Tag: Reviews

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Unbreakable

I woke up just before my alarm this morning and made it to work pretty early. I really thought I had to get Jim’s imaging issue fixed, but he called me away to babysit a Google Meet interview in the boardroom. You would think with so many educated people in a room, they could figure out how to click the button to join a meeting. I wasn’t even that surprised to find it was the interviewee who couldn’t figure out how to show our video, but I could at least have the chief of staff pull the Meet up on his phone and prove that our video was broadcasting correctly.

After that, I decided to give Captain D’s a try since I was already on that side of town. The girl at the counter could not have been more disinterested, but somehow the food was really great. I stopped at Walmart for some drinks on the way back to the office, and finished out the day in relative quiet. I had also picked up some dog food on clearance, but was overcharged, so I stopped by Walmart again on my way out of town to correct that.

I got home and Summer and the kids were on the couch watching gymnastics. I went out to play with Muad’Dib for a bit. Eaddie left to go stay the night with her father, and Summer came outside to sit with me for a little bit. Things have been super volatile, which made it a terrible time to try and discuss any of our issues, so she yelled at me and stormed off. I gave her a minute before following her to the living room, and she yelled at me a bunch more. That was when I saw she had gotten a new tattoo that said “Unbreakable” on her left forearm, and it crushed me.

Once we had cooled off, she sent me to take Muad’Dib for a run. He did great, didn’t chase any geese, and got to play in the creek for a little while since I just needed to be in the air for a little while. We made it over to my parents’ house to visit with them, and he got some more leftover pork before we headed home. Mom had leftover bún thang, so I asked Summer to come have dinner with them. We used to go visit much more often, and it’s been a big issue for me that it seems like she never wants to make the time with my family. I explained this again, and was super happy that she agreed this time. It was a great visit and great food.

We talked a bunch more when we got home, and things shifted from good to bad and back again several times. I got some laundry done, and she got some sleep before her 5k in Dover tomorrow. I was ready to pass out at any moment, but had things to do.

You gotta give them to the land

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Nine-Tenths

I was severely sleep deprived, but I managed to get going and made it to work almost right at seven this morning. Gary was the only one that beat me there, but he was still smoking in his truck as I walked in. Johnny had called me just as I was taking my exit, so I continued to talk to him for a while after I got to my desk. Randy was out, but there wouldn’t have been much going on even if he was there.

Ben texted about lunch, so I met him at Flyway Brewing near the arena, and we shared some fried deviled eggs, and both got their smoked chicken wrap special. Everything was kind of “elevated” in some way, and tasted super good. We chatted for a while, and then I had to wait in the parking lot while a truck pumped something out of a hole in the ground.

The afternoon was super slow, and everyone snuck out a little early. I stopped in Morrilton for some beer, and then Summer and I spent some time together once I got home, before I took Muad’Dib out for his run. The weather was really nice for our ride, and he did pretty great. Once we got home, I sat on the porch and had some beer with Summer while we chatted. As it got dark, I set up my table tornado fire pit and we chatted until Eaddie got home.

By then it had gotten fairly late, so I put Summer to bed. Just as I sat down to wrap up, Shawna messaged to check on us, so I called and we talked for quite a while until bed.

Crash Time

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Keep Summer Safe!

I made it to work early again, but it was a sleepy drive both to and from after missing some sleep. I dug into SCCM some more, but didn’t really make any headway with my issue. The whole day just dragged on since it had felt like it should be Friday for the past three days.

Randy took me to North Bar to meet Jim and Kyle, and then Jay showed up as well, so I scooted to the adjacent table with him. I was super disappointed in the burger I got, due to the size and limited toppings. It was the most basic hamburger you could imagine, with almost nothing on it. I ate Jay’s fries and hushpuppies that he didn’t want, but his coleslaw was awful too. Overall a terrible experience.

The afternoon dragged on the worst until I headed home. The drive was long and dull, and I kept wanting to fall asleep. The car got me home safely though, and I took Muad’Dib out for a run before Summer got home from the gym. Dad was out taking senior pictures with Eaddie on Mt. Nebo, so we made it straight home where Summer was reclined on the porch with a glass of wine and her laptop, updating her résumé after a tough day at work.

We chatted for a bit, and then I came in to warm up some leftovers for us. I combined some meals into the gumbo and split it with her, and it turned out really good. After we ate, we talked for quite a while longer until she went to bed. Then I caught Shawna up on all the details and got her feedback. I did eventually make it to bed, but not for long.

My function is to “keep Summer safe,” not “keep Summer being, like, totally stoked about, like, the general vibe, and stuff.”

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Gateway 2000

I started getting texts early on the drive in this morning. Internet was down in multiple buildings, which meant something was down at the core. I got there and was able to ping switches, so I knew it wasn’t a network issue. Kyle was out, so Randy and Jim were at the high school trying to figure things out. It took them until just after lunch to figure out it was a misconfigured switch due to a power outage last night.

David from Howard brought a Clear Touch representative and lunch from Jimmy John’s to discuss some of the issues the techs had been facing ever since the boards were installed. I don’t think anyone was super impressed by the cold sandwiches, but free was free. We sat and talked for a while, and Randy eventually showed up once they got the switch reconfigured.

The afternoon was just as quiet, because nobody wanted to do anything by that time. I watched a livestream of Eaddie performing at Tech for the Music for All, but Summer was actually able to go in person. The temperature spiked outside and storms started blowing in, so Jimmy, Maggie, and I left the office a little bit early to beat the weather. I stopped in Morrilton for some drinks, then made it home where the kids were waiting for Summer to finish dinner. I cleaned up a bit, we ate, and then Summer and I sat outside with Muad’Dib and talked for a while.

Summer also made strawberries and whipped cream to go with some angel food cake for dessert. After we ate that, we considered taking the dog out for a bath. It got kind of late, and it was already gross outside though, so we ended up staying in and playing Heads Up! with the kids. Afterward, Eli left and Eaddie settled in. I laid down with Summer for a little while, cleaned up just a hair more, and eventually made it to bed.

I was caught in the middle of a railroad track.

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Best Doggy Life

Muad’Dib did great in our room last night, and Summer took him out for a potty break in the morning while I tried to sleep in a little bit. We eventually got cleaned up and she walked him, then I rode the Onewheel around the parking lot with him after we got everything out of the hotel and into the car. That was when I ran into Ashante, Julie’s old friend from school. She wanted to meet Muad’Dib, and I told her the story of how I found him. I mentioned that he made the trip from Russellville, and that got the wheels turning on how we knew each other. She remembered going to a pool party and me running around with a “Chucky” doll.

After all of that, we wanted to get lunch before Dad’s matinée show, so I found a dog-friendly restaurant called Red’s Pizzeria just a short walk from the trolly station with EV charging. Summer and I took Muad’Dib over to start charging and waited for my parents to show up. The restaurant was super cute, with basically a counter to place your order, and then a multi-level outdoor patio to sit and eat. Muad’Dib laid down by my side and was super chill the entire time, and the pizza was pretty good.

Back at the convention, the show was good. Dad’s Miser’s Dream went well, and Muad’Dib was much less nervous than the first night when we walked in and sat down right in the middle of a packed house. After the show, we tried to go back to the strip to walk around, but both chargers were occupied and I didn’t feel comfortable going to pay for parking in another place that was a tighter fit. We ended up going back to the chargers and just waiting for one of those two people to come back for their car. Fortunately it didn’t take too long, and it was a nice rest on a bench in the shade with the dog.

By then it was time to get dinner, so we made our way down to Local Flavor Cafe, who also had a porch for dogs. I rode the Onewheel down the hill in case I needed to go park for my parents and act as a faster valet service. They ended up just parking in the bank lane since they were closed, and we had a nice dinner. Our server even brought out a fresh bowl of water for Muad’Dib, who spent most of the time under my chair and got plenty of scraps.

The evening show was really good, but the three of us were exhausted from running around so much. Muad’Dib had the best doggie vacation he’d ever had, and behaved so wonderfully. He rode home perfectly with a quick stop in Ozark, and then he was super excited to see Eaddie when we got home. I let him sleep in Eaddie’s room, and Summer went straight to bed. I was up unexpectedly late, and I just know I’ll pay for it later.

I skipped a roll.

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Lost and Found

The old men snoozed while I fought my SCCM update some more today. There was hardly anyone around, from what we could tell. Jay was in and out, but only Kyle wanted to do lunch. I met him at Mr. Cheng’s for some table service Chinese which was pretty good. The afternoon went by quickly only because we left at two.

I charged in Conway and then picked up Dad so we could run by Leonard’s and move the old toilets out of the garage at the old house. Then I dropped him off and took Muad’Dib out for a run. We got around the basin trail and up Promenade Circle when I spotted a wallet on the side of the road. I picked it up and called the police station when we got to my parents’ house.

The officer that was sent to return the wallet said there had been several break-ins reported, so I used that to warn the girls again to keep things out of the cars and keep the doors locked. They were both gone until fairly late, so Muad’Dib and I rode down to Sonic for a bite.

When we got to the PDQ, I saw a couple young guys on bikes. There was one kid with an R1 with the same body style as mine, and another on what I think was a newer Grom than what I’ve got. I stopped to chat with them for a bit and learned the R1 battery was dead. I offered to help, but he had people on the way to help. As we talked about the bikes, he asked what color mine was and whether I used to work at the junior high. He said the R1 was his dream bike in large part because he always saw mine parked outside, which was super cool.

Muad’Dib and I went on to Sonic for some cheese sticks and a “strawberry mangonada slush” while the guys got the bike charged up with some jumper cables and then left. Then we rode on back home and I unboxed a bunch of Vine stuff before the girls got home.

Turned Around

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Spring Paws

I had a bunch of dreams last night, but none of them were notable enough to remember halfway through the day. I had trouble getting to work because the first two onramps I tried were closed, so I ended up driving all the way across town to the last onramp. Fortunately there was hardly any traffic due to spring break, so it was smooth sailing after that. I was late, but still walked in just as Randy was pulling into the parking lot. He wouldn’t have cared either way, because the old men were playing games or watching videos all day and he just quietly pointed it out to me and laughed.

Several of us went to Black Bear Diner for lunch and I tried the fish and chips, and I’m no longer thrilled about their all-you-can-eat fish on Fridays. It wasn’t bad, but it was just frozen, fried cod. The afternoon was even quieter, and Randy let us go about half an hour early.

I stopped to charge up to 80% to take advantage of my last few days of free Supercharging, and then made it home to run the dog. I was thrilled that Eaddie wanted to go ride her bike with us, so the three of us rode down past Kroger and over to Casey’s where I redeemed a free drink for us. Then we crossed back over to Oakland Heights before turning toward home. We stopped to see my parents and had just gotten back home when Eaddie realized she left her phone at their house. Muad’Dib and I rode back to get it, and after running for the entirety of our first outing, he walked nearly the entire time for our second. All total, we did 8.4 miles in almost exactly one hour with a top speed of about 17 miles per hour. He did great crossing traffic, and I only held the leash when we crossed to Casey’s without a light.

Summer was home by then, so we went to Peg Leg’s for some burgers. We were the only three souls in the restaurant, but we were pleased to see another table of four come in after us, and at least one person come through the drive-through. The food was good, but the cheese dip wasn’t warmed through. The flavors have always been great, but for the price, there wasn’t really any excuse for anything to be underprepared, especially if it’s basically just microwaved.

I unboxed just a couple new things when we got home, and then everyone was off to bed early.

Happy little locomotive.

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Double Quatro

I woke up super early this morning with a stomach ache, but I was able to get back to sleep for just a little bit longer. I didn’t sleep in too late though, and got up a little while before Summer. It was her birthday, so I made her some fresh ground coffee and gave her some gifts I had been holding back. After a little while, she went to the gym and I took a shower and ran the dog. We had a good run and swim in the creek, then circled by my parents’ house a couple times but nobody was home.

We thought we’d be going out for dinner with both of the girls, but when Eaddie wasn’t hungry when she finally got home from her overnight trip to Oklahoma City. Summer and I just went to New China by ourselves, and stuffed ourselves of some pretty mediocre food. Some of it was nice and fresh, but others were problematic. The rangoons tasted super stale like the wonton wrappers or oil were really old. Some of the other food was cold even though it looked hot and fresh on the bar.

Summer had an upset stomach herself when we got home, so I took Muad’Dib out for another run. We went straight to visit my parents that time, then he ran the rest of our route backwards until he was too tired to run and we just lollygagged back home for the night.

Ready, break!

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Mazel Tov Cocktails

I thought I was a little further behind today, but I still beat everyone but Gary to the office. I-40 was backed up from the McCain exit back to the I-30 split for much of the morning, and the slow traffic caused multiple other accidents because people love their jobs so much that they’re willing to risk it all. I had forgotten we were supposed to go to the annex to clean out the rest of the junk there, but everyone started at the office anyway, and they chatted about the school board passing the reorganization plan at the meeting the night before.

We eventually did head toward the annex, but Randy and Maggie had to go to central office and everyone else drove separately. I took the back roads and got there long before Gary, who left the office just after I did. Jim and Kyle were there first, then Jay, Brian, Jimmy, and Gary eventually showed up. Just before Gary got there, Randy called and needed me to get a virtual machine set up for remote HVAC access. I started back, but took JFK down to McCain rather than taking the Interstate.

As I got to my intersection, I was reminded that there existed a Hardee’s, so I stopped for breakfast. I had a deal for a sausage and egg biscuit, and I wanted to try their Nashville Hot chicken biscuit as well. The hash rounds were the best I’d ever had from a Hardee’s before, in spite of how much the employees appeared to be struggling. I ate those on the way back to the office.

It took me a while to get Hyper-V to do what I wanted, but I did get it done by the end of the day. People eventually filtered back into the office, and then Maggie and I met Randy and Kyle at Texas Roadhouse for lunch. The afternoon was pretty quiet, and Randy sent everyone home at three after he and I took pictures of the car accessories I got for him off of Amazon Vine.

I had no choice but to stop and charge on the way home, and Summer was on her way to Conway, so I charged up to my 80% limit and met her at the wash. They only had one working bay in the manual wash, but I eventually got in and washed. While I was there, a guy rode up to wash his motorcycle. I talked to him very briefly as I was working, and he complimented the Model 3 and asked if I’d seen all the stuff about the “mazel tov cocktails.”

The soap in the wash did an absolutely horrible job, but the paint looked better. I made it home through dumb, slow traffic, and tried to get the kids to ride bikes while I rode around with Muad’Dib. Eaddie fussed at first but said she’d text me after a bathroom break, so Muad’Dib and I set out to “find Stilgar.” I kept coaching him and let him lead, and he walked me straight to my parents’ house where Dad met us in the driveway.

We left there and went through the basin trail, and he took me down to Phoenix where we passed Mom on her way home. He walked me all the way to Ridgewood Brothers, so I tied him up and went inside for some pulled pork. Grant had his butcher hook me up with some scraps gratis, which was very touching since I’d been having a hard time with the nice weather and thinking about Stilgar. I absolutely love the new relationship I have with Muad’Dib, but I hate that this is how I got it. Our walks are a completely different experience now, and I miss Stilgar’s energy so much.

Muad’Dib went absolutely nuts when he smelled the food, so it was a struggle to get him calm enough to eat any. Then when we started to leave, he took off after some guests and I had to zap him a couple times before he’d leave with me. We lollygagged back toward my parents’ house, stopping for another dip in the creek. He did a lot of walking, a lot of marking, and a bit of running too. It was a good seven-mile trek in total.

I let Muad’Dib hang out inside while I unboxed my newest Vine haul. Summer got home from work late and ate before bed. Eaddie had left with Eli but came home a little earlier to go to bed. My legs and feet had been staying swollen for the past couple weeks even after sleeping all night, so I guess I should report that to someone, but I’m afraid of what it would cost to talk to someone again at the risk of receiving zero feedback.

What’s the point?

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Breakfast Kidnapping

I got out the door a little earlier again today, and considered stopping for breakfast. Things only got worse as Kyle and Randy came in and started talking about all kinds of food. Randy ended up wanting to go get breakfast, so I rode with him to #1 Donuts for some egg rolls, a kolache, and an apple fritter. Then he wanted to go to Dark Side Coffee across town. I did not expect it to be Star Wars themed, but I don’t really know what I was expecting. I was going to get the largest size of what he got, but the barista warned that it came with six shots of espresso and I downsized for safety.

We got back to the office and I stayed super busy all day. I kept juggling phone calls between Randy and Jim, but didn’t have great answers for either of them. I worked on into the afternoon trying to figure out our KMS situation for Windows authentication, and some things seem to authenticate, but not others. I ran to Arby’s for some chicken “nuggets” and potato cakes for a quick lunch that I ate at my desk.

I was excited to get home to run with Muad’Dib since the weather was still pretty nice. It was super windy again, and a great temperature for a hoodie. He did great off-leash again, and we never really got close enough to anyone for me to worry about stopping to hold him. We did spot some buzzards in the field at the basin trail, and I got worried for a moment that they had found Stilgar. I just wish I knew what happened to him, because I hate the idea that he crawled into a drainage ditch and died. I don’t know if that’s better or worse than being dumped in somebody’s garbage.

We visited Dad for a while and I brought his new brush over so he can get some grooming when he’s over there. Then we got home and the girls were out back waiting for us. We played for a while before I came in to get some food and look at some old Vine stuff from the other day. Then it was off to bed early.

The Candidate