Tag: gaming

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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.

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I know it’s Friday, but it feels like Ciderday!

We didn’t really have much of a meeting this morning. Dale finally convinced Ben to get the trailer roof vent fixed since it’s been completely shattered and leaking water since last year. Jason was incapable of getting it done, and I thought the 25 minutes it took them to completely repair it was going to make Gary’s eyes roll so far into the back of his head that he’d be knocked unconscious. It wasn’t very much longer until Jason couldn’t tell that his own phone was ringing, and then said he didn’t care enough about answering it to remember what his own unique ringtone sounded like.

I spent most of the morning working on the lunch form I started on yesterday, but ended up just editing the live version instead of creating a new one. That got me to lunch, when most of us went to Fat Daddy’s in London. It was raining quite a bit, so I was annoyed at parking in the muddy gravel on top of having to drive to an inferior restaurant in the first place. When we got back to the shop, I headed to Oakland to take care of a few things before catching up at the junior high.

Matt brought apple cider to the lounges, and I guess they had some other snacks in there as well. I actually didn’t get a whole lot done the rest of the afternoon, but I stayed busy with the lunch form I broke. I think I got it working properly before I left though.

Summer went to work out, then out to eat with Autumn while I went home to take care of the fish. I still felt bloated from the rest of the day, so I mostly read up on the Walstad method of planting an aquarium. When they got home, I went up to meet them and played Breath of the Wild while Autumn watched TV and Summer made deviled eggs for quiz bowl tomorrow.

Must resist urge to Google recipes….

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Baron Grinnit

I spent most of the morning at Oakland taking care of a few things before heading to the shop. Once there, I helped Ben move an enormous desk from the hallway into one of the offices for Brice to use as an office. It does feel a little odd that Amanda never got an office when she had all the elementaries, but I’m also guessing she probably never asked. He seems to really want an office space, and we have the extra rooms. I am a little surprised that such nice furniture just appeared for him, but I think I have a chance to grab something too if I hurry.

Dale, Allen, Ben, and I went to Taco John’s for lunch, and then I went to the junior high for the afternoon. There wasn’t a whole lot going on there, but I spent some good time messing with a testing software deployment that evidently needs updating. More on that tomorrow.

After work, I ran to PetSmart to grab some of the smallest crickets I could find and took them to Oakland for the frogs. They seem small enough, but several of the crickets were already dead. I dropped a few live ones in with the frogs, and we’ll see if any are left in the morning.

From there, I ran home for a bit and started a campaign on Breath of the Wild before heading to the high school for Autumn’s band concert. The PAC was packed, and I’m surprised they didn’t pass around a collection plate. Somehow I managed to survive and we went to Taco Bell for dinner afterward.

Back at home, I continued my campaign for just a little bit longer before bed.

So let me get this straight. Link gets a cell phone, then asks Ganon for help getting down the mountain?

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FailEx

It was a pep rally day at the junior high, so I didn’t start the day with a whole lot of ambition. I stopped by Oakland first to drop off the three frogs I pulled from my tank. Then I spent the rest of the morning in my office until lunch. I went to Wendy’s a bit late for a cheap lunch, but unfortunately the $1 fry deal was over. From there, I stopped by the shop for a bit and called FedEx about Summer’s Pixel 3 before heading back to the junior high until quitting time.

After work, I ran by Summer’s for a while to get Eaddie’s flute for her concert tonight. I stuck around for a bit to see if FedEx would show up, and then spent quite a while on the phone again to see if I could get an update on the trace. So far, we’re two business days behind, but that’s four calendar days without her new phone. While I was on hold, I chatted with a BestBuy rep to pricematch Breath of the Wild so I could use my $10 reward certificate along with two $10 gift cards to score the game for only $15.

When I finally left her house, Summer had already left the gym to get the girls and head to the concert, so I just took the flute to my house and met her there, then spent the rest of the evening smashing my head against the wall trying to understand why the Switch’s wireless is so horrible. Evidently forcing it into sleep mode gives you a huge bump in speed, even from an idle and docked status. That makes about as much sense as downloading faster while the console is powered off.

Nobody likes a smug plummer.

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It’s Magic!

We all got up and ready to go to Fort Smith for the magic club’s annual holiday potluck and show. We got to my parents’ house pretty close to when we planned, but Summer didn’t feel well by the time we left and we had to swing by Walgreens on the way out of town for some meds. The rest of the trip went pretty well though. If I had realized Mom’s car had both HDMI and an AC power outlet, I would have brought a Switch dock so we could all play. Instead, we all split up and took turns, which still turned out really well. It definitely made the trip feel shorter.

The party was at a new place, with plenty of room for eating and a large raised platform for a stage. There didn’t seem to be quite the variety of food we usually see, but at least we had plenty to eat. The girls seemed to really enjoy the show, but I really think Summer was the most excited of the three of them. Most of the performances seemed shorter than usual as well, but it was a good time.

We stopped by a couple Oriental food stores on the way home, and the girls actually really enjoyed looking at all the snacks and different things they aren’t used to seeing. Dad bought them each some snacks, and we headed home. Edna and I played some more INVERSUS to unlock some more maps. She got pretty good after a few games, so it was really fun to play a little competitively until it degraded to us trolling each other.

Once we got home, the girls went back to their house and I started cleaning up a bit. I had to fish three frogs out of the tadpole tank, which meant I had to find and clean another tank for them. The betta seems to be getting worse, and I don’t know what else I can do to help her. In cases like this, it seems way easier to care for them when you have a whole school of them rather than just one solo sick species. I gave her some more meds, but I think I need to find my aquarium salt as well. I really thought I used to have some somewhere.

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Ne’er Do Anythingers

Everyone but Brice met at the shop for the meeting this morning. We didn’t really have anything to discuss or work on, and instead everyone pretty well broke up and just socialized all day. I almost couldn’t believe we made it all the way to lunch doing that. I did get to school Allen and Jason on SCCM a bit, which felt both nice and aggravating, since they’ve both been doing this for years. I’m glad to have learned it myself though.

We unanimously agreed to Zona K Tracha for lunch since everyone else wanted to try it after Gary, Heather, and I went last week. The service was quite a bit slower, but the food was still excellent. My fajitas had more veggies, but the meat seemed to be seasoned a little differently. It was still excellent though. I hope they can get the consistency and speed down soon so they last a while.

After lunch was more of the same until it was time to go home. I stopped by my house for just a little while before going to Summer’s to wait for FedEx to bring her phone. She found a door tag that didn’t seem to be registered online, but the original tracking number showed the delivery attempt was made Thursday, so I assumed they would try again. After an hour or so of waiting while she was at the gym, the tracking status changed to “pending” and as far as I could tell, no additional delivery attempt was made. I called to complain or trace the package, and we’ll just have to see what happens. I always have this problem with FedEx though. I absolutely hate them.

When she finally got back from the gym, we made some leftovers before heading to my house for the evening. I hooked the Switch up to the TV and, after resolving some super frustrating controller issues, we played Diablo III until bedtime.

Finally, level 10 again!