APR 09

2026

Thursday: decided sleep was more important that doing a career mode run in UmaMusume, so I was in bed before midnight last night. Julie had asked me to double-check my alarms, the first of which was set for 4:30 AM, but I woke up 30 minutes before either one went off. After getting through the bathroom and packing my toiletries and C-PAP machine, we left for the airport. I told Julie I wasn't bringing my keys, as she'd be picking me up on Sunday. She asked if I had my phone, wallet, ID, and the wedding paperwork, as if it turned out that I'd forgotten anything, I wouldn't be able to get back into the apartment; she was driving straight to work after dropping me off at the terminal. I reassured her that I'd double-checked everything before I'd left.

The security line was pretty short. As I got up to the ID checker, I pulled out my driver's license, which is when I finally noticed: when I'd received my new ID in the mail a couple of weeks ago and Julie and I had compared the photos, apparently I'd put my old ID back in my wallet, and I dropped my new ID in my desk drawer with a couple of other expired cards I was holding onto for reference purposes. I couldn't get through security with my expired ID.

I wanted to panic. Once I was clear of security, I double-checked my wallet to confirm that I hadn't left the new card in one of the other pockets, but it definitely wasn't there. I scheduled a Lyft pickup to take me back home. The guy was ten minutes away, so I went to the ride-share area for pickup. Panic started to creep back up when I realized he was taking a less direct route, but he avoided a lot of traffic that way, and I couldn't tell the we lost any time from that route. I considered asking him to wait after dropping me off, but since I wasn't sure how long it would take for me to get in and out again, I decided to let him go.

At the apartment, I considered my options. One of the doors had a loose knob, but our most recent efforts to refasten it proved too sturdy to undo just by shaking it. Most of the windows were too high to be accessible, but I found one I could reach... and to my luck, we hadn't bothered to lock it again after our most recent warm spell. I was able to climb inside, and two minutes later, I was back on my porch with the correct ID in-hand. An additional Lyft ride later, I was going through security, where I was startled to discover that the lines were actually shorter than they'd been an hour before.

I sat down at my gate 40 minutes before boarding began. I had over exerted myself; I tried to run to the intersection where my driver was stopped before my pickup, and the additional stress must have contributed to a resurgence of my old cough. After ten minutes in which I couldn't get it under control, I decided to step into a restroom before buying a bottle of water, which helped. I played a round of Hearthstone before we boarded.

Lots of rambunctious folks on my first flight. Once we're in the air, I'm going to try to charge my phone using this USB port on the tray table; I've just taken the time in which we're taxiing to write up the events of the morning.

My refreshments on this flight included honey-roasted pistachios, cinnamon crackers, and a diet cola. When I got to my gate in Chicago, I finally dug my cell phone charger out of the depths of my backpack. We'll see whether the next plane also has good charging ports. (Nope!)

From Midway, I was in a middle seat. We received a "Stellar Snack" packet of pretzels this time around. I played a little bit of Professor Layton and the Curious Mask while we were in the air, but my vision might not be good enough for some of these small illustrations. I drowsed a little before we landed.

Once we got to Wichita, I headed to the Alamo counter for my car rental. They provided me with a Hyundai Elantra, which I failed to notice had its passenger-side mirror folded against the body of the car before I embarked upon the drive to Carl's place. It was very nostalgic to take 235 down to Seneca again after almost four years away.

Carl's place was sufficiently transformed that it doesn't feel right to call it CHESM anymore. While I'd talked with Ximena both on the phone and via Teams chat previously, this was the first time we'd met. Carl also introduced me to her mother, her cousins, and her uncle and aunt, among others. I dropped off my luggage before Carl and I left for some errands.

Since I hadn't eaten yet, we picked up burgers at Freddie's. We drove to the car wash in Derby to eat, after which we cleaned out and vacuumed his parents' vehicle. He then drove us to their house, where we picked up a table they needed for the get-together, and we loaded it into the back of his parents' truck. They joined us for the return to Carl's house, and we then tried to get the table inside; to accomplish this, we had to partially disassemble it.

Carl's parents arrived along with Emit over the course of the afternoon, and since others were starting to get hungry, Emit drove Carl and me to Dog & Shake to pick up lunches. Or was this dinner? (I had a pair of hot dogs with mustard and relish.) I forget the exact timing, but we managed to fit a few games of Commander in; I exclusively played the Y'shtola precon deck, which is maybe the strongest commander deck in my possession.

Eventually Emit left, and Carl and I caught up in the home theater; I watched the first half of the Grinding Gear FFVI stream in which they tackled the first trip to Vector while playing some Hearthstone and some Umamusume. Eventually, I put my hardware away and turned one of the recliners into my bed for the weekend.

2025

Wednesday: this was the second workday in which I spent most of my time screen-sharing with coworkers while writing up instructions for the new service platform we're adopting. After my shift, Julie felt an oncoming headache, so she didn't join me for my walk to the gym. At the gym, I nearly finished reading Mike Russo's write-up of his playthrough of Counterfeit Monkey. The walk there and back wasn't too cold; it's been in the low 40s for the past couple of days, but since it stopped raining, the weather feels nice. Once I was home again, I got cleaned up, and we each had some of the leftover goulash for dinner. Julie put on more The Simpsons and seemed intent on getting back to her puzzle, so I played some Hearthstone while I watched Immortality and finished my dinner. By 10 PM, I was napping in the bedroom with John for a few hours, but then I got up to post this update.

2024

Tuesday: seems like my Tuesdays are going to be a mix of 1/4 calls, 3/4 project work for a while. I'm alright with this arrangement.

Julie took care of the litter and trash while I was finishing up at work, since we wanted to get right over to POPE for dinner so that we could be sure we'd have a table. It was a nice walk up a different road than we normally use. Our plan worked, and we got a good table for the event; I like the burger there a lot better without the enormous tomato slab. The Moodys joined us in time for trivia, and much like last month, we had a decent first round (trivia relating to the year 2003), a strong second round (Julie and Justin handled most of the lyrics), and a catastrophic third round (we don't know superhero movies, turns out). We came in tied for 5th and 6th place, so we didn't need to mess with a tiebreaker.

Back home, we Julie wheeled the trash out, and I spent a while commiserating with John over his injured claw; earlier, Mim attacked him while he was trying to pass the bedroom in the hallway, and he lost a claw on his right rear foot in the exchange. I wound up falling asleep on the floor. I eventually got up and posted this update; I also started Bozja, finally.

IS THE COUGH STILL HERE: YES

2023

Sunday: while we wanted to make a second week of walking to a restaurant for lunch, it seemed like too much trouble to figure out what would be open during Easter, so I just finished the mushroom stroganoff instead. I spent a big chunk of the afternoon playing Hearthstone and listening to the video about Civilization VI strategy that Julie was watching.

We got to the gym sometime before 6; it was the first time both of us were there together in weeks. (On my cycling machine, I read Sam Ashwell's writing about storygames.)

After cleaning up at home, I prepared chicken curry over rice. Prepping the rice and the vegetables went great, but slicing the chicken thighs was kind of a mess and wasted a bunch of time, such that we didn't wind up eating until nearly 9 PM. During dinner, we played more Civ VI, though I'm not sure we got much benefit out of the video's guidance. Maybe next time?

2022

Saturday: since our departure from Wichita is rapidly approaching, we went to Sabor one last time with Richard & Glen. (We wound up getting together with them at least once more in the weeks to come before my big drive and Julie's permanent relocation.)