going back to work. The afternoon went by pretty quickly as I wrapped up the day swapping devices on our Verizon wireless account. I couldn’t tell any particular rhyme or reason for the replacement devices we received, but overall it was pretty painless.

When I got home, I started some laundry before heading out to get the girls from karate. Then we met Summer at Cici’s for dinner before heading back home. Once laundry was stowed away, it was off for an early bedtime.

I like me better when I’m with you.

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Sleeping In at Home

Summer had to work today, which meant I got to sleep in at home for the first time in a long while. I started the morning with the shrimp and just kind of lounged around all morning and early afternoon. When I finally got around, I tinkered with the computer some and got to play with PRTG, which is something I installed but then sort of abandoned last year. I even had a little fun adding some custom device icons.

Eventually I got around to bathing, then waited a bit until Summer got here from the gym and a shower. We went to my parents’ house for duck soup for dinner, and then came home for a few tense episodes of Battlestar Galactica.

No, no, no. It’s “frak.”

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Please listen carefully, as our menu options have changed.

I came in to work this morning ready to get things done. My first stop at the arena was a bust, but then I sat down in my office and just bit right into the Avaya system. I dug through manuals and samples, and got an IVR built. I even found an unused phone number that worked with a vanity number. I was super proud of it, even if it probably took me way longer to create than it should have. By the time lunch rolled around, I was super hungry. Allen and Jason were going to Arby’s, so I met them there. On the way back, I felt like it was nice enough to take the bike out, so I went home to trade.

I worked late hunting down a bunch of existing network lines, and got it mostly figured out. Then I went home to change before going to pick up the girls for karate. Summer was almost off work, so I went to my parents’ house to meet her for more leftovers. When I got home, I had to clean up the Imagitarium a bit because the screen I put over the filter to keep the shrimp from getting sucked in was too dirty to let enough water out into the sump. Then it was off to bed early again to finish the week on a good Friday.

Look at me. I am the phone guy now.

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Learning ALL THE THINGS

I tried pretty hard to get things done today, and though I closed a few little things, I felt better about learning and knowing processes and things. I wish I had time to just sit and document some of this stuff, or better yet, organize the documentation that we already have so it’s more accessible. I worked into lunch a bit, but got hungry and bothered enough to leave. I tried to go to CiCi’s with Summer, but she got stuck on the phone while I was waiting for her, and I had to run to Wendy’s really quickly instead.

After lunch, I chatted with Ben for a bit so he could help me better understand some of the things I had been working on. I was on the right track, which made me feel at least a little competent. It’s starting to feel like I’m the everything-guy though, and it’s aggravating being around people that make more for less. I also about had a fight with my phone over how stupid it was being, but then out of the blue it fixed itself as though it could sense that I was preparing to pull the trigger on a full factory reset.

I finished up the day a little late, then headed home to do some more laundry while I waited for Summer to get off work. Then we went to my parents’ house for spring rolls, and the girls brought some homework along as well. They did really well today, but they couldn’t stick around for too long. I had to head home to finish laundry and clean up after the cat too, and then it was a relatively early night to bed.

Shrimp everywhere!

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Lunch with LeRoy

Today was pretty incredibly scattered for me. I got a few things done, but I had trouble prioritizing things to actually get them off my plate. Instead, I kept starting new projects and finishing nothing. I had planned to go get a $5 garden bar with Summer for lunch, but Ben invited everyone to Taco John’s, and I couldn’t pass up seeing him again after his retirement. Ben’s order got made and delivered twice, so I took the leftover tacos to Summer so she’d at least have the same light lunch I had in case she wanted to go to Ruby Tuesday later in the afternoon.

The afternoon was more of the same scattered nonsense for me until I finally left and had to get the girls from the shop to go home to change for karate. They did a good job of hustling and I got them dropped off just in time, and then I went to my parents’ house for some leftovers. I didn’t realize how late it had gotten when Summer left work for the gym, so Autumn called when nobody came to pick them up. I ran to get them, then cooked up some chicken sandwiches for their dinner before going home to complete some laundry.

Tomorrow, I’ll have to sit down and just do a thing.

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Meet the Nerites

It was so hard to get out of the perfectly snuggly bed this morning after staying up too late. We had to get to the lobby for breakfast though, and I was excited for an omelette from the chef. I was disappointed to learn that he wasn’t there, and I’m guessing they only bring him out for conferences. The rest of the food was okay, but not great. The biscuits were a surprising win.

We went back to the room to get ready for the trip back home, and finally left right around noon. I tried calling a couple local pet stores, but everyone was closed for the holiday. Without any other plans, we headed straight home. I dropped Summer off with the kids and then headed to PetSmart to look for some snails for the Imagitarium. They actually had some ghost shrimp in stock too, and one was berried, so I picked up a couple of them to mix up the gene pool. They had one black racer nerite and a tiny horned nerite that looked fun, so I got those for the algae and headed home.

I wanted to take a nap, but spent most of the afternoon with the aquariums instead. I got some laundry going and headed to my parents’ house for some eggplant soup, then came back home to finish up laundry and headed to bed really early.

That is a horny gastropod mollusc.

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Let’s Get Weird

We got up a little early this morning so we could get out of town for lunch. Our first stop was Home Depot to pick up some work lights I bought, and then we went to a little diner called Taylors’ Made on the other side of Conway. Summer had breakfast food, and I got the reuben. It was all pretty good, but I didn’t care for the super thin onion rings. I wish we had tried some of the appetizers.

As we got into Little Rock, I decided to go down to the Park Plaza Mall rather than the usual McCain. I figured it would be closer to the hotel, and we could kill enough time there until check-in time at the hotel. Summer was happy to look around but was reluctant to pick up anything. I got an armful of clothing from Dillard’s, which reminded me of how much I hated shopping there with my parents as a child. It was just always so boring, but now I get it. We covered most of the mall by about 3 in the afternoon, and then headed to the Wyndham Riverfront to get our room.

Eventually Amanda messaged me back, and we met her at the Red Lobster for dinner. Sarah decide she didn’t want to go to the concert, so she brought her father along instead. Summer and I got our fix of endless shrimp, and then we headed back for the concert.

We both parked at the hotel and walked the quarter mile or so to the arena. We were early, so we had to stand out in the heat for a little while before we could go in. Once the line started moving, I had trouble getting the TicketMaster app to load the tickets, but fortunately I saved them to Google Pay and that worked to get us in.

The concert was incredible, but I was surprised they didn’t have the upper bowl open. We were in a lower section of removable seating right by the stage, so we could see everything really well. It was awesome having the orchestra there, especially seeing a McLovin lookalike on the French horn. They started off with some Indiana Jones, and we loved the Superman theme song. They took a 20 minute break after the warm up routine, and then Weird Al came out with his crew and performed a huge mix of songs I expected, as well as some I’d never even heard before. Afterward, Summer and I made our way through the merch line to get a couple shirts, and then walked back to the hotel for the evening.

And protect them from the evils of the world, like trigonometry and prime numbers!