CON.TXT

And somehow we're back to Monday. I had my obligatory macadamia butter cookie with my coffee and am now trying to wake up. Maybe if I go back for one of the white chocolate coconut it'll help with that goal?



(Again, that's from the Honolulu Cookie Company, and it is baller. Best flavors, amazing slightly moist shortbread.). I need to try maybe warming them up ad see how that is.

Today shall be a busy day at work. There shall be a lot of calls, and a lot of appts made. I'm trying to wake up enough to face it.

As usual, the time change is fucking with me. I went to bed at normal time, but I feel very sleepy and out of sorts today. It'll be fine. I'll drink my coffee and wake the fuck up.

Yesterday was a pretty good day. I got up and once it opened, I went to the pharmacy, and then came back and immediately took my bra off. So much more comfy.

At 11, I began cleaning off the table and assembling the implements for a crab feast. Closer to the time, the crabs went into the oven and warmed up (thankfully they're precooked). By the time the BIL got there, each place setting had two crab halves on it, with another tray in the oven.

The crabs, as usual, were amazing. I ate my two halves and was satiated, but the BIL and sister ate another half each. Then, we all were full.



Oh, in the morning, Yoda's new kibble came. He seems to really enjoy it. It's super expensive, but if he'll eat it, that's something. I was looking at his collar last night, and noticing that it's a bit loose from him not eating well while he wasn't feeling good and his sudden dislike of his old food. He barked ferociously at the delivery man, who must have lofted the box from the stairs, judging by the noise it made when it landed. Fortunately, the contents were pretty well packed, so nothing burst open.

Then we took the dog out for his second walk. Jess had taken him around 9:30, but by 1pm he was agitating for one. He did need to go, so good on him. I hadn't realized how bad he must have been feeling, because now he's perked up so much on is Cytopoint injection. I feel bad that I didn't notice.

The rest of the day was resting and watching videos of Hawaii and San Francisco. I think we've narrowed down our focus for theS San Fran part of the trip. I think we're going to go see Muir Woods for the redwoods, and then the Japanese tea garden. One day, we will possibly take a tuktuk ride around San Fran, and see the rest of the sights. That just seemed like a fun and easy way to see the city. Alcatraz is looking unlikely, though we'll see. I'll probably get tickets for it, just in case. poisontaster has warned me that those are not something you can get day of, so we''ll do that. We might have time after the tuktuk ride, possibly, but it depends on if we do Muir Woods and the Tea Garden on the same day. A lot of what I know of San Francisco is from Seanan McGuire's Toby Day series. So I'm looking forward to all of that. Maybe a little stop at Borderlands Book Store.

I don't need to cross the golden gate bridge, just admire it. Definitely want to ride a cable car, though.

I was also reading about the trip, and found a hilarious one about San Francisco's Chinatown. "This one's food is amazing and cheap, but the servers are notedly surly, and they're not the cleanest. They've had some clashes with the healht dept." That was the review for a lot of the places, so this should be fun. I do want to do dim sum in Chinatown, so we'll look for the cleanest we can find.

We're probably going to stay at Staypineapple Union Square It seems centrally located, and nice enough. It's got good ratings at least.

Sadly, most hotels, experiences, etc are not booking yet. It looks like I'll be booking in late April, early May for the rest of the stuff. Only the Hawaii hotel books over a year in advance.

I shall have it planned out fully by the end of May, and then we shall begin amassing PTO, for both that and for CONfab in October. I'm so looking forward to getting to settle into full planning mode.

I need to decide for Hawaii whether we want to do a day or half day tour, or if we want to rent a car and go driving. I'm a little nervous about driving in unfamiliar roads, but the tour limits the things you can do. I'd like to see the North Shore and also possibly Ko'Alina. Maybe Visit Aulani which is the Disney Resort and have lunch. Their restaurants look amazing.

Getting to pick what we do does sound more fun, but we'll see.

Other places in Waikiki that I know I want to visit: Steak Shack, a little place that does a box lunch steak platter on the beach. The portion looks enormous, more than enough to feed both Jess and I. Leonard's bakery for Malasada donuts. The Breadshop, another bakery. Kan Sushi for their all you can eat sushi and some non sushi items like LA Galbi ribs. Maybe Hy's Steakhouse or another nice restaurant. One of the Luaus, though I haven't decided which one.

It looks like we've got five campaigns that are going to be finishing up by the end of the year, depending on schedules. That's a lot. But we started a lot of games in 2021 and 2022, and it's time. With our schedule, a lot of them might last til the end of the year, we'll see. I was going to finish one, but the players aren't ready to let it go, so we're going to move it from Wednesday to Friday night after a bit of a break for me to get my feet wet in college.

That's not including the one that finished on Saturday. So a total of 6 in 2026. Yeesh. I probably will not start any new ones. It's hard enough to schedule what we have.

My sister is looking for new jobs. Her company is screwing them over, and closing sites, and she's afraid she'll be next. She's already lost a few people that she manages to site closure. And they just moved one of her major duties from them up to NY, thus why she was there last week. She's looking at hybrid or local jobs, as she's tired of dealing with the beltway at rush hour. I sent her a Hopkins job that's work on site for 90 days, then work from home. She might drive us crazy working from home, but it would be better for her, so we'll see.

Okay, time to get myself together and do another bit of orientation. Everyone have the very best Monday you can Monday!

It's Sunday, and I seem to have lost an hour somewhere around here. I forgot about daylight savings, so I was all proud of myself for sleeping in. Then dine reminded me in her post, and I was like "Well fuck." I did not sleep in, not really.

Yesterday was a busy, but fun day. I worked in the morning, which was boring as shit. I was on admin, which means doing the faxes and emails, but we hardly ever get any on the weekend. I think I did maybe 10? They take about three minutes each, so I had plenty of free time. In between, I filled some cardiac slots and generally putzed around. Finally, it was noon and I was free!

Half an hour later, it was time to play Arvandor. The players took on the Lord of Blood, and defeated him after some dicey moments. It was a good battle. I dropped that last little secret, and it was wonderful. And then, the campaign was over. I did my epilogue, which turned really well. It felt like a fitting send off to three years of my life. Now, I need to buckle down and finish writing the next campaign, and source maps, and make character sheets. It's a lot, but I think we'll probably do a few one shots, and then we'll probably start after we get back from vacation. Sooner if I can do it, but that's quite a bit to do in one or two months. I was very emotional about the game ending, both elated that it had gone well and sad to say good bye to these characters. I think I'm going to have to sit with it a while for it to really hit home. Right now, I'm at the stage where I'm just so grateful that my friends put their trust in me and allowed themselves to be vulnerable and to really buy into this little world that we created. They made me excited to DM for them each and every game, and they helped me breathe life into a world that existed until then in my head. That's such a gift.

It might seem like D&D is a kind of silly frivolous game. People talking, sometimes in silly voices, rolling dice and talking about casting spells on beings with names like Ragnar, Lord of Blood. And yeah, it is. But when you look a little bit deeper, at it's core, it's people making connections and telling a shared story, letting your characters have agency, in a world with solveable problems. And that's powerful.

Then it was off to dinner with L, who was my lone friend from 911. We went to Michael's Steak and Lobster house, and I had my usual steak with imperial crab. It was SO good. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and it was nice to see L again. She had the stomach bug recently, and this was kind of her first big meal, so I hope it settled.

I've been looking at San Francisco and it looks like there's plenty of things that we can do while we're there. We're going to get in way early for check in, so we're probably going to leave our bags at the hotel and explore. Maybe start with Alcatraz and go from there. I know I want to see Muir Woods and the redwoods and I definitely want to eat in Chinatown. I need to reasearch some of the Chinese restaurants around there and see where we want to go. We'll have most of Friday and all of Saturday, then on Sunday, we'll be winging our way off to Oahu.

We have so many things to look forward to! We're going to have so much fun. Next up, in April, I start school, and then after that, we go to NYC for the Lost Boys musical. Then, May is Alaska, then back to NYC in June for the Rocky Horror, and then to Hershey to see Weird Al in July.

I'm looking forward to all of them, and I think we're going to have an amazing summer.

Today, I need to go to the pharmacy for all my medication, and then the rest of the day is for resting, and eating a pile of Dungeness crabs. I'm looking forward to that.

I was talking with my sister last night, and they're looking at going on vacation in August of next year, up to Maine. They've been before and loved it, so I hope they have an amazing time again.

I'm not quite ready to repeat my vacations, though I would like to take Jess up to Boston and Salem at some point. Who knows, maybe that'll change. I might fall in love with Alaska or Hawaii, and want to go back, but right now, I'm doing a Jack Sparrow. "Now bring me that horizon."

Tomorrow, it's back to work, with a borked sleep schedule. That should be fun. I always hate springing forward and falling back. The cat does not understand this bullshit, and it's weeks before she stops trying to get me up at random times. Tomorrow, we will also be back to our normal schedule, of having an hour or so to relax in the morning and write my little journal before my sister gets up and talks to me.

Okay, time to go forth and get myself moving. If I'm going to the pharmacy, I'm definitely going to need pants. Everyone have a stupendous Sunday!

It's Friday! I have completed my last night in my sister's bed! Whoohoo! Tonight, I get to snuggle Jess for the first time in 5 days. It wasn't as bad as I expected it to be. I actually slept pretty well most of the nights, but I miss spouse. Jess is up, getting ready to go to Sibley for their post op. They're not coming til 5:45am, but this way we get to see each other for a few minutes before they go. I was not able to take the day off, so I got my sedan company to take them. They were really good when we saw Ghost, dropping us off at the door and picking us up right there too. Once I get off work, we've got one more night of peace, since my sister won't be home til 8-8:30pm. Of course, once she gets home, there will be a blast of sound as she tries to tell us everything about her week at once.

Today, I shall work and then relax. Tomorrow morning I work, then game (Arvandor). I believe the party will reach the Lord of Blood's castle. We'll see how that goes for them. I'm excited to drop one more little character secret before the end of the game. I wrote the epilogue the other day. As I said to Jess, I for epilogues, I always think back to my first D&D podcast, the Adventure Zone. After a long campaign the party was victorious, and they settled in for the epilogue. And the DM, Griffin went through the other characters, and it was good. But then he got to the lone human character in the party. (The other two were long lived races. Elf and Dwarf.). And he simply said "Travis, tell me how Magnus dies." And they ripped my heart out. That's what I want it to be like, without the death. I don't know if I've approached that or not. I know I wibbled while I was writing it, so maybe that's a good thing? We'll see how it goes. I don't know if we'll get there tomorrow. It depends on how much monologuing the players allow the bad guy. If they jump to a straight fight, then it may be needed tomorrow.

Tomorrow afternoon, after game, I'm going out with my friend from 911. It's been a while since we got together, and I have a ton to talk about, so that'll be nice.

Sunday is gloriously empty, so I'm going to relax and eat the crabs that came via UPS last night. I had ordered some crab legs from Costco and was very excited to have a little crab feast, only to find that they were rancid. After that I gave up and went back to the source, ordering from Sitka Seafood. They arrived last night, and were immediately transferred to the kitchen. They ship them very well frozen, with plenty of dry ice. They were still frozen and look delicious. They can thaw in the fridge and will be ready for a Sunday feast.

In my continuing digging about being a respectful Hawaiian tourist, I have discovered a few things. First of all, the freaking Mormon church is everywhere. They own so much shit in Hawaii, most of which masquerades as a local experience. It's made things more challenging, like a game of whack a mole. Two, it's really difficult to find a locally owned Luau that I want to do. I think Toa Luau is going to be the place. They tick the local box and they're located in the Waimea valley, which I wanted to see anyway. Three, food truck rallys are a thing. There's a weekly Farmers/Night Market, where you can go forth and get a variety of good food. This sounds amazing to me. Also there's a swap meet/maker's market that you can go to get inexpensive souvenirs. I'm a sucker for that as well.

So that's basically two days that we have things to do. Add in maybe a full or half day tour, and the Luau and our week is looking pretty full!

After talking to Jess, we decided to fly into San Francisco, and spend a day or two. I've always wanted to see the Golden Gate Bridge and visit their Chinatown. Then, we shall fly to Hawaii. On the way back, we'll spend a single day, and be home 10 days later. I think spacing it will help us out immensely. Now I just need to decide whether to take United the whole way, or switch airlines and fly from San Fran to Honolulu with Hawaiian Airlines. We'll see who has the best price. Though I'll admit, it amuses me to think about flying in on Hawaiian, since we're going to the cruise on Alaska Airlines. But you know what that means: More vacation to plan! Whoohoo! More hyperfocus time!

Well, that's annoying. The car service did not show, and the owner can't reach the driver. This is a problem. So, Jess will be taking a Lyft to Sibley, and he swears that he'll have someone to pick them up. This makes me nervous about the cruise, since we need pickup so early. If worst comes to worst, I guess we take two ubers to the airport. Just a little adrenaline to start the day. I feel bad for Jess, since instead of riding in comfort, they're stuck in a Lyft. Hopefully the drive home will go well.

Okay, I suppose that means I should wrap this up and get ready for work. Everyone have a fantastic Friday!