Tag: friends

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On Time Management

Summer worked again today, which left me on kid duty. We had a fair amount of stuff to get done, but I only knew about a tenth of it before I went home to shower. Sara and Zach invited us over for cards in the evening, so we had to get dinner made so Summer could eat as soon as she got home.

I got a call from someone about my extended leave from work due to COVID while I was in the shower. Summer wanted me to pick up lunch for her, so I couldn’t call back until later. I also had to call the eye clinic to order my contacts so they could put them on this year’s insurance. That was a quick call, and then I grabbed some Burger King for Summer.

As soon as I left there, I had to get Autumn and take her to therapy. On the way out, I got stuck for about 15 minutes by a train before I could get home to make my other call. As soon as that was done, I ran to Walmart to get everything for tonight’s dinner and Christmas.

Of course Walmart was a freaking zoo, and I was stressing pretty hard physically just to get out of there. I kept coughing all over the place, which got me lots of looks from the increasing number of maskless people wandering the aisles. As soon as I could get out, I picked up Autumn and we headed home to cook as quickly as we could.

Autumn wanted to make ratatouille out of some squash and zucchini they got from their friends’ mother. Instead of looking up a recipe that would also use the fresh tomatoes they got, she had me buy a can of tomato paste. She also completely missed the fact that she was supposed to do something with the chicken breasts we thawed out several days ago, so suddenly that was my problem.

Things escalated when she wanted to cut all of the vegetables with a steak knife instead of one of the half dozen chef knives she’s brought home this year. It took her forever to slice anything, and I made an entire chicken casserole and had it in the oven, AND pan fried some leftover chicken that wouldn’t fit in the casserole, all before she even finished slicing her vegetables. I kept giving her instructions that she continued to ignore until I blew up at her and she stormed off to her room.

Once I had all the food at least cooking, we made our apologies. I got some gas while we waited for the food to cook, and then we actually had a really delicious, modified ratatouille with mozzarella instead of mascarpone for dinner. Unfortunately the casserole was too big to have cooked all the way through before we had to go, but it will make a great dinner tomorrow when all the kids are here to open presents.

We got up to Zach and Sara’s place quite a bit later than we wanted, and played a couple games of Unstable Unicorns with them and Gary. Their girls just wandered around harassing the cats most of the night. I know Summer was tired, but Autumn and I at least had a great time, and Eaddie got to eat a bunch of little hot dogs.

As soon as we made it back home, the usual suspects shuffled off to bed. I stayed up until the casserole was cool enough to put in the fridge, and Eaddie came out to watch an episode of Jessica Jones with me. As soon as it was over, it was finally bedtime.

Presentation only matters when time allows, and it turns out you can eat the eggplant skin.

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Solstice Outing

Summer went back to work today, so I offered Autumn to take her and Eaddie out so they could do some Christmas shopping while I cleaned up at home. I dropped them off at PetSmart, then went home to shower. They finished up about the same time I did, probably because Eaddie was tired of shopping the minute they made it into the first store. I picked them up and we got some Zaxby’s for lunch.

Summer left work early, so we met her at the city park and ate outside. It was a little bit windy and cool, but otherwise a super nice day out. Librado texted and was trying to hunt me down, so they caught up with us there. He made me a surprise record cutout of my sunset cow logo, which was awesome. Traci came over and yapped with the girls a while too.

When we finally left, Summer went to the gym and I took the girls back to my house so Eaddie could ride her bike and I could check out my Sony WH-1000XM4 headphones. They sounded pretty clean, but it’s too early to tell if they were worth the price. I’ll have to compare them next to the super cheap headphones I picked up for Dad a while back.

Autumn napped until Eaddie got back, and then we headed back to their house for the evening. We just barely beat Summer back, and then we watched some TV while Autumn wrapped presents. When we finished that, we started a game of Phase 10 before Summer and Autumn headed to bed. Then Eaddie and I watched a couple more episodes of Jessica Jones before going to sleep.

No, not “all of the planets” aligned. No, it is not the Bethlehem star. It’s just the cosmos, being itself.
Also, Earth only seems flat because of your perspective and how close you are to it.
Also, what the hell are they teaching you in school???

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Lotería!

Summer got up this morning and made some delicious eggs scrambled with a variety of peppers and onions for breakfast. Then she picked up Autumn from her Explorers camp trip before we went to Walmart to pick up what we needed for her work Friendsgiving dinner.

When we got back, she started on her broccoli salad, and then I got the ham started in the oven and took a shower while they went to get Eaddie from her friend’s house. Everything finished up right on time, and one of Summer’s employees dropped off her foster kid to hang out with the girls while we all attended the party.

We had a really good time. Everyone put together a really great dinner party with lots of good food. Summer got to announce her two promotions at the shop, and made a heartwarming speech that had everyone’s hushed attention. Then we gambled quarters in a game of Lotería, which was a lot like Bingo with tarot cards.

We were the first to go, partly so the rest of the crew could enjoy themselves and partly so we could get back to the kids. Everyone settled in for the evening and I headed home just to make my morning a bit easier after getting all gussied up today. My blood pressure seems to be high in the evenings after being low throughout most of the day. The clinic cancelled my last appointment and declined my medication refill though, so that’ll have to be a discussion once I get a little closer to the bottom of the bottle.

Just keep cleaning. Just keep cleaning. Just keep cleaning, cleaning, cleaning. What do we do? We clean, clean!

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Smashing Good Time

We got up this morning and almost immediately got up to start cleaning up around the house. I still had trouble finding a good focus, but managed to mostly stay busy. Summer went to the gym for a while, then came back and tried to clean up the patio a bit so we could have a fire in the evening.

A little while later she got a work call and ultimately had to go in to resolve an issue with a customer. Not long after she got back, I took a call from Mark and had a short remote session to work through some questions with Google Calendar.

By the time that was all done, it was about time to meet Suzanne and Trent at Linhs for dinner. It was relatively slow and quiet in there, yet somehow a group was sat right behind us. I haven’t been impressed at all with any of the new servers in there. Our spring rolls lagged behind our meal, and we basically never saw the girl again after she took our orders. At least the company was good, and it was nice to catch up again.

After dinner, we came back to the house and started a little fire. There were enough small branches to actually start a proper flame, but the logs burned really smokey. It was a good time though, and a beautiful night. Suzanne accidentally shattered one of my fancy glasses, so I’ll have to re-complete that set the next time they go on sale. Otherwise it was a really good day, and I can’t wait to get the old, ratty furniture out tomorrow for bulk item pickup day.

This is why we use plastic.

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!YOHA

I got up this morning and made some delicious egg sandwiches for breakfast. Summer left to get the Lit’l Smokies and smoked sausage started in the slow cooker while I got dishes cleaned and took a shower at home.

The afternoon was quite a bit slower than I expected it to be, but I sorely needed the time to just relax. Eventually Summer got back and we headed up to Travis’s for his pirate-themed birthday party.

John and Melissa were already there, but Veronica bailed on us as usual. Travis’s mother seemed to be doing pretty well, and a good, quiet time was had by all. The girls got into some temporary tattoos, and would have tried making full sleeves if we hadn’t come out to chat.

After the party, we came back home and settled in. Noah called to chat about his feelings for a bit, and gave me the best compliment I could ever hope for. I spent the rest of the night boiling the hell out of some chicken breast for the cat, but he probably won’t eat it anyway.

Do what you want, cause a pirate is free. You are a pirate!

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Model Whee!

Today was our makeup holiday for Independence Day falling on a weekend, so I had the day off with the girls. They slept in pretty late, so I played a little Overwatch before getting ready to leave the house.

Ethan finished training a bit early and came to town to show me around his Model 3. We didn’t waste any time getting to the ride along, and I was kind of surprised how quiet the car wasn’t. Everyone always goes on about how electric cars are so silent, but I think the wet roads made everything quite a bit louder than usual. The road noise, some low music, and the air conditioning made for a pretty normal sounding ride.

He demoed the self driving for me, and I was surprised to see that it worked in town except for lane changing and braking for lights. I don’t know if that has changed for current models, but if it hasn’t, then I don’t really see much need to drop another $8k for the full self driving package yet. We made a pretty big loop around town, and then he said I could drive.

Holy torqueamole.

I expected the driving to be a bit different, but it didn’t take long to get used to the regenerative braking. In fact, I really liked how sensitive and tight the controls felt, and single-pedal driving was pretty awesome. I didn’t wind it up too high, but he let me floor it a couple times and the instantaneous torque was just incredible. It really was like nothing else, and it didn’t even matter what speed I was already going. It just went.

We stopped to say “hi” to Summer, then chatted for a while longer after the drive. We ended up getting rained out by a sudden and slightly heavy shower, so we both dove into our cars and I headed to Mark’s office to do some more work.

We wrapped up pretty quickly, and I got a check made out to the description I wrote for the job. Then I stopped across the street to chat with Robert for a bit. He seemed excited for company, and eventually Felix showed up as well. He gave me a tamale, and then I went back across town to check in with Summer before going home.

The girls were still laying around watching TV. Eventually I started the oven to warm up a loaf of bread for an Everything Sandwich. Summer got home after work, and they watched TV and ate. I poked around at a few things for a bit, and it wasn’t long before everyone filtered off to bed.

BYE401K

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A Hot Day for Company

We got up this morning and the girls finished cleaning up for company. I found enough stuff in the refrigerator to make some chicken tacos for brunch, then ran home to clean up before Summer’s friend came over with her family.

I got back and helped patty hamburgers, but had to run to Walmart for some lettuce just as they arrived. When I got back, I took over grilling so everyone else could go catch up. The corn on the cob was taking a bit longer to cook, but then the whole grill caught on fire with all of the grease in the bottom. That would have to be a chore for another day, but the corn came out great.

The girls played a bit of Switch, then Autumn put on The Lorax. I think everyone had gotten pretty tired, and there wasn’t a whole lot of conversation. Autumn spent most of her time with the toddler.

Once they left and everything was cleaned up, I headed home to finally start my taxes. Summer dropped Eaddie off with her parents for a few days, then brought Autumn over for the evening. They watched TV while I scrambled around the house looking for my tax documents, and then I caught the end of Cool Runnings with them before bed.

Image party tomorrow!

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Give ’em the Quintuple Bird

Summer had to go by the shop to take care of some stuff today, so I took some time to do some much needed aquarium maintenance. I’ve got a pretty good plant die-off in the shrimp tank, and I think I just need to avoid floaters in that tank since they grow too fast and keep light from getting to the plants below.

After a shower, I ran across town to see if the Ridgewood Brothers had anything left for the day. They were winding down and cleaning up, so I helped Grant take down the canopies and then spent a really good amount of time catching up with Robert. It blows me away how much those guys remember from back in the day, but I’m guessing still being in that circle helped keep a lot of those memories alive. I hate that I had to step out of it for so long, but I’m happy to have an opportunity to peek back in occasionally.

As they finished cleaning up, I picked up their last five pounds of smoked turkey and headed to Walmart for a few things. Then I headed up to Summer’s to make some salads for dinner. When we finished, I decided to take it upon myself to clean up the three bananas she had left on the counter all week that were as dark as the night. I don’t remember, in my lifetime, having ever made a banana bread by myself. It’s possible that either Robert or Grant could recall a time at Papa John’s when I somehow concocted a way to bake one in the oven using some kind mixture of pizza dough and banana peppers, but as far as I can tell, tonight was my first.

It. Was. Awesome.

I just found a recipe online that looked relatively simple, and got to it. The streusel on top really made it, and I got through the whole ordeal without having it spill out into the bottom of the oven.

We watched a bit of Forged in Fire until Summer couldn’t keep her eyes open, and we called it a night.

I can’t wait to start cold turkey tomorrow.

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The Breakthrough

I finally did it. I made a successful imaging task sequence. What’s more, the problem-step was early enough that I could fix it in one of my later sequences to quickly skip back through all the other additions I made.

Allen came back to the shop for lunch and wanted Bocadillos again, so I let him and Gary talk me into going for the third day in a row. It worked out in our favor though, because one of the school board members was having lunch there and decided to surprise us by sneakily going up and paying for our meals.

I spent the rest of the afternoon on into the evening copying flash drives and tinkering with the group policy setting that’s causing some weird issues with the Start Menu. It all comes down to what should be an unnecessary shortcut for staff that can’t seem to use the search function successfully.

I had to stop by the high school to pick up more flash drives before getting waxed out tomorrow, and then I went home to relax for a while. I got a surprise gift in the mail from Jennifer all the way from New Mexico to put up next to Becky’s other paintings. Then I tried to play some Overwatch, which lead to a lot more troubleshooting an issue with my display drivers to fix a flickering screen.

Eventually I made it up to Summer’s where I caught an episode of The Punisher with Eaddie before bed.

It wasn’t even procrastination so much as poor timing.

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Ketchup with Griff Q Over BBQ

This week went by super fast. When I got to work, Ben, Gary, and Zach were already in the conference room talking about something. That something ended up being the logistics behind bringing the district to true K-12 1-to-1 devices. I laid my brilliant plan to keep our old lease devices on them again, and I think they started to see the light.

I spent the rest of the day trying to figure out answer files for a Windows image. Even Gary said that was difficult, or at least confusing, which didn’t give me any hope at all. I felt like I was just beating my head against the wall forever, but it was kind of cathartic in a way.

Ben bought us all lunch at Linh, and my crunchy noodles were fire. I loved that it was absolutely loaded down with vegetables that I’ve sorely missed the last few days.

After work, I spent some more time chatting with Ben, then went home to sell my turnips on the Stalk Market. I am still more successful in Animal Crossing than real life, and I hate it.

I was going to get Gary and stop by the Ridgewood Brothers BBQ to visit with those guys, but he ended up having other plans. When I got there, Robert was already gone, but Felix and Grant were there. It was great getting to catch up a little with Grant, but it still feels like we barely scratched the surface. I haven’t had that much fun digging up old memories in a long time.

Eventually I made my way up to Summer’s for the evening. Autumn ordered Papa John’s delivery, so I ate what was left over. Then Eaddie and I started the second season of The Punisher before bed.

What am I going to do with a 10 gigabyte hard drive?
Just wait. Twenty years from now, you’re never gonna believe this shit.