Tag: holiday

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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!

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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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Save it for the Blu-ray

I delivered one more frog at Oakland this morning, then stopped by the shop for just a little bit to see if anything was happening. It was pretty quiet, so I went to Crawford to take a look at something Allen was having trouble fixing. It didn’t take me long to realize we were on the completely wrong path, and I left there to go to the junior high and work on it.

The junior high had their Christmas lunch potluck today, and I stuffed myself. There was just so much food. I couldn’t really even eat dinner after all of that. Everyone was pretty much just wandering around aimlessly because most of the kids were gone from having finished their tests. I chatted with Dustin and Haley for a little while, but then school let out an hour early and quickly became a ghost town.

I stopped by the shop again, but everyone was just sitting there waiting to be told to go home. We never really got anything official from central office, but Ben let us go just a few minutes early. Gary was there helping Zach look at something though, so I ended up hanging out until the usual quitting time anyway.

Summer and the kids were getting ready to go to Conway, so I met them at my house right after I left. The kids were hungry when we got there, so we took them to Red Robin for some burgers. Summer and I still weren’t hungry, so we just shared a tower of onion rings. Afterward we went by Sam’s to walk it off, and then made a quick run through Academy to look for paintball canisters, and then to PetCo to see if they had anything cool.

Finally at the theater, I collected my five comped tickets at the box office, loaded up on popcorn, and made our way to the XD auditorium for Aquaman. I wish they would re-cushion that front row of seats, because they’re starting to get pretty rough, and they lean back too easily. Then the theater filled up and we had a clapper/knee-slapper on the left and some guy that thought he was at a sporting event behind us. Neither would shut the hell up. Honestly I would have listened to the whole Pitbull song if these guys would have shut up. It was so annoying. Theaters need ushers again. I’m just glad I didn’t care so much about the movie, because otherwise I would have raged at the distractions.

Seriously dude, you’re going to the special hell.

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Service with a Smile

I must have fallen into some kind of customer service vortex today, where everyone was super happy to go above and beyond any expectation.

Last night, I contacted Cinemark with some frustrations I had about how late all the Spider-verse showings were for 3D XD. Out of five XD shows per day, only one was in 3D, and it was held for the very last one of the day at 10:15pm. I was pretty loud about how annoying that was. I wasn’t really looking for a response necessarily, but just wanted to be heard. I got a lengthy email back this morning from the general manager of the theater basically explaining that he wasn’t given a choice, but pulled some strings to get the matinee showings to switch to 3D for the next two days before Aquaman starts. He then offered for “any number” of my family to come to one of these shows for free. I misunderstood and thought he was inviting us to an early showing of Aquaman, but after a couple emails I think we’ve arranged to go see Aquaman on Thursday after the kids get out of school for Christmas break.

Work was even pretty decent, especially for having to hang a touch panel for Allen in London this morning. We managed to get everything we needed on the first trip, which was  big help. The teacher was pretty savvy, so the tutorial was quick and painless. Everything just kind of went perfectly. We had cookies sent to the shop from a vendor, plus cookies that Ben brought in earlier.

Allen, Brice, and I went to Taco John’s for lunch, and everyone there was super excited and friendly, but even slightly more so than usual. The girl that took my order even remembered that I normally bring my own water in and made a comment about it to ask if I wanted to order one instead. The food was great, but gave me a bit of heartburn after all those cookies I had eaten.

I got some more done in the afternoon, but had to leave right at 4:30 to pick Eaddie up from the nail salon because Summer got her appointment started late. Eaddie had to be at karate, so I dropped her off and made my way to my parents’ house for some fish soup for dinner. Afterward I went to Davis Pet Store to see if I could find brine shrimp or daphnia for the betta and some baby crickets for the frogs. One of the boys was there helping and did what he could to help while Mrs. Davis was talking with another customer. Then when she finally came around I bought a potted plant and snail, and she ended up giving me the snail for free! She didn’t have the other stuff I needed though, so I had to go to PetSmart. They were completely out of small crickets though, so I left there empty handed.

Back home, I got to work on a water change and cleaned up the bathroom a bit. The new snail took off across the tank. The betta still seems very lethargic but more violent in her splashing around when bothered. I ended up putting her into some deeper water with a full epsom salts bath. She’s still not interested in eating anything, but hopefully the epsom salts will help with the swelling and get her moving again.

I must be living right!