At Your Services

We had a good ride to work this morning and planned to tinker more with Intune, but I ended up going up and down the stairs for, probably, a record number of times. First it was Rhonda with the typical “everything is broken and nothing is working.” Then I had difficulty troubleshooting an issue for Elizabeth. The highlight of the day was simply the fact that I managed to stay extra hydrated through it all.

It was nice out, so we went to Sonic for a snack. McDonald’s teased $2 McNuggets again, but again they weren’t available in the app. We came back and ultimately ended the day fighting an Aptean print service issue that we’ll have to pick up tomorrow.

We made it home through heavy traffic since we left work late, and ended up taking an early exit, which placed us right next to Mom as she was driving home. Summer had been home and in a bath for a while, so I tried to figure out some proper dinner for myself since nobody else was hungry.

I ended up finishing thee leftover pizza, and it rained some more, so Summer and I watched another episode of Funny AF, which was again, not the funniest, but had moments. Eaddie left with Eli since we weren’t going to my parents’ house to fry eggrolls. After one episode of our show, Summer went to bed and I wrapped up a couple minutes early myself.

⛈️ 73°F
Precipitation: 87%
Humidity: 92%
Wind: 4 mph

Wringing the Air

I slept in while Summer went to her run, and we had a much better day after that. We got up to eat some leftovers, and then I tried to be productive with some of the stuff all over the house. Summer has been excited about the new Masters of the Universe movie, but I learned that she was completely unaware of the old 1987 movie starring Dolf Lundgren. I found it for free on YouTube, so we watched that in the afternoon. Afterward, Summer wanted to take a nap. Eaddie was around for most of the day, but left later on.

I had set up a tiny dehumidifier last night, but it hardly pulled any water out of the air. Today, I uncovered a larger one I had ordered a while back, so I set it up and found it to work much better. Even with all the rain we’ve had lately, the little one barely had a quarter tank of water after 24 hours.

I took a shower late in the day, and then Dad asked for help unloading some things they had picked up at the store. I took Muad’Dib out for his run, but then saw that my parents were already home, so we circled back and got there as quickly as we could.

By the time we got back to the house, I had worked up my appetite. There wasn’t really anything left in the refrigerator, so I used my 50% discount at Domino’s and took the Onewheel out again so Muad’Dib could get some more steps in. Summer and I ate, and then lounged in front of the TV for the rest of the night. Out of nowhere, I had my first anxiety attack, I believe since I started taking my iron supplements again. It was a really short event, but still left me a little dazed. Eaddie showed up with Eli, and they watched a movie while we went to bed.

Good journey. 👋

Family Assembled

We slept in a while today after a long day yesterday. Summer got up, and I followed to make breakfast croissants. Then Eaddie got up and they spent the day together cleaning up the porch and assembling planters I had gotten from Amazon Vine. We originally had plans to have Mother’s Day with Eli’s family, but several of them couldn’t come down, so they wanted to try for another time.

The day went by pretty quickly, but it felt good to get so much done. There’s more to clean up, but we have at least a little more space now than before. We wanted to do something with my mom, but they didn’t want to go out to dinner with everyone else in town, so Summer and I went to Popeye’s to pick up some chicken.

Eaddie went to visit her grandparents while we waited in the longest line I’d ever seen at that restaurant. The drive-through was wrapped around the building and there was another line inside, but they did a fantastic job of working through all the orders.

We made it to my parents’ house, and then Julie responded that they had been napping all day, but they’d end up coming to visit. Eaddie showed up late as well, so we didn’t wait for her to eat. It was a good time, and then Eaddie took Summer home. I followed a little later and let Muad’Dib run off some energy before driving him the last couple blocks.

We ended the evening watching some of the Kevin Hart roast on Netflix, but we didn’t start early enough to finish it. I was proud of Summer for staying up as late as she did, but we had to get sleep before work.

Motherhood takes many forms.

Sad Grad

Summer got up early for Run Like Yell in Dardanelle. I originally said I would go, but she insisted that I didn’t have to, and I didn’t sleep great. Of course I couldn’t really sleep after she left, so I got up and made myself a croissant sandwich. I burned the bread and set off the alarms, and then Eaddie got up and left to play at graduation. After that, I repotted a plant and watered the rest. Summer showered, then I followed suit before we left to meet the girls at Buffalo Wild Wings.

Muad’Dib did reasonably well there, and we stuffed ourselves with junk food again. Autumn fussed about not being able to eat much, and then about her relationship, so the conversation started going in circles a bit. I tried not to be too involved, but it really served as a reminder of the past drama we always had to endure. Eaddie showed up late after rehearsal, ate a bit, and then I think she left with Autumn while Summer and I took Muad’Dib to stay with my parents.

It didn’t take Muad’Dib long to break out of the back yard, and then Summer kept calling at him to go back, which of course drew him to jump on my car. I yelled about it, so she got quite for a while. We made it to graduation nearly an hour early and found seats in the second row. It wasn’t terribly long after everything finally started that I got an alert that Muad’Dib had left his safe zone.

I panicked and got up to call Dad, who didn’t answer. Mom answered, but didn’t have a clue where he was. I couldn’t tell if Dad had taken him out for a walk or if he had left to look for him. I also couldn’t send a screenshot of the GPS location because my phone got hot and started acting jittery. I got most of the way back to the car when the location finally updated to show Muad’Dib back near my parents’ house, but Dad still wasn’t answering. I waited a while and eventually felt good enough to go back inside.

We watched Autumn walk, and Summer kept yelling at other people she recognized. I kept feeling like she needed to go back to education if she wanted to feel happy about that kind of stuff again, but we’ve also gotten used to bigger paychecks.

They finally wrapped things up and we met the girls outside in the sun. I got pretty warm and was annoyed that we kept having to wander around looking for kids that were doing their own family things, and hadn’t asked to meet anywhere in particular. We got some pictures, but Summer wanted specific group shots. I ended up sitting in the car for some of that. When the girls all finally caught up with one another, she called me to drive over to them. Then Autumn started fussing about Adam some more. I said my peace and then wandered off to chase my car, which was driving around on “Smart” Summon in an annoying pattern without crossing parking lines.

I finally got Summer into the car, and the kids allegedly left to go meet up with Noah. I dropped Summer off at home so she could rest before going to a team meeting at work, and then took the Onewheel to retrieve Muad’Dib. We sat inside for a little while, then Mom came out to look at her plants. We helped a very little bit before riding back home. Summer called just as we got there because Autumn wanted to tell me I helped motivate her to break up with Adam. I just told her to keep pushing herself to be better and do the right thing.

Summer eventually made it home and we watched a YouTube video about digging for supercritical geothermal. Then she went to bed and I followed for just a little bit before going off to do my own thing. I was up later than I wanted to be, and had an anxiety attack at one point while playing on my phone. Eaddie eventually made it home near midnight, and then I went to bed as well.

Late night drops!

Frog Lick Mornings

We had to get up around my usual worktime alarm so we could get to Conway for Summer’s Toadsuck 10k. I actually felt pretty decent, and we got out of the house just in time. She already had her race packet, so we found a nearby parking space and dropped her off at the starting line, and then Muad’Dib and I rode around on the Onewheel for a little over an hour.

I was hungry enough to find some food, so we rolled a few blocks away to a Chick-fil-A. We were basically able to stay on campus streets for almost all of it, so there was no fear of traffic. I placed a curbside delivery to my black Lamborghini golf cart, and then sat at the tables on the patio to eat, once one of the employees unchained the chairs.

We had just a little bit of time to roll around the nearby trail before making it back to the finish line. Summer couldn’t find the showers because we didn’t read the description well enough, but she got changed and then we headed to the original Stoby’s to meet Randy and Russ for breakfast.

The restaurant was packed, but they had space on the patio to seat us almost immediately. The kitchen was backed up though, so it took us forever to get food. Our waitress gave us a 50% discount for waiting, which was awesome since we were just enjoying our time anyway.

After that, Summer and I went a few blocks away to Toadsuck downtown. She decided she wanted to donate blood, so Muad’Dib and I rolled into the crowd to find Ben and his family. Muad’Dib was a little bit excitable, but overall did great. Something caught his attention hard at one point though, and he took off away from me without turning back. I ended up having to zap him, and then he came right back. We got lots of compliments, so it was a good time. Ben’s family caught up to him and they wondered on while I went back to fetch Summer. We went into the mob, but quickly decided it was too much for Muad’Dib, so we made it back to the car and made one last pass through Sam’s Club before heading home.

Dad was having trouble with the lights at the old house, so Muad’Dib and I left Summer to go check things out. Mom was on another push for me to get everything out of the house, so I looked over some stuff. I think the garage will be the worst of it, because I had so much room to store things without parking two cars inside.

I was exhausted and probably dehydrated, so we made it back home for a bit. I started to get really hungry, and then Eaddie came home from her trip to Little Rock to check out the National Guard band. The three of us decided to go to La Huerta for dinner, but their patio was full. We ended up walking next door to the Gogi BBQ House food truck. I had seen a huge mob of people there earlier, so I figured it must be good.

Eaddie got some tacos and Summer and I had different bowls with chicken, pork, rice, and a couple of fresh sides. The kale I had tasted nutty and was delicious. We really liked everything. Afterward, we went to Las Delicias for some ice cream. It looked like they were training a bunch of employees, but they let us bring Muad’Dib inside and we had some pretty good ice cream before heading back home.

The three of us enjoyed some time on the couch together doing some tone deafness tests. Then Summer went to bed and Eaddie wanted me to watch the first episode of Invincible with her. I knew it looked interesting, but was afraid to start something new with such a big backlog on my watch list, especially leading up to Doomsday. It was a pretty good episode though, and it’ll be nice if she wants to watch more with me.

Puperfect!

Raise the Roofing!

Summer got up for her run this morning, and I got up for my company picnic. I got out a little later than I intended, but there wasn’t any real rush. We stopped by to get Dad and loaded up all of the bubble stuff he made. The longest bamboo sticks he had wouldn’t fit completely in the car, so I just let them stick out the back window and we made it to Morrilton, stopping at Wendy’s for breakfast before landing at work.

There were quite a few people already there helping out, so my job was relatively simple to get the sound system going. I got it together and started a random 80s rock station just to test, and in spite of my hours of working on a curated playlist, that random station was what played for the rest of the day.

It was a little hard to tell when the party began officially, since everyone that was helping was also there for the event. It was a good turnout though, and it seemed like everyone had a good time. I didn’t get down to the cornhole tournament much, but Dad’s bubbles were a big hit. Summer enjoyed the petting zoo, and Muad’Dib enjoyed running around and getting tons of pets.

Scott gave a great tour of the plant, and it was interesting to hear more about their process out there. All in all, I rolled about three miles on the Onewheel just back and forth in the parking lot. Of all people, David’s wife and Rhonda were the two adults that actually tried riding it, and they both did surprisingly well. Later on, one of the smaller kids tried too. The only issue I had with my sound system was a dead wireless receiver that wouldn’t charge with anything I had out there.

It was a fun and pretty exhausting day, but luckily the cleanup was pretty quick with that many hands. Summer had driven separately after her race, so I took Dad home and then met her back at the house where she had most everything unloaded already. I took a quick shower, and then we crashed on the couch where Muad’Dib passed out at our feet. I eventually got hungry and warmed up the leftover steak for us, and then we watched some TV before bed.

Ten more to go!

Makin’ Our Way Downtown

Summer and I got out for breakfast alone this morning because the kids didn’t want to get up. We drove across town to a place called The Squatch, where we had a breakfast burrito, biscuits and gravy, and avocado toast. The toast was probably the best of them. None of it was bad, but none of it was great either. It was a cute place though.

Afterward, we made our way back to the hotel and I ran around with Muad’Dib a bit. Evidently there was some kind of a footrace going on across the street, because we saw a few runners and could hear the commotion. We eventually got everyone out to go downtown and walk around, dropping the Model 3 off to charge at the top of the hill before taking Eli’s truck to park down the hill. I mostly stayed out of the shops with Muad’Dib, but it was really nice outside. As lunchtime approached, we ended up eating at New Delhi Cafe where they had a fusion of Indian and American. Eli and I split a burger and a curry chicken wrap. Eaddie had some butter chicken, and Summer had a huge fillet of fried fish and chips. Everything was really good, but I think the fish was probably my favorite bite.

We made it back for the afternoon show, which was much better than the last. We all had a good time before going back to the room to rest a bit. I ran around with Muad’Dib some more, and the others spent some time at the clubhouse playing mini golf and pool.

Dinner time eventually came around and the four of us met my parents, Uncle Rick, and Ginny at Red’s Pizzeria. Their four-generation sourdough pizza crust was great, and then we picked up my car on the way back for the evening show.

Everyone had a great time, but even Muad’Dib was exhausted by the end of it. We made it back to the room and started settling down for bed. Of course the Harry Potter marathon was finishing up, so I had trouble as my eyes kept wandering over to the TV, but I finally got to bed after midnight.

fifteen

Downtown Dallas

We slept in a little bit and then went downstairs for a late breakfast since they didn’t shut down until nearly lunch time. They had eggs a few ways, waffles, and the other usual suspects, and it was all pretty good. It took us a while to get around to much after that. I ended up taking a work call at one while Summer looked for things to do. Then we headed downtown.

We stopped to supercharge since the hotel charger cost more per kWh, and made a loop around the shopping area with Muad’Dib while we waited. Then we went to Mutt’s Cantina downtown to see what that was about. It was a cute little dog park with several dogs, but upon further inspection, you had to pay for a day pass on top of having other food and drinks available. We ended up leaving and just walked around looking for something to eat.

A few blocks later, we found a place called Malai Kitchen with a patio, and were seated with the most incredible server. We had a couple drinks and some really good food in the perfect weather. On the way back to the car, Summer wanted to stop at the Capital One Cafe that we saw, and ended up getting a free cappuccino for having a Capital One card.

From there, we headed straight back to the hotel. We thought we’d have a swim in the pool, but it was cold in spite of being indoors. We went back to the room and watched the Marvel marathon on FX until bed.

Eggs for days.

All Signs Point to Less

We had our staff meeting first thing this morning, and it was relatively short. I somehow made it through without much ado, and then chatted briefly with Teisha before going to play with the new digital sign in the plant breakroom. I didn’t even get to show anything, since I still really hadn’t settled on a content management system yet.

Most of my day was actually derailed trying to wipe a laptop for Jon, because he was still having trouble with his being slow. I had an anxiety attack sometime in the morning, and then I messed around with Autopilot some more after failing to do a simple wipe from an ISO. We did take a break to go to Sonic and had a pretty good burger and fries. As we left, Muad’Dib spotted a beaver in the creek, so I had to shoo him into the car.

I let him run a bit on the way back to work, and then took him with Teisha to walk the property and see where we would be hosting the company picnic. We encountered some soft dirt and my shoes got a little muddy, but it could have been worse.

The afternoon went by pretty quickly, without major success on any of my projects, but I did at least feel like I made a dent in some infrastructure building. We had to run home because Summer was making dinner. We still had steak, so she made some vegetables and some linguini with pesto to go with it, and it was one of my favorite meals she’s made. Then we watched a little bit of YouTube before she went to bed. I eventually got there too.

Just trimmings.

Lazy Valentine

We started lounging on the couch early this morning. Summer had some coffee, and then I warmed up some leftover waffles and a pancake for breakfast. After a while, we sent the dog to get Eaddie out of bed, and then she eventually had Eli come over for the day. They talked about making pizza or chicken, and then both, and then ended up only making pizzas for dinner. Summer and I hardly left the couch. I had an anxiety attack at some point, but I got our room booked for Eaddie’s trip. Then we mostly watched YouTube while it rained all day. I guess we could’ve done worse.

Rats