Wednesday, January 18, 2017

Stop & Chat: January 13-18


I've slipped into a comfortable routine for the past several days. Doing so has created less blog-worthy material and more introspective thoughts.

But first! Time to talk about my planner!

The past few days heavily influenced this week's layout for my planner. I'm doing enough things in the online world that I felt a separation between "life" and "internet" in my segments was appropriate. Normally I'm able to keep all of this together two segments, leaving one for decorative fun.

The rectangles along the bottom of each day are one thing that has always been there from week to week. That square is where I write my blog posts for the day. The computer/blog section is where I'll write stuff I'm doing online or for my blog - taking pictures, writing up posts, events/actions on my video games, certain social media things I need to keep track of, etc. The top section is where I'll write in my activities in the real world - bike rides, meetings with friends, budgeting/paying bills, pet sitting, etc. The far left column is usually determined by my needs for the week. This week I had quite a few things I needed to remember to do/buy, so there wasn't as much space as there normally is for my weekly check lists (skincare & plant care, found instead in Monday's  column). I suppose I could have done away with the steps, but by that point I had already come to terms with the location of my weekly checklists.

My daily routine has become: wake up; feed Pebbles; shower; check my plants on Ultima Online; start training whatever skill I'm currently training on my character; use down time from training to wash dishes, switch out wax in warmers, clean litter box, and tidy house; comment, read, and respond to comments in the blogosphere; work on two wax review blog posts for the day; work on miscellaneous blog posts; grab food for lunch, usually leftovers; return my attentions to UO and work on whatever tasks I've set for myself for the day; get off the computer around 6:00 PM and start cooking supper; finish cooking dinner, eat with M, and talk about our day; hang with M until we both go to bed.

Perhaps not the most exciting life to others, but the routine feels nice. It's nice to know what I'm "supposed" to do each day. The routine keeps me from sitting around, staring at a computer, doing nothing.

Yesterday, the 17th, I finally got my Dad to at least look at UO again. He showed interest when I mentioned that there was going to be an update to increase the size of the playing window for the classic client. This morning he asked when that update was supposed to come out (February), then ended up downloading the enhanced client and hopping on some of his characters to start getting acquainted with the game again. I suspect he would have done more in the game if I had not needed to hop off and prepare for Pebbles' owner to come by. I'm trying not to get my hopes up, as he may just be humoring me, but it's exciting to think that I could possibly play again with the person who introduced me to this game that's been a part of 60% of my life.

I still have Pebbles because her owner is getting ready to go on a trip in a few days and we decided it would be kinder for me to keep her instead of making her go through so much travel. She's an older kitty (over 10, exact age is unknown because she was a stray before those 10 years) and gets confused easily.


She's gotten quite comfortable with us, too, so her owners were confident in her continuing to stay here. In this particular picture, she'd decided to fall asleep on M's legs, trapping him on the couch. If she falls asleep while we're in the room with her, we have to be careful if we decide to leave the room. When she wakes up, she gets very confused and upset if she can't see us. Some mornings I'll get out of bed before her and I have to make sure I listen for her so I can show her where I am when she wakes up.

Later on that day M got back from some errands he was running with a friend, bringing some food from a restaurant I had never eaten at before. Six pork taquitos with a cheese dip and a lemonade drink.

We knew we were going on a bike ride, and I hadn't eaten yet, so I sat down and ate two of the taquitos. Around that time I drank my pre-workout in preparation for our ride. While putting my cup in the sink, I figured why not try the lemonade? The lemonade was delicious - but I couldn't quite put my finger on that taste. What flavor could that possibly be? Was it my preworkout messing with my brain?

M came to tell me it's time to go, noticed my half-empty lemonade, and froze.
"This lemonade is really good!" I said, sipping a little more.
"That's a margarita!!" He exclaimed before breaking down in laughter. That explained so much.

Not one of my prouder moments, but it never crossed my mind that my husband would bring me back an alcoholic beverage. That makes me all the more impressed about this restaurant. I'm super sensitive to booz-ey drinks, and this didn't taste alcoholic at all!

My bike ride was interesting, to say the least. I ended up right at the cusp of being buzzed, enjoying a nice flush and elevated spirits (get it? LOL) while simultaneously giving it my all. We went 19 miles, averaging about 16 miles/hour. I'd like to not do that again, but like I said... interesting experience. LOL

I drank lots of water to make sure neither the workout or the drink dehydrated me.

Today I woke up around seven, fed Pebbles, and hopped on the computer. Yet again my daily 'routine' was thrown off. This time it was by my Dad, who hopped on UO again. We proceeded to go on an adventure through Destard (a dungeon with lots of dragons, drakes, and wyverns) and get him reacquainted with the game. It was fun seeing his memories of the game slowly return. He eventually got off to sleep and I returned to the computer to write up this post. I need to clean up the dishes I've neglected and eat some of the delicious pot roast M made in the crock pot.

How have you been? Any big events going on in your life?

7 comments:

  1. Your planner is so springy and lovely! Looks like you are rolling right along with it. I need to buy my planner for 2017. Whoops.

    Poor lil Pebbles. So old. You guys are so sweet to care for her so carefully. She looks like a cuddle bug.

    Been ok. Helping my mom get her home situated for the realtor to take photos and put it on the market by Friday. I caulked in her bathroom, installed an air vent, took boxes to the garage and helped tear down and haul out an old fence. My muscles will be killing me tomorrow. It is bittersweet as it was the very first real home I ever lived it. I grew up in trailers and apartments until I was in 5th grade. Mom got teary eyed too when she realized she would be taking her last steps out of it very very soon.

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    1. Pebbles IS a cuddle bug. Last night she crawled under the blankets with me and I had a little ball of purring warmth to keep me company the entire night.

      I hope your mom's home being on the market means she's moving on to bigger and better things! It's always hard to leave behind a home that holds cherished memories.

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  2. It's funny that something like new screen sizes in UO is what's drawing people back. I got excited about it, and both Ty and Casey are considering returning because of it.

    Ah, Destard. It used to be much more solo friendly. My warrior Zephyr learned to solo drakes and dragons there. We spent tons of time there gathering leather. They've changed it now though, added meaner, harder beasties that scare me. LOL

    Nothing grand or exciting going on here. Trying to finish Skylanders, trying to make cards, wanting to do some Project Life (finally!). I'm also dreading the thought of contacting customer support for our internet but I think it's something I just need to bite the bullet and do. UGH!!!!!!

    ~Deb

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    1. The funny thing for my Dad is he is showing less interest in the classic client and actually prefers the enhanced client - even with the larger screen sizes that just went live today!

      It was a rude awakening for me to come back after a break from '07-'08 and getting my butt handed to me in Destard. What were these greater dragons and why are their fireballs so powerful?!
      I was excited for the revamp of a lot of older dungeons but even those revamps didn't bring the loot up to current endgame stuff. Now it's like WoW Cataclysm where there are old areas that were changed for essentially no reason and are lost to the vacuum of the internet.

      I hope your internet situation gets worked out. Either way, having to contact customer support is not fun! I'm still peeved at EA for essentially saying "sorry you can't use US Origin to buy things appropriate to the games you play, here's a 15% off coupon that you can't use!"

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    2. They're live already? I thought that patch wasn't till Feb.?? I haven't been on yet, obviously. lol

      We thought our internet situation would get better today when we splurged on a new a modem/router. Turns out we got the wrong kind though, and will have to look around for the DSL kind we need. Ugh.

      That does suck about EA. I'd forgotten you had those troubles. And how funny about the code you can't use?!

      ~Deb

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    3. Yeah! I was surprised to see that the patch that went to Test still allowed us to increase our game window on production shards.

      Ick. I hope your internet situation gets worked out. I'm glad you were able to return the incorrect modem, though!

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    4. I just tried fiddling with the screen sizes and it crashed the game. Boooo! I haven't tried again yet, decided to whip through email and whatnot first. lol

      ~Deb

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