JAN 29

2026

Thursday: a strange day. Didn't wake up early enough for much more than a game of Hearthstone before work, and then it was off to the reworks mines. Our grocery trip on Saturday had necessitated some unpreferred selections due to overshopping in anticipation of the snowstorm, and as a result, I've been making do with buffalo ranch-style chicken on my salad, which is not my preferred variety. The old Target bag I'd been using for collecting plastics for recycling had too many holes to continue; the past couple of days, I've just been putting the bottles and Temptations boxes in the box my parents had used to delivery our Christmas gifts. John and the kittens keep jumping into it for play. On my breaks, I watched the 2026 "State of Warcraft" video, some Grinding Gear EarthBound footage, some Grinding Gear FFV footage, and just a little bit of Blue Prince. Had my end-of-year meeting with my supervisor, and we've got another meeting tomorrow for procedural updates.

After work, we reheated the last of the goulash for dinner, but as I was preparing to go to the living room, I happened to catch the neighbor kids throwing chunks of frozen snow at our kitchen window. From our talk, they claimed they were aiming at something else, but at least they stopped after that. We watched more unfamiliar Bob while we ate. Once we finished the episode that contained a pastiche of Rocky Horror Picture Show, I switched to Red Dead Redemption 2.

I ended up touring the graves of former Van Der Linde Gang members. Julie would give me map guidance on how to get to one, I'd read aloud from Arthur's journal to remember how that person had died, and then we'd move on to the next one. It was kind of bitterwsweet to revisit the remote parts of the landscape that marked the setting for the game's opening chapters, as I hadn't been back to them since we first started playing; by coincidence, about as much time has passed in real life as had passed in the game, by that point. (Seven years!) I tried to stop in each of the former campsites, but I forgot to visit the one outside Valentine, and the rest of the ones I went to were infested with hostile gangs. I tried to get cute and use throwing knives to deal with some of the Murfrees Brood, but a too-close shotgun put an end to that endeavor. I then treated the cats and came in here to post two or three updates on here.

2025

Wednesday: the sleep study tech woke me up at 5:15 AM, as anticipated. A talkative ride share driver brought me home, but Julie forgot that neither of us have deadbolt keys, so I had to call her to let me in. I thought I'd snooze in the office for a bit, but mostly I just hung out with Isabel before getting back up to catch up on my weekly MMO updates. (I continued watching a new 13 Sentinels vod while I did so.)

I went shopping through the afternoon, and this was the week I added dark chocolate to my snack regimen. After shopping, I picked up Taco Bell for us, but the line of cars stretched around the building. When I saw that we both got the same drink, I decided not to request a correction and just accepted a Baja Blast in place of my Diet Coke. I played more Hearthstone on my lunch break, and I'm stuck at about 60% completion of the Terran objects for the event quest. I also took some time to cancel some automatic payments on my credit card and move a couple of others onto my debit card. Probably should have done that a long time ago.

By 5 PM, I was slicing the peppers and onion for dinner: goulash with ground turkey. I omitted the bay leaf this week, but I added both thyme and basil, and in place of the three cups of water, I used three cups of vegetable stock. Once I had all the ingredients loaded in the pressure cooker, I did a small load of dishes, and we were able to eat less than 20 minutes later. Through dinner, we finished the second (and final?) season of Arcane: Julie said that it was among the least sexy shows that she's watched which actually contains a sex scene. I enjoyed it alright, I think. Then, I ate a cup of yogurt with granola while preparing this update.

2024

Monday: the shift went well, since I didn't have to take as many calls as I expected. I spent a two-hour period doing one-on-one call support with a coworker.

After months in which I was the only one treating the cats, Julie's started dispensing treats to Cliff whenever he's especially persuasive in the kitchen, so he's now constantly on alert for one of us to move in that direction. (Speaking of treats, she discovered my box of Cheez-Its while we were getting ready for trivia.)

At Quizzo, we had both Justin & Meagan as well as Phil with us, so we cruised to another easy win: our second week in a row, and our third win in the last four weeks. The place was packed, for that matter; we had to sit at the bar, and we didn't have enough barstools for all five of us to sit at once. My facial hair was a point of amused discussion. Personally, I thought it was kind of fun that Phil had a goatee, I had sideburns, and Justin had a full beard and moustache. Next week's trivia is supposed to focus on "top 50 Philadelphia movies," so I'm looking forward to fewer geography questions.

2023

Sunday: my day ended with an extremely long call keeping me almost two hours past my normal end of shift. As I was on that call, the pro football games determine the participants of this year's SuperBowl were just wrapping up, and the victors were Kansas City and Philadelphia. Julie walked out to Broad Street to watch the crowds of cheering not-quite-rioters. It would be quite the game to watch, if I weren't already scheduled to work, to say nothing of the epidemic of player injuries currently going on.