It Ain’t Too Early

I set an alarm today so I could get up and ready to go to Conway with Summer. She needed to shuffle some chemicals around between some of her washes, so we went to Morrilton to pick up a bunch. Then we made it to Conway in time to watch Twisters. I found the first half of the movie to be pretty dull, but eventually they got some character discovery going and it made the last half palatable. It was just too much dumb cowboy storm chasing stuff, throwing caution to the vortex-shaped wind.

After the movie, we headed up to Greenbrier to drop off and get some different chemicals for Russellville. Fortunately we didn’t actually have to deliver those right away, so we went back to Conway and did some shopping.

Our first stop was Bargain Hunt where we picked up just a few small things. Then we went to Kohl’s and shopped for a while until Summer got hungry. I did a quick search and found a well-rated cajun and steak place on the east end of town called Almost Famous Smokehouse & Grill. They had a good variety and good flavors, but they appeared to have some trouble in the kitchen. Service was a bit slow, and the small dining room filled up quickly. Both of our meals were served with incorrect choices. I asked for beer-boiled shrimp, but got fried. I think Summer was supposed to have a potato with her steak, but got rice. She liked how her food was cooked, but I thought the steak was a little under. My catfish was overcooked and dry. Otherwise, everyone was super friendly, and I’d definitely give them another try.

After we ate, I made Summer follow me through Target and Home Depot before we headed toward home. I made a quick stop in Morrilton for a keg of Fireball in case Aunt Diane comes down to visit for the holiday. Once we got back home, I reflected on the small taste of the drive I’ll have to make five days a week if I don’t get an offer from Moodle. It really got me considering another Model 3, but I just think it’s a bad time to buy.

Eaddie and Eli were at the house when we got home. Summer and I took the dogs out for a quick walk around the block before it got dark, and we sent Eaddie to pick up her car after she left it at school from the football game last night. When she finally got back home, Summer went to bed and Eaddie and I chatted for a little while, and we eventually went to bed.

And It Ain’t Too Late

DeepNot

Johnny called and woke me up this morning to chat about finding a decommissioned server that he wanted to use for SCCM. He interrupted a strange dream in which I was about to take a ski-lift from California to Washington D.C. I wondered if I would dream that in real time.

We chatted for a while and then I went outside to find the dog bowls. Then I started cleaning up around the coffee bar so I could place the new silicone drying mat that would be delivered later in the day. I tried to stay fairly busy, but then I got a rejection email from DeepNet that got me kind of sad. After hearing how excited the girl was about the company, I got excited myself, but I didn’t even make it to the second round of interviews. Maybe I was a little too honest about my worst boss story.

I finished up a bunch more leftovers and got the coffee bar put back together just before Eaddie got home, but she and Eli changed for a football game and then immediately left again. I waited around for Summer to get home, and she really wanted spaghetti, so I told her we could go out.

We ended up at Pasta Grill, and she didn’t even get spaghetti. We had to wait about half an hour to be seated, and then service was incredibly slow. The food was good though, and we left with a ton of leftovers. I thought we’d walk the dogs together when we got home, but dinner didn’t sit well with her and I ended up taking them on a quick walk around the block by myself.

We ended the night with the old movie Twister, which had me completely bored out of my mind. I thought it would be better after hearing so much about it years ago, but I just didn’t find myself caring about any of the characters at all. It all seemed really far-fetched and unrelatable. Dull.

Eaddie made it home late after a losing game against Morrilton, and then they were off to bed. I spent a couple more hours researching mopping robots before I got there.

Twister Cafe

Video Game Movie

I slept in pretty hard today while Summer got up and did some working from home. When I finally got around to snack on some breakfast, she suggested going to Price Break and a movie in the afternoon. Dad said Uncle Giao, Erica, and Nova were in town, so I assembled my arcade stool and we stopped by their house for some lunch first. They were dropping Nova off at Tech, so they didn’t stick around super long.

Eaddie had band stuff all day, so Summer and I made a quick and mostly boring run through Price Break. It was $10 day, and there were a ton of people there rummaging through stuff. I think it’s more fun to find really cheap stuff that hasn’t been picked up yet.

After that, we went to UEC to watch Borderlands. I liked the visual style, but a lot of the CGI was really hoaky, and the story didn’t really grab me. I never really played the games because they weren’t made for mouse and keyboard, so I wasn’t invested in it at all. I was also still pretty exhausted from general stress and the heat, so I had trouble staying awake in the recliner.

Dad gave us their Roomba, so I cleaned it up when we got home, and had it vacuum the living area. I think I’d really like to get a mopping one for the hard floors, because that’s where the dirt ultimately comes from. It did pull a bunch of crap out of the carpet though, so I need to start seriously shopping for a new vacuum cleaner.

Eaddie didn’t get home until super late, and I spent too much time dawdling before bed. The overbearing heat has me lethargic, and is possibly causing anxiety attacks again, because I’ve been having at least one a day for the past few days. I couldn’t think of anything else that could be triggering them, but I hate it.

Park it.

National Lazy Day

Stilgar chewed up the extension cord from under the deck last night, so I tried to take the reel away from him, and he ended up chewing straight through the cord by morning. I got up and made some more eggs with Ro☆Tel for breakfast, and then went out to clean up after them. It felt pretty nice outside, but I still felt sleep deprived and tired all day. It really was fitting for what was apparently “National Lazy Day.”

Eaddie went out with friends, but then brought Autumn and Eli back to make chocolate covered strawberries in our kitchen while she took a shower. Confused, I left to take the dogs for a run. We stopped briefly at my parents’ house, and then continued through the basin trail and on home.

The kids were gone again, so we settled in for a while, and eventually sat down to watch Deadpool 2. I stopped halfway through to make some popcorn, and eventually made it to bed.

Threefer

Breakfeast

I got up this morning and wanted to make a big breakfast for the girls, so I ran to the Neighborhood Market for a bunch of stuff. One of the things I really wanted to try and reproduce was the jungle juice from Boma, the restaurant from our Animal Kingdom Lodge stay. I also really wanted to make some waffles, and we already had everything for that, but we needed some bacon and sausage too.

Everything turned out pretty good. Eaddie took her friend home after that, and Summer went to the gym before coming back to mow the lawn. I tried to help with some other yard work, and I figured out the edging wheels on the string trimmer for her.

The day went by pretty quickly. Once we were cleaned up from working outside, Summer and I started watching Logan. I had to stop near the end to run the dogs, and then pick up some more food for them. Eaddie was out late with Eli, and went to bed pretty quickly once she got home. I took some NyQuil and we finished our movie, and then it was off to bed so I could go to work for the last few days there.

Right or wrong, it’s a brand. A brand sticks.

Last Minute Nonsense

As if yesterday’s news wasn’t enough, we got a message from the Tulsa Tesla service center just as we were ready to walk out the door that they wouldn’t have a loaner vehicle available for us, and also likely wouldn’t be able to complete the repair in a day. Rather than drive separately, we decided to reschedule. Fortunately they were able to get us in next Friday instead of the app’s first available date in September.

Since our day was completely foiled, I took the dogs out for a run and then Summer and I went to Little Rock for Deadpool so we could have Saturday for other things. We stopped at a pretty impressive Kroger Marketplace when we got to town, and I had to laugh that Walmart got into groceries with their “Marketplace” stores, and Kroger got into “everything else” with their “Marketplace” stores.

I picked up some cough medicine and we found a few snacks, and then we headed to a Mexican restaurant up the road called Los Cabos. The food was good, and though we were both completely satisfied with our portions, they did seem smaller than what we typically see in town. I was also hoping the food would be somehow different, but it really was just like everywhere else. The only thing that stood out was the salsa that tasted like pizza sauce.

We finally headed toward the theater with a lot of time to kill, so we walked through Home Goods before driving around the shopping center. We saw a Cybertruck in person, and I thought it was fairly impressive looking. We quickly walked the area, but without much of interest, I decided to kill our final hour at an upscale flea market called Painted Tree Boutiques. Summer enjoyed browsing what I considered to be overpriced stay-at-home mom junk. I mostly gawked at the price tags.

We made it back to the theater with just enough time to settle in, and the 3D showing of Deadpool & Wolverine wasn’t very busy. I appreciated still being able to find good seats, and the 3D was actually really well done. So well, in fact, that I wonder how it’ll look in 2D, because a few of the scenes were pretty specifically shot for 3D. Summer struggled with some of the ultraviolence, but otherwise we found it to be a great fanservice movie. I think it really might have the momentum needed to shift Marvel’s recent struggles.

After the movie, we headed straight home and I played with some more Amazon Vine stuff that had come in before heading to bed.

Some motherfuckers are always trying to ice-skate uphill.

Mr. Pool

I had a headache last night that was bad enough that I woke up feeling sick in the middle of the night. I took some Tylenol, and then had to take some more when I woke up this morning. Summer got up and made eggs and corned beef hash for breakfast, and the hash just smelled like dog food to me. I made a sandwich with the egg she scrambled for me, and then applied for a bunch more jobs online.

We spent a good amount of time out with the dogs on the porch since it rained in the morning and Summer couldn’t do any yard work. I took a shower, but it didn’t really help my head at all. Summer and I eventually went to the Neighborhood Market to find some dinner, and we picked up some stuff for salads with a couple rotisserie chickens. On the way out, we ran into Zach and his family, but we didn’t chat long.

Back at the house, I pulled the bones out of the chicken while Summer took a bath. Eventually everyone sat down to eat, and then Summer and I continued our X-Men movies with the first Deadpool. Noah came over late and ate before bed. My Männkitchen Pepper Cannon was delivered, along with my very first Amazon Vine product. It was a pretty slick looking storage bin that attached under the Model Y screen. It went together much better than I expected, so I’ll be excited to see if it rattles or anything on the drive to work tomorrow.

Time to volunteer some more time, I suppose.

Quiet One

I was the first one out of bed, but there was a distinct lack of fanfare. Summer got up and had coffee, and then I made one for myself before going out to feed the dogs. I kept feeding them both by hand, one at a time, until Muad’Dib didn’t want any more. Then I laid the rest of the bowl down for Stilgar. Eaddie wanted help with her bicycle so she could go ride with a friend, and I pushed her to figure some of it out on her own, since I’ve shown her multiple times before, and I’m tired of babying her on things like that.

She left and I had a shower so Summer and I could go see A Quiet Place: Day One in town. Dad stopped by on his bike to air up his tires, and then we left. It was a quiet showing in a recliner room, which was fine if not overpriced for a matinée. I liked the movie okay, but didn’t find it to be as good as the first two.

I had specifically told Summer that by watching the movie in town, we’d still have plenty of the afternoon left to be productive when we got home, so of course she sat down to work on her laptop for the rest of the evening. I left in frustration and took the dogs for a run on the Onewheel. We visited with Dad and then rode back home.

I was pretty sweaty by the time we made it back, so I settled in pretty early. Eaddie was out late, and Summer did whatever she does when she’s finished working.

Uncertainty stinging clear

Take a Stand

I actually woke up pretty early today, but made myself go back to sleep to catch up on some hours. Eaddie eventually got up, so I made us French bread bacon and egg sandwiches, which turned out super delicious. Then we played with the dogs for a bit before I took a shower and went to the old house to pack up some more stuff.

Dad was over there working in the yards, and helped me load up the last TV stand I had over there. Then I loaded a couple other bigger things into the car before coming back in to pack a box while I called Optimum to cancel service. That phone call was a whole ordeal, as it usually is, and I ended up keeping it for now, with two months of free service, a lower bill for a year, and a subscription to HBO Max.

I finally headed back home just as Summer was coming home from work. Eaddie was gone when I got there, but I got everything unloaded, and Summer showed up just in time to help with the TV stand. She got started on the dinner she started to make yesterday, and Eaddie brought Eli over for dinner. I fed the dogs while I was outside, and Muad’Dib kept wanting to be fed kibble-by-kibble, which I was happy to do. Dinner was great, and then we watched X-Men: Days of Future Past before bed.

The hunt is back on.

unPlugins

I must have been determined to have a bad day today. I woke up groggy, but at least I didn’t keep trying to fall back asleep. I still ran behind though, and traffic over the Dardanelle bridge was down to one lane, so I was about 10 minutes late. Nobody noticed, because even the principals were there in basketball shorts. That’s just what we’re working with out there in the county.

I stumbled upon a strange issue with accessing my virtual machines, which led me to believe there was a networking issue somewhere. I spent a while in the core closet, then gave up for a while and came back to the office where I had a cup of cereal. After I cleaned my cup, I accidentally tapped the edge of my watch against the bottom of the mug, so now there’s a tiny little chip, and though it’s not terribly noticeable, I’ll know it’s there forever.

I missed lunch because it looked like only three kids were there. Surely there were more, but I just heard no noise anywhere. I ended up having a bowl of ramen with some frozen peppers. Later in the afternoon I discovered my server problem was two loose power cables in the back of the management switch. Half of the switch was just not powered on at all.

At the end of the day, I decided to call Optimum to try and cancel service. They immediately offered service for $40 per month. One hold session later, I was also offered three months free. Finally I was put on hold to be transferred to an employee that could actually cancel my plan, and the call was dropped.

I headed home and found southbound traffic backed up from the 2nd Street light in Dardanelle, over the bridge, and all the way up past Atwood’s in Russellville. Lucky for me, I commute the stupid direction and live in the more expensive area. I fed the fish and then headed home where Summer was making a meatloaf for dinner.

I called Optimum again, waited on hold for half an hour, and finally got someone to cancel my service. The meatloaf had to go back in for some additional time, but we eventually had dinner. Then we watched Everything Everywhere All at Once. Summer seemed entertained, but it was weird. I really enjoyed it, but then it was time to rush to bed.

I would have really liked just doing laundry and taxes with you.