Tag: holiday

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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!

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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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T-Give

Dad’s new cat is weird.

Summer had her 5K this morning while the rest of us slept in. I got up earlier than I thought I would, considering how late I was up. I ate most of the questionably cooked bánh bao for breakfast before anyone else was around, and then started soaking the potatoes before washing them.

I ended up fiddling around in Oxygen Not Included for a while until I had to get cleaned up to go to my parents’ house for an early Thanksgiving dinner. Eaddie started feeling sick and was down on the couch for a while, and then threw up on the way there. Luckily she had me pull over just in time to throw the door open and spew in the middle of the street. We ran through McDonald’s to get her a Sprite, then made it to my parents’ house where she started to feel a little better for a while before coming down with a fever again.

The rest of us ate a pretty awesome meal while Eaddie got some rest in my old bedroom. Then we played some Jackbox games for a while. We had a few really great laughs with some of them, but overall I’d only recommend picking any of them up on a sale. Eaddie eventually felt well enough to have some dinner, then joined us for a few more games before we left.

I had to run by my house on the way back to Summer’s to pick up a few things, and then we settled in for the night. Eaddie’s fever came back, so she went straight to bed. Autumn wanted to stay up late and watch Supernatural, and I got Summer started on Torchlight II again. I got stuck catching up on deals, but we’ll be able to play together again soon.

It’s okay to admit you’re grouchy as long as you’re actively trying not to be a complete asshole.

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Minigiving

Summer hit the gym first thing this morning while I got up and ready. I picked up some La Huerta to go for lunch and we ate that before making mashed potatoes for my Thanksgiving with friends in the evening. Summer did most of the work but didn’t even get to come enjoy it with us.

The day went by super fast until I had dropped everyone off. First it was Summer at the high school where she and Hannah would head to Rogers for their PD. Then I dropped the squabbling girls off with their grandparents. John and Melissa lived just a few blocks away from there, so I joined them super early. John and I made a quick run to Kroger for some extra things, and then Veronica and her crew showed up. Travis didn’t show up, mostly expectedly. We had high hopes though.

It was really nice to catch up with everyone. After the fact, I wished I had made more of an effort to offer my phone up for pictures, but we all look younger in blurry photographs anyway. It’s crazy how time flies.

I stuck around to chat for a little while after Veronica’s family left, and was ultimately sent home with a ton of leftovers for the rest of the week. It was a really good time.

*Decade-running gags*

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Pumpkins scream in the dead of night!

I tried to keep a steady pace today, picking up work orders here and there. It was still difficult to find motivation, but I got enough done. I’m still plenty ahead of everyone else in work order count.

Ronda reminded me that Sonic had 50 cent corn dogs today, so I picked up a sackful and brought them back to the library where she, Summer, and I ate them in front of Jessica and her ramen noodles on a plate.

Right as school was about to let out, the house across the street from Oakland started blaring This is Halloween on repeat loud enough that you could hear it from inside the school building. After work, I came home for some light drinking and loaded up The Nightmare Before Christmas. I really just wanted to finish the movie to say that I’d seen it. Now that I have, it mostly reminds me of when I watched The Rocky Horror Picture Show last year and just felt “meh” about it in spite of all the hullabaloo.

And if you aren’t shakin’, there’s something very wrong.