Tag: movie

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Just for Kicks

I got up and made some fancy bacon, egg, and cheese biscuits from leftovers this morning. Then I went home to clean up and pack a bunch of camp chairs for Summer’s company picnic in Little Rock. We left early so we could spend a little extra time there. I got us last-minute tickets to see Jurassic World: Dominion at the IMAX, but the kids weren’t super excited for it. They argued that they hadn’t seen any of the others, but we actually saw the last one at an IMAX in Illinois.

We stopped in Conway first for some lunch because they were hungry. We tried going to Raising Cain’s, but that place was absolutely packed without an open seat in the house. From there, we drove across the street to Chipotle. Eaddie seemed most confused by their ordering process for some reason, but we made it through. Summer and I just split a burrito.

The last stretch of the drive was uneventful, and we made it to the theater and through the concessions line just in time to catch the trailers. They were super busy, and I didn’t realize it was opening weekend. I was pretty annoyed by all the chatter and noise around us, but the speakers were cranked up so high that you couldn’t hear much else. I was a bit disappointed in the movie myself, but I think all of them after the first one were kind of campy. The girls enjoyed it though, and it clearly wasn’t an issue that they hadn’t seen all of the prior films.

After the movie, we had just enough time to make it across to North Little Rock for the Splash company picnic at the Lakewood Properties park. It was nice and windy there, and the tree cover made the heat and humidity bearable. We found a box turtle, and Autumn immediately pulled it out of its hiding spot and carried it around the park while Summer and Eaddie played cornhole. I brought a biplane kite and put it together, but nobody else was really interested in that.

The girls got food, but I was still stuffed from lunch. I didn’t even eat any popcorn during the movie. Afterward, Eaddie said she wanted to fly the kite, but then didn’t follow me out into the opening. She and Summer took off in the opposite direction, leaving me standing there alone on the hill. My aggravations grew when I found them alone at some swings, way away from everyone else. I was happy to make an appearance with Summer, but it was hot and they kept leaving me alone. I felt like we were only there because she had to make an appearance as a part of the management team, but then she wasn’t even mingling.

Fortunately, they started a big kickball game going, which drew everyone together. I was surprised that Eaddie didn’t play, but Autumn did. I was proud of her for jumping in though. I sat at the top of the bleachers because I was sweating enough just sitting there. After a while, Eaddie came up and wanted to get a snowcone, so we walked back up the hill for that. I was sat weird on the bleachers, and also super dehydrated from the heat, so my legs cramped up immediately.

I didn’t even make it back down the hill by the time the game was over, so the girls came back up and played a little basketball before we headed home. On the way out, we took pans of smoked pork, potato salad, and coleslaw for later. The drive home was quiet and felt a little tense, as Summer had been quiet all day. We made it home, I played Tetris to get everything into the refrigerator, and the usual suspects made it to bed. I got there eventually.

It’s always work if you’re a leader.

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Slow Burn

Summer got up for the Superhero 5k this morning while I laid around with the cat. Eventually I got up and fried some eggs to go with the last of the leftover Indian rice. Just as I started to walk out, Summer arrived home, so I came back in to let her pack up, and then we went to my house.

We didn’t waste any time diving right into the back yard. I wanted to cut down the overgrowth and start burning the large piles of brush in the back corner where I’m wanting to build a workshop. It looked dry on top, but everything underneath was completely wet, so it took forever to get anything really started. Then it was a slow process of pulling more and more brush out to burn down slowly.

The heat and smoke didn’t take long to sap me, but I held out as long as I could before coming back inside to clean up. Summer and I both took showers, and then she had been craving Chinese, so we went to New China for a super early dinner.

After we ate, we went by my parents’ house to visit for just a little bit. They were out back cleaning up around the pool. Then we came back home to rest since Summer still had a headache. I put on The Adam Project, which I thought was great. Then we watched Ricky Gervais: SuperNature before Summer was ready to crash.

60% Water

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Nurse Normal in the Monoverse of Happiness

I slept pretty well after lacking so much the day before, and eased into the morning before showering and taking the girls to KFC to pick up a bucket of chicken to take to my parents’ house for Mother’s Day. We didn’t stick around for very long after we ate, since we had to make it to Little Rock for the movie. Mom didn’t want to go, so it was just the three of us.

We stopped in Conway to wash the car, and let Summer chat with the crew for a bit. I got some sweet tea over some pellet ice, and then we made it to The Promenade. We walked the length of the strip, but only stopped in Lululemon so Summer could spend her gift card. The number of women bringing their children into that store was absolutely alarming, but I guess I just don’t know what it’s like to live that kind of lifestyle.

From there, we headed to the theater super early. The seats were just about perfect, though not super comfortable. They were worn, and basically stuck tilted forward. I wish we would get a proper Dolby theater nearby. I wouldn’t mind the wear if it was my neighborhood theater, but for the drive and in that neighborhood, they should really have better. The movie was great though. I wish I didn’t have to take a restroom break near the end, but my eyes were floating. It was quite a bit darker than I had imagined, but maybe the MCU has just matured into something very different from where it started.

After the movie, we went across town to the Star of India. Eaddie was down to try all of the food, so we got the Chef’s Special and an appetizer sampler. We didn’t really need to order a third item, but I felt bad sharing everything, so we got Eaddie what ended up being a huge plate of rice as well. She’s not upset to have leftovers for lunch at school.

The drive home was uneventful, though there had been pretty regular traffic all day. We let Eaddie DJ the drive, which started out with George Michael too loud, followed mostly by modern boy bands. When we got home, the girls left to pick up Autumn and head to their house, and I touched base with a few mother friends. Overall, I think today was a success.

Mr. Weird, I don’t feel so good!

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Lessbius

About every other night, I’m up every hour. I still feel exhausted all of the time. I thought I’d get up today and make breakfast, but nobody was hungry. Summer and Eaddie left me for a while, and I started a corned beef in the crock pot, then cleaned up for a matinée. Eaddie wanted to go to the 1:50 show so her boyfriend could come along. His father dropped him off at the theater, and we met him there after I picked up Summer and Eaddie.

I was ready for a letdown after reading some reviews of Morbius. It was pretty bad, but overall I wasn’t upset to have watched it. The action scenes were highly stylized, but mostly garbage aside from that. It was all just blurry, dark, After Effects nonsense. The story wasn’t great either, but I guess I’m used to that from Sony.

After the movie, we had some time to kill before dropping Zane off with his mother, so we went to the park and let them wander around. Summer took a phone call, so we just sat in the car until they got back. Then I dropped him off, followed by the girls, and then went home to add some carrots and cabbage to the crock pot for the last hour.

Autumn worked all day and went straight home afterward to do homework, so just the other two came over for dinner. They ate and watched TV, then went home for the night. I cleaned everything up, and then went to bed as early as I could.

Sony, wat r u doin? Staaahhhhhp.

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Who’s Afraid of the Big, Black Bat?

I woke up this morning forgetting that I had lost an hour overnight. I thought I’d be up early enough to make breakfast after how early I woke up yesterday, but instead I just heated some cold brew coffee for Summer and took a shower before my parents came to pick us up.

We headed to Conway and, after some deliberation, settled on Sharks Fish and Chicken for lunch. I was worried Mom wouldn’t like how dingy it was inside, but everyone was pretty happy with the food. We’ll have to take them to Sam’s in town sometime, because I bet they’d like it a lot.

After we ate, we were going to shop for refrigerators, but evidently they had already picked out what they wanted in town. Instead, we went to Kohl’s and wandered around for a bit. We left there empty-handed to go to the theater, and fortunately we left early enough to get through some traffic that was caused by a flipped vehicle right off the interstate.

The movie was as long and slow as Eaddie described it, and I was surprised at how much they completely focused on it being a detective story. I guess it made sense, but it was less entertaining than I had hoped. There were certainly scenes that I enjoyed, and styles that I appreciated, but overall I didn’t at all feel glued to my seat. What I perceived as their big plot twist didn’t really carry any weight with me, and overall I thought it was relatively forgettable. The realistic wingsuit didn’t help, but I guess they really focused on realism on this one. There wasn’t an overabundance of having to suspend my disbelief as there has been in previous iterations.

After the movie, we headed straight home. As Summer started to head home, she showed me a piece of her car’s roof trim that had come loose, so I pulled it off to move the retention clips and then hammered the thing back into place with a mallet. Then it occurred to me that I had just fixed her car with a hammer, and that we should probably follow through with a plan before we’re forced to rely on a backup plan.

Once Summer left, I went to my parents’ house for some fish soup with them. We chatted for quite a while before I headed back home to try and get to sleep as quickly as possible. The new superintendent is coming to see the shop tomorrow, and I don’t know whether I’ll meet her or if I’ll be asked to disappear for the afternoon. I suppose I’ll at least brush my hair in case.

Something in the way, mmḿ?

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On Charting

Summer made a quick breakfast for us this morning, and then the girls spent the day working on school work and laundry. I wanted to go to a matinee to see Uncharted, but Summer was the only one that was really interested, which was perfect. She went to the gym, and then after showers we went across town for the movie.

I expected the theater to be pretty busy, and there were a lot of cars there, but our theater was mostly empty. Of course we had some people directly behind us with some loud candy wrappers, but they weren’t too obnoxious. The movie was entertaining enough, but wasn’t quite as charming as I had hoped. I’d never played any of the games before, but I assumed it would have Indiana Jones vibes.

After the movie, we ran by my house briefly to drop off sodas and pick up Summer’s replacement phone. Then it was back up to her place for the evening. When we got hungry, I pulled one of her gift steaks out and threw it on the grill. It turned out way more tender and juicy than I expected, which was a treat. It was a super quick meal with some instant mashed potatoes.

Everyone wound down pretty quickly, so I did a bit of shopping online. Then it was off to bed to prepare for a full week back at work after all the snow days.

This is my mag charger for my mag phone.

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Hot Ice

I woke up this morning and found myself to have quite a high blood pressure out of the blue. I’d gone several days without medication, so I was surprised to see it spike. I took some medicine and tried to chill out as I waited for the message that work would be closed due to the ice. I preferred Ben’s later policy that just said we were out of school was out, since at least then we would know well ahead of time. I felt bad for those that live further away and might have actually started the drive in before getting the call.

I never got up to much after that. I didn’t go back to sleep, though maybe I should have. I just sat around the entire day. I watched a little YouTube, played on my phone, and otherwise bounced around the house while constantly checking my blood pressure. At one point in the early afternoon, I started to doze off on the couch under the heated blanket.

The biggest thing I did all day was watch most of Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings. I just love that movie. That just about got me to sundown, so I wound everything up super early and went to bed.

Notivation

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Heavyweight Champion

This morning started out pretty rough after I weighed myself at my heaviest ever. Apparently everything is sticking to my bones now. I thought momentarily that the weight I lost with COVID would stay off, but I gained it all back and then some in record time.

We had a pretty quiet meeting at work, since Thomas was still hoarse and Zach was still out with COVID. Greg was out for his birthday, so Gary sent the others to do a trash pickup at their offices while he and I decommissioned the old domain controller. We ended up having to walk over to the server room to restart the thing, because a drive failure kept it from spinning back up on its own. Fortunately that was the most trouble we had out of it, and everything else went smoothly after we bypassed the warning message.

I had to leave a little before lunch to meet my parents for a call with an accountant. He did share some additional insight, but I wasn’t sure the whole conversation was really what we were looking for. Hopefully it at least motivates them to look into some insurance to protect their assets.

I ran through McDonald’s and Taco Bell for a cheap lunch, that actually totalled $1. Then I went back to the shop to eat and get back to work. I ran to Oakland for a little while before school let out, and eventually headed home to change for Dale’s father’s visitation.

I’ve never experienced anything like this, which was a tiny room with two doors. It was practically a drive-through. Gary eventually showed up so the two of us felt slightly less awkward not knowing anyone else. We watched the slideshow for a while, and eventually filtered out since Dale was constantly gabbing with friends and family coming in.

The girls go to the house a little while after I had changed back into some casual clothes, and we went to my parents’ house for mango soup. Mom also made some sweet potato and shrimp fried fritter things, and some fried rice. The girls really loved the fritters. We chatted for a little while after we ate, and then headed back home to watch a movie.

Eaddie didn’t want to join us, so I made popcorn for Summer and we watched Idiocracy. It wasn’t quite as profound, and was quite a bit more stupid than I was hoping. At least I can finally check it off of my watch list, since it’s been bouncing around for years. Then we watched an episode of Modern Family before Summer went to bed. I tinkered on YouTube a bit longer, and then headed to bed myself.

That’s a long tour. Somebody must’ve run out of money!

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Taco Subscription

I made myself stay up when I first woke up this morning, because I knew if I went back to sleep I wouldn’t wake up for several more hours. We struggled to get out of bed though, and finally got up when Summer went to work on her laptop. I eventually took a shower, and then we left to meet back up at her house after I picked up some Taco Bell for lunch.

I decided to try the $10 30-day taco subscription, since the Doritos Locos Taco Supreme was on the list of options. I figure I can eat $10 worth of those in a month without any trouble. I didn’t get a taco with the purchase of the pass though, so I’ll have to go through again another time to redeem my first one.

We ate, and then Summer went to the gym after she got her laundry started. I thought I’d play a game or something, but ended up piddling on my phone while intermittently letting the cat in and out of the house repeatedly. She just didn’t want to stay in one place, and I kept obliging her every whim.

When Summer finally got back, we met at Harbor Freight to shop for some deals. I finally got a longer level and a multi-tipped mallet, and she picked up a bunch of stuff for work. I warmed up some leftovers for dinner, and then we laid on the couch for the rest of the evening until bedtime.

Minimum effort!

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Fire and Ice and Smoke and Mirrors

We got up this morning and tried not to dawdle too long, because we wanted to smoke some ribs for as long as possible. It was snowing, but we didn’t expect it to snow for as long as it did. I don’t think it ever really stopped all day.

Our first stop was Walmart to pick up what we needed. I got a huge bag of mixed fruit wood pellets, which will last years if I only ever use them in the little A-Maze-N tube smoker I got. Then we had to go to Summer’s to get the ribs and some other things, and finally we headed back to my house to set up the grill with a new tank of propane.

The smoker pellets took better than I expected, even after I dumped them off of the grill while wrestling the propane tank onto its holder. We used some of Summer’s Larry the Cable Guy wild game rub she had stockpiled years ago, which proved to be a mistake. I used way too much, but we wouldn’t know that until we ate them.

The ribs smoked for about three or four hours before I covered them with some old leftover barbecue sauce and wrapped them in foil. Then I let them cook another hour or two while I baked potatoes and made some bacon. Summer made broccoli salad, and then we called it a day instead of making twice-baked potatoes.

It was still snowing big, fat flakes, but the roads were clear enough to get to my parents’ house. We ate and visited for just a little bit, and then headed back home to clean up. We only ate one rack of the ribs, and they were extremely salty. The rub was overpowering, so I couldn’t even really tell that it had a smokey flavor. It may help to eat the next rack with some plain rice to cut the seasoning.

As we settled in for the night, I got Summer to stay up late and watch The Prestige. I’d been wanting to watch it again for quite a while, so I was glad to check it off the list. Summer didn’t feel great for most of the evening, so we wound down pretty quickly and went to bed.

Are you watching closely?