And then, there's a bearded fetus.

Greetings again from Monroeville as we start the last day of our Comic Con odyssey.

Yesterday was super fun, but exhausting. First up, Comic Con is deeply confusing for new people. There were multiple times that we were standing around trying to figure out where to go. We got there in the end, because the staff were really knowledgeable and good. We got in a bit early, thanks to our three day pass, and walked around the dealers room. We got Jess an adorable Mothman shirt, as they'd forgotten to bring a second shirt and tried some amazing chocolate, that I may get some of today. Then, we got a tote bag with adorable chibi horror icons on it to carry our shirt and coats in. The autograph area was so stuffed and claustrophobic that we didn't really check it out much.

Once we figured out that the photos were in a different building, we headed down early. Probably a good thing, since they'd decided to combine the Session 1 & 2 photos for Fredddy Vs. Jason. We hung out until they called us for that, and then got into a long queue. And stood and waited. And waited. Which, I had been warned was the name of the game for Comic Con. But whoo, once the line started moving, it went at a good clip. They obviously had this down to a science.

As I said, our first photo was Freddy VS Jason, with Robert Englund (with iconic glove) and Ken Kirtzinger (in full Jason costume). We finally get to the room and get the go ahead to go forth. Jess and I had talked about who wanted to stand next to whom. They requested Freddy, which was fine with me, so I made a beeline for Jason. He said hello, and I turned to face the camera, cognizant of the need to be quick. He moved behind me and held my shoulder to guide me into place, and then told me that he was going to lay the fake machete on my neck.

Apparently, Robert Englund, who seemed to be having an excellent time, just kind of spun Jess into a chokehold and laid the claws on, like it was a dance move to him. (They loved it.) I started to open my mouth like I was shocked, and they took the picture, so I look a bit dorky, but I'm happy with it. Jess looks like they're having a blast.



Next up, we picked up our picture, and went to grab a water, and wait for our next photo.

Finally they called the Beauty and the Beast duo, and may I just say, there was SO much estrogen in that line. I saw maybe 5 guys (and of course one nonbinary person, who was standing next to me.)

We didn't have to wait for long before we were ushered in, and holy shit, that was Ron Perlman and Linda Hamilton. I said hello, and might have stuttered that I loved his work, and then he put his arm around me, and I looked at the camera. Damn, he smells good, and his sweater was super soft.

May I just say here that Linda Hamilton is an utter delight? She's a tactile person, so she was rubbing Jess' back during and after the photo, and was just SO sweet.

This was the picture with people with great voices. Seriously, like being wrapped in warm flannel. I was really happy with the picture, too.



Immediately after we got the picture, we got in line for the Terminator 1 duo, with Linda Hamilton and Michael Biehn. That line did not last long either, and we were soon ushered in.

Jess stood in front of Michael, who was...okay. Nice enough, but no real impression made. Just seemed to be getting through it.

Linda made up for it, greeting us warmly and immediately pulling me into a one armed hug. I also got back rubs and when we were done and I was moving away, she grabbed my hand and gave it a little squeeze. My inner baby queer was deeply satisfied.



After that, I was so sore and starving, so we left for the night. I'm sure the Terminator 2 panel was awesome, but I was dragging, so we headed out to grab lunch.

We went to a local chain called Dad's Pub and Grub which was excellent. They had beer battered french fries with cheese sauce and bacon that were amazing. I had a brisket pizza that was also really good, but I couldn't finish it. Jess says their gyro was likewise tasty. Solid A-.

Then we went back to the hotel and laid down until we ordered dinner. This was from a place called Khalil's. Food was good, but nothing amazing. My dolmas were a little too lemony for me. B- average.

Today, we shall go forth, do our Transformers Picture, maybe also do the panel and then head home. There's a little place called Hillbilly's that we passed on the way up that looked interesting.

I'm hoping to be home by about 5:30-6pm, but we'll see.

And now, it is time to put on pants and get ready for another morning of hotel breakfast. The coffee is good, though. Everyone have a stellar Sunday!

Greetings, it is Friday! In just a handful of hours, I'll be ending my workday early and heading out to drive up to Pittsburgh for Comic Con.

In exciting news, Jess finally decided that they'd like to get a picture with Peter Cullen and Frank Welker, who are voice actors from the Transformers movies, so we went ahead and got that. That'll be on Sunday, followed by the Transformer's panel. I don't think we're doing anything tonight, since we probably won't get in til late. Instead, we'll spend tomorrow there, and see all the shit we can see. And we'll probably leave after the panel on Sunday for the long haul home.

We'll see how it goes, I guess. I don't know how much stamina we have, but we'll go for it.

Yesterday was good. We drove to Sibley for Jess' post op, got there early as usual and were done about 10min before the actual appointment time. We were pulling out of the garage as it was hitting Jess' appt time. Not any huge traffic either way, which was nice. Pretty smooth. Then we took the puppy for his walk, and I worked for half a day.

Work was busy and a bit chaotic as it always is this time of the year. We're trying to get in a kiddo for a long appointment, which is not going well so far. We had one, they couldn't take it, so we're back to figuring things out.

After that, it was a trip up to Hunt Valley for my tattoo. It wasn't as bad as I was fearing. My last tattoo was done by an apprentice 20 years ago, and I get the feeling that he was heavy handed. I managed to hold rock still, and we got it done an hour and a half early. I was expecting to be there til 8:30, but was done at 6:52pm. I had to shift a few times, but I did that while she was switching needles or adding more colors.

Anyway, meet Owlbert the Owlbear.



I love him so much!

Done by Ronie at Layer3 Collective, same as Jess' tattoos.

Right now, he still feels like a mild sunburn. But that is not unexpected after having someone basically flay the top few layers of skin for 2 hours.

It's weird. I've always gotten tattoos to commemorate things. This is the first one I've gotten that is just kind of random. Not particular commemorating anything, just wanted it. It's kinda cool. Since Ronie wanted some D&D art for her portfolio, she gave me a discount. The total tattoo cost $250. Jess' last one was I think $400.

Ronnie uses Saniderm, so I don't have to fuck with it, except to change the dressing tonight. Then I can put on the second one and leave it til Sunday night. Which is handy, since we're going to be at the con.

After that was one, I slept like a rock. Fell asleep early and did not stir thereafter. It was nice, especially after getting up early to go to Sibley.

Okay, on that note, it's time for me to go forth and get myself together. I still have a bit of packing to do! Everyone have a most excellent Friday!

It's Wednesday! I've made to to half way through the week! Today I have a full day, then tomorrow and Friday will be half days, so that's not too bad. Yesterday was busy, yet not too bad, which was nice. I took a good hour trying to move patients, since we had some cancellations. Most of them weren't interested in moving, sadly.

The evening wasn't that great. First of all, we were having shitty weather, and I was achy. Second, my backup glasses were delivered...but not to me. Then, I had ordered chicken and a salad, and I was very excited about the salad. Ruby Tuesday's has the best Ranch dressing of anywhere. And then the salad came, but no dressing, and the chicken was underseasoned and sparse. I was just generally annoyed and unhappy. I felt like a whiny baby, but I was actually sad about this, because I really wanted the ranch dressing.

Still, I felt really silly that it was affecting me, so I eventually snapped out of it. I watched some videos about the hotels we're staying at for the Alaska trip. The first one is the Pan Pacific in Vancouver. It was actually built above the cruise terminal, so boarding is a quick trip to a special elevator and down we go. TBF, I've stayed in 4 star hotels, but never a 5 star, so this seemed inordinately swank.

And it seemed swank in an understated way, like a more modern class. Everything is very sleek and pretty and the rooms are very well furnished. We're in the basic room, so it's not like bells and whistles, but it's still very nice. I think I'll enjoy my two nights there.

After that, I watched about the CedarBrook Lodge in Seattle. It looks lovely as well, though with a more rustic feel. This one is only for one night. It has a lounge for each building with a fridge with free ice cream. It looked very cute, and they have a shuttle to the airport so I'm good with it.

That made me feel better and got me excited about our trip. We got two rooms for that, so that my sister and brother in law could have their own room. Plus, I figured we're going to be in close proximity for most of the cruise. It would be good to have a little privacy at the beginning and end of the vacation.

Today, I need to go get my pills, and also stop at the Student Support Network with our extra coats. We ordred the wrong sizes, and didn't get around to sending them back, so we have some very nice, fairly expensive winter coats that people can use. This helps students and their families with basics and winter gear. They're open til 6 tonight, so I will run up and give them some coats, and maybe a bit of a donation as well. I'll have my check by then, so I can stop at the bank and help their mission out.

Tomorrow, we have Jess post op appt, which is first thing in the morning. Because of traffic around Washington DC, we'll have to leave at ass-o-clock, probably about 5:30. We'll be there super early, but it's the only way to be sure to miss traffic. If we leave at 6, the commute time jumps from 1hr 15minutes to at least 1.5 hours, if not longer. If we leave at 6:30, it's going to take 2 hours. Jess' appt is at 8:30, so if I don't want to do my ADHD stressing about time, we're going to leave 3 hours early and get there 1.5 hours early. There's a coffee shop we can hit to kill time.

Then, work for 4 hours, then tattoo for 3 hours. It's a busy day!

Then, up to Comic Con to meet both Beauty and the Beast. I know the picture is going to be one I hate, but that's okay. I'll have the memories. I've never done a con like this, so I'm sure I'm going to be confused, but we'll figure it out.

I will post the picture once we get home an I can scan it, so you can all see how it looks.

Oh, I got a new dress from Midnight Hour. It's seriously hot, and I'm looking forward to wearing it somewhere. Gotta find someplace fancy to wear it with my military jacket from Torrid.

Okay, time to got forth and get myself together for work. Everyone have a wonderful Wednesday!

And, we're back to Monday. Ugh, work. I had a nice weekend, though it wasn't quite what I planned. When the sun finally rose yesterday morning, it revealed a dreary, rainy day with sleet. Add to that, Jess wasn't feeling great thanks to a uterine rebellion, which had been delayed a couple of moths by surgery. We cancelled the massages, since they were a drive down a mostly raised highway, which increased the chance of icy roads.

I felt bad for doing it last minute, but it seemed like the wisest thing to do.

Mostly I did nothing yesterday, except in one small burst of productivity. I chopped up my bacon and vegetables (leeks and onions) and put them on to sauté, bacon first, then beef, then leeks and onions. While each was cooking, I put dishes in the dishwasher and started it. Finally, the leeks and onions were done, and I added them into the rest and started my water to make broth. I have Sam's Club Beef Base, which is a thick paste that you add to boiling water to make your broth. It has a really good taste, though if you use too much, it can get salty. Thus why I used half broth, half water.

Then, it needed to simmer until the barley was tender. I did not wait til the barley was completely tender. It was smelling too good.



I am hypercritical of food I make, so believe me when I say: This was fucking good. It was warm and the beef flavor was good. The barley was a little more toothsome than expected, but it couldn't detract from the umami hit of the bacon and the buttery soft little leeks and onions and carrots.

I had two bowls and dipped my rosemary sourdough in it and ate that, too. It was really tasty. And perfect for the start of winter.

After that, I went and laid down for an hour and napped with my full warm belly.

Didn't do a whole lot in the evening. Game was cancelled, so I mostly just relaxed. It was a nice day.

The next three days are quiet, but on Thursday, we start with a trip to Sibley for Jess' postop, then I have a tattoo appointment and then Steel City Comic Con on Friday-Sunday. Hopefully a fun weekend!

For now, I'm going to go forth and get myself together. Everyone have the very best of Mondays!

It's Saturday, and I slept for shit. I just could not fall asleep, and when I did get to sleep, it didn't stick. I was up and down all night. Then at 5, my body insisted that it was time to get up. The cat didn't even bother getting up for food, that's how early it is. I've of course, got two games that I'm running today, so that should be fun. The first one at 12:30 should be good. The second one at 7pm could be interesting. Maybe I'll take a nap after game #1. I hate that some nights the ADHD is stronger than the sleepy pills. My body is a wonderland. Or at least a fun house that has been declared unsafe by the city.

May I just say that it was fucking cold out yesterday? Our high was in the low 40's and when we went for the night time walk with Yoda it was 33, feels like 28 degrees farenheight. On the plus side, I got to try out my new winter coat. It was very nice and warm. from my butt to my shoulders was not cold. Unfortunately, my cheeks and thighs were freezing. Yoda paid it no mind and just trotted his little self along.

I probably have a few more little presents that I need to get, but overall I'm pretty well done. I'm observing the economic blackout except from small businesses, but even if I wasn't, the black Friday sales this year are pretty blah. I'm not seeing anything that would even tempt me to buy.

I forgot to mention yesterday, we decided that instead of doing a lot more big presents, we would adopt a Navajo Elder. There's a site called Adopt a Native Elder that will match you with an Elder who needs help meeting basic needs. The inital buy in to adopt is steep ($300) but that will provide with a spring and fall food run. You can also get them firewood and grocery cards as well. It's our family gift to each other.

My sister did the adoption, and then when it comes time to order fireword or yarn for rug weaving, I can pick that up. I was scrolling BlueSky and saw the site recced by an author I follow. I looked and in the dopamine haze post turkey, I decided that I wanted to do this. I can't fix the world, but I can give someone a softer landing.

Yesterday was so boring at work. I took 22 calls, and spent a good chunk of my day working on filling some slots in. It worked out well and I was able to shuffle around some appointments to get in bigger MRIs. I get a kick out of doing that. It's like a game of Tetris, where I can look at the schedule and look at the STAT list and see what we have the potential to accommodate. It worked out well. I got 4 people off the list, so that's not nothing.

We ordered food, and I had osso bucco for the first time, and good lord it was tasty. I will definitely get that again. For dessert, I made roasted pears with blue cheese and honey. Very tasty, and not terribly hard to make. I'm not mad at it at all.

I have things to do today. I've gotta get myself together at a reasonable time, then head out to the nursery and to grab lunch before game. Right now, I just kind of want to sit here and let my ass become one with the couch.

Actually, it looks like the nursery is open on Sundays, too. So I may go tomorrow and shop and grab lunch and achieve a meld with the cushions until game.

Okay, off to do some prep work for the 12:30 game! Everyone have an excellent Saturday!

It's Thursday! And that means one thing! Happy Thanksgiving to my fellow Americans. It might be hard to find something you're grateful for in this shitshow of a year, but one thing I'm grateful for: We're still here. We persist and we snatch bits of joy and pleasure, even in the onslaught of political bullshit.

This year, I'm grateful for a lot of things. Despite the aforementioned political bullshit, it's been a pretty good year for us. Most of the year, we spent relearning how to live without Dad taking up all our time and energy. I miss him, but I'm also grateful he's gone. The last two years weren't living for any of us. I'm also grateful that both his and Jess' father's death have given us a nest egg in case of emergencies. I was able to pay off a good chunk of my car, so my payments are paid until 2027. I'm going to pay off more as well, and hopefully be paid off by the beginning of February. I'm grateful that we're able to go out and do things. I'm grateful that Jess was able to get their top surgery this year, and that thanks to my Hopkins insurance, and the Hopkins Medical system, everything went smooth as silk. Other people have had their surgery take years to get done, and Jess' was done in about 6 months from saying "Hey, I think I want this" to actual surgery. There were some hoops to jump through, but even those went smoothly. And thanks to an excellent surgeon, their recovery was quick and mostly painless and had nice results.

So, today I'm going to cook a shit-ton of food, including the fresh turkey and stuffing and gravy, and bake some Brussel sprouts and corn from Sam's Club, and we will have a nice meal, followed by pumpkin custard. And I'm going to be grateful that I get to do that in a warm, safe apartment with an actual oven. And the rest of the day, I'm going to sit in front of our tree and watch the lights twinkle and relax.

And tomorrow, I'm going to be grateful to have a good job that I enjoy with people who I like working with.

Then Saturday, I'm going to be grateful for my D&D groups, who have gotten me through the last 5 years.

And I'm going to (hopefully) get more presents to wrap in the mail.

All of which is to say, I wish you and yours the best on this holiday!

Okay, time to go forth and maybe poke at the turkey. Everyone have an amazing Thursday!

It's Tuesday! Yesterday I would have sworn we were relatively quiet at work, yet somehow I had 57 calls logged. Go figure. I swear, some days our phone system routes calls so that they go to the same person who just got off a call, even if there's five other people sitting there waiting. We're getting a new system next year, so maybe that'll be less nonsensical.

Jess kindly made dinner, which was a lovely pork tenderloin with peanut sauce and rice. It was excellent. We made a second loin with honey mustard for tonight, since I'll be off getting the turkey. It's not a huge bird, but it'll be good for us for a few days.

Discovered last night that my sister and I got each other the same gift. She was talking about something she got for the whole family, though BIL was going to have to hide it, because he's not telling his mother about the cruise ahead of time, because she would commence worrying immediately. I immediately said "well, shit." because I got the exact same thing, from the same company. Mine comes either today or tomorrow. It's a keychain and you put these little tokens of the countries or states or landmarks you go to. I thought, oh, what a fun way to commemorate it. And promptly ordered it. My sister and I occasionally have brain share.

Today, one of the gifts I'm most excited for arrives, and it's going to be a struggle not to just give it to my sister. It's the canvas of the cartoon portrait of Yoda, and I just want to hand it over.

I love giving gifts, and waiting for Dec 25 is really difficult for me. I think it's half ADHD, half that I love that dopamine hit of someone being happy for something that you gifted. I know this one is going to be a hit, so I want to shove it in her face and say "look, look!"

Weirdly, I'm not having that problem so far with Jess. Though if the big present comes, that may be more of a problem. It's supposed to be here between 12/10-12/29. Hopefully it picks the 14 days before Christmas to show up.

I'm feeling very festive this year. I'm looking forward to the holiday and my birthday (even though I'm working.) That isn't always the case. I'm very prone to the doldrums around the holidays, so this is a new experience. Last year was our last Christmas in the house and the first after dad passed, so this year, we're going to be fucking Merry or else.

Tomorrow, I'm going to get my tattoo consult. It should be super fun. Ronie's a kick, from all Jess has said, so I'm looking forward to that. I haven't decided where to put it yet. Probably on my calf, depending on the size needed for good detail.

Depending on how tired I am tonight or tomorrow, I may try to make the pumpkin custard with crushed gingersnaps ahead of time. They get put in the fridge anyway, and per the recipe can last up to three days, so that seems like it might be a good plan. One less thing to do on Thanksgiving.

Okay, time for me to get myself together and figure out breakfast. Everyone have an amazing Tuesday!

It's sunday and I'm up early because I'm meeting a friend for breakfast. She's taken up quilting, and I'm going to comission her to do some stockings for Shelly and George and the dog and cat. I picked up some cute pet fabric for her to use, and she's making noise about not charging me for them. I'm planning to stop off and get some cash from the store and put it in the fabric.

Then, it's home, and into two games. The first one,I'm just playing in, but the second I'm running. We're definitely going to be ordering something for dinner tongiht. The pork tenderloins can wait til tomorrow, because I'm only going to have an hour and a half between games.

Yesterday was so much fun. We did our morning errands, or we tried to. We did go everywhere, but the nursery hadn't gotten many wreaths made yet. So I'll go back next weekend and see if they have something. They had two, but they didn't jump up and grab me.

The bank was much more productive. I got my stamps, and mailed out the first group of cards. And then we had a nice lunch at the Kpot. We went for both bbq and hot pot. It was very tasty and plentiful.

Then, we went home and I drank some coffee, then napped. Then, it was about time for game. I was so nervous about it! First session of a new game is always anxiety producing. I did a little more prep, and got ready.

I was pleasantly surprised. The vignettes to introduce the character worked super well, and my players 100% bought in to the game. They brought the same energy to their individual intros that I did, and it was amazing. It seemed like they all had fun, and so did I. The vignettes took up most of the session, with one quick combat to spice up the end. Afterwards, people seemed really happy, and excited about the game. Which honestly is all I can ask for!

Okay, time for me to go forth and put on pants. Restaurants usually appreciate that.

Everyone have an amazing Sunday!!

I am so sleepy this morning. Not only did I have trouble getting to sleep, I also made the stupid choice to take another weed a little bit later than I normally do. Not my brightest, but I was thinking about work and game today and was having some anxiety. I can't even say "I didn't think of being tired," because I have fucking anxiety, which means that I will obsess over every possible outcome. So, I'll have my coffee and wake the fuck up and maybe be a little draggy before game. *shrug*

Yesterday, the work gods blessed us with an upgrade to things we never asked them to fucking touch. And it promptly broke other things. We had a dashboard that showed us how many calls we'd done, and averages for the month or 4 months. Just stuff that you could look at to see how close you were to your metrics. For me, it was how severely I was kicking ass. And it was just gone. The things we use to log our calls--gone. That was more alarming to the higher ups. But the dashboard was harder on the calltakers.

I played around with it, because the potential was there to have a dashboard, just not the pre-filled one. And after a little while I had it figured out. This started a day of me playing tech support, and helping deploy the fixes to the various problems. First, I had to train the trainer of what I knew how to do, of course.

Apparently, later when was in a meeting, she gave all the credit to me, prompting the head boss to say that they need to get me more money.

It was a long, and strange day. I'm not sure it'll all fixed yet, but we'll see!

I still ended up doing 50 calls even with the tech support.

Today will hopefully be a bit quieter. I know I'll be on callback duty, so we'll see how many I get done.

After work, we have game, which should be fun. They're about to kick off a fight against a bunch of Sage Animal Lords, which are seriously high level monsters.

Then, it shall be the weekend!

I'm looking forward to having a nice weekend. Tomorrow, we shall go forth and look at wreaths. and maybe have lunch! And then I shall prep for game.

Okay, now I shall go forth and onsider pants. Everyone have a stupendous day!

It's Wednesday! We're almost halfway through the workweek! For real this time, since I don't have a shift this Saturday.

The last two days I've been achy as hell in my neck and shoulders. It's somewhat painful to lie on my back, because the hump of my back just hurts. Today, it seems like the bad shoulder is acting up a bit. It's not the stabbing pain of the newly torn rotator cuff, just a dull ache when I use it. It's annoying the hell out of me.

Yesterday was another busy day at work, to the tune of 58 calls. A touch annoyed that I didn't hit 60. 58 is just such an 'almost there' number. Ah well. There's always another day.

Jess has a bit of a cough and maybe a cold, maybe allergies, so I got them soup for dinner. We all had grilled cheese and soup. It was cold and kind of blah out, so it seemed like a good plan.

I think, unless my coworkers want cards, I am just about done writing them. Reminder, if you want one is a few posts below, right here. As I mentioned, please don't think that because I sent you a card before, I still have your address. A lot of things disappeared in the move, and my address list was one of them. I'm old, I don't have a spreadsheet. Saturday I plan to make my first trip to the post office to get stamps and send the overseas card that I want to send out.

My paystub came in, and it's missing my referral bonus, so I sent a message, I still got 6 hours of OT, so it's not like I'm hurting this week, I just want to see what's going on. Hopefully, it's just a glitch. I won't have it in time for Black Friday, but that shouldn't be a problem. I'm pretty much done all the buying I need to do.

I bought myself a Warmie, which is a stuffed animal that you can microwave to make a heating pad. I got a cute stuffed pink llama and a neck wrap. They're made of flax seed and lavender, and I'm looking forward to them. I told Jess that they can give it to me if they'd like. I also got warmies for them and my sister. You can never have enough weighted stuffies. Jess is already aware of it, so I'm not spoiling anything.

Packages from my Christmas shopping spree are supposed to start coming in today, so we'll see!

And now, it's time to go forth and get myself together. Everyone have an awesome Wednesday!