And then, there's a bearded fetus.

Hey, y'all, we made it through Monday!! Woot, woot! I have very little planned today, although I have to go to Nordstrom to pick up some eye shadow. I got a little palate of Sephora eyeshadow, and it was not good. Barely any pigment, hard to get on the brush. I was flipping through Facebook and saw one that was pot themed. It's called the "Smoke Sessions II" by Melt. It's all these gorgeous purples. I fell in love with it, and bought it immediately. (To be fair, I also have one from Ulta that should be coming tomorrow.) With the glasses, I can get away with a little more pigment in my eye color. I can't do mascara, my follicles do not like that, but I can do eyeshadow, and light eyeliner. (I got the coolest shade of eyeliner, a burgundy/brown that is perfect for my green eyes.)

At some point between today and tomorrow, I'd like to go up and get my overdue emissions test done. They're open til 7 on Tuesday and Wednesday. I will probably go today after I grab my eyeshadow. Ideally, I'd like it done before we drive down to Sibley for Jess consult tomorrow.

Yesterday was very busy. I did my 43 calls, plus filled in three separate cardiac CTs, a Cardiac MRI and called people to let them know that when they scheduled their appointments, they borked up. (Seriously, how hard is it to keep track of when you can have your appointment? Or where?) The only one I'm not blaming is the patient who scheduled at the wrong place because there is no indication that certain sites can only accommodate patients up to certain weights for some tests. That's on our coding. (I love making those calls, btw. But I figure it's better that it's me, who will be sensitive about it.)

It was so brutally hot yesterday and it's going to be worse today. I'm not thrilled about going out in it. It was bad enough when we walked the dog last night, and it was still 95 degrees. I am way too Slavic for this heat. Give me cold weather any day. I'm not looking forward to being in DC in 100 degree heat. But I want Jess to get their consult, so off we shall go. At least we're leaving at ass-o-clock, so it shouldn't be too bad. My morning post tomorrow will probably be after our appointment, as I have no urge to get up at 4am to update. Though we shall see.

Our AC unit is glorious. During the heat of the day, it keeps the house cool. At night, it can get a wee bit stuffy, but overall, it's awesome. I got a fan to help at night, and it was wonderful. I slept much better, except for the cat coming to visit me every hour.

Okay, I suppose it's time to get myself together. Everyone have an amazing Tuesday!

It's Sunday! Yesterday was very busy, but I had fun.

First up was the dog's grooming. He was the first of the day, so he was done in two hours easily.
We picked him up and he was happy and much cooler. I might have to book his next one a bit early, so he doesn't have to get so hot.

The cousin's lunch was at a Spanish/Italian place called Tutti Paella. It took about 40 minutes to get to, and looked like a dump in a strip mall. But wow, it was way more than that. I ordered off their tapas menu. I had a charcuterie board, the Colossal Vieras con Tocino (which were about 8 bacon wrapped scallops with a balsamic glaze, and then Alcachofas Al Ajillom which were baked artichokes in garlic with a garlic aoli. My fucking god, everything was amazing. It was perfectly seasoned and well cooked. I'm a little in love with this place, and I hope they do well, because goddamn. My BIL had the scallops and Patas Bravas, which was basically loaded spanish potatoes. The single serve paella was enough to feed two, maybe three people, and the portion for two was enough to feed at least four, maybe five peoople. We got a Paella to take home for Jess, and it was enormous. They only ate about a fourth of it. IT was packed with spanish chorizio and chicken. We also ordered one for Shelly and I-the seafood one, which was lovely. I ate the shit out of it, and there's still better than half left.

Then it was home for an outstanding role play heavy game of Arvandor. It was awesome. My players continue to be so involved and on point. It's really making the characters feel like real people.

It's of course, a completely different group than my normal, but it makes me hope that we can get some roleplay out of my regular group, too. We'll see. I've got two games coming up that could support it, so we'll see.

After that, we relaxed and took the dog out to potty. He was very good while we were playing. Then, we at dinner and went to bed. I slept pretty well, so maybe I'm getting used to the firmer mattress.

And now, I have to get myself together for brunch! From Spanish to Brazillian! Whoo! Everyone have an awesome Sunday!

Well, that was a day. I was expecting a nice quiet Thursday, and what I got was...not. I had already gotten my breakfast together, and was sitting on the sofa, preparing to go in an boot up my computer for work, and scrolling the internet idly. And then I saw it on Facebook. Jess' estranged dad passed.

I relayed this to Jess, and texted in that I was taking a bereavement day so I could be there for them. They've been estranged for years, but I knew it was still going to be rough. The funeral is next week, and their brother wants them to be there, so off we shall fly to Michigan. I'm so thankful for the money from the estate that let me just book everything. We have tickets going into Michigan, plus a rental car and hotels. It'll be a short trip. We're leaving on Friday morning, and flying in to Detroit. The first night, we're staying near the airport, then driving in for the funeral on Saturday, and leaving Sunday morning. It'll be a lot, but we'll manage. Here's hoping the weather behaves for smooth travel. The only thing to still decide is whether we take the car and park in a lot or just get a ride to the airport.

Around 11, the bed came, and with nothing else to do, we went ahead and set it up. It's a little firmer than I'd like, but I think once I'm used to it, it'll be fine. Good lord, that mattress was heavy. Of course, they dropped it at the foyer, so the two of us had to slide it up the stairs, and into the house. Then, we got the old mattress off the bed, and did some more heaving to get it on the bed and unwrapped.

It was not easy, but we got it there. I did not sleep great, but I expected that. I'm hoping it'll improve a little bit each night.

After that, we were kinda at loose ends until it was time for dinner. Just before, I was sitting at the table and checked my work email. And it confirmed my perception. The communications person reached out to me to ask for a few sentences about my job, and why I felt it was important to connect with the patients I spoke to and a picture. The resulting article will go out on Johns Hopkins social media and website. So this is a public perception, not an internal one. Aaah! I'm excited yet nervous.

Jess spoke to their brother last night, which went as well as it could. He made them feel quilty a couple of times, but I don't think he meant to.

Today will hopefully be quieter. In the evening, we're going to the mall to look at shoes for me and a top for Jess for the funeral. We really don't have anything at all appropriate. I've got nice pants, but no shoes. And Jess has no nice clothes at all, so it's shopping time. I'm a little worried that we won't find any shoes for me--my feet are so wide and flat. If worst comes to worst, I can wear my sandals, but they're men's sandals, and not that pretty. I'm hoping that they won't have anything, but we'll see.

I'll have time to wear it, since I have a cousins brunch tomorrow to go to. I'm not sure I want to go, but I do want the restaurant. They went for the one I picked, which was cool. Spanish/Italian food for all!

Sunday, Jess and I will go out for an anniversary brunch.

Okay, time to get myself together for the day. Everyone have an outstanding Friday!

I'm a little less sleepy today, which is good. Yesterday I just was blah. I didn't feel badly, I just couldn't quite get myself into "on" mode, which makes work very difficult. I got through all but two hours, and then called off, because I was just wiped.

After that, I vegged for a few minutes, then went to Sam's club to get some things. I got some special things for dinner, which I'm now frantically googling for the best way to cook. which thankfully seems to be baking. I have twice baked potatos to bake, and the NY strip steaks, and then two very lovely lobster tails. Sams had them on sale, so I figured why not? Jess isn't a fan of lobster, so they're going to get a full steak, and my sister and I will each get half a steak and a lobster tail. I ordered kitchen scissors to cut the shells and make it perfect. After that, a little melted butter, and we'll be good. Hopefully, I can catch the sweet spot and cook them well, without overcooking.

I got other things, of course. Fruits and creamer and other tasty things, but those are the big ones.

I need to look and see how long the twiced baked potatoes need. Hmmm

I went to bed early and promptly got anxious for absolutely no reason and had to take some anti anxiety meds. Today is payday, and I have literally no bills to pay with it. It's glorious. I'm planning to save most of it, aside from taking Jess out for a research brunch in Annapolis. There's a Brazillian steakhouse down there, and I want to see if it's as good/better than Fogo De Chao.

My last big purchase comes tomorrow, which I'm very excited about, our mattress. I was more excited before I saw the weight on fedex.com. 96lbs! That's going to be a tough one to get in and unpackaged. We went with a GhostBed, and I'm looking forward to trying it out. I told Jess not to try to move it themself. I think this is going to take 2 of us.

My next D&D campaign is slowly taking shape. It's a folk horror game, so I have a Relic Born (skeleton person) and a Threadborn (living doll). I'm looking forward to it very much.

I've got another homebrew game starting next month that I'm excited about. It, much like my other game is more roleplay heavy, though there will be some combat, of course. I'm curious to see how things go. This is a much larger group that my little Arvandor band, so it could be difficult.

On that note, I shall go forth and take a nice hot shower, and get ready for my day. Everyone have the very best Wednesday!

I am for no apparent reason, very sleepy today. I could have dozed for another hour easily. I'll wake up eventually, but I really slept very soundly last night, and another hour would have been nice.

I had a nice day yesterday, first with lunch, where I had a steak bigger than my head, topped with a big scoop of crab imperial. There's still about two thirds of it left, because with the Rybelsus, I can't eat a ton at a sitting. The food was SO good. We got a takeout for my sister, a burger (her choice) and she said it was amazing. It looked pretty tasty.

Then, it was home to relax and feed the puppy before game. Game was super fun, even though it was mostly set up for the next arcs. It's one of my special favorite games, so I was really psyched to play it.

I had a little burst of madness yesterday and signed up to DM another campaign. It's called The Crooked Moon, and it's a folk horror game that looks super cool. I'm looking forward to trying it out. I limited to six people but feel horrible about the people who got excluded. I did it fair, and did a drawing, using a random wheel to remove people. I had to whittle it from 10 people to 6, which was a big cut. If it goes well, I'll run a second game when we finish for everyone who didn't make it.

Today, it's back to work. It's sure to be a busy one. Hoping for a nice not too crazy week. And I'm hoping that they get back to me quickly about the application.

And on that note, time for me to get dressed! Everyone have an amazing Monday!

It's Pride weekend, and I just want to go back to bed. I did not sleep well at all. First, we ate pretty heavy right before bed, and then Boodle was bing a velctro kitty. Jess was also very cuddly last night, so between it all, I had a restless night's sleep. It's okay, I just have Pride to get through. I cancelled my afternoon game, because I just couldn't see rushing from Pride, with all the traffic of the Trans Pride and Pride Block Parties as well as any No Kings rally traffic, managing to get home in under an hour (because we are 100% ubering. Parking is going to be a nightmare. This way, we can finish my shift, walk around, and then go forth and maybe grab food and then go home.

After that, I have nothing planned until it's time to make dinner. And that's just a pork loin with mashed turnips. Then, I can crash out and go to bed while Jess plays Strixhaven.

Tomorrow, I have absolutely no plans. Just going to laze around and nap, I think. I could uber down to the pride festival, or drive down to the big Greek festival, but we'll see.

I had my bimonthly performance review yesterday. As expected, I'm doing well. I had told them that I applied for the supervisor position, and there was much lamenting on not wanting me to leave, but then he said if I get the position, I should push for as much money as I could get. Then, I should wait to sign the offer until they can go to their bosses and see if they could get a counter offer.

If after all the time I spent banging my head trying to advance at IKEA, now I've got people getting into bidding war over me, I'ma laugh.

And on that note, I'm going to start getting myself together for work. Everyone have a super Saturday and be safe!

It's Friday Eve! More packages coming today. So that's fun. Yesterday a few things showed up--we got some beach towels, should we ever want to use the pool, and we got some small things from Temu. We also put together the new file cabinet/printer holder during my lunch. It's very nice. I'm looking forward to the pantry coming so we can put that together and be done with assembly for a while. I ended up going with Temu, because IKEA continues to say that there's no delivery windows. As I said, we've had really good luck with Temu for the apartment. Aside from the sofas, pretty much all the furniture is from them. We went for the "Industrial Farmhouse" look. It's very sleek and nice, black metal with a medium colored wood. I'm especially fond of our side tables and tv stand. I've posted a picture of the TV stand before I think, but here it is again:



Our pantry is also lovely, and I can't wait for it to arrive. More pictures then.

Tonight, I have an eye appointment with Warby Parker. I've never been to them before, but they're in my plan, so I will give them a shot. I've found a couple pairs of new glasses that I like, so I'm eager to get them. I think I'm going to get 2 pair, possibly one from Zenni and one from Firmoo. I'm going to try progressives, to see if I can make do with one pair of glasses for work and play. As it is, I have a pair of bifocals, and then a pair of computer glasses for middle distance. So, we'll see!

I've got one game this weekend, which is directly after I finish working at Trans Pride on Saturday. It's my oldest game, which I kind of feel is drifting to an end. It's got one more arc, and then I think it'll be done. I hate to end it, but it feels like it's coming to it's natural conclusion.

Aside from that, and Pride, I'm going out with my friend from 911 on Sunday, but other than that, not a whole lot going on.

I was hoping to have a hat in time for Pride, but things are not looking good. I may just wear a baseball hat.

Okay, time for me to get myself together. If I'm going to have someone standing close to me, I'm going to need to take a shower. Everyone have a stupendous Thursday!

Happy Tuesday! We got Monday over with! Monday wasn't terribly bad for me. Busy, but not overwhelming. Towards the end of the day, I was just filling in spots where people had cancelled, and then working on the PET Scan queue. Which just means calling people to get their (usually cancer related) very expensive scans. On a good day, I manage to give people the illusion that Hopkins is magic, because I'm doing it as the doctors put in the orders, so for some of them, I'm literally calling as they are leaving the doctors office. It's good, because it makes them feel like we're really looking out for them, and concerned about their well being. (Which to be fair, we are. See also: cancer patients.). For some of them, they just got their cancer diagnosis, and my heart always aches at the thought of how much they're going to have to go through over the next months. Some, it's just a yearly thing to confirm that they're still cancer free.

So when dad's money came in, I had a little spending spree. And now, all the packages are comeing in. Today and tomorrow may be a bit of a deluge of things. Next week, all the Temu packages come. I've actually really liked the furniture we've gotten from there. It's been much sturdier and better made than some of the pieces we've gotten from elsewhere.

Yesterday, after work and dinner, we went over to IKEA to check out the Bookcase/sideboard combo that we were looking at for our kitchen pantry. I really like the one that I chose and it feels like it could be sturdy enough to hold all of our stuff. I got a couple of containers for the potatoes and onions, which can sit on the floor next to the pantry. Of course, this morning, when I went to put in the order, it says no delivery spots are available, so I'll have to see if any open up. I'm definitely not going to be picking it up in my Kia Soul.

If that doesn't change, I might have to reconsider.

After we viewed the sideboard, we proceeded to the cafe, to pick up a dessert and have some of their delicious pear water whiel we waited for our Too Good to Go order. Holy shit y'all. They just went through what they had left at the end of the night and boxed it for us. We have salad, we have salmon, we have chicken tenders, sides, baked goods, you name it.

We're definitely having a good lunch, and for $19, it was a hell of a lot of food.

Okay, time for me to consider waking up. I'm thinking about a nice hot shower to wake me up. Everyone have an outstanding Tuesday!

It's Sunday! Today shall be a day for relaxing and having a couple of games. It should be a lot of fun, if the everyone is up to play.

Yesterday was a long day! I had my shower and then we took Mao down to be cremated. The dude at the cremation place was SUPER nice. I was really pleased that I went with them. After it was done, I felt good that we'd finally gotten him taken care of. We'll be able to pick him up on Wednesday. (We'll probably have to wait til Saturday. I can pick him up in the morning before I head out for Pride.)

Then, we came back and piddled around until it was time to go bowling. The alley is very nice, and it was good to see friends, but since I wasn't willing to bowl with my back, it wasn't very engaging. It was all fine, though. The food was good, and we got out for a bit. We also stopped at Trader Joes on the way back, and bought way too much shit. Today will be a grazing day. We all have leftover food, so we're just going to eat what we've got.

The fridge is full, so we all better get cracking.

I say shit, but most of it is stuff for lunch for Jess and I. Tomorrow, we need to get back to cooking like a normal person rather than takeout.

And now, I'm going to get myself together and forage for breakfast. Everyone have an amazing Sunday!

It's finally Friday! Whoohoo! It's a short day at work for me, which I'm looking forward to, because the rest of my day is busy as hell. First, work til 11am, then I go to get my hair cut and dyed. I'm a little nervous about this, but I'm sure it'll be fine. The person I'm going to was in the same shop as my former hairdresser (the one who died suddenly) and they do good work. I'm not asking for anything particularly tough. I'm a little worried about borking my back up, but I'll be fine. Then, its home to relax for a few minutes, then we drive 45minutes to get Jess' new computer. Then, we go grab dinner, and then head home. It's a lot, but it'll be good.

Unfortunately, it's supposed to rain tonight and tomorrow, which just figures. Tomorrow we shall go down to get the frozen cat cremated. Once that's done, we have a bowling party tomorrow night. With my back, I won't be bowling, but I want to go to see people from work.

Sunday, we have games, which will be fun. I'm hoping the weather holds off tonight while I'm driving in the dark. The bowling is at 4pm, so I won't be out too late on Saturday.

Yesterday was busy, but not horrible. I had one spicy patient, who was scheduled incorrectly by a team member who is no longer with the team, so it fell to me to reschedule. They were not happy, but y'know, it's nothing personal, and I don't actually care that she's upset.

The other day, I went a little insane on pastries from Paris Baguette, a new bakery that opened in Towson. Holy shit, y'all, it was so good. The pastries are light and delicious and I will definitely be ordering from there again.

Tonight, since I'll be getting my hair cut, Jess is going to take care of dinner, which will be chicken. It's the first chicken I've had since the money came in. I'm sure it'll be good, but a little part of me was really enjoying the steaks.

Oh well, maybe more steak on Monday. We'll see.

I now have completed the trifecta of big box stores. I reupped my Costco membership and went ahead and got BJs, too. BJs had the creamer I wanted, and I've always been a fan of their fruit and veg. And Costco has Gimbap, and other ethnic foods that the others don't. And Sam's is cheap.

Okay, time for me to get my shit together. I still do have three hours of work to do today. Everyone have an excellent Friday!