Tag: Traditions

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Masse in the Clouds

We slept in a little bit today, but I got up with Summer when she took Muad’Dib out. I made some coffee, and showed her the Steam Frame. She actually got into a game before I did, and started playing PUNCH FIT in the living room. It looked like she was enjoying it, so I tried it out for a couple jabs and had fun. It was nice, since I hadn’t had any luck with anything else I’d tried on it at that point.

A while back, Netflix invited me to preview some unfinished content, so Summer and I sat back and watched a movie that was available. They put a watermark over the screen with my email address, which was a bit distracting in some scenes. Otherwise, the movie was terrible. We just couldn’t relate, or even understand who the target audience might be.

After a while, Eaddie got up and left to spend the day with friends. I cleaned up a bit, Summer went to the gym, and I got dishes done and took a shower. Summer brought Little Caesar’s home for a late lunch afterward, so we ate and then got ready to go to Mt. Nebo for Brass in the Clouds.

We picked up Dad and made it up the mountain to a massive crowd. We couldn’t see the band at all where we were sitting, so I guess if we really want good seats, we need to be up there for lunch. Muad’Dib was a pretty good boy and did reasonably well off leash when we were in transit. I kept him on the leash while we were seated so he wouldn’t get bored and wander off.

It was dark by the time we headed home. We dropped Dad off and I got Summer inside so she could go to bed. I finished putting together a shoe bench and eventually got to sleep.

Completed!

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Stuff ‘n Things

I tried to go by Shipley’s for some free donuts this morning, but their app refused to apply the reward to my order. I passed by the store angrily and continued on to work, but I was early enough to swing through McDonald’s for a steak, egg, and cheese bagel, since I didn’t have a Soylent with me. It was a quiet morning, and a quite day as a whole. I just tried to clean up some loose ends.

When lunch came around, I tried to go cheap and relatively light with some corn dogs, but I still probably ate too much. We got back to the office and I spent a lot of the afternoon digging through Copilot documentation, worried about the repercussions of enabling it across the tenant with notably loose permissions across the board.

At the end of the day, we left without fanfare and ran into some traffic on the way home. It looked like there had been a wreck, but aside from some glass in the middle of the road, there wasn’t much going on. We got home and waited for Summer to finish cleaning up, then went to Brown’s for Dad’s birthday dinner.

Eaddie didn’t make it, but my parents, Julie, and Kevin were there. Mom insisted on paying, so we ate and visited for a while. Afterward, I went out to get Muad’Dib and we all walked over to see Julie’s new 4Runner. I had the Model 3 drive over to pick us up, and eventually we dispersed. It was a short night after that, and I got to bed just a little early.

PU!

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Return to Disarray

I slept a little bit later today, then got up to a big turkey sandwich to finish off that bit of lunch meat. It hasn’t killed me yet, so I guess I need to go get some more bread to finish off the salami and pepperoni. From there, I continued my quest to break down packed boxes of stuff. I got into the laundry room and cleared out the opposite corner, and finished up a couple more boxes in my office. The girls got home a few minutes earlier than I expected, and B-lined for the dog, who suddenly had all of the energy and no desire to sit in bed all day.

I continued sparingly, but was already feeling pretty worn out from being up and around for the entirety of two days. The girls were predictably worn out as well. I did want to make it over to my parents’ house to see if they wanted to go out for dinner for their anniversary. Dad was processing elderberries, and Mom was asleep on the couch. She had spaghetti on the stove, though, so Summer ended up coming over there to eat instead.

I had run Muad’Dib over, so I took the Onewheel back with him when we realized they didn’t have any cheese. We ate, then ran back home to try and bring the house back to a livable state for the rest of the week. I took a shower, Summer went to sleep, and Eaddie left with Eli, so I guess it’s back to normal.

THE Oakenfold???

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Forth

Summer had a run in Dardanelle this morning, and I wanted to force myself out of bed to go with her. It started super early, and she had already made it out the door, but wasn’t in the car yet. I quickly got dressed, loaded up the Onewheel, and then we were off. We got to River Front Park with time to spare, so I let Muad’Dib take off on a wild run down the street for a bit. I don’t know if it was just the stimulus of being in a new place, but he ran like crazy.

The race started, and we found a bench up by the gazebo. It got hot and humid fast. Summer finished pretty quickly, but then wanted to wait for what she thought were door prizes. I took Muad’Dib to Shipley’s for some breakfast, and not only did she not warm up my kolaches, but she also gave me the wrong ones. We made it back and rode around for a total of three and a half miles until Summer realized what she saw were actually placement prizes.

We made it home to clean up, and I got some more laundry done. Then we went to my parents’ house to finish up spring rolls and then power wash the pool cover water bags. That took significantly longer than either of us expected, especially after we were interrupted by a pretty intense storm that passed through quickly.

I finally finished up and we went home for a short rest before we decided to go downtown to see the festivities at the train depot. I didn’t want to leave Muad’Dib home for several hours since he was already cowering from the fireworks. I figured I could drop him off back at home before the show started. We picked up Dad, found a spot to park at the mall, and walked to the depot. There was still a lot of room, so I went back for the car and moved it to the end of the block downtown.

We set up our chairs on the sidewalk to watch the band, and then Summer and I wandered briefly to see what food we could find. We ended up getting a load of food from what I later learned was Cecil’s food truck. He gave us one of our meals for free, which was completely unexpected and appreciated. I really never knew the guy in school, so it was a blast from the past to see him twice in short succession.

The band was pretty good, and it felt nice for a while, but it actually got gross and humid as the wind died down later in the evening. Eaddie didn’t want to stay in Clarksville again, so she came by to pick up Muad’Dib from the depot, and we waited for fireworks. Summer had a good time, but I was pretty disappointed in the fireworks show. There really wasn’t that much to do downtown, considering the crowd that showed up. Cecil and his crew ran out of food super fast, and there were really only two other food trucks.

After the show, we hustled to the car to get out, and I curbed the shit out of the rear passenger side wheel. Then we were still stuck in traffic for quite a while before we could get out. Once we did, we dropped Dad off and then went home to go to bed. Eaddie and Eli were watching TV in her room, and Muad’Dib came out from under the bed, happy to see us.

Everything is sticky, and I hate it.

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Incensed

I felt pretty crummy most of the day, but at least it was dry out. Summer would be going to Little Rock in the afternoon, so she stopped to meet me for lunch at Ortega’s on the way. I tried to go light, but our server brought me an extra taco anyway. For the first time, I had to call it quits before I finished my plate.

The afternoon dragged a bit, but I didn’t feel quite as bad. We never heard from Lelan about Bác Vân’s ngày giỗ, but my parents planned to go to the cemetery in the evening. Summer didn’t want to go to therapy, but then Dwayne coincidentally texted that he had to cancel himself.

That gave me time to get home and settle down a bit before going to the cemetery, but then Summer and I got into it about her work frustrations again, and she pouted in the tub while I went to meet my family.

Muad’Dib and I met my parents just after they arrived with some fruit for praying, and then Julie and Kevin showed up shortly after Mom got the incense burning. We visited as they burned down, and then we headed home rather than go out to eat. I ate a sandwich mostly to clean up some food before it spoils, and eventually made it to bed.

it burns!

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All of Pardon

I woke up feeling pretty good this morning, so we went by Hardee’s to try their Frisco Breakfast Burger. It was a substantial meal, and I ended up chewing my last bite as I got parked at work. Things were quiet until I realized I had two calls to attend. The first was some “training” with the guys in the field that devolved a bit, but hopefully we got some actionable things out of it. Then in the early afternoon we had our weekly call with the Aptean folks without much of an agenda.

I forgot to go to lunch before our second call, so I just ended up drinking my Soylent that I didn’t drink for breakfast. The afternoon dragged a bit after that since we never really took a break.

Traffic wasn’t bad, but it was incredibly slow getting home. We planned to take Mom out for her birthday, but as usual, nothing really called to her. After a bit of back and forth, we ended up meeting everyone at Olive Garden. We walked around outside with Muad’Dib until everyone else got there. I had submitted a reservation through Google Maps and there wasn’t a line of people, but for some reason it did take them some time to seat us.

Dinner was good, and our server loaded us up with what appeared to be a career-ending number of dinner mints. I took Muad’Dib for a short run when we got back and had an anxiety attack at the end of our road. Then Summer went to bed while I finished up my stuff for the night.

Hey you! The sky’s on fire!

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Together We Can Take the Long Way Home

Eaddie beat us all up and into the shower this morning, which was great. We all managed to get ready and left right at checkout time. The kids actually left a little before us so they could get lunch downtown. I thought my parents had already left, so we headed toward Rogers for lunch, but then discovered they were still back at the hotel. Summer and I got to the Supercharger and walked around with Muad’Dib for 20 minutes or so, then put him back in the car and walked to Việt Buffet.

My parents arrived with perfect timing just shortly after we walked up, and we had a great lunch. I’m worried they won’t last long because of how many people were on staff and how empty the restaurant was, but all of the food was great. It’s a long drive even for a day trip, and there’s not much else up there to do that we can’t find closer.

Mom and Dad left a little before us, and then we still had to walk back to the car, but we got home just behind them. I took Muad’Dib on a run since we hadn’t been through the neighborhood in a couple months, and I could tell he was tired from an adventurous weekend. We visited my parents briefly, then made it home to unpack and clean up.

Eaddie had a sorority thing in the evening, so took a moment to decompress, and then I had to load up my loudspeakers to take to work for the upcoming picnic. I’m excited to actually get to use them properly, especially with all the new accessories I’ve been picking up.

Summer passed out early, and even Eaddie got home and went to bed before I finally got there. It was a fun and exhausting weekend, but man, what a year.

Better than watching Geller bending silver spoons

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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

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Cavalcade of Home Movies

Summer worked this morning, so I slept in a little while before having a quick breakfast. Summer made it home and cleaned up, and then I gave Muad’Dib a bath. Eli came over, and eventually left with Eaddie for Eureka Springs ahead of us. Summer and I finally got things packed up and left, stopping in Ozark for some food and a Supercharge.

We got to the Inn of the Ozarks with enough time to check in and decompress a bit before dinner. I needed to charge, so we dropped my car off at the trolley stop and had Eli pick us up to meet my parents, Uncle Rick, and Ginny at La Familia for dinner. Muad’Dib had to sit on the porch and wait for us, but he did great.

After dinner, we got back just in time for the evening tribute show. There were more people in the audience than I had ever seen, which was a shame because the tribute show was less magic and more of a talk-show style tribute with a surprising amount of home movies on a projector. It seemed like half the audience left halfway through that.

I rode around the parking lot with Muad’Dib before finally making it back to the room for the evening. The first couple Harry Potter movies played before everyone started to pass out.

It’s knot juggling.

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Mid-to-Late Forties

Summer decided to take the day off for her birthday, and spent the first day of spring break with Eaddie. In contrast, I went to work and spent a lot of time reading Microsoft documentation. Muad’Dib and I went to Sonic for lunch, but it was slightly cold and super windy, so it wasn’t quite as enjoyable as I had hoped.

The whole day kind of crept along, but we eventually got to go home. The car routed me off the Interstate early, so we drove by and saw that Zaxby’s was, in fact, permanently closed. I think we loved their chicken the most, so this was pretty upsetting, not to mention the fact that I still have some money left on a gift card.

The girls were gone when we got to the house, because all three kids wanted to take Summer out to dinner. I offered to go along, but Eaddie said they just wanted to go with the four of them. I rested for a bit, and then walked Muad’Dib to my parents’ house where we ate some bok choy that Mom stir fried.

We walked back home as it got dark, and Summer and the kids all met us out in the road as they were leaving. Then Summer went to bed, and I eventually trailed along.

Fewer and fewer breaks feels like living life in reverse.