And then, there's a bearded fetus.

You get down on your knees and you cry, cry for absolution.

2026-07-09T09:26:08Z

It's Thursday, and I'm dreading today. I really don't know how my GYN appt is going to go. Not the diagnosis, but how badly it's going to hurt. I'm pretty good with. pain, and I do have weed now, but last time was SO bad that it's left a scar for many years. Nothing to do but go through it. Hopefully if I have pain, it's slightly shorter lived. I was going to see if the site would work me in for the Ultrasound I'm sure I will need, but I think I'll wait. We'll see how it goes.

Yesterday was very long. We've been getting killed this week at work. Just calls out the wazoo, and people out on vacation and out sick. It's been a mess. Yesterday we were so shorthanded that we had to pull people of doing the faxes and emails to get on the phones. That's how I ended up spending all day doing faxes. I don't mind doing them, but good lord, after a while, it gets tedious. On the plus side, we got the faxes down to about 10, from a starting point of nearly 200. And of course, more were coming in while we were doing it, so we probably killed off at least 400, because that fax was on fire yesterday. At one point, I was doing the new ones, and I swear, every time I did one, three more had come in. There were three of us actively working it at one point.

At 9:48am. I hopped into the Ticketmaster queue, and with some technological struggles, I was able to get Danny Elfman tickets. We're sitting in the balcony (which is the only place that has seats) in the first row. From the View From my Seat picture, it looks pretty choice.

I haven't gone to see someone I wrote a ton of porn about for years. It was fairly frequent when I was in wrestling fandom, but that was like 25 years ago. Since I'm not really in fandoms any more, it doesn't come up, but then this 73 year old motherfucker decided to tour.

I'm going to take like 2 hours PTO, and then we'll go down early, to avoid some traffic, and check in at the hotel and relax until it's time to go meet people for dinner. The show isn't til 8:30pm, so we were not going to be getting home at midnight. It will mean fighting DC traffic on the way home, but I'll deal. I'm going to take the morning off, so I won't need to be home til about 12:30.

During lunch, I went in to see baby, and she was SO sleepy.

I love the second picture, where she just looks like she's counting the minutes til she can nap some more.

After work, I decided to nap for 20min. So I go in the bedroom, and the cat greets me, and I lay down. Yoda is sitting outside the door whining because I dared to lock myself out of his reach. And then Lizzy starts meowing at him because she really wants to be his friend. I did not get much of a nap. You also have to know that Lizzy's meows sound like a sad bike horn. So I've got that and Yoda just whining his heart out.

I got up and started cooking early. In addition to the bacon and sausage, I made pancakes for Jess and eggs for my sister. It was a nice breakfast for dinner menu. It was pretty tasty. I kind of eyeballed the pancake recipe and almost forgot to add vanilla, but I caught myself. It turned out pretty well, though.

Tonight shall be basic hamburgers. I like to bake the patties, so it's super easy. I'll make my patties before I go to the appt, then Jess can throw them in the oven if I'm not up to doing it.

I have games every day this weekend, starting tomorrow with the Swedish horror one shot.

We realized that Monday, we'll have had Lizzy for one month! I'm thinking about getting her a tiny piece of sushi grade tuna and searing it for her as a little celebration.

With the Elfman concert, it turns out that we've got plans every month for the rest of the year. Sept was going to be our dry spell, but not so much. We've got Weird Al at the end of July, AEW Pro wrestling in August, Danny in Sept, the animation con in October, Undertale symphony in November, and Much Ado About Nothing in December. It's a lot. I'm still debating on a spring vacation, but we'll see. I was looking at the cruise again. The ship seems a bit of a letdown after the Koningsdam, and the food choices are not great. Everything that we'd probably do would be more money. The ship would be about the same size as the Konigsdam, but it's got a lot more entertainment shit, like a waterpark. We'd be going while kids were in school, though. I don't know. I'll think on it. Need to do research.

Okay, time for me to hop off and do some more prep work for the games and take a nice shower so I smell nice for the doctor. Everyone have a fantastic Thursday!

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Put your hands up and reach for the sky, cry for absolution

2026-07-08T09:32:07Z

We've reached the halfway point in our week! I am so tired this morning. I had trouble sleeping due to small kitty, and I'm feeling it. I was awake for about an hour or so at about 1:30 AM. It was deeply annoying. Hopefully, today will be a little less crazy at work, because we were 100% slammed yesterday, to the point that I worked until 5 to help out. I don't know how helpful I was, but I tried, dammit. I'm not that quick when it comes to scanning in orders from the fax to the charts. It's a whole process, and I'm definitely out of practice, but I got some done.

I can tell that my hormones are out of whack this week. My ADHD has been really high, and the meds are barely taming it. I spent most of yesterday in the land of terminally annoyed at people's stupidity. Of course, in the middle of that, our big boss dropped a new project into my lap. It's not horrible, but it's going to take a lot of time searching out patients to put in the new slots. And then, Columbia realized that their cardiac tech is going to be out on a day I've scheduled, so I have to fix that, and to top it off I had a high maintenance patient who I've been working with decide to give me a call with 8 million questions. I was actually really glad to go to work the faxes. Not that people still weren't messaging me.

I was going to cook dinner, but then Yoda met Lizzy through a cracked door, and seemed to really like her, so we ordered so that we could put together the oversized baby gate. It's about 5'5 and made of clear plexiglass, so they can see each other, and smell each other through the sides, where there are inch gaps.

It fought us, but we got it up and opened the door for them to sniff. So far, so good! They seem interested, but not overly interested. I have a feeling she's going to be a lot for poor Yoda. She likes to rub against our legs and beg for pettings and I feel like she might be very obstructive for him. We'll see. She's got a few more days in the bedroom, and then we shall begin letting her roam the apartment at night.

The other issue with the ADHD is that when the pills wear off, it's kicking my ass. Nothing like laying in bed and not being able to hold still. I've been getting that great feeling of wanting to claw my own skin off. Fucking hormones. Hopefully, once this period is over, it'll settle back down, because this sucks.

Today, I absolutely shall cook some food. I'm tempted to throw a couple of sausage and a slice or two of bacon in for breakfast. That's technically dinner as well, but we have a lot of sausage, and 2 lbs of bacon, so I can definitely get away with a few pieces of each. Hopefully, work shall be less crazy, and I'll have a little bit of time to think through a bit of lore for Marchen. I managed to pull about three hundred words out of my ass yesterday, and now I must flesh it out.

We've been playing for 8 sessions, but I'm still figuring things about the world I created.

This had to do with their religion and myths. We have three gods--Mother Night, Father Light and the Bastard. But, yesterday I created more of them. There's another two gods mentioned in a myth about the time before the Three. It mentioned the Creator and the Moon. One more little thing to drop at my players feet like a dead mouse.

Today, I also have to get on ticketmaster and get tickets for Danny Elfman's tour at 10am. The venue has limited seating, so I want to get on early and make sure we get seats. It looks like the balcony has seats, so we'll aim for up there and hope. Apparently, he's dropping a new album, so it'll be that, some stuff from Oingo Boingo and some from his films. I'll have to listen to the new album when it drops so I'm familiar.

I'm really hoping that he plays one of his old album called Insanity. I was appropriate for the elder Bush's era and it's applicable now, too. (The white folks think they're at the top, ask any proud white male. A million years of evolution and we get Danny Quayle.) I'd love to see him rework it for the current era.

Tomorrow, of course, I have my gyn appt, which I am deeply anxious over. I'll be fine, but I'm really hoping that this doctor is a little more gentle than my last one and maybe I don't have stabbing pain for three days.

Mostly, I'm just trying not to think about it. Obviously the cure for that is more lore about Marchen.

I was thinking the other day that I 100% understand now why people want to go on cruises all the time. Ours is still 15 mo away and I really want to get back on the boat sooner. They're doing some 5 day cruises next year, but sadly none that would work for us. There's a 7 day cruise with Carnival, which is Holland America's parent company, that leaves out of Baltimore, so maybe we'll consider that.

Okay, on that note, I'm going to hop off and do some prepping for game on Saturday. Everyone have an excellent day!

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Twenty five years and my life is still trying to get up that great big hill of hope.

2026-07-07T09:24:20Z

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!

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Even now when you're here you are moving, hysterically seeking out what needs improving

2026-07-06T09:24:50Z

It's Monday already. I actually slept fairly decently last night, so it's not so bad. I'm trying the new thing where I take pills at 5am instead of when I get up at 4am. Just to give it an extra half hour that it'll work in the evening. We'll see.

It ended up being a fun and relaxing Sunday, so that was good. Early on, I was worried, because one of my players lost power in a storm. Fortunately, it came back up well before game time. Whoever her power company is, they're good because it was only down about 45 minutes, it that.

We kind of chilled out and relaxed for in the morning, until I discovered that I seem to have a period. Complete with cramps. Since it's been a while since I had a period, I do have to go get it checked out, but since it's a full period, I'm not quite as worried as I'd be if it was just spotting. Still, I'll go to the GYN soon to get it looked at.

Once I'd taken some ibuprofen and it had a little time to kick in, it was time for Marchen, which is always one of the high points of my week.

This time, the party was arriving in the fantasy analogue of Amsterdam, and immediately headed to the castle to do their check in with the nobles. It went great, as the Piper insulted the queen and they were sent on some fetch quests.

On the way to their fetch quest, the rogue got a sending from the Regent who sent them on the quest (who is also the paladin's beloved), Kristoff. Kristof let her know that they'd found one of her kidnapped children, but that the other had been sold to a hag, and his trail lost. The Regent's men are going to go to a nearby country and speak to the great Baba Yaga for information, as queen of the Hags. Then, the Regent, who up until now seemed like a bit of a socialist, asked what she would have him do with the slaver who they captured. When the rogue gave the word, he whipped out phantasmal killer and executed the man himself, showing off a ruthless streak that most of the party didn't know about. The scene ended with the rogue telling the ranger in confidence that she thought she might be pregnant.

Then, we switched over to the paladin, who wandered into a street festival. IT turned out to be the festival of the Koningsmoordenaar, or Kingkiller. As he moved through it, he discovered that it was a festival to the worst day of his life, and something that he considered the worst thing he'd ever done--murdering the former king to put the Regent he was deeply in love with on the throne. But he snuck in and stabbed the king in front of his children, while the blood splattered on them. And there they were, celebrating it. Celebrating him. There was a reenactment and all. He dissociated at the reinactment, watching the thinned strawberry jam splatter onto the children's giggling faces. The bard pulled him out. Afterwards, we had a little fun roleplay with the local vendors, which involved a flower crown for the pied piper's rat.

Then, it was back to the other team, where a werewolf with personal information on the ranger started shit. The combat was short, but the werewolf attacked in a way that indicated that she knew who the ranger was by referencing the biggest trauma of the ranger's life. The post fight was fun, where the ranger questioned the werewolf who did nothing but spout off how the other members of her pack were out there, and they would end the ranger, and by the way how was her litte sister? Now the ranger is in full freak out.

Then back to the festival, where the pied piper found them being watched by a figure. As he turned, she saw the white knotted scars on his back where he'd been whipped, and she followed, not sure why she was. The piper is a great character. She's angry and nihilistic, and doesn't seem to give a fuck about anyone. But she followed. And she found a creepy flesh golem, who didn't speak, but did sign. Eventually, his master came out, and it became obvious that he was not treating his creation, who he called his son, very well. The bard first tried to buy the golem, but then ended up fighting the dude and killling him for the golem's freedom. Between the golem and the master, they ended up doing quite a bit of damage to the paladin, but it ended well. The piper had her rats eat the body, and they sunk the bones in a bag with rocks into the canal.

It ended up being such a fun session, during which poisontaster burst out with "T, I love you, but you are a motherfucker." High praise! It was awesome, and revealed a little more about each character. And now they know a few new things about the Regent who sent them.

It was a super fun three hours. Afterwards, the discord was a flurry of messages, with things to do next session and theories and what not. It's glorious for me as the DM, because every message is a little bit of validation that I made good choices.

After that, we had a quiet afternoon. My back was really sore so I took a weed ad dfrifted through the rest of the afternoon. Today, my back/uterus is again pissed and are giving me crap, but alas no weed before work, so I'll need to take some ibuprofen and tylenol and see if that helps. It's been so long since I had cramps that they're really annoying me. It's just not a pain I'm used to.

We got Lizzy a donut that she can get into and play or onto, and she adores it. There's a jingly ball on a string, and she loves to play with it.

Today, we shall have work. I have a doctor's appt tomorrow that I'm not sure about. I was supposed to get labs done, and I haven't. I could run up and get them done this morning, but I don't really feel like it. On the other hand, maybe I could get an referral to the GYN and maybe get in sooner.

I've got til 10am to cancel it, so I may try to call a couple of GYN offices before then and see what I can find.

Okay time for me to get myself together. I hope you all have a stellar Monday!

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All those things that you desire, you will find here in the fire.

2026-07-05T11:28:03Z

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!

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Just when I'm reaching for that rung at the top I'm that broken heel

2026-07-04T10:40:09Z

So, it's official, I was a total airhead yesterday. I was exhausted from lack of sleep in my defense.

On Thursday, I had mentioned to Jess that I was thinking about waiting to take my pills until 5 am, because I didn't like that the ADHD meds were wearing off in the late afternoon and leaving me icky in the evenings. I need it to work for bookending my day as much as I do for work on account of the sonic onslaught of hearing about my sisters day and everything she's seen on social media. First, in the morning when she wakes up. Less important, since she doesn't normally start talking til later in the morning. She gets up at 6, and doesn't really start talking for a 15-30min. I guess the coffee needs to kick in. Then in the evening, she gets home at 6, and the real fun begins.

I could ask her to chill, but it's really the only times she gets to talk to us during the day, since Jess and I go lay down early at night. So I want to talk to her, I just don't need the social media shit. So, I deal. I really am considering asking for a little short acting dose for the evening like we used to do for kids who needed to do homework.

But anyway, you can probably guess where this is going. I was going to go take my pills at 5:30, but Jess went to the bathroom then, and a small creature slipped out from the bedroom and required chasing. I got Lizzy back where she was supposed to be and promptly forgot my pills.

I felt like shit all day. Called out of work early and went directly to bed and stayed there til about 2, when I looked over at the nightstand and saw my pills in their transparent case. And then I cussed and debated whether it was too late to take the Azstarys. I ultimately decided that sleep was less important than feeling like a functional human, so I took it. By 4, I was feeling 100% better.

Of course, soon after, Jess came down wiht a headache from hell. Then, two more people had to drop out of game due to their AC struggling in the 102 degree heat and the other also migraine, so the remaining three decided to push the game to next week when maybe people would be up to playing.

So, I got to test out whether I could get to sleep on stimulants much earlier than expected, at 9pm instead of 11pm. I'm happy to report that I crashed out and got really good sleep. Further proof that I'm ADHD, I suppose. ADHD meds have never made me feel hyper, or even exceptionally focused in, but they have helped my anxiety/need to constantly do thing/wanting to chew my arm off tendencies. I think if I went to a higher dose I might be more focused, and maybe I will bring it up a little more. I don't know. I'll talk to my Psych when I see him in a couple of weeks.

Today, we don't have a bunch planned. We were planning to stick close as I am Safety Mama for Yoda when the fireworkds go off. Instead, we're having storms, which he also hates, so I'm still going to be hanging around. They're not suppoed to start til around 5pm, so there has been discussion of going to the movies, but we'll see how Jess' head feels and how I feel about going out.

I really, really do want to see Masters of the Universe, and this might be my last weekend to, but if I have to wait til August to download it, I will.

Tomorrow, we have Marchen, and I'm so excited. I can't wait for it to be time. I have so much stuff planned for the city they're in. And I've almost written the full module at this point. I've got two and countries left to finish and they have to go through another country or two to reach them so I'll work on that. I know what's supposed to happen and what clues will be revealed in each land, but I need to flesh out the narrative and figure out how they happen upon each fairy tale and whether the tale will be sweet or horrifying. Maybe both.

But tomorrow's game, and probably the one after that are set up. But this one, there's so many good character bits. I do need to find an appropriate token for one thing, but that's no big deal. And I need to see if I can find a prop piece. (some sort of object that I can place on the map.). It might be a hard ask, but there's things I can use if not.

No spoilers, but the stuff I have set up could be some major character growth or at least trauma. It also may drop a clue or two to the mytharc. And more of the complications might be revealed. I need to talk to a couple of my players to see how they want it to go-if they want to take a level in multiclass or if they want to just have an outside complication. Because I could easily do either.

I will send a message when I finish writing this.

You will 100% get the spoilery version of this once it comes to pass, but since two of my players read this, I'll refrain until Monday's journal.

If the weather behaves on Sunday, we may try having hot pot. We got plenty of meats and some veggies and some rice cakes. Definitely enough for a good meal. And I got hot pot bases, which should be tasty to dip things in.

No new pictures of Lizzy today. She was a little perpetual motion machine and I felt like shit, so I didn't get any. So have a couple from the other day,

She's so pretty, but good lord, we are coming to find out that she is dumb as shit. Just, no thought, head empty. If you could listen to her thoughts, it would be a dial tone. That is prefectly okay with me. I don't need a smart cat who's three steps ahead of me. I need exactly what I got, a sweet and adorable kitty. Maybe she'll wise up as she gets older, but we'll see.

I did a little more research into countries to move to if we need to bug out. Spain has changed their digital nomad visa that I would have a shot at getting in. We'd have to live somewhere northern like Pontevedra, where the summer high is only 80 degrees. THe other option would be Valencia, as long as we had AC. If I can't get into Spain, Malta is another possibility, but that would definitely require AC. I'm not planing to run, but just in case, I want to have possibilities.

Oh, if anyone is interested, Romancing the Vote is ending on Sunday. I've put in a couple of bids, so we'll see how it goes.

As part of my "I'm not cooking while it's 100 degrees out" yesterday we had BBQ. I split a turkey sandwich and a pulled pork sandwich with my sister while Jess had BBQ chicken. They were really tasty. I forgot how much I love a good smoked turkey sandwich.

Tomorrow, I think the weather is supposed to be rainy and stormy in the morning, so I will probably not go to the Farmer's Market, but I totally have the itch to make it to one soon. It's difficult to do the one closest to us, because it involves rush hour driving, which usually seems like more trouble than it's worth.

Okay, time to go feed a kitty and maybe consider pants. It's funny, her Tiki Cat food smells horrible, but her poops don't smell as bad on it. So stinky food it is. That at least, doesn't make me gag. Everyone have a safe and wonderful 4th, and may we be better off this time next year.

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I'm bad news, a Black and blue-ser, who's a loser, a-merry-go-round spiraling down

2026-07-03T09:47:34Z

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!

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And every mornin' when I wake up I wanna be who I couldn't say I'd ever been

2026-07-02T09:21:41Z

It's Thursday and the first of our two seriousy shitty days of heat. Our AC is still racing to catch up from yesterday. It hit about 95 degrees Fahrenheit yesterday, and tht was just too much. It was 3 degrees hotter than the thermostat was set for. Today, and tomorrow, it's supposed to get up to 102-103 degrees, so it may be somewhat warm in here. I was tempted to try to order a portable AC to help. That is always a possibility if it gets to be to too bad. I am planning to stay insidet he apartment and open the doors as rarely as possible. Our room is going to be warm as shit, because we have the blinds open to avoid kitty assistance and the sun hits it during the late morning/afternoon. It's always a couple of degrees hotter in there.

Work wasn't too bad yesterday. It was busy, but no one wanted to answer their fucking phone, so I was of limited use. My friend K decided that she might like to apply with us after all. When I asked before she said she was too old to start over, but things continue to go to shit at IKEA. So, I sent her resume, and we'll see. I don't know if they're even still recruiting tbh, but we'll see.

We've got 4 positions, and they came at staggered times, so we'll see if it's meant to be.

My other candidate has his interview today, so I'm hoping that goes well. The first round were painful, according to my manager. She said that she was not pleased with our HR dude, as he was sending total duds. And of course, a bunch of them only want the job because it's remote, and they're mentioning that in the interview, which is not good. That's one of the manager's top pet peeves--when people want the situation and not the substance of the job. We need people who like talking with people and who realize that when patients call us, they're not calling for a good thing. Maybe it's a routine mammo, but the other stuff--they're calling us because there's something wrong, and they need to find out what it is, or clarify what it is. We deal with a lot of masses, tumors, MS, and people who are in pain and scared. There's a certain responsibility to that. Yeah, you're working from home, but the pt just cares that they can trust you to handle things with compassion.

We did have our Lead meeting, which was mostly seeing if we had anything we wanted to add to the staff meetings in 3 weeks. I mentioned that I needed people to stop fucking with my Cardiac schedules and schedule on the fucking hour, so they're not screwing up the schedule. We can fit 3-4 Cardiac MRIs in a day. I'm going to need them to stop scheduling at any time but the hour. We're currently backed out to October on these fucking scans, so we need to maximize our appointments. Putting someone at 12:30 just ruins the 12 and the 1 hours, leaving a half hour on each end that we can't use. I need them to use their brains and not fuck up my schedule. Because then I have to do in and move the pt where they're supposed to be, and no one has time for that. Especially when you have more than one patient off the hour. Then I've got 2-3 patients to call and move. It sucks and it's time that could be used for getting a STAT in on another schedule. We discussed the departure of our big problem child in just a couple of days, which led to wondering if we should be more explicit about how we can see their screens. Apparently, there was an incident where someone was on teams, saying shit she really shouldn't be typing on their work computer that got escalated. A little griping is fine, but there are some things you hardcore should not be typing on a work laptop, much less on Teams. So Jenn was thinking that we should put a little healthy fear into them. I love my team, and I do whatever I can to help, but they are much shittier than I realized when I was still on the phones. I kind of assumed that the people who had been here for awhile knew what they were doing and were good workers. I was not correct. We definitely have a few people who could go.

After work, I started with a bugger of a headache, which didn't ease up until I went to bed. Despite that, I played laser pointer with the Lizzy until she was panting. She was laying on the floor by the door, so I moved her up onto the bed so I could get out and she just flopped. When I came back, I sat next to her and eventually kicked my feet over her so I could lounge. She did not move...except to push her butt against my leg. I was already a little warm before she snuggled, but afterwards. I was seriously grateful for my fan.

She stayed for a good ten minutes, just snuggled there. It's the longest she's ever laid with one of us, I think.

Eventually, she got down and went to grab a snack, but I was honored to have her visiting.

She's a funny kitty. She'll let you pick her up, but only for my sister and I will she stay for a couple of minutes. Jess tries it and she squirms immediately. They are not the pick up parent. They are the get down on the floor and pet me when I flop person.

I think today, we're going to have the managers bitchfest, since only a couple of people are here on Friday. That should be fun. There has been so much bullshit lately that we won't lack for things to talk about.

I think I'll send a mention to the TLs and ask about adding the information for the Columbia cardiacs to the staff meeting. I'm fighting a losing battle trying to fill the slots with what they want, and I could use help. If they could clue me in when they have a Cardiac, I could see if I could get them in sooner. It would be very helpful, since they just opened through September, and I'm still fighting with the end of July. There needs to be a way to have me involved at the jump, so I don't have to poach schedules as much. I also need to start keeping track of the calls I make with the info about the pt. Do they want a call back if something else opens or would they prefer to stay where they are. That way I don't bother them with calling again if they don't want me to.

I don't mind filling the schedule, but it's definitely hard to get the mix of protocols that they want. I just need to figure out how to word the request.

Tomorrow, I shall work for my time and a half. My Holiday pay dropped yesterday, which is nice. Now I can put in for the few days off that I need before the end of the year. I think it's mostly an early day for Weird Al and AEW, and then most of Friday and maybe Monday for Animate!Philly in October. When I accumulate another day, I may also take my birthday off, since it's on a Thursday this year.

The mesh gate for Lizzy and Yoda's introduction is not coming til Sunday now, so she may be waiting a little longer to see the big dog. Lizzy is hella curious. Yesterday she was trying to look under the door at him. Yoda seems mostly indifferent, so we'll see how that holds up when he can fully see her. He's chilled out a lot, but I'm not sure she'll like his version of play, since he is a bit bigger than her, and his play with Boodle was to come over and poke her with nis nose and sniff her thoroughly. Boodle used to smack the shit out of him for that, and then we'd have a kerfuffle. I'm hoping for no kerfuffles with this cat. She's much sweeter natured than Boodle was, so I have hopes. I was hoping it would come tomorrow, an that I'd be able to introduce them on Saturday when we had no games, but alas. Fed ex still says it's coming today, but I think they're on crack since the last location was Georgia.

I hate to spend the money to order food the next two nights, but I'm not adding any more heat to the apartment while they AC is struggling. Thankfully, next week it's going to settle back down to the high 80s, which is much better.

I need to look at the PDF for the system I'm playing tomorrow night. I think I know what I'm doing, but it wouldn't hurt to re-read. I'm looking forward to seeing what we can make of it for the next two Fridays. The mystery looks pretty simple, so there's a lot of room for improv, which I enjoy. In honesty, this is more me testing the waters. I'm a bit burned out with DMing. This is going to be my test as to whether I want to still do the occasional one shot, or if I want to just do my campaigns. The summer is such a bitch for scheduling that we have a lot of weekends that have nothing. I could easily knock out a couple one or two shots, I'm just not sure if I want to. Also, of course, seeing if this is a game that I'd want to play with more. It seems like a cool idea, and I'm hoping it goes well. It's a mixture of Monster of the Week and Blades in the Dark. You roll the number of dice you have in an attribute, and if you get a six, it's a success. I may adapt that to be a 5 or 6 to make it a touch easier to succeed. I might see how the first half plays out before I do that. I might be able to finish this in one session, though I doubt it, but should I do so, there are plenty of other mysteries I could run. Since it's so much like MotW, I can probably control how play goes, and work from there. With it being 103 degrees tomorrow, I'm thinking that playing in a Swedish horror game set near the Arctic Circle could be very nice.

Okay probably time for me to hop off and do some work on the Friday and Sunday games. Everyone have a terrific Thursday!

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As if the falling sky is nothing but an ancient dream

2026-07-01T09:32:16Z

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.

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Maybe then you'll get a little heated too and understand why this is what I need to do

2026-06-30T09:26:04Z

I'm so sleepy this morning. I woke up at 3, and figured I'd not go back to sleep, but instad, I did, and now I'm a little out of sorts. Oh well, that's what coffee's for.

I finally made the stir fry yesterday. I put too much Gochujang paste in, and it was SUPER spicy. Jess liked it, but the rest of us bough McDonalds. Lesson learned. Less gochujang next time. In short, I was mad at it. Next time I will do better, though. I will put in small amounts and test it to see when it starts to get spicy. The gochujang was the mild version, but apparently Korean Mild and my mild are two different things. Tonight, I have no idea what we're having. We'll look and see what our options are once I wake up.

Yesterday work was busy and I was busy moving and shifting patients to get some of our STATs in. Then, I got off at 1:30 for Lizzy's Vet appt. One problem, that's actually scheduled for today. Thankfully, I was able to take off from 2 pm today, so I can still take her. This should be fun.

I can't believe that tomorrow is July already. It seems to have come up so quickly. We don't have anything planned until 7/31 when we're going to see Weird Al in concert in Hershey. A couple of players are out of town most of this month, so we don't have many games. I suppose I could run a one shot at some point. Otherwise, I have a total of five games this month, and three of those are Marchen. We'll see if I want to schedule that. I just picked up a Slavic Horror game that sounds interesting, so we could play the introductory mystery, which should be short. I'll see once I read it how complex it sounds, since it's a new system.

Tomorrow Jess has game, but I had said that I couldn't do Wednesday games when I was doing college, but I'm sticking with that now that I'm not. It's difficult to do games midweek with getting up early for work. I love the games that we were playing on Wednesday, so I'm happy that they shifted to accommodate it. Friday and Saturday nights are much easier. Even early Sunday evening is good. Finishing up at 8:30pm is good. I'm such an old person with my super early bedtime, but 4 am comes early.

I made an appt to see the ENT about my ongoing congestion/cough/hoarseness. I think it's allergies, but it's been going on for the last week and a half, so I figure I should at least get it checked. It's really annoying me, since I talk both for a living, and also as a hobby as a DM. I do not need my voice going out. So far, it's gotten scratchy and a little squeaky, but it hasn't died completely.

This week, Jess has Indigo Isles on Wednesday, and then we have Marchen on Sunday. We don't have anything scheduled for the 4th, so I could propose game then, but it would be not very long to figure out the rules. Eh, I'll see how I feel.

I have two farmers market orders coming today. One is from Chesapeake Farm to Table, and one is from Market Wagon. I'm looking forward to both, though maybe Market table a little more. I ordered some treats and some veggies, so that'll be good. I need to order more meat for Yoda's food tomorrow after I get paid. Then I'll make it up on Thursday so the puppers will have his good food.

Thursday or Friday, Lizzy's gate should come, so I will set that up and let her meet Yoda through the mesh. I expect barking when he realizes he can't get in with her to play. Lizzy's very curious, having seen him a few times when we slip out of the room. At first, her tail would poof up, and once her hackles raised, but she seems to have settled down. I'm hoping they get along well, since Lizzy seems determined to explore. I need to build her other cat tree this weekend, and clean up the area by my desk in case she wants to come visit me while I work. (That would make me very happy.) She was super lovey yesterday when I went in, just rubbing against me, and demanding petting.

Lizzy continues to be a delight, wanting to play, eat and nap in between snuggle sessions. She's a little bit ADHD at the moment, so snuggles last for maybe 5 minutes, but I'm hoping as she grows up a little, she'll want to spend more time close. I would love for her to sleep with us on the bed, but so far, no luck. Maybe eventually. Right now, there are too many things to explore and play with. One of the things I got from the Farmers market was a bunch of catnip. I'm dying to see how she likes fresh. I know she loves the dried stuff, so I hope she likes it. I also got her some cat grass. Most of our cats have hated it, but hope springs eternal. She's a weird little thing so she might just like it.

I've got a few things in the freezer that I could make for dinner tonight. A quick thaw in cold water, and I could have chicken, turkey, pork, salmon, cod or a roast. I need to consider. I could make some stuffing and have the pork, turkey or chicken with it. That would be nice and simple. I think I'd do the turkey with that. I really wanna make the Boursin chicken pasta one night, so I might save the chicken. I might do that. Lizzy's vet appt is at 3, so we should be home by four, which gives plenty of time to roast the turkey breast and make stuffing.

I'm rethinking our vacation. I'd like to see the world of color nighttime show at California Adventure, so we might do 3 days there, and have time to see some of the nighttime stuff, and then leave at the end of the third day for San Diego. That way we wouldn't feel quite as pressed to get everything done in one day per park. Of course, that would be another day Yoda would be at his sleep away camp, so we'll see. how we feel. That would bump it up to a 15 day stay. Of course, there's a question of whether my sister wants him to do day camp or if she wants him to stay overnight. It depends on whether she wants to have to drop him off and pick him up every day.

Between now and that vacation, I should have 27 days worth of PTO. If we did the extra day, I would need 11 days for the cruise/Disney trip, which isn't bad at all. That still leaves me two weeks worth for other things. I should accumulate most of what I need for the trip by the end of the year. I'm going to start putting in early, so that no one else can steal the dates.

Even with the few days that I need to take off between now and December, I should be able to put in for it fully by February at the latest. That gives us an 8 month cushion.

Okay, time for me to hop off and maybe look at those TTRPG games I bought last night. Everyone have an amazing Tuesday!

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Because feeling pain is a hard way to know you're still alive

2026-06-29T09:21:05Z

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!

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Rose tints my world, keeps me safe from my trouble and pain

2026-06-28T10:50:08Z

Again, why we gotta wake up at 5am body? Huh? I don't want to be awake. I think the problem is the degree to which I wake up. If I hadn't fought needing to use the restroom, hoping I could sleep for a couple of more hours, I wouldn't have woken up enough for the ADHD to kick in and make me get moving. But it did, and it said that it was time to get up. So, here I sit on a combined 11 hours of sleep over the last two days. My ass is going to bed early tonight, I'll tell you that.

Still, I wouldn't trade the fun I had yesterday for more sleep. Both games went really well and were a lot of fun. Marchen, I was able to drop two really good bits of character work, which nilchance and poisontaster utterly crushed. Then, they had a battle versus an elven strike force (who thank to dice rolls) was tragically incompetent. The sorcerer with them was a ltitle more successful, thankfully. She managed to hit with a couple of great spells, some of which I hardly even use. Then, some more character work, where they killed the frog prince, who was an awakened frog, He had been Awakened by a rogue druid and asked them to kill him because he was not enjoying sentience. Next, they get ti the capital city and have fun with that. There's some fun roleplay and a couple of tough battles ahead for them and I am looking forward to it. Can it been Sunday, July 5th yet?

After that, we had a little bit of time so I napped ineffectually. My sister was very interactive in the afternoon, so I spent a little time with Lizzy, who was all play and love. When you come in the room, she comes over trilling happily and will rub agaisnt your legs. Then she flops over on the floor in front of you, offering belly pets. It is very rarely a trap. She likes her belly rubs. And chest and chin rubs, and pets down her side. She's very sweet.

I really think she's grown a bit. She's still small, but not as tiny as she was. All that good food is doing her some good, which is nice. I know her butt has expanded a little bit, too. Not enough that I think the vet is going to scold us for her being fat, but she seems like a more healthy weight. The kittens were getting all of her resources, so she was a little bit skinny when we got her. Not any more! I'm so happy about that. She eats like it's her one job. Food appears on her plate, and soon after, it's disappeared.

We'll see how long she lets nilchance sleep. When I was waking up, there were already some soft bike horn noises. She could either self soothe, or she could ramp up to full volume bike horn noises. Normally, she has the sweetest, politest meow, but when she wants you to get up, she can get much louder.

In the evening, we had Frostmaiden, which was the beginning of the end. They started out with some character vignettes, being that it was their last night before they fought Tiamat. Those were super sweet, as characters finally made some inroads on relationships. The cleric and the paladin finally shared a passionate kiss in what has been the most regency relationship for the last 5 years. The gentle hand touching. And finally a dance, and a kiss on the hand. But with it being the last night of the world, they finally kissed! It was great. And then the NPC monk finally made his move on the bard, which went very well. They have plans for a date if they all survive the final battle.

There was a deeply sweet moment between the two rogues. One of the rogues players had to drop out for grad school, and we did an arc where she'd been kidnapped by Tiamat. For this last arc, we've switched games to Saturdays, so she can be there at the end of 5+ years. So the rogues had a sweet moment, that literally brought tears to the players eyes. The fighter and her wife had a quiet moment, where the wife pulled a Samwise Gamgee. "Of course you are, I'm coming with you." The wife is an NPC as well. I'm going to be playing so many characters for this. I've got all the bad guys, plus three NPCs. It's going to be a lot. The sorcerer was rocketing around, with plenty of anxious excited energy, making sure everyone was stocked up before the battle.

The next morning, when they got moving, they ran into some balors, who are big shit demons. They did some major damage, and almost took the fighter down. She'd have been healed quickly, but there's something about hitting 0 hit points that's great for character work. Will she be gunshy when they meet up with other creatures? Will the fighter lose her nerve before the final battle? We'll see!

Then they went further down the road, and ended up at a stadium, where a bunch of women were practicing their fighting. Those are Tiamat's handmaidens and a bonkers fight is about to kick off. We ended before that could happen, because there are a lot of characters and it was already 9:30pm. Since we try to end around 10, we closed it there and will pick up in our next session. Thanks to vacations and whatnot, that's going to be in late August or early September, but hopefully not more than that.

Today, we shall go out for a nice lunch, and do some relaxing and snuggling with a kitty. And then I shall make the much delayed stir fry with all the good veggies and rice, and it shall be tasty. I think I've decided to go for the gochujang paste and make a Korean flavored stir fry, with a bit of sauce to pour over the rice. A little soy, a little gochujang, some honey, maybe a tiny hit of rice wine and water, and let it thicken a little. Maybe a little cornstarch to bring it all together. It'll be nice and spicy, salty and sweet. I've made it before, but I didn't make enough sauce. This time I will make more so it can soak into the rice.

Last we were looking, we're actually doing Korean BBQ today, so it'll have a theme. The restaurant is in Columbia, so a bit of a drive, but it looked so good on TikTok.

To be honest, all you can eat is a little wasted on me. I can't eat that much, but I'll do my best to make it worth while. I am looking forward to trying the garlic and curry pork, plus some bulgogi and maybe galbi.

I forgot to mention that the dog next door got out as we were bringing Yoda in. No one bit anyone, but Yoda put up a huge fuss, and since has been very barky when he's going out for walks. The other dog barks non-stop, and we could usually get Yoda to ignore him unless he starts throwing himself at the door, but now, he will bark ferociously when he hears him. We always laughingly called the other dog his nemesis, but now it seems to be in truth. That dog sniffed his butt non-consensually, and he will have his say in it.

Tomorrow is a short day at work, since we have to take Lizzy to the vet. Still wondering how that's going to go. She's very sweet natured, so I'm hoping quietly. I am going to try to clip at least her front claws this afternoon, so hopefully, I won't be going with a ton of scratches.

Last week, I had opened the freezer door and my sister's ice packs slid out and cracked me in the foot and then later, I kicked the bed leg trying to get past Lizzy, and the bruises are finally coming up on them. My left foot is purple in multiple places. Shoes are a little uncomfortable, but not so much that I can't wear them. I glanced down and was like "What the fuck?" because the sides of my foot is purple. Then I remembered that I'm a bit of a klutz, and it all made sense.

Depending on what time Lizzy wakes Jess up, we were considering going to the movies this morning. I'd still like to see Masters of the Universe, so we may do that if Jess is up by 8am for an 8:30 movie. There's also the possibility of 7/4 if it's still in the theater, I suppose. I'm not doing anything else on the 4th. Poor doggo, he hates this time of year.

I'm working the 3rd, since it's time an a half and 8 hours of PTO. I will use it to put in a half day for the Weird Al concert and a then some time for the AEW show in August and theAnimate con in October. Fortunatley, I don't need to take time off for Much Ado About Nothing and the Undertale Symphony, since they're weekends.

I should finish the year with just shy of 2 weeks vacation. I will probably start putting in the Disneyland/San Diego/Cruse time early. since it's such a long stretch. I've decided that we're going to do a car service for our first day. I'd like to sightsee LA, and maybe hit the La Brea tar pits, and then we need a ride to Anaheim for Disney. After that, it's buses and uber, and the train down to San Diego.

I was thinking about a trip in the spring, but we'll see how we're doing on PTO and cash by then.

Okay, time for me to hop off and feed a Lizzy. She's recently discovered the joys of shreds as well as pate, so I'll probably give her a Tiki Cat After Dark. She seems really entertained by the quail egg in it. She pulls it out and eats it separately, even though it's the size of her silly little face. Everyone have a superb Sunday!

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You think you're Hell's great savior, will you still when I return the favor

2026-06-27T10:01:50Z

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!

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But now I'm seeing all the beauty in the broken glass.

2026-06-26T09:00:22Z

It's finally Friday! One more work day to get through. Let's see how much fun our problem child is today. Only 6 more days til she's gone for good. But goddamn, she's pushing all the buttons.

Yesterday, it was a message in chat that was just aggressive and borderline unprofessional, because she wanted to know why people in facilities (nursing homes, rehabs, adult day care) have to come down to the main hospital for scans. (It's a new rule, mostly because we can't trust that the facilities will tell us the truth about the patient's ambulatory status. We have always had the rule that stretchers have to go down there. But the facilities don't like that. We had one show up in Columbia in an ambulance, on a stretcher after promising that the pt only needed a wheelchair. It took four staff members to transfer them, because they didn't even come with a hoyer sling,). But that's not really important. It's a rule, suck it up and schedule like you're supposed to. Is it a pain? Fuck yes. Is it what they want us to do? Fuck yes. The manager of the call center had to hop on and deal with it. Later, she told me that "she needs to realize that she's still our employee, and we could terminate her, so I think A may be done with her bullshit.

Aside from her, there was a couple other annoyances. Patients would not pick up there phone, so filling in a couple of spots was way harder than it needed to be. But I got there. And another coworker was annoying, yet I have no way to make a foam hand come out of her computer and smack her.

Today shall be the managers' bitchfest, so that's always entertaining. I kind of look forward to that all week. Apparently, there's a lead meeting on alternating Wednesdays that I'm going to be doing too. I also need to make the dogs food today. I ordered the various meats that go into his mix, so I'll get to work on that early. I just need to slice some sweet potatoes to put in there.

I also have carrots and snow peas, so I might chop them up and add them too. We'll see. I'm very careful about how much veggies and rice I put in, and then I add salmon oil and a calcium supplement to take care of his skin and bones. They go in with the stewed goat adn chicken gizzards and liver. It smells horrible cooking, but he likes it, so yay.

Then it shall be game time! Tonight is my goth disasters from Curse of Strahd, now playing Vecna: Eve of Ruin. So far, it's been a fun module, save for the one absolutely nonsensical puzzle. But it's been interesting so far without requiring heavy lifting from me, which I appreciate. I don't have a ton to do this morning for that.

Tomorrow, is Marchen, and my players are plotting mutiny in the chat. They're thinking about seeing how far they can push the tattoo, whether it would allow them to go off course, and try to find the rogue's missing kids. So, I need to quickly pivot and create a few things in that area for them to do, in case they get really creative about fighting the tattoo. I love their creativity, but I had it that the lands scaled for their presumed level. As a result, I have plenty of things for a 17th level encounter, but they're only 5th, so I'm going to do a bit of an adjustment for some things. Others I may not.

Then it'll be Frostmaiden, which I'm almost prepared for. There will probably be some role play at the beginning, and then they'll kick off heading into the Abyss to battle the goddess of evil dragons.

These are three of my favorite games, so I'm looking forward to it. I'm almost done with the Frostmaiden character sheets, I just need to find non-AI pictures and make Tiamat. They're not getting to Tiamat this session, so I may let that ride until the next game, which is sure to be a goodly distance out.

I'm looking forward to this fight, as I have been told not to go easy on them for it. The stat block I found for Tiamat is fucking overpowered, so I think it'll be a challenge even for my 20th level adventurers.

Still despite loving both of them, Marchen and Frostmaiden are basically diametrically different campaigns. It should be interesting to do both of them in one day. I'm going to start out with the wildly roleplay heavy, character driven game, and then go to the heroic wish fulfillment game where the roleplay is secondary to defeating evil and making the world a better place.

Frostmaiden was my first D&D campaign on the server, having started on New Year's Day, 2021. It is over 5 years, which is impressive for a campaign, and has had multiple arcs. It was very much a product of being mid-Covid. We all wanted something that gave us agency, to defeat the bad guys, and overthrow governments. And so they did, and it was great. But after 5 years, it's time for it to take it's final bows. After the big battle, I need to come up with a good epilogue, probably checking in on the heroes 10 years after their big battle with the Goddess of Winter. We'll talk about what they've been doing since and reunite the characters and have what I hope is a satisfying end to the campaign.

And once that's done, maybe we'll talk about running something else. I was thinking about maybe running Marchen on the main server as well. It will be a very different campaign for them due to play styles, but it could be fun. By that time the main Marchen game should be far enough into it that I'd be able to run them simultaneously without getting fouled up. Or, I might take a break from new campaigns for a little while. I haven't decided.

So far, I've only paused one campaign, but I'd feel a little bad about starting something new while it's on hold. The sad thing is that the paused one probably only has about 3 more sessions. It's just incredibly hard to schedule owing to a large party size.

If I did do Marchen, I'd put a 5 player cap on it. I think I'm done with doing the campaigns with 7-8 people. It's just hard to spotlight individual characters when they're seven people at once, and I've really enjoyed that in Marchen. Each player gets their time in the sun, and occasionally, they get separate individual moments. The last one, I had them get separated during a party, and played out little scenes with each of them, which they seemed to really enjoy. I'd like to be able to do that more regularly, and that means less players.

I'd feel bad about the people who were left out, but I'm really enjoying having just 4 players. And I can always rerun it if the first session goes well.

But that's in the future a ways. Maybe next year.

I got an email from Holland America, offering me a massively discounted cruise. Problem was it was later this year, and I most assuredly won't have enough PTO for that. If they hit me up again in the winter for next year, I could see doing a 5-6 day cruise in the spring. The cost was only $400 per person for an oceanview balcony, which would be awesome. I don't have much of anything planned for next year, and that would give me time to rebuild our spending money. Or, we might just stick with the cruise in November and live that up.

It'll depend if anything exciting shows up in my inbox.

The only thing I have on my list for next year is a possible D&D trip to a cabin near Rocky Gap State Park. It's a three bedroom cabin that has full amenities, including a dining room table, so we'll be able to have some fun games. We'll have Friday night, all day Saturday and all day Sunday, then leave Monday. I think it could be super fun. The question is going to be, do we do one mini campaign or multiple one shots. Either way, it'll be fun. That could be anywhere from late summer to spring of 2028.

Lizzy continues to be adorable. She seemed to be waiting for us and our TikiCat food, because I swear, she's grown even in the 2 weeks that we've had her. She's definitely widened a bit, but I think she's also gotten a bit taller. She's still petite, but she fills out the cat tree a little more. She is all play. She gets multiple play sessions per day and she is loving it. She has her vet visit on Monday and I'm going to be curious how much she weighs. No pictures, because it's hard to get pictures of a moving target. Just trust that she is still sweet and lovey and wants to play hard all the time.

Last night, she jumped up on the bed and came over for love, rubbing my hand so hard that I could feel her fangs. She's not a cuddly kitty, but that just means when she does come for love, its like a little sunbeam of joy. She wanted Jess to pet her while they were at their desk, and just rubbed all along their shirt. They were coated in cat hair.

Tomorrow, I'm definitely spending some time between games to cuddle her. I don't feel like I get enough time to spend with her while I'm working, so I'm glad Jess is able to sit in with her.

And Sunday, with the exception of going for Korean BBQ, I can spend most of the day with her.

Oh, yesterday, I made steaks, and then I had ordered some kimchi pancakes. They were not super to my liking, so I quickly threw some veggies and rice in a pan and made fried rice. I've gotta say, I was not mad at it. I used onion, carrots, bean sprouts and snow peas, then added soy, oyster sauce and mirin and fried it up with some cooked rice. It turned out really well and had a good flavor. I will definitely be making that again. Today, since I have a lot of veggies left, I may make a Chinese stir fry with chicken. I could make a little five spice marinade that would taste good. Or I could make gochujang chicken stir fry for something a litle spicy. I'll see what I feel like tonight.

The spicy would probably be lighter, and it is going to be hot out, so maybe that.

Or, I have golden curry tablets as well. That might go even better. So many good things to choose from!

Okay, time for me to do some work on Frostmaiden and Marchen. Everyone have an excellent Friday!

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I broke into a million pieces and I can't go back

2026-06-25T09:24:07Z

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!

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There's a light--Over at the Frankenstein place. Oh, a light--burning int he fireplace

2026-06-24T09:23:04Z

This morning, my bladder chose violence and woke me up at 3:35am. My alarm gets me up at 4am, so it wasn't worth going back to sleep and I had to get up early. Add to that the massive leg cramp that I had at 1am, which had me hobbling for about an hour and I am very tired today.

My allergies hve been high for the last couple of weeks. I haven't been sneezing, but the itchy eyes and congestion/cough are making me annoyed. Half the time, I sound hoarse thanks to the constant ball of snot in my throat. It's a combo of grass pollen and Lizzy. It always takes me a few weeks to adjust to a new cat, and we've had two in rapid succession. It's really annoying me.

Lizzy has decided that the Eden snuggie that I got Jess for gaming during cold weather now belongs to her. It is very cute.

Yesterday, work was basically a three ring circus. A patient lied, and we caught it, and now we can't do her scan. This is going to be such a fun conversation today. We're not kicking her out, but she can't have the can now. I saved it til this morning when I might have a shot at properly wording the message to her.

Then, last night, right before I was getting ready to leave, there was a RADSET that came in about a screening mammo and US that were on the diagnostic template. Thing is, the pt is from out of town, so we always do them that way so they don't get any surprise call backs. I sent back a note explaining that, and I got back the dumbest, most patronizing reply that well, that might be true for the mammo, but the US need to be done in the body room, not the mammo room.

I was sitting there fuming over this response, and my manager J was like "Let me reply to that RADSET. I don't know who she is, but she sounds about as intelligent as two crayons fighting over being melted." So that's one less thing to deal with today.

After I finished dinner, we went and voted. The polls were really quiet, so we got in and out super fast.

Later, I laid in bed and romped Lizzy with the laser pointer until she gave up and laid down to rest. She's very funny, though somewhat prone to getting zoomy and running herself into the wall face first. She was very lovey last night, letting me scritch her chin and rubbing all along me. One of her favorite things to do is to come love ont he waddle that hangs beneath my arm. She loves that. She will come over and just shove her head up into it, and then rub along it. I guess my waddle gives good pets. She loves being petted. Head scritches are good, especially if you hit that spot under her chin, but being petted along her back and sides are super her jam.

There was a tiktok last night of a Korean BBQ place in Columbia, Chadol Their food looks so amazing that I'm temped to do it instead of seeing Supergirll. I really do want to see Supergirl, but BBQ is also good. They open at noon, and our movie isn't til 2:45, so possibly we could make it before the movie. We will consider this fully and decide. This weekend is a little full, but next weekend is quiet, so I could push through and then have next weekend to lounge. That is also a possibility.

Today I have to call/write the patient who has the medical condition and tell her to speak with her doctor about it. I don't now if anyone's warned the provider, that we're turfing the patient back to them. I agree with the big boss that it shouldn't be on us to give the pt this info, but I don't know who else is going to do it. I have a feeling this is coming back on us, but we'll see.

Today I am working a shift for another PAS III, so I'lll be working til 6pm. It's not my favorite shift, but that's okay. Again it's OT, so that's nice. I've got a few more days that I know about in the next few months.

I'm working up the numbers for the rest of the year, and I don't know that we can afford all the things we have planned. I'm trying to be more fiscally responsible for the second half of the year, but we have so many things to do. Most of them, we already have tickets for. Of all of them, the biggest cost is CONfab, which I've registered for, but have not bought plane tickets and my hotel reservation is refundable. Also, there's no doubt it would give me an extra 32 hours of PTO to play with. I don't want to cancel, but I think we're going to have to. We could swing it but it would be super tight, and would impact what we could spend at other places. No Weird Al or Undertale merch, cheap food and probably downgraded lodging. I am thinking hard, seeing if there's anywhere else we could save money, but it's difficult. To be clear, we still have a cushion, but I'm trying not to hit that incase we need it for Lizzy or Yoda emergencies or if the car has a problem. I just don't want to use that. I'm setting aside money for all these things, and I don't know that with Weird Al in July, AEW in August, and then Animate! Philly in early October, there will be enough to also save for airfare and hotel by the middle/end of October. And then, we'll have the Undertale symphony in early November. I'm still debating, but CONfab is looking unlikely, which makes me sad.

We're halfway to game weekend and I am excited. I built two Handmaidens for Frostmaiden, and have two more to build. Then I will fight with Tiamat. I got the last four maps that I will ever use for Frostmaiden loaded up. I need to do the character sheets and then source non-AI artwork for the token pictures. That's harder than making and leveling the character, because 85% of Google's image search pulls up AI. I'm all set for Marchen, and Vecna on Friday I just need to read the part of the module we'll be likely to get to.

Frostmaiden is the last game of the weekend, on Saturday night, which is good. I might be working on that right up to the wire. It's going to be fun, challenging my players. Sometimes, 20th level combat is a lot to figure out. The characters are so powerful that they're nearly gods in and of themselves. I'm thinking about bringing back a throw away line from earlier in the campaign and letting them summon 1d4 younger adventurers to fight for them as well. Their mythos is such at this point that young adventurers are styling themselves after the party, and the mythos is granting spells.

They have warlocks, clerics, paladins and even a few barbarians or bards. It could be an interesting dynamic to throw in there. The party seemed wildly uncomfortable with the idea that they could be powering other adventurers.

So far, for Tiamat's handmaidens, I have Monks and Zealot Barbarians. I still need a sorcerer and a wizard or bard or two. It's a big party, so I have to make big villains that they need to get through to fight the ultimate villain. There will be three phases to the final battle. First, getting to the place where Tiamat resides in the Abyss. There are a lot of demons in hell, and I'm looking forward to them. Then, the handmaidens. Then, Tiamat herself. It's designed to stretch the players to the limit of their resources. Knowing that Tiamat is coming up, do they save resources and potentially take more damage, or do they go all out. Will they have anything left for the Mother of Dragons?

I believe Jess has a game tonight, and then nothing on Thursday, and thne game Friday and then games at 12 and 7 on Saturday.

It's been a little over a month, but it feels like the cruise was forever ago. I look at the pictures once in a while, but they don't convey how special it was. How beautiful and overwhelming the scenery was, or the bite of cold air as you stared at a glacier that made you feel small (and dizzy.) Or how good the food was! I really enjoyed being able to get good food at every turn.

And the pampering! I think about the towel animals, and the aggressive hospitality that greeted us every morning. The coffee that showed up with pastries at 7am on the dot every morning. The staff greeting us by name and making sure that we had everything we needed.

I want to go again. But I will wait for our big trip next year. Fortunately, since it's not til November 2027, we have plenty of time to save up for it. I'm hoping, but not counting on it, that flights go down a little, but we'll deal if not. Fortunately, for a goodly chunk of the vacation, our hotel will be the ship, so that's one less thing to worry about. We just need to worry about Disney and San Diego. I can't book anything until November of this year, so I've got a little time to plan and budget. And flights, I can afford to wait til a big sale next year.

I think next year will probably be a little calmer. I don't have anything planned yet at least. That may change, but I will try not to overbook us quite as thoroughly next year.

Okay, time for me to hop off and do some more work on Frostmaiden. Everyone have a stupendous Wednesday!

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In the velvet darkness of the blackest night, burning bright, there's a guiding star

2026-06-23T09:32:57Z

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!

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Flow morphia slow, let the sun and light come streamingInto my life, into my life.

2026-06-22T09:55:52Z

Somehow, way before I'm ready for it to be, it's Monday, which is very sad. I am not ready. Still, I had really great Sunday, and an excellent weekend overall.

Of course, the very first thing the day greeted me with was an earwig on my coffee machine. it got squished of course, but that's the third non-fly related bug I've seen in 2 days and I'm getting a little bit worried that we've got a pest problem. Of course, we also have flies, and combined, I'm getting that someone in the building needs a good cleaning and it's spilling over to us. I mean,w e're not the best housekeepers, but I don't believe it's us, or there would be way more. I certainly don't want to use pesticide around Yoda and Lizzy, so I'm going to have to look for other solutions if it continues.

Yesterday, we got up early to go pick up a very happy puppy from the kennel. They told us that we weren't allowed to have him back, because they all love him so, which was sweet. He can be such a good boy sometimes! He bitched us out as usual, then settled in the car, and didn't make a peep for the rest of the ride.

Once we got home, we took it easy and rested. We were hungry, so we ordered breakfast/early brunch and decided to make that our anniversary meal.

That would mean that I was cleared for a 12pm game. So I went to let the group know, only for another person to have posted that she had a migraine. Then, the DM was not feeling well either, so they canceled, and left me with no game. Thankfully, the Marchen crew was there.

We played our three hours, and it was super fun. I'm slowly putting them in weird situations that are progressively more disturbing and I'm enjoying that. It's a campaign based on fairy tales, so it's certainly going to get dark at times. Today, we roleplayed most of the session, and then there was some combat, and I managed to sneak in disturbing dreams and a meeting with a shadow of a creature who's been watching the. So far, he's done no harm, but who is he? What is his deal? Why is he so creepy? Did the nightmares have something to do with him? The party is close to getting another clue, and also, here come the consequences. The consequences of my own actions for them.

I'm looking forward to next session! Of the games we play, I'm really enjoying this one the most right now. As I've said, I love all my games, but there are a few that really make me feel energized. And that's for a number of reasons I think. First, I created the world and the story, so it makes sense to me. I laid out the backbone of what's to happen, but I left it loose, so that I wasn't beholden to any one thing. I wanted it to have room for what the players wanted to do. So basically, there's a map, and it's a line, but if they do something that has consequences or do literally or figuratively in a direction I didn't expect then I can pivot. 75% of this game is made up ont he spot. I have nursery rhymes and fairy tales, and what area they're in. Beyond that, it's all improv. When they meet the different fairy tales or creatures is entirely when I feel like they'd be a good fit.

Second, we get to play a lot. With only five people in the game, it's so much easier to schedule. We play almost every weekend, so you get to see the character development and the movement through the module, and that's exciting. I don't have to try to remember what happened in a session that was 3-4 months ago.

Third, I have some really cool backstories. They wrote me backstories(which were amazing and had so many hooks), but I also had a five question document that they filled out that gave me even more interesting stuff to work with. That is a huge help for a DM who wants to personalize a campaign.

The style of play is also good for me. It's a really solid balance between 35% roleplay, 30% plot (which is frequently delivered via roleplay), 15% exploration and then about 20% combat.

The last is my players, and I know I've mentioned it before, but I said fucked up fairytale land heroic quest, and they understood the assignment 100%. They're all great characters, and I love the way the backstories are slowly coming out. I love that the party isn't exactly a party as a group of misfits forced into saving the world (literally, there's a flesh eating tattoo that keeps them from going off task. They're willing to be vulnerable in these characters and role play and interact sincerely with the other players, the way their character would. It's wonderful, and I feel like it pushes me to be a better DM to keep up with them. I've definitely started using some of what I've learned from this and Arvandor in other games.

There have been occasions where I felt like some small thing or another was a misstep, but overall, I come out of the games feeling energized and happy with it.

Of course, yesterday, I came out of it happy and relaxed and energized, and then laid on the bed with the kitten, and all my laci of sleep caught up, and I woke up an hour and a half later, with only 30 minutes unitil we had our Nine Omens game. I got myself up and set up in time, fortunately.

We did get in some playtime with Lizzy between games.

Here she is being cute. "You give Lizzy a toy? Oh kind and benevolent mother!

I disembowel this banana!

Taking a break between pounces.

The game was a hoot. We were attempting to find the hags that had been terrorizing the village. They had a human necromancer they'd adopted as well, and there were four hags, including an elder hag, who was fucking scary. She took out both of our big fighters at one point, and that could've been real bad. I love in big D&D fights, how it always starts out feeling bad for our heroes. They're taking heavy damage and There's a ton of enemies and it looks like we could be in for it, but slowly the tide turns. The elder hag cast a darkness spell and blinded all of us. So I cast my lone 7th level spell and not only did a fair amount of damage, causing the hag's spell to fail, but also made them run away. They kind of scattered, and gave us a little breathing room. After that, with them separated, it was just a matter of picking them all off. The expected retaliation for scattering them, never came as we began wrecking shop. I think I took the most damage of the fight, but that was fine. I'm a pseudo front line character without a ton of hitpoints, so that's my lot. I just buy plenty of potions when I'm in town and chug them like water.

Anyway, super fun game. poisontaster is a good, fun DM. I'm looking forward to our next one. Sadly it's not til mid August due to various obligations. My character, Irsu, is such a total agent of chaos, and I love playing him.

After that game, more Lizzy time. The brother in law was over during game one, and put her 2nd cat tree together. It's very lorge, and pretty, though a non weight bearing peice cracked, so I need to get some glue to fill that in. So I picked up the cat and took her for a walk around the apartment. She seemed comppletely enthralled with this new domain.

I put her on the cat tree to get a picture for the brother in law of her enjoying her spot.

She was like a little queen on her throne. It was awesome. Then we played a little, and finally went to bed.

Today, shall be back to work. We're going to be fairly busy, but hopefully, we'll have some cancellations so we can get some of these people for appts.

Then, we shall have Masala Chicken legs and Brussel sprouts. or potatoes. I could kind of go for garlic mashed potatoes. Oooh, or I have some blue cheese. I could make a loaded mashed potatoes with that. I even have bacon that I could top it with. I will think on this.

Tomorrow is election day, and I need to give myself a crash course on the field. Honestly the national politics has been such a total clusterfuck that I haven't paid much attention to the local. So tonight and Tomorrow morning, I shall do some cramming and figure out who I want to vote for.

Then Wednesday, I'm covering for one of my coworkers, so that'll be good. I bought a lot of lunctime stuff, so I'm looking forward to having that. I got grilled chicken, tzatziki sauce, rice bowls, breaded chicken strips and sauce with tortillas. It should be good for a nice easy lunch so I won't be ordering out so much. Unfortunately, the chicken sauce I ordered was out (how can you be out of your house brand?) and instead they sent me homophobia sauce. I'm going to eat it, but I'm going to be angry about it. And especially about how good it tastes.

Okay, time for me to wrap it up and get my shit together. Everyone have a fan-freaking-tastic Monday!

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How do you do? I see you've met my faithful handyman.

2026-06-21T11:41:38Z

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!

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Worst of what I came from, patterns I'm ashamed of, things that even I don't understand`

2026-06-20T09:45:17Z

And here we are, heading for our busy day. It's going to be a lot, but we'll have fun. This is the few minutes of calm before I have to start getting myself together. We have to be out of the door by 6:45am to get Yoda to the kennel. I realized that I'm not sure where his camp collar is, so I'm going to have to go digging for that. Probably on the table, fun fun.

I've been looking forward to this for multiple months, but then I got a kitty, and I hate leaving her all day. But my sister will not have Yoda for the day, so she can go in and love on her, and play with her. I just want it to be me snuggling with her. But I'm going to go and have a good time.

Yesterday was full, but good. I worked, we had the managers bitch fest. One of our least pleasant and most obnoxious people is leaving the team to go terrorize another office. After years of complaining (in public) about how much she couldn't stand working for us, all the websites she scrolled and chats she had with her friends while she should have been talking...she's leaving in 2 weeks.

It's going to suck that we're losing another person, but it's also not like she was doing all that much when she is working.

Then, more work, though there wasn't a ton of work available, so I spent more time on Discord chatting.

I ended up pausing one game. I'm still debating on the other one. After talking with poisontaster more, I think it's definitely a level of burnout. I still want to play, I just need a little break first. There's also games that take and games that give. And it's not that the ones that take are bad. They just don't feed my soul the way other's do.

Some of the premades are like that. The module is so poorly written, it forgets two our of four pillars of D&D completely in favor of combat and exploration. Because of this, the DM has to do some heavy lifting and come up with dialogue and some times full plot segments because the designer failed to take into account that the players might hear about a sunken treasure ship and want to explore it and get said loot. Or building nonsensical puzzles that require the DM to come up with clues, because the password is something that has basically no context clues as written. Oh, or Modules that promise that you can do a pacifist run, and then provide no clear path for how to do it, making it incredibly heavy lifting tor the DM to keep the module from being unplayable. It wouldn't have been so bad, but it was...the third game I'd run, and I was still very inexperienced and not able to right the ship. I was stuck paddling to keep them moving forward in the game. We finished it, but I still hold a grudge against it.

There are things in every game that I love. Even in the one I shelved. That one was actually a homebrew. I had wrote it fresh off the success of Arvandor and didn't take into account the differing styles of the two groups. I need to make it a little more linear and a little less open ended, because I feel like they're floundering to see what to do next. Also, bring the danger to them. So I will be doing a bit of a rework on it so it will feed my soul like the other homebrews do.

Hopefully dropping two games and pausing all the shorter games like oneshots, two shots and minni campaigns will help me I love DMing, but I feel like I need a little more me time on the weekends. Or at least to focus on the games that bring me joy and energy.

Frostmaiden is starting the final arc on the 27th. I've got a few characters to make and maps to pull in before then. I figure the next session will be mostly preparation, but I want to be ready in case that goes quicker than expected. The players are preparing to run a gauntlet in hell, and then fight the goddess of all evil chromatic dragons. Who herself is a dragon with five heads, each spitting a different kind of damage at them. I'm looking forward to it, but lord, I have so much to do in the next two weeks.

I'm figuring the final arc is going to be at least 4-5 sessions. Maybe more. I'm going to be playing so many characters at once, y'all. I'm definitely going to need a couple of bottles of water for all the talking I'm going to do. I'll be sad to see it finish. But I've got plans for one last big fight, and also a good wrap up scene for everyone. I'm definitely going to be straining the cleric's ability to keep the characters alive for this battle. I found a great, bonkers stat block for the dragon god, and I'm going to enjoy coding it in. I may not keep everything, but I'll definitely keep some of it. I want to push them to the limits.

We gpt Lizzy some catnip toys, and she loves them. She gets a bit wild on nip we have found. She's definitely getting more playful as her spay is healing. She's has decided that she likes under the bed, but she comes out all the time to demand playtime and or love. And then, after she's run around and kicked the shit out of the ribbon toy and her catnip toys, she will flop on her side, and fall asleep with her little shaved belly and spay tattoo out for everyone to see.

Then, after some beauty sleep, the pattern begins again. Last night, she decided to help Jess as they played Blades in the Dark. She was very helpful. Between work and game, I felt like I barely saw her at all yesterday and I won't again today. Sad. I'm just going to have to stay up a little late when we get home to give her some playtime with us.

She continues to be so fricking cute. Even when she grabbed my arm and used it as a toy while she was stoned on nip, she was adorable. Made me bleed my own blood, but she was still just cute as hell while she did it.

I love her so much already. And now that her personality is starting to come out. she's just so much more interactive.

We did decide last night to switch her to a different litter. The stuff we have, while natural and safe for the kitty, is not stopping the odor at all. Our room reeks of cat pee at the moment. I'm going to add a little baking soda in there while we wait for the tofu litter to arrive. Hopefully that lives up to it's reputation.

Tomorrow, I dropped from one of the games I was in. It's Jess' and my handfasting anniversary, and I'd like to do something with them. Brunch or something. We've made it to 23 years since our handfasting. And 26 years from when we started dating. I think we're doing pretty okay.

Okay, time to grab a shower so I smell good for the play. Everyone have a stupendous Saturday!

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Nothing but the truth now, nothing but the proof of what I am.

2026-06-19T09:41:15Z

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!

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And it's strange but it's true, I was sure that it was you.

2026-06-18T09:13:28Z

It's Thursday and we're sliding into the weekend!

Yesterday seemed to take very long. I got up at normal time, but I didn't start work til 9:30am. Then I worked til about 6:15 That extra hour and forty five minutes made for a very long day. It was a very productive day, but still long. I didn't have set breaks, so I tended to do them too early. Though the last one was at 4:15, so that wasn't bad.

Then, I ordered lunch from a place near us, and the food was just not what I wanted. It didn't taste good. Even my sweet and sour pork wasn't good. So, I gave up and ordered half a peking duck, which was exactly what I wanted. (I love me peking duck.) I had forgotten that I had to work late, so we just did turkey legs, which also turned out to be not great. So, McDonalds it was.

Tonight, I shall make fish tacos with frybread. I got lime and some good sauces. And I retrieved the fry bread mix from where it had fallen in the gap next to the refrigerator, so I'm ready.

Of course, that'll be time I could spend loving on Lizzy, but I will persist, because I really want fish tacos. I got this great sriracha sauce that will be delicious on them. I also got onions, cilantro and guac, none of which I like on my taco, but other people do. I'm just going to clear a counter off and make it a taco bar. It should be delicious, I think. Gotta remember to make the dough on my second break and let it sit for an hour to get fluffy. Then, I finish work, and I fry the bread into delicious little tacos. And for dessert, I may keep a few out and sprinkle cinnamon sugar on them. If it works, I may have to go back on Navajo Mike's and get another package.

Lizzy was super cute yesterday. I laid down breifly during my lunch and she came up for attention. Then, when she was done with that, she laid with me for a little while.

Later, after work and dinner, the cuteness continued. She was all love, rolling around and being adorable. So, I let her have her catnip log toy for a bit. She got very into it, getting to the point that she tried to rabbit kick it. Unfortunately, she's still a little gangly and baby, so she only succeeded in kicking herself in the face.

After I took it from her (don't want her kicking and hurting her spay site) whe settled in to clean herself.

And eventually to snuggle in on the bed and be super cute.

Still entirely smitten with this kitty, even if she did run out on me at 3:20am. She made it to the dining room before I caught her and picked her up. After that zap of adrenaline, I figured it was time to get up.

I got up, and took her little food plate to wash and brought her back a clean plate, and a can of food. She seemed quite pleased about this and fell to eating right away.

She continues to be a good little kitty. So sweet natured and full of love. her other two cat trees came yesterday. So that's something to put together this weekend. We got one for the living room, and one for my office, since I don't think she'll be content to stay in her room during the day. That way she can go wherever she wants and be out of Yoda's reach in case he feels poky about it.

He's not going to hurt her, but he will poke her with his snoot. That can lead to swatting, which can lead to a lot of noise. Though he's bee really chill about it so far when he's seen her, so maybe he matured. We've got another week until we start introducing them. I want her to be at least two weeks out from her spay before we do anything. Of course, if she's determined to be a door darter, that could change.

I'm excited about the Rocky Horror, but I don't want to leave her for a full day. My sister will be home, and Yoda will be at the daycare, so she can spend as much time as she'd like with Lizzy, but I'm going to miss her! It'll be a lovely day with friends, though.

We'll be doing it all over again in December, when we're going to see Much Ado About Nothing in NYC.

Tomorrow, we shall have game which should be fun. Maybe we can wrap up the heist that's been going on for like five sessions now.

Then Saturday, it's off early to the kennel to drop Yoda off, and then back to get ready to head up to NYC. They're picking us up around 8, and Yoda gets dropped at 7, so we're going to have to put a wiggle in it.

Once this is done, I think that's all the adventures until the end of July, when we're going to Hershey to see Weird Al. Also, at some point towards the end of July, Jess' brother is coming into town, so we'll be spending time with him as well. Then, AEW wrestling on August 19th. I'm looking forward to that, though I will be dead the next day at work. I used to watch WWE back in the day, but they're so far up Cheeto's ass now that I just can't bring myself to watch it. I still follow it via a wrestling website, so I know who's doing what and who's injured, but I refuse to give them any money. On the other hand, AEW has a trans wrestler, a couple of gay wrestlers, and much more liberal fans. I'm looking forward to hopefully getting to see MJF, who I enjoy immensely. He's such a great heel.

September is quiet, I think. Nothing major going on that month, I don't think. Then, October is Animate Philly, where we can meet a good chunk of the voice actors for Hazbin Hotel and Amazing Digital Circus. Then, CONfab in Chicago! Both of which should be fun. Then, it's off to the Undertale Determination symphony in November, and Much Ado in December right after my birthday.

So far, the only thing we have set for next year is vacation in November. I'm sure this will change soon.

Though to be fair, this is my year of Yes, and it's been pretty spectacular. But we'll see what next year brings. Maybe it'll be less full, maybe it won't.

Lizzy is set for the vet on 6/29, which is good. I want them to give her spay the all clear to begin romping and to make sure her milk supply has dried up with no ill effects. I did something for her that I've never done. I got her pet insurance. After Cece left us with a $2000 bill, I thought it might be a good plan. I don't think Lizzy will need it, but better to be safe. I will put Yoda on it after his check up as well. At 10, he may start having health problems, and it would be nice to have that cushion.

Lizzy on the other hand is baby, so I don't expect to use it for her for many years, but it's good to have. Just like the pet oxygen that I got. Might never need it, but I'm glad to have it.

I don't want to do the work today. I'm tired from yesterday. Not because it was busy. I was productive until I had to take over the teams chat. That was pretty slow for the last 100 minutes, and I was bored. Plus, that meant I had to be the last one out, so I sat there til 6:15, just waiting in case someone needed help. (No one needed help.) Boredom is tiring.

Today, I shall try to get patients in for appointments. They've been some real pains in the ass lately. These are patients who the doctor has marked the scan as STAT. Some have real problems like cancer or MS or other serious conditions. And I get them a spot super soon. Same day, next day, but they can't do that. They want it on the third Thursday at precisely 10am. And I have to be nice and tell them that I can't guarantee that appt, and their doctor felt that they should be seen sooner. And most of them still want what they want. It's fucking annoying. In some cases, I actually called and moved other patients to different times to create a slot for their scan. And they don't want it. And then I have a choice--offer to another patient, or look at the 3rd Thursday at 10 and see if that patient would like a sooner appt, and if their insurance allows us to schedule that quickly. I usually move on to the next patient unless they need it a specific date for surgery. And I shall work on filling in Columbia's cardiac schedule. They're trying to get a mix of protocols, and it's been a challenge to get those patients. I will go back through and see what I can do, though. I really wish they'd send the patients who call in for appts to me, so I don't have to go combing through the schedule, but that's probably not going to happen.

The other thing I hate is patients who don't answer their phone or call back. You know you need an appt. Even if the number doesn't come up as Johns Hopkins, maybe answer it? And if you don't, give us the courtesy of callling back to accept or decline. People suck sometimes.

On the other hand, I've been reading the stuff about the Scots in Boston for the World Cup. Those have been such wholesome stories. The Scots discover tailgating! The Scots have drunk all the beer in Boston! They're putting traffic cone hats on the statues! They researched tipping and are great tippers! Actually there's been a lot of stories about culture shock for the people coming in from other countries. It's been nice. We're a cesspool, but some people are having a good time here.

Okay, time to start thinking about pants. Much as I would like to take a nap today, alas, work. I shall leave you with the picture of Lizzy after I kissed her little nose.

Everyone have a stellar Thursday!

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Some days won't end ever, and some days pass on by.

2026-06-17T09:43:37Z

I am very sleepy this morning. Not because of a small baby--I just couldn't get to sleep for a while.

Baby continues to be adorable. She's slowly developing her independence, which means less attention for us. She still wants her pets now and then, but the lure of beneath the bed is stronger. She's definitely going to be getting her 16 hours of beauty sleep.

The good thing is that you can always get her out for treats or food or the ribbon toy. We had a nice game with the ribbon toy last night. I'm still making it a gentle game, and she seems to be self limiting. She doesn't jump after it, and I keep it on the ground. Mostly, ahs chases, and gets it in her feet and then chews on the string. It was very cute, and hopefully helped her sleep through the night.

We have decided that the cat may have inherited a touch of ADHD from me. When she's not sleeping, she's a perpetual motion machine, bouncing from one activity to the other. One of her favorite things is to get in the basket of her cat tree, and lay there watching Jess and the outdoors. She doesn't want to miss a thing, but again, so sleepy. Which leads to pictures like this one:

She was so busy looking around that she dosed off in what had to be a very uncomfortable position.

She's such a sweet little thing, always happy to try to murder you by rubbing against your legs when you're trying to walk, and singing chirpy little songs when. you open a can of food. Food is srs biznus to this little girl. Once food or treats are down, she wants to pay total attention to it. She loves the Smalls Bird Nip treats, but she doesn't like the food, so I'm going yo have to see if they sell that off the subscription. It looks like you can get a version of it from the manufacturer, so I may order a bag for her. They even have other varieties. She's weirdly not that into churus, though we should try that again now that she's a little more settled in. Maybe she'll like them now. She just seemed to think it was a lot of work to eat a churu when you could be investigating.

Somehow, we seem to have an opening in our window just big enough for these fucking enormous flies to get in. We had a bee last year, so I'm okay with just flies. Lizzy is in heaven. It's like we imported them just for her to chase and pounce. She is the mighty huntress. I'm going to get some weather stripping and put it in the area where the windows meet, just to see if that will help. I'm tired of these big fuckers. We also ordered a fly swatter, so that we can help Lizzy get rid of some of what we have.

WE didn't end up taking Yoda to the vet last night. I got stuck on a call with my boss at the end of the day and just couldn't get away. I called them and cancelled, lying that my tire was flat. It's possible I could have made it, but betwen the possibilty of being late, and worrying about Yoda's behavior, I just couldn't. I think we're going to hold his appt until after Lizzy's, and maybe start him at the new vet. His current vet has a minimum of 4-5 vets working all at once. It makes for a very busy waiting room, and Yoda doesn't do well with that, and frankly, neither do I. This is a 1-2 vet practice, so presumably the office won't be quite as insane.

And they were so nice about Cece. We had an appt for her, but ended up going to the emergency vet which ended in her euthenasia, so I called to cancel her appt. When I called back today to schedule Lizzy, They were so sweet. They got her registered, and set up for her appt, and then told me that we were angels for having given Cece a home for even that short amount of time. I appreciated that. The reviews on Yelp and Google seem to be almost unilaterally good, except for one person who was quoted the wrong amount and is big mad about it.

I really like the office staff, so hopefully I really like the vet, too. It's SO much closer to our home, and that would be very helpful. Jess would probably be able to drive there on their own. They're not a fan of the distance to our current vet, and also that it's on a major road, and it can be difficult getting in and out of the parking lot. They don't like to drive anyway, and that gives them anxiety like whoa. I just hate the distance and how psycho the waiting room is. Also, despite the myriad of doctors, it's impossible to get a quick appointment when a pet is ill. You're lucky if you can get 2-3 days later. Once, I needed an appt for a poopy butt, and they gave me an appt a full week later. By that time, his butt would have been raw and probably infected. Hopefully, this place is better. We shall see.

Since Lizzy left tiny holes in her carrier mesh, I'm debating on switching to a different carrier. There's a cute one from Happy and Polly that might do the trick. I just wish it had some ratings on Chewy so I know that it's sturdy.

I think with her escape artist nature, I will be putting a harness and leash of her as well as the carrier to be safe. It'll make things a bit easier, I think. I had gotten a couple of harnesses for her to try, and of course, the one that fits is basically a ferret harness, it's so little. She is definitely a size small.

I do think she's gained a couple of ounces since we started feeding her enough food. The ravenous edge has eased up. Now she eats her wet food, and then grazes on her kibble. Previously she had eaten a whole bowl of kibble in a day. She's starting to drink from her fountain sometimes. She has not yet realized/is not interested in the flowing water. I have not seen a paw go in there yet.

Yesterday was not horribly busy at work until the last few hours. I was deeply annoyed with the finance team. I had sent an email asking for auth, and waited patiently for a few hours. Then, at noon, I put a message in chat to see if there were updates. I waited an hour and 45 minutes for an answer, despite pinging the team twice. And when I did get an answer, it was someone on another financial team, recommending that I send another email if they're not answering me. I was SO pissed. So, I sent another email, and they eventually got back to me that it was pending and probably wouldn't be back today. So I opened up the slot for everyone, and of course, twenty minutes later, he was cleared for his MRI, and the spot I had was long gone. Arrgh.

I was bitching about it to my boss the whole time.

Today, I'm working the other PAS III's schedule from 9:30-6pm (or whenever the queue is empty.) I did get access to spy on coworkers who have been in aftercall for a long time or go over break. I also need to start documenting what I'm seeing, or at least screenshotting it, or taking a little video if people are fucking around. Most of them are good. It's just a select few that takes advantage of the aftercall time. They technically get 1 minute and 45 seconds. But they know we won't bother them til five minutes, and some of them work that.

At this point, I believe I have access to everything I need to do the other PAS III's jobs, so I'm good to do that. I think today I'll just be picking up answering questions on teams after 4:39 when R heads out, so that'll be fun.

Being that the televox system is going to be sending out messages for people with orders to schedule appts, it could be a busy day. Televox is broken and doesn't run reports in real time. So it's going off of people who had orders yesterday. Unfortunately some of them have been scheduled, so we get confused/annoyed patients calling in to see what the problem is.

The phone system continues to be a pain point. Not because it doesn't work, but becuause they keep changing shit without telling us first.

I still love my job, and with the reports coming out of IKEA...whoo boy, I'm glad I'm not there anymore. Yesterday, one of my former coworkers quit and sent out a scathing farewell letter to the entire call center. He called out the head of the call center (valid), the Regional Assistant Managers (one of whom is the one who blocked my promotion 8 times because I was too valuable where I was. (Didn't find that out until later) and down to the managers of whom he said. "I wouldn't trust them to hand me a knife in the staff cafe." The dude is a total shit stirrer, so I'm not shocked, but damn. I sent one to leadership and HR, but I didn't have the balls to send it to the whole call center. Maybe I should have, but I was still trying to be classy. Had I known about being blocked for promotions, I might have. (That manager has been let go since, yet oddly promotions don't seem to be any better.

I've had so many people reach out to get information on Hopkins. They want out, and don't care if they take a pay cut to do it. I'm happy to provide links and a reference, because if they get hired and stay 6 months, I get $1000. (Which I do share with the person who was hired.)

Tomorrow and Friday are my normal hours. Then, I've got a game on Friday, and two on Sunday with a trip to NYC to see the Rocky Horror on Saturday. I'm looking forward to that. Hopefully it's fun. I'm not sure Luke Evans is hitting every mark for me in the previews I've seen, but we'll see. Sadly, Juliette Lewis is departing, and we're getting a new Magenta, so we'll see how she is.

I made bulgogi last night. Pre-marinated by the local Hmart. It was very tasty. I made it in a stir fry with snow peas and bean sprouts and put them on the puffy rice buns with a little bit of soy sauce for saltiness. It was pretty good. I will definitely have some for breakfast as well with my scrambled eggs. Tonight, I believe we have Halibut. I'm debating between oven roasted and pan fried. I haven't decided yet. Or, I could use the Native Fry bread mix and make fish tacos. That could also be tasty. Or deep fry it. That would also work. I will think on it, and pick up some limes or lemons and slaw if I go the taco route. I have brussel sprouts to go with it either way.

And of course, I will be spending time with my little baby. I'm trying to keep Yoda from getting jealous, and so far it seems to be working. He's been very good about not barking by the door, or getting pushy about coming in. The couple of times he's seen her, he just looked like "huh, that sure is a cat." The cat in question poofs up like a Halloween kitty, so that could be a fun introduction.

And on that note, I'm going to drink some coffee and attempt to wake up. Everyone have an awesome Wednesday! We're almost halfway there!

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Now who's ready to be baptized into a new era of entertainment?

2026-06-16T09:26:16Z

This is your Tuesday Lizzy update!

Yesterday was hard. Not just because I had to work, but I had to work away from my kitty.. I did not enjoy not being able to visit with her all day except for a few miutes on break and lunch.

She continues to be a total sweetheart. She's young, so she still gets overwhelmed with love, and will walk away for a few minutes to settle down. The cat has better emotional regulation skills than I do. But when she wants love, she wants love, dammit.

I'm still 100% smitten with this cat. Yesterday, while playing the part of my coworker, it was slow enough that I was able to call the new vet and make her an appt for 6/29. Unfortunately, the PTO schedule was clogged for this week and next, so I wasn't able to take off before then. But again, I'm not worried about her like I was Cece.

She's obviously a healthy cat, so two weeks will give her time to settle in a bit, and then we shall have her spay checked, and get her care established so that if we do need them, we can just call.

She was very good last night, or I was very tired. I didn't hear her yell once, except when I came back from the bathroom. She yelled at me then. How dare I wake up and not immediately pet her!

We did give her gentle playtime before bed, so maybe that helped.

She's a naughty little thing sometimes. I told you that we had to relocate the sock drawer so we had somewhere to put her treats in the drawer, lest she rip them open and eat all of them. She also saw the ribbon dancer toy on the closet door and decided that it was hers anyway. I came in to find her on the bed, smacking the ribbon around. She did not want to let it go and dug her little toenails in. It was frightfully cute.

Lizzy also proved that she's a mighty huntress, stalking and killing two big flies that somehow got into her room. The first, she knocked out of the air, and then pounced and ate it. The second, we got before she could scarf it, though she looked a bit miffed at Jess for taking her prize. A few seconds later she got praise and treats, so she wasn't upset for too long.

Once I got off work, I spent some time with her, and had some snuggles before she decied that it was time to take a nap on Jess' desk. My good kitten, there is a furry cat tree less than 2 feet away and you're going to sleep on the hard desk?

She's been hanging around while Jess is on the computer, which is making them very happy.

We had ordered BBQ for dinner, which was okay, nothing amazing, but solid, and after that, we went in to snuggle her and relax before bed. I knew that I was working from 7:30am-4pm today, so I went to bed a little early. That's so that I can get out in time to take Yoda to his vet appt. (I don't wanna). Adulthood is a pain in the ass lately.

Tomorrow, I shall get paid, and that shall be nice. I don't have a ton of bills for this check, so I'll sock away the rent for next month, and be ready to pay that in a couple of weeks as well as her vet visit.

I'm going to get a bit of OT next pay in covering for everyone else. So that might be nice. And for July third, I get time and a half, so that will be good. And I'm working a couple of Saturdays in July, so that'll be good money. Plus the extra 8 hours of PTO for working July 3.

This week shall pretty mucb be a standard paycheck, sadly. Though it's still more money at one time than I've ever gotten paid, so it's all good.

I was planning on making some baked halibut and brussel sprouts, but we'll see what time we get home from the vet.

I do need to make more of Yoda's food, but Instacart was down yesterday, and today, the Punjab market doesn't seem to have any goat. So, I went to the H Mart, which had everything. He probably won't get food til dinner, but there's kibble if he gets hungry.

I think that's going to be the new habit. Wet food once a day and kibble for the other meal. It'll take some of the pressure off me, and make his meals last longer. He's getting more and more picky about his meals, starting to leave the wet food for a little while before he eats it. Also, he now desires a topper mixed in. It's a seafood topper with krill and other tasty little fish, and he loves it. It souds like the worst thing to me, but whatever makes him happy. The things we do for our pets.

Which brings me back to her little highness. She's definitely getting more bold. Jess just went to the bathroom, and then came hurrying out because Lizzy decided to go on walkabout. She's like a tiny eel. It's very hard to keep her from getting out when she's determined. Fortunately, Yoda sleeps with my sister with the door closed, so she was fine. No awkward introductions yet. I want her healed from the spay surgery before I let them meet for real. We're going to get one of those nets that we can put in the doorway to allow them to see each other through the mesh first. That way they can get used to each other. Yoda hasn't shown any interest in her the couple of times he's seen her. She puffs her tail up and raises her little hackles, which is frankly adorable.

I wonder what naughtiness today shall bring from our little girl. Tomorrow, I'm working til 6pm, so that'll be fun. Actually, depending, I may be working even later if the queue is bad. The person I'm covering for stays until everyone has logged out. I'll at least have a little extra time in the morning with the little girl. Thursday and Friday are normal schedule, and then Rocky Horror! And then Sunday, rest and spend time with the kitty.

I'm seriously questioning how old she is. I know figuring cat's ages are a bit of a guessing game, but she doesn't feel like she's over a year. She feels like a kitten. The youngest she could probably be is 8months, figuring that she got pregnant between 4-6 months. I did still put down her adoption date as her birthday on her microchip registration, though.

I think that's why she's so small--the demands on her body from the kittens may have stunted her growth a bit. I think she's already picked up an ounce or two in the few days she's been with us. We've been feeding her frequently, plus she's eating her kibble as well.

I got her a fountain. She's not quite sure what to do with it. She did drink out of it last night, so that's a small win. And we got a pet-safe air freshener. Her poops are a little less rank on the Tiki cat, but still not pleasant.

We have discovered that the thing she seems to like most is pate food. We gave her Tiki cat with the chunks of sardines in it, and they got left on the plate. Shreds were maybe okay, but not her fave. So, that's what she's going to get. I'll give her more of the petites, but 2-3 at a time.

She doesn't seem horribly fond of the bougie food. I'm going to try her on one of the smooth pate ones either today or tomorrow, but if she doesn't like it, then I'll toss the rest. It was only $25, so if it doesn't work for her, I'm not out much.

I feel kind of bad that we're going to be at the Rocky Horror most of the day on Saturday. I hate to leave her for that long. I do want to see the Rocky Horror, but I want to spend quality time with my kitty, too. And then Sunday I have 2 games, which is going to mean more time not spent with kitty. It's very sad. I know, since Yoda's being boarded, on Saturday my sister will spend lots of time with Lizzy, but it's not the same.

Okay, time for me to go bother a kitty. Everyone have a fabulous Tuesday!

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People like talking, talking 'bout people. I hear them whisper, you won't believe it

2026-06-15T09:24:03Z

I am so sleepy this morning. Every so often last night, Lizzy felt the need to sing the song of her people loudly. She was 100% trying to get treats, but good lord, it did not make for restful sleep. She's such a little moocher, and I love her.

FYI, this is going to be image heavy, sorry not sorry. Everyone must see the glory of Lizzy.

She's been eating pretty much nonstop, and I was worried that we weren't feeding her enough, so I looked. Normal kitties need between 200-280 calories, and nursing mother's up to 600 calories.

The Fancy Feast petites we were giving her were only 37 calories. No wonder she was scarfing the kibble like it was going out of style. From here on out, she's getting Tiki cat, which is over 70 calories, and she's getting a minimum of 4 cans a day, plus plenty of treats and kibble. She may get more than that, but that will be a start to fatten her up. She's not scary skinny--the rescue was doing their best, but five kittens to such a tiny cat had to be tough to keep up with. So yeah, Lizzy is getting lots of good-quality food, and will hopefully put on some weight.

Singing last night aside, she's just settled in and made us her willing slaves. She comes over when she wants pets, and loafs and melts on the bed near us.

Portrait of a melted kitty.

When she's tired of us, she goes and snoozes on her cat tree, right next to Jess' desk.

Yesterday, she stayed there for the whole of game, with one foray onto the desk to come claim Jess headset with an almighty newf. Jess of course, hated this.

Right before game, the brother in law came over to spend some time and most importantly to meet Lizzy. He is smitten. Our other kitties have occasionally tolerated him, but usually ran and hid. He's a guy with a loud voice and they were not having it. Not Lizzy. To her, new people are just friends she hasn't made yet. She hopped right up and demanded petting, letting him touch her and even rubbing against him. He was freaking thrilled. It was adorable. She seemed to really like him, which made all of our hearts grow three sizes.

I let her have one of the nip laced cat toys the rescue sent with us. OMG, she loved it. She rubbed all against it, and licked it until it was soaked. I wouldn't let her kicky feet it, in deference to her recent spay, but she absolutely loved it, and gave us slightly wild eyes after and was ready to chase our fingers. It was darling.

We did have to relocate our sock drawer from Jess' desk to a tote bag for the moment. She discovered that some treats were in a pouch at the side of the desk and immediately set to trying to shred the bags to get into them. Now they're safely in the drawer. I got her a big three pack of Temptations, which are sitting in the laundry basket for safe keeping until I can make room on the closet shelf. Boodle used to knock them off things to make them spill, and I don't want Lizzy getting any ideas.

I have a new dresser that they're going to go in soon. I just have to build it. It's not huge, but it can fit some undies and socks at least and clear up some drawers in the bigger dresser for T-shirts and other things.

But really our world has revolved around Lizzy this weekend. She's definitely interested in the world outside her room, and I don't think she's doing to be content to mostly stay in there. I ordered a small cat tree for by my desk, and another for the living room. It's going to be an adjustment for Yoda, but I think he can do it.

Jess thinks that she's chosen me as her favorite person. I don't know about that. She's a pretty equal opportunity snuggler. But apparently, when I leave the room, she lets out a sad meow and waits on the end of the bed facing the door for my return.

It makes me want to explode in a shower of rainbows, I swear.

Game went really well, and everyone seemed to have a good time. I did some little vignettes with them when they got separated at a party, which seemed to go over well. Being a DM and me, of course, there's still that little voice that is like "You suck and people are just being nice," but I'm trying to silence that voice. But as this was Marchen which is entirely a homebrew campaign, it's a little harder because if people aren't enjoying it, then it's 100% on me. So far, so good, though. We just finished session 7, and it's going well. The party is starting to gel in a wildly dysfunctional way, the paladin just broke his oath of non violence pretty spectacularly and was an oathbreaker paladin for a hot minute until he took another oath, this one to the king he's had a secret crush on for 6 years. (He was in prison for most of it.). He just discovered that the king loves him back and in the spirit of the fairy tales that the game is made up of, he took the Oath of True Love, which was also homebrewed in collaboration with the paladin's player.

They're on a grand quest, and the kind is using his wizards to chat with him every night. As well as provide information to the rest of the party, of course.

The party is a little pile of strong personalities, and there has definitely been party friction, but they're working together somewhat now.

I got to introduce a seriously fucked up version of the three little pigs where the pigs are actually awakened, twisted animals. The mayor is a pig-man, and the big bad wolf is a developmentally disabled abomination. I made all my players verbally recoil when I showed pictures of the creatures, which was great for me.

They decided to spend the night there, so there can be more fucked up things in the daylight. I'm looking forward to it.

Sadly, now we're to Monday. On the plus side, that means that the Rocky Horror is less than a week away. On the other, that's a long day with a bit of walking, so I'll be very tired come Sunday. I'm playing in a one shot game in the early afternoon, but I may end up pulling out of that if I'm too wiped. We also playing in a game in the evening, but since that's a campaign, I'll definitely play that.

Today will definitely be super busy. They're working to figure out the reason that our call volumes have jumped so much. We're wondering if it's the bot they fixed, or if the AI Assistant that they get to first is fucking up, but no real clue. But we've been so busy, and we just haven't had the spaces for them. I'm not on the phone much any more unless it's really crazy, but I feel for the team. They've been getting their butt kicked. I know there has been a ton of OT, because people are still holding when the. phones close, and they have to be worked through. Sometimes there's been upwards of 40 people holding at 6.

Today, I'm working for one of the other PAS III's, so I'll be answering questions on teams, and doing the error emails, and all that. It'll definitely make the day go faster. I'll also be watching the queue for people who are in aftercall too long, and reaching out to them. It'll be a lot. Most of our team is pretty good, but some of them play games.

And of course, on every break, I'm going to be ducking in to see Lizzy and give her love. Jess will be in with her most of the day, so she'll have plenty of attention and treats.

Who could resist this face?

Yoda has an appointment for his yearly check up at the vets tomorrow. I want to get the lump on his neck checked, but I'm also dreading it. He's such a little shit, and it'll probably be a pain in the ass. I do have to see when we could schedule Lizzy for her initial check up with the new vet. I'd like to have her spay site checked and make sure her milk is drying up the way it should. SO if they have a slot on Tuesday, I may shift Yoda a few days out. I could take time off next week on Monday, I think, so I might see if we could get that for him. But we'll see what they can offer.

I'm not frantic to get Lizzy checked. She's a healthy active kitty, and I don't have any major worries about her. Just a check up to make sure things are healing the way they should.

At some point, I still want to go to the movies to watch Master's of the Universe, but we just haven't had time. It may have to be on streaming if we don't make it in the next week or so. Maybe we could go early one evening this week. Though if Lizzy keeps making it hard to sleep, I may not.

Okay, time for me to go and maybe grab a shower. It's been a couple of days, and I feel icky. I shall leave you with another picture of the girl, and a wish that everyone has a better than expected Monday!

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