Cover

We slept in a bit this morning before getting out of the house. Summer decided she wanted to plan a dinner with my parents, so she went home to clean and prep while I took the girls to my parents’ house to clean the pool cover.

Eaddie was with me, but we had to retrieve Autumn from her grandparents’ house. We got things started, but then the girls started fussing about being hungry, so I went to Tropical Smoothie and Wendy’s, because I guess I’m enabling that behavior now. I also went by their house to get Autumn’s swimsuit and give Summer a smoothie.

When I got back to my parents’ house, we let the girls take a break and eat, but then I had to take my parents to my house to check out some vinyl siding samples. The contractor that came to see us didn’t actually have any samples, but he did have a ring of chips to hold up, and I still preferred the dark brown to match with the non-primary color of my brick. He said he agreed, but you can never trust a salesperson.

When we finally got back to my parents’ house, the girls were out back swimming. They said it wasn’t too terribly cold, but we had to get the pool cover finished. They took turns scrubbing and hosing the thing down, and then Dad and I flipped and dried it before folding it back up for storage.

Summer forgot that we still had to eat dinner tonight as well before having my parents over tomorrow, so the kids and I agreed on Wendy’s. I customized all of the burgers, which seemed to completely confuse everyone there. I guess the way those customizations show up is pretty easily misinterpreted. We made do with what we got though, then Summer, Eaddie, and I watched an out-of-season episode of Glee before Summer went to bed. Then Eaddie and I finished the last few episodes of the Daredevil series that left me a little confused and disappointed, but overall satisfied with the show.

Do I really want to research the manufacturing differences in vinyl?

Slow Start; Quick Finish

I slept so well last night that I really didn’t want to get out of bed this morning. It took me a while to get going, and Eaddie basically slept until the last minute. I eventually got around to making an “everything” Italian loaf egg sandwich to take to Summer for what was supposed to be brunch but ended up being a late lunch. It felt super hot outside in the sun, and traffic was awful again. I miss the early days of the pandemic.

After lunch, we went by Julie’s to help take her TV off the wall so Suddenlink could check out why her internet keeps dropping out throughout the day. While we were there, we heat-pressed half of the flags I made, to cure the ink. The other half I wanted to experiment with water to get the paint to flow to both sides of the flag. Hopefully that will keep me from having to come up with a way to screen print the reverse side as well.

With that done, Eaddie and I headed back home and watched some more Daredevil until Summer got off work and came to get her. They went home to clean up while I did the same, and then they picked up Slim Chickens for dinner on the way back here.

The chicken was pretty decent, but I think for my money, Zaxby’s has better sauces. I put on the 2003 Daredevil movie for us to watch, and Eaddie just kept groaning through the entire thing, which really made it all worthwhile. She did find a lot of parallels though, and insisted we watch the first episode of the Netflix series when the movie was over.

After that, Summer went to bed and we watched a few more episodes, ending with a really horrible one with a pointless flashback to an already established-well-enough character. Being this close to the end, it really aggravated me that they wasted a whole episode to that.

Gravy. Gravy would make it all better.

Dared to Stay Up Late

I slept pretty well last night, got up this morning, and made myself a leftover hamburger for brunch. The girls were in their rooms until the afternoon, when I finally coaxed them out for some chores. Autumn wanted to go to her grandparents’ house, so I got her to clean house while Eaddie finished mowing the lawn that they skipped the other day.

When the time came, I dropped Autumn off and went home for a little bit. I only had a few minutes to kill before Summer would be home, so I hopped into a few rounds of Overwatch, then went by Sonic for 50 cent corn dogs. I went back up to their house, we had dinner, and then packed up some stuff to come back home for the evening.

We watched a couple episodes of Glee for the first time in a little while, and then Summer went to bed and Eaddie and I stayed up super late, hooked on the last season of Daredevil. Watching the show has made me want to go back and watch the movie from 2003, but nothing screams the year 2000 like that soundtrack.

BRING ME TO LIIIIIIIIIIIFE (wake me up!)

Feudal Review

I felt a little sour this morning, so I went in to work a bit late. I wasn’t really supposed to be staffing the office anyway, so nobody really cared. I was surprised to learn that it was review time, but we really didn’t have much to talk about since we have a pretty communicative relationship. I would have liked higher marks for being one of the top performers, but we don’t reward good behavior here.

I had a really pointless conference call to try and set up a live demo of Linewize Classwize, and they seemed a little confused that all I really needed to see was the big-brother capabilities of their classroom management software. Since that call lasted through lunch, Ben and I ran to get BOGO Subway afterward, and chatted in the conference room.

Summer came by to eat my leftovers, but mostly to visit with me. Then I tinkered until quitting time. Autumn needed a ride home from physical therapy, so I got her and we stopped by my house to pick up my freshly delivered black flags. Then we went to Julie’s so I could try my hand at arts and crafts. She cut some vinyl and showed me how to screen print, and I made a handful of little desk pirate flags for my future conquests.

The screen printing process was tedious, but fun once I understood some of the different variables to control. It didn’t take long to become proficient with the tools I had, but to make all 36 flags I purchased, I started to really think of some ways to increase efficiency.

By the time I got a few done, Summer was home and ready to eat, so Autumn and I headed on up and had some leftover pulled pork sandwiches. We ended the evening with another thrilling episode of Game of Thrones, and stopped on a bit of a cliffhanger – probably the biggest we’ve had so far.

When you play the Game of Thrones, you win or you die. There is no middle ground.

Student Driver

We got up this morning and picked at some leftovers for breakfast. Autumn continued watching The Sound of Music, and we watched through the intermission. Then she wanted to go out for a drive, so I let her take me to Walmart where we walked around the whole store to pick up whatever we could remember needing.

It rained pretty hard while we were in the store, but it quit by the time we left. I let her drive to the gas station to fill up the car, then we went by my house to feed the cat before going to her friend’s house to pick up some clothes she wanted to buy.

Shortly after we got back to the house, my parents invited us to Linh, so Summer, Eaddie, and I met up with them for an early dinner. Then it was back to the house to finish the movie. Summer eventually went for a run, and then we all sat down for an episode of Game of Thrones before bed.

Eaddie came out of her room to talk to me for a while as I worked on the blog. Then she sat next to me learning Spanish on Duolingo until I went to bed.

What’s “hospital” in Spanish?

Adobe House

Today was warm and humid, but you couldn’t tell from indoors. I had to go upstairs into Gardner this morning to redeploy some Adobe Acrobat packages. I couldn’t tell what, if anything, was actually broken because every installation I touched was installed as a one-off instead of deployed in SCCM.

I didn’t even bother taking a lunch break, and instead ate a leftover soft taco that Greg didn’t want because it had lettuce in it. Then I went to the high school to close out a few tickets for the day.

Eaddie reminded me that she had a private flute lesson, so I went home to change and then picked her up. The lesson wasn’t very long, so I just waited in the car playing Animal Crossing to complete my daily tasks. Then we went back to my house because she wanted to ride the motorcycle to see Summer. We stopped at Casey’s momentarily for a freebie, and then I dusted the pollen off of the bike.

Summer called her just as we were about to leave, and said she took the rest of the day off with a headache, so we stayed at my house for a while and finished the second season of Iron Fist. We were pretty confused by the ending, but it did open up the possibilities for future seasons. Unfortunately that’s unlikely now that Marvel is in the House of Mouse.

We finally headed back up to Summer’s and picked at some leftovers for dinner. Everyone went to bed pretty early.

YouTube Music is awful in ways I just can’t even seem to express effectively.

Free, Zing!

It was cold and rainy all day today, and really mostly worth it for all the freebies. I redeemed a free pizza and water bottle at Casey’s on my way to work, and the breakfast pizza had everything on it, including both breakfast meats and extra cheese. It was incredibly delicious.

I was sent to Oakland to help with a file conversion, and chatted with Erica and Sheri for a little while before heading back to the shop. Then Greg wanted Taco John’s for lunch, so I redeemed a free combo there as well. After lunch, I spent some time playing with the sign again before ending the day at the high school.

Eaddie was still asleep when I got home, so I woke her up and we watched Iron Fist until she was just screaming to go home. I made a salad, and we all watched an episode of Game of Thrones before bed.

No, wait – it’s at least a C+!

Just Get It Done

I picked up another breakfast pizza this morning, and headed to the office. My working from home days are coming to an end with the impending stress of a new 1:1 device lease. Ben had a meeting at central office this morning and at the very least confirmed that we are going to get more Windows devices instead of Chromebooks next year. He also confirmed that, though we’ve not backfilled a higher paying lead technician position, they’re not ready to offer raises or a second tier for those of us that put in the extra effort.

Being the only one at the office, I worked right through lunch, and ended the day at the high school for a work order. Then I went home and ate some leftovers before picking up Autumn for her physical therapy. She decided to stay the night with her grandparents, so I went by the shop to see Summer for a bit before going back home to clean up.

It was nice and cool out, so I took Summer’s string trimmer out and cut down most of the back yard. I ran out of juice very near the end, but that was mostly around some sticks and branches anyway. The yard looked loads better, and when it dries I should be able to burn the rest of the rubbish.

My next project was to sift potting soil for future aquariums. I cleaned out a couple buckets, put on some rubber gloves, and sat in the driveway with a piece of metal mesh until Summer and Eaddie got there for the evening. Then we watched an episode of Glee before putting Summer to bed. Eaddie and I finished with a couple episodes of Iron Fist.

I don’t want my dirt to get dirty. I just finished sorting it!

Game of Throws

Summer got up and made sausage, bacon, and eggs for breakfast. The kids got up and just hung out until Summer was ready to herd them out to the park. I got a little woozy and had to skip out on the fun, so I went home and spent my day cleaning up around the house.

Everyone else showed up for a late dinner time, so I ran to Taco Bell with Autumn for a couple party packs. After we ate, I started making some more ice cream just to use up the milk and cream. We all wrapped up in the living room and watched the second and third episodes of Game of Thrones, and I think everyone’s starting to really get hooked.

I’m going to have to do something about my media server soon.

Show Me a Sign

I woke up pretty early this morning and had some time to ease into the day. The girls got up and headed out so Summer and Eaddie could take Noah out on a hike while I went to work.

The high school was grilling burgers and hot dogs for teacher appreciation week, and I had to go there to work on the sign anyway, so I drove out there and set up on one of the picnic tables. It wasn’t quite the drive-through they advertised, but it was nice to see some people out at the pavilion. When everyone left, I headed to the shop to catch up with Ben while I tinkered with the Watchfire sign software.

I ended up accidentally overwriting the sign with a playlist of every single premade animation that was included with the software and had to drive back to the high school to fix it, because there was no password required to upload new content. I got there just in time to see a giant cross on a hill, with the words “ACCEPT CHRIST” across the front of it. Being a public school, I felt a bit of panic as I corrected the display.

Once I got something more appropriate uploaded, I ran by Julie’s to try and help configure her new modem/router/MTA box from Suddenlink. She was told, and the documentation showed, that she could change the SSID and password, but the web interface appeared to be disabled. We ended up calling Suddenlink to threaten cancellation to lower her bill, but the retention department was closed for the day. I stuck around to play with her new GoPro for a little bit and show her how the mounting works.

As dinner time approached, I ran home to take care of a few things and then headed up to Summer’s for the evening. When I got there, I found a couple moles right by the house that one of the stray cats appeared to have messed with. I scooped them up into a little bucket and brought them in for mole jokes and so the girls could see them up close. I ended up releasing them by a tree in the back yard, but I wasn’t sure one of them was going to make it. All it would do is lay there breathing heavily, so I assumed it took some internal damage from one of the cats.

The steaks Summer grilled turned out really good, and we had a nice dinner together. Afterward we played a Harry Potter: Potions Challenge Game that ended up being pretty dreadful. It upset Autumn a bit because she really wanted everyone to love it, but I could tell right away that it wasn’t worth the wooden box it came in.

As we wound down, I convinced everyone to finish the first episode of Game of Thrones, and then everyone went to bed.

They say winter is coming.