Tag Archives: Animals

A Sunset Stroll In Aventura ๐Ÿฆ†

Recently our partner and I went for a walk in Aventura. It was overcast, with some thunder and lighting, tree covered all the way, and so pleasant. We saw many doggies and also these ducks!

They were very friendly. The moment I crouched down for photos they surrounded me!

This is surely due to people feeding, not a great thing. But they were very cute.

Halloween Horror Nights + Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party ๐ŸŽƒ

Hi, everyone! I had about a week’s break between the cruise and this long-awaited Orlando trip. It was pretty awesome! I got right to blogging about it, although, just like with the cruise post, I didn’t decorate the photos. I just don’t have time at the moment.

This was my first time going to Halloween Horror Nights and Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party. I especially loved our time at Universal, with all of the Chucky stuff and the Jurassic Park 30th Anniversary special things. Let me tell you about it!

๐Ÿ’”๐Ÿ˜ฟ Dropping Kotoko Off ๐Ÿ˜ฟ๐Ÿ’”

Up until now, I’ve never been very concerned about leaving our cats to fend for themselves for a few days –three days is my max without someone dropping by. They have each other for company, I have cameras all over the house, litter boxes are plentiful, and I leave enough food and water available that it never runs out before we return.

But Kotoko is old now and needs multiple medications per day, as well as extra encouragement to eat. So, for the first time, we dropped her off at Christopher’s mom’s house on our way to Orlando (this was on Saturday morning). It’s about two hours to get there, and Kotoko pooped in the crate within the first ten minutes. Joy! Thankfully we were fairly well-prepared, though we did have to stop to clean up and buy some wipes (the one thing I forgot to pack).

Now that we have the Hyundai IONIQ, we have to stop for charges more often than we did for gas (but it’s cheaper and we’ve never loved a car more. It is so comfortable!) We had to do this once on the way, and we stopped to let Kotoko out for a stroll since she wouldn’t run away. Even if something were to startle her, she is far too old and stiff. But there was no one around, anyway. And we watched the skies just in case of a hawk or something.

Here are some photos of her stretching her ol’ creaky leggies:

We dropped Kotoko off shortly afterwards, and after some breakfast, arrived in Orlando just before noon.

๐Ÿธ๐Ÿ˜ Our Hotel ๐Ÿ˜๐Ÿธ

Our partner booked us a stay at the Loews Royal Pacific Resort. This is one of Universal’s own resorts which means you get extra park perks, including admission to Chucky’s Twisted Playground. It’s also a four-star hotel. I’m not sure if I’ve ever stayed in one before; I certainly can’t remember ever being in such a very luxurious hotel before.

Granted, luxury isn’t everything. I’ll never forget staying at Disney’s Art of Animation Resort with Christopher. It may not have been four stars, but it was unforgettable too.

My favorite thing was the fountain with the elephants in the middle:

The grounds were unbelievably beautiful. Turtles could be spotted sunning themselves among multitudes of lily pads.

Cute frogs lined the walkway that led to the lobby:

While these are all the photos I took, our room was gorgeous too. The beds were queen-sized, but that meant I got more cuddles. ๐Ÿ˜

๐Ÿฆ– First Day At Universal ๐Ÿฆ–

I would go on (and regret) a single coaster on this trip, as you may know, I cannot stand them. I am not afraid for my life. I just hate the feeling of high speed and drops, no matter how small. I hate them in kiddy coasters, even. I hate it so much that if our partner lifts me up in his arms and spins me around, I can start crying very quickly from the mild stomach-drop feeling that even such a spin gives me.

For me, it’s one of the worst feelings in the world, but I always end up getting pressured anyway. I didn’t give in to the famous (or infamous, depending on who you talk to) Jurassic World VelociCoaster. But I loved getting to see some of the queue and statues:

Here’s a little video:

After some time in the park and a wonderful lunch at a very nicely themed restaurant, we went back to our hotel to freshen up. Then we returned to the park for Halloween Horror Nights.

I was very apprehensive about the scare zones, and we had to go through one to get to our first haunted house. But thankfully, the first scare zone was funny and honestly cute. It was called “Vamp โ€˜69 Summer of Blood” and was all hippie zombies. I am glad we got there early because this was a very colorful zone, much better in the daytime. I loved it and wished I’d dared take a photo with one of the performers. But I was so busy enjoying myself that I didn’t take any pictures of this area.

Once past this zone, we did our first haunted house, Chucky’s Ultimate Kill Count!

Between hiding my face because of strobes and being terrified, I think I saw 60-70% of it. But I really enjoyed it. Unfortunately, I hurt Christopher in my fear. I grabbed his arm so tightly that he had severe bruising on it even after the weekend. I even bit him once, somehow… I guess his arm was too close to my face when I screamed. I felt really bad.

This photo spot was at what I thought was the end but wasn’t. It was maybe the middle?

After this, we went to do the YETI: Campground Kills house. This would be my last house. I was so overwhelmed by the flashing, the intense screaming, and not being able to keep my face against Christopher’s arm (we had to move faster) that I was crying when I came out.

Since I refused to do any more houses, the boys convinced me to try the Revenge of the Mummy ride. After watching some videos, I really thought it might be okay. Even with the first few, unpleasant scary/fast/going-backward elements, right up to when the real coaster part kicked in, I thought I would be okay. But I really wasn’t.

It’s such a pity because even though I didn’t love it at first, I felt safer than on any other coaster I’ve been on until now, and as it slowly progressed I felt more and more hopeful. But when it shot up in speed and the drops and curves began… I didn’t panic, but I felt so BAD. It’s not queasiness, but I think it’s the worst physical feeling I could ever have, that isn’t actual pain.

I never want anyone to feel what I feel on a coaster, but I’m sure anyone who did would never ask me to ride one again. It is just the worst. By the time the ride was over before we were fully stopped, I was full-on sobbing. I think part of the reason for that was that I was so upset that I couldn’t take it. I really wanted to make them proud, but I couldn’t force myself to enjoy something my body hates so very much.

So… that was the end of rides for me since they only did coasters that day.

We met up with our friends later in the evening and walked around the park drinking together. We also saw a wonderful show, Nightmare Fuel Revenge Dream, which I really enjoyed. Our friend Ana had a Chucky-related surprise for me which I’ll show you later in this post.

We got back to the hotel past 2:00 a.m. and were more tired than we would be on any other day. Our feet hurt so much, and Christopher’s back was killing him. But it was a very fun day.

๐ŸŽƒ Mickey’s Not-So-Scary Halloween Party ๐ŸŽƒ

For some context on just how utterly exhausted we were, we didn’t even wake up until like, 1:00 p.m. on this day (Sunday). After a shower and a scarfed-down sushi lunch, we were on our way to Magic Kingdom.

So hot. So much queueing, so much rushing and waiting. I saw this Woody just chilling in a girl’s backpack. It made me giggle.

In fact, I saw many adults with toys at the park (I mean adults without visible children or strollers). Usually, the toy was cheerfully peeking out of a bag, just like that. It always made me smile. And no, I didn’t have a stuffie friend with me at any point, even though I brought Beta and E.T. on the trip. It really was too hot to carry them.

๐ŸŒน Dining At Be Our Guest ๐ŸŒน

This was one of the nicest experiences we had this weekend and a highly anticipated one at that. Our partner worked so very hard to get us reservations months in advance. Here’s the three of us at the entrance:

And waiting to be called in the Beast’s sitting room:

I took a photo of our just-married friends, Jessie and Ana, too:

This place is basically a Beauty and The Beast fan’s wet dream. I’ll let the photos speak for themselves.

The Beast wasn’t going table to table, but I was able to get some photos of him:

We got so lucky to be placed in the coolest room within this restaurant, with all the ripped drapes and the enchanted rose! Christopher loved it.

This happened a few times per hour:

I really tried not to overeat so I could enjoy the desserts but was still pretty full and couldn’t finish them all. They were delicious and so pretty!

We took photos next to the rose. I got some video, too! A petal fell every once in a while.

Now for the pics. Christopher and I…

With our partner…

And Jessie and Ana:

I was able to get a better picture of the beautiful entrance with our partner:

And I took a photo of Jessie and Ana by Cinderella’s Wishing Well:

I’m always happy to see Huey, Louie, and Dewey around!

I took this photo of Main Street as we were walking towards our spot to watch Mickey’s Boo to You Halloween Parade. It looked so pretty:

Even more sparkly in video!

We had reservations for Disney’s Not-So-Spooky Spectacular Dessert Party for after the parade. It was a much nicer way to enjoy the fireworks show!

๐ŸŒˆ Last Day At Universal ๐ŸŒˆ

We checked out pretty early so we could have one last enjoyable morning at the parks. Here’s Christopher as we waited for our partner to bring the car around.

Once at the parks, I got Christopher’s photo with his beloved DeLorean time machine:

๐ŸŒš E.T. Adventure ๐ŸŒš

I was so happy to finally be able to go on the E.T. Adventure ride. Iโ€™m not actually 100% sure if I went on it maybe some 19 years ago, or if I saw a video of it. It felt slightly familiar. In any case, I loved it. Our partner treated me to this photo souvenir after we rode it:

The photographer allowed me to take photos of the other display which was also an option that one could do instead of the bike:

๐Ÿฆ• Jurassic Park 30th Anniversary Tribute Store ๐Ÿฆ•

For Jurassic Park’s 30th anniversary, Universal had a special store with many wonderful photo-op displays and memorabilia. I had a limited amount of time to spend here, but here’s an article that goes into a lot of detail about this incredible place.

This is what greeted you as you walked in:

The maquettes on display were very cool:

Raptor selfie!

Other cool odds-and-ends:

A very neat display of old merch:

I hope I get another chance to go here before they close it. There was so much more I didn’t get to see!

๐ŸŽ€ Hello Kitty Store ๐ŸŽ€

They had a very cute Hello Kitty store! I was a bit taken aback by the merch… some of it was downright bizarre, but very unique and cool!

๐Ÿ”ช๐Ÿฉธ Chucky’s Twisted Playground ๐Ÿฉธ๐Ÿ”ช

We did this at the very end, before getting on the road. How glad I was not to miss it! First, we had a LONG walk to the hotel where this attraction had been tucked in. It was hot, but it was such a beautiful day:

Christopher somehow was a trooper throughout, even though he was so worn out.

Finally, we made it. It was a series of photo-ops, basically. I loved it!

I was able to get a bunch of cool photos. After all, that’s why we were there. This first batch is all the photos we’re in (well, mostly me):

And here’s the rest. I loved this place and was so happy I didn’t miss out on seeing it. The dolls definitely struck me more as movie-Chucky than TV show-Chucky, though. His pupils were really small, making him more scary and less cute (but I love Chucky in any form!).

๐Ÿ’•๐Ÿ˜บ Heading Home With Kotoko ๐Ÿ˜บ๐Ÿ’•

While Kotoko ruled the cats-and-dog roost that is my mom-in-lawโ€™s house, she spent the weekend looking for us and missed us terribly. As soon as I opened the door she began meow-screaming in joy. It broke my heart, but also made me happy to see her affection. I picked her up and held her and she kept rubbing her face all over mine, and her purr sounded like a motorcycle. She is a deeply loving and affectionate old cat.

Once in the car, she kept purring all the way home on Christopherโ€™s lap. If I turned around and said her name, she kneaded the air and squinted happily.

We had another charging stop, where Kotoko got to enjoy walking around one more time.

โœจ๐ŸŽ Goodies! ๐ŸŽโœจ

I am so happy with the souvenirs I got. My favorite one is this baby Dronkey from Shrek! I couldnโ€™t believe I found one. Our partner got it for me.

As I mentioned earlier, our friend Ana surprised me with a lovely gift of a Chucky fan. I love it so much I could hardly bear to use it. Iโ€™m going to put it somewhere in my studio, or maybe in the movie room.

I also got a Chucky bucket hat! Itโ€™s reversible. I love it so much!

I got three E.T. souvenirs. Our partner got me the lanyard and lanyard pocket which I used throughout the weekend:

And I got this E.T. glass and plush keychain:

This was a wonderful trip. Of all the times I’ve been to Universal, this time I enjoyed myself the most of all by far… even if I cried twice. ๐Ÿ˜… I would go again next weekend if I could. I loved it so much!

But we are done traveling for a while, and I can certainly use the break. Maybe I’ll become a little more active on my blog again. We will see! For now, I thank you very much for reading.

Kitty Quality Time ๐Ÿฑ

Today I finally got around to watching Season 3 of The Mandalorian. I’m only about three episodes in. While I watched from the couch, where I was working on art for The Tale Of Horus and Master Sequin’s Assistants, I was pretty amused by Rosie who was having a tremendously good time watching the critters on the birdfeeder. I gave her an old laptop desk to lay on, which is the perfect height for this purpose:

She really loves kickin’ that towel, too. ๐Ÿ˜…

Just Kotoko. She hadn’t used this bed in a while. Our little old lady is still living happily.

On this evening I slept on my own bed (it doesn’t happen too often). I took a photo of this corner of the bed because it makes me smile. My bedding, decorative pillow, and curtains are all Mandalorian themed, and of course I keep Grogu there with me. I might take him with my when I visit my mom this week.

Once I got in bed, Kotoko and Rosie came to lay with me. You can easily see how happy Rosie is to be with me at night. I’ve never felt so loved by a cat before Rosie, though she is pretty independent.

Of course, I adore her too. She’s my favorite cat that I’ve ever had.

Owls Are Back!! ๐Ÿฆ‰

There are many burrowing owl nests (well, burrows) in Pembroke Pines. The one on Pines Boulevard is the one you might remember me sharing photos and video of the most.

After some construction happened nearby, the protected burrow remained, signs and all, but the little owls fled. They did not come back for months. I was thrilled to see one again during my walk today, and recorded this little clip!

Week 28 Summary: The Studio Revamp Is Complete! …Now What? ๐Ÿ˜–

This will be the last Weekly Summary! Going forward, I am going back to a more or less daily format. So, let’s get right to it… what happened this week? Christopher was gone on a work-related trip, the studio revamp was completed, and I spent a lot of its aftermath in a perpetual “I’m drawing personal art any minute now. Oh boy! It’s gonna happen! It’s gonna… uuuh…”

Let’s just say it’s been a struggle.

Thank you in advance to anyone who comments on this post! Though it may take me a little while to reply, your comments mean so much to me! ๐Ÿ’˜โœจ๐Ÿ’•

๐ŸŒˆ Monday ๐ŸŒˆ

On Monday, Christopher left for Natia. Whenever he travels I tend to go a bit nuts and blow my bedtime. We went to Kimchi Mart and got a huge amount of snacks as well as wine at ABC. While I spent the day doing things around the house, in the late afternoon and evening I got drunk, stuffed my face and played WoW. It was fantastic. ๐Ÿ˜

Then, in the evening, I slept with Kotoko and Rosie. But I wasn’t a good substitute for Christopher… Kotoko was not pleased.

๐ŸŒˆ Tuesday ๐ŸŒˆ

On Tuesday I finally put all the bins into storage and then took care of Mothball. I dusted him, surface-washed him with gentle soap, rinsed him off, disinfected him with Clorox mist, and dried him in the hot Florida sun for hours. Then I cut off the loose threads that he had and the leftover bit of glue in his paw, and fixed the scratches on his face and feet with furniture markers. Finally, he got brushed and dressed up!

I think he looks a lot happier now, wouldn’t you agree?

I moved most of the stuff that was displayed on the corkboard above my computer to the one in the bunk-bed. This is where my traditional badges used to be, but I decided to put all my badges away.

With the writing desk against the bed, the entire area is darker and the lights look even prettier. I don’t often sleep in this bed, but when I do, I love reading or gaming in it before I sleep, with all the pretty lights on.

A little more WoW before bed on this day. It’s been bringing me a lot of joy.

I slept on my own bed for a couple of nights this week. Rosie was so happy about it.

๐ŸŒˆ Wednesday ๐ŸŒˆ

On Wednesday I zoomed with my mom and did a bit of digital art. I was still doing odds and ends around the house and sort of mentally resetting. But I got this cute video of some birds interacting. A woodpecker even happened to come to the feeder as I was recording!

๐ŸŒˆ Thursday ๐ŸŒˆ

This print of Horus came in the mail on Thursday! The drawing was made by Cody, AKA Pukopop. Cody is an amazing artist. I set to choose one drawing to make into a print and display after the studio change, and it was this one. It came out so good!

This is where I put it. It’s a 12 x 12 print:

As of Thursday I was still been bits of housework as I waited for my stool to arrive. Cleaned one bathroom, organized stuff in the kitchen, played a little WoW. I finally fixed my Furby, Sour Cream, whose ears needed to be sewn back into place, and went through old sketchbooks and did more book formatting.

I came to realize that I need to set new solid goals. It can’t merely be “I’m going to work on my stuff now” or even “I’m going to work on finish these chapters of Meganeea soon”. It has to be as strict as my commissions were, such as “I’m going to finish, illustrate and post two chapters per month”. Without goals, there is no progress.

Anyway, on this night Christopher finally came home! I missed him very, very much.

๐ŸŒˆ Friday ๐ŸŒˆ

โœจ The Studio Is Finished!! โœจ

When I woke up on Friday I knew it was time to set new goals or I would just keep doing housework, drinking wine and playing WoW and that…. well, isn’t ideal. I set myself a few book and art related goals as well as goals for chores of that day, and, after breakfast and a shower, set right to work as soon as the stool was delivered, which happened in the morning.

So here’s the new look of the studio, viewed from my digital art work area! You can see that a bookcase was removed, and this entire wall is dedicated to my personal art. Already, a brand new piece is on the corkboard, and my side table is there from the inking I’d been doing a while prior.

My dinosaur books have been moved to a shelf in this room for easy access while I work on my parasaurolophus novel, Fern’s Path:

Here’s my drawing board with the first two pieces I am set on finishing:

Here’s the left corner (behind the writing desk) and the right corner (with art supplies)…

…and the door, which serves as yet another display for art:

The top of the writing desk has all of these decorations as well as all my writing-related reference books, and you can see how my writing computer is set up also, with Scrivener on the screen:

A close-up of one of my favorite canvas prints. I hope I can do colored pencil work like this again.

I added this little ceramic pencil to my digital art area:

And that’s it! I think it’s pretty perfect now. I can actually “think” here.

๐ŸŒˆ Saturday ๐ŸŒˆ

On Saturday I played WoW for a while. Tomoyo was feeling very cuddly.

She’s so cute and empty-brained. I love her.

๐ŸŒˆ Sunday ๐ŸŒˆ

I made chicken curry for Saturday night dinner. I hadn’t made curry in a while, it turned out pretty good. Because the AC is still broken downstairs, we didn’t watch TV, and instead ate at our respective comfy spots.

That’s kind of it… I put off writing this post, which means I forgot a bunch of what happened. ๐Ÿคทโ€โ™€๏ธ Oops. I hope you all had a wonderful week, and going forward, I’ll see you all regularly in this space throughout the next!

Week 26 Summary: In Sebastian Again! ๐Ÿ˜Š

I don’t have a big preamble this time around. The rainy and stormy season goes on and on… and on. All of this week I worked on commissions. I also visited my mom, and later in the week, we went to see my mom-in-law! It was a VERY busy one, but I also found time to game and spend time with my toys. Let’s get on with the summary!

Thank you in advance to anyone who comments on this post! Though it may take me a little while to reply, your comments mean so much to me! ๐Ÿ’˜โœจ๐Ÿ’•

๐ŸŒˆ Monday ๐ŸŒˆ

You might recall that last weekend, Kotoko wasn’t doing so well, though she got better later on Sunday. By Monday morning, she was all better, with a strong appetite and bright eyes!

Here’s a little snack I had in the afternoon. I didn’t eat the whole bunny, just a piece.

I saw Bluey yogurt at Publix! I didn’t want it but I took a picture:

In the late afternoon, I made time for WoW and some wine! ๐Ÿท๐ŸŽฎ

I took a few snaps of Stromboli because I love him so much.

Slimy man. Best man.

At some point, I noticed that one of the soots decided to perch upon Ribbon’s head. It was so cute.

After Monday night dinner, Kotoko lounged on our partner’s leg. That was unusual; she usually picks Christopher. But it was adorable.

๐ŸŒˆ Tuesday ๐ŸŒˆ

My pair of Raikes beavers that Christopher so sweetly bought for me arrived on Tuesday! Christopher can usually tell when I am legitimately losing my mind over a certain toy, even if I just came across it. This was one of those cases, and when they arrived, I loved them even more than I thought I would! I’ve named the girl Russet and the boy Yukon because they are just two huge potatoes (and these are actual names; Russet is unisex, while Yukon is a boy’s name):

Their outfits are a little stained from storage and old age, but that’s okay. While I love the look of their outfits, I have to re-dress them anyway as that is a big part of my putting my own touch as I create their personalities.

Here’s Rosie already getting cozy with them:

Speaking of Rosie, here is a perfectly cut scream.

By Tuesday afternoon I’d finished two more commissions:

With this, there was just ONE left! Then I left to visit with mom.

๐ŸŒˆ Wednesday ๐ŸŒˆ

As always, mom had surprises for me. The nicest one was this Mafalda mate gourd! I love it so much. I placed it with my other Mafalda collectibles. I really do want to use it, but I’m so afraid of breaking it.

She also gave me this cute little Ivysaur which I placed in the game room:

๐ŸŒˆ Thursday ๐ŸŒˆ

On Thursday I got around to brushing and dressing Romaine. He looks a lot happier!

I felt pretty exhausted all day since my period was about to hit (and would, the next day). So I napped in the afternoon. Rosie came to lay with me. She was purring and looking into my eyes and seemed so happy.

After I got up, I did more chores and made dinner, and after that, tried to play LEGO with the guys, but couldn’t get very far with my set… I was just so tired. I got ready for bed and after anime, played WoW for a little while, mindlessly hunting for more dragon glyphs.

At one point, as I flew through some dark areas, I turned around and was surprised by a very beautiful spot, glowing and snowing, with a massive dragon flying about. Many of my favorite WoW memories are moments of sudden beauty such as these, at night, with no one else around in-game.

My server is a highly populated one, but few people can be found in some areas at such an hour. So I experience eerie, special moments like this one.

A good while into playing, the message I’d seen a couple of weeks ago popped up again!

It was a very random hour, like 1:15 am? I am not sure why it pops up. I must have turned on some setting at some point on my account, perhaps many years ago, but I can’t find anything about this. In particular, the all-caps and exclamation mark makes me think that it’s something that I myself wrote. Well, in any case, both times it popped up I went “Hmm, it IS late” and decided to stop for the night.

I found a cozy spot to land my dragon and fell asleep with Stromboli, Pippi and Snailio Iglesias keeping watch. Pippi is off camera though.

Right before bed, I took some photos of the freshly-cleaned snail tank. I hung some clover/shamrock lights on top, and it looked very pretty in the dark:

My little guys were just having a nice time, eating, drinking, and going for evening strolls:

๐ŸŒˆ Friday ๐ŸŒˆ

Friday evening we left for Sebastian. I was so excited! I’d seen my mom-in-law when she visited us, but I hadn’t been able to visit her place for a good three months. I brought Raisin for company:

The sun began to set just as we arrived. It was very pretty.

Once we got there, we had chicken nachos while watching my mom-in-law and her friends play cards. I also cuddled and said hi to the cats, whom I hadn’t seen in ages:

We enjoyed each other’s company for the evening and played Blokus.

As usual, Pan got some cuddles from our partner.

We had many plans for Saturday, so we didn’t stay up too late.

๐ŸŒˆ Saturday ๐ŸŒˆ

On Saturday we went to a bunch of really fun antique shops. Actually, the first one was really just a thrift store. I found a few cool books. One, in particular, was a super bizarre addition to my “material to indoctrinate children” collection:

I’ll just give you a few sample pages. It’s… interesting, to say the least. On the surface, it seems pretty harmless, and certainly is compared to other material I have on my shelves, but it’s pretty out there regardless.

With that said: I mean no disrespect if this sort of thing forms part of your spiritual comfort. I’ve generally made it known, however, that having been a Christian most of my life (now somewhere between Agnostic and Atheist) and indoctrinated into Catholicism from a very early age, I have strong feelings regarding indoctrinating children into any sort of religious belief. I think it’s confusing at best, and with some subsets of religion, actual child abuse at worst (Sky Daddy loves you very much, but if you don’t love him more than your own mom and dad, he’ll burn you in a fire forever! Wait, WHAT?)

This isn’t one of those cases, it’s just a little weird, but then again I haven’t read the whole book yet. Some things seem harmless on the surface (the placebo effect of believing you can heal yourself isn’t necessarily bad and can even help) but its wording appears to be setting the ground for believing in actual spiritual healers, which regularly scam people and sometimes keep them from seeking actual medical help. So… .๐Ÿคทโ€โ™€๏ธ

Anyway! I also got these two:

I’m super excited to read this one!

The second store had lots of interesting things, but it was the sort of place where the owner was very attached to his collection. So, his prices were somewhat unreasonable, in some cases he didn’t know the value of the items offhand, or I, being fairly knowledgeable about some toys, knew that they were massively overpriced. But it was still delightful to browse!

I happened to run into a porcelain doll I liked for the first time ever. Porcelain usually really turns me off as a material. Had she been more reasonably priced, I would have probably bought her. She looked so sweet and it would have been nice to make her pretty again.

The next store was mostly furniture, but the building used to be a bank! You could look inside the old vaults, which was really interesting. I also saw a couple of interesting animal figures. The little mouse perched upon a piece of Roquefort was my favorite.

The final stop was actually a bunch of vendors under one massive roof. It was the Wildwood Antique Mall. After we all went in, our partner was nowhere to be seen. It was because he’d found this massive moth outside and stayed back to take a picture:

Moths are so pretty. I really love them.

It was really interesting to come across a little pride booth. This isn’t really an area where I would feel safe setting up such a booth. This person, I felt, was brave.

Anyway, this place had so many cute things, I had to restrain myself all the while. I knew I could probably get one treat so I had to choose carefully. I took photos of many lovely or interesting things:

It was so cool to see a Maple Town lunch box! The dinosaur was a Universal Parks item, and very well made. I am eager to see what I may find when we go in September. The Thomas pillow was the one thing I truly hated to leave behind… but as I said, I felt it was best to choose just one item.

Eventually, I would find it in the form of the most scratched-up, dirtiest Raikes bear I ever came across. His clothes were filthy, and his face was in bad shape. Who knows how long he’d been there! So of course, my “need to rescue” gland immediately went into overdrive.

He was in a booth with the most haunted-looking dolls ever. You know I love dolls, even creepy dolls, but boy, these were something else!

As we were heading to pay my new Raikes bear’s “adoption fee”, we came across this cute doggy:

I named my new bear Mothball. He’ll need lots of TLC, but I am looking forward to freshening him up! ๐Ÿ˜Š

We went to Heavenly Wings for lunch.

I’ve now made peace with the fact that I don’t like so-called “good” boneless wings. I like Buffalo Wild Wings, as terrible as everyone says they are. I guess I’ve also made peace with the fact that no one ever wants to eat there with me, ever. Sigh. ๐Ÿ˜ž

Then we went to paint ceramics. I’d looked forward to this so much! I picked a penguin this time.

Our partner painted a zombie squirrel for me. Once he was finished, he was bored, so he also colored me a frog. I asked him to sign it and he pretended to, but in the end, he just wrote “frog”. ๐Ÿ˜’

In the photos above and below, my penguin is finished. He looks pale, but I used the closest colors I could find to the pan flag colors. We will see how bright he turns out after firing! Below you can see the back:

Here are all the figures together: zombie squirrel (our partner) toucan (mom-in-law) mouse with mushroom (Christopher) and my penguin:

In this photo, the figures are less visible but Christopher looks so cute:

Christopher has turned out to be really good at this, particularly at simple but expressive, well-painted eyes. It’s really easy to screw up the eyes.

Here’s a final photo of us holding our figures:

After this, we went home, had burgers, and watched the new Mario movie, which I very much feel was extremely stupid. It’s a bummer. I am exactly the audience for it, being a huge Mario franchise fan. But it was so bad. Oh well. At least it was visually beautiful, and I have the RPG to look forward to!

๐ŸŒˆ Sunday ๐ŸŒˆ

On the long drive back after Sunday lunch, I took off all of Mothball’s dirty old clothes. He enjoyed the hot sun on his fur as he watched the cars go by:

We got home in the early afternoon. I unpacked and did all the chores before relaxing with some WoW.

Before bed, I undressed Russet and Yukon, cut off their tags and loose strings, brushed them, cleaned their faces, and dressed them in their brand-new outfits. I am immensely pleased with how they look!

Name necklaces are next, and possibly a tail ribbon for Russet. ๐Ÿฅฐ

And that was it for this week. Next week, my last commission should be finished, and I will try to do a “reset” of my goals. I hope you all have a lovely week, and I’ll see you next time! ๐Ÿ™‹โ€โ™€๏ธ

Week 23 Summary: An Outing To The Everglades And More ๐ŸฆŸ

Happy Sunday, everyone! The rainy season continues. My dental crisis temporarily resolved itself this week, though I do have to look into getting a procedure done. I played a lot of WoW, worked a little bit on art, went to the movies, and on a mosquito-infested outing with our partner. Let me tell you about it.

Thank you in advance to anyone who comments on this post! Though it may take me a little while to reply, your comments mean so much to me! ๐Ÿ’˜โœจ๐Ÿ’•

๐ŸŒˆ Monday ๐ŸŒˆ

CW: Slightly gross medical stuff.

Christopher stayed home this day. He keeps having headaches that debilitate him and leave him bedridden, making it impossible for him to go to work. It’s a lifetime issue for him but it upsets me so much that he won’t get the MRI he was told to get years ago… sometimes I feel that he gets no proper medical care unless I arrange it or sufficiently guilt him about it. ๐Ÿ˜ž

Anyhow, with my pain level down to almost nonexistent, I finally had a good night’s sleep on Sunday night. However, as soon as I lay my head down on the pillow, something odd (and gross) happened: the right side of my nose became uncontrollably weepy for a short while. I didn’t think much about this at the time, but in the morning, when I was throwing my tissues out, I noticed that the discharge had been yellow and reddish. It would later become apparent that I’d had a goddamn infection drain through my nose! ๐Ÿคฏ

My dentist appointment was at 3:00 pm. In spite of now being mostly pain-free, as you know I have an intense, uncontrollable clinical phobia of dentists. So much so, that when I originally made the appointment, I cried, simply out of the anxiety related to discussing my symptoms over the phone. And I do mean that I cried and was visibly shaking throughout the phone call. This is not a thing I deal with very well at all.

I was nauseous throughout the morning and even had the runs a couple of times –all anxiety related. I was also crying when I walked into the office. When they told me that they made a mistake and don’t actually take our insurance, my light crying became full-on sobbing, prompting the people at the desk to very quickly talk to the doctor about seeing me anyway and giving a deal on the price.

I felt so bad that they had to deal with someone like me. I kept apologizing. If treatment for a phobia was more affordable I would absolutely get it. I hate how helpless this makes me.

Eventually, I calmed down. The appointment went well. They took many x-rays and I did fine with those. The dentist scraped and tapped my teeth with her tools and I actually kept it together. I held my little triceratops, Poupon, throughout, and I’m glad I brought him along and didn’t worry too much about feeling embarrassed, because he was a big comfort.

It was ultimately determined that I have a couple of cavities (small ones, and maybe just one) but the reason for my pain was that I developed a dental fistula. Basically an extraordinarily painful infection. It burst, which caused the sudden lessening of pain and gross nose discharge (which would still continue over the next couple of days).

The reason for this was that the root canal done many years ago on that tooth wasn’t done correctly and needs to be fixed. So I am looking for a place that does IV sedation in order to get this taken care of. In the meantime, I’ve been given antibiotics and for now, I am okay.

Our wonderful partner not only took me to the dentist but waited outside for close to two hours for me. I was still very rattled when I came out of the dentist’s office and a bit weepy. He took me to Kimchi Mart where we got tons of Asian snacks and as an extra treat, he got me a very cool present: an official Jurassic World bento cutlery set!

I spent the rest of the day relaxing and playing World of Warcraft. In the evening, our partner created a new render and included a snail in it for me, so I have to show it off on my blog:

๐ŸŒˆ Tuesday ๐ŸŒˆ

I was home on this day as it was my actual day off, and thank goodness for that. I had strong period cramps and still felt emotionally and physically exhausted from my weekend dental ordeal. I did a few chores and played WoW the entire day… have a look at my babies:

Christopher stayed home with headaches yet again.

๐ŸŒˆ Wednesday ๐ŸŒˆ

Still had some leftover cramps this morning, but it was finally time to return to work. I got up early and took care of a lot of housework, including cleaning the snail tank…

Speaking of snails, our partner made me a new render. It’s my new desktop wallpaper!

Work was okay. A little more World Of Warcraft in the evening. He’s a pretty scene I came across:

๐ŸŒˆ Thursday ๐ŸŒˆ

We continue to empty out the store, prepping pallets and pallets worth of stuff to put into the coming truck. The store looks more and more eerie and empty.

A couple of times now, they bought pizza and soda for everyone. Morale isn’t great but little things like these do help.

I helped one of my managers put all the candy away to be sent off to other stores. Bargain helped too!

On this day I reached $1,000 in savings for my mom. So, I’ve recovered half of what my fund used to be.

๐ŸŒˆ Friday ๐ŸŒˆ

Pasta for lunch…

I thought this tree skirt looked exactly like a fancy poncho:

In the evening we went out with friends! We went to see Transformers. It was terrible! But I enjoyed the food and being out together. I brought Palmito along.

๐ŸŒˆ Saturday ๐ŸŒˆ

One more commission was completed:

Just four to go…

When I came in to work, I noticed someone started writing a countdown on the office board:

Lunch was just rice and an egg:

๐ŸŒˆ Sunday ๐ŸŒˆ

CW: Insect photos and video.

Today was a day for me and our partner. We did invite Christopher, but it involved “outdoors time”, so he declined. It was a good thing; he would have been absolutely miserable.

I brought Robito along, and after getting gas and air on our tires, we stopped by McDonald’s for lunch:

We went to the Everglades and attempted a few trails. Our prior experiences, slightly earlier in the season last year, weren’t bad bug-wise, so we were surprised that the number of insects was abysmally overwhelming. Bees, wasps, and mosquitos abounded –most of all the latter. There was also an innumerable amount of huge dragonflies, which is fine, except when you are also surrounded by less friendly bugs, it’s hard to tell what is what. I freaked out many times, and even cried, because I’m a little bitch like that. Our partner lost patience a few times since he couldn’t deal with me not dealing, so we’d go back to the car, but later, he admitted it didn’t feel great for him either so he wasn’t actually mad at me.

Even though we bought bug spray and covered ourselves with it, it only helped but a little. We returned home covered in mosquito bites and two days later, a couple of mosquitoes were somehow still alive in the car.

All that aside, I still got some nice photos to share:

There were some controlled fires going on. We even got to see them working with flamethrowers as we drove by! There was a good amount of smoke.

BUG WARNING AHEAD! I got to see some guys I hadn’t seen in a while. Eastern Lubber grasshoppers! These guys are massive and native to Florida. Here’s one of these monsters on a parking sign:

Roughly 3 to 4 inches in length, they are slow-moving and rather clumsy:

Seeing one, or maybe two or three of these guys is what I would call interesting and fun. I love critters. These are no exception. But there is something about masses of Eastern Lubbers spread in front of you –many crushed and being eaten by other Lubbers while even more are procreating feet away from where this grasshopper cannibalism is occurring, all with a crunching cacophony in the background, that is, shall we say, A Little Much. I actually had to step away as I felt very much like I was going to vomit.

But all in all, it was a really fun trip. Both our partner and I would still be thinking of it and talking about it the next day. Our outings of this sort tend to have some hiccups, this one did as well, but it really helps us bond and we look upon the memory fondly, every time.

We had fancy pizza for dinner, and I relaxed by playing some more WoW.

This wasn’t a bad week overall, but it was physically and emotionally draining. I feel like I’ve done the bare minimum on this post, but maybe it’s just me. I can’t wait for the store to close, then I can take a sabbatical, see my mom-in-law, finish the last few commissions, and use the downtime to reset myself.

Anyway, that’s all I’ve got for this week. I’ll catch up with you all next Sunday!

Week 22 Summary: Everybody Loves A Bargain (But Not A Toothache) ๐Ÿฆท๐Ÿ’ข

Happy Sunday, everyone. Well… it is not as happy for me. I’ve been pretty depressed on and off, my period is underway, and this week I experienced a serious dental emergency. I am tired and in pain, and as a result, this post may be less coherent than normal, or some captions may be very brief. There are still cute things below –toy photos, doggies, World Of Warcraft stuff. So it’s not all whining. Let’s get to it.

Thank you in advance to anyone who comments on this post! Though it may take me a little while to reply, your comments mean so much to me! ๐Ÿ’˜โœจ๐Ÿ’•

๐ŸŒˆ Monday ๐ŸŒˆ

To begin with, as I said in the last weekly summary, my mood would improve. With that said, on Monday I went in to work in a terrible state of mind, just as negative as Sunday had been.

My boss was there when I went in: he hadn’t been there when I was unwell over the weekend. He was friendly and immediately asked what happened to me, showing concern for me, not the missed hours. I explained what happened, and, having an opportunity to talk privately, I mentioned the unpleasant experience with the other manager, and that I felt this was unfair, as I’ve generally been a solid, reliable employee.

He reminded me that only he is my boss, no one else. He even told me that he would help me recover some of the lost hours, and later updated the schedule to reflect this.

Also, my original instinct of texting him when these things happened would have been correct. I didn’t do it because it was his day off, I was afraid to bother him and indeed was told not to. But he texted the manager chat the moment I left early on Sunday, wondering whatever happened to me. He said next time, I shouldn’t be afraid to text him even if he is off.

All of these things were very reassuring. Knowing that, depending on where he ends up, I might have a job where he goes next (since he’s generally a district and/or store manager at other chains) feels good too.

I don’t know if he spoke to the manager that scolded me when I left, but that manager was SUPER nice to me the rest of that day. So that improved my mood. The other thing that improved it was a bit sad, but it helped anyway.

Another manager, a very nice lady who tends to be a bit spicy (just, you know, strong moods) and has a really good heart, was looking very down on this day and not like herself at all. It was honestly worrisome, so when I saw her alone, I asked what was wrong, and suddenly I was seeing myself in her. She kept saying stuff like “I don’t want to be here, I hate this, I want to leave, I don’t even want to greet the customers anymore.”

This is a manager that worked hard to make this store a wonderful and welcoming place. Like other managers that have been here since the start, she is rightly indignant and heartbroken by the situation. We’ve all been affected by the way the customers are taking to treating our beloved store like absolute trash, their entitlement, and the constant undoing of anything that we worked to make pretty. It’s so discouraging.

This, and the longer hours, are surely why I have been so unhappy. But hearing it from someone else helped me to realize how much the process of the store shutting down is affecting me. I hated to see my manager sad, especially because she often cheers others up with her joking and singing, and high-energy ways. But in a weird way, it helped me so much to understand my recent depression. The rest of that day I did all I could to help her out and keep her cheerful. Others were doing that, too.

The day was very, very busy. Other than the last couple of hours, it really flew by. Two cute dogs visited:

The owner of the wookie-like dog (who was a really funny character) ended up not buying the chair cushion that his dog lay and sat on. Sigh…

When I got back home, Christopher was making manicotti. It was a delicious dinner, he worked very hard. After dinner, I went upstairs and was surprised to find ALL of our elves sitting on my desk!

I guess they were worried about me. I’ll try to be better at holding it together.

Have some random photos of Elliot being deeply uncomfortable:

I was excited to finally open my Amazon package with the Humongous Entertainment Classic Collection for the Switch. Looking forward to playing it.

When I went to bed I forgot my glasses. Christopher later sent me a picture of Ribbon wearing them:

๐ŸŒˆ Tuesday ๐ŸŒˆ

Because I’m still depressed, I decided to go a route that proved helpful before. I went back to Azeroth. I decided to try Horde again. This time it feels better. Maybe it’s because I feel so out of place everywhere now, like an outcast, and because so many things I used to believe in, along with my childhood definitions of “good and evil” and “right and wrong” have changed so much, Horde actually feels like a better emotional fit for me at this point in my life.

I made a goblin hunter with the name Sepia, a name I used to have in this server, then lost, and now managed to snag again.

Much like communities and places I used to love when I was a young adult, I will always miss my Alliance haunts and the feeling that life, and morals, are simple, black-and-white deals, easily judged and categorized. But as I move forward from simplistic thinking (and judgmental, holier-than-thou spaces) in real life, I’m looking forward to exploring the side of the so-called “monstrous races” in-game.

And hey, Dragonflight has SNAILS. I might be able to coax our partner or my husband into getting me the expansion.

๐ŸŒˆ Wednesday ๐ŸŒˆ

Because I’ve been feeling so down, I am making an extra effort to make my lunches cute and happy experiences, even if the food is plain.

In the evening, we went to a restaurant, Unit B Eatery + Spirits in Pembroke Gardens. I hadn’t taken a selfie in a while:

This was Paisley’s first outing!

Unit B had a really nice atmosphere/decor, but being a weekday, it was very empty:

My guys…

I had bao buns and empanadas. Both were great!

Before bed, I completed another commission:

Just six to go!

๐ŸŒˆ Thursday ๐ŸŒˆ

Work was pleasant enough. I decided to buy a little Ty dragon since it was 30% off.

Then I began to get ideas. Firstly, I named him Bargain, since our company’s motto is “everybody loves a bargain”. I asked my manager to make me a little nameplate for him:

More on that later. Here’s today’s pup:

๐ŸŒˆ Friday ๐ŸŒˆ

Before leaving for work, I used one of our reusable patterned bags to make Bargain a little apron that matches ours. Then I gave him the nameplate that my manager printed out for him. He looked pretty spiffy:

Then we had a quick breakfast together and it was off to work.

I wasn’t sure if I ever took a photo of the store from above, so while I was clocking in, I got one:

Time for our existential crisis, Bargain! My coworkers were pretty tickled by him.

Bargain held the marker in between sales. The marker was for highlighting the “all sales final” in the receipts.

Bargain surrounded by everyone’s favorite, go-backs. We have a lot of those these days.

Then it was lunchtime. I was in a really good mood.

I was still in a great mood when I got home. I hugged my guys, had dinner, and afterward poured some wine and got right to playing Diablo II with our partner. It was a very, very enjoyable evening. We even beat Diablo! The boss, not the game, of course. We still have a way to go to beat the game.

But when I went to bed, a dull ache in my upper right teeth began to bother me. It quickly became intense, and as a result, I slept very poorly.

๐ŸŒˆ Saturday ๐ŸŒˆ

After such a bad night, Saturday morning I woke up exhausted and in pain, but feeling like I could still make it to work, so I went. In the morning, before work, I completed another commission:

Just five to go!

It was not a good workday. My pain grew gradually more intense throughout the day. When I got there, I found that three people had called out, so I was glad I went. The first truck came to get all of the merchandise that is being sent to other stores. One of my managers cried when the truck left.

I saw a dog that captured my mood for this day very well:

In the evening, I was absolutely falling apart. Christopher went to the drugstore to get me things that might help, but nothing really did. I didn’t sleep very much this night. In spite of being well-familiarized with astronomical levels of dental torture, this was on a different scale. I repeatedly used Gus Fring’s death as a suitable comparison for how the entire right side of my head felt:

I did not have a fever, but the pain was all over my jaw, my eye, my ear. It was all-encompassing and totally absorbing.

๐ŸŒˆ Sunday ๐ŸŒˆ

When I woke up on Sunday morning, it was immediately evident that work was not going to happen that day. I immediately called out for the next two days, and left a voicemail with my dentist, begging them to move my Tuesday appointment to Monday. I had to call twice because, during my first voicemail, the pain was bad enough that I literally forgot my own phone number, and couldn’t finish my message.

After the food poisoning incident, I really felt awful about calling out… but there was nothing I could do.

Christopher went to the store again, and got me fresh Orajel and cooling patches for my face:

I spent the entire day distracting myself with Warcraft. Playing Warcraft alone ( I am not a big fan of questing with others) saved my sanity, as it did in other bad periods of my life. I don’t know how I would have gotten through the day otherwise. Sometimes I had to just stop and stare at nothing because the pain didn’t even let me play, but most of the time it helped a lot.

I fiddled a bit more with my goblin hunter:

And was absolutely tickled by this Logo reference:

I also thoroughly enjoyed the dinosaurs in this area, which, being an Alliance player for most of my life, is new to me. Major Dinotopia vibes.

I had a Starbucks treat (and dinner) while gaming, courtesy of Christopher. It cheered me up a lot.

As the evening progressed, something odd happened. My pain began to subside. While I was still sore, the throbbing went from “worst of my life” to “nonexistent” in the space of about an hour. From what I could gather, this meant a worsening of the emergency, as the infection has now likely killed my nerve. I likely need treatment ASAP to prevent further damage to my jaw and other teeth.

I will be posting updates regarding this dental misadventure on my Telegram channel throughout the week. You’re welcome to drop by! There’s an attached chat as well. Beyond that, the next update will be next Sunday as usual. See you then!