Here are a few random out-of-context items that were quickly drawn on the iPad and then texted over to my husband for one reason or another. As you can all now see, I have posted not just once, but twice in the month of October. Yay!
You should all be aware that among certain peer groups, I am considered a damn traitor for being a Dodgers fan. No hate for any other team other than The Cheaters, it’s a family thing; If you scratch deep enough, we all bleed Dodger blue over here. Also, carne asada fries are the correct thing to eat while watching the World Series. No toilets were actually destroyed.
The Little Cat has a minor ouchie on one of her paws and is thus destined to wear a cone for the next couple of days. Whatever it is that happened to her paw thankfully does not seem to hurt, but irritates her just enough where she wants to picks at it so that it doesn’t heal. Naturally, no animal enjoys the cone so alas, she was sulk napping in a sunny spot in one of the cat trees this morning with her cone-laden head drooped down like a sad sad sunflower.
Here is an obligatory picture of Ms. Sad Sunflower herself. I would like to think that the Big Cat was following her around the house out of loving concern for her wellbeing, but I am pretty certain that was just either trying to satisfy his things licking fetish or well, be a cat.
I found an app that makes neat videos and visualizations of hikes from GPS data. Here is a video of our hike up Mount Misen when we had visited Miyajima Island during our last visit to Japan.
I have been obsessively playing two games to fill the void between now and the time that Cyberpunk 2077 is released: No Man’s Sky and Hades.
The picture isn’t related to anything in this post. I made a salad for lunch today and it was really good so I took a picture of it. The tomatoes are from my parents’ garden.
September. Just when you start to think, “Hey the summer is almost over. We should start hitting Fall weather soon” you remember that you live in Southern California and that mid August/September is the beginning of our third season: Fire season (the other two seasons being kinda warm and kinda cold). Honestly though, it’s not really that bad so long as it is a dry heat. Lately however, we have been getting periods of fairly high humidity (or us, we’re desert folk out here) and that is quite unpleasant. Yay for hiding in the AC.
I don’t really have a whole lot that I feel like posting about, but it would be a shame to buck the trend of posting here once a month so. You know. Media that we have been consuming recently:
The Boys season 2: Karl Urban is 🔥
約束のネバーランド (Promised Neverland): Decent anime, have been watching this series on Netflix. The problem that I have with watching anime, as someone who is learning Japanese but does not yet fluently understand Japanese is that I feel caught between wanting to read the subtitles to fully understand what I am watching and wanting to watch something without reading the subtitles to both practice listening and see how much I understand.
Bill and Ted Face the Music: What an absolutely delightful movie lol. Exactly what I was looking for in Bill and Ted 3. Really fun.
Mulan: My best recommendation would be to think of this film as a movie different from well, Disney’s Mulan. I enjoyed it, but it was average at best in my opinion. The chi magic thing basically replacing Mulan’s hard work and effort was a load of shit though.
I’ve jumped back on the fitness train after slothing out for about half of the quarantine period. We are big on walking and hiking and it kind of sucks when all of the places that you usually visit are either closed or unsafe. However, it is what it is. The general goal this month is to complete all of my Apple Watch rings Every day in September. At least 3 days a week have to be some form of fairly strenuous exercise. I used to run every day, but that gets really boring so I ended up getting Ring Fit Adventure for our Switch and alternating between that and running. Pretty fun game.
I would like to get back into biking more whenever a fire isn’t blowing out gross amounts of smoke into the air (thank goodness for air filters). “Smoke” isn’t supposed to be a weather condition. I mean, I guess we can just take the bikes somewhere not-gross and ride but we don’t have a bike rack yet so taking both bikes involves taking two cars which is a mild pain in the ass.
Bonus picture of the cats snuggling up against each other on the window blanket bed that we made them.
When his ears are in neutral, you can pretty much do whatever you want within reason: Scratch his belly, brush him, clip all the nails. He just doesn’t give a fuck, especially if his eyes are in sleepy mode or closed. So in reality, a more accurate chart would be a Cartesian graph with “Ear degree” one one axis and “Eye degree” on the other (“neutral sleepy eyes” being on the origin, “angry slant eyes” being at the end of the negative axis, “wide open eyes” being on the end of the positive access.” I just don’t feel like drawing that now.
The Little Cat only really has one mode: “I’m the Little Cat.” The rule of thumb in our household regarding cat needs and cat emotions is that the Big Cat makes faces and the Little Cat makes noises. The Little cat really only has one face that she makes and that face is:
I promise that this whole thing makes sense if you have met them.
I made a post on my other blog 6+ years about my work EDC (Every Day Carry) and have been meaning to post an updated picture for while.
This isn’t my work bag though, this is my “I am leaving the house to do something on a weekend or after work” bag. Although unused for months because of Covid, I will take a picture of my work bag whenever I feel like sorting through and knolling out a mountain of cables and what not.
The Cat:
This is Mr. Harvey. I swear that this isn’t a fabricated cat picture; He came over and plopped himself down against the wall while I was laying everything out on the carpet. He is not an actual part of my leave-the-house EDC, but he is apart of my work from home EDC.
The Bag:
Aer Day Sling 2: I am partial to sling bags for day tripping because we walk a lot and I like bags that fit securely against my body without swinging around. I also like being able to access the contents of the bag without having to take it off. The downside of this bag is that it’s designed to only sit on one of your shoulders. Because of this however, the bag part sits parallel with the ground when I pull it around the front, making it generally easier to use in this position. I can also comfortablY ride my bike with it on my back.
Essentials:
Watch: Apple Watch 3 with a random leather watch band that was purchased off of Amazon for like, $15. I wear the sports band most of the time though because it is more comfortable.
Fossil Wallet: I like smaller men’s wallets because they fit in the front pocket of my chick jeans. If I go out for a short errand or to grab food at work, I don’t bring a bag, just wallet/keys/phone.
Keys: The Totoro charm was a souvenir from Japan trip number 1 and the leather key strap is from the Traveler’s Factory from Japan trip number 2.
Phone: iPhone 11 Pro with leather case.
Prescription Sunglasses: I don’t wear contacts anymore because they dry out my eyes and transition lenses are hot garbage.
Everything Else:
Coin Purse: Purchased this Traveler’s Factory as a souvenir to hold the mountain of loose change that we gather while traveling. It’s also useful for holding miscellaneous small items that I do not want to lose. I don’t use it much on a daily basis, I just haven’t taken it out of my bag. I think it still has around ¥100 worth of random coins in it.
Hand Sanitizer: Because Covid
Tissues: Allergies yo
Mask: Purchased from Mystery Ranch. It’s quite comfortable and does not fog my glasses.
Moist Towelette: Emergency hygiene wipe because at some point someone will need one.
Hand Lotion: Costco sells an 8 pack of purse sized Crab Tree & Evelyn hand cream. It’s lightly scented and not greasy.
Pen: Other people’s pens are gross. Also, there never seems to be a pen when you really need a pen.
Bag of adhesive backed googly eyes: Reasons.
Lip Balm: Dry lips sink ships.
Emergency Tampon: Better to have and not need than to need and not have.
I have decided that if I can’t think of anything else to draw, I am going to doodle comics about the cats on the iPad.
The big orange cat is huge. We have plenty of huge cat sized cat furniture and beds for him to sleep on but alas, he will almost always pick the smallest kitty bowl in the house, stuff his giant furry body into it, and tuck his head in so that he looks like a giant fur circle.
I am convinced that the black cat has some level of self-awareness in regards to her fur color as she seems to enjoy sleeping on like colored items. (Note to self: Check black surfaces before sitting down).
I made an Aerith dress because I really like her portrayal in the Final Fantasy VII Remake. I had completed this dress, uploaded screenshots to this site, was about to make a post, and then noticed during a cutscene that her dress has little diamond patterns that weren’t present on any of the reference pictures that I had googled. So, the pattern has been updated with the little diamonds that are barely visible when outside.
I used skin tone #6 because that’s what my Animal Crossing avatar uses. I may upload patterns for other skin tones as I do change my avatar occasionally. I swear that the custom patterns always look a shade darker than they do when you actually put them on. That always throws me off a bit when doing the colors. I guess it’s the lighting.
Here are a couple of Animal Crossing tools and sites that I have found useful:
Turnip Prophet: If you are not opposed to mild cheating in the form of data mining, someone reversed engineered the turnip market information. There are several calculators available, but I like the interface and charts on this one the best.
Animal Crossing Pattern Tool: You can use this to convert images to Animal Crossing QR Codes. You will need to have an active Nintendo Online membership and the phone app to use your patterns in New Horizons.
Nookpedia: One of several Animal Crossing wikis. I use Nookpedia because it gives gift suggestions for the villagers.
Nook Plaza: New Horizons item database. It’s one of the only ones (that I have seen) that shows what the customization options for each item look like.
The backyard is still a hot mess, but I guess that topic is probably best relegated to a post of its own. My pachypodium saundersii compacta is coming out of hibernation now that it’s warming up (it literally went from a temperate 70 to 80 to 90+…). I kind of want to repot it, but I have heard that since it grows well in compact situations, not to overpot it. Most of our small to medium sized pots however are being used by other plants so it will probably just stay where it is for the time being.
I don’t have a picture, but I think my lithops got a bit sunburned this past week. I normally keep them under an overhang on one side of the house to make sure they are kept out of any rain that we have and also don’t get too much direct sunlight (this side of the house gets direct sun in the morning but is kept shaded during the afternoon heat). Because it has been super overcast in March and early April, I moved them to a different table to make sure they got enough sun. I had forgotten to move them back to their normal spot during the heatwave.
We have finally kinda sorta started a vegetable/herb garden in the form of planting food waste from stuff that we get at the grocery store to see if it will actually grow. The garlic and green onions are growing well so far, not too sure about the ginger as it hasn’t broken soil yet. I still need to weed and till the plot of land that I had set aside for a proper vegetable garden, but that project is going to require several trips to a hardware store/nursery (and now is not a great time to be doing that) so we’ll have to make due with what we have laying around the yard.
Here is a blurry pic of spider bro who gets MVP for eating and warding off all of the stupid aphids that were infesting some of the plants on this table. The cobwebs are a little unsightly but I, for one, welcome our arachnid guests so long as they are outside of the house.
