Tag: food

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Rollin’ in Greens

We didn’t sleep in very long this morning considering how late we got in, so I felt a little drowsy pretty much all day. Summer went home to clean up, and then Bác Vân called me out to get a bunch of plant material for Mom. I got everything loaded up, showered myself, and then went by their house to drop everything off before going up to Summer’s. I couldn’t wait for our “early” dinner, so I finished up a bunch of salad greens there before we headed over to my parents’ house.

The girls wanted to swim, so they went outside for a bit until it started lightly storming. I skimmed a little bit of sleep in Summer’s lap for a while, but ended up feeling more tired for it because of my apnea. I did at least feel relaxed though. Julie came over to eat too, and we all had beef spring rolls, except a predictably fussy Autumn who ate Mom’s famous “chicken nuggets.”

After dinner, the girls went to swim a little more before they headed home. I came home myself and made a really early night of it.

The fun weekends are always the shortest.

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Catching up with Bae

Summer took the girls to the high school for a 5k color run this morning. I ate a few leftovers there before heading home to clean up. I’m pretty sure I lost one of my ghost shrimp, and I couldn’t ever find any of the berried ghost/amano/whatever shrimp they were. I don’t know if they’ve been hiding, or if they dropped the eggs, or if they perished as well. I didn’t want to disturb the tank too much, but it didn’t get as busy in there as it usually does while I did a water change. I guess I’ll just let it be, since it’s fully established with decent parameters.

Summer dropped the girls off with their friends around lunch time, and we headed toward Conway. We were pretty hungry and decided to stop at Yesterday’s in Morrilton so we wouldn’t be eating too late in Conway. On our approach I was worried it would be more bar than grill, but once we got our food I was convinced. The appetizer sampler with fried green beans, pickles, mushrooms, and cheddar was amazing. Summer’s chicken and grilled vegetables were great. My chicken fried steak was a bit tough but not bad. The loaded mashed potatoes were stellar. Even the toast was delicious. It was a great date that we both needed.

As we came into Conway, Summer arranged for us to get a carwash at the Splash since she wanted to visit her employee that was on loan there and get a tour of the place. It was a pretty cool experience, but odd to see the lube side completely dead. I don’t know if it’s just a bad location or lack of marketing, but there wasn’t a single lube job done while we were there. It was awesome getting the car washed inside and out though. I think I still prefer to maintain it myself, but every now and again this would be nice just to dust out the whole vehicle.

From there we went to Andy’s for some frozen custard, and then killed a bunch of time at Kohl’s. I spent forever looking through the clearance sections, but didn’t find much that was marked down enough. I almost picked up a jacket or two, but decided against it after remembering how little I actually go out in the winter for long enough to need one. It was already getting a little late, so we went straight to Sam’s after that and ended up picking up a bunch of bath towels for her.

Hannah and Dylan were slow to respond as usual, but eventually we managed to meet up with them, and we went on to Little Rock for Dave & Buster’s. We did a Jurassic Park VR adventure that was pretty awesome and didn’t cost as much as I expected. It really just made me want a VR setup at home, but I keep hoping an esports budget or stipend will help to fund that. We wandered around the midway until we all ran out of credits, then hit a Wendy’s on the way home since we never really stopped for dinner. We were both exhausted from a long but great day, so it was straight to bed once we got home.

“Let’s build a wall to keep the immigrants from bringing crime into our town!” -the townspeople
“Let’s build a casino in our town!” -also the townspeople

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The Walkabout Campus

I headed in to work just a few minutes early today after waking up a few minutes before my alarm. I still felt tired, but not as bad as earlier in the week. I went by the shop first to have Jason submit warranty claims for a couple laptops. Then I ended up chatting with Ben for a while before heading to the high school.

I didn’t start in my usual place by going to the office. Instead, I had to go to the old field house to set up a printer we removed before the renovation. I drove around a bit at first, but eventually parked at the front of the building and walked around campus for most of the day. I went to the arena a couple times, back out to the field house, over through vo-tech, and up and around the main building. I still haven’t had a whole lot come up, but I’m feeling a bit of anxiety again about repairing laptops. I spent a decent amount of time yesterday doing just that, and I don’t want to get sucked into doing too much there and not focusing on learning the things I really want to learn.

Nothing really jumped out at me for lunch, so I just snacked on leftover donut holes most of the day while walking all over the place. I didn’t leave too late either, and only have a couple more hours to work tomorrow to hit my 40 hours for the week. I almost feel like I should be more stressed, but the long hours haven’t bothered me too much. I’m just physically very tired all the time. I need to just commit to a Soylent diet for a while to see if it helps.

I relaxed at home for a little while before heading up to Summer’s for dinner. I was going to make chicken salads, but ended up making everyone clean up the super old mashed potatoes and ribs that were left over from forever ago.

Happy fridge; happy belly.

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They can be a great people, Kal-El; they wish to be.

I had to go to the shop this morning to pick up some stuff to reroute lines for Ethan this afternoon. It was a relatively quick stop, and then I dove right back into work orders. I really feel like I crushed it for being the start of the year, but then another part of me knows that the laptop returns are about to start rolling in. I’m both surprised and not surprised by the amount of specialty software I’ve had to install. It’s been almost exclusively the math department, which is convenient because that’s where my office is located. I did get stuck on a couple of more difficult tasks, but all in all I was pretty pleased with myself. It’s been nice not feeling so stressed about things, and getting to spend a little more time building rapport with my new staff. I’m still getting emails and personal requests from my old staff too though, which I don’t mind because I do miss them.

I worked right through lunch today, finishing off a bottle of Soylent along with a really gross chocolate sea salt RXBAR. I cannot express enough how not good it was. The whole thing just wanted to gum up my mouth and stick to my teeth everywhere. It was like chewing tar, except it tasted bad too. I didn’t read the label until after I ate it, and I never would have pegged it for chocolate. If anything, it reminded me of the homemade dehydrated bananas that Mom and Bâc Ván used to make. They weren’t chips like you get in the store. They were whole, but peeled bananas, dehydrated to look like shriveled up fingers. The outsides got dark, but not as dark and brown as the insides. I actually kind of liked the bananas though.

Ethan was a bit late, so I finished up some other stuff while I waited. I wasn’t about to do anything without him after he destroyed his own lab infrastructure. Even getting lucky and only needing to rearrange the lines that were already in his room, we burned about five hours getting it all set up again. I got to mess around with the switch configuration again too, which is making me feel a bit more comfortable with that aspect of the job. I actually had a pretty good time chatting with him too, which was nice. I stayed pretty late finishing everything up, but he was there too. It’s nice to see someone else with a similar dedication.

When I finally left, I stopped by the house to change really quick, and then ran straight up to Summer’s to start cooking some chicken for tacos. I feel like the tacos are relatively easy and healthy, but I still have a quantity issue. It’s like I just eat them too fast and don’t realize I should’ve stopped 12 tacos ago.

Hey Google, play my back to school playlist.

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An Actual Day of Progress

I got to spend the whole day at the high school, and felt quite a bit of progress for it. The work orders are still flowing in, but at least it doesn’t feel like I’m still sinking. I got stuck on a couple more difficult tasks, but even then I felt like I made a little bit of progress and got to affirm things I’ve learned over the last year or so. I worked through lunch time feeling pretty good, and eventually went to Wendy’s for a relatively light meal. I did have to give up on some SCCM stuff in the afternoon, and went back to the shop so Gary could learn me a few things. I probably should have known what he showed me, but it was just one of those things that never even occurred to me.

After work, I came home for a little while before heading up to Summer’s for dinner. They wanted chicken sandwiches, but all I wanted to do was get rid of all the old stuff she had in the fridge. I almost burned the house down trying to toast some French bread in the broiler, but they got their sandwiches. I warmed up some soft taco stuff and cleaned up a bunch of the leftovers, but there’s still enough food for a week in there.

Eaddie and I finished our episode of Daredevil from the other day, and then I headed home for an early night. It’s time for welcome-back nonsense tomorrow, and nobody seems as concerned about how much work they’re putting on us at the last minute as us. Typical.

It’s less stressful if you don’t actually care.

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Geoffrey the Friendly Zombie

When we got up this morning, Summer got the girls ready to leave with their father and I went home to clean up. I messed around with the aquariums a little first though, and I seem to be missing my last big gold mystery snail. I can’t find it in the tank anywhere, and every time this has happened before they’ve ended up dead. I wish I knew why, because this one always seemed quite active.

Once out of the shower, I headed back to get Summer, and we met Travis, John, and Melissa at La Huerta for lunch. It was John’s birthday, so he got to wear the Panchito hat. It was even funnier because his family came in with their kids and sat right behind us. I was surprised to see they made their own fresh tortillas there, so we’ll have to go back more on account of the deliciosity.

We were a bit early for our escape room, so we chatted outside under a pun tree for a while. Once we got in, we suited up with our flag football belts to prepare for the zombie actor experience. I was a little overly worried about moving too quickly through the room after what the hostess said, and I think overall I would have preferred the event without the actor, but it did make for an entertaining visit with the group. Overall it was a really good time, though I felt bad for the guy in the rubber mask. I thought for sure it would be makeup, but no such luck. He ended up helping us on a couple clues, possibly because the hour was just too much for him.

We beat the room with just a few minutes remaining, and then went our separate ways. Summer and I cleaned up a bit at her house and then headed back to my place to practice riding the Grom, but Mom texted with spaghetti and we had dinner instead. I hit a wall of exhaustion while we were there, but woke up enough for a couple chores before bed.

Oh, I only have to clean up everything.

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It’s Fryday, Fryday!

I would have expected to be put on Chromebook enrollment this morning, but instead everyone was sent off to do their own things. I’m sure a few work orders were probably completed, but the two pallets of Chromebooks aren’t going to enroll themselves, and it won’t be long before we have a bunch of desktops to image for various buildings. I went to the high school after a while, but even then I really wasn’t overworking myself.

I rode back to the shop for lunch and came across Gary walking to Smackin’ Wings and Things, so I decided to join him for a Fryday. I had the Curious George off of their specials menu, which was a heap of fries, macaroni and cheese, bacon, boneless buffalo wings, cheese, sour cream, and probably something else that I’ve missed. Gary had something like chili cheese fries with Flamin’ Hot Cheetos on top. They both looked amazing, and I know that at least mine tasted really awesome as well. We both only made it about halfway through before giving up.

The majority of my day was spent trying to image a Dell 2-in-1 device. I was excited to get to mess with the task sequence with Gary to try and get it working, but unfortunately I won’t know until next week whether the new image will work.

After work, I stopped by Superfast to give Summer my leftovers. Then I went home to change and clean up a bit before heading to my parents’ house for their anniversary. Dad rode the Grom around the block and came back grinning. Then we went and picked up a bucket of chicken because Mom didn’t feel like getting out. Summer and Eaddie met us there to eat, and then Eaddie swam for a bit by herself before we left.

Summer had to crash early in order to get up tomorrow for Autumn’s explorers competition, so I went to pick Noah up from work. Then the three of us stayed up late watching Jessica Jones until I just had to sleep.

Gotta get down on Fryday!

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Grommin Around

It was nice out today, so I decided to take the Grom to work. Gary, Amanda, and I were sent to clean up a few things at the middle school, and then Sequoyah and Oakland since Brice is out with the new baby. Heather met up with us out of the blue just as we were getting started, and we continued on all morning making the smallest bit of progress in the least efficient way possible. I did score a couple tomatoes out of the garden at Sequoyah though, and then it was nice getting to see my Oakland friends for a bit.

I was able to talk Heather and Gary into going to Taco Villa for lunch, where I scarfed down a taco salad with the house dressing. It seemed way too sweet today, so I think I should stick with my usual Thousand Island or cheese dip and hot sauce. I took the Grom since it was still super nice outside. It was less embarrassing than driving down the highway back to town when we picked it up, and though meager, it was super fun to putt around town. I stopped for gas at Casey’s because I wasn’t willing to risk my reserve to get across town to my usual Shell station. There, a kid stopped to chat with me about it for a couple minutes, which kind of reinforced how much fun I was having.

After lunch we were sent out for work orders, so I ran around with Gary fixing some networking issues that popped up after so much equipment was moved around for the sake of cleaning. I told him we should just let it be broken until we receive work orders, since being super proactive about it just creates more work for us and gives everyone else the illusion that moving things around without us is an okay thing to do.

Summer wanted me to take Eaddie to karate after work, so I ran by the high school to take care of a couple things first, then made my way up to their house. Eaddie was insistent that she didn’t want to go spar with the adults from Krav Maga since they “go hard,” so she convinced Summer to let her mow the lawn instead. I fried up some chicken strips for dinner so we could make some really awesome wraps with tons of spinach, avocado, onion, slaw mix, and anything else I could dig out of the fridge. Then we sat around and talked until it was time to head home for bed.

Got me craving that power between my legs!

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70s Pizza Party

We got up and around this morning to some leftover chicken tacos. They were so much better with the crunchy greens this time, and frying the cheese in the pan onto the tortillas made them that much better, and even a little more durable. Eaddie and I watched a little Daredevil while Summer went out with Autumn to get some things. Then I went home to clean up for our trip to Cabot.

I got frustrated when my brand new air conditioner only dropped about six degrees in three hours, but I didn’t have the temperature probes I needed to check how much it’s actually cooling. I left my still-warm house to pick up Dad, and then to get the girls for our trip to Cabot for Uncle Rick’s birthday party.

We met up at U.S. Pizza Company and greeted a few of the mostly strangers-level family. It was pretty uneventful for us, but Dad had a good time and it was nice to get together to celebrate. The pizza wasn’t bad, but the toppings seemed cheap. I got pretty frustrated as usual with Autumn’s refusal to eat anything other than a plain pepperoni pizza. It only got worse when she ate our pizza after she finished hers. I swear next time I’m just not asking what they want at all.

On the way back we stopped at PetSmart and then PetCo looking for some shrimp. The first stop was a complete bust. PetCo had some, but they were mostly pretty tiny. I went ahead and picked up three anyway just to grow them, but I’m thinking I may have better luck just getting some from a random stranger on the internet.

Once we got back to town, I dropped the girls off at their house, then the shrimp at my house, and took my parents’ receiver with us back to their house. Dad and I tried hooking it back up, but it still didn’t pass any video along to the TV. I guess it really is only good as an audio amplifier now.

Back at Summer’s house, Eaddie and I finished the evening with a couple more episodes of Daredevil while everyone else was in bed. We made it most of the way through the first season pretty quickly, and I’m excited to finally watch more for the first time.

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The Time I Almost Stole Dinner

We didn’t get to finish up the 1:1 laptops today. Instead, Jason took a crew to get a bunch of bottled water for the shop while the rest of us enrolled Chromebooks in the graveyard. When they got back, I was upset to see a literal pallet of water bottles. I don’t even drink the bottles, and it aggravates me that everyone else does. We don’t live in a third world country. We don’t live in Mexico. We don’t even live in Flint, Michigan. Paying thousands of dollars every year for water that comes with its own trash just seems insane to me, and nobody is even a little bit sympathetic, or even appears understanding to the idea that this is just terrible.

Once we got the pallet unloaded, we took two trucks worth of stuff to vo-tech to run a bunch of network cable. I don’t have a ton of experience running lines out there, but I know enough to know that it’s terrible. We encountered a wall without visible penetration, so we didn’t get our WAP lines run. We did at least manage to find existing cabling where most of the phones were going, which was a great relief.

We all went to Stoby’s for lunch and crammed us three fatties, Allen, and Gary into a booth. When we got back, we reminded everyone that Gary and I didn’t leave early in the middle of the week like everyone else, and that we would be leaving early today. We wrapped up a couple lines and then left at 1:30. I dropped Gary off back at the shop and then went home and took a nap because I felt completely exhausted.

When I woke up, I got my things together and headed to Walmart for groceries. Ronda, Steven, and Maleea were coming over for dinner, and I wanted to make Instant Pot chicken tacos. I was a bit impatient while checking out with Walmart Pay, and forgot that I had received a new Discover Card number after discovering an unauthorized charge. My payment didn’t go through, so I had to run back to the register and apologize for looking like a thief and/or a fool. They had printed a receipt with all my groceries just as I showed up, and with a quick scan of a single barcode, it loaded up my entire purchase again so I could process my payment the old fashioned way.

The girls did a pretty good job of cleaning the place up, and dinner went together pretty well. I completely forgot the slaw mix and punch in the refrigerator, which was super disappointing. Nobody really seemed to notice though, because we had so much other stuff to put on the tacos. Now I’ve got to figure out what else to do with the stuff though, since no one else ever seems interested in eating it.

The girls hung out and played and did whatever kids do in 2019 while we sat at the table and chatted. After the others left, Summer crashed and Eaddie and I watched some Daredevil, though she evidently watched quite a bit without me. I guess that’s how it us during boring old summer vacation.

There are no heroes, no villains. Just people with different agendas.