CONfabulation

It's the weekend! First, I work for 4 hours, but then I have most of the weekend stretching out in front of me. What shall I do with it? No fucking clue. We're staying in, because no one wants to risk getting Jess sick in the lead up to their surgery.

I'd like to assemble a rocking chair, but we'll see if we feel up to it. It would also be good to get this cling wrap on the bottom half of the back door, so Yoda can't see out, but that's probably going to be a pain in the ass. We shall see.

Yesterday was very busy, as my coworker who does the calls was out and everything came to me. Which is fine. It definitely makes the day faster. I had probably 7-9 emails for people to call, and most took 2 calls. I still did 41 calls for the day. It was busy.

Unfortunately, it looks like our friend isn't going to be able to go on the Alaskan cruise, so I've asked my sister, who shocked the hell out of us by saying yes. It means the dog is going to be boarded for 10 days, so I was not thinking that she'd go for it. But apparently, the videos we've been watching were too much. It'll mean adding an extra excursion, because she wants to pet the dogsled puppies, but I'm okay with that. We've already booked whale watching in Juneau, and then we're also planning to do the Whtie Pass Railway in Skagway. The musher camp is also in Skagway. Ketchikan, we're debating. There's a native program that's possible and the lumberjack show. But I'm' not sold on either. I'd be okay with just wandering around Creek Street and then going back to the boat. We'll see what everyone wants to do.

Amazingly, to add my sister to the room, it was only $600. Which is super cheap compared to the original fares. I guess we paid for the room, and then the add on is just to cover the cost of food.

We're going to fuck up some lovely food. Holland america is supposed to have some of the best cruise food, so I'm really looking forward to it.

We're considering two specialty dining experiences. One is the Pinnacle Grill for lunch. The second is Tamarind for dinner on one of the sea days or the glacier day.

I'm going to be blasphemous and say that the glaciers are cool, but I'm not super excited about seeing them. I mean, I may feel differently when confronted with the majesty of nature, but right now I'm just like "I get an extra day to prowl the ship? More Bossche Balls for me!"

Okay, I desperately need a shower before I start work, so I'm going to go do that. Everyone have an amazing Saturday!

It's Friday! And while it may not be a long weekend, especially since I'm working tomorrow, it is going to be 1 3/4 days with nothing planned. Fortunately, we have a metric ton of videos about our ship, and about cruising that we can watch.

Jess' surgery is now in 6 days! It's creeping up! They feel like time is crawling, I know. But it'll be next Thursday in no time!

We're staying in Chevy Chase the night before the surgery. Jess needs to be there about 10am (assuming that the surgery time doesn't get moved due to cancellations) which would have put us in the heart of rush hour. Just wasn't worth the risk of being late. Instead, we're staying about 5 minutes away. And the hotel has breakfast for me, which will be nice. I won't have to schlep to the cafeteria to get shitty coffee.

Yesterday, I was so tired. I had too much sleep debt and I was dragging. I went to bed, and fell asleep before I knew it. I don't even remember if we did our normal podcast. I just crashed. I feel much less tired today, which is nice.

My suitcase came yesterday! It's enormous and gorgeous. I got a dark blue, because I figured that would be easier to pick out on the carousel. I also got my second "formal night" dress. It's from Lane Bryant and is just as pretty as I thought it would be. It's this dress right here.

Today, some fleece lined leggings should arrive. I think that's it. Lands end still hasn't shipped my order, which is annoying, and Universal Standard just sent me the shipping info, but it hasn't gone out yet.

That is about all that I ordered so far. I do think I'm going to look for different underwear. The ones I have now are not moisture wicking at all. Bras I'm okay on, definitely need more socks, though. But they can be next paycheck, or the paycheck after that. No rush. It's still 247 days before we leave.

Okay, time go get myself together for work. Everyone have an outstanding Friday!

I slept much better last night, thankfully. Of course, now I am somewhat stiff from laying in one place without moving all night. I got up around 3 to hit the bathroom, and immediately fell back asleep when I got back into bed. It was lovely.

Nothing planned today, just going to work and then relax. Maybe I'll cook dinner, maybe not. I've got stuff to make grown up grilled cheese--boursin cheese, gouda and green apples. You use the vegetable peeler to make thin strips of apple, to make it easy to eat. It's very tasty. You can do variations, but I like the plain old sandwich. Though I do love proscuttio and Serrano jamon.

I need to see which of the butchers we used had the beef for cream chipped beef. I never used it for that, just as a snack, and I'm kind of craving it.

We had game last night, which was super fun, despite being tired. My character is quietly turning into a femme fatale. Just, you know, a senior citizen femme fatale. They're trying to find information on where our friend Andy's girlfriend is being held, and she's wearing an ivory colored pantsuit. She knows that the antagonist's husband has the hots for her, so she decided to take the shirt off from under the jacket, to properly show off her chest region in hopes that she could get him to spill. Barring that, she's a master at throat punching.

I'm going to need life to be slightly less shitty to my friends. I've got one, who is a singer and musician by trade, who is having horrible sore throat and the doctor says that she's too young for it to be something dire, so they're not ordering the tests for anything. I want to go over to Scandinavia and kick that doctor.

Much more likely, I want to go to a friend's work and smack someone. (This one is only an hour away!) The one thing that's saving them is that we're avoiding going out until after Jess' surgery.

Down to 1 week now!

We don't have any more games between now and then, which is weird. A lot of people are away this week, so we didn't schedule anything. I haven't been enjoying one shots as much as campaigns, so I'm not running one, though I was tempted.

Some of my stuff came yesterday, which was nice. I now have warm, rainproof baseball hats, with ear flaps. Also some luggage tags. Today, our first suitcase comes, which will be nice.

And on that note, I shall go forth and get myself some more coffee and get dressed. Everyone have an awesome Thursday!

It's Wednesday and good lord I'm tired. I've had a couple of shitty sleep nights in the last couple of days, including last night where I could. not. get. to. sleep. It was annoying and I did not enjoy it.

Yesterday was a quiet day. My back was really bothering me, so after I finished work, I had a gummy and relaxed. They definitely help the pain, and only seem to make me a bit mellow, so that's nice. We just made fish filets and fries, so that was pretty labor light. Not sure what I'm making tonight. I really want the box of Kraft mac and cheese in my pantry, so it might be that.

I did not realize how angry I am about our current regime until I was replying to a friend's post this morning. I'm angry that I have to go about my normal life while the world burns down, and angry that my plans for our trip feel silly and frivolous because of it. And I can't do anything about it. I can call and write my senators and reps, which I do, but they don't seem to be doing anything. I'm fed up with 90% of the democratic party, honestly. I'm still going to vote for them, but with a handful of exceptions (Looking at you Mamdani and Pritzker.) I don't feel like they're willing to break the status quo. They're not angry enough. Much as I hate to borrow a line from a sex pest: Angry gets shit done. So I'm going to need them to get angry real fucking soon.

In other news, Jess' surgery is now 8 days away! I think we've got everything we need at this point for their recuperation. I think the hardest part is going to be the inactivity. The first few weeks, they can't lift anything over 2lbs. It's going to be tough for them to sit and relax.

My packages started arriving yesterday. I went on a bit of a spree, getting things we'll need for our trip. Yesterday, I got a windbreaker jacket and a fleece shirt. I love this fucking fleece. I want to burrow in it and not come out. Today, our hats and luggage tags, tomorrow more stuff, and then on Thursday one of our big luggage bags. Need to clean out the foyer closet to put those. I'm done buying for the moment. Now I'm just going to settle my ass down. I'm really looking forward to my Lands End order, but it still hasn't shipped.

We're slowly amassing what we need for May in Alaska, which also coincides with what we'll need for Maryland in winter. It's almost time to switch over to long leggings instead of shorts. I can't wait for the cooler weather to hit. It's been relatively cool for the last few week, in the high 70's and low 80's, and I've been enjoying it. Friday it's supposed to hit 86, but next week, we're back in the 70's. They're predicting nice weather for Jess' surgery day, which is nice. I hate DC traffic enough without adding weather into it.

We're going to our hotel on Wednesday evening, probably arriving around 8. Right now, surgery is scheduled for 12, which means getting to the hospital at 10am. There's no roundabouts going to the hotel, and one going to the hospital. I'll allow extra time to arrive, of course. It's almost guaranteed that I'll miss the exit from the roundabout the first time.

Okay, time for me to hop off and start preparing for work. I need to hard boil some eggs for breakfast. Everyone have an outstanding Wednesday!

It's the second day of a glorious three day weekend! I have a game today, but nothing else going on. I'm just going to take it easy, and maybe, if I feel particularly productive (unlikely), I'll put our patio furniture together. It might be nice for Jess to have a hard backed chair post surgery, so we'll see.

We're down to 11 days til said surgery! I'm nervous mostly about the drive back from DC with a newly sliced spouse. I just fucking hate all the roundabouts. I miss my exit every time. I'll manage, and we'll get home, it just will be stressful. I'd say we could stay another night and leave midday, but they're going to pump Jess full of topical anesthetics, so I want to use them to their benefit, and not have them doing a car ride on just tylenol and alleve, since it doesn't appear that their surgeon is going to prescribe any narcotics. Which miffs me, but instead we went to the dispensary and bought $102 worth of weed.

I woke up earlier than I'd like for a day off, though so did Jess. I was dozing after waking at my normal time, and my brain decided to be a jerk and give me nightmares. There was a video on tiktok about a chick taking a gondola ride, and they went under a really low bridge and got stuck. So my brain decided that would be fun at 6am.

I continue to look online for things about Alaska (I'm sorry, you're all going to be sick of hearing about it.) We're starting to look at restaurants in ports, and things to do. We're limiting ourselves to one excursion per port. So far, in Ketchican, it's looking like in Ketchikan it's the visit to the Alaskan Native villiage, and the Lumberjack show combo. Skagway will probably be the White Pass Railway, and Juneau will be an evening whale watching tour. None of them have a lot of walking, since I'm not trying to do a fucking marathon while I'm on vacation. I expect that we'll be back on the ship early most days. These are relatively small towns, and there's usually three or four cruise ships who are in dock on any given day.

I think while we're in Juneau, especially, we're going to get a taxi for a few hours. It's a larger port, and things are a bit spread out. Especially if we want to go anywhere outside the port.

Okay, time for me to go forth and do nothing for a while til game. Everyone have the best Sunday!

I did not want to get up this morning. The alarm went off and I just laid there for a minute like "Really? It's that time again?" And indeed it was. I slept okay, though I had some trouble getting to sleep. I love my body, which is prone to throw random bits of anxiety at me at bedtime. It's obnoxious. Not usually anything bad, or anything I can put my finger on, I'm just anxious.

I continue t work my hyperfixation on the cruise. I'm currently making lists of what I need to get for packing and shore excursions. Fortunately, there's about 10million videos on youtube, so I'lve been watching some of them.

I'm having serious debate between taking a plane from Seattle to Vancouver. It's only 3 hours away, so I'm quite sure it'll be up and down. I just haven't decided. There's a tram that goes from the airport to the waterfront that would be convenient. But on the other hand, it might be nice to see some scenery from the train. I don't know, I'm still debating.

On one hand, it would save us 3 hours on a train and it's conciderably cheaper. On the other, it would mean more time in the airport. Probably about 50/50. I'll think on it and talk to Jess.

Jess had their final preop yesterday. They are cleared for surgery! Today marks under 2 weeks! 13 days and counting! They're very excited, and more than ready.

We were somewhat busy yesterday. Lots of phone calls, lots of people to work in. It was a lot. Hopefully a little quieter today.

We have a pile of games this weekend. Frostmaiden tonight, Arvandor tomorrow and then Strixhaven (which I just play in) on Sunday. It should be a fun weekend. I also have to make sure to get down to Silver Spring to get our second meat pack, which is mostly for poisontaster.

I'm going to I need to look at my maps, and see which ones I need to upload for tonight. Tomorrow's is pretty well set up, so that doesn't require much in the way of prep.

Okay, time to go forth and put on pants and get ready for the day. Everyone have an excellent Friday!