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

Yesterday was kind of a chill day. I got up early and wrapped presents, then I went to breakfast with my work friend and her kids. The kids are awesome, but it did remind me of why I never had any. I'm good with short bursts, but if I had to deal with one full time, I'd lose my mind. As it was, when I was done, I was happy to go to IKEA to sit in the parking lot in silence to wait for them to open up.

Once I did that, getting a ton of candy and treats, I came home and relaxed. I put in an order for a tablecloth for Christmas, but they were out, so I guess we're going tablecloth-less. Oh well. I'm not going to get myself in a twist over it. The food will taste the same.

After that, I mostly relaxed the rest of the day. It was a nice Sunday. I ended up ordering Thai food for dinner,because I was just not feeling getting up and cooking. I'll cook tonight. It'll be great.

I slept like a fucking rock which was lovely. I had one sulky moment where I couldn't turn onto my back due to cat, but I fell back asleep before I could worry about it.

While I met with the friend and her kids, her son is very interested in D&D, but not interested in actually learning anything. I was talking about how many games we had going and how you learn a lot of it as you go, and it got me thinking about how much different my DMing style is from when it started.

It shows in some of the games that I'm currently running. Frostmaiden is the first, and it's very much a power fantasy. It started during the pandemic, and it shows. My DMing was probably a little clunky and not very good at redirecting. It's got some role play, but not a ton. Very story driven, with a few exceptions where I pulled in backstory, and got to do some cool shit. Each player has had at least one little character arc. By the time I got to Strahd, I was a little better at leaving space for the role play. More recently, Arvandor is almost 100% character driven, and full of delicious angst and role play. Then again, I crafted the entire plot to tie into characters and left plenty of room for the players to do what they wanted to.

The result has been a delight. The players are role playing a lot, and by pulling all their backstories in, they're engaged and want to see what happens next. It's worked out really well. I'm looking forward to crafting the plots for the next game. I have ideas, and I'll be curious to see how it works out.

Today, it's back to work, for is what should be a relatively quiet week.

And now, I shall go forth and get myself together for the day. Everyone have a wonderful Monday!

Starlight falling on the snow, fire glows within. Celebrate the joyful news, hope is born again..

First off, wishing everyone a joyful and blessed solstice! May the coming 6months bring more light and joy into our lives! I know the subject line is from a Christian song, but the feeling is what I think of for Yule as well. It's the slow trickle of joy and light back into our lives, even in such darkness. I hope the coming year gives you wonderful things that make you happy.

I have a pretty chill day. A couple small errands, but not much else. I'm meeting with a friend for breakfast, and I need to wrap presents for her kids. (I've got a few things to wrap, actually. Though for the family's stuff, I'm going to be wrapping on Christmas eve, since some stuff might not arrive til then.)

I don't have a ton to wrap. Two presents for my friend's kids, and then for Jess I have their big present, which is goind to be fun to wrap. Then, I've got a big-ish one for my sister. I've got BIL's fudge, which says it'll be here on Tuesday. My sister's earrings say they'll be here on Wednesday. I'm hoping they're right. It's possible some of those go in a gift bag.

Yesterday was a mixed bag of a day. Mostly good, with one really shitty interlude. The winery is out in the middle of nowhere, so we stopped for lunch on the way up, and drove there. They take you down so many winding farm roads. We got there, no problem, got the order (good lord, what have I done?) and headed home, driving back down other farm roads. We got out of them onto a main road, and stopped for donuts, then hopped back on I-83 to head home.

By the time we started on the interstate, I was a little queasy from car sickness, but we had another 45 minutes to get home, so I sucked it up. I ate a mint, which helped some. But still, we had more driving to do. I normally don't get car sick. But I had that headache (not helped by the sun stabbing me directly in the eyes as it set, and the creeping nausea.

In the end, I made it to the entrance of our apartment complex before I had to throw up. It sucked.

I got home and laid down for an hour or two and felt more human. Actually, a little bit of a hungry human, so I got up and had a donut and ordered Jewish food. Knishes and latkes, yum. Then, daringly, I took a taste of the eggnog from Mt. Hope. It was delicious, and will be even better when it's cold. My sister hit up the growler of beer while I was napping, and I got a sip of her 2nd cup when I got up. Also excellent.

Many, many years ago, the week before I met Jess in the flesh for the first time, I was the best man at some friend's wedding. It was a backyard wedding, so I took time off that week to help get things together. One of the things we did was go to the liquor store and get a keg of Killian's Red Ale.

The day of the wedding arrived, and it was the hottest day of the year. And the wedding was outside. It was brutal, especially in my cotton long sleeved shirt, tuxedo vest and panty hose. So, we drank the Killians non stop. (I was young and stupid.) I must have had like 6 beers, but the heat was working overtime and I never felt the slightest buzz. Despite it, it was a fun wedding, and we had so much fun. So the red ales have a place in my heart. I will probably have a little bit tonight. Maybe try some wine as well.

Today, wrap some presents, go to breakfast, and then make beef stroganoff. I'm hoping it comes out as well as the last time I made it. Oh, and IKEA. I need to call the animal shelter I support to see if I can stop by to get the winnings I got from a virtual auction a couple of weeks ago. They're having photos with Santa, so I know they're going to be busy.

If they say no, that is 100% okay. We'll go next weekend. I'd like to get it before to give it as a gift, but we'll see.

We've got left over latkes and knishes for lunch, so that'll be nice.

Tomorrow, back to work for what will probably be a mostly quiet week. We close at 2 on Christmas Eve, so I plan to make my little turnovers with peach amaretto jam. I also have some phyllo pastry shells, so I'll have to decide what I do with them. Maybe some little appetizers for Christmas eve.

Okay, time for me to get to wrapping. Everyone have an excellent Sunday!

You think your little mockery Is gonna make me cry? That I'm bawling ‘bout the past?

Greetings on this fine Saturday! We've got a busy day ahead, but first, coffee.

Yesterday was a busy day, mostly with me doing callbacks. I still took 36 calls, but I did a lot of calling to offer people appts that had opened up. I was able to get someone who was freaked out in for an appt almost immediately, so I was pleased. I don't expect to get the same acclaim as the last time I helped someone out, but I always hope that when the person meets someone else who's struggling that they remember the kindness and pay it forward. That might be a wildly optimistic hope, but fingers crossed

Today will also be busy, as we have to go get Jess' suit altered, and then will head up to the winery to pick up our booze. I went a little bit crazy on the order, and ended up getting 13 bottles of beer wine and liquor. I knew I wanted to get two bottles each of the wines we loved, Niagra and Pink Catawba. Then, they had their eggnog in stock and I had to try that. They didn't have the coconut rum cream we loved, so I got a mocha rum cream. I also got a growler of beer in Irish Red, because Killians Red was one of the few beers I liked. Then there were other wines that looked good, and a peppermint schnapps. It's a lot, but I think it'll all be good.

This will probably be the last visit til spring, so I figured it would be good to stock up. Plus, they had all the festive wines, which sounded amazing. Who doesn't love hot mulled wine? (It's me, yet I bought some anyway in the hopes that I won't hate it.)

The real question will be what we open first. I definitely want to try the eggnog. I love me a boozy eggnog, and it's hard to find the right mix.

Tomorrow, we have less planned. I'm supposed to meet with a friend for breakfast, because I have gifts for her kids, and she's a quilter who made stockings for my sister, and the animals. I'm treating, because I know she won't let me pay for the stockings.

After that, I may stop at IKEA and get a bottle of their sparkling pear juice for Christmas dinner. My brother in law doesn't drink, so I want something that he can have on the table as well.

I decided that we're going to open up the table and actually serve the food on serving platters, so that it looks pretty and festive. Of course my tablecloth won't be here til 12/27, fuckers. Maybe I can grab something at IKEA as well.

As of this morning, DHL says they'll be delivering my sister's earrings on 12/24. That would be fucking awesome, and I really hope it works out.

The fudge I ordered for my BIL is supposed to come on 12/23, which is awesome. He loves peanut butter fudge, and this place has bar none the best fudge I've ever had.

Okay, time to go forth and get my ass in gear. Everyone have a stellar Saturday!

I don't work for free, if you want help then you know the fee

It's finally Friday! One more day of work, and then a whole weekend to relax and do errands, of which I have two. First, most important, I'm going to drive up to Mt Hope Estate and pick up an order of booze. We had finished off all the wine and spirits we'd brought home with us in October, so now we go back and get more. Mostly, I'm getting some wine, but there's a few spirits in there, like Eggnog and some bourbon whiskey.

I'm not really much of a drinker, mostly because I don't like most booze. I'm just as happy with a Shirley Temple as anything alcoholic. But we did the whiskey advent calendar, and that's been fun, and my sister got a wine advent calendar, which is less good. I'm not a fan of dry wines. I like sweet flavors. Which is something that Mt Hope has aplenty. From Niagra to Pink Catawba, they're sweet and go down easy. I'm never going to be a huge drinker, mind you. But I may drink more than previously, now that I've found good stuff. The whiskey advent calendar is miniature bottles, and we split them three ways, so we're having maybe 2/3 of a shot, if that. And the wine, normally I just take a little sip and go "ick," and move on.

The only sad thing is that they didn't have the coconut rum cream in. That was amazing last time. But I got mocha rum cream instead.

Yesterday was a little busy at work, but not horrible. I did a lot of calling out, trying to fill in some slots, and so my total only came to 36. But I got those slots filled. They did not go to waste. I had made some brisket for dinner, which was very good. Kinder's hickory brown sugar rub has a really good flavor.

Tonight, we might have Sam's Club's lobster mac and cheese for dinner. We'll see.

The prime rib came and it's fucking enormous. It's four bones, and about 8lbs. It's a cradled rack, which means that they slice the bones off, get rid of some of the midline fat, and tie them back on. It means that this prime rib is mostly meat, and apparently doesn't change the taste much. I'm figuring the bones weigh about pound of it, so that's still 7lbs of meat. I can't wait to cook it on Thursday.

Saturday, I need to prep it, wrapping it in cheesecloth to take some of the water out, so the sweet fat is not diluted when it's cooked. Then, on Thursday morning, I'm going to take it out and coat it in beef tallow, salt and pepper, and put it in a low oven to roast for a lot of hours. Then it shall rest for a while, while I make my Yorkshire pudding and throw it in the oven right before dinner. I can't wait to try it. I'm using Alton Brown's recipe, and usually his stuff is good.

Watch on YouTube

It certainly looks tasty.

Tonight, we have a one shot game, which should be fun. Other than that, no games at all this weekend. December is a tough month to schedule.

I got the notification that my sister's present shipped today. I still don't think it'll be here in time, but hope springs eternal. It's coming from China, though, so I doubt it. We'll see. They turned out very pretty.

And on that note, time for me to get ready for work. One more early day to go, and then next week it's semi normal schedule, though we're closing at 2pm on Christmas Eve and then we're closed on Christmas, so y'know, yay, three and a half day week! Everyone have an awesome Friday!!

I'm gonna lace up my boots, throw on some leather and cruise down the street that I love

It's Thursday! Two more days of work until the weekend! I'm very excited because one day we're going up to Mt Hope and getting some wine and liquor, and as of now, they actually have Eggnog in! It was a birthday miracle! I spent way too much money doing a pickup order, and we'll run up this weekend and pick it up.

I had a lovely birthday yesterday. Worked for 6 hours, and they put out a happy birthday message into email, so I had the whole team wishing me a happy birthday. It was really sweet. Then, I got off at two and grabbed a nice shower and relaxed for a few. Then, we headed over to the Kent House, and had dinner. They opened at 4, but when we got there they let us know that the cook didn't come in til five. After some faffing around, we decided to stay and relax and sit by the roaring fireplace and wait. The 45 minutes until the cook arrived went quickly and the our waiter, Nate was a total sweetheart. And soon, we had freshly fried fries with homemade curry sauce to ~~nibble on~~ devour.

A little bit later the main courses rolled out, and I was not sorry we waited. The shepherd's pie was so good. I ate almost all of it and then was very full for several hours. Jess got the steak and stout handpie, and my sister got fish and chips. It was all excellent.

It was also a day of packages. I got a bunch of boxes. Jess' present arrived, which was awesome. IT's intact and very pretty. I like it a lot, and can't wait to give it to them. We also got some chocolate and fudge I bought from the Chocolate Moonshine Company. We'd gotten their chocolates at the Steel City Con and they were amazing. This time, I tried a bit of fudge. Holy crap that was good. Possibly my favorite fudge I've ever had. I got the twisted Eggnog, and It was amazing. After dinner, since I was too full to have a cupcake, I took a little bit of fudge and had that, singing happy birthday to me.

Then it was time for bed. I actually slept pretty well, though it took me a little bit longer to get to sleep. I think I need to take my pills earlier in the night so I get to sleep a bit before what I currently am.

I think I've gotten my menu together for our Christmas dinner. We're doing an enormous cradled rib roast with Yorkshire pudding, mashed potatoes and slightly spicy peas. Dessert will be Jelly turnovers filled with peach amaretto jam. The prime rib comes today, so I'll need to clear out the fridge to fit it.

Tomorrow, more things come! I think I have everything now. I got an ancillary present for Jess, as I realized that the thing I got them could be a problem. So I talked it over with Boodle and decided on a solution. I went ahead and gave Jess the Ancillary present, as it would make no sense and was too big to wrap anyway. They're curious as hell about this present that requires two ancillary presents. This ancillary present was a small side table. I'll have to work on building it this weekend, so it'll be ready for Christmas.

I've got a to-do list for the weekend. Pick up my order at Mt. Hope. I'd like to get to IKEA to get a non alcholic drink option for Christmas--I'm thinking the pear fizzy drink, and maybe do some cleaning.

Okay, time for me to start thinking about work. This starting early is helpful, but annoying. Everyone have a wonderful Friday Eve.

You will wear your independence like a crown

It's Wednesday! And that means, I am officially 53 years old. And to celebrate, I slept like shit again. *sigh* I'll survive, I get like this once in a while, where I'll have a few days where I don't sleep well. It's just annoying that it's happening on my birthday week.

I don't have any huge plans today. I've been going in half an hour early this week so I can leave at 2 today. Then, I'll relax for a bit. Then, once they've opened, we'll go to Kent House Irish Pub and get dinner. They have amazing shepherd's pie, and I've been craving it. Yoda will be fine by himself for the hour, hour and a half it'll take. Then, it's back to have cupcakes and presents and then bed. Not a fancy birthday, but it'll be good. Maybe in a year of two, I can go to Europe and do a Christmas Market cruise over my birthday. Until then, it'll be standard birthdays for me.

Yesterday by the time I got off work, I was dragging, so I decided that I wouldn't cook. Instead, I had a pre-birthday dinner from the Scihuan Bistro. My peking duck was very good, though the pancakes had dried out a bit post steaming and were crispy on the edges.

Jess' presents did not come yesterday, but supposedly today? We'll see. I can't wait to see them, see if they're as pretty as they were in the pictures. Then, I have to wrap it. Plus the ancillary box that goes with it. The tracking says that it's in Baltimore, so now it has to travel to the Towson post office and then eventually to me. I wasn't anxious about it until I got my jams and horseradish cream sauce, and one was broken. Now I'm terrified that Jess' present is going to be in pieces and I won't have time to get another.

I've also got an order from the Chocolate Moonshine Co coming today. They were a the con, and The chocolate we got was SO good. We shared it out, one piece at a time, each of us eating a third of a peice nightly. It was the post whiskey bite.

I had ordered my sister a 12 days of Christmas advent calendar of Irish Whiskey. She had ordered a 24 day wine advent calendar. The wines have been mediocre, but the whiskey has been pretty good.

We each get about a third of a shot. Or we did with the first calendar. We had so much fun trying out the 12 days of Christmas that I bought a second calendar, this one a variety pack. So far, we've had a couple of whiskey standouts. One is the 21 year old sample of "That Boutique-y Whiskey, Irish blend." The other was from the new calendar, a mexican whiskey called Abasolo. Both were very smooth and did not go down like rotgut. There was also one last night that was a double mellowed version of Jack Daniels called Gentleman Jim. It was pretty nice.

I feel like I've fallen so far. I went from not drinking and not doing weed to taking a nightly sleep aid weed pill, and having a mini shot of whiskey every night. (and a sip of wine, ugh.)

I blame Mount Hope Vineyard. We're going to try to get up there this weekend, since I'd like to get some delicious booze to have for Christmas. See if they have a nice sweet red to go with the prime rib.

Okay, time for me to go forth and get myself together, I supposed. Everyone have a super Wednesday!

I'm gonna marry the night. I won't give up on my life. I'm a warrior queen-live passionately tonight

It's Tuesday!! One more day to 53 for me. That sounds so weird. I am going to be fifty three in less than 24 hrs time. Go figure. I'm solidly GenX, so lets be real, we didn't expect to make it to adulthood. We figured on nuclear war long before then. So this is a little surreal.

It's not a bad thing, mind you. I'm not dreading getting older. I've earned every gray hair and creaky bone that I've got. It hasn't been an easy 53 years, but my scars tell a story, and I wear them all proudly, visible or not. And, all of that got me to where I am now, with a cozy appartment, and Jess,

I've said that this will be my year of yes. If something comes up and there's a chance of doing something fun, I'm going to say yes. Friend says "Want to go see the Lost Boys musical on Broadway?" Yes. "Want to take a cruise?" Yes. "Want to book another cruise after the one you just booked (even though you have no idea how much you'll like it)? Yes. Weekend trips? Yes.

Yesterday was busy at work, but not terrible. I took 55 calls, and squished in a bunch of patients. Today should be a little quieter, I hope. After that, we had perogies and bratwurst with some sour cream and sauerkraut. It was excellent.

Of course, in ordering the bratwurst from Aldi, I realized that there was yet another retailer who had the old address. So my lunch break was running over the house and getting the bag. Jess kindly went up the driveway to get the bag, which I appreciate, since it was a bit icy and I would not like to eat shit again.

I also stayed on this side of the street when we walked Yoda. I am not trying that parking lot at night again until we have a warm snap.

Today, I was thinking about making a nice batch of stroganoff. I pulled the brisket out. I could use half for that, and half to make a regular brisket with potatoes and maybe some carrots. It's pretty enormous, I could honestly probably do a third thing with it if I was so inclined. But first stroganoff. It's one of Jess' favorite things I make but lord is it heavy. Thus why I only do it during the winter. This is the recipe I use. It's really good and flavorful, though a little more work than just dumping cream of mushroom soup over things.

I still haven't decided on dinner tomorrow. Irish Pub for Shepherd's pie, or Sichuan? I did get my cupcakes. Turn out that the place we go to does indeed deliver to our house for an exorbitant fee. They had so many good flavors that I ended up getting almost a dozen cupcakes.

I have not yet had a whole one, but the bite I had of Jess' Sugar Cookie flavor was delicious. I may bave a pre-birthday cupcake today. I think the Gingerbread cupcake is calling me. I'm saving Snickerdoodle for my birthday.

Jess' present should come today, for which I am very impatiently waiting. I wasn't sure it would make it in time for Christmas, so I'm thrilled. Looking at the tracking, we'll see if it actually shows up today. It looks to me like it might be tomorrow. Which is fine. As long as I can do some wrapping on Saturday or Sunday, I'm good. The last of the presents should be here on Saturday, so that'll be nice. I do need to print some images. One of my sister's earrings and one of one of Jess' presents. They'll go in cards.

And Christmas is all set!

I'm actually looking forward to this Christmas. We're going to have fun things, and eat all the good stuff. I ordered a carving plate for my rib roast, and we're going to open the table up, so that it can accommodate all the food. I figure in honor of the holiday, I would actually serve things rather than just bringing out a plate of food. We'll carve the prime rib at the table. The mashed potatoes and peas will just have to be in small bowls, as we don't have a full service set. I did order a carving board and set so that I have something to do that on. This prime rib is gonna be lorge. Probably about 8 lbs with the bones.

And now, I shall get ready for work! Everyone have a excellent Tuesday!

So no one told you life was gonna be this way...

And we're back to Monday! Today I have to start work early, so that I can take off at 2 for my birthday on Wednesday. I wish I could afford to take the whole day off, but I need the PTO for Alaska.

Yesterday was a lovely day up til the end. We relaxed and took the dog out for a walk. And despite the people cleaning the sidewalks, he was very good. Then we had breakfast and watched Wake Up Dead Man. It was very entertaining, and I liked it, but it's probably third out of the Knives Out for me. It doesn't hurt that the first one was pandemic-beloved, and in the second, I really love Janelle Monae and Dave Bautista. I loved its themes about religion and the difference between Christ's teachings and the current, tainted version of Christianity. Josh O'Connor was great, and Daniel Craig was his usual self.

Then, we had dinner and took the dog out. That was my wrong turn. Since I broke my tailbone, I've been very careful about icy walkways. So I was walking the dog on the grass and fretting a little bit about not being able to see. Jess offered to take him across the street, and I agreed. Then, after they left, I felt a little silly. So I followed them. And promptly ate shit in the parking lot on an icy spot. I fell mostly on my ass, though my knee is a little pissed, so I must have landed there first. Today, I'm rather achy, but no permanent harm done, but goddamn, I felt stupid.

Today will undoubtedly be insane at work. I'm going to check with ALDI and see if they have some Bratwurst to have with our perogies. They have my favorite beer brats, but yesterday they were out of it. We'll see if it's back in stock today. That's a nice, easy dinner to make.

I still haven't decided what to have for my birthday dinner. I kind of want the Irish pub that we went to, and I kind of also want the really good Sichuan place near us. On one hand shepherd's pie. On the other, soup dumplings. Tough decision. Currently, I'm leaning towards Peking Duck and soup dumplings, but we'll see.

My sister took off all week, so that'll be fun. Hopefully, she'll keep her voice down while I'm on the phone. I want her to use her PTO, but she can be a lot. It means that this hour when I get up is going to be my only quiet until I go back to sleep, all week. I won't have an hour to sit with Jess at the end of the day. I will miss that. It'll be fine, but it won't be as chill as usual.

(I'm telling myself the week on the boat will be different, because there will be new things to see and do, and we won't all be up each other's asses the whole time--and if we are, that's a thing for future me to deal with.)

And on that note, time to start getting myself together for work. Everyone have a superb Monday!

'Cause in the end, you are part of who I am

It's a snowy Sunday and my asshole body decided that I should get up before 6 on my day off. So now I'm sitting in the living room with the tree on, watching the snow. I've always like the way snow deadens sound, so it's like a great hush falls o'er the land. We're only supposed to get a few inches, so this qualifies as a pretty snow, and one I don't need to go out in.

Yesterday was pretty good. Not long after I posted, I peeked on facebook, and a woman in one of my Holland America groups posted that she was able to book reservations for specialty dinners for her cruise in May. So of course I went and looked, and lo and behold, I found that ours were open too! I immediately made the two reservations I really wanted to get. Fortunately, both were available.

So on our Glacier Viewing day, we'll have the one I wanted most, dinner at the pop up Morimoto place. The menu looks amazing and I can't wait to try it. I've wanted to eat at Morimoto forever, so I'm very excited about it. That one I got for just 3 of us, since the BIL isn't a fan of Asian food. He's decided that'll be his night to go to the Casino while we eat.

The other one I grabbed was on the last night of the cruise. It's the Alaskan Seafood boil, which will include Dungeness crabs and shrim and maybe some other stuff in a white whine garlic sauce. I'm going to fuck it up. That's for all four of us.

It was a nice little hit of serotonin to start my day.

After that, I kinda chilled until we went to get our errands started at noon. First, a quick stop to pick up my meds, then off to pick out a wreath. The nursery we go to is very nice, with a decent selection. We found a very pretty wreath with striped red and white bow and small red baubles in it. It's very pretty and lovely without being too much. It fits the door well, though it was a real bitch to put up. We have a magnetic hook on our front door that has had no problem with any of our other wreaths. This one, not so much. It took two hooks to hold it. Which were fun to coordinate. But it's finally on our door and looking pretty. I will try to get a picture today to show you tomorrow.

Then, it was off to lunch. We went to Michael's Steak and Lobster house, which was as always, SO good. I ordered their Saturday special, which is a 16oz prime rib steak with a scoop of crabmeat and imperial sauce, then broil and make a moat around the steak for the au jus. It's one of my favorite things, though I never am able to eat it all at once. It's huge, plus you get two sides. It's a very old-fashioned restaurant, complete with 70's wood paneling and a bit painting of a Baltimore Clipper ship. It's 100% a throwback, and it's just comforting. Add to that the good food, and it's an easy place to go for a nice meal.

It's not too dressy, which was good. And with my steak having the au jus, that's a good thing, as I immediately dripped it on my shirt. (I am not a dainty woman).

Then it was home to relax and watch more of Hazbin Hotel. I finished the first season and am still loving the show. Can't wait to see what's going to come next. Next season will probably be in 2027, so that's a way off, so I'm not in a huge rush to watch all of Season 2.

I also ordered a little bit of booze, as we have none, and I'd like to be able to put some spiced rum in my cocoa today.

Then we walked the dog, then did our nightly Advent calendar booze. We skipped the wine calendar (which is fine, it has not been impressing). The whiskey calendar is much better. This is technically our second calendar, as the first, the Irish Whiskey calendar was only 12 days. It was so much fun that I bought a second, so we'll have it all through the Holiday season. We should be finishing right around Epiphany. They're just little miniature bottles, so it's like a mouthful per person--not a ton of booze.

Today, we're all going to snuggle up on the couches and watch Wake Up Dead Man. We may make it a Knives Out day and watch all three movies again, just for the hell of it. We'll see what time we get started. My sister ordered pop corn from the local Cinemark and we have cocoa mix and marshmallows. It should be fun.

Maybe I'll make some breakfast first. I could kind of go for a Dutch baby pancake. For now, it's time to plug my laptop in. We're down to 32%, so it definitely needs a charge. Everyone have a safe and warm Sunday!

It's nice to know as the torch is passed that you will keep it blazing brightly on

It's Saturday! Yesterday ended up being blugh, thanks to a little stomach bug/general gastric upset. I spent the day vaguely nauseaous and running to the bathroom frequently and generally feeling icky. I cancelled my game and went to bed early, and so far, I seem to feel better.

I don't know how many of our errands we'll get through today, but we'll see. I definitely need to go to the pharmacy. Could push the dispensary to tomorrow if need be. I'd really like to get the wreath. My sister got a cheap light up from somewhere as a placeholder, and I kind of hate it. It's just plain faux evergreen with lights strung on it. The lights won't stay lit, so it's mostly just a ring of evergreen. Not to my taste. Lunch is the most periled item on the list. It's going to depend on how my stomach does today.

Jess has started rewatching Hazbin Hotel on the TV, which means I'm watching Hazbin Hotel. I've really been enjoying it. It's been fun, and has good music. And I'm a sucker for redeeming the bad guys. It's on Amazon prime, has two seasons of very short animated shows. Seriously, they're probably 20 minutes? It's really good and worth a watch.

Keith David (who I've loved since the Disney's Gargoyles days plays a drunk cat like thing named Husk who I adore. He has big slash vibes with the four armed porn star named Angel Dust. I keep seeing things about "we must save Keith David from this horrible show" online. In the meantime, he looks gleeful in recording and has plushies of his character that he makes kiss. It also has Stephanie Beatriz! Patrick Stump in season 2!

Aside from that, we watched a couple of ship videos, though I've mostly run out of them. I can't waait to add my video of the Pinnacle Suite to the list. We're down to 145 days and I can't wait. I want to proceed directly to my vacations!

I'm a little bit worried that this vacation won't live up to expectations. I've planned every inch of this trip, from the beginning to to end, and I want it to be awesome for my people (and me). I want it to be fun and relaxing and perfect, which I know isn't rational. Nothing can be perfect. There's going to be people and crowds and we're probably not going to get to do everything that I'm thinking about, thanks to physical limitations. I probably cannot spend 8 hours in Juneau doing it all. But we'll see how much we can get done.

Paraphrasing from Alton Brown, it won't be the Ultimate, or the Best Ever trip, but it will be my trip, and that's what I need to focus on.

Yesterday, I paid off said trip! We are 100% paid off. I think the only thing we have left to pay is the car back to Seattle and the hotel in Seattle. Other than that, everything was prepaid. I know there will be a hold on the card for the cruise, in case we buy booze or something like that, but otherwise, we're good. Pastries on the balcony are go!

Jess' present has landed in the US from Kiev! It's in Minnesota, with a scheduled delivery date of 12/16. My sister's is definitely not coming before Christmas, so I'll get her a little something else, though I have no idea what. Time to do some trawling on Amazon to find something good.

Okay, time for me to go forth and wake up. Everyone have an awesome Saturday!

It begins with just one note, a crescendo til the end, no matter what it takes to stay afloat

It's (finally) Friday! Work hasn't been terrible this week, but it's definitely kept me busy. I don't know if my counterpart is off or if it's just been busy, but I've been getting a lot of emails with patients to call. I enjoy it, because it usually means I have a solution for their problem. Unfortunately, it's not always an optimal solution, so sometimes they aren't thrilled, but most will take it. Sometimes they don't accept, and that's frustrating. Especially the ones who initally say they'll go anywhere. Then you get them an appt at a site 20 min out of their way, and they say no. That just annoys me. We worked to get you a spot, and you don't value your health enough to use an extra hour of your day to go to it? These are all STAT orders!

I did ask my boss if I could come in 30 min early on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, so that I can leave 2 hours early on my birthday. This will allow me to go procure my cupcakes without dealing with dark and traffic. It's not that my sister wouldn't go for me, it's just that I like to go to choose my flavors. I'll probably end up defaulting to a snickerdoodle cupcake, but you never know. There might be something fun.

I've ordered the rib roast for Christmas. It's going to come next Thursday, which will give me a week to let it dry a bit, per Alton Brown. I'm going to try his recipe to see how it turns out. It looked pretty good on his TikTok. Add to that some nice garlic mashed potatoes and a Yorkshire pudding, and some other vegetable and we'll be good. I do need to get the kind of meat thermometer that you leave in the meat while it cooks, just for temperature control. And a turkey baster, which is apparently excellent for the Yorkshire pudding, since you need to retrieve a bit of pan drippings to add to the batter. Otherwise, it's basically a Dutch Baby without the egg, which I know how to make.

Today, we have work, then we shall go forth and have D&D. I'm up super early, so that's going to be a struggle, but I will manage.

For December, we've been opening Advent calendars. The Hallmark Wine advent has been pretty lackluster, but Master of Malt's Irish Whiskey advent calendar has been great. It's not full sized bottles, mind you. The wine is about two servings, split to three, and the whiskey is basically a shot, split to three little tastings. Sadly the Whiskey was only the 12 days of Christmas (we started early), so we've finished that last night. However, I ordered another type. 24 days of glorious booze. As my sister said, it's good that we don't have doctors appts soon for the "How oftern do you drink?" "Nightly!" Yesterday, we also opened the Pink Catawba wine from Mt. Hope Winery. I really have disliked the last two nights of Hallmark, so I needed a palate cleanser. That is wine I can get behind. Sweet and crisp and wonderful. The Catawba may be my favorite of their wines, and possibly my favorite white in general. No more whiskey til Tuesday, though. *sad face*

Tomorrow, I think we're going to go get my prescription, then get our wreath, then lunch. It's not supposed to snow until late, so that's good.

Maybe we'll drive up to Mt Hope next weekend, when I'm not still recovering from a Con. Get some Catawba, Niagra and some spirits. Their liquor is awesome, especially the coconut rum cream. SO freaking good! I would pour myself a shotglass and sip it during game.

Sunday, I have nothing planned. Just a quiet day. And I'm looking forward to that. Last weekend was awesome. I had so much fun at the con, it was great, but it was busy, so no real day of rest. Friday, we drove up. Saturday, we were at the Con, which was very physically demanding, and then Sunday, some con time, then driving home. The drive was about 4 hours each way. At least the drive home was in daylight. That made it a bit easier. Driving up, we hit twilight about 1.5 hours out, and I hated that. Especially since we kept seeing deer by the road. I was worried as hell about hitting one. But things went smoothly, so that was good.

We're at 146 days til the cruise and I'm starting to get excited again now that it's under 150 days. Everyone has their passports and the BIL's suitcase is arriving today, which is the last one to arrive. Camera is ready and we have extra batteries and SD cards. I need to order more socks, but I think I'm okay otherwise on clothes. We've got a ton of outlets, so that'll be fine.

I was thinking about the Neptune lounge and how we have a concierge for the Neptune and Pinnacle suites. I think I'll put in a standing order for a pot of coffee and some pastries every morning. And our free mimosa. Can't forget that. And then afternoon tea, of course. We'll want that.

Our suite has free bottled water and sodas as well as a coffee machine, but a pot would be easier. Plus, then I can get milk and sugar. We've got a dining room that seats 6, plus a balcony with four seats and a hot tub. I plan to take my coffee and pastry out there most mornings and watch the scenery go by. I'm already planning how spoiled I'll be when we get back, but it's all good.

First, we have a Philly weekend trip, though. We're going to go to the Zoo, and then come back at night for their holiday lights. We're meeting up with friends at some point, but I don't know when, judging from games. Maybe Friday night or Saturday after the Zoo.

Then, we have a little break, until April, which is a NYC trip to see the Lost Boys Musical with a friend. Then, the big one in May, and possibly a con later that month.

Okay, time to go forth and get myself together. Everyone have a stellar Friday!

It starts with just one note. A crescendo to the end, no matter what it takes to stay afloat.

It's Thursday, or as I like to think of it, Friday Eve. I'm a little sore today, but overall okay. BIL brought Greek Cookies (Koulourakia), so I had a couple of them with my coffee. They were excellent.

My subject line is brought to you by the show Hazbin Hotel. Jess loves it and I've absorbed a lot by osmosis. There's a few banger songs, including the finale song, Hear my Hope. Fair warning, it gives some plotlines away, and is WAY too catchy. It will earworm you. And yes, that is Patrick Stump in the middle bit.

Watch on YouTube

We were discussing it, and I think we're going to skip the Yultide Faire this weekend. I'm still a little wiped out from the Con, and I think I need this weekend to take it a little easy. I was mostly going up to Mt. Hope to get booze, so I'm going to do that another day.

This weekend, we will do our errands. Gotta get our holiday wreath, and get some prescriptions and maybe a nice lunch. And not drive 90minutes or spend the day walking miles on end. This may change, but I think we'll stick with the new plan.

Next week, I turn 53, which is mind boggling. I'm Gen X--we expected nuclear war in the 80's. Making it to 50 was kind of surreal, much less beyond. I am hoarding my PTO, so I'm going to work. Though I might ask my manager if I could work a couple of extra hours the rest of the week, so I could take an hour or two off on my birthday to go get cupcakes. The place I like for cupcakes is a little too far away for doordash, and I don't really feel like driving in the dark and fighting traffic to get there. If not, I may just get second choice cupcakes. Which will still be delicious, but I'm picky.

I ordered our rib roast for our Christmas dinner. It'll come on the 18th, which should work out just fine. I ordered from our butcher, so I'm sure it'll be amazing. I'm thinking that I may make some Yorkshire pudding to go with it. Alton Brown had a great recipe that I may use. I probably will sear it in a pan first instead of reverse searing. That leads to the oven smoking, which with our touchy smoke detector could be bad. I do not want to spend my Christmas day waving a towel beneath the smoke detector to settle it down.

There's a couple of things I need to get before then, though. Beef tallow is a new ingredient to me. But that looked really good, so we'll try it out.

Most of my Christmas presents have arrived, though the two big ones are still AWOL. My sister's earrings probably aren't coming, but I'm still hoping for Jess present. It shipped last week. From Kiev, Ukraine, but it shipped.

And now I shall get a big of work on D&D done. Everyone have an amazing Thursday.

Raise your voice, light the fire 'til our hopes and fears reach a billion ears

It's hump day! We're almost halfway through the week! Hopefully, today will be a little bit quieter at work. We were very busy yesterday, and they kept me jumping. My new title is "Schedule Jenga Master." Sometimes, we get cancellations on a schedule, but they're not consecutive. But a lot of the STAT orders we have are for longer MRIs. So when that's the case, I go in and figure out which patients I need to move to open up more time. And then I look at the schedule and see where I can move them to. It can either be "Can you come in half an hour early, or "hey I see your scheduled and we have an appointment sooner/closer to your home, and we thought of you. I've gotten very good at making it seem like we're doing the patient a favor, when really I'm just opening up this slot for other people.

I've been given access to the STAT list, so I can see who I can get in, when I have an open slot. So that's fun. I know Josh and Amanda are still working on getting some sort of promotion for me, so I don't feel like they're exploiting me. It's just another brick in building a case for our big boss. They've been very conspicuous about telling said boss when I help out. They're included on just about every email that they send to me.

Tattoo has reached the slight scabby phase. When I put my lotion on, I can feel the bumps under my hand. It's still looking good, so it doesn't look like my skin rejected too much of the brown, which Ronie said can be a problem. Brown sometimes doesn't like to stick. Soon it will be in the itchy phase. Looking forward to that.

About 4 weeks ago, I had commissioned a necklace to go with my ring for the vow renewal ceremony, and it is finally winging it's way to me. DHL says it'll come today, but I'm really not expecting it til tomorrow. It turned out really well.

It's exactly what I wanted- 1/4 of a tennis necklace. I'm hoping my sister's earrings are done soon. I'm not thinking they're going to come before Christmas, but we'll see!

I wish there was a 24 hour stimulant. The Azstarys works so fucking well during the day. I'm calm, the world doesn't feel like sandpaper against my nerves. It's like being a functional human. But then around 7pm, it cuts out and I get anxious again. It's annoying as fuck, since I *know* there's a remedy. But doctors are very touchy about stimulants, so I doubt I could get a Ritalin chaser.

Yet again, I was annoyed with my family and doctors on behalf of baby-me. I struggled so much and have spent my entire life just as an anxious, strange and angry child, and all it fucking took was a stimulant and I'd have felt normal. ADHD is so badly underdiagnosed in girls, and it sucks.

And now, I shall go forth and get myself together. The Azstarys is kicking in and I'm ready to get my ass in gear. Everyone have a superb Wednesday!

Even one soft sound can shake the hardest ground.

First up, hey congrats, you survived Monday!

My monday was considerably more boring than the weekend. I pretty much only did work. Which was fine, busy, but not unpleasantly slow. I spent a good chunk of the day grabbing open slots and finding candidates for them. It's been a challenge, with lots of MRIs and no slots. I got two diagnostic mammos plus a kiddo in yesterday, which was nice.

My order arruved yesterday. I liked Yoda's portrait so much that I had ordered one for Boodle. It turned out adorable.

I immediately put her up and now she and Yoda bookend the TV. I love them.

I have a mystery package coming from China. I'm thinking it's my necklace, but it's coming from a technology company, so I have no clue. That's supposed to be here tomorrow.

I looked at my usual apps and discovered that we are at 149 days until the cruise! I know that's still 5 months, but it's creeping up.

I'm continuing to do research on our hotels. Or post-research, since I booked them before I really did in depth research. I'm watching videos of them and seeing how people's stays went. I'm actually excited about staying at both of them, but especially the one before the cruise. I look at our excursions and I just cant believe that this trip is real. It seems like such a fairy tale cruise. First class flight from Baltimore to Seattle. Pickup from airport in a luxury SUV and tour Seattle for 4 hours. Then, a lovely drive to Vancouver, and to the five star (boggle) hotel for two nights. 5 star? I felt out of place in a 4 star, the one time we did it! I don't know what a 5 star is like! We have a lovely day of exploring Vancouver, then the next morning we hop on the ship.

I really hope I like cruising after all this build up. I'm looking forward to sitting back in the chair and just watching the scenery unfold.

It's early in the season for too much wildlife, so probably no bears, too far south for moose. Hopefully we'll find some whales and maybe some seals and definitely bald eagles.

I just want everything to run smoothly. I think I've accounted for all the probabilities. My sister's passport has been approved, and should be here soon. Jess and I are good. I think the BIL has his in processing. It's starting to feel like it might happen.

I hope that I and everyone have a good time. I want things that I schedule to be good for people. Normally that's just Jess that I worry about. But this is going to be two more people! If it's like Disney, that lasted until we walked through the gates of Epcot on the first day. After that, I let it go. But for pre-planning, I'm awesome. This trip is my special interest, and I will make sure that everyone enjoys it.

My only real concern is how the sofa bed will be for my sister and BIL. I just want that to be okay for them, and the rest is good. I just want things to be fun.

Okay, time to get myself together and maybe shower. We'll see. I hope everyone has an amazing Tuesday!