Tag: potluck

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In the Doghouse

Summer had to work today, so I got up early on my own and went to breakfast with the rest of the family that was still in town. Tom and Angela had to fly out immediately following that, so we planned to eat at Old South right by the interstate. They ended up being closed, but we had some good time to visit at Stoby’s before they left. Afterward we eventually decided to go to my parents’ house to visit later on in the afternoon instead of going to Petit Jean, because Cutie had injured her paws running around the day before.

I went home and got some little disposable dog booties for them, and people eventually started showing up at my parents’ house. I brought the Onewheel along, but didn’t really end up riding it. We sat around and munched on some food, then took a walk with the dogs back to our house, but bypassing the drainage basin. The booties seemed to work reasonably well, and only tore up a little bit.

More and more food came out, my parents started cooking eggrolls, and I think by the end of the evening everyone had eaten too much and still had a lot left over. I rode the Onewheel back to the house with Muad’Dib and then drove back with Summer so we could all visit and eat.

I was really achy and tired all afternoon and evening, so I mostly laid on the floor with the dogs. Muad’Dib would get super jealous when I would pet Cutie, but they both kept wagging their tails in spite of their angry growling. Eventually everyone left, but I had to meet Brandan at Kroger to return Cutie’s water bowl that they forgot.

Eaddie had gone to her father’s, but got home shortly after I did. I laid down with Summer for a little bit, but kept wanting to fall asleep. I got up, was assaulted by a barrage of Vine stuff after a dead couple days, and eventually got to bed.

Good boy!

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The Immigration Holiday CDV

I got up at five to start the turkey and ham on the smoker. It was cold and dark outside, but fortunately it lit right up without any fuss. I even managed to chop a block of wood in half to throw in with the charcoal. Summer got up after a little while and went to a race that was evidently not in Conway, but rather at the dam. When she got back, she helped me get everything finished, and we actually made it to the airport right about on time. Eaddie, Eli, and Cici drove separately, which was fortunate because we sent them back for things we forgot.

We had a steady stream of family coming in for a little while, and it took some effort for Julie to take control of the layout of all the food, but we eventually got there. There was a ton of food all over the place, and I ate too much, but wasn’t completely gorged. More than anything, I was just exhausted from starting so early and running the whole time.

I brought the Onewheel and rode around with Muad’Dib for a bit, and then Kevin brought his Pint out so the others could try it out. Brandan and Nikolle both gave it a shot, but I think Cici spent the most time on it. We eventually went back in for Dad’s magic show, and then Uncle Rick and Tom jammed on a guitar, keyboard, and harmonica for a while. We were spread out around the building, so I did a lot of wandering. Muad’Dib behaved wonderfully, but it was surprising that he and Cutie didn’t really care about each other. They played very little, but both just kept wandering and looking for scraps.

As things eventually wound down, Julie showed off her plane and then we headed out. Tom and Angela would be flying out in the morning, but we planned breakfast with them before they leave, and then the others wanted to go to Petit Jean. Summer and I got to the house and I cleaned up minimally so she could go to bed.

All Fridays matter.

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Fancypants Fundraiser

I caught up on sleep last night, but we had plans all weekend. Eaddie had her fundraiser event at Co-Create in the evening, so the girls were up and around to take care of some last-minute errands for that. I got up and out with the dogs for a good run since I knew we wouldn’t have time later in the evening. As soon as I got home, we had to start getting ready to go set up.

When we got to the venue, the whole crew was standing outside the front doors because they evidently didn’t unlock as intended. Dan had contacted the owner, but I glanced at the maglock sensor, borrowed Eaddie’s music folder, and bing, bang, boom.

I hadn’t seen the inside, and was disappointed that it wasn’t a maker space, but it did seem like a hip new co-working space. We got things started, rearranged some tables, and then Summer wanted to go print some stuff off at the wash. I thought we had decided against it, and were just going to set out some instrument cases for donations, as though the kids were busking.

After that unnecessary trip, we decided to stop at Panda Express for dinner. I ordered on the app, but the long line churned quickly and it would have been quicker to just order in person. I recognized a couple people as they came through, and talked to Alicia briefly before we got our food. I thought the rice was dry, and Summer almost died from something spicy. I thought it was a good spice level, but she must have gotten some seeds or something.

We got back to Co-Create just after things had started, and we walked around a little bit before finding a place to sit permanently. It was a neat, uncrowded event. Dad showed up and joined us, and we rode it out to the end. There was a little bit of cleanup, but I think it went faster than the setup. Then we snuck out the back door and headed home.

Eaddie went out with her friends, Summer went to bed, and I took a long bath. My Vine evaluation period passed, though it says it will take up to four days for my account to be updated. I guess now I need to slow down on ordering, because my item value will probably go up from here.

Just some light B and E on a Saturday evening.

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Reverse Mormons

I snoozed this morning, so I got to work through virtually no traffic about half an hour late. Just as I got parked and charging, Randy, Kyle, Maggie, and her girls all walked out of the office to go to Sam’s to pick up stuff for the Christmas party. It didn’t look like anyone else was really around the building, so I just hopped in Kyle’s Jeep with Randy and went with them.

The store didn’t actually open for about 20 more minutes, so I went with the guys to fill up on some gas before going back to meet the girls. Then we walked through the store, looking like an odd group of reverse-Mormons, and each got an assortment of things we needed for the party. I ended up getting a bunch of salad kits and a case of Member’s Mark hard seltzer.

We got back to the office, and things were quiet. The morning went by pretty quickly, and Jim came to get Randy and me to go to BJ’s for their catfish special. We had a relatively quiet lunch and then went back to the office to kill the rest of the day until the party.

Summer had to work in town, so she just went to Conway and I met her at Target after work. We shopped for her Dirty Santa gift, then headed back to Jim’s house in North Little Rock for the party. I’d been to his house, but never in it, and it was super nice. We eventually got the tour, and he was right. It really was his wife’s “HGTV” moment. They completely rebuilt everything, and it was like a model home. They had a couple fire pits on the large back deck, and plenty of space inside to entertain.

Maggie eventually showed up with pizza, and then we played Left Center Right with dollar bills, and exchanged Dirty Santa gifts. I ended up with a coffee mug, and Summer got a snowglobe. I think only a couple people stole gifts, which kind of spoke to how silly most of them were. In hindsight, I wished I had stolen the Really Loud Librarians game that someone else got.

We eventually had to leave, and made our way to Conway for a quick charge before heading home. Eaddie went to bed as soon as we got there, as did Summer. I wasn’t far behind after such a long day.

Gotta get the kids gambling their lunch money!

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Over Pressure

I woke up to some pretty good numbers, and the lump in my chest was gone. I just had to keep that up for a drive to Fort Smith, and things would be peachy. I took it a little bit too easy all morning, because I was late getting showered and over to my parents’ house to pick them up.

Eaddie had rehearsal with her quintet, so Summer, my parents, and I headed to Fort Smith for the magic club Christmas potluck. It was pretty rainy most of the way, but we made it with plenty of time. I could feel my body tensing up the entire drive, so I knew my numbers would be high when we got there. I was at about 142/89 when we stopped, so I ended up taking a clonidine as soon as we got inside to try and bring myself back down. That may have actually worked against me, because by the time we left I was above 160/100. My heart started racing a couple hours before that, and I couldn’t get it to slow down all night.

I had Summer drive us home while I tried to get myself calmed down. I felt reasonably relaxed in the back seat, but my heart just kept beating hard. We stopped in Ozark to charge, and I jumped around a little bit outside, thinking that maybe I could burn off some adrenaline. I felt okay for the most part. My heart was just trying to beat out of my chest.

We dropped my parents off and made it home, where I kept relatively active the rest of the night. I had several Vine packages to unbox and photograph, which means I need to get some more reviews done. I tinkered with some stuff in the car for a bit, and ended up taking apart the USB console because it had some soda spilled in it. Summer did her nails, and we waited for Eaddie to get home from watching Wicked for something like the third time. I eventually took another clonidine and did some breathing exercises in bed to try and calm myself down. My heart rate came down a bit, but my blood pressure never really did. I just had to wrap things up and get to bed.

I feel like Jason Statham in “Crank.”

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The Princess Is in a Cooler Castle

I had to take an alternate route home this morning due to railroad construction, and then the extra traffic on the way in to work very nearly made me late. I spent all morning with Brice doing the cleanup work orders at Oakland. Allen came by and helped after taking care of something else.

Ben brought smoked turkey for lunch, so I had to run to Neighborhood Market for my side. I brought potato salad and rolls, because I didn’t realize Jason was bringing some kind of cheesy potato salad type dish. Both people in front of me in line paid by cash at the self-checkout, which was stupid and slow. Why do people use money?

The afternoon was more of the same, with the addition of Amanda and Jason for a short while. Summer and Ben stopped by after Mark stood them up for their meeting, but I couldn’t really help them. Ben let us have a working lunch, so most of us left early. I ended up going to the high school to drop off some things first, where I got caught up chatting with Bryan for a minute outside. I didn’t realize higher level administrators had the same number of contract days that we have.

I stayed super late in my new office, hooking up one of my speakers and contemplating a desk move. Then I went home and started water changes in all of the aquariums before having to pick Eaddie up from karate. We went by my parents’ house without any real plan, where we ended up eating some leftovers and doing puzzles. Eaddie was doing them on her phone, while I put together a 3D castle that Dad pulled out of the closet.

We headed back to Summer’s pretty late, and I was so exhausted that I just crashed there. It took my house a frustrating hour to cool down four degrees, and I don’t know if it’s the weather, or if there’s something wrong with the new unit, or if it’s just not designed to be shut off for long periods of time. In any case, I need to spend some more time at home now to take care of all of this stuff. I just feel like I’ve been run over by a school bus.

“And at the end of it all, my only regret is not spending more of my life working for a living.”  –nobody ever

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Cards Versus Humanity

Spring break was in the air today. I got up an hour and a half early and made broccoli, rice, and cheese casserole for our potluck, and then had plenty of time to get everything ready for work. We didn’t have anything in the way of group projects, so I just leisurely took care of a few things as they came in.

Ben brought some smoked pork for a potluck, and I think I was the only one that actually made anything myself to contribute, but it was worth it. I haven’t made that stuff in a while, so it was about time. We took a long working lunch, but that didn’t really affect when I was going to leave. I had stuff to do. They got my lift to the junior high so I could replace the band projector bulb. It’s always fun driving heavy machinery around indoors.

After work, I chatted with Ben for a little while before heading home and trying to feed Grey a bit. She managed to get a bit of gravy down along with several treats. Then I went to Walmart to get some stuff for cheese dip before picking Summer up.

We went to Travis’s to play Cards Against Humanity with John and Melissa. Veronica backed out, but she missed a really good time. Travis and Summer had never played before, so it was a lot of fun. Nearing the end of the game, I kept having to tend to my phone to orchestrate the meeting between the internet fish lady and Clint. Eventually they did make the connection, and he shuttled the lot all the way home for me.

Summer and I stayed to chat with Travis for a while, and then left as Clint got closer to town. We met him nearly exactly on time, and I took an armload of fish off his hands. I didn’t have the time or space for them anywhere, so I just ended up opening the bags at Summer’s so they could get some air. I’ll have to take care of them properly in the morning. The girl even sent me some minimal plant trimmings, which was super awesome of her. Just before bed, I also got an invoice for a collection of plants from someone in California. Hopefully this comes together nicely. I have all spring break, after all.

Meeting people on the internet is completely normal and safe in every way.

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Sup, Cuz?

My cousin Michelle and her family hosted a big multi-family Christmas gathering today in Bismarck. The girls came along with us, so I brought the Switch dock and we played Super Mario Party the whole way down.

It was a pretty good time, but there were so many people there that everyone pretty much just sat at their own table and ate. Most of the socialization seemed to happen among people that already saw each other pretty regularly. It wasn’t much of a surprise though since we hardly see any of those 3.7 million cousins on that side of the family. I think they’re all pretty close for the most part, but I know I have trouble keeping up with any of them.

Dad did a little magic show, and then Uncle Rick played some piano. We finished the night with Dirty Santa. Dad brought a couple gifts, so we put Autumn and Eaddie into the ring of 37 people. Eaddie didn’t really want the sign she stole from Autumn, so they decided to give it to someone else that commented about it.

The trip home was a little more Mario Party, and then Eaddie played Mario Odyssey the rest of the way. Summer got a little case of the Christmas blues, but I think we turned it around pretty well with some house cleaning and getting ready for Jesica to come over tomorrow. The girls went to spend the night with their father for Christmas, but they’ll be back tomorrow night. I hear there’ll be cookies.

HEY! It’s another Christmas song!

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Save it for the Blu-ray

I delivered one more frog at Oakland this morning, then stopped by the shop for just a little bit to see if anything was happening. It was pretty quiet, so I went to Crawford to take a look at something Allen was having trouble fixing. It didn’t take me long to realize we were on the completely wrong path, and I left there to go to the junior high and work on it.

The junior high had their Christmas lunch potluck today, and I stuffed myself. There was just so much food. I couldn’t really even eat dinner after all of that. Everyone was pretty much just wandering around aimlessly because most of the kids were gone from having finished their tests. I chatted with Dustin and Haley for a little while, but then school let out an hour early and quickly became a ghost town.

I stopped by the shop again, but everyone was just sitting there waiting to be told to go home. We never really got anything official from central office, but Ben let us go just a few minutes early. Gary was there helping Zach look at something though, so I ended up hanging out until the usual quitting time anyway.

Summer and the kids were getting ready to go to Conway, so I met them at my house right after I left. The kids were hungry when we got there, so we took them to Red Robin for some burgers. Summer and I still weren’t hungry, so we just shared a tower of onion rings. Afterward we went by Sam’s to walk it off, and then made a quick run through Academy to look for paintball canisters, and then to PetCo to see if they had anything cool.

Finally at the theater, I collected my five comped tickets at the box office, loaded up on popcorn, and made our way to the XD auditorium for Aquaman. I wish they would re-cushion that front row of seats, because they’re starting to get pretty rough, and they lean back too easily. Then the theater filled up and we had a clapper/knee-slapper on the left and some guy that thought he was at a sporting event behind us. Neither would shut the hell up. Honestly I would have listened to the whole Pitbull song if these guys would have shut up. It was so annoying. Theaters need ushers again. I’m just glad I didn’t care so much about the movie, because otherwise I would have raged at the distractions.

Seriously dude, you’re going to the special hell.

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It’s Magic!

We all got up and ready to go to Fort Smith for the magic club’s annual holiday potluck and show. We got to my parents’ house pretty close to when we planned, but Summer didn’t feel well by the time we left and we had to swing by Walgreens on the way out of town for some meds. The rest of the trip went pretty well though. If I had realized Mom’s car had both HDMI and an AC power outlet, I would have brought a Switch dock so we could all play. Instead, we all split up and took turns, which still turned out really well. It definitely made the trip feel shorter.

The party was at a new place, with plenty of room for eating and a large raised platform for a stage. There didn’t seem to be quite the variety of food we usually see, but at least we had plenty to eat. The girls seemed to really enjoy the show, but I really think Summer was the most excited of the three of them. Most of the performances seemed shorter than usual as well, but it was a good time.

We stopped by a couple Oriental food stores on the way home, and the girls actually really enjoyed looking at all the snacks and different things they aren’t used to seeing. Dad bought them each some snacks, and we headed home. Edna and I played some more INVERSUS to unlock some more maps. She got pretty good after a few games, so it was really fun to play a little competitively until it degraded to us trolling each other.

Once we got home, the girls went back to their house and I started cleaning up a bit. I had to fish three frogs out of the tadpole tank, which meant I had to find and clean another tank for them. The betta seems to be getting worse, and I don’t know what else I can do to help her. In cases like this, it seems way easier to care for them when you have a whole school of them rather than just one solo sick species. I gave her some more meds, but I think I need to find my aquarium salt as well. I really thought I used to have some somewhere.