Tag: movie

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Big Brutus

The weather was pretty mild today, so Summer considered taking Eaddie out for a walk when she got out of bed. I thought I’d join them, but we quickly switched gears when my parents decided they were up for going to see Wonka at UEC. Summer went to check which showtimes were in the better theater while I showered, and then we met my parents there. The trailers didn’t do much for any of us, but to our surprise, the movie was an absolute delight. It’s been a little while since we’ve seen a movie that made us feel anything. The original was so beloved, and the Deppificated remake had us nervous. Wonka was, by all accounts, a great movie.

We headed back home where Summer was working before I could even make it in the door. Eaddie jumped up and was ready to move some more stuff, so she and I went to the old house and picked up my bedside chests of drawers. They were really dusty, but we got them cleaned off and rearranged more of the spare bedroom so she could fit things into her room. The desk won’t be easy, but we’ll figure it out.

As we got settled in after that bit of cleaning, we realized that we hadn’t had a meal all day. Eaddie wanted Little Caesars, so I ordered and then spent about 45 minutes in the store listening to a bunch of dimwitted employees as they continually messed up orders, including forgetting to make half of mine. Every time I go into that store and have to either watch a slow-motion train wreck with another customer or deal with some minor catastrophe with my own food, I think to myself how wonderful it might be to open up my own competing pizzeria called Big Brutus. It can’t be that hard.

I made it home and we ate one cold pizza, and one more fresh, along with a free order of Crazy Bread that I got for waiting so patiently while the manager failed to call out that my order was complete. Then we watched two episodes of Loki, which left us with the most thrilling of cliffhangers. Episode four was a perfect lead up to midnight, but we beat the clock by about 12 minutes.

Et tu

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Aquabland and the Lost Blockbuster

Summer woke up early and took a work call in bed this morning, which disrupted my short sleep period before I got up to get ready for a trip to Greenbrier with her. She had to terminate someone, and we decided to go out for lunch and watch the new Aquaman movie. As we passed Atkins on Full Self Driving, I continued to get false “pay attention” warnings that never actually disengaged FSD, but still ultimately led to me being banned for a week. The new software seems awful, and I hate it. I’d had the warnings before, but never actually had the system stop on me, much less ban me for any length of time. This seems like meddling policymakers, and I wonder if any other auto manufacturers are affected.

I dropped Summer off at the wash and then drove up the road to McDonald’s to wait it out. I was super hungry, and she said she might be a bit over an hour, so I got a Happy Meal and a coffee to pass the time. She ended up being reasonably quick about it, so I picked her up and we headed back to Conway to go to Golden Corral. It wasn’t a great experience, primarily due to a lack of service, but we ate and got back to the Cinemark in plenty of time for the movie.

Summer liked it, but I found it to be much too goofy, and overall very forgettable. It felt kind of like quickly skipping forward through a super long story, which left the lesser details out, but would have helped me care about any of the characters at all. In the end, I guess we’ll just have to look forward to the universe reboot.

The drive home was quick and annoying as I had to drive myself. Eaddie had gone out, and Summer went straight to bed, so I tried to wind down early myself to catch up on sleep.

I am memes.

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Ungrateful Little Shits

I woke up for a little while before Summer, but managed to fall asleep for a little longer after she left for work. The kids were still passed out when I got up and started making coffee, but Noah woke up to the sound of steaming milk. I cooked some sausage and eggs for them, and then cleaned up the kitchen and washed the rest of the dishes before taking a shower.

Noah put on Hacksaw Ridge for them to watch, and was in utter disbelief that we hadn’t seen it before. Once they finished that, I forced them to get up and leave the house with me, and we went to Walmart to look for some clearance Christmas stuff. They left me as soon as we walked in the door, but I picked up what I wanted. I ran into my parents, and the kids ran into Autumn and Adam, so they came back to me wanting to go to Sumo with her.

I begrudgingly let them take off with her while I went to the old house to pack up some things. I loaded up the trunk, took out some trash, and had a tiny, surprise water leak in the master bathroom. I picked up the kids when they were done, and we met Summer at the house. She ate some of their leftovers, so I ate some of a steak with some leftover mashed potatoes and Brussels sprouts by myself.

They were all talking in the sunroom, so I spent some time to myself and then went to the living room to watch Interstellar. As soon as the movie started, Eaddie came in and wanted to put out the new tree skirts, and the other two followed and started talking loudly, so I just turned the TV back off and sat fuming in silence.

Summer eventually went to bed, and Eaddie went to her room, so Noah watched the movie with me. Eaddie came out afterward and acted like she was going to hang out with Noah, but then everyone went to sleep instead.

Old age should burn and rave at close of day;

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Like a Bull in a Chinese Shop

I had a plan today, but that didn’t seem to bother anyone else. Eaddie went to school all day just to hang out, but later said she was trapped in a small room with a dead phone. That sounded a lot like childhood to me. Summer made the two of us cheese and spinach omelets for breakfast, and then she left for the gym while I cleaned up. She ended up having to take a work call in the parking lot, and that was when we lost her to work for the rest of the day.

She spent the afternoon trying to source a Veloster motor, so I went out on the Onewheel. I thought I was doing fairly well, but I got a death-wobble coming down the hill again, and spilled the beans. I tumbled a bit, but not as much as the board, which went end-for-end for nearly the width of the street. I still can’t figure out what went wrong. I was having trouble slowing down, and I don’t know if my ankles just didn’t have the strength to keep the board steady, or if the tire needed to lose a pound of pressure. I’ve always had a little trouble steering on sloped surfaces too.

I came back inside and put tiny ornaments on Eaddie’s little Christmas tree before she got home, and eventually we decided to go to New China for dinner. We ate, I gave an impromptu fortune-speech on wasting kindness, and I shared some malaphors. Then we went straight home for the night.

Eaddie spent a bit of the evening cleaning to make a space for a whole-ass Christmas tree in her room, but then she wanted mine. I told her she could have hers which screamed “CHRISTMAS” in bold, schizophrenic, epileptic lights, because I had a matching pair of the tree I liked, which would bookend the home theater nicely. She claimed the extra 4-inch diameter made the garish tree an impossible fit, and made a fat joke about me not being able to fit through the door opening, so I chased her across the house and then went online to publish the sixth-most embarrassing photo I could find of her.

Summer came out to watch TV with me, but Eaddie didn’t join us, so we didn’t watch anything we had planned. Instead, the two of us watched Who Killed Santa? A Murderville Murder Mystery. When she left for bed, I watched Godzilla vs. Kong turned up to 11. Somehow, Eaddie fell asleep to that after saying she wanted to pull an all-nighter. I guess the best laid plans are paved with good intentions.

We’ll burn that bridge when we get to it.

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O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree, O Christmas Tree

I couldn’t get my neck comfortable in bed last night, so I woke up with a headache. Summer went to work and Eaddie had a test in the morning, but came home afterward and took a shower. Summer wanted to do some shopping, so I cleaned up and then got her from the wash to go to Tractor Supply. She thought she’d be leaving work earlier and that we could go grocery shopping, but we had to postpone that. After she found a couple replacement wheels for work, I took her to Lowe’s to look at the other Christmas tree that I really liked. They had one left that was still brand new, but I thought I’d try and make a deal for the display model as well, just to lower my unit cost.

One of the managers was working nearby and quickly accepted my offer of $100 for both trees, so we carried it all to the front to check out, and then he helped us to the car. I took Summer back to work and then went to the old house to feed the fish and pick up a few things to take home. Dad wanted an old PC power supply to build a tiny space heater, so I grabbed a couple of those as well. When I got to his house, we tested the pinouts and they seemed to be working fine. I was pretty sure I had smoked both of them, but I decided to hold on to them just in case one would work on an old computer.

When I finally made it back home, Eaddie had left to hang out with friends, so I took the opportunity to set up the display model tree in the corner to the right of the TV. I spent quite a while fluffing the branches, and it looked really great. I had to move the other tree further away from the TV for symmetry, but having two trees actually looked really good. I have no idea what we’ll do with those spaces when it’s not Christmas, but it made Summer happy to have such nice trees when she got home.

I started to take the Onewheel to meet Summer at the Neighborhood Market, but decided it would be too crowded for my lack of confidence on the apparatus. It was just as well, because she still beat me there even when I drove. We got some food for the week, and then headed home for the evening. I cleaned up a little more, and we settled in to watch Leave the World Behind. I enjoyed the suspense, but Summer behaved expectedly tense.

Eaddie eventually made it home and really enjoyed the new tree, so we may take the other one and put it in her room. It may be excessive, but isn’t that the true meaning of the season anyway?

How blinky are thy LEDs!

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Dear Eight-Pound, Six-Ounce, Newborn Infant Jesus

Sleeping was fairly uncomfortable with a weepy bit of road rash on the inside of my left ankle. I couldn’t believe the tire had gotten me as badly as it had, but I guess it just accelerated into me yesterday. I slept in pretty late, and got up to find Summer doing her nails. I spread some sauerkraut and mustard on a waffle and ate the last brat that was in the fridge. I thought the waffle might be a little more satisfying as bread, but it was pretty grainy.

I took a shower in the afternoon so we could go shopping, but Summer remembered that we were going to watch Christmas with The Chosen at UEC with Dad. Eaddie and I were hungry and she wanted cheese, so the three of us went to Cici’s for a late lunch before the movie.

We got to the theater just in time to find seats, and I was a little bit surprised at how empty the theater was. I guess all the church groups probably went to see it early. Some of the people sitting in front of us had snuck some really loud snack packaging into the theater, which struck me as a little ironic considering the forbidden nature of the act. The “movie” itself was about half music videos, with a few quick scenes of some dirty shepherds and a dirty messiah infant. I don’t know about Dad, but it wasn’t what any of the rest of us thought it would be.

After the movie, we headed home and Summer and I watched some TV. I started with a little YouTube, and then we ended up watching Rock-a-Doodle, which was shortish and relatively fun. Eaddie hid in her room all night, and I stayed up late configuring the old, original Pixel I bought for use as a photo backer-upper. Hopefully it plays nicely with the special photo and video editing features of my newer Pixel 8 Pro.

Don’t even know a word yet, but still omnipotent, with your golden diapers.

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Less Than Marvelous

Ben texted that he was too late to meet for breakfast, and I noticed a couple of cars parked outside the Old Mill Bread Bakery & Cafe, so I swung in there to eat instead. The guy was just opening up, and had to leave to take his son to school, so he just left me with another customer in the store. Then Ben called after he realized the sessions didn’t start until 8:30, and met up with me just in time for the guy to make it back. I had a breakfast burrito and a scone with some coffee, but in hindsight I probably should have gotten something on BREAD instead of a premade spinach wrap. The food was good either way, and then we headed to the conference.

I went to a session about budgeting and finance, which I thought would be helpful to start the conversation with my business office and admin team. Hopefully I can come up with a decent proposal, and then use Technology money for a better salary. After that session, I went to Ben’s talk about Burp Suite, which was interesting. I was in a room with a very small number of very smart folk, but I wasn’t sure I had an immediate use for it.

The final session was the closing ceremony. Charlie was in Ben’s session, and he let me have his room key to get into the garage and charge. Then Ben and I sat through the closing remarks and went to the lobby for our bagged lunches. They didn’t have very many left, so we were lucky to get anything to eat at all. I figured he might stick around for a little bit to chat, but he actually ended up sticking around the entire time I was waiting for my movie. We chatted about all kinds of stuff, and then he helped me fix my eSchool student photos, which was awesome.

That left me just enough time to get across town to the IMAX to watch The Marvels. I had a reward for a free hot dog, purchased an ICEE, and sat down in my usual seat. There were only a few people there for the IMAX 3D showing on opening weekend, which I thought would be a good thing just for myself, but for some reason the bunch of old folks just kept talking through the entire movie. It would have been way more distracting if I had been more invested in the movie. I just couldn’t take it seriously at all. It was fine, but it was far from great. The dialog and plot just made it feel like another forced girl team-up movie.

After the show, I finally headed home. I stopped at the old house to check on things and air up my tires. Then I washed my car and headed to the house. Everyone was awake, but nobody heard me come in. Eaddie had left the Murano unlocked, so I made her go out and lock it up. Then I realized she left the back door unlocked, as well as the front door after she went out to lock the car. I don’t know how to correct these habits other than to make her life really annoying by making her go back outside repeatedly in the cold. Summer only got out of bed to use the bathroom while I unpacked and got things put away. I got my acrylic chair mat in, so I cleaned it and set it up under my desk. For one day, it seems like it will hold up alright, but only time will tell.

No appointing here.

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Three Chairs for Seating!

We started out this morning being fairly productive. I had some coffee and a frustratingly cool shower, and then we went to my house to pick up some things. We got a couple computer chairs loaded up, along with some other random stuff. Summer wanted Mexican afterward, so she took us to Morelos for lunch. We saw Beth and Mark there and chatted with her for just a brief moment, and then we made our way to the house.

Eaddie was gone to a robotics tournament all day, and Summer wanted to take a nap when we got back, so I picked up around the house for a little bit and watered my plants. I wanted to get back out for some more stuff, but I just couldn’t get Summer motivated. Then once Eaddie got home, we snacked a little bit and then settled in for the night.

Summer and I watched Old Dads on Netflix, which I didn’t really like as much as I thought I might. Summer fell asleep in front of her baking shows after that, and I dawdled on the computer for too long before bed.

Unpack to pack.

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Like Cici’s, but Good

We got up a little bit early this morning and I took a shower so we could take a trip to Greenbrier and Conway. We stopped in Conway for Summer’s backpack first, and then she had to do inventory at the Greenbrier lube. Eaddie and I helped count things so we could finish faster. Then I entered most of it into the computer until I started having trouble deciphering Summer’s notations. Once we finished that, we headed back to Conway and went to Larry’s Pizza, which was incredible. I thought it was reasonably priced, and they had a great variety. The “pizza parade” where they walked fresh pies around the restaurant was really neat, but if you missed that, I think whatever was left would go to the bar.

After eating too much of some really great pizza, we went to Target. Eaddie tried on some swim suits, but we didn’t end up buying anything. I ran into Danielle and her parents, and she fussed about the school district and having her department gutted. I had to kind of giggle inside a little bit because I think most people thought they were overstaffed and overpaid anyway.

Next we hit up TJ Maxx and Kohl’s, but still didn’t buy anything. Summer’s car was struggling to run the air conditioner, so I had to send another service message to get an update. I hate that there’s no way to guarantee a mobile service appointment, and they’re slow to switch it from a local appointment. It’s also never clear if we have to drop the car off for multiple days, or if we can wait in the lobby, since it’s such a long drive.

By the time we finished shopping, it was time to run across town for our movie. We originally wanted to watch Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem, but the fact that it was no longer in XD upset me. We decided to watch Blue Beetle instead, which didn’t really impress us much until the final act. It was alright, but it just wasn’t great. At least the graphics weren’t as bad as The Flash.

We made it back home and Noah came over to visit for a while. The new house had been delisted on Zillow, and for some reason some old pictures from the previous owner started showing up, so we got to see it with some different furniture in it. The kids left to go eat, Summer went to bed, and I wrapped up reasonably quickly.

You should know by now.

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What Hindu

I woke up early this morning to get home for a shower before our day in Little Rock. On my way to the shower, I heard rainwater dripping into the bedroom where the roof still hadn’t been repaired, so I had to stick a bucket under it to prevent any further damage. It didn’t really seem to be storming, but while in the middle of my shower, I heard three or four loud pops outside as transformers blew one-by-one. My lights flickered for the first couple, then went out for a couple seconds for another, and finally went out for good after the last bang.

I finished my shower without power, and then struggled to find a way out of my home. I haven’t been able to find a door key in ages, so I ended up manually opening the garage to leave, hoping things would be back on quickly enough to lock things up again.

My parents picked us up at Summer’s, and we headed to meet Julie and Kevin at Costco. I worked on my Google Slides presentation for the whole drive, and felt like I had some pretty good topics to cover with the teachers for tomorrow.

I was pretty hungry, so Julie got us all hot dogs or pizza at the deli, which was super cheap and pretty tasty. I was surprised at how much of the store we covered, and we picked out a couple things to bring home. After that, we went straight to the IMAX for Oppenheimer.

I think most of us liked the movie alright, but Eaddie and I probably enjoyed it the most. Mom and Dad ended up going toward the back of the theater because Mom couldn’t see the screen well enough from the seats I picked. I think Kevin thought it would be more about the Manhattan Project than just Oppenheimer’s life, but I had a pretty good idea of what to expect and felt good about what we watched. It definitely felt more like a biopic than anything else, and didn’t drown the audience in the science.

After the movie, the girls had to thaw out a bit. We walked partway down the Promenade before turning around to find something to eat. Nobody seemed really excited for food except for me, because I knew that was the plan and was going to eat regardless of how I felt. It almost devolved into a full-blown argument choosing where to go, because nobody wanted to just call the shot. I finally picked Star of India after we discovered that Julie’s pick of Three Fold Noodles + Dumpling Co. was closed.

We tried to order full-sized orders of everything in the Chef’s Special, thinking that it would be way more food than what we actually got. In the end, I think it was pretty close in portion size, so I was left wondering if we had inadvertently ripped ourselves off. I just couldn’t quite remember how much we got the last couple of times I got the special. In any case, the food was good and everyone got to try something new that the girls and I have really enjoyed.

I poked around my slideshow a bit more on the drive home, and then had my parents drop us off at my house so I could take my car to Summer’s for the evening. My water bucket hadn’t overflowed, and it was a quick and quiet evening until bedtime.

Impromptu Best Presentation Ever