Tag Archives: Date Night

Week 15 Summary: Dreary, Rainy Season Is Here โ˜”

It rained a LOT this week. It rained so much, in fact, that Broward County closed its schools for two days, and Ft. Lauderdale closed down its airport. Some areas experienced unprecedented levels of flooding: a historic volume of rain exceeding 2 feet. I read it described as “an event so intense the chance of it happening in any given year is just 0.1%”.

It felt like the rain would never stop, and while it did stop by the weekend, it’s the rainy season now. We may or may not get flooded areas again, and thankfully I saw no significant flooding where I live, but rain on an almost daily basis will become the norm for quite a while. Then it will be hurricane season. That’s Florida for ya!

The rain, which I normally enjoy, really brought me down this time around. My period wreaked havoc on my mood this month: I would call it, too, a rare event. My crankiness does not usually last this long nor is it this intense, and overall, it made the week unbearable for me and those around me.

There were good, bad, and boring sides to this week. Let’s get on with it!

๐ŸŒˆ Monday ๐ŸŒˆ

It began to rain in earnest, but still we had sunny moments throughout the day and the humidity wasn’t too bad yet. It rained more and more as the day got long in the tooth. Anyhow, Monday was a busy day. I did loads of chores, went grocery shopping, played Diablo II with our partner, and completed this commission:

Our partner made a ham quiche for dinner. It was delicious!

๐ŸŒˆ Tuesday ๐ŸŒˆ

Rain, rain and more rain. It seemed to drag everything down with it. I felt useless, sleepy and sluggish, with no energy whatsoever. Eventually, I forced myself to move, and slowly started doing things around the house, such as organizing the studio, and setting some stuff aside to put into storage or give away. I wanted to make more room for new toys, mostly dolls.

Something really odd happened on this day. Sarah mysteriously appeared among the bears!

She didn’t have her hat. I am not sure why she is here. Frankly it’s a little unsettling. I hope all is well between her and Buddy.

Something important happened on Tuesday:

At the time, I didn’t want to get my hopes up, but this was an important step in my mom’s paperwork being finalized once and for all. More developments would come later in the week.

Rosie was being a cutie and trying to get my attention while I had lunch:

So I played with her a bit:

๐ŸŒˆ Wednesday ๐ŸŒˆ

On Wednesday I completed a commission and a new banner, which you already saw at the top of this entry, and a commission for Pilou that I’m really proud of:

I also had the usual Zoom call with my mom. You’ll notice I make no mention of work so far. That is because this week, I would only work on Saturday. Last week, I only had three days. Next week, I only have five hours again. I’m not the only person dealing with that, but I am not happy about it. From what I read online, it’s a common issue with this company: most people leave due to very limited hours. I hope I won’t have to do the same.

๐ŸŒˆ Thursday ๐ŸŒˆ

To say that Thursday was momentous would be an understatement. As mentioned, on Tuesday, I’d received confirmation that my Form I-130, Petition For Alien Relative (for my mom) had been approved by USCIS. We have been waiting for years, just for this specific step. But, my mom still hadn’t been told that her Form I-485, Application To Register Permanent Residency, was approved. Though unlikely, it could still have been denied.

On Thursday, my mom’s application was also approved:

It’s hard to overstate the significance of this moment. I know my mom spent the day crying on and off. I still haven’t been able to process it, myself –though I did tear up a bit when the paralegal CC’d me on an email congratulating her. It felt more real then.

Some of you know how long and arduous the road to legalization has been, both for me and for my mom. I still lived with fear that the response would be a denial and my mom would be deported. Even though I myself have been sorted out for many years (and a citizen for two) nothing really felt done until I could truly stop fearing for my mom’s welfare.

I wasn’t even ten years old when I decided that someday, somehow, I would live in the USA. My mom worked for my dream and made it hers. We would eventually abandon all we had for a huge gamble and an unsure future in the United States, knowing the gamble could cost us everything.

We have been in the USA since 2001: this is the first time I truly breathe in complete relief for both of us. So many years later, it feels complete. I’m numb and not really having an emotional reaction yet because there were so many times I thought this would happen and it didn’t. It’s hard to believe it’s finally over. I am a citizen and my mom is a legal resident, forever. Hopefully someday she’ll be a citizen, too.

And for those who have heard many times my little story regarding An American Tail (which I’ll retell at some point soon) yeah, my mom and I are getting together to watch it. Finally after 15 years I will allow myself to watch it again.

Christopher had the Apple IIe out and functioning on Thursday night. It looked so cool.

Here’s a little lady I have coming to me. She’s a Pat Secrist doll. I’ve been learning about these dolls recently, their high quality and (if you’re patient on eBay) incredible affordability. She’s a big one, too. I don’t have many blonde dolls, I’m looking forward to playing with her. Her dress is so lovely, too! I’m going to call her Nellie. She reminds me of a schoolmate I had in elementary school, who had that name.

For date night we played LEGO. I finished Emma’s Art School!

๐ŸŒˆ Friday ๐ŸŒˆ

The sun came out again!! Finally! โœจ๐ŸŒžโœจ But, now it’s very, very, VERY hot. That aside –Friday was extremely productive! I finished three Patreon rewards:

Then I did a few chores, before setting everything up for some fun!

๐ŸŒˆ Fun With Pony Beads ๐ŸŒˆ

I’ve been putting off making new toy necklaces. This is pretty bad because I don’t really enjoy a new toy until, at a minimum, it has been christened and given its necklace, but ideally until they have an outfit that I’ve put together myself rather than the original one (this mostly applies to dolls), or a bandana, or just something to make it look like it’s my own, and loved.

Between Friday and Sunday I decided to dedicate time to the toy name backlog. I started by setting everything out, surrounding myself with toy friends, and putting one of my kiddy playlists on!

Sometime in between making necklaces, I played some more Diablo II with our partner.

๐ŸŒˆ Saturday ๐ŸŒˆ

In the morning, I played with Reddit’s avatar maker thingy today, that was fun and also dumb. This day was finally a workday! I worked from 4:00pm to 9:00pm after getting all my chores done.

Things were tense at work. Because of the rain, sales were very low the entire week so everyone’s hours were cut. As a result, there were less people available to finish a project that has been stressing all the managers out for weeks now. I was put to work on the floor, pricing and placing merch, and even though it was only five hours, it left me completely exhausted.

An upside (or downside??) of the day is that I kinda got called out in front of everyone else for doing better than anyone else in my first week (second only to my training manager) in getting new emails from customers. They really, REALLY care about employees doing this. I’m pretty shy, so it takes a lot out of me, but I do ask and engage with everyone, and most people do sign up.

Apparently, other employees don’t really try, so when they released the numbers of my first week, the manager wrote a note underneath calling me out by name as an example and saying how I’m not doing anything unusual, only what I am supposed to do, and how others are failing to do so. ๐Ÿ˜ฌ๐Ÿ’ง

There was an undertone of “It’s unacceptable that this brand new employee is doing better than everyone else, so, get it together” to the other employees, and another manager said to the first that I did that “because I’m an overachiever” which kinda sounded like “you can’t expect everyone else to do that”. Haha… I don’t know. It was nice but also very awkward for me.

Back when I used to hold jobs like this one, I struggled a lot, and was definitely the sort of person to get reprimanded for mistakes, shyness or sluggishness. I’ve changed a bit, I can do things better and push through better. So I won’t lie, all the praise I’ve received since I started feels really good, but at the same time, isn’t a call-out like that the sort of thing that makes coworkers resent you? ๐Ÿ˜…

Anyway, I only got to help two people at the register on this day, which bummed me out because I don’t want to forget everything I learned, but working on the floor I learned many new things, so there’s that.

At some point today I noted that Sarah’s hat had somehow materialized upon Toklo’s head, while Sarah herself had disappeared. ๐Ÿ˜ณโ“โ“โ“

I keep worrying that this is Sarah trying to send S.O.S. messages that I’m failing to interpret correctly. I hope she’s okay…!

Normally, after getting up at 7:00am, a day full of chores and then going to work, getting comfy and having dinner, I would just want to stay in. But I want to start making a habit of going out with our partner more on Friday or Saturday nights. For one, Christopher really treasures time truly to himself, and doesn’t get much of it. And I want to make sure our partner is having fun since he’s much more outgoing.

Lately, I’m trying to think of different things I can do with him and with Christopher (as well as for them) to make them feel loved and appreciated –as in, individual things, one-on-one. Soon I’ll be able to play visual novels with Christopher again, and with our partner, I’ve been playing Diablo II. I want to start going out for the odd lunch or dinner date with Christopher, and watch at least a couple of movies a month with him, maybe cuddled in the game room couch.

Anyway, my plan was to repeat the outing of last week with our partner, but somehow he convinced Christopher to come! This is a rarity given that it was late at night, and we were really happy about that. We took Christopher to Salt & Straw. I had the same black olive brittle and goat cheese ice cream as last time:

We also went for drinks at the exact same place…

…and had a mediterranean plate for a snack:

On the walk back, I took this photo of a neighborhood’s gate. It looked spooky:

๐ŸŒˆ Sunday ๐ŸŒˆ

Sunday was a very nice and sunny day, even if the humid Florida heat is back in full, unbearable swing. My laurel fig continues to grow beautifully. It’s hard to believe it was once a little tiny branch that found refuge in a crevice of our roof!

Later in the day I went for a walk to get more beads. I saw a cute lizard on the way to the stores.

Though I really went out for beds I ended up coming home with this. What a find! Last one left, too.

After a pizza dinner, our partner and I played Diablo II some more. I really liked the Arcane Sanctuary area.

After that, I finished a few more necklaces and actually put them on toys. I’ve made a total of twenty one necklaces. I still have to make a few more, but those are for toys that I have yet to name.

Rosie decided to relax in the area normally occupied by my bead boxes:

She was being so loud, too!

My new doll, Nellie, should be coming by Wednesday, which has me really excited! Hopefully she has no funny smells, since she is a used doll after all. I have her necklace all ready to put on her. ๐Ÿฅฐ

Week 3 Summary: Not Always Easy โ›ˆ๏ธ

Ups-and-downs are normal to have, but it’s rare to have such a good week be followed by such a bad one. No major catastrophes took place, and a lot of what made it so hard to handle the smaller difficulties was my period, which for some reason was very unusually long and harsh on my body. It, combined with other stuff, managed to sink me into a days-long depression. Most of my goals fell by the wayside.

This journal is pretty dismal overall, though it picks up in tone near the end of the week. I apologize that it’s not as cheerful as usual. It was just a really hard week for me. ๐Ÿ˜ฅ

๐Ÿ’” CW: pet loss discussion in this blog post. ๐Ÿ’”

๐ŸŒˆ Monday ๐ŸŒˆ

Right from the start, Monday was not an easy day. Physically, I was still feeling down from the day before. I had been unable to stay on top of my goals for days for a variety of reasons. In addition, it was very cold, and the guys wanted to sleep with the windows open. This made for some truly miserable nights and mornings for me. And bad mornings tend to throw my entire day off track. I just felt unhappy, unmotivated, and like everything was a struggle.

I pushed myself and cleaned the snail tank this day, so my little guys didnโ€™t suffer from my lack of motivation:

The cats stayed in cozy corners all day. Even Elliot spent time indoors. Hereโ€™s Kotoko hiding in one of the cat condo nooks:

Speaking of Kotoko, in the evening I decided to give her a bath in spite of the cold because she was just so dirty. Sheโ€™s old and canโ€™t groom herself very well anymore. As I was drying her, she peed, on my Jurassic Park rug no less. So that was great. I was upset about the rug, but above all because it felt like I put Kotoko through hell for nothing. ๐Ÿ˜Ÿ

๐ŸŒˆ Tuesday ๐ŸŒˆ

This was another cold morning. At least Kotoko had forgiven meโ€ฆ I think the cold might have helped with that.

This day I went to visit my mom. From early on, I felt very depressed. Iโ€™d been down since the day before and just continued feeling increasingly worse. I wanted to take her to the movies this week, to cheer her up (sheโ€™s still not doing okay after Shampooโ€™s passing) and there is rarely enough money in the family finances for that sort of thing.

I was really down about that, but ultimately managed to sell a commission to take my mom to dinner and a movie the following Saturday. Thank you, Snow, for that.

Throughout the day, before I went to her place, I did my best to do my chores, work on art, finish another book chapter, take care of the pets. I did whatever I could to get through the motions, but it was hard. I hadnโ€™t had to push through feeling so bad in a long time.

Once at my momโ€™s, whatever good cheer Iโ€™d managed to bring up hit the hard wall of Shampooโ€™s absence.

Seeing all of her special spots without her in them was terrible. Seeing her pretty little urn, while not hearing her usual loud meows… it was all very hard.

I managed to keep that pain to myself for my momโ€™s sake. But truly, more than my heartache over Shampooโ€™s passing, the fear and grief that an event like this brings is always mostly about Kotoko. Iโ€™m not afraid that I wonโ€™t be able to handle her loss when it happens. It’ll hurt, but eventually I’ll be okay. But I am very afraid for my husbandโ€™s sake. And I fear that the man he is now will sort of die when Kotoko dies, and whoever he will be after that, I donโ€™t know, but I am very afraid that he will never be the same again, and I will never have this version of him again.

I donโ€™t know what to do with that fear, and every passing year it becomes worse. Sometimes I feel like our beloved old cat is a ticking bomb of grief. This event has redoubled that, especially because I think he is in some deep denial about her advanced age and the limited time she may have left. This literally keeps me up at night.

Anyway… as usual, my mom had a little snack spread ready when I got there:

Then we had baked potatoes for dinner:

And seeing Sweeney was nice, but I couldnโ€™t help thinking that he is the age Stimpy was when he passed, and Stimpy seemed pretty okay until near the end too. I guess I am full of grim thoughts right now.

For some reason, during this visit a lot of old fears and worries hit me very hard. Though I appeared cheerful to my mom, and I know she thought I was okay, I ended Tuesday feeling the most depressed I have been in a very, very long time. It was an overall feeling of hopelessness for the future, that Iโ€™m sure (I hope) I can shake off.

But itโ€™s a hard feeling to carry for any length of time. I know what itโ€™s trying to say. Itโ€™s whispering in my ear, cruelly, insidiously, โ€œthings arenโ€™t going to be okay, but no one really caresโ€. It is a lonely feeling to carry.

When I feel this way, holding strong to my โ€œdo not buy toysโ€ resolution is incredibly hard. I would love a small toy from my wishlist right now to distract me even for a moment from feeling the way I do, no matter how fleeting that relief is.

On the upside, earlier in the week a kindly commissioner sent me a set of colorful drawers where I will be able to sort all of my scrapbooking supplies for Project Night, which is set to arrive on Thursday. Iโ€™m thinking about that, to feel happier and excited about something to do.

๐ŸŒˆ Wednesday ๐ŸŒˆ

After a Tuesday night full of nightmares and unusually strong cramps that lasted into the morning, Wednesday began.

It was a beautiful sunny morning, and I felt a bit less depressed, but now I was in a lot of pain instead (continued from the night). Maybe rather than feeling less depressed, I just felt like I was settling into my depression, I guess? Getting used to it? Maybe Iโ€™ll feel this way for some time.

We had mate for breakfast, but because I was in pain the whole time, I didnโ€™t want any. Anyway, have some Sweeney toebeans:

I was slow, achy and tired for a lot of this day. Whenever Iโ€™m at my momโ€™s feeling really low, itโ€™s hard, because I want attention from my husband and our partner, but I feel too low to even tell them Iโ€™m not okay or try to reach out for that affection. And if I do attempt to convey that, and donโ€™t get a response, my frame of mind makes me read that as neglect and it can be very painful when Iโ€™m feeling deeply vulnerable already.

So it was really nice that at one point our partner did send me a random sweet little message, I donโ€™t usually hear from him when Iโ€™m at my momโ€™s. Almost like he knew. That helped a lot, though I didnโ€™t tell him I wasnโ€™t okay, only that I was in a bit of pain. But it meant so much to get that message from him just out of the blue.

Still, mostly I just lay on the couch miserably for hours, though I did play more Pokรฉmon Violet here and there and work on a couple of commissions. I did also read a little (still working on โ€œItโ€) and since my mom was interested, we began to watch the original movies.

For dinner, we had these little mac โ€˜n cheese balls and fries:

And for dessert we had strawberries and cream! ๐Ÿ“

Sweeney was very affectionate towards my mom all the time that I was at her place. I think for years, heโ€™s been relegated to the background in all kinds of ways. Shampoo took most of my momโ€™s time, affection, and even vet-related finances. It could hardly be helped when it felt for years as though every day might be her last. Now Sweeney has my mom all to himself and will hardly leave her lap.

It is sweet, but also a little sad. He must have felt neglected all this time. My mom took him for a check-up today because he hasnโ€™t had one in a very long time for the reasons I just stated. Hopefully all the labs come back with normal, reassuring results.

My mom and I got almost halfway to the second part of “It” (the 1990 version) when the guys came to pick me up. I would find later find out that Christopher, like me, had a pretty terrible day. But once we were all home together, things started to feel better, and I think he felt more cheerful too, though we both continued to feel physically miserable.

Something to note that has happened this week every time I slept (weather at night or a nap) is lots and lots of nightmares, or, at best, really bizarre dreams, usually connected to people or events present very recently in my life rather than those important or consequential to me. I’ve even had people I’ve never spoken to from one group chat I’m in appear in these bad dreams, multiple times. The topics are as varied as they are ridiculous.

Usually, but not always, the dreams are distressing, upsetting, or at best very annoying, so I’d categorize them as nightmares, but they aren’t the sort you wake up upset from. Just the sort that makes you go “huh” when you wake up. It’s as though my brain were going through some clean-up or organizing of thoughts at this time. It’s just bizarre.

๐ŸŒˆ Thursday ๐ŸŒˆ

Although on Thursday morning I woke up still in a lot of pain and sort of weakened by my way-too-long period, my mood was a little lifted.

Iโ€™m not sure why. I had a lot to do, and didnโ€™t feel great yet. I suppose partly was just being with the guys. Just hearing their voices and seeing their faces, sometimes, lifts me up and is all I need.

All throughout this week, I struggled with, and mostly did not meet, my goals. I decided to call this week a wash. My body really, really conspired against me in the worst way.

We did play LEGO for date night, though Christopher was unwell and our partner had to work, so he couldn’t join us… but we did have LEGO and that was still fun.

Later, Christopher and I cuddled and watched TV. Rosie joined us too; here she is, blepping beautifully:

Unfortunately our partner continued working. He was concentrating hard on his coding and didn’t want to stop. He worked until past 5:00am.

๐ŸŒˆ Friday ๐ŸŒˆ

Even on Friday morning my body still had the odd cramp. Frankly, I was really impressed. It never lasts this long. But this was the last day. In the morning, I built the new set of drawers. Mercifully, in spite of the terrible quality (which I was aware of) nothing was broken in transit, and it came out pretty good:

I’d spend the next few days completely reorganizing my scrapbooking supplies into this new colorful piece of furniture.

๐ŸŒˆ Saturday ๐ŸŒˆ

On this day we took my mom to the movies, the three of us (Christopher, our partner and I). I spent the earlier part of the day doing chores and then we were off! I had my Totodile with me, and Pokรฉmon graham crackers. I’ve been in a big Pokรฉmon mood recently.

After picking up my mom, we walked around Brickell City Centre, a really cool and upscale outdoor covered mall in Downtown Miami. Our partner bought me the fancy French candies he’d long promised, and was kind enough to get some for my mom too. We walked around and took this picture at one point:

Then we headed to the movie early, because it was CMX Cinรฉbistro and we had to order our food. Right before the movie, I had a drink called Strawberry Fields. It was pretty good. I actually hadn’t had a drink in a while. I do not drink much by anyone’s standards, but by my own, I felt I was drinking a little too much, so I decided to cut back.

The movie, a “horror” comedy titled M3GHAN, was pretty silly, but hilarious. I’m not sure it was always trying to be funny, but it pretty much was the entire time.

After the movie, we got ice cream and walked around some more. Our partner bought a tiny but really fancy candle, and then we dropped my mom off before heading back to the house.

When we got home, I had two nice surprises. The loveliest was this drawing from YuriFairy, featuring both of our characters, and it’s one of my favorite depictions of my little squirrel avatar in a few years. It’s so beautiful:

A package from ODU with a sample of a new design by me also showed up:

It’s so exciting to see a product featuring my art again after a couple of years! Here’s another photo:

We went to bed shortly after. Our partner just went straight back to work though, and had another late night. Christopher and I cuddled for a while and then fell asleep.

๐ŸŒˆ Sunday ๐ŸŒˆ

Between yesterday and today, I sat for several hours sorting all of my scrapbooking materials and labeling them, like so:

There are many, many of these rugged plastic envelopes. Every single drawer is full!

Unlike before, everything is sorted by topic, not material. This makes it infinitely easier to pick out the materials I need for the theme of the page I’m working on, and everything is sorted out alphabetically.

Outside of the drawers, I sorted all my playing cards (which I collect specifically for scrapbooking purposes) like this:

Then I labeled the front of the drawers, too. Now, everything is really easy to find.

An added bonus of borrowing the labeler and of sorting all my scrapbooking supplies was that I finally sorted a bit of a mess I had in the studio closet, which now looks nice and neat:

This guy has been with me for so many years…

I re-sorted all of my beads and kandi-making supplies, too. This is also where the Furbys live. It looks a lot better now.

During this process, I ran into some traditional art I hadn’t filed away…

Not just this, but so many sketches, and so many unfinished things. It made me tear up with this intense nostalgia for something I lost without even realizing it. I decided to move things around and create a new permanent area for traditional art, because somehow, I didn’t have one anymore. This is what it looks like:

And here is a close-up:

I hope I can make traditional art a part of my life again.

I had one shelf that was cleared of scrapbooking supplies that got sorted into the new drawers, so I moved the decorations that were on this desk to it:

Speaking of, I haven’t shared my little collections in a while, particularly since I displayed them after opening my Christmas presents. Here’s the shelves with some of the newer Jurassic World additions…

A close-up of my lovely little Parasaurolophus, I love him so much:

There are a lot of dinosaurs in my studio…

(But not too many. There is no such thing.)

I feel like every day I love dinosaurs and the Jurassic Park / World franchise more and more, like it’s almost becoming a part of my personality. That phrasing seems wrong… I guess I mean it feels less like something I’ll emotionally outgrow and more like a deep-seated, truly lifelong interest, that I don’t think can ever go away because at the core, it’s about dinosaurs and nature, and I’ll never not love those things.

Finally, here’s Kalinka and Natasha. I decided to display them side by side because they look a little like sisters:

Because I spent so much time doing this, I was up until 3:00am doing housework, including cleaning the snail tank. Here’s some happy snails:

I’m trying to keep in mind the fact that, outside of my resolutions, I would normally consider this a wildly successful week. In spite of unusual physical pain, I did a lot of writing, took my mom to the movies, reorganized all of my scrapbooking supplies, revamped the studio closet, and reworked my traditional art work area. I went grocery shopping and worked on my blog. It wasn’t all so bad.

But I also can’t deny the obvious: this may have been a terrible week for me, but bad week or not, I failed at ALL of my resolutions outside of reading. So, I’m allowing myself a fresh start with my fitness chart. I also set a more reasonable goal, which would have me at my goal weight by April. I won’t beat myself up over the missteps. Instead I’ll celebrate what I did manage, dust myself off, and tomorrow start again with new renewed vigor.

LEGO Spooder ๐Ÿ•ท

Tonight it was date night! I am building the Sesame Street set. I left it for last because it is a very special build. After this, I have something coming thanks to my dear friend Mwako, who sent me multiple surprises to cheer me up. It’s Emma’s Art School, but itโ€™s on backorder right now, so I have to wait a little while. I’m excited though!

Date Night Means LEGO! ๐ŸŒน

Christopher is building the Galaxy Explorer. It is a really awesome and complex build, especially for the price. We recommend it!

Here are some photos of the build in progress:

Meanwhile Iโ€™m building the little LEGO store. Sooo many stickers ๐Ÿ˜ญ but itโ€™s very cute and detailed!

It’s an even more fun build than I anticipated. I couldn’t finish it in a single sitting.

Building LEGO Jurassic Park T. rex Breakout! ๐Ÿฆ–๐Ÿš™๐Ÿ’ฅ

Thursday, as always, is date night. You know what that means! LEGO time! It was actually our third sitting with this set. We try to savor them slowly.

The manual is thick, and full of movie references and photos. Here’s the cover!

I built the T. Rex and the minifigs, while Christopher built everything else. It may seem weird since this was my birthday present from my sis in law but even like this, it took us a while. I’d rather build sets together anyway, and I am very slow.

Here’s photos of the build in progress:

Our partner didn’t build anything but provided comedic relief.

โœจ All done! โœจ

Well, mostly. I want to adjust the position of some stuff later.

After LEGO building was done, our partner and I went to get dinner at the food trucks near us. They looked pretty with all the lights as the sun was setting. The air full of wonderful smells and the sounds of happy people.

It was one of those moments that weirdly feel like they will stick in my mind, holding our partner’s hand, taking all of those things in with all my senses, the too-warm air yet pleasant atmosphere, a happy, safe feeling. It was a really nice evening.

Breakfast Out + Date Night! ๐Ÿฅ‘๐ŸŒˆ

Mwako had to leave today. ๐Ÿ˜” But before he did, we got to have one nice little goodbye breakfast together! ๐ŸŒป Then I was able to catch up on some housework, and in the late afternoon, Christopher and I played with LEGO again. It’s a really nice date night activity, and our partner even joined in for a little while after his nap. ๐Ÿฅฐ

๐ŸŒž First Watch Breakfast ๐ŸŒž

I had never been to First Watch before! I wish we knew of it sooner. We really miss Metro Diner (ours shut down to become a funeral home, of all things) and this seems to be practically the same restaurant. Very similar menu and atmosphere. I can’t wait to have a little morning date with Christopher here.

I had avocado toast and grapefruit juice. The servings weren’t too big and the meal wasn’t otherwordly or anything, but it was good. I want to come again.

Mwako happened to snap a photo of me getting ready to snap a photo… ๐Ÿ˜„

I saw my friend off right after breakfast. Then I caught up on my blog and on my chores.

๐Ÿš‰ Date Night ๐Ÿš‰

After that came date night, and more LEGO fun was had! We put together our brand new freight train. Christopher was happier all throughout than I have seen him in a long time.

If I’d known how much he would enjoy this and how we would bond over it, I would have made it a priority in our lives and entertainment budget ages ago. I feel a bit sad in that regard over the lost time, but at least we can make up for it now.

Excited for the first test run!! ๐Ÿš…

It’s really powerful and fast! ๐Ÿคฏ

Here our partner took the controller. The scream is him. That, my friends, is the soundtrack of our lives, every day (and neither my husband nor I could live without it).

After this, they opened a pack of glow sticks that Mwako got for me as a little surprise and began to have fun with themโ€ฆ

I had to admit it looked pretty neat!

All in all it was a really wonderful day. I’m looking forward to having more fun this weekend!

Pokรฉmon Labyrinth!

Tonight for date night we played the Pokรฉmon version of Labyrinth! Excuse the doofus eating peanut M&Mโ€™s off the table pleaseโ€ฆ ๐Ÿคฆโ€โ™€๏ธ

Here’s some close-up shots. As always with Ravensburger games and puzzles, the quality is amazing!

It was our first time playing this game. More challenging than I expected! I can’t wait to play it again.

Board Games, Ramen And a Movie! ๐Ÿœ๐ŸŽฅโœจ

Yesterday was date night! When Christopher got home, first he and I spent some time playing board games together while our partner was still busy working. We played Battleship first and Christopher won –twice!

Then we played Quoridor which was a birthday present he got from my sis-in-law. It’s a very simple game. But fun!

Cilantro threatening Christopher’s meeple ๐Ÿ˜

This time, I won! ๐Ÿฅณ

After board games we went to Sakura Ramen for dinner, where we had our usual pork bao bun appetizer, and of course, ramen!

Then it was back home to watch Everything Everywhere All At Once together. We went to bed late, but happy.

Mid-March Weekly Summary ๐ŸŽˆ๐Ÿ›

Hello, everyone! I hope youโ€™ve had a happy week! Itโ€™s been very busy for us, as all weeks have been lately. So, as has become the norm for my blog, I just have one long post to catch you all up on the weekโ€™s happenings.

For starters, I am sick again. It seems I had one week of relief in between head colds. Itโ€™s very mild (milder than the prior one). Just really annoying. Anyway! Letโ€™s begin.

๐Ÿ› Curry Dinner! ๐Ÿ›

On Tuesday night, I made Japanese style curry. Iโ€™ve had many previous attempts that didnโ€™t turn out so great. Finally I figured it out, trying a new recipe which I doctored a bit. My guys loved it, as did I, and Iโ€™m looking forward to having it again with different meats.

๐ŸŽ‚ Christopher’s 38th Birthday Dinner ๐ŸŽ‚

Wednesday was Christopherโ€™s birthday! He got his remaining presents in the morning, and in the evening, we went to The Capital Grille in Downtown Miami. It was an extremely fancy restaurant, a real treat, so I dressed up a little.

Christopher was… excited.

All the food was wonderful, but I didn’t have my phone (forgot it in the car) so I didn’t take many pictures. Here is one of the appetizer, though, Tuna Tartare:

It was spicy. We also got a picture of Christopher with his birthday dessert:

๐Ÿงธ Toklo ๐Ÿงธ

Toklo now has a new ribbon and shirt. He still needs his name necklace, I’ll work on that next week.

The shirt is pretty funny, it was a Build-A-Bear online exclusive.

๐Ÿš‚ Date Night ๐Ÿš‚

For date night, we had one more round of playing with our trains before putting them away. We’ll probably play again in a month or two; I’m sure I’ll want to, as my new Thomas things begin to arrive later this month.

A little video…

Toklo got to play with us too:

The cats always love to observe and walk among the track. They don’t destroy anything, they just get excited by it all.

Afterwards we had tea. They gamed for a bit while I kept fiddling with Instagram, setting up my new art account. It was a nice, chill end to a lovely evening together.

๐Ÿดโ€โ˜ ๏ธ Rosie ๐Ÿดโ€โ˜ ๏ธ

Have some cute photos I took of Rosie. I woke her up from her morning nap and played with her a little. She is such a soft, sweet little thing!

๐Ÿฅž Pancake Breakfast ๐Ÿฅž

This weekend, Christopher’s mom and grandma came to visit and celebrate Christopher’s birthday. We went to Nami Sushi for Friday night dinner and to a Thai place on Saturday evening. On Saturday morning, we had pancakes. Christopher made me a mouse-shaped one, so I decorated it:

It was very yummy!

Unfortunately I spent a lot of the weekend in a very crabby mood due to being sick. I am not very sick, but it is annoying. It makes it harder to do anything, and I am constantly sleepy. It also got a lot colder on Saturday night, and the cold makes me lazier. Hopefully I get my energy back again real soon.

๐Ÿ“ฆ Goodies From This Week ๐Ÿ“ฆ

I have a few new things to share. One is this new top I got on Etsy. It appears very wrinkled in this photo, but it’s really very cute:

I also got a Super Mario coloring/sticker book and a Camp Cretaceous activity play-pack:

Finally, we went on a Goodwill stroll yesterday, and I had two happy finds. One is this lovely old storybook:

And the other is this awesome, massive Sesame Street blanket that I covered my futon with. I love it! It is like new, and only six bucks.

That is all for this week’s post. I am tired, and busy… I hope you all enjoyed your weekend, and I look forward to sharing another week of art with you as I get back to my drawing board on Monday.

Summary Of The Last Few Days! ๐Ÿคง๐Ÿ„๐ŸŒˆ

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 itโ€™s not inappropriate to continue sharing happy mundane things or cutesy art. Iโ€™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:

๐Ÿ’˜ Tomoyo ๐Ÿ’˜

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.

๐ŸŒณ Park Walk ๐ŸŒณ

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!

๐ŸŽฎ Variable Barricade ๐ŸŽฎ

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. ๐Ÿ™‚

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.

๐Ÿ• Date Night Pizza Dinner ๐Ÿ•

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.

๐Ÿ‘ฝ Smoke Shop Trip ๐Ÿ‘ฝ

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:

๐Ÿ„ More Park Walks ๐Ÿ„

Friday was my favorite day this week. Our normal walk ended up feeling more like a long date. ๐Ÿฅฐ 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.

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

๐Ÿฅž๐Ÿ“ Saturday Morning Pancakes ๐Ÿ“๐Ÿฅž

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!

๐ŸŽธ Saturday Night Outing ๐ŸŽธ

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. ๐Ÿ™ˆ

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. ๐Ÿฅฐ

๐ŸŽจ Weekly Art Summary ๐ŸŽจ

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.