And then, there's a bearded fetus.

We survived Monday! Go us!

The phones were as expected, bullshit, but I spent my day working on scheduling. I called a bunch of cardiac MRIs to see if I could fill up the rest of the Columbia schedule for July. I did, and now I have to work on August. But seeing as we are booked into October, I should still be able to find people. It's just finding the right people. They want to practice the new protocols, which require patients with certain tests and diagnoses. It was much easier when I only was looking at the address to see if they might go to Columbia. Now it's complicated and defintiely takes longer to get together.

The one nice thing is that I've struck up a comradeship with the head of MRI in Columbia, so I can send him questions and get quick answers, whether it's about cardiacs or not.

After work, we got the table cleared, and set up for hot pot. We have a split hot pot so we can do half spicy broth (for Jess) and then a non-spicy broth for my sister and me. Last night I was especially grateful, because that broth lit Jess up! They were sucking down water, and needed breaks because their mouth was burning.

I had only gotten a tray of beef brisket, a tray of pork belly, some rice cakes, and some enoki mushrooms, but it was plenty. We ate the shit out of everything, but we had enough.

Next time I may get from Weee! I think they're slightly cheaper.

It was delicious and I loved the sauces we had gotten. There was a sesame garlic that was especially tasty. All in all, very good.

But the highlight of my day was popping onto facebook near the end of my work day, and seeing an ad that says that Danny Elfman will be playing at the Filmore in Silver Spring in September! He's one I never thought I'd get to see in person, so I'm very excited. I don't necessarily love his new stuff, but I do love his older mucis, and I love me some Oingo Boingo. I had to go wake Jess up from their nap to tell them, because they're the one who got me into him. Unfortunately, it's on a Monday night, so I'm going to have to take some time off for work, but I think I'll be okay with PTO time. Tickets go on sale tomorrow, so y'know, thanks for the warning!

I was able to get an appt on Thurs to check out the sudden period, so I'm fully anxious about that. I have vulvodynia, so the speculum and the probable ultrasound is going to suck for me. Last time I had a pap smear, I was basically out of commission for 3 days because of the severe pain. I'm hoping they're a little better than that, but I'm nervous.

Lizzy continues to be her cute little playful self. My favorite thing, when she's tired, she'll go sit in the strings of my robe, and just look around.



And then you go from her deep, pensive thoughts to "Huh? What? Hey has that ceiling been there this whole time?



She's such a darling baby.

Today, I shall call some patients back, and see what I can do with this one entitled patient.

Maybe, if I feel especially energetic, I'll go to the farmer's market. The one gentleman has pot pies, which could be a good meal.

I do have some produce, so I could just stay home and cook. Might do that, too. Depends on the weather. If it's raining, I'm probably not going to the farmer's market. Right now it's showing scattered T-storms, so I'm thinking cooking. I don't know what yet, but I'll think about it. I know I have some turnips, so I could mash them. Though I think I'd need to get a little milk to put in that. That would be doable.

I love farmer's markets, but I hate going out in the summer. Sometimes, I will go to the big one downtown. The one by us is more expensive, and kind of bougie. The one downtown is a little less upscale. There are some boutique places, but more of it is just farms. The meat can still be very expensive, but it's also very good. I kind of just want a good burger. We got Checker's yesterday, but everything was just so fucking salty.

So maybe Burgers. And I'll grab a bag of chips to go with it. That should make people happy.

Okay, time for me to hop off and get ready for work.



Last Lizzy for the day, she knows you're going to crush today. Everyone have an outstanding Tuesday!

Wow, we had some major storms last night. We didn't lose power, but goddamn, it was gnarly. A couple of times, I heard Yoda clawing at the door to try to get away from it, poor thing. Lizzy got perturbed with one big crash, but overall, she gave no fucks. She is at home and safe, and she wants treats and that's all that mattered. Unlike Yoda, she is not neurotic at all. She's got ADHD like whoa, but she's the most confident little thing on the planet.

She continues to be also the friendliest cat. Apparently, the brother in law came over and slipped in to see her. She was all over him, wanting to rub against him and get pets. This delighted BIL, who suffered through like 8 years of us only having Boodle, who was deeply skittish. She'd allow the occasional ear scritch, but not much.

We slipped out early before it got too hot to go see a movie. Unfortunately, the theater we went to had AC on the struggle bus. We stayed and saw the movie, but good lord, my shirt was stuck to my back by the time we finished.

We saw He-Man, which was a lot of fun. It has a lot of cringetastic moments as Adam tries to workshop his way across Eternos in that fun HR way. Still, the movie has a lot to say on Toxic Masculinity, and how you can be a man without being an asshole. Adam is sweet, good hearted and a little bit of an idiot. He's only He-Man in a few scenes, and even then, he prefers conflic deescalation than beating the hell out of someone. When he does decide that talk time is over, he gives every Gen Xer exactly what they wanted. The CGI was dicey at points, where it just looked fake, but honestly, not a dealbreaker in this type of movie. Idris Elba spent the entire movie chewing on scenery. The man knew exactly what movie he was in, and he worked it. The early cameo by (spoiler) was perfect, and made baby-me happy as hell.

After the movie, once we'd cooled down a touch, we decided to grab lunch. After my usual schtick of settling, then changing my mind, we got Indian food, which was delicious. There's one place near us that does something called Junelly. It's a step from Tikka Masala, but more buttery, and it's SO good. I get the Himalayan Junelly, which has paneer instead of a meat for the protein. It was perfect for a hot day. We also had the big ass Samosas, which were lightly spicy, and hit real good, even though they're deep fried.

Then it was home to relax and spend time with Lizzy. Towards evening, I started thinking about Marchen today and how much fun the introductions were, with the musical cues behind them. So I went looking for some good instrumental music. I found way more than I needed, but I think I have theme music for everyone's scenes. Jess said that I was sitting here muttering "too pretty." I found a lot of very pretty music. Unfortunately, in one case I was looking for music for a battle that could change the course of a character's arc. So I wanted something crunchy. Fortunately, I found a dude who has done heavy metal covers of a lot of songs, and I found something I liked. For some things, Bardcore just won't cut it. But I do plan to use the Bardcore version of "Hips Don't Lie" at a later time, because it amuses me. Also an instrumental of Anti-Hero, the one Taylor Swift song I know. But those are for later. When I mentioned that I was sourcing music, my players immediately gave me ideas, and I'm definitely using one of them. Unfortunately, the song is a song from a playstation game, so there's the little noise at the beginning, which I kind of hate, but the music was too perfect.

There's one cover that I can't use for many moons, but when I'm able to, the needle drop is going to be amazing.

I've got two tracks from Hazbin hotel, and I thank whoever did these instrumentals, because they're super choice. One is Bardcore, and one is one of the best songs for an antagonist introduction. It just immediately establishes the character as a threat, and gives them a WWE style entrance song.

At this rate, I'm going to be dropping "One Winged Angel" at some point.

I'm so excited about game today. So much planned. I don't know how far we'll get, but we shall see how things go. There are basically four scenes (for four players) and each is going to touch on the players backstory, and their trauma. I'm really curious to see how they play out, and how under the character's skin we can get.

The thing I love about this server is that I can do more adult and fucked up things. There are very few lines. I have hard and fast rules about no sexual assault and no animal cruelty. If the animal has an attack, it's fair game. If not, then it is going to live for all eternity. Mind you, I don't care of the player's backstory has sexual assault, we're just not going to play it out. And flashbacks will be limited.

I've got a pile of severely traumatized characters in this game. We've got the paladin who is in love with the current Regent of Hamlin, and killed his brother, the former king in front of his kids to put the Regent on the throne. He immediately took a vow of non violence, which lasted like 6 sessions before someone threatened his boo. Now he's taken a new vow to the Regent, but is still haunted by his past. Second, we've got the rogue whose children have been kidnapped by slavers to help pay the debt her husband incurred with the Thieves guild. The Regent has promised to find her kids, if she'll do this job for them. Next up is the shifter ranger with a dark secret in her past, and a sister she'll do anything for. Some areas they're going into are not shifter friendly, so we've got good danger there. Last, but not least is our Pied Piper bard. She's got a death wish, and doesn't like anything or anyone. She's sarcastic and occasionally cruel, but her past is horrific and I love working with her. I will be interested to see how her character arc goes over time. Does she find a reason to live, or does she keep her nihilistic death wish?

Ugh, I want it to be 12pm instead of 7am! I've been waiting for this a whole week! The players are pretty good at keeping the hype going, but I threw in a few gifs on the server as well, just to keep them guessing.

They're in the medieval version of Amsterdam today. There is a fairy tale they'll interact with, but it may not be for a bit, as there are quests to complete. I don't expect that they'll get to that today. Depends on how long the quests take. The fairy tales are fun, but the player interaction is the best part. I know I've said it before, but the role play in this game is top notch. The characters are at the uneasy "We're not friends, I don't necessarily even like you, but I'll die to keep you alive during this quest."

Tonight, if it's not too hot, we may have hot pot. It did occurr to me that I don't have the sauces, so I will put in a small order at the Hmart to get them. I should make Yoda's food today, but I'm thinking about waiting til tomorrow because it's still going to be 93 degrees, and tomorrow it's only 83.

We're supposed to have more strong storms this evening, so that'll be fun. They're not supposed to hit til around 6, so we'll have dinner early just in case of power outage. Kock on wood, the power has been staying on pretty well. I think the biggest power outage we've had was for about 10 minutes. I think because our wires are buried, it's been pretty good.

I'm so grateful that dad is gone and we don't have to worry about the power going out, or the AC failing. It would suck, but I'm not trying to figure out how long his canisters of Oxygen will last or if we can keep him cool enough to stay out of the hospital. I have to worry about the dog and the cat, and if needed, Yoda can go to daycare, and Lizzy can be boarded. It would suck but it could be done.

Tomorrow, we shall go back to work, and it shall probably be batshit. Day after a holiday weekend always is. I can hope that they're all still on vacation, but I doubt it.

I ended up using some of my PTO for Friday, but I still have enough that I can put in PTO for the Weird Al concert. The Animate!Philly con will have to wait a week.

Okay, Jess is up, so I'm going to hop off and poke at Marchen some more. I'm sure there's more trauma I can wring out of this! Everyone have an amazing Sunday!

I had trouble getting to sleep last night. Turned out that listening to a music for 20 min or so will wake me up more tnan I'd like. To be fair, it wasn't just a playlist , I did more or a music roulette. I knew I wanted to listern to Soul of Man." from Kinky Boots, and then I just looked at the recommended videos and poked one that looked good.

Afterwards, I had a rough time faling asleep and didn't fully doze off until just gefore midnight. I took a second half a sleepig pill. I'm very tired today. It's proving a challenged to keep my eyes open.

From 12:00 am til about 12:45, Lizzy made the decision that it was playtime, She ran round the room and kicked her toys non stop. You'd hear a thud thud, thud and she'd race past with it in her mouth. For such a tiny cat (7.75lbs), she makes a ton of noise. This after I played her with the laser pointer from 6-8 and only stopped because she stopped because she stopped chasing it. So I guess it was about 1 AM thst I finally fell asleep. Whatever time it was, it was not enough.

IT is a bit of a stuggle keping my eyes open. But we shall persist. I've got work early today, 7:30-4pm.

The dude I referred had his interview yesterday. He felt liked it went realy went well, so that's good. Otherewise the day was pretty quiet. I managed a triple Jenga with patient appts, and got two miracle switches that had a patient tell me thet if I wasn't just a voice on the phone, she'd have hugged me, which was sweet.

I put down the edict that I was not cooking Thurs or Friday, mabe Saturday as well. It's just going to be too fucking hot.

Night one's sushi was pretty blah. The search continues for somewhere new that hits on all cylinders.

Then my sister went in to love on Lizzy, sending us cute pictures. Here's Lizzy's idea of multitasking.





She's such a sweet kitty. I love her very much.



Today, I meed to do a little more prep for Vaesen tonight. I gotta recheck the module. to make sure there isn't anything I'm I'm missing with he game. It's a new system after all, so I want to have the basics down at least.

I'm not sure if we're having the usual bitchfest meeting today, since it's technically a holiday. We'll see. I'll be sad if we don't. I enjoy the cattiness. The sites have been a real pain in the ass lately, so I'm sure it'll be a lively one.

It's going to be 102 degrees today. Probably more. IT was 102 yesterday, and today was supposed to be a bit warmer. Our thermostat is at 67, and it's been struggling at 79 the last couple of days. (Yes, I am aware that it's a bit cool. And yes, my bill has been astronomical. My budget billing has gone up from $105 to $203. It's nothing we can't afford, but it's really fucking annoying. On the plus side, we hardly use any gas in the winter.

Tomorrow, we have a quiet day. We may go to the movies in the morning, which would be cool if we feel up to it. The rest of the day is going to be pretty chill. Just relaxing. Then Sunday we have Marchen, which will be cool. I'm vibrating with the need to drop bits of plotline on them.

As I was sitting here typing, I heard Jess come out of the bedroom. Lizzy decided to follow, and we played catch the kitty for a couple of minutes. It's a very fun game...for Lizzy.

Okay, time to go see if I can focus enough to read. It's questionable. Everyone have an absolutely wonderful Friday!

I went to do my entry today, but Dreamwidth was having a moment. Fortunately, it returned and I was able to paste from a googledoc where I wrote some of this.

Yesterday, I worked and then I braved the world to take Lizzy to the vet. Work was busy. They definitely kept me hopping. I got off at 2:30 and her appt was at 3, so we kind of booked it. Yoda locked in my sister's room, baby in th crate (she was so good!) and on our way. Even with all that, we made it 10 minutes early, and were shown to our room.

Bonuses to the new vet. The waiting room was empty and we were shown to our room right away.

Downside the room didn't have a vent and so it got somewhat stuffy.

Bonus, everyone was so nice. The techs, the front desk and the Vet were all very kind. The vet seemed very thorough. They got her temp, checked her over thoroughly and pronounced her a beautiful and good cat. Also totally healthy.

Minus, it's not as easy to get to as I thought. Much easier than the old vet, but I don't think Jess is going to be comfortable driving themselves.

Lizzy was such a good girl. She showed off her sweet side, and was completely pliable and lovey.

They did a rectal temperature and the vet scritched her neck. She seemed startled at first, and then just relaxed into the attention and half dozed. The vet was very good, and listened to her heart, lungs and belly before picking her up and flipping her on her back so he could examine the sutures from her spay, which are looking good. And then, after this indignity, one of the vet techs fetched her some treats, which she chowed down upon. After the clean bill, we headed home. The entire visit took 20 minutes. It was great. Lizzy didn't make a peep the entire time. We got her home and she cleaned her butt and immediately wanted love. I love her so, but she is not bright.

I think we will be switching Yoda over. It's just so much more chill. Also, they have hydraoulic tables, so he doesn't have to be lifted. It can be lowered and he can just jump on. Since he hates being picked up, that would be very useful. And they were just much nicer and less busy. I think they can handle Señor Anxiety. And who knows, he might like the vet. With Northwind, it's a crapshoot of who you get. It could be someone he likes, or it could be the one we got for Cece, who I hated so much. This is a mostly solo practice. There's one doctor who subs when Dr. Ramappa goes on vacation, I believe, but that's it. It's really nice and chill. So, we'll give it a try. I'll call Northwind and get his records faxed and we'll give it a try. He's definitely going to be pissed about the thermometer, but I think the rest will stress him out less.

I also worked a bit on my campaigns, mostly Marchen, though I do need to work some more on Frostmaiden. I'd like to have everything coded in for the boss battle with Tiamat in the next week or so. That way when we play, I won't be scrambling at the last minute. This week, I only have the one shot that I proposed yesterday, which is Friday evening, and then Marchen on Sunday. I'm having such trouble keeping my mouth shut about Marchen. I've come up with some cool stuff tor the upcoming session and I want to blab it. I think they'll be super fun, and may change some character's view of the world around them. Only one is a fairy tale, but they're all awesome, and will give the characters a little time split into pairs. The one is a familiar dynamic. The other is less so, and should be super interesting. There also may be a couple of clues. One, to the mytharc and two to what's going on in this town. It definitely could be interesting.

I was going to say that I was looking forward to two vignettes especially, but that would be a lie. I think all of them have the potential to be awesome. They'll definitely advance backstories, and will give a little more information regarding one of the rulers. I'm a little hesitant about the fairytale that I'm adding in. I'm hopnig it provokes a response from one of the players, but we'll see. I know the one is going to be super traumatizing, yet thought provoking for the player. The other two are getting trauma. SO much trauma. I can't wait to play. Then again, that's my standard for this game.

The players for Marchen produce so much content for me to enjoy and get ideas from. As I told them yesterday, DMs are generally insecure. They'll finish an awesome session where everyone mentions how much fun they had and will immediately decide that they were just being nice, and in reality everyone hates you, no one is enjoying it, and and that you are personally annoying. So them being engaged and talking about it in chat, and writing fic and making art definitely helps that. It's fucking amazing. We have a board in Kanka where they can keep track of who they have met, and plot points. We have the notes section where there are three sets of notes for each game, because 3/4 take copious notes. There's a section of the board called Journals, and they've taken over that to write journal entries in character! For every single session that we've had. We're up to Session 8, so that's a lot of entries. I read all of them of course. All the fic, all the backstories, all the journals, and I listen to their theories and talk about the game and it's awesome.

We forgot to do it last week, but I'm making a note for this week to try Stars and Wishes. It's another tool to see what you're doing well, and for the players to give praise to each other for things that happened during the game, be it an inventive combat move or soulution or really good RP.

So far, the characters have been amazing. The party doesn't trust each other in the least, and there is personal conflict, yet they've all developed soft spots for each other and would protect each other till the end. It's a great, fucked up dynamic.

We're one day closer to Friday! Nothing planned today, though I do have a Lead meeting, so we'll see how that goes. It's my first time attending, so that should be interesting.

My boss had interviews yesterday for our 4 positions. She was not impressed with who HR had been sending. She said some of the interviews were worse than being in our Team meetings. Since she hates those with the power of the sun, that's saying something. The Ikea people that were referred by a former Ikea coworker and myself have their interviews on Thursday, so we'll see if those go better.

After Lizzy's vet visit, I ordered dinner, so we'll have the pork and stovetop tonight. I may also make some gravy for the stuffing. We'll see how ambitious I feel. Tonight I'll take out the turkey so it might be defrosted by Thursday.

I think on tomorrow or Thursday, I'm going to have to make Yoda more food. I'll see if the halal market has anything, but if not, I'll be ordering from the H-Mart. The Halal hasn't had the meats listed, which makes me sad. I'll order it when I get paid tomorrow.

Lizzy continues to enjoy the bougie food. She's on a diet of TikiCat food, and seems to love it. She wasn't fond of the Smalls food, which is fine. She gets her expensive food, and then eats her kibble, which is not bougie. She has a deep abiding love of Cat Chow. Which I suppose is the equivalent of her momma liking cheetoes.

Lizzy continued her trend of posing for her beauty pictures for me.





She was tearing ass around the room last night at around 2:30am. I have a puncture on my foot where she landed when she leapt onto the bed to race across. Then at around 3:30, she trotted up the bed trilling at me til I petted her. I got up soon after.

Oooh, the Romancing the Vote auction kicks off today! There's some very cool stuff up for auction, I highly recommend checking it out.

Okay, time for me to go forth and wake up for work. Everyone have an outstanding Wednesday.

I seem to have tweaked my back yesterday. It's not fully thrown out where I need to just lie flat, but my left lower back is just pissed. Fortunately, it didn't start until later, so I was still able to have a nice Sunday.

After my early morning bitching, I did absolutely nothing until we went out. Jess was having some endo pain, so we decided to take it easy. No movie, and eating somewhere a little bit closer. Fortunately, we have a KBBQ/hot pot place near us, so we went there. The reason we don't go there more often is mostly because the parking is utter shite. Street parking, very busy. But yesterday, the universe smiled on us. WE had a big parking spot right out front. The food was as always delicious and plentiful. For the hot pot, I had gyoza, shrimp dumplings, rice cakes as well as scallops, beef belly, pork belly and ribeye. The grill saw bulgogi, garlic pork belly, KPOT marinated pork belly and LA Galbi ribs. They were all excellent. I'm not sure what was my favorite. Probably the garlic pork belly and the LA Galbi.

Afterwards, we came back and lounged around. I sat up for a little while until I needed to nap. I was falling asleep on the sofa, so laid down in bed and was immediately awake. I stayed put and eventually dozed off for a while. When I got up, I was too tired to cook dinner, so we ordered Mexican. It was pretty tasty. Their chorizo cheese dip was really tasty.

Of course, during the day, there was copious Lizzy love. I went in at one point to grab something or another and picked her up to snuggle (she will accept this and purr for a limited time, and then she wants, and is granted, down. But then I sat on the bed and she came over for love, and at one point she stat on my lap for better access for both hands to be on Lizzy. When you open the door and come in, she comes trotting from wherever she was napping and rubs against your legs in greeting. It's very sweet, especially when she's excited and throws in a little trill meow.

I continue to be smitten with this cat. Yesterday, she actually slowed down enough to get a few pictures which are under the cut.

( Onwards to the Pictures! )

I love her stupid little face so much. She's such a sweet cat. Jess was concerned about the mesh bag, since she'd made a few little holes in it on our ride home from Hershey, so we got her a shiny new hard sided case that bolts together. It seems pretty sturdy, so we'll see how it does during the vet visit today.

Tody, we shall have very busy work, and then we shall take the small cat to the vet for her first check up. I will try to get a stool sample, since I know they may want that. I'm hoping she's obliging. It's just a visit, she's already fully vaccinated. the only thing they may want to do is blood for a baseline, but I don't think they'll even want to do that. It should be a nice non-traumatizing appointment for all of us. We're trying out the new vet, so we'll see how that goes. I just haven't been vibing with the old vet. It's always busy, always loud and frenetic and with Yoda adding to the noise, it's nearly unbearable. They have five vets working at any given time, and the waiting room wasn't set up for that. And the amount of vets doesn't make it any easier to get into to see them. You're still waiting a minimum of 2-4 days, depending. I'd like to avoid the ER vet, so if they're better at getting a sick pet in, I'm all there.

Hopefully this vet is nice. After the last one was such a bitch about Cece, I'm a little leery. This one has great reviews, so hopefully, we'll get along and he'll like Lizzy. Plus this vet advertises that they do some of their diagnostic labwork in office. It would be nice to have answers quicker when the animal is sick. The old one, we saw on Monday, put Cece down on Wednesday at the ER vet, and on Friday the old vet called me back with the test results. It was less than useful. So hopefully this works out. If not, there's always Hunt Valley Vet. From what I've been told they're also good, and have a waiting area that has rooms, so you don't have to share with other dogs. That would also be good for Yoda, so if this one doesn't feel right, we could try that.

The rest of the weeks should be quiet. I've got meetings on Wednesday and Thursday. Wednesday is a short one, just a lead meeting. This will be my first time attending one of those. I'm curious how it will be. Thursday will be the Friday Bitchfest, rescheduled due to the holiday. I believe it's just the call center manager and I on Friday, so it didn't make sense for us to have a meeting, though I'm sure it would be fun, seeing as we are both sarcastic and get along well.

I think I forgot to mention that my boss went full scorched earth on our coworkers. She put up a message about the epidemic of long after call work we'd been seeing, telling them for the first time that yes, we can see their screens at any given time. We'd been keeping that quiet, but she got fed up, and that if they had questions, they needed to ask us.

Then, she went and monitored one of our problem children, who immediately got on chatting with our other problem child about how we sucked, and this made her less likely to seek help, and the other was agreeing. She messaged the original person directly, making it clear that she saw her chat, and
that she was sick of the games, and that if she had problems, we wanted her to ask or if she had complaints, she needed to come to one of us directly, because how else would we know? And added that she could tell that to the OG Rad group, which is a group chat that they made and frequently bitch about all of us.

At least we only have this week with our other problem child. Then she can move on to her new job.
Sadly, we still have to deal with her for 5 more days. This is assuming that she doesn't smart mouth the manager one too many times and get terminated.

My friend is possibly going on the phones today, so I'm hoping she does well and doesn't get too much in her head. She's been very anxious about it. I've tried to convey to her that we all were, and she could not possibly do worse than some of our other people. (Some of whom are not new.) Hopefully that helps. Once she gets into it, I think she'll be fine.

This week, Jess has a game on Wednesday, but I have nothing until Marchen on Sunday. Looking forward to what kind of trauma I can throw at them. This session should be a lot of RP, with a possible combat near the end, and maybe one after that, if there's time. If not, that combat will be at the beginning of the next game in 2 weeks. I love that we get to play so frequently. It really helps with continuity and being able to remember what you were doing last game. I've got an embarrassment of riches as three of my players take notes, so if I ever want to refresh myself on something that they did, I can go back and check it out. They all take notes differently, so each one has slightly different views and picks up on different things sometimes. It's great.

I've got a few tokens to make for the next session, but that won't take long at all. I just need the King, Queen and Prince, and the sad waif they've taken in. I've already got a couple of other characters set, but I do want to have tokens for them.

The overall arc of the world is that it's a land in a pocket dimension. There are 10 countries, and each holds at least one fairy tale in progress. Usually it's a twisted fairy tale. not that they aren't all a bit twisted, but some of them are made darker than they started out. Also in some cases genderbent. Fairy tales, but lets make them queerer. The 10th kingdom is walled off by a briar hedge that has contained the sleeping sickness that swept the land. But now, the briar is failing, and these heroes have been sent to find out why and to fix it. There's a dark figure haunting them and giving them bad dreams, but it's unclear if he started the sickness or if he's just taking advantage of them. The three gods are not supposed to interfere in mortal affairs, so they're mostly taking a wait and see attitude, with the exception of the Bastard, who is the god of misfortune, mischief and the Other. He tends to take a slightly more flexible view of interacting with mortals.

With playing almost every week, I don't know how long it's going to take to get through it. We're 7 sessions in, and they just made it to their third land, so maybe 9 months? We'll see how it goes. Each country holds a clue or two to the mystery of the sleeping sickness. I'm a little bit of a nerd for it right now.

And now, I should go take a nice hot shower, and be ready for work.



Lizzy says that everyone should have the very best of Mondays!

I don't understand my body. It's Saturday, yet here I am, awake at 4am. Stupid body. It might let me nap before game, but we'll see. I get up at 4 during the weekdays so I'll have a little quality time to wake up before my sister does. That way when she gets up, I am fully medicated and somewhat caffeinated. It's a much better option than getting overstimulated on the mornings that she feels chatty. It's just annoying when you were up late playing D&D, and then playing a small kitty after so she'll allow you to sleep. I probably got to bed about 4 hours ago. Like I said, maybe a nap.

Today, we have Marchen at noon. My players were in chat, talking about the tattoo that is supposed to be keeping them on track, and how far they could push it. I thought about it, but the given command was to investigate, so I'm willing to let it ride. The downside is that they're going to be going into an area I wasn't prepped for, so I had to do some quick map grabbing and character making. I created a few new character sheets, and pulled other's in from the compendium, And now, I believe that I have stuff for wherever they may go. The problem is that the countries scaled, and they are nowhere near the point that they can jump on some of these characters. So we'll see what they do.

I did make them one encounter that won't kick their asses too thoroughly. Only a little, as a treat.

I'm also about to drop some backstory and also see if I can get a rise from our thoroughly nihilistic bard. That encounter I mentioned earlier is tailored for her backstory, and might actually get a reaction. I'll be very curious to see how it goes.

I will also need to drop hints about a complicating matter on our rogue. And maybe something for the Paladin, and the Ranger/Artificer. If I can manage it. I try to give each player a little moment during the session. I think I can work it out.

Then Frostmaiden. I need to source some pictures and then I will be ready for that. I figure the opening bit will be role play. This is (possibly) their last night in the world, so there's going to be some stuff that needs to be done, and relationships that need acknowledgment, so we'll play out those, and then, it shall be time to go into the Abyss and do battle. I'm fully prepared to play hard ball during this game. It's could be interesting. I was told that since this is the end, I should fuck them up, and I plan to. I'm also thinking about giving certain areas conditions. Or wild magic that may effect spells and magical items. Like one area, your magic is diminished. Spells do half what they should. And in others, for every spell, there's a roll on the wild magic table. I think that could be fun. And in the final battle, I'll let it be normal, because they're going to have a lot of things to deal with, and more importantly, I'm going to have a ton to keep track of. Tiamat has a lot of Legendary Actions and Reactions and special features. I'm looking forward to playing them out, but good lord, it's a lot.

I know I'm putting a lot of pressure on myself, wanting this to be appropriately epic. I found the maps I wanted to use, and adjusted the size a bit. I want epic maps. The kind that give the players and my NPCs room to nyoom around and fight. I made one group of the Handmaidens Monks, which means that they can cover incredible distances, and punch real good. (I fucking love Monks--I'm too attached to spells to play one in a game or one shot, but I might try one day, because they're ridiculous.

Last night, we played Vecna, which was super fun. They were clearing out the evil cultists lair and stumbled over the evil cultist. Battle ensued and they came out victorious. They finished that quest, and moved on to the Astral Plane. The module is a pain in the ass. In addition to not having good puzzles, it has no connecting text between the quests. It's like "finished that, okay now they go here." And the chapters kind of drop you in media res. They just didn't include anything between quests, and it's annoying. Just go from one thing to the next. It's narratively unsatisfying, and before the next game in August, I'm going to need to work on that, because it's not great. I got them there, and thanks to some good role play from my lovely spouse there was a little buffer that dropped some backstory. I appreciated that.

The module has some great shit, but it feels like it's half written. It's kind of a tour through D&D's greatest hits. They go to various locales, and meet some of the big characters from past modules. But it feels like that's more the point of what's written. I'll do some work on it, and it'll be fine, but after Strahd, which is super easy to run, this feels like unnecessary heavy lifting for the DM. I should have read the module more closely, but we'll make it work. I don't hate it, and I love the characters, so that makes it easier.

It's rare now that I do two D&D games in a day. It's okay if one of them I'm not DMing, but being in charge of both can be draining. Fortunately, todays two are games of my heart, so that makes it a bit less draining. Both tend to be energizing intstead of tiring. Frostmaiden is probably harder, but that's just because it's been months since we played. I'll read the notes and be all excited on the things we've done. Marchen is still new and a totally different vibe. It's definitely my favorite game at the moment. I love fairy tales, and I love twisting them in new directions. I love finding pictures for the characters I've created and maps to bring their encounters to life. And pictures for handouts. I tend to grab pictures that set the scene, and give an idea of what they're seeing. It makes the game more immersive. I don't know which way they're going but I've got stuff for whatever.

Lizzy has been super cuddly the last couple of days. Also, all play. She wants playtime all the time. Including 5:30 in the morning, as Jess was just rudely awakened by kitty shenanigans. They're sitting here next to me looking tired. Naps for everyone. Again, no picture, because the little creature won't hold still. She jumped on Jess twice during game last night to demand attention. I'm sure with her murder mittens, that it was a fun experience.

She's so cute and sweet. She's definitely gained weight, but I think she's grown a little too. She doesn't look like the tiny cat. She may not have, it might be exposure, and that we're used to her size now. But the little bit of weight that she's gained makes me happy. She was a little skinny while she was nursing, and now she doesn't look as thin. And her little personality has blossomed. Granted, he personality is "small terrorist," but I love her anyway.

Okay, time to do some more work on Frostmaiden and Marchen. I can run the game as it is, but there's a few more bells and whistles I'd like to add. Everyone have a stellar Saturday!

It's Thursday, or as I like to call it, Friday Eve.

Today should hopefully be fairly chill, which would be nice. I've got things I need to get done that I didn't have time yesterday. I think today we're going to have steak, so that should be good, though I have no clue about sides. I need to get some meat for Yoda's food, so I might get something for side dishes. I'll have to see which store I'm going to order from. My thought would be the HMart Asian store. They have tons of side dishes that I would eat, and a great produce session. I'll do that after I finish this.

Yesterday was bugfuck. I didn't start til 9:30, since I was covering again. Once I got in, I immediately started doing the Radsets and Watching the queue and generally being busy. There were also some requests to call people for appts, which added another layer onto what I was already doing. That continued til 1, when it was time for me to take over the help chat in Teams.

It was sporadic. There would be long periods of quiet where I would be sneaking peeks at my email and trying to help out in other places, and then there were sudden flurries, where I'd have three questions at once. Thankfully, most were not hard questions, but they were occasionally time consuming. Look at the patient, look at the order, go to the grid and see what it says about the image. Do a search for the term. Finally find what you're looking for and convey it to the coworker, providing more detail if asked. Not terrible.

And then there's my one person...Good lord. I kept telling myself that it was only 8 days til we got rid of her. She occasionally will ask questions in chat...and then she'll argue with you whem you give her the answer. In this case, we had need of a 90 minute appt. The schedule she was trying to put it had half hour appointments with a half hour of unscheduled time between them. My immediat supposition is that they only want 30 minute appts in that schedule. Hers was that since there was nothing in those slots (which had no scheduling time on the hour) she could plop a 90 minute appt there. Uh. No. It took a good ten minutes before she grudgingly scheduled them somewhere else. Just people. I am here to provide answers to questions and assistance. If you want to ignore what I say, go for it. But you will take that radset when it comes in, and I will count it as a major radset. I do not get paid enough to fight you over it. (Honestly, I'll do that for free.) As I've heard it said before, if you're feeling froggy, jump.

I stayed til the queue closed, and everyone was done. I think the system transferred a call into the queue after the time we closed because 90% of people were gone and a call came in. I'm going to mention that to the leads today, because that shouldn't be happening.

Tomorrow, I have game, which should be fun. It's Vecna with my baby goth disaster party, and they're always good for the darkness in their souls. They're finishing their exploration of the Drow temple, having found the artifact that they were looking for.

Then Saturday, the double whammy of Marchen and Frostmaiden. They're two wildly differing games--Frostmaiden was started about a year and a half into the pandemic, and it's the product of that. The module is technically a survival horror game, but it became obvious that wasn't what we all wanted. We wanted Indiana Jones, a rollicking fun game where you got to have the fantasy of being able to affect the world, and solving problems like hunger and corrupt governments and ridding the land of evil wizards and Godesses. It's very much a cooperative action adventure story. It's been one of my favorites for over 5 1/2 years now, and I'm sad that we're going into the final chapter.

Marchen was just started a couple of months ago. It's slower, darker and more contemplative. The heroes have been recruited (blackmailed) into going on an adventure. The party has wildly differing personalities, some of them having been plucked out of jail, and some having been bribed into working for the king. The overarching theme is very heroic--save the world. But that's woven into a setting of fairy tales and an invading army and countries with wildly differing political structures and prejudices. It can get pretty dark. OUr last session, after failing to convince the crown. princess to execute her when the job's done, our bard bribed the paladin to do the job. If he does it, the other party members will 100% turn on him, and probably murder him.

So far, I've worked in Rapunzel, Beauty and the Beast and a fucked up Three Little Pigs, with more to come. I'm excited because in the next country, I get to start bringing in some non-european fairy tales.

A lot of parts are tied to the players backstories, providing a hook for them to be drawn deeper into the story and to have stakes. It seems to be working out pretty well right now. Everyone is invested in their characters and the story that we're telling. As I've said a million times, my players are great. Their excitement makes me happy and spurs me into telling a richer, more personal story for them. I'm still getting background snippets and fic and thoughts that I can use to. make the story richer. It makes me more able to craft an arc for each character, and gives me plot points that I can use to let them reveal a little bit more about the character. There are so many great things in their backstories that I can integrate with the story.

Sorry, Marchen is my homebrew baby, and I love it. I could babble about it forever, but I don't want to get too spoilery, since nilchance and poisontaster both play in it. There's a particular fairy tale that I'm' looking forward to, because I think the bard is going to react poorly to it, and I hadn't thought about it until yesterday, and now I love it. I'm sad, because they won't get to it for awhile, but I think it could be super fun.

I'm also being a lot more collaborative on this game. Asking the players what they would like to see more of, and what's working for them. It's a thing called Stars and Wishes, where you ask the players to give stars, or say the parts that they really liked, and what things they'd like more of or to see in the future. It works really well in our Brindlewood Bay game, so I think I'm going to start incorporating it into Marchen. It'll help me know which parts to do more of, and which parts to maybe have less of.

We decided to go to get brunch on Sunday rather than do the movies. Neither of us are quite emotionally ready for the dog to get hurt in Supergirl, so we're just going to go have Korean BBQ.

I do see that there is a showing of he man later in the afternoon, so if we feel like it, that could be fun. We'll go on vibes, I think.

We've got a couple of empty weekends coming up, so we should be able to do the movies then, depending on what's playing. I also have two movies I'd like to check out. One, I can almost swear I've seen it before, called Season of the Witch (not the Halloween franchise one.) It's got Nic Cage and Ron Perlman, as crusaders transporting a witch. The other is a horror comedy called Abigail about a group who kidnaps a tycoon's pre-teen age daughter, only to find that she's a ravening vampire. It sounded so much fun, and I'm willing to give it a go. Plus it has Kevin Durand who I adore.

Okay, time to do some more prep work for Frostmaiden and Marchen. Everyone have an outstanding Thursday!

And now this morning, we play "Are our eyes tired, or are our glasses dirty?" (Our glasses were visited by the dust fairy last night, apparently.)

It's Tuesday! We survived Monday! I didn't smack anyone through my monitor! (But it was a close thing.) One thing I've learned since I started the new job is how much some of my coworkers suck. I was in happy little coworker land, I never heard a whisper of how people were fucking up and being poor workers, which I suppose is a credit to the leadership team. But now? Fuck no, I know everything. Most of it, I can watch in real time.

One of our problem children just accepted a new job, and will be starting soon. But in the meantime, they're determined to just make leadership's lives hell until they're gone.

They recommended that one of our patients go to our competitors, repeatedly, almost pushing the pt to go with one of them because the site they wanted didn't have any openings for a week. It just...goddamn. We do have other sites? One is fairly close and they have openings? Maybe try that before you try to give away our business?

Sadly, this is going to mean we're down two more seasoned people (Even if they sucked) this week alone. It could be rough until we can get some people hired and fully trained.

Mondays can be annoying on their own, without being understaffed, and dealing with whatever that was. I got some people in, so I'm happy with that.

I didn't really want to work, I gotta admit. After Marchen on Sunday, I just wanted to sit and daydream about game. The Marchen server was abuzz with excitement for the last game, and plots, plans and suppositions for the next.

Two of my players dropped new bits of backstory in my lap, and I cannot wait to bring teases of them in. Also, since the players are now 5th level, I thought and came up with some magical items for them. I wanted something thematically appropriate for both their character and subclass as well as for what's happened so far in the game. Because of course, the original version of a character rarely survives the game intact. They change and evolve and you may end up playing someone completely different than you expected.

So, I wanted to give them magical items that fit who the characters are becoming as well. And I was not finding it in the source material. So, we did a little bit of homebrewing and came up with four good magic items for my players. One, to be fair, was a reskin of an existing item, because they're "Not that kind of bard" TM. The others are just pulled out of my ass.

All the chat and theories that the players are coming up with give me life. I love that they're so invested that they want to talk about the game when it's not happening! It just gives me warm fuzzies that they're all so excited about something that I'm mostly making up as I go along.

The eternal problem of the DM though is that I have so many cool things coming up. So many encounters and fucked up character bits, and there's 4 people who would be interested in my nerding, and they're the very same people I cant tell. It's deeply annoying. Instead, poor coyotegestalt and I share our DM nerdery for the games we're not in. But yes, so excited for game on Saturday! It's another double day where I have Marchen and Frostmaiden in one day, and Vecna the night before. It'll be awesome. I do have a bit of prep to do though. For Frostmaiden especially. I need two really good maps and to make some adversaries for the start of the final chapter.

Vecna, I just need to read the module a bit and see what they're likely to get into for that.

Marchen is all but ready, maybe. an extra map to be sure. Maybe an extra monster or two. For that game, I have a pretty good idea of how much ground we're going to cover, so I don't have to get too far ahead of myself.

Frostmaiden, I'm pretty sure of how far they'll get, but I could be wrong, so I need to code in both Tiamat's handmaidens, and Tiamat herself. Tiamat herself is going to be a wicked bitch to code in. I found this legendary stat block that I love, but she has a lot that she can do, so it's going to take some time. I also need to consider how much of a gauntlet I want this to be. Do I want two or three challenges? More? These are 20th level characters who are just shy of gods, so they deserve a good challenge. Plus, this is the end of a 5 year game, so I want epic. I want cinematic and I want something that will drive them to the brink. Even as near demi gods, it shouldn't be easy or safe to challenge the goddess of Dragons. I'm considering that. Plus they may need to get through some of the Abyss to get to the goddess. I doubt she's going to let them teleport into her lair. There could be some demons along the way to try to stop them. I'm going to need so many maps. I will think on this.

Vecna, being a premade campagin, I don't need to do shit for except read the module. Which frequently I'll do the morning of, or even right before game. As long as I have enough time to look at it, figure if anything needs to be changed or bumped up, and then we go.

I will poke at the stat blocks for Frostmaiden after I finish this entry and maybe source some maps.

After work yesterday, I had my monthly psych appt, which was fine. I had a bit of a headache due to incoming weather, but I managed. Of course, I forgot to put in the chicken, and had to order, so that was annoying. I will say that Panda Express' Catonese BBQ Brisket is very tasty, though a wee spicy. I can't eat a ton of it, but I do like it. Mostly I ate my chow mein noodles and teriyaki chicken. We have plenty leftover today, which is cool. I'm going to have a couple of slices of brisket to go with my morning eggs.

Lizzy played so hard that she tired herself out and went to lay on the Eden Hoodie I'd gotten Jess for D&D games during the winter when being by the window is chilly. It was hanging on the desk chair, and baby has claimed it.





I was able to get off work for her vet appointment on Monday. As she gets feistier, I'm beginning to think that we're going to need both of us to handle getting her in the carrier. It should be a nice, easy visit, since she's already had her shots and spay. It's basically just a "getting to know you" visit to establish care. We'll take a poop sample in case they want that, but mostly, it's just to get her tiny butt weighed. I'm so curious what she'll weigh. She's definitely put on a little bit of weight since moving in with us, so I'm excited to see what it is. On her spay paperwork, she was 7.2 lbs, but I don't know if that was taken before or after they yeeted the uterus. She definitely is a smoll girl, so I'm not expecting more than 7.6, but we'll see.

I suppose today I've gotta find time to vote. I'm working til 5 for one of the other PAS III's, so we're definitely going after dinner, which is annoying, because then I'll lose my good parking spot. Or I suppose we could go at lunch break. Probably wouldn't take more than 40 min. Eh, we'll see. Maybe lunch break.

Tomorrow, I'm working the late shift, from 9:30 til 6 for the other PAS III coworker. I'm super in demand this week. But hey some of it is OT, so I'll take it.

I'm looking forward to next week, when I get to work July 3, and get time and a half and 8 hours of PTO. That should be a nice check, just in time for the Weird Al concert. I dub thee "hotel room."

I think this weekend on Sunday, we have Supergirl, which I'm looking forward to. I really tend to enjoy James Gunn's movies, and Superman was so much fun, so I'm assuming Supergirl will also be good. I'm wondering what the soundtrack will be like as well. James is normally great with that needle drop, ever since he ruined "You're Every Woman in the World" back in Slither. (fucked up movie, love it.)

I also need to get around to watching Project Hail Mary. Everyone I know loves it, so I want to give it a try.

Hopefully, Masters of the Universe will hit streaming services soon. I don't think we're getting to that in the theater, which is sad. My inner 10 year old really wanted to see it.

And now, it's time to do some prep work. Everyone have a terrific Tuesday!

Good morning and


And of equal importance, happy anniersary nilchance . It's been 23 years since you worked the Order of the Phoenix midnight book release at Barnes and Nobel, and got up early to help prepare for our first wedding. I had been up all night reading the book that I procured at said midnight launch party, and I had to be up to pick up the cake on 7 hours sleep. It was a lot. It was a beautiful ceremony held outside and in a friend's attic ritual room with some of our friends. IT was lovely, and while it wouldn't be legal for another 10 years, it meant something to us and I still consider it our true anniversary. (The others are just fun to celebrate.)

I am a big person, and I can say when I was wrong. I believe I said that I wasn't sure how I'd like the Rocky Horror because in the videos I've seen, Luke Evans just didn't have the rizz to pull off Franken Furter. I will humbly admit that I was very wrong. He's just got a weird type that only kicks in when you're physically there? Anyway, he was excellent.

Good lord, I'm tired today. Yesterday was a long day. I was up at my normal time of 4am. Then, we took Yoda to the daycare. He was actually really excited, so I might have to try to have him go to day camp once in a while. Every couple of weeks, maybe. His buddy, Ryan was working, so he had a nice day of play. They weirdly didn't send pictures of him, which was a little sad, but that's okay. If it's a choice between seeing him and getting updates, I'll take the updates. WE go to pick him up at 8 today.

After that, it was home for a few minutes before the car came to whisk us off to NYC. Since our driver comes from Alexandria, they had already picked up coyotegestalt who was happily joining us on our strange journey.

I got a text at 7:30, that they were stopping at a Royal Farm, and did we want something. Which the driver 100% did not need to do, but he did. He kindly brought me a breakfast sandwich, which was a lifesaver.

Then, it was off to pick up our other friend from the 30th street station in Philly. We got our first round of pictures from my sister of Lizzy being adorable.





Ans then my absolute favorite:



I really missed her while we were out and about.

The traffic was remarkably light for a Saturday, even as we got into Manhattan and we pulled in a little over 3 hours before our show.

See we had realized the night before that Rocky Horror doesn't do normal broad way 2pm and 7pm showings. No, it does 3:30pm and 10pm. We of course, had arranged the car for that 2pm time, so we decided to have lunch first.

We went to a little Japanese place called Donburiya which we'd picked by virtue of having good ratings, and being around the corner from the theater. It was a narrow hole in the wall. Even though they had opened barely 10 minuutes before we arrived, there were still a decent number of people in there and it continued to fill while we ate.

Their menu looked amazing, and I had a hell of a time deciding what to get. I ended up going with the Teishoku menu and got the Teppan Yakinikiu and a mini curry rice. The curry rice came first, and it made me admit that there might be reasons to go to NYC. By the time my skirt steak (with a mildly spicy sauce) came, I was sure that I will need to eat there again. It was SO tasty, ya'll. The steak was tender, and the sauce was amazing. It came with more rice, plus a salad with an amazing soy ginger dressing and some of the best miso soup I've ever had. It was delicious, and I was in charity with the world.

Then, we went across the street to a little bakery/coffee shop to kill some more time, and imbibe caffeine. I grabbed a Belgain mocha and a pear almond tart, and it was very good. Not too sweet, just perfect. The coffee was strong, though with very little mocha taste. We sat there a little while before finally heading into the theater. We were still a little early, but we moved after a few minutes. Once inside, the ticket taker was kind enough to see two cane users and let us bypass the line up to just go sit down.

The seats were very back row, but still very good. Slight obstruction of some of the stuff in the side boxes due to the Mezzanine overhang, but good seats. Of course, a tall dude sat in front o me, but I was able to peer around his head to see just about everything.

I really enjoyed the whole show. The actors were good and really committed to the bit. It was much more lascivious than the movie, which was cool. They were obviously having a good time, and they did wonderfully. In addition to Luke Evans, we had Harvey Guillén as Eddie/Doctor Scott, Rachel Dratch as the Narrator, Andrew Durand as Brad, Stephanie Hsu as Janet, The amazing Amber Gray as Riff Raff and Michela Jae Rodriguez as Columbia. Sadly no Juliet Louis, but her understudy Anania was SO good. I loved her opening and closing songs. Hands down my favorite was Josh Rivera as Rocky. He was awesome, and had a great voice.

The show was a total spectacle, and was so much fun! Afterwards, we headed for the long drive back to Baltimore, and got a few more Lizzy pictures.





I also had sent her pictures off to be turned into a Disney Princess like we did with Yoda and Boodle, and got back the proof.



That's going on a canvas to be hung along side the others.

Then we were home and ready to crash, but first a little more play for Lizzy before we all crashed.

Today, we get the dog, maybe go to or get brunch and then D&D. We're going to have a little hang out with the Marchen group, and then Prophecy of the Nine Omens, which thankfully I only have to play in.

Tomorrow, sadly, back to work.

Okay, time to go grab the puppers! Everyone have an outstanding Sunday!

It's Friday! Good lord, I've got a busy weekend! We've got a game tonight, followed by all day out tomorrow, followed by two games. I'm not sure I can handle all of that, but we'll see. If I'm too wiped on Sunday, I may drop from the game in the early afternoon on Sunday. I'll feel very guilty about it, but it might be needed.

Yesterday was a long day at work. There weren't a ton of slots opening for what I need, which is mostly 90min MRIs, so I wasn't doing much of that, so I was working on Columbia's Cardiac MRI schedule. I've almost filled July, so that's good. I have maybe two more days to fill, which I'm going to work on today. And of course, today I have the weekly manager's bitchfest meeting, which is always...interesting. Hopefully, it'll go a little bit faster today.

Lizzy is really showing her kitteny side. Her spay must be feeling better, or she's settling in more, or both, but she was ALL PLAY yesterday. With naps in between. It started at 6:40 am, when I introduced her to a toy that's a flapping bird. It doesn't fly, just flapps its wings and chirps. If I had gotten this for Boodle, she would have run away from it, but Lizzy pounced. She beat the shit out of that thing.

Later, while I was working, Jess tried to lay down with a heaing pad for cramps, and they were laying there and heard a plaintive "Mrrow?" And Lizzy wanted to play again. They played laser pointer, and then with her crinkly ball, and finally, she played with her little spring toy.

Afterwards, she laid there breathing hard until she finally fell cooled off and fell fast asleep.



I love her little shaved patch from the spay surgery. I'll look forward to it filling in so I can see her belly fur. I think it's mostly going to be creamy, perfect for kissing (and potentially getting one's face grabbed, but it would be worth it).

After work, I sat for a moment, and then began making dinner. Halibut got marinated, and the fry bread got made. I had mixed it up during my last break, and then stretched it into little rounds and put it in the oil. They fried up very well, and the bread was very tasty. All in all, I was very happy with the outcome. The tacos were good, and flavorful, and with the halibut, shredded cabbage and some creamy sirracha sauce, it was a good meal. Of course, I wildly overestimated what we needed. I've got four halibut filets left, and only two little fry breads. That's because the fry bread was used to add butter and honey and eaten as dessert as well. They were very tasty. No complaints.

Tonight, we're having something simple. Maybe the masala marinated chicken legs and the brussel sprouts. That would probably be good.

After dinner, Lizzy got yet another playtime, this time with the wand and her catnip toy. Then, she was again very tired, but since Jess and I were in the bedroom, she came up and laid at the foot of the bed and slept.

I think she's already put a little bit of weight on. I'll be interested to see what she is at the vets on the 29th. I know she was 7.2lbs before her spay. If we can get her back up to that sans uterus, I'd be happy. Anything above that and I'll be ecstatic.

Google says for a 10lb cat, they should have 200-280 calories. A 7lb cat should have about 140. Yesterday, she had 220, so she's definitely getting the food to pack on some weight. I don't need her to be fat, I want her to be healthy, but I would like her to have some padding over her ribs. It seems that now that she's not nursing, she's actually picking up some weight.

I was worried, taking her away from her kittens that she'd be lonely, or sad, but I swear, this cat gives no fucks. She can sleep without being bothered, she can eat without sharing, and she doesn't have kittens bugging her for a snack while she's getting petted. She seems elated to be a solo cat.

On Wednesday, I sent the apartments her vet records, so that she could be added to the lease. Yesterday, I get a nastygram that "we're only allowed two pets, not three," so basically who were we getting rid of?

I saw red. I replied with a copy of the letter I'd sent to remove Boodle back in April, and a picture of the little urn with her nameplate, as well as my own nastygram.

They "missed" the original email. Never mind that I called first and let them know, and they asked for an email to add to the file. Then they told me that I needed to come in and fill out a new pet addition. I replied that I was happy to, but should I bring both cats so they could see that there was only one live cat? Remarkably, then they sent me the form to fill out and email, and also a refund for the $50 we paid for pet fees for after Boodle was gone. It was a miracle, suddenly paperwork didn't have to be done in person! I probably was a little bit bitchier than I needed to be, but I was angry. I'm playing by the rules, and I get shit? Never mind the neighbors dog who barks for hours on end or the dude who smokes so much weed that I get a migraine going into the hallway, no, we're the problem. I was also having the aforementioned slow day, so I had time to be pissed off about the condescending tone of the first email. Like I'm enough of an idiot that if I had three animals, I'd tell them about it? I signed the fucking lease, I know the terms.

I will call today to make sure that everything is taken care of. I don't want there to be problems down the line.

We got Cece's ashes and paw print back. The paw print is going up to her foster momma, who hd her for 8 months. Cece was her family much longer than she was ours, and it feels like the right thing to do. The company that the ER Vet uses didn't have the plain/carved wooden box like the others, so she's in a delicate white urn with silver pawprints. It seems appropriate for the little princess.

I've told Lizzy that I'm going to need her to make to at least 20 years. Yoda might have another few years, especially if he does have Cushings, so I'm going to need my kitty to last for a long time.

We've got two big boxes in the living room. Two new cat trees, one for the living room and one for my office by my desk in case she wants to sit with me while I work, since Jess is convinced that I'm her person. I don't know about that, but I'd be happy to have her.

I'm hoping that she doesn't take the cat trees as an opportunity to go all "death from above" on Yoda. He's such a little drama queen that I'm sure it would involve yelping like he's been murdered.

I might try to build one of them during lunch, since I don't have to go down to the apartment's office. One is solid oak, and large and kind of beige. It doesn't really go with anything in the living room but I liked it, so it shall be hers. The other is black and dark purple, with perches that are shaped like coffins. I love it so much. It speaks to my inner goth.

I suppose now, I should do a little bit of prep for game tonight. I was looking at the slate of games that I have on the server and wondering if I should shelve a couple for the moment. We're having such trouble scheduling everything that I feel like it might be worthwhile. The tricky part is that I'm not sure which ones. I love them all, but the scheduling thing is beginning to feel like an albatross. It's a D&D cliche of games being abandoned because of scheduling, and I don't want that, just some breathing room. It's much harder when some of the games have 9 people with their own schedules. Syncing those can feel like an impossibility.

I don't think I'm burned out on the games, but scheduling, yeah, definitely. I will think on it some more. It's also difficult because we seem to acquired a life this year. There's a bunch of weekends coming up that we're going to be unavailable, so it's not just other people's schedules. I don't want to get burned out, so I'm going to need to cut back.

I decided that I'm not going back to college at this moment. Last semester, I really struggled with it. I had trouble finding the time, plus trouble doing the work. My brain just isn't wired that way. Also, I feel like I have some gaps in my education that are not doing me any favors. The downside of getting a GED, I suppose. I missed all the college prep courses. Not that they'd be that useful, having been 35 years ago, but still. I just don't think I have the brain cells right now to deal with it. I don't know if I'll start back up in the future. I'd like to get a degree, but I don't know if it's in the cards for me.

Today, the other person who calls patients is out, so I'll be busier, I think. Of course that depends on if we get some decent cancellations to put people in. We got a shitty note from one of the doctor's offices accusing us of being incompetent because we couldn't get a patient in for an appointment quckly. Bitch, come look at our schedule. I can show you how there's no fucking room in it. We're paddling upstream and we need more/bigger sites. I'd love to be able to get patients in super fast, but we are booked. And it's not like MRIs can be double booked. There's only one tube, and some scans take longer. On a good day, I can move mountains, but only if I have something to work with. And lately there hasn't been anything to work with, even with our White Marsh site running 24 hours on the weekend. I feel bad for the big boss, who gets these lovely missives from our doctors about how their patients are special and need immediate attention, or how this person is a VIP, and needs to be seen now. I've got a midnight opening at White Marsh on Sunday, and I feel like it's going to be a hard sell.

Okay, time to hop off. I'll do a little prep, but since this is homebrew, there's not much left to do. I may end it a touch early, since I have to be up early to take Yoda to the kennel, but we'll see. I've functioned on less sleep before. Everyone have a fabulous Friday!