Tag: Reviews

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Free Running

I got out of the house a little earlier today and had a sleepy drive in to work. I didn’t get into anything at all really, and just did a deep clean of my inbox that had gotten out of control. I checked in on Muad’Dib, and he was just sleeping on the porch, so I messaged Dad to see if he might want to take him out for a walk sometime, and he ended up taking him home while he worked in the yard.

I met Randy and Kyle at Fazoli’s for lunch. I had never been, but it was pretty decent, and seemed pretty cheap for Little Rock. We took a vendor call in the afternoon that wasn’t of much value to us, and then kind of rode it out until quitting time.

Summer traveled all day, so I stopped to charge most of the way up so I wouldn’t have to stay up late to swap chargers at home. Once I got home, I rode over to Dad’s to get Muad’Dib and we went on a long run to Ridgewood Brothers. I saw Kyler’s car there, but the doors were shut and they were working, so we sat on the bench for a little bit and then headed on back. We encountered a couple other big dogs that were pretty fussy, but then got to meet the same small dog we sniffed yesterday. I talked to the lady for a little bit and let them play, and then we headed back to my parents’ house to see them before we made it home.

Eaddie had a fundraiser at Freddy’s, so Summer got herself some food there. I ate some leftover goulash and then took my car to the wash because it was super gross. I couldn’t even see out of the rear camera very well. After that, I finally replaced an outside bulb I had been meaning to get to for weeks, and then unboxed most of my daily Vine stuff before bed.

Potato; tomato

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Review Recap

I awoke from a deep sleep this morning, and it was off to work again. Jimmy was the only one there, but then Kyle and I walked in together. Randy got there shortly after that, and I recapped my week and a half since I’d left. The rest of the day I tried to catch up on emails in between talks with Randy about getting my evaluation done. They had trouble getting the self-evaluation form to us, so Randy was stuck.

The two of us met Kyle and Jim at the Black Bear Diner, and we had breakfast for lunch. It was super good, and a reasonably good price for all the food we got. It was still expensive, but I had leftovers to save for tomorrow. I finally got my self-evaluation form in my personal email, so I spent the afternoon filling that out more than what was probably necessary. Then I ran home as quickly as I could so we could pick up Muad’Dib.

Traffic was awful even after I stopped to charge in Conway, but I eventually got home where Summer was waiting for me. She had her bicycle out to ride over, and Dad met us outside. Muad’Dib was just hanging out on the porch, and didn’t seem to mind much. I’d seen him really whimper in the past, so I thought he might be even more excited after we were gone so long, but he just sort of greeted us like any other time. We ran Summer home, and then the two of us went for our normal route at a leisurely pace. He did great off leash, but I did end up holding onto him a couple of times near another small dog, just as a precaution.

When we got home, I started unboxing Vine stuff. I got all of the smaller packages done, but I still had a couple large ones that were mostly outdoor light fixtures. I sprang to bed as quickly as I could, so hopefully I can maintain a healthy sleep schedule.

Bark

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Handoff the White

We should have gotten a much earlier start today, but we were all tired from the long week of excitement. Summer went down to meet Eaddie for coffee while I got things ready, and then we loaded up both of the kids to go home. We made it back to Terre Haute for a charge and ate at the adjacent Culver’s. They had just opened with a stunning crew of at least eight or nine people. Somehow they didn’t seem to have things right, but the food tasted fine.

I plotted a trip through Springfield, Missouri so we could eat at Lambert’s Cafe, but the kids started asking if we could meet Eli’s parents along the way to hand him off to them. They were pretty far ahead, so I pulled over in Effingham until they figured things out, and we managed to reroute to our same stop from the trip up in Salem to charge. By then, going through Springfield would add an hour to our trip, so we decided to go home the same way we came up instead, and skip the food.

When we got near Sikeston for our next charge, I saw a sign for Lambert’s, and realized their second location was actually just right up the road from the Supercharger, so we had our restroom break, charged, then went to eat. It was mid-afternoon, but they were still packed with a short wait to be seated. It was cold outside, having seen slightly freezing rain back at Culver’s from the wind, but we basked in the sun until they called our number.

The food was mostly pretty good, but I had possibly the worst steak I’d ever eaten. It tasted like boiled meat. Eaddie described it as tasting “wet.” I mentioned it to our server when he came by, and he brought me a cup of the seasoning they were supposed to use on it, and that helped. I mostly filled up on the pass-around sides though. Eaddie and I chowed down on their fried okra, which was perfect.

From there, we made it all the way down to Jonesoro, but it felt like we took more back roads than on the way up. It took us forever to get to the Kum & Go where we had charged before, and when we left, we ended up having to charge again in Conway, possibly due to weather or elevation. It was a super dull ride the rest of the way home in the pitch black, and it was too late to get Muad’Dib, so we left him with Dad for one more night, and we’ll get him tomorrow when we’ll actually be able to spend some time with him.

The universe has assured us throwed rolls.

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Conventions

I thought we would go to Comic Con this morning, but Summer wanted to spend the day watching the bands play at the Indiana Historical Society. I got wrapped up in my phone trying to figure out how to record the livestream, so I missed out on walking through the museum, but then we sat through several different bands. Some of them were super good, but others you could tell were getting tired, including ours who played near the end of the day. We took a break for lunch in the cafe downstairs, watched the kids play, then split up again to walk back to the hotel.

By that time it had gotten pretty late. We didn’t realize the vendor floor at Comic Con was closing so soon, but we found Elaine and then walked around for a little bit. I paid $20 for Summer to sit for a photo in a flying, time traveling DeLorean. Then she tried to sneak pictures of Ernie Hudson. We also saw a couple of the Reno 911 guys, Katee Sackhoff, and William Shatner from afar. Katee had the biggest line by far, and I think tonight would have been our best chance to actually visit with any of them, because it was pretty quiet at that time. They’re expecting a real flood of people to show up tomorrow.

As they closed things down, we stopped to see if Elaine wanted to go to dinner with us around the block at Dick’s Last Resort. She had been socializing with DC, Mario, and Erik from the Carrillo Art Studios caricature booth next to her, so we invited them as well. It took them a moment to get packed up, but the three of us walked down and met the three of them at the restaurant.

We got seated reasonably quickly, but service was incredibly slow. It took almost two hours to get our food, but luckily it tasted pretty good, and our server was definitely on the nice side of “rude” to us. It was still a fun experience, at least for me. The other three were anxious to get back to their lodging, and then I offered to run back to get my car so we could drive Elaine up the road to her bed and breakfast.

It was a straight shot to the garage, then an easy drive to the bed and breakfast. As soon as we got back to the hotel, Summer crashed and I wrapped up as quickly as my ADD-riddled brain could handle.

They feed on the attention!

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We’ve Been Conned

We slept in pretty late today as a reward for the long day of travel before. Summer finally made me get up so we could find our way to the opening ceremony. Eaddie got lost trying to find her way back to get us, but luckily we ran into Phoebe in the elevator, who got us to the right place. The ceremony wasn’t really “for” us, but Summer wanted to experience it. It was a huge mob of people, so it was neat to at least see all of them in one place.

After the ceremony, we tried to find our way back to the room, but immediately discovered how easy it was to get lost. I changed so I wouldn’t be overdressed, and we eventually took the car across town for a charge and some late lunch. The place turned out to be a co-working space, and there was a huge room with a bunch of food vendors, and even a barber. We ate at a burger place called The Bull Grill, which was super good. I particularly appreciated that in spite of being very tall burgers, they stayed together perfectly to the very last bite.

We headed back to the room again after that, until we got a text from Eaddie that they were going to the mall down the road. We thought that was our indication to meet them since they had discussed going together, but after a super long walk through a maze of escalators and skywalks, we arrived at the mall just in time to hear the closing announcement.

The kids wound up walking further up the road to eat at a nitrogen ice cream shop, but Summer and I weren’t really interested. We crossed the road and used my old gift card at Steak ‘n Shake instead. I still had money left after they closed our location at home, so Summer got a cherry Diet Coke and I redeemed a free birthday shake.

We decided to take the sidewalk back to the hotel since the weather was so nice, and as we walked past the giant convention center, we encountered a poor girl struggling to roll three giant suitcases down the broken and cracked sidewalk ahead of us. She even had a cane on top of one of them, so we decided to cautiously approach and offer assistance. We eventually learned that her name was Elaine, and she was there to set up a vendor booth for Growing Geeks Clothing at the Comic Con happening this weekend. A security guard refused to let her in and told her she had to go to the opposite side of the building to the registration desk. Fortunately we encountered another guy rolling stuff in a side door he had gotten through, so we helped Elaine get everything inside.

She was so thankful that she wanted to give us her extra exhibitor pass, but I wasn’t sure we would have time. Summer eventually caught up and jumped at the chance to go to the convention, so we ended up getting her to the registration desk, helped her locate and arrange her booth, and even hung a bunch of clothes on hangers for her. It was fun to make a friend, and by the end of it as we were walking out, we decided to go ahead and buy an extra exhibitor pass that she was allowed at the discounted rate of $50. When we got to the registration desk, the girl just handed me a pass for free after having her own long day, so Summer and I would both get to go together.

Not really believing our luck, we made our way back to the room for the night. I called my parents to share the excitement, and then Summer found Spider-Man: No Way Home on the TV, so I got sucked into the rest of that as she fell asleep. I was up too late in a mixture of ADD fog and ruminating about the dogs, but I eventually got there.

Buncha nerds.

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Indian Police

I woke up in a bit of a daze this morning, low on sleep after nightmares about Muad’Dib getting out of the back yard. I jumped right into getting cleaned up for our trip, the girls and I all went out to say goodbye to one super excited puppy, and we made our way to the Courtyard just over the interstate to meet everyone that was driving up in the convoy.

Eli rode with us, and the trip went really smoothly. We stopped to charge and snack in the Jonesboro Kum & Go. When we got to Miner, MO, the others stopped at McDonald’s for lunch. The charger was too far away for us to walk though, so we left the kids and Summer and I took our food to eat in the car while it charged. We got the kids back and made it to Salem, MO where a super excited Cybertruck owner walked out of the adjacent Subway and made a beeline straight for me. He shook my hand and we chatted for a while before he left to head the opposite direction. We went into the restaurant for a quick break and some cookies, then got to Terre Haute to leave Eli with his family.

The girls and I charged just up the road, then made it to Indianapolis where we went straight to Fogo de Chão for a nice dinner just blocks away from the hotel and convention center. The girls were hesitant until we got there, and then their eyes lit up as spears of fire-roasted meats danced by our table. The food was super good and it was a fun experience, but we filled up super fast and it wasn’t a great value in spite of the variety. I probably wouldn’t go again, only because of the price.

We walked back to the car and finally found our hotel, parked in the underground garage, and checked into our room. Eaddie’s roommates got back from dinner and I walked her upstairs to meet up with them, then headed back for bed after a long day of travel.

Brazilian Beasts

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Killswitch Triggered

Summer left early this morning for a run in Danville, and Eaddie got up shortly after I did, then left for some band assessment event. I felt a little rough from my meds again, but it wasn’t terrible. I got out to check on the dogs, and it sounded like they were gone. Summer got home just as I was getting dressed to go find them. Then I rode about nine miles all around the neighborhood before I finally found them on my second trip to my parents’ house. I kept listening for barking dogs, but hardly heard anything anywhere, and nobody I encountered had seen anything. We got home and I ended up tying Stilgar up and putting the shock collar on Muad’Dib. I think Stilgar just had too much fur for it to work on him.

After that, I took a shower and got ready to leave town. I washed my car first since it was covered in spots from being washed, sprinkled upon, and then dusted. Then I headed toward Fayetteville for Brandon’s birthday event. I stopped to charge in Ozark, then made it up to the Northwest Arkansas Mall to charge outside Dillard’s for a few minutes while I waited for everyone else to show up at Smokin’ Oak Wood-Fired Pizza and Taproom.

The mall was quite busy in most areas, but there were definitely dead spots too. Dillard’s had a surprising number of people, and there were a couple interesting stores inside. The food court seemed like the busiest area even though it was a little between lunch and dinner time.

I got to the restaurant just moments before Brandon, Diana, Ryan, Aaron, and Alma. I didn’t know what to think about the place, but it was their first time as well. It looked like it was a part of a fancy apartment complex, but it may have just adjacent coincidentally. It was a neat looking establishment though. We found a couple of tiny sofas and sat around a coffee table thing before getting any food. They had a wall of beers and wines that were all self-serve, and we had to go get an RFID bracelet that let us tap to pour. I really liked everything I tried, and the pizza wasn’t bad either, though it was all pretty pricey.

It was a great time catching up, but we had to get down the road to the concert at JJ’s Live. Aaron and Alma weren’t going, so we bid them farewell and I ended up driving the other three to the venue. We parked across the street at Target and walked over where it was a relatively easy entrance to a pretty packed floor. It was a very industrial chic with a catwalk balcony overhead. We were late enough that we completely missed Frozen Soul, but we stood near the back of the floor for Fit for a King and got to see their whole set. By the end I was sweating pretty hard and went to the concession stand to get some water.

While standing in line, I started to feel faint like I did at the school’s self-care fair. I ended up taking a knee right in line a couple of times, and finally got to the point where I turned to the guys behind me and let them know I thought I was having blood pressure issues. I asked them to help me get some water while I walked to the wall and had a seat on a flat dolly. They mentioned a nearby EMT, then reported the venue was out of water bottles, but the bartender poured her water into a cup of ice and gave that to me. Then I asked the guys to go ahead and get the EMT just to have him check my blood pressure.

That was when I met Hunter, the 22-year-old, patchwork tattooed, chatty EMT. I had a giggle to myself at his little Kilroy tattoo. He was super friendly and did his best to get my BP, pulse, and oxygen levels while I was sitting there. It was hard for him to hear, but he thought I was right around 120, which was unexpected. After sitting through all of that, I felt good enough to walk outside while he accompanied me to find a chair. It got super cold, super fast.

I texted the group and stayed outside for all of Kublai Khan TX’s set, but from what I heard, they would have been way too hard for me anyway. Diana came out to find me outside between sets, and then we went back inside for Killswitch Engage. I definitely liked them the most, but most of it was still too hard for my liking. We weren’t close to the stage at all, but it was still too much of a packed floor for me. I thought I was going to feel bad again at one point, but kept drinking water out of the sink until I felt fine.

After the show, we made it to the car really quickly and I dropped Brandon, Diana, and Ryan off at their car. Then I made it back to Ozark for a charge, break, and snack. I got home well after midnight and wrapped up quickly for bed.

Hydrate.

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Call Me Now for Your Free Reading!

I was even earlier to work today, and pulled in right behind Kyle. He was still having trouble installing Features on Demand, but didn’t stick around very long. It was mostly Gary, Maggie, and me in the office all day. All of the guys called me several times for help, totaling 19 calls by the end of the day. I left to get McDonald’s for lunch and had my best experience at that location by far. The food was all really hot and fresh for once.

The afternoon went by quickly since I took lunch so late, and just as I was trying to leave I got an email from our HVAC guy because we broke his access to the old server when we finally got Windstream to forward the address to the new server. Kyle ended up calling to find out it wasn’t critical, so we went home.

I stopped for a while to charge before making it home through awful traffic again. Eaddie and her friend Autumn were there, but left while Summer worked on the couch. I took the dogs out for a long run to Ridgewood hoping for some barbecue, and had to stop at Kroger when I found an abandoned cart on the bike trail behind the building. When we got to the entrance, we spotted Mia and Aimee selling Girl Scout cookies. While we were talking to them, Mom and Dad walked out with some groceries.

We made it to the restaurant, but they were completely packed. I briefly saw Grant run outside, so I yelled at him and we left. We came through the basin for another bath, then went to my parents’ house and then home. The dogs did pretty well overall, but Stilgar pulled the leash quite a bit.

I wanted to clean up some mashed potatoes and coleslaw, so I went to KFC to pick up some chicken. Summer and I ate and then she went to bed. Eaddie came home pretty late and went straight to bed. I got there eventually.

You can’t fool Miss Cleo!

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Networking Chops

I made up quite a bit of time on the way to work this morning, but there wasn’t anything going on. I helped Kyle set up some server tools before he left, then ended up working on sleuthing a DNS issue for most of the day. Our representative that was supposed to set up our new Alerton HVAC system on the server I spun up several months ago was still having trouble getting it to work, and I figured it was because she didn’t realize she was still talking to the old server. Even Randy seemed to get caught up in a separate SSL issue, but I think I had it pegged from the get-go.

I ended up going down the road for lunch on my own and decided to finally try the fried chicken, along with the catfish, at Louisiana Fried Chicken. The food is always pretty decent, but every time I walk in there, I swear it’s a front for the drug cartel. I was the only one eating there, and I think maybe two cars came through the drive-through. A couple people walked in but left without ordering, and another group of four or so people picked up some food. The staff is always nice, but you’re not going to win any awards for old fried chicken kept under an open-air heat lamp.

The afternoon felt the most successful after Randy took me to central office to help with a couple issues. I got to present myself a little more loosely after having a little more face time with some of the staff there, and I finally conveyed our DNS issue to Randy in a way that he understood. We got back to the office and casually finished out the day.

I stopped to charge on the way home and decided to redeem my free Grand Slam at the Denny’s there. It was quiet, and service was quick. I got in and out in just enough time to get about a 50% charge, then made it home to run the dogs.

Dad called earlier in the morning and said they had gotten out and over to his house again. He walked them home and then took them out for another walk in the afternoon, but I was frustrated with them when we got home and we took a pretty stern walk. We stopped to see him, then encountered Mom as we were riding home. She caught up to me and asked about going out to eat, but neither of the girls were home.

Summer got home from work and the gym as I was finishing up my Vine shipments, and then Eaddie got home a little later and said we forgot her robotics banquet to which Summer had RSVPed. I live and die by my calendar for exactly that reason, and it upsets me when they fail after I push them to do the same. They caught up for a bit before bed, and then I wrapped up my own things as quickly as I could.

This is obviously a front.

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Driverless

After being overcast all day yesterday, it finally rained most of today. I brought some leftover pizza to work, which prompted Randy and Kyle to want pizza for lunch. Things were fairly quiet most of the day, in preparation for another heated board meeting about budget cuts in the evening. I helped Gary and Charles image a couple laptops, but had to figure out why they didn’t seem to have the right RAID drivers.

The car drove Maggie, Charles, and me to Larry’s for lunch, which was super good. We got there right as they opened, and they somehow maintained a flow of fresh pies that was enough to feed a growing dining room. Then the afternoon was a lights-off kind of day until quitting time.

I stopped for nearly a full charge on the way home since I’d be losing my free supercharging by the end of the month. Then I took the dogs for a good backwards walk where we went up the hill, down to see Dad, and then through the slightly-flooded basin trail. Summer was home when we made it back, and the boys got hot dogs and dinner while I tinkered with some old Vine stuff that had been sitting around for a while.

Summer went to bed, Eaddie got home pretty late, and I tried to go to bed early so I could try and get some extra birthday treats in the morning.

Pizza, pizza!