Tag: Reviews

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Downed

I was up late moving some more stuff, and I finally got a call early this morning from Adam, who asked for our address because he had put my parents’ address on our quote. He and two younger guys showed up, I handed over $3,500, and then Adam left the other two to it. They had to drop off a trailer and then go get supplies, so I took Muad’Dib for a quick run around the block. Then they came back to move some furniture and hang plastic around the room.

I tried to get some work done, but I still had so much other stuff to clean and move around that I actually couldn’t concentrate on anything. Coupled with a stomach ache for much of the morning, I just wasn’t productive. Eaddie came home from her first day of college, I scolded her for the state of her bathroom and had her clean it up so the guys could use it, and they eventually finished up pretty early in the afternoon.

The whole house was hot and dusty – moreso after more of the ceiling was missing. The plastic sheet slowly fell throughout the evening. I felt gross, and a shower didn’t help a great deal. Summer had to work late, so when I asked what she wanted for dinner, she immediately responded with Brangus. I mistook the message and drove to Check-H, then realized my mistake and drove the extra few blocks.

Summer enjoyed her meal, but just about ever aspect of our visit was middling-to-poor for me. It started with stale peanuts and a burned tumbleweed, then followed through with an old, dried up baked potato, and rounded out with a cold steak.

We got back to the house and I took Muad’Dib out for a run because the quick spurt of rain we had just before dinner had dried up on the ground. It felt quite a bit nicer, but got dark quick. I had more cleaning to do before bed.

out

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All Symptoms Nominal

I decided to fast before my afternoon appointment, just in case they failed to ask me to do so. I made it with a single cup of black coffee, barely over half full. As the afternoon approached, we had a conference call with the folks working on the new website, so I got in the car and hopped on the Google Meet. It lasted for almost exactly the entire length of my commute home, where I changed clothes and left Muad’Dib at the house for Summer, who had left work and made it through the gym early.

The clinic must have been overbooked, because my total visit was about two hours. I waited several minutes to get called back, had my blood pressure taken, waited forever and had it taken again because it was so high the first time, and then waited some more until Crystal came back to chat with me. I got renewed on my meds, which was the primary goal, and then she had the nurse come back in to do an EKG as a part of troubleshooting the ongoing anxiety/panic/spaceout attacks.

Summer hadn’t really eaten either, so I picked them up and we went to Ridgewood Brothers to see Grant for his birthday and to get some dinner. We got a full order of nachos, which were a full tray of chips, some grainy cheese dip, and an ultimately disappointing amount of brisket. They tasted great, but the ratios just seemed way off and I couldn’t tell if they were made incorrectly, or if the recipe just needed some work. For the size of the gray we got, I wouldn’t mind paying more to get more meat on them. They were just so chip-heavy. Muad’Dib got a bone out of a pork butt, but we had to take it away from him as he started to tear it up.

We started watching Bee Movie to cool down when we got back to the house, but I got up in the middle of it to take Muad’Dib on a run to Walgreens to pick up my prescription. I should have brought his water, because the heat was unrelenting, and it got him just barely walking. I thought he might have to stop to cool down for a while, but he powered through. We got to the house and cooled down, and finished our movie before bed.

We are go for lunch.

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Southern Tails

I’m having trouble finishing up some tasks at work because of the randomness of it all, and from simply not knowing what I’m doing every time I receive a new one. Rhonda came up first thing and said her internet wasn’t working. I checked the switch and everything seemed fine there, so Muad’Dib and I went down to have a look. Peyton was having trouble as well, and while Muad’Dib and Bear were playing, Bear peed on the ground. Peyton cleaned that up, and as soon as he walked out, Muad’Dib peed on the trash can, so I had to clean that up. Fortunately it didn’t take terribly long for me to find that their DNS settings were manually set to the old domain controller, which I had inadvertently turned off, but shouldn’t have been used for DNS any longer anyway.

I took Muad’Dib outside for some impressive and unexpected zoomies around the parking lot. He had wild eyes, and his tongue flew back in the wind as he sprinted in a figure-eight. We eventually made it back upstairs and started poking at the old server and the old virtual domain controller. The server had been running out of space, and it looked to be from backups of its own database, so that’s something for me to clean up.

We eventually took a break and went to Taco Bell for lunch since they had a couple tables outside. I wasn’t expecting it to be so hot in the sun, but it was blazing with only a few clouds in the sky. He did well while I ate, but then snuck through the door the second time I went back inside to throw my trash away. One of the employees shooed him out behind my back, so I took him out and put him in the car.

I spent some time in the afternoon looking at our security cameras, trying to figure out why the IPs appeared to match our existing scheme, but also may have been duplicating IPs. Confusingly, I think it’s on a completely different physical network and they just happened to use some of the same range.

At the end of the day, I changed into some shorts and we headed to Southern Tail in Little Rock to meet Mitch, Blake, and their friend Aaron. We got a table outside and pretty quickly got into some food. We expected at least one other person who never showed. I was super disappointed in the portions with my chicken sandwich, and I didn’t love the fried green tomatoes. It seemed like the fish and chips have been the only really impressive thing I’ve had there, and that was mostly because it was salmon. Muad’Dib did great though, and we had a good time chatting, though it was a bit more scattered in conversation than the last couple times we visited. It was an enjoyable evening though, and then we eventually made it back home and straight to bed.

What’s eating you‽

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Play Sassafras Chicken in D, and Make It Extra Lumpy!

I didn’t really sleep in, but had a slow start this morning. Summer went outside for a bit, and I cleaned up some leftovers to make breakfast. We had one small baked potato that I sliced and fried with some leftover onion, and then i scrambled some eggs in with some dried up flour tortilla crumbs. It actually turned out pretty good.

Jon said Alex would be here at noon, but he was over half an hour late to come look at our ceiling. He seemed to think they could just replace a couple panels of drywall and then scrape the rest of the ceiling. Hopefully we get a quote back soon, and it’d be even better if it came in under five grand.

Summer and I had a couple of “arguments” throughout the morning that just left us both feeling defeated. She went to the gym and I tried to start some laundry, but had to clean up a mess that they had left first. Eaddie left to hang out with friends, and Summer and I decided to go to the movies for a late matinée to see The Naked Gun.

I didn’t really enjoy the movie at all. It just seemed really dumb with a couple cheap giggles, but absolutely no rolling, laugh-outloud moments for me. I was hungry when we got home, so we took Muad’Dib to Chipotle for a late dinner. They had a little outdoor seating area, and it felt great outside.

After dinner, we went for a quick run in the dark to see my parents before winding down for bed.

Weird Al is waiting for us!

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Fantastic Fourth Try

I wanted to take Muad’Dib out for another early run since we’d be gone all day, and Summer wanted to clean up the yard a bit more after Eaddie’s mowing yesterday. Then we got ready to take my parents to Little Rock for some KPOT and a movie.

Mom drove us all in her car, so it was a little wild. Eaddie was stuck in the very back and got carsick, but she made it to the restaurant. This was only my second time at KPOT, and it was pretty frustrating. We were sat relatively quickly, but it took nearly ten minutes for anyone to acknowledge our existence after that. A girl eventually came over and asked if our server had talked to us yet, and it really seemed like tables weren’t assigned to servers, and she had just decided to take care of us.

The soup base came out slowly, long after we received our first order of meats and veggies. It took a while for us to get our soups boiling, so I had a plate of some fried rice and chicken nuggets while I waited. The rest of the food was fairly good, but it really made me rethink the value of the experience. I had a much better time on my first visit.

By the time we finished, we had just enough time to get across Little Rock to the IMAX for our movie. We were sat in our usual spots, but Mom couldn’t handle the giant screen, so she and Dad went back up several rows. We thought the movie was pretty good, but found it to be really predictable with very little rewatchability. I might sit through it if I caught it on television in a hotel, but otherwise I don’t know that I would ever seek it out to watch it again on my own.

The trip back home was just as scary, but we bumped Eaddie up a row. Muad’Dib was super excited to see us, so we took a quick run to see Dad before making it back home for a good bath and brushout before bed.

He does not want. He feeds.

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Super

I made everyone get up a little early today so we could get breakfast, hoping that we would make time for lunch or dinner later in the day. They had the same offerings as they do during the conferences I’ve attended, except for the addition of custom omeletts. I don’t recall having those during ACOT. The food was good, though I missed out on the poppyseed bread when they changed that out for cinnamon. My omelett was great.

After breakfast, we all got packed up and checked out. We had some time to kill, and it had been a little rainy, so we went to the Park Plaza mall. They weren’t open yet, so we waited in the parking lot for a little while before going in to browse. Summer kept chatting up a mattress sales guy in Dillard’s, so we were stuck there for longer than I wanted, but otherwise it was a fine time. We made it to the food court so they could get bobas, and I grabbed a pretzel and frozen lemonade.

Once we left that mall, we went across town to the Promenade to walk around. We really only went in to two stores, and one of them was the Apple store, so it didn’t really count. I felt a little bit conned because the girls had been talking about being excited to go shop, but then neither really jumped in to any of the stores, nor buy anything that I recall.

As movie time approached, Summer and I went in to AMC while the kids got ice cream. I got our snacks ordered, and then we got seated with plenty of time. Unfortunately I had been dehydrated all day and drank too much before the movie, so I couldn’t make it all the way through.

I thought Superman was awesome. It was a pretty big departure from anything we’ve ever seen, which was fine. It really dove head-first into a new, existing universe, and did so unapolagetically. It was pretty funny to watch a fight happening in the background while Lois and Clark talked in the foreground. Just another day in Metropolis.

After the movie, we headed back home and I took Muad’Dib out for a quick run before dark. Then he had a great bath when we got home. I’m trying so hard to reinforce behaviors, but it’s difficult when the girls don’t follow the same patterns. He knows who lets him get away with stuff.

It was tough getting everything done and ready for work in the morning. It feels like the girls forget that I’m tired too, and that I don’t like how little sleep I get while they’re already in bed for hours.

Man…

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Go Fourth

I hardly got any sleep last night, and I’m not sure Summer slept well either, but we managed to get up in plenty of time to get her to Little Rock for her Firecracker Fast 5k. It started in a neighborhood, wound through the zoo, then ended at War Memorial Stadium. There were a ton of people registered, so I watched the sea of people flow through the starting line, then tried to make it down the road to the finish line.

Unfortunately they had roads closed off enough that runners actually beat me to the area. I ended up finding a charger at a hotel for a little while before making my way the long way around to pick up Summer. I was supposed to meet Kyle to give him the cooler he won, but he wasn’t out of the house before Summer finished, so I just delivered it to his girlfriend’s house through The Heights.

The neighborhoods we drive through were really neat, with a mix of really old and really nice looking homes. After that, we stopped nearby at The Buttered Biscuit for some breakfast and drinks. They were mostly empty, but only had two servers and asked us to wait. Luckily they got staffed quickly, because the restaurant filled up super fast. We got drinks, but my Surf & Turf Bloody Mary didn’t have most of the listed ingredients. Specifically, there was no shrimp, olives, pickles, or celery. Just a lonely strip of bacon, dropped in like a meat stirrer.

The food was mostly good, but somehow they messed up my scrambled eggs. They were overcooked, dry, and flaky. My chicken and waffle was good though, and Summer liked her Bacon Avocado Bennie. We also got some beignets that were great. Overall it was pretty good though, and I figured they were just thrown out of whack with the influx of runners.

We visited the wine store next door on the way out, then headed back home. I considered stopping for a movie somewhere, but we didn’t do a thing. Summer suggested we nap when we got home, but I don’t nap well. We lounged for a bit, I did some laundry, and then Summer got in a rush to go to Walmart to get some fruit for a picnic.

I was a little excited to go to the Supercenter since I hardly ever get over there any more. I don’t even remember the last time I went. We picked up a bunch of food, then browsed most of the store before leaving. Summer tried prepping our picnic several hours ahead of time, then got upset when I suggested that she didn’t have to do that. We just separated and left each other alone until it was time for us to start getting ready.

I gave Muad’Dib a bath since he had been outside overnight. He behaved pretty well, but I wish I could get him to shake on command. He let me clean his paws and scrubbed his fur a bunch. Then I took him outside for a blow-dried brushing. Summer completed packing the picnic, but for some reason decided to load everything into her wagon that wouldn’t fit into my car. I unloaded that, got everything into the car, and we headed to the mountain.

I only remember going to the mountain and seeing fireworks on New Year’s Eve, so I don’t think I’d ever seen them on Independence Day. We went straight to Sunrise Point and ate our picnic at a table. Muad’Dib minded reasonably well off-leash. When we finished eating, I loaded some stuff back into the car and we walked to the overhang. It was way too early to see anything, but at least it felt nice outside with a nice breeze.

People filled into the area pretty quickly as the sun went down. Overall I was kind of underwhelmed by it all. Having that many people around kind of killed the mood for me, and it wasn’t long before bugs started chewing up my legs. It seemed like we kind of led the exodus as we headed home.

I stopped at Casey’s for a slush on the way, then gave Muad’Dib a vacuuming when we got home. Eaddie was back from her day with Eli’s family. Summer went straight to bed, so I tried to lay with her for a bit, but she passed out.

Start to Finish

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This Ain’t It, Chief

I had a Soylent this morning when I got to work, and I think it really did help settle my stomach after the last few days. Joel said we could talk about HubSpot after I got settled in, so I went upstairs for a while. He eventually stopped by and we went down to the conference room to chat. I still really can’t tell what my day-to-day is going to look like, but it feels less based on specific projects, and more about just being ambitious enough to find things to improve. I could be way off base, but I haven’t really been given any other direction yet. I joked that it didn’t seem like this was an IT job, but I think it’ll be good for me. It feels like I’m moving in the right direction.

A little while later I went to MethDonald’s for lunch. The drive-through was packed, but even more people were standing angrily around the counter when I went inside. I had already placed my order online, but the app crashed and I couldn’t see the number. I eventually went to the counter myself, and a nice lady went back to make it fresh. All the while I watched as the druggies and teen mothers with barely any clothes paced back and forth, coming in and out the doors, to and from the counter.

My food was great, and the app ended up refunding me later in the day because it thought I never picked up my food. I made it back to the office and re-racked some stuff upstairs. Teisha came up and said they were shutting down at three, and luckily someone came to get me later because I had lost track of the time.

When I got back to town, I stopped to see Summer to see if I could finally install my yoke. I ran home to get the parts and tools, cleaned up the laundry room a bit in the process, and got back out there just before closing time. I had the process down, but the new connectors for the scroll wheels didn’t seem to have clips to release, so I ended up having to drive Summer’s car back home after they were closed so I could get needle nose pliers. I made it back, and Summer got angry because they hadn’t properly cleaned the pit. I finally got my old wheel loose, all the components moved to the yoke, and after a little bit of back and forth, got the yoke properly installed.

Summer headed home, exhausted and filthy. She sent me to Zaxby’s for dinner, and it took them over 20 minutes to cook our food. I had already planned to stop at KFC for some coleslaw, and they weren’t much better. That restaurant has gone downhill so far that it should just about be condemned. I listened as a young drive-through attendant yelled at a customer through the speaker. Then, who I presume was the manager, went to the window and yelled at him some more. He demanded his card back, then peeled out away from the building. Meanwhile, I appeared to be joined in the lobby by the special education class of 1975. I miss the glory days of going there for the lunch buffet with Allen and whoever else would join us.

I finally got home, and Summer had let Muad’Dib back inside without cleaning him. The frustration and disappointment and depression of the whole situationship washed over me, and he and I immediately left for a walk around the block.Of course I didn’t have a waste bag, so he pooped and I had to pick it up with a napkin I had in my pocket. We got home and I put him out back for the night, then unloaded my car before going to cool off in the bedroom. Summer came back to find me after a while, and fell to the floor in her own bout of frustration. I left her to go eat some cold chicken, then cleaned everything up and came back to put her to bed for her race in the morning. We laid down to talk for a little bit, but I’m really at a loss. Things are bad, but the fact that things are bad is making things worse.

Too much attention.

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TwoDay

I got Hardee’s again this morning and had a chicken biscuit on the drive in, then saved the country steak biscuit for an early lunch. I spent all day in my office just familiarizing myself with things and trying to remember where to find it all. I’ve been in the Google ecosystem for so long that Microsoft tools are cluttered and overwhelming, and it doesn’t help that my laptop runs pretty slow. It seems to always be pretty quiet upstairs, though people will pass by occasionally. The office and hallway echo a lot, so I’m more self conscious about the sounds I make than anything else.

I still had to get my car insurance paperwork signed, so I tried going to a local agent who sold Progressive in the afternoon. She was only a little bit snotty about not being able to help me. I grabbed a little double bacon cheeseburger and some Takis fries from Wendy’s, and though the restaurant was super slow, the food was hot and fresh. The fries were actually better than I expected.

The last couple hours of the afternoon went by quietly, and the lady across the hall poked her head in to ask how late I was staying. Without being given actual working hours, I let her know I could walk out at any point. She had a key to lock up, and figured we were the last ones there, so we walked out together through a dark office downstairs.

I drove straight home to find Summer and Eaddie playing Guitar Hero in her room. Eli showed up just a moment later, and then I jumped in to play a song with Eaddie and Eli. Summer wanted to eat after that, but I had to take care of a bunch of Vine stuff. She was stressed by it at first, but ended up really liking the things I got for her.

We eventually made it to Morelos for a surprisingly cheap dinner date. All these restaurants offering discounts to pay with cash, and charging extra to pay by card, are making me consider my options. I still hate how dirty cash is though. I’d rather keep my wallet lighter and keep their checks on the books.

Eaddie had Maristella and about half a dozen of her siblings over, and they were all watching TV and playing in the living room when we got home. I received a response from FutureMotion earlier in the day that my Onewheel was in for repairs. They said the controller module was replaced under warranty, suggested I pay $125 to have them replace the tire because it was “significantly out of round,” they replaced a loose gasket inside the motor “as a courtesy” that was causing a clicking sound that I had never noticed, that the battery module was somehow out of spec and would have to be replaced for $700 because it was only covered for six months rather than the whole year. That seemed like a lot of money for a $2,950 board, but the kicker was that they wanted $80 shipping to send it back to me.

But look at me, all made-of-money and shit.

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Destinare

I slept pretty hard last night and didn’t set an alarm, so it was lucky that I woke up just in time to get cleaned up and hit the road to make it to Stephen’s visitation. We decided to take Muad’Dib with us since Eaddie had plans to go boating with some friends. Summer and I just drove ourselves and planned to meet my parents and Julie in Bismark.

We made it to Ola where we stopped for some Chester’s Chicken and a dried up chimichanga to tide us over. The drive down Highway 7 was mostly fun, but before we got to Jessieville, a Camaro and I got stuck behind a long line of people driving 15 miles under the speed limit. The internal monologue was not kind. The external monologue wasn’t much better.

Once we got into Hot Springs, I decided to stop at the Franklin’s Charging Station to get a little bit of juice just in case we were stuck out in the middle of nowhere for a while. I figured we would be leaving Muad’Dib in the car for a while as well, and I wasn’t sure how much power that would take. It wasn’t as nice of a place as their Little Rock location, but it was fine to be in a place just outside of town.

We made it to the Bismarck First Methodist Church just after the rest of my family, and we let Muad’Dib out to stretch his legs. He made a quick loop through the church before we put him back in the car. I wasn’t terribly impressed with the service because it felt very impersonal to me. We didn’t really even stay long enough to visit with the family for very long. Once they had the flag unfolded and folded back up again, we left.

Julie was pretty hangry, so I suggested Fisherman’s Wharf for their dog-friendly deck over the water. When we got there, I was surprised that there wasn’t a wait for outside seating, since there appeared to be a line of people waiting to sit inside. We made it through the restaurant to our table, and Muad’Dib had lots of fun looking around, and staring at geese in the water. It took awhile for our food to come out. Letting our waitress, named Destiny, choose my entire meal seemed only fitting.

My food was good, but Julie complained about her fillet. I ate what she didn’t, and I agreed that it was overcooked and under-seasoned. The gator tail appetizer was also an incredibly small portion of incredibly small pieces. At least they tasted pretty good.

We parted ways after our early dinner. Julie took Mom and Dad back through Little Rock again, and Summer and I went into Hot Springs to wander around. I first took us through the car wash a couple of times since I wouldn’t be back again, presumably ever. Then we made it downtown where the Tesla chargers were all occupied. Luckily, the power pole right behind the available spot had a piece of plywood with multiple varied outlets available. I got my mobile connector out, and wouldn’t you know, the very first plug I tried was energized and we were up and going.

Muad’Dib had a great time walking the strip off-leash with us. He behaved super well, except for one moment when he wouldn’t stop sniffing a poodle walking the other direction. I held onto his e-collar remote after that, and he immediately returned to my side any time I beeped him. We walked down a ways, crossed the street, and walked down to find some ice cream. Summer asked for a pup cup, and though that wasn’t something they normally did, the girl gave her a cup of whipped cream anyway. We sat outside, fed him, and shared a banana split. Then it was back to the car.

Take my hand!

Take my hand!

I filled up some water bottles, and then we loaded up to head home. I let the car drive the entire way home up Highway 7, and it did fabulously. Muad’Dib appreciated not sliding back and forth in the seat from hitting the curves at three times the recommended speed, and Summer didn’t have to stop to throw up. I just accepted that the drive would be less exciting, and more relaxing instead.

I stopped at Casey’s for a freebie, and then we made it home. Eaddie was back and didn’t bother coming out of her room to greet us. I took Muad’Dib out in the dark for a short, cool, evening run. We went straight to my parents’ house, then a modified route back home. He did great, and was ready for bed once we got home.

My Vine reviewed appeared to be up to date enough that my review period was over. The girls both went to bed, I vacuumed Muad’Dib and gave him a spritz of cologne, and eventually went to sleep.

Choose your own adventure. Or not. Whatever.