Tag: parenting

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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

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Tanked

I slept pretty late again today, and the kids still had me beat. I had a shower before I ever made it to the kitchen for some cold ham on a roll, rather than making a big breakfast for the kids. Eaddie got up and wanted to get some work done, so we moved Summer’s old dining table out to the outhouse, and I spent a little time fixing the south gate after someone had screwed it together when we bought the house.

Noah was content to spend the entire day on the couch, so it was tough to get him motivated to do anything. Summer came home from work early, but had to continue working from home, so the kids and I took a couple vehicles to the old house to load up some more stuff.

We got the 55-gallon tank and stand, a bunch of pillows, and another desk out of the spare room and to the new house safely. The tank really does fit nicely in the entryway, and we’re lucky that it’s actually a main thoroughfare that will be seen daily. I hate to put a bunch of effort into a tank that won’t be seen.

Summer was watching The Guardians of the Galaxy while she worked, but as soon as that was over, everyone wanted to go to La Huerta for dinner. I took them, a little begrudgingly because I was a bit burned out after just making five pounds of taco meat at home. Then Eaddie suggested we could walk around Walmart, so that was exciting. We picked up a few more Christmas clearance things and headed home.

Noah left shortly after that, and I finished up some laundry. Eaddie stayed up fairly late and seemed like she might like to do something, but then gave up and went to bed herself. I stayed up a little later than I wanted, but tried not to waste too many waking hours.

At what point do household expectations become micromanagement for guests?

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Ungrateful Little Shits

I woke up for a little while before Summer, but managed to fall asleep for a little longer after she left for work. The kids were still passed out when I got up and started making coffee, but Noah woke up to the sound of steaming milk. I cooked some sausage and eggs for them, and then cleaned up the kitchen and washed the rest of the dishes before taking a shower.

Noah put on Hacksaw Ridge for them to watch, and was in utter disbelief that we hadn’t seen it before. Once they finished that, I forced them to get up and leave the house with me, and we went to Walmart to look for some clearance Christmas stuff. They left me as soon as we walked in the door, but I picked up what I wanted. I ran into my parents, and the kids ran into Autumn and Adam, so they came back to me wanting to go to Sumo with her.

I begrudgingly let them take off with her while I went to the old house to pack up some things. I loaded up the trunk, took out some trash, and had a tiny, surprise water leak in the master bathroom. I picked up the kids when they were done, and we met Summer at the house. She ate some of their leftovers, so I ate some of a steak with some leftover mashed potatoes and Brussels sprouts by myself.

They were all talking in the sunroom, so I spent some time to myself and then went to the living room to watch Interstellar. As soon as the movie started, Eaddie came in and wanted to put out the new tree skirts, and the other two followed and started talking loudly, so I just turned the TV back off and sat fuming in silence.

Summer eventually went to bed, and Eaddie went to her room, so Noah watched the movie with me. Eaddie came out afterward and acted like she was going to hang out with Noah, but then everyone went to sleep instead.

Old age should burn and rave at close of day;

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Center for the Farts

I took Summer’s car to work today so she could keep mine in town. Casey’s had a free Reign Storm (ha), so I picked one up on the way to work and just accepted that I’d squeeze in a little bit late. It was more or less pretty quiet, with just a small group of kids doing some makeup testing in our office, followed by the usual lunch shenanigans. I was pretty scattered again, so it was a lot of meaningless accomplishments and nothing of any consequence was fixed.

Summer went home early with a headache, and got some new messages about reduced power and acceleration in my car, so we’ll tow it to Tulsa for a replacement high voltage battery. I guess I should be happy to rewind a year of degradation, but it doesn’t make me feel really great about the longevity of my car. I noticed Summer had a little dent in the back of hers when I got back home, apparently from trying to open the trunk while the garage door was shut. I almost made the same mistake once, so I couldn’t be too mad at her.

I fed the fish and picked up some tacos to take home for us. Then we went to the high school for Eaddie’s Christmas concert. Autumn spotted us as soon as we walked in and came over to our seats to talk at us. It was super awkward, and I imagined it was a little bit like how she still hangs out around the high school where others can’t just walk away from her.

The concert band was pretty bad, but it wasn’t until the symphonic band played that I realized how spoiled I was from listening to Eaddie’s elective concerts. It really is the difference between a group of really passionate, or at least dedicated musicians, and a public school band. There’s simply no comparison.

Eaddie went out with friends afterward, so Summer and I came home so she could go to bed. I was up a while, in part to try and get the old refrigerator running. I’m afraid the compressor may have finally bit the dust, which is frustrating to have happened after we finally got it situated in the laundry room. Oh well.

It’s obviously the product of favoritism, and not at all hard work.

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It’s Electric

The workday went by in a flash. We had a few people in and out of the office, but I mostly kept my head down and read a bunch of Microsoft documentation. Eventually I’ll have to turn that learning into practice, but for now I’m enjoying the peace.

I went straight home after work and unboxed my Onewheel to get it charging before we went to Conway for Eaddie’s concert at UCA. It was a really small crowd in a fairly small auditorium. They didn’t turn the house lights down at all, so everyone just sat there in the bright light the entire time. The music was great though, and the clinician seemed really cool. It was over and done with in no time.

Eaddie rode the bus home since they had already eaten, so Summer and I drove across town to try LongHorn Steakhouse. Their online reservation system said it may be a 45-55 minute wait, but we were queued for about an hour before they called us in. We just sat in the car until then. They were crowded inside, and the hostess that sat us was really awkward. The service was fine, and the food was decent, though a little bland. It would have been a fine meal for no wait, but I couldn’t imagine why anyone would wait more than ten minutes for a table.

We made it back home and I rode the Onewheel around the house for just a couple minutes before everyone went to bed. I was up a while longer just because I kept getting distracted. Hopefully we can get the sink fixed tomorrow.

ThreeEV