#stepkids — Public Fediverse posts

Travel Plans and Parental Controls

Bellana came home late last night. Late enough that I was asleep. I woke up at 4:00am for some reason and checked the driveway and her car was there. Wonderful! My step daughter is home!

By 8:30am though we had dropped her off at the airport. She’s flying to Denver, meeting a friend, and then driving back to somewhere in North Carolina. From there she’s going to Atlanta and flying to Orlando where she will meet up with the rest of us for our Disney trip the week after next.

That’s a lot of traveling!

Her flight hasn’t boarded yet, but according to flightaware.com it is still on time. Safe travels, Bellana! We love you!

On an unrelated note, I think I need to set up parental controls on my computer. I think I need to block ebay. Yeah… I bought another camera last night. What the fuck, Robert? This one is a 35mm with autofocus. It has a 50mm lens too. Bonus! I still don’t think I will take any film on our vacation, but it is pretty clear my self imposed two month film hiatus isn’t going to last more than a few days. Oh well. I tried.

While we’re on the subject of film, I got a notification from the lab I sent the last batch of film to that it arrived. That was Thursday afternoon. I was hope hope hoping that I would receive word that the scans were available yesterday but I gots nuttin’. I doubt they’ll be working over the weekend, so hopefully early next week we’ll have the results. I’m optimistic that the five medium format rolls come out okay. Four of them might at least. One of them might be a smidge under exposed. I had the light meter app on my phone set wrong during one roll. Dumb ass. Everything else (hopefully) was free of user errors or dumb ass fuck ups. Fingers crossed.

#adultKids #destination #Family #filmCameras #filmDeveloping #filmPhotography #GearAcquisitionSyndrome #grownUpKids #StepKids #travelPlans

Travel Plans and Parental Controls

Bellana came home late last night. Late enough that I was asleep. I woke up at 4:00am for some reason and checked the driveway and her car was there. Wonderful! My step daughter is home!

By 8:30am though we had dropped her off at the airport. She’s flying to Denver, meeting a friend, and then driving back to somewhere in North Carolina. From there she’s going to Atlanta and flying to Orlando where she will meet up with the rest of us for our Disney trip the week after next.

That’s a lot of traveling!

Her flight hasn’t boarded yet, but according to flightaware.com it is still on time. Safe travels, Bellana! We love you!

On an unrelated note, I think I need to set up parental controls on my computer. I think I need to block ebay. Yeah… I bought another camera last night. What the fuck, Robert? This one is a 35mm with autofocus. It has a 50mm lens too. Bonus! I still don’t think I will take any film on our vacation, but it is pretty clear my self imposed two month film hiatus isn’t going to last more than a few days. Oh well. I tried.

While we’re on the subject of film, I got a notification from the lab I sent the last batch of film to that it arrived. That was Thursday afternoon. I was hope hope hoping that I would receive word that the scans were available yesterday but I gots nuttin’. I doubt they’ll be working over the weekend, so hopefully early next week we’ll have the results. I’m optimistic that the five medium format rolls come out okay. Four of them might at least. One of them might be a smidge under exposed. I had the light meter app on my phone set wrong during one roll. Dumb ass. Everything else (hopefully) was free of user errors or dumb ass fuck ups. Fingers crossed.

#adultKids #destination #Family #filmCameras #filmDeveloping #filmPhotography #GearAcquisitionSyndrome #grownUpKids #StepKids #travelPlans

Travel Plans and Parental Controls

Bellana came home late last night. Late enough that I was asleep. I woke up at 4:00am for some reason and checked the driveway and her car was there. Wonderful! My step daughter is home!

By 8:30am though we had dropped her off at the airport. She’s flying to Denver, meeting a friend, and then driving back to somewhere in North Carolina. From there she’s going to Atlanta and flying to Orlando where she will meet up with the rest of us for our Disney trip the week after next.

That’s a lot of traveling!

Her flight hasn’t boarded yet, but according to flightaware.com it is still on time. Safe travels, Bellana! We love you!

On an unrelated note, I think I need to set up parental controls on my computer. I think I need to block ebay. Yeah… I bought another camera last night. What the fuck, Robert? This one is a 35mm with autofocus. It has a 50mm lens too. Bonus! I still don’t think I will take any film on our vacation, but it is pretty clear my self imposed two month film hiatus isn’t going to last more than a few days. Oh well. I tried.

While we’re on the subject of film, I got a notification from the lab I sent the last batch of film to that it arrived. That was Thursday afternoon. I was hope hope hoping that I would receive word that the scans were available yesterday but I gots nuttin’. I doubt they’ll be working over the weekend, so hopefully early next week we’ll have the results. I’m optimistic that the five medium format rolls come out okay. Four of them might at least. One of them might be a smidge under exposed. I had the light meter app on my phone set wrong during one roll. Dumb ass. Everything else (hopefully) was free of user errors or dumb ass fuck ups. Fingers crossed.

#adultKids #destination #Family #filmCameras #filmDeveloping #filmPhotography #GearAcquisitionSyndrome #grownUpKids #StepKids #travelPlans

Travel Plans and Parental Controls

Bellana came home late last night. Late enough that I was asleep. I woke up at 4:00am for some reason and checked the driveway and her car was there. Wonderful! My step daughter is home!

By 8:30am though we had dropped her off at the airport. She’s flying to Denver, meeting a friend, and then driving back to somewhere in North Carolina. From there she’s going to Atlanta and flying to Orlando where she will meet up with the rest of us for our Disney trip the week after next.

That’s a lot of traveling!

Her flight hasn’t boarded yet, but according to flightaware.com it is still on time. Safe travels, Bellana! We love you!

On an unrelated note, I think I need to set up parental controls on my computer. I think I need to block ebay. Yeah… I bought another camera last night. What the fuck, Robert? This one is a 35mm with autofocus. It has a 50mm lens too. Bonus! I still don’t think I will take any film on our vacation, but it is pretty clear my self imposed two month film hiatus isn’t going to last more than a few days. Oh well. I tried.

While we’re on the subject of film, I got a notification from the lab I sent the last batch of film to that it arrived. That was Thursday afternoon. I was hope hope hoping that I would receive word that the scans were available yesterday but I gots nuttin’. I doubt they’ll be working over the weekend, so hopefully early next week we’ll have the results. I’m optimistic that the five medium format rolls come out okay. Four of them might at least. One of them might be a smidge under exposed. I had the light meter app on my phone set wrong during one roll. Dumb ass. Everything else (hopefully) was free of user errors or dumb ass fuck ups. Fingers crossed.

#adultKids #destination #Family #filmCameras #filmDeveloping #filmPhotography #GearAcquisitionSyndrome #grownUpKids #StepKids #travelPlans

Bribes

Remember when bribery was illegal? That was before the nazi in chief of the fascist states of america declared that it was a smart move to let a foreign government give you an airplane as a present. Our new air force one, which will stop being air force one and become trump’s personal plane once he leaves office, assuming he leaves office before he dies.

Yeah, this country fucking sucks. Can you imagine if Barack Obama told the public he was taking a passenger jet as a gift from an Islamic nation? Fucking fascists.

Change of subject. Two things to look forward to this week. First, I have my three year post-gastric bypass surgery check in at the weight loss clinic. I expect them to tell me that I am the greatest patient they have ever had, and that no patient they’ve dealt with has ever had suck overwhelming success with their post-op program. I am hoping for a plaque or something to honor me.

Of infinitely greater importance, my step son Harry is going to graduate from the University of Vermont this weekend. I am so proud I am so proud I am so proud I am so proud. Did I mention how proud I am? We’ll be heading up there after work on Friday. I am really looking forward to it. I don’t know if you can tell by the context of this paragraph, but I am really proud of Harry.

Okay, Robert. Back to work with you.

https://www.flickr.com/photos/robj_1971/54514909030/in/datetaken/

#365 #365Challenge #365Project #bribe #bribery #Cat #collegeGraduation #collegeKids #Family #gastricBypassSurgery #graduation #grownUpKids #health #Kids #Kitty #magaIsACult #Nikon #nikonZ5 #photoADay #photoADayChallenge #photoADayProject #photography #Politics #robin #StepKids #trumpIsAFascist #trumpIsANazi #trumpIsEvil #z5

Xmas Eve

Are we all ready? Tomorrow is xmas. It is xmas eve. It’s time to get the last minute details wrapped up. Dot those holiday i’s and cross those holiday t’s.

I need to hit a couple of stores. One being a gas station and another being a grocery store. Good times. I don’t expect humongous, insane crowds or anything*.

My step son has been here for days. My step daughter will be here tonight, but not until super late. Maybe even after midnight. She has a gig in Vermont and can’t come home until after. Both kids will be here for xmas morning though and that’s what counts.

Now that the holiday is actually here, can I start feeling a little xmas spirit? I mean before it’s too late? I don’t know… tomorrow will suffice if that’s all I get. HoHoHo and shit.

*Yeah, that’s sarcasm. You could tell that by the context, right?

#adultKids #collegeKids #emptyNest #Family #grownUpKids #Holiday #Kids #StepKids #toDoList #xmas #xmasEve

Bellana is back in Vermont. She left last night and stayed over one of her friends’ house in order to cut down on her morning commute today. At our house she was three hours away from work, and today is a work day for her. I get it. It makes me sad to see her go, but I am also really happy we had her for a few days. Even more so as we had Harry for a few days before that, and their visits overlapped so we had them both for a day. That made me really happy. That was an extra good night.

Jen is working from the office today. I am working from home. That means I am here by my lonesome, just me and the cats. I have a podcast playing on my MacBook and it’s streaming to Home Pods scattered all over the house. I don’t have to pause the podcast if I need to get up and leave the room. Heh heh. Technology is cool. When Jen comes home I’ll shut off any streams that are anywhere other than Harry’s room/my office space.

The Great Heatwave of 2024 is going to become official today. The forecast calls for the temperature in my little city to hit 99 degrees. That will be three days over 90. Heatwave: Confirmed. It is 9:10am right now and it’s already 83 degrees. It’s going to be fun.

The forecast for the rest of the week? Rain and clouds and awful. Back to normal, I guess.

After complaining about crappy sleep for the last week or so, I finally topped six hours last night. In fact, I topped 7.5 hours. It was broken though. I fell asleep at 9:30pm. Not by choice. I just couldn’t keep my eyes open anymore and zonked out. Normally I try to eat something before I go to sleep out of fear that my stomach will get so empty over night that it will hurt. A snack at bedtime avoids that problem, but I didn’t have one last night. My last bite to eat last night was at 7:49pm. I woke up with a bit of a stomach ache at 2:30am. I had a little snack and felt better, but I couldn’t fall back to sleep until well after 3:00. Oh well. I felt really tired when I woke up today (almost an hour later than I had planned) but I feel okay now. Here’s hoping I won’t be totally exhausted today.

Okay, red head. Back to work.

https://robertjames1971.blog/2024/06/20/empty-nesters-again/

#90Degrees #99Degrees #Apple #emptyNest #emptyNesters #Family #gastricBypass #gastricBypassRecovery #gastricBypassSideEffects #gastricBypassSurgery #grownKids #health #heatwave #HomePods #Kids #Podcast #Sleep #sleepSchedul #sleepStats #SleepWatch #StepKids #streamingAudio #tech #Weather #workFromHome

Yup… Monday… blah.

How’s everyone doing? Did you have a good weekend? I was sick all weekend, but it was okay. My step son was here. That was awesome.

I feel a little better today. It’s been the cold from hell ever since last Tuesday afternoon, but today I feel like I am starting to come out of it. I’m still stuffy and sneezing and coughing, but not nearly as bad as I was. I still don’t feel well enough to be comfortable going into the office. I think this week will be Wednesday and Thursday. Maybe Friday. I only went in once last week because of being sick. Maybe I’ll go in an extra day this week to make up for it. We’ll see.

The kitchen remodel will hopefully officially come to an end tomorrow. The contractor is coming back one more time to hang some shelves over the new tile. That’s the only thing left to do, though our dishwasher is acting up. It might be shitting the proverbial bed. Nice timing, eh? Get the kitchen remodeled and immediately have to buy a new appliance. Yeah, because we have money for that! Sheesh! Is the universe trying to tell us something?*

Okay. I need to blow my nose, read some work email, and then make lunch. Hopefully you are all having a good Monday even though Mondays as a rule suck. That’s okay though. Mondays sucking is not a surprise to anyone who lives in a place where Monday is the start of the work week.

*No, the universe is not trying to tell us something. It doesn’t give a shit about us one way or the other. Why? Because it is not sentient in any way. It’s just a universe. It’s just a really, really, really big collection of stuff. It doesn’t have feelings. It’s not intelligent. It’s just stuff.

https://robertjames1971.blog/2024/03/18/mondays-suck-but-we-all-knew-that/

#Cold #collegeKids #Family #headCold #health #homeImprovement #homeOwner #Kids #kitchenRemodel #kitchenRemodeling #kitchenUpgrades #monday #mondaysSuck #returnToTheOffice #Sick #StepKids #work #workInTheOffice

The head cold persists. Today will be the fourth full day with it and I think it might be the worst day yet.

Yup, I’m still sick.

My wife had it last week and I have it this week. For both of us, with the exception of our one experience with Covid-19, this is the only real bug we’ve caught since the lock downs started four years ago. We have no idea where it came from, but it has turned out to be a persistent little sucker.

In four days I have plowed through two full boxes of tissues. I just started on box number three. Last night before bed I casually mentioned to Jen that I wished when I blew my nose that something substantial would come out. Well, I got my wish. What was the nasal equivalent of an annoyingly dripping faucet yesterday has turned into a gushing rush of snotty awfulness today… too much information? Probably.

The upside to this is that Harry is home! Bellana has been home since Tuesday and has already gone back to Vermont. Harry is staying with us today and heading back to school tomorrow. I’m really happy to have him here, I just wish I wasn’t so sick so we could hang out together. As it is I am keeping my distance from everyone. I don’t have Covid, but we’ve learned some things since the lock down started four years ago, and hopefully I’ll be able to keep Harry healthy. I’d hate for him to be sick when he starts school again next week.

Okay, there’s your update. My box of tissues and I are going to sit in the corner of the living room in our vegetative state for a while. I have a couple of songs that are ready to mix. Maybe I’ll mess with one for a while.

Too paraphrase U2, Achoo-babie.

https://robertjames1971.blog/2024/03/16/still-sick-no-end-in-sight/

#bellana #bug #Cold #collegeKids #Family #harry #headCold #health #Kids #runnyNose #Sick #sickness #sneezing #StepKids #stuffyHead #virus