Slippery Dippery

We had some makeup testing today, so I didn’t feel super comfortable changing any more network configurations. I wasn’t super motivated to do anything at all, really. Kim wasn’t particularly useful, and Denice had guests in her closed office all day. I just passed the time. Slowly. With ham rollups for lunch.

I went straight home after work because Summer had dinner going. Eaddie and Eli were watching the new Cinderella movie while Summer barbecued chicken quarters. It was a nice dinner, but the chicken and green beans were both undercooked, and the potato salad was bland. I really don’t think she tries any of the food as she’s cooking, and then just sits down with everyone else at the table to find out for the first time how it tastes.

I put the larger pieces of chicken back on the grill and ate what I could, but I think I was hungrier after I ate than before I started. The kids left, and I went out on the Onewheel for a little while. My parents weren’t home, so I continued around to Ridgewood to see Grant for a minute.

Afterward, I floated through the neighborhood for a new path back home and thought I’d try the Waco Detention Basin Trail, which may not have been a path back at all. It also wasn’t dry. It was dark and completely unlit, and there was a layer of silt that I couldn’t see over the concrete trail. I narrowly escaped going down to the ground, but got a streak of mud up my jeans. I backtracked up to the road and made it home, but then rode over to my parents’ house to borrow a rat trap.

What I thought was a mouse yesterday looked a bit bigger on camera today, so I brought two larger traps home. I set them with some peanut butter, along with the little jar trap, and hoped I could catch something overnight. Summer was working late, but then I upset her with my own airing of grievances as she went to bed. I stayed up and did my load of laundry, periodically stepping out to listen to the rain.

bberry

Idiotecha

I was in a rush this morning, so when Summer came into the bathroom and startled me, I stabbed myself in the eye with my toothbrush. It was seven kinds of painful, but there didn’t appear to be any major damage. I got to work on time in spite of the dummies in front of me, and I poked at my switches some more. That’s when things took a turn for the worst. Something at the elementary is causing trouble upstream, and I’m pretty sure it’s a rogue DHCP server.

Summer came to talk to some students at our reverse job fair, and then had lunch with us. Then I spent the rest of the afternoon trying to fix what I had broken. With Kim’s help, we reset things in the right order to get them going again.

After work, I fed the fish and got a few more things before making it home to ride the Onewheel. I stopped by my parents’ house briefly, and then went back toward Ridgewood. I rode by Mollie’s house and saw Craig outside mowing the lawn, so I texted her and stopped to chat briefly before finally circling around the restaurant.

I didn’t see anyone I knew, so I left straight away and rode a little ways up the bike trail. There was a neat little intersection with signage for different local destinations. When I finally got back home, I ate some leftovers and then settled in for the night.

Dis

Downtime, Downtown

I was actually early for work today, but I got a text from Kim just as I was pulling in that the internet was down. I spent the entire day trying to get the switches to respond again, and nearly overheated in the server room. I had to take a break for lunch, but ended up there again at the end of the day. I installed a pretty big upgrade on the Ubiquiti controller, which I had been saving for some downtime. Forced downtime won, but I couldn’t tell if the upgrade actually helped or not. I had Kim call DIS to try and get some help, but as soon as she got to an agent, she handed the phone to me, not even waiting long enough to hear that the poor girl couldn’t troubleshoot, and would only be submitting a ticket for us.

I eventually got the switches back online after school let out, and then I got into some fast traffic to get home quickly. Robert called from DIS, and we scheduled a call for the morning to check for the cause of the day’s outage. I fed the fish and grabbed a couple things, and then ran home to get the Onewheel.

Dad wanted to know if anyone wanted to go out for my birthday, so I rode the Onewheel across town to the carwash to find Summer. Along the way, I spotted a couple girls at James Park that looked like they stepped straight off the streets of Grand Theft Auto. Then I crossed the tracks and rode through the Superfast lot before crossing the street and coming into the back side of the wash.

Summer was slow to leave work, and was back and forth on whether she wanted to eat. In the end, Mom wanted New China, and the two of us met them there.

I thought about riding the Onewheel home after that, but Summer made a B-line for the passenger seat again. I drove us home, and settled down pretty quickly after a tough day.

Did I just get catcalled by a daywalking prostitute?

Bringing It Down

I woke up fairly early this morning and made French press coffee for Summer and myself. I’m excited to try out the new grinder, because I’ve always had coffee that was too fine for pressing and left a lot of sediment. It just feels dusty.

Summer went to the gym, and then both girls went shopping while I was in the shower. It was pretty clear we weren’t moving anything else again, and I don’t know why I ever think anyone is going with me. I ended up taking the Onewheel out to my parents’ house for a bit, and then back over to the Neighborhood Market to drop off some recycling.

Summer was in her feelings for most of the day, and wanted to make dinner alone. I guess Eaddie wanted some kind of chicken alfredo lasagna, but Summer made it with a rotisserie chicken from Walmart. Eaddie had Eli over, but didn’t even wait for him to arrive before making a plate.

I did laundry, but overall it’s just another wasted weekend.

Hue’ve gotta be kidding.

Dam Skate Park

Summer went to the gym and Eaddie went to a robotics tournament today. A little after Summer got back, we decided to go to Old Post so she could practice the Onewheel on level ground. She did really well, and got to turn around in the road and ride around on the sidewalk a little bit. On the way back home, we stopped at the Neighborhood Market for some brats and fries for a late lunch or early dinner.

Eaddie got home from robotics and wanted to go out on her bicycle. I fried and grilled some food, and then went out on the Onewheel myself for a bit as it got dark. I tried stopping by Ridgewood to see Grant, but they were busy and I didn’t want to be a bother.

Summer and I watched Modern Family when I got back, and Eli came over to hang out while Eaddie made brownies. Everyone went to bed at pretty reasonable times except me. For some reason I just kept getting sucked into time-wasting.

Woah, again!

Gummy Victory

It’s ironic how running a little late can sometimes result in a modified routine that lands me at work a little earlier than usual. A lack of traffic helped. Kim was out to take one of the kids to get a tooth pulled, so Denice and I were the only two in the office all day. That meant a wild mix of tunes and some real focus time in SCCM. Accordingly, I had great success after learning that you can’t join a computer in OSD to the default OU. This stuff is probably documented somewhere, but I don’t understand any of the reasoning behind any of it. You just have to know it’s that way because the way it is.

I continued to suck down hot tea and honey, knowing I couldn’t possibly beat the success I’d had in the morning. I could have just left for the remainder of the week after that. I tinkered with Software Center and made a deployment for Microsoft Office, which went way better than the time I did it at RSD. I ended up leaving close to quitting time and then getting stuck behind idiots the rest of the entire evening any time I drove anywhere. I seriously had better luck everywhere on the Onewheel.

Once I got back to town, I loaded a bunch of stuff into my car and headed home. Eaddie was helping with the junior high concert and Summer was late coming home from Greenbrier, so I went out on the Onewheel until she got home. I didn’t realize she was going to be so tired or fed after work, otherwise I would have eaten earlier.

I picked up some tacos, and then redeemed a $0.95 single-topping mini sundae from Freddy’s. For some reason they saw it fit to expire my birthday coupon a full week before my birthday. The app experience and the customer service were both poor enough to warrant a review. I topped the thing with some more goodies once I got home.

Eaddie eventually made it home and started working on some school work with Summer. Our ceiling fan remote died and Eaddie wanted some more strawberries, so I took the Onewheel out again well after dark and grabbed what we needed from the Neighborhood Market. Summer is going to be hot, but I’m loving riding this time of year. Maybe I should move to California.

If I had a nickel for every time I thought something was working correctly, I could almost afford a stick of gum.

Teenager Berries

I took some guaifenesin last night to dry up the crud in my chest, and it seemed to work pretty well. I woke up early and then dozed off a bit after Summer got out of bed. She went to the gym and Eaddie went to a band thing at Tech, so I got around to some coffee and eventually a shower.

Summer wanted to clean house a bit and then cook fajitas for dinner, so we went to the Neighborhood market to get groceries. I cleaned and cut up strawberries for shortcakes when we got back, and some of the berries had seeds with leaves on them. One of them in particular reminded me of a patchy high schooler’s beard, or a transition gone awry. I left it out to sprout and see if we could get any strawberry plants out of it.

Once Summer got the shortcake into the oven, we went outside so she could try riding around on the Onewheel. She got her first few falls and scrapes out of the way, but overall did a great job of moving slowly down the road and making turns. I just kept emphasizing that it was better to bail early than try and ride it out when you’re just getting started, because skill at bailing, running it out, or even falling is just as important as skill at riding.

Eaddie eventually made it home after also going to my parents’ house to rake some more leaves, but then she wanted to go out on her bicycle. Evidently Eli came over as well, and I rode around the block to find him walking alongside her on the bicycle toward my parents’ house. I popped in to say hello, and then headed back home to cook.

We considered putting the leftover chicken and some fresh veggies on the flat top to grill outside, but I ended up just heating it up on the skillet over the stove instead. I didn’t have very much room, but it worked alright and didn’t take as long to get heated up as it would have taken outside for such a small amount of food. I also cooked some black beans in the Instant Pot that turned out pretty good, though next time I’ll let the “bean/chili” setting finish instead of following some arbitrary recipe I found online.

The four of us started to play a game after dinner, and I excitedly brought out Hail Hydra, but I think it wanted at least five players. Eaddie kept fussing that she didn’t remember anything about Hydra anyway, and wanted to watch the movie instead. We all settled in and watched Captain America: The First Avenger, though Summer went to bed partway through. I enjoyed revisiting the movie, but seeing all of the hokey 3D stuff without 3D glasses felt a little silly. It was a silly movie anyway.

Eli left and Eaddie crashed as soon as the movie was over. Summer stayed up in bed to watch baking shows until I finished my own chores. I guess we plan to make more food tomorrow.

And why not? We like to eat.

Wheelin’ to the Ball

I forgot to charge my car yesterday, but it was no sweat making it to work and back. I typically only use about 20% of my charge per day. I spent the entire day trying to get a computer to image over SCCM, but it just wouldn’t work. It took me all day to even find the right log files to dig into, and even after staying late, it ended up being a problem for Monday.

It was a nice evening drive home to feed the fish and load up some more stuff from the old house before swinging through the car wash. Eaddie was going to be recognized with the other all-state kids at the basketball game in the evening, so I went home to eat some leftovers before that.

Just as I finished up, Summer texted to say she was going straight to the high school after work, so I hopped on the Onewheel and huffed it across town. It took me a little longer than I expected, but I stuck to the sidewalk for the majority of the ride. Roads are always faster because there aren’t as many uneven cracks or breaks. I ended up beating Summer there by several minutes, and I misunderstood when halftime would be anyway. We got into the arena just as the girls were finishing their game, and then the guys came out.

I sat through half of the game on my phone, wishing I was out wheeling around. Once we got to hear them call Eaddie’s name, I headed outside to ride until Summer came out. Then we went home and settled in. Summer showered and ate leftovers. I set up the new coffee grinder that I had Julie order for me. It was way smaller than I expected. Eaddie made it home around that time, and practiced her flute a bit before everyone went to bed.

♫ We regret to inform you that the Keurig will have to find a new home! ♫

High Beams

I forgot to charge my phone last night, but luckily I woke up early with a CPAP tube full of water. I got that mess cleaned up and made it to work, but I felt pretty crummy all day. My throat hurt from coughing so much, so I sipped on some Theraflu all morning, and then some hot tea in the afternoon. At the very end of the day, I got a computer to PXE boot to my new SCCM server, so how I get to play with the more familiar task sequences and start deploying some computers.

After work, I fed the fish and grabbed a few things from the old house before stopping by the wash to check on Summer. I thought I’d bake some potatoes to go with the leftover steak for dinner, but Eaddie was at robotics until a little late, and neither of the girls were very hungry.

I ended up riding the Onewheel to my parents’ house for some curry. They got some stuff from Bác Trân for new year’s, and he sent me an over-the-neck reading light that I ended up using as headlights for the Onewheel after dark. I rode home, but wanted to keep riding a bit after being cooped up the past couple days, so I grabbed the recycling and took it to the Neighborhood Market. It was a quick run, but fun on the smooth asphalt.

The girls had pretty well wound down for the night, so I did my best to get to sleep early. I’ve got the humidity turned down on my CPAP now, so hopefully I won’t drown in my sleep.

Tea for me, and me for tea!

Buyback’s a Pitch

Summer couldn’t sleep last night and got up early to sit on the couch for a while. I felt pretty bad myself, but went in to work just a few minutes late while she stayed home for the day. I tinkered with SCCM some more, and then put together another Chromebook cart for one of the teachers that didn’t get one earlier in the year.

After work, I went to feed the fish before going home to find Summer in bed. I left on the Onewheel before Eaddie got home with pizza for them, and went to my parents’ house for curry instead. It was dark by the time I left, and I rode to the Neighborhood Market for some more Nyquil and Theraflu. It was a little chilly out, but the moon was bright, and it was a good ride.

Eaddie had a friend over to do homework, and I spent the evening in my office fighting the sickness. I got a buyback quote from Tesla, and 15,000 miles cost me $8,761.61 in depreciation. Unfortunately there’s no apples-to-apples comparison right now, but I’m betting that even when the new Model 3 Performance comes out, I’ll still be able to buy it for less than what I’m getting back on the old one.

Every day I’m stuffy now.