Just Don’t Do It Wrong

I made it in a couple minutes early today after Gary said he would be late. He really wasn’t very late at all, but he wasn’t early the way he normally is. We didn’t have a meeting, and everyone paired off on their own to help each other. I spent the early morning climbing around my desk getting things rewired and plugged in so I could finally get to work.

Gary’s old office feels slightly smaller than my old one next to Ben, so there’s a bit of wasted space in front of the TV that I can’t really use, and everything else just feels a bit cramped. I made it work though, and was able to rearrange a few things to suit the new layout.

I couldn’t get the PowerShell script to verify characters in the middle of the hostname string the way I wanted, but I did at least get imaging to work, so long as people don’t screw up. I thought everyone else had already left around lunch time, but Tammy and Thomas were both still there and heard me rocking out.

When I finally left work, I ran by the carwash to get the bugs cleaned off from our trip back from Little Rock. Then I stopped by Walgreens for my prescriptions before swinging by to see Summer. She was busy, so I just went home for a bit instead. I picked at a couple things, and planted a new mango seed before making my way up to her house for the evening.

Autumn must have been asleep in front of the TV when I got there, because she didn’t say a single word to me and went to her room after unlocking the door for me. I cooked some leftover hamburger meat from earlier in the week, and when Summer got home we had double-decker tacos again. They were really spectacular, but I felt like my gut was going to bust after just two.

We settled in for the evening, and I put on The Time Traveler’s Wife. It has just enough of a sci-fi element to keep me interested, and I figured Summer could use a love story.

Enrique Iglesias is at it again…

Slow Return to the Cinematic Universe

I pretty much worked with Kyle all day today, finally running some cable at Dwight in the morning, and then shuffling devices at junior high in the afternoon. We only had to make one trip back to the shop, but we ended up with a pretty clean install.

Everyone really wanted Fat Daddy’s for lunch, so I followed along and had an overpriced chili dog. It looked pretty gross with everything added on it, but tasted fine except for the cheese dip, which was just a bit too much. There wasn’t enough chili, and the coleslaw made the whole thing cold in the middle.

After lunch, I ran by The UPS Store and paid for our lease shipment finally. Then I tried to track down a single missing device that I’m pretty sure was dead out of the box at the junior high. I couldn’t find it after a couple rounds through the building, so hopefully it turns up sooner than later.

When I left work, I went home for a bit and waited on Summer to get back from Conway so we could use my BOGO coupon at CiCi’s. Then we met the girls at UEC for Black Widow. I was a bit uncomfortable for most of the movie, and ultra disappointed that we missed it in 3D. I guess all the movies rushing to release now after being held back due to the pandemic are pressuring theaters to run everything through really quickly. I got pretty stressed over it, and ended up disappointed in the theater as usual, from the stuff hanging in front of the screen and casting shadows, to the loud air conditioner, to the sound of the auditorium next door. At least the size of Auditorium 8 was better than I had remembered.

The movie was enjoyable enough, but did feel really lackluster after the prior movies, and even all of the Disney+ series. It felt more like a formality of passing the Black Widow baton than anything else. What I’m really looking forward to is more Loki.

It’s no “Falcon and Arm Guy.”

Independence Day

I got up with Summer this morning and went to Walmart to pick up what she needed to grill hot dogs for her crew at work. Then we went straight to the shop and got things cooking just in time for lunch. Once everyone ate, we headed back home to get Eaddie and then met Autumn at my parents’ house to help clean the pool cover. I was still plenty sore from stacking wood, so I was worthless all day long.

We went to Morelos for dinner on the way home, then ended the evening with a classic Will Smith action flick. At first I questioned watching the modern sequel in 3D, but I think I made the right choice with the original. I can’t even remember the plot to the new one.

Once again, the LAPD is asking Los Angelinos NOT to fire their guns at the visitor spacecraft. You may inadvertently trigger an interstellar war.

On Guard!

Summer made chorizo and eggs this morning before taking off with Eaddie to do some shopping. I went home and started some laundry and took a shower before they came over for the evening. I thought we would get dinner and a movie, but I was the only one hungry enough, so we went straight to UEC.

I figured for a less serious comedy, I could compromise with a local showing in theaters 5, 6, or 7. The popcorn was surprisingly great, and we got a couple refills out of the deal. We ended up being the only three in the whole theater, which was good because Summer kept jumping out of her seat in sympathetic agony. Overall, The Hitman’s Wife’s Bodyguard was pretty good.

After the movie, we came home and sat around. Eaddie went to her room while Summer and I watched some TV. I got a little frustrated without dinner and finally picked up some Pizza Hut for a really late meal. Nobody else was hungry, but they sure ate the pizza.

Summer went to bed and Eaddie and I watched some House until she went back to her room.

Wax in, wax out.

Pinch of Spice

We slept in a bit today, and I woke up with some pretty bad pain on my ear and in my back. The ear got better quickly enough, but my back seemed to get worse all day long no matter what I did to try and alleviate the pain. Summer got up and improvised a mashed potato and fried buffalo and teriyaki cauliflower lunch bowl. The girls liked it well enough, but there was no mistaking the cauliflower bits.

I watched The Boondock Saints until the girls were ready to leave the house. Summer took Autumn to the gym, and I took Eaddie home with me so she could ride her bike while I showered. Her ride got rained out after a bit though, and my back was bad enough after the shower that I couldn’t move very well. We were going to go to Walmart for a few more things to make burritos, but let the other two go instead.

When we all got back to the house, Summer and I whipped up dinner really quickly. Then everyone wandered off to their rooms pretty quickly. I went to bed super early, hoping to sleep off the back pain.

And shepherds we shall be.

Mostly Waisted

I slept in pretty late today after a pretty rough night of sleep. I just tossed and turned for the first hour or two, and then spent the rest of the night bouncing between several really weird dreams. When I did get up, I took a shower while Summer went to the gym. Then we got everyone up to go to Mulan’s for a late lunch.

Dad wanted to uncover the pool, so we went to their house after we ate. The girls took turns vacuuming the pool, and then we came back to the house.

Everyone was pretty exhausted for various reasons. Mine was because I ate waaaaaay too much. I kept trying to doze off in Summer’s lap while she tinkered on her phone. Eventually I got up and we watched Never Surrender: A Galaxy Quest Documentary, which got Summer in the mood to watch the actual film. We watched it after the documentary, and then it was off to bed.

By Grapthar’s hammer…

That Thon, Th-Thon Thon Thon

Summer left early this morning for the RussVegas Half Marathon. I set an alarm so I could get out to meet her at the end, and made it early enough to hang out for a little bit and then get a picture of her actually crossing the finish line. We walked around the train depot area to take a couple pictures before making it back to the cars, and then we went to Las Palmas for her recovery lunch. The service was pretty absent, but the food was good.

Afterward, we came home and she cleaned up and crashed in front of the TV while Dad came over and helped me seal up the hole in the brick outside. Once that was caulked in, we had to let it dry and moved to the other end that went into the laundry room. I still needed foil tape and wanted to try and find some kind of flange or boot to put against the wall, so we went to Lowe’s and then Leonard’s without any luck. We ended up just going to get some of his old sheet metal, and cut out a piece with a hole in it to tape to the wall. Since then I’ve seen some flexible tape made for flashing that I may like to find in order to seal it up a bit better.

With that done, we had to leave the foaming for later, since we couldn’t really get into the inside wall without disturbing the caulk job. Dad went on home, and then I came in to watch a movie with Summer. I warmed up some leftovers for dinner, and then we watched The Shape of Water, which had far more frontal nudity than I expected for a love story between a woman and a sea creature. Otherwise I thought it was a pretty good movie.

Summer continued to fall asleep on me while I browsed YouTube for a while, and finally went to bed. I scoured the official photos from the marathon for her for a while, and eventually had to save the rest for later so I could get some sleep.

I think I’ll sing it again!

King Zilla

I got up this morning and ate some leftover pasta while Summer went to the gym. Then I went home to clean up for our trip to Conway. As I was leaving, Bác Vân asked me to take some pictures of her garden for Bác Tran. Then I continued on up to get the girls.

I tried not to get us to Conway too early because our movie was super late, but they were getting hungry. I still had a couple gift cards for places that closed in Russellville, so we stopped by Firehouse for dinner first. We split sandwiches and used up some of my rewards points, but I’ve still got enough for another trip. There was only one guy there and they got a little bit busy, but it turned out fine. He started singing a couple times, and it was actually really nice.

Our next stop was Game Point to kill some time. Autumn wanted to look for Mario Party on the Nintendo DS, but they didn’t have it. We didn’t stay long before going to Steak ‘n Shake to burn another gift card. I also had a free burger, which I think was for my birthday, but again I didn’t consume all of the gift card.

Autumn really wanted to go to Books-A-Million, so we went there for a while and browsed around. The girls took off to go next door to Five Below, then Dollar Tree. We missed Sam’s Club because they closed early, so we spent the rest of the evening at Target until showtime.

We made it to Cinemark with plenty of time, though it took me three trips to the concession stand to satisfy everyone. We watched nearly half an hour of previews before the movie started, which just showed how much of a backlog of movies there are since the pandemic started. The next few months are gonna be bangin.

I liked the movie pretty well. The script was pretty trash, but I knew going in that we were really only going for the CG. It was almost exclusively monster action, which was probably its only saving grace. The story felt like it was just on rails the entire time so we could get to see epic titan fights. It was fun though, and you just can’t beat the screen size and audio in a theater for a good monster flick.

The drive home was fast and uneventful. The girls barely made it out of town before falling asleep, so everyone was off to bed as soon as we got home.

The movie would have been just as good, or better, with no speech or humans at all. Kind of like real life.

Moderna Family

It’s been a rough back half of the week. Wednesday is a foggy, distant memory after having my first COVID shot that afternoon. I went to bed that night feeling like I had the start of something bad, and then woke up Thursday morning unable to go to work. My fever hit over 103, and the deep, intense muscle pain kept me from doing anything other than sleep. At least I could do that. When I had the real COVID, there were times I couldn’t sleep and was stuck staring at the wall. This time I could pretty much roll over and fall asleep any time.

Summer got her shot Friday afternoon and suffered a similar fate. If the second shot does the same thing to us, then I’m certain it wasn’t worth it. I felt like I had the worst of COVID for the better part of two days, and took until tonight to feel more or less back to normal. My arm still hurts quite a bit where I got the shot, and my spine hurts either from muscle pain or from having been in bed for so long.

I watched Justice League this afternoon to prepare myself for the Snyder Cut. Then a shower brought me back to life so I could pick up some Popeye’s and head to Summer’s. She told me she was feeling better, but I couldn’t tell. She didn’t eat, and ended up falling right back to sleep after a little bit. The girls spent the night with their friends, so I was left to try and go back to sleep or else face a late night of boredom.

That’s not the saying, that’s like the opposite of what the saying is.

Home Away

Summer had to work for a few hours today, so I got up and around and eventually made my way to the high school to pick up some of my things. I loaded a flatbed cart up with stuff to get into my trunk, then delivered it all to my new office under Gardner. It took me a few hours to get things situated, particularly because of the lack of power. I’ll have to come up with even more if I want to have anything set up to the right of my main desk.

After work, Summer wanted some nachos, so I stopped by Taco Villa on the way home. Then we watched Stranger than Fiction, which was an older movie than I realized. I loved it, and I was happy to see Will Ferrell in a role that didn’t have him being his usual level of ridiculous.

I stayed up a little bit late to set up my new Samsung Galaxy Watch3, but was disappointed to learn that the eSIM isn’t supported for Google Fi. That didn’t even register as a possibility, and it was super upsetting that this wasn’t more obvious when I bought it with my promotional credit. At least I was able to pick up the device protection plan for the phone after it failed to register to my account at the point of purchase.

It’s a tragedy.