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

Dryday

Somehow I failed to get into a rhythm with drinking today, and I barely had any water. I felt a little more focused, so it may have just been how busy I stayed. My longest battle was with the Windows 11 Home edition PC that was on the shelf, since I didn’t have a way to upgrade it to a Pro license for Intune management. I’m still not comfortable spending money, and I went back and forth with Dylan to see what Howard could do for us.

I had an anxiety attack sometime in the day while I was standing in the tech closet, possibly because I had my chin down to my chest. That seems to be a recurring cause. I was pretty hungry for most of the morning, but snacked quite a bit and didn’t get into my Soylent. We ended up going to Arby’s for lunch, and I used a deal to get a free French dip for later.

The afternoon went by pretty quickly as I crunched on the digital signage a bit. I fired off a few emails, and then on the way out, Janice said that the office staff would still be off for President’s Day. I headed on home, stopping at the lube to catch Summer as she wrapped up her long day.

We got to the house and the kids were there laying around. Summer showered and I spread out some rat poison she brought home. Then I made her a plate of leftovers and ate my sandwich from earlier. Then the kids left and Summer and I finished watching the MKBHD feature. I think I may have enjoyed listening to the podcast about it more, but the video was still great. Their passion for their work is infectious.

less than three

Slowingburgertime

We got to work a little early this morning and tried to lock in. I had a couple things interrupt me throughout the day, but I felt like overall I had decent answers to everything. It was nice enough at lunch time that we ate outside Taco Bell again. Then Muad’Dib had a good run up the road back to the office. The afternoon went by quickly since I got to move around a little bit more.

Summer was standing outside when we got back to the house, and she really wanted a cheeseburger for dinner. I suggested going out to get a good one, rather than getting something less good from a fast food joint. We decided on Buffalo Wild Wings so we could take Muad’Dib.

Service was kind, but unbelievably slow. It may have been the kitchen’s fault, because the restaurant was absolutely dead, and we were the only ones outside. At least the food was really good, and we had a decent deal for it all.

Summer had a bath while I tinkered and cleaned up some stuff. Then we watched some of the MKBHD YITL episode before bed.

Mechanical Button Pushers

Peppers, Partners, and Puppers

Summer texted me a picture of a rat we caught while I was on my way to work this morning, and fortunately she didn’t fuss about having to take it out to the park for release. We got to work and I was tossed into a few different things throughout the day, so of course I felt just as scattered as ever. Hopefully I can represent well at the staff meeting tomorrow.

On her way back from Little Rock, I met Summer at Ortega’s for an all-you-can-eat lunch, which was the extent of our recognizing eight years together. I think it’s the longest either of us have been in a relationship, and maybe it shows.

The afternoon went by pretty quickly, and then we made it home for a run as the sun set. Summer got back to the house just before us, and then we laid down on the couch together for the first time in months since the ceiling collapsed, and watched a MKBHD video, followed by a Babish video. Then she went to bed while I cleaned up and finished some Vine reviews.

You’re welcome.

Do Not LOL

We slept in a bit this morning, so the whole day went by really quickly. I made us some bacon and eggs on sourdough, and then Summer wanted to go to the gym. My parents came by with a couple bánh mi from Uncle Giao, and then I cleaned up a bit and took Muad’Dib out for a run while it was light out. We ate the sandwiches for dinner, and then settled down to watch Last One Laughing on Prime Video. It had funny parts, but actually got boring pretty quickly. Evidently there’s limited entertainment value in watching a bunch of comics trying not to laugh at each other.

Nothing special.

Cold Quiet

We had our first, brief freeze last night, and it was a cold, quiet drive to work. I got there much earlier than I expected, and to a relative ghost town with several people out. I was surprised to hear from anyone at all. We took a late lunch and ate mostly free on McDonald’s rewards, and then the afternoon went by fairly quickly after that.

I got a response back from Future Motion that they wouldn’t refund me, which was expected, so I compiled a timeline of all my warranty and paid services to send to the attorney general, and finally replied back requesting to escalate the issue.

It was an easy ride home, and Summer was there early with a bad back. I made us a couple burritos when she got out of the bath, and then we laid down to watch Justin Willman’s Magic Lover on Netflix before I got up to finish my routine.

Nowheel

Holdout for Worse

I don’t think any of us slept great last night, except maybe Muad’Dib, who stayed curled up by our legs. It was humid and sweaty all night long. When I got to work, I spent a ridiculous amount of time cleaning out hundreds of email drafts because Outlook gets really happy about saving nothing just in case you want to go back to nothing and start from nothing.

I didn’t leave all day, surviving on a cup of coffee and a single slice of cold, leftover pizza. I spent the afternoon read historical emails between waiting for access to systems. The problem is that I haven’t really had to do anything in any of the systems I’ve gained access to so far, so I still don’t know what I’m doing. It still feels like this is less of an IT job and more of a generalist catch-anything role, but I can be good with that. It’s a nice change of pace. I just need to find my ambition in something that calls to me.

For some reason, Eli was blocking the driveway when I got home, so I waited for him to clear a path for me to get in. Then I found the three of them on the couch just lounging around. I got changed, vacuumed the dog, and pretty quickly got dinner started for Summer and myself. The kids had already eaten one of the steaks, so I ate the other while Summer had chicken wings and a rib. The kids ate the two remaining baby baked potatoes as well, so we just had croissants to go with our greasy meat. It was all very heavy and particularly unpleasant for me, anyway.

Summer and I ended the night with an episode of Ironheart and then she went to bed. I had laundry to finish, among other chores, before bed.

Looting this item will bind it to you.

Aisle 5

Summer went to the gym this morning, then came home and mowed the lawn. I slowly chipped away at the dining area, trying to get things to their forever homes for further processing. Eaddie left to help Maristella find a dress for Jaylinn’s wedding in the afternoon, so she was gone all day. I stopped at some point and called Summer in to have some late lunch, because I knew she wouldn’t take a break otherwise. I felt like she was disappointed in me for most of the day, but I tried to keep things moving.

Mom made chow mein for dinner, so we eventually made our way over there to eat. We brought Muad’Dib along, and he was a little bit too excited. He kept wanting to come inside, and after giving him some water, he came in and sat under the dinner table, which prompted Mom to leave and eat in the living room. Apart from that, I had brought along a water gun I received from Vine, and found myself disappointed in the number of shots it could hold.

We made it back home before very long, and settled in for the night. Eaddie wasn’t long behind us, and sat quietly while Summer did her nails and I flipped through things on the TV. Summer and I watched the next episode of Ironheart and Eaddie went to her room, but then she came out and said Maristella and one of her sisters had showed up unexpectedly. We encouraged setting boundaries, and even offered to be the “bad guys,” but they came in and watched a movie in her room.

Summer was beat after just one episode, so she went to bed. Eaddie was up fairly late even after Maristella left. I was up even later than that, but without purpose.

Okay, maybe it’s silly to hoard bread at our household income level.

All of This Has Happened Before

Summer left this morning for a local race. She said she was going to take Muad’Dib, but she didn’t. I got out of bed a little later, seemingly stuck in a time loop.

When she got back from winning first in her age division, she woke Eaddie up and they eventually went to get the stuff to bake the birthday cake for the party tomorrow. I cleaned up in the kitchen so Summer would have room to work.

My head has been spinning out, and I just felt incapacitated for much of the day. I kept telling myself you have to break things apart to make them better, but sometimes it feels like we’re building it up to break it back down.

Eaddie was in and out of her room all day on her (now) multi-week project of cleaning out her room. Summer was in the kitchen for quite a while making pigs in a blanket and cake.

I learned that Sharon, the recently-retired music teacher from Oakland, had passed, and it tore me to shreds. I was touched by all of the social media posts about her. I had a few of my own unexpectedly deep and meaningful conversations with her in the music room. She was such an incredibly rare, kind, and loving person to have known even for the short time that I passed through that campus, and it broke my heart to hear of her untimely passing.

I had a long shower and tried to pick up around the house a bit more. I heated up some wings for myself and then for the girls in the air fryer, and that worked a treat. It was a light day for meals. Summer had a bath, and we watched all of the available episodes of Ironheart on Disney+. She went to bed, and every time I looked up, another hour ticked by.

All of this will happen again.

Keeping Abreast

I woke up at my usual time this morning since we had to make it to Little Rock by 6:45 to check Summer into the Carti Surgery Center. It was immediately clear where the money was going, because it nearly felt like walking into a space station. The chaplain found and greeted us just after we found a seat, and we spoke briefly just to say that we really hoped we wouldn’t need him yet. It wasn’t long before we were called back to register, and a little longer before they called us back to get her prepped.

Dr. Fant said the whole procedure would only take about half an hour, and I was eventually taken back to the lobby as they wheeled Summer off to the back. From start to finish, I barely had time for two cups of coffee. I was taken back for a consult when she was done, and Dr. Fant said everything went really well, and reiterated that it seemed to be erring on the side of caution, but we should know definitively by the end of the week.

From there, I waited a bit longer for Summer to wake up, and then I was taken back to get her ready to go. We loaded up and started toward home, but stopped at Los 3 Potrillos in Conway for lunch. She had her camarones a la crema, and I tried their “Tex-Mex fajitas” which featured the cheapest tasting slices of hot dogs I could imagine. I ate it, but I wasn’t happy about it.

We made it home and I got a text from Dad that cousin Stephen had passed suddenly overnight. We didn’t know anything more than that. Summer was still in a lot of pain, so she went to bed. I combatted a swarm of flies that found their way into the kitchen, and then Eaddie wanted to start Daredevil: Born Again. The first episode seemed very inferior to the original Netflix series in every way. Eaddie actually fell asleep before the first episode was over. Then I took Muad’Dib to Walgreens to pick up Summer’s medicine. On the way home, we rolled by a family running a lemonade stand at the end of their driveway, so we stopped for a premium-priced glass after a 300% tip.

I checked in, and then we continued our run to my parents’ house. Rick passed me on the way home, so I stopped at the end of his driveway to say, “hello.” Tasha and her family were actually on their front porch, so we waved at them too. Then we made it to my parents’ house where Dad had aired up the boat trailer tires to see if we could make it to the lake. Ernie messaged me with the same news, but didn’t have any more to share than what little we already knew.

I stayed for dinner and had some bún bò Huế with Mom while Dad ate something else. Then we made it home where Eli had come over and found Eaddie with bed-head on the couch. They left and I laid down with Summer for a bit after getting her some more medicine. It was a quiet night from that point on. Eaddie left with Eli for a bit, and I fought a bunch more flies. Tomorrow we’ll do some more digging under the house to see if we can find where something might have perished.

NOT AN EXIT