Tag: parenting

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Long Winded

I got up early this morning so we could take Eaddie and her bandmate to Little Rock. We were a little ahead, so it was a leisurely drive to drop them off, and then Summer and I went back into town to have lunch at Cheddar’s. My pot pie wasn’t as good as what I’ve had in the past, but the chocolate cake was yummy. Afterward, we went to Target to walk around a bit before taking some McDonald’s back to the girls.

Just before we went into Target, I started feeling really bad. I could tell I was getting sick, so I grabbed some high menthol cough drops to help with the sinuses, and some Vicks shower and bath additives. I ached more and more through the concert and its incredibly long pieces. The faculty recital was interesting, but I was still upset that it was up to us to bring the kids they needed for their piece. The music really was good, but my feeling crummy didn’t help.

After the concert, Summer took us straight home and I ended up in bed. I thought I’d be able to go out and enjoy some of the sun, but it just didn’t happen. I crawled under a heated blanket and cooked my fever out before deciding to take Monday off at work.

Snuffleupagus

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City Swamp

I didn’t catch our rat last night, but it made another appearance on camera. We ended up having to take Eaddie to Little Rock today for less than an hour of rehearsal, but she was at Tech for the state robotics tournament all morning. Summer and I picked her up around lunch time and headed out of town. We were hungry enough to stop at McDonald’s in Morrilton, and then we made our way to the Wilbur D. Mills University Studies High School.

We left Eaddie, and then I took Summer down the road to the Lorance Creek Natural Area where we walked down a trail through a swamp. It was pretty neat, but there were clouds of gnats everywhere. We almost made it back to the car when Eaddie texted that she was done. We picked her up, and she wanted to head straight back home to catch the end of the tournament, so we didn’t get to do any other shopping or adventuring.

Charge was low, so we had to plan a stop somewhere. Fortunately they built a new Supercharger in Conway, so we stopped there for just a few minutes before completing the journey home. We left Eaddie at the coliseum and then the two of us went to Ridgewood for an early dinner. Grant looked to be doing better, and things were kind of slow and steady at the restaurant.

I took the Onewheel around the neighborhood when we got back home. It wasn’t any surprise that Summer didn’t want to get out of the house again, so we settled in to watch some TV for the evening. Eaddie got home late, without a trip to Worlds, and then everyone was off to bed to do it all over again in the morning.

That’s just a lot.

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Pizza Cake

I ran a little late again this morning, but rolled into work early enough that I didn’t have a problem taking a beat to make a coffee. I knew the day couldn’t hold a candle to the success I had yesterday, so and Kim was back after a day off, so I didn’t even try. I still got a couple more deployments made though, and overall it was a pretty decent day.

Dad met someone at the old house to look at some remodeling, but I missed them by the time I was off work. I fed the fish and then pretty quickly headed home to get Eaddie for dinner. Summer was working late, so the two of us decided to go to Pizza Hut for a change.

I started a load of laundry and we went to eat. Zach and his family were there with Gray’s basketball team celebrating a tournament win, and he came over to chat a bit before we ordered. Then Eaddie and I had a really good chat about life and stuff. I tried to save some leftovers for when Summer got home, but all she got was bread sticks and chocolate donut bites.

The girls settled in pretty early, and I saw another offer from Tesla to buy back my car. I accepted at a loss of a little over $8,000, which is still less than how much they dropped the price of the car after I bought it. A big part of me is excited to see the next performance Model 3, but another very present part of me is curious about home solar. Finances may need some time to settle, but how neat would it be to have both?

We’ve had one, yes. What about second winter?!

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Midwhenter Concert

I barely got out of Casey’s with my life today, much less my free coffee. There was a huge line of people at the checkout, and then I had to jump out into traffic to leave. Kim was late after getting her shot and not taking a sick day. I spent the entire day fighting SCCM again, and finally found someone with the same problem I had with my distribution point.

I got pretty sleepy in the afternoon, and just gave up at a stopping point in the afternoon. Eaddie had her midwinter concert in the evening, so I went to feed the fish and grab a few more things before heading home. Nobody else would be coming home for dinner, so I ended up going to my parents’ house for spaghetti before taking Dad to the concert to meet Summer.

We ended up beating her there because she got stuck at work. It was a pretty good concert though. I think both bands actually sounded better than the last high school concert we watched. Afterward, I dropped Dad off at home and then took a lap around the block on my Onewheel while Summer settled in for the night. Eaddie went out to eat with friends, and it was a pretty late night for a Monday.

I preferred the birthday speeches.

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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! ♫

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All-State 2024

Neither Summer or I slept very well last night because the heater was making an awful rattling noise. When morning finally came, all I could hear was the whirring of the elevator. The shower just lightly dribbled water, as though I was bathing by watering can. We finally made it downstairs for breakfast, and even that was a little bit disappointing in quality.

We went back up to the room and waited for Eaddie to respond so we could coordinate the afternoon. We eventually got checked out and drove over to get her stuff. Then we walked to the Copper Penny Pub for a really good lunch. We all shared an appetizer, Summer and I got some hot drinks, and Eaddie had a sandwich as she became hungry.

After that, we made our way back to the convention center so we could start watching performances. I spotted Reece and Christina and chatted with them for a little bit before we got seated. All the bands we watched were pretty good, but I ended up liking the music better from some of the earlier bands. Eaddie’s wind symphonic band played exclusively ethnic themed songs, which just got a little tiresome after a while. They did great though, and we ended up taking Eli with us.

After the event, we went across town to Fisherman’s Wharf for a nice dinner. Evidently Eaddie had already taken a Dramamine and was feeling the effects at dinner. We went to the mall after we ate, and wandered around the dilapidated establishment depressingly for a bit. Then we stopped for some spring water on the way out of town.

I made good time, but just as we were approaching the stop sign in Ola, Summer got urgently sick. It didn’t make any sense that she made it the entire way and had to throw up in that moment, but all I could do was stop in the middle of the road. Then we dropped the kids off at the high school to get their cars before heading home to unpack and go to bed.

What a match.

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Pause and Refreshes

The car made it to work today, so whatever popped yesterday didn’t seem to be a problem. Testing was a bit quieter, though I was called out to investigate a test-side problem a couple of times. Only one student was affected, on multiple days, with multiple devices. Let support figure it out.

I spent all day playing around in PRTG, and ended up pausing every single sensor and then unpausing just what I wanted. As I would go down the list doing that, it would take a little while to refresh the sensor limit, and new ones would constantly “wake up” that I would have to continue pausing. With a limit of 100 for the free version, I basically only have a bunch of pings to be useful, but now the HUD makes sense, and is much more glanceable.

After work, I went home for fish and some CD towers to take home. I’ve been listening to Mae again for a couple days, and the “artist radio” has been bringing back memories. I stopped by the wash to see Summer frantically running around with just one employee to cover all of the bases, so I didn’t stay long. I got home early enough to ride over to my parents’ house to check on the cat food, and bring some more leftovers home.

Eaddie and I ate the ground pork omelet egg foo young stuff with some fresh rice that I made. I got to sign some permission slips for her, which is always fun for me. Then I decided to treat her to some Dairy Queen. I guess they had a regional manager, or possibly a new store manager on deck, so the ice cream was good. It had been pretty melty in recent years, but his assertive nature seemed to have things in order.

Afterward, we dropped leftover ice cream off for Summer at the wash, since she had a late staff meeting before she would be come. Then I reminisced over Mae, Deas Vail, and The Hollywood Kills CDs. I was surprised to see Mae is touring again, and it’ll be interesting if I get to go see them again.

DAVE ROCK!!!

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Make Life Take the Lemons Back!

I didn’t feel great this morning, and after picking up a Casey’s coffee, I made it to work about 12 minutes late. Otherwise, it was a decent day of learning VMware, with several student interruptions. I was surprised I was able to stay as focused as I did for the entire day, but I still didn’t have a whole lot to show for it by quitting time.

I had the rumblies for most of the late afternoon and all the way home, where I loaded up my trunk with more stuff from the old house. A bird got me while I was parked at work, so I ran by the carwash to hose it down. Then I made it home and quickly unloaded.

Eaddie was hungry and Summer was late getting home from work. I wanted to kill a bit of time until we at least got a response from Summer whether or not she had any opinions on dinner, so I decided to run a couple things over to Dad on the Onewheel. Just as I was hopping the curb out of the driveway, I stumbled and the board sucked up my pant leg. It was really wedged in there, and I had quite a lot of trouble getting free. I felt pretty helpless standing in the road with that heavy thing stuck right at shoe level.

I finally freed myself and jammed my thumb in the process. Then I made it to my parents’ house without further incident. I didn’t stay long since it was already dark. I got home just before Summer did, and she didn’t want to get out. Eaddie wanted to celebrate a good flute lesson, so we went to Cici’s and had a good time.

Summer was on the couch when we got home, so I put on an episode of The Brothers Sun. Afterward, I saw an email from the Tesla service center saying that they agreed to buy my car back. I have mixed feelings, partially because there’s not a current Model 3 Performance for me to repurchase. I’ve got to try and get some documents from my closed loan account anyway, so maybe they’ll have a solution for me that doesn’t involve being without a car for several months. I love my car, but it would be stupid not to get a newer, potentially nicer one for less money. Wouldn’t it?

I don’t want your damn lemons, what am I supposed to do with these?

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Regionaires

Eaddie left for all-region early this morning. Summer was out of bed super early after a work call, and I woke up pretty early myself, but laid in bed for a little while longer, unable to go back to sleep. I eventually got around and cleaned the kitchen a bit while Summer went to the gym. She didn’t stay long because she had to get Eli’s boutonniere from the flower shop. The kids came over around lunch time but weren’t hungry, and I eventually had a shower and had to drain the basement again.

We picked up my dad for the concert, and made it plenty early for the percussion ensemble before Eaddie’s band. The whole thing was about half an hour behind, so we were worried about the kids having to rush through pictures and dinner before the dance. We dropped Dad off at his house and then the kids met us at home to get ready.

We took a bunch of pictures, and then Eaddie refused to wear her fancy new dress to dinner or the dance, and wore her band dress instead. Once they left for dinner, I finished the eggplant soup. Then Summer and I went home so she could get ready to chaperone the dance. I stayed home and tinkered a bit, but didn’t actually get as much accomplished as I had hoped before everyone got back home.

The kids watched a little bit of TV before Eaddie took Eli home. Summer was already in bed by then, and I eventually wound down around midnight.

If you’re sumping rain, in your neighborhood; who you gonna call?

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Griddle Me This, Batman

We awoke to a crash in the middle of the night when the squeegee fell off the shower wall again. It happens infrequently enough that I forget to check it to make sure the suction cup is still holding. Luckily we got back to sleep reasonably quickly, but then I was the first to get up, to revert back to my working sleep schedule. I thought I’d get up even earlier to buy eggs and make breakfast, but by the time everyone else was up, we just sent Eaddie for the eggs and I made tuna pitas.

Eaddie wanted to have a friend over, so they spent most of the morning and early afternoon cleaning up the house. We got most everything unpacked and did some rearranging, and then Eaddie left to pick up a friend. Summer and I took the Christmas trees down, I took a shower, and then we went to Lowe’s hoping to find a storage bag for the display model tree we purchased, since we didn’t get a box with it. They appeared to have been sold out for a while and inventory had already been rearranged, so we left for Walmart. I got to try out Smart Summon on the loaner, and it worked pretty well. I definitely wouldn’t feel comfortable using it in a busy parking lot though.

We looked for storage at Walmart as well, but didn’t have any luck there either. We ran into Eaddie and a group of friends while we were shopping for dinner, and that’s when I learned that we were having all three of them for dinner rather than the one I was expecting. We got stuff to grill a bunch of burgers and met them back at the house.

I quickly made and measured out the burgers, but then had trouble starting the grill again. The charcoal was just super cold, and wouldn’t ignite. It took me several tries, and once I had a glowing ember, I used the leaf blower to keep it spreading. I used the flat top to cook the burgers, and deep fried some seasoned fries as well. Overall I was pretty happy with the meal, and Summer and I got things cleaned up faster than the time it took to get the grill hot. I’m going to make Eaddie eat a bun without a burger for dinner later, since she didn’t consider how carefully I divided the meat to account for the number of buns we bought.

Eaddie left to take at least one of her friends home while Summer and I wound down for the night, and I was satisfied enough just getting to bed before midnight.

Hamburguesas de Sabor Razonable