And then, there's a bearded fetus.

I'm feeling slightly more awake today. Better than yesterday, at least. Hopefully, I won't be in typo hell this morning. I'm a little tired still, but not horrible.

Yesterday was a busy day at work. While I was off for Jess birthay a volunteer activity appeared. And then another. I was interested in both, so that was the beginning of my morning. The oncology team is working half a day on Monday, and they need someone to take calls for them to be able to schedule radiology appointments. Otherwise, they'll have a full day of calls to make on Tuesday, when we (and they) Will already be slammed. They're willing to pay me 4 hours of Time and a half, plus 4 hours of regular holiday pay. Which works out to double time and a half. It's the same arrangement they offered for MLK Day, and I'm just sorry it's not a full day.

Later on in the day, my boss gave me more info. My pay is coming out of oncology's budget, and I'm the only one who was actually offerered the job. They put it on the team chat, but no one else was interested. I don't think our pool opens til noon anyway, so I can 100% be the sole employee that day. My boss was like "Call me if you need me, but I know you won't."

Later on, we got an email inviting people to work the Hopkins booth at the Various pride festivals. I signed up for the 12-2 shift on 6/14 at the trans pride table. I really want to do it, and maybe see a bit of the festival while we're there. I'm going to find our fanny pack to wear for it.

Hopefully it won't be terribly hot. Either way, I'm going to do it.

I haven't been down in forever, and I'm not looking forward to parking, but I think it'll be fun. I'm going to get a hat between now and then, to avoid my face looking like a lobster.

Aside from that, things are relatively quiet. I made gochujang chicken last nighty, whihch involved a marinade of gochujang, soy and honey. It was baller, and there's some left over for today, which makes me happy. a Little bit spicy, but really tasty.

And now, I've got to work on some stuff for game on Saturday. Everyone have an excellent Friday!

The cat was a little beast today and as a result, I'm tired and grumpy. It's not a good combination. She started annoying me at 3 am and did not stop. I gave up at 5, but I'm having anxiety because I have games for the next three nights, and this was my one chance to sleep in until Sunday. But noooo. Saturday should be fun, as I have work, plus two games. Seriously, Boodle is lucky she's cute, because I could have screamed this morning.

I'm very sore this morning, probably due to the weather and sleeping weirdly. Once I settle myself down, I'm going to go start making some baked goods.

Today is Jess' birthday, so I'm going to do my best to spoil them. Everything they want. Starting with bagels, which I will commence as soon as I wash dishes. Then, I shall make cake and icing, then some chana masala. At some point, I will have to go to the grocery store and grab some things to make the chana masala, as I am out of tomato sauce. But first, I may need to take a nap, because I am ready to bitchslap anyone who looks at me sideways.

I was going to make the bagels last night, but I had a headache and didn't do it.

I had the meeting with the financial dude, and it seems pretty simple. I esigned a couple of forms, and made my account, and according to him, in a week or so, it will have money in it. Then, I will transfer it to my bank account, and we'll be done. I'm not going to relax until I check my bank account and see money in it. I put this in a seperate account, so I can't accidentally touch it. I will have to use it deliberately. First up shall be paying off my car, then paying the rent for a few months, and then getting a few things for the house we've done without. After that, I'll probably take a small amount for frivolous things, and put the rest away for emergencies. Maybe open up a CD with some of it.

Okay, I'm still very grumpy, so I'm going to go make some bagels. Maybe that will settle me down. Everyone have a wonderful Wednesday! And happy birthday, my love.

ETA: Bagel dough did indeed help. I took out my frustration while kneading and feel much better.

It's Monday again! Whoo.

I was a complete lump yesterday. Once the bagels were done, I did absolutely nothing else of note. Well, I did run out in the evening to meet up with one of my old IKEA coworkers to fob off a couple of cinnamon rolls. I'll make them again soon, but probably will halve the recipe.



The bagels timed out perfectly for game. I was a little concerned because game was at 9, and they finished rising around 8, but it worked out great. I pulled the second tray out of the oven at about 5 of 9, so it was perfect. They turned out really well! They were chewy, tender and delicious. Perfect with a bit of cream cheese. Next time, I'm going to make either egg bagels or cinnamon bagels. Or maybe garlic bagels. We'll see. They're a bit of extra work, what with needing to boil them, but they were really good.

Then we had an excellent game where I got to do some good shit. I'm playing a high-level cleric, and it's a lot of fun. I am 100% a spellcaster girl when it comes to D&D. I want to be able to throw spells at the naughty creatures. We're currently in a ludicrous battle, with at least 50 opponents. I'm running out of high level spells, and I figure I'm going to need them soon.

Today will be busy, busy, but it'll be fine.

Tomorrow, will also be busy, but I need to step away from work for a few minutes for a meeting. Remember the 401k of my father's that said they needed probate? Yeah, now suddenly, they don't. We could have money as soon as next week. This could be huge. I will be able to pay my car off, and maybe the rent for a couple of months, and have a little in the bank. I am SO fucking happy about it. Yet I won't believe it until the money is in my account. But it hasn't stopped me from dreaming about the things I can do. I can pay 6 months of my car insurance! And get the furniture we've been wanting to, like a kitchen pantry! And a file cabinet for my office that I can put my printer on!

And with all that, we might be able to put Yoda in doggy daycare part time. Which would be lovely. Might tire him out so that he's less of a terrorist. It would only be a couple of days a week for half a day, and he might enjoy it.

So tomorrow, we'll find out how much we're getting and what all we're going to do. It would be lovely for things to not be quite so tight. Again, not going to 100% believe it until the check clears in the bank, but it would be so nice.

And now, I shall go forth and have more coffee and consider putting on clothes. Ew, clothes. Everyone have the very best Monday that you can Monday!

Todays vid is a favorite Marvel trailer, Glitter and Gold. I know I've posted it before, but it does give me a happy.

I am so sleepy this morning. The dog kindly woke me up at 6:30, which sucked, but it's okay. I'm a little woofled, but I'm waking up slowly. My sister's going into work for a few hours since her office is moving, so she was up early and Yoda with her.

Today is a busy day with games. I've got one at 12 and one at 7. I'm looking forward to both a lot. Somewhere in beteween, I'll need to make dinner. Not doing anything fancy. Some mashed potatoes and maybe, if I feel especialy fancy, I'll make my sister some more baked beans to go with pork loin that I'm baking. I'll see how I fee after game #1. OR more to the point, I'll see if I want to make the bbq sauce. It wasn't difficult, so I could easily do it.

Yesterday was mostly quiet. I only did 39 calls, though I also did a lot of other things. I spent the last hour on the hunt to fill in some appointments. I got them all scheduled, though, so that's something. I had some super sweet patients and found a lot of STAT spaces for patients.

Last night, I went dirt simple for food. Buttered garlic noodles and chicken tendies. It was a nice simple meal. Tonight's will have to be semi simple, but I think I could make time to make them a double batch of bbq sauce, and then some baked beans. Last time (2 days ago) they were excellent.

I am considering doing more mousse cups. I'm out of strawberries, but the mousse was pretty damn good by itself. I had been talking about making a mexican hot chocoleate mousse I would probably make more pie crust. That would be helpful for any mousse tart. I'll think on it.

And now, I shall go forth and make some pie crust. I need to wait a couple of hours for the rest--all the bowls are in the wash. Everyone have an amazing Saturday!

Another masterpiece from talitha78

This one is from White Collar, and damn, you don't realize how close they stood to each other until you see the vid. I'm looking forward to watching the new series when it comes out.

Yesterday was a fairly busy day. I worked, during lunch I made snickerdoodle cookies, which turned out pretty well. Debating on making the cardamom cookies today, but we'll see. After work, I made dinner, and ate. Our 7pm game got pushed back to 7:30, so I went ahead and made pie dough.

Today, I have work, maybe cookies, then after work I'm going to make the pie dough into mini tarts. I realised that the bottle of oyster sauce would be okay for a small rolling pin. then, I'm going to melt some chocolate in a double boiler and bake the tarts. Then, a thin layer of chocolate in the bottom of the tart. Then, some vanilla custard, which I'll make on the stove and spoon in. Lastly, I'll be cooking some of the strawberries with some sugar and cinnamon to make a delicious filling. Then, everything gets put in the fridge to chill. The trick is going to be to get the pastry crust thin, and the layer of milk chocolate very thin as well. We'll see how it goes. I will post pictures. Dinner is going to be a long cooking pork butt with homemade bbq sauce. I'm going to do that this morning.

Then, tomorrow, it shall be Friday and the weekend of Games shall begin! And the premier of Murderbot. Want to try to watch that, maybe on lunch tomorrow. If not, we'll aim for Sunday. We've got time after the morning game.

And then, Wednesday, it will be Jess' birthday! They have requested Chana Masala for dinner. I need to get a couple of ingredients, but I need to run to whole foods for cupcakes anyway, so I can grab it there.

Okay, time to go make some bbq sauce. Everyone have a lovely Thursday!

Today's video and song is the excellent Parachute. When I first saw it, I didn't think much of the song, but then I found myself singing it for the next four days. Now I'm rather fond of it. And honestly, "Don't believe the things you tell yourself so late at night. And, you are your own worst enemy, you'll never win the fight" is a mood.

Today is the farmer's market, so I'm going to go check that out after work. I can't afford much, but I should be able to get some veggies for the week, which will be good. I'm specifically going for veggies as opposed to prepared goods, because I know the $20 I allotted will go a little further. I should be able to get a few things at least.

Yesterday was surprisingly not horribly busy. I barely made the calls/day average thanks to a few first time patients, which take forever. We'll see how today is. I had a few patients to call for various and sundry things, but was able to get them pretty easily.

I made the Char Siu pork last night, which turned out well. I was very pleased with it. Today, I'm thinking about mashed potatoes with chicken in a gravy with onions and garlic and maybe some carrots to go over it. I also made cookies, using the Tollhouse Chocolate chip recipe without any chocolate. They've become one of the favorites of things I bake.

I need to remember to block off a few Sundays on the games calendar for late November into December so I have time to make holiday cookies. Between now and then, I'll need a rolling pin, cookie cutters, and a couple more sheet pans and some sherry. And maybe a better set of measuring cups, since the half cup measure already broke. Oh, and some cookie tins for presents.

I'm already debating on the types of cookie. I'm thinking Chocolate chip, sugar cookies, gingerbread, and something else to be decided later. Maybe Snickerdoodles, assuming I can find a recipe I like. Oh, and Oatmeal. The recipe for them are really good.

I'm trying to stay away from allergens, because I want to give them to people in our apartments. Just a thank you for being cool about Yoda being a bit barky. I'll print out some tags and we'll tape them on with a bow. Make sure Yoda's included on the tag. And I'll print a paper with the ingredients on them for allergy purposes.

Yesterday I also found out that another former IKEA coworker got a job at Hopkins, using me as a reference. If she stays 6 months, that's another $1000 bonus. I'm already 2/3 of the way to my first bonus, which should hit in late July. It'll be taxed of course, but that should still be about $700 extra. I'm going to pay some bills, and then probably have a nice dinner. Maybe if there's enough left, I'll treat myself to something, but we'll see.

We did another order on the Too Good To Go app. This one was from Whole Foods, a bakery bag. We got a chocolate hazelnut swirl loaf, four cherry turnovers, and a package of 8 brioche chocolate croissants. Not bad at all for $6. IKEA's restaurant also participates, so I'm going to try them one night. Their pickup is at 7:30pm, which isn't too late.

They also have an afternoon pick up, so if I'm off one day, I might do that. Maybe the day we go to see Ghost. We could pick up an early dinner there and head down to the arena.

And on that note, it's about time for me to get myself together. Everyone have a super Tuesday!

A little late putting this up on account of asshole dog. He demanded to go out immediately upon waking, and then I figured I'd make breakfast early, since my sister has a mother's day lunch with the inlaws at 12pm.

We have some bananas, still not 100% ripe, but super sweet, so I made bastardized bananas foster pancakes. No flambé owing to no rum, and a touchy smoke alarm, but I added a little tawny port to give the sauce that boozy flavor. It turned out super well, and was delicious and very filling. I didn't even make the bacon to go with it, and it was enough. The bananas really bulked it up, I think.

Today, aside from running my sister to aforementioned inlaws, I have nothing planned. Just a day of preparing games, and taking it easy. Next week is a four game weekend, plus one on Wednesday night, so I will be getting shit together to DM three of those games. Every one of them are homebrew, so I really need to get on the prep train.

We only had one game this weekend, which was yesterday. It was the risen Atlantis one, which was a lot of fun. We started out with a naval battle, during which our heroes nearly died, and finished with them finally making it to the island and starting the whirl of the social season. A whole lot of characters introduced, and a lot of role play. It was super fun. Some of these characters, I've been living with for a couple of months, so it was cool to finally introduce them. Everyone had a good time, including me, so I'm happy. We're into lunch conversation, so that'll probably take up another 1/3-1/2 of a session, and then they'll have a little time to explore before they get to the royal audience with the queen. (Them and all the other courtiers.)

The battle was super fun. I got to introduce a couple of adversaries, like a Way of the Ascendant Dragon monk, and a Spite Domain cleric. They're both high level and super scary. The monk gets five attacks per round, and the cleric can summon a demon. I'm looking forward to bringing them to the island and making the party interact with them under a treaty of non aggression. That should be hilarious.

Wednesday we shall have Blades in the Dark, and possibly finish the arc that we've been doing for three games.

Then Friday is Frostmaiden, with another big roleplay episode as the cleric faces their academic bosses and tries to justify their abscence after completing the mission that was set for them. Also, their participation in multiple god slaying activities. They left a first level cleric and are coming back an ultra powerful 20th level near-god, but that's probably not going to matter.

Then, Saturday, it's back to Atlantis in the morning, and off to Monster of the Week in the evening. They oddly will be going to the undersea to deal with the fey court, so I can reuse some of my maps!

Aside from that, there's a possible trip to the farmer's market on Tuesday and work. I have a very exciting life.

Whoops, turns out that my sister is not going owing to the BIL being sick. She's prepping for a big move at work, so she can't afford to get sick, and decided to stay home. Yay, I can make cookies!

I've got pork marinating in char sui sauce, so that will be dinner sorted. A little bit of Rice, a little bit of pork and sauce and we'll be good.

And now, I'm off to do some prep, and get myself together. Everyone have an awesome Sunday!

Todays lyric comes from the movie Slither, which was a James Gunn horror movie. I considered putting the clip it's used in, but it's pretty gross, so instead you get the lyrics video. If you enjoy horror comedy, it's 100% worth a watch. You will never listen to Air Supply the same again.

I woke up anxious today. I've got the manager meeting and I'm having some wicked imposter syndrome. Basically going "who am I to do this?" The manager thinks it's worth it, so I'm just going to go in and do my thing. We'll see how it goes.

After work and meeting, I'm going to go forth and pick up our Sam's Club order for this pay period. Mostly chicken, as usual. I did get pack of pork tenderloins, so that's a few non-chicken meals. I'm so tired of chicken, y'all. In July, when I have three checks, I'm going to get some steaks, and have those, just to get away from chicken. Or in August when I get the bonus for Hopkins hiring my friend. That's $1000 and I'm definitely going to splurge on some good food.

Tomorrow, we've got our lone game for the weekend. It's the homebrew one, and I'm really looking forward to it. I spent the week working on it. I have so many character sheets. It's a good thing there's a wiki, because they're going to need it to keep track of who is who. I've been uploading in real time, adding the people as they meet them, but since they're going to be introduced to a bunch of them tomorrow, I may need to do it after game. Hmm, I just checked the wiki, and it looks like I can fill them out and set them as private. Then, I can just uncheck the box and reveal. I may spend the rest of my morning doing that.

Also tomorrow, the doggo has his grooming, which he super needs. My dog is very fluffy right now and as it's getting hot, it's time for him to get shaved down.

Sunday will be a day of relaxing and maybe deep cleaning the kitchen.

Oh, yesterday I made some brown sugar cookies. They were pretty good, though the recipe didn't make much. I'm debating on what I shall make today. I like to bake during my lunch break, and then Jess finishes the trays. Then we have tasty cookies to eat with dinner. https://www.seriouseats.com/chewy-brown-sugar-cookies-recipe

Last week, I made pie dough and made little pie shells that I spooned a chicken pot pie mix into. I really need to get a pie pan and a rolling pin, so I can make a full size pie shell, and also make some sugar cookies for holiday presents.

Okay time to go forth and maybe play with the wiki. Then, get dressed and prepare for this meeting. Everyone have a most excellent Friday!

I almost didn't include this song int he movie list, because I almost felt like I should save it for next week, which will be songs that make me cry the first time I heard it, becuase it resonated so hard wth me. But since I really like this sond, I wanted to yse it right away.

After I signed off yesterday, I took my shower. I tend to push the door partially closed and leave the light and fan off. YEssterday,t hat was a bad idea. The steam from my shower set off the smoke detector at 3 am. While I was in the shower. IT was not great. Since only one of the alarms was shreiking, I just waved my towel under it, and it chilled out. Won't do that again, will I.

My paystub droopped yesterday, and the check will hit the bank today. It I'm correct, I may have about $100 left over this week. Whoohoo. I will save it.

I had the worst anxety last night it started out formless anxiety which then coalesced into total existential dread. I was up til after midnight just worried and convinced that something bad would happen.

Boodle is getting older, and she has that old cat skinny going on, and I'm terrified that she's going to get sidk, and I won't be able to help her. I still have trauma from Gracie and Sam, both of whom just wasted away. I want better than that.

And Yoda is such a little bag of dics half the time that I'm afraid we're going to get evicted. We try, but he still barks, and I don't know what's wrong or how to make him stop. We've tried things that are supposed to give him stimulation and he ignores them.

I spent yesterday mostly working on Saturday's game. I believe I have most of the cast of NPCs ready for their arrival and the first few scenes. I've actually got well beyond the first couple of scenes. I'm kind of basing this on what the players will do. So I have fixed events. They're in a Castle at Court, so there are a lot of people, but I narrowed things down to about 14 people that will make up the core of the people they'll meet. There are events that will happen for better or worse. They'll interrogate peopele, be it overtly or covertly. And they'll get information be it good or red herring.

But first, ship to shipt combat! Saturday cannot come fast enough! I realized that I had a couple more character sheets to make for the ships, but that doesn't take long. And now, I must get myself together for the day. Everyone have a perfectly lovely Wednesday!

A little belatedly, this week's theme is movie soundtracks. Today is Last Time (I Seen the Sun) from the amazing movie Sinners (If you haven't seen it, go. It is so, so good.)

Yesterday was not as good as I hoped, but it was okay. I made our usual Sunday Brunch before I went to go try to donate plasma. (Try was the operative word.) Because I'm diabetic, I need to have approval from my PCP before I can do so, so no extra money for me yesterday. So that was like an hour and a half that was worth nothing. Annoying. I wish they'd tell you that on the website, so I wouldn't have wasted so much time.

Not that I really had anything else planned except working on games. I actually got quite a bit done, which made me happy. I'm getting to the point with Arvandor that I'm having to make folders within folders for all the character sheets. It's a lot of NPCs. I made no less than 5 high level characters yesterday.

I got more good feedback on this campaign yesterday. I can't tell you how much it matters. Every bit of positive reinforcement tells me I'm on the right track, and makes me want to work on it more. Which then (hopefully!) gets more feedback, and before you know it, you've got an outline for most of the campaign.

And then, last night, we played the Rise of the Ice Dragons, DMed by poisontaster It was a super fun session, and we're now facing the big bad and me with limited spell slots and, after two vicious hits, I'm on 30 hit points. If I can last to my next turn, I can take a healing potion, but still. I seriously need to take the tough feat, so I can have more hit points. I'd also love to up my dex another two points, but I think the HP comes first. I'm a frontline wizard with a tendency to sling spells that will catch myself in the crossfire. My character is a red dragonborn with resistance to fire damage, so I have a habit of dropping fireballs at my feet, and trusting that I can tank it. The problem is, I only have 76 hit points. (For comparison, the fighter has 92.) The fighter's player and I have concocted a hair brained plan that will most surely get us both killed, but hopefully, we'll go out in a glorious way.

Tomorrow is the Farmer's market, but I'll have to skip it. No money for Sourdough. If only it was on Thursday!

Okay, time for me to go forth and put on pants. Everyone have the best Monday that you can Monday!