photo saturday: stone and nature

So, this week included the Freeing of the Finger (more on that later), the usual DnD shenanigans and... not much else.

Oh, I did make a really good bolognese sauce though... one I made up out of my head, and then let simmer for about... I dunno, four hours I think.

Lets start with the Freeing of the Finger. The bandaid lasted until Tuesday night. I mean it would actually have lasted the whole week probably, but I was enthusiastic to be totally fucking rid of it, so it lasted from Friday morning to Tuesday night.

And my finger was all kinds of weird and funky under there... mostly because it's been trapped inside a, most frequently, sealed dressing for a little over a month, with only five brief excursions into the world when the dressing was getting changed.

But a bit of a wash, a pair of nail clippers and some dry skin moisturiser later and it wasn't doing too bad. It is still a little weird though. Clearly being trapped under a dressing for that long has done a number on the top knuckle of my finger, and it kind of looks like I've had it soaking in water for a little too long. That'll sort itself out eventually.

As for the cut... it's a little like if you've ever burned yourself on an oven tray... it's almost like a little blister, which I'm guessing is how my finger is protecting the stop until the flesh completely grows over it. I mean it's already filled in a lot more of the edges compared with my memory of the piece that I cut off/my previous brief looks at the wound.

It's also very strange that that "blister" can't really feel anything, unless of course I happen to accidentally slam it into something... then I feel all the feelings. But it's only been four days since I took the bandage off, so we'll see what develops.

The DnD games went off as usual... although there were a lot less people around the place on Monday, which was good, it meant that I could actually hear all of my players.

Wednesday slightly derailed at one point... actually a few points... but it was a good session.

Thursday was still the smaller group, which I like. And we had a few significant moments... and picked up yet another NPC (at this point we usually have more damn NPCs with the group than players). And the nice thing about driving your DM home is you get to have private conversations with some of the NPCs.

Otherwise, a quiet week (and it was nice not having to get up first thing in order to go to a doctor's appointment in town).

Today was another day when I did get up nice and early, have my shower and then tidy the apartment up. Then it was off to the supermarket for supermarket things.

Not much to report there either to be honest.

Then after the ritual unpacking, we headed into the city to check out the Australian Geographic Nature Photographer of the Year.

I will say that I was pleasantly surprised at how many of the entries I really, really liked. So much so that when it came time to pick a favourite for the People's Choice thing, it took me a hot minute.

I ended up going with Broken Dreams by Ben Goode (top left), which Ma, predictably, went with Enchanted by Matty Smith (top right).

Although I very nearly went with Beetle’s Big Dinner by Yicai Chang (middle left(... which doesn't look like much in small scale, but was so simple but so beautiful blow up full size on the museum wall.

It's sticking around until 18 November here, but it's also showing in Sydney until the end of January, and it's worth a look (even when I occasionally disagree with what the judges chose as category winners).

We didn't have anything else we wanted to do, so it was a brief wander in the Mall, a quick stop for a beverage and then we called it a day.

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photo saturday: fluffy, feathers and frilled

As much as I don't want to hurry along summer, I also wish that the weather would make it's little mind up a tiny wee bit.

When the start of the week is shorts and the airconditioner, and the end of week is rain and a jacket, you can see why.

Anyway...

No real DnD news this week... everything was business as usual for the most part, although we did have a really good session on Thursday, mostly because it was only three players and the DM. Otherwise it was me running on Monday, the usual Wednesday game and then the Game of Variable Player Numbers on Thursday.

The rest of the week was fairly quiet... all things considered.

Friday was both my appointment with my GP about my sliced finger as well as my chiro appointment... and of course I matched them up so they were basically back to back.

It was also my final GP appointment... the finger is healing up nicely, and we've gone from full finger dressing, to half finger dressing to fingertip dressing to basically a bandaid (it's one of those terracotta coloured cloth bandaids, but it's still basically a bandaid)... and a bandaid that I can take off or swap over whenever I'm ready. Which is excellent.

I might leave it on for most of the week, just to ensure that everything is as healed up as it can be before I go exposing it to the world... I mean it looks pretty damn good, by comparison, even to last week, but it still has a little way to go.

Otherwise my chiro appointment was fairly standard, nothing really to report there.

Today was not much of anything to be honest.

We did the shopping thing in the morning as usual, and I actually got up really damn early, showered, got dressed and then tidied up, washed some dishes, etc... stuff I could have done during the end of the week but that I just couldn't be fucked doing.

We'd planned on going to the movies this week... but because the movie choices currently on offer range from questionable to shithouse, there really hasn't be much we wanted to see... and it turned out that the only thing we actually wanted to go and see wasn't on anywhere at an appropriate time. Thanks for that universe.

So we didn't go to the movies.

Instead we decided to take a random trip into the city, with no actual attached plan. Which turned out to be a good plan because we went past the Oxfam second hand book place while they were having one of their book sales. One quick trip around the block and a super convenient parking place later and we were knee deep in discounted second hand books.

And for a change I actually managed to find a few that were worth considering.

Then it was up and down the mall, mostly avoiding or attempting to avoid the stupid fashion festival shit taking up space in the mall, but not really doing much of anything else. That was followed by lunch at Burger Theory and then we pretty much called it a day.

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photo saturday: dem faces

Okay, so my brain is basically a big ball of fluff right now... so we'll see how well this works out...

As mentioned last week, this week was the first Post Soup week... which was fine, although actually making food at appropriate food times is hard. As in harder than just going to the fridge, getting out the soup and warming it up.

DnD was about how I expected... Monday's game was the last of the Tier 2 Rage of Demons season adventures I've been running sequentially, so next up are some adventures set in the same location, then an adventure I'm really looking forward to, but one that might stretch the roleplay abilities of some of my players.

Wednesday was a LOT of DnD... like we did a couple of hours finishing up the final combat from last week after we didn't actually die, then started the first couple of hours of a new adventure, then played a couple of hours of a random encounter... ending up at around six and a half hours. Exhausting, but exciting.

Then Thursday was the reduced Thursday crew (which also meant that I needed to be group taxi), which is generally quieter and pleasant because we manage to get a lot of stuff done, but I also end up doing a lot of the talking... which is fine, but sometimes I wonder if I'm doing too much talking. I mean I give other people space to do their own thing, but, I tend to be the one doing most of the NPC interactions. Granted our DM is pretty good at making sure various characters have their moments, and I know to step back in those instances, but still.

Then I went into the city again on Friday to get my dressing changed again. And it's even smaller than it was last week. Plus we (well, mostly me, but at the doctor/nurse's instigation) pulled the scab off, very carefully, but I actually got to have a good look at the current top of my finger since I sliced it off. And it looks good, considering.

Granted it also looks a little like the wound has been sealed over with a thin layer of matt plastic and the actual flesh hasn't grown back in yet... but it does look better than the giant black scab. Or when it was fresh and bleeding profusely.

Anyway...

Today was pretty average.

We started with the supermarket thing... and I had to remember to actually think of meals in my head that I could make... always the less fun part of not soup season.

Afterwards we looked through the movie listings and found a big fat nothing. I mean not nothing nothing, but very nearly almost. I don't know what the hell is going on just of late, but it's been a while since there was something worth bothering with.

So instead we went down to Marion, not with any great plan in mind, more just a general wander.

And wander we did. Mostly looking at a combination of Halloween and Christmas decorations, because while I don't give a toss about Halloween as a holiday, I do dig the aesthetic of spooky decorations.

I also managed to find a functional and somewhat decent red bow to go on my door at Christmas.

But that was really it. We stopped off and got some "lunch"... I say lunch but it was only really something to drink and something quite light to eat.

Oh, and before I forget, I did speak with The Boy not this week but the week before and we sorted things out. I'm mostly chalking drama up to me getting in my own way/head, but also partially him, just not the him I was expecting or had assumed was the issue. So things are okay... they're never going to be what they were again, that was basically a very specific time window and that time is gone, but yeah, at least it got sorted.

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photo saturday: orphanage forking

So this week felt a little more... put together I guess, than last week.

We started off with what was definitely the last soup of the season, and very probably the last time I make that roasted tomato soup recipe... it's good, but it's just too rich.

Then DnD was fairly low-key over all, even though I could very easily have wiped out my whole party on Wednesday (and didn't by having one of the bad guys sit down on the unconscious body of one of the players while propping her feet on another body. They won out eventually though, but I did get to reduce the intelligence score of one of them to 0 for a brief period. Which was fun.

I also got to pay forward something another DM did to one of my characters by taking off his character's finger while he was flipping off the bad guy.

Also, the DM on Wednesday almost nearly wiped out the whole party when everybody but one person failed an important save at the end of the adventure. Fortunately we figured a way around it (with the use of a magic item), but it was touch and go for a hot second there.

Then Thursday we got back to our "regularly scheduled programming" and returned to our Underdark adventures. I always like those sessions becasue there is a LOT of roleplay... not just because of the nature of the story but very much about the way we play. And it's the first time we've all been back together where everything just worked properly. The DM and one of the players got into some deep roleplay, I managed to engage everyone else at various points, even if not for very long. And there wasn't a lot of fucking around, which I appreciate.

Otherwise I had my haircut on Thursday, which was pretty much the same as always, with the possible exception that we went a lot more silver with my hair... not perfectly or exactly the way that I thought it might look, but in the right neighbourhood.

Tink's older daughter was around, and I swear that she's currently 7 going on 13... or at least with the required amount of attitude for a 13 year old. Not that it overly bothered me, but I think Tink will be happy when school holidays are over.

Then Friday it was time to get the dressing on my finger changed again. I really cannot wait until I can type properly with all 10 fingers... this 9 finger typing is getting on my nerves.

But it was a quick in and out, the finger is looking much better, part of the "scab" already came off (although I have a strong suspicion that it was just scab that had formed over undamaged skin because of how the dressing was done), and they've downgraded the dressing again from the big plasticy kind to a small cloth dressing. Which is good and bad, because it's a little like I have a small pillow strapped to the end of my finger right now. And I have to be more careful about keeping it dry.

At least it's an improvement.

Afterwards I had a little wander around the city and ended up looking at various Christmas decorations... because, yes, we need to do the Christmas decoration thing in October... which was sarcasm by the way.

Today I was on my own for the supermarket portion of the day... which meant it was headphones on and speedy shopping... I'm also pretty sure I didn't buy enough stuff to actually makes meals for the whole week, but we'll see what happens, I may have to improvise.

I had enough time before Ma arrived to put everything away, do some washing up and catch up on some other bits and pieces I needed to do.

We had (unsurprisingly, given the photos in this post) plans to head out to the Fork on the Road in Unley later in the day, but that gave us a bunch of time this morning, so we headed into the city so Ma could go and ask at the Apple Store about an issue with her phone, and then I could show her a bunch of stuff I spotted when I was in town on Sunday.

The Apple Store visit was remarkably simple, and to be honest, I think their suggestion was the right one, Ma has been using the same charging cord since we got the phones and changing to a new one is probably going to fix the issue.

Then there was some general wandering looking at various Christmas departments (because, yes, I am part of the problem)... looking at some stuff, not really buying much of anything to be honest.

That was followed up with a quick visit to Dymocks, but then we headed off to Fork.

A very wise woman once said "timing is important"... and thus it was that while we could have tried to get a parking spot out on the street when we got to Orphanage Park in Millswood we tried our luck and managed to get a spot in the park with no trouble at all.

I will say that the Fork on the Road events aren't as exciting as they maybe used to be. Don't get me wrong, I still love that they happen and I love going when we do... but I just feel like they used to be... I dunno, more interesting. Or at least there was a wider range of stuff... I dunno.

But in this particular case the location was good, the range wasn't bad and the crowd wasn't bad.

We started off with a Boerewors Roll, a South African sausage in a bun basically. Not bad, but there's not many ways to screw up a sausage in a bun. Following that was Bubble Tea, because I always like Bubble Tea. I still wanted something a little savoury so ended up getting some samosas and naan from Beyond India, then finished it off with loukoumades from the Honey Puff Lad (which may have previously been the Honey Puff Ladies, I'm not entirely sure).

I'll be honest, I really should have gone with the smaller serve of loukoumades... too much of a good thing is still too much. I didn't even finish them all off while we were there, I brought some home with me.

So that was, as they say, that.

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photo saturday: art things

This week was busy in theory if not in actuality.

Also, before we dive into that, can I just mention that there's a difference between knowing why someone's doing something and judging them for the way they're doing it. Yes, I completely understand why you're doing this thing, it makes perfect sense that you would be doing this thing, you probably should be doing this thing. You're just being an asshole in the way you're going about it. Or rather you're being an asshole because you're just dumping all the other portions of your life onto the proverbial dump in order to do this other thing.

In case it's not clear, I still haven't been able to speak with The Boy... because he's, you guessed it, dumping all the other portions of his life in order to make room for the new girlfriend. And of course this means that all those times in a week where I may have been able to have a conversation with him no longer exists, although not always for that reason.

I'll be honest, I'm pissed at him, but the only saving grace is that he's probably not really aware he's doing it... or aware it'll have an affect on the people around him. Mostly me. But if he screws other things up as well I'm going to be more pissed.

In either scenario, there is a conversation happening, it's just a matter of when.

Okay, lets do this on a day by day basis...

Sunday

I made chicken soup... excellent chicken soup for someone who can't chop things as easily as before... and also, I'll admit, with a non-zero amount of trepidation about doing certain movements involving knives.

Maybe a little salty, but still excellent (and as I said on Instagram, that makes it much like myself).

Monday

Average for the most part, up to and including the DnD game. I did start trying to work out what to do with that table once we finish the current cycle of games, and I think I've bought myself another month's worth of games... the good thing potentially is that if I start them on a new cycle I can get them all to start brand new characters, but we'll see what happens.

Depending on how many people are actually at the table this coming Monday, I may run the game on Super Hardcore Mode and see how they go... they do feel like a party that can handle it, especially now that they have an actual cleric.

Tuesday

I was supposed to be running another DnD game... one for the female friendly group... but nobody actually bothered to show up besides myself and the other DM, so we had a chat for a couple of hours and then called it a day.

Wednesday

This wasn't perhaps the most intense DnD game we've had with those characters, but it was a very full table. I also really enjoy playing with people whose characters my character doesn't like. Usually it's better when I like that person, but sometimes when they are someone I like but currently are mildly annoying it's equally as good.

And we did have someone playing who doesn't normally play, but who I quite enjoy playing with.

Thursday

We can file this under me being generally annoyed. It started on Wednesday with the DM for our regular Thursday game not wanting to run this week... fair enough, but also, fuck you for telling us on Wednesday. I also happened to be playing with someone who could fill in as our DM on Wednesday and asked him to talk to the group and then somebody let me know what was going on.

And that was basically the holding pattern I was left in until roughly 5pm Thursday afternoon. So much so that I was very tempted to tell them all to go fuck themselves and go play with randos at the game store.

I mean partially I was waiting to see how long it would take them to work out that nobody had communicated with the non-Facebook-using member of the group, and partially I was being a passive aggressive bitch for roughly the same reasons.

But in the end I messaged the guy who is usually my ride on Thursdays and it all got sorted. And I'm glad I went, we played our "usual" Thursday characters (or at least the characters that know each other best and for the longest time). And we played in a different person's house, and he has little fluffy dogs who are the best. Especially the newest one, who is sooooo tiny and fluffy and who I spent 90% of the time we were there cradling in one hand.

To quote Agnes from Despicable Me, "It's so fluffy, I'm gunna die".

Friday

Another day of going into the city first thing in the morning, relatively speaking (early as in as early as I went into town Tuesday and Wednesday) to my doctor's appointment.

And now I know exactly what my finger looks like under the bandages. Basically the end is one big, gross, almost black scab. Also hopefully somewhere underneath all that my finger is regenerating itself. But the doctor and the nurse both seem to be happy with it, so that's great. And bits of it are randomly itching, which I'm sure is also great.

I'm still not sure how many weeks I'll need to me making a weekly run to the GP though. I'd like to be able to sync the appointment up with some other time I'm in town, but that doesn't seem likely just yet.

Mostly I just want to be able to type properly and bend my finger in all the places it's supposed to bend, which is not something that is happening right now.

Today

Also known as Saturday.

We did the supermarket thing... I'm pointing myself in the general direction of tomato soup this week, so we'll see how that goes.

Then afterwards we headed over to Burnside Village briefly to visit the popup Christmas shop that appeared earlier in the week. And supposedly was there this time last year, but clearly I never fucking saw the damn thing for the two and a half months it was there.

It's perhaps more catered to the Old Ladies of Burnside than my particular taste, with the general aesthetic running heavy on bows, flowers and things artfully applied with glitter, but the woman who runs it is very nice, I had a chat with her on either Tuesday or Wednesday when I discovered the place (Tuesday I think), and took Ma in there today for a look around if nothing else. And then Ma bought a couple of small bits and pieces.

From there we decided to hit IKEA. Because why not.

Mostly we just did the usual lap, I ran into someone I know slightly, we investigated various options for my DnD storage needs... and also maybe a new laptop desk, but that's less likely to be a thing. And I just generally enjoyed the various IKEA aesthetics that are totally my jam.

We did grab a few bits and pieces... nothing exciting, just useful stuff or stuff we've been meaning to pick up for a while.

We also got some food there and, for a change, I wasn't completely disappointed, which was nice.

Afterwards we swung past Haighs, only to discover that they're making the factory store over (which is probably well overdue), but that means that half the store is closed off and everything is a bit cuckoobananapants as a result.

And that was that.

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photo saturday: hysterical historical

The last week has been entirely the wrong kind of eventful.

Let's start all the way back on last Saturday evening when I headed down the street to run a DnD game at the convention... which was fine, except that they weren't the players I would have chosen given any other choice. But, like I said, it was fine. And I hung around until nearly midnight when they finally threw us out of the place before wandering home.

The problems started on Sunday.

Because I was running another DnD game at the same time Sunday night, I moved some of the stuff I normally do on a Sunday forward, which meant that I started making soup at about 2pm. All good so far, right up until the point where I was cutting potato and my very new and very sharp knife made contact in a fairly significant way with the end of my left index finger. So significant in fact that it separated the flesh at the top of my finger from the rest of my finger.

Yeah, I sliced the top of my finger off.

Fortunately not the nail though, which is good. But I didn't even realise what I'd done originally, it just seemed quite bloody, and it really wasn't until I discovered the end of my finger (or, to use the new word I discovered later, the 'pulp') sitting quietly under the blade of my knife that I knew what I'd done.

I tried to get it to stop bleeding on it's own, but it wasn't having any of that, and around 3:30 Ma headed down this way to take me to the emergency room. At no point was a freaked out about any of it to be honest, it was more of a combination midway between fascinated and irritated that my plan for the rest of the evening was null and void. Much like the end of my finger.

 Fortunately the emergency room was fairly empty and after the nurse wrapped up my finger much more successfully than I'd done, it wasn't too long before I got ushered into a cubicle.

It was also slightly weird because it was the brand new hospital at the other end of North Terrace, so everything just felt nicer, or at least less shabby around the edges.

Short version is that I got a tetanus shot which genuinely hurt more than cutting off the end of my finger did, the nurse practitioner man cleaned up my finger a little and slapped a couple of fancy dressings around it, wrapped some tape on top, told me to go and see my GP in a week's time and called it a day.

There was a short period of time where I was convinced it was just going to keep bleeding, but I think it just didn't enjoy being jiggled around during the car ride home.

So now I have a finger that doesn't bend in the middle due to tape, a finger I can't type with due to the end being missing and several weeks of this shit to put up with. At least they tell me that the end of my finger will grow back.

Yeah... that's pretty much what I've been dealing with all week.

It's not hugely surprising how much more difficult just about everything becomes when you can't use or really bend your index finger. But I've managed.

After I got back from the hospital and Ma and I had pizza, I finished the soup. I had to, I mean I'd already chopped all the leeks and about half of the potatoes, so it seemed silly to not finish it. And it wasn't bad.

DnD wasn't bad this week... obviously I never made it to the game I was supposed to run on Sunday... Monday's game was about average (although, really I absolutely need to get better at running to time, I always assume we have enough time and then end up having to slightly rush the ending, which is less than ideal)... Wednesday's game was a bit of a hot mess, half due to the particular collection of players and half due to the adventure being a bit crap... and Thursday we used technology to beam one of our players in when he was sick and playing from home. It also wasn't a bad game, most of it ended up consisting of roleplay, but with that group that's never a bad thing (well, almost never).

On an unrelated note, remember The Boy... and remember how I said "because at a certain point he's going to go off and get involved with a woman, because that's definitely a thing that's going to happen"... well, it happened. And he's super excited about it and I have the occasional moment of wanting to claw my own eyes out.

I also don't want to be snippy or dismissive about it to him, and because it seems we can have any conversation, I had the "hey, all I want is for you to be happy, but if occasionally I'm a salty asshat, you already know why, just ignore me" conversation.

The problem I'm actually having though is a) probably all in my own head, b) largely temporal and c) entirely expected, something that has happened more than once and yet still irritating.

I feel like The Boy is distancing himself from me, or at the very least now that he has a person of the female persuasion to focus his attention on, I'm no longer useful as someone upon which to spend his time. I mean I get it, out of the possible options, of course the spare time he has he's going to focus that way, but it's also kind of a dick move when you've been using me as emotional support to suddenly just whip that particular rug out of the room.

And it's weird because just about every Tuesday night without fail he would message me just because he had time on his hands and clearly I was the place he'd chosen to spend that time. Except for this Tuesday. But I don't know if he's pissed off at me, or if he's just reallocated his time allowance or what, but it kinda stung. And of course it's so stupid, because those messages were usually a minor irritation... okay, you've messaged me around the same time every Tuesday, and most of those times I've told you that I'm doing the exact same thing, and yet you still seem to not remember?

I will clearly need to have a conversation with him about it this week... I did ask at the end of a different conversation we had this week, but he hasn't replied to the question, which isn't a unique thing, but right after I sent it he did accidentally call me and then immediately cancel it, so I have no idea what the fuck is going on.

I'm guessing option A, all in my head, is in effect (and yes, very probably, since he just texted me about something completely unrelated). But we'll be having that conversation. And if necessary I will remind him that he started all this shit with his drunken semi-confession.

Anyway...

Friday was supposed to be Chiro Day... but it also got turned into GP Day, and the chiro appointment got moved earlier in the day so I could do both of them back to back.

The doctor's appointment was fine... as I think I've said before, I'm quite fond of my GP, he's basically a sweet old duffer. And the process of getting the dressing on my finger changed was relatively painless, and gave me a chance to see the end of my finger or lack of same. And like the initial hospital visit, I was way more fascinated than I was grossed out by it.

And it only took around 20-25 minutes all up, so not awful. Which is good, because for a couple of weeks at least I'll be doing that once a week. Urgh.

The chiro appointment was all good, and like every conversation I've had with people over the last week, I had plenty of "I cut off the end of my finger" material to work with.

Today was... today.

We did the supermarket thing... I'm probably making regular chicken soup this week because fuck everything, I still have this dumb cold/flu thing.

Then we went into the city for some general wandering around. I picked up some cardstock for DnD related printing needs, Ma bought a present for someone, we stopped off at this place that makes Japanese baked cheese tarts, which I quite enjoyed... well, the filling anyway, less so the pastry.

And that was really about it.

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photo saturday: freeze frame

I made it all the way through Winter with only a brief hint of being sick... so of course, now that we're in the middle of September, this is when I get sick.

BLERK!

I mean, it could be worse, but I'm (unsurprisingly) fucking not enjoying it.

In other news, my soup this week was an odd combination between minestrone and chicken noodle... basically it was chicken noodle soup, but with tomatoes. And it was pretty damn good, partially I think because I put large cubes of chicken in rather than pulling it all apart. I also didn't go crazy on the noodles, which helps.

This week's DnD is... ongoing. In so much as I'm supposed to be running games tonight and tomorrow night at ConCentric, which is just down the road from me. Part of me hopes there aren't enough people about for me to end up with a table, because I hate the adventures I'm supposed to be running. We'll see what happens.

Also on Wednesday of this week, it finally happened, the moment in which I got so emotionally invested in a particular NPC (non-player character) that I kinda got a bit weepy. Partially it was because I'm sick, partially it was just a significant moment for the story, and for my character, and I was 100% on board with it. Yes! More crying in DnD!

Thursday was actually fun, we played at the DM's house instead of one of the players, which also meant I didn't need to drive anybody anywhere afterwards (yay)... not that I mind driving the DM home, we have good chats, but it was nice to do something different, and it was the group of players I now consider the core players for that particular storyline (sorry to the others, but they don't show up enough, and things are more likely to go off the rails if they do).

I also had what I can only describe as "the best laugh in a while" on Thursday night due to the reactions of one of the characters to what can best be described as "mushroom government bureaucracy" (don't ask). Basically I laughed my ass off.

Today was mostly inconsequential.

This morning was fairly wild and windy after a perfectly lovely couple of preceding days (fucking random weather bullshit), and we did the usual supermarket thing. I decided that I wanted to make soup that was some combination of potato and leek and pea and ham, so basically potato and pea and leek and ham. We'll see how that works out, but I'm pretty sure I've done something similar a bunch of times already, so it should be fine.

Afterwards we didn't really have much of anything going on, so we headed out to do a couple of small errands, nothing overly exciting... so unexciting in fact, that we were all done by about 12:30.

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photo saturday: seaside patina

So, this week...

Let's just flag it as... not-usual. Not necessarily hugely exciting or monumentally different, but decidedly not-usual.

Starting with the beef stroga-not (as in not-stroganoff) I made on Sunday night. It wasn't terrible, in fact it was quite tasty, and it meant that I made noodles to go along with it every day but one when I made mashed potato... so not terrible overall.

Also on the weekend (and spilling over to Monday) I had to go through and do a bunch of stuff to update all of my dozen DnD characters to the "new system". And yeah, it is still stupid and makes no sense as a whole. And it took me way longer than I feel like it otherwise should have. But then I wasn't trying to break any land speed records, and I'm glad I took it slowly as there were a number of things I realised as I was doing things for the first character on the list that would have been annoying to work out halfway through.

Monday was the first game with the new system... and as expected while it didn't make a massive difference to the game as a whole, it was annoying in a number of areas, mostly in relation to the general economics of no found treasure and no found magic items. But there will definitely be adventures that are harder to run because of that.

We'll see how things go.

Wednesday was maybe a little bit of a trainwreck... one of the two tables (the one I was on) attempted to run one of the new, differently written/arranged adventures for the new season. I won't lie, I had some fun but it was basically a dumpster fire. And if this is the quality of the new season's adventures, I will absolutely pass on them.

Our DM also had a little bit of a... not a breakdown, but he decidedly lost the will to get excited about the adventure and to really be bothered moving forward with it. Which was probably half about him and half about the dumpster fire of an adventure.

Also, after the game a group of us sat around talking about this, that and the other, and ended up going to talk to the other store where we play about some of the issues we were having, and it turned into a very good and productive talk (mostly because I think he was already on the same page with a lot of it, and the other parts we either had easy answers for or said it was stuff that we would take back to the wider community... and yes, I hate myself for using the word community, but it is what it is).

Thursday. Thursday didn't happen. Our DM decided midway through the afternoon that he wasn't feeling well, and so I was thinking about stepping in, but then our host wasn't well, so we would have ended up at the store, and I'll be honest, I just wasn't feeling the vibe. So I relayed the message that everybody else could do whatever they wanted, but I was out.

And I stayed home for the first Thursday evening in over a year. And it wasn't even hugely weird.

Friday wasn't DnD related but I did get my copy of Thornwatch, the game from Penny Arcade that I backed all the way back in 2016, but feel like I've been following since it was first mentioned by Mike. And it's a beautiful looking object... well, set of objects. I will need to coerce some of my DnD friends into playing it with me at some point. Once I really get to grips with how the thing actually functions mechanically.

Today was simple.

We went shopping, I forgot three or four things, but I'll live without them. Neither of us bought a huge amount to be honest.

Then I needed new printer ink, so we went down the road to Officeworks, Ma found a "home brand" replacement for my TV remote that was literally a "put batteries in and it works" thing, and at long last I have full access to my mute button again, yay.

After Officeworks we went next door to the big Spotlight store that I think about visiting every time I got to that particular Officeworks and never remember to do. It's a BIG place too... full of many and varies pretty things that I have no use for and yet still want. We didn't get anything of interest there, but did have a big old wander around, which was nice.

We could have called it a day, but decided to detour back via the "nearby" Kmart, which wasn't really the best plan since Kmart is very much a "been to one, seen every single other one" than I remember it being, and we do the same loop in every single store.

And that was that really.

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photo saturday: construction destruction

Sometimes you just have to recognise that the only reason you're getting so worked up about certain things is not because they're actually important things in the scheme of the universe, but they're important to you at this particular moment in time because you spend a large amount of your time and energy immersed in them.

I am, however, attempting to practice Morpheus logic... "what happened, happened and couldn't have happened any other way". I mean, yes, it absolutely should have happened another way, but we live in the universe where it came out this way instead, so we have to proverbially like it or lump it.

And the fact that I'm talking about changes to the Adventurer's League system for DnD shouldn't come as a shock to anyone I've spoken to in real life in the last six or so weeks. The biggest issue that I have with any of it is that they claim to be changing things for one set of reasons, when that absolutely makes no sense. If you need to change things because of reasons, then at least be clear and honest about what the reasons are.

Anyway... Monday's game was good because I got to use two completely random NPCs at different times to freak my players out... and when you've set things up in previous adventures with those players and they latch on to those ideas even though there's no reason for those NPCs to be connected, it's great because it does a bunch of my work for me in creating mood and atmosphere without me having to do anything more than say "yes".

Wednesday's game lead directly to a) a cool nickname for one of my characters (although he'll be specific about who can use it), b) a very odd scenario and c) me creating an in-world artifact (again)... because sometimes you absolutely need a book of Dragonborn-themed nursery rhymes.

Thursday... I don't honestly know what's doing on with Thursdays. When you're playing an adventure where it's kind of important that all seven people (well, eight including the DM) show up, and then only four people show up, and often it's only five or six people, yeah, that's a problem. Of course, the fact that when it's all seven people it's a little bit chaotic and a bit of a hot mess is also a problem, albeit a different problem.

Ah, fuck it... shit will either resolve itself or it won't.

Anyway... I couldn't be bothered with soup last week, given the previous week's disaster, so instead it was tuna mornay... not perhaps my most effective version, but not bad all things considered.

Otherwise, the only real interesting thing this week was Haircut Day... which got moved to Friday this week because of reasons.

Mostly it was about the same as usual, although we did try something a little different with the hair colour... with... underwhelming results. When the hair colour says silver, you expect something a little more... intense. What I got was basically a not very strong ash blonde. I mean it's nice... but it wasn't what either of us were expecting.

Possibly next time, if we do a bleach pass of my hair first before we put the silver through... we'll see.

Today was... well, about average to be honest. I did have to get up fairly early to tidy the apartment, wash some dishes and change the bedding... all things I probably should have done somewhat earlier, but managed to avoid getting around to.

Then we did a run out to Big W, picked up a few bits and pieces, although nothing over exciting (printer paper, some adhesive tape etc), before taking a drive down to Glenelg for no particular reason. And doing a full walk up and down Jetty Road, and having a wander around Cheap as Chips.

You know when you've been looking for a particular thing in every single appropriate store you go in for months and months and months and months... and nobody has it, and then you finally find what you're looking for. It's very exciting, even if the item in question is a clear plastic shower curtain.

So we bought two each.

After that we grabbed some pies from Orange Spot Bakery (always a good plan) and found a spot down by the beach where we could sit in the car and eat them.

Not an exciting day, but a productive one.

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