And then, there's a bearded fetus.

Happy Beltane y'all!

Or, if you prefer:



It's Thursday, and somehow also already May? Go figure. It's less than a month until I can put on my bathing suit ad go swimming in the apartment pool. I'm excited about that. And only two days til I'm back on my Bucky bullshit.

Yesterday was an excellent day. As my beloved posted, we got their biopsy results back, and they were all clear and cancer free. I'm so excited for them! A friend, upon hearing it, sent us $25 to celebrate, and I wasted no time at getting a bottle of sparkling prossecco.

We had it with dinner, and it was lovely. Crisp and sweet. I made lime cumin chickpeas, which it went pretty well with. I have a little headache today, possibly from drinking, but it was 100% worth it.

After dinner, I fleshed out the campaign idea and posted it, asking if players were still up for the continuation. I've gotten positive responses from almost everyone saying they couldn't wait. Now I just need to write the campaign. I've got a good grip on what it will be, now it's just getting all the scenes down.

So far, what I've got: The dwarves dug too deep!?!

Deep in the caves outside of Neverwinter, they found a chamber. There was something down that they shouldn't have found The miners disappeared for 3 weeks, and the survivors came back traumatized and different. Several have since disappeared.

The cult of the Eldritch wants what they've found, to bring their eldritch lord, Mh'edhath forth into the Realms. It's said that Mh'edhath is the Great Unmaker--capable of unraveling reality and even the Song of Creation to warp the world into his dark playground.

The adventure will take you across the realms as you search for the missing miners and try to stop the incursion of Mh'edhath and the doom of the Realms.

So I'm very excited about that. This and the Atlantis themed game are my first intentional homebrew campaigns. I ran a short campaign (5 or 6 sessions) but that was pretty linear, and also based on a movie. These two are entirely from my brain. Technically MotW is all homebrew now, but it started out as modules that strung together and formed a story, which moved into homebrew.

These are aiming for being a slightly longer campaign, which is a LOT more moving pieces. Hopefully, I'm up to the challenge!

I also downloaded a shit ton of maps for both games. I'm still sorting what I've got. I'm going to need to get an extra hard drive to store them. I've become inordinately fond of czepeku.com for maps. I joined their patreon, so I can have ALL the maps.

Today, I have work, then my manager's virtual baby shower. Hopefully, it won't take that long. I'm not a huge fan of baby showers, but I will attend like a good person. Tomorrow, I have a game, which'll be fun, and then work on Saturday morning, and Thunderbolts at 1pm.

Okay, time for me to do a little bit of work on various games and maps. Everyone have a stellar Thursday!

It's Tuesday, and the biopsy is done. Now we wait for results. Jess did amazing; the doctor told them that they're "stoic" and that they wish they had more patients like them. They got perforated 17 times. 9 at one site, 7 at the other. The results can take anywhere between 3-5 days to come back, so now we wait.

I'm a wee bit tired today even though I slept pretty well. I think it's just left over adrenaline crash from last night. But the tech and doctor were super nice. If you've gotta get the boobs dealt with, I highly recommend Johns Hopkins at Greenspring station. They took good care of my Jess.

Today, I shall have work, and then I shall go shopping at the farmer's market. I'm really looking forward to it. It's been the thing that got me through the long week lead up to the biopsy. As I said to poisontaster, I want to be someone who shops at the farmers market every week. I want to stroll up and down the aisles with my little reusuable bag, and decide over fresh fruit and vegetables that come from the surrounding areas. Apparently at the local farmer's market, I will do this to the sound of French Accordion music. Which has a certain charm, I suppose. I will have to see if I have a dollar or some quarters to throw in the player's tip jar.

It's the local farmers market, so I really have no clue how big it'll be. They posted a list of vendors, which looks super interesting. There's about 15 of them, so it doesn't have to be huge. I know I want to get some sourdough bread. And the one place advertized that they have ramps, which I've never had, so maybe some of those. Aside from that, I'll play it by ear.

The rest of the week is pretty quiet. We've got games for the weekend, and Thunderbolts, which I'm looking forward to. I'm working on Saturday, so I'll go from that to movie, then home for gametime.

Okay, time for me to go forth and get myself together for the day. Everyone have an exemplary Tuesday!

It's Queen week! This week, my subject lines will come straight from Freddie Mercury's lips.

I'm luxuriating in getting up at 7:30am today. Normally I get up at 5:30, so this is a nice switch. In a bit, I'm going to go make pie crust to make some chicken pot pies for dinner. I've got game at 1pm, so I won't have time to do it all afterwards. Plus the dough will need to rest a bit before it goes int he tin. IT's going in the cupcake pan to make little crispy bowls, which I will ladle the filling over. I really need to get some ramekins so I can put the dough on top.

Yesterday was good and bad. The bad was a case of the sads that attacked me after game. I just felt really down and defeated. It's partially money woes, partially Jess' biopsy tomorrow. I just really felt shitty. Still have a little lingering today, but we'll see how things go. The good was the cooking and baking I did. Towards the end of work, I started assembling the ingredients for tortillas and as usual, Jess and I did our assembly line and got them made in the half hour between my job and game time. So I had tortillas and guac to nibble. It was quite good.

Game went super well. As expected, it was mostly set up, getting the players where they needed to be for the start of the adventure. At the end, I slipped in a stinger of backstory trauma, and it went over super well. At the end of game, my players were just effusive in their petting and praise and it really made me feel good.

Today, I will make pie and probably brunch. I'm thinking pancakes and sausage. Then game, then making dinner and maybe some cleaning. I really need to vaccum. Then I shall sack out in bed while Jess has her game.

Tomorrow a half day, and then taking Jess to their biopsy. We probably won't get the results til Tuesday or Wednesday, so that's going to be a long wait.

And now, I'm going to go mix some pie crust. Everyone have a stellar Sunday!

It's Friday!! I'm a bit down this morning, because of course after a couple of extra expenditures (the coffee isn't coming til Monday and so I had to get some more. We did't have enough cheese for the fajitas. And Amazon took out the Music Unlimited Subscription from the wrong account) the farmer's market appears to be off for me this week. I'm actually really sad about it. It was the bright point I was holding on to after Jess' biopsy and the thought that I can't do it is really upsetting me. I should have had like $60 to play, but instead I can't even pay my Roll20 subscription. They'll give me a little grace period, but still. It just feels like I'm not allowed to get ahead.

Everything (except Roll20) is paid, there's just not anything left to do anything fun. I hate it. I hate it so much. I hate it even more when I see my sister getting extra things. I don't want to cut her short, but it also feels somewhat unfair that I'm struggling so hard, while she's getting non vital things. She makes less than me, so I don't know what bill she could take on, but it boils down that I'm paying half the rent, the gas and electric, cell phones, internet, and the bulk of groceries. That's a lot when you add in my car payment and car insurance. The cell phones rankle a little. It's a family plan, and it has Jess and me as well as my sister and her fiance/commonlaw/boyfriend of 40 years. Neither of them pay towards it, even though I'm currently paying for the bill and the monthly payment for my sister's phone.

I'm just tired of seeing no money in my account.

Aside from that, things are okay.

I made fajitas last night, which turned out really well. I made them from scratch all the way, from marinating the chicken in lime juice and and spices down to making the fajitas. I did buy two things I didn't strictly speaking need. One is a larger cast iron pan and one is a tortilla press.

They turned out really well. I was very excited with the results.







I had a small cast iron skillet, which I used for the tortillas.

Then for the fajita themselves, I used the enormous skillet. It's 14" and I filled it with peppers and onions and marinated chicken and sauteed on high heat. As it cooked, the chicken marinade got on the onions and peppers, giving everything a nice citrus flavor. With a little guac, and some cotija cheese, it was really tasty. I ate three fajitas and spent the rest of the night questioning my life choices.

No clue what I'm making tonight. Maybe some nice oatmeal cookies. Dinner, we'll see.

Okay, time for me to go forth and get myself together. Everyone have an most excellent Friday!!

It's hump day!! And I really didn't want to get up this morning. It took a good couple of minutes of stretching before I forced myself upright. Even now, I could easily go back to bed. But alas, I am up for the duration.

Tonight we have game, our long delayed Brindlewood Bay game. It's been so long that I'm definitely going to need to go back and reread some of my friend's excellent notes. I'd be lost without them on so many games. This is the beginning of a fairly busy weekend of games. not as packed as some, but games on Wed, Fri, Sat (Jess has two) and one on Sunday for me and one for Jess. It's going to be fairly packed. Saturday is the first game of the continuation of Mad Mage, which is entirely homebrewed. I've done homebrew games before, but this one, I'm worried about. When Frostmaiden finsihed the module, it left behind a handful of plot hooks for the next chapter, and then one of my players needed to quit, which gave me the impetus for another section of game. It all was kind of organic.

On the other hand, the Mad Mage module was very self contained, being that it was in a dungeon. There's not a lot of recurring characters. Actually, only one that could recur. And it didn't lend itself to a continuation of the plot, or a plot that was related to something they did in the Mad Mage module. Mad Mage was fun, but I'm not sure why it's ranked as highly as it is. It's no Strahd. It was considerably more heavy lifting than Strahd ever was. Or maybe dungeon crawls just aren't my thing. Dunno. Anyway, it didn't lend itself to a direct sequel.

So, I homebrewed a sequel and a setting out of thin air. If you'd asked me three years ago if I'd have been creating a mystery that's going to require a ton of role play, I would have laughed at you. But as time has gone on, I've shifted from being a combat person to being a little more balanced. So I'm a bit nervous, but excited.

Yesterday was a busy day. I spent a lot of time calling people back, and taking calls. the calls weren't that busy, but I was also trying to fit in a couple of slots and people, so it felt hectic. No clue how today will be.

Today is Payday!! Whoo! Most of it will disappear as quickly as it came in, but I think I'll have a little left over. There were a lot of days that I was there late the last two weeks, and of course, I worked Saturday, and when I got my paystub yesterday, it paid off. I might have as much as $200 left over, which is awesome. I'm looking forward to using some of it at the Farmer's market on Tuesday.

I ordered some food for the week, but I may see about ordering a bit more. I need to stock up on beans and chickpeas. They make great quick meals with some rice.

And on that note, it's time to hop off and get myself in gear. Everyone have an amazing day!

Sory that it's not oe of the more lively ones. There's prooably a few that'll show up that are faster, but I do love this. In the bad old days it inspired som much fic. I think I'm going to make a list of songs that I listen to for the new play list and see if I can get something worth while made. We're six days from the game and I'm starting to get nervous. MM leaned pretty heavily on the exploration and combat parts of the game, while not really giving and challenging combat. IT was fun to play, and a good follow up to Waterdeep Dragon Heist, but not my absolute favorite module.

It's funny, looking at thee evolution of my games. Both Frostmaiden and MotW started out in module(s), which I stayed slavishly true to. Then, eventually, I hit point's where there were things that the modules left out. And I started having to hombrew. My ideal game is something that plays like an Indiana Jones movie. Role play and conflict and fighting and then exploration. When iI first started it was a liitle different Fighting and coflict and exploration, then role playing. I just felt I wasn't very good. IT was the getting to kow you time for the charcters to gel. And oce they did, the modules became jumping off points.

And now, here I am preparing for not one, but three games that have long since leftt he training wheels behind. Especially the new one, which sees exacty one person from hte prior games, and a minor one at that. The rest will be an entirely new chast of characters. With six days until 5 days until we begin, I think I'll share the new cast if characters with you.


First up, the intro I gave to my players: Since the lost kingdom of Arvandor rose from the depths just over a year ago, there has been a race to curry favor with them and to delve the secrets of the capital city, Tir Thaiolin. Word has spread of advanced technology and a cold, aloof people.

Over the last few months, word has spread that the ruler, Queen Neried has taken ill, her advisor Kalanni taking over most of the duties of the throne.

With the Merrow Queen fading and the heirs jockeying for position, the nation of Olleather is poised at the border, preparing to redraw the very map of Faerun.

Seeing an opportunity for an advantage for Waterdeep, Lady Nevermember has sent a request to your residence. She proposes a diplomatic mission to Arvandor, to offer the potion created from the crystals you retrieved to bolster the Queen's health.

You are to accompany Muriel, Lady Nevermember's trusted chemist who will formulate the potion to match the Queen's unique physiology.

While there, you are to gather information on Oleather and broker diplomatic alliances with Arvandor.


Next up, the first character. We'll start with the top, the current Queen of Arvando, Neried the Merrow queen. In my world, Merrows are just. Mermaids that can split their tail ad grow legs. They can breathe both air and water.



The rest of the info on Neried can be found right here.

I'm very proud of what I've writen. There's got to be like 3000 words in here. Quite honestly, it's more words than I thought I had in me. We'll see how long that lasts. Eventually, I'll be flying by the seat of my pants as usual.

I don't know how long the campaign will last. Long enough for me to traumatize some people. I'm looking forward to it. They gave me backstories, so I'm going to do some damage.

I'm afraid, in addition to Dar Williams this week, I'll be posting bits from Arvandor leading up to the game. For my players: it might even be snippets that are only available here.

Okay, time to get ready for the day. Have the very best Monday you can have!

T
(warning for "If you choose to run away with me, I will tickle you internally," because seriously, what?

Yesterday was mostly quiet, especially in the afternoon at work. The morning was busy, not because of any particular calls coming in, but the person who normally calls patients was out, so I was in her role. I had a really good sucess rate, and got in a bunch of people for last minute tests.

I had one patient who I called at 7 for an appointment at 12. They went and afterwards called me back to thank me for not giving up on getting them in. The test showed an all clear from a cancer scare. They just wanted me to know that it turned out okay, and now they're going out to celebrate. It was very sweet, and I appreciated it a lot.

We have a higher up in the organization who sends out inspirational quotes. Most of them are kind of your basic pick me up quotes, but once in a while you get a good one. Yesterday's was how somewhere, there's someone who thinks you're amazing, because you showed kindness when no one else did. And after that patient called, I thought "well, I know who that person is today."

I'm hoping the other person I helped is doing okay. Their test didn't show anything good, and they're going for biopsy. Understandably, they have not written to my bosses, but I did tell them that it was in no way neccesary. Also with the bad news, I'm sure it drove it out of their mind.

Stepping in for the other coworker is a lot of work. But I enjoy it. It can get chaotic, but I've got a system, and take it one at a time. And I feel like it's always appreciated, which is nice.

I still feel like I'm building to a new position at work. I don't know what it'll be, but I feel like I'll be advancing relatively soon. I'm not sure how it's going to work, but with the other person out a lot (she's an older lady) I feel like they're going to slowly transition me towards that. Also, I feel like I'm easier to work with than her, since she's kind of set in her ways. I don't know. We shall see.

After work, I made a batch of Nestle Tollhouse cookies, but without the chocolate chips, as I didn't happen to have any. I used our brand new stand mixer, and it worked really well. I do need to remember to add the flour slowly and put the bowl shield on, but aside from that, it was all good. The cookies are delicious, like a brown sugar butter cookie. Will make again. Possibly some with chocolate chips for Jess and my sister. I'd like to get some oats to make oatmeal cookies, too.

Today, we have decided to go see Sinners. It's got amazing ratings, and I'm looking forward to trying it out. Plus the excecs are losing their fucking minds, because Ryan Coogler drove a serious bargain when it came to marketing. He got final cut, he makes money off the gross, not from the studio making back their money, and the film reverts back to him in 25 years. One executive said that it could be the "End of the studio system." So of course, I'm going to give my money to that.

Today movie til 3, and then I will come back and make frybread tacos. I'm looking forward to trying something new. I have the second half of a game at 7pm, so that'll be fun.

Tomorrow is Greek easter, and I'll run my sister over to her inlaws, and then we'll have a quiet day.

Okay time for me to consider pants and eating something other than cookies. Everyone have a superb Saturday!

(note for "Satanic" imagery and flashing starting at about 4:13 in the video)

It's Friday Eve! We're almost there! Yesterday was kind of a blah day. I started the day by checking the pt I had busted my ass to work in. They've been referred for a biopsy, so that was kind of a bummer. The current situation with Jess is making me a little more sensitive about that, so I started my day a little sad. I got into the groove and ended up doing 46 calls. Which is less than the 50 I did the day before, but not by much.

Towards the end of the day, I got an email from the head of the Radiology call center asking me to call a patient because "I can't be nice right now." One of the "concierge" medicine places sent us a email because they "just couldn't get through." We had maybe a 3 minute wait time, so that was bullshit right there.

The patient was the worst kind--fully entitled and telling me that If I can't accommodate them, they'll just go to the mayo clinic. I got him in, and then got him hooked up with our Executive program. They'll basically bend over backwards for you. In exchange for not using your insurance, you get a concierge, private room to work in, continental breakfast and gym. If I ever win lotto, well, I probably still wouldn't do it, but y'know, it's a thought.

In the evening, when we took the dog out, he just wanted to eat grass, and I was very stressed about it. I snapped at Jess, which I feel horrible for. This time of year, walks are always fraught, because he'll bark at people, and we're constantly on the alert, so him parking himself (right by the door) and eating grass was worrisome. He seems fine this morning, eating his treats, so that's good.

We had gotten a cheap scent plug in, but it's doing jack all. I think it's defective. It's on the highest setting, and it's not scenting shit. Maybe, if you're on top of it, you'll get a little smell, but it's pretty minimal. I want Yankee Candle levels of scent, dammit. So I guess we'll be looking for other diffusers. The one I have my eye on is super expensive, but supposed to be the best. If anyone has any recommendations for cheaper ones, let me know. I just want our house to smell cozy, dammit.

Today will hopefully be a quieter day. We're still hoping for a cancellation for Jess' biopsy. The waiting is stressing both of us out.

My stand mixer should come today! (I have nothing that I can bake at the moment, but sooon!) I need to get my vanilla paste, baking powder and more butter.

Okay, time for me to get my shit together. Everyone have a wonderful Thursday!

(warning for flashing lights)

Why is it so early? Yeesh. I slept well, but I'm still tired.

Yesterday my first call was a woman wanting to make sure her biopsy had cancelled. I told Jess to call the coordinator, and for a brief shining moment, I thought we were going to be able to have their biopsy today. Then it turned out that Jess needed biopsies in 2 sites, and they had only allowed enough time for one, so not only couldn't they use the spot, it pushed their scheduled date three days later! Ugh. It was deeply annoying. They're on the wait list, so hopefully someone will cancel. Not that I wish ill on anyone, but I wouldn't object to a minor cold so Jess could get in sooner.

I took 50 calls, so we were pretty busy, and that was with taking a little while to shift some stuff around and fill some Cardiac CT cancellations.

Today will hopefully be slightly less insane.

I will probably make some lemony chicken today. The lemons are starting to look a little shriveled, so I kinda have to use them, so I'll put together that, and I may also make more of the melopita cheesecake. At first, the grainy texture was offputting, but in retrospect, I really liked it. I'd like to tweak the recipe a little more, just to see what flavor we can get.

Jess kindly did laundry last night, so I have clothes. I think I'm going to take a nice hot shower this morning, and try to wake up.

I had gotten a big box of Cap'n Crunch with Crunchberries, and half the box is gone. I forgot how much I like a nice bowl of cereal. I'm considering having some before my shower.

Okay, time for me to get a move on. Everyone have an awesome Tuesday!

And now we come to this week's subject line bonanza for the week. And, it's going to be Ghost!



Jess (as always) introduced me to their music, and it quickly took hold. Now I can sing along with a lot of their songs. And indeed, in just two and a half months, we're going to see them in concert. They're a Swedish band that sings about normal things like love and death and Satan. They're very theatrical and over the top, and their music has that good good mix of metal and 80's hair band. Rocking, but oddly melodic songs about some weird shit. And there are church organ solos. So, this week I'll definitely be posting their videos, because more people need to know about them.

Yesterday was so much fun! I started out with work, which actually was a bit annoying. I did the stuff I needed to, but also ended up jumping on the phones pretty regularly, because one of my coworkers disappeared for like an hour and the phones were moderately busy. I took 9 calls, which for a Saturday is about normal.

After that, I ran down and got soup dumplings, which were excellent, and then came back and got ready to play. The first game was the one set in ancient Greece, which was a lot of fun. The party got a bit beaten up by some skeletons, and then headed into the necropolis. They sweet talked their way past the guardian, and now are checking out the tombs. When we ended, they had just stumbled onto an Iron Golem. They're third level! That golem has 210 hit points, and can do enough damage to instakill all of them. I'm seriously hoping they run away, but we'll see! They weren't supposed to get past the guardian, but the Sorcerer rolled a ridiculously high persuasion check.

Then, we had a little break, which was stressful, but turned out okay. So our dog is a little fuckface who never met a person or other dog he wouldn't bark at like fucking Cujo. Mind you, when he gets up close, he just sniffs and dances, but it's daunting, especially after the trauma of Tucker, who was all bark *and* all bite.

So we headed out on a walk, and as we're heading down the walkway, a kid comes out from the apartment below us to play with his ball. Right in front of our apartment. So, we take him on his walk, and wave to the little girl in the upstairs apartment who likes to howl with Yoda. She adores him, and when he barks, she loves it. So he barked hello, she was thrilled.

Then, we wait for the kid to go in. And wait. And wait. Finally, I said I'd take the leash and get him in. And I pulled out the treats. And don't you know it, it worked. He was so focused on the treats that he practically danced past the kid with nary a bark. The kid probably thought we were insane, but for all intents and purposes, it looked like we had a functional dog!

Then, we had Monster of the Week, which is always so much fun. This was a continuation of an earlier game, and honestly, I love everyone in this bar. It's hilarious to me, because when we started, nearly 5 years ago, the characters were very, very protective of their humanity and morals. Because they were fighting against the monsters. Five years later, they're the knights of the Summer Court of fae, having shucked some of their humanity. Now, I've put the choice before them to stop a war between the Summer and Winter Courts and the Courts of Air and Darkness and Water and Light that will inevitably spill into the human world. To do it, they're going to have to become less human, and it has been super fun role playing that. Also, they used to have hour long discussions about murder, and now their shoving guns in normal mortal's faces like no one's business.

We haven't gotten to the point where they have to make the choice, but it's coming in the next session.

Today, I shall go to lunch with my friend, and then come home and figure out something for dinner.

For now though, I may take a quick shower. Everyone have an outstanding Sunday!