NOV 16

2024

Saturday: is now my Wednesday. Between the noise in the apartment and the onset of brain fog, Julie's having a rough time lately. I guess we're both suffering the ravages of time, but I'm trying not to dwell on how frustrated and sad I am about the dietary changes I have to embrace. My work shift today was again preoccupied with chat support requests, but I was able to spend a little time doing trade sanctions. Afterwards, we took a quick trip to the gym for a pleasant walk on the treadmill. (I read Select Button threads I'd fallen behind on.) Back home, Julie got that Cajuny shrimp and sausage soup in the pressure cooker for the first time in more than a year; it was nice to revisit. We watched more Buffy, and the more recent plot developments are starting to resemble the circumstances I recalled from the one episode I'd seen prior to this year. Maybe it's the low temperature in the apartment, but we keep joking that Mim is speed-running her conversion to being a lap cat. This is another night in which I forgot to do laundry. To bed for now, though.

2023

Thursday: my day began with hours drowsing in bed, thanks to my poor sleeping arrangements last night. Julie came in to wake me up a couple times, but I was pinned down by cats, and it was around 11:30 when I got moving. I had a bowl of Cracklin' Oat Bran for lunch thanks to some battered cereal boxes Julie had picked up for cheap, and once I got dressed and cleaned up, I drove over to the Acme on Passyunk to get groceries. (There may have been some Hearthstone and some videos somewhere in there before I left.)

I didn't get too much at the store since I'm trying to save money, but I still wound up getting chicken broth I didn't need, and I probably could have waited to get more bread or grape Propel. The guy at the register struggled to scan the grapes. Once I drove back home, I was able to get a pretty good parking spot.

Julie's shift was just ending and she hadn't had much for lunch, so once I picked up the office a little bit, I boiled some tortellini in one part water and one part chicken broth, tossed in half a package of cubed cream cheese, sliced up half a dozen pieces of bacon, and added a package of frozen peas and cheddar. Once dinner was ready, Julie and I ate in the living room while watching more It's Always Sunny.

After dinner, we tried to play some Civ VI, but I took too long to start a religion as Jadwiga, and Julie and I never even met before Norway declared war on me. We figured it was a decent stopping point. I played a little more Hearthstone since I'm enjoying all the warlocks playing The Azerite Snake, since playing Blood Death Knight decks can put up more of a fight. I've gone so far as to put the new Reno in my E.T.C., Band Manager sideboard, even though this deck is full of duplicates, because I've had multiple games go to fatigue. My best tech right now is to include Saloon Brewmasters, just like the Snake decks, because it's great for me to get multiple uses out of Patchwerk or Theotar or an infused Sylvanas.

Once I'd had my fill, I switched back to Vampire Survivors, and I'm continuing to unlock and evolve upgrades. I can see exactly how a game like this would come from a guy who made slot machines for a living; it's very rewarding to play. Julie, meanwhile, has discovered a tile-placing game that was preloaded on her phone that works a little like a non-directional Tetris, and she's adopted it as her "new Dr. Mario."

She eventually went to bed after midnight, and the commotion was finally enough to wake John up from where he'd been sleeping on the jacket I was wearing so that I could get up as well. I went and did the dishes while watching the first part of the Disco Elysium stream that I'd missed tonight, though in the process of getting my computer moved over, I thought I'd check my youtube account and discovered a video I'd recorded in 2016 and completely forgotten about. I originally uploaded that exactly seven years ago tomorrow, so I'm going to make a note on this website about it as a reminder, since that project is technically ongoing.