Tag: work

Uncategorised

Watchtower

The guys were socializing this morning while I tinkered around in SCCM. Then as I moved on to PDQ, we suddenly started having network issues. Randy and Kyle left for the core closet, where they later reported that some new equipment being installed caused a loopback. With that fixed in the late morning, things calmed down a bit.

Maggie and I went to Taziki’s for lunch in the mall, and the food was really good. She was super excited to have someone else that would eat there, because evidently the old men in the group always want pizza and barbecue. I love being able to go to all these new places for lunch.

The afternoon was a bit more casual and quiet. Randy came back and chatted with us for a bit, and the morning’s antics inspired me to finish setting up a PRTG server to monitor our network and servers. I didn’t even realize how quickly time had passed, and I had to jump up and leave as Jay walked out.

Eaddie had parent/teacher conferences today, but Summer left work to attend them early. I got home just as Eaddie arrived with some little hockey pucks from Little Caesar’s. We ate a mix of that and some leftovers, and then I took the dogs for another really great run. I don’t know if it’s the weather, or maybe the repetition is finally paying off, but they’ve been super well-behaved. We stopped to visit with my parents, then continued up the hill and back home. I gave them some good pets and treats, and finally Summer and I watched some more TV before bed.

Coco for Cuckoo Puffs!

Uncategorised

You Can Take Rally’s Out of the Hood

I squeaked into work this morning, and I think I’m even more consistent with my arrival time now than when I worked five minutes away. The guys sat on the other side of the partition for a while, and Randy debated his Chromebook strategy with them. I had to be careful not to ruffle too many feathers, but it was the same old story. They didn’t seem super anxious to work any harder. I still think people will grow to meet your demands if you’re consistent in holding them accountable.

Nobody showed up for lunch, so I went to Rally’s by myself. I ordered online and got my food reasonably quickly, but I felt super out of place when I saw the other people that had walked up to the window. The fries looked soggy, but tasted alright. I even tried their mozzarella sticks and found them to be pretty tasty, even without the marinara sauce they failed to give me. Then I found they had mismade my burger, so I went back to the window again to ask for a correction. A guy named Omar came up to the window and gave me some grief about it, and said, “we don’t have onion straws, so you wouldn’t have got ’em anyway.” I offered to let him just squirt some barbecue sauce on my partially eaten burger, but he called for it to be remade anyway.

I tinkered with SCCM and VMware the rest of the afternoon, and fought traffic the entire way home after work. Dad had the trees cut down in the front yard at the old house, so I stopped by to have a look and grab a few things. I didn’t care much for the look of it, but I suppose now there will be fewer tree-related problems.

The car was pretty gross from all the bugs I encounter on my regular commute, so I stopped to wash it on the way home. Summer was getting ready to take a bath when I got there, so I ate my leftover remade burger from Rally’s and discovered that they did have onion straws after all. It was even pretty good reheated. Then I took the dogs for probably the best run I’ve ever had with them. They ran the whole way to my parents’ house and sniffed around there for a while. Then we went through the basin and back up to the house without any fuss. I didn’t even have to scoop any poop!

I fed the dogs, loaded them up on treats, and then settled in to watch a couple episodes of Modern Family with Summer until bedtime. Eaddie made it home a little later, but I only barely caught sight of her as she came in and ducked straight into her room.

…but you can’t take the hood out of Rally’s.

Uncategorised

Fun Without Hinges

I was a little slow out the door this morning, but I got to work on time. Not that anyone would have noticed. I spent a little time in the morning finishing up the Google Classroom cleanup I had to do for teachers that had left. Then I started tinkering with SCCM again.

They took me to another new place for lunch. This time it was Gadwall’s, and I had a big plate of chili cheese nachos. They were fairly good, but also fairly expensive. I was just happy that for the price, it was a pretty big plate. It occurred to me as we chattered that I’ve really missed being around people that haven’t acclimated to the unhinged things I sometimes say. It was a solid reminder of how hilarious I am, and how those who are around me more often are taking that hilarity for granted.

I was by myself for a part of the morning, and most of the afternoon. My big success was discovering the incompatible version of my Configuration Manager. Once I found the correct install for that, my laptop was able to connect to the server, which should speed up any work I do in that system.

After work, I ran back to the Target on our side of town to look for another Pixel Watch. I didn’t have any luck with that, but I did pick up a shirt for Muad’Dib and a big pool float that were both on clearance. Then I headed to Kohl’s in Conway to pick up an order before finally heading toward home.

Summer had a rough day at work and wanted Wendy’s for dinner, so I picked that up once I got into town, and we ate together before I went out with the dogs. They were super excited and had torn into a bunch more stuff in the yard. They ran the entire way to my parents’ house again, which tells me that we really need to get them out even more than we do.

I visited with Dad briefly for a walk around the yard, and then we headed home. I got a little upset to the stomach, but also had at least three separate anxiety attacks throughout the day, so I really wanted to get to bed early to get some rest. As I was just going to bed, Noah called from the ER, but it seemed to be more due to the fact that he needed a doctor’s note to keep his job. I talked to him a little bit and gave him what advice I could, but maybe we’ll hear more about it soon.

No crap.

Uncategorised

Stay on Target!

Someone said a big truck caught on fire on the interstate last night, and they still had the entire road blocked off when I got there. It took me an extra half hour at minimum to get through it after it started to divert me over the river. Somehow I was basically still one of the first ones to get into the office, and Randy didn’t seem too worried about any of it. Simply the most vocally relaxed boss ever.

I was stuck in GAM all day trying to clean up old Google Classrooms, mostly unsuccessfully. I had a Soylent, a leftover slice of cheese pizza that Eaddie brought home from the concession stand, and a coffee to get me through the long morning. Then I rode with Jay and we followed Jim, Randy, and Maggie to a place in Scott called Scott Station for lunch. They had a really fluffy, black, quiet, mild-mannered dog in the restaurant, and it looked like a Cracker Barrel on steroids. Unfortunately I found the brisket sandwich to be pretty lackluster. It was better than Corky’s, but it was still bad.

The afternoon went by a little quicker, but I felt hot and was frustrated with GAM the rest of the day. Then I had to meet Summer on the opposite end of Little Rock for our movie. She ran even further behind than I did, so I parked at a hotel with a charger for a little while until she got closer to town. Then we arrived at the Promenade at the same time. We had dinner at the Local Lime, and then watched Transformers One in IMAX 3D.

I thought the movie was cute, but Summer was way more excited for it. The theater was super cold though, so I just kept trying to cover her up with my extremities. I was fairly tired and uncomfortable by the end of it, just from being clammy and wearing my work clothes all day. She drove on home while I looked for deals.

I went two both Targets in Little Rock and found one Pixel Watch 2 at the first store for $75. The store on University didn’t have any marked down. I had to stop in Conway for just a couple minutes to charge and then checked that Target as well, but didn’t have any luck. Then I finally made it home super late.

Eaddie was up and came out to talk to me for quite a while, but had to go to bed for an early day of community service hours for school.

BADASSATRON

Uncategorised

Armadillo Eggs and Other Nonsense

I ran a little behind to work after having to clean up some more puke from Stilgar. He seemed to be feeling better this morning though, so the worry was over. I still managed to get into the office before anyone else by more than 10 minutes, but apparently they were socializing outside before work. I just continued working on group policies all day.

NextStep took us out for lunch to a place called DRAFT + TABLE, which was excellent. They had an appetizer called Armadillo Eggs, which were “fresh jalapeños grilled, stuffed with cream cheese, wrapped in our sausage and cheese breading, and baked until golden and crispy, served with our signature blackberry cream sauce.” They were much larger than I expected, and absolutely delicious. Then I had their pastrami reuben, which was also much larger than I expected. Both it and the fries were amazing. Finally, their “banana pudding” was a gelatinous atrocity. It was served in a ceramic dish, similar to their crème brûlée, and it looked strange from the start. The “pudding” was a thin layer of appropriately colored gelatin that was so hard, it wanted to jump out of the dish. In fact, a square slice of Maggie’s made it down to the floor from our high table, and didn’t lose a bit of its shape. Zero out of five stars.

The rest of the afternoon was more of the same until quitting time. Traffic was awful on the drive home, but at least it was steady and fast. They need a bullet train that just runs down the Interstate. I got home and immediately took the dogs out for a run. Dad had checked on them midday and said they both seemed fine, and indeed we ran for nearly the entire loop of the neighborhood. We stopped to see Dad briefly, then went the long way around the basin trail, zig-zagging through the neighborhood to get home. Some lady saw me and felt compelled to record me on her phone while she drove slowly behind me in her car, hanging out of her window. It was super awkward, and I thought this must be what celebrity feels like.

Eaddie was out late again, and I managed to get to bed close to my planned time after catching up with Travis a bit. I don’t know what prompted him to reach out again, but it didn’t seem like much had changed. I just wish he would get over his anxiety and go outside some more.

No more nonsense.

Uncategorised

BiteFighter

It still surprises me how little I notice the long drive to and from work. The only thing I notice is how much less time I have at home, which still isn’t good. It just makes my days feel so much shorter. Once I got there, I spent all day in group policies again. I think I found the source of some slow profile loading, so hopefully everyone notices that immediately.

The guys wanted to go to The Purple Cow for national cheeseburger day. I had Rally’s yesterday, but I wasn’t opposed. The Purple Cow wouldn’t have been my first choice, but the food was good and our server was even better.

I left for home a little bit late and passed Eric and Carlie on the interstate as I got closer to home. I wasn’t sure if it was them, so I called and talked to him on the phone for a little bit until we each got to our exits. Carlie sent me pictures of some turtles from their pond, which may or may not be related to the one we released there a couple years ago.

I stopped at the old house for a few things and then made it home. Summer wasn’t feeling well and sat in the sunroom all evening. I went out with the dogs and found they had torn up the water hose some more, and one of them carried a bottle of Tiki torch fuel out into the yard. The lid was chewed off, so I was worried one of them had ingested some, but they acted alright. Then as we hit the road on the Onewheel, it was evident that Stilgar didn’t have his usual energy.

We walked slowly the entire way to my parents’ house and I made sure he got some water. Then we made it home slightly faster, but he still wasn’t acting right. Muad’Dib was fine, but I gave Stilgar two cups of food to try and give him something in his belly. I came back in to eat some leftovers myself and then went back out to find he had thrown up both cups in two different places in the yard.

I gave him a bit more food and spent some time on the porch with him. He seemed to perk up a little bit, but I won’t know until the morning how he’s really faring.

Bored dogs get into things.

Uncategorised

No Rushing

I timed my trip to work this morning just about perfect, but I watched as someone else careened across four lanes of traffic and almost spun out over-correcting for his arrival in the left lane. I can’t imagine being in that much of a rush to get to work. I like my job, but I wonder what it’s like to love your job that much.

Someone said something about an ice machine, so I found it in the breakroom today. Evidently it was broken though, and full of water that wouldn’t drain. I was never clear on whether anyone contacted help for repair, but I was unsuccessful in my attempts. Otherwise it was another chill day, mostly in the office by myself. I dug around in group policies quite a bit, and started sorting things out for a big cleanup effort.

Nobody said anything about lunch, so I ended up just going to Rally’s to pick up something. They were incredibly slow for the three or four cars ahead of me, but as soon as I got to the window, I paid and was handed my bag of food immediately. It was still fresh when I got back to the office, but the burger looked like I had gone through the passenger-side of the drive-through and they threw it across the car at me. I gave up trying to be clean, and just went to wash up after I finished.

I considered leaving a little early since I didn’t actually take much of a break, but I still ended up leaving late. I thought I might intercept Summer in Conway for dinner, but she declined, so I decided to stop by Long John Silver’s for dinner by myself. After that, I went by Bargain Hunt to peruse for snacks before swinging by Splash to catch Summer for a moment. Then I continued home, stopping one last time to wash the bugs off of the car.

The dogs didn’t get a walk yesterday, so I changed and immediately took them out. They ran the entire way to my parents’ house, only briefly stopping a couple of times. On the way back, Stilgar tried picking up a dead squirrel that I hadn’t noticed on the way out, so I wondered if it was fresh. I kicked it out of his mouth and we continued home for some processed food instead.

Summer got home just after I did. Eaddie wasn’t terribly far behind her. I had Eaddie go out to check the mail, and she came back with an orange cat. I told her there was no way someone mailed that to us, but it kept rubbing its face all over the front door, trying to get in. She played with it for a while, and I tried to wrap up my own evening and get to bed. I’m still struggling getting to sleep, but I don’t know what other time I could possibly accomplish anything I need to do.

Act rich.

Uncategorised

Capitol Idea

I ran a little bit late this morning, made up some time in the rain, but then ended up losing that time when I accidentally took the wrong exit and had to drive down the side road to the office. I had actually passed Randy just before that, so he had a laugh when I finally got in.

The environment out there is just so incredibly relaxed. I made some coffee and poked around in SCCM a bit for the guys. There is so much to clean up and fix, and I’d be more excited to do it all if I wasn’t so tired from the long days.

For some reason, I was invited to a conference call with the Fortinet guys to hear their sales pitch for FortiVoice to replace our existing telephone setup. After that, Randy took me to the annex, and then we piled into Jimmy’s truck with Javier to go to Cotham’s for lunch. I got the hubcap burger, which was incredible. I didn’t love the fries though.

The afternoon was super quiet. Javier hung out in the office for a while trying to image a desktop, and it ended up being a problem with his flash drive. I really don’t know why they’re not imaging over the network anyway, but if I had to guess, it’s probably broken.

Diana called briefly to discuss our lunch date tomorrow. She was worried about her dietary restrictions and upcoming travel, so I told her I would chat with Summer and follow up with her in the evening. We left work a little early, but then I hit traffic in the middle of Little Rock, and it took me an extra half hour or more to get through it all. There were cops everywhere too, which may have been the cause of the stop-and-go line of cars. I ended up getting off the interstate early to go by the old house. The fish tank filter was having a fit, and hopefully I wasn’t too late to prevent permanent damage from it drying out. It’s still working for now.

Eaddie had a football game late, but Summer got home in time to go to the first home game to see Eaddie’s halftime show. I was going to take the dogs for a run to Ridgewood Brothers to see if their food was gluten-free, but turned around after a few blocks because the dogs went crazy sniffing stuff as we got further out of our usual area.

Summer went to the game, and I drove to the restaurant where I found Grant just as they were closing down. They had a big list of gluten-free stuff, so lunch tomorrow should be great. I headed back home and did some laundry, and then crashed after a long week of driving.

Not crashed driving.

Uncategorised

Review Bomb

I’ve gotten progressively less sleep throughout the week, but work has still been good. There was a lot more traffic and some rain today, but the drive was still straightforward and easy. I still wouldn’t want to do it without Autopilot though. I was a little bit more active today, and had a meeting with a vendor about our badge photo sync. Then for some reason, Randy wanted me to ride along with him to the admin office, where I didn’t really do anything for him. I met a few more people and looked at a timeclock that he couldn’t actually fix, but at least now I know it’s there.

From there, we went to a place by the office called BJ’s Market Cafe for lunch and met up with Maggie, Jim, and Jay. It was an odd place in what looked to be a very shady alleyway that was littered with potholes and standing water. Inside, it reminded me of Old South. It was packed with old people eating old white people food. They were all bragging about the beef tips with rice. I found it to be fairly bland, but the cornbread was good.

Sometime after lunch, Julie asked about my resume, and then I got a call from a local guy that may or may not be looking to actually hire somebody to do something that was never really made very clear to me. He just kept saying he liked to work with cool people, but all I really learned was that my sister doesn’t have a clue what I do. It’s not her fault, because I hardly know how to explain it.

Near the end of the day, Johnny called to check in and also said he enlisted the help of DIS for his SCCM project. We talked for a little while, and then it was time to go home.

Summer invited my parents over for dinner, but she didn’t give me any clues as to what she was cooking. I made it through unusually heavy traffic, then started a load of laundry as soon as I got in the door. From there, I started encountering aggravation after aggravation that made for a quiet night. I continued with laundry and took the dogs out for a short walk in the sprinkling rain.

Evidently I was temporarily suspended from Amazon Vine because I didn’t have enough reviews up, so I submitted several of those. Then I finished my last load of laundry for the night and went to bed.

Stop doing things.

Uncategorised

Roll With the Lunches

This morning was my roughest start, but I’d still had worse. Somehow I got out of the house with my undershirt on backwards, but I fixed that before I got into the car. I got to work a little bit late since I wasn’t sure anyone would be there to let me in, and traffic was heavier, but not really any worse or slower than when I’ve started earlier. I still got there in the same amount of time, or possibly even faster because all of the traffic was speeding.

I brought some speakers from home and got them set up for music, and then I got into the SCCM server. I have been constantly surprised by the lack of best practices, and I messaged Gary to tell him how good of a job he had done back in Russellville. I made a couple imaging drives for the techs, and it kind of astounded me how little any of them knew. At least they’re good-natured.

I was alone for most of the morning because Maggie came in way later than she told me she would be. Eventually people showed up, and then several of us met at Jacob’s Wings for lunch. The “boneless wings” were really just chopped up chicken strips with sauce, but they were tasty, and I actually liked that they had less breading. Jay showed up to lunch late with a new Kia that looked pretty slick. Then everyone headed back out and I wrapped up the afternoon in relative peace. It was basically a fraction of what I had been doing at Two Rivers, except most everything was still functional, and I had a team of people doing what Kim should have been doing so I could stay focused.

The drive home was fine with more of the Waveform podcast. Dad had offered spring rolls earlier, but Summer had to cook the food she bought for dinner on Monday for Eaddie, because she would be out late for school stuff the rest of the week. I got home and immediately headed out to return an Amazon purchase to The UPS Store, and then picked up some laundry detergent from Walgreens. Then I took the dogs for a quick walk through the neighborhood while my parents ran to the grocery store.

I dropped the dogs off back at home and then rode back to my parents’ house to eat. It got dark early, so I didn’t get to stay long. The girls were in bed when I got home, so I had to clean up the grill and put everything back in place on the deck. I spent a little more time with the dogs, and then came in to wrap up before bed.

Keys like butter.