Tag: Traditions

Traditions

What are Traditions: Mother’s Day 2018

I’m absolutely exhausted after today. We got up this morning and checked out the yard to get an idea of how to tackle it in the afternoon. Summer helped me get my 55-gallon tank outside for cleaning, and then went home to receive the girls. Once they got cleaned up, they came over with some Taco Bell before we started on the back yard.

It was pretty tough getting the girls to do anything. Autumn was particularly whiney about the whole ordeal. Eaddie was a little more willing to receive direction. Summer did the lion’s share of the work with the power tools while the girls did a bit of raking and picking up after Summer clipped the larger plants with the cutters. I managed the fire and did a little bit of trimming, and spent a bit of time cleaning fish tanks when we found some baby box turtles.

The yard looks better than it ever has, and I’ve got the wood piles mostly down to what I can manage to burn in a few bonfire events. I think I have some better ideas on how to tackle projects for the kids now too, but time will tell.

When we finished, the girls went home to clean up while I picked up outside. I filled the fish tank that will be used for the tadpoles, but didn’t have a chance to mess with the canister filter. The box turtles are in a box with some damp leaves and a tray of water until I have a suitable terrarium for them. I’m still not sure where to put them, though.

I went to their house as soon as I got out of the shower, and we met my parents at La Huerta for a mother’s day dinner. It went pretty well, probably in part to how tired the girls were. They wanted to pay for their mother and I was going to pay for my parents, but Mom ended up making Dad pay for everyone. I guess I’ll have to work on that, too.

Yard work sucks, but so does life, and then you die.

Uncategorised

Patty is a Girl’s Name

I slept in a while today and eventually got up and around to take care of some miscellaneous, neglected tasks. I spent a long time ordering some new shoes again because of deals. Eventually I left the house for dinner at my parents’ house. I thought they had leftovers for me to clean up, but instead, Mom cooked a new batch of veggies for chow mein.

After dinner, I went to Summer’s for some Uno before the girls went to bed, then she and I watched a few more episodes of The Office before I came home to crash.

What a wholesome St. Paddy’s day.

Traditions

What are Traditions: 0x23

I got up a bit earlier than usual this morning so I could get my Birthday Slam at Denny’s. I was worried for a moment about not having the coupon printed out, but thankfully they just took my ID. Last year I got bamboozled, so I would have felt rightly stupid for messing up again.

I spent all morning running around until I inadvertently convinced Jason and Allen to go to Ci-Ci’s for BOGO all-you-can-eat pizza for $5.99. That’s a hard one to argue, but the food wasn’t as good as our last visit, except for the whole weekend-long fever thing that happened last time.

After lunch, Jason helped me run down an intercom issue at Oakland, then I spent most of the remainder of the afternoon helping set up some more stuff for Sara.

Once off of work, I headed home to set up my newly RMA’d cable modem before heading to Summer’s for dinner. She made chili in a slow cooker, then we all played Phase 8 because bedtime is a very real thing in that household.

When I got home, I stopped by Bác Vân’s to pick up some strawberries she got me for my birthday. I guess overall it went about as well as it could have.

Nobody likes you when you’re 23.

Adventure Time!

Are you serious?

We crawled out of bed this morning just in time to get some breakfast from the bar downstairs. I had just about one of everything. I only regret not making it in time for the free beer the night before.

After we got up and around, we checked out and headed into town. I thought we’d have enough time to hit the mall and the strip, but we ended up only shopping at the mall. We spent most of our time in FYE, one of the last remaining general media and entertainment retailers. Then Summer tried on some swimsuits, and I remembered why I hated shopping at Dillard’s. By the time we got out of there, it had started to sprinkle, and we decided to start heading home. We did stop for some spring water on the way out, but then we hit the road.

It cleared up pretty nicely for the trip back, and I was surprised again that we didn’t encounter any leisure riders, either by motorcycle or car. It was mostly stupid trucks. The ol’ Murano carried us back swiftly enough to make me proud, and I dropped Summer off at home before heading to my parents’ house for a pre-birthday dinner.

They tried to broil some lobster tails to go along with a hodgepodge of other food. Mom made fried rice, but didn’t fry the lobster in the rice. I had a bit of everything, just like breakfast. My sister tried to fix 30 years of incompatibility by griping at it, and I had a Coco Rico.

When I got home and unpacked, I played a couple rounds of PUBG with Clint, and almost carried us to victory, but landed second place after getting shot in the face by a bush.

You make it hard to take anything seriously.

Uncategorised

The Bar

It was all parties at the elementaries today. I went by a room to check on something and a kid ran out into the hallway saying they needed something from me. As I entered the room, the entire class yelled, “happy valentine’s day, Mister Michael” at me. It was every bit as charming and awkward as one might imagine. They invited me back in the afternoon for their trail mix party, which was a delightful mix of cereal and assorted candy. It was nice to see something that wouldn’t punch you in the mouth with a fist of sugar.

I never actually left for lunch after that. I got a sundae after the trail mix, so I guess there wasn’t much need for anything else. After work, I went to Summer’s for dinner, then came back home for some PUBG before bed. I’m having a hard time getting into bed at an appropriate time, but I guess it’s not affecting me negatively yet.

Valentine’s day is just a corporate invention, but we don’t have to fall for it. We don’t have to ever enjoy anything.

Traditions

What are Traditions: New Year’s Eve 2017

I spent most of the afternoon cleaning house in case anyone wanted to come over for New Year’s Eve. I had originally planned to have a fire, but it was too cold and windy for that. We decided to get some pizza and stay in for a movie instead. Summer and the girls were the only ones that wanted to do anything, so I picked them up along with some Domino’s to watch a movie before counting down to the new year. I had some trouble with our first movie choice, and somehow we settled on Leonardo DiCaprio’s Romeo and Juliet while we ate. Then we played some music around midnight, and ended the night with The Jungle Book.

Everyone pretty well passed out, so I guess it was a success.

Good luck, 2018…

Traditions

What are Traditions: Christmas 2017

Why post a portrait when you already got everyone’s best sides?

After just a few hours of sleep, I managed to get up early enough for Summer to come over and watch my Christmas movie, Gremlins with me. When lunch was ready, she left and I headed to my parents’ house to meet up with family.

Julie wanted to take us all to see Star Wars: The Last Jedi in the evening, so I invited everyone over to watch The Force Awakens to refresh ourselves on the new storyline. Julie and Andy left almost immediately because my cats tried to murder her immune system, but my parents and I finished the movie.

I killed the rest of the evening time waiting to go to the movie, then met everyone at the theater. I thought the movie was pretty entertaining, but the plot did feel a bit contrived. Overall, I guess it did its job of passing the baton. Someone in charge definitely made an attempt to follow the recent trend of making serious movies funnier. It didn’t completely fit with tradition, but it got some cheap laughs.

It’s all a machine, partner. Live free: don’t join.

Traditions

What are Traditions: Christmas Eve 2017

Summer invited me to New China for lunch, and afterward we hung out and played a couple quick games of Jenga. Then I came home and took care of some neglected house cleaning.

Once I got tired of that game, I played a couple rounds of PUBG with Clint and Keno until Summer got back home from her Christmas thing. We watched the tail end of Rise of the Guardians and just lounged the rest of the evening.

Happy Christmas.

Traditions, Work Adventures

What are Traditions: Work Holiday Shindig 2017

Today was kind of a weirdly relaxed day, mostly due to a pep rally at the junior high. I did make some decent progress on some things I had been working on though, so overall it was a successful day.

People have been so impressed with my Pixel 2 XL that both Sarah and Ronda ordered smaller ones for themselves. I played with Sarah’s for a bit, and really liked the size. The top and bottom bezels didn’t feel as bad as they looked in pictures. I still feel like mine is way too big to comfortably use, but I like the smaller bezels.

After work, I had to run to Walmart to pick up the stuff for a broccoli, rice, and cheese casserole for Ben’s Christmas dinner at his place. He smoked a pork shoulder, and we had all the fixings for a nice barbecue meal. Gary and I traded high scores in Seaquest on the Atari, at one point taking turns doubling each other’s previous scores. It was a really great time with everyone.

Centuries worth of technological advances, and this is what we do with it?

Traditions

What are Traditions: Magic Club Potluck 2017

I got up this morning after a late night of sneaky Photoshopping to the blog with plenty of time to get ready to leave for the Magic Club Christmas meeting. It’s late enough in the year now that I think we can accept a little bit of festivity.

We were pretty late leaving my parents’ house, because why wouldn’t we be? I brought my HTC 10 along for the ride to try and compare service. Overall it seemed about the same, but I didn’t spend all day with my face in my phones either. Surprisingly my data at the Riverfront Park was actually a bit faster on straight Sprint. I probably should have gotten an app to monitor what towers I was hitting before we left.

I felt a little removed for most of the meeting. It’s grown quite a lot over the years. This year they had a string quartet while we ate. There were enough other people there for setup and teardown that I didn’t really do anything. The show was almost entirely for the kids, and I don’t think anybody really talked to me at all except to say hello.

We hit up some Oriental grocery stores on the way out of town, and I picked up some shrimp and cuttlefish chips and some dried squid. My snack game has been off lately, which I suppose is good. Once home, I did a load of laundry to cap the weekend.

Please enjoy this “tastiness.”