And then, there's a bearded fetus.

It's Monday! I'm very sore today, to the point that The first thing I did when I came up the stairs, was pop ibuprofen and Tramadol. Now I'm sipping my coffee and thinking about going back to bed for half an hour while they kick in. Probably won't, but it's a nice thought. I just don't feel like doing anything right now. My sister has the TV on, and it's annoying. My sister keeps telling me shit from her twitter feed, and I want to scream and throw my ears across the room so I don't have to listen.

But alas, I cannot do that, so I'll just try to relax, and maybe when she leaves for the day, I'll lie down for 30 minutes in her room. I need to perk the fuck up by 9:30 when I need to start work.

Sunday was fairly busy. I went in the morning and picked up prescriptions from 2 pharmacies. First, Safeway for dad's, then our little pharmacy for me. Then home to get dad up. He stayed up about 2 hours and then went back to bed. Then, I took my sister to the laundromat, went to get some groceries and sat until it was time to her up. Then, I relaxed a bit until gametime.

I tried a module from a new creator last night, Kelfecil's Tales. It was pretty good. A lot of fun, and I really enjoyed the way the plot worked. Simple but well structured. I took out a fight in the middle of the game to shorten it, but I think it was pretty good anyway.

Jess made a suggestion last week, and at the time, I discounted it, but now I'm thinking about it. They suggested that since we both can't go to CONfab this year, I should go solo. We could definitely swing it financially, but do I want to be away from home for 4 days. I would probably go in on Thursday and come home on Sunday night. I'd miss the tail end of the con, but I'd have a day to help out before it, so that's possible. Right now, I'm just thinking about it. I feel guilty leaving Jess and my sister to contend with Dad for 4 days, but I may give it a try. I really want to go to the con. We missed last year. Next year is virtual, so I will definitely be doing that. It's something to think about at least.

Okay, time for me to get myself together and decide whether I'm napping or not. I feel slightly better as the pills are kicking in, but my head still hurts. Eh, we'll see. Everyone have a wonderful Monday!

We've made it to the weekend, and I slept in til 8. The cat came to visit, but decided that she wanted a more sleepy time and laid on my stomach and snored quietly. Eventually, my shoulder decreed that I should get up and take some Advil. I felt like history's greatest monster for moving the cat to do so. Also, it's kind of awkward getting up. We have a weighted blankie (best invention ever) and I sleep on the right side of the bed, so to uncover, I used to use my left arm. Now I can't do that, because the arm hurts too much and is too weak from the tear, so I have to kind of shove them with my right arm and wiggle free. Not sure how that's going to go after surgery. Jess may have to wake up to uncover me so I can get up.

There is a large crow on my car. He's just wandering around on the roof of the car. We named it Raven, so maybe he feels a kinship.

The last few days, I've been hurting, but I've had some good brain days, so of course, I scheduled a pile of games. This weekend is full now. I had Strahd last night, one tonight that supposes "what if Sauron had won?" It's a whole thing about a world where the baddies won, and you're the little spark of rebellion. Tomorrow, we have one about strange happenings at a church in the woods. They both look like fun. I also scheduled one for next Friday, and scheduling is currently happening on another game.

Today, we're probably going to go out to lunch--there's a place not too far called R House. It's a grown up version of a food court, with some interesting looking places. I'm looking forward to trying it out. I'm torn between the Creole and the Empanadas. They all look amazing.

Tomorrow, we have nothing to do until game, so we can just futz around until game.

And on that note, I looked at the calendar, and now I need to go schedule more games. Everyone have an excellent Saturday!

I can not even this morning. I slept really well until about 4:30 when the cat decided it was an awesome time to come bug me. I nudged her off the bed and tried to get back to sleep, and 20 min later, she was back. We played this game til about 5:30, when I finally rolled on my side. Dumb idea. At 5:45, she was back and stepped directly on the rotator cuff tear, to the point that I nearly levitated, ad Jess had to move her off me, because I couldn't move, it hurt so bad. It made waking up a grumpy thing, for sure.

It was only 15 min before I normally get up, but still. It definitely woke me up. I am still sitting here feeling the echoes of that pain. I thought I was being all smart, but no, I was not. I definitely won't do that again.

Had a fun night last night with our Blades in the Dark game. It was the tail end of another game that's now lasted 3 sessions. I wasn't sure how long it would take, so I had a backup game ready, but I didn't need it. I'll have that one for next session. My Blades notes are generally about the same length as my MotW notes--short and not particularly detailed. I usually leave it for my players to come up with what they want to do. I feel like it makes for more spontaneity in the game. Plus, if I only have one or two scenes, or even in some cases, just a central conceit, it puts the games less on rails. The players can go afield as far as they want. It runs the risk of going completely off topic, but that's okay. I can always throw an NPC in to point them back towards the right direction.

Today, Dad's doctor is stopping by. We're going to ask him about his various diaper rashes, and see if he has any suggestions. His thighs are improving, but he has one in a fold of his skin along his side that's particularly red and irritated, so we need to at least have him look at that one.

Tomorrow, I have a telehealth with my psych doctor in the morning, and game in the evening. Curse of Strahd, and time to continue to work their way through the Amber Temple. Time to see how many players make unfortunate deals with dark entities!

I seem to be on a bit of a scheduling spree, getting three seperate one shots, plus a couple of campaigns. Even with my back and shoulder, I'm feeling pretty good at the moment, so I figured I should get some ducks in a row. Of course, I'm trying to keep the schedule around my surgery light, so of course, I have games Friday and Saturday. (Surgery is on a Wednesday.) Hopefully, I'll be up to it. Friday is Frostmaiden, and that's a relatively easy game to DM. On the other hand, Saturday is the newest campain, Odyssey of the Dragonlords. That could be a little more challenging.

Okay, time to sign off and get myself together. Everyone have an amazing Thursday!

And just like that, the long week is over and we're back to work. It's probably going to be super busy today. I know I need to call a couple of doctors this morning. I need to see if I can schedule my preop with my potential new primary care doctor. If not, I'll just go to urgent care, but if I can avoid it, I'd rather. I also need to r/s with Dad's doctor. He'll be needing pain meds in the not so distant future, so I should get on that.

Didn't do a whole lot yesterday. Mostly rested my back. (didn't help, mind you. It's still all kind of pissed off.) I laid flat on my back for most of the day. Got up to run up to Cracker Barrel to pick up a dinner. It was excellent, but the main course was kind of sparse. We'd gotten chicken tenders and there were supposed to be enough for 5, but I'm not sure that was the case. But maybe it was. We had some left over, and there are four of us. It just seemed a little stingy.

Aside from that, I just laid on my back, flat and waited for it to loosen up. Today it's a little tight, and I'm having some spasms, so work will be thrilling. It just means that I'll have to take short breaks, and my adherence will suck today, because if I sit too long, bad things will happen. I'll need Jess to haul my butt out of the chair.

We're still listening to the Adventure Zone vs Dracula and enjoying it. We listen to an episode every night when we don't have a game. I'm going to be very sad when this is over. Of course, Fantasy High finished up, so now that I know no one dies, I can listen to that.

Tomorrow, we have Blades in the Dark. We're finishing up an arc, and it's going to be fun to see what the players do with being in the spotlight.

I'm starting to look at what kind of stuff I'll need for my surgery. There's a really nice pillow that is supposed to help with sleep, because you're supposed to keep your sling on at night, and that sounds sort of unpleasant. And, I need to get a button down shirt for after surgery. At least I have over a month to get myself situated.

And on that note, tis time to go forth and get pants and prepare for work. Everyone have an excellent Tuesday!

At some point during yesterday, I seem to have tweaked my back. Not sure how or when, but I am moving very slow today. It really started kicking up during game last night, and now it is full on pissed. I can get up and down, but it's painful and slow. Hopefully it'll improve some during the day, because I have things to do over the next couple of days.

Yesterday was lovely. We went to Fogo and. met up with weyrlady and coyotegestalt for a late lunch/early dinner. The food was as always very good, though the service today was utter shite. I forgave it mostly for one of their new offerings: Fried salty Brazilian cheese with honey. It was delicious. And, of course, the company was as always, amazing. Sadly the music was a wee loud to have easy conversation, but we managed!

Then it was home to finish prepping for our game this week, the ultraviolent Nazi killing game, Eat the Reich. Let me just say: My players are inventively violent. It was a blast to watch them just go for all the over the top gore and murder. The system is a little complicated, but it's still pretty awesome. We didn't quite finish, so we will reconvene in a couple of weeks to continue the fight to kill Hitler and drink all of his blood.

Today, we don't have a lot going on. My sister is going to do laundry, so we're on Dad duty today. He seems very uncomfortable this morning, so it's going to be a fun day. I feel bad, because I'm not going to be able to do a whole lot, so Jess is going to have to do it all.

They topped off their birthday week with a very generous Ko-fi tip from a reader who said that their Undertale fic was life changing. So yeah, good week for Jess. Hair colored purple, purple and blue raven feather tattoo and some extra cash.

Tomorrow, we get to run up and get our Memorial day dinner from Cracker Barrel.

Then it will be back to work!

And now, I shall go forth and do nothing. Everyone have a lovely Sunday!

As usual, up early due to smol kitty. This time she didn't stand on me, she ran through the basement, playing with her toys and yelling at top volume. Which had the extra impetus of getting up, so as to not wake Jess. She settled down the moment I produced food, and I considered going back to bed, but alas, I am awake now. She's such a little pain in the ass. I love her so much.

Yesterday was a little slower at work, and I'm hoping today will be even more so. Of course, despite the relative slowness, I still ended up at 54 calls. Not quite sure how that happened.

Seeing as it was Thursday, that meant it was time for Jess to go get their tattoo done! The picture is it with Sani Derm plastic over it to protect the ink for the first 24 hours, so ignore the lines side to side, but is this not gorgeous?



A very fitting tattoo to commemorate Tali from the Strahd campaign.

I actually had decided that I wanted to get a 20 sided die on my body, but last night it occurred to me that the color I chose is rather wintry. And it could totally represent Frostmaiden. After thinking about it, I decided that I should start a long-term project, and get tattoos for all my campaigns. First up, the Frostmaiden dice. I'm figuring a these dice:



With a six point snowflake behind it to represent the original big bad of the campaign, Auril, goddess of Winter.



As Jess pointed out, there's a lot of memorable moments from a 3+ year campaign, and I did consider putting a snail in a wizard's hat for the time our bard turned the evil wizard into a snail to send him to prison. The snail (back in wizard form) later became the big bad of the second arc.

I was brainstorming on how to commemorate the other campaigns, and I said that the second tattoo would have to be for my longest running campaign, Monster of the Week. That's going to be on the other leg, and would feature a pair of 6 sided dice, either with a lil devil tail wrapped around them, or with clawed hands trying to push them aside to burst out from between them. Leaning towards that one.

I had trouble getting to sleep last night, trying to decide what to get for my various campaigns. I wish I was any kind of artist, because I could see some of them so clearly.

Tomorrow, it turned out that coyotegestalt and weyrlady are going to be up our way for a Sci Fi convention, so we get to have lunch with friends!! I am very excited about this! Birthday lunch, plus friends = awesome.

Oh well, Dad is up early, so it's time to get myself together. Everyone have an amazing Friday! The weekend is right there! Just have to get through one more day.

It's hump day!! We're almost halfway to that sweet, sweet three day weekend! (For Americans, at least.) Yesterday was bugfuck at work. The calls just didn't stop until around 5:30pm. All day was just back to back. It was really tiring. By the time I finished, I was ready for bed. Hopefully, today will be a little quieter, since I'd like to be awake for game tonight. Tonight is Brindlewood Bay, which poisontaster runs. Tomorrow is the possible finale of my homebrew game based on the movie Toys, though we'll seee. There's a couple of maps left, we'll see how quickly they get through them.

I think Jess had a good birthday yesterday. They went and got their hair cut and dyed a bright purple. It's utterly gorgeous. And so soft! Our stylist does a really nice job, and it looks phenomenal on them. Apparently, when I refinanced the loan, I had made a payment between when they got the payoff amount, and when they paid it, so I got a nice check in the mail, and I used it to get Jess treats for their birthday. We had cupcakes and sushi and a big salad. Tomorrow, Jess shall have their birthday tattoo!

I had a pretty good day too, as I went to the second opinion orthopedic doctor. He did not disagree with the radiologist, and believes that I have a full tear that needs surgery. He didn't discount what I was saying, and he seemed surprised that I only had tramadol for pain. So, I'm set up for 7/10, by which time I'll have the full week vacation to use. Fortunately, it'll be arthroscopic, so there's not a huge amount of downtime. They want me to use my arm right away, gently. No reaching or lifting, but I can go back to work almost immediately, which is awesome. I was afraid it would be a few weeks off, and I'd have to take short term disability.

Oh, if anyone's interested, The Fall Guy just came out for rent on streaming, so if you go to your pirate sites, the HD should be there. I highly recommend it as a fun brainless movie. (I actually bought it.)

On that note, I'm going to consider putting on some pants and getting myself in gear. Everyone have an excellent hump day!

And it's Monday again. Boo. It's going to be a challenging week, as my sister is off work, and will be home all week. I'm not sure how things are going to go. She has a tendency towards loud that may be a problem, but we'll see. She's been given the ground rules, so hopefully, she'll curb the really loud shit. If I can just keep her from riling up the dog and going to help, and yelling "I'm coming" as she passes the office to go help dad, I'll be happy. It's still going to be a week of no peace whatsoever, and that is going to be tough. I feel mostly bad for Jess, who is going to be there to be shown every TikTok video with a cute cat, or a drag queen with a funny/poignant message.

I shouldn't bitch, since she took off so that Jess could have some time out of the house for their birthday. They have a hair appointment to have their hair dyed purple on their birthday tomorrow, and then on Thursday, their birthday gift from me--their second D&D tattoo. The first was for their character in Frostmaiden, Skink, and was a sword wrapped in briar roses, which is how I described the Holy Avenger sword I gave the character. The second will be a beautiful raven feather in honor of Tali from Strahd, who is a cleric of the Raven Queen. It's going to be beautiful, and I'm looking forward to seeing it!

Yesterday was a mostly quiet day. We ventured out in the morning to grab more coffee creamer, prescriptions and hit the dispensary for nighty night pills for Jess, and then home again. Dad is still uncomfortable, but wasn't int he full swear and flail mode, so that was okay. He got up for an hour or so, which really does seem to help him.

Today, my sister is going out for lunch, and then will be doing laundry, so it should be a mostly quiet time. Tomorrow will be the real test, when Jess is out being dyed. I have my rescheduled 90day check in, so I can ask about how to put in for PTO, since I can actually start using it now.

Tomorrow I also have my appointment with ortho #2. Hopefully, he'll be less of an asshole. But we'll see what he says. After ortho #1, I'm not holding out much hope for actual assistance beyond "do therapy and get people to give you drugs, but not me. I can't do anything that helpful."

The thing that bugs me is that the reading I've done has stressed over and over again that tears just don't spontaneously close up. Especially tears in the infraspinatus. The Mayo Clinic specifically states that the infraspinatus has poor bloodflow and won't heal itself. So therapy is going to work to increase the strength of my other muscles to help compensate, but the tear will still be there. Pulling and feeling like it's tearing anew every time I reach for something? Aching at night? I don't know. I don't want to hurt like this forever. I mean, I know I'm aging and pain is part of that, but this seeems excessive at 51.

Okay, time to get my ass in gear, so today we have another fan vid. Think I'm down to my last two days of vids. These were in no particular order, but tomorrow's may be my favorite.

For today, we have Start A Fight, by autumnhobbit. It's a slightly slowed down version of Panic at the Disco's the Good, the Bad, and the Dirty.



And now, time to put on pants. Everyone have an excellent Monday!

It's Saturday, so of course, I have to wake up at 6am. I can't even blame the cat this time; it was all me. I have to take the dog for his grooming at 9, but I really did not need to get up at 6 for it. Oh well, it gave me time to prep for games. I am now fully prepped for Thursday, but need to reread the module for Saturday's, but as I have downloaded it onto all my devices, I should be able to do that.

Yesterday was another hard day with dad. His back is bothering him a lot, leading to a lot of grunting and flailing trying to get comfortable. Eventually he tires himself out and goes to sleep, but it's really stressful. All of his stats have been fine, so not much we can do about it, unfortunately. We're watching him closely, and if he shows any sign of needing to go to the ER, we'll pull the trigger. He's still got a hella diaper rash, so we'd prefer not to, but we'll see.

Aside from taking the dog to get his poopy butt shaved, not sure what else we're going to do today. Maybe the movies? We'll see what the situation is with Dad, I suppose.

Work was crazy busy yesterday. I ended up taking over 50 calls. It was a lot. I went through three cups of coffee and two bottles of water trying to keep my throat from drying out. I don't know why it was so bugfuck, but whooie, it was.

I know. I mentioned this previously, but Jess and I have been listening to The Adventure Zone's new season every night, and I'm really loving it. It may be my favorite season yet. It's The Adventure Zone Vs Dracula, and it's hilarious. It's like they looked at the Strahd book and module and went "yes, but campier." We started out listeing to half an episode nightly, but it's evolved to a whole episode, because I'm greedy. So far, the barbarian has been bitten by a werehorse and the artificer has been turned into Pinochio, and we're only 9 episodes in. It's really been a high point of my days.

Today's fanvid of the day is from Astolat and Speranza, and is a familiar situtation when you have that one friend (or spouse) who drags you into new fandoms over and over again...



And now, I shall consider pants and get myself together. Everyone have a stellar Saturday!

We're inching closer to the weekend! Two more days to go! I'm appreciating the weekends far more with this job than I did with IKEA. I think part of it is the new schedule. 9:30am to 6:00pm is proving difficult for me. Especially with my shoulder eroding my level of cope, by the time 6:00pm rolls around, I'm exhausted. Or maybe it's not just my shoulder. Maybe the job is just harder than I expected? Whatever, by the end of the workday, I'm wiped. It makes being ready for game at 7:00 more challenging, but mostly makes me feel like I've worked the whole day.

My day starts at 6am and the first hour is devoted to waking up and doing my daily post. My sister gets up around the same time, and she can be chatty, so sometimes I get less done than I'd like, and it carries over after 7:15, when she leaves. Then, I have a little bit of quiet time where I can finish up my post and relax. Around 7:45ish, Jess wakes up, and takes the dog for a walk. Usually while they're out, I get dad up. Then, from approximately 8:15am to I start work, I have time to do whatever, usually punctuated by dad needing this or that. (Of course, immediately upon typing that at 7am, dad wanted to get up, so there goes my morning.) Then, I start work. I have two 10 minute breaks and a 40min lunch. At lunch we get dad out of bed into the wheelchair. Sometimes, he'll stay up til my second break, sometimes he wants to go back before I finish lunch. Those days, I actually only get 10-15 minutes of my lunch break. If he waits to go back, the second of my breaks is eaten up by that.

I like my job. I enjoy helping people, and I don't mind being on the phone. Most of the people I speak to are really friendly and sweet. But it's more tiring than I remember it being when I worked at IKEA. Probably because IKEA's customers were mostly assholes, so I didn't put as much energy into it? Or maybe because my cope is low from the shoulder pain? I have no idea.

The other thing I miss is having a couple of hours before game so that if I end the day with a headache, I have a couple of hours, and can take a 45min nap to settle it down. I had to cancel on last night's game because I was hurting and I didn't have any time to be in the quiet. I was going to butch it through, but then my sister was talky, and I started getting overstimulated, and the thought of putting on a headset and having people talking sounded like being stabbed in the brain.

Anyhow, that was long winded to say that I'm tired and achy and a bit burned out on caretaking. Now, onto the promised fanvid of the day. Today, we're taking a brief break from Marvel, and heading over to Leverage with a vid of the threesome from the original series.



And on that note, I'm going to go scrounge something for breakfast. Everyone have an excellent Thursday!