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Dad's Back In The Hospital
Jan. 27th, 2026 11:50 pmChemo will start tomorrow, and continue for the next three days, then he should be home on Saturday, and outpatient treatments will continue a few weeks after that. We'll see what happens. And because Mom still needs my car to get around (and a little because our street was barely fucking plowed and also there's apparently a barrel marking SOMETHING in the road that's blocking it, so that's fun), I will be home tomorrow while she figures out alternate transportation plans. *shakehead* I am very lucky my work and my coworkers are being very understanding about this. And that I have loads of sick time banked up that I can use for this purpose (I mean, SOMEONE'S sick in my family, so...). Don't get me wrong, I'm not THAT eager to get back to work (because, well, work), I just -- I worry that everyone's patience is going to run out at some point. And given everything that's happening, we really need me to have a job and earn money, so... *sigh* Maybe I can swing going back Thursday and Friday, depending on what Mom figures out. Again, we'll see what happens.
Anyway -- had most of the day to myself after Dad went back in the hospital. Here's what I accomplished to keep myself busy:
Dreamwidth: I made sure to answer all of Moose’s DW messages before lunch today, along with her latest comment – thanks again for the well-wishes, Moose. We really do need them. But yeah, wanted to make sure I got that done before more Life Events delayed things more. *nods* All yours, Moose!
Writing: I did another page of edits on Chapter 6 of “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland” after lunch today, covering –
A) Alice unlocking the front doors and being confronted, not by guards, but by a little gray hallway with a pair of double doors at the end and a door off to the side – she was briefly surprised at the lack of security, but then figured they didn’t expect criminals to come swanning in the front. She figured it would still be smarter to go the long way around rather than just waltz onto the main floor, though, and managed to get the side door unlocked with her key ring, finding a staircase and a little corridor on the other side
B) Alice choosing to investigate the corridor first, as the stairs went up and she needed to go down...only to find the only place it led to was the admissions office, which was set up much like Trip’s pawn shop (cheap chair and cheap desk with a cash register behind a window with a slot in it – Alice noted she’d expected the museum to spring for better furniture). She read through the admission prices just for fun, then told Dormy that no, they would not be taking the cash out of the cash register this time, because she had no assurances it was going to a vampire who would use it to fuel her own schemes. And that, if they were smart, they’d have emptied the cash register for the night anyway – Hare noted they hadn’t bothered emptying the trash can under the desk, but Alice was like “still – we’re here for a sarcophagus, not the money”
C) And Alice finding the only other door in the corridor led to a coat closet, and thus letting the Wonderlanders decide whether she braved the museum floor or instead headed upstairs to see if there was anything useful on the upper levels. Hatter, Carpenter, Caterpillar, and Cheshire were all for heading up, so she agreed to mount the stairs, before warning “on your heads be it if I run into a guard” – and then firmly telling the Queen of Hearts that that wasn’t an invitation for her to call her Executioner. The Queen was like “I never get to take off any heads anymore,” to which Alice was like “excuse you, I JUST blew off a woman’s head – it may have been a mercy kill, but it counts!” XD
Good stuff! I left off with Alice heading upstairs, muttering to herself about how, if she’s an example of a relatively sane Malkavian, she dreads to think what’s going on in the brain of a more openly mad one...next time, Alice reaches the upstairs back corridors and gets jumpscared by a dinosaur! As you do.
Baldur’s Gate III: I did indeed return to Faerûn to continue the Adventures Of Bardlock Smiler And Friends today after finishing my writing – and today’s session was pretty much all about the looting! And trust me, they got some good loot – allow me to elaborate:
A) I picked up where I left off last time, with Smiler, friends, and Sazza (the goblin they were helping to jailbreak so she’d put in a good word for them back at her camp, particularly with her “can heal anything” priestess, Gut) in the Underground Passage beneath the Hollow in the Emerald Grove, having just killed the small party of goblins they found down there (which Sazza was okay with because Warrior Gresh and company had said they were only too happy to kill HER for failing the Absolute during the earlier raids). I’d been a little nervous to loot the corpses at the end of the last session, worried it would force Smiler into a cutscene to either revive or finish off the unconscious druid halfling the goblins had been torturing, Findal (because, while I fully intended to help him, I did NOT want to do so with Sazza hanging around – no need for him to know about the jailbreak!) – fortunately, cautiously venturing toward him did not trigger anything of the sort. Thus reassured I could leave him until Sazza was safely on her way, I had Smiler set about looting the fallen! Here’s what they had on them:
Warrior Gresh: The leader of the little band was carrying an Acid Vial (which you can throw at enemies to inflict acid damage on them – pretty sure this is from one of my mods, “Vera The Alchemist,” but it might be from something else), a skull, 4 gold, a greataxe, and the Verdant Ward cloak – a fancy green cloak that adds a +1D4 bonus to any saving throws against spells! Smiler took everything but the skull and equipped the cloak once they were done looting – we’ll dye it the correct colors once everyone heads back to camp!
Tracker Torrack: This fellow was only carrying a handful of rotten chicken eggs and his goblin bow – I had Smiler ignore the stinky eggs and grab the bow to sell later.
Sharp-Eye Gurza: Being the second-toughest goblin in the gang, she too had some decent stuff – two Arrows of Acid, a Rogue’s Morsel mushroom (more alchemy ingredients, yay), 4 gold, and her bow. Smiler happily scooped them all up, though the arrows will probably be passed on to Astarion later, as he’s the one most often using a bow.
Tracker Worm: The last of the group was like Torrack in not carrying much – just a skull, 4 gold, and her bow. Smiler took the latter two items, since they really didn’t need to put any more bones in the camp chest.
*nods* Not bad – good magic item, and some more weapons to sell, yay~
( You know what time it is – reading page sparing time! )
Workout: Hopped back on the bike tonight and continued pedaling my way through The Adventures Of Useless Steve in “Fallout: New Vegas - The Worst Courier - Part 3 - Idiot Savant” by Many A True Nerd! Tonight’s chunklet featured:
A) Useless Steve following the Legion patrol he was tagging behind before as they wandered into Camp Searchlight (or, rather, the little recon camp outside the actual, HEAVILY irradiated Camp Searchlight), and watching as the machete-wielding Roman cosplayer idiots were slaughtered by the gun-toting NCR rangers (one guy who was lagging behind then showed up with a gun, but he was still very much outmatched) – Steve cheerfully looted all the corpses afterward, gaining lots of doses of antivenom for the moment he inevitably runs into more giant radscorpions.
B) Useless Steve then skirting around the edges of Camp Searchlight (because, again, HEAVILY irradiated) to the wreckage of Matthews Animal Husbandry Farm, where he was able to pick up a few more goodies, including another Sunset Sarsaparilla star bottle cap to add to his collection, and another Wasteland Survival Guide to pump his Survival skill up another three points! Jon had been expecting crazed starving animals going after Steve, but all the bighorners and brahmin were actually quite chill. Apparently Steve just didn’t set off their animal instincts! Lucky Steve!
( Okay, this got longer than expected )
Tumblr: And I managed to get a little bit done on both my tumblr blogs tonight –
Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) – Over here, I quickly queued up a couple of things for the next two days – specifically:
A) The “Rings” comic by ND Stevenson that upright-fool posted (which talks about how ND and his partner have changed over the years – specifically becoming transmascs – and how each partner changed the other’s engagement ring to fit their new hand – it’s much sweeter than it sounds) for Wednesday
B) And some gorgeous medieval fantasy art (including a hunter and their dogs nosing at a rabbit burrow...which, unbeknownst to them, contains a dragon) by sarakipin for Thursday
So that’s good, got a little bit of a buffer there. I’ll figure out Friday and Saturday tomorrow!
Valice Multiverse – And over here, I had a reply thesatiricaldemon made on the ask he sent me the other day (featuring the weird sock commercial) – apparently the ask was adapted from an ad the people behind a web show he likes, “Hunter: The Parenting,” made to promote socks featuring their main character, Kevin, and a shirt based off one another character wears. And the guy in the ad, Mike Dragons-Wrath, was later confirmed to be a Black Spiral Dancer (a corrupted evil werewolf) and high up in Pentex (THE evil company in the Old World of Darkness). I responded, “Ahhhh, I see! XD And oh boy – yeah, okay, maybe Alice SHOULDN'T be ordering clothes from that guy, they're probably all sorts of cursed.” XD I mean, they certainly SOUND like they’d be cursed!
*nods* Not bad, I suppose -- and it's even not as horribly late as it usually is when I finish these write-ups. XD Time for me to get to bed, though -- tomorrow, I should have enough time to play some Fallout: New Vegas and find some XP for Courier Victor; work some more on either "Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland" or "The Van Dort Vacancy" (depends on how I feel); and get in another workout and watch some more Useless Steve. I'm HOPING I can add "work on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) tumblr drafts" and "watch one of the videos piling up on FreeTube" to that list, but -- we will see. Depends on how much free time I actually have. *nods* Night all!
Anyway -- had most of the day to myself after Dad went back in the hospital. Here's what I accomplished to keep myself busy:
Dreamwidth: I made sure to answer all of Moose’s DW messages before lunch today, along with her latest comment – thanks again for the well-wishes, Moose. We really do need them. But yeah, wanted to make sure I got that done before more Life Events delayed things more. *nods* All yours, Moose!
Writing: I did another page of edits on Chapter 6 of “Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland” after lunch today, covering –
A) Alice unlocking the front doors and being confronted, not by guards, but by a little gray hallway with a pair of double doors at the end and a door off to the side – she was briefly surprised at the lack of security, but then figured they didn’t expect criminals to come swanning in the front. She figured it would still be smarter to go the long way around rather than just waltz onto the main floor, though, and managed to get the side door unlocked with her key ring, finding a staircase and a little corridor on the other side
B) Alice choosing to investigate the corridor first, as the stairs went up and she needed to go down...only to find the only place it led to was the admissions office, which was set up much like Trip’s pawn shop (cheap chair and cheap desk with a cash register behind a window with a slot in it – Alice noted she’d expected the museum to spring for better furniture). She read through the admission prices just for fun, then told Dormy that no, they would not be taking the cash out of the cash register this time, because she had no assurances it was going to a vampire who would use it to fuel her own schemes. And that, if they were smart, they’d have emptied the cash register for the night anyway – Hare noted they hadn’t bothered emptying the trash can under the desk, but Alice was like “still – we’re here for a sarcophagus, not the money”
C) And Alice finding the only other door in the corridor led to a coat closet, and thus letting the Wonderlanders decide whether she braved the museum floor or instead headed upstairs to see if there was anything useful on the upper levels. Hatter, Carpenter, Caterpillar, and Cheshire were all for heading up, so she agreed to mount the stairs, before warning “on your heads be it if I run into a guard” – and then firmly telling the Queen of Hearts that that wasn’t an invitation for her to call her Executioner. The Queen was like “I never get to take off any heads anymore,” to which Alice was like “excuse you, I JUST blew off a woman’s head – it may have been a mercy kill, but it counts!” XD
Good stuff! I left off with Alice heading upstairs, muttering to herself about how, if she’s an example of a relatively sane Malkavian, she dreads to think what’s going on in the brain of a more openly mad one...next time, Alice reaches the upstairs back corridors and gets jumpscared by a dinosaur! As you do.
Baldur’s Gate III: I did indeed return to Faerûn to continue the Adventures Of Bardlock Smiler And Friends today after finishing my writing – and today’s session was pretty much all about the looting! And trust me, they got some good loot – allow me to elaborate:
A) I picked up where I left off last time, with Smiler, friends, and Sazza (the goblin they were helping to jailbreak so she’d put in a good word for them back at her camp, particularly with her “can heal anything” priestess, Gut) in the Underground Passage beneath the Hollow in the Emerald Grove, having just killed the small party of goblins they found down there (which Sazza was okay with because Warrior Gresh and company had said they were only too happy to kill HER for failing the Absolute during the earlier raids). I’d been a little nervous to loot the corpses at the end of the last session, worried it would force Smiler into a cutscene to either revive or finish off the unconscious druid halfling the goblins had been torturing, Findal (because, while I fully intended to help him, I did NOT want to do so with Sazza hanging around – no need for him to know about the jailbreak!) – fortunately, cautiously venturing toward him did not trigger anything of the sort. Thus reassured I could leave him until Sazza was safely on her way, I had Smiler set about looting the fallen! Here’s what they had on them:
Warrior Gresh: The leader of the little band was carrying an Acid Vial (which you can throw at enemies to inflict acid damage on them – pretty sure this is from one of my mods, “Vera The Alchemist,” but it might be from something else), a skull, 4 gold, a greataxe, and the Verdant Ward cloak – a fancy green cloak that adds a +1D4 bonus to any saving throws against spells! Smiler took everything but the skull and equipped the cloak once they were done looting – we’ll dye it the correct colors once everyone heads back to camp!
Tracker Torrack: This fellow was only carrying a handful of rotten chicken eggs and his goblin bow – I had Smiler ignore the stinky eggs and grab the bow to sell later.
Sharp-Eye Gurza: Being the second-toughest goblin in the gang, she too had some decent stuff – two Arrows of Acid, a Rogue’s Morsel mushroom (more alchemy ingredients, yay), 4 gold, and her bow. Smiler happily scooped them all up, though the arrows will probably be passed on to Astarion later, as he’s the one most often using a bow.
Tracker Worm: The last of the group was like Torrack in not carrying much – just a skull, 4 gold, and her bow. Smiler took the latter two items, since they really didn’t need to put any more bones in the camp chest.
*nods* Not bad – good magic item, and some more weapons to sell, yay~
( You know what time it is – reading page sparing time! )
Workout: Hopped back on the bike tonight and continued pedaling my way through The Adventures Of Useless Steve in “Fallout: New Vegas - The Worst Courier - Part 3 - Idiot Savant” by Many A True Nerd! Tonight’s chunklet featured:
A) Useless Steve following the Legion patrol he was tagging behind before as they wandered into Camp Searchlight (or, rather, the little recon camp outside the actual, HEAVILY irradiated Camp Searchlight), and watching as the machete-wielding Roman cosplayer idiots were slaughtered by the gun-toting NCR rangers (one guy who was lagging behind then showed up with a gun, but he was still very much outmatched) – Steve cheerfully looted all the corpses afterward, gaining lots of doses of antivenom for the moment he inevitably runs into more giant radscorpions.
B) Useless Steve then skirting around the edges of Camp Searchlight (because, again, HEAVILY irradiated) to the wreckage of Matthews Animal Husbandry Farm, where he was able to pick up a few more goodies, including another Sunset Sarsaparilla star bottle cap to add to his collection, and another Wasteland Survival Guide to pump his Survival skill up another three points! Jon had been expecting crazed starving animals going after Steve, but all the bighorners and brahmin were actually quite chill. Apparently Steve just didn’t set off their animal instincts! Lucky Steve!
( Okay, this got longer than expected )
Tumblr: And I managed to get a little bit done on both my tumblr blogs tonight –
Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) – Over here, I quickly queued up a couple of things for the next two days – specifically:
A) The “Rings” comic by ND Stevenson that upright-fool posted (which talks about how ND and his partner have changed over the years – specifically becoming transmascs – and how each partner changed the other’s engagement ring to fit their new hand – it’s much sweeter than it sounds) for Wednesday
B) And some gorgeous medieval fantasy art (including a hunter and their dogs nosing at a rabbit burrow...which, unbeknownst to them, contains a dragon) by sarakipin for Thursday
So that’s good, got a little bit of a buffer there. I’ll figure out Friday and Saturday tomorrow!
Valice Multiverse – And over here, I had a reply thesatiricaldemon made on the ask he sent me the other day (featuring the weird sock commercial) – apparently the ask was adapted from an ad the people behind a web show he likes, “Hunter: The Parenting,” made to promote socks featuring their main character, Kevin, and a shirt based off one another character wears. And the guy in the ad, Mike Dragons-Wrath, was later confirmed to be a Black Spiral Dancer (a corrupted evil werewolf) and high up in Pentex (THE evil company in the Old World of Darkness). I responded, “Ahhhh, I see! XD And oh boy – yeah, okay, maybe Alice SHOULDN'T be ordering clothes from that guy, they're probably all sorts of cursed.” XD I mean, they certainly SOUND like they’d be cursed!
*nods* Not bad, I suppose -- and it's even not as horribly late as it usually is when I finish these write-ups. XD Time for me to get to bed, though -- tomorrow, I should have enough time to play some Fallout: New Vegas and find some XP for Courier Victor; work some more on either "Londerland Bloodlines: Downtown Queensland" or "The Van Dort Vacancy" (depends on how I feel); and get in another workout and watch some more Useless Steve. I'm HOPING I can add "work on Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) tumblr drafts" and "watch one of the videos piling up on FreeTube" to that list, but -- we will see. Depends on how much free time I actually have. *nods* Night all!
