Tag: Reviews

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Something Screwy

We had more “training” today, which was really just going over expectations with the new folks. At the end of it, I was voted into the Classified Personnel Policy Committee, essentially by default as the most tenured, sensible person in the department. Afterward I ended up hanging out at the shop all day long, which is nice to do occasionally. Most days I never leave the high school, so it’s cool getting to hang out and actually learn something with someone else for a while.

Zach really wanted CJ’s for lunch, so a big group of us went there. It’s going to be pretty bad for the district if anyone comes down with symptoms over the weekend. When we got back to the shop, Gary and I sat down and came up with a plausible cause for the flash drives wiping themselves out. It’ll take a little testing, but I think we’re in the clear, and it was way more simple than I originally figured.

I went home for a little while, then met Summer at the shop so they could inspect my rear right tire for a puncture after it leaked a few pounds overnight. Sure enough, I had a screw right in the middle of it. It wasn’t very long, but it was plenty to do the job. They got me patched up while Summer took Autumn home.

The girls were going to go out for dinner with their father, so I went home to clean up a bit before taking Summer out. She was tired and not very hungry, but she needed to eat before Conquer the Gauntlet tomorrow. I took her to Mulan’s after Allen announced earlier in the day that they had re-opened for dine-in. I expected an odd experience, but it really wasn’t too bad. They just had everyone use single-use gloves, and tried to enforce traffic flow in a single direction. It didn’t really help a whole lot, since people still bounced back and forth between bars, but it was a good experience.

When we got back home, Eaddie sat down with us to start season five of Glee. Then Summer passed out, and I stayed up too late on the computer. Tomorrow morning is going to be a real treat.

I almost forgot what it was like to eat this much.

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The Best Laid Schemes

Summer took the girls home this morning so she could get her nails done. I made plans to pick up some Ridgewood Brothers BBQ for lunch with my parents, then made it across town early enough to be the first person in line. They hooked me up with some incredible banana pudding, but I forgot to tell them what sides I wanted with my Hog Trough, and ended up having to go back for them later in the afternoon.

Uncle Giao came down with Erica to help move Nova into a dorm at Tech, so my parents ended up bailing on lunch with us and went to Linh instead. Summer brought the girls back and we ate a super late lunch at my house.

I knew Robert had quite a bit of trouble with green wood yesterday, but I didn’t expect to taste the difference in the meat. The smokiness just wasn’t there the way it usually is, and all the meats seemed a bit drier and less flavorful than we’d ever had before. We did finally get some burnt ends though, and they were super rich, fatty, and juicy. Honestly, I think I would actually prefer them left on the brisket, but that may not make sense when you’re serving by the slice. Overall, I hate to say it was SubparBQ, but the expectations at this point are so impossibly high, and everyone deserves an off-day. They’re still my number one pick hands-down, and I’m not even playing favorites.

After we ate, Summer left for her hair appointment. Eventually I got the girls loaded up and we went to my parents’ house to swim for a while. Summer took forever to meet us there, but her highlights looked great. We sat around for a while talking to Mom about cars, then eventually made it back to my house for the evening.

Eaddie and I stopped along the way to get some Dairy Queen for everyone, then they watched some TV for a bit before getting up and exploring the house a bit to make plans for The Great Cleanout. There’s a lot to do, but everyone seemed genuinely excited about it, which felt pretty good. I dug out my box of greenman suits, and Eaddie danced around the living room for a bit. I got some intense stomach cramps from all the laughing.

Autumn was the first to crash as usual. Then Summer went to bed while Eaddie watched some TV and I poked around the internet until the yawning took control.

Nothing can stop it cause you’ve just gotta ride ride ride ride ride!

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Logan’s Roadkill

Summer and I decided to run to Conway today instead of going all the way to Hot Springs. I was hoping to score a deal on some Nest cameras, among other things. She went to the gym while I got ready at home. I accidentally spilled a bunch of water in the kitchen and had to clean it up first, so I took a frustration break in Overwatch before we headed out.

Our first stop was Logan’s Roadhouse for a late lunch because we were both super hungry. It was the absolute worst food I’ve ever had from a Logan’s. I let them talk me into a choice sirloin that I could barely even cut with a serrated knife, much less chew. Worse yet, the steak didn’t even have any flavor. It was truly awful. Even the potato was bad, with Summer feeling like they were overcooked and dry, and me thinking the opposite that they were undercooked. The service was great, but I wasn’t going to send the food back. I just cut my steak into tiny little pieces, mixed it up with the potato and A1, and swallowed it whole.

Our next stop was Home Depot to see if they had my Nest cameras. We wandered around the store for a bit and ultimately ended up at a register with a piece of paper off of a tear-off calendar-like display. I went to talk to the manager as she got into the locker to look for the goods, and she was the polar opposite of helpful. She didn’t seem to understand a word I was saying, and just had a completely garbage attitude. Maybe it was the masks, because I know I was sick of mine just from our first store visit.

Next up was Kohl’s to burn a $5 reward, bringing a blouse for Summer down to just over a buck. This was our first win of the day, but the mask was really wearing on me by this point. Our next stop was Sam’s, where we just picked up a couple small things and left. On our way out of the shopping center, we decided to stop at Rita’s Italian Ice. This was our second win of the day, because the custard and Italian ice were both amazing.

On the way home, I remembered wanting to get a carwash, so we stopped by Splash and got a quick detail. They were pretty dead, so they had the job done faster than I could pepper my lunch potato.

Summer didn’t feel great most of the afternoon, so when we got home, I put on Fun with Dick and Jane until she was ready to go to bed. Then I played some iMessage games with Eaddie to end the night.

Now all I can think about is an actually-tasty steak.

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Step Back

I still didn’t really get anywhere today in my imaging process. Time is running out, and I’m getting pressure from the custodians, of all people, to get my work done.

Summer came to see me, and then we went to Bocadillos for lunch. It was obvious the bosses weren’t around today, and the change to Latin music was pretty funny after the pop party we attended yesterday. I’m guessing the Christian music will come back around tomorrow.

I worked late, and then Summer brought me one of their boomboxes to loan to the high school for their drive-through retirement party for Bruce. I headed on home and waited for her to bring the girls over from her parents’ house after mowing the lawn.

Autumn wanted to go to Dollar Tree for something, but forgot what when we got there, so I bought a guilt-trip scrub brush. Then they wanted Subway, so we picked up one of the worst bags of food I’ve ever gotten from a Subway before. The sandwich I got for Summer and myself looked like it had been cut an additional time or something, and I would have probably had better luck eating my half with a fork.

Eaddie and I wrapped up the night with an episode of The Punisher, and then it was off to sleep.

We’ll get ’em tomorrow, buddy.

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Middle-Aged Mutant Ninja Tech Dudes

Our department sign came down at some point over the weekend, and somehow found a way to make itself more relevant than ever. Most of the group was out chasing iPads while I spent the day troubleshooting my OS deployment package. I felt pretty good about the changes I made, but it was pretty time consuming to compile the packages and actually test the changes.

Gary helped guide me a bit between working on his own things, and when the time came, we ran to Slim Chickens to pick up some lunch. My Cayenne Ranch Chicken Sandwich was unsurprisingly spiceless, but tasty enough, though seemingly smallish. I asked for fries, but got fried pickles instead somehow. They were alright, but overpriced. The chips were great, but I knew that going in.

The afternoon was mostly more of the same, but I had to leave before my final USB drive was finished. I stopped by the shop to check in with Summer, then ran home to do a little cleaning and start some laundry. Zach stopped by to chat about the Fiero and his ride he picked up. He still wants to work on my car, so I guess we’re going to give that a try tomorrow.

I eventually made my way up to Summer’s for the evening, and I cleaned up some leftovers for dinner. Eaddie and I watched an episode of The Punisher, and then it was off to bed.

When they move your office location due to departmental cutbacks.

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COVID Springs and Corona Falls

I got up as early as I could will myself out of bed this morning and got ready for a day out of town. The girls were ready and waiting for me, so I picked them up and we stopped at Arby’s for lunch before hitting the road. We ate at the park across the street, then I had to send off some pirate mail, and finally we were off to Magic Springs.

The drive always seems faster than Little Rock just because it’s more fun going through the mountains. Summer informed me an hour into the drive that she didn’t bring her swim suit, so we stopped by Walmart in the Village so she could buy another one. They didn’t have a great selection, but we pieced one together that worked well.

The parking lot seemed absolutely packed when we got to Magic Springs, but I got pretty lucky with a spot close to the gate. We made our way through the season pass processing for Autumn, got all of our souvenir bottles, and started down the hill toward the roller coasters. We got down to the bottom and realized that they had signs up on a lot of the rides that masks were required, and they didn’t hand any out at the front, so we had to walk all the way back up to the car.

By that time, we were all so hot that we just wanted to go to the water park, so we rented a locker and got changed, then made our way around to the lazy river. That thing was packed to capacity, and they were limiting people to one loop at a time since there was a line of people waiting for tubes. I never could really figure out why they offered tube rentals, since they have tubes available at all the slides. They weren’t allowed in the wave pool, so I don’t even know where else they were relevant.

Eaddie got a nose bleed on a trip to the restrooms, so I hung out with her for a while, then Autumn and I went to go get some drinks. They loaded two $5 coupons on each of our passes as a means of compensation since they refused to refund anyone due to the pandemic. I assumed it was $10 that spent like cash, but it was a use or lose it in one transaction. The girl at the counter was so nice that she ended up just giving us four drinks for free so I didn’t have to go back for money or burn my coupons.

We spent a little time in the wave pool, then did another water slide before changing and going back to the roller coasters. It was much cooler by that time in the afternoon, and we had a pretty good time. Pretty much nobody was social distancing though, so I’m pretty certain we all have COVID now. We could hear the concert in the background, but none of us had any interest in staying late for some fellow named Zach Williams.

By the end of the day we had all worked up some pretty good appetites, so I found a restaurant called Colorado Grill. We made our way across town and had some of the best chips and salsa I’ve ever had. The fajitas were amazing, and the girls had a couple huge burritos that looked really great too. Our fajitas came with some barbecue ribs on top that seemed kind of pointless. I would have preferred more fajita stuff, especially after I rolled a saucy rib down my shirt and onto my pants.

On the way out of town, we stopped by the fountain to fill up some water bottles. Shelby spotted me and stopped to say hi, and then we headed straight home and off to bed.

I knew we should have stopped for a funnel cake.

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Sitting in an Office and Doing Stuff

It was way cooler outside today after all the rain, so I decided to take the bike in to work. They didn’t really need me for group work, so I stayed at the shop and worked on things in my office. It was really quiet all day, and I only took a break to pick up lunch with the guys.

We had Tacos 4 Ever again, and this time I tried the nachos. At first I was worried that they looked small, but they really packed a lot into that foil dish. The chips got soggy too, so there wasn’t a lot of air taking up space where the precious food could go. It was packed densely with lots of meat and flavor.

I spent most of the afternoon tinkering with the wiki again, and I think I’ve been fighting incompatible versions with the VisualEditor extension. I stayed late again just because I felt like I was making a little bit of progress, and then Ben ran me off again.

The ride home was nice and I wished I could have just ridden off somewhere, but I had to get home and out of work clothes. Then I just didn’t feel like getting back out, so I played some Overwatch and sold some turnips on someone else’s island.

Eventually I made it up to Summer’s for the evening, and the girls were back home from their father’s. Summer was already in bed though, so I just laid around with her until my own bedtime.

Make sure your output correlates with the input.

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2:1

Today was really quiet because Ben was upstairs again for more of whatever they were doing. It wasn’t quite as noisy this time, but we could tell they were doing something. I spent most of the day learning about Microsoft’s licensing structure, and trying to figure out how to wipe the 1,300ish laptops I have for resale.

Zach said the district is trying to go 1:1 everywhere, and I think the buyback price on the old high school lease is perfect for a trickle-down of older technology. The laptops are still working great, and were generally underutilized anyway. Lower grades would have lower requirements, so keeping the old Windows devices would save just over $100,000 over the cost of new, less capable Chromebooks. Nobody seems to really care what I think though.

Greg wanted Mexican for lunch, and I suggested we try the new food truck by the railroad tracks. It was rainy, but light enough that we didn’t mind running out to place our orders, and the guy even brought it all out to us pretty quickly. It took less time than even ordering at a brick and mortar restaurant. My torta Cubana was both huge and delicious, but messy. I should have used a fork and knife. The burritos looked pretty good too.

After work, I went home and tried cleaning out the washing machine with some vinegar, and then later some baking soda. I just let it chug along while I played some Overwatch. Eventually I made it up to Summer’s for the evening, just in time for bed.

Never tell me the ratio.

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Slow Start; Quick Finish

I slept so well last night that I really didn’t want to get out of bed this morning. It took me a while to get going, and Eaddie basically slept until the last minute. I eventually got around to making an “everything” Italian loaf egg sandwich to take to Summer for what was supposed to be brunch but ended up being a late lunch. It felt super hot outside in the sun, and traffic was awful again. I miss the early days of the pandemic.

After lunch, we went by Julie’s to help take her TV off the wall so Suddenlink could check out why her internet keeps dropping out throughout the day. While we were there, we heat-pressed half of the flags I made, to cure the ink. The other half I wanted to experiment with water to get the paint to flow to both sides of the flag. Hopefully that will keep me from having to come up with a way to screen print the reverse side as well.

With that done, Eaddie and I headed back home and watched some more Daredevil until Summer got off work and came to get her. They went home to clean up while I did the same, and then they picked up Slim Chickens for dinner on the way back here.

The chicken was pretty decent, but I think for my money, Zaxby’s has better sauces. I put on the 2003 Daredevil movie for us to watch, and Eaddie just kept groaning through the entire thing, which really made it all worthwhile. She did find a lot of parallels though, and insisted we watch the first episode of the Netflix series when the movie was over.

After that, Summer went to bed and we watched a few more episodes, ending with a really horrible one with a pointless flashback to an already established-well-enough character. Being this close to the end, it really aggravated me that they wasted a whole episode to that.

Gravy. Gravy would make it all better.

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Ache Rolls

My body felt completely battered this morning. We took our time getting out of bed, then Summer woke Eaddie up and we had some leftovers for lunch. Julie wanted to uncover the pool, so the girls sat around watching The Voice and I did laundry while we waited for her to be ready. Eventually we did get out of the house and across town, and we uncovered the pool pretty quickly and easily by shifting the whole cover, then fan folding it from the middle.

My parents had egg rolls ready to fry when we finished with the pool, so I stood out and fried them before we went inside to eat. They stayed busy cleaning up outside, and the girls and I ate inside once the rice was done. Summer eventually had to get home to do her own chores around the house, so I went home to clean up. Jack showed up online and I spent some time catching up with him before Johnny got on. Then I joined them in a really terrible game of PUBG where the game seemed to run pretty smoothly, but my mouse lagged nearly a full second behind for some reason. One game was enough, and then I was off to Summer’s.

Eaddie was still up and bored, and I was super hungry, so I snacked a little bit. Eaddie shared some of her apples and Tajín with me, and we watched an episode of Luke Cage until I was ready to pass out.

Overripe Banana: 3/5
With Tajín: 2/5
With Cheddar: 4/5