Tag: Reviews

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Large Scale Shopping Trips

We got up this morning and headed to Hot Springs to pick up the aquarium stand I bought from PetSmart. There wasn’t an option to do a store transfer, so we just decided to make a day of it. We stopped in Ola for a potty break, and then made it as far as Nimrod Dam before she ran off to the bathroom again.

When we got through most of the mountains, we stopped at The Shack for lunch. I let myself get a little rushed when placing my order, so we both just got small burgers, and then we had some sweet potato fries and onion rings. It was all pretty good, but unremarkable. The homemade lemonade was amazing though, likely because of how much sugar it had.

Once into Hot Springs, we went straight to PetSmart and wandered around for a while before driving across the parking lot to go to Bed Bath & Beyond. I don’t even know how many hours we spent in there. I passed up some clearanced clear ice molds in favor of splurging a bit more on some larger round ones. We did pick up a FitBit smart scale though, which turned out to be a bit cheaper than I expected. It didn’t take much thought to decide to return to the store to pick up the last three on the shelf. As I was checking out, the cashier mentioned hearing us talk about them and said she thought about getting one for herself. I left her one to stick under the counter, and we were on our way.

It was time to eat again, and it took us a while to settle on something. We ended up at Osaka Japanese Steakhouse & Sushi Bar, where I had trouble finding anything that looked good on the menu. I didn’t realize it when I declined the option to sit at the grill, but evidently they had different menus depending on where you sat. It turned out okay though, because Summer really liked her teriyaki combination, and I had the katsu don, which was really tasty and cost about half that of what I would have ordered from the hibachi.

After we ate, we stopped by the sexiest store in town to see what all the fuss was about. It was really just another one of those places where retail pricing is still ridiculous, and I was super surprised at the variety and quantity of people that passed through while we were there. I guess it’s just marketing and convenience, and hopefully not a generous return policy.

We stopped by the spring water fountain and filled our box full of bottles on the way out of town. I took a perceived shortcut on the way out just to see what it was like, but the lack of lighting made it a worse choice overall. We did just barely make out a yard full of toilets though. As we made it out to Hot Springs Village, we stopped at Walmart for another bathroom break and perused a bit for some cookies, beer, picture frames, and any clearance stuff we found interesting. Then it was over the mountain and through the fog to get back home.

Alexa? Lights! Camera? Action!

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Dungeons & Deaths

We started work 15 minutes early in exchange for leaving 30 minutes earlier than usual. Ben had a conference to attend, so the rest of us kept busy cleaning up random projects. I got a little time at Oakland to myself, but then spent the afternoon with Zach and Allen after we all had lunch at Fat Daddy’s. I always forget how disappointed I am in the value of their Friday special of a pork loin “covered in bacon.” $7 is just a crime.

After work, Summer brought the girls over to me at the shop, and I took them to get dinner before dropping them off with their grandparents. Autumn wanted a burger and Eaddie insisted on Popeye’s, so we ran by McDonald’s and then Popeye’s before heading to my house to eat. The chicken took an incredible amount of time to prepare, at least for those that were in line ahead of us. I was parked by the speaker for near 15 minutes before they even addressed me and asked me to wait longer before taking my order.

Once the girls ate, they stopped bickering just long enough for me to drop them off. From there, I headed to Kroger and then Domino’s before swinging by Summer’s. She had to be back home relatively early to be up for a quiz bowl tournament the next day, so she just followed me to Travis’s house in her own car.

John and Melissa beat us there, and we spent just a very small amount of time on introductions and pleasantries before jumping right into a game of Dungeons & Dragons. The game was pretty fun in spite of me dying twice and not having anyone around to resurrect me. Summer seemed to enjoy it as well, and we’re excited to go back and continue the campaign.

With the game over, Summer went to get the girls and I met her back at her house for the evening. I showed Eaddie a bit of Bandersnatch while the other two went to bed. We made it through to the credits once before the Netflix autoplay took over and tried to start an episode of Black Mirror. I wish you could just disable that timer and have it automatically play the full credits every time.

I’m gonna have to kick this into high gear!

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Robot Trivia

I got myself out of bed this morning and finished up some leftovers before heading home to get ready to visit the junior high. Zach called me just as I got home and wanted to know if he could borrow Cards Against Humanity. I suggested that the whole massive desk that I own might be too much unfunny stuff for his crowd, so when he got here, we spent a little while sorting all of the expansions out so he could take just the base game with even the pick-2 cards removed.

I kicked him out as soon as we finished so I could shower and go visit Summer and the robotics tournament. I ended up standing around robotics for much longer than I anticipated after I rescued Ethan and his need of a printer. It was really neat to see, though. The tournament seemed to go really well, and I’m hoping that it will be similar for us when I work the first elementary tournament. Some overtime pay will be a really nice boost as well.

By the time I got out of that tournament, Summer was wrapping things up for quiz bowl. I followed them back to her room to help pack up, and then headed to her house while she ran the girls around. Autumn would be spending the night with her grandparents while Eaddie went with her father. I managed to pack all of the leftover food into Summer’s fridge, and Summer picked up the house a bit.

Once the girls left, we ran by Harbor Freight to pick up a few things with some 30% off coupons. I finally have a shoehorn, and now my most difficult shoes slide on easier than any other shoe I own. I warmed up some leftovers and we settled in to watch Bandersnatch, which was amazing. I kept trying for alternate endings while Summer passed out, but it really was a piece of art. I think I managed to find everything.

╔╩╗

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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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Into the Zelda-Verse

Summer and Autumn had a quiz bowl trip to Springdale this morning. I woke up pretty early too, had some leftovers for breakfast, then sat in bed and played Breath of the Wild until what was left of my battery was drained. I took that break to head home for the day, and I docked the Switch to continue my game on the TV.

Cinemark only had one 3D XD showing of Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse every single day of the week, and they were all at 10:15pm, which was super aggravating, but it gave us plenty of time to get to Conway, eat, and do a little shopping before the movie. After Summer got here, we went to Logan’s for some steaks. My two bonus gift cards didn’t work, which was also frustrating, but I had other gift cards to cover the meal. Then we went to Target where Summer picked up some jeans for some adopt-a-kid Christmas gift at school. While we were there, I spotted a couple Pebble Time Rounds in the case with no price sticker. I had a guy price check it, and they came out at $199.99. I tried making a deal at the front desk, but nobody there could do anything, so we left for the movie.

We both loved the picture-show. I think it was by far one of the best Spider-Man movies ever. Since it was all animation, the 3D was amazing as well. There were tons of laughs and feels, and it was just a great take on the characters. It was a must-see if you’re any kind of fan of the web-head.

Everybody knows that the best way to learn is under intense, life-threatening crisis.

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The Gift Card Investment Plan

Summer and Autumn slept in this morning, but luckily Summer jumped out of bed in time to get her up and out to the school for their quiz bowl trip. I tried not to sleep too late, but Eaddie still beat me to the living room. She wanted cereal for breakfast, but we didn’t have any milk, so I took the opportunity to try and pick up some Nintendo eShop gift cards that were on sale at the Dollar General right up the road. I must have looked like some kind of fool getting $200 worth of Nintendo gift cards, but I only paid $170, so the joke was on them. I did make a mistake though, and tried to scratch the first card with a metal file, and it chewed right through the ink on the paper. Luckily I called Nintendo, and after speaking with a couple guys, they were able to confirm the validity of the card and applied it to my account for me.

After Eaddie and I had some cereal, I messed around on the Switch some more while she watched Legends of Tomorrow. Eventually I had to find a way to convince her that she probably didn’t take a shower last night, and that she definitely needed to take one today. It took some effort, but I eventually got her ready to leave the house, and we headed back to my house so I could clean up. On the way, we stopped at another Dollar general and I picked up another $180 worth of gift cards. We should be set for some games now.

Summer was already heading back from Greenwood by the time we got to my house, so I warmed up some food for Eaddie and then jumped into the shower. Once I was ready, we took the bike to Walmart to look for a Super Mario Party and Joy-Con bundle. We ran into Ana with her grandparents there, but Ana acted all shy, and I’m pretty sure her grandparents didn’t really recognize me. We continued on to the electronics, and luckily there were still three copies of the game, so I limited myself to just the one and we headed on to Summer’s house so the girls could pack bags for their stay with their father.

Hannah and Dylan wanted to meet us at Chili’s for dinner, so Summer took a shower and we both drove to meet up with them. My food was pretty good, but cold. Summer said she liked hers, but the other two both wanted to send their sirloins back to the grill. We had a good time though, and I got Dylan’s Steam info so we can hopefully join up for some Rocket League or other games at some point in the future.

When we finished dessert, Summer and I headed back to my house for the evening. We thought momentarily about visiting the remaining three Dollar Generals in town to clean the rest of them out on gift cards, but she was sleepy and I figured $380 should last until next holiday season when hopefully they’ll have another sale.

Motorcycle weather in December, but you look at our air and our water and it’s right now at a record clean.

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Birthday Blunders

I woke up with another headache this morning, but fortunately I shook it off after a shower. There wasn’t much going on at Oakland, so I stopped by the shop to pick up some things on my way to the junior high. It was Ronda’s birthday, so I went with her to Stoby’s to pick up a bunch of lunch orders for those of us that were eating together for the occasion.

When we got back to the library, we discovered Janie’s order was missing, and I didn’t get my cheese dip. I let them eat and went back to Stoby’s by myself to pick up the rest, and the girl found Janie’s order immediately, but then told me the people in the back were “100% certain” they gave us a large cheese dip. I confirmed that they did, in fact, give us one out of the two that we paid for. She said she would check my order to make sure I was charged for it properly, but after driving back once already for what we clearly didn’t receive, I felt like she should have at least just given me the benefit of the doubt. It wasn’t until after I got back to my cold taco salad that I realized they also didn’t give me any chips for it.

Nearing the end of my meal, a guy from the home theater place that mounted our cafeteria media rack found me and wanted me to look at it with him. He didn’t seem to understand why we weren’t satisfied with their install, and insisted that there was no way the weight of the equipment could be held up properly in a wall rack. I told him we work with wall racks all the time, and that if the rack was overloaded, then they should have purchased a heavier-duty rack. I flat out had to tell him I wouldn’t allow an installation like that to pass in my home. I guess he works with a different set of standards.

A few work orders later, we reached the end of the day, and I ran home to pack up my NVIDIA RTX 2080 TI Founders Edition cards that I paid way too much for, and took them to UPS for return shipping. It was just a little over $40, which kind of surprised me. I guess that’s a fine lesson. I’m still not certain I made the right choice, and it sucks that my plan didn’t pay off better. There’ll probably be a shortage of cards closer to Christmas, and I’ll regret returning them.

From there, I went to Summer’s and scraped up some leftover dinner while she watched TV and the girls fiddled around. I had to head home for more laundry though, so I didn’t stay very long. Then I just surfed Cyber Monday deals into the evening long after I finished laundry. With any luck, I won’t go completely broke before I can find a new job.

People say nothing is impossible, but I do nothing every day.

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Tip Squad

Summer got up a little early today to pick up Autumn. They brought breakfast back, and the girls all watched Criminal Minds while I started cleaning up the kitchen. Eventually they had to go home to get ready to visit with their father, and I continued cleaning and started some laundry.

When Summer finally came back in the evening, I ordered dinner from the food truck Spices via Bite Squad using a discount code I had. The service was pretty polished, and the fees showed it. Each restaurant had a fee that seemed to be based on how far away it was, but then they also suggested a percentage-based tip of 18% of your order total. I remember being happy about $2 tips back when I delivered pizza for a living, so the $6 tip they suggested during my ordering process really rubbed me wrong after being charged a $2.99 “booking fee.” Comments online seem to indicate that drivers only actually get 50% of the tip if you put it on your card too, which is downright evil. It was cool being able to track the whole process though, and I guess under $10 to have food delivered from a non-delivery restaurant isn’t grossly unfair to the customer.

The delivery guy passed my house and tried to deliver our food two doors away, but I yelled down the street to get his attention, then gave him a $5 cash tip since I opted out of the default 18% on my card. Overall the Bite Squad experience was good, but had a poor value, so I couldn’t recommend it without a promotional discount, or being too drunk to get out and buy your own food. Summer really enjoyed her noodles from Spices though. My rice and skewered meat dish wasn’t very good and seemed way overpriced for the amount of meat it had, but it did the job.

After we ate, we ran to her house to pick up my car and some things for her, then stopped to rummage through Kmart on the way back to my house for the night. I picked up a corkscrew for future conference shenanigans.

They’re off to find the hero of the day!

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Sew Much to Pack

I slept really well last night, and stayed that way until almost noon today. When I finally got out of bed, I packed things up and headed home to clean up a bit before Josh came over to check out his laptop I had repaired for him. Both hungry, we went to Denny’s for a late lunch and chatted for quite a while. The food was really good, but also really slow to come out, so it was fortunate we were just killing time being social.

When he dropped me back off at home, I took a shower and then played some Rocket League with him once he got home. We did pretty well until we didn’t, and I still don’t have a placement in ranked duos yet. Once we lost a couple games, he was ready to call it quits for the day, so I decided to sew up the mismade velcro patch on my new backpack. I felt like I did a pretty good job on it, but as I was trying to tie a knot to finish the whole project, the thread got caught up in something, and I ended up having to just cut off all of the excess without knotting it properly. I don’t think it’ll be a problem though, since the whole thing just gets tied up in the hooks of the velcro.

I spent quite a while unpacking all of my old daily cary stuff and sort through the new swag to decide what I wanted to put in the pack. I’m still not completely sold on how I have it arranged, but it’ll do for now. I’ll probably make some changes once I’ve had a chance to use it at work for a while. I was mostly surprised to see there wasn’t any organization for pens, or any small, vertical pouches.

Summer finally got back into town after her quiz bowl tournament, picked Eaddie up, then came over for a bit before having to run home to get Eaddie showered and changed into some new clothes. Summer passed out as soon as they got back and had a bite to eat, and Eaddie started watching Arrow while I cleaned up from all of my packing.

So I guess I collect koozies now.

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We Are Venom

We slept in for quite awhile today because I kept waking up with a headache all night. I think it was my neck, but I still couldn’t be sure. Eventually I got an ice pack and stuck it in my pillowcase and finished the night on it.

Summer and Eaddie went home to clean up, then came back to get me to go to Conway to see Venom. We ate at the China Town buffet right in the strip mall, and then barely made it to the show on time, but I had gotten perfect seats when I pre-ordered our tickets. It was an entertaining movie. Eaddie loved it. Definitely not as good as any of the MCU movies, but still better than Venom’s last appearance with Spider-Man. I hope they follow through with another movie with Carnage.

When we got back into town, I dropped Summer off at home so she could get Autumn, and Eaddie and I went back to my house so I could get what I needed for work the next day. Then Summer and I watched a couple episodes of The Office before bed. She had a bad enough headache that she took some special migraine medication, and hopefully we’ll both be back to 100% in the morning.

Going down the street, like a turd in the wind.