Tag: work

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International Cat Day

I had so much trouble getting to sleep last night, and then tossed and turned until I woke up before my alarm. Somehow I wasn’t completely worthless for the morning, and finally made it to Oakland to close out some work orders. I actually made it back to the shop a bit before lunch, and then started to leave with Gary before Zach and Thomas ran out to meet us at the car.

We went to Wendy’s, and Zach’s Baconator was delivered as a regular Dave’s Single, which was really sad next to my actual Baconator. At least my food was good. It was a quick lunch, and then back to the shop where I spent the afternoon working on some software deployments. At one point, Zach helped me bring a TV back to the shop, and I finally got my Pixel Buds Pro a week late. They were surprisingly uncomfortable in comparison to my other pair. About halfway through the afternoon, I started to have some anxiety or panic feelings about the cats that the girls dumped yesterday.

I went straight to my parents’ house after work and had some fish soup. Then my sinuses started acting up, so I didn’t stick around long. Eaddie asked for a ride just as I was getting home, so I picked her up from band at the high school and took her home. Autumn arrived after her color guard, and eventually Summer made it home from work really late. She had me call Nick to try and help one of his friends with what she thought were IT issues, but I think were actually just complaints about her ecommerce site.

I ended the night picking up a couple of tickets to see Halestorm, The Pretty Reckless, The Warning, and Lilith Czar on Wednesday. Summer decided she didn’t want to go, but Eaddie did, so that’ll be fun to hang out with her.

Ironic, innit?

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Hanky Panky

I was sent on a surprise quest upstairs today to finish up what Greg had started yesterday. I didn’t get anywhere close to finishing, because most of the desktops were missing USB drivers and were therefore unusable until I remoted into each one to install them. Messing with that got me to lunch, and six of us met up at Brangus, where Thomas was already having lunch with a couple of his boys. He ended up paying for all of ours except Brody, who showed up late and had to order as we were getting our food.

I got caught up in the afternoon fighting SCCM and imaging a couple old Lenovo student laptops for Zach, for Gary. I got one of them to work finally, but I’ll need to go back and modify a script that isn’t naming them correctly.

As soon as I left work, I went home to change so I could run to Conway and pick up Summer. She had tickets to see Hank Williams Jr. with Ashlen in Little Rock, but Ashlen wouldn’t be passing through for them to ride together. She didn’t want to eat either, which was fine on account of how much I had for lunch. I picked her up at the Conway Splash and then dropped her off at the arena.

For nearly six hours, I wandered around Little Rock. My first stop was Walmart on McCain. I actually found one of the grills I had been looking for, but wasn’t sure it would even fit in the car. I think I’d really rather get the larger one anyway. I killed quite a bit of time wandering through the whole store until I decided to get some food.

It took me a while to decide where to eat, but I ultimately landed on Rally’s, which was right in the same lot. When I walked up to the window, an old guy seemed to be having trouble communicating his burger customizations to the employee. Then she stuck her head out the window and started dropping F-bombs and telling the guy he didn’t have to talk to her like she was stupid. I definitely did not witness the same interaction that she did, and I probably should have turned around and left then. She continued to be loud and crude the entire time I was there, but astoundingly the food was actually pretty good.

After I ate, I went across the street to Home Depot to kill some more time. There, I actually found an assembled version of the larger grill, which looked pretty awesome. It would be great for the amount of food we normally end up grilling, and I’d love to be able to use it for smoking. I nearly closed that place down, but decided to move on to a McDonald’s that showed to be open until 10.

When I got to McDonald’s, the sign confirmed the hours posted on Google Maps, but the door was locked. I didn’t bother to ring the doorbell, but another girl came up after me and actually rang it. A guy appeared from around the corner and made a big C with his hand through the window. The girl seemed a bit confused, and the guy ultimately let her in so her baby girl could use the restroom.

Just about then, Blake texted and said he was done with his date and invited me over to his place. He was about four miles on the other side of the arena, so I met up with him at the apartments. We visited with rapid-fire questions back and forth until Summer texted that she was walking out of the concert.

I drove back to the arena, but my instructions weren’t clear enough and I still got stuck in traffic. It wasn’t too incredibly bad, but the construction on the interstate made things much worse. We made it back to Conway for her car, and then on home as quickly as we could. The girls were already asleep, and we weren’t far behind.

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Pressing

In contrast to yesterday, I had much more trouble waking up this morning. I made it in to work, and the day went by fine, but I felt like I had to wake from really great sleep to get there. I ended up sticking around the shop all day again while others were out doing less desirable things. I didn’t have a whole lot to accomplish, but I kept getting pulled in other directions.

When lunch time came around, I convinced Zach to take Gary and me to McDonald’s where I went for something new in the way of their Quarter Pounder® with Cheese Deluxe. I was a little disappointed with the looks of it, but the taste was super unexpected. Even the tomato slices were fresh and delicious. It tasted so fresh and tasty that I could have easily eaten another one.

The afternoon was pretty quiet because everyone vanished. Thomas came through and asked me to keep an eye on the shop as he left again. I answered one unnecessary phone call, but otherwise it was super chill until I left.

The girls didn’t have anything going on, so I just went home and tinkered for a bit. Then I went to Julie’s to have her re-press the vinyl that had started to lift on one of the Disney shirts she made for me. We chatted for a little while, and then I went home to do some laundry until bedtime.

Absolutely ruining my chill.

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Three for Me

Even after such a long day and getting to bed late, I still had trouble falling and staying asleep. I got about three hours all night, but fortunately the morning wasn’t too bad after a cup of coffee. I didn’t really accomplish a terrible lot, but kept leisurely busy. When lunch time rolled around, Zach wanted Chinese. For some reason, we always try to go to Mulan’s on Wednesday when they’re closed, so we hit the interstate to get to New China. While he, Thomas, and I were eating, Autumn called and then came by to get her wallet out of my car. She asked for some gas money, but I told her a quarter tank would get her anywhere she needed to go.

When we got back, I went to the core closet to relieve Gary to go to lunch while I babysat a seemingly unconfident tech from Ritter. We’ve had such incredibly bad luck getting our new fiber connections up, and it’s not making me feel really great about them giving Suddenlink much competition.

After that, I went by the middle school to try and find Josh, but only found Annie shuffling laptops around in the library. We chatted for a bit, and then I headed back to my office. Not long after I got there, Greg asked for some help imaging a random bunch of lab desktops and laptops in the Adult Education area, and that finished up the day.

Eaddie had tennis early, so I ran home to change before picking her up and taking her home. Then we waited for Summer to get home from work, followed by Autumn from therapy and karate. Summer did some stuff for work while I ate a few gas station leftovers, and then everyone was pretty much off to bed.

Lou who?

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Gotta Live It Big Time

I had a couple projects I had to work on in my office today, so I didn’t get out at all. I was a little worried about getting devices into Destiny for the middle school, but I worked it out. I felt pretty accomplished with everything I got done. A big group of us went to Taco John’s for Taco Tuesday, and then I wrapped everything up in the afternoon.

When I left work, I ran home to change, got gas, and then picked the girls up to head toward Rogers for the Big Time Rush concert. We stopped at the truck stop in Ozark to have dinner in their little deli, and then we made the rest of the trip as quickly as we could. Traffic wasn’t nearly as bad getting in or out as I expected, especially with how packed the place seemed.

The girls absolutely loved the concert, and I think Summer danced more than either of the other two. I was given camera duty “because I have the zoom,” so I got a bunch of video. Spencer Sutherland opened for the group, and I thought he was pretty good. When Big Time Rush came out on their scaffolding, all I could think about was the knee damage from all the jumping around. The highlight for me was a nearly unused men’s restroom.

We split as soon as the encore was over, and though we missed out on some last minute screaming that may have been solely from the guys removing their shirts, we got to the car and out of the parking garage with relative ease. Then we hopped on the interstate and we were on a mostly-empty road home. I was absolutely astounded that we got out of there that quickly. The girls all crashed as soon as we got in, so I finished up my chores and went to sleep as quickly as I could.

Worldwide? Worldwide.

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Cleared for Lunch

This was our last quiet Friday for a little while, since people are starting to filter back in next week. I spent the morning in my office tinkering with a few things before lunch. Then Gary, Kyle, and I met Brody at Zaxby’s for national wing day, where Brody and I both got BOGO orders of boneless wings. I ate way too much and still took some back with me.

I had to run to the middle school for a topcap before I could meet Kyle at Oakland to run a video and touch line in the new kindergarten alternative learning environment. I still can’t quite wrap my head around stuffing a bunch of poorly-behaved kindergartners into one room together. The 50-foot optical HDMI cable wasn’t long enough to go up into the rafters and back down, so we had to re-run it right on top of the ceiling tile. That kept us there quite a bit after quitting time.

After work, I went home and had to help Bác Vân add a new entry to her iPad’s address book. We couldn’t get it to recognize it as an iPhone number though, so I’m not sure it will work for her until we can figure out what kind of device that person has.

Summer went to the gym after she got back into town, and then I met her and my dad at the aquatic center, where the paramotorist he had been talking to was about to go up in the air. We watched him take off and then make a few loops around the area before heading up north. Then Summer and I headed to Linh’s for dinner. I decided to stop by the shop for some ice along the way, and happened to run into Melissa, who was giving Sandy some moving boxes out of the Transportation office.

I finally made it to dinner where Summer satisfied her craving for an eggroll salad and boba tea, and I had a fresh bánh mì. She wasn’t certain, but she thought she saw her ex, but she didn’t seem too incredibly bothered and the moment passed. We finished up, they started closing the place down, and we headed back home.

I ran back next door for some more iPad training while Summer took a shower, and she was in bed watching TV by the time I got back. She passed out pretty early, and I tried not to stay up too late.

Icy crunch.

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RTFM

It felt like Monday all day after being off yesterday. I never quite shook the feeling of it being the start of a new week, but I’ll appreciate that tomorrow. I had a Jamf call with Gary after a short meeting this morning. We were a small crew, so what was left finally delivered a bunch of computers to the new high school A/V lab. Our call with support was a bit awkward, but the guy finally sent me a link to a proper setup guide that resolved our issue. It was frustrating that it took a week of bouncing messages back and forth, but we were glad to be done with it.

I spent the rest of the day in the office tinkering with different things, because I didn’t want to drive anywhere after hearing my brakes grinding this morning. Summer ordered some new pads for me, and I planned to go to Superfast after work. Thomas took Gary and me to lunch and ended up paying for us, along with cheese dip and possum pie, so that was an awesome surprise.

The afternoon was quiet up until I left. I ran home to change, still expecting to do the brake change myself. Then I watched a video on it, and decided to pay to have it done when I saw what else was involved. Justin, Austin, and Alexis all three came out to knock the job out in about 15 minutes, and then I went to Sonic to get some drinks for them, along with a few extra bucks.

When I got home for the evening, I tinkered with a speaker and microphone bundle I picked up from work several weeks ago and had left in the trunk of my car while it was waiting to have the radiator replaced. I got the wired mic to work, but didn’t have batteries for the wireless one. Summer came over with some Taco Villa for dinner since the girls went to stay with their father. Then she took a shower and went to bed watching Rise of the Guardians while I tinkered on the computer until my own bedtime.

Maybe provide the friggin’ manual next time.

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Marvelous

It felt great being back in the Murano today, but now I have muscle memory for the Montego. We chatted a little bit in the morning, and then all loaded up to go to the middle school and shuffle some TVs around. Josh struggled a bit with directing everyone, but I rode around with Greg to get other things we needed, and we got the job done before lunch.

Summer wanted to meet up for lunch, but I didn’t feel super. I ended up going to Taco John’s with the rest of the crew, but just felt even sicker as soon as we got back. I spent all afternoon at Oakland to finish up the building, but over half of the rooms were still not done.

I came home after work to change, and then went to my parents’ house to wish them a happy anniversary and invite them out for dinner. Mom was too tired to get out though, so I just hung out there for a while and had a little bit of eggplant soup with the hopes that it might make me feel a little better.

When I got back home, I tinkered a bit and then settled down to watch Ms. Marvel. I made it halfway through the, which was a tiny six episodes, and I’ve liked it so far. The style of the show is neat with all of the animations.

I think I may have inadvertently killed a cricket when I was digging around in the bedroom to try and find it. I heard it when I got home first thing in the morning, and then again in another corner of the room while I was watching TV. Hopefully it’s not too gross.

Cosmic!

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Moorano

It felt great to sleep in a bit since I woke up at home. I made it to work, and we all sat around the table for nearly an hour before anyone got up. When I got into my office, I started feeling bug bites, and discovered a few random ants all over my desk. I could never figure out where they were coming from, and ended up leaving anyway to take care of some things at Oakland.

I got a few phones logged in, and then put my Pixel Buds in while I went room to room, hooking up technology. It was slow, but kind of Zen just wandering through the empty halls by myself. I ended up working a bit into lunch, and then just picked up some chicken strips with gravy from Dairy Queen. I took that back to the shop and ate in the breakroom, and then spent a bit of time in the afternoon in my office again.

Summer called to say the Murano would finally be finished by the end of the day, but he’d charge an additional 3% if I paid with a card, so I texted Dad to see if he had access to some money immediately. He came by to deliver that, and then I spent the end of the day at Oakland again.

I went home to change, and then went to Accurate Automotive to pay the younger Mike for the work. Autumn was home, and Eaddie had tennis practice, so I just had Autumn drop me off on the way so I could take the Murano home. It was super hot outside, and I couldn’t hear the engine well over the air conditioner, so I left it at the house and Autumn took us to CiCi’s for dinner while Eaddie played tennis.

It was super hot in the restaurant, and I never got any barbecue or spinach alfredo, so overall it was a very uncomfortable visit for me. When we finished, Autumn dropped me off again, and I met her at the gas station after she picked up Eaddie. They filled up and went home, and then I drove across town on the interstate before making it to my parents’ house. They were watering plants, so I didn’t stick around too long in the heat.

I stopped by the quarter wash and cleaned all the dust and water spots off of the Murano, and then made it up to Summer’s house just seconds before she pulled in from a day in Conway. Everyone settled in pretty quickly, except for me, who dawdled too long and made it to bed late. At least I’m tired from the heat.

Friggin ants!

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Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner

I had a pretty wicked stomach ache last night that woke me up for about an hour. While I was up, the smoke detector in the girls’ hallway started going off every 30 seconds to a minute, so I scrambled around looking for a 9-volt battery for a while before giving up and burying my head under a couple of pillows. I just barely managed to get any more sleep before I had to get up for work.

We were still a bit short today, so it was still pretty quiet. I had a couple donuts and a homemade bagel that Tammy brought. Then Gary asked me to go to the Transportation office with him to install some software, but that hardly took any time and was mostly unnecessary for two people to be present. I only got one response from our Jamf rep today, so I didn’t make any progress with that either.

I ran to Oakland a couple of times. Before lunch, I finally figured out that it was the USB barcode scanner causing the computer not to boot quickly. It was only when I plugged it into the monitor first though, so plugging it directly into the computer fixed the issue.

Six of us went to Slim Chickens for lunch, and I loaded up on receipt barcodes for points. I even got a free brownie, which I thought was decent. For the price, it was great! When we got back to the shop, I killed some time in the shop before going back to Oakland to tinker with the cafeteria manager’s computer. It had a similar issue, which seemed to be caused by a USB drive plugged into the computer.

I made it back to the shop for a few minutes, and then went home to change before heading up to Summer’s. She started grilling some barbecue chicken and corn, and mashed some potatoes for dinner. The girls all sat down to eat, and Autumn was just scowling the entire evening. Summer tried to pressure everyone into playing a game, but I just quietly loathed the though. Luckily everyone split off to their rooms, and I just played Into the Breach on my phone. It plays well on the touch screen, but I think I prefer a controller or the Switch.

Too much noise.