Tag: holiday

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The City that Drowned

We finally made it to Quiz Bowl nationals trip day. Summer and Autumn went to pick up Burger King for breakfast while I got ready, and we made it to the high school to load everyone onto the bus. I ran into Ben outside the high school and told him my sick day was to meet a witch doctor from the south. We barely had room for everything and everyone, but I think they may have overpacked some supplies on the way out.

The first stop was Quiznos to pick up lunch to take with us. I guess it was easier than stopping somewhere along the way, and certainly expedited that process. I’m not really sure how we ended up with a full bag of extra sandwiches, but hopefully they keep until the ride home. I certainly would rather experience unique cuisine while I’m here.

Around three hours into the trip, we stopped at Lake Village behind a gas station, got snacks and took a bathroom break, and then walked over to a park to eat. Luckily it wasn’t too terribly hot out, but I did sweat a bit. It definitely took the bus a bit to cool back down after that.

Summer and I watched the first episode of Firefly after I did some finagling on my devices. I was upset to learn the iPad Plex app wouldn’t stream without a Plex Pass. I’ve never had that issue with my Android app for some reason. Not too long later we made it to a Walmart in Crystal Springs. I didn’t really need any snacks, so I wandered to electronics and picked up a couple clearanced smart light switches and a physical copy of Diablo III. It was all just so cheap.

The last leg of the trip was short, but took us through a bunch of traffic on what felt like the world’s longest bridge. It was interesting to see the water rushing out of the Mississippi River and just spreading out across what was once land. The water was high, and flooding has been expected all over, but here it just seemed a part of life.

We got to the Hampton in an old part of town, but really I think all of this area is old town. It’s been remodeled with new world commodities, but the outside shells of buildings seem to be left alone. We didn’t have any time to look around or do anything but eat, but I really didn’t want to eat the Domino’s pizza after overhearing the three telephone conversations it took to place the order. Instead, I opted to use Uber Eats to order some food from a nearby place called Magasin Kitchen. I got some grilled shrimp spring rolls and something called a bibimbap rice bowl that I didn’t dislike, but didn’t super care for either. It was decent food, but just not quite what I was looking for.

Summer passed out early for me, but it was really probably kind of late for her. I’m really glad I’m taking next week off after having to wake up early all weekend for this.

Love that chicken from Popeye’s!

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People That Do Things

I sort of halfway got to sleep in just a little bit today, but it wasn’t much. The girls went home while I showered and got the bike rack mounted. I had forgotten how heavy and cumbersome that thing is, and it makes me wish I had a better way to store it than boxing it back up in the retail package. It really is the most secure, uniform shape that way though.

Noah and Eaddie stayed behind, so it was just Summer, Autumn, and myself again heading to Little Rock. We went straight to Dick’s and met with Ryan, who I had spoken to over the phone. He threw the bike up and checked the breaks and a couple things, but evidently didn’t tighten the handlebars or air up the tires, and one of the valve stem caps was missing. Of course we didn’t notice any of this until we got home and tried to ride them.

While in Little Rock, we tried to find somewhere to go for lunch and ended up at Hooter’s right around the corner. The girls kept being super apologetic about how slow they were and how behind the kitchen was, but I honestly didn’t really even notice it at all, especially for a Mother’s Day crowd. Autumn thought she could handle the heat of the wings, but she ended up struggling to eat. Summer lucked out and got a free salad for Mother’s Day.

We stopped in Conway on the way home to get the last bike. As we walked into Dick’s, we found they had lost power, so they let us shop around under the emergency lighting. Taylor met up with us and tried to talk me into biting the bullet on a new bike for myself with his n+1=x where n is the number of bikes I have, and x is the number of bikes I need. I passed, deciding instead to hoard my money for another day.

When we got home, I ordered some Domino’s for dinner and picked it up on the way to my parents’ house. Summer took the kids to her mother’s to visit for a bit on the way, and eventually we all made it to dinner with my parents. Julie got her own broccoli crust pizza from Brick Oven. I mostly ate salad, but had a slice of Hawaiian and a slice of Julie’s chicken bacon ranch that wasn’t bad. After we finished eating, we went outside and let everyone try riding the new bikes in the street a bit. That’s when we found Summer’s had not been put together completely, or at least not tightly enough.

They headed home, and I took the bikes home to try and clean out the garage enough to store them. I managed, but only because of how much junk I had that I could rearrange. Trying to store them with another vehicle in the garage will prove to be more difficult unless one of those vehicles is a Miata. Time will tell, I suppose.

Kleer the mind.

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Sweet Home Alabama

We got up early this morning for breakfast in the lobby, and then Summer was off to The Great Inflatable Race. I went back up to the room to shower and get things packed up before she got back. Her race ran a little behind, but she still made it back in time to get showered and primped before our late checkout time. I even tucked my shirt in and wore a tie for a few minutes.

Our first stop was at Shoe Carnival in the shopping center by the hotel. She wanted some new shoes for her dress, and I walked around holding some shoes for a while that I ultimately returned before checking out. Then she wanted to go to the McCain Mall right up the block. We made a loop through the whole place, really only stopping at Dillard’s, GameStop, Victoria’s Secret, and finally Spencer’s where I picked up some Rap Snacks for Dale. We were out just long enough to work up a bit of an appetite, so we made our way back over to Red Lobster.

There was only a really short wait for our Lobsterfest to start. Summer got a lighthouse glass without having to steal it, and I begrudgingly ate a sirloin because it was smothered in lobstery things. The lobster pizza appetizer was good, and Summer had a margarita that was unexpectedly the size of her head. I helped her on it just a bit as we took turns getting brain freezes. Then it was off to the Verizon Arena.

We paid for pretty decent parking, though in hindsight I think the block further for half the price may have been a better deal, and ultimately gotten us out of traffic faster. We got to the arena just in time to walk right on in and find our seats, which were also right by the entrance. Summer had a really great time while I fought with my Eargasm High Fidelity Earplugs. I think my ear canals turn up sharply, which causes the earplugs to seal shut. At least I got to learn that now before going to a concert that interests me personally. I kept them in to save my hearing, but the audio was clearly muffled unless I used my fingers to tweak them slightly in my ear canals.

Nice screensaver!I only recognized one song all night, which was by the opening Charlie Daniels Band. The Devil Went Down to Georgia was a staple for my Diamond Rio MP3 player in high school. Summer only knew it and maybe one more of their songs. The real treat for her was when Alabama came onto the stage. She got excited at several of their songs, none of which I could recall ever hearing in my lifetime. I was surprised to hear them go on and on about how many awards they had won and how many chart topping singles they had, partly because I’m only used to hearing rappers do that, and partly because I had never even heard of them. I spent the rest of the evening more in a state of discomfort than anything else. It was hot and cramped, and the band kept doing what I can only describe as a pop quiz after nearly every song, where they had the band start playing the song they just finished and tried to coax the crowd into singing the chorus a couple more times. Of course a country concert wouldn’t be complete without a pickup truck brand roll call, which was just a huge circle jerk of more things that I hate. Even the encore was lazy and uncoerced, as the band had barely left the stage long enough to take another shot of that Tennessee whiskey before coming back out. It just felt like they were pandering to the meme of assumed encores.

Fortunately we got out more quickly than we had come in, until we got into the traffic. It started to sprinkle as we walked to the car, but it wasn’t too bad. There was a questionable guy outside selling shirts at a significant discount from their inside asking price, so we grabbed one of those on our way out. I should have planned the escape route more before taking off, but I was so concerned about beating traffic that I ended up looping through a few more blocks of it than necessary. There was quite a bit of traffic on the interstate as well, almost all the way to Conway. The rain cleared up enough that it didn’t feel so dangerous to be cruising down the highway though, and we made it home just after midnight. Summer crashed pretty much right away, still high on her birthday vibes. I’d say today was a success.

I done told you once, you REDACTED

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Logan’s Birthday Run

The girls got up and left this morning so I could get ready for our trip. Summer dropped them off with her parents so we could go to Little Rock for The Great Inflatable Race. I got going quite a bit later than I originally intended, but it all worked out in the end. My ghost shrimp appeared to have perished in the night for some reason, but the cherry reds still seem to be doing okay.

I fed everyone else, and left to pick up some Starbucks on the way to get Summer. I ordered a “featured drink” called the Iced Cinnamon Cloud Macchiato, that I simply could not recommend. Someone must be tickled to pay for air, but it’s certainly not me. You can keep your whipped cold foam that fills half the glass. I didn’t even know how to drink it all separated like that. Luckily enough, the foam collapsed by the time Summer got into the car, so the rest swirled nicely in the cup.

We first made our way to Conway for a free birthday appetizer and happy hour drinks at Logan’s Roadhouse. The waitress seemed a bit lazy at first with her reluctant response to my request for soda water. She reported back after she found it at the bar where I knew it would be, but fortunately she turned the experience around after that, and we had a good time sipping drinks in the sun coming through the window.

Next we made our way to Red Robin where I had a free birthday burger. Summer got a BLATT with bacon, lettuce, avocado, tomato, and turkey. I got the Burnin’ Love with the jalapeño on top. We both ate too many fries and had to take half of our sandwiches to go.

Our final birthday promo gauntlet stop was at MarketPlace Grill for dessert. I had a $10 voucher, so we both ordered desserts and got out for like two bucks. She got an apple crumble dish with ice cream, and I got a cheesecake with raspberry topping. Hers seemed good. My cheesecake was dry and possibly overcooked, and didn’t have enough raspberry drizzle. Both seemed like really tiny portions, but we ordered the full size portions, so I’m puzzled whether the smaller option would come on a baby food spoon. Service was great though, and I guess I can’t complain too much for getting out so cheap.

We completed our trip to Little Rock with a stop at Academy in Sherwood to pick up Summer’s race packet. They didn’t have her shirt size there, which aggravated her since she preregistered quite a while ago. She did find some leggings with a pocket on clearance though. From there it was a short trip to the hotel. It’s right behind Red Lobster, so I think I know what we’re doing for lunch tomorrow. Summer watched some gymnastics on TV for a bit, and then The LEGO Ninjago Movie played us out for the night.

It’s amazing what those girls can do on a 4-inch beam.

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Don’t Go Chasing Waterfalls

We got up early this morning to get ready and pack for a hike down Petit Jean Mountain to Cedar Falls. We didn’t get out quite as early as we planned since we were out a bit later than expected last night, but we still made good time. Dad packed a bunch of stuff for lunch that we didn’t really get to enjoy because the place was packed with people. We parked way out by the road coming in to Mather Lodge and walked down to the lodge, and then hiked down to the waterfall. You couldn’t have a fire on the trail, and we didn’t spend any time looking for a place with a grill, so we just ended up eating cold hot dogs by the waterfall.

Summer spent a while sitting in quiet contemplation after I had been in a mood all morning. Dad wandered around taking pictures, and even wandered back behind the waterfall with Autumn. Eaddie didn’t want to get that close, so she got camera sitting duty. I perched myself on the same rock the whole time, trying to prepare myself for the trip back. I knew coming down that it was going to be a difficult return trip for me, but overall it really wasn’t that bad. I was probably a bit thinner when we went to Hemmed in Hollow several years ago, but that trail was over twice as long with nearly four times the elevation gain. That hike absolutely wrecked me. Today I had to stop a couple times on the way up, and got really dizzy once, but I was able to sit it off once I got everyone to quit crowding around me. I’ll be sore later, but at least I didn’t ride the motorcycle to this hike.

We got back to town and sat with Dad a bit once we got unpacked, but then I had to get the girls back so they could go to karate. Summer came back and we went to Walmart for stuff to make barbecue nachos. I spent what felt like forever getting all of that together, and nearly didn’t feel like eating once I was done, but I made myself a little bowl once everyone else was eating. They were way better than I expected, but I wished I had a larger bowl for all the vegetables I had in mine. Nobody even cared to warm them up in the oven, possibly out of pure hunger.

I was too tired for a movie after that. Autumn fell asleep anyway. Eaddie stayed up super late watching Supergirl. I don’t know how she does it, but here I am on the computer. Somehow this spring break feels like it’s just accelerating as it comes to an end. I’m going to be worn out by the time I have to go back to work.

I can’t wait for my visit from Charlie Horse tonight.

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V-Games for V-Day

Oakland was pretty crazy with Valentine’s Day stuff this morning, so I was just in and out. I spent a bit of time at the shop trying to organize my thoughts about esports, and then made it to the junior high just before the 8th graders went to lunch. I grabbed my flyers and waited nervously in the lunch meeting room. As soon as Matt made the announcement, the kids started pouring in. It was pretty rowdy, and I was a little disappointed in how little most of them knew about the games being offered. I got a bunch of questions about adding shooters, and I just kept having to point them to the fact that we’re going to have a hard enough time convincing parents that video games are good for school without throwing violence in with it.

The 9th graders seemed way more prepared. Hands shot up for all the games, and there were plenty of people that already played them at home. It ended up being almost entirely a question/answer session. I was glad that Summer and Hannah came to the 8th grade lunch for support though, and even Autumn brought a couple friends. I felt like I had a pretty decent handle on the introduction the second time, but the hardest part is still ahead. I spent all afternoon running around the building getting input from different people about how to get the word out to parents. Once I can get my mind to slow down a bit, I’ll be able to enlist the EAST project kids to do most of this legwork.

I never did make it to a lunch, and I spent the end of the workday setting up AppLocker for League of Legends so I can restrict who can actually run the game. I got to chatting with Ben for a little bit before I left, and then headed home to meet up with Summer. Once I got a hold of my parents, everyone agreed on my suggestion of Taco Villa for a Valentine’s Day dinner. It was a relatively easy way to avoid the craziness of all the sit-down restaurants today. I forgot to grab cash on the way out the door though, so we had to run back home for that before we got the food.

I think we all ate too much. I confirmed that I still don’t love tamales, especially that aren’t homemade. There was a lot of cheese. Everywhere. When we got back home after dinner, I felt like I slammed into a brick wall of exhaustion, but had to finish washing a load of socks. Summer went home to receive the girls as I stayed in to wind down as quickly as possible.

Here’s to the last 80.

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I don’t wanna be in this family any more!

I spent the morning at the junior high after being away all day yesterday. It was supposed to be another warmer day, but the cloud cover and moisture in the air made it a pretty cold ride in. I worked there until lunch and met the guys at the shop before riding with Zach to Popeye’s. After lunch, he helped me take a little mini Chromebook cart to Oakland before we got sidetracked with a call over to Sequoyah. Apparently they’re adding on to the cafetorium there, and there’s some cabling that runs across the outside of the building that will have to be relocated or removed. There were a couple kids there from Tracer that didn’t seem to be much help, and we ended up waiting for Ben to get there and make the final decision. I think ultimately we’re just going to end up cutting it and seeing what goes down.

When we finally finished there, I worked a bit late on a computer at the front desk of the junior high to try and figure out why it would only work with a static IP address, and the best I could come up with was flaky termination on a patch cable in the switch closet. The computer was a bit janky when I set it back up, but it eventually worked itself out and restarted without issue several times, so I left.

I ran by the bank to see if they had $2 bills for lucky money and ran into Aaron there. I didn’t realize that was his branch, so we chatted for a little bit before we both left. I went to my parents’ house for some red envelopes and then had to run home to get the car to pick up Eaddie from karate. We ran back by my house so I could change and check on the pets, and then headed on to her house.

We watched an episode of Parks and Rec over leftover dinner, and Summer and Autumn put some more work into her National History Day project. Meanwhile, I racked my brain over trying to promote Summer’s Google account to family manager status, and was basically left with account deletion as an only resolution. Unfortunately since Summer was already a parent on Autumn’s family group, removing herself meant that she couldn’t even create a new family group with a brand new Google account for Eaddie until waiting out the 12-month cooldown period between families. Eaddie basically doesn’t have a way to create a new account without lying about her age. Google chat support was worthless and just plain bad, which was a huge surprise.

0/10 with rice.

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Snap into the New Year

We didn’t know it at first, but power had gone out for about half the town this morning. Summer discovered it when she tried to get us some Burger King for lunch and had to drive to the north side of town to get it. She said traffic was horrible – probably because the traffic lights were out. She made it back eventually though, and we ate while the girls watched Criminal Minds. Once that was over, they left to get cleaned up while I did the same here.

Autumn took her first chance to get out of dinner with my family and had Summer take her to her grandparents’ for the night, and Summer and Eaddie came over so we could try and do a little shopping before dinner. We went to Bath & Body Works first, but it looked like they never bothered coming in to work after the power was out this morning. Then it was to Harbor Freight, who looked to be open from the cars parked out front, but were actually closed early for New Year’s Eve. With those out of the way, we headed on to my parents’ house for dinner.

Summer finally gave Dad the camera she bought him last year, which he seemed to really like, and (surprise!) even had a related camera on display. Mom made caramelized pork, which the girls loved. Mom didn’t like it without the pork skin, but I liked the lack of extra fat in it. When we were done eating, Dad found a couple bulging cans in the outside pantry that we shot up with a couple pellet guns. I managed to break one of the pumps, but after repeated shots with a regular BB gun I was able to puncture the last can.

Back home, Eaddie never could come up with anything besides playing Super Mario Odyssey. Summer and I looked all over the house for my Exploding Kittens cards but couldn’t find them. We finally gave up, and watched The Fundamentals of Caring on Netflix. Then on a bathroom break, I got a mental image of where I placed the cards and went straight to them to retrieve them. Summer, jaw agape with amazement, was speechless. We finished the movie with a little over 10 minutes to spare, so I lined up the end of Infinity War so we could bring the new year in with a snap. I ended up being about 10 seconds too slow, but I didn’t have that kind of finite control to scrub through Netflix anyway. At least Eaddie thought it was perfect timing.

After that, I managed to squeeze an episode of Parks and Recreation into Summer. When we finished that, Eaddie asked to watch one more. Then it was off to bed.

Perfectly balanced.

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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!