First Class

There were several out of the office first thing this morning. Even Allen showed up a few minutes late. Nobody really spoke to me, and I sort of imagine it was because they were upset with me, but I don’t much care either.

I got a new line of laptops imaging since nobody had touched them for a couple days, and Amanda only got six of the second set done. I upped it to eight and left for Oakland to try and complete some work orders. Just as I got there, I noticed an email requesting immediate help at the junior high for a CPR presentation the nurses were giving. This was two-for-two of their technology completely failing. Last year it was a bad audio input port on their mixer. This year it seemed to be an issue with reading their DVD on the laptop the building provided. I guess there’s always next year. One of the girls just ran home and brought in a personal DVD player.

I went straight back to Oakland to knock some things out before heading to the high school. I actually kind of felt good about what I had completed, but next week won’t be any picnic. High school time came up on me faster than I expected.

It wasn’t quite as crazy as I expected, but I guess the real circus will be tomorrow with the sophomores. Today it was the juniors, which would have been the first 9th grade class I supported at the junior high. I was kind of surprised how few faces I recognized, but looking back I guess I would have seen the 8th graders more often anyway.

After work, I headed home and unboxed my Google Daydream View VR headset. I got it for a steal, so I practically had to get it just for the controller. The girls stopped by for a bit before I headed to my parents’ house for dinner. After some chit-chat there, I stopped by CVS to use a coupon, then went to visit with the girls before heading home to bed.

Tomorrow’s an all-day laptop extravaganza.

The Eaddiest Beattiest Birthday Party

We got to play real-life Tetris today, except none of the luggage disappeared when I got it perfectly loaded into the trunk of the Murano. I’m still not entirely sure how I got everything to fit. I think it was mostly the soft stuff that filled the odd empty spaces. I should invent amorphous luggage.

Once we got everything loaded up, we stopped by Boston Store in the mall to search for deals. I kept getting stuck on dress shirts and jackets, first because non-universal sizing is ridiculous, and then because even at 60% off, some of the prices were still super outlandish. I dig a brand-name thing occasionally, but not for the things I was finding. I did actually end up finding a great deal on a puffy Nautica coat and a Chromecast Ultra. I wished the store was closer to home so I could really spend some time there finding the best deals.

When we finished shopping, Eaddie decided she wanted to go to Chuck E. Cheese’s for her birthday. It wasn’t quite as nostalgic as I thought it might be. I think it was mostly due to the location. It was, however, a great time once we got past the eating. They have a new system for gaming where you just get a certain amount of time instead of having to spend a finite number of tokens. I think the whole experience actually lost something for not having the tokens, but at least they kept paper tickets.

From there, we headed out of town, stopping by a Harbor Freight to pick up a locking hitch pin. We made it to Chicagoland in just about the amount of time Google Maps stated, and with only minimal cursing over toll roads. Overall I think I’m just glad we didn’t die while following other traffic at 20 over the limit. Years of offensive driving habits prepared me for this.

You can’t show people how many you are anymore!

Caress Your Balls

A brief interruption in power woke us up really early this morning. I didn’t feel particularly tired, so I got out of bed pretty early for a Saturday. Most of this morning and afternoon was just a lazy day. I spent some more time fighting with my media server, and Summer napped for a while. We eventually got out of the house to meet up with Ronda and Steven for some Fat Daddy’s.

On our way out the door, Summer checked the mail and found my free pair of glasses from Zenni Optical, courtesy of EyeQue. They seem to have a lot of glare, even from the reflection of my own eyes on the back of the lenses. They’re fine for near-sight, but looking at anything far away seems way blurry at first. My eyes will adjust eventually, but I think they’re giving me a headache. It’s definitely time to go back to the eye doctor to find out my official prescription anyway.

After dinner, we all went to the bowling alley for a couple games. I don’t think any of us had been bowling in quite a while, but it was a good time. It went by faster than I expected it to. Steven won the first game, and then Summer squeaked by me for the win in her extra frame at the end of the second game.

We stopped by the Walmart Neighborhood Market on the way home because Summer wanted some cake, and we watched The Office until bedtime.

Yakety yak!

Pursuit of Trivia

It was mostly a pretty slow day at work. We spent most of it cleaning out computers at a few campuses. I spent a disproportionate amount of time driving when we had to visit London. Dale, Allen, and I met Summer at Ruby Tuesday for $5 salad bars. The service was pretty slow. I think only one of us ever got a refill at the table. Then the afternoon was more miscellany.

After work, I came home and started washing socks before getting ready to go to The Old Bank for trivia night. Summer wanted to meet up with Jenna, and we ended up joining forces with Summer’s Quiz Bowl cohort Johnny and a couple of his friends. It was a slow night for trivia with a substitute running the show. We placed third, and I wasn’t completely useless. My shining moment was being able to spell “szechuan.” We placed third.

All in!

Torchlight with Bae

My audio alarm went off this morning after the lights had reached peak brightness. I wish the audio could start halfway through the raising of the lights, but right now it doesn’t seem possible.

I managed to get up and around earlier than usual and headed in to work. There wasn’t really much going on, but I did manage to help a few people with things before lunch. I met Dale, Allen, and Jason at KFC and ate too much chicken, which made me super sleepy in the afternoon. I eventually just had to get up and start cleaning my office before I fell asleep. After the kids left, I finished running some speaker wire to wrap up one of my last two stagnant work orders.

After work, I came home and started some laundry, then waited around until someone got online to play. First it was Keno with some PUBG, and then Summer got on to play some Torchlight II. We finally found each other and wandered around a dungeon until it was past our bedtime.

Tomorrow is for bikes and pizza.

The Great Dying

Everything seemed perfectly normal up until bedtime.

It was a pretty slow day again. I ended up driving through McDonald’s for a late lunch Happy Meal. Nobody else has really been around all week. I guess it’s been alright to recalibrate my eating habits.

After work, I came home for just a little while before heading to Summer’s for dinner. Some of the tadpoles were hitching a ride on a piece of celery that was bobbing up and down in the water, so I made a funny video of it.

Summer made chicken and bowtie alfredo, then we all played a super long game of Uno before the girls went to bed. The rest of us watched an episode of The Office, and then I came home.

I checked on the tadpoles just before going to bed, and much to my dread, over half of them looked to have perished. There were just mounds of them on the floor of the fish bowl. I spent a couple hours trying to sort out the living from the dead, but they preferred to mingle. I rigged up a bigger container for confirmed live ones, then sank a smaller container with the rest of the mix so the live ones could swim out overnight, leaving the dead behind. We’ll see how it goes in the morning, I guess.

Everything was great until it wasn’t.

Rectify. Rectify. Games. Rectify.

Today was for getting shit done. The work order system notifications broke again, so I had some catching up to do. Then, like a man after my own heart, Allen suggested KFC for lunch. He must have sensed my cravings last night. Then after lunch, I got a little frisky with Avaya and a switch. They were like PuTTY in my hands.

After work, I came home and played some PUBG with Josh until the servers went down. From there, I filled up on gas and went to my parents’ house for some corned beef. I was still full, but much like Jello, there’s always room for corned beef.

I finished the evening with some more PUBG with Clint and Aaron.

But they are weak. Weak! Weak things are food!

Dinner and a Show

Summer went to work at Superfast for a few hours today, so I took her some Arby’s for lunch. They made a sudden switch to Coca-Cola products, which was kind of neat, though I miss the Tropicana fruit punch. We took a few minutes and ate on a bench outside the shop, then I headed home and struggled to stay awake the rest of the day.

We planned to meet up at my parents’ house for dinner, so I made some coffee to wake myself up and headed over there in the evening. She had all three kids with her this time, so my parents got the full experience. We had chow mein and some egg rolls, then afterward my dad performed his magic show that he’s been practicing for the Eureka convention this weekend.

After everyone loaded up and left there, I went to fill up on gas before tomorrow, then played a few blitz rounds of Fortnite with Clint and Jack. It didn’t go well, but I learned some additional mechanics that would have been super nice to learn from a tutorial mission.

Why plan ahead when improvising is so much more exciting?

What can I say except, “you’re welcome!”

I slept in again today, but made time to clean the aquarium and living room before going out. The girls went shopping and wanted CiCi’s, so I met them there for that. Afterward we stopped in to Shoe Carnival so I could look for some sandals. I don’t really understand it, but the sandals I wear are at least a size larger than my shoe size.

When we left there, Summer asked what the plan was, and I told her that I was going to go play video games by myself and she could do whatever she wanted. Eaddie said she was with me, so I took her, which I think was a surprise to everyone. It looked like Summer and Autumn went toward their house, and Eaddie and I went to my house, but then made a detour to get half a sandwich out of the office refrigerator. On the way back, we passed a bird sitting in the gutter of the road that didn’t move, so I circled around and we walked over to look at it. I managed to poke it before it wobely flew across the street. We followed it, but I never got to touch it again. I did get a sweet picture of it when it landed just outside arm’s reach in a tree.

Giving up on the bird, we came back to my house and met the others and played some Blokus before settling in to watch Moana. I loved the movie, and the 3D was spot-on.

If the wind in my sail on the sea stays behind me…

Be curious.

I didn’t have a single incident during testing today, so I spent the morning getting things done.

Allen and I had lunch at Arby’s and were supposed to help Amanda with another flat panel, but evidently she wouldn’t have been there, so it was postponed. Frustrated with our last install, we hooked up the projector in the graveyard to see its performance for ourselves. It’s not one I would have replaced over some others, so gripes will be made.

After work, I came home for a bit before heading to Summer’s for chili, Clue, and Cosmos. It felt fitting after learning of Stephen Hawking’s passing.

Remember to look up at the stars and not down at your feet.