Hello everyone, it’s time for the weekly update. As I’ve stated on Twitter, these past days I wake up and after my coffee and news reading it feels so frivolous to do my chores, work on art, or on my blog, or play with the cats. I feel so utterly guilty to have my privileged peaceful existence, for no reason other than luck.

I hope it’s not inappropriate to continue sharing happy mundane things or cutesy art. I’m not trying to be callous, but I also want to continue recording my daily life, making art, and hopefully making people smile if I can.

Before I move on with my nonsense, I want to share this link with you. It is a C|NET article with information on how to help Ukrainian refugees and others affected by Russia’s unprovoked, cruel attack, it also lists the Charity Navigator ranking of each of these charities. I encourage you to take a look and help in any way that you are able.

A lot of things happened this week. Firstly, I spent most of the week sick. Well, sort of. I hadn’t been sick all of this time, since COVID began, and finally caught Christopher’s latest head cold. So I had a bit of a sore throat and sinus pain and LOTS of sniffling and sneezing but otherwise felt 100% okay, which may sound weird, but generally my colds/coughs/etc are awful, usually bad enough (if attacking my chest) that I need to see a doctor due to infection that will linger up to two months. It has been quite bad on occasion. My last illness was strep throat which was an absolute nightmare… so this was a walk in the park really.

Still, I was in bed a bit more than usual. Tomoyo kept me company.

Recently I’ve been taking more and more walks with one of my partners, definitely a highlight of the days on which we do. My walks are generally very utilitarian… burn this many calories, move on with my day. These walks are now more leisurely, engaged in conversation and looking at little things. Burning less calories I suppose, but it’s pretty good for my mental well-being.

Here is a moth we spotted on one recent such walk. It was very big:

💘 Tomoyo 💘

Tomoyo has been sweet, staying near me lots. Her asthma continues to be an issue. I try to give her as much affection and attention as I can. Here are some photos I took of her spending time near me while I work…

And a photo/some video from the studio floor…

Turn sound up for cute sounds. She scared herself somehow.

At one point I tried taking a couple of selfies with her. She did not cooperate, this was the best I was able to get.

🌳 Park Walk 🌳

Later in the week we went to walk around C. B. Smith Park. I hadn’t been there in a while. We saw some cute Muscovy duckies…

They were very friendly. Next time I’ll bring some healthy seeds or frozen peas to feed them.

They had a bit of an argument at one point…

Here’s a little flower we spotted while chasing iguanas, and just a nice view of the side of a bridge we crossed:

Big mushrooms!

And little ones…

I found my first geocache at C. B. Smith. Though we search together he always finds them first. So I was excited to finally find one, I’m really not very good at finding them yet.

Afterwards I got treated to an acai bowl, it’s one of my new favorite things, especially after a long, hot walk such as this one!

🎮 Variable Barricade 🎮

Variable Barricade released this week! To the backlog it goes… but slowly I am resuming “normal life”, and expect to enter a proper gaming schedule soon. 🙂

This is something I really want to do in a serious manner… I love gaming and just cannot find the time. I need to create an actual structure within which to do so, or else I’ll have invested hundreds of dollars in games I do not allow myself to play because work seems too important by comparison.

🍕 Date Night Pizza Dinner 🍕

For date night this week, we finally went to Mister O1. We tried last date night but the wait was too long. It was pretty good. Simple as it was, the appetizer was my favorite.

We ate outside. It’s really nice to do that for a change.

👽 Smoke Shop Trip 👽

Another day this week I got to visit a smoke shop. I don’t smoke but they have so many cool and hilarious things, such as this E.T. offering free condoms:

And these adorable Grogu pipes, which I just had to photograph to show my sis-in-law:

🍄 More Park Walks 🍄

Friday was my favorite day this week. Our normal walk ended up feeling more like a long date. 🥰 We went to two parks, one which I’d been one (Secret Woods Nature Center) and one to which I had not (Topeekeegee Yugnee Park).

Secret Woods Nature Center is always lovely, shaded, with lots of little things to see, including many tiny crabs and spiders.

It’s a very magical-feeling place. When you’re there, all the noise from the city and traffic mere steps away seems to just fade into nothing.

(CW: SPIDER ahead.)

One of the many leggy friends we came across…

On the way to the second park, a huge plane flew right over us. I was able to get some cool pics:

Next came what really was the best part of all! Topeekeegee Yugnee Park was FULL of squirrels. Never seen so many in one place.

This time I’d brought a baggie with healthy treats for them: raw unsalted peanuts, seeds, etc. Not too much, just enough to have the pleasure of feeding them for a bit. They were shy, but soon I was surrounded, it was wonderful.

There were birds too, trying to steal all the seeds, and they were fast. So I had to be quick, too, to help the squirrels get some, because they feared the aggressive birds.

Here’s some video of that. Pesky things… I do like the birds too, but I wish they shared better!

And one more video of squirrel feeding. Forgive my dumbass voice, I was so excited.

Here’s a couple more photos of this lovely place:

Anyway, yeah, this was an utterly wonderful experience. I want to come again as soon as possible.

One last super cool thing. A geocache we found. It was a hole in a tree and the stopper was stuck of a piece of bark! Incredibly well done.

I’ve made sure not to identify the specific park or location, so hopefully it’s okay to share this photo, I just thought it was fascinating. I would have never found this by myself!

🥞🍓 Saturday Morning Pancakes 🍓🥞

This has become a bit of a thing, by which I mean that I beg for pancakes every Saturday morning and for the last three weeks, it has happened.

This time we added chocolate chips, and whipped cream, and the best strawberries I’ve had in months/years. It was delicious!

🎸 Saturday Night Outing 🎸

Saturday night we all went out together. We went to Ra Sushi first, a restaurant I’ve always wanted to eat at. It was a good time as it always is when I am in such wonderful company, but man, service was S L O W, and my ramen was literally the worst I have ever, ever had.

BUT! The drinks were very good. I had three mojitos and some sake. I spilled one of my mojitos but it was almost empty. I was not very steady for the rest of the evening. 🙈

After dinner we went to the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, where we had some alcoholic ice cream…

…and I gambled and lost $5 on a slot machine.

Here’s a couple of really cool Wall-E and Eve cakes we saw:

We got home late and tired but it was a very enjoyable evening. I’m glad to be making so many happy and fun memories together. 🥰

🎨 Weekly Art Summary 🎨

Here is all the art that got done this week. I also worked a bunch on my book, so it was a pretty productive one, overall!

I think this was a very good week, at least as far as my own life is concerned. Certainly not for the world. I keep reading the news, hoping for some sort of peaceful resolution. Here’s hoping next week brings better news on that front.