Tag: home

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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.

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Slithery Little Sneaky Snake

There was absolutely nothing new at work today. We had people in and out for testing, Kenny came to socialize for a while, and then Kim disappeared for a while in the afternoon. It was cold in the morning, but only a little chilly after work. I stopped at Casey’s again for my freebie, went home to feed the fish, and then washed the car before heading home.

My replacement craft ice maker showed up, and I knew I needed to snake my drain, so I cleaned up some leftovers and then got to work. Dad came over and we snaked the drain. Unfortunately we couldn’t test it without putting it back together, which was the bigger chore. We ran to the old house to pick up a new faucet that I had, but then I decided against installing it for now. We’ll have to wait for the silicone to dry before we can test it.

I got the ice maker installed just as Summer got home. She was overworked to tears, so we got her to bed. Eaddie got home late after a concert, but I never even saw her. I got most of the new TV stand put together and started to rewire the receiver, but it got late and I had to wind down quickly to get to bed.

Maybe tomorrow we’ll ride.

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Almost Crafting

I was pretty mentally drained from work today. I’ve spent most of every day just reading, but I finally started digging into Windows Deployment Services today. As usual, the morning flew by, and the afternoon dragged. Out of nowhere, I answered a call from a lady in Atkins whose husband collects trash. She said he brings home laptops and other goodies that he finds, and she recovered one of our lost Chromebooks. I thanked her for taking the time to call, and Summer should be able to stop by on her way through town tomorrow.

After work, I went home to feed the fish, then ran to Harbor Freight for a drain auger. Summer was off work and not feeling great, but I met her at the Neighborhood Market to pick up groceries. When we got home, she took a bath and I had to figure out dinner. I really wanted some higher quality pizza, so I bit the bullet and spent the money on Papa John’s. While I was waiting, I saw one of my old esports kids and his father, so I chatted with them until my order was done.

Summer and I ate, and then she watched TV while I unpacked the new TV stand we bought. Then she went to bed and I watched some artistic folk on YouTube while I assembled our furniture-in-a-box. Eaddie got home late after spending the evening with Eli, and I lost track of time as I finished up. Without the glass surfaces, the stand is super light. Unfortunately one of the screw holes stripped out completely, so I’ll have to decide whether that’s worth a call to the manufacturer.

Just unlock, dammit.

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Drained

My watch has been struggling with the Tessie app, and I don’t know if it can get any better. I may just have to uninstall it for now. It barely lasts eight hours any more, and though it’s been convenient to unlock the cars, it’s less convenient to have a dead watch three times a day.

It rained the entire day, but the temperature was pretty warm. The workday went by pretty quickly as I jumped from project to project, never really accomplishing much of anything. After work, I went to feed the fish before heading home. Summer was home early, but Eaddie was out late for band. I changed and went to my parents’ house for dinner, and then Dad came back with me to look at the bathroom sink.

We tore everything up trying to get into the P trap, and of course it was completely clear. It still puzzles me that the drain stopped so suddenly, and we didn’t have what we needed to clean it up and put it back together, so it’ll be at least a three-day project.

Clean it up.

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That’s a Lye

Traffic was bad in Dardanelle this morning, so I just barely squeaked into work on time. They did some more testing first thing in the morning, and then I had to spend some time deciphering the audio mixer in the auditorium. We had a big lunch because the cafeteria had extra fajitas, but they weren’t very good. I barely got started on it when FedEx showed up with another lab of desktop computers. Those will be in the way for the foreseeable future.

I ended up staying a bit late just because I felt like I made some progress in figuring out the sound system. Then I went to feed the fish and wash my car before heading home. The bathroom sink completely stopped up this morning, out of the blue, so I poured some boiling water down the drain, hoping that would help.

Failing that, I went to my parents’ house and ate some turkey soup before returning home with some lye and a plastic drain weasel. The drain didn’t budge, so I let it sit overnight. Summer fell asleep really early after working late, and Eaddie spent all night practicing flute before going to sleep. I fought with Arvest’s mortgage site for a while before giving up. I swear the “make a payment” button only appears at certain times of the day, and it’s a load of crap. I went to bed frustrated, but before midnight, which was an accomplishment all on its own.

Shut up and take my money. No, seriously. Take it. You stupid bank.

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Three South, Five and a Half North

I thought I would be stressing over the last minute moves today, but I decided to take a different approach. We had enough cleaned up and ready to go, and I decided against trying to wall mount my nice TV in a rush. My stud finder was going nuts anyway, so I’m not sure if there’s something else already in the wall anyway. I’ll have to investigate further.

I ran to my old house to pick up an assortment of things. While I was there, I cleared a path for the sofa in case we would have time to fetch it. I brought a rake home so Eaddie could clean up the front yard while I blew off the deck with the leaf blower. Summer spent all day prepping food and cleaning up around the kitchen. I tried fixing the craft ice maker in the refrigerator, but it appeared to be an issue with the gears in the motor. Before we knew it, the sun went down and family started coming in.

My parents had turkey soup and egg rolls, so the girls walked while I caught up to them in the car. Summer got to cook egg rolls, so she and Eaddie spent most of their time out back. John, Thea, and her mother were the first to arrive. Mom got upset after we tried to corral everyone to the dinner table and gave up, but Eaddie and I were hungry and there weren’t enough seats for everyone anyway.

The girls tired early, before the others arrived, so I took them home. When I got back, everyone else had finally arrived. I could tell they were exhausted from the drive, but they humored us and came over for a little bit of food and company.

Julie gave me some dry goods to take home, and I stayed until everyone else was ready to head out. Then I went home and calibrated my speakers for their new home. I hate that my subwoofer went out so suddenly and unexpectedly, but maybe it’s a sign.

Why, no!

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Won’t Stand for This

I got up really early this morning and couldn’t go back to sleep, so I took my jump start on the day and made steak, eggs, and hashbrowns for breakfast. Eaddie said she really liked it, but I thought the steak was pretty middling. I took a shower, and then we went out to look for a TV stand at several places. We tried West Main Gallery, but they were closed. Then we went to CJ’s Consignment and found one really small one that might work. We went by Stroud’s and Cleo’s again, but they didn’t really have anything we liked. Our last stop was Sofa City before we gave up and went to the old house to load up the last of the speakers.

Once we got the speakers into the house, we went back out to try Hilltop Mall, but they didn’t have anything either. There was a new name attached to the old Bargain Barn, so we stopped there on the way to Walmart and found nothing. We made it into a busy Walmart and found one that might work, but we had to judge based on a tiny picture on the box because they didn’t have one out on display.

Summer got back to town, so we went and saw her at the wash. She reminded us about River Valley Furniture, so we checked them out and were subsequently directed to the old Staples building where they had a warehouse of furniture to sell. They didn’t have a single thing that would fit my receiver, so we finally just went back to my house to get my old TV stand. That didn’t really take as long as I thought it would, and we made it home so I could start cooking some beef tacos in the Instant Pot.

Once the food was started, I took Summer back out to the Neighborhood Market to do her grocery shopping. Then we went to Kroger for some fire wood before going to my parents’ house to pick up what groceries they got for Summer. Finally we made it home, and Eaddie and I ate while Summer boiled eggs.

I ended the night by assembling the home theater, and was disappointed to see that one of my subwoofers wouldn’t power on. It worked the last time I used them, so I don’t know if I broke something in moving, or if it got hit by lightning, or if it was just dumb luck to go through another subwoofer. I got the amp out of it, and maybe Dad will be able to find the bad part.

Smooooooth.

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Griffed

Summer went in to work late today because of some rain. I tried not to sleep too late myself, and continued running wash cycles to try and clean out the washing machine. After making a leftover burrito and taking a shower, Grant texted to get our address. I was kind of in limbo for the rest of the afternoon, waiting to see if he would show up.

Summer came home early since there wasn’t anything going on at the shops. I eventually started cleaning the carpet along the television wall, having given up on Grant. Then he texted that he was coming, followed shortly thereafter by another text that he wasn’t. Eaddie had a game night with some friends, so I just kept cleaning carpets into the evening.

When I finished cleaning my area, I dug some food out for Summer to see what she had rotting in the fridge. She cleaned up some newer leftovers and I went to my office for a while before coming back out to clean and organize some of the stuff in the pantry. Then I made some ramen noodles before retiring to the office for the rest of the evening until bed.

I pick all of them.

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Let’s Table That

We woke up reasonably early today, but it took us a little bit to get started. Summer went to the gym while I messed with things around the house. After she got back, we met Julie and Kevin at my old house to get the dining room table and futon. For some reason I thought he had a short truck bed, but everything fit perfectly and we got it all set up at home.

Eaddie made it home, but then left to spend the day with friends. Summer and I went to Ridgewood Brothers to try their baked potato, and Grant made us some extra special ones. He seemed a little off, so I invited him to the house after work. At first he said he couldn’t, but on the way out he asked if I was off tomorrow, so hopefully he comes around.

After that, we went to Lowe’s to exchange the toilet seat we got yesterday. We compared it with another new one in the box, and it was painfully obvious that the one we got yesterday was a return. From there, we picked up a couple things I forgot from the old house, and then made it home where I spent the rest of the evening casually cleaning, organizing, fixing, and generally trying to stay productive. Summer didn’t feel well, so she did a puzzle and watched TV all evening until bed. My big accomplishment was doing a deep clean on the washing machine, because it was smelling pretty bad. I don’t think the girls had ever cleaned it, so it was very mildewy.

I’m going to make this place into a home, one light bulb at a time.