2024 Fall Semester

Saturday I woke up and made us some breakfast, chorizo egg tot tacos with a little fruit salad. While she was resting I took off to the post office to mail my 26 year old shit I bought at a concert and can no longer wear due to size. It’s in good shape. I guess vintage sells. Someone gave me $150 for it on eBay. What a deal for something forgotten hanging in my closet for 26 years. Happy that someone wants it. I honestly am a little sad to depart with it. That was a great show. The first concert I attended. No reason to just hold on to a shirt. The one thing I horde is shirts and I need to let go.

After breakfast I decided to get the pole saw out again and trim some low hanging branches over my drive. I was afraid that I’d need to pay someone to do this but damn if that saw blade wasn’t sharp as a knife. My dad must have kept good care of it. I cut some damn big branches like butter. I created a bloody mess for myself that I’ll have to tackle Sunday morning but good lord my drive looked better.

Alien: Romulus. I was planning on seeing this last weekend but was too busy. Better off, it was opening weekend. I’ve always liked the Alien franchise. Always. One of my brothers had good things to say about the film so that made me even more excited.

The theater wasn’t as packed as the last two films I’ve seen but it was still fairly busy. The movie was great. It had all sorts of call back and even included some references that surprised me in a good way. It also had some amazing death scenes. What more would I expect from the man that directed Evil Dead. I felt the characters were pretty strong and the creatures ace.it was a genius idea to cast actors that were unknowns and use practical effects. I felt it was a refreshing addition to the franchise.

Saturday night we got the baby. She was a sweetie. I set up her crib by the bed and we all hung out. She is a hungry little thing. It’s amazing how much they eat and how quick they start just guzzling it down. Again, babies are a new experience for me. I’m learning. I’m way behind in learning. I do like to learn new things. I love this little girl. 🤗. She did so good all night.

Sunday morning Yvette and the baby went home and I went to town cutting up all the tree limbs I cut down on Saturday. Oh the joy. It took 3 trips to dump it all. I was exhausted. I’m so done with cutting branches. I am taking a break next weekend. No cutting down anything!! Done for a while!! It’s too damn easy to make yourself a giant mess. Dumping the material is becoming a little much. I have used a campus roll away brush dumpster but I feel I might be pushing my luck.

I relaxed for a little while after that. So much coffee raised my anxiety. I played a little Zelda and jumped into the shower. After the shower I met up with Yvette at her grandparents house for some menudo. She makes the best damn menudo. Call me lucky. It was nice seeing everyone for a bit. Someone Yvette’s cousins still can’t believe that this white boy likes menudo. They had to see to believe. How hilarious.

I went home and finished cleaning out my fridge. It looks like new. I was proud of my clean fridge. It took three cycles but it’s finally done.

I had been planning on grocery shopping all morning and I finally got around to it. How can so few groceries add up to some much money. It’s not really fair, is it? After that it was more Zelda followed by some breakfast/lunch prep work. I made some egg bites & hatch chicken breast. I sure hope they are not trash. I guess we will find out tomorrow morning and lunch.

First day of school! Fall semester 2024! What the hell happened to the summer? Well, I guess it’s technically still summer but not on campus. The kids are all back. The energy is high. I can’t help but feed off of it. It really takes a little getting use to every year. It’s so dead in the summer. So quiet. Suddenly it’s crowded. It’s loud. That’s good. I honestly had a pretty swell time adjusting. The fact that it was 111 degrees helped the transition. Lower 90s felt amazing compared to the hell we endured the week prior. Fuck that. Happy the kids had a break from the heat. We also all got together for our traditional First Day of Class photo with fellow staff. This would be the fifth year, started 2020 when we were not sure what the fall semester would have in store for us. It’s a fun tradition. The inaugural school photo was only 4 of us with mask and social distancing. We have grown as a group.

A welcomed cold front. The morning temps were in the lower 70s and I just wanted to spend my time outside. My morning was frustrating. Because my personal card was hacked I had to change payment information with many of my services. Some easy some a true pain in the ass. First I had to determine which services had an auto-payment. I had some issues. More frustration came from the lady setting up our venue contract for the wedding. All this time we had been discussing a certain date with her and the contract date was not the one we discussed. I don’t know what she did or how. It too more effort trying to get in touch with her than it should have. We also needed to schedule a time to make our down payment once she amends the contract. Pain. In. The. Ass. I also had my job to do, which was busy. Yvette could tell I was frustrated. I sure love her. She helped me dial it back. If it had been hot I would have blown a gasket. Thank you, unseasonably cool weather. You are my friend.

Wednesday morning I woke to the pleasant unfamiliar sound of water droplets falling from the sky. What was this. I think they call it rain. My dogs were even confused. I could tell it would be a good damn day.

Work started off with a big win. My Westlake fuckup might be fixed. I have no idea what happened on their end. Big mystery. All the money finally looked accounted for. I sent a screen shot to purchasing and was told it looked good. I hope the receipts don’t say another thing. I’m still a little apprehensive because out of the 6 receipts only 3 have actually appeared. Beats me. 6 receipts and 5 trips to the damn store over a 3 week period. What a mess. Fingers crossed that’s all behind me.

Just about the time I was getting back to work from lunch it decided it was going to pour. The rain came down in sheets. Thunder and lightning. The roads flooded. I got wet. I loved every bit of it. It’s been so long since we have had a good shower I had not idea just how worn out my shoes were. I had NO traction. I almost busted my ass a few times. That’s how long it’s been since rain. I think the last good showers that we had were when I was sick with Covid. I had an inch at my house.

That evening we went and paid the deposits for the wedding venue. What a relief to have a location claimed. Everything else can now be worked out around a location and a date. Yay!!!

Thursday it was in the 60s and cloudy when I woke up. On my way to pick up Yvette for work I was excited to see a hot air balloon. It flew right over us on our commute. This was starting off well. I felt confident in the day.

I kept busy during the morning. It was absolutely beautiful outside and everyone seemed happier. This is a nice little taste of fall, I hope. The day went by really quickly. I was steady. Cashed in on my free Whataburger for lunch. The corporate manager gave that to me for his store being ran by that’s asshole manager. Yvette was on her way to an out of town football game so it was just me anyways. After work I went home and prepared to go to my mom’s to babysit the sweet girl. I spent most my time cooking while my mom held the little girl. The momma came early so it was a short little watch. After the sweet baby left my mom and I had our dinner. It was a nice mellow evening.

Thank God it’s Friday! Yvette and I had my experimental keto cheese cake with strawberries & blueberries. Damn if it wasn’t really good. I love cheese cake but it doesn’t love my diabetes. This might be a true gift. I certainly plan on making it again. Fantastic start to a beautiful day.

Work went along steady, which was nice. The campus was encouraged to wear the new shirts that were handed out throughout the last few days to show off its blue and gold pride. Looked like many people received that memo. It was kind of cool being amongst a sea of blue. Towards the end of the work day the rain once again came pouring down. I was on a journey across the campus in the golf car to check mail and looked around. The sky was sketchy. I turned around. Good thing I did. The sky dropped. Yay!! More rain!!

After work we decided to go swimming. Yvette & Lola. The little girl came with us. Her first time in a pool. I think she thought it was a big bath. It was so cute. The baby’s daddy also tagged along. I didn’t know that was happening. Oh well. The water was nice and the outside temp was perfect for such a night. Relaxing evening after a long first week of classes. Long first 2 weeks. It was such a nice night. We had a pizza and some snacks. I had a nice amazing cold beer. Those fried green beans though. It was a nice Saturday evening.

Happy Friday!

Campus sites of intrigue.

Stephen King’s Storm of the Century. I had never seen it. A 3 part movie. I have been waiting to watch it for a long long time but it was only on VHS and never streaming until Hulu picked it up recently. What a deal for me. The first episode was all introductions. Meat the main characters and set up what’s in store for them. Here is the synopsis.

During the midst of a brutal blizzard, residents of an off-shore village are menaced by a powerful force of darkness in the form of a sinister stranger who begins to exploit the town members darkest secrets until they give him “what he wants”.

Now doesn’t that sound like fun? Trust me, it was. I like horror films based around isolation and specially weather. This was right up my alley. It’s a lot about what we keep to ourselves and the secrets we keep from others.

After watching all three parts I really enjoyed it. I’m almost happy it’s taken me this long to see it. A little bleak but damn is it a good tale. I’ll watch it again some time.

Jalapeño

Potato egg chorizo breakfast tacos with a little side of fruit. Yvette laughed that I used tater tots. Haha

Roasted Chile Verde sour cream chicken thigh w/ cilantro lime rice and black beans.

Tried some low carb waffle mix. The reviews said that it held its own. I added some blueberries and made bacon and eggs. It was pretty good. Not the real thing but passable for this diabetic to pretend. Better than the alternative.

Lemon dill capper chicken pasta with asparagus. Something new on my menu.

Zesty chicken wings with spicy mac n’ cheese and green beans. The easy perfect 1st day of school meal.

Creamy Chicken Italian pasta salad with pepperoni, black olives, peas, tomato’s and mozzarella.

After our venue down payment we decided to have dinner. I made us some green sour cream enchilada chicken over sticky rice with toppings. It was good and I found out that this was the first time I’ve made the meal for her. Shocked.