Tag: friends

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Surprisingly Productive

I got up this morning and headed home to get ready for my all-you-can-eat date with Allen at Long John Silver’s. He called while I was in the shower and said he was on his way back from church, and then immediately gave up on me and went to eat without me instead of picking me up like we had planned. I met him there, but he had already finished eating. I made sure he wasn’t going to just get up and leave by the time I got my food, and we ended up sitting and chatting for a while. I was pretty aggravated at first, but I let that fizzle out as usual.

After I was stuffed with fish and chicken, we both headed home and I started washing my sheets and cleaning up the bedroom. I worked on that all day and late into the evening until bedtime. A better person would have made more progress, but I was happy with what I accomplished in my one little corner.

Well that was nearly half of my entire life.

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Gettin’ Weepy

The girls had all region today, so I got up alone and had some salad for breakfast before heading home to clean up. I had to get Aimee’s laptop from the high school to her at the junior high, and ended up sitting and chatting with her for quite a while. By the time I left there, Summer had already left the concession stand, so I left and stopped by Ridgewood Brothers to pick up some smoked turkey. I must have clicked something on the iPad that made it not charge my credit card, so when I got back to the car and realized it, I ran back to pay Robert and he handed me a side of slaw to go with it.

I ate a little when I got home, then cleaned the vacuum cleaner so I could clean up the bedroom a bit. There’s still a ton of junk in there to sort through and discard, but at this rate that will always be the case. Eventually Summer got everyone home, so I went to pick her and Autumn up so we could go to Walmart. I volunteered to make burgers and Autumn wanted to pick up some snacks for Eaddie and herself while Summer and I were out with friends.

We dropped Autumn off and gathered everything up to head to John and Melissa’s. Travis was already there, and Veronica and her kids showed up a bit after that. We had a great time eating and drinking, and then tried to play some Magic: The Gathering until we gave up on teaching three new players and switching to Cards Against Humanity. Asher had brought it and wanted to play, but we refused until he could beat Travis at Magic. The kids ended up leaving to go to an escape room anyway, which made it all the more funny when they returned to us playing their game.

By the end of the night, Travis had gotten pretty weepy about everything, so we tried to sober him up enough just for us to take him home. As I walked him into his house, he seemed very concerned about the Dust from His Dark Materials. I did my best to reassure him, and locked him in his house so I could get home with Summer for some sleep.

I AM THE DARKNESS! I AM THE ONE WHO DUSTS!

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Busy Start to a Busy Weekend

Amanda and I coordinated our Weird Al shirts for today’s meeting. Allen and I were going to team up for the day, but before we could do that we had a conference room meeting about job expectations. It was a little foreboding, but I was hopeful.

Allen and I first went to the high school with the trailer to pick up the cart that had mysteriously appeared in my office the day before. We took it back to the shop, then took a touch panel to Crawford to be installed in the afternoon. Since we were on that side of town, I offered to ride up to Center Valley with him to check out their sign. I pulled the truck right up to it, which worked perfectly for climbing up to the raised panels. We couldn’t get any video out, so we pulled the computer and headed back to the shop for lunch.

I had been thinking of Fat Daddy’s, and I guess that psychically rubbed off onto everyone else, because a huge group of six of us went to the one downtown. I got the nachos since they were presented so much better than the one in London. Then it was back to the shop to get ready for Allen’s touch panel install.

When we finished with that, we ran by the high school so I could check on Ethan and his robotics tournament setup. We got him squared away, then stopped in to see Al, who had accidentally hidden all of his desktop icons. Jason called us all back to the shop at the end of the day, which was predictably bad. It’s upsetting to see that happen to a friend, but at the end of the day, you’ve got to do the things if you’re going to have a job. I really love Ben as a boss, but I hate how easy it is for people to take advantage of his want to see the best in everyone.

With that done, they let us out a bit early and I headed home to bring in the day’s shipments. It wasn’t too long before I had to head to Walmart for some drinks for dinner with Ronda and Steven. Inside wasn’t too bad, but traffic outside was an absolute zoo. I was running behind and still had to swing by to pick up the girls. We ran on up the mountain and had a great time and an incredible feast of M-E-A-T! Steven grilled marinated pork chops and ribeyes to go with some asparagus and tomatoes, twice-baked potatoes, and more. Every time I turned around, he was making something else for us. He really pulled out all the stops for us, and I hate that I don’t think I could ever top that, but I think he and I just really enjoy hosting like that.

We all ate so much, and the girls had fun with Maleea, but we had to get everyone home for all region band in the morning. I had to give up programming their DirecTV remote, and we got everyone to bed with a medium amount of fighting. Looks like we’re going to be running all weekend.

What an extravaganza.

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I’ll Never Forget About Larry

Summer had to work this morning, which allowed for me to sleep in a while. With Thanksgiving break nearly over, I let myself get a pretty slow start to the day. I had to get the girls from their friend’s house, but first I stopped by the Ridgewood Brothers to try and snag some brisket. Grant handed me a cube of it out the window as I approached, and it just melted in my mouth. I picked up a couple pounds along with some sides, picked up the girls, and took them home.

Summer got home just a bit after us, we ate, and then left the girls to clean house while we went shopping. My first stop was Bath & Body Works, where I dragged her around the store sniffing soaps. I had a coupon, a need for fancy foaming soaps, and a complete lack of shame for being the one that wanted to go shopping there.

Next we stopped at my house for just a moment before heading to Walmart for groceries and other shopping list things I needed. I ended up grabbing one of those Black Friday pressure washers that Julie was going on about, since they had a pallet of them left over. I wish we could have spent a little more time looking, but we had to get back before Harry got to the house.

When we got there, the girls were inside giggling about how he was driving up and down the road trying to find their house, rather than trying to help direct him to the place. Summer started cooking most of the meal, and I changed the oil for some sweet potato fries. The kids played the Switch a bit before wandering back through the house. Dinner was simple and good, though I was still pretty full from the late BBQ lunch.

We played a couple quick rounds of Stuff Happens and Uno before the girls settled in to watch The Conjuring. Eaddie was probably the most excited to watch a scary movie, but I knew the game. Harry ended up having to leave before the movie was over, so Autumn went to her room for the night while I helped Eaddie finish the movie. Once that was over, she beat me in some Mario Kart before awkwardly snuggling to some Luke Cage. She started to fall asleep in the middle of the second episode, so that was the end of the day.

Just trying to make up for lost time…

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Super Ridgewood Bros.

I couldn’t sleep in this morning for all the light pouring into the house. Summer had to work, so it was just the girls and me all morning. Eaddie came out and played some Mario Kart and Ultimate Alliance 3 with me for a bit. Eventually I headed home to clean up, then went to pick up some food from Grant and Robert. Evidently Felix helps out there occasionally as well, and then Ray stopped in and chatted with me for a bit while I waited. Grant came around and handed me a big sack of meat that I took to the shop for Summer, along with some rolls and chips from the Neighborhood Market. The ribs were thick and meaty, and some of the best we’d ever had. At first I thought the sauce was a bit overpowered by apple cider vinegar, but it really grew on me as I continued eating.

Once we were stuffed from that, I finally stopped by Walgreens to fill my prescription. Then I headed home to try out Destiny 2 on Stadia. The game ran great, and though I absolutely despised playing it on a controller, I felt like it helped the input latency feel less significant. Overall I was very impressed with how well it ran, and also pretty overwhelmed by the unnecessarily complicated nature of the game. Hopefully Stadia will be great for some racing games though.

After a while I got really cold in the house, so I decided to warm things up by doing a little cleaning. I got all the dishes done and cleaned up a bit of space in the kitchen before Summer got here. The girls spent the night with their father since the Splash company Thanksgiving event happens tomorrow evening, and we can have a good day in Little Rock until then. Once she did get here, I showed her a bit of Stadia and how much anxiety I have about how much is going on in that game. We were going to watch Battlestar Galactica: Razor, but ended up watching a few Tesla videos instead until we were both too tired to stay up any longer.

I’m actually only feeding two, but one of them is me!

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Ramping up for Break

We met at the shop this morning but didn’t have any projects, so I ended up walking around vo-tech with Ben and some guys that were going to quote a cell dialer for our fire panels. Afterward, I went inside and did a couple little work orders before heading back to the shop for lunch. Allen was the only one at the shop, so he and I left to meet Gary, Zach, and Jason at Brangus for lunch. My beef spud was particularly good today.

After lunch I got a bit of an ocular migraine and had to sit down for a while. Gary came into Zach’s office with me since Zach left for a lockdown drill, and we chatted about what life is like being surrounded by girls. Nearing the end of the day, we started to look at my PowerShell script again, but ultimately left without learning much even after Ben joined in.

I ran home to get my delivered Stadia package inside, then went to Russellville Eye Clinic for my appointment. I had to fill out some new patient paperwork and waited just a little while before they called me back. Then they set me up at a machine with a little farm house inside it, and it wiggled around until it had my approximate prescription. Most of my time in the back was spent giving them information about my past prescriptions, but at one point they brought the insurance lady back to talk to me, and it was my old classmate Brian’s mother Donna that recognized my name and came back to chat briefly.

Overall, my experience at the clinic was wonderful, and everyone I dealt with was super friendly. I guess nobody really went way out of their way to do anything necessarily, and the girl that helped me initially seemed pretty new, but nothing about my visit was deserving of any of the 1-star reviews the place has on Google Maps. Once I complete my contact fitting and get new glasses or whatever, I’ll have to add my own comments.

When I got back home, I set up my Stadia and tried to load up Destiny 2, but encountered an error. Clint said the game servers crashed earlier today, which made me feel better about it not being a Stadia issue, but I still didn’t get a chance to play anything before I had to run to Summer’s to get the girls. Autumn had a date to go bowling, and the rest of the family chaperoned. The boy seemed nice, though awkward and possibly a bit outwardly immature for a 17-year-old. It was a good time though, and a couple girls I knew came up and bowled next to us. Taylor mentioned their annual Halloween party and said she would have to make sure I got the invite next year, and before they left I had to point Alex out to Summer because she didn’t really recognize me as the one who bought their Grom.

The girls went to bed pretty quickly once we got home. I sat down to re-skin my Pixel 2 XL, and got the new screen protector on as well. Then I lost myself in Zenni Optical for a while before heading to sleep.

I had forgotten how beautiful this bare phone is.

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Has the Moon Lost Her Memory

I nearly had to amputate my hands from the cold ride in today because I was too stupid to wear my gloves. Otherwise it was a beautiful day to ride. I started at the shop and had Gary help me look at the deployment I was struggling to fix. Then Ben came around and helped prod me through a printer setup because I was tired of all the little one-off solutions left by my predecessors. I went to the high school for a bit, then came back to meet up with Allen, Gary, and Zach at Taco John’s for lunch. That place was super quiet for a lunch hour, but I don’t know what I expected on a day other than Taco Tuesday.

The afternoon went by pretty quickly as I ran around the building closing work orders. I got a call from someone at corporate Walmart letting me know to expect a call from the local store to set up an exchange of our bad ONN television, which was far more than I expected. I’ll have to meet with a manager there tomorrow, and they seem keen to do anything to make it right. I didn’t even intend to ruffle any feathers, but it’s nice they’re going out of their way.

I ran to Sonic for some quick dinner, then to Summer’s shop to share some cheese sticks before getting ready for Melodie’s celebration of life up on Crow Mountain. Charlie was there, and the only one I knew outside of the family. Of course Brandie and Candace were there and came around to visit. It really was a perfect night to gather and remember, though for a moment on the drive I thought for sure I was being hoodwinked for my kidneys as I drove on into the pitch blackness. Ana was running around playing with the other kids, but stopped by to sass me for a bit too. I spent a good amount of time chatting up Seth just to try and lay some groundwork since I’d never met him before.

After we shut that place down, I headed to Summer’s to get her TV so I could run it straight to Walmart after work. I tried to swing by and catch Zach, the manager, tonight so I wouldn’t have to risk the rain tomorrow, but that was a bust. Finally I headed home to bed.

Burnt out ends of smoky days…

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Huttin’ for Food

I slept really well last night, and all I wanted to do was stay in bed. It was a little chilly out, but it warmed up nicely. My morning went by pretty quickly as I caught up on things at the high school. Then Allen and I went to Pizza Hut for lunch. I saw Robert and Grant there and learned that they’ve both gone full time with their BBQ business, so I feel doubly obligated to visit them sometime soon.

After lunch, I spent a bit of time at the shop getting a computer ready, then headed back to the high school for the day. I ended up staying a little late because some student data wouldn’t migrate for me, and I eventually just had to give up and go home. Once there, I cleaned up a very little bit and milled around the house for a bit until bed.

Plenty of memories down Ridgewood…

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Seven Player Megonopoly

Summer had to moderate a quiz bowl event today, so I got up shortly after they left to make some breakfast and then go home. I was a bit slow getting started, but eventually became productive. I spent too much time messing with my Google Home/Nest speakers, but discovered my Chromecast Audio devices would output an optical signal, so I eventually got that going in the living room for a true whole-home audio system that sounds great. I started to get the kitchen cleaned up as well as I bounced from one thing to another.

Eventually I got showered and headed to Walmart for cheese dip stuff, and to my horror it had already become quite the zoo. There were so many people wandering around with such full carts, and I could barely make it from aisle to aisle. I loaded my arms full of everything I needed and then some, and the only saving grace was a zero wait time at the newer self checkout lanes they recently opened.

Back at Summer’s, I made the cheese dip in the Instant Pot by first sauteing some hamburger meat with some onions, Rotel, and taco seasoning. I had twice the hamburger meat the recipe called for, but I added some American cheese to it on a whim. The whole thing came out looking pretty bad, and the cheese didn’t seem to properly melt very well, leaving what looked like tiny pellets of unmelted Velveeta. It tasted fine though, and soon we were off to John and Melissa’s.

Travis was there, along with Maria and her boyfriend Asher. Veronica showed up eventually after running around town doing very Veronica things. We snacked on dips and eventually got a game of Monopoly going for seven of us. We had to break out a different set for the extra money and player tokens, but we made it work. It didn’t take us very long to break down some of the rules, but having a couple drinkers around made everyone giggly enough that nobody cared. Much fun was had by all, lasting late into the night.

But what if we put two whole boards together into a figure-8?!?

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Meeting My Pot Dealer Before the Party

We got up this morning with enough time for a little breakfast, so I made some pretty bad Ramsay eggs to go over the last of the sourdough that Suzanne brought us. Then I went home to shower while Summer took Eaddie to the gym. Once ready, I got Summer and we went to the Hughes Center for the craft show where Suzanne was selling the last of her pottery. Summer got a mug, and I picked up a butter bell because I’d wanted one for quite a while but not enough to actually go out and buy one.

We chatted a while and lost track of time, so we had to leave in a hurry and run across town to get Gary before Dale’s birthday shindig. I expected there to be trouble parking, but it was actually relatively empty. Ben brought his family, and Allen eventually showed up with Charlotte, but that was all of our group that made it. It was a really good time, but I expected about three times that many people since Dale knows someone everywhere we go.

After the party, we headed back to Summer’s and laid around watching YouTube videos while the girls went to dinner with their father. Eventually they got back home and I had to go get Noah from work. Eaddie rode with me to DJ the ride, and then we watched an episode of Parks and Recreation before Summer went to bed. I played a little Mario Kart with Eaddie before going to sleep myself.

I miss nuts and seeds way more than I expected.