Tag: Onewheel

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Good Buy Pizza Pie

I didn’t sleep terribly late today, and hand-ground some coffee for breakfast. The girls were both up pretty early, so Summer went to the gym and Eaddie did some cleaning before her evening plans for the Sadie’s dance. Julie texted asking to borrow a phone for Kevin after he ran his over with a lawnmower, so I spent much of the afternoon cleaning up my Galaxy S21 Ultra for them.

Once the phone was wiped, I took the dogs out for a run through the neighborhood. We stopped to see Mom, and then went up the hill and through Pinewood before making it back home. Then Julie and Kevin came over to get the phone, and I gave Julie an iPad Mini to use when she’s flying.

Summer and I hadn’t eaten all day, so I ordered some Domino’s and we went to pick it up together. They were super busy, so we ended up waiting in the parking lot for a while before I went in to get it. Then we took it to Mom to surprise her with dinner. We ate and then headed home for the evening.

Get to it.

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Dirt Doggers

I took it a little easier in to work today since I got out of the house on time. I was the first one in, and then Gary came through cursing Maggie because of some other miscommunication outside of our office. She actually walked in right after that, and they went to resolve that nonsense for the time being. After that, it was just the two of us in the office for most of the day, and I think that’s just how it’s going to be.

She really wanted to go to Texas Roadhouse for lunch since they had a special lunch menu, and they’re only open for lunch on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I would have preferred to go to Skinny J’s again for their $10 melt, but she wasn’t excited by that idea. I was disappointed in my chicken fried steak, which had white gravy that tasted super sweet for some reason. I was surprised at the size of the steak, but it was mostly breading. The chili was okay, but could have been warmer. Overall, I think I just don’t like their food as a company.

It was really tough to hang on the rest of the afternoon with Randy gone. I finished building a new virtual machine for our HVAC, but had to stop in the middle of the SQL server installation since I didn’t know what they’d actually need. Quitting time eventually rolled around, and I didn’t waste any time getting out of there.

I thought I’d stop by the old house first, but then I saw Kevin’s car at AT&T, and an otherwise empty parking lot, so I decided to stop in and chat. Nicole stopped me first for a hug, and I talked to Brandon for a bit as well. Kevin was consumed by a solitaire game on his iPad because business was so slow. This may be the beginning of the end for wireless retail.

We chatted for a while, and then Brandon offered some possum pie from Stoby’s. I had a slice of that, then walked with Kevin while he took out the trash before leaving. When I finally made it home, the Model Y was down to 5%, which I think was the lowest either of us had ever drained it.

I changed right away and then took the dogs out for a really good run. We stopped to visit with Mom, and then went around the basin. There was another lady walking ahead of us, so we diverted and went to the back side by the remaining pond. I let the dogs trudge through the mud there, and Muad’Dib was surprisingly excited by it. Stilgar sunk down like an alligator, and when I pulled them out, Muad’Dib got the zoomies. Not just the zoomies, but the jumpies and rollies too. He would take off running and then dive into the ground and roll. He was like that for basically the rest of the run. As we got up to the last straight stretch home, they both took off in a sprint, and we made it up the hill.

Once I had things cleaned up, I gave them a hot dog and fed them some food. I was pretty exhausted just from the week of little sleep, so I jumped straight on the computer to hammer out a blog entry, and then it was off to bed.

Christmas in the Amazon

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Handy Dandy NotebookLM

I read an article this morning about NotebookLM that made me take another look. The AI voices were incredible, and I’d heard tale of “breathing” in other applications. I drove to work and forgot about it for a while, as I mostly looked for work to be done. Randy and I went to Skinny J’s to meet Ben for lunch, and they had their shrimp pasta on special for less than half price. I also got their “Reuben eggrolls” appetizer, which somehow got to us after our main course again, just to sample both sides of my heritage at once. They were delicious, as was the pasta, and I think I can make them at home without too much trouble.

We visited for a while, and then headed back to the office. I was left to my own devices again, so I circled back to NotebookLM and plugged in my blog to see what I would get. It was pretty amazing to hear two podcast-format hosts talk about me. It didn’t get everything right, and it clearly made some things up entirely, but overall it was super impressive.

After work, it was a slow drive home due to slow traffic nearly the entire way. I immediately took the dogs out for a long walk on an extended route. Then I unboxed some more Amazon Vine stuff before winding down for bed.

AIpitaph

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Cafeteria Dumplings

I actually made it to work about a minute early today, which meant I was the first one in the building. I continued rearranging devices in PRTG, and helped Randy with anything that he had going on. After a little while, he took me to the annex to hunt down some old cameras to try and repurpose them for a classroom. I grabbed a few things from scrap there, and then we headed back to the office.

I was super excited that we had ice and water back again, so I stayed hydrated today. I ate an old, giant cheesecake that had been in the fridge a while, and then we had to get on a conference call with Acer to hear about their Chromebooks. Afterward, Maggie and I went to Cracker Barrel for lunch, where the food was good, but the service was awful. I don’t know if she was overwhelmed, or just bad at her job, but we had actually finished our food before we even got our appetizer.

The afternoon was super relaxed as well. Randy left a little early, and then Maggie left, and even I left a few minutes early so I could be home in time for the dinner that Summer was making. It was some kind of shredded chicken, spinach, and mushroom cooked in canned soup or something, which we ate over rice. It tasted a little bit like the dumplings I had, but mostly reminded me of cafeteria food.

After we ate, I took the dogs out for a longer run to my parents’ house, and then through the basin. They were really good again, so once we got back to the house, I broke up a hot dog for them, which they absolutely loved. Summer also made cake, so we ate some of that before getting cleaned up for the night. Eli was there for dinner and helped Eaddie finish her musical instrument project. Once everyone else was wound down, I made my way to bed earlier than usual.

Biscuits and cornbread!

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Do Not Be Alarmed

I was a little late to work today, but I passed Randy along the way, and he was groggy anyway. Strangely enough, I’ve got the hour drive to wake up, so I arrive all bushy-tailed. Nobody jumped into anything right away, but I poked at PRTG some more. Then I got an email reminder from Ben that he was leading an APSRC call, so I hopped on that to listen in. It was all the same stuff that everyone has been screaming at us for years, but evidently a lot of people don’t even know their districts are members of the APSRC, so they wanted to highlight themselves as a resource.

Time flew by pretty quickly, and we went to Cotham’s for lunch. I almost can’t resist the hubcap burger there. I could normally take or leave a burger at a restaurant, just because I can make one at home for a fraction of the price, but there’s something special about the hubcap.

As we left, a girl came up to me to say that she had hit the Tesla. I hate that the alarm notification on my phone sounds exactly like every other notification, so I didn’t even realize something was wrong. I got out to look, and sure enough, she left a big, black streak across the front driver-side corner. We exchanged insurance information and phone numbers, and then Jim guided me back to the office “the slow way.” It was interesting to see some of those quieter roads that I’d never really traveled before, and to see how they connect to the places that I had.

The afternoon went by quickly as well. I took a bunch of pictures and filed an insurance claim. Otherwise it was almost more social than work until quitting time. I headed straight to the old house to get some things, then stopped by Superfast to show Summer the damage to her car. It wasn’t awful, but there may be some broken clips where the bottom of the bumper is out of place slightly.

On the way home, Mom called and offered bún thang, so we dropped the Tesla off to charge and then I drove Summer over there to eat. The soup was still frozen, so Dad took me outside to fly the DJI FPV. He said he had flown it up high over our house and up the mountain to John’s, so I took it up towards our house and lost the signal. It came back though, and we recovered it without any trouble. I got it up to just over 60mph and buzzed overhead before circling around and landing a couple times.

Summer was inside finishing up some work on her laptop. I helped assemble bowls and we ate quickly so I could get home to run the dogs. Eli was still there helping Eaddie with a project. Summer got ready for bed, and I took the dogs out for a run in the dark. Stilgar was significantly more rambunxious, but we made it back home alive. The kids finished up, and I did my best to make it to bed for as close to seven hours of sleep as I could.

I just… I have to have my few minutes in the bed watching my show.

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Not My Band

I was the first one up this morning, but Summer was right behind me. I made some coffee for us, and then we cleaned up a bit more while Eaddie left for church with Eli. She wanted us to go to a Tech Symphonic Wind Ensemble concert in the afternoon, and we had some other errands to run as well, so Summer and I got ready to go by the time she got back.

Our first stop was Diana’s for the open house. We met her realtor, who knew us by name, and we got to show Eaddie the house. There wasn’t anyone else around, and we weren’t sure it was going to be very popular based on the location. Diana saw us on camera and made a comment about my Eagles shirt, and then we were off to Tech for the concert.

It was a long, but good show. I enjoyed the songs more than I typically do, but at this point I hate going to high school band concerts. It’s always way better going to the competitive ones that Eaddie is a part of. She had to stay for practice in the youth ensemble afterward, so Summer and I left her to go get dinner at Mulan’s. Then we went to Walmart for a few more things, Zaxby’s to get some food for Eaddie, and finally Casey’s for free coffee day before making it back home.

The sun was going down quickly, so I left the girls to go get gas while I ran the dogs. We went a bit backwards from our usual route, ending up at my parents’ house to visit with Dad briefly before coming back home. We settled in quickly, and it’s back to working sleep deprivation for me.

Imagine complaining about communism at a Chinese buffet.

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Pizza and Dogs

I woke up around one or two in the morning to the dogs going absolutely berzerk right outside the bedroom, so I yelled at them through the side door. They would run into my line of sight, and then immediately run away again, so I had to grab a flashlight and follow them to see what all the commotion was about. In the distance, I could see two glowing eyes of a medium-sized possum, terrified and motionless as they barked at it. I shooed the dogs away and hoped it would scurry off, but it just sat there motionless. I ended up grabbing a shovel and scooping it up against the fence. It started to waddle a little bit, and climbed up the rabbit wire we placed to keep the dogs in, but it wouldn’t go any farther than that. I had to scoop it up and carry it out the front gate, where it slowly trundled off into the night.

Summer let me sleep in a while, and then I got up and started to pick up in the kitchen. I warmed up the leftover fried chicken for her so she could go out and mow the lawn, and then I took a shower so we could go to the store. I was craving Cici’s, so we went there to eat first. I thought the food was pretty good today. Afterward, we went to Walmart for a relatively big shopping trip, since we hadn’t been in a long time.

When we finally got back home, I took the dogs out for another good run. They were a bit more excitable than the past couple days, but they did alright. We stopped by my parents’ house, and then went up the hill again to get back home. They got some food, and then I came in to rewatch WandaVision with Summer until she was off to bed.

Roll back!

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Watchtower

The guys were socializing this morning while I tinkered around in SCCM. Then as I moved on to PDQ, we suddenly started having network issues. Randy and Kyle left for the core closet, where they later reported that some new equipment being installed caused a loopback. With that fixed in the late morning, things calmed down a bit.

Maggie and I went to Taziki’s for lunch in the mall, and the food was really good. She was super excited to have someone else that would eat there, because evidently the old men in the group always want pizza and barbecue. I love being able to go to all these new places for lunch.

The afternoon was a bit more casual and quiet. Randy came back and chatted with us for a bit, and the morning’s antics inspired me to finish setting up a PRTG server to monitor our network and servers. I didn’t even realize how quickly time had passed, and I had to jump up and leave as Jay walked out.

Eaddie had parent/teacher conferences today, but Summer left work to attend them early. I got home just as Eaddie arrived with some little hockey pucks from Little Caesar’s. We ate a mix of that and some leftovers, and then I took the dogs for another really great run. I don’t know if it’s the weather, or maybe the repetition is finally paying off, but they’ve been super well-behaved. We stopped to visit with my parents, then continued up the hill and back home. I gave them some good pets and treats, and finally Summer and I watched some more TV before bed.

Coco for Cuckoo Puffs!

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Doggy Paddle

I got up pretty early this morning, but things went pretty slowly after that. The girls eventually got up, and Eaddie left for church with Eli. I made a “grilled cheese bacon, egg, and cheese” sandwich out of some frozen grilled cheeses and leftover bacon that I found. Then Summer and I wanted to take the dogs to the lake to see how they’d like the water.

We waited around for Eaddie to get home in the afternoon, and we loaded everyone up to go to the marina. We walked around a little bit at first, and the dogs had to run around sniffing everything. Then, as we predicted, Stilgar dove right into the water. Muad’Dib was a little slower, but eventually did get all the way in on the boat ramp. Stilgar would have tried to swim to the other side of the lake if he hadn’t been on the leash. We let them run around to play, and I even let Muad’Dib off of his leash for a little bit. I wasn’t quite confident in Stilgar’s recall to let him go, but he stayed on the long leash.

After we had enough of the water, I rode them around the loop on my Onewheel to dry off. We encountered a persimmon tree right by the road, and they absolutely loved those. I had one off of the ground, and it was pretty sweet. I tried not to let them eat too many of them though, for fear that some of the seeds would get stuck coming out.

We made a couple loops, and then Stilgar passed something bright orange. I thought maybe the persimmons had just gone through him that quickly, but when I picked it up, it seemed really hard. I couldn’t tell what it was, and I wasn’t willing to dig through the poop to figure it out. We finished our loop and packed everyone in to go home.

The dogs got fed as soon as we got back, and then they were pooped out. I went and got some KFC for the rest of us, and then the girls retreated to their televisions. I took a late shower and wound down pretty quickly. It was a fun day, but the weekends feel particularly short now.

Three months of driving…

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Armadillo Eggs and Other Nonsense

I ran a little behind to work after having to clean up some more puke from Stilgar. He seemed to be feeling better this morning though, so the worry was over. I still managed to get into the office before anyone else by more than 10 minutes, but apparently they were socializing outside before work. I just continued working on group policies all day.

NextStep took us out for lunch to a place called DRAFT + TABLE, which was excellent. They had an appetizer called Armadillo Eggs, which were “fresh jalapeños grilled, stuffed with cream cheese, wrapped in our sausage and cheese breading, and baked until golden and crispy, served with our signature blackberry cream sauce.” They were much larger than I expected, and absolutely delicious. Then I had their pastrami reuben, which was also much larger than I expected. Both it and the fries were amazing. Finally, their “banana pudding” was a gelatinous atrocity. It was served in a ceramic dish, similar to their crème brûlée, and it looked strange from the start. The “pudding” was a thin layer of appropriately colored gelatin that was so hard, it wanted to jump out of the dish. In fact, a square slice of Maggie’s made it down to the floor from our high table, and didn’t lose a bit of its shape. Zero out of five stars.

The rest of the afternoon was more of the same until quitting time. Traffic was awful on the drive home, but at least it was steady and fast. They need a bullet train that just runs down the Interstate. I got home and immediately took the dogs out for a run. Dad had checked on them midday and said they both seemed fine, and indeed we ran for nearly the entire loop of the neighborhood. We stopped to see Dad briefly, then went the long way around the basin trail, zig-zagging through the neighborhood to get home. Some lady saw me and felt compelled to record me on her phone while she drove slowly behind me in her car, hanging out of her window. It was super awkward, and I thought this must be what celebrity feels like.

Eaddie was out late again, and I managed to get to bed close to my planned time after catching up with Travis a bit. I don’t know what prompted him to reach out again, but it didn’t seem like much had changed. I just wish he would get over his anxiety and go outside some more.

No more nonsense.