Tag: gaming

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Full Price Is for the Birds

I woke up super stiff this morning with a tremendous ache in my shoulders. Somehow I’ve been sleeping poorly on my side with my arm up under my head, but I can’t ever seem to stay put sleeping on my back. When Summer got up, she stirred the kids and got ready for the gym. I headed home and messed with my one sleepy snail and finally got it to come out and eat some food after being sealed up for several days. That was a pretty good relief.

After my shower, I picked up Bác Vân and met Summer and the kids at CiCi’s for a BOGO lunch. They said something about national buffet day, but they had me at “free.” When Bác Vân finished, she decided she had to take Eaddie next door to Shoe Carnival, and ended up bringing her back with a new purse. When we all finished, we walked to Bath & Body Works for some significantly overpriced soaps. I had a coupon though, which knocked us down about 20%. Then Summer walked the kids to PetSmart while I gave Bác Vân a ride home.

I met them back at PetSmart to browse for a bit, but they were done by the time I got there. I picked up some baby crickets for the frogs at Oakland, took the others to their car, then took the crickets to Oakland to feed the frogs. Mollie had taken them home, so I had to just leave the crickets on her desk to pick up tomorrow. From there, I had forgotten to fill up on gas and had to drive back to the Shell. Evidently I had a pretty significant discount available, so while I trickled gas into the tank, I called Summer and had her meet me there to grab the last few gallons up to 20 that I couldn’t fit in my own car.

Finally, we all landed back at my house and played a game of Settlers of Catan. I thought I had the Seafarers expansion that would allow for all five of us to play, but it turns out it was only an expansion to the original game for 3-4 players, and I’ll have to buy two more expansions in order to make that work for 5-6 players. It was really tough getting everyone to listen to the rules, but once we got started they all seemed to really enjoy it. Even Eaddie got really into it, and ended up winning the game with an assist. We made one slight mistake with the spacing of settlements, so by the time we finished we were fed up continuing to play by our broken rules, but we’ll know better next time.

With the game finally done, the five of us settled in and watched Bird Box on Netflix. It was really good, really suspenseful, and perhaps a little too terrifying for the littlest. About two thirds of the way through, she gave up and went to the other room to play on her phone. The rest of us really enjoyed it though, and it’ll be interesting to hear in the morning if anyone has nightmares over it tonight. I think they likely pushed all of that out of their heads with their Mario Party as Summer and I went to bed.

Yes. It is exactly like tic-tac-toe.

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Nice Jowls

Julie made a traditional American new year’s meal for lunch today. Summer took Eaddie to pick up the other two kids and get ready while I showered. When they got back, we took some apple pie moonshine and Exploding Kittens to Julie’s house.

My parents were running a little late, so Julie decided we should go ahead and eat to get a rotation going. My parents ended up coming over with some TV tray tables, and got just a slightly later start. The beans and cornbread were my favorite. The collard greens were okay with some hot sauce, but I wouldn’t recommend them over many other vegetables. They basically had to be made unhealthy to be palatable. Julie had some other friends filter in around the time we were finishing up, so the few of us played two games of Exploding Kittens before we left.

Summer took the kids to go to her parents’ house for a bit while Dad helped me load my old Vizio TV into the car. Allen called and offered to give me a bunch of homemade wine, so I took him some apple pie too. He had way more wine than I was expecting though, and we loaded it up in all of the floorboards of the car.

On the way to Summer’s, I stopped by Harbor Freight to use a couple coupons. I picked up some clip-on watchmaker’s magnifying glasses and a free LED light. I always thought the free item coupons attached to the “buy one” item, but I was actually able to use a 25% off coupon on the magnifier  to stack with the free item coupon on the flashlight.

Once at Summer’s, the kids helped us unload the car, and Summer and I set the TV up in the living room. Autumn watched while the four of us played a team game of Mario Party, and then we started a game of Uno. I warmed up some leftovers for myself while we played, but we didn’t even get the game finished before everyone got bored and went back to Mario Party. The wine got us a little goofy, but it was a good time for everyone.

All that glitters is gooooold!

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Mostly Wasteful

We got up and out of bed just in time for lunch today. I had a pretty bad headache again, but it worked itself out without too much trouble. Summer made a quick skillet pasta meal while Autumn baked a frozen pizza. Then she spent all afternoon cleaning up the house and making big piles of stuff to donate or discard. Most of the time I wish that came easier for me, but on the other hand I’m always happy to need something that I happened to save from long ago. It’s those small victories that really get me through life.

I made it home to do some more laundry and dishes, and play with the aquariums some more. My 55 gallon tank was overheated because the heater wouldn’t turn off, so I unplugged it for the rest of the day. The girls came over when they finished so we could go to my parents’ house for more leftovers. I was under the impression that they had more left to eat than they really did, but I kept digging out older and older food to eat. I finished up some burrito stuff, Eaddie had an eggroll salad, Autumn grudgingly ate more rice and ham, but liked the egg rolls. Summer wasn’t feeling great and just ate what was left when the other two couldn’t finish their bowls. I brought an aquarium worm along for Dad to look at under a microscope, but it didn’t look like much. Unfortunately we couldn’t find the other flat one that I was more interested in seeing.

The girls went to sit in the living room together and started watching YouTube with shared earbuds, which made it all the more confusing when they started bickering in the middle of a game of Super Mario Party when we got back to my house. We decided they were cranky and tired, so everyone went straight to sleep. I made it to bed by 2.

I’m just upset I forgot to change my hat.

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Too Many Pandacorns

I slept in too late today to take Summer some lunch while she was working at the shop, so I spent the day cleaning up after the cats and fish. I moved more snails over to the 55-gallon tank too, but I’ll need to bring the PH up so the acidity doesn’t eat away at their shells. I let myself get sucked down the rabbit hole for a while on that one.

After a while, I loaded up Breath of the Wild on the TV and played until I had to get ready for dinner. Summer came over after a workout and a shower, we picked the girls up, and we went to my parents’ house for some leftovers. Zach invited us up to play a card game they got called Unstable Unicorns, so we picked Gary up as well and headed to Doverland.

The seven of us played for nearly four hours before Eaddie finally won. We were pretty severely gimped because Zach and Sara insisted that you couldn’t play an upgrade card unless you had a basic unicorn card in your stable, and then all of my unicorns were turned into pandas for the entire game. I very nearly won though, and I feel like I did win in spirit even if it was only because I had a proper understanding of the rules.

Past midnight, we headed back to town in the pouring rain, dropped Gary off, then made it back to my house to go to sleep. All the girls passed right out, and I joined them after a couple more hours.

You think the hard way is your ally, but you merely adopted the challenge!

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Merry Chrysler

Summer and I got up and woke the girls up for breakfast this morning. She made blueberry pancakes, and then the girls wanted to be artsy in their rooms while Summer played Torchlight II and I played Zelda. Eventually I had to head home to get ready for dinner at my parents’ house.

Once I was ready, I picked everyone up at Summer’s parents’ house since the girls would be staying the night there. We were the first to arrive at my parents’ house, followed by Bác Vân and Doug, then Julie. Dinner was really good, though I forgot to bring the leftover potato salad. We had plenty of everything else though, so we didn’t really miss it. Julie got on another rant about why America is fat after Bác Vân tried to tell me not to drink so much so fast.

After dinner, we played a little bit of Overcooked II with Julie before switching to Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes. As stressful as that was at moments, everyone seemed to find something they were good enough at that we could successfully defuse bombs with screen looking. Next up will have to be true handheld mode so nobody else can see the bomb.

We dropped the girls off, then Summer and I made it back to my house and watched a few episodes of The Office. She’s determined to finish the series over break, and then we’ll have to decide on what to watch next. I’ve got such a backlog that it very nearly stresses me out, but there are also other shows I’d like to rewatch with her. Decisions, decisions.

And a happy emu tear!

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Recreational Frustration

Summer took the kids home this morning and I eventually got around to doing some last minute deal hunting. First up was Shoe Carnival where they had advertised a free $10 gift card with the purchase of a $50 gift card. I couldn’t find any terms anywhere online, so I had to go to the store and read a sign that the bonus gift card would only be valid for a couple weeks, which made this one a bust for me.

Next I went to Walmart to hunt down an old, discontinued SKU for a Google Home Mini and Chromecast bundle. They had several of the newer SKU boxes in stock, but I couldn’t find any of the old cheap ones. The place was a zoo, but I managed to make it around to the groceries for a few things I needed before I left.

The last stop was Taco Bell to spend my last $5 bonus gift card before it turned into a pumpkin overnight. I just sat and decompressed over a taco salad before making my way up to Summer’s.

When I got there, she was baking cookies for the kids to decorate. Eaddie didn’t make as much of a mess as I expected her to, and we all had a good time. I made a Patrick starfish and a Thanos.

After the cookies, they all played Super Mario Party while I fought with trying to set parental management on Eaddie’s iPhone. It was super frustrating that we weren’t there to set it up properly from the beginning, and none of them really paid close enough attention to anything to really use it to its full potential. I eventually just gave up and played some Overcooked 2 with the others. That game stressed us all out, but I think Summer got it the worst. Eaddie was tired and useless. Autumn was the same, though less annoying about it.

Eventually the girls settled in and we called it a night. I played Breath of the Wild for way too long before I gave in to sleep.

You’re gonna sit down and have fun whether you like it or not!

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Sup, Cuz?

My cousin Michelle and her family hosted a big multi-family Christmas gathering today in Bismarck. The girls came along with us, so I brought the Switch dock and we played Super Mario Party the whole way down.

It was a pretty good time, but there were so many people there that everyone pretty much just sat at their own table and ate. Most of the socialization seemed to happen among people that already saw each other pretty regularly. It wasn’t much of a surprise though since we hardly see any of those 3.7 million cousins on that side of the family. I think they’re all pretty close for the most part, but I know I have trouble keeping up with any of them.

Dad did a little magic show, and then Uncle Rick played some piano. We finished the night with Dirty Santa. Dad brought a couple gifts, so we put Autumn and Eaddie into the ring of 37 people. Eaddie didn’t really want the sign she stole from Autumn, so they decided to give it to someone else that commented about it.

The trip home was a little more Mario Party, and then Eaddie played Mario Odyssey the rest of the way. Summer got a little case of the Christmas blues, but I think we turned it around pretty well with some house cleaning and getting ready for Jesica to come over tomorrow. The girls went to spend the night with their father for Christmas, but they’ll be back tomorrow night. I hear there’ll be cookies.

HEY! It’s another Christmas song!

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Solstice with the Mostice

The kids got up and started watching Criminal Minds this morning. They got hungry, so I threw on some ramen while Summer went to take care of some school stuff and work out. After she got back, she took them home and I eventually got cleaned up enough to leave the house.

I stopped by Davis’ Pet Store on the way to Summer’s house because I wanted to pick up a few more baby snails while she had them. She gave me another tiny little ram’s horn style baby as well, but we weren’t sure what kind it really was.

When I got to Summer’s, she was in the middle of doing laundry and cooking food for my family’s potluck tomorrow. I warmed up some leftovers for us, and once she was done with everything we watched a couple episodes of The Office. When Nick brought the kids back, Noah started tearing the house apart looking for the ring he lost the other day. Autumn holed herself up in her room with her new phone, and Eaddie generally bummed around complaining about how she also lost her tablet several days ago but nobody would help her find it.

Summer wanted to play some Diablo, but I couldn’t get the family plan email invite to show up on her account, so she ended up falling asleep. I played Super Mario Party with Noah and Eaddie until they went to bed as well.

Today literally went by so fast!

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This time I want to be sure.

We slept in pretty late today. Summer was exhausted from being on the road all day yesterday, and I was just lazy. When we finally did get up, she didn’t waste any time getting out to the gym and to get the girls.

I went to check on the fish and was baffled to find eggs! I don’t even have a male betta, so they were unfertilized. It wasn’t until after I changed her water to get rid of them that I realized it’s Christmas, and that I may have inadvertently discarded the Fishiah, born of the virgin betta to offer salivation to all those who look up to the great fish fry in the sky. She’s still a little bloated and lethargic, but I feel better that something has happened. Next up will be peas and epsom salt.

Loads of research and a shower later, I made it up to Summer’s for dinner. She made tacos with pico and guacamole all from scratch. She even steamed some rice, which I ate with what fell from my tacos. After dinner, Autumn played some Super Mario Party while I played Zelda. Eventually the girls went to bed and I had to run to Walmart for fish supplies.

I made a pretty quick run through Walmart, stopping to check a few clearance shelves I found, but nothing really piqued my interest. I got some canned peas and epsom salt for the fish, and a carton of orange juice for myself. As I was coming up to the self-checkout, I ran into Tasha and talked to her and her boyfriend for a little bit. Evidently they made a baby. It seemed defective because it was emitting some kind of squeaky noise.

Back home, I noticed on my calendar that today was Summer’s anniversary. That meant it was my anniversary, and I hadn’t realized it until nearly bedtime. I felt like a bit of a bum for that because I know Summer expects something more, but overall I’ve been pretty vocal about not celebrating or acknowledging events for the past several years. At the very least, it’s been less stressful being a non-participant. She didn’t much care for my jokes that she had reset our anniversary to May, or that I would deduct five calendar days from our year together. Overall though, it’s been a pretty decent one. Seriously, who saw that coming?

Won’t you tell me if I’m coming on too strong?

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Into the Zelda-Verse

Summer and Autumn had a quiz bowl trip to Springdale this morning. I woke up pretty early too, had some leftovers for breakfast, then sat in bed and played Breath of the Wild until what was left of my battery was drained. I took that break to head home for the day, and I docked the Switch to continue my game on the TV.

Cinemark only had one 3D XD showing of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse every single day of the week, and they were all at 10:15pm, which was super aggravating, but it gave us plenty of time to get to Conway, eat, and do a little shopping before the movie. After Summer got here, we went to Logan’s for some steaks. My two bonus gift cards didn’t work, which was also frustrating, but I had other gift cards to cover the meal. Then we went to Target where Summer picked up some jeans for some adopt-a-kid Christmas gift at school. While we were there, I spotted a couple Pebble Time Rounds in the case with no price sticker. I had a guy price check it, and they came out at $199.99. I tried making a deal at the front desk, but nobody there could do anything, so we left for the movie.

We both loved the picture-show. I think it was by far one of the best Spider-Man movies ever. Since it was all animation, the 3D was amazing as well. There were tons of laughs and feels, and it was just a great take on the characters. It was a must-see if you’re any kind of fan of the web-head.

Everybody knows that the best way to learn is under intense, life-threatening crisis.