Not Great Wednesday

Dad's been feeling really sick all day (Mom blames all the drugs they pumped into him when they did his MRI and CAT scan yesterday), so that's cast a pall over things -- we're hoping that he feels better by tomorrow. I also had a not-great ride in (though the commute home was okay), and a pretty boring day at work -- though that shall be covered in the write-up below:

Work – As per the above, it was a pretty boring day at work, consisting mainly of me scrounging for roster maintenance stuff I could do while also solving puzzles I pulled out of some old newspapers. The only interruptions to this were:

A) Pulling the morning credit card reports – I didn’t do any check deposits because there were no checks in the mail yesterday

B) Contacting a lady about her double credit card pledge again, and her finally calling me back to shut down one of them (apologizing for missing my first e-mail – I assured her it was fine)

C) Having the Useless Check-In Call with the credit card people (barely lasted five minutes this time)

D) And printing out the last-minute credit card batch my coworker had to do when someone called in near the end of the day with a credit card gift (fortunately it wasn’t EXACTLY the end of the day, but it was still a little annoying)

So yeah. *shrug* What are you gonna do. We’ll see how Thursday goes, I guess!

To-Do List –

1. Get in a workout: Check – another night on the bike, another night with “My first house build in Paralives!” by James Turner! The creation of a mid-century modern split-level home with 70s vibes continued tonight, with James –

A) Finishing up furnishing the kitchen! Which involved:

I. Putting some mini-curtains halfway up the window over the sink

II. Switching to night mode and adding lights so his Para could see at night (and complaining about how the lighting in this game DEFINITELY needs tweaking, as each lamp somehow emits both too much and not enough light (they all basically act like really bright spotlights on one specific area – there’s very little properly diffuse lighting))

III. Adding a broom and dustpan, a hanging apron, some hanging hats, and a shoe rack to the far wall

IV. Turning the floor from hardwood into linoleum (custom-shaded to look a little old and beige)

V. And cluttering up the side table behind the counters with photos and plants! It was very nice – I am quite pleased with the level of kitchen clutter for this Early Access game. :)

( The adventures in building a boring split-level home continue! )

2. Continue writing Chapter 1 of “Londerland Bloodlines: Hollywood’s Deluded Depths”: Check – though, hilariously, despite getting another page done, Alice still has not actually met Isaac. XD Instead, today’s writing session covered –

A) Alice and Victor making their way to the entrance of the Luckee Star Motel, with Alice squinting at the sign and commenting that the name sounded familiar...then deciding she would have to puzzle it out later and asking Victor if he’d be all right checking in alone. An amused Victor said that he had managed in Santa Monica, so he was pretty sure he could manage here...then asked if he should try checking in under a fake name, given Alice didn’t want people to know who he was. Alice admitted that he should probably try to pretend to be at least Victor Not-Van-Dort, but not to worry about it if it didn’t work – they could find other ways to keep him out of the public eye. Victor assured her that he didn’t want to be in the public eye, then told her he planned to go look around a bit after getting checked in and asked if there was anywhere in particular she wanted to meet. Alice’s first thought was the convenience store where the cabbie had dropped them off –

But Cheshire instead noted there was a “bastion of deliciousness” between the hotel and the jewelry store, with Carpenter agreeing that it would be “a perfect theater for a play on plates.” Alice thus informed Victor that Wonderland had informed her there was a restaurant nearby, and said they could meet up there – even if she couldn’t partake, he could have a nice meal. Victor agreed that sounded like a good idea. *nods* Gotta get ‘em over to the Cavoletti Cafe somehow!

B) And Alice holding the door for Victor so he could get into the Luckee Star with both their suitcases, then setting off down the road and taking in the sights, which included a hotel (though given the sign just said “HOTEL,” Alice wasn’t sure which one it was); the Cavoletti Cafe, right where Cheshire and Carpenter said it would be; a printing shop called Sunset Print; the ancient remains of some theater behind a concrete wall decorated with faux-Chinese artwork (you’ll be going there eventually, Alice!) –

And, at the very end of the block, Abrams Golden Age Jewelry! Alice paused a moment in front of the store to note that the window displays didn’t exactly draw in the customers (given that each one was just a single display of jewelry in a little cubbyhole of brick), then attempted to walk in the front doors –

Only to find they were locked. Cue her being confused for a moment before Cheshire pointed out the side entrance in the alley to her. XD Alice had to admit, it probably made more sense to have Important Kindred Discussions someplace other than a jewelry shop any old human could wander into at any old time. :p I left off with her preparing to enter Isaac’s office – tomorrow, she FINALLY meets and FINALLY gets pissed off by him! Hopefully, anyway. XD

3. Watch something on YouTube: Check, shockingly enough – I had just enough time tonight to watch the latest from Josh Way: “Fun With Shorts: Excretory Systems in Animals!” Which was about – exactly what you think it was about! From single-celled organisms diffusing carbon dioxide and ammonia straight into the water around them (Josh was like, “so these things pee in the pool, is what you’re saying”), to worms releasing CO2 through their skin and urea through special little holes in their bodies (“flame cells” and excretory ducts were involved – neither Josh nor I could keep up with the science), to insects having a more complicated web of excretory tubes to whisk away uric acid and tracheal tubes to get rid of carbon dioxide (Josh: “So breathing is a form of pooping – I’ve never thought of it that way before”). It was all somewhat confusing and gross, as you might imagine, though Josh complaining about the grossness was amusing. And “best” of all, this is one of those shorts Josh has chopped in half for some reason, so we can expect more “Excretory Systems in Animals” at some point in the future! Yaaaay...

4. Get my tumblr queues sorted: Check – it being Wednesday, I only had to worry about Victor Luvs Alice (N Smiler) and getting my Song Saturday pick into the queue tonight. And, after a bit of thought, I chose to reblog again a post I reblogged about this time last year by ororium-z, featuring a video of one mkik808 from Instagram! Where he parades about in a pair of rainbow swim bottoms with a rainbow train behind him, lip-syncing to Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Cut To The Feeling” as he removes a series of rainbow-themed wigs (one for each color of the pride flag), fans himself with a big old rainbow fan reading “Gay As Fuck” on the side, before removing his final full-rainbow wig, showering himself with confetti before throwing it at the camera. XD This video pops up all over tumblr at the beginning of June as a way to welcome in Pride, and, well, who am I to buck the trend? :p Certainly made figuring out Song Saturday nice and easy!

So yeah -- at least I managed to check off everything on my to-do list tonight! That's something, I suppose. But now I have to wrap up and hit the sheets. Fingers crossed Dad's feeling better tomorrow!