And then, there's a bearded fetus.

And I'm talkin to myself at night because I can't forget.

Thu, 16 Apr 2026 08:51:11 GMT

Happy Thursday, y'all. We're sliding towards the weekend! It's going to be a busy one for us, but I wouldn't trade it.

For some reason my knee is still hella pissed off at me. I think I must have stepped wrong somehow and tweaked it. It's better than yesterday, and def better than it was Tuesday night, but it's annoying. I did get a cane to take with us to NYC on Saturday and also to take on vacation, just in case. It's bright blue and matches my fanny pack.

Yesterday was a quiet day, yet I was still tired out. I did most of my day either on the phone or calling patients to fill in slots, up til 12. At 12, J asked if I could take over the teams help chat for an hour from 1-2pm since one of the other PAS III's were out. Sure no problem. I manned the chat for an hour after my lunch, and had a few weird questions, but none that I couldn't handle. Once I hopped off, five minutes later, J asked if I could go back on so that Jason could work on RADSETS (scheduling errors). Sure, why not? Not two minutes later, I have a coworker arguing with me about an answer I gave. I was very good, and did not reach through the screen to smack her.

Mostly it was fine. The chat varies between dead and three questions at once, so it's alternately boring and stressful. I kind of enjoy it. It tests my knowledge of weird esoteric topics. Usually it's "How long should these MRIs take?" or "Can we do these tests together." But once in a while it's things like "Breastfeeding after an MRI, can the pt do it?" (Yes, you can.)

Today, I think the 3rd of the III's is back, so I'll probably have a much easier and quieter day. Now that I've said that, I've probably jinxed myself.

Last night, Jess was telling me that there's a convention in Vegas in a couple of weeks that the voice actors from both Hazbin Hotel and the Amazing Digital Circus are attending. I don't think we can manage that, but I did some research, and there's one in Philadelphia in October that has almost the entire Hazbin cast. They're still adding people, so hopefully they get a few Amazing Digital Circus people.

I immediately ordered two passes, plus photo ops with the guys who play Alastor and Vox, and one with the people who play the Vs. That means meeting Christian Borle who plays Vox twice. What a hardship. I'll keep an eye on the con site in case they add more people that Jess would want to meet. I want to as well, but y'know, I want Jess to have a blast. They deserve nice things.

So, the weekend of October 2nd, we'll be heading up to Philly. We'll see if we're able to do dinner with friends while we're there. It'll be another day that I have to take off, but that's okay. Totally worth it.

This weekend is going to be so much fun! On Friday we need to drop the dog off for his big overnight visit. It'll be quiet in the house for a couple of days. But, at least on Saturday, we won't be there. We'll be heading up to NYC to go see the Lost Boys Musical. The car should pick us up about 9:30am, and then we'll go up and pick a friend up in Philly, then off to New York. After the musical, we're going to dinner at Langan's, which is directly down the block from the theater. I'm profoundly grateful that past me decided to do the car service, so that I won't have a ton of walking on my janky knee. Even with the cane that could be tough. I have to decide what to wear. To dress up a little bit or go in leggings and a t-shirt? It's a matinee, so I don't need to dress up that much, but maybe a skirt or dressy pants and a nice-ish shirt. It's supposed to be 62 in NYC on Saturday, so that will be nice. Cloudy, but that's fine.

Sunday, we shall pick up a puppy and get barked at. Then, we shall have the inaugural game of Marchen. I'm super looking forward to getting this started and taking it out for a spin. I think it's going to be a fun world to play in, and I hope my players enjoy it as much playing as I have writing it.

We are down to T-Minus 3 weeks until vacation. I'm tidying up the various details and making sure that I have everything locked down. In another week, we should get our boarding passes, and the choice of what we want for breakfast on the plane. I've been watching all the videos about Pike Place Market and Granville Public Market. There's so many things I want to eat, and so little time. The nice thing is that we will have from noon onwards on the day the ship docks to go play in Seattle, so if we miss something, we can do back on the last full day of vacation. Granville, there's no do-overs, but they have less vendors.

The first night in Vancouver, we're going to a steakhouse with all four of us. The second night, we're splitting up. Jess and I are going for Korean BBQ and a movie, and I think my sister and BIL are going to a seafood bistro. It looks very good.

I've started packing. I should have everything but the stuff that can't go in til the morning of ready by the end of the week. Yesterday, my short sleeved tops came, also with more leggings. Tomorrow, I may start packing Jess's suitcase, just to have something to do. As time goes on, I'm getting more and more excited. I think I have one or two more things to come in, but after that, I'll be done. I hate this part. It's so close, but I've planned out everything, and there's nothing more to do. I'm not particularly patient, so waiting is very hard.

We've got so many things coming up that I feel like it's an embarrassment of riches. And I keep adding more things to it! Right now, I think the only months there isn't something planned is August and Sept. But that's made up for with two things in June and October. That overnight bag is going to get a serious workout. I think December is still clear, though.

Jess feels a little bad about torpedoing so many weekends for games, but I'm okay with it. For 5 years, we've barely had a weekend we couldn't play. Now that we're able to, I want to grab every bit of life we had to pause because of taking care of Dad. I saw a reel that said "Gen X is taking vacations like it's our job, because we saw so many Boomers who never made it there." I feel that on a deep level.

Aside from overnight or two night trips, we haven't been anywhere in 3 years, which was the Disney trip. And we felt guilty about that, since Dad was just back from the rehab and not doing well. In retrospect, that was the beginning of his down slope. After that round of Covid, he never fully bounced back. That was 100% on him. If he'd worked in that first rehab, maybe he would have lasted longer. As it was, his primary care physician said that the only reason he lasted another 2 years was because we broke ourselves to keep him as healthy as possible. And he's not kidding. We broke ourselves mentally, emotionally, physically and financially to keep him going. And he did almost nothing during that time to help himself. He wouldn't keep up with physical therapy, he didn't want to get up, even while he was physically able. He ordered us around like servants, and criticized everything we fed him. Honestly, it's amazing that none of us smothered him with a pillow.

And we were worried about leaving my sister with Yoda, but now we have an alternative! Yoda can board and we can go wherever. No worrying about my sister on the stairs with a small pulling dog. No wondering how he's doing. I'll just get daily pictures and report cards. And, we're able to just up and go if we want to. It's a lovely feeling.

Okay, time to go forth and get ready for work. Everyone have a lovely Thursday!

comments

Another lover underneath those flashin' lights, another one of those ruthless nights

Wed, 15 Apr 2026 09:24:58 GMT

It's Wednesday and now the week should slow down and stop being so damn busy. I'd appreciate that.

I spent a good bit of Tuesday trying to reschedule people, because things were amess. I did not fistfight my coworker though, which was an accomplishment. We've got a lot of patients on the STAT list who need longer MRIs. Like complete spines or specialized views of extremities. So when I saw an opening for the next day for two hours, I grabbed it. As I was grabbing, a patient call dropped, and I just put a generic "Hold for add on" and my initials. I was finishing up with the patient, and Josh started calling with updates on Bethesda's STAT policy, so I took that. It was maybe 5 minutes for the pt call and 13 min for the meeting. I came back and this chick had scheduled two appts in my hold, then removed the hold so that it looked like there never had been one. The first appt, she had nominal permission from one of the other III's. But there was a lovely hour held in the morning that she could have used. I don't think the other III looked at the schedule, or she would have had her schedule then, and not in my 2 hour 3T spot. I was so pissed. My grand 2 hour appt shrunk to a useless hour in the span of 15 minutes. And the second patient she slipped in there was not a STAT at all. I was so pissed, but I only bitched about it to A.

After that, I tried to get some slots, but no one wanted to pick up their phone, so it was a futile attempt.

I do hope that I can get this one patient this morning to maybe help out another patient, even I can't clear a big spot.

I spent a fair amount of time on the phone with Oncology, trying to help them with our patients. There's one scheduler who is a total bitch to most of the team, tries to bully them into making spaces for our patients. She's fine with me, so I called her back only to find out that because she didn't schedule with the coworker and then see what we could do, information got lost, and so the spot I had wasn't good for the pt, due to metal in her body. Oh well, I added that info to her STAT request and I'll see what I can do. I did let her know that it's better to schedule to avoid stuff like that, so hopefully, she'll listen. She likes me, since I'm the one who calls with appointments.

After work, we watched another episode of the Amazing Digital Circus, which was fun. I wasn't sure after watching the first episode, but it turns out that I really enjoy it. The 2,3 & 4th episodes have a lot more emotional resonance, and they're a lot of fun. Jess has struck again on their string of getting me into new things! They weren't sure I'd like it, but they tried and I appreciate that. If you decide to try it, at least give it two or three episodes to see if you like it.

Then it was off to get my hair cut. It's nice and buzed on the sides, with only a little bit of gray hair. Then, the top it a bit longer, giving me that good Pete Wentz haircut from 2005. I like it. My hairdresser is possibly moving to the Netherlands in the future, which would make me happy for them, as they are trans, but also sad for me. I did set Jess up an appt on Tuesday to get their hair cut pre cruise.

Today should be must less annoying, though. I'm going to go in, hopefully shift a few patients, and have a nice relaxing day. I may re-dye my hair, with Jess' help after work. I'm only going to color the top part with the longer hair. I like my sides and back being gray, with the shock of purple at the top. Then I shall cook dinner. (the lobster from the Farmer's Market, and some perogies.) We got little dishes with three compartments for fondue and hot pot, and I'll use those to put a little bit of butter, a little bit of sour cream and then some sauerkraut for the peroigies. It's kind of a "Whatever is in the fridge" type of meal, but I'm sure it'll be delicious. I'm looking forward to the fresh caught lobster tail. It looks lovely. Plus it's an easy meal.

My knee (the good one) is acting up. Two days ago the other was giving me some mild discomfort, but the right one must have decided that the left wasn't giving me enough pain, because whew. It's really sore, and it took an extra relaxing peppermint to get it to chill out enough to sleep. It was not great. Today It's still sore. I did do the intelligent thing and get myself a cane for vacation, just in case I need it, which I might. Especially walking long distances.

I've got four packages coming today. One is a set of doggie stairs to make it easier for Yoda to get on our bed, and the others are things that we needed for the trip. I checked my bag with what I packed so far, and I'm at 34lbs. I've only need to pack a few more things, so I will probably make weight on the flight two, but once I start getting stuff in port, no guarantee I won't have overweight luggage on the way back, or need to get another suitcase to spread it between. We shall see how it goes. I'll definitely have room in this suitcase. It's not even 2/3 full, probably just over half. I got some more leggings in, so I'll be finishing packing those. I had already packed the fleece leggings, but I did not have enough to pack the short sleeve. Of course those are supposed to come in on Friday, so I might wait to pack until then. After that, I'll be packed for the vacation, just 22 days early.

I bought a couple of more tickets yesterday, including the Vancouver Tower, which is Vancouver's answer to the Space Needle. And I got the hop on hop off trolley tickets, so we're good on those. I think I'm going to get the BIL a ticket to see the Seattle Mariner's play on the 16th when we get off the boat. We should be getting into Seattle around 1pm, so he'd have plenty of time to make a 4pm game, and it was something he mentioned wanting to do. Ticketmaster is down at the moment, so I'll see when it comes back up.

We're at T-minus 22 days til we get up at an ungodly hour for our flight. At least on the way back our flight's at 10, so we can sleep slightly longer. I'm going to be a total border collie about things. I did book dinner for the BIL and Sister for the night we're going for Korean BBQ and seeing Mortal Kombat, so they're sorted. They're going to Joe Fortes Seafood and Chop House which will hopefully life up to the reputation. I think I've mentioned before that the BIL can be a pain when it relates to food, as he's very much a meat and potatoes kind of guy. Once we get on the ship, it'll be fine. They have steak pretty much every night, so he'll be happy. Plus there's the buffet that has plenty of American staples.

I personally am going to be trying new things, and stretching my palate. The nice thing about the dining room is that you can order more than one dish. So I can order two appetizers if they both appeal, or two dinners. Or two desserts. It's not like I'd do it every night, but it's nice to know that if I can't choose, there's options.

We have two nights that we'll be eating in speciality restaurants. One is the Pinnacle Grill, which is their steakhouse. The whole family will be eating there. Then, there's a pop up night where the Asian restaurant turns into Morimoto at Sea, which we'll be going to while the BIL goes to the casino.

In port, I'm looking forward to having fish and chips made with freshly caught halibut. Possibly some King Crab legs. We'll see on that one, since there's a little food truck enclave near that location, and I love me some food trucks.

We'll have plenty of time to get something in Juneau and Skagway, but I'm not sure we'll be up to eating anything after the crab feast in Ketchikan.

I really can't wait to get this moving.

First, in three days, we have the Lost Boys musical, which should be super fun. We've got a car picking us up at 9:30am, then we'll head up to Philadelphia to pick up our friend. Then onto NYC, and the play. Then dinner at Langans for dinner, then home with a brief stop in Philly to drop off our friend. We'll probably get home around 10, but since the dog is going to be at the kennel, we won't have to come sneaking in. We'll pick him up on Sunday morning and see how he made out on his two nights. Then, he goes back on April 27th to stay til May 2nd. He'll have the weekend at home, and then on 5/6, he'll be going back for an 12 night stay. Here's hoping it all goes well. I do need to go out and get some cash for tip for our driver.

Okay, time for me to hop off and do some studying. Everyone have a stellar Wednesday!

comments

Been finding it hard to be kind since I've been lost out there losing my mind.

Tue, 14 Apr 2026 09:42:46 GMT

I'm pretty sure I've posted this before, but just in case:

This is one of those songs I cam always listen to. I'm not a huge fan of most of his stuff, but this particular song hits me in the sweet spot.

Happy Tuesday! We survived Monday! Good lord, yesterday seemed to drag unmercifully. It felt like the afternoon alone was at least 8 hours. I was jumping back and forth from phone to working on other shit and the back to the phone. It made for a long day. Then, of course, I also got word at about 1:45 that Boodle's ashes were ready for pick up.

I cried again. God, I miss that baby so much. After the very long day ended, Jess and I went up to get her. And then I cried some more at her tiny footprint, and the very small box. She was a little cat, but the box is so tiny, barely bigger than my fist. How can all that personality fit in such a small box?

I wish I had realized that she was sick sooner. The outcome would probably have been the same, but if I had known that it was the last year, I would have given her nonstop churus, and held her more. (Though to be fair, she wasn't a huge fan, and would have made me bleed my own blood.

I think I've cried more for her than I did for both my parents, which is kind of fucked up. Then again, aside from her tendency to wake me up at 3 am for food by clawing the blankets around my face, frequently hitting my face and leaving scratches, she never did anything to hurt me. My mother's legacy is one of neglect and outright emotional abuse, and the last two years with my father were brutal. But still, I feel a little bad that I couldn't grieve as hard as I am for this little cat.

We had sushi for dinner, because I was a bit of a wreck. We tried a new place and it was excellent. The fish was delicious and fresh and they gave us an extra roll on the house. It was called a Salad Roll, and it had everything that I like in it. It was avocado, kani, tempura shrimp with a seaweed salad topping. I'm normally not a huge fan of seaweed salad, but this was really good. I think that and the other roll we'd never tried, a Caterpillar roll were my favorites. Not that the usual suspects were bad, those just were really good.

We watched another couple of videos on Pike Place market, and I've think I've narrowed down the places I must got to. So far I've got 6 of them. First up is Mee Sum for their pork and their Beef Curry Hom Bow, which are liked baked fluffy buns with the meat inside. Next is Beecher's famous mac and cheese. Piroshky Piroshky looks like it has some interesting and tasty buns, including a salmon pate that I know my sister will be all over. Pike Place Chowder sells seared scallop chowder and I must have. I fucking love scallops. We'll probably also get a cup of "the best clam chowder in the world," at Pike. Place Chowder. After all that, we'll need a ginger beer from Rachel's Ginger Beer. And then last, just for Jess, we're going to hit the crumpet shop for a cup of tea and some crumpets. We're going to probably get there right around lunch rush, so we'll see how many of then we can get before we have to leave. I figure if we use 2 hours of our 4 hour tour there, I'm good with it. There was a park the limo recommended, but if we don't make it there, it's okay. I think it was mostly a photo op to get pictures with the skyline anyway.

I need to watch a couple of more videos on Granville Market in Vancouver, so I'll be ready. Right now the front runner for lunch is Celine's Fish. I'm a sucker for a good fish and chips, but that could change. And there's a few other places I want to get snacks from. Like the famous maple salmon. I'll give that a try. And maybe a donut from Lee's and a pot pie from the pie man. Go big or go home, right. I need to do that early enough that by 5pm we're ready for Korean BBQ at Dae Bok Bon Ga. Then we shall go to see Mortal Kombat.

Now that we're under a month, I believe that I can order tickets for the hop on hop off bus in Vancouver to make things easier. Otherwise, we're going to spend a ton on Ubers with the four of us. Okay, trolley tickets have been purchased. They weren't super cheap, but that's okay. It'll last us for the day.

I'm a little worried about how well I'll sleep this vacation. Normally at night, I take my Ambien plus 10mg of THC via the relaxing peppermint tablets. Obviously I can't take weed on the airplane or on the cruise ship, so this could be fun. I'll be taking my anti anxiety meds, so hopefully between the two I'll manage. I'm definitely going to be more active than usual, so hopefully that translates to better sleep.

I got a few more of my things for vacation, so I'll be doing some more packing one day this week. I'll probably wait til Friday as I think that's when the last bunch of stuff comes in, and we might aftually be caught up on laundry by the. I had an enormous pile of clothes on the floof by my side of the bed and I sorted through them on Saturday. It appears that the areas we're going are going in Alaska are going to be a high around 50 degrees F, so we're going to need some cold weather gear. I got another jacket, which is a North Face fleece that I think will be very helpful, and also a fleece lined rain coat. Hopefully, they'll be sufficient. I might need both on the whale watching trip, but I'm okay with that. I also got gloves and a hat just in case. At least the whale watching boat does have a heated cabin if we get too cold.

I think that's all I'm taking. I might stuff a lightweight fleece in my carry on for Seattle and Vancouver, just in case we need something light, but they're hovering around 60 degrees, so I think we'll be okay.

I need to pack a few more pairs of leggings, underwear, my shoes, binoculars and emergency antibiotic stash and some short sleeve t-shirts for on the boat. I may also take one of my tank tops with a shelf bra and some shorts for knocking around in the suite.

We're down to 23 days. I need to find someone to pick up our mail and packages, so I'm looking online and not finding a lot. I just posted to Reddit, so hopefully someone will bite. It's literally bringing in the mail and watering my two sad little plants, and maybe making sure that the apartment is still standing.

Aside from that, it's just getting Yoda acclimated to boarding and then we'll be golden. I can't believe it's really happening. In another 9 days, we'll be able to print our boarding passes for the boat, and it'll be time to choose our breakfast for the flight. Maybe it'll sink in then. Or maybe it'll be as we cross the Rocky Mountai dns, or touch down in Seattle. Maybe it'll be real when we go up in the Space Needle?

Or maybe it'll be like Disney where the whole trip felt like a fever dream. We shall see.

We get back late on Sunday and will go fetch our puppy on Monday morning and have the day to love all over him and tell him how awesome he is.

Today should be a quieter day. The calls won't be stacked as badly and hopefully I'll get some work done. I know I have a 1 on 1 this morning, just a check in, I think. Then after work, I go to get my hair cut. On Wednesday, I shall dye my hair. I'm trying to decide between cooking the lobster tails on my break or right after I get off work. I'll have about 40 min between when I finish and when I need to leave, so that is entirely doable. Though I hate to cook everyone else's early. They're really best when they first come out. Maybe I'll just wait to cook them til I get home, and have dinner be a touch late. That sounds like a better option. It rarely takes more than 20 minutes to do my hair, so I'd be home at 6, and could just cook them then. I'll have Jess turn on the oven at 5:50pm.

Okay, time to do some studying. Everyone have an amazing Tuesday!

comments

All those things I didn't say, wrecking balls inside my brain, I will scream them loud tonight

Mon, 13 Apr 2026 09:20:42 GMT

And somehow, just like that, the weekend is over. I didn't get much done at all. I still have all my schoolwork to do, because I just couldn't bring myself to crack a book. I will have to get cracking today.

I did end up going to the Farmer's Market and got some good food. I was planning to get empanadas, but about halfway through, my knee started hurting. Add to that, the bag was getting very heavy. What I did get Was some mini donuts and some pastries. Oh, and Kettle Corn! Of real food, I grabbed some yogurt and orange juice from the dairy stall. A little bit further down was the fish guy, who had Halibut and lobster tails, so I got some of both. I put the halibut in the freezer, and the lobster tails in the fridge to make tonight. They're a super easy dinner. Then, on the way out in leiu of empanadas, I got some dumplings as they were on the route out, and got a very good small dog, who didn't flunk out of daycare a couple of treats. Which he has carried around, but not eaten yet. I got home before anyone else was awake, which was kind of funny, since I left a little sign saying where I was, and no one got to see it!

Not long after I got home, it was game, so I fried up some dumplings and grabbed a couple of mini donuts for game snacks. Game was super fun. I spent it trying to keep Jess' character from dying, successfully, and holding concentration on control water, to push the waterline out to see a bit. The plan was to keep a water elemental where we could beat on it, and allow players to walk right up to it and hit it. I feel like that was a worthwhile use of a higher level spell. It kept non combatants from getting run over and pissed off the elemental. I think it may also have kept him from using some nasty bonus actions, so I was pleased.

We finally finished the game, which is sad, I so enjoyed it. But there will be a sequel once coyotegestalt finishes writing it, which is awesome. I love the character I play, and besides, Jess and my character just finally stopped flirting and had some kissing action, so that was good. This is the game where I proved that when DM's play they are the worst agents of chaos on the planet.

The dumplings were excellent by the way. I actually fried up the rest on bio break and ate them all. They were a really tasty breakfast. I got the pork and chive, and the crystal shrimp, both of which were really good.

Then, I took my sister to Greek Easter at the in-laws, making sure to tell my brother in law that he had to come in when he brought her home, because we had a surprise for him.

On the way back, I stopped at a taco truck and ordered some food. The 20 minutes they said it would be ended up being more like 40 minutes, and by the time I got done, I had to go so bad.

Food was really good though. I enjoyed my Pollo al Tajadas. It was fried plaintain slices with a fried chicken leg over it and some slaw on top of that. Very tasty, good fried chicken.

Then, I settled in and we watched two episodes of the Amazing Digital Circus on YouTube. I wasn't sure about episode one. I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it either. I'm pleased to say that the second and third episodes were much better, and I am now solidly in the "Like, maybe love" this show category. I'm looking forward to watching more of it, and going to see the final episode in the theaters.

After that, we watched a couple of videos on Seattle's Pike Place Market (which is one of the stops in Seattle on our vacation.) I'm lookins forward to trying some of the tasty things out. I may end up getting some things and putting them in my suitcase, since it appears that I'm going to have some room.

Then the sister got home, I gave the BIL his presents. One was some of the kettle corn, one was his own jar of the Hawaiian seasoning that he kept coming back to ask for more of, the Kailua Seasonings Aloha Smoke Spice, which is amazing on beef or pork.

We watched more videos about both Pike Place Market and Granville Island Market in Vancouver until it was almost time for bed. I found a few places that I'd like to try for breakfast/lunch. I'm hoping to get to Granville in time for a late breakfast or early lunch, since we only have the one day to explore.

This weekend, we have the Lost Boys Musical, which should be super fun. Yoda is going to try the overnight day care. He has a petite suite, so he won't be around any dogs. It's just for two nights, to ease him in. I know they'll take good care of him.

I cannot believe that it's only 24 days until vacation. That just boggles my mind. I still have a few packages to come, but it won't be long at all. I'm nervous about the 6 hour flight, but hopefully it'll go well. Mind you, I'm worried about the long flight for Jess, because I know they're worried about TSA and the lack of boobs, and my BIL, who hasn't flown since he was in the army and is a little anxious. I've at least flown twice in the last two years, so I think I'll be okay, even though I'm a nervous flyer. The lure of seeing the pacific ocean is just too much to stop me. It is a comparatively long flight though. The furthest west I've been is Texas, so this is a big jump from that. I did do an overseas flight, but I was 20.

I just hope everything goes smoothly, and our car service is right there waiting for us when we collect our luggage. And then we can do our stops at the Space Needle and Pike Place and head to our hotel to relax until our dinner reservation at Hy's Steakhouse.

Friday is going to be for sightseeing, and then Saturday we're on the boat. Only 26 days away! And then, Alaska. Now that we've got the dog sorted out, I'm ready to progress to vacation immediately.

The dog will have two visits to the daycare. One this weekend for two nights, and then from April 26-May 3 for a five or six night stay. (That's going to suck, a whole week without a pet to bother.). Then on May 6th, he goes for 11 nights while we're in the Pacific Northwest and Alaska.

I've got a Google Album set up for pictures, which is right here. I'll be posting all the pictures that we take right there if you want to follow along. I'll probably upload new stuff either at night before bed or in the morning when I do my posting.

Okay, time to do some studying, since I didn't do it on the weekend. Everyone have a phenomenal Monday!

comments

Got a demon in my soul and a voice in my head aayin' go, go, go, I can sleep when I'm dead

Sun, 12 Apr 2026 09:51:01 GMT

Somehow, it's already Sunday. Yesterday seemed to be gone in a flash, but we did a lot, so that was good. Today will be a slower day, thankfully. Though I will try to get some things done. I do need to decide whether I'm going to go to the farmer's market this morning before game. I'm very tempted, but also a wee bit tired from all the running around we did yesterday. I will see how I feel after coffee. Then, we shall hve game, then I will take my sister to her in-laws for Greek Easter in the hopes that when BIL brings her back there will be treats. After that, there should be time for some relaxation, some studying and maybe to do a little bit of chores.

I think part of the reason yesterday went so fast is that I was low key stressed out the entire day. I have been dreading Yoda's first visit to doggy day care. The last one went so disastrously that I have been having anxiety for the last week. (For those who don't remember, he flunked out of traditional dog day care for being "aggressive," and barking at other dogs. Then, the person we were going to have dogsit declined because he was "too wild." So, with the trip coming uo quickly, we decided too try Best Friends Furever.

He had to be there early between 7-8am, and he needed to stay until 6, so a long day for the buddy.

We took him in at 7:30, and he went off with the worker, and we walked out to stress until 6pm. At about 11am, we got some pictures and a mini report card that said he was being good, but was shy.

Jess and I went out to lunch and came back to no dog, which was weird. Then we did some cleaning, and that was good. I pulled out my suitcase and started packing. I had gotten together some cold-weather stuff, so I started packing that and some of my fancy dress stuff. I may bave gotten too big of a suitcase. I'm halfway done packing, but the suitcase isn't even half full. Oh well, plenty of room for souvenirs. One thing I did not do was to take the phones to Tmobile for trade in. I'm going to lie and say I put them int he UPS box so that they'll take them back, because I have no shame.

Then, we decided that since we had no dog, we should all three go out to dinner, which was actually very nice. We had delicious food at the Gourmet at Kennilworth which was amazing. We'd been for lunch before, but their dinner menu is top notch. They specialize in seafood, so we all ended up getting fish. I got a grilled halibut with lemon and butter. It was really good. My first time trying halibut and I am sad that it is not more easily available around here. None of my fish places have it, sadly. We also had some very excellent French onion soup and I had a raspberry ammaretto cake.

Then, we rolled ourselves out to the car and went to get Yoda. He was super excited to see us and barked and gave us the business for leaving him all day. But, the important thing! The staff said he did great. He really blossomed in the afternoon, and let them all pet on him and tell him how good he was. He got his official collar, and has his next few stays booked! I swear, when she said "he did great," my shoulders finally dropped from around my ears with a wave of relief so strong it nearly made me sit down. My dog did not flunk daycare, and his stay for the vacation is booked and a deposit paid. I'm so happy. All the way home and honestly most of the evening, he was made over and told what a good boy he was. So he'll go back on Friday for two nights, since Jess and I are going to NYC on Saturday. We'll pick him up early on Sunday and doubtless get the business again.

I feel so much better about vacation knowing that he's in good hands. I mean, we still have the overnight hurdle to handle, but I'm feeling much more confident about that. He will have people who will care for him and a good environment where he can grow and get more social. It's a win-win.

I'm debating on dropping him in for a weekday this week, so he doesn't lose momentum. We'll see what we decide.

After that, everyone, including Yoda, was exhausted, and we came home and relaxed until it was time for bed.

Today will be less busy, though I still want to get some shit done. But I'd also like to spend some quality time with Jess. I've got seven episodes of the Amazing Digital Circus to watch before we go to see the final two episodes in the theater in June, so maybe we can get one in today. I've got laundry to do, owing to cleaning up the space beside my bed. I have SO many clothes to donate. Just an enormous bag of them. I may take them to the donation box today. There's some nice shit in there.

Tomorrow will be back to work, and a busy day. I have a lunchtime virtual doctors appt at which I'll ask for an increased dose on the Mounjaro. Tuesday, I get my pre-trip haircut. and at some point next weekend, I need to dye my hair. I suppose I could do that today, though. I do need a shower so that might be good. I've decided to do purple on top and leave the sides grey. Last haircut, they ended up cutting out most of the color on the sides, and I've gotta admit, I kind of like the grey at the temples contrasted with the purple on top. It looks super cool. Also makes my head look a little bit thinner, I think.

The rest of the week is quiet until we get to Saturday and going to see the Lost Boys Musical in NYC, which should be super fun. I feel bad that we're leaving my sister completely alone, with no dog to keep her company, but he needs overnight time in the daycare and I need not to be worrying about her trying to walk him.

Okay, time to do a bit of studying for my morning. I need to make up my mind on the farmer's market in the next 20 minutes, so I will ponder that. I really do want to go see what they have, but I'm not sure I can stir myself to get ready and go. We shall see how I feel in 10 minutes. I have a feeling that the lure of game snacks might win out, but we shall see. Everyone have a fantastic Sunday!

comments

You didn't know that when I tried this all before, my dreams were too hard to defend

Sat, 11 Apr 2026 10:28:31 GMT

Happy Saturday! It's early, but we're still awake! Why? No fucking clue. And that's somewhat annoying. Today shall be a dog-less day, as Yoda is going to be going to the doggie boarding place. He's doing a "play your way" day, which means he won't have other dogs in his enclosure, but will have someone who will offer to take him out. and walk him, and play with him. I am anxious as balls about this. Hopefully he's a reasonably good puppy.

I have a potential game, though one player's cats is not well, so that'll depend on how the kitty's night goes as to wether we can play. I am 100% sympathetic, and am perfectly willing to wait and see if she's up to playing. If so, it'll be around 11am. After that, maybe we'll go out to lunch. No clue where. Jess' anxiety and my ADHD rub against each other on the decision of food, because I do the thing where we'll have it figured out, and then I start offering other choices on the day of, and drive them insane. So this time I just didn't mention food and we'll just decide and go. I don't know where I want to go, but I want somewhere tasty.

Oh, I also have to run to the Punjab market for more meats for Yoda. I'd like to make a couple of batches of different meals for him this weekend. I also need to take our old phones back to t-mobile so that we get to keep our discount.

We got a thing the other day from the apartments that they're coming in to replace our balcony railing somewhere between now and May 19th, so we put the Christmas tree in storage finally. The room looks weird without it. I'm going to try to spend a little time this weekend cleaning up some. The apartment has gotten very messy. It's not like filthy, just stuff on the floor and clutter. We've been getting a lot of delivery boxes and Jess hasn't been able to keep up with getting them to the dumpster.

Here's a much better view of my tattoo without the saniderm. I took that off yesterday to wash and lotion it.

I love it so much. You can really see the patterns of her fur in this shot. It's rewrapped uner another saniderm patch, which will stay for a few days. After that, it'll be just lotion and gentle washing.

I think I timed it so that it should be healed by vacation, but I'll have plenty of lotion just in case.

Yesterday was a good day. Morning was fairly slow, nothing to report there, but then I had the lunchtime meeting where we had some excitement. We were doing our normal bitchfest, and then the head of outpatient Rad pinged J & A with a "Are you available for a quick chat?"

They ditched and went into the other meeting with P. When they came back, they were fuming. I've noticed that we're getting a lot of requests for tests to be read in our one site. Apparently the radiologists are overwhelmed, so they've contracted a team of radiologists to read our films. (Not sure how much I like that.) But things are still not being read quickly. So, instead of hiring someone else, or hiring more radiologists, they have made the executive decision that we will no longer do most STAT appointments at that site, because we can't guarantee that things will be read in time. It's our busiest site, and they can't do STAT appointments. This is going to go over so well. Also it's near DC, and the closest other radiology site we have is half an hour+ away from this one. The site has a lot of older clientele, and most of them will not go anywhere else.

After that, I grabbed a short lunch, and then was on the help chat for 2 hours, providing my wisdom and guidance. I had one that stumped me, but I feel better because it also stumped J and the techs. They're sending the question to the radiologist.

I don't mind doing the chat. It was fairly slow yesterday, so I only had about 7 questions to answer, which is not bad.

After that, I took my break, and came back with less than 20 minutes til it was time to leave.

Then, we took Yoda to the vet for his second flu shot and his Cytopoint allergy shot. That'll hold him until we get back from Alaska, since they're usually good for about 6 weeks.

Then we had Blades in the Dark, which went well. We were down one poisontaster owing to an eye dilation induced headache, but her character was an integral part of the game anyway. I was able to spotlight some players that don't always get a ton to do, and fun was had by all, I think.

It did mean that now they have two heists running concurrently. The one has kind of fallen by the wayside, as a dastardly underworld group has released a plaugue on the land of Doskvol. The team is racing for the antidote/cure, but it's complicated that the shady underworld mafia is comprised of one of the character's family, who he works with part time. I told them that if they finished either heist, they'd get to use the downtime mechanic, where they can clear some stress and regain health.

It went really well and I enjoyed myself (and my game snack Peking duck and dumplings) very much. I can't do it for early afternoon or morning games, because the dumpling place doesn't open til 11:30, meaning the food doesn't arrive unitl 12:30-12:45 when we're already playing. But they're amazing for night games though.

Tomorrow, we have an early game at 9am. I'm looking forward to it. It's chaos personified, but I think we're going to win this battle today. It was an enormous fight between us, who are a party of 9 players, plus about 100 enemies. The turn order was ridiculously large, and it took most of a game to get through one round, but it's been so fun. Stressful for me as the cleric, but I've kept everyone alive and upright so far.

It'll be Greek Easter, so my sister will be heading off for that, hopefully to bring me some dolmades home. I fucking love my BIL's dolmades. I may see if Jess is okay staying with Yoda while I run over to the flear market in Eastpoint. They're opening this week and are open til 2, unlike the one downtown which is open to 12, and I will not be able to get to, unless I get myself together and go super early, which is also always a possibility, since they open at 7 and game is at 9.

It would give me a good hour to shop, which I really don't need. I doubt there'll be a ton of produce, mostly just other stuff. I might be able to find some good game snacks, especially if the Empanada truck is there.

And of course, at some point, I need to get some studying done. Whoohoo.

I might make us one of the pork tenderloins, since Yoda is getting the same, just cooked differently, and without one of the good Hawaiian spice mixes we've gotten. We're supposed to get more today, so it might be a challenge to decide which one to use. I also ordered some more of what they call potions, but are really syrups for your drink. We had the vanilla one which was amazing. This time I ordered vanilla, coconut, salted caramel and honey ginger. I'm looking forward to trying them when they come. They were excellent in coffee.

Okay, I suppose it's time for me to hop off and maybe study. Maybe. Might save it for this afternoon. We shall see. Or, I could start Yoda's pork stew with sweet potatoes and oats. We'll see. First I need to get off the couch. Everyone have a superb Saturday!

comments

I work each day and night like clockwork to try to make ends meet, I could kick this bad worlds ass

Fri, 10 Apr 2026 09:30:10 GMT

Sometimes I hate the length of the subject line in Dreamwidth. There's another short line to that lyric, and it annoys me that it won't fit. Oh well.

Today I have a little planned. At work, I'll be doing my thing and then we'll have the manager bitchfest meeting and then the rest of the day. Afterwards, we need to take Yoda to the vet to get his flu and Cytopoint shots. Hopefully, he's feeling up to going to doggie day care tomorrow. If not, I'll move it to Tuesday. Then, tonight, we have Blades in the Dark, which should be a lot of fun. Still deciding if I want to get game snacks, since we won't have any other games that qualify.

Yesterday was also busy. I took a few calls, moved a few patients and then it was my time to watch the help queue and provide answers to questions. They were pretty easy, so it wasn't a bad time. Then after lunch I had the training for our new VOIP phone system. That is two hours that I won't get back. It was dull, self explanatory and could have been an email or a training. It was just brutal. My managers were also in the class, and they were back in the Rad Leaders chat just roasting the class. "Cringe" was the big accusation leveled against it. All in all, I'm glad it's over.

After work, I headed up to see my tattoo artist. She had a very cool drawing of what the tattoo would look like. I arrived at 4:45, did paperwork and Ronie got set up. I figure we started at about 5:15pm. I was done and in the car at 6:05. It was super fast. Then again, I tend to sit like a rock, so I'm an easy person to tatoo. She had set up her tablet with a picture of Boodle, that she superimposed her drawing on, so I have Boodles actual fur pattern on her chest. I absolutely love it. It's very her.

It still has the bandage on it, but I'll be taking that off tonight when I can submerge my arm in water. It usually hurts more than the tattoo did to peel off the second skin. Tomorrow, I'l have a clearer picture of it. Then it was home to eat and sniff the BPAL smellies that came in. I liked a lot of them, which was nice. Some I'm not sure about, but I'll give them second chances. I may try wearing some for Blades, though I have absolutely no idea what. I'd been wearing Scheherazade, because storyteller, but I feel like Blades needs something with an iron note. I'll save Scheherazade for the first Marchen game next Sunday.

Tomorrow, I have a pretty quiet day. I've got a game at 11am, Too Many Draculas. After that, I may drag Jess out for a late lunch for something tasty. 11am is too early for dumplings, so I will forgo our game snacks meal. I don't think next week, we have any games that we could do game snacks for, but we'll see. I might do them for Marchen and just take a little break early in the game when they arrive.

Sunday brings an early moring (9am) game. We might finish the Life's a Beach oneshot! (So far it's been almost 10 sessions. To be fair, it was supposed to be a quick combat, but we (okay, I) messed that up by blinding a dragon and bringing the big bad who we were supposed to end up chasing, down to the ground. DM's make the most chaotic energy as players. If there is away to completely upend your plan, it's going to be the player who DMs.

To be fair, for early games, I'm also fully on my ADHD meds, so all of my chaos is on purpose. I didn't zone and have to come up with something to do on the fly. That can lead to uncontrolled chaos.

Usually, I inflict that as DM on my nighttime games.

We're down to 27 days til cruise. I'm going to pull out my suitcase this weekend and start packing some things. Nothing that I'm still using, but I do want to see how much space everything will take up. But things like my slippers and nice shoes can go in the suitcase, as well as the fleecy leggings. I may pack a few pairs of regular leggings, but we'll see. Right now I'm focusing on the long sleeve shirts, fleece leggings and shoes as well as cosmetic stuff that will go into the carry on.

Oh, speaking of vacation! Last night, one of the packages that came in was my sister's Bento Bag. She really liked mine, so we ordred her one. Since I was placing the order because I had a 20% off coupon code, I saw that they had a bundle that included their fanny pack and got one of those, too.

I'm always worried when I order fanny packs, because I never know if the strap will be long enough to fit my fat ass. I opened with more than a bit of trepidation. I shouldn't have worried. The strap was fully extended, and it nearly fell to the ground when I put it on. I had to adjust the strap by about 16" for it to stay put. I loved it. I didn't feel fat for a few minutes. lol. It's also really pretty, a dark blue that will clash with the bento bag I got (which is pink).

I think we have all the stuff we need at this point. I've got my Doctor's appt on Monday, where she can order my Mounjaro, which will last for the trip. I've got one more vial of the lower dose, but I definitely want to try the higher. This just isn't doing enough.

Maybe tomorrow, I'll also cook another batch of food for Yoda. I think the next one is pork, so that'll be good. I can cut up the tenderloins I got yesterday, and maybe some oats and sweet potatoes. I found a dog-friendly pork broth that I can stew it all in. Maybe Sunday, I'll make him some goat and rice and veggies. I still have a few trays of ground goat that I can cook up to make him happy. I need to get another order of groceries from them, so that I can continue to make food for him. He won't need it at the kennel tomorrow, but next weekend when he has his long weekend stay, I'll need to provide him food.

I also have to find time to clean up in our room a bit. I have a large pile of clothes that I need to go through, so I will work on that some. The apartments want to come replace our balcony railing, sometime between today and May 19th. I'm hoping for somewhere around May 7-17th. That would be helpful. OF course, this is going to require cleaning up the living room, so that will be fun.

But for now, I need to do some studying. These articles aren't going to read themselves. Everyone have an excellent Friday!

comments

The spirits, they intoxicate me. I watch them infiltrate my soul.

Thu, 09 Apr 2026 09:40:37 GMT

It's Thursday, one more day til the weekend after today.

Thanks to an amazing game, and then being all hyped up after game, I did not get enough sleep. I fell asleep watching youtube videos about the cruise, but that had to be around eleven thirty, maybe midnight. As a result, I got about 4.5 hours of sleep. I will manage, but I'm going to sleep hard tonight. Of course today would be the day I have a two meetings. One is my usual meeting with the Quality team, and one is my Talkdesk training.

Then, after that, I get to get my ass together and go out to see my tattoo artist. As far as I know, we're doing the tattoo tonight. I will post pictures tomorrow or Saturday when I take off the barrier film that protects it for the first day. Then, I will come home and fall over. It'll be great. I'll be hopped up on adrenaline and endorphins and will sack out. immediately.

Of course, between now and the tattoo artist, I need to figure out placement. Inner arm, other calf? Over my heart? I will think on it. I want it to be somewhere I can see it. I'll see what it looks like when I see the stencil and how big it needs to be. Honestly, as long as she can source or create the gold color of Boodle's fur, I'm happy.

School starts today. I've got the class syllabus open in another taba nd will go forth and check it out when I'm done here.

One thing I've been doing in the lead up to the trip is buying way too many books on my kindle. Smart Bitches, Trashy Books does a daily list of book deals, ad I've "this book is $1.99" my way through many purchases. I've downloaded a bunch to my Kindle, so I will have reading material for the flight and airport and cruise. Yesterday, there was one called Dreadful, by Kaitlyn Rozakis. It's honestly the first book other than the Scazi book I downloaded for the flight, that I've neen super excited about. It's going to be difficult to not read it before then. Or maybe I will read it as stress releif as we count down for the trip.

I'm excited as hell about the trip, don't get me wrong. But as it creeps closer, I'm also getting anxious. With a little luck, I'll relax after Saturday when Yoda goes to his first Kennel day. (please be good, you little shithead.) That's my only real worry about the trip. I need to know that he's taken care of.

As Jess said, I'm kind of grateful that Boodle won't have to experience of us suddenly leaving for 10 days and a stranger being here. We can practice with Yoda, but for her it would have been a total surprise. So, we're just stressing one animal out. Honestly, I feel guilty enough about that. He's going to spend 11 days with no one to sleep with. We have to drop him off the day before we leave, and then pick him up the day after we get home. He's going to be so happy to see everyone.

A good chunk of my packages are coming today. I believe I am done with what I need to buy. Everything that I've bought shall arrive over the next two weeks so that'll be good. I do think I want to hire a housesitter. Just someone to come in every other day and get mail and to make sure things are okay. I don't expect there to be a problem, but then I don't have to put the mail on hold or worry that random shit that my sister bought from TEMU will just show up and sit.

Yesterday was pretty busy too, though. In the morning, I sat with the trainees for two hours and took calls, modelling good behavior. Then, in the afternoon, I covered the teams questions. I'm going to need them to announce my position soon, because I'm getting pushback in chat, and I can't even yell "Respect my authority!" because I currently have none, unless you look at my signature or at my teams info. And since no one ever fucking does that, no one but my one friend knows.

I got the good word that my other friend, M, got the job with us. She'll be starting on 5/11 with our team. Which means that right before Black Friday, I'll be getting another $1000. M says that she doesn't want any of it, since without me, she wouldn't have gotten the job. I'll see if I can convince her to take some of it between now and then. They sent her the offer letter yesterday, and it's all signed and done. It'll be nice to have her. I have missed chatting with her while we work. I wish K had been willing to apply, but she thinks she's too old to start over. She's sending a few people my way, so there's the possibility of future bonuses too.

Tomorrow, I have nothing planned at work but the Leadership Bitchfest meeting. It's been that kind of week, so I'm sure the bitching will be strong. Plus, we cancelled last week on account of lack of attendance, Since out of our seven person team, there were four.

I figure all of our stuff should be here by next week. If there's something that crops up that we need, I'll get it local or via same or next day on Amazon.

I need to make Yoda more food today. I'll go ahead and get the pot cleaned out and start some chicken gizzards and livers on the stove, ad see what we can make up. I need to add a little more rice to this mix as his poops are back to being soft since I cut back. I may try it with rolled oats for this particular recipe. I feel like the oatmeal will pick up the flavor well.

He won't be happy that it's not goat, but he'll deal. Saturday, I'll makd some goat for him, too. And then we can switch off. Then, I'll make some more chicken, and then I'll get more meats from the Punjab Market. Maybe see if Aldi has some pork tenderloins. I know he'd like that.

He likes pork better than just about anythign, even goat. Maybe also ground pork. That would be good for him. Oooh, and I could aslo get a bone-in turkey breast. That would cook up well, and provide plenty of meat. I neeed to get more butternut squash, too. He really fucking loves the butternut squash. Add in that with a little bit of spinach or greenbeans and some rice or oats, and he's a happy boy.

I may be trying to cook every day or two over the next few weeks. That's the only way I'm going to have enough food for our vacation. I just need 22 of them, so he can have breakfast and dinner. I should be able to to work that, but it could be a lot of work.

Tomorrow night, we have Blades in the Dark, moving to a Thursday for the first time ever. I'm excited to play-it's been a while. Tomorrow, I have 1 game, and then one on Sunday as well. In between all that, I need to make food for dog, and do school work. This should be fun.

I have a follow up with my PCP on Monday to see how the Mounjaro is working. I think I need a higher dose, because it's not really bringing my sugar down. Not enough, anyway.

We'll see how that does. If not, there's Jardiance we can also try.

It's only 28 days til we leave. At this time in four weeks, I'll be sitting in the airport lounge relaxing while we wait for our flight. Jesus, that's so few days. Oh! I have a link for you. I'll repost it closer to go time, but the link to my photo album will be right here. I'm going to uplaod the pictures to that file pretty regularly, so you can see some of the gorgeous views.

Okay, time for me to get a studying. Everyone have a stellar Thursday!

comments

He is Nostro Dis Pater, Nostr' Alma Mater, and we are falling over the precipice

Wed, 08 Apr 2026 09:18:48 GMT

It's Wednesday and I am tired. I woke up at about 3am, so I'm a wee bit sleepy. But on the other hand, I had delicious Greek Koulaourakia cookies for with my coffee, so it's not all bad. With Greek Easter coming up on Sunday, the BIL's Mom made her annual cookie batch, and we always get a small baggie. It's much easier now to get a taste of them. Dad tended to eat them very quickly. We would usually remember to pull a couple out of the bag for us, but he would wolf down the rest.

Today will be a busy day. I will have work, then off to the pharmacy for my pils. I may do that at lunchtime, we shall see. I need to make Yoda more food if I can get the energy up. He's only got one more packet of it, so it's time to cook some more. I really don't mind cooking for him. He's a sweet bud, and I want him to be happy and healthy.

Then, tonight we have Brindlewood Bay. I'm looking forward to getting out of my own brain for a few hours. Though possibly, playing a character who has a Jenga pile of cat ashes is not as comforting as it should be?

Yesterday was quiet. I spent a lot of times taking calls, and a bit trying to fill in some open spots. Got a few people in, filled some cardiac spots, and generally just worked and tried not to think too much. Still welled up a few times, but thankfully did not cry on patients. I spent the day lowkey anxious about the potential for WWIII. Thankfully, it did not happen. After work, I fried up some scallops and baked some King Crab Legs. The Crab legs were okay. I don't think I'd buy them again. They don't hold a candle to the Dungeness crabs we get from Alaska.

The scallops however, were delicious, even receiving a "these are really good" from the BIL who was over visiting. Next time I know he'll be over, I'll go to Sam's Club and get some of their really good lobster tails. I'll show him what lobster is supposed to taste like. Although, he and my sister have gone to Maine, so mayhe not. I need to look in the freezer to see what meats we have that I could cook tonight. Maybe another pork tenderloin. If I go to the pharmacy, I'll cut it up and make Gochujang honey chicken. If not, Jess can bake it. Either way, it'll be tasty.

After we took the dog out, we retired to our room to relax, but we left the door open so the puppers could come in. Previously, due to Yoda's tendency to be an asshole and get poky with her, we had the door latched so Boodle could get out, but Yoda couldn't get in. He came in very tentatively, but within 10 minutes, he was snuggled up begween Jess and me, living his best life. It was very sweet, and I enjoyed having his warm little body pressed against my back. He's a good boy.

I also let the petsitter know that Boodle had passed, and that we woudn't need their services for the week we're away. I may still get someone to come in and check on the apartment and pick up packages and mail once a day. I think that might be a good thing. Maybe start the car one day so the battery will be happy. I could stop the mail, but I don't know if we'll have packages coming while we're away, so I want someone to take care of that.

Tomorrow, my classes start. Here goes nothing. At some point, I still need to upload my diploma. I don't have to do it this unit, since they're foundation courses and don't count towards the degree, but once I start the degree program, I need to have it in. I also have an appointment on Thursday evening so that I can get a tattoo of a cat's paw print. I'm having it filled with tortiseshell colors, Black gold and a little white. I think it's going on my forearm. That way Boodle will always be with me. She can come to Alaska and Hawaii with us. I like that idea.

I will doubtless cry when I see it, but that's okay. Honestly as often as I tear up, it's amazing that I'm not dehydrated. Loosing Boodle is harder than losing Dad, if I'm being honest. I think I've cried once for him, and so many times for her. A lot of that probably has to do with what an asshole Dad was during the last few years and how hard it was on us. When he went, we were somewhat relieved. With Boodle, I'm relieved that we caught the cancer before she was in pain, but we very much wanted to have her with us for another 15 years.

Tomorrow is also Package Day. I have so many things coming tomorrow, it's kind of absurd. I got some new makeup, my sister's bag, Jess' top from Torrid, Jess' sleep mask, some underwear two sets of bed sheets and an emergency antibiotic kit that will be going on vacation with me, just in case we need them. I think that's about everything. IT's coming via three separate delivery companies, so it'll at least be a staggered arrival.

I ordered Jess a pair of Woxer boxer briefs. We'll see how they like them. I have a pair coming as well, but not til next week. They never have the extra at people clothes in easy stock. I'll be chasing after them going "try them on!" as soon as they come, of course.

We have a lot of games scheduled this weekend. We'll see if any need to be rescheduled on account of classwork. I don't think they will as it's only 1 game per day, which is only 3 hours a day, but if I do, we'll figure it out.

My Marchen game starts in less than two weeks. It's not all written, but I've got enough to start with. We did the little role play introducing two of the characters to each other, since they're both in the same prison, and that was a delight. I'm really looking forward to the first session. It'll be a lot of talking, but I'll manage it. With Crooked Moon, I did individual introductions of each character as the Ghostlight Express train came to pick them up. I'm doing a similar thing wiht this game, zooming in on each character and seeing what they're doing when we meet them, letting them role play out their character introduction. I felt like it was more organic, and less like "Who are you playing today?" or "You start in a bustling tavern." Though to be fair, one of the intros does start in a tavern.

My very sweet players told me if I needed to move it back, I could. They know we're grieving Boodle, but I'd rather play, honestly. And being that it's homebrew, I get to create new worlds for them to inhabit, and that's my favorite.

Okay, I suppose I should hop off and take a nice hot shower. I don't want to be stinky for the tattoo tomorrow. Or maybe I'll take it tomorrow. I'll see how I feel. Either way, everyone have such a good Wednesday.

comments

Would you let me touch your soul forever? Can you feel me longing for you forever, forever.

Tue, 07 Apr 2026 08:56:56 GMT

Well, that wasn't at all how I was expecting my night to go. I think I had mentioned that Jess was taking Boodle to the vet yesterday, because she had lost a bit of weight and now seemed to have an upper respiratory infection. The appt was a 4, and I couldn't take off early from work, so they took an Uber, and I would come to them right after I got off at 4:30 and give them a ride home.

Reality, I wasn't particularly useful that last hour of work. Especially when I started getting texts about the doctor being concerned. The second I could, I lit our of here, getting to the vet just in time to hear the bad news. The short version, she was very sick and we made the decision to euthanize. It sucks. She was a special cat, and I'll miss her so much. Longer, more in depth version below the cut.

( Read more... )
At least this time, I don't feel like I waited to long like I did with Sam.

After that, we all kind of sat around staring at each other and crying.

Today, work will probably be busy. I'm going to have a hard time giving a shit about any of these people, but I will manage.

I cancelled all of the cat food subscriptions and will send some emails to see which shelter or food bank can use it. Also if they'll take the 30lb bag of litter we just got.

We'll probably get to pick her up on Monday of next week, so there will be more tears then. Jess and I are waiting for her clay pawprint so we can take a picture and send it to our tattoo artist. Jess sid last night that they lost the cat of their heart, and I have to agree.

With Yoda's asshole tendencies, we won't be able to get another cat for a while, so we're going to have to sit with our sadness until we add more sadness to it before we can get another baby.

In other news, our vacation is now 30 days away. I put in a few more orders for things I need before the cruise. Here's hoping some of them get here in time. One of them is a lightweight fleece lined rain jacket. I think it might be warm enough for Alaska. We'll see when it gets here. I have absolutely no regrets about anything that I bought for this trip.

Today I'll find out what the difference will be in my paycheck with the new job when the paystubs drop at about 4pm. The actual money will come tomorrow for CapOne and on Thursday for Chase. Despite that I'm still thinking about shifting the balance of my account to Chase. It's nice to have a brick and mortar to deposit checks. I need to add Jess onto the Chase accout. Should have done that on Saturday when we went to deposit the disbursement check from Dad's estate. Oh well, another Saturday. I'll see if it'll let me make an appointment.

I split up the disbursement into three accounts. CapOne got $5000 and Wells Fargo and Chase each got $10k. I figure that's a good mix, and gives me three cards for various charges. I know there will be a hold for the hotel, there will be a hold from the ship. I still have to pay for the car that's going to take us to the hotel, so I don't want anything to be tied up too much.

Okay, time to go forth and get myself dressed and together for work. Everyone have an amazing Tuesday.

comments

Truth is that it was always going to end, this symphony buzzing in my head

Mon, 06 Apr 2026 09:35:45 GMT

It feels like a good day for some Panic! at the Disco. How is everyone doing? I woke up from a sound sleep and I'm still not fully awake, but so far I feel okay. I've been so tired the last couple of weeks, and I'm wondering if it could be the statin med that the doctor put me on. I looked it up and apparently, it's a fairly common issue for women on this med. I see my doc for a virtual appointment next week, so I'm going to stay off them as they're not vital. And if there's a difference off them then I'll talk to her about a different pill, maybe.

This is week three of Mounjaro, It's helped the sugar some, but I think I need the higher dose.

Yesterday was a quiet day. We did nothing. I ordred pastries for breakfast from Roggenart Bakery and some pastries. The quiche was very good, but I skipped the pastry. I may have a bit of the strawberry custard croissant today, but we shall see.

After that, we sat and watched a few videos. My stomach was a bit iffy yesterday, so I just stayed close to the bathroom. In the afternoon, Jess went to lay down with a headache, so chilled and surfed the internet and ate the leftover Peking Duck. It was excellent. I pulled some of the fleece legging and long sleeved shirts out of the closet and folded and rolled them for placement in the suitcase in the near future. Then I napped next to Jess for a couple of hours.

Then, I got up and watched a few more videos until dinner arrived. We got the HUNTR/X meal from McDonalds. The sweet thai chili sauce that came with the nuggets was pretty good, and not horribly spicy. The Rameyon fries were okay, but need a light had with the seasoning.

Afterwards, I got super nauseous. I tried to lay down, but it wasn't any better like that. We watched another couple of videos until it was time to sleep. I'm glad that today I have my customary two hours of peace and quiet. Getting up at the same time as my sister threw me off for the whole day. I just couldn't quite get into sink. I really rely on these two hours to center myself and for my ADHD med to kick in and make me presentable.

I'm debating switching some of my money over to Chase bank. They were super nice and pleasant when I dropped off the check, and I rather liked them. I may move my paycheck over there and put a small amount a pay into Cap One. Just enough to pay my CapOne credit cards.

Oh, I did, at Credit Karma's suggestion, get two new credit cards. They're both small amouts, but It's something. So now I have two credit cards from CapOne, and one from Full Beauty. I was ordering a couple cute tops, and there was a pop up for 30% off my order if I applied, and shock, I got it.

Today, I will probably mostly be on the phones. The kids are out of school this week, so the calls will be lighter on adults, but heavier on people who are hoping we can get their kids in while they're out of school. Next Monday will be bugfuck.

I have a less than quiet week, as on Thursday, I'll be taking on the trainees, and having them sit wiht me, while I take calls and talk about them in between. It should be interesting. Then on Friday, I have training for the new VOIP phone system we're getting. Plus of course the weekly bitchfest managers meeting. We cancelled on Friday because half the team was out.

I do know at the next one, I'm going to bring up the idea of getting CT orders before we schedule. We've had a rash of problems with orders being wrong, sometimes very very wrong. We'd talked about it before, but I think we might need to implement it. It'll slow things down, but it would be less errors. Technically the people who scan the docs in are supposed to verify them, but they're not doing a great job of it. And then patients get scheduled at the wrong time and it's just a mess.

Tomorrow, it will be 30 days to the trip. It's amazing and terrifying and I can't wait. There's still 31 days, but the weather in Alaska has been very cold and somewhat snowy the last few weeks. There was a great photo from the Juneau chamber of commerce showing the snow on the ground, saying "only 26 days til cruise season starts!" I'm waiting til a little bit closer to figure out what coat I'm taking. We'll see if they get into fleece weather, or if they're still in heavy clothes weather. I have a coat coming that has a removable fleece lining. I'm thinking that might be good. I had. a rain coat, but it had no lining, and my arms got sweaty, even if I was freezing. It was weird. Hopefully, it gets here in time. Full Beauty can be a bit slow.

I need to make Yoda more food today. Chicken this time. He'll be less than enthused, but he needs variety. My pocket book needs cheaper meat now and then. It's $3.99/lb vs $7.99 for the goat and more for hte lamb. His calcium powder has arrived, so now I will be adding that, and the salmon oil to the mix. Then, he should have all the nutrients he needs to be happy and heathy. I'll try to make some goat tomorrow. I want to use up the butternut squash before it goes bad, since he really likes that. I may add some peas and carrots or just some green beans to it as well. Then, I'll sit there with my vacuum sealer and food scale portioning out his food for freezing. I'm trying to get a bit ahead so I have a week or so without making his food. I should have done it during the weekend, but see again, overly tired an unmotivated.

I have to decide wether I want to try to make two chicken meals today. I could easily make the broth for the main meal, then use it to boil some livers and gizzards to make a third type of meal. We'll see how it goes and what kind of energy I can work up. If I do that, he's getting mostly chicken this week, and we'll stockpile the goat to tempt him while we're on vacation.

The cat goes to the vet today, and I am anxious. I can't get off to take her, so Jess will be taking her via uber. I'll pick up afterwards, since I get off at 4:30. I love the little terrorist so much, and I just want her to be okay.

Yoda goes to the vet on Thursday for his flu and Cytopoint injections, so he may feel a little punky on Friday. Hopefully, he perks up by Saturday when he has his daycare try out. We went for the "play your way" package, where he'll have 1 on 1 playtime. I hope it works. God, I want it to work. We have two more options if this fails, but this is definitely the first choice. Well, second. The first would have been someone staying here, which the little asshole torpedoed.

He's not a bad dog, just wildly unsocialized, and spoiled. He likes to get his own way. And this will not be his own way. If that doesn't work, then he'll be going to the kennel attached to a vet. If that isn't a good fit then the rescue. And if not, then the vet. We'll see which one works for him. I feel bad to leave the animals. But we deserve this vacation, amd others as well. So he's going to have to expand his horizons.

I can't believe that in 31 days at this time, we'll be at the airport, probably sitting in the lounge drinking a coffee, and relaxing before our flight. Soon. I can't wait to see Seattle and Vancouver, and Alaska.

Okay, time for me to go forth and get myself together. Everyone have the very best Monday!

comments

If you'd have been there, if you'd have seen it I betcha you would have done the same

Sun, 05 Apr 2026 12:04:37 GMT

I got to sleep in til 7 today! Unfortunately, my sister got up at 7:01, so no peace and quiet for me while I wake up. I'm already annoyed.

Yesterday was a lovely, somewhat busy day. We decieded to do some tapas, and drove up to Havre de Grace to Tutti Paella, which was excellent. We got a handful of dishes. My favorite was the bacon wrapped scallops with balsamic glaze, which were excellent, but the spicy battered and fried green beans were addictive.

Then we stopped at the Animal rescue/shelter that I've donated to and adopted from in the past. I had some raffle winnnings to pick up. Most of it was Bath and Bodyworks stuff. We have four separate hand soaps, and a set of Moonlight Path stuff. There was also a candle and a box of essential oils. Then, we hurried home and took Yoda for his grooming,

Came home, relaxed and watched some videos, including one of a couple who was going on our ship, and taking almost the same vacation we are. I have come to the conclusion that I'm a bit of a light weight, because these people drink a lot. Like, if I drank that much, I would probably be passed our on the floor of the Grand Dutch Cafe,

I made some steaks for dinner. They were enormous, and I have steak for breakfast as well.

Then, we picked up the puppers (who looks very handsome and smells like oatmeal cookies). After that, we relaxed for a few minutes and discussed the vacation with the BIL. He either didn't remember or possibly I'd never said anything about the White Pass Railway, or maybe just said "White Pass," but he was watching the drunk people doing the train ride.

And he looked over at me, and said "I could do a train ride in Alaska?" Things to know about the brother in law, he LOVES him a good train ride. And I was able to say, "You're doing a train ride in Alaska, honey." It was very cute. He's so ride or die for this vacation.

Then it was time for Monster of the Week-the final game. It went well. It was bittersweet, but a good send off for the characters. I did offer to start a new game for the MOTW crew sometime in the summer. I love the characters, but I especially love the energy of that group, and I wasn't quite ready to let them go.

Today, my sister is off to celebrate Easter with the BIL's family, so we will have a quiet day and probably just take it easy. I will become one with the sofa. I have no idea what to make for dinner, but I'll figure out something.

Tonorrow, it's back for what is sure to be a busy day at work, while Jess takes the kitty to the vet. She's got a little cold, so it was good timing. We'll see what they say.

Okay, I'm going to go put on pants and try to wake up. You all have an awesome Sunday and a happy Easter if you celebrate!

comments

An enchanted moment, and it sees me through.

Sat, 04 Apr 2026 11:39:18 GMT

It's Saturday! Boodle let me sleep til almost 6 am! Since I bumped my wakeup time back to 4 in preparation for school, I it feels a little bit decadent to sleep til six. And now I'm up and I'll be the only one for a while, so it is definitely time to work on some games when I'm done here.

I'm still waffling about college. If I deferred my entrance til July, it would only push me one semester out. But on the other hand, that's still going to be a pain. I don't know, I'll think about it some more. I don't have to pay til the final exam, so if I drop early, I can retake with no problem. I would drop one class, but I'm not sure which one I'd drop. Probably the health sciences intro. I don't think it would let me cancel the introduction to online learning. I dunno. I'll give it a couple of weeks and see where I am.

Plus, I'll have a 5+ hour flight to do some schoolwork during the trip. In both directions. We'll see how it goes. Dropping a class is permissible up til 5/6. I think I'll rely on that.

Yesterday was very phone call light, but still pretty busy. I got at least six patients in, held a couple of more slots and shifted people into other slots to come in a bit sooner. I love when slots open that I can get breast MRIs in. A lot of the ones on the stat list are newly diagnosed breast cancer patients, and I feel for them. They need these for surgical planning, so I keep a close eye out fo openings. That and our Liver and kidney donors. I try to get them in super fast. I got no less than three new cancer patients in yesterday, so I feel pretty good about myself. The sad thing is that there's probably going to be another two or three by the time I get in on Monday. Still the ones I can help make me happy.

Today, we have a fairly busy day. The current plan is for me to run over Chase bank and deposit the last check from Dad's retirement account. They only have a %5000 mobie deposit, so I need to hit the bank. It's honestly right down the street, so it's not a huge deal. I had my sister write four checks for me. Two are for $10,000, one is for $5000 and one is for $1600, and they will be split between my three accounts (the $last two were broken up because Cap one also has a $5000 mobile limit, and I really don't want to drive to either of their locations as they are in less than awesome areas of town. That will be my Alaska money. I won't use all of it, but there's a few things that still aren't paid. One is the ride back from Vancouver to Seattle, the others are the two hotel stays. Everything else is paid in full. I need to start withdrawing money for tips soon. I need at least $3000 in various bills for tips. Also maybe to play a quick game in the casino. I've always wanted to play blackjack once and the tables are ony $15 for a buy in, so that could be fun.

I called the kennel, and they agreed to give Yoda a tryout nest Saturday. He'll be there from 8am-5:30PM, and we'll see how it goes. If not, there are still two other options. He won't be happy about either, but he'll deal. If all goes well, he'll spend the two weekends after being boarded for 3 and 5 days respectively. Then, it'll be time for the big stay while we're in Alaska. I need to find out who we're putting down as the emergency contact for the trip.

Then, last night, we played Vecna: Eve of Ruin. IT was mostly a combat night, as the party fought multiple creatures that hit hard. But no one died! Not even a little bit. So that was good. I had a lot of fun, and discovered that I had forgotten to give a vital bit of knowlegde to the players about a game mechanic. So I corrected that, and we had a good game.

Today, we'll see what we want to do. Do we go to the Asian in a Bite festival and deal with parking, or do I satisfy my dumpling craving another way. I'm planning on getting snacks, which will probably include dumplings from Lao Sze Chuang or <href="https://www.nihaobaltimore.com/menu/">NiHao, so it might be a bit of overkill if we also do the food festival. Then again, can you ever really have too many dumplings?

At some point in there, I also need to get my pills. Then, it's time for Yoda's grooming. Once we get back, I shall make some chicken for his food. He won't like it as much as the lamb, but that's okay. He needs a variety of foods to be healthy. The lamb shank with butternut squash and rice has been a big hit. Definitely one of his favorites. I do still want to get some calcium powder to add still. I should add that to the Amazon cart now if they have it...which they do. Between that and the salmon oil for his omega3's, he should be well supported.

He's been a bit perkier in addition to his digestive tract being a bit more regular, so that's nice to see. And I think he's lost a pound or so. the reality is that while we haven't tested, he probably has Cushing's Disease. He just has too many symptoms of it, plus the out of whack labs. That means we probably have another 2-3 years with him. I can cook for him for that long. I wish I had a kitchen that meant I could cook more than 3-5 days of food at a time, but we'll get there.

I may ask the person who's coming to check on Boodle if for an extra fee, she would take more food up to the kennels, as I don't know, even with the vacuum sealer if they'll be able to store 10 days worth of food. I'll ask when we take him next week. If not, I'm sure someone else will.

Tonight is Monster of the Week, which will definitely call for something special both food and drink wise, as it's the end of an era. Unless the mystery runs 2 sessions. That is possible. Maybe while we're out, I'll pick up a bottle of Asti and put it in the fridge til gametime. I was going to try to also run up the local shelter and pick up the stuff I won, but I don't know if we'll have time with everything else packed in there. Depends on how long energy holds out. It's possible we could go to the Tapas place in that area instead of the dumpling festival. That runs every month this summer, so we could still get down there for it in June if we don't do it today.

I also meed to make dinner, as the dumplings will be strictly snackies. I've got some lovely t-bone steaks and waffle fries to make. I'm definitely using the Hawaiian smoked salt for those. It just has the best flavor.

Tomorrow, my sister is going to the BIL's family's easter party so we'll be home with the doggo all day. Then next Sunday is Greek Easter, so she'll be coming back from that with some treats, I hope.

We added another potential outing to our list. Jess has gotten into a new show, the Amazing Digital Circus, and there's a possibility that they're going to play the last two episodes in the theater sometime in early June in limited theaters. If that is the case, we'll be going to that. If we need to go to DC or Philly for that, we shall. Chances are, if it's DC, it'll be at some of the surrounding areas like Silver Spring or Bethesda, and we can definitely do that.

We're down to thirty three days til we leave. It's utterly bonkers. I want to run around in cirlces and start packing now. And once Yoda has a successful stay, I may well do that. I just want to progress to the vacation. The last 15 days are going to be difficult to sit quietly through. And I figure that last few days of work are going to be interminable. Especially the Wednesday before we leave. I'm going to be useless that day. We're going to go to bed around 6pm to get absolutely any sleep before the 3am pickup time. It was going to be 4:30, but then all the airport shenanigans started, and I got nervous. I bought tickets to the BWI lounge, so that'll give us somewhere to relax while we wait the 3.5 hours til our flight. Then, it's off to Seattle. I'm going to buy tickets to the Space Needle, since I figure we'll do that first. Then Pike's Place Market for lunch, then out of the city and to Vancouver in time for our reservation at Hy's Steakhouse.

I'm really excited about seeing the Pacific NW and Vancouver. First up, Rocky Mountains! I'm looking forward to flying over them. Then the Pacific Ocean!

I ordered another headset for work. Since we're playing a game on the ship, I'll need a headset, but I don't want to risk not having one when I come home, so I'm getting a backup.

I have downloaded a bunch of books onto my kindle, which I need to remember to take. I may just charge it up and then pack it now, since the battery holds a charge forever. I may also be able to pack Jess' Switch, so they have something to play if they so desire. I think I can consolidate some more cords into the tech bag, so that'll free up more space in my already not full carryon. My sister's bag is shipping as I type, so she can also enjoy the joy of organization. This bag is an ADHD person's dream, I swear. Everything has a place, and it's awesome. My hard shell case for my Mounjaro fits right in one of the pockets for Liquids or tech. Tech may be relegated to the inside of the suitcase, which would be fine. I don't expect to have many liquids. I'm just going to take up my CC cream and concealer. I'll probably add eyeliner and maybe eyeshadow and lipgloss to it, but those won't go in the liquid bag. Maybe some combination blush/lip cream. I don't put on makeup often, but for the vow renewal, I'd like to look presentable. I need to also redye my hair. I'm kind of digging the grey on the sides, and purple on top look, so I may stick with that. I will need to make an appt to get things trimmed up between now and then, just to get the undercut freshened up. I also eed to make an appt for Jess. I did not do a great job with their last cut, plus it's already getting longer again. I'd like to have a professional tidy it up so that I can maintain it easier.

Okay, time for me to go forth and maybe take a shower, so I don't stink the people at Chase out. Everyone have a lovely Saturday!

comments

And some days it don't come easy and some days it don't come hard,and some days it don't come at all

Fri, 03 Apr 2026 09:27:44 GMT

It's Friday, and that means it's almost time for the weekend!

Yesterday was slow at work, which meant I spent the day mostly bored. I had one Cardiac CT to fill for today, and I swear, I couldn't have paid people to take it. The problem is that the site that it's at, while busy, does 4 of the studies a day, so they're only about 3 weeks out for these scans. So people are more likely to say that they'll keep their original appointment. It's annoying. I did have one in Columbia, and was able to make someone's day getting them in 3 months sooner. Columbia is one of our two super busy sites, and they're booking in June. Then, I had three Cardiac MRIs cancel in succession. I was able to get the two on my wait list off, and make a third person's day. I felt accomplished. The MRIs are worth more than the CTs anyway, so I feel good about that. I probably saved upwards of $3000 in revenue. And I do that at least once or twice a week, so I much actually have saved us over $150k in the last year. It's a drop in the Hopkins bucket, but for one department it's actually not bad.

While I was working, I put on a lamb shank, cut into medium pieces to boil down. Then, after about 2 1/2 hours, I pulled the lamb, and tossed a couple of cups of butternut squash in. Once that was done, I let it sit til it cooled and mashed it up and mixed in a bit of rice. Then, I mixed in the lamb with a cup of the broth. Once work was done, I pulled out the vaccum sealer, amd sealed all seven packets. He had one last night, and absolutely devoured it. There was no hesitation, no fucking around, just time to eat. It's funny that his favorites are things I don't particularly like. I'm not a big goat fan, and I don't like lamb at all. But the dog does, so goat and lamb I shall get. I don't think it's more than his bougie food was. Farmer's dog was expensive. But it definitely is less convienent. Today or tomorrow, I shall cook some chicken and gizzards for puppers. He won't like it as much as the goat or lamb, but eventually he does eat it.

While I was portioning and sealing the bags, Jess kindly made dinner. The Masala marinated wings were excellent, especially with some rice. Then, my sister wanted something sweet, so she ordered from an Italian pasta and patisserie place. Holy shit those desserts were amazing. My sister got one that was a sweet cream with Italian liqueur soaked cherries. That was the standout for me. My tart raspberry panna cotta was delicious. but too much raspberry sauce. You really had to get a bite for the panna cotta to stand out. Jess' Tiramisu was lovely. It's called Daniella's Pasta and Patisserie. I can't wait to try their actual food. Maybe tonight.

I have converted another to the church of the Bento Bag. I did a test packing, and good lord, there was so much more space than I needed. Even with all the tech stuff. It fit my pills, a full change of clothes, our sound machine, etcetera. And it turns out that the hard case I got for Mounjaro slid right in the front pocket, fit perfectly. My laptop and kindle fit handily. The only thing I didn't pack was my charger for my phone, but there was So much room, it's not going to be a problem. My sister, seeing the sheer amount I was able to fit in, said that she would like one. I had a discount, so I put int he order, and she's Zelle-ing me the payment.

Hers is more of a violet, which was my third choice of color. There was a gorgeous green as well, but the pink spoke to me.

Today is sure to be another long day, with a break in the middle for the manager's meeting, which should be fun and full of bitching. One of our managers is out on FMLA for surgery, so things are falling on the remaining managers, which has been tough. We only really have four true managers. We have the head of our call center, A. Then we've got her second in command, who deals more with the employees, J. Then the two team leads, JMR and S. Beneath them are R, JM and I in pseudo management roles and N, who is our trainer. It's not a big team for nearly 40 employees.

We'll see what else I end up doing. I'm assuming the normal. On the phones a bit, filling in some appointments, tackling the tough patients, and generally being the all around all star.

I'm excited to see what my check looks like this week. I haven't done any OT, so we'll see what my base pay is going to be with the new role. It's not going to be a ton more, but we'll see on Tuesday when they post the info.

After work, I have Vecna, which has thus far been a fun game. I'm adapting as per usual, adding some characters who will reoccur. It's only the third session, so everyone is still getting the feeling of the game. I think it'll be pretty good, though. The sad thing is that it's a published module from the owners of D&D, Wizards of the Coast, and yet it's still riddled with stupid and questionable decisions and badly written puzzles. Its no wonder that the last few modules I've started have been either homebrew or independent companies.

Tomorrow is the beginning of the swan song of our Monster of the Week game. It's been going for over 5 years, so it's time, but it's bittersweet. It's the first game I started on the server, so it's truly the end of an era. I love the characters, and I'm going to be so sad to think that I won't see them again. What started out as a bunch of unconnected one shots grew into a plotline that spanned years and many worlds. The party has battled demons, saved the various lands of Faerie so may times, met gods, become selkies themselves. It was hard to think of a good mystery to end on, but I looked at the variety of things they've done, and decided to bring back their oldest nemesis. We're going back to the beginning and I hope everyone has a good time.

Tomorrow is actually a busy day. We're planning to go to the Asia in a Bite festival, which is all street food, from many Asian cuisines. I saw at least Japanese, Chinese, Filipino, and Thai. SO many dumplings.

Later, Yoda has his grooming, and I will probably start the chicken boiling for his meals. I don't know what we'll put with it. Some form of veggie and some rice. I'll probably put a bit of cornstarch in the leftover broth and make a gravy for it. Then, he'll alternate chicken and lamb until I need to make some more goat. Sadly the 5lbs of lamb shank only made about 7 meals. I just don't have a pot big enough to cook more than that. I could get a bigger pot, but I feel like that would be difficult to clean an difficult to work with, so I'll stick with my 7 quart cast iron pan and just make multiple small batches. If I really push it, and make food 2-3 a week, I should be stocked up for when we leave for vacation to leave with the kennels.

We're only 34 days from trip. I'm getting excited, but also having the anxiety and dread that something will go wrong and it won't happen. I'll feel much better when Yoda has had a successful stay at the boarding kennels. He's not going to be happy, but hopefully he behaves. If not, he's going to the vet for boarding. It makes me sad to think that he won't have someone to cuddle for bed, but we need our vacation.

I've downloaded a ton of books onto my Kindle, and I'm going to download some videos so that I have something to read or watch on the plane. That's assuming that I can't get a nap in.

I've confirmed with most of the vendors, that we're using, and I've got everything on my phone as well as a printed itinerary. Definitely printing out the boarding passes at the kiosk so that I don't have to stand there with my phone and pull up each ticket individually getting on the plane. I bought the tickets, so everything is in my account.

I'm excited to see when our vow renewal will be. I might stuff one dress into the carryon, just in case our luggage gets lost. Probably not my fancy dress, but something. Plus then I can change for the steakhouse when we get into vancouver without digging in the suitcase.

After packing the bento bag, I'm questioning the enormous suitcase that I have. I will definitely have room for souvenirs to fit, I think. Plus, it's looking decidedly like we'll need the heavy coat. Juneau still has snow on the ground, so it may be colder than excpected. That's okay. I like cooler weather.

Okay, time for me to hop off and work on Marchen. Everyone have a most excellent Friday!

comments

I'm off the deep end, watch as I dive in, I'll never meet the ground

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 09:24:26 GMT

It's Thursday, and a long slide towards the weekend!

This morning, I didn't really want to get up with my alarm. I was up a little bit later than normal and I can tell. I was fucking around on YouTube and it threw up a video of Jeremy Jordan (Lucifer in Hazbin Hotel) singing Let it Go. And that just took me down the rabbit hole. Here he is belting out some Celine Dion.

I really enjoy his voice. He also has a band called Age of Madness, who does and excellet version of Seven Nation Army.

So anyway, I was up late, and this morning came way too early. I'm getting up at 4am now in preparation for school which starts in 1 week! God, that came up quickly. We'll see how it goes!

Hopefully I'm able to keep up.

I've got a lot of stuff scheduled for April and May, so that could be a challenge. I thought about delaying my classes until the next semester, but honestly, that's probably no better, as that would be in June, right before we go to the Rocky Horror. Though I suppose that's and end of July with Weird Al are the only things I'd have, as opposed to a giant 10 day trip to Alaska. I don't know, I will think on it. On one hand, that might make more sense. On the other, I really hate to push it back.

When I look out at the sheer number of things we have coming up, I'm so happy and excited. First up, on 4/18, we have the Lost Boys musical. Then, Alaska, leaving in early-mid May. Then we get back and in June we have the Rocky Horror. July brings a Weird Al concert. Then we have a break until October, when we have CONfab, and in November the Undertale symphony.

I got my new bag yesterday. I had planned for it to be my personal item on the plane, but it may well be my carryon. I got a Bento Bag from Nomad Lane. It cost as much as I make in two days of overtime, but it's so nice. Plus with all the aforementioned travel, I think it'll be worth the high price point. It's got pockets galore, and it just feels quality. It's got some structure, and I think it's going to easily fit everything I need it to. Best of all, it fits in the seat in front of me for easy access. I got it in Sangria, which is a very pretty pink. At some point, I'm going to try packing it, just to see what I can get in there, and if I need anything else. It can fit a 16" laptop, so I may have to reconsider taking the big laptop with us.

A very pretty abd efficient bag.

I think of all the things I had coming, this is what I was most excited about. It makes up for the somewhat disappointing backpack I had gotten previously. It was rather small, and not well set up.

So I think I'll be taking this and either my Beis purse or possibly my old black one. The Beis is bright orange, so that will clash with the pink. But on the other hand, it's small, comfortable, and will hold everything I need for walking around on the ship or in Alaska. I don't want to be hauling my normal enormous purse with me. This is just big enough for wallet, pill case, phone, inhaler and epi pens. The black one is a little bit bigger, but is very unobtrusive. I will think upon it.

I did find a company that lets you buy antibiotics for travel, just in case, so I ordered that. It should cover us if anyone needs something while on the ship. I'd like to avoid the expensie Med Bay if possible.

I also got my long-awaited Derpy cat Squishmallow yesterday.

It wasn't supposed to ship til May, but it came early! It's so cute and soft, and I love it.

I went an picked up a ton of meat yesterday. SO much goat for Yoda plus some tasty Masala marinated chicken legs. We've had them before, and they are amazing. I might have gone overboard on what I got, but he eats two 7oz packets of food a day. We'll probably go through it pretty quickly. Today I'm going to be cooking a lamb shank. I think I'll add in some butternut squash as well. And of course some brown rice to keep him regular. I got a whole lamb shank, which is 4lbs, so hopefully that will render enough meat to make at least a few days worth of his food. He really likes the goat, so I'm hoping the lamb will go over well, too. I need to get a pork shank or something to make him, as he's a big fan of pork. I'd use a butt, but they're way too fatty for his little tummy.

I may use chicken broth and cook a pork loin. I wish they sold that with a bone so I could make pork broth for flavor. I need to go to a butcher, since obviously, the Halal butcher does not do pork.

When I went to pick up the groceries, this sweet older man insisted on carrying my groceries to the car and told me to make my husband bring them in. Jess was kind enough to bring in the bags, so I guess he was half right?

I carried the bag with dinner in it from a place I used to get from when I worked at IKEA. The food was pretty good. I wasn't horribly hungry thanks to Mounjaro. I ate too much at lunch and was paying for it. I'm looking forward to eating it today though.

Today should be a bit quieter at work. It wasn't bad yesterday, I was mostly off the phone making switches happen and calling patients back. And, I found out that the friend I had referred to our dept is getting the job, so that's cool. Another $1000 that should hit right around the holidays. I will share it with her, of course. She, after all, is the reason I'm getting it.

On Monday, I'm going to be on the phone most of the day, as I will be modeling good behavior for the two trainees. That should be just thrilling. Then, on Thursday, I have my training for the new phone system. Which I still believe is going to be a disaster. We're changing over at the end or April, so I need to figure out how I'm going to run the ethernet cord that they swear we're going to need.

Okay, time for me to hop off and maybe work on Marchen for a bit. Everyone have an astounding Thursday!

comments

There's a calm surrender tot he rush of day, when the heat of a rolling wind can be turned away.

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 09:31:42 GMT

We've made it to the halfway point! It's Hump Day. Mind you, it's also April Fools day, so don't believe a thing you read unless you verify it with a trusted news source. (Though really, that should be every day.)

Yesterday, I had a migraine for half the day. It started kicking in around 1, and by 2, I was having a migraine aura that made me 100% unsafe to drive, so reluctantly, I called and moved Boodles appt. Jess also had a migraine and had taken a weed mint to help, so they also were not going to be driving. Instead, I napped (with Yoda outside the door alternately wuffling and crying that I would separate myself from him so. I gave up after about 45 minutes, and he joyfully barked at me. Ow.

I mean, I love that I'm one of his alternate people, but an actual nap would have been nice.

Dinner was Greek food, ordered from a new highly ranked place. Their meats were great, the spanakopita was meh, and the avgolemono soup wasn't bad. I had a salad with a stick of souvlaki meat. I gave my second stick to Jess, who had the spanakopita. I wasn't going to eat it, and I'm probably going to order from another Greek Restaurant to get some decent calamari today. IT was straight rubber.

Then, we walked the dog. It's funny, for years, we've struggled with his digestion. How many times have I said "oh, he's got a poopy butt?" A LOT. That's the answer. Because his poops were always very loose. Since I started cooking and adding in the brown rice, he's been having so much more solid poop. It's been much easier to pick up, plus less chance of a poopy but, because it's so firm. It' just comes popping out instead of straining and getting part of it stuck in his fur.

After that, I passed out in bed and did not wake up til my alarm at 4 am. I'm trying to get up then to get ready for school next week.

The weather has really been doing a numer on my head lately. I've had at least annoyance headaches pretty much every day. My allergies have started kicking in a bit, which I'm not enjoying.

Only 36 days til we leave for Alaska. I feel like we're leaving a lot to last minute, but it's just the animals that are pending. Yoda, I'm doing the best that we can. Boodle is set, though she does need her vet visit, but we'll try to get that done next week to make sure she's okay.

She came over at about 3am to wake me, but Jess got up and fed her, which I deeply appreciate. Last I heard before I dozed back off was Boodle happily slurping her food.

I decided to put an order in at the halal butcher. I'm ordering some more goat and lamb for Yoda's meals, since that seems to be his favorite, but I'm also ordering some chicken for him, and then some Masala marinated chicken legs for us. We've had them before, and they're amazing. Lightly spicy, with a good curry flavor. Just really tasty. I've never had a problem with their quality before.

I cannot find the Halibut in our freezer. I'm going to look in the small freezer to see if it migrated there, but all I could find was cod and salmon. I was going to make halibut in a lemon butter sauce for dinner tonight, but that's hard when you don't have the fish. And It's not like I can just go to the corner store to get more. Our local seafood places just don't stock it. I could get it for $35/lb at Wegmans, but good lord.

In other news, I switched our "Welcome to Canada Dinner" to another location. We were at CHOP, now we're going to Hy's. Chop just seemed a little too modern and loud, where as Hy's seems quiet and like an old-time steak house. Dark wood, rich colors. It looked about right for somewhere to have a good quiet meal after what will end up being 9+ hours of travel. Five hours in flight, and then three and a half to four hours to get to Vancouver. By the time we get to our hotel, our bodies will feel like it's bedtime. And by the time we finish dinner it'll be later than I'm normally up at the end of a nighttime game. I will definitely do my best to sleep in later the next day, and I feel like sightseeing may get a late start. (Late by my standards, that is.).

I've been watching some videos on Vancouver, and have been getting increasingly excited about that part of the trip. I can't wait to walk around Granville Market and try foods. I know my sister is all about trying the maple candied Salmon, but I just want to walk throguh and try everything.

We agreed that for dinner on Friday night in Vancouver, my sister and brother in law are on their own. We're going to see Mortal Kombat II on opening night, so we'll probably get something on the way. We're thinking Dim Sum in China town, or Sushi or just something we couldn't get with BIL in tow. Vancouver has so much good Asian food that we've gotta try something.

I'm excited about the ship, and trying new foods. I'm thinking about scheduling a massage for Jess and I. I can't decide whether it's better to do it on the first or last day. Start the vacation right or wait and end the vacation with a little bliss before we have to get on a plane in 2 days.

Or, alternately, schedule one for after we're back, to relax us after the flight. We will have that Monday after we get home to relax and catch up on laundry. We could slip in a massage then, before we go fetch Yoda from the boarding place.

The ports should be fun as well, but there's not too many places that I really must try in Alaska. There's Klondike Doughboy, so we can get a big fried dough to share. Maybe Tracey's Crab Shack, but I don't know that I need $100+ Alaskan King Crab legs. I'm just as happy with Dungeness. And coincidentally, we're having a dungeness crab feast in Ketchikan. I'm really looking forward to that. All the Dungeness you can eat in an hour. We've been having mini crab feasts here in preparation and I think we can make a dent in it!

But mostly, I'm looking forward to seeing and doing things. I can't wait to see the pacific ocean. I might not get to touch it right now, but I'll see it. Next year, I'll swim in it in Hawaii.

I'm going to see some of Seattle, though we only really have three spots lined up for that tour. The Space Needle for my BIL, Pikes Place Market for me and for lunch, then,a park that the limo company recommended.

Then, the long, hopefully pretty drive up the coast to Vancouver, where we're going to be total tourists about it. We're going to do the hop on hop off bus, and use that to get around, and go to the Granville Market, and Stanley Park, and the Gastown Steam Clock.

The next day up early so our bougie hotel can pick up our bags and take them down to port. Then breakfast and some Coffee and Timbits from Tim Hortons.

On one of the forums I'm on, someone asked a question about the Pinnacle Suite, and a lot of people hopped in, talking about how awesome it is. I'm very excited about being a VIP for a week. The benefits of the Pinnacle Suite start in the terminal, where an employee will walk you through check in and security and up to your suite, and then introduce you to your concierge. I'll see if I can set up a standing coffee and pasty delivery for the mornings. While I have a coffee maker, I also would like a pot. With four of us, that machine is going to be a busy place in the mornings. Instead, we'll just have a big vat delivered and be all set with no waiting.

I'm going to have to do some schoolwork on the ship, plus we may try playing a game on the first sea day. We'll be starting around 9am, so that could be a challenge, but we do have the premium internet package, so hopefully that's enough to have a stable connection and play.

Depending on how that goes, I might also try scheduling another game on the last full day of the cruise, which is also a sea day. We shall see.

Okay, I feel like I've talked about all this before, so I'm going to hop off now. Everyone have an outstanding Wednesday!

comments

I have often dreamed of a far off place where a hero's welcome would be waiting for me...

Tue, 31 Mar 2026 09:14:20 GMT

Thankfully, Monday is done, and now it's Tuesday. Sure to be very busy, but we'll deal.

Yesterday, I spent a lot of time on the phones, trying to keep the call volume down some, with little breaks to do shit. The emails to the add on box were fast and furious, and I struggled to be on the phones and keep up. Since I have holds on some days, that was semi important, so I could tell people where we had slots for patients. Right now, I don't have a ton of holds, but we'll see.

Unfortunately, towards the end of my day, I was trying to fill in a cardiac MRI slot for our Columbia office because they had a cancellation for Monday, and with their restrictions, they can be tough to find patients for. And as I was working on it, one of my coworkers filled it with a patient they absolutely could not see. So, I was curious, and started looking through a few appointments, and since they opened up their schedule for regular scheduling, it looks like there's quite a few that have been scheduled incorrectly.

So that's my job this morning. I get to comb through the next two months plus of their schedule and see how fucked up things are. I am of course, going to make a spreadsheet about it.

It turned out that they already have a document with some common responses, so my grand idea was moot. I may still make up some for my benefit, but we'll see. Depends on what kind of time I have.

After dinner, we had a pork loin with a Hawaiian smoked seasoning. It was really tasty, but had a little kick to it. The Kailua Seasoning Company has some amazing blends. So far my favorite is the Aloha Smoke Spice, but the others are really tasty as well. Tonight will be the lemon pepper blend on some halibut, which should be tasty. I may make a lemon cream sauce to compliment it, but we'll see how I feel after a busy day of work.

We've got an appointment to take Boodle to the vet for a check up. She's lost a bit of weight, and I'm a little concerned. Okay, a lot concerned. That's how our last two cats passed. She's still eating, drinking and doing her business perfectly normally, but I worry. She's about 15 years old, and she's my baby. I had a little meltdown about it last night, but today I am very firmly not thinking about it.

Tomorrow, another fun day of work. Wednesdays are usually when the call volume slows down a touch, and I can get more administrative work done. Still no word on when I'm going to be shadowing the trash fire, so it may not be this week. It doesn't matter much when it is. I'm going to do it and I'm going to make notes, and then, I will present them honestly.

I've been watching the videos of the curtain call for the Rocky Horror Preview shows. We're going to be seeing it in June. I'm glad we're in the last row of the mezzanine, so I don't have to see Luke Evan's junk in detail. Lets just say that he was very happy to see the crowd. It was a wee bit distracting. It looks like a cool show. I'm looking forward to seeing it.

It's down to 37 days til the Alaska cruise. I've hired a cat watcher, but we still can't get Yoda acclimated to the kennels. He needs his second flu shot, which is scheduled on April 9th. Then another two weeks for it to take effect, and then we can send him to the kennel on the 23rd. Which we're going to do. He'll stay for four days. Then, he'll have another couple of days their on that Thurs and Friday 4/30-5/1, and then on Wednesday the 6th, he goes for 11 days. God I'm nervous about this. The vet is our backup plan, but I'd feel horrible about that. I already feel bad that for 11 nights there will be no one for him to snuggle up to. But we deserve a vacation.

Pet care is costing me more than renting a chauffeured van to take us on a tour of Seattle, and up to Vancouver, which will probably be a 6-7 hour service.

We were watching a video for ideas of where to eat in Vancouver (so many places) and the hosts were complaining over things being expensive. Their version of expensive was $8 CAD. Which is like $5.74 in USD. I was rolling my eyes so hard. They had a couple of good suggestions, but mostly I spent it annoyed. The next video was much better, and it gave me ideas for our night out when we go see Mortal Kombat II. Our choices are very limited with the Brother in Law. He's very much a meat and potatoes kind of guy. But he and my sister aren't coming to the movies with us, so we can go wherever we want. Currently leaning towards hitting Chinatown for some dumplings and dim sum.

Either Baltimore is very expensive (likely) or Vancouver isn't that expensive (also possible).

There's a Hy's steakhouse in Vancouver, which I only know about because of Hawaii videos. It's kind of the big steakhouse in Waikiki, and when I looked it up, it had a franchise in Vancouver. I'm tempted, though it's super pricey. I did say that I wanted this trip to be first class all the way, so I think I might do it.

Hopefully the Vancouver uber scene is up to snuff so we can get to places. We're going to use the hop on hop off trolley for the daytime, but I think they stop running in the evening, so Uber or taxi it shall be. With four of us, we'll need a bigger vehicle, or for someone to sit in the front of the car and cram the rest of us in the back. But a mini van would be better, because none of us are small people.

Okay, time for me to get myself together and maybe write a bit on Marchen. I keep going back and adding things to the ealier parts, so I haven't made a ton of headway in the last couple of days. Everyone have a stellar Tuesday!

comments

He told me that my power would grow like the grapes that thrive on the vine

Mon, 30 Mar 2026 09:33:26 GMT

And sadly, we're. back to Monday again. My back is weirdly pissed at me this morning. It made bending down to get the half and half out of the fridge a challenge. I'll be on the phones most of the day, because it's sure to be busy. Maybe I'll find out the plan for the trash fire coworker today. I just need to know when I need to show up to shadow her. Though I'm also certain that the meeting will produce some bitching, which will be entertaining as hell.

I'm sure they'll have other stuff for me to do as well. Maybe I can look at trash fire's Friday appts. That was fun. I probably shouldn't be so shocked that someone who has been there longer than I have is doing so poorly, but the stuff I'm hearing comes as a complete surprise. They're very good about keeping that shit quiet to the other coworkers. And I figure that I know more than the average on account of my friendship with A, who is the manager of the Radiology call center and that I was in a weird liminal space between rank and file and low level management.

I feel a little bad for A, who was off on Friday, and is coming in to the minor explosion of everything with the trash fire.

Sunday was a good, somewhat productive day. It started out lazy, as I relaxed until it was time for our little semi game session. First, we got the other player's character sheet set up with the subclass information, and then she and Jess had a delightful bit of roleplay. I already love both of the characters, and I think this is going to be a fun game.

Arvandor quickly became one of my favorite games as the plot encouraged that good, good roleplay, and the players were awesome and open and vulnerable, and it was lovely and engaging and super fun. The players bought into the story hard, and wrote journal entries in character and talked about the game and really worked the schedule to get more games on there. We did like four sessions to every one of some of my others. (Scheduling for 4 people is much easier than 7.).

The other server is taking baby steps into roleplay, mostly because I'm forcing them to with Crooked Moon, but it's slow going. They're used to dictating what their characters do rather then playing as them. I'm hoping the progress continues, and that I'm able to bring in backstory and keep have them pushing their comfort levels.

But I expect Marchen to be a heavy roleplay game. There's a lot of interaction with NPCs, and I expect the party to slowly learn about each other and start talking to each other as their bonds grow. There will definitely be some combat, but there will be options to avoid most of them if they so desire.

It's off to a good start though! The roleplay was delightful, and I'm looking even more forward to 4/19. This may be a game I offer to play on the boat. We'd have to be up to play by 8am or 9am, so it would be tough, but we could do it.

After that, I relaxed for a bit, then began cooking the dogs food. I need to start getting like four trays of meat for his food and cooking it in the big pan all the time, because the two trays only made 6 containers of food. I need to get some calcium powder to add in, because he needs that. I also may start adding the salmon oil to the food at preparation instead of at serving, because sometimes I forget, and I want him to have his good Omega 3s.

Last night, I made goat with vegetables and brown rice. First, I sautéed the ground goat in two batches. Then, I steamed the veggies and added them in. Last came some plain brown rice from a Japanese restaurant (Which I tasted to make sure it was plain). Then, once it cooled a bit, I broke out my new toy, a vacuum food sealer.

I love this machine. It worked really well, and once they were sealed the pouches were relatively flat and easy to store. Today I need to take his chicken out of the container, and weigh them out so that he gets uniform amounts of food from here on out. I think I was overfeeding him a bit.

It's kind of a pain in the ass, but he's so much happier with freshly cooked food. He gobbles it down and licks the plate (and his dinner mat clean every night, which is considerably more than I can say about the bougie food he was on.

It'll probably cost about the same as the bougie food, but I think it'll be better for him. Plus, when he was skipping nights of the bougie food, he was having a very sensitive digestive tract. So far, since starting the fresh food diet, he's been having good solid poop that comes regularly and very rarely does he have to go on the pads.

Today, I may put a chicken on to stew and then make another round of nice brothy chicken and rice.

I need to get some more goat meat for stew and cook that up. I will get four containers of that as well, as it wasn't a ton of meat on the bones. I may see if they have the goat or lamb shank to cook instead. That would probably be a good option, being nice lean meats.

I also will get some turkey, as he likes turkey. I want to get him some ground pork as well, since pork is usually his favorite.

I got a ton of frozen and fresh veggies for both him and us. Though the butternut squash is decidedly for him as it is not a favorite for me. I may take a bit of it, and make my sister some, but that's about it.

After that, I vegged out, watched some videos and generally took it easy. We had a bit of dinner, but I wasn't that hungry, as we had sushi for lunch, and I was still pretty full.

Bedtime came, and I relaxed snuggled with Jess. We have a thing here I'll squirm down a touch, and they will put out their arm for me to lay my head on. We snuggle and talk and maybe listen to a podcast to wind down before bed. It's very nice and cozy and the highlight of my day.

No more dreams about being mean to Jess to feel guilty about. I don't like it when dream-me is a jerk.

I have a few packages coming this week that I'm excited about. One is a skort from Torrid. I love skorts, but I have none. There's something awesome about knowing that you're covered no matter how you sit or move.

Thankfully, as I've been sitting and the ibuprofen is kicking in, my back is settling down. It's still a bit twingy, but better.

Okay, I should probably hop off and do some work on Marchen. Everyone have the very best Monday you can Monday!

comments

He told me that the life of my dreams would be promised and someday be mine

Sun, 29 Mar 2026 11:50:38 GMT

It's Sunday and I actually managed to stay in bed until 6:45! For me that's a lazy morning!

Yesterday, I knew we were going out for lunch, but we were planning on Mexican. Instead, as frequently happens, my ADHD brain derailed that. Inevitably on the day of, I'm like "But wait, what if this instead?" It drives Jess insane. I was idly flipping through social media and one of my acquaintances on facebook was somewhere overseas, having High Tea at a hotel. Her pictures of the food were amazing and I was like "I wonder if there's any new teahouses near us?" And it turns out there's a very highly rated one just over the state line, called the Tea Trolley in Delta, PA. Not more than a 45 minute drive. I mentioned this to Jess in my best "I'm sorry I'm a pain in the ass" way, and they were intrigued. So we went for a drive.

It was a pretty pleasant drive and didn't tweak my carsickness like the trip to the winery did, so that was good. We had a little bit of trouble finding it, mostly owing to google not being the most clear, but we figured it out, and pulled in behind an enormous Victorian mansion. They had a ramp at the back, but we went in the front way, and came up the front stairs. As per usual, we'd gotten there super early, so we had a little while to wait, browsing the gift shop. Before too long, our adorable waiter took us to our seats. We were upstairs, which was fine, since the downstairs rooms were packed. The room was wallpapered in burgundy, and the seats were pretty but sturdy, which I as a fat girl very much appreciated. The table set up was very delicate, with fine china, and a dainty floral tablecloth.

I ended up getting the Almond Cookie tea, which is almond, cinnamon and black tea. They brought up this enormous pot of it--had to be at least 1.5 quarts. I know I had five (admittedly dainty) cups of tea, and it still had more to give. The taste was amazing. I plopped a sugar cube in and it tasted so good. I ended up buying a bag of it to take home.

We orded the Full Tea and added soup and salad for $3 each. This brought our total up to a reasonable $31/pp, which still seems a bit on the cheap side. I kind of expect that it's going to be closer to $50. While we were sitting, we saw a couple of the salads go past, and then the soup was cream of crab, so we figured why not?

The salad came first. It was a spinach salad with strawberries, bacon dressign and topped with feta cheese. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Simple, but very tasty. Next up was the soup, which was amazing. Probably some of hte best cream of crab I've ever had. It had just enough Old Bay to give a little burn, and the broth was so creamy with chunks of crab in it.

Then, the tower came. The bottom tier had the savories, which included a cucumber sandwich, a curried chicken salad with radish and mango (Jess ate both of those due to mango allergy.), and a phyllo cup with spinach dip, and then leek bacon mini quiche. (I ate both of those due to Jess' egg squick.) They were amazing. I could have eaten many, many more of them. Then it was up to the sweets, which were a lemon bar, which was okay, but I don't like lemon in my desserts. Jess gave it a thumbs up. There was a tiny pineapple upside down cake which was very tasty. And then there was a peanut butter chocolate cookie dunked in white chocolate and peanut butter, with a sweet peanut butter drizzle. SO good. Rich as hell, so I only ate half, not because I didn't want to. I just also wanted to try the scone.

The scone was a raspberry white chocolate, and was very good. Crispy on the outside, tender on the in, lightly dusted with powdered sugar and with the appropriate accompaniments of clotted cream, lemon curd and a lovely strawberry compote.

All in all, it was a wonderful time, totally worth the 45 minute drive.

Later, I went to the weed store for my sleepy pills. I'm hating the idea that I can't take them to Alaska. There's going to be some tough sleep nights, I think.

After that, I was starting with a migraine, so I went to bed early and napped. It wasnt' a great nap, as I had some nightmares, where I was rude and kind of an asshole to Jess, so I woke up feeling guilty about stuff I did in a dream.

I was wide awake at bedtime, but I put on a video on youtube about Hawaii and soon settled down for a long winter's nap.

Today, I shall write a little set up for our little RP today. I'm looking forward to meeting the new characters, and as long as roll20 behaves while we set up the other players character sheet, we'll have a lot of fun.

I'm going to offer to the other two players that if they want to roleplay anything prior to the game as far as set up, we can definitely do that. We have no games on Sunday next week, so I could sneak in a couple of quick sessions.

After that, I'm going to figure out what to do for dinner, and maybe make the puppy more food. The goat meat and butternut squash was a resounding success, so I'd like to make him more of that. I might also make another chicken, since all either of them need to do is simmer for a couple of hours. I also have ground goat meat that I could fry up with vegetables and make a less wet food. Not sure what starch to put in there. maybe a little bit of quinoa.

Tomorrow, it's back to work for another busy day. I should get more info on when I'm shadowing the dumpster fire after they talk to her. I'm assuming it'll be later in the week, as they need me on the phones on Monday and Tuesday.

At some point this week, I need to do my cologuard screening and maybe my at home pap smear. The joys of aging.

Okay, time to go forth and finish writing the intro for todays session. Everyone have a wonderful Sunday!

comments

Not like you to say sorry, I was waiting on a different story

Sat, 28 Mar 2026 11:11:37 GMT

Another Friday in the books--but I had to fight for it, let me tell you.

Work was almost entirely stuff for the new job. I waa barely on the phone. First up, I got to go into the trashfire's appointment from yesterday and see how many errors she'd made. It showed two things that needed to be updated, and five appointments that needed to be moved, including a particularly egregious one that was at an outpatient center, for a patient who had verbally abused the staff at a different outpatient center that the cops had to be called. Pt's with behavioral issues go to the hospital where we have security. The outpatient centers may have an aging security guard, but lets be real: In a real emergency they're going to do no good. I sent her an email about that one. I wanted a paper trail. Patient care alerts or FYIs are in red on the left of the pt chart, and on the right side of the chart is the reason for it, also in bold letters. I sent her an email to fix it. I get the feeling I want documentation that I've spoken with her, just in case it tries to bite me in the ass.

Soon after, it was the manager's meeting/bitchfest. The trashfire was the topic of discussion for much of it. This time I was more involved, presenting the stats for her errors (12% of her calls have errors of varying seriousness.) The managers were not pleased by this. There was discussion of if there was a specific type of scan that screws her up, and I had to admit that while MRI's lead the list, it's in every modality.

Much discussion about what to do with her. It's decided that the trainer will shadow her a couple of days, and that I (who me?) will also shadow her a couple/few days. This will occur after the Top two managers and her manager confir on Monday. It should be interesting.

Then there was discussion of my job, and that they were granted the two new positions, but not to backfill my role. As a result, I'm on the phones sometimes. They're going to announce soon, I get the feeling that they're trying to figure out how to do it tactfully, since they didn't advertise the job, basically just installed me into it. I also learned that the last time I had applied, I was second choice. If the other person hadn't accepted, I'd have gotten the job. That's fine, I got it now. There was a little bit more discussion that I don't remember, but I did make notes.

Then, I took a turn watching the help channel in teams. It was mostly not busy, though towards the end of the hour, the questions were coming from multiple people at once. I hadn't done it since I had applied for the first job, and I was suprrised how much easier it was this time. I only needed to look up one thing, and I was right about what I was going to say. I guess I did need that extra 15 months for seasoning.

Finally, I grabbed my lunch break and relaxed after taking doggo on his walk. Then, back to my desk and 12 new emails. Good lord. The rest of the time was filling appointment and checking emails.

I got a message from the pacemaker person. This ballsy motherfucker called their cardiologist on vacation (!!!!) and got him to write the order for his MRI. So now I need to shuffle two patients to make a hole for us to get them in on 4/20. I hardly ever say this, but that poor doctor. I now understand why the office told me "We're very familiar with This patient."

I finished up the day with a coworker pinging me on teams to see if I had a scrip for sending a mychart message to a patient. (Of course I fucking do.) Any new message I write, I keep a document of. It makes live easier. One of my bilingual coworkers is helping me translate to Spanish as well. Eventually, I plan to put it out there as a resource.

I will bring that up in the chat on Monday.

Finally, I finished work and sat down for a half hour before we dealt with dinner. I had put on the ribs at 3:30, so by 5:30 they were tender. The carrots were taking forever to cook, so instead we had salad with them, and then nibbled ont he carrots later.

I wanted game snacks, so I ordered dumplings from NiHao, which came 40 minutes into the game, but they were so worth it. I got Crystal Shrimp dumplings, which are so delicious and tender, Soup dumplings which were brimming with tasty pork soup, gyoza, which are a favorite. Last, I ordred Peking Duck eggrolls which come with a plum sauce to dip. Good lord, I love those things. I could eat just them. I also have scallion and egg rice for breakfast, which should be yummy. I need my friends to come down here so I can take them for Dim Sum at NiHao.

The game was a lot of fun. They reached the Forgotten prince, who gave them a hell of a fight and took down one of the players before being curbstomped. It was a good fight and everyone seemed to have fun. And the rogue critted on a vorpal sword attack, which was hilarious. and a fitting end to the arc. Now, armed and ready, they will prepare to take on Tiamat. Fortunately, our next game isn't for three months (We switched it around so the player that had to leave for school can play. So Saturdays will be chaotic for a while on the old calendar. I need that time to code in a handful of characters. I'm going to need stats for the handmaidens. then I need to pull dragon character sheets. Then, I need to code in Tiamat. She's a five headed dragon, and for her, each head needs it's own character sheet and initiative. It's going to be bonkers.

It should be a lot of fun. I'm looking forward to it. Also ready to finish the game. It's been an amazing five years, and I love these characters, but I've run out of things to do with them. They've fought just about everything the D&D world had to throw at them. It's time.

This was session 92. It would not surprise me if the game lasts to 100 sessions. They still have some work to get into hell, and then a gauntlet to run before they get to the big, big bad. The ultimate enemy for the end of a five year campaign.

Today should be fun. I've got a few errands to do, and then I shall relax. I've only got one pack of my sleepy pills, so it's time to put in a big order at the dispensary, since they acrually have them in. This will carry me through til Canada (Where I sadly cannot take it.) So that's good.

I'm waiting on my new carry on bag that will join my backpack as my personal item. It's not supposed to come until Wednesday. I want to start packing the stuff I can, dammit. I'm ready for this trip. I realized that I was not going to be able to carry any clothes in the backpack when you factored in medicine, including Mounjaro in a case of some sort to protect it, plus electronics. (Laptop, Kindle and all the accompanying cords) plus sound machine. And my purse is relatively small. So now, I'll have the laptop bag, and then the other bag as a personal item, with my purse inside. I think it'll work.

Tomorrow, I also have very little to do. I'm going to take a coupld of hours to help one of my players code a homebrew subclass into Roll20, and then I'm going to guide her and Jess through a role play of their characters meeting, so that they will know each other before the adventure starts. They're both starting in prison, so it makes sense for them to be acquainted.

Anyhow, time for me to consider pants and maybe breakfast. Everyone have an amazing Saturday!

comments

I've invested my prayers into making me whole. I should have known not to give in.

Fri, 27 Mar 2026 09:46:46 GMT

It's finally Friday! I'm so glad, both because I'm looking forward to the weekend, and because that means it's not Thursday anymore. Yesterday was a day, y'all.

So, as previously mentioned, yesterday started early. I wrote 1200+ words on Marchen (go me) and have the introductions sorted out as well as two lands worth of quests. Feeling good about that, I got ready for work, pausing to wash my dutch oven and put on a pot filled with chicken legs and gizzards to do their thing and make a broth for Yoda's food.

Then it was off to work. The morning was pretty standard. Scheduled some patients, did some work, took some calls. Average day. I'd just gotten back from lunch when my direct manager hit me up. Earlier in the day she'd had questions about a patient, which was fine. It turned out that the pt had cancelled, because the doctor wanted to do something different. This time, she started with "I'm afraid to ask you this." Internally, I was like "oh, did I fuck up?" No, it was one of my coworkers, the very same one who has us checking her appointments every day to see if she fucked up. She had done fucked up on a massive scale.

So, Johns Hopkins is one of a few hospitals in the area that can do MRIs on patients with pacemakers or internal defibrillators. This is not a decision that a doctor makes lightly, because the device has to be turned off to do the MRI. Thus, it's only done in a hospital setting where there's doctors around if the pt gets an arrhythmia or crashes. We take this seriously. It's done in the main hospital building next to the ORs and with a fully stocked cardiac response room and team. We can only do a few a day, and are currently booked out to 2027. As a result, we limit the scan to patients whose order came from a JH provider.

So, when you open the patient chart, in some cases you'll find Care Alerts along the margin. You ALWAYS look at the care alert. She did not. Then, she didn't hear them or wasn't paying attention when they mentioned their cardiac device. Or they assumed that the other device they had (that is MRI Safe) was what they were talking about? So, she scheduled them. in the Outpatient Center (which has a 3 month waiting list of it's own) on a 3T machine. That's our most powerful magnet, and it would probably rip the defibrillator out of their chest. Worse, she fucked up with a patient who's also an employee.

The coworker had tried to reach them, and had sent a message through the chart to explain the issue and asking them to call in.

They did not. Instead, they sent a reply calling her incompetent and being very angry. So, my manager asked if I could call the pt. While the coworker dealt with the order. The pt has a JH cardiologist, so she was planning to call them and see if they'd write it. I offered to do that, and my manager agreed that she liked that plan better.

Short version, they wouldn't. Because of the risk involved, they didn't want their name associated with it. So, I had to reach out to the patient and let him know. I did it via a message in the chart, and I can't wait to see the nastygram I have in my inbox right now. I have a feeling that they're going to get someone involved to yell at us, but that will most firmly be Not My Problem. By the end of the shitshow, I was sending my manager gifs of dumpster fires. It seemed appropriate.

Then, the steaks I had bought like 2-3 days ago had already gone off, so I had to order dinner. The one good thing is that Yoda's food turned out well. IT had brown rice, chicken and gizzards and green beans, and he seemed to like it when I gave him a little leftover as a treat.

The food was okay, but not the best thing ever. We took the dog out for his walkies, and I hit bed. I had enough of the day when I dropped Yoda's dinner on the floor. The last of the goat and butternut squash, I think.

Now I am semi ready for the day. My reward for dealing with the coworkers fuckup is that this morning, I get to check all the appts that she made yesterday. After this mess, I will be going through them with a fine toothed comb. Thank god she only makes like 15 appointments a day.

Then I shall have the ~~managers meeting~~ Managers Bitchfest at noon. It's a weekly hour long meeting that is to share information and discuss possible changes to protocol, in theory at least. In practice, it's a bitch session that can run up to 2 hours. It's very interesting to hear the stuff behind the curtain, but some of the stuff is about people I don't know well yet from other depts, so that can be a lot.

Oh and I forgot to add, in two weeks, I'm going to have trainees for a day. The main trainer is off, and the managers have a training, so I'm the next in line for the throne. lol.

My training is in 3 weeks, so it's not like I get out of it.

The job has been a little frustrating. It doesn't seem like much has changed, and my role is still pretty ephemeris. I watch the schedules, and try to fill slots, but mostly, I'm kind of on my own to figure out what to do in any given moment. They also haven't announced it yet, so I'm still in limbo with the other coworkers. The management team knows, but when I'm dealing with my coworkers it's a gray area.

After work, I'm going to get my RSV and MMR shots. The RSV recommendations shifted to include pts with lung disease, so my asthmatic ass is going to go get one. And I'm way overdue for the MMR. But with cases of both measles and mumps out there, and us going to shows and on a cruise, I want to be as fully protected as possible.

Then, Frostmaiden! I've got a glorious fight lined up tonight, that will hopefully prove a challenge for our group. It's the last battle before the big one, so I am going to make it as difficult for them as possible.

Jess is advocating for trying to kill them in the final battle. They're going to be fighting the goddess of dragons, who is a five headed dragon, so it should be tough. First they have to fight their way through her handmaidens and possibly the aspect of her that they faced before.

Tomorrow, we shall have a quiet day, maybe go out for lunch. I'm not sure if I want to see Project Hail Mary. Some yes, some no, but it could be a possibility. Mostly, though, I'm going to take it easy and recharge. Sunday we're helping one of the Marchen players to set up their character sheet, and then doing a little bit of RP with her and Jess' characters, since they're starting the game knowing each other.

But first, I get to see what kind of a hash my coworker made of her appointments.

And on that note, time to go forth and get ready. Everyone have a fantabulous Friday!

comments

We cannot just stand by, it's time to match your strength of will.

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 08:56:18 GMT

If you asked me why I'm awake at 3:30 in the morning, I think my body would just shrug. It was a confluence of needing to go to the bathroom at 2, but being too cozy, the cat yelling and my traitorous body deciding why the fuck not. It's going to be a long damn day either way.

Work was fairly busy again yesterday, with me spending a lot of time on the phones. I did some wheeling and dealing to get some people in, but it was somewhat frustrating, because for every one that said yes, at least one other said no. I understand work and childcare and all of that, but when your doctor says STAT, I'd at least like you to try to see if you could work it out before you say no. In some cases I worked hard to get you those spots at the locations you said you could do. Ugh, people. So annoying sometimes.

Towards the end of the day, our order came from the Punjabi Market and Halal Butcher. I got a bunch of meat for Yoda's meals as well as some quinoa and other snackies. I got a mix of meats, including chicken, chicken legs, chicken gizzards, ground goat and some goat meat for stewing.

I started with the goat stew meat. It had bones, seeming to ne mostly the cast off pieces, so into the pot it went to make a mild broth. Once that had cooked for 2 hours, I got the goat out and let it cool and threw in butternut squash. Later, when the goat had cooled enough to get the bones out, I deboned and threw it back into the pot along with some frozen green beans. Let them stew for a little while, until the squash was soft, and scooped some out to cool for his dinner, hoping against hope that he would like goat.

Turns out, he really likes goat meat. Which is good, since we have two more trays of meat.

Today, I shall wash out the pan and throw in some chicken legs and some gizzards to boil up a broth. Then, I don't know. Maybe some more squash, maybe some brown rice. We'll see on what veggies we want to add as well.

The goat was great, but next time, I need to get more of it. The bones ate up a lot of the weight, so it only made two meals.

The chicken I have a lot of, so I'm going to make a lot, and put it in little tupperwares in the fridge and freezer. I'm thinking about getting one of those vacuum bag sealers to make fairly flat packages that won't take up so much room, especially for vacation. They can just be frozen until they're ready to be used. I never thought that I would have Opinions about dog food and vacuum seals, but hey. Life comes at you fast. Sometimes your elderly dog gets sick, and you'll do anything to prevent it happening again.

Today, I shall write a bit more of Marchen, since I'm up early. I realized that I need to work on the character's introduction, write a little vignette to bring them into the game. I felt like it gave each character a little time to shine right at the beginning, and it gave the other players tantalizing backstory tidbits. My group is all nervous about the intros, but I promised them that I had them. I will set the scene and guide them through it. All they have to do is answer my questions the way the character would, and relax and have a conversation. I've got them. I find that it's more immersive and that it gives the setting a lived in feeling as well as giving the players a chance to roleplay the character before the story starts, so they get a feel for them.

Then, after the final introduction is done, then I shall bring them all together, and the story shall begin.

That's in 24 days now. I still have plenty of time to finish it up and be ready. I already have enough for probably 5 sessions or so, maybe more. I'm going to strip out some of what I wrote, because I was writing for a mysterious person who might want to buy and run my module, and that was hard. So now, I'm just writing in my style. Setup, possible outcomes, and let the players decide what will happen.

The plan is to have all the nations set up, so that the players can choose where they want to go. Some scenarios might be punching above their weight class, so they'll need to pick carefully. During the set up, I will definitely be mentioning which rulers are the more volatile ones, so hopefully, they'll know to avoid them.

I got the cutest little outfit from Torrid last night. I had gotten the skirt, but it was huge. Apparently my upper and lower are two sizes, the lower is a size smaller. This time, I got it in the right sizes, and added the matching top.

I even have a studded belt I can add if I so desire. It looked fun and I think I'll enjoy wearing it. I would like to get a pair of combat boots to wear with it, but we'll see. I've been having trouble finding boots that fit.

I also got some plain square neck jersey dresses that are super cute, but not so fancy you can't wear them anywhere. I like them with tennis shoes and biker shorts or leggings underneath to avoid chubrub.

Also, OMG, they have pockets!

Speaking of things I bought, I just bought an additional carry on that will count as a personal item. I'll stow my backpack above the seat, which will have most of my medications, some clothes in case of delayed luggage, and other stuff I'm not likely to need during the flight. The person case will contain the stuff I might need/that's too important to stow like medications I might need during the flight. My Mounjaro, which I don't need to get pushed around or crammed in with other bags, some ibuprofen, tylenol, benadryl, antacids, and anti anxiety meds.

Today, I shall hopefully not be on the phones quite as much. I'd love to work on the cardiac folder to see if I can start shrinking that down, but we've just been too busy.

I'm off this weekend, so we'll have to do something on Saturday. We have game on Sunday, helping one of the Marchen players to set up her entirely homebrew subclass character sheet and introducing her character to Jess' character since they're going to be starting in the same prison.

I have no idea what to do on Saturday. It's supposed to be sunny, but cool, so possibly not outside. Probably will just be lunch and relaxing. Maybe I'll go to the non-halal butcher and see what lean cuts of pork they have for Yoda and get my emissions testing done. That could be good and adult-like. I could also pick up my prizes from the quarter auction.

I have 14 days til I start school, and 42 days until we leave for the cruise. I'm slowly starting to get things in order for that. I think I have my clothes figured out. It's just a matter of packing them. But for that, I need to know the temperatures we're looking at and the weather. SO far, it's still butfucking cold in Alaska, so hopefully the temps go up a little in the next month. I keep looking at the sites to see if I can print out our boarding passes yet, or if I can chose our meal for the flight. Nothing yet. Probably a couple of weeks before, but hope springs eternal.

Okay, time to hop off and do some work on Marchen. I'd like to get the introductions written today.
Everyone have a lovey Thursday! Or Friday Eve, however you like to look at it!

comments

The hero knew what he had to do and he wasn't afraid to fight.

Wed, 25 Mar 2026 09:25:46 GMT

It's hump day! We're almost at the halfway point! Work has been kind of draggy this week. I've been spending a lot of time on the phone, and it is not making me happy. There are other things to do, and it's been difficult to get any of them done. I could have made some moves and gotten a couple more patients in, but there just hasn't been time. I've had to release a bunch of holds I have because I haven't had time to look to see if any of them are movable. I can't wait til we have this batch of new people and the next trained, so maybe it takes some pressure off the phones coworkers, and I can do more actual work.

I did get some time to do other things in the am, and some of the m worked out, So that was good. And a couple during. I got to deal with the pt who had been bounced around because people don't necessarily understand that there are documents as they relate to combo MRIs and MRAS. Especially MRAs. Theres's a handy document about Cardiac MRIS and then MRAs. Because some MRAs have toe be done together. Like the Loey Diets Protocol. It's five separate MRAs that should be like 3hours total. But when you add them, they become a protocol that cane be done in 60 minutes. (Tbf, even our other PAS3s don't always get this one. I know it because I've spent plenty of time with the Cardiac document, but People schedule it all over the place. So I fixed that, spicy patient and all.

Yesterday morning, after I finished my journal, I went and wrote a bit on the new campaign, Marchen. By the time I had to go get ready for work, I had 929 words out. The number annoyed me, so at lunch I wrote more, topping out for the day at 1229. I was much more pleased with that number. It's moved them through two countries, so I am pleased. I feel like I'm set up well to have the campaign writen or at least the majority fleshed out. I certainly have worked on the fly in the past if they break the campaign, or if some random villian will prompt their ire, leading to a new chapter about going to deal with them.

Even if I didn't write anything more until after we started playing, I'd be fine.

I offered the musical introduction for the player characters in Marchen, and the players jumped on it. I've got two out of the four already, plus the music I'm using in my lead in. I'm about to upload the player's intro. The two I've gotten already are very interesting. Totally different feels to them. One is the Dishonored soundtrack, which is cool, in a dark, moody sort of way.

And then Jess sent me a band I've not heard of, with a track that was wistful and maybe a little regretful.

I on the other hand was not so original, and picked May it Be from Lord of the Rings (So cliche!) as performed by the 2Cellos.

I honestly cannot wait for this campaign to start. I'm hoping it's a lot of fun and that the small clues I'm dropping will make it a fulfilling mystery.

In other news, the vacation is now 43 days away. It's very exciting! I'm still nervous about Yoda, but I'm going to be positive, and believe that this is going to go well. I've started looking at the app more closely, looking at the deck plans, so I will know where I'm going when the time comes. I feel like I need to know the most about everything, so I can make the vacation smooth for us.

As usual, I want this to be the best vacation possible. I want it to be perfect for the people I'm draging along in my wake, my Travel Prince(ss). They have an itinerary that I printed out and nothing else. I may let them carry their boarding pass, but that's about it. They can have their boarding pass for the flight once we go to the airport and print them all out from my phone, where they live. Our car service's info? In my phone. The hotels? In my phone. Our Excursions are all in my phone as well.

Mind you, while we're in Vancouver? That free day is entirely up to them. They can tag along with Jess and I, or they can do there own thing. And once we're on the boat, they can do whatever they would like.

Okay, time for me to work on Marchen and maybe take a nice shower. Everyone have a most wonderful Wednesday!

comments

It was one of those great stories, the ones you can't put down at night.

Tue, 24 Mar 2026 09:28:39 GMT

Title ripped from David Crosby's Hero, which I remembered while pondering songs for the Fairytale capaign. (It's totally Jess' Paladin, Dalton's entire steeze.

As I'm writing and the lands are taking shape, it's been interesting to see how things are changing from where I started them. I'm sure it'll continue to to shape itself. This morning, it ocuured to me that the thing I did for Crooked Moon, I could do for Marchen. I had already planned to give the characters introduction scenes, but I could also put out the call for the character's theme song.

It's the song that plays over the introduction scene. They can use the music to further set the scene and to give the overal vibe for the character. One of our Crooked Moon players was introduced just before his entrance to his final UFC fight. She chose Blink 182's Blur-Song 2 for the intro, set up to hit the moment the character walked into the arena.

Players had so much fun with it, and I really felt like it helped to personalize the intro even further, to help the player really get a feel for their character. You write it up, and you have an idea, but then you realize that the "Perfect Song" you found speaks to a slightly different character. Maybe you change it, maybe you change the character? It's up to the player.

I really enjoyed it, and I hope my players in this group will too.

Yesterday was not bad. I was on the phones for the morning, then in the afternoon, I was mostly doing the new job. I got the dubious honor of checking all of that coworker's appointments. Fortunately, it seems like she's really slow, and only makes between 10-20 appointments per day, so I was able to whip through them. I got them done and was condsidering getting back on the phone when J hit me up to fix a cardiac opening. I did that, and another day sprung a cardiac opening. And it was a day where the appts could be Tetris-ed into a better formation that would allow us to get in a pt who got kinda fucked over by poor scheduling. It was a 90minute cardiac slot., which is a bitch to find. The pt was scheduled in May. But I got a cancellation, and was able to shift things around for the pt, and had her moved up to this coming Monday. Not half bad.

I was really sore yesterday, so we just had KFC for dinner. It wasn't bad, but not great either. My tender wrap was pretty okay, but the potato wedges were nasty. Ah well. They can't all be Reindeer Games. (This is another idiom shorthand that we picked up from a shitty movie, and still use to this day. In this case, it's from Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back. We are just full of these stupid quotes, and almost no one will understand them.)

While we waited for dinner, I made Jess watch half an hour of the 1987 live action He-Man movie, Masters of the Universe with Dolph Lungren and Frank Langella. It's actually far worse that I remembered, which is saying something.

I went to bed early, since I had trouble sleeping the night before. Fortunately last night was better.

Today, we shall work and get our pay slip. I won't get the actual money til tomorrow, but tonight at 3-4:30pm, I'll know how much it'll be. Probably not a ton. I don't think I worked any OT this paycheck, and it's still at the old rate. The one I'm looking forward to seeing is the 4/8 paycheck. That'll have the new rate, plus one day of OT. It should look lovely.

I made Yoda a pile of food on Sunday. Boiled the chicken, added vegetables and healthy rice. It made enough for 7 meals. Which should work out well. I planned to make two kinds of meals for him each week, so we can alternate which we give him.

It's going to be a lot of work, but I'll feel better knowing that he's got good food that will help his stomach. I even bought a food scale so that I can measure his portions out exactly. He's going to eat better than us. Though while I'm at it, I may try prep our dinners as much as I can. I'd like to use door dash less.

With the total clusterfuck that is our government, I'm debating on moving the ride to the car back an hour just to be sure we don't miss our flight. They're saying that in BWI, security is taking 2 hours. They open at 4 am, so if we go then, we should get through pretty quickly. That of course, will mean leaving at 3:30am, which would suck, but I am not letting anything fuck up this vacation.

I really have no idea what I'll be working on today. My counterpart, Jo, is in today, so I won't need to make a ton of calls. That's literally her only job, calling people back, so we send them all to her. She's only reliably here from M-W. Thursday, sometimes, Friday never. She's also an elderly lady who's been with Hopkins for like 50 years, so I can see why they've minimized the work she needs to do.

But we'll play it by ear. Also tomorrow, I can put in my request for the last of my vacation days! It won't cover the Monday after we get back. I won't have that time til close to the trip, but if need be, I can call out sick that day. I've got the SSL leave for it. We get in at 7pm thanks to the time change, and I am certainly not going to be going in at 8am on Monday. They'll be lucky if I stumble in Tuesday morning.

Okay, time to do a bit more writing in Marchen. I've only got about 3 1/2 weeks to get at least the first teir done. I do need to also have a little something for the RP two of the Marchen players want to do of their characters' first meeting. Everyone have the best Tuesday!

comments

I know your soul is not tainted, even though you've been told so. Can't you hear the rumble?

Mon, 23 Mar 2026 10:17:12 GMT

And somehow, way too quick we're back to Monday, and I really am not enjoying being upright. My back is pissed off, I'm exhasted from having difficulty sleeping. But most of all: I don't really want to do the work today.

Okay, now that I've gotten that out. How is everyone. I am having some problems with my lower back, hip. I did something that pissed it off, no doubt.

Yesterday was a lovely low key day. Game was cancelled, so w went to Kenilworth Gourmet and had lunch. IT was pretty tasty, but my fish and chips were very heavily battered ao the poiunt that it was hard to bite into it. IT was also literally just out of the fryer. The calamari I had was hot, but that fish was nuclear. There was still a bit of grease still bubbling in one of the crevices.

After that, we went to the butcher, but it was bugfuck, with no where to park. Either I'm going to have to go to John Brown during the week, or I need to go to Butcher and Bay which has more of a parking lot. Instead, we went through some winding rooads that nearly gave me carsickness. Then, I went to a small grocery store instead. I was going to get lobster tails, but no one was behind the counter, even though I waited like five minutes. No lobster for us, unless I got to Sam's Club this week after work.

Of course, despite going to the grocery, once I got home and sat down, I cme up with 15 things I needed. So, I had a couple of things coming. One was a small doordash of things I needed. Then, I ordered some OTC pills for vacation, so that I'd be ready. We were out of antacids, and frankly, our family has a lot of it.

Then, in discussing Yoda's current diet, we mentioned that it's going to be a problem when Yoda is ready to go back to kibble. His dinner last night ws a chicken that has been boiled for 3 hours. Then, the chicken is removed, and rice is added to the broth. I use slightly less rice than is strictly needed, so that there's still some broth. Then I added green beans and peas and reintroduced a lot of the the shredded chicken.

IT was brought up that I could cook for him, and do away with regular dog food. I did some research on canine nutrition, and learned abut the need for Omega3s. I learned that he needed fiber and that brown rice was better for dogs as well as oats and quinoa. He can have spinach and green beans and blueberries. And all of it does something good. So, I've got some recipes that I will try. This week, he's eating the one I made last night. At least til Thursday. Then I'm going to have to try to figure shit out.

Then, I went on an ordering spree. Containers for his food, vegetables, and salmon oil, and brown rice. I had eggs and meats. I definitely want to go to the butcher now, to get some chicken gizzards and ground pork to cook up.

Today, I'll look for more of those containers. The store only had 4, but I need at least 30 of them to stock his food. Fortunately, as the vaction draws closer, so will the amount of food we have in the house decrease to hold his stuff. I'll cook them on Saturday and Sunday, so for a full week, I'll need 14-15. It might take a little while before I have my portions figured out to make a full week of food. I think I'll need to cook it in two batches, so I'll probably do two different flavors. That way he doesn't get bored. (he will 100% get bored)

Tonight, for us, it'll either be stuffed shells or steaks. Both are ready to go, just the shells mean more time on my feet, with my back yelling at me. We'll see how it's doing then.

Work is bound to be kind of insane today. I'll be officially starting our new job. I wonder if they're announcing it? I will change my signatures and what not today. I refused to do it unitl it was official. Maybe they'll announce it today, maybe not. We'll have to see.

Definitely, after the Friday meeting, I'm looking at some of my coworkers differently. Some, the info that they're not doing as well as they could be isn't a huge shock, but some, it was a total surprise. I'll probably be on the phones today for the most part. Especially, since we're going to be one down on people as the Columbia office has stolen another of our team. She's really sweet, and she'll do great at a face to face customer service job, but she'll be missed.

On the other hand, they may be offering her job to one of my IKEA friends, so that would be cool. Another $1000 for me, just in time for the holidays.

The rest of the week should slowly calm the fuck down, and of course, on Friday, I have both our weekly manager bitch fest, plus Frostmaiden! I don't know how this is going to go. This is either the last or next to last of the regular Friday night Frostmaidens. After that, it's going to have to switch to Saturdays, so that our West Coast player will be able to do the boss battle and finish the campaign. That should be another few games, plus maybe one wrap up session, a debrief, so to speak.

I was considering the merits of setting up a one shot for the last night of the cruise, but I think we'll see when we get on the ship how good and consistent the wifi is. If it's good for the first couple of nights, and we don't have anything else, we'll play. D&D on the boat should be fun.

I'll find a simple module, and we'll go from there. We'll look at the itinerary and see what we want to miss and schedule around it. We'll be three hours later than most of our players, so the latest it'll be is 4pm for us. That gives us the rest of the evening to eat and take in our last night on the boat.

We'll see what we can work out. I'm also taking a bag of dice, just in case we meet anyone who likes to game and want to run a one shot. Might throw in a print out of a couple simple maps. There's meet ups for everyone, so why not one for D&D?

Day two of Mounjaro, and the sugar is still elevated. It says that you may not see any real movement in your numbers for a 3-6 weeks, so I guess the glucose testing unit will be coming with us. At least it's once a week. That makes life so much easier. I set an alarm, and at 9 am every Saturday I'll be stabbing myself.

The next two weekends we're pretty open, so I'm trying to figure out some fun stuff to do.

Okay, time for me to hop off and get myself together. Everyone have a outstanding Monday!

comments