lydamorehouse | Entries tagged with life and such

Yesterday, I got the pnuemonia vaccine.

I don't remember vaccines kicking my ass the way they do nowadays, but, man, oh man. I was wiped out last night and this morning. Worse, despite feeling like I was hit by a truck, I slept really badly. I had chills and body aches. It was weird. Although to be fair, I have NOT gotten sick (knock on wood!!) since March of 2020. So, it's possible that my body is overcompensating for the lack of anything better to do, you know? The antibodies are in there, like some scene from Cells at Work, and just going to town on the innocuation because they're so bored, otherwise.

(Again, universe, I am not asking to get sick!)

I was supposed to record another episode of Mona Lisa Over Pod with my co-host today, but he begged off yesterday saying that he'd fallen down a research rabbit hole and wanted time to organize his thoughts. Given the state of me this morning, I was just as happy to say "yes, let's just record next week."

I should have gone to my writing accountablity Zoom instead, but I didn't.

Just generally not feelin' it, I guess?

Which is weird, in a way, because the writing has been generally going well. I was very inspired by one of my writers' groups and spent a lot of last week and this doing some revisions and making some forward progress. (This is the sequel to Welcome to Boy. Net.) But today just.... I dunno. My head still feels half empty, I guess. Hopefully, tomorrow will be better all around.

How's by you?

My deepest apologies. I've been busy doing the things I do, including the podcast.

I did a lot of TTRPGing since the last time we chatted. I ran a D&D game on Saturday, played in a somewhat disasterous Star Trek: Adventures game that same night, and ran a Thirsty Sword Lesbians game Tuesday night. I don't game nearly as often as this list makes me seem. I just swear to all the gods that whatever day my D&D group has agreed to play that month, I also have Star Trek game that same night. Likewise, the TSL group will just somehow fall in the same week. I literally play/run at least TWO of these three games MONTHLY. How they all end up clustered like this is, indeed, a mystery.

I'm also in the last few hours of nominating for the Hugo's. I pulled the trigger and bought virtual tickets to Seattle WorldCON at the same time. When I virtually attended Glasgow's WorldCON, one of the tech guys told me that they'd be using a lot of the same program/technologies and I hope that's true. I found the virtual version of that con particularly robust and, perhaps more importantly, decently inuitive to use.

I should also report that part of my lack of communication/updatery here is the fact that Mason is home for Spring Break. He's currently off at a coffee shop working on his senior thesis, so, if y'all are so inclined, I'm sure he could use white light and thoughts and prayers. ;-) My understanding of his thesis work is the intersection of science fiction and environmental justice. I mean, pretty cool stuff! And perfectly aligned with his majors, which are, in fact, English and Environmental Studies.

Otherwise, how the heck are you all?

I will start off with the traditional "What are you reading?" Wednesday stuff, because, once again, lo and behold, I have done the reading.

A friend of mine recommended a supernational manga called Neko ga Nishi Mukya / When a Cat Faces West by Urushibara Yuki, which I adored. It's a manga series that's complete in three volumes, so if stories about how emotions might affect the world around us in a magical way and the super-chill "investigators" check them out entrances you, this might be a series for you. Also, if you are interested in a more detailed review, you can find mine here: https://mangakast.wordpress.com/2025/02/24/neko-ga-nishi-mukya-when-a-cat-faces-west-by-urushibara-yuki/

Then, because I was in-between books, I settled in at dinner tonight with Betty Crocker's Hostess Cookbook.

Image: a very vintage book that, unfortunately, has ZERO recipes for how to cook a hostess.

So far (and I am only in the introduction), I'm learning a lot about how to balance my experise as a cook, the size of my living/dining room, and the relative usefulness of my various friend groups. Pro-tip: cultivate friends who "will carry part of the entertainment load for you." What can I say? I secretly really enjoy these little time capsules into a fictious world where middle class white women had time to consider the relative rudeness inviting someone via telephone (only for casual gatherings!) or hand-written invitation card (preferred, naturally!)

I'll let you know if there are any actually decent recipes. I suspect (because I flipped ahead) there will, instead, be a LOT of fondue.

How about you? Reading anything interesting?

In other news, Shawn officially graduated from PT today. She's still disappointed in how much pain she feels after three months. Luckily, Chris, the physical therapist, reassured her that this is still very within the normal range. Apparently, Allina Health used to have people who'd gone through knee replacement near the same time form a cohort so that they could support and encourage each other. Chris noted that one of the upsides of this was that people had a much better sense of the "average" amount of pain, flexibility, etc. The internet likes to point out outliers: successes and disasters. And not a lot in between.

Appparently, the knee cohorts were one of the many things lost due to the pandemic.

Anyway, in part to celebrate her official graduation (and other part Shawn getting stood up by a work friend), Shawn and I did something we almost never do, which is go out to lunch. Shawn picked the place--Babani's, which is Kurdish food, and it was delightful. The company was, of course, superb.

I'm currently in another screen waiting for my podcast co-host to show up.

Willow (our cat) is in the hallway, just outside of the room I record in, meowing at me for attention. Meanwhile, I have no idea if I'm in the right place because some time ago my co-host got irritated that I never seemed to remember when we were recording and asked if he could access my Google calendar, so we could sync up. Good idea! Only, I used to always attach the Zoom link to my calendar notification. Now, it and the alarm to remind me to show up are gone.

Not a huge problem, just a small irritation.

Last night I slept for crap because I decided in my infinite wisdom that it was a good time to catch up on John Oliver and, thus, I spent much of the night last night waking up in a heightened sense of existential dread.

Should be an interesting show today!

Pray for me, y'all. The car is at a new place (Troy's.) I have been to Troy's many times before and generally trust them a lot. I was heartened by the fact that Troy himself (who runs the front desk) pulled his mechanic out of the garage to come see if we could duplicate my weird electrical problem--of course, for ONCE, we couldnt.

But, honest to god, if they can fix the other growling issues, I'd be super happy.

In other, possibly more exciting news, you all may remember that I applied for and got training to be a "tagger" during snow emergencies. Yes, I'm now working as that horrible person who ticketed you for parking on the wrong side of the street during a snow emergency.

Initially, I really, really did NOT think I was going to enjoy this job after the training. First of all, the shift is TEN hours. That's a lot. That's, like, two hours too many. Also, I discovered that, if you are new, you go out in pairs and that kind of sunk it for me, because part of the thrill of idea of this job for me was being independent. But, regardless, I decided that the money was good and I would feel like an idiot if I never at least TRIED the job. So, I bit the bullet and showed up on Sunday at 7 am in my long johns and heaviest winter gear.

...And, you guys? I LOVED IT. I loved it so much that I signed up to do "snowbirding" Monday and tomorrow (the last day).

My co-pilot (as I've been calling her) on Sunday was a character. She had worked the previous shift--which is insane, by the way, as it runs from 8 pm to 6 am--and was off her ADHD meds. But we got a long well enough and since she was a smoker and I am an old lady who needs to pee a lot, we contrived ways to stop often enough to take care of both of our needs.

The actual work comes with some perks that should not be as exciting as they were to me--one of which is that we get to use a radio to call into the dispatch. We have these cool codes we use and you get assigned a temporary badge number, so you call in by saying [badge number] to [dispatch number.] And, I don't know, something about using codes on a radio makes me feel 12 again, like, I'm running around my grandma's backyard with my cousins and walky-talkies yelling, "Bravo Zulu Alpha, over!" to each other.

We were also driving the company car, so my partner and I had this huge minivan like thing, that, frankly, compared to THE CAR IN THE SHOP drove like an absolute dream. Some people even got vehicles with HEATED STEERING WHEELS. This is probably no big deal to some of you, but I have never had such luxury in a car in my life. So, it even felt fancy drivign around.

Plus, on Sunday we are following the plow routes and where the plows go is endlessly fascinating to me. I guess I am easily amused.

----

So... Troy's just called? They say it's the exact same problem Tim's said they fixed (wheel bearings). I am asking Troy to document everything so that possibly I can get money back from Tim's. This is going to be a rough one, folks. We could barely afford Tim's and now to have the same expense again?

I could cry.

I guess it's good that I'm working, but it's not going to come close to paying for all of this.

My parents noted that I left the car story on a cliffhanger.

So hang no more!

Car is stil not fixed. I have a temporary solution, which was always the temporary solution, and that's currently how we are getting around. I need to try to make an appointment somewhere else, but I have failed to have the appropriate number of spoons to do it. It's even worse, as it's one of those situations where I have several really good recommendations, I just haven't felt up to making the call to see when/if I can get in.

My spoons have been low this whole last week because I've been really rather broken over yet-another-drama in one of my roleplaying games. It's apparently surprisingly difficult for people to be kind and empathetic when I'm not the one doing the emotional intelligence gathering and heavy-lifting, I guess? It shouldn't be a surprise, after all this time, but here we are. I'm feeling fully wrecked over something that is ultimately very, very, very, VERY stupid* and not worth this much of my time or energy.

I've lost a full week and at least one friendship to it and that's just dumb.

On the flipside, my players pulled off an amazing conclusion to a D&D mini-campaign on Saturday and I spent a full twelve hours HIGH on the experience of that. We laughed, we cried, we solved not one, but THREE (well, two and a half, as per D&D one of the victims was revivified!) murders! It really felt exactly like what a good gaming session should feel like. It was not quite enough for them all to level up next time, but they were handsomely rewarded and avoided starting a full-on Seelie/UnSeelie Fey War.

What a f*cking amazing game.

So, there is hope, my friends. There is always hope.

===
*The fact that this is all happening over a game that should be fun is stupid, to be clear. Not the problem.

Image: Cat on top of a car inside Midway's Turbo Tim's.

When I posted this picture on Facebook, I noted "Took my car to Turbo Tim's. They got their best guy on it."

I really want to love Turbo Tim's. They are queer friendly and literally within a block and a half of my house. Dropping a car off with them is easy, peasey lemon squeezy.

But I am deeply concerned that when I go an pick up my car today they will not have fixed the problem because the problem is not routine. It's actually REALLY weird. It's a mystery. Something where you have to have time and patience and a lot of expertise to figure out. I have some kind of parasitic draw sucking the juice from my battery on TOP of the fact that sometimes the wire just jiggles loose. I am very certain that the loose wire is an AND problem, not the ONLY problem.

But, inevitably (because this is the second time I've asked Tim's to look at this), they will come back with a simple diagnosis that the wiring is loose and they have tightened it and done and dusted. I saw that come through last night on my estimate, felt depressed, agreed to let them do a couple of other cheap things on their routine list of things they look at on your car and resolved that I was probably going to have to drive out to an auto place in Roseville that I used to swear by that I am 85% certain is run by Trump voting Republicans. But Tor is the kind of mechanic who can actually trace a problem like this because he is that kind of motorhead Republican who actually kind of believes his manliness is attached to his ability to perform car miracles. Which WORKS IN MY FAVOR in this instance...

...and I hate that.

I hated it so much that I decided to try to be proactive.

I called Turbo Tim's just now and said, "Look, I am really afraid that when I pick up my car, the problem will not be solved AGAIN." I told the person I talked to just now that I have actually brought the car in to them for this VERY SPECIFIC problem before, that they all did the exact same things that I can see on the list that they text me, and the problem not only continued, but has deterioriated. I do not like to have to pay for labor (although I said I would because I sincerely value labor, even unproductive labor,) when the problem isn't going to be fixed. And I will be forced to take my car elsewhere if they simply don't have the expertise to fix this or are unwilling or otherwise unable to do it. I am a used car driver. Used cars have weird, dumb, mysterious problems. If Turbo Tim's only solves the easy to fix, routine problems that new cars have, then why are they in Midway??? (See: previous description of my neighborhood as a possum.) Or for that matter Northeast??

The person on the other end at first wanted to reassure me that this is how you test for the things and my car passed the test. I said, somewhat grumpily, "I guess that's why it's a mystery." I appreciated that they used a voltmeter on my car, but my brother-in-law also owns one. Lots of people have voltmeters. I reminded them that this was their "solution" last time and the problem persisted. The person said, "Oh, you brought this in before?" I said, "Yes, and the problem wasn't fixed then either. This is why I am concerned. You have done the tests before and tightened the wire before. That is simply NOT the problem or it would have been fixed the last time."

They have now promised to get an extra pair of eyes on the issue. Who knows what this means, but it is, at least, a token effort.

I will probably still have to budget time (not to mention MONEY) to take my car to a different auto place.

Still, last time I just sucked up. This time, at least, I am doing what I can.

Sorry about that, you all. I did not, in fact, drop off the face of the Earth. I have, instead, been in a quiet panic brought on by the up-coming elections. So that does, in part, explain my complete absence from all things social media and internet.

We had a lovely Halloween. Here's the picture that Shawn took of our house dectoration and the pumpkins we carved.

Hallowwen 2024

Chez Roundhouse, Halloween 2024. Many pumpins and lights.

The only other thing of note is that I have a new, highly seasonal job with the City of Saint Paul. I signed up to be the person who puts those annoying tickets under your windshield when you fail to move to the correct side of the street during a snow emergency. Fun times! But it pays, and my writing really doesn't. Plus, given how LOATHE Saint Paul is to actually call snow emergencies who knows how often I'll even work.

I am weirdly excited by this job? I don't know why. I think I'm intregued to see how it all goes and I'm kind of thrilled at the prospect of being out in the world when very, very few others will be, you know?

Otherwise, I have been completely ignoring the world and spending my time populating the various worlds of the role-playing games I'm running. I made actual MOVIES of found footage that my players *might* encounter. There's something seriously wrong with me. (I mean, I know what it is. It's stress over a potential second Trump presidency.)

I'm also working on a crazy quilt for Shawn. I finished piecing it a couple of days ago, and now I'm on to hand quilting it.

Image: Quilt with many squares and rectangles of floral patterns.Nearly invisible Rhubarb for scale.

So that's me. Still above the ground. So far.

How are y'all holding up?

We got a call last night at 6 pm on the house phone, the landline. Normally, I never even hear the landline ring any more because I'm used to ignoring it because 99.9% of the calls are spam. However, Shawn knew that United Hospital would be using that number to call to let us know when her total knee replacement surgery was scheduled for exactly (obviously we had a date, but they were calling to tell us when to come in). So, she picked up the phone because she was expecting to get an arrival time.

Turns out, all non-emergency surgeries are being cancelled in the Twin Cities because of Hurricane Helene.

I'm not making this up.

There is, apparently, ONE FACTORY in North Carolina that makes all the IV fluid for a huge number of hospitals including (and this is the crazy part as far as I'm concerned) ALL of the hospitals in the Twin Cities. https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2024/10/04/g-s1-26383/iv-fluids-shortage-baxter-hurricane-helene This article is overly optimistic, assuming that LIKE LAST TIME the factory would be up and running before anyone noticed.

HA.

We are noticing.

I'm sure a lot of people are noticing.

For us... things are just entirely discombobulated. On Friday, Shawn took home files and laptops, expecting to have to work at home after a few months of recovery at home. She was at work until 6 pm on Friday, in fact, making sure the big project she needed to have done got done (keeping in mind she goes in at 7:30 am.) We have the house rearranged so that her walker would move through easily. We have a day bed in our dining room. She had FMLA and short-term disability pay all set up for a time, starting tomorrow! There are just so many things that we are unraveling that this whole process feels insane and unreal.

She's expecting a call some time this week with information about rescheduling. We are HOPING that the surgery will be rescheduled soon, ideally sometime before midnight on December 31, if for no other reason than that Shawn has met her deductible for this year and so we were not going to have to pay anything out of pocket for this. The nurse who cancelled had no idea when--though she implied that it was possible that the surgery could potentially even be back on in a matter of days. The only issue with that, of course, is that Shawn had to step down from several medicines (like blood thinners and blood pressure) in prep for the surgery and at the very least we would like to know sometime SOON so she can either stay off them (if it's a matter of days), or go back on them (if it is a matter of months).

So there is all this on our minds. Plus, there was the whole emotional readiness.

We have worked ourselves up for this day. Total knee replacement might be routine, but it is not a nothing burger of a surgery. Recovery is slow and complicated--which reminds me, we have to cancel all those PT appointments.

Ugh.

These are the kinds of things we're going to be dealing with more and more as the climate continues to change. It's not just about sea levels and properties going underwater. This is what it's going to look like for a lot of people all over the world.

============

UPDATE:
Shawn heard from her doctor's office already and she is now scheduled for knee replacement surgery on November 25, the Monday before Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is, typically, our big holiday--we have had friends/made-family fly in internationally in the past. I think we could still have some kind of celebration, but I guess we'll have to wait and see how folks feel about it. The only other option was way out near the end of January and Shawn's biggest goal is to be fully mobile in time for our son Mason's graduation from college (in May of next year)

We have been adulting like f*cking pros. There is still a lot to untangle and re-tangle, as it were, but I am so relieved that we have a date at the hospital.

Shawn and I have a notebook full of allegorical names for a farcical mystery we are never going to write. These are names like Scott Free and Helena Handbasket. I wonder if General News is in the list? I should check. It's been a while since we added a new name.

But, on to the actual general news (as opposed to the allegorical one.) I don't think I have a huge amount to catch you up on this week, but it's been a while so I thought I'd catch you up on the goings-on arounds these parts.

Tuesday ended up being a skip week for the podcast. While my co-host tested negative for COVID, he did come down with something nasty enough to keep him off the air. What was ironic about that, is that I had Shawn reschedule her pre-op appointment because it had conflicted. Then, suddenly, neither of us had anything to do at that time. (Well, I mean, Shawn went to work, but it was a very, "Damn it, we coulda..." sort of thing.) It has been, I think you'll see, a week like this.

Wednesday, I was scheduled to record with Cheryl Morgan--my editor and publisher over at Wizard's Tower--for her podcast. That went really well, but it was funny the extent to which I'd forgotten a lot of the plot of Resurrection Code.

Yesterday, I had both an in-person Wyrdsmiths (my writing critique group) and I hung out with my friend

jiawen for a couple of hours, which was nice. We talked about everything from WisCON to the recent presidential debates, volcanos, and our various lives and such. Good times.

Then I went for a very short walk and now I'm hot and tired. Dang exercise, making me sweaty!

It's going okay, I will say.

SO FAR.

Two days into my super-busy week and I'm still upright! Plus, I just had an incredibly informative session with the Glasgow WorldCON Online folks that is making me feel pretty confident about my ability to navigate all the technology. I'll be writing con reports once everything starts up on Thursday, but it's going to be interesting for those of us participating as well as attending online. There are THREE ways, technologically-speaking, that I'll be interacting with the con. One is just Zoom. For the hybrid panels, they'll be zooming us into the live event, like is typical. The other one that online participants will be dealing with is a program called Steamyard--which, remembering the complicated Chicago WorldCON interface, I was really nervous about. But, unlike that one, in Steamyard I only have to master exactly three buttons, so I think I'm good, honestly.

The other one, which is mainly for attendees who aren't on programming, is called RingCentral. I'm actually going to spend some time exploring that one today, because that's where I can decide which panels I want attend as an audience member, etc. It's got all the virtual hangouts and things like the table talks.

It's a lot? But, it's only Tuesday. I have some time to settle in and figure everything out.

I cancelled my usual podcast recording this morning (it's okay, it would have put us ahead by one, not behind), so that I could spend some time going shopping and making a delicious lunch. I decided to stop by my nearest Asian market, Shanghai Market, to pick up some fun stuff for the upcoming week. I mention this because my first panel is going to be on Food in Anime. I had been complaining to Mason that one of the questions they want the panelists to answer is: what food have you tried that you learned about in an anime. I was, like, "What the heck? I have not done this!" Luckily, Mason reminded me that I sought out taiyaki at our local Obon Festival because it was supposedly Renji (from Bleach)'s favorite food.

Wikipedia's image of taiyaki

And do you know what they had at Shanghai market?? Frozen taiyaki! So, I ate a serving size as pictured above as a desert after a soba stir-fry that I made up with veggies that I had around.

I'm trying to think if I've ever tried anything else specifically after having seen it on an anime. A lot of what I've tried, if I recall correctly, mostly came out of the research I did into Japanese food while writing my mega tons of Bleach fanfic. Things like kakigori, tsukemono, and tonkotsu curry, are all things I'm pretty sure I discovered that way. I guess some people on the panel have actually tried following recipes from the actual manga they've watched! I'll be fascinated to hear how that turned out for them.

Last night's programming committee meeting for ConFABulous was... oh boy. Let's just say I solved one problem by offering my Zoom pro-license for the next meetings. I am comforting myself with the fact that these are early days yet, and it might not be as dire as it seems if I'm the most organized person in the room. I am stealth competent, after all. I just don't normally play competent on TV, as it were. (Also, mostly people go to ConFABulous to play games, not go to paneling. It will be FINE.)

So, yeah, generally good so far.

How about you?

Image: A selection of freshly fried potato donuts on a dish.

We still have a house guest--possibly for another couple of days. This is Mason's best friend Grey, who is here in the Twin Cities as part of what the two of them jokingly call their "summer exchange program." On Sunday, Shawn and I decided it would be fun to make potato donuts. Luckily, we wanted to make these for ourselves, but I think we did assume that "the kids" (both of whom are actually full adults now. Mason will be turning 21 in a matter of days,) would have a couple? Maybe more than a few?

Nope. I think Mason ate exactly one? And they were really delicious. Shawn and I did our best, but I ended up making two dozen.

We could not GIVE them away, which was weird. Our normal neighborhood go-to for extra baked goods was our across the street neighbor, whom we sometimes refer to as the Hot Swede. Unfortunately, the neighborhood metrosexual hottie will be returning to Sweden, as he got a dream job in the home country. So, he and his wife sold their house and have been slowly selling off all of their furniture. So, that was a bust. We then tried our next door neighbors, but they apparently have sworn off anything sweet.

Luckily, the internet tells me that I can freeze donuts. I have no idea how one unthaws one to eat, but I suspect it's like cake.

Yeah, that's all I have right now? There's actually a lot going on in the world right now and I basically can't cope with any of that, so I am having donuts.

How's you?

Mason has returned (finally) from St. Louis!

Today, Shawn is home due to the holiday. For my non-US friends, y'all probably know this one. It's the Fourth of July, American Independence day, aka "Steve Rogers/Captain America's birthday" (which is what I prefer to celebrate.) Normally, Americans celebrate this with outdoor grilling and blowing things up (fireworks). It's raining cats and dogs, so I am hopeful that fireworks will be cancelled. I'm not a big fan of the noise. Or the crowds.

I can't say I have never enjoyed a fireworks show, however. There are several I have fond memories of attending when Mason was young, including one in Valparaiso, Indiana at a big open field. I remember laying back on the blanket and enjoying "ooo" and "ahh"ing with the rest of the crowd (which was smaller because smaller town). There was another I remember taking him to the river's edge in downtown St. Paul and watching them not far from where they were being loaded and shot off from. That one was nice because it was also not nearly as crowded.

Otherwise, I was up late last night with the returned youths and so I am tired and not very brilliant today. Happy 4th to those celebrating.

Yesterday was a day of errands for me. Mostly I schlepped my family around, actually. Shawn kicked the day off with an appointment she wanted me to sit in on, in order to be a second pair of ears. She recently discovered that her right knee has degraded to the point where she's going to need knee replacement surgery sooner rather than later.

I know what you're all thinking. How do you DISCOVER this all of a sudden? Shouldn't you have felt your knee slowly getting worse?

This is precisely what happened with Shawn's gall bladder. It was zero to IT NEEDS TO COME OUT RIGHT NOW. I think this happens because she suffers nearly constant migraines my beloved wife just doesn't notice the rest of her body falling apart. So, she had some swelling in her knee and then got an x-ray where the doctors were like, "Mrs. Rounds, you have not had cartilage in this knee for what seems to be years.... how are you even walking?" And Shawn will be like, ?? because she's on day 26 in a row of the kind of cluster headache that is colloquially dubbed "suicide migraines" because they are that bad.

So, at any rate, she is looking at knee surgery in October and this is going to be an ORDEAL, but on the other hand, one of Shawn's great stress relievers is going for walks and not being able to do that has not exactly helped the migraine situation either. So, knee surgery it is!

Then, we had to text Mason from the clinic to make sure he was ready to be picked-up for his hair appointment, which we had accidentally scheduled perilously close to the end of this consult. But, he was up and ready and so we whisked him off to a salon that specializes in long, wavy hair. Mason inherited SOME of his mother's curls, but you wouldn't know it because his hair is long enough to be kind of heavy and it weights down a lot of the natural curl. He's had some split ends happening for awhile now too, so any way, even though it was not on par with surgery consultation, it was still fairly important to get done.

Then, as the driver of the family, I hung out near the salon (no hardship as it was close to Nina's Coffeeshop.) I brought Mason and I home and had about an hour to catch my breath when, speaking of migraines, I got back in the car to take Shawn off to the suburbs to her neurologist. The exciting news on that front is that migraine medicine continues to evolve and Shawn is now going to be the recipient of a new med that has some promise. FINGERS CROSSED. I told her that one of my sincere wishes for her is to have a day--just even one, single day--that is 100% pain free. I'm not sure she's had that in her adult life. (I mean a lot of chronic pain sufferers don't, but this is also my wish for all of you/them.)

It was a lot of driving around for me, but I got a LOT of Duolingo done. I have started this new habit, which I think is actually working for me, wherein I spend my first several minutes of every session just going over the new section they have called "words." You get almost no points for doing this, but I don't care. It's what I need, if I want to have any hope of actually remembering Japanese. It's basically vocab review? I've been missing this in my life since I had to drop Drops (an app that is solely devoted to vocabulary).

Plus, I am fond of listening to the actual radio.

Do people even do this any more? Like, I'm not talking about streaming music or a podcast, I mean that stuff that is in the air on radio waves. Like, where you tune your radio device to a frequency. Very old school. But, it's one of the few ways I'm introduced to new music. My weird habit of listening to the actual radio is the only reason I can sing along to Taylor Swift at my age.

You may have also noticed that I missed "What Are You Reading Wednesday?" this week, despite the fact that I've been starting to be more consistent now that I'm reading and consuming things for my new cyberpunk podcast. This is because (spoiler!) our next episode is going to be about the anime sensation Ghost in the Shell, and so all I would be doing would be listing Ghost in the Shell in all of it's half-a-zillion iterations.,, and I figured that might be a bit boring for you. Because, seriously. ALL I am doing right now (and will do until we record next Tuesday) is reading and watching the movies, the anime, and the manga.

Because there is A LOT.

So far, I have AVOIDED the live action, but I might just break down and watch it because I'm sure my co-host will want to complain about it a little.

I am behind on the rest of my life as a consequence, but I'm starting to get my feet up under me.

the_siobhan and

magenta I am finally hoping to sit down and write a reply volley in our various snail mail games. I actually have been saving your letters to read and reply to, so my apologies, but this is me savoring the experience. But the goal is to have things in the mail to you both before the week is officially done.

I don't have much else to report, I don't think? How are you all!?

Mason has left the building.

This morning was like old times. All three of us were up before the crack of dawn and bundled into the car. I took Shawn to work first and then, instead of taking Mason to Washington Tech, like the old day, I took him and his backpack (and duffle bag) to the airport. Any minute now, he'll be winging his way back to school in Connecticut.

We'll miss him.

Per my previous blog, one of the things we did this last weekend was go out to Tavern on Grand, as it will be shuttering some time this year (early June is what the papers said, I think.) The place was packed, which was a little freaky for us, since we are still avoiding crowds as a general rule and masking in most public places. We decided we really wanted to do it, anyway, so we we masked as much as possible, and managed to have a decent night out. Hopefully, we did not tempt fate. Fingers crossed.

Otherwise, it was a quiet weekend around chez Morehouse. I'm still working on finishing up my gaudy Valentine's quilt. There is so much glitter, so many hearts. I will be surprised if anyone wants this thing when it's finished. But, it is kinda cute? I should have it pieced fully by tonight, so perhaps there will be in-progress pictures tomorrow.

Tonight is going to be a long one. Shawn has a Friends of the Ramsey County Library board meeting tonight that she can't skip. As I am the family chauffer, I will be in attendance as well--just skulking around the stacks, looking for manga to read. I just finished a couple of first volumes. Last time I was stuck hanging out at the library, I was in the grown-up section and picked up Mieruko-chan by Izumi Tomoki, which... I'm uncertain why it ended up shelves with adult materials. The horror elements are reminiscent of Ito Junji, who somehow, always ends up shelved as adult. My biggest guess is that the art style is fairly ecchi? There's a lot of fan service--but, like, not all that much more than you might find in standard shounen manga, many of which are shelved in teens. I really wish I could be a fly on the wall for some of these decisions. I mean, I'd be fine with all the fan-service stuff being shelved as "adult"? or all as "teen"? But, be consistent is all I ask. I mean, maybe something very ADULT is on its way in this series, but volume one was very typical of "girl sees horror stuff."

The other manga I picked up and read the first volume of was a very strange series from the 1970s called Orochi by Umezu Kazuo, I say it's weird because our titular heroine doesn't appear to be human, and clearly has some supernatural powers? Like, she has the ability to reanimate the dead, but isn't aware enough of human nature to understand why this might be a VERY BAD IDEA. I picked up two volumes of this one and will probably try to read the second before I pass too much judgment on it as a series. The library had all five volumes, so if I decide I like it enough to continue, I can read the whole series.

I'm also still doing a few things for Cheryl Morgan at Wizard Tower, but given the Chengdu blow-up, I suspect she's not in a hurry to hear back from me.... https://www.cheryl-morgan.com/?p=29370

Image: newest quilt, dinosaurs and gold & blue squares.

As I wait for some specialty fabric to arrive for the Star Trek gaming/pride quilt I'm making for

sabotabby, I started this weird little baby quilt. I'm not sure about it. Is it too busy? Is the yellow right? Will I probably just finish it because I got this far and damn if those squares of squares weren't a pain in the butt to make?

Regardless, tell me what you think. I mean, if it is a baby quilt, I suppose it's fine to be this chaotic.

And I don't hate it.

Sometimes, I even like it.

Thoughts?

At any rate, yesterday was kind of a busy day for me. I ran around doing errands--one of which was buying printer ink. Shawn likes to do her reviewing of my manuscript on paper, so I printed out all of Lesbians in SPAAACE (aka Welcome to Boy.net) for her yesterday. Shawn is my Gamma reader (or whatever comes after Beta). There will be other readers, most notably my editor, but Shawn will be one of the first to correct for spelling and to alert me to any last minute character/plot/continuity errors.

So, now that the the book is sort of mostly off my plate (at least for the moment), I've been casting around for things to do. Of course, one of my first priorities is to plot out the next Alex Conner book, which is the next thing due at Wizard's Tower Press. But, in addition to that, I've also been goofing around with making the Thirsty Sword Lesbians mini-campaign I ran into something I could offer up as a kind of module on Drive Thru RPG or itch.io or wherever. That's been entertaining, if only because I could create characters and such all day.

It snowed here in Minnesota. I should probably plan something warm and Sustaining (as Pooh might say) for dinner tonight.

How's by you?
==========

Addendum. I don't know why I keep having faith in the Internet community. I posted this same picture to Facebook and the MAJORITY of the people there said that they thought it was cute, etc., like you all did here. And, like, it's not that I feel particularly confident about this one, so that was nice to hear. But, the four people out of however many others, who felt the need to tell me how terrible it was... I just... WHY? Two of the four "advice" comments suggested different color arrangements, which is fine, though not helpful advice, really, because this is just my silly hobby. But, the other two who felt the need to point out how sloppily its put together really hurt my feelings. Like, was that necessary? Why would you do that?

I mean I think it comes from a genuine place? Where people who have expertise want to share their knowledge because sewing is something they also love, but I dunno, man, can't you just say, "Hey, nice effort! Glad you're in my fandom!"

The intrnet makes me feel twelve years old sometimes.

A lot of nothing.

I did, at least, get my flu shot. I had mistakenly been thinking, all week, (which granted is only since Sunday at the outside,) that my flu shot appointment was at 3 pm today. TURNS OUT, it was at 10:30 am. Luckily, CVS sends out push notification reminders. I was, as it happens, exactly one minute late to my flu shot appointment, which is impressive since I realized I was supposed to be there when there was only about five minutes to spare. (I live insanely close to our new pharmacy. We gave up on Walgreen's at Snelling and Randolph because the service was getting worse and worse.)

I am now vaccinated for the flu. You may remember that I got my latest COVID booster some time ago, so that should be me, all set, for the upcoming winter months.

I am disappointed in myself for not getting any writing on the novel done so far today. There are still several hours left yet before I have to head off to other commitments for me to at least make a tiny bit of progress, but today has been one of those days when I would swear on a stack of Principia that time has ripples. Because I will be engaged in something that should take me at most a half hour and suddenly four hours are gone. I'm not a fan. I would like time to progress in a way that benefits me, personally. Time should anticipate when I need it the most and slow down. This sudden "what happened to my morning??" stuff needs to go.

In other news, while Shawn was at her Friends of the Library Board meeting last night, I picked up a huge pile of manga to read. I've already ripped through X Gender and Until I Love Myself, both autobiographical stories about nonbinary mangaka (complete in two volumes, each). I also picked up the two latest volumes of What Did You Eat Yesterday? and the first three of two older series, one that I had previously bounced out of as an anime, Sword Art Online, and the other one I've heard about vaguely, Boys Run The Riot, which is apparently about a trans boy. I'm looking forward to giving those a try.

I also started watching Netflix's Pluto, based on the manga of the same name by Urasawa Naoki, who is mostly known to American manga readers for Monster and 20th Century Boys, neither of which I have read (because I am a fake fan. Although I do like his current series, Asadora! and I noticed the library is continuing to collect those and so I should catch up. Maybe after I write this, I will drop off the volumes I finished reading and pick up those.)

That's kind of me? I have to run to store to get stuff for dinner, as well. Shawn has to work late tonight, so I'm going to try to make something quick and easy before I run off to media night at a friends' house tonight.

What have you been up to? Reading anything fun or interesting?

I'm still desperately racing towards the end of my novel. I've figured out where I want to go, I think? I mean, I'm in the middle of writing the last, big climactic battle, so that's something. The very light mystery is solved, for the most part. I just need, you know, RESOLUTION and I should be golden. (Oh, and probably a denouement because I actually tend to short change those.)

Otherwise, I've started reading a book I've been meaning to pick up for awhile now, Fonda Lee's Jade City. I'm not vey far in yet, however, so nothing much to report there, other than: this is definitely my cup of tea.

How are you all?

Image: snow covering Halloween decorations.

I'm trying out my new keyboard while writing this to you, so that arrived. Hooray! (It has a very clickety-clack sound that I'm quite enjoying,)

Otherwise, Shawn and I are sitting in our living room wondering just how FEW trick-or-treaters we will get this year. It's VERY cold outside. So far (at 6pm-ish) we've had two sets (one mom and one child each) which is frankly more than I expected. It is literally one degree above the freezing point of water 33F/0.6 C.

Luckily, we always buy the kind of candy WE like, so even if we're stuck with a whole bag of it left over, it won't be a hardship.

We did a decent amount of house decorating, though not nearly as much as we've done in the past. I will admit that I haven't been in the Halloween mood, which is weird for me because this is by far my favorite of all holidays. (Thanksgiving, which we turned into a Friendsgiving is a close second.) I'm not really sure what's been up with me. Possibly I'm a little affected by the change in seasons. I don't normally get depressed in the dark--in fact, I've been really enjoying the cold, dark rainy days we've been having; they've been great for snuggling in and writing--but perhaps it affected me subconsciously in a way I can't even fathom.

our house

Image: Our decorations, two lit pumpkins and several witch banners. I think we look friendly and welcoming. despite the snow.

Perhaps later, when we're sure the last of the kids have come and gone, Shawn and I will do some kind of ritual for Samhain. Even if all we do is light a candle or two, it's nice to mark the turning of the wheel.

Happy Halloween (and Blessed Samhain) to you all.

My folder for my TSL game, now with new gift sticker from Ny!

Image: my glittery purple folder for my Thirst Sword Lesbians game, with new sticker from Ny (whose DW name is completely gone from me!!)

Anyway, it's lovely and a nice addition for people to look at while I am GMing on Saturday!

Thank you!!

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www.lydamorehouse.com

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Day in the Life of an Idiot

Journal of Lyda Morehouse

Entries tagged with life and such

Not Feeling It

Another Week of Silence! Sheesh!

Wednesday Things

Podcast Blues

More Car Stuff and New Job

Car Still Not Fixed, Much Like Life

I Really Want to Love Them...

A Missing Week

Surgery Cancelled

General News

How it's Going...

Proof of Life, I Guess

A Return

A Day of Errands

Back to School

Newest Quilt

A Day of Getting Nothing Done

Not NaNoWriMo, but Still Writing a Lot

New Keyboard and Halloween

Getting Ready for the Weekend