Tag: friends

Uncategorised

Move It, Buster!

The clocks rolled back an hour last night, so of course I woke up fairly early and just lounged around with the cat until Summer got up. Eventually I got cleaned up, and we headed to Conway for a bit of shopping. We stopped by Kohl’s first, then Target before meeting Hannah and Dylan at Red Robin for lunch. They made the trip down after church, we ate, and then ran through Sam’s for a few things before heading on to Little Rock.

We got to Dave & Buster’s relatively early and went right in to play. I had picked up a Groupon for a “date night” pair of unlimited play cards a while back, and we had been meaning to make it down there to use them for the past couple months but just never made it. This was the last weekend before they expired, so I was feeling the pressure. They each came with 18 chips and unlimited free plays on any blue card readers, which basically eliminated anything new or that gave tickets.

It took us a little while to get used to the cards, since we were technically improperly using them for four people. We had to wait 60 seconds after scanning each card, so getting all four of us in the same racing game was a bit of a challenge. We did find that it worked well for shooters, since you could just keep scanning every minute to bank credits. We finished the entire 15-stage first chapter of Tomb Raider in a bit under an hour. At first I wasn’t sure I had made a good purchase, but I think at the end of it all they convinced me it was a good buy. It would have been less awkward to use them for just two people as intended, but I bet we could have made the kids share.

Nobody wanted to eat when we left, and it was getting a bit late anyway, so we headed on home, dropping the others off at their car along the way. I got home and cleaned up a bit before heading up to Summer’s for the evening.

A truck of Vick’s VapoRub crashed and spilled all over the highway.
There was no congestion for eight hours.

Uncategorised

Hey You Guize!

It was just above freezing this morning, but fortunately a clear drive home. I had to take extra care getting ready, to layer my costumes well. I was to dress up as Amanda, but I wanted a less niche and more casual outfit underneath, so I had my usual Dracula t-shirt on. Then I donned some skinny jeans, cow socks, house shoes, a blue zip-up hoodie, wet hair parted on the right, hole-punched red dot stickers for gauged ears, Red Bull, and a flask of lighter fluid to complete the look. When I got to work, I got a few chuckles, but I don’t think most of them truly appreciated how much effort I put into the ensemble.

We didn’t actually have a meeting other than to see each others costumes, so I headed on to the high school for real work. There, I ran into Doug as he was helping Misty bring some things into the greenhouse. Then I immediately changed out of my skinny jeans into some slim ones that felt suddenly very loosey goosey. I fixed a couple other things pretty quickly, and then mulled around the laptops a bit more.

I was going to stop by the shop to see if I could find a lunch partner for something a little lighter than usual. I had gotten stuck by the D&R Railroad when Ben called to see what I was eating, and we decided to meet up at Linhs. We had a really good chat over some really good food as we usually do, and then it was back to work. I decided to end the school day by blaring Thriller as the final bell rang and kids flooded into the hallways. Again, I felt like not many truly appreciated what I was doing there. The workday ended on a higher note as I was able to recover my bricked touch panel by installing the correct firmware.

When I got home, I shed all the extra clothes and tried to make sense of my evening. The girls had gone out to eat for dinner and weren’t doing anything for Halloween. Summer was working out and would have to start prepping some chili for work tomorrow. Suzanne was going to come visit and meet the family, but wasn’t certain of the time or whether she’d be able to join us for an actual meal that was up to me to produce. I ended up picking up some Taco Villa on the way up to Summer’s, and we ate as she ran around the kitchen all evening.

Suzanne eventually showed up with a gift of some fresh sourdough bread that she had labored over all afternoon, and we sat and chatted for quite a while. I do miss the days of being able to stay up and do that for longer, but hopefully this time of year will allow for more of that.

This hammock itches inconveniently.

Uncategorised

Constructing the Shittiest Laptops

It was really slow this morning, so I broke down and started pulling good parts off of any laptops I had in for service. Then I put all the broken, shattered, wet, and otherwise malfunctioning parts back together to make the shittiest, grossest laptops for shipment back to Lenovo for repairs. My Safelite appointment got moved to the afternoon, so I went to Wendy’s for lunch with Allen. Then we went to the middle school for some ice cream cake Charlotte got for one of her employee’s birthday.

Just as we finished up there, Safelite called and I headed to my parents’ house so we could have the repair done in the garage. Luckily it started to rain quite a bit just after I got there, so I made the right call. The repair didn’t take all that long, and though the crack is still very visible, at least now I don’t have to worry so much about it spreading. I went to the shop for a little while to check out some toothpaste Oreos that Melinda brought. I think Gary was the only one to be had with that prank. I wish I had gone to get some regular Oreos before I got there, so I could pretend to eat and enjoy them in front of her.

I spent the rest of the afternoon at the high school working on a few work orders that had come in. Then I managed to brick a Newline touch panel on the way out, which kept me there a bit late. By the time I finished up, I had to go get Eaddie from her activities. We went back to my house for a little bit before heading up to her house.

I started cooking some of the last of the chicken for salads and then we all pretty well called it a night.

Quiet contemplation over Gravity

Uncategorised

Magic Screams 2019

Summer went to get the girls this morning after spending the night with friends, and I went home to clean up and get ready for our trip to Magic Springs. We left right around lunch time and headed down to Hot Springs to meet Ronda, Steven, and Maleea at Outback Steakhouse. We got behind some pretty slow traffic for the majority of the trip, so we ended up getting there quite a bit after them. The service was pretty great when we did get there though, and it was pretty funny how much bread we were going through.

After we ate, we headed to the park. Along the way, something flew up over the car ahead of us and gave me a pretty big chip in the windshield. I’ll have to get that fixed immediately so it doesn’t get worse. The park was fun, and Summer let us talk her into riding all the roller coasters. Eaddie really enjoyed them, and she and Maleea had a good time together. I couldn’t fit into the restraints for the X-Coaster, so Summer ended up riding that one without me. At the end of it all, our last wait was a ridiculously slow, short line for the bumper cars. They only had six cars, and hardly anyone doubled up.

Steven wanted to treat some of Ronda’s family to dinner, so gathered up the convoy and headed to Rod’s Pizza Cellar. We got there not long before closing, but the service was great there too, and the pizza was amazing. We got a 17″ spinach bacon alfredo that was by far our favorite at the table. It was the perfect end to a great day. On the way out of town, we stopped for some more spring water. The drive back home had me exhausted, but we made it in one piece past dozens of deer by the road. Now I’m excited to go again in the summer.

3 spoopy 5 me!

Uncategorised

Ketchup Over Rice

I slept as late as I could this morning, then got up to take the girls to school. Afterward I went home and started some more cleaning and laundry. I got a good shower, then went to meet Suzanne at Linhs for lunch. They were super packed, with people coming and going. It was really nice to see after so many visits in the past to an empty restaurant. Suzanne showed up shortly after I sat down, and we chatted over an assortment of our usual choices. It was really great having a conversation of substance after such a long time apart, and I even got the truth out of her that she was the one that sent that embroidered apron to me out of the blue.

After lunch, I went home for just a little while to wait for Eaddie to get out of school. I gave her the choice, and she had me pick her up from the junior high with the bike. Then we went back to my house for a little bit before taking the car out for gas and then to get Autumn. I took both girls to their house to wait for Summer to get home from her retreat. Once she got there, I took them all to Western Sizzlin for dinner.

Stuffed, we returned home for the girls to get ready for bed. Summer and I caught up on a couple episodes of Battlestar Galactica and finally found Earth. It was nothing we wanted and less.

Nothing but the rain.

Uncategorised

Conquer the Buffet

I had to set my work alarm this morning to get Summer to Little Rock for her Conquer the Gauntlet race. Her group started at 10, but she had to get registered first and wanted to be there around 9. It was a pretty quick and uneventful drive, and we stopped at a gas station so I could get snacks on the way. She would be racing with Dylan, and I assumed Hannah and I would be doing something else, but when we pulled in she made me pay the $10 for spectator parking.

She got registered and we met the others. They brought their dog Jovi to hang out as well, who was a big hit with everyone around.

Once Summer and Dylan got started, the three of us waited around and tried to decipher the map and find the best places to catch them at the obstacles. The first stop was a little bit of a wait right near the start, where they had to cross a pool of water using inclined monkey bars. Then we found another spot where we thought we could catch two obstacles, but we ended up only getting to really see one. We had to wait for over an hour for them to get there, and we seriously thought we had missed them somehow. They finally came trudging along just as we were contemplating heading back to the finish line.

When they finally did finish, Dylan and Hannah left for other things while Summer and I hunted down some food. My snacks were awful and I hadn’t felt well all morning, so I wasn’t up to being very adventurous. Summer decided on Tokyo House for their buffet, and we made our way across greater Little Rock.

Everything was great there, and somehow I managed to overstuff myself far more than I’ve done in a long time. I was absolutely miserable the rest of the day and into the evening. We came straight home without any other shopping stops as I had intended, and Summer got cleaned up from her race. Eventually I had to take Noah to work, and then I went home to nap a while until Summer was ready for me to take her to her 20 year class reunion at Old Bank.

After dropping her off, I headed home and napped on and off a while longer until she was ready to come home. I think her reunion was probably both harder and better for her than mine was, but all in all I think we’ve both decided reunions are for the birds.

May be time to finally pay for some of that web hosting now…

Uncategorised

Retire S’more

Today didn’t start with an overabundance of direction, but somehow I found my way pretty quickly. I got a bunch of stuff closed out, and moving around a bunch made the day go by a lot faster. It also helped that I left for an early break for Becky’s retirement shindig. I had to get some gas first, but then I ran to Walmart and grabbed a huge bag of knockoff Golden Grahams, two bags of mini marshmallows, and four bags of chocolate chips. I thought I was being clever making s’mores trail mix, but a quick search on the internet showed I was far from the first person to come up with that idea. I did think about adding a twist with pretzel sticks sprinkled with liquid smoke, but I didn’t have the time to experiment with that properly.

I brought a couple laptops with me so I could get some work done, and just sat in the lounge with Becky for quite a while. It was nice to visit with everyone again while wishing her well, and we just had a rotation of people coming in to eat lunch with us. Brice came by a couple times, but I’m not sure where he had holed himself up to work. I didn’t get to spend as much time just socializing as I would’ve liked, but it was a great change of scenery working outside of my office for a while.

After lunch I went and got the interns from the library and let them dig into some of the computers I’ve had sitting in my office. Nathan seemed openly knowledgeable and excited to show that he could do things, while Spencer just quietly got to work and started fixing laptops. I was really happy with how well they jumped right into it with such limited direction, and throughout the afternoon I got a better idea of how to utilize them better.

When I finally left work, I ran by Oakland to get my bowl before going home to change. Then I went by the shop to get the girls so Summer could go to the gym, and we went to my parents’ house to clean up some leftovers. We got back to Summer’s just a little before she did, I tinkered a bit, and then we went to bed with some Battlestar. Eaddie came in and watched just a few minutes with us too, which was nice because she’s usually reluctant to hang around for very long.

Space sure does have the best glassware.

Uncategorised

Under the Limit

I got up this morning and headed home to get ready for Bikes, Blues, and BBQ. The bike was washed, but I still had to clean and lube the chain as soon as I got home, and then it was a quick shower and scramble around the house to find all the little things I wanted to bring. We met Allen at his house, then followed him to the ATM and then to pick up Charlotte. We took the interstate all the way to Ozark, and I’m surprised we didn’t lose them for good right then and there.

The gas station was packed with bikes, but somehow they spotted us once they got there. Charlotte made it all the way there without eye protection, so Allen made her pick up some sunglasses and we sat down for a quick lunch. I thought we’d just pick something out of the hot case, but Allen and I both ended up ordering for table service. Summer and I shared a ribeye and eggs, and he had a chili dog while Charlotte ate a hamburger from the case.

We hit the road as soon as we finished eating, and I should have talked to Allen first about his speed. It took me all day long to convince him that his speedometer was reading way too high, and that he was just barely crawling along. I took it super slow, but we just kept losing them and having to stop and wait. I figure he averaged in the low 40s, and even being passed by an SUV wasn’t enough of a hint for him. It made my ride pretty miserable, but he just refused to try and keep up, which hasn’t ever really been like him in the past.

We made one stop for gas just as we got out of the woods, and then made our way to Dickson Street. The place was packed just as it always is, but I managed to snag a parking spot right on the corner of where we’ve always parked before. Allen and Charlotte finally caught up to us, and we made our way down to the food tents. I got my refillable cup for way cheaper this year because they offered a single day cup for $10 instead of the normal $25 or more for the whole weekend. Then we wandered around collecting a little swag wherever we could.

The train pulled in after not very long, and we decided it would be fun to take a ride to Baum Stadium instead of driving. The train left every half hour, and even though it was a short ride, I thought it was worth the $10 round trip tickets just to experience the old train cars.

Baum was typical as well, but this year RumbleOn came out swinging with a wind tunnel money booth. Summer and I both got a turn in exchange for our motorcycle VINs, and we really scored big time. They had some funny money thrown in along with the singles, but we could use it to buy prizes from their booth. I caught $12 in real money plus like another $25 in the fake stuff. Summer did pretty close to the same, and they rounded us up a couple times just to give us more stuff. We walked away with 22 singles, two shirts, and two insulated cups, as well as a couple souvenir poker chips made for the rallies.

We hit all the tents there, then took the train back to Dickson where we got dinner. I had the best alligator I’ve had yet, which was battered like catfish. We all basically lost the Cherokee Casino wheel spin because we all won $10 in free plays, when all we really wanted was some hand sanitizer or lip balm. We wandered around a little more, but were pretty exhausted by that time, so we headed on home.

Allen still refused to keep up, so we just left them and made the trip home as quickly as possible. I thought it had started to sprinkle just as we got into town, but it was really just a massive cloud of bugs hanging out over a bridge by the lake. It was super gross, so we had to shower before we could do much else. When Allen got home, he called and said he dropped his bike as we were leaving Fayetteville, but luckily nothing was damaged. Overall, aside from an incredibly slow ride, it was a great success.

Next year we’re riding the Grom so they can keep up.

Uncategorised

♬ I Told the Butt Doctor I Had a Bloody Poo ♬

♪ It’s been leaking blood from me just like it was a geyser! ♪

I forgot my badge and keys at home this morning. I also forgot to take my meds after deciding to take them a little later in the morning rather than before I left for work. None of that seemed to matter much though. I went with Amanda, Heather, and Gary to hang a TV above James’s piano. I had an above average time drilling into the brick at first, but I could tell the bit wore out pretty quickly. We were supposed to rehang another one I had hung last year because they wanted it higher, but the class was occupied and we didn’t make it before lunch. We ended up killing some time in Heather’s freezing office, chatting with Kevin a while until lunch.

Allen and I decided to walk next door for FryDay, where we sat across the room from Heather and Gary since they didn’t invite us. We both got the three meat fries special of the day, which was beef, chicken, and shrimp over fries with garlic butter and “taco sauce” which was more of a taco-seasoned cream sauce. It was all good, but left me a bit gurgley from all the butter. I took a half sick day to go to the gastroenterologist for my meet and greet.

I went home first to change, then went to my appointment and filled out a bunch of new patient paperwork. It was probably the least painful that I’ve ever experienced that process, and the girls at the front desk were just great. I thought Dr. White was a relative hoot, though he definitely controlled the conversation. I was most impressed with how quickly I was in and out of there, and I wished I could have that experience ever again in healthcare.

After that conversation and subsequent scheduling of a proper pooperscope, I went home and got the Grom to see Summer at the shop. They weren’t super busy, so I got to tell her all about my doctor visit before going home. I relaxed for just a little bit before taking my bike out for a bath. Then I met Allen at his place for a quick polish on the bikes. With that done, I had just enough time to get gas with him, and then head on home to prepare for the evening.

Travis was hosting a Star Wars Monopoly night, so I went to get Summer and we met him and John for game night. I was either the first one out or the winner, depending on who you ask. A great time was had by all, and Summer got to bring home an oddly monochrome JAWS sink stopper. By the time we wrapped things up there, it was time to get home and into bed for the early ride in the morning.

♫ He said that, “Poo-py, oooh ah ah! Ting tang, walla walla bing bang!” ♫

Uncategorised

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.