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Database maintenance

Good morning, afternoon, and evening!

We're doing some database and other light server maintenance this weekend (upgrading the version of MySQL we use in particular, but also probably doing some CDN work.)

I expect all of this to be pretty invisible except for some small "couple of minute" blips as we switch between machines, but there's a chance you will notice something untoward. I'll keep an eye on comments as per usual.

Ta for now!

You been playing around the magic that is black.

It's Saturday and I can sleep as late as I wanna. (So I'm up at 7:15, facepalm.) I don't really have a ton to do today. I may run up to the mall. I have a candle on hold at Migraine Land, aka Yankee Candle, so I need to get that.

I used to have one in the house, but it got kinda tossed. It's called Witches Brew, and it's a black candle that's kind of spicy and resiny. I like it, so when I saw an ad for the halloween candles, I had to grab one. I'll probably go early before the mall gets too crowded.

Then nothing to do until I start cooking around 3:30pm. I'm going to make steak subs, so I need time to chop up some onions, saute them , saute mushrooms and then cook the frozen steak ums.

In between, plenty of time to read a PDF and work on upcoming games. I've got a lot to do in the next month for Crooked Moon, and a *lot* to do for the Land of Marchen in a few months. Crooked Moon is a premade, so I just need to make sure I'm familiar with the story line, and work in a few things. I also need to send out final backstory questions for my players to fill out. It's no real heavy lifting until the game starts.

Marchen is all heavy lifting. Right now, I'm working out the basics of the land. It's a pocket dimension with various nations. Each is in the grip of one or more fairy tales, and I'm looking forward to fleshing it out. I just figured out the three deities, so that's a start.

Once I flesh out the world, I need to flesh out the plot further. Then, I need to start sourcing all the tokens and maps, and make character sheets. Some are going to be harder than other. Where does one find the stat block for a Yaobikuni, a Japanese person who eats mermaid flesh and turns into a monster. What kind of monster? Guess we'll find out.

I'm starting the characters at 3rd level, so I need to come up with some mid-tier monsters in addition to the tougher ones. At first, they're going to be interacting with the lesser known fairytales or gentler ones. I don't think they want to fight a great black dragon at 3rd level.
We also have a game tonight and tomorrow that I should probably do a bit of prep for.

Tomorrow, off to the Renn Faire! I've been looking forward to this all week. We're going to go early and get our liquor first, put it in the cooler, and then proceed to the fair. This of course, depends on how early we get there, and how close our car is.

Then, we'll walk through the Renn Faire, and have plenty of food, and then go forth and come home for game.

Then bed, and back to work, feeling hopefully satisfied and happy with our weekend.

Jess goes Tuesday for their new tattoo, a phoenix feather to match the raven feather on their other forearm. I can't wait to see it. Their artist, Ronie does amazing work. This'll be Jess' third tattoo with them. Pictures to come!

And on that note, time to do some work. Everyone have an awesome Saturday!

And this mountain, I must climb feels like the world upon my shoulders

It's Friday! Time to do the happy dance. I cleared some things off my Saturday, so I have nothing to do until around 7pm when we have game. It occurs to me that we also have game tonight, and I'm not sure I've read the module. I should get into that.

Yesterday was a steady day. I spent most of it getting emails for people to call and backfilled a couple of cardiac slots. In between, I wrote some more on the campaign, and created a new Kanka website for it. There's a lot of things that I need to do for it, but I feel good to have the beginnings sorted. I also want to make one for Crooked Moon, which is really what I should be working on, as that game is in a month.

I've also been reading that module. The book is 638 pages, so it's been slow going. I'm looking forward to the game, but it's a lot of prep. I'm thinking I'm going to be done by 11/26, but we shall see.

Today shall probably be a bit quieter, maybe? I can never tell. Plus it depends on how many cancellations there are that I end up filling.

I'm really looking forward to Sunday when I can go to the Renn Faire. I think we're going to leave early, and do our booze shopping at the Winery half first. If we get there early, we can put the booze in our car to bring home, and then go to the Faire and eat our way through.

Does this not look amazing?

The downside of the wine shop is that this is my favorite winery, but I hardly ever get up there to get wines, so I'm going to be shopping til I drop. Since the last time we were there, they added a brewery, a cidery and a distillery. I want everything, probably to the tune of $200+.

I will downsize. Maybe I don't need a Reisling and a Niagra wine. (Oh yes, I definitely do.)

Okay, time for me to get myself together. Everyone have a most excellent Friday!

And I'm here, to remind you of the mess you left when you went away

Watch on YouTube

I will never understand how this got airplay on the radio in the 90's. I guess by that time Tipper Gore had mostly wanked herself to irrelevance. No, instead they had to worry about my Poison album having a long tongue.

Yesterday was kind of a chill day. Not horribly busy, but enough stuff that I wasn't losing my mind. I got a few patients in for their scans, which makes me happy. After work, we started watching campaign 4 of Critical Role. We're going to be slow as shit, but I wanted to give it a try. The episodes are usually 4-5 hours, and we can get 45-60min at a time.

Then, as I settled in to go to bed, I had a little burst of inspiration, and got more of my fairyland fleshed out. I'm reading through fairytales of the world, and picking out ones to be represented.

I'm also making a ton of work for myself, but we'll get through it. IF anyone has any good mapmakers, please send them my way. So far, I'm a patron of Czepeku, Darkestmaps and 2 Minute Tabletop.

I have a feeling that my world map this time is going to be a mess. I am not legendary at inkarnate or any of the map making software.

I'm kind of proud of myself. I need to add maybe two more lands, and then get to building cities, but I've done a lot.

I may do some work on it on Saturday. We don't have anything planned til our one-shot at 7pm.

But first two more days of work. Which shouldn't be too bad, I hope.

And on that note, time for me to get myself together. I need to boil some eggs so I have breakfast! Everyone have a perfect Thursday!

It's not fair, to deny me of the cross I bear that you gave to me

It's Wednesday and we're halfway there! Yesterday was a long day at work, but a pretty good day overall.

Work was busy. My email was flooding with the patients I needed to call to offer earlier appointments. My first emails were there waiting for me when I signed on, and they really didn't stop. I figure I ended up with about 20 incoming calls? The rest were all outgoing.

During quiet moments, I worked on my game and started working on a subclass for one of my player's new Pied Piper Bard.

Jess kindly went and had no trouble getting the money orders from the post office, so after work, we got dressed (and prettied up a bit in my case) and went to get our passports started. The lady was SUPER sweet, and despite some mistakes (on our part) that necessitated refilling the forms out, she walked us through and did our pictures, and lo, we were done.

Yesterday morning, I saw a thing about some bars near us that had liquor license violations (serving minors). I looked at them and discovered that there's a bar right on the main drag that's an Irish Pub and restaurant. They're very close to the library, so I suggested picking up dinner from them. We ended up going and eating there, which worked out well. It was such a little dive, but the food was really good. We started with curry fries, which were amazing. It's hard to find British curry around here, and this was perfect. I had the shepherd's pie, which was excellent. It had the little rosemary kick that I really wanted. Not overwhelming, just a nice little touch. Jess had a steak and stout pie. I liked mine better, but it was still pretty good. The best thing about them is that they have a back parking lot, so you can 100% avoid the main road. Very convenient and tasty and atmospheric. We took my sister some fish and chips which she enjoyed.

Today, I'm definitely going to cook something, just not sure what. Probably steakums. We'll see. I also have chicken out, so it could be either.

As the week has gone on, I'm getting more and more exited for the Renn Faire. I keep going back to the list of food and trying to make a game plan.

On that note, it's time to go forth and get myself together for the day. Everyone have an outstanding Wednesday!

(no subject)

Yesterday was the reverse on Friday in that my tumble drier was brought back, fully fixed, and Murphy came home, too :D

It was class first thing, and luckily, the vet phoned just at the end of that. But I quickly found out Murphy's scan was over, he was waking up and was fine. But most importantly, we could pick him up late afternoon.

( cut for details )

James is also picking up some wooden crafty stuff on the way home. I can't remember if I said, but Lucy set up Palmers in Pyjamas TikTok which started with her Kayleigh and Bodhi reviewing different food, usually the viral TikTok kind. She's been quite successful and suggested James create his own TikTok to promote his pyrography, so he did, and the video he posted last week really took off. So much so he's got a few people ordering on it, which is kind of amazing.

I'm just a notch in your bedpost, but you're just a line in a song

We survived Monday! It was a busy day! Lots of calls, lots of callbacks. I was definitely kept hopping.

Today, I work, Jess runs to the post office to get money orders for our passports, and then we go forth this evening to apply for our passports. It'll be awesome. It'll be a busy evening, but we'll get it done.

I'm looking forward to having my passport. It's been 34 years since I got my first one and I let it lapse, which was dumb. I guess I figured I was just tied to the house so why would I? And it's not like financially, I ever had a situation where I could just fly to Europe. So I didn't. I sat for 31 years, and did nothing. About 3 years ago, we did Disney, and that was the best thing I'd done for myself. It gave a last sweet memory before the 2 years of Dad hell.

But now, it's finally time to live again. It's very weird to realize that we can just go. I can just say "can we go to Comic Con in Pittsburgh so I can get pictures with Linda Hamilton and Ron Perlman?" and the answer can be "sure, let's do it."

Once we have our passports, if we want to go to out of country for a long weekend or a vacation, we know we can.

But first, all the in-country trips!

The week is going very slowly since I'm looking forward to the weekend. I cannot wait to eat my way through the Renn Faire. It looks like they have a lot of good food.

Things are slowly starting to shape up for the fairytale land game. Which is good, even though, it's so far off. I will have a fully fleshed out plot, and everything set up to go by the time it's needed.

Jess booked their next tattoo! It's going to be a phoenix feather to match the raven feather on their other forearm. The artist is amazing, so I can't wait to see what she makes of it. Pictures when it's done, of course.

Okay, time for me to go forth and get myself together. Trash ain't going to take itself out. Everyone have a terrific Tuesday!

AWS outage

DW is seeing some issues due to today's Amazon outage. For right now it looks like the site is loading, but it may be slow. Some of our processes like notifications and journal search don't appear to be running and can't be started due to rate limiting or capacity issues. DW could go down later if Amazon isn't able to improve things soon, but our services should return to normal when Amazon has cleared up the outage.

Edit: all services are running as of 16:12 CDT, but there is definitely still a backlog of notifications to get through.

Edit 2: and at 18:20 CDT everything's been running normally for about the last hour.

I chime in with a "Haven't you people ever heard of closing the goddamn door?

And just like that, it's Monday again. I've moved back to my normal space, which is going to be so nice. It just didn't seem like it was worth it. Hopefully, they'll send us a note before they come do the dryer, but I'm just not going to be able to wait for it. I've spent three weeks in my sister's room, on a much smaller monitor and desk. I'm not going to do it any more. I need my sunny window.

Yesterday, my sister got back from vacation at about 12:15, which gave us time to slip out and get some delicious Indian food from the buffet. It was quite tasty. Then we came back, and game got delayed because all the players had migraines, so I had some time in which I could conceivably been productive, but was not.

The biggest thing I did yesterday was to begin to plot my next D&D campaign. It's for the other server to come after Arvandor. That still probably has a few months, maybe more, left. But probably in spring, we'll be looking at a new campaign. I've got the setting, and the basic premise, but now I need to figure out the actual plot. I've got a while, but I want it to be ready to roll out right away.

I decided on a Fairytale land, where the land is slowly dying, and no one knows why. The king picks a bunch of fairytale or fairytale adjacent people to find out, traveling around the domain, into various kingdoms, each holding one or two fairytale archetypes. They'll have a quest for each but they'll be interacting around the tale or intervening in the tale, or whatever as well. (For instance, I don't think my players will be cool going about their business when the prince is on his way to have his way with Sleeping Beauty.) Like I said I'm not very far into it, but I do love me a dark and messed up fairytale. I want to go multicultural, so I'm going to be doing some looking at non western European fairytales as well. I know that Japan and the Nordic countries have some fucked up shit, and I'm betting others do too.

I was talking with

poisontaster last night about how many of our campaigns will be wrapping up over the next few months and there's a fair number of them. It kind of makes me sad, but some of these games are fully five years old. It's time for them to wind down and make room for new. We've got a lot of new people on the server, and a bunch of campaigns that are closed. @

poisontaster mentioned that shed like to offer a campaign with a focus on the new people, so they can get a shot, and I'd like to as well. I don't know what that'll look like, but I'm excited to see.

We had a fairly short game with just two players last night. It was a lot of fun, but I feel like the sweet spot is right around 4-5 people. Next weekend, I'm running two one shots.

Okay, time for me to go grab a shower. Everyone have a superb Monday!

Model house life meltdown-still a modern dream let down, it kills me, you know I'm dying out here

Another somewhat sleep deprived night thanks to a small dog. I want my sister to go places, because she deserves to get out too, but wow, I hate sleeping in the wrong bed. I slept some, just not as deeply as usual, and not as long. She's back today and it's going to be an early night.

The dog is currently next to me on the couch, with his butt pressed firmly against me. Like he didn't spend the whole night with me.

Yesterday was mostly spent at con. I did my panel in the morning, which went pretty well. Then, I went and did my volunteer shifts, and then I watched a panel about Daggerheart. It was pretty cool, and I'd like to try playing it one day. It's a lot more fiddly, but that could be fun. Or it might drive me to drink, I have no idea. It was a fun panel, and I really liked the character I made. They seemed like the perfect himbo paladin type. I'm actually kind of sad that the campain premise we came up with wouldn't happen.

Now we shall wait to see when my sister gets home, as it will decide what we're going to do. We have a game scheduled at 3pm, so if they get home before like 1, we're going to lunch. I'm in the mood for an Indian Buffet.

So we're doing the renewal of vows on the Alaska trip. We're thinking about doing a party when we get back. Just rent a room in a restaurant and have a little celebration for all our friends.

Now we need to decide where. I'm trying to think of a restaurant that won't be horribly expensive, but also will have good food, of a type that people would like. I want it to be a local restaurant, not a chain, and have ample parking. It's not an easy one to uncover. Oh, and it should be in the Baltimore area, so as not to inconvenience people coming in from other areas.

Or, the other option is to rent a space that has a good parking lot, and get food trucks. Which sounds kind of cool and fun, but then what if if rains?

I think I'm going to go forth and grab some more coffee and maybe shower. Everyone have a most amazing Sunday!

(no subject)

It was quite a day yesterday.

It started well, I went with James to get our flu jabs, and got those done fast, in and out of the pharmacy before our official appointment times.

Then off to the doctor, who after a few attempts managed to draw enough blood from James to send off for the routine tests he needs. Though, I do wish people would listen when James tells them it's easier to draw from the back of his hand. I get it probably feels wrong for the medical people to start there, but his veins are so buried in the crook of his arms that it's almost impossible to find them.

Left there and came home as the tumble drier repair man was due. That actually went better than I expected, turns out the baring had gone causing the belt to snap. But the guy said it was such a good machine it was worth repairing, though due to the space needed for the repair, he'd have to take it to his workshop to do so. But, it should be fixed and back by Monday afternoon, and for cheaper than I was expecting, which is good.

After he left we did some organising for the craft fair we've done today. Got everything sorted, and then got ready to take Murphy to a vet appointment as it looked like his UTI was back again. But, turns out it was much more serious and he had a bladder blockage.

As I couldn't get him an appointment until 5:30, that meant the vet who could do the op to unblock had gone so we were sent off to the out of hours emergency vet hospital. This is where he ended up a month ago, so I knew they were nice there, but man, I really didn't expect to be heading there again.

( cut for vet stuff )

Drove home and because it was so late ended up at the fishshop for a cheese patty, chips and curry sauce tea. Ate that then ended up just waiting for the vet to phone with news, which she did close to ten.

Then to top it all I had the most horrendous night sweats that woke me up. ( cut for detail )

So that was yesterday, and I did not want to get up at 6am to get ready for the craft fair today. But I did, and the fair itself went okay.

Now we're home, and I intend to have a lobster bath, wait for the nurse to phone about Murphy, or phone them myself if I can't wait, then watch Strictly. Though tbh, I'd say the odds on me staying awake for the whole thing are pretty low right now.

All day, starin' at the ceilin', makin' friends with shadows on my wall

It's Saturday! And I slept in until 7:30am, which is an accomplshment.

Yesterday proceded apace. My sister left for vacation, and I went and started work. It was a busy day calling patients back. I was so tired by the time I got done. I had an utterly obnoxious vaccine headache that nothing would touch, but I persevered. Then I took a little nap. It didn't particularly help, but it was nice.

Then we walked Yoda, and came back. I had game last night, which I'm not sure how I did. We had three players, plus four onlookers. It was weird but kinda cool. I had my own actual play game. It might not have been my best ever game, but it wasn't bad. I think everyone had fun.

Then it was to bed for some interrupted sleep in my sister's bed. The dog likes to be pushed up against you, and will try to push you our of the bed. Jess is kind of a lamprey at night, so it's not completely unusual to me. But you know, different bed, different sounds. I'll be happy to have my bed back tomorrow.

Today is CONfab, so I'll be mostly doing that. I enjoy the con, and am frequently found chatting about various topics in the discord.

I set up an appointment to get my dresses altered, It's not til the end of November, but at worst, it'll be done by January.

My ring for the vow renewal is done! I absolutely love it. It's a silver and moissanite ring.

Watch on YouTube

It's so shiny! I can't wait to recieve it, though it's coming from overseas so that might be a slow, tariff laden process.

Okay, time to get ready for my panel at noon. I've gotta download a couple of documents, and prepare. Everyone have an awesome Saturday!!

And though my mind is somewhat jaded now, it's time for me to strike again.

Why is it morning? I could have used a few more hours to sleep, but alas, we've got work to do.

Yesterday was a busy day. I was up at 3:30am and did my morning stuff, then we left at 5:15am to drive to Sibley, arriving hella early. The problem is that if you wait later, then it's a traffic crapshoot. Fortunately, there's a small coffee shop on site that opens at 6:30am, so we caffeinated and relaxed until the office opened at 8.

Jess got good grades, and is healing beautifully. They can begin doing scar massage and in 1 week, all restrictions are off. They can do whatever they would like that doesn't cause pain. They're very excited for that. But the PA was pleased, and told Jess that they had done well. They can also begin washing the surgery sites gently. There's still some glue left around the scar, so we'll start trying to get that off. Under the glue, the scars are pretty minimal, and seem to be healing well.

Then, we came home and relaxed for a few until I went out to get my stabs. Flu and Novavax Covid. Today I feel a little achy and I may have a tiny temp, but compared to the pfizer shot, it's nothing.

Then, it was back home to relax and reread the PDF for tonight's Monster of the Week game that I'm running for CONfab.

My sister leaves this morning for a weekend trip, so tonight and tomorrow, I'll be sleeping with the puppers.

I was looking at our schedule for the next few months, and we're going to be busy. Next Sunday, we're going to the Pennsyvania Renn Faire, then in November we have brunch with Erin. December is for Comic Conn, January a visit to Philly then nothing in Feb/March. Then, in April, we head to NYC to see the Lost Boys Musical, and May is Alaska. It's a lot to look forward to!

Okay, time for me to go forth and get ready for work. Everyone have an excellent Friday!

(no subject)

I've been re-reading Musketeers fic this last week or so. I started due to whumptober, but as that's not as busy as usual in the fandom, I've been re-reading some favourites, too. I haven't got there yet, but suspect a Dragon Riders series re-read will be in my future soon.

I've also read an ER/The Pitt cross I enjoyed, where John Carter and Robby discover they're half brothers after an unexpected meeting. They're not fandoms I usually read it -- I saw the rec on my network -- so suspect this could be a common thing, but I enjoyed this take on it Like Brothers We Meet.

Rosie cancelled class yesterday due to being ill, so I had an unexpected free morning. James was off too, and normally we would have gone to the cinema or for a walk/drive, but he'd scheduled his annual long term condition nurse review for midday. Of course, three different nurses completely failed to get any blood out of him, so he's back tomorrow, so a doctor can try.

That's after we both go to the chemist to get our flu jabs, but not Covid boosters this time, as it seems the vast majority of people in the UK don't qualify for them now. So chemist, doctors, then home as the tumbler drum has stopped turning, so the repair guy is coming out late morning. Hopefully, it's just a snapped belt, and it can be fixed as the machine itself is still heating up, so *fingers crossed*

I also watched Bodhi for an hour late afternoon as her mams went to her first parents evening. She's doing well at school, starting to recognise and write quite a few letters, though her teacher said she's very quiet. Which made me laugh as she literally didn't stop talking once the whole time I was there.

We played superheroes with Batman, Spider-Man, Iron Man, Captain America and Hulk action figures. They had quite the adventures, especially when they met a herd of dinosaurs. Though, poor Hulk seemed to spend a disproportionate amount of time on the naughty step.

The kids are all wrong, the story's all off, heavy metal broke my heart

Its Thursday morning at 4 am. I'm up super early because Jess' appointment at in DC at Sibley is at 8. This is normaly about the time I wake up to go to the bathroom, so it's not a big deal to get up then.

Hopefully this will be the last Sibley trip for a little while, but we'll see. Everything looks like it's healing pretty well to me at least.

After three attempts at getting customer service from fedex, the shoes finally arrived! They're very nice, and I immediately wore a pair out for walking the dog. Probably won't do that again, the dog insists on off roading, and the hiking boots are better for that. But for general stuff, sure.

The maintenance never showed up to do the dryer, so I spent all day locked in the bedroom with the dog. I was peeved. And now I'm annoyed, because I don't know if they're coming today or if I'm going to be stuck in the bedroom for another day.

My sister and brother in law are going away this weekend, and we have CONfab, so it's going to be a full weekend for us.

Originally the dog was supposed to be spending his first night at the doggy daycare, but since he flunked that's not going to happen, obviously.

Today, after Sibley, I'm scheduled to get my flu and covid shots. I'm tempted to add an MMR to that if they have it. Though that, I'm not sure how I would be afterwards, so I might hold it for a calmer weekend. I'm at least fairly certain that Novavax and the flu won't be a problem.

Okay, time for me to go forth and get ready to head out at ass-o-clock. Everyone have an incredible Thursday!

Still you call on me for powers clandestine

Whoa, we're halfway there!

Yesterday was long and somewhat frustrating. The maintenance came about 2 pm to change the filter. In the meantime, I got an email that they're coming today to replace some parts in the dryer. I guess there was a recall or something? I have no fucking idea. All I know is that I'm stuck in the bedroom for another day.

Then, after work, I went to get money out of my account and then to CVS to get a money order. But the money order machine was down. So I went to Safeway and it's down. Gas station, down. Royal Farm, down. I finally gave up and moved our Passport appointment out to Tuesday. That will give me a little time to find somewhere that actually has them.

The saga of my package continues. My shoes still have not been delivered, and are not on a truck yet. If they don't come by today, I'm callling Orthofeet to let them know that I suspect that Fedex has lost the package. We'll see. I spent a lot of money on these shoes, and I want them.

Today, I want to call the nice people at the bridal alteration place, so I can set up an appointment for my two dresses. Hopefully, maybe next week, I can go forth and get that taken care of.

Tomorrow, we shall drive down to Sibley for Jess' appointment at 8am. We're probably going to leave around 5:30, but that may change to five, depending on traffic. 5 will probably get us there super early, but they have a coffee shop, so I can go grab a latte.

Once we get back, I have an appointment at Costco tomorrow to get my Covid and Flu shots. They have the Novavax vaccine, which is the one I need to get. The others just mess me up.

Then, I meet the brother in law to pick up his new phone. Then home to hopefully make something for dinner. I have no idea what, but I'll find something.

And now, I shall go forth and put on pants and maybe take the trash out. Everyone have a wonderful Wednesday!

Who for man and his damnation incarnated, rise up from hell

It's No longer Monday! Yay! Yesterday was a lot. We were very busy, and then, not one or two, but three Cardiac CTs and 2 Cardiac MRIs cancelled for the week, and I had to refill them. It was a lot. IT took the better part of an hour and a half to get that all done. Yet, I still ended up at 43 calls.

Today will hopefully be our last day in the bedroom. They're supposed to come and change the filter on the furnace and check it over, and then be done. It hopefully will be a fast visit, that is accomplished early.

I did not really feel like getting up this morning. I was very sleepy and was having a good nap. I always get up around 4am to hit the bathroon, take my Rybelsus, and then go back to doze for another hour.

In addition to work stuff, I spent yesterday in customer support Hades. SO I have a package that has been sitting at the destination warehouse in Sparrows point for four fucking days. It was supposed to be delivered on the 10th. So I played on the website, and was unable to get anywhere with it's bot.

In the meantime, we're waiting for dinner to arrive. And the little car on the doordash app tells me that the driver is on his way to me. Then he goes probably 30 min out of the way, and also sits for 20 minutes. I finally got through on doordash, and they gave me a $5 credit and called him.

By the time he got here, the food was not great. Any crispy items (Gyoza, shrimp tempura) were mushy from sitting for what ended up being over an hour. I was so pissed.

After that frustrating experience, I went ahead and called fedex, and got someone who gave me absolutely no indication of what was going on with my package, and that I should reach out to the shipper and let them know.

I was trying not to be a Karen about it, but I was so frustrated and angry by the end of it. I went to the shipper's site, and they're open 8am-5pm, which will mean that I'm going to either be using all my lunch or having to call quickly at the end of the day.

I can't call at the end of the day, because I have to go get the money orders for our passports, the appointment of which is at 5:30. We'll see.

My sister is being very interactive this morning, so on that note, I'm going to go forth and get myself together for the day. Everyone have an stellar Tuesday!

Entry tags:

FIC: the moon will sing (12/?)

Fic: the moon will sing (12/?)
Fandom: Dungeons & Dragons (Roleplaying Game)
Rating: Mature
Summary: In which Skink gets his crooked tail. Set a few months before Skink makes his deal with Eilistraee and leaves Baldur's Gate. Content warnings for depiction of torture.

chapter 12

He's the guy you wanna do, but you know that it takes two, luckily he wants to do you to.

Back is slightly better today, though still sore. I really, really need to take some trash out, but I don't know that I can. I am feeling like I'm failing all the way around. I couldn't take the dog for his long walk yesterday and I have four, almost five bags that I can't schlep. I might have to just deal with the pain and take them anyway. I have weed that is specially formulated for pain. Might be time to take it and go.

Yesterday was a very nice day despite being sore. Jess made jalapeño poppers, which were a good breakfast, and then I had my Strixhaven game which was a lot of fun. After that, I considered napping, but instead went to the weed store to pick up more Curio Pain and Curio Sleep, which is what I've been using to knock myself out like a hammer to the head.

Weirdly, today the left side of my back hurts, but so does my right leg. It's very achy and doesn't want me to be in weird positions on the couch. Normally, I kind of tuck my leg under me and sit on my foot. Not happening today.

A friend asked us if we were interested in going to see the Lost Boys Musical. She's at NYCC and they had a preview, which she said was pretty cool. I said, "Sure why not?" and now we're going in April.

We have a lot of stuff going on over the next eight months. The last time we had somehthing I was looking forward to like this was Disney, and that was over 3 years ago. And this isn't one glorious week, this is a lot of small things, topped off with a big thing. With another big thing in the wings for next year.

In 2 weeks, we have the Pennsylvania Renn Faire, then next month, we have bruch with

poisontaster at Ammoora. In December, it's off to Pittsburgh for Comic Con, then, January we're doing a Philly visit. After that, there's a couple months off, and then in April, it's NYC for Lost Boys and then a few short weeks later, it's time to head to Alaska.

It's bizarre. I spent so much time chained to dad that it feels so strange, yet freeing. I can just...make plans and go. That's so weird.

Okay, time for me to consider pants and maybe schlep a bag to the trash. Everyone have an awesome Monday!

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We decided to swimming yesterday morning, and what a mistake that was. It was a family swimming session, so I should have known it would be busier than during the week which is all lane swimming, but it didn't click just how busy it would be. In the end I tapped out when I hit half my usual lap total, because no way was it possible to swim in a straight line. So, I won't be weekend swimming again.

After that we headed off to see Kayleigh as my baby sister was 40 yesterday. We stayed a couple of hours and I got hulk smashed a bit by Bodhi and had some birthday cake before heading home. I'll be picking Bodhi up from school today, my first Bodhisitting for quite a while, so no doubt I'll be getting Hulk smashed again then, too. I also had a very vivid dream about not picking her up from school and her being left there last night. Guess today's pick up had lodged into my head somehow before I went to sleep.

We've been to see two films in the last couple of days. I Swear was amazing, one of the best films I've seen this year. And then on SaturdayTron: Ares which was loud, brash, visually interesting, and had Jared Leto who is always easy on the eye. So while it wasn't amazing, I didn't regret watching.

Thursday I went to a light show at Durham Cathedral. Our slot wasn't until 7pm, so as we got there earlier than that there was a lot of waiting around to get in, but it was very much worth it. The interior lights were beautiful, and I'm so glad we went.

I'll share a few photos here, but if you want to see some short videos, I've posted at my insta here.

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