photo saturday: lines and shapes

Bah humbug, maybe?

I dunno. I actually don't give a shit about any of the December rigmarole right now. Nothing seems worth bothering with honestly. Not like "life", just like all the festive bullshit. Tomorrow I have to up to Ma's place to put up the Christmas tree. And I couldn't be any less enthused than I currently am.

Like, the enthusiasm gauge is legitimately on 0%... in fact it might actually be dipping below zero at certain points.

Urgh.

Anyway.

Last Saturday, aka the birthday party, was better than anticipated. I mean I knew it wasn't going to be horrendous, but I haven't seen the majority of the former Nut House in... two and a half years. So, weirdness was built in. I did realise while I was on my way there that I'd essentially armoured myself in DnD character jewellery. And dark purple nail polish.

Because sometimes you just have to strap on your mental armour through physical items.

But there's a reason why I enjoyed spending time with those people. And why we got along. And also why, in the case of someone I'd never actually met before that night, we pretty much clicked into a similar mode to how I relate to the rest of them... because she'd been part of the team and was clearly One Of Us.

I told a number of DnD stories to people who were at least polite enough to be vaguely interested, and breadmaking and whatnot... Apologies to anyone I bored the pants off, but really, who cares.

I'd told myself I was only going to stay for a couple of hours and then disappear... that didn't happen, obviously, it was basically midnight by the time I left and I think I was the last of the "former workmates" to leave. It did mean I got to have a nice conversation with the birthday boy out on the porch though, so that was good.

But I had a good time.

Wednesday I went into town for DnD for the first time in three weeks (as in I wasn't in for two... does that make sense?), and it wasn't bad... the adventure was a bit m'eh honestly, but it was decent enough.

It also seems from what I've been told second hand that Wednesday nights won't be happening in December because our DM is often... oh, so many things to say here, none of them complimentary. I'm sure he has reasons... but given that he hasn't bothered to tell me what they are, I will choose to be slightly annoyed by his choices.

Things will be decidedly different when we start the new campaign I'm running. As in, it will actually run on a weekly basis unless I'm somehow incapacitated.

Grrr.

Thursday was Haircut Day. All the usual usualness. A little more "silvery purple" with my hair, but otherwise, nothing dramatic.

For Friday's DnD game I made cheese and chive bread, which was really good. I used more bread than the first time, and I added the chives... although I still need to try a version where I put the cheese in before it proves and see what happens then. Next week I might try a cranberry bread again.

We're also playing on Sunday next week, which isn't a bad option, but it won't be as late a night as we have been doing.

As far as the game is concerned, it was a very chill shopping/exploration/social session. Which I love, obviously. There were a few nice moments too. I mean it makes sense, but this is a very different vibe from other groups... it's quite chill, partly from the DM I think, but also these are mostly quite chill, if very weird, characters.

Speaking of chill... that's probably the way to describe today. I mean it isn't, because I'm not particularly feeling it, but it's as good as anything.

We didn't buy a hell of a lot at the supermarket, because now that we're not in soup weather again, I have no idea how the fuck to actually shop anymore. I either buy way too much stuff which potentially goes to waste like last week, or too little which then runs out, which I think is basically this week's direction.

Then we came back here, faffed around a bit, did a short trip down the road to Haighs so Ma could get something Christmas related for... somebody. Then came back here, watched some stuff on the YouTubes and called it a day.

So, yeah.

That's about it.

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photo saturday: leafy cloud

Well, Summer arrived with something of a vengeance this week. Fortunately only for a day.

This also led to me cancelling any and everything for Wednesday and hibernating inside with the air-conditioner.

Thursday I had a board game night at a friend's place with associated randoms, which was fun.

Then last night I had my first DnD session in two weeks (since the last Friday night game), and we had a good time. I also terrorised a young cultist we captured, so that was enjoyable (you know, in the dark "make him rethink his life choices" way).

Although now I have to pick a bard subclass... and I honestly don't know what to pick. Partially that's because I don't think that the bardic subclasses are as narratively strong as those of other classes. But also because my character could honestly go in three different subclass directions. So that's going to be on my mind for the rest of the week.

I made plain bread for the game, and our hosts provided some cheese and some cold meats and we went through almost the whole thing. It was very good bread, if I do say so myself. And I do.

I had a phone call from my land agent yesterday, and she started talking and in the back of my mind I'm trying to work out where this story is going... and then suddenly it clicks that somehow, someone has mistaken weird creepy smoking old man from the other end of the balcony for me and made a complaint and she's trying to explain this to me. But of course. I'm me and not creepy smoking old man. So then we had that conversation and I was definitely "hey, here are the receipts, there's the truth, I already left a note during an inspection about this issue and you can take this conversation and shovel it".

But as is often the case, the whole "getting in trouble, even for something that definitely is not in any way me" thing meant that my body was full of endorphins and so trying to send them an email to confirm everything I'd said over the phone was a challenging exercise.

And then I went into the city for my chiro appointment.

Today... today was the centre of the nexus of the vortex of the whole entire universe. Today had so many things happening... not things I needed or wanted or was invited to go to... but honestly, everything just seemed to be scheduled for today.

For example, two of my friends are getting married, one of my old workmates is having a 60th birthday party (which I am going to tonight), there is a DnD epic happening, both the Etsy Christmas Market and the French Festival were on today... and as I discovered to my chagrin on the way to the supermarket this morning, the Norwood Christmas Pageant (also known as "Oh God, oh God, why are all the roads closed, you monsters") was ALSO today.

So fuck right off today.

I will say that even though I didn't know it was All The Roads Are Closed Day and I was shopping on my own today (Ma's Haircut Day), while getting to the supermarket took longer, it was remarkably low stress for some reason. Or I just managed to get lucky and found a break in the traffic (probably more so that instead of sitting there and trying to go right, I just went left and then did a U turn in a sidestreet). So yeah, there's that.

Then I came home, put stuff away, watched some YouTube, dicked around on the computer before Ma showed up.

We then went off to Unley for the Etsy Market. And, while it's great, it's also a lot of similar things (artwork, greeting cards, earrings and necklaces), none of which we particularly need. I mean I did get a card for the birthday party tonight, and Ma got one present, but that was it really.

As far as the French Festival is concerned, we walked through it on the way to and from the Etsy Market, but that was really about it.

Then we came back here and went over to Burnside Village for some lunch. And then called it today.

And that's about it... except I need to go out again tonight. So *shrugs*.

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photo saturday: nothing much

You know when people say "bit of a quiet week" or "nothing really happened"?

Yeah, quite literally nothing happened this week. I didn't leave the house at all between last Sunday afternoon and this morning. I spoke to one person. I had no DnD games.

I mean I made experimental sultana bread on Monday, made a giant quiche on Tuesday, but yeah, this week was a write off.

So... moving on.

Today was slightly more interesting.

We did the usual supermarket thing... I have no idea what I'm eating this week, but I got enough supplies that I should be able to make things up as I go. Especially given that it's supposed to be 40°C on Wednesday... urgh.

Afterwards we footled around here for a bit, then decided to head down to Marion... because it's November and really, we don't want to be going anywhere near Marion any later than this... in fact even this week was a little too close to Christmas honestly.

We didn't really get much of anything... but it filled in the day and we had a good long walk, so it's not the worst thing we've ever done.

Honestly, that's really it.

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photo saturday: ocean whites

A weird week... not excessively so, but still weird.

The stew I made worked out very well. Perhaps a little too thin to properly be stew... but at the same time too thick to properly be soup. It was nice though.

Otherwise I don't really remember anything before Wednesday. Probably because nothing interesting happened, and all the interesting things happened from Wednesday on. Funny how that works.

Wednesday was DnD day... only the day game didn't happen. Well, the game I expected to happen. And I'll be honest, I'm pretty much equal parts annoyed that it didn't happen and ambivalent about the future of it in general.

On the plus side, my friend Fluffy was in to run a game, so I got to be at his table, which is always good, however it ended up being a 7 person table, which I hate... and I wasn't particularly bothered about some of the players. But we only played for a couple of hours because Fluffy had another appointment, and so I just legged it after that.

Wednesday night's game was... *smiling face with open mouth and cold sweat emoji*.

Actually it was probably one of the more amazing games we've played. But very intense. Secrets were revealed (mostly not mine this time around, so that's a relief), a character from outside of this campaign (one of mine) showed up to assist with one of the other character's backstories. And it wasn't even my doing.

I'll sum it up mostly like this... we played for about four hours, didn't roll a single dice of damage, and the only skill checks we made were against each other. And the following morning I wrote seven pages of notes (usually I might make a page or page and a half of notes at the table... the previous record was about four pages after we went backwards through time).

I'm kind of even sadder that we won't be playing again until December at the earliest, because there is so much additional stuff to discuss and do after the last game. We're also very, very, very close to the end. And I don't want it to be over. I don't want to put these relationships away, never to be seen again, even though it's only been a very inconsistent 18 months (I think) of game time. We are going to have to have a "epilogue" episode I think, even though we won't be level 20 when we stop... but the characters need the ability to live on anyway.

And as excited as I am about being the DM for the next campaign, it will be a shame to not have the in-game relationships this time around. It will also be interesting to see what the group does without me as a... directional force? Basically me and my big mouth on the player side is what I'm trying to say.

Thursday night I went to play a game of Thornwatch at one of the Wednesday night DnD player's house. I bought the game through Kickstarter, but I'd never played it before this week. And while it wasn't perhaps the group I would have chosen, it also wasn't my party... and nobody was awful, they were just... prototypical straight white male board game nerds. Lets just say that there was perhaps a lack of subtly in their characterisations.

I very much enjoyed the game though... and I think I chose the right character archetype, I feel like it was one the other players might not have been great at. But that's just me being a little biased I guess.

And we're doing it again in a couple of weeks. Like I said, nobody was awful and I did have a good time.

When I got home from that I made the bread for Friday night and set it aside to prove. I attempted "chocolate bread" based on a recipe I found.

A recipe that didn't involve sugar, but did involve both cocoa powder and chocolate chips. I'll be honest with you, clearly I didn't add in enough chocolate chips, because they fucking evaporated. And while the bread looked like chocolate cake and smelled of cocoa (especially fresh out of the oven), it tasted like... well... bread. Good bread. But not bread that matched the packaging.

I need to try that again, with possibly more chocolate chips but also with some actual sugar.

Next time we play I'm just going to make regular bread though.

The Friday night game technically became a Saturday morning game, since we played through until about 12:30. It was fun though... we did come up with a party name, which is slightly silly, but seems appropriate, The Locksmiths. Not that any of us are rogues nor locksmiths. But we do have a thing about doors (our first party "murder" was committed using a door).

But we're still in the same "starter" dungeon... we had a long nap and continued on... we're nearly done thankfully, and I'm interested to see what happens next, especially since we've earned a few favours from people we've found down there.

Sadly also no game next week. So next week could very possibly result in no games at all, we'll have to see what happens.

Today was... well, it was the Christmas Pageant, which pretty much means fuck all to us at this stage, but does usually signify the point that Christmas present shopping does at least need to be considered.

But firstly the supermarket. It was supermarketry. I'm planning on making quiche this week, for the first half at least.

Otherwise we seemed to buy an awful lot of nothing much.

Afterwards we came back here as usual... and ended up (eventually) putting the Christmas Pageant on (without sound of course, because we're not stupid)... and, quick sidebar, it just looked sad. They seem to no longer shoot it/end it on North Terrace and the new end just looked really sad on teevee... not enough people by half and a much less pretty part of the city. Possibly they can't do it in the old place any more because of the tram line... which is just sad really.

Anyway, that kind of triggered off the "Christmas present shopping" hormone for reasons unknown, so we did the Big W, Target, Kmart, Officeworks circuit. And actually found things for other people (mostly). So not the worst first excursion.

I also found the appropriate shoes that I tried to find last week.

And that was about it really... we did run around for much longer than we have been in previous weeks, but we also got actual things done.

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photo saturday: feathers and faces

The phrase "from the sublime to the ridiculous" doesn't even come close to describing the weather this week... mostly because none of it was sublime and all of it was ridiculous.

It's only just November... why are we already having essentially Summer weather... pffft. Not a fan.

Anyway...

It was weird actually cooking meals on the day I intended to eat them. Not bad you understand, just weird.

DnD was back to normal this week... and by normal, I mean, whatever normal boils down to in this particular scenario. Or just two Wednesday games and a Friday game.

The Wednesday day game was... I wanted to say m'eh but that's not fair, it was interesting. Not the most interesting ever, but interesting enough I guess.

Wednesday night's game was... what's the name of that thing where everything is bad and a disaster and awful but you're still loving it? A clusterfuck? Yeah, possibly it was a clusterfuck in the best possible way. I died. Correction... my character died. For probably about 30 seconds in universe time (maybe 15 minutes real time), but still 100% totally, stone cold, nobody home dead.

I mean I knew I was fine... we had a cleric with us, so everything was going to be okay eventually, even if something weird had happened in the moment.

Also we had some in-party betrayal... and it wasn't me for a change. But we are totally going to dig into that next week (or, if the worst happens, at the beginning of December... I'll make all the notes I need to). I have thoughts and plans and ideas about the why and the how. I may be off base, but I think I know what is going on... or at least have a way to fix it. But we are getting IN TO IT! Even if I have to nail all the other players to their chairs in order to do so.

Extreme? Certainly. Necessary? Possibly.

Friday's game was what Wednesday's day game tried to be and failed at. An interesting dungeon crawl with opportunity for great character moments, without feeling like we were all going to die horribly at every turn or new door.

Plus, bathhouse trip (and only our second episode), so, you know, fun.

I also made bread with dried apple in it... which was a big hit, although honestly, it wasn't my best work and I put either way too much apple, not enough water or both in it. But people liked it, so I'm not gunna complain.

We did run until about midnight (yay for Friday night games where people don't flake out), and given that the weather had radically changed from warm and humid to cool and rainy, when Badger and I left there was some mist on the roads. And for the day after Halloween and it being midnight was definitely a creepy moment. Fun creepy, but still creepy.

It also meant I didn't get home until almost 1am.

Not that it really messed up this morning, although I did have one of those "hey, where's that thing?" moments where I had to try and find a thing, knowing it had been in a particular place at one point, but not having any clue where it was now. I love those moments. Especially when there aren't really that many places things could logically be. I found it, although not anywhere I expected it.

Given that this week is back to cooler weather, I'm making stew. Stew is always good. Very much making it up as I go though.

Otherwise the supermarket was as expected... I was a little annoyed though that the check out girl put the meat we bought in in a way that meant that blood leaked out into the bottom of one of Ma's shopping bags, all over the shopping in the bottom of that bag. So yeah, that took a while to get put right.

We headed into the city again because... m'eh, what else are we gunna do. But our visit just so happened to coincide with the last of the rain for the day. And guess what I discovered... you'll never guess. I discovered that my shoes had basically fallen apart... but in a way that wasn't evident until my right shoe started taking on water like the Titanic. Less fun really.

And the ones that look like those shoes in Target are now either just made narrower... or else I needed an 11 and they only had 10s and 12s. I did find some cool looking grey shoes... they could be faux suede, they could be basically rubber... but I like them. They do have laces... and since I've been the king of slip on shoes for entirely too long now, that's going to take five minutes of adjustment.

We also found Ma a cheap ass fascinator for her work Nationwide Horse Racing Bullshit thing next week... maybe next week, I honestly don't know... I haven't cared about that in several years now, so I couldn't tell you when it's on with any degree of certainty.

And that was it really. So very exciting.

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