Tag: Reviews

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The Lonely Quiet

I slept terribly last night, and didn’t have a great start to the morning. I ended up taking some Pepto before I left, which helped after a day of eating spectacularly poorly. Things at work were super quiet, all because Janice was out. The other guys weren’t there much, so it was just the sleepy dog and me. I tinkered with a few things, but struggled to feel like I really made a difference anywhere today.

We took a short lunch to Taco Bell to eat cheaply, and then tried to be a little more impactful in the afternoon. Summer wasn’t feeling well either, and went home to make chicken salad. It wasn’t until much later that I realized how frustrating her vocabulary could be.

It looked really dark when we got home, so I took Muad’Dib on a run as we caught just a couple sprinkles. It was cool out, but he wasn’t very fast. I didn’t charge the Pint last night, so I took it slow hoping not to run out of juice before we made it home. I cut a couple blocks out of the trip so we could see my parents, and then made it home after walking up a couple of the steepest hills. We made it back with 1%.

Today, Summer’s “chicken salad” meant pan fried chicken over a green salad. I was expecting a rotisserie chicken mixed with fruit, nuts, yogurt, and whatever the hell else goes in a chicken salad. I even told her to use up the leftover celery from the fridge. Fortunately we could still use it, but she said the green leaf lettuce we had all went bad. She failed to get out the leftover spinach from when the kids cooked, though. I mostly ate that, since it was starting to turn. The food was good, but the jarring difference between expectations and reality have always been a high frustration point with her, even if things turn out better in the end.

Of course she still didn’t feel well, and was acting particularly pitiful, so I sent her to bed. I cleaned up, did a bunch of reviews, and got ready for bed a little bit early.

Winter is coming.

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Ridgewood Drive

We got up at a reasonable time this morning and milled around the house for a bit. I made Summer a coffee and cleaned up a bit before taking a shower. Eaddie came home for a bit, but I barely saw her. Summer and I had tickets to see The Nightmare Before Christmas in 3D, and then a lunch date at the new Ridgewood Brothers location in Conway.

We dropped Muad’Dib off with my parents and headed out of town pretty quickly. We got to a mostly empty theater, grabbed popcorn, and sat down just in time for the movie that played no previews. I definitely ate too much popcorn. Summer hadn’t been feeling well all day, so she was going light on everything. I don’t really get the appeal of the movie, but I thought 3D would be fun. Summer didn’t much care for it.

From there, we headed straight over to the restaurant and found Grant and Kyler in the smokehouse out back. Grant gave us a walkthrough of the surprisingly tiny building with two giant propane tank smokers, and then an impressively tall rotisserie smoker. He emphasized that it was all still pure wood fired, and sacrificed some smoke to give us a peek inside.

From there, we found our way into the restaurant where Robert was at the block carving meats. They had a pretty small crew working, but it was late for lunch on a soft-open day. We visited briefly in line before finding seats at the bar area. Grant and Kyler were walking around visiting and making sure everything was going well. I didn’t realize it was the old Outback Steakhouse because it had since been Foghorn’s wings. They had a ton of room to eat, and a patio to be finished sometime in the future.

After we ate, Grant gave us a walkthrough of the enormous kitchen and storage area in the back. Kyler had said it was one of the largest commercial kitchens in Conway, and I believe it. I really wish them all the best, because they’ve been putting everything into it.

Summer had to get something from the Splash on the way out of town, and then we made it home. I found the caterpillar wrapped up in a cocoon, so he was ready for the winter in the garage. I took the Onewheel to get Muad’Dib and crashed because of some uneven concrete at the end of the driveway. Then we did a loop around the block before doing our normal reverse route. I felt the board struggle over small bumps several times, so I really need to get the tire replaced on my GT S-Series.

Summer had taken a long bath but still didn’t feel well. I did a bit more cleaning up, then got ready for work pretty early. I didn’t feel great either after so much heavy grease, and I felt exhausted for it as well. I just hoped an early bedtime would help me out in the morning.

This isn’t just another large father figure’s barbecue joint.

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Sun Uppers and Sun Downers

I woke up surprisingly early after staying up so late. I tried to take Muad’Dib out, and he got out of bed, but then immediately looked back at Summer, refusing to walk out the door. It’s their routine on the weekends, and apparently it was non-negotiable. She got up and put on her robe, and he took off down the hall.

I got up and made a couple coffees to get things moving. We expected Suzanne to come around sometime to pick up some stuff, so we lounged all morning. I put on Donnie Darko, since I’d seen it once around the time that it came out. Some of the acting was unbelievably bad, and it didn’t make much sense, because so many of them were established actors. After that, I put on the old David Lynch Dune for a few minutes before giving up on that.

I had to get around to come cleaning, but I also got a few more packages. Summer had to do some work and Eaddie left, so I was on my own for most of the day. Suzanne never came around, so after cleaning up a bit, Summer and I went to my parents’ house to eat spring rolls. Mom ended up not going to Fort Smith with Dad, so she was there cooking the whole time. We ate, cleaned up, and headed right back home.

I cleaned the kitchen and eventually took Muad’Dib for a run. He mostly trotted along the whole way, which was especially annoying because there were a ton of people out walking around. I always feel especially lazy when he’s not running fast enough for me to really need the Onewheel. We made it to my parents’ house to see Dad, grabbed the Maggi and dried squid he picked up for us, and made it home just after dark.

Summer headed to bed and I got ready for work. The shorter daylight hours makes it feel like we have less time, but the truth is I always feel like my days are short, even in the summertime. I’d be much happier with 30-hour days, and it really makes me wonder if I could ever have made polyphasic sleep work. I had a bit of the Fireball Torch’d Vanilla to help put me down quickly, and made it to bed.

So much night time!

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Screamin’ Good Times

I got up early with Summer to go to Dardanelle for a run. Muad’Dib and I ran a couple miles with the Onewheel, and after stopping for a moment, I turned around to see him lying in a puddle to cool down. Summer made first in her age division, so she was super happy with her progress. Afterward, we went to Waffle House for some breakfast before heading back home.

We cleaned up and had a bit of a break before Eaddie left to get her friends. Then Summer and I drove separately to drop Muad’Dib off with Mom, and headed to Hot Springs. I had been belting out songs in the shower earlier, and we continued on rocking out while we were driving, so I didn’t notice how much the car was speeding. I got pulled over, and I think it was the same guy that got me when I was working at Two Rivers. He gave me another warning, and we were on our way.

We stopped at Clampit’s Country Kitchen for a late lunch on the way. We had never been, but they had 4.7 stars and the pictures looked pretty good. It was a large building with cases of meats and some other little grocery items. The deli had plate lunches, so Summer got some brisket nachos and I got half a rack of ribs to add to that. I could not have been more disappointed. I didn’t detect any smoke on the meats at all. The hot sauce wasn’t hot at all. The nachos were just yellow corn chips with Velveeta cheese dip, cole slaw, baked beans, and a bit of brisket. The ribs weren’t sauced, smoked, or tender. It was edible, but the most stereotypical “white people” lack of flavor I could possibly describe. I think the only way the meat could have been worse is if they boiled it.

The kids caught up to us and stopped there, and then we continued to Magic Springs. The parking lot was fairly empty, so we were excited to enter with basically no lines for anything. Eaddie brought Eli, Ceci, and Jenny along, and we rode some rides and had a good time. Early on, I found an abandoned refillable cup, so we ended up cleaning it out to use for the day. We got stuck on Brain Drain the second time we went up, because the guy accidentally slipped off the button to lift the ride. They had to bring it down and run a test before it could be unlocked, but Summer really wanted to do a haunted house and it was getting dark. We wandered through a couple small ones, but by the time we made it back to the larger ones, the lines had formed. I was already burned out from yelling so much and running around, and we decided to leave the kids and head home.

I let the car drive the entire way, and it did great. We picked up Muad’Dib and made it home. Summer went straight to bed and I stayed up late just catching up. The kids ended up going to Conway for some reason, so I didn’t wait up for them. They had just taken a trip to Tulsa, so a bit of extra driving in-state must not have seemed much to them. I’m just glad I’m not paying for their gas.

Poppa’s is better somehow.

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Taco Tuesday

Hard to believe it, but for as many times as we’d been to Taco John’s on a Tuesday, the title wasn’t taken. We left a little early so I could pick up a breakfast burrito, but their terrible app had them walking it out to me about ten minutes late. We got to work nonetheless, quiet as ever. Shane hit me up early about the approval process I built out, so he got to test it for me. There was more to do with it, but as usual, the problem is deeper than that.

Between permissions structures and the network, I feel like my work will never be done. Maybe that’s good. Who’s to say. I bounced between a few things throughout the day, then went to Ortega’s by myself I thought the girls downstairs might want to go this week, but nobody said anything. While I was there, Nicole spotted me from across the restaurant and came to say hi. She was out on maternity leave forever.

The afternoon dragged a little bit. I was there a little late, but made it home easily. Summer was home a tad early, and then Eaddie came home for a bit. I got a big package that was supposed to be a motorcycle stand, but ended up being a case of 192 one-ounce amber glass spray bottles. I took Muad’Dib for an early run, took my parents a solar light, and then made it back home before dark.

Eaddie took off, Summer went to bed, and I did my usual cleaning up and prep before bed.

Lace ’em up!

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MisgAIded

I spent all day fighting with Power Automate to get my approval process working, and a big part of it was broken because I had the wrong email connector. For some reason there was no warning about a certain v3 connector that simply wouldn’t work, and Copilot kept telling me to try fixing it the wrong way. Finally, Gemini set me straight and I had it working by the end of the day.

Somewhere in there, I took a really late lunch. We were headed to Sonic, but the app wouldn’t let me submit my order, so I ended up at Wendy’s instead. I refused to go to Sonic without being able to redeem my rewards, and Wendy’s had free chili. I ate fairly light and then finished up the quiet afternoon.

Summer was having a dumb day and wanted a drink, so I stopped by the liquor store for her on the way out of town. When I got home, I started prepping sandwiches for us, and we had a nice dinner of pesto chicken on pretzel buns. That cleaned up a lot of the leftovers, which was great. Then I took Muad’Dib on a quick run to try and beat sundown.

It was still pretty dark when we got back. Summer settled down for bed and I cleaned up and prepped for work before crashing.

60.1%!

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Pizza and Beer and Dog and Eggrolls

I didn’t let myself sleep in today, instead opting to continue writing reviews and cleaning up. I had some coffee and Summer went to the gym. Eaddie left to go with Eli’s family and help with some stuff in Little Rock. I told Summer I really wanted to take Muad’Dib out somewhere for lunch since we were stuck in the house all day yesterday, so when she got home and cleaned up, her choice was Point Remove.

We headed downtown to a mildly busy bar, ordered some wings, pizza, and beer, and had a good little lunch date. Muad’Dib got lots of oohs and ahhs as usual. Afterward, we came home and tried to find something to watch. That took a while since neither of us really had anything in mind. I eventually put on Jo Koy’s new Netflix special, which I didn’t love. I didn’t remember him being so needlessly vulgar, but he had some sentimental bits that I guess made a good story.

As we finished that up and I started to get hungry for dinner, Mom called and told me to come fry eggrolls. Muad’Dib and I took the Onewheel over and I started frying. Summer eventually made her way over, but ended up doubled over in gas pains, so she didn’t eat. It was late by the time I finished, so we headed home and I wrapped things up for bed.

Still serving my sentence…

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Clean and Plumb

Summer had to work today, and Eaddie had to practice before a ballgame in the evening, so Muad’Dib and I had the house to ourselves. I got up with Summer and started cleaning for a bit. I stopped to make myself a chicken pesto sandwich kind of early just in case she wanted me to take her some lunch later, but she ended up not. I continued cleaning and then wrote reviews between sessions, partially since what I was cleaning up was crap that needed to be processed.

I got an email that it was my turn to order a Steam Frame, so I got that done. I was glad to have made it higher on the list than Johnny so I could order it on my own account. It should come in within a week or so, and I also ordered all of the first party accessories and a color passthrough camera from Arcturus.

Later in the afternoon, one of my projects was to install a cup rinser in place of our old soap pump in the kitchen sink. Summer got home from work just as I was getting started, but she took a shower and then immediately left for Eaddie’s game. I managed to get the rinser installed with no leaks all by myself, and I was pretty happy with it. My only concern is the hammering it does if you don’t press down hard enough. The water pressure is so high that it wants to pop up and shut off, or else it fills the cup entirely with water super quickly. I really do need to call a plumber, but I still want high water pressure for our showers.

Time flew by as I continued cleaning. It was already starting to get dark, but I took a shower then ran Muad’Dib to my parents’ house. We encountered a couple larger dogs on the loose along the way, and Muad’Dib wanted to chase, but I wouldn’t let him. We made it to my parents’ house, and Mom was meal prepping for the week. They had the deep fryer out, so I helped fry some more shrimp chips. Mom had spaghetti cooking, but also tried making some Bánh Tiêu. She decided to fry those inside while I fried the shrimp chips, and then Dad fried some chicken strips after that.

We ate the chicken, and then I headed home. Summer had gotten back from the football game a little earlier, and was getting ready for bed. I did a few more reviews, and then crashed after a long Saturday on my feet.

Still in jail. These requirements have gone way up.

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Clacky

I did a whole lot of typing today.

We went to Wendy’s for a free cheeseburger, Sonic for some free cheddar peppers, and Casey’s for a free slush. Then the afternoon got quiet as everyone upstairs left.

We stopped by the lube to see Summer since she had to close. Then I got home and discovered that Eaddie’s trash had collected ants again. Then I saw the front door was left ajar by about six inches. It looked like she didn’t even pull it shut when she left around two.

Summer came home and we had another fight about it all while she was trying to cook some ramen. I eventually just had to walk away and came back to her sitting in the floor, so I got her up into a chair and fed.

I stayed up late doing as many reviews as I could, but I just kept losing energy.

48%

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Always Write

I had an anxiety attack in the shower this morning, which again seemed like the first in a little while. I took a muffin to work for breakfast, and I knew it had just gotten ants around it before I put it in the fridge, so I ignored the couple dead ones that were in the box. Then, after I took a bite, I saw one of the crumbs wiggle in the box. It was so tiny that I couldn’t tell if it was a caterpillar or a maggot, but I spat it out regardless. That left me pretty hungry all morning.

I was put in Vine jail last night, so I couldn’t see any products except for what came across my Vine Helper feed that was still loaded. I couldn’t load a new page, but I could see what was coming in. I spent a lot of time writing reviews between other projects, trying to catch up after all those phone cases I ordered.

Later in the morning, I caught David and asked him to walk me around the plant to see where the PoEs were for the camera system. I’d love to redo all of that since pretty much everything had been run separately without a master plan.

We went to Arby’s for lunch to try the ArbyQ and the steak nuggets. Both were pretty middling, but I got my fill. The afternoon went by fairly quickly, and then we got stuck behind some annoyingly slow, left lane-hogging folks on the way home. Summer skipped out on Sip + Stretch, but originally said she still wanted wings. By the time we got there, she had changed her mind about that too. I ended up warming up some rice and chicken for her, and then for Eaddie when she came home briefly. I had a little bit myself to clean it up, and then I took Muad’Dib on a run.

It got dark super fast. I thought we left early enough to get back before dark, but we did not. Mom had a little bit of spaghetti squash for me to clean up with vinegar, soy sauce, sriracha, and beef jerky. Then we got home to get ready for bed.

Wake me up when September ends.