Tag: work

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Documents for Their Documents

I had a slow start this morning, grabbed a free cappuccino, and strolled into work a couple minutes late after fighting some dumb traffic. Denise was actually in her office all day because they’re actually doing testing, and I think that makes four whole days this calendar year. Kim was pretty chatty all day, and I struggled to deal with all the noise.

Lunch time came and went, and we kept having people in and out of the office, which further frustrated me. I spent most of the day trying to spin up SCCM, but it seemed far less than straightforward. There are so many pieces to set up manually, and for some reason I thought it would be a click-through install.

When quitting time finally arrived, I headed toward home, stopping at McDonald’s for a cheap Big Mac before going by the old house to feed the fish, and finally making it home to where Summer had been cooking dinner for a while. I changed clothes and rode to my parents’ house on the Onewheel to pick up some things, but ended up leaving more than I took because the things kept adding up to more than what I wanted to haul in my backpack.

I headed back home before dark, and Summer had baked ribs and potatoes, and pan-fried some Brussels sprouts. Eaddie made it home late for dinner, and then everyone wound down pretty quickly. I was tired and uneasy, but eventually made it to bed.

Settled down.

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Fillet and Grill’t

This morning went by pretty fast, but then the afternoon dragged a bit. I got parts of VMware updated or patched, but I feel like you need a certification just to understand the vocabulary. There are so many parts, and it’s tough to keep up with how they are all interconnected.

After work, I loaded up a bunch of Soylent at the old house to take home, and then I went by the carwash to see Summer. I went ahead and washed my car there, since there’s not much sense in babying the paint any more. Then Summer finished up and we both headed home.

Eaddie was already home, and we made her go to Kroger with me to pick dinner. It was really nice out, so I thought I’d grill something. Eaddie thought salmon sounded good, so I picked up a really big fillet, some broccoli and cauliflower, and shrimp.

I had to clean up the kitchen when we got back, and then Eaddie invited Eli over. I cleaned up the fish and cut the fillet off of the skin really easily. Chef Ramsay would have been proud. I got everything on the grill, and we had a late dinner that everyone seemed to really enjoy. I thought it turned out great, though I did get a little heavy-handed with the salt on something. The steamed rice helped cut that down though. We had just enough left over for me to pack them up into individual meals, and then I precleaned a little more so I’d have room to make breakfast in the morning.

The girls went to bed early because Summer had an early day today, and Eaddie had all-state band tryouts in the morning. I stayed up a bit longer, but the sleepiness got to me.

More surface area!

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That Last 92%

I kept getting behind slow people to and from work today, but the weather was nice and the clean acceleration for passing was nicer. Kim walked in right behind me, but spent a good portion of the day out of the office somewhere else around on campus, as far as I knew. I spent most of my day behind emails, trying to wrap up Jaime’s nonsense. It became more and more evident that nobody there really knew how the grants were supposed to work, and it really seems like the district is just sort of winging it.

In the middle of Kim’s lunch duty, she stuck her head in the door with a couple disposable trays of food and said she didn’t want any of it. Evidently they made extras for kids, but nobody wanted them and they were just going to throw them away. That meant early, free lunch for me. I didn’t get my usual salad, and the food was cold and dried out, but it tasted alright.

The afternoon was fairly quiet, again with Kim out of the office for a large portion of the day. Most everyone was gone by the time I left, and I raced home to load a few more things into the car. Doug caught me outside and talked to me for a little bit, and then I made it home to start some turkey soup.

As soon as everything was in the Instant Pot, I headed out on the Onewheel. I felt fairly confident on it today, and went up and around the hill to swing by my parents’ house. When I got back home, I drove to the Neighborhood Market for some noodles. Just next to the egg noodles, I saw a package of gnocchi that looked pretty good, so I decided to throw them in the pot too.

I was a little worried, but the broth actually came out really good. It was probably the best turkey soup I’ve ever made. I was worried about not having enough meat in it, but it was fine. The gnocchi was really good too. Even Eaddie liked it, even though it wasn’t a full multi-course meal.

How am I the expert here?

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Mental Health Work

I had some coffee this morning and then got into PRTG again. Maybe I felt like I had been too productively lately, but I just wanted to work on something for me. I think I got it looking pretty good, and even got a little now-playing ribbon for my music. That’s not to say that I didn’t do anything important. I cleared a troublesome log in VMware. That fixed the error, but not the root of the problem. There will be time for that tomorrow.

I stopped by McDonald’s on the way home for some free fries, and loaded up another trunk full of stuff to take to the house. Then I started to go out on the Onewheel when Summer texted that she wanted fried chicken for dinner. She agreed to actually go out instead of just coming straight home, so I made it around the block and headed back home to pick her up across town. I nearly ate a face full of sand at the top of the hill, but was able to hit the ground running as the board tumbled end-for-end behind me. I bruised the bottom of my foot a little bit, but not too bad.

Eaddie was out with friends again, so Summer and I went to Zaxby’s and hung out there for a little while. Then we went to Walmart for some stuff so I could finally make turkey soup. When I dropped her off at the carwash, we found where she had hit something in the road, and it gouged the rocker panel trim on the right side in front of her rear wheel.

We made it home and wound down for the night. Eaddie made it home late and talked to Summer for a while before coming to me with a W-9 from school for some reason. She couldn’t even assemble a sentence as to why she needed it. All I heard was something about “superintendent” and “National History Day.” We didn’t get paid to take the kids on the trip. We hadn’t even been reimbursed like we were promised, and they wanted this form filled out overnight with barely any explanation. It sounded fishy to me.

Needs more maths done.

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On Content Libraries

I was a little early for work today, and I did a pretty good job of staying on task with my VMware project. I did get pulled away from that a couple times, but by lunch time I understood how to make a content library, and got my VM running with a guest OS. I was pretty stoked.

After work, I picked up some more stuff to take home. As I was leaving, an old guy walked by with his tiny dog and wanted to talk about the Fiero, the Tesla, OPEC, and his dog. He was a little quirky, but seemed super nice. I was pretty sure he said he lived at StoneBridge at the end of the road.

I made it home and immediately took the Onewheel out before it got dark. I went by my parents’ house and let Dad try it out again. He had some trouble with the dismount, but I still do too. I think it may just take a more assertive approach than what I want to take. As it got dark, I rode on home and eventually went back out for some tacos for dinner.

Summer went to bed, I started some laundry, and eventually Eaddie made it home after robotics and dinner with Eli. I dug around for some paperwork to send to Tesla, and then it was off to bed.

Fringe understanding

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Make Life Take the Lemons Back!

I didn’t feel great this morning, and after picking up a Casey’s coffee, I made it to work about 12 minutes late. Otherwise, it was a decent day of learning VMware, with several student interruptions. I was surprised I was able to stay as focused as I did for the entire day, but I still didn’t have a whole lot to show for it by quitting time.

I had the rumblies for most of the late afternoon and all the way home, where I loaded up my trunk with more stuff from the old house. A bird got me while I was parked at work, so I ran by the carwash to hose it down. Then I made it home and quickly unloaded.

Eaddie was hungry and Summer was late getting home from work. I wanted to kill a bit of time until we at least got a response from Summer whether or not she had any opinions on dinner, so I decided to run a couple things over to Dad on the Onewheel. Just as I was hopping the curb out of the driveway, I stumbled and the board sucked up my pant leg. It was really wedged in there, and I had quite a lot of trouble getting free. I felt pretty helpless standing in the road with that heavy thing stuck right at shoe level.

I finally freed myself and jammed my thumb in the process. Then I made it to my parents’ house without further incident. I didn’t stay long since it was already dark. I got home just before Summer did, and she didn’t want to get out. Eaddie wanted to celebrate a good flute lesson, so we went to Cici’s and had a good time.

Summer was on the couch when we got home, so I put on an episode of The Brothers Sun. Afterward, I saw an email from the Tesla service center saying that they agreed to buy my car back. I have mixed feelings, partially because there’s not a current Model 3 Performance for me to repurchase. I’ve got to try and get some documents from my closed loan account anyway, so maybe they’ll have a solution for me that doesn’t involve being without a car for several months. I love my car, but it would be stupid not to get a newer, potentially nicer one for less money. Wouldn’t it?

I don’t want your damn lemons, what am I supposed to do with these?

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Wet Wheelies

Everything has been pretty damp since the ice came in. It was really temperate out, but the ground was still wet. It was fairly quiet at work, but I felt mostly misguided in the work I was doing. I’d get into something just a little bit, and then get sidetracked. I did finally wrap up the last of my iPads for the moment, but I can already tell that I’m going to have to do a real inventory check sooner than later, otherwise I’ll have to increase our license count. I really doubt we actually have over 300 active iPads in the district.

On the way to the old house, I saw three kids at the Hickey parking lot with a couple small motorcycles and a moped doing wheelies. I quickly picked up a few small things and then ran home so I could get a little time on the Onewheel before sundown. The ground was wet just about everywhere, so I went up the hill and around the block to my parents’ house for just a little bit. Mom got home and reminded me she had eggplant soup, and was making fresh “egg foo young,” which I’m guessing was actually chả trứng chiên? I don’t think we’ve ever actually known what it really was.

I ran home to see if Summer wanted to go back over for dinner, but it ended up just being me. I went out back to pump some more water out of the basement, and then drove to my parents’ house to eat and visit for a little while. Dad let me take his old iPhone back to see if it would work for Eaddie on Google Fi. I cleaned up in the basement again, and hooked up a wireless switch so I could turn on the pump without having to wade over to the outlet in the water. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the remote control for it, so it may still be at the old house.

The girls were pretty settled in after that. Summer went to bed, and I helped Eaddie with her phone for a bit. So far, so good. Then it was off to bed.

Got the wobbles!

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Foreward

I did not sleep well at all last night, after tossing and turning for about an hour after I finished pumping out the basement. It was pretty foggy and warm out, and I was early to work again. I started with an AeroPress that simply took too long to make, and then I spent most of the day writing. At first, it was documenting and requesting a buyback for my car. Then it was documenting the work that I’ve done, will do, and hope to continue doing, so that I could present it to the Super Intendent Bros.

Kim had to leave for a little bit in the afternoon to unstuck her husband’s truck from the mud. I just continued my work in quiet. Then we finished the day casing up some iPads. I was surprised, but thankful that Kim stayed a little late to finish the job.

I made a quick drive home and loaded a few more things into the car to take to the new house. I unpacked what I had, and then went outside to check the basement again. No surprise, it was flooded again. Only about half what it was last night, but still annoyingly deep to wade through in my short boots. I had the genius idea to use my little remote switch, so I can leave the pump plugged in and turn it on from outside the door. That should take care of my concerns until we can plumb the stupid thing in permanently.

The girls went to bed fairly early, so I tried cleaning up a little more around the house. Noah had stunk up multiple rooms of the house, and left an entire couch cushion covered in chewed up fingernails. I couldn’t be sure that some of them weren’t toenails, as big as they were. I’m done with his inconsiderate, disrespectful, and neglectful ways in our home, and he’s only been here three nights. No sense in doing that again.

Just grow up.

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Future Proofing

We couldn’t make it a full week off for snow and ice, so it was back to work this morning. There were a couple spots with some ice near the house, but then roads were clear until Ola, where you could see some residual black ice. It looked like Dardanelle was still out, because that place was a relative ghost town.

Kim was somewhere doing non-work things, but came to the office after a while before leaving to do more non-work things. Evidently they had a frozen, blocked, or crushed pipe somewhere in the new house, and Roto-Rooter was coming out to find their septic tank. I had a pretty quiet day to myself, except for Jalen coming in a few times for help setting up his new Hudl basketball camera. Then I spent the afternoon plotting my budget to hopefully have something reasonable to present to the superintendent when I ask for more money to sign another contract. Of course, it could all go out the window if he just decides he’d rather hire somebody else. It’s a good time to look for work.

I got a notification on the way home that service on my car was finished, and I couldn’t help but wonder if I should have messaged them to try and negotiate something earlier. I figured that waiting longer would give me a better chance to get something out of it, but I hadn’t accounted for sudden and sneaky repairs. I had a suspicion that they started yesterday, but then I got a low tire notification today that really made me think they were working on it.

It was another quick trip to the old house for another carload of boxes to take home. Eaddie was on the way out the door, so I was left to unload myself. Summer was home shortly after that, and looked unfrazzled enough for a dinner out. I called Mom to see if they wanted to go, but they were already eating, so Summer and I went to Mulan’s.

When we got back, we watched a standup special from some guy named Dusty Slay on Netflix. It was fine. Eaddie had a late curfew, and came to talk to me for a little while when she made it home. Then it was off to bed.

It’s been a long week.

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It’s Log, Log, Log!

The heavy rain last night brought the cold, and our trash can was filled with water. Kim was back to work after basically paying cash for a new home, and I just don’t think she has any idea how wealthy she really is. Just a little bit of money management smarts and discipline, and she’d be living the high life.

I got my SSL certificate updated in the morning, which was exciting. Being able to SFTP into the VM to clean up those files made my life a whole lot easier than scrolling up a command line. From there, I still had to double-check that everything was working, and make sure I didn’t have any other alarms that might cause trouble in the future. With any luck, I’ll be gone by the time this certificate expires.

We had the cleanest sloppy joes for lunch, and I ended the day finally getting an order placed for some electronics that the teacher absolutely will not use. She’s simply not capable. She’s overwhelmed and scattered as it is, and I just don’t think there are any souls out there with enough interest or aptitude.

It was a cold and damp drive home, where I loaded up some more stuff to take to the new house. More winter weather is on the way, so I’ll have some things I can unpack if we don’t leave the house. Summer stayed home not feeling well, and Eaddie beat me home from school. We watched Iron Man and I made a couple burritos.

Julie and Kevin stopped by to pick up some drinks they had left. The girls went to bed pretty early, and I decompressed to some random YouTube garbage for most of the evening. I ended up playing a short round of Oxygen Not Included, but the computer locked up again. I wonder if it’s thermals, but it’s cold, and the game isn’t very demanding.

What rolls down stairs, alone or in pairs,
Rolls over your neighbor’s dog?
What’s great for a snack, and fits on your back?