The JSNLV Receptacle

TUESDAY

Wed, 01 July 2026 00:52:00 EDT

Tuesday: spent the night tossing and turning, but I did at least figure some things out for use in my writing project. Didn't get up early enough to actually implement those details, though. Got a lot of work done today. Shaved on my first break, went to the store on lunch, watched a bunch of Crash Course: US History videos while I ate the sushi I'd picked up, and took a shower on my second break. Julie wasn't very psyched about the idea of going to trivia, but she changed her mind when she found out I'd been preparing for the night's theme. We ordered our usual pizza at the bar, and since nobody could come up with a better option, I named our team "Who forgot to water the Tree of Liberty?" Our first three rounds were as strong as ever, but we slipped into a third-place tie in the last round, and we held onto the placement through the tiebreaker. After getting back home, taking out the trash, and treating the cats, I played a bunch of rounds of the new Tavern Brawl showcasing the "Escape from the Violet Hold" cards, which hasn't been going too badly. Still haven't gotten six wins, much less completed a run without losses, but I've got enough tavern tickets saved up that it's only a matter of time and patience.

WEDNESDAY

Wed, 01 July 2026 22:51:00 EDT

Wednesday: up early enough to work on my first draft. Another easy day at work, though tomorrow is going to be more demanding. On the first half of my lunch, I played the Violet Hold tavern brawl while eating my salad, and I pulled off the six wins with zero losses needed for the card back. I watched an abbreviated version of a couple of season 2 Community episodes for the second half of my lunch. On my last break, I caught some of the latest "Woolie and Pat play FFXIV" stream, in which Woolie got through the Ifrit fight. After work, Julie and I did a few different 8-minute exercises, which were only enhanced by John's insistence on pacing between our exercise mats while we tried to do crunches and planks and such. We took a shower, and as has been the case lately, she replied to one of my jokes with: "Do you ever feel that I don't like and/or respect you?" She'd made cream of broccoli soup for dinner, which I ate while finishing the FFXIV stream from earlier, after which I did a little more writing work. Now I'm going to treat the cats before bed.

THURSDAY

Fri, 03 July 2026 07:44:00 EDT

Thursday: much the same as every other this week. I put on an Endwalker highlights video for breaks. Julie's bocce game was cancelled due to the excessive heat. We had leftover enchilada pasta while watching two more Poirot episodes. (These were the one in which a dead body is found inside a Spanish chest and the one in which Poirot has to join a family for Christmas under the pretense of investigating a disreputable man that their daughter is involved with to conceal the fact that he's actually searching for a Ruby lost by an irritating Egyptian prince.) Though I did a little bit of writing, it feels like my determination is disappearing, and I ended up playing Vampire Survivors for a while.

FRIDAY

Sat, 04 July 2026 01:37:00 EDT

Friday: completely forgot that I had the day off from work for the holiday! I wondered if Julie would want me to pick up food for lunch, but she was running a training class and couldn't talk. After ten minutes, I went back to the office. Once her class ended, she came back with a knowing look on her face, and I couldn't keep a straight face. She pointed out that I didn't need to wait for her to agree to just go pick us up food, but it's funnier if I continue presenting the suggestion the way I do now. This wound up being the best laugh we've had in a while. With the rest of my time, I allowed myself to sign back into FFXIV and finally make some headway on the current relic weapon quest. Had to do a bunch of FATEs in Living Memory, turn in 1,500 tomestones of mathematics, buy a bunch of expensive crafting mats, and start the slow process of accumulating elemental aether. I also finished the Endwalker melee role quest while I was at it. Managed to fit dinner in there somewhere; it was just leftover soup. Would have done Carl's game tonight, but he's unavailable due to the holiday. Now I need to go to bed!

SATURDAY

Sun, 05 July 2026 01:22:00 EDT

Saturday: I found my schedule upended by both last night's late update and our displacement of our usual shopping run until tomorrow. (Blame the heat.) We spent the whole day inside; I took the time to copy down notes about both my time at Intrust and some old addresses with the aid of Google Maps. I had some of my salad for lunch while rewatching early TADC episodes, got the litter and the laundry, and did my normal Saturday vacuuming. We elected to do our Friday exercises today, but I couldn't keep up the pace. For dinner, I finished the enchilada pasta, while Julie had more soup. We watched the Poirot episode called "The Affair at the Victory Ball," which is the one Julie never remembers, in which six of the attendees of a masquerade are costumed after the characters in the Italian commedia dell'arte. After that, I got my laundry and did a little more FFXIV questing. Spent some time working on my fishing profession.

Q2, 2026
This feels like the most significant season to come along in a while, though I don't have much to show for it. I had been asleep at the wheel until late April, at which point a chance misunderstanding reminded me about the frailty of the human flesh. That's an expression Julie and I use sometimes to remind ourselves about the inevitability of aging and death, but it hadn't been registering with me properly before now. After my moment of revelation, I committed to writing a book this summer: I spent May deciding what was in-scope for the story (identifying which story arcs I'd be writing and which would have to wait for a potential sequel). I spent June outlining those story arcs with more than 64 cards on a timeline. Now in July, I've (properly) started the first draft process. I need to be done with this first draft before we go on our Iceland trip next month.

What else has been going on? I've been exercising more deliberately, though my consistency is starting to waver. I'm working on flexibility, strength, and cardio, though I'm being pretty haphazard about my pursuit of these goals. (I don't have "goals" or any metrics of any kind, actually. Just a desire to improve.) I'm trying to save money and pay down debt. I'm being more deliberate about my appearance. I've resumed my stalled search for mental health resources. I've cut back on some games and some streams. I've remembered some of the things that motivate me, and I've tried to keep those motivations more clearly in view. I've been reconnecting with some people I'd lost touch with, and I'm working to be more personable to the people I encounter in everyday life.

This is also the season I got really into the enneagram, and in which I stopped sneering at Myers-Briggs types as much. I still have too much enthusiasm where categorization for categorization's sake is concerned, but that doesn't mean tools like these are worthless; I just need to remember their limitations.

MONDAY

Tue, 07 July 2026 00:10:00 EDT

Monday: after my update last night, I started working on something that might be a Twine game, I guess? Maybe it doesn't go anywhere and I forget about it. Who can say.

This morning, I finally figured out my login and intake forms for tomorrow's telehealth appointment. It took me right up to the start of my shift to get that squared away. Work itself felt frantic; I spent most of the day trying to wrap up all my groups. Unsuccessfully, it turns out, because the last couple of hours got hijacked to do a re-audit on that project we were doing last month. That part's going quickly, at least, so I should finish my stuff up tomorrow morning. Lots more stormy weather today. Took a shower on my first break, wasted a bunch of time on lunch before eating my salad (and transitioning from that Endwalker highlights playthrough vod to the same thing by the same creator for Dawntrail), and spent my last break placating John so he'd stop clawing at me.

Julie roasted a pork loin for dinner along with some instant stuffing and an enormous quantity of corn on the cob, which should cover us for a bunch of upcoming meals. She wanted to get my reaction to some BBC Regency mini-series adaptation she'd enjoyed. This one followed the daughter of an ex-parson who was relocated with her family from the languid South to the grim labor conflicts of the North. We watched the first two episodes, and I guess we'll catch the second half of the series on Wednesday. I should go to bed now so I don't endanger my telehealth appointment in the morning!

TUESDAY

Wed, 08 July 2026 08:35:00 EDT

Tuesday: up a little after 7:30 so that I could prepare for a telehealth appointment. At work, I finished my last-minute second audits, but I had to add a training session for the latest ship refresh before I could make much progress on my new groups. I continued watching a Dawntrail highlights reel during the breaks; probably going to switch to the Li'l Indigestion Outer Wilds playlist now that I'm approaching the patch content. After work, Julie headed for POPE to save us a table, and we got seated near the water cooler again. We had different wait staff than usual, so neither of us were given a knife with our meals. I had to eat my burger like an animal. With my hands. Julie had us play as "Two Worlds, One Cup" again, and while it felt like we were getting a fair number of the questions right, particularly during the music round, we couldn't climb past sixth place. Still, there were at least 24 teams, so we should be happy to do as well as we did. When we got back home, I treated the cats before playing some more games of Hearthstone with the new "Escape from Violet Hold" set that just released. As a consequence, I didn't end up in bed until around 1:15 AM.

WEDNESDAY

Thu, 09 July 2026 00:01:00 EDT

Wednesday: woke up before 6 AM, then at 7 AM, and againa at 8 AM. I felt a lot of investment and attachment to the vivid dream I was having. (Only thing I can remember is that a Missing Persons case was involved somehow.) Came to the office and treated John and the sisters before writing up my missed update from last night. As you can see, I've started making more deliberate notes about the times at which I'm going to bed or getting up. Now, it's time to switch to my work laptop, so the rest of this entry will be written at least 12 hours from now.

So how did the rest of my day go? Pretty productive at work, and our workload turned out to be reported as higher than it actually needed to be, so the rest of my week should be less frantic than I feared it would need to be. Continuing with Outer Wilds footage on my breaks, and after work, Julie's headache continued, so she didn't feel up for much exercise. (I considered doing my own workout, but it makes more sense to do it tomorrow while Julie's going to be at bocce, anyway.) We just got cleaned up instead. (During our shower, the conversation went some odd directions. To explain one anecdote, Julie asked me if I was familiar with "Larries," who are OneDirection shippers convinced of the existence of a secret relationship between the former bandmates. I told her it reminded me of the "fujoshi" phenomenon, which was not a term she'd heard before. What she HAD heard about was "futanari," which I had to explain was something altogether different. At one point, I had to prove to her that squids have beaks. We were all over the place.) After reheating the meatloaf and a couple of ears of corn, we finished watching North and South. I liked it about as well as Pride and Prejudice! Finished treating the cats and played a little Hearthstone before finishing this update, and I'm going to try to be in bed within 2 minutes of midnight.

THURSDAY

Fri, 10 July 2026 08:30:00 EDT

Thursday: though I woke up before 6 AM again, I didn't roll out of bed until 7:30 thanks to another vivid dream. Something about being back in Kansas visiting Carl and some other former classmates. At one point, people were offering me food and drink, but all the cups were in use. The situation became tense. I used my remaining time to copy over my old notes about changes to my work teams, after which I logged in maybe 30 minutes early. Julie was in the office again today, but it was rainy, and on my lunch, I put on my raincoat to pick up lunch across from Acme, as I didn't have enough lettuce to last me for two salads. Today's break entertainment consisted of the latest CSB podcast, and I caught a bit more of their FFXIV endeavors after my shift ended. Julie's bocce league cancelled due to the rain, and we both felt pretty exhausted, so we just took it easy today. She made some spaghetti, reasoning she'd rather get the cooking out of the way today, since she much prefers to reheat leftovers after our usual Friday routine. She continued listening to her book on tape while she ate, and after I finished watching the CSB boys, I decided to finally try that TerraTech Legion game that Carl and the guys have been into lately. Got a little carried away, as I'm only now headed to bed at 12:30.

FRIDAY

Sat, 11 July 2026 11:10:00 EDT

Friday: I had another morning of drowsing thanks to a vivid dream, but this time, I didn't get out of bed until 8:20 AM, so I don't remember anything about this one.

After I posted the bits above, I switched to my work laptop and got started with my day. On first break, I took a shower; on lunch, I shaved, then finished my salad while watching more Outer Wilds. On my last break, I followed John around the apartment to indulge his whims. So went the workday.

David called for our regular weekly talk. Our conversations conform to the most predictable patterns: he asks me about my week, and I talk about what I did; I ask him about his week, and he talks about what he did; we discuss plans for the week to come. After the call, I went out to the living room and scrolled tumblr for a bit while waiting for Julie to reach a stopping point in her audiobook. We went through a quick exercise routine, reheated the last of the corn, stuffing, and pork, and ate dinner. I joined the guys' usual discord call, but Carl and Steve were at a tabletop game and were late to arrive as a consequence, so the rest of us just talked about the games we were playing. I found myself revisiting Inside, though I did do a little bit of online banking before bed. I had my C-PAP mask on by 1:15 AM.

SATURDAY

Sun, 12 July 2026 01:27:00 EDT

Saturday: tossed and turned in bed through the morning, finally getting out after 9 AM. I wrote up (and posted) the update for yesterday, though in the process, a memory leak in Firefox caused my computer to crash for a bit. I had to reboot it a few times to get it working again. We'll see if turning off some extensions fixes the issue.

Before we left for our weekly errands, I adjusted the decks I'll be using in Hearthstone for the next couple of weeks: in Standard, I'm using Regis's Chef Druid list, while I plan to run Harvester/Azalina in Wild until they break it for being too strong. I played the druid list while we ate at Taco Bell, after which I took us to both stores to get all our supplies. (Forgot to get more chicken for my salads, though. Something for Monday.)

We timed our trip well, as we hadn't been home for an hour when a fierce thunderstorm hit the city, right at 3 PM. We got off light with our usual basement flooding; we saw photos of downed trees damaging homes and destroying cars after the storm had passed. I got a late start on my share of the chores, but I did at least do a load of laundry, gather the litter, and vacuum both bedrooms. Julie had no interest in trying to exercise today, so I just got started on dinner.

Tonight's meal was scalloped potatoes. The recipe calls for six potatoes, but the ones we picked up were on the small side, so I increased the count so I could make two dishes' worth. I used the food processor to slice them after I'd peeled and quartered them. Since I'd bumped up the potato count, I supplemented my single yellow onion with one of the shallots that had been hanging out in the garlic tray. For protein, I sliced a polish sausage, and I only made the white sauce after everything was already in the ceramic and glass baking dishes. While they baked (350 degrees F at 60 minutes), I washed all the cookware I'd just used, along with a couple of bowls that hadn't made it into the dishwasher last night.

Once dinner was ready, we served ourselves, and we watched Cyberpunk: Edgerunners while we ate, getting through the first five episodes. (Or was it six?) I thought I'd applied a pretty thorough coat of aerosolized butter before loading the potatoes and onion into each tray, but Julie said I should probably double the quantity next time. (Should probably just go back to the way Mom does it and rub the surface down by hand.) Still, dinner was excellent, and while Julie found the tone and the slang a little confusing at first, she picked up pretty much everything she needed to contextually.

After dinner, I folded my laundry and treated the cats. Had a cup of yogurt while rewatching some stuff I've seen before; probably should have logged into FFXIV while I had more time. Gonna end up going to bed around 2 AM, I bet, which is a disappointing backslide, but what can you do.

SUNDAY

Mon, 13 July 2026 00:36:00 EDT

Sunday: another morning of periodic drowsing. Slept through both my alarms this morning, but I got out of bed sometime after 9 AM. I had my first bowl of Cracklin' Oat Bran in several years for breakfast; I tweaked some Hearthstone decks while I ate. Afterwards (and at several other times today), I finished copying the info about team changes from my old phone lists into this website, so I could put those back in the drawer. Now it's back to copying old tweets.

Today's exercise regimen started with a walk up to Washington. This time around, we went down to 19th Street before heading back north. We evaluated trends in rowhouses. Julie hates the modern look where the brick building has a projection with metal siding: she says it reminds her of a shipping container, and it clashes with the older materials in the majority of the buildings in the city. I agreed, and I pointed out that even the buildings with patterned siding over the majority of their surfaces lose their visual appeal as soon as any kind of imperfection appears. It doesn't stand out as badly when the building leans into a less polished exterior. Along those lines, Julie mentioned another trend she's bothered by: the bricking-in of the hole where a wall-mounted A/C unit was removed. She doesn't like the break in the pattern.

Once we got to the stores, I carried the pet treats, while Julie picked up another floor mat for the entrance to the master bedroom. We considered getting stuff for the cruise, but we might as well wait a little longer before getting those supplies. We headed back down Broad to Tasker and home. Ate a quick salad for lunch and re-watched some TADC while I ate. I spent a little time on the bed tenting for John, but once Julie came in to rouse me, I left him on the bed so we could do our exercises. Today's routine was back on the eight minutes DVD, and we called it good after just abs and arms. John joined us partway through, somehow always lying between our mats right where we need to move our arms or legs.

A quick shower later, and Julie made dinner of mashed potatoes, stewed chicken with rice, and roast broccoli. (I tented with John again while she was cooking.) We finished watching Edgerunners while we ate, and afterwards, we looked up a couple of videos about Celebrity Silhouette to see what we were in for. (I really liked this tour by Scott, of Let's All Cruise.) After that, I treated the cats, and then took a call with Mom and Dad to hear how the 4th of July went. I logged into FFXIV long enough to do my Cactpot weeklies and send out my Grand Company squadron again. Nice weekend.

TUESDAY

Tue, 14 July 2026 22:04:00 EDT

Tuesday: slipped up by playing around with Ren'Py last night and didn't get to bed until 2 AM. This morning, I was dreaming about dating Julie while trying to drive us places: I would have liked to figure out what was going on there, but I slept too late and had to get out of bed at ten til 7. After posting these consciousness timestamps, I logged right into work to deal with my groups backlog, and I spent the first hour and a half finishing up the last of my reworks from last week. This week could be comparably challenging, as the Recon team had a system issue that's going to cause us a bottleneck that needs to be addressed by Friday. I'm expecting tomorrow or Thursday to be a day I put in some additional extra hours.

Salary woes notwithstanding, it was a pretty good day. Watched some "Woolie Vs Ace Attorney 2" vods for the final case on my breaks. Seems like all our deliveries were happening simultaneously: my new work headset, a replacement phone case, a new rug scraper, a new phone charger for the cruise, plus some random stuff for one of the girls in our building that was sent to our place by mistake. Probably would have made more progress on work if I hadn't found my enthusiasm sapped by the number of HQ groups I had to get through.

Julie texted to let me know her boss was in the office, so they'd probably be going to dinner in the evening. As that meant no Karly Moon Quizzo tonight, she encouraged me to hit up Subway. I took the subway to the Subway right when I got out of work, and I played some Chef Druid on the Standard ladder while I ate. Walked back to the apartment afterward, which afforded me the opportunity to check out the store that's going into the old Walgreens location on Broad. The fixtures are going in, and they've started their hiring process, but no signage indicated how soon they'd open.

Julie was back when I got home, and we caught each other up on her days. She's still playing Tomodachi Life, in which her versions of Angel and John just had a child (Juan). I treated the cats, tried out the new headset, and prepared the updates for today and yesterday. Considering whether I want to pick up The Incident at Galley House tonight, or whether to hold off for now. I might do it.

MONDAY

Tue, 14 July 2026 22:10:00 EDT

Monday: woke up with Edgerunners-themed imagery fueling my dreams. At 7:30, I was getting out of bed and following John around to figure out what he wanted; we ended up on the bed in the office, though he wasn't interested in tenting. He ended up under my right arm, with Juice to my left; I snoozed that way for an hour. Since it was almost time for work, I went through the bathroom, then grabbed a banana along with the cats' breakfast. While Goose and Juice ate, I wrote up this summary of my morning before switching to the work laptop. Work was uneventful: had to get through a bunch of my groups, but these HQ groups keep waylaying me. On lunch, I walked over to pick up the jacket I'd dropped at the dry cleaner's two weeks back, and I got a chicken platter on my way back home. When Julie got back after her shift, we were too wiped out to do any exercises, so we just got cleaned up and had the leftover spaghetti. (Talked a lot about food in the shower, for some reason. That's just where my mind went.) Since we'd spent the past two nights watching TV together, I let her focus on her audiobook and ate in the office, after which I finally finished my HQ group with some ad hoc hours at work. Logged out right around 10:00 PM, but then I ended up looking through games I'd gotten through Itch for some reason, and before I knew it, I'd stayed up another four hours.

WEDNESDAY

Wed, 15 July 2026 23:57:00 EDT

Wednesday: my brief dive through an Itch game last night left me in bed around 12:50 AM. Woke up this morning a couple of times, but I was hemmed in by some heavy cats, and ended up dreaming various dreams until 8:10 AM, which left no time for anything but this brief note, treats for the cats, and a bowl of cereal. Today's workday felt more productive than yesterday's, though not by enough to say that I actually caught up. Napped with John on both of my breaks, and I finished my chicken at lunch. After work, I canoodled with John on the bed until Julie came in to wake me up. We got cleaned up, reheated the scalloped potatoes, and watched the first two episodes of the Wives and Daughters mini-series while we ate. I fit some games of Hearthstone in, and once we turned the show off, I watched a couple of videos about Iceland cruise ports and attractions. I treated the cats and finished this write-up, and now it's time for bed.

THURSDAY

Thu, 16 July 2026 22:34:00 EDT

Thursday: didn't even end up under the blankets last night; just had my wrist braces on, lying uncovered with Mim curled up around my right hand. This morning, I dreamed of Iceland cruises and hte logistics of meeting up with our friends in a port. Out of bed before 8:10. Managed to spend a little time working my draft today; not much notable about the work shift, though. Cuddled with John on my first break, which meant that I had to scramble to put clothes on when my lunch break started. Once I was dressed, I walked through the heat and the haze to get chicken and a sushi tray at Acme. I watched Woolie's Ace Attorney 2 stream on my second break for a bit, though I also caught up with Julie once she arrived. After work, I gathered up the litter, as I'd forgotten my plan to do so yesterday. Once I cleaned up, Julie jumped straight to reheating our porkchops, broccoli, and potatoes, so I guess we'll hold off on exercising. We finished Wives and Daughters while we ate, which I found I enjoyed more than I expected; this might have been my favorite of the Regency romances we've seen thus far. (I found Lady Harriet's determination and insistence upon interfering with Molly's misfortunes very gratifying.) Going to try to make it an earlier evening than usual after I post this.

FRI-SAT

Sun, 19 July 2026 02:54:00 EDT

Friday: I find it a little strange to lately be so caught up in dreams that I cannot get myself out of bed. This morning I was so indisposed that I didn't get up until 8:40 AM. That left no time for anything before work, other than going through the bathroom and distributing Temptations to the cats. The shift progressed uneventfully. I took a shower on my first break and shaved at lunch time. I watched somebody play through Dawntrail patch content while I was eating. Once work finished, I had my usual catch-up call with David. In the evening, we did our usual Friday exercise routine, and we had the last of the porkchops, potatoes, and broccoli for dinner. With news that several of the guys were going to be unable to make our weekly discord call, I dove into game distractions instead: Zero Parades, TerraTech Legion, etc. Stayed up until past 2 AM. A tragic backslide.

Saturday: late to rise thanks to my late night; I was out of bed some time after 10. Took a quick shower, after which I drove us for our errands. We got more pet supplies, lunch at Taco Bell, and a stop in at the thrift store. While Julie browsed, I went to get my hair cut. She was still shopping by the time I finished; we picked up some nylon pants for shore excursions, some books and puzzles, and Gone with the Wind, since Julie's currently going through the audiobook. Did our usual grocery run, after which I brought us back home. Typical chores: got the litter, did laundry, vacuumed, and started in on dinner. I made fried rice, though I had to mess with the recipe a bit since we keep adding ad hoc ingredients. I suggested we watch TV, and knowing Julie's tastes, I suspected she'd enjoy Kill la Kill; we're pretty early, but she's laughed a few times. (Didn't hurt that she was high.) After treating the cats, I made the mistake of playing more Zero Parades, and now it's nearly 3 AM. This is catastrophic.

SUN-TUE

Wed, 22 July 2026 00:20:00 EDT

Sunday: woke up from dreams of paintball politics. I pushed myself out of bed at 10 AM. The big plan today was the World Cup gathering at the Baker residence; Julie drove us down, but we stopped in at a Goodwill to find more cruise supplies. She found some of the stuff she was looking for, but the haphazard store layout vexed us both. (The books had zero organization. The clothes may have been divided into "men's styles" and "women's styles," but the shoes didn't adhere to that categorization.)

At Denise and Larry's place, they'd moved the grills to the driveway so that they could set up a second theater outside the garage. The seating area was encircled with national flags for the countries that participated in the tournament; the cooler was behind the outdoor TV, which is where we unloaded the cola cans we'd brought. It took no time for Denise to have us overburdened with appetizers, snacks, and entrees: soft pretzel sticks with various dips, ham and cheese sliders, stromboli bites, scoop-shaped chips, Emily's spicy dip (and her homemade limeade), cheeseburgers, hot dogs... I soon lost track. We staked out a couple of chairs against the far wall of the garage as the crowds grew.

Out of all the various games played during the course of the World Cup this year, I only spent any time watching this one. Spain vs Argentina; most of our group was rooting for Spain. Despite my attentiveness, I still spent more time than not paying more attention to the conversation, my food, and my phone. It was good to catch up with the latest post-wedding gossip, and of course we spent a lot of time coordinating our plans for the cruise. Our excursion commitments now include the Blue Lagoon, the Golden Circle, a particular waterfall that I didn't catch the name of, our behind-the-scenes ship tour, and a walking tour of Reykjavik for just Julie and me. Excitement is high.

After Argentina failed to catch up with Spain and the game ended, people began drifting away, and soon Julie and I joined the exodus. I drove us back home, treated the cats, and got too carried away with Zero Parades.

Monday: got to sleep last night around midnight; got out of bed this morning by 6:30. (Today is Moon Monday, and it's also our last free Monday before our Monday Night Quizzo resumes.) After posting my into- and out-of-bed times, I logged into work to try to catch up on my groups. This was time well-spent, and the day was very productive. Julie encouraged me via text to shut off the air and open the windows, though it also spent some time raining in the afternoon. Once she got back and I finished my shift, we grabbed the dinner she'd made: that meat and potato curry over rice she used to make before we had more authentic curry ingredients available to us. We watched more Kill La Kill while we ate, and I spent another few hours with Zero Parades afterward. Feels like I'm roughly 66% finished, though this playthrough has been more of a bee-line than a complete survey. Tried to get into bed before 1 AM.

Tuesday: in bed before 1 AM. High school and alien monsters and retail work and a particular supervisor and driving and returning to store entrance to find my blue winter coat covered in slush and detritus: that's the stuff I dreamed about. Out of bed by 6:35. Still didn't quite finish all my groups for the week yesterday, so I logged in early again to ensure I was caught up. The rest of the workday felt kind of hot and cold: can't work on many new groups because we're too caught up, but there were too many transactions pending for me to get started on my new week of reworks. The phone side is hectic, though, so I had to spend a lot of time researching commission payments and refunds for partner advocates. The heat and humidity were bad enough that I closed the windows and turned the air back on; at lunch, I took a luxurious shower, so I didn't leave myself a lot of time to eat. We wore our rain jackets to Santucci's for dinner. The trivia focused on Greek mythology, so Julie borrowed from The Venture Bros. for our team name again, and we played as "Any Which Way But Zeus". We scored 7 out of 11 on too many rounds, so she soon lost interest in trying to salvage our score, but I had a good time, and we both loved the pizza. Back home, we brought out the trash and recycling and treated the cats, and I've now written these missing updates from Sunday and Monday. Looks like I'll be getting to bed around 12:30.

WEDNESDAY

Thu, 23 July 2026 08:29:00 EDT

Wednesday: was waylaid by cats on the way toward the bedroom last night. The delay meant that I wasn't in bed until 1:00 AM, and even then, a scuffle in the hallway and a noisy water fountain meant that I had to get back up to address those issues before I fell asleep. I didn't roll out of bed this morning until 8:30. I logged in long enough to post this, then proceeded with my usual workday. I caught a little bit of Woolie and Pat playing FFXIV on my third break. After work, I got the litter, and then Julie and I got back into our 8 Minute Exercises, which we've been neglecting. Once we got cleaned up and reheated our fried rice, I switched the TV over to our VCR so we could watch the first half of Gone With The Wind. Scarlett was exhausting, by design, and the romanticized vision of the Confederate South makes it hard to have sympathy for most of the characters, but I appreciate the opportunity to revisit a much older style of filmmaking than the ones I usually have any interest in. Played a little more Zero Parades before bed, and I caught up to the point I'd been at on the weekend when I accidentally reverted to a much earlier save than I'd realized.

SUNDAY

Sun, 30 August 2026 22:19:00 EDT

Sunday: up pretty early despite a late night. Didn't end up eating any breakfast because I thought it was late enough that we might get something for lunch. We considered picking up sushi for lunch, but we both assumed I'd suggest it, and then I didn't, because it felt too predictable. Still, it wasn't a bad walk; felt like the summer heat was starting to drop. I brought the bag of cat treats home under my arm, because the stapled the handles inside the package, while Julie carried the bag with my resupply of sunflower kernels from Giant. Back home, I ate a large salad, then spent most of the afternoon working groups for Monday in an attempt to catch up. Julie made minute steaks with mushrooms and gravy for dinner, plus Brussels sprouts and a boiled potato mash. We watched the second half of the first season of Search Party while we ate, which I continue to find compelling, despite moments of visceral discomfort bad enough that I can't look at the TV as they happen. Mostly awkward social situations. Kind of just want to play Big Walk or Vampire Survivors or mobile games right now, but I need to go to bed early tonight to start working back toward a normal schedule in pursuit of my September goals.

WEDNESDAY

Wed, 2 September 2026 22:26:00 EDT

Wednesday: while retail dreams are common for me, the version I had this morning was a particularly detailed example: the manager was working toward converting a separate space into a restauarant, and as one of the supervisors, I was going to be involved in that process somehow. Various staff members were represented by characters from Community. I woke up at 7:20 AM, and I got out of bed to try to catch up on these updates from the past three weeks. I was able to get at least placeholder updates for everything I'd missed between the day of our return and today, but I'm still missing entries from the week of the cruise itself. That will have to wait until tomorrow.

During my shift at work, I was bogged down with enormous HQ groups and a long call. I finished up yesterday's Chrono Trigger stream on my first break, then watched Woolie's approach to the end of ARR over my later breaks. We'd planned to work out as soon as we were both done working, but that call went long enough that I wasn't ready before 6:30. Since I also needed to reply to an inquiry about Select Button administrative actions, we ended up skipping the workout.

After we got cleaned up, we reheated the steak and potatoes, which we ate while watching more Search Party. I tried to clear out some daily quests on my laptop while we ate, and once dinner was over, I tried to do more album sorting on facebook, but I found the show too arresting to focus on those activities. I find a self-inflicted sense of impending doom very relatable.

By 9:30, John was demanding attention in his characteristic manner, so I got up to treat the cats. The current routine goes like this: I set up five disposable plates, and I dispense a tin of Fancy Feast among them, along with two Churu tubes. The plates that have the bonus Churu slurry go to Isabel and John. Goose is usually waiting in the bedroom, and I try to give her a plate with a smaller portion; another plate goes to Juice in the living room, along with one on the window tower for Mim. John has usually walked away from his plate by this point, so I go back to the kitchen to grab it and walk with it into the living room, where he will be ready to resume eating it. I have to supervise this process, or else Juice will try to butt in and eat the remainder herself. Once John's had his fill, I go back to the kitchen to clean up; I then came into the office to write this post.

FRIDAY

Sat, 5 September 2026 08:28:00 EDT

Friday: I woke up from a vivid dream about being at my parents' house and being unable to find my car after my dad had moved it. This was somewhere in the 6:30 to 7 AM period, and while I tried to talk myself into getting up, I fell back asleep until 8, dreaming this time about an office job similar to my time at Intrust, but this time a former coworker (who either reminded me of or was a particular woman I used to work with) wanted guidance on a particular qualifying exam that she needed to pass to obtain a promotion onto our team. Another guy I worked with imparted mysterious advice while I tried to relocate to a new desk along one wall, but I couldn't get my work computer to stop running Spelunky for some reason.

My shift was once again not as productive as I would like thanks to the complexity of HQ groups. On breaks today, I caught up on podcasts and watched a little bit of Jesse Cox's crew play through the early bits of Big Walk. For lunch, I grabbed us platters from the halal cart on Broad. After work, David and I caught each other up on our latest endeavors: my work backlog and watching Search Party and his ambitions to move to the Great Plains and his letters in service of that goal. Julie and I exercised afterward, and then we reheated the last of the potatoes, steak, and Brussels sprouts. I considered launching Big Walk myself, but I fired up Nobody Wants to Die after dinner instead. Julie was rewatching Pride and Prejudice in the living room, so she stayed up a little later than I wanted to; I knocked out my mobile app dailies under the blankets before I put on my wrist braces and C-PAP mask, so I missed posting this update until the following morning.

THIRD QUARTER OF 2026

Thu, 1 October 2026 00:54:00 EDT

Tuesday: little bit of a hectic day at work since we had briefings, and I'm between playlists on my breaks, so I felt antsy the whole workday. Julie and I headed for Santucci's for "Oktoberfest" trivia, but they had another show at the Metro we hadn't known about, so the place was packed at almost every table in the bar. We had to settle for the table by the door, and while it was nice to keep our distance from the crowd and get better views of the nearest TVs, we were both out of sight and out of mind as far as the servers were concerned. I had to put in (and check on) our order from the bar since there were so many other people demanding attention. As far as the trivia went, this was another week in which we struggled on the first few rounds (particularly where identifying beer brands is concerned), but we almost redeemed ourselves in the last round, in which we did at least end up with the highest score. We placed 6th overall, which was a pretty big improvement from the 13th we'd been holding prior to that point. After we got home, I stayed up too late on the computer. I spent a little time looking into trends among crowd-funded IF games before bed.

Q3, 2026
After spending the spring and early summer improving on my personal habits, this season felt like something of a backslide. As wonderful as our trip to Iceland turned out, we have not maintained our exercise regimen very well after we returned. Productivity on my own projects has stalled, and while I've enjoyed watching Search Party and hearing about Julie's audiobook adventures through Tolstoy and Dostoevsky, my reading has fallen off, as well. I've sent money to several friends from SB whose housing situations are precarious, though, and at least I'm keeping up on my budget pretty well. I don't like going into the last quarter of the year with a feeling that I "need to catch up" on a bunch of stuff, but that is where I find myself at the moment. The rhythm of my life is such that 2027 was always going to be an important year (like 2022, and 2017, and 2012...), but I'd like to take steps to ensure that it's important for the right reasons.