MAY 23

2026

Saturday: for the holiday weekend, I sepnt the morning in bed with John and Juice. I had the last of my bagels for breakfast, and Julie and I slowly got around for our trip to Baltimore. We were taking Amtrak via the 30th Street Station, and it was drizzly enough that we wore light jackets under our raincoats.

The rides to the train station and on to Baltimore were uneventful; I spent my time trying to conserve my phone battery. As we neared our departure point in Baltimore, Julie got a notification that the baseball game we had planned to attend had been delayed until tomorrow due to rain. We'd considered this a pretty likely outcome, so we'd planned to go to the National Aquarium, instead. After a quick jaunt on the purple line shuttle, we walked to McAlister's Deli for lunch, reasoning that it would be among the least expensive options on the waterfront. Since we had more than six hours to spend, we took our time eating: with the news that Julie's baked potato would be delayed by 45 minutes, we splurged on a plate of nachos, which arrived at the same time as my turkey club. The guys at the table behind me were really invested in speculative political posturing, which made me all the more eager to leave for the aquarium, where we wouldn't have to listen to it anymore.

After our late lunch, we arrived at the aquarium just as they announced to everyone in line that the facility had experienced a power surge, and they would have to close for the day. With all of our plans foiled, we walked across the street to the mall long enough to consider our options, but it felt like the day wasn't worth salvaging. I called a lyft so we could get back to the station in time for the 4:15 train back home.

With our evening restored to us, I ran a load of laundry and did a little AC:NH in bed with John. Once he was asleep, I snuck out and threw together dinner of spaghetti for the two of us, which we ended up eating around 9 PM. I spent the meal climbing the Wild ladder with Quest Warlock and listening to a spotify playlist which felt calibrated exactly to communicate the breadth of my inadequacies: it's ideal fuel for my writing project. Once I cleared Diamond 10, I went through the bathroom, wrote this update, and went downstairs for my laundry, though John's demanding attention again in such a way that I suspect it will be a while before I end up in bed.

2025

Friday: spent the whole day in catch-up mode at work, including a little bit of work after my shift, while talking to David about the week's activities. Julie made spinach pasta for the first time in some while for dinner. We ate in the living room, watching more Enterprise, and I continued playing Vampire Survivors: Emerald Diorama.

2024

Thursday: weather today was hot and (sometimes) stormy. Woke up early enough to have breakfast and get cleaned up for the day well before Julie's lunchtime. We're in shorts territory, though I elected to wear tennis shoes when I picked up our sandwiches from Newbold Cafe. After some consideration for tomorrow's dinner plans, I headed for the grocery store, where I surprised myself by stopping in the cafe for a dragonfruit drink. Once I'd had my fill of browsing selectbutton.net, I gathered the stuff I needed for scalloped potatoes and the rest of my shopping list. They didn't have any checkout lanes open other than self-check. Because of my years in retail, I wanted to wait for an actual cashier to become vailable, but after maybe ten minutes I went ahead and checked myself out. I got a parking spot right in front of the apartment and brought in the groceries, but Julie pointed out the snack she usually picks up is sour Skittles, so that's one I'll have to remember next time.

Julie's bocce team is in the playoffs, and the rainy weather had burned off through the 85 degrees Fahrenheit afternoon, so she didn't have to worry about cancellation. At her encouragement, I turned the central A/C on. While she was out, I did a quick vacuum and ate the last of the rice and sausage casserole. I tried to treat the cats with some of the Fancy Feast that Julie had picked up on sale, but I need to err on the side of smaller portions based on how quickly they're wolfing it down (and failing to keep it down). We held our penultimate Moondrop Isle sewing circle, but by this point I was having trouble keeping my eyes open, so I fell asleep on the living room floor with the cats. Tomorrow morning is my final MI content/testing gauntlet.

2023

Tuesday: I managed to get to bed at a reasonable hour last night, but I still wound up sleeping in this morning, so I didn't have time to pick up the salad toppings I ran out of yesterday. After work I took out the trash and walked to the store in my flip flops. I came back home, watched a couple of Zelda streams while I finished the salad with those missing toppings, and wrote these updates for the previous week. Gonna play a bit more Zelda myself after I finish this.