Tag: work

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Two One Thousand

When I first got to work this morning, my office was blowing super hot air and I had to strip down pretty quickly. It didn’t take it long to shut off though, and before I knew it, I was being blasted with cool air again. I wound up heading to the shop at lunch time and intercepted a big group heading to Fat Daddy’s again.

After lunch, I just stayed at the shop and continued to work on the Adobe Acrobat package that was giving me trouble. I think I finally had a working one by quitting time, but I didn’t have time to test it, so that’ll be a job for another day.

When I got home, I continued my cleaning project, slowly working my way across the room. I’ve found that I struggle with keeping things for two reasons. First is sentimentality. Then there’s practicality and expecting that something will be of use in the future. It makes progress extremely slow, but at least I feel like I have something to show for it his time.

Eventually I headed up to Summer’s for the evening, where I picked at leftovers some more. Then I ended the night with a little YouTube before bed.

Don’t feel like Christmas.

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Gettin’ Weepy

The girls had all region today, so I got up alone and had some salad for breakfast before heading home to clean up. I had to get Aimee’s laptop from the high school to her at the junior high, and ended up sitting and chatting with her for quite a while. By the time I left there, Summer had already left the concession stand, so I left and stopped by Ridgewood Brothers to pick up some smoked turkey. I must have clicked something on the iPad that made it not charge my credit card, so when I got back to the car and realized it, I ran back to pay Robert and he handed me a side of slaw to go with it.

I ate a little when I got home, then cleaned the vacuum cleaner so I could clean up the bedroom a bit. There’s still a ton of junk in there to sort through and discard, but at this rate that will always be the case. Eventually Summer got everyone home, so I went to pick her and Autumn up so we could go to Walmart. I volunteered to make burgers and Autumn wanted to pick up some snacks for Eaddie and herself while Summer and I were out with friends.

We dropped Autumn off and gathered everything up to head to John and Melissa’s. Travis was already there, and Veronica and her kids showed up a bit after that. We had a great time eating and drinking, and then tried to play some Magic: The Gathering until we gave up on teaching three new players and switching to Cards Against Humanity. Asher had brought it and wanted to play, but we refused until he could beat Travis at Magic. The kids ended up leaving to go to an escape room anyway, which made it all the more funny when they returned to us playing their game.

By the end of the night, Travis had gotten pretty weepy about everything, so we tried to sober him up enough just for us to take him home. As I walked him into his house, he seemed very concerned about the Dust from His Dark Materials. I did my best to reassure him, and locked him in his house so I could get home with Summer for some sleep.

I AM THE DARKNESS! I AM THE ONE WHO DUSTS!

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Busy Start to a Busy Weekend

Amanda and I coordinated our Weird Al shirts for today’s meeting. Allen and I were going to team up for the day, but before we could do that we had a conference room meeting about job expectations. It was a little foreboding, but I was hopeful.

Allen and I first went to the high school with the trailer to pick up the cart that had mysteriously appeared in my office the day before. We took it back to the shop, then took a touch panel to Crawford to be installed in the afternoon. Since we were on that side of town, I offered to ride up to Center Valley with him to check out their sign. I pulled the truck right up to it, which worked perfectly for climbing up to the raised panels. We couldn’t get any video out, so we pulled the computer and headed back to the shop for lunch.

I had been thinking of Fat Daddy’s, and I guess that psychically rubbed off onto everyone else, because a huge group of six of us went to the one downtown. I got the nachos since they were presented so much better than the one in London. Then it was back to the shop to get ready for Allen’s touch panel install.

When we finished with that, we ran by the high school so I could check on Ethan and his robotics tournament setup. We got him squared away, then stopped in to see Al, who had accidentally hidden all of his desktop icons. Jason called us all back to the shop at the end of the day, which was predictably bad. It’s upsetting to see that happen to a friend, but at the end of the day, you’ve got to do the things if you’re going to have a job. I really love Ben as a boss, but I hate how easy it is for people to take advantage of his want to see the best in everyone.

With that done, they let us out a bit early and I headed home to bring in the day’s shipments. It wasn’t too long before I had to head to Walmart for some drinks for dinner with Ronda and Steven. Inside wasn’t too bad, but traffic outside was an absolute zoo. I was running behind and still had to swing by to pick up the girls. We ran on up the mountain and had a great time and an incredible feast of M-E-A-T! Steven grilled marinated pork chops and ribeyes to go with some asparagus and tomatoes, twice-baked potatoes, and more. Every time I turned around, he was making something else for us. He really pulled out all the stops for us, and I hate that I don’t think I could ever top that, but I think he and I just really enjoy hosting like that.

We all ate so much, and the girls had fun with Maleea, but we had to get everyone home for all region band in the morning. I had to give up programming their DirecTV remote, and we got everyone to bed with a medium amount of fighting. Looks like we’re going to be running all weekend.

What an extravaganza.

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All Gobbled Up

It wasn’t quite as cold out today, but my office was still pretty frigid. The morning went by quickly, and then I headed to the shop before lunch. Allen, Jason, and Brice wanted to go to Long John Silver’s, so Brice and I split a 12 for $12.12 coupon and ate too much. I actually stopped myself a little early and kept some leftovers for dinner.

The afternoon went by pretty quickly, and was just as quiet as this morning. I stayed a bit late to finish up on Aimee’s laptop, then headed home to change. Summer went to Eaddie’s concert tonight, because I guess they have too many bands to host them all on the same night, and wanted me to figure out dinner. I ran to Walmart for a few things, then made it up to their house to start some turkey stock in the Instant Pot.

Summer got home just as the pressure cooking finished, but I still had to let it depressurize to add the stock to the rest of the soup. I started some carrots, celery, onion, and fresh thyme in another pot and got a good browning on all of that, then added the stock, leftover turkey meat, and some egg noodles. I thought it came out really great, and was ready to eat just as the kids got back from their dinner. Summer ate as she fought her exhaustion calling her to bed, and then everyone went to sleep.

All this perfection hurts my back after a while.

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Chili Fingers

I froze all day long, with my office blowing nothing but cold air at me. I spent almost the entire day sifting through verbose log files to try and fix the same Chrome issue that I’m sure ultimately doesn’t matter because it’s an old computer on an old 32-bit version of Windows 7, but I wanted to try anyway. An hour or so in, I was surprised with a lockdown drill, so for the first time I actually had to participate. Just as I got up to lock the door, a girl peeked in my window and needed a place to hide, so I let her in and we sat in the dark together for the next 15 minutes until they gave the all-clear.

I finally took a break to grab my new Fossil Gen 5 Carlyle that was delivered, and headed to the shop for lunch. Allen and Gary wanted Kob Jai, and against what every experience I’ve ever had there, I decided to give it another shot. They got grilled chicken, which was really just two boneless, skinless chicken breasts charred until black on the outside and served with a container of sticky rice and an egg roll or two. It was simply the most underwhelming looking plate I could imagine anyone serving, but the chicken looked good for those that like it cooked just a step above jerky. I had the pad thai again, this time with “all the stars,” and the noodles were super tough and chewy. There was very little chicken, especially compared to what appeared to be four breasts sitting across the table from me. It tasted alright I guess, but overall I should really commit to never going there again.

When we got back to the shop, I spent quite a while setting up my new watch with Gary. The first big update caused the watch to run super poorly while also absolutely nuking the battery. I got it up to 100% while setting it up, and then after failing the first update attempt, it dropped down below 60% within just a few minutes. A restart and re-download of the same update later, it did finally succeed and ran smooth as butter.

I wrapped up the day working on the same stuff I’d wasted all morning on, and headed home in the freezing cold. I got some gas, then ran the dollar menu gauntlet for some Wendy’s nuggets and McDonald’s fries because I was super hungry after only eating half of my lunch plate. I finished them along with my leftovers for lunch, then bundled up the best I could for a cold night at home. Jack came on and we played a little Overwatch before bed.

Hands like ice.

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Icetown

It just kept getting colder and colder today. I got to call 911 to test the office phone system, which was mildly entertaining. Summer joined Ben, Zach, Gary, and me for $5 salads at Ruby Tuesday. Then I met Aimee after school so I could try and recover files and restore her son’s old laptop. I ended up staying pretty late working on a stupid Chrome issue on an old music department computer, and it was super cold when I got home.

Autumn had her Christmas concert, but I didn’t have the nerves to make it back out. I had a drink and just mellowed out at home until they finished, and then Summer came by and took us to Waffle House for a late dinner.

Scattered, smothered, covered, chunked, diced, peppered, capped, topped, country.

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My Own Shipping Hub

Today was unseasonally warm, so of course I had to take the bike in to work. I wasn’t there very long before the deliveries started showing up at my house. The morning went by really quickly and I should have stuck with a Soylent for lunch, but I ended up back at the shop to see what the others were doing. Zach and Gary were headed to Morelos, so I joined them for some actually tasty fajitas.

I closed out a few things in the afternoon, but had to fight exhaustion from a week of pretty poor sleep. I’ve been waking up a lot in the middle of the night and tossing around a bit for some reason. It started to cool off pretty quickly after work, so I headed home and started cleaning up packaging again. I’ve got a handful of rebates to mail off before I can get rid of it all. Once I found the washing machine, I started some laundry and spent a good portion of the evening re-labeling and organizing all of my socks.

UPS, FedEx, and USPS either really love me or really hate me right now.

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Splashmas Fiesta

Summer got up and made pancakes and eggs for breakfast this morning. I surfed deals for a little bit before going home to clean up and find an outfit to wear for her company Christmas dinner. I picked up Noah on the way back up, and we got everyone loaded into the car for a bit of shopping before the shindig.

Our first stop was in Conway so I could try and find a couple clearance deals at Home Depot. I dropped three of them off at Target first, but Eaddie didn’t get her shoes on in time and ended up having to go to Home Depot with me. We wandered around for much longer than I planned, and only found one of the deals I wanted. The SodaStream wasn’t discounted to a good price at all, so we left with only a Klein cable tester.

When we got back to Target, Eaddie just wanted to stay in the car, so it was up to me to fetch the others. Noah was the only one to buy anything, and that was a soda. Then it was off to Little Rock. We were a bit early for the party, so we went to McCain Mall first and let Autumn run through the PINK store for some overpriced whatevers. Then she and Eaddie went to Bath & Body Works for some slightly less overpriced stuff while the rest of us went to GameStop.

By the time we made it through there, it was time to gather everyone up and head to The Greens in Sherwood. The company rented out a building at the country club and had some Mexican joint cater fajitas. It was definitely less “happening” than any of us expected, and the two caterers plating the food made everyone getting through the line extremely slow. They played a slideshow with a bunch of old employees that ticked Summer off, and then had some “game” where employees got to bid on some really crappy door prizes with sixteen fake dollars. Like, a bag of tongs, bad.

We made it home pretty quickly, and shuffled everyone off to bed. At least we got everyone out of the house.

SIXTEEN!!!

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A Zenni for Your Thoughts?

We had a little bit of a meeting this morning, and by that I mean that everyone showed up at the shop on time. We did a whole lot of sitting and chatting, and I was assigned to help Amanda relocate a television from her office back to the shop, which we opted to do in the afternoon. I actually spent all morning at the shop just sort of killing time until lunch, though I did work on some more Adobe deployments while I waited. It sort of became a running gag that people would ask me what was for lunch, I’d reply “Popeye’s,” which everyone would agree to, and then they’d ask me again a couple minutes later. Jason and Allen ended up splitting off to go to Old South, while Ben, Zach, Gary, and I went to Popeye’s to try their elusive chicken sandwich.

That chicken sandwich was delicious. I still felt like it was a bit small, especially compared to Gary’s, whose chicken looked plump and delicious. I really enjoyed the extra spike in the spicy mayo or whatever sauce they had on it. It would have been even better with a slice of tomato and maybe some lettuce. I still haven’t had one from Zaxby’s yet, but as far as chicken sandwiches go, I think this one was my favorite from any fast food joint.

After lunch I milled around the shop again for a while before running home to move a bunch of packages inside. My hot air popcorn maker finally came in, so I took it to my office along with a big container of kernels. I didn’t completely think that through though, as I tried popping a very small portion of kernels that kept jumping out of the popper. When I finally added the proper amount of kernels, they just blew out all over my little breakfast nook.

After work, I went home to pick through all my day’s shipments. My Zenni Optical glasses finally came in, and I spent a good deal of time trying to adjust some frames for a better fit. It took me a lot of tweaking, but I think I’m finally pretty happy with my first pair. It’s only been a little over a week, but I’ve already forgotten all the different features I ordered, so it’ll be fun to compare everything in the end.

When Summer got home, I headed up and ate some leftovers while she told me all about how she didn’t like my new glasses as much, but the accents were alright, and overall they looked okay. I’m just glad we’re finally past having to compliment dinner for being better than it really was. Eaddie snuggled up next to me on the couch and we watched some YouTube until everyone was ready to pass out. Summer didn’t even make it of the couch.

Yo that’s how it post to be.

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Often Imitated

Winter makes it hard to roll out of bed for work in the morning. I don’t recall it doing any favors for work in the afternoon either though. I took my toaster in to work so I could have a piping hot bagel. I hadn’t been there for very long before UPS showed up with my Macy’s package. It was my toaster oven and electric skillet. I went home for lunch to bring them in, and I’m pretty sure I scared off a tweaker that was trolling through my neighborhood on a bicycle. He seemed to be looking pretty intently at all the doors, and then immediately left when he saw me park the car.

After that, I talked myself into going to Burger King for their Bacon King. It wasn’t anywhere near as good as Wendy’s Baconator, but it wasn’t awful either. It was big though, I have to give them that.

The afternoon went by pretty slowly as well, until I tried to go by the shop and discovered everyone had already gone home due to the Christmas parade. It wasn’t even 4:30 yet, and people were already lining up along the street to see the show, and the traffic just made me angry. I hate parades.

I went home to chill out for a while before heading up to Summer’s, where I emptied the refrigerator of all the remotely relevant leftovers I could find. Summer wanted nachos, and it was my job to figure out how to make that happen out of Thanksgiving leftovers. I think I did pretty well.

We ended the evening with a couple episodes of Parks and Recreation, and then I spent some time browsing for sunglasses with bayonet temples, because I’m eclectic like that. The Chinese counterfeit market is pretty good for those, too.

Is it good that you can’t tell the difference?