If you asked me why I'm awake at 3:30 in the morning, I think my body would just shrug. It was a confluence of needing to go to the bathroom at 2, but being too cozy, the cat yelling and my traitorous body deciding why the fuck not. It's going to be a long damn day either way.
Work was fairly busy again yesterday, with me spending a lot of time on the phones. I did some wheeling and dealing to get some people in, but it was somewhat frustrating, because for every one that said yes, at least one other said no. I understand work and childcare and all of that, but when your doctor says STAT, I'd at least like you to try to see if you could work it out before you say no. In some cases I worked hard to get you those spots at the locations you said you could do. Ugh, people. So annoying sometimes.
Towards the end of the day, our order came from the Punjabi Market and Halal Butcher. I got a bunch of meat for Yoda's meals as well as some quinoa and other snackies. I got a mix of meats, including chicken, chicken legs, chicken gizzards, ground goat and some goat meat for stewing.
I started with the goat stew meat. It had bones, seeming to ne mostly the cast off pieces, so into the pot it went to make a mild broth. Once that had cooked for 2 hours, I got the goat out and let it cool and threw in butternut squash. Later, when the goat had cooled enough to get the bones out, I deboned and threw it back into the pot along with some frozen green beans. Let them stew for a little while, until the squash was soft, and scooped some out to cool for his dinner, hoping against hope that he would like goat.
Turns out, he really likes goat meat. Which is good, since we have two more trays of meat.
Today, I shall wash out the pan and throw in some chicken legs and some gizzards to boil up a broth. Then, I don't know. Maybe some more squash, maybe some brown rice. We'll see on what veggies we want to add as well.
The goat was great, but next time, I need to get more of it. The bones ate up a lot of the weight, so it only made two meals.
The chicken I have a lot of, so I'm going to make a lot, and put it in little tupperwares in the fridge and freezer. I'm thinking about getting one of those vacuum bag sealers to make fairly flat packages that won't take up so much room, especially for vacation. They can just be frozen until they're ready to be used. I never thought that I would have Opinions about dog food and vacuum seals, but hey. Life comes at you fast. Sometimes your elderly dog gets sick, and you'll do anything to prevent it happening again.
Today, I shall write a bit more of Marchen, since I'm up early. I realized that I need to work on the character's introduction, write a little vignette to bring them into the game. I felt like it gave each character a little time to shine right at the beginning, and it gave the other players tantalizing backstory tidbits. My group is all nervous about the intros, but I promised them that I had them. I will set the scene and guide them through it. All they have to do is answer my questions the way the character would, and relax and have a conversation. I've got them. I find that it's more immersive and that it gives the setting a lived in feeling as well as giving the players a chance to roleplay the character before the story starts, so they get a feel for them.
Then, after the final introduction is done, then I shall bring them all together, and the story shall begin.
That's in 24 days now. I still have plenty of time to finish it up and be ready. I already have enough for probably 5 sessions or so, maybe more. I'm going to strip out some of what I wrote, because I was writing for a mysterious person who might want to buy and run my module, and that was hard. So now, I'm just writing in my style. Setup, possible outcomes, and let the players decide what will happen.
The plan is to have all the nations set up, so that the players can choose where they want to go. Some scenarios might be punching above their weight class, so they'll need to pick carefully. During the set up, I will definitely be mentioning which rulers are the more volatile ones, so hopefully, they'll know to avoid them.
I got the cutest little outfit from Torrid last night. I had gotten the skirt, but it was huge. Apparently my upper and lower are two sizes, the lower is a size smaller. This time, I got it in the right sizes, and added the matching top.

I even have a studded belt I can add if I so desire. It looked fun and I think I'll enjoy wearing it. I would like to get a pair of combat boots to wear with it, but we'll see. I've been having trouble finding boots that fit.
I also got some plain square neck jersey dresses that are super cute, but not so fancy you can't wear them anywhere. I like them with tennis shoes and biker shorts or leggings underneath to avoid chubrub.

Also, OMG, they have pockets!
Speaking of things I bought, I just bought an additional carry on that will count as a personal item. I'll stow my backpack above the seat, which will have most of my medications, some clothes in case of delayed luggage, and other stuff I'm not likely to need during the flight. The person case will contain the stuff I might need/that's too important to stow like medications I might need during the flight. My Mounjaro, which I don't need to get pushed around or crammed in with other bags, some ibuprofen, tylenol, benadryl, antacids, and anti anxiety meds.
Today, I shall hopefully not be on the phones quite as much. I'd love to work on the cardiac folder to see if I can start shrinking that down, but we've just been too busy.
I'm off this weekend, so we'll have to do something on Saturday. We have game on Sunday, helping one of the Marchen players to set up her entirely homebrew subclass character sheet and introducing her character to Jess' character since they're going to be starting in the same prison.
I have no idea what to do on Saturday. It's supposed to be sunny, but cool, so possibly not outside. Probably will just be lunch and relaxing. Maybe I'll go to the non-halal butcher and see what lean cuts of pork they have for Yoda and get my emissions testing done. That could be good and adult-like. I could also pick up my prizes from the quarter auction.
I have 14 days til I start school, and 42 days until we leave for the cruise. I'm slowly starting to get things in order for that. I think I have my clothes figured out. It's just a matter of packing them. But for that, I need to know the temperatures we're looking at and the weather. SO far, it's still butfucking cold in Alaska, so hopefully the temps go up a little in the next month. I keep looking at the sites to see if I can print out our boarding passes yet, or if I can chose our meal for the flight. Nothing yet. Probably a couple of weeks before, but hope springs eternal.
Okay, time to hop off and do some work on Marchen. I'd like to get the introductions written today.
Everyone have a lovey Thursday! Or Friday Eve, however you like to look at it!
Work was fairly busy again yesterday, with me spending a lot of time on the phones. I did some wheeling and dealing to get some people in, but it was somewhat frustrating, because for every one that said yes, at least one other said no. I understand work and childcare and all of that, but when your doctor says STAT, I'd at least like you to try to see if you could work it out before you say no. In some cases I worked hard to get you those spots at the locations you said you could do. Ugh, people. So annoying sometimes.
Towards the end of the day, our order came from the Punjabi Market and Halal Butcher. I got a bunch of meat for Yoda's meals as well as some quinoa and other snackies. I got a mix of meats, including chicken, chicken legs, chicken gizzards, ground goat and some goat meat for stewing.
I started with the goat stew meat. It had bones, seeming to ne mostly the cast off pieces, so into the pot it went to make a mild broth. Once that had cooked for 2 hours, I got the goat out and let it cool and threw in butternut squash. Later, when the goat had cooled enough to get the bones out, I deboned and threw it back into the pot along with some frozen green beans. Let them stew for a little while, until the squash was soft, and scooped some out to cool for his dinner, hoping against hope that he would like goat.
Turns out, he really likes goat meat. Which is good, since we have two more trays of meat.
Today, I shall wash out the pan and throw in some chicken legs and some gizzards to boil up a broth. Then, I don't know. Maybe some more squash, maybe some brown rice. We'll see on what veggies we want to add as well.
The goat was great, but next time, I need to get more of it. The bones ate up a lot of the weight, so it only made two meals.
The chicken I have a lot of, so I'm going to make a lot, and put it in little tupperwares in the fridge and freezer. I'm thinking about getting one of those vacuum bag sealers to make fairly flat packages that won't take up so much room, especially for vacation. They can just be frozen until they're ready to be used. I never thought that I would have Opinions about dog food and vacuum seals, but hey. Life comes at you fast. Sometimes your elderly dog gets sick, and you'll do anything to prevent it happening again.
Today, I shall write a bit more of Marchen, since I'm up early. I realized that I need to work on the character's introduction, write a little vignette to bring them into the game. I felt like it gave each character a little time to shine right at the beginning, and it gave the other players tantalizing backstory tidbits. My group is all nervous about the intros, but I promised them that I had them. I will set the scene and guide them through it. All they have to do is answer my questions the way the character would, and relax and have a conversation. I've got them. I find that it's more immersive and that it gives the setting a lived in feeling as well as giving the players a chance to roleplay the character before the story starts, so they get a feel for them.
Then, after the final introduction is done, then I shall bring them all together, and the story shall begin.
That's in 24 days now. I still have plenty of time to finish it up and be ready. I already have enough for probably 5 sessions or so, maybe more. I'm going to strip out some of what I wrote, because I was writing for a mysterious person who might want to buy and run my module, and that was hard. So now, I'm just writing in my style. Setup, possible outcomes, and let the players decide what will happen.
The plan is to have all the nations set up, so that the players can choose where they want to go. Some scenarios might be punching above their weight class, so they'll need to pick carefully. During the set up, I will definitely be mentioning which rulers are the more volatile ones, so hopefully, they'll know to avoid them.
I got the cutest little outfit from Torrid last night. I had gotten the skirt, but it was huge. Apparently my upper and lower are two sizes, the lower is a size smaller. This time, I got it in the right sizes, and added the matching top.

I even have a studded belt I can add if I so desire. It looked fun and I think I'll enjoy wearing it. I would like to get a pair of combat boots to wear with it, but we'll see. I've been having trouble finding boots that fit.
I also got some plain square neck jersey dresses that are super cute, but not so fancy you can't wear them anywhere. I like them with tennis shoes and biker shorts or leggings underneath to avoid chubrub.

Also, OMG, they have pockets!
Speaking of things I bought, I just bought an additional carry on that will count as a personal item. I'll stow my backpack above the seat, which will have most of my medications, some clothes in case of delayed luggage, and other stuff I'm not likely to need during the flight. The person case will contain the stuff I might need/that's too important to stow like medications I might need during the flight. My Mounjaro, which I don't need to get pushed around or crammed in with other bags, some ibuprofen, tylenol, benadryl, antacids, and anti anxiety meds.
Today, I shall hopefully not be on the phones quite as much. I'd love to work on the cardiac folder to see if I can start shrinking that down, but we've just been too busy.
I'm off this weekend, so we'll have to do something on Saturday. We have game on Sunday, helping one of the Marchen players to set up her entirely homebrew subclass character sheet and introducing her character to Jess' character since they're going to be starting in the same prison.
I have no idea what to do on Saturday. It's supposed to be sunny, but cool, so possibly not outside. Probably will just be lunch and relaxing. Maybe I'll go to the non-halal butcher and see what lean cuts of pork they have for Yoda and get my emissions testing done. That could be good and adult-like. I could also pick up my prizes from the quarter auction.
I have 14 days til I start school, and 42 days until we leave for the cruise. I'm slowly starting to get things in order for that. I think I have my clothes figured out. It's just a matter of packing them. But for that, I need to know the temperatures we're looking at and the weather. SO far, it's still butfucking cold in Alaska, so hopefully the temps go up a little in the next month. I keep looking at the sites to see if I can print out our boarding passes yet, or if I can chose our meal for the flight. Nothing yet. Probably a couple of weeks before, but hope springs eternal.
Okay, time to hop off and do some work on Marchen. I'd like to get the introductions written today.
Everyone have a lovey Thursday! Or Friday Eve, however you like to look at it!