Tag: Reviews

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Buddy Thing

I didn’t let myself sleep in today, and got up to finish the leftover chicken tacos from weeks ago. Summer got the girls up and around, and eventually we left for a day in Conway. We went to Kohl’s first so Summer could look for some clothes. As we finished up, I wanted to run through the guy’s clearance, and that’s where I ran into Kyle and Terri. It was great getting to catch up with him for a bit, because it’s been ages since I’ve seen them since they moved to Conway.

As they had to run, the girls rushed me out so we could find some food. We landed on Golden Corral since we had over an hour to kill before the movie. I stuffed myself pretty silly and paid the price in various cramps during the show. Venom wasn’t even playing in 3D at all back home, so we settled for a smaller screen in Conway again.

The movie was relatively forgettable, much like the first. It was mostly a buddy film, with not much of a story, especially for an iconic villain. I was glad to see them fold the cinematic universes together at the end, though It was a bit jarring how they did it. The whole thing felt super forced, so hopefully the final result isn’t awful. I think we’re going to be going off the rails from here on out though.

When we made it back home, the girls got ready for bed. Eaddie and I stayed up for a couple episodes of House, where we got to a less procedural episode. I like it when they try different things like that in long-running shows.

Disappointment is anger for wimps.

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I Don’t Have the Time or the Crayons

Today was the last Friday before school starts, and a Friday the 13th at that. I jumped right back into my report scripting in Cognos, at least between calls and nags to help other people. Thomas came in to prod me into finishing the job, but at the end of the day I wasn’t even sure what else he had for me to do. I think Bryan got aggravated that I couldn’t stop everything and fix his issue, but it wasn’t just a simple fix at all, and I was busy trying to get rostering done for a math curriculum program used across nearly the entire district.

Evidently Shane from Howard came down and took the Big Three to lunch but they didn’t invite anyone else. Kyle happened to be in the shop with me, so the two of us went to The Gunslingin’ Burger again for their anniversary deal. I had a Cajun burger that had fried shrimp and rice on it, and I don’t think I loved it. The lady also brought out a plate with like four onion rings on it, but when I commented on how paltry that was, she ran to the back and had them fry up some more without any hesitation. At least the service is good, especially for a place that is more or less fast-food.

I still didn’t make it to Oakland in the afternoon, but things did at least kind of calm down for me while some people were coming through the front of the office for badges and accounts. I did my part quietly in the background and never had to interact with anyone, which was kind of perfect for today.

I worked a bit late again but made it home just before Eaddie made it back from a bike ride. While she was there, I cleaned some more hair algae out of my shrimp tank and found one of my missing snails in the sump area. I moved it back to the front, so hopefully it can keep that area a bit cleaner. Now I just need to find the little baby one, if it’s still alive.

Summer came home not long after that, and we went to Nonna Bella’s for dinner since the girls were going to their friends’ house for the evening. That place was way bigger inside than I imagined, and they actually had a really nice atmosphere. The staff reminded me of a cleaner version of the folks that run the burger joint. They were very proud to be a family-run business, and the service and food were both pretty good. Summer’s pasta seemed a bit too reasonably priced until it came out with imitation crab instead of real crab meat. The pizza I ordered was pretty awesome, but it was on the higher end of the cost spectrum. Overall I think it will be a decent date night establishment.

Summer went straight to bed when we got home, on account of her 5k in the morning. I got into some daydreaming about business cards and letterpress printing again, but had to shut myself down on account of how absolutely unnecessary that is for my present life.

Priorities are a struggle.

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M R Not I. M R Ducks!

I felt pretty sour this morning, but I made it back to get the girls for their trip to the Children’s Hospital. There was a report of a crash around Pottsville, so Waze routed me off the interstate from there to Atkins. Fortunately we still had plenty of time to get there. I dropped Summer and Autumn off at the hospital for Autumn’s MRI, and then drove a few blocks away to Ben’s new office.

I was surprised how close it was, though it took some Google Fu and driving around his building to realize I was right under his office the whole time. I found the Arkansas Public School Resource Center on the directory downstairs, took one of the four elevators up, and could not have been any closer to their office. It was just a short walk down the third floor, past a big open stairway above a big water fountain. When I walked in, I told the lady he’d get a kick out of it if she told him his StripperGram had arrived. He didn’t answer the phone, so she had to go back and find him, and I heard laughter from around the corner.

He took me back to where he was working and we chatted for a bit, and then I got my laptop out to work on the importing of new laptops for the junior high library. I was on the right track and really would have had it figured out on my own, but it was nice to get some back history of his process so I could more easily replicate what he had done in the past. I really doubt it’s something the libraries will be able to do themselves in the future.

Autumn ended up not getting an MRI today after a new doctor talked to them about checking on some mental health issues that may be more likely, so maybe his words will carry some more weight. When Summer said they were done at the hospital, we picked them up and drove just a few blocks further past Ben’s office to Cotham’s for lunch. They were pretty packed, likely from walkers since there was plenty of parking available. Service was extremely slow, but not the worst. Three of us got hubcap burgers, which had a pound of meat that completely dwarfed the already large buns. The meat and the fries were both seasoned well, and everything was really good. Summer had to be different and got the chicken fried chicken, since they were out of regular fried chicken. She seemed to like it, on account of her happy plate.

After we ate, we dropped Ben back off at work and headed to the Splash Carwash on JFK for a quick detail. Then we went to McCain Mall and wandered around uncomfortably in the heat. I was absolutely miserable for nearly the entire time. I agreed to get Autumn some cookies from the Nestlé Toll House Café because I thought some ice cream would help, but it really didn’t. The young girl at the counter was having some trouble with her receipt printer, so I fixed it for her and jokingly asked if I earned a free cookie. She smiled and nodded, and I gave her another buck for a tip because she was so nice.

We made our way back through and out of the mall, and drove across the street to Target. There, at least a gust of cooler air came out of the door as we walked in. I was still uncomfortable though, and ended up just fanning myself with an Exploding Kittens expansion that I picked up on clearance.

Summer wanted to stop for some wine on the way home, so I looked up reviews and we drove the opposite direction to a well-reviewed one in Sherwood. They were nice, with a pretty good selection, and I even got a case discount on some Flyway. Once we loaded everything up, we made our way home, having to stop in some construction traffic around Morrilton. It didn’t take us too long to get through it fortunately.

The girls went to their rooms as soon as we got home, and I finished importing the rest of the laptops for Jessica. Then it was off to bed.

Time to sync some photos…

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Gotta Get Away

I got up early and ran straight home to clean up before going back to pick up Summer and Eaddie. We had to run by Summer’s shop to print Eaddie’s itinerary before we could leave, but then we were off to Little Rock. We made it with plenty of time, but they only let one of us go through security to the gate, so Summer went in while I sat on a bench outside just out of the rain. Fortunately it felt pretty nice out, and I had my earbuds on me.

Once the plane took off, Summer came back down and I took her to a place called Lakewood Fish & Seafood House to cheer her up. Watching Eaddie take off hit her a lot harder than she expected, so that pretty well set the tone for the day. At least everything we ate today was delicious. The stuffed crabs and seafood chowder were probably our favorites. The crab claws were odd, tasty, and overall left me a bit hungry.

After we ate, we walked all around McCain Mall and basically just felt sad about the state of retail in America. The nostalgia is all but gone. Even GameStop was uncharacteristically empty. JCPenney felt like a ghost town in areas. None of it made me happy.

I took us to Best Buy next, which again only served to kill time. They had zero deals, so we left and went to Sam’s Club. By that time I felt like I was just dragging a corpse around, so I picked up a couple things and we headed toward home. We had spent enough time out that we were both hungry again, so we stopped in Conway and ate at Bulgogi, which was excellent.

It rained all day long, but we eventually made it home, and Summer went straight to bed just as Eaddie landed in Milwaukee. I knew she could handle it.

I still kind of just want a steak.

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Slow Return to the Cinematic Universe

I pretty much worked with Kyle all day today, finally running some cable at Dwight in the morning, and then shuffling devices at junior high in the afternoon. We only had to make one trip back to the shop, but we ended up with a pretty clean install.

Everyone really wanted Fat Daddy’s for lunch, so I followed along and had an overpriced chili dog. It looked pretty gross with everything added on it, but tasted fine except for the cheese dip, which was just a bit too much. There wasn’t enough chili, and the coleslaw made the whole thing cold in the middle.

After lunch, I ran by The UPS Store and paid for our lease shipment finally. Then I tried to track down a single missing device that I’m pretty sure was dead out of the box at the junior high. I couldn’t find it after a couple rounds through the building, so hopefully it turns up sooner than later.

When I left work, I went home for a bit and waited on Summer to get back from Conway so we could use my BOGO coupon at CiCi’s. Then we met the girls at UEC for Black Widow. I was a bit uncomfortable for most of the movie, and ultra disappointed that we missed it in 3D. I guess all the movies rushing to release now after being held back due to the pandemic are pressuring theaters to run everything through really quickly. I got pretty stressed over it, and ended up disappointed in the theater as usual, from the stuff hanging in front of the screen and casting shadows, to the loud air conditioner, to the sound of the auditorium next door. At least the size of Auditorium 8 was better than I had remembered.

The movie was enjoyable enough, but did feel really lackluster after the prior movies, and even all of the Disney+ series. It felt more like a formality of passing the Black Widow baton than anything else. What I’m really looking forward to is more Loki.

It’s no “Falcon and Arm Guy.”

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New Boss, Who Dis?

It was cooler and rainy today, which fit perfectly with my mood about Ben being gone. Thomas is back, and we’ll get to spend the next few days bringing him up to speed with what he has already identified as “same shit, different people.” At least he’s welcomed input so far, and I don’t guess I could ask for much more.

Gary didn’t have anything new for us to work on, so we split up to image computers again. Josh returned to the high school with me until lunch time. Then we met everyone back at the shop for lunch with the new boss. He picked Fat Daddy’s, who appeared to be busier than usual. I had an uncharacteristically good burrito, which may be my go-to from now on. Everyone else’s meat plates looked overcooked and dry as usual. We still can’t figure out why the service takes so long though, since all the meat is smoked for longer periods of time. It’s not like we’re waiting for it to be freshly prepared. I had joked during our brief morning meeting that Gary said Thomas was paying, and then he actually did. I must be a prophet.

After lunch was just more of the same. Gary joined us for the last few minutes, and then we were off. I went home until time to get the girls for the band camp concert at Tucker Coliseum. I don’t remember it being carpeted the last time I was there. It probably helped the acoustics, but it still wasn’t at all ideal for a wind band. The girls were placed in the top two bands, which were both markedly better than the third.

They were hungry when we left, so I grabbed a family pack from Wendy’s on the way home. Then Eaddie and I watched an episode of House before bed.

Sometimes you just have to move the numbers around a little bit. It all makes sense. Trust me.

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A Message for Our Steakholders

I thought I would be out in the sun a bunch this morning, but Gary was a bro and had me complete some work in the office instead. The others went in pairs and disassembled some digital signage for spare parts before they’re outright replaced with the new hotness. For some reason they’re replacing all of the elementary signs regardless of condition, but not the middle school sign that is like 90% broken.

Four of us went to Brangus for lunch, where my beef spud tasted like mouthfuls of dirt. I don’t know if the mushrooms or potato weren’t washed, but I figure that’s what happened. After lunch, we split up into a couple re-imaging groups. I had Kyle go with Brody for the junior high, and I took Josh with me to the high school, based on who lived closer to which campus.

After work, I went straight home and did a little more cleaning up before Summer got home. Then we went back to Brangus for dinner for another sub-par service. I really thought it would be better, but the tumbleweed was burned to a crisp, and the service was mostly absent. Brangus is normally a good pick, but they were zero for two today. The one redeeming part of the visit was seeing Melinda and Matt on their way out. I had to holler at her pretty loudly to get her attention, but as soon as she saw us, she one-upped me.

Once back home, we wound down pretty quickly and went to bed early. Tomorrow we’ll face the new boss. The last one was easy.

Too many ghosts.

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Child’s Play

I got up this morning to meet the guys at Taco John’s for lunch. Blake and Robert were already there, both waiting in their cars like a couple of shy guys. When I started to go in, Robert yelled out his window for me to sit in his truck with him, but as soon as I got the door shut, Blake got out of his car because he saw me.

Gary and Grant both showed up eventually, and we went in to get our food. Surprisingly I think most of us were about as unimpressed with that place as I always am. I don’t get the nostalgia, but I was happy to be a part of it anyway. We chatted for hours, or rather mostly listened to Robert as he recounted stories from his steel trap of a mind. It was absolutely awesome getting to catch up, and I wished timing had worked out for Mitch to be there as well.

We wrapped up just in time for me to go home and clean up before the play. Summer got tickets for the two of us plus my parents to see Disney’s Descendants: The Musical. My parents arrived just late enough for it to be awkward to get back to our seats, and the rest of the show went about how I expected. I was glad Summer enjoyed it, but I have absolutely no feelings about school plays at all. I loved Wicked, but this basically took everything I disliked and amplified it. It was difficult to understand some 90% of the dialog, so I relied on context clues to follow the entire plot, which I had already gleaned from the summary of the show. It would have made more sense if we were taking small children.

As soon as we got home, Summer had to take off to get the girls to band camp. I tinkered with some photo backups at home for a while until Summer was ready to eat. Then I took her a new Fitbit I picked up on Prime Day, and warmed up some leftovers for us.

At some point in the evening, I lost connectivity to everything in my house. It wasn’t a power outage, so I assumed my internet had gone out. I checked in again late in the evening, and everything was still broken, so I went home to check on it. Evidently the battery backup for the home entertainment setup had gone worse, and some of my equipment was cycling on and off. I was glad to catch it before it continued on overnight, but frustrated trying to fix it while unable to turn on any of my lights. The convenience of an everyday smart home turned a simple task into an infuriating circus.

Exhausted from all the crawling about behind equipment, and knowing I had to get up for a stupid Catapult health screening in the morning, I just crashed there for the night to save myself the drive in the morning.

LINE!

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Dress Rehearsal

I felt exhausted all day again today, and I still don’t know if I’m just not getting enough sleep, or if it’s some kind of internal clock thing that still hasn’t reverted back to this time zone. Fortunately it was pretty quiet at work. Mike was at the high school all day for the virtual conference they were hosting. I spent all day with Brody hunting for Chromebooks. We’re short nearly half of the lease that needs to go back, and I don’t know what we’re going to do. Hopefully we can return some alternate devices.

We decided to try The Gunslingin’ Burger for lunch. I had been once with Allen a while back, and my opinion didn’t change today. It was a pretty good burger, but not worth near what it cost. It would have stung less if the combo meal at least came with a drink, but the girl said they stopped including a drink when too many people chose to bundle with shakes. I guess it never crossed their minds to simply not allow that, and to only include a fountain drink.

In any case, I’m still creeped out by the life-size cross standing in the dining room. Then the chef seems to miss social cues as he lingers to ask how you enjoyed your meal. In most any other environment I wouldn’t take issue, but in this scenario it just kind of makes everyone feel a little uncomfortable. I think at a cheaper price point I would just accept everything else, but this just feels like a lot.

After lunch, I ended up sitting out of any real group work. I tried to do some sleuthing to find the missing devices in any system at all, but didn’t have any luck. I spent the last bit of the day prepping for my interview first thing tomorrow. I think I’ve just decided to go all-in. I want to believe that the three of us have a fighting chance, but a bigger part of me thinks there’s no way they’ll let it happen, so I feel like I have to really do something to stand out.

After work, I ran by Summer’s shop to try and print a better copy of my “blank” page to my résumé. It turned out really well, but I wanted to see if Staples could go full-bleed. Unfortunately they couldn’t, but I perused clearance while I was there. Then I stopped by Taco Bell for a quick dinner on the way home. They were unbelievably slow, and the food seemed really lean, but it tasted alright.

Mom and Dad stopped in while I was putting together my individual packets for tomorrow. Then I video chatted Summer while I picked out a nice outfit for the morning. I hope it pays off.

I suppose you’re all wondering why I called you here today.

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Tropical Mornings

I got out of bed with Summer this morning so I could go out before the sun came up. It was still plenty bright outside because we’re on the wrong side of everything to see a proper sunrise, but it was still really pretty out. We walked along the breakwater and watched surfers go out to sea. Then we walked down the pier to look at the boats. We ran into a couple roosters by a swing in a tree, and then a friendly cat. We even spotted a boat for sale for a cool half million.

Eventually we were hungry enough for breakfast, so we went to CJ’s again to see if they could open on time. They made it pretty close, and the food and service both ended up being pretty good. This week has been pretty successful as far as food goes.

When we got back to the room, we took Dad out to try the pool, which was way too cold in the shade for being on a tropical island. We eventually moved from there to the saltwater lagoon, which was still too cold for Summer. Dad went to rent a stand-up paddleboard while Summer laid in the grass. I just shuffled around the lagoon letting fish nibble at my feet.

Julie eventually made it out with Mom as well, and they had a lad carry out a couple beach chairs and dig a hole for an umbrella. I eventually had my fair share of sun and went in to clean up. I made a sandwich for lunch to clean up some of the food we have left, and then went with Dad and Summer to do some souvenir shopping. I hate gift shopping, and wasn’t terribly impressed with much of anything. At least Summer loaded up for all of her people.

We rested for a bit after shopping, then dressed up for dinner upstairs at Fresco Italian. I was pleasantly surprised by the food, and it was nice to be seated right next to an open window, where outside they were hosting a luau. We split up after dinner and Summer and I walked around a bit more before coming back to the room. I stayed up a bit late to pack as much as I could before bed.

Tropical evenings