Tag: home

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Shoulda, Coulda, Woulda

It was rainy all day, so I don’t know what I expected. I got to work early, and Kim got to yapping. Otherwise it was relatively quiet all day. I was a little scattered when trying to dig into a project, so I had basically zero feeling of accomplishment all day. When I left work, I got a message from the Tesla service center that said I had 48 hours to return the loaner vehicle before I would be charged a rental fee. That felt a little dirty after they had my car in service for 31 days. I wished I had known the details of the lemon laws much earlier.

I continued straight home to pick up Eaddie, and we went to my parents’ house so Dad could practice taking some photos before her school dance. She fussed every time we brought it up, but when we finally got there, we had a little bit of fun with it. Noah got to the house just as we got back home, and I left to get some more things from the old house.

I stopped for some tacos on the way back home, and Noah and I ate. Then I tried unpacking and organizing a little bit while everyone else settled in for the night. Just before bed, I finally went out back to check the basement for water. I should have gone out days ago, because there was another foot of water in there. Unfortunately, my boots were only waterproof up to half that height. I can’t believe the seller said they had only used the sump like three times in their time in the home, because I’ve used it that many times in less than a month. I’ve got to plumb that thing in somehow.

I’ll never understand how some kids seem to hate showers. Frakin nasty.

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Unbox Therapy

I woke up pretty early today, and it was warm enough in bed all night that it didn’t feel cold to be wandering around the house. I played my daily puzzles on the couch until Summer got up, and then I made myself a coffee. I took that with me as I set up the Steam Deck in the sunroom, where Summer showed me that one of my plants had leaked water on the table, so I had to clean that up.

Summer went to the gym and I put on some music while I did the dishes and started going through boxes to unpack and arrange some things. I had a shower, and then fixed the bedroom door into the nook where the screws were stripped out of the hinges, and also the spring-loaded pegs that keep the sunroom doors shut. For a brief moment I thought I might go out on the Onewheel for a bit, but it seemed really cold.

I had a burger in the afternoon, and then kept picking at random things. Eaddie was at a robotics tournament all day, so Summer and I settled down to watch John Mulaney & the Sack Lunch Bunch. Eaddie got home partway through that, but then left for a while longer before coming home and going to her room for the night. After the show, Summer went to bed and I watched Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. The Spider-Verse movies are incredible, and it’s a shame Sony hasn’t been able to really nail any of their other Marvel properties the same way.

When I go home, I stay off 285

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Snowplace Like Home

We got about three or four inches of snow yesterday, and the house was COLD. I sealed off a bunch of rooms just to localize some of the heat, but our gas bill was over $200 for last month. This month will be worse. The girls got up and we had some of my bean soup before going outside for a walk around the block. The neighborhood roads were packed with snow and ice, but we never got out into civilization.

When we got back to the house, I went out back to check on the basement. It was good timing, because the water level was back up to nearly the same height as before. I ran the sump and looked around for ideas on how to dispose of the water. It may be easy enough just to get it into the sewage line without having to pump it outside. Unfortunately it looks like the basement won’t be a good home for any electronic equipment.

Summer eventually made some tomato soup for Eaddie, but we all ate dinner separately. Later in the evening we played a round of Phase 10, and then the girls watched some Young Sheldon. I wasn’t into that at all, so I got on the computer for a while. With the roads in this condition, we’ve got another snow day away from school tomorrow. After the stress of working an entire week after a three week vacation, it really was a relief.

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Arm of Coats

I’ve slowly tried to start my mornings a little bit earlier as my three week break comes to an end. It helped that I woke up pretty hungry, so I made a big burrito to start the day. After a shower, I headed on out of the house and loaded up a big load of medium-sized things from the old house. Stuff that was already sort of packed, or at least wouldn’t benefit from being boxed up any further. I also cleaned out the majority of the coat closet, so I had a back seat full of backpacks and a front seat full of coats and jackets.

Eaddie was finally up when I made it back home, and I spent quite a while unloading, and cleaning or dusting some of the things up before I brought them inside. I felt good that just about everything had a home once it came inside, so there won’t be any unpacking for later.

It was cold out, but I wanted to get a little bit of time on the Onewheel. Among the things I brought home was my red vest, so I decided to Marty McFly my way to my parents’ house for a moment. I stopped in to see Dad and then turned right back around to get home just as Summer pulled up to the house from work. She was hungry for a salad, so I chopped up some of what we had left over from burritos and made us a couple with the last of the leftover ham.

Eaddie went out with some friends to an escape room, but wasn’t out too late. After we ate, I organized the house a bit more, and then Summer and I watched a few minutes of Jurassic Bark, which had me rolling with laughter. As funny as it was to start, it wasn’t something I could finish, so we followed that with an episode of The Orville. Afterward, Summer went to bed while I wrapped up my own chores.

That’s downright evil, Marlon Butterpaws!

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Tear a Faucet

I planned to leave the second faucet alone for the time being, but having the rubber washer in the aerator break apart kind of bumped that up in priority. Luckily I was still prepared with the extra faucet, and it was a relatively easy install apart from the lack of space to get under the sink. I unearthed, for probably the fifth time in our relationship, a ton of vitamins that Summer had been hoarding under the sink, and set them out for consumption. I won’t be able to test the sink for leaks until the silicone dries, but I feel reasonably confident about it.

After I finished the sink, I made some burritos for lunch, and then Eaddie left for Eli’s for most of the day. I had a long shower and moved some more things around the house before deciding to take a break and get back on the Onewheel. Dad took one of the stray cats to the vet, but I got to their house just as Mom got home from work. I rode around the block a few times and practiced carving into some turns a bit, and Dad got home shortly after that. It got cold fast, so I rode on home in time to get dinner started for Summer.

I cooked some rice and warmed up some steak and veggies. Then we watched a Nate Bargatze special on Netflix. Eaddie got home late, but Summer and I had already wound down for bed. It didn’t seem like I did a ton today, but I was beat.

You know it when you see it. You know it when it’s there. Like Michael Jackson, “Thriller.” Like Farrah Fawcett hair.

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God of Stories

I got up this morning and set out to fix the bathroom sink for the umpteenth time. I think it finally held well enough to move on to the next project, but I figured I should give it a day before tearing anything else up. I had a shower, but dawdled before leaving the house. Eaddie wanted to go to Eli’s for the day, and I needed to go to the old house to move some more stuff.

It became frustratingly obvious how much little stuff I would have to let go to the trash. I’m sure I’ll have some things worthy of donating, but in the grand scheme of things, nobody else will ever want these little trinkets I’ve collected for decades. I got the media rack cleaned off and ready to load up, but didn’t feel comfortable getting it into the car by myself. Instead, I loaded up the last filing cabinet and a few soft and bulky things.

Dad was frying egg rolls, so I went to their house to eat before continuing home to unpack. Summer made it home really late, and called Eaddie home a little early so we could finish the last two episodes of Loki. Without knowing the comic history, I thought they did a great job wrapping up the character arc. It did seem like this season flew by incredibly fast though, and I wouldn’t have minded it being about twice as long.

Nah. No more evil. Mischief, now. That’s still got legs.

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Pain in the Drain

I made myself get up earlier this morning and made some coffee before finally crawling back under the bathroom sink. I’ve been back and forth on whether I wanted to replace or swap faucets, or buy a whole new matching set. I figured the first thing I’d have to do is take the existing one out, which was easy enough even with the silicone we used last time. I was concerned about one of the connection points in the S-trap though, so I ended up taking Dad to Leonard’s to see if we needed a rubber gasket of some kind.

I wasn’t really satisfied with the parts we found there, so we went back to the house to look at what we had, and decided against the extra gasket. We took the top of the drain assembly back to Leonard’s to replace only that part, but that would have been a third the cost of a whole new faucet and drain kit, so I decided against that as well. The spare faucet I’d purchased long ago would have to do for the moment. We ran by the old house to get a cat carrier for Dad, and then I dropped him off at his house.

We considered going to a movie with my parents in the evening, so I ran by UEC to see what time slot had Wonka in the better theater. Then I took a break to eat some leftovers, and Dad texted when he remembered that he had a couple spare pop-up drain assemblies that he wasn’t going to use. He brought one over, and the installation was a piece of cake. I was pretty sure I still had a very tiny leak due to a poorly cut angle in the sink, but I figured I could tighten that up later.

Summer got home with a little time to spare before the movie, but Mom decided she didn’t want to go. Eaddie had been coloring in front of the TV for most of the afternoon, but then spent the early evening rearranging her room. She and I never got to our plans to move things, so she wanted to get out of the house for a little bit. I needed a couple things from Harbor Freight anyway, so we took her car to PDQ to air up the tires a bit and then headed across town.

We picked up a magnetic paper towel holder and power strip for the coffee bar, and then sat in the parking lot for a little bit while we decided what to do next. We thought we witnessed a robbery when a couple cars pulled up and a group of guys in hoodies ran in and out of the store super fast, but other people seemed to be coming out of the store unsuspiciously. Eaddie was a little bit hungry, but we couldn’t decide what to get. As we started driving toward home, I suggested the Krispy Krunchy Chicken inside of Walmart, and got excited. She even mentioned walking around a bit, but as we walked up to the counter to order some food, the employee said they were closing down and would sell us everything they had left in the case at a discount. We ended up getting a mix of tenders, thighs, and some mac and cheese for half price, which was awesome.

We headed straight home and ate, and then Summer wanted to watch an episode of Loki. The second episode of the new season had me super confused by the end, so after the girls left I had to scrub back through the first episode and then parts of the second one again. The more I thought about it, the less sense the whole plot made. If killing He Who Remains was all it took to cause the timeline to branch, then were the TVA agents actually doing anything at all? Why, after hundreds of years of pruning individual timelines, were the TVA agents suddenly so distraught when a group of rogue agents pruned a bunch of branching timelines? Didn’t that negate the overloaded Temporal Loom?

Questions unanswered, Summer went to bed and Eaddie continued rearranging her room. I rearranged the coffee bar again and then helped Eaddie for a bit, and then we were off to sleep.

Krunchy Khicken?

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Tanked

I slept pretty late again today, and the kids still had me beat. I had a shower before I ever made it to the kitchen for some cold ham on a roll, rather than making a big breakfast for the kids. Eaddie got up and wanted to get some work done, so we moved Summer’s old dining table out to the outhouse, and I spent a little time fixing the south gate after someone had screwed it together when we bought the house.

Noah was content to spend the entire day on the couch, so it was tough to get him motivated to do anything. Summer came home from work early, but had to continue working from home, so the kids and I took a couple vehicles to the old house to load up some more stuff.

We got the 55-gallon tank and stand, a bunch of pillows, and another desk out of the spare room and to the new house safely. The tank really does fit nicely in the entryway, and we’re lucky that it’s actually a main thoroughfare that will be seen daily. I hate to put a bunch of effort into a tank that won’t be seen.

Summer was watching The Guardians of the Galaxy while she worked, but as soon as that was over, everyone wanted to go to La Huerta for dinner. I took them, a little begrudgingly because I was a bit burned out after just making five pounds of taco meat at home. Then Eaddie suggested we could walk around Walmart, so that was exciting. We picked up a few more Christmas clearance things and headed home.

Noah left shortly after that, and I finished up some laundry. Eaddie stayed up fairly late and seemed like she might like to do something, but then gave up and went to bed herself. I stayed up a little later than I wanted, but tried not to waste too many waking hours.

At what point do household expectations become micromanagement for guests?

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Love Your Curves

I slept fairly hard last night, and woke up feeling alright. I had some cereal that didn’t help, and then moved the old television into the sunroom. I started watching The Martian on it, but then quit to clean up the bathroom sink and take a shower.

Summer and I got out of the house in the middle of the afternoon to go shopping and get my LG television from the old house. We went to Bath & Body Works first, and they were super crowded. We had some coupons, but then Summer started picking up things that I felt like she already had at home. I instantly got flashbacks to all of the barely-used bottles of stuff I had to clean out from under Eaddie’s sink and our own bathroom, and probably got a little too upset about it. We grabbed our freebie with a coupon and then I was determined to take us home to pull out all of their soaps, lotions, and other miscellaneous body products.

Instead, we cooled down and stopped at Harbor Freight to see if we could score a deal on some accessories for the new tool chest-turned coffee bar. Unfortunately everything was just over the price limit for the coupon I had, so we left empty handed and went to swap cars with Eaddie.

She had gone to a robotics tournament, so we took the Murano to the old house to get the TV. Summer forgot the moving blanket in her car, so I had to drive back and get it, but fortunately moving the TV itself was completely uneventful. We got it into the new house, and I immediately mounted it to the new TV stand. I couldn’t have designed it any more perfectly if I had tried. The TV hovers less than a millimeter above the center channel speaker, and swivels well enough to get behind the whole contraption to route cables. It’s perfect.

We were hungry after that, so we went to New China for dinner. Eaddie was just getting back to town, but said she was full from eating all day at the tournament. We ate, and then went to fill up the Murano since Eaddie was nearly out of gas. When we got back to the house, I rewatched the last episode of the first season of Loki, and then kind of dozed through some random YouTube until I finally forced myself to get up and ready for bed. The girls had beat me to it by a couple hours anyway.

The Holy Grail of 3D

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Off Task Sequence

Summer started some corned beef in the slow cooker this morning. I made it to work and made some coffee for the day. It pretty quickly turned into a day of people constantly grabbing me out of my office, either to fix the auditorium sound that they broke again, or to help with with personal technology issues. It became even more frustrating when Barry, who had just pulled me off task, wanted an update on a project I’ve been working on, but struggling to complete.

The light at the end of the tunnel was finally piecing together where the image and the task sequence reference each other. It wasn’t obvious or intuitive, nor could I find a place to actually see that information. I had to build it for myself, and could only possibly know how it was built because I built it myself. Even the system itself lacks documentation.

I left work a few minutes early to drive to Atkins and pick up a Chromebook that was recovered by a garbage collector. The lady that called me on Monday said she could leave it at Subway for me, and the guy behind the counter really wanted to make sure I was who I said I was. He was single-handedly using more security precautions than anyone I’ve witnessed at the school. Any school.

The girls were already home when I got there. Summer was in the bath, so I finished wiring the speakers until she was ready to eat. Then we listened to a little bit of music in the living room since I couldn’t convince anybody to go actually get the other television with me. It’s been a zero effort for so many people around me today.

The Chromebook Recovery Tool is the car I drove across two towns to recover it.