Tag: movie

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The Clown Who Juggles

I woke up to an unexpected notification for a hard credit inquiry, which got me heated. I was under the impression that the pre-qualification for a mortgage loan would only be a soft inquiry, so having two banks check had me in a panic. That may have been premature though, as I later read that if they fall within a certain timeframe, only one will count against me for the actual loan we take.

From then, I continued to be bombarded with new information. I got two interviews scheduled for the next two days, and I very nearly had to go pick up Gary from Little Rock. Fortunately his parents warmed up to the idea of getting him themselves, because then Summer needed to take some supplies to Fort Smith in the afternoon.

I made it home to get cleaned up before Autumn’s military signing luncheon, all while communicating with loan officers. Then while we were at the luncheon in the Black Box, Alisha texted to let me know there was another verbal offer on the table, which got me in a rush to complete our loan application. The lunch itself was some pretty decent barbecue for free. The national anthem was played by a singular, laughably bad trumpet player. I got the feeling he should have been significantly better, but he must have gotten choked. It did feel very fitting to be as bad as it was for Autumn, who happened to also have zero support from the Navy. She ended up inviting the librarian and getting her boyfriend out of class to come sit at our table.

On the way out, Jeff stopped to talk to me and ask how things were going. I wished I had recorded the conversation just to have a record of him saying how gut-wrenching it was to watch them terminate me. We immediately went to get Summer’s car and load it up with a big box of towels from the wash, and then we were off to Fort Smith.

I spent the entire drive going back and forth with Alisha, and responding to the loan officers. We have no idea what the other offer is, or if ours will be laughed off. It’s difficult to keep from doing too much with buyers’ anxiety, especially now that our credit has been hit. We weren’t in a rush to purchase a house, but we liked this one enough to go through the paperwork. If it doesn’t work out, I don’t know if this will screw our credit for the next time, if we don’t find a place soon enough.

We made it to Fort Smith by way of Highway 22. It aggravated Summer to drive so slowly, but the whole roundtrip was only about 20 minutes slower than the interstate, but 10 miles shorter. That’s assuming we wouldn’t have hit traffic in the construction zones on the interstate. On top of that, we saved quite a bit of battery power going so much slower. She ended up talking to their quirky shift lead Viking for a while, so by the time we made it back home it was too late for her to go back to Superfast to close the shop. We stopped to get Eaddie, and then we got her car on the fast charger before they headed home.

I took my car to the wash for a thorough cleaning, then stopped by Casey’s for a couple drinks before making it up to Summer’s for the evening. I cleaned up some Popeyes they brought home, Autumn left for a multi-hour signing and awards event at the high school, and I took a call from Donna, who had questions as a challenger in the school board election. I got some possibly-useful information from her on who might be able to help my case. I don’t know if she got anything useful from me. I certainly don’t have any time to go out campaigning, and I’ll be lucky if I remember to go out to vote in the morning.

Eaddie and I wrapped up the evening with El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie. I thought it was a decent, if not unnecessary sendoff for Jesse. It did run a bit long, and brought in some unnecessary new characters, but it was an okay story. I think Better Call Saul will probably be better.

Seriously, a kazoo would have been better.

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I am Groot

The girls didn’t seem to feel great this morning, but we had to get to Little Rock for our movie. I went home to shower and then came back to pick them up. Neither of them were very hungry yet, so we decided to stop in and see Gary first. Eaddie waited in the car while Summer and I went into the rehab clinic, only to learn that we’d have to make our way over to the main hospital where he had been since surgery the day before.

We chatted for a while through his pain. It was probably the worst I’d seen him yet, but even then he was still in pretty good spirits. I had hoped he might stick around the hospital a while longer, but he seemed to really want to go home the next day.

From there, we went straight to the Promenade to try and find some food before our movie. Unfortunately we only had about an hour to kill, and both Big Orange and Local Lime had long wait times. I was surprised, because it was already well into the afternoon. We ended up going to Maggie Moo’s for some ice cream instead, but that made the girls feel even worse without any real food in their bellies. We ended up going to McDonald’s to split a snack combo I found in the app.

We made it to our movie with plenty of time, and I was surprised again at how empty the theater was for opening weekend. I just can’t believe 3D is so unpopular. It makes all the difference in the world to me. On the other hand, maybe the 2D showings are just as sparse. I wouldn’t know, because I always go the premium route whenever possible.

I kind of expected the movie to have some back story for some of the characters, but I absolutely didn’t expect any of what we saw. It started off on an emotional tone, and then immediately jumped right into heavy action. There were several parts where I got a little bored, or at least physically uncomfortable or restless due to my seat. Then the heavy emotional scenes hit, and it made the whole movie a lot better for me. It definitely felt different than anything we’d seen before though.

After the movie, I convinced the girls to stop for some food. we tried a place called Ocean’s At Arthurs, but Summer didn’t want to get out of the car after she saw that they had valet parking. I would have given it a try anyway, but it really might have been upscale enough that we’d look pretty rough going in. We ended up at a hole in the wall called Lazy Pete’s Fish and Shrimp instead, and the food was awesome. It didn’t look like much at all, but it really was great.

We made it back home and I let Summer take the Murano to her house while Eaddie decided whether she still wanted to go to the hot air balloon show. She ultimately decided against it, so I took Summer’s car to the wash and then we headed home for the night. The girls both went to bed, so I laid down with Summer for a bit. That was when I got a sudden surprise call from Mitch, who said he was coming to Little Rock via a “MEGABUS.” We only talked briefly since he was going to be on the bus for the next six or so hours, and I got to bed.

I am Groot!

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It’s-A Me, Appropriation!

Eaddie wanted me to take her to school this morning so she could just avoid Autumn entirely. After I dropped her off, I went home and tried not to be a sack of potatoes. I had a bowl of cereal again, and tried to get in touch with a lawyer again.

Summer wanted some coffee, so after I took a shower, I headed to McDonald’s to get her one. The app had trouble switching my order from drive-through to curbside though, so I ended up having to go in to retrieve my order. I hung out with Summer just briefly at Superfast before heading down to Arby’s to take some cheap lunch home. Then I messed around with a state application for another job for quite a while.

When school let out, Autumn called to ask if Eaddie could hang out with some friends. Confused by the fact that it wasn’t Eaddie who was asking for permission, I called to get her side of the story. After a minimal amount of back and forth, Eaddie decided she would just come over and eventually ride her bike, and Autumn would bring her so she could kill some time until Adam was done doing whatever he was doing.

Steven stopped by for some money after mowing the lawn, and I wasn’t completely sure what arrangement he had with Bác Vân, so I gave him the 40 bucks he asked for. Later on I was able to corner her, and she said she had agreed to $60 per month for him to mow every other week, and wanted to add on my lawn for just a little more. She acted like they had already overpaid him, but to hear him say it, he was expecting more. The whole thing just left me feeling icky, and I’d already dealt with a lawyer once this week.

Eaddie and I watched an episode of Breaking Bad, and then she left on her bike. She was out quite a bit later than I expected, so we didn’t pick up Summer and make it to Conway in time to shop at all. We barely squeezed into the Chinese restaurant in time to eat, because they were trying to close shop. We stuffed our faces and then went next door to watch The Super Mario Bros. Movie, which I thought was fair, but mostly fan service.

We headed straight home after the movie, squeezing in just after midnight. Summer was already fussy from being up so late, and Eaddie went straight to bed. I tried not to stay up too late, but my stomach was a bit gurgly.

Worth it.

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Y Not

I set an alarm this morning, but I still woke up way before it went off and couldn’t go back to sleep. We eventually got around to breakfast, but found pickings to be pretty slim. We knew the hotel was sold out, but it really seemed like they just didn’t have the staff to keep up. Even the front desk was covered by the same girl that checked us in 11 hours earlier, though I did overhear that she had a chance to go home for a “quick power nap.”

Afterward, we headed back up to the room to clean up and check out. We made it to the theater about an hour early, so Summer wanted to check out Shoe Carnival. After a bit, I spotted a pair of shoes that was marked down that she liked. Then we made our way to the AMC.

We had to wait a bit for the preordered snacks, but then we made our way into what I thought was going to be a smaller theater, but it was still quite big. I’ve got to remember that proper large cities just have nicer theaters all around. Even the small screens are great. We watched Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves in Dolby, and aside from being too loud, I thought the movie was fantastic. We did have a funny moment in the middle where the movie stopped and then skipped back a few seconds. The whole crowd started cracking jokes, so it was a good time. I was happy to have time for a bathroom break anyway.

After the movie, we headed back to Tesla to get my car and head home. I was hoping to charge there enough to make it halfway, but we ended up supercharging twice instead. We stopped in Nevada first, and then again in Lowell. Once we made it to the Workman’s in Lowell, we decided to charge all the way up and then power home. I ate Summer’s leftover burger in the parking lot and then went back in to wash and get a drink. While waiting to pay, one of the girls asked if that was all I had, and then just told me to get outta there. I told her we were waiting to charge, and she kind of smirked that we were some of “those” guys.

We made it back home as quickly as possible, stopping to wash the bugs off before going home. Then we dropped the Y off at my house, loaded everything into the 3, and headed up to Summer’s. Autumn wanted to stay with her grandparents, so Eaddie was excitedly waiting for us to get back. She and Summer chatted while I finished up my evening routines, and then it was off to sleep.

Wanna stick around for an encore?

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Better Than Rock

Summer took Autumn to the gym this morning while I cleaned up some corned beef with Eaddie. Once they made it back, I headed home to clean up so Summer and I could go to the movies. Eaddie wanted to ride her bike, so Summer brought her over to do that while we were out. Bác Vân also had some kind of nut bread and a couple bánh bao for me.

When we got to the movies, we learned that Shazam! Fury of the Gods was showing in one of the tiny auditoriums for that showing, so we had to kill an hour before coming back at four. We ended up going back to get the Tesla, and then washed it before going for a drive around town. We made it up north, and then around to the marina before finally ending back up at UEC.

We were the only two people in Auditorium 5, which was awesome, but also kind of depressing for how much we really enjoyed the movie. I have no idea why it got such a bad rap, because we thought it was really solid story, and a great family flick.

Eaddie just barely beat us home after riding all around town, and we took her to BFD for dinner and ice cream. They were super busy, and the service and food were both actually really good this time. It always seems like lunch is really hit-or-miss, but dinner was great. We all got our fill.

Once we got back to the house, the girls headed home. Autumn had gone to Adam’s for dinner, but then got herself into trouble again for generally being awful and changing up her story to fit whatever she wanted to do. When I tried to head up to their house, the Pathfinder wouldn’t start. I tried poking around under the hood, but couldn’t tell much. It just acted like it was completely out of gas, but it appeared to have half a tank and drove fine earlier in the day.

I poked around a bit at my house for a while, and eventually just took the Model 3 up to the girls, who all appeared to have been in bed for a while before I got there. I was a bit restless again, but tried to go to bed before midnight.

What an absolute lack of previews.

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And Then What Are You Going to Do?

I made ham, egg, and cheese bagels for breakfast this morning. Then I spent some time researching law and combining cell phone plans. Three of us are finally on one plan together, which means we all get unlimited data on Fi for less than our individual plans. I’ve been stingy with my data for over five years, so this has the potential to be life-changing.

Summer made it to the gym and back while I tinkered. I already had fresh clothes, so I showered in what little hot water was left after hers instead of going home. I talked her into going to Little Rock with me to see the new Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania in IMAX, so we stopped for gas, and then I swapped cars and picked her up. Autumn had homework to finish, and Eaddie didn’t have any interest in a completely-CGI film that required too much suspense of disbelief.

As we neared Little Rock, Summer found a Mediterranean place called Al Seraj for us to eat. It was more of a deli in a tiny market store, and they were more or less empty other than a couple groups of people coming through to shop. The food was great though, and the guy said they have a buffet throughout the week. I think that’d be pretty awesome.

We made it to the theater in plenty of time, though it was pretty dead too. I thought the movie was really good, with plenty of laughs and a few surprises. It did a fine job of setting up the next phase.

Afterward, we drove straight home except for a stop in Atkins to let Summer drive. She said autopilot hadn’t worked for her, and I forgot you had to enable it in the settings. I didn’t realize it until we were on the road again, but the car had to be in park to change the setting, so she stopped again in Pottsville, and then tried autopilot for the last couple miles home.

I dropped her off at home, and then went to Cogswell to try and find their EV charger. I was hoping it would give me a big boost, but after hanging out for nearly an hour, I only charged about 7%. At that point, I decided I should head home to clean up before making it back to Summer’s.

Autumn still hadn’t finished her homework, even after bargaining to go to Clarksville overnight, and even asking to go to Fort Smith this morning. She failed to get it done at the study session with Jennifer at the mall, so we tried to motivate her to finish before bed. Summer and Eaddie went to bed, and I laid down to compose some thoughts before getting back up to finish my nightly routine.

Win.

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By the Numbers

Eaddie woke me up this morning so I could drop her off at the bus yard for her trip to Searcy for National History Day. I felt overwhelmingly exhausted when I got home, just from fighting the same argument in my head over and over again.

Summer and I eventually got up for some cereal for breakfast, which was fun for me. I took it really light on the milk, but I’ve been thinking I should really look into a substitute so I don’t end up feeling sick later in the day. We didn’t get up to anything else all day. Summer started on her paint-by-number. Autumn eventually came out of her room and wanted to go to her father’s for the night. We had her start on making up some homework first, and eventually let her go.

I kept trying to doze off until I finally started Ant-Man, and then Ant-Man and the Wasp. We were only a few minutes into the second movie when I had to leave to get Eaddie. I talked to Aimee for a bit in the parking lot, and then we took one of Eaddie’s friends home before going home ourselves. We finished the movie, and eventually everyone went to sleep.

Fight or Flight

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If You Can’t Get Out of It, Get Into It!

The girls were sleeping peacefully this morning, so I let them sleep in as late as they could. I picked them up in time to make it to Little Rock, and the Model 3 did much better with navigation on autopilot during the day. I was hopeful that there might have been improvements overall, but the evening drive home proved otherwise. It seemed the daylight made all the difference.

Avatar: The Way of Water was great in IMAX 3D, and was fortunately loud enough to drown out the nonsense in the crowd of people around us. Some idiot came to sit next to Eaddie, and then left a colossal mess behind when he left. I was a bit surprised to see so many people there, but I guess Avatar has been a success.

After nearly four hours, we made our way out and across town to Star of India for dinner. They wouldn’t be open for about an hour, so we went around the block to Michaels, and then Office Depot for lack of a better option. The parking lot creeped me out a bit, with all of the mental illness creeping around. We made it out without incident though, and made it to dinner.

The trip home was more stressful than it should have been. I don’t know what all the traffic was for, but there were idiots everywhere. Fortunately, we made it home without too much trouble. I dropped the girls off before swapping vehicles, and then met Summer at Shell to get some discount gas.

Everyone was off to bed pretty quickly once we got home. I had been up for much longer than the girls, so I was pretty tired myself.

The sea gives, and the sea takes.

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No Fear, But Stupid

Summer made sausage, eggs, and biscuits for breakfast this morning before heading out to the gym. I had a slow start, but eventually made it home to clean up while she and Eaddie went out shopping. When they finished, they wanted to go out to eat to Chili’s, so they picked me up and we ate in a surprisingly busy restaurant.

After we ate, we went through Walmart and they had more fun going through the Christmas clearance than I ever do. They loaded up a whole cart full of stuff before we made it back to my house for the evening.

I put on the first Avatar so we could refresh ourselves before seeing the sequel tomorrow. The girls didn’t waste any time getting to bed after that. I struggled a bit, but made it there before too long.

Pandora’s Farts

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“Violent” Is in the Title

I was sent on a quest to Walmart this morning, so Summer could go to the gym and still have time to bake a ham for the Superfast Christmas potluck this afternoon. The light bulb aisle was frustratingly unorganized, and the choices weren’t really very good for a simple spherical vanity bulb. All of them had labels printed on the top, and weren’t frosted very evenly. I got what we needed though, and then made my way across the store for some foil and wax paper. I had to get help from an employee to climb up and fetch some wider rolls of foil, but I caught the case I wanted, to keep it from crushing her.

When I got back to the house, I took Eaddie to my parents’ house for bánh mì for lunch. Summer finished up the ham and went to the Secret Santa potluck while we were gone, and we all got back to the house around the same time.

Summer wanted to go see Violent Night, which shocked Eaddie and me a bit. Autumn didn’t want to go, citing “homework” while she spent all morning in front of the TV. My parents met us at the theater, and decided to join us instead of watching Wakanda Forever. I think Dad expected more humor than ultraviolence, but I thought the movie was great. The dialog was a little overly vulgar for me, but the violence was over-the-top enough to be humorous at times. Summer didn’t expect it to be so gory or violent, but we had to remind her it was in the title.

When we got back to the house, Eaddie wanted to make Oreo balls. Autumn immediately disappeared to her room, except to come out and gripe about laundry. Eaddie had also been trying to get video games going on their desktop computer all day, but never had much luck. I guess kids these days are just in the habit of using their school emails, and repeatedly make new personal email accounts any time they need one for something. I can’t relate, but we’ll need her to come up with a permanent one for many things in the near future.

Everyone made it to bed relatively early. With a band concert and up to three more Christmas parties, this week will be busy. I’m glad I’m not actually doing anything important for the holidays.

What kids have become, they are little junkies. They’re little shits!