Tag: gaming

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Glasstric Bypass

I had quite a bit of trouble falling asleep last night, and then it felt like I slept really lightly all night long. Then we had to get up early to make it to Conway for the movie. Summer took the kids home to shower and clean up, and I did the same before heading out to pick them up.

We made it with plenty of time to get seated. It was actually really nice, with only a few other people in the theater. The tickets were quite a bit cheaper as well. We watched Glass after having seen Unbreakable and Split earlier last year. I thought it was pretty amazing, but I think the plot twist did more to aggravate the others. It makes me wonder if they’ll actually continue with more movies, or perhaps a series.

After the movie, we took the kids to Game Point to look around. We let them pick up a couple games, and I even grabbed a couple myself. Then we went to Walmart to see if I could find any of the clearance-priced Chromecast and Google Home Mini bundles. They were all sealed up behind glass, and BrickSeek indicated it was “limited stock” anyway, which likely meant they had none at the $17 price. By the time we left there, we were all pretty hungry, so we started the quest to find someplace to eat.

We drove through greater Conway to find something, and ultimately landed at Golden Corral. It worked out well for everyone to find something they liked, and we all pretty well stuffed ourselves beyond any reason. I actually didn’t overdo it as much as I often do, but I was already pretty full from popcorn anyway.

From there, we went to Sam’s to walk off some of the food. I very nearly picked up a box of Dr. Pepper syrup to use with the SodaStream, but I ultimately passed with a 2-1 vote against from the kids. I’m still not really sure how that happened. Then we went by PetCo to look for some shrimp, followed by BestBuy to cruise for deals. With nothing of interest there, we made a final stop at Target, where we picked up just a few things before heading home.

I dropped them off at Summer’s house and headed home to prepare for their arrival, but Summer said her car wouldn’t start. I dug out the Xbox so they could play their new game and headed to their house for the night. Autumn crawled into bed pretty early while Eaddie watched Noah play Left 4 Dead 2. Summer and I ended the night with a couple episodes of Parks and Recreation.

I have a dream that my four little coworkers will one day work in a department where they will not be judged by the length of their employment, but by the quality of their work.

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Blowoverwatch

The girls all went to the high school for a quiz bowl tournament today. I got up early and worked on the file server some more, but couldn’t kick a massive headache and went back to sleep until a bit after noon. Apparently it started to snow, which panicked someone at the tournament, so they shut it down early. Summer brought a bunch of leftover barbecue over, so I had that for lunch when they got here.

The girls, in a truly presidential moment, refused to get along with anyone all day long. Criminal Minds managed to shut them up for a little while, but they started up again just as Summer left to pick up Noah. I didn’t have the creativity I needed to deal with it properly, so I just separated them the best I could and went to my room to continue working on the file server. Then I saw Clint online, so we played a bunch of Overwatch until everyone else in the house passed out. If they don’t figure it out by tomorrow, I swear I’m leaving them on the side of the road.

Let’s try not to make this become cruel and usual punishment.

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Clocking Out of Break

Like most of the break, we slept in a bit later than we wanted. Summer got up and made biscuits and gravy for breakfast, and we spent most of the day playing games either together or separately. It felt like kind of a waste of such a nice day outside, but Eaddie was the only one that even mentioned doing anything. I kept letting myself get caught up in my game of Zelda, and Autumn mostly stuck to her phone when Summer wouldn’t let her watch Criminal Minds.

The three of them did at least manage to finish building the game table in Autumn’s room. Then the other three of us played quite a bit of Mario Kart before Summer heated up a lasagna for dinner. The day went by pretty quickly, and everyone worked up a pretty good musk by the time the kids had to get ready for bed. We finished up with a lime pie that Summer and Eaddie made, and then the kids were off to bed for the school night.

I headed home and started a load of laundry I didn’t get to, and while that was going I noticed Clint, Keno, and Jack were all on playing Overwatch, so I joined them for a few rounds as well before bed. We finished up right before my laundry was done. I’ll have to get up a bit earlier tomorrow so I can be sure to have plenty of extra time for the new time clock procedure we’re implementing at work. It really must be great to have a contracted number of work days just like us and not have to worry about a time clock the way that certified employees don’t.

We’ve got to quit wasting breaks.

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End of Break Blues

Summer got up this morning and left for the gym and to do a bit of shopping before the girls got back from their father’s. I got cleaned up and had to stop by Walmart to pick up the asparagus and Brussels sprouts that Summer forgot.

The girls were eating food they brought home when I got there, so it was just the two of us eating the ribs, mashed potatoes, and veggies she whipped together. It was super good, so I wasn’t too upset about it. After we ate, we played a relatively quick game of Monopoly before moving to the Switch for Mario Kart.

We’ve all had trouble getting to sleep early, but I’m hoping to turn my clock back by about four hours tonight. Sadly, returning to work is starting to look like reality.

Where else can I find a job that lets me work this little but pays better?

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PixElated

I didn’t manage to get to sleep until about 5, and I woke up around 8 to check the status of Summer’s phone. We really didn’t have any more time to waste because Google Fi was threatening to cancel her “service” and bill her for the phone if she didn’t activate it, even though it was completely on FedEx for losing her first phone shipment nearly a month ago. When she finally woke up around 10, I had her get dressed to wait for FedEx and I went back to sleep for a little while. It was right around lunch time that they finally made the delivery. I still woke up from the knock on the door though, so I went ahead and got up to help her set things up.

We got her screen protector and case on, but she forgot her Slickwraps skin at home, so we’ll have to try that out later. The port from Verizon to Google Fi was painless though, and after some initial, vaguely unintuitive setup, she was up and running on her new phone. I think after seeing hers, I’m less upset about not having a new one this year. I can definitely hold out for a better price point than the one I got when I switched last year.

After we got her going, I dominated Noah and Eaddie at some Mario Kart that I picked up on sale last night before bed. Summer and Autumn made a run to Burger King and Popeye’s for a late lunch since it’s impossible to please everyone, and we’re raising a bunch of “librul snowflakes” as they say at work. Summer even made the executive decision to order bone-in chicken over Eaddie’s preferred strips, but then ended up bringing strips back anyway because the wait was significantly shorter.

We ate, Summer took Noah home, and then the four of us played a ridiculously long game of Catan because none of us are comfortable enough to play with any real strategy yet. When that was finally over, I was completely beat from being awake for so long after such little sleep. Summer took the girls home and I tried doing my rounds on some of the pets before falling over.

It looked like the betta dropped a few more eggs, but they floated this time. She also has some pretty significant fuzz that looks like stuffing coming out of a hole in a stuffed animal. It’s been there for a while and she can’t seem to shake it, but at least she seems more active. I think she’s been eating some of the freeze dried bloodworms I’ve added to her water, but I can’t tell for sure. She’s definitely still not anywhere near back to normal.

After that, I got side tracked a bit and ended up breaking the tape measure I’ve had on my desk for years. It had been slightly messed up for ages, and I broke it the rest of the way trying to correct it. I guess for a dollar store purchase, it served well. Harbor Freight will fill the void nicely in the near future.

Too many rabbits.

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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!