So this week was very blah. Even though all the dates will be correct, I am, in fact, writing this entry almost three weeks late. I’ve been low, keeping my resolutions has been a struggle and I’ve failed often. But hey, it’s only February, every week brings little triumphs and stumbles. All I can do is keep going, right?
๐ Monday ๐
This was an unproductive day. I was tired, in a low mood (as was Christopher) and I wasn’t able to get any writing done. But I got a new board game to play with my mom (a remake of the 70’s version of Chutes & Ladders) which arrived on this day.
I also added three new goals to my 2023 resolutions. I firmly believe all are achievable, in spite of less than ideal weeks like this one. A lot of this may be put on pause or adjusted if and when I find a full or part time job, but for now, I want to add them. They are as follows:
๐ Watch One VHS Tape Per Month
๐ Catalog All My Books Into LibraryThing
๐ Play Every Unplayed Board Game In Our Shelves At Least Twice
After dinner, I baked some cookies to cheer us all up:
๐ Tuesday ๐
On this day I went to Publix. I got Valentine’s cards and chocolates for everyone, as well as wrapping for Christopher’s Valentine’s Day present, and ingredients for the present I’m making for our partner (brigadeiros). I scanned the scrapbook pages I’ve made so far and added them to the Resolutions page, but you can see them here as well:
I’m going to make a cover page for my scrapbook next.
On this day I also received this lovely Halloween themed surprise from TheWanderingShepherd on FA! Thank you, Shep!
I watched more of 3000 Leagues In Search Of Mother while drawing the February Patreon rewards…
For lunch I had a turkey wrap and some veggie chips…
Later in the day, this guy came. He’s one of my favorite dinosaur plushies ever! Paralophosaurus are one of my favorite dinosaurs.
I’ve yet to think of a name… I got him with a gift card so I am not counting him against my goal for the year.
For dinner, we had handmade salmon burgers, they were great:
๐ Wednesday ๐
It being Wednesday, I zoomed with my mom as usual. Christopher didn’t feel well, so he stayed home. I did chores all day, and for dinner, made a chicken salad:
๐ Thursday ๐
On this day I decided to finally make a Mastodon account. So, if you want, you can follow me here. Following a friend’s advice I’ve decided not to limit myself so much on social media, for the sake of my livelihood. So, my art account is back on Instagram too, and I made a Retrospringto connect with my commissioners as well.
I had an egg, radish and cheese sandwich for lunch, on french bread. It was really good!
During date night, I built this little pirate ride:
For dinner, we had pizza!
After I made the bed, I took this photo of Grover because he’d ended up doing a floppy fall on top of the blanket that made him look really playful:
Grover has become my permanent sleep buddy so he always wears his PJs. He’s slept with me for well over a year now, longer than any other plushie.
๐ Friday ๐
This was another very blah day. I can’t remember what happened on this day, I’m sorry. But I did discover that popcorn is a really nice low-calorie snack. ๐ฟ๐คทโโ๏ธ
๐ Saturday & Sunday ๐
We didn’t do anything special this weekend but it was a busy one. Saturday morning, while our partner still slept, Christopher and I hung out together and watched Kotoko walk all over his desk, very rare for this old lady to do. He thought it was hilarious when we showed him the pictures.
Throughout the weekend, we worked hard to clean the porch, mow the lawn, and just tidy things up. As a little reward for working hard, our partner took me out to dinner to Five Guys, and then to have frozen yogurt at Menchie’s. Both were such wonderful treats!
I badly wished Christopher had joined us but he was neither hungry nor did he feel up to going out. But I sent him this picture of Asuka that I saw on the doodle board at the restaurant:
And that’s it for this week. Definitely not as exciting as others and I apologize for my mood not being so great throughout. But at least I blogged it still. That’s gotta count for something. ๐
CONTENT WARNING: There will be some minor references to struggles with food and eating in this post. It will be from Friday onward and will have a reminder content warning so it won't surprise you. This stuff will diminish with time, right now it is a big thing in my life, so I apologize if it is annoying.
Happy Sunday, everyone! Firstly, let me address something you may have noticed (perhaps with relief) if you’re a daily subscriber: the 2023 Goal Tracker post notifications are no longer being sent out.
This is because I was apprehensive about flooding people’s inboxes with something that interested only me (I mean, more than the rest of a lot of this blog’s content, even). Sharing the posts imbued me with a definite sense of accountability, but it wasn’t worth causing people to unsubscribe. So I still publish them, but now they are all private, for my eyes only, and so, no one gets notifications for them. You can still keep track of my progress on my 2023 resolutions page if you are so inclined. ๐
Overall, this was a positive week. Let’s get on with the summary!
๐ Monday ๐
Christopher has been a little low, so I baked cookies to cheer him up! And well, I also wanted cookies. They were great! We still have a package left, I’ll probably make it next week.
It was tank cleaning day, so have some photos. Excuse the poop. They’re literally always pooping.
๐ Tuesday ๐
I worked on art lots on this day, getting this piece almost to completion –here’s a WIP:
And here’s a random photo I took of Kotoko on this day. She was being extra adorable.
Being Tuesday, Project Night was next! Grogu kept me company as I worked on a Mandalorian Valentine page.
It was especially fun, and I’m glad I grabbed the card while grocery shopping to do this. ๐ Even if its message seems oddly threatening…
๐ Wednesday ๐
Christopher stayed home on this day, as he wasn’t doing so well. I did my best to look after him. I also finished the art I shared a WIP of for the day before. Other than that, it was a normal day of doing my best to stick to all my resolutions.
One of those has been riding my stationary bike almost every day, and playing Legends: Arceus at the same time. I found that it was easier to go from Violet to Arceus, than it was on my first attempt when I went from Sword to Arceus for a bit. Violet got me a little more used to the whole open world business.
I’m also glad I finished Violet before going back to Arceus because otherwise the graphics in Violet would have bothered me so much more. Arceus does have glitches and frame rate issues as well, but I still find it utterly beautiful.
The utter disappointment in Mai’s Munchlax face after losing the battle was SO cute. He looked so crestfallen! I felt kinda bad…
WAIT –Bambi’s dad!?
Nevermind it’s just Wyrdeer.
I can’t be the only one who thought “Old Prince” when I saw him in that pose, though!
CONTENT WARNING: Going forward for the rest of the post, there will be occasional discussion of disordered eating, fitness, and weight loss. It will be in a mostly positive note, but please don't continue reading the post if this topic is triggering for you. ๐
๐ Thursday ๐
On this day, you may recall that I made this post. It was a self-reflection that was very long overdue. I’d mostly ignored a lot of the issues presented there, because I am neither worryingly skinny nor morbidly obese, nor does my weight fluctuate wildly, nor am I engaged in seriously physically harmful practices in relation to food.
But I could tell that my relationship with food was becoming problematic, obsessive, and distressing on an everyday basis. I started to feel that if I continued to ignore it, it could verge into actually dangerous territory. So, I made changes to my everyday life that began on this day.
The primary change, really, is simply a drastic reduction in my snacking. I have lunch, a snack, and dinner. Because I’d been so obsessive with eating a small snack whenever I felt like I could, I’d forgotten how to read hunger cues (indeed, I had not had them for a very long time). You could say I am really bad at hearing my body’s signals. So, for me, limiting my snacking to very set times is very important, as is planning everything I will eat that day on the day before.
I am flexible: generally, I simply have mate for breakfast (it’s like tea, no calories, so it doesn’t break my intermittent fast) but on this week there were been two mornings where I had a handful of Raisin Bran because I am trying very hard to increase fiber in my diet and every extra bit helps. One night, after a full dinner, I was still so hungry that I had a banana, and that was okay. I listened to my body and gave it something good.
On that note, the primary reason for my intermittent fast is to have a set time for dinner and not go to bed too soon after (a healthy practice) and to actually be hungry for lunch. So, it is not a diet practice as much as a lifestyle change that I want to keep for every day.
Anyway, on to more fun things, this was date night! We went to Tijuana Flats for a treat, and I snuck Toro inside my backpack. ๐
He enjoyed some tortilla chips!
Once we got back home, we played with LEGO, and I completed my first set of the year!
123 Sesame Street is full of adorable details and it has to be my favorite set I’ve put together yet, along with the LEGO Friends Friendship Tree House.
Later that night, I happened to spot our littlest possum visitor through the dining room window. He was so cute! I went to the door (without opening it) so I could get some photos and video from the narrow window on the side.
I’ve been making an effort to clean this area before night to discourage the guys from visiting, much as I love them. They get really close to the house and I wouldn’t want them to get aggressive. They come after the bird seed that the birds dropped during the day, but admittedly there is never much that is edible. They mostly sniff around for a few minutes and leave.
After our nightly anime watching, I went to write for a while. It wasn’t until the clock showed well past 2:00am and Christopher came into the room to make me go to bed and turned on the lights that I saw that the Boba Fett plushie I longed for had been hidden among other green friends! It was there all the time, for hours, and I hadn’t seen it!
This was such a lovely surprise from Christopher, and I can’t wait to make him a bandana and kandi necklace like the rest of my toys. I’ll show close-ups of him in and out of the box a little later in this post. Needless to say, I went to bed very happy!
๐ Friday ๐
To start this day, here is Tomoyo laying on my chest while we hung out on the couch in the morning:
On this day I started to watch 3000 Leagues in Search of Mother (ๆฏใใใใญใฆไธๅ้, Haha o Tazunete Sanzenri) a Japanese animated television series directed by Isao Takahata that aired in 1976. You may recall me mentioning this anime when I was reading Corazรณn: Diario De Un Niรฑo by Edmondo De Amicis earlier this year. The GIF that started this day’s summary is from that anime.
Corazรณn is the daily diary of an Italian schoolboy growing up in the late 1800’s. Included in the novel are twelve stories that Enrique has to copy for school, which the teacher provides to the students. The stories all have morals about family or patriotism, or the like. The anime is loosely based on one of these stories, “De Los Apeninos A Los Andes” (From the Apennines to the Andes).
While this short story is the longest in the novel, it’s still but a few pages long. The anime greatly expands upon it, turning it into a 52-episode epic that had me crying with just the first one! It is full of heart, and definitely a drama. Not something you’d see being made for kids nowadays, I’m sure. It would be considered traumatizing.
Very sad, given that stories like these recognize the real pain, loss and fear children experience daily all over the world throughout history and across all generations, regardless of whether adults today like to think about it. Anyway, I’m looking forward to binging it over the next few weeks.
I didn’t have time to free poor Boba from his bindings this day, but I took a close-up photo of him:
I went grocery shopping on this day. Before doing so, I’d trashed a lot of my unhealthy snacks. I did keep some, and I put them out of my easy reach. But sometimes I pick one to have the next day and leave it where I can get it. Believe it or not, I have the rest under lock and key, and I give the key to Christopher during the day. I guess perhaps a detail such as this might make it more clear why I feel my lack of self control is such a problem (the key was my idea, mind you).
It took me longer to shop for groceries because I was much more careful with my choices. I came home with a lot of healthy foods, non-processed stuff, fruits, veggies. I very much enjoyed my meals the rest of this week and surprised myself with how delicious I could still make meals without smothering everything in cheese, or frying stuff.
I made tilapia with potatoes for this night. Normally I’d have made a second side. But we were all full without one. That was a good choice too.
Afterwards, I enjoyed playing more Legends: Arceus and riding my stationary bike. Once I finish, I always lay on the couch with Tomoyo for a bit, who by now is eager to get fed, but tolerates some love anyway…
What a face!
On this day, I finally began using my food diary. I decided to use a Google Sheets document rather than a written book after all. I find this more useful, I am more likely to enter the data, and I can add up calories and subtract exercise.
๐ Saturday ๐
As the week went by, my feelings towards food and eating improved more and more. I began to eat much more mindfully, not snacking became easier, and food was tastier as a result. I felt more satisfied and happy, and a lot of my feelings of guilt began to go away. This week I had salad for every lunch. I’ll switch once the salad mix is out, but I know I’ll make it again soon because it was so delicious!
It has krab (which I seasoned with salt, pepper and Old Bay seasoning) boiled egg, some crunchy topping, a cracked black pepper ranch dressing, and a base of iceberg lettuce, romaine lettuce, carrots, red cabbage and radishes.
I’ve been trying to use meditation techniques to control some of the obsessive snacking thoughts. I acknowledge the thought, and let it pass, or try to. I do not guilt myself over the thought. It’s just something that crosses my mind, and I remind myself it doesn’t actually have the power over me that I think it does. It was hard at first but it’s been helping a lot, too.
On the afternoon, I finally found time to free Boba Fett. He is so flippin’ cute! I love his little fists. I’m not sure he should trust the rocket launcher, though. It’s not the most reliable. I also cut up the box for more scrapbooking materials!
For dinner, I made turkey burgers with avocado. ๐๐ฅ๐
Random snail photo of the day:
During the night we received a rarer visitor: one of the local raccoons! He was just passing by.
๐ Sunday ๐
It was a rainy weekend, and a lazy, relaxing Sunday. I had my usual breakfast early in the morning as the sun was coming up, and read a little more, too.
Afterwards I took a little nap and Tomoyo napped on me too:
I had an unexpected gift card later in the day. I was really happy that I could buy a simple board game to play with my mom the next time I visit her!
Since I had enough left, I got something off of my wish list… I’m gonna say this doesn’t count against my resolution since it was a gift card. I’ve been wanting this little guy sooo much!
Afternoon snack was rich in fiber. Did more reading, and Blue kept me company this time!
Having worked on Patreon rewards all throughout the weekend, I decided it was ok to take some “me” time to scrapbook. I really wanted to make a couple of Child’s Play / Chucky themed pages.
Here’s the “Good Guys” page before everything is pasted in!
And here it is all finished:
This was the more “gory” page. Here it is underway…
…and all done!
I had a lot of fun! Dinner was grilled chicken, mashed potatoes, some avocado slices and kale salad. Pretty small portions, so on this night, after exercising, I had a banana, too.
I finished the week with much more positive feelings than it started with. I hope I can carry them on into the next, and have fun things to share with you all! Have a great week, guys!
Today was our holiday house party! To our delight/horror, Buddy decided to contribute:
You don’t have to look THAT thrilled at the show, Sarah…
Unfortunately none of our guests wanted to sample Buddy’s special lemonade. ๐
Today’s Jurassic World Advent Calendar friend was Dimetrodon! I kept telling everyone I showed this to earlier that it was Spinosaurus, I got confused. ๐
Today’s LEGO City Advent Calendar prize was a mailbox! I built it with my friend Shelly and it was really fun:
Now this kiddo has someplace to drop his letter to Santa!
The party was SO much fun. Shelly and I watched a movie before everyone got there: Samantha, An American Girl Holiday.
I’d seen this movie long ago and it was just as lovely as I remembered. It’s also a little bittersweet for me. When I watched it, I’d really, desperately wanted a Samantha doll. I’d eventually get one, on what was a deeply special occasion. She was precious to me. Even at the point I owned the most dolls, it was only three. But, when I did one of my toy purges, I worried that dolls were something I couldn’t really collect because so many people find them creepy. It seemed like one of the things I had to let go of, at the time.
People who visit may think I have a LOT of teddy bears but they still find them cute. Dolls really go off the creepy charts when you pass a certain number. I felt I couldn’t take them our or enjoy them as I enjoyed teddies, and while I now have my friend Shelly, back then I had no one who loved dolls as I did. So all my dollies were donated. It is one of the rare cases where I regret every one of those cases. I never regretted donating my horses for example, but I really miss my dolls.
Shelly loves her Samantha as much as I loved mine. I get to see her Samantha doll whenever she visits, and that makes me really happy! Besides, I have my Marzi, and when our partner asked what I wanted for Christmas, I asked for a new doll from Spain. So I’m going to have a new doll again. This time, I’ll try to just enjoy and not worry about what others think.
The doll is made by a brand called “Asรญ”. It’s a very beautiful child doll with vinyl head and limbs and a soft, cuddly body. She’s big, almost 23″ tall!
Because it’s coming all the way from Spain, it’s not 100% sure that it will arrive in time for Christmas, but I’m hoping with all my heart! I think I’ll name her Kalinka.
Anyway, ramble over –here’s the only picture I took for the night, of two of our friends being very cute together:
My favorite part was giving everyone their presents. I was so happy. And Shelly had a surprise for me too! She knows me so well now, and everything she picked showed it. There was a Grogu blanket, neck pillow and eye cover set that I LOVE:
Dinosaur-egg shaped Belgian chocolates:
And a little Boo!
It’s so nice to get a bunch of little surprises that show the friend who picked them for you really thought about and remembered everything you like. That was the best part.
Shelly even made this lovely little hairbow for me. I wanted to wear it right away so we could be matching, but in wearing my Santa hat, I forgot. So for now I am displaying it by the LEGO Advent Calendar because it’s so pretty:
As an aside, I took these photos of Rosie during the party. I think she’s feeling better.
Before bed I also snapped this photo of the lights in my studio, which I’ve changed to Christmas colors. I really love them.
I went to bed before everyone else and read a little bit more of Marcella: A Raggedy Ann Story. I’ve been really enjoying this book:
Stories from the POV of toys are among my favorites, and it reminds me that creating stories with my toys as the characters is something I really want to do. But I don’t want to start new projects, so whenever I get this urge, I work on my book some more. So I’ve been doing that a bit this last week.
Anyway that’s all I’ve got to share for this post. Tomorrow is my chore day so I’ll be busy! But next weekend we go to LEGOLand. I’m so excited!
Today I went to look at toys! I bought a couple of tiny small things, and groceries, and one big thing, but mostly I looked at things and took pictures which is always fun. I also enjoyed a really nice bike ride on the way there! Thankfully the rain that began in the morning stopped by the afternoon.
Here’s a Mei plushie from Turning Red!! It was so cute!
Look at this cute Stitch eating a watermelon slice. ๐ I wanted to buy him for Christopher!
Even though this is โfakeโ Little People I really love this set and may get it eventually to use with my official LPโs. Itโs awesome!
This Walmart exclusive LEGO promo really caught my eye!! ๐
This baby kitten doll was very cute too. And big!
Buggy Care Bears!Derpy pupper!Pyroraptor costume!Trick-or-treating Grogu…Little People animals!!
This was really cute:
Iโm getting mixed messages from this bagโฆ
After Walmart I went to sam’s Club to pick up the Little People camping set I wanted. I bought it without consideration for the package’s size, shape, nor my transportation method of choice for the day, and once I went back to my bike, a thought fleetingly crossed my mind: perhaps I did not think this thoroughly. ๐ค๐ค๐ค
So began the most awkward bike ride home ever. A woman gave me an extremely amused smile as I awkwardly rode by her on the sidewalk. I was so glad people around didn’t know I bought this for myself.
Then again I was wearing my dinosaur shirt by Wen, my bike has pink decor in the tires and a huge sunflower in a pink basket plus a large perler bead heart, a squirrel bell AND a squirrel horn. And furry stickers. ๐ And with the kicker of having this backpack on me at the time, I probably wasn’t fooling anyone.
Me: ducks to avoid low branches My giant toy box: smash smash smash smash
Anyway I made it home with my treasures and my groceries. It was a fun outing.
I’m trying to catch up on posts regarding new goodies I’ve gotten. I can’t really post everything as my blog was really neglected for a long time (though, you wouldn’t be able to tell since I post a lot when I catch up and it’s all properly post-dated). Anyway! Today’s post is about coloring books.
Even though I’ve been collecting coloring books for the better part of five years, I don’t think I’ve actually ever voiced that. I don’t use them: I keep them for scanning and then printing into Bristol board, my favorite method for coloring. This also allows me to keep certain irreplaceable books pristine, such as the NIB collection I got on eBay of Muppet Babies coloring books (from the original show) or the set of Moomin coloring books, all in Swedish, that I found brand new at Goodwill of all places.
One of my newest finds is this Mandalorian coloring book. I love it!
This might be one of the few that are more for collectible purposes only rather than ever printing and coloring, but I never know if a friend I happen to have over might like to color them.
Ok, this was a HECK of a find! If you know me well, you’ll know that I love, LOVE Hercules. It’s one of my favorite Disney movies. Herc merch isn’t that easy to find, but a coloring book?? In 2022?? What? I jumped on it. It even has holographic stickers!
Here’s one of the inside pages…
So, the Bluey one I’ve had for a few months. But I don’t think I’ve showed it yet. Since I’m showing the Berenstain Bears one, I figure I might show this one also. I’m so excited for the season, so I can use these!
The Berenstain Bears one is AMAZING. It is SO thick, and the scenes are my most favorite sort of thing to color. I can’t wait!
The Bluey one is actually an activity book for the most part. But I’m really excited about it too!
It’s Sunday again! And this weekend is Mother’s Day. So Happy Mother’s Day to our moms and to any moms reading this. ๐ We all took my mom, Christopher’s mom and Grandma to Fairchild Tropical Botanic Garden to celebrate. And I also visited my mom during the week. Anyway, let’s get on with the weekly recap!
๐ Monday ๐
This stuff is from last week but I didn’t have a chance to take pictures until now. Some Jurassic World finds. First, a puzzle in an egg! I haven’t “hatched” it yet. ๐
And a really nice coloring book, of the same sort as the Turning Red one:
This one actually was from today. We went to Sam’s Club and I found the most amazing Mandalorian activity book:
The pages are THICK. It has lots of activities, some with actual cardstock. I can’t recommend this enough! It will make for lots of scrapbooking fun.
๐ Tuesday ๐
Tuesday I went to my mom’s. All I have from this day is this photo of Sweeney:
๐ Wednesday ๐
On Wednesday my mom’s gas station was closed down because they were recording a Ferrari commercial. We were allowed a sneak peek!
And have more photos of Sweeney, because why not…
In the evening I finally beat Pokรฉmon Sword, so that was nice.
๐ Thursday ๐
On Thursday we got news of a fire near my beloved Marham Park. There was a storm the night before, and lighting hit somewhere. The fire was very big and we still don’t know if it was just the Everglades or the park itself affected. I hope it wasn’t the park. ๐
A new scratcher I ordered for the kitties came in on this day. Rosie took to it immediately:
For lunch we ordered aรงaรญย bowls from Raw Addiction, but they were much smaller than usual which was a bummer.
Anyway, my feeder is getting continuous visitors. They do make a mess, but I love them all the same.
๐ Friday ๐
Friday morning I went out for a long walk, and also to Target. I didn’t buy anything but these Jurassic Park Funko backpacks were really neat to see:
For lunch I had avocado toast and opened another Good2Grow Podz:
Got a trike this time! Really cute.
๐ Saturday ๐
This was the day we took our Moms and Grandma out! We were off early, first to pick up my mom and then to grab breakfast.
It is rare that my mom joins us on an outing like this one, and our partner was with us too, so these photos are really precious to me. I wish my sis in law had been with us too, then I could say all of the people I love most in the world were with me. All the photos below are of me and my family.
When I went a few weeks ago with our partner, none of the LEGO stuff was on display tet. But this time it was, and that made this visit a particular treat!
The slightly maddening thing is that the upcoming LEGO statue to be unveiled is a realistic snail on a mushroom… and I missed it! Sigh. ๐
Anyway –critters! The photo set below is all critters. My favorite is the lounging squirrel at the start!
And here are all the other photos… flowers, plants and such, things that didn’t fit in the above sets:
I got a bit worried because my mom seemed close to heat stroke by the end. But ultimately we made it to a restaurant and then she felt better. After that, we took her home. Then the rest of us relaxed back at our place.
๐ Sunday ๐
Breakfast this morning was SO wonderful! Christopher made me a fancy pancake again and my mom in law burned the bacon just the way she knows I like it. Not extra crispy. Burnt! It’s always a delight.
I got an even cuter photo from my squirrel feeder today!
And that’s all… family is now gone back to Sebastian so it’s time to get to work again and continue catching up on my backlog of, well… everything!
Happy April, everyone! Boy, this was one stressful week, but it did have good moments regardless. Not only was our house painted this week, but we cleaned the back porch (a grueling task every time as you might recall) I was on my period for half the week, had to do our taxes, go to an appointment at the Social Security Administration office, I visited my mom to celebrate her birthday, and went on a couple of outings with my husband and our partner.
This is my sorry face
So if you are among the multiple people I’ve left on read these past few days… I am so sorry, and you are still on my mind, and not forgotten… it’s been a heck of a week… I’ll be catching up with messages as the week rolls on.
I also played a lot of Code: Realize ~Wintertide Miracles~ (I’m on Cantarella’s story right now) and we are watching Tenchi Muyo so I felt the above GIF was appropiate. ^_^
๐ Monday ๐
Monday was fairly quiet. I worked on commissions and did housework, but was a bit subdued due to my period. Our house began to be prepped for painting on this day.
For lunch, I made toasted rice balls for our partner and I. He’d never had them before.
Got to use my new Bluey plate, cutlery and bowl, so that made me happy.
And speaking of Bluey –here is a coloring book I got recently:
The pages are kinda thin, so I’ll just scan and reprint on thicker paper when I want to color it. This is actually how I preserve most of my coloring books, including many vintage ones!
๐ Tuesday ๐
Tuesday was the Social Security appointment (for my name change). It went smoothly, other than the security guard at the entrance being so intimidating towards everyone, especially older people who could not understand English nor understand what was going on. Even though inside plenty of signage indicates accommodating if you need an interpreter, the officer was aggressive and angry towards these poor mostly Latin people who barely spoke English and were so confused and even frightened by his demeanor. ๐
Once that was done, I walked to Target. I saw these traffic cones on the way that grass had grown right through. Seems the grass around them was mowed without the cones being moved a few times. I thought it looked interesting enough for a picture:
By the time I got home, a lot of progress had been done on the house painting. Here is a before and after at that point in time (I’ll have a final update next week):
I didn’t have much time to admire the house. I had to finish all my chores, and pack, and then our partner drove me to my mom’s. She and I went to dinner pretty soon after I got there to celebrate her birthday:
I had primavera pizza! It’s my favorite because it has egg:
Once we got home, my mom opened her birthday present. Christopher bought her a laptop (her computer was ANCIENT). She was really happy –Sweeney tested it immediately! Meanwhile, Shampoo enjoyed laying on a crinkly paper bag. To each their own.
๐ Wednesday ๐
Wednesday was my mom and I’s usual peaceful morning of TV, mate, and conversation. I also drew and played a bit of Code: Realize ~Wintertide Miracles~ here and there.
Gumdrop had his first taste of mate!
My mom had a really big surprise for me! She was able to find my favorite childhood cookies, which I have not had for over twenty years!
They have zodiac signs on them:
A close similar cookie was Pepperidge Farm’s chessmen chocolate cookies, but I think they were discontinued in my area a long time ago. I can’t find them anywhere anymore. Anyway, my mom got me like three bags of these, so that was a wonderful surprise!
For Wednesday night dinner, my mom made fries (my favorite)!
As if that weren’t enough, she made a legit Argentinean bizcochuelo for dessert, another big treat. The mix was yet another childhood favorite that she was able to acquire recently through a shopping service.
After dinner, my guys picked me up. At home I had yet another wonderful surprise waiting for me! At first I couldn’t find Yoshi anywhere and I was sure our partner had hidden him or placed him in some sort of unfortunate situation, as he tends to do to my toys. But Yoshi turned out to be waiting for me on my desk, and he was holding the Limited Run visual novel I’ve been begging Christopher for!
It’s The House In Fata Morgana. I’ve heard many good things about it.
That, and watching TV and cuddling all together, made for a wonderful end to my day.
๐ Thursday ๐
I forgot to share this other surprise my mom gave me during my visit! Last time she got me the Mafalda figure and magazine. This time it was Manolito:
On Thursday I walked to Target to pick up an online order. I wanted to get one of these dino clickers, mostly as a desk fidget toy. His head and legs click when you move them. He’s really cute.
For date night, I made another massive snack spread, while the guys continued playing Kirby and I watched. Didn’t get quite so drunk on this day, but it was still a nice time.
![Christmas โ22 ๐โจ [Advent Day 3 + Holiday House Party]](https://squelfland.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/ricky_xmas_featured-1.png)
