photo saturday: between a rock and a wet place

Everything hurts... I hate everything. Fuck my stupid "fall down go boom" body.

But that story doesn't occur until later... so how's that for a pre-credit teaser. I mean, that covers about 90% of it, but there is more of a story.

Otherwise... I finally got... well, inspired isn't the right word, because I was so definitely not inspired, but I made Ma's calendar for 2021. 

The theme for this year is "abstraction"... because other single words more appropriate for 2020 like isolation firstly felt a little too on the nose, but also hopefully won't be quite as apt for 2021.

So instead, abstraction... basically I looked for shapes and details, and perhaps a little weirdness here and there. I still need to print it, which is always a whole rigmarole in and of itself... and then get to Officeworks some time in the next two weeks (honestly, the next week, because fuck trying to do anything the following week) and get it bound appropriately.

A task, for obvious reasons, I usually prefer to have done well before December.

We'll see what happens.

Otherwise, pizza is fast becoming the default for the beginning of my weeks... homemade pizza, and I'm not mad at it.

Wednesday's DnD session was... fine... weird but fine. We'd never played these characters actually in the same room together, but we have played these characters together extensively. So it was fucking weird, honestly. And our poor DM... we asked a shit-ton of questions, none of which were covered in the somewhat shabbily written module. So he was winging it for most of the preamble.

Bless him.

This week's Friday/DnD bread was... pizza bread. Tomato paste in the wet ingredients, cheese and salami added to the dough after first proofing, and kinda rolled up. I was gunna roll it, I don't think it quite worked the way I'd thought it might. But it was tasty, even if some element of the paste interfered with the yeast somewhat and the dough didn't rise as much as it could have or should have done.

Friday night was... good. I pause because objectively, good... subjectively, honestly I was a little underwhelmed. And I don't even really know why... there's nothing I can actually point at that leads me there, it is just, as they say, a mood.

Maybe it's because the combat that seemed like it was super fucking difficult the last time we did it was a "blink and you'll miss it". Sure, we made some smarter choices, and our front liner got a new magic item that seemed to make a difference... but I dunno. It may also have been that I felt fucking useless the whole game. Even though I was doing stuff.

I'm not going to pick at that particular thought too much however, I don't want it to spiral into a full on line of reasoning, it can just fuck off into the aether from whence it came.

We finished late, I drove The Fluffinator home, I drove myself home. That, as they say, "has made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move"... well, mostly the second part. And only really one person for the first part. Me. I'm the one person.

I got out the car and things went thusly.

• Bad: Falling over in the dirt at the side of your apartment building at 1am, skinning your knee and bruising/cutting your hand.
• Worse: Your house keys flying out of your hands somewhere in the bushes and not being able to find them.
• Worst: Having 5% battery left on your phone. 

At the very least, I had my Lego Joker torch, which lives permanently attached to my DnD bag, so at least I wasn't either relying on my phone torch OR flailing around in the dark. It's not a very bright torch, all things considered, so there's also that. I did spent a LOT of time saying "no, no, no, no, no, fuck, please, no, no, no".

I flailed around in the dirt and the dry leaves and the stupid scratchy bushes. And I could not find my keys. I knew where my hand had hit, roughly, but nothing. And I was bleeding, and in pain, and in shock and did not know what the fuck I was going to do next.

However, this story does not end with me sleeping in my car (which, honestly, never occurred to me until this morning). There is a fourth dot point.

• Priceless: Finding your keys hanging in a bush seconds before you give up looking!

I was very close to giving up, coming upstairs and... I had no actual way to finish that sentence honestly. But I took a few steps back, swept my torch across a space that I didn't think the keys had any business being. And there, just on the edge of where I was looking... a circle shape about a foot above the dirt in the branches of one of the bushes.

And I thought, there's no way that is actually my keys until my fingers closed around the hard metal of my keyring.

Yay!

So I hobbled upstairs, dropped all my crap, cleaned up the graze on my knee, sprayed it with a little Betadine (povidone iodine) that I'm pretty sure I bought in the early Cretaceous period... or, you know, October 2011 (and honestly, I still remember that fall, even if I have no memory of the gym instructor mentioned therein) if we're not being overly dramatic. Thankfully the internet tells me that Betadine possibly... probably... maybe... has no shelf life, so it should still be okay. Which is good I guess. I hadn't even thought about that until just now honestly.

A very sore and somewhat shaky Yani got into bed at that stage, but initially every time I needed to move or roll over or whatever, my everything hurt. Okay, yes, mostly my left knee, but also my right palm and my right elbow and my right arm in general because it took the brunt of the fall down go boom. So, very ow, much sore.

And this morning you could add stiff to sore... plus getting in the shower and getting a graze wet. Never pleasant.

So I got my shit organised... chose the other pair of identical (well, black instead of dark blue) shorts after having sat in the dirt the night before, and was ready and waiting when Ma arrived.

We did the supermarket thing... I forgot to buy pizza bases, which is clearly a problem, since my intended menu for Monday and Tuesday is... you guessed it... pizza. I'll pick some up tomorrow.

Otherwise we bought supplies for... well, let's not call it Christmas goodies... because we honestly just thought about it and firstly neither of us could be bothered, and secondly, neither of us need all that much stuff honestly. We don't have the people to give it to, and otherwise we end up just chowing down on it ourselves until like the middle of February. Which is great, but also, not.

So instead I'm gunna make Rocky Road, since it's the least fussy thing we do and I can do it all on my own... that's basically what happens anyway. But later in the week, when it's cooler. Or, you know, when it's filthy hot and I have all the aircon happening, I haven't decided yet.

One of the "drawbacks" to having had a blog for fifteen years is that I realise that I first made Rocky Road fifteen years ago (maybe sixteen, I don't remember honestly). Good golly Miss Molly.

But I also want some of the ham hearts for the week before Christmas... but I want them freshly baked, because nobody but me ever gets to have them freshly baked, and honestly, they're missing out. So Ma and I did a "test run" today. And that test run turned into basically me having a container in my freezer full of ham hearts ready to get popped into a very hot oven at a later day. Woo.

And it wouldn't be Christmas Goodie Making Day if I didn't have to take an emergency trip to the supermarket for something we forgot or ran out of. In this case, ham. At least we kept that tradition alive.

Ma also made a first batch, by which I mean my giant oven tray full of them, for us. Which we then chomped our way through as lunch, and I just finished the last dozen off as early dinner

Oh, and the Lego store finally opened in Marion... so not going to brave that until mid January at the very earliest. But very excited that it's here.

Also, side note. Ow. Just ow. In general. Ow. And *sigh*.

I am definitely not going to be staying up too late tonight... my whole body is exhausted, and I need the sleep I think.

Otherwise, I'm done for now.

Current mood:

photo saturday: rusty

At a certain point, I have to play the "one of these things is not like the other" game with photos... this week is one of those.

It was also one of those weeks that we so uneventful that I legitimately forgot what I did last Sunday... which was not uneventful.

Last Sunday, being the last Sunday in November, and very nearly the beginning of December, was the day to drive down to Ma's place and put the Christmas tree up. Whoop-di-do Basil.

Honestly, for both of us it was pretty much just going through the motions. Which potentially isn't the best thing in the world... but this year has been... A Thing.

But I had breakfast, then drove down to Ma's, dithered around a bit, then got down to it.

As usual, the first task was the "reading of the previous sass"... when I leave myself notes in previous years or comment on previous thing I've written.

Yeah, the reaction to the dialogue with myself on two separate boxes was slightly visceral. More so the one not shown, but really, when you can sum up your reaction to a year by simply stating the year. It tells you a little something. Or a lot of something, honestly. And yes, box text me is often sassy to both previous year me, and occasionally to future me. It also often tells you about my mood at Christmas that particular year. I feel like 2013 was pretty positive, with the new tree and all... 2014, 2016 and 2019... yeah, they're all a mood. 

For the record, many of the notes I leave are actually useful notations for Christmas tree related decorating, things that I would otherwise totally forget with a 12 month gap between them. But all of it comes with a side order of sass. Because me.

In both 2018 and 2019 we did rainbow stripes for the tree. And that's only about 50% because it's just fucking easier. You know that this zone is this colour, you fill it up as much as you like, you don't have to worry that there are two red ones too close together, because that zone is all fucking red baubles.

We didn't do that this year. For some unknown reason. And honestly, I wasn't happy with the final version. But then I don't have to live with it or look at it more than about three times during the season, so fuck it.

I did leave notes for other ideas for next year though.

Anyway, we did the tree, we put together some snowman lights Ma picked up at IKEA's after Christmas sale last year, that's them peaking at the top of the tree photo. But there was also a big single version.

I put out Ma's nativity... because, for some unknown reason, tradition. Honestly, it all stems back from when we had a full nativity, plus a ridiculous giant manger that had a weird stage, and I like to set dress it and arrange the figures. Now she has a much more streamlined and simple set and I dunno... it's all a bit m'eh.

Or maybe I'm a bit m'eh. Yeah, that second one.

Then we had a bit of food and I gave up and came home.

Because my usual Sunday was subsumed by the Christmas prep, I did my Sunday on Monday. Which also may have contributed to the weird out of sync feeling I've had for much of this week.

I also Made the Christmas at my house on Monday. Tuesday. I Made Christmas on Tuesday. Which was my Monday, because... arrgghh... yeah, that.

The entirety of the Christmas I made was sticking the red glittery bow I bought two... three... two years ago on the front door. Putting my not-Lego wreath on the door. And getting out my neon Christmas tree that I've had for about 15 years and plugging it in. You know, the minimum amount of effort for me to consider the apartment Christmased.

So anyway...

We managed two different DnD sessions this week. Well, that's semantics, but more on that in a bit. And I don't know if my rant from last week had an effect, but we'll see... I feel like we might manage next week, but the week after maybe not. The following Wednesday is Christmas Eve Eve, and that's already been spoken for by the Friday group.

But we will have to see what happens.

Friday night nearly didn't happen... and then it was going to happen... and then it wasn't DnD and was board games instead.

And because we didn't know what we were doing, I didn't prep the bread on Thursday night, but when a decision was made around 11am on Friday, I threw together bread. I threw some of the leftover mixed fruit from the attempted Hot Cross Buns back in April, along with some mixed spice and some cinnamon, and checked on it four hours later, and it was gigantic.

Then I knocked it back, set it in place on the tray, left it another two hours, giant again. Bread is so fucking weird man.

And then I baked it and my whole house smelled like warm cinnamon, which clearly is not the worst thing in the world. And it was pretty good bread, very HCB-lite, but tasty.

It's so weird to think that fifteen months ago, I had no fucking clue about making bread. Now I'm all about making bread.

Anyway, since we weren't doing DnD, we did board games... board game specifically... the Buffy the Vampire Slayer board game, which is more mechanically complex than the name might lead you to believe. The box said that a game should take between 45 minutes and an hour to complete. Three and a half hours. Yeah... sure two of us were playing it for the first time, there was much referring back to the rules and we occasionally overthought what we were doing. But we won. Barely and by the skin of our proverbial teeth.

But it was nearly 1am by the time we were finished, and I didn't get home until after 1:30am. So a big night really.

Today was... m'eh.

I mean, it's a mood, it's a theme... it's a lifestyle choice.

We did the supermarket. I don't know that I will be wearing the mask we got at Kmart last week to the supermarket again, because it made me all kinds of crazy. Partly because none of these fucking masks sit on my face in a way that is comfortable for more than about 12 seconds. Which is just irritating.

But we didn't buy a super huge amount of stuff. More of the same in general really. I'm slightly obsessed with my own pizzas right now... not making the bases, because effort, but going to torn on the toppings.

Then we came back here, were very undecided, ended up deciding to not do anything, and Ma toddled off home.

So, yeah.

Current mood:

photo saturday: water coloured

I've been staring at a "blank page" for about 45 minutes... I say "blank" because, you know, photos.

I know I've said it about half a billion times before, but sometimes starting one of these posts if the hardest bit. Especially when there's not much of anything to talk about.

However, I do want to make a note of the fact that I made two amazing pizzas this week. Like pizza is nothing new, but this was a lot more ingredients than I would usually use, and it was damn tasty. Salami, capsicum, red onion, mushroom, tomato... and cheese obviously. Delicious.

DnD was weird this week... with one thing and another the Wednesday game didn't happen. After last week's session also didn't happen (for more obvious reasons)... and I know that people flake out in December at an exponential rate, so I may have spat the dummy a little...

In the last three years we've never managed to actually play any games in the month of December, somebody cancels, then someone else doesn't show up, and all of December goes by and we never do anything. I would, however, like to finish this module before January. So, do something for me, look at your calendars, appointment books, diaries or the crayon scrawling on the wall of the asylum and work out if you can actually manage a single Wednesday between now and January, share that information with the group and if we have a consensus, yay. If it's easier for people to do an online thing, I'm fine with that. Alternatively, just say now that you can't do a game for the entire month of December, let's not do the "oh maybe" last minute cancellation thing, because that's just frustrating. Know that I love you all, but sometimes herding cats through IKEA would be more productive.

Yeah. That. I was kind of pleased with both the "crayon scrawling" and the "herding cats" lines.

And I got an 3 affirmatives (with two other presumed affirmatives, because they're not the problem) within 45 minutes. Because sometimes you just have to put the Dad Pants on.

Anyway... Wednesday didn't happen. And then Friday got moved to Thursday. Which made sense, because the forecast for Friday was "fucking stupid hot". But it did mean that my brain was somewhat confused a few times yesterday concerning what day it was.

I also made the most amazing bread. Okay, the dough was SUPER sticky and wet, but it still worked. I threw cheese into with the flour, and then when it was ready for forming into a loaf, I folded some salami into it, randomly, because of the aforementioned sticky. And I don't know if it was because it soaked some of the liquid out of the dough or it just "steamed" inside the dough when I cooked it, but it was SO tasty.

The DnD itself was okay... no major events. We're currently going through a dungeon, well, a dungeon by any other name, so I expect things won't be super different for a few sessions yet.

Otherwise, not a lot of anything this week.

Today was also more of the same.

We did the supermarket thing. I really wish I'd picked up a few other things last week, given that whole products were just sold out this week. Not really hugely surprising, given the fuckery of last weekend. But still.

Even so, we did a fairly big shop, wearing our masks like responsible adults. And I realised why it stayed in place pretty perfectly last week, but this week it was doing my head in. Also why everything seemed to go to shit when I was at the check out last week. Headphones. When I was wearing headphones the mask stayed in place. Without headphones, not so much. We also picked up some new masks... made by Bonds... which is not really surprising, they have the material, they have the technology... but you're basically wearing a pair of undies on your face. Which is a mood, certainly. They're also just that tiny bit too small for me, and that bit too big for Ma. Le sigh.

After supermarket, we came back here, did the unpacking thing, did some YubTubs, then Ma wanted to go to Kmart, so we did that... And found better masks... or at least ones with a better shape to them. Honestly, I think unless you spend a little money on getting one with a decent shape, made of decent material and with decent elastic straps, it's all a bit m'eh.

But at least we have choices now.

That was it though. And now I'm just waiting for the cool change to properly hit my place. I mean it's mostly here, but there's a band of rain that just hasn't arrived yet.

Oh, and tomorrow I will need to summon up the energy and the effort and the ability to give a fuck in order to put up the Christmas tree at Ma's place. Blah. Future me is definitely not going to enjoy the messages 2020 me is going to leave on boxes this year, I can tell you that much.

Current mood:

photo saturday: four walls

This week has been... a lot.

Not as much as it perhaps could have been, but still a lot.

And on top of that, Summer has decided to arrive and be all Summer in Australia all over the place. Fuck that noise.

Honestly, this is going to be a pretty short post all up.

So there was no DnD this week. Because SA went until lockdown between Wednesday night at midnight and tonight at midnight. A whole "don't leave your house, wear a mask, one person can go to the shops once a day" lockdown.

Honestly, with the exception of DnD and going shopping on my own today, it didn't really affect my movements at all. Because it's not like I go anywhere most of the time. What it did affect was the inside of my brain. By which I mean my brain.

As I said to someone during the week, it's like being told not to think of elephants. You weren't thinking of elephants, you have no reason to be thinking about elephants, elephants aren't part of your life right now. But now you can't think about anything but fucking elephants. And having the house all closed up, which fabulously cool and air-conditioned, didn't help. Because situational claustrophobia I guess.

And, honestly, I think actually looking at the news probably didn't help. It's not something I generally do either, and haven't for a while, since I worked out that it's generally 50% bad stuff, 30% bullshit I don't care about and 20% stuff that isn't actually news.

Anyway... that was basically the week.

Today I took my mask and my latex gloves and my hand sanitiser and my headphones and headed off to the supermarket at 7:15am, getting there before they opened at 7:30 and doing a shop that felt like we were back in March... only, you know, worse. Because, WEAR A FUCKING MASK but also wearing a mask wasn't fun. But I survived. And was home by just after 8am.

So that was my week...

Current mood:

photo saturday: random details

Honestly, I do love spotting weird random details to take photos of...

Otherwise, this week was Too Fucking Hot, Giant Thunderstorm, Basically September Again.

And I made chilli, which wasn't bad. Certainly not the most interesting chilli I've made, but tasty enough. Plus, I really only got sick of it by Friday, so not bad all things considered.

Wednesday night's DnD was fine... the adventure has, I think, three stages of fights to it, the first one you're supposed to "lose" very quickly (in that the bad guys are going to achieve their objective and you move on to the next sequence)... Instead, because we're all special and overly specialised for causing mayhem, we spent three hours (more or less, I didn't actually time it) in that first fight. And haven't technically lost it yet. I think we're about to at the top of next session though.

Friday was also Chiro day, so I headed into the city and did that, wandered about for a bit, came home, made bread, went to Friday night DnD.

And yes, my character will absolutely rearrange the world to suit her wants and desires. Firstly, she's a bard. Secondly, she's a drow. Do the math people. Even if it means using the truth like a finely pointed weapon. Sorry, especially, not even.

Mostly this session she got her ass handed to her because, honestly, I got cocky. I mean, mostly it was fine. But why is she the one who always gets, to paraphrase an episode of Buffy, "the funny syphilis". First pig lycanthropy, now Bulezau poisoning with boils. Urgh. And she's the pretty one. The pretty one with the shit armour class. That I can't do anything about.

Today... today was fine. We did the shopping, I finally threw in the towel and will not be making a single food item to last me through the week. I will actually be cooking multiple times during the week. Pray for me. Not that I can't do it, I just mostly can't be bothered. But I'm also finally going to make pizza, after I've been wanting to for a few weeks but never quite manage it.

After the supermarket, we did what was ostensibly a trip to look for presents or something. And, as Ma pointed out, we went looking for presents for other people and only bought things for ourselves. Not a lot of anything, honestly. And we did buy things for other people at the second stop. So yay us.

Or something.

Otherwise, not much excitement.

Current mood:

photo saturday: beach greens

More photos from last week's beach trip... green plant stuff, just because I was in the mood.

Also, this is my "once every four years" dip into the world of politics, specifically a WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK AMERICA. The election was on Wednesday. It's now Saturday and we're waiting for four fucking states to finish counting shit. Like, count faster or something, I dunno. But also the fact that the race is this fucking close after the last four years beggars belief. I mean, I'd say "How?", but I already know the answer to that.

But we wait, and we hope that the last four years can finally be consigned to history and eventually be a joke or a cautionary tale or a collective fever dream.

Anyway...

This weeks tuna noodle casserole wasn't perhaps as good as the one from last time. Don't get me wrong, it was decent, I just don't know what magic thing I did the first time to make it really good. Or it could just be that I hadn't had it in quite a while at that point.

Tuesday I had a... I was about to say home invasion, and that is a very, very different thing and not at all what happened. But also, theoretically, it's the good version of that. Wow, I should stop talking now. Anyway. I had people. In my house. For socialising. And board games.

Our Friday night DM (I probably need to come up with a blog pseudonym for her, because, you know, it's gunna come up... I'll mull) and Fluffy came over for board games, because she had a day off and she wanted to do daytime boardgames. And why the fuck not.

We might have gone to her place, but the weather last week was stoopid. Being very hot for two days, and then very cold for the remainder of the week. Because, say it with me now, we don't have seasons, we just have random weather. Which is also fundamentally untrue, but occasionally feels true in those between times. So everyone came to my place, I cranked the aircon, made a fuckton (the technical term) of sausage rolls, which were well received and we spent several hours playing board games. Which was great.

And I sent some sausage rolls home with both of them, and still had some left over for myself.

Wednesday I ignored the aftermentioned shit show from the top of this post until the point that I thought it would already be over, mid afternoon. How wrong I was.

Then Wednesday night we had DnD again and finished up the adventure from last week. And nobody died. In fact, I honestly don't think I got hit at all during the final fight. I feel like I should have been, but it just never eventuated.

Friday night's DnD game was... interesting. A couple of things came up that were accidents of bad dice rolls which resulted in more interesting things that would have happened if we'd gotten good rolls. And by we, I mean, not me. I had good rolls in this scenario. Just for the record.

I also think that I have my bread recipe down again after several weeks of finding that sweet spot (so to speak). So it might be time for fucking around with additions again. And of course the Friday group will have no objections to that at all.

Today wasn't much of anything really.

We did the supermarket thing. I'm aiming for chilli this week... because... fuck it, I felt like chilli this week. Even if the weather intends to do a repeat of this week and be too fucking hot and then colder than it should be for this time of year.

Unlike the last couple of weeks, we didn't have a specific plan of what we wanted to do, or where we wanted to go, and we ended up heading to Spotlight because I kinda wanted to look for a couple of things. One I totally forgot about once we were there, and the other I decided against, at least for now. I was also very tempted by one of those "little tiny room" kits, because they're so beautiful, but having watched about five minutes of the "how this all goes together" video I just found on YouTube, I'm glad I changed my mind, because I'm not sure I have the patience or dexterity to actually make one of them.

It was very pretty though.

And that was it really. We talked about poking around in Officeworks, but we didn't really need anything, and neither of us could really be bothered.

Current mood:

photo saturday: beach textures

I'm putting the DnD Character Colouring Book on hold for a few weeks, possibly ten weeks, because I have actual photos again. New ones. Ten weeks worth in fact.

This week has been A Lot.

Sunday I cleaned the kitchen. And made the discovery that the big baking tray I've been using since I moved in here is actually the grill tray, but nobody bothered to put it in the correct position, and it's much more useful as a baking tray. I also made potato and leek soup... which was... fine. I mean I forgot to put the cream in it before I had a bowl, and after I'd had a bowl I blended the whole thing up. It was tasty enough, it was just a little bit m'eh.

Then on Monday I cleaned the rest of the apartment. By the end of which I was exhausted. And I'd also needed to make an emergency run to the shops to replace my mop which broke halfway through cleaning the bathroom. I also spent a whole hour wiping down the venetian blinds in my bedroom, because they were filthy (because that's the window that actually gets open and I have a main road going past the front of my place)... and because the land agent mentioned them specifically last time. And I had to change the water over like half a dozen times. Not fun, but I was pleased with the results.

I also "rediscovered" candles. Which sounds dumb, but I had a bunch of candles I bought back in 2016 after SA had had a massive, statewide blackout, because I had one poxy candle at the time and went to bed at like 8pm because there honestly wasn't fuck all else to do. And they've just been gathering dust in the cupboard, so I got them out, and once I was finished cleaning, I like one, just to make the place smell pretty. Given that they are IKEA candles though, I had no fucking clue what most of the fragrances I had were... Green apple I know, because it's green and has apples on the label, and vanilla ice-cream (maybe just vanilla), and Christmas 2016 (which appears to mostly be orange and spices), but the other two are "bowl of purple stuff" and "black stone". I chose Black Stone, which is actually really nice. And I've been burning it on and off all week. So now I'm going to turn into one of those Candle Gays (is that a thing, I don't think that's actually a thing).

Then Tuesday, the inspection day, rolled around. I got ready, had breakfast, did the dishes, and headed on out, taking my book and my camera with me.

I wasn't completely sure what I was planning to do, or where I was planning to go, except for the fact that I had just under two and a half hours to kill. What ended up happening was I took a ride down to Glenelg. Not in any direct way, I was kinda sorta headed to "the beach", but arbitrary decisions led to me ending up at Glenelg. And it was raining when I got there, so I was going to settle in and read my book for a while, but then it stopped and I got out to take a few photos.

That turned into an hour-long wander from where I parked, along the foreshore to the jetty, along the jetty and then back to the car.

And by the end of it, I was so broken. After the big walk on Saturday, two "days" of cleaning, including moving most of the furniture around, and then an hour long walk lugging a fairly heavy camera... I was done.

But, as I've said multiple times, there is nothing better than coming home after a rental inspection. Because the inspection part is over but your house is ridiculously clean and tidy and it's just the most pleasant feeling. Plus now with extra candle.

Wednesday was the first time since March that the Wednesday DnD group actually met in person. Well, the whole group anyway. Since the other week when they were supposedly going to play board games and I couldn't be bothered going because it was too warm and I hadn't had enough sleep. So they all (characters and players) got together and had a big old adventure without me.

Honestly I'm actually fine with it. It was my choice, so I can't really blame anybody else anyway.

We got three quarters of the way through the module, but we'll finish that off and start the Part 2 next week, then probably finish up that the week after. So at least it's a better plan than we've had in the last few weeks.

Friday was good... the bread I made is possibly the best loaf I've made in a while, insomuch that it wasn't too wet or too dry, I realised that I needed a little more water than I've been using before, and it all just worked out. It is a little weird that I think the loaves have been paler after they're baked than perhaps they were before... which just seems odd, because now the seal on the oven door is actually working properly, so what's going on. Couldn't tell ya, but it's weird.

After Fluffy arrived we were talking shit, as we do, and checking out YubTubs, as we do, and the algorithm suggested this... and I was curious, so we watched it, and were very confused to start with, not least of all because of the thumbnail...

But by the end we were both totally spellbound. I'll fully admit, I didn't even know Christian Coppola existed (turns out that he's only a distant relative of the Francis Ford Coppola end of the family), but this is just exquisite. I mean, yes, Dylan Sprouse is ridiculously beautiful (plus that luscious hair), but this is just an amazing film. Full kudos to both Christian and the cast. Just spend the 18 minutes. Even if the middle of it is kinda confusing. Totally worth it.

And while I took the whole thing pretty much at face value, it's worth diving into the YouTube comments afterwards because people have some interesting ideas.

Friday night's DnD game was yet another instance of us avoiding what could have been potentially lethal combat with an appropriate use of spells and some lucky rolls. Honestly, there was some definite panic-roleplaying at certain points, and the opening of a door that shouldn't have been fucking opened. Because there's always a door that shouldn't be opened that somebody subsequently opens. Because DnD.

We had fun though.

Today was... okay.

We did the supermarket thing. I'm going to make another batch of Tuna Noodle-Do this week, because it's going to be hot, then cool, and that ended up being good "leftovers" (in so much that while it's technically left over from the day I make it, that's actually the point). So hopefully that works out as well as it did last time.

Afterwards we headed into the city, fairly early honestly, all things considered. And we got to exactly the right carpark at exactly the right time, because the woman who had just left it came over and gave us her ticket, which still had 2 hours left on it. So score.

Mostly I wanted to look at candles (see, Candle Gay), but I also wanted to get my Typo calendar for next year... the joke might wear thin over 12 months, but right now, I'm totally fucking here for it. It's a shame they don't have a Disney themed one this year, but yeah, given the amount of time I actually look at the thing, it'll be fine.

After we'd walked the length of the Mall, picked up a few bits and pieces, been given free cans of Pepsi Max Mango (which is... fine... it's been forever since I actually had Pepsi Max but honestly I could barely taste any mango... but it was free, and free is always better than not free), we headed back to the car and did a brief stop-off at Haighs, because chocolate.

And that was it really. Plus I still have an apartment that essentially looks like it did when I got home after the inspection, which is great.

Current mood:

character saturday: future self

This week's DnD Character Colouring Book is actual future characters... as in, characters I intend to play in other campaigns once our Friday group is finished with Avernus.

Mr Keel (always Mr, because politeness, and seniority) is for Waterdeep. He's a Warforged (not an actual Forgotten Realms race, but screw it, who cares, I've been wanting to play since I heard about them) literally washed up on the beach outside Waterdeep, got himself a job as a shipwright, and then later, because he's incredibly literal, saw some ripped posters that told him to serve one of the gods of creation, so he upped and left his job and went straight to the temple.

So now he's a Forge Cleric. Who is technically wearing armour (the model is actually just wearing boots and gloves, but in universe he's wearing armour), but Warforge can "incorporate" armour into their bodies and make it part of them. Which sounds pretty fucking cool, honestly. Plus he's got the cool head fin, which is where his name came from.

Quill, or Quillamina Silverthread (no relation to Orryn, I just really liked the surname, and didn't want to waste it just on a one-shot character), my first proper gnome. Like I know there was Orryn, but again, one-shot. So she'll be the first proper gnome. Mostly because we'll be playing with the new "move around your racial ability scores" variant that will come out in the new book next month.

She's a Way of Stars Druid from the same book, or will be if they haven't totally ruined the subclass when the published version comes out. So, she's a stargazer, and some kind of folk hero, I haven't worked out all the details yet... I do think she has a husband and a child though. 

Originally she was going to be a redhead, but I coloured most of her outfit first and when got to a certain point I realised that I'd more or less made Skywise from Elfquest... or a female, gnomish variant anyway. So I basically went with it and gave her silver/grey hair. I also really like the eyeliner and the freckles and the red rosy cheeks because she lives in the cold.

And the quilting on the lower tunic, the star patterns on the shoulders, the actual apple skin photo on the apple and the pattern on the chest leather. I tried repeating that pattern on the boots and the belt, but it never really worked, so I gave up. I also added in the silver cloak pin... which took a few goes to get right, but I really love the final version. This was where I really got into my groove and found the best way to lay in those textures, but she's one of the last ones that I did right before Hero Forge's colour tool dropped.

Sad face.

As much as I enjoy whipping up fully coloured characters in the tool, it's not quite the same honestly. I mean it's cut down my Google searches for random wood textures, random gemstone textures and other such things to basically nothing.

Anyway.

I didn't end up putting the chicken in the "minestrone" soup this week. I mean I could have... it might have been more interesting if I had. It was fine, it was just a little... average.

Otherwise the week was... actually, it was a bit of a nothing week, honestly. I did some general tidying up so I don't have to do it tomorrow or Monday for my rental inspection on Tuesday. Which mostly just consists of putting things back where they're actually supposed to go rather than just putting them neatly elsewhere.

Wednesday was... wait, can you hear that? Those crickets, and the tumbleweeds. Yeah, Wednesday. Nobody bothered to tell me if there was a plan, nobody bothered to tell me that there wasn't a plan. Nobody messaged me at the last minute to say "hey, forgot to tell you...". So as far as I know, there was no Wednesday night get together. Who fucking knows.

I'm not quite as salty as that sounds honestly. I mean I could have easily asked. And usually if something is happening, somebody says something eventually.

Friday night was our one year anniversary playing Balder's Gate: Descent into Avernus... I tried, more than once, to make a Avernus/anniversary tie in... Averniversary... anniAvernusary... yeah, there might be something there, I just can't fucking find it.

But it wasn't a bad session... it wasn't super huge, and while there was a mild character revelation, it was one I'd already thought of, had a brief look at, and then discarded as being "a bit too on the nose". I mean, honestly, I think it's just that I get how stories work. I get the shape of them. And as much as I'm delighted when they surprise me, especially when it's a good surprise, I often see the shape before we get there. At least it often feels like that.

In any event, it was a good evening, we finished it off with a game of Phase 10, which the Universe decided that I should completely dominate at. It happened when I shuffled the cards, it happened when other people shuffled the cards, it just seemed to happen. Which was kind of great. Not perhaps the best introduction for other people to the game... but, hey, I had fun, even if we ran out of time to actually finish all ten phases.

Today was an IKEA kind of day. In that, we went to IKEA.

But first we did the supermarket thing. And despite what I said last week... more soup again this week. Because the weather can't make up it's mind. Plus I didn't want to be fussing around with daily meals on an inspection week. It's potato and leek basically.

Then after the usual routine we headed for IKEA. Mostly to have a poke around their Christmas stuff. Because while we seldom ever buy any of it, we do like to have a poke and a look. Also, I think it may have been the first time we've been all year. I don't think we took a trip in January or February. I think maybe August last year... so yeah, it's been over a year.

Not that all that much changes really. The details change, which is kind of the point, but again, the story is much the same.

But we did the wander, got our steps in, picked up a few little bits of nothing much, and then called it a day.

Current mood:

character saturday: deep blue duo

This week's DnD Character Colouring Book is my sailors... well, one half-elf pirate, one water genasi sailor.

They both got featured as part of the blog template, and I'll probably repeat most of what was said there, but I wanted to dig in a little more maybe.

Masika El-Borak was possibly the first character I made whose name was packed with meaning... Masika is an Egyptian name that means "born during rain". And her surname, El-Borak is actually an Arabic name that means "the lightning". Because she's my half-elf Storm Sorcerer.

She was supposed to be my bad girl, my bitch, my character who didn't give a fuck and wasn't nice (the fact her first name, the way I pronounce it, is a homonym for massacre only occurred to me later). But something happened to Masika when she travelled across the desert with a bunch of idiots, then continued to hang out with them for months and months and months. She ended up caring about them and they cared about her. And kind of ended up as either the bitchy older sister or occasionally the slightly exasperated and authoritative mother of the group. Well, except for the pretty but insane human girl PC she ended up fucking... their relationship has been weird and on-again, off-again, mostly due to the player in question, but still incredibly important to who both of those characters are now. She also has possibly the shortest temper of all my characters. If you fuck with what's hers, she will end you in spectacular fashion. She also once shaved her head after an altercation with an barman in a dockside tavern.

And I wouldn't have her any other way.

The designs on her coat actually come directly from Elizabeth Swan's pirate captain coat in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. Her whole outfit in my head (and outside of what is possible in a Hero Forge design) was basically a dark blue version of that outfit. And when I found a fan made image of the coat embroidery, you bet I added it straight to her outfit. She also has a Lichtenburg scar down the entire left side of her body, from neck, down her arm and down to her foot... but very few people get to see the whole thing.

Oceanus (Oh-see-ann-us, thank you very much) Hopkins owes his name to an episode of the No Such Thing As A Fish podcast. Because Oceanus Hopkins is the name of the only child born on the Mayflower, bringing the pilgrims to America. And even better than that, Mrs Elizabeth Hopkins was Miss Elizabeth Fisher before her marriage. Too damn good. So I scribbled it down, intending to give the name to a water genasi at some point.

As a brief sidebar, the list of names of passengers on the Mayflower (or other members of their family) is a DnD player's/DM's dream. Humility Cooper. The brothers Resolved and Peregrine White. The siblings Love, Patience, Fear, and Wrestling Brewster. Desire Minter. Too fun.

Anyway, Oceanus is "Southern". My accept repertoire isn't enormous... I can do a decent accent from the American south though. And by decent, I mean often terrible, but a bad real world accent makes for a workable DnD accent. He's also partially Southern because one of my friends was playing a fire genasi who was Southern, and I liked the idea that genasi are just Southern. It also makes him often more laid back than I might otherwise play characters. He's also has a lot of Big Dad Energy. I didn't intend to play him that way, but maybe because I play him mostly with people roughly two decades younger than me, it's just what happens. I also haven't played him in almost a year at this point, which makes me kinda sad.

Oh and for the record, I've always described his coat as being his leather armour, but being made of "kelp leather"... in fact, his pants, boots and coat are all "kelp leather" because it sounds cool, and it seems weird for a druid who is all about caring for the coastline and the water to kill animals to make clothing. Plus I wanted something that would resist getting wet given the amount of time he was going to be in and out of the water, being a water genasi druid. You also can't see the full collection of rings on his fingers, which is a shame. The jewellery is the only thing that doesn't 100% gel with the way I ended up playing him (he doesn't feel like someone who would care about shinys, but maybe they're all things he found down on the ocean floor or in salvaged ships), but it was too cool a visual not to keep.

This week was... let's be honest, with a few slight variations, this week was the same as every week since late March, and not that dissimilar from every week before that.

However, I made the Tuna Noodle Casserole I mentioned last week, and it worked out really well. Doubly so because the weather this week was... way too fucking hot for October, so I ended up having the additional portions cold through the week, and it was really nice. And I think I only succumbed to eating out of the plastic container once. Otherwise, I still put it in a bowl and ate it like a person.

I spoke too soon about Soup Season being over though, since the weather goes back to a much more reasonable level next week. So I'm doing possibly a chicken minestrone. Or something.

Wednesday DnD was... a non-event. We hadn't organised anything, and then the suggestion was made to play board games in person. But Wednesday was the hottest day and I had been sleeping really shit all week... so I just wanted to stay home and hibernate. So I did.

Friday the weather was suddenly wet and cool... I mean honestly, I ask you.

Also on Friday I had my chiro, so that was essentially same same but different. And I got back here before it started to rain properly, so bonus there.

Friday night's DnD was good... I mean we kind of detoured into an hour long conversation about Buffy, since Fluffy is currently watching it for the very first time... which is a total walk down memory lane for the rest of us. In the best possible way.

The game itself ended up being just a combat encounter. For various reasons, not least of all because we came very close to getting our asses handed to us... but didn't, we called it after that. Next week will be our one year anniversary (which is actually the 25th), which is kind of insane. It also means that this week (the 18th, aka tomorrow) is the one year of our "session zero", such as it was.

And honestly, if we could survive playing online from March thru June and still be talking to each other, we're good.

This morning was the usual supermarketry.

The rest of today was walking... so much walking... I mean not really in the before times, but now... so much walking. We went to Westfield Marion. Ostensibly to look at potential ideas for Christmas presents... but also because we haven't been since... last year. I don't know when we last went last year... November maybe? Or possibly late December after Christmas... I honestly have no idea... but it's been 10 months. Weird.

And we did our usual walk. When neither of us are walking anywhere as much as we previously did. So now everything is complaining *le sigh*.

But we found a few things... a few ideas also. So it wasn't a total waste of time. And we got those steps in.

Current mood:

character saturday: body and soul

There is a problem with knowing what most of the content of a new DnD sourcebook is going to be before it's available. You start making characters that you can't do anything with yet. And really cool characters that you absolutely want to play at some point. Or at a minimum, you make very cool art for said characters and may or may not leave it up on your computer screen while you're busy doing other things so that you can appreciate it.

Or you might not. Who can say?

This week's DnD Character Colouring Book are two of those characters.

Firstly, The Path of the Beast barbarian... I really like this subclass as it appeared in the first draft. And my other barbarian, Fenris, could very well have been this subclass. But instead we have Wrath... because why not have a creature who already has sharp teeth and claws and a tail when the subclass lets you attack things with teeth and claws and a tail. And Wrath... well, he was most recently a resident at a particularly harsh prison... and maybe escaped, maybe was set loose in the world, but in either case, he has kept his restraints, for when the beast inside gets a little too violent. I will say that so far he's the only character I've given visible chest hair to. Or stubble for that matter. And originally he was blue, but then I decided that the idea of an albino tiefling was too fucking cool and I couldn't not do it after I thought of it.

And he's side by side with Jab... Jabble Nucklestamp. And the Way of The Astral Self monk subclass. Now I'm not sure I will every play Jab... I'm not 100% sure I'm as enamoured with the subclass as I am with Jab's art. Because when I started designing Jab, I designed the astral version in the background. And then I saw this line in the flavour text... "they see their mystical energy as a representation of their true form, an astral self". That was when I realised that what I was designing was that true/astral self. So instead I went very simply... that character at the start of the martial arts movie who gets picked on by thugs, only to turn around and kick their asses. Yeah, obviously I've been watching a lot of Asian martial arts movies. And yes, most of the colouring is random textures sourced from the internet... but I like how it came out anyway.

There's also no truth to the rumour that during the last week and a half I have coloured approximately 130 models on the Hero Forge website... okay, there is, but shush. It's just so easy (sure there are a fuckton of bugs they need to work through, and I still don't really like all of the default colour choices) and fun.

Anyway...

My lasagne was... relatively successful. I mean the meat sauce wasn't the best, because I added a bunch of grated vegetables to it and it just lacked that full on meaty tomato taste (I mean if ended up fine, but during the making I wasn't sure if it would). And next time, I need to skip the ricotta, because, while it sounds like a great plan, it never really works. And after I made this one, I totally remembered that I thought the same thing last time. Second time's the charm maybe.

It also probably would have stood up if I hadn't put it into containers that didn't really let it stand up, and I'd skipped the ricotta.

I also attempted to make banana bread part was through the week. And I mean, at the end, I had banana bread... but it wasn't as sweet as I wanted it. Partially because I was using a recipe I had never used before and partially because the recipe called for brown sugar and I only had dark brown sugar and used that instead. Plus I should have ignored the recipe and added the third banana I had.

Wednesday's DnD game didn't happen. Nobody bothered to organise anything, and I wasn't really up for it when Wednesday rolled around, so when asked, I voted for skipping.

Friday's game was our first game in three weeks, and not too bad overall. The mozzarella and tomato bread I made didn't hurt either.

Today I overslept. Ma was getting her hair did, and I didn't actually surface until the point where I should already have been at the supermarket. Whoops. Not that it really mattered, I did the whole trip and managed to get home before Ma arrived. I hadn't unpacked or anything, but I at least beat her here.

And we didn't really do anything. We did the YubTubs thing, made plans for later, then eventually took a wander around the Village, and called it a day.

Current mood: