Sunday, June 8th, 2025 03:16 pm
Anyone in the US interested in a used Switch? No original box, but I've got the dock, AC adapter, HDMI cable, two sets of joycons (black and red/blue), the holder thingy that turns the joycons into a regular controller, one set of wrist straps for the joycons, and a charging station. It also has a memory card already installed.

I'm looking for $100 including shipping.
Sunday, June 8th, 2025 12:14 pm
Quiet Moments (1825 words) by Settiai
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Dragon Age: Inquisition, Dragon Age - All Media Types
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Solas/Male Trevelyan (Dragon Age), background Cullen Rutherford/Male Trevelyan
Characters: Male Trevelyan (Dragon Age), Solas (Dragon Age)
Additional Tags: Arlathan Exchange (Dragon Age), Formerly Tranquil Inquisitor (Dragon Age), Hurt/Comfort, Lyrium Addiction, Lyrium Withdrawal, One Shot, Queerplatonic Relationships, Slice of Life, Trans Inquisitor (Dragon Age), Trans Male Inquisitor (Dragon Age)
Summary: Connor Trevelyan hadn't expected anyone to join him on the battlements in the middle of the night.
Sunday, June 8th, 2025 12:12 pm
A Study in Worth (1428 words) by Settiai
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Dragon Age II, Dragon Age - All Media Types
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Anders/Fenris (Dragon Age)
Characters: Anders (Dragon Age), Fenris (Dragon Age)
Additional Tags: Arlathan Exchange (Dragon Age), Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Established Relationship, Mental Health Issues, One Shot, Post-Dragon Age II, Pre-Dragon Age: Inquisition
Summary: It was blatantly obvious that Anders was spiraling again.
Sunday, June 8th, 2025 01:14 pm
It was a nicely productive day on Thursday.

Started with an early trip to the tip to get rid of a huge bag of garden waste and a couple of bulky but broken electrical items, so it was good to do that bit of decluttering. Plus, the tip shop was closed for a delivery so no chance of buying more stuff to fill those new gaps*g*

From there we called in to see my in laws for a bit, then it was onto the hospital as James had a physio appointment. Unfortunately, his appointment was for 11am, which is a horrible time in terms of parking, and we had to circle the whole site for nearly 30 minutes before a lovely lady pointed to a free space in one of the car parks we'd already gone through three times.

Each time he goes to physio, I expect James to be discharged, but nope again. While his elbow break has healed beautifully, he's lost muscle in his shoulder and still can't bring his hand to his mouth without propping his arm on a surface, or bringing his mouth down to his hand. So, more exercises to do at home, and he's back in a month, and will apparently need to keep going until that muscle is back.

Left the hospital and headed into town as I had an eye exam booked for 12:30. I only wear my glasses when reading books, but had noticed recently things were getting a bit fuzzier reading without them, so figured I should go for a check-up.

Turns out my right eye has got worse, but the other is still the same. So, new reading glasses for me. But what you don't want while sitting with the optometrist is for her to say, 'well, this is rare and don't worry, but….' Turns out I have a very narrow drainage channel around the iris of my right eye, while increases the risk of Angle closure glaucoma. Everything is fine pressure wise right now, but she gave me a leaflet about symptoms, saying if I get any of those to go straight to the eye infirmary, and I'm now on annual eye checks, which I guess is a good thing.

Rosie finally sent the change of day survey, but along with those came some suggestions to express interest in other options, which sound great if they happen. Included in that, actual cooking demos, well-being walks and various other exercise options. I ticked an interest in all except for badminton, which just sounds like a disaster in the making for me if I tried it.

Then she emailed again yesterday to say the class Monday coming is also cancelled as she's off on annual leave. Which is a shame after also being cancelled this last Monday. But, it can't be helped and as she's getting married later this year, I suspect this is the time Rosie's booked for her hen do.

Yesterday was forecast for heavy rain showers all day, so we decided to go to the cinema. Saw The Salt Path on a 11am morning showing, and really enjoyed it. Left Odeon and went to Subway for dinner, then checked the cinema listings again and saw a screening of Karate Kid -- Legends, was about to start, so went to see that too. The film hasn't been getting good reviews, but I actually liked it, even more so as a load of young teen boys were watching too, and they all started applauding at the end, which made me smile. I also saw the full trailer for the new Downton Abbey film, and I'm looking forward to seeing that later in the year.

Today we've driven to a jumble sale as Cat Lady Kay from Consett Cats had a fund-raising table there, and we wanted to support her. I only bought a book, but left a donation, so it was worth the drive.

This afternoon I intend to catch up here, and feed the tomato plants. Then, more binge-watching of Mobland later. What a show that is, it's got me gripped.
Sunday, June 8th, 2025 12:30 am
I'm still not feeling particularly great, but my brain has at least stopped spiraling quite as badly. So that's something at least. I'm still definitely worried about covering upcoming bills, but it doesn't feel as completely impossible as it did when I made my last post.

If you reached out, thank you very much, and I want you to know that it really did help a lot. 💕

I'm not quite at a point brain-wise where I think that I can send out replies to people without being completely overwhelmed, and - while I'm not going to disable comments on this post like I did earlier - I probably won't be replying to any of them at least for the time being. I'm at a point where human interaction is definitely difficult right now, especially since I need to save up any spoons I can for work on Monday as I'm in the office that day.

After I made my post this afternoon, I got offline for several hours. I forced myself to clean the hotel room before buzzing my hair, taking a shower, bleaching my roots, and putting some dye in my hair to re-up the orange. Honestly, it wasn't much in the grand scheme of things, but it at least helped some.

And then I tried to go to bed early, although that clearly didn't work out very well considering it's a little after midnight and I've given up and am back on the computer. As is often the case when I go to bed too early, my body decided it was intended to be a nap rather than proper sleep, so I'm wide awake again and probably will remain so until at least 3am now.

Still, my spoons continue to be very much in the negative, but I at least feel more like a human being than I did earlier. One step at a time, I suppose?
Saturday, June 7th, 2025 08:53 pm
1. Had a pretty chill day at home. Didn't go anywhere other than the farmers market and library.

2. Jasper is suuuuuuuper snuggly with Carla gone. He's come and cuddled on my lap three times today.

3. I got the Switch 2 set up! I don't know why the downloads are so slow today but it's taking ages to download Mario Kart World and the updated versions of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, but Mario Kart did finally finish so I got to try that out and it's so good!

4. After saying that about Tuxie the other day now he's been here every day for the past week, so maybe he's decided he likes it better here than wherever else he was going after all.

Saturday, June 7th, 2025 04:43 pm
Currently Reading
Murder in Season
33%. Most recent in the Lady of Letters series. Still enjoying this series, but compared to other recent historical mystery series that I'm also following, this one is very noticeably lacking queer and non-white characters. I also don't love the style of writing (everyone's eyes are always changing color with their emotions and the love interest is a former sailor so the MC is always describing his scent with ocean-y words but he literally has not been out to sea in ages so it makes no sense), but the mysteries are fun.

Riding the Rails
20%.

How Jesus Became God: The Exaltation of a Jewish Preacher from Galilee
37%.

Red Hail
57%.

Architectural Follies in America
73%.

Recently Finished
Murder in Masquerade

Falls to Pieces
Thriller about a woman and her daughter who are on the run from her abusive ex-husband and have been living under new names for the past two years. But then her fiance goes missing, and then her daughter, and she's convinced her ex is behind it. This had some interesting reveals, but mostly it just felt like too many, where each new reveal was like, and now THIS guy can't be trusted and THIS guy is acting shady, etc. It was fine, but I won't be rushing out to read more from this author.

I Hate This Place vol. 1-2
Two volume graphic novel series about a lesbian couple who moves to an isolated farm that one of them has inherited. Farm turns out to be mega haunted and they can never leave the premises again. I liked this quite a lot.

Rock wa Lady no Tashinami Deshite vol. 1
Manga about a girl whose mom remarries into a wealthy family and she's sent to a fancy all-girls school where all the students are super sheltered. In order to become the perfect young lady and make her new family proud, she's determined to leave behind her love of rock instilled in her by her musician father, but then she meets another girl who secretly plays the drums and they decide to form a band. Sounded like a fun plot but the setting was too ridiculous. I don't think I'll be continuing with it.

Bokura no Hentai vol. 1-4
I stumbled across this on an Amazon Japan sale (first volume was free and the rest are all 55 yen each). Reminds me of Hourou Musuko. This focuses on three middle schoolers who meet on a crossdressing forum and then decide to meet up offline. One crossdresses because the boy he likes is only into girls, one because his mom kind of lost it after his sister died and insists that he's his sister so he wears her clothes at home, and one who is trans. (Another character is introduced later who wears a girls' uniform at school just because he prefers it.) I'm really enjoying this one a lot.
Saturday, June 7th, 2025 10:05 am
The Friday Five

1. Have you ever been to summer camp?

No. Not the traditional idea of a summer camp. However, my family would spend the whole summer at our camp on the lake.

2. Have you ever made a s'more?

Yes, and still do. Not quite the same made in the microwave though.

3. Have you ever slept under the stars (no tent/tarp)?

Yes, as a kid. My cousin and I decided it would be a great idea. We made homemade hammocks-the kind only a kid could love- under the apple trees. In the morning, I woke up face-to-face with a cow. Goodness, I haven't thought about that in years.

4. Have you ever had a member of the opposite sex sleep over at your house?

Yes. My husband was the opposite sex. (that sounds so weird to type it out like that)

5. What type of bed do you have (queen, twin, bunk, etc.)?

Queen with a brand new mattress. I just replaced the old one a week ago.
Friday, June 6th, 2025 10:44 pm
1. Got up early to take Carla to the airport this morning. She's going to be visiting family for the next week and a half. She flew out of one of the smaller local airports rather than LAX, which means it was a longer drive to get her there, but it's just so much easier all around. Waaaaaaaay less crowded and much more chill. And not only did she have an easy check-in experience, but the flight arrived in Chicago half an hour early! Plus it's not that far from Disneyland so while I couldn't stop by there today after dropping her off, I will be able to stop in after work before picking her up when she comes back.

2. Last night the power went out at two of our stores, and while one of them came back on during the middle of the night, the other was out until around noon today. Thankfully they were able to keep loss to a minimum with dry ice, but it was a pretty hectic day. One of the things I most like about being the area manager rather than the store manager is that I'm no longer the one who directly has to deal with stuff like this when it happens.

3. When I took a walk around the neighborhood this evening I noticed that the junior high a couple blocks from us has a huge Pride flag out front. And there's a church down the street with one, too.

4. Very glad it's the weekend. Since it's just me, I'm going to save my Disney trips for after work next week (easier to coordinate going directly from work when it's just me) and just stay home and relax during the weekend.

5. This is one of my favorite pictures of Ollie and Jasper ever. Ollie loves plopping down next to (or sometimes on) Jasper and snuggling, and Jasper is not always that into it, but he can be pretty tolerant. He actually stayed like this with Ollie for longer than I thought he would.

Friday, June 6th, 2025 07:18 pm


One of my friends helped design this game! Elliot, who I've been playing D&D with since 2017, has been working on a top secret project for several years now, and he finally got to admit that this was it because the trailer dropped this afternoon.

Honestly, it looks like a lot of fun. And unlike Mario Party, it's not system locked so you and anyone you're playing with can be on different devices. Considering the huge number of game assets that he designed? I'm so very proud of him.
Thursday, June 5th, 2025 09:02 pm
1. I had a nice work from home day. Pretty chill. Got a lot done.

2. My Switch 2 arrived this afternoon! I have not taken it out of the box yet as I do not have time to set it up and transfer all my stuff from the Switch, so I will do that tomorrow or Saturday.

Last night Carla decided to swing by Best Buy just to see what the situation was, thinking that the store would not open until midnight, but actually they were opening at 9pm (midnight for east coast stores). She went by around 10:30, saw a bit of a line but not much but didn't want to hang around until midnight (we still thought that was the timeline) so she came home, and then ended up going back about an hour later to see if they were still open. They were, and they did not have the bundle left, but did have both the system and the cartridge version of Mario Kart, so she got both. Now we both have Switch 2s! Really surprised it was so easy to get one after all the fuss with the preorders. Since she is going out of town tomorrow, she didn't end up setting hers up yet either lol.

3. Gemma is so cute! How is she so cute!?

Thursday, June 5th, 2025 11:58 pm
It's been a long time since I posted a Purrcy pic, I've let The Horrors eat up too much of my emotional energy. Here's what I saw first thing when I woke up the other day--a little latter than I meant to, but it was *so hard* to get out of bed!

And look at those toe beans!

Purrcy the tuxedo tabby is curled in a gentle arch, just waking up. His white fluffy tummy is partly visible, and one front paw is stretched out to pull up a back foot just a little, enough to expose a few pink and black toe beans.
-----------
After an exciting session of tail!shenanigans in the empty shelf, Purrcy sat down as a rather plump loaf and stared at me with both light-green eyebeams.

Purrcy the tuxedo tabby sits in loaf position on an empty white shelf, facing front, white whiskers outspread, light green eyes staring intently at the viewer.

----
Sometimes #Purrcy gets overstimulated and wants his playtime to involve Fierce Fighting With Mom. I'm trying to train him to go for alternatives that do NOT involve human bloodshed -- like displacement scratching, that works!
#cats #CatsOfBluesky

Purrcy the tuxedo tabby is on his cat perch, fur on his back raised, pupils dialated, one paw raised as though about to thwap the person holding the camera. He is not joking!

Purrcy the tuxedo tabby crouches on his cat perch, scratching at the corner as he glares at the camera. The fur on his back is standing up, his pupils are dialated, he is NOT happy with the human




There was a mess-up with one of my prescriptions, and I went off one of my "minor" brain meds cold turkey this week. By today it was NOT minor, but I finally got the right pills and within 30 minutes I felt like myself again. And then had to have a nap, because mania does NOT lead to adequate sleep.

Fortunately, my family could tell what was going on and mostly refused to engage, and didn't hold it against me. But I've had enough therapy recently talking about my mother & our relationship that I can now really see why a friend who's a shrink told me years ago, "You know your mother's bipolar, right?"

I mean, I took her word for it, diagnosing people was her *job*. But I really *felt* it today, when I realized that I'd been having a (mild-medium) manic episode and I was reacting to things *just the way my mother did*.

So. I'll make sure to remember those feelings--which include a fair bit of paranoia as well as driving intensity--and know what to call them, and look first for the chemical imbalance behind them, knowing that they lie.

"Trust your feelings" yeah no, I like *data*.
Thursday, June 5th, 2025 09:28 am
Pet peeve of mine: Superhero/supervillain AUs that aren't clear on the degree of villainy involved. Is this the kind of supervillain who commits elaborate art heists, or the kind of supervillain who blows up a hospital? Just showing them fighting superheroes doesn't make that clear. I want to assume it's the former in e.g. a civilian/supervillain romance but how am I meant to judge just how careless the civilian is acting if the fic doesn't say one way or the other.
Thursday, June 5th, 2025 01:05 am
In tonight's game, the rest under a cut for those who don't care. )

And that's where we left off.
Wednesday, June 4th, 2025 09:18 pm
1. We finished another puzzle today. This one was a lot of fun!



2. I got the shipping notification from Best Buy on my Switch 2! It's supposed to arrive tomorrow, which I was not expecting at all because when I did the preorder they weren't guaranteeing launch day delivery. I never did get an email from Nintendo about preordering directly from them, so we're planning to check out Target tomorrow and see if they have any for sale in store, so we can each have one.

3. We had a nice morning at Disneyland. It was a little muggy but the temps were fairly low and it was nice and overcast. Started to get busy as we were leaving, but it wasn't very crowded at all earlier, which was nice.

4. Uploading the picture of the lego shelf yesterday made me realize I still haven't posted pics of the inside of the garage since it's been completed. It's still got a ways to go decorating-wise. We've got art we want to put on the walls, and more stuff to display, and it could use a few more pieces of furniture, but it has enough that it feels pretty lived-in now. I use it every day for the exercise machine and working on puzzles, and Carla goes out daily to read and listen to music (and also work on puzzles).

Read more... )

5. The other day I looked in the cat tree and saw Chloe was lying on her back in one of the cubbies like a silly girl.