And then, there's a bearded fetus.

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!

Yesterday was music Monday, but I want to share more music. We shall dub this Tunes Tuesday. Today, we have Glitter and Gold by Barnes Courtney. I could put up the official video, but you know I'm not going to do that. I'm going to put up one of my three favorite fanvids.



It's Tuesday, which means meetings. Which means I have to wear clothing including a bra most of the day, because I'll be on camera for both. Which is annoying, because it is not the most comfortable thing on my shoulder, which is kind of pissed off today, anyway. The first thing I did this morning was take my pain meds, before I even got coffee. It's that kind of day.

I looked, and both my meetings are before lunch, so at least I can get undressed then.

Work yesterday was crazy busy, I ended up taking 59 calls. I'm annoyed that I didn't have one more to get to 60. I like even numbers.

Today, I won't have nearly that many, since I'll have an hour off the phones between the two meetings, plus it's Tuesday, so it shouldn't be quite as busy.

I slept semi okay last night. A lot of up and down, but I got back to sleep relatively quickly. Boodle spent most of the night on me, so some of the up and down was her coming to join me. She can't just lay down, no. She must receive petting first. I love her very much, but goddamn, she's a menace.

We were tidying up for Dad's doctor visit, and I got excited about having figured out how to put the new vacuum together and started pushing it back and forth. Yeah, I used the bad arm. Thus why it's pissed today.

I'm seriously boring as of late. With my schedule being 9:30am-6pm most of my day is work and whining about my shoulder. I don't really have a life outside of it. For now, I'm going to go forth and take my morning pills and start the process of waking up for the day.

Sleep continues to be shitty. Before I laid down, I was so tired, but the moment my head hit the pillow, I was wide awake. Eventually, I got to sleep, but then my beloved cat decided that four am was an amazing time to stand on my shoulder and then again at four thirty. Five am was for nipping me when I didn't pet her long enough, and five thirty was standing right on the sore spot of my shoulder. I got up around 6, and fed her, and now she's out there loudly slurping her food. And I'm sitting here awake of a day I should be able to sleep in.

Yesterday was a somewhat busy day. We got up relatively early to go for our acupuncture appointments. The appointment went pretty well. I fall somewhere between the mysticism of Eastern health practices and the Western results driven style. I mean, there are studies showing the efficacy of acupuncture. But at the same time, being from a medical background, I have difficulty with treatments that have names like the Seven Dragons. I feel the same way about herbalism, honestly. In my head, I know that herbs are the basis for a lot of drugs, but I feel differently about taking Marsh Mallow tincture instead of cough medicine. I'm aware a lot of this is my own good old fashioned racism, feeling like another culture can't have things as effective as the Western world, but I'm working on it.

The accupuncture treatment was fine. Very relaxing. I nearly took a nap during the actual stabby part. I don't know that I feel any different today, but it's seven am and I'm not fully awake yet.

After my treatment, Jess went for theirs, and I went to grab some food. I tried Bubbakoo's Burritos wich was very good. After that, we came home and played the New Orleans themed Monster of the Week. It went well, and they completed the mission. As per all my games, it got a bit messy, but they pulled it out.

After game and dinner, we listened to The Adventure Zone vs Dracula. There was some slapstick body horror that made me laugh out loud. (And this was after they apparently cut quite a bit of it for being too much.

Today, we have a game at 9, and then a game at 5:30pm. Then, tomorrow, it's back to work, to prepare for a week of meetings. On Tuesday I have my 90day check in and a meeting with my Quality Partner. I'm not being scored this month, but they still want to meet with me, introduce themselves, etc.

Then on Thursday, I have my first 1 on 1 for the month of April. My stats were pretty good, so I'm not too worried.

For now, though. I may go see if I lay back down if I can eke out a little more sleep. Everyone have an excellent Sunday!

A little earworm to start your day.

I'm up early today for a doctor's appointment. I'm trying out the pain management clinic to see if they'd be willing to prescribe me Tramadol. I don't really want to, because pain management clinics exist to dehumanize people who need long-term medication. On the other hand, they might be willing to unload some lidocaine in the joint, and I'm excited for that. We'll see how it goes. I've got my MRI report, and my images, so hopefully, that'll be enough to prompt them to help me out.

Thank you all for your input on my Wednesday ortho visit. As suggested, I'm going to get a second opinion, and see what they say. My brother in law recommended his ortho, so I may try them. I have an appointment in two weeks, but if they can get me in sooner, that would be awesome. I'm going to hold physical therapy until after that appointment just to be sure that it's okay to do. I don't want to start it and injure myself more.

I ended up cancelling the game for tonight. I just did not have the spare brain power to get that done in the 2 hours I'll have this morning. Somehow, my braincells have deserted me. I'm trying to be gentle with myself, but I do feel slightly guilty about it. Fortunately both yesterday and Saturday's games were written months ago, so there's not as much pressure.

Tomorrow, we shall have our acupuncture consultations. I'm a little nervous about it, just because I've never had an accupuncture treatment, so I don't know how it'll work for me. My appointment is at 9, and Jess' is at 11. It's right near the mall, so we can always go piddle around while the other person is having their consultation. Set me loose in Wegmans, it'll be great. I'll come out with 20 cheeses and some fig jam. We have a game at 2, which could be tight, so I may see if we could push it back to 2:30, just so we don't have to rush as much.

Okay, time to put on pants and do the pain management balance. Look good enough that I'm respectable, but bad enough that I look like I need help.

Everyone have an amazing Friday! You're almost to the weekend!

It's Wednesday, and oh lord, it's early. My ortho appointment is at 7:30, and they want me there at 7, so I got up at 5. It wasn't that hard, since I didn't sleep great anyway.

I'm nervous. There's so much unknown right now. Will my doctor be nice? Will I like him? Will he want to do surgery? What kind of surgery. How long will the recovery process be? Will be be upset if I have to push it out a ways because of work? Will he give me pain meds in the meantime?

My shoulder was super pissed last night, because I attempted to empty my small office garbage can into the trash bag. I'm assuming that the doctor is going to do some range of motion stuff today, so I will definitely be taking ibuprofen this morning. I can't take the tramadol, since I'm driving and I want to be clear headed for the appointment anyway.

Work was fairly quiet yesterday. I ended up at 45 calls, which is less than my normal 55. I kept getting calls from Hopkins clinics each with 3 or more patients to schedule, which slowed me down a bit. I don't mind doing those, since you can actually tell them what you're doing and where the challenges are, So that's helpful.

It's going to be tough to come straight from the doctor's office and hop directly on the phone, but I'll manage. Then, tonight, I'll have an hour between work and game. It might be a lot, but we'll see.

Okay, time for me to go forth and get myself together for the doctor. Gotta look like a responsible adult who isn't a fucking trash fire. Everyone have an amazing Wednesday!