Tag: work

Uncategorised

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.

Uncategorised

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+!

Uncategorised

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!

Uncategorised

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.

Uncategorised

Sign of the Times

I unintentionally slept in super late today. Summer took the rest of the week off, so she was up doing things long before I got around. When I did finally get up, I rushed to check on the Stalk Market in Animal Crossing, then sat down to try and get some work done.

The high school got their new sign installed, and now they want to use it to showcase their virtual graduation somehow. I watched a recording of the training Ben got on the software, and though 500 slides seems like a lot, they weren’t really taking into consideration the fact that animations take up around 100 frames of that. It certainly felt to me like we were oversold and under-delivered.

It took me all day to get the beefy software downloaded and installed, I’m guessing mostly due to the large file size of all the animations. I didn’t pay too much attention to the noise the girls were making, but I know Autumn did spend a good portion of the afternoon preparing dinner.

She made an orange chicken dish that called for freshly battered and air-fried chicken breast chunks. The air frying was a no-go for me, but the overall dish was pretty good. If I’m going to “fry” something, I’m going to fry it. Toaster ovens need to stay in their lane.

After dinner, Summer tried to get the girls to complete some chores and I headed home to clean up for their impending arrival. My Gorilla Ladder arrived via UPS in what amounted to a tattered plastic trash bag, so it got roughed up a bit more than I would have liked. It really won’t make any difference when I use it though.

When the girls got here, I made some popcorn for Autumn, then pulled out my old Cuisinart ice cream maker. I picked up a couple clearanced strawberry ice cream mixes at Walmart a while back, and finally had the milk and cream to put it all together. I think I should have split the batch, but as I pulled some out for us to eat, the stuff that was left in the bowl iced up quite nicely for storage.

Autumn and I were going to start Game of Thrones, but she got sleepy about three minutes into the first episode, and gave up. I put Summer to bed, and Eaddie and I watched another episode of Iron Fist. It was much better than the first episode of the season, and actually got me wondering about the future episodes. Time will tell.

In five years, I see myself with the same job title, about the same salary, and significantly more responsibilities.

Uncategorised

Shop Talk

I got up this morning after very little sleep and got to work again. Autumn came out shortly after I did and scrambled some eggs with tortillas that turned out really good.

Around lunch time, I made another “everything” sandwich, and Autumn joined me for lunch with Summer at the shop. Then we went by my house for a bit to clean up, and I was excited to see that one of my shrimp had eggs again. It was a lower quality shrimp, but I was just glad to see them breeding. When we left, I had to run by our office to sign some paperwork, then stop by the high school to set up a webcam in the athletics office.

Once all of our business was taken care of, the two of us went to do a little shopping, going first to Five Below, then to Dollar Tree. Summer had a team meeting after work and had me order some pizzas for the crew. While we waited, Autumn and I ran through Walmart for some high color sidewalk chalk but couldn’t find any. I did score a pretty good deal on a bike pump though.

When the pizza was done, we picked them up at Papa John’s and dropped them off at Superfast. Then we headed back to the house after a really good day together. Everyone just sort of picked at leftovers for dinner, and then Autumn wanted to play Monopoly.

I clearly dominated that game, and then Eaddie joined us for some Sorry where Autumn broke out in first place. We were all pretty tired by that point, so everyone settled in for the night. Eaddie and I watched an episode of Iron Fist until I started dozing off and called it a night.

The end-of-school stress is coming. I can feel it.

Uncategorised

Speaker Phone

I made it through another week at the office. Like the rest of the week, I stayed pretty busy all day and felt pretty good with what I had accomplished. I even successfully helped a couple people over the phone while Ben was on a conference call, including the superintendent. He has no idea who I am.

Josh drove me to Morelos to pick up lunch for the three of us. When I called to place the order, the couple guys I talked to seemed really confused. Our orders seemed a bit off, and we didn’t even get half of an acceptable amount of chips for how much food we ordered. Regardless of any of that, my nachos filled a void inside of me that I didn’t even know I had.

The afternoon went by quickly as usual, and we even stayed a little late trying to sort a voicemail issue for the music department. By the end of it all, I at least made it functional. It was past quitting time anyway.

I spent a little while at home relaxing to some Overwatch before digging into my desk. The center channel speaker I ordered had arrived, and I wanted to hook it up on top of my desk between the bookshelf speakers.

The girls eventually came over, and Autumn went with me to get some Burger King for dinner. After we ate, I realized they forgot the jalapeño cheddar bites, and I had to go back to get them. At least they threw a small order of fries in the bag too, to make up for it.

The girls finished Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, which to me seemed like a story about a single father of two’s slow descent into madness. I made some speaker wire and got my computer sound upgraded a bit. Summer went to bed, and Eaddie sat reading her book until I finished what I was doing, and then we ended the evening with a couple episodes of Jessica Jones.

Some people breed big cats. Me? I think I’ll try mosquitos.

Uncategorised

Fish and Dogs

Apparently I sat on my key fob last night and I woke up with my car windows halfway down in the rain. I guess I was just lucky that it didn’t rain any harder than it did.

Ben took the day off, so Greg and I were left with Melinda to man the phones. We both had work orders to take care of, so we kept at least a little bit busy all day. Nobody was having lunch there today, so I ended up just hanging out at the shop with a Soylent. The afternoon went by pretty quickly too.

After work, I spent a little time at home getting some bills together and called to see if I really did owe anything from my colonoscopy in November. I didn’t get in touch with anyone, but I left a message and went on about my day. I got a little Overwatch in, and then headed up to Travis’s to pick up an aquarium.

He had evidently neglected it pretty badly and just wanted to get rid of the whole thing, so he handed a bucket of fish and the tank to me through the window. The bristlenose catfish had its barbs stuck in the net, so it took me a little bit to get it out, but we got everyone loaded up and ready to go. I got the catfish and three tetra GloFish, and headed to Summer’s.

Autumn decided she wanted the tank, so I had her do some furniture swapping to get a 20 gallon tank-worthy stand into her room. I cleaned the new tank out the best I could with the water pressure I had, and we got it moved into her room. In the middle of that, Summer came home and I ran to Sonic with Autumn to get 50 cent corn dogs for dinner.

When we finally finished cleaning up the filter and setting up the tank, I dropped the fish in a little prematurely since we didn’t really have anywhere else for them to go. Summer crashed, and Eaddie and I watched an episode of Jessica Jones before bed. I checked in on the fish and one of them didn’t look so great, so we may already be down one by tomorrow. I’m almost sure of it.

Genetically modified meat on a stick.

Uncategorised

It Slices! It Dices!

We had another conference call this morning with a company we’ve never dealt with before. By way of chance, the guy actually got through to Ben on the phone, and we actually happened to be reviewing classroom management software, so Ben scheduled the meeting today after the two prior days of the same. I liked this one guy a lot more than the four we talked to yesterday, and though he didn’t demo the Windows functionality for us, he at least acted like he knew that it existed.

After the call, Ben and I went to Dairy Queen to pick up lunch. I decided to try the chicken and biscuits basket they had, and spent over twice what Ben did on his meal. I ended up getting plenty that I could split it with Summer on the way back to the shop. Ben was talking about phone shopping anyway, and wanted to compare the size of his old Nexus with Summer’s Pixel 3.

The afternoon went by really quickly with a few more work orders, and then I went to get Autumn for her physical therapy. I killed a little time in Animal Crossing until it was time to drop her off, and then I ran home for a bit. When she called for me to pick her back up, I stopped by Casey’s for a free water and ran into Keith and chatted to him for a minute in the rain.

Once I got Autumn, we ran back by my house to get my package from UPS that didn’t arrive until after I left. Then we ordered some Papa John’s for dinner and picked it up on the way back up the hill.

I mostly waited for Summer to eat, and decided I didn’t much care for their rendition of the Philly cheesesteak pizza. The girls liked their buffalo pizza enough. I brought in the toaster oven/air fryer/dehydrator/roaster/whatever-elser and set it up in the kitchen, and then Eaddie and I watched an episode of Jessica Jones while Summer watched some of her show. When we finished that episode, we all got together for an episode of Glee before Summer went to sleep. Eaddie and I caught one more episode of Jessica Jones, then went to bed ourselves.

Sometimes it’s 10 minutes. Sometimes it’s an hour.
It depends what inspiration hits, and what deals are found.

Uncategorised

Taking it Offline

It was just a little bit cool this morning, but I decided to take the Grom in to work. I got a bit of a slow start, mostly messing with what we collectively agreed were “Michael problems” that are oddly specific, unique and important only to me, and necessarily unimportant. By the end of the day it helped me learn some stuff though, so it was a good day.

Ben drove us to Taco John’s for lunch, where I tried to use the app’s new online ordering feature. I didn’t realize I had to tap a button to “check in,” but that was resolved in short order. The tacos, on the other hand, were terrible. I should have ordered soft tacos, because by the time we got back to the shop, they were soft anyway.

Ben and I had another conference call after lunch, this time with a whole group of people representing Relay. I should have known just by how the meeting started that it was going to be kind of typical office-lingo corporate nonsense. In the end, they just couldn’t demo anything that we really needed, and then couldn’t really properly answer some of the technical questions we had with their four people on the call. Gary stopped by and sat in for a while, and spent most of the time rolling his eyes, but that could just be typical Gary.

That wrapped up the work day, so I stopped by the shop to see Summer on the way home. Once I got settled in a little bit, I started making some decent progress in cleaning some things up a bit. It felt really good to be that productive. Summer came by when she got off, but ended up going home to work out instead of going out for a run.

After giving her some time to work out, I headed up to Summer’s for the evening. Eaddie and I watched some Jessica Jones, then I picked at some leftovers for dinner while pan frying some hot dogs and cheese for Summer. Then the three of us ended the evening with an episode of Glee.

We’ll take our Trump Bucks elsewhere.